Of Worlds to Fall
Chapter Forty-Four - Hell
by Apollymi

Main Series: Sailormoon, Dragonball Z, Gundam Wing
Genre: Crossover, Romance, Supernatural
Word Count: 1,325
Disclaimers: I own nothing but the idea. All series and characters are copyright to their individual creators and distributors, of which I am not one. I make no money from this fan-created work.

Morning had come too soon.

Her mind kept repeating that over and over. It was too soon. They weren't ready.

They were going to have to be ready. She was going to have to be ready.

Quite the crowd had gathered already. She had spotted more than a few people she recognized before she had deliberately made herself quit looking. She was nervous enough as it was without trying to figure out who was here to see any screw-ups that might happen.

From the people who had been at the meeting at Sylphiel-san's place, she figured almost everyone was here. Some people were still showing up, so it was entirely possible that they might have everyone here in the very near future.

She hadn't managed to give half of these people their powers back, and yet they were all still here to help out as they could. Because it had to be done or because she had asked, she didn't know. She didn't want to put thought into motivations, when she should just be glad that they were there.

"Heero-san and Duo-san are finishing up the last minute stuff on the time machine," Trunks-kun's voice cut through her rather panicked thoughts. "We'll be ready to switch it on in just a few minutes, if you're ready, Ginji-san."

"As I'll ever be."

"I'm going to get our troops set up then." Trunks-kun offered her a reassuring smile and waded into the crowd.

"Usagi." Heero-kun's voice drew her over to where he sat next to the time machine, doing... something on the laptop. Clearly wherever the Ginzuishou had pulled that device from, it had found one that didn't need to be recharged because it had been several days since it had appeared and it hadn't given up yet, she thought inanely.

"Yeah?" She knelt down next to him, the better to give him her fullest attention. "What is it, Heero-kun?"

"I'm going to be monitoring the machine. I've given Duo my gun and he has his as well. I'm assuming he'll be covering us from the Reapers when the time comes. But... do you need to stick close as well so he can cover you?"

That was sweet, but she shook her head. "I'll be fine. I'm planning on joining the fight once the machine is up and running. Just tell me when you're about to switch it on."

Heero-kun looked like he wanted to argue, but he quickly reined it back in. "All right." He certainly didn't sound happy, that was for certain.

She leaned across the short distance to drop a kiss that was hopefully reassuring on his lips. "Be careful, Heero-kun?" He nodded. "Duo-kun might shoot us all if something happens to you."

"Keep in mind that Trunks might do the same or worse if anything happens to you."

She smiled, brushed her lips across his once more, and pushed herself back to her feet. Just as soon as Trunks-kun declared the troops were ready, then it would be time for Ginji-chan to power up the time machine and Heero-kun to switch it on. If she understood correctly, once the machine was powered on, Heero-kun would have to upload the command he had created to the machine and it would hopefully bring them all over to the new world.

There were a lot of 'if's and 'maybe's and 'hopefully's to this plan, but there wasn't a lot to do about now. Even Kuwabara-san hadn't had any holes to pick in the plan, and she certainly wasn't going to try to play spot the faults now.

Still... For good luck, she reached over Heero-kun's head and touched where 'Hope!' had been spray painted on one of the engines, like a touchstone. Maybe it would even help.

It was easy to spot Trunks-kun; even in this crowd, his purple hair most assuredly stood out. He looked... He looked as serious as she had ever seen him. Once she caught his eye, though, the expression eased somewhat. He finished whatever it was he was saying to Ryoga-san and Ranma-san, and he sent her a silent nod. He was ready.

"Trunks-kun's ready, Heero-kun, Ginji-chan. Let's do this."

"All right..." Ginji-chan sounded like maybe he was psyching himself up for this.

Almost immediately, the smell of ozone began to fill the air. She could swear she could see small flecks of static electricity flick across the air in front of Ginji-chan, but he was paying it no mind, instead working on steadily building his power before reaching out to touch the machine.

She could see Ban-san--well, if it was anyone else, she might have called it hovering, but she found it hard to apply that term to Ban-san. It just didn't feel right. So Ginji-chan at least had someone watching his back while this was going on. In turn, that brought the worry of where Duo-kun had disappeared to.

The fear was alleviated seconds later when Duo-kun stood up from the far side of the machine, maybe finishing up making some last minute adjustments. She still had yet to locate Duo-kun's gun, but Heero-kun's was stuck in the waistband of Duo-kun's uniform pants.

Having seen it from the other end before, she had no wish to know anything else about it. The guns were Duo-kun's and Heero-kun's weapon of choice, and she could respect that, even if her own method of fighting was quite a bit different.

The machine was nearly silent in its recharging; only because she was standing so close to it was why she could hear it humming. A few seconds later, she could see lights starting to come on inside.

It took a few moments, but finally she heard Ginji-chan quietly comment, "It's ready," even as he stepped away from the machine, stepping back into Ban-san.

She didn't even have to say anything; she could see Trunks-kun moving to the front of the crowd and dropping down into a ready crouch. Duo-kun dropped quickly to a crouch as well, but it was to retrieve that second gun, apparently holstered at his ankle.

Automatically, her hand went to her pants pocket, where her brooch still sat with the Ginzuishou within it. It was time. She could do this.

Before she could even get the few words out that she needed, there was a loud sound of displaced air as Reapers began to appear overhead. One, two, six, ten...

She made herself stop counting then. Nothing good could come of continuing to count their enemies. In fact, if she kept counting, she was likely to get too intimidated to fight them... and that was the very last thing any of them needed.

Trunks-kun leapt into the air, meeting the Reapers in their own turf. That white aura surrounded him--his ki, she quickly corrected herself--seeming to lift him into the sky.

The first punch he threw seemed to go right through the Reapers, and she felt her breath catch in her throat sharply enough to hurt. The entire world seemed to hold its breath in the space between that first punch and the second one, scarcely daring to hope that this time, the attack would be successful.

It was.

The Reaper flew back several feet before it stopped itself. If it had eyes, she might have been able to gauge if it was surprised or anger or what, but when it was just a robe and a scythe, she couldn't really tell anything. She imagined it felt affronted, given how quickly it flew back at Trunks-kun, trying to press any advantages it might have had.

If it had any, though, she wasn't seeing them. Trunks-kun seemed to be easily holding his own where he was. All of her little army seemed to be doing quite well on their own.

It was time then, she supposed, for Sailor Moon to join the battle.

She flicked the brooch open and called out, "Cosmos Eternal! Make-up!"

And the light overwhelmed her.


03 November 2012

And here is Chapter 44. So close to the end, and yet so much still to come... These last few chapters took the longest to write, mostly because I seriously hate writing action/fight scenes and that is what this was. But I think they turned out pretty good.

NaNoWriMo is sitting at 3,600 words for two days. Not too shabby, for an original.

See you in the next chapter!
Apollymi

[ Wasteland | Machine | Jaded | Honest | Encounter | Sensible | Facade | Secret | Holiday | Invisible | Message | Mundane | Miscommunication | Scars | Mutual | Unreciprocated | Sarcasm | Insanity | Embrace | Solitude | Power | Enigma | Exchange | Hidden | Technology | Twilight | Obsess | Data | Melancholy | Scramble | Worn | Collapse | Text | Breakdown | Depressing | Lure | Astrology | Cursed | Poison | Abyss | Variety | Anticipation | Descent | Hell | Mystical | Transmit | Desolate | Bounce | Garden | Recovery ]