Now for the disclaimer. I do not own sailor moon or have any rights to its characters, I just like writing about them and maybe killing off a few characters here and there, is that so wrong?
Fate Isn't Always So Beautiful
"That was a great melody Michelle," Amara said as Michelle laid her violin down into its case. "How long have you been working on it now, a month or so, right?"
"Only a few weeks," Michelle replied locking the case shut with the latches. "I haven't got it just right yet."
"It sounds good to me."
"Well it sounds good but I'm not comfortable playing it yet. I worked really hard on it and I want it to be perfect."
"Yeah you've been working a little too hard if you ask me, you need a break Michelle, you can't go on working like this. Why don't we go down to the fitness center and you can swim around until you get tired."
"Your right I have been working to long and taking a swim might just do the trick, but do you mind if I go alone so I can have some time to think?"
"No, go ahead, I wanted some time to ride my bike. Do you want me to drive you down there?"
"No, I'll walk, It'll be good for me to get some exercise after working on that piece."
"OK then, I'll pick you up when the center closes, how does that sound?"
"It sounds great," Michelle said with a little chuckle.
Michelle finished putting away her violin as she heard the familiar sound of the engine of Amara's motorcycle warming up. She walked over to her dresser and looked through the bottom drawer until she found the right bathing suit. She picked the orange one with the little frills around the edges, it was her favorite. As she was about to close the drawer she remembered to grab her red bow so she could tie up her hair before hopping in the pool. About the time she got to the bottom of the stairs she heard Amara's tires screech off down the road.
She began her familiar walk to the fitness center, stopping once to talk to Serena who was in a mad rush to find Darien because she had forgot to tell him about the cookies she left in his oven when she left his apartment earlier. By now they were probably tossing water on the ashes of Darien's apartment. As Serena ran off down the street Michelle could only think, "what a meatball head," then she scolded herself for being rude.
When she finally got to the fitness center she stopped for a moment to admire the sunset. The pink and the yellow had mixed to form the most heavenly tone of magenta she had ever seen. She stood admiring the rounded yellow arch just popping up over the horizon. By the time she was done swimming it would be dark and she was glad Amara was picking her up because she didn't fancy walking in the dark to much. A thief had been running around town mugging people at night. She figured she could take care of herself but it would be a lot less stress riding home on Amara's bike then walking through a dark alley way while some guy in a mask followed her. She took one last look at the sunset and walked up the steps to the fitness center.
As she got in the elevator that would take her to the floor with the pool she began to wish that there would be no one else in the pool so she could have all to herself. Then she scolded herself again remembering that it wasn't her pool and other people had the right to be there.
After reaching the top floor where the pool is she went strait to the locker room to change. She stepped into the locker room and looked around for a second. She didn't see anyone, but she walked through the rows of lockers glancing around. It looked as though she was going to get the pool all to herself, that was if there was no one in the men's locker room.
She changed in to her bathing suit and put her school uniform away in a locker. She walked out the door and into the pool area. She looked around the sides of the pool. She WAS going to get her wish. No one else was here. She took out the red bow, pulled her hair up, and tied it tight. She stood staring at the surface of the water. The lights were glimmering off it and it reminded her of the sunlight bouncing off the surface of the ocean. She began to wish that she had gone to the beach instead. She took one last look at the surface of the water and jumped in.
As she paddled her way around the pool she started thinking about her violin piece, then she remembered that she was here to relax and quickly dismissed all thoughts about the violin or anything else for that matter. She slowly stroked her way through the water making no hurry to get anywhere, only stopping for the occasional gasp of air. It was so nice just swimming with no one around to annoy her and nothing to think about or bother her. She felt like she could do this for hours.
She swam to the surface a wiped the water from her eyes and looked around the pool area. She slowly turned until she was staring strait out the large oversized windows and noticed it was already dark outside. She quickly turned to the large clock hanging from the wall. She took one glance and realized that the fitness center was closing any second now. She quickly swam to the edge and pulled herself out.
She walked back to the locker room and grabbed a towel and began drying herself off. After she was dry she started changing back into her school uniform. About half way through getting her clothes on the lights in the fitness center turned out. She finished changing although she had a little trouble when she put her bow that she wore on the front of her uniform on upside down.
When she finally finished, she walked out of the locker and headed for the elevator. She pushed the button but it didn't light up, and she knew she was going to have to take the long way, So she headed for the stairs. She started what ended up being a long walk down the flights of stairs. When she reached the bottom, she walked over to the entrance and looked at the lock on the outside of the door.
She cupped her hands over her eyes and looked for anyone outside that could open the door. She looked around not making out anyone in the darkness. Then she looked over to the far left and saw a man standing holding a watering hose in his hand. She figured he must be the janitor because he was cleaning off the steps in front of the center. She gently knocked on the glass door in order to get his attention.
The man first looked around like a ghost was talking to him then turned his attention to the source of the sound. He stared at Michelle with a puzzled look on his face then realizing what he had done made his way to the door grabbing his keys on the way. Michelle stepped back from the door as the man unlocked the door and held it open for her.
"I'm sorry about locking you in," the man apologized with I slight bit of blushing in his face. Michelle could tell he was a little embarrassed.
"Well, thank you for letting me out, I wouldn't have had a very good nights sleep in that locker room."
"Your welcome," the man replied as he started washing off the steps again. Michelle walked down the wet steps making sure not to slip and sat down on the bench to wait for Amara. As she sat there wondering what was keeping Amara she thought she heard the familiar sound of a diamond pod hatching. She shook it off thinking that is was just exhaustion making her hear things.
All of a sudden she heard the loud yell of a older man, and as she looked up the stairs she seen the water hose the janitor had been cleaning the step with transform into a hideous monster. It had a skinny green hose for a body and a water nozzle for a head. It was one of if not the ugliest monster she had seen to date. It snarled as it flung one of its rubbery, skinny, green arms at the man knocking him into a nearby trash can taking away his conciseness.
Michelle took out her transformation pen and became Sailor Neptune before the monster spotted her. She jumped to the top of the steps right as the monster seen her. She stood a few feet away from it not wanting to get to close seeing how long its limbs were. The monster's arm grew longer and came flying at Neptune in a sweeping action. Neptune easily avoided being tripped and headed in for her own attack.
She thrust her arm forward towards the skinny monster ready to knock the water right out of it but surprisingly missed due to the creatures shear thinness. Now Neptune was in a venerable position and paid for it. The hideous monster wrapped its stringy arm around Neptune's body and tossed her through the glass window of the center. Neptune leaned up to see where the monster was. The creature was standing over her with the opening of the nozzle pointed right at her. No sooner had Neptune thought that maybe she should try to move out of the way, the thin attacker bombarded her with water pushing her all the way to the wall at the far side of the center. The water pressed her against the wall with great force. Neptune tried her best to move but just couldn't get herself out of the painful flow of the water. Neptune was exhausted and began to think she was going to pass out.
As her conciseness was starting to drift from her she heard the faint yell of Uranus. All she could make out was "shaking" but she knew what was going on. The water quit pounding her into the wall as she looked up just in time to see the watery fiend being thrown out of the view of the fitness center. Next thing she saw was the familiar outline of her partner running toward her. Neptune stood up and stumbled a bit. Uranus ran to her side and helped her hold herself up.
"Are you OK?" Uranus asked as Neptune regained her composure.
"Yeah I'm fine, just a little tired."
"Well lets finish this hose head so you can go home and get some sleep."
"OK," Neptune mumbled as she called forth her Aqua Mirror.
Neptune looked over to Uranus who had her hand in the air and was screaming, "Uranus Beam Sword!" Neptune held her mirror in front of her with an outstretched arm.
"Neptune Submarine Reflection!" she yelled ready to attack the water weal ding monster. The creature wasn't quite done with it's assault though. It held its arm out to the side where it became stiff like a board. It pointed the skinny projectile weapon at Neptune and fired. It's arm disconnected from the socket and went screeching towards Neptune like an arrow shot from a bow. It plowed its way through Neptune's attack like Amara's bike through the wind. The stiff, arrow like object left Neptune's attack still streaming toward the hideous monster and flew right toward Neptune.
At first Neptune thought the segment of hose would disintegrate in her attack but didn't noticed till it was too late that it had went right through the center of the blast. She used the only thing she could to try to protect herself from the piercing spear, She held her mirror up in front of her face to block the object. The hose smashed into the mirror shattering it. The hose dissolved after coming in contact with a target, but the damage was done.
A large piece of glass was sent streaming toward Neptune. She saw it but only had time to move her head slightly to the side. A mistake she wouldn't have done if she would know what affect it would have. She moved the side of her face out of the way exposing her neck. The piece of broken mirror sliced through her main artery. She immediately felt the mortal wound and fell to the ground.
Uranus and Neptune's blasts found there target in the creature. The horrible monster dissolved away leaving a unraveled water hose. The little white diamond pod fell in to the ground and cracked releasing the small black shadow, but its purpose had been served.
"We really took care of that ugly thing didn't we Neptune?" Uranus said not knowing about the fall of her companion. Uranus stood waiting for a response, but heard nothing. She quickly turned to make sure her partner hadn't passed out from exhaustion. What she found was not a tired or even a hurt Michelle, what she found was a bloody, lifeless Michelle. After her heart stopped beating Michelle's body de transformed leaving her limp body laying in a puddle of her own blood. Her school uniform was drenched with the thick red body fluid.
At Uranus's first glimpse she could only think that this had never happened, that she wasn't dead, that this was all some sort of sick twisted dream. She ran to Michelle's body, kneeling over it hoping it would still have life left in it, that she could still help her fallen companion. She found no such thing. She looked over to the bloody and broken mirror, and then to the large, razor sharp piece of glass laying beside of Michelle's neck. She looked down as a new body fluid began to gather on Michelle's lifeless body, it was her own tears, she watched them drip off her face and she started to think, "how could something like this happen in such a easy battle?" This wasn't even one of their major battles, they did stuff like this almost everyday.
As Amara lifted Michelle's head up and laid it on her lap she too de transformed, not because she wanted to, because she lost all her energy to sadness. She began thinking about what she would do without Michelle. One thought popped in her head, "Fate is so beautiful," something Michelle had said before, even sung about.
As the phrase popped in again she looked up and the sky and screamed at the top of her lungs, "NO IT'S NOT!!!" Then she hunched over holding Michelle tightly. She didn't have the strength to hold herself up anymore. She began rocking back in forth like a baby in it's cradle chanting, "fate is so beautiful" over and over silently to herself.
Amara had no recollection about anything after that, at one point she remembered hearing some one's voice coming from the broken glass doorway to the fitness center. It was probably the janitor back from his trip to the dumpster.
She didn't remember the exact time Serena arrived but she did know it was before the ambulance got there. She some what remembered her saying something about coming home from Darien's but she wasn't paying attention, she was stilling hugging Michelle in disbelief.
When Amara finally regained her sense of what world she was in, she was in a strange bed. She didn't bother to look around, she didn't care where she was. Then a thought struck her again, what if it had been a dream. She sat up looked at the wall, she knew it wasn't hers or any room she had ever seen before. She looked at the blanket covering her shivering body, she stared the little moons and stars, they reminded her of siting outside looking into the heavens with Michelle. She was about to cry when she heard a silent whimper coming from below the bed. She slowly peered over the side and figured out where she was sleeping.
She looked down at Serena's puffy red face, she could tell she had been crying. She knew that it had been no dream, her life was changed forever now. She laid back down and looked up at the ceiling.
She just stared into the darkness awhile until she heard another silent crying noise. She sat up and looked over to the foot of the bed. She moved up enough to see over it. She looked down at Mina, Lita, Ami, and Raye, all sleeping uncomfortably on the floor. She figured that Serena's parents had just let them all stay over, but Amara didn't remember saying that she wanted to. She laid back in bed and stared at the ceiling a little more trying not to cry.
Only sounds in the room were some faint crying and the sound of Serena's parents talking downstairs. Amara heard a voice coming from downstairs that sounded familiar. Wondering if her hunch was true she got up making sure not to step on Serena or Luna who was huddled up against her. She slowly opened the cracked door to Serena's room to reveal a long hallway. She walked to the end and stood at the top of a set of stairs.
"Well Amara seems to be doing better but she hasn't said anything since the accident. We couldn't even get her home so we just had her and Serena's friends stay here. She's upstairs asleep in Serena's bed right now," Amara recognized the voice of Serena's parents but who were they talking too.
"Well I would like to talk to her but I don't want to wake her up. I guess I could come and see her some other time," Amara knew that all to familiar voice. Amara started straggling down the stairs while looking at the long green harried woman sitting in the chair in front of Serena's parents. Trista got up and walked over to Amara wrapping her arms around her.
"How are you?" Trista whispered in Amara's ear.
Amara took a deep breath and try to say her feelings but the only thing that came out was, "she's gone." Amara began to cry on Trista's shoulder.
Amara woke up in Serena's bed with the sun shining in her eyes. It was going to be a foggy day because she should tell the sun was being muffled by something and she could see a small patch of it outside Serena's window.
She leaned up and looked to see if Serena and her friends were still asleep. She looked around but only saw the ruffled, tear drenched sheets the girls had slept on. She wanted to just stay in bed and let the world pass her by, but she knew she couldn't. She forced herself out of the unfamiliar bed and walked to the door. She looked out into the hallway and saw Serena sitting on the floor looking at the ground between her feet.
"You have to get ready for the funeral," she whispered softly not looking up from the ground. Amara just walked downstairs passing Serena who also had to change for the funeral. She walked out the door not saying bye or thanks to anyone.
She started walking down the street with her head down, she bumped into a person occasionally but she didn't pay them any mind. When she finally reached her home she was hesitant to go in. She wasn't sure what kind of memories it might bring back.
She went in and tried not to look at anything. She walked strait to her closet and got out her tuxedo. As she was about to put it on she stopped and thought weather or not she could do this, but she knew she had to see Michelle at least one last time. She put on the black suit and walked downstairs and out the door. She began walking down the street again still holding her head low.
When she got back to Serena's house she saw the blond hared heroine sitting on her porch waiting for her. Serena got up and walked by Amara grabbing her hand as she whispered, "we don't want to be late."
Amara followed Serena with her head still down looking at the sidewalk. Serena led Amara to a nice little church yard, where Amara looked up just enough to see all of Serena's friends sitting down in their best dresses.
She walked by them not bothering to look up and walked strait to the oak wood casket standing in the front of the yard. She walked up hesitantly and stood looking at the sky now. She slowly looked down at Michelle laying in her final bed. She noticed how her dress had a frill wrapping around her neck. Amara pulled it back just enough to see a large bandage wrapped around her wound. She replaced the frill and looked away for a second.
She admired the lovely blue colored dress they had her in. It made her look like a princess, and Amara couldn't help think it fit her well, Michelle was a princess to her, and this dress showed that.
As far as Amara knew she wasn't crying yet, that was until she looked at Michelle's hair. They had left the little red bow she was wearing when she had the accident holding her hair up. Amara began to think back to the accident and she started to cry uncontrollably. She leaned over the casket and could feel her tears falling on the beautiful dress of Michelle's. As she felt some one put their hand on her shoulder she remembered something. She turned her head to the side and looked at Serena whose eye's were bloodshot with tears.
"Serena, I need to ask you something."
"What is it Amara?" Serena replied in a weak voice.
"What did you do with Michelle's mirror, I would like to keep it as a reminder of her." Amara stared at the puzzled look on Serena's face. "I know its broken but I would still like to keep it." Serena looked at Amara more puzzled than ever.
"Amara what are you talking about?"
"Michelle's Deep Aqua Mirror, it was laying beside her when she passed away." "There was no mirror when I got there," Serena replied.
"It was broken, where do you think that the glass that cut her came from," Amara said harshly.
"You told the police that the glass from the window cut her, when she was knocked through it." Amara looked up with blank eyes. She knew the world was playing a cruel joke on her now. She didn't remember even talking to the police nor the less lying to them. She looked at Serena.
"Never mind, your right, that's what happened," Amara said blatantly lying to Serena. Serena didn't believe it and knew something else had happened but she wasn't going to call Amara a liar, but maybe she would ask her about it later.
Amara sat down in the front row of chairs and began looking at the ground between her legs. Moments after she had sat down a familiar color of green hair glided down finding its way to her knee. She looked up for a moment already knowing who it was. Trista leaned over closer to Amara's ear.
"Serena had talked to me about using The Door of Time to go back and save Michelle but I'm sorry I..."
"I'm not going to ask you to do that," Amara replied not letting her finish. "I know how dangerous that would be." Trista leaned up and away from Amara's ear with a blank look on her face. Amara was the last person she would expect to not want to try to bring Michelle back with The Door of Time. Trista began thinking about how much Michelle had meant to Amara. Then she remembered that she knew this was going to happen, and she began wishing she could have told them. She stood up with tears in her eyes and walked away from the ceremony, slowly disappearing into the fog.
Amara kept looking at the ground while Serena and the other girls sat down near her. As the unhappy ceremony began Amara was in her own little world, thinking about where Michelle might be right now, she thought that maybe Michelle was here. She didn't bother to listen to what the minister said about Michelle, he didn't know her.
After he was done Serena went up to say some words about Michelle. Amara didn't even listen to Serena, she just stared at the ground. She looked up at the oak wood box that would forever be home to her loved one. She looked back at the ground and noticed the small puddle of tears forming in the grass below her.
Amara had made it through the entire service with out totally crying her eyes out. She kept remembering the good times she had with Michelle. She began wondering where the missing Aqua Mirror was, she vowed to herself to find it, no matter what she would have to go through.
She had been moderately fine about being at the funeral up till now. She had actually done better than most of the other scouts. She was fine that is, until they played a recording of Michelle playing her violin. Amara thought back to that night, before the whole ordeal happened, she thought about how Michelle had played her piece she had been working on so hard for her. Then she remembered telling Michelle to go to the pool, she thought that maybe if she hadn't said anything Michelle would still be alive.
As they lowered Michelle's eternal home into the ground to the sound of her violin, Amara stood up, eye's soaked with tears, and ran away from the hellish nightmare known to others as a funeral. The other scouts watched as she disappeared into the fog. Serena immediately stood up wanting to comfort her friend but was stopped by the swift hand of Darien. He gave her a look and she knew it was time to let Amara think by herself.
The rest of the scouts stayed until the end of the services, wanting to show respect to their fallen companion. After Michelle's resting place had been settled, the scouts left the church yard and headed for Amara's house. When they got there they soon realized that it was deserted. They sat down for a minute wondering where their fellow scout could be.
Finally, Serena remembered Michelle talking about a place on the beach that was secluded and that she loved to visit it. Serena thought maybe Amara would have gone there. The scouts started the walk using Serena's memories of where it was as a guide. When they finally reached the place Serena was sure it was, they saw Amara leaning over the wet sand moving her index finger around in it. Serena was incited to walk down to her but again was stopped, this time by Raye.
When it appeared as though Amara was finished, she stood up and turned to face the sea. She slowly walked out to where the water came up to her waist, and stood as the waves pounded her now drenched and discolored tuxedo. She stood with the elements against her, the wind, the waves, and even life were all beating against her.
The scouts only stood and pondered, Serena once taking time to look around her surroundings to see that there was no one for miles, and taking a second to take off her uncomfortable shoes.
The scouts stood staring at Amara for what seemed like hours, until she turned around and started walking back toward where she had originally been leaning over the wet sand. When she reached her spot of originality she looked down and stopped immediately. A sad but amazed look came over Amara's face. Even though the scouts where standing a good bit away they could tell she was crying.
Serena had had enough of watching her friend have no one and she took off ignoring Darien's grasp on her shoulder. She began running toward Amara until she felt a sharp pain in her foot. She stopped and fell to her knees. She turned looking at the blood dripping from her foot. She looked back at her foot print in the sand, slowly running her finger's through it. As she raised her hand out of the grains she saw a small reflective object start to uncover. She let the remaining sand funnel between her fingers, revealing a broken piece of a mirror.
It was then she looked past her hand too the sand leading up to the place Amara was now crying about. She looked in amazement at the first set of footprints, probably made by Amara because of the size of it, then turned her head to a second pair, smaller in size. Serena slowly got up and walked following the steps to where Amara was now on her knees crying over this section of sand that had had some affect on her. When Serena reached Amara she leaned down by her side and quietly asked "what happened?"
Amara looked up clearing her eyes pointing to the sand in front of her that Serena had ignored up to this point. Serena looked up at the wet sand as Amara whimpered the words, "I can be... I can be with her...when ever I come here."
Serena looked at the familiar Mirror laying imprinted in the sand between the words "Fate is" and "Beautiful".
"What is this Amara? Did you write Fate is Beautiful here in the sand?"
Amara breathed deeply and answered, "no, she doesn't want me to lose hope, I know that now."
"What are you talking about Amara, we seen you write something in the sand, who's foot prints are those beside yours, where did you find the mirror?"
Amara took another deep breath, "as long as this beach is here I can always come and feel her presence, even when she's gone she still brings hope into my heart, the footsteps are hers Serena and she came to give me a message. She brought the message in the form of this broken mirror. I didn't write Fate is Beautiful in the sand, I wrote Fate is Not Beautiful, she just showed me the errors I made, by removing the word that had no place in that phrase. She showed me everything has two sides, just like this mirror, On one side the broken glass, sharp and painful, like the fact of losing her to this tragedy, on the other, her symbol, gleaming in the sunshine, backed by a beautiful aqua color, beautiful like the knowledge, friendship, and memories she gave us."
Amara looked up at Serena with tears in her eyes, not tears of sadness, but tears of joy. Amara took a gasping breath and whispered into the wind, "she never left...she never left."
There it is and I hoped you liked it, sorry if I killed your favorite character, I like her too so it wasn't easy killing her, I would like to know what you think so comments are welcome.
~~~~~~~Without light there can not be shadows.
Story Written by: Shadow Writer