Character Sketches #1, Sailor Mercury - Part I, "Mizuno the Senshi"
Chapter 9: In which Mercury makes a decision, and it seen what comes of it.

NUUK, GREENLAND (Reuters)- A small earthquake shook the city of Nuuk today, measuring about 4.2 on the Richter scale. No fatalities or injuries were reported.

The quake is the latest in a series of tremblers that have struck the Greenland capital in the past few weeks.

"Shining Aqua Illusion!" For the fifteenth time since they had teleported onto the largest island in the world, Sailor Mercury unleashed her attack, as Sailor Venus used her Love Me chain to hold the youma in place.

"Moon Princess Halation!" The youma was speedily dispatched.

"Is anyone else getting tired of this?"

"Come on, Mars, we've only got another kilometer to go!"

For the past hour, they had been battling through a rabbit's warren of caves and tunnels, blasting youma first and asking questions later; reversing that order would get them killed.

Getting there was remarkably simple, teleporting near a hole in the ground half obscured by blowing snow. Jupiter had found the resemblance to another icy battlefield too uncanny, and had to shake herself before continuing.

To be truthful, they all felt that way. They all had rather bad memories of the final drive to Beryl's lair, and to have to practically reproduce the events of it was simply too much.

Of course, things were made somewhat happier in that their trek wasn't exactly parallel to the one long past. For one, none of them had died yet, and there had been only one or two close calls. Luna and Artemis had accompanied them, and they had proved invaluable in serving as advance scouts; the youma seemed to barely take notice of them. Then again, they were still on an urgent mission to save the world.

Some things never changed.

"Just around this bend, and-AAAAHHH!"

This last exclamation was due to the blast of dark energy which slammed into the senshi. All were sent flying back, with Sailor Moon taking the brunt of the attack. She smashed into a wall and didn't move. The other senshi weren't doing much better, woozily trying to figure out which time zone they were in. Luna and Artemis had been sent flying and were nowhere to be seen.

"Ah, come back for more, have you?" The Master stood at the entrance to a chamber, backlit by some brilliant light whose origins they could not fathom. His features were obscured, and there appeared to be someone else in front of him. This figure, however, was totally indecipherable. "You'll excuse me for the state of your foes, but I really hadn't expected you back so soon. I'd banked on your moping over your families' demise. Oh, I forgot: they survived! It's just the city that's destroyed. Ah, well, mores the pity. Shame, though, nine million people living in tent cities, packed in with poor water and sanitation...do you know how many plagues have started in such conditions? Oh, but you're in sunny Greenland; no need to worry about that, is there? Just the threat of destruction by an enemy whose name you don't even know."

His mockery was starting to irritate the senshi, but what could they do? Venus readied a Crescent Beam, but she could feel that she couldn't do it; the attack must have drained her. The other senshi were coming to similar realizations.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you about my greeting! How careless of me, really. Well, it pretty much puts a hold on almost any power imaginable."

Sailor Venus, the eternal optimist (well, usually Moon outranked her in this department, but she was still unconscious), saw an opening. "*Almost* any?"

He sounded annoyed. "Yes." He began pacing. "You see, it only works on those whose powers are dissimilar from mine. I have no dealing with light, fire, or electricity, and I assure you that I am not royalty," saying these last words at the unmoving form of Moon, who the senshi finally thought to look at.

"You monster," cried Rei, "I'll see you burn for this!"

"Highly unlikely. You're in no position to oppose me. Isn't that right, my dear?"

He looked down at the figure before him. It turned what appeared to be its head at him. It spoke, and Mercury's blood ran cold.

"Yes, Master Hastings," said Ayumi.

Hastings feigned surprise at the shock evident on Mercury's face. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry; I didn't introduce you! Ayumi, this is Sailor Mercury, also known as Mizuno Ami, who has betrayed your trust for the past year, leading a secret life she never saw fit to tell you about.

"And, Ami, this is Doctor Ayumi Mizuno, formerly Ayumi Bremen, who is now my eternal servant and slave. Now that the introductions are over, let's get down to brass tacks, shall we?" I shouldn't be doing this, thought Hastings, but it's so much *fun!*

"Earlier, I said that you were all incapacitated. That's not exactly the case. The Dark is very cold, very very cold, and as unstoppable as the raging river, or the creeping tide. Ami--oh, I mean Mercury--could attempt to stop me, if she dared.

"Then again, clumsy old me shackled her mother right in the line of fire. And I'm so forgetful after so many years...I seem to have misplaced the release spell." His voice took on a much harsher tone than the jesting one he had had. "To get to me, you have to kill the only family you have. And thus, my victory is assured! Now, I'll have to be going soon to see about my conquest of the earth, but not before you die." He produced a silver coin from nowhere.

"BURNING MANDALA!"

"My, you don't learn anything, do you? Ah, I see our friend Sailor Moon has revived." He made a mocking bow to Moon. "So fitting, for her to watch the end. With a single word, this coin will do something I've been meaning to do for a very long time. Everything in front of Miss Ayumi here will be blasted out of time and space. I suppose my main chamber will get a bit drafty with a ten-kilometer crater in front, but I can get used to it. So, good-bye, Sailor-"

"Shabon Spray!" The energy struck Ayumi, who was quite quickly turned into an icicle. Hastings could only gape in surprise.

"How-"

But Mercury had already made her move. All the time laying on the ground and listening to Hastings gloat, she had been formulating a plan that had to work for the best reason.

It was exactly the opposite of what she wanted to do.

Summoning the last of her strength, she leaped up and aimed a flying kick right at Hastings's chest, knowing that to get there, her foot would have to go through her mother's head.

"Amiiiiii!"

Mercury never knew who cried out at the last moment, but it had no effect on what happened next. Her boot crashed through the ice, crashed through her mother's head, now supercooled and brittle, crashed into the chest of a very surprised Hastings, who would have gladly taken back a few of his actions that day.

"NOOOO!" His concentration ruined, the blocking spell was broken, an event Mars was fully prepared to take full advantage of.

Mercury rolled away from both the crumbling corpse and the reeling Hastings just in time to avoid the flames from Mars's assault. Hastings writhed in the flames, but still managed to stagger into his main sanctuary, forgetting his coin. The other senshi also sprang into action, running into the brightly lit room, leaving Moon and Mercury to trail.

"Ami-chan, are you all right?"

"Fine," answered Mercury, At least for the moment, she thought. She wouldn't give a piece of lint to be herself when she went to sleep that night, but for now the adrenaline of battle sustained her, held back the grief. They entered the room, to find that Hastings hadn't expected things to proceed this far.

Wrapped in a chain of love, being attacked by purifying fire and blinding lightning, he was definitely out of his element. If they would only let up for a moment, allow him to summon his strength, if he could just-

"Look, you spoke to me, right? I'm not such a bad guy, it's just the nature of things!" He looked pleadingly to a slowly advancing Sailor Moon, who had already pulled out her scepter. "You're the representative of good; I represent evil! It doesn't have to end this way, we can find a way to-"

"I do this not out of malice, or ill-will, but out of simple justice. For all those who have suffered."

"Look, you think you're so high and mighty, hm, what about Mercury? SHE KILLED HER MOTHER, FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!"

"Moon."

"You realize that you're not yet into your full power."

"Princess."

"You cannot destroy me for all time. Not yet."

"Halation!"

"I'm not-"

And then, Hastings was eliminated from Earth. The caverns he had crated noticed this. As the room began to shake, and dust began to fall from the ceiling, Jupiter came to a decision.

"We've got to get out of here!

They joined hands and said the well-known words, and Greenland was minus five girls who had saved the world.

And one who had lost hers.