Author's note: Welcome back, folks. If you're reading this, then I must have piqued your interest with the first chapter. Who is behind the mysterious message sent to the senshi? Can he help in holding off the enemy? What does he know about them, and what ties may he hold to their past? Why don't you stop reading all this suspenseful crap and read the good part of the story? You're still reading, aren't you? Man, you must be bored. Ah well, as long as you're reading, I'll put up the disclaimer.
Disclaimer: I don't own any aspects of Sailor Moon or Phantasy Star. If I did, this would be animated or a manga or both and you wouldn't be reading it right now. If I DID own Phantasy Star, I'd recall all of PSIII and have them destroyed, and remake the game with better storytelling, faster movement (like in PSIV). I'd also have Sega re-release a copy of the first game for a recent system. Hell, if I owned ANYTHING of Sega, I'd make them re-release Splatterhouse and its sequels. But anyhow, back to what I do own...Thanatos and all other characters are © Xian Shade, and may not be used without my permission. People failing to follow this rule have broken Xian's Law #849, paragraph 3, line 2: Don't fuck with my shit.
Guardian's Return, Chapter 2:
Juuban High School, 8AM: The morning of their first day of school, they had all made it on time. Even Usagi was in early, though she slept when she reached her desk. Ami tried her best to concentrate on her advanced children's psychology book in their advisory period, but the message and dreams from the previous night bothered her. 'If the enemy becomes stronger every time it's destroyed, what will happen when we can no longer fight it off?' She thought.
The nightmares continued to plague Ami for a week throughout school. The same nightmare, night after night. Finally, unable to take it anymore due to lack of sleep, she went to Rei.
"The dreams won't leave me alone, Rei-chan... it's the same thing all the time. I was hoping maybe you might know whether this has to do with an enemy, or even if you've had visions." Ami told her priestess/psychic friend.
"No, nothing. I haven't checked the fire in a while... but maybe I can help you." Rei gestured over to the fire and had her friend sit. "Meditation allows clearer thinking and mental strength. Perhaps you can battle this nightmare when you have better control of your dream. There may be a chance that an evil spirit is there, and I might be able to drive it out. If anything happens, I'll still be able to wake you."
Ami nodded, having meditated once before under Rei's supervision. Urawa had told her a few months back that his father had lost his job, and they were stuck in England. It would be some time before they met again, and her sorrow for Urawa's situation affected her studies. The meditation helped her concentrate, and whenever she needed to release that bit of sadness, she would always be able to do so afterwards.
"Close your eyes and think of the soothing sounds of the river. Water running over rocks. Fish splashing. Animals drinking. Soon you'll be in a state of sleep, and hopefully your dream will come again." Ami had already closed her eyes, listening to Rei speak, following her directions. Soon Rei could see the change in Ami's appearance, her breathing slowed, and her eyes moved rapidly. Her body would twitch every few moments, and Rei had taken little heed of it, before she could see the eyes squinting shut, muscles convulsing as she quaked on the spot.
'Rin, Hyou, Tou, Sha, Kai, Chin, Retsu, Zai, Zen!' Rei chanted as quick as she ever remembered doing, drawing a ward from her robes and adhering it to Ami's forehead. Almost immediately, Ami's eyes flashed open, but something was definitely wrong. Her eyes were no longer a calm blue, but a startling jade!
"Etsofem motela chtrpnk horeeila!" two sets of a definitely male voice spoke through Ami, and her hand came up to tear the ward off her forehead. It burned up almost immediately in her grasp, crunched up, her eyes returning to their normal color, and blinking away the haze. "Rei-chan...? What happened? Oww!" she unclenched her hand, letting go of the remains of the blackened ward, her palm red from an obvious burn.
"I don't know for sure, but it's time to call the others. You've got something inside you, that much is certain."
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"...So will you do it, Pluto? If this thing is a leftover nightmare demon from one of our old battles, we're going to need to go in after it."
The older woman in question was one of the strongest of their group, a senshi that had maintained her duty for over a thousand years. Setsuna, Sailor Pluto, the guardian of Time, had once given the girls the ability to enter the dreams of their Queen's future daughter, to fight a monster that was trying to kill her from within. While it wasn't the same sort of situation, it was obvious Ami had a presence in her that didn't belong, and a strong one if Rei's ward had been overpowered to the point where Ami was able to move while under its influence.
-"I'll do it, but I'm loathe to use such a power unless her life is in danger. As far as we've seen, all it's doing is affecting her sleep schedule. But I understand the concern. A week of the same nightmare, and her reaction to your ward during such a nightmare means that she's been possessed on some level. The fact that it's bothering her makes it obvious that the possession is not standard, and that it is 'Ami-chan' we've been interacting with."- her voice came through the communicator as the rest of the senshi, even the other outers, had decided to show at the shrine. Their last battle with a nightmare monster had ended with luck, and only the inners were part of the team at the time. Granted, their powers hadn't been as strong then, but when friends and fellow senshi were concerned, who wanted to take that chance?
"I want this to stop... it's really bothering me, and after that message came up... I'm just wondering if it's related." Ami assured them she wanted to go through with it. "Unlike normal sleep, this nightmare seems to start as soon as I drift off, as my computer's scans show the movements you described rather quickly, Rei-chan. Let's hope you guys won't have a problem."
"Just do what you did before, Ami-chan. Pluto, we'll be ready shortly."
"Understood." the girls jumped as Sailor Pluto's ghostly form stood in the room, expecting her to be over the communicator.
"Will you be able to join us, Pluto? It would be more reassuring." Hotaru asked, the younger teen unsure of going into someone's dreams.
"Unfortunately not. Not only am I physically needed to continue to guard the gates, but I need to be able to pull you out in the event something goes wrong. Be careful, as the hazards of this nightmare may very well do real physical harm to you."
Ami once more had settled into a relaxed state, and the moment Rei noticed the first twitch, a glow enveloped them.
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"Are they dead?"
"I didn't see them get hit. They don't look injured."
"We have to leave them! They need us to defend the castle!"
The girls stirred at the voices, looking about. Their experience in Chibiusa's nightmare had no one other than themselves, a sense of 'self' that represented Chibiusa before she met them, and the nightmare demon. The presence of other people may have been significant, but right now they needed to make sense of things.
"So where are we?" Makoto looked about, moving her bangs slightly, but her vision seemed blurry.
"Oh wow... guys, we're in the moon kingdom!" Usagi replied. She had somewhat clear memories of her home in her past life.
"If that's the case, we should transform. Our stature will get us some answers!" Minako suggested. Ducking into an empty building and one gigantic magical flash later, seven sailor senshi ran after a group of soldiers.
"The princess' guard, thank goodness!" a running soldier took note alongside a group of others. "Where is Mercury? And who are these others?"
"We think she's already at the scene of whatever's happening! This is Sailor Moon, this planet's guardian, and we managed to get the guardians from Neptune, Uranus, and Saturn." Mars quickly interjected. "What IS happening?"
"You haven't heard? We're being invaded! The force is storming the castle at this moment, and a horrible dark entity is blotting out the skAAAH!" he shouted, before suddenly being silenced and falling from a spear impaling his chest.
Sailor Moon muffled a scream at the downed soldier, but Venus quickly retaliated against the small winged youma, which exploded upon impact with her crescent beam in a shower of dust.
"We gotta keep moving! C'mon!" Uranus tugged the unmoving Sailor Moon away from the dead soldier, but she didn't have to be pulled very far. There was Sailor Mercury, staring up at a creature the girls had hoped never to see again.
Metallia.
"Oh god... no wonder we're seeing people this time. This isn't just a nightmare, this is a memory!" Mars realized.
"We can take her this time! We're all stronger, and we have backup!" Jupiter indicated the outers as well as Sailor Moon, but barely had time to attack as the energy being blasted down at them.
"SILENCE WALL!" Saturn stood in the middle of the girls, the purple energy of silence defending them from a certain demise. "We have to be careful! This nightmare, even if it's a memory, could still kill us! Take it down!"
The six remaining senshi unleashed their now-stronger planetary powers, and unlike before, Metallia roared in pain instead of shrugging off their powers. Sailor Moon's tier very nearly obliterated the energy being. The only one not attacking was Mercury.
"C'mon Mercury, what-" Neptune went to snap the girl out of whatever was bothering her, but her eyes seemed dull. "Something's wrong!" she slapped her face lightly, but Mercury seemed unmovable. She held an angry gaze, but she wasn't looking at anything, and she was physically immobile, as though Neptune had hold of a mannequin. She looked in her mirror for some sign of their quarry. Obviously, it wasn't Metallia.
The moment their powers ceased the assault against Metallia, all sound seemed to stop. Soldiers from both sides of the army were locked in an unmoving struggle. The only mobile ones seemed to be the senshi, minus Mercury.
"Just what do you think you're doing?" they heard, and Neptune was the first to see the image of the grim reaper behind them in her mirror. "Intruders in the dreamscape... no matter. At least they've broken the nightmare loop this memory caused." the rather deep voice was doubled-over from the scythe-wielding entity, little more than a floating purple cloak and a white mask.
"Jaakoku! Why are you torturing her with these memories?" Mars shouted, recognizing it to be the very same monster that haunted Chibiusa's nightmare.
"I assume you're referring to me. You may lower your shield, my disciple. The nightmare can no longer harm you." Saturn hadn't moved before that point, afraid they would be attacked the moment she disengaged the shield, but the voice seemed to strike her like a bullet, turning to face him like the rest. "I am not this 'Jaakoku', and her memories are necessary for the very near future. But I had warned you not to interfere. You may have done irreperable damage to her memories, for example, had you completely erradicated Metallia."
"When did you warn us? We've never spoken with you before." Mars argued.
He floated quietly closer to the small group. "I disagree. The magic of your transformation does not protect the spirit I saw outside this body the last time she dreamed. It was, in fact, you who tried to drive me out, and I warned you against such interference."
"I didn't understand a word you said! It was gibberish!" she said, not letting on how upset she was at being discovered. This creature could tell who she was! Her identity was exposed!
"Very well, perhaps you do not understand my tongue in the world of the waking... I will work on that. In the meantime, you do not belong here. You must leave."
"No you don't!" Saturn leapt from the others, her glaive swept down upon him. "Silence Glaive surp-" the glaive gave a shriek as it stopped against his defending scythe. His floating form hadn't budged an inch.
"There's no need nor time for your antics, disciple. Begone." a single black hand left the scythe, and Saturn seemed to dematerialize as his open palm moved towards her.
"SATURN!" Uranus and Neptune shouted as they watched her vanish, the anger fueling their next move without thinking.
"WORLD SHAKING!"
"DEEP SUBMERGE!"
The twin orbital spheres of orange and blue collided into a larger, white energy sphere, exploding violently against their target. There was little time to celebrate when he moved through the flash of the explosion, unscathed.
"Most unkind of you." Jade eyes flared behind the mask. Jade. Now that Mars looked at him, this one wasn't exactly the same as the monster they once faced. The eyes of the one they had fought before were red, its arms were white instead of black, and it had a kind of jewelry below its mask, while this one had none. "This is my realm, and your powers are useless here unless I let them be otherwise. I have no desire to harm you, but you try my patience. I must correct the problems your interference has caused." his scythe tucked into his purple garb, and the black hands both aimed at the group of girls. "Leave."
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"-uto, please! You have to put me back in there, it's him! He's back!"
"I'm afraid I can't, Hotaru-chan. Not only would I need to bring back the others in order to send you back, but Chronos-sama has just forbidden me from doing-so again."
The girls came about rather quickly, and a panic ran through them. Haruka and Michiru seemed relieved that Hotaru was fine, but Ami remained asleep.
"What do you mean Chronos forbids you to put us back inside her dreams? She needs our help!" Usagi asked, rather upset.
"He noticed a significant lack of attention on my part, and a particular overuse of my power. He claims that since her life was not in danger, my assistance was no longer necessary."
"I don't care what he says! You have to help her! I demand that you help us to help Ami-chan!" Usagi tried to keep the tears out of her voice, with only marginal success.
"I'm sorry, princess... but Chronos-sama's authority supercedes even the late queen's, and my duty as a senshi, as well as my life, will be in peril if I refuse him after warning. Besides, he has informed me that this will benefit us all."
The girls were both shocked and stunned at Pluto's refusal. They'd heard Chronos' name mentioned a few times in the past by Chibiusa when she would call upon the time key's use, but never believed he was a real 'physical' creature. If Chibiusa's words were accurate, this was a God!
"So... what can we do, then?" Makoto asked, and the others merely gave a shrug. No ideas came to mind.
"He mentioned that your ward tried forcing him out, Rei-chan... could you try it again?" Minako suggested.
Rei shook her head. "I don't think I should. If he's not a monster like we thought, then interfering again may do more harm than good."
"So we wait..." Haruka sat back down, cross-legged.
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"No other interruptions." the spectre mumbled, moving his hands and rearranging the memory to more of a semblance that was remembered. Snapping his fingers, Mercury's eyes alit. "Now then, do you know who I am?"
"You... You're Jaakoku. We fought you almost four years ago in the dreamscape of Chibiusa-chan."
"Jaakoku...?" the being's green eyes blinked, which was little more than the green glow from behind the mask disappearing for a moment then reappearing. "Your friends called me that too... I'm afraid you're all mistaken. We have never fought, I do not know a 'Chibiusa-chan', and that is not my name."
"The fact that you're here in my dreams suggests otherwise."
"If you and your friends fought this... Jaakoku, and lived, then you obviously destroyed him, right?"
Ami realized what he was saying. How could he be that being if they destroyed him? She calmed a bit, still apprehensive of the intruder in her mind. "What are you trying to make me remember? My past? Am I supposed to know you?"
The being nodded. "We were close, back then."
"Back then?" She looked about, realizing he meant the surrounding dream. "The Silver Millennium?"
He nodded once more. "Now I am merely a shadow in your memory, the entity no being wishes to see, but all are destined to meet. My brothers and I were residents of this system. One served the court of Mars... or one might say it served him... but the other and I served in the outer regions, so we were mostly forbidden to enter your realm unless on political terms."
"All right then... if you're not Jaakoku, then who are you?"
"That answer will be revealed when we meet in person."
"Why can't you tell me who you are? Or your brothers? Do the others know?"
"Others...?" The being seemed perplexed, then remembered the girls that were present not long ago. "I see... I regret sending them away now... this concerns them too..." he returned his gaze to her. "No, they do not, and shall not until the time is right. These memories, as you've seen, are painful. The reason you do not remember them is because you were not meant to re-live such pain. Noah tangled the strings of war. The eye of the Great Light was not meant to be used in place of judgement for reincarnation. We will reveal ourselves soon. My time grows short. I take my leave of you, my lady." the dark image of death itself bowed graciously, then began dissolving. "Until then, remember..." it came close and touched her forehead before the last traces of his existence faded from view.
With that, the dream itself dissolved, and her eyes slitted open to the warmth of the sacred fire, and her friends all about.
"Ami-chan, are you all right? We got cut off! What happened?" Rei shook Ami to attempt to snap her out of her daze, and she simply nodded, and told them:
"He told me to remember..."
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TBC.
