Wonder Woman + Sailor Moon - "Under the Eye of Planet X"

Chapter 1

It was a dream more vivid than most, filled with the sense of a place; musty and dark, warm and confined. The weight of the earth above was bereft of forgiveness, and had to be so. Not even the amazons - she knew them to be amazons - though noble their intent, were granted quarter in this oppressive chamber; the cost of freedom being too great for mortals to bear.

Two by two, they lined the cavern leading to the gates, and watched without blinking. The smell was more pungent here, almost rank, acrid, like spoiled eggs, enough to turn most stomachs. But the warriors did not flinch. They were resolute, and chiseled like the pillars along the confines of the cave.

Behind the doors stood flame and torment. Its name all but hissed at them through the cracks; 'Tartarus' - home of the wretched, plunging as far beneath the ground as Olympus reached high. It was there that the wicked tasted the fruits of their deeds a thousand times over, and from which a few, irrepressible spirits sometimes returned, dragging damnation with them.

After a millenia, one such spirit was on the cusp of freedom. A cosmic sickness called to her, and would not be denied.

The tallest of the amazons, a woman with hair blazing like fire, thumbed the locket of her scabbard. Though doom was set to meet them halfway, she wished at the very least it would be punctual.

At her side was a woman, barely more than a girl - not born of Themyscira, but by heart an amazon - who might have been just as happy to face no trial at all. Artemis stole a glance, however brief, at the golden hair and puffed cheeks more fitting of a priestess or poet than a warrior.

She smirked sideways at the girl. "You're shaking."

Cassandra bristled. "Am not."

"You are!"

"If I'm shaking," she said, "it's with excitement."

And, she didn't say, a cocktail of adrenaline, anticipation and the million thoughts of damnation pressed in the back of her mind. The moment called for her to be still, to be alert, to react as needed - not to spring at the horrors cooked by her imagination.

"Leave her alone," said another; a sister, in spirit if not blood.

"I'm only teasing," said Artemis. "My sword thirsts, and I would slake it before death by boredom."

The third amazon, whose name was Donna, neither smirked nor grimaced at the remark, though her expression did harden.

"Time enough for that when our duty is served," she said. "Cassandra, remember your training. Be vigilant, never complacent, but be at peace until called to raise arms."

Easy for her to say, thought the girl, for Donna was made of the same stuff as another hero of legend. She, like her sister, was raised in a crucible of combat, wisdom, and intellect. Cassandra, on the other hand, was six months shy of senior year in suburban hell. What strange fate it was that she should be here, at the gates of Tarturus.

The dream's eye shifted down the length of the corridor, past the eight amazons, to a mysterious ninth approaching from the rear. She made no attempt to hide her steps, nor did she falter when the flank guards snapped in her direction. What manner of individual wandered without a care in a place that amazons feared to tread?

"Halt! Identify yourself!"

She paused, but did not emerge into the flickering torchlight.

Artemis scowled. "I'm accustomed to evil emerging from the gates; not entering from above!"

Donna had no such desire for banter. "Who are you, and what do you want? Answer, or by the gods we will run you through!" The caves bore no forgiveness, and by necessity, nor did they.