Chapter19

Chapter 19: Central Park Showdown

“Aunt Jen! Aunt Jen!” Jacey called as she ran up to her house, inclosed in darkness. The evil feeling that filled the city was overwhelming and more than the Scouts could bear.
Jen stuck her head out the window and saw the most beautiful face in the world, attached to the body running towards the house. “Jacey!” she cried out to her. Jacey threw open the door to the house and was greeted by Jen’s strong arms. “I’m so glad you got home all right!”
“Aunt Jen, what’s going on! What happened to the city? Have you been all right?” Jacey and Jen held on to each other like they were meeting for the first time in ten years. “How could someone do this?”
“Jacey! Everything’s gone to Hell in a handbasket! The entire city’s been turned upside down. The people are scared, and so am I!” Jen sat Jacey down at the kitchen table. “Not everyone’s doing so well either. People are beginning to go crazy or something.”
Jacey rubbed her forehead. “How are Jake and Miriam and Grif?” she asked. “How have they been holding up?”
Jen looked down at the table and Jacey immediately knew that something was wrong. “Jake and Miriam are fine, scared out of their minds, but physically unharmed.”
“And Grif. . .” Jacey pushed, even though she didn’t want to hear the awful truth that she knew her aunt was about to utter.
“He’s been taken to Belvue, Jace,” Jen said, taking Jacey’s hand. “He went bonkers about a week ago, and no one knows why. He just keeps calling out weird names that no one comprehends, except yours. Jacey, he’s calling out to you in his fits. I’m so sorry.”
Jacey felt numb. Everything that she had ever felt in her entire life, every iota of emotion, evaporated when she heard what happened to the only person she ever planned on loving for the rest of her life. “W. . .what?” she stammered.
“The doctors come up with theory after theory, but nothing seems to make sense. His mother thinks its heartbreak gone awry after you’ve been gone.”
Jacey stood up abruptly and put her hands on the table. “I have to go see him, now,” she said.
“Have you seen it out there?” Jen asked. “Its Hell! You can’t leave this house.
Jacey looked deep into the eyes of the person who had been her “mother” for most of her life. She looked up to Jen and revered her. Jacey worshiped her every move and action. In those eyes she saw, for the first time, her mothers, Queen Jennifer and Cindy, all three in the same person. “I need this, Mother,” she said to all of them. “I need to save him.”
Jen blinked, making the images of the other women even stronger. “Go,” she said. “I know that you are the only one who can make this right. Go and bring every one home safely. I believe in you.” Jen blinked again and they were gone.
Jacey turned and made a quick bolt for the door before Jen could change her mind. As she ran down the front steps, all she heard was the sound of her own tears and Jen’s faint “Be careful.”
***
“Do you want us to go in there with you?” Serena asked. The entire group stood outside the hospital; Jacey had dragged them all there before doing anything else, even find a place to stay.
Jacey closed her eyes and shook her head. “No, thanks. This is something that I have to do on my own. You understand, right?”
“Go in there and fix your boyfriend,” Amara smiled squeezing Michelle’s hand. “We have a world to save.”
Jacey recited Griffin’s room number over and over in her mind as she rode the elevator to the floor that he was staying on. She silently prayed that his parents weren’t there so she wouldn’t have to explain the bizarre situation that they were all in. The elevator doors opened and she stepped out, walking slowly down the hall towards his room.
“Nervous?” she heard a voice say behind her. Jacey jumped right out of her shoes, scared witless by whoever said that. “Sorry,” the voice said. “I didn’t mean to scare you!”
Jacey held her face in her hands. “Please don’t sneak up on me like that!” She slowly turned around and saw her face. “Jacey!” she eeped, completely startled. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m visiting Griffin, kind of,” Jacey 2 said. “He can’t see me. I can make myself invisible and watch over him when his parents aren’t here.”
“Are they here now?” Jacey asked.
Jacey 2 shook her head. “No, they went home last night and couldn’t get back out this morning. I feel so horrible for them.”
The identical girls walked down the hallway, finishing the trip to Griffin’s room. When they approached, Jacey looked inside. “What’s wrong with him? I know it has something to do with what’s going on in the city, but what is it?”
“The Midnight Façade found his way back to Griffin’s body,” Athena said from behind them. “But Griffin is trying to keep it out. It’s become a battle between Griffin’s soul and the Midnight Façade’s spirit. At this point it can only be one or the other.”
Jacey 2 nodded. “And he knows that you’re the only one who can save him. You have to help him, and soon, Jacey. We’re not sure how much longer he can last like this.”
“Well, he seems pretty quiet now,” Jacey said.
“We have to join you two back together now,” Apollo said. “Then when you are combined and stronger, you can help him chose which path to take.”
The Jaceys turned looked at each other. “Wow, it’s really over.” Jacey 2 said. “I’m going to miss everything I have here on the outside.”
“You can still experience every second, you’ll be in here with me,” Jacey said. The two of them hugged tightly and Jacey whispered, “Rejoin.”
Jacey 2 turned into a swirling aura and returned to Jacey’s body. “She knew everything about me,” she said, beginning to cry. “I’m going to miss talking to her.”
“Like you said,” Athena said. “She’ll always be inside you. She still knows.”
With those words of encouragement, Jacey turned and walked into Griffin’s room. She peered around the curtain divider and saw him lying there; eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling. “Grif,” she whispered.
He slowly turned and looked at her, his eyes penetrating her. “Jacey,” he said hoarsely. “I knew you would come. You have to help me.”
“I will help you, Grif,” she said, kneeling by his bed. “I’m going to do absolutely everything that I can to make sure that you get better and fast.” As she began to cry, she wiped away her tears, wanting to appear strong so as not to worry Griffin.
“It’s okay to cry,” he said. “I know what’s going on inside of me. But I can’t stop it. That’s why I need you Jacey.”
Jacey picked up his hand and held it to her cheek. “What do you want,” she asked. “You have to make the decision and I can only help you from there. I can’t make the choice for you.”
He turned his head so he was looking at the ceiling again. “I know what my life has to offer me. And I know that the Midnight Façade wants me. But I don’t know what kind of Pandora’s box that will open if that’s what I choose. All I know is that I can be a superhero. Do you know what it will be like if I choose to the be the Midnight Façade?”
“Don’t do it, Jacey,” she thought to herself. She had the power to tell him every detail of his life if he became the Midnight Façade. She could have her boyfriend back, and the best friend that she had always known. All he had to do was tell him. “I. . .I. . .um. . .” she stammered. “The thing is. . .” She began wringing her hands uncontrollably. “I have no clue.”
“Yes you do,” he said. “But thank you for not just telling me because it might be what you want or don’t want.”
With tears streaming down her face, she looked at him. His pale face looked almost as if it were part of the pillow on which his head lay. His eyes were glazed and his hands were cold. “Do you know what you want?” she asked, choking out the words.
“To be with you, Sailor Earth,” he said. “Turn me back into the Midnight Façade.”
Jacey’s face lit up and she launched from her knees. She bent over his white face and kissed him so the Heavens above opened up and shone their light over just the two of them. The image of the Midnight Façade stood next to Griffin’s bed and whispered to Jacey. “Thank you, my love,” and disappeared into Griffin’s body.
The light faded and Jacey pulled away from Griffin. His face had color in it and his eyes were as expressive as ever. The best part was his hands were warm again. “I love you, Jacey,” he said to her. “Thank you for saving me, yet again.”
“That’s what I’m here for,” she said, pulling him up out of bed. “Now we have to go and save the world.”
***
“While you were inside, I was able to figure out where the center of the negative energy was coming from, Jacey,” Amy said. She held up her little computer to show Jacey the area of the city where the power was the strongest. “Central Park.”
Jacey just stared at them. “Are you kidding? Do you know how huge that place is? And there are people all over that area!” She turned to the group, stumped. “Does anyone have a plan?”
Everyone just looked at the person next to them. “We know next to nothing, Jace,” Trista said. “How are we supposed to plan?”
“I don’t know. But we can’t just walk in there swinging,” Jacey said. She began to think of the best plan of attack. “Well, we could break off into groups and each take an entrance into the park and fight our way to the center. Once we’ve gotten there, I figure we’ll have taken out a whole bunch of minions so we can face off against Metalia pretty uninterrupted.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Griffin said. “I don’t have any objections.”
“Don’t forget,” Serena said. “We have friends that have been taken and turned evil again. We can’t kill them, only use healing powers.”
“What about the groups that don’t have healing abilities, what then?” Michelle asked.
Luna leaped into the air and produced two pens. “They open a door to another dimension. Shout Dimensional Door Open and you can store any enemy in there and they will be safe until Jacey and Serena can heal them.”
“Mina, Trista, you two are coming with me,” Jacey said. “Amara, Amy, and Griffin are together. Serena, Michelle, and Lita are a group. And Hotaru, Raye, and Darien will go together. If there are any objections, too bad.” She handed Amy and Darien the interdimensional pens. “Reach the center safely, got it? Amy, go in the west entrance, Darien, you take the east entrance, Serena you go from the south, and I’m going in right here.”
***
Sailor Mercury, Sailor Uranus, and the Midnight Facade stalked quietly through the park, being careful not to make a single sound as they stepped lightly.
“We’re approaching some major negative energy,” Mercury said, lowering her computer from in front of her face. “We might have to battle soon.”
Uranus smiled. “That’s where I come in,” she smiled, holding her fist in her hand.
The Midnight Façade stopped her. “We can’t just fight pell mell like that. This time we need a plan, a serious one. The center of the park is the goal; we can’t get hurt fighting some minions. Got it?”
Uranus glared, but she knew that he was right. “Fine. What’s the plan then? We’d better think of something awfully quickly.”
“I think it’s a little late for that children,” a voice laughed from above them. “You probably should have made a plan before you got in over your heads!”
Mercury, Uranus, and the Midnight Façade looked up abruptly. “Bertie!” Mercury screeched. “Avery!”
“Who else would you be expecting?” Avery cackled. “But enough pleasantry. We were sent to kill you, and that’s pretty much the plan!”
“You want a fight?” Uranus challenged.
Mercury put her arm out in front of her. “No, don’t! They’re good! They’re our friends!”
“I hate to say it,” Midnight said. “But I don’t think that they are anymore. We have to get them into that alternate timespace so that Earth and Moon can save them.”
Mercury and Uranus held hands to do a double power. “Mercury Aqua. . . World. . .Rhapsody!. . .Shaking!” They exploded into a blast of energy that sent Bertie and Avery flying.
Midnight grabbed the pen that Amy had given to him and held it up in the air. “Dimensional Door Open!” he shouted and a large black hole began opening, crackling with energy.
Mercury and Uranus grabbed both of the girls and threw them into the portal, and Midnight lowered his hand, closing the gate again. “Good job,” he said, handing the pen back to Mercury.
“Keep it,” she said. “We officially have our plan for the rest of our trip.”
***
“Neptune, Jupiter,” Sailor Moon said. “Do you think that we’ll have to fight any of our friends before we have to face Metalia?” Sailor Moon absentmindedly kicked the leaves around her feet and shuffled through the park.
Neptune shrugged. “You never know. A lot of them are out there, according to Luna, Artemis, Apollo, and Athena. So I guess we’ve got a pretty good shot at running into a few of them.”
“Great,” she pouted.
“Cheer up!” Jupiter said. “I can’t really think of a good reason why, but you should anyway!”
Jupiter and Neptune suddenly stopped, prompting Sailor Moon to do the same. She slowly raised her head, her eyes first catching a glimpse of two pairs of boots and then the familiar faces of her rival and middle school crush. “Ann! Alan!”
They just smirked at her. “We’ve been looking for you, Sailor Moon. And now, we’ll kill you!”
“I hardly think so,” Neptune said. “Deep Submerge!” she shouted. The blast of water energy slammed Alan against a tree.
“Jupiter Oak Evolution!” Jupiter shouted and sliced Ann up good.
Sailor Moon pulled out her scepter and held it out to them. “You have two choices,” she said to the broken and bleeding couple. “You can be healed and live life like you were before or you can die here by my hand. It’s your call.”
“Heal us, Sailor Moon,” Alan whispered. “Ann and I want to go back to being good. We liked our life.”
Sailor Moon looked into his eyes. “All right.” She held up her scepter and closed her eyes. “Moon Healing Activation!” A gentle light spread over Alan and Ann as they disappeared back to where they came from.
“Something’s not right,” Jupiter said. “That was much too easy. What’s going on?”
“I don’t know,” Sailor Moon said. “Let’s catch up with everyone.”
***
Saturn strained to hear sounds off in the distance. “They’ve been fighting,” she told Mars and Tuxedo Mask. “Stay sharp now, I can guarantee an attack coming on soon.”
“Poor Catsie and her sisters!” Mars said. “Catsie must be so afraid for them right now, not knowing what happened to them.”
“Why should she be sad?” a voice giggled in front of them. “She’s here with us and quite happy I must say!”
The three snapped forward to see Prisma, laughing hysterically, holding Catsie’s still body, clad in the outfit she wore when she was evil. “Let her go!” Tuxedo Mask shouted. “What do you want with her anyway!”
Catsie’s eyes began to glow red. “Bait!” she cackled and sent a burst of blue fire from her fingers, which forced the three to scatter in all directions. “You saps don’t stand a chance against us.” She stood up and poised herself for an attack at Saturn.
“Mars Flame. . .” Mars pulled back her flaming bow as she grabbed Prisma from behind and pointed the arrow at her head. “You touch her Catsie and your sister gets it good.”
Catsie’s eyes returned to normal. “Prisma!” she cried and then the turned red again, scowling. “Let her go,” Catsie hissed.
Mars looked into Catsie’s eyes. “You’re still in there Catsie, and Sailor Moon can heal you again if you let her. If you leave us be we can heal you and your sisters.”
Images of Catsie and her sisters on Earth floated through her memory and brought tears to her eyes. “Put her down and heal let Sailor Moon heal us.”
Saturn held up the pen and shouted, “Dimensional Door Open!” Catsie and Prisma walked into the portal, looking sadly back at Mars, Saturn, and Tuxedo Mask. “They’ll be all right,” Saturn comforted.
“But I’m getting a strange vibe from the whole situation,” Tuxedo Mask said. “Let’s hurry up to find the others.”
***
“Canyon Rock Slide!”
“Dead Scream!”
Venus writhed under the weight of the man sitting on top of her. “LET ME GO!”
The powerful attacks hit him and he was propelled against a tree, freeing Venus to send her attack. “Venus Love and Beauty Shock!”
“Malachite!” a woman’s voice shrieked. “You annoying Scouts! I’ve killed your families and now its your turn!”
Earth just scowled. “I’d never give you the satisfaction, Zoicite. You’re going to share the same fate as that worthless sack of flesh over there.”
Zoicite drew her sword to prepare for combat and Pluto and Venus stepped between the two women. “You’re going to have to kill us before you touch her!” Venus said.
“And it doesn’t look like you have too good of a chance at doing that!” Pluto chimed in.
Earth put her hands on Venus and Pluto’s shoulders. “I need to do this one on my own. For my whole family. She destroyed us all once, and I won’t let her do it again.”
The other two Scouts stepped away, leaving the women to face off once again. Zoicite lunged at her and she calmly dropped to her knees. “Earth Quake Shake!” The ground began to rumble.
“Not again!” Zoicite yelled in mid-air. The rock formation swallowed her, leaving Sailor Earth staring at her spot in the ground.
She put her hand to the ground to make her next attack. “Molten Lava. . .” She immediately stopped when she felt the cold steel of Malachite’s sword against her throat. Without an ounce of fear in her heart, she began to swirl in flames as the earth began to shake again. “FLOW!”
The blade melted from his hands as his body was devoured by the liquid hot lava surrounding them. The fire died from Earth’s body when the pair had died and there was no trace of a battle ever having been fought. “That’s a nifty little trick the Rock of Magma adds to that attack,” Venus said.
“Its over,” Earth whispered. “Come on, we have to go and meet everyone else. They’re probably waiting for us.”