A. N. : Well, it's been a long time coming but I have finally completed the epic re-write of this rather epic story! And so I present story number five of Sailor Moon P, the first story of the series which has been co-written by myself and The Mysterious Traveller. Apologies to The Mysterious Traveller for taking so long on the editing!
Disclaimer: Neither myself nor The Mysterious Traveller own 'Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon'; however I do own Alexia/Sailor Charon, Estrella, Alexia's parents, Manami, Lucilius and a few other characters. The Mysterious Traveller owns Merula/Sailor Universe, Fargo, Erin, Melina, Clad and more!
The Past Returns
Prologue: Silver Bells Tinkling on a Moonless Night
Eleven o'clock pm.
The dead of the night.
The time in which the people of the city were supposed to catch their sleep and depart slowly down the peaceful brook of slumber while the creatures of the night came out to roam the darkened world.
But tonight the things that loved to crawl in the dust and slither through the darkness were not the only things that were awake.
In the centre of a dense cluster of prickly bushes there was an old park bench that was pitted with rust and had once been green but the paint had peeled away long ago.
A boy, who was in his teenage years, sat all alone on the ancient bench with one leg folded over his knee.
A look of worried trepidation was etched into his expression as he tapped the leg of the bench with his foot every few seconds.
He seemed to be anxiously waiting for the arrival of someone because every now and then he would start at the fainted sound in the dense undergrowth and look up quickly to stare at the opening between the branches.
When he realised once again that she had still not arrived his eyes sank wistfully down to the dark grass.
Where was Melina?
He ran his hand through the back of his thick, shoulder length, greyish hair with a sad sigh.
Maybe she would not come.
Maybe she hated him…
He tried to push that dreadful thought right to the back of his mind.
That's not it, he told himself desperately. That can't be it.
But if it wasn't then why hadn't Melina come?
Had her Mom and Dad found out that she was coming to meet him tonight and stopped her from coming?
He prayed not.
Suddenly his head snapped up.
A rustling in the bushes behind him!
He stepped to his feet and moved back a few inches as he watched the newcomer emerge from the middle of the leaves of the bush.
Melina Takashi stepped carefully through the bracken to join him.
She was seventeen years old going on to be eighteen in a few weeks and had the lightest of orange eyes one could have imagined.
Melina's hair was also a deeper shade of orange that was like burnished gold.
She was tall but her arms were soft and unmuscled. In fact the most striking thing about Melina was how delicate her good looks were.
The ravishing girl was much like a blossoming flower all alone in the middle of the thorny bracken of the park clearing.
The boy heaved a sigh of relief and a smile spread across his face.
"I thought you'd never come," he breathed as he reached out to take her hands in his own, glad to see her with him at last.
Melina flinched as his hands brushed her fingertips as though Clad's touch was painful to her.
She took a step back from him and a deep breath.
"I'm never coming here again," she told him simply.
There.
It was a relief to say it but not much.
Melina wished that it didn't hurt like hell to say it but there were just some things that could not be changed.
Clad's light blue eyes filled with hurt as he realised what Melina had just said to him.
But honestly he had been half expecting it deep down.
"Why?" Clad whispered his voice hoarse.
Melina closed her eyes and her voice was as soft as the midsummer wind as she replied.
"You know why we can't be together. I'm sorry, Clad."
Clad knew.
From the day they had found about her relationship with him Melina's parents had made it crystal clear that they disapproved of him.
He knew that it was because he had dropped out of school so that he could pursue his desire to be an amateur entertainer who specialised in magic tricks.
They had piled so much pressure upon their daughter in the hope that it would all become too much for her one day.
That day had come.
It was tonight.
"So, you're giving in to them, then?" Clad asked bitterly.
"I wouldn't call it giving in," Melina murmured as she felt the inevitable tears pricking up beneath her eyelids.
"What would you call it, then?" he retorted.
Tears rose in his own eyes but he didn't care.
He was losing the girl he loved and nothing mattered now.
"Clad, please…" she whispered desperately.
"Melina! I…I love you so much!" Clad wailed as despair washed over him. "How can you throw away what we have together?!"
Melina choked, gagged by the emotion she felt.
A low mocking chuckle floated down through the overhanging branches.
"Ho ho ho! What touching scene is this?" a taunting and yet velvety voice sneered. "What tender parting do my eyes see?"
Clad and Melina had believed themselves to be alone and they were shocked as they stared around the clearing wildly.
Clad gave a gasp of shock as another teasing laugh led him to the location of the stranger.
A pair of orange cat slit eyes burned at them from the darkness with a malevolence that must have surely come from hell.
"Who the hell are you?!" Clad shouted but his voice was thin and fearful.
That evil light had drained him of all his courage.
"So, the boy desires to comprehend what is beyond his grasp?" the unseen stranger jeered from the darkness.
"Who are you calling 'boy'?" Clad snarled as his anger spurred his spirit to rise. "Come out and face me whoever you are!"
Another giggle.
"I sense that you are both tired of this mortal world and both wish to be free of all the lies and allegory. To cast away the bitter cloak of morality and be free. Very well! So be it!"
The eyes burned brighter and in the shadows a finger was raised and pointed at them.
"Come, children! Come enter the world of dreams where laws do not exist and fantasy reigns for all eternity! Drink from the blissful dregs of oblivion and be free forever!"
Clad and Melina stood paralysed as they felt their thoughts fade away as the stranger altered their minds.
In an instant all of their doubts and fears were gone, forgotten.
And in their place was something extraordinary.
Dark power flowed through their now tainted souls and vile delight filled their newly awakened minds.
They were free.
Free to be what they wanted to be.
Free to serve their new master and his dark designs.
In the hair of the girl who had once called herself Melina Takashi the silver bell, that the one who had once been Clad had given to her the day he had first told her that he loved her, tinkled as her hair swayed in the breeze.
The sweet sound was the only other in the clearing than the foul chuckle of the stranger as he recruited two pawns to help him serve the purpose of his master…