:: Sailor Moon Neo :: part 20
by Shelley Dream of Trista's Timely Tales
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...Sapphire just roamed around Morcraft Castle a while, searching out the many levels of the castle on her own volition. She did this until she felt a summons, disappearing into the shadows one more time when she was called. A quick transition later, she stood face to face with Doom and Dusk.
"You have summoned me?"
Doom nodded to her. "Yes, our prince wants to see you."
Dusk smirked. "Yes." She hissed out. "He wants to see you." She eyed her up and down.
Sapphire nodded. "As he wishes." She turned and walked down a dark hallway. Doom looked to his sister, Dusk - the two ravens sharing silent, knowing looks between them in silent revelry.
As for Sapphire, she traveled along the shadowed ways on her way until finally, she stood at the end of the hall in front of some huge metal monster of a door. Only a few glimmers of light burning, mounted on the walls above.
Soon after her appearance, the doors groaned open, just enough to let the darkness from within reach out to Sapphire's feet.
"Come." A dark voice beckoned from inside.
Sapphire's white hair flowed behind her moved forward as was enveloped by the darkness. She continued in until she heard the huge doors shut behind her, and then stood silent, waiting.
She didn't need to wait long before an eerie blue light began to grow from the center of the room. Slowly, it illuminated the dark and bleak cement walls of Jupiter's Royal Palace. Near the center of that strange light, a figure was beginning to show from atop a high throne shrouded in the dark.
Sapphire looked up and sighed, a smirk growing across both sides of her face.
The figure looked down at her as his dark hair was finally illuminated, a cloak of seemingly living shadow could be seen flowing down his mescaline body. "Good of you to finally stop by and see me, dear Sapphire. We haven't seen one another in so long, after all." Toro spoke in a soft voice.
Sapphire bowed her head politely. "I am so sorry. I didn't know you wanted to see me so badly."
The prince of Jupiter stood and began to walk down the steps of the high thrown. "Of course." He waved the apology off. "I have been looking forward to seeing you again though, see you. You are the one I have desired most."
Sapphire looked up at the man coming towards her. "I?" She feigned surprise. "But I am just your servant now, aren't I? What could someone like you want with me?" She smiled at him deceptively.
Toro stood before her, head taller than her, he was athletically muscular, yet displaying the sort of delicate, refined features and appearance that one would expect from royalty. The jet dark hair that framed his face and the blackness in his eyes made his paler skin stand out almost like it glowed. "I've always wanted you." He said smoothly. "You've always belonged to me. You've simply been unaware of it until now."
Sapphire tilted her head and smiled, her manner just slightly mocking. "But, Toro, how could you? I am your sister's friend after all, and I am supposedly taken already. Don't you remember?"
Toro just smirked back at her, his eyes seeming to spark. "Oh, don't play with me. We both know none of that matters. I'll have what I want, and that is you."
Sapphire tilted her head back and looked at him in his dark face. "You shall have what you want, then"
Toro leaned in and kissed her passionately. While Sapphire kissed him back just as passionately. Seeming to forget all she ever was for that moment in time.
Toro lifted his head and looked down at her. "You truly are free. Aren't you?"
Sapphire looked up at him in a daze. "Of course. I would have killed you before. In one way or another." She said as she put her arm around his shoulder in a familiar fashion. "But now, I am free and I'll be what you want me to be."
Toro nodded. "Good, then you shall do as I order. Correct?"
Sapphire nodded slowly. "Of course. I am a servant now."
Toro smiled, his face looking deceptively sweet. "Then you shall return to Morcraft Castle and keep an eye on my sister. If you see her have joy. I want you to take it away. The sooner I can kill her spirit, the sooner I can begin my true reign upon this world, with you as my queen."
Sapphire's arm slithered down from his shoulder. "I will enjoy that I think. But a queen." She eyed him. "I'm more of an 'empress of darkness'. Don't you think?"
Toro lightly pulled his hands across her jaw. "Oh, why not? Now, go and do my bidding."
Sapphire touched his hand and kissed it. "As you wish my prince." Then she disappeared into shadows.
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Meanwhile, back at Morcraft Castle, Sesja found herself in a silent daze. She pulled herself off the bed and to a chair, looking out the window at the garden below and seeing dawn's morning light draw across the land before her.
--I don't understand... Why this is all happening.. First Toro... then my parents. Could Sapphire be right? Could they really be gone? Did Toro kill them?-- Sesja shuttered away from the thought. --I feel so alone.-- She thought to herself, curling her head in her crossed arms on the castle window ledge. --I don't see how this all unraveled so fast around me. How I could just let this happen.-- She sighed, falling into herself. All of the sudden though, she could feel a presence in the room behind her. She turned around, glancing from one corner to the next. Her face turning sour and angered. "Who are you? Why have you come here? Are you going to kill me? If so, I dare you to try." She spoke grimly, more than ready for a good fight about then.
From the shadows in the corner, by her wardrobe closet, Citara walked out. "Kill you? No, I am not here to kill you. I am just here to keep watch over you. I overheard you and Sapphire... You seemed like you needed a friend." Her cerulean eyes gazed at her in an odd sort of way that was almost familiar
Sesja rose to her feet. "It's none of your business. I will take care of her on my own. I don't need you. Did you forget so soon? I know you're a liar just like her. I figured you out. So, unless you wont to die. Get out!"
Citara smiled, yet it seemed sad somehow. "As you wish. But, I am only trying to help you. I thought, perhaps I could be of service to, to the noble princess of Jupiter... You needed help, and I was willing to give it to you."
Sesja stared back at her, her face turning stony. "Your help? I do not need your help. You are the enemy and I will destroy you as soon as I have proof, I promise I will. So do you hear me, Citara? I don't need you or anyone like you." She said coldly, a shiver running through her body for something unknown. "Now, get out!!" She pointed Citara to the door.
Citara bowed her head, her long pale blonde locks falling down over her shoulders. "As you wish..." She started to fade back into the shadows. "I just thought you'd like to know perhaps, where your brother is hiding these days?..."
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:: Sailor Moon Neo :: part 21
by J. Anne of Trista's Timely Tales
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"Uhm, what? Where my brother is hiding? What the hell is that even supposed to mean?!" Sesja fumed. "He's in the capital, he's got an army, he's... Why am I even listing to this?"
"Oh, I don't know. Why are you listing to this? Maybe you'd like to know what I'll say? ...He's not really in his castle you know..." She teased her.
"All right fine, where is he then?" Sesja demanded.
Faster than she could see, Citara came right up next to her and whispered in her ear. "He's right behind you..."
Sesja whiled around, pushing Citara away from her, electricity crackling around her. But there was no one there of course, and she heard a eerily familiar light laughter in the air. "You're so easy." Citara said mirthfully, but when Sesja turned around, the dark woman with the pale blonde hair was gone, the curtains rustling slightly in the wind at her passing.
She blinked a few times and backed away until she was able to fall down to sitting on the edge of her bed. "No way..." She breathed to herself as she looked at the window blankly.
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The sky was filled with soft white clouds, the air calm as she drifted high in the sky while the new day began to dawn. She could see the sun rise in the far off horizon, and the colors and warm light began to fill the sky and give her an amazing view as she flew gracefully on.
"You're completely ignoring him, you know..." A haunting melodious voice spoke to her, though she couldn't tell from where it came exactly.
"Dusk." Sapphire smiled in recognition. "And where's your brother this fine morning, if I can ask?" She'd meant to go on to Morcraft, but as she flew, she'd realized she that she just didn't care enough to go. She just wanted to fly and not think about anything for a while.
"Oh, I'm sure he's keeping himself entertained..." The smooth voice said as the form of a tall woman dressed all in black, with long raven hair and dark black wings much like Sapphire's own dropped down from above to fly by her side. "I thought it would be more fun to see just what you were up to though. What is that by the way?" She asked conversationally.
"Oh, I'm just out for a little flying... paying a visit to a few old friends..." Sapphire responded, weaving into a cloud and gracefully twisting around a little in a lazy fashion to appear in an unexpected place.
"You're good at this." Dusk complemented her from over her shoulder.
"You're better though, it seems." Sapphire smiled wryly at the raven, who darted around to get behind her again.
"I've been at it a lot longer than you have." She said from behind her, but by the time Sapphire turned, she was gone, dropping down from above to appear in front of her again.
"And how long has that been, exactly?" Sapphire questioned as they continued on their way.
"Ah, ah, a woman never tells." Dusk replied.
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-- "Lightning! -- She called out, blasting the attacking panther and destroying it and returning some poor unconscious person somewhere on the castle grounds to wakefulness.
"This is insane!" Sesja fumed. "We have to find them." She grumbled as she went off down the hall. Two of the castle's Jupiter guards, Rowena and Nellin as a matter of fact, dutifully following along. It had been like this for the whole day so far. Panthers. All over the castle, there were black panthers stalking about.
There had been incidents like this going on ever since Basha & the new Bastette had made their reappearance, but they'd been relatively few and the three senshi, along with the Jupiter guard, had been managing to keep the problem in check. But now, it seemed that the two panther demons were stepping up their hunting again. So far though, Basha and her sister had been nowhere to be found. Sesja had been at this since midmorning without a rest, and she was steadily getting angrier and angrier as time went on.
"Princess!" Nellin called. "Look!"
"I TOLD you, just Sesja is fine. You don't have to call me..." but her words trailed off as she looked out at the courtyard from were they were on the castle's second floor inner corridor. The corridor was in the open air and you could see down at the courtyard it surrounded every ten feet or so. As she looked down, she could see Hotaru and Basha in a pitched battle down below. Panthers circling the pair, Bastette hanging back and observing the scene.
Sesja didn't waste much time in jumping off the corridor and heading towards the fight, using her attacks to scatter the panthers and make her way to Basha and Hotaru. "Suine! Please, stop this!" She called out. Bastette grabbed her from behind through, and tried to wrestle her to the ground.
"Stay away from my sister." Bastette growled at the Jupiter senshi as they struggled. A short way away from them though, the ruckus gave Hotaru an opening to get some leverage on her opponent and push her away then knock her to the ground with her glaive. The Saturn senshi was immediately set upon by the surrounding pack of panthers though, and she was feeling very overwhelmed by the onslaught.
"Hahahaha" Basha laughed at her vindictively as she picked herself off the ground.
-- "Moon tiara magic!" -- The panther demon heard, her fur bristling and a cold shill running through her at the all too familiar voice. Three of the panthers attacking Hotaru were destroyed by the tiara, and as it returned to it's owner, Basha turned to confront the senshi from the moon.
"You!" Basha growled deeply as she sprinted for the senshi in pink, more like a bull than a cat.
Rini was shocked at the attack and the fierce angry growl, but still managed to jump out of the way at the last moment. Unfortunately, Basha whiled and pounced on her before her adversary could again react.
"Get off me Jama!" Sesja broke Bastette's hold on her and turned her around with the same movement, throwing the panther demon to the ground. Bastette growled at the Jupiter senshi and mentally commanded two of her panthers to attack her. She was intent on Sesja, but as she heard Sailor Moon's attack called out and turned to see her sister attacking the girl in pink with such ferocity, all that was quickly forgotten as something inside of her changed.
"This time, I'll tear you to peaces little girl, I won't loose again!" Basha threatened as she raised her clawed hand to strike at Rini's face. The Moon senshi's eyes widening with terror.
The blow never came though, her hand was held back by another just as strong. "What is?!" Basha whiled around to see her sister holding her hand back. She also saw the sharp end of Hotaru's glaive heading right for her and she yanked her hand away from her sister's who let it go just in time for her to avoid the attack.
Her eyes full of hate, Basha rushed forward again to attack Rini, who was picking herself up off the ground. "Basha, stop!" Bastette got in front of her sister and held her back from attacking.
"Sister?" Basha looked at her. "What are you doing?" She questioned bewilderedly.
"Sister, we have to stop this." Bastette pleaded. "Rini and Hotaru and Sesja, they're our friends. Can't you remember that?"
"No, I can't!" Basha growled, struggling to get free of her sister's grip to attack her enemies again. "Let me go Bastette, don't you remember what they did to you? What they tried to do to me?!"
"I remember. I remember they tried to help us." Bastette told her in a calm voice.
"What's... what's the matter with you? Let me go!" Basha looked at her sister uncomprehendingly. "If you don't let me go, they'll turn us back, they'll send us away!" She was pleading now, and only offering token resistance. "Please, I don't want to fight you too." She begged her sister.
"Then don't fight me." Bastette said softly. "It'll be all right, sister. I promise it will. Just trust me, okay? You're my sister, I love you."
Basha looked into her sister's eyes a moment and then stopped struggling completely and nodded her head. "I trust you." She said, looking around a little nervously.
Bastette moved forward and hugged her sister. As the other panther sister relaxed into the hug, their pack of panthers began to fade away into nothing again.
The two sisters separated, and Bastette looked at Rini. "Please." she said. "Take the darkness away?"
Rini nodded and raised her Crescent Moon Wand over hear head and spoke -- "Moon, Healing, Activation!" --
As the light and energy fell over them, the sisters did not fight it this time, they just let it happen.
Who stood before the three senshi as the moon light magic faded away were two cats with rich dark golden fur and hair, who smiled at them and both spoke. "Thank you." As their shapes shimmered and faded away to reveal the familiar shapes of Jama and Suine, their friends.
"That was quite a show." They all heard a voice say from behind them.
They all turned and saw who was standing there. "Tasha?" Sesja questioned, a bright smile coming to her face as she ran over and gave the senshi from Uranus a strong hug. "What are you doing here?" She asked, her spirits feeling in much better shape now that her two friends had been just returned to her. Seeing another of her fellow senshi here, one whom she'd been friends with since she was a child, was enough to send her heart soaring with new hope.
"Falisha sent me." She said to her happy friend as she stood back and they looked at each other. "It seems Sapphire's brother's on his way here with some crazy ideas about, well, we'll get into that later." She said abashedly. "What's going on around here? I had to fight my way through the planet's own guard just to get here!"
"You don't know?" Sesja questioned. "I thought you'd... wait, you did receive my calls for help, didn't you?"
"Calls for.... No, no of course not!" Tasha protested. "If I had, I would have been here. You know that." She pledged.
"Wait, if you didn't receive them... did anyone else? I know Sapphire did. And... Rini? Hotaru? What about you two...?" Sesja turned to her two friends.
"Um... well, no, not exactly..." Rini confessed. "We sort of happened here by chance..."
"By chance?" Sesja repeated.
"Wait, I was meaning to ask you: Who are they?" Tasha asked.
"You don't know?" Sesja looked at Tasha in question. "This is Rini, and that's Hotaru. They're the senshi from the Moon and Saturn..."
"No. They are not." Tasha said, now looking at the two other senshi with suspicion. "The senshi of the moon is Princess Serenity, Queen Selene's daughter. I've met both her and Hisa Keneshi, the senshi of Saturn. They aren't them, Sesja." She accused. "Who are you?" She asked the two.
"Well, you see..." Rini began. "It's really a long story... We're sort of from the future." She admitted.
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"All you do is sit in this castle all day and brood, Toro my boy.... brood and plot your little schemes... Not that we haven't enjoyed your little schemes of course - we have - but, it is getting a little boring, don't you think?"
"Watch your tone, raven. Don't forget who the master is around here. I freed you. You are my servants." Toro glowered.
"Oh, of course we are, of course we are." Doom smirked. "Never doubt it, my liege. It's just that... Well, you know you can't trust her, don't you?" Doom said in that devious way of his.
"What do you mean, raven?" The king leveled a dark glare at the man in dark robes. "What have you heard? Speak!" But the man was not there anymore.
"She's going to kill you." Doom whispered into Toro's ear from behind him. The king whirled to face the raven, but he was gone again. Only the soft strands of mocking laughter and a raven's cry could be heard drifting through the air.
"What do you mean?!" He demanded. " Raven, come back here! Do you hear me?! I command you!" He fumed as he rose from his throne and looked around the room. Silence his only response.
--It should be interesting to see who will win-- The raven thought darkly to himself as he perched in the shadows, watching his supposed king and master pace around in worry. --Yes indeed my sister, I think we're in for quite a show.--
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She sat in the well adorned charmer, looking across at the prone and lifeless bodies that lay before her, a pensive look on her face.
Vira, Joal, and Pen Windrush: Laethyn Windrush's wife and sons. A couple guardsmen and an attendant lay scattered about too. All of them, their souls having been forcefully torn away and consumed.
Sapphire gave them one last curious look, as though she was trying to decide if the scene before her were reality of fiction. The question was a strange one though, and she dismissed it almost apathetically as she got up and walked over to the large window across the room.
"Well, you really know how to have a good time, I'll give you that girl." Dusk said as she appeared next to her and walked over to her. "I can't remember when I've enjoyed myself quite so much as I have today... Thank you." She smiled at the girl next to her, who was looking out across the scene of the city around her.
Skycrest's capital city, and it was in chaos. Fires burring out of control in areas, people running in the streets, panicked. It looked like an earthquake had hit them almost, except the buildings weren't nearly that damaged.
"Yes, well, I live to serve." Sapphire said distractedly.
"Do you?" Dusk asked. "And why do I doubt your words' sincerity? ...You could be back in Morcraft playing with shiny sparkler girl like a good little minion you know... What about Toro? Aren't you worried he'll be mad at you? Don't you want to please him?"
"Not really, not anymore at least... I was thinking about eating him, actually..." She looked over at Dusk with a completely straight face.
Dusk blinked once, and then started to laugh uncontrollably.
To which, Sapphire only gave a little bit of an amused smile.
"Would you mind if did that?" Sapphire asked.
"Dear girl, if you can keep making me laugh like that, I really don't mind if you eat everyone on the planet... There are eight more to choose from, after all." She flashed Sapphire a very dark and wicked smile and then turned and flew off into the setting sun.
Sapphire stood there a moment, locked in her place. The look in Dusk's eyes when she'd smiled at her, it had sent chills through her like nothing ever had before. It was like staring into a darkness so vast and endless, if you fell into it, you'd never see light again... and for the first time since this had began again with her, Sapphire felt truly afraid.
Shaking herself out of it, she looked around the room once more, and then out at the city below, and as she did, a sinking feeling of loneliness overtook her... "I need to find someone to eat." She said to herself as she spread her wings and left the room.
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to be continued
