Sailor Heart & Eclipse sailorheart@hotmail.com Soulsower Chapter 7 The walls still pulsed with the blue, green, gold, red, pink, and black bands of energy as we ran along the path. Where it lead, we didn't know, but we hoped it would take us to the Scouts. My mind was a total jumble of emotions; too hard to figure it out. I thought about each little thing that was currently bothering me. First there was the fact that Eclipse and I were the last ones left to fight this entity. I wasn't too thrilled at that because of my distrust of her, but I knew that for both of our sakes I'd have to keep it quiet. Besides, I could tell that she still, as much as she wanted to, couldn't trust me either. The second thing that bothered me was that all communications with Amy had stopped after the last attack. This left us alone and in the dark. We couldn't get any sort of information from Amy to help us which also wasn't helping matters. And finally, the thing that bothered me the most about this whole setup, was the fact that whatever this force was, it was controlling Jupiter and using her against us. I stopped and Eclipse continued on until she noticed that I was a few feet behind her. "What's the problem?" Eclipse was not happy with the whole scenario either. "I can't do this..." I stammered. "I can't go on knowing that I might kill her... The loss would be intolerable to bear... I won't do this anymore. Jupiter will have to kill me first." "Of course, you know that in the state she is, she... no, it won't hesitate on that. And if you're not around, there will be no way to beat this thing. I know it's difficult, but..." "Do you not understand what the problem is?! I may have to end the very life of my entire world! I can't be bothered to think about sacrificing the one for the good of the many! I could never look myself in the mirror again... the eyes of complete strangers boring into me as I walk along the street, as if they all knew the horrible thing I had done... I could no longer be a Scout... the surroundings and the familiarity would haunt me for the rest of my existence... but you can't understand that cause you live forever!! It's different with us you know... we spend our lives looking for someone... someone we can care for and love for the rest of our lives... that's why we have the phrase... "till death do us part"! When it's a new love like Jupiter and I have, you don't want to kill it... you want to let it blossom..." By now, I was hysterical and rambling. Fortunately, Eclipse came up to me and, with tears in her eyes, backhanded me across my face. Just then, we both noticed something glowing in the wall... or the floor... it was tough to see with all the emotion and tears in my eyes. Eclipse walked over and picked it up. It was the Imperium Silver Crystal and the Crescent Moon Wand! "Hey, Sailor Heart, any idea what this is?" Eclipse felt around the wand as if fascinated at the object. "Ahem, it's the Crescent Moon Wand and Imperium Silver Crystal. It's Sailor Moon's. She must have dropped it or something." "Imperium Silver Crystal? Crescent Moon Wand?" Quickly, as we continued on our quest, I told Eclipse the story, as Lita had told me about the battle they had fought with Queen Beryl and the events leading up to it. "So, this is what Princess Serena used to banish Beryl from the universe? Very interesting. Well, I guess you'd better take it into battle then, right?" "Me? You who are the sister of the Princess, are entrusting it to me? I don't think I'm worthy of it right now. Besides, it's flickering like crazy when you hold it. I think you should carry it against our enemy." "I don't really know what to say..... thank you. I will guard it with every fiber of my being." "Just until we find Serena and the others, though. Right?" "Right." "How touching! Even as you face certain obliteration, you still try to destroy me. How admirable. Too bad there is no honor in self-sacrifice!!" It had to be the Soulsower!! The voice it projected immediately produced an involuntary chill of fear down both of our spines. "The greatest honor of all is to lay down our lives for one another!" Eclipse shouted. The minutes seemed like years as we pushed on, now more determined than ever. We continued running until we saw the enemy. It's only recognizable trait was the straw Japanese hat it wore. It reminded me of a certain electrical character from a specific fighting game series. With rage building inside me, I attempted a blast of Heart Acid, but it just went right through the image and hit the wall behind it "Damn, it's an illusion!" "YOU WILL GO NO FURTHER!!" The image had changed. It was now Jupiter, standing directly in front of us. "You will submit to the will of the Soulsower or be destroyed. This Scout did!" "If you know all of our backgrounds, than you must know that Sailor Jupiter doesn't submit to anything!" I shouted rather futily. "There is a first time for everything..." the image of Jupiter spoke, using Lita's voice. Suddenly, the image began coalescing. Soon, it became the solid, 3-D form of Sailor Jupiter. I knew better this time, and avoided walking over and giving it a hug. She started launching her Thunderclap but both Eclipse and I managed to dodge it. I landed on my feet and began running toward her. As she started to power up again, her jaw caught a beautiful left hook from me. "Oh, I hope she won't remember this part. Serenity guide me..." She got up wiped some blood from her lips and as she rose, I caught her again, this time with the right. She fell to the ground out cold. A strange etherial mist came pouring out of her mouth and Eclipse pulled me back to avoid being consumed by it. The mist turned around and headed towards us again. "Use my friend against me, will ya? Here's how I spell relief! Heart! Acid! Burn!" The acid was holding it back, but it wasn't being defeated. "I could use some HELP here!!" I yelled at Eclipse. "You got it. Eclipse! Infinity! Torment!" With both of our powers, we managed to defeat the shadowed, mist-like monster. As I turned to pick up the still unconscious Lita, there was a small figure attempting to drag her away. With great difficulty, the figure realized that it was too small and so it was powering up some kind of transporter beam. Soon, both the figure and the long legs of Jupiter were gone. "Almost had her back again, didn't we?" Eclipse was trying to console me. I didn't know how to take her comment, so I just motioned for us to continue. After what seemed like hours of walking, we finally found the core of the cave. As I expected, The Soulsower, and the Scouts were all there. The Scouts were in bad shape... their bodies naked and grey-colored. Their eyes were open but nothing in them. Jupiter had been placed in a cell similar to the others. Liquids, the color of each Scout's aura, surrounded each girl. Still, by some method, the girls were still able to breathe. "So, you made it this far, did you? Well, then. I guess it's up to us to stop you!" The Soulsower was laughing at us. "Wrong! It's up to just you!" said a second voice. It sounded very familiar. "What do you think you are doing?" "Trying my damndest to stop you!" "How dare you? After all that I have done for you?" "You've done nothing for me!! It's always been for yourself! Not any more." "Fine. I no longer have any use for you at all!!" Using a powerful bolt of energy, The Soulsower pushed the owner of the voice out into existance. "Sam!" I ran over to her to see if she was all right. "My name is Kyanite. I am from the Negaverse. I was orphaned as a child on this planet Earth and I was just looking for someone of my own kind. I never meant for anyone to be hurt by this, but you must know that I never controlled this monster. It tricked me into believing it was also from the Negaverse, but I have realized that it isn't. I think it's time for a little payback. "Kyanite!! Dark Crystal!! Enslave!!" Kyanite released an energy ball with the intent on capturing the Soulsower within it. However, the Soulsower just brushed it off. "You fool!! Your measly powers are no match for mine!" He launched some kind of energy attack at Kyanite and hit her before Eclipse or I could do anything about it. Within mere seconds, her skin was grey and she was naked too. I could feel the anger rising in me. Eclipse saw it too, but said nothing. "First you prey on innocent victims... then, you emotionally rape this girl so she becomes dependant on you... These evils will not go unpunished.... HEART!! MEGAPUNCH!! KNOCKOUT!!" The anger that had built up inside me was released as three large white balls of energy were thrown directly at the Soulsower. The attack had very little effect on the Soulsower, but it shook the whole cave and the cells that the Scouts were in, shattered. Seeing that they were still out of energy, and a small briefing from me, Eclipse took the initiative to start. "Cosmic Moon Power! Annihilate this evil! Eternal... Eclipse... Power!" "Heart!! Crystal!! Power!!" As I watched the crystal glow, I knew that just our powers would not be enough to do the job. *We're just prolonging the inevitable right now. What else can we do?* I looked deep into the heart of the Crystal and saw it shoot four beams of light, each a color of the Scouts here, which landed on the foreheads of each girl. Soon, their uniforms were back and each rose to the crystal and placed her hand on it, except for Serena who had the base of the wand placed in her hands by Eclipse. "Mars! Star! Power!" "Venus! Star! Power!" "Jupiter! Star! Power!" "Moon! Crystal! Power!" Even with all the combined powers, it was still not enough to destroy this chaos-bringer. I looked over at the form of Kyanite who was now sitting up. She seemed to know what to do, though I could only speculate that it was on instinct. She threw the book she had, at it and screamed. "Manna rigpomo hygi shanini poothassin oru opinna bevirya wu reetygo wici hymisha!!!" The Soulsower screamed, and started to be sucked into the book while the book was being sucked into the earth below it. "I am evil incarnate... you cannot banish me!!!" The Soulsower gave one final scream, which released all it's power, and dissipated within the pages of the book and the book sank to the same distance as before. We all felt tired and wanted to collapse, but the cave was not giving us any time to do so. Within mere minutes, the cave began to crumble. We all held each other's hand and allowed Kyanite to crawl into the middle of the circle. "Sailor Planet Teleport!!" We were lifted up off the ground a few feet and then disappeared. We re-appeared outside beside my car. We turned to look at the cave as it imploded until there was nothing left of it or the small mountain which surrounded it. "That thing's gonna be buried for a long time." Sailor Moon was beaming. "I hope so," laughed Sailor Venus. "I don't know how many more of them I can take!" We all had a good laugh at that and then decided to head back to the hospital. "Sailor Moon? Can you do something for me?" asked Kyanite. "You've got the Crescent Moon Wand so you can heal her." Eclipse was pointing out. "Stand back everyone. Are you ready, Kyanite?" "Ready and willing!" "Moon Healing! Activation!" Kyanite felt a strange glow come over her. Her grey Negaverse uniform was stripped from her and she was given a beautiful peach-colored dress. At Kyanite's request, she was given her powers back to be used when she would stand by the Scouts. All the Scouts transformed back to their normal selves and headed back to the hospital. Kyanite decided that she would use Sam as her first name and Kyanite would be her middle name. She was also anxious to see how Molly was. She had said she felt bad about all the attacks on Molly from the Negaverse, and took the time to tell us her Nega-life story. She vowed that she would protect Molly at all costs just as she'd seen Sailor Heart protect Sailor Jupiter and especially the way all the Scouts protected Sailor Moon. "You'll always have lots of help anytime you need it!" Mina and Raye giggled. The car pulled into the hospital.