Story: Tainted Cube: Breaking the Shell

Here we go again! As always, it's a long one. Will sort out the various posts regarding the next episode in the morning. For now, please enjoy.


It was a positive godsend that Ami’s place was so big and her mom was pretty much never, ever in. This really was the perfect opportunity for these four girls to get to know one another better, get a lot of the tension cleared out. All under the guise of a sleepover.

“Now, girls, please don’t break anything,” Ami requested as Usagi in particular peered at all the stuff.

“Dunno what you’re worried about, Ami!” Rei said, draping her arms over the genius’s shoulders. “I’m in the mood for a little fun tonight!”

“I’m sure we all are,” Naru said, gently guiding Usagi away from anything breakable while nuzzling her shoulder. “But let’s take the time to enjoy ourselves a little, right? After all, coaxing Ami out of her shell is as much fun as what comes next.”

In a purely metaphorical sense, because literally it was a ridiculous notion based on fundamental principles of physics and biology, Ami was quite certain she could double as a lantern to brighten up the thickest fog.

“A shy one, huh?” Rei said, taking the time to lick Ami’s neck between sentences. “I’ll soon break you of that! Don’t you worry!”

“A-Anyway!” Ami cried, breaking free from Rei’s grip before her legs buckled. “I think we need to take the time to explain things a little better to Rei, since she’s new on the team. No touching!” the genius suddenly yelped, slapping Usagi’s hand off her knee and leaping out of arm’s reach. “Bad Usagi! Can we please just once have a normal meeting that doesn’t turn into an orgy?”

“I understood every word you just said,” Usagi said, sounding just as surprised as everyone else around her. “But I did not understand the question.”

“Not even a little,” Naru said. “On the other hand, if you’d rather we didn’t touch you -”

“Or each other!”

“Fine, or each other, then we can talk this through. Everyone happy with that?”

“Aw…” Usagi pouted, tears forming in her eyes. “But… But I wanted to unwind a bit! Today was sooo stressful! Miss Haruna spent all day riding my ass!”

“Well then, let me have a go! I’ll be much more fun!” Rei said, licking her lips. “Seriously though, I’m okay with getting filled in on what’s going on around here. Please, Ami, at your leisure.”

Usagi deepened her pout the only way it was even really possible to. By folding her arms across her chest and scowling at the wall. Regardless! Ami took a deep breath and started to speak. “A lot of the details are still a bit hazy, but I can fill you in on what we know so far to make sure we’re all up to speed. For reasons I have too many hypotheses to share at the moment, we have each been selected to gain powers named after a celestial body. However, I can see little connection between Mercury - closest planet to the sun, named for the Roman messenger god - and ice-based attacks. And in many forms of mythology, the Moon symbolises death rather than purification, though I suppose Mars with fire can make a little sense provided that we -”

“The point,” Rei interrupted. “Stick to it, or get a spanking.”

Ami nervously swallowed, and nodded. Right. The point. “Our enemy calls itself the Negaverse. That man you called Jed? He’s actually some kind of leader of theirs called Jedite. All of their schemes that we’ve dealt with so far involve stealing energy from humans, though to what end we can only speculate for the time being. Additionally, we’ve been helped out by a mysterious person called Tuxedo Mask on a few occasions.”

“Yeah, I saw!” Rei said, tapping her foot. “He was a hot dish just waiting to be served.”

“I think I like her,” Usagi whispered to Naru, who nodded in agreement. “But if I get the chance, that guy is <i>so</i> mine.”

“Keep dreaming, blondie!” Rei said.

“Anyway!” Ami nearly but didn’t quite actually yell. “Anyway. There is something else. There was a strange energy signature which we think the Negaverse are looking for as well. It seems like it’s probably quite powerful, and we’re pretty sure we picked it up coming from your shrine. They were interrogating Naru about it, some sort of cube, I think, and - Rei? Are you alright?”

The brunette had taken to gripping the chair she was sitting on rather tightly, not moving, not even breathing. Just staring ahead of herself. “A cube…” the outgoing priestess murmured. “I remember… a cube…” she shook her head. “I had a vision with a cube in it, I think. It’s so hard to remember. My mind is so foggy about it even though it must’ve been only a week ago.”

Ami bit her lip and pulled out her computer. “Hold still a moment, please,” she said, scanning Rei’s body. “I don’t think that was a vision,” Ami said. “Rei, if there’s anything more you can tell us about it…”

“Nope. Not a thing. Not one damned thing,” Rei answered in frustration. Her hand flew to the side of her head, and she winced like someone had inserted a needle directly into her inner ear. “All I remember is that it was there, it was big, it was powerful and then everything else is a complete blank. Next thing I remember clearly was my first night on the town, letting myself unwind.”

“Your first night on the town”? Usagi said. “Huh! I kinda thought you were an experienced party girl!”

“Nah, just about a week or so,” Rei said. “I used to be such a stick in the mud, you’d never believe it! But now I get it. Work hard. Party hard. That’s the way life’s gotta be!”

Trying to solve a three-dimensional puzzle is much harder than solving a two-dimensional one largely because it’s a bit harder to tell which are the corner pieces, or even if there is such a thing as a corner piece. But now, it felt like Ami had just figured one out. “… And you had this revelation after your vision about the cube?”

Rei opened her mouth to answer, and suddenly her face grew rather hard and cold. “Yeah. That’s right. You think the cube did something to make me change my mind? I dunno. Now that you mention it, that makes a bit of sense. I guess. Huh! I don’t even know how to feel about that.”

“I think the problem may even be worse than that,” Ami said, very slowly, very deliberately. “I think… maybe the cube has done something else, too. It might have, I don’t know, changed other people as well, maybe? I think… maybe the cube is having an effect on us specifically,” Ami said. “Which means, I guess, we might actually be able to use it to track the next Scout to wake up, but we should also consider figuring out what has changed and how to undo it.”

“Pretty heavy stuff,” Usagi said sadly. “I mean, if we’re being manipulated by something against our will, that’s pretty awful!”

“Don’t worry, Usagi!” Naru said, patting her best friend on the back of her hand. “I’ll be here to help you through it.”

“But how would we even know if we’re doing something because we wanna do it,” Usagi sniffed, “or if it’s because this cube is making us do it?!”

“That’s easy: We don’t even bother!” Rei announced, leaping up to stand on the chair even as Ami cowered and quietly pleaded with her, please don’t do that, you’ll break it! “If we get too hung up on whether something is our own will or not, we won’t have the will to do anything at all! So we push forward and reach for the sun! Believe that your will is your own, or you won’t have a will at all! Best thing for it is if we all unwind and I have the perfect idea for just that purpose!

“It’s a place called Dreamland!” Rei triumphantly declared. “So let’s just shut up and get to that part where we have ourselves an orgy!”

<hr>

“You have failed me once again, it seems.”

What could Jedite say in his defence? There really wasn’t anything at all to be said. All he could manage was to kneel silently in that dark chamber before his Queen and hope that she would be merciful.

“If these silly girls are proving to be too much for you, perhaps I should simply get rid of you and bring in someone with a little more of a ruthless, intelligent streak to them! What do you say to that, Jedite? Anything at all, or will you simply cower in the shadows while awaiting my judgement?”

So much for that hope.

“I can but apologise, my Queen,” he said, much more calmly than he felt. “I expect no forgiveness; however, I do have some plans in motion to deal with these Sailor Scouts once and for all. I intend to capture and interrogate them regarding the mysterious energy source, and if they know nothing I shall simply kill them and be done with it.”

“Very well, Jedite. Do not disappoint me again. My patience is a finite resource, and you’re almost hitting the bottom of the barrel.”

He strode out of the room with his head held high and his tail tucked between his legs. Only one word was going through Jedite’s head at that moment. Only one word that very badly translates into any human language, but can be roughly taken to mean something along the lines of “shit.”

Because the yellow-haired Dark General was fresh out of options. He’d tried being discreet, and they’d somehow found him out anyway. He’d tried following an apparent pattern only for it to turn out to be a bust. Worse yet! Their numbers kept on growing! The possibility that others might join in the next time he showed up with a youma, well, that made any possible planning he might try completely worthless. All it might take was an additional ally and he could be screwed.

“Excuse me, pardon me, I have to speak to Jedite!”

“You say that, but you know that he can barely stand you. Out of my way!”

And on top of everything else he had bickering youma clamouring for his attention. Tremendous. One of them was Titus. Even better.

“Ahem!” Titus said, holding Murid back as she spoke. “Hello, Jedite. I’ve been monitoring your progress and -”

“And I’ve had the best idea!” Murid said, slipping free from Titus’s grip and pushing her way in front of the irritating fangirl. “What we need to do is lure those horrible Sailor Scouts into a trap, and I have just the thing in mind!”

“As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted!” Titus said, baring her fangs at Murid as she shoved past. “I have greatly grown in power since last we met. Give me a chance to help with this great mission.”

“Keep dreaming!” Murid snapped. “Whatever plan you had can’t possibly compare to mine!”

“Enough!” Jedite finally yelled. “The last thing I need right now is a pair of squabbling youma trying to sell me their plans! If it will resolve this issue, I shall empower you to enact them both on condition that you tell me them. One at a time. Starting with Murid, if you don’t mind.”

It would mean having to deal with Titus, but this was honestly the quickest way to resolve this issue. Besides which, he could certainly handle two operations at once if it meant either one of them could get rid of the increasingly irritating roadblock.

Though once he had heard both of these plans, Jedite smiled to himself. Those were pretty solid ideas. With a little luck, he could corner and defeat those brats once and for all!

<hr>

Imagine that someone ripped off not just a, but <i>the</i> famous theme park (right down to the castle) and actually managed not to get sued into oblivion. That was pretty much Dreamland in a nutshell. The fact that people were apparently going missing inside the park itself was apparently failing completely to dissuade attendees. Must be because of that old saying, no such thing as bad publicity. Which said quite a bit about people, unfortunately. Namely that as dumb as the average person may be, roughly half of everyone is even dumber than that. Pondering the human capacity for foolishness, Mamoru turned around and felt himself crash right into someone that was clearly not watching where they were going.

“Hey! Watch it, buddy!”

Case in point about the dumbness thing. That silly girl he kept running into for some reason, with two other girls helping her to her feet.

“Well, hello there, meatball head. Having a fun day out with your friends?”

At which point he actually stopped to look at the friends. The redhead he’d seen around before. The blue-haired one, well, that was Ami Mizuno, super genius. Bit of a chess prodigy, too. As for the brunette hanging back and looking at him like a slab of meat and preparing to - Uh oh.

“Mine!” the brunette said, suddenly very firmly attached to Mamoru’s chest. “Mine, mine, mine! And furthermore, mine!”

“Oh, come on, Rei!” meatball head said, tugging at Rei’s shoulder. “You can go on the prowl later on! I thought we were here to relax!”

“This is my idea for relaxing!” Rei said, giving him a little bit more of a squeeze. “And I’m completely sure tall and handsome here has the common sense not to refuse such a pretty girl’s request for a date. Isn’t. That. Right?”

You know, it was a funny thing. His nightmares were plagued with visions that made absolutely no sense to him. He could visualise monsters from the very depths of hell as clearly as he could his own reflection and he had suffered through his parents' deaths in that horrible accident with enough self awareness to realise that all those other thoughts might have been just a delusion designed by his mind to protect him from the horror of what had happened, resulting in an occasional crisis of self awareness that left him unable to function for about an hour…

But there was still something in Rei’s tone of voice that scared the living shit out of him.

“S-Sure thing!” Mamoru said. “My name is Mamoru, and I’d love to get to know you a bit better. Rei, wasn’t it?”

“He knows my name! If that’s not a sign of true love, I don’t know what is!”

“Um, I think he heard Usagi saying it -” Ami quietly remarked. Rei hissed at her, and the genius fell silent.

“Terribly sorry about this,” the redhead said. “Rei is a little bit outgoing. I’m sure the two of you will have a wonderful time together. We’ll catch up with you later. Just try to stay in public places is my advice.”

And off they went, leaving him alone with a girl way stronger than her frame would suggest. Either strength or determination. Well, it could at least be useful to have a sounding board for some of the thoughts he’d been having. How best to segue into that?

“Ugh. Finally,” Rei said. “I’ve been looking for a way to ditch those three for about half an hour now. Feels like my skin’s trying to crawl off! Idiots can’t even see what’s so weird about Princess and her fancy-ass animals.”

“Weird, did you say?” Mamoru asked, mostly to himself. “You know, I was thinking there’s something odd about this park as well, but couldn’t put my finger on it. You think it’s the mascot?”

“Huh? Yeah, I guess it is. You’d think people would be more on guard about weird stuff like that because of the rumours about people going missing and everything. God, people are so stupid sometimes.”

“Marry me.”

Rei chuckled and gently led him through the park arm in arm, resting her head on his shoulder. “Not yet, sunshine. We only just met. I think I’d like to get to know you a little better, and I know just the place. How about a ride on the Ferris wheel? Nice and private for a few minutes. Should be a lot of fun, don’t you think?”

Well… Maybe that wouldn’t be quite so bad as the redhead had implied earlier. After all, aside from that rather bone-chilling moment earlier, she did seem like a pretty nice girl. Kinda hot. No Sailor Moon, but certainly not bad in her own right. Heck, maybe if today’s visit was a bust as per his original intentions getting a girlfriend out of it might not be such -

“Rei! You’ll never believe it!”

Huh, what do you know? It was that redhead from before running right at them full pelt. Mamoru felt himself tense up. That body language… That facial expression…

“Oh, don’t tell me,” Rei replied, angrily tapping her foot. “I turn my back for five minutes, Usagi trips on her shoelace, skins her knee and needs me to kiss it better? I mean, I’ll do it, but let’s not make a habit -”

“No, no! Nothing like that!” the redhead exclaimed, a little out of breath. “Ami went into the sweets factory ahead of us while we got some drinks, but the door locked behind her and I think she’s stuck in there! We can’t get in! There’s something weird going on!”

Jackpot, though it was a bit of a cold thought to have at a time like this. But if he was going to investigate it, then he needed to figure out a way to ditch these two, preferably without seeming callous or suspicious or -

“Hey, Mamoru, go find a telephone or something,” Rei said. “I’m gonna go check this out with Naru.”

“Are you sure you don’t need help?” he called out as his date of just about two minutes dragged the redhead off through the crowd.

“We’ll be fine!” Rei called back. “Anything tries getting in my way, I’ll set their ass on fire!”

She just might too. Maybe he should consider stepping up his appearance, just in case she burned the whole place to the ground.

<hr>

So. Here he was again. Defeated. Humiliated by three girls and a guy in a tuxedo. It had all been going so well at first. A few people captured in the park by Murid, their energy drained away, any questions asked carefully rebuffed and refuted by claiming it was just nonsense being spread around by the competition. Let’s just run through it again to try and figure out where it had all gone wrong.

“That’s right!” Murid had declared. “I hope you liked the sweets. Now it’s our turn to feed on all of you silly humans.”

Then the door had just… disappeared in a rather large flaming explosion according to the security feed. The smoke cleared, and both Sailors Moon and Mars were standing in the doorway, ready for battle in their ridiculous fetish gear that doubled as a uniform.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” Princess said. Her hallucination powers triggered, and at the very least Moon seemed to relax a bit. “Please, won’t you try my sweets?”

“No, sorry!” Sailor Moon had said. “Though I guess I wouldn’t mind tasting something else if you’re offering.”

Which is when she leaned in for a kiss, which broke the illusion a little bit as it quite understandably shattered Murid’s ability to concentrate like fine glass hurled against the wall.

“G-gross!” Murid yelled, dropping her disguise. “Kissed by a human! This is unthinkable! I- I shall slaughter you all for this! Turn you to stone and present you to my master Jedite! You disgusting worms!”

“Gee, I think she’s protesting a little hard there,” Mars said in a faux coy manner. “Do you think maybe she liked it?”

“Be silent!” Murid snarled. “To think that you humans would possibly enjoy such disgusting displays of affection! This world will be better off being rid of you!”

Murid’s apple began to glow, and another hallucination filled the room. Of what, Jedite could but imagine. Doubtless they were with a dear loved one given the way they were reacting. More accurately, they saw one another as that person and spent a minute or so in each other’s arms, hands exploring their bodies while planting a series of kisses around the neck and jawline of one another. If nothing else the humiliation those two girls would feel upon realising their behaviour would give him a little satisfaction. The only reason Murid didn’t strike them down there and then was her uncharacteristic sputtering at their behaviour. Even so, she made her apple grow once again in clear preparation for her snake attack -

Only for the apple to be struck by a rose, knocking it from her grip and causing the Sailor Scouts to recoil from one another and return their attention to Murid. Which is when Sailor Mercury arrived, spraying her mist everywhere, and the next thing Jedite could see Murid was a pile of dust on the ground.

“That did not go as intended,” Jedite said to himself. “And what is worse, none of the captured people knew the remotest detail regarding the elusive cubic power source. At this rate, I may well be spending my last days alive.”

“It’s not like you to give up so quickly!” an irksome voice called from behind him. He turned around to look at Titus, clad in an actual sailor’s uniform rather than the fuku worn by his hated foes. How poetic. “I promise you, this cruise will be the perfect honey to bait the trap. We shall either gain enough energy to recoup your losses, or eliminate the sole obstruction to our goals forever.”

<hr>

Ami stared at the magazine with a critical eye. Advertisements fascinated her. Completely. It was amazing how often they would get away with up front admitting that their product was no better than the competition, but state it in such a way that implied it was better. Weasel words. Completely fascinating to her. The fact that people kept falling for them time and time again, it was just enthralling to her for some reason she couldn’t place.

“This is the holiday you cannot miss,” the advertisement proclaimed. “Romance, music, good food, dancing under the stars! It’s all yours on our sunset romance cruise ship!”

So let’s check through that for a moment, shall we? They were selling this cruise predicated on romance. While Ami herself was rather a novice in such matters, it seemed to her that romantic gestures took more of a personal touch. They were also selling it on music, good food and dancing under the stars. Which could be obtained rather anywhere else for much, much less than they were offering here. My goodness, that was expensive. What kind of idiot would -

“I wanna go!” Usagi sighed. “It just sounds like so much fun, you know?”

“Yeah, well, good luck with that,” Naru said. “My dad’s been trying for months, and -”

“Wait, wait a minute,” Usagi said. “You have a dad?”

“Unless her mother is capable of asexual reproduction, I rather think she would,” Ami said.

“Asexual reproduction?” Usagi whispered, tapping her lips with a thoughtful smile. “Sounds kinky. Can we try that out later on?”

Luckily, Naru was able to lean in and whisper something in Usagi’s ear which apparently resolved the issue there and then. Thank goodness. That would have been a little bit awkward, that conversation. She honestly wasn’t even sure where to start on correcting that one.

“Oh. Well, that’s boring!” Usagi said. “Never mind, forget I said anything.”

‘Believe me,’ Ami thought. ‘I am trying my best.’ But she wouldn’t say that, not out loud. Usagi was pretty fun to hang out with, even if she wasn’t the brightest bulb out there. The only thing was, she did kind of wish they could do something other than have mind-blowing, world-shaking, dehydrating, multi-orgasmic sex. You know, the sort that leaves your legs numb for a week and puts a smile on your face more infectious than a yawn. What was she thinking about again? Oh. Right. What it came down to was an apparent intention to draw her out of her shell but, honestly, Ami was perfectly happy with the shell where it was, thank you very much. So what if they had to seduce her? She was no stick in the mud; she’d relent and take part in the activities with the rest of them. It was just… there was a time and a place for it. That’s all.

That time and place was probably not now in spite of the very interesting things Usagi’s foot was doing to her thigh underneath the table.

Still! Ami could take solace in one thing. She may be the smartest person around but she was by no means the dorkiest. In fact, she was rather aesthetically pleasing by most standards for a young woman even if she wasn’t entirely the type that tried to make herself appear that way. No, the title of super nerd didn’t necessarily go to the smartest person around. Sometimes it went to -

“Hello, girls!” Umino enthusiastically greeted. Goodness me, but this boy kept on striking Ami as the very embodiment of a bully’s punching bag. She could easily see it. A line of punching apparatus with his face on it, popular among tough boys throughout the world. Umino was one of those people that took a stereotype, embraced it and took the time to show it how to be really obnoxious. “It’s so good to see you all again! Say, would any of you be able to help me get rid of these tickets? I can’t go. I get seasick, so - Huh? Where’d they go?”

“Where’d what go?” Naru innocently asked.

“Those cruise tickets. I swear, I had them a moment ago.”

“Maybe the wind picked them up and blew them away.”

Umino’s shoulders slumped, and he ran out of the shop peering high and low. It was kind of pathetic, really.

“You know, he would’ve probably just given them to you,” Ami said. “There was no need to steal them like that.”

“Nah, he would’ve wanted something in return. You could tell by the way he was building up to it,” Naru said, scratching the tickets against her cheek with a rather cheeky wink. “What do you say, Usagi? The two of us on a romantic cruise, spending some quality time relaxing without any you-know-what trying to pull some stupid stunt or other.”

“Oooh, sounds awesome!” Usagi said, and by goodness, but she was far, far too cute for her own good. “We can party hard, cruise for hunks and even if we fail we can just melt into each other in our cabin! It’s the perfect plan!”

“I’ll just get some more drinks while you talk about the cruise,” Ami said. Better to leave them to it, really. The cruise didn’t seem like such a great idea to her for some reason. I mean, just look here. They were offering up cruise tickets as prizes just outside and - Wait, was that - “Rei! We thought you weren’t going to show up!”

“Eh, just got held up a bit at the shrine,” Rei shrugged. “No big deal. Say, this looks like fun… Let’s see what I get!”

It was almost not fair, really. Whatever miko powers Rei had seemed to be in full effect, and her luck was pretty much spotless. Ami could see it coming a mile away, meaning she was absolutely not surprised in the slightest when Rei came away with two tickets for the romantic cruise.

“Congratulations, Rei,” Ami said. “Maybe you can take that Mamoru guy on a date or something.”

“Hm. Nah, maybe not!” Rei said. “He seems like a cute guy, but -”

“You don’t even know how to contact him, do you?”

Oops. Probably not a good idea to get on Rei’s bad side. Ami was a little more self conscious than usual all of a sudden, and she took a half step back before Rei’s grin turned a little bit manic. At which point she took two steps back, or tried to before Rei grabbed her by the wrist and said, “That’s it! You and me, we’re heading on this cruise together! I can’t think of a better way to get you out of this damned shell you’re hiding in. What’s with the scared rabbit look all of a sudden? It’ll be a blast! Just the thing you need!”

Somehow, that was exactly what Ami was afraid of.

<hr>

Look at them all, flocking aboard the ship like lambs to the slaughter. Promised romance and wonder while never realising for even an instant that this entire ship was nothing more than an illusion produced by herself and Jedite’s combined mental projection.

The idea was partially predicated upon one of Jedite’s own ideas: Get people into a place the accursed Sailor Scouts could not enter, drain them dry, send them back. But in this case, people would be less inclined even to notice anyone had gone missing. Not to mention that they would understandably be a little bit drained by the time they returned, given the nature of the trip. It was perfect. Foolproof. They could feed on energy and nobody would ever even guess at it.

Such a pathetic species. To walk so eagerly into the spider’s web! Titus wanted to laugh about it. Getting Jedite’s attention might be quite a lot easier than initially anticipated. Didn’t he look handsome in that sailor uniform?

“I’ll go and make the necessary preparations,” Jedite said. “I would like you to remain here to greet the remaining customers.”

“Yes, sir!” Titus said, very studiously maintaining her eyes upon the loving couples in their blissful unawareness of -

Of -

Hold up a moment. That girl. That redhead with the stupid smile, and the - Wasn’t that the same girl Jedite had initially suspected of being involved with the mysterious cube or the Sailor Scouts because she kept getting involved in his schemes? Oh, yes. Titus had been keeping a very close eye on Jedite recently, and this particular avenue of his investigations had probably been closed far too quickly. It was a good thing these humans had such a thing as organisation, because Titus remembered her name and she knew for a fact exactly which cabin Miss Osaka would be occupying. All she had to do was wait for the perfect opportunity, and she’d spring a little trap. No need to tell Jedite quite yet; he had other concerns and besides which! He’d surely reward her for discovering what he could not. She would hand him success on a silver platter and he would love her all the more for it.

As for making Miss Osaka talk, she had a few interesting ideas up her sleeve….

<hr>

Usagi marvelled at the design of the cruise ship, even as she completely failed to comprehend what it was she was appreciating. The sign of true art: It looks beautiful, even to those who do not understand why. Yet to her eye there was still something much more visually appealing walking to her immediate right. Her lifelong friend Naru Osaka.

How long had they known one another? How long had they played together, gossiped together, lusted after cute guys together? Go back in time a few months and tell her that the two of them would be having regular, raunchy sex and she’d have probably fainted from shock. But now? It felt so right. Even though she still wanted to date boys there was something about Naru (and Ami and Rei too) that sent her heart aflutter.

“Hm, I think our cabin is this way,” Naru said. Look at her. Putting up a brave front even in spite of everything they’d gone through recently. Behind that mask of calm and defiance, Usagi knew her friend too well to ignore the deep-rooted fear lurking in her soul. To know they were up against an enemy so cunning and powerful, so determined and ravenous. How could she not be scared in a situation like that? This cruise was just what they needed to relax and unwind. All of them. Relaxing together and trying to forget the terrible burden unfairly placed upon them.

Little did the odango-haired heroine realise as she reached for her friend’s hand, that very friend’s thoughts rather closely mirrored her own.

“Here it is!” Usagi happily exclaimed, pushing the door open, and - Well, it wasn’t exactly a large room or anything like that, with most of the space being taken up by a double bed and a locker. Not like they were going to be spending an awful lot of time in here or anything like that either.

Usagi’s bag began to shudder and shake and before anything else could be done a cat popped its head out and took several deep breaths. “Whew, at last!” Luna cried, looking completely adorable with just her head protruding from the bag. “I rather thought I might die in there.”

“Hey, you were the one who insisted on coming along,” Naru said, stroking Luna just behind the ear.

“Dunno why you would want to,” Usagi sighed. She undid the strap and Luna eagerly hopped out to the floor. “If they catch us with you here, we’ll get into all kinds of trouble.”

“Something about this cruise doesn’t add up,” Luna said. “The prices they were offering for it are far too cheap to maintain what they’re offering, and - Uh…”

Luna stopped talking and cowered beneath the gaze of two girls desperately trying to help the other relax a little on a cruise that was supposed to take them away from worrying about stuff exactly like what Luna was talking about. It was the kind of expression that made mountains wilt and rivers flow backwards. The kind you didn’t question, didn’t talk back to, didn’t even dare think to do either.

“I’d better go find Rei and Ami,” Usagi said. “Then we’ll all go hunting for guys!”

“… You do realise every other couple on this ship will be together. Right?”

Another gaze from the pair shut Luna up pretty sharply. Right. Best not to ask questions of the plan. Usagi returned to a sweet smile and slipped out of the cabin to find their friends, who were staying in a cabin, let’s see… If those signs were right it would have to be just down this corridor. Usagi was looking forward to this! A real party atmosphere atop the ocean, with nothing but sky above them. Such a romantic atmosphere, such a wonderful opportunity to relax and unwind and - and - Was that food she smelled?

Her nose never failed her yet! Usagi’s feet took a sharp left when they ought to have taken a right, and she stared in awe at an all-you-can-eat buffet, free for all passengers, and oh, but she was about to teach them how terrible an idea that was from an economic standpoint.

<hr>

“So, what do you think?”

It was shameless. Hid just about nothing at all. Attention grabbing. In a more literal sense, it was a dress with a neckline that plunged so low it might as well have taken on a career of deep sea diving. There were slits up the sides of the legs you could drive a bus through, exposing Rei’s long, luscious legs for all to see (and stare at). The remaining portions of the dress clung to Rei’s figure for dear life, because otherwise a stiff breeze might have blown it off. Ami would have tried to maintain eye contact with Rei because she wouldn’t know where else to look, but there was a glint in her eye that was just so dirty that Ami couldn’t maintain it for more than a second before having to look elsewhere.

“It looks… nice,” she said lamely, fidgeting a little on the bed.

Out of the corner of her vision the genius could see Rei rolling her eyes and strolling over towards her with a very distinctive sway to her hips. “And there’s your problem, right there!” Rei declared, planting her hands on either side of Ami’s legs and staring her right in the eyes. “You want me. I know you want me. But you don’t wanna make the first move. Damn introverted behaviour!”

The damning part of it was that Rei was right. Ami bit her lip as her suddenly far too active imagination imagined the things she wanted to do to, with, or have done to her by Rei.

“You are an amazing lay,” Rei said, giving Ami a kiss that she hungrily returned. “But you never take initiative. Get it? Say that you want me right now, and we’ll do whatever you want.”

She did. She did want her. Hanging out with these three, they were such a bad influence but she just couldn’t help it. Rei was so beautiful, so passionate and attention grabbing that it seemed impossible to Ami that anyone could fail to want her. The words were right there in her throat but no matter how she tried they just wouldn’t come out. They were stuck. She was stuck.

“Well, that’s a shame, then,” Rei said. “I meant it, you know. You are just incredible in bed.”

“I… I’m a quick learner,” Ami whispered.

“Shame about your ability to take initiative. Come on, we might as well head out there and mingle a bit. I’ll work out a way to crack your shell yet, and you’ll thank me for it.”

Maybe she would. Maybe she wouldn’t. Ami honestly wasn’t sure either way. But for now she had to curse her shyness, which was so effective at warring with her libido. On second thought maybe she should be cursing both? It didn’t matter too much. Maybe Rei was right, and taking part in the fun would help her relax a bit?

<hr>

Titus knocked on the cabin door and straightened out her uniform. According to her research human females found the clean-cut look visually appealing, and humans in general were more likely to respect and obey an authority figure than anyone else asking them random questions for apparently no good reason. The blonde-haired girl with the vacant expression had wandered off towards the food court, which meant that her target was all alone. Vulnerable to her questioning.

“Come in?” the girl called, and Titus opened the door with a clipboard in hand. All the better for the illusion.

“Good evening,” she said. “Are you Miss Osaka, or Miss Tsukino?”

“That’s right,” the redhead said, completely oblivious to how easy it would be to kill her right there and then. “Is something the matter?”

“Not at all! No, not at all. Although it is a little strange to see two girls come aboard together…” That was a little strange. Two pairs of girls, and one of them involves this Naru girl. Very peculiar. “We were hoping that you would participate in a game we like to play during the cruise. All you need to do is answer a few simple questions about your one true love, and the couple that gives the most similar answers to one another wins. Of course, that’s why I’m here. To make sure the answers you give are fairly given. Would you like to take part? There’s a cash prize in it for the winner!”

Strange. Titus could have sworn that bag over there just hissed at her. Regardless. Human greed seemed to have been sufficient bait for Naru Osaka to agree to answer the questions. Perfect. The idea was rather simple, and brilliant at the same time. Ask a series of questions, interlaced with a minor hypnotic suggestion to answer honestly, then lead on to the ones she actually wanted answered. It was pretty solid as plans went. A direct interrogation was not necessary under such conditions, and the girl wouldn’t even realise what was happening until it was much too late.

“Question one: How did you and your romantic partner first meet?”

Titus smiled, making it appear innocent and friendly while truthfully feeling cold and proud. She was going to milk this girl’s mind for all it was worth and she didn’t think for a second it would be worth very much.

<hr>

The plan was going off without a hitch. The happy couples were celebrating their time aboard, little aware of the trap lying within the ship. It would not take long before everyone aboard had consumed the heavily drugged substances that would render them catatonic for hours. Certainly long enough to drain their energy and implant false memories of the events aboard ship. Better yet, the ship was now in the middle of the ocean, meaning that it was completely isolated in a manner that would not draw the slightest bit of attention. They could feed this way as long as they needed to. Annoying as Titus may be, she certainly knew how to get the job done.

Time to check in on the buffet. By now about half of them should have had their fill, and in about an hour or so they could… Stand around slack jawed, staring at this one girl shovelling food down her gullet like it was the last chance she’d ever have to eat anything ever again. Jedite took the chance to join them.

It was oddly spectacular in its own way. Sort of like watching a black hole in action. Mass went in at a ridiculous pace, but the size of the phenomenon did not appreciably increase in the slightest. So many questions were raised.  Was she even chewing? How was she able to fit so much in her body - never mind her mouth, her <i>body</i> - all at the same time? Most worrying of all: How was she still conscious? She should be dead about twice over, just from the amount she’d eaten since he’d entered the room! Why had nobody else stopped her? The answer to that one became obvious very quickly. They were frightened of losing a finger.

Jedite was not so afraid. He tapped the girl on the shoulder, and she turned around. Strange. He had this powerful feeling of deja vu that he’d seen her somewhere before, but where…?

“Pardon me, miss,” he said. “Please, do allow the others to have something to eat. It isn’t quite fair to keep it all to yourself, is it?”

“Uh… No, I guess not,” the girl answered sheepishly. “Sorry about that, everyone! I guess I got a bit carried away!”

And off she skipped, as though she had not consumed enough drugged food to down a herd of elephants. How? But - How?! No! Never mind that! This was not their only means of rendering the people here unconscious. Jedite stormed off towards the ballroom, where the couples were all milling around and conversing like the monkeys they were. Alright. Some of them were ingesting the food, that was great. Others were dancing, others were doing whatever. Now he just needed to find Titus, and come to think of it he hadn’t seen her for quite a while.

“Why do I get the feeling things are about to go very badly for me?” Jedite wondered aloud.

<hr>

“Are you sure this is the right way to their room?” Rei asked. “It feels like we’ve been wandering these corridors forever.”

Yes, of course she was certain. Not that Ami would actually put it like that, obviously. That was not her style at all. Instead, she meekly kept her head down and tried to focus on the door numbers. It should be just along here, and -

And she could quite distinctly hear the sound of tears coming from inside the room. Ami nervously swallowed and looked towards Rei, holding her back. She had a bad feeling about this. That didn’t sound right at all! What was going on in there? She whipped out her computer, and gawped at the screen in shock.

“This is bad,” she whispered to Rei. “Really bad! Oh gosh! This entire ship doesn’t scan right and there’s something very wrong in that room with Naru!”

“Don’t tell me we only went and stumbled onto another damn Negaverse ploy without even trying. Seriously. It’s getting to the point I’m afraid to take a dump without them being there to try and feed on my energy.”

“Never mind that for now!” Ami scolded, surprising herself and Rei with a sudden burst of spirit. “We need to help Naru!”

Rei nodded, and they both brought out their pens. Never leave home without them. Even on a day off like today was supposed to be. Never know when it might be needed. Never know when you might stumble upon something like this, though at this rate it seemed like it was happening every damn day! It made her so angry she almost wanted to shout about it, but didn’t even know what words to use. Besides which, it would make her look kind of silly, so better if she didn’t.

Regardless, they both transformed and once again Ami felt her knees momentarily weakened while the glorious experience rattled through her. Just as it must have with Rei. She was adjusting to it, and it mercifully never lasted long enough to have any kind of effect on their battles, but still, it might be nice to not have to overcome that each and every time.

The two Sailor Scouts stood at either side of the door. Mars nodded once they were both in position and Mercury threw the door open, letting Mars stand in the doorway prepared to yell something about being ready to burn, probably. Then she just sort of faltered. A sight rare enough that Mercury peeked her own face around the doorway and almost fell over.

“There, there, it’s alright!” Naru soothed, arm around a weeping young woman in a gleaming white sailor’s uniform. “I’m sure he’ll come around before long and see your good side! You just have to be persistent.”

“But I’m trying my hardest to get his attention,” the youma in disguise said. “My casual dress is a really short silk dress, but he barely even looks in my direction even when I’m speaking with him. I’ve even been trying my hardest to help him advance in his career, and he still ignores me!”

“Oh, honey, a guy like that is just bad news! Forget about him, you can do - Uh… Can I help you?”

The weeping woman’s face cleared up pretty quickly after that and the transformation into a youma was rather inevitable, really. Naru dove under the bed just as a burst of fire hit the youma square in the chest, sending it screaming out onto the deck.

“Come on, get after it!” Mars yelled, leaping through the hole in the side of the ship.

“Go and find Sailor Moon!” Mercury called to Naru, who was peering out from underneath the bed. “We might need her help. I think this one is probably going to be a fair bit tougher to crack than the others.”

“On it!” Naru yelled, dashing from the room like a woman possessed and followed closely on her heels by Luna. Right. The two of them would have to fight this thing off, but once Sailor Moon arrived they should be fine. Mercury leaped for the hole leading out onto the deck - And found herself running right into a steel wall.

“Fixed itself?” she observed, patting it down. “But that… That’s not…”

“I think you’ll find a great many things are possible with the Negaverse, Sailor Mercury!” Jedite declared, leaning against the doorframe with an arrogant grimace. “Particularly if they can result in an opportunity to divide and conquer!”

<hr>

Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why had she let her guard down like that?! To think that a mere girl could reduce her to such a state where the Sailor Scouts could sneak up on her like that! Fortunately, that silly bitch Mars had sent her out onto the water. A crucial and devastating mistake on her part! The water around the boat began to churn and whirl around. This was her element, and it would appear that Jedite had stepped in to interfere. No more obstacles. Just Titus with her water powers, versus Sailor Mars with her fire powers.

This was going to be <i>fun</i>.

Columns of water rose from the very depths of the ocean high above the ship. Titus stood on one and laughed to herself. She would use them to crush this little pest! Snuff out her fire powers and bring her head to Jedite as a gift. That girl did advise that a gesture of affection was the perfect way to kick off a relationship, after all.

“Give it up, Sailor Scout!” Titus shouted. “You cannot hope to prevail alone! You are hopelessly outnumbered and outmatched. Come, my crew! Attack her! Hold her down while I crush her with my columns!”

“Yeah, yeah! Bite me!” Sailor Mars yelled, expertly dodging the flames and slapping purification slips upon the crew even as they lunged for her. “Sorry, but your crew are way too ugly and way too slow for me to let them restrain me for a spanking!”

“You crude little witch! Remain still so that I may crush you!”

“Or what? Gonna cry about it?”

Titus let loose an inarticulate scream, and stretched out her hands. More and more columns of water rose from the floor. She would flood the deck and the water would sweep this pest off the side of the boat! And once she was there, it would be trivial to kill her. A passing thought would be sufficient! She prepared to throw it - Titus ducked to the side and only barely dodged a hurled tiara that cut through the wave and returned to its owner.

“Darn. Missed!” Sailor Moon complained, snapping her fingers with her off hand while the other caught the tiara.

“You’ll have to do a bit better than that!” Titus snarled.

Two further columns of water rose in front of her to deflect another burst of flame from Mars. Silly girl! She’d lost her opportunity for a surprise attack long ago! They had nothing else to throw at her! Nothing at all!

“Um, excuse me, Miss Titus?” the girl Naru said, holding her <i>energy absorbing machine?! No! No! Put that down!</i> “Is this yours? I think you should have it back. Here. Catch!”

“No!” Titus yelled, forming another column of water to catch the precious energy they’d acquired. Too close a call! The whole operation had almost been a complete bust! All because of that irritating redhead and -

A fireball struck her right between the eyes, sending Titus reeling. By the time she could see again the tiara was inches from her torso and sliced through her like a warm scalpel through butter.

“Jedite…” she moaned as the last of her energy left her. “I… Have… Failed you… I… I love…”

To anyone watching it must have appeared as though a tear crawled down her cheek for a single moment. But then her entire body turned to water, completely disabusing of that notion. The day had been saved, and to the mounting terror of all aboard the ship transformed from a luxurious cruise ship into a dilapidated wreck barely fit for the ocean.

<hr>

While this does more usually come into play towards the beginning of a new chapter in the Tainted Cube saga, astute readers may be wondering what exactly it was that changed over the course of these events. Certainly, they are different from canon Sailor Moon but this particular set of changes were rather based on previous alterations to the setting. Surely nothing is particularly different, yes?

Well, not exactly. The change simply didn’t take place until right here, at the end. To explain a little more clearly: Mars and Moon had a hell of a job reassuring the passengers that they would get them home after the frankly terrifying experience, which in part involved explaining that this was all a trap set by the Negaverse to feed on their energy and no, ma’am, we do not know much more about their motivations than that, just be more careful about certain things in future. No, sir, we don’t do autographs and on and on it went.

It did take them a few hours to be rescued, during which time a rather sudden thought occurred to both Moon and Mars. During all of this, where on earth was Mercury? They couldn’t rush to the room quickly enough as soon as the thought ran past their minds. They ran there, full pelt, leaned against the door ready for anything. And what did they find in there?

Why, the effect of Tsukune’s desire that he could turn dangerous enemies into allies.

To be a bit more specific: They found Jedite unconscious with his trousers around his ankles and a very satisfied grin upon his face while Mercury was sitting next to him, completely naked and scanning him with her computer.

“Wha-?” Moon said, too shocked to properly form her question. Mars elbowed her a little bit. “What happened in here?”

“Oh, hello, guys!” Mercury said, turning around with a very sleepy look on her face. “I finally took your advice and let myself cut loose a little bit.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Naru cried, stepping in between the two Sailor Scouts with ragged breath. “Did I hear you… Oh, wow, you girls run fast. Did I hear you right? You seduced him? How did you do that? Titus had been trying for years, and she was all but throwing herself at him!”

“Turns out she put him off the forward type,” Mercury said. “Besides which, I’m a fast learner, and this is very interesting.”

“What, the half-naked, unconscious guy you’ve been screwing for probably hours now?” Mars quipped. “I’d bet he’s interesting!”

“No, not that. I mean… I think he’s been put under some kind of mind control. It’s pretty potent, and it’s been there for a long time… But it looks like somehow that weird energy has weakened it. I think we might be able to free him from the Negaverse.”

“You go, Mercury! You’re gonna have to show us those moves sometime!” Mars said, proudly patting her ally on the back.

“Well, I’m not sure they’d work on you guys quite so well,” Mercury said. Which was true enough. She understood now. Remaining demure and apparently the unwilling innocent was exactly what she had to do to seduce them. The silly thing was, she was pretty certain that tactic would work every single time.

<hr>

While they enjoyed the fruits of their success, Mamoru stood on the shore watching the recovery teams bringing in the passengers of the cruise liner. Interesting. The Sailor Scouts were becoming increasingly big news, not only here but worldwide as well. Yet the Negaverse kept on attacking the same place over and over again…

It didn’t add up. Why attack here, where they knew there’s opposition? Surely it would make more sense to move their operations elsewhere? It was a mystery. It was also a shame he missed the opportunity to see Sailor Moon again, but still.

One of the men staggered out by him. A blonde man who looked vaguely familiar. He stumbled and stopped just a single step past Mamoru, and stared hard into his profile before the flow of the crowd compelled him onwards. Mamoru didn’t even notice. Nor would he have remotely understood its meaning. At least… Not yet. Not until his true self had fully awakened.