Cupid Alliance Series 2: To Defy Destiny
Title: Cupid Alliance Series 2: To Defy Destiny
Author: kazeko
Show: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon
Series: Cupid Alliance Series
Multipart: yes
Chapters: ?
Rating: PG
Timeline: "The Last Sacrifice: The End of the Silver Millennium", "CAS 1: The Trouble with Love is the Lovers", "CAS 2: To Defy Destiny", "Every Cloud", "Crystal Shards", "CAS 3: Unwilling Accomplice", "Our Past 1: The Reason We Fight", "CAS 4: Princess of Light", "Our Past 2: The Reason We Still Fight", "Our Past 3: The Reason We Fought", "CAS 5: One Last Shining Star", "In the Darkest Forest", "Destiny or Duty", "Desperately Searching", "Kazeko", "Chronicles of the Star Senshi"
Couples: Usagi/Mamoru
Time: Season 1 and 2
Chapter 2: Luna
On the largest branch of the tallest tree in the park, a single black cat sat and watched people pass by, cleaning her fur when she got bored, a strange golden crescent moon on her forehead. She hissed, falling into a defensive posture, as a tall blonde woman with purple eyes and white wings appeared in the air beside her, apparently invisible to the humans on the ground. "Be calm, Luna, Advisor to the Queen. You're smarter than that. You know that I mean you no harm."
Luna snorted and resumed her bath, pretending as if she had not been startled at all. "I do not know how you expected me to react to a Cupid appearing beside me for no good reason out of thin air. Why are you here, and what is your designation?"
"My designation is 374 Omicron, but that would mean nothing to you now. After the Moon Kingdom fell, the Alliance was rebuilt form scratch, the old Cupids retiring or changing their numbers. My name is Asakaze, and I would prefer to be called that."
"Very well. Is there a particular reason you are bothering me, Asakaze-san? I have a bath to finish."
"I know, but I have a favor to ask of you. I . . . I know that you ran into Tsukino Usagi today, and I want to know your impression of her."
"My . . . Usagi? That blonde girl wearing the strange hairstyle? She's the one that removed the band-aid from my crescent moon and allowed me to speak again. I . . . there's an aura about her, Asakaze-san, and I know that you can sense it. She has power, but I do not know what to make of it."
"What does your heart tell you, Luna?"
"That she is one of the Senshi I must find. I can feel Beryl's evil attacking this peaceful world as it did so long ago, and I must stop her. But I do not want to call the Senshi, Asakaze-san. It is such a burden, so much pain and suffering, and they may all die as they did before. It would be better for them if I let them be."
Asakaze reached down and easily lifted the cat, staring into her red eyes. "Luna, I know how you feel, but you cannot let your love of the old senshi, the dead senshi, blind you to the fact that you have a duty to the princess. She has been reborn, as well, and Beryl will not stop until she has found and destroyed our innocent Serenity."
"I would not recognize her, Asakaze-san, even if I did see her. I cannot remember most of the Silver Millennium."
"I know. Perhaps it is better that you do not. But you remember enough, enough to do some good, to call forth the Senshi of old, the princesses who fought Beryl and Metallia and their evil army and died protecting their princess. Please go to Usagi tonight and awaken the senshi power she holds."
"But I do not know . . ."
"Just go to her, Luna, and look into her eyes. When you use your powers to call forth her henshin stick, it will know where her power lies. All you have to do is protect and train Usagi as a Senshi. Soon her partners will come, drawn to her as the princesses were called together in the Silver Millennium so long ago, and they will form a team to defeat the evils of Beryl and Metallia."
"When you say it . . . I believe that it might work, Asakaze-san. I almost believe that soon I will look on the beautiful face of Serenity's daughter and heir."
"You must believe it, Luna," Asakaze whispered, "or it will never happen. Go now; darkness comes and I fear that tonight there will be unrest in my beautiful city."
Luna nodded and leapt, easily landing on four feet on the ground, dashing off toward the Tsukino residence. Asakaze watched her go, nodding. Usagi's power . . . she was one of the Senshi, of course. What else could she be? But she would never be given the girl as a charge if she could not find her soulmate.
"Cute kitty. Yours?"
"You know better than that, Ura-kun," Asakaze scolded as her former apprentice appeared by her side. "She belongs to the princess."
"Princess? Serenity? But we do not know who she is."
"Not yet. But Luna has confirmed a few things for me." Asakaze waved her hands, holding up the papers that appeared. "Thank you for these, by the way. After I left our venerable Master, I read these, searching for any clue to Usagi's identity."
"You think Usagi was part of the Royal Court?"
"I am sure of it, my friend. Luna is, too. She sees the power better than you or I because she was born for it, bred for it. She can feel Beryl gathering her power, preparing to attack, and she will want the princess. Usagi is but the first of the senshi—from the notes we have, I can surmise that there were nine, including Queen Serenity. But it does not name Serenity's Senshi name, since she never became her. The Princess never even saw the ginzuishou, except for when she died and its power, enhanced by the Cupids, brought her here. I do not know where, but the appearance of one Senshi in Tokyo indicates that all of them will come here soon, even the princess. Once Luna begins to awaken the senshi, she will have them search for the shards of the ginzuishou and bring them all together. Only the full crystal can summon the princess, awaken her at last. Once that happens, Beryl is toast."
"Wow. You have this planned out! Where is your little senshi now?"
"Luna has gone to her house. Shall we follow and see how the girl does in her first fight? I imagine she will be terrific."
"Don't kid yourself, Asa-chan. I know that you have watched her for a long time, and I have, too. She's young, and immature, and she'll be scared to death. She'll make it, because that's what the Senshi do—did—all the time. But she will never be the same. I hope you said goodbye to her today, because she will never be the same."
Asakaze nodded, finding tears unexpectedly gathering in her eyes, vowing at that moment never to give the girl another false love. "I know," she whispered, her voice only shaking slightly. "I know. And I did it to her. I asked Luna to go back, I told her not to feel sorry for the girls whose lives she was going to irrevocably alter, just to think about the princess, but . . . she's going to die, Ura-kun. I know it."
"You can't, Asakaze. None of us can see the fate of our charges. Please don't blame yourself, no matter what happens to her. She won't die because of anything you've done, and if she dies fighting, than at least she will have died a senshi. She couldn't have asked for anything else. The Senshi died fighting in the Silver Millennium."
"I know. They deserve better. They deserve a future, a kingdom where they are all recognized and worshipped for their amazing fire and love, a life with the soulmates that they were denied centuries ago, children. I want them to have that."
Urakaze wrapped one wing around Asakaze's shoulder, trying to comfort the older Cupid. "It will happen, all of it, just as you have said. I promise. I and the other Cupids will help it come true. We won't let the past repeat itself, I promise. Now, I think we ought to go see what Usagi does her first night as a Senshi."
"We have to stop somewhere first, Ura-kun. Do you remember that man you saw at the Arcade earlier? Well, I watched him when he ran into Usagi, and there was a definite surge of power. Some part of her, the part that perished with her, defending the princess, recognized the ancient part of him. Chiba Mamoru was part of one of the Royal Courts of the Silver Millennium. We need to go awaken him."
"How? Asa-chan, you know how hard it is to awaken power that old. Luna can do it because she was trained for it and learned the proper techniques to pass on power. We are just young Cupids; we do not know how."
"I have a plan, Ura-kun. Follow me." The Cupid flipped over backwards, falling off the branch as she opened her huge wings and soared into downtown Tokyo, heading for a specific apartment and her chosen hero. Urakaze shrugged and followed his former mentor, wondering what the woman had planned.
Chiba Mamoru sighed, staring at the ceiling, really not seeing it at all. He mentally reviewed his meeting with that strange blonde Odango Atama, wondering what it was about her that intrigued him so. She was young, immature, a pain, a whiner, a horrible student . . . but that wasn't the worst of it. Mamoru had actually enjoyed running into her, and their chance encounter had been the highlight of his day. He wanted to see her again.
Groaning, the blue-eyed man rolled over and stared out the window, watching as the sun vanished behind the steely buildings of Tokyo, realizing that he would have to eat something soon so he could go to bed. Resigned to his lonely life, Mamoru reasoned that he would not be lucky enough to see that girl again as he sat up and prepared to head for his kitchen.
He stopped as a glowing apparition appeared in the air before him, dressed in a flowing white gown, face hidden in shadow. The room around him changed, becoming a balcony, the Earth hanging in the sky, an evil darkness cloaking the land, choking him. He was dressed in a suit and cape, sword on his hip, staring up at the woman. She held out her hand, beckoning, supplicating, and her gentle voice embraced him. She never spoke, but he heard her, ancient words filling his mind. 'Help me, Endymion. You must awaken me. I am weak, powerless, defenseless . . . you must save me.'
'How? I don't know where you are, Princess.'
'You do not have to. My Senshi can find me, can awaken me, can bring me back to you. I miss you so much, beloved. Please save me.'
'Your Senshi?'
'You have the power to protect them. The first one wakes now . . . you will always know her danger. Save her especially, Endymion. She is the most important.'
'How can I protect her? I have no power.'
'You do, Endymion. When you need to protect her, you will find it. Go now; she needs you. Please find me, beloved.' The image vanished, Mamoru's living room returning as an excruciating pain ripped through the man, dropping him to his knees. He blacked out, the princess only returning in his dreams, as an alternate personality he never knew he possessed took over, Tuxedo Kamen standing up for the first time. He looked around, wondering where he was, eyes narrowing as the sense of pain and danger invaded his senses once more. Without a second thought, Tuxedo Kamen leapt toward the balcony, jumping out and away, heading for a small downtown jewelry store where a young and very inexperienced heroine was trying her hand at fighting one of Beryl's youma.
Asakaze and Urakaze watched him leave, the younger Cupid amused. "How did you make him transform? What did he see when he looked at you?"
"His heart's desire, his soulmate."
"But you don't know who she is," Urakaze protested. "How can you show him what you do not see?"
Asakaze reached around her neck and unfastened a golden chain, holding up the amber heart-shaped stone for her former apprentice to see. In the depths of the amber were tiny iridescent scales, forming the ancient symbol of paired lovers, soulmates, a symbol that fairly closely resembled the astronomical symbol of Uranus. "This is the Artemis Heart, a stone created by the ancient gods as a birthday present for the first ruler of the Moon. The goddesses gave it the power to identify soulmates and the gods gave it the power to bring the destined lovers together. We Cupids are not strong enough to release its full power, but I have learned from some of the younger gods how to use it to project an image. I told Mamoru to use the power he has inside to protect the first of the Senshi and all that follow her so that she can find the princess. What he saw was his soulmate, begging him to save her by finding the princess. I didn't have to know who she is or who the princess is for him to see and hear what he needed to. Now he will protect Usagi and she might survive this war." Asakaze returned the necklace to her neck and vanished, heading for the battle where Usagi would meet Tuxedo Kamen for the first time.
Urakaze stared into the empty room for a moment. "The Artemis Heart? I thought that was in the Forge. I wonder if she stole it . . ."
TBC
