Sailor Moon: Age of Innocence

Chapter 5
Chapter 4: One Stone

Chapter 4: One Stone

Raye Hino knelt in front of the temple’s fire as the incense

burned. She understood her own volatile personality better than anyone

and had found this was a good way to relax. No longer did she wear her

school uniform but instead had on her temple robes and tabi socks.

It was late. Almost nine. Her grandfather was already in bed but

she would be awake for another couple of hours. It was, therefore, a

surprise when she heard a knock at the door.

A perplexed and cautious Raye got up and approached the door.

Opening it, she saw a white haired man in a gray overcoat. Raye

shivered as cold air hit her and she pulled her robe closer. It was

snowing outside.

"I’m sorry," she said to the stranger. "The temple is closed for

the night."

"Oh, no. I’m not here for that. You must be Raye," the man

smiled. "I’m a friend of your grandfather’s. He’s mentioned you before

in letters."

Raye looked puzzled and said, "Grandpa never mentioned anyone like

you. He wasn’t expecting anyone either."

"That would be my fault," the man laughed. "I’m in town

unexpectedly on business and lost his number. Remembered the place

though." The man’s expression changed to one more serious as he looked

more intently at Raye. "My apologies. It’s late, isn’t it? I should

go back to my hotel and call tomorrow. Here, I’ll give you the number."

As the man shuffled through his coat, Raye relented a bit. If this

were a friend of Grandpa’s, he’d be happy to see him and would be

dishonored that Raye had sent him back into the cold. Grandpa had been

telling her to be more polite to strangers anyway. "Besides," she

thought, "What could go wrong? I am Sailor Mars after all."

"Um, that won’t be necessary. Come in. I’ll let Grandpa know

you’re here," Raye smiled and turned to walk back into the temple.

Tencite smiled as well. He really hadn’t expected this gambit to

work. In fact, he’d fully anticipated having to slip into Raye’s

bedroom as she slept in order to capture her. It was how he planned to

take the other two Scouts. Then again, Tencite wasn’t the type of

person to look into the mouths of gift horses either and he quickly

stepped through the doorway. Raising his hand to Sailor Mars’ back, he

began to form a time ball.

Raye immediately stopped, sensing something dark. It was a

Negaverse signature! Spinning around, she saw the man smiling at her,

in his right hand a large blue sphere of energy crackled.

"Oh, don’t bother him," he said. "I’m actually here to see you."

Tencite was about to throw the ball when he noticed Raye’s scared

eyes flick from him to a spot behind him. He hadn’t survived as long as

he had without knowing what that meant.

Dropping to the floor, Tencite felt a searing pain at the edge of

his right shoulder as a thin beam of light slashed through the skin.

The time ball in his hand fell against the floor and dissipated

harmlessly. Turning on his knees, Tencite looked out the door to see

Sailor Venus standing outside, her finger still pointed in his

direction.

"Don’t move!" she yelled.

Without a word, Tencite’s image flickered and disappeared as he

teleported away. He knew a bad situation when he was in one.

Raye ran towards Venus until the cold air hit her again. Pulling

her pen from its subspace pocket, she quickly transformed herself into

Sailor Mars, a red and white Sailor outfit replacing her red and white

robe. As Sailor Mars, the cold no longer bothered her.

Closing the door behind her, Raye ran down the steps of the temple

to stand next to Mina.

"Okay Venus, what’s going on?" Raye asked her friend, too

embarrassed at being saved to thank her.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Mina responded. She was dressed

in her orange and white Scout uniform with a red bow in her hair.

"You’re just lucky Artemis has a suspicious nature."

"Where is the little fur ball anyway?" Raye snapped, still upset at

how close she’d allowed herself to come to death.

"He went to Serena’s house to tell her to come to an emergency

Scout meeting here," Venus said.

"Went there? Why didn’t you just use the communicators?" Raye

asked.

"Because they’re being jammed," Venus answered simply.

"B-but that’s impossible," Mars said in shock as she opened her own

communicator to find the same static Mina had earlier. "I don’t

understand. These are keyed and powered to their own magical frequency.

The only way you could possibly jam one would be..."

"To use another," Mina finished for her, sympathizing with Raye’s

shocked expression. Someone was using their own secrets against them.

It was a first.

After a moment of silence, Mina continued, "About an hour ago, I

called Lita to let her know I couldn’t join her tomorrow. Her phone was

busy. I really didn’t think much about it until I decided to call Amy

and got her answering machine. No big deal right? Those two spend a

lot of time together. Well, Artemis insisted I try the communicator,

just in case. I almost didn’t," she added solemnly. "Amy and Lita’s

places are empty, we checked. I couldn’t call you or Serena either

because of busy signals."

Realization then anger showed in Raye’s face. "That son of a

bitch. He’s hunting us! One at a time," she seethed.

An instant later, Raye and Mina looked at one another in surprise

as they both felt something. Instinctively, they jumped away from each

other high into the air just before the ground they’d been standing on

exploded from the impact of a lightning bolt.

Upon landing, they looked in the direction of the strike to see the

white haired man standing at the edge to the tree line. A laughing

Tencite yelled, "How astute, my dear Raye. I won’t mind taking the two

of you on however, just this once."

Mars and Venus instantly fired, each of them shouting off their

attacks. Before Venus’ beam and Mars’ fire reached their target though,

Tencite executed a back flip, landing far away from the resulting

explosion.

He snapped off a quick salute before turning and running deeper

into the woods.

Raye immediately began to run after him. "Mars! MARS!!" Mina

snapped. "Hold it! It has to be a trap."

Spinning around Raye responded, "Of course, it’s a trap, but if we

don’t catch him now, we may never see Amy and Lita again." Seeing

Mina’s expression sadden, Raye added, "The two of us can stop him now

and get to the bottom of this. What help is Serena gonna be anyway?"

Mina closed her eyes in concentration then sighed. She always did

like a challenge. "Okay. Let’s go."

*************

Tencite smiled in satisfaction when he saw Venus join her fellow

Scout. His wound was a minor one, but even so, he knew he was going to

need help. Turning to run, he snapped his cell phone open and pushed a

preset dial button.

"’Guardian’, this is ?Hunter’. I need you to home in on this signal

and arrive on top of it, now! Yes, I know what I said about transport

but that’s not a factor anymore. They know. When you arrive, greet

Raye and delay her. Leave after you’ve accomplished that. Good luck.

?Hunter’ out." With that said, Tencite threw the phone into the snow bank

in front of him and continued to run.

*************

Raye and Mina rushed full speed through the woods, following the

man’s footsteps in the snow. While the cold didn’t bother them, the

snowfall was getting thick, making it hard to see. They had been

running for almost a minute, desperately trying to make up the distance

they had lost.

As Raye followed Mina, she heard a whistling in the air and an

instant later, something wrapped around her ankles, snapping her legs

together and causing her to fall flat on her face in the snow.

A voice echoed above as Raye felt herself being dragged backwards.

"My, my, look what I’ve caught, a plump juicy Sailor Scout."

"Raye!" Mina yelled in panic as she saw two more cable-like strands

of silk shoot out and wrap around her friend’s body, pinning her arms at

her side. Following the trail of silk, Mina gazed upon a sight she

never thought she’d see again.

The Youma was blue skinned with six arms and wore a kind of shiny

black body suit that allowed its appendages free reign. The strands

came from its torso but were held by three of the hands. Mina thought

it looked for all the world like a giant humanoid spider. The creature

was flying back through the air as it rapidly pulled Raye along.

Mina aimed and was about to fire at the Youma when a tree a few

feet to her right exploded. Rolling on the ground, Mina turned and

fired blindly in the direction, she thought the blast had come from.

She missed the trench coated man but upon spotting him, fired repeatedly,

driving his dodging form back into the woods as timber crackled and

burned.

Mina hesitated for a moment, unable to decide on her next move.

The man was attacking her while Mars was being pulled rapidly in the

other direction, almost out of sight already. Things were going from

bad to worse. Then another tree exploded next to her.

Screaming a battle cry, Mina ran in the direction of the blast,

realizing that if she were to go help Raye, she’d get picked off from

behind. She trusted Mars to be able to defeat a single Youma on her

own.

In truth, Mina had made the only decision possible. With all the

video games she played, it had just made sense. Even so, she was very

worried. No enemy had ever fought like this.

*************

Raye was pissed. Snow, mud, and rocks were being raked across her

body as the Youma dragged her along. After a few moments, Raye felt a

shock hit her and she suddenly felt weak. The Youma was draining energy

from her!

Collecting her senses, Raye yelled, "Mars Fire Ignite!"

Immediately, she was engulfed in a sphere of flame that burnt through

the silken threads that held her. Regaining her feet, Mars brushed snow

from her eyes just as she spit mud from her mouth.

"All right, ?Charlotte’, you wanted a fight, you got one!" Raye

shouted.

The still hovering Youma chuckled, her high pitched laughter

echoing ominously. "Temper, temper, Raye. All I did was give you a

little ride. Don’t make me get upset."

"Upset!? I’ll show you upset! Mars Celestial Fire Surround!" Raye

shouted, launching a streak of fire at the Youma. The blue creature was

surprisingly fast however and swooped under the attack, dodging it.

"Oh, I’m sorry, was that supposed to hit me, like this?" the Youma

asked, shooting two balled up threads. They impacted with Sailor Mars

like twin anvils causing her to fly back, her momentum stopped by a tree

trunk.

The Youma then fired two ribbon-like threads which wrapped around

Raye, pinning her to the tree. "My, what tangled webs we weave," the

Youma joked, rising into the air with her laughter.

Raye was reaching the boiling point. Another inferno freed her but

the flames caused her to lose track of the Youma for a moment. Too

late, she felt another thread wrap around her arm, pulling her off

balance in one direction as yet another club-like thread slammed into

her body in the other.

This time however, the slightly dazed Sailor Mars had enough sense

to grab the thread attached to her arm and pull it towards her with all

her strength. She heard a satisfactory "Eeep" as the Youma was pulled

off balance. Immediately, Raye yelled, "Mars Celestial Fire Surround!"

and another wall of fire raced toward the tumbling Youma.

Nancy’s eyes opened wide in horror as the fire approached her. She

managed to drop to the ground at the last second, allowing the deadly

attack to pass inches above her head.

"Who’s laughing now?" Raye asked, approaching the fallen Youma.

Nancy immediately tried to take to the air. Raye responded by picking

the thread she’d just used off the ground and whipping it violently,

looping it around the Youma. She then pulled hard, dropping the

creature to the ground with a thump.

"Buh-bye. Mars Celestial Fire Surround!" Raye yelled again, this

time aiming low enough to finish the job. Nancy, her limbs tangled by

her own thread, knew she had lost. Executing her only option, she

teleported an instant before she was incinerated by Mars’ attack.

Raye shook her head. Partially to regain her senses but also to

understand what she had just seen. The Youma had retreated. No Youma

had ever retreated before. They always had fought to the death.

Feeling queasiness in her stomach that had nothing to do with her

injuries, Raye finally understood why the Youma had appeared.

"Mina!" she whispered, before hurrying to look for her friend.

*************

Sailor Venus leapt through the smoking foliage and immediately

tried to spot her enemy. The snowfall was making it difficult to see

but she noticed footprints and began to track them. After a few

seconds, another shot of lightning streaked by her. Rolling to the

ground, Mina came up in a kneeling position and gazed towards the

source. Spotting movement, she fired another Crescent beam.

"You missed!" she heard a voice echo. Mina hurried in the

direction she’d fired in but found nothing. A split-second later,

another bolt zinged over her head and impacted with a tree behind her.

Without hesitation, Mina returned fire with three chains in quick

succession.

"Missed again," she heard.

"He’s playing with me!" she thought, surprised at the arrogance.

Grinning she whispered, "Well, hotshot, I’ve played a few games in my

time too."

This time, Mina leapt high into the air and perched in the branches

of a tree. Looking down, she found it was still hard to see but her

range had improved. She spotted movement again but fortunately this

time it wasn’t firing at her. "Probably doesn’t know where I am," she

thought with satisfaction.

Fixing the spot in her memory, Mina jumped from the tree and landed

dead on it. She rolled with her momentum and immediately came to the

ready. It was a surprise to her that the man wasn’t there.

"Damn," she whispered, frustrated at her lack of success. She

quickly stiffened though as she spotted a figure about twenty meters

away.

"He couldn’t have seen me or he would have fired," Mina reasoned as

she silently moved in he figure’s direction. After a couple of seconds,

she was in perfect firing position, less than ten meters from her enemy.

She almost yelled freeze but remembering the man’s previous reaction to

being cornered decided to try to wound him instead.

"Venus Love Chain Encircle!" Mina yelled. A brilliant chain of

pure energy shot from her index finger and struck the figure low, about

where his right leg would be. Her target instantly burst into flame.

Mina’s jaw dropped in shock. She hadn’t meant to kill him! They

needed to ask him what he’d done with Amy and Lita. Frantically, she

rushed to where her enemy lay and gazed upon the prone form. "Omigod!"

she exclaimed. "He’s, he’s... Balthazar?"

In the same moment, Sailor Venus realized her victim was a wooden

statue she felt herself being violently grabbed from behind. She then

screamed as a couple thousand volts of electricity were pumped though

her.

Tencite allowed Venus’ limp body to drop to the ground. The girl

was stunned but he knew it wouldn’t last. Scouts were pretty durable.

"Missed again, Mina. Strike three," he said. Kneeling in front of

the prone Scout, he grabbed the brooch on her chest, a centerpiece for

the red bow of her uniform. "You’re outta there!" he quipped as he

swiftly tore the amulet off of her.

He felt the brooch change back into the transformation pen it

actually was as he watched Venus’ uniform revert to the T-shirt and

jeans Mina had been wearing when she’d changed into Scout form. Even

though she was unconscious, Tencite could see the girl spasm in reaction

to the cold she was no longer protected from.

A part of him really wanted to drag this out, to savor it, but now

was not the time. He had to hurry. Grabbing Mina by the neck, he

activated his time distortion powers and began to regress her.

Mina’s body glowed as the mounds on her chest shrank and her arms

and legs thinned. Her sneakers were left in the snow as her feet were

pulled towards her body and her jeans flattened. The teen’s face became

softer as she returned to adolescence, a grimace of pain on her young

features.

When Mina awakened, she felt the icy slap of cold snap her to

attention. Seeing the huge man above her, she tried to knock his hand

from her throat but it was impossible. Catching a glimpse of her own

hand, she stopped her struggles in shock. It was tiny and she watched

it as her digits slowly shrank further. Terrified, Mina desperately

began to kick and scream and she felt her legs easily free themselves

from her jeans.

"Noooo!" she cried, immediately horrified at the pitch of her

voice. She then felt herself being lifted into the air as the man

picked her up and placed her on his hip. For a moment, Mina gazed

directly into his amused eyes. She could feel her bare feet brushing

against his pants as his free hand cradled her bottom. Her eye level

quickly sank, however, and she could feel her feet being dragged up his

trousers.

She was frightened, confused, frantic, and worse of all, freezing.

It was, therefore, quite understandable when she, the mighty Sailor

Venus, began to scream and bawl her eyes out.

Tencite smiled with amusement when Mina began crying. Another few

seconds and the three year old quickly became an infant, her T-shirt now

fitting like a gown with a tiny shoulder peeking from its collar. Her

fine blonde hair still fell below her little shoulders and the red bow,

while large, was still tied firmly in it.

Tencite had felt Nancy teleport moments before and knew he had to

hurry if he was going to take Raye as well. Looking at the crying babe

in his arms and then the manger scene beyond, an idea came to mind.

****************

Raye knew she’d heard a scream somewhere in the distance,

immediately after the Youma had left, but she was finding it impossible

to track. In fact, between the howling wind and poor visibility, she

truly had no idea where she was. After a couple of minutes of wandering

though, she noticed a glowing light flickering through the woods.

Racing towards it she spotted the burning figurine and noticed the

manger scene close by it.

As she tried to figure out why someone had moved then destroyed the

statue, her thoughts were interrupted by the cries of a baby. A puzzled

Raye carefully approached the scene, finally reaching the source of the

wailing. In the cradle, lay a little blonde haired baby. Her eyes were

closed and her fists clenched as the poor thing released its despair.

Raye quickly realized that the poor child had to be freezing.

Just as she reached for the infant, however, a voice echoed around

her. "Don’t touch her."

Sailor Mars spun around, trying to find the source of the voice but

it seemed to come from everywhere.

"Touch her and I’ll fire. You may survive but I’m sure Mina would

fry," it continued.

"Mina?" Raye thought. At second glance, she noticed the bow that

Mina had been wearing, along with one of her friend’s T-shirts, was now

being worn by the baby. "No, it can’t be," she whispered.

"It can and it is," the voice echoed. "Awfully cute, isn’t she?

Too bad she won’t survive much longer in this weather."

Raye wasn’t sure if she believed the man but it didn’t really

matter. Even if it wasn’t Mina, the child didn’t have long. She had to

defeat this guy quickly. "Bastard! Show yourself!" Raye yelled.

"Don’t think so. Here’s the deal. Change out of your Sailor guise

and toss the your pen away. You have my word that I won’t kill either

of you," the voice said.

Raye paused a moment. She didn’t believe him in the least.

Spinning in the direction she thought the voice was coming from, she

yelled, "No deal! Mars Celestial Fire Surround!"

Mars’ attack nailed another of the figurines and it burst into

flames. As the explosion dissipated, she heard, "Wrong answer, Raye.

What’s the matter? Too much pride to allow yourself to lose?"

"Shut up! Mars Celestial Fire Surround!" she shouted again and

another of the statues met its untimely demise.

"Oh, that’s right, you’re the selfish one. Everything’s me, me,

me!" the voice continued.

"I said, shut up!" Mars screamed, firing off another pair of

attacks. Still the mocking voice echoed.

"How stupid of me then, to actually expect you to do something for

one of your friends."

"Damn it, shut the hell up!" Raye was furious. Not only was she

unable to hit the attacker but also some of what he said actually caused

a pang of guilt. She did care about her friends, damn it. She just

didn’t think surrendering would help right now. Unfortunately, no

matter how many attacks she fired off, the voice kept talking, kept

mocking. Raye soon found herself surrounded by flames, her nerves

frazzled. She then heard the voice again, right behind her.

"Tired yet?" it asked.

Raye spun around but her arms were blocked before they could reach

firing position. The white haired man was right next to her and he

smashed her in the face with his right fist. She feel to the ground a

bit dazed but rolled in time to avoid her attacker’s follow-up stomp.

She barely got to her feet as the man pressed the attack. Raye had

some self-defense training from Lita and managed to block his side kick

along with the first couple of punches. It was when the man quickly

spun around and nailed her in the face with his elbow that she fell back

to the ground.

"Oh, come on, Mars, you have to be able to do better than that," he

mocked, standing over her.

Reaching the boiling point, Raye wiped blood from her cut lip and

lunged at the man. Grabbing her by the arms, he rolled onto his back,

put his foot to her stomach, and pushed off, causing her to land

painfully on her back.

Rising to his feet, he said, "Oh, please. Lita was a child and she

put up a better fight than this."

Raye screamed in rage as she attacked again. This time she

actually kept some discipline throwing a combination of punches followed

by a roundhouse kick with her left leg. The man blocked the punches in

an efficient military style but had to duck to avoid the kick. Noticing

this Raye twisted her body to the ground and swung her other leg in a

midsweep aimed at his head.

Maybe she was a bit slow or maybe her opponent was just too good,

but instead of impacting with Tencite’s face, Raye’s foot was blocked by

his upraised arm and caught as that arm snapped down on her ankle.

Holding her in place, the man swiftly stood and kicked Raye hard in the

small of her back with his left leg.

Sailor Mars screamed in pain. The man then twisted her leg,

causing her to roll over and kicked her again, this time firmly in the

stomach. Raye felt the air rush out of her lungs and she wheezed,

trying to get her breath back.

Dropping her leg, Tencite smacked his hands together and said, "I

have to admit, it was kind of fun doing things the hard way. Thanks for

the exercise."

Her head spinning and her breath ragged Sailor Mars slowly regained

her feet. "Can’t... give... up," she thought to herself. "Can’t...

fail... Scouts."

Tencite shook his head in amusement as he watched her slowly rise,

one arm covering her stomach. "Not... over... yet," she breathed.

"Mars Celestial Fire Surround!"

The instant the magical fire formed in Sailor Mars’ hands, Tencite

flickered and disappeared. As Mars held the attack, the fire launching

from her fingertips like a flame-thrower, Tencite rematerialized behind

her. Before she even had the chance to wonder where he was, he

violently elbowed her in the back of the head.

Raye’s attack snuffed itself out in an instant as she staggered

forward. Holding her balance, she weakly turned to face her enemy.

This time a flurry of punches came at Raye. She barely managed to

block the first one and the rest impacted squarely on target. Her face

and stomach were pummeled by the blows and just as she thought she could

take no more Tencite jumped into the air and landed a kick directly on

the center of her chest. Her head jerked forward from the force of the

blow and her body fell in a heap on the ground.

Rolling to her knees, Raye coughed and spit into the snow. The

bright red color of blood stained the pristine white of the landscape.

Shakily, Sailor Mars rose again. Both arms hugged her chest this

time and one of her eyes looked to be swelling shut. Still, she stood

defiant, refusing to yield despite her injuries.

Tencite nodded and began to form a time ball. "All right, I get it.

You won’t give up. Bully for you." With that, he stepped forward and

fired the ball at point blank range, making sure not to miss. When the

blue energy impacted with Sailor Mars, the force of the blow caused her

to be thrown back, eventually landing in the hay of the manger.

Tencite walked towards her as she struggled to free herself from

the straw. He could tell she was shrinking. After a couple of seconds,

the red heels flew from her kicking legs leaving her feet bare.

Eventually righting herself, Raye popped her head up. Her wounds were

healed but she looked about seven or eight years old; her fierce face

now adorable.

Her Scout uniform was huge on her. Much of the fabric hung in

folds and her collar provided a gaping view of her upper torso.

Needless to say, the chest portion of her uniform had quite the vacant

space.

Upon jumping to the ground, Sailor Mars noticed that her skirt,

which had once showed off most of her thighs, now hung below her knees.

It was fortunate the uniform was a one-piece.

With a shocked expression on her face, Raye slowly raised her

gloved hand and looked at it. Her fingers were much too small for it

now and the white fabric hung loosely. A look of terror crossed her

sweet features.

"Wha-wha...?" she panted in fear, her high voice sounding like

little more than a whimper. Glancing down at her bare chest, Raye

squeaked in shock and swiftly covered it, the color of her face quickly

matching that of her skirt.

After a few seconds of queasiness, Raye’s eyes focused on the large

figure before her. She guessed she was about four feet tall now since

her eyes only came to the man’s stomach.

Bending over, Tencite reached a finger under Raye’s chin and

tickled it. "My, aren’t you a cute little thing? Definitely much

sweeter than the nasty original."

Raye’s eyes flashed red and she angrily slapped his hand away.

"Bastard!" she squeaked, "Change me back!"

"Then again, maybe I was wrong," the General quipped. "No matter."

Tencite swiftly reached down with his right arm and wrapped it

below Raye’s shoulders, locking the child’s head behind him. With his

left hand, he wordlessly reached under her skirt and pulled down her

loose white panties.

"Don’t even think it!" Raye screamed.

Tencite merely chuckled and tore her skirt apart from her uniform

to reveal her tiny pink bottom.

"Noooo!" Raye pleaded, understanding her position.

"Oh yes," Tencite said, then began to methodically spank the

chibified Sailor Mars. "Naughty little Scout. Mustn’t hit. Mustn’t

use dirty words. Bad Sailor Mars," he mocked.

Raye squirmed and fought but couldn’t break his grip. As blow

after blow descended on her poor little ass, she began to lose control,

her emotions becoming chaotic. She felt humiliated at what was being

done to her. "I’m a Sailor Scout! Not a little girl!" she screamed in

her mind.

Unfortunately, a little girl was exactly what she was now and she

felt more and more helpless with each succeeding strike. It wasn’t long

before tears streaked down her cheeks and she was crying uncontrollably.

To Raye’s credit though, she took the punishment, never begging for it

to stop.

Eventually Tencite dropped the wailing child to the snow where she

sat with her bare feet in front of her. Reaching down, he tore the

brooch from her chest.

"Dress up time’s over, little girl," Tencite said.

The outward change in Raye was interesting. As the Sailor outfit

disappeared, it was replaced by robes that were now much too large for

the small girl. Her tabi socks reappeared as well but hung on her tiny

feet.

For Raye, her misfit clothing was completely unimportant, however,

as the savage bite of the cold night air hit her like a sledgehammer.

"Ahhhhhh!" she yelled.

"Just a wait moment and I’ll warm you up," Tencite said, forming

another time ball.

Raye’s eyes widened. "Noooo!" Shedding her heavy robes, Raye ran

as fast as her little legs could carry her despite the numbness of the

cold. After a few steps though, she stumbled and fell, her body

crunching into the snow. It was so cold it hurt.

Slipping and stumbling a few more feet, Raye eventually fell again

and could take no more. She reflexively curled into a ball for warmth.

She knew there was no way an infant Mina could have survived this long

in this weather. She had failed and her friend had to be dead. Raye

silently began to cry again as she waited for oblivion. Blue energy

washed over her an instant later.

Tencite watched as Mars shrank rather rapidly, her socks becoming

huge. By the time he reached her, she was the same age as most of her

fellow Scouts now were. Picking the baby out of the snow, Tencite’s

hands began to glow slightly.

Baby Raye squirmed a bit in his grip then slowly opened her eyes.

She was naked and could see they were still outside and yet she wasn’t

freezing. In fact, she felt warm!

Placing her in the crook of one arm, Tencite walked over to the

cradle that held Mina. Raye expected the worse but instead she saw Mina

with her thumb in her mouth calmly looking back up at her.

"Energy field. She’s really quite comfortable. Couldn’t let you

know that though, now could I?" Tencite whispered to her.

A very angry Raye started to cry again.

Tencite smiled, but before he could pick Mina up, he heard a voice

above them.

"Hold it right there. I don’t know who you are but anyone who

would destroy a religious memorial and torture babies can’t be good.

Release them or in the name of the Moon..."

Sailor Moon’s speech was cut short as a lightning bolt struck the

roof of the manger, just below where she stood. With a look of shock on

her face and a loss of balance, Serena fell onto her back.

Tencite quickly plucked Mina from her resting-place and turned to

face a rising, and angry, Sailor Moon.

"Hey, I was in the middle of my speech!" she yelled.

"You’re too late, Sailor Moon. Your friends are mine and soon I

will have my revenge on you for defeating Beryl!" Tencite shouted,

making his voice sound as menacing as he could. "There’s nowhere you

can hide!"

"Who’s hiding, you freak?!" Serena yelled back. "What have you

done with the Sailor Scouts?"

"Don’t tell me you don’t recognize your friends, Sailors Venus and

Mars? Tsk, what a shame, you might make them cry."

Serena gasped as she looked closely at the babies, especially at

the clothing the blonde one wore. "Change them back this instant, you

monster."

"No," Tencite said simply then continued with, "You’re next, Moon.

Till later." With that, Tencite flickered out of sight, his packages in

hand.

"No!" Serena yelled, shocked that her enemy had simply left.

"Luna!" she whined, turning to her cat. "What in the heck just

happened!?"

"I’m not sure, Serena, but if that is who I think it is, the Scouts

could be in great danger," Luna said.

Across town, Tencite reappeared in the darkened warehouse. Baby

Raye was still crying while little Mina was surprisingly calm.

After a few steps, Tencite saw a flash of movement in front of him.

He didn’t have a chance to move before Nancy popped out of the shadows

and hugged him tightly with all six arms.

"Yes! You’re okay!" she shouted jubilantly.

"Was there any doubt?" Tencite chided. "Uh, Nancy, a little less

pressure please, you might hurt our guests."

"Oh. Sorry," the Youma exclaimed, immediately releasing Tencite.

Noticing that Raye had stopped crying and was looking at her in fear

Nancy said, "Hello Raye! Hmmm, that isn’t right anymore is it? How

about Raye-Raye? Yes, I think that fits much better. I think we’re

going to get along fabulously, Raye-Raye, just as soon as I get you

properly dressed."

Plucking the two infant Scouts from Tencite’s arms, Nancy carried

them over to the changing table as the newly dubbed Raye-Raye screamed.

Along the way, she added, "And don’t think I’ve forgotten about you,

Mina. Aren’t you just the cutest thing with that big bow? Yes, you

are!"

Tencite sighed. "I’ve created a monster," he whispered. "Oh well,

I suppose she is getting better." Shaking images of wanton destruction

from his mind, Tencite sat down on the sofa to collect his thoughts.

 

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