Crystal Senshi: The Legend Continues

Savagekitty

Prolog

I stood by my mother's beside, looking at her pale and fragile body, wondering just what really happened. She never would have missed my graduation. She was also so proud that I followed in her footsteps and took the name of Emerald.

My hands rubbed the cold aluminum bars of her hospital bed, my aunt Erin standing on the other side. The bar felt cold, but not as cold as I felt inside. I thank the Goddess that aunt Erin was here for my mom. My dad was pacing outside the door in the hallway as my aunt Ami talked quietly to him. She was also a doctor. Her and aunt Erin usually worked together, two of the best healers in all the planets. Dad wasn't happy, I could hear the worry in his voice and the frantic look in his eyes when I came to the hospital was frightening. My little brother, William, sat in a chair at the end of my mom's bed, sleep. He was only 10, he shouldn't be here. He shouldn't see mom like this.

I looked up at aunt Erin, she looked back, a little pair of spectacles on her nose. I looked back at my mom and took her left hand, holding it in my own. She was so cold. Her pale skin washed out her usual rosy cheeks and her bright green eyes. Her eyes were open, which was a little disturbing, but she wouldn't respond to anything. Her short strawberry hair, like mine, lay like some kind of pale silk on the pillow. I tried not to cry. I hadn't walked across the stage to accept my diploma. But I didn't give a rats ass, my mom was sick. And no one knew why.

I was so nervous, I had been sitting with the others of my class, waiting for my name to be called. My teachers had all given me the honor unanimously to be the valedictorian of my class. The 3033 class of Serenity School of Senshi on Earth. I was the top, I was their leader. I took the moniker of Sailor Emerald. I was my mother's child, my weapon was even a sword, like hers, a rapier. I actually prefer my daggers and my throwing knives. My dad taught me how to throw when I was eight years old and it stuck with me ever since. My small team of senshi that were assigned to me sat on either side of me. They were assigned during my second year at the school, so the last six years, we worked as a team, learning we could always trust each other.

Each one of us had a nickname, given to us by the public. Somehow, when the senshi program came into effect, the people of the planets dubbed us like knights. I had read books about lady knights by a lady named Tamora Pierce and I liked how they sounded. I really felt like one, because my weapon was a sword. My mother was called the Right Hand and my aunt Serenity was the Savior. I was the Blue Emerald. It was a joke, there were no blue emeralds, but since my eyes were dark blue but I was Sailor Emerald… I guess it's funny. I dunno. Now that I look back, standing by my mom's bedside, it doesn't seem that funny. My team mates and I, we all held hands waiting for them to acknowledge us. Someone came down the walkway and kneeled by me, whispering in my ear. My gut clenched and I felt like throwing up. I hadn't even felt this way when our school was tapped for troops in a war between planets in a neighboring solar system. I had been stone cold and lead my team mates into battle and brought them all back alive. But when that man told me my mom was in the hospital, I was so scared. My best friend and second, Lionna, looked at me, her eyes filled with worry. She could always read me like a book. I stood, whispering to her what had happened and she nodded, saying she would talk to the dean.

I had left, listening to people cheer as the names were being called and titles being instated. I shed my graduation robes to my dress uniform underneath. It was the classic senshi fuku but no color was anywhere on it, only white. When we were dubbed senshi, then our colors would appear. And as I stood over my mother in this cold and sterile hospital room, I was still all in white. My father came in to stand by me, looking down at my mother. His long silver hair was tied back. He had the prettiest hair, and as I looked at him thinking that, I also noticed the lines of age in his face, and the new ones. The worry lines.

He didn't look at me while he spoke, only at my mother, "The King has been struck down by this thing also. The doctors have no idea what it is. They are running tests."

Aunt Erin gasped, covering my mouth. William stirred and yawned, looking around at us, "Is Mom awake?"

I looked at him, tears brimming over my eyes, "No, she isn't… Uncle Mamoru has been struck with the same thing."

William blinked, "Oh." He got up and walked to dad. Dad put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it a William looked at mom. I walked into the hallway, my arms wrapped around my middle. I felt like I couldn't breath again. What if this was a new virus? Would it kill the world? What did Mom and uncle Mamoru have in common? Nothing important as to make them ill as far as I knew. Aunt Ami was by me before I knew she was. She was at least a foot shorter then I was. I was tall, six feet and six inches. She looked up at me, "Leanne?"

I looked down at her, trying not to fold my body in half to sob on her shoulder. She was about to say something when there was a scream from mom's room. We both rushed in to see dad and aunt Erin trying to hold mom down on the bed as she flailed around wildly. William was curled in the corner, sobbing, covered in blood. Ami rushed to help dad and aunt Erin as I went to William. He was staring at the blood, horrified, his lips moving, but I couldn't hear what he was saying until I kneeled by him, wrapping my arms around him.

"I only hugged her, I hugged her and she did this oh God it wont come off… it was warm so warm and it wont come off…"

I looked at mom, seeing what had happened, blood was dribbled down her chin and smeared across her cheeks and soaked down the front of her hospital gown. She must have thrown up on William. Thrown up blood. She was screaming wildly. There was a sudden boom and dad, aunt Erin, and aunt Ami was thrown across the room. It was a mental boom, I could feel the pressure. I stood, raising my arms. Using my own mental abilities, I lifted her into the air so she could flail around without hurting herself. As soon as she was in the air, she went stiff as a board. I raised her so she stood up, while her feet didn't touch the floor. Her eyes fluttered and she gasped. She looked like mom. She started panting wildly, her chest heaving as she looked around. I walked to her, "Mom?"

"Anniee…. Oh God oh God…something's wrong…something's….wrong! My connection with this planet… something dark is growing within…. It's like a cancer. It will kill us all…it will kill us ALL. It's been sleeping… Waiting… It burns… Anniee…help me…Oh God…oh God please…before it's…No… Please! NO! PLEASE! OH GOD!"

She turned her head and vomited again, the blood blacker then tar as it hit the ground and splattered. It stained my white dress boots and splattered warmly across my legs. She started seizing again and aunt Ami lunged forward, stabbing a syringe into Mom's leg. Mom calmed slowly and I laid her in her bed. Aunt Erin and Dad stared at her as Ami looked at me, "We need to tell the queen."

I felt that coldest part of myself, the one that comes alive in the face of battle, that cold water that trickles down my spine. My face hardened and my blue eyes blazes so blue they were white, "I need to tell my senshi."

Later, my dad told me, that when I said that, there was a glow around me, I didn't notice it. It only appeared for a few moments, but it was long enough. The collar and skirt on my uniform, and the little accents that usually got color turned a dark blue like my eyes and the whiteness of my fuku turned coal black. Black for guardian. I had come in Intern senshi Leanne Knight, I left Guardian Senshi Emerald the Second of Earth.

End Prolog