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The room full of senshi, cats, knights -- every aspect of the Order -- was jolting. Sailor Nyx had been away from the war for months in Ireland, to "study abroad." Her parents had framed it in those pleasantries, but under no uncertain terms was the trip of her own volition. It was a punishment for slipping in school and slipping out at night. Such duties were no issue in Ireland, where seemingly there was not a sailor soldier to be had; she had locked away her henshin pen of her own accord. Now, back here, the bit of aura she could sense at her level felt overpowering, intoxicating. Destiny City itself was its own brand of drug, with suffering and hope mixing together and separating again as they permeated everything. Under the film of rising voices and bursts of anger from all sects of the Order, grossly at times, Nyx found a momentary comfort in simply being home -- as subjective as "home" was becoming with the mention of far away planets, asteroids, and space-such. It was oddly sentimental, all things given. Perhaps because there was a chance she could have come home and the whole place had been leveled.

There was so much information to be gained here, not the least of which noting that Sailor Polaris, a familiar face, had ascended to the title of Princess. It could make up for lost time. Nyx maintained a steady pace of scribbling down as much as she could, with its overall usefulness to be determined: cellphone scanning, Dark Mirror Senshi from a parallel world, Pasiphae's devious little plot among other tactics, our Moon Princess. She could not help moving out of the corner to hear the pink-haired Princess' stories. The dark aspects of this Dark Mirror Court would be given serious thought later, but for now she wanted to hear about the Silver Millennium and Beryl. The later pieces tragically fragmented, though there was still promise in knowing the beginning. That there had once been a fairy-tale like peace.

She did not socialize. She saw Pasiphae and the Jovians, kept her distance and did not admit that it hurt to do so. Later, perhaps. Also simmering in the emotional mix was paranoia, for the last time she had seen so many of the Order together had been at the Surrounding. It was a lot to take in upon returning.

It was a funny business these meet and greets. Old friends, new ones, certain people that deserved dinner date with herself. The usual crowd. But right now her heart wasn't in it. She would have given anything to have something like this when she first exploded onto the scene, and now it was offered to her on a silver platter it was the last thing she wanted to have. Not when she knew she did not deserve to be here. Not when she felt so...disconnected from all those around her.

She didn't belong here and she knew it.

It might have explained the reason why she had tucked herself away in a corner and chained smoked throughout the whole session, so much so that she could have given the Senshi of fog a run for their money. Or it could be that she heard sexy mysterious smoking Senshi's were totally in right now. Ate, the unhealthy trendsetter.

Listening to Chibimoon's story she could help but admire the young girl. This was probably the closest she would ever get to the original royalty and Ate was happy sitting as far away from it as she could. Too little, too late. But she didn't have to voice her opinions, not yet. Her ever growing smog of carbon monoxide was doing a better job at that than she ever could.

Well if Cimmerian smelled like beer it was in every possibility that Ate smelled like vodka. Not that she had consumed so much that her blood was not 96% ethanol....wait that exactly what it must be. The Senshi smiled brightly, despite the overwhelming need to just get the hell out of there, she was a fraud, a big stinking fraud. Swallowing whatever pride she had she welcomed the Page to the coolest area in town.

"Well Cinn...Cinnamon? Ahh that will do, the name Ate and am guessing you haven't read the manual? Its in the small print, everyone needs to be on the rag to join in on these meetings or your not allowed in, even the boys." Crude but Ate was nothing but sweet sentiments when she wanted to be, today she did not want.

"What did you think of the story?" She nodded a newly burning cigarette towards Chibimoon as she allowed smoke to curl from her nostrils. "Could have done with zombies or boobs, but then again not everyone is a brilliant story teller like me." She perched the smoking stick between her lips and inhaled. It wasn't a long shot to consider all Ate stories considered the above subjects.

If Ate smelled like vodka, then Cimmerian was pretty sure they might be soulmates. "Cinnamon, sure," she said, lifting her cigarette back to her lips and inhaling. The senshi's joke made her snort. "I should have showed up with more booze in my system. I'm sobering up watching this slapfight." The page was not especially clear on the seriousness of this situation. Or if she was, she just couldn't find it in herself to give enough ********.

The story from Chibimoon had aroused enough curiosity from Cimmerian though. "One of the more interesting things I've learned," she said. "But it sure as s**t makes me feel inconsequential. It seems like I'm just part of a fight that someone else started, and apparently it could get me killed." She shrugged, let her cigarette dangle from her lips for a moment, and then lifted it back to her hand with two fingers.

"It's all spin. When there is just her for a source of information, she controls everything about how we hear the details. I'd kill for some celestial experience -- take me back to that place, let me have a firsthand account. Otherwise, it's all through one lens. That's media for you -- the producers control it." Cimmerian should know. That was her job. She took stories and them dressed them up however it made them the most interesting. There was no telling if Chibimoon had done the same or not. "What can you do? I'm going to stick to not dying and not risking myself for someone else's cause. Why, what do you think?"

The thing about parties was that, invariably, the people you neglected to invite, tended to find out about them, and then they tended to be pissed off.

While over one hundred senshi and knights had gathered together with only a few guardian cats on hand to shield them, the streets had continued to be patrolled by those of a darker alignment. It was only a matter of time before the patrol route of Chaos sensed something was amiss -- a familiar signature that was too large, and growing. Hiding an aura was difficult, especially when guardian cats were so deeply outnumbered by the senshi. Despite the best efforts of a few skilled cats, it was simply too much to keep hidden. The incident was reported immediately from one Chaos soldier to another before finally reaching General-King Zinkenite through General Howlite and Princess Ares through Vice Captain Leto.

"Sir. We have a situation."

After a brief discussion, General-King Zinkenite contacted the Dark Mirror Queen, herself. Their was plan was made. Eternal Sailor Leto and General Howlite summoned any soldiers of Chaos they could reach to their leader's call, and their troops were quickly organized.

The location was determined, entry and exit points assessed. Together, they knew they would succeed. A group of captains teleported in and out of military supply stores, returning with masks for their 'shock troops'. They were passed equally from the Dark Kingdom to the Mirror Court. For once, each group knew where the other would be, when, and why, and they would be all the more effective for it. They were assigned tasks and responsibilities.

A squad of officers found themselves the transporters of large mirrors, teleporting them to arrange for the easy escape of their allies. Volunteers, all of them.

From their own Meeting Hall, watching as officers, corrupt and dark senshi disappeared in various ways to their post, General Howlite turned her dark gaze to the bright stare of their strategist, and thought she caught the faint traces of a smile, hidden behind his dark mask.

"Are we ready, General?"

Her own grin was bold, and she touched the buttons that would activate her mask to hide it. "As we'll ever be, Sir."

When he touched her shoulder to teleport, her weapons were already in hand.

They reappeared, surrounded by the enemy, in the center of the meeting room. Zinkenite's eyes were closed, making timing, and trust, paramount. The smooth orbs in Howlite's hands were chucked the moment she felt Ordered energy, and she could see the General-King's own projectiles finding their scatter pattern throughout the room. None would be missed. A split-second after their appearance, the bombs exploded.

Howlite's caused a blinding flash that would effect its victims for the next ten seconds, as well as an equally disabling sound, leaving nothing but ringing in the ears that would serve as the signal for the ambush. Zinkenite's bombs sent a noxious smoke throughout the room, that shielded them and damaged their enemies.

Zinkenite's eyes were open now, and Howlite's had never been closed behind her protective mask. Almost instantaneously, Chaos began to stream into the room. From the roof access, the back door, the main entrance... Even from within the building itself. They were everywhere, full-face gas masks in place in a terrifying display.

She was still smiling as she ripped the starseed from the chest of a gasping senshi scout, planting a foot against their body and shoving it away from its glowing prize.



---

It had been too long since the Dark Mirror Court had launched a full assault. In the past, Princess Ares had been quick to rush into battle, but that had been when her mission was to hurt, maim, and kill at the command of her now-dead Queen Nehelenia. Her new mission, and the mission of her Court, prevented Ares from giving a blanket kill order. She needed the bodies of those senshi. She needed them either corrupted, or, in unfortunate cases, dead -- but death was a last resort, not to be used lightly. The White Moon Senshi could not be blamed for their mistakes. They were under the curse of Serenity, just as she had once been. But now she could see the light. And if they couldn't? She would rip their eyelids off for them.

The plan was hatched quickly in the War Room of the Negaverse. Ares brought only Leto with her, her right hand, as she discussed battle mechanics. There were some dangers -- the numbers, for one. There was no telling how many of the White Moon princesses might be in attendance, and it was true that senshi magic, when used in tandem, could be devastating. Fortunately, the Dark Kingdom and Court had their own magical firepower.

No sooner had the plan been laid, and Ares was off with Leto, slipping through a mirror. They assembled all the active Dark Mirror ranks, primed them for the attack, and then moved to their stations. The concept was simple. Just as Ares could heave unconscious humans drained of energy through her mirrors without passing through herself, she could do the same with unpowered Negaverse agents. It required a certain trust -- it meant allowing the Dark Princess to know a civilian identity -- but the Negaverse had never been short on loyalty and sacrifice.

Thronged on either side by humans waiting to power up into their Negaverse selves, Ares grabbed the first two unceremoniously by the collar and began slinging bodies like hotcakes out of mirrorspace and into the broken bathroom of the meeting space -- a run down mess of a room overgrown and tarnished from being out of order for far too long. The mirrors were filthy with grime, almost blending in with the dirty tiles, and the first few humans who shot through the space would find their clothes stained.

Even though Ares herself did not enter the room, flashes of parallel energy sparked nearby, shrouded by a corrupted guardian cat, but not completely hidden. Requiem stood nearby, mirrored compact communicator in hand. "Zinkenite and Howlite have entered," she said.

Ares lifted her voice, encircled by soldiers of the Dark Mirror. "Masks on," she said. One by one, the senshi around her pulled googles over their eyes and gas masks over their mouths. Ares could spare them the effects of her own smoke -- the Dark Mirror at least, not the Negas -- but she could not protect them from Zinkenite's.

Requiem took another step toward Ares. "Green in 3... 2..." Ares pressed a palm against the mirror. "1."

In seconds, a buffet of dark parallel energy burst onto the scene, alerting every Order soldier in the building that they were not alone. From the depths of the building the whisper of footsteps, then the door to the back of the building flew open.

Standing there, flanked on all sides by soldiers of the Dark Mirror Court and the now-powered up Negaverse agents who had come through the mirror, was the very ruler whose death many had just been singing. Apparently, they would get their chance. "If you do not fight, you will not be harmed," Ares announced, voice raising above the crowd.



Then, without pausing, Ares spun in a circle, golden torch over her head, and her body became a column of smoke that exploded outward.

With a battle cry, the armies of Darkness surged into the room.





[THE FORCES OF CHAOS HAVE AMBUSHED THE MEETING! GO HERE TO ENTER THE FRAY!]