Deception
Once upon a time, there was a kingdom on the moon. This kingdom was bathed in a silvery light and seemed to have the protection of some benevolent deity, for it was peaceful and full of gaiety. The merchants traded freely, the people were prosperous, and the rulers of this utopia were the very picture of good.
There was a princess on the moon, and she was a cheerful and curious girl-child, until one day, she came with her mother to a diplomatic meeting. This was an important meeting, for it was the only time the inhabitants of Earth ever saw those of the moon. Fearful of the strange powers they held, the people of Earth had passed a law to keep the ones of the moon far away.
On that day, the princess of the moon met the prince of Earth, and for a brief time, it seemed as though the tension between the two nations would finally be healed.
But a single seed of jealousy formed in a heart, and it set fire to the world.
Saturn dropped her Silence Glaive, and their forbidden love fell to destruction.
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The three little children were particularly naughty that day. Having trapped the cat in the corner, they proceeded, rather than let it escape or merely examine it, to bandage over the crescent spot on its forehead. It may have been that they thought it was some sort of wound; it may have been the warm spring air led them to be restless; it may have been that they thought black cats were evil.
At any rate, having thoroughly tormented the cat, they let it go. It scampered away, scaling a car than leaping onto a long awning to get to a safe roof. The cat stayed there hissing with rage and trying to get the bandaging off its head; however, it was futile.
Luna perched herself on the edge of the roof and sighed inwardly. How would she ever find a Senshi now?
Somewhere else in the city, a blonde girl skipped along to school, congratulating herself on finding a shortcut and on getting up early. Her foot caught in a crack in the street, and she tumbled into a boy's arms.
As they immediately began fighting, Luna had no way of knowing that destiny had just changed course.
Forever.
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Usagi gulped down her lunch as she listened to Umino's gossip. The boy was a downright genius, but his tendency towards ferreting out information on everyone and then telling it to people made it hard to believe. Umino was the boy who climbed a tree, took pictures that a newspaper would kill to have, and showed to Naru in an effort to impress her. Despite this, he tried not to do harm with his knowledge.
Currently, he was expounding on how a school in another city had been attacked by some monster. The monster had left four students dead and several injured and in the hospital. The school had been burned down in some places and simply crumbled in others.
"They say the monster was ten feet tall and it had fangs." Umino continued. Naru and Usagi listened with a mixture of revulsion and fascination. Finally, Naru clamped her hand over his mouth.
Ignoring his blush, she complained, "Can't we change the subject? You're making me nervous! I can't focus if I thinking about monsters and stuff like that!"
"Totally! I've already got those English tests to worry abut, Umino, don't add to it, please?" Usagi asked as sweetly as possible. Umino nodded, Naru's hand still over his mouth. She removed it, and he immediately began discussing their teacher's newest boyfriend. Now that was more like it, Usagi thought, and went on eating happily.
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Jadeite made his way through the crowds, looking for a suitable place to set his youma off. Granted, he'd gotten some energy from that school, but their sources told them that the Imperial Silver Crystal was somewhere in this city. Unfortunately, beyond that, there was no locating it with old legends; they needed to get close enough to sense it, and until someone used it, the crystal would give off very little energy. As long as it was dormant, all they could was cause a ruckus and suck away energy.
He allowed himself a smile as he thought of Beryl's corpse, of Metallia screaming and railing against her bonds. Just because the Shitennou had worked for her once did not mean they would do so again. No, this time, they would find their Prince, rescue him from the moon witch, and begin the rightful reign of the Golden Kingdom.
As he continued down a quieter side street, a smug look on his face, he heard a high-pitched sound. There was an alley away to his right, and when he looked down it, he saw a couple of students, talking. Or rather, screaming.
There was a blonde girl with long pigtails and round things on either side of her head, and a boy-almost a man- with dark hair. The air around was practically sparking from the force of their anger.
"How dare you call me stupid, you jerk!"
"Don't put words in my mouth, Odango atama, I merely suggested you try studying!"
"I study plenty!"
"This thirty percent says otherwise, and maybe if you studied you'd know that throwing paper on the streets is littering!"
"What are you, the Clean Police? You didn't have to make fun!"
"You could have looked where you were throwing your test, Odango!"
"Usagi! I'm Usagi! U-sa-gi Tsu-ki-no!"
"O-dan-go a-ta-ma!"
"Oh, you moron! I hope…I hope…I hope something bad happens to you!"
"What could be worse than meeting you twice in one day?"
"Why…you…" The blonde girl was so pink in the face Jadeite was surprised she hadn't exploded from the strain. Her foe was much calmer looking, but his fist was clenched so tightly that it was trembling slightly.
Something about the two was familiar, but the general couldn't remember anything important. His memories of the time before his reincarnation were weak; none of the generals had been able to truly reclaim their past selves. However, this alley was deserted except for these two; he could plant a youma here, kill these two, and spring the youma on the crowd that was sure to gather around the dead. These humans were morbid that way.
Energy wrapped around his hand, and he pressed himself against the wall, keeping himself hidden. His hand pulsed, and he fired the dark energy towards the arguing ones.
It stopped, an inch from their figures, as it hit a wall of golden light. The light Jadeite did recognize; it was the light of the Golden Crystal.
The Prince was near! He looked widely around for his former liege, but saw no one. Then he took a closer look at the people behind the barrier. They weren't fleeing or panicking; they had turned to face Jadeite. The boy's eyes had turned solid gold, and they glowed with the fierce energy of the Golden Crystal. The girl with him had her hands half raised; her eyes were rapidly filling with silver.
The Prince and the Princess, in one swoop? Fate was smiling on him today. He wondered if Nephrite had seen this in the stars. He moved forwards to plead, to cajole, to bring the Prince close enough to rescue him from that witch and her Imperial Silver Crystal. But they didn't give him a chance. A lance of gold light shot towards him, and when Jadeite dodged it, he was hit with a matching bolt of silver. His attackers' clothes had changed; Prince Endymion was in his armor, and the moon witch was in her white dress. The power coming off them both was amazing; Jadeite knew he had no hope if he tried to fight. But he knew who they were now; and they obviously didn't remember themselves.
He fled.
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"Ugh." Usagi opened her eyes slowly. She could see tall buildings, and a slice of blue sky. Where was she? This wasn't her bed, or anywhere she knew. Afraid, she sat straight up.
She was lying on the ground in the street, where she and that jerk-whose name she didn't know and hopefully never would-had been fighting. He was there too, flat on his back. She looked at her wrist before remembering her watch had been lost weeks ago. Usagi got up and shook him.
"Hey! Wake up!" He jolted awake much faster than she had.
"What the hell?" He muttered. Then he looked at his own watch. "Five o'clock? How did we-" He looked sharply at her, but couldn't figure out why she would do this or how she'd go about it.
"We've been here for four hours? Oh, I was supposed to meet Naru at three! She'll be so mad!"
"The last thing I can remember is you trying to insult me. Then…"
"There was a bright light, and I was warm inside." Usagi murmured. She hugged herself as a dim feeling washed over her. "Something happened, but why did we faint?"
She was right. He could recall there being light, and warmth, and a good feeling. But the details were eluding him, and he hated not remembering things. He stood up, looking around for his bag, and saw it a foot or so away. As he retrieved it, he saw the girl-Usagi, her name was, but she was going to be Odango from now forward-look down at the ground.
It had gone from being a dirty, paved road to a sheet of smooth black glass. He pressed a palm to it and found it warm to the touch, which made sense-dark things absorbed heat. But there was no way that it had been like that before. City streets were made rough and were always dirty.
"It's normal over there, but here it's all pretty." Usagi said, pointing down another street. "We couldn't have done this, right?" She looked pleadingly at him. "I can't get into any more trouble. My parents are probably worried if Naru's called to ask where I am. And I failed that test, too…"
"How could we?" He sighed and straightened up. Normally he didn't run away form things, but he did not want to be involved in an investigation of why the city street had turned to glass within the pace of a few hours. At least he didn't have to account for his movements to anyone. "Come on, let's not stay here."
"It's creepy." She agreed. They hurried away, noting with relieved that the glass gave way to pavement a few meters away. As they emerged into a still bustling market, Usagi sighed with relief. The noise and crowds were familiar enough to reassure her.
"I'm going." He said abruptly. "Can you get home?"
"Yeah." She said, spotting her mother across street, a frantic expression on her face.
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Sailor V's feet dangled over the edge of the roof as she watched the passerby far below. Next to her, a white, frazzled cat butted her leg with his head.
"I'm looking, Artemis, I'm looking. I thought you said there were dark forces here."
"There were!"
"Not anymore there aren't! You know what they say…maybe they're all bite, no bark!"
"You mean that the other way around."
"Right. But there is nothing evil here." She got up and walked over to the other side of the rooftop, bored. "I think you must have read it wrong."
"You just want to go to that party."
"You just can't admit you're wrong." Sailor V declared. She jumped to another building and looked down, shocked. The street beneath her looked like it was covered in wet black ink. She leapt down, snagging a fire escape on the way, and saw that it was a sheet of black glass. "What's this?"
"Intense energies have affected this area." Artemis muttered.
"No way, Artemis. We have really got to find the others soon-the enemy is getting stronger if they can do this without us knowing!"
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Usagi had narrowly avoided parental wrath by relating an edited version of her fainting spell. Upon finding out her daughter had collapsed while on her way home and awoken four hours alter, Ikkuko had been overcome with fear and proceeded to feed and fuss over Usagi as much as possible. Usagi decided to hope no one would ever remember she'd had a test and enjoy the attention while it lasted.
She curled up in bed, her homework undone, her mind in a muddle. What had happened was too weird, she thought, but she'd just ignore it. It was probably the heat, or something.
Outside her window, the moon shone brightly for a while. Then clouds covered it, darkening the sky.
Four girls left their warm beds and set their feet on the path on fate's newest path. And Usagi slumbered on.
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"Ami? Still working at this hour?" Dr. Mizuno was used to her daughter being months ahead of the class. Seeing her actually rushing to finish something was surprising. Ami kept her head down, bent over the book her mother had assumed was a textbook.
Water Myths of the Ages wasn't her usual choice of reading material, but then again, she'd never had to stitch up her own wounds, either. It had hurt, and even though she had studied the theory and practiced on dummies, putting the needle through her own skin had frightened her.
She wanted to understand this. She wanted answers. Instead she had a weird pen, a bunch of magical chants, and a shaky alliance with girls whom would never otherwise have spoken to her.
The words on the page were interesting, but they couldn't solve her problem, any more than they could take away Rei's last barb about her pathetic attacks or the humiliation of being caught dozing in class.
She hadn't wanted this kind of change.
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"Hi."
"Hi." He was looking at her strangely, and really, she couldn't blame him. They'd met once. She didn't even know his name, for god's sake. This was o stupid.
But what else could she do? Pulse quickening, she stared at the ground. "Um…that thing that happened last week…do you…?"
"Yeah…?"
She gulped, and glanced around to make sure the alleyway was still deserted. Then she lifted her palms and let them fill with silvery white light.
A crescent mark on her forehead glowed beneath an awkwardly tied ribbon, and he froze, reaching out without thinking to touch it. She blushed and let the light fade.
He flicked his fingers, and a rose appeared from nowhere. "You, too?"
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Rei couldn't help but dislike the girls who crowded into her shrine. The silence as they sat around the table was awkward and heavy. She hated it even more than she hated the feeling of being Sailor Mars.
It was the silence of every moment she'd ever spent with her father: painful and full of things unsaid.
Anything was better, so Rei filled it-a barb here, a jab there, and soon the room was loud with screaming and anger. Even when they were quiet they were tense, listening to the cats lecture them with barely suppressed fury. She was fine with that.
She was good at being angry, after all-much better than she was at trying to make friends.
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The little girl was crying, and Usagi had always prided herself on being able to comfort people. Granted, she'd only ever used her newfound abilities for cuts and scrapes, but how much harder could a bone be?
And the smile on the girl's face as the pain faded was worth the dizzy spells that persisted as she staggered down the street. The people and buildings blurred together, but she made it halfway home before she finally walked into something.
The wall was hard, and rough, but the stinging on her face was barely felt as she collapsed onto the ground, a crumpled heap of blonde hair and school uniform on the pavement.
Usagi would never say it, of course, but waking up in Mamoru's arms wasn't too bad, either.
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The apartment seemed even lonelier now. Makoto found herself finding reasons to avoid the silence. She'd hoped to fill it with friends and even someone special. She'd meant to rebuild her life here, but instead she'd been forced to take up the burden of battle. She was good at fighting, of course.
But she'd never asked to have her already bad image smashed by the weirdness that came with being Sailor Jupiter. Ami could get by on smarts, Rei was too intimidating to be really bothered by school, and Minako seemed to enjoy the whole thing. But Makoto wasn't just that scary fighting girl, she was now the scary truant girl who was probably in a gang and would get you.
The girls couldn't understand. Rei had her shrine, her grandfather, her aloofness. Minako had her innate charisma and a real family. Ami-the one who'd looked like good friend material-was unwilling to make a connection, content to bury herself in books.
Makoto had nothing and no one to rely on. It was her against the world, as always. And oh, how she wished it wasn't.
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She was a weird girl, but she was much less shallow then he'd thought her to be. For one thing, she'd managed to track him down despite the fact they'd met once. For another, she'd actually tried to figure out the source of her power and been confident enough to use it. (Maybe she was his princess, but surely royalty would be more graceful. Besides, his princess was sad.)
She was still an odango atama, of course. Just like he was still 'jerk', and that was practically an endearment considering some of the other things she'd called him. He'd given her his name, of course. She'd rolled her eyes.
"Mamoru Chiba? 'Jerk' sounds better!"
She made no sense half the time, and she complained loudly, and she had odangos on her head, for goodness sake. But she wasn't a bad person, just not one he would have thought of associating with. (The fact that she might be his princess helped. The fact that she was a good four years younger didn't.)
They were in the same boat. It made sense for them to stick together.
He could always get rid of her if it didn't work out, right?
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It was strange to not be alone anymore. Minako had always flown solo as a Senshi; she'd been the famous Sailor V and enjoyed the practice at being an idol, as she planned to be as soon as she got discovered.
The other girls didn't seem to share her enthusiasm-they didn't even seem to like her. She was supposed to be the leader, and she was supposed to help them find the princess and the crystal and defeat the enemy. But they just weren't interested.
The entire mission was starting to feel pointless. What had she actually accomplished? Nothing. Yes, youma were taken down, but new ones appeared everyday. None of them had managed to recover any old memories, and even in battle they were a disjointed team. Rei cut with her words, Ami rarely even spoke, Makoto ignored everything.
Why was she even bothering?
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They traded insults at the arcade, (neither of them had ever been there at the same time before, but she made an effort to avoid detention and he started hanging around) and on the way to school (even though he had to go the long way around.)
Then she suggested that they practice together, and it made sense so he agreed. Somewhere along the way she worked him into buying her food-and then they started stopping once a week to buy cake-
And then she was late because she kept failing and he found himself offering to tutor her, even though he couldn't recall ever having the thought, the words had just come out of his mouth-
(And he kept showing up and rescuing her for some reason-he was always pulling her out of the way of youma or carrying her after she'd overused her healing and fainted and he was actually beginning to anticipate it)
And then suddenly she was everywhere, and to his horror…he liked it. It was no longer weird that she turned up around every corner; the fact that the youma attacks always coincided with their location became routine.
Her presence was rapidly becoming normal, and he was determined to fix the issue, because Mamoru Chiba did not have many friends and he certainly didn't need an odango atama in his life.
He opened his mouth to say that no, he did not want to see her report card and he was leaving before he went entirely insane, but instead he said something about how he should charge her for the tutoring and before long he was distracted by the light in her eyes (the same color as his princess's, blue and shining) and the speed of her mouth.
It was a nice mouth, not that he thought about it, ever, because she was fourteen and that was just wrong.
Mamoru looked at the girl sitting across from him, obliviously munching on her cake, and realized that he was utterly and completely doomed.
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"Looks like the Sailor Senshi have done it again." Kenji Tsukino commented over breakfast. He was the family's early bird (whether this was due to the massive amounts of coffee he consumed daily was up for debate) and was reading the paper at the table while his children rushed around getting ready and Ikkuko yelled at them.
"Hm? What'd they do?" Usagi asked as she frantically pushed her books into her bag.
"There was a youma attack in the park and they took care of it."
"Why, the little-" She stopped abruptly when her family gave her strange looks. Ah, she'd have to wait until she found Mamoru to vent about the injustice of it all. "Right, I'm off!"
"Wait, Usagi! Are you sick? You'll be on time if you leave now!" Shingo declared dramatically.
"Nope! I have to meet a friend before school!"
"Is it your boyfriend? The one who calls you Odango atama?"
"He is not my boyfriend! He's a jerk and anyways he's way too old for me!"
"Who's this boy you're talking about?" Kenji asked suspiciously, eyeing his daughter and feeling the age-old instinct of all fathers when faced with the prospect of older boys and their younger daughters. Usagi saw the look on his face, scooped up her bag, and fled out the door, running at a speed that would have made her school track team burn with envy.
As she turned the corner, she tried to stop, windmilling her arms. However, it was too late, as usual-she crashed right into him, knocking them both onto the ground.'
"Learn…to…walk." Mamoru panted. "Get off my chests, Odango, you're crushing me!"
"You're so mean." She pouted as she staggered to her feet. "Did you hear? The Sailor Senshi are taking credit for that youma attack!"
"So?"
"So they didn't even show up until the youma was dead! I need recognition!"
"You get plenty of recognition as the most annoying being on the entire planet. What else do you want?" He checked his bag for damage, and found his carefully done homework was all intact. Thank God. They started walking again towards her school, as it started before his did.
"It's not fair." She muttered. "First a jerk makes fun of me, then I faint, then I have weird powers and now I am stuck…with you." She gestured at him dramatically. "See the problem?"
"Your powers are weird?" He raised an eyebrow at her. "At least you don't accidentally teleport yourself around."
"It'd come in handy when I got detention, tough."
"You haven't had detention in six months, remember?"
"I haven't failed anything, either, but you still make fun of me! Oh, when I get my report card, and I am going to shove-"
"Or, you know, not." Mamoru moved away from her, hands raised. "Why are you so violent?"
"I am not violent! I'm a cheerful, cute girl whose company you should be honored to have! Now if you'll excuse me, jerk, I have to go to school!" She started to march away, then stopped and turned back. "You're still buying me cake after school, right?"
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"Hostages." Kunzite repeated slowly. Whether he approved of the plan was unclear, but that he hadn't immediately told Jadeite that he was being an idiot was a good sign.
"Ridiculous." Zoicite put in. "We need more energy first."
"What we need is to lure out the Prince and the moon witch." Jadeite corrected. "We know they're here, but they're barely using their abilities. Thanks to these Sailor Senshi, they've been able to avoid danger and haven't awakened."
"If we kidnap some random civilians, the Sailor Senshi will still show up. We should dispose of them first." Nephrite argued.
"The prince and princess have used their powers slightly over the last few weeks. They might have developed some abilities without realizing it." Zoicite surmised.
"Their memories must be close to the surface. A jolt is all that's needed." Jadeite explained. "If we ask for them specifically, their past selves may take over."
"So you want to address our next attack directly to Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity." Nephrite said. He spat the last two words as if they were filthy. "And the Senshi?"
"I'll find a way of occupying them." Jadeite grinned, turning and walking way from his comrades.
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First SM fanfic, so please, if I have mangled anything, let me know. I've read the entire manga, but I've only seen a few episodes from the anime.