The Road Less Travelled-- Part 9
Black Beyond
black_beyond@hotmail.com
PG13
~'~
I remember now to answer a question: Yuppers, Endy-chan
is dead. And he's not coming back. I firmly belive that
all endings are NOT always happy.
This is not the last part. Or maybe it is. It depends on
how many of you take your precious time to review. I
aprreciate it greatly, you know.
This part is a bit short, I apologize. The first bit of it
is confusing, but the couple are not critical to the story,
it's for a friend of mine. Behind the scenes kind of thing...
if you're confused I'm sorry, but you'll be able to understand
everything else just fine.
~'~
Sailor Moon ran towards the energy she felt, and
hoped it was Shadica. If it wasn't, then the daughter
of Nehelenia had some serious competition.
No, it was Shadica. More powerful than Sailor
Moon remembered. No, not really. She had sensed Shadica
was hiding something... but this? Compared to before,
it was like comparing a nerf gun to a tank.
"Not a tank... more like an Uzi, but still..."
She corrected her own thoughts aloud, and then laughed
at the simple irony. She was thinking about Nerf guns
when her own doom was pending.
"My god-- miss? Are you Sailor Moon?"
Sailor Moon looked up, startled. Of all the days
she had been Sailor Moon, no one had ever approached
her. She reckoned that someday it had to happen-- every
time she rampaged through the streets they wouldn't
always be empty... but it was still a shock.
She looked up from the recesses of the alleyway
into a pair of eyes that were surprisingly normal.
Sailor Moon could only imagine what she looked like-- a
youma had managed to get at her, leaving bloody gashes
on her arms and side, leaving her splattered with both
her own and youma blood. She was breathing hard, and
her hand was bound to be a wreck.
"Yeah, I am." She replied.
The woman, clothed in a pair of black pants and a
white blouse, was accompanied by a man wearing a suit.
"Dear, you look a mess. Been saving the world
again? You should have those looked at. Here, my
husband's a doctor-- Hiro, you will, won't you?" The
woman pleaded.
Sailor Moon shook her head, trying to ctach
control of her breathing.
"Thanks for your concern... Don't have time...
Got to fight..." She managed.
"Nonsense." The man said, advancing. "That looks
awful. Were you fighting a dragon?" He asked, kneeling
to inspect one of the gashes.
Sailor Moon chuckled as she recalled the youma's
appearence: green and scaley. "Close to it. This really
isn't necessary, though. I heal fast."
"If you're running off to fight, Miss Moon, then
you need this bandaged. Nekoto, get my bag."
Even though she protested loudly, Sialor Moon
allowed him to bandage her side, giving in only because
Shadica had paused between the Dark Realm and this one.
Nekoto made cheerful conversation between the tense
three.
"Have you been fighting long?" Nekoto asked
pleasnatly, handing Hiro rolls of gauze. "You don't
have to answer dear. Just thought I'd ask."
"I don't mind. All my life, and then some."
Sailor Moon answered with a wince as peroxide was
poured into one of her wounds. She saw Nekoto's
scandalized look and added, "It's okay. It's my
choice."
"How old are you?"
"Sixteen." Sailor Moon saw no danger in answering
the question. "Almost seventeen."
"So young!" Hiro said, tightening the last
bandage and standing up. "You have many scars."
"Yeah. I noticed." Sailor Moon sighed. "And I'm
about to get a lot more. I'm facing against the
daughter of a woman I had to kill." Another sigh. "The
woman, Nehelenia, tried to steal people's dreams... the
only way to stop her was to kill her. After that, we
discovered she had a daughter..." Sailor Moon blinked
away the tears of exhaustion. "Thank you. I probably
won't see you again, and if I do, you won't recognize
me." She quirked a funny grin. "Well, I've got to run."
Shadica was on the move. "Thank you again." With a jump
that surprised even her, she was on top of one of the
buildings that surrounded the alley and was off.
Nekoto looked to Hiro.
"Well, she was she a nice young lady. No wonder
Setsuna-san wanted us to help her. Imagine, running off
to fight in that condition."
"Do you think she will win?"
"It depends on if she really is as strong of mind
as I think her to be." Nekoto glared at Hiro. "Want to
go watch?"
"Of course."
"Good. I haven't been dead seventy years just to
miss out on the battle of the millennia." Nekoto said,
ans she disappeared with a quiet popping sound. Hiro
followed suit.
~'~
'Everything can't have a happy ending.'
*Shut up.*
'You're talking to yourself, you know.'
*What part of shut the fuck up didn't you
understand?*
Sailor Moon shook her head as she ran over the
rooftops. She hated arguing with herself; it was
another indication she actually was as looney as she
thought she was.
'Of course you are.'
*Thank you. I appreciate your commentary, I
really do-- SHUT UP!*
She was getting closer. She carefully ignored the
fact the sky was turning pitch back and the sun was
going scarlet. She pretended not to notice the nasuea
that settled in her stomach or the growing of negative
energy in the air around her.
She tried not to thnk about how this could be the
beginning of the end or the end of the beginning. She
wouldn't dare to let her thoughts linger on the
disturbing information that once again the world lay
upon her shoulders.
Everything was on her.
She just a start when she turned a corner and
came face to face with Shadica, who, even then, in all
her scarred glory, took a startling resemblence to
Nehelenia.
Shadica looked happily at Sailor Moon, her
grotesque lips forming something that had only the
slightest remsemblence to a smile.
"Now!" She said, raising her arms to the
darkening sky. Green lightning flashed as the portal
between her world and Usagi's world was completed, and
a deafening, too-human roar filled the air as the faces
of thousands of eager youma looked over the edge of it,
awaiting their mistress's command. "Now, this world
shall finally feel the power that is the dark moon.
Pretty princess, prepare to suffer for what your
kingdom has done to me-- for what *you* have done to
me."
"Shadica, you coward." Sailor Moon hissed,
stepping closer. "You are afraid to fight me, face to
face. You fear defeat. Why not face me as a warrior
instead of overwhelming me with your army?" Her words
were serious but she said them as though they were a
funny jingle instead of the challange they were.
Shadica's eyes narrowed.
"Call me coward if you will, Princess Serenity.
We know who is the victor of this battle. Even if I
shall fall to Death, His victory shall not come by your
hand." Shadica paused, and looked at Sailor Moon with
something akin to sincere curiousity. "Can you die? Are
you lost forever to Death's whims?"
Sailor Moon paled at Shadica's words. It was
something her subconscious pondered at, but directly
she'd never dared to challenge Death. She didn't
know...
Shadica watched the conflicting emotions in her
opponet's eyes.
"You don't know, do you?" She asked, amusement
and horror filling her tone. "You really don't know if
you can die." It wasn't a question, but a statment, one
that Sailor Moon didn't challenge for its honesty.
"That scares you, doesn't it? The idea of living
forever scares you, you who does not fear. Worse than
defeat, worse than loosing all you love, the idea that
you will live forever with your memories scares you,
Pretty Princess."
Sailor Moon began to take a step away from
Shadica and her accusing voice, but thought better of
it, and stood her ground. her back straightened and she
drew forth the ginzuishou and willed it to form into a
more physical weapon, and discovered herself holding a
double-edged crystal sword.
Her eyes flashed silver fire as she looked up to
Shadica.
"Enough of this." She whispered feircly, letting
the wind carry her words to Shadica. "We will fight.
And then Death shall decide who looses."
"Very well then." Shadica had her own blade, dark
blue venom in metal form. "I will be the one to decide
your doubts."
They ran at each other, and the blades connected
with a noise that shook the heavens as the gods looked
on, knowing that it would be simple whim of fate who
would truly win this fight.
~'~
"FIRE SOUL!" Mars cried a second time, releasing
twin fireballs that slammed into the quickly shrinking
group of youma. Several of them burst into flame and
died.
She looked back desperatly at Sailor Moon's
vanishing figure. She didn't really like the girl, it
must be said, but to let her go off alone... it wasn't
right, she felt it in her bones. She could sense
Shadica's devastating power, and Sailor Moon's
strength. They were matched too perfectly.
Both were paradoxes. Usagi balanced perfectly in
the ever-so-thin gray line between good and evil,
between insanity and sanity. She teetered one way and
then the other, but she never fell.
Mars didn't know how Shadica had fallen but she
had. The warrior she had never met anywhere but her
nightmares had fallen into a pit and death was her only
way out.
She knew that Shadica knew this, too.
"Venus! To your left!" Jupiter yelled suddenly.
Mars whirled just in time to see the youma as Venus
went into a frenzy of action. Mars was so obsorbed in
watching the golden warrior finish the yuoma she didn't
notice the one that decided to take advantage of her
distracted state.
"Shining Aqua Illusion!" Came a cry from
somewhere behind her. Mars jumped as a clam came down,
slicing the air where she had once stood, and then a
gust of forsty air. On pure instinct she moved her arms
into a position as thought she were holding a bow and
arrow.
As though this were some kind of cue, and a
portal opened where the last of the youma stood ready
for their destruction, and from it poured a new army,
more youma than they had ever hoped to see.
The outer senshi duo surged forward, Neptune with
her mirror and Uranus with the deadly sword.
Mars felt the fire of her namesake in her hands,
and she pulled back on the strings of the imaginary
bow, cohertent thought leaving her as instinct took
over. A flame ripped through her soul, shattering all
the barriers that had been there before. The stone of
ruby in the bow upon her breast changed from a perfect
circle to a heart-shape, and her fuku changed only
slightly as she took careful aim at the youma.
"Mars Flaming Sniper!" She cried, releasing a
arrow made from pure heat into the youma. These youma
were stronger than the ones from before but her arrow
took out as many as it could, leaving a trail of dust
in it's wake.
She felt the eyes of every senshi, inner and
outer, upon her. She flushed and looked at her
comrades.
"What?" She asked. "Do I have something on my
face?"
They looked away. She had changed, and she knew
it. She walked closer to the youma, away from the inner
seshi that stood back, using only their powers to keep
the youma at bay, and took her fire and let it take the
rough shape of a blade and dove into the youma. The
fight was like pludging into a pool of grace, each
movement and thrust something a part of ehr that had
been hidden. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess but
several words jumped at her, and it was several seconds
before she realized she was chanting them like some
mantra, as she did it gave her strength.
"Protect... Fight.... Triumph..."
Jupiter watched this with emerald eyes that knew
only something of Mars's actions as she too felt the
barriers of her strength break. She riased her arms to
take back her power and began to concentrate on it like
she had never before, and with a cry of triumph she
grasped her will. "Jupiter Oak Revolution!" She cried,
releasing bolt after bolt of lightning into the youma.
Her mind had never been clearer than it was at
that moment; She was doing what she had been born to
do, and she knew that she wanted to die oneday like
this, fighting for soemthnig, with a cause and a
purpose.
Venus needed no encouragement. She knew what this
was and accepted it fully. She looked to Mercury, who
was watching with an air of confusion and knoweldge.
"Give in to it." She whispered to the blue
soldier. "We must do this."
Mercury nodded, sudden recgonition dawning in her
face. She liked to do things neat, and she knew how to
do this. Reaching up towards her home, she took in her
hand her henshin stick and gave into the power that
radiated from it, icy strength and cool courage. She
smiled softly, knowing that she wanted this more than
anything as she felt it vanish from her fingers and a
coolness running down her arm and possessing her body,
changing her.
"Mercury Aqua Rhaspody!" She murmured, taking
back the harp that had laid dormant so many hundreds of
years.
Venus merely smiled, closed her eyes, and let the
Change overtake her. She kissed her palm and gave into
Aphrodite as the new sailor team began to wreak havoc
on the youma, Uranus and Neptune exchanging a secretive
smile. They knew these senshi, for they were of teh
Change also, given to them by the senshi of
descruction.
"Venus Love and Beauty-- SHOCK!"
~'~
Far above the war taking place, a man with a
shock of dark hair and an anchient armor watched.
"Usako... my Serenity..."
~'~
Black Beyond
black_beyond@hotmail.com
PG13
~'~
I remember now to answer a question: Yuppers, Endy-chan
is dead. And he's not coming back. I firmly belive that
all endings are NOT always happy.
This is not the last part. Or maybe it is. It depends on
how many of you take your precious time to review. I
aprreciate it greatly, you know.
This part is a bit short, I apologize. The first bit of it
is confusing, but the couple are not critical to the story,
it's for a friend of mine. Behind the scenes kind of thing...
if you're confused I'm sorry, but you'll be able to understand
everything else just fine.
~'~
Sailor Moon ran towards the energy she felt, and
hoped it was Shadica. If it wasn't, then the daughter
of Nehelenia had some serious competition.
No, it was Shadica. More powerful than Sailor
Moon remembered. No, not really. She had sensed Shadica
was hiding something... but this? Compared to before,
it was like comparing a nerf gun to a tank.
"Not a tank... more like an Uzi, but still..."
She corrected her own thoughts aloud, and then laughed
at the simple irony. She was thinking about Nerf guns
when her own doom was pending.
"My god-- miss? Are you Sailor Moon?"
Sailor Moon looked up, startled. Of all the days
she had been Sailor Moon, no one had ever approached
her. She reckoned that someday it had to happen-- every
time she rampaged through the streets they wouldn't
always be empty... but it was still a shock.
She looked up from the recesses of the alleyway
into a pair of eyes that were surprisingly normal.
Sailor Moon could only imagine what she looked like-- a
youma had managed to get at her, leaving bloody gashes
on her arms and side, leaving her splattered with both
her own and youma blood. She was breathing hard, and
her hand was bound to be a wreck.
"Yeah, I am." She replied.
The woman, clothed in a pair of black pants and a
white blouse, was accompanied by a man wearing a suit.
"Dear, you look a mess. Been saving the world
again? You should have those looked at. Here, my
husband's a doctor-- Hiro, you will, won't you?" The
woman pleaded.
Sailor Moon shook her head, trying to ctach
control of her breathing.
"Thanks for your concern... Don't have time...
Got to fight..." She managed.
"Nonsense." The man said, advancing. "That looks
awful. Were you fighting a dragon?" He asked, kneeling
to inspect one of the gashes.
Sailor Moon chuckled as she recalled the youma's
appearence: green and scaley. "Close to it. This really
isn't necessary, though. I heal fast."
"If you're running off to fight, Miss Moon, then
you need this bandaged. Nekoto, get my bag."
Even though she protested loudly, Sialor Moon
allowed him to bandage her side, giving in only because
Shadica had paused between the Dark Realm and this one.
Nekoto made cheerful conversation between the tense
three.
"Have you been fighting long?" Nekoto asked
pleasnatly, handing Hiro rolls of gauze. "You don't
have to answer dear. Just thought I'd ask."
"I don't mind. All my life, and then some."
Sailor Moon answered with a wince as peroxide was
poured into one of her wounds. She saw Nekoto's
scandalized look and added, "It's okay. It's my
choice."
"How old are you?"
"Sixteen." Sailor Moon saw no danger in answering
the question. "Almost seventeen."
"So young!" Hiro said, tightening the last
bandage and standing up. "You have many scars."
"Yeah. I noticed." Sailor Moon sighed. "And I'm
about to get a lot more. I'm facing against the
daughter of a woman I had to kill." Another sigh. "The
woman, Nehelenia, tried to steal people's dreams... the
only way to stop her was to kill her. After that, we
discovered she had a daughter..." Sailor Moon blinked
away the tears of exhaustion. "Thank you. I probably
won't see you again, and if I do, you won't recognize
me." She quirked a funny grin. "Well, I've got to run."
Shadica was on the move. "Thank you again." With a jump
that surprised even her, she was on top of one of the
buildings that surrounded the alley and was off.
Nekoto looked to Hiro.
"Well, she was she a nice young lady. No wonder
Setsuna-san wanted us to help her. Imagine, running off
to fight in that condition."
"Do you think she will win?"
"It depends on if she really is as strong of mind
as I think her to be." Nekoto glared at Hiro. "Want to
go watch?"
"Of course."
"Good. I haven't been dead seventy years just to
miss out on the battle of the millennia." Nekoto said,
ans she disappeared with a quiet popping sound. Hiro
followed suit.
~'~
'Everything can't have a happy ending.'
*Shut up.*
'You're talking to yourself, you know.'
*What part of shut the fuck up didn't you
understand?*
Sailor Moon shook her head as she ran over the
rooftops. She hated arguing with herself; it was
another indication she actually was as looney as she
thought she was.
'Of course you are.'
*Thank you. I appreciate your commentary, I
really do-- SHUT UP!*
She was getting closer. She carefully ignored the
fact the sky was turning pitch back and the sun was
going scarlet. She pretended not to notice the nasuea
that settled in her stomach or the growing of negative
energy in the air around her.
She tried not to thnk about how this could be the
beginning of the end or the end of the beginning. She
wouldn't dare to let her thoughts linger on the
disturbing information that once again the world lay
upon her shoulders.
Everything was on her.
She just a start when she turned a corner and
came face to face with Shadica, who, even then, in all
her scarred glory, took a startling resemblence to
Nehelenia.
Shadica looked happily at Sailor Moon, her
grotesque lips forming something that had only the
slightest remsemblence to a smile.
"Now!" She said, raising her arms to the
darkening sky. Green lightning flashed as the portal
between her world and Usagi's world was completed, and
a deafening, too-human roar filled the air as the faces
of thousands of eager youma looked over the edge of it,
awaiting their mistress's command. "Now, this world
shall finally feel the power that is the dark moon.
Pretty princess, prepare to suffer for what your
kingdom has done to me-- for what *you* have done to
me."
"Shadica, you coward." Sailor Moon hissed,
stepping closer. "You are afraid to fight me, face to
face. You fear defeat. Why not face me as a warrior
instead of overwhelming me with your army?" Her words
were serious but she said them as though they were a
funny jingle instead of the challange they were.
Shadica's eyes narrowed.
"Call me coward if you will, Princess Serenity.
We know who is the victor of this battle. Even if I
shall fall to Death, His victory shall not come by your
hand." Shadica paused, and looked at Sailor Moon with
something akin to sincere curiousity. "Can you die? Are
you lost forever to Death's whims?"
Sailor Moon paled at Shadica's words. It was
something her subconscious pondered at, but directly
she'd never dared to challenge Death. She didn't
know...
Shadica watched the conflicting emotions in her
opponet's eyes.
"You don't know, do you?" She asked, amusement
and horror filling her tone. "You really don't know if
you can die." It wasn't a question, but a statment, one
that Sailor Moon didn't challenge for its honesty.
"That scares you, doesn't it? The idea of living
forever scares you, you who does not fear. Worse than
defeat, worse than loosing all you love, the idea that
you will live forever with your memories scares you,
Pretty Princess."
Sailor Moon began to take a step away from
Shadica and her accusing voice, but thought better of
it, and stood her ground. her back straightened and she
drew forth the ginzuishou and willed it to form into a
more physical weapon, and discovered herself holding a
double-edged crystal sword.
Her eyes flashed silver fire as she looked up to
Shadica.
"Enough of this." She whispered feircly, letting
the wind carry her words to Shadica. "We will fight.
And then Death shall decide who looses."
"Very well then." Shadica had her own blade, dark
blue venom in metal form. "I will be the one to decide
your doubts."
They ran at each other, and the blades connected
with a noise that shook the heavens as the gods looked
on, knowing that it would be simple whim of fate who
would truly win this fight.
~'~
"FIRE SOUL!" Mars cried a second time, releasing
twin fireballs that slammed into the quickly shrinking
group of youma. Several of them burst into flame and
died.
She looked back desperatly at Sailor Moon's
vanishing figure. She didn't really like the girl, it
must be said, but to let her go off alone... it wasn't
right, she felt it in her bones. She could sense
Shadica's devastating power, and Sailor Moon's
strength. They were matched too perfectly.
Both were paradoxes. Usagi balanced perfectly in
the ever-so-thin gray line between good and evil,
between insanity and sanity. She teetered one way and
then the other, but she never fell.
Mars didn't know how Shadica had fallen but she
had. The warrior she had never met anywhere but her
nightmares had fallen into a pit and death was her only
way out.
She knew that Shadica knew this, too.
"Venus! To your left!" Jupiter yelled suddenly.
Mars whirled just in time to see the youma as Venus
went into a frenzy of action. Mars was so obsorbed in
watching the golden warrior finish the yuoma she didn't
notice the one that decided to take advantage of her
distracted state.
"Shining Aqua Illusion!" Came a cry from
somewhere behind her. Mars jumped as a clam came down,
slicing the air where she had once stood, and then a
gust of forsty air. On pure instinct she moved her arms
into a position as thought she were holding a bow and
arrow.
As though this were some kind of cue, and a
portal opened where the last of the youma stood ready
for their destruction, and from it poured a new army,
more youma than they had ever hoped to see.
The outer senshi duo surged forward, Neptune with
her mirror and Uranus with the deadly sword.
Mars felt the fire of her namesake in her hands,
and she pulled back on the strings of the imaginary
bow, cohertent thought leaving her as instinct took
over. A flame ripped through her soul, shattering all
the barriers that had been there before. The stone of
ruby in the bow upon her breast changed from a perfect
circle to a heart-shape, and her fuku changed only
slightly as she took careful aim at the youma.
"Mars Flaming Sniper!" She cried, releasing a
arrow made from pure heat into the youma. These youma
were stronger than the ones from before but her arrow
took out as many as it could, leaving a trail of dust
in it's wake.
She felt the eyes of every senshi, inner and
outer, upon her. She flushed and looked at her
comrades.
"What?" She asked. "Do I have something on my
face?"
They looked away. She had changed, and she knew
it. She walked closer to the youma, away from the inner
seshi that stood back, using only their powers to keep
the youma at bay, and took her fire and let it take the
rough shape of a blade and dove into the youma. The
fight was like pludging into a pool of grace, each
movement and thrust something a part of ehr that had
been hidden. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess but
several words jumped at her, and it was several seconds
before she realized she was chanting them like some
mantra, as she did it gave her strength.
"Protect... Fight.... Triumph..."
Jupiter watched this with emerald eyes that knew
only something of Mars's actions as she too felt the
barriers of her strength break. She riased her arms to
take back her power and began to concentrate on it like
she had never before, and with a cry of triumph she
grasped her will. "Jupiter Oak Revolution!" She cried,
releasing bolt after bolt of lightning into the youma.
Her mind had never been clearer than it was at
that moment; She was doing what she had been born to
do, and she knew that she wanted to die oneday like
this, fighting for soemthnig, with a cause and a
purpose.
Venus needed no encouragement. She knew what this
was and accepted it fully. She looked to Mercury, who
was watching with an air of confusion and knoweldge.
"Give in to it." She whispered to the blue
soldier. "We must do this."
Mercury nodded, sudden recgonition dawning in her
face. She liked to do things neat, and she knew how to
do this. Reaching up towards her home, she took in her
hand her henshin stick and gave into the power that
radiated from it, icy strength and cool courage. She
smiled softly, knowing that she wanted this more than
anything as she felt it vanish from her fingers and a
coolness running down her arm and possessing her body,
changing her.
"Mercury Aqua Rhaspody!" She murmured, taking
back the harp that had laid dormant so many hundreds of
years.
Venus merely smiled, closed her eyes, and let the
Change overtake her. She kissed her palm and gave into
Aphrodite as the new sailor team began to wreak havoc
on the youma, Uranus and Neptune exchanging a secretive
smile. They knew these senshi, for they were of teh
Change also, given to them by the senshi of
descruction.
"Venus Love and Beauty-- SHOCK!"
~'~
Far above the war taking place, a man with a
shock of dark hair and an anchient armor watched.
"Usako... my Serenity..."
~'~