Okay Everyone!
Here it is, the story that won the grand prize in Alicia Blade's "Phantom Writing Contest." I want to just say that I do NOT own Sailor Moon, but the storyline is completely original.
Remember to review!
"Emotions Run Wild"
Beryl's pale fingers flashed for what seemed like the thousandth time over the glowing orb positioned in front of her. The spindly limbs with violet painted daggers budding at the tips moved like lightning over the smooth surface of her crystal ball. Her posture in her throne was stiff, as if she had been in that rigid position for days. Fiery red eyes narrowed as they intently glared at the smoky depths, searching for an answer within. She was totally concentrated, the pale pallor of her skin glowing with an ethereal light that came from both her face and the unholy sphere she was focused on.
Of course, the one thing that always plagued her thoughts was the same horror she was dealing with at that moment. The one person in Beryl's long life to ever defy her, with the one exception of Queen Selenity: Sailor Moon. The blonde was always spitting out gibberish about love and friendship whenever she wasn't bawling on her knees. She got on Beryl's last nerve, and her generals had all fallen to her, this incompetent girl! How in the world had she slipped through the Queen of the Dark Kingdom's fingers so many times? The dark queen watched the smoke in her gem circle turn a dark, frustrated red; Beryl quietly seethed.
I've had more than enough with these games, The dark queen thought. If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.
The rubies of her eyes snapped open wide as a curtain of wild red hair flew in a frenzy around Beryl's petite form, causing a ring of fire around her body. Her hands were locked on to either side of her crystal ball, and the power that emitted from both of them caused her arms and torso to shake violently.
All at once the spasms subsided and Beryl slumped down in her magnificent throne, her eyes still locked on the crystal sphere.
Almost so tiny, the flame-headed woman didn't see it at first, a tiny tendril of lavender smoke twisted eerily out of the ball. It grew in size, distorting and writhing in the air until a smoky figure wreathed in the horrid lavender stood before Beryl. A small smile played its way on the queen's lips as she watched her own creation come to life.
The figure soon blossomed into a beautiful, albeit vile, woman. Her locks of hair resembled her creators in the fire-like quality it had. In fact, her whole head seemed to be wrapped in a sinfully beautiful wreath of rich purple flame that gave off a violet smoke that ribboned its way over her body. The porcelain skin on her face was thinly stretched over looming cheekbones and hollow cheeks. Harsh, glaring emerald eyes flashed of their own accord under what seemed to be flaming violet brows. Her body was scantily clad, leaving almost nothing to the imagination. A thin lace tightly encased her neck and traveled down to her bosom, where only two fist-sized black circles saved her innocence. The laced stopped, revealing a toned white stomach with two strings slung on her hips. These strings came together at the center of her abdomen then came away to start the top hem of her long, flowing pants. Beryl basked in her own glory of making such a divine creature.
"Master," the woman bowed low, "I am the Passion Phantom, called Tenga, summoned here to do your will. I will twist their own inner emotions against them, destroying them from the inside out."
Beryl's thin red lips slowly curled into a smile as she conjured up an image of a certain blonde annoyance.
"Your first victim."
……………..
Tsukino Usagi ran through the dimly lit streets of Tokyo, desperately wishing she were anywhere than the place she was right now. Crystalline tears created a steady stream down her face as she sprinted away from the Crown Center Arcade, away from Chiba Mamoru, and into the city darkness.
Usagi cried a little harder as his insults rang through her mind, refusing to stop their incessant noise. He had been mean, as usual, but today his words had pierced a little deeper into her heart.
"Odango!" Mamoru called, seeing the bubbly blonde skip through the swishing arcade doors. "I wouldn't be so happy if I were you." He smirked. " Didn't you fail another test today?"
This stopped Usagi in her tracks. With a grave looked, she slowly turned around to face the black-haired man in front of her, her face pale.
"H-how did you k-know that?" She stuttered. Did he get into my school records, or maybe he went in before I got here and talked to my teacher about my grades! Usagi shuddered at the thought. She didn't want him thinking she was a total idiot.
"I didn't, Odango. You just told me." Mamoru gave her one of his trademark 'holier than thou' smiles and turned around in his stool to face the counter. He sipped on his coffee and waited for her delicious reaction to his wild comment.
She reacted just how he wanted her to; her face was a heart-shaped tomato and he could nearly hear the steam hissing out of her ears.
"Mamoru-baka, one of these days I'm going… I'm going to… " Her eyebrows furrowed in her forehead as she struggled to think of something nasty she could do to him.
"Can't even complete a sentence? You're a disappointment, Odango Atama. In fact, with your common bad grades and exasperating klutziness, I'm sure you disappoint a lot of people." Mamoru said with a shrug before turning back to his coffee, his face a mask of indifference.
"What is that supposed to mean baka?" Usagi shrieked through tear-glazed eyes.
"It means," Mamoru drawled in his best 'I'm bored' voice, "that everyone in your life must be used to them not filling their expectations. But who cares? You're too much of a flake to be counted on anyways." Mamoru heard the ice in his own voice and even he had to shudder. Without turning to look at her, he could tell that she was crying.
And crying she was. Her head hung down, and quiet tears slipped out of glassy cerulean eyes as she walked toward the arcade door. She knew about her downfalls, and she had always tried her best to not let anyone down. Mamoru had stripped her bare, and now she felt almost disgusted with herself.
Her shoulders shook in a silent sob as she kept her calm walk through the door. The minute she felt the cold night air on her skin, she broke into a dead run, letting her crystalline tears fly behind her.
Usagi's tears had almost faded by the time her legs forced her to stop her running. They felt like jelly and wobbled beneath her, threatening to give out at any second. Hands on her knees, bent over to catch her breath, Usagi didn't know or even care where she was, as long as she was far away from that horrible raven-haired man.
When she finally caught her breath, she tilted her head up to get a good look around her. She had stopped right by an empty playground; the jungle gym and swing set looking like the skeletal remains of a ghost town.
Somewhat hesitantly, she made her way over to the swing to let her weary legs rest. They gave out right as she plopped down onto the hammock seat and Usagi let out a breath of relief. Hugging herself tightly, she dug her toes into the sand beneath her and started to rock herself back and forth.
She glanced to her left to see a big, open lake a little ways down a trodden path. She hugged herself tighter as out of habit she envisioned a tall black haired teenager with his arm around her on a picnic blanket.
Oh, how she hated herself just then, in that moment. She hated herself for loving him so desperately and not ever speaking a word of it. She hated how she forgave him for his harsh words in a second, and she hated how each and every one of those harsh words was right. The tears started to come down again in torrents as she thought of him.
So caught up was she in her self-pity she didn't notice a small tendril of lavender smoke latch onto the chain of her swing. The wisp twisted around the chain, weaving in between the holes in the metal and slowly climbing down toward the blonde sitting below.
As the violet came in contact with her shoulder, an icy cold shudder went down Usagi's spine. She lifted her tear-streaked face and stared at the smoke in horror.
Usagi didn't think. She leapt off the swing, letting her legs work of their own accord and scrambled into a frantic run. A shrill scream was muffled by the sound of crunching ground as she smoke slammed itself into the earth. The sickening crack of rock followed Usagi as she desperately ran from whatever was following her.
Her slim fingers fumbled into her pocket for her transformation brooch as Usagi struggled to keep breathing. She felt the cold ice of the smoke envelop her ankle just as the searching fingers closed around the gold locket. In one tug the smoke had swept her feet out from underneath the running girl.
The sickening sight of her own crimson blood being engulfed with a violet mist was the last thing Usagi saw as a woman's cruel laugh led her into darkness.
……………..
"What is with all these people?" An irritated Rei asked as she skulked down the dark halls of the Temple. "Twelve good luck charms, eighteen protection spells, three shield talismans… You'd think the world was coming to an end!"
Rei was in a bad mood, to say the least. Her thick red and white robes scratched heatedly at her fair skin, leaving enflamed red splotches on her body. The wooden shoes that adorned her feet gave her heels a dull ache, which was only accentuated by her annoyed stomping throughout the day. Never before had she seen people in such a mad rush for her expertise!
However, Rei could feel what was troubling all these people. Even before the masses of desperate people had crashed into her Temple, she could feel the negative energy building up around the city. It nagged at the back of her mind and lurked around every corner she turned, like her senses were reaching out to foresee the possible dark future. What really infuriated her was the fact that no matter how hard she concentrated or meditated, she could not put her finger on the cause of it all.
"If this keeps on I'm going to-" Rei's sentence was stopped as a huge rush of flame and heat seared the right side of her body, lighting up the dark night around her. Whipping around to see the cause, she found she was standing right in front of the door to the sacred Fire Room. In the middle the holy flame blazed brilliantly, like a beacon calling out to her.
Cautious and respectful, Rei slowly made her way to the place of prayer in front of the fire. Something is wrong, she thought, to make the fire react so wildly. Eyes glued to the dancing red and orange in front of her, she calmly walked towards the inferno as if an invisible thread was guiding her to it. Once she reached the holy flame, she carefully lowered herself to the ground so that she was kneeling on a cushion. Her shiny black hair fell like a drape behind her, making her face seem pale in the moving light. Hands were folded in prayer and eyes shut in concentration; she whispered the ancient words to beseech the holy fire for its wisdom.
When she was done with her plea, her violet eyes snapped open and stared with a focused determination into the roaring fire.
Deep in the red center of the fire, a pale crescent moon lifted out of the soft ashes and burned brightly with liveliness that Rei had never seen. The symbol hovered in midair, growing brighter and brighter by the second until the priestess' strained eyes ached with the site of it. She almost didn't notice the little dark tendril that crept at the edge of the firewood.
The black embers under the fire seemed to leak a sickly ebony inferno that moved in a snakelike pattern around the red heat. As the priestess watched horrified, the dark blaze swallowed up the white moon with a vengeance until the white light was totally blocked. The black cloud suddenly ruptured into a thick mist that distorted and tainted the rest of the pure fire. The once red and healthy heat was soon a suffocating black, growing and throbbing like a telltale heart until Rei cried out in fear and held up her arms to block out the coming darkness.
Instead of feeling the blistering black heat, Rei felt nothing but the stillness of the night air. Opening her eyes and dropping her arms, she saw that the holy fire had sputtered out, leaving only the white and black embers below.
……………..
Usagi's eyes snapped open and she jumped up, all ready in fighting position. Her tired eyes scanned the room, ready for anything that came at her. With a clenched fist, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes quickly and opened her big blues wide.
Only to find herself right next to her bunny-clad bed.
Cocking her head to one side, she did a slow circle just to make sure she was in her room. Everything was where it was supposed to be: her locket was sitting on her dresser next to her rabbit alarm clock, her perfume scent of strawberries blanketed everything, and her bed was even messy from her sleeping in it.
Usagi worriedly recalled last night's events. She remembered her aching legs, the terror in her heart and that sickening violet smoke. A disgusted shiver traveled up her spine as she once again looked at her messy bed.
Maybe it wasn't real. A rich voice cooed in her head.
I guess it was all just a dream… Usagi thought, as she hurriedly got dressed.
Yes it was, little one. All a dream… A ghostly voice whispered in the back of her mind.
Still, as she left her room, she could swear she heard the same nauseating cackle follow her down the stairs and into the street.
……………..
Tenga's lips curled themselves into a smile as her smoky form twisted itself around Usagi's body. Invisible and undetectable, she playfully tugged on one of the golden waterfalls rippling behind the girl.
Usagi jumped and gave a little squeal, but Tenga whispered some sweet nothings into her head and she settled down. The specter gave a chuckle before setting herself in a more serious mood.
Focusing her mind, she delved into Usagi's psyche with all her might. Mentally flipping through memories, she found nothing she could use against the blue-eyed girl. Growling a little, she concentrated harder and probed deeper into her inner mind.
She found reminiscences of Sailor Moon there, but she already knew that this blonde nothing was the supposed warrior of Love and Justice. Curious, she tried to find the identities of the rest of the Sailor Senshi. Much to her frustration and anger, a strong mental wall blocked off the recollections and the ghost could not penetrate it. Leaving that part of her mind, she sorted through the rest of her everyday remembrances.
There she found a deliciously tall, dark, and overall handsome man. Dark hair, midnight blue eyes, and a body that would send any girl over the edge. As she looked deeper, emotions of pain, anger, frustration and an odd feeling that Tenga could not name. She understood the anger, but the strongest emotion was foreign to her, and she discarded the memory.
Getting what she needed, she backed out of Usagi's mind to find her still walking down the street. Floating in close to her ear, she started cooing soft words to the blonde.
Chiba Mamoru… he's mean to you, isn't he…
"So… awful…" Usagi breathed, hardly knowing what she was doing.
You don't deserve that at all, poor thing…
"I deserve better…"
You know he'll be at the arcade today… You should tell him how absolutely… angry and frustrated you are…
"Angry and frustrated…" She murmured.
Get your revenge!
Usagi's eyebrows furrowed in her brow and hot anger twisted her pretty features and frustration and agony built up inside her.
"I will."
……………..
Mamoru walked into the Crown Center Arcade at exactly 3:17. He took four strides to sit at the third stool at the counter and ordered a black coffee. Taking a fast glance at his pocket watch, he let himself smile, glowering in the fact that he was perfectly on time. He reached into his overly large green jacket pocket and whipped out a small black book. He turned to a dog-eared page and dived in.
Motoki knew his best friend's routine, but knew better to just go with it than to make him change it. So today was no different as he worked to brew Mamoru's favorite bitter drink. The arcade owner set down the cup with a smile, watching his entranced friend.
"Hey, Mamoru! What're you reading now, 'The Science of Science'?" The blonde teased, laughing a little at his own joke.
"Very funny Motoki. I'm actually reading what some people call a book. Ever heard of it?" Mamoru shot back, wary of his friend's humor. Motoki made a sour face before resting his head on his hand.
"You don't have to be so mean to me, Mamoru." Motoki sighed. Turning his head, he saw some of his favorite people occupying the far booth. A girl with blue hair and intelligent eyes, Ami, was doing exactly what Mamoru was doing: delving into her latest book. Across from her a pretty blonde with a red bow in her hair, Minako, was staring wide-eyed at her friend, a girl with long ebony hair and violet eyes, Rei, who was waving her arms around, in the middle of a spirited story telling. With mild interest Motoki wondered what she could be telling. The last girl towered over the rest of them even sitting down, her curly brown hair swept up in a ponytail. When she saw Motoki looking at the girls, Makoto gave him a wink before turning to calm Rei down.
Blushing a little, he turned to Mamoru, who was definitely not where he had left him. Instead of being buried in his book, he was staring quite rudely and a little slack-jawed at a man a few seats down from him. Motoki overly rolled his eyes and glanced at his friend to see if he got the hint. After clearing his throat and tapping on the table a few times, Motoki got the nerve to talk to his odd friend.
"Mamoru- do you… know that man?" Motoki asked slowly.
"I can't believe it…" Mamoru whispered. "He's the Head of the Internal Medicine at my school!" He continued to whisper all this to Motoki, afraid that the professor might hear. "I've been trying to get him to notice me for months." At this, he looked a little crestfallen.
True, Mamoru was an exceptional student. He always received the highest marks in all his classes, but his continuous absence from class had kept him from making the needed connections to really excel him in his education. Tux boy seems to be taking up a lot of my time lately… Mamoru mused.
"Well go talk to him! What are you waiting for? GO!" He gave his reluctant friend a good push and sat back to watch Mamoru's big break.
Mamoru slid a couple seats over and hesitated before tapping the old man on the shoulder.
"Hello, sir, my name is Chiba Mamoru. Sir, I've been dying to say-"
"-That I'm the most arrogant, stuck up man in all of Tokyo!" Usagi stomped over to the shocked Mamoru and professor. Ever since she had woken up this morning, her mood had gotten increasingly worse, and she remembered what Mamoru had said the previous night.
That part was definitely not a dream, she thought.
Mamoru was deciding whether to be mad or to laugh it off when he noticed something different about his Usako this morning. Her lovely porcelain skin had certain darkness about it, as if she had been sick. Her usually bubbly cerulean eyes that he loved so much were a deadly navy, and her shiny golden hair that he had always been dying to run his fingers through had gone dull and limp. He watched her as she turned to the professor at his side.
He was awful to you… He hates you… the voice said
"Mister, this man is the scum of the city! I have never seen any person act as cruelly as you did last night!" She screamed. Her anger was almost tangible, and Mamoru thought he could see a purple crackly come off her shoulders. He pulled her over to the side to block the professor's view.
"Can't you, for once, leave me alone? Can't your little Odango Atama brain see that I'm talking here!" He hissed, letting anger flavor the otherwise stone features of his face. Usagi's face turned red with rage as she clenched her fist to avoid punching Mamoru in the face.
This delicious emotion! Tenga purred. It's so wonderfully dark and angry. I can feel its power flowing through me!
"You have always been mean to me, but last night was the worst!" Angry tears formed at the corners of her eyes as she screamed at the two men in front of her.
"Usagi, be quiet! I told you to go away! I don't want the professor to think I hang out with immature brats like you." Mamoru raged. "Go bother Motoki with your childish flirting or something." With that, he turned her back on her.
"I hate you!"
Yes, let your anger out little one. Tenga cooed in her mind. You deserve better then to be treated like some dumb little kid. You're better than him, too.
"I HATE YOU!"
The arcade machine behind her erupted into a cloud of electric sparks as it exploded in a fiery mesh of heated metal and colored wires. Usagi didn't even flinch, but kept on facing her victims.
"YOU DON'T DESERVE TO TALK TO ME!"
The next machine shook violently before spewing out daggers of glass and lights from the monitor. A tiny violet smoke formed around the blonde girl as her face twisted into a deeper rage than before. Her beautiful features writhed with hate and disgust. As she fired insult after insult, the purple haze around her grew until a woman was formed in the mist; both her hands were on Usagi's shoulders and her face crouched down close to her face, whispering hatred in her delicate ear.
"Fire Soul!"
A blast of pure red fire collided into the purple smoke behind Usagi, sending the specter tumbling backwards. As soon as the ghost's hands left the blonde's delicate shoulders, Usagi went unconscious and fell forward right into a terrified Mamoru's arms. The professor, horrified, got up and jumped over the counter and thrust Motoki in front of him like a shield.
The pale ghost stood up, now in her solid form and gave her attacker a killer glance. Before her, four fuku-clad warriors in different colored uniforms stood, all in battle position. Her eyes narrowed with distaste. Tenga had heard of all of them: The genius Mercury, the passionate Mars, the delicate Venus and the strong Jupiter. Tenga's lips curled in a small smile as she brought her hands together in her own attack. Usagi moaned as energy collected in the palm of Tenga's hand.
"Anger Flare!"
A blast of red light shot like a sword from her hand as she jumped in the air and aimed her blade at Mars' head. The black-haired girl's hair was singed as she leaped out of the monster's way. Landing on her feet, she scowled at the damage the ghost had left.
Mercury used Mar's distraction to feed data into her computer. Tapping her sapphire earring, a visor spread itself across her eyes and started flashing numbers in front of her. She saw Venus whip out her Love Chain, but it was foiled when the pale woman's attack shattered the strong gold loops. Mercury glanced at Usagi's limp form, growing paler and paler by the minute.
"Everyone! She's using Usagi's energy for her attacks! It's using the power of her negative feelings to feed its energy!" Ami shouted, hoping that her tiny voice reached the rest of the Senshi over the battle noise.
A flash of red light crushed the glass visor into her face and sent her careening back into the plaster of the wall. She opened her eyes to see the other three Senshi in similar positions, splayed out against the floor and shoved up against the adjacent walls. Blackness conquered the genius's vision and she slumped her body against the wall
With a smirk, Tenga walked over to where the dark-haired man and her prey sat. To her surprise, the man called Mamoru was hunched over Usagi's body and tears streaked his face. When he looked up at her, sheer madness and anger etched his features.
"You are not coming any closer." He said through clenched teeth. The possibility of losing his Usako was looming overhead. With all his concentration focused on the unearthly being before him, he didn't see the slight flutter of Usagi's eyes.
"What makes you think you can stop me?" Tenga mused. She paused in her movements, toying with the man in front of her.
"I can stop you because if you take her away, I won't have anything else to live for." Mamoru whispered, and another tear made its way down his face. He hung his head in shame and let his thumb lightly stroke Usagi's cheek. "She-She's the reason I get up every morning."
Tenga stared at him as he gazed down at the blonde in his arms. She was baffled. Hadn't she felt the memories of anger and hate towards this man? She shuddered as that unknown feeling flooded her body and she clutched her temples as they started to throb.
"I'm sorry, Usako." Mamoru leaned his head down so that Usagi's forehead brushed his. "I was mean to you… and I think I was jealous of you too." He let his nose lightly touch hers as he willed her to open her eyes. "You're so bubbly and you make me laugh even when you don't mean to. I don't know what to say to you, so I put you down. Oh Usako…"
As Mamoru whispered this into Usagi's ear, Tenga's head pounded with a fierce determination as wave after wave of the foreign emotion hit her. She desperately tried to collect it into an attack, but pain washed over her entire body. She took a weary step forward and another jolt of pain attacked her spine.
"Usako" Mamoru murmured, "I love you, always have and always will."
Tenga's body felt like watery flames as her legs gave out beneath her. Her eyes closed and she gave out a strangled moan as her body turned to a pale smoke. Trying to avoid the pain, the smoke gently floated out the door, a little more mass disappearing with each subtle movement. What was left was a single pale wisp that gently brushed the handle before vanishing into the cool air.
"Mamo-chan?" Usagi's eyes fluttered open, and a blush stained her now beautifully rosy cheeks. "Did… Did you mean what you said?" Her once again golden hair framed her beautiful blues as they shyly looked up at him for an answer.
Mamoru paled a little, thinking that his confession had gone unheard. Seeing that she had not bolted for the door or laughed at him, he decided to follow it through.
"Usako-" he hesitated "I meant… every word." His eyes locked on Usagi's and he held his breath, counting every second until she answered. Usagi blushed again and leaned into Mamoru's chest.
"And… I mean this," She whispered as she brought her perfect pink lips to Mamoru's in a quick kiss. She pulled back and lowered her lashes, refusing to look into his eyes. She looked around the room once, seeing the destruction and noticing that no one but Mamoru and her were left. In the corner of her eyes she thought she saw an orange fuku and a vague thumbs-up sign, but she thought it was just her imagination.
Mamoru stood stunned for a minute, watching her look at the room, before lifting her chin up again and lowering his head to hers in a long, sweet kiss. When they finally broke apart, Usagi sighed and closed her eyes. She leaned her head on his chest and soon she had fallen asleep.
"I love you."
No one, not even the two, knows who spoke those words last. And in truth, it didn't matter at all.