Chapter Three: A Force to be Reckoned With                     



Three days later, the four hooded figures and the clones were standing where the portal that Shadow Venus destroyed used to be, set inside the shattered rock of the mountain. The clones seemed a bit restless because they had been sitting and waiting for a while, and even Fukusha seemed annoyed at the wait. Still, one of the clones had enough courage to break the silence with a question, "What are we doing here?"

Fukusha looked at her and sighed, closing his eyes and rubbing his face lightly, "I told you already, we are to wait here until the our new allies arrive." The clone sighed also and leaned back onto the tree she was by. A windy gust started to blow through the trees and the hooded figures slowly stood in a semicircle. Fukusha blinked and looked at them, then pushed off of the rock he was on and dropped his hands to his sides, "Pay attention! They're about to arrive." The clones all stood up and gathered in a group, just watching the four figures. The wind became stronger and an eerie glow formed in front of the four figures, then started to get brighter. As the glow grew, the wind started howling and the clones were barely keeping from being blown away.

"Fukusha! What's going on?" Before he could answer the clone, a swirling portal of energy appeared in front of the figures, making lightning and other energy bursts shoot out from it. The four figures raised their arms and emitted a huge, black beam into the portal, causing the ground to start shaking. The portal started to fluctuate and an extremely bright light temporarily blinded all of the clones. As fast as all of the unusual weather started, it stopped. The clones rubbed their eyes and barely focused on eight dark figures standing where the portal was. The night shrouded their appearances enough to hide their identities, and all the clones looked at them in fear.

"Who are they?"

Fukusha's mouth opened slowly and he mumbled out a few words in pure terror, "It can't be! But it's...it's...." Not being able to finish his sentence, the other clones were asking him what he was talking about and getting restless at his behavior. Then they all looked and saw the new figures slowly walking towards the other four, none of them even saying a word. A stray moonbeam caught the faces of the eight new figures and the clones recognized who they were, their eyes widening in total shock and fear.

"These are our new allies? You're completely crazy!" One clone started to yell in a frenzy and the eight new figures looked at her casually, "Do you know who they are? They're the....." Before she could say anything else, one the eight figures raises its hand into the air and the clone instantly erupts into a ball of flame, then disappears from site. All of the other clones had a horrified look on their faces and the figure lowered his hand, then looked back to the four hooded figures. He spoke in a hoarse voice, though it still held a cool, soothing tone to it, but seemed to chill the clones.

"It's good to be free."

The first four figures nodded and Fukusha stepped up them all, not at all looking happy, "What's going on here? What are they doing here?" Another of the eight figures grabbed him by the throat and lifted him off the ground effortlessly, shaking its head lightly and putting a finger to its lips.

"Shhhhhhhh, you talk too loud." Fukusha was squirming as the figure looked at him intently with a dark smile, "You're nothing but a clone. Know your place." With that, he threw Fukusha to the ground harshly and looked back to the others casually. Fukusha grabbed his throat and sat up, coughing heavily.

The first four figures looked at him and he rose up slowly, looking at the eight with clenched teeth, "They say, 'We welcome you, and it's been a long time since they saw you last'." The four hooded figures pulled back their hoods to reveal who they were to the eight and the lead figure tilted his head a bit as Fukusha spoke again, "They say they are the Priestesses of the Omega Master."

"Indeed they are. This is an unexpected turn of events."

There was a silent moment as they all looked at each other, then Fukusha looked to the eight figures once more, "Down to business. The Sailor senshi have the Omega Master, but he has a plan to have us take back the Dark Prism."

"We're listening."


Later on that week, Usgai, Makoto, Minako, Rei and Ami were walking down the street towards the park after a day of school and were talking lightly among themselves in the busy downtown rush. After a little while, Mamoru pulled up on his motorcycle and got off of it, pulling his helmet from his head and resting it under his arm.

"Well, girls, where are you all going?"

They five girls walked over to him and gathered around him, Usagi looking particularly happy to see him, "What are you doing, Mamo-chan? I thought you'd be at school right now."

"They let us out early because the professors left to check out some weird light that was seen a few nights ago."

The girls found that a bit odd and Ami looked down at the ground, her mind already working about something, "Really? What day was it seen?"

"Tuesday, I believe. Something about it doesn't feel right, though."

All of the girls but Usagi looked at each other in some kind of connection, as though they knew what he was talking about. Minako switched her school case between hands and looked back at him, "What time was the light seen?"

"People reported seeing at about one forty-five Tuesday morning out in the outskirts of town."

All of the girls looked back quickly and gasped, making Usagi stare at all of them in concern, "What's wrong, you guys?"

Ami started to look through her bag for her computer and spoke a bit passionately, "Tuesday morning I woke up at exactly one forty-five in a cold sweat with the most terrible feeling." The other girls nodded among themselves and Makoto looked back to Mamoru, knowing something was going on.

"So did I."

"Me too, it was like some very evil force arrived on our planet. And it felt so familiar too." Minako added and now something was definitely bugging them all, especially Rei, who looked towards the mountains and trailed off in her sentence.

"But the force felt different. Like they...."

An uncomfortable silence passed for Usagi and she looked around at all of them, feeling a bit left out, "Like they what?"

"I don't know for sure. Just weird." Rei looked back at Usagi and shook her head, a little frustrated that it was just beyond her describing it. Mamoru finally cut back in and set his helmet on the seat of his bike.

"Well, whatever it was, it's giving me a bad feeling."

"Hey look! There's Haruka and Michiru." Minako pointed at a brand new BMW M5 coming down the street at a very fast speed. Haruka saw the little grouping and decided to see what is going on, giving Michiru a sideward glance as she turned the wheel towards them. She pulled up to a skidding stop and Michiru got out and leaned on her car, looking a little relieved she was out of her seat. Haruka sighed a bit and got out also, leaning on the roof of the car and tilting her head a bit.

"What's going on?"

Rei looked at them both for a moment, then nodded her head towards the mountains a bit, "Did you get a weird feeling a few days ago?"

Haruka shook her head a bit and looked to the mountains with a blink, "No, but when I woke up this morning, I felt something was definitely different."

"Why?"

Rei's glance moved to Michiru and a light sigh escaped her mouth, her gaze moving down to the ground, "People reported seeing a flash of light and everybody has a terrible feeling about it."

"What do you guys think it is?"

Mamoru stepped in and looked at them with a light shrug, "No one knows. Maybe it has something to do with the recent clone attacks and those figures that might be the Priests."

"If these new enemies are anything like the Priests, we could be in deep trouble. This time we don't have the others to......" Minako trailed off and winced, then looked at Usagi with a weak smile, "Maybe we should have meeting to figure what to do."

"Good idea. Will you tell Setsuna to come?" Haruka and Michiru nodded at them and Michiru gave Haruka a glare before sitting back into the car. Haruka's eyes went a bit blank and she walked around to the other side, getting in also and driving away much slower than they came.

The others watched them and grinned a little, then Usagi clapped her hands together and bounced in front of Mamoru, "Why don't all of us go and get chocolate sundaes?" He blinked at her a bit, then nodded with a smile as he turned to park his bike so he could walk along with the girls. As they began to walk down the walkway once more, Mamoru pretended to be interested in their conversations as he walked behind them with his hands in his pockets. They were about a block away from the ice cream shop when they heard a bunch of honking in the street up ahead. Coming to a stop, they all looked and saw some person stumbling weakly across the busy street, a mop of blonde hair blowing into his face.

"We need to help that guy." Mamoru said and pulled his hands out, beginning to go over there when Minako stepped in front of him and shaded her eyes from the sun. She squinted her blue eyes for a moment and started to feel her heart race a little.

"He looks familiar. Is it......" Her voice trailed off and she suddenly ran towards the person, yelling at the top of her lungs, "Suteki? Suteki!" The others focused on the figure and noticed he really did looks an awful lot like Suteki, his wild blonde hair whipping around as he was barely still on his feet.

"Come on!" Usagi yelled as they ran up and found Minako pulling the person onto the sidewalk, hugging him frantically with her eyes filled with tears. Usagi sighed a bit and knelt down, setting her hand on her shoulder, "Oh Minako, that isn't...." Usagi started but looked at the person and saw it really was Suteki, his face filled with confusion and wonder at all of them, "Suteki? It really is him!"

Suteki winced because of something and was mumbling weakly about an alley, which made Mamoru blink a few times, "An alley? What alley?" Suteki weakly pointed to an alley and Mamoru ran to it to find the other Shadow senshi lying there in much the same state. He stared at them all and then turned his head back to yell at the others, "Here is Yamito, Kurai and Kage!" Makoto's, Ami's and Rei's eyes lit up and they ran over to the alley and found them lying there in a weakened state. All of them knelt down also and couldn't believe it was really them.

Minako was still raving on about how she missed Suteki and he finally spoke clearly, still blinking at her and Usagi, "I'm happy you missed me, but I have a question. Who are you?"


Next chapter: Forgotten Memories