"Mirror Image, Part 1"

The Dark Fortress

The Master was not pleased. The clone was not being developped as 
quickly as planned. Though he had time to spare, he was eager to 
proceed... too eager.

Then the face of the demon appeared on the computer screen.

As a combination of technology and magic, the viewing screen could not 
present an accurate portrayal of the terrible creature's face. All that 
could be divined were the presence of fangs, wings, two small horns 
protruding above the forehead, and the distinct impression of extreme 
ugliness. The Master was forced into this alliance for good reason, but 
was never pleased at the prospect.

"What do you want, Demon?"

The face began to speak in its low, uneven, unearthly voice. "Your haste 
will emperil the entire operation, Jaedite."

The blond-haired villain reclined in his chair. The Sailor Senshi had no 
idea he was still alive, with good reason. It seemed like an eternity 
since Queen Beryl banished him for his defeats at the hand of the 
Sailors. Being entombed in ice did not make the time pass any faster. 
Jaedite was a lover of ironies, and the greatest irony of all is that 
he, considered least among Beryl's generals, outlasted even her.

But without the power of Queen Metallia, without the power of the Dark 
Kingdom, Jaedite had no power source. Therefore he had no power at all. 
Jaedite could collect energy, yes, but to what end? Without youma nor 
allies, he was powerless.

Jaedite's first energy was obtained when he was freed from his prison.

---

"Over Here!"
"It's a man, frozen in ice!"
"What an unusual discovery! The preservation... how? This man has no 
arctic clothing. How could he have travelled this far inland? We must 
bring him back!"
"Back?"
"Yes, to proper facilities in Sweden. We must make the preparations at 
once!"

---

"The autopsy is ready to begin."
"The body has been properly defrosted?"
"The body is cold, but no ice remains. We are confident that he will not 
decompose."
"Excellent. Begin."

---

The surgeon's knife approached the cold body. Everyone was tense, not 
for the least because the corpse appeared as if it might at any time 
awaken and greet them. This was despite half of the scientists were 
avowed atheists, and the other half didn't take religion too seriously. 
After all, they were scientists.

The hand drew nearer, and with a sudden calming of the hand, dropped 
towards the bare chest to make the initial incision. Then someone's hand 
grasped the wrist. The surgeon was confused. The hand was incredibly 
cold. Then the surgeon gathered his senses, and observed whose hand it 
was that had grasped his wrist, without looking up. His compagnions 
audibly gasped. He did not know why. He noticed the hand was ungloved. 
"What is the meaning of..."

Then the lights went out. And the screams began.

---

"My vengeance must be complete, Demon. This is my agenda, my war."

The demon was not impressed. "All of your efforts will be worthless 
without the crystal."

"The Crystal!" Jaedite exclaimed. That crystal was, he had discovered, 
how Queen Beryl was destroyed, along with the other generals, the rest 
of the youma army, and the entire Dark Kingdom, not to mention the 
resurrected Queen Metallia. This demon knew all these things, and 
Jaedite suspected  knew far more than he - it - was prepared to admit. 
So it had to be. Jaedite was in no mood to share his thoughts, but was 
by no means pleased. "That crystal is a nuisance. We should simply 
strike at Sailor Moon while we have the advantage of surprise."

The demon did not agree. "That is why the clone is being created, and 
why your minion has infiltrated the school where this girl is being... 
educated." Jaedite exclaimed, "That is not good enough!" Jaedite slumped 
back into his seat and calmed down. It had been too long. Jaedite's 
powers were far greater now, but so was his desire for vengeance. He 
could not take much more of this. He had the advantage. But impatience 
had been his bane in the past. He would not allow it to overcome him 
now.

Jaedite was determined to see his plans through. "I will lure Sailor 
Moon into a trap, kill her, and take my revenge on the other Senshi, and 
that cursed Tuxedo Mask." The demon interrupted, "They are many. You are 
one. Your minions are not ready yet." Jaedite was not satisfied. He 
would not be until Sailor Moon was destroyed. By his own hand.

He needed something else. Something to keep the Sailor Senshi off 
balance. Something like...

"Yes. Yes... Perfect. This will be very... interesting."

Then he laughed.

 It would be too perfect.

---

Serena's parents had sort of freaked out when they found out Serena had 
been hurt. (Last Episode) That would be something of an understatement. 
But Serena finally convinced them that yes, everything was alright, no, 
she wasn't in pain (well, much), and yes, she didn't need a doctor or go 
to a hospital. After a really good night's sleep, one that she really 
needed, she was ready to face the world the next day, no matter what 
adventures or monsters it brought.

Almost.

"Serena!"

Luna always seemed to have this problem.

"SERENA!!"

"Huh?" Serena's eyes fluttered open for a moment, then slammed shut like 
the door to a fancy car. "SERENA, GET UP!!!" Luna wasn't going to take 
no for an answer. "What, what?!?" Serena was wide awake now. Thankfully. 
"It's time to go to school, Serena!" Luna scolded her. Serena didn't 
quite believe it. "No way. It's Sunday. I'm going back to sleep." Luna 
reminded her, "That was YESTERDAY!!"

Oh.

Serena looked at the clock. 10 to 8. THIS was early. Well, she might as 
well get up now that she was wide awake. Serena dragged herself down to 
eat breakfast, then gathered her books and walked to school. Now that 
she thought about it, she hadn't walked to school in a long time. It was 
so... peaceful.

Almost.

Serena heard someone shouting behind her, "GANGWAY!" Serena turned 
around at the last moment, and saw one huge freight train coming 
straight at her. Serena leapt to the side as Lita blew right past her. 
Serena was, well, shocked. Lita wasn't usually a late one. Serena 
wondered what was wrong. She ran after Lita, yelling at her to slow 
down. Lita did, and waited for Serena to catch up.

Serena was as curious as a cat, asking, "Lita, what happened? You're not 
usually in this much of a hurry." Lita said, in a rushed voice, "My 
alarm clock went on the blink! I'm going to really pound that thing when 
I get back from school! Well, gotta run! See ya!" Lita started running 
again. Serena wasn't sure what the big rush was all about; it wasn't 
_that_ late. Oh well. Lita's long legs really cut down on her lap time. 
Serena simply kept going, and actually got on school on time. Her 
teached was pleasantly surprised.

---

Serena met Molly at lunch hour and had lunch with her, talking about 
trivial things. Molly asked her, out of nowhere, "Have you seen the 
latest test scores in Computers?" Serena's eyes glazed over. "No way," 
she said, "I don't bother. Amy's #1 every time. There' s no fun to it 
anymore; there's nothing to guess." Molly said, "I thought it was 
because you didn't want to see your low scores." Serena could just 
manage an embarassed mumble. It wasn't something she... well, Molly was 
right, of course. She just didn't want to admit it.

Anyway, Molly told her, "But Amy wasn't first. She was second. She got a 
94 on her test." "What!" Serena was shocked. "No way! How.. How can that 
be??" Serena was suddenly worried about Amy. This must be quite a blow 
to her. Serena said goodbye to Molly and then went off.

She found Amy a little while later, sitting with her back against a 
tree, staring into space. She hadn't even eaten her sandwhich. This did 
not look good.

Serena said, "Hi!" Maybe a little lame, but it was a start. Amy just 
smiled, and turned her head. Serena sat down beside Amy, and tried to 
cheer her up, but Amy had tears in her eyes. "I - I -- don't know what 
happened. It wasn't a hard question. I studied hard. Exams are coming up 
soon. If I keep this up..." Serena could tell she was really taking this 
hard. Serena just told her, "Amy, don't worry about it. You've been 
trying so hard this time, it's the pressure. You have to relax a little. 
'!' I know... let's go for a milkshake! That'll cheer you up!" Amy 
wasn't really sure, but Serena insisted. She wouldn't take "No" for an 
answer.

---

So while Serena and Amy were having their milkshake, Melvin dropped by. 
Amy was saying, "Thanks, Serena. I really appreciate this. It's really 
cheering me up." Melvin stopped by, saying, "Hi! Wanna hear the latest 
buzz?" Before Serena could comment, Melvin said, "Have you heard there's 
some new guy who just transferred here? They say he's a real genius! 
Made a full 100 on his first test in Computers! I always check out the 
test results of the senior students." Amy was quite interested, 
suddenly, asking, "Who is he?"

Melvin said, "His name's Christopher. No one really knows much about 
him, since he came from out of town. He wears glasses, and he's really 
smart. Hey! That's him, now!" Both girls looked at who Melvin was 
talking about.

He had just walked in. The young man was slightly taller than Amy, or so 
she thought, but not much. He was wearing a different sort of suit than 
the usual one, sort of like the way Darien dressed, all in black, but 
with a vest instead of an open jacket. He had short, perfectly straight, 
pitch black hair, a small face, and an equally small set of glasses, 
rimmed in thin black metal with thin lenses.

Amy muttered, "Maybe he can help me with my test scores."

Serena wasn't so sure. "Amy, maybe you should find out more about him 
before..." but before she had finished, Amy had already gotten up and 
had walked across half the room. She stopped dead in her tracks when 
Christopher turned his gaze towards her. He smiled. "Hi," he said. "Say, 
I've seen you around. You're Amy, aren't you? The really smart girl a 
couple of grades down?" Amy blushed. "Well, not really... um, you're 
Christopher, aren't you?" Christopher said, "Word travels fast. Call me 
Chris." Amy asked him, "Look, I wanted to ask you a few questions. Maybe 
you could help me with my test scores..." Chris quickly finished, "Say 
no more. I don't think I'll have much work to do." Amy blushed again. 
"I'm heading to the computer lab anyway. If you like, you can tag 
along." Amy decided she was going to go along. Both left together.

Serena was still in denial.

---

A little later, the two entered the computer room. Chris asked Amy to 
sit down. "You must be feeling really tired," he said. Amy disagreed, 
"No, I'm feeling fine." Chris looked at her straight in the eyes, and a 
blue light flashed across his lenses. Then his glasses began to glow, 
and the surfaces of the lenses became vortexes of white lines and blue 
background. "You must sleep..."

---

Later that afternoon, Rei was travelling home by herself. Not that she 
had anything to worry about; it was broad daylight, and she was paying 
attention to everything around her. She'd never let anything sneak up on 
her.

She went on the alert, hearing a can clanking behind a low wall and some 
bushes. Rei thought it might be just a rat. Maybe, or just a can blowing 
in the wind. Litterbugs. She hated them. This was, after all, a _clean_ 
city. Listening for another moment, she heard more clanking, and decided 
to investigate, just to make sure. Slowly but surely, she creeped around 
the wall. Not that she was surprised; there was nothing to see. For a 
moment, she relaxed.

A moment too long.

Hearing something behind her, she turned around to face a large robot, 
She didn't get a clear look, though, because it was already too late.

---

"Excellent. Everything is proceeding as planned."

---

Serena heard a sudden beeping. She was on her way to the Sailor meeting 
at the Temple, so it couldn't be Rei. She picked up the signal. It was 
Amy. She looked like she was in a panic, something very unusual. Serena 
immediately knew something was very wrong. "Serena!" she said, "Come 
quickly! A robot's attacking us here at --" [static] "Near the computer 
lab! Come quickly! [static] [more static]" Rei's face popped up. 
"Serena, I'm on my way. The rest of the Senshi are coming, too. Amy, if 
you can hear me, hang on!" Serena put her communicator away, and said 
boldly, "Come on, Luna! That piece of scrap metal is going to get such 
an earful!" Luna wasn't impressed, but started running, too, as Serena 
headed towards the computer lab.

---

"You know, they should be here by now."

Lita was not amused. Serena they could understand. Amy, never. And where 
was Rei? Mina wasn't as hard on them, but she _was_ worried. Artemis 
suggested, "Maybe you should try calling them on your communicator, 
Mina." Mina thought that was a good idea. She activated her 
communicator. "Serena?" ... "Serena?" All she could get was static. 
"Amy?" [static] "Rei? ANYONE???" [static] Lita was really getting 
worried. "I think something's wrong. We've got to go find them!" Artemis 
said, "Let's stick together. We've got to retrace their steps."

"Alright, maybe they're still near school, "Lita suggested. Mina 
suggested, "Well, maybe they're at the arcades." They both thought of 
Rei. They both thought of Amy, and shook their heads. No, this was 
serious. Mina then said, "I'm going to try calling first. I'll see if 
Serena and Amy went home."

---

Serena was on the scene and ready for action. The problem was, there was 
none. Nothing. Zippo. No sign of Amy, Chris, or Rei, or any of the 
others. She looked in the computer lab, and no one was there. Luna told 
her she should look around quietly. Serena started yelling, "AMY!!!" 
Luna just rolled her eyes.

"Serena?" It was Amy's voice. Serena turned around, finding both Amy and 
Rei staring at her, both transformed. "Sailor Mercury? Sailor Mars? 
Where's the monster? Is it gone?"

Suddenly, piercing through the air, a hideous laugh: "HA HA HA HA HA!!!" 
The lights began to dim. "Welcome, Sailor Moon, to your doom! Ha ha 
ha!!!" Serena wasn't transformed, and she had no idea what was going on. 
"Uh... aren't you refering to 'someone else'?"

"Ha! No mistake! Turn over the crystal now, to my two minions, or suffer 
the consequences!"

Luna was confused. What minions?

What was Serena to do? She asked Amy what was going on. "Sailor Mercury, 
what's going on?"

Sailor Mercury's face changed to a chilling grimace. "Hand over the 
crystal, Sailor Moon! Now!"

What?!

Sailor Mars was even more determined. "I am Sailor Mars! Sworn to defend 
the Negaverse! Surrender or you're toast!"

This had to be a bad dream!

Serena wasn't convinced. "No Way! You're just figments of my 
imagination. The REAL Sailor Senshi would NEVER work with the negaverse! 
I'm outta here!" Serena turned and started to run. Luna followed her, 
not really surprised at Serena's lack of backbone. But as Luna started 
to run, she crashed into a wall, unexpectedly, and really hurt her 
sensitive nose. Wait. There was no wall there. Luna looked, and saw a 
wall of transparent ice blocking the way. She turned around, and Sailors 
Mars and Mercury were gone.

What if they weren't phony? It was a disturbing thought...

---

Serena was running as fast as she could. This was a nightmare. She was 
running around the school area, which was, for some reason, completely 
deserted, not a soul in sight. A wall blocked off the path ahead and to 
the right; only open space to the left was open. Behind her was the 
computer lab building. Suddenly, Sailor Mercury leapt down in front of 
her, not far ahead. Sailor Mars, or that imposter, was behind her. 
Serena had to transform.

"MOON CRYSTAL POWER!!!"

Serena transformed into Sailor Moon. NOW she was ready.

"I am Sailor Moon! Champion of Justice! You imposters, in the name of 
the Moon, I'll punish you!"

"Shining Aqua ILLUSION!"

Suddenly Serena was surrounded by a wall of opaque water! This didn't 
look fake...

"Fire....SOUL!!"

Serena's boots were ON FIRE! She hopped in pain. Suddenly she felt an 
impact on her nose, and she fell back. The illusion disappeared, and Rei 
was standing over her.

"GIVE ME THAT CRYSTAL!"

A flash of red blew by both Serena's and Rei's faces. A rose!

Voice: "I am Tuxedo Mask, protector of Sailor Moon! Back off, ladies!"

Sailor Mars said, "Sailor Moon we want alive, but you're expendable!"

"BURNING MANDALA!" Rings of fire blasted in the direction of Tuxedo 
Mask. Tuxedo Mask dodged the rings. "FIRE SOUL!" Tux dodged the blaze. 
Mercury followed with her illusion, but by the time it took effect, Tux 
was... gone. He appeared behind Sailor Mercury. She whirled around, 
throwing a punch. Tux caught the punch, and threw her over his shoulder, 
her hitting the ground. Sailor Moon was still stunned.

Then another, more sinister, voice broke the continuity of the battle.

"Welcome, Tuxedo Mask, to your doom!"

Serena kept thinking about the REAL Sailor Sensi... Then she heard a 
voice. She turned around. Luna! She had found another way out of the 
building. Luna quickly said, "Sailor Moon, I don't think those are fake 
senshi! I think they're under the control of the enemy!" Serena blinked 
hard. It made sense. But that meant...

"WAIT! Tuxedo Mask, don't hurt the Senshi!" Tuxedo Mask turned his head. 
So did the Senshi. "They're not doing it on purpose..." Tuxedo Mask 
nodded in understanding. But he had bigger problems.

>From the side, a huge blast of blue energy slammed Tuxedo Mask in the 
chest, knocking him about fifteen feet back, onto the ground, flat on 
his back. Tuxedo Mask began to get up, and while he did, before him, 
chips of ice swirled, revealing the previously invisible figure there. 
He was dressed in dark blue, with a black cape, blue-grey hair, not too 
light, not too dark, and chilling blue eyes, which stared directly into 
Tuxedo Mask's soul. The face showed not only determination, but coldness 
and evil.

"I am Frost. Prepare for your annihilation. Senshi, deal with Sailor 
Moon." The two controlled Senshi turned ominously towards Sailor Moon. 
The latter got up, and began to step back.

Tuxedo Mask said, "Come on."

"Hold on!"

Tuxedo Mask looked up. Above one of the walls that closed off this 
battleground were Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter!

Venus: "In the name of Venus, I'll punish you!"
Jupiter: "In the name of Jupter, I'll smash you!"

Frost: "Destroyer! I summon you!"

Appearing high above, in mid-air, through the means of teleportation 
came the Destroyer robot. It was a machine designed for destruction, 
with an arm cannon about three times the size of the Scout's armored 
humanoid configuration, massive limbs, and a red visor in front of the 
"human" head, with a "face" carved into the metal. The other arm held an 
oversized hand.

Now the battle truly began.

---

Mercury lunged at Moon with a right hook. Moon jumped back. Mars 
followed with her fire soul attack. Moon dodged, but was now in a 
corner, and desperate.

--- 

Frost used his left arm to pull his cape around his body, and then threw 
the cape back. Four ice shards streamed at Tuxedo Mask like steel 
daggers. Mask leaped over the shards, and countered with three of his 
own roses. Frost waved his left hand horizontal and away from his body, 
and literally slid three feet to his right. The roses fell to the 
ground, useless. Frost then summoned a large arctic wind, chilling 
Tuxedo Mask to the bone, despite the latter's cape.

---

The Destroyer promptly blew apart the concrete where Sailor Jupiter had 
once stood. Jupiter, now flying through the air as far as her jump would 
take her, used her Sparkling Wide Pressure attack. The Destroyer merely 
moved higher, avoiding the blow. Jupiter fell to the ground. Sailor 
Venus knew it was out of range of her chain, so she used her crescent 
beam. The Destroyer dodged that, too, and came low to strafe Venus with 
deafening crimson explosions. But Venus was too fast. Its back exposed, 
Jupiter launched her attack again, but this time the machine used its 
left arm to block. The lightning exploded in a bright cloud of sparks, 
but the armor had not been breached.

---

"Give me that crystal."

Mars was serious. She was almost face to face with Sailor Moon now, 
while still standing, now backed up into a corner. Mars drew closer. "I 
said GIVE IT TO ME!" Mars used her left hand to slap Moon backhanded. 
Sailor Moon was shocked. How dare Rei do this to her! Even if she was 
under the control of the enemy, how DARE her slap Sailor Moon! On top of 
that, how dare those creeps use Rei, her good friend, to attack her! 
Sailor Moon became upset. Then she became angry.

Then she slapped Mars back. Across the face. With her right glove hand.

Everything seemed to stop in time.

Sailor Mars took two steps back, an expression of sheer shock on her 
face. Mercury was no less amazed. This was the Moon Princess. This was 
Serena. The kindest person Amy had ever known. The best friend she ever 
had. And she had just slapped Rei in the face!

Mars blinked hard, twice. Then, slowly, at first, but then faster, she 
said, "Serena?... Serena?" Sailor Moon also blinked hard. "Rei? Can you 
hear me? Are you okay?" "Yeah," she said. "I have a major headache, 
though... what happened?" Mercury still had a grimace on her face. 
Serena turned to face her. "Amy! Amy? It's me, Serena! Snap out of it!" 
Amy's grimace faded away. Her fist loosened, and she dropped her arm, 
and straightened up. After blinking lightly, she asked, "Serena?"

Then they turned to the battle.

---

The ice sword clashed with the cane.

"Surrender now, human!" Frost yelled over the sounds of the Destroyer's 
energy blasts. Tuxedo Mask defiantly yelled back, into his opponent's 
face, "Never!" Holding his sword in his left hand, Frost held his right 
high, and strange blue energy surrounded it. Frost thrust the hand at 
Tuxedo Mask, who dodged the attack. The hand, stetched as a claw, dug 
into the concrete, and released an incredible chill through the stone. 
When Frost retracted his hand, he took a good deal of the rock with him, 
as it simply fell away. 

"Sparkling Wide PRESSURE!!!"

The attack from the side took Frost by surprise. Not expecting either of 
those two to attack him, since they were busy with the Destroyer, Frost 
took the full force of the hit. Frost dropped his sword, screaming in 
agony. The sword melted away. Frost took a look at the situation, and 
believed that it was hopeless now. Frost quickly fled, teleporting in a 
haze of ice.

---

Meanwhile, Sailor Venus had used her golden chain to try to slow down 
the Destroyer. Without much success. The war machine had used its left 
hand to grasp her by the waist and throw her against the wall. Jupiter 
was distracted with her attack, and the Destroyer turned to the side to 
kill Jupiter with a single blow. 

Its programming was somewhat faulty.

Sailor Venus used her chain attack and wrapped it around the bot's legs, 
dragging it to the ground with its own weight. The Destroyer's shot went 
wide, though it was still enough to knock out what was left of the wall 
and knock Jupiter and Tuxedo Mask to the ground. The destroyer then 
removed the chain, and turned to face all the Senshi. But Sailor Moon 
was ready.

"It's time for you to bite the dust, you oversized Tin Can!"

"MOON....SCEPTRE....ELIMINATION!!!"

The sceptre's power penetrated the machine's armor, rupturing the 
central core. Everyone ran for cover as the machine went through its 
final death throes, throes with no human voice to convey the shock and 
agony. The machine exploded into dust.

Tuxedo Mask: "That was too close."

---

"You failed me, Frost! Explain yourself!!"

Frost hung his head in shame. "I have no excuse. The Senshi defeated 
me."

Jaedite was not impressed. "You are my most brilliant pupil. For this 
reason, you will be allowed to live. Your work on the clone is too 
important. It will be ready soon. You will supervise its deployment. 
Fail me again, and I shall send Prometheus to do my work!"

Frost cringed. Not Prometheus, that ox. That ogre. The brute. The 
savage. He could not bear the thought.

He had to make this next mission count. If he ever got to fight the 
scouts again... he had been merciful. He would not make that mistake 
again.

---

Amy found Chris after the battle. He was unconcious, but unfazed by the 
ordeal, and soon woke up, not remembering anything. Amy could not 
remember anything after entering the computer lab either. Rei lost her 
memory after her encounter with the Destroyer bot.

Later, the Senshi were having a meeting.

Luna said to everyone, "Whoever is behind this wanted you to begin to 
distrust one another, to turn against each other. From now on, you must 
stay together more, so this will not happen again." Artemis added, "Now 
that everything's back to normal, we have to figure out what this 
enemy's next move is."

Rei was skeptical. "I can try another fire reading, but I don't know if 
I'll get anything." Lita was confident, "Rei, since now we know whom one 
of our enemies is, maybe you can get a reading." Rei smiled, glad for 
the support. Amy was apologetic. "If I hadn't been so worried about my 
marks, and had cared more for the team, this might not have happened." 
Serena didn't like that tone. "Amy, it wasn't your fault! Don't worry 
about it." Mina agreed, "Everyone makes mistakes. We just have to stick 
together and work out our problems. Still, I'm just wondering, do you 
have a crush on that Chris guy, Amy?"

Amy blushed. Then she just laughed.