Purging the World in Blood
Chapter 1
Black Beyond
"The Escape of the Princess"
~"~
*giggles* I know that I said that this would be a while in coming out, but then, I didn't expect to finish Reflection of a Soul, either. But I did, so I'm making this Top 1 Priority. Yeah, I'll still update Haunting Mists and Lover's Last Breath, but not so often. This fic's fun to write.
It starts off directly from Changed Destiny. And I mean directly. You must have read that fic, or this is not going to make much sense at all. You're gonna be sitting there saying "huh?" for an hour if you don't read that first! And review it, minna!
Anywhozits, here you go! Enjoy, and flame as much as you like.
~'~
Tsukino Usagi sat in the middle of a ruined universe. Her eyes were closed, and her naked body, ripped and abused, was covered in her blood and the blood of her enemy, whose remains lay not all of two feet near. The sky was black, no stars to relieve the darkness. The only glimmer of light came from the clear crystal stone that lay in the girl's cupped palms, showing that all that was left of the universe was a single floating piece of rock that hovered in the nothingness.
Her silvery eyes were locked onto this gem, wide and unblinking, as though it had a mesmerizing power over her. She seemed to seem something playing in the depth of the jewel, something beautiful and hideous.
"So... so, so, so..." Her murmur was a scream in the silence. "I live after all... how curious it is that I can not die in this moment, a moment of triumph for my planet... this would be an honorable death for me. But Destiny deems it otherwise, think you not?" Her eyes never moved from the light in her hands, but there was no question she spoke to the unrecognizable body of Metalia. She seemed oblivious to her own gashed and ravaged body, and as the light danced over her body, they seemed to shrink.
"You wait for my command, my lovely mother." She spoke now to the glowing in her hands. "But I don't know what to order. I suppose..."
Her eyes closed in pain, in sudden realization of her own presence. The ginzuishou was confused, overwhelmed by two equally strong wishes coming from the girl's heart.
'What am I do to?' It wondered to Itself, torn between the commands. Finally, it decided.
'You will see what would have been. You will know happiness. That fulfills one of your wishes. You will go home to love and your family and your friends, completing the other. Since that is not possible in the universe you have known, I shall make an exchange. Let it be so.'
Usagi was startled as her crystal began to pulsate. "I made no wish! What are you doing?!" She cried, but her voice was lost in the swirling of winds around her. She felt her body become clean again and a strange fuku appeared on her, a strange scepter in her hand. Her hair was no longer bloodstained and tangled, but golden and in odango.
"Sailormoon! Watch out!" The winds stopped and the sun blinded her after the inky night of the destroyed universe. Mars's voice was loud in her ears and her eyes adjusted immediately.
She saw a strange breed of youma diving for her throat and without thinking let her training take over.
In a fluid motion, she stepped out of the creature's path. As it soared by her, bewildered by the change, her arm shot out and her scepter caught it in the neck, making a sickening crunching sound as all the little bones there broke. She flung it to the ground and without a second thought drove the sharp butt of the long scepter into the beast's heart.
It gave a sick kind of moan as it died, dark blood burbling past its lips, and turned to dust.
"I wonder why it did that..." She kicked at the small pile of dust. "They never did before..."
She finally remembered that there were other people there. She looked up to find the inner senshi, Tuxedo Kamen, Uranus and Neptune, and the two cats all there and looking at her like she'd grown two or three extra heads.
Her mind immediately took note of their fukus. They were different, each of them. And all of them wore similar expressions of shock and horror as they stared at her. In her peripheral vision she saw the Tokyo Tower and nearly jumped.
It had been destroyed during the Takeover. And the skies were sunny and bright, and the landscape was not scarred. Where had that blasted crystal taken her to?
"Uranus? Get out of that tree." She ordered, a bit annoyed at the way the tall soldier gaped at her from the boughs. When there was no response save a sulky look of incredibility. "That was an order, mind you. I know you're independent, Haruka, but this is ridiculous. What are you doing in that tree, anyway, and not down here keeping me from becoming a pincushion?"
Venus frowned. "Who's Haruka?" She murmured to Jupiter, who shrugged.
"The better question is: who is that in our leader's body?" She retorted just as a quietly.
Sailor Uranus jolted at the sound of her true name being spoken by the senshi she thought was the clumsy, ditzy leader of the inner senshi. Instinctively she gathered a handful of energy and leapt at Sailormoon, ready to kill to keep her secret.
And promptly found herself sitting on her bum, holding a cracked rib, with Sailormoon standing tall and imposing over her. Uranus stared into grayish eyes and knew she looked not into the eyes of a senshi she knew.
"That was foolish of you, Sailor Uranus." Sailormoon said quietly, crouching down to be on eye level with her senshi. "I don't know what I did to piss you off, but never do that again."
She stood up as Neptune landed behind her, ready to defend her partner. Sailormoon shrugged.
"Do what you will, although her pride may be a bit wounded." Neptune's artist's eyes noted the difference in which Sailormoon carried herself.
"Who are you?" She demanded in a hiss.
Sailormoon smiled. "Some things never change." For a moment Neptune thought the girl might hug her, but then the leader of the senshi turned and walked back towards the inner senshi, who were now gathering around Mercury for a replay of Sailormoon's liquid movements.
"Wow, Odango Atama! What a fluke! That was outrageous!" Mars squealed, as Uranus and Neptune left quietly. "The way that youma flipped over--"
Venus was even more enthusiastic. "You go, girl! That was terrific! I guess Luna's training is finally paying off! I never thought I'd see you move like that-- wow! Let's see it again, Ami-chan!"
Jupiter grinned. "Pretty smooth, Usagi-chan."
Mercury made a face as she played it again to Venus's cry of delight. "It was so gristly... did you have to stab it, Usagi-chan? Couldn't you have just dusted it as usual?"
Sailormoon couldn't help it. She froze, unable to reply, shocked by their reactions. These were not her senshi at all! Who were these happy-go-lucky, innocent people? And Mamoru-- why did he vanish like that? Why were they dehenshining here in broad daylight-- they had not destroyed Beryl's army yet-- it was dangerous beyond belief, and they were so careless about it!
She looked helplessly over to Luna and Artemis. "Hello?" She inquired, half afraid of what the cat s were like in this life.
"Wow, Sailormoon, you were great." Artemis congratulated her. But Luna looked up at her, frowning with worry.
"You just put yourself in a lot of danger, Usagi. I can't believe you. Even if you did defeat it..." She added, grudgingly.
Had she been anyone else, she might have fainted. Instead, she nodded weakly. "Yeah... sorry... Luna... uhm... I have to be somewhere... heh..."
Denying months of training, she made herself very conspicuous and fled the grassy park, shooting by couples and families out for happy walks. She found a dark alley and ducked behind the Dumpster and dehenshined after checking for bugs and spies.
She looked at her clothing and sighed in relief. It was a uniform she recognized: the Juuban high school uniform from before the Takeover, when sailor-type school fukus were in wide use. So this was a world where Beryl had never taken over? How curious...
She began to dig in her memory for the happy times three years past. Things could change a lot in three years, but she did not think that was the case here.
She leaned against the sooty wall, trying to figure things out. From the way they were acting, it seemed as though whatever Usagi she had replaced was not a very good fighter, or anything else. It was ridiculous they should be so excited she had killed one youma beast, and that they should be upset over how she killed it. They were nothing more than a group of over-enthusiastic teenagers! When had they seen real war?
No. She stopped herself on that train of thought. They were senshi, she told herself firmly, and they deserve that title. I can't judge them because they have not lived the life of my world. Keep an open mind, Usagi. You'll see how strong they are-- after all, their Usagi must be in my world...
"Hey! Who's there-- oh, it's just a little girl-- Usagi? Usagi-chan, what are you doing back here?" A very welcome blonde head stood in the entrance to the dark corridor, looking at her in a familiar way, worried and smiling.
"Motoki?" Usagi asked tentatively.
"Who else, Usagi-chan? Hey, what happened? You look pretty torn up. Did someone hurt you? Come inside and I'll get you a milkshake and you can tell me about it."
She nearly burst into tears out of sheer relief that Motoki had not changed a bit. Until that moment she had not noticed that the numerous cuts and gouges over her body were still there, bruises forming and the rough cloth of her skirt irritating a particularly deep puncture wound from Metalia's sword.
"Okay." She let him take her by her shoulder, wincing of the bruise he touched, and lead her inside the arcade, which also had not changed at all. She sat down on a stool and he set a huge chocolate milkshake in front of her.
"DO you want to talk about it?" He asked, smiling concernedly at her. Usagi shrugged. "It was nothing, really. I just got caught between a youma and the senshi and the youma decided that Usagi shish-cabobs would be quite lovely, thank you."
Despite himself, he laughed. "You don't seem very upset. Do you need a doctor?"
She shook her head. "I'm fine. I've just decided to accept my luck."
Just then, Minako and Makoto walked in, laughing over some joke. They looked around but for some reason did not spot the odangoed blonde at the counter. They moved to a booth and ordered from the cheerful waitress, a girl Usagi did not know.
Motoki watched Usagi's eyes follow them, and saw something unfamiliar in her eyes. Instead of a sky blue they were a clouded gray, and held more wisdom than they should have. He blurted out his thoughts before he knew it and wished to God he'd worded it some other way.
"You're different, somehow. Did you cut you hair?" The words sounded almost accusing in his ears, falling with a flat sound. He half expected her to become angry.
But she only smiled sadly at him. "No, Motoki-chan. I didn't cut my..."
She was cut off by a loud crash as a body came through the window and landed with a crack and a thud in a pile of bloody, crunching glass on Motoki's clean floor.
Usagi reacted instantly and without thinking, for now was not a time for thought. She fell away form her chair-- at least, in the slow-motion surrealistically of it, that's how it seemed to Motoki-- and was at the man's side before the screams of the terrified customers even began. She didn't even glance at his face as she went to work.
He watched as her suddenly skillful fingers sought out a pulse in the man's neck. She nodded, and he supposed she had indeed found one. She murmured something to herself and her eyes inspected the visible wounds. One arm at a strange angle-- broken, but not through skin. Definitely some broken ribs, a given with the way the man had went though the window, combined with the ungraceful landing. And she disliked the look of the cut on the man's neck; it was too deep and to close to his throat for her taste.
Working quickly she snapped the bones in the man's forearm back into place and ripped a thick strip from the stiff linen hem of her skirt to bind it. Motoki was amazed at how easily she tore the quality fabric.
But Usagi had other worries. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Minako and Makoto slip away to henshin and frowned. There was no youma here that she could sense-- why do such a foolish thing? She did not stop her work, through. She slipped the sailor handkerchief from around her shoulders and made a hasty bandage for the gash on his neck. She opened his shirt: thick, gray wool, strange for the summer. But she made no remarkable note of it and with graceful fingers sought out his ribs.
He stirred as she found a cracked rib dangerously near his lungs, but yet still she looked not at his face.
"Hold still, damn you." She ordered. "I must see how bad it is. If you've punctured something you're in trou...."
She had glanced up at his face, finally. She fought down a gasp and nodded curtly at his questioning, clouded eyes.
"I don't know who you were fighting in the middle of the street in downtown Tokyo, Kunzite, but I do know you are very mortal and if you have any desire to live you won't move before I pick out some of this glass. It's in your best interest. I am almost finished."
He knew he had a concussion by his pounding headache and his vision, which was little better than a sea of gray fog. Yet in his bewildered state he knew that voice. He knew it very well, and it shocked him that she would be here, in Tokyo. He'd given up all hope....
He sat up, ignoring the little darts of pain, and clutched desperately at her shirt like a madman, searching, pleading.
"Princess... princess... is that you? Oh, my princess... my lovely princess... forgive me... forgive me... I tried to warn you... I did... I have been your spy all this time... waiting for you... I swear I never betrayed you... princess... oh..."
Her mind reeled. She never thought she would seem the elegant Kunzite reduced to a puddle of relieved tears. Quite suddenly she realized the meaning of his words just as she saw the senshi rounding the corner, ready for battle. She knew, somehow, that they would kill this man on sight, whoever he was in this world.
She was caught, conflicted. She hated to trust him, but then, he could give her the answers she so desperately needed.
"Quickly! Come with me! You too, Motoki!" With strength that left Motoki breathless, she lifted Kunzite, who was more than twice her size, up into her deceptively delicate arms with all the care of a protective mother to a babe. She carried him swiftly into the back room, Motoki following, with his jaw dragging the ground.
She laid Kunzite on a bench and made a pillow for his head out of a blanket that lay on a shelf.
"Stay here with him." She said to Motoki. "Whatever happens, whatever they do, do NOT let the senshi back here." With that, she was back out the door, shutting it behind her.
Motoki looked down at the dazed and wounded man, who was just beginning to clear his head. "So-- you know Usagi-chan?" He made a cheerful attempt at conversation, but Kunzite didn't seem to hear him.
"Where is Zoisite? Where did the princess go? Who are you?" He stared accusingly at Motoki.
The two men continued to stare at each other for a few minutes, each equally baffled with the other.
-------+-------
Usagi locked the storeroom door behind her. She could see the senshi out in the street facing off against a man whom she could have sworn was Zoisite. The arcade was now empty, so she checked for cameras and then transformed.
As she did so, she found herself calling out strange words. She checked herself and sighed. "Moon Silver Power, Make up!"
At first, her power was confused, as though it were not sure of the command. But finally, after two seconds of pulsating light, it responded properly and she stood in her right uniform, staff in hand and sword slung in a golden sheath over her shoulder.
She stole around to the side of the building at approached the fight from behind. Yes, it was indeed Zoisite. And from the way he was slinging energy bolts at the two senshi, he was not friendly.
She aimed her staff at the weak point between his shoulder blades. "Moon Lovely Rainbow, Kiss!" She whispered, sending the streak of raw power arching towards her enemy's back.
Venus and Jupiter weren't sure of exactly what had happened as Zoisite suddenly let out a blood-curdling scream to end all screams and twisted, letting them glimpse a mangled mass of sizzling flesh where his back had once been. He let out a howl as he caught sight of Sailormoon, who prepared another attack as he vanished into the dark realm.
Sailormoon let out an oath that made Jupiter jump and Venus wonder where her innocent leader had learnt such words. "I thought that would be enough to kill him! God damn it! How strong can a king be?" In her anger she whirled to face the two senshi. "Why the hell aren't they dead yet?"
Venus's voice was meek, a first in the cheerful girl's life. "Sailormoon-san, we've already destroyed Jadeite and Nephrite; they are very strong. We've managed to keep them back for two and so years now. I'd say that's pretty good."
"Hey, what happened to your fuku?" Jupiter asked, frowning. "It's different... somehow..."
Sailormoon searched for an excuse to flee. "Oh, dear! I left Motoki in the storeroom-- I shoved him in there so he wouldn't be hurt."
"That reminds me! What happened to Kunzite?" Jupiter persisted.
"Uh, he teleported away. He was injured pretty bad-- I guess he and Zoisite had been fighting..."
Venus nodded. "Yeah, I'd believe that. They bicker so much.... although I've never seen him actually hurt anyone. He usually foils up his own plans..." She shook her head, disconcerted. "Like he wants to help us but can't..."
"Yeah, well..." Sailormoon was agitated over the way they were gawking at her and her fuku and her staff, and Jupiter had stood on tiptoe to look at the magnificent sword on her back. "I'd better go check on Motoki now."
She turned to go as Mercury and Mars appeared, ready to fight and sorely disappointed when they found it was already over. Mars said something to her back but she didn't hear it, nor did she really care.
Her Minako would have known something was wrong in an instant. Her Minako would have had more sense and questioned the new fuku and strange attack.
She was upset now, and turned sharply on her heel into the side street to dehenshin. But before she had a chance a glowing sword came out of no where, striking straight for her face.
She called on every bit of instinctive training she had. She dropped the staff and it vanished before it hit the ground, and yanked the sword of Etern from its sheath and brought it back just barely in time to block the blow.
She had done this so fast that to Sailor Uranus it seemed as though the sword had materialized from the staff. She blinked and gave Sailormoon all the time she needed. The next thing Uranus knew her sword was in the smaller girl's hand and the crystal blade of the Etern was pressed against her throat. Uranus tried to look away from the steel-colored eyes boring into her own, but she could not.
"You take one more move, Kaioh Michiru, and you'll loose a lover, senshi or no. I haven't a single qualm about killing someone who makes a sneak attack upon me. And if you think I'm bluffing take one more step and see."
Neptune effectively froze two yards from Sailormoon's back, wondering how she had given herself away.
"Now, I am going to sheath my sword. Shall you do the same or shall I keep this?" She waited until Uranus had scowled an affirmative before removing the blade and handing the taller woman the now dim sword. Uranus let the talisman vanish before Sailormoon relaxed the smaller fraction and sheathed her own weapon.
"You're not Sailormoon. Who are you?" Sailor Neptune moved to stand beside Uranus, who was nursing her wounded ego.
Sailormoon looked amused. "Why don't you think I am who I say I am?" She fought down a smile. "The inner senshi certainly think I am."
Uranus rolled her eyes. "We are not stupid. We've been watching Sailormoon fight-- or rather try to fight-- for over a year. She can't even lift a sword, let alone use it so skillfully, just as skillfully as your use your staff, and I can only imagine what that little girl would to with that. You are graceful and you are strong, two things Sailormoon has never been. And you know who we are."
Sailormoon nodded. She relaxed completely. "Alright. I will trust you, as I swear you may trust me by my mother's spirit, Queen Serenity. Dehenshin and follow me. I have something to take care of before I tell you all I know. I already know who you are so I am sure you will have little conflict with that." To make a point, she turned, dehenshined, and walked inside, the beautiful gold-silk scabbard of the strange sword still slung across her back.
Perhaps that is what made Uranus respect her.
"I know her." Michiru had already dehenshined and the expression on her face was thoughtful. "That was Usagi. That clumsy girl at the Sailor V game. How peculiar."
Haruka shook her head. "At the moment, not really." She stepped up and her hand was on the doorknob to open it when it opened by itself and she stared in the face of Kunzite.
She gasped his name and went for her sword, but Usagi's voice stopped her. She had no idea why she obeyed, except that there was something in the steely tone that left no room for argument.
"No! he is wounded, do not harm him further. I have cause to think his story is worth while in the screwed up world of yours." She helped Kunzite out of the arcade and slammed the door behind her.
Michiru watched, fascinated. Kunzite was over six feet tall and he was pure lean muscle, yet Usagi was supporting over half his weight as effortlessly as had he been a child. Yes, there was something too strange here... even for them...
"Haruka resolutely shut up on the subject. "Where are you taking him?" She demanded, wary of the king's half-conscious pose.
Usagi frowned. "Good point. Let me borrow your cell, Michiru. Please."
Wordlessly, the violinist handed it over and she and Haruka and Kunzite watched intently as Usagi dialed a number. There was a second of silence as the other phone rang.
"Yes, it's me. You had to ask?" Usagi laughed as a way of greeting. "I assume you know?" There was another pause. Usagi nodded thoughtfully. "No, I've got it. Ooh, nice location. And money? Ack... where do you people get all that?... No!-- don't tell me. I can? Yippee. Thanks. Tell your sister she's in deep. Uh-huh. No problem. I should kill you but I won't." She listened to the reply, smiled, and hung up. She handed it back to Michiru. "Come on. It's only a few blocked away."
She added under her breath, "Heesh, if I'd known about THAT I wouldn't have worried so much earlier..."
Kunzite leaned on Usagi most of the way, each step more painful than the last for his injuries. It was a tense journey, and no one spoke at all. It was forever before they came to a suburb and Usagi led them into a nice, fairly-sized two level.
"This is it?" Haruka asked doubtfully.
"Who's going to look for a dark king here?" Usagi retorted.
"She has a point." Michiru agreed, ignoring the dirty look Haruka gave her. "I certainly wouldn't. And it's a marvelous place to hide if you're average. With some hair dye, no one would ever find you."
Kunzite concurred. "Perfect for a spy."
Usagi eyed him warily. "You need sleep. In here." She dragged him away and returned a moment later. "He's out, and will be for a while. We may speak now... I still don't know if I should trust him..."
Haruka felt a bit freer to speak now that Kunzite was gone. "Then why is he here? He's the enemy-- or at least, he's ours..."
Usagi looked at her rather coldly, and for some odd reason, Haruka was ashamed of the comment. "I don't appreciate that tone. Now, if you'll have a seat, I'll explain everything."
For the first time, Haruka looked around the room they stood in, her back to the door.
It was a lovely room, professional touches screaming from every corner. It had been decorated in warm tones of red and orange and brown, making it very welcoming and serene. There was a fireplace and big bay windows. Despite herself she liked it. She turned her head and started back.
She found herself staring into a kitchen colored solely in the boldest eggplant purple and the brightest sunny yellow. She was, at first, taken aback by the contrasting color, but the longer she looked the more she liked.
"Interesting colors." Michiru remarked, also looking into the kitchen. "Who's your designer?"
Usagi smiled mysteriously. "Oh, you'll meet her soon enough. I find her very unlike her sister, whom I find it unlikely you'll meet. I'll make some tea-- you're free to look around it you'd like. Don't disturb Kunzite, though. He's in one of the upstairs bedrooms, the blue door, on your right. He made a disparaging remark of the color scheme so I had to known him out." She said this all in a very conversational tone of voice; she might have been discussing the weather or the news.
Haruka found it very disturbing.
She turned to her partner only to find Michiru half way up the stairs. "Oh, Haruka, come look!" Her voice was enraptured. Usagi giggled as Haruka obediently followed.
"I thought you'd like that." The Sailor Pluto of this world had done the house as fancy hit her, explaining the beautiful and very separate color schemes. The upstairs hallway made one feel like you were truly underwater, in the most beautiful stretch of ocean ruins. Setsuna had incorporated her taste and money to make it seem very, very real.
She'd had a quick look around after giving Kunzite that little love tap.
There were two bedrooms, a bath, and another room that was a complete miniature gymnasium. The bedroom Kunzite had been placed in was in cool shades of pink and lavender, unmistakenably a girl's room. The other had a more masculine theme of shape lines and bold reds and blacks. The art on the wall were rare pieces of Michiru's, paintings of dark scenes of bloody battle.
She was kind of scared of that room.
The bathroom was full of pretty shades of blue and mauve. She hadn't had time to inspect the workout room but, knowing Pluto, it was supplied with anything she could possibly need.
Just as the kettle whistled loudly, Michiru walked down the stairs gracefully. She looked at Usagi and there was the faintest trace of a smile on her elegant lips. "Haruka has found the music collection in the red room." She informed Usagi. "Apparently your designer friend knew all of her favorite records and soundproofed each room. She's playing Holst's Mars Symphony as loud as the CD player will go."
Usagi frowned. "I've never heard of it. By the time I started to like music it was banned. Something about how it would inspire nationalism. I never understood it. Of course, no one ever understood Queen Beryl..."
As though the mention of the accursed name had summoned her, Haruka came down the stairs. "I love your music." She announced. Then her face lost its brightness, and a dark frown graced her lips. "What about Queen Beryl?" She inquired.
Usagi waited until she'd set up the tray and carried it into the living room and everyone had taken a seat and was sipping a cup of tea before she answered.
"You were partially wrong in saying I am not Usagi." She said to them, staring down into the deep brown of her cup. "I am very much Tsukino Usagi... but I am not YOUR Tsukino Usagi. I... this is going to sound strange, no matter how I say it. But, I am from another universe, one of the thousands parallel to this one. In my universe, Beryl attacked three months before my eleventh birthday and in a short while had the entire earth under her control. It was the only world I knew, a world where your parents taught you self defense as soon as you could walk and where no matter who you were you did not venture out past dusk and where youma and human soldiers regularly beat down doors at midnight did whatever they liked with the inhabitants."
She paused for a breath. She dared not look up at their faces, but had she, she would have seen nothing. Their expressions were closed, their faces impassive, but they were listening rather intently.
"That was my world." She frowned, her voice matter-of-fact. "I saw little happiness in it. Strange laws were in effect: no sailor anything. All the cute little outfits, all the school fukus, everything even pertaining to a sailor anything was burned. Terrible things happened to people found with such things. That's why, when a little cat named Luna found me and gave me that blasted broach and told me to henshin, I was afraid at first. My senshi fuku is a sailor costume. I realized why Beryl didn't want that kind of stuff around: who'd want to be reminded of their own failures?" She closed her eyes. She could still see herself in her bedroom, the very first rush of power.
She could remember exactly how it felt, how great and wonderful it had seemed. But in reality it was only a drip-drop to what roared in her veins now. The pure blood of Etern.
She began to explain how it all began, with Mercury and Mars. She explained about the raids they'd broken up, of how each senshi had been found or had joined them, and all the good things and all the bad things she had done. About how she was the moon princess and then was turned into the daughter of Etern and her great power. Against her closed lids, unaware of the tears falling down her cheeks, she relived each moment in all of the agonizing splendor. She told them how the kings had died and their good counterparts found, and finally how the queen had killed herself and how Metalia had gone down in a blaze of lashing, wounding glory.
"That's how I got all of this. She motioned to the various bruises, gashes, and scrapes on her body. "It appears her speciality are huge fireballs that once you extinguish them explode like grenades." She added, grimly.
"After the battle I was alone. The dimension that our Metalia lived in was nothing more than dead space and debris. I don't know what happened-- the ginzuishou was waiting for my order to take me away... and I was just thinking about how nice it would be to see everyone again... and remembering how wonderful it was before Beryl... and then..." She gasped. She understood now. "Oh, no, no! It thought... that was my wish! That's how I ended up here! Because this is a world where Usagi was happy but the senshi were still here!" She groaned, and buried her face in her hands. "And I cannot undo the ginzuishou's magic." She felt like sobbing.
She was just about to follow through on that urge when a warm, gentle hand was laid on her shoulders. Her head snapped up and she was staring into Michiru's kind eyes.
"It's alright, Usagi-san. I think you, too, need some rest. Don't worry about Kunzite, either. We'll watch you both."
That was all the encouragement Usagi needed. She made her way to one of the downstairs bedrooms, noted vaguely that the walls were a pretty shade of green, and promptly fainted.
~*~
I love me. Don't you just LOVE me? Oh, yeah. About this world's Usagi... hehe... you're not going to believe where she is... yuppers, I've been writing ahead...
Chapter 1
Black Beyond
"The Escape of the Princess"
~"~
*giggles* I know that I said that this would be a while in coming out, but then, I didn't expect to finish Reflection of a Soul, either. But I did, so I'm making this Top 1 Priority. Yeah, I'll still update Haunting Mists and Lover's Last Breath, but not so often. This fic's fun to write.
It starts off directly from Changed Destiny. And I mean directly. You must have read that fic, or this is not going to make much sense at all. You're gonna be sitting there saying "huh?" for an hour if you don't read that first! And review it, minna!
Anywhozits, here you go! Enjoy, and flame as much as you like.
~'~
Tsukino Usagi sat in the middle of a ruined universe. Her eyes were closed, and her naked body, ripped and abused, was covered in her blood and the blood of her enemy, whose remains lay not all of two feet near. The sky was black, no stars to relieve the darkness. The only glimmer of light came from the clear crystal stone that lay in the girl's cupped palms, showing that all that was left of the universe was a single floating piece of rock that hovered in the nothingness.
Her silvery eyes were locked onto this gem, wide and unblinking, as though it had a mesmerizing power over her. She seemed to seem something playing in the depth of the jewel, something beautiful and hideous.
"So... so, so, so..." Her murmur was a scream in the silence. "I live after all... how curious it is that I can not die in this moment, a moment of triumph for my planet... this would be an honorable death for me. But Destiny deems it otherwise, think you not?" Her eyes never moved from the light in her hands, but there was no question she spoke to the unrecognizable body of Metalia. She seemed oblivious to her own gashed and ravaged body, and as the light danced over her body, they seemed to shrink.
"You wait for my command, my lovely mother." She spoke now to the glowing in her hands. "But I don't know what to order. I suppose..."
Her eyes closed in pain, in sudden realization of her own presence. The ginzuishou was confused, overwhelmed by two equally strong wishes coming from the girl's heart.
'What am I do to?' It wondered to Itself, torn between the commands. Finally, it decided.
'You will see what would have been. You will know happiness. That fulfills one of your wishes. You will go home to love and your family and your friends, completing the other. Since that is not possible in the universe you have known, I shall make an exchange. Let it be so.'
Usagi was startled as her crystal began to pulsate. "I made no wish! What are you doing?!" She cried, but her voice was lost in the swirling of winds around her. She felt her body become clean again and a strange fuku appeared on her, a strange scepter in her hand. Her hair was no longer bloodstained and tangled, but golden and in odango.
"Sailormoon! Watch out!" The winds stopped and the sun blinded her after the inky night of the destroyed universe. Mars's voice was loud in her ears and her eyes adjusted immediately.
She saw a strange breed of youma diving for her throat and without thinking let her training take over.
In a fluid motion, she stepped out of the creature's path. As it soared by her, bewildered by the change, her arm shot out and her scepter caught it in the neck, making a sickening crunching sound as all the little bones there broke. She flung it to the ground and without a second thought drove the sharp butt of the long scepter into the beast's heart.
It gave a sick kind of moan as it died, dark blood burbling past its lips, and turned to dust.
"I wonder why it did that..." She kicked at the small pile of dust. "They never did before..."
She finally remembered that there were other people there. She looked up to find the inner senshi, Tuxedo Kamen, Uranus and Neptune, and the two cats all there and looking at her like she'd grown two or three extra heads.
Her mind immediately took note of their fukus. They were different, each of them. And all of them wore similar expressions of shock and horror as they stared at her. In her peripheral vision she saw the Tokyo Tower and nearly jumped.
It had been destroyed during the Takeover. And the skies were sunny and bright, and the landscape was not scarred. Where had that blasted crystal taken her to?
"Uranus? Get out of that tree." She ordered, a bit annoyed at the way the tall soldier gaped at her from the boughs. When there was no response save a sulky look of incredibility. "That was an order, mind you. I know you're independent, Haruka, but this is ridiculous. What are you doing in that tree, anyway, and not down here keeping me from becoming a pincushion?"
Venus frowned. "Who's Haruka?" She murmured to Jupiter, who shrugged.
"The better question is: who is that in our leader's body?" She retorted just as a quietly.
Sailor Uranus jolted at the sound of her true name being spoken by the senshi she thought was the clumsy, ditzy leader of the inner senshi. Instinctively she gathered a handful of energy and leapt at Sailormoon, ready to kill to keep her secret.
And promptly found herself sitting on her bum, holding a cracked rib, with Sailormoon standing tall and imposing over her. Uranus stared into grayish eyes and knew she looked not into the eyes of a senshi she knew.
"That was foolish of you, Sailor Uranus." Sailormoon said quietly, crouching down to be on eye level with her senshi. "I don't know what I did to piss you off, but never do that again."
She stood up as Neptune landed behind her, ready to defend her partner. Sailormoon shrugged.
"Do what you will, although her pride may be a bit wounded." Neptune's artist's eyes noted the difference in which Sailormoon carried herself.
"Who are you?" She demanded in a hiss.
Sailormoon smiled. "Some things never change." For a moment Neptune thought the girl might hug her, but then the leader of the senshi turned and walked back towards the inner senshi, who were now gathering around Mercury for a replay of Sailormoon's liquid movements.
"Wow, Odango Atama! What a fluke! That was outrageous!" Mars squealed, as Uranus and Neptune left quietly. "The way that youma flipped over--"
Venus was even more enthusiastic. "You go, girl! That was terrific! I guess Luna's training is finally paying off! I never thought I'd see you move like that-- wow! Let's see it again, Ami-chan!"
Jupiter grinned. "Pretty smooth, Usagi-chan."
Mercury made a face as she played it again to Venus's cry of delight. "It was so gristly... did you have to stab it, Usagi-chan? Couldn't you have just dusted it as usual?"
Sailormoon couldn't help it. She froze, unable to reply, shocked by their reactions. These were not her senshi at all! Who were these happy-go-lucky, innocent people? And Mamoru-- why did he vanish like that? Why were they dehenshining here in broad daylight-- they had not destroyed Beryl's army yet-- it was dangerous beyond belief, and they were so careless about it!
She looked helplessly over to Luna and Artemis. "Hello?" She inquired, half afraid of what the cat s were like in this life.
"Wow, Sailormoon, you were great." Artemis congratulated her. But Luna looked up at her, frowning with worry.
"You just put yourself in a lot of danger, Usagi. I can't believe you. Even if you did defeat it..." She added, grudgingly.
Had she been anyone else, she might have fainted. Instead, she nodded weakly. "Yeah... sorry... Luna... uhm... I have to be somewhere... heh..."
Denying months of training, she made herself very conspicuous and fled the grassy park, shooting by couples and families out for happy walks. She found a dark alley and ducked behind the Dumpster and dehenshined after checking for bugs and spies.
She looked at her clothing and sighed in relief. It was a uniform she recognized: the Juuban high school uniform from before the Takeover, when sailor-type school fukus were in wide use. So this was a world where Beryl had never taken over? How curious...
She began to dig in her memory for the happy times three years past. Things could change a lot in three years, but she did not think that was the case here.
She leaned against the sooty wall, trying to figure things out. From the way they were acting, it seemed as though whatever Usagi she had replaced was not a very good fighter, or anything else. It was ridiculous they should be so excited she had killed one youma beast, and that they should be upset over how she killed it. They were nothing more than a group of over-enthusiastic teenagers! When had they seen real war?
No. She stopped herself on that train of thought. They were senshi, she told herself firmly, and they deserve that title. I can't judge them because they have not lived the life of my world. Keep an open mind, Usagi. You'll see how strong they are-- after all, their Usagi must be in my world...
"Hey! Who's there-- oh, it's just a little girl-- Usagi? Usagi-chan, what are you doing back here?" A very welcome blonde head stood in the entrance to the dark corridor, looking at her in a familiar way, worried and smiling.
"Motoki?" Usagi asked tentatively.
"Who else, Usagi-chan? Hey, what happened? You look pretty torn up. Did someone hurt you? Come inside and I'll get you a milkshake and you can tell me about it."
She nearly burst into tears out of sheer relief that Motoki had not changed a bit. Until that moment she had not noticed that the numerous cuts and gouges over her body were still there, bruises forming and the rough cloth of her skirt irritating a particularly deep puncture wound from Metalia's sword.
"Okay." She let him take her by her shoulder, wincing of the bruise he touched, and lead her inside the arcade, which also had not changed at all. She sat down on a stool and he set a huge chocolate milkshake in front of her.
"DO you want to talk about it?" He asked, smiling concernedly at her. Usagi shrugged. "It was nothing, really. I just got caught between a youma and the senshi and the youma decided that Usagi shish-cabobs would be quite lovely, thank you."
Despite himself, he laughed. "You don't seem very upset. Do you need a doctor?"
She shook her head. "I'm fine. I've just decided to accept my luck."
Just then, Minako and Makoto walked in, laughing over some joke. They looked around but for some reason did not spot the odangoed blonde at the counter. They moved to a booth and ordered from the cheerful waitress, a girl Usagi did not know.
Motoki watched Usagi's eyes follow them, and saw something unfamiliar in her eyes. Instead of a sky blue they were a clouded gray, and held more wisdom than they should have. He blurted out his thoughts before he knew it and wished to God he'd worded it some other way.
"You're different, somehow. Did you cut you hair?" The words sounded almost accusing in his ears, falling with a flat sound. He half expected her to become angry.
But she only smiled sadly at him. "No, Motoki-chan. I didn't cut my..."
She was cut off by a loud crash as a body came through the window and landed with a crack and a thud in a pile of bloody, crunching glass on Motoki's clean floor.
Usagi reacted instantly and without thinking, for now was not a time for thought. She fell away form her chair-- at least, in the slow-motion surrealistically of it, that's how it seemed to Motoki-- and was at the man's side before the screams of the terrified customers even began. She didn't even glance at his face as she went to work.
He watched as her suddenly skillful fingers sought out a pulse in the man's neck. She nodded, and he supposed she had indeed found one. She murmured something to herself and her eyes inspected the visible wounds. One arm at a strange angle-- broken, but not through skin. Definitely some broken ribs, a given with the way the man had went though the window, combined with the ungraceful landing. And she disliked the look of the cut on the man's neck; it was too deep and to close to his throat for her taste.
Working quickly she snapped the bones in the man's forearm back into place and ripped a thick strip from the stiff linen hem of her skirt to bind it. Motoki was amazed at how easily she tore the quality fabric.
But Usagi had other worries. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Minako and Makoto slip away to henshin and frowned. There was no youma here that she could sense-- why do such a foolish thing? She did not stop her work, through. She slipped the sailor handkerchief from around her shoulders and made a hasty bandage for the gash on his neck. She opened his shirt: thick, gray wool, strange for the summer. But she made no remarkable note of it and with graceful fingers sought out his ribs.
He stirred as she found a cracked rib dangerously near his lungs, but yet still she looked not at his face.
"Hold still, damn you." She ordered. "I must see how bad it is. If you've punctured something you're in trou...."
She had glanced up at his face, finally. She fought down a gasp and nodded curtly at his questioning, clouded eyes.
"I don't know who you were fighting in the middle of the street in downtown Tokyo, Kunzite, but I do know you are very mortal and if you have any desire to live you won't move before I pick out some of this glass. It's in your best interest. I am almost finished."
He knew he had a concussion by his pounding headache and his vision, which was little better than a sea of gray fog. Yet in his bewildered state he knew that voice. He knew it very well, and it shocked him that she would be here, in Tokyo. He'd given up all hope....
He sat up, ignoring the little darts of pain, and clutched desperately at her shirt like a madman, searching, pleading.
"Princess... princess... is that you? Oh, my princess... my lovely princess... forgive me... forgive me... I tried to warn you... I did... I have been your spy all this time... waiting for you... I swear I never betrayed you... princess... oh..."
Her mind reeled. She never thought she would seem the elegant Kunzite reduced to a puddle of relieved tears. Quite suddenly she realized the meaning of his words just as she saw the senshi rounding the corner, ready for battle. She knew, somehow, that they would kill this man on sight, whoever he was in this world.
She was caught, conflicted. She hated to trust him, but then, he could give her the answers she so desperately needed.
"Quickly! Come with me! You too, Motoki!" With strength that left Motoki breathless, she lifted Kunzite, who was more than twice her size, up into her deceptively delicate arms with all the care of a protective mother to a babe. She carried him swiftly into the back room, Motoki following, with his jaw dragging the ground.
She laid Kunzite on a bench and made a pillow for his head out of a blanket that lay on a shelf.
"Stay here with him." She said to Motoki. "Whatever happens, whatever they do, do NOT let the senshi back here." With that, she was back out the door, shutting it behind her.
Motoki looked down at the dazed and wounded man, who was just beginning to clear his head. "So-- you know Usagi-chan?" He made a cheerful attempt at conversation, but Kunzite didn't seem to hear him.
"Where is Zoisite? Where did the princess go? Who are you?" He stared accusingly at Motoki.
The two men continued to stare at each other for a few minutes, each equally baffled with the other.
-------+-------
Usagi locked the storeroom door behind her. She could see the senshi out in the street facing off against a man whom she could have sworn was Zoisite. The arcade was now empty, so she checked for cameras and then transformed.
As she did so, she found herself calling out strange words. She checked herself and sighed. "Moon Silver Power, Make up!"
At first, her power was confused, as though it were not sure of the command. But finally, after two seconds of pulsating light, it responded properly and she stood in her right uniform, staff in hand and sword slung in a golden sheath over her shoulder.
She stole around to the side of the building at approached the fight from behind. Yes, it was indeed Zoisite. And from the way he was slinging energy bolts at the two senshi, he was not friendly.
She aimed her staff at the weak point between his shoulder blades. "Moon Lovely Rainbow, Kiss!" She whispered, sending the streak of raw power arching towards her enemy's back.
Venus and Jupiter weren't sure of exactly what had happened as Zoisite suddenly let out a blood-curdling scream to end all screams and twisted, letting them glimpse a mangled mass of sizzling flesh where his back had once been. He let out a howl as he caught sight of Sailormoon, who prepared another attack as he vanished into the dark realm.
Sailormoon let out an oath that made Jupiter jump and Venus wonder where her innocent leader had learnt such words. "I thought that would be enough to kill him! God damn it! How strong can a king be?" In her anger she whirled to face the two senshi. "Why the hell aren't they dead yet?"
Venus's voice was meek, a first in the cheerful girl's life. "Sailormoon-san, we've already destroyed Jadeite and Nephrite; they are very strong. We've managed to keep them back for two and so years now. I'd say that's pretty good."
"Hey, what happened to your fuku?" Jupiter asked, frowning. "It's different... somehow..."
Sailormoon searched for an excuse to flee. "Oh, dear! I left Motoki in the storeroom-- I shoved him in there so he wouldn't be hurt."
"That reminds me! What happened to Kunzite?" Jupiter persisted.
"Uh, he teleported away. He was injured pretty bad-- I guess he and Zoisite had been fighting..."
Venus nodded. "Yeah, I'd believe that. They bicker so much.... although I've never seen him actually hurt anyone. He usually foils up his own plans..." She shook her head, disconcerted. "Like he wants to help us but can't..."
"Yeah, well..." Sailormoon was agitated over the way they were gawking at her and her fuku and her staff, and Jupiter had stood on tiptoe to look at the magnificent sword on her back. "I'd better go check on Motoki now."
She turned to go as Mercury and Mars appeared, ready to fight and sorely disappointed when they found it was already over. Mars said something to her back but she didn't hear it, nor did she really care.
Her Minako would have known something was wrong in an instant. Her Minako would have had more sense and questioned the new fuku and strange attack.
She was upset now, and turned sharply on her heel into the side street to dehenshin. But before she had a chance a glowing sword came out of no where, striking straight for her face.
She called on every bit of instinctive training she had. She dropped the staff and it vanished before it hit the ground, and yanked the sword of Etern from its sheath and brought it back just barely in time to block the blow.
She had done this so fast that to Sailor Uranus it seemed as though the sword had materialized from the staff. She blinked and gave Sailormoon all the time she needed. The next thing Uranus knew her sword was in the smaller girl's hand and the crystal blade of the Etern was pressed against her throat. Uranus tried to look away from the steel-colored eyes boring into her own, but she could not.
"You take one more move, Kaioh Michiru, and you'll loose a lover, senshi or no. I haven't a single qualm about killing someone who makes a sneak attack upon me. And if you think I'm bluffing take one more step and see."
Neptune effectively froze two yards from Sailormoon's back, wondering how she had given herself away.
"Now, I am going to sheath my sword. Shall you do the same or shall I keep this?" She waited until Uranus had scowled an affirmative before removing the blade and handing the taller woman the now dim sword. Uranus let the talisman vanish before Sailormoon relaxed the smaller fraction and sheathed her own weapon.
"You're not Sailormoon. Who are you?" Sailor Neptune moved to stand beside Uranus, who was nursing her wounded ego.
Sailormoon looked amused. "Why don't you think I am who I say I am?" She fought down a smile. "The inner senshi certainly think I am."
Uranus rolled her eyes. "We are not stupid. We've been watching Sailormoon fight-- or rather try to fight-- for over a year. She can't even lift a sword, let alone use it so skillfully, just as skillfully as your use your staff, and I can only imagine what that little girl would to with that. You are graceful and you are strong, two things Sailormoon has never been. And you know who we are."
Sailormoon nodded. She relaxed completely. "Alright. I will trust you, as I swear you may trust me by my mother's spirit, Queen Serenity. Dehenshin and follow me. I have something to take care of before I tell you all I know. I already know who you are so I am sure you will have little conflict with that." To make a point, she turned, dehenshined, and walked inside, the beautiful gold-silk scabbard of the strange sword still slung across her back.
Perhaps that is what made Uranus respect her.
"I know her." Michiru had already dehenshined and the expression on her face was thoughtful. "That was Usagi. That clumsy girl at the Sailor V game. How peculiar."
Haruka shook her head. "At the moment, not really." She stepped up and her hand was on the doorknob to open it when it opened by itself and she stared in the face of Kunzite.
She gasped his name and went for her sword, but Usagi's voice stopped her. She had no idea why she obeyed, except that there was something in the steely tone that left no room for argument.
"No! he is wounded, do not harm him further. I have cause to think his story is worth while in the screwed up world of yours." She helped Kunzite out of the arcade and slammed the door behind her.
Michiru watched, fascinated. Kunzite was over six feet tall and he was pure lean muscle, yet Usagi was supporting over half his weight as effortlessly as had he been a child. Yes, there was something too strange here... even for them...
"Haruka resolutely shut up on the subject. "Where are you taking him?" She demanded, wary of the king's half-conscious pose.
Usagi frowned. "Good point. Let me borrow your cell, Michiru. Please."
Wordlessly, the violinist handed it over and she and Haruka and Kunzite watched intently as Usagi dialed a number. There was a second of silence as the other phone rang.
"Yes, it's me. You had to ask?" Usagi laughed as a way of greeting. "I assume you know?" There was another pause. Usagi nodded thoughtfully. "No, I've got it. Ooh, nice location. And money? Ack... where do you people get all that?... No!-- don't tell me. I can? Yippee. Thanks. Tell your sister she's in deep. Uh-huh. No problem. I should kill you but I won't." She listened to the reply, smiled, and hung up. She handed it back to Michiru. "Come on. It's only a few blocked away."
She added under her breath, "Heesh, if I'd known about THAT I wouldn't have worried so much earlier..."
Kunzite leaned on Usagi most of the way, each step more painful than the last for his injuries. It was a tense journey, and no one spoke at all. It was forever before they came to a suburb and Usagi led them into a nice, fairly-sized two level.
"This is it?" Haruka asked doubtfully.
"Who's going to look for a dark king here?" Usagi retorted.
"She has a point." Michiru agreed, ignoring the dirty look Haruka gave her. "I certainly wouldn't. And it's a marvelous place to hide if you're average. With some hair dye, no one would ever find you."
Kunzite concurred. "Perfect for a spy."
Usagi eyed him warily. "You need sleep. In here." She dragged him away and returned a moment later. "He's out, and will be for a while. We may speak now... I still don't know if I should trust him..."
Haruka felt a bit freer to speak now that Kunzite was gone. "Then why is he here? He's the enemy-- or at least, he's ours..."
Usagi looked at her rather coldly, and for some odd reason, Haruka was ashamed of the comment. "I don't appreciate that tone. Now, if you'll have a seat, I'll explain everything."
For the first time, Haruka looked around the room they stood in, her back to the door.
It was a lovely room, professional touches screaming from every corner. It had been decorated in warm tones of red and orange and brown, making it very welcoming and serene. There was a fireplace and big bay windows. Despite herself she liked it. She turned her head and started back.
She found herself staring into a kitchen colored solely in the boldest eggplant purple and the brightest sunny yellow. She was, at first, taken aback by the contrasting color, but the longer she looked the more she liked.
"Interesting colors." Michiru remarked, also looking into the kitchen. "Who's your designer?"
Usagi smiled mysteriously. "Oh, you'll meet her soon enough. I find her very unlike her sister, whom I find it unlikely you'll meet. I'll make some tea-- you're free to look around it you'd like. Don't disturb Kunzite, though. He's in one of the upstairs bedrooms, the blue door, on your right. He made a disparaging remark of the color scheme so I had to known him out." She said this all in a very conversational tone of voice; she might have been discussing the weather or the news.
Haruka found it very disturbing.
She turned to her partner only to find Michiru half way up the stairs. "Oh, Haruka, come look!" Her voice was enraptured. Usagi giggled as Haruka obediently followed.
"I thought you'd like that." The Sailor Pluto of this world had done the house as fancy hit her, explaining the beautiful and very separate color schemes. The upstairs hallway made one feel like you were truly underwater, in the most beautiful stretch of ocean ruins. Setsuna had incorporated her taste and money to make it seem very, very real.
She'd had a quick look around after giving Kunzite that little love tap.
There were two bedrooms, a bath, and another room that was a complete miniature gymnasium. The bedroom Kunzite had been placed in was in cool shades of pink and lavender, unmistakenably a girl's room. The other had a more masculine theme of shape lines and bold reds and blacks. The art on the wall were rare pieces of Michiru's, paintings of dark scenes of bloody battle.
She was kind of scared of that room.
The bathroom was full of pretty shades of blue and mauve. She hadn't had time to inspect the workout room but, knowing Pluto, it was supplied with anything she could possibly need.
Just as the kettle whistled loudly, Michiru walked down the stairs gracefully. She looked at Usagi and there was the faintest trace of a smile on her elegant lips. "Haruka has found the music collection in the red room." She informed Usagi. "Apparently your designer friend knew all of her favorite records and soundproofed each room. She's playing Holst's Mars Symphony as loud as the CD player will go."
Usagi frowned. "I've never heard of it. By the time I started to like music it was banned. Something about how it would inspire nationalism. I never understood it. Of course, no one ever understood Queen Beryl..."
As though the mention of the accursed name had summoned her, Haruka came down the stairs. "I love your music." She announced. Then her face lost its brightness, and a dark frown graced her lips. "What about Queen Beryl?" She inquired.
Usagi waited until she'd set up the tray and carried it into the living room and everyone had taken a seat and was sipping a cup of tea before she answered.
"You were partially wrong in saying I am not Usagi." She said to them, staring down into the deep brown of her cup. "I am very much Tsukino Usagi... but I am not YOUR Tsukino Usagi. I... this is going to sound strange, no matter how I say it. But, I am from another universe, one of the thousands parallel to this one. In my universe, Beryl attacked three months before my eleventh birthday and in a short while had the entire earth under her control. It was the only world I knew, a world where your parents taught you self defense as soon as you could walk and where no matter who you were you did not venture out past dusk and where youma and human soldiers regularly beat down doors at midnight did whatever they liked with the inhabitants."
She paused for a breath. She dared not look up at their faces, but had she, she would have seen nothing. Their expressions were closed, their faces impassive, but they were listening rather intently.
"That was my world." She frowned, her voice matter-of-fact. "I saw little happiness in it. Strange laws were in effect: no sailor anything. All the cute little outfits, all the school fukus, everything even pertaining to a sailor anything was burned. Terrible things happened to people found with such things. That's why, when a little cat named Luna found me and gave me that blasted broach and told me to henshin, I was afraid at first. My senshi fuku is a sailor costume. I realized why Beryl didn't want that kind of stuff around: who'd want to be reminded of their own failures?" She closed her eyes. She could still see herself in her bedroom, the very first rush of power.
She could remember exactly how it felt, how great and wonderful it had seemed. But in reality it was only a drip-drop to what roared in her veins now. The pure blood of Etern.
She began to explain how it all began, with Mercury and Mars. She explained about the raids they'd broken up, of how each senshi had been found or had joined them, and all the good things and all the bad things she had done. About how she was the moon princess and then was turned into the daughter of Etern and her great power. Against her closed lids, unaware of the tears falling down her cheeks, she relived each moment in all of the agonizing splendor. She told them how the kings had died and their good counterparts found, and finally how the queen had killed herself and how Metalia had gone down in a blaze of lashing, wounding glory.
"That's how I got all of this. She motioned to the various bruises, gashes, and scrapes on her body. "It appears her speciality are huge fireballs that once you extinguish them explode like grenades." She added, grimly.
"After the battle I was alone. The dimension that our Metalia lived in was nothing more than dead space and debris. I don't know what happened-- the ginzuishou was waiting for my order to take me away... and I was just thinking about how nice it would be to see everyone again... and remembering how wonderful it was before Beryl... and then..." She gasped. She understood now. "Oh, no, no! It thought... that was my wish! That's how I ended up here! Because this is a world where Usagi was happy but the senshi were still here!" She groaned, and buried her face in her hands. "And I cannot undo the ginzuishou's magic." She felt like sobbing.
She was just about to follow through on that urge when a warm, gentle hand was laid on her shoulders. Her head snapped up and she was staring into Michiru's kind eyes.
"It's alright, Usagi-san. I think you, too, need some rest. Don't worry about Kunzite, either. We'll watch you both."
That was all the encouragement Usagi needed. She made her way to one of the downstairs bedrooms, noted vaguely that the walls were a pretty shade of green, and promptly fainted.
~*~
I love me. Don't you just LOVE me? Oh, yeah. About this world's Usagi... hehe... you're not going to believe where she is... yuppers, I've been writing ahead...