Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or Sailor Moon.
An: I won't lie, I have a love/hate relationship with this fic. There are time when I just want to give up, but my stubbornness won't let me. I hope at least one person likes it. Thanks for reading!
Warning: English is not my first language, so please forgive me if they're any mistakes grammar or spelling wise. I'll try to catch as many as I can. The tone of this fic is much darker, too.
Summary: They were bound to meet again, even if they didn't know it. Squeal to "Cat for a Week".
A Tendril of Magic
Part IX
The journey through the Negaverse was slow and painstakingly long.
It was also dead quiet.
Other than the skies graying, nothing moved. No bugs. No plants. No animals. Nothing stirred and even after miles of slogging their way through the sweltering desert with the sun harshly bearing down their backs, he couldn't find any other signs of life. The only set of tracks in the sand had been his and Chibi-Usa.
"It's been such a long time since anything lived in the Negaverse," the kitten said from her perch on Chibi-Usa's shoulder. "There's probably nothing dangerous here." She tried to sound confidant, but all Duo heard was the hope. He gave the kitten a wary look.
"How long is a long time?" he asked.
The kitten looked thoughtful. "From this timeline it's been a few years since Princess Serenity defeated Queen Beryl. All of the youmas that lived here vanished after Queen Beryl's death and the realm was sealed off. At least, that's what my mother told me." Duo saw how the fur stood on its roots as the kitten shuddered. "It was never suppose to open again."
Chibi-Usa stiffened.
The kitten, sensing the tension, quickly changed the subject.
"My name is Diana," the kitten looked at him with wide blue eyes that she had definitely inherited from her mother. "It's an honor to meet you, Mr. Maxwell."
Being called Mr. Maxwell made him feel old.
Duo hid his cringe inwardly as she beamed.
"And this is Neo-Princess Serenity," Diana introduced.
The pink-haired child doesn't acknowledge him except to pointedly ask him which way to go.
Duo randomly picked North.
It seemed like a good direction as any to travel to.
...
"We're going to have to camp," he said a few hours later. They stopped to rest for a moment, mainly to shake the sand out of their shoes. He noticed the sun dipping. It was going to get dark soon and he honestly wasn't looking forward to spending the night there.
Duo ran a hand through his hair and cringed at the amount of sand that fell out.
Chibi-Usa protested. "I want to keep going!"
"We won't be able to see anything in the dark," Duo shook his head. "It's better if we camp and start in the morning."
"Small Lady," Diana whispered urgently.
There was a brief staring match.
"Fine," Chibi-Usa grumbled.
She dropped the backpack she was carrying to the sand.
Supplies spilled out and among them was a ball that seemed to shake itself awake before it gently floated into the air.
Duo gaped.
The problem of creating fire for light and warmth was solved after a straight, quick burst of magic from Luna-P ("It's named after my mother," the kitten said proudly). Duo managed to tear his eyes away long enough to grab the blanket that Chibi-Usa tossed at him. She pulled a second blanket for herself from her bag.
It turned out that Chibi-Usa's pack held plenty of other things like water bottles, canned food, and there was even a first-aid kit. Everything they needed to survive for the next few days was packed in there. There wasn't a weapon. It was probably too much to hope for, but at least they wouldn't have to worry about starving for the time being.
Dinner was a few tin-cans of soup that they heated over the flames.
The sun finally went down.
When the moon fully came out, Duo just stared. It looked just like the moon back on earth. It loomed large and white and it cast a light that lit up the desert for miles. He marveled at it while Chibi-Usa balefully look out across the desert as if she could spot where her mother was by sheer will.
"What's your mom like?" he asked. He clarified when she turned to look at him. "In the future." He was curious about the kind of a person Silver was going to be.
"She's pretty, and nice, and she smells good," Chibi-Usa answered reluctantly after a long pause. "Even when she's busy, she never forgot to tuck me in at night and read to me."
Duo was glad to know that Silver wouldn't change one bit in the future.
"Your mom sounds awesome," he said. He felt a pang of envy. He had never known his mother. He was found in a dumpster as an infant and moved from orphanage to orphanage until he was old enough to run away. That was before he met Father Maxwell. Until then, the streets had been his parents. "You're very lucky."
"I know," she turned her nose up.
Duo turned his glaze out to watch for danger.
...
Morning came.
The black sun began to rise and Duo shook Chibi-Usa and Diana awake. There were heavy bags underneath his eyes from staying awake all night on guard while they slept. He was painfully aware of how haggard he looked. He was lucky they chose not to say anything.
Chibi-Usa just grouchily got up and Diana wished him a good morning.
They had more soup straight from a can before they packed and set off in the direction that Duo picked.
Just like the day before, another day passed by slowly and tediously.
Mile after mile, the scenery doesn't change. But neither does their strides.
They just kept going.
...
They passed another night sullenly eating by the fire. Only this time, Diana told him that Luna-P will be keeping watch. He could sleep if he wanted to.
Duo stared at the floating ball.
He doesn't know if he was comfortable having his life in the hands of something that looked like it should belong to a toddler, but there was a voice in his head, one that sounded like Wufei, that told him that he needed the rest. That he wouldn't anyone much good if he collapsed from exhaustion.
"You'll wake me if anything move?" he asked the ball.
The ball nodded.
He reluctantly laid down. He could hear Chibi-Usa doing the same nearby. Her voice whispered goodnight to Diana.
"Goodnight, Small Lady," Diana whispered back. "Have a good dream."
The soft, even breathing a few minutes later told him that the child and the kitten was asleep.
Above him, Luna-P floated back and forth, keeping guard.
Duo closed his eyes.
Sleep doesn't come easy.
When it did, he was confronted with every mistakes and every regret he made in his life. Every person he killed or got killed was there, clawing at him with accusing eyes and snarling lips. He practically drowned in the blood that rained down. Duo heard someone wailing from a distance. It was a raw, howling, painful sound.
The screaming came from his throat, he realized later.
Chibi-Usa and Diana looked terrified when he finally woke.
...
The next night, he slept in short intervals.
...
The night after that, he was the one who woke the kid up. She was thrashing in her sleep. He caught a mutter of "cold" and "ice," before she jolted up. Large crimson eyes were blown wide open as she took big, shuddering breaths.
It took Diana three hours to get her back to sleep.
Duo watched as the kitten gently watched over Chibi-Usa.
"The Dark Moon Clan," the kitten said. She whispered it as if she was afraid that uttering the name would bring down a curse. "They're an evil empire in our time. They...Neo-Queen Serenity, she..."
Duo closed his eyes as the kitten spoke.
He was familiar with awful things. It wasn't hard to imagine what the kid had gone through, the emotion she must have felt as she watched her mother being killed in front of her. He knew that anguish. He had lived through it with Father Maxwell.
"Everything was frozen when we left," the kitten said. Her eyes were teary.
Seeing the world ransacked ...he was familiar with that, too.
When Chibi-Usa refused to sleep the next night, he doesn't blame her.
Despite all of Diana coxing, Duo and Chibi-Usa sat still, eyes open as they stared at the fire.
...
They traveled for what felt like an eternity. They ate. Slept when they had to. Walked all day and they repeated that cycle over and over again until eventually, everything blurred together in one haze of color. Nothing really broke up the routine except when the sun grew too hot to continue. Luna-P would transformed into a large umbrella and they would take refuge underneath the shade. A spread blanket and leaning back, Duo could almost pretend that he was on a beach somewhere. Somewhere that wasn't as gloomy and depressing.
Duo took a large gulp of water from a bottle. Beside him, Chibi-Usa scowled as she sat cross-legged and Diana gently licked her paw.
They were getting nowhere.
The strain of finding nothing about where Silver was was taking its toll.
"You're not trying," Chibi-Usa said. She stared at him flatly.
"What do you mean?" Duo frowned.
"You're not trying," Chibi-Usa scowled. "If you were I would have found my mom already."
Duo tried not to flinch.
"Small Lady," Diana protested.
Chibi-Usa got to her her feet. "I'm going for a walk." She didn't wait for an answer. She stormed away and disappeared behind a sand dune.
"I'm very sorry," Diana apologized to Duo. She ran after Chibi-Usa. "Small Lady! Wait!"
Duo watched them go.
Blowing off steam was something he understood, so he didn't follow.
When they came back, Chibi-Usa was still in a foul mood, but her temper had simmered down a little. The glare she gave him made him think of Sailor Mars. There was no doubt in his mind who helped raise her.
"I'm sorry," he finally said. If he could find Silver, if he had that power, he would have used it.
Chibi-Usa turned away.
"Talk is cheap," she told him.
Duo was willing to bet that her biting wit also came from Sailor Mars.
"Yeah, it is." Duo admitted.
She sulked for the rest of the day.
...
"What makes you so sure your mom is here?" Duo asked Chibi-Usa one afternoon.
"I feel it," Chibi-Usa practically glowered at him. The anger was too hard to maintain and a few moments later, her face fell into a depressed expression.
"Do you feel anything, Mr. Maxwell?" the kitten asked with hopeful eyes.
"No," he answered.
He doesn't feel a thing. Not a twinge. The disappointment on the kitten's face was hard to bare. He reached out a hand to gently pat her head. The kitten purred and she head-butted his hand. She accidentally knocked his fingers into the brooch that was on Chibi-Usa's uniform.
A light spark out and vanished.
"Chibi-Usa..." the kitten looked thunderstruck. "You don't think..."
They exchanged looks before Chibi-Usa frantically tried to remove the brooch.
"Where is the Silver Crystal in this timeline, Mr. Maxwell?" the kitten asked in a fevered voice.
"With Sailor Mars," Duo remembered handing her the jewel.
"Maybe that's why we haven't found her," the kitten turned to Chibi-Usa. "He doesn't have the crystal!"
"Here!" Chibi-Usa grabbed his hand and a familiar jewel was placed into his palm.
"This is the Silver crystal from our time," the kitten said. She looked on happily as the gem glowed and a narrow beam of light shot up. It moved like a search light until it finally pointed in one direction. "That's where Neo-Queen Serenity is."
"Don't drop it," Chibi-Usa ordered. She grabbed Duo's other hand. "Let's go!"
Duo struggled to understand as they followed the light.
He lost track of how many miles they had walk before Chibi-Usa stopped abruptly.
"We're here," she whispered.
Over the next high sand dune, Duo saw it.
A black tower loomed.