Hello everyone and welcome back!  Don't you want to know what's going 
to happen to the three of them?  Well then, read the chapter, not these 
standard disclaimers! <grin>

Sailor Moon Universal B

Chapter 13:


Garnite gloated as he led his captives through the Negaverse Palace into
the dungeons.  He was taking his time, not only in order to enjoy his
captives' struggles, but to allow time for a cell to be set up for his
unexpected third guest.

::Why didn't you transform?:: Travis asked almost accusingly.  ::I think
it would have been a good idea whether people were watching or not!::

::I would have if I could have!:: Serena's thought was slightly
hysterical.  ::But my brooch is missing!::

"What?!?" Travis exclaimed out loud.  A cuff from his captor reminded
him to keep the conversation silent even as it set his head ringing.
::What do you mean?  How could it be missing?::

::I don't know,:: Serena admitted.  ::I thought it got knocked off when
I got thrown into that wall, but I couldn't find it anywhere!  And then
I looked up and Daddy... and Uncle Jake... and... and Reenie...::

Travis threw a quick glance over at his sister as her thought started to
break up.  There were tears in her eyes, and she looked as if she were
about to burst into a wail.

::Calm down, Serena, you're not going to do yourself or Reenie any good
if you get knocked out...:: his thought trailed off.

::Like Reenie,:: Serena finished bleakly.  Reenie still hadn't woken up
and worry about her was on both of their minds.  ::Why hasn't she woken
up, Travis?::

::I don't know, Serena. I don't know.::

Both of them stopped their telepathic conversation as Garnite led them
into what was obviously a prison.  Dark stone walls and barred doors
made it look as though it had come from some old horror movie, and the
sounds coming through matched the picture perfectly.  After one glance
into a passing cell, both of the conscious humans kept their faces
turned forward.

Serena shuddered and tried to move closer to her brother as they headed
down a set of steps into an even danker, and filthier part of the
prison.  The doors here were made out of wood with only a small barred
window at the top.  She screamed as what looked like a large six legged
rat scuttled over her feet.

"Shut up," Garnite told her, shaking her absently.

He opened a large steel door and led them into another series of cells.
After the dark and dank dungeon they had just come from, the antiseptic
whiteness was a shock.

"This is where we keep special prisoners," he smiled thinly.  "In you
go, Sailor of the Sun!"  With that, he had the youma throw Travis
roughly into one of the cells and closed the door.  Then he flipped a
switch.  The bars started glowing faintly and then stronger until they
were crackling with energy.  "This jail cell was specially designed in
case we ever caught one of you creeps.  Any kind of energy you throw at
the bars will be reflected back at you.  I'll let you find out the other
features for yourself."

He opened a cell on the other side and threw in Serena.  "I don't want
your famous brother worrying about you," he grinned.  "Not until we're
ready for him to."

"Wait a minute," Travis spoke up.  "What are you talking about, Sailor
of the Sun?  I'm no Sailor Scout!"

"Are you sure?" Garnite asked silkily.

"Of course I'm sure," Travis responded.

"Well, if you're not a Sailor Scout, then there's no need to keep your
sister and this little girl around to insure your good behavior, now is
there?" Garnite asked.

With that he pulled out a knife and started walking towards the still
unconscious Reenie.

"No!  Wait!" Travis yelled.  "I am, okay?  I am Sailor Sol."

"I thought so," Garnite motioned for the youma holding Reenie to put her
in the cell next to Serena.  "I'll leave you here for now. My master,
Lord Spessarite, will wish to see you soon.  Why don't you get ready for
him?" With one last chill smile, he walked off.

Immediately Serena moved as far towards Reenie's cell as she could, and
put her arms through the bars trying to reach her daughter.  "Reenie,"
she said desperately.  "Come on, Reenie, wake up."  However, Reenie had
been laid on the floor of the cell, just far enough away that no matter
how hard she tried, Serena couldn't touch her.  "Reenie!  Small Lady!
Come on, sweetheart, wake up, please!"

::How did they know?:: Travis wondered.

"What?" Serena looked up for a moment.

::How did they know that I was Sailor Sol?:: he asked again, this time
emphasizing the fact that he wasn't speaking aloud, something she hadn't
realized, being so intent on Reenie.

::I don't know. Maybe they saw you detransform when that... whatever...
stole your Sun Stone.  Right now, I don't really care, I just want
Reenie to wake up!:: Serena's thought slashed back.

Just then Reenie moaned.  Serena and Travis breathed collective sighs of
relief as she slowly opened her eyes.  "Reenie, are you okay?" Serena
asked softly.

"Reenie?" the little girl said looking at her.  "Who's Reenie?  My
name's Serena.  And who are you?  Where are my parents?"

Serena's eyes got wide and she gasped in shock.  "No," she said in an
agonized whisper, "No, it's too late! The future's changed!  She's
failed... we failed..."

Reenie groaned and put her head into her hands.  "My head hurts," she
moaned.  "What happened?"

Serena was still staring in horror and disbelief, so Travis answered,
"You got captured by youmas.  Do you remember?"

Reenie's head suddenly snapped up.  Her eyes looked a little wild.  She
looked over at Serena.  "Mommy?" she said.  "What just happened?  It...
it felt like I was a different person, and for a minute, I couldn't
remember you."

"We're coming close," Travis answered quietly.  "Very close to the time
when this timeline can't be changed back.   At least, that's what I'm
assuming."

"So... I'm becoming that other Reenie?  The one who was born in 2005?
No!" Reenie suddenly said forcefully.  "I won't let it happen!  I won't
forget, and I will change the future back!"  She looked over to her
mother and moved towards her.  They hugged as best they could with the
bars between them.  "Won't I?" she asked in a whisper.

"Of course you will," Serena told her.  "You've already made a
difference.  You helped Mina and Lita decide to keep fighting once they
lost their powers, didn't you?  If you hadn't been here, they might have
quit then and there, but they didn't, and they're not going to."

"I think you had more to do with it then me," Reenie replied, still
downcast.

"Maybe," Serena agreed.  "But you're the one that convinced me."

Reenie looked up at her.  "What do you mean?"

"I couldn't let them stop fighting because of what would happen to
`you'," Serena told her.  "If you hadn't come back, and shown us what
the world was like in the future, I would have thought that them giving
up was the best thing for them to do.  So `they' wouldn't get hurt.  If
you hadn't come back, I would have `begged' for them not to fight.  And
I think that's what originally happened in the second timeline, but it
hasn't, so things are changing."

All three suddenly looked up as a piece of wall in the back of one of
the empty cells suddenly opened.  Their eyes went wide as they saw who
it was.

"Crystal!?!  What are you doing here?  You need to get out, quickly!"
Travis said, almost in desperation.

"Travis," Serena said sharply.  "Look at her!  Look at what she's
wearing! She's `working' for them."

"That's impossible!"  Travis shook his head, not wanting to believe the
evidence in front of his eyes.  Crystal stood there in a gray Negaverse
uniform, and had just come through a secret door as if she had perfect
knowledge of where it led to.  "She's just wearing that so she wouldn't
get stopped, right?"

Quartz sighed.  Crystal was watching through her eyes and Quartz could
feel the tears pouring down her sister's face.  "I'm not Crystal," she
said.  "My name is Quartz."

"So, you used a different name on Earth," Serena said.  She sounded
angry and sad all at once.  "How could you do this to him?"

"I'm not Crystal," Quartz said again.  "I never have been."

Serena just looked at her.

"Maybe it isn't really her," Travis spoke up.

"How could there be someone else who looks exactly like her?" Serena
asked.

"That's it, isn't it?" Travis asked.  "You just look like her for some
reason.  To try to trick us."  But even Quartz could see he no longer
believed that.

"If she was trying to trick us, wouldn't she have said she `was'
Crystal?" Serena asked.  "Who are you?  And why do you look so much like
her if you're not her?"

Quartz smiled.  "You, of all people, should have heard of twins," she
said.

"So Crystal is evil and from the Negaverse?" Reenie asked.

Travis almost collapsed against the front bars of his cell.  "Crystal,"
he whispered.

"No!" Quartz answered.  "We are not evil!  We do what we must to protect
our world and our people just like you do!  We fight to protect our
family, just like you do, Sailor Moon, Sailor Crescent Moon, and you,
Sailor of the Sun!"

Travis' fists clenched as Serena and Reenie drew back, looking at her in
disbelief.

Quartz shook her head.  "Even if I didn't know before, I would have
after that last conversation you had!  Don't you know that everything
that's said in here is recorded?  You're just lucky I erased all of
that."

Serena shook that off.  "How can you possibly say that you're working
for the good of your planet by hurting ours?  For the good of your
family, by harming or... or killing ours?!?"  Serena started to yell.

"What?!?" Quartz exclaimed.  "The plan I thought up should have stopped
anyone from getting hurt!  Your parents weren't even supposed to know
you were kidnapped!  What went wrong?"

"You thought up that plan?" Travis growled.  "I'll tell you what went
wrong. Our family was not going to let us be taken away like that, and
that goon shot Uncle Jake, threw Uncle Ken into the wall, and would have
killed Aunt Ellen if Uncle Ken hadn't thrown himself in front of it! And
now they're all probably dead, and it's all your fault!"

Quartz took a step back, her eyes wide.  On the other side of the link,
Crystal cried out.  This was not what they had expected; this wasn't
what they had wanted.  This wasn't the way it was supposed to be!
"Nobody was supposed to get hurt," Quartz whispered.

"What did you expect?  They're monsters," Serena was sobbing even as she
said it.  "And so are you!"

"It's not like that!  You don't understand!  Not everyone here is evil,
I'm not, my sister's not, our father's not!  Under his command we would
have been able to move things back, like they had been... before
Metallia ruled.  Surely you understand wanting peace!"

"You can't get peace by killing people," Reenie spoke up.

"We don't want to kill anyone!  Except maybe Spessarite," she finished
under her breath.  "Look, won't you let me explain?"

"Why?  Why do you want to explain, and why should we believe anything
you should say?" Serena said in a hard voice.  "You and your sister have
already proved you can't be trusted, so why should we?"

::This isn't like what you've told me about Serena,:: Quartz thought to
Crystal.  ::I thought she would at least listen.::

Crystal was already halfway to Serena's house to try to find out what
had happened.  ::She usually will, at least from what I've seen of her.
She's usually ready to give people a second chance.::

::Well it sure doesn't seem that way to me,:: Quartz answered.  Looking
at Serena all she saw was dislike, almost hatred.  The same from the
little girl who had called Serena Mommy.  She still didn't quite
understand that conversation.  She turned around and suddenly understood
Serena's reaction.  Travis' expression was not difficult to recognize.
Betrayal.  He believed that Crystal had betrayed him, and honestly,
Quartz couldn't say he was wrong.  And with Travis so set against her,
Serena wouldn't believe anything she had to say either.  But time was
running out.  ::Hurt my brother, you hurt me,:: she thought.  ::She's
taking this as personally as he is.::

::What do you expect?:: Crystal said sadly.  ::We should have told them
before all of this!::

"All right," Quartz said suddenly.  "Why should I explain?  Because I
need your help.  I can't put it much simpler than that.  I know you
don't have any reason to trust me, and every reason not to, but I'm
hoping that you will at least give me a chance to explain."

"You've got part of that right. We don't have any reason to trust you,
and every reason not to," Travis spoke up harshly.

"Oh really?"  Quartz was getting angry, she could feel her sister's
unhappiness through the link.  "So you're going to condemn me just
because I'm from the Negaverse, and my sister as well?  My sister, who
probably saved your sister's life by changing her hairstyle so she
wouldn't be recognized?"

Quartz walked right up to the bars on Travis' cell.  "If I could reach
you in there, I would slap you," she hissed.  "Don't you dare judge
Crystal!  You don't know anything about her, or about the Negaverse.
I'll go away, and you won't have to see me again, if you answer my next
question with a no and are honest about it."

Travis just looked at her.

"If someone, who you knew would do it, said he would kill Serena if you
didn't help him against Crystal, would you help him?" Quartz asked in a
calm voice.

"They were holding you hostage?" Serena asked, sounding a little more
likely to listen.

"Not me," Quartz told her, deliberately turning away from Travis, whose
face showed his indecision.  "They have our father, and are using him to
get me to do what they want.  They don't know about Crystal. I'm the one
that asked her to help make sure they didn't know who you were.  I'm
also the one that led you out of here last time you came.  So I think
you can at least listen!"

Travis' mind was whirling.  Crystal was from the Negaverse... Crystal
had betrayed him... yet, if what she, no Quartz, was saying was true,
she had also helped to protect Serena.  But... Crystal had lied to him,
and there was no way Quartz could have known enough about him to set up
that without Crystal's help.

"She should have told us," he finally said flatly.  "If she was actually
trying to help us, she should have told us what was happening!  Instead
she let us walk right into that trap and our families got hurt.  She
should have trusted us to listen, we would have if she'd told us
before."

"And you told her all of your secrets?" Quartz snapped, turning and
looking at him again.  "You told her about being the Sailor of the Sun,
and your sister being Sailor Moon?  We made the best decisions we could!
Besides, would you have listened?  Really?  After all the Scouts fought
the Negaverse before, they think everyone here is evil."

"But I didn't fight before," Travis answered coldly, his eyes still flat
and hard.  "I didn't have many preconceived notions of the Negaverse. I
thought that it was possible there were some good people here.  I don't
believe that anymore."

"I don't have any idea why Crystal likes you," Quartz huffed.  "You're
too thick headed and stubborn!"

"But he's right," Serena said.  "We've never seen anyone or thing from
the Negaverse that wasn't evil, even if Nephrite did become good," she
said in an aside.  "And while before this I would have said Crystal was
different, I've got to agree with Travis on this one, she should have
told us!"

"How could she have?" Quartz was irritated at their refusal to listen to
her. ::You'd think they'd never done anything wrong before!:: she
practically shouted to her sister.

Before Crystal could answer, the sound of the other prisoners howling
came through to her.  "Oh, no, I'm out of time," she turned to them,
"Please, if nothing else, don't tell them I was here.  And... whether
you believe it or not, I `am' sorry."

Quartz quickly ducked back through the cell she had come from and out
the secret door, closing it behind her.

::What do you think she was up to?:: Travis asked Serena mentally.

::I don't know, but I have the feeling we're going to wish we had
listened to her.:: Serena looked towards the door to their cell area. It
was slowly opening.

The first ones through the doorway were obviously youmas. There was very
little about them that looked even the slightest bit human.  Garnite
stepped through next with a very gloating look on his face.  Following
him were two more people.  One was very tall and thin with reddish brown
hair, the other was gray, his skin and hair almost matching his uniform.
The only color in him was dull yellow eyes.  More youmas followed them
in.

Spessarite stepped forward.  "So this is the Sailor of the Sun?" he
asked, going up to Travis' cell.  "Sailor Sol is your name, I believe?"
It wasn't exactly a question.

"Not at the moment, no," Travis replied, looking in the General's eyes.

"Oh, you have a sense of humor," Spessarite grinned nastily.  "I will
enjoy removing it from you."

"I'd like to see you try," Travis said, glaring at him.

"Oh, you will," Spessarite gloated.  "Rhyolite here thought the same
thing.  He believed that he could keep his own mind even with the new
brainwashing techniques.  He was wrong," Spessarite grinned.  "Isn't
that right, Emperor Rhyolite?"

Rhyolite looked up with blank eyes.  "That is correct, Master," he said
in a monotone.

"Now that I have my own emperor, I decided that I really needed a Sailor
Scout to fill out my collection."  As Travis started to open his mouth,
Spessarite waved him into silence.  "Yes, yes, I know, you'll fight me
to your last breath.  The question is," and now Spessarite's eyes were
hard and cold, "Would you fight until their last breath?"  He waved a
hand behind him at the cells holding Serena and Reenie.  "We've already
learned just how much family loyalty can do even here in the Negaverse,
I'm sure it must be much stronger for a Sailor Scout, right?"

He motioned to two of the youmas.  "Drag him out here," he ordered.  To
another he said, "Get the little one, I think she would be the best
hostage for his good behavior right now."

"No!" Serena and Travis yelled.  Serena and Reenie moved to the back of
their respective cells and held on to each other through the bars.  "I
won't let you take her!" Serena shouted, holding on desperately to the
little girl as a youma entered Reenie's cell.

Travis threw himself at the bars of his cell, trying to reach
Spessarite, but was thrown backwards when the bars turned electrified.

"Travis!" Serena gasped.  As she was distracted, the youma moved forward
and pulled Reenie from her arms.  "No!  Reenie!" Serena yelled.

"Serena!" she yelled back, reaching for her mother.  Their hands caught
and held for one moment before the youma yanked the little girl away,
separating them.

Spessarite was glaring at Travis.  "Try that again, and she will pay,"
he said, pointing towards Reenie, still struggling in the youma's arms.
"After all, if we do kill her, we still have another hostage left
behind."

Travis stood still and silent as the youmas came up to him and grabbed
him by his arms.

"::Travis!::" Serena shouted with both voice and mind.

::It'll be all right, Serena. You'll see, we'll get out of here
somehow.::  He threw her a smile as he finished, but she did not look
reassured.

::I don't want anything to happen to you, or to Reenie,:: she gulped,
her expression anxious and worry coloring her mental tone.  ::Stay in
contact with me, please,:: she begged.

::I'll try,:: was all he promised.

Serena stood at the front of her cell with tears coursing down her face
as Travis and Reenie were taken away.  Once the youmas had all left, she
collapsed, sobbing.

Quartz had been watching from the monitoring room and came back in once
everyone was gone.

Serena looked up once she became aware of her, and stared for a long
moment at the understanding and anguished expression on the other girl's
face.  "Rhyolite's your father, isn't he?" Serena managed to gasp out in
between sobs.

Quartz nodded silently.  "Spessarite did the same thing to us... if he
fought, I would get hurt, if I fought, he would," she sighed.  "Even
that would be better than this I think."

"Why weren't you brainwashed?" Serena asked shakily.

"Because," Quartz whispered, kneeling down outside the cell, but keeping
her eyes locked on Serena's.  "I had something that he wanted
desperately, and couldn't have gotten if my memories were wiped, Sailor
Sol's real identity."

Serena looked away.  "So you sold out your sister's boyfriend for your
own life," she said, semi-accusingly.  "What did Crystal think of that?"

"Oh, she was furious," Quartz looked down.  "Especially since I wouldn't
have known who he was if I saw him and couldn't have come up with that
plan if she hadn't been talking to me about him.  She blamed herself,
but finally agreed to go along with it.  If she hadn't... he `would'
have killed Father, I'm positive about that."

"He would really kill Reenie if Travis fights him?" Serena asked, hoping
Quartz would tell her no.

"Oh, definitely," Quartz sighed.  "He wouldn't feel any remorse about it
either.  I sometimes think he's one of Metallia's greatest creations.
She would certainly have been proud of him."

"Metallia?  Who's Metallia?" Serena asked.

"So now you're ready to listen, hmm?"  Quartz looked off into the
distance.  "To make you understand everything, I need to tell you the
history of the Negaverse, okay?"

"History?  Yuck, I hate history," Serena stuck out her tongue.  She had
almost stopped crying, but every now and then an unnoticed tear would
run down her face.  "I'll listen," she told Quartz.

"Millennia ago, the Negaverse was very like your own universe.  We had
many kingdoms spread across the land.  Sometimes they fought each other,
more often they didn't.  One kingdom however, slowly became stronger.
It was ruled by a queen named Metallia, and the stories about her said
she was a Black Sorceress, using Blood Magic, and the energy of living
creatures to turn her army into unstoppable monsters."

"Youmas?" Serena interrupted.

"Exactly," Quartz replied.  "Her soldiers were the first youmas."

"The other kingdoms fought, but slowly, one by one, they fell.  With
each kingdom that fell, Metallia got more people to turn into youmas,
and more energy to work on her experiments.  It took several decades,
but eventually Metallia was almost the undisputed ruler of the
Negaverse.  There was only one small kingdom that had managed not to
fall under her sway, and they were in an isolated corner of the world.
It wasn't so much that they fought her off, but that she ignored them
for a while because they weren't much of a threat."

"Let me get this straight," Serena said when Quartz stopped for a
breath, "Everyone in the Negaverse was a human until Metallia changed
them into youmas.  So what about those people that were still human?"

"Looking human was a mark of rank," Quartz explained.  "The higher rank
you had, which usually meant the more power you had, the more you looked
human.  Most youmas, especially at that time, wanted desperately to be
human again, so they did everything they could to bring themselves to
Metallia's attention as worthy of rank.  It was an incentive program
really." Quartz grinned crookedly.  "There were also a couple of
villages and that one kingdom that were too insignificant for her to
bother with."

"What about Queen Beryl?  I thought she ruled the Negaverse?" Serena
asked.  She was interested in the story and it had helped to dry her
tears.

"I'll get to that later, let me tell it in order, okay?"  Quartz took a
deep breath and started again.  "Metallia would have turned her
attention to those isolated spots of good, if it hadn't been taken by a
much bigger prize - Earth.  With all the energy the war had given her,
she had been experimenting with all kinds of magic, including
dimensional gateways.  She found that it was very easy to create a
gateway to the Earth in your dimension.  She gathered her armies
together to invade.  However, there was more going on in that one
isolated kingdom than she was aware of.  If she had taken the time to
look at it, she probably would have easily gotten through the cloaking
spells that covered it, but she had other uses for her power and left
that kingdom to others to deal with.  And since the human looking ones
were too high in rank to bother with something as unimportant as
infiltrating a small kingdom, and the youmas were too easily noticeable,
no one realized."

"Realized what?" Serena asked, leaning forward.

"There, the last remnants of good had banded together.  Among them were
the strongest wizards left alive.  Somehow, and how would be a story in
itself, they managed to get to Metallia and kill her.  Or so they
thought.  It took the last of their energy and they died, but at least
they died believing that they had restored peace to the world."

"So they killed her and Queen Beryl took her place, right?" Serena
asked.

"Not quite," Quartz shook her head.  "To either part.  Metallia was
definitely gone from the Negaverse, but there wasn't peace.  The evil
was too widespread.  Instead of peace, there was a blood bath as
Generals and armies fought over the remains of the empire.  It was
awful.  I think more people died in that civil war, than in Metallia's
entire reign."

"Meanwhile, Metallia's human body had been killed, and she had been
thrown out of the Negaverse, but she wasn't dead.  By that time, she had
absorbed so much energy, and contained so much evil, that the death of
her body didn't even bother her too much!  Upon being thrown out of the
Negaverse, she went to Earth where she found a young Sorceress and
Princess named Beryl."

"Beryl was from Earth?!?  And a Princess?  Does that mean she was
related to Endymion?" Serena asked in shock.

"I thought you were from that time period.  Don't you remember?" Quartz
asked, surprised.

"Remember what?" Serena asked, confused.

"Like the Silver Millennium, the Earth was broken up into smaller
kingdoms, with a High King over all.  That was Endymion's father.  Just
like all of the planets had their own Kingdoms, but were also under the
rule of Queen Serenity.  Beryl was a princess of one of the Kingdoms.
However, she wanted to rule them all, as Queen, with Endymion as her
King.  From what I hear, he didn't want anything to do with her.
Probably because he could tell that all she really cared about was
herself and power.  She did want him, but I doubt she would have paid
him any attention if he hadn't been the Prince."

"Anyway, Beryl was so ambitious that Metallia, who was now a being of
energy who called herself the Negaforce, had no trouble `convincing' her
to help.  Beryl used her magic to send them both back into the
Negaverse.  The civil war had pretty much devastated the armies of youma
and those that were left were tired of war.  It still took several years
before Beryl and the Negaforce were in practically complete control.
This time, they made sure that small kingdom was dust," she gave a sick
grin.  "I've heard some real horror stories about what happened there,"
she said in an aside.

"Quartz?" Serena said inquisitively, "What does this have to do with
anything?  I mean, it's an interesting story, but what does it have to
do with getting Travis and Reenie, and even your father, away from
Spessarite?"

"I just think you need to know the basis of everything.  Especially
Father, and he'll be entering the story soon, okay?"

"Okay," Serena agreed, settling back down.

"Once the Negaverse was pretty much under control, youma hunting parties
sent out to hunt down the last unchanged humans.  Beryl was now
acknowledged Queen of the Negaverse although the Negaforce controlled
her.  And together they turned their thoughts towards the Earth.  The
first kingdom to come under their control was Beryl's own, but no one
even realized it, since they believed her parents died of natural means.
Beryl decided to try to get the other kingdoms without violence, by
causing Endymion to fall in love with her, with a spell if necessary.
However, it was then the news came that he was engaged to the Princess
of the Moon.  This ruined many of Beryl and the Negaforce's plans.  They
hadn't planned on having to fight the magic of the Kingdom of the Moon
at that time."

"So they took it a little slower.  It wasn't until they started
seriously expanding that anyone took notice of them.  The High King sent
one of his Generals, who was also one of Endymion's guardians and best
friends, to Beryl's Court to ask what she was up to.  It was then that
Malachite first fell under Beryl's spell."

"Malachite?!?  He was one of Endymion's best friends?  You've got to be
kidding me!" Serena exclaimed.

"No, Malachite was one of Endymion's guardians.  Why is that so
strange?" Quartz asked.

"Maybe because we killed him," Serena answered.  She shook her head.
"Does that mean that the others, Zoisite, Nephrite, and Jadeite were his
guardians as well?"

"That's right, those four and my father, Rhyolite.  Malachite went back
to his normal post, and no one knew that he was under a spell.  But
slowly, he started to subvert the others.  Zoisite was the first one to
be taken before the Negaforce and placed under control, but before the
Prince's wedding, they all were under control.  Rhyolite was the last,
because he tended to stick close to his Prince, and the brainwashing
wasn't quite as thorough on him as on the others.  They were in a hurry.
Beryl and the Negaforce had managed to take most of the other kingdoms
by that time.  They were helped by the fact that many Earth people
didn't like the Moon Kingdom, thinking that they thought they were above
them.  They also didn't like the thought of their Prince marrying a Moon
Kingdom resident, especially the Princess.  A war against the Moon was
not entirely unwanted."

"Finally, the last kingdom was overrun and Endymion went to help the
Moon against the war he knew was coming.  He mourned the lost of his
family, and the best friends that he thought had been killed in the
fighting, not realizing that they had changed sides.  When they attacked
the Moon, the brainwashed Earth Generals led."

"There was great cheering when Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity
were killed, but father says that even though they were brainwashed to
serve the Negaverse, none of the Generals cheered.  Sorry," Quartz
blushed, "I got a little off topic there.  When Queen Serenity used the
Silver Imperium Crystal to seal away the Negaverse, it also managed to
break Queen Beryl's hold over Rhyolite.  However, he knew he was stuck
in the Negaverse for the rest of his life, so he made the best of it.
He treated his men better than the others, and earned their respect
instead of their fear."

"Sounds like you agree with that philosophy," Serena said.

"Oh, I do," Quartz quickly agreed.  "I've seen how much better our
troops are than the other Generals'.  They're also far more loyal,
because they know he is loyal to them.  Besides, no matter what they
look like, they're people too."

"So how come you and Crystal look so human?" Serena asked.  "Are you
that important here, or what?"

"Hmm?  Oh, no," Quartz grinned.  "You know how I told you that in
isolated corners of the Negaverse, there still lived families,
occasionally even villages, that Queen Metallia had overlooked, because
she had more important things to think about?  Villages where the people
were still good, human, and not tainted with evil?  Well, in one of
these, lived a young woman that Rhyolite fell in love with, married, and
had children - Crystal and me."

"So we pretty much come to the present.  Queen Beryl didn't trust Father
by the time they fought against you, and didn't really have the energy
to waste brainwashing him again.  When you killed Beryl, `and' the
Negaforce and sealed up the Negaverse, it came close to civil war again.
If Father hadn't accepted the Crown when his troops asked him to,
hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people would have died."

"So why did you decide to attack the Earth?  If all that Rhyolite wanted
was peace?" Serena asked.

"Peace was all that Father really wanted, unfortunately, there was still
a good chance of mutiny by other Generals who still had troops of their
own.  They wanted a fight with Earth.  Father couldn't say no without
totally antagonizing them, so he sent Crystal down to look around.
Actually what he was hoping was that you Scouts would take care of
Spessarite, and then he could say that the Negaverse had lost too many
Generals to Earth, and we'd have to leave you alone for a while.  Then
Spessarite found out about it, all because I didn't pay enough attention
to who was around and talked about it where one of his agents could
hear."  Quartz looked disgusted with herself.  "And he caught us,
learned that I was Rhyolite's daughter,  which wasn't known so people
couldn't use me against him and brainwashed Father."

::I almost think I believe her,:: Travis' thoughts came to Serena.

::You were listening?:: she asked, surprised because she hadn't felt
him. ::Are you okay?  How about Reenie?  Is she okay, did they do
anything to her?  Did they do anything to you?:: she asked in a hurry as
what had happened about ten minutes ago reimpacted her mind.

::I think they believe in anticipation torture,:: Travis tried for
humor. ::They just strapped me down in this chair and left me here.
Reenie's right next to me, and she says she's fine.::

::That's all?  They just strapped you down and left you?  Why would they
do that?:: Serena wondered.

::I don't know, but there's nothing else happening... Weird smell in the
air though...::

::Travis?:: Serena asked, ::Are you sure you're okay?::

::Yeah, I'm sure,:: Travis answered.

Serena turned back to Quartz.  "What do you want me to do?" she asked.

"Could you... could you heal him?" Quartz asked shakily.  "I thought we
could handle it ourselves, but that's before I saw how he was after they
got through with him.  That's why we didn't ask for your help earlier.
We've always managed on our own before!" she finished defiantly.

"I wish I could," Serena told her.  "But I can't."

"Just because we're from the Negaverse?  I thought you were starting to
believe that we were good," Quartz was angry and stood up quickly.  "I
guess I was just wasting my time after all!  I knew I should have found
a way to do it by myself."

"I didn't say I wouldn't!  I said I couldn't!  Don't you think I would
have transformed long before now, if I could?  But I can't!  I don't
have my transformation brooch, and without it, I can't transform.  I'm
sorry, but I can't help you." Serena had surged to her feet to match
Quartz.

::I have the brooch,:: Crystal admitted from where she'd been listening.
::I'm coming home and bringing it with me,:: she told Quartz.

::You can't come here!  What if they catch you too?:: Quartz exclaimed.

::Well then, maybe Travis will believe us,:: she answered.  ::Hold on a
minute, I'm at the Tsukino's house.::  She had stopped for a while to
listen to Quartz's recitation.

Crystal walked over to the group of people standing around in the
Tsukinos' front yard.  She walked over to one she knew.  "Hi, Lita," she
said.  "What's going on?  And isn't this Serena's house?"  She looked up
and almost took a step back.  Lita's eyes blazed with anger and worry.
She looked as if she'd gladly kill the next person who talked to her and
that person was Crystal.

Lita's eyes slowly lost the angry glow, leaving only the worry behind.
"Hi Crystal."  She looked towards the house again.  "Yes, this is
Serena's house.  It was apparently attacked by several youmas.  Serena,
Reenie and... Travis, were taken away, and Mr. Jacobson, and Serena's
parents were hurt."

Crystal gasped.  "Travis... taken?  You mean he was kidnapped?" she
asked.

"Yes," Lita answered shortly.

"What about the others?  How badly are they hurt?" Crystal asked
worriedly.

"Last we heard, everyone's going to be okay. Mrs. Tsukino was only
bruised, Mr. Tsukino has a concussion and some burns, and Mr. Jacobson
has a broken rib.  At least, that's all they've found so far."  Lita
didn't tell Crystal that Amy had scanned them with her computer and
found this out.

"Thank Goodness," Crystal whispered, repeated by her sister on the other
side of the link.   Serena's and Travis' reactions were a little more
fervent when Quartz told them what Crystal had told her.

::If she's right...:: Travis thought.

Serena started.  It wasn't Travis' thought that was wrong, it was what
she expected, but it seemed fuzzy, uneven.

"Quartz," she said quickly.  "How do they brainwash people?"

Quartz looked at her.  "Well, they usually start with a drug to numb the
senses.  This helps calm the brain down so it doesn't fight as much.
Then they..."

"Can you get me out of here?" Serena asked.  "They've already started on
Travis!"  ::TRAVIS!:: she screamed silently.

::What?:: he asked.

::Keep awake, they're trying to put your mind to sleep so they can
brainwash you!  Keep awake, and keep Reenie awake!:: Serena continued in
as loud a mindvoice as she could summon.

::Okay, okay, I get the picture,:: Travis told her, ::But if you deaden
the nerves in my mind with your voice, the drug won't have to!::

::Sorry,:: Serena replied, happy that he still had his sense of humor.

Quartz opened the door to Serena's cell.  "Come on, let's get out of
here, this will have set off an alarm," she said worriedly, looking over
her shoulder.  "Now if I help you get Travis and Reenie out of here,
you'll help me heal my father, right?" she asked.

"Right," Serena agreed.  ::I do believe her,:: she told Travis severely.

::It's your call,:: he answered, deadly serious.  ::I just pray you're
right about her.::

::I'll be by to get you two out,:: she said quietly.  ::Keep yourself
and Reenie awake, please!::

::I will,:: he answered.

As Serena stepped out of her cell, the yells of the youmas in the outer
cells started up again.  "They came sooner than I thought," Quartz said
worriedly.  "I'm going to have to slow them down here.  Listen
carefully.  Travis and Reenie should be in the security wing of the
hospital tunnels."  Quartz gave detailed instructions of which tunnels
to take and where the secret doors were.  Serena tried desperately to
remember it all.  Quartz shoved Serena through the secret door and
closed it behind her.

Quartz quickly closed the door to Serena's cell and moved into another
unoccupied one, hiding beneath the cot.  A troop of youmas marched in.
The leader took one look around and then ordered a thorough search.
"Nobody's left, so she's got to be in here somewhere," he said.

The youmas spread out and searched.  Quartz felt an instant of hope.
They're searching was lackluster and they weren't doing more than
glancing in the cells.  That hope took a downward plummet as the head
youma called them back and made them do a very thorough search of the
cells.  As one youma entered the cell she was in, she rolled out from
under the cot.  Sharp shards of crystal flew out of her hands, impacting
the youma.  With a bound, she was past him, and locked the door behind
her as she left, trapping the youma inside.

Two more youmas were coming straight at her, and she searched around for
something to help.  She grabbed a nearby bucket, and as one youma came
too close she threw more crystal shards at him, her attention taken by
the other youma.  With a bound she jumped into the air and barely
managed to escape the tentacles coming straight at her.  She dumped the
bucket on top of the second youma and grabbed its belt knife as she went
past.

With knife in one hand and her other hand open and ready to throw the
crystal shards at any one that came close, she backed up until her back
and side were covered by walls, and waited for them to come to her.


Meanwhile Serena was stopped at an intersection.  *What did she say?*
she thought to herself.  *Um... left, I'm supposed to turn left...
right?  Or is it right?  I can't remember!* she wailed to herself.

::You're supposed to go straight here and left at the `next'
intersection,:: Travis said.  ::At least one of us was paying
attention.::

::I was paying attention!:: she told him.  ::I just can't remember!::

With Travis' help she reached the security wing.  Without more than a
cursory glance around she opened the door and walked in.  "Travis!
Reenie!" she called, seeing them strapped down to chairs in the middle
of the room.  She started to run towards them.

Travis' eyes got wide.  "Serena!  Behind you!" Reenie screamed.

Serena turned quickly to see several youmas in the room and more coming
behind them.

"I believe you're caught," Spessarite's gloating voice came through loud
and clear.  "You might as well give up now."

"Never," Serena said, backing towards her family.  *But what am I going
to do?  I can't fight all of these without my powers!*

----------------------------
Uh oh!  Seems like they're in trouble, doesn't it?  What's going to happen 
next?  I guess you're just going to have to read chapter 14 to find out. ^_^

Remember to tell me what you thought!  I really love to know!

Jendra@aol.com
http://members.aol.com/Jendra