Atonement -- By Ravyn Knyght
Part 1: A Debt Owed
From the very beginning they were fighting a losing battle. The Sailor Scouts were no match for this new evil. This new Negaverse faction called themselves "The Shadows of Darkness". They were the strongest of all the Negaverse, plus with the power of the Dark Crystal, they were almost immortal. "Omgea-Blitz!!". This was the attack of choice of the first of the four who challenged the scouts. Neo Ravyn was the weakest of the four which is why she was first up. With her long, flowing jet-black hair, pale complexion and the cold, heartless demeanor she conducted herself with made her the embodiment of life-in-death. "Mars!! Look out!!" cried Mercury, as a surge of dark energy was about to strike her. Closer and closer it came, unable to move fast enough Mars just closed her eyes as Neo Ravyn's attack was about to engulf her. Seconds went by and nothing happened, nervously she opened her eyes and was amazed at what was in front of her. A man. Dressed in a black trench coat with long, flowing, dark red hair was face to face with her, shielding her from the blast. As the blast waves subsided and the wind stopped blowing his hair across his face she was able to make eye contact with the man who saved her. She first focused on his eyes. Cold emerald green staring back at her. The huge scar that ran across his left cheek was what she studied next. Lastly, her attention fell to his forehead. On it was the mark of the Negaverse, a black upside down cresent moon. Upon seeing this she quickly backed away with a look of anger and confusion on her face. 'If he's with them, why did he save me? What's going on here?!?'.
"Are you alright?", he asked, in a concerned tone. In that same instant his words became cold as well as his eyes. "You and your friends should leave here at once! You're no match for her! Not yet. Get out of here now and leave this abomination to me!!" As he turned to face Neo Ravyn, the other scouts quickly ran to Mars' side to see if she was alright.
"Who are you? and why are you helping us!?!", asked Sailor Mars in a puzzled yet angry tone. Not taking his eyes of of Neo Ravyn who was drawing out her weapon, the Sycthe of Dispair, he replied, "I'll answer your questions later! Just go!! Please!". Mars, Mercury, and the others nodded their heads and started to leave the parking lot. "Nobody's going anywhere!!!" screached Neo Ravyn as she charged towards all of them twirling her sycthe with such speed it almost became invisible. "We have to help him, you guys! He'll get killed!!", said Sailor Moon worriedly. "He said for us to stay out of it!", Jupiter angrily snapped, "If they're going to kill each other than that's two less we have to worry about!!". "Jupiter's right! Let them kill each other! I've no problem with that!" Mars coldly stated. "He saved your life! You ungrateful brat! We should be helping him!" Sailor Moon quickly answered back.
Just then they all turned back to see what was going on. They couldn't believe what they were seeing. Neo Ravyn was charging towards him and he was just standing there. 'Is he insane?' they thought as they watched her bring her sycthe down upon him, he didn't move. They all looked away, "Clang!!", the sound of metal striking metal echoed through the night. The scouts quickly looked back at the pair to see this man had blocked her strike. "Incredible!!" gasped Venus, as she watched him knock away blow after blow with a most intimidating sword. "It's like he's not even trying!!" exclaimed Mercury. They stood and watched the battle before them with awe. 'Whoever this guy is, he's pretty powerful', thought Venus. And as she looked at the others' faces she could see they were thinking the same thing. "Damn you!" spewed Neo Ravyn, "I'll teach you for ruining my fun!!" Then summoning all the power from her shard of the Dark Crystal she charged again only to be knocked back by a surge of energy. "The power of the Dark Crystal will never harm me. You of all people should know that." He said calmly as he walked towards her. Trembling, from the force of the blast, it hurt her to try to get to her feet. "I....I'lll....K-k-ill y..you!!" Neo Ravyn stammered. He placed his open hand a few inches from her chest, and with a cold glint in his eyes he released an energy blast that threw her against a wall of a nearby building. She slowly slid to the ground. Her eyes rolling back from the pain of the blast, gagging and gasping for air, she barely managed to bring herself on all fours. "P...Pl..ease, n....no...." she pleaded. "Now to take back what's mine!" he knealt down beside her and tore off her pendent that was made of the Dark Crystal. "Now, what to do with you?" he said with a puzzled expression as he looked across at her. "Hmph! What else?" He stood up and stepped in front of her and raised his hand again. Her brief, agonizing scream faded into the night as with a massive surge of energy emitted from his hand he reduced her to nega dust.
With their mouths hanging open they watched as he turned to them and said "One down, three to go." then disappeared in a dark ominous cloud. "D...did you see that?!" said Jupiter, "Unbelievable!" gasped Sailor Moon, "It's a power we should respect and fear." said Mercury with astonishment. On that they agreed and left the parking lot with a lot of unanswered questions. Who was he? Where did he come from? Why did he help them? Would they meet up with him again? Will they end up fighting him?
Early Saturday morning, the scouts were all gathered at Cherry Hill Temple. Everyone except Serena. "Errrgh!....Always late that one!" growled Raye. "And after she insisted we all get up and be here early!!". "Now, now-- settle down Raye, I'm sure she has a good reason for being late." Amy said nervously, hoping Raye wouldn't take her rage out on her. Just then an exhausted Serena staggered through the door. Jumping up, Raye started in "You brainless flake!! We've been waiting for and hour an' a half! There's no excu....", just then she heard a soft giggle as Michelle and Amara came in behind Serena. "Please don't be mad at her for being so late. She was trying to find us!" giggled Michelle. Serena pulled down one eye lid and stuck her tounge out at Raye, "So there!!" harped Serena at an enraged Raye. "She practically tore the door off the hinges trying to wake us up!" Amara said tiredly. "So what's so important?". For the next hour the five girls filled the pair in on their encounter with the latest threat from the Negaverse. "An' as quick as he showed up...he disappeared *POOF*!! Isn't that wild!!" said Serena excitedly. "So do you think he's here to help us?". "No. If this crystal shard is what I think it is we're in trouble, but it shoudn't exist in this time." Amara said as she gave a worried glance over to Michelle. "We should ask Trista if she knows anything about it?" said Michelle. The pair left leaving the girls to chat amongst themselves.
Later that afternoon, Raye was taking a walk around the temple grounds taking pictures to email to her friend in Paris. As she snapped a photo of a cherry tree in full blossom, through the view lens she caught sight of a mysterious figure sitting beneath the tree. "Hey!" she hollared loudly, "You're on private property pal! And you ruined my shot!" pointing to her camera. "Now get out of here!", she snapped angrily, but lost her composure when the man stood up and faced her. It was him. That Negaverse guy that saved her. "Don't you come any closer!", he didn't listen, his emerald green eyes coldly locked on hers, he walked past her and as he did, he stopped, faced her, "I apologize. I did not mean to intrude....or ruin your shot. I shall only come here when I am invited.". He bowed respectively and then continued walking down the path to the temple enterance. "Wait!", she spun around to face him, "I want to talk to---- You?". He had disappeared. With wide eyes she frantically searched the area around her and even looked up into the trees. "Gone?!?" she said hoarsely and then quickly went looking for Chad to cuff him about for not keeping the grounds secure.
Several days later, Amy and Lita were walking though a busy shopping mall. Amy wanting to go on a shopping spree but Lita insisted they check out the guys first. "HeeeeY!", squealed Lita excitedly, "See that guy over there? The one with the blonde hair, black jeans, and white dress shirt? I think he winked at me!!". Amy let out a sigh, "How can you tell, he's practically on the other side of the mall! Besides, he's married, I saw the wedding ring when we passed him earlier." She giggled at how quickly Lita's expression changed to that of disgust, "MARRIED!! Oh why do all the cute ones have to be married! He can't be all that happy if he winked at me.", she said slyly, jabbing Amy in the ribs with her elbow. "If you paid half as much attention to studying as you do to guys you wouldn't have failed this test, now would you?". Amy pulled a test paper from Lita's book bag and started waving in front of her face. Blushing at the extremely low mark on the paper, Lita snatched the shameful document away from Amy. "Hey! Don't wave that thing around! Some cute guy might see it and think I'm an air head!", she growled, and then went back to scanning the mall court for cute guys. "I'm sorry." Amy said laughing. From the bench they were sitting on Amy was able to see almost all of the shops.
She looked at the courtside displays to see any special sales advertised. A nice blue satin-type blouse for $285 at a high fashion clothes store. Too expensive. Although she fantasized about wearing it--'It wouldn't hurt to try it on.....just to see how it looks.' she thought. Further down, to her left, a dress shop had some dresses half price. 'Ugh....ugly.' she said to herself and shivered 'Who in their right mind would wear something like that.'. She turned her gaze to the pet shop in front of her and saw in the window display a cute Jack Russell puppy bouncing up and down barking away trying to get her attention as well as everyone else's. 'Cute!...But my mother doesn't like dogs.' Amy let out a depressed sigh when the shop owner took the puppy out of the window and gave it to a little girl and her mother. "Now this dog is your responsiblity, Erika....", the mother droned on as they passed, but the little girl wasn't listening, "I'll call 'em Jake", as her and the puppy happily bounced down the mall court out of sight. 'At least he has a good home'--she tried to console herself.
As she watched the puppy trot out of sight Amy focused her attention on a table of a mall courtside coffee shop. She noticed that Amara, Michelle were seated there. As she watched, a tall woman with long green hair, a white skirt, and a blue denim jacket sat down with them. It was Trista, aka Sailor Pluto. But she didn't come alone. With her, was a tall man, strong build, about 6'4", long red hair, and a black ankle length trench coat. She couldn't see his face but she knew who it was. Excited, she started slapping at Lita's arm trying to get her attention away from a group of boys who she was shamelessy flirting with. "What's with you!? I'm busy!" She coldly snapped, and turned to face her while keeping an eye on those cute guys. "Look!! At that guy over there!" Amy pointed at the group. "Good Gawd!" exclaimed Lita, "Book worm Amy spotted a guy that gets her all hot n' bothered!!! Call the media!!" she said jokingly then remembered who the guy reminded her of. "Do you think--?" "Uh-huh, uh- huh!" Amy cut off Lita before she finished talking, "Let's try to get closer to hear what there saying." Lita nodded and the two got closer.
Carefully they took up position at a table just a few feet away from the group and tried not to let on they noticed them. The four were too focused in on each other to notice them. Because of all the other chattering people and other noises the pair couldn't hear much. So they ordered some drinks and occasionally looked out of the corners of their eyes at them. They could tell by the expressions on their faces that their conversation was very serious. "I wouldn't want to play poker with those four." "Would you you behave! You're as bad as Serena!", Amy scolded Lita, "Sore- rrreee!" she said giving Amy a sour look.
They noticed that while the four were talking the man constantly kept looking away from the women and would slightly hang his head. "If you don't raise your head and look up, you'll be forever walking into things!", Michelle said sweetly and gave him an enchanting smile as she reached over and placed her fingers under his chin and raised his head. "I've spent a life time trying to pay a debt. I've seen first hand what my people have done throughout the universe, and it makes me ashamed of them...of myself..." his voice trailed off as his gaze fell back to the white table- top. He closed his eyes and images that haunted him for centuries came rushing in. He quickly opened his eyes, and tried to clear those images from his mind. "Trista, you were there, you know what happened, please explain it to them, I...I have to go..." he motioned to Amara and Michelle and in the direction of Amy and Lita. He knew they were there the whole time. The two buried their faces in some menus when the group looked over at them. With that, he got up and quickly headed for the nearest exit. Worried, Trista got up and followed him out. Puzzled by what just happened Amy and Lita slipped into the just vacated seats across from Amara and Michelle and listened intently as the two filled them in.
"You hide yourselves well, but I'll find you." A solitary figure stood on a roof top of a high rise apartment complex gazing at the sprawling lights of Tokyo in the late night hours. His moon lit form was soon joined by a familiar shadow. "Any luck in finding them?" Pluto quietly asked as to not break the peaceful sound of the night. "They won't let themselves be easily tricked, I'll just have to wait until they do something." he replied. "By then it'll be too late!" the sharp icy tone of Uranus's voice cut through the stillness of the night. Neptune followed up, "She's right, we have have to find them as soon as possible and destroy them before they destroy the planet." "What's this 'we'? I told you before this is my fault, my problem and I'll take care of it. I don't need your help and I don't want your help!" he snapped at the trio. "Millennium...Please...you can't do this on your own..." pleaded Pluto. "I'm stronger then them, and plus they can't use their shards against me like they can you. They'd easily overwhelm all of you. It would just take one of them to kill the eight of you." He turned his gazed back to the twinkling cityscape. "If I have to, I'll remove you all from this planet. Enough people have died because of me, I won't have anymore innocent blood on my hands. So please, stay out of this and you'll live. Okay?" Pluto reached out to him but he vanished and left the three on the roof top.
Unknown to the three there were three shadows watching them, "He knew we were here.", "If he fought us here they would've been involved, he's trying to prevent that, but it won't do any good.", "He's up to something....Well that's alright...So are we, let's wait and see what he'll do. Neo Ravyn was a fool. We won't make that same mistake." the three shadows snickered amongst themselves as they watched the three scouts leap across the roof tops and disappear into the moon lit night, then disappeared themselves.
Several days later back at the temple the girls were talking about Raye's dream. "I saw four of them. I couldn't make out their faces but I could feel their dark energy. Three were Negaverse but the other was a huge monster. The three grew smaller as the monster kept getting bigger. I haven't got a clue what it means." While the five friends tried to make sense of it Chad burst into the room ranting and raving and gave the group the scare of their lives. "Raye, Raye! There's this really creepy dude outside the temple gates that wants to come in!", "Yeah, so, let him, it's probably a tourist. And don't ever scare us again, and what did I tell you about coming into my---" She stopped berating him when she felt a strong, yet familiar dark energy. She grew pale and shivered at its presence. The others saw the look of fear on her face, "What's up, Raye?" Serena asked. Before she got an answer, "Oh my God, Serena! Look!" Amy said, she looked at her locket. It was glowing a pale rose pink color. Serena opened it and could feel the Silver Crystal's power start to surge through her. Without warning she transformed into her cosmic form. Serena freaked, "What's going on!?! Why did I transform into sailor form!?" While they sat there trying to come up with an answer, Raye ran towards the front gate.
She flew down the long stone stairway, a thousand questions on her mind but only three words were on her lips. "Mars--Star--Power!" she transformed quickly as she continued down the stairs. Then she saw him, standing at the entrance with his head lowered as she rushed towards him. He raised his hand and emitted a wave of dark energy that quickly engulfed her. The blast knocked her back against the steps but mysteriously it didn't hurt her. As she got up she realized she was back in her white jeans and L'arc En Ciel t-shirt. "I'm not here to fight. I came to answer your questions."
She invited him in but made him walk ahead of her, 'If he tries any---', "Like I said, I'm not here to fight. I came here to talk to all of you." Raye froze in place. 'Oh my God! did he just read my---', "Mind? Yes I did." They walked up the stairs him in front, Raye just behind him ready to attack while trying not to think of it in case he was listening. The other girls were at the top of the stairs watching the pair. This time Millennium froze in place when he caught sight of Serena. The poximity of his Dark Crystal shard and the Silver Crystal caused Serena to transform into her royal atire. He stood there staring at her, in complete awe and fear. For him it was like going back in time a thousand years. So much alike and yet so different, he had to convince himself it wasn't her. "What's wrong?", Raye's words cut though him and snapped him out of his daze. "Nothing.", he replied, lowering his head as he continued up the stairs.
Upon standing face to face with her, still not making eye contact with her he knelt down, this took everyone by surprise. "Princess Serenity, my name is Millennium, Prince of the Negaverse, if it would please your majesty, I would be honored if you granted my request." 'Prince of the Negaverse?', 'Request?', the scouts were completely blown away. None more so than Serena. 'A prince, of the Negaverse? Bowing down to me? WAY COOL! Now that's the kinda respect I'm talkin' about!' she thought. Realizing that Serena was day dreaming again Raye and the others started clearing their throats to bring her around. "Oh! Right!" she cheerfully giggled and blushed her embarassment. "Okay...uh..you can stand up now." motioning with her hand. He rose to his feet but still wasn't looking at her. Serena couldn't stand for people who won't make eye contact with her and he was making her angry, "If you wish to make a request of us then please raise your head when speaking to us. Not only is it bad manners not to, it causes bad posture!" Mina giggled at Serena's comments but was quickly shushed by Amy. 'Wow! He's a big one! Kinda cute too!' she thought as he towered over her. "Umm...you had a request?". "Yes. I humbly request that you and the other Sailors stay out of my way!", the sharpness of his words stunned Serena. Quickly regaining her nerve she snapped back "Listen buster...", "You're no match for the remaining three youma, your encounter with the first one should have told you that!", he cut her off then his voice softened, "It will be difficult enough dealing with the other three without having to be concerned about your safety...", "We can handle ourselves just fine thank you!" it was Serena's turn to cut him off, "There has to be some way we can help each other. Stick around and we'll think of somethin'!" The two stared at one another determinedly for a few moments. "Very well. But only as an extreme last resort." he said dejectedly. "Fair enough." she chirped as they all headed off to the temple to talk.
After transforming back to her regular self, Serena and the others all got around Millennium and started playing twenty questions. The only ones with merit enough to answer were Amy's. "What caused you to turn against your own people?" her first question was. "I didn't exactly turn against them. Their actions and the consequences of them made me feel ashamed. I wanted nothing to do with them. Then I wondered were my people always like this?", "Well were they?" Mina asked as she moved herself a little closer so she could admire his features, he turned towards her and set his emerald eyes on her deep blue ones and answered, "No they weren't. About four thousand years ago our universe was invaded by a creature of the purist evil. It ravaged planet after planet, infecting my people with it's evil. He was a disease with no cure, all those who stood against it were slaughtered. Its power was far reaching. It covered countless periods in time itself. Killing it in one time meant nothing. It would have to be hunted down and killed across the void of space and time. I had a battle sixty-thousand years from now with the main source of this being and in which I defeated it." "Hey! Alright! Let's hear it for our boy Millennium!" cheered Serena but was quickly silenced by everyone's annoyed look. He continued, "Although I managed to defeat him, his crystaline heart remained. I was severely weakened from the battle and was unable to desroy it. The most I could do was fragment it." The girls listened and hung on every one of his words, especially Mina. They are took turns asking questions big and small, he answered all of them but left out key events of the time lines, as well as a few other things.
"Ah Geez! Look at the time!" exclaimed Lita. "I gotta get home and cook dinner!" "Yes it is quite late, and we have that test in English tomorrow Serena." said Amy as she laughed at Serena's 'The world is coming to an end' routine because she forgot to study for it. As Raye was busy tidying up the kitchen table and just before Millennium was about to leave, "Could you walk me home? I'd like to talk to you some more." Mia asked. "I could get Chad to walk you home, or I could go with you or you could call a taxi....Ohhh grampa!" Raye joked knowing full well Mina was taking a severe fall for him. "Butt--out Raye!" Mina growled and quickly turned her gaze back to Millennium and laughed nervously. She motioned to the door, "Shall we get going?", "Very well." he said hesitently.
"So do you have a girlfriend or anything?" the boldness of her question took Millennium completely by surprise. He thought about it for a few moments, "No. I always thought it best not to get emotionally attached to anything or anyone. It gives your enemies a powerful advantage over you. Love is an easily exploited weakness." "True but...", "But what?" he asked as the darkened street was becoming illuminated by the street lights. They turned a corner, "Don't you ever get lonely? Didn't you wish there was someone there for you? I mean someone worth protecting and fighting for to give your life meaning? True, people and things you love can be destroyed or killed by your enemy but, both me and the rest of the Scouts believe that we draw our power from the love of our friends and loved ones, and knowing that they're depending on us gives us the determination to keep fighting." He said nothing, she stopped him and turned him around to face her, "Well? Don't you?" she asked her eyes searching his waiting for an answer. He didn't know what to tell her, so he tried to walk away but she got in front of him again. "Why are you doing this to me?!" he growled, she was making him think about things he had pushed out of his mind centuries ago. "I've answered all the questions I'm going to answer. I don't have time to be talking about such frivolous, trivial things like love and friendship!" he was growing angrier because he couldn't supress several painful memories.
"I...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." Mina tried to calm him down to no avail, "Well you have! This conversation is over!" then he disappeared in his usual manner, leaving Mina both angry at him and also worried. She walked the rest of the way home by herself, 'What a cold, heartless, insensitive jerk!' she thought to herself. "He'll do that to you." laughed Trista who almost scared Mina half to death. "How long were you there?" she said trying to get her heart started again. "He's afraid of being alone, there is someone very close to his heart but he's afraid something bad will happen to her again. Someone he'd freely give his life a thousand times over to protect." "Who?" Mina asked almost pleading Trista to tell her. "I promised I wouldn't, he's tried so hard to keep her safe." "By pretending she doesn't exist!" exclaimed Mina. "He has an important mission for this girl, if she knew the truth about him or herself it will have severe consequences on the time line. By denying himself of her he is saving her." The pair walked off and Trista told Mina as much as she could about Millennium.
"I was completely blown away!" said Lita as tossed a note pad of half finished Math problems on the floor and stretch out across her bed. "Me too! Imagine Queen Beryl having a son!" gasped Serena as the two gabbed on the phone, she had long since given up on studying for the English test. "Who'd of thought someone like that would be on our side!?", "I'm kinda glad he is." said Lita as she reach for a plate of snacks. "Ever since finding out about the Moon Kingdom I'm glad someone was there with my mother when she died. I'll have to thank him for that the next time I see him." as Serena recalled the sad memories of a decimated palace. "Yeah that really seem to hurt him, poor guy. Having to carry around things like that forever." Lita said sympathetically. "This from a person that was willing to let him fight alone?" sniped Serena, "Hey! That was before I knew! Besides I think he's kinda foxy with his dark and mysterious attitude, don't you?" Serena rolled her eyes "Can't go five minutes can ya? I wouldn't try anything if I were you though, 'cause I think Mina's ready to stake her claim on this one!" she laughed. "I mean seriuosly! If she sat any closer to him she would have been on his lap." joked Lita, "Well I'll let you get back to your studying!" she said laughing when she heard Serena's groans. "Talk to you after the masacre, Lita." sighed Serena as she hung up. She tried to get back to studying but, she soon fell fast asleep. "Typical!" huffed Luna she she came into the room silently, then pounced on the sleeping princess with claws bared and gave her a rude awakening.
Millennium was still burning for a few days after his little talk with Mina. His thoughts were no longer focused, instead they wandered across a vast field of buried thoughts, memories, feelings and emotions she had stirred up in him. Anger, sadness,happiness, joy, sorrow, grief, and regret hung over him. "Maybe we should leave him alone?" said a voice. "Good idea! Remember the last time he got like this?" said another as the two talked amongst themselves as they left him to vent his agressions on a couple of training monsters he created.
The pair stolled though the streets of Tokyo until they came to a park. "Do you want to check up on her?", "Why not? It's been a while." The pair sat themselves down under a tree and watched a group of children playing in the distance, one in particular.
"Alright children! Time for Art class!" called Michelle in a gentle but firm voice. It was a beautiful warm, sunny day so she decided to take the children in her preshcool art class to the park so they could draw some of the scenery. A girl was crying, while Michelle comforted her she scolded two boys "...now the two of you apologize to Jenny.", "We're sorry we teased you Jenny." "Alright Alex and Josh, the three of you go join the others and get to work." The three children joined the others and started drawing. 'Happens every time!' Michelle thought as she went about checking all the other childrens drawings. She came to one three year old girl and said " And what are you going to draw, Hotaru?" she knelt down to see what she was drawing. "Doggies!" she sang as she reached for a black crayon. "Where are the doggies honey? I don't see any around?" Michelle looked around the park. "There." she pointed to a tree where there were two large, black German Shepards underneath. Michelle sat with Hotaru for a few minutes watching her draw. She still couldn't believe the tremendous power that hid within this happy little girl. Michelle could sense a darkness to the child's power, a darkness that felt familar but she couldn't quite figure it out. "Okay sweetie, but becareful and stay away from them, alright?" " 'Kay!" she said not really listening to Michelle as she scribbled on her art pad. She left the child humming happily to herself and went over to a picnic table to help the other preschool teachers get the juice and cookies ready for the children.
"Snack Time!" Michelle said as the children came running to the table, all except Hotaru. Very worried Michelle looked around the park to see where she went. "Hotaru?!" she called but she didn't answer. Then she remembered the dogs. Fear gripped her as she ran to where she saw the two dogs earlier.
"This is you!" beamed Hotaru as she pointed to a mis-shapen animal. Malice tried to contain his snickering as Dischord let out a bewildering groan at the drawing. 'Looks nothing like me!' she said to Malice telepathically. 'Oh no! It's you alright!' Malice laughed back. Michelle found Hotaru sitting between the two dogs, petting them. Quickly picking her up from between the two behemoth-like animals she carried her back to the group. "Bye-bye doggies!" Hotaru waved. "Now did I or did I not tell you to stay away from those stray dogs! They could've bitten you!" Michelle crossly said to the little girl. "They're friendly an' funny! 'specially Malice!" Hotaru said as she watched the dogs disappear into the trees. "Who's Malice?" Michelle asked as she set Hotaru down at the table. "The doggy." she said. "But they didn't have collars on?" Michelle recalled. "He told me!" she answered back. "Don't be silly Hotaru!" Michelle laughed and poured her some juice.
'Is that?', 'Yes!' said Dischord sniffing the air as the two came a little closer to the table. 'Ouuu...Gotta have one!' said Malice as he licked his lips while watching the happy children stuff themselves with cookies. 'Don't draw attention from the adults you dope!' said Dischord as she whimpered a little to get the attention of the children. But it was too late, "Shoo! Shoo! Go away!" said one of the teachers. 'Oh now you've done it, Dischord! No cookies for us!' snapped Malice. "Doggies!" shouted a little boy and all the children came to see them. 'You were saying?' snickered Dischord as she daintily took a cookie from one of the children's hands. Malice immediately singled out Hotaru. She gave him a cookie and giggled as he thanked her. "That tickles!" she laughed as Malice's tongue gently lapped her cheek. "Alright! You mooch hounds! You got what you wanted, now go or I'll call the dog catcher!" said Michelle as she clapped her hands trying to scare them off. 'Uh...Excuse me. "Dog Catcher"?' said Malice as he gave a low groan and looked at Dischord who was on her back getting her belly scratch by some of the children. 'Ouuu yeah a little to the left, will ya?' she said letting out a deep groan of contentment but got interupted by Malice. 'Come on, let's go! Or they're going to call "The Dawg Catcher"!' he said trying to make himself sound scary. She sighed and got up then the pair quickly trotted out of sight despite the call of more cookies from the children. "Busy I see." the pair looked to their right to see Millennium. "Well you weren't giving us any attention!" snarled Dischord. "How is she?" he asked looking at the group of children. "She seems alright, how 'bout you?" asked Malice. "Under control. Let's go." he motioned for the two dogs to follow him.
Millennium went searching for the three remaining shards and left the pair on their own once again. "Let's hit the food courts next!" said Malice as his stomache growled. "I'm there!" agreed Dischord. As they walked along they ran into Artemis and Luna. "Check this out! Tweedle dumb and dumber!" chuckled Artemis as as he walked up to the two dogs. "Oh Artemis stop that!" Luna pleaded fearing they'd attack him. "Dogs are sooo stupid! All they do is chase their tails and drink out of toilets!" he snorted. 'Why I oughta...', 'Malice! Hold!' snapped Dischord trying to reign in his anger. "That's enough, Artemis!" begged Luna seeing one of the dogs growing agitated but he didn't listen. "Move or get moved flea bag! Or I'll put some red stripes on your nose!" he said raising a paw. 'FLEA BAG! Dischord he called me a FLEA BAG!' she had a firm grip on his tail holding him. Seeing this, Luna jumped into a nearby garbage can fearing the worst was about to happen. "You wanna piece o' me? BUTT SNIFFER!" hissed Artemis as Luna closed her eyes. Dischord lost her grip. Malice had snapped. "Malice! No!" cried Dischord. "They can talk?!?" said Luna as she watched Artemis get chased up a mailbox. "You'll cough up more than hair balls when I get a hold of you!" growled Malice who was foaming at the mouth.
Just then Serena and Mina rounded the corner and headed for the arcade. Jumping out of the trash can, Luna bolted to the two girls and told them what happened. Serena threw a rock and hit Malice in the head just as he was about to knock the mailbox over and shred a terrified Artemis. Mina kicked him in the ribs but missed slightly and ended up catching him in his sensitive area. Malice's eyes widened and he yelped as he fell over. Dischord winced at Malice's painful blow. 'That's gonna need ice.' she thought as she comforted the quivering animal lying on the ground. "Serves you right!" huffed Mina as she picked up a trembling Artemis. "That was uncalled for!" snapped Dischord at Mina as she bared her teeth and pinned the two now frightened girls against the wall. "That dog talked!" said someone watching. "No way!" said another. The two blondes were just as mystified. 'Uh-oh! Drawin' a crowd...Malice lets go!' and she bolted down the street. Malice couldn't. Andrew came over to see the comotion everyone was talking about. He knelt down and picked up the whimpering shepard. "Alright! Shows' over!" he said dispearsing the crowd.
"What happened?" he asked carrying the hurt animal to the arcade office. "Blondie here tried to make me get in touch with my feminine side! That's 'what' you idiot!" whined Malice as he was put on a table. Andrew stared in disblief. "That dog....talked...?" he stammered, as Serena thanked him for his help while pushing him out the door. "It's all Artemis' fault!" piped up Luna, "He just kept it up an' up!" "Stuff it Luna!" hissed Artemis. "Quiet, you two!" snapped Serena, "Or someone will hear you!" Mina tried to comfort the poor animal. "I'm sorry!" she said apologetically, "I didn't mean to kick you there, but you were going after my cat." Mina said. Malice said nothing. 'Say nothing and you might not end up in a science lab' he thought to himself. "Give it up flea bag we know you can talk!" said Artemis. "If I could get offa this table, cat..." Malice tried to stand. Artemis hid behind Mina. "That's what started this whole mess!" Luna angrily snapped at the two of them. Just then a knock came at the door. "Hey guys." Andrew said, "There's a huge crowd outside, try taking that talking dog out the back way." He tried to open the door but Serena stopped it part way. "Don't be silly, Andrew! Animals can't talk!" she nervously laughed, "We'll get him outta here though, don't worry!" she closed the door.
"Gawd you're heavy!" said Serena as she struggled with the massive animal. "I got the door! Thank gawd no one's home!" said Mina as Serena put him down on her bed. "Okay pooch! Who are you and where are you from?" Serena started the interrogation. "I'm Malice. Guardian dog of Prince Millennium of the Negaverse!" he stated proudly. "Hah! One kick and your down! Some guardian!" "Alright! That does it Artemis! No tuna for a week!" scolded Mina. Artemis slinked under the bed to sulk, while Malice snickered. "I think I'll stay here for awhile." Malice said as he stretched out on Serena's bed, "You, servant girl! Bring me something to eat!" "Servant girl?!" Mina said through gritted teeth. Just then Reeny came into the room. "Malice?!" she gasped excitedly. "Hey, kiddo!" he chimed, "Servant girl here is gonna get me some grub. You want anything?" he asked as she hugged him. Mina went to the kitchen muttering the words "...servant girl!" under her breath. "So, Reeny. You know this mutt!" Serena said shocked. "Oh yeah, him and Dischord..." she stopped and her eyes widened, "Is Millennium here? Where is he?" she squealed. "Oh, around." said Malice. "Oh I can't wait to see him! It's been so long!" Serena noticed Reeny's joy. Reeny went on and on about how she knew about Millennium.
"Mina, are you staying for diner?" called Serena's mother. "Uh...no ma'am! I'm leaving now!", "Bye Sere!" as she rushed out the door. While the family was just starting desert a knock came at the door. Serena's father answered it. "I believe you have my dog." Serena pushed past her puzzled father when she heard the voice. "He's upstairs sleeping in my room." she said as Reeny entered the living room with a large black dog following her. "Oh my..." said Serena's mother when she saw the huge animal and tried to pull Reeny away. "Cool dog!" exclaimed Sammy. "Malice. Come." called Millennium. 'Malice come, Malice go, blah, blah, blah...Someday Malice is gonna write a book!' Dischord giggled to herself at Malice's comment. "I hope he wasn't too much trouble.", "Oh nooo! He was a joy!" laughed Serena. "Let's go." he said, Serena followed him outside.
She closed the door so her family couldn't hear their conversation but they peeked out the window at the two. "I wanted to thank you for what you did...back when the Moon Kingdom was wasted. I was glad someone was with my mother when she..." he cut her off. "I owed her a debt I can never repay. She was a very kind-hearted person. You're very much like her. It tore me up that I got there too late to do anything." Millennium said sadly while gazing up at the stars. "That's why I don't want you or your friends involved." Serena hooked her arm around his, rested her head on his shoulder and gazed at the stars with him. "I know. But you don't have to be alone in your fight. If you need us we'll be there. Oh, I think you should talk to Mina, she's worried about you." "I will." he said and walked off with the two German Shepards trailing him. "What is it with that girl and older men!" grumbled Serena's father, "Now dear..."said his wife trying to calm him down.
--End of Part 1.--
--Coming soon, Part 2: Shadows Of The Past: Royal Secret Revealed--
Questions, comments? Mail to:
ravyn_knyght@ yahoo.com
Part 1: A Debt Owed
From the very beginning they were fighting a losing battle. The Sailor Scouts were no match for this new evil. This new Negaverse faction called themselves "The Shadows of Darkness". They were the strongest of all the Negaverse, plus with the power of the Dark Crystal, they were almost immortal. "Omgea-Blitz!!". This was the attack of choice of the first of the four who challenged the scouts. Neo Ravyn was the weakest of the four which is why she was first up. With her long, flowing jet-black hair, pale complexion and the cold, heartless demeanor she conducted herself with made her the embodiment of life-in-death. "Mars!! Look out!!" cried Mercury, as a surge of dark energy was about to strike her. Closer and closer it came, unable to move fast enough Mars just closed her eyes as Neo Ravyn's attack was about to engulf her. Seconds went by and nothing happened, nervously she opened her eyes and was amazed at what was in front of her. A man. Dressed in a black trench coat with long, flowing, dark red hair was face to face with her, shielding her from the blast. As the blast waves subsided and the wind stopped blowing his hair across his face she was able to make eye contact with the man who saved her. She first focused on his eyes. Cold emerald green staring back at her. The huge scar that ran across his left cheek was what she studied next. Lastly, her attention fell to his forehead. On it was the mark of the Negaverse, a black upside down cresent moon. Upon seeing this she quickly backed away with a look of anger and confusion on her face. 'If he's with them, why did he save me? What's going on here?!?'.
"Are you alright?", he asked, in a concerned tone. In that same instant his words became cold as well as his eyes. "You and your friends should leave here at once! You're no match for her! Not yet. Get out of here now and leave this abomination to me!!" As he turned to face Neo Ravyn, the other scouts quickly ran to Mars' side to see if she was alright.
"Who are you? and why are you helping us!?!", asked Sailor Mars in a puzzled yet angry tone. Not taking his eyes of of Neo Ravyn who was drawing out her weapon, the Sycthe of Dispair, he replied, "I'll answer your questions later! Just go!! Please!". Mars, Mercury, and the others nodded their heads and started to leave the parking lot. "Nobody's going anywhere!!!" screached Neo Ravyn as she charged towards all of them twirling her sycthe with such speed it almost became invisible. "We have to help him, you guys! He'll get killed!!", said Sailor Moon worriedly. "He said for us to stay out of it!", Jupiter angrily snapped, "If they're going to kill each other than that's two less we have to worry about!!". "Jupiter's right! Let them kill each other! I've no problem with that!" Mars coldly stated. "He saved your life! You ungrateful brat! We should be helping him!" Sailor Moon quickly answered back.
Just then they all turned back to see what was going on. They couldn't believe what they were seeing. Neo Ravyn was charging towards him and he was just standing there. 'Is he insane?' they thought as they watched her bring her sycthe down upon him, he didn't move. They all looked away, "Clang!!", the sound of metal striking metal echoed through the night. The scouts quickly looked back at the pair to see this man had blocked her strike. "Incredible!!" gasped Venus, as she watched him knock away blow after blow with a most intimidating sword. "It's like he's not even trying!!" exclaimed Mercury. They stood and watched the battle before them with awe. 'Whoever this guy is, he's pretty powerful', thought Venus. And as she looked at the others' faces she could see they were thinking the same thing. "Damn you!" spewed Neo Ravyn, "I'll teach you for ruining my fun!!" Then summoning all the power from her shard of the Dark Crystal she charged again only to be knocked back by a surge of energy. "The power of the Dark Crystal will never harm me. You of all people should know that." He said calmly as he walked towards her. Trembling, from the force of the blast, it hurt her to try to get to her feet. "I....I'lll....K-k-ill y..you!!" Neo Ravyn stammered. He placed his open hand a few inches from her chest, and with a cold glint in his eyes he released an energy blast that threw her against a wall of a nearby building. She slowly slid to the ground. Her eyes rolling back from the pain of the blast, gagging and gasping for air, she barely managed to bring herself on all fours. "P...Pl..ease, n....no...." she pleaded. "Now to take back what's mine!" he knealt down beside her and tore off her pendent that was made of the Dark Crystal. "Now, what to do with you?" he said with a puzzled expression as he looked across at her. "Hmph! What else?" He stood up and stepped in front of her and raised his hand again. Her brief, agonizing scream faded into the night as with a massive surge of energy emitted from his hand he reduced her to nega dust.
With their mouths hanging open they watched as he turned to them and said "One down, three to go." then disappeared in a dark ominous cloud. "D...did you see that?!" said Jupiter, "Unbelievable!" gasped Sailor Moon, "It's a power we should respect and fear." said Mercury with astonishment. On that they agreed and left the parking lot with a lot of unanswered questions. Who was he? Where did he come from? Why did he help them? Would they meet up with him again? Will they end up fighting him?
Early Saturday morning, the scouts were all gathered at Cherry Hill Temple. Everyone except Serena. "Errrgh!....Always late that one!" growled Raye. "And after she insisted we all get up and be here early!!". "Now, now-- settle down Raye, I'm sure she has a good reason for being late." Amy said nervously, hoping Raye wouldn't take her rage out on her. Just then an exhausted Serena staggered through the door. Jumping up, Raye started in "You brainless flake!! We've been waiting for and hour an' a half! There's no excu....", just then she heard a soft giggle as Michelle and Amara came in behind Serena. "Please don't be mad at her for being so late. She was trying to find us!" giggled Michelle. Serena pulled down one eye lid and stuck her tounge out at Raye, "So there!!" harped Serena at an enraged Raye. "She practically tore the door off the hinges trying to wake us up!" Amara said tiredly. "So what's so important?". For the next hour the five girls filled the pair in on their encounter with the latest threat from the Negaverse. "An' as quick as he showed up...he disappeared *POOF*!! Isn't that wild!!" said Serena excitedly. "So do you think he's here to help us?". "No. If this crystal shard is what I think it is we're in trouble, but it shoudn't exist in this time." Amara said as she gave a worried glance over to Michelle. "We should ask Trista if she knows anything about it?" said Michelle. The pair left leaving the girls to chat amongst themselves.
Later that afternoon, Raye was taking a walk around the temple grounds taking pictures to email to her friend in Paris. As she snapped a photo of a cherry tree in full blossom, through the view lens she caught sight of a mysterious figure sitting beneath the tree. "Hey!" she hollared loudly, "You're on private property pal! And you ruined my shot!" pointing to her camera. "Now get out of here!", she snapped angrily, but lost her composure when the man stood up and faced her. It was him. That Negaverse guy that saved her. "Don't you come any closer!", he didn't listen, his emerald green eyes coldly locked on hers, he walked past her and as he did, he stopped, faced her, "I apologize. I did not mean to intrude....or ruin your shot. I shall only come here when I am invited.". He bowed respectively and then continued walking down the path to the temple enterance. "Wait!", she spun around to face him, "I want to talk to---- You?". He had disappeared. With wide eyes she frantically searched the area around her and even looked up into the trees. "Gone?!?" she said hoarsely and then quickly went looking for Chad to cuff him about for not keeping the grounds secure.
Several days later, Amy and Lita were walking though a busy shopping mall. Amy wanting to go on a shopping spree but Lita insisted they check out the guys first. "HeeeeY!", squealed Lita excitedly, "See that guy over there? The one with the blonde hair, black jeans, and white dress shirt? I think he winked at me!!". Amy let out a sigh, "How can you tell, he's practically on the other side of the mall! Besides, he's married, I saw the wedding ring when we passed him earlier." She giggled at how quickly Lita's expression changed to that of disgust, "MARRIED!! Oh why do all the cute ones have to be married! He can't be all that happy if he winked at me.", she said slyly, jabbing Amy in the ribs with her elbow. "If you paid half as much attention to studying as you do to guys you wouldn't have failed this test, now would you?". Amy pulled a test paper from Lita's book bag and started waving in front of her face. Blushing at the extremely low mark on the paper, Lita snatched the shameful document away from Amy. "Hey! Don't wave that thing around! Some cute guy might see it and think I'm an air head!", she growled, and then went back to scanning the mall court for cute guys. "I'm sorry." Amy said laughing. From the bench they were sitting on Amy was able to see almost all of the shops.
She looked at the courtside displays to see any special sales advertised. A nice blue satin-type blouse for $285 at a high fashion clothes store. Too expensive. Although she fantasized about wearing it--'It wouldn't hurt to try it on.....just to see how it looks.' she thought. Further down, to her left, a dress shop had some dresses half price. 'Ugh....ugly.' she said to herself and shivered 'Who in their right mind would wear something like that.'. She turned her gaze to the pet shop in front of her and saw in the window display a cute Jack Russell puppy bouncing up and down barking away trying to get her attention as well as everyone else's. 'Cute!...But my mother doesn't like dogs.' Amy let out a depressed sigh when the shop owner took the puppy out of the window and gave it to a little girl and her mother. "Now this dog is your responsiblity, Erika....", the mother droned on as they passed, but the little girl wasn't listening, "I'll call 'em Jake", as her and the puppy happily bounced down the mall court out of sight. 'At least he has a good home'--she tried to console herself.
As she watched the puppy trot out of sight Amy focused her attention on a table of a mall courtside coffee shop. She noticed that Amara, Michelle were seated there. As she watched, a tall woman with long green hair, a white skirt, and a blue denim jacket sat down with them. It was Trista, aka Sailor Pluto. But she didn't come alone. With her, was a tall man, strong build, about 6'4", long red hair, and a black ankle length trench coat. She couldn't see his face but she knew who it was. Excited, she started slapping at Lita's arm trying to get her attention away from a group of boys who she was shamelessy flirting with. "What's with you!? I'm busy!" She coldly snapped, and turned to face her while keeping an eye on those cute guys. "Look!! At that guy over there!" Amy pointed at the group. "Good Gawd!" exclaimed Lita, "Book worm Amy spotted a guy that gets her all hot n' bothered!!! Call the media!!" she said jokingly then remembered who the guy reminded her of. "Do you think--?" "Uh-huh, uh- huh!" Amy cut off Lita before she finished talking, "Let's try to get closer to hear what there saying." Lita nodded and the two got closer.
Carefully they took up position at a table just a few feet away from the group and tried not to let on they noticed them. The four were too focused in on each other to notice them. Because of all the other chattering people and other noises the pair couldn't hear much. So they ordered some drinks and occasionally looked out of the corners of their eyes at them. They could tell by the expressions on their faces that their conversation was very serious. "I wouldn't want to play poker with those four." "Would you you behave! You're as bad as Serena!", Amy scolded Lita, "Sore- rrreee!" she said giving Amy a sour look.
They noticed that while the four were talking the man constantly kept looking away from the women and would slightly hang his head. "If you don't raise your head and look up, you'll be forever walking into things!", Michelle said sweetly and gave him an enchanting smile as she reached over and placed her fingers under his chin and raised his head. "I've spent a life time trying to pay a debt. I've seen first hand what my people have done throughout the universe, and it makes me ashamed of them...of myself..." his voice trailed off as his gaze fell back to the white table- top. He closed his eyes and images that haunted him for centuries came rushing in. He quickly opened his eyes, and tried to clear those images from his mind. "Trista, you were there, you know what happened, please explain it to them, I...I have to go..." he motioned to Amara and Michelle and in the direction of Amy and Lita. He knew they were there the whole time. The two buried their faces in some menus when the group looked over at them. With that, he got up and quickly headed for the nearest exit. Worried, Trista got up and followed him out. Puzzled by what just happened Amy and Lita slipped into the just vacated seats across from Amara and Michelle and listened intently as the two filled them in.
"You hide yourselves well, but I'll find you." A solitary figure stood on a roof top of a high rise apartment complex gazing at the sprawling lights of Tokyo in the late night hours. His moon lit form was soon joined by a familiar shadow. "Any luck in finding them?" Pluto quietly asked as to not break the peaceful sound of the night. "They won't let themselves be easily tricked, I'll just have to wait until they do something." he replied. "By then it'll be too late!" the sharp icy tone of Uranus's voice cut through the stillness of the night. Neptune followed up, "She's right, we have have to find them as soon as possible and destroy them before they destroy the planet." "What's this 'we'? I told you before this is my fault, my problem and I'll take care of it. I don't need your help and I don't want your help!" he snapped at the trio. "Millennium...Please...you can't do this on your own..." pleaded Pluto. "I'm stronger then them, and plus they can't use their shards against me like they can you. They'd easily overwhelm all of you. It would just take one of them to kill the eight of you." He turned his gazed back to the twinkling cityscape. "If I have to, I'll remove you all from this planet. Enough people have died because of me, I won't have anymore innocent blood on my hands. So please, stay out of this and you'll live. Okay?" Pluto reached out to him but he vanished and left the three on the roof top.
Unknown to the three there were three shadows watching them, "He knew we were here.", "If he fought us here they would've been involved, he's trying to prevent that, but it won't do any good.", "He's up to something....Well that's alright...So are we, let's wait and see what he'll do. Neo Ravyn was a fool. We won't make that same mistake." the three shadows snickered amongst themselves as they watched the three scouts leap across the roof tops and disappear into the moon lit night, then disappeared themselves.
Several days later back at the temple the girls were talking about Raye's dream. "I saw four of them. I couldn't make out their faces but I could feel their dark energy. Three were Negaverse but the other was a huge monster. The three grew smaller as the monster kept getting bigger. I haven't got a clue what it means." While the five friends tried to make sense of it Chad burst into the room ranting and raving and gave the group the scare of their lives. "Raye, Raye! There's this really creepy dude outside the temple gates that wants to come in!", "Yeah, so, let him, it's probably a tourist. And don't ever scare us again, and what did I tell you about coming into my---" She stopped berating him when she felt a strong, yet familiar dark energy. She grew pale and shivered at its presence. The others saw the look of fear on her face, "What's up, Raye?" Serena asked. Before she got an answer, "Oh my God, Serena! Look!" Amy said, she looked at her locket. It was glowing a pale rose pink color. Serena opened it and could feel the Silver Crystal's power start to surge through her. Without warning she transformed into her cosmic form. Serena freaked, "What's going on!?! Why did I transform into sailor form!?" While they sat there trying to come up with an answer, Raye ran towards the front gate.
She flew down the long stone stairway, a thousand questions on her mind but only three words were on her lips. "Mars--Star--Power!" she transformed quickly as she continued down the stairs. Then she saw him, standing at the entrance with his head lowered as she rushed towards him. He raised his hand and emitted a wave of dark energy that quickly engulfed her. The blast knocked her back against the steps but mysteriously it didn't hurt her. As she got up she realized she was back in her white jeans and L'arc En Ciel t-shirt. "I'm not here to fight. I came to answer your questions."
She invited him in but made him walk ahead of her, 'If he tries any---', "Like I said, I'm not here to fight. I came here to talk to all of you." Raye froze in place. 'Oh my God! did he just read my---', "Mind? Yes I did." They walked up the stairs him in front, Raye just behind him ready to attack while trying not to think of it in case he was listening. The other girls were at the top of the stairs watching the pair. This time Millennium froze in place when he caught sight of Serena. The poximity of his Dark Crystal shard and the Silver Crystal caused Serena to transform into her royal atire. He stood there staring at her, in complete awe and fear. For him it was like going back in time a thousand years. So much alike and yet so different, he had to convince himself it wasn't her. "What's wrong?", Raye's words cut though him and snapped him out of his daze. "Nothing.", he replied, lowering his head as he continued up the stairs.
Upon standing face to face with her, still not making eye contact with her he knelt down, this took everyone by surprise. "Princess Serenity, my name is Millennium, Prince of the Negaverse, if it would please your majesty, I would be honored if you granted my request." 'Prince of the Negaverse?', 'Request?', the scouts were completely blown away. None more so than Serena. 'A prince, of the Negaverse? Bowing down to me? WAY COOL! Now that's the kinda respect I'm talkin' about!' she thought. Realizing that Serena was day dreaming again Raye and the others started clearing their throats to bring her around. "Oh! Right!" she cheerfully giggled and blushed her embarassment. "Okay...uh..you can stand up now." motioning with her hand. He rose to his feet but still wasn't looking at her. Serena couldn't stand for people who won't make eye contact with her and he was making her angry, "If you wish to make a request of us then please raise your head when speaking to us. Not only is it bad manners not to, it causes bad posture!" Mina giggled at Serena's comments but was quickly shushed by Amy. 'Wow! He's a big one! Kinda cute too!' she thought as he towered over her. "Umm...you had a request?". "Yes. I humbly request that you and the other Sailors stay out of my way!", the sharpness of his words stunned Serena. Quickly regaining her nerve she snapped back "Listen buster...", "You're no match for the remaining three youma, your encounter with the first one should have told you that!", he cut her off then his voice softened, "It will be difficult enough dealing with the other three without having to be concerned about your safety...", "We can handle ourselves just fine thank you!" it was Serena's turn to cut him off, "There has to be some way we can help each other. Stick around and we'll think of somethin'!" The two stared at one another determinedly for a few moments. "Very well. But only as an extreme last resort." he said dejectedly. "Fair enough." she chirped as they all headed off to the temple to talk.
After transforming back to her regular self, Serena and the others all got around Millennium and started playing twenty questions. The only ones with merit enough to answer were Amy's. "What caused you to turn against your own people?" her first question was. "I didn't exactly turn against them. Their actions and the consequences of them made me feel ashamed. I wanted nothing to do with them. Then I wondered were my people always like this?", "Well were they?" Mina asked as she moved herself a little closer so she could admire his features, he turned towards her and set his emerald eyes on her deep blue ones and answered, "No they weren't. About four thousand years ago our universe was invaded by a creature of the purist evil. It ravaged planet after planet, infecting my people with it's evil. He was a disease with no cure, all those who stood against it were slaughtered. Its power was far reaching. It covered countless periods in time itself. Killing it in one time meant nothing. It would have to be hunted down and killed across the void of space and time. I had a battle sixty-thousand years from now with the main source of this being and in which I defeated it." "Hey! Alright! Let's hear it for our boy Millennium!" cheered Serena but was quickly silenced by everyone's annoyed look. He continued, "Although I managed to defeat him, his crystaline heart remained. I was severely weakened from the battle and was unable to desroy it. The most I could do was fragment it." The girls listened and hung on every one of his words, especially Mina. They are took turns asking questions big and small, he answered all of them but left out key events of the time lines, as well as a few other things.
"Ah Geez! Look at the time!" exclaimed Lita. "I gotta get home and cook dinner!" "Yes it is quite late, and we have that test in English tomorrow Serena." said Amy as she laughed at Serena's 'The world is coming to an end' routine because she forgot to study for it. As Raye was busy tidying up the kitchen table and just before Millennium was about to leave, "Could you walk me home? I'd like to talk to you some more." Mia asked. "I could get Chad to walk you home, or I could go with you or you could call a taxi....Ohhh grampa!" Raye joked knowing full well Mina was taking a severe fall for him. "Butt--out Raye!" Mina growled and quickly turned her gaze back to Millennium and laughed nervously. She motioned to the door, "Shall we get going?", "Very well." he said hesitently.
"So do you have a girlfriend or anything?" the boldness of her question took Millennium completely by surprise. He thought about it for a few moments, "No. I always thought it best not to get emotionally attached to anything or anyone. It gives your enemies a powerful advantage over you. Love is an easily exploited weakness." "True but...", "But what?" he asked as the darkened street was becoming illuminated by the street lights. They turned a corner, "Don't you ever get lonely? Didn't you wish there was someone there for you? I mean someone worth protecting and fighting for to give your life meaning? True, people and things you love can be destroyed or killed by your enemy but, both me and the rest of the Scouts believe that we draw our power from the love of our friends and loved ones, and knowing that they're depending on us gives us the determination to keep fighting." He said nothing, she stopped him and turned him around to face her, "Well? Don't you?" she asked her eyes searching his waiting for an answer. He didn't know what to tell her, so he tried to walk away but she got in front of him again. "Why are you doing this to me?!" he growled, she was making him think about things he had pushed out of his mind centuries ago. "I've answered all the questions I'm going to answer. I don't have time to be talking about such frivolous, trivial things like love and friendship!" he was growing angrier because he couldn't supress several painful memories.
"I...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." Mina tried to calm him down to no avail, "Well you have! This conversation is over!" then he disappeared in his usual manner, leaving Mina both angry at him and also worried. She walked the rest of the way home by herself, 'What a cold, heartless, insensitive jerk!' she thought to herself. "He'll do that to you." laughed Trista who almost scared Mina half to death. "How long were you there?" she said trying to get her heart started again. "He's afraid of being alone, there is someone very close to his heart but he's afraid something bad will happen to her again. Someone he'd freely give his life a thousand times over to protect." "Who?" Mina asked almost pleading Trista to tell her. "I promised I wouldn't, he's tried so hard to keep her safe." "By pretending she doesn't exist!" exclaimed Mina. "He has an important mission for this girl, if she knew the truth about him or herself it will have severe consequences on the time line. By denying himself of her he is saving her." The pair walked off and Trista told Mina as much as she could about Millennium.
"I was completely blown away!" said Lita as tossed a note pad of half finished Math problems on the floor and stretch out across her bed. "Me too! Imagine Queen Beryl having a son!" gasped Serena as the two gabbed on the phone, she had long since given up on studying for the English test. "Who'd of thought someone like that would be on our side!?", "I'm kinda glad he is." said Lita as she reach for a plate of snacks. "Ever since finding out about the Moon Kingdom I'm glad someone was there with my mother when she died. I'll have to thank him for that the next time I see him." as Serena recalled the sad memories of a decimated palace. "Yeah that really seem to hurt him, poor guy. Having to carry around things like that forever." Lita said sympathetically. "This from a person that was willing to let him fight alone?" sniped Serena, "Hey! That was before I knew! Besides I think he's kinda foxy with his dark and mysterious attitude, don't you?" Serena rolled her eyes "Can't go five minutes can ya? I wouldn't try anything if I were you though, 'cause I think Mina's ready to stake her claim on this one!" she laughed. "I mean seriuosly! If she sat any closer to him she would have been on his lap." joked Lita, "Well I'll let you get back to your studying!" she said laughing when she heard Serena's groans. "Talk to you after the masacre, Lita." sighed Serena as she hung up. She tried to get back to studying but, she soon fell fast asleep. "Typical!" huffed Luna she she came into the room silently, then pounced on the sleeping princess with claws bared and gave her a rude awakening.
Millennium was still burning for a few days after his little talk with Mina. His thoughts were no longer focused, instead they wandered across a vast field of buried thoughts, memories, feelings and emotions she had stirred up in him. Anger, sadness,happiness, joy, sorrow, grief, and regret hung over him. "Maybe we should leave him alone?" said a voice. "Good idea! Remember the last time he got like this?" said another as the two talked amongst themselves as they left him to vent his agressions on a couple of training monsters he created.
The pair stolled though the streets of Tokyo until they came to a park. "Do you want to check up on her?", "Why not? It's been a while." The pair sat themselves down under a tree and watched a group of children playing in the distance, one in particular.
"Alright children! Time for Art class!" called Michelle in a gentle but firm voice. It was a beautiful warm, sunny day so she decided to take the children in her preshcool art class to the park so they could draw some of the scenery. A girl was crying, while Michelle comforted her she scolded two boys "...now the two of you apologize to Jenny.", "We're sorry we teased you Jenny." "Alright Alex and Josh, the three of you go join the others and get to work." The three children joined the others and started drawing. 'Happens every time!' Michelle thought as she went about checking all the other childrens drawings. She came to one three year old girl and said " And what are you going to draw, Hotaru?" she knelt down to see what she was drawing. "Doggies!" she sang as she reached for a black crayon. "Where are the doggies honey? I don't see any around?" Michelle looked around the park. "There." she pointed to a tree where there were two large, black German Shepards underneath. Michelle sat with Hotaru for a few minutes watching her draw. She still couldn't believe the tremendous power that hid within this happy little girl. Michelle could sense a darkness to the child's power, a darkness that felt familar but she couldn't quite figure it out. "Okay sweetie, but becareful and stay away from them, alright?" " 'Kay!" she said not really listening to Michelle as she scribbled on her art pad. She left the child humming happily to herself and went over to a picnic table to help the other preschool teachers get the juice and cookies ready for the children.
"Snack Time!" Michelle said as the children came running to the table, all except Hotaru. Very worried Michelle looked around the park to see where she went. "Hotaru?!" she called but she didn't answer. Then she remembered the dogs. Fear gripped her as she ran to where she saw the two dogs earlier.
"This is you!" beamed Hotaru as she pointed to a mis-shapen animal. Malice tried to contain his snickering as Dischord let out a bewildering groan at the drawing. 'Looks nothing like me!' she said to Malice telepathically. 'Oh no! It's you alright!' Malice laughed back. Michelle found Hotaru sitting between the two dogs, petting them. Quickly picking her up from between the two behemoth-like animals she carried her back to the group. "Bye-bye doggies!" Hotaru waved. "Now did I or did I not tell you to stay away from those stray dogs! They could've bitten you!" Michelle crossly said to the little girl. "They're friendly an' funny! 'specially Malice!" Hotaru said as she watched the dogs disappear into the trees. "Who's Malice?" Michelle asked as she set Hotaru down at the table. "The doggy." she said. "But they didn't have collars on?" Michelle recalled. "He told me!" she answered back. "Don't be silly Hotaru!" Michelle laughed and poured her some juice.
'Is that?', 'Yes!' said Dischord sniffing the air as the two came a little closer to the table. 'Ouuu...Gotta have one!' said Malice as he licked his lips while watching the happy children stuff themselves with cookies. 'Don't draw attention from the adults you dope!' said Dischord as she whimpered a little to get the attention of the children. But it was too late, "Shoo! Shoo! Go away!" said one of the teachers. 'Oh now you've done it, Dischord! No cookies for us!' snapped Malice. "Doggies!" shouted a little boy and all the children came to see them. 'You were saying?' snickered Dischord as she daintily took a cookie from one of the children's hands. Malice immediately singled out Hotaru. She gave him a cookie and giggled as he thanked her. "That tickles!" she laughed as Malice's tongue gently lapped her cheek. "Alright! You mooch hounds! You got what you wanted, now go or I'll call the dog catcher!" said Michelle as she clapped her hands trying to scare them off. 'Uh...Excuse me. "Dog Catcher"?' said Malice as he gave a low groan and looked at Dischord who was on her back getting her belly scratch by some of the children. 'Ouuu yeah a little to the left, will ya?' she said letting out a deep groan of contentment but got interupted by Malice. 'Come on, let's go! Or they're going to call "The Dawg Catcher"!' he said trying to make himself sound scary. She sighed and got up then the pair quickly trotted out of sight despite the call of more cookies from the children. "Busy I see." the pair looked to their right to see Millennium. "Well you weren't giving us any attention!" snarled Dischord. "How is she?" he asked looking at the group of children. "She seems alright, how 'bout you?" asked Malice. "Under control. Let's go." he motioned for the two dogs to follow him.
Millennium went searching for the three remaining shards and left the pair on their own once again. "Let's hit the food courts next!" said Malice as his stomache growled. "I'm there!" agreed Dischord. As they walked along they ran into Artemis and Luna. "Check this out! Tweedle dumb and dumber!" chuckled Artemis as as he walked up to the two dogs. "Oh Artemis stop that!" Luna pleaded fearing they'd attack him. "Dogs are sooo stupid! All they do is chase their tails and drink out of toilets!" he snorted. 'Why I oughta...', 'Malice! Hold!' snapped Dischord trying to reign in his anger. "That's enough, Artemis!" begged Luna seeing one of the dogs growing agitated but he didn't listen. "Move or get moved flea bag! Or I'll put some red stripes on your nose!" he said raising a paw. 'FLEA BAG! Dischord he called me a FLEA BAG!' she had a firm grip on his tail holding him. Seeing this, Luna jumped into a nearby garbage can fearing the worst was about to happen. "You wanna piece o' me? BUTT SNIFFER!" hissed Artemis as Luna closed her eyes. Dischord lost her grip. Malice had snapped. "Malice! No!" cried Dischord. "They can talk?!?" said Luna as she watched Artemis get chased up a mailbox. "You'll cough up more than hair balls when I get a hold of you!" growled Malice who was foaming at the mouth.
Just then Serena and Mina rounded the corner and headed for the arcade. Jumping out of the trash can, Luna bolted to the two girls and told them what happened. Serena threw a rock and hit Malice in the head just as he was about to knock the mailbox over and shred a terrified Artemis. Mina kicked him in the ribs but missed slightly and ended up catching him in his sensitive area. Malice's eyes widened and he yelped as he fell over. Dischord winced at Malice's painful blow. 'That's gonna need ice.' she thought as she comforted the quivering animal lying on the ground. "Serves you right!" huffed Mina as she picked up a trembling Artemis. "That was uncalled for!" snapped Dischord at Mina as she bared her teeth and pinned the two now frightened girls against the wall. "That dog talked!" said someone watching. "No way!" said another. The two blondes were just as mystified. 'Uh-oh! Drawin' a crowd...Malice lets go!' and she bolted down the street. Malice couldn't. Andrew came over to see the comotion everyone was talking about. He knelt down and picked up the whimpering shepard. "Alright! Shows' over!" he said dispearsing the crowd.
"What happened?" he asked carrying the hurt animal to the arcade office. "Blondie here tried to make me get in touch with my feminine side! That's 'what' you idiot!" whined Malice as he was put on a table. Andrew stared in disblief. "That dog....talked...?" he stammered, as Serena thanked him for his help while pushing him out the door. "It's all Artemis' fault!" piped up Luna, "He just kept it up an' up!" "Stuff it Luna!" hissed Artemis. "Quiet, you two!" snapped Serena, "Or someone will hear you!" Mina tried to comfort the poor animal. "I'm sorry!" she said apologetically, "I didn't mean to kick you there, but you were going after my cat." Mina said. Malice said nothing. 'Say nothing and you might not end up in a science lab' he thought to himself. "Give it up flea bag we know you can talk!" said Artemis. "If I could get offa this table, cat..." Malice tried to stand. Artemis hid behind Mina. "That's what started this whole mess!" Luna angrily snapped at the two of them. Just then a knock came at the door. "Hey guys." Andrew said, "There's a huge crowd outside, try taking that talking dog out the back way." He tried to open the door but Serena stopped it part way. "Don't be silly, Andrew! Animals can't talk!" she nervously laughed, "We'll get him outta here though, don't worry!" she closed the door.
"Gawd you're heavy!" said Serena as she struggled with the massive animal. "I got the door! Thank gawd no one's home!" said Mina as Serena put him down on her bed. "Okay pooch! Who are you and where are you from?" Serena started the interrogation. "I'm Malice. Guardian dog of Prince Millennium of the Negaverse!" he stated proudly. "Hah! One kick and your down! Some guardian!" "Alright! That does it Artemis! No tuna for a week!" scolded Mina. Artemis slinked under the bed to sulk, while Malice snickered. "I think I'll stay here for awhile." Malice said as he stretched out on Serena's bed, "You, servant girl! Bring me something to eat!" "Servant girl?!" Mina said through gritted teeth. Just then Reeny came into the room. "Malice?!" she gasped excitedly. "Hey, kiddo!" he chimed, "Servant girl here is gonna get me some grub. You want anything?" he asked as she hugged him. Mina went to the kitchen muttering the words "...servant girl!" under her breath. "So, Reeny. You know this mutt!" Serena said shocked. "Oh yeah, him and Dischord..." she stopped and her eyes widened, "Is Millennium here? Where is he?" she squealed. "Oh, around." said Malice. "Oh I can't wait to see him! It's been so long!" Serena noticed Reeny's joy. Reeny went on and on about how she knew about Millennium.
"Mina, are you staying for diner?" called Serena's mother. "Uh...no ma'am! I'm leaving now!", "Bye Sere!" as she rushed out the door. While the family was just starting desert a knock came at the door. Serena's father answered it. "I believe you have my dog." Serena pushed past her puzzled father when she heard the voice. "He's upstairs sleeping in my room." she said as Reeny entered the living room with a large black dog following her. "Oh my..." said Serena's mother when she saw the huge animal and tried to pull Reeny away. "Cool dog!" exclaimed Sammy. "Malice. Come." called Millennium. 'Malice come, Malice go, blah, blah, blah...Someday Malice is gonna write a book!' Dischord giggled to herself at Malice's comment. "I hope he wasn't too much trouble.", "Oh nooo! He was a joy!" laughed Serena. "Let's go." he said, Serena followed him outside.
She closed the door so her family couldn't hear their conversation but they peeked out the window at the two. "I wanted to thank you for what you did...back when the Moon Kingdom was wasted. I was glad someone was with my mother when she..." he cut her off. "I owed her a debt I can never repay. She was a very kind-hearted person. You're very much like her. It tore me up that I got there too late to do anything." Millennium said sadly while gazing up at the stars. "That's why I don't want you or your friends involved." Serena hooked her arm around his, rested her head on his shoulder and gazed at the stars with him. "I know. But you don't have to be alone in your fight. If you need us we'll be there. Oh, I think you should talk to Mina, she's worried about you." "I will." he said and walked off with the two German Shepards trailing him. "What is it with that girl and older men!" grumbled Serena's father, "Now dear..."said his wife trying to calm him down.
--End of Part 1.--
--Coming soon, Part 2: Shadows Of The Past: Royal Secret Revealed--
Questions, comments? Mail to:
ravyn_knyght@ yahoo.com