Written by: Laura Hudson

Author's Notes:

This is the shortest chapter, but probably the most violent. Also, I just wanted to let you know that what happens at the end with Usagi does not end up playing a big role in the story, it was just something I wanted to toy with. It could happen. Mostly, though, I just did it because (say it with me now :)) I CAN.

The next chapter wraps everything up.

That's pretty much all I have to say. Write me, let me know what you think. Critiques are always, always welcome.

Ami had seen horrible things that day, perhaps too many to understand. She had prepared herself for what she would see, passing through the door, and thought she knew what to expect. She was wrong. Her eyes panned the room that dwarfed her in its immensity.

[It's... beautiful!] she thought, awestruck. It was perhaps the size of two stadium laid side by side, the wide expanses contained by a circling wall. Every inch of the wall was embedded with hundreds of miniature diamonds, perhaps millions over all, that shimmered in inconstant and fluid shades of azure and violet. Coliseum-like rows of carved stone seats layered like the folds of a fan to the floor.

The ceiling was open, revealing the dome of the sky, heavy with stars. There were pillars posted at regular intervals around the colossal room that curved into arches at the top. The night seemed to spill over, painting them so they appeared like an extension of the sky; one could not tell where the architecture ended and the universe began.

The floors were made of flat, smooth stones of irregular shape and size, iridescent as rainbow. They did not look solid, as though they were water standing extremely still. Mercury stepped lightly into the room and onto one, but did not step into it. It seemed there was a sheet of glass over the gleaming pools. The water reacted to the heat of her foot, a deep blue spreading around its outline.

An immense, incalculably large crowd filled the pews, chanting unearthly songs that echoed back and forth, bouncing off the rounded walls.

An ornate, gnarled silver throne clung like a tightly clasped hand to the wall opposite the doorway and between the two sets of stone seats. With a feeling of shock and loathing suddenly sharp in her mouth, Ami realized it was Queen Beryl who sat there, her long dark hair falling in loose coils like snakes around her. There was a feeling of power, pure and purely evil, so strong it nearly moved Ami backward.

Kunzite floated softly above the arena, white against the darkness of the open sky. The stars made his hair gleam like silver, and occasionally one would shoot across the sky, sending a wave of light to shimmer across the crystalline walls.

It was wondrous to behold, dazzling... But the images of the dungeon still rang through her mind like an unpleasant taste.

[And now evil comes to me in the form of light.] thought Ami. She took another step into the room, pressing her foot against a darker hued touchstone. Suddenly, waves of prismatic colors shot out from the stone and across the surfaces of the other stones, until it hits the walls explosively. Blinding, brilliant light shot from it, across Ami's retina, and she threw her hands to her eyes instinctively. She fell to her knees, pressing her closed, aching eyes down to them.

After a moment, she lifted her head again, huge sunspots glowing in patches across her field of vision. Ami looked intently forward, still unable to see. They began to slowly clear.

[What in the world is-] She dove to the side, escaping the impact of the energy blast, but still knocked aside by the explosion.

"Surely you didn't think we had no security measures." came Kunzite's biting voice. "We simply can't have trespassers roaming about.

Ami's eyes would show her nothing, so she quickly turned on her visor, trying to get a bioreading. There was Kunzite, his body glowing in a heat index display. He was on her immediate right and moving close.

She swung her fist around, landing a punch squarely on his jaw as her vision finally returned.

"Now, now." said Zoicite, drifting down next to them. "We're the only ones with the ability to transport you out of this dimension. That's no way to ingratiate yourself."

"Enough chatter!" barked Queen Beryl, her voice echoing her to them. "Kill her!" Her voice reverberated until finally it was the crowd repeating the phrase its mantra growing steadily louder.

"It's just too bad you didn't bring your little friend, Sailor Moon with you. We'll just have to deal with you pests one at a time, then... This is simply going to be too easy." said Zoicite nonchalantly.

"Is that why it takes two of you to fight me?" demanded Ami, glaring at the pair and still curled on the ground. Kunzite yawned, and leapt back into the air. "Very well! Would you take care of this nuisance, my love?" he entreated Zoicite, seating himself in the stands.

"Gladly. No amount of bubble-blowing is going to save you this time, little girl" he replied, walking toward the inert Ami.

"Aren't you even going to try to fight back, weakling?" he asked, caustically, tangling his fingers in her thick hair and wrenching her head up. Ami was still crouched in a kneeling position, her torso bent over her knees. Her shifted her hands slightly beneath her body. Zoicite squinted his eyes slightly, his brows furrowed.

"Wait, what are you- URK." a drop of saliva fell from his top lip to his bottom. His eyes went blank. His body would have collapsed, had Ami not been still holding the baseball-bat sized, diamond-sharp icicle she had just rammed through his chest. She finally released it, Zoicite's corpse dropping like a rag doll.

"I am not weak." she said, to Zoicite, to the suddenly silent crowd, and to Kunzite, who had appeared like lightning at his beloved's side.

Kunzite cradled Zoicite's head, stroked his cheek, trying to coax life back into him. He finally pressed Zoicite's head to his chest, his eyes closed. There was nothing of his lover here, he though. Almost as a reply, the corpse consumed itself like a fire, petals drifting skyward as smoke.

Kunzite knelt, his arms empty and his palms facing heaven. His breath was quick and uneven, his eyes burning so hot with anger they watered. He looked at Mercury in front of him, his eyes like curses. His voice rasped out to her.

"You CANNOT suffer enough to compensate me! You do not know what you have taken from me, but you _WILL_. I will rip your eyes out of you like your SCREAMS!"

Mercury did not move, did not react, standing tall on the touchstone that glowed aquamarine around her. A sanguinary red spread over the floor with Kunzite as the epicenter.

Psychokinetic boomerang knives glowed suddenly in his hands, and with a quick motion he flung them at Mercury. They made quick circles around her, cutting her uniform to tatters, and leaving hundreds of tiny cuts, each oozing slightly, on her flesh.

Mercury flinched at the slices, but seemed totally distracted by something. Staring intently at nothing, she made no response and stood completely inert.

Kunzite noted this, enraged, and with an invisible exertion of the tremendous power available to him in this dimension, raised his hand and flung Ami like an arrow into the sharp crystalline wall. She cried out as she tried to pull herself out of the crystals, gouges up and down her back. Kunzite raised his hand again.

Usagi huddled at the bottom of the stairwell as screams floated down like organ notes. They were Ami's, she would stake her life on it. But she couldn't, she couldn't do anything. She winced as more shrieks followed.

The room seemed very shadowy, dark and hollow. She wanted to curl up in a corner and sink away into it. She turned, looking for support. Tuxedo Kamen was not coming, nor were the other Senshi. Even Luna and Artemis couldn't help her now. And Ami...Ami who she always turned to, steady and unwavering Ami. Ami was too busy dying to help her.

Holding her knees, Usagi began to weep powerlessly. There would be no last minute rescues. She detested her imagination for the first time as the cries evoked terrible images in her mind.

"I want to go home. Come back, Ami, let's go home." she whispered. She half-expected Ami to appear in the door. She did not, and only blackness remained.

Usagi threw her hands to her ears, tears flowing around her shut eyes. Her sweet Ami was being killed and there was nothing she could do. Nothing! She wanted to stop her pain, fight for her. She wanted to sacrifice herself, throw herself in front of her. But she couldn't even do that, couldn't even die for her.

Gentle, caring, selfless Ami... She did not deserve to die like this, die here and now. She had known so little of true friendship, so little of life and of love. And when she tried to break out of the little box she'd been cornered into and labeled, what had Usagi done? She'd scolded her, and tried to force her back into a skin that no longer fit.

[I wasn't thinking about Ami, only how that change would affect me... Oh, Ami-chan, how could I do that to you?] she thought tears standing still on her face.

[What would Ami say if she were here?] she asked herself. [She's probably tell me not to cry... to be strong and calm down... to think clearly.] She was the cool-headed one, the backbone of Usagi's world.

[Oh, Ami, I can't live without you. I love you.... I'm so sorry I tried to change you back into something you really aren't.]

Recognition flashed electrically through Usagi's mind.

"OMIGOD! That's IT!" she shouted, throwing off the tears and leaping to her feet. There was a soft sound as she reached into the pocket dimension. The disguise pen appeared in her hand.

"Moon Disguise Power... make me Sailor Moon!" There was a flash of light, and she emerged from it reborn. She looked down at her Sailor fuku and brushed the fabric of the skirt. She felt strange, almost unreal... but she could worry about it later. She turned toward the staircase, this time without fear.