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It was strange to think how comforting the little snowglobes used to be. The simple little melody had a soothing effect on him, and he had fallen asleep to the melody more than once. But as the whispers began, sleep was harder and harder to come by. No amount of winding would make the music box play any louder to drown out the whispers. He couldn't get the voices out of his head -- attempts to work on his combat prowess and patrols were performed quickly with corners mercilessly cut, all to return to the simple globes.

But now, clutching his treasures in the Town Square, the boy did nothing more but stare at what had happened. This lady, this... creature? Youma? No, a youma was darker, not as bitter or as cold. It wasn't the her that he was expecting: that ghostly image that gave him a flicker of hope on Halloween earlier this year, urging him to keep trying, don't give up. Her image that was now trapped in the snowglobes.

He didn't know what to make of the icy woman. The fact that both senshi and negaverse agents were battling against her, though, now THAT was something he could understand. Both snowglobes were shifted to one arm as Carter flipped open his senshiphone, halting in his haste to begin dialing his teammate's phones as he saw the map. So many senshi! And -- "HEY!" Carter yelled, willing his phone away to turn and run in the direction of Simon, grabbing the taller boy by his arm and hauling him away. "Come ON man! This way!"

Which way? An alley? Good enough. Carter Martin stashed his snowglobes beneath a dumpster and transformed into Sailor Merope, waiting only long enough for his teammate before running back towards the gray. "HEY LADY!" He yelled from behind a negaverse agent, "OVER HERE!"

He stuck his tongue out at the negaverser, throwing them a quick raspberry before running towards the ice princess. "WAVE FIST!"

Castille glared at the Ice Queen as she started to pick specific people to torment. A man with a cane was quickly becoming attached to it with ice. There were powerful looking people probably freezing in their suits fighting. Sailors. Her heart beat faster and she was more than a little envious of their powers. Oh how she wished that she could be a Sailor! Castille sighed, and then her attention turned back to the lady made of snow before her.

It seemed that the first assault didn't do much besides make the lady angry. She looked around for something else to throw as the ground opened up beneath the crowd, releasing more icicles upward. She dodged the first one, her arm beginning to throb. That hail piece was a lot bigger than she thought! She grabbed her arm and ran to the left to the queen, picking up the stick that she threw before and getting ready to hurl it again.

The stick flew true and hit the queen.

Fear gripped Elzo as he saw the woman form and the world surrounding him became something from a holiday winter wonderland. Only with some kind of magical being who didn’t seem too friendly. Mentally cursing Elzo had wanted so badly to think it was true. It was Serenity. It was their princess. The one they had been waiting for. But it had been a lie. A fat ugly cold lie. And it was standing in front of him, tell him to bow down? Oh HELL no. Destiny city may have frozen over but he didn’t hear no fat lady singing! Placing his keys in Marlo’s hands, Elzo only left his brother with a few words, “Find Audrey and get out of here.”

The tone of voice Elzo had used was a tone Marlo had heard when his brother was going to try and play hero. It used to be the voice Marlo would hear when Elzo would defend him from tormentors, but now, facing down some kind of..winter witch? Marlo’s mind went back to the dream of his coma. The women looked different, but marlo thought they might as well be the same. Dangerous. Evil. Not the kind of person he wanted to be nearby. Rushing to the girlfriend of his brother, the teen did what he’d done in the past.

He hauled a**.

__________________

In the mass panic, henshining up was easy. Figuring out WTF to do? Not so much. Watching his fellow senshi fighting the false icon gave him hope. Hell, even the negaverse was fighting. One thing they seemed to agree on. The world wasn’t big enough for moonie and negas. Snow bitches could get the ******** out. Charging head first into the fray, Castor zeroed in on his target. "STINGING STORM!"
As hail flew down from the sky Castor’s focused changed as he saw her in the crowd. Violet hair and a violent arm.

Tanzanite.

There was, of course, a fatal flaw in Sailor Merope's plan. Normally running in and throwing a magical watery punch and repeating until things stopped moving is the plan for normal youma. Quite obviously, Princess Kaguya was NOT a normal youma.

The air steadily grew colder the closer Sailor Merope approached the princess, prompting the boy to shiver more violently than he has ever before. His skin was covered with goosebumps, and adding water into the mix was one of the stupidest things he did.

The water that materialized around his fist usually flowed with a vigor akin to the wild untamed waves of the ocean. But this ocean was not the tropical variety Merope wished his power was from. The magical water began to solidify in mid-air, cracking and solidifying into ice. By the time the Sailor's punch had connected, what was left of the water immediately froze upon contact with the woman.

Merope stared as his arm from fingertip to elbow was consumed by ice, entrapping him in freezing close proximity to the ice princes. So close, in fact, that Merope did the first thing that came to mind: he panicked and yelled, trying to flail his way out before resorting to kicking at the frozen sea water that held him fast. "ATLAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSS! HELP!"

Sailor Flora and Princess Chronos had been patrolling on the night of Christmas Eve.

It was something rather befuddling to the Season Senshi; Christmas Eve was for parties and sitting indoors warm by the fire. But her Princess had insisted, even bringing the snowglobe she owned along for the ride, which Flora regarded with some apprehension. That was right... it had said that it would arrive on Christmas Day. But who was it? Chronos insisted that it was probably one of the Serenitys, but Flora had simply shrugged. She wasn't sure about this whole deal, possibly because she was content with having her Princess already. She didn't understand how much longing the Moon Senshi had for their Princess; perhaps she once did, but those emotions had been forgotten once she had met Chronos.

"It's not right." She told Chronos. The both of them were perched on a rooftop quite a distance away from the Town Square, but close enough so that they could overlook what was going on. Chronos was staring at her snowglobe intently. "It looks like Serenity." She said. "See, the hairstyle is similar to Chibimoon's."

"Anyone can fake a hairstyle." Flora sighed, pursing her lips. "It's not as if everyone in Destiny City who has green hair is related to you either." Together, they watched, as Christmas Eve ticked into Christmas Day, as people holding snowglobes milled into Town Square.

And their worst fears were confirmed.

That was clearly not a Serenity.

Flora knew this, even though it was not her Court, not her royalty, and turned to see Chronos wide-eyed and horrified. "Come on." She said, tugging Chronos up on her feet, the snowglobe falling from the other girl's hands, bouncing down from the rooftop into the dark abyss of the alleys below them.

"W-wait." Chronos stammered, getting a hold on her shock and disappointment, raising her staff. "Let me try something." Flora nodded, remembering the dome of Winter her Princess had cast over the Halloween Ball. If Chronos managed to do the same, but with Summer, it would help a lot.

Unfortunately, even as Chronos shouted her attack over the howls of the wind, nothing happened. The green-haired girl bit her lip. "It's probably because I don't have the Opal Crystal."

"It worked before." Flora tried to cheer her spirits up, even though she was shivering madly in the cold. The problem was her statement also pointed out something else; it was that this Princess, whoever she was, was strong. Flora didn't think that she could hold against the harsh biting cold of winter much longer, but it wasn't as though she could run away.

"Stay here." She told her Princess, and ran towards the Snow Princess.

"Wait!" Chronos called after her, breaking out into a run to catch up with her. She didn't want to just sit there and watch, she wanted to help, even though Season Escalation didn't work.

There was another attack after all, and once Flora had this realization, she nodded towards Chronos. Her pollen attack wouldn't be of much help, but perhaps, something more offensive would.

Before that though, Flora decided that it was better to try, to help as much as she could. "Flora Pollen Storm!"

"They're fighting together." Chronos said, as she stopped right next to Flora as the Senshi of Spring concentrated on throwing her attack against the wind so that maybe the Snow Princess would breathe some in.

And she was right; Negaverse and Senshi weer fighting together against the blizzard of a threat against their city. Was that what it took, both Senshi wondered, for them to drop their grudges against together and fight on their same side?

Unfortunately, not all of them could. Castor seemed to be getting off track.

Normally Audrey was all for transforming into her Negaverse alter ego and fighting the good fight against whatever menace the senshi had managed to conjure up this time. Beryl had confirmed that the coma that had taken her parents had been the doing of the Princess she'd been ordered to kill once upon a time. That was before Castor had taken front and center. Nealite had ordered her to try.

Beryl had ordered her to do or be well done.

So with Marlo all but snatching her up by the curls to run the hell away from that icy monstrosity, she was feeling rather relieved to get the Hell away from it until three rather special things happened. One, Tanzanite arrived. Two, Castor threw himself at the thing causing her heart to constrict in traitorous fashion. Three, Tanzanite saw Castor. It was that third thing that had Audrey Collins' throat closing in horror and rage. It was her job to kill him and if anyone was going to do it, it was damn well going to be her! Yet it was Castor who had, if unwittingly, sprung the trap around the young woman ruining her life forever. Tanz had the right, Lina had the order. She also potentially had the rank but whether or not to use it was the conundrum.

First though, she had to lose the human. Whirling at the car, she wrenched open the door and ushered Marlo into the backseat. "C'mon! If we get back there it's warmer and they can't see us. Whatever that is! Jesus, I shoulda gone outta state for college!" The babbling was missing the edge of panic that she should have felt; the bluenette wasn't as good of an actress as she'd claimed. Her fingers were deft though, and when the door slammed shut behind Marlo Xanis the lock and alarm were quickly set. He was safe, she'd done her duty by Elzo. Yelling at the windows, she pointed back into the fray. "I need Elzo. I can't leave him. Wait here!" Boots pounded in the snow as Audrey ran back towards the battle.

Somewhere brown boots turned into grey heels, red ball flying out to drive a line through to the center of the action. If nothing else, she had to see it. If Castor was going to die by any other hand other than her own, Linarite would have had it be Tanzanite's. But if he died, she was going to be there to say goodbye.

Lt. Raite arrived upon the scene but not because he was called by a snow globe. He had been drawn by the oversized commotion, which tended to consist of supernatural occurrences. This one was to be no different.

He didn't own a snow globe, the item that everybody had spoken about recently. Why would he? It was a meaningless object that Seth didn't care to take part in. This princess they spoke of didn't apply to him. Even if there had been hope that the mysterious woman could help, it was likely that Raite wouldn't have accepted the help.

But even as another queen, not their queen, ordered her reign, Raite didn't move. Even now, he still didn't take part in the events that unfolded. Instead, his gray eyes watched in silence from a few buildings away. He was in his powered form in case it would require him to do so, but he had no intention of participating. Unlike the other Negaverse who were willing to take action for their own beliefs or feelings, Raite would only act if Queen Beryl ordered him to do so. He had no reason to do so otherwise. But as long as she hadn't, he wouldn't interfere.

However, as other prominent negaverse members entered the fray, Raite took notice; Tanzanite, Wolframite, and Linarite.