Missed Opportunities

Part 4

By Charma (neomoonies@hotmail.com)

"Hey Serena!"
"Ethan?" Serena spun around in her stool to face her steady
boyfriend.  "What are you doing here?  I thought you had classes!"
Pulling her up off the stool, Ethan wrapped his arms around her
and gave a gentle kiss.  Serena sighed when they broke apart and looked
smilingly into his eyes.  "Don't tell me you skipped your classes just
to see me!"
"You know that I would do anything to see you, but it just so
happened that my afternoon class was canceled.  I thought I might find
you at the arcade and, well, here you are," he finished, flashing a
quirky grin.  "How was school?"
"It was actually okay.  I was assigned an archetypal project for
English class, and my topic is..." she paused melodramatically.
"Wait, I know.  The moon?" Ethan guessed.
"You got it," Serena declared happily.  "It's the one project that
I'm actually looking forward to doing.  Can you imagine?  Me, looking
forward to a school assignment?"
"I can imagine it.  But then again, I can imagine a lot of
things," Ethan said, staring at Serena in a jokingly suggestive way.
Serena lightly shoved Ethan away from her.  "You get your mind out of
the gutter now," Serena warned, playfully wagging a finger in front of
his face.
        Ethan kissed her finger softly.  "Anything you command, my moon
princess."
        Serena gaped at him, momentarily surprised at being called "moon
princess."  *What does he know about the moon princess?  Wait-what am I
thinking?  He's just saying that because he knows I love the moon.  He
has no idea about the Moon Kingdom... or the Moon Princess...*
        Saving her from reply, Serena's communicator went off.  "Oh Ethan,
I'm sorry, but my...ahh... beeper went off.  I need to get going, but how
about we do something tonight?  I'll call you, okay?" she called over
her shoulder, rushing out the door of the arcade.
        Ethan sighed and watched as his love ran out the door and
unceremoniously into someone.  *What is so darn important about that
beeper?*

        "AAAAH!" Serena squealed as she collided with someone on the
street upon exiting the arcade.
        "Serena!  Stop clutzing out and get here now!" Rei's voice buzzed
from the communicator.
        Without even giving her victim a glance, Serena quickly got up
from the ground and charged away, throwing a quick but sincere apology
behind her.
        "Geez," Darien muttered, rubbing his shoulder.  "Where's the
fire?"
        He stopped walking suddenly and looked behind him.  "Serenity?" he
called softly.  But his attacker was no longer in sight.  *Serenity?
Where did that come from?*
        As Serena neared the battle scene, she felt a tingling down her
spine and stopped running.  "Endymion?" she whispered.  *What?
Endymion?  What's that?  What am I thinking?  I need some rest.*

        "MARS FIRE IGNITE!"
        The youma howled in pain and quickly turned to dust.
        "Alright!  That was easy!"  Mars exclaimed.
        "Good job, Mars," Sailor Moon panted when she finally met up with
the scouts.  "I guess I wasn't needed here, huh?"
        "Uhhh... guys, I wouldn't be so sure about that," Jupiter warned,
shock seeping through her words.  "Look!"
        The scouts stared in disbelief as the pile of dust, instead of
disintegrating, split into two.  The two mounds of dust grew until *two*
youmas, identical to the original, stood before the stupefied Sailor
Scouts.
        Without thinking, Jupiter immediately yelled, "JUPITER THUNDER
CRASH!" and easily dusted one of the new youma.  Seconds later, two
youma again grew from its dust.  Three growling, drooling youma now
stood in the scouts' path.
"What??" Sailor Moon screeched.  "Youmas can't be *un*dusted!!
Mercury???"
        "I don't know!" Mercury cried in frustration as panic finally
seized the stoic girl.  "If our normal attacks make these things
multiply, we'd have to develop an entirely new offensive strategy-which
may mean completely new powers-in order to stop them!  And I have no
idea how we could possibly do that!"
        A heap of green glob shot out of one of the youma's mouths and
slimed Sailor Mars.  "Yeeech!  This stuff's sticky!  Get me out of it!!"
Mars ordered.
        "MERCURY BUBBLES BLAST!"  The fog surrounded the area, but the
other scouts could hear Mars' sigh of relief.
        "Your bubbles disintegrated the gunk!" Mars reported happily.
        "Wait.  I think the bubbles disintegrated the youmas too!  I don't
know if that's a good thing or bad," Sailor Jupiter said slowly.
        The fog cleared and revealed three separate heaps of dust.  Three
separate heaps of dust which were rapidly becoming six youmas.
        "Bad thing!  Definitely a bad thing!" Sailor Moon shrieked,
running to hide behind Mars.
        "*Six* youmas?" Mars mumbled with incredulity apparent on her
fearful face.
        "Six youmas against the four of us!  I may not do well in math at
school, but I know that six against four are *not* good odds!" Sailor
Moon moaned.
        "You're absolutely right."  One of the youmas spoke for the first
time.  "I think you and your Sailor pals are in loads of trouble."
Laughing evilly, all six youmas reached out long slimy tentacles and
entrapped the Sailor Scouts within their grasps.
        "Oh gross!" Jupiter yelled.
        "This is disgusting!  The tentacles are ejecting green crud on
me!" Mercury bemoaned.
        "They're gripping...tighter..." Sailor Moon wheezed.  "I can't...
breathe..."
        Without warning a youma cried out in agony and abruptly fell to
the ground.  The remaining youmas were so distracted that they
unwittingly released the imprisoned scouts.
        "Thank goodness," Mercury choked.  "I was afraid we weren't going
to make it."
        "What happened to that?" Jupiter asked, pointing to the writhing
youma on the ground.
        "Not so fast, Sailor Sludge," a youma growled.  "We're not through
with you yet."
        That offending youma was promptly and mysteriously fallen as well.
        "What the-"  Mars began.
        "It's not fair play to pit six against four.  Now surrender or
I'll change the odds even more," came an enigmatic voice.
        Everyone's heads swiveled towards a concealed man standing on a
high tree branch.
        *Lord Arcadia?* all scouts thought at once.
        "I am Tuxedo Mask, and you will regret the day you picked on
innocent people," the man announced and jumped out of the tree,
revealing his presence to all.  His black cape rustled around his lithe
form in the wind, and a top hat sat proudly on his head, covering thick,
full hair the color of the darkest ebon.
        The Sailor Scouts stood astounded, staring at Tuxedo Mask.
        "Another one?" Jupiter mouthed to Mercury.
        Mercury shrugged helplessly in reply.
        Recovering from its initial surprise, the youma leading the others
spoke confidently.  "I've never been encumbered by regret, and I doubt
anything you think you can do can change that, Cape Boy."  Before the
youma even ended his speech, the two fallen youma began to stir and
unsteadily rise to their feet.
        Acting quickly, Tuxedo Mask threw another crimson rose at one of
the recovering youma, and smiled with satisfaction when it turned to
dust.
        "No!" Sailor Mars groaned when it was too late.  "There'll be even
more of them now, you dope!"
        Sure enough, the band of fighters-for-justice were soon faced with
seven abominable youmas.
        Sailor Moon gritted her teeth, her endurance of this multiplying-
youma bit finally reaching past her limits.  Shedding her cowardice and
gaining a new composure, she shouted, "Listen to me, you stupid
monsters!  I'm Sailor Moon, champion of justice, and-AAAAHH!"  Her bold
address was cut short when a tentacle went to her throat.
        "Sailor Moon!  It's strangling her!"  Sailor Jupiter yelled in
dismay.
        Before anyone could act, however, a white rose sliced through the
tentacle, and Sailor Moon collapsed into the arms of Lord Arcadia.
        "Thank you," she whispered hoarsely.  "I owe you twice now."
        "Anytime," he answered warmly.
        Sailor Moon brought herself unsteadily to her feet.  "Hey, guys!
Try to distract them while we figure out how to deal with these
monsters.  Just *don't* dust them!"  She then began speaking quietly
with Mercury.  "Mercury, I know these things are unlike anything you've
seen before, but do you see any way we can possibly defeat them?"
        "Well... It's very peculiar, but the only conclusion I can make from
seeing the youmas multiply after their death is that these particular
youmas thrive on a *lack* of energy," Mercury hypothesized.
        Worry shadowed Sailor Moon's face when she realized the meaning of
what Mercury was saying to her.  "So that means the attacks we use are
helpful to them and useless to us."
        "Right," Mercury affirmed.  "Our attacks cause the youmas to lose
energy and since lower levels of energy are what causes them to
duplicate, we are inadvertently making them more and more abundant in
number and power."
        "Then what can we do?  These attacks are the only weapons we
have!" Sailor Moon exclaimed.
        "I know how to stop them."  A low voice declared.
        Startled, Mercury and Moon spun around to face the eavesdropper.
"Lord Arcadia?  But how-"
        "You'll just have to trust me," Arcadia interrupted.  "Sailor
Moon, I need you to help me kill these creatures."
        Mercury looked on warily as Sailor Moon nodded her head
uncertainly in assent.  *Can we afford to trust you?* she argued in her
mind.
        The three stepped out from behind their hiding place in the bushes
to face the youmas.  Sailor Moon groaned at the sight.  "Now there are
ten of them?!  I thought I told you not to dust them!"
        "Hey, we couldn't help it, alright?  They're dusted so easily!
You're just lucky that we're all still intact," Mars shot back.
        Sailor Moon flushed apologetically.  "You're right.  I am lucky,"
she conceded quietly.
        "Okay, everybody!  Get out of the way!" Arcadia shouted in
warning.
        A youma looked at him with disdain.  "Let's see what you've got,
you puny swine."
        "Coming right atcha," Arcadia answered grimly.
        He brought Sailor Moon close to his side and grabbed both her
hands in his.  "Now you'll have to say the attack words with me.  I
can't tell you what they are, but you will feel them, I promise.  You
will remember."
        *Remember?* Sailor Moon thought, disconcerted.
        "Yes, remember," he whispered.  Sailor Moon's eyes widened in
shock.  "No, don't say anything.  You'll understand later.  Just shut
your eyes and let's destroy these things."
        As she shut her eyes and began to concentrate, a soft white light
began to surround the two.  The other Sailor Scouts looked on, partly in
apprehension, partly in awe.  Tuxedo Mask felt more than a twinge of
jealousy.  Luna just smiled; the look on her face was the look of
someone who had finally recalled the truth.
        Suddenly, the eyes of both Sailor Moon and Lord Arcadia shot open
at the same time and they shouted, "ARDOR ENERGY EXCRESCENT!"
        Sparkling light flowed from their joined hands to bathe each youma
in its shimmering splendour.  Alarmingly, the youma started to grow, but
after reaching a certain size, they simply popped, as a balloon would.
All ten youma were reduced to piles of dust, and Sailor Moon and Lord
Arcadia fell to the ground in an unconscious heap.
        The others stared at the dust on the ground in trepidation,
fearing the appearance of twenty youmas grown from the former ten.
Thankfully, the dust vanished into thin air.  Reassured that there would
be no more danger from the youmas, the Sailor Scouts rushed to the
collapsed Sailor Moon and Arcadia, not even noticing the disappearance
of Tuxedo Mask.
        "What happened??"
        "What did you do?"
        "Where did that attack come from?"
        "So *this* is Lord Arcadia!  Well, well, well."
        Jupiter jabbed Mars in the side.  "I think Sailor Moon's welfare
right now is more important than a cute guy," she admonished.
        Mars gave Jupiter a look of pure innocence.  "Of course it is!  I
would never think otherwise!"
        Jupiter rolled her eyes in reply.
        "Guys," Mercury hissed, gesturing to Sailor Moon as she sat up,
rubbing her head tiredly.
        "Where am I?"  she murmured groggily.  "Where-"  She sat up
abruptly.  "Where's Lord Arcadia?"
        The others looked around in surprise.  "He disappeared," Mercury
remarked in disappointment.  "I thought we might have gotten some
answers from him."
        "He's gone?" Sailor Moon whispered dejectedly.  "But-but... I
remember.  Everything."
        "Huh?  Remember what?" Jupiter asked in concern.
        "Arcadia.  He's my-"  Before Sailor Moon could choke out another
word, she fainted dead away.


To be continued...

I know, I know.  Tacky way to end the chapter, right?  I couldn't think
of anything else to do, so there it is.  Stay tuned till part 5!