The End of the Millennium
A Xian Shade Production

Author's Note: Stranger and stranger, is it not? Where did all the
outers go? Where were all the people in the arcade? Why are monsters
always after Sam? How the hell did he even get up from that? Questions
abound, no doubt... and hopefully most will be answered soon.

I hope you enjoyed the last long chapter, making up for the time I
hadn't been writing. I hope it wasn't too long to follow. I don't want
to lose any readers because there's too much shit flying around in the
story. One might ask: 'Where the hell is he going with this
storyline?'. The reason it doesn't seem to be going anywhere is
because this is going to be one long-ass story, which you should have
known from the initial author's notes. If you don't like long-ass
stories, click on that little X in the upper right of the screen.
That's the door. Don't let it hit you in the ass. If the story's too
long or too friggin' deep for you, or if it warps your child's mind
because they were bad, and you wanna blame me for it, I'll be glad to
tell you where you can go.

This chapter finally achieves the *R* rating, for cursing, gore, and
violent death. If you don't like it, switch to the G rated section. If
your child loses sanity for reading a story he shouldn't be reading,
don't yell at me. Talk to them. They're the ones that fucked up.

Disclaimer: I don't own any aspects of Sailor Moon or Phantasy Star.
If I did, this would be animated or a manga or both and you wouldn't
be reading it right now. Thanatos and all other characters are © Xian
Shade, and may not be used without my permission. People failing to
follow this rule have broken Xian's Law #849, paragraph 3, line 2:
Don't fuck with my shit.


Guardian's Return, Chapter 7:


'Run.'

Every instinct in Ami's body told her to haul ass out of sight, at
least until she could transform, or find the others. Just the other
day she saw this man single-handedly take out a fairly large patrol of
monsters bare-handed. Today, he seemed to make no more of a dent in
the creature than the average human might. Even as she thought and
calculated how it was possible, her mind still screamed at her to run
at the same time.

And still, she wouldn't budge.

The massive black claw of the monster wrapped around the blood
drenched face of Sam below his nose, clamping along his jaw. It held
him there for what seemed like an eternity, seemingly trying to crush
his head, when it began to notice the movement of Ami slowly backing
out of the cafe.

"Going somewhere?"

She jumped with a small scream. She hardly expected the thing to talk
with such an appearance, even though thousands of monsters talked
before... none of them spoke sense.

"I have come offering a truce, princess of Mercury. We chose you
because you are the smartest. The others will listen to you." A deep
voice that sounded of a record playing too slow worked past its
flapping, drooling jaw.

Now this was rich, and kept getting better. The enemy, asking THEM for
help? She composed herself, her eyes darting to Sam every few moments,
to assure he was still alive. She relaxed a bit, her hand secretly
holding her transformation crystal. "Go on."

"We have a common enemy. The children of destiny hunt us both... light
and darkness alike. This being I hold is one of them, trying to get
you separate from the others in your group. He's already claimed some
others... one of which was an accident on your part: the man in the
tuxedo."

The others hid behind an arcade console, listening to the conversation
they heard. Ami fumed. "An accident on our part!? That huge monster
blasted a hole right through him!"

Its gaze never broke the stare it gave her, as it did not seem
equipped with eyelids. "While Zio and the Dark Force WERE a bit
overzealous, it was your friends that struck first.  He had come to
speak of the truce, but I suppose his intentions were never known.
What I refer to as your accident was letting them take him."

She thought back to the previous night, and the words Zio said. 'In
announcing he was there, he never mentioned battle, and he did indeed
comment on not choosing to fight... no! They're the enemy! They want
us dead! But... why is he talking to me, then?' Her mind tossed it
over. The group of monsters that went after Samuru could have easily
went after them, if they were interested, because it was obvious they
knew who the senshi were, if they knew who she was, even if she didn't
transform. "I'll accept that, for now.  Why do they want us?"

"I'm not sure why they want you and your kind. But they want our kind
dead. Your numbers have decreased since then. The four that aided you
in last night's battle are gone, as well as the wounded one."

"It makes sense." Rei whispered to the others. "Even though this
creature may be our enemy, we should think about this. Uranus and
Neptune would have been picked off first, since they were guarding the
temple. Pluto hasn't answered our call, so we can only assume the
worst. Saturn, since she was awake and over us, was the only threat,
and would have easily been intercepted if they knew enough about her,
and that she can't use her total power. Samuru-san and that other guy
were at the temple this morning, which seems to make them suspects,
but why weren't we taken? We were asleep, and easy targets!" The
others nodded, turning their attention back to the trio. They needed
to know more.

Ami didn't know who to believe. Sam couldn't exactly defend his
status, since he was restrained. This monster's appearance was hardly
trustworthy either, upon the fact that it was a creature of darkness,
and bore the face of their destroyer.

Meanwhile, Sam had worked his mouth above the creature's hand, having
been holding on to it all the while. He could call the others, but
then what? His cover was already blown. The senshi would demand
answers. Who was to say they'd be able to beat this monster either?
Noah's abilities would be fairly useless, as the powers he was
struggling to perfect were still underdeveloped, and were no match for
a creature of this magnitude of strength. Chronos wouldn't stand much
of a chance either, as his abilities affected indirectly.  Ares...

Ares.

Ares was too loose of a cannon without the others, but he was the best
bet. He almost called to him, when the problem still presented
itself...

What would he tell them after?

S.N.A.F.U.

'The mission's fucked... I suppose I'll have to handle this myself.'
he thought, feeling a little light-headed from blood loss and a
possible concussion. 'There's no way to walk away and still have
trust.' He let go of the creature's arm and reached for his cane
behind the creature, which leapt to his hand by will. As they spoke,
he twisted it with a soft 'click', and noiselessly slipped a long
blade from its previous holding. Ami could see what he was doing, and
thankfully hadn't made a spectacle of it. 'Thank goodness she's only
stalling.'

"Falz..." Samuru managed to force through his now-crushed throat,
standing on tiptoe, with his arms hidden behind him. The creature's
head snapped to attention at its name being called, and screamed
violently as its eye was punctured by the thin blade, tar-like ooze
crawling towards the handle of the rapier. Still it refused to let go.
"Motean, zeto echak!" he gurgled, and his gloved fingers tore
through the tips of said glove and extended. He jabbed at its forearm
repeatedly, piercing the bluish-black flesh. It dropped Sam, who
gasped for a moment as the monster cradled its damaged eye.

"We do not want them dead." he struggled, re-sheathing the sword into
his cane, and his fingers somehow retracted back into its glove. "We
have been allies for more than a millennia with them, a silent treaty
paid in worship, protection, and blood. Beryl's forces were formidable
a thousand years ago, and we stopped as much of their army as we could
before they reached the moon kingdom. How DARE you try such
underhanded tricks against my charges!" he growled, almost sounding
inhuman as he managed to recover a bit.

Ami had scrambled outside and over to the arcade, to see the scouts in
hiding behind an arcade console. She made sure not to be noticed and
crawled low until she reached them.

"Ami-chan, are you ok?" Usagi whispered, hugging her first scout
friend.

"I'm fine... but have you heard all this? I didn't know who to trust."
the others nodded and watched as Sam mopped the blood from his face
with a tissue and pocketed it.  He lifted the cane, his eyes glowing
green, and acrid black smoke poured from the orb atop it, slithering
around his body like a tattered, tortured serpent. It settled and
dispersed, to show Sam in the garb of Thanatos. He slammed the end of
the cane into the ground and it extended, a large blade snapping from
the top like a switchblade.

The monster growled, still cradling its right eye with an overly-big
hand. "Even if they trust you, it doesn't matter. The Profound
Darkness is coming. She's found a way out, and she'll employ it soon.
Without the Great Light to stop her, she'll conquer all! None will
stand in her path! My destruction means nothing!"

It lunged and managed to get a fast swipe in, the uninjured claw of
the beast connected and knocked the white-plastic mask clear off, only
to show a void beneath, the green glow of his eyes floating in the
blackness. "Your destruction means nothing? Good." the doubled voice
echoed beneath the black tattered cloak as the scythe swept around,
cleaving the monster in two from shoulder to hip. It gurgled, black
oozing from its mouth, before the top half slid toward the ground, and
the monster exploded in a shower of dust.

Thanatos sighed, ready to answer any question.  His scythe retracted,
and he put the cane inside his cloak and picked up his mask, turning
around to find no Ami there.

"Damn..." he said after a moment, replacing his white plastic 'face'.
"Perhaps Setsuna-san will break her silence on the matter for me..."
he thought to phase out of existence, when he heard the crunch of
glass. He looked over to the sound to find the five inners,
transformed, with arms crossed.

"No need to ask her to." Jupiter told him.

"We're right here." Mars said.

"But it might be nice if we knew where you hid her." Venus pointed
out.

"As well as the others." Sailor Moon added.

Mercury only stared in silence at the sad green eyes that glowed out
beneath the mask. He nodded. "Come with me, and... and I'll explain
it... all..." he said, floating lazily out from the cafe before
hunching over and collapsing, hitting the ground with a sickening
thud, his cloak dissipating to reveal an unconscious Sam.

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BWAHAHA! TBC! XD