Sailor Moon V * The Dark Adventures of the Sailor Scouts Episode Nine * "The Princess of the Moon" "Susan!" the voice said sharply through the sudden haze that was fogging her mind and blurring her senses. "Don't you dare pass out on me now, dammit, wake up! C'mon, I said wake *UP!*" "I'm awake," Susan muttered as she lifted her head up from her arms. The throbbing in her back was slowly fading as the powerful painkillers started to have an effect, numbing both her agitated nerves and her brain. Mercury snorted as she emptied the pan into the sink and set it back down at the base of Susan's spine. "Convince me," she retorted as she refilled the needleless syringe with more of the light-blue antiseptic. "Open your eyes and keep them open. Otherwise I'm going to have to turn off the morphine drip so I know you're not going to slip into a coma or worse. Now hold still." Susan just sighed before wincing in pain as the antiseptic was carefully squirted around the edges of her broken wings. "Must you do that?" she gasped. "I told you, it will heal on its own in a matter of hours." "Do you WANT an infection?" Mercury shot back as she continued cleansing the jagged wounds. "Look, I know you're special and all that, or at least you like to think you are, and I know how fast you heal cuts, so I'm not going to try to suture anything shut for you. However, you're still dripping blood on my clean white floor, so until you decide to stop doing that I'm going to keep sterilizing everything so I don't wind up with some superstrain of bacteria or something trying to take up residence in a spot of dried demon blood and eating a hole in the mop as I try to get rid of it. Now HOLD STILL!" Susan just sighed again as the redhead prattled on about how she already had her hands full dealing with her newborn and trying to reassure both Saturn and Mars that being pregnant really wasn't anything to lose sleep over. "My point exactly," the bleeding succubus said when she finally was able to get a word in edgewise. "Your time is quite valuable and thus shouldn't be wasted on doing something that will completely take care of itself in seventy-two hours." "Oh, so now I'm wasting my time trying to take care of you and your broken wings?" Mercury said archly. "You're the dingbat who got them broken in the first place, and by doing something stupid at that! You're how old again, two hundred something?" "Something like that," Susan muttered, already seeing what was about to come down the proverbial pipe. "Well, if you don't settle down and wise up, you won't live to see three hundred," Mercury growled as she rinsed more of the wounds with the antiseptic. "Jupiter's daughter is only four, but even she knows that you stop and look at what's on the other side of a warp gate before you jump through it." "It's a touch difficult to do something like that with time-travel," Susan protested quietly, gasping as another sharp bolt of pain shot through her back from the solution making contact with exposed nerve endings. "I suggest you learn how to make it easier," Mercury retorted. "You of all people should know to look before you leap. Tell me again what got you?" "It's called a van," Susan tried to explain as calmly as she could. "In the latter part of the twentieth century, Earth's technology succeeds in making an internal-combustion engine economical enough to allow mass-production for usage in personal transport vehicles. One design is for a multi-passenger transport, and apparently I had the misfortune of emerging from the temporal flow right in its path." Mercury snorted in remote amusement. "So basically you got yourself run over by a large rover," she observed dryly. "Something like that," Susan conceded with a sigh, knowing that it would probably be a very long time until she heard the end of it. "So how'd those future humans react, anyway?" Mercury inquired casually. "It's not every day you have to stop and pull a winged demon off of the front of your rover because you somehow managed to run over her careless butt...." "I slipped back into to the timestream as soon as I was able to do so," Susan sighed. "I don't think they had any true idea of what they hit, and even if they did, it happened so far into the future as to be irrelevant. The time period and location in question had a reputation for wide-spread popular usage of certain hallucinogens by specific groups, so it's possible that the incident will be passed off as 'tripping out on a bad shroom.'" Mercury smirked. "Unless you left a dent that has to be explained...." "Unlikely," Susan countered. "This was before they started building the frames from aluminum and the bumpers from plastic." "Mmm hmm," Mercury said absently. "Tell you what, I'll be nice and skip the lecture this time, seeing how a dog that was as smart as a rock in a box could learn from this one just by watching from the sidelines." "I appreciate your kindness," Susan said demurely. "I'm sure you do," the redhead said in a voice as dry as a barren desert. "Hopefully this will teach you more than a few lessons about life, Susan." Susan chuckled quietly to herself. "And what other lessons are to be gleaned from this, aside from watching where you walk?" she inquired. "That people care about you, for one," Mercury said in an edged tone. That drew a hard blink from Susan. "I was not aware that there was ever any doubt about the matter," she pointed out. "You're not aware of a lot of things," Mercury grumbled as she refilled the syringe yet again. "Look, we all know you're a decent person at heart, even if you act odd at times. And I'm not talking about seducing the guards, either," she added. "That one is easy to understand. Hell, I've been tempted to have a few pelvic muscle kinks worked out by one of the cute ones every now and then myself, but that was years ago and not anywhere close to the point. No, don't do that!" she yelped as Susan's wings started to flex. A strangled cry leapt out of her lips as a fracture was forced back into alignment with a sharp snap. "Aaaaahhhh! That.... ow.... that really wasn't intentional," Susan whimpered, her red eyes wide and starting to tear up. Mercury just sighed in resignation and picked up her hand-held medical computer. "So much for that," she groused as she studied the new readings. "Huh. Well, damn, that actually set the bone pretty straight. Good, means I won't have to try to split the bastard. Oh, what the hell.... You might as well go ahead and fix the other three while you're busy ignoring my advice to hold still so you wouldn't exacerbate the wounds." "Thank you, Doctor," Susan sighed as she took a deep breath and steeled herself. The muscles in her back spasmed again, resulting in another three sharp snaps of broken bones being reset and a truly agonizing wave of pain. "Damn," Mercury said as her eyebrows arched up. "Worked like a charm. I wish I could reset broken bones that easily. I'd pat you on the back, Lady Pluto, but that would probably be a bad idea right now. Wait, don't exhale! Hold it! Hold it.... hold it..... now." Susan gasped quietly as her breath left her lungs in a mad exodus, only to nearly choke on the sheer volume of air that rushed to fill the vacancy in her chest. "W.... Why was I supposed to do that?" she wheezed as she tried to breathe evenly. Mercury paused for a moment before she shrugged. "No reason, really, I was just being a bitch on impulse. Smile, Susan, it won't hurt that pretty face of yours, honest. You're still bleeding on my floor, you know. If you don't stop that in the next five minutes, I'm going to start a transfusion so you don't end up bleeding out on me." The succubus blinked hard and cast a dubious look over her shoulder. "I think the constant stream of antiseptic is interfering with my body's attempt at clotting," she suggested. "Who's the doctor here?" Mercury demanded as she crossed her arms. "The way I see it, as long as you're in my office and bleeding on my floor, you're my patient and you do what I tell you to. Which includes sitting still and listening to me try to get you to open your eyes about a few things." Susan just sighed yet again and leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees and putting her head in her hands. "Very well, Doctor, I assure you that you now have my complete and totally undivided attention," she said wearily. "Good," the redhead said primly as she eyed the dark red blood that was continuing to ooze out of the various lacerations in Susan's leathery wings. "I know you're only half-human and that you have a demon's psyche to try to cope with, but being half-human doesn't mean you only have half of a human's needs as well. We all know you're lonely, Lady Pluto, but you won't let anyone try to get close to you. And whenever you do, it's always just for sex." "Doctor, please...." Susan sighed. "Sit and rotate, I'm not finished yet," Mercury growled, drawing a very startled blink from the succubus. "You need to quit acting like we're not good enough for you or something. Yes, you're from an advanced race, or at least in some aspects, but you're still one of us. You're a Sailor Scout like me, and that means we're on the same team. We have to be there for one another in our times of need, even if we don't particularly feel like it or otherwise care." The redhead sighed quietly and closed her hand-held computer. "You think I don't know you can mend on your own? Give me some credit, I probably know just as much about how your body operates as you do, and that includes most of your demonic side as well. The reason I'm in here with you is because one, I'm worried as hell since, demon or no, broken bones aren't something you casually brush off, and two.... you're one of us. So what if you're able to take care of yourself all by your lonesome? I can do that too, but I still take comfort and solace, and even happiness, in knowing that everyone else has my back if I can't do it and need to scream for backup. You'd be surprised how well such feelings help you make it though a really tough day. If you let them," she added in a quiet tone as an after-thought. Susan said nothing as Mercury carefully pulled the IV drip out of her arm and began to pack everything away. "Doctor...." she said very quietly as the bottle of antiseptic was capped and filed away. "You'll be fine," Mercury replied. "The bleeding just stopped, and I can already see signs of both muscle and bone recovery. I would strongly suggest you try to keep your wings as perfectly still as possible over the next few days, but I'm a physician and not a veterinarian who knows how wings work, so just take that one for what it's worth. Now get the hell out of my ward." Susan blinked hard and sighed once more. "With all due respect, Doctor, your bedside manner could use a little work," she grumbled as she stood up. Mercury paused in the doorway. "If my mannerisms are all that bad, Lady Pluto, then why am I not suffering from a lack of friends like you are? Yes, I'm a little gruff with my patients, especially when it involves blatant and unpardonable stupidity, but I still know how to connect with people. Perhaps you should try to do the same," she said before she vanished from sight. Susan was quiet for a long time as she looked around the empty medical ward. Perhaps she's right, she thought before she blinked. Wait, why am I here? How did I get here? This isn't right.... And with a deep grunt that she more felt than heard, she slipped out of the realm of subconscious dreams and fully woke up. It took a few seconds to reorient herself to her surroundings, suddenly remembering that she was still sitting in the chair on Earth instead of in the Moon Kingdom of the past. "What is it?" Myst asked quietly, startling her. Susan blinked and looked over at the table. "Just a memory in the form of another dream," she murmured. She raised an eyebrow as she noticed that Myst was curled up in a nearly perfect sphere with only her ears, whiskers, and tail protruding to give any indication that she was a cat instead of a fuzzy gray plush ball. "Were you sleeping?" "I think so," Myst said after a moment. "I'm not sure." "How can you not be sure?" Susan inquired as she carefully leaned back. The bones in her wings hadn't fully mended yet and she was still in a moderate amount of pain, but it was a definite improvement compared to how she had felt before she started her nap. She made a face as her wings twitched reflexively, flooding her nerves with more raw pain. That the sensation was caused more by severe muscle stiffness than torn ligaments and twisted muscles was of scant comfort to her as she struggled to keep herself from making any noise. "I didn't dream, if that's what you mean," the Shinma replied quietly. "But neither was I aware of any passage of time. I thought we were just talking a few minutes ago, then you fell asleep and my mind began to wander." She made a soft noise to herself, knowing that there were days in which a dreamless sleep was far preferable to being held at the mercy of whatever it was that one's subconscious felt like putting the mind through. "Time is like that," she said demurely. "It can slip past you without you knowing it, but it can also drag you along and make seconds seem like hours. Perhaps I was more tired than I thought," she added as she studied the wall clock. "I believe that sunrise is a little less than an hour from now. Goodness, you must've been tired too...." Myst gave her an apologetic look as she continued yawning. "I'm sorry," she rasped once she was finished, flicking her tail. "That was unexpected." Susan shrugged absently, only mildly regretting the movement as it sent a dull wave of pain through her sorely abused muscles. "It helps to flush out the lungs and add a small increase of fresh oxygen to the bloodstream. You do have a bloodstream in that form, correct?" she inquired with idle curiosity. "I should," the kitten replied, making a sour face as she suddenly yawned again. "I'm not sure how well I copied this form from your memories, but I apparently did it well enough to not stand out from the other Lunar cats." Susan nodded and slowly stood up, ignoring the towel as it fell away from her chest to expose her state of undress. "I take it you've been able to get along with Luna and Artemis?" Myst wrinkled her nose. "They're sometimes as hard to understand as you and the humans are," she grumbled. "But I haven't run into any problems with them. I don't understand why they enjoy spending so much time sleeping in that bird nest with Ra'vel, however. It doesn't make sense to me." A small smile touched Susan's lips. "It's a cat thing," she murmured as she took a deep breath and carefully worked the kinks out of the rest of her muscles, trying not to flex her wings any more than necessary. She knew it would probably be another day or two before she could safely assume her human form and absorb her wings, but she wasn't overly bothered by the limitation. "If you say so," the Shinma muttered. "It doesn't matter as long as you're reasonably comfortable with your environment," Susan said lightly. She sighed as she finished stretching and started to repack the medical kit lying on the table from yesterday. "And you would be surprised at how much.... happiness such comfort can bring," she said in a very quiet voice, suddenly reminded of the memory-dream. Myst blinked at the change in her expression. "Are you okay, Susan?" "I will be," the succubus replied quietly as she finished her task. "How I feel right now is of little importance when compared to the magnitude of our situation. Come, I need to get dressed so as not to offend the others and then start breakfast. They're going to need all the energy they can get." "All we need to do is find Serena, right?" Myst ventured as she hopped down from the table and followed Susan down the residential hallway. "In theory," Susan sighed. "But what has ever been as truly simple as it appears to be at first glance? Finding the Princess is only half the problem they face. The other half, of course, is seeing if they can keep both her and themselves alive long enough to return here...." * * * * The night-watch supervisor looked up as Dragoon Commander K'tal stormed into the Operations center. "Fair morning, Commander," she said in a gentle tone, surprised to see him at this hour. "You're up awful early today...." "This is insane," he fumed as he strode across the room to the master console and keyed his ciphers into it. "What the hell was she thinking? If this doesn't start a war, nothing will...." "Sir...?" the crew chief said, blinking in confusion. "Hold that thought, Chief," he growled as the computer validated him and granted him full access. He immediately brought his entire fist down hard on a button and turned his attention to the communication system. "Attention, this is Dragoon Commander K'tal," he said into the speaker as every single display in the Headquarters Complex took on a flashing yellow border. "I am declaring a system-wide level-2 alert status for all sections. I repeat, this is a level-2 alert declaration. I want a full department head meeting in the conference room in fifteen minutes. Master Chief D'Nina report to Operations immediately. Commander K'tal out." "Sir," his night-watch supervisor protested. "I haven't received any sort of threat information on any circuit or system. What's going on here?" "I said hold that thought, Chief," the Dragoon growled. "Communications, verify the presence of a single triple-band carrier wave modulating between the X and Z matrix feeds. Don't bother trying to pinpoint the source, just tell me if you can spot it." "One moment, sir," the junior-grade communications lieutenant replied. "D'Nina to Operations," the speaker crackled. "I'm on my way." "Lieutenant?" K'tal prompted with quiet urgency. "Confirmed, sir. It's actually a composition of three different carrier waves along a single guide path, but it's definitely a frequency-hopper and an energetic one at that. I can't hold any of the signals for more than a split- second before it jumps to another frequency band. The signal strength isn't all that powerful, but good luck trying to get a position fix on it." K'tal replied with a word that none of the night-watch crew could remember hearing used since a cadet had gotten a sensitive part of his anatomy caught while shutting the heavy access hatch on a console several months ago. "Oh, by the NegaForce, what was she THINKING?" he sighed up at the ceiling. "How many signals are there?" "Just one being modulated across the bands, sir," the officer reported. "Great, just p'takh'enn great," K'tal muttered. "We're in for it now." "Sir, are you okay?" the crew chief ventured. The door hissed open to admit a very bleary-eyed Master Chief D'Nina into the room. "Status?" she inquired as she tried to make her way over to her console without bumping into anything or anyone. "K'vesen," K'tal said bluntly. "I'm listening, Commander," the senior chief replied archly. "Ael'ien just woke me up to inform me that she just received a verified report that Sailor Moon has been taken hostage and is currently being held at the Imperial Castle," he said as evenly as possible. "I just checked for the presence of their communicators and found one of their signals. As I'm led to believe they're carried with them at all times, I have every reason to presume that there's a lone Sailor Scout somewhere in the Negaverse right now. And if it really is Sailor Moon, she won't be by herself for much longer. Now do you see why I think we're all about to be in very serious trouble?" "Ay'cha navidshi," D'Nina breathed. "Are you serious?" K'tal just sighed and rubbed his temples. "No, Chief, I just went to the trouble of declaring a level-2 alarm so I could rouse you out of bed." "Now is not the time, Commander." "Tell me about it, Chief." The night-watch chief cleared her throat nervously. "Sir, I'm not sure I understand what the problem is. I thought being able to capture Sailor Moon was a good thing, considering what she did to Queen Beryl." K'tal and D'Nina shared a look. "In a purely objective and very narrow scope, yes," K'tal said very slowly. "However, you have to keep in mind three very important facts. First, while she is their leader, Sailor Moon is not the only Sailor Scout. Second, you can count on the others coming over here to get her back in very short order. Third, and this is the part that greatly bothers me, you can bet your paycheck that they will be in an evil mood when they do so. And after their last pair of visits to our part of the planet, maybe now you can understand why I am concerned for the health and well-being of everyone in the immediate region." "I think I understand, sir," the chief replied, her complexion turning dangerously pale. "So now what?" D'Nina inquired warily. K'tal sighed. "One thing at a time, Chief. Right now, you and I have a department head meeting to attend in a few minutes. Don't take this the wrong way or anything, but you might want to bring a diaper with you, as what I have to say in there is probably going to shock the navidshi out of everyone." It took D'Nina several seconds to figure out how exactly she should reply to that one. "The voice of experience, Commander?" she ventured in a guarded but respectful tone. K'tal just snorted dryly. "Let's just say I almost had to change my own underwear on the spot when I heard it," he replied quietly. "Communications! I want a constant monitoring of that frequency-hopping signal. I don't care if you can get a lock on it or not, but start broadcasting a Raid Warning if more such signals suddenly crop up out of nowhere. Kick it up to a level-1 alert if you hear of anyone coming under attack by anything for any reason, but until I say otherwise, we're staying at level-2 for the present." "Copy that, sir," the Communications officer replied nervously. "Come on, D'Nina, let's get this over with," K'tal grumbled as he headed towards the door. "I'll be in the conference room," he called out over his shoulder. "If navidshi hits the fan before I get back, worry about taking all appropriate defensive action first before worrying about calling me to tell me about it. Carry on," he added as he left the room. "And you said nothing ever happens at night," the ensign at the Tactical console muttered to the Communications officer. "Stow it, kids," the night-watch chief sighed. "Just mind your panels, watch that communications array, and if you need to use the bathroom, now is probably a very good time to do so." "Copy that one, chief...." the ensign muttered quietly. * * * * "She did WHAT?" the Chief Engineer blurted out. K'tal just sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I can't say for certain that it was Rune, but the bottom line is that someone just captured Sailor Moon and had her brought to the Imperial Castle." "Downside?" Quartermaster V'Lan inquired in a neutral tone. "You have GOT to be kidding me," another senior officer sighed. "Q, this is the leader of the Sailor Scouts we're talking about. Assuming she doesn't gut the castle on her own from the inside, you know the others are going to be coming to get her. It'll be like last year all over again." "Perhaps, perhaps not," V'Lan replied. "We know they coming. They not sneak into Complex again." "No, they just might decide to flatten it instead while on their way to dissect the Imperial Castle," the other officer countered. "This is far from a trivial matter, Chief." "It gets better," K'tal said quietly, drawing a collection of extremely uneasy and wary looks. "What I am about to tell you is, for the moment, to be kept within this room. I spoke with General Al'vexi about this yesterday, and I have no reason to doubt this new information. We all know that Sailor Moon is the princess of the Moon Kingdom. What we didn't realize about her is that she's half-denizen." The noise in the room came to a complete halt so quickly that the silence almost echoed. "She's what?" Lieutenant Asrial growled very quietly, her fur puffed up at a right angle to the skin beneath. "Sailor Moon is half-human and half-denizen," K'tal said calmly. "Again, this information came to me directly from General Al'vexi, and while I can't discuss how it came into her hands, I have every reason to believe that it is the factual truth." D'Nina just rubbed her sinuses, suddenly feeling her age. "Now I see why you warned us to use the bathroom first," she observed. "Actually, chief, that was just the warning shot," K'tal said in a flat tone. "The true surprise is who her father is purported to be. I will not lie to you.... I find this one highly unlikely at best and demanding of a genetic test to determine the truth, but I likewise cannot dismiss this claim out of hand simply because of its audacity." There was a flat growl from Asrial. "Let's hear it," she said in a wary tone, her tail lashing back and forth like a whip. K'tal sighed and braced both hands on the table. "Her mother was Queen Serenity of the Moon Kingdom. Her father was Captain Raijen." There was a dead silence before one of the officers burst into a fit of laughter. "That's a good one, sir," she laughed. "May I point out to you that the Captain died a good thousand years before we even discovered we could open a dimensional portal to Earth." K'tal nodded and leaned across the table. "That is true, Lieutenant. I should like to point out two things, however. First, Commander T'Cer had his life-crystal in her possession when she went along with the first contact team to the Moon Kingdom. And second, their Imperium Silver Crystal is just as powerful as the NegaForce is, and is likely capable of awakening his spirit if it so chose to do so." He nodded in seriousness as the laughter abruptly died away, the humorous expression slowly becoming replaced with a sobering look. "As I said, this is simply too extraordinary a claim to accept at face value, but at the same time I can't just brush it off as nonsense. A simple genetic test can determine if this is true or not, and you can bet your life that I am going to do everything in my power to see that this test is done." "What if true?" V'Lan spoke up, clicking his beak quietly. "Sailor Moon would be Captain's daughter." "Now you see why this one has me all tied up in a knot?" K'tal said very quietly. "I want to hear what each and every one of you thinks about this. Just for the sake of argument, let's assume that it's all true, that Sailor Moon's father is Captain Raijen." "So what?" Asrial said with a flat growl. "She is still our enemy, after what she did to Commander Shar-Tei and Queen Beryl." D'Nina shook her head slowly. "She did nothing to Shar-Tei," she pointed out. "That was a duel between Shar-Tei and Tolaris. And as for Queen Beryl, you have to admit that the fact that the Sailor Scouts finally led a direct assault on her shouldn't be a surprise in the least." "So what do you think, D'Nina?" K'tal asked quietly. D'Nina blinked and gave him a guarded look. "I think, Commander, the one who most urgently needs to answer that question is you. What do you make of this revelation?" she asked slowly. K'tal looked around the room, meeting the eyes of everyone in turn before sighing and reaching under the table. Several eyebrows arched up in surprise and concern as he withdrew the old but still fully functional firearm from its hidden housing, briefly checking it before laying it down in the center of the conference table. "I hate it when he gets all theatrical like this," the Chief Engineer muttered beneath his breath, drawing a sour chirp of agreement from V'Lan. "At ease, Chief," K'tal said calmly. "This is for when I tell you about how I intend to commit treason and order the rest of you to assist me. In the event that you don't see things my way, you're obligated to denounce me as a traitor and have me executed on the spot. The shell should still work." The room got deathly quiet once again as nervous glances were discreetly exchanged. Everyone shifted their attention to the chief engineer as he leaned forward and carefully picked up the weapon. He quickly looked it over with a critical eye before partially disassembling it, pulling out the single shell and studying the condition of the firing mechanism. He reassembled the weapon and cocked the hammer back before pulling on the trigger. The sharp click of the falling hammer echoed quite clearly in the room, indicating that it still worked. Satisfed, he reloaded the shell into the firing chamber, cocked the hammer back once again, and very carefully laid it back down on the table. "Let's hear what you have to say, Commander," he said, his voice betraying no hint of emotion whatsoever. K'tal nodded in understanding and took a deep breath, ready to give what just might be the last speech of his life. "I've been in contact with Tolaris since Shar-Tei lost her duel with him. I know some of you view that act as treason in of itself, and if it is, so be it. He has been with the Sailor Scouts since his exile from the Negaverse, so he more than anyone else would truly know about them, about what drives them, and what they will do. "Late last night I received a rather unexpected and urgent communique from Aerlin of Mar'ken, whom I'm sure most of you have heard of. He informed me that he was conversing with Colonel Azi'mar of the Training Division earlier when they had a surprise visit from Sailor V, of all people. "I am not privy to what was said, mind you, but the end result was that Sailor V warned them that the Sailor Scouts would try to get Sailor Moon back in the morning. To try to prevent unnecessary death and destruction, she had asked if they could do anything to help make things easier on everyone. She also mentioned that she and the others didn't want a fight and were willing to simply turn around and walk away if they could get Sailor Moon back, alive and unharmed. "Tolaris and the others will be appearing in the village at sunrise in an attempt at solving things peacefully. It is my intention to be at the village as well. I had already planned on visiting the village today to talk to Aerlin about a few personal issues, but that was before the news of Sailor Moon's capture became public and we all went into crisis-mode. "Sailor Moon is half-human and half-denizen. That makes her special in the history of both our worlds, the very first of her kind. That she is also a royal princess and the daughter of a man I personally admire and respect, or at least that I believe she is, makes her all the more special to me. And the fact that returning her to her world can help prevent a catastrophe in our own world is not something I can easily dismiss. "It is my intention, as the Dragoon Commander, to assist Commander Tolaris and the Sailor Scouts in getting Sailor Moon back and returning her to Earth. That would constitute high treason according to the law. However, I believe that allowing a disaster to take place that could otherwise be avoided by a simple act is the true treason, and that is not something I could easily live with. However, I can't ask any of you to betray your world as well, nor can I ask you to do anything you yourself can't live with, but know this.... I will try to help Tolaris and the Sailor Scouts." The silence after his speech seemed to stretch on for an eternity, no-one else daring to move or even breathe loudly. Then in what appeared to have been incredibly slow motion, the chief engineer leaned forward and picked up the old projectile weapon. He very carefully pointed it up at the ceiling as he put his thumb on the hammer and eased it out of the ready position. "Theatrical p'tai," the chief muttered as he set the firearm back down on the table. The rest of the group looked at one another before seeming to sigh with relief in unison, quickly followed by a series of abashed looks. "Let me get this right," Asrial growled very quietly, causing everyone to blink hard with renewed tension. "Sailor Moon invades our world, twice, kills our Queen and our Commander, and now we're supposed to help her?" K'tal and the engineer traded looks before K'tal made a subtle gesture with his head. The engineer raised an eyebrow before he reached out to the firearm once more, putting his hand over it and sliding it across the table to end up falling into the surprised Felinoid's lap. "Rrrrrrrr?" Asrial growled warily. "How many times has our world invaded theirs?" K'tal said very quietly. "How many Dragoons were involved in the invasion of the Moon Kingdom? How many of us have gone to Earth to observe them, or to help set up traps for them? What makes the balance even, and when does it tilt to the other side? What is it going to take to end this between our worlds? The way I see it, we can try to put an end to this now. I don't want to fight them, Lieutenant. That may sound insane, as the odds are at least ten million to four if you don't count their immediate allies, but I still don't want to fight against them. I don't see any good coming from fighting them, but I see a lot of good coming from trying to help them. If you don't see it that way.... well, the laws are quite clear and will be on your side if you feel you have to do something about it. You might even get a medal from Rune. It's up to you, Lieutenant, this will probably be the ideal moment to take care of it before it can start." The jet-black Felinoid studied the weapon in her hands before she looked around the room, her tail slowly lashing back and forth. "Little Q," she said quietly. "Would you call him a traitor for this?" V'Lan sighed and slowly shook his head. "Issue of Sailor Moon's father not relevant now," he replied. "Greater harm than good if allow this madness to persist. True threat is not Sailor Scouts, but within." "Concurrence," another officer spoke up very quietly. "Things have been extremely quiet on Earth since Rune decided to leave them alone. Just between you and me, I'd rather keep it that way." Asrial's ears flicked back in surprise. "Why?" she inquired in a guarded tone. "You of all people lost so much to them...." "Yes, both my husband and our child died in the line of duty when those Sailor Scouts attacked the Imperial Castle," she replied distantly, not looking at anyone. "He knew the dangers when he signed up for the service, and I knew it when I took him as my life-mate. We made sure to explain it to our daughter when she expressed a desire to serve. How many of us have lost loved ones in conflicts and wars? All part of the risks of being a soldier. I don't hold anything against them on a professional level.... they did what they had to do, just as we did what we had to do. Which is why I will still do what I have to do as a subject of the crown and a Dragoon until I die myself." K'tal idly scratched his chin. "Speaking of which, you're in the window for re-enlistment, aren't you? Think we can talk about this later?" Everyone just blinked hard before exchanging glances and shaking their heads. "K'tal...." D'Nina started to say before sighing. "Nevermind." "Bah," Asrial spat as she set the weapon on the table, flicking her ears back in disdain. "We're probably all going to get court-martialed on charges of conspiracy for this." "That's a very likely scenario," K'tal pointed out. "And unless you shoot me in the head, you'll be going along with this conspiracy to try to save our world from an unnecessary war. I made an oath to serve and defend our way of life, and if it ends up costing me my life.... well, as the chief just pointed out a few moments ago, I knew the risks when I signed up. At least in this case I'll know my death has some meaning." "Spare us the bad acting, Commander," the Chief Engineer grumbled. "Just keep us all as informed as possible so we can in turn keep our sections on the line. Now tell me again why we're at a level-2 alert status?" K'tal's breath left his lungs in a soft whoosh of relief. "Just in case I'm wrong, Chief. Yes, by all rights I shouldn't be heading out to a trading village in the middle of a no-navidshi alert and preparations for a hostile invasion, but you know why I'm going and what I hope to accomplish. Master Chief D'Nina will be given full authority while I'm gone, so if a new crater appears in the west you won't have to wait for the computer to decide if I'm truly gone before it opens itself up to her." "I'm coming with you," D'Nina spoke up, causing K'tal to blink hard. "Uhh, Chief, I kind of need you here...." K'tal tried to say. "For what?" D'Nina scoffed. "Phase Authority can't be transferred like that, and even if it could I'd still need a secondary authority." "The Chief Engineer...." "Will be busy in Engineering and can't leave his section to try to help oversee Operations," the Master Chief interrupted. "And if we're both gone, who'll be in Operations, then?" K'tal countered. "What, you don't trust your staff to handle things on their own? We're in a level-2 alert status at his very moment, and the entire senior staff is away from their collective posts," D'Nina said flatly. "And before we left Operations, you told them to act as necessary first and to tell you about it later. Why can't that be a valid instruction for another hour or two?" "The risks, Master Chief...." "Do I need to shoot you just to shut you up? I'm coming with you, K'tal, whether you like it or not," D'Nina said as she crossed her arms. She cast a sidelong glance at the Chief Engineer, who was leaning back in his chair with his arms neatly folded behind his head. "Don't mind me, Chief, I'm just enjoying the entertainment," he drawled in his native Outreaches accent, drawing a barely repressed snicker from one of the other officers. "Now then, if you two are finished, I've got work to deal with down in the basement. Let me know how it goes, okay?" K'tal just looked up at the ceiling with resignation. "Just do us all a favor and keep the reactors warmed up. All three of them," he added. "Just call it a hunch, chief, nothing more." "Copy that," the engineer replied as he stood up. "Assuming that the two of you are going to be running off and I have to stay put in Engineering, who exactly is supposed to be watching Operations? Regulations require that I have to be kept informed of that, you see...." K'tal and D'Nina looked at one another before giving an extremely brief glance at Asrial. They both seemed to shake their heads in unison before they turned to cast an appraising look at the lone avian in the room. "Sir?" the Dragoon Quartermaster said very warily. "Little Q, old friend," K'tal said slowly, "When was that last time you stood post in Operations...?" * * * * Susan looked over her shoulder as Leda made her way into the kitchen, raising an eyebrow as she saw the distinctly bleary look in the brunette's slightly-bloodshot eyes. "Good morning," she said quietly, carefully drawing her wings tighter against her body to make as much room as possible. Leda grunted softly in response as she yanked the refrigerator door open. She promptly stuck her head inside and started digging through the collection of bottles and pitchers on the top shelf, trying to clear a path to the back wall. She finally found what she was looking for and took a step back, holding a nearly empty plastic bottle containing a dark blue liquid. Susan blinked as the cap wasn't so much twisted off as ripped away before Leda tilted her head back and essentially poured the contents down her throat. "Dare I inquire what that was, or even if you should be drinking it?" she asked once the brunette had emptied the bottle and pitched it into the trash. She was answered with a disturbingly loud belch, followed by a deep sigh of satisfaction and relief. "A denizen blend of vegetable juice," Leda replied in a scratchy voice. "Doesn't taste all that good, but it has one hell of a kick to it. Not alcoholic, but it feels like it once it gets into your guts and the burning sensation starts up. A raw way to wake yourself up, but damned if it doesn't work wonders. Better than caffeine," she added with a yawn. "So what kind of mess are you making in my kitchen?" Susan just shook her head to herself and returned her attention to the stove burners. "Left-rear pot is for oatmeal, right-rear is hot water for the syrup and various drinks, eggs are in left-front skillet, right-front is for the pancakes, the bacon, sausage patties, and hashed browns are still roasting in the oven, and the toaster should be finished at any moment now." Leda blinked hard as the toaster promptly dinged and ejected four slices of perfectly toasted bread. "Damn, you cooking for an army this morning?" she said as she stacked the toast on a nearby plate and reloaded the machine with another four slices of bread. "You will all need as much energy as you can get," Susan pointed out as she stirred the oatmeal with one hand while carefully remixing the pancake batter again with the other. "And I figured that a wide variety of choices would ensure that everyone would find enough of what they like." Leda edged her way around to be able to peer over Susan's shoulder without coming too close to her obviously damaged wings. Even though none of the bones were visible or seemed to be broken anymore, the massive holes blown through nearly two-thirds of her wing surface clearly indicated that she still had a long way to go before she was fully healed. "You want any help with this, or do you have it under control?" Leda asked as she eyed the bowl of pancake batter. She picked it up and took a careful sniff before setting it down and opening up a cabinet door. She searched for the small bottle of vanilla extract and found it half-hidden behind the box of baking powder. "Needs a little more," she explained as she unscrewed the top and put a few drops of the extract into the batter. Susan gave her a measured look for a moment before shrugging in dismissal. She knew how to cook, of course, but was also fully aware that the recipe she had used was half a millennium old and occasionally needed a little extra. The saving grace usually came from the syrup, as the super-sweet taste tended to mask whatever incidental flavorings the pancakes ended up with. "So what made you decide to learn how to cook like this?" she inquired as she stirred the scrambled eggs. "Truthfully?" Leda said, hesitating slightly before looking for a spoon to taste-test the oatmeal. "Neither of my parents could really cook worth a damn, and all the restaurants and take-out trips were getting old, so I just decided one day to see what I could do about it. Had a few talks with some friends, traded notes and recipes, then sat down to give it a shot. I was surprised when my parents started carrying on how the stuff I cooked was super- delicious and all that. "I just passed it off as them praising their daughter like all parents do, but when I was asked to cook dinner for some guests and got the exact same reaction from everyone.... well, it just kinda hit home. I like being able to make people happy like that, or at least satisfied with good cooking. It sort of grows on you after a few years, I guess. Umm, no offense, Susan, but this oatmeal is just begging for flavor," she added in an apologetic tone. Susan did her best not to let her disgruntled disappointment show. "If you have any suggestions for improvement, you are of course quite welcome to make them," she said in a somewhat restrained and diplomatic tone, absently smoothing out a wrinkle in her open-backed gown. "Sure," Leda said as she retrieved a pair of jars from the spice rack. "Hard to go wrong with a dash of cinnamon, at least in oatmeal, and a dash of orange peel to add a touch of zest," she explained as she unscrewed the lids and added a small amount of each spice to the mass of oatmeal. "Speaking of cinnamon.... what'd you use when you scrambled those eggs?" "I wasn't aware that one added anything to scrambled eggs," Susan pointed out, the corner of her mouth twitching slightly. "Aside from some ketchup, but that is a choice made only once it's finished and is on the breakfast plate." Leda shot her an odd look. "You're seven hundred years old and no-one ever told you about adding a splash of milk when you scramble the yolks? It smoothes it out a bit and helps make it easier to stir in a dash of cinnamon or anything else for extra flavor." "When you are focused on running a kingdom, some of the subtle nuances of the culinary arts tend to escape your attention," Susan observed in a tone as dry as some deserts. "I will attempt to remember that for future usage." Leda chuckled quietly. "Hey, I'm not trying to bust on your cooking," she replied. "As far as I'm concerned, you're doing a hell of a lot better than I can, seeing how you're watching four.... five.... six? Six things all at the same time. I couldn't keep track of that many without burning something. Oh, and how's the meat doing?" Susan sighed very quietly and took a step back, reaching down to open the oven door in the process. The smell of bacon and sausage promptly wafted up, making both women slightly hungry in simple anticipation. The smell of roasted potatoes drifted up a moment later, prompting a satisfied hum from Leda. "Oh, yeah, I think they're done," she cooed as she looked around for the oven mitts. "Hey, where'd you hide the.... WATCH IT!" she yelped as Susan reached in and grabbed the baking sheet with her bare hands. "Here," Susan said calmly as she pulled the sheet out and set it down on a heating pad. She closed the oven door and switched off the heat before she caught the look on Leda's face. "Yes?" she inquired idly. "How the hell did you do that without burning yourself?" Leda demanded, her green eyes dangerously wide. "That thing had to be at least four hundred degrees!" "Three hundred seventy-five," Susan corrected absently. "Still!" Leda protested, glancing at Susan's unharmed hands. She looked over at the baking sheet and held her hand a few inches above it, blinking hard as she could feel the wave of heat rising up from it. Susan shrugged in dismissal as she switched off the burner beneath the skillet loaded with scrambled eggs. "I may only be part demon, but I still possess a demon's resistance to heat and fire. I can hold that cooking sheet in my bare hands for a number of seconds before I start to feel anything, but it would eventually burn me if I held it long enough. Brief exposures to such things as normal fires and moderate sources of heat are only inconsequential at worst, but I am just as vulnerable to sources of extremely high heat such as plasma and volcanic lava as anyone else would be." "Damn," Leda said quietly, blinking in surprise. "That must be nice. I gave up years ago trying to keep track of how many times I burnt myself while working over a stove or with an oven." "It has its advantages," Susan allowed as she spooned the scrambled eggs into a waiting bowl and lowered the heat on the oatmeal burner. Leda glanced over her shoulder as she heard a noise behind her, raising an eyebrow as a decidedly rumpled Alex poked her head into the doorway. "Oh, man, something smells good in here," she purred. "What happened to you?" Leda inquired, studying the imprint lines on the blonde's face. "You sleep face-down on a corduroy pillow or something?" "Hmm?" Alex grunted as she brought her hand up to her face, wrinkling her nose as she felt the subtle imprints. "Bah, just a rough night of sleeping." "You need to wash up," Leda observed as she started to help Susan scrape the hashed browns off the cooking sheet and onto a separate plate. Alex just rolled her eyes. "Thanks, hon. You look like you need to make out with a sponge yourself, or at least run a comb through that bird's nest you have tied to your head." "Out," Leda grumbled over her shoulder. "I'll call you when we're done." Maze chuckled quietly to himself at the look on Alex's face as she made her way back to the table and sat down with a heavy thump. "I told you that bothering Leda was a bad idea," he said languidly. "I thought you knew by now not to harass her this early in the morning?" Alex just shot him an unamused look. "I wasn't harassing her, I was just trying to see what smelled so damn good. I'm really hungry for some reason." She heard someone come up behind her and felt a pair of hands lightly squeeze her shoulders. "That was fast, love," she said as she absently reached back to caress her visitor. Her aim was a little low, however, and her hand ended up brushing across a rather sensitive spot, eliciting a soft hum of pleasure. Maze raised an eyebrow. "You know, you need to be more careful when you do something like that," he said in an odd tone. "At least when in public." "Huh?" Alex said in confusion, her voice taking on a faint edge. "What, I can't show her a little affection now and then?" "Nope," Maze sighed as he took a deep sip of his morning mug of ma'cha. "What the hell?" Alex demanded crossly. "What's your problem?" The Dragoon just shook his head. "I know love is blind, Alex, but you still need to look over your shoulder every now and then," he said, making a gesture with his mug. Alex gave him a suspicious look before twisting her head to look. Her eyes promptly doubled in diameter as she saw a face hovering three inches away from her that was certainly not Michelle's. "I love you too, snoogums," Mina said in a honeyed tone, squeezing Alex's shoulders again before leaning forward to kiss the tip of her nose. She then giggled and took a quick step back to avoid most of the explosive reaction she had just triggered. "GODDAMMIT, MINA!!" Maze chuckled very quietly to himself as he felt the table vibrate from the sheer force of her voice. "That wasn't very nice of you, ne'ana," he said casually as Mina quickly crossed to the other side of the table and sat down next to him. "Morning, dear," Mina purred quietly as she leaned over to give him a decidedly deep kiss. There was a heavy sigh as Leda poked her head out from the kitchen. "So what'd she do now?" she called out, raising an eyebrow at the scarlet color on Alex's fuming face. "Nuffin, sunshine," Mina called out as she leaned back from Maze. "Just worry about breakfast, okay? We'll handle the Viking." Maze just shook his head again as Leda rolled her eyes and disappeared back into the kitchen. "I guess it's a little late to warn you, Alex," he said as the blonde continued to fume to herself. "Mina's been in a disturbingly playful mood since she woke up, and it's starting to scare me now." Mina pouted and shot him a hurt look. "You didn't mind when I woke you up," she pointed out. Maze chuckled as he reached out to run his fingertips through Mina's mane of long blonde hair. "Of course not," he purred quietly. "However, you almost put me back to sleep doing that. You really should save those kinds of moments for lazy weekend mornings when we can truly savor them." "Fine, see if I do you again like that...." Mina sulked, drawing a pale green blush from the denizen and a startled look from Alex. "Nevermind, I ain't gonna ask," Alex sighed after she stopped to think about it. She felt a gentle caress on the back of her neck and tensed, but quickly relaxed when she felt a pair of lips brushing against her skin and was able to identify the hands wrapping around her waist. "Ah, so there you are," she purred quietly, reaching up to run her fingertips through the soft mass of aquamarine hair. "Morning," Michelle quietly murmured in her ear. "I could hear you from the bathroom. What'd Mina do to upset you?" Alex snorted quietly. "Try to take your place," she muttered as Michelle took an empty chair next to her. "Watch out, she's really a screwball today." Maze promptly reached out to clamp his hand over Mina's mouth. "Don't," he said casually. "Save it for another day, beloved, we've got a lot to do after breakfast and antagonizing your teammates won't help us any. Oh, don't do that," he moaned quietly as a mischievous look entered Mina's blue eyes. Alex and Michelle exchanged wary glances before Alex sighed quietly. "I take it today is one of those days already?" she grumbled. Maze removed his hand from Mina's mouth and looked at his palm. He gave the blonde a weary look before glancing around the table for a napkin. He sighed as he realized there weren't any readily available and he settled for wiping his hand across his pants. "Something like that, yes," he replied with a slightly sour expression. Everyone looked up as Leda and Susan began carrying out the plates and silverware, setting up places at the table before laying out several large heating pads. "So what's for breakfast?" Maze inquired as he casually swiped the nearest napkin and cleaned off his hand, actively ignoring the impish look on Mina's face. "A little of everything," Susan said lightly. "More like a lot of everything," Leda added. "Hope you kids are hungry." "Bring it on, babe," Alex promptly replied. "Almost ready," Leda promised as she cast a quick glance down the empty residential hallway. "So where's everyone else? Wait, nevermind," she said as she caught a glimpse of people starting to emerge from various bedrooms. She turned around to head back into the kitchen when she paused and looked over her shoulder at the still-smiling Mina. "You're up awful early," she said in a slightly guarded tone. Mina gave her a charming smile. "It's one of those mornings where being up early puts a smile on your face," she said in a cheerful tone. "Or at least it lets you put a smile on someone else's face." Leda blinked hard as Maze promptly choked on his ma'cha, the green blush on his cheeks turning visibly darker. "Yeah, whatever," she said, not wanting to even bother trying to figure out what hidden double-meaning was in Mina's words this time. "Anyway, like I said, we're almost done, so just sit tight and don't drool. Morning, Darian," she added as she brushed past him on her way back to the kitchen. "Morning," Darian said quietly as he sat down. Alex blinked and gave him a concerned look. "Hey, you okay?" "Rough night," Darian replied, not looking up at anyone. "Oh, cheer up," Mina said, giving him a warm smile. "We'll get her back for you, just you wait and see. Good morning, lovebirds!" she gushed as Ami and Tolaris entered the living room and headed towards the table. "Morning," Ami replied in a guarded tone as she glanced at Alex. "You're up unusually early today, Mina. How are you feeling?" Mina just grinned at her. "Ready to take on the world." Ami blinked at the enthusiasm in the blonde's tone and just sighed to herself. "Let me guess," she muttered, "Susan woke you up earlier when she dropped the skillet or whatever it was, and instead of going back to bed you decided to turn on your hot-chocolate machine and drink the entire pot all by yourself?" "I did not!" Mina replied indignantly. "I saved a cup for Maze." "Oh, lord," Alex groaned, drawing a whimper of agreement from Michelle. "You overdosed on sugar, didn't you?" Mina made a face at her. "I can handle my hot chocolate quite well, thank you very much," she said archly. "The prosecution rests," Maze muttered into his nearly empty mug, drawing amused looks from the rest of the group and a raspberry from Mina. "Chow time!" Leda announced as she and Susan started carrying the loaded plates and trays over to the table. "We can probably make more of whatever it is that you want, but I'll be surprised if that will be necessary...." "Goodness," Ami blinked as she saw how much was being laid out. "Hot damn," Alex said, her eyes lighting up at the sight of the stack of pancakes. "Sue made pancakes again! Gimme...." "Whoa, easy," Leda protested as she was nearly shoved aside. "I take it that they're your favorite or something? Hang on a sec, Ami," she added as she saw her reaching for the bowl of oatmeal. "I didn't put a lot of cinnamon in that, so let me go get you the jar if you think it needs more." "Thank you," Ami replied as she started scooping. "Not a real favorite so much as a rare treat," Alex replied as she put a moderate stack of pancakes on her plate. "Oh, wow, they really smell good this time. Get a whiff of this, hon," she said to Michelle as she passed her one of the fluffy pancakes. "Oh!" Michelle breathed as she inhaled. "Yes, they do smell wonderful. Susan, did you change the recipe?" The corner of Susan's mouth twitched in mild annoyance as her wing muscles decided to spasm on their own, almost brushing against Maze by accident. "I didn't change it so much as add a new ingredient," she said calmly. Tolaris gave Ami's bowl of oatmeal an odd look as she began to sprinkle a light layer of sugar over it. "What's that smell?" he asked very quietly. Ami blinked and leaned over her bowl, sniffing carefully. "Ohh! Leda, what did you mix in with this? It smells wonderful...." Leda smiled as she set the container of cinnamon down on the table next to Ami's elbow. "Just a hint of cinnamon and orange peel," she said casually. "Susan made most of this, however, so you'll have to direct compliments and complaints to her. Darian, you should try the sausage." "I will," Darian said quietly as he accepted a scoop of hashed browns and a dollop of oatmeal from Tolaris. a quiet voice echoed in their minds as Whisper came into the room, her hair still slightly damp from an early-morning shower. She paused and cast a glance over her shoulder down the hallway before she resumed her walk towards the table. Maze edged the chair next to him back a few inches and started to pour some ma'cha into a mug for her. "Problem, Captain?" he inquired casually. Whisper shook her head as she sat down. "Thank you. No problem, just a brief mental prod for Ra'vel. She's moving slower than usual today for some reason, that's all." "Speaking of slow," Leda said as she sat down at an empty spot. "What's taking Rei so long? I thought she'd be out here by now...." "Rei is out on the deck," Susan said as she took the empty seat next to Darian. "I'm not sure what she's doing, but I can sense a moderate amount of spiritual energy being focused by her." Leda blinked in surprise before she stood up with a sigh. "Well, shoot, someone should tell her that breakfast is ready." Whisper's telepathic voice echoed in everyone's head as she tasted some of the scrambled eggs. "Oh," the brunette said quietly as she sat back down, giving the sliding glass door a measured look. "Is she...? Nevermind," she sighed as the door promptly slid open to admit the priestess into the room. "Morning, Rei," Ami said as she approached the table. She paused as she saw the look on her face and felt a sudden chill creep into her blood. "Rei?" she ventured in a guarded tone, causing the rest of the group to pause and exchange suddenly uneasy glances. "There were three demons," Rei said in without preamble in a disturbingly calm and quiet tone, her bottomless black eyes fixating on Michelle. "I was able to feel the spiritual imprints left by each. I can account for Susan and the other succubus, and I know Alex didn't leave such a trail, but that still leaves one more set of imprints unaccounted for." "What's the problem, babe?" Alex said in a guarded tone as she set her silverware aside, aware of the look in Rei's eyes and the increase in nervous tension it was starting to cause in Michelle. "Michelle was the only other person out there," Rei replied, her intense gaze never leaving Michelle's face. "The only explanation I can think of is that Michelle is a demon herself." "What?" Alex spluttered in shock. Beside her, Michelle started to whimper and edge away from the priestess to hide behind Alex's shoulder. "Are you on drugs or something?" the blonde growled. "That's a load of horsecrap! Mich isn't a demon, you fool, Sue's the only one!" "Rei?" Susan said in a careful tone. "Michelle is just as human as you are. I don't know what you felt outside, but she is certainly not a demon." Rei barely blinked as she reached into her robe, slowly pulling out one of her spiritual wards. "Then testing it should be easy and painless. All she has to do is hold this." Both Ami and Susan blinked as the paper ward suddenly became as rigid as steel, giving off a chilling aura that they could feel even from a distance. "Rei...." Ami said in a warning tone as she edged back. "What are you doing? Stop that...." "I'm getting to the bottom of this," Rei said calmly as she started to advance towards Michelle. Alex blinked as Michelle whimpered loudly and started to pull away from her. "Hey, whoa, easy," she said, trying to reassure her. "Mich, just calm down, it's only a piece of paper." "No...." Michelle whimpered. "I can feel it...." "Can you, now?" Rei said, still using a dangerously soft tone. "This is merely a defensive ward, it shouldn't affect you unless you are tainted with evil. Ami and Susan can feel it, of course, but no-one else seems to be able to except for you. Now why is that?" "Stop it...." Michelle cried out, flinching violently as Rei continued to move closer to her with the ward. "Hey, back off!" Alex snarled as she shot to her feet, interposing herself between Rei and her lover. "I don't know what the hell you're doing, but you had better turn that damned thing off right now!" "Alex," Susan said quietly as she stood up, her eyes narrowing. "Rei has a point, she shouldn't be feeling that ward if everything was fine. Now that the matter has been brought to our attention, Rei, you may turn your ward off now. You are correct in your assertion that I can feel it, and I assure you that it is a most uncomfortable sensation." The priestess shot her a noncommittal look for several seconds before she turned her attention to Ami. Her expression remained utterly impassive as she studied Ami's state of nervousness at the situation before she looked back over at Michelle. "Please stop it," Michelle whimpered, visibly shivering. "I don't know what's going on, and I don't remember anything from last night. Please...." "Rei," Tolaris spoke up calmly, drawing a look from the priestess. "You don't need to use that ward anymore. You have my word that we're not going to go anywhere until we solve this one." Rei looked back at Michelle before she made a gesture with her hand. The ward's ink suddenly burst into dark green flames that quickly spread to the rest of the parchment. She casually tossed the burning paper aside, watching as the ward was reduced to mere ashes before it could land on the floor. "What the hell is going on this time?" Leda said quietly, her green eyes narrowed with suspicion and uncertainty. "Hey, can you pass me some toast?" Mina spoke up as she casually scooped some oatmeal into a bowl. She paused in mid-motion as the rest of the group gave her odd looks of disbelief. "What? I'm hungry...." she protested. "Maze, honey, can you do me a favor?" Alex sighed. "Just reach up and make sure she doesn't have that bow tied too tight around her head," she said, gesturing to the ever-present bow tied up in Mina's blonde hair. "Rei?" Susan asked carefully as she walked over to Michelle. "As I said, Michelle is entirely human, so your accusation is a non-starter. I am rather sensitive to spiritual energies myself, but most likely not to the same degree that you are. Please tell me exactly what you felt out on the deck." "Three sources of evil," Rei replied in a slightly edged tone, her gaze still sharply focused on Michelle. "Two were very alike, one stronger than the other, and I could trace them both to the point where the railing is broken. The third is not nearly as strong and seemed to remain centered in one place, right around the spot where Michelle fell unconscious." "Easy, babe," Alex said in a soothing tone, trying to get Michelle to calm down enough to quit the soft but constant whimpering noises she was making. "Can you feel it now?" Susan asked in a gentle tone. "I'm not sure what I feel right now," Rei replied, casting a sidelong look at the succubus. "I had a hard time sensing everything outside because of your presence. I can barely differentiate Ami's presence from yours at the moment, and she's only a few feet away from me." "Susan?" Tolaris called out as he rose to his feet, visibly concentrating on something. "Can you see auras?" "Of course I can," Susan replied before she looked over at Michelle. Her wings suddenly seemed to spasm uncontrollably for a moment before she managed to calm herself down. "I.... see what you mean, Commander," she said in an eerily calm tone. "Sue, don't get all mysterious on us like that," Alex growled, resisting the urge to whip out her saber. "Start talking." "Something's wrong, isn't it?" Michelle whimpered quietly. "I'm not sure," Susan replied gently. "Your aura seems to have taken on a darker color than usual, which usually is an indication that something could very well be wrong." "Wait...." Darian said slowly, drawing a collection of surprised looks. "I remember Myst saying something the other day about how she said Michelle's aura felt different. Something about how it was layered instead of blended like mine and.... and Serena's aura," he said after a momentary hesitation. Everyone blinked hard as Susan spat out a word in an unknown language. The sheer harshness of the eldritch tone made her voice rasp as if her vocal chords were coated with coarse sand, causing half the group to wince. "Damn, Sue, what the hell was that?" Alex asked with a sour look. "Michelle, hold still," Susan sighed as she extended her wings out, the gaping holes between the bones becoming even more prominent. Small sparks of energy began to collect along her wings, following the paths created by her blood vessels and being drawn down to the small of her back. "Susan...?" Michelle whimpered with nervous uncertainty as she tightly held onto Alex's arm, her eyes darting frantically around the room. "Just take it easy, love," Alex said gently as she rubbed Michelle's arm in comfort. "Everything will be fine...." "No, go away!" Michelle yelled as she suddenly seemed to explode into a panic. She lurched away from Alex and turned to run down the hall, her eyes taking on a faint red coloring. There was a quick blur of motion as Rei darted past Alex, knocking the blonde down as she tried to grab Michelle's arm. Michelle suddenly twisted around and lashed out, grabbing the front of Rei's robe and almost literally tossing her halfway across the room with a vicious snarl. "Grab her!" Susan cried out as she started to draw energy out of the air as rapidly as she could, hampered in the collection process by the damage to her wings. "She's being possessed!" Michelle was turning around to run again when the air shimmered for an instant as Whisper teleported directly behind her. The telepath reached out and pinned Michelle's arms to her sides, gasping at the effort it took as Michelle began to struggle violently against her. "Leave me alone, let me go!" Michelle sobbed, her aquamarine eyes glowing with crimson light that seemed to burn from within. "Stay back," Susan rasped as both Mina and Ami started to charge forward. "Let me handle this...." "Exorcism?" Mina panted, her stiletto in hand and giving the struggling Michelle a deeply worried look. "No," Susan replied quietly as the energy that she was collecting started to visibly flow through the rest of her body, illuminating her blood vessels. "I don't know what has a hold on her, but merely driving it out will only allow it to take up residence somewhere else. I will draw it out of her and into myself first, then try to deal with it from there." "Rei, are you alright?" Tolaris whispered urgently as he tried to rouse the stunned priestess lying on the floor. He was rewarded with a quiet moan as she curled up into a ball, trying to protect herself from some spiritual threat that she could still feel. "Wait!" Alex gasped as she finally managed to get to her feet. "Sue, what the hell is going on? What are you doing?" "LET ME GO!" Michelle screamed as she continued to fight, trying to jam her elbow into Whisper's ribcage. She suddenly tensed and screamed again as the telepath hit her with a psi-spike in an effort to reduce her resistance, the burst of searing pain seeming to lance through her entire nervous system in a single, massive spasm. "Stop it, you're hurting her!" Alex yelled as she reached up, drawing her saber out of the dimensional sheath and charging the telepath. She had only taken a few steps before she slammed into the energy shield Maze erected in front of her. The effect was like hitting a rubber wall, the enraged Viking essentially bouncing back as the hemispherical barrier briefly bent into an oval shape. The shield returned to a normal shape as she hit the ground, gasping hard as the wind was knocked out of her. She somehow managed to retain her grip on her Soul Saber, but was otherwise too stunned to do anything with it. "Hold her still!" Susan commanded as she darted forward to Michelle, her hands coming up to hold the possessed woman's head perfectly still. She then leaned forward and kissed her deeply, allowing her to send her demonic powers into Michelle's soul as she sought to separate the innocent from the corrupt. Their auras suddenly flashed into view, a dark green surrounding Susan while a vibrant aquamarine sharply edged in black formed around Michelle. "What the hell is she doing?" Leda demanded, reflexively dropping into a defensive martial arts posture. Mina cast a quick glance over at her, her mouth set in a thin line. "You don't want to know," she said in a low-pitched tone, casting a momentary glance at Ami before returning her attention to what Susan was doing. Everyone blinked as Susan suddenly inhaled sharply, her wings suddenly sweeping backwards as she succeeded in tearing the dark core out of Michelle's soul. The faint glow of sparks along her veins suddenly turned as black as night as she drew the possession out of Michelle's body and slowly began to devour it. Michelle's body twitched like a puppet having its strings cut as Susan's demonic kiss sifted through her entire soul, filtering out the impurities and restoring her aura to its natural aquamarine color. It was a disturbingly sensual process to watch as Susan's lips moved in a slow rhythm, drawing an instinctive response from Michelle. They continued for several long seconds before Susan finally released her hold and took a step back, her eyes glowing like beacons and her tongue coming out to lick the faint golden residue on her lips in an almost erotic fashion. The red glow in Michelle's eyes vanished as if a switch had simply been turned off, her aura pulsing briefly before fading from view. She made a deep moaning sound that raised the hair on everyone's arms as she slumped to the ground, her eyes rolling up into her head as she passed out. "Susan!" Ami called out, horrified at the scene she was witnessing. The succubus brought her hands up and slowly clenched them into fists, the black sparks flowing along her veins seeming to move faster with each passing second. "I have it under control," she rasped. "I don't know how it was able to possess a protected soul like hers, but I have removed it from her. She should regain consciousness in a few moments." "Sue...." Alex moaned as the worst of the daze faded, allowing her enough strength to lift her head from the floor to look around. "What happened?" "Need any help, demon?" Mina said in a wary tone, still tightly holding her stiletto in one hand. "I've got some holy water and a few wafers of the Host in my room if you need them...." Susan shook her head and replied in the same eldritch language she had used earlier, making her voice sound dangerously raw. "It is under control," she added in her native human language. "This shouldn't last much longer." Maze grunted quietly as he moved to stand behind Mina, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Susan, is the immediate crisis over?" he asked as he glanced over at Whisper trying to gently rouse Michelle. Susan tilted her head at a slight angle. "Yes, I believe it is," she replied, her voice seeming to grow stronger. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, causing her wings to twitch and shiver. The black points of light slowly began to disappear one by one, the individual motes seeming to pop like bubbles before being absorbed into her veins. Her aura slowly began to fade from view, the color pulsing slightly in time with her heartbeat. "That's relieving to hear," Maze said in a wary tone. "Can you explain to us what exactly went on, then?" "Rei?" Tolaris said quietly again, gently shaking her shoulder. "I'm fine," the priestess sighed as she very slowly uncurled herself, her eyes still tightly closed. "She hit me with some sort of negative energy when she threw me. I think I just need a moment to recover, that's all...." Susan turned around, her eyes still glowing brightly with power. "Rei, I strongly suggest you try to purge yourself of any lingering negative energy," she said, still slowly absorbing the black motes of energy. "She was possessed by an umbra, and while they aren't usually as dangerous as other sources of demonic possession, they can still cause significant spiritual harm if you're not prepared for them." "An umbrella, what?" Alex inquired as she rose to her feet, still quite disoriented by her forceful encounter with Maze's energy shield. "Eww," Mina shivered. "Umbras are nasty critters." Leda gave the blonde an odd look. "More lore from your grandmother?" "Yeah," Mina sighed, still shivering lightly. "I've heard a few things about them, and you really don't want to run into one in a dark alley. Not that you want to run into any sort of demonic evil period, but you still get the idea." There was a soft moan from the floor as Michelle regained consciousness. Alex immediately crossed the room to kneel down at her side, still holding her saber in one hand and keeping a very wary eye on Whisper. "Easy, love, just stay still for a bit," she said soothingly as she used her free hand to gently squeeze Michelle's hand. "W.... What happened?" Michelle murmured softly as she struggled to open her eyes. It took several seconds of effort before her eyelids finally parted enough to let her focus on her surroundings. Susan suddenly drew her wings in against her body as tightly as she could before she flexed them outwards to their full length. The remaining motes of black energy surrounding her were suddenly cast away like a fine layer of dust being blown off an old book, quickly fading into nothingness. "You had been possessed by an evil force," the succubus explained calmly, shaking her wings gently for several seconds before folding them back against her body. "You alright?" Tolaris asked gently as Rei gingerly stood up. "I'm fine," the priestess replied in a subdued tone. She made sure she had full control over her balance and muscle coordination before she reached into her robe and pulled out another spiritual ward. She held it tightly as she muttered a quick prayer, causing the black ink to take on a golden hue. Ami blinked as a sudden chill swept past her, causing her to turn around to locate the source of the disturbance. "Rei, what are you doing?" she asked in a concerned tone. She suddenly flinched as the ward gave off a pulse of golden light, sweeping across the length of the room in an instant and causing her skin to tingle somewhat unpleasantly. "Hey!" she protested as a severe headache promptly took up residence in the front of her skull. "Sorry, just clearing the air," Rei apologized quietly as she readjusted her hold on the now-useless ward, holding just the bottom corner by the tips of her fingernails. The parchment seemed to smoke slightly before it erupted into green flames with a soft whoosh. She was about to toss it into the air to finish burning when her hand was suddenly enveloped in a small whirlwind, tearing the ward from her grasp and extinguishing the odd green fire. "There has to be a better way of disposing of those," Tolaris observed as he directed the summoned dust-devil towards the fireplace to dump the ashes. Rei just shook her head. "I'm not doing it. They always seem to combust with green flame whenever they counteract evil energies and influences, and I don't know why. I wish it would stop, however, as I've already burnt myself a few times because of it." "It might be the ink you've been using," Susan suggested gently, trying to ignore the headache that was besieging her as well. "Once this is all over, perhaps we can sit down and go over the exact process you've been using, as I must confess to being deeply curious as to how you've managed to craft such potent spiritual wards." Mina just shook her head as she headed back towards the table. "It's all in the wrist," she muttered. "Does it matter right now? Just peel Michelle off the floor and give her a cold compress if she has a headache. Umbras are nasty bastards, but if Susan just ate it, then that should be that. And since we're talking about eating things, I'm getting really, really hungry, so can we get back to breakfast and reheat the pancake syrup? It's gotten cold now." "I'm fine," Michelle muttered as Alex and Whisper gently pulled her to her feet. "Mina's right, I do have a headache, though...." Whisper just sighed. "That was my fault, I gave you a psi-spike when you were struggling around like that. How's your memory?" Michelle blinked at the question. "My memory? It's fine.... I think," she added hesitantly as she paused for a moment. "Wait...." "Careful, hon," Alex warned her. "If you stop to think, you might forget to start again. That's happened to me a few times, too, so be careful. Girl, you had better be opening your mouth to yawn," she added over her shoulder, giving Leda a dangerous glare. Leda blinked and gave her an unamused look. "Or what, you'll try to start a fight or something? Cork the attitude for once, not everyone jumps at every single opportunity to make a comment about someone." "Captain?" Tolaris prompted gently as he and Ami resumed their seats at the table. "Is everything okay?" Whisper sighed quietly as she looked at Michelle. "I'm not sure," she replied. "Michelle, would you be willing to let me try to examine your mind for a moment to see if there is anything I can do about your memory?" "Whoa, wait," Alex said as she stepped between Michelle and the telepath. "First you try to blow her brains out, then you want her to hold still so you can dig around in her mind?" She paused and blinked as she felt Michelle's arms sliding around her waist, gently hugging her. "It's alright, Alex," Michelle said quietly. "I want to know what just happened, and more importantly why. Something feels like it's missing, and I don't like that feeling." "After breakfast," Alex said flatly, casting a mildly suspicious look at Whisper. "Mina's right for once, breakfast is getting cold and I really hate cold pancakes. Come on," she said as she gently pulled her along and headed back towards the table. Whisper raised an eyebrow and was about to say something when she heard a noise behind her. She turned to look and raised the other eyebrow at the sight of Ra'vel walking down the hallway with all three cats curled up in her arms. "Idle curiosity, Lieutenant," she said slowly. "Have they been keeping you company, or have you been keeping them company?" The avian laughed softly and chirped a casually cheerful reply as she carried the cats into the living room. She set them down on the coffee table before heading over to the last unoccupied seat at the table, clicking her beak in greeting to the group. "So nice of you to join us," Tolaris said dryly. "Hey!" Mina protested around a mouthful of oatmeal as Artemis came over and promptly hopped up onto the table next to her. "Get away from me, I don't want you shedding into my oatmeal. This is some delicious stuff, by the way, don't know what you added but it's awful good.... WHAT?" she demanded as the white cat leaned over to whisper very quietly in her ear. Everyone exchanged glances as Mina sighed and closed her eyes, listening to whatever it was Artemis had to say. "It's there for a reason, okay? I'm not going to be the one carrying it or using it, so you can relax now. Here, try the sausage and tell me how it tastes," she said as she picked up a sausage link and jammed it in his mouth. "Not even going to ask," Alex muttered as she picked up her fork, eyeing the stack of pancakes with a faintly ravenous look in her blue eyes. She glanced over at Michelle and blinked at the expression on her face. "Something still bugging you, babe?" Michelle sighed and looked down at her plate. "No, it's not that," she said quietly, studying the mass of butter and syrup slowly oozing across her own pair of pancakes. "I shouldn't be eating this. This is all going to go straight to my hips and thighs," she muttered. She blinked and looked over to her left as Leda made a show of leaning back and giving her legs an appraising look. "Yes?" she asked in a careful tone. "Michelle, I wouldn't worry about it," Leda said dryly. "Yeah, there are probably enough calories on the table to make all of us shudder to think of the next time we stand on a scale, but be realistic. We'll probably end up burning it off inside of two hours once we enter the Negaverse. Speaking of which...." "Eat," Tolaris said calmly. "The sun won't rise in the border region for another two hours, so we have plenty of time to plan our approach. Eat and rest up while we still have the time to do so. We can talk after breakfast. Ami?" he added in a slightly tired tone. Ami blinked and paused for a moment, holding the jar of cinnamon over her oatmeal. "Hmm?" "Not so much, please," he said gently. "I know you love cinnamon, but it is not something I happen to care for." "So don't eat it, then?" she suggested, arching up an eyebrow. Tolaris shrugged and sipped his ma'cha. "I'm not kissing you if you're going to leave an aftertaste again," he replied casually. He glanced out of the corner of his eye as at least three people promptly choked on whatever it was they were eating, drawing looks of mild reproachment from everyone else. Ami gave him a poisonous look as she set the jar of cinnamon aside, her cheeks flushing a deep crimson color. "We'll talk about this later," she said in a slightly glacial tone. Myst just sighed and looked over at Luna, idly watching the group from the vantage point of the coffee table. "Are you SURE I'll get used to this?" she said to the black cat, her tail lashing back and forth. "I'm not sure I'm used to this," Luna muttered with a sigh. * * * * Serena groaned quietly as she slowly drifted up from the fog of sleep. A voice started to register on her mind and she tried to roll over onto her side, hoping it would go away. Oh, man, this is a rough morning, she thought with another soft groan. My whole body aches.... "I said wake up," the voice persisted in a somewhat unkind tone. Serena sighed and rolled back over onto her back. "Aww, Luna, leave me alone," she protested quietly. "It's not a school day, so let me sleep...." "Let me try the direct approach," the voice said flatly. "Get up or you will find yourself taking a permanent nap. So what will it be, hmm?" The harshness of the tone finally sunk into her mind, triggering an alarm and shocking her into full consciousness. "What...?" she moaned as she opened her eyes, only to find herself staring at the business end of a disturbingly large pistol. "Good morning, Moon Princess," General Rune said in a faintly edged tone as she aimed the barrel of her sidearm at the blonde's forehead. "So nice of you to finally wake up." Serena's eyes promptly tripled in diameter as she realized what was going on. "What?" she gasped as her heart started to lurch in her chest. "Y-Y-You!" "Welcome back to the Negaverse, Sailor Moon," Rune replied. "It's been quite awhile, hasn't it?" "What? How...." Serena whispered in shock as her eyes darted around the medical ward. She glanced down and realized that the brooch containing the Imperium Silver Crystal was still pinned to her blouse. The fact that her blouse was unbuttoned and a medical monitoring probe was taped to her chest just below the edge of her bra were minor details at best, but the mere sight of the Crystal was enough to focus her thoughts. "Get away from me!" she cried as she brought her hand up. "Moon Crys...!" she started to say, only to abruptly fall silent as Rune cocked the hammer on her weapon. The device made a very ominous clicking sound, the barrel never wavering from the center of her forehead. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," Rune said in a casual tone. "I don't know how fast you can summon your powers, little girl, but I doubt even an instantaneous transformation would protect you from a bullet at this range. And don't think I won't hesitate to pull the trigger and put you out of our collective misery." Serena blinked hard and slowly moved her hand away from the brooch, her blood seeming to freeze solid with the realization of her situation. "What do you want?" she whispered, her voice dangerously unstable. The medical monitor next to her started chirping quietly to itself, warning anyone who cared that her heart-rate was becoming dangerously unstable. Rune gave her a deadly smirk. "Hand over the Imperium Silver Crystal," she commanded. "Once we're sure you won't be able to pull any tricks on us, we'll take you to see the NegaForce and let it deal with you as necessary." "What?" Serena blurted out, her hand reflexively coming up to grasp the brooch again. She tensed as Rune's grip suddenly tightened on her weapon, the unwavering barrel still pointed directly at her forehead. A soft white glow began to seep out from beneath the Crystal's protective cover, bathing her hand in a gentle warmth. Rune blinked and scowled as the sign of the Moon began to glow a faint golden color on Serena's forehead. "I'm warning you, child, I will have you executed right here and now if you don't cooperate. Give me the Crystal." "You can't touch it, can you?" Serena said softly, her voice taking on a faintly musical aspect. "It has its own power beyond my own, the power to protect itself. Even if you kill me, it will not allow the likes of you to lay your filthy hands on it...." Serena flinched and screamed as the gun went off, blasting a large crater in the wall next to her. A chunk of plaster sliced across her cheek, leaving a thin cut behind that started to ooze blood. She very slowly opened her eyes and glanced up at Rune, her eyes reflexively starting to water from the pain. "Last chance, Princess," Rune snarled as she reloaded the firearm with a sharp jerk of the housing, loading another round into the chamber. "You can either hand over the Crystal now, or we can have it removed from your corpse. I prefer the latter, of course, but I promised a friend that I would give the diplomatic approach a chance before I kill you. Now.... give me the Crystal." Serena tightened her grip on the brooch, feeling the warmth increase as the Crystal started to glow brighter. A sense of inner peace descended upon her and she stared back into Rune's eyes. She knew that her life was probably only moments away from ending, but she also knew that her death would release the full power of the Imperium Silver Crystal in an uncontrolled outburst that would likely obliterate the entire castle, if not the rest of the Negaverse. "If you kill me," Serena found herself saying in her oddly musical voice, "You shall only bring ruin to your world. I am more of a threat to you dead than I am alive, for nothing would then stop my friends from destroying this world to end the threat to Earth. You shall not have the Crystal." "Suit yourself," Rune snarled as she centered the barrel on the blonde's forehead and pulled the trigger, aiming for the glowing crescent mark. The golden sigil seemed to flash into blinding brilliance in an instant, a powerful shockwave rippling out as the bullet emerged from the barrel at a sub-sonic velocity. The projectile met the wave of energy and was forced to one side, altering the ballistic path just enough to avoid the solid bones of her skull. The round impacted with the wall behind her instead, but only by a fraction of an inch. Serena screamed as the bullet grazed her temple, leaving a gash behind that immediately started to drip blood. A faint spray of crimson was splashed on the wall immediately behind her, surrounding the small crater left by the bullet's passage. Rune hissed sharply and blinked hard, trying to clear her retinas of the purple after-images caused by the burst of blinding light. She waited until she could focus again before trying to look over at the princess, her eyebrows arching up in surprise at the realization that she had somehow missed at a distance of six feet. "Incredible," she said in an awed tone, watching in amazement as Serena slowly reached up to touch the side of her head. "You're a lot harder to kill that I had realized. No wonder Beryl had so many problems with you...." The blonde yelped as her fingertips brushed across the raw and bleeding wound. She pulled her hand away, glancing in dismay at the thick coating of red blood on her fingers. She looked up at Rune with tears in her eyes, no less surprised at the development than Rune. Rune just shook her head. "No matter, I made a backup plan just on the hunch that you would somehow surprise me. Let's see how well you can cope with this one, girl," she said as she turned around and made a signal through the transparent windows. The doors promptly hissed open and a bound figure was roughly shoved into the room. He stumbled and fell hard onto his face, but not before Serena was able to get a good look at him. "Darian!" she cried out, her eyes widening in horror. "What did you do to him?" she demanded. "Leave him alone!" Rune gave her a dark smile as she grabbed his shirt and hauled him to his feet. "And what do we have here, hmm?" she said casually as she yanked him over to a chair and shoved him into it. He fell into the chair with a gasp, one side of his face badly bruised from an earlier beating. He slowly looked up, his haunted eyes making contact with Serena's before widening in surprise. "S.... Serena?" he whispered. "Silence!" Rune commanded as she slammed the back of her fist across his jaw, rocking him back. "Stop it!" Serena screamed as she tried to bolt upright, only to discover that her legs had been secured in place using several straps. Beside her, the medical monitor chirped another warning as her blood pressure started to spike as well, fully half of the readings outlined in flashing yellows and reds. "Careful, little princess, you might hurt yourself," Rune said over her shoulder as she grabbed a length of elastic cord off a table and securely tied him to the chair. "Guess who we found last night? He apparently was foolish enough to come into the Negaverse to look for you. Alone, too, oddly enough, but I'm not going to waste any more time asking him why." "What are you doing?" Serena sobbed quietly. "Please, let him go...." Rune finished her task and turned around to face the blonde. She very slowly reloaded another round into her weapon before extending her arm out, pressing the muzzle against the side of his head just above the ear. "Here's the deal, girl," she said very slowly. "You either hand over the Crystal, or you can watch as I blow his brains out all over the wall. It's your choice, of course, but I don't think your defensive power will be able to protect your beloved Prince Darian from a point-blank shot." "No...." Serena breathed, feeling her throat constrict. The glow between her fingers suddenly flashed red, sending an agonizing wave of pain throughout her entire body. She gasped as she leaned forward, clutching her abdomen and setting off the rest of the medical warning alarms. "It's your choice," Rune repeated, nudging him with her firearm. "Make a decision and soon, because my patience is running thin. The Crystal or his life." She lifted her head up to glare at the denizen. "You're bluffing," she gasped quietly. "You won't kill him, he's your Crown Prince. You need him." Rune shrugged with indifference. "We can easily cut off his k'vesan and extract the genetic material we need," she said off-handedly. "Granted it is significantly easier if he is around to help, but it is not a requirement. I am warning you, my patience with these games is at an end. Now then, do you want to see for yourself that I'm not bluffing, or are you going to hand over the Imperium Silver Crystal?" Serena struggled to breathe as she stared at the scene before her. His chin was pressed against his chest with his eyes closed. A small trickle of dark red blood was oozing from the corner of his mouth where Rune had hit him, the droplets falling down his chin to leave a dark stain on his pants. The images and memories suddenly rushed through her mind.... the day they first met a lifetime ago at the hospital, all the times she ran into him after school, all the fighting they did, the realization of one another's identities during the final confrontation with Zoicite, the first time he kissed her, the times they spent together, lying next to one another in bed, the times she tried to get close to him and was gently rebuffed, the argument the day before, the realization of his affair with Queen Beryl.... The crimson glow beneath her fingertips grew stronger as her mouth set in a thin and bitter line. She loved him, and yet.... A wave of pain suddenly washed over her, tainting her vision red and causing a hollow roaring sound in her ears that threatened to deafen her. "You're.... bluffing...." she panted as she struggled to sit up straight. Rune sighed and pulled the hammer back, the sharp click echoing loudly in the small medical ward. "You willing to bet his life on it, girl? I will not say this again. Give me the Crystal!" Serena glanced over at his face as he looked up at her, his eyes filled with sadness. "Serena," he whispered very quietly. "You know I love you." She blinked hard as his words echoed in her mind, reminding her of how he had said those words the last time they were alone in their bedroom.... right before he rejected her yet again. Pain unlike anything she could remember ever feeling before surged into her abdomen, shattering what little control she had left over her emotions. "Go to hell," Serena whispered, her eyes as cold as arctic ice. Rune blinked at her tone before she sighed. "Him first," she said with a shrug as she turned her head away and pulled the trigger. The echo of the gun going off seemed to last for an eternity in Serena's mind, her entire world coming to a complete and total halt as the far side of his head erupted in a shower of blood, brains, and bone fragments. The far wall was immediately bathed in an unholy pinkish-red mass that slowly began to slide down towards the floor. There could be no doubt that the wound was instantly fatal. Darian was dead. Her eternal love, who had crossed the boundaries of space and time to be reunited with her after their unjust death in the Moon Kingdom a thousand years ago, had just been slain. He was dead. She wouldn't feel his touch again, or hear his voice, or do any of the countless things they had done before in the past, or any of the things she had wanted to do with him in the future. Her prince was dead. She couldn't blink as the sight tried to register on her mind, unable to accept the fact that his body was now completely lifeless. His head hung down listlessly, a visible hole in one side of skull and the opposite half almost entirely blasted off by the impact of the powerful bullet. Serena was as still as a statue, her blue eyes wide and her mouth hanging open. She was far beyond being in shock, as her conscious mind was now in a deadly struggle against not just her senses but against reality itself. Her lower lip began to tremble slightly as her cortex went into extreme overload, the synapses in her brain firing thousands of times per second as it tried to manage and cope with the sheer force of her will slipping into denial. Rune slowly turned around to survey the damage, wrinkling her nose at the mess on the wall. She glanced down at her arm and sighed quietly as she saw how much of the blood and gore had splattered her arm. Head shots always were disturbingly messy, she thought before she looked over at the princess. She blinked as the medical monitor started chirping a warning, flashing every single bio-reading in red. She carefully edged closer to take a closer look, her eyebrows arching up as she realized that the printed trace of the blonde's brain waves looked more like a seismograph during a magnitude 9.8 earthquake than a reading of a living brain. Serena's brain continued to race almost literally at the speed of light, processing and trying to sort out the uproar caused by billions of impulses being sent across her nerves. Unable to accept not just what her senses were trying to tell her but what her core of reason was saying as well, her sanity didn't so much fall apart as explode into shards and fragments. Her mind hadn't even begun to collapse in on itself yet before her aura reacted to the new threat. Her will, the core of her very being and the force that kept the power of the Imperium Silver Crystal in check, simply could not accept the dissolution of her structured mind as a viable defensive measure. Her aura turned inside-out, attempting to wrap her conscious mind in a sort of protective cocoon and hold her sanity together. Faced with a catastrophic conflict of control and the physical structure of her brain overheating to fatal temperatures from the sheer volume of neural impulses, unable to escape her senses and effectively prevented from rejecting the world around her with the veil of insanity, her mind had only one option left to protect itself. Tapping into the most fundamental of instincts for self-preservation, her mind withdrew itself into as small a space as it could, walled off all neural connections save for the one pathway that controlled her autonomous functions, and physically shut down the rest of her brain. Rune blinked as the blonde twitched once and seemed to relax, her breath quietly leaving her lungs in a gentle sigh. The sigil on her forehead ceased glowing and faded to a dark gray color, the life seeming to vanish from her blue eyes as if a plug had been pulled. Her body succumbed to gravity, falling backwards and landing hard on the pillow with a hollow thump. Her eyes stared up at the ceiling, her gaze utterly empty and completely devoid of any sign of life. The medical monitor on the cart suddenly began to emit a constant tone as the EKG reading became flat, flashing a blue border around the screen. "Huh," Rune said quietly to herself, realizing that the signals meant that her guest had just gone into full and complete cardiac arrest. "I take it you didn't like that one, did you? Oh, well, so much for diplomacy...." She blinked and turned around as the doors hissed open to admit a visibly upset Master Healer Maq'i. The ancient healer paused for a split-second to take stock of the situation, her gold eyes doubling in diameter at the sight of the blood-spattered wall. She cast a furious glare at Rune as she charged over to the bed. "MOVE!" she snarled as she quite literally knocked Rune over in her haste to reach the blonde's side. She immediately slapped a button on the medical console before leaning over the princess' body, placing both hands over the motionless heart muscle. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, sending her as much of her healing energy as she could muster into Serena's chest and trying to coax the muscle into restarting on its own. Rune blinked in surprise as she found herself ptanka-first on the floor, a deep throbbing pain assaulting her backside and a cloud of sparks floating in her vision. "How dare you...." she started to say as she rose to her feet, making sure to activate the safety lock on her firearm. "HOW DARE YOU!!" Maq'i snapped over her shoulder. "I will NOT have any of this in my medical ward! *GUARDS!*" Rune blinked again as the door suddenly hissed open, a pair of Red Wings standing in the archway with their hands on their weapons and a very uncertain look in their eyes. "Master Healer?" one of them ventured, a sickened look on his face as he saw the corpse sitting in the chair. "Remove General Rune from the medical ward immediately," Maq'i snarled as she tried to increase the energy flow to the princess' stalled heart. "She is not to be let back in until I say so. That is a direct order from the Chief Medical Officer of this facility." "You're out of line," Rune snapped, her body tensing up. Maq'i blinked as Serena's heart finally responded to her healing energy, resuming a sluggish but viable rhythm on its own. She quickly turned to the medical monitor, examining the readings with intensity before casting a flat glare over her shoulder. "Guards, I am the Chief Medical Officer and you have been given a direct order based on emergency medical authority. Now get her out of here before she can try to kill my patient again!" The guards exchanged wary glances before they turned to Rune. "Ma'am, we have to comply with her order," the senior one said in a detached tone. "You need to leave this facility immediately." Rune cast a furious glance at Maq'i's back before she snorted in disdain. "We will see who is in charge around here," she muttered darkly as she headed for the door. She paused in the archway and turned around, looking at the body still tied to the chair. "You two, pick that up and take it to the next ward. I will take care of the rest myself." The guards exchanged glances again as Rune brushed past them, not overly sure what to make of the situation. They both turned to look at Maq'i as she sighed and made a gesture of idle dismissal. "You had best do as she asks," the Healer said in a weary tone. "Do not be concerned, there is more to this than it seems to be. Damn her," she spat quietly as she studied the brain-wave trace. She frowned as she realized that the needles hadn't twitched since her heart stopped and continued to draw a perfectly flat line. Both Red Wings blinked hard as she started to curse in a decidedly harsh dialect of the denizen language that was of Felinoid origin. "Master Healer?" the junior guard inquired carefully. "Carry that out of here," she said with a gesture to the corpse. "The instant you are done, contact General Al'vexi and ask her to come here as soon as she possibly can. We have a problem here," she said in a worried tone. "What should we tell her?" the senior guard asked as he gingerly stepped around a puddle of pink ooze on the floor and prepared to lift the chair up by the legs, motion for his partner to grab the other side. Maq'i sighed and turned back to the monitor, casting a saddened look at the blank stare on the princess' face. "Tell her that the Moon Princess has been stabilized, but that her mind is beyond my help. She needs a telepathic healer now, and that it might already be too late." The guards nodded in understanding. "We'll get her for you," the senior Red Wing promised as he and his partner lifted up the chair holding Darian's body and began the very distasteful process of moving it over to another room. * * * * Rune watched in silence as the guards gingerly set the chair down and left the ward in moderate haste. Sighing softly, she rose to her feet and crossed the room to lock the door. She then went back over to the chair and began to untie the elastic cord that kept him upright. "You can wake up now," she said in a casual tone. "I'm.... awake...." the corpse whispered, his lips barely moving. Rune paused at the unusual tone. "Are you okay?" she inquired. She made the mistake of glancing up at the side of his head, her stomach turning as she could see straight through the path made by the bullet to see the paint on the wall opposite her. "...No," he replied faintly. She just sighed and yanked on the knot, causing the cord to come loose. He promptly slid out of the chair and onto the floor with a hollow thump, the pinkish-red contents of his shattered skull splashing out with a sickening semi-liquid slurp. "Yeech," Rune gagged as she looked away. "Must you be so.... realistic?" "Not.... pretending...." he whispered. Rune blinked hard and whirled around to look. "What?" "Explain.... later.... trying.... to.... change...." Rune gave him a concerned look as she slowly sat down in her chair, trying to figure out what he was saying. She blinked as she heard a faint sloshing noise start up and the tips of his fingers suddenly began to melt into a dark pink goo. The melting effect seemed to spread with agonizing slowness, crawling up his arms one inch at a time. It took several seconds before the effect could spread to the rest of his body, melting and oozing together to form a single puddle of protoplasm. It was a rather disgusting process to watch but Rune continued to observe anyway, grateful for her decision to put off breakfast until after her confrontation with Sailor Moon. The puddle drew itself together and started to take on a rough humanoid form. It took another few seconds before rough details could be discerned, an elbow joint here, a kneecap there, a few muscle curves elsewhere. It must have been a full minute by Rune's reckoning before real details were visible, fingers and toes becoming identifiable, hair starting to take shape on the head, and the swells of feminine breasts forming on the torso to denote its gender. The pink goo suddenly shivered and solidified all at once, forming a layer of skin and congealing into the nude figure of Agent M. Rune's eyebrows arched up slightly at how well-toned the metamorph was in her natural form. She figured that M could be as busty or as firm as she felt like being on a given day, but it was not often that a woman of M's age could keep herself in such a seemingly youthful condition. "How do you feel?" Rune asked carefully. M didn't move at first, her eyes still closed. Very slowly, she lifted her arms up to touch the sides of her head, gently probing the solidity of her skeletal structure. "Section nine of my contract, paragraph four," M said in a very unsteady tone. Rune blinked at the unexpected reference to her contract. "Which is...?" she prompted. She had it on file, of course, but she would have to take it out and look at it for the finer details of a given section. "An exit clause," M moaned quietly, trying not to move as her brain seemed to throb in time with her pulse. "As of now, I am terminating my employment with you. It's been fun, general, but I think I've had enough of this. Ohhh, this hurts...." Rune snorted quietly. "I thought you said you could do this." "I said I might be able to," M countered quietly. "As I pointed out last night, it is extremely difficult to overcome an ingrained bias when it comes to assuming a given form. Especially when it involves rewiring the neural paths to the brain and spine. I thought I had shifted my cortex into a new physical structure I formed in my abdomen, but apparently I didn't do a very good job in setting up the neural paths. I went into shock back there, you know." The general raised an eyebrow. "So how are you feeling now?" "What do you think?" M sighed. "I have a killer headache. Literally. Let's be honest here, how well do you think you'd be feeling if someone put a gun to your head and blew out half of your processing neurons?" Rune just grumbled quietly to herself. "Should I contact a Healer?" she inquired in a slightly weary tone, casting a discreet glance at the clock. "If you think it'll do any good," M muttered as she finally opened her eyes and tried to focus on the ceiling. "I think I just need to lay down in a dark corner of my quarters for a day or two, that's all." The general snorted in contempt and stood up. "I will arrange for you to receive a suitable bonus for your cooperation in this effort," she said calmly. "I think you should take a few days off to reconsider your request to exercise the exit clause option, but the decision is ultimately up to you. No matter which you decide, you have my personal gratitude for your exemplary service," she added with genuine feeling as she turned to leave. "Rune...." M said slowly as she struggled into a sitting position. She blinked and glanced down at her naked body, grumbling very quietly to herself. Her skin started to ripple for a moment before reforming into a standard but nondescript jumpsuit. "Yes?" Rune inquired mildly with a glance over her shoulder. "What happened back there?" the metamorph asked with concern. "I wasn't paying close attention as I was trying to keep myself alive, but I heard an alarm going off. What was it?" Rune sighed and leaned against the locked door. "Apparently she thought I was bluffing, as she seemed shocked when I supposedly executed her lover. She was so shocked, in fact, that she went into cardiac arrest on the spot." "What?" M said, her head snapping up to give Rune a startled look. "You have to be kidding me, she's simply too young to have a heart-attack!" "Fine," Rune shrugged in dismissal as she palmed the lock open. "You can talk to the Master Healer if you don't believe me." "Rune, wait," M persisted. "I've studied these humans for years now. It would take a massive amount of trauma to cause her heart to simply stop like that, and I don't believe that head wound you gave her was sufficient. Humans are psychologically unstable creatures, at least from our perspective given their wide range of volatile emotions and short lifespans. It's possible that the shock of seeing her prince executed in front of her could result in mental damage of some kind." "So what's the downside?" Rune replied with another dismissive shrug. "I could care less if she lives through this or not. I only want the Imperium Silver Crystal from her, that's it. And if we can't get to it while she is still alive and able to defend it...." M just rubbed her sinuses as Rune deliberately left the rest unsaid. "If you think you can do it," she muttered quietly. "That is no longer your concern, Agent M," Rune replied flatly. "You may consider yourself on medical leave for the next seventy-two hours, after which I expect to hear from you concerning your final decision to continue working for me or not. Until then, I suggest you rest well. Headaches tend to linger if you keep thinking too hard," she added lightly before she left the room. M just laid back down on the floor and sighed quietly, still trying to make sure that her reconstituted neural pathways were fully functional. This is getting out of hand, she thought. Something isn't right with this, and I think it's time I found out just what the t'zarn is going on around here.... Taking a deep breath, M began the somewhat slow and currently painful process of dissolving her physical body into a gelatinous form. She waited until she was quite sure that all of her cells were mobile enough before she crawled over to the air vent and oozed inside, disappearing into the countless miles of ducts that crisscrossed the Imperial Castle. * * * * "Are we finished yet?" Alex asked for the fourth time as she waited for everyone else to complete various post-breakfast activities. Leda stopped in mid-motion to give her a venomous glare. "You ask that one more time and you're going to be wearing this thing," she growled as she picked up the nearly empty pot of oatmeal and carried it to the kitchen sink. "Patience, Alex," Susan admonished her quietly. "Some things should not be rushed, and an event of this magnitude is one of them." The blonde just sighed and crossed her arms. "Look, this is the Princess we're talking about, okay? She's been their prisoner for how long now? They could have done all sorts of unspeakable things to her already, and you know as well as I do that, present company aside, the Negaverse would just love to do precisely that!" Maze just sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "She has a bit of a point," he said quietly. "I don't know about the Negaverse as a whole, but I can think of a few people sadistic enough to do that...." "As you were, Lieutenant," Tolaris said flatly. "It's the truth, Commander," Maze pointed out. "Be that as it may, there's no use in dwelling on it now," Tolaris said. "What we need to focus on now is going in there and getting her back without doing any more harm than is necessary." Leda quietly returned from the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dish towel. "So what's the game-plan again?" she asked warily. "I'm waiting for Mina to return first," Tolaris said, giving Maze an odd look. "She did say it would only take a moment, right?" "Don't look at me," Maze shrugged. "I just thought she was going to get something from her room...." "I was," Mina said as she emerged from the residential hallway, slightly winded from moving with haste. "Sorry it took so long, I think Artemis got pissed and hid it under the bed." There was a snort of contempt from the ball of white fur in Darian's lap. "I did not," Artemis muttered, lashing his tail back and forth. "Anyway," Mina said as she looked over at Michelle. "Hey, Michelle, you have a moment?" Michelle blinked in surprise and seemed to hesitate, hovering directly behind Alex's shoulder. "Yes," she said, still clearly rattled from the earlier incident. Mina just gave her a reassuring smile as she moved over to her. "Relax, you should like this one. I kinda figured you were the timid type and all, so I picked up a special friend for you, just in case you needed an extra bit of oomph if we get in a fight. Here," she said as she held up the small device. "What the hell is that?" Alex asked, staring at the pronged box. "A tazer?" Ami said, blinking in surprise. "Bingo," Mina grinned. "See, this little beauty packs a serious punch. All you need to do is press the button here to activate it and then jab these prongs at your opponent. It'll give off a major jolt of electricity that'll leave them stunned for a few seconds." Michelle blinked and regarded the device carefully. "Umm...." "Michelle?" Susan spoke up from the table. "Think of it as mimicking the power of an electric eel." "Ohhh, I get it!" Michelle said, her eyes widening in understanding. She carefully took the tazer from Mina and looked it over. "So I just push this button here, right?" "Hold that thought, babe," Alex said as she hastily took a few steps back. "I love you dearly, but I don't need to get jabbed in the butt by accident with an electric eel-in-a-box." Michelle giggled quietly as she pressed the button. She blinked hard and nearly hit the ceiling as a powerful spark of electricity arced between the two prongs. "Eeep!" she squealed, almost dropping the device. "Easy, it's supposed to do that," Mina assured her. "If you know how an electric eel stuns its prey, then I think you can imagine what it'd do to an opponent trying to spank you stupid." Leda just shook her head. "That explains a few things about Sailor V," she observed in a dry tone. "Nah," Mina said with a wave of her hand. "That's just Maze being a very naughty boy some nights." There was a weary sigh as Maze's head dropped down to encounter the flat surface of the table. He muttered something in his native dialect, drawing a comforting pat on his shoulder from Ra'vel. "Anyway," Mina continued as she held out a small fanny pack. "I'm not sure if that'll fit in your Lunar Space pocket, but if it doesn't you can keep it tucked in here. See, this goes around your waist and fastens in the front like this," she said, demonstrating with a second pack. "Huh," Alex said quietly as she came back over to study the pouch. "Hey, what exactly is this stuff made from, anyway?" "Nylon and velcro," Mina replied. "I'll explain later," Susan said before Alex could ask. "Hmm, this could be useful," Alex said as she fastened the pouch around Michelle's waist. "Have to check this out later when this is over." "Here," Mina said as she gave a third fanny pack to Ami. "Don't give me a hard time about the contents, I have my reasons for having them as well as having you carry them. You just need to learn to trust my instincts." Ami blinked and gave her a very wary look before she unzipped the pouch and peered inside. She remained frozen for several seconds before looking back up at the blonde, her eyebrows arched clear up to her hairline. "Yes, that is what you think," Mina sighed as she looked up towards the ceiling. "Like I said, you just have to trust me on this one, okay?" Ami looked back down at the pouch and sighed heavily before wordlessly zipping it shut and strapping it around her waist. She glanced up and caught the curious look on everyone's faces, slowly shaking her head in reply. "You don't want to know," she said in a very quiet tone. "Okay," Alex said slowly as she surveyed the room. "NOW are we ready?" "We should be," Tolaris said slowly. Susan gently cleared her throat. "If I may, Commander, I am expecting a messenger to arrive in very short order with a response from Lord Hades." Whisper tossed back the last mouthful of ma'cha and set her mug back down on the table. "Well, at least we can go over the basic plan until he or she gets here," she pointed out. Tolaris nodded in understanding and looked around the room. "Okay, the general plan consists of three parts. The first is to enter the Negaverse and meet with Commander K'tal in the border village of Mar'ken. Hopefully he will be able to help us determine Serena's location and the best venue for entry. "The second part of the plan is the actual infiltration of the site where she's being held at. This will of course be a complete unknown until we get more information from K'tal, assuming he can help us. As we will then be doing things 'by the seat of our pants' as you humans say, I can't even begin to estimate the hazards and problems we may encounter. "The third part is actually getting back out of the Negaverse with Serena in hand. By this point, however, the entire military will probably have been made aware of our presence and will most likely already be attempting to engage us. Hopefully we will be able to open up a wormhole as soon as we find Serena, but there are locations in which that won't be possible. Our goal will then be to take her to a place where such wormholes can be opened and egress from there as a group." Leda shrugged. "That doesn't sound too bad," she observed. There was a soft thump as Luna hopped up onto the table. "It may sound simple, Leda, but I strongly doubt that will be the case," she cautioned. "You have to keep in mind that your Sailor Scout powers might not be available to you, as we don't know the condition of the Crystal yet. Or, for that matter, what Serena's condition is." "Tell us about this village," Rei spoke up for the first time since they resumed eating breakfast awhile ago. "It's a rather small village, to be honest," Whisper explained. "It is on mostly flat terrain with the edge of the forest on the western boundary. It is not uncommon to see one or two cargo transports in the field just north of the village, but most trading is on a small-scale done in local kiosks. A small military presence is possible, but it will be patrol-sized elements at worst. No heavy armor or aircraft." "That's a relief," Leda muttered. "Kinda hard to tornado-kick a tank and have it do something other than scratch the paint and bruise your heel." "No fighting unless absolutely necessary," Tolaris said sternly. "Our first goal is information-gathering. I suggest not transforming right away once we enter the Negaverse, the better to try to keep a low-profile. I think we can get away with posing as a small clan on a day-trip to a trading post. Ra'vel can pass as a guide, which is not uncommon in the slightest as we will be within range of a few prominent avian clans." "Ooo, ooo, question!" Mina said as she bounced on her toes for a moment. "Do you think we could indulge in a little trading while we're there? I've still got a few diamonds that Dyvach coughed up the other day, so I should be able to find a local dealer who can make me a deal for some denizen currency, right?" Tolaris and Maze exchanged glances for a moment. "Well...." Maze said in a thoughtful tone as he scratched his chin. "She can speak the language fairly well, and she did manage to avoid raising too many eyebrows last night...." The Dragoon commander sighed quietly to himself. "Mina? Keep in mind that we're there for a purpose. If you can do so without causing a scene, I don't have a problem with the idea. Keep in mind that you could put us all in very serious trouble if you expose anyone by accident." "Trust me," Mina grinned cheerfully. "We're in trouble," Leda sighed, drawing a quiet grunt from Rei. "Amen to that," Alex added with a shake of her head. "Oh, poo, listen to you spoilsports...." Mina huffed. Everyone suddenly tensed as the alarm klaxon went off. "Level 2 Danger: Tachyon particle warning, jump-gate activated inside sensor perimeter," the flat voice of the computer warned in a monotone. "That would be a planar shift," Susan said demurely. "I believe that our guest has just arrived. Would someone be so kind as to answer the door?" The group exchanged glances before a soft chime echoed throughout the cathedral. "What's that?" Alex inquired, looking up at the ceiling. "Boss?" Maze asked, giving Tolaris an odd look. Tolaris shrugged in response. "I think that's the doorbell, but to be honest I don't ever recall hearing someone use it." Everyone blinked as Darian gently moved Artemis and Myst out of his lap, setting them on the couch cushion next to him before getting up and answering the door. He stopped and blinked hard at what he saw before he took a step back, making a gesture to their visitor. "You!" Alex gasped, her eyes going wide as she recognized the woman. "Good morning," Megan said casually as she entered the cathedral, giving Darian an appraising and openly sultry look. "I like the architecture," she mused as she looked around, her massive wings flexing slightly. "Relax, Rei," Susan said calmly as the priestess hissed in shock at the sight of Megan's demonic wings. "May I introduce my sister, Megan," she said to the room. Everyone blinked hard and turned to stare at her. "Your sister?" Alex said slowly, her jaw falling open. "Half-sister," Megan said archly, the tiny pair of wings on her head fluttering briefly. She was wearing the same attire she had worn when Susan first met her, consisting mostly of a wide purple ribbon around her waist that came up to cross her breasts and a pair of black panties beneath a knee-length black loin-cloth. "You never told us you had a sister!" Alex protested forcefully. "I didn't find out myself until two days ago," Susan replied in a calm tone, giving the upset blonde a moderate look. "You were with me when I met her for the first time in the present-day Moon Kingdom." "Susan!" Megan said sharply, her ruby eyes widening in shock. "What in the Burning Hells happened to your wings?" Susan just sighed quietly and flexed her damaged wings. "I assure you that you and I will have the opportunity to discuss it at length in the near future," she replied. "We have more important matters to concern ourselves with at the moment, however." Megan gave her sister an odd look as she carefully folded her wings back. They were easily twice the size of Susan's wings and could brush the floor by accident if she wasn't careful enough. "I'm not sure what is going on, but I know that the entire pantheon is in an uproar," she said, glancing around the room. She paused and did a double-take as she saw Ra'vel. "Speaking of not being sure about things...." "This is Lieutenant Ra'vel of the Negaverse," Susan explained. "She and the other denizens are here in our universe to assist us. This is Commander Tolaris, Lieutenant Maze, and Captain Whisper." "Morning," Maze said casually. "Oh," Megan replied, slightly nonplussed. "So you're the invaders who started this whole mess." "That is not the case," Susan sighed as she looked up at the ceiling. Everyone suddenly blinked as there was a flash of light as a young girl warped into the room. "Hope I'm not late...." she panted, tugging a few minor wrinkles out of her somewhat form-fitting leotard. "Level 2 Danger," the computer suddenly reported as alarm klaxons went off. "Tachyon particle warning, jump-gate activated inside sensor perimeter." "Lisa," Megan sighed as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. "How many times have I told you never to teleport into a crowded room?" "Whoops," the other succubus said, blushing furiously. "I'm sorry...." "And this is my other sister, Lisa," Susan said dryly. "Hi, everyone!" Lisa said cheerfully as she looked around the room. "I think I'm going to be sick," Leda muttered quietly. The purple-haired succubus blinked and looked over at her. "Oh, don't do that," Lisa said, making a sour face. "Umm.... who are you, anyway?" "My name's Leda," the brunette replied in a wary tone. "Zeus' avatar," Susan added, causing the other two succubi to blink hard. "Whoa...." Lisa said, her voice taking on a nervous edge. "Sorry, didn't mean to be rude or anything...." Alex just shook her head slowly. "Sue, you're going to give me a major headache if you don't sit down and sort this out real quick." Megan just raised an eyebrow. "Introductions would be nice." "Good idea," Lisa said, nodding her head with enthusiasm. "Can you start with that hunk over there?" she said, gesturing to a visibly wary Darian. "He looks like he can be a lot of fun if he puts his mind to it...." Susan didn't bother looking behind her to see who was gently rubbing her upper back in comfort. "That is Prince Darian of Earth," she said in a gentle tone. "H