Chapter Eight: Armageddon of the Brain

Three of the four commanding shitennou where gathered at a scrap metal dump on the very outskirts of the city of Tokyo, watching and waiting.

"Have you seen his teeth and hair? It's like he's lost what was left of his mind." Nephrite offhandedly commented as he kicked a piece of scrap metal over the precipice and into the pit of recycled metals beside him.

"Maybe he has." Zoisite volunteered with a little smile.

"No one asked you!" Nephrite growled.

"Jadeite seems to have given into the primal side of his instincts, that is all." Kunzite said, staring off towards the city where the man they had no reservations insulting had been sent to do a distinct job that they were going to make sure he completed. "Which is not a bad thing because now we can unleash him and know that he'll cause considerable damage to the weaklings who live here, even if he doesn't accomplish exactly what he is supposed to."

"I think it's sexy." Zoisite announced, giving Kunzite's backside a sidelong glance. "He's got the whole half beast, half man-in-the-night complex that the people of this planet seem to be so fascinated by. It's a wonder he's not in some back alleyway defiling the nearest would-be young virgin."

"You would find such a repugnant way of living attractive." Nephrite groused at his fellow shitennou. "The way he treats himself is degrading to all of us. Even the queen is disgusted by it, she just hasn't said so in front of us."

"Either way, it doesn't matter." Kunzite turned around, settling the issue over Jadeite with one look at the other two, "We're just here to make sure he follows through with his orders and if he does not—"

"We gut him." Nephrite finished with a note of pride.

"Gut him for not gutting them. My, what a merry little trinity we all are." Zoisite mused out loud as Kunzite narrowed his eyes at the city lights and Nephrite kicked another piece of mutilated metal into the pit.


Inside the city, Jadeite prowled the streets, his grey uniform jacket slung over one shoulder leaving him only in his trousers, boots, and a black sleeveless shirt.

His tall and sinewy form scattered long drawn out shadows beneath the streetlights as he moved. It was well after 3 am. There was still some traffic in the streets, but very few people were out walking them at this hour and the few who saw the shitennou didn't give him a second glance as they were used to seeing strange characters in their early morning treks.

His previously blonde hair was a darker shade, sandy almost, the edges of it shorter and sharper kept than it had been in his other life and, though it only showed when he was smiling, he'd filed down two of his front teeth to sharpen them so he would look as dangerous and he felt. His fellow shitennou mocked him openly for the changes he had made to his appearance and disposition over the years, but he was a changed man in this life. He had been reborn into darkness like they all had been and he would take on whatever shape he damn well pleased. So long as he did what was expected of him, not even the queen gave a shit what he did to himself.

Blue eyes scanned the night like the hungry gaze of a jungle cat searching for its prey. And a very specific prey it was for him too.

Jadeite stopped in the shadow of a building and pulled a small crystal from the pocket of his trousers. Holding it out in front of him, he let it go and watched as it hovered in mid air in front of his face.

"Show me." He commanded.

The thing shook lightly, then spun around in a clockwise circle for a few seconds. Finally, it settled levelly on its side, pointing its glowing point in the direction he needed to head. Closing his eyes, he sniffed the air as the crystal vanished into its usual subspace pocket, searching for one scent above the usual smells of pollution and daily life in the city. Catching a whiff of the specific essence he had been searching for, Jadeite leapt up onto a lamppost and from there he scaled the roof of a building in preparation of crossing the city by rooftop.


"Nothing should take this long." Nephrite grumbled, coming to stand beside Kunzite as the man stared like a statue into the city depths, seeing more than he would ever tell them. "He has over stepped his bounds."

"It's been an hour." Zoisite volunteered from where he was sitting on a stack of wheel hubs overlooking the pit, his legs crossed, his arms folded nonchalantly in his lap. "And I'm bored. I say we blow this place and go in there, do what he was supposed to do a long time ago, and then fry his repulsive carcass on our way out."

"I never thought I would say this, but I agree with Zoisite." Nephrite said, getting the words out quickly as though they would leave a bad taste in his mouth if he didn't. "The more time he wastes in that city, the more it will reflect back upon us to Beryl. You know it's true, Kunzite."

Kunzite let out a frustrated burst of air between his lips. His brutally honest companion did have a point. If Jadeite did not deliver on his promise to find and do away with all of the senshi before they could awaken, then Beryl would punish them all, and more specifically: him. Finally, Kunzite nodded his consent and Zoisite leapt up from his sitting position and stretched his arms over his head.

"Finally!" He snipped, settling his hands on his hips.

Nephrite took a deep breath and pulled two sheathed swords from a subspace pocket, glaring at Zoisite as he strapped them both around his shoulders. "Could you possibly be anymore annoying?"

Zoisite chose not the dignify that with a verbal response, just turned his nose up and spun on his heel as a green motorcycle materialized itself in the dirt driveway out of thin air. Then the green eyed general turned around, a sultry smirk settled onto his features as he twirled a set of keys around one finger.

"Are you coming or not?

Nephrite whispered a curse under his breath, but followed the younger blonde as he made his way towards his bike. Zoisite straddled the machine and walked it off of it's kickstand before starting the engine. Nephrite got on behind him, preparing to risk falling off rather than holding on to the blonde ahead of him.

"Ready, gruffy?"

"Let's just go. The sooner we get this over with and kick his ass, the sooner we can get off of this godsforsaken planet and back into our own beds."

Zoisite didn't need anymore encouragement as he revved the engine and off then went towards Tokyo and the not yet awakened senshi of Mars.


Jadeite landed in a tree, pausing on a high branch and raising the crystal again to see how much farther he had to go to get where he should have been half an hour ago. There was a patch of about twenty or so trees to his right and then he should be there. Wasting no more time, he bounded from branch to branch, tree to tree, swinging from arm to arm until he finally landed in a crouch at the base of a very long line of stone steps.

So this was Hikawa Shrine. It had to be. This was his destination.

To save energy, Jadeite remained in a crouch and vaulted up the stone steps on all fours and finally landing in a crouch again at the top of the massive hill.

Letting out a deep breath and cracking his neck in a swift motion, he stood up and began on foot towards the building.

One end he knew from his scans of the place was the main part of the shrine where prayers and offerings were made. Another part, the internal part, was where patrons could come and have their fortunes told in the flames, and then behind all of that was the house. The family home of the elderly priest who maintained the shrine and his teenage granddaughter, whom Jadeite had so hoped to meet in person tonight.

It was a moonless night with only the stars to light up the night sky, making the blonde man's journey across the grounds just that much easier. There was a brisk easterly wind that blew the leaves on the trees and ruffled his short hair as he walked, but he paid no heed to the chill. He'd spent years submerged in the universe's darkest abyss. The coldest day on Earth was a cake walk compared to that.

When he got close to one side of the house, Jadeite stopped, turning his head and listening. Even through the sounds of the city he heard it, the screeching of wheels, and felt the looming presence as his fellow shitennou made their way ever closer him. He snorted.

How dare they presume just because he was late that he couldn't complete the simplest of tasks given to him. Had he not earned his position among their ranks by killing anyone who challenged him or stood in his way? Had he not proven his bloodthirstiness? Had he not proven himself as one of the queen's most terrifying and ruthless warriors? They really should have trusted him more. All the same, he didn't need them and he expected that by the time Zoisite and Nephrite crossed the city and reached this place they would be sorely disappointed to find the senshi of Mars already dead and this place razed to the ground along with her body.

A predatory grin came over his face as Jadeite sauntered the few remaining feet toward the house, pulling a jeweled dagger out of his belt as he continued to move forward.


"You're an imbecile!" Nephrite shouted as he dismounted the bike, angry that he'd even gotten on that moving junk heap in the first place.

"How was I supposed to know that it would break down!" Zoisite defended himself as he kicked the hopelessly smoking vehicle so hard that it toppled over onto its side in a pathetic mass in its last throes of life.

Nephrite ran a gloved hand along the down side of his throat as he looked up at the stars in the night sky, most of them barely visible because of the street lights surrounding them, while his other hand rested on the belt around his waist. Two swords hung from shoulder straps down his sides and rested against either hip, ready to be drawn at a moment's notice.

His eyes narrowed as they settled upon a single star, brightly piercing through the haze of artificial light and he smiled.

Do you think it's worth it now, Soja? Nephrite thought, For your sake, it better be.

Zoisite stared at the brunette's profile in the still silence that hung between them, appraising the other man's slightly-too-stiff posture which showed off the muscles in his shoulders and chest.

"Hey, fellas," A voice came from a side alley behind the building they had parked in back of. "You need a hand with that bike?"

"No." Nephrite growled, raising his hand to deter the man still hidden in the shadows, "And if you know what's good for you, you'll mind your own business and go back to wherever it is you came from."

"You got it all wrong, man." Another voice said, a boy no older than his early twenties emerging from the darkness wearing a leather jacket and wholly jeans while cleaning his fingernails with an sharpened key. "We didn't ask if you needed help, but we will take that bike off of your hands for you."

Nephrite could see enough in the dimness to know that there was a fairly large group of men and boys behind the two who had spoken and he grimaced. This was all they needed, just another distraction to get in their way.

The owner of the first voice emerged from the gloom of the alleyway. He was a man who couldn't have been older than his mid twenties wearing a bandana and a cut off vest. With his thumb, he mimicked a cutting gesture across his throat while his other hand held a Glock handgun.

"Look, you give us the bike and no one will get hurt, alright?"

Zoisite looked down at the smoking junk heap that used to be the bike he'd stolen from one of the busier shopping districts of Tokyo and wondered why anyone would want it in this condition. I mean, there was smoke—literally black smoke—spiraling up from the engine as they spoke. It was obviously not worth the effort these guys were putting into trying to steal it and certainly not worth any effort on their parts to defend it, but Nephrite seemed to have other ideas on the matter.

The brunette looked from the bike to the men—probably coming to the same mental conclusions Zoisite himself had—and then he narrowed his eyes at the men across from him.

"No, you look, you pitiful human," He snarled, turning a fraction of an inch towards the group of men and resting one of his white gloved hands on a sword hilt. "If you don't get out of here within the next five seconds, I am going to shred you all into little bits so small that you won't even amount to a hill of dust on the pavement!"

"Hey! Watch who you are calling pitiful you renaissance fair reject…or something." One of the younger males in the group shouted as the others laughed.

Nephrite visibly stiffened.

Zoisite snickered.

Were all humans as blind and dumb as these ones? Clearly, the two of them were dressed in some sort of military uniform, even though no one on Earth would be able to recognize it. Clearly, they were both fit, fighting men and clearly, Nephrite was armed with two swords that he could use to hack them all to pieces guns or no.

Nephrite shrugged off his grey uniform jacket leaving him only in his black undershirt and threw the garment of clothing back to Zoisite, who caught it with one hand above his head.

"Stay back, they're all mine." The brunette snarled at him.

Zoisite huffed, "As if I'd get any enjoyment at all out of disposing of this rabble."

Turning his full attention back to the group of men, Nephrite locked eyes with the man with the gun pointed directly at him and unsheathed both of his blades slowly.

"Hey buddy! What do you think you're doing? I didn't tell you, you could move—"

But Nephrite already had. In a blur he rushed forward and sliced through the other man in one swift movement, the freeing segments of the body taking a few moments to separate. Nephrite landed behind them before they even hit the ground in dripping mounds of flesh. The group of men was looking at him differently now. Many of them had wide eyes and gaping mouths. Some of the younger men who'd obviously never seen this sort of killing before, had wet themselves. The second man who had spoken to him fell backwards onto the concrete, his face splattered with his leader's blood. They were all scared stiff. He might not have to kill them after all—but in all likelihood he still would because some fun had to come out of this night.

Nephrite frowned as a middle aged man in the group raised a hand gun and fired it at him. His whole left side recoiled as the bullet entered his chest. Nephrite looked down at the hole in his shirt that was just beginning to ooze green blood, grimacing as tremors of pain ran through him at the new injury. These pitiable human weapons might not be powerful enough to do him any real harm, but getting hit by one still hurt like hell.

Encouraged by his own sudden bravery, the middle aged man fired again and Nephrite was forced to take a step back as another bullet made its home in the center of his chest, where—had he been a full blooded human—his heart would have been.

Nephrite took a deep breath as the first hole in his chest began to close up and the other one began the rapid healing process. "Nice try, old man, but I'm afraid it's just not good enough. All of you, hear this before I send you all to your graves: I WILL NEVER DIE!"

A few of the men at the back of the group tried to make a mad dash for life, but Nephrite hunted them first. He plowed through the group, dazing most of them. He caught up with two of the younger men attempting to flee the scene before they'd even gotten two feet away and decapitated one while he grabbed the collar of the other one and threw him against the brick side of the building, splitting his head open. Two more met very similar fates as they attempted to run passed him just as Nephrite was wheeling on the group of remaining men.

Well, that was two less than he still had to kill. It would rain blood before he was through with them all.

Some of the men and boys just crouched and cried like struck sheep as they were hacked to ribbons. Others made to at least put up a fight even though they couldn't win. They were the ones Nephrite killed quickly, to be more merciful on those who would defend themselves. It was a fighting soul's quick consolation.

The last man standing took the brunt of all of Nephrite's unused energy as he had his stomach sliced, his collarbone broken, and his head severed from his body. Zoisite yawned and watched as that last head rolled a few feet towards him and then stopped, ghostly eyes staring blankly up at him and an expression of horror frozen onto the dead face.

"Well, that wasn't melodramatic at all, now was it?" Zoisite quipped, as Nephrite used the tail of his shirt to wipe the blood off of his swords before returning each one of them to their individual sheaths.

Nephrite ignored the witticism at his expense, and walked over to Zoisite to collect his jacket. The younger blonde threw it at him, but not without first giving the other man's sleek muscled physique an approving once over (Zoisite may have been in a relationship already, but he sure as hell wasn't going to pretend he was blind because of it).

"Well, what now?" He asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"We will have to find another mode of transportation to get us back to the junkyard. Then we can teleport safely from there with or without Jadeite."

"What's the matter, not in as much of an ass frying mood as you were earlier?"

"We've wasted too much time here already. Let's just leave. Kunzite will summon him if he doesn't return and if he does decide to dissert us, then I will return and kill him myself."

Nephrite turned around and Zoisite could see the coldness in his eyes, coldness that said he meant to keep his word if the time ever came. The younger man shuddered and looked out towards the street and the still smoking motorcycle that had brought them there.

"We're still stranded." Zoisite sulked, "I say we teleport from inside the city. It doesn't matter anymore if we're seen. What are these backward little primates going to do to us anyway? Throw sticks at us and run away?"

For once, Zoisite had a point.

Nephrite shrugged and without another word, the two of them disappeared into a burning spiral of dark energy.


Night on Earth was a different sort of animal than it was anywhere else in the universe and though Jadeite had a job to do, he was also trying to savor certain aspects of the Eartharian night for what it was. As he crept soundlessly along the patio deck that surrounded the entire shrine complex, he took in the sounds of the crickets as they chirped under the wood. His ears also picked up on the delicate symphony being performed both above and below ground, as insects, drawn out by the darkness in him, crawled and slithered through the topsoil.

The air was still, colder, than it should've been and Jadeite could see his breath. The weather in the place was obviously reacting to their presence in the city and pretty soon the inhabitants would figure out that things were not all as they should be. He'd been sent to do this quietly, without being discovered, and so he would do, but on his own terms.

He crept up to a patio door, looking in. It was an empty dining room. Not the room he wanted. Growling, he moved towards the next patio door. It led into a sitting room. Not that one either. He crept up to the last patio door on that side of the house, feeling it in his bones, that this was the one.

The pane glass looked into a dark bedroom. His fingers flexed around the jeweled hilt of the dagger in his hand as his other hand came up to the handle of the door. It slid open quietly and he slipped in through the small opening he'd made.

In the twin bed pushed up against the wall across from him, his intended target lay asleep. Jadeite moved as quickly as he dared, sauntering with a catlike precision. When he reached the bed he knelt down, until he could feel the heat radiating from the body warm body beside him.

The covers shifted as the girl moved in her sleep to expose one naked shoulder and the splash of disheveled ebony hair hiding a swash of pale skin from view.

Jadeite smiled.

He reached out and ran his fingertips along Rei's neck, drawing back the dark strands of hair and exposing the fragile pulse that calmly pumped beneath lavender scented skin.

The blonde man felt an insistent tingle at the back of his mind. Someone was trying to get his attention, but he wasn't having any of it. He would do what he had been ordered to do, no question, but he was going to have a little fun first.

Shutting down his thoughts and giving in to his instincts, Jadeite lowered himself until his mouth was mere inches from that delicious neck. He allowed his hot breath to trickle onto the skin he was favoring, soft skin, that he yearned to taste—

SMACK!

Jadeite landed on his side on the floor, his cheek throbbing from an attack of unknown origin. He regained his footing and noticed that the skin he had been favoring was now covered up and the dark haired girl was awake and fixing him with a look fit to kill. Jadeite straightened and adjusted the grip on one of his knives. She must have seen the glint of silver because when she moved it was on the other side of the bed. He wouldn't let her get very far though.

The wiry blonde leapt over on all fours and easily cut off the girl's escape route to the door. She opened her mouth presumably to scream, but Jadeite slapped her hard across the face, stopping her. Rei's face was burning and her ears were ringing, but beneath it all she could hear a guttural growl from someplace above her. She was going to die. She knew it.

Rei opened her eyes, tears of pain obscuring the dark figure above her into a vertical blob. Jadeite moved forward and landed a swift kick to Rei's stomach. Then again. And Again until the girl was gasping for air. He could have simply pointed a finger at her and nuked her with a bolt of dark energy where she lay, but it would have been too easy and not nearly as fun as doing things the old fashioned way. Bending over, he griped her throat and lifted Rei up. She could feel the pressure of the fingers on her neck, making it even more difficult to breathe. The tears she had been trying to hold back were slowly seeping through her lashes. Had she been more herself at the moment, she would have been ashamed at her weakness in front of a stranger, even one who was causing her so much pain, but she just couldn't help it. She was going to die, she knew it.

Jadeite chuckled, his eyes glinting sinisterly, "I'm going to enjoy this. You little shit eater. Tell your queen when you see her in the afterlife that Beryl sends her regards."

"What—gah—what are you t—talking about?" Rei wheezed.

She had no idea what was going on. Why had this madman come after her? She hadn't done anything. She was a teenager—a high schooler—what could he possibly want with her? Fuck it, why her out of all of the other girls in the city?

Jadeite just raised his other hand. From her place being held prostrate on the floor, Rei could just make out the glint of metal in his hand. Rei closed her eyes, she knew what was coming, but she couldn't bring herself to watch. What she didn't expect was the outraged yell that followed or the bone crushing feel of fingers as they lost their grip on her throat or the sound of breaking of glass.

Hino Rei opened her eyes to find herself alone in her room and the patio door leading to the courtyard outside shattered. What the hell? What was going on? First, this blonde pervert sneaks into her room intent on having his way with her, then tries to kill her, then she's suddenly out of danger and all in the span of fifteen minutes? Rei coughed and scrambled to her knees.

Outside, Jadeite rolled over and sprang into a squat. One of his blades lay across the wide expanse of ground in front of him. He sniffed the air and a deep growl came from his throat.

He was not alone.

The end of a gold chain shot out of the trees and-as it had done before—wrapped itself around one of his arms. He immediately sprang back onto his feet, but the chain was still latched to him and when a not so subtle yank pulled him forward, he nearly lost his balance again.

Growling, he decided to reverse the tables. When the chain was yanked toward him, a beautiful creature with blonde hair rolled out of the trees and onto the ground in front of him. Jadeite cocked his head for a moment as he studied her. This…this…human she had to be one of the five they were looking for. She just had to be. The uniform, the ability to use special powers more than anyone of this puny race could ever dream: he had stumbled himself upon a reawakened sailor senshi.

Jadeite grinned.

He had been sent to snuff out the dark one before she could reawaken, but when he eventually came back having killed two for the price of one, he could only imagine how his queen would reward him. Jadeite yanked on the chain still in his hands again and the girl let go as she got to her feet.

"Who are you?" Venus asked, standing her ground.

"It's insignificant for you to know that information as you won't live long enough to make good use of it." He said.

Jadeite swung the chain of hearts around and then lashed forward with it. Venus dodged the hit and the end of the chain harmlessly slashed the ground. Jadeite grinned.

"You up for a little sport, blondie?"

Venus didn't answer, not that Jadeite intended to give her any time to. He lunged forward with the chain again and again, Venus dodged it without trouble. Then Jadeite struck a third time and again, Venus dodged, but this time when she dropped and rolled, she landed just inches away from where Jadeite had leapt forward. She tried to roll away again, but he grabbed her by her hair and pulled her back to his front, holding her there. He leaned close to her and Venus could feel the heat of his breath abrasively blowing onto her skin.

"If this is any indication of what the rest of your senshi friends are capable of, don't expect to get very far. Our queen will make minced meat out of your charred corpses and serve it as a feast to the rest of her army. Better just to stand back and let what will be, be, don't you think? "

Jadeite had the air knocked out of him as an elbow connected squarely with his gut. Then a hand slammed into the side of his face and he found himself laid out on his back in the grass. Venus turned on him, her blue eyes cold as steel.

"You can tell your queen to go fuck herself!" She seethed, feeling all of the anger and frustration she'd been feeling for the past few days settle itself on this one man.

Jadeite slank back onto his hunches and growled. He wasn't the man he'd been centuries before, but a hybrid of that man and the beast his exile in the darkest part of the universe had created. He was no more human than the monsters he bred for Beryl and it was this girl's mistake that she couldn't see that. It would be her undoing. He sprang to the side and landed on all fours not too far from where one of his knives had fallen. His fingers took the blade up in his hand as if it were a finger he had lost and was reattaching. It belonged to him in the same way that a blind man's eyes belonged to him: Jadeite didn't need to see or feel it to know it was there.

Venus watched him in a blur of movement as he regained first one of his weapons and then the other as he rolled to a squat not far from the shrine. She needed to act fast, before he could.

"Venus Love—"

The words were pushed from her lips in a rough gust of air as she was lifted off of her feet and thrown backwards by the shoulder slamming into her midsection. This time it was Venus who landed hard on the ground. She tried to roll away from her attacker, but the hilt of one of Jadeite's knives split her cheek and she was too dazed by the pain to move. A part of her brain was screaming at her, yelling: Get up! Move! But like it did on a good lazy morning, Minako's body refused to budge an inch from where it lay. Jadeite reached out with one of his hands and held her face , with the other he moved his knife closer.

"This has been fun, but I don't have time for any more games."

He hunched over her and pressed the steel into the skin of her throat. Venus' breath came back to her in short, painful gasps and she looked up at him through half shut eyes. Maybe this was how it was supposed to be in this time period—maybe they were always destined to lose…

Jadeite moved the blade slowly, drawing a thin line of blood from the light skin there in preparation for the deep plunge. There was a sound from somewhere in the distance just then and Minako watched as her attacker's eyes widened and his knife stilled against her neck. Then it came again a whooshing of air and then a thump. This time Jadeite shrunk away from her and yowled loudly. She watched wide eyed as he gritted his teeth and disappeared in a wisp of dark smoke.

Minako sat up slowly and looked around herself, half expecting the feral man to pop up someplace else, but he didn't. He was gone. Minako looked back towards the shrine and saw who'd scared off her attacker. It was Rei. Leaning against one of the supporting beams to the outside porch, she was still in her pajamas, a dark bruise on the side of her beautiful face and a bow clutched tightly in one hand.


"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live."

-Norman Cousins-

(1915 – 1990)

Author's Note: And the writer's humble conclusion at the end of this chapter is that, yes, she has seen way too many Hollywood action movies…So, I've redone the characters of the shitennou and changed at least one of them significantly from how he was shown in the manga and anime versions of the series and I am a little worried as to how all of you will feel about that…but I hope the sailor moon fans out there reading this story at least won't mind that much if I make some small, temporary changes to suit the characters in my alternate universe. ;]

Well, give me feedback. Tell me what you liked and didn't like so I can keep making this story as good as it can be for all of you! :]