Enter Star Navigators

After a long hot summer without e-mail, I'm back with more of the
story.  Sorry to all of you who were kept hanging(^_^)
E-mail me at h_cassi1@squid.stmarys.ca


Chapter Twelve
A Daring Rescue

	"You know Greg?" Amy asked her cousin.
	"Oh, I know him all right, but what I can't figure out is how he's in
human form, and how he's managed to convince you all to listen to him."
	"What are you talking about?"
	"He's evil!  Tainted by contact with the great shadow!"
	"Oh, that.  It's okay Catrina, Sailor Moon healed him with the Crescent
Moon Wand.  How did you know about that anyway?"
	"Well, since he's been cured, I guess there's no harm in letting the
two of you remember your past."
	Luna stepped forward.  "Do you need me to..."
	"No, Luna." Catrina said, "This block can only be lifted by someone who
was there when it was placed on them, and right now I'm the only one who
fits that category."
	During this discussion Amy and Greg had moved closer and closer
together, involuntarily gripping each others' hands.  "What do we do?"
asked Amy tremulously.
	Come sit in a circle with me and join hands, and I'll lift the ban on
you so you can hear your story." she said.
  	They sat on the floor with her and she touched each of their
foreheads and muttered a single word, then began the story.
	"In the past on the Moon Kingdom, there were seven people who were born
connected to the power of the Silver Crystal.  Even the mystics didn't
know how it was that they in particular had this connection, but they
were revered for it. Each had a special skill and a colour; because of
this, when they were all together, they were called 'the Rainbow'.  Greg
was the third colour, yellow, and the youngest of all of them.  He and
Princess Mercury had loved each other since they were young children,
and, since Greg had high status, by virtue of his being part of the
Rainbow, her parents had agreed that they should someday be married." 
At this, Amy and Greg looked at each other and shyly smiled.  "In what
we now know to have been one of Queen Beryl's early probing attacks, a
monster called 'the Great Shadow' was released.  The only ones able to
combat this threat were the Rainbow.  They went up against it, and were
able to quell it, but at a terrible price.  As they shattered it into
seven pieces, a piece entered each of their hearts, and they became the
Seven Shadows.  When she heard that her love was corrupted and that
there was no known way to cure him, my cousin went into deep mourning. 
She refused to eat or sleep, and soon her family, worried for her
health, had to take drastic measures.  They took her home to Mercury,
where a secret ceremony was performed to block all her memories of Greg,
and, lest it become a threat to her, all his memories of her as well." 
Catrina looked at the two of them, "I hope that this has broken the
spell completely."
	"It has." Amy said, with tears in her eyes, "I just want to say that
I'm not angry about what was done.  I was in such pain that I probably
would have died had it not been alleviated."
	Greg held her hand tightly between both of hers and looked into her
eyes.  "You'll never have such cause for grief again, I promise!" he
swore to her.
	"Now that we've got that dealt with, what was it you wanted to talk to
us about, Greg?" Triese asked him.
	"I had a vision that one of the others of the Rainbow, Peggy Jones, was
abducted last night and taken to the Negaverse
	"This is bad." Elwing stated, "If they find out new facts about the
past from her, they could discover some weakness we don't yet remember
we have.  In order to safeguard ourselves, our only choice at this point
is to make a foray into the Negaverse to release her, and perhaps at the
same time we may learn something of their plans."
	"So, what are we waiting for?" Lita asked, "Let's transform and go get
her!"
	"Much as I would like to do just that, I think it would be better to at
least have an outline of a plan.  Triese, you, of all of us, have spent
the most time in the fortress of our enemy, what can you tell me about
the cell you were in?"
	Triese described in detail the parameters of the cell she had been
placed in, and the rudiments of a plan were worked out.

	In the Negaverse, Colg was relaxing as his prisoners slept
uneventfully, blissfully unaware of the disaster which was soon to be
visited upon him.  "Once we have taken over control of the humans'
destiny, I'll make sure every last glimmer of the moon kingdom is erased
from their memory!" he laughed evilly.
	An oddly shaped door appeared in front of him, filled with mist, and
framing a hazy female figure with a tall staff.  "You may find that much
harder than you think." said the mysterious woman, "The future you seek
to change cannot be altered, for it has already affected the past, and
the past is written in stone."  Just as suddenly, the door disappeared.
	'The Sailors must very worried about me if they're trying to frighten
me with visions.' Colg congratulated himself.

	Peggy watched as her three cellmates slept.  'This is so odd.' she
thought to herself, 'If we're prisoners, why keep us all together? 
Travis sais that at first he was in a different cell, so there should
surely be more room; it's really cramped in here, this cell was
obviously designed to hold only one or two prisoners.'  She sat with her
knees curled up to take up as little room as possible, leaned up against
the cell wall, and tried to think about the new paintings she would be
doing when she got home.  It was still her turn at watch, she wasn't yet
tired enough to trade it off.  
	Suddenly the thirteen Sailors arrived, ringing the outside of the cage.
	"What are you doing here?" asked Peggy of Sailor Moon, "And how come
there are so many of you?"
	"We're here to rescue you." Sailor Rigel told her, "The rest can wait."
	"You'd better be careful.  Our captor seems to have some way of spying
on us, he might..."
	"I might appear and attack you!" laughed Colg coldly as he walked out
of a warphole carrying his crystal sword, "You're on my home ground now,
so don't expect so easy a victory as you had before!"
	"In the name of Mercury, I won't allow you to take innocent people
prisoner!  Mercury Bubbles Blast!" shouted Sailor mercury, filling the
room with dense fog.
	Sailor Mars held up a charm. "Mars Firebird Strike!" she cried,
releasing the only safe attack she had in such a confined space.  
	Unable to dodge it due to the dense fog, Colg was badly burned. 
Realizing that his sword would be useless in such tight quarters, Colg
got rid of it and tried to fight hand to hand.  To his detriment. 
Unable to see to pick his opponents, and the cramped quarters allowing
him no movement past the Sailors flanking him, he had to fight the
closest one, who just happened to be Sailor Rigel.
	"You're never catching me unaware again, Nega-punk!" she taunted him.  
	This confused him for a minute.  He, of course, didn't know that his
former prisoner, Triese Sealgaire, was Sailor Rigel.  This distraction
was all she needed.  Working on instinct, since she couldn't see through
the fog, she grabbed him by his upper torso and used some of his
borrowed strength to slam him into the bars of the cage, knocking him
unconscious.  
	"Sailor Mizar, you're closest, sit on him for me would you, I want to
make sure he doesn't wake up while I weaken the bars so we can rescue
these poor prisoners." Sailor Rigel called.
	During all the commotion, Peggy had gone to all her cellmates and
reassured them as they woke, frightened and disoriented in the fog.
	"Come to my voice." Sailor Rigel told them, "You'll be home soon, but
we can't get you there until we can find you in this fog."
	It was easy enough to find the hole in the cage which Sailor Rigel had
made for them, and the four prisoners quickly met up with her.
	"I need everyone to bunch together as much as possible, since I can't
see you." Sailor Elwing called.  She linked with Sailor Polaris to make
sure she got everybody, then teleported them out of the Negaverse and
into Raye's temple.

	"Okay, I want an explanation." Dave demanded.
	"There's so much which we can't tell you," Sailor Vega apologized, "but
I'll try to clear things up for you."
	"How about starting by explaining who you are?"
	"Well, you probably haven't heard of us, but we're the Star Navigators
and the Sailor Scouts." She went around the circle and introduced
everyone, then continued her explanation, "We are fighting the force who
took you captive.  We need to know why it was that they took you."
	"And I need to examine them to make sure they're alright." Sailor
mercury piped up.
	"As far as I know, our captor wanted to know about certain dreams we
were having." Erina offered.
	'Those dreams could be important.  Could you possibly tell them to us? 
Anything you can remember telling them could be useful.  We need to know
what they know, in order to prevent them using it against us."
	"Are you going to send us home?" asked Travis.
	"As soon as we know it's safe to." Sailor Elwing assured him, "Sailor
Mercury?"
	"They seem to have some sort of crystal device implanted in their
wrists.  I'm not sure what it's for, but it seems to be connected in
some way to the hippocampus." Sailor Mercury reported.
	"Can you get it out?"
	"I don't dare try!  The brain is a very delicate thing.  If it were
only under the skin of the wrist I'd be fine, but this connection to the
brain puts it beyond my skills.  But not beyond help,' she assured their
now very worried looking guests, "Sailor Moon can use her Moon Healing."
	They looked to her.  "You can?" Peggy asked.
	"Of course." Sailor Moon assured her, "Moon Crystal Healing
Activation!"
	An immense ball of fuscia light surrounded them, and when it
disappeared, they looked much better.  Upon reexamining them, Sailor
Mercury announced that the dangerous crystal devices were gone.
	"Now, please tell us about your dreams." Sailor Venus said, coming and
sitting by them.  The rest of the Sailors sat down, and the former
prisoners began relating their stories.
	
	Back in the Negaverse, things weren't going well for Colg.  Upon
regaining consciousness, he immediately called the Guard to alert.  A
useless gesture, he knew; he had recognized the distinctive deep purple
and green of Sailor Elwing across the room from him, and therefore he
knew they were long gone.  'And what other way could they have gotten in
here in the first place?' he thought to himself, ' they don't know how
to create warpholes.'
	"Commander Colg, report to me at once!" Lord Anord ordered.
	"I'm in for it now!" Colg groaned, and warped to the throne room.
	In the throne room, something looked subtly different to Colg.  It took
him awhile to realize there was another man in the room beside him.  The
man was so close that Colg had to suppress the involuntary urge to jump
when he realized he was there, and yet, Colg realized, he had been there
the entire time.  He seemed to exude greyness.  Even the dark
brownish-red of his uniform seemed to fade into the large
granite-and-basalt room.  Colg got the impression that he could see the
man only because he was allowing himself to be seen, and that unnerved
him a bit; How many times had this man, or someone like him, been
standing here and he not seen him?  The answer to that pondering came
soon enough.
	"So, Commander Colg, I see you've met Information Officer Braith."
	So this was what an Information Corps officer looked like.  Colg tried
hard not to shiver visibly.  He knew he was probably in a lot of trouble
if the Information Corps was involved.  "Yes, my Lord." Colg said
finally, and to Braith he said; "I'm honoured to see you, Sir."  Not
meet, because Colg was sure Braith already knew him almost more
intimately than he knew himself.  What other reason could he have to be
here?  Especially now, after Colg had failed miserably.
	"Officer Braith," Lord Anord addressed the Information Officer, "you
were assigned the task of watching over Commander Colg.  The time has
now come to report your findings."
	"Yes, my Lord." Braith said, in a voice as grey as his appearance, "You
first assigned me the task of watching the Commander when he began
making forays out of the Negaverse to test the waters for you, and
perhaps find the best place to draw energy from."
	'That long!' thought Colg, but he said nothing out loud.
	"His explorations remained uneventful until after the first incident of
a drone not returning, when he found, completely by accident, a girl who
had a spontaneous flashback to the Silver Millennium.  Although he was
unable to keep her captive, as the Sailor Scouts and two of the Star
Navigators came and rescued her, the incident gave him the idea that
perhaps, if one person was having such flashbacks, many more might also
be.  Instead of going after his previous victim, who obviously had close
ties to the Scouts, he decided to keep an eye on her close friend
Ailine, reasoning that, in such things as memories, like is attracted to
like.  This did prove to be beneficial, although not in the manner
anticipated.  As it turned out, Ailine's roommate also had a flashback
to the Silver Millennium.  As soon as he saw this, Colg captured the
girl and took her to a cell beneath the Hall of Chaos.  Soon afterward,
however, she disappeared.  It looked, for all intents and purposes, as
though she had been rescued, so Colg sealed off the cell and put a
timelock on it.  However, fearful of incurring your wrath, my Lord, he
made no mention of the incident.  Instead, he created a crystal tuned to
dreams from the Silver Millennium.  I have since released the timelock
and run a playback of the events.  In doing this, I found that she was
doubly rescued.  First by a guardian cat named Reyltain, who revealed
her identity as Sailor Rigel," Braith paused to let this revelation sink
in, "Then by the Sailor Scouts, and Star Navigators Sailors Elwing,
Polaris and Vega.  At that time, Sailor Vega named herself as Ailine,
the roommate of Triese, Sailor Rigel." he paused again, "After finding a
replacement prisoner, Colg continued, for the next few weeks, to gather
four more, one of whom was Sub-Lieutenant Bayatekt.  Through trial and
error he learned that if two prisoners, or any multiple of such, were
put in the same cell, they would harmonize in some way and produce new
dreams.  It was soon after he captured his sixth and last prisoner that
he ran into trouble again.  The Sailor Scouts and star Navigators, this
time including Sailors Altair, Mizar, Alcor and Alphecca as well,
attacked in force and managed to overpower him.  One more interesting
thing to note is that, just before the other Sailors attacked, Colg had
a visit from Sailor Pluto.  In her typical enigmatic manner, she told
him this: 'The future you seek to change cannot be altered, for it has
already affected the past, and the past is written in stone.'  That is
the gist of my report, my Lord." Braith finished, and stepped back.
	"Commander Colg." Lord Anord said formally, "Since you failed to report
to me information which could be vital to our mission, and kept from me
your failure to hold a prisoner in the Negaverse, I order you now to
relinquish your sword and your dream crystal.  For these offences you
have committed, you will be banished, living, to the centre of a black
hole.
	Colg bowed his head, accepting his fate, and suddenly a warphole
appeared behind him and sucked him in, leaving only his crystal and
sword, which clattered to the floor.

FIN

