Part 10

The whistling sound if wind soaring over the great hole in the belly of the beast they all stood in filled the room, sending a chill through each of their ears, filling the entire chamber with icy cold air that froze their joints as they shivered silently. The weak bodies, broken and bloody on the floor, were behind Sailor Mercury and Tuxedo Mask, who were staring dead ahead at the great entity before them, Wiseman, as Sailor Sun, Ange, stared at the same antagonist, the same devil, there in the center of the great body, two shining stars of darkness glowing where his eyes ought to be.

"Punish me, you say?" Wiseman laughed, amused, "You understand very little, little Ange. I had no trouble taking your guardians to a near death-like state, and I had no trouble manipulating you without even a body to break you. What makes you think that a little change of attire will actually convince me that there's more than just a bratty little child standing before me?"

Ange silently gulped as anxiety filled her. The truth was there was nothing too different, not too much of a change between the her that had existed seconds before, a woman consumed entirely by darkness, as opposed to the little girl that stood here now, a girl consumed entirely by light. Still, she couldn't lose faith. Ayumii had stood her ground while Ange remained motionless, unable to do a thing. The way she saw it, she owed it to her, owned Ayumii everything, if not only to try attack her head on, and maybe even die trying.

"I see," Wiseman chuckled, "You have no reason to be assured of your newfound ability. All you have is hope. Allow me to crush that hope in my very hands!" Wiseman extended his hand, releasing an array of black lightning from his palm. Bolts of energy surged into the center of her chest. She felt herself being thrown backward, into the fleshy floor of their chamber, blood splattering into the air like the water that soared into the air when a rock was tossed in a puddle. As the droplets of scarlet rolled down her checks, Ange felt pain unimaginable fill her chest. With each raspy breath she felt pain fill her veins, her lungs, her windpipe. As her eyes wavered in her sockets, she asked, simply, what had changed. Did she have the power to create attacks just as formidable as his?

She extended a shaky hand, unable to speak, but able to imagine a ball of light, orange in hue, appearing in her gloved palm. As though commanded by will alone, a sphere appeared between her fingers, only to explode outward at Wiseman. It slammed against his shoulder, tearing apart the fabric of his cloak, throwing his aim off center. Ange rolled out of the grip of the twisted electric power, rising to her feet shakily as she darted toward Wiseman as fast as her plump little legs could take her.

She was thrown to the ground by a single bolt of darkness.

"You think you can overcome such insignificant obstacles just by putting a pretty light on the matter? It is such an idiotic concept to believe that you are somehow stronger just by putting on a different suit, or a different body, or even a different life. You're pathetic if you believe your mind can possibly believe such an idiotic transformation truly changes your inevitable fate."

Ange rose to her feet, her legs trembling under her light weight, as she glared at Wiseman, a glint of loathing in her eyes. Here this fiend stood, here he stood to taunt and humiliate her, here he stood to drive the nail deeper into her heart, the nail that all of this, all of this conflict and pain, all of this death, was because of her. She was the source of all pain. She had to be the one who took all the hurt away, even if it was by force.

And then it hit her.

Ange smiled in amusement as she glared at Wiseman. "I brought you into this world, right?"

"That would be correct. Allow the knowledge that you heralded the eternal silence of the universe to comfort you in your grave!"

"If I brought you here, I can just as easily take you out!" Ange shrieked, extending her hands out before her as two orbs of light shot from the palms of her hands, colliding headlong into Wiseman's breasts. The orbs tore through his fabric, knocking him backward, as Ange concentrated hard on Wiseman's body. All she wanted, more than anything, more than any of her deepest wishes, was that Wiseman would disappear, that she could take Wiseman back into herself, and crush him, compress him, until all that remained was a collapsed star of nothingness, a dwarf star, the cinders of a supernova.

At first, Wiseman chuckled, extending his own hands as he laughed, in amusement, "You have no way of understanding just how our connection works. You can bring me out, but you can never—" Wiseman's voice died in his nonexistent throat. Sparks of darkness surrounded him like a cage as he gazed with terror at his hands as they slowly began to grow transparent, the sparks of darkness swirling around his cloak, his body, his aura. "This is impossible. There's no way—there's no way that this can happen!" The sparks became thicker, like bolts in the clouds, as the seconds passed, turning into minutes, as Wiseman remained on his knees, gripping his scalp through the fabric of his cloak.

Ange felt her skin tighten over her muscles, her eyes trembling in their sockets as sweat exploded from her pores, her mouth dry and parched like a desert the size of an organ. As she glared at Wiseman, she watched as his body began to tremble, as lumps rose from underneath his cloak, as small spiders collapsed from the depths of his hood, falling against the ground before exploding into red hot cinders that swirled around his body, casting a dark light around his body as more lumps exploded around his body, testing the limits of his attire. And then, the fabric broke, allowing a dozen great tentacles to explode from the depths of his cloak, covered in a thick coat of black hair, filthy and ragged. As the tentacles wriggled in the air, writhing and convulsing, Wiseman shrieked in synch with a thousand eyes that ran up the scale of the tendrils opening up simultaneously.

"His power level is convulsing inward," Sailor Mercury stammered, "His and Ange's egos are contorting."

"Their egos?" Tuxedo Mask asked, a note of terror in his voice.

"The ego is what keeps individuals as individuals, keeping me from you. The fact that Wiseman and Ange's egos are flickering means that they're about to merge."

Wiseman threw his arms out as the tenticles flared outward, the sound of screams pain filling the chamber as great spikes exploded out of him, piercing the walls of the organic cavity, sending blood into the air, red fluid raining down upon them all as the spikes twisted around themselves like a drill. His body was pulled into the air, like a marionette being held into the air. As Wiseman shrieked with all his might, a great arm exploded from his chest, stretching farther and farther until its great fingers curled around Ange's torso. She was heaved into the air as fear consumed her. Her grip was weakening, her power fading. She felt terror fill her as the tentacles wrapped themselves around her limbs, her skull, her hips, her joints, her hair, her everything. She was dragged into the epicenter of Wiseman's black being, and all became dark and stagnant.

How long Ange remained in the bleak darkness of oblivion, drifting through the clouds of foul wickedness was an enigma that would never, so long as Ange lived, be solved. However, it was there that Ange woke up, staring into the black filthy ground as the scents of fear and darkness surged through her nostrils. As she pushed herself up, she saw her Sailor Sun attire had faded away, returning to its original, ordinary form. And there, surrounding her, were the monsters that she had created, with Rubeus in the front of the pack. He grinned in amusement as Ange stared up at him, a glint of fear in her eyes. Why was he here? Why was she here? What did this mean? Was this some sort of nightmare that she had been sucked into? Or was this where they had been born, where she had created them, inside of her very heart.

A heart of darkness.

"Hello, little Ange." Rubeus bowed in mock appreciation with a flurry of his hands, his scarlet eyes locked on the girl before him. There was a wicked light about him, a foulness that Ange could never understand, could never uncover completely, as fear consumed her. He had lied to her, had manipulated her, had betrayed her, had used her, had ruined her, had used her as an instrument to summon that damned Wiseman. "I find you like what we've done to the place."

"Where am I?" Ange stammered, her eyes shifting to and fro.

"This is the darkness inside of you," Rubeus replied, "The place where all the monsters inside of you were born. This is where you made Hell, where you allowed all your wishes to come true. This is a part of you that you cannot deny exists. You wanted people to notice you, to compliment you, to make you feel worthwhile. And to that end, you created us."

"No! That's not true! It's just not true at all," Ange stammered, "I didn't want any of this!"

This was a lie.

"You were really just a foul little girl who was jealous of others. And for that, you sought a way to become powerful and great, and opened your heart to darkness. You're the source of all the pain, of all the destruction, of all the conflict, and yet you don't even stop to think about all the benefits you have in front of you. Do you realize, dear Ange, that you have the potential to dominate the world, to hold reality in your grasp and remold it the way you wish?"

"No, I don't! It's all Wiseman's power! I have nothing! There's nothing I can do. It's all him. I have a different power, a purer one—!"

"And a weaker one at that," Rubeus interrupted, "That power is barely enough to injure Wiseman, let alone influence the world. All you can do is fire a few blasts of light, and, if you cleanse the darkness from within you, that power may disappear altogether. The light and darkness must balance one another. Shadow is cast by light. If there is less shadow, surely there is less light to cast it."

"Shut up! That's not true!" Ange stammered, running her fingers through her locks of hair. Surely what they were saying was true. Surely, by giving up the dark powers she had been granted, she was allowing the light to disappear as well. She still wanted people to look at her, to acknowledge her for who she was. She wanted people to love her. Was she somehow satisfied when people wanted to stop her, to hurt her? Did it bring her pleasure? Perhaps it really wasn't that bad to just allow them all to suffer, so long as they noticed her in turn.

"He lies."

Ange looked up. Held back by numerous tentacles was Ayumii, a glint in her eyes as she strained against her constraints, her muscles knotted as she kept her gaze forward, her long locks of hair tugged by a monster that had been slain earlier. There she was, in her outfit, full power, and yet weak against the multitude of demons that had returned to her womb. "Ayumii!"

"He wants nothing more than rebirth," Ayumii replied.

"She intends to deceive you. She wants to hold you back from reaching your truest potential," Rubeus replied, his lips curled into a sneer, "Surely you don't listen to the one who wishes you nothing but harm. She wanted to kill you, to destroy you, to—"

"Ayumii! Get out of there!" Ange shrieked, running toward her friend, only for Rubeus to extend his arm, hold her back from her friend as she reached out for her, praying to touch fingertips, to fold her hand into hers, to pull her free from the organic cage that bound her. Rubeus pulled her away, holding her in his own grip, as she slammed Ange against the walls of darkness, the walls of her heat, a wall that pulsated gently. The border gave slightly, cracking under the great force of Rubeus's strength.

"Do you really think it would be so easy, little girl?" Rubeus laughed, a mad glint in his eyes as his lips curled into a great smile, his shining teeth like platinum as his fingers curled around her throat, "Did you really think you could defeat the Black Moon Clan? We were the ones who would rise, who would emerge victorious in this conflict in the very end. There was nothing, nothing I tell you, that could prevent us from rising to the zenith of our potential. All that awaits you now is death: simple as that. Once you're gone, Wiseman can rise, and we'll be all powerful!"

Ange heard nothing.

She only saw the light shinning from the cracks in the wall behind her. As Rubeus exerted more weight against her body, the cracks grew more pronounced, and light behind the wall shone through more and more. Ange's eyes widened as she realized that there was something behind this wall, beyond this chamber, that was more than anything she could have ever imagined. Light casted the greatest shadow when a great object stood in the way of light. If she could remove that obstruction, then the shadow would disappear, and only light, brilliant light in all its glory, would reign supreme.

She shoved her fingers into the fissures formed under force. She could feel the other side as the barrier crumbled beneath her, slowly but enough soon so she could fit her entire hand through the crack, all the while Rubeus grinned, squeezing her windpipe so that air could barely escape her lungs. As the warm light bathed her knuckles, she could hear the words, faint yet clear, "And your corpse shall be the foundation of the darkness that consumes this universe as the Black Moon Clan rises to power!"

As Ange pulled against the wall, she felt light explode behind her. The gave through as Rubeus inadvertently shoved the little girl straight through the barrier, ripping the wall between light and darkness to shreds. Brilliance filled the chamber, blinding Rubeus as he tumbled backward, relinquishing Ange as the other beasts cringed. Ayumii tore free of the tentacles, ripping them from their sockets only for scarlet blood to splatter against the floor. The organs that had wrapped around her like chains were soon reduced to crimson blood. Soon, the former tentacles owner met a similar fate, melting away into a puddle of red. The demons behind Rubeus soon exploded like water balloons into clouds of red liquid, droplets slowly settling as the seconds passed. Rubeus threw his arms over his eyes as he fell to his knees. His body trembled violently as he screamed in agony. "Damn it! Damn it all! Why's there so much light? Why?!"

"May I finish him?" Ayumii asked, smoke rising from her own body as she embraced the light.

"What's happening?" Ange asked, stunned as Rubeus's arms blistered and bleed.

"He's rejecting the light, the change," Ayumii replied, "All those who refuse to change when reality is forced upon them suffer this fate: the fate of untimely annihilation." At the sound of Ayumii's declaration, Rubeus's skin melted away, leaving but bare muscle and bone that began to burn away to red-hot cinders. The last thing to dissolve into bloody ash was Rubeus's heart, which exploded like a bomb, the shrapnel being flecks of flesh.

Ange couldn't stomach to watch the whole grotesque ordeal, and turned away to face a shinning door far away, radiating a brilliance amongst the sun-like antechamber before her. She took a few steps out of the now illuminated chamber of darkness, Chamber of Goth, only to waltz in the light, followed by Ayumii, their eyes gazing at the doorway before them. "What's that, Ayumii?"

"That is the gateway to reality, a world that many refuse to ever face. It's a world that people want to reshape and alter in like magic in order to find pleasure, to find a paradise without ever needing to work at it. It is the world that Rubeus could not endure, a world that you have finally embraced. It is where Wiseman resides, working to reshape reality like you will soon try to reshape it into your own paradise, or at least as close as paradise to what you can create. Do you wish to cross the threshold, Ange? Sailor Sun?" Ayumii gently extended her hand as the door slowly creaked open, rays of brilliant light exploding from beyond its border.

Ange accepted her hand.

As the light faded, Ange found herself drifting in the air, held up only by Ayumii's grasp. There, drifting high above them, was the monstrosity that Ange had resided in for the longest time. It was a lizard-like entity with eight legs, like a spider, its chameleon-like eyes rolling its skull as a single figure appeared on the crown of his skull. His black cloak, charred and flared, flapped like a flag as his frail body remained enveloped in darkness. A dark aura flickered around him as he glanced down at the two soldiers drifting alone in the air before him, an air of light surrounding the two figures in the dark sky, the sun slowly setting in the distance.

"Wiseman!" Ange shrieked, her body cloaked in her Sailor uniform, her fists clenched.

"That's impossible," Wiseman stammered, her voice strong and loud, yet gentle and whispery at the same time, "How could you survive that? You should have been swallowed up by the darkness I put into your very soul!"

"Well, I can see beyond your lies! I know you were just trying to deceive me!" Ange snapped, "I know the truth of it all."

"And what's that, Ange?" Wiseman asked, sarcastically, extending his hand once again, sparks of darkness flying around it like a great glove.

"I thought in order to be great, I had to change reality with my own hand, to reshape the world myself. I was wrong. A person can't just force their will on everyone. They can't just make everything great by the power of magic. The power to make people notice you is more simple than that. It's a power that everyone has, but most people forget. Do you know what that power is? Love."

"Love?"

"Yes, love! Friendship! The invisible bonds between people."

"Friendship! So you sing the same ridiculous tune as your obnoxious mother and ignorant sister? I suppose your entire family will continue to declare that power, love, is the strongest force in the universe," laughed Wiseman, "What has love ever done for you?"

"It brought me where I am now, alive, enlightened, and showed me the truth!"

"But it won't keep you alive! It won't allow you to live to see tomorrow! And it certainly won't allow you to defeat me!"

It was only then that the side of the great beast that Wiseman stood on exploded outward into a great array of frozen scarlet blood, the ribs shattering like glass, the shrapnel of bone soaring outward, piercing the demon's hide, the blood, the organs, sending blood in all directions as the creature shrieked. There, standing in the crater on the side of the creature's body, was Sailor Mercury, her visor drawn as she fired a large jet of icy water at the beast's side, freezing and shattering the body of that damn monster. Soon, the legs tumbled downward as the creature fell to Earth in the form of shards of ice that evaporated downward. Wiseman leapt off of the surface of the beast, drifting into the air, toward the atmosphere, as Sailor Mercury and Tuxedo Mask, along with a mass of drifting bodies.

"Damn it!" stammered Wiseman as he drifted higher in the air, his hands raised over his head, a sphere of darkness in his hands, radiating black light in his hands as he glared down at Sailor Mercury, "You'll be the first one to die!"

"Shine Aqua Illusion!"

As Wiseman fired a blast of light that soared down at Sailor Mercury, a jet of water collided headlong into it, tearing through it, sending mist into the air as the warrior of the first planet struggled to stand her ground. There a great entity who had the power to annihilate the world as they knew it was assaulting her. Her power was at its maximum, and even now, she was at his mercy. Ange couldn't allow this to come to pass! She flew to the soldier's side, a great ball of orange in her hand, a ball she fired into the air alongside the jets of water against the jet of negative looking darkness. The two attacks spiraled along one another as Ayumii joined their ranks, firing her own blast alongside them. The trinity of attacks were interlocked in a triple helix, struggling against Wiseman's single attack. As the trio of them struggled against Wiseman's attack, Ange could only stare up at their enemy, his cloak flared out, flapping painfully around in the wind as he struggled beyond all hope to resist the force of the three remaining Senshi. Wiseman could barely remain in the air, barely remain stable, as the jet of darkness gave way to the three attacks as they slowly progressed toward Wiseman.

"No! This is impossible! Down right impossible!" Wiseman stammered as she glared down at the warriors beneath her, "This cannot be happening! Not again! Not again!"

"Do it!" Tuxedo Mask shrieked as the three attacks plowed into the jet of energy, into Wiseman's palms, into Wiseman's body, through it, leaving nothing but ash and soot, ashes that were thrown into the atmosphere.

A second passed, maybe two, before anyone breathed.

"Is he gone?" Ange asked, anxiously.

"I can sense a fragment of darkness trying to come together," Sailor Mercury replied, anxiously, "I don't think it's possible for us to eliminate Wiseman like this. We need to determine just where the core of Wiseman's power is, and remove that from the vicinity. If we can get ride of it, in a matter of a minute, Wiseman would be unable to regenerate, and collapse completely."

Ange knew what the right choice was. "I'm the source. I'm the one who brought Wiseman here."

Sailor Mercury's face grew pale. "We're going to have to remove you from the location, far away."

"How far?" Ange replied.

"I don't know, miles and miles, far enough so that your aura would be separated from Wiseman for the span of a minute."

"I know of a way," Ayumii replied, her head lowered.

"What?" Sailor Mercury replied, "Tell us fast, before Wiseman reassembles himself."

"We don't need to move you in any of the ordinary three dimensions. We must move you away in the fourth: time. We'll bring you back to the future as your mother wanted. Come with me, Ange, and I'll take you to the future with me once more."

Ange considered this. She knew it was inevitable, she knew that her mother would no doubt be furious at her for leaving her world behind as she had before. Now, however, she knew it was the only way to survive, for the safety of the world. She didn't feel any loss of leaving this past behind. It was inferior to her own, and she already had a relationship with these people in the future, so it wasn't like saying goodbye at all. Sighing at long last, she said, a frown on her lips, "Take me there now."

"Grab my hand." As Ayumii extended her hand, a small orb appeared in her hands. Glancing over at Sailor Mercury, she said, simply, "Fair well."

"Please tell them what happened," Ange replied, "I wouldn't want my sister to worry."

"I understand," Sailor Mercury replied, anxiously, "Hurry! We only have thirty seconds before Wiseman fully assembles himself!"

There was a flash of light in Ayumii's hand, and all became white, all disappeared, and Ange felt sweet slumber overtake her once more.

"Ange? Ange?" The gentle sound of the speaker's lovely voice filled Ange's ears as reality slowly returned to her. Slowly, her eyes fluttered open, her gentle eyes glancing up into the graceful forgiving eyes of her mother, Neo-Queen Serenity. She jumped with a start. Here she was in the future, returned home, Wiseman now nothing more than a forgotten memory left dissolving in the past.

"Mommy!"

"Are you alright, my daughter?" her mother replied, a smile on her face.

"I'm fine, mommy." Tears filled Ange's eyes as she glanced up at her mother's eyes, her body trembling anxiously as her skin turned white, the fear of her mother's wrath, of what her mother no doubt thought of her. She had sinned, committed atrocities that no Princess should ever commit, that no human being should, or more logically could, ever exist.

"What's wrong, Ange?" her mother asked, running her hand up her daughter's arm, a concerned expression on her face.

"Aren't you going to yell at me?" Ange asked, her eyes wavering in their sockets, anxiously.

"Yell at you?" her mother asked, holding both of her arms in her hands.

"I did so much wrong, I disobeyed you, I wanted to be special just like Chibiusa, and I disobeyed you. I'm sorry, but I'm just—just—just—"

"You made a mistake, that's all," her mother replied, a smile slowly slipping up her lips, "Ayumii told me everything that happened, and I can guarantee that everything that happened is in the past, literally. Everything's fine. I mean, nothing bad happened—"

"But Ayumii was killed! Because of me!"

"But she's alive now. I made my fair share of mistakes too, you know. I'm not perfect either, but whenever I made a mistake, I had to stand up and admit I was wrong and just fix everything. I takes a mature person to do something like that. I'm proud of you. I'm so proud."

Despite the tears rolling down her cheeks, despite the anxiety dying away in Ange's body, Ange smiled, her eyes sparkling in joy. "Thank you, mommy. Thank you so much."

THE END