Double Jeopardy (part 12 of 28)

a Sailor Moon fanfiction by Neuroleptic

Back to Part 11
Flying the Unfriendly Skies

As the dust settled, eight angry Sekkou stood silently, staring at the 
now trembling Serena. After several tense moments, being the closest to 
her, Lita grabbed Serena by the throat with one hand and lifted her off 
the ground and into the air as the rest of them stood around the two in 
a circle waiting for an explanation. Ray spoke up first. “You were 
supposed to kill them, not disintegrate them! We needed their bodies 
intact, you idiot!” As if in agreement, Lita put her other hand around 
Serena's throat to strengthen her grip.

As Lita started to slowly cut off Serena's air, she wheezed out, “I 
thought it wasn't strong enough of an attack to do that much to them!” 
As she grabbed Lita's hands, trying to force the stronger woman to let 
her go she gasped out, “I wanted this plan to work just as much as all 
of you di--!” Lita had apparently heard enough and squeezed harder so 
that Serena was no longer able to speak. Serena started to try to fly 
away, but Lita was strong enough to keep her iron grip on her throat and 
hold her relatively in place. Panic crossed the blonde's face as she 
started to flail her arms and legs around for a moment as terror gripped 
her heart.

Serena would have been even more fearful if she knew that Lita was 
tempted to break her neck right then and there. A small smile spread 
over her lips as Lita thought to herself, 'No, my friend, you deserve to 
die like a coward.' Watching as bruises started to form around her iron 
grip on Serena's neck, she finished her thoughts. 'Nice and slow.'

This time, Amy didn't come to her aid. Her soft yet angry voice cutting 
into the air like a knife, she said, “Your incompetence has damned us 
all to an eternal life of servitude to our enemies, and not for the 
first time. I think it is time we should rid ourselves of you once and 
for all.” As if in agreement, the others moved closer, almost as if 
wanting to get a better look at their princess's demise. They looked for 
all the world like angry vultures waiting for an animal to die so they 
could each take turns ripping it apart. This wasn't too far off from 
what many of them were thinking.

Meanwhile, down in basement level one, the Senshi were dusting 
themselves off and helping each other to their feet. Rei looked up at 
the dim light and hot sparks pouring in from the huge hole in the 
ceiling and said, “It isn't going to take them long to figure out what 
happened to us. Can everyone stand?” She got a chorus of yeses in 
response.

After a few more moments of looking each other over and making sure 
their entire group was okay, Ami suddenly motioned for everyone to be 
quiet. As she listened to the sound of arguing coming from above them, 
she blinked, then said quietly, “I think they believe us to be 
deceased.”

Looking confused, Michiru said “And they sound angry about it. I don't 
get it. Didn't they want us dead?”

“We can talk about that later,” Haruka said quietly, not wanting the 
Sekkou to hear her. She continued, “ We already have a lot more 
questions than answers from this encounter. Now would be a good time to 
fall back. There is a passageway that leads back to the subway system on 
this floor.”

“No.”

Everyone turned to regard Usagi for a moment. She had a surprisingly 
thoughtful look on her face as she said, “I think we should still try to 
reason with them. I can't believe they just want us dead for no reason. 
I say we try to capture one of them and give it a try.” She looked at 
Ami and said, “I know they outnumber us, but you can't tell me we won't 
have surprise on our side.”

Rei looked at Ami and said, “Well, I like it. Okay! So, What's the plan, 
Ami?

Mina leered at Serena as she watched the other twitching in terror. She 
started laughing out loud when the great and powerful Dark Sailor Moon's 
face actually started to turn blue.

With Serena out of the way, she would be the official leader instead of 
just a de-facto one. Ever since they had all become Sekkou, she secretly 
resented that. Of course, she would probably be challenged by Dark 
Saturn for leadership, but she was confident she would have most of the 
others' support should it come to that. A good fight between themselves 
would root out the weak links, and since a chain is only as strong as 
it's weakest link, this translated into a good thing for the Sekkou, 
under her command of course. Once the reorganization was complete, those 
who remained could then come up with a new way of breaking free of Queen 
Beryl's power over them.

Suddenly, a violent blast of water slammed into her and the other 
Sekkou, smashing them into a wall. Once the attack dissipated, they 
found themselves jumbled up in a pile. They all started to get to their 
feet and look around.

A voice from above them said, “It's bad enough that you're trying to 
kill us, but you threaten innocent people in the process! In the name of 
the moon, I will punish you!” The Sekkou looked up to see Sailor Moon 
standing on the second floor observation area glaring down at them, 
alive and well, determined to keep the upper hand. As they watched, the 
other Senshi stepped into view.

Serena, still greedily breathing in oxygen after not being able to do so 
for several minutes before, managed to gasp out, “You're still giving 
speeches?”

Before the Sekkou could reorient themselves, Haruka sent a ball of 
energy flying toward them, sending all of the Sekkou flying up into the 
air in every direction. But, instead of incapacitating or otherwise 
harming them, it seemed to only make them angrier, and instead of 
falling to the ground, they stopped in mid air and hovered level with 
the Senshi..Not giving their opponents the opportunity to even think, 
all of the Sekkou sent a barge of attacks at the Senshi as they flew 
forward, trying to close the distance. The fact they were outsmarted so 
easily seemed to enrage them, and made them eager to redeem themselves, 
if only in the eyes of their enemies. They also seemed to 
instantaneously forget their anger at Serena, now realizing she hadn't 
completely annihilated the Senshi after all.

As the fight renewed itself, and the Sailor Senshi scattered while 
starting to return fire, Sailor Jupiter was the only one of them unlucky 
enough to take a direct hit from the onslaught since she was the biggest 
target. She discovered that Dark Mercury's attack called Water Poisoning 
Surprise lived up to its name in more ways than one. She had suffered a 
direct hit from one of the green spheres of water a moment ago. The 
initial impact had been painful enough, but the sudden wave of nausea 
and dizziness she felt overtake her senses was unbearable. It brought 
the mighty Senshi of Thunder crashing to her knees. To make things even 
worse for Makoto, she suddenly felt the toast she had eaten earlier that 
morning rush up her esophagus, now mixed with sour stomach acid. Falling 
forward and barely able to hold herself up, Makoto was unable to muster 
up enough energy to keep her dignity as she threw up violently. Feeling 
her strength leave her, she let herself fall onto her side groaning 
loudly.

“Makoto!” Ami screamed, momentarily letting her emotions override her 
intelligence, as she started to run across the walkway to her 
girlfriend, seemingly oblivious to the crossfire. Moments before she 
reached Makoto, she felt a sharp pain in her head as Lita landed in 
front of her, sending one of her fists crashing against the side of 
Ami's skull. Lita watched for a moment while the smaller woman fell to 
the ground, clutching her head. Ami opened her mouth to yell out in 
pain, but no sound came out of her lips as she rolled on the floor 
trying to regain her senses.

Satisfied with knowing the bluenette was incapacitated, Lita turned to 
Makoto and said, insanely cheerful compared to how angry she had been 
only moments before, “I'll be taking you with me if you don't mind.” 
Then she lifted Makoto off the ground, causing the downed Senshi to 
groan softly, and flew as fast as she could out the ruined entrance. 
Seeing their companion fleeing the battle at high speed with her prize, 
the others suddenly stopped attacking and followed her out.

Ami got to her feet unsteadily, leaning on the railing for support as 
she watched the last of the Sekkou clear the remains of the entrance 
doors. As the others gathered around her to figure out what to do, she 
felt her hands shaking while she gripped the railing, feeling her temper 
rise. Her plan had been to have Michiru and Haruka attack, since she 
figured their combined attacks would be enough to disorient the Sekkou 
long enough to give them the advantage. She knew it was a risky plan, 
but she felt it would work, and she simply didn't know they could 
recover that quickly. Her plan . . . “didn't work.” She finished out 
loud, feeling disgusted with herself. As a result, her girlfriend was 
now facing a death sentence for seemingly no reason. Slamming her fist 
on the railing, she finally gave in to her frustration. “Damn it! It's 
my fault. How could I have been so stupid?”

Rei put a hand on her shoulder gently and said, “Don't be so hard on 
yourself. We'll get her back . . . somehow.” Rei felt Ami's hand move up 
and grab hers tightly. For a moment Rei thought Ami was going to smack 
it away, but then she felt her friend's hand start to relax.

Ami took in a breath for a moment, trying to calm her nerves. It wasn't 
like her to let her emotions get the better of her. If she was going to 
help Makoto, she needed to calm down, and do it now. As she switched on 
her visor, she said, calmer, “We have to do something now, if they were 
serious about what they want to do.” She set her visor so that she could 
see through the structure of the building. White outlines formed a 
complex wire mesh to represent buildings, cars and people as she 
searched for the Sekkou across the horizon. The others watched as she 
slowly moved in a circle. They didn't know it, but that seemingly simple 
circular movement brought pain to her heart when it somehow stirred 
memories of Makoto's lesson on tai chi from the night before. Focusing 
on the task at hand, as she finished moving a full 360 degrees twice to 
make sure, she said, trying to keep panic out of her voice, “I . . . 
don't see them.”

Several of the Senshi started to talk quietly to each other, clearly 
sounding distressed. They started to raise questions. Questions Ami 
didn't even want to think about. “Could they have gone wherever it is 
they came from and brought Makoto with them? Could they somehow avoid 
detection on Sailor Mercury's visor? Could Makoto already be dead?” Most 
of them were trying to speak quietly, but they were too close for Ami 
not to ignore their comments.

Starting to feel frustrated again, Ami closed her eyes tightly, then 
tilted her head up for a moment and gazed at the ceiling, hoping for 
divine inspiration. Sighing for a moment, she moved her head to look 
back at the others, but stopped and looked back up as something just at 
the edge of her peripheral vision on her visor's display caught her 
attention. The others saw Ami's head start darting around quickly as she 
staggered back for a moment, placing her hand on her earing as she made 
rapid adjustments to her visor.

Haruka moved close to Ami and grabbed the smaller woman's shoulders, 
trying to steady her, since to the rest of them, she looked like she was 
about to pass out. None of them could blame her, really, since they knew 
how much Makoto meant to her. True, their relationship had just started, 
but they had had feelings for each other for a long time. It seemed 
cruel for them to be separated so soon. Haruka said, trying to reassure 
Ami, “It'll be okay. Just sit down for a moment.”

This time Ami jerked away as she spun around, watching the area above 
Haruka. Ami's voice sounded hopeful and worried at the same time as she 
spoke. “No, you don't understand! I found them! They're flying circles 
around the building. I didn't see them before because I was looking too 
low since I assumed they were flying away from here. They still have 
Mako -- Oh no!” Ami suddenly looked mortified as her eyes started to 
dart down, then relieved as she started to look up again. She did this 
several times then said out loud, “They're tossing her around. My god, 
they're playing a sick, twisted game of . . . of catch.”

Usagi said quietly, “How are we going to get to her if we can't fly?”

Ami had been thinking the same thing. She switched a setting on her 
visor, tracing the pattern of the Sekkou and Makoto as they all flew 
through the air. As a pattern emerged, she made an adjustment so she 
could see the building's structure. A plan came to her, but there was no 
way she could ask any of the others to go through with it. “Stay here,” 
she said as she ran for the nearest elevator.

Rei called behind her, sounding worried, “Ami, wait! Where are you 
going? What are you doing? Come back!” In exasperation and frustration 
at Ami for bolting off without an explanation, Rei yelled out angrily, 
“Damn it, Ami! That's an order!” Ami, having enough of a head start, 
beat them to the elevator. As the others ran after her, they could only 
watch as the doors closed in front of her, blocking her determined 
expression.

Michiru looked at Haruka for a moment as the remaining Senshi looked 
back at the elevator doors. Haruka walked up to the elevator and slammed 
her fist into it. “What the hell is she thinking?”

Most of them had worried expressions on there faces except Usagi, who 
looked confused. “I don't get it. What are you all worried about?” she 
asked quietly.

Rei said, still staring at the elevator doors angrily, “Okay. Picture 
yourself in the same situation, only, instead of Makoto, Mamoru is the 
one they have. What would you be willing to do to get him back if you 
truly thought he was about to die?” As the others watched Usagi waiting 
for it to click, Haruka mimed looking at a wrist watch as if keeping 
track of time to see if Usagi would break some kind of record.

After several more moments of watching the glowing numbers above the 
elevator count up, realization suddenly dawned on her. “Oh no! She 
wouldn't!” Usagi pushed Rei and Haruka out of the way after running to 
the doors. She beat on the steel sheets as hard as she could yelling, 
“No Ami! Don't do it! We can come up with another way!” Setsuna ran for 
the stairs, yelling for the others to follow.

----------

Meanwhile, Ami stood in the elevator staring at the doors. The inside of 
the new elevator doors where polished to a mirror reflection and she 
could see her own face staring back at her. The only sound was a soft 
hum from the motors and lights. Alone, Ami felt no reason to hide her 
emotions. She felt a moment of fear when she saw her image staring back 
at her, But after a short time she felt only anger. She could almost 
hear the logical part of her mind say through the reflection, 'Have you 
even thought this out? So you're going to do what? Just jump out a 
window? Are you crazy?'

Ami said out loud, listening to her own voice echo inside the enclosed 
space, as she recounted her admittedly insane plan. “Precisely. I can 
time it so I can land right on top of the one holding Makoto. If I'm 
lucky, my added mass will force them to have to lower to the ground.”

'And if you're wrong? Luck hasn't exactly been on your side today. So I 
ask you again, since you avoided answering the question. Are you stupid? 
Or just insane?'

Sailor Mercury looked back at her reflection and said, as a small smile 
formed on her lips, “No, I'm in love.” That seemed to quiet any doubts 
in her mind as the elevator slowly carried her to her destination.

As the doors opened onto the 45th floor, Ami walked out of the elevator, 
dressed in her casual clothing she had put on that morning. She felt 
suddenly out of place as she walked up to the reception desk of the 
Ritz-Carlton, but if she was going to get to a higher floor without 
raising too much of a ruckus, this part of her mission would have to be 
accomplished by Ami Mizuno, not Sailor Mercury, since Ami Mizuno was the 
one with a credit card and valid I.D.

When she approached the reception desk, a rather snobby-looking middle 
aged man said, “Excuse me madam, are you lost?” He looked at Ami, just 
barely hiding his amusement. To him, with the large bruise on the side 
of her head, scruffy hair, and small cuts from the ordeal she had just 
been through downstairs, made Ami look a lot less like the type of 
person who would want a room here. Surely she was meeting up with a 
friend or had made a wrong turn.

Apparently, word of the incident down stairs hadn't reached here yet, or 
the hotel staff didn't want to panic anyone who didn't know about it. 
Ami looked at the man politely and said as she adjusted her glasses when 
they slid down her nose just a bit, “No. I'd like a room for one night. 
Anything that's available will be fine.”

The receptionist typed on his computer for a few moments, searching for 
a room, still smiling in amusement as the keys clicked seemingly loudly 
in the quiet room. His smile widened a bit more as he found the only 
room available. Suddenly forcing himself to look professional, he looked 
up at Ami and said, straight faced, “All we have is a corner junior suit 
on floor 51. It has a separate living room, king sized bed and bedroom, 
panoramic views of the --”

“It'll be fine,” Ami said interrupting the man, and trying not to seem 
hurried. She pulled out her credit card and I.D, then asked politely, 
“How much?” Any amount was worth it if it got Makoto back to her.

“That will be 180,000 Yen for one night.”

Ami kept her composure, but was unable to keep her face from turning a 
striking shade of white as she calmly handed the man her credit card 
without a word. As she waited for the card to clear, she hoped Minako 
would understand why she wouldn't be able to pay her share of the rent 
for this month.

“There you are, madam. Just take the --”

He was cut off again as Ami quickly grabbed the room key and receipt, 
and ran for the nearest elevator that would allow her to get to the 51st 
floor. As the elevator doors closed behind her, she could see the man 
still glaring at the strangest patron to, thus far, grace his precious 
hotel.

When the doors opened again, Sailor Mercury once again emerged, running 
full speed down the hall, her visor activated and her head twisting left 
and right as she watched the visor's images of the Sekkou flying around 
outside the building, thankfully still holding Makoto. A small timer was 
quickly counting down in the right corner of her view. Her destination 
was the ceiling to floor window at the far end of the hallway. She 
reached it and looked out, seeing the city spread out for miles, then 
took another deep breath.

She saw one of the Sekkou fly by a floor or two beneath her, apparently 
too engrossed in her sick, twisted game of catch to notice her. Then she 
made her second big mistake of the day. She looked down . . . down . . . 
and down some more. She still had a few more moments before she was 
going to do what she came here for, which in retrospect was a good 
thing, because she was starting to realize how insane this idea really 
was. She wasn't afraid of heights, or even the fall really. As she felt 
her knees start to shake, she said out loud, “It's the sudden stop at 
the end if I am wrong on my timing that bothers me.” For a moment, she 
thought she heard the logical part of her mind say sarcastically, 'Ya 
sure this is the only way?'

Suddenly she saw the timer start to flash. T -10 seconds. 9, 8, 7 . . . 
Ami backed up several feet, then ran at the window at full speed. She 
felt herself try to stop an instant after the absolute last second to 
wait for the Sekkou to make another pass. As she saw the timer say T +1 
second, she actually swore loudly in the hall way because she realized 
it was too late. Her momentum wouldn't allow her even to slow down at 
this point. As she felt the glass shatter around her, she couldn't help 
but think how bad her luck was going when she felt gravity grip her and 
start pulling her toward the ground. She was a full second behind her 
calculations! All she could do now was scream and hope that whatever 
divine spirit was listening would answer her prayers.

----------

The effects of Amy's water poisoning surprise attack were only 
temporary, and Makoto felt herself start to come back to reality 
somewhere above the 35th floor. She could feel the wind ripping at her 
body, and the strange feeling of her feet flying back in the air with 
nothing to touch. She opened her eyes and saw her current predicament 
and started to scream out in sheer terror.

Realizing her passenger was awake, Lita said teasingly, “What's the 
matter? Don't like heights? Remember, it's not the fall, it's the sudden 
stop!” Then, looking around as she swung around the side of the building 
at nearly a 90 degree angle, she saw another one of her teammates. “Hey 
Amara!” Lita said, laughing, “catch!” Then she threw Makoto as hard as 
she could, watching as her twin's limbs flailed about in panic and her 
irritating scream grew distant as gravity took hold of Makoto causing 
her to plummet toward the ground before reaching Amara.

Makoto couldn't even think straight as perhaps her greatest fear played 
out in front of her. This experience would be enough to scare anyone, 
but it was even worse for someone terrified of flying. She was falling 
through the air so fast that the wind blowing against her face actually 
hurt. She felt both weightless and heavy at the same time. She felt 
terrified. She felt like she was going to be sick again.

Amara dove down and grabbed Makoto by the arm roughly, soaring back into 
the air, then without a word, she swung her in a circle a few times, and 
let go, watching and listening with mild satisfaction as Makoto once 
again screamed her head off. Amy caught her this time, but wasn't quite 
able to hold them both in the air.

They slowly started to descend as Amy, laughing hysterically, listened 
to Makoto beg for mercy. “No, please! Stop this! I don't care if you 
kill me, just put me down!” Instead, laughing even louder as she did so, 
Amy simply let her go and watched as Ray and Mina, who had been flying 
at a lower level, flew up to meet Makoto, grabbed both her arms, jerking 
her back into the air once again to a higher level. They flew circles 
around the building several times as fast as they could while holding 
Makoto, then let her go, watching as she fell like a rock through the 
air until Trista and Hotaru caught her.

Dark Saturn and Pluto flew several feet higher than the building with 
Makoto, spinning around in a barrel roll as they ascended, clearly doing 
their best to make the terrified Senshi either sick or pass out. Then, 
after making several loops above the building, they let Makoto go and 
watched as she fell back toward the earth, passing the roof of the 
building, then several floors, until Lita once again caught her. Her 
screams seemed to delight the Sekkou to no end. The only one not 
participating in the game of catch was Dark Moon. She stood on the roof, 
waiting for the others to stop playing with Makoto and join her to bring 
this sick twisted game to its violent and bloody end.

Makoto was actually crying by this point. She couldn't ever remember 
being this scared. Part of her wanted to push away from Lita to get away 
from her and this sick twisted torture, but part of her was too afraid 
of the fall and the thought of soaring through the air, or rather, 
falling, to do that. So instead she just curled up into a ball as best 
she could while being held, begging for them to have mercy on her and 
put her down on solid ground again. She was so scared she was seriously 
even considering making them an offer to let them kill her if they would 
just stop tormenting her. It was beyond cruel to Makoto.

Lita laughed as if it were all just a game and Makoto were being as 
unreasonable as a child afraid of a mild thunderstorm. She said 
teasingly, “ Aw, what's the matter, you little crybaby? Not having any 
fun?” After she finished speaking, she heard the sound of breaking glass 
and someone screaming either in anger, terror or both. She looked around 
trying to find the source of the sound, then looked up just in time to 
see Ami slam into her, and then felt shards of glass slash into her. She 
let go of Makoto, but Ami, still screaming, wrapped one arm around 
Lita's waist, and held onto Makoto's arm as Makoto held onto Lita's legs 
for dear life.

Just as Ami had planned, her added mass was simply too much for Lita to 
carry along with both of them, and all three slowly started to descend. 
By now, the other Sekkou had figured out what was going on, and were 
diving down to catch up with them. Instead of waiting for them to catch 
up, Lita, unable to get Makoto or Ami to let go, dove down quicker, then 
twisted them all in the air as she started to spin, altering their 
course so that they slammed through another window, landing back inside 
the tower on the 38th floor.

Lita, Ami, and Makoto discovered the hard way that this area of the 
building was office space, in the case of this floor, mostly a giant 
cube farm, as they smashed through several cubicles when the three 
separated after Lita smacked into the ground. Several of the office's 
staff started running to exits in confusion and fear. One of the more 
intelligent and less panicked associates pulled the fire alarm to alert 
all the employees in the area to evacuate.

Ami groaned a bit as she pushed a cubicle wall off of her and stood up. 
As the last of the terrified staff ran for the exits and stairs, she 
became worried when she couldn't see anyone, because the cubicle walls 
that still stood near her blocked her view. She reached up and pulled 
herself up so she could see over the walls. At first ,she saw nothing 
but the maze-like pattern all the cubicles made. Suddenly, she saw a 
face dart up from behind another cubicle several stalls away from her. 
“Makoto?” she asked, sounding relived. “Are you all right?”

The other smiled, then the moment Ami noticed the titanium tiara instead 
of a gold one, Lita yelled out, “Electric Shock Thera -- ack!” The 
cubicle wall behind Lita smashed into her as Makoto jumped up into view 
in the cubicle behind Lita, and beat the wall into Ami's would-be 
attacker.

Clearly enraged, and still not thinking clearly from the adrenaline and 
now fear turned liquid anger, Makoto yelled out, as her small antenna 
rose from its hiding space on her tiara, “Super Supreme Thunder!” 
Electricity smashed into Lita, but because Makoto was so close, she was 
also partially electrocuted, and the resulting blast threw her to the 
far end of the office, away from both Lita and Ami.

The short distraction gave Ami enough time to open her communicator. As 
soon as Sailor Mars responded, Ami said, glancing at the elevator which 
had the floor number painted near it, “Get to the 38th floor as fast as 
you can!” Then, without waiting for an answer, she turned off the 
device, just in time for a nearby window to smash inward as Dark Saturn 
came through it, glaring angrily at Ami as she gracefully touched down 
on the floor.

----------

Sailor Mars could climb stairs without any effort, since she had plenty 
of practice at home every day she walked up the ones leading to the 
shrine. Running as fast as she could up the stairs, she announced to the 
others, “They're on the 38th floor! Where are we?”

Hotaru took the moment to stop on the next landing she came to so she 
could take a breath as she looked at the plaque on the door. “29th.” 
Then she wheezed out, “Can we please use an elevator?”

Sprinting past her with almost no effort, Haruka answered, “By the time 
one got down or up to us, there wouldn't be enough time. Besides, the 
exercise will do you good!”

As the others ran past her, Sailor Moon stopped and stood with Hotaru, 
breathing loudly. “They can't expect us to keep up for 10 more floors!”

Holding her sides for a moment, Hotaru said, “Nine floors, but yeah, it 
might as well be 10.” Taking one last breath, she said, “Well, we better 
get going!” Then she took off after the others.

Practically dragging herself up each stair, Usagi begged, “Wait for me!”

A second later, Usagi's blue eyes opened wide in surprise. Her friends 
had turned around and were coming back! Smiling happily, she squealed, 
“Thanks guys! I knew I could count on you! I-- Whoa hey!” She yelped the 
last part out in shock as Haruka stopped just long enough to pick her up 
and throw her over her shoulder before running back down the stairs as 
fast as she could.

Then Sailor Moon saw why her friends were running back the direction 
they had come. As the first of the crowd of stampeding office staff made 
there way down the stairs Usagi let out a terrified scream, which Haruka 
took as a sign she needed to run even faster.

----------

Trista, still welding her Silent Glaive, strode down the row of cubicles 
toward Ami purposefully and confidently. “Mighty brave rescue attempt, 
woman.” She jumped into the air and flew toward Ami, shrieking, “Now 
let's find out how brave you really are!” Ami wasn't quick enough to 
avoid the collision as Dark Saturn slammed into her, throwing Ami over 
the edge of yet another cubicle wall behind her. She landed in the 
middle of a path leading straight to an elevator. Her attacker touched 
down behind her, allowing her a clear shot at the doors to safety.

“Since you are so brave, I will make a deal with you. I will let you go, 
without any attempt to stop you.” Then, smiling evilly, she added, “Or, 
you can stay here and die. Leave Makoto to her fate. If you stay, you 
will both perish. After all, she would prefer herself to die instead of 
you.” Gesturing toward the elevator, she finished, “Go on, go. You're 
free. You don't have to die today.”

Ami gradually got to her feet, never letting her eyes leave Trista's. 
The sounds of the ongoing fight between Lita and Makoto could be heard 
echoing through the large room. “No, I would rather die than let you 
hurt her.” Seeing no other options left to her, Ami decided to face down 
Dark Sailor Saturn on her own. “If you want to harm her, you will have 
to deal with me first.”

Giving Ami an unfriendly smile, the tall woman said, “I was hoping you 
would say that.” Before Ami could even react once again, Trista blasted 
her with a powerful ball of energy, and watched as Ami fell to the 
ground in agony. Then she strolled casually up to Ami, who was trying to 
get back onto her feet. Dark Saturn gave Sailor Mercury a rough kick, 
causing the smaller woman to spin, then land on her stomach. Then, as if 
to hold her in place, Trista raised her right foot, and jammed her heal 
into the center of Ami's back. Ami yelled out in pain as she tried to 
reach around with one hand to move the Sekkou's foot away.

Lita had put Makoto in a headlock, then forced her against a wall next 
to a door, pinning her there so she couldn't move. Suddenly, Makoto 
heard Ami yell out and looked over to see Trista raise her weapon, twirl 
it around for a moment, then stopped it so the blade was pointing down 
toward what she assumed was Ami's back. She wouldn't even see it coming. 
Ami had risked everything to save her, and now suddenly Ami was about to 
be . . . “No!” was all Makoto could think to yell out in anguish in a 
feeble attempt to stop Trista from what she was about to do. Makoto 
strained her arms as if trying to reach out to Ami futilely. It quickly 
dawned on her that the only assistance she would be able to give would 
be to watch in horror.

Trista glanced at Makoto without moving her head, and said, “Patience, 
my friend. First her, then you.” Letting her smile grow larger as she 
said quietly to Ami, almost as if it were supposed to be reassuring, 
“You chose your destiny, now die with the consequences.” She raised the 
staff up over her head then swung it down quickly, intending to embed 
its sharp tip deep into Ami's back, yelling out as she felt the feeling 
of victory surge through her.

----------

Author's Note: 180,000 Japanese Yen is equal to 1,483.92 U.S. Dollars, 
or 1,101.32 Euros

Onwards to Part 13


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