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Jadeite heard the message in his head moments before feeling the Youma's death. With no real way to contact Zoisite, he sent the other Youma he had summoned on to complete the mission while he returned to the abandoned house. Once inside, he started cursing in every language he knew. There, by the door to the bedroom were the fine dust remains of his most trusted Youma. He quickly checked the bedroom and frowned when he saw no sign of Shi. "Damnit ... who would have come in here and grabbed her? We're nowhere near the airport. How could they have followed us?"
He went to where they had stored the energy spheres and frowned as he concentrated all of his own energy into contacting their home. He was not looking forward to this conversation. "Queen Beryl?"
"Jadeite? You're late. What happened?"
"We were interrupted. Shi was hurt."
"Yes, that I know. Why haven't you gathered more energy yet?"
"Zoisite is out gathering more now."
"So you're wasting what you gathered, to tell me things I already know?"
"No, your Majesty. Shi has been taken. I don't know who by."
There was silence for several long moments before the blond man felt himself being pulled back through a portal. He staggered for a moment, then turned to kneel in front of Beryl. "Your Majesty."
Beryl frowned. "I can't keep opening the doorway like that. I'm running out of demons." The redhead stood and motioned for Jadeite to follow her. "Are you certain she was taken? She didn't just leave?"
"It's not possible. Shi was unable to move on her own, let alone be able to kill Titus." Jadeite followed his queen down familiar corridors, coming to a stop outside Kunzite's room.
Beryl waved the door open and stepped in to find the female General sitting on her bed, talking to the two teenage girls. "Miyo, you and Shi are twins, correct?"
Miyo nodded. "Yes, we are. Why, what's happened?"
"Shi has been taken. You will go with Kunzite to find her. Once you have her, you are all to return. I will not lose another army to those selfish brats." Beryl stormed out of the room before anyone could respond. As she left, she passed by Nephlite.
"Your Majesty? Why not send Miyo and I? Surely our powers will work better together to find the other girl."
Beryl frowned. "I have made my decision. Do not question me. Kunzite will take her to find her sister." She started to walk away, then smiled slightly. "I need you here to help me plan another all-out attack."
"Yes, my Queen." Nephlite waited until she was gone before frowning and going into Kunzite's room.
Jadeite was leaning against the doorway, just inside the room. "You heard?"
Nephlite nodded. "Can't say I'm happy about any of this. Miyo may be a strong telepath, but I-"
"It's ok, Neph. I'll take care of her, as if she were me," Kunzite replied, hooking an arm around the younger woman's shoulders. "But you have to promise me to do the same for Minako, here. I don't want to come back here and find that you've turned her into some star-gazing book worm."
Mi-ko smiled a little as she helped Miyo into a gray uniform. "Don't worry, Mi. I'm sure Shi's fine. As stubborn as that girl is, it would take one hell of a fight to even scratch her."
Gaea
Three figures stood over the unconscious blonde, hands on weapons in case she should wake and attack them.
"Oh, will the three of you just relax, already? She couldn't fight you even if she were awake." Mercury stepped over to the bed and placed a hand on the girl's forehead. "No fever, that means no infection, hopefully. I really wish you'd at least let me take her to the hospital."
"No. You know what the boss-lady said. Fix her up, then get her into the cells. We don't know what all this one can do and I don't believe that she is sane."
The brunette smirked slightly. "You'd know all about the insanity that comes with power, now, wouldn't you, Uri?"
Uranus glared at her companion. "I've told you not to call me that. And if I'm not mistaken, you've had your own share of troubles in that regard, haven't you?"
"Enough you two. We've all had problems adjusting to our powers. That is, in fact, why the boss sent us to get the kid, remember?" The fourth member of the group stepped forward, brushing her long red hair over one shoulder. "Now, Merc, what do you need us to do?"
"Not much, it would seem. She isn't as badly injured as I thought, it's mostly just a drain in power and a few minor cuts." Mercury frowned at her readings, then glanced at the blonde. "I would recommend putting her in the isolation room before moving her to the cells, though."
Uranus shook her head. "No. The cells will keep her from attacking us. If she truly is as strong as the boss thinks, putting her in isolation would be useless."
"But she'll be defenseless in the cells."
"That's the whole point."
"Alright, now what?"
"Now we wait for them to attack again. Unless you have some way of tracking the kids."
StarFighter shook her head. "Not without one of the warships overhead." She leaned against the wall in the makeshift base her new friends had set up and sighed. "If we just had one of the twins, we could easily find the other, but ... with both of them gone ... there's no way."
StarHealer looked up from a map of the city, frowning. They had already been in this world for more than two weeks, but were still no closer to finding the children. It hadn't helped any when they realized a few days ago that this dimension's time was accelerated compared to their own. Since then, they had spent much of their free time with the blue-haired man and his warrior companions trying to calculate Beryl's next move. "There's no patterns, no common locations ... it's like they're just attacking randomly."
"That's because they are." The blue-haired man was standing next to Healer and pointed to the last few spots where there had been attacks. "They seem to be drawn to places where there are lots of people. Each of these locations normally have in excess of 1000 people there at any one time. But what I can't understand is ... they don't outright kill anyone. They drain them of their energy, some recover, some don't."
"But why did they take our kids?"
The blue-haired man sighed. "We don't know. There's no reason we can find for them to have taken anyone. And then they seemed to have turned your daughter against all of you."
"I think that was just her fighting against Sarah. Those two have never gotten along," StarFighter replied. She glanced at Healer. "We need to be heading back. See if the others found anything out."
Healer nodded. "Thank you for your help, Aevor. We'll let you know if we hear-"
"Aevor! They're attacking again!"
Fighter and Healer quickly followed the other man into the next room where several people were watching images on a crystal display. "Where are they?"
"Near the shopping district," Aevor replied. "Do you know-"
The blue-haired man blinked and looked around him as people ran by screaming. "Ok ... I really have to get used to that."
Healer smiled a little. "I'm surprised you guys can't do that. If I had any clue how it worked, I'd teach you. It just comes naturally to us."
Fighter looked toward the fighting and frowned. "I don't see Shi, only one of the men that was with her. He has to know where she is."
Healer glared at the blond in the distance. "This seems too simple. Just attacking like this, in broad daylight? Either these guys are stupid, or-"
"Yaten, behind you!"
Dark Kingdom
Kunzite glanced at her younger companion and smiled. "Don't worry. We'll find your sister and have you both back here and terrorizing Nephy in no time."
Miyo forced a smile and nodded. "I'm sure we will."
Nephlite glared at the white-haired woman. "Kunzite, stop filling her head with your nonsense. It's bad enough I have to brain-wash this one. I don't want to have to do that with Miyo as well."
Mi-ko hid a smile behind her hand. "Be careful, Miyo."
Beryl concentrated for several moments, then motioned the demons into place. "Remember, Kunzite - find Zoisite, tell him to procure as much energy as possible. I don't care if he starts killing the humans, I want that energy. You and Miyo need to concentrate on finding Shi." With a wave of her hand, the two women vanished in a flash of green light and demon blood. Turning to Nephlite, she smiled darkly. "Nephlite, leave the training of the child to Jadeite. I have another job for you."
Nephlite nodded, following the redhead out of the room. "My queen, what do you need of me?"
Beryl smirked. "Simple, really. The demons are getting a little uppity. I need you to teach them a lesson. I will not stand for demons growing concerned over the number of deaths of their kind."
"Yes, my Queen." As the brunette bowed and turned to leave the room, he caught the trailing end of her thoughts. Frowning to himself, he walked back to the Throne Room, where Beryl insisted all the demons be kept. 'If I really am the only one that can control them, then ... that's why she won't let me leave.'
A smirk crossed his face as he quickly changed direction and went to Jadeite's quarters, instead. "Jade, my friend ... how would you like to leave here? For good."
Gaea
Shi opened her eyes and looked around the small, dark room. 'Must have forgot to leave the nightlight on again. Kai'll probably trip over something.' She sat up, groaning slightly at the protests from her muscles. It took a moment for her to remember leaving the Dark Kingdom for this new world. "What the hell happened? I feel like a Cruiser landed on me."
Getting slowly to her feet, she tried calling out to Miyo for a few moments before remembering the other girl hadn't come with them. "Kuso. Now what am I going to do?" She felt along the walls until she came to one that seemed to be giving off a soft green light. "An ... energy field?"
She hadn't even touched the wall when energy sparked out and shocked her. Jumping back, she glared at the softly glowing wall. "Fine, I'll just teleport out." A few moments later, she cursed and punched the solid wall beside her. "What the fuck IS this place? Why can't I get out of here?!"
"It's a prison cell. The walls are warded to keep any magic that doesn't belong to the 'Godessess' from working."
The blonde whirled around to find the voice and saw a shadowy figure on the other side of the cell. "Who are you? And who are these 'Godessess'?"
A tall woman with long, dark hair stepped closer to the energy field. "My name isn't important. As for the 'Goddesses', they're the ones that brought you here. Didn't you see them?" When the younger woman shook her head, she nodded. "Oh, that's right. You were unconscious. Well, the 'Goddesses' pretty much run this world, now. They fought off the monsters that tried to take over, then became the monsters."
"Why did they lock you up in here?"
"Who said I was locked up?" The darker woman moved toward Shi and smiled when the blonde put her back against the wall. "Now, little one ... tell me your secrets."
Shi screamed as the woman in front of her changed into the very woman she feared. Only this Beryl was not the regal queen contently sitting on her throne watching her demons fight. This Beryl was the cruel woman that had taken four young men and turned them on the very people they loved. This was the woman that had forced Zoisite to kill the man he only later learned was his true father. This was the true monster.
Miyo nearly fell out of the portal, grabbing at her head. "No! Stop it!"
Kunzite grabbed the younger woman, quickly teleporting her to the abandoned house Jadeite had told her about. "Miyo, what's wrong? What's happening?"
"S-Some woman ... she's attacking Shi!"
The white-haired woman frowned. "Stay here. I think I know where Zoisite went. Just stay here and try to calm down!" She vanished from the house moments before an odd green light filled the room.
In the Shopping District, Aevor had nearly reached the blond man controlling the monsters when a bright green light suddenly flashed in front of him. Shielding his eyes, he saw the man vanish. The monsters, no longer being controlled by their master, turned their full fury on the hapless humans around them.
StarHealer saw a little boy, roughly nine years old, standing next to one of the monsters and quickly teleported him to safety. "Are you okay, kid? What were you doing out there with the monsters?"
The young boy looked up at the gray-haired woman and smiled. "Mommy, you came back for me!"
