[Author's Note: Though this is a Sailor Moon fanfic, it requires no knowledge of Sailor Moon. If you've enjoyed my writing before, feel free to read this without worrying that you're missing something.]
Their world was in ruins, but the Queen and King stood still. They were bloodied and broken, but not bowed.
Behind them stood their Court. Broken as well, yet never giving in to despair. Lending their strengths to their Queen and King.
The Water. Their wisdom.
The Fire. Their passion.
The Storm. Their strength.
The Heart. Their love.
The Wind. Their courage.
The Wave. Their grace.
The Eternal. Their memory.
The Silence. Their judgment.
Also standing with them was The Child. Their legacy. The Child had guardians of her own, yet they had fallen to protect that which was most precious to them. And now, as The Darkness closed in around them, The Child stood with her parents.
"You will not have this world," the Queen said.
The Darkness laughed. "This world is already mine," it said. "Your time is over. Your Light will fail and Darkness will finally cover this world."
The Queen blazed with The Light. Pure and white and endless, it poured from her, denying The Darkness. "The Light will never fail. We may fall and become dust, but The Light is eternal." She and the King raised their scepters and The Darkness was forced back. They both placed a hand on The Child who nodded and spoke to The Silence.
"It is time."
The Silence bowed and then raised her weapon. The Darkness screamed and pressed against The Light, but to no avail. The Silence brought her weapon down and such was her power that all was undone and sent again to the Cauldron of Stars. The Queen and King and their Court, though they were no more, would be reborn in another time...
But so too, would The Darkness...
oOoOoOo
She could no longer see the stars. Darkness covered the sky. The guiding light before her flared...guttered...died...
"SERENITY!"
Violet sat bolt upright in bed, gasping for air like a sprinter. It took her a few moments to realise that she'd actually screamed aloud. Then the rumble of thunder reached her ears, and she realised where the bright light from her dream had come from. She dropped back down on the bed, listening to the rain spatter the windows.
"Why the hell did I come back to Shintoko?" she asked the night. Her only answer was another flash and more thunder. She laid her arm across her eyes to block out the light.
For two years, she had traveled the islands to the south, doing everything she could to stay away from 'Big City', as it was called. Nightly gigs at dive clubs, scrabbling for every credit she could get, playing with every pickup band around. It paid most of the bills, but... In those two years, she wrote not one new song. Oh, she had tried. Almost every damn night she put pen to paper, but when the day rolled around, the results were crap. Six months ago she'd given up, sold everything but her bike, guitar, and clothes and returned to Big City.
Returned to the dreams.
At least once a month-and, on rare occasions, several nights in a row-she would have a recurring dream. Oh, the details were different each time, but the core of the dreams remained the same. Darkness everywhere, and she and her friends fighting something monstrous. And they always lost. One by one, her friends would be torn from her, until finally, the sole remaining light against the darkness was snuffed out. Tonight wasn't the first night she'd woken up screaming.
But in those six months back, she'd written twice as many songs. Songs from her soul. Good songs. She felt it from the crowds when she sang. The words were right, the music was right, and the people were hers. She figured all artists suffered for their craft, and the dreams were the price she paid.
She sat up and looked at the clock. She couldn't tell with the rain, but the sun had set, and soon it would be her time. Time to hit the stage and share her soul with the world. She peeled her sweat-stained t-shirt off and tossed it in the corner, then stood up and added her panties to the pile before heading into the bathroom. She slapped the shower preset and was happy to see the system didn't lock up on her like it had the day before. In moments steam filled the small room and she stepped into the shower stall, plunging her head under the stream of hot water. Once her hair was wet enough she ran a big handful of shampoo through her long black locks, pondering once more cutting it all off. It got hot as hell in summer, and made even sleeping a pain. Sometimes literally. But she loved the feel of it streaming behind her on her bike, and she knew it was as much part of her stage presence as her Astrocaster.
Once her shower was done she spent almost as much time drying her hair as she had in taking the shower. Walking back into the bedroom she realised she needed to do laundry, as the only things relatively clean were her racing leathers. Thankfully her stage outfit was clean and at the club, since it wouldn't do for Venus to have to keep her fans upwind. She managed to find a clean set of underwear in the back of a drawer, and tossed on a bootleg 'Venus' shirt she'd picked up the day before. She slid into her leathers and boots, strapped her Astrocaster to her back, and rolled her bike out the door, code- and thumbprint-locking the apartment door behind her. She knew if someone wanted in her place, they would get in, but she wasn't going to make it easy for them.
She sighed at the rain pouring down. Her guitar was safe and dry in its carrycase, but she knew she'd have to dry her hair out again once she got to the club. She put her helmet on, straddled her bike, and cranked it up. She smiled at the throaty sound it made, revving it a few times before slipping the clutch and roaring into the neon-lit night.
oOoOoOo
Violet...no, Venus stood on the darkened stage and looked out at the crowd. The club lights were done in such a way that it would be almost impossible to see her or the band until they were ready. She always liked playing voyeur before she started. It gave her a chance to adjust the set list to match the crowd. Tonight's crowd...
Arcology students as far as the eye can see, she thought to herself. Must have been finals day or something. They've worked hard for tonight, and whatever the results might be tomorrow, they want acknowledgment of the effort they put in. She grinned. And they also want to party and forget about it.
She turned to the band and started holding up fingers, letting them know what songs, and in what order, they were playing. Since most of the people here tonight probably hadn't been to the club before, she decided to start with 'Human After All'. Making sure the lighting man was ready, she motioned to her drummer to start.
The drummer started a slow rhythm on his bass drum. Heartbeat slow. Using a separate volume slider, he ever-so-slowly brought his amp online, letting the 'heartbeat' grow from something felt, to something heard. Just as people started turning to the stage, the bass player came in with a low echo of the beat. The 'dub' of the 'lub-dub' of a heartbeat. That got more people looking toward the stage, and like a wave, the crowd went silent. On cue, the beat began to speed up, going from a resting heartbeat to a dancing one. As Venus began to sing, the lights came up, and every eye in the club was on her.
Her long, black hair was somewhat held back with a red ribbon. Originally just something to keep her hair out of the way while she played, the ribbon had quickly become her trademark. Subtle makeup accentuated her features under the stage lights, while her lipstick was the same darker red of her one-piece mini-dress. The dress left her shoulders bare, and stopped about halfway down her thighs. On her feet, she wore short-topped black boots.
The rapid cadence of the lyrics matched the 'heartbeat', then her guitar and the keyboardist came in to send the song spiraling up to the rafters, and the crowd quickly and happily followed.
oOoOoOo
Two fast songs, and then Venus relaxed into the somewhat-slower pace of 'Moonlight Legend'. The party had been started, now it was time to ease into the possibilities that the night might bring. Then, partway into the second verse, Venus saw her...
Sunlight had been braided into her hair, and afternoon sky pooled in her eyes. Somehow Venus knew, that past the flashing stage lights and the darkness of the club, the woman's eyes were bright blue. Her hair was braided, and it lay like a lazy blond cat over her right shoulder. She wore a short jacket the same color red as Venus' ribbon. Underneath that was a black top that covered her breasts, but left her collarbone and midriff bare. Venus suspected a miniskirt, but there was no way to tell with the crowd. Only the fact that she had sung and played the song hundreds of times over the years kept Venus from totally losing her way. As it was, she had to force herself to not stare at this vision that danced at the edge of the stage lights.
And she was watching Venus.
Well, most of the crowd were watching her, but Venus could feel the heat of the woman's gaze even under the hot stage lights. She'd had groupies before, male and female, but few had the...intensity of this woman. Venus wasn't sure if this was good or bad, but she never was one to worry too much about such things.
As the song ended, she turned from the mike to the band and spoke one quiet word, "Eyes." The guys looked knowingly at each other and nodded, starting up with a slow tempo that Venus matched on with her guitar. Once the crowd had matched their movements to the tempo, she sang...
"Looking in your eyes
How I hope you will see my heart
That our lives will meet
Never have to part"
Venus sang to the crowd in her best torch-singer voice, letting the words drip from her lips like dark honey as her eyes seemed to meet everyone's in the club.
"Feelings here inside
How I wish the world would go way
All would disappear
But you and I would stay
And I'd be forever in your eyes"
As she started the third verse, she finally did stare directly at the woman watching her. She saw the woman stop dead. Not dancing, not swaying, not moving at all. Just locked eye to eye with Venus, and Venus felt a surge go straight down her spine. She had to force her eyes closed to continue the song, and when she opened them again the woman was still just standing there watching her. Venus let her eyes drift over the crowd as she sung, until she got past the guitar solo and to the final verse, then once again she locked eyes with the woman.
"Deep inside my heart
I believe that you and I could be
friends forevermore, through eternity
And you'd see me forever in your eyes"
oOoOoOo
An hour later, Venus was done for the night, and Violet was back in her comfortable riding leathers. She slipped into the club proper and made her way to a small side table. She smiled down at the woman sitting at it, who was scanning the crowd and hadn't noticed her. She'd been right. Blue eyes, dark red miniskirt, and matching heels.. "Waiting for someone?"she asked. The look the woman shot her would have cowed the club bouncer, but cleared to an instant smile when she recognised who Violet was.
"Not anymore. Please, join me." The blond had a bright voice that matched her hair.
"Actually, I'm starving, and the food here is not that great. Care to join me?" Violet held out her hand.
The woman considered the hand for a moment, then grinned and took it, rising to her feet and stepping close. "It would be my pleasure. I'm Rhea," she said, still holding Violet's hand.
"And I'm Violet. A pleasure indeed."
Rhea cocked her head to the side slightly. "Not Venus? Though I admit, the name matches your eyes."
Violet shook her head. "Venus gets left behind in the dressing room." She left go of Rhea's hand and motioned to the front of the club. "Go out and meet me around back. I have to get my guitar."
In minutes she was behind the club in the little lot where the employees parked, with her Astrocaster slung over her shoulder. She was happy to see that the rain had stopped. At least for the moment. The water made everything reflect the lights of the city. Rhea came around the corner and Violet smiled as she watched her walk. "So, do you have a car?"
Rhea shook her head. "No. I came with friends. Where are we going?"
"I know a nice little out-of-the-way place over by the Tower." Violet grinned and turned to one of the other bikes in the lot, pulling a helmet off the back rack of it and tossing it to Rhea. "Put that on."
Rhea looked at the helmet, the bike the helmet came from, then the bike that Violet was pulling the rain cover off of. "Isn't this stealing?"
"Not really," Violet replied, as she stowed the rain cover under the bike seat. "It's my drummer's. He always keeps a spare in case he gets lucky." She grinned at Rhea. "He never does."
Rhea returned the grin and shook her braid back before slipping the helmet on. "And what about when you get lucky?"
"I just borrow his helmet," Violet said with a chuckle as she pulled her carrycase off her shoulder and slid it around on Rhea's back. "You'll have to carry this while we ride. You have ridden a bike, right?" Rhea nodded. "Good. Just hang on tight, lean with me, and everything will be fine." She straddled the bike and put her own helmet on. Once Rhea was settled in behind her, she cranked it up and rode into the glittering night.
oOoOoOo
"That's one of the reasons Venus is left in the dressing room. I'd freeze if I wore those outfits on my bike."
"No kidding. My legs are icicles. What was I thinking?"
Violet smiled as she added a couple of pieces of pork to her bowl from the hotplate in the middle of the table. "I don't know. What were you thinking when I saw you staring up at me?"
Rhea gave a small smile as she poured a little more hot tea into her cup. "I was thinking that the vids I'd seen didn't do you justice."
"Vids?" Violet asked between bites.
Rhea nodded as she added spices to her own bowl. "One of the reasons I went to see you. My friends had vids of some of your gigs down in Hokido. We found out you were playing in town, so we made a get-together out of it."
Violet sighed and poured herself some tea. "Hokido. Let's just say my years down there sucked and leave it at that."
"All right. Forget Hokido." Rhea tasted her concoction and deemed it worthy. Then she peeked at Violet's bowl and added some pork to hers as well. "Another reason I wanted to see you-well..." She blushed. "I wanted to talk to you as well. So I'm glad I was able to...catch your eye," she said with a grin before digging into her food.
Violet leaned back in her chair, grinning as well. "'Talk', huh? Well, you did catch my eye, but just so you know, you are not the first to do so."
Rhea paused at that, looking down at her bowl. "So remember that I'm not special, right?"
Violet leaned forward suddenly, resting her arms on the table. "No. You are special. You are just not alone in being special." Rhea started at that, looking up suddenly to stare at Violet, who raised an eyebrow. "If you have a problem with that, I-"
"No! No..." Rhea grinned. "I don't." She took a deep breath, and as she set her bowl down, Violet could almost swear her hands were shaking. "And I really do want to talk to you. About your name. Well, your stage name. Where did you come up with 'Venus' anyway?"
Violet leaned back again. She stared at her teacup a bit before draining it and setting it on the table. "Would you believe, a dream?"
"A dream?" This time, Rhea was the one to lean forward on the table.
Violet nodded. "One I've had off and on for years."
"In-ter-rest-ing..."
"How so?"
Rhea sipped some tea before speaking between bites of food. "I'm a theology student, and part of my studies revolve around learning the creation stories of various religions. But we also study mythology, because a lot of times those same creation stories are part of a larger mythological cycle. Some of it is stuff everyone learns in school, like the Four Heavenly Kings. But we also learn about weird stuff like the Albion 'Two Trees' cycle, the walking mountain gods of Undera, and the ever-popular 'the-gods-just-got-drunk-when-they-made-the-world-which-is-why-some-parts-don't-make-sense'."
Violet chuckled. "Okay. You lost me after the 'Four Heavenly Kings' and before the drunk gods, but I understand what you're saying. But what does this have to do with my name?"
"Well, 'Venus' is a name connected to the Serenity myth."
Violet dropped the cup she was holding, spilling tea over the table. "Serenity?"
Rhea scooted back in surprise, and grabbed some napkins from a nearby table to help clean up the spill. "Yeah, Serenity. She was an ancient goddess-queen of some sort. Supposedly ruled the world ages ago." She shrugged. "There's fragmentary records of someone like that actually existing around here." She pointed down and circled her finger a few times. "They say Shintoko was built on the ruins of her kingdom, but the only evidence anyone has found were just ruins of a few small buildings and a lot of glass shards. Nothing to indicate a kingdom existed. Most scholars figure it was just some village that was based around glass-making using sands from the coast."
Violet poured herself another cup of tea, but didn't drink it. She just sat looking into it. Rhea reached out and lightly touched her hand. Violet blinked and looked up. "Ah, I'm sorry..."
Rhea smiled a little. "Was I that boring?"
"No, no. That's not it. I was just..." Violet sighed, and then looked up sharply as a large group came into the diner. Her quiet meal and conversation was suddenly drowned out by raucous laughter and too-loud voices. From their dress and attitude, she could tell they were arcology kids slumming it. Violet frowned and looked at Rhea, motioning to the food. "You done?"
"Yeah. Let's find someplace quieter."
Violet grinned. "I think I can arrange that." She picked up her guitar from beside the table and they headed out the door.
oOoOoOo
As she climbed off the bike, Rhea looked up at the many-laned highway they had exited from a minute earlier. "You know, a place by the highway isn't what I would call 'quieter'." She looked at the maze of long, low buildings they had stopped at. Each had doors and windows spaced at regular intervals. There were a scattering of vehicles around as well. "Where are we, anyway?"
Violet got off and started pushing her bike toward one of the doors that lined the nearest building. "My apartment."
Rhea's eyebrows went up as she followed the raven-haired singer. "You live here? It looks like a...hostel or something."
"I think it was, before the Collapse," Violet said over her shoulder. "But they knocked down walls and turned two rooms into one apartment. It's large enough." She unlocked the door and motioned Rhea inside. Rhea slipped past her and into the apartment.
The lights came on as Rhea entered, revealing white walls covered with a smattering of concert posters, and a floor that was concrete, but covered here and there with throw rugs. Opposite the window beside the door, there was an old couch with a low table before it. It made one 'wall' of the living room area. Behind the couch, in the actual wall that the side of the couch was against, there was an open door which appeared to lead to the bedroom. Along the back wall of the room was a small kitchenette. As Rhea moved farther into the room, Violet backed her bike into the apartment. Once it was clear of the door, she put the kickstand down and closed and relocked the door, then she turned to her visitor, who was watching her with a raised eyebrow. "You keep your motorcycle inside?"
Violet grinned as she peeled off her jacket and tossed it over the seat of the bike. Then she took the guitar case from Rhea and set it behind the couch. "The first two bikes, I left outside." She headed to the kitchenette and got two beers from the fridge, handing one to Rhea. "They were each stolen within a few days." She motioned the blond to sit on the couch as she opened her own beer and dropped into the corner of the couch. "After that, I've kept it inside and haven't had to buy a new bike for a few years now."
Rhea sat on the couch, and opened her own drink. She took a sip, glanced at the bottle in surprise, and then took a longer drink. "It's just all so different. I'm very much an arcology kid."
"Born and bred, huh?" Violet asked before taking another drink.
Rhea nodded, slipping her shoes off and kicking them under the table. "Yeah. My parents work for Duske. Have their entire lives. They were some of the first people accepted into the arcologies after the Collapse." She drank some more. "It always amazed me that we were able to rebuild so much so quickly." She looked around the room. "But I'm seeing that there's so much more to be done, and no one seems to be doing it."
Violet smiled at her. "It's not so bad. I have a place to sleep and food to eat." She reached behind the couch and patted her guitar. "Time to play..." Her eyes drifted over Rhea and the smile turned to a smirk. "...and beautiful people that follow me home."
Rhea blushed slightly and took another swig of her drink before putting it on the table. She looked at Violet through half-lidded eyes for a moment before she leaned closer, bringing her legs up on the couch and stalking toward the singer on all fours. Violet just grinned more and took another drink. Rhea reached out and took the bottle from her hand and placed it on the table, all without her eyes leaving Violet's. Violet took a deep breath and blinked. The blond was so close she could smell her, and damned if she didn't smell like a bright summer day. For a moment she wished she'd taken a shower when they had first come in, but the next moment Rhea's lips were on hers and...
As she felt her life flow from her wounds, their lips met for the first time...
The earthlight shone brightly in the clearing as their lips met for the first time...
The wall of her cabin was hard against her back as their lips met for the first time...
Hidden in the shade of the trees, the crow's calls echoed their sighs as their lips met for the first time...
With the roar of the crowd cheering them on, their lips met for the first time...
They locked swords, struggling against each other for a full minute before they both leaned forward and their lips met for the first time...
The desert wind was hot around them as their lips met for the first time...
They finally broke the kiss, and Violet lay back on the couch breathing heavily as she stared into the eyes of someone she knew but had never seen before tonight. "Who are you?"
Rhea smiled down at her, "I'm a friend."
Her hands came up to frame Rhea's face. "No. You are far more than that. I know you. I don't know how, but..." Before she could say more, Rhea leaned down and silenced her, and Violet found her need for answers far less than her need for the blond's touch...
oOoOoOo
She could no longer see the stars. Darkness covered the sky. Energy poured from her. Attack after attack flew from her fingertips, yet the enemy seemed numberless. She once again called her Mandala and swept it across the horizon, felling score after score of the enemy, yet even more took their place.
"Mercury! Scan them for vulnerabilities! There's got to be an easier way of taking these things down!"
"I did earlier, and couldn't find anything, but I'll try again!" The Warrior of Wisdom replied as she spread her arms wide, calling on the mist to shield them from the enemy's sight. Jupiter stood at her side, raining lightning down on anything that got near her partner.
"Venus Crescent Beam!"
Light enveloped her. She spun around to see a row of enemies behind her turn to dust and blow away. Venus walked through the mist and dust towards her. "Watch your back, Mars."
She grinned. "I thought that was your job."
"I watch your backside. There's a slight difference there. What happened to your leg?" Venus asked as Mars turned to loose another attack, revealing a row of deep scars across her thigh.
"It happened early on. It was bleeding so much I had to...cauterize it. What about your arm?" She asked, motioning to the arm Venus kept close to her side.
"One of those things caught me in the middle of an attack. I think it's broken."
The mist was fading, and she saw Jupiter using lightning-backed punches and kicks to devastate a group that had gotten too close for ranged attacks. She also saw...
"MERCURY!"
Violet sat bolt upright in bed, her heart pounding like she'd run a marathon. It took her a few moments to realise that she'd actually screamed the name aloud.
It took another moment to realise that her voice hadn't been the only one.
Her head snapped to the side to look down at Rhea beside her, who was panting and staring up at her with startled eyes that slowly went wide as she sat up and spoke in a whisper, "Mars..."
Violet couldn't find her breath. In a rush, she realised that all these years, she'd been using the wrong name.
The name of the girl beside her.
"...Venus."
-To Be Continued-
[Author's Note: No, I don't really know where this is going. I'm committing a cardinal sin of writing, I'm writing this one like Indiana Jones. Making it up as I go along...
For those of you interested in what 'Venus' sounds like singing 'Moonlight Legend'-which is actually the opening song to Sailor Moon-check this video: youtube (dot) com/watch?v=SvWeYy_VXG8
This is where I start talking geeky about Sailor Moon. You Have Been Warned.
This story came about because, while I've seen many Silver Millennium stories, and several Crystal Tokyo ones, I've never seen one that dealt with an entirely new reincarnation of the Senshi beyond Crystal Tokyo. Heck, 99% of the Silver Millennium stories I've seen even use the same names for the characters! (Rei, Ami, etc.) I can understand doing so to keep things simple, but it just seems like laziness to me. _; The manga just used the Senshi names for the Silver Millennium incarnations, so we never learn if they had names not related to their planets.
The manga also rather specifically mentions everyone being reincarnated over and over to protect this star/planet/solar system. The bit when they kiss in the story is a nod to their previous incarnations. I'm reminded of a quote from an old TV show: "No matter how much I fight, the forces of evil keep coming back." "Did you ever stop to think that they feel the same way about you?" That's the Senshi in a nutshell.
No matter what some Sailor Moon sites/writers say, the Silver Millennium wasn't a kingdom that lasted a thousand years. The NAME of the kingdom was 'Silver Millennium'. Also the war with Earth was not a thousand or two thousand years ago. (Gee, we had a war with the Moon Kingdom sometime during/since the Roman Empire? Really? Idiots. _) Logically, it was at least 12,000 years ago. The manga says that after the attack on the Silver Millennium, the Earth was in ruins and had to start all over again from scratch. There has been a similar expanse of time from the end of Crystal Tokyo till the beginning of this story. The world has had to rebuild itself all over again.
My original intention was just to retell the original Sailor Moon story with the new Sailor Moon finding out who she was and battling a Dark Kingdom analogue while gathering her Senshi. Needless to say, that got tossed early. _ And my watching the original BubbleGum Crisis OVAs didn't help any. Or maybe it did. I wanted a world that was similar to what we know of now, yet alien enough that you realise this ain't Kansas anymore, Luna.
Some things will stay similar and a lot will change, as you might have noticed. (You'll also notice I tend to do shoujo-ai/girl-love stories...) Mars' empathic abilities have gone in a different direction, and you can expect the same with the rest of the crew, but these are not 'fan senshi'. The core of the characters are still the Senshi you know and love. They just had some bodywork done. *cough*]