Previous Chapter
After the meeting at the Temple, Serena walked over
to Darien's apartment. He has to know about this,
she thought. I, just have to tell him.
She knocked on his door. Please let him be home.
The door opened and Darien appeared before her.
"Great! Serena, you're here! I was hoping you would
come by," Darien said.
"Uh, Darien," she said as she walked inside, "I just
came from the Temple."
"Really?" he asked, "Did you guys have a meeting?
Sorry I wasn't there. I had to work."
"Believe me Darien," she went on, "You're not going
to like what I have to say."
Darien gave her a confused look.. Serena motioned
him over to the couch.
"You might want to sit down."
***
"What?!" Darien exclaimed when Serena was done with
the story. "It can't be! There's no way they could
capture the inner planet stones or release the Doom
Phantom!"
"That's what I thought," Serena added, "But Raye
said that it was all true."
"She's positive that it was real? I mean, that it
is, or is supposed to happen?" he asked.
"Yes," she replied, "You know Raye. When she gets
that feeling, it's always true."
Darien let out a heavy sigh and sank down into the
couch. Serena looked at him with worried eyes.
"Listen, Darien. I want you to know, right now, that
there is no way I would ever turn against you or the
Scouts. And I would never fight you!"
At hearing this, Darien looked over at Serena. There
were tears in his eyes. He reached for her and embraced
her.
"I'll never let you go," he told her, as tears rolled
down his cheeks. "I won't let anything happen to you.
No one will ever take you away from me again!"
"I know you will protect me." Serena said, as her
own tears began to fall. "I trust you."
She let go of him for a moment and reached into her
pocket.
"Here, I want you to keep this for awhile." Serena
handed him her locket.
Darien took it and opened it. The inside lit up
and it began to play their song.
"Oh, Serena," he began to say.
"Shh," she told him, "Don't talk. Just listen."
Darien embraced her again. With his free hand, he
slowly ran his fingers through her golden hair. He
began to hum the melody and Serena joined in with
him.
They stood there, holding each other, wishing for
this moment to last forever.
"Oh, Serena," Darien whispered in her ear, "I love
you so much."
"I love you too," she whispered back.
"You will always be in my heart," he told her.
"And you will always be in mine."
Darien then pulled away and looked into Serena's
big blue eyes. "You are so beautiful," he said, and
as the soft melody played, he bent his head down,
and kissed her.
Suddenly, the earth began to move. Darien and Serena
held on to each other as they swayed back and forth.
"What's happening?!" Serena shouted.
"It's an earthquake!" Darien shouted back. "Come
on! Over here!"
He led her over to a door frame and they sat down
holding each other tight.
"Darien," Serena said, "I'm scared. We haven't had
an earthquake in a long time."
"It's ok," he assured her. "I'm here. Everything
will be fine."
Within minutes, the earthquake stopped as suddenly
as it had begun.
"Phew!" Serena said as she stood up. "I'm glad that's
over!"
"No kidding," Darien added.
"I hope there aren't any aftershocks," Serena told
him.
"Me too." He said.
***
The night was dark and eerie in Tokyo. The moon was
not glowing as much as it usually did. The forces
of nature seemed disturbed. No animals or night creatures
were roaming about. No. Something, somewhere was definitely
wrong. This earthquake had not been a natural phenomenon.
It had been created by some other entity, some other
source of life.
In and around the area of central Tokyo, something
was stirring, something…evil. The ground began to
glow, a dark, black wave of light. Soon, shapes began
to form out of the glowing light. They looked like
shattered pieces of a crystal…from a dark crystal.
The pieces began to move. Slowly at first, then faster
as they began to combine together. Suddenly, out of
the millions of pieces of crystal, tiny specs of white
light appeared. They looked to be pieces of white
crystal. Almost like that of a crystal ball. They
began to move as well, forming with the pieces of
crystal.
The crystals began to rise from the ground. As they
combined together in mid air, a shape was forming.
The formation began with two feet, then slowly moved
up to two legs. The process became faster as the upper
body was formed along with two arms and two hands.
The final formation was the head. Dark red lips and
large red eyes were painted on the face; and dark
black hair flowed down from the head until it touched
the feet.
When the formation was complete, the body of a young
woman became distinct. A ray of light suddenly pierced
through the body. The woman was still for a moment,
until her legs and arms began to move. Her whole body
twisted and turned above the ground.
Then suddenly, her eyes opened to reveal a darkness
and evilness inside like nothing before. And something
appeared on her forehead. It was the Black Moon insignia!
The woman broke out into a sinister laugh that made
the earth itself shudder. She began to twist and twirl
around in the air. With a flash of dark light, a black
and red dress covered her body and black shoes formed
around her feet. Her long dark hair pulled up into
two twisted buns on top of her head.
She levitated back down to earth, just beneath the
place where she was formed. She looked around with
her evil red eyes. "The dark energy that created the
earthquake somehow revived the remains of the Dark
Crystal and Wiseman's crystal ball and formed me.
But I don't feel it anymore. It must have come from
somewhere other than earth."
She closed her eyes and searched through her mind.
"Ah, yes! The dark energy came from the moon, Europa,"
she thought out loud. "Yes, that will do nicely for
the dark crystal base."
She searched through her mind again.
"Hmm, I see. So, Saban, you are the one who sent
that dark energy. I think I'll pay you a little visit.
I'll need your help to open the Dark Gate and release
my creator, the Doom Phantom! For I am his servant,
the Phantom Princess!"
With that, she let out a wicked laugh and disappeared
into the void.
***
The phone rang at Darien's apartment.
He leaned over the couch and picked it up.
"Hello?" he said into the receiver.
"Oh, hi Raye!" There was a pause. "Yeah, we felt the
earthquake…What? Now? At this time of night?…Okay,
we'll be right there!"
"What was that all about?" Serena asked.
"Raye said she picked up some negative
vibes from that earthquake and she's calling a meeting."
"What?!" Serena exclaimed. "At this
time of night?!"
"That's what I said, but Raye said that
she might meditate with the Fire and she wants us
all to be there."
"Okay," she sighed, "I hope it's nothing
serious."
"Me too," Darien said as he put his
blue jacket on. "But, I've been getting a weird feeling
too. I don't know, but it seems familiar, somehow."
As he said this, he opened the door
and waited as Serena stumbled to put on her shoe.
When she realized what he had said, Serena got a surprised
look on her face. Could the negative energy be from
Saban? Raye was saying that the nega-vibes she felt
weren't coming from earth…No, it just couldn't be.
There's no way he could…
"Hello! Earth to Serena!"
Serena shook her head. "What?!"
"Hey! Glad you made it back to reality!
Now, come on, let's hurry up before the Scouts start
worrying."
Darien put his arm around Serena's shoulders
and pulled her out the doorway. He started humming
the song from Serena's moon locket while Serena worried
about the meeting.
Oh, I'm probably just worrying too
much. There's no way Saban could get off Europa. And
even if he did, we could beat him. No, I won't bother
telling Darien about it. He would just get even more
worried.
With that, Serena began to feel a little
better and even joined in with Darien in humming their
favorite song. She put her arm around him and hugged
him as they went down the elevator. She felt something
jabbing at her side.
"Eww, what's that?" she said as she
pulled away from Darien and looked at his coat to
see what it was that had jabbed her.
"Oh," he said as he reached into his
coat pocket and pulled something out. "It's your locket.
I just wanted to carry it around with me."
"Oh," she said with a smile. "Thanks."
They walked down the street, arm in
arm, towards the Temple. They felt as if they didn't
have a care in the world.
"Raye, are you sure you're just not
over-reacting about this? I mean, nega-vibes from
outer space? Come on! Doesn't that seem a little ludicrous
to you?
Lita was being very impatient tonight.
She had been hoping to spend an evening with her new
boyfriend, but Raye had called on the Communicator
and told her to come over right away.
"Lita," Amy began to explain, "Doesn't
being a princess from another planet and fighting
monsters from the Negamoon seem a little ludicrous
to you?"
"Well…"
"Come on," Amy said, "You know this
could be important. And besides, I'm sure you could
go out with your boyfriend tomorrow night."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Lita said
as she fiddled with her necklace. "He is so dreamy!
He looks almost like my last boyfriend. Only cuter."
On hearing this, everyone let out a
sigh.
"Oh brother," murmured Luna, "not again."
There was a knock at the door. Raye
jumped up and ran over to it. "Who is it?" she shouted.
No one answered. Raye got a confused look but said
it again. "Who is it?" Still no answer.
She looked at the Scouts, "That's funny,
I could've sworn someone knocked on the door."
"Maybe you should open it and see,"
suggested Artemis.
"Okay," she said as she grabbed her
broom. "But I'm taking this just in case."
She opened the door and looked out.
Everything was dark except the porch light and the
two street lamps down by the road. Raye gripped her
broom. "Is anyone out here?"
"BOO!"
"AHHH!" she screamed as she closed
her eyes and held tight to the broom. Suddenly, she
heard a laugh. She opened her eyes to see Darien holding
on to the other end of the broom.
"Scared you, didn't I?" he said and
laughed again.
"That wasn't funny Darien! I might've
hit you with this broom and hurt you!"
"With a broom? Come on! Just admit it.
You were scared, weren't you?"
"Alright! Yes! I was scared! You happy?"
she growled and pulled the broom out of his hands.
By now, the Scouts had come to the
doorway to see all the commotion. "Oh, come on, Raye,"
said a voice from behind the bushes. Serena popped
up right in front of Raye. "If you could've seen the
look on your face when Darien jumped at you, you would've
died laughing!"
"Shut up, Meatball Head, before I knock
you upside the head with this broom!"
"Okay, okay, I'll be quiet," Serena
promised. She looked over at Darien and he gave her
a wink.
"Now, come on inside, you two, so we
can find out what Raye has to say," commanded Luna.
Serena, Darien, and Raye could here laughing as the
Scouts walked back inside.
Raye glared at Serena and Darien and
then stomped into her room.
"Whoa, do you think Raye is really that
mad at us?" Serena asked.
"Of course she is," Darien told her,
"But she'll get over it. She always does."
He smiled at her then took her hand
and led her inside.
***
"Okay, everybody, just sit down and
I'll tell you why I called you all here!"
Raye was standing at the head of the
table and not at all pleased. It would take her awhile
to cool down after what Darien and Serena did to her.
The Scouts and Luna and Artemis got
in their places around the table. No one said a word
as this happened. They did not want Raye to get even
more angry than she already was.
"Okay, is everybody ready?" Raye asked.
Everyone nodded their heads. "Good, then let's get
on to the matter at hand. As you guys know, for the
past couple days I have been sensing negative vibes
from somewhere other than Earth. Well, ever since
that earthquake, I have been sensing that same energy,
but stronger and more evil. Amy and I have concluded
that the earthquake we had today was created by that
dark energy."
"What?!" The others shouted. Everyone,
except Amy and Raye, all started to talk at once.
"Quiet!" Raye shouted.
Everyone covered their mouths and said
nothing more.
Amy reached into her pocket and took
out her Mercury computer and began looking over the
data.
"Well," Amy began to say, "I have also
recently figured out that right after the earthquake,
something made a time dilation in central Tokyo."
"What do you mean?!" they shouted
"See, something happened shortly after
the quake that made time slow down in downtown Tokyo.
I can't explain it really, but that's what happened."
Everyone was confused at this point.
They didn't know what to think.
"Well, since no one has any ideas as
to what this might be, I'm going to go talk to the
Fire and see if it can give me some answers," Raye
told them.
The Scouts nodded their approval and
told Raye that they would wait here until she was
done. They all began to talk about the strange dark
energy as Raye walked into the Temple.
***
"Oh, Great Fire, please here me and
answer my questions. Where did this dark energy come
from and who sent it? And what happened after the
earthquake that made time slow down?"
Raye sat in silence for what seemed
like hours. She was almost dreading the Fire's reply.
She was afraid of what she might see.
The Fire began to dance around. An image
appeared inside.
Raye looked up to see the same figure
of a man in that same dark place. But then she saw
what looked like a planet. Or was it a planet? The
image switched again but to another view of it. It
was in front of something…something much larger.
Oh, my goodness! Raye thought. It's
not a planet! It's one of Jupiter's moons!
The next thing she saw was a wave of
dark energy flowing from the moon of Jupiter to Earth.
So, that's where it came from!
The image faded and the Fire danced
around again. Raye was getting nervous. The Fire only
did this when something terrible was about to be for-seen.
Another image appeared. This time it
was in Tokyo! Raye looked on in horror as she saw
the formation of the remains of the dark crystal and
Wiseman's crystal ball. She saw the woman that was
created and the Black Moon insignia on her forehead.
That can only mean one thing. She was
created from…
Raye's thoughts were cut off when the
image of the woman faded and many others kept playing
over and over.
She kept seeing the man, then the moon
of Jupiter, then the woman…the man, then the moon,
then the woman. It kept playing over and over.
Raye was troubled by this because it
had never happened before.
This must be really bad!
The images switched again. They kept
playing over and over again. But this time, they were
showing Serena disappearing in the beam of light,
then her as Princess Serenity with the Black Moon
insignia on her forehead, and then her with the Silver
Crystal, facing Darien as Prince Darien.
Raye became more frightened as the images
kept playing and getting faster each time. All of
the sudden, the Fire raged and exploded outward. Raye
was thrown up against the wall by the force of the
Fire. The images disappeared and the Fire was still.
Raye pushed herself up from the floor.
She was not burned, but bruised by the impact with
the wall. She was breathing heavily, almost to the
point of hyperventilating.
There was a noise and the door to the
Temple flew open. Everyone rushed in to see if Raye
was all right.
"Raye! Raye, are you okay?!" Serena
rushed up to her and tried to help her stand up.
"I'm fine, really." Raye was breathing
a little easier now.
"We heard a noise and then a thump against
the wall. We thought something bad happened to you,"
Artemis said, still a little worried.
"Don't worry, I'm alright. See," she
stood up straight, by herself. "I'm fine. You don't
have to worry about me."
"What happened?" asked Lita and Mina
together.
"Well, I was watching the images in
the Fire. Then it went berserk and threw me against
the wall."
"Tell us what you saw," said Luna. Darien
helped Raye walk into her room and lie down on her
bed. Amy got out her computer and readied herself
to type.
"Okay," Raye let out a sigh. "You're
not going to like what I have to say."
Everyone sat down and gave her their
full attention.
"Well, the lady that I told you was
in my dream and my vision, I saw her again and this
time I saw what she looked like! But you will never
guess how she got here."
Raye began telling them how the woman
was made and about the Black Moon insignia that was
on her forehead.
"No way!" everyone shouted.
"She was created from the Dark Crystal
and Wiseman's crystal ball?" Luna asked
"Yes," Raye replied. "I know, it sounds
weird."
Amy typed all the information into
her computer. "Well, I think I know how she was created,"
Amy said as she kept typing.
"You do?" the Scouts exclaimed.
"Yes. You see, that dark energy that
was emitted somehow revived the power of the Dark
Crystal and Wiseman's crystal ball. When the pieces
awoke, they combined together to form that woman."
Everyone was shocked. It was a little
unbelievable, but they new it had to be true.
"Raye," Amy began to say, "did the Fire
show you anything about where the dark energy came
from?"
"Oh, yeah! I almost forgot! Gosh, I
guess I'm still pretty shook up by that explosion.
Well, the Fire showed me that the dark energy was
emitted from a moon…"
Oh, no! Darien gasped. Please, no! Not…
"…and it was one of Jupiter's moons."
"No!" Darien shouted as he jumped up.
Serena looked up at him. She had the same thought.
"What's the matter, Darien?" asked
Mina.
Darien ignored her question. "Raye,
did you see anybody on that moon? Anybody at all?"
"Well, yes, why do you ask?"
"Do you know who it was?"
"No, all I saw was the figure of a
man…"
"Oh, no!" Darien ran his fingers through
his hair and began pacing the floor, the whole time
saying "no, no, no, it can't be!"
Serena got up. She walked over to Darien
and grabbed his arm. He put his arms around her and
just held her. He kept muttering, "It just can't be
true! He just can't be able to do that! It just can't
be!"
"Will somebody please tell us what's
going on?!" Amy shouted.
Darien looked at her and the rest of
the Scouts. He let go of Serena and they walked back
over to where the gang was sitting. "That man in your
vision," Darien told them, his voice quivering, "was
Saban."
"Saban!" everyone else but Serena shouted.
"But I thought Saban didn't have any
powers," Lita said.
Darien replied, "He only had powers
that his evilness gave him. The only thing I can think
of is that his anger and bitterness towards me and
the rest of you has grown so much, his evilness has
grown too."
"Which means that he is even more powerful
than he was when Beryl was around," said Mina.
"That's right," Darien told her. "And
now, he has found a way to release his energy away
from Europa. Which means…"
"Which means that probably soon, he
will find a way off of the moon!" exclaimed Amy.
"Unfortunately, you're right, Amy,"
Darien said with his head lowered.
"And now, we must face him again."
"Well, we can beat him!" shouted Lita
as she jumped to her feet. "He may have gotten stronger,
but so have we!"
"It's not that simple," said Luna. "He
has the dark power running through him. That is more
powerful than your own powers."
"Luna's right," Raye added. "We can't
jump ahead of ourselves. We need to think this thing
through."
While everyone was discussing this,
Serena and Darien kept quiet. They new what it meant
if Saban ever got off of Europa. And then, there was
Raye's vision of Serena turning evil, and the inner
planet stones being taken.
"Hey, guys." Serena spoke up for the
first time.
Everyone quieted to listen to her.
"What about Raye's vision of the inner
planet stones being stolen and me disappearing and
turning against you?"
Everyone pondered this question. No
one was sure as to how Saban and that woman would
take the inner planet stones. They were heavily guarded.
Not to mention the fact that if they were taken, that
scout would disappear when the stone did. And then
there was the vision of Serena becoming part of the
Negamoon family. This was hard for them to believe.
"Don't worry, Serena," Darien said as
he put a hand on her shoulder." We won't let
them take you. I promise, I'll protect you."
"And so will I!" everyone shouted in
unison.
Serena looked at everyone and smiled.
"Thanks, you guys. I don't know what I'd do without
you."
"Well, I think it would be best if we
all went home and got some sleep." Luna said to them
as she got up and stretched. "Then we can come back
over here tomorrow and figure out what we're going
to do."
"That's a good idea," said Artemis as
he yawned and stood up.
The Scouts said "good night" to each
other and walked at into the night, each going their
separate ways.
Darien offered to walk Serena and Luna
home.
As the Scouts walked home, they were
not aware of the intensity of the evil that was about
to take place on Europa. None of them were prepared
for what would come the next day.
Next Chapter
|