The lead-in to the last episode in the "Black Ice" series/saga.

"The Coming Storm"

Though the earth had shaken, it was not enough for the Demon Lord. The 
barrier that kept his kind in place, trapped beneath the earth's mantle, 
had not been broken, or even cracked.

"Master," one of his generals said to him, "the Lady has been quite 
successful." Yet the Demon Lord frowned, the red cat-like pupils of his 
eyes, set against complete blackness, narrowed to mere slits. She had 
great promise, but could never handle the Crystal.

The city of Tokyo was in chaos, a fact that pleased him greatly. Yet 
this would not last. A few accidents; rubble falling; a few buildings 
being cracked beyond repair. More to his liking, a fire had broken out 
in an industrial district, and threatened certain key strategic 
locations, including a chemical plant. If the fire reached it... the 
result would please him indeed. The actual damage was even lighter than 
he expected, though it of course would cause great havoc underground, 
where pipes could be damaged or destroyed, sending, at the very least, 
pressurized water seeping out. Minor damage. He wanted complete 
annihilation.

Yet to do that he needed the gate opened. He was rapidly losing minions 
in the above world. He had to do something. What he needed to do was 
obvious. A plan was forming. If he excecuted the plan correctly, in the 
eunsuing chaos, no one would be able to stop him. And he would rise 
again... and rule unchallenged.

So they now had the Silver Crystal. But the Lady was unreliable, easily 
tempted by power. He could still use her once he had ascended to the 
surface. But he did not need her. Not anymore.

His own generals would rule on his behalf. His vision of a world 
enslaved to do his bidding would be fulfilled. He would know absolute 
power here on Earth.

And then?

Beyond.

---

A gloved white hand urgently moved large pieces of paper aside. The 
others were amazed that he had so quickly recovered, but were thankful. 
They needed his advice. Frost turned around to them, having studied the 
seismograph carefully. His left hand - his new left hand - was gloved 
like his other hand, and did not appear to be any different... yet they 
all knew what had happened, and the fact that it was hidden only 
heightened their anxieties about the experience.

Frost said to Prometheus, "You were right. This was not a natural 
phenomena." Zeus asked, "So, if tectonics didn't cause the earthquake, 
what did?" Frost shook his head. "I don't know. The source would have to 
be subterranean, though, given these readings. It would take a massive 
power surge."

A sudden scream pierced the air! Their heads turned in surprise and 
shock...

The four warriors were alerted to the cries of the Princess, still in 
another room, the door closed - they couldn't see through - and she 
sounded as if she was in complete agony. Before the thought could even 
register, Apollo was already across the room, opening the door.

Princess Serenity was lying on the floor, on her side, unconcious. Her 
wand was resting a few feet away from her outstretched hand.

When Zeus came into the room, and saw the scene, he exclaimed, "What 
HAPPENED?"

---

The Sailor Senshi were together now, at the Hikawa Shrine. It was an 
isolated location where no one would spot them if they needed to 
transform. Given the circumstances, they probably would. Serena, with 
Tuxedo Mask (still in his suit), ran towards the others. Amy had her 
computer out, and was doing some calculations. Serena came to a slow 
stop, and was bent over, her hands on her knees, panting.

Rei said, "It's about time you showed up."

The other Senshi were engaged in a discussion about the situation. Amy 
said to all of them, "Alright, here's the situation. I've patched my 
computer into the emergency dispatches, and it appears that the damage 
wasn't bad in most areas, but there's still trouble in two places. 
There's a fire that's spreading in an industrial district. If it 
spreads, it could threaten the entire city. I'll handle that. Now," she 
continued, "there's a number of smaller fires breaking out, and more 
people could be caught up in them." Mina said, "Okay, we'll do what we 
can." Serena was not panting anymore. Amy continued giving a run-down of 
the situation. Except for the fires, it wasn't bad.

Serena said, "Guys, there's something I have to tell you..."

Luna said, "Serena, not now. We have to get organized here." Amy said, 
"Well, I'm finished. I have to help put out those fires." The others 
wished Amy good luck, and Amy ran off. Serena was going to tell her to 
wait, but thought that if those fires were serious, she might indeed be 
the only one who can really do something. After she was gone, Rei turned 
around, looked Serena straight in the eye, hands on her hips, and asked, 
"So what's your story?"

Tuxedo Mask, who had gone largely unnoticed in the larger meeting, 
decided it was time to say exactly what had happened. He said, "The 
Enemy has the Crystal."

To say that the others were surprised would be a gross understatement. 
They gasped for air, because they were completely breathless, as they 
considered the implications of that statement.

Luna asked, "How? How did they get it?"

Serena said, "When I was in detention some weird lady came in. She 
wanted to see my brooch. When I said no, she used this weird powder on 
me and I couldn't stay awake. When I woke up, Tuxedo Mask was there, 
and..." she lowered her head, "and...." Luna gasped again. She couldn't 
believe it! "Serena!" she said, "How could you!!"

Serena was in tears... then she began to sob.

Rei shouldered past Mina and Lita, and placed her hands on Serena's 
shoulders. She looked down at Luna, and said, "Luna, this is harder for 
her than any of us. It wasn't her fault." Then, she looked back, as 
Serena was crying. Rei tried to smile, and said, "Serena, you hear that, 
it wasn't your fault? We'll get it back."

Artemis said, "Everyone, if the Crystal's gone, that could explain the 
sudden earthquake, if it was misused." Mina looked down to him, and 
asked, "But if the Crystal is in enemy hands, what are they going to do 
with it?" Lita told her, "Whatever it is, it HAS to be bad." Tuxedo Mask 
agreed, "That's right. We have to find it as fast as we can."

Rei was kneeling down with Serena, who had all but completely collapsed. 
"Hey, girl," she said, "we're going to find the Crystal, and get it 
back. I promise." Serena looked at her with moist eyes, and, after a 
moment, she smiled, and she hugged Rei. Rei said to Tuxedo Mask, in a 
serious voice, "I can try a fire reading. But there's still those fires 
in the residential areas."

Tuxedo Mask said, "I'll be around when you need me. I'll take care of 
it."

---

Bishoujo Mask was laying on the blue, carpeted floor of her bedroom, in 
an apartment she was renting specifically for this purpose, as a place 
to crash in an emergency. The crystal was lying away from her hand, as 
she was completely unconcious. Damiano, her owl and devoted ally, 
watched over her with some concern. Damiano was having trouble keeping 
awake, however - it was the middle of the day, and he was a creature of 
the night.

Not unlike her.

---

Frost examined Serenity on a mattress covered with a simple white sheet. 
Her shoes had been taken off, and her wand placed on a small table. The 
others were present, but took care to stay out of the way. Serenity was 
regaining conciousness.

He asked her, "Can you hear me?"

---

She saw a vision of a great gate of iron, covered in shadows, sealed by 
a great lock, with a warning in ancient and forgotten languages... she 
saw a realm of darkness within, one that frightened her to the core of 
her being. Then she felt a calling, a calling to this place...

Then she saw the Crystal.

Then, she awoke.

---

"Frost?" she asked. Her eyes fluttered open. Frost moved his hand back 
and forth in front of her eyes, which patiently followed his movement. 
He was satisfied that she was concious. She began to sit up, but he 
cautioned her with his left hand to stay lying down. He did not want her 
exerting herself until she was fine. But, after a moment, she rose, 
stood up, and walked over to the little table, to claim her wand. Then 
she turned to the others, and said to them, "I know what has happened. 
We must move quickly."

Her voice left no doubt about that.

---

Sailor Mercury was surrounded by the blazing inferno. She had charged 
right into this building for a simple reason: it was a chemical factory, 
and if it went, the whole block would go up in smoke. She had to stop it 
here...

"SHINING AQUA ILLUSION!!"

She released her powers again... and again. She had to smother this fire 
now! Her powers were quite effective, using water, cold, and mist to 
smother and weaken the fires. She had a lot of work to do. She just 
hoped she'd hold up. Nearby, she could hear the sirens of the fire 
trucks, and the shouts of firemen - they had seen her come in, charge 
in, and were trying to follow her path of shabon spray and ice with 
water hoses.

---

The rubble let go.

A large mass of concrete fragments, dislodged by the earthquake, and a 
large piece in particular, fell from the building. Below, on the ground, 
two frightened children, one with a sprained ankle which came during the 
quake, opened their eyes large as they saw the rocks falling towards 
them. One was a girl, the other a boy - the boy had the sprain - and 
both equally screamed.

Then, everything was black.

Feeling the wind against the back of her head, the girl wondered, 
"Huh?", and moved her head so that she could see. She looked up - to the 
face of a very handsome masked man in a very, very good-looking suit, 
with a cape, a really big cape, red...

The boy screamed. She looked down, and saw that they were FLYING! She 
screamed too, as they approached the ground. But the masked man simply 
dropped to the ground, holding them tight, and stood up, leaving them to 
sit down, sort of, on the walkway, since both were still shaking so much 
that they could not stand. The girl looked back up, to thank the man, 
but he had already turned, his cape - black from the back - flowing in 
the wind. Then, he leaped - no, he flew - so high that he disappeared 
over the buildings!

Then she fainted, overwhelmed.

---

The door burst open, crashing against the wall. Damiano flew straight 
up, startled, as the first intruder gave him such a whack that he 
crashed against the wall as well, and fell to the ground, stunned. 
Bishoujo Mask tried to get up, startled and taken by surprise, but a 
large beam of yellow energy caught her directly in the chest and blew 
her back to the far corner of the room. Before she could gather her 
senses, though she was still standing, a blur shot across the room and 
she ended with a blue blade at her throat. She looked at her attacker's 
face, and paled.

She looked into the eyes of Frost.

He said, "Move and you die." She knew from the passionless expression on 
his face that he meant it..

Her eyes looked across the room. Zeus stood as an imposing figure beyond 
the far side of the doorway, making way for Princess Serenity, in the 
black attire that she favored, as she stepped into the room, her 
obsidian toe leading. She walked calmly to the center of the room, and 
dropped something. It was a crystal- the Dark Crystal. It had been 
mostly drained of energy. Then she picked up the Silver Moon Crystal, 
and added it to her wand. Then, without a word, she began to walk out of 
the room. As she left, she said, without making any physical movement to 
look back, "Kill her."

Bishoujo Mask vanished in a cloud of smoke, as did Damiano, something 
that surprised Apollo, who was still looking down at the dark colored 
feathers left behind. Frost pulled his sword out of the wall, and said, 
"It was as she expected."

Then, they left.

---

Meanwhile, the fire continued to burn, and burn wildly, almost out of 
control.

Sitting behind the fire, Rei tried to concentrate. She had to do this 
right.

The others - Mina, Serena, Lita, Luna, Artemis - were behind her, not 
making the slightest sound. They needed Rei right now, needed her skills 
so that they could find out what had happened, where the Crystal was. 
They could only hope that the Crystal was powerful enough that it would 
be easily found.

Rei was getting an image. They could see it. They saw... through the 
fire... the gate... that same gate. And now Luna knew...

"No! It can't be!" she said. Rei held the image, not letting even this 
ruin her concentration - not this time. Serena asked, "What?" Artemis 
didn't know what she was talking about. Luna explained.

"A long time ago..."

"Before the Dark Kingdom and Queen Metallia, about a thousand years 
before, a great force appeared on Earth that threatened the peace. The 
forces of the Underworld, the forces of death and destruction, emerged 
and waged a terrible war against all the other kingdoms. These evil 
spirit creatures - true demons - were fought by all the forces of good 
in the solar system in a great and bloody war. Finally, the remnants 
were sealed behind a great gate that they could not open."

"If that's where the Crystal is, they may have enough power to open the 
gate!" Artemis said, "But wait! The person using the Crystal would need 
to use its full power. That person would die!" Lita added, "What about 
the clone?" Mina exclaimed, "They're going to kill her to open the 
gate!" Rei stopped the fire reading now, satisfied she knew where this 
was. "The gate's far underground," she said. Luna said that they had to 
get everyone together. Mina asked her a couple of more questions, but 
Luna shook her head and said, "Look, it's before my time. I don't know 
anything more than what I've told you. But if this is that gate, we have 
to hurry."

---

A young woman was screaming in panic, her kitchen ablaze. She was 
coughing as she pulled off her apron. She should have done it sooner... 
she was just trying to get out, but she couldn't find her way. Then she 
heard a man yell, "Over here!" The woman couldn't see much when she ran 
into a man's chest. Tuxedo Mask held her tight, and took her to a 
window. Then, before she actually thought about what they were doing, he 
carried her off, as the fire spread to the rest of the apartment..

---

The Sailor Senshi were back together. Amy had finished her job, and 
those fires had been put out. There wasn't much more that could be done. 
The residential buildings had been built with very strict fire 
standards, and there were few cases of real trouble. Unfortunately, they 
couldn't help more, since they had a much larger threat to counter.

"Wait a minute," Mina said, "how's Serena going to fight?" Luna replied, 
"She was Sailor Moon long before we got the Silver Moon Crystal. You're 
going to have to all work together," she said. They all nodded, and 
transformed. Serena was apprehensive: "What about Tuxedo Mask?" she 
said. Artemis told her, "You're going to have to go by yourselves. 
Besides, he can't follow, anyway." Serena didn't like that - at all.

But this was something they had to do.

Artemis said, "You have to use the Sailor Teleport. It's the only way."

And so they did...

---

Tuxedo Mask was standing on the rooftop of a tall apartment building. He 
could sense that they were going, could sense that there was something 
very important going on...

Then, he sensed movement behind him.

He turned around, and Bishoujo Mask was standing there, her hip out to 
the side, a hand lazily gripping it, her other hand limp to her side. 
She said, "Chill, I'm not here for a fight. Do you have any idea what's 
going on?"

Tuxedo Mask said, "Whatever it is, you're not getting away with it." He 
reached into his cape and pulled out a rose. She said, "No, you don't 
understand... I'm the one who stole the Crystal, but," she said, as 
Tuxedo Mask listened very attentively, "the Dark Senshi took it from me. 
The clone is going to try to use it to open a gate to the Underworld, 
and release an army of demons which will conquer the Earth. I need you 
to stop them." Tuxedo Mask was surprised.

He said, "What? You want MY help? What do you care?"

She said, "Oh, don't misunderstand me. If I hadn't been _betrayed_, I 
would have done it myself, except it would probably kill me to let the 
whole thing loose. And that's exactly what the guy - the Prince of 
Devils I think his formal name is - wants. And it's going to kill the 
clone to do it."

He thought she was lying.

She said, "She loves you, you know." That stole the blood from Tux's 
face. He had no idea. She said, at this puzzled expression of his, "Oh, 
I guess you don't know. She really has the hots for you. In a strange 
sort of way, I don't blame her," she said with a rather lewd, hungry 
expression on her face. She continued, "Look, I don't have all day. If 
it weren't for the fact that I'll probably be dead if he gets his way, I 
wouldn't think twice about letting him suck every soul on the face of 
the Earth dry, and making demons out of everyone. But I don't think you 
want that, do you?"

Tuxedo Mask asked, "What do you want?"

She said, "If the Sailors are half as good as I've been told, they're 
already on their way. But you're not, Cape Boy. So if you're going to go 
there, you need me. So," she finished, "if you want to see your girly 
friend alive, they're going to need your help, so do yourself a favor 
and agree to let me take you there. See," she said, "you _know_ I'm 
right, don't you?"

He thought about it. What choice did he have? He agreed.