Makoto to the Rescue Rei's voice replied to Minako over the phone, "It's not that I don't think it's a good idea, Minako. It's just that Ami has been acting strange for nearly three days now. She's been getting our names mixed up, she gets lost in a town she's lived in her entire life, she called into work sick, and now you tell me she went out from early yesterday evening to early this morning, and won't tell you where she went. I just don't think Ami is in her right mind at the moment, which makes it kinda wrong to try to set her up right now." Minako sighed. "Look, Rei, it's not like I'm trying to trick them to sleep together. All I want is to have you come over here and we will have Ami go over to Makoto's for the night to kinda get a break from each other and mix things up a bit. It's not like this is their first time alone together either. Just the first time since we have known how they feel. Besides, Ami really is getting on my nerves since she came back from the hospital. I'm really OK with her being someone else's problem for one night." Then Minako said, sounding more urgent, "Plus, on top of that, she has that date on Saturday night! We have to move quickly to get the box rolling by then, or she won't wind up with Makoto! Desperate times call for urgent sprints!" Now, it was Rei's turn to sigh, and the blonde also got the feeling that the miko also rolled her eyes. "Fine Minako-chan, you win. I'll have Makoto drop me off for the evening in a little bit. Just keep our wandering, blue haired friend from running off until I get there. I think Makoto would like having Ami around instead of me for a while, anyway." Then, more quietly, so as to make sure if Makoto was listening in on the conversation outside the room she couldn't hear, Rei added, "I think Makoto knows at least one of us was snooping on her computer and I don't want to be here if she decides to beat it out of me who that was. See you in a bit, Minako-Chan!" With that, Rei hung up the phone. As soon as Minako hung up the phone, she heard a knock on her door. "Come in". Ami walked in and said, "Minako, I have an idea. I know you must be sick of me by now. How about I let Rei borrow my room for the night and I trade places with her and stay with Makoto. It will be kind of a break while I sort things out, plus give us both some time to get away from each other." "You weren't listening in to my conversation with Rei, were you, Ami?" That was something else Minako had noticed Ami had been doing. Ami had started picking up phones in other parts of the apartment to try to listen in to Minako's conversations with other people. Even one to the local pizza delivery restaurant for lunch. This was exactly the reason that had caused her to want to kick Ami out for a while. Ami looked at Minako innocently, and said, "No, but I did catch part of it through the door. You're kinda loud." Minako was sure Ami hadn't heard all of the conversation because there would have definitely been more questions, so she wasn't too worried. Instead, she said, sounding relieved, "Yeah, Ami-chan! I think that would be a great idea. As a matter of fact, if you go and look in your closet, there is a nice suitcase packed with three days' worth of stuff for you. Makoto should be by with Rei in a moment, so we are all set and everyone is happy." As Ami left to get her things, Minako was glad she had planned on locking Ami out in advance even if this wasn't completely how she wanted to go about it. A short time later, Rei entered Minako's room. Minako looked up from her seat at her desk and said, "Please tell me she's gone." Rei looked at Minako and said, smiling, "Yep. Operation Thunder Snow is underway! Now are you ready to go raid Ami's computer?" Minako looked at Rei and smiled. "I already did last night while she was out, and you won't believe some of the stuff she's got on there!" ---------- Makoto didn't know anyone had cracked into her computer. The reason she was so frustrated around Rei hadn't been that at all. The Senshi of electricity hadn't heard from her online girlfriend since Friday evening, and it was now Monday evening. Nearly three days. It wasn't like PB to drop off the face of the earth like that without a word. On top of that, there was the way she had been hearing about Ami's behavior since her incident. Her friends were starting to wonder if the Senshi of ice hadn't sustained some form of brain damage. She watched as the short, blue-haired woman wandered around her apartment. Ami looked at Makoto and said, sounding truly sincere, "This place is really nice, Makoto. I can't wait to see when you're done decorating. It'll be beautiful." Makoto smiled to hide the fact that she was becoming extremely worried about Ami. The others had said she was acting strange lately, but Ami really should already have known how her apartment looked since she was the person who had gone with Makoto when she went apartment shopping, and who had helped her move in. Not wanting to embarrass Ami, Makoto said simply, "Thank you." Makoto then said, "Ami, I know you just got here, but I need to go out to the store for a few and pick up some ingredients to make us some dinner. It's been a while since you had a good, decent, cooked meal. Just stay here and I'll be right back. Feel free to have a look around if you like. The supermarket across the street tends to have everything I usually need, so you shouldn't have to wait long." After apologizing again, Makoto left Ami alone in the apartment. Once the door closed, Ami said angrily, as she whipped out her communicator, "About damn time they left me alone for 10 minutes." She ran a hand through her hair gently for a moment in thought, then winced in pain when her fingers came in contact with the large bruise on her head. She had felt it was necessary to make it look like she had been attacked, so she had had her lover knock her over the head. She knew it would hurt, but she didn't expect the woman to hit her so hard it would give her a concussion. She would either have to be more specific next time, or avoid using such a strategy with her again. "Serena, this is Amy reporting in." Usagi's face appeared on the communicator screen. Only it wasn't Usagi. Serena said simply, "Report your progress." 'Ami' replied to the image quietly, "I'm currently in Makoto's apartment. I'm going to gather information about her tonight, then I'll meet up with all of you outside of her apartment to give a full report and to finish my interrogation of Ami. Then we should have adequate information to kill all of the Sekkou of this dimension. So far, our plan is going perfectly." "Good work, Amy. I look forward to seeing you soon." Then, losing some of her formal tone, Serena said, "Please be careful." With that, Amy nodded, closed down her communicator, and went about her search of the apartment. Makoto opened the door to her apartment about an hour after that. "Ami-Chan, I'm back! Sorry it took so long!" said Makoto. When she realized Ami wasn't going to answer, Makoto went to the kitchen to put up her groceries. Once she opened the kitchen door, she found out why Ami hadn't answered. 'Ami' was at the table stacking empty beer cans into a pyramid. Makoto kept a case of beer for when she and Haruka got together to watch sporting events on TV. While she did drink a few now and then, she had never gotten drunk. And she never imagined any of her other friends would be interested in the stuff any, especially not enough to get drunk. Especially not Ami. Amy placed the last one on top, then looked at Makoto. When she finally spoke, her speech was slurred a bit. "Oh! Lit . . . Makoto-chan! Hi! I got a little thirsty, so I decided to try some of your . . ." Amy picked up the top can to look at it again to try to remember what she was going to say " . . . some of this stuff. We don't drink alcohol where I come from, so I had to try it out of curiosity, you see . . ." Then Amy stood up and started staggering toward Makoto, saying, "I must say it has an interesting effect on me." Makoto walked over to Amy and held her so she wouldn't fall. Still unaware of the impostor, Makoto said, sounding almost as if she still didn't believe it, "Ami . . . ? Are you . . . uh . . . drunk?" The usually intelligent woman looked at the beer cans arranged on the table for a moment with a rather stupid looking gaze, trying to choose her words. Then she leaned back in Makoto's arms and said, "Yep," emphasizing the P in yep with an exaggerated popping sound. "Never been drunk before . . . " Amy wrapped some of Makoto's hair around one of her fingers then looked up as sweetly into the taller woman's green eyes as being drunk would allow and said, "It's . . . interesting . . . I . . . feel less . . . inhibited? Is that even a word?" Then Amy leaned up, pulling Makoto's head down a bit, pressing their foreheads together. "Kiss me, Makoto." When Makoto didn't, she smiled and said with a surprisingly seductive tone to her voice, "Come on, Mako. It'll be fun." Makoto pushed Amy back, startled by her sexual advancement. Makoto had fantasized about Ami throwing herself at her before, but having her do it while she was recovering from a concussion and stark raving drunk with the strong smell of alcohol on her breath was disgusting as well as wrong to her. She would never take advantage of Ami in such a state. If she ever wanted her, Makoto much preferred the thought of Ami taking her with all her faculties working properly. Doing so right now was just wrong in Makoto's book. Amy staggered backward, but amazingly kept her balance. Looking a little hurt, she said, "Don't be like that Makoto . . . I know you want me." Before Amy could throw herself at Makoto again, her communicator started beeping. The far past tipsy woman pulled out her communicator and said, rather out of character and a little angry, "Wadda ya want? Can't this wait? I'm in the middle of . . . somethin'." Makoto heard Usagi's voice over the communicator say, "You're supposed to meet us out here, remember? What's with you tonight?" Amy responded to whom Makoto thought was Usagi, saying, "Be there in a sec," then closed her communicator and looked at Makoto sadly. "Looks like I got to go . . . see ya around, Makoto." Amy staggered out the door without so much as an apology or a look back at Makoto. Makoto quietly took a seat at the kitchen table, trying to clear her head. Her friends had told her that Ami was acting strange lately, but she doubted any of them would have thought she would have drunk . . . nine beers and not realized she would have gotten drunk doing it. Something was definitely amiss about the short, blue-haired woman and it was time to find out. After taking a few more moments to gain her senses, Makoto walked out of the apartment to find Ami. Once Amy arrived, the group that had assembled to meet up with her looked at her with a mixture of astonishment and disgust. Amy stumbled toward them, and as soon as she could, she wrapped her arms around the woman who looked exactly like Makoto and asked, "Would it count as cheating if I kissed someone who was your identical twin from a parallel dimension?" Lita looked at Amy and said, sounding revolted, "You want my personal opinion?" Amy responded by taking a step back, bending over, putting her hands on her knees, and throwing up all over the sidewalk, barely missing Lita's feet. The four looked at Amy for a moment. She had started to hiccup as she finally lost her balance, landing on the ground with a thud. Then Ray broke the silence. "We need to get back." Makoto watched from her hiding place near the door of the apartment building, as the group helped the drunk woman to her feet and practically dragged her off. She had originally come down to walk Ami home or insist she come back upstairs, but when she saw Ami talking to someone who looked amazingly like herself, she realized something was seriously wrong. Makoto flipped on her communicator, set it to contact all the senshi, and spoke when someone's face appeared on the screen. Noticing none of the people in front of her had turned on their communicators made Makoto even more suspicious. She was in such a hurry, she almost didn't notice that Minako was the one on the screen. "Listen, I think Ami is in very real danger. I'm following a group of people right now. I'll contact all of you as soon as I find out where they are heading. Meet me there." Before anyone could reply, Makoto clicked off her communicator and started following the five people, keeping her distance so as not to be noticed. ---------- It had been a long walk to her target's destination, which it turned out was an old abandoned automobile factory. The place hadn't put out a single product since the mid 1980s. It was almost completely enclosed, with no windows save a small area for offices on the front of the building. A perfect place to hide away from the world. There had been a few times on the way that Makoto thought she was seen by the group of women she was following, but since they made no attempts to lose or attack her, Makoto assumed they hadn't. She had already called the other Senshi and told them to meet her here. Also, to a chorus of disagreements over her communicator, Makoto informed them she was going to take a look around and see what was going on so she could tell them once they got here. Makoto sneaked around back of the old building to find another way in. "Finally!" Makoto whispered to herself as she found a small back door. Of course, as she tried the knob, it was locked. Luckily, women are always prepared for such situations. She pulled a hair clip out of her hair, broke it in half and used the broken clip as a lock pick. Once she got the lock open, but before opening the door, she transformed into Sailor Jupiter, then walked in as quietly as she could. It was very dark inside, causing Makoto to have to wait several minutes for her eyes to adjust. Once they did, she realized she was in a huge room. Probably the manufacturing floor. Most of the equipment was long gone. Just a few discarded tools here and there, one or two large pieces of machinery, and chains hanging from a few old cranes were all that was left behind. In the center of the room, one of the chains appeared to have something hanging from the hook at the end. Even though it was too dark to tell for certain, Makoto was pretty sure what it was. The tall senshi walked quietly across the floor. Once she got closer, she could tell, even in the darkness, that she was right about what the object was on the hook. Ami had her wrists tied together, with rope attached to the hook. Her feet were hanging off the ground, and she had on a black blindfold. Her captors had at least had the decency to wrap her in a discarded white cloth, probably thrown over a piece of equipment when the facility had closed. Once Makoto got to Ami, she reached up and started untying Ami's hands. Makoto whispered to herself quietly, trying to boost her confidence a little, "Time to play hero!" Ami, who had either been unconscious or asleep when Makoto had gotten to her, suddenly began struggling when she felt Makoto's hands touch hers. "Who's there?" she asked, sounding weak and more than a little scared. Makoto stopped trying to untie her and gently put her hands on Ami's face, speaking quietly but also calmly and reassuringly, "It's me, Makoto. I'm getting you out of here. Now stop struggling so I can untie you." Ami tried to speak, but coughed a bit for a moment before saying "No, Makoto . . . not by yourself," just as Makoto got Ami's hands untied, causing Ami to groan as she fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Makoto knelt down by Ami and whispered as she tried to help Ami to her feet, "Can you move your legs?" Ami smiled quietly for a moment, then said sounding somewhat delirious, "Are you asking me to dance?" Then Ami slumped in Makoto's arms as she passed out again. "Guess I'll carry you. Time to go, Ami." As Makoto lifted Ami and started heading for the door, she couldn't help but think to herself how easy it had been to get in and actually get Ami. It was starting to look like she was going to get away scot-free after pulling the wool over the eyes of whoever had caught her long-time friend. Makoto almost regretted that, since she wanted to hurt the people who had done this to her. A good fight might have yielded answers and helped her to blow off steam. Little did Makoto know, she was about to learn an important lesson: be careful what you wish for. Just as Makoto had taken a few steps, she heard her own voice from out of the darkness say angrily, "Forget it! You're not going anywhere!" The next thing Makoto felt was a sharp pain at the base of her skull. Dropping Ami, Makoto twirled around to defend herself. Then she felt the room keep spinning when she stopped and suddenly saw the ground rush up to meet her. When Makoto came to, she winced as she opened her eyes. A light was turned on overhead, causing only the immediate area of the huge room to be visible. The light seemed so bright for a moment that Makoto felt like someone was jamming a knife in her eyes. Once her eyes stopped hurting, she could see Ami in front of her, lying on the ground, tied up again. This time, Ami's legs were tied together and her arms were tied behind her back. She still had the blindfold on. Next to Ami was a rectangular-shaped water cooler with ice water in it. When Makoto had gained most of her senses back, she tried to move, only to notice her hands were tied to a chair and her feet were tied together. Walking out of the darkness as if they were ghosts in the night and forming a circle around them were all five inner planetary sailor senshi, including Sailors Jupiter and Mercury. The only visible difference Makoto could see of the five of her captors was that where their uniforms should be white, they were black. Also, instead of gold tiaras, theirs were titanium silver in color. Despite their identical appearances, Makoto knew instantly that with the exception of poor Ami, she wasn't in the company of friends. She realized she must have been out for a while, because the one that had obviously at this point impersonated Ami appeared to have sobered up a bit. Dark Sailor Mercury was the first to break the silence. "Your friend here is tough to crack. It took us quite a while to get any information out of her." Dark Mercury emphasized the point by giving Ami a hard kick to her gut. Ami squirmed on the ground, making a croaking sound as she gasped for breath. Dark Mercury looked back at Makoto and said, "She wouldn't answer most of our questions. All we were able to get out of her were your names. You should be proud of her. She stood up to my interrogation methods quite well. Impressive really." Looking down at Ami and then back up at Dark Mercury, Makoto said angrily, "You tortured her? When I get out of this chair I'm going to kill you!" Dark Sailor Jupiter spoke up next. "Now, now. Such violence really isn't necessary. Besides, tortured is such a strong word. I prefer alternative forms of persuasion myself. Don't worry. We won't waste our time trying them on you." Pointing at herself, Dark Sailor Jupiter said, "I already know they won't work." With that, Dark Mars threw in, sounding perfectly calm, 'That's right. So, we came up with a different plan." "We're going to use 'alternative forms of persuasion' on your little pal and make you watch. Since she won't talk, we figure hurting her in front of you is the best way to get you to speak." The comment came from Dark Venus. Finally, Dark Sailor Moon stepped in front of Makoto. Looking down at her almost sadly, she said, "We have many questions to ask you. Unfortunately we probably don't have time to ask them all since you most likely told your friends where we are. So I will make a deal with you. There is one very important question we want answered at the moment. If you answer it for us, we will let you and Ami go without any trouble." Looking into Makoto's angry green eyes, Dark Moon asked as politely as she could, almost begging Makoto to answer, "How many Sailor Scouts are you aware of on your earth?" Hearing such things from people who looked so much like her closest friends caused Makoto to be shocked for a moment. But only a moment. Makoto looked up with an angry smile at Dark Moon and spoke quietly, but with as much venom as she could put into her words. "Go spit!" Sailor Moon looked genuinely disappointed. "I'm sorry you feel that way," she said as she stepped back into the shadows, disappearing like a ghost, "but you leave us no choice." With those words, Dark Mars and Dark Venus lifted Ami to her knees. Ami, who was still obviously in pain from the kick she received from her double, was now facing the water cooler. Lita knelt down beside Makoto and whispered into her ear as she grabbed Makoto's jaw with her hand, forcing her to look forward, "You will watch this while you think about answering our princess's question." As Makoto was forced to watch, Dark Mercury grabbed Ami's hair. Ami, being unable to see due to her blindfold, didn't take a breath because she couldn't know what was about to happen as her head was suddenly forced underwater. For a moment, Ami, probably trying to be brave or out of shock, didn't move. Then she began to visibly squirm a little, then more and more until she was thrashing about in pure panic. The two holding her down were putting all their weight on Ami's shoulders to hold her under. Makoto screamed out at the demonic versions of her friends in both anger at them and fear for her friend. "Leave her alone!" Just then, the two holding Ami raised her head out of the water, letting her gasp for air. Dark Mercury looked up at Makoto and said quietly, "It's a simple question. There isn't any need for you to prolong her suffering. Just answer it. How many Sailor Sekkou . . . I mean Senshi . . . are there defending your planet?" As Dark Mercury spoke, Makoto heard a sound that surprised her. Ami had caught her breath and started laughing. As Dark Mercury finished speaking, she spun around to face Ami. "You find something amusing?" Ami answered, sounding almost entertained. "Don't answer them, Makoto. If this is the best they can come up with, I'll be fine!" Jupiter looked at Ami in shock as Ami said, clearly taunting the Sekkou, "Come on guys! You were being so creative before!" Then Ami laughed hysterically. Sailor Jupiter guessed that it was part of Ami's attempt not to crack under pressure as well as to try to help Makoto not worry about her as much. Makoto got a cold feeling in her stomach when Dark Mercury looked at the tied and blind folded senshi of water with a psychotic smile. "Do you realize how long you have even been here? You've been in a pitch black room for several days now, with a blindfold on. I wonder how painful it would be if it were suddenly removed while you were forced to look at a really bright light? Might be an interesting experiment." Ami started to tremble, but not from the cold water. She tried to pull away, twisting her head side to side, unable to hide the fear in her voice. As she felt Dark Mercury grab her blindfold, she yelled "No, don't!" Then she felt the blindfold pulled away and squeezed her eyes shut tightly. Makoto could tell that even with her eyes shut, Ami was in some discomfort. Dark Mars and Venus, still holding Ami on her knees, were having a little more trouble holding her in place as she squirmed. Then Dark Mercury put her hand on Ami's face and forced open one of Ami's eyes with her fingers, causing the senshi of water to scream in agony from the pain. "I can see this is going to take a while," said Dark Mercury to Makoto, as she took her hand away from Ami's face. Ami squeezed her eyes shut, crying and sobbing. Just as Dark Sailor Venus and Mars started to push Ami's head back under the cold water of the ice bucket, Ami sobbed out to Makoto, "Don't answer them!" And with that Makoto watched Ami's head as it was forced back into the bucket again. Ami started struggling as hard as she could, causing some of the water to spill over the side, but it was obvious her strength was leaving her. Makoto said to herself loud enough for the dark reflection of herself holding her head to hear, "It's time to do something." Then she shouted out, "Are you guys going to just stand there all night? Now would be a wonderful time!" Makoto jerked her head to the side, suddenly causing Dark Sailor Jupiter to lose her grip on Makoto's jaw. As Dark Jupiter tried to get a grip on Makoto's face again, Makato clamped down on her hand with her teeth, biting as hard as she could into her evil double's hand. Almost as if it were planned that way, a fireball slammed into Dark Mars, as a chain seemingly made of light smacked Dark Venus upside the head, forcing them both to let go of Ami long enough for her to wiggle herself out of the water. She fell onto the floor, choking and gasping for breath. Only a split second later, a disk shaped projectile made of light flew at Dark Mercury's head. Dark Mercury, having the most warning, suspected the attack and managed to dodge Sailor Moon's tiara just in the nick of time. Dark Mercury, being the only one not hit by the sudden surprise attack, looked out into the dark room with shock and anger, but didn't waste any time or words before beginning the counterattack. She jumped into the air, hovering for a moment, pointed and shouted out, "Water Poisoning Surprise!" causing a huge sickly green ball of water to form in front of her and fly out in the general direction of where the fire ball had been flung from. The moment her feet hit the ground, she reached down, grabbing a small screw laying on the floor, and tossed it at the light, plunging the room into total darkness, which she knew would temporarily render everyone blind. Once the room was dark, she activated her visor and started scanning the room, hoping to use just a moment to try to find out how many intruders they were dealing with. Once she reached a count of only three she began trying to scan them for information on their power levels. Dark Venus rose to her feet, and said, sounding surprised and angry, "Hey! That's cheating!" Dark Venus knelt down, gesturing toward one of the few large pieces of heavy machinery left in the building, shouting, "Venus Metallic Crush!" Suddenly the large machine which was bolted to the floor was surrounded by light for a moment, then went straight up, bringing some of the floor with it, and flew into the darkness in a line, swerving slightly so as to cover the area of origin for all three attacks, then knocking a huge hole in the wall as it slammed into the far side of the building. Dark Mars had also apparently regained her footing. "Time to put a little light back on the subject, I think." Then she shouted out her attack, "Fire From Hell Ignite!" Mars spun in a circle and pointed at a random area of the floor in the direction the Love Me Chain had come from. The floor where she pointed was suddenly a 10 foot diameter cylinder of fire from floor to ceiling, setting the roof on fire and causing an orange glow to light the room. Now the Dark Sekkou and Sailor Senshi could see each other all face to face like one big, unhappy, dysfunctional family. Dark Jupiter growled at Makoto as she jerked her hand out of Sailor Jupiter's mouth, then punched her, sending Makoto and the chair she was tied into slamming down onto its side. Then she looked out across the now partially lit room, choosing a target. Settling on Sailor Moon, Dark Jupiter stomped both feet on the ground and slowly raised her hands as if lifting something heavy. Two large balls of electricity formed in her hands and she screamed "Electric Shock Therapy!" Then she sent the two balls of electricity smashing into Sailor moon, sending her flying. As Usagi slid to a halt much farther from where she had been standing, she said, rubbing her head, "They don't waste any time do they?" Sailor Moon got to her feet just in time to hear Rei yell out, "Sailor Moon! Run!" The blond looked down and saw the ground starting to turn red. She decided now was a very good time to start taking Rei's advice and ran as fast as she could, just in time to feel the heat of the fire as Dark Mars' attack flew from the ground. Then Usagi saw another large green ball of water slam on the ground right in front of her so hard it cracked the cement. The water also made the concrete that didn't break slick, causing her to slip and fall on her rear. Before Usagi could whine about the indignity of it all, the large piece of machinery that had flown through the air earlier came smashing back through the wall, forming another hole. Then it stopped for a moment in midair, as if searching out its target, and started sailing in the direction of Usagi. Usagi was able to get to her feet surprisingly fast for a klutz and started running as fast as she could, dodging multiple walls of fire, a huge flying piece of machinery, balls of toxic water, and spheres of electricity by mere inches, screaming at the top of her lungs while flailing her arms. While Usagi had the Dark Sekkou occupied, and Rei shouted out to Usagi when and were to run to, Minako had sneaked to where Makoto was and started untying her. Makoto said quietly to Minako, "Great plan using Usagi as a diversion. Ami will be proud!" Minako answered "Eh . . . it's not exactly how we planned it, but never slap a gift cow on the back right?" Once Makoto was untied, she ran toward Ami while Minako started to sneak up behind Dark Mars, who was too busy trying to fry Usagi to notice her. Ami was still clenching her eyes closed as tight as she could, groaning in pain, once Makoto reached her. She put Ami's blindfold back on, and started untying her. Once Makoto had Ami's feet and arms free, Ami asked as she was helped to her feet, "I don't really know what's going on, but did you plan all this?" Sailor Jupiter said, a little embarrassed, "Not really . . . it was kinda a rush job." Ami coughed again, then weakly said, "Well, you're still my hero." She leaned on the other Senshi as she walked, trying to keep her balance. Just then, Makoto felt someone slam into her, knocking her and Ami to the ground. Sailor Jupiter looked up to see Ami was once again knocked unconscious after sliding a few feet away. Sailor Moon and Sailor Venus were fighting Dark Mercury, and Sailor Mars was keeping both Dark Venus and Dark Mars occupied. Enraged, Dark Sailor Jupiter loomed over her. Makoto had just enough time to wonder where Dark Sailor Moon was when she had to roll to avoid being stomped on by Dark Jupiter. By the time Makoto got to her feet, her adversary had picked up Ami. When Sailor Jupiter started toward her, Dark Jupiter shouted out loud enough for everyone to hear, "One more step and I break her neck!" Once everyone realized what had happened, the fighting stopped. Dark Venus ordered Makoto, Rei, Minako, and Usagi to stand together in a nearby corner as Lita displayed their hostage proudly, almost as if she were a trophy. Dark Venus said coldly, "Now, we're all going to just wait here for Dark Sailor Moon to return, and once she does, you're all coming back with us. If anyone so much as moves, as my esteemed colleague said, Mizuno-san here dies right before your eyes." Then, to her fellow Dark Sekkou she asked, "Where in the hell did she go anyway?" "Right here." All eyes turned upward to look on a high cat walk away from the part of the roof that was burning. Dark Sailor Moon was just standing there. But she wasn't the person who spoke. That would be the shorter girl wearing a purple Sailor Senshi outfit, with the sharp part of a glaive pressed against Dark Moon's neck. "The four of you are big on giving out threats and hurting people. Let's see how well you respond to them." Mina shouted toward the voice, "Who the hell are you?" The small girl's reply was strangely calm. "No concern of yours, if you cooperate." Amy had seen the young girl before. From down below, Dark Mercury yelled up with mock friendliness in her voice, "Why, if it isn't sweet little Hotaru." Then, clearly to anger her, Amy snapped out, "Does this mean the rest of your sick pathetic family are sailor soldiers, by any chance?" Hotaru looked down angrily at Amy, but said calmly, "No. And no more talking. They go free, or your princess dies." "You don't have the stomach for it, little girl. Now be a good kid and put down the sharp object before you hurt yourself!" was Mina's reply to Hotaru. Hotaru looked down at them for another second, then changed position so that she was standing behind Serena. She touched the blade of the glaive to the back of Dark Moon's neck again, swung the the blade back then forward. Before it could slice into her neck, Ray shouted out, "All right, shorty. You win." It was only with lots of experience that Hotaru was able to stop the swing before cutting off Serena's head. When Hotaru looked down, Dark Jupiter had put Ami down and backed away from her several feet. A large portal opened behind them, and Lita shouted, "Now, let her go." Serena looked over her shoulder at Hotaru, saying, "You should kill me while you still have the chance." "Perhaps. Go. Before I change my mind," was Hotaru's reply. With that, a small portal opened up in front of Serena and she walked through it at the same time her companions did theirs. Just before the portal disappeared, Serena's voice called back to them. "We will be back."
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