[Archive] With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Story Only)

[Mr Zoat]

19th November 1995

Where did he go?

I'm looking at Kun-. Sebastian, but it doesn't look like he's got any idea either.

"Can he teleport?"

Sebastian nods. "We all can, but that was just an illusion. He's close."

I look around-. Right, the knives. "Can you feel anywhere the dark energy is doing anything weird? Orange Lantern's elf wizard could do stuff with it. Even if he's been captured-."

"Alright." Black energy crackles around him for a moment, and then he gasps, looking upwards.

"What? Is it above us?"

"No. But I-." He looks down at me. "Orange Lantern's plan to get her full attention has worked. Beryl is drawing on vast amounts of dark energy, but there's an eddy forming below us. I don't know what it is, but other than searching this-."

Great. "Down?"

"Yes. The quickest way-."

I grab my compact and point it at the ground. A direct line between two places might only be the second shortest route, but we can't all teleport! "Furious Crescent Beam!"

Golden light smashes into the floor and blasts through, and-.

And then it cuts out no!

We both stare at my compact, and Sebastian shakes his head. "You're out of power. You can't-."

I pull Paul's emergency nuclear grenade off my belt and remember his instructions. "Pull the pin." I pull it. "Toss." I toss. "And hope being a Sailor Guardian makes you immune to gamma radiation."

I turn away from the hole, and hope really hard.

Sebastian blinks, then copies me, throwing his cloak over us as the fission grenade goes off. Most of the blast goes upwards, but it still ruffles my skirt and Sebastian's cloak.

I wish the armour he made for me was still in one piece.

"What?"

I pull my chain off my belt as I turn, throwing it up into the air as I leap towards the hole. The top part of the hole where my beam blasted it is neat, before it ran out of power. The bottom part is red hot, melted-.

I form my chain into a drill-

"Venus… Rock-Breaking Chain!"

-and slam it down, boring through the soft rock and-.

Crunch!

And I fall through into the level below us, landing in a crouch and lashing out with my chain scything through the youma clustered below! Most of them were facing the door, and the rest weren't prepared. I swing-.

The end of the chain stops moving about an inch from Jadeite's raised hand. "Still not enough."

Okay, ah… I pull my chain back and look around. The youma are moving around and trying to surround me, but I can deal with that. Jadeite's just standing there, and just behind him-.

Lushun is chained up to a bench. He doesn't look too good; half the time it's like I can see his skeleton! They must be doing something to him with dark energy. Trying to turn him into a skeleton youma, maybe? And there's a woman tied to another bench next to him with half her face missing! And past them there's a stone archway with-. The crystal! It's embedded in the stone, and in front of the archway there's an altar with Lushun's staff on it.

Sebastian lands next to me. "Get the crystal. Nothing else matters."

I nod. "Right."

I run, swinging my chain in an arc to smash through the youma guarding the crystal. "Definite Kill Venus Chain!"

Chain links of burning gold disintegrate gargoyles and pigmen, and a couple who look like cavemen try scrabbling out of the way. They don't make it. I can hear Sebastian's footsteps behind me as he guards my-. My back, and I reel in my chain to take another swing at Jadeite, who's just smiling-.

Wait.

I swing my chain around me in a tight arc, like one of those ribbon dancers-.

The chain stop in thin air, and Jadeite appears as his illusion fades. "Do you understand? With the crystal, we can spread dark energy all across the world. But with this staff and these off-worlders, we can spread it to infinite worlds! All will be one in Met-."

I leap- "Sailor V kick!" -and hit him right in the jaw! He staggers backwards, losing his magic grip on my chain which I pull back towards me before lashing it forwards!

I swing my chain again, but he's already recovered. It stops still in the air and he looks behind me-.

I pull on my end of my chain as hard as I can, pulling myself off my feet and sending me flying towards him! His eyes widen and he catches me with his magic, but he loses control of my chain so I pull and wrap it around his legs!

"What?"

Pull!

"Oof!"

He's on his back and I'm free and I swing my chain while he's stunned-

"Get the Crystal!"

-and I start running past him, not really getting a full-on hit but just sort of flicking him away, and that'll have to do. There's nothing between me and the crystal-.

The arch flickers, and the space inside it-.

Oh that's what Hell looks like.

And it looks like Paul made himself at home, because he actually looks pretty calm as he walks back through..

And then he sees me. And I wish I could do banishment like Mars or healing like Moon, because-.

I throw myself right as he lunges towards me, his claws -ah- gashing my left cheek. But I don't have time to fight him! What do I-?

Yes! I throw my chain forwards, wrapping the end around the archway and pulling! I don't know if it's the chain's magic or my magic, or maybe it's all that physical training Paul made me do, but I'm a lot stronger than I used to be! Paul-. The youma lunges at me again but I'm already out of the way, flying towards the arch-.

Too far! Too far! I went through and some flying red demon face is looking at me-. Pull back! Good! And reach up and grab the crystal-! Yes! Got it! I-.

Paul body slams me through the arch, and I-. I can't feel my legs. They should hurt, but-.

Agh!

He's-.

Hitting-.

I can't-.

I'm sorry.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Day 3, Week of Hen, 990 YSD, 6th Eclipse
Last Time I Checked

Isn't this a novel experience. One moment I'm building a Pillar of Bones and studying the dark energy of an entirely new world -or if what I suspect is true, something rather larger than a world- and then the next I'm getting a rather uncomfortably up-close introduction to the demonic form of my current patron.

And I lost consciousness. I can't even remember the last time that happened. But on the grounds that it's wise for favours to be reciprocal -something which my studies show that Markal never learned- I suppose that I should-.

Oh dear. That nice young woman in the leotard is getting beaten to death. So what exactly-? Oh, the restraints are powered by that jewel, I wonder how it-?

A problem for later.

Now… A small Eldritch Arrow from both hands unlocks the manacles, another two free my legs, and without a more potent magic preventing it, it's easy to call my staff to my hand.

And Puppet Master.

The 'youma' creature stops moving at once, claw paused in the act of-. Yes, back off, off you go.

The lesser youma appear to be divided between those charging… A man with oddly green hair? I suppose that he's on 'our' side then, and the rest who are charging me.

Mass Slow. And… Blade Barrier.

And they work… Just as they did on Ashan. The youma slow to a crawl, so whoever that is can cut them down with little difficulty. And those heading towards me will have to be bold indeed to charge through a wall of rotating blades.

It's so nice having this staff again.

Just across the way there's one of the women the Orange Lantern was looking for. She appears to be recovering too, though not so quickly as I. Hm. I'm not sure exactly what she is, but I think that I'll leave her there. Better for her to wake up to a friendly face.

I turn away from her and walk towards Guardian V, the nice young lady who is currently bleeding to death. Mm. Still alive, for now. Regeneration should see her right in a few minutes.

Now, where did my cloak g-?

There's a knife in my stomach. How odd.

Mass Decay.

The knife is withdrawn, and my attacker's invisibility fails as Decay necrotises their-. His extremities. He's uniformed like the fellow in the melee, but his skin is green instead of his hair. I wonder what that signifies?

Blindness.

He stumbles, clutching at his face as he tries to work out why he can't see. He must be unfamiliar with dark magic, which is a little strange-. Ah, of course. A transformation. He may well be suffering from excess dark energy exposure. Light Magic isn't my best skill, but…

Cleansing. Not strong enough to disrupt Blindness, but lesser influences-.

Ah yes, that seems to have worked. His skin has turned to a warm ivory colour. It's not practical for me to cast Cleansing on everyone-. Perhaps that V girl's crystal might be able to help?

"Nnhhrrr…"

Oh, she's waking up. Marvellous!

"Miss V? Are you well?"

Her eyes snap open-. Ah, she's trying to get away from-. Perhaps I should move him? Yes, those youma are of no use to us.

"L-lushun?"

"Yes. Well done for liberating the crystal. I assume that you have a plan for it?"

"Huh?" She looks at her arms as her cuts knit themselves closed. "Ah…"

I reach down with my left hand, and she takes it and allows me to pull her upright.

"I… I need to-. Look-"

And the dagger is back in my stomach. How vexing.

"-out!"

Hm. It looks like the dark energy overload wasn't what was making him oppose us. Some sort of blessing from 'Metalia'? It would explain why he is so wroth with me. Ah, I removed Decay when I used Cleanse, that's why he's still fighting fit.

Weakness. Suffering. And Vampirism on myself.

He tries withdrawing his knife, but it appears to be stuck.

I level my left hand at his head and loose a bolt of concentrated dark energy, striking him full in the face and -with apologies to my fellow captive- eating the flesh right off. And from the vital force transferred to me by Vampirism it appears one with more than human vitality. That is convenient.

I turn to Guardian V as the first youma brave enough to attack my Blade Barrier loses an arm and I receive another burst of vitality from Vampirism.

"Do we need him alive? He appears to be in his right mind."

She appears to be having a little trouble getting up to speed.

Haste.

"The others didn't remember their current life because Queen Beryl cast a spell on them to only remember their past one. If you undid that, he might go back to normal."

"That's not really something I can do under current circumstances. But…" I crouch down and pick him up by the collar with my left hand, carry him over to the bench I was strapped to and close the manacles around his arms and legs. With those spells on him he shouldn't be strong enough to break out, and if we haven't dealt with the situation by the time they wear off then it's probably too late anyway. "There."

She's looking at the large mutant. "What about him?"

"Oh, I'd say that we've got another… Twenty seconds or so until Puppet Master ends and he savages us both."

"Can you turn him back?"

"That's a little more than I can do with Cleanse, I'm afraid. I can't raise him from the dead because he's physically alive. Even if I could cast Resurrection, it wouldn't work because he lacks a soul. So I'm afraid that it's up to you and the Crystal." I turn back towards the now-depleted youma horde. "I'll leave it to you."

That should motivate her. It's a lie, of course. She'll actually have about another minute. Now-. Ah, Mass Slow is beginning to wear off, but that fellow has cut quite the scythe through them. And my own Blade Barrier is in my way.

Eldritch Arrow. And…

"Hold still a moment!"

Circle of Winter.

The uniformed man freezes in place, looking at me. And then the jagged blades of ice erupt from the stone floor around him and skewer his assailants. He throws knives, I throw bolts of concentrated dark energy, and before too long there are no survivors. Splendid.

He eyes me warily. "Are you Lushun?"

"The very same. Is there a plan, and what is my place in it?"

"There is, and you need to get to the surface now."

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th November 1995
00:06 Mission Time

I love the man, but Kunz-. Sebastián-? Seb-Kun? Heh. He really doesn't understand what long-ranged teleportation takes. It wasn't a problem with a few passengers, especially not when Orange Lantern took us most of the way there, but it's not quite the same when you have to move a building.

I look up at the frankly disturbing spire of bones and evil magic as it flickers in and out of reality.

Alright, it's already connected to the dark energy enveloping the world. That makes this possible. It doesn't make it easy. Seb-Kun has the most raw power out of all of us, while I… I'm not certain if I'm the weakest or not, but I might be. I could fight well enough by not relying on raw power... But I can't outthink a building. Unless Queen Metalia does something-.

I gasp as dark energy all across the planet is sucked towards the North Pole, and it's all I can do to stop the bone spire collapsing entirely. Right, hold it, hold it, and push!

The world dissolves around me and then, oof! Petals fall onto the icy ground, and the spire… The swirls of manifested dark energy become more and more violent by the moment. There's another manifestation around the entrance to D-Point, a giant crackling sphere. And not on my best day could I breach that. I don't think any of us could.

But that's not my role here. Supposedly, this thing can focus colossal amounts of dark energy while also being receptive to other forms of magic. If the Crystal can really do what my-. My past self believed that it could, it might actually let us fix this without killing half the people on the planet.

19th November 1995

I look at Paul's face and try to find even the slightest bit of humanity there.

I don't find anything.

I didn't want to believe the… New Paul, when he said that he was born without a soul, but that… Might explain a few things. Like why he couldn't feel youma, even when normal people started feeling that something was wrong. Or how he could be around that much dark energy without turning into a youma.

I don't know what changed…

And I don't know why this damn Crystal isn't working when it's right next to my stupid Transformation Pen!

"Work, damn it!"

I wish Artemis was here. I'd put up with him stealing my alarm clock, and… Giving me another lecture about telling Paul my real age and going back to Japan to babysit the reincarnation of the Moon Princess just for him to tell me how to fix this.

It's just-. We were fighting the Dark Empire! And normal criminals! We were making the world a better place. And I was acting as a decoy just like Artemis wanted-. You're not much of a decoy if you're standing right next to the person you're being a decoy for!

Why couldn't I get at least one healing move.

"Just…"

I step forwards and slap it against his chest.

"Do it you stupid crystal!"

The crystal flares with rainbow light!

Really? That's all it-? Okay! I'm not complaining!

Dark mist rises off Paul's youmaised body, and-. I don't know. If he doesn't have a soul then… This is it. But if all that's left of his mind is being a youma then he was-. He was dead anyway.

"Goodbye, Paul. And… Thank you for being my friend."

There's a sudden surge of the mist, and-. And I nearly drop the crystal because I'm catching him-.

He's not breathing. He's not a youma anymore, but he-. He-. I-.

Okay, ah, we went to a class on this. Check his pulse-.

There's a noise behind me! I turn around as bits of chain go flying-.

The woman with half her face missing gets up. She looks angry, but she's looking around at the youma and at Jadeite. And then she sees Paul and she looks worried instead. She comes over-. The other Paul was looking for her, right?

She looks at him, and then she frowns at me. "Is he dead?"

"I-I don't know. I'm not sure."

She lays her right hand on his head, frowning. "Hm. I should be able-." She winces. "No, I'm too weak from… Whatever brought me here. I-. That crystal."

"Would it..? Help?"

"Would that cryst-? Yes, of course it would help." I hold it out to her, and she stares at me. And then she sort of huffs, like I've done something stupid. "Humans have become far too trusting."

"So..?" I start pulling it back. "Do you not want-?"

She holds out her hand, and I pass her the crystal. "I hope you have no idea what you just handed me."

"Please, just-."

She puts her free hand on his forehead and-.

"It doesn't want to work. Someone called 'Queen Serenity' locked it to her bloodline."

"So-."

"Unfortunately for her, I'm much better with magic than she is. There."

There's another burst of rainbow light, and Paul's eyes shoot open! He gasps painfully as he starts breathing again. I look at… Ah… Mazykean? "Is he okay?"

"All he needed was someone to jumpstart his brain. Him not having a soul made it easier."

I nod, and… Then my eyes land on the Silver Crystal. "Um."

"You should have made sure that I promised to give it back before you handed it to me."

She walks away and I try helping Paul upright but his legs don't seem to be working right. He's pretty out of it, which I… Guess makes sense. He's still wearing his armour but I assume Metalia took his ring-.

He kind of reaches out towards the hole I made in the ceiling-.

The crystal!

"Um, I should have, but the person who was using you to make a portal to Hell is up on the surface, and we need it to beat her."

Mazykean stops walking away. "Or I could do that."

"You just woke up. And you said your magic wasn't working right." Paul grabs my free hand and pushes it against his-. His holster. He's still got his gun. He tried getting me to use one but I always had my compact. Mazykean's got her back to me. I could try shooting her.

I shake my head, and he rolls his eyes and goes back to trying to call his ring. "But mine is, and I know what the plan is. Your Paul's plan."

"My Paul's plan?" She turns back to me and-. And tosses the crystal to me. "If it's one of his plans then you're welcome to it."

"Okay, thank you." I-. I start heading for the hole in the ceiling, but I'm still supporting Paul and he can't quite keep up. "Um."

He pulls away from me, staggering towards the empty bench. Once he's close enough to use it to support himself, he turns back and waves for me to carry on.

"Right. This time, Queen Metalia's going down!"

And then I sprint for the exit, really hoping that's how it's going to go.

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th November 1995
04:46 GMT

I vomit what feels like blood and tar as I frantically try to evade. I guess that in a world saturated with dark energy a being of pure dark energy can manifest just about anywhere she cares to!

I spin, hoping against hope that she's suddenly become vulnerable to x-ionised blades. Suggestions of claws part and reform, slashing at me and I know from painful experience that they pass through both armour and flesh.

At least I'm not throwing up inside my helmet. I-.

I dodge again as an arrow whistles past my face, the tiara still stuck on Nabu and-.

Ah.

The cold bites nearly as hard as the claws! I can't see my body, but ring scans and… Just the lack of feeling from most of my skin paints a-. A nasty picture.

But either we're doomed, or the rest of the plan worked and-.

A wall of flames appears between me and the undead Guardians, and I drop down behind it as I finally-

"Ahk-hk."

-get the opportunity to repair my extremities. Agh, whatever this stuff is, it's coming out of my tear ducts as well! It's not even doing that much damage, it's just disgusting!

"Remarkable!"

Okay, they freed Lushun, good, that was step… Ah, three? He doesn't seem to be affected by the cold or claws made of darkness.

"A being of incarnate dark energy! And with far more initiative than mere darkness elementals. Oh, I would love the opportunity to study you at length. But! Needs must when Urgash drives."

A dark… Shape manifests out of the roaring darkness just above him.

"Those young ladies appear to be a little dead." He taps the but of his staff on the ground. "Let's see if I can do something about that."

Sailor Moon's brutalised flesh… Runs, dust and fragments of bone being pulled back into position, and as her eyes reform there's a-.

Blessed Hades, she's regained her awareness. She knows that she's a walking corpse and-.

And Nabu stops babbling as the tiara flies off his head and into her mangled but outstretched hand.

Resurrection is Light Magic. Level 5. You have to be an expert to cast it. Raise Dead is Summoning Magic, level 2. Anyone can cast it. But it doesn't last. Any living unit raised with it crumbles to nothing at the end of the battle.

The dark apparition brings its claws down, and Lushun lets his Arcane Armour take the hit.

"Moon Tiara Action!"

Her tiara burns cold as it flies up into the dark energy creature-

"GWRAAAAAAAGH!"

-and apparently causes it some measure of distress. And I've stopped puking, which… Suggests that its hold is weakening a little. And Sailor Mercury's body is reforming in much the same way that Sailor Moon's did. Hopefully someone explained to Lushun that he's supposed to be focusing on the dark energy Metalia's been throwing around-. But either way, now that Metalia's ignoring me, what can I do?

Ah yes, a transplant. Because she might not be wearing a ring at the moment, but like this there's even less gap between desire and action.

Metalia, you want to stop.

The claw falling towards Lushun stops, her focus wavering.

Metalia, you want to let go of the dark energy.

Lushun turns towards the fire wall and smiles at me. "Not dead, I see. Well done!" He taps the butt of his staff against the ground twice more, and Mars and Jupiter are zombified and removed from Metalia's control.

"Foc-!" I wheeze more sludge out of my throat. "The plan!"

"I can do more than one thing at once. But there's a slight wrinkle."

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

"You'll be a wrinkle if you don't get on with it! She's resisting!"

Metalia, you want to hear more of my v-.

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

Lushun sweeps the head of his staff across the combat arena, the sphere of dark energy collapsing and thank you, Ao is in position with the Pillar of Bones.

"Sailor Guardians! Venus will be up in a moment, and she's got the Silver Crystal. Blast the bitch!"

Sailor Moon nods, catches her tiara as it falls from Metalia, and leads her squad towards… Where Venus is leaving D-Point, Silver Crystal in hand.

They're… Going to die. But they were dead anyway, and-. And I can't think of a better way to do this. I mean, I could try absorbing the power myself, but between what happened to my alter ego and the lack of testing… I don't even know if I'm compatible with the Silver Crystal and I'm not about to risk trying to get the Ophidian's attention from here.

The power ring that was on Beryl's finger rises into the air and flies into D-Point.

Huh-? That takes more control than some random-. They cleared and resurrected the other me.

Then-.

Not me!

Metalia stabs downwards towards Lushun just as the Sailor Guardians start to glow. He raises his staff with his left hand and points towards the Guardians with his right, smiling like it's the most fun he's ever had.

And then-.

The Pillar of Bones crackles and discharges, dark energy flowing into Metalia, then into Lushun, and then towards the Sailors where… The Silver Crystal annihilates it in a sphere of blinding light!

Conflicting energies crackle around Lushun's body, but he's still grinning. "A whole planet's worth of dark energy! I must study-!" He looks down at himself as he begins to disintegrate. "Oh dear. But, at least Asha won't get me."

The white sphere expands, consuming Metalia's form, enveloping… Me, and I can barely see anything else, and then being… Sucked into the Pillar of Bones.

That wasn't the plan. Is that..?

That's amazing.

I try scanning, but I can't get anything useful while an artefact this powerful is discharging. I-.

The light dims slightly, and I can see the Sailors, their bodies fully regenerated and living. There's a pile of.. robes on the floor, and I… Stagger towards them. I don't know if there's anything left of his body, but I should recover it and… If I'm stuck here now… Perhaps I could learn to use the staff? I reach down to touch his sleeve, where it's shrunken down-.

The robe moves.

"Well."

It pushes itself upright, clearly being able to move under its own power. A bony hand pushes his hood back-.

That's not Lushun. That's a skeleton.

"That was invigorating." He looks at me as I stare at him, the light around us fading back to normal levels. "Is there something on my face?"

"Who are you?"

"What do you-?" He blinks, then his right hand reaches up to his face. "Oh. Oh dear."