Prologue – Rei

“Don’t move,” a voice said, and a second later I felt cold steel on the back of my neck. I froze, completely unable to move. The gun... the gun! Whoever this guy was, he was serious.

“Now,” the voice hissed, “You will tell me what you know.”

I gulped. “About... what?”

The figure laughed, a chilling laugh that made me shiver. “You have been having visions, Rei Hino, and they are about a group of children. You will tell me about the children you have seen.”

I closed my eyes as I remembered. The children... I saw a group of kids in a bizarre forest. They had strange creatures with them, and at first I had thought that they were our next enemy. But I hadn’t sensed hostility from them, only... some fear. I sensed eight distinct powers from the kids. Powers of Courage, Friendship, Love, Knowledge, Sincerity, Reliability, Hope, and Light. But I couldn’t tell him that... could I? I couldn’t tell him what I had seen...

“My patience is wearing thin, Rei Hino.”

I frowned, my temper flaring. “How do you know me?” Maybe... just maybe if I could stall him, the other Scouts could get here. We were going to have a meeting in a half an hour, maybe one of them would come early... hopefully.

The gun pressed harder against my neck. “Tell me!”

“Who are you?” I replied back, trying to sound more in charge of the situation than I really was.

The creature behind me sighed. “Fine. I am Piedmon, one of the glorious Dark Masters. The only one left.”

“And the kids?” I asked, glaring at the Great Fire. The creature had come into the temple while I was meditating, and surprised me. Oh, Grandpa, Chad, Sailor Scouts, anyone! Just help me!

“They are the Digidestined, and they must be destroyed.”

I nodded slightly, and felt the gun shift, making me freeze all over again. I hadn’t seen the person, nor did I wish to. My black hair blew in my face from a sudden breeze, and I became hopeful. Hadn’t the man closed the door after he came in...?

“JUPITER THUNDER CRASH!” a voice shouted, and I felt the creature jerk in pain from the attack. Turning around sharply, I saw Sailor Jupiter -otherwise known as my friend Lita Kino- standing there with her hands on her hips. She jumped up and kicked the creature into a wall, where he collapsed.

“Sailor Jupiter!” I shouted, relieved. “Great timing.”

Jupiter looked at me with a look of amazement on her face. “It’s not every day you come for a meeting and see a CLOWN holding your friend hostage. And a badly dressed one at that.” Now that I looked, the person sure enough was a clown, and Jupiter was right, he was horribly dressed.

“A clown with a gun,” I said, picking up the metal device the creature had dropped.

“Okay, I grant you that.”

I looked at the wall where the creature had fallen, and gasped. He was standing up again, and he had a look of hate on his face. “You will come with me, Rei Hino!” With that, the man shot out thick strands of string, aiming straight at me. I wasn’t Sailor Mars now, there was no way I could avoid it. I looked at the thick red strands of string coming at me in horror.

Suddenly, I felt a pair of hands on my shoulder, and with a jerk, I was shoved out of the way. Falling sharply to the ground in front of the Great Fire, I quickly jumped back up and glared at the scene I saw, in detest and fear.

Sailor Jupiter had shoved me out of the way of the strings, and now it appeared that she herself was caught up in them. Jupiter struggled, but the strings were tight around the green clad Scout, and she couldn’t break them.

“Jupiter!” I shouted, and she looked straight at me, her face tight in efforts to free herself.

“Run, Rei!” she gasped, the strings cutting off her air slightly. “He’s... after you, not me!”

I nodded sharply, and ran towards the Great Fire, cutting around it and going out the back way. From behind me, I could hear the frustrated voice of the creature Piedmon, and my heart cried out. Who knew what he would do to Jupiter if I didn’t help? Pulling out my communicator, I tried to contact the other Scouts.

“Guys, Jupiter and I really need your help at the temple!” I shouted into it. Ami, Mina, and Serena’s small faces looked back.

“What’s wrong, Rei?” Ami asked, curious and alert.

“I’ll explain later!” I shouted, “But hurry!” With that, I closed the communicator and concentrated. “Mars Star Power!” I shouted, transforming immediately as the flames surrounded me. Jumping up, I prepared to go back into the temple, only to find the enemy -Piedmon- standing right behind me, with a tightly bound Jupiter handing in the air by his side. Jupiter’s head was drooping, and I could tell that she wasn’t getting enough oxygen.

“Do you think that I’m foolish, Sailor Mars?” Piedmon crackled, lashing a whip of string out at me. I dodged easily, jumping back into the trees. “I know that you called your friends, and if you think that I’m staying here to get beaten, you’re wrong.”

I ignored him, and concentrated. “MARS CELESTIAL FIRE SURROUND!” I shouted, aiming at the clown-like monster. He jumped away and glared at me.

“I am leaving, Sailor Mars!” Piedmon yelled. Then, grinning, he said, “But let me make a classic threat first.” The creature gestured towards the bound Jupiter. “If you don’t surrender, your friend Sailor Jupiter here will die. That’ll be all, girlie!” With that, Piedmon disappeared, taking Jupiter with him.

I collapsed to my knees in shock. No way. He was after me, not Jupiter. Why did he take her? She was only trying to help me... “No!” I shouted, pounding the ground. I won’t cry. But it was my fault that Jupiter was caught! My fault! I can’t blame it on Sailor Moon this time, it was entirely my fault.

I looked up at the sound of running footsteps, and saw Sailor Moon, Chibi-Moon, Mercury, and Venus coming up to me. I glared down at the ground again, refusing to look at them.

“Mars? What happened? Where’s the enemy? Where’s Jupiter?” Sailor Moon’s high voice asked, talking at a mile a minute. I frowned and shuddered. This isn’t all my fault. If they had gotten here earlier, maybe we all could have taken that creep out.

“Well, if you had gotten here in time, maybe you would know the answers, Sailor Moon!” I jumped up and glared at the shorter Sailor Scout. She jerked back, amazed. It wasn’t her fault, I knew, it was mine. But I needed to blame someone. “It’s all your fault!”

Sailor Moon looked at me in astonishment. “But... we got here as fast as we could, Sailor Mars...”

I couldn’t help it. I was furious. But not at Serena, and myself. I just need someone to blame. “Oh, sure, Sailor Moon! You probably stopped and played a video game! It’s your fault! All of it! It’s your fault...”

Sailor Mercury grabbed my shoulder. “Mars, come on. We all tried.”

“Mars, calm down!” Sailor Chibi-Moon said.

My anger fizzled out, and I sat down and cried. My shoulders shook as Mercury and Venus tried to comfort me, Sailor Moon did as well once she realized that I wasn’t really mad at her. I just cried, unable to control it, although I knew that I needed to tell them what had happened.

I looked up, making sure that no one was around to hear. “That creature we were fighting came to the temple and threatened me when I was Rei Hino. He somehow knew that I was having visions of these kids that he wanted to destroy. He... he had a gun.”

Venus gasped. “A gun? Since when do these guys use guns?”

I shrugged, and waved a hand to get her to stop talking. “Anyway, then Jupiter showed up, because she had obviously come early for our meeting. She zapped him and he went down. But then he got up again, and tried to capture me for whatever it was that he wanted. Jupiter shoved me out of the way and he got her instead.”

Sailor Moon gasped. “So that means...”

“I tried to attack him, but he just disappeared,” I said, my voice rising a notch. Looking up at my friends, I said quietly, “He said that if I didn’t surrender, he’d kill Jupiter. Then he left, and he took Jupiter with him.”

“Why did he leave?” Mercury mused. “If he wanted you to surrender...”

“It’s because he knew you were coming,” I explained. Standing up, I said, “Mercury, can you locate him?”

Sailor Mercury flipped open her palmtop computer, and began typing codes. As she worked, I noticed that Luna and Artimes had showed up, and were quietly listening as I had explained the situation. I bit my lip, and looked at Luna. “Luna, do you know this guy?”

Luna shook her head. “I have never in my lifetime heard of a ‘Piedmon’. But he obviously has something to do with these kids that you saw.”

I nodded. “Yes, and I know that he wants to destroy them. They’re good, I know, and he’s evil. Maybe the only way we can help Jupiter is to help them.”

Luna was about to reply, when Ami jumped up. “There we are, Scouts! That evil Piedmon person went into another dimension, called the ‘Digiworld’, I believe. It appears to be Earth’s shadow world.... very intriguing...”

Sailor Moon, Chibi-Moon, Venus, and I all looked at Ami in anticipation. “Well?” I asked, gesturing. “How do we get there?”

Ami bit her lip. “I can create a portal. But...” she looked at all of us. “Are you sure you want to?”

“Yes,” I said fiercely, and glared at Sailor Moon and Venus, who both nodded. Luna and Artimes nodded as well. Sailor Chibi-Moon simply smiled.

“All right,” Mercury said, and typed out a few commands on her computer. A few seconds later, a shimmering white portal appeared. “Ready?” Mercury asked.

“Ready!” we all shouted back. Venus holding Artimes, and Sailor Moon holding Luna, we all jumped into the portal. We were going to show that Piedmon guy what messing with the Sailor Scouts got him...