Souls of Fire #10: Sovereign of Silence Ranma 1/2 VS Sailor Moon Written by Razorclaw X (spiceoflife@NYChotmail.com) http://www.crosswinds.net/~slythe/sm/index.html Disclaimer: Sailor Moon and characters belong to Naoko Takeuchi. Ranma 1/2 and characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi. Proper licenses belong to respective properties and characters. The manga has precedence over material in the anime. This file can be freely distributed so long as it appears in its complete form and proper credit. No part may be reproduced for monetary gain without permission from the author. ---------------------------------------------------- R&D Armory, Mishima Heavy Industries Mousse folded his arms as he leaned back against the wall closest to the door, watching as Shizuka raided the weapons cache as if the end of the world was coming. He watched her snap on an arm-mounted dual bolt launcher on each arm, then throw on a bandoleer of shotgun bullets over each arm. She then grabbed a medium-length harpoon and slung that over her shoulder as well. "Don't you think you're overdoing it?" the weapons master said at last. "The Sailor Senshi will pay for what they did to Shion," Shizuka hissed, barely paying attention to what Mousse said. "I'll be a good scout and be prepared, right?" "There's also such thing as being over-prepared, you know," Mousse pointed out. "I don't think you can carry all that." The priestess of Genbu spun around quickly, grinding her teeth. "Don't be ridiculous!" He shook his head, as the sudden shift in her weight caused the girl to fall onto her back. "If I were you I'd ditch just about all of that and go with what you're used to using." Unloading most of her acquired weaponry and quickly getting back to her feet, Shizuka reached into the pile of equipment at her feet and struggled to lift a mini gun. "But you don't know how powerful this makes me feel!" "If you can't lift it what makes you think you can fire it?" Frustrated, Shizuka dropped the mini gun, on her foot. Mousse winced as the priestess jumped around in pain, yelling and cursing as she went. He shook his head. "It's a wonder you're still alive." "Hey, I didn't get this far just so I get killed on stupidity," Shizuka shot back, rubbing her foot. "Neither did I," Mousse agreed. "But you couldn't possibly need that many weapons." "How do you know?" He gave her a blank stare. "Oh, right...." Shizuka's expression made her look completely clueless. The Master of Hidden Weapons shook his head, laughing to himself. "You never change, do you? Even after all that happened you're still the same." "Yeah," she replied. "Sucks to be constant in an ever-changing world, eh?" Mousse struggled to stifle his laugher. "Just don't change, okay? It's good to see something familiar in this bizarre world." "'Bizarre' would hardly describe it," the priestess pointed out. "In this insane world we're the only sane people left." --- R&D Control Center, Mishima Heavy Industries "All functions have been transferred," Dumas informed Ayame. "Every function handled by the original C.C. will now work here." "That's good to hear," Ayame said. Forcing the technicians to work without sleep was a terrible idea, but it has been eight hours since Kanna made her world broadcast, and everyone was too on-the-edge to get some sleep. There was still a good sixteen hours before the final decision would come in, and it would take just as long for the Dead End Buster to be finished in setting-up. When Higure informed her that Ranma brought in his girl Ayame hardly gave it a second thought; there was better things to occupy her mind with than one guy's personal desires. This girl, Akane, appeared harmless enough, but then, so did Mizuno. On the other hand, the Sailor Senshi couldn't be dumb enough to pull the same trick again, she decided. Both sides had sixteen hours to finish up their final battle, and then the world parliament would decide their fates. However, it wouldn't be over until the battle ran its course, no matter which way the decision went, as both sides wished to resolve their differences once and for all. Even without her robot army, which was spread all across the world at key locations, Ayame knew she would win. One of the monitors flickered to life, as there was no main viewscreen as in the other chamber. Kanna's image appeared. "Ayame," she said in greeting. "Yes?" There was no time for pleasantries. "Do you want me to come back?" she asked hopefully. "I made sure King Endymion is going nowhere." The camera panned to the side, revealing the captured king tied, bound, and gagged on the back of one of the aerial CRONOS units, with two of the king's assistants looking on, horrified. "Do as you wish," Ayame replied, knowing she didn't have a choice in the matter anyway. "As you said, the king isn't going anywhere." Her face all smiles, Kanna's transmission ended, and soon the master tactician appeared before her leader, using the power of her black crystal shard. "Do you have any idea how the parliament will go?" asked Ayame, curiosity overcoming her. To her disappointment the Crystal Spider shook her head. "Honestly, I don't know if my speech was riveting enough. Looking back at it I think I made a couple mistakes...." "Can't do anything to help it now," the leader decided. "In sixteen hours, we'll know, but in the meantime, we fight." --- Training Hall, Mishima Heavy Industries "Look at this, Akane," Ranma stated, holding his black crystal necklace in his left hand. Standing in the middle of the empty room he glanced at Akane, who stood with her back against one wall. "With this thing I've managed to control the air a bit." "Your Hiryu Shoten Ha attack," Akane knew, "relies on a clash of temperatures to create a whirlwind blast. Is that how you're doing it?" He nodded. "It's kinda like how it was when I was fighting Saffron that time... just heat up the air around me so it doesn't depend on the opponent anymore. I think I can also use it to cool my body temperature more, and the blast will be much more fine." "But you haven't thrown anything that lasted much longer than five seconds, from what I've seen," Akane pointed out. "Even if you didn't have total control at the time... what makes you think you can maintain a blast?" "I'm not sure I want anything to last longer than five seconds anyway," Ranma replied, shrugging. "I don't think I could concentrate long enough to keep the spiral going, so quick blasts will have to do. Combined with my speed I think it'll more than make up for that problem." Akane shook her head. "Always the same Ranma," she muttered to herself. "Won't there ever be time for ourselves?" "Did you say something?" asked the martial artist, obviously unaware. "Nothing," she answered quickly, slightly disappointed. It's the same Ranma, all right; his love for the art was unmistakable. And then she wondered how long it has been since she, too, threw a punch in combat. It seemed like an entire lifetime ago, and watching Ranma theorize on how he can use the black crystal stirred old feelings in Akane's mind. Exercising every day simply wasn't enough, she knew. She was missing the old feeling of fighting against the odds for the one she loved, and somehow Sypha Blade offered her a chance to rekindle it, even if it was never the sorcerer's intention. Whether it was stopping Ranma from killing Sailor Moon or blowing up the Mekani device before it annihilated the Crystal Palace, Akane felt good about accomplishing something. Fighting in of itself was not evil, she realized, but what sets us and the Sailor Senshi apart is why we fight. --- Internal Security, Crystal Palace Sleep would not come to those residing in the Crystal Palace, and for the past eight hours the technicians and specialists worked straight with the threat of total annihilation hanging over their head. Sailor Mercury typed away on her palm computer, using it as a substitute for the main computer's functions, ever since the EMP shockwave hit the city. The number one priority, Sailor Moon said, was to get the shield generator program back up and running before the Fenril Knights decided to launch their inevitable final attack. Pressure mounted as Mercury continued to reroute and simulate the main computer's functions, but her computer could only do so much; it couldn't hope to match the main's processing power. While there was no difficulty in rerouting functions there was the problem with getting the palm computer to actually run the frequency modulation program, which was forcing Mercury to over-clock her computer. The palm computer was attached to a number of heat sinks and spare memory drives, and even Mercury knew this makeshift main would never hold for more than a day, much less sixteen hours. All they had to do was keep it running for sixteen hours, Mars pointed out earlier. Easier said than done. Mercury paused in her programming, wiping her forehead and sighing wearily. The closest technician stopped to ask if he should take over, but she declined the offer, knowing that she was the only one who could fix the system quick enough. After all, she was the one who designed it in the first place. "And even then," she muttered to herself, "we never thought all the scenarios through. Perhaps we need to schedule an attack on the city every time we change the defenses," she added jokingly, although Mercury found no humor in it. The Fenril hacker-mercenary, Shion, managed to break through Internal Security's barriers easily without breaking a sweat, and in under five minutes, no less, judging from the time his electronic probing started to when he started taking down systems. Sailor Mercury wished she had his help, but wishing wouldn't salvage his mind out of the shockwave sent into his brain. In the brief microseconds before she was utterly consumed by the electronic-disrupting wave she knew it would be enough to shut his brain functions down, and if he wasn't dead already he wouldn't be coming around anytime soon. It seemed that whenever the enemy could become a potential ally, they had the terrible habit of dying soon thereafter. The thought irked Mercury, and she shook the idea from her head. That's just ridiculous, she decided. And yet somewhere in Mercury's mind she heard herself saying, "But it fits." Sailor Moon mentioned that Miranda Kusao suddenly appeared and actually defended her from Pantyhose Taro, but paid with her heart crystal. Shion, too, was willing to listen, and he was taken out by an unknown force. Shizuka, even though she refused to see eye-to-eye, sacrificed herself to contain Deathclaw, as the others said. Last Mercury knew Shizuka was still in a coma, and she'd likely stay that way until Deathclaw could be destroyed... if he can be, that is. Mercury sighed again, knowing that she spent enough time taking a break. Stretching her arms out and flexing her fingers, she resumed with the task at hand. --- Crystal Garden, Crystal Palace The surroundings were not as familiar as the interior of the Hikawa shrine, but to Sailor Mars it would have to do, considering no one was allowed to leave the palace walls with the threat of attack impending. She sat in a relaxed, meditative position in the midst of the lush, green grass, with only the sound of a running stream being the only noise in the enclosed garden. While the others busied themselves preparing the defenses in their own way, it left Sailor Mars with absolutely nothing to do that was immediately apparent. What she needed now was a focus. She thought about lighting up a fire and divining an answer to their problems, but Mars shook her head, knowing that no real answer would come of it. The Fenril Knights surely suffered great losses to their numbers, and despite the threat of their own destruction they keep on fighting. Mars knew that she and her friends felt the exact same way. What they needed was a way to resolve their differences, because it was clear that the Sailor Senshi and the Fenril Knights were fighting for the exact same thing, when all the superfluous barriers were torn away. More people would die, and there would be more suffering, that was certain. Mars peered at the stream before her, and her mind flashed briefly back to the shadow stream, the dark substance superimposing over the clear water. She remembered the coldness of shadow, the existence of that between the darkness and light, existing in full in neither of their entireties. Despite that, the stream was cold, dark, black, and utterly devoid of the light. On the other hand, shadow was very commonly associated with darkness, even though it was not quite the same. This was the only way she knew Hokuto of the Shadow Weavers was wrong, as the shadow was predisposed toward the darkness. Both are defined by the light around it. It was unavoidable that the darkness should seek out the light, Sailor Moon once said, as they wish to grasp that which they cannot touch. It was a tragic life, but Mars had no sympathy for those who would ruin the lives of others to gain the unattainable. On the other hand, there were those from the light that embraced the darkness, such as the Fenril Knights. Some of them, particularly Shizuka, refused to believe that mankind was inherently aligned to the light. At least they recognized what they were doing, and acted accordingly; Mars came to realize the Fenril Knights went out of their way to remove the non-combatants from ground zero, something which many other opponents had little care to do. They still clung to their humanity, therefore it was a matter of luck and skill to sway them away from the darkness. --- Inner Sanctum, Crystal Palace Sailor Moon cut off the communications channel with Luna and Artemis, who explained in detail what transpired in Geneva, and the current state in which King Endymion was being held hostage. Hundreds of Mishima robots, emerging from hidden factories in key locations around the world, took over many large cities and focal points in every continent in teams of threes, each bearing a large chunk of the Black Crystal, which surely indicated that Death Phantom managed to scrounge much power for his dark artifact since their last meeting. There were too many chunks to count, and Luna wasn't sure why the Fenril Knights would spend their resources on such a venture, but Sailor Moon had a good idea what they were up to. The Fenril Knights were using the crystal chunks to gather energy in localized areas, that much was certain, but what they were planning to use it for she did not know. The Black Crystal, by its very nature, absorbs power in order to grow. She wanted to ignore her own plight and flee to Geneva to rescue her husband, but another part of her refused to abandon her friends and subjects to the Fenril Knights. Many times enemies thought they could use her feelings toward Endymion against her, but Sailor Moon proved time and again that it would only strengthen her resolve. The war never should have happened, but it was too late to think along those lines now. She glanced at the nearby wall clock, and saw that eight hours passed since Kanna Rajura forced her demand on the world parliament. In sixteen hours her subjects would decide the future of the world, but if Sailor Moon knew the Fenril Knights they would only use that as an excuse to wipe her off the map, as they intended all along. Giving themselves a time limit only meant they found an edge-- one which had yet to make itself apparent. Leaving her thoughts of Endymion behind, Sailor Moon turned and walked out the door, knowing that the battle was about to begin. --- Indeed, her feeling was correct. Arrayed in a row atop a skyscraper overlooking the Crystal Palace were the remaining Fenril Knight warriors. Kanna stood out in center, her left foot propped up on the knee-high railing, staring down at the assembling force of Mishima robots, all pulled from staging locations outside Crystal Tokyo. To her right was Ranma and Akane, the latter who chose to ditch her silly tuxedo costume for something more practical-- that is, borrowed clothes out of Shampoo's belongings. Kanna had no opinion about Ranma's girl, even if it seemed she popped up out of nowhere, but Wiseman assured her that she would not act against them. On her left stood Shizuka, then Mousse. While Shizuka ditched most of the weaponry she raided from the armory she still kept the wrist-mounted bolt launchers for good measure. On the other hand, if one looked toward Mousse she would understand where the rest of the weapons had gone, as he looked far more the walking armory this time around. He slowly unloaded his burden on the ground, setting a grenade launcher here, and a tripod for the mini gun there. Kanna had no doubt that Shizuka planned on using all of it... eventually. Kanna produced a remote control device, this one a rectangle of a box, with several knobs and buttons arrayed across the top, serving as a master control of the Mishima robots amassing below. She glanced back at the Crystal Palace, knowing that the energy shield was still quite down. There was no better time to attack than now. "Gentlemen," she announced, holding out the remote control, her thumb over one button, "this is your wake-up call!" --- "I've got it!" Sailor Mercury cried enthusiastically, just as Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars entered the security office. Without hesitating, she powered on her new program. --- Kanna narrowed her eyes in disbelief, and she heard Shizuka shout out a profanity, as the energy blasts from the Mishima army washed over the now-erect energy barrier around the Crystal Palace. "Not again," groaned Mousse. "Now what?" complained Ranma, irritated. "We don't have time for this," Shizuka agreed, looking toward Kanna expectantly. She nodded, keying several buttons on the remote control. "Fine, Sailor Senshi, you wanna play this game? Issuing general command order: Omega Strike!" At a single command of a button the entirety of the gathered Mishima robot army rolled forward at an accelerated pace. One after another the robots slammed into the energy shield, each hit causing a massive wash of an energy ripple across the dome, each vaporizing the offending machine. One after another the robots plowed kamikaze-style into the offending barrier. --- "What are they doing?!" Mars shouted, aghast that the enemy would throw away their army in such a manner. The main viewscreen generated the situation perfectly, however, and soon the energy shield shattered into nothingness. Flaming debris lined like a wall where the energy barrier's border once stood, and the remaining Mishima robots plowed through. Mercury's computer flickered one, and died in front of her. "They've exhausted the last of our energy reserves in the emergency generators." She glanced back over her seat to the others, worry in her eyes. "They still have enough robots to level this place." "Looks like we're going out," Sailor Moon decided, sighing wearily. --- In no less than thirty seconds the five Fenril watched as Sailor Moon, Mars, and Mercury emerged from the bowels of their palace and proceeded to spread out and demolish the remaining, twenty-or-so robots. Kanna folded her arms, staring down at the enemy in amusement, then played around with her necklace in anticipation. "Fire, water, storm, and ice," she muttered. "Look at them, at how they cannot possibly win without their magic to back them." "Then you find a way around it," Shizuka voiced as she stood behind the turreted mini gun Mousse finished setting-up. The tactician noticed the priestess was aiming her sights at Sailor Mars. "So which one do you want?" Kanna asked the others, although she had an idea what each of them wanted already. "I call dibs on Sailor Moon," Ranma said quickly, raising his hand. "Mercury's mine, then," Kanna decided. She eyed Akane, raising an eyebrow when she noted her long face. "What, you wanted her?" "It's not that," Akane replied, shaking her head. "It's just... it's not necessary to fight." "If we don't fight," the Crystal Spider countered, "I can assure you that the war will go on, no matter what decision the world parliament comes up with. This is our last battle; we have issues to resolve with one another. This battle is necessary because we haven't settled our personal differences yet." "And what do you expect out of me?" Mousse said, complaining. "There aren't enough of them to fight." "Hey, you didn't call," Ranma pointed out, shrugging. "Bee-ess!" Shizuka shouted, unleashing her hail of bullets toward the enemy below. "You can have what's left when Shizuka's run out of ammo," Kanna told the Master of Hidden Weapons, smirking as Mousse groaned in irritation. --- As Sailor Mars ran for cover from the hail of bullets Sailor Mercury cast her eyes about, looking for the source of the attack. She tapped a hidden button behind her ear, turning on her visor. She scanned upward, and magnified the source. "Fenril Knights," she informed Sailor Moon, raising her arm. "Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!" Her arrow of purity fired off into the air, sailing with the precision of Mercury's visor. Switching it off she didn't need it to see that the attack hit its mark, creating an explosion at Shizuka's mini gun. She felt the wind shift behind her and ducked just as Kanna swung her scythe across, nearly slicing Mercury's head off. Mercury spun about with her leg extended in order to sweep, but Kanna hopped over it in time, then jumped back for distance. "At least you'll be more of a challenge than your king," Kanna snorted. --- Sailor Moon faced-off against Ranma, who stood beside another girl she didn't recognize. They exchanged quick, silent words, and the girl rushed off for safety as the martial artist clutched his necklace in readiness. "Why must we fight?" she asked, even though she knew the answer. There was no harm in trying to reason with him. "Because I don't like living in the same world as a parasite like you," Ranma shot back in a low tone. "I saw what you did, and you're only hungry for more souls." "What are you talking about?" The black crystal glowed in Ranma's hand, and Sailor Moon knew this battle would be different from the last. There would be no escapes, no primal instincts, and no second chances; this was all or nothing. Ranma held his free fist back. "You beat me once before, but you weren't fighting Ranma Saotome. I'm Ranma Saotome, and I accept your challenge!" --- Sailor Mars's eyes watched as Shizuka calmly drew both her swords, holding each of the viper-pommel weapons underhanded. Mousse stood behind her with his arms folded in his sleeves, having salvaged what he could of his mobile armory with numerous guns slung over his shoulders. "Long time no see," the priestess of Genbu said, her eyes to the ground. She waved her arms back, deftly avoiding cutting herself with the blades. "Is this a double team, or are you fighting me yourself?" asked Mars, nudging her head toward Mousse. "Oh, I assure you, it's one-on-one," Shizuka replied lowly, slowly raising her eyes to meet her nemesis. "I wouldn't have it any other way." Mars gasped, as when Shizuka's mouth opened next the voice was not only her own, but that of the ghost dragon Deathclaw. Speaking at once, they said, "In this case, you can never win." "Deathclaw," the soldier of fire muttered. "Let Shizuka go!" Shizuka/Deathclaw laughed, as if amused by Mars's plea. "You don't get it, do you, prostitute? We are not merely host and parasite, but symbiotes. We draw power from each other, and not from a mystic weave as you do. This time, it will be you who will be punished." "It doesn't have to be this way!" "Why not?" This time it was Shizuka alone who spoke. "You and your friends took away everything that was important to me." "We found your family!" Mars continued. "It wasn't hard finding them in the records. Your parents are still alive, and so are your brother and sisters. You have a family to go back to." "How little you know," Shizuka said, shaking her head. "You know I was given to the Shrine of the Four Gods to be trained as a priestess when I was four, but you don't know why. You fool, you think that I consider them my family?" "What are you saying?" wondered Mars, realizing that the news was producing the wrong reaction. "I am the eldest child of that Minazuki family," she explained darkly. "As the eldest child and eldest daughter I could not carry the family name. In consolation my parents decided they would groom me to become a bride... but somewhere on the way they made two important discoveries. One, my mother was to bear my younger brother. Two, they discovered that I could not bear children myself, which made me the most ineligible bride." Sailor Mars shook her head, wishing what Shizuka was saying was untrue. It was too incredible. "They couldn't bear to kill me and legitimize their heir as the eldest child, so they 'mercifully' sent me to become the most useless occupation ever, and one which guaranteed I would never bear the shame of being without children. To my younger brother and sisters, I'm dead and don't exist. MAYBE my brother remembers me, but I wouldn't count on that... but really, they're no family of mine. My family is already dead." "I remember their names and faces, but I could never see them again. The only ones I had left were Shion, Hokuto, and Mira, and you took them all away from me. I'm the last one, and after that nobody will ever know what you did to me." "I don't have the talent like Ranma does," she continued, "nor do I have Shion's intelligence. I'm not powerful like Hokuto, or charismatic like Ayame, or gifted as Ukyo, or dedicated as Shampoo. I'm not strong like Mousse, or as fast as Tatewaki, or as agile as Kodachi. Nor do I have Mira's tenacity or Sypha's conviction, or Higure's experience, or Cinder's code of honor. I'm not cunning like Kanna, sneaky as Taro, or charming as Ryoga. I'm just Shizuka Minazuki, and I know the truth." "The truth is the most powerful weapon of all," she added, raising her bladess before her. Lowering her head, Shizuka yelled out a battle cry and charged. Hastily, Mars threw a fireball at the charging priestess, but she ran through it as if it were never there. She ducked under the first overhead swipe, then tucked and rolled to the right before the second could cleave her from the other side. She quickly got back to her feet, and immediately flipped backward as Shizuka took another wild swing with her left arm. "I am dead!" the priestess declared, "and I march into battle to get my life back!!" Her fighting style is unorthodoxed, Mars noted. The way she holds them, and the way she swings them, is like an extension of her arms. Or rather, as if her arms were the blades themselves. Reach definitely isn't a factor here, as the swords were only a bit longer than the length of her arms. Shizuka seemed to catch on to Mars's thoughts, and quickly sheathed her right blade. She rolled her left sleeve back quickly, revealing an arm-mounted bolt projector, and Mars knew it was time to start running. High-velocity bolts rained behind her, embedding themselves in the palace's crystal wall or corpses of the Mishima machines, with Shizuka madly firing in her enemy's general direction and trailing. The bolts launched in pairs, but in the speed of a machine gun, and it was all for Mars to hope that the device would run out of ammo soon from the way Shizuka was wasting the bolts. Either her own thoughts came true or Shizuka decided to switch tactics-- Mars hid behind one of the robot corpses as Shizuka pulled her right sword out again, and ran in her direction. Shizuka leaped into the air, intending to dive with her blades downward, but Mars was paying too close attention to the attack to get hit, and easily dodged. She threw a high kick toward the priestess's head before she could recover but Shizuka ducked lower to the ground instead of standing instinctively. Mars hopped over a quick slash at her feet, and sought higher ground on top of the corpse. Turning around quickly she summoned her flame. "Fire Soul!!" she cried, unleashing a bolt of her own. Shizuka turned over onto her back while lying on the ground, and kicked herself off the corpse and away from the fire attack. Quickly getting back to her feet the priestess quickly planted her swords into the ground and threw back her left sleeve to fire more bolts. Mars dropped down behind the robot corpse as the bolts flew over her head, but this time there was a telltale clicking in Shizuka's weapon. "Out of ammo," Mars realized. Risking a glance Mars looked over the corpse and saw Shizuka discarding the arm weapon. Instead of immediately picking up her swords again she threw back her right sleeve, revealing a second bolt projector. "Always carry a spare!" Shizuka cried, showering the area with more bolts. --- Kanna thrust her naginata-style death scythe three times in Mercury's direction, each missing but coming in a hairline's width of connecting. Despite avoiding the actual blows Mercury felt the slice of air slash at her, and her new scars were proof of it. "You're too weak to fight," Kanna hissed, drawing her weapon back. "You can barely keep up with me as is! Give up before you lose your life." This time Mercury completely avoided the slash thrust, taking a side-step to the left. She summoned up her energy and threw blinding mist, shouting, "Shabon Spray!" Her enemy would have none of that, withdrawing her death scythe and spinning it quickly. Using the speed of the spin like a fan Kanna dispersed the mist easily, however, it was only a decoy. Mercury pivoted around Kanna's position and threw a raging torrent in her direction. Catching the full brunt of the attack from the side Kanna cried out in surprise, but managed to remain standing despite getting hit. Allowing the attack to run its course Kanna switched her weapon into scythe mode, and swept it in a wide arc, forcing Mercury to jump over it. "I'll admit, you're more of a challenge than your king was," the Crystal Spider said, "but it makes you no more fit!" "Fit for what?" replied Mercury. "War?" Kanna let out an angry cry as she charged Mercury, holding her scythe back in what apparently was going to be a wide arc attack. Mercury purposefully back- stepped until she felt the presence of a robot corpse behind her, and leaped over it backward at the last moment. She heard the sound of the scythe slam and tear against the metal, followed by Kanna's angry obscenities trying to get her weapon unstuck. "Why are you prolonging this war?" the soldier of water asked, walking around the head of the corpse, trying to give the appearance that she was not going to attack. For what it was worth, Kanna was too busy trying to get her death scythe out of the corpses' armor. "And you for fighting it?" "Brilliant people such as yourself don't need a war to define them," Mercury continued. "Your idols were distinguished in wartime, but that wasn't the only place where they could be recognized." "It's the best place!" hissed Kanna. "You don't have to fight. We don't have to fight. Battles are not the only place to exercise the mind." The Crystal Spider, despite being no closer to unwedging her weapon, chuckled to herself. "You fool; you think, just because I left you a profile to hack, that you know everything about me? Do you remember when I asked you to send flowers to David?" "Yes, I remember. You wanted to apologize to your old friend." This time Kanna removed her grip from her death scythe, as if she were giving up, but she turned and faced Mercury with angry eyes. "Why did you do it?" "What?" She was trying to think of what the Crystal Spider was up to. "Why did you send the flowers?" The answer seemed obvious to Mercury, but she knew there had to be a trick to it somewhere. Kanna was too smart to ask such a simple, naive question. "Because I wanted to do you a favor." Mercury surprised herself, having said that answer. She wanted to believe it was, "it was the right thing to do," but somehow the words were never spoken that way. And she had to admit it, she wanted to use it as a means by which to lure Kanna away from the enemy. And apparently that was the point Kanna was driving at. "You never stopped to think why that came up that time, did you? You never realized that I could've just as easily did it myself. You never realized I was baiting you, and I hooked you, line and sinker. You did it because you wanted a favor. What would that be, exactly?" To that Mercury could give no answer. "Favors, Mizuno," the Crystal Spider continued. "It is how things get done. Deals, concessions... call it what you want, but your queen offers and asks nothing in return. I can't trust that." She raised a fist, shaking it angrily. "You think I went to war because I like it? You think I have to prove something? I don't need to prove anything; I've proven it already! I'm a frickin' genius!" "Then why have you sided with the enemy?!" Mercury shouted. "Why have you...." "Sided with the Death Phantom?" finished Kanna, producing a reaction of surprise out of the senshi. "Oh, don't you worry, I know all about Death Phantom and the Children of Chaos. We all do, and we accept it, and we accept him for what he is-- and that's why we get along so much. But, as I said, Mizuno, people don't get things done without favors." "If we want something that he can provide, we need to provide him something he wants, too. Think about it; the reason the Black Moon Family failed was due to the fact that Wiseman and Black Moon's leaders were using each other, and they eventually weakened themselves enough that Sailor Moon could step in and mop up the mess." "We, on the other hand, learned from their mistakes, and he did as well. We cannot afford to cannibalize each other in this war. We wanted the citizens of Crystal Tokyo removed, and in return we gave Wiseman the services of Sypha and Cinder. We wanted chunks of Black Crystal... we got them provided I secured him a new body." Mercury felt a premonition in her head, and thought back to her encounter with Wiseman while undercover with the Fenril Knights, and the events following. "Death Phantom wanted to possess my body." "Unfortunately, you thwarted that plan, and we had to resort to using Taydome's body instead," Kanna said grimly. "We still got what we wanted, even if it didn't work out as well as I hoped." "You needed to remove the people of Crystal Tokyo in order to attack us without holdbacks," Mercury knew, "but why do you need the Black Crystal?" "Tell me, Mizuno... did you use that crystal prism we gave you much?" It was then the soldier of water realized what Kanna was up to. "The radiation from the Black Crystal serves to undo the magic of the Silver Crystal, doesn't it?" "Perhaps," the tactician replied, unwilling to give any ground to her enemy. "The radiation of the Black Crystal serves as a counter to the Silver Crystal's magic... but you don't know...!" Suddenly, Kanna reached over and grabbed her death scythe. Its bladed end flared with a brilliant white light, breaking through the cracks in the corpse's armor. Mercury shielded herself from debris as the armor exploded spontaneously, throwing up much smoke and dust. Her eyes peeked back in the corpse's direction, only to see a silhouette in the smoke, then Kanna, with her scythe raised back, leaping through the wreckage. "You don't even know HALF of what's going on!!" she screamed, continuing her relentless attack. --- R&D Control Center, Mishima Heavy Industries "They are fighting long and admirably," Higure said in awe. "Even without taking breaks in-between they have managed to tie up the Sailor Senshi for nearly three hours now." "Only because they're all playing with chickens," Ayame pointed out. She folded her arms, lowered her head, and shook it, disgusted that the Sailor Senshi were blatantly trying to buy time for themselves for some reason. Turning toward Chief Dumas, she asked, "What's our ETA for the Dead End Buster?" "About ten-to-twelve more hours should do it," the engineer reported. "We are trying to shave more time off that, but it's becoming rather difficult." "You'd better find some short-cuts, because we aren't going to have much time left," Ayame warned. "The Sailor Senshi are reserving their powers on purpose, and making our guys waste theirs. Ranma's still looking strong, so he's pacing himself well. Kanna already wised-up to this idea from the looks of it, and is pacing herself accordingly. Shizuka, on the other hand, is being a complete idiot and wasting all her ammo. The only thing going for her now is she has Mousse as a back-up, and he's still fresh." "In other words, they will run out of energy sooner or later," Higure interpreted. "We have also detected two energy surges approaching this world from space." "Not Sypha and Cinder?" asked Ayame. "They would not use such unconventional travel," the old man pointed out. "I believe their charges managed to elude them." "Damn," cursed the Fenril Knight leader. "It's got to be Uranus and Neptune. How long until they arrive?" "If they keep their pace up, they will arrive in only six hours. In our favor, I would point out that they would be exhausted, too, so they may not be able to contribute as much as we think." "Fights can't last for sixteen-hours straight without fatigue," Ayame knew. "By the time we deploy the buster, everyone'll be too tired to do anything about it, no matter what happens out there." "Was that your real plan?" asked Higure. "Kanna isn't the only one who can think," the leader said, smirking. "I don't expect our guys to win, but I do expect them to come back alive. What I really expect is a tired, battered, fatigued Sailor Moon, helpless to the Dead End Buster. No matter what she does, she's at our mercy." --- Ranma let out an anxious roar as he threw another screw punch forward, mindful to manipulate the air around him to his advantage. A spiraling gale of wind pierced through the air, tearing it like a spear as it traveled in Sailor Moon's direction. As typical for the powerful Sailor Senshi, Moon drew a circle in front of her with her wand, and an invisible barrier deflected the blast of wind. Ranma could barely make out a slight cave in the shield as his attack lit up the shield, but the tornado blast was far too weak to push very far inward. The violent wind washed around and over Sailor Moon harmlessly, as it had done before. "C'mon!" Ranma shouted, annoyed. "Attack me already! Blow me up or something, at least something bigger than your stupid lasers. This is getting really boring." "Ranma!" he heard Akane shout, from her spot on top of the palace's outer wall, well away from the battle. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" "What's the point in fighting if your opponent doesn't fight back?!" he yelled back, irritated. "Even though this battle must be fought," Sailor Moon said finally, "it's no wish of mine that any more of us die over it." "Isn't it a little late for that?!" "The killing must end!" she pleaded. "You're fighting intending to destroy me and everything around me, but I can't repay that in kind." "Feh," Ranma scoffed, lowering his guard in his arrogance. He faced to the side, exposing his left flank to Sailor Moon, and folded his arms. "I didn't know it until a little while ago, because I couldn't see it, but I realized that you've already killed many of my friends." "Ranma, what are you doing?!" demanded Akane, sounding even more frantic. Just as he expected, Sailor Moon refused to take advantage of such an obvious invitation to attack. "Seeing Akane made me realize how much I missed the people I wanted to avoid for years. Shampoo was pretty strong for a girl, and a great fighter, even if she was a bit crude. You also got your hands on Ryoga, the only guy I considered my rival, and turned him into a grocery bagger." He flashed a cold stare at Sailor Moon. "Answer me one question, though." "What?" Sailor Moon asked, perplexed. "Why did you let Ryoga keep his soul and not the others?" the martial artist asked bluntly, his anger barely contained in his composure. Ranma resisted the urge to simply blast Sailor Moon while she was coming up with the answer, but thought better of it, knowing that was the kind of thing the others might do. But Sailor Moon responded with a confused expression. "Stealing souls? What are you talking about?" "Don't deny it!" Ranma cried, unable to contain himself any longer. Feigned stupidity would not be tolerated out of the enemy. "I saw their bodies! You have Kuno, Miranda, and Shampoo over there, with their souls sucked out of their bodies. You're preserving the bodies for your own ends, leaving them empty shells so you can use them when your body dies, is that it?!" "No!" denied the senshi. "That's not it at all! We never stole their heart crystals; one of our own, Sailor Venus, had hers taken as well!" "What?" That was news to him. "I thought Kodachi killed her." "Your friend Kodachi may have won, but we don't know for sure, but the one thing we're certain is that both lost their heart crystals." He looked into Sailor Moon's eyes, and somehow knew she wasn't lying. Ranma shook his head, trying to shake off a probable hypnotic trance, but the feeling was still there. There was something in her words that rang of truth. Could it be...? "If you're not the one stealing their souls, who is?" he asked finally. Ranma heard a scream, and knew it was from Akane. He turned his head back toward the palace wall, where she should have been. Instead of her lone self there was another, standing tall and proud, with Akane in his strong hold. Even at a distance Ranma knew who the attacker was, and it had nothing to do with the telltale pantyhose tied around his waist. "Pantyhose Taro!" he shouted. "Don't call me that!" Taro cried, holding Akane tighter and clamping his hand over her mouth. "Well, Femme-boy, looks like you were the fool the whole time, blaming it on her." "Let her go!" Sailor Moon demanded, stepping up beside Ranma. "YOU killed them?!" Ranma couldn't believe what he was hearing, even if the words came out of Pantyhose Taro's mouth. "Why? I thought you hated the Sailor Senshi, too!" "I do, but you never learn, hermaphrodite." Taro's gaze fixated on Ranma, giving the martial artist a sudden chill. "I don't suppose you recall that we were once going to steal heart crystals, do you? I was the only one who could do it, as the others are too incompetent to do something so simple. Maybe if you were smart you'd have realized that heart crystals can augment people." "You stole their souls for power," Moon accused. "In order to beat me you turned on your own? How could you?" "At first it was because they got in the way," Taro admitted. "But, after capturing the rubber girl's heart crystal I've had time to reinvigorate myself, away from everybody else. During my recovery from our previous battle I learned that I could siphon the crystal's energy and use it as my own. The girl's skills became my own." "Miranda was a powerful martial artist already, and it makes you stronger still," Ranma realized. The girl he hardly wanted to know was a worthy opponent, and she at least had enough skill to keep up with Ranma himself. Combining it with Taro was definitely a bad thing. "It wasn't enough," Sailor Moon said. "Of course not; if you can shrug-off Femme-boy's attacks, even with his magic eight-ball, then of course I need to be stronger!" Pantyhose Taro proclaimed proudly. "I didn't come back to Crystal Tokyo unprepared, though; I needed something to defeat my former allies. So I blew up an EMP bomb I stole while I was running around." "You're the one who beat Kagami, not Mercury," Ranma realized. "I really wanted to get all the robots in the spread, but I couldn't resist offing Four-eyes. After getting rid of him I stumbled across even more heart crystals. What a surprise it was to see that even that girl Kodachi was harvesting heart crystals, too! It made victory that much sweeter. And not only that, but I've got one of the Sailor Senshi in the process." "Who could've imagined that I could become a god by making all of you part of me?" Taro said, holding out his other hand. A luminescent globe of energy appeared in his palm, and Taro closed his fist around it, winking it out of existence. "But I don't need parlor tricks like that Sailor Venus uses to beat you; the other three are more than a match for you, Femme-boy." "Don't call me that!" Ranma shouted angrily, feeling his anger rise higher with each moment. He felt the black crystal on his necklace resonate with power. "Ranma," Sailor Moon whispered, "your crystal...!" "I should've known all along," the martial artist said. "The entire time I've been fighting the wrong person." He raised a fist, and it trembled greatly. "All this time... the enemy was right in my face, and I wouldn't let myself see it...." Pantyhose Taro laughed in genuine amusement. "Funny, that. Rubber-bitch said the exact same thing just before I killed her. Do you think you're strong enough to beat me when she couldn't? Do you really expect to defeat a god?!" He tossed Akane aside, throwing her off the side of the wall to fall on the inside. She crashed with a loud thud, and Ranma's crystal resonated much faster, matching his temper. "I don't need to hide behind your girl, Femme-boy," Taro decided, cracking his knuckles. He held out his right palm, revealing the Deathbuster star displayed prominently. "All I need is the power within myself!" "Don't let him anger you!" Sailor Moon warned. "He's trying to get you to make mistakes!" "I don't care," Ranma hissed angrily. "He's got Kuno, Kodachi, Miranda, and Shampoo... and he's not going to get away with it!!" The Deathbuster star glowed, crackling with black lightning. From its abyssal bowels emerged a heart crystal, followed by another, and another... until all four of Taro's collected heart crystals revealed themselves. Ranma could hear the echo of their owners' voices in his head, begging for release. And yet, Shampoo's voice was not among them. --- Only Shizuka Minazuki could hear the voice of Shampoo in her mind, as she was yet another prisoner of the curse of Deathclaw, but such desperate cries from lost souls were far from her thoughts as Mousse handed her back her grenade launcher, reloaded with the last of the shells. She saw Sailor Mars duck behind another of the Mishima robot corpses, and the priestess of Genbu aimed and fired. The machine exploded, sending smoke and debris up in the air as Shizuka discarded the spent weapon for the last time. Holding her hand backward, she ordered, "Gimmie the Fire Buster Mark III." One hand was a big mistake in hindsight as Mousse unceremonially dropped the heavy weapon on her. Shizuka collapsed onto the ground under the weight of the weapon, her eyes fixated on the sky above and the dark clouds rolling in. Worst of all, she couldn't get up. "My turn," Mousse declared, discarding all of his other armory equipment. The weapons master was obviously itching to fight. "Uh... Mousse?" Shizuka yelled, almost pleaded. "I can't get up...." "Relax," Mousse told her. "I'll take care of this." Too weak, Shizuka decided. Maybe Mousse was doing her a favor, after all. There was still plenty of time before the zero hour to finish the Sailor Senshi for good. --- "Come on out!" demanded Mousse, already feeling his sleeves for the nearest tethers, his eyes scanning for Sailor Mars. He knew for certain Shizuka wouldn't be lucky enough to take her out with the grenade launcher, at least with her luck. "You're dancing with me now!" He eyed the flaming debris where the last corpse explosion emerged, and the intensity of the heat forced him back a little. Nevertheless, Mousse kept his eyes trained on Mars's last known location, and studied the movement of the fire. One of the flames was getting closer. "Clever," he muttered, jumping straight up in the air. In effect Shizuka gave Sailor Mars more places to hide and snipe, what with all the flaming robot corpses in the courtyard. Reaching the peak of his jump Mousse tossed several tethers, weighed down by yo-yo's, but they incinerated before they could make it through the blaze wall. Okay, Shizuka, you just made this game interesting for me, didn't you? No sooner had his feet reached the ground Mousse was already dodging and tumbling from a barrage of fireballs, counting six as he went, knowing that six was the typical cap that Mars could muster at a time, judging from his observation of the Shizuka fight. He quickly estimated Mars's probable location and flicked out his left sleeve, throwing three free throwing knives in that direction. He could make out no distinguishing roar over the crackling flames, and assumed he missed, then proceeded to find a better attack location. Mars was giving him little options, as she constantly hid behind more of the flaming corpses and threw more fireballs his way. Mousse finally decided to ignore attacking her in that position, realizing that he would be wasting ammo that way. He eyed the Crystal Palace, and smirked. Turning around, he yelled, "Catch me if you can!" At top speed the Master of Hidden Weapons leaped up, landing at the opening of a second-story window, and kicked his way inside. --- Shizuka craned her head up enough to see that Mousse was taking the battle inside the palace, and Mars was in pursuit, entering the same second-story window that the Master of Hidden Weapons did before. Lying back on the ground again Deathclaw said, "This is unacceptable." "No shit," muttered the priestess, essentially talking to herself. She pushed the fire buster off her body, allowing it to roll a little away from her. She felt her body move, trying to get up despite her exhaustion from running around for hours. Shizuka knew Deathclaw was trying to force her back on her feet, but unlike a puppet master the ghost dragon could not force her to do what he wanted. "C'mon, you're going to have to do better than that," Shizuka said. "I'm not letting Mousse finish her off." --- Toying with the enemy was a hard thing to do on Kanna's part, but she had to congratulate herself on her self-restraint. Effectively, she and Mercury were trading blows as each hid behind a Mishima machine's corpse, hiding out like gunslingers in a Western. Either of them could probably gung-ho and blow up the other outright, but the fact of the matter was they were dead tired from fighting for straight hours. Kanna estimated they were soaking up around five to ten minutes between each trade-off attack, with neither of them gaining ground. The Crystal Spider labored to breathe, and she imagined that Mercury was feeling the same way-- she hoped. There was no other plausible reason why Mercury hadn't won if the case were otherwise. She looked down at her left wrist, pushing her loose sleeve back to check her watch. Kanna stared down at the watch for several heartbeats, then closed her eyes and concentrated when she realized that the hands were a blur to her vision. Concentrating on three deep breaths, the Crystal Spider opened her eyes again, and saw that she had a few more hours to go. "Bloody hell," she cursed between breaths, "I can't go on like this." Releasing her hold on her death scythe, Kanna picked up the necklace that hung around her neck, and stared at the crystallized spider encased under a layer of clear amethyst, as if looking for guidance. The bauble that was passed through her family was the very thing that gave Kanna her nickname, and it was a rather ordinary piece of jewelry. However, a small part of her wondered, since her days as a little girl, if the necklace were magic. Ever since she was a little girl the necklace seemed to bring Kanna good luck, and she usually looked to it when presented with a difficult situation. In times before she would be granted the insight to pull her way to victory. While it was likely not magical, Kanna thought it was a good psychological diversion. The necklace was telling her it was time to quit. She paused to consider giving Mercury a parting shot, but thought better of it, realizing she would have to concentrate on the black crystal prism to get out of her battleground. --- Ranma spent threw several blasts in Taro's direction, and even occasionally allowed Sailor Moon to get a shot in. Pantyhose Taro, however, seemed to be taking it all in stride, basically shrugging-off whatever attack was thrown at him easily. The fact of the matter was, Taro was playing with them. The four heart crystals orbited around Taro like electrons to their nucleus: two traveling on the same path each, in orbits opposite the other, never coming into contact with one another. Black electrical energy surged every once in a while toward Taro, the nucleus, as he drew strength from the souls. Taro's got the speed of Kuno, the agility of Kodachi, the skill of Miranda, and his own martial arts prowess behind him, Ranma thought. It's almost like fighting all four of them at once, except there was only one enemy body to deal with. "It's no use," Ranma muttered. "We can't give up!" encouraged Sailor Moon. "For your friends, and mine, too... we can't lose!" Ranma cast a glance in Akane's direction, who had retreated away from the palace wall since being released by Taro. His eyes met hers, and Ranma saw the concern in her expression. Taro had to pay. Despite Sailor Moon's warnings, which fell on deaf ears, Ranma rushed Taro head-on, the black crystal hanging from his neck glowing a constant violet hue. Anger and frustration transformed into raw power as Ranma's adrenaline kicked in, and he threw several rapid punches and kicks in succession. Pantyhose Taro dodged each and every blow, his hands in his pockets. Ranma's anger burned brighter as he could not land a single blow on his opponent, not even one of the orbiting heart crystals if he wanted to. A single, quick strike, too quick for Ranma to see, was all it would take to pull the martial artist out of the engagement. Ranma paused to stare down at his chest, and saw that Taro slashed it open, drawing the barest traces of blood in a clean scar. The pause was all that was necessary for Taro to continue his relentless attack, as he quickly pummeled Ranma on top of the head, then planted his foot in his chest and kicked Ranma away. He sincerely wished that Sailor Moon used that opportunity to launch her own attack, but instead she was there to break his fall. Ranma cast a quick glance back at her, and hissed, "What the hell are you doing? Attack him!" "Ranma, listen to me," Sailor Moon said, her voice hard and serious. "You have to let go of the crystal; you're letting it use you!" "Nobody, not even a crystal, uses me!" Ranma declared. "Please!" she pleaded. "The Chaos cells in your body are preventing you from beating him. You're trying to do everything by yourself, and we can't defeat Taro unless we work together." "Work together," the martial artist repeated in consideration. Ayame stressed the same thing from day one, and Ranma knew just as well as she did what happened when everybody went their own directions. It resulted in a fiendish bastard like Pantyhose Taro. "Are you taking your time?" taunted Taro, folding his arms. "Or are you adding another girl to your harem?" Ranma lowered his head, raising a hand to clutch the black crystal hanging around his neck. "Ayame, Akane, and Sailor Moon can't all be wrong," he decided, talking to himself. "Even if their words and goals are different...." He heard Sailor Moon gasp in surprise as he tore the necklace apart, yanking it off forcefully. Ranma barely felt the pain. Lifting his head up, he faced his enemy. "Yo, Pantyhose Taro!" He ignored Taro's obligatory protest, and wound his arm for the pitch. "Catch!" "What the...?!" Taro gasped, as the resonating black crystal flew through the air in his direction. In haste he raised his arms up, black lightning forming around his palms.... The resulting explosion threw Ranma off his feet, and he felt himself fly backward until he smashed into the wall behind him, probably the palace wall. The intensity of the light blinded him so much that he had no idea what was happening, but soon the light died out, giving way to darkness as consciousness slipped from him. --- A violent tremor shook the whole of the palace, causing Mars to lose her balance as she hunted for Mousse in the palace halls. The tremor lasted for no more than seven seconds by her reckoning, but that was enough of a window of opportunity for Mousse to make his attack. She tumbled backward as knives, thrown terribly due to the sudden tremor, landed on the ground in front of her. Mars quickly stood up and summoned a Fire Soul, sending it down the hallway, but it was too slow to catch her opponent, who ducked into an adjacent hall. Even though the palace was technically her home ground advantage, Mousse was the one who was making the rules. The moment the fireball soared past him the Master of Hidden Weapons reappeared, and threw several tethered weapons her direction. Mars saw that she had nowhere to run, and tried to summon another fireball, but the tethers quickly wrapped around her arms and legs. She stood back against the pull from Mousse, as he tried to force her off her feet. "Not so hot without your hands, huh?" Mousse taunted, dragging his chains back in slowly. "You've thwarted me for the last time, Sailor Mars!" Mars, despite being preoccupied with struggling against the chains, noted that Mousse was covering his hands with his sleeves as he dragged her in. While the cloth would serve to protect his hands somewhat, it was still cloth. But there was only one way to find out. "Alright, you," she hissed, "three's a charm!" She rotated her hands around and clamed down on the chains holding her arms, and summoned her flame. Unfortunately for Mousse, the third time was the one that would finally do him in as Mars superheated the chains in her hands. The intense change in temperature quickly ran down the length of the chain, and Mousse screamed in pain as he shook his arms about, trying to release his hold on the chains. Long length of reddening chain fell down and out his sleeves before Mousse was freed from his self-made trap. As Mars loosened the chains from her limbs Mousse clutched his burnt hands close to his chest, both steaming hot. She felt a moment of pity for the martial artist as he screamed endlessly, but it transformed into shock and surprise when the temperature changed yet again in the air, this time coming from behind. She felt the spray of an icy liquid on her back and hair, bringing the overall temperature to the opposite Mars gave Mousse only moments before. Mars looked down at her arms, which seemed stiff, and saw that they were frozen solid, encased in ice in a matter of microseconds. "Leave him alone," Shizuka warned, the nozzle of the fire buster emitting vapor. Mars looked over her shoulder and saw the weapon trained on her, and knew her rival got her this time. The priestess of Genbu threw the buster back over her shoulder, and pushed her way past Mars, and stopped only for Mousse, who was too much in shock to say anything intelligible. She reached down and grabbed his hands, and stared at them, turning the palms upward to see. She then raised one of them for Mars to see, and the soldier of fire saw they were severely burned. "Take a good, long look at this, prostitute!" She released Mousse's hands, and grabbed her fire buster again. "I won't let you harm my friends... ever again!" Shizuka aimed her fire buster, twisting the nozzle counter-clockwise once, and squeezed the trigger. "Shine Aqua Illusion!" Mars realized she had her eyes shut, and forced them open as Sailor Mercury's attack zipped down the cross hall and speared through the fire buster. A massive elemental explosion of fire and water erupted, and steam emerged from the impact point. Mars heard an explosion, and knew the Deathbuster weapon was the source. She could make out a silhouette emerging from the steam cloud, but Mars could not move her arms. It proved that defending herself became unnecessary, as Mercury emerged, looking quite tired, but unhurt. "Are you okay?" she asked. Mars nodded quickly, despite the shiver in her body. "Now I know how a Popsicle feels," she replied jokingly. "What happened to Shizuka?" "She and Mousse escaped," Mercury answered, staring down at Mars's frozen arms and chest. "We'd better get you defrosted before your body breaks apart from the cold." "What happened to the others?" She shook her head. "Kanna retreated, but I don't know about Sailor Moon and Ranma. I think they were the cause of the tremor a little while ago." --- Where Sailor Mars was suffering the effects of extreme cold, Mousse agonized over his burnt hands, but he finally managed to control his yelling and screaming as Shizuka dressed the wounds with the equipment raided from the district hospital. He stared down once at his hands, now being bandaged tightly by the priestess, then out the window, toward the Crystal Palace. Despite night having fallen there was enough illumination from the moon to see some of the details of the structure. An entire section of the wall appeared cracked, as if by some massive explosion. Mousse wondered if Ranma was the cause. "Stop moving around," ordered Shizuka, her words muffled as she held the end of the bandage tape in her mouth to tear off the rest of the roll. Despite having her weapon blow up in her face, at least the priestess of Genbu seemed to be in her usual spirits. 'Seemed' was the key word. "Uh, Shizuka... about back there," Mousse struggled to say, trying to find the right words, but feeling awkward despite himself. "Am I really your friend?" She spat out the tape in her mouth, eyeing Mousse carefully. "You aren't going to laugh or something, are you? Or get sentimental or whatever crap you Chinese Amazons do? Because I don't particularly like both." She lowered her eyes, and started on his other hand. "Besides, it was a slip of the tongue. Your well-being doesn't matter to me." And despite such a brush, Mousse understood perfectly. "I see. You're such an idiot, galloping in there like your weakling self." "Shut up," Shizuka replied, keeping up the pretense for a while longer. "At least I'm not the one that got burned, you dumb moth." Inwardly, he smiled, knowing this was exactly the way things should be. --- Pantyhose Taro cradled his right arm carefully as the four heart crystals continued to orbit around his body. He stared down at his palm, where the Deathbuster star once was, replaced by bloodied, exposed bone. "I'll get you for this, Femme-boy," he vowed, flexing his ruined, skeletal hand into a fist. "You got lucky this time, but no amount of trickery can defeat gods like me!" He felt the Chaos cells flowing into his ruined hand, quickly repairing the damage done, but Taro knew the real scar would never heal until his enemies were all destroyed. --- Ranma felt as if the world were dropped on top of him as he stared up at the ceiling, blinking out the blur in his eyes. He thought he saw a dark shape staring down at him, and for a moment he thought it was Akane. "Ranma?" she asked. Yes, it was Akane. "Uhh... Akane...?" "You'll be okay," she assured him. "You beat Pantyhose Taro." Ranma blinked, the words not registering in his mind at all. "I won?" "Yes!" she said, obviously overjoyed. Ranma felt her warm hand touch his. "He's still out there," he knew. "Don't worry about it," Akane told him, "you just rest and recover. Sailor Moon will take care of the rest." Sailor Moon. Ranma tried to sit up, but he felt a sharp pain shoot up his spine, and he was forced to lie down again. "Dammit." "I told you to rest, dummy!" Akane yelled. In the space of seconds the situation became much more clearer to Ranma, and his senses were on full alert. "Akane, what happened to the others?" She shrugged. "They must have run away. The other Sailor Senshi beat them back." "Where are we?" "In the palace, where else?" "What time?!" She told him, and the answer was not the one he wanted to hear. Ranma raised his hand, brushing off Akane's, and grabbed her arm tightly. "You've got to get out of here, now!" "W-why?!" "Trust me! You won't survive if you stay here!" "But I won't leave without you!" she cried. "So what's going to happen?!" --- Standing out in the courtyard, no one could find a trace of Pantyhose Taro, as in her last encounter. Sailor Moon, however, wasn't looking toward the sky for a sign of the traitorous Fenril Knight, but for the two globes of light that descended from space. Beside her Mars and Mercury exchanged glances, then watched along with Moon as Uranus and Neptune landed from their long, hazardous journey through the stars. "Welcome home," Sailor Moon said in greeting. Both Uranus and Neptune were kneeling, despite their obvious exhaustion. Uranus looked up toward her leader, and stated, "I only wish the circumstances were better, Your Highness." "We would've been here sooner, but the enemy on Nemesis detained us for some time," added Neptune. Sailor Moon glanced at both Mars and Mercury, then back to the travelers. "The Nemesian Fenril Knights?" "'Fenril Knights?'" echoed Uranus, confused. "I thought they were remnants of the Black Moon Family." "It looks like we're all going to have to do a little catching-up, then," Mercury determined. "A lot has happened...." "And if we don't act soon... the Mekani are poised to invade in three days," Neptune warned. "Three days?!" Mars exclaimed. "That soon?" "That's what your 'Fenril Knights' said," Uranus confirmed. "But, take into consideration that they told us that a day ago, so we really only have two days before they arrive." "One thing just leads to another," groaned Mars, shaking her head. Almost on cue, jinxing the situation, all five Sailor Senshi felt the earth move beneath their feet. A violent tremor, much larger and more wide a scale than the black crystal's explosion, shook the city. "What's going on?!" Sailor Moon cried. --- R&D Control Center, Mishima Heavy Industries The mobile, remote watcher drones panned about for the main viewscreen, displaying the greatness of the Dead End Buster in its entirety. Water cascaded down its surface as it ripped through the surface of the sea The mighty airship, easily as large as the high-rise Mishima office building on its side, slowly craned a large cannon barrel downward toward its target. Ayame looked back toward Higure, and the man standing next to him, who she learned was Shang Long, the leader of the Cult of Orochi. The blind man dressed similar in style to a Buddhist monk, and carried a staff of a metal head and rings, the head fashioned in a sunburst pattern. He wore an oversized sun hat that easily concealed his face in shadow, and while it would disrupt the field of vision for most people the blind Shang Long had no use for eyesight. "This Dead End Buster is nothing more than the cannon mounted on a platform," Higure noted. Chief Engineer Dumas nodded in agreement. "The platform is dedicated only to keeping the cannon up in the air, and it required a high power output. In secret we prepared a second engine, this one much larger and more powerful than the one we used to power the Mekani device." Indeed, Ayame saw that the entire airship looked more like a flying turret. The platform was shaped in a delta pattern, with the triangular head facing the same direction as the cannon. The cannon's base was located at the foci of the platform to offer a better sense of balance while in the atmosphere. The entire platform was flat and featureless, save it was covered with numerous black panels. "The main cannon utilizes salvaged kami technology from Yamato's main cannon," Shang Long explained, referring to his god's traditional underworld fortress. While the fortress Yamato normally resided in the underworld of the Kami Plane it existed in the exact same location on Earth due to the efforts of the Sailor Senshi. Essentially, the Dead End Buster was another gift from Higure's allies. "Yamato's main cannon derives its power from eight fundamental sources of energy, particularly the elements, converting them into a single, concentrated blast," continued the cult leader. "Since travel and gates to other planes has been sealed, we had to look to other sources of energy." "Would it have been easier to siphon extra power from the new engine?" asked Higure. "It would drain too much energy from actually keeping the airship in the air," Dumas replied. "We had to improvise yet again." "The fact is," Ayame informed the old man, "Kanna's mission wasn't just to take over Geneva, but to place special black crystal chunks in key locations around the world. Those key locations also happen to be at or near centers of high population density. We are going to power the Dead End Buster by siphoning a little energy from everyone around the world, essentially a larger-scale version of what we did for Crystal Tokyo. Given our previous results, with this many people they'd hardly notice it." "And in order to divert the energy to the buster," Dumas chipped in, "we also placed into orbit sixty- four special satellites in secret. Their sole purpose is to redirect the energy flow from each of the black crystal chunks to the Dead End Buster's collector." He pointed to the flat of the platform. "All that empty space you see is one giant energy collector." "In essence, we will never run out of energy so long as there are people living in this world!" Ayame declared, watching the Dead End Buster reach its zenith. The cannon barrel steadied itself toward the primary target, the Crystal Palace. "Thanks to the cooperation of Deathbuster technology, kami technology, Wiseman's magic, and our own human ingenuity, we have created the ultimate weapon!" the leader of the Fenril Knights said grandly. "Now, my friends, I present to you..." she gestured toward the main viewscreen, "the Mishima airship 'Night Hammer!'" --- Sailor Moon glanced up toward the flying cannon, and shielded her eyes as violet lightning rained from the heavens. The dark energy blotted out the sky, illuminating the darkness of the night and bombarded the cannon's platform. Her eyes widened in amazement as the platform glowed momentarily, and realized that the weapon was gaining in power. The barrel's end began to coalesce with energy, and she knew what was going to happen. This was how the Fenril Knights planned to end the war all along, and they are willing to sacrifice some of their own to make it happen. Sailor Moon knew she had only a few seconds to find a way out of this situation as she frantically tried to sort out a solution from her mind. --- Ayame leaned over the console under the viewscreen, her thumb hovering over a large, red button set apart from all the others. She asked the technician working at the station away after he set up the weapon, as she desired the honor of giving the Dead End Buster its first shot herself. "May God have mercy on your soul, you soul-eating bitch," she whispered, lowering her thumb quickly. --- From their vantage point, well away from ground zero on the high-rise Mishima Heavy Industries building, Kanna, Shizuka, and Mousse watched the Dead End Buster ready to fire, and each shielded their eyes from the intense violet light. Turning her back away from the inevitable conclusion, the Crystal Spider shouldered her death scythe. "It's not over yet," she declared, vanishing into thin air. Both Mousse and Shizuka looked toward each other and nodded, turning their backs and vanishing just as the cannon unleashed its fury on Crystal Tokyo. --- World Parliament, Geneva "We have deliberated for twenty-four hours," said the appointed regional governor, given the task of breaking the news to the world. He stood in the same room Kanna used earlier to broadcast her original message, and while no one else was in the room he felt the entire world was watching him. "And we have come to an unanimous decision." "In light of the Fenril Knights' insistence that we evaluate the rule of Earth-- whether it belongs to Neo Queen Serenity or the people-- we weight all options and considered every possibility imaginable. It is to our conclusion that we the people of Earth are the subjects of Neo Queen Serenity, and nothing can ever change that." "It is not enough that the people rule themselves, as we also need guidance and direction toward our goals of a better future. We need a nexus from which we can draw strength from in order to move on. We need a hope that can lead us through our darkest times, whether they be invasion from beyond the stars, or from within our own society. We need a mother, who's love and caring can guide humanity's destiny to a bright future for our children." "It is to our recommendation that the Fenril Knights, their leaders, proxies, allies, and army, are to be placed under arrest for charges of high treason against humanity. Terrorism will not be tolerated on this Earth, and you are no exception. By recommendation of the world parliament we order all members and associates of the Fenril Knights to lay down their arms and surrender. Your fifteen minutes are up." --- R&D Control Center, Mishima Heavy Industries Ayame slumped back in her seat as the world broadcast came through the interference of the world- wide energy siphon for the Dead End Buster, and buried her face in her hands. The rest of the occupants of the control center remained silent, as no one dared to make a peep. Ayame vowed not to cry... not because her side lost, but for the fact that the war was over. The most exciting time of her life came and went in an instant. "Everybody," she whispered to herself, "thanks for everything." Silently, she stood up from her chair, and turned around. She saw that all eyes were on her, waiting for her to speak. Ayame's eyes glanced toward Higure, the old man who managed to survive the chaos even though those many years younger died. Her eyes passed to Shang Long, a participant in the shadows of the war, and a critical part in getting the Dead End Buster completed. Then she saw Dumas, Taydome's replacement, and Ayame saw sadness in his eyes, in that his work was over. Her eyes passed to the rest of the gathered technicians, and realized that this may be the last time all of them would be together like this. It was a moment Ayame wished would never pass, as she was the leader of the finest terrorist group history has ever known. I'm the leader. Nothing needed to be said, as all of them understood the significance of the announcement from the world parliament. No one cried, no one shouted in anger, and no one made a move to shrug it off-- this fate was accepted by all. She turned around, and stared down at the console before her. Looking back up at the Night Hammer in the viewscreen it seemed silly that the Fenril Knights would dare to surrender, but they were no ordinary terrorist group, they were the finest. Ayame opened a communications channel to the world parliament, flipping a pre-selected switch. Her next words would decide the future of her people, but she needed no time to consider them; Ayame had the words prepared a long time ago. Fifteen minutes, indeed. This phase of endgame was merely the beginning, and the final act had yet to play out. "I am Ayame Mishima, leader of the Fenril Knights," she said, forcing her strongest voice to the fore. "On behalf of my allies and associates here on Earth, we surrender ourselves to the world parliament and the people it governs." ---------------------------------------------------- Author's Notes It's not over yet.... --Razorclaw X (spiceoflife@NOhotmailSPAM.com) http://www.crosswinds.net/~slythe/index.html