ZT: Hey everyone. I needed a break from re-writing FS2 and decided that all my extra story thoughts needed to go into something. I noticed that there weren't very many SMff9 crossovers out there; in fact I haven't found one on yet, so, I decided to change that. Just a warning, this is Usa-centered and may have a bit of Mamo-bashing (In fact I can pretty much guarantee he'll be bashed if brought up.) Anyway, on with the show, I don't own SM or FF9. Enjoy!
Of Silver Crystals and Feathers
Prologue
Usagi blinked as she glanced around her new surroundings. She recognized it easily as the Moon Kingdom palace but why was she here? Was there a new enemy? Rei and Setsuna hadn't said anything. Or maybe she was ambushed and didn't realize it. 'Don't tell me someone killed me again!' she groaned to herself. Why else would she be here? Every time she was brought to this place it was because she was having a rendezvous with her dead mother who gave her something to defeat a new enemy and/or revive her. Why would this time be any different?
"Ok mother, I'm here! What do I need to do?" she called out when she noticed that the queen was nowhere in sight.
"Uh…Who're you yelling at?" Usagi jumped when the new voice spoke behind her. His features were hidden quite well in the shadows, but she was able to make out that he was wearing armor similar to Endymon's, except it was white with the designs being light blue in color.
She stared at him a few moments, trying to figure out if she had seen this person before, or if she could put a name to the voice. After a few tries, she found she couldn't. "Um, sorry, but who are you?"
The person's eyebrows rose, though how Usagi could tell this without seeing his features, she couldn't begin to guess. He was silent for a few seconds, and then suddenly laughed, "Good one Seren! You actually made me think you forgot me for a second there!" He stopped and paused for a moment, "You…are joking right?"
She could hear the tinge of worry in his voice when he asked the last part, and she couldn't help but feel guilty at what she was about to say, "I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are."
"C'mon quit fooling around. It's me; your bro," he replied with a half nervous laugh.
Usagi blinked confused. Her brother? This wasn't Shingo! 'Wait, he keeps calling me "Seren"' she told herself. 'That must be short for Serenity, and it would make sense that he would think I'm her-me-past me- whatever that's called! ...I had a brother in my past life?' she asked herself confused. How come Luna and Artemis never brought this up? After all, that would make him a moon prince and just as important to find as she was…Maybe Lunarian princes weren't as important as princesses. But still, wouldn't they at least tell her that she had a family member out there? Maybe he wasn't revived…But then why would her mother only revive one child and not them both? It was so confusing!
The man studied her as she had a debate with herself over something. Had what he said really stumped her that bad? "Are you ok?"
"Since when do I have a brother??" she finally blurted out.
There was complete silence between the two for about a minute. It was so quiet in fact that Usagi was sure she gave the poor guy a heart attack and that he had just died standing up. Then, a noise broke the silence. It sounded a harsh breath being forced out. It was followed by another round of rich laugh coming from the guy. "You know, if you ever decided to run away from the palace, you should go hide out with a band of actors. You're really good at getting into character when you want to. Okay I'll play along. No I'm not your brother really. I wonder how you would have reacted if I told you I was your husband though," he got out between his laughter.
"You're my husband??!!!" she shrieked.
This only made the man laugh harder, "No!" He caught his breath before starting up again, "Alright princess, let's be complete strangers for a moment then." He bowed deeply to her, his long loose bangs falling forward as he did, "I am Erymanthus, prince of the Sun, son of Apollo, and the Champion of the fair Moon princess Serenity." He stood upright again, brushing his bangs back in place as he did and winking at her as he did (Again, she wondered how she could see that when she couldn't see his facial features.), "Well, that's what I tell other people when I'm supposed to be polite and act all noble at least. I guess royals aren't allowed to have best friends since childhood who act as siblings to each other, huh?"
"I guess…" Usagi said slowly. At least she knew the guy's name now…
"OH! Almost forgot!" Erymanthus smacked his forehead as something obviously came to him. "Panagiotis wanted me to find you." He beckoned for her to follow, "Come on, he's this way."
"Pana…giotis?" she made a bit of a face as the foreign name rolled off her tongue but followed Erymanthus none the less.
"Oh don't tell me you're gonna pretend like you don't know him either?" he asked, not bothering to turn around. He seemed to know the answer because she saw his shoulders slump forward a little in defeat, "You know, the newly appointed high priest. The one you used to make a point of bothering during his training?"
The name still didn't ring a bell, so Usagi resigned herself to following the man in front of her. They walked down a hall and down some stairs to a garden. He led her through the garden towards a gazebo. As they neared it, Usagi noticed a young man there sipping tea, but again, all she could manage to make out about his appearance was that he wore an outfit similar to the one Helios had worn in his human form. She guessed it was just the attire that Silver Alliance priests wore or something.
Erymanthus whistled to get the other's attention, "Hey Pana-man! I found her!"
The man put his tea cup down and stood up. He walked over to them with a grace that could put Michiru to shame in her opinion. He walked past Erymanthus and right up to her. When he was a few feet away from her, he stopped and bowed in much the same manner that Erymanthus had earlier. "Serenity." His voice made her chest tighten. That voice, it was so smooth and deep, reminding her of rich chocolate cream. Actually, scratch that, that voice was much better than chocolate cream! He stood up from his bow and looked down at her, "I…"
"USAGI!!!!!!!!!" Usagi squeaked in surprise as Luna's yelling finally startled her awake from her dream, effectively making her fall off her bed in a tangled mess of crescent moon sheets, bunny pajamas, one pancaked Luna, and a half asleep/half startled Usagi.
Usagi rubbed her eyes, "Mm, Luna…can't I have five more minutes?"
"Wook a' teh crock!" Luna's muffled voice came from underneath the massive pile.
Usagi blinked a moment before looking at the clock, guessing that's what Luna said to do. At first it didn't register what she was talking about, then the clock digits sunk in. "AHHHHHHHHHH! I'M GOING TO BE LATE!!" she screamed, grabbing her uniform and running into the bathroom.
Later that day, after school and detention from being late, Usagi walked towards Rei's temple with Makoto and Ami who had stayed after school for club meetings. At the moment Ami was reading one of her books while Makoto was talking about some cute guy in her gardening club. However, Usagi wasn't paying attention. Her mind was focused on the dream from the night before. She guessed that that was a good thing earlier when she was caught daydreaming in class. Her teacher had asked her for the name of some specific person from mythology. Turns out 'Erymanthus' was the name she had been looking for, so when Usagi spewed it out without thinking, she got it right. She guessed it was a good thing that she said that one and not Panagiotis. She guessed that one of the specifics being that the person was the "Son of Apollo" helped in her decision, although the Erymanthus in her dream wasn't blind, and hadn't said that he was a river god in his introduction to her…
"Usagi-chan, are you feeling ok?" Usagi was taken from her thoughts by Ami's concerned voice.
"Yeah, you've been really out of it all day," Makoto voiced her concerns as well.
"Hm? Oh, sorry guys. I've just been thinking…I had a really weird dream last night and it's been bugging me."
Makoto shared a concerned glance with Ami. Last time dreams were brought up they wound up facing Queen Nehelenia and the Amazons. "About what?" Ami asked.
Usagi shrugged, "I'm not sure, to be honest it could have just as easily have been to the three ice cream sundaes, five cookies, and two slices of chocolate crème pie I had before going to bed." Ami and Makoto felt sweat drops form on the backs of their heads when Usagi spoke of how much desert she had.
"Was it a nightmare?" Ami pressed, trying to figure out if they should be worried or not.
Usagi shook her head, her blond pigtails swishing back and forth as she did, "No, it wasn't a nightmare, but it did involve the Moon Kingdom and two people who I had never met before. I kinda want to talk to Luna and Setsuna about them. In my dream they, or at least one of them, seemed to be really close to the Moon Princess. I'm curious if he actually existed or not…"
"Hmm…well both of them will be at the scout meeting. Maybe you can ask them then," Makoto suggested.
Usagi thought about it a moment before nodding, "Good idea, I think I will…"
"Two men from the Moon Kingdom? Were they cute?" Minako asked, excited. They were at Rei's temple now, listening to Usagi describe her dream to them. Of course, as soon as Usagi said that the two individuals in her dream were of the opposite gender of herself, Minako immediately went into boy crazy mode.
"I don't know. I couldn't see their faces," Usagi replied with a sweat drop. "But I did get their names. In fact, I got one's full title."
Rei let one of her finely shaped eyebrows raise at that, "Why did one give you his title?"
Usagi shrugged, "He thought I was fooling around when I said I didn't know him and gave me a whole introduction." She put a digit up to her chin in thought, "He called me his 'sister' though, that's what really threw me off I guess."
There were three gasps when she said this, making the rest of the people in the room turn their attention to the ones responsible for the sound. "Sounds like you three know who she's talking about," Haruka said, looking at the two cat guardians and Setsuna.
Setsuna looked over at Usagi rather than answer the scout of Uranus's question directly, "This boy, did he by any chance say that he was a prince of the Sun?"
Usagi looked at the time keeper in surprise before nodding, "Yeah, that was part of his intro. He said his name was Erymanthus, son of Apollo."
"Hey, wasn't that the name of the guy in mythology class?" Makoto asked.
The scout of the moon nodded, "That's how I got the question right; I was thinking about the dream when the teacher asked me. When she said that the person she wanted me to identify was the son of Apollo, I just blurted out the name and wound up being right."
"Many names of those of the Moon Kingdom have found their way into the mythology of Earth," Luna explained, "But Erymanthus was very much a real prince from the Silver Alliance." She paused a moment, thinking about something, "Usagi-chan, was the other in your dream a priest?"
Usagi nodded, "Yeah, I think his name was Panasomething. I only heard the name once in the dream. The second time Erymanthus called him"
"Pana-man, right?" Artemis interjected, receiving a nod from the former moon princess. He shared a glance with the others. They never thought they would have to talk to the scouts about those two, at least not for a while.
"So, who are they then?" Makoto asked, looking at the three.
"And why is Usagi having dreams about them?" Rei asked as well.
"Erymanthus, as said earlier, was the prince of the sun, and the final member of the princess's court. He fought along side you girls when the Negaverse attacked. Panagiotis was the high priest of the Moon Kingdom at the time. Both died during the attack," Luna explained.
Usagi was puzzled by this, "If Erymanthus was one of my protectors, why wasn't he reborn along with the rest of us?"
"We're not sure to be honest. When Queen Selenity used the Silver Crystal to revive everyone, she couldn't revive them," Artemis answered.
"What?! Why?!" the girls exclaimed.
"Their souls vanished the moment they passed on. For a time we thought that their souls had been reincarnated almost instantly, however, there has been no sign of one who possesses the power of the Sun or a male who has been blessed by the moon." Setsuna replied.
"That still doesn't explain why they showed up in Usagi-chan's dream though," Michiru pointed out, "From the sound of it, they wanted to make their presence known, but why now?"
"…Maybe they are finally about to be reincarnate, and wanted Usagi to know about them," Rei suggested.
"That sounds possible. We'll just have to wait and see what happens," Artemis said, closing the discussion for the night.
A week later, Galaxia and her forces came to Earth, and thus started the Sailor StarS season. With the events going on, Erymanthus and Panagiotis were pushed to the back of their minds as the sailor scouts fought their most dangerous foes yet...
…and lost.
Well that's the prologue. Love it? Hate it? Review it! Till next time!