"It was much easier to just take her and hide her away. Now we have no annoying promises preventing us from fulfilling our mission." Winnowill looked out the archway of the large hall. Her eyes fell on the giant stone egg held in the air with the mental strength of a slender man sitting in a chair formed from the rock around him. Designs decorated the surface and the layers deeper within, telling a story that began thousands of years ago.

"I don’t see why that should have stopped you. You never let anything like that stop you before," Rayak said softly, his legs stretched out over the arm rest of the chair he sat in. "I especially don’t see how you let it stop you here. Not when we’re so close."

"You know very well why I let it stop me," she said softly, gleaming black hair trailing on the floor behind her as she elegantly moved towards her seat at the head of the large table. "It has been occupied for so long by the Lunarians, that if I were to do anything against the princess, who knows how it may react."

"It is not even theirs!" Rayak said angrily, slamming his fist into the armrest he leaned against. Winnowill looked at him, raising an eyebrow as a faint smile crossed her lips.

"I’m surprised at you, Rayak. This is the first time I have seen true anger at this situation."

"It’s just we’re so close," he said through clenched teeth, his eyes narrowed.

"Calm yourself. We now have the princess. Not even my son has managed to escape his little home, so I highly doubt she will have the power to." She crossed her long legs, looking out over the table that had been formed long, long ago from the stone floor.

********************

"The old woman is right. These two have incredible power. Perhaps they are linked in some way to the silver millennium," Mercury said softly to her fellow senshi as she typed on her keyboard.

"But what about what the girl said?! About Usa-chan being her sister?!"

"There is no blood relation. I’m not quite sure, but if I were to guess, I’d say Usagi came to live with her and her great-grandmother sometime after she left Japan. It is not as noticeable in her elder, but both of the women have a Chinese accent."

"Where you come from? Who ARE you??!" The shouted question caught the attentions of the sailor senshi once again. They turned to see the purple haired girl shouting at the man. A red blush momentarily covered his cheeks for some reason, before he suddenly shouted back.

"Usagi has been kidnapped, and all you can think about is who I am?!"

"You come from Usagi and Shampoo room! Who you?!?!"

The shouting continued for several more seconds before the grandmother, appearing very tired and annoyed, came from the remains of one of the buildings, a bucket in her hand.

"Both of you need to learn to be QUIET!" With that, she splashed the two with the water in the bucket. Where moments ago there had been a teenage man and woman, now stood a small black piglet and a purple cat surrounded by piles of clothing. They just stood on the pavement in astonishment, staring at eachother. "Gomen," the elder said as she lowered the bucket, looking at the astonished sailor senshi. "They were about to wake whoever isn’t already awake, and you need to think. I think the shock will keep them quiet for a while, and when you’re ready to go, I’ll reverse it." With that, she turned and walked back into the ruined restaurant, pulling her robe more tightly around herself, and behaving as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on.

"Kami..." Jupiter said, her eyes wide as she looked at the two animals.

********************

Silence fell in the small cell. That was the only word Usagi could think of to call it, a cell. There were no windows, no doors, nothing. Now that she began to think about it, she wondered where the air they were breathing was coming from.

It was several minutes before the man spoke again.

"I brought you here when she dropped you in." Usagi looked up, wondering if she missed something, but the ceiling was still there, as solid as it was before. "Even she has trouble finding me when I go back this far. She may have lived in this mountain for thousands of years, but she always thought it was beneath her to explore the little crevices. I’m sure she regrets it now," he said, chuckling quietly. His eyes crinkled up in delight, but they held a sarcastic, even a cruel edge to their glint that made Usagi shiver. "Are you feeling alright now?" he asked as his quiet laughter subsided. Usagi nodded hesitantly, unsure what would happen next. "Good. Might as well find out WHY she hates you." With that, he stood from his crouched position, turned towards the far wall, and vanished. Usagi gasped, sure some kind of magic was at work here. Two-Edge’s head peaked out from wherever it had gone a few moments later, frowning, looking at her. "Are you coming?"

Usagi stood up slowly, and making tiny steps, approached where he again vanished. It was only when she was close enough to touch the wall without stretching her arm that she noticed how Two-Edge had left. The wall was so uniform in color and the light was so weak, that she had missed the passage hidden by an outcropping of stone. Noticing the light quickly vanishing down the previously hidden passageway, she quickly speed up to catch up with her new guide.

********************

"Venus, you know what he is. Don’t go near him," Mars warned. She recognized the look in her friend’s face. Before she vanished, Usagi would often wear that look whenever she saw a cute animal.

"Ah, but Mars, look at him! He’s so kawaii!" Her eyes sparkled as she walked up to the piglet. Jupiter tried to stifle her laughter. The little piglet was a bright shade of red!

"Venus," she said between bursts of laughter. "I think he’s about to faint from lack of blood."

"Nani?" Venus asked, turning around. Unfortunately for Ryoga’s cursed form, Venus failed to notice how the back of her skirt flared up with the twist. The tiny piglet was unable to handle so much of his blood in his face already, that the tiny trickle that left his nose tipped him over the edge, and he fell to the ground in a faint. Jupiter couldn’t help and burst out laughing.

"Quiet, minna!" The shout came from the normally soft-spoken Mercury, shocking everyone into silence. Even the purple cat looked up at the water senshi in shock. "If we’re going to go, we need to go now, while the trail is still fresh. I’ve got it locked on, and as long as you guys help, I can direct us to Usagi."

"Did I hear someone say you’re leaving?" The old woman seemed to appear from nowhere, suddenly springing up behind the senshi.

"Aiiii!!"

"Now, I’ve boiled some hot water, in case my great-granddaughter and Rabbit’s pig friend have any trouble. Now, turn your backs. I doubt Rabbit’s pig friend can handle five teenage girls seeing him naked. That goes for you too, Shampoo!" The purple cat looked at her great-grandmother innocently, then turned away from the unconscious piglet.

********************

"Where are we going?" Usagi asked softly, following behind Two-Edge as he continued down the passageway.

"Where we see her, but she can’t see us," he said, whispering now. His large feet made no sound as they hurried down the passageway. In comparison, Usagi couldn’t help but notice how loud her footsteps sounded.

Without warning, the light Two-Edge held in his hand was extinguished. The two were emersed in darkness. Usagi held in the gasp of surprise, falling back on what she had learned the years she had been with the Amazons to follow him closely.

********************

The cavern the rescue party appeared in was easily large enough to fit a good mid-sized home inside of it. On one side of the room, a smoothed circle of rock took up a large area of wall. A man sat in a chair formed from the rock above it, his eyes staring ahead blankly. His skin was pale, almost with a gray tint. On the other side of the cavern were several passageways. The main arch in the stone was easily thirty feet tall, and led to another cavern that appeared to be nearly equal in size. Some of the passageways in the wall were far too high up for anyone to walk into. The rock archways and doors appeared to have been hardened from swirling smoke, softening the harshness of the cold and drab surroundings.

"Mercury, see if you can locate Usagi," Mars said, her eyes attempting to take in all of her surroundings at once. The water senshi nodded and took out her computer, setting it to search for their princess’s energy signature. Several minutes passed, the silence bothering the small group.

"If this continues much longer, I’m going off myself," Ryoga said softly, worry evident in his voice.

"Iie. We don’t know anything about this place, and even if you two are good fighters, I don’t think we should split up until we know what is going on." Mars and Jupiter stared at Venus in quiet shock. Even Mercury raised her eyebrows, though she never took her eyes from the screen.

"Venus?"

"Hai?"

"Are you feeling alright?" Jupiter asked, frowning slightly.

"Iie! Our princess returns, and as soon as we find out, she’s kidnapped! Then Mercury continues to take like half an hour to locate her, and she could be in trouble!"

"Princess?" Ryoga looked over at Shampoo, seeing her confusion. He was positive he had the same expression on his face.

"Minna, you’d better take a look at this," Mercury said, interrupting any explanations or cover-ups.

"Nani?" Mars came up behind Mercury to see the screen of the tiny computer, but could make very little sense of the information. "What does it say?" Mercury sighed, rolling her eyes slightly, but proceeded to explain.

"This mountain is saturated with magic," she started, only to be interrupted by Jupiter.

"So? That’s not a big surprise. This is where the enemy is." Mercury glared at the taller senshi before continuing.

"That isn’t what’s weird, Jupiter. When we first visited the moon, I was able to take readings of the palace remains. They held very strong magic, even though it had been a thousand years since anyone had been there. The magic in this mountain is the same kind."

********************

Dum, dum, dum! Oh, the suspense! I’m sure you ElfQuest people have at least a tiny idea of what’s going on. *chuckle* The rest of you will just have to wait. Gomen!

Sorry this took so long to get out. I’ll try to post more often.

~Jade Nova

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