Buffy:  The Sailor Soldier

A Buffy/Sailor Moon Crossover Event!

Summary:        Serena and the rest of the Sailor Soldiers are drawn to the Hellmouth, all for different reasons.  They meet up with Buffy and crew after nearly getting killed by vampires and at least one demon.  But something brought them all here together for a reason.  Does Buffy and Serena's dreams hold the key?

Disclaimer:      Joss, Sand Dollar Entertainment, and Monster/Enemy Productions, along with UPN and all the others own all the characters applying to Buffy and the like.  Sailor Moon and characters are distributed by DIC and owned by some Japanese anime artist that I've never learned the name of.  Marise Tsukino is the property of Fanfiction author Enterprise1701_D along with her history, her family, and her role as Sailor Earth.

Prologue:

                It was dark.  That much was obvious.  Yet not so dark that she could not see.  Not that there was anything to see.  In fact that is all there seemed to be around her.  Darkness.  Nothingness.  Emptiness.  Somehow she expected it to be cold with the darkness.  That is how it worked right?  But no, no it wasn't cold.  It wasn't hot either.  In fact there wasn't anything to notice about the temperature, or the air, or even the flat dull surface she was standing on.

                Reaching up, she brushed some stray blond hairs from her face, surprised to see her hand as though it were bathed in light after seeing nothing but the darkness and emptiness of the space around her.  She looked almost frantically around her, searching, seeking for the source of the light.  Nothing.

                She sighed in frustrated resignation.  Turning in a fast circle, hoping to catch a glimpse of something, anything in this godforsaken place!  As she finished her dizzy spinning, her eye caught something just outside her peripheral.  She began her frantic looking again, and after nothing yet again, a strange yet bizarre thought came to her.  Maybe if she kept spinning, she would see it again.  And so she did.

                It happened while her mind and body were losing themselves.  The image outside of her peripheral suddenly came sharply into focus right before her.  It was an image of a place.  In fact it was so real that it seemed to come out of the nothing place she was in.  The first place that came into focus was both strange and uncomfortable, yet very familiar.  It was a circular room, with a raised portion in the back of it where stacks of shelves stood, empty for the moment.  Directly in front of the raised portion was a long wooden table with seven chairs set around it.  Across from the table was a long counter, which had what appeared to be an office behind it.  Just past the counter, straight out from the table were a pair of swing doors, and a cage full of books and other assorted items, that all seemed to belong there, to the right of them.  When she turned back to the table, she was more than a little surprised to see another nine chairs had joined the original seven.  It was surprising because the table hadn't changed in size one bit, though each chair seemed to have had a place at it.

                All of a sudden, she thought she heard a noise.  Turning quickly around, the place instantly changed around her, though truthfully she never registered the transition.  The new place she was in was nothing short of absolutely beautiful.  Unlike the place before it, which felt uncomfortable and creepy however familiar, this place immediately made her feel like…home.  There were Cherry Blossom trees along every stone paved pathway, and several dozen or so stone steps leading up from the street to where she stood now.  She noticed the occasional crow, yet rather than creeped out and worried like she usually felt about the birds, they felt more like the guardians of this sanctuary.  Turning around, her breath caught in her throat as she caught sight of the beautiful temple that stood proudly before her.  It was obviously Chinese or at the least Japanese in origin, a Buddha Sanctuary temple of Light and Fire.  She had no idea how she knew that, but she knew it.  Before she could fully explore and take in the beautiful place, it shifted once again.

                This time, back to the bleak, dark nothingness that had been her existence until then.  Surprised, she frantically turned around again and again, hoping to bring back the beautiful place, or even the creepy library.  Instead, an alter appeared.  As soon as she saw it, she knew that it was evil.  She also knew that she was meant to fight what this alter and this evil represented, but she didn't know how.  Suddenly a voice boomed out of the emptiness and spoke in a rhyme that terrified her more than the appearance of the alter.

                "ANCIENT QUEEN, FUTURE PRINCESS BRINGS FORTH THE KEY TO THE DESTRUCTION AND THE PASSAGE, CHOSEN ONE, TWICE HAS DIED, TWICE HAS RISEN, THRICE FOR DESTINY YET TO BE AWAKENED SHALL BE REVEALED, ANCIENT TALE OF WARRIORS, SOLDIERS, AND GUARDIANS SUNG WITH PROPHECY OF THE NINE, HEREIN YOUR HERITAGE AND ALLIANCE OF LIGHT, TRUTH, JUSTICE, PURITY, LOVE, AND DESTINY!!"

                And then without any warning whatsoever, she felt herself falling, falling into the nothingness, into the abyss of…

                In her house, in her bedroom, Serena Tsukino shot up out of her bed, awake, screaming at the top of her lungs.  When she regained control of her senses, sweating in the fright still left over from the very strange dream, she realized that there had been two casualties in her surprise wakeup call…at three o'clock in the morning.

                "Oopsie," she muttered quietly as she noticed her dark blue cat, Luna grumble to herself as she walked as far as possible from Serena on the bed.  Meanwhile, her "cousin" tangled in the sheets next to her was in a world of hurt, having landed on her head, off the bed.

                "Rini, are you OK?" Serena asked quietly, helping the moaning young girl back onto the bed.

                So quickly that she almost screamed again, but managed to contain herself, Serena's door burst open as Marise, her housemate and her boyfriend/fiancée/soulmate's younger sister came into the room.  "Serena!  Are you alright?" she asked in a loud whisper, scanning the room with her eyes, looking for enemies in the shadows.

                Serena finished placing Rini back onto the bed safely, and then turned to answer her close friend.  When she did, her eyes immediately skimmed over the entirety of Marise's athletic frame before firmly locking onto her eyes.  She blushed a deep scarlet, grateful for the darkness for once, as she answered Marise.  Mostly because it seemed that Marise liked to sleep in the nude ever since she discovered sheets and beds, and her response to protect Serena from whatever had caused her to scream had forced her to forgo donning so much as even a robe.  Though Serena, as did Luna, noted that she was holding her power stick, which would allow her to transform into Sailor Earth.

                "I'm fine Marise.  Really.  I just had a nightmare.  I'm all right now.  I promise!" Serena whispered, desperately trying to avoid looking at Marise's pale features that were highlighted by the full moonlight streaming in.

                Serena was glad to see her friend visibly calm down when reassured that there was no danger to her friend and family.  Seeing the gears shift quickly in her friend's demeanor, as she had learned a long time ago to detect.  Reaching over for her bathrobe, which she always placed beside her bed after her evening baths, Serena tried her best to avoid gazing at Marise's beautiful naked form as she stepped closer, allowing her face to also glow in the moonlight.

                "Is Rini all right?" Marise asked as she accepted the robe that Serena handed to her, blushing as she realized that her older brother's girlfriend/fiancée had just seen her naked, even though it wasn't the first time, it was still embarrassing.

                Serena too shifted motors on that and immediately turned to attend to the injured young girl.  She was sound asleep, or maybe just unconscious, as she had hit her pink haired head.  Other than a slight bump, which should be better by the next day, she was perfectly fine.  "She'll be OK, just a small bump on the head," Serena reassured.

                Turning to the midnight blue cat with the gold crescent moon on her forehead, Serena apologized to her cat as well.  "I'm really sorry Luna, I didn't mean to throw you off like that!"  All they got was a mumbled cattish response, which Serena took as forgiveness.  At least until morning.

                "Do you want to talk about it?" Marise asked out of the blue.

                "Huh?" was Serena's automatic response.

                Marise smiled as she sat down on the bed next to her "sister" and repeated, "Do you want to talk about your nightmare?"

                Serena thought back, remembering in detail the places she had been.  A strange creepy library, and Rei's temple.  Then the voice, and the message that was boomed out so loud that she could never possibly forget it.  It was a strange dream for sure, but aside from the emotions she felt and the whole creepy factor of it, no one could have really called it a nightmare.  She shook her head and gazed appreciatively into Marise's eyes.  "I'll be all right Marise.  Thank you," she whispered huskily.  "You go on back to bed.  Keep the robe, I'll get it back to…well, later today." She said glancing at the clock.  Marise did as well and whispered back, "It is not really that late, and it is vacation time Serena, and I do not truly need as much sleep as one might think.  If…if you would like to talk…about anything, I-I…I'll always be here to talk Serena."

                Serena smiled serenely as she stared into Marise's soul.  Yet as deep as she stared, some things she would never understand about what she saw there.  She reached up her right hand and placed it delicately on the dark haired girl's shoulder.  "Thank you Marise.  I will always appreciate that, and you.  My Black Ops secret agent."  They both shared a quiet laugh at the recurring joke.  "I mean it Marise, I do appreciate you.  I even kind of love you, please never forget that, OK?"  Serena then leaned forward and kissed Marise on her right cheek.

                Marise quickly gained color in her cheeks as she continued to sit there, feeling the heat growing between her body and Serena's, and even to a far lesser degree, Rini's.  Gulping, Marise realized that she needed to go back to bed, quickly.  Nodding silently, Marise patted the hand on her shoulder and automatically leaned forward and kissed Serena on the opposite cheek, and then was out of the room faster than she had appeared into it.

                Sighing, Serena leaned back onto her bed and stared at the ceiling for several moments, briefly remembering how Marise looked in the moonlight, staring wide-eyed at her, with nostrils flaring, looking like some wild beast ready to fight to the death over it's mate, or a wolf fighting for the pack.  Sighing again, Serena finally closed her eyes, not truly sleeping, but resting.  After a long while she felt Luna finally climb back onto the bed, this time on Rini's side rather than hers though.  Finally, Serena fell back asleep.  She did not dream again.

Over three thousand miles away and to the east,

                In her house, in her own room, Buffy Summers sprung up from her silent slumber.  Her body was tense, adrenaline pumping after the strange dream she had just had.  After having more than a dozen or so of these types of dreams, she had long suppressed her reflex to wake up screaming.  When she regained her senses over where she was, sweating in the fright left over from the slightly strange dream, she realized that she had been asleep for barely an hour.  She had lain down for a nap at five o'clock and it was just a little past six now.  Recalling the dream's images, sure that they would have to be remembered for research, she was surprised, yet also not surprised at how much detail she remembered.

                The old Sunnydale High library where they all used to hang out to figure out how to save the world, that just so happened to be directly above the Hellmouth, which always gave her the creepers.  The sudden adding chairs still puzzled her though.  Normally there had never been more than the original seven seats there at a time.  Perhaps the chairs had meant those that had either moved on from the group or those that had taken others places.

                Speaking of both reminded Buffy yet again of Giles departure.  He had been the father figure, the steady rock in her foundation and perhaps the only thing that had helped her keep it together for as long as she had after her friends had brought her back from the dead, this time after three months, and ripped her away from heaven.  Sighing, Buffy lay back down, hoping to get some more sleep before having to go on patrol later that night.

                The other place suddenly sprung to her mind.  She had never gotten a good look at it in the dream, but reflecting back on it even now she could find that she remembered every single detail of the strange temple.  Immediately the image calmed her turbulent soul, and she remembered the peace she had felt in the dream, the feeling of…home.  Maybe it was a forgotten memory of heaven that had resurfaced in her dream.  But why show up in tandem with the Sunnydale High Library.

                Sighing once more, this time in the frustration of the realization that she would not be getting anymore sleep, Buffy stood up from her bed and began to get ready for the night's patrol.  As she passed her former mother's room, she heard quiet sobbing.  Willow, Buffy realized.  Ever since Tara had left, the same night as Giles had no less, the redheaded Wiccan was in grieving like no other.  Worse than even when Oz had left her, though for far different reasons than Tara had left.

                At the moment that she heard the heart-wrenching sound, Buffy remembered a long forgotten talk between her and her "bestest friend".  Where they were discussing college plans in the Sunnydale High courtyard, Willow telling her that she was going to the local college, just to be with Buffy and the rest rather than go to Yale or any of the other big Ivy league schools she had already gotten full scholarships for.  And Buffy had told her "that I kinda love you."  That was such a long time ago.

                Now, Buffy was almost as angry as Tara was right now at Willow.  But she never stayed angry.  But she didn't feel sorry for Willow either.  In all honest to God truth, she didn't feel much of anything about it.  Except bad, and confused.  That was all she felt nowadays it seemed.  Bad.  And confused.  Sighing, Buffy got ready for patrol, leaving Willow to her grief, and returning to her own.