rest of 18
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“All right girls listen up as I don’t have much time,” Luna ordered sharply and everyone in the room quietened at the strange note in the Guardian’s voice. “Artemis and I are needed on a mission-”
“What?!” Artemis demanded but Luna spoke on over the top of him.
“Mina will be in charge and Hotaru will brief you all. Mina, listen to Hotaru and everyone else do as Mina says, your lives depend on it.”
The scouts were all silent in shock for a moment and before they had recovered, Luna’s crescent insignia flashed and both Guardians had vanished. Hotaru sighed and straightened where she sat on the bed.
“What’s going on Hota?” Haruka asked, obviously restraining herself while she questioned her fellow scout.
“I have been warned that we’re going to have to mobilise on a moment’s notice. Mina, with Malachite and Zoisite captive, we have to be ready for a major Negaverse incursion and we have to be prepared to deal with it on our own. The knights, and that includes Tuxedo Mask and the Silver Sun, are busy, they’ve found out how the Negaverse is getting their information and are going to deal with it while we stand guard. Also we need to get ready to move in with the knights. That’ll happen as soon as Luna and Artemis return.”
“Is that all you have to tell us?” Lita asked in confusion and Hotaru nodded.
“Uh huh, it’s up to Mina to sort out the details.”
Mina shook her head frantically, “Me? Come on why me? I’m a ditz remember? I’m as bad as Serena or Travis any day!”
Hotaru saw Raye look at her first before she turned to examine the blonde. The invalid watched as Raye’s eyes widened in sudden realisation and wondered what the priestess had recognised. Her questions were answered by the violet-eyed teen’s next words.
“Not so Mina,” and the blonde paled at the insight in those penetrating orbs. “It is finally time for masks to discarded and yours is to be among the first to go.”
For a moment everyone looked at the trio in surprise. Mina’s face was pale and her mouth worked to form a denial that she couldn’t voice. Raye’s face was calm, rapt even, an expression which was at odds with her fiery persona and Hotaru had finally allowed the presence of her ancient memories to show upon her face.
“Hotaru?” Michiru asked tentatively.
“I don’t understand,” Amy added in frustration.
Haruka narrowed her eyes. “Why would we follow her?”
Hotaru turned her dark and knowing eyes from Mina to the last four of the group. “We are the senshi, we serve the Silver Millennium, we swear to the Moon’s queen and we are lead by the Moon’s avatar. As commander of the inner senshi, Venus is the head of the princess’ guard and second only to the senshi of the moon. It is time for her to take up her command once more.”
“How do you know?” Lita asked and Hotaru’s eyes became black.
Darkness seemed to gather around the invalid teen and the sign of Saturn glimmered in a dark purple on her brow. All of the scouts’ eyes widened and even Mina and Raye were distracted from their silent communication by the heaviness of the air. Hotaru’s voice was hollow and echoed as she answered, “I am Saturn’s chosen, I am the bringer of death and rebirth, I am the dark messiah and it is my task to remember.”
The scouts stared in silence for a moment and then Lita coughed apologetically. “I know this sounds really stupid,” she told them and winced as everyone’s eyes turned to her, yet continued regardless, “But... what are you talking about?”
The darkness around Hotaru faded and a smile appeared on the fragile girl’s face. Mina loosed a sad giggle and soon all of them were laughing, even the bewildered Lita.
When the mirth began to die down, Amy answered Lita’s question succinctly, “She remembers Lita. She remembers everything that happened to her in the Silver Millennium and everything that she knew then.”
“You remember everything?” Michiru asked in a voice filled with wonder.
Hotaru shrugged uncomfortably. “Pretty much, but that can wait,” she turned and directly addressed Mina, “So what are your orders?”
Mina stared at nothing for a few seconds, then heaved a resigned sigh and discarded her air-headed mannerisms between one breath and the next. “You mentioned that the Knights know how the Negaverse is bugging us. How?
Hotaru held up her communicator mutely and the others stared at her in disbelief. “They’ve infiltrated our communications-”
“But I couldn’t find any bugs!” Amy protested.
Hotaru nodded grimly. “Of course not because they’ve done it by corrupting the computers of Central Control and that includes your palmtop. Every time we said something via the communicators, you entered something into your computer or Luna and Artemis investigated in Central Control, it was recorded and analysed.”
“Ohmigosh,” Amy murmured shocked, “That means we can’t use my computer if the Negaverse attacks again-”
“And we can’t say anything of our plans if our communicators are on.” Mina added, “But it also might give us an advantage, if we can mislead them... Does the Negaverse know that they’ve been found out yet Hotaru?”
Hotaru shook her head, “Not yet but we have two generals captive and very shortly the Negaverse is going to be cut out of the datanet. When that happens, I think Beryl will have figured out that we know.”
“Is there anything else that we have to consider before we start making plans?” Mina asked professionally.
“Only that we can’t ever be alone. It’d be preferred that we stick together but if we have to, we can split into no more than two groups with me in one and Raye in the other. That way we at least have a way to call for help.”
Mina frowned and replied quickly, “Are you referring to the way you call Sun and Sol when we fight? I thought that you said that they wouldn’t be able to help us.”
“Yes I am and no they can’t but if Sun hears one of us she can alert the other.”
Mina nodded decisively. “OK then, here’s what we’re going to do in case of an attack...”
*****
Zoisite was surrounded by a darkness that the general knew had originated from Beryl and not anything the Lunar Knight might have done. In the swirling black nothingness there was nothing for her to orientate herself by but the taint of Beryl’s madness saturated the environment. There was nothing to mark the passing of time and even the thought of trying was distant from the Negageneral. Her thoughts demonstrated no order, they simply moved from one memory to the next.
For a time she relived the operation to gather energy using Tokyo’s media. In the midst of sabotaging the television stations she had stumbled across the frequency used by the scouts’ communicators and, even though the operation itself had failed, it had provided her with her first true opening in the war against the scouts. She had learned of the existence of the Guardians and for the first time was able to explain to Beryl how the scouts had been reactivated. Even better was when Malachite had identified another Guardian near their own base. They had sought her out and after a few pertinent questions and some persuasion they had been told everything that the Gaean wolf had known. Once they had learned of its existence they gained access to the Guardian datanet and learned the locations of the other Guardians, identities of the scouts and events had progressed from there.
True, not everything had been simple. Tuxedo Mask still remained a mystery and the captured Guardians knew no more of him than there was in Central Control and the two Guardians that might have been able to shed some light on the subject were too close to the scouts to risk going after. Many of the Guardians who had been captured had memories that were damaged and so Zoisite had been required to heal them before their questioning began. Venus’ identity was known but her own Guardian was still with her and the general had been forced to be satisfied by the second hand knowledge of the Venusian Guardian’s siblings. Yet Zoisite had been able to gather enough information that her fellow generals were able to start over powering the scouts.
Then three new warriors had arrived, two of who were known only by name to the other Guardians and the last a mystery to even them. The knights were known of but they had been trained separately in the Silver Millennium and, because their Guardians were hidden from Zoisite’s attempts at discovery, their powers and motivations remained concealed. The Silver Sun was an even larger enigma, there was no recollection of her among any of the captives and all that Zoisite could do was relegate her to the same unknown status of Tuxedo Mask and warn the other generals. That hadn’t saved Jadeite. He had been cut down as easily as if it had been his old bogey man Sailor Moon wielding the blade. Nor had it helped Malachite and herself, they had miscalculated and then underestimated her which had resulted in capture.
Now Zoisite was surrounded by darkness within her own mind, a darkness which would have been triggered by the endeavours of one of their telepathic enemies, and the general knew that she would never awaken to the real world again. Suddenly a razor edged brilliance cut through the blackness and the shadows began to retreat but not quietly and not harmlessly.
Zoisite’s being was racked by the torment inflicted by the malicious tendrils of darkness. The brilliance fought off those tendrils but that did not undo the hurt they had already caused. The shadows retreated further within the general’s mind and allowed more of her mind free of the darkness’ grasp. She was able to think more clearly but she was also more able to register the agony. Distantly, she felt the unity of the brilliance shatter and might have fell into despair at the loss of hope for freedom from the darkness but the pain was overwhelming.
So it was a surprise when a shard of the brilliance continued to battle Beryl’s enchantment, beating it back and seeking its source. The cessation of pain was an even greater surprise and for the first time since the darkness had engulfed her Zoisite was able to think without hindrance. She sensed that the two halves of the original brilliance still fought but only one fought the darkness. The second battled against Zoisite’s own mind, it strove to undo the damage caused by the darkness and, in the process, undid an imbalance that Zoisite herself hadn’t realised existed.
As the general felt a hidden ache ease she felt true freedom for the first time in centuries. Hesitantly, she stretched mentally and was limited by none of the barriers imposed upon her by Beryl. The two shards of brilliance paused at the evidence of her awareness for the merest instant before one and then the other returned to the battle with a vengeance only surpassed by that Zoisite felt as she aided them in rooting the darkness out of her being.
After a time the shards of brilliance retreated and left the woman alone within the liberated expanse of her psyche. She opened her eyes and found herself being watched by five sets of blue eyes, one pair the dark blue of the ocean, one sky blue and three pairs of identical sapphire.
“Who...?!” she managed to ask as she tried to force her body to respond.
One of those with the sapphire eyes, a young woman with long silver hair, smiled brilliantly and offered the general a hand. Zoisite stared at it for a moment before she accepted and allowed herself to be pulled into a sitting position. For a couple of seconds her head spun dizzily. The silver haired woman again came to her rescue. Silver energy whispered around them, at first slightly clumsily but which grew surer as the seconds passed. When it faded Zoisite examined the woman. She had never met anyone who had radiated such a sense of wellbeing. It was the utter reverse of everything that Beryl was and a thousand times more intense to boot. Being near her made Zoisite understand that Beryl was second rate, even at being evil, and the only thing that made her concerned was her total lack of consideration for natural balances.
The general swept the woman with a brief examination and took in the friendly hands which supported her, the delicate features, the manner in which her companions watched her, the compassion in those sapphire eyes and the twin streams of silver, marked by a single thin golden streak, which poured from two buns. The silver streams tugged at a memory and Zoisite flashed back to a moment when she faced a wrathful enemy which held Malachite in a death grip, her silver plait flying like a banner behind her.
“Silver Sun...” she breathed.
The woman sobered and nodded. “It might be more comfortable for you to call me Serena,” she advised.
“You freed me,” the general said helplessly, “Why didn’t you kill me?”
Serena looked at her sadly, “I won’t kill, I refuse to allow any more killing. Jadeite’s death was more than enough for me.”
“It’s strange, he always believed that it would be Sailor Moon who would kill him. Even though she had disappeared and there was no more record of her, she was the one he feared,” the older woman murmured and Serena closed her eyes, as if in pain.
“I am Sailor Moon,” she whispered softly.
Zoisite stared at her in consternation. “I don’t understand,” she muttered, “You were deactivated, why... how...”
“Does that matter?” another voice interrupted and Zoisite turned to the man with the darkest eyes and found him staring at her coldly.
His unruly hair was pitch black and his manner was that of a war leader. Two men, obviously related to both each other and Serena, and possessed eyes of the same hue as their kinswoman sat near him. The elder had a short beard of ebony and the younger’s hair was more gold than silver but aside from those superficial differences they were almost identical. The last of the blue eyes belonged to a black moon cat that the general knew as the Guardian Luna but that was not the last of the gazes focused on her. Two pairs of green eyes and a pair of amber-brown were also locked upon the small group. A white cat with the crescent of a Guardian was not a surprise, she had known of Artemis for months but what could only be a green eyed wolf sat beside him and an enormous falcon with the penetrating amber eyes was on a perch over the top of them. As soon as she saw the symbols on their brow she realised that they were also Guardians, even if they were obviously not ones of the Silver Millennium.
To her relief, she saw Malachite lying unconscious on the floor from her and was able to return her attention to her captors and liberators with a lightened heart.
“No it doesn’t really make a difference,” she answered the man, who could only be Tuxedo Mask, calmly, “I’m just curious.”
His face became even harder and Zoisite restrained herself from backing away from him as she remembered who had lead the opposition against Beryl for the past few years. He had been formidable to begin with but events of late had obviously only made him more dangerous and her curiosity would not be appreciated by him in the circumstances.
“Darien,” Serena soothed and reached across to touch his arm. Zoisite watched in appreciation as he smiled wryly at her and calmed down before the young woman spoke again, “Zoisite, we need your help.”
The general blinked, stunned by the statement. Her help? She was the enemy... wasn’t she?
“It’s your curiosity that started this,” the younger blonde man interrupted her shock in a sardonic voice.
“Please,” Serena continued, “We need to know where you kept the Guardians you captured, what’s been done to them and what traps you’ve set up in Central Control’s computers.”
Zoisite was surprised anew. Not even Central Control had known of the absence of the Guardians and she had carefully planted her spy programs in their computers so that not even Mercury would be able to find them. “But I’m your enemy,” she eventually got out.
“Are you?” Luna asked and Zoisite frowned. “Are you really our enemy? Beryl no longer has a hold on your mind, you’re free to do as you please,” the cat finished patiently.
“You... I served her of my own free will though and you would let me go?”
“After you have given us what we need,” Darien stipulated.
The bearded man looked at him flatly and the dark haired man subsided reluctantly. The bearded man turned to Zoisite and explained, “Circumstances were different when you swore into her service. She was not mad then, nor evil, just ambitious. Can you say that you would have done the same had she been as she is now back then?” Zoisite shook her head slowly and he smiled at her compassionately. “I do not excuse what you have done but in a way you are as much a victim as those you have drained of energy,” he told her.
“But-”
“What they’re telling you Zoisite,” Darien cut her off coolly, “Is that from now on, you make your own decisions. You can choose to be evil and to try and doom the Earth but it is by your own choice, not Beryl’s, that you do so. That also means that you must face the consequences of those decisions.”
Zoisite suddenly laughed bitterly. “Oh sure, I’m free to decide but what choices do I have? I continue to serve a psychotic madwoman or I try to make a life for myself amongst humans. What would I do? What kind of work is out there for the ex-henchmen of insane, would-be world conquerors? Work at MacDonalds? I can just see it. ‘Would you like a medium or large size youma with that?’”
“You could work with us,” the younger of the unnamed males told her, “The more people protecting the world, the merrier.”
Darien shook his head and Zoisite had to agree with him. There was too much history to be forgotten just because two or three people said that she was reformed. Besides, what about Malachite?
“No she couldn’t,” Artemis answered for her, “Too much has happened between them. It would be years before the scouts would even be able to look at her without frowning.”
The bird cocked his head at her but it was the wolf that spoke. “If Serena wished it then they would not be able to gainsay her,” he growled.
Artemis opened his mouth to object when all three of his fellow Guardians turned to stare at him, the two strange men smiled knowingly and Darien looked thoughtful.
“It’s not impossible Artemis,” the intense man finally conceded, “Just look at how she’s managed to get the scouts working together and she’s not even supposed to know that they’re scouts.” Darien paused and after a moment nodded decisively. “All right Zoisite, here’s what we’ll do. The four of us will do the same for Malachite as we have done for you and then the both of you will tell us everything you can of the Negaverse, its plans, its forces, location, etcetera and then we’ll get the both of you out of Tokyo and set up in new lives.”
Zoisite narrowed her eyes at him and saw Serena’s widen.
“Australia!” the younger woman blurted and Darien nodded. “That’s perfect!” Serena laughed, “Areyn, Ail and An would all love to help the generals, they know what they’ve been through, after all, and they’d be able to hide them if Beryl ever tried to track them down.”
“And as well as keeping them out of trouble it’d also give our happy campers some time for the scouts to get used to the idea of them not being enemies,” Darien finished.
“Areyn? Ail? An?” Zoisite questioned, “What are you going on about?”
“Some friends of ours in Australia,” Serena answered.
“You of the Negaverse aren’t the only problems Earth has you know,” the younger of the strangers told her wryly, “And we managed to win them over as well.”
“You mean you want us to stay with your ex-enemies?” Zoisite repeated incredulously and Serena nodded happily. Zoisite glanced at her and then to Malachite before she shook her head ruefully. “I can’t-”
“Why not?” the silver haired girl whined and Zoisite blinked in surprise at the childish tone.
“Let me finish, please,” the general requested softly, “I can’t agree to anything without talking to Malachite first but I think I can safely assure you that neither of us will return to Beryl’s service.”
“That’s not-” Darien began before he was interrupted by the bearded man again.
“That is enough. We will heal your friend and then we will talk again.”
Darien started to object but Serena calmed him with a shake of her head. Zoisite frowned as the female senshi smiled slightly at the male who then turned to regard her sceptically. Another, almost unseen, gesture on the girl’s part caused her dark haired friend to shrug in resignation and restrain himself. Zoisite wondered at the impression that she got from them both. It was almost as if Serena, and her kinsmen, saw something in the general that she wasn’t aware of and they were using it to reassure Darien all without words.
“I agree,” she told them, “Heal Malachite and then we’ll talk.” The elder man lifted his eyebrow and she restrained a slight flush and the impulse to apologise for her autocratic tone. Darien glowered at her but it was the slightly confused look on Serena’s face that eventually got through to the general. It was obvious that in the younger woman’s mind they were already friends, no matter what she decided to do, and so she added softly, “Please!”
*****
Luna leapt onto one of the consuls in Central Control’s command centre and waited for Zoisite and Malachite to take their seats. Artemis was already calling up a menu on his monitor as he began the critical task before them. Luna restrained a nervous chuckle at the strangeness of the situation. A day ago she would have fought to the death to keep the two generals from entering the room, let alone allowing them access to the computers. Now they were going been shown things that even Artemis hadn’t been able to access and he was Central Control.
Zoisite sat on the seat in front of Luna gingerly. “I can’t believe this place,” the woman whispered, “The computers... the technology... I knew about it but... I’ve never could even have imagined anything like this!”
“It is the perfect melding or balance of magic and technology,” Luna agreed nostalgically.
“Symbolic of the Silver Millennium itself,” Artemis agreed, now that, due to Serena, he could remember the past without the confusion caused by damage from centuries of suspended animation.
The awareness that both Malachite and Zoisite had helped cause the fall of the Moon Kingdom and the rest of the solar system became almost tangible and caused an uncomfortable silence.
“So how do we get into the programming without tripping one of your traps, Zoisite?” Artemis asked after a moment.
Zoisite jerked and smiled wanly. “Huh? Oh, well Lunari... Tranquillity... uh...”
“James,” Luna suggested kindly.
“Well James was able to gain access to the datanet and I never knew a thing about it. He said that it was because he had royal overrides to the security systems as well as knowing about several back doors available only to the commander of the senshi, the queen and their Guardian.”
“How does that help us get in without alerting Beryl though?” Malachite questioned, “None of those descriptions fit any of us.”
Zoisite grinned and Luna admired how lovely the woman could appear now that Beryl’s yolk had been removed from her shoulders.
“You’re wrong there my love,” Zoisite told the silver haired general, “One of us actually does fit one of those descriptions. There are five individuals that I know of who can get in this way. One is dead, one is in a sleep capsule on the moon and two are currently about to launch an assault on Beryl’s base but the fifth is here.”
“Who?!” Artemis demanded, almost as aggravated as Malachite by the fact that both females blatantly knew what was going on while they were left in the dark.
Luna rolled her eyes. “Me, you moron!” Artemis stared at her blankly and she sighed. “Serena is not only the future queen but also the commanding senshi of this generation and I am her Guardian. That gives me just as much right to the pass codes as Khonsu does.”
“Oh... Well why didn’t you tell me so?”
“You have all your memories back! I thought that you could figure it out on your own!” Luna retorted testily.
“You never had anything to do with Central Control during the Silver Millennium,” Artemis replied sulkily.
“Of course not,” Luna exclaimed, “Serenity wasn’t queen yet and none of us thought to check if she was her uncle’s successor as well as her mother’s!”
“Well how was I supposed to know?”
“Because now you do know that she’s the moon’s senshi!”
“Give me a break Luna, I’ve only just gotten my memories back-”
The black cat growled. “Oh I’ll give you a break all right-”
“As entertaining as this is,” Malachite interrupted, “We are working on a time limit here. Your... our friends need us to be finished with this by the time they’re back.”
Both felines scowled but turned back their respective monitors and Luna began the process of entering the system clandestinely.
After a moment she heard a faint, “Stuffy, know it all...”
She felt her eyes narrow and then a sudden thought struck her. Her would-be beau remembered everything now... “Why can’t you be more like your brother,” she muttered, loud enough that only a cat’s sharp hearing would catch it.
From the corner of her eye she saw him stiffen in shock. She gave a purely mental laugh of satisfaction and went back to work, wondering if that twitch above his left eye could have been caused by jealousy.
next
“All right girls listen up as I don’t have much time,” Luna ordered sharply and everyone in the room quietened at the strange note in the Guardian’s voice. “Artemis and I are needed on a mission-”
“What?!” Artemis demanded but Luna spoke on over the top of him.
“Mina will be in charge and Hotaru will brief you all. Mina, listen to Hotaru and everyone else do as Mina says, your lives depend on it.”
The scouts were all silent in shock for a moment and before they had recovered, Luna’s crescent insignia flashed and both Guardians had vanished. Hotaru sighed and straightened where she sat on the bed.
“What’s going on Hota?” Haruka asked, obviously restraining herself while she questioned her fellow scout.
“I have been warned that we’re going to have to mobilise on a moment’s notice. Mina, with Malachite and Zoisite captive, we have to be ready for a major Negaverse incursion and we have to be prepared to deal with it on our own. The knights, and that includes Tuxedo Mask and the Silver Sun, are busy, they’ve found out how the Negaverse is getting their information and are going to deal with it while we stand guard. Also we need to get ready to move in with the knights. That’ll happen as soon as Luna and Artemis return.”
“Is that all you have to tell us?” Lita asked in confusion and Hotaru nodded.
“Uh huh, it’s up to Mina to sort out the details.”
Mina shook her head frantically, “Me? Come on why me? I’m a ditz remember? I’m as bad as Serena or Travis any day!”
Hotaru saw Raye look at her first before she turned to examine the blonde. The invalid watched as Raye’s eyes widened in sudden realisation and wondered what the priestess had recognised. Her questions were answered by the violet-eyed teen’s next words.
“Not so Mina,” and the blonde paled at the insight in those penetrating orbs. “It is finally time for masks to discarded and yours is to be among the first to go.”
For a moment everyone looked at the trio in surprise. Mina’s face was pale and her mouth worked to form a denial that she couldn’t voice. Raye’s face was calm, rapt even, an expression which was at odds with her fiery persona and Hotaru had finally allowed the presence of her ancient memories to show upon her face.
“Hotaru?” Michiru asked tentatively.
“I don’t understand,” Amy added in frustration.
Haruka narrowed her eyes. “Why would we follow her?”
Hotaru turned her dark and knowing eyes from Mina to the last four of the group. “We are the senshi, we serve the Silver Millennium, we swear to the Moon’s queen and we are lead by the Moon’s avatar. As commander of the inner senshi, Venus is the head of the princess’ guard and second only to the senshi of the moon. It is time for her to take up her command once more.”
“How do you know?” Lita asked and Hotaru’s eyes became black.
Darkness seemed to gather around the invalid teen and the sign of Saturn glimmered in a dark purple on her brow. All of the scouts’ eyes widened and even Mina and Raye were distracted from their silent communication by the heaviness of the air. Hotaru’s voice was hollow and echoed as she answered, “I am Saturn’s chosen, I am the bringer of death and rebirth, I am the dark messiah and it is my task to remember.”
The scouts stared in silence for a moment and then Lita coughed apologetically. “I know this sounds really stupid,” she told them and winced as everyone’s eyes turned to her, yet continued regardless, “But... what are you talking about?”
The darkness around Hotaru faded and a smile appeared on the fragile girl’s face. Mina loosed a sad giggle and soon all of them were laughing, even the bewildered Lita.
When the mirth began to die down, Amy answered Lita’s question succinctly, “She remembers Lita. She remembers everything that happened to her in the Silver Millennium and everything that she knew then.”
“You remember everything?” Michiru asked in a voice filled with wonder.
Hotaru shrugged uncomfortably. “Pretty much, but that can wait,” she turned and directly addressed Mina, “So what are your orders?”
Mina stared at nothing for a few seconds, then heaved a resigned sigh and discarded her air-headed mannerisms between one breath and the next. “You mentioned that the Knights know how the Negaverse is bugging us. How?
Hotaru held up her communicator mutely and the others stared at her in disbelief. “They’ve infiltrated our communications-”
“But I couldn’t find any bugs!” Amy protested.
Hotaru nodded grimly. “Of course not because they’ve done it by corrupting the computers of Central Control and that includes your palmtop. Every time we said something via the communicators, you entered something into your computer or Luna and Artemis investigated in Central Control, it was recorded and analysed.”
“Ohmigosh,” Amy murmured shocked, “That means we can’t use my computer if the Negaverse attacks again-”
“And we can’t say anything of our plans if our communicators are on.” Mina added, “But it also might give us an advantage, if we can mislead them... Does the Negaverse know that they’ve been found out yet Hotaru?”
Hotaru shook her head, “Not yet but we have two generals captive and very shortly the Negaverse is going to be cut out of the datanet. When that happens, I think Beryl will have figured out that we know.”
“Is there anything else that we have to consider before we start making plans?” Mina asked professionally.
“Only that we can’t ever be alone. It’d be preferred that we stick together but if we have to, we can split into no more than two groups with me in one and Raye in the other. That way we at least have a way to call for help.”
Mina frowned and replied quickly, “Are you referring to the way you call Sun and Sol when we fight? I thought that you said that they wouldn’t be able to help us.”
“Yes I am and no they can’t but if Sun hears one of us she can alert the other.”
Mina nodded decisively. “OK then, here’s what we’re going to do in case of an attack...”
*****
Zoisite was surrounded by a darkness that the general knew had originated from Beryl and not anything the Lunar Knight might have done. In the swirling black nothingness there was nothing for her to orientate herself by but the taint of Beryl’s madness saturated the environment. There was nothing to mark the passing of time and even the thought of trying was distant from the Negageneral. Her thoughts demonstrated no order, they simply moved from one memory to the next.
For a time she relived the operation to gather energy using Tokyo’s media. In the midst of sabotaging the television stations she had stumbled across the frequency used by the scouts’ communicators and, even though the operation itself had failed, it had provided her with her first true opening in the war against the scouts. She had learned of the existence of the Guardians and for the first time was able to explain to Beryl how the scouts had been reactivated. Even better was when Malachite had identified another Guardian near their own base. They had sought her out and after a few pertinent questions and some persuasion they had been told everything that the Gaean wolf had known. Once they had learned of its existence they gained access to the Guardian datanet and learned the locations of the other Guardians, identities of the scouts and events had progressed from there.
True, not everything had been simple. Tuxedo Mask still remained a mystery and the captured Guardians knew no more of him than there was in Central Control and the two Guardians that might have been able to shed some light on the subject were too close to the scouts to risk going after. Many of the Guardians who had been captured had memories that were damaged and so Zoisite had been required to heal them before their questioning began. Venus’ identity was known but her own Guardian was still with her and the general had been forced to be satisfied by the second hand knowledge of the Venusian Guardian’s siblings. Yet Zoisite had been able to gather enough information that her fellow generals were able to start over powering the scouts.
Then three new warriors had arrived, two of who were known only by name to the other Guardians and the last a mystery to even them. The knights were known of but they had been trained separately in the Silver Millennium and, because their Guardians were hidden from Zoisite’s attempts at discovery, their powers and motivations remained concealed. The Silver Sun was an even larger enigma, there was no recollection of her among any of the captives and all that Zoisite could do was relegate her to the same unknown status of Tuxedo Mask and warn the other generals. That hadn’t saved Jadeite. He had been cut down as easily as if it had been his old bogey man Sailor Moon wielding the blade. Nor had it helped Malachite and herself, they had miscalculated and then underestimated her which had resulted in capture.
Now Zoisite was surrounded by darkness within her own mind, a darkness which would have been triggered by the endeavours of one of their telepathic enemies, and the general knew that she would never awaken to the real world again. Suddenly a razor edged brilliance cut through the blackness and the shadows began to retreat but not quietly and not harmlessly.
Zoisite’s being was racked by the torment inflicted by the malicious tendrils of darkness. The brilliance fought off those tendrils but that did not undo the hurt they had already caused. The shadows retreated further within the general’s mind and allowed more of her mind free of the darkness’ grasp. She was able to think more clearly but she was also more able to register the agony. Distantly, she felt the unity of the brilliance shatter and might have fell into despair at the loss of hope for freedom from the darkness but the pain was overwhelming.
So it was a surprise when a shard of the brilliance continued to battle Beryl’s enchantment, beating it back and seeking its source. The cessation of pain was an even greater surprise and for the first time since the darkness had engulfed her Zoisite was able to think without hindrance. She sensed that the two halves of the original brilliance still fought but only one fought the darkness. The second battled against Zoisite’s own mind, it strove to undo the damage caused by the darkness and, in the process, undid an imbalance that Zoisite herself hadn’t realised existed.
As the general felt a hidden ache ease she felt true freedom for the first time in centuries. Hesitantly, she stretched mentally and was limited by none of the barriers imposed upon her by Beryl. The two shards of brilliance paused at the evidence of her awareness for the merest instant before one and then the other returned to the battle with a vengeance only surpassed by that Zoisite felt as she aided them in rooting the darkness out of her being.
After a time the shards of brilliance retreated and left the woman alone within the liberated expanse of her psyche. She opened her eyes and found herself being watched by five sets of blue eyes, one pair the dark blue of the ocean, one sky blue and three pairs of identical sapphire.
“Who...?!” she managed to ask as she tried to force her body to respond.
One of those with the sapphire eyes, a young woman with long silver hair, smiled brilliantly and offered the general a hand. Zoisite stared at it for a moment before she accepted and allowed herself to be pulled into a sitting position. For a couple of seconds her head spun dizzily. The silver haired woman again came to her rescue. Silver energy whispered around them, at first slightly clumsily but which grew surer as the seconds passed. When it faded Zoisite examined the woman. She had never met anyone who had radiated such a sense of wellbeing. It was the utter reverse of everything that Beryl was and a thousand times more intense to boot. Being near her made Zoisite understand that Beryl was second rate, even at being evil, and the only thing that made her concerned was her total lack of consideration for natural balances.
The general swept the woman with a brief examination and took in the friendly hands which supported her, the delicate features, the manner in which her companions watched her, the compassion in those sapphire eyes and the twin streams of silver, marked by a single thin golden streak, which poured from two buns. The silver streams tugged at a memory and Zoisite flashed back to a moment when she faced a wrathful enemy which held Malachite in a death grip, her silver plait flying like a banner behind her.
“Silver Sun...” she breathed.
The woman sobered and nodded. “It might be more comfortable for you to call me Serena,” she advised.
“You freed me,” the general said helplessly, “Why didn’t you kill me?”
Serena looked at her sadly, “I won’t kill, I refuse to allow any more killing. Jadeite’s death was more than enough for me.”
“It’s strange, he always believed that it would be Sailor Moon who would kill him. Even though she had disappeared and there was no more record of her, she was the one he feared,” the older woman murmured and Serena closed her eyes, as if in pain.
“I am Sailor Moon,” she whispered softly.
Zoisite stared at her in consternation. “I don’t understand,” she muttered, “You were deactivated, why... how...”
“Does that matter?” another voice interrupted and Zoisite turned to the man with the darkest eyes and found him staring at her coldly.
His unruly hair was pitch black and his manner was that of a war leader. Two men, obviously related to both each other and Serena, and possessed eyes of the same hue as their kinswoman sat near him. The elder had a short beard of ebony and the younger’s hair was more gold than silver but aside from those superficial differences they were almost identical. The last of the blue eyes belonged to a black moon cat that the general knew as the Guardian Luna but that was not the last of the gazes focused on her. Two pairs of green eyes and a pair of amber-brown were also locked upon the small group. A white cat with the crescent of a Guardian was not a surprise, she had known of Artemis for months but what could only be a green eyed wolf sat beside him and an enormous falcon with the penetrating amber eyes was on a perch over the top of them. As soon as she saw the symbols on their brow she realised that they were also Guardians, even if they were obviously not ones of the Silver Millennium.
To her relief, she saw Malachite lying unconscious on the floor from her and was able to return her attention to her captors and liberators with a lightened heart.
“No it doesn’t really make a difference,” she answered the man, who could only be Tuxedo Mask, calmly, “I’m just curious.”
His face became even harder and Zoisite restrained herself from backing away from him as she remembered who had lead the opposition against Beryl for the past few years. He had been formidable to begin with but events of late had obviously only made him more dangerous and her curiosity would not be appreciated by him in the circumstances.
“Darien,” Serena soothed and reached across to touch his arm. Zoisite watched in appreciation as he smiled wryly at her and calmed down before the young woman spoke again, “Zoisite, we need your help.”
The general blinked, stunned by the statement. Her help? She was the enemy... wasn’t she?
“It’s your curiosity that started this,” the younger blonde man interrupted her shock in a sardonic voice.
“Please,” Serena continued, “We need to know where you kept the Guardians you captured, what’s been done to them and what traps you’ve set up in Central Control’s computers.”
Zoisite was surprised anew. Not even Central Control had known of the absence of the Guardians and she had carefully planted her spy programs in their computers so that not even Mercury would be able to find them. “But I’m your enemy,” she eventually got out.
“Are you?” Luna asked and Zoisite frowned. “Are you really our enemy? Beryl no longer has a hold on your mind, you’re free to do as you please,” the cat finished patiently.
“You... I served her of my own free will though and you would let me go?”
“After you have given us what we need,” Darien stipulated.
The bearded man looked at him flatly and the dark haired man subsided reluctantly. The bearded man turned to Zoisite and explained, “Circumstances were different when you swore into her service. She was not mad then, nor evil, just ambitious. Can you say that you would have done the same had she been as she is now back then?” Zoisite shook her head slowly and he smiled at her compassionately. “I do not excuse what you have done but in a way you are as much a victim as those you have drained of energy,” he told her.
“But-”
“What they’re telling you Zoisite,” Darien cut her off coolly, “Is that from now on, you make your own decisions. You can choose to be evil and to try and doom the Earth but it is by your own choice, not Beryl’s, that you do so. That also means that you must face the consequences of those decisions.”
Zoisite suddenly laughed bitterly. “Oh sure, I’m free to decide but what choices do I have? I continue to serve a psychotic madwoman or I try to make a life for myself amongst humans. What would I do? What kind of work is out there for the ex-henchmen of insane, would-be world conquerors? Work at MacDonalds? I can just see it. ‘Would you like a medium or large size youma with that?’”
“You could work with us,” the younger of the unnamed males told her, “The more people protecting the world, the merrier.”
Darien shook his head and Zoisite had to agree with him. There was too much history to be forgotten just because two or three people said that she was reformed. Besides, what about Malachite?
“No she couldn’t,” Artemis answered for her, “Too much has happened between them. It would be years before the scouts would even be able to look at her without frowning.”
The bird cocked his head at her but it was the wolf that spoke. “If Serena wished it then they would not be able to gainsay her,” he growled.
Artemis opened his mouth to object when all three of his fellow Guardians turned to stare at him, the two strange men smiled knowingly and Darien looked thoughtful.
“It’s not impossible Artemis,” the intense man finally conceded, “Just look at how she’s managed to get the scouts working together and she’s not even supposed to know that they’re scouts.” Darien paused and after a moment nodded decisively. “All right Zoisite, here’s what we’ll do. The four of us will do the same for Malachite as we have done for you and then the both of you will tell us everything you can of the Negaverse, its plans, its forces, location, etcetera and then we’ll get the both of you out of Tokyo and set up in new lives.”
Zoisite narrowed her eyes at him and saw Serena’s widen.
“Australia!” the younger woman blurted and Darien nodded. “That’s perfect!” Serena laughed, “Areyn, Ail and An would all love to help the generals, they know what they’ve been through, after all, and they’d be able to hide them if Beryl ever tried to track them down.”
“And as well as keeping them out of trouble it’d also give our happy campers some time for the scouts to get used to the idea of them not being enemies,” Darien finished.
“Areyn? Ail? An?” Zoisite questioned, “What are you going on about?”
“Some friends of ours in Australia,” Serena answered.
“You of the Negaverse aren’t the only problems Earth has you know,” the younger of the strangers told her wryly, “And we managed to win them over as well.”
“You mean you want us to stay with your ex-enemies?” Zoisite repeated incredulously and Serena nodded happily. Zoisite glanced at her and then to Malachite before she shook her head ruefully. “I can’t-”
“Why not?” the silver haired girl whined and Zoisite blinked in surprise at the childish tone.
“Let me finish, please,” the general requested softly, “I can’t agree to anything without talking to Malachite first but I think I can safely assure you that neither of us will return to Beryl’s service.”
“That’s not-” Darien began before he was interrupted by the bearded man again.
“That is enough. We will heal your friend and then we will talk again.”
Darien started to object but Serena calmed him with a shake of her head. Zoisite frowned as the female senshi smiled slightly at the male who then turned to regard her sceptically. Another, almost unseen, gesture on the girl’s part caused her dark haired friend to shrug in resignation and restrain himself. Zoisite wondered at the impression that she got from them both. It was almost as if Serena, and her kinsmen, saw something in the general that she wasn’t aware of and they were using it to reassure Darien all without words.
“I agree,” she told them, “Heal Malachite and then we’ll talk.” The elder man lifted his eyebrow and she restrained a slight flush and the impulse to apologise for her autocratic tone. Darien glowered at her but it was the slightly confused look on Serena’s face that eventually got through to the general. It was obvious that in the younger woman’s mind they were already friends, no matter what she decided to do, and so she added softly, “Please!”
*****
Luna leapt onto one of the consuls in Central Control’s command centre and waited for Zoisite and Malachite to take their seats. Artemis was already calling up a menu on his monitor as he began the critical task before them. Luna restrained a nervous chuckle at the strangeness of the situation. A day ago she would have fought to the death to keep the two generals from entering the room, let alone allowing them access to the computers. Now they were going been shown things that even Artemis hadn’t been able to access and he was Central Control.
Zoisite sat on the seat in front of Luna gingerly. “I can’t believe this place,” the woman whispered, “The computers... the technology... I knew about it but... I’ve never could even have imagined anything like this!”
“It is the perfect melding or balance of magic and technology,” Luna agreed nostalgically.
“Symbolic of the Silver Millennium itself,” Artemis agreed, now that, due to Serena, he could remember the past without the confusion caused by damage from centuries of suspended animation.
The awareness that both Malachite and Zoisite had helped cause the fall of the Moon Kingdom and the rest of the solar system became almost tangible and caused an uncomfortable silence.
“So how do we get into the programming without tripping one of your traps, Zoisite?” Artemis asked after a moment.
Zoisite jerked and smiled wanly. “Huh? Oh, well Lunari... Tranquillity... uh...”
“James,” Luna suggested kindly.
“Well James was able to gain access to the datanet and I never knew a thing about it. He said that it was because he had royal overrides to the security systems as well as knowing about several back doors available only to the commander of the senshi, the queen and their Guardian.”
“How does that help us get in without alerting Beryl though?” Malachite questioned, “None of those descriptions fit any of us.”
Zoisite grinned and Luna admired how lovely the woman could appear now that Beryl’s yolk had been removed from her shoulders.
“You’re wrong there my love,” Zoisite told the silver haired general, “One of us actually does fit one of those descriptions. There are five individuals that I know of who can get in this way. One is dead, one is in a sleep capsule on the moon and two are currently about to launch an assault on Beryl’s base but the fifth is here.”
“Who?!” Artemis demanded, almost as aggravated as Malachite by the fact that both females blatantly knew what was going on while they were left in the dark.
Luna rolled her eyes. “Me, you moron!” Artemis stared at her blankly and she sighed. “Serena is not only the future queen but also the commanding senshi of this generation and I am her Guardian. That gives me just as much right to the pass codes as Khonsu does.”
“Oh... Well why didn’t you tell me so?”
“You have all your memories back! I thought that you could figure it out on your own!” Luna retorted testily.
“You never had anything to do with Central Control during the Silver Millennium,” Artemis replied sulkily.
“Of course not,” Luna exclaimed, “Serenity wasn’t queen yet and none of us thought to check if she was her uncle’s successor as well as her mother’s!”
“Well how was I supposed to know?”
“Because now you do know that she’s the moon’s senshi!”
“Give me a break Luna, I’ve only just gotten my memories back-”
The black cat growled. “Oh I’ll give you a break all right-”
“As entertaining as this is,” Malachite interrupted, “We are working on a time limit here. Your... our friends need us to be finished with this by the time they’re back.”
Both felines scowled but turned back their respective monitors and Luna began the process of entering the system clandestinely.
After a moment she heard a faint, “Stuffy, know it all...”
She felt her eyes narrow and then a sudden thought struck her. Her would-be beau remembered everything now... “Why can’t you be more like your brother,” she muttered, loud enough that only a cat’s sharp hearing would catch it.
From the corner of her eye she saw him stiffen in shock. She gave a purely mental laugh of satisfaction and went back to work, wondering if that twitch above his left eye could have been caused by jealousy.
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