"Yes, Mother, I do realize how dangerous it is. However,
they ARE Sailor Senshi. Two hours isn't really that long of
a time to explore such a vast structure as this castle." The
tall, well-built blond Nemesite who had piloted the senshi
out to Wiseman's castle was currently doing the one thing
adult men probably hate the most: listening to his mother.
"Topaz, if anything should happen to them in there," she
insisted over the secured com-link, "our chances for peace
would be less than ashes. You should have accompanied them."
"And done what?"
"You said yourself you thought their auras were surprisingly
weak. Has it not occurred to you that the suddenly generated
shield that prevented Dimando's invastion fleet from
eradicating Crystal Tokyo might have had an organic source?
And that the source might now be exhausted?"
Topaz was silent as the implications sank in. "If your hunch
is correct, they would have had to sustain an energy field
for several days, continuously. Even if they could create
such a vast energy construct, surely their powers would be
permanently burned out aft. . ."
"Exactly," she replied coldly, cutting in as he trailed off.
"Which is why you should have gone in there with them and
been prepared to deal with any traps yourself. They're
probably helpless."
Topaz began to reply but just then the door to the castle's
inner keep blew off its hinges and Sailor Mars--in battle
garb now--came running across the courtyard.
"No, she definitely still has powers," he wryly commented.
Then he took in the look of fear and horror on her
expression, and noticed that Sailor Venus was NOT right
behind her. "Problems, gotta go," Topaz snapped off and
began firing up the flitter's hover engines. The vehicle had
just begun to rise off the ground on a cushion of repulsor
forces when Sailor Mars vaulted into the passenger seat.
"Go!" Topaz needed no further prompting, and the flitter
immediately began to lift straight up.
"What of Sailor Venus?"
"She's still in there, distracting that thing. Get me back
to my shuttle, I need need access to hyperspatial
communications. Now."
"What thing?" Topaz began, only to be cut off again.
"Transferring access to planetary communications array now,"
the voice of his mother came over the speaker. She spoke in
a crisp, military tone completely unlike the motherly voice
she'd used minutes before. "You have priority access,
Ambassador Mars. Please go ahead." Rei blinked at the
speaker and then looked at Topaz.
"I was just reporting in when you came running." She nodded
in understanding and then pulled her left glove back,
revealing the wrist watch-shaped communicator underneath.
She pushed a button on the side and a low humming began.
"Communications, are you reading this test signal?" she
directed her question at the speaker on the dashboard. There
was a long pause before a reply came.
"Yes, it is an extremly unusual wavelength but we are
relaying it with a booster signal now. We cannot guarantee
that it will be secure though," she added. Topaz shook his
head in slight wonderment. He'd learned to not question his
mother's abilities but still . . . near-immediate access to
the planetary subspace array? She definitely had a few more
tricks up her sleeve than he'd suspected. . . until now.
Mars smiled and activated her communicator fully. "That's
all right, it's self-scrambling. I just need a carrier
wave." The top of the communicator flipped up and displayed
a test pattern. "Mars to Senshi, Mars to Senshi, come in."
Mercury appeared almost immediately. "Mercury here Mars.
Your signal is weak but I am receiving it eighty percent
usual strength. Signal to noise ratio is high though." There
was a little static in her own reply.
"Venus is DOWN, repeat Venus is DOWN, Chaos is manifest in
Wiseman's citadel, repeat CHAOS IS INCARNATE." She looked
over the side of the flitter, which had achieved cruising
altitude of approximately two hundred feet and begun to bank
and move back toward the capital. In the courtyard, Chaos
was hovering, and as it began to glide upward, it seemed to
grow. "Chaos is after us," she said in a small, frightened
voice. It was a comment to herself and not something she
intended to speak aloud, but her fear betrayed her.
Mercury did not reply immediately, in fact, her face left
the screen. A moment later Neo-Queen Serenity appeared.
"Rei-chan, we're coming to get you. Get to safety and we'll
be there as soon as we can. All of us. Just hold on...!"
"Usa--Neo-Queen, no, you mustn't endanger your--" Mars began
to babble; however, she was flatly cut off. A cold sensation
seemed to stab into her gut as the driver, who by now had
also seen the Wiseman look-alike, banked the flitter sharply
and accelerated. The senshi were nearly all burned out from
the invasion, but the queen was weakest of all. She'd been
in a coma for over a week and then sent almost all her power
into the past to help her younger self defeat Wiseman's true
self revealed, the Death Phantom. When she had previously
encountered Chaos, as Eternal Sailor Moon, she had barely
managed to drive it out of Galaxia. Now in a weakened
condition, could she possibly hope to defeat it? Mars
thought not. Which meant that coming here to face it down
was probably the stupidest thing her warm-hearted friend had
ever done for the sake of love. "Usagi-chan," she ground out
under her breath. Topaz looked at her shaply once, and then
back to the task at hand.
Behind them, Chaos glittered like the night sky in a nebula
and continued to pursue them.
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