Author's note: I switch interchangeably between "Usagi" and "Serena" in
the same scene, depending on whether Mark or Usagi or Mamoru has recently
spoken, and whose frame of mind I'm currently trying to impose upon the
next paragraph. The same goes for "youma" and "monster." And for some
reason, I am finding that I cannot call Mamoru a "boy," and I cannot call
Usagi a "woman." I find it really repetitive referring to them as "girl"
and "man." It irks me.
Just because Usagi was accustomed to fighting with her senshi did not mean that she was atrocious at fighting individually. Oftentimes in battle, however, she did feel a pang of longing. One cannot blame her for missing the senshi's presence. There were times when all the monster required was a high-energy fire attack, but Rei was not there. Between school in a foreign country, fighting the monsters at night, and teleporting to Tokyo twice a month to heal her parents, she became a pale and wan shadow of her former self. She did not meet Mark and his friends much as a civilians anymore, they being busy with college and she being busy with her schoolwork. Traces of them remained in school however, ranging from the kind action of a stranger to help of Jeanine, with whom she had become friends.
Battles were nowhere near as easy as the first one. Lady Aurora Borealis soon became aware of her strengths and weaknesses, and the monsters were harder than ever to defeat. Often, Malachite could make it, but Zoisite, Jadeite, and Nephrite lived farther away, and it required more strength and time for them to teleport to the battle site. Lady Aurora Borealis seized this lapse, and sent at least two monsters every night, leaving Usagi with little to no sleep. Her Aunt and Uncle were kind and caring, but they didn't understand her woes, and the teachers' tales of her sleeping in class, oversleeping, and tardiness only led them to enforce an earlier curfew, resulting in less time to do her homework and more effort to escape the house.
And then there was the matter of Candace. Usagi was almost certain that the cheerleader was up to something, but she could not define the girl's motives. Every time Candace approached, Usagi felt a chill of foreboding, but she was not as sensitive as Rei, so Candace's plans were unknown to her. Even as half the school supported her, the other half seemed to enjoy making fun of her accent, her slovenliness, her tardiness, her bad grades, anything and everything about her. Peter "Petey" Hellmann and Joshua (the boy she had slapped and threatened her first night at Blaise's Place) led the football team's dislike of her, while Coral (Candace's top henchwoman and sister-of-the-Rachel-that-Jordan-dumped) led the cheerleaders in their taunts. Candace, surprisingly, stayed out of it for her own reasons. Usagi had even taken to not using her locker because Opal was a willing participant in any number of vicious pranks played on Usagi.
So when Mark returned one weekend, he was startled to see the change in Usagi's appearance. She had grown thinner, paler, more withdrawn. He tried to cheer her up, and was rewarded with a couple of smiles, but she was bone-tired, almost as much as he, what with all of the monster attacks.
Although her only communication with her boyfriend and friends was through email, they were not slow to pick up on her distress either. After discussion, Mamoru decided that enough was enough. He was going to visit his beloved.
Over Thanksgiving break, he departed from Massachusetts, riding a plane (money provided by Mina, whose parents had recently become millionaires of sorts) to Missouri, as to visit his girlfriend.
Usagi smiled at her Uncle Rick's question and responded almost mindlessly with pleasantries. She was too tired to think of an original answer to his questions, and muttered something about assemblies and parties when asked about school. She was glad that Thanksgiving Break had finally arrived. After an all-nighter the previous night, she had actually gained some sleep this morning, sleeping until noon before awaking. Feeling much more refreshed than usual, she had finished up her homework, and had called Uncle Rick as per request. (He had wanted to make sure that she remembered where the frozen dinners were, as she tended to dig up the entire refrigerator in her search for food.) Now, her frozen dinner was in the microwave when the doorbell rang. Bidding her Uncle goodbye, she put down the phone and looked out the window, only to see her beloved Mamo- chan.
She blinked once, thinking she was hallucinating. The doorbell rang again. Moments later, the door was open and she was in her Mamo-chan's arms. Mamoru chuckled, and put his arms around her, taking in the scent of her hair. "You missed me?" he murmured in Japanese.
"Of course," she whispered back, safe in her Mamo-chan's arms.
"Can I come in?" he teased, "or will your uncle not let strangers in the house? Am I condemned to remain on the doorstep for the rest of my life?"
Usagi rolled her eyes and dragged him inside. "What are you doing in here?" she wanted to know.
"I came to see you, of course," Mamoru chuckled. His face grew serious. "Usagi, is everything all right?"
Usagi sighed and leaned into her boyfriend's arms. "I'm just tired, that's all," she sighed. "What with all of the monster fights and school and healing my parents ..." she trailed off.
"About that," Mamoru said. "I've been thinking, and I contacted Ami about it. Next time you visit, take me along with you. I have the power of the Golden Crystal, which is more attuned to the Earth and healing. Perhaps I can help you, and ease some of your burden."
Usagi nodded, turning around and hugging her Mamo-chan close. "You're the best boyfriend ever," she whispered. "I love you."
"I love you, too," Mamoru replied, dipping his mouth down for what was going to be a chaste kiss. In moments, the chaste kiss had turned into something deeper and more passionate. Before things could progress, however, the sound of a key turning in a lock sounded, and the kiss was interrupted by Mark standing in the doorway.
Mark had planned on coming home earlier than usual to surprise Usagi. He was the one who was surprised when he entered the doorway to see his innocent little cousin passionately kissing a random tall, dark, and handsome stranger. A surge of sworn loyalty (where had that come from?), overprotective-ness, and shock flew through him so quickly he could barely identify them. The loyalty was the most surprising, the shock was the most prominent.
"Serena?" he ventured.
Serena and the man broke apart from each other, both blushing. She muttered something to him that Mark could not hear, something that sounded like, "No eye contact" in Japanese. Or perhaps it was: "Do this right." He blinked.
"An introduction would be nice," he drawled, raising an eyebrow.
"Mark, this is M-, Darien," she corrected herself at the last minute. "His English name is Darien." She did not know why the Generals remembered Minako's and Rei's name, but not hers, but she didn't question the stroke of luck, and didn't feel like testing Fate. "Darien, this is my cousin Mark."
Mark found, to his confusion, that Darien did not look directly at him, but seemed to look at a point behind him. He knew several people who did that, and it was always very unnerving, a problem to do with their vision, he guessed. "Do Mom and Dad know he's here?" Meg, his "mother" would probably be ecstatic, but he knew his "father" well enough to know that the man would freak. Frederick Stone had very firm set of beliefs about "courting," "beaux," and "abstinence." He would be very unpleased to find his half-niece-in-law (or something like that) kissing a strange man in his living room.
Serena blushed. "Umm ... no," she admitted. "I do not know he will come until today. He wanted to surprise me." She looked adoringly up into Darien's eyes, and Mark felt a pang of envy for their obviously loving relationship.
"How old is he?" Mark asked suspiciously, looking at the height difference with something akin to wariness.
"20," Darien said. His accent was faint, having lived in America for long enough to perfect his already good English. (He didn't obtain the scholarship to Harvard based on his looks.)
Mark blinked. "You're dating someone four years older than you? And your parents were okay with that?"
"Well, it depends on what you mean by okay," she said evasively. At Mark's stern look, she elaborated. "Mom liked him. Dad? Well, Dad ..." she struggled for the right word. "Mamo-chan," she asked, "how do you say," and then she let out a spiel in Japanese that Mark was too lazy to puzzle out.
Darien chuckled. "He had an unhealthy obsession with shotguns whenever I came over," he translated.
"He had an unhealthy obs- obsh- well, what he said," Serena gave up.
Mark chuckled. "Well, what are you going to tell Mom and Dad?"
Serena blinked. "The truth," she said simply.
"Are you serious?" Mark raised an eyebrow. "Dad, at least, would freak. Mom would probably coo all over you, but that might be worse, in your opinion."
"Nothing I haven't dealt with before," Serena shrugged.
"Whatever," Mark said, figuring that it was Serena's business whether or not her boyfriend was interrogated and executed if not found worthy. "Anyways, Jordan, Zach, and Nick are coming back, in case you wanted to know. They wanted to know if you wanted to see the newest Star Wars movies with them."
"Are you not going?" Serena wanted to know.
Mark raised an eyebrow. "Me? Star Wars?" He pretended to gag at the thought. "I don't know what Jordan, Zack, and Nick see in that stupid movie."
Serena, who did not understand enough English to truly appreciate the movie or form an opinion of it other than the fact that "Princess Leia had way weirder hair than she did" (paraphrased), shrugged. "Jordan likes to call himself Jedi Master because of movie?" she asked skeptically. "Of this movie," she automatically corrected herself.
"Jedi Master?" Darien chuckled, entering the conversation of his own volition for the first time. "I have not seen the movie yet, but one of my roommates is a fanatic who plasters posters all over his side of the dorm room. He, too, claims to be a Jedi Master. This is something all Star Wars admirers claim?"
"Apparently," Mark snorted, rolling his eyes. "Anyways," he turned back to Serena. "Are you going to see Star Wars with them?"
"No," Usagi said without hesitation. "Tell them I would love to another weekend, but I want to spend all of my time with my Mamo-chan."
"Mamo-chan?" Mark asked curiously, the name striking a chord within him.
Usagi's eyes widened at her slip, and she frantically searched for an explanation, but she did not need to. Luna, who had resided with the Stone family ever since her crescent moon was temporarily removed (it wasn't a problem because Aunt Meg loved cats), slinked up to Mark, and scratched his leg with her rather sharp claws matter-of-factly before dodging to hide behind Serena.
Mark swore as he looked from the shredded hem of his pants to the cat hiding behind Serena. "I swear, your cat hates me," he grumbled.
"At least she didn't draw blood," Serena pointed out, thankful for the distraction. So saying, she bent down and scooped the midnight-black cat into her arms.
"Ahem," Darien cleared his throat. "I have to find a place to stay, at an inn, somewhere, and I might as well do it now. Do you know of any near here?"
"An inn?" Mark blinked. "You know how to get downtown?"
Darien nodded.
"First right, second exit ..."
Usagi tuned Mark out as he began to get into technicalities and concentrated instead on the security she felt within her Mamo-chan's arms. A she leaned into her arms, she was unaware of the fact that the Silver Crystal and the Golden Crystal (with their slightly-sentient abilities) were communing. What they were communing about? Well ...
There were two objects in the darkness (the darkness being metaphorical, the two objects glowing with a powerful aura and a faint scent of intelligence).
One pulsed golden.
The other pulsed silver.
The first pulsed golden twice, then projected an image of a man bending over a bed to kiss a young girl.
The second pulsed silver thrice, then projected an image of a girl clasped in the arms of a man.
They both pulsed simultaneously before more images were projected, of a magnificent palace and a dreadful war, a beautiful princess and her handsome prince, a woman wracked with jealousy and a dark monster. These images progressed to those of a young girl and a young man bickering, kissing, fighting, crying, laughing, and reuniting. There were images of wronged innocence, of restored beauty, of peace and serenity, and of Kaos and Konfusion.
This was what had passed.
The first pulsed golden, then projected an image of a young man's fierce love for his girlfriend.
The second pulsed silver, then projected an image of the confusion and weariness of a girl-who-was-not-yet-a-woman on her own for the first time.
They pulsed together, before projecting to the other a complex jumble of emotions and feelings that only the other could interpret, as well as a series of images of one that was all and none, but supreme in its hunger for power.
This was what took place now.
The first pulsed golden, then projected an image of a weeping girl, as her family was torn away from her.
The second pulsed silver, then projected an image of a young man torn between his love and his newly-found family.
Then, for one last time, they shared images of a terrible fight, of a wonderful love, of forgiveness and mercy, of relentlessness and impassion, of deaths and lives, of knowledge and ignorance, and of a deep, cold freeze that would heal the world for its rebirth.
This was what would come to be.
Usagi was crouched upon the limb of a tree, body tense with anticipation. She knew that Tuxedo Kamen crouched on the opposite side of the wide street, waiting for the right moment to strike. Malachite was the only available to fight, per usual, but she could feel Zoicite's aura nearing at an alarming rate. In fact, she noted, if he did not slow down, he would soon crash into something. Malachite was staggering back under the blow of the blue, humanoid youma with origins on another planet, and Usagi was preparing to interfere, when Zoicite arrived, Nephrite at his side. Usagi mentally cursed herself for not noticing that Nephrite's aura hid behind Zoicite's, an elementary trick Luna had tried to teach her again and again to spot it, to no avail.
The two leapt at once, and struck simultaneously at the blue humanoid's back, only to have their swords bounce off. Of course. Malachite was the best fencer by far, and if he could not defeat the monster in that manner, then what had possessed them to do so? They did, however, distract the monster long enough for Malachite to back away into safety.
Usagi pulled out her hologram projector, which she had used many times in the recent weeks. She had yet to show the enemy (or the Guardians) her true face. Her hologram's face was a blur, with nut-brown hair that kind of frizzed in a halo that obscured the rest of her. She projected this image right in front of the monster, distracting it. "Star Saber Revolution!" she cried. The customary attack hit the youma, who stumbled but did not fall. At that same exact moment, however, her hologram flickered out of existence, and she swore under her breath. The hologram-creator must have run out of juice, and needed to be recharged by Ami. That would take days, days which she did not have.
Usagi, she heard her soul-mate whisper in her head. I have an idea. She obediently listened, and asked Luna for help with the harder Lunarian words she could not pronounce in the spell she was to cast. Slowly, she steeled herself. Just as the youma approached Zoicite and Nephrite and rose to destroy them, Tuxedo Kamen dived down and began fighting the monster with his cane. To the rest of the Guardians, however, he looked like Jadeite, albeit an intense and furiously silent Jadeite.
While maintaining this spell, Usagi cast her customary "Star Saber Revolution," although she twisted the attack by tacking a "-light" at the end of her "Star," so it was "Starlight Saber Revolution." The attack cut into the monster, who roared as it was struck, and fell into the ground.
At that moment, the temporary spell she had cast on Tuxedo Kamen fell off, and the Guardians gaped to see Jadeite flicker into a man who looked vaguely familiar. Before they could wonder where they had seen him before, he leapt off into the sky, and a blonde cloaked in shadows (the shadow- cloak being a useful piece of clothing Usagi had learned to make through her Lunarian magic book, even though it was flawed, and only worked completely in the moonlight), raising her own hand to her forehead, and then touching her hand to the monster. The monster cried out with such agony in his voice that even the girl flinched, before fading away.
The girl hesitated there for a moment, looking at the youma with an odd look on her eyes, when the air around her seemed to flash. She moved to jump back, but it was too late. Lady Aurora Borealis had appeared, and around the girl was a golden cage.
"I knew," the Lady crowed, "that eventually you would show up. I knew that eventually it would be you and not your shadow that would be caught in this cage. Aren't I right?" she addressed someone they could not see standing right next to her.
"It was luck," the voice said coldly. "My plan would have worked had not her hologram-creator conveniently run out of juice. As it was, fortune frowned upon me and smiled upon you. Not for long, however, especially not if you insist on showing your face to them."
"What can it hurt?" the Lady asked. "After all, they've seen me before." Before she could continue, a single rose struck one of the bars of the golden cage. The entire cage flickered for a moment, before one of the bars apparently shattered. The girl leapt out sideways, and the back of her right hand grazed one of the bars. She let out a yelp, and looked down at her hand, which had burnt or electrocuted by the bars.
The lady cursed most fluently in a language that Usagi could not understand, and raised her hand. Bolts of lightning formed in her palm and she hurled them at Usagi without pausing. Usagi dodged them agilely, thanking the heavens that her transformations always imbued her with flexibility that she did not normally possess. She did realize that she was quickly tiring, and it would not be long before one of the bolts struck her.
Just as she was beginning to wonder how much longer she would be able to keep this up, help came in the form of Malachite, Nephrite, Zoicite, and Tuxedo Kamen. Attacking at the same time, they struck from different directions, distracting the lady long enough for her to slip into the shadows. The invisible, however, was not so easily put off, and even as Usagi breathed a sigh of relief, she tensed as she sensed a dark aura next to her.
"That was a close escape," the voice said.
"It was," Usagi said noncommittally, wondering what on earth was going to happen now.
"I did a little research," the voice continued. "Apparently, just before the appearance of you, a young girl named Tsukino Usagi moved here because of a tragic car accident."
Usagi stiffened.
"At school, she called herself Serena, and made many enemies. Among these was Candace Rogers, who hired enough people to follow poor Serena around until one day, they caught her mid-trasnformation."
Usagi was wondering whether she should believe the invisible one.
"I managed to get my hands on one of the many copies of this picture, which is even now being passed into the hands of the school newspaper editor. Not very impressive, a little blurry, but certainly quite convincing."
"Enough of this," Usagi snarled. She struck, her saber flashing up in a flash of light, in an attack that purely physical with no magical aid.
The invisible one was taken aback, and though she dodged, she was not quick enough to escape the blade. As a result, the blade cut away whatever piece of cloth had kept her invisible, as well as sliced into her arm.
A dark-haired woman wearing a blue silk toga that was slipping away, unraveled, appeared out of nowhere, cursing. She raised her own weapon, a peculiar, hook-shaped tool that she used to slash at Usagi's face. Usagi knew better than to assume that it was ordinary, and threw up a hasty magical shield that was easily torn through, but kept the hook from reaching her.
Usagi quickly flashed her saber, attempting to disarm the woman. The woman, however, was skilled with the hook, and Usagi's only saber-skills came from her magical guise. The two had a brief, but furious battle that was made all the more dangerous because of the close quarters in which they fought. Neither had the time to cast extensive magical attacks, nor the distance required so that the attacker would be safe from the magical attack.
Only when the sun rose did the woman back off. "My name is Petra," she spat. "Remember and fear me. When next I come, I will be better prepared, and you shall not hold me off so easily."
"And I," Usagi said, "am called the Guardian of the Moon in this guise." Seeing no reaction from the woman, Usagi continued. "I have also been called by some Sailor Moon and Princess Serenity. I was even addressed as the Messiah once."
Petra shrunk away. "A lie!" she hissed.
"I represent truth, love, and justice, and will champion the innocents. Would you like to know who I have defeated and helped to defeat?" Usagi hoped this intimidation would scare some information out of Petra.
"None are so great as the Creator, S/He who is all and none, multifaceted in his greatness," Petra narrowed her eyes.
"Now even Chaos?" Usagi asked.
"Petra, we must go," Dark Lady Aurora Borealis tossed her head before splitting into two. Borealis stepped forward. "I shall remain."
"But the Creator wants us back," Aurora said, looking pointedly at Petra.
Petra shuddered, before making a motion to teleport.
Usagi, seeing that Petra was about to escape, made a grab at the woman, but only succeeded in ripping off a piece of her peculiar toga before the woman disappeared amidst sparkles.
"Can you track the teleport?" she heard her soulmate ask Zoisite.
"I can," Nephrite said. He closed his eyes and focused on the auras of their enemies. "Dammit!" He swore. "I can't get a sharper focus than Tokyo."
"Tokyo?" Usagi stepped out. "Not there?" Her voice betrayed her exasperation. "Again?"
Malachite coughed. "Mayhaps you could introduce yourself," he suggested. "You," he gestured toward Mamoru, "are Tuxedo Kamen, or Chiba Mamoru, aka Prince Endymion, although what you're doing here I cannot imagine. We are supposed to seek you out and swear loyalty to you next year, but not yet, certainly."
Tuxedo Kamen looked blank. "Swear loyalty?"
Jadeite, who had appeared sometimes in the middle of Usagi's short battle with Petra, came up with the brightest idea. "Why don't we discuss this over a cup of coffee at the nearest Starbucks?"
To be continued ...
Let's just assume that he has it, okay?
Just because Usagi was accustomed to fighting with her senshi did not mean that she was atrocious at fighting individually. Oftentimes in battle, however, she did feel a pang of longing. One cannot blame her for missing the senshi's presence. There were times when all the monster required was a high-energy fire attack, but Rei was not there. Between school in a foreign country, fighting the monsters at night, and teleporting to Tokyo twice a month to heal her parents, she became a pale and wan shadow of her former self. She did not meet Mark and his friends much as a civilians anymore, they being busy with college and she being busy with her schoolwork. Traces of them remained in school however, ranging from the kind action of a stranger to help of Jeanine, with whom she had become friends.
Battles were nowhere near as easy as the first one. Lady Aurora Borealis soon became aware of her strengths and weaknesses, and the monsters were harder than ever to defeat. Often, Malachite could make it, but Zoisite, Jadeite, and Nephrite lived farther away, and it required more strength and time for them to teleport to the battle site. Lady Aurora Borealis seized this lapse, and sent at least two monsters every night, leaving Usagi with little to no sleep. Her Aunt and Uncle were kind and caring, but they didn't understand her woes, and the teachers' tales of her sleeping in class, oversleeping, and tardiness only led them to enforce an earlier curfew, resulting in less time to do her homework and more effort to escape the house.
And then there was the matter of Candace. Usagi was almost certain that the cheerleader was up to something, but she could not define the girl's motives. Every time Candace approached, Usagi felt a chill of foreboding, but she was not as sensitive as Rei, so Candace's plans were unknown to her. Even as half the school supported her, the other half seemed to enjoy making fun of her accent, her slovenliness, her tardiness, her bad grades, anything and everything about her. Peter "Petey" Hellmann and Joshua (the boy she had slapped and threatened her first night at Blaise's Place) led the football team's dislike of her, while Coral (Candace's top henchwoman and sister-of-the-Rachel-that-Jordan-dumped) led the cheerleaders in their taunts. Candace, surprisingly, stayed out of it for her own reasons. Usagi had even taken to not using her locker because Opal was a willing participant in any number of vicious pranks played on Usagi.
So when Mark returned one weekend, he was startled to see the change in Usagi's appearance. She had grown thinner, paler, more withdrawn. He tried to cheer her up, and was rewarded with a couple of smiles, but she was bone-tired, almost as much as he, what with all of the monster attacks.
Although her only communication with her boyfriend and friends was through email, they were not slow to pick up on her distress either. After discussion, Mamoru decided that enough was enough. He was going to visit his beloved.
Over Thanksgiving break, he departed from Massachusetts, riding a plane (money provided by Mina, whose parents had recently become millionaires of sorts) to Missouri, as to visit his girlfriend.
Usagi smiled at her Uncle Rick's question and responded almost mindlessly with pleasantries. She was too tired to think of an original answer to his questions, and muttered something about assemblies and parties when asked about school. She was glad that Thanksgiving Break had finally arrived. After an all-nighter the previous night, she had actually gained some sleep this morning, sleeping until noon before awaking. Feeling much more refreshed than usual, she had finished up her homework, and had called Uncle Rick as per request. (He had wanted to make sure that she remembered where the frozen dinners were, as she tended to dig up the entire refrigerator in her search for food.) Now, her frozen dinner was in the microwave when the doorbell rang. Bidding her Uncle goodbye, she put down the phone and looked out the window, only to see her beloved Mamo- chan.
She blinked once, thinking she was hallucinating. The doorbell rang again. Moments later, the door was open and she was in her Mamo-chan's arms. Mamoru chuckled, and put his arms around her, taking in the scent of her hair. "You missed me?" he murmured in Japanese.
"Of course," she whispered back, safe in her Mamo-chan's arms.
"Can I come in?" he teased, "or will your uncle not let strangers in the house? Am I condemned to remain on the doorstep for the rest of my life?"
Usagi rolled her eyes and dragged him inside. "What are you doing in here?" she wanted to know.
"I came to see you, of course," Mamoru chuckled. His face grew serious. "Usagi, is everything all right?"
Usagi sighed and leaned into her boyfriend's arms. "I'm just tired, that's all," she sighed. "What with all of the monster fights and school and healing my parents ..." she trailed off.
"About that," Mamoru said. "I've been thinking, and I contacted Ami about it. Next time you visit, take me along with you. I have the power of the Golden Crystal, which is more attuned to the Earth and healing. Perhaps I can help you, and ease some of your burden."
Usagi nodded, turning around and hugging her Mamo-chan close. "You're the best boyfriend ever," she whispered. "I love you."
"I love you, too," Mamoru replied, dipping his mouth down for what was going to be a chaste kiss. In moments, the chaste kiss had turned into something deeper and more passionate. Before things could progress, however, the sound of a key turning in a lock sounded, and the kiss was interrupted by Mark standing in the doorway.
Mark had planned on coming home earlier than usual to surprise Usagi. He was the one who was surprised when he entered the doorway to see his innocent little cousin passionately kissing a random tall, dark, and handsome stranger. A surge of sworn loyalty (where had that come from?), overprotective-ness, and shock flew through him so quickly he could barely identify them. The loyalty was the most surprising, the shock was the most prominent.
"Serena?" he ventured.
Serena and the man broke apart from each other, both blushing. She muttered something to him that Mark could not hear, something that sounded like, "No eye contact" in Japanese. Or perhaps it was: "Do this right." He blinked.
"An introduction would be nice," he drawled, raising an eyebrow.
"Mark, this is M-, Darien," she corrected herself at the last minute. "His English name is Darien." She did not know why the Generals remembered Minako's and Rei's name, but not hers, but she didn't question the stroke of luck, and didn't feel like testing Fate. "Darien, this is my cousin Mark."
Mark found, to his confusion, that Darien did not look directly at him, but seemed to look at a point behind him. He knew several people who did that, and it was always very unnerving, a problem to do with their vision, he guessed. "Do Mom and Dad know he's here?" Meg, his "mother" would probably be ecstatic, but he knew his "father" well enough to know that the man would freak. Frederick Stone had very firm set of beliefs about "courting," "beaux," and "abstinence." He would be very unpleased to find his half-niece-in-law (or something like that) kissing a strange man in his living room.
Serena blushed. "Umm ... no," she admitted. "I do not know he will come until today. He wanted to surprise me." She looked adoringly up into Darien's eyes, and Mark felt a pang of envy for their obviously loving relationship.
"How old is he?" Mark asked suspiciously, looking at the height difference with something akin to wariness.
"20," Darien said. His accent was faint, having lived in America for long enough to perfect his already good English. (He didn't obtain the scholarship to Harvard based on his looks.)
Mark blinked. "You're dating someone four years older than you? And your parents were okay with that?"
"Well, it depends on what you mean by okay," she said evasively. At Mark's stern look, she elaborated. "Mom liked him. Dad? Well, Dad ..." she struggled for the right word. "Mamo-chan," she asked, "how do you say," and then she let out a spiel in Japanese that Mark was too lazy to puzzle out.
Darien chuckled. "He had an unhealthy obsession with shotguns whenever I came over," he translated.
"He had an unhealthy obs- obsh- well, what he said," Serena gave up.
Mark chuckled. "Well, what are you going to tell Mom and Dad?"
Serena blinked. "The truth," she said simply.
"Are you serious?" Mark raised an eyebrow. "Dad, at least, would freak. Mom would probably coo all over you, but that might be worse, in your opinion."
"Nothing I haven't dealt with before," Serena shrugged.
"Whatever," Mark said, figuring that it was Serena's business whether or not her boyfriend was interrogated and executed if not found worthy. "Anyways, Jordan, Zach, and Nick are coming back, in case you wanted to know. They wanted to know if you wanted to see the newest Star Wars movies with them."
"Are you not going?" Serena wanted to know.
Mark raised an eyebrow. "Me? Star Wars?" He pretended to gag at the thought. "I don't know what Jordan, Zack, and Nick see in that stupid movie."
Serena, who did not understand enough English to truly appreciate the movie or form an opinion of it other than the fact that "Princess Leia had way weirder hair than she did" (paraphrased), shrugged. "Jordan likes to call himself Jedi Master because of movie?" she asked skeptically. "Of this movie," she automatically corrected herself.
"Jedi Master?" Darien chuckled, entering the conversation of his own volition for the first time. "I have not seen the movie yet, but one of my roommates is a fanatic who plasters posters all over his side of the dorm room. He, too, claims to be a Jedi Master. This is something all Star Wars admirers claim?"
"Apparently," Mark snorted, rolling his eyes. "Anyways," he turned back to Serena. "Are you going to see Star Wars with them?"
"No," Usagi said without hesitation. "Tell them I would love to another weekend, but I want to spend all of my time with my Mamo-chan."
"Mamo-chan?" Mark asked curiously, the name striking a chord within him.
Usagi's eyes widened at her slip, and she frantically searched for an explanation, but she did not need to. Luna, who had resided with the Stone family ever since her crescent moon was temporarily removed (it wasn't a problem because Aunt Meg loved cats), slinked up to Mark, and scratched his leg with her rather sharp claws matter-of-factly before dodging to hide behind Serena.
Mark swore as he looked from the shredded hem of his pants to the cat hiding behind Serena. "I swear, your cat hates me," he grumbled.
"At least she didn't draw blood," Serena pointed out, thankful for the distraction. So saying, she bent down and scooped the midnight-black cat into her arms.
"Ahem," Darien cleared his throat. "I have to find a place to stay, at an inn, somewhere, and I might as well do it now. Do you know of any near here?"
"An inn?" Mark blinked. "You know how to get downtown?"
Darien nodded.
"First right, second exit ..."
Usagi tuned Mark out as he began to get into technicalities and concentrated instead on the security she felt within her Mamo-chan's arms. A she leaned into her arms, she was unaware of the fact that the Silver Crystal and the Golden Crystal (with their slightly-sentient abilities) were communing. What they were communing about? Well ...
There were two objects in the darkness (the darkness being metaphorical, the two objects glowing with a powerful aura and a faint scent of intelligence).
One pulsed golden.
The other pulsed silver.
The first pulsed golden twice, then projected an image of a man bending over a bed to kiss a young girl.
The second pulsed silver thrice, then projected an image of a girl clasped in the arms of a man.
They both pulsed simultaneously before more images were projected, of a magnificent palace and a dreadful war, a beautiful princess and her handsome prince, a woman wracked with jealousy and a dark monster. These images progressed to those of a young girl and a young man bickering, kissing, fighting, crying, laughing, and reuniting. There were images of wronged innocence, of restored beauty, of peace and serenity, and of Kaos and Konfusion.
This was what had passed.
The first pulsed golden, then projected an image of a young man's fierce love for his girlfriend.
The second pulsed silver, then projected an image of the confusion and weariness of a girl-who-was-not-yet-a-woman on her own for the first time.
They pulsed together, before projecting to the other a complex jumble of emotions and feelings that only the other could interpret, as well as a series of images of one that was all and none, but supreme in its hunger for power.
This was what took place now.
The first pulsed golden, then projected an image of a weeping girl, as her family was torn away from her.
The second pulsed silver, then projected an image of a young man torn between his love and his newly-found family.
Then, for one last time, they shared images of a terrible fight, of a wonderful love, of forgiveness and mercy, of relentlessness and impassion, of deaths and lives, of knowledge and ignorance, and of a deep, cold freeze that would heal the world for its rebirth.
This was what would come to be.
Usagi was crouched upon the limb of a tree, body tense with anticipation. She knew that Tuxedo Kamen crouched on the opposite side of the wide street, waiting for the right moment to strike. Malachite was the only available to fight, per usual, but she could feel Zoicite's aura nearing at an alarming rate. In fact, she noted, if he did not slow down, he would soon crash into something. Malachite was staggering back under the blow of the blue, humanoid youma with origins on another planet, and Usagi was preparing to interfere, when Zoicite arrived, Nephrite at his side. Usagi mentally cursed herself for not noticing that Nephrite's aura hid behind Zoicite's, an elementary trick Luna had tried to teach her again and again to spot it, to no avail.
The two leapt at once, and struck simultaneously at the blue humanoid's back, only to have their swords bounce off. Of course. Malachite was the best fencer by far, and if he could not defeat the monster in that manner, then what had possessed them to do so? They did, however, distract the monster long enough for Malachite to back away into safety.
Usagi pulled out her hologram projector, which she had used many times in the recent weeks. She had yet to show the enemy (or the Guardians) her true face. Her hologram's face was a blur, with nut-brown hair that kind of frizzed in a halo that obscured the rest of her. She projected this image right in front of the monster, distracting it. "Star Saber Revolution!" she cried. The customary attack hit the youma, who stumbled but did not fall. At that same exact moment, however, her hologram flickered out of existence, and she swore under her breath. The hologram-creator must have run out of juice, and needed to be recharged by Ami. That would take days, days which she did not have.
Usagi, she heard her soul-mate whisper in her head. I have an idea. She obediently listened, and asked Luna for help with the harder Lunarian words she could not pronounce in the spell she was to cast. Slowly, she steeled herself. Just as the youma approached Zoicite and Nephrite and rose to destroy them, Tuxedo Kamen dived down and began fighting the monster with his cane. To the rest of the Guardians, however, he looked like Jadeite, albeit an intense and furiously silent Jadeite.
While maintaining this spell, Usagi cast her customary "Star Saber Revolution," although she twisted the attack by tacking a "-light" at the end of her "Star," so it was "Starlight Saber Revolution." The attack cut into the monster, who roared as it was struck, and fell into the ground.
At that moment, the temporary spell she had cast on Tuxedo Kamen fell off, and the Guardians gaped to see Jadeite flicker into a man who looked vaguely familiar. Before they could wonder where they had seen him before, he leapt off into the sky, and a blonde cloaked in shadows (the shadow- cloak being a useful piece of clothing Usagi had learned to make through her Lunarian magic book, even though it was flawed, and only worked completely in the moonlight), raising her own hand to her forehead, and then touching her hand to the monster. The monster cried out with such agony in his voice that even the girl flinched, before fading away.
The girl hesitated there for a moment, looking at the youma with an odd look on her eyes, when the air around her seemed to flash. She moved to jump back, but it was too late. Lady Aurora Borealis had appeared, and around the girl was a golden cage.
"I knew," the Lady crowed, "that eventually you would show up. I knew that eventually it would be you and not your shadow that would be caught in this cage. Aren't I right?" she addressed someone they could not see standing right next to her.
"It was luck," the voice said coldly. "My plan would have worked had not her hologram-creator conveniently run out of juice. As it was, fortune frowned upon me and smiled upon you. Not for long, however, especially not if you insist on showing your face to them."
"What can it hurt?" the Lady asked. "After all, they've seen me before." Before she could continue, a single rose struck one of the bars of the golden cage. The entire cage flickered for a moment, before one of the bars apparently shattered. The girl leapt out sideways, and the back of her right hand grazed one of the bars. She let out a yelp, and looked down at her hand, which had burnt or electrocuted by the bars.
The lady cursed most fluently in a language that Usagi could not understand, and raised her hand. Bolts of lightning formed in her palm and she hurled them at Usagi without pausing. Usagi dodged them agilely, thanking the heavens that her transformations always imbued her with flexibility that she did not normally possess. She did realize that she was quickly tiring, and it would not be long before one of the bolts struck her.
Just as she was beginning to wonder how much longer she would be able to keep this up, help came in the form of Malachite, Nephrite, Zoicite, and Tuxedo Kamen. Attacking at the same time, they struck from different directions, distracting the lady long enough for her to slip into the shadows. The invisible, however, was not so easily put off, and even as Usagi breathed a sigh of relief, she tensed as she sensed a dark aura next to her.
"That was a close escape," the voice said.
"It was," Usagi said noncommittally, wondering what on earth was going to happen now.
"I did a little research," the voice continued. "Apparently, just before the appearance of you, a young girl named Tsukino Usagi moved here because of a tragic car accident."
Usagi stiffened.
"At school, she called herself Serena, and made many enemies. Among these was Candace Rogers, who hired enough people to follow poor Serena around until one day, they caught her mid-trasnformation."
Usagi was wondering whether she should believe the invisible one.
"I managed to get my hands on one of the many copies of this picture, which is even now being passed into the hands of the school newspaper editor. Not very impressive, a little blurry, but certainly quite convincing."
"Enough of this," Usagi snarled. She struck, her saber flashing up in a flash of light, in an attack that purely physical with no magical aid.
The invisible one was taken aback, and though she dodged, she was not quick enough to escape the blade. As a result, the blade cut away whatever piece of cloth had kept her invisible, as well as sliced into her arm.
A dark-haired woman wearing a blue silk toga that was slipping away, unraveled, appeared out of nowhere, cursing. She raised her own weapon, a peculiar, hook-shaped tool that she used to slash at Usagi's face. Usagi knew better than to assume that it was ordinary, and threw up a hasty magical shield that was easily torn through, but kept the hook from reaching her.
Usagi quickly flashed her saber, attempting to disarm the woman. The woman, however, was skilled with the hook, and Usagi's only saber-skills came from her magical guise. The two had a brief, but furious battle that was made all the more dangerous because of the close quarters in which they fought. Neither had the time to cast extensive magical attacks, nor the distance required so that the attacker would be safe from the magical attack.
Only when the sun rose did the woman back off. "My name is Petra," she spat. "Remember and fear me. When next I come, I will be better prepared, and you shall not hold me off so easily."
"And I," Usagi said, "am called the Guardian of the Moon in this guise." Seeing no reaction from the woman, Usagi continued. "I have also been called by some Sailor Moon and Princess Serenity. I was even addressed as the Messiah once."
Petra shrunk away. "A lie!" she hissed.
"I represent truth, love, and justice, and will champion the innocents. Would you like to know who I have defeated and helped to defeat?" Usagi hoped this intimidation would scare some information out of Petra.
"None are so great as the Creator, S/He who is all and none, multifaceted in his greatness," Petra narrowed her eyes.
"Now even Chaos?" Usagi asked.
"Petra, we must go," Dark Lady Aurora Borealis tossed her head before splitting into two. Borealis stepped forward. "I shall remain."
"But the Creator wants us back," Aurora said, looking pointedly at Petra.
Petra shuddered, before making a motion to teleport.
Usagi, seeing that Petra was about to escape, made a grab at the woman, but only succeeded in ripping off a piece of her peculiar toga before the woman disappeared amidst sparkles.
"Can you track the teleport?" she heard her soulmate ask Zoisite.
"I can," Nephrite said. He closed his eyes and focused on the auras of their enemies. "Dammit!" He swore. "I can't get a sharper focus than Tokyo."
"Tokyo?" Usagi stepped out. "Not there?" Her voice betrayed her exasperation. "Again?"
Malachite coughed. "Mayhaps you could introduce yourself," he suggested. "You," he gestured toward Mamoru, "are Tuxedo Kamen, or Chiba Mamoru, aka Prince Endymion, although what you're doing here I cannot imagine. We are supposed to seek you out and swear loyalty to you next year, but not yet, certainly."
Tuxedo Kamen looked blank. "Swear loyalty?"
Jadeite, who had appeared sometimes in the middle of Usagi's short battle with Petra, came up with the brightest idea. "Why don't we discuss this over a cup of coffee at the nearest Starbucks?"
To be continued ...
Let's just assume that he has it, okay?