Double Jeopardy (part 13 of 28)

a Sailor Moon fanfiction by Neuroleptic

Back to Part 12
Down the Rabbit Hole

To Trista, her moment of glory felt like it was proceeding in slow 
motion and she wanted to savor every instant of it. She could feel her 
fingers gripping her weapon as it plunged down. Feel her soon to be 
vanquished foe squirming in pain and terror, like a worm on a hook 
beneath her foot. Feel Makoto's eyes watching her. Feel the air rushing 
out of her lungs as she yelled out in triumph. She so enjoyed taking a 
person's life. To her, it was the ultimate form of power. In a way, it 
was what she lived for.

Trista was so focused on the joy of the kill that she hadn't noticed the 
elevator doors open. "Venus Love-Me Chain!" At the last possible 
instant, Minako tossed the chain of light sending it smashing into 
Trista's glaive, causing Trista to momentarily lose her balance and 
sending her weapon flying through the air, then embedding itself into a 
far wall.

Sailor Venus emerged from the elevator at a run toward Dark Saturn, 
ready to defend her friend. At the same moment, on the other side of the 
cube farm, the door next to Lita and Makoto swung open, smacking into 
Lita's back, hard. Haruka had given the door a powerful kick, and the 
rest of the senshi rushed into the room. As if it were planned that way, 
the remaining Sekkou also decided to make their entrance, smashing 
through the office windows, sending glass flying in every direction.

Regaining her balance, Trista kicked Ami aside, discarding her for her 
new opponent. As she charged Minako, fully intent on tearing the blonde 
apart with her own bare hands, Minako started to power up another attack 
to defend herself. When Trista had covered half the distance to Minako, 
a staff came out of nowhere to crash against Dark Saturn's jaw, sending 
her toppling backwards to the ground.

Minako looked over to the direction where the person who had swung the 
staff was still standing. Seeing Sailor Pluto there, she said happily, 
"Thanks, Setsuna!" Setsuna didn't have time to answer as she rushed off 
to continue her duel with Dark Pluto.

Minako stepped over the barely conscious Dark Saturn and helped Ami to 
her feet. Ami accepted the hand her friend offered and asked as she 
stood up, "When did you get here? I thought you wouldn't be able to get 
free 'til around noon."

Smiling, Minako said, "The radio station isn't far from here, so when 
Ritsuko's shopping trip got cut short by your fight, she came straight 
to the station claiming to feel better. From the looks of the shopping 
plaza, somebody had fun!" Then, switching to a more serious mood as the 
two ran to help Makoto, she said, "So what's the situation?"

"The Sekkou are trying to kill us, but they apparently need our bodies 
in decent condition. That's all we know at this point. Our goal is to 
try to capture one of them alive for questioning and retreat." Ami spoke 
just loud enough for Minako to hear as the two ran.

It took Sailor Venus every ounce of discipline she had not to stop where 
she was. Waving her arms and sounding surprised she said, "That's crazy! 
You're going to have to explain what I missed later."

The two were halfway to Makoto when Mina, seemingly out of nowhere, 
landed several feet in front of them, blocking their path, glaring 
directly at Minako. They slid to a halt, and Minako leaned toward Ami, 
whispering, "Go help your girlfriend. I'll handle her."

Ami nodded once and backtracked the way she had come while trying to 
navigate the maze of cubicles to find another way to Makoto. This was 
becoming an increasingly easy task, since every time one of them used an 
attack it flattened a new path. Of course, it also made it more 
difficult to walk, let alone run, since it also sprawled damaged office 
supplies, computers, ceiling tiles, and of course, cubicle walls 
everywhere as well. Minako found it a little amusing that as Ami turned 
round a corner, she nearly disappeared behind the five foot tall cubicle 
walls.

Minako snapped her attention back to her opponent when she spoke. 
Nodding toward the direction Ami had gone, she said, "Your friend is an 
admirable woman. She withstands pain rather well. Let's see how well you 
measure up." As she spoke, a straight beam of light formed in her hands, 
then somehow loosened into a flexible cord. Apparently, Mina's version 
of Minako's love me chain was more like a whip. She twirled it around 
her on the ground as she swung the end she was holding slowly above her. 
Then with speed Minako could barely comprehend, Mina sent it cracking at 
Minako, missing her by inches as it slammed into another cubicle in the 
cube farm.

Sailor Venus ducked instinctively, and was glad her opponent missed 
since she was entirely too slow to have dodged the attack had she not. 
As she rolled for cover, she watched as the stricken section of wall 
slid apart, almost perfectly cut in half. She was about to yell out one 
of her 'improved' puns, but forgot what she was about to say when 
another crack of Dark Venus's whip ripped through the wall behind her, 
cutting into the ground next to her. Minako's eyes went wide as she 
watched the deadly weapon slide away like a snake as her opponent pulled 
it back again, probably readying it for yet another strike.

Before either of them could attack again, a tremendous explosion rocked 
the entire floor, causing a section of the ceiling to collapse and 
knocking everyone off their feet. As Minako stood back up, she realized 
the source of the explosion must have come from either Sailor Mars, Dark 
Mars, or (most likely) both of them, because by the time she had gotten 
back to her feet, half the room had burst into flames. The smell of 
burning metal and melting plastic filled the room as the temperature 
shot up shockingly quick setting off the sprinklers. The water doused 
some of the flames, sending up choking clouds of smoke, making it 
impossible to see or breathe.

Minako dropped to her hands and knees and crawled along the floor back 
in the direction she had come, trying to make her way to the elevator. 
She clicked on her communicator when she realized her attacker had given 
up the fight for her own safety. She could only rasp out one word 
because she was coughing so hard from the fumes. "Retreat!" The fight 
had suddenly become pointless since no one could see, and if they didn't 
get out of here soon, the smoke and toxic fumes would probably kill them 
all.

Meanwhile, the Sekkou had gotten the same idea as Minako. Like her 
double, Mina had given them the order to retreat. Lita flew out one of 
the shattered windows to join the rest of her companions hovering 
outside the building. It didn't take her long to realize after she 
cleared the smoke billowing from the windows that one of them was 
missing. She looked around and said, somewhat distressed, "Where's Amy?"

Dark Moon spoke, trying to calm her. "We tried her communicator several 
times already. We were hoping she was with you."

Lita didn't even think. She spun around in the air and started to head 
back into the smoke without any thought for her own safety. She only 
stopped when Amara and Trista both flew over to her and yanked her back. 
"Don't be a fool!" Amara said angrily to Lita.

Lita, still struggling to get free, said, clearly furious by being 
blocked, "But she's still in there! We can't -- "

Ray cut her off, flying in front of her to grab Lita's shoulders, and 
shook her hard to get her attention. "Shut up and listen to me!" When 
Lita stopped struggling for a moment and glared into Ray's eyes, she 
continued. "We think she probably opened her portal and left rather than 
meet up out here. The smoke was so thick in there she probably realized 
she couldn't find her way out. Now, I need you to -- "

Lita shouted at the top of her lungs, "No thanks to you! We have to -- " 
She was cut off by Mina sending a sharp slap across the tallest scout's 
face.

"Get ahold of yourself," Mina said angrily. "We are going to go back 
through the portal and see if Mars is correct. Amy is a cunning, 
resourceful woman. I'm sure she is okay regardless of where she is. If 
we don't find her in our universe, I promise you we will come back and 
search for her at the first opportunity." Turning back to watch flames 
shoot out of the windows, Mina said, "Besides, we don't have a choice 
now." With that, the Sekkou activated a portal and disappeared inside it 
with their reluctant companion in tow.

Minako thought she heard Makoto say something over her communicator, but 
she hadn't caught what it was. At the moment it would have to wait since 
she was still crawling across the floor trying to reach safety. Minako 
knew using the elevator during a fire wasn't the best of ideas, but the 
smoke was so thick she wasn't sure she could find a stairway quick 
enough. Once she reached the elevator, she brought her hand up and 
smacked the button to close the door, then pressed the button for the 
first floor. She coughed a few more times as she rolled onto her back, 
taking a moment to relax. As the elevator lowered, the thick black smoke 
slowly cleared and she realized she wasn't alone. Rei and Hotaru had 
also made it to the same elevator.

At first Minako had thought the two were Sekkou, because their uniforms 
looked black, but then she realized the color of their uniforms was from 
all the greasy soot caked on them. "Did the others make it out?" Minako 
asked, still coughing.

Hotaru answered from where she was sitting on the floor in the far 
corner of the elevator, after taking several breaths of air. "The others 
went down the stairway we came out of, except for Ami and Makoto. They . 
. ."

"They decided to do something really stupid." Rei angrily finished for 
her. Then, with a guilty expression on her face, she said, "I was 
fighting my double when we both fired off an attack. The two attacks 
struck each other somehow causing an explosion that, aside for setting 
the place on fire, knocked a support beam from the ceiling." She looked 
at Minako then said, "When it fell, it pinned down Dark Mercury. Makoto 
and Ami were close by and decided to try to get her out both to 
accomplish our goal and because Ami simply didn't feel right about 
leaving her to die regardless of what she has done. I tried to tell them 
to leave, but they wouldn't listen."

Minako sat up, clicked on her communicator and said quietly, "Ami, are 
you there?" After a few moments she asked, "Makoto? Can you hear me?" 
When silence again greeted her she yelled out with a shaky voice, "Damn 
it! Will one of you answer me!"

Ami's image appeared on the screen after several tense moments. She 
unwrapped her nose and mouth which had been covered by what was probably 
a section of her skirt she had ripped off and covered with water to 
allow herself to breath. "We're safe. We are going down a stairway on 
our way to the basement. Try to make your way to the subway station and 
find a place away from prying eyes. We will meet you there. " Preparing 
herself for the reprimand she knew was coming for not following orders 
from their leader, she said nervously, "I'm sorry, Minako-chan. Please 
don't be upset with Makoto. It was my idea. I felt we needed answers too 
badly to let the opportunity past us." Shrugging her shoulders, she 
added, "Besides, it just didn't set well with me leaving her to burn 
alive." Ami looked at something off the screen for a moment, then added, 
"Even if she deserves it."

Minako sighed and let herself lay back down for a moment. Then she said, 
loud enough for Ami to hear her, "I guess that's the difference between 
us and them. If the situation had been reversed, they would have left 
you to die." After a pause, Minako said, "The important thing is that 
you're both okay. Next time I tell you to fall back, you do it, you 
understand? See you in a few minutes." Then Minako clicked off her 
communicator.

As the elevator continued down to its destination, Hotaru couldn't help 
but be grateful for the small fact that at least they didn't have to 
take the stairs.

----------

Haruka said to the other person on the other end of the phone line, 
"Yes, hello? I'd like to report two stolen vehicles." Then after the 
dispatcher asked her a question, Haruka said, "A yellow 2003 TVR 
Cerbera, license plate number 10-25K and a blue 2001 Honda Acura, plate 
number 1701-A." The sandy blonde haired woman blinked a few times, 
momentarily perplexed by the dispatcher's next comment. "Ehhhh . . . 
no," Haruka replied, "the blue one is my friend's car. That would make 
her the 'trekkie'." The two went back and forth answering questions, 
then once the dispatcher had finished filing their report, Haruka turned 
off her cell phone and walked back down into the subway to join the rest 
of the senshi and their captive.

The subway was empty and would probably remain so since this stop had 
temporarily been taken out of service while the police and firefighters 
above began their work. Makoto had tied Amy's hands behind her back and 
around a hand rail against the wall at the bottom of the stairs leading 
up to street level to keep her from escaping while they talked to her.

So far, Amy hadn't said anything, almost as if she preferred them to 
start the conversation. She just glared back at each of them with a 
stare colder than ice. The Senshi, for their part, kept whispering short 
conversations back and forth to each other, trying to figure out what to 
do with their prisoner. They had never had a captive before and weren't 
quite sure what to do with her. Plus, to make things even more awkward, 
they really hadn't had enough time to think about what exactly they were 
going to say to her.

Ami finally broke the silence, deciding that simply getting to the point 
was the best place to start. "We have several questions we would like to 
ask you. I suppose we should ask you the first one on our minds, which 
is, why do you wish to terminate us?"

"Why should I answer you?" Amy shot back as Ami was finishing the last 
word in her question. "The less you know, the more of an advantage we 
have." Smiling as she continued, she said, "It's not like you're going 
to hurt me if I don't talk anyway. If I don't talk the worst you can do 
is wait for my friends to come back and get me, and let me tell you, 
they can be persistent."

Makoto had been silent ever since they had saved Amy from her fate. She 
hadn't wanted to save her at all and only did so because Ami had taken 
pity on her. If it had been up to Makoto alone, Amy would have been left 
to die. The woman had caused Ami so much pain before, and in Makoto's 
mind leaving her to die would have been better than she deserved, not to 
mention it also would have removed part of the threat they now faced. 
She wanted to beat the living daylights out of the Sekkou of Mercury 
whether or not she spoke. She said quietly, but unable to hide the anger 
in her voice, "We saved your life. That should entitle us to some 
information out of you at least."

Dark Mercury laughed, then said happily, "That you did." Then she looked 
over at Ami and said, smiling, "He, Ami! Sie sprechen German ja? Wie 
steht's mit etwas Information über Sie, ja? Denken Sie, dass sie lieben 
würden, die Geschichte über das erste Mal zu hören, als Sie von Ihrem 
Gesichtspunkt starben?" Her smile got a little larger as she finished, 
"Ich denke, dass Makoto es sehr interessant tatsächlich finden würde. 
Was sagen Sie?"

The comment was clearly meant to get a reaction out of Ami, since she 
was the only one among them that spoke German. Ami suddenly got a look 
of anger with a touch of panic to her face as she glanced at Makoto, 
then back at Dark Mercury, finally replying back, "Nein! Sie können 
nicht ihnen darüber erzählen! Das ist zu persönlich!" Whatever Dark 
Mercury had just said, it was obvious Ami didn't want the others to 
know.

Dark Mercury opened her mouth to say something, but Ami walked closer 
and surprised everyone by slapping Amy in a fit of rage, intent on not 
allowing her to speak. Ami said rapidly, "Ich werde nicht Sie diese 
Befragung kontrollieren lassen. Sie werden auf unsere Fragen antworten!" 
Then Ami grabbed their prisoner by her collar, clearly distressed, and 
yelled out, "Sie verstehen mich?!" Her voice echoed loudly for a moment 
in the cavernous space before she felt arms grab her and pull her away 
quickly. The other Senshi had realized Ami's temper did have limits and 
weren't entirely sure what Ami was going to do.

As Haruka and Setsuna pulled Ami off her double, Ami protested loudly, 
"Don't listen to her! She is trying to gain control of the situation in 
the worst possible way!"

"You want information, Mako-chan?" Amy laughed out, "I'll give you 
information. Did Ami ever tell you the story about what happened to her 
when those Yoma killed her before Usagi faced Beryl?" Smiling, she said 
quieter, "You were dead at the time, so I doubt you know it unless she 
told you." Noticing she had everyone's attention, she said, clearly 
restraining laughter, "It is after all unpleasant to talk about one's 
own death."

Ami looked at Makoto and said, pleading, "Makoto, please don't . . ."

Makoto raised her hand so it was facing behind her toward where Haruka 
and Setsuna were holding Ami. The gesture's meaning was clear. Be quiet. 
Once everyone was silent again she said, "I want to hear this."

Amy leaned back a moment, closing her eyes as she thought back. Then she 
looked into Makoto's eyes as if searching for something. "Our history 
isn't much different from yours. The pivotal change is mostly when 
Serena fought Beryl. Therefore, it is a good bet that my experience was 
nearly identical to your own. My story I am about to tell you is about 
Ami, and her greatest moment of weakness."

Tilting her head to the side, gesturing toward Sailor Moon, Ami 
continued, "After you died, Usagi actually suggested that we give Beryl 
the Ginzuishou. Can you believe that? Just give it to her, just like 
that! All out of guilt because you," Amy nodded her head to indicate she 
was talking to Makoto, "sacrificed yourself to keep that from happening. 
Naturally, I slapped her as hard as I could, in an attempt to knock some 
sense into her."

Usagi, with a look of shame on her face, reached up and gently rubbed 
her own cheek as the memory came back to her all too clearly. So quietly 
that no one actually heard her, she said, "I deserved it."

Realizing her comment had caused a reaction from one of her audience 
members, the scout continued. "I remember saying afterward, 'Jupiter's 
death must not be in vain,' or something to that effect . . . I don't 
remember honestly the exact words. It was after all, back when we were 
all in junior high which was about --"

"Get to the point," Makoto said, clenching her fists as she glared at 
the woman. Makoto was so engrossed in the story that she didn't even 
realize Amy had been telling it as if she were Ami.

Looking truthfully sad at the memory, Amy continued again, ignoring the 
rude interruption. "I told the others to let me hold them off while they 
made their way to fight Queen Beryl. I promised Usagi that I wouldn't 
die." Biting her lower lip for a moment as depressing thoughts ran 
through her mind, Amy said quietly, "In reality, that was exactly what I 
wanted to happen at that point."

Makoto didn't let her eyes leave Amy's as she asked out loud, "Is this 
true?"

Before Ami could answer, Dark Mercury spoke for her. Her voice was a 
strange mixture of anger and sadness. "Of course it is." Straining her 
arms as she tried to wave them in frustration, she yelled, "I couldn't 
bear the thought of living without you. So I decided to let myself be 
killed in a meaningful way rather than to even attempt to go another day 
without you. It seemed to be . . . the honorable thing to do, and the 
best way to . . . end my suffering. It was a truly cowardly act, in a 
moment of despair and weakness."

Makoto turned around to look at her new girlfriend and said quietly, 
"Ami?"

Ami could almost feel all of her friends looking at her. She had her 
head turned so it was facing the wall with her eyes squeezed shut and 
her arms wrapped around herself. She had the look of someone who wanted 
nothing more than to just disappear all together. "It's true. I didn't 
show it, but I was distraught. I was weak, a coward, and I was scared. I 
was too young to realize how . . . permanent my decision would have been 
if things had gone differently and we weren't brought back to life." Ami 
kept her eyes closed. She didn't want to see her friends looking at her. 
No doubt, they must be disgusted with her for being so weak.

After a few more moments, she felt a hand gently touch her chin and 
guide it so her face was turned forward. When Ami opened her cobalt blue 
eyes, they met Makoto's emerald green ones as they looked at her. To 
Ami's surprise, Makoto had a smile on her face. Once she realized she 
had Ami's attention, Jupiter said happily, "You know, it would have been 
a lot simpler if you had just told me how you felt. I mean, It's sweet 
that you felt you had to play out the ending of Romeo and Juliet because 
of me, bu -- "


Her words were cut off by Ami burying her face in Makoto's shoulder as 
she squeezed her close, both for comfort and to hide her tears. The 
entire event was something she had tried to keep a secret from Makoto 
for what seemed like forever since she felt so strangely guilty about 
it. Ami's muffled voice asked, clearly relieved, "You mean you're not 
mad at me?"

"Of course we're not. We all have our secrets we would like to keep," 
said Michiru. "I wasn't there, but from what little I have heard about 
those events, even if you hadn't sacrificed yourself, the outcome would 
have probably been the same anyway. Plus, you were young, and you sound 
like you have learned your lesson. Everyone has their moments when they 
are weak and vulnerable. You're a strong person, Ami. You should never 
doubt that."

After a few more moments of silence, Minako cleared her throat and said 
quietly, so as not to sound too harsh, but loud enough to accomplish her 
goal of getting everyone else's attention, "I hate to ruin the moment, 
but uh . . . this is an interrogation."


As if in agreement, Dark Mercury groaned out, "Oh please, spare me." 
Then she started to rhythmically smack the back of her head against the 
wall in frustration. She had thought for sure that that bit of 
'information' would have caused a rift of some kind amongst the team 
against Ami. Obviously she had been wrong. Between thuds she said 
bitterly, "Man, this just isn't my day."

Taking one last instant to pull herself together, Ami wiped her eyes and 
backed away from Makoto. As her cheeks turned a slight pink color, and 
sounding more than a little embarrassed by her emotional outburst, she 
said, "Uh . . . right." Ami had always been good about controlling, and 
even suppressing her emotions, but it seemed to her that about four 
weeks ago that had become more and more difficult to do. She wasn't sure 
if it was stress from when she was captured, her budding relationship 
with Makoto, repressed sexual tension, the fact she was getting older, 
or any combination of reasons for that matter. The one thing she was 
sure of, was that there was probably a long technical name for it in 
psychology, and it was starting to embarrass her.

Setting her emotions aside, she switched on her visor as she turned her 
attention back to the Sekkou. "If you won't talk, we can still get some 
information out of you using nonverbal methods that don't necessarily 
have to be violent. It won't be as useful as answering our questions, 
but it is better than nothing." Analyzing something always made Ami feel 
more confident and helped to calm her nerves a bit. It helped that the 
subject matter in front of her, from a scientific standpoint, was rather 
fascinating.

A new wire mesh of Amy appeared on her visor, this one showing 
considerably more detail about her than the ones Ami had used to track 
the Sekkou during their flight around the building. Charts and graphs as 
well as detailed analytical information scrolled across her screen as 
the visor began its analysis of their opponent.

Ami began stating the information as if she were talking to a science 
professor. "Her deoxyribonucleic acid is nearly identical to mine, but 
not an exact copy. The variant in her DNA would be considered strange in 
any human being . . . or, for that matter, nearly any organism alive. In 
normal DNA, we only have four base nucleotides, adenine, cytosine, 
guanine, and thymine. These pair up in a long sequence to form the DNA 
molecules in all living things. Hers, however, has an extra pair that 
appears seemingly randomly throughout her DNA pattern. The visor 
interprets this pair as XX. In short, this is the visor's way of saying 
the particular pair of nucleotides cannot be analyzed."

Ami looked at the others and realized her explanation was a little too 
technical, so she reworded it in layman's terms. "In other words, 
someone altered her on a genetic level in ways I can't even begin to 
understand."

Ami got a chorus of "Oh's" in response.

Sailor Mercury continued her scan of their enemy, and for her part, Dark 
Mercury stayed quiet as she listened to find out what they found out. 
Sometimes the best way to do damage control when someone finds out your 
secrets is to find out what they know so that you know what they know. 
Ami understood this, but she felt letting the others know right now was 
more important than waiting until later to digest the information since 
she had no idea how much or little time they had before the other Sekkou 
realized what had happened to their missing member and came back to 
fetch her.

"Physically, she is nearly identical to me, aside from a place on her 
left arm, right leg, and the upper right frontal quadrant of her skull 
where it appears she sustained severe damage at some point in the past. 
Muscle structure and strength are the same, as well as internal organs. 
Her brain waves are different, probably because of different methods of 
thought. Energy patterns are the same as mine, but are aligned 
differently, and slightly more powerful, which probably is what results 
in her attacks being more aggressive than my own, and giving her the 
ability to fly." Ami stopped speaking for a moment and made another 
adjustment to her visor. "There also seems to be another energy . . . 
spike. I don't think it is coming directly from her though. Perhaps 
something she is wearing?"

As Ami said the last comment, Dark Mercury tucked her chin down as far 
as she could, glaring at Ami as if daring her to continue. Ami took a 
step closer, and Dark Mercury tried to kick at her for a moment as if 
defending herself, but Ami was still out of reach. The scout said 
angrily, "I'm warning you, stay back." Then she smiled and said, only 
being slightly sarcastic, "I bite."

Lost in the sea of information she was reading, Ami said quietly, "Good 
point." Then she turned her head and said, "Haruka, would you be so kind 
as to hold her chin up? There is something I'd like to get a closer look 
at."

"With pleasure," Haruka said as she cracked her knuckles. She walked 
over to Amy and as she expected, Dark Mercury tried to kick again. 
Haruka expertly blocked the kick with her own leg. When Amy realized 
that wasn't going to work, she sunk to the ground as low as she could in 
an effort to keep away from Haruka. Sailor Uranus grabbed Amy by her 
collar and lifted her back to her feet. Then she used her leg to hold 
both of Amy's in place and her free hand to force her head up so that 
Amy was now looking nearly straight up.

Dark Mercury watched as best she could while Sailor Mercury walked 
calmly up to her. Almost like a child fascinated by a small shiny 
object, Ami reached out and unfastened Amy's choker. Like her own, Amy's 
choker had an ornamental star on the front of it held in place by blue 
fabric. The only visible appearance was that Amy's was titanium in color 
instead of gold. However, it wasn't the visible difference that had 
captivated Ami's attention, and Dark Mercury knew it.

"Don't touch that!" The Sekkou screeched out, not trying to hide her 
distress. As Ami continued to examine the choker, Amy screamed, "You 
fool! Give that back! You have no idea what that is!"

Almost as if Amy's words were nothing but a stray thought in her mind, 
Ami, with her voice full of fascination, said softly, "You're right, I 
don't. It's amazing just the same though. It appears to have more energy 
at its disposal than you do. Over ten times more." Still peering through 
her visor, Ami brought the small object close to her face, studying it a 
moment more. Then she moved away from the group several feet, still 
apparently lost in thought. As an afterthought she said, "You can let go 
of her now, Haruka."

Amy didn't put up a fight when Haruka stepped back. She still had her 
eyes locked on Mercury as she said a warning. "For all of our safety, I 
highly advise you to put that down." She emphasized the last word by 
stomping one of her feet.

Makoto looked at Ami from where she stood and said, sounding concerned, 
"Be careful, Ami."

Ami ignored both of them, lost in thought. A few of the senshi started 
to move toward her, but Ami held up a hand to have them stop. "Amazing. 
I wonder . . ." was all Ami could say as she kept reading the 
information scrolling across her visor. Finally, she held the star in 
the palm of her hand and gently pressed the front of it with a finger. 
As soon as she did it, there was a flash of light, and then a portal 
opened up in front of her. Its familiar purple outline with a dark black 
center was familiar to the Senshi. It was the same one the Sekkou used 
to escape. All of the Senshi except Mercury jumped in surprise, and a 
few of them rushed toward her for a moment thinking it had been some 
kind of attack. Once they realized what it was, they stopped, but 
watched the portal cautiously as if it were a monster come to attack 
them.

Ami blinked a few times as her visor fired several more messages across 
her view. "The portal has an event horizon. That's why we see black in 
the center. We can't see any of the light traveling through our side or 
the other. It's a . . . miniature black hole? That wouldn't make any 
sense. If that's what it is, the entire planet would have been sucked in 
by now." Then Ami switched off her visor and stepped closer to the 
portal looking at it with her own eyes. Sounding for all the world like 
Haruka admiring the latest model of sports car, Ami said in awe, "It's a 
wormhole." The portal was absolutely fascinating from a scientific 
standpoint to Ami. She had seen several different portals since she had 
become a Senshi, but had never gotten the chance to see one up close and 
study one.

"A what?" Usagi said, sounding confused. Then she cringed as she said, 
"You mean a giant worm is going to come out of there?"

Ami, now inches from the portal, laughed as she shook her head at 
Usagi's question, and said, oblivious to the fact that the rest of the 
Senshi had barely understood most of what she had said so far, "No, I 
mean it's a hole through space and time. They can travel vast dis -- " 
Ami screamed out in surprise, suddenly stopping herself in the middle of 
her explanation. A black gloved hand had shot out of the portal and 
latched onto her wrist. Ami frantically tried to pull the hand away, as 
her friends rushed toward her to help free her.

Makoto had nearly reached Ami, so she lunged toward her, but it was too 
late. Sailor Mercury was yanked off her feet and through the portal a 
mere fraction of a second before anyone could reach her. Almost 
instantly, there was another bright flash of light, and Ami's screaming 
abruptly silenced as the portal closed behind her, leaving the rest of 
the Senshi and their prisoner in stunned silence as Makoto crashed into 
the ground empty handed.

Onwards to Part 14


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