CHAPTER 31
"Commander Tempkin, will you kindly greet our guests, Tokyo's noble defenders," Argosante said.
"Gladly," Tempkin said and the majority of the negaverse army ran out of the hall to meet the oncoming Anti-Negaverse fighters.
"Now...as for you, dark warriors attack!" Argosante said and the three warriors advanced towards the Sailor Scouts. Jupiter, Mars, and Venus all hesitated. Sailor Moon and Mercury also felt some trepidation. Tuxedo Mask wasn't sure what he should do. The three warriors readied themselves for an attack, only to be surprised when three blue blasts hit them in rapid succession, knocking all three of them backward.
"I've had just quite enough of this," came a voice.
"What happened?" Sailor Moon said.
"Who did that!" Argosante bellowed.
"I did," came a voice from behind the Sailor Scouts, everyone still conscious looked to see that a male figure dressed in a white uniform with blue trim was standing there leaning against the wall, a blue energy sword held in his right hand.
"You know I made an effort tonight to make sure one couple had a good experience. Now you have to go and mess it up. I really don't appreciate that," the figure said.
"Who are you!" Argosante shouted.
"Me, oh I'm Saturn, Guardian Saturn, and I'll spare you a speech, needless to say Argosante I doubt you're a very skilled swordsman, I mean your brother was a piece of cake to destroy," Saturn said.
"You did that!" Argosante shouted.
"I helped," Saturn said. "Oh and by the way, dark warriors. You guys are a bunch of jerks anyway. Come on, I could take you three with my eyes closed."
"Wanna bet," Red Warrior said.
"We'll tear you apart," Green Warrior said.
"Will you? Well come on then," Saturn said and stood up into a fighting stance.
How is he doing that? Mercury thought. His leg can't be healed. What am I doing? I should be fighting.
"Get him!" Argosante shouted. The three dark warriors ran at Saturn, the Mars, Venus, and Jupiter did nothing.
"Mercury Ice Storm Blast!" Mercury shouted and attacked. The attack was dodged by the three of them, but the room was still filled with mist. When the three dark warriors landed they found themselves surprisingly blind to their target.
"Saturn Rings Blast!" Saturn shouted.
"Uh oh," Gold Warrior muttered before the three dark warriors were hit with several energy rings and thrown across the concert hall. The mist was clearing.
"Heh," Saturn said. A negaverse soldier flew through the window and landed on the floor. The two armies had engaged outside. Jupiter, Venus, and Mars were still standing there, not making a move.
"Come on, we've got to fight. Girls snap out of it," Mercury said.
"Mercury's right," Sailor Moon said.
"We need you girls," Tuxedo Mask said.
"But...we eat lunch with them," Mars said.
"Yeah...how could they be...them..." Venus said.
"We could hurt them," Jupiter said.
"You have no choice!" Saturn shouted. The dark warriors charged again, Red at Mercury, Green at Tuxedo Mask, Gold at Sailor Moon. Argosante charged at Saturn. Red plowed into Mercury and pushed her into a wall. His hand grew red with energy as he prepared to attack. Green and Tuxedo Mask met in a grapple and began to struggle for strength. Sailor Moon barely rolled out of the way of Gold, and came around to face him, only to have him slap her backhanded across the face. Saturn met Argosante and the two sword clashed. Saturn didn't move but parried the blows only to have his knee buckle. He fell to one knee. The other three scouts didn't know what to do.
"Our friends are in trouble," Jupiter said.
"But...how..can ." Mars said.
"We have to," Venus said and readied herself to attack. Green Warrior fell back from a blow to the chest from Tuxedo Mask's extendable staff. Gold staggered back from a backhand slap delivered in revenge by Sailor Moon. Mercury managed to slip out of the way of Red's attack and trip him up as she did so. Saturn stabbed Argosante in the right leg with his sword. The knight stumbled back, and dropped the energy crystal he had used on all the people. Saturn smashed it with his sword.
"Retreat," Argosante mumbled and hobbled backwards. The dark warriors surrounded him as they moved out. The armies continued to fight it out.
"We should go after them," Sailor Moon said.
"Be thankful they're withdrawing," Tuxedo Mask said. "We've got other problems," he said and looked at the other three scouts. There was a flash of light as a blinder was obviously deployed. Soon the negaverse army was gone again and the crowd was regaining consciousness.
"Saturn are you all right?" Greg asked.
"So to speak," Saturn said and abruptly reverted to human form.
"Patterson!" Greg said in surprise.
"I'll explain later. Help me up will ya," Patterson said.
Greg helped Patterson over a few feet away to where a cane rested against the wall.
"Thanks," Saturn said and grabbed the cane and hobbled out to where the other scouts were standing. The army and the police had already entered the building.
"Let's get out of here," Tuxedo Mask whispered to Sailor Moon.
"Good idea," Sailor Moon said.
"Come on," Mercury said to the other three scouts who reluctantly followed.
"What happened in here?" General Nagumo asked.
"Don't ask," Patterson said. "You give them a good fight outside?"
"We did the job," Nagumo said. "This place looks like a warzone."
"Yeah..well...things got out of hand," Patterson said. "I'm tired sir, could someone give me a ride home?"
"Sure, I'll have them bring a jeep around," Nagumo said.
"Thank you," Patterson said and walked outside.
Later that night.
"You guys almost cost us everything!" Serena shouted.
"How dare you!" Raye shouted.
"You have no idea of the emotions that were going through us!" Lita shouted.
"What do you mean? I had to deal with the same thing with Darrien," Serena shouted referring to when Darrien had been turned to the side of the Negaverse.
"He didn't attack you!" Raye shouted.
"Sure he did....eventually," Serena said.
"Right, eventually! You had time to come to grips with it," Mina said.
"Hey, it wasn't easy!" Serena shouted.
"That doesn't matter now!" Lita said.
"It don't care how you felt! We almost died because you three didn't act!" Serena shouted.
"We were surprised!" Lita shouted back.
"That's no excuse!" Serena said.
"You should talk!" Raye shouted.
"I've never seen Serena this angry," Darrien said as he and Amy sat on the front steps of Raye's house. Greg had since gone home.
"Neither have I. She's bawling all three of them out and doing an okay job of it," Amy said.
"But is she right?" Darrien asked.
"I don't know. There are two things I do know. We were very close to getting beaten because the scouts hesitated, but I also know I could have found it hard to attack someone I knew so well," Amy said.
"But Amy, both you and Serena have done that. You had to fight Greg when he was turned into a monster. In fact Amy. Every scout has faced this situation and you handled it the best," Darrien said.
"Still, Darrien, I even hesitated and I hadn't spent more than few minutes with Greg, besides the warriors weren't monsters, they still looked human," Amy said.
"It's a similar situation though and when you saw Sailor Moon was in danger you acted," Darrien said.
"I know, but I'm not them. They take love so seriously."
"So do you."
"But it's different for me," Amy said solemnly and looked at the ground.
"I know Amy," Darrien said and paused. "I'm curious. Why aren't you in there now?"
"Darrien, I just don't want to take sides. We've reached a turning point. Someone needs to keep focused on our enemies. Serena will probably be arguing with them for a while, I mean for days now. I have to make sure the negaverse doesn't catch us by surprise."
"I'll help," Darrien said. "It looks like we could use the help of one of our allies too."
"I need to talk to him," Amy said. "Can you give me a ride to his house?"
"Sure, but should we leave them alone together?" Darrien asked.
"Grab Serena. I don't want her to get hurt while we're gone. She can wait in the car with you."
"Okay," Darrien said and went into the room and dragged Serena out.
"What are you doing?" She screeched.
"Don't worry, it's for your own good," Darrien said.
"But I was winning the argument," Serena whined.
"None of you were, now let's go," Darrien said.
Amy knocked on the door and was met with the voice of Patterson's uncle.
"Ah...Ms. Anderson. We've been expecting you," Mr. Patterson said and she was soon in Patterson's war room. D.V. had been studying a large map on his table. A red x was drawn on a part of it and blue lines covered most of it. Amy could tell it was the city.
"What's that?" She asked.
"Sewer map," Patterson said, not looking at her.
"Oh, you're trying to track the negaverse army's escape route, they must have to use the sewers again since you destroyed a lot of their trucks," she deducted.
Patterson nodded, still not looking at her.
"We have some things to talk about," Amy said. Patterson said nothing.
"First off, thank you," Amy said.
"What?" Patterson said.
"Greg told me about how you bought him a train ticket and got him to come."
"Oh..." Patterson said.
"Why did you do it?"
"Don't know."
"I think you do, but unfortunately we don't have the time to talk about it," Amy said. Patterson said nothing again.
"Well...now what about the dark warriors?" Amy said. "I still find it hard to believe it myself that they're who they are...how did it happen?"
Patterson shrugged.
"Regardless of how it happened it did happen I know," Amy said. "We were lucky today, but we can't fight the negaverse on equal terms if we don't have those three scouts fighting with us."
Patterson nodded, still not looking at her.
"Plus if they managed to fight us before the Anti Negaverse Force got there, they could send the army at us too, and then there'd be trouble."
Patterson nodded again.
"It's a dilemma, any ideas?" Amy asked.
Patterson shook his head.
"Hmm..not the answer I had hoped for, but why do you think the dark scouts didn't attack at school or when they were on a date or something like that when the girls were vulnerable?"
"Because I bet they don't know who they are when they're human," Patterson said breaking out of his stupor.
"What? How would you know that?" Amy said.
"Just a theory. Wouldn't it raise suspicion if Rick, Mike, and Steve acted differently from the way they always did?"
"Of course it would. So instead Jaedite lets their human side run the show until he needs them. It's probably why when you went to Jade Corp everyone seemed to be acting normal," Amy said. "but does that mean that the guys won't know what happened? He might have blanked their memories after he used them."
"It's possible."
"Maybe we can use this to our advantage and capture those three while they're still human," Amy said.
"Possibly, but then you might get charged with kidnaping and such. Furthermore where are you going to keep them and for how long? Ahem...I mean...I don't doubt it's a good plan, but you might have trouble pulling it off, plus your friends would inevitably want to let them go. That would be hopeless, but the entire situation seems that way unless we stop Jaedite," Patterson said. "That's just my opinion of course.
"Interesting that you said we, Patterson. Why'd you fight today?"
"I used my power. I can't use it very often, I don't have much of it left, but I decided it was necessary once I saw what was going to happen. It healed my leg for about a minute, but then it gave out. I doubt I'll be able to heal the leg anymore until it really healed. I still had to give the appearance that I was one hundred percent, for one thing, Jaedite was been having me followed, though I think he gave up. If he saw both Saturn and myself with my limp, well.... he already knows your identities, him knowing mine wouldn't help things."
"You're very talkative when you're serious," Amy said.
"Sorry," Patterson said. "I didn't mean to."
"You didn't do anything wrong," Amy said.
"Oh."
"I'd better go," she said and moved to the stairs.
"Uh huh," Patterson said. She stopped and turned towards him. before she reached the stairs leading to door.
"Patterson.." she said.
Patterson glanced at her and then quickly back down at the map.
"It's nothing," she added and hurried up the stairs.
What did that mean? Patterson thought.
Later that night.
"Couldn't sleep either?" Lita asked encountering Mina on the street.
"No, how am I supposed to sleep?" Mina asked.
"I know. Any idea what we're supposed to do now?"
"None. Just how are we supposed to handle this? I mean. They've been sitting at our table while they were with the negaverse!"
Lita nodded.
"That means there's hope," Came a voice from above them. They looked up to see Artemas standing on a retaining wall above them.
"What?" the two girls said.
"Do you think that they realized what they were doing when they were human?" Artemas asked.
"Of course they did. Why wouldn't they?" Lita asked.
"I don't know how it works, but I think that when they were sitting with you at lunch they didn't know they were the same people trying to destroy you," Artemas said.
"You're just telling us that," Mina snapped.
"Girls! Listen! There are two ways for you handle this. Head on or not. Now, I'm telling you that those boys have no idea have no idea what they're doing. They're just slaves."
"Still, Jaedite could attack with them at any time," Lita said.
"No, he can't. He needs to activate them, which means that they won't surprise you when say they're sitting at lunch," Artemas said.
"We can't take that chance," Mina said.
"We just can't," Lita said.
"We have to let them go at least until we can solve this."
"Yes."
"You don't have to," Artemas pleaded. "Think about them.:
"It's the only way," Lita said.
"You know it's the safest way," Mina said. The two girls walked away. Artemas didn't know what to say, and he just stood there.
This could hurt them very badly..even more than they're hurt now...and the
boys..well they could be even more damaged. I hope Raye hasn't reached the same
conclusion.
"What does this all mean?" Raye asked. "It means Chad was right....he did see
Rick get transformed into a negaverse soldier, he just must have been protecting
me. Maybe he knew that all along. It may not have been jealously. What a
difference that makes," She said to herself. "But..Rick..what do I do about
Rick? He was..he was..such a good guy...how could he be on their side...how can
I fight him? I can't fight him....but what else do I do? He's my boyfriend..."
"Luna, I don't know what to do," Serena said leaning out her window. "I know I should be doing something. I'm the leader or at least I'm supposed to be, but all I managed do tonight is get the girls mad at me."
"They're still in a kind of shock I'd gather," Luna said.
"Yeah, but this is important, we can't afford to have them distracted."
"So you have to get them back."
"How? Any time the dark warriors show up, they'll hesitate."
"Well...for one thing, they don't have to fight the dark warriors. You and Mercury can."
"But there are three of them and two of us."
"But you have more power."
"Still it won't be easy."
"It'll have to do until you can get the others back to normal."
"But what if the dark warriors attack them."
"Let's just hope they don't."
"Luna, that's hardly a suggestion."
"I'm as baffled as you are."
"You are. Then how can I expect to figure this out?" Serena whined.
"Serena, you know what they're going through, put yourself in their place."
"I already tried to do that earlier."
"Well try again. We can't afford to lose those scouts."
"But Luna! I'm not cut out for this kind of stuff," Serena whined.
"What do you mean? You've been a Sailor Scout for over a year now."
"I know that, but..I...I mean...I know those guys too."
"Serena..this is going to take a lot of courage, but you have to do it."
"Luna...I'm not sure I want his job anymore."
The next day when Serena and Amy got to their lunch table they were both filled with some trepidation.
"Neither Lita or Steve were in history class," Amy said.
"Lita's not here? Uh oh," Serena said.
"I know, I'm as worried as you were."
The two sat down, already nervous. They were even more shocked to see Rick and Mike, along with Steve surprisingly appear and walk to the table.
"Hey, have you seen Raye?" Rick asked. The two girls, eyes wide, shook their heads cautiously.
"How about Mina?" Mike said. The girls shook their heads.
"I suppose you haven't seen Lita either. I just got here from a doctor's appointment," Steve said.
The girls shook their heads again.
"Awfully talkative today aren't ya?" Rick asked and sat down.
"What happened? Were the girls tired after last night or something?" Mike asked.
They have no idea do they? Serena thought.
Either they genuinely are oblivious or they're putting on a very good act. Amy thought.
"So it was a mess last night wasn't it?" Rick said.
"Oh...yeah..heh heh," Serena said nervously. "So what happened to you?"
"We got knocked out like everyone else. Why do you ask?" Mike asked.
"Oh...you know....just curious," Serena said and almost feinted.
"Interesting when that army showed up though wasn't it?" Amy said.
"What army?" Steve asked.
"Yeah, if there was an army we didn't see it," Rick said.
"We were sorta unconscious at the time," Mike said.
"Weren't you?" Rick asked.
"I managed to avoid the first attack. I was in the bathroom, then the army showed up. That explains it," Amy replied feigning absent mindedness. So they didn't see the army..or maybe they did...but all three of them hiding it so easily...I don't know..they must honestly believe it. She noticed Patterson sitting at his chair staring right at the guys.
Good. He's prepared. She thought.
"Oh no," Serena gasped as she saw something. Amy looked over and became just as worried. Raye, Mina, and Lita had just entered the food plaza.
"It's now or never," Raye said.