Part Three
Port-A-Pathway
Malachite's mind was working feverishly as he made his way down a side staircase. Tami trailed behind, a bit more cautiously and thoughtfully.
She started when Malachite turned towards an apparently blank wall and vanished. She stood there for a short second, ruminating, and then followed him into the wall.
She stood in a small, dank, cluttered room that reeked of age and power. The only light in the room came from the strange moss which grew off the walls, glowing with an eerie aquamarine tinge. Chests and tables dotted the small space, packed almost haphazardly with interesting-looking knicknacks and more serious-looking devices which seemed to have, or at least seemed to have had at an earlier time, a great deal of power.
Tami was extremely surprised by this show of magic artifacts, but she was even more surprised by the fact that she had never even known that this room existed.
She turned to her master, who was eyeing several tables with unconcealed delight, until his gaze fell on a particularly ornate chest, which he proceeded to force open with a great deal of effort, and to root through its multitudinous contents.
"Malachite, why was I never shown this?" Tami inquired while taking in her surroundings. There were a great many of what seemed to be miniature crystal balls hanging from the ceiling on gold threads, and in the center of the room stood a large pedestal, half blue and half black, which was tilted to almost a forty-five degree angle, revealing a lidless box behind it. She craned her neck to see what it held.
Malachite, convinced that what he was looking for did not lie in the chest, shut the rusted hinge with a creak and started on the next one. "It all has to do with the Pathway," he explained absent-mindedly while struggling with the ancient lock on a chest with a wooden gargoyle's face carved in.
"What is this Pathway you keep mentioning?" she asked, slightly annoyed at his consistent repetition of cryptic sentences.
Again foiled by his new attempt, Malachite sighed and slamed the lid shut. "Maybe I'd better explain," he supposed.
Tami primly brushed aside some room on one of the tables and sat down. Malachite's eyes continued roving the messy floor for whatever-it-was as he spoke.
"Before the Great War," he began, "before I had ever created you, I had a very special student named Azurite. Queen Beryl had given her to me with very specific orders, and she had a very special mission to perform. That mission had much to do with the Pathway.
"The Pathway is a gate between worlds. There are more worlds than just the Negaverse, of course. The Negaverse derives its energy from other, healthier planets. And Azurite was to be taught how to create Pathways, how to navigate them, and how to bring things from there to here."
Suddenly Malachite paused and slowly turned his head in the direction of the pedestal, as if a great realization had hit him. He walked briskly to the bent structure, reached behind it, and extracted the half-concealed box. He held it in his hand as a light came into his eyes.
"This is how," Malachite breathed. "Come here, Tami, and look at the kuroshinju. The creators of Pathways."
Tami got off her roost and walked over to gaze at Malachite's treasure. He held a small, black pearl about the size of her hand. It gave off a black aura.
She looked into the box and saw about twenty pearls almost identical to the one Malachite held, aside from their sizes and shades of black.
"All of these can create Pathways?" she said.
"Yes," Malachite intoned. He thought for a second. "Azurite was told that her kuroshinju, which was the most perfect of all, was the only one ever made. She was a naive child."
"And her mission involved the Pathway?" Tami asked, looking back at Malachite, who was transfixed by his prize. "What happened to her?"
"What?" Malachite finally looked up from the hypnotizing jewel. "She's asleep," he answered. Tami was left wondering as Malachite held the pearl up to the air and it began to glow.
"Uh-oh," someone said. "It looks like somebody's messing with telethaumic psycheportation again. I wonder..."
"I still don't see what this has to do with Prince Darien," Tami insisted.
Malachite looked at her with triumph in his eyes. "The Pathway is a two-way road," he exclaimed, "and not only does it work with physical beings, but things far more deep and spiritual..."
"You mean like minds, souls?" Tami asked, her narrow eyes suddenly wide.
"Exactly," Malachite finished. He faced the pedestal and bowed with an ironic smile playing about his lips. "Queen Beryl has forbidden me from touching Prince Darien's body, but she said nothing about merely transporting his profane mind somewhere else..."
"Like where?"
"The void?" Malachite suggested evilly.
"Then what will happen to his body?" Tami probed.
Malachite shrugged, and the smile never left his lips. "The others I've tried it on are still alive. They're little more than vegetables, however."
Tami took a step forward. "If you'd take my advice," she said directly, "then you wouldn't go through with this. Imagine it," she postulated. "Queen Beryl sends for Prince Darien and discovers that he has no control over his muscles and can't talk. Who do you think she'll finger?"
"No," Malachite said stubbornly, "I'm doing this now. He'll pay."
"Think," Tami snapped. "There must be another way-"
"There's none! This can only work if he is transported-"
Another slow smile lit Malachite's face up. "And maybe that can be arranged as well." He grasped the kuroshinju in his hand tightly, and turned to leave the ancient room. "Come, Tami," he suggested. "I think this bears thinking over."
CRACK!
The last thundercrash was particularly loud. After an extremely crowded two seconds, Mina began coaxing Luna down from the bookcase and Rei unceremoniously pulled Serena's sweater back over her head, exposing her blushing face.
"But I LIKED it in there!" Serena whined plaintively.
"Quit it already, Serena! None of us are any happier than you!" Rei snapped back. Rainy weather always gave her a bad disposition. Among other things. Like whiny schoolgirls.
"There's gotta be *something* we can do around here," Lita exclaimed half-heartedly. The sheets of rain falling outside Mina's house looked like nothing more than the Deluge revisited. Nothing more.
"I know," Ami called out brightly. "Let's discuss our strategy for fighting Queen Beryl and the Negaverse!" She never really minded rainy weather because it made it easier to concentrate on work.
Serena eagerly jumped on the bandwagon. "Yeah, and getting Darien back from those creeps!" She scowled. "We were almost there, AGAIN, and then-"
"We know," chorused the other four girls.
Serena looked surprised. "I didn't say it THAT often-" Mina held up the piece of paper everyone had supposed she was doodling on. It held eight pencil marks.
"Eight? No way..."
"Way," Mina said firmly.
Luna sighed. "Look, Serena, we all know that you're going through a hard time. But once something happened, it's best to forget about the past and worry about the future."
"All right," Lita put in enthusiastically. "So what's our strategy?"
Ami looked thoughtful. "If we're trying to get Darien back, I don't think he'll come to us any more. Queen Beryl will probably be extra careful about him now and not risk bringing him out in the open."
Rei glared at her. "So what? We just give up then like a bunch of wimps?"
Ami shrugged helplessly, but Artemis finally spoke. "If he won't come to us, the only possible solution is to go to him."
Six faces, five human and one feline, looked at him in perplexity. "Into the Negaverse?" Luna exclaimed. "How in the world are we going to do that?"
"Hmmm," Ami responded. "You know, during the last battle my data computer logged some very strange readings around the warp hole Beryl used to reclaim Darien."
"Point being?" Lita asked.
Ami took out the computer in question and began tapping keys rapidly. "The computer got several of the same readings around the warp holes Malachite and Darien used to return to the Negaverse at various times. See?" She held the screen up to six uncomprehending faces.
She shrugged and turned it so it faced her again. "If I can find the common denominator among these readings, we may be able to detect warp holes and use them to enter the Negaverse, or even possibly to create our own warp hole!"
"So what you're saying," Serena said slowly, "is that if we can catch another warp hole and let you get its fingerprints, we can get into the Negaverse?"
"Exactly!" Ami said jubilantly.
"Great!" Mina punched the air. "Let's get on it!"
"Not great!" Rei shouted pessimistically. "I dunno about you guys, but I don't have a death wish anytime soon. I don't think we're ready to take on the whole Negaverse by ourselves!"
Serena's mouth, uncharacteristically, had formed itself into a tight, determined line. "I don't care," she said. "If that's the only way to get Darien back, then we're going to do it!"
Luna looked at her with a worried face. "There's got to be another way to go through with this," she cajoled. "There's no way to bring him out - "
"Out of the question," Ami dispelled her argument.
"I think this is way too dangerous," Lita declared. "Does anyone have *any* other ideas?"
Artemis cleared his throat. "I think I may have something," he announced. "Listen to this, guys."
They all crowded around the white cat as he began to speak.