Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Crystalline
Episode Eleven: A Phoenix's First Flight
Hirome laid in her bed, kicking her feet in the air as she tried to relax. It was a Sunday and it'd been only just over a week since she stormed away from the other girls and their 'white knight'. Since then, she'd been mopey and feeling isolated.
It had really hurt that they had acted like her gem meant nothing. It was obviously important and if she lost it, she could swear that she would disappear with it. It was, after all, now in her. When it was hurt by the crack, Kitei had suffered the consequences.
Of course, the others hadn't seen that and Hirome hadn't exactly explained that whole situation. But the problem, Hirome decided, was that their precious little Princess was just an annoying twit who was a selfish thing and Hirome didn't have time to baby someone else's needs when she was the one that was in danger.
"Okay," Apollo jumped up. "Before the whole issue from last week, Luna, Artemis, and I had figured out what those bird creatures are. They're called the Archaic. The enemy is Aion…uh.. A mythological being who represented Time, that is of Eternity as well as the Zodiac. Though we really haven't seen that part yet, I mean, the Zodiac…"
"We haven't really seen him with Time, now have we?" Hirome sat up, hands on her legs, sitting cross-legged.
"Umm… no.. I guess… expect when he showed up, right?"
"I suppose."
"So, we don't have anything else on Aion but the Archaic… he's using stolen creatures."
"Stolen what?"
"Stolen creatures. Specifically, creatures that belong to the Sun."
"And how do you know this?"
"We analyzed the dust after they're destroyed. They have traits of the Sun in them, though their original form is manipulated to look more human for Aion's benefit. He warps them to his side and then disposes of them."
"That's awful!"
"I know, right? Animal cruelty sucks!"
"Get back on track, Apollo.."
"Right, right. But these creatures are located somewhere and they're -ancient-. I mean, they must've thrived on some other world during this whole time that history has rewritten itself. If we can find this place, we may be able to locate Aion. He can't be that far away from where he gets his minions."
"Soo…"
Apollo had perked up, looking hopeful that he was going to get praised.
"How do we find this place?"
She watched his smile disappear slowly as his tail dropped. "We.. Uh.. Didn't get that far."
"Well, nuts. I guess it was a bad time to cut them off."
"Want to..?"
"NO!"
"Hirome! Kitei-san is here!"
As she left her room, she heard her father start to talk to Kitei about the baseball season. She rolled her eyes with boredom as she reached the bottom of the stairs. "Hey, Kitei."
"Now wait a minute.. Is your homework finished?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure?" Kougetsu-papa loomed over his daughter with a hard stare.
"Yea! It's done!" Hirome stared him straight in the eyes. "I even left it out for you."
"Be right back.."
The two teenagers waited a few moments.
"All right, have fun!"
The two left, Apollo hurrying after them.
"So Apollo, you want to tell Kitei or for me to do it?"
"I'm more than capable of telling things!"
Hirome tuned them out as she walked next to him. Getting into the more popular area of Tokyo, she was humming to herself when she spotted her across the street.
Karin, surrounded by a gaggle of girls, all giggling. The instant Karin noted the two, her entire body had frozen and her eyes glared out balefully.
"Well, this is Hell."
"Why?" Kitei followed her quick gesture. "Damn it, that girl's insistent."
He pulled Hirome to him. "Here, let me kiss you!"
"Like that's going to deter her.. And do you really think NOW is the right time for that!?"
"Kitei-chan, so nice to see you!" Karin wrapped herself around his arm. "I miss you so much! You must be so bored out of your mind! Why not hang out with us? We know how to have fun!"
"Sorry, not interested." He attempted to disengage himself with little success.
"Let go of him."
"Make me." Karin hissed to Hirome. "Go away! You're ruining everything!"
"She is?! You're the one that's acting like a obsessive freak! Now let go of me, now!"
She was violently shaken off, as she teared up. "But Kitei-chan, didn't we have fun? I let you in!"
"No. You didn't. I know what letting one in is and it's so much more harder than you think." He grasped Hirome and started to walk off in a hurry.
"You.. You…I.." Karin shouted but trailed off as the two disappeared into the crowd.
Sitting on a bench, Hirome was looking at her shoes silently as Kitei looked up at the skies.
"Nice weather."
"So you slept with her."
Kitei winced. "Uh.. Technically, yea. Didn't mean anything."
"That's a horrible thing to say!" Hirome protested. "I… Papa.. I thought boys cared about those who they're with!"
"Not always. But I won't be like that!" Kitei hurriedly gestured at her, looking worried. "It was just the heat of the moment, it got the best of me."
"And the best of her too," Hirome said coldly.
"Oh, you think she was…ah ha, no, she wasn't.. innocent, trust me."
Hirome covered her ears. "Don't talk about it anymore."
They sat in silence. Apollo spoke from under the bench. "It's getting warm. Can we go find some shade?"
Once more, they walked, this time into a park and settled under a large, full tree. The shade was a welcomed change of temperature. Especially for a being covered in fur. Apollo stretched limberly and then took notice of noise nearby. Familiar voices as he wondered what to do about this unexpected moment.
"Hirome-san!"
"Oh, my god, she can't stay away, can she?" Hirome asked Kitei. "Get them to go away!"
"Come on, she's not that bad.. Damn, she's stuffing her face hard."
The two older teens looked up at Usagi, whose cheeks were stuffed to the brim with pastries. Usagi had to struggle to eat and swallow as Ami and Makoto appeared, the three of them being together after school had let out.
"I told you not to eat them so fast," Makoto said with a long sigh. "Oh, hello there, Kougetsu-san."
"Hi," Ami said softer, waving shyly.
"Hey, girls.." Kitei stretched with a slow, boyish grin that wiped clean off his face when he jumped up with a shout after Hirome pinched him.
"You really need to stop that." She told him darkly.
"Maybe you haven't noticed but she gets jealous," One could heard Apollo tell Kitei from under the group and likely under the seat. There was scuffling as the others realized that after he had said that, Apollo fled with a chuckle.
"Are you having fun?" Usagi asked brightly. "The park is nice during this weather, right?"
Hirome stood up. "You're ruining a date. If you don't mind, leave us alone." She turned with a sharp step and stared up at the skies with a hard stare. "Hey… what's that in the air?"
"Is that a bird?" Kitei muttered.
"Is it a plane?" Makoto asked frantically.
"Oh, no, it's not, it's Sup.. Holy crap, it's a freaking bird!" Hirome screamed.
The sudden surge of flames was not a welcome scene as the tops of the trees were charred. The girls scattered in order to transform. Naturally, Hirome was with Kitei who was looking very interested.
"What?" She asked suspiciously. Holding her brooch, she looked at it in confusion. "What do I say? Damn it, Apollo! You lousy cat, no fish for you anymore!"
"Just transform!"
"Why?"
"It has nothing to do with that fact that you get completely naked." Kitei said very innocently.
He shrieked when he was shoved into view and ran in the opposite direction from the approaching flame. "You're not supposed to treat your boyfriend like bait!"
"You can't see me naked!"
"FINE!"
The bird made a sharp turn around the tree Hirome was behind and she ran hard, panting as she wished vainly she did better in gym. The flames were licking at her heels as she held her brooch tightly.
"Here goes nothing! Theia Prism Power, Make UP!" She froze as she shouted and in a matter of a couple of seconds, realized that she really did have to say something else.
She was flown from the ground, claws in her shoulders as she dragged up and zoomed upward into the air. "HELP! Help me! Someone, please!"
She grasped the bird's claw, though the pointed tips were digging very painfully into her shoulders. Up so high, she was dizzy and feeling faint. Her panic rose and she blacked out in terror.
She came to, groggy and her shoulders painful just by thinking about it. She dragged herself up with a groan, pain radiating off her.
"You've come to, that's good." Aion approached, looking even more sickly than before, with cold-looking flesh and sharp, pointed eyes as he smiled slowly, a cruel look upon his face. "You have something I want and this time, I will get it."
"You can't have the Sun Crystal!" Hirome began. "It'll kill me!"
"I already killed you before, my dear. I have no care for your life. You are as doomed as your kind had been, taken out by a minion of the blackness that oozes in this universe. I have been blessed in this dark power over time and have learned to love it, accept it, and use it to my will and thought. Everything that is written in time is always manageable by me, malleable and manipulation, all by my hands."
"What are you saying?"
"I chose your death, my dear. And I chose your father's. I saw two shining lights and burnt them out. But you seem unable to stay dead so now I need to finish what I started. With you gone, I can wipe out the solar light in the galaxy."
"What?"
"I'll take out the Sun, my dear. With its massive black hole, it will open up the barrier between light and dark and destroy it, warping the universe into nothing more than black shadows."
"You can't be serious! You'd die too!"
"I am an immortal, my dear. As long as there is time, then I will live on." His hand raised and fingers became clawed. "But as for you.."
When he rushed at her, it was déjà vu. She was that little girl, so scared and in so much pain, death that had been quick but not enough to avoid scarring her soul. Hirome screamed, remembering nothing but that pain.
The brooch reacted and power wrapped around her, leaving her to float in the air. Nothing that was around her was moving, Aion frozen in time.
"How.. How did.. Oh, what am I supposed to do? I don't know anything…"
The brooch was shining softly as she held it. "Tell me what to say.. I need to know how to transform into Sailor Theia.. If I don't.. what can a human do against a monster?"
She opened the brooch to look at the Sun Crystal. It shone brighter as Hirome found herself in a trance.
Traces of light ebbed in and out of her consciousness, the warmth in her chest growing hotter as words formed in her head and slipped off her tongue.
"Theia Helical Power, Make Up!"
Power welled from the brooch as ribbons flowed free and wrapped around the teenaged girl. She transformed in seconds into a new stage. The few things that remained the same were her tiara, front bow, gloves and bands, and as well as her shoes. But her earring studs gained and eight pointed harvest gold star with a golden orb in its center, her choker had the same design of earring clasped to its front middle, her collar was golden going on harvest gold and her skirt was now tier-colored, gold melding into harvest gold melding into crimson red. Her back bow elongated, becoming more ruffled and gold colored. Her waist band was now dual-layered, the top stripe gold, the bottom crimson and at the center of the v in front was a gold heart-shaped gem, edged in harvest gold with a golden, tiny orb in its center, the tiny orb outlined around it like a stylized sun.
The barrier around her shattered and sent Aion flying backwards. She pulled her boomerang free from space and took aim. "Shimmering Golden Arch!"
Aion moved and knocked down the boomerang with a snarl. "You'll stay dead this time, you foolish child! I will bring the sun's destruction to this puny galaxy!"
The boomerang had managed back, tumbling onto the ground and at her feet. Sailor Theia managed to grab it before jumping backwards and taking off.
She didn't know where she was. It was bright, with bright colored things such as the trees and ground and skies. Not quite Earth, a touch of surreal and a lot of heat radiating. Sailor Theia should've felt uncomfortable but she felt right at home.
Or she would if she could ponder on that. She was running a full speed as she came to a stop at a very steep cliff. Looking down, she could see what looked like magma moving. "Oh, god. It's like my death nightmare all over. Oh, geez! I never got to tell Kitei how I felt!"
There was a whoosh and a caw as she was lifted painlessly up from the ground and into the skies. She was flown into soft, wispy clouds as she looked up at a very colorful, very large bird. It was a Phoenix, of various reds, golds, and yellows, the feathers transforming with each color by each ruffle that the wind would give.
It landed in a forest, in the small opening as it spread out its wings, shook itself. Upon its head as a flaming halo, its eyes a deep, rich sapphire, expressive and warm. It cooed as it nuzzled against her and then began to walk toward an old path. She followed it and they came upon an old rubble of a temple. There was a large circle embezzled upon the stone wall, with various partial triangles erupting to create a stylized sun symbol.
She followed the bird who flew in low and cooed as she walked down a crystal hall way. It was a silver crystal, cold and all-surrounding. "Where are we? Who are you? Why am I not burning up here?"
She found herself at the heart of the temple, the silver having gradually becoming a light, shining gold. The bird had transformed itself into a miniature self, sitting upon a pedestal where its nest was resting upon. She looked at it and spotted the shattered parts of an egg and the various membranes. She looked at the bird suddenly. "Wait.. Did.. Did you just hatch?"
It cooed and flapped its wings with joy.
"You're pretty cute. Don't know if Apollo would like you…" She was transfixed on the sapphire eyes. "Can you get me home?"
It moved, gliding on air to a reflective surface. Styled like a mirror, it did not reflect her but the home she knew. The bird tried to fly back to its nest only to falter, finally out of energy.
It hobbled on the ground as Sailor Theia gave into impulse. "Oh, no, you don't. You save my life, I'll protect yours. Let's go!" She and the bird jumped into the reflective surface that than reverted back into the crystal, its portal shut down to avoid anyone unwanted from ever using it.
She came to a roll in her front yard. There was a shout as Apollo bombarded her. The tiny phoenix, now the size of a quaint songbird, squawked around Apollo's head in distress as Kitei rubbed his head.
"Well, one. Nice look. And second… is that a little, flaming bird?"
"It's a Phoenix, I think."
"It's.. small."
"It's just a baby!"
"Great.. Where'd it come from?"
"Uh…" She then noticed Apollo about to attack. "APOLLO! YOU LEAVE IT ALONE!"
"Mama! Mama!" Came the cry out of the bird's beak. It fluttered hurriedly to Sailor Theia's shoulders as she transformed back into Hirome.
"Wow.. It talks." Kitei whistled.
"Wow, it does talk!" Apollo was staggered.
"Wow… my daughter just transformed from something."
All three looked to Kougetsu-papa, who was as white as a sheet. "Did that cat.. That bird.. How can.. Talks?" He passed out on the porch as both Kitei and Hirome winced.
"I can erase his memory," Apollo began.
"Oh, no you don't! You'll likely erase more than that! No, let's just let him wake up and pretend that he didn't see that. If he thinks it was a joke, then we're good."
"Mama.." The bird nuzzled Hirome. It had a very sweet, very young girl's voice.
She pinched the beak pointed. "No talking."
She let go as the female bird cooed at her.
"Sure, show off," Apollo muttered. "I won't be outdone by a bird!"