(semi) Important Author's Note!

(don't worry, there's a story below it all haha, it's just a long AN to explain the hows and whys of TGS Redux and what to expect)

Heya! What's up, party people!? I'm baaaaaaaack. Ok, not really. Not permanently. Due to the prodding of several people (and I do mean quite a few), I am posting this story on FFN and not just on AO3. Not just because I kind of feel like it belongs here—because seriously, this was THE story that started it all for me here, and I'm not counting BDC. I mean this was THE story that started the path of my whole headcanon for my version of the Saiyans. The purring, the language, the pull, the beast, all of it. Like them or hate them, all of those elements got started because of The Golden Stranger, and I may not have named them all in TGS, but the seeds for the ideas were definitely planted with this story. And seriously, let's back up a moment to the like them or hate them comment I just made. If you hate my stories, then why are you *still* wasting your time reading them? Go! Shoo! Go read something you actually enjoy and stop pestering me with your retarded anon reviews! You're not wasting my time at all since I don't even read them—you're just wasting yours!

So, with all of that said, this version of The Golden Stranger is going to be refreshingly different from the first one and I'm really very excited about it! :) People are going to be mostly in character in this story (I'm talking about Vegeta and Usagi, especially, it took me a couple years before I really realized just how much OOC I was writing them, and I'm sure yall can forgive me since I actively worked to improve that issue over time). Not only that, but if you've been reading my stuff since the beginning, you know how much my writing style has changed, evolved, and ultimately improved. So if you loved the original TGS, you're going to adore this new, rewritten TGS series.

Did I just say series? Oh my, why yes I did! Simply put, Redux is not going to contain storylines, plots, and get-togethers for all of the pairings. Redux itself is ONLY going to focus on Moon and Stranger. Yes, Redux will have the rest of the Senshi and the Z-warriors in the story, but the story won't break away from the main storyline to focus on them. That's what I mean by a TGS series. Along with TGS: Redux, there will be TGS: Blue, TGS: Red, TGS: Gold, and TGS:Green(bean)… and yes, there WILL be a TGS: Redux 2, which will center around Mirai Trunks. And out of all of these stories previously mentioned, 3 of the pairings have changed! Yup! Completely different pairings, and I'm positive that any longtime fans reading this intro can immediately guess one of them (*cough*Nappami*cough*)! Also in Redux and all its sister stories, updated DBS canon has been added. Yes, I said DBS. Not DBZ. I'm talking SSJBlue, Beerus, Whis, Vados, Champa, 12 Universes, 12 possible versions of Earth and Vegeta-sei, etc. I'm gonna be throwing it all in… except for Mai. I like her, but I'm probably not going to use her because I have an amazingly good idea for TGS Redux 2 and I don't want to give that up.

Ok, I think that about sums it up! To all of yall that actually read all of that, you're better than me. I don't think I can do that to even proofread it, but to be fair to myself, I'm working on like, fourteen stories all at once right now. So, enjoy the story! I will be posting all of Redux here on FFN, as well as its sister stories, since this is where it all started and this is where it belongs. It'll also be posted on AO3 as always. For those of yall that don't know about AO3, it's archiveofourown dot org, and it's a wonderful place where people don't whine or get all PC about smut, and butthurt fanboys that can't seem to understand the definition of "fanfiction" are told to go to FFN (here) if they're going to be whiny little bitches about fanfiction not being canon. Because, um… if anyone hasn't noticed, fanfiction *isn't* canon. If it was, it'd be DBZ or DBS. It'd be written by Toriyama if it was all canon. And I'm definitely not Toriyama. I'm Native American and in my 30s. I'm not Japanese and 10 days older than Christ. I'm also super fucking broke because I have kids and no matter how much extra I make, my kids'll still bleed me dry and make my wallet cry for mercy. If I haven't made it clear by now, I own nothing and this is fanfiction. If I was as rich as Toriyama, I wouldn't have to work a day job and about 7 or 8 different freelance writing things online as well as publishing my own books.

OH! SHIT! I forgot the shameless advertising!1! I am publishing shit on amazon, yall! So if you want more info, PM me and I'll be thrilled to link you to Wanted Man, my novel, and my pen name where I publish my smutty as fuck shorts!

More shameless plugs: AnaFrost, MoonMageGoddess, SeleneAnadyomene are all great writers! Go hit them up if you haven't already! Also, one of the reasons for my comeback? AquaTonic's back and she's rewriting Snatched, one of my fave super-original stories of all time. Seriously, yall, she's really, really good.

Last but NOT least, these guys are really good, too, and they write straight-up DBZ fics. They're actually a really awesome lady and dude that are together, and Angst Cow came and stayed with me for several days and we had a fucking BALL hanging out, even though I'm actually boring as dried paste IRL. Angst Cow's partner/bf/fiancé is Over8000, and both of these writers have 100% permission to use my Saiyan Language. They've also helped contribute to it, both directly and indirectly (which means they asked me to come up with words they needed and I did), and because of them, the Saiyan Language Dictionary has gotten a MASSIVE fucking update on my google drive, and after I post this right here to FFN in a minute, I'm going to post the updated Dictionary on FFN as well.

Whew. I'm done. No really, I mean it. I'm finally DONE yacking yall's ears off. Done for one chapter, anyways. So, without further ado… I bring to you… The Golden Stranger: Redux. The way it should have been, and with 9000% better smut!

"Hey, moon goddess."

Cracking her eyes open against the light of a golden ki illuminating the walls of her prison, Usagi blinked them in utter disbelief before the image of the Golden Warrior blurred due to the tears filling her eyes. "Stranger," she whimpered, "you… you came for me?"

She couldn't see him anymore, the light around him simply hurt her eyes too badly after a week in the dark, and Usa was forced to shut them tightly as she felt his large, sword-calloused hand pushing her filthy, disgusting hair out of her face. "Of course I did," he whispered insistently in reply, his voice as tender as his fingertips as that strange, comforting, purring sound—a sound he'd only made a handful of times before, and only during the last few months—filling the room along with the light from his ki. "You really think I'd leave you here to die? That I wouldn't turn the entire fucking planet upside-down searching for you?"

"No," she replied hoarsely, "but… but I thought that no one would find me. But you…"

"I did," Stranger finished for her. "Moon… I'll always find you," he promised as he gathered her up in his arms, carefully handling her as if she was the most fragile, precious thing in the world… as if she was the most precious thing in his world. "I love you," he breathed against her lips before pressing a brief, gentle kiss to them. "I love you, Moon, and I'll never leave your side again, I swear it. Now, let's get the hell out of here. Sound good?"

"Stranger… I lo—"

"NOPE! NO MORE OF THAT, MOON BITCH!"

Combined with the screaming right in her ear, the lash of the whip and the crack it made as it flayed some more of her flesh from her back jerked her right out of the only comfort Usagi had left to her, and she shrieked in agony. Or rather, she tried to shriek—her voice box had decided on the second day that enough was enough, and with a searing, tearing feeling in her throat as she'd screamed bloody murder in reaction to having a fingernail ripped off, she'd been reduced to screaming silently, her mouth opened wide to let it loose, though only air and a whisper were the only things anyone heard.

"Well, I see your larynx is still on vacation," the male voice to the right and above her sighed in annoyance. "That's such a fucking bummer! The only thing that got me off more than making you bleed was listening to you scream, you know that? Sis!? Hey! SIS!" He called out into the darkness while the blonde lying on the nasty floor of a control room in the city sewer cried in shallow, shuddering breaths, silent all but for a labored wheezing and a wet, crackling sound that came from deep in her chest. "I know you're there and I'll just keep shouting until you answer me! DAMN IT, AN, ANSWER ME!" He yelled after a full minute of waiting silently.

As Usagi absently wondered for a moment what the crackling sound in her chest meant and she tried in vain to grasp at a whisper of a memory from her current anatomy class, she heard a silky, feminine voice reply from the shadows—a voice she hadn't heard in what had to be at least a day. Maybe more… hell, maybe less. Time was strange when one was being tortured around the clock in an eternally lightless prison, with no means of telling the time.

"What!?" That smooth voice sighed, the voice of a woman that was wearily humoring a persistent, spoiled child. "Don't tell me she's dead… wait, no. I can hear her breathing. Sounds like she's going to die soon, though," An added in mild annoyance.

"What? Really!?" Her brother asked in a mixture of surprise and disappointment. "Damn it! But I'm not through playing with her!"

"Ail," she replied patiently, her heels clicking on the wet concrete as her voice drew closer, "if you don't want your toys to break, you really ought to not play with them so roughly. Besides, we need her dead, anyway. It's the only way we're going to get the ginzuishou out of her… if she was telling the truth, that is." An had already counseled her older brother-slash-lover on the drawbacks of torture several times, but she loved being right more than pretty much anything else, so she figured one more round of 'I told you so' couldn't hurt matters. "After all, if you beat someone long enough, they'll tell you the sky's red if they think it'll make you stop. You really should have listened to me and brought her Senshi down here, too, instead of just killing them. Then you could've been positive that she was telling the truth."

"Her Senshi weren't even helping her fight anymore!" Ail protested for the millionth time, just as he had whenever An had brought up the drawbacks of torture. "I told you, Sis, they didn't care about her anymore, and she probably felt the same way! The only person we could've possibly used to get any information out of her would've been that Golden Warrior guy!" He finished indignantly in reaction to the hot, boiling jealousy he felt whenever he thought about the blond warrior that had been running rampant around the city with Sailor Moon. "Chiba Mamoru doesn't even care about her anymore! He doesn't care about anyone except himself and that bimbo he's been dating in America!"

"Phhht, why are you yelling at me about it? You're the one that wouldn't take my advice, Ail. You're the one that decided that beating the information out of her would be more effective than just asking her to use the ginzuishou to heal the Tree of Life. You're the one that had to get all fucking jealous when you saw her with the Golden Warrior—and because of you, the Tree of Life is going to die… unless we can get the crystal out of her body. And if the tree dies, we die. So lose the tone, dear brother. I'm sick and tired of hearing it when this was completely your bright fucking idea! Now… why in the gods' names did you yell for me? I was trying to take a nap!"

"I thought she was trying to say something while I was questioning her," he lied smoothly, choosing not to comment on his sister's accusations in favor of getting what he wanted. "But I can't hear her because of her busted voice box. I want you to drop the spells that are keeping the ginzuishou from healing her… for… I don't know, about a full day or so. Just long enough for her to get her voice back."

"We don't even know for sure if she has it," An reminded him with a roll of her eyes.

"An, don't play stupid," Ail huffed with a roll of his own eyes towards her. "This is a brilliant idea and you know it. The ginzuishou will try to heal her if you temporarily cancel out the spells—if she has it, that is. If she was lying, then we'll know it for sure if there's no improvement to her voice or any of the wounds I've inflicted."

It was a good idea, but An would be damned if she'd admit it, especially after Ail had gotten them into such a mess that could leave them dead in a matter of days. She didn't like Usagi—she never really had, for obvious reasons—but even through the possessive jealousy she felt for her brother, she'd seen the sense of approaching Sailor Moon to ask for her help… rather than beating her to death to procure the crystal that would heal the steadily dying Tree of Life.

However, what was done was done, so An waved a hand to dispel the carefully woven containment spells she'd constructed after Ail had abducted Usagi from her college—spells that had kept the ginzuishou from fully healing its carrier.

At least, that was what she and her brother thought, anyway. In truth, the ginzuishou had been healing Usagi… but only at a snail's pace and a fraction of its usual power, and the moment the spells were lowered, it glowed brightly within her chest, its light temporarily blinding both of Usa's foes with its intensity.

"Goddamn it, I'd forgotten how fucking bright that thing can be!" Ail complained as he backed away into the shadows to join his sister.

"You and me both," An agreed. "Come on, set a couple Cardians to keep an eye on her. You should rest," she sighed as her love for her brother overcame her anger with him. He had botched everything, yes. They would likely die along with the Tree of Life because of his rash actions, yes. But even with all the blame she'd directed at her brother, he was all she had. Just as she was all he had… despite his persistent, possessive feelings for Sailor Moon. "We should both rest. We need to conserve our energy."

"I gathered some from her while she dreaming," Ail offered as he grasped his sister's hand. With guilt in his eyes for his impetuous, selfish blunder, he gave her nearly all of it, along with a tender kiss to her lips. "No," he insisted when An opened her mouth to protest and tell him to keep more of it for himself. "I'm fine. I took some off of her late last night," he lied. "I will come and take a nap with you, though. It's not like she'll be able to escape; even if the crystal's healing her as fast as it's able, she's so weak that it would take days for her to gain enough strength to escape."

#######################################

As Ail was kissing An and then leading her to the Tree of Life for a nap, Usagi was fighting for just enough consciousness in order to communicate with the ginzuishou. No, she told it weakly as it immediately began to work its healing magic on her, and Usagi felt a maddening, healing itch encompass the entirety of her back. Don't. Just let me die. Please… please… just let me die.

Princess, you are needed, the crystal protested calmly. There are those that love you, those that would be broken-hearted if you died.

Stranger…

Stranger most of all, it informed her soothingly. You may not have seen it, but I have. He loves you. He loves you with all his heart, and if you die, I have no doubt that he will take his own life after exacting his revenge on your enemies.

Usagi didn't want him die—it was the last thing she wanted in the world, next to the idea of Stranger in any kind of pain, physical or emotional. But she was so tired. So very, very tired… and death… death would be a blessing at this point. Death would be a release from her torment, from the pain of her broken legs, arms, and ribs… and the tearing sensation she still felt whenever she tried to scream or speak above a whisper. Death would be freedom. Death would be sheer, total bliss in comparison to lying face-down in her own bodily fluids because lying on her back was so painful that she would faint from the agony. Death would mean an end to a week of starvation, an end to being forced to drink the filthy, disgusting water that she'd refused the first two days, only for her survival instincts to finally force her to drink it in huge, greedy gulps as Ail and An had laughed at her, had informed her that there was surely some sewage in the dirty bowl that the former of the two had held to her parched, cracked lips. Death would mean a release from the tightness in her chest that had nothing to do with six broken ribs… and everything to do with exposure, her damp prison, the mold growing on the walls, and the sewage that flowed approximately thirty feet away.

Death would mean never seeing him again, princess. Death would mean never feeling his arms around you. Death would mean never holding him, kissing him, or confessing your love for him. Death would mean never hearing him confess his love in return.

I know, Usagi replied brokenly, sobbing silently as she clung to the thought of declaring her feelings after over six months of admitting to herself that she was deeply, irrevocably in love with him… as she clung to the hope of hearing the same in return.

But she couldn't do it anymore. She just couldn't. He had no idea where she was, and because Rei had been out of school sick on the day she'd been abducted after her afternoon classes, the Senshi probably hadn't even known she was missing for at least a day. Usagi wasn't stupid enough to believe that Ail and An had killed them, but she did believe An when she'd overheard the woman telling her brother that there was no way for the Senshi to sense the ginzuishou's resonance. She'd used some kind of spell to keep anyone from sensing her in that manner… and of course, Usa had forgotten to take her henshin broach and her communicator on the day they'd kidnapped her.

Rescue would never come, and Usagi knew in her gut that the only way she'd escape was under her own power. She'd known that since day one… and Ail had gleefully broken her legs after the first escape attempt. He'd broken her arms after the second, when she'd nearly dragged herself to a ladder to climb out.

Even a full day's healing wouldn't be enough to give her the strength she needed to escape, and Usagi felt an unexpected calm wash over her as she thought of the only regret that she would die with. Silver crystal… we both know that there's no getting out of this, she whispered sadly. Please… I beg of you… don't heal me. Instead, would you use that energy to fulfill a last request? Please, she added weakly when the ginzuishou didn't answer right away.

Yes, Serenity, it finally answered dutifully, though its tone was mournful. The princess was right, unfortunately; the crystal could heal her throat, her pneumonia, and mend her broken bones and her back about halfway during the allotted time… but the chances of rescue were slim to none. Healing her would only prolong her agony. Healing her wouldn't be a kindness… it would be nothing but cruelty. I'll do anything you ask of me, you know that.

Take me to him. Let me tell him. Please… don't let me die with my only regret left unresolved.

Princess… I'm sorry, but An did not dispel the shield. I'm unable to teleport you anywhere.

I know, Usagi replied with a ghost of a rueful smile. I'm not stupid, you know. Take my mind to his, crystal. If he's sleeping, I can enter his dreams. I can see him one last time.

You need to be asleep for this to work, Serenity, the crystal reminded her. Shall I put you under?

Yes… and if you can, add a spell to keep me under, no matter what. Let me die dreaming of him… please, crystal. Let me die happy.

There was a prolonged hesitation from the ginzuishou, and Usagi assumed it was simply reluctance to let her die, unaware that the all-powerful, sentient artifact inside of her was doing as it was told. It was weaving a spell around its princess, a spell to keep her fast asleep no matter how much Ail beat her, no matter how much he screamed right in her ear, no matter what kind of new, horrible methods of torture he tried to use on her.

But it wove two extra bits into the simple spell: one, a thread woven in with the rest of the main threads of the spell, a thread that would give Usagi nothing but wonderful dreams about Stranger, even after he'd woken. She would stay with him. She would die happy.

The second bit that the crystal wove into the spell was a condition that Usagi didn't need to know about—a condition that the silver crystal knew was pointless, but without it, the crystal didn't think it could just let Usagi stay asleep and die. Because if rescue did arrive, and Usagi remained asleep with no means to revive her…

I'll let you die happy, the ginzuishou promised gently, surrounding Usagi's mind in its love for her. He'll sleep soon, princess… go to him. And then… sleep with him. Forever.

Thank you, Usagi replied as she felt happiness, hope and love fill her to the brim for the first time in what felt like an eternity, and she sensed herself drifting off to sleep as her mind was pulled off towards a bright, golden star burning in the distance… that star was a life force that could only belong to one man, and the last Lunarian fell asleep with a peaceful smile on her face as she felt his familiar warmth drawing closer. Thank you.

R&R and I'll go ahead and post the second chapter! And aren't you thrilled that there's no nineteen mile long AN on the end of this thing!? No worries, I won't do that to yall on the other chapters of Redux, that was pretty much a onetime thing! Love yall, mean it!