By Yohann DeSabrais
a.k.a. Technuma Saturn
The multiverse is a truly complicated place, filled with a hundred
million realities wich may differ in any number of ways such as
humans evolving out of ants or something insignificant such as the
guy next door eating his corn flakes without sugar this morning.
This is the continuing story of one such place where history does
not follow the course set in the television serie. Episode four of
this story takes place after Sailor Moon R before professor Tomoe
begins his attempts to gather heart crystals. Since the multiverse
is such a terribly twisted and mixed up place, however, this may or
may not happen in your part of the spacetime continuum.
Reality is a really hard thing to understand; as soon as you corner
it, it bounces back in unpredictable manners...
* * *
CYCLES OF LIFE: EPISODE FOUR
PAST IMPERFECT
Thump thump.
Unsure of herself, unable to form coherent thoughts, Rei floated in
the warm, thick liquid that sustained her precarious life.
Thump thump.
Through the comforting aquatic silence, the regular sound of her own
heartbeat interrupted the faint humming of the sophisticated medical
equipment on the other side of her glass capsule.
Thump thump.
The greenish substance filled her lungs without choking, providing
Sailor Mars`s body with oxygen and fighting off infection on her
severely burnt skin. Several tubes reached into her arteries to
ensure water and nutrients supply.
Thump thump.
Resting naked in this secure pod with her eyes closed was the
closest thing to her mother`s womb that she had ever experienced,
though she had little awareness of her surroundings.
Thump thump.
She couldn`t say how long she had been in this regeneration capsule,
nor what had gotten her in there to begin with.
Thump thump.
Rei slightly opened her tired eyes and saw a tall figure standing
on the other side of the glass. She couldn`t remember who that was,
let alone think.
Thump thump.
She closed her eyes again and let the comforting sound of her
heartbeat lull her to a dreamless sleep. The wounded sailor had
already forgotten about that man outside the capsule.
Thump thump.
"Heartbeat stabilized at last, breathing steady, that`s good." said
the man.
Thump thump.
"Blood pressure a bit off mark, electrolyte levels imbalanced. Still
touch and go, I see."
Thump thump.
For a long time he had feared this might happen, and it did.
Thump thump.
"Hold on, Mars. You`ll be fine, I`ll make this right like I
promised."
Thump thump.
The deep voice had a familiar sound to Rei`s ears, like a long
forgotten dream, and made her feel better. In a corner of her
clouded mind, lyrics to an old song came to her.
Deaf to faith and
blind to love,
you came today-
Filled with anger,
mad with rage,
you came my way-
Burned by your fire,
scorched by your flame,
I die away.
Thump thump.
* * *
Everyone held their breath as the ruthless confrontation between the
two mighty opponents drew to its deadly end; both sides had suffered
heavy casualties and neither could withstand much more.
"Your move." whispered Birdie, a confident glint in her eye.
"This doesn`t look good." thought Ami.
"Finally, my time of revenge is NOW!" thought Birdie.
"It`s over for me, it seems." said Ami as she moved her last knight
across the board; Birdie quickly snatched it with her bishop.
"CHECKMATE!!!" screamed Birdie as she smashed her fist on the table
in unbridled joy.
"Well played, Birdie." congratulated Ami.
"Thanks, Ami. You`re so good at this game, I wanted to defeat you
ever since that chess tournament I crashed last year."
Usagi`s laughter burst out of the other room; Rei`s comic books
were, as usual, making her laugh out of control.
"It`s a miracle either of you could concentrate with Usagi the hyena
back there." commented Minako.
"Yeah, I could hardly hear myself think at all, you girls are
incredible!" added Makoto.
Rei walked in at that moment; she couldn`t stand Yuuichiro`s singing
anymore and even Usagi`s laughter sounded better than his latest
composition.
"You know, she looks a lot happier now that Mamoru stopped having
those horrible visions of her death. I`m glad it turned out okay for
them, they make a cute couple." she said.
"I agree." said Birdie. "They look so much in love; I can`t wait
until I feel this way too... Catsy and Prisma already found someone
special."
"I`m sure that won`t take very long; you`re a smart, beautiful
woman! Men will walk on their hands to be close to you." said Rei.
"Thanks." Birdie said, blushing.
* * *
A very, very long distance away from the little blue planet called
earth a lonely starship circled a stable orbit around the sun. A
starship, by definition, allowed people to travel through the void
of space without being turned inside out by the near-zero air
pressure or frozen to absolute zero temperature. The starship
Pegasus did just that but not much more; devoid of thrusters, it
could never change course or leave orbit of its own. It rotated on
itself to simulate artificial gravity and a 22 hour day/night
period through its clear metal-glass dome and was filled with plants
to provide air and food to the crew.
As it stood, the crew was composed of only one.
For over a thousand years now, a young looking red haired girl had
lived all alone within the confines of the Pegasus`s hull, taking
care of the shipwide garden of eden. Over time, she had learned to
accept her fate and was quite content with her day to day life. Last
month, however, a stray meteor collided with the Pegasus knocking it
free out of its orbit; without any kind of thrusters to make course
corrections, it fell right into the sun. Gradually accelerating to
its inescapable destruction. Celeste looked at the constantly
enlarging image of the sun on the ship`s viewer every day; after a
thousand years of captivity, death would be most welcome to her.
A week after the ship left orbit, the total lack of gravity and
reduced sunlight began killing the plants one by one. Just two days
ago, there were no fruit producing plants left and food ran out
completely. This mattered little considering that oxygen would run
out in a matter of hours as there were not enough plants left to
filter the air. The prisonner of the Pegasus decided at that moment
to give up her fight for survival and wait to die.
What she did not realize right away is that her speeding ship got
caught in earth`s gravity pull and was now heading to that planet.
As the hull of the ship started turning white hot from the air
friction, she understood that she might have a chance to make it
out alive and reclaim what she`d lost all those centuries ago.
The screeching fireball once known as the Pegasus was coming down
to crashland in Tokyo Bay.
* * *
Usagi slept peacefully with Luna by her side, dreaming of her
wonderful Mamoru who had come back to her at last.
"Oh... Mamoru... I love you so much..." she mumbled.
The huge explosion of a white hot metal surface hitting the cool
waters of the bay woke up everyone in Tokyo who was sleeping at the
time, including Usagi and her cat guardian.
"WHOAAA! Luna, what was that?"
"I don`t know, it sounded like a bomb!"
"Well, whatever it was, I`m sure we can find out tomorrow; let`s
go back to sleep and find out what we can in the morning." suggested
Usagi.
"For once I agree with you... Usagi?"
The black cat found herself talking to no one as Usagi was snoring
already. Tired from the previous day, Luna just accepted this and
followed her example.
* * *
The marine guard went to investigate what it believed to be a
meteorite crash but found nothing floating on the surface; they
figured the rock must have had a high metallic content, judging
from their sonar scans, and decided to return in the morning with
better equipment. They were not equiped to search for a sunken
meteorite, especially not in the middle of the night.
They didn`t notice that Celeste was swiftly swimming to the nearest
city, Tokyo. She was especially talented in water sports and a few
miles distance did not scare her, even if she was a millenium out
of practice. There was someone whose presence she felt, someone who
possessed what she wanted.
* * *
When the sun rose over Tokyo that day, it was business as usual for
the local population. A most unusual visitor was coming to town,
however. A cloaked starship entered the atmosphere following the
trace metals path left by the Pegasus.
The starship Avatar flew over the bay, hideously undected by the
multimillion dollar radar systems, wich was a shame because they
had been built to detect just that kind of thing. The ship`s lone
pilot was searching for the missing prison ship.
IMPACT POINT FOUND
LOCATION TOKYO BAY
METAL COMPOSITION ANALYSIS POSITIVE
TARGET IDENTIFIED AS STARSHIP PEGASUS MARK ONE
"Damn! She`s not dead, I can feel it!" said the pilot.
Dressed in a blue uniform not seen on this planet for over a thousand
years, he bore the alchemical symbol of saturn on his chest. His
short brown hair and chiseled face made him look nothing like his
true age wich was betrayed only by a stray silver streak.
"I have to find her before she can locate the scouts."
He had known the sailor scouts a millenium ago and knew well they
had reincarnated after their deaths at Beryl`s hands. Could he
recognize them now? He had to try because he couldn`t let Celeste
find them first.
* * *
The girls ended their study session with a discussion about the
meteorite that crashed in the bay the night before; they had all
heard it as it woke up the whole city.
"It`s lucky for everyone it landed so far from the city otherwise
it could have done a lot of damage." said Rei.
"Yes, veering a tenth of a degree off course would have made all
the difference between the bay and metropolitan Tokyo as a landing
site." explained Ami.
Usagi utterly failed to hear any of this, her focus firmly locked on
a comic book she`d snuck in her biology book before coming to Rei`s
place.
"I remember the last meteorite; brought us nothing but trouble." said
Makoto, refering to the aliens Alan and Ann.
"Cheer up, Makoto, every single meteorite can`t bring us a new enemy
from the stars!" replied Minako with her cheery enthusiasm.
"You know..." said the suddenly attentive Usagi, "I think we`ve all
been enough trouble to Rei for tonight. Why don`t we go home now?"
The others looked at her suspiciously and with good reason- she was
trying to drop by the game center for a quick game or two before
going to see Mamoru.
"Regardless of Usagi`s ulterior motives for saying so, she`s right.
We`ll pick up from here tomorrow after school." said Ami.
The phone rang at that moment so Rei excused herself and answered.
The girls left with their books, Usagi being the fastest one to
vanish from sight.
"Hello, who`s there?" asked Rei.
"An old acquaintance." answered a girl at the other end of the line.
"Tell me, Rei, do you remember Celeste?"
"Can`t say I do, but your voice does sound familiar."
"We have to meet right now, it`s really important! I`ll explain
everything to you when we see each other. Now, here`s where I`ll
be..."
* * *
Later that evening Rei waited in the park for this Celeste to show
up. She thought it was strange that an "old friend" she didn`t know
she had would pop up like this out of the blue. She also knew stranger
things had happened before, such as becoming Sailor Mars or
discovering that the moon princess was really Usagi.
"Rei?" said a voice behind her.
She turned around and saw a young girl with devilishly green eyes and
fiery red hair. She knew intuitively this was Celeste, although she
couldn`t say why.
"Celeste?" asked Rei.
"Do you remember yet?"
"I`m sorry but no. You seem to know me well, when have we met
before?"
"Before I answer your questions, can we go somewhere a bit more
private? I`d be more comfortable this way." asked Celeste.
"All right, but I`d really like to find out who you are..."
"Don`t worry, you`ll find out."
They walked along a trail wich led them into a small wooded area.
After a few minutes, they emerged into a cleared patch where you
could see nothing but trees and the darkened sky as the sun set
slowly. Rei did not like that place as something evil felt close by.
"Celeste, who the hell are you?!?" she asked bluntly.
"Let me show you..." she answered as she opened her purse and pulled
out a transformation pen identical to Rei`s. She lifted it up and
yelled the magical words.
"MARS STAR POWER... MAKEUP!"
In a surge of fire, Celeste`s blouse and skirt faded away in exchange
of a Sailor Mars uniform. Rei was shocked!
"You can`t be Sailor Mars, I am!" she said in disbelief.
"Yes, you are indeed. A thousand years ago, I was robbed of my sacred
duty as a sailor scout and you were chosen to replace me. You did a
great job so far, but now is the time to reinstate the TRUE Sailor
Mars, myself." calmly explained Celeste.
"You`re saying I have to step down?"
"Exactly."
"What if I refuse?"
"You don`t have a choice in the matter. I`ve been in exile a
thousand years, I`m not about to give up. Just give up the mantle
gracefully and be done with it."
"We`ll see about that... MARS STAR POWER... MAKEUP!" screamed Rei,
turning into Sailor Mars as well.
"The uniform suits you well." commented Celeste.
"I`m not going to give it up either!" said Rei.
"Is that the way you want it?"
"That`s the way it is."
"Let`s see who`s the best Sailor Mars, then!" said Celeste with
rage in her eyes before attacking Rei.
Rei dodged the leaping kick aimed at her head and pulled out one
of her good luck charms wich she charged with energy:
"Rin, pyou, tou, sha, jin, retsu, sai, zen. Akuryou taisan!"
She threw the charm swiftly; Celeste rose her hand and deflected the
charm wich fell down at Rei`s feet with no effect.
"My turn now... MARS INFERNAL FIRESTORM..." began Celeste.
A wide circle of fire formed around Rei`s feet; she didn`t know what
to expect, unfortunately, so before she could leap out Celeste
completed her power words.
"...BLAZE!!!"
The circle filled itself with fire, burning Rei up to her ankles,
then extended upwards in a pillar of searing flames wich engulfed
the helpless scout, eating through her clothes and scorching her
skin beyond human healing capacity. As the fire subsided a few
seconds later, she fell to the ground. Rei was battered and broken,
clinging on to her life through willpower alone. The pugnant stench
of charred skin and burnt hair filled the air around her.
"You lose, Rei, see you next incarnation. Oh, by the way, you won`t
need this anymore." said Celeste as she picked up the half-burned
charm lying on the ground.
She walked away and left the mortally wounded scout to die.
The searing pain that wracked her body kept her alive yet threatened
to push her over in the next world at the same time. Through a dark
veil forming over her eyes, she saw a silhouette coming in her
direction. She hoped it was Usagi who could have followed her to the
park by curiosity and could bring help. Another part of her hoped it
was Celeste coming back to put an end to this intolerable suffering.
It was neither.
The pilot of the Avatar looked down on the dying Sailor Mars and
felt responsible for what happened to her.
"Forgive me, Rei. I couldnt find her until she did this to you, used
her powers. I`ll make this right, I promise." he said.
He unfolded a medical blanket he brought with him and covered Mars as
much as he could to prevent any further infection of her wounds. He
picked her up in his arms and felt her fleeting existence as she
clutched on to life.
"I promise."
* * *
Thump thump.
And so Rei floated barely conscious in the dermal regeneration
liquid in a state of accelerated healing. No earth medecine could
have done so much for her thrid degree burns in so little time.
Thump thump.
The powerful and ancient Technuma Saturn watched over his medical
scanners, waiting for signs of improvement in his patient`s
condition. He had hoped to avert such a disaster but found himself
powerless to prevent what destiny predicted would eventually
happen. Rei was paying for his failure.
Thump thump.
"Your subdermal layer is completely regenerated, now. Only a few
more days and you`ll be healed." he said.
Thump thump.
* * *
"Still no news about Rei." said Ami.
It had already been a week since her disapearance. Never before had
she been away for so long; she didn`t even call to say where she was,
which made the scouts imagine the worse. The police had her
description, but nothing turned up so far, not even the smallest
clue to her whereabouts.
"I`m so afraid for her, Ami!" said Usagi.
Minako hugged Usagi to reassure her. "We all are." she said.
They all missed Rei very much; things had not been the same without
her around.
A knock at the door disturbed this sad moment. It was Yuuichiro.
"Sorry to barge in like this, girls, but there`s someone who says
that she has to see you right away and that it`s very important.
Should I let her in?" he said in a dull lifeless tone.
The scouts had been suspecting for months now that he was secretly in
love with Rei. If that was true, he was certainly suffering a lot.
Yuuichiro did manage to keep a strong face nonetheless.
"Show her in, please." said Ami.
With a really shy expression on her face, Celeste walked in.
"I`ll go see my friends around town, maybe they heard something."
said Yuuichiro before leaving.
The girls noticed how tall Celeste was; almost as tall as Makoto. She
introduced herself.
"Hello, my name is Celeste. If I`m not mistaken, you must be Minako,
Ami, Makoto and Usagi, right?"
She guessed correctly and intrigued the girls.
"Last night I had a dream. Well, more like a vision actually." she
explained. "I was in a great temple with many gold torches burning
around me. A priestess with long black hair came to me saying that
the power of mars had been vanquished in her and that it had been
bestowed on me so that I may replace her as Sailor Mars. She told
me to seek the other sailor scouts in this place and revealed your
real names. She also said she was sorry to leave her friends
behind..."
She took out of her purse the singed luck charm.
"I found it next to my bed, this morning, along with a
transformation tool to become Sailor Mars." she said.
"I can`t believe it... Rei is... really... gone." said Usagi as
tears rolled down her face.
"We`ll never forget you, Rei." barely managed to say Makoto.
Amy couldn`t talk at all; her usual countenance and restraint just
broke down in an emotional tsunami as she cried out her pain.
Minako didn`t say anything either; she just held Usagi even closer,
trying to bring comfort to her friend as well as to herself.
"I`m so sorry for your loss..." said Celeste, her eyes filled with
fake sorrow.
In her head, however, she was smiling like a maniac. Celeste was
playing the scouts like a well-tuned violin and would have no trouble
winning their trust.
"How are we going to tell Rei`s grandfather?" asked Makoto who was
still trying to get a grip on her emotions.
"What about poor Yuuichiro?" asked Minako.
* * *
Technuma Saturn sat in the cockpit of the Avatar, occupying but one
of the many pilot seats. It had been many centuries since all seats
were used at once by the Technum guardians. At that very moment,
this thought was far from his mind as he was working to stop yet
another surge in the ship`s power systems.
"Having hiccups again, old girl? Let me take care of that for you."
he said in a paternalistic fashion.
All over the ship, lights were blinking on and off for a while. This
light show woke up Rei who was lying in a bed of what seemed to be
some kind of recovery room. Her body was stiff and sore, but she had
no injuries that she could see. This was odd because she distinctly
remembered being torched alive. Even her hair had grown back to its
full lenght! Her mouth was filled with the bitter-sweet taste of the
dermal regeneration fluid and she found it rather pleasant.
Her wounds healed and injuries tended, Sailor Mars came back from
what almost was her tragic death.
On a chair next to the bed, she saw a folded sapphire blue uniform
waiting for her. It was at that point she realized her sailor scout
uniform went up in smoke and that she wasn`t wearing anything under
the bedsheets- quite embarassing, actually. She picked up the
uniform and reckognized the symbol of saturn sewn on the chest and
right arm. When she unfolded it, she noticed it was way too large
for her. Hell, Mamoru wasn`t that tall himself! A small note fell
from a pocket. It said:
"Sorry about the size, it`s all I have."
Rei slipped in the oversized suit and rolled the legs and sleeves
until she could see her hands and feet emerge. This wasn`t the
greatest choice of clothes she ever had, but she could hardly walk
around naked, could she? She left the room and took a coridor,
unsure of where she was going. Wherever she was, it certainly looked
like some kind of spaceship. She went around for a minute or so
before she smelled a delicious odour of bacon; she hadn`t eaten in
what seemed like days and was famished, so she followed the smell all
the way to what looked like a mess hall.
A tall man was sitting at a metallic table, eating his meal. He was
wearing a blue uniform identical to the one she had found next to
her bed, except it fitted him like a glove. Rei assumed he was the
one who lent him the uniform.
"Ah, Rei, you`re awake!" said the man as he noticed her come in.
"For a moment there, I was afraid you wouldn`t make it. Come sit
down, I`ll fix you breakfast. It`s almost midnight, but seeing how
you skipped quite a few meals recently it`s best to start with
something not too overly elaborate to get your stomach back on
track."
Rei`s stomach growled a loud positive response to the suggestion.
She sat down as he got started on fixing her meal.
"Hum... did I dream being toasted alive? I mean, my skin is all
right and my hair looks fine." she asked.
"That was no dream, I can tell you. You had third degree burns over
most of your body; the dermal regeneration fluid took care of that
with the additional side effect of having your hair grow sixty times
faster than normal. You`re fine now, you won`t even have any scars."
he explained as he cracked a couple of eggs to fry alongside a few
slices of bacon. "The only downside is that ALL of your body hair
grew faster; it`s just like you haven`t shaved your legs in months."
he added.
"You know me but I don`t know you; last time, it got me fried."
said Rei.
"I`m Technuma Saturn." he said, presenting Rei with an appetizing
plate. "Eat up, Sailor Mars. You need it after your extended
treatment."
"Who are you and why are you here?" Rei asked as she dug in.
"I`m a Technum guardian, the last one to be exact. We had the ability
to feel and control a force called the Technum. Its flux binds the
solar system together, creates and sustains life. To ensure the
security of the moon kingdom a thousand years ago, Queen Serenity
asked us a favor: for each one of us to select a special girl and
train her to tap and use the power of Technum. Being in her debt,
we accepted. Their training was long and hard, so difficult that
not even the memory loss of reincarnation would alter their skills.
They became the SAILOR SCOUTS!"
"Wait a minute!" interrupted Rei. "If EVERY guardian trained a
scout, where are Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and... Saturn?"
"You need not know this at the present. All that matters is that
after a long training, they were ready and defended the moon kingdom
with great distinction... until one of them commited a terrible
crime."
"Which one?"
"It was Celeste, who had been trained to be Sailor Mars. She
attempted to drain the essence of both Sailor Jendra and Kitechnum
Jendra, killing them in the process."
"But there`s no planet Jendra!" observed Rei.
"No, not any more. When she tried using her newfound power, she
instead released it all at once; it`s Technum flow destabilized
beyond tolerable levels, Jendra was destroyed and turned into the
asteroid belt located between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars." he
explained.
"THAT`S AWFUL!"
"Yes, it is. When Celeste was captured and brought to justice,
Queen Serenity would not hear of a death sentence, so the disgraced
Sailor Mars was condemned to float in deep space, trapped in a
derelict ship. afterwards, you were chosen to replace her. Never
again was Celeste`s name mentionned in the Queen`s court who
considered you to be the TRUE Sailor Mars. At that moment, Queen
Serenity had us all take an oath of non-interference so that we
never tempt anyone else with our great power."
Rei swallowed another bite and kept on pressing him with questions.
"Didn`t you say earlier you were the last one alive?"
"True. While I was making sure that Celeste`s ship stayed on course,
Queen Beryl attacked the moon- the guardians were there when she
released Queen Metallia. Suddenly, I was all alone in the universe.
I floated around for all this time until I realized her prison ship
had left orbit and crashed on earth. I figured she`d want her old
job back and I was right. I`d like to appologize for not reaching
you in time."
"You mentionned an *extended treatment* a few minutes ago, how long
did it last?"
"A week, which is remarkably short for the extent of your wounds."
"A WEEK?! How am I going to explain this to grandpa and my friends?"
"To your grandfather, you could pretend it was amnesia. It`s a
plausible story that would pretty much cover your week AND save
you a lot of complicated explaining. To the sailor scouts, just
tell the truth! They`ll understand."
Another power surge made the lights blink again. This time, an
alarm went off as well.
"The cloak is unstable- we could be detected!" said Technuma.
"Where are we anyway?" asked Rei.
"An abandonned amusement park; the only place I could land my
starship discreetly. If someone sees the cloak go off, we`ll be
found for sure."
* * *
By some strange twist of fate, Celeste was passing in front of the
old amusement park gates when she saw the Avatar`s cloaking system
flicker. She smiled wickedly, for luck was with her tonight. Not
only had the police not been able to identify Rei`s charred corpse-
who hadn`t been reported as murdered yet- but now the last
remaining witness of her past crimes was right at her fingertips.
"MARS STAR POWER... MAKEUP!"
Rings of fire circled around her and she transformed into Sailor
Mars; she was ready to silence the Technum guardian once and
for all.
"Time to reach out and TORCH someone." she whispered to herself.
* * *
Leaving Rei behind in the mess hall to finish her meal, Technuma
Saturn went to the cockpit to inspect the engineering subsystem
control programs. One of them had to be the root of the recurring
problem. He was so busy going through the various submenus that he
didn`t notice his security monitors picking up on the intruder
making her way to the cockpit.
At the same time, Rei finished her plate and decided to see if
Technuma needed any help with his repairs. Ami would have surely
known what to do to fix the ship, but she wasn`t there. She had a
little difficulty locating the cockpit at first, however the
efficiency-oriented layout of the Avatar helped her a lot. Rei
was shocked to see the guardian unconscious in his seat, knocked
out form a severe blow to the back of his head.
"Technuma, wake up! WAKE UP!" she screamed as she shaked him hard.
The computer was going hyper and was counting down to some
unidentified time-delayed function. Slowly opening his eyes, he
looked at Rei and whispered "It was Celeste, wasn`t it? I should
have killed her when I had the chance."
"How could you know she was going to blindside you like this?"
asked Rei.
"I mean a thousand years ago, after she killed Laurella, Sailor
Jendra. After she murdered Kitechnum Jendra. After she destroyed
planet Jendra. When I finally captured her, you pleaded me not to
kill her, to give her a chance at a fair trial."
"Why would I have done that? She was so dangerous and had taken
so many lives already..."
"Because despite her sins, you did not want your older sister to
die." said Technuma.
Rei didn`t know what to say. Technuma analysed his computer readings
and looked rather grim.
"She rigged a self-destruct sequence in the ship`s core." he said.
"How much damage can that do?"
"She must have thought this ship has a standard fusion drive which
could flatten a few city blocks, but she`s wrong. The Avatar uses
a prototype transfusion core that could wipe out the entire city
and most likely ignite the oxygen in a chain reaction that will burn
out the atmosphere."
"That`s bad. Can you stop it?"
"No, the overload sequence is too far ahead to be turned back. You`ll
have to leave the ship now- I`ll take it into the upper atmosphere
where it can explode without destroying the whole planet. Go, go, go!
There`s less than four minutes left." he said.
"Thank you for saving my life." said Rei.
"It was my responsability to correct my mistake- but it was also a
great honor to help you. Leave now, Sailor Mars, you must stop
Celeste yourself!"
* * *
Seconds after Rei stepped off the Avatar, it took off in a hurry
and blasted up in a straight line into the highest reaches of the
atmosphere, further than the highest artificial satellite`s orbit.
It became a small bright point in the sky, indistinguishable from
the surrounding stars.
There was a blinding flash followed by utter darkness.
When Rei was able to see again, she saw the carcass of the Avatar
re-entering the atmosphere as a flaming meteorite, a final farewell
to the heroic Technum guardians of the silver millenium.
The asphalt under Rei`s feet was pretty cold, making her wish
Technuma would have had some footwear roughly her size to go with
the oversized clothes he had given her. She then remembered she
could get a perfect fit with her sailor uniform.
"MARS STAR POWER... MAKEUP!" she screamed.
Blazing rings of fire surrounded Rei, eclipsing the blue uniform
with the red scout attire of Sailor Mars. Fortunately for Rei,
the magical transformation process had not been compromised by
her previous incineration at Celeste`s hands.
A voice all too familiar came from behind her as she transformed.
"No, you`re dead! I destroyed you!" said a fear stricken Celeste.
"Wrong, Celeste. You only killed yourself by staining your soul with
the blood of others. Your actions are inexcusable and justice will
be served!" replied Rei with conviction.
Celeste panicked and ran off with Rei in pursuit.
* * *
"No doubt about it." said Ami, her attention focused on her active
laptop. "That explosion up there was some kind of space vehicule,
and so was the strange power reading I got earlier. I have the
origin of the signal pinpointed, I think we should go see if there
are any passengers left behind."
"Okay, Ami, you go ahead while I gather the other scouts. We`ll
meet you in a few minutes." said Makoto who was having a study
session with Ami at the time. She was glad for this interruption
as the session was running really late; was there no limit to Ami`s
capacity to study?
* * *
Knowing she couldn`t run all night, Celeste tried to hide by
entering one of the abandonned attractions. Rei was able to discern
her go in despite the darkness, so she followed her. She quickly
located a light switch and flipped it on; in the now very bright
room, a hundred mirrors gave a thousand reflections of both sailor
scouts.
"Celeste, I know you`re here. Why not take advantage of these
mirrors to look upon the blood marks on your soul?"
"Because I would only see you, how you cheated me, robbed all I ever
was! No one deserved it more, no one was dedicated like I was!"
The sound of their voices bounced around in chaotic patterns, making
it impossible to locate each other amidst the images.
"It was your insatiable lust for power that caused your fall and
pushed you to cold blooded murder." observed Rei as she tried to
find Celeste.
"Maybe so... but at least one of us has the guts to get what she
wants!" said Celeste before sending a fireball to Rei, thinking she
finally figured wich one was real. "MARS FIRE IGNITE!"
The fireball impacted one of the many mirrors; it was instantly
smashed by the intense heat.
"Missed." clamly said Rei, her image reflected by dozens of mirrors
from all angles possible and impossible.
Celeste fired again, again, again still, breaking a shining silver
surface each time.
"Heed the mighty call of karmic justice, Celeste, hear it call your
name!" said Rei, her voice so calm that it was almost frightning.
Unable to contain her boiling rage anymore, Celeste screamed and
unleashed all of her fiery power in one single thundrous roar,
showering the entire hall of mirrors with scorching hellfire. All
of the remaining mirrors were shattered at once, sending thousands
of lethal glass shards flying in the air.
Then silence returned, dreadful song of death.
* * *
Guided by Ami`s computer readings, the scouts arrived at the old
amusement park minus the new Sailor Mars who was nowhere to be found.
They saw the burning hall of mirrors.
"What happened here?" asked Sailor Moon.
"Could Sailor Mars possibly be here... IN THERE?" wondered Sailor
Jupiter.
"Someone`s coming out!" said Sailor Mercury.
Out of the searing fire came two silhouettes, one carrying the other
in her arms. When they got close enough, they reckognized Rei; she
was holding the lifeless body of the girl who would have replaced
her at any cost, her body torn by a dozen deadly shards. Celeste
had lost too much blood to sustain her earthly existence and had
passed away.
"Rei... you`re still alive... but how?" said the astonished Usagi.
"She tried to destroy me to regain what she lost by her own
disregard for life. A lifetime ago, she was my sister, a destroyer
of worlds. Now she`s a lost soul who will spend eons atoning her
blood-stained existence." explained Rei.
The scouts` joy over Rei`s return was marred by the death of Celeste;
they had barely begun to know her and she seemed so nice from what
little they knew of her.
"She will need a proper funeral. She deserves this much." added Rei.
* * *
Two days later, Celeste was put to her final rest. Rei was there,
along with the scouts, Mamoru and her good friend Yuuichiro. The
pouring rain, the gloomy sky, the black clothes, the headstones...
this depressing setting was exacting a heavy toll on Sailor Mars.
After all, she`d been so close to ending up here herself...
Usagi must have felt it because she moved close to Rei and gave
her a warm hug.
"You know, Rei, when Celeste told us you were dead, I felt like
my whole world was collapsing." she said.
"Hey, you`ll always need someone to push you in the right direction
every now and then. That`s why I`m here." said Rei, a hint of a
smile on her lips.
"What`s that supposed to mean?!?" replied Usagi, a big smile on her
face.
* * *
EPILOGUE...
In the earth`s upper atmosphere, some junk pieces of the Avatar
floated around in nearly total weightlessness. One of them, a long,
black, unmarked cylinder emitted a homing signal undetectable by
human communication systems.
The starship Banshee decloaked next to it, picked it up, recloaked
and left.
After a few hours travel, it docked on a secret starbase stationned
near a moon of saturn. The cylinder was unloaded by the pilot of the
starship, a deceptively young looking black haired woman whose ruby
red uniform bore the crest of mars. She opened the cleverly
disguised escape pod and awoke its passenger.
"Wake up, Technuma, that`s enough deep sleep for now!" said Technara
Mars.
"Well, hello Technara. It`s been a few weeks since I`ve been away
from saturn station dealing with that Celeste situation, how have
things been going in my absence?"
"Like usual. What about your mission? Were you able to keep our
secret from Sailor Mars?"
"Yes and no. I had to reveal myself after Celeste almost killed her,
so I told her you were all dead and then faked my own death. Celeste
tried to destroy the Avatar and I could have averted her amateurish
attempt easily, but it was too good an opportunity to preserve our
secret to pass up. Besides, the Avatar had fifteen hundred years of
continuous service already, so it was close to reaching the end of
its useful life anyhow."
"Did Sailor Mars destroy Celeste?"
"Yes, I felt the Technum fluctuate just before I went into deep
sleep. She`s gone for good. You trained a fantastic sailor scout,
Technara."
"So did you, Technuma."
"I wouldn`t say that, you know what happened to Sailor Saturn."
"You shouldn`t worry, the scouts can handle that problem when they
face it. The Prime is confident everything will turn out fine.
Speaking of him, he`s expecting you in his meditation chamber."
"I`ll be right there, I just want to drop by the memorial room
first."
* * *
The memorial room was a remembrance gift to the one Technum guardian
who ever truly died, Kitechnum Jendra. So was the great secret of
the guardians: if one of them dies, the Technum flux is so affected
by it that this guardian`s planet is immediately destroyed. Queen
Serenity understood this only too well, this is why she asked them
to remain out of sight to prevent another greedy individual to try
and steal their power.
A huge statue of Kitechnum Jendra and his scout student Laurella
along with an accurate map of the solar system that included planet
Jendra dominated the room. At the bottom of the statue was ingraved
a warning:
NEVER AGAIN
The guardians` lives were primordial to the survival of the planets,
but no life was quite as important as that of the Prime, for his
life was linked to the source of all Technum, the sun. His death
would turn the sun nova within seconds, swallowing the entire solar
system in fiery cosmic shockwaves.
The guardians, for all their strenght and powers, could never risk
themselves to defend the solar system. That is why they trained the
greatest defenderd the universe had ever known, the SAILOR SCOUTS.
"Maybe the Prime is right after all, everything will be just
fine..." thought Technuma to himself.
The End.
a.k.a. Technuma Saturn
The multiverse is a truly complicated place, filled with a hundred
million realities wich may differ in any number of ways such as
humans evolving out of ants or something insignificant such as the
guy next door eating his corn flakes without sugar this morning.
This is the continuing story of one such place where history does
not follow the course set in the television serie. Episode four of
this story takes place after Sailor Moon R before professor Tomoe
begins his attempts to gather heart crystals. Since the multiverse
is such a terribly twisted and mixed up place, however, this may or
may not happen in your part of the spacetime continuum.
Reality is a really hard thing to understand; as soon as you corner
it, it bounces back in unpredictable manners...
* * *
CYCLES OF LIFE: EPISODE FOUR
PAST IMPERFECT
Thump thump.
Unsure of herself, unable to form coherent thoughts, Rei floated in
the warm, thick liquid that sustained her precarious life.
Thump thump.
Through the comforting aquatic silence, the regular sound of her own
heartbeat interrupted the faint humming of the sophisticated medical
equipment on the other side of her glass capsule.
Thump thump.
The greenish substance filled her lungs without choking, providing
Sailor Mars`s body with oxygen and fighting off infection on her
severely burnt skin. Several tubes reached into her arteries to
ensure water and nutrients supply.
Thump thump.
Resting naked in this secure pod with her eyes closed was the
closest thing to her mother`s womb that she had ever experienced,
though she had little awareness of her surroundings.
Thump thump.
She couldn`t say how long she had been in this regeneration capsule,
nor what had gotten her in there to begin with.
Thump thump.
Rei slightly opened her tired eyes and saw a tall figure standing
on the other side of the glass. She couldn`t remember who that was,
let alone think.
Thump thump.
She closed her eyes again and let the comforting sound of her
heartbeat lull her to a dreamless sleep. The wounded sailor had
already forgotten about that man outside the capsule.
Thump thump.
"Heartbeat stabilized at last, breathing steady, that`s good." said
the man.
Thump thump.
"Blood pressure a bit off mark, electrolyte levels imbalanced. Still
touch and go, I see."
Thump thump.
For a long time he had feared this might happen, and it did.
Thump thump.
"Hold on, Mars. You`ll be fine, I`ll make this right like I
promised."
Thump thump.
The deep voice had a familiar sound to Rei`s ears, like a long
forgotten dream, and made her feel better. In a corner of her
clouded mind, lyrics to an old song came to her.
Deaf to faith and
blind to love,
you came today-
Filled with anger,
mad with rage,
you came my way-
Burned by your fire,
scorched by your flame,
I die away.
Thump thump.
* * *
Everyone held their breath as the ruthless confrontation between the
two mighty opponents drew to its deadly end; both sides had suffered
heavy casualties and neither could withstand much more.
"Your move." whispered Birdie, a confident glint in her eye.
"This doesn`t look good." thought Ami.
"Finally, my time of revenge is NOW!" thought Birdie.
"It`s over for me, it seems." said Ami as she moved her last knight
across the board; Birdie quickly snatched it with her bishop.
"CHECKMATE!!!" screamed Birdie as she smashed her fist on the table
in unbridled joy.
"Well played, Birdie." congratulated Ami.
"Thanks, Ami. You`re so good at this game, I wanted to defeat you
ever since that chess tournament I crashed last year."
Usagi`s laughter burst out of the other room; Rei`s comic books
were, as usual, making her laugh out of control.
"It`s a miracle either of you could concentrate with Usagi the hyena
back there." commented Minako.
"Yeah, I could hardly hear myself think at all, you girls are
incredible!" added Makoto.
Rei walked in at that moment; she couldn`t stand Yuuichiro`s singing
anymore and even Usagi`s laughter sounded better than his latest
composition.
"You know, she looks a lot happier now that Mamoru stopped having
those horrible visions of her death. I`m glad it turned out okay for
them, they make a cute couple." she said.
"I agree." said Birdie. "They look so much in love; I can`t wait
until I feel this way too... Catsy and Prisma already found someone
special."
"I`m sure that won`t take very long; you`re a smart, beautiful
woman! Men will walk on their hands to be close to you." said Rei.
"Thanks." Birdie said, blushing.
* * *
A very, very long distance away from the little blue planet called
earth a lonely starship circled a stable orbit around the sun. A
starship, by definition, allowed people to travel through the void
of space without being turned inside out by the near-zero air
pressure or frozen to absolute zero temperature. The starship
Pegasus did just that but not much more; devoid of thrusters, it
could never change course or leave orbit of its own. It rotated on
itself to simulate artificial gravity and a 22 hour day/night
period through its clear metal-glass dome and was filled with plants
to provide air and food to the crew.
As it stood, the crew was composed of only one.
For over a thousand years now, a young looking red haired girl had
lived all alone within the confines of the Pegasus`s hull, taking
care of the shipwide garden of eden. Over time, she had learned to
accept her fate and was quite content with her day to day life. Last
month, however, a stray meteor collided with the Pegasus knocking it
free out of its orbit; without any kind of thrusters to make course
corrections, it fell right into the sun. Gradually accelerating to
its inescapable destruction. Celeste looked at the constantly
enlarging image of the sun on the ship`s viewer every day; after a
thousand years of captivity, death would be most welcome to her.
A week after the ship left orbit, the total lack of gravity and
reduced sunlight began killing the plants one by one. Just two days
ago, there were no fruit producing plants left and food ran out
completely. This mattered little considering that oxygen would run
out in a matter of hours as there were not enough plants left to
filter the air. The prisonner of the Pegasus decided at that moment
to give up her fight for survival and wait to die.
What she did not realize right away is that her speeding ship got
caught in earth`s gravity pull and was now heading to that planet.
As the hull of the ship started turning white hot from the air
friction, she understood that she might have a chance to make it
out alive and reclaim what she`d lost all those centuries ago.
The screeching fireball once known as the Pegasus was coming down
to crashland in Tokyo Bay.
* * *
Usagi slept peacefully with Luna by her side, dreaming of her
wonderful Mamoru who had come back to her at last.
"Oh... Mamoru... I love you so much..." she mumbled.
The huge explosion of a white hot metal surface hitting the cool
waters of the bay woke up everyone in Tokyo who was sleeping at the
time, including Usagi and her cat guardian.
"WHOAAA! Luna, what was that?"
"I don`t know, it sounded like a bomb!"
"Well, whatever it was, I`m sure we can find out tomorrow; let`s
go back to sleep and find out what we can in the morning." suggested
Usagi.
"For once I agree with you... Usagi?"
The black cat found herself talking to no one as Usagi was snoring
already. Tired from the previous day, Luna just accepted this and
followed her example.
* * *
The marine guard went to investigate what it believed to be a
meteorite crash but found nothing floating on the surface; they
figured the rock must have had a high metallic content, judging
from their sonar scans, and decided to return in the morning with
better equipment. They were not equiped to search for a sunken
meteorite, especially not in the middle of the night.
They didn`t notice that Celeste was swiftly swimming to the nearest
city, Tokyo. She was especially talented in water sports and a few
miles distance did not scare her, even if she was a millenium out
of practice. There was someone whose presence she felt, someone who
possessed what she wanted.
* * *
When the sun rose over Tokyo that day, it was business as usual for
the local population. A most unusual visitor was coming to town,
however. A cloaked starship entered the atmosphere following the
trace metals path left by the Pegasus.
The starship Avatar flew over the bay, hideously undected by the
multimillion dollar radar systems, wich was a shame because they
had been built to detect just that kind of thing. The ship`s lone
pilot was searching for the missing prison ship.
IMPACT POINT FOUND
LOCATION TOKYO BAY
METAL COMPOSITION ANALYSIS POSITIVE
TARGET IDENTIFIED AS STARSHIP PEGASUS MARK ONE
"Damn! She`s not dead, I can feel it!" said the pilot.
Dressed in a blue uniform not seen on this planet for over a thousand
years, he bore the alchemical symbol of saturn on his chest. His
short brown hair and chiseled face made him look nothing like his
true age wich was betrayed only by a stray silver streak.
"I have to find her before she can locate the scouts."
He had known the sailor scouts a millenium ago and knew well they
had reincarnated after their deaths at Beryl`s hands. Could he
recognize them now? He had to try because he couldn`t let Celeste
find them first.
* * *
The girls ended their study session with a discussion about the
meteorite that crashed in the bay the night before; they had all
heard it as it woke up the whole city.
"It`s lucky for everyone it landed so far from the city otherwise
it could have done a lot of damage." said Rei.
"Yes, veering a tenth of a degree off course would have made all
the difference between the bay and metropolitan Tokyo as a landing
site." explained Ami.
Usagi utterly failed to hear any of this, her focus firmly locked on
a comic book she`d snuck in her biology book before coming to Rei`s
place.
"I remember the last meteorite; brought us nothing but trouble." said
Makoto, refering to the aliens Alan and Ann.
"Cheer up, Makoto, every single meteorite can`t bring us a new enemy
from the stars!" replied Minako with her cheery enthusiasm.
"You know..." said the suddenly attentive Usagi, "I think we`ve all
been enough trouble to Rei for tonight. Why don`t we go home now?"
The others looked at her suspiciously and with good reason- she was
trying to drop by the game center for a quick game or two before
going to see Mamoru.
"Regardless of Usagi`s ulterior motives for saying so, she`s right.
We`ll pick up from here tomorrow after school." said Ami.
The phone rang at that moment so Rei excused herself and answered.
The girls left with their books, Usagi being the fastest one to
vanish from sight.
"Hello, who`s there?" asked Rei.
"An old acquaintance." answered a girl at the other end of the line.
"Tell me, Rei, do you remember Celeste?"
"Can`t say I do, but your voice does sound familiar."
"We have to meet right now, it`s really important! I`ll explain
everything to you when we see each other. Now, here`s where I`ll
be..."
* * *
Later that evening Rei waited in the park for this Celeste to show
up. She thought it was strange that an "old friend" she didn`t know
she had would pop up like this out of the blue. She also knew stranger
things had happened before, such as becoming Sailor Mars or
discovering that the moon princess was really Usagi.
"Rei?" said a voice behind her.
She turned around and saw a young girl with devilishly green eyes and
fiery red hair. She knew intuitively this was Celeste, although she
couldn`t say why.
"Celeste?" asked Rei.
"Do you remember yet?"
"I`m sorry but no. You seem to know me well, when have we met
before?"
"Before I answer your questions, can we go somewhere a bit more
private? I`d be more comfortable this way." asked Celeste.
"All right, but I`d really like to find out who you are..."
"Don`t worry, you`ll find out."
They walked along a trail wich led them into a small wooded area.
After a few minutes, they emerged into a cleared patch where you
could see nothing but trees and the darkened sky as the sun set
slowly. Rei did not like that place as something evil felt close by.
"Celeste, who the hell are you?!?" she asked bluntly.
"Let me show you..." she answered as she opened her purse and pulled
out a transformation pen identical to Rei`s. She lifted it up and
yelled the magical words.
"MARS STAR POWER... MAKEUP!"
In a surge of fire, Celeste`s blouse and skirt faded away in exchange
of a Sailor Mars uniform. Rei was shocked!
"You can`t be Sailor Mars, I am!" she said in disbelief.
"Yes, you are indeed. A thousand years ago, I was robbed of my sacred
duty as a sailor scout and you were chosen to replace me. You did a
great job so far, but now is the time to reinstate the TRUE Sailor
Mars, myself." calmly explained Celeste.
"You`re saying I have to step down?"
"Exactly."
"What if I refuse?"
"You don`t have a choice in the matter. I`ve been in exile a
thousand years, I`m not about to give up. Just give up the mantle
gracefully and be done with it."
"We`ll see about that... MARS STAR POWER... MAKEUP!" screamed Rei,
turning into Sailor Mars as well.
"The uniform suits you well." commented Celeste.
"I`m not going to give it up either!" said Rei.
"Is that the way you want it?"
"That`s the way it is."
"Let`s see who`s the best Sailor Mars, then!" said Celeste with
rage in her eyes before attacking Rei.
Rei dodged the leaping kick aimed at her head and pulled out one
of her good luck charms wich she charged with energy:
"Rin, pyou, tou, sha, jin, retsu, sai, zen. Akuryou taisan!"
She threw the charm swiftly; Celeste rose her hand and deflected the
charm wich fell down at Rei`s feet with no effect.
"My turn now... MARS INFERNAL FIRESTORM..." began Celeste.
A wide circle of fire formed around Rei`s feet; she didn`t know what
to expect, unfortunately, so before she could leap out Celeste
completed her power words.
"...BLAZE!!!"
The circle filled itself with fire, burning Rei up to her ankles,
then extended upwards in a pillar of searing flames wich engulfed
the helpless scout, eating through her clothes and scorching her
skin beyond human healing capacity. As the fire subsided a few
seconds later, she fell to the ground. Rei was battered and broken,
clinging on to her life through willpower alone. The pugnant stench
of charred skin and burnt hair filled the air around her.
"You lose, Rei, see you next incarnation. Oh, by the way, you won`t
need this anymore." said Celeste as she picked up the half-burned
charm lying on the ground.
She walked away and left the mortally wounded scout to die.
The searing pain that wracked her body kept her alive yet threatened
to push her over in the next world at the same time. Through a dark
veil forming over her eyes, she saw a silhouette coming in her
direction. She hoped it was Usagi who could have followed her to the
park by curiosity and could bring help. Another part of her hoped it
was Celeste coming back to put an end to this intolerable suffering.
It was neither.
The pilot of the Avatar looked down on the dying Sailor Mars and
felt responsible for what happened to her.
"Forgive me, Rei. I couldnt find her until she did this to you, used
her powers. I`ll make this right, I promise." he said.
He unfolded a medical blanket he brought with him and covered Mars as
much as he could to prevent any further infection of her wounds. He
picked her up in his arms and felt her fleeting existence as she
clutched on to life.
"I promise."
* * *
Thump thump.
And so Rei floated barely conscious in the dermal regeneration
liquid in a state of accelerated healing. No earth medecine could
have done so much for her thrid degree burns in so little time.
Thump thump.
The powerful and ancient Technuma Saturn watched over his medical
scanners, waiting for signs of improvement in his patient`s
condition. He had hoped to avert such a disaster but found himself
powerless to prevent what destiny predicted would eventually
happen. Rei was paying for his failure.
Thump thump.
"Your subdermal layer is completely regenerated, now. Only a few
more days and you`ll be healed." he said.
Thump thump.
* * *
"Still no news about Rei." said Ami.
It had already been a week since her disapearance. Never before had
she been away for so long; she didn`t even call to say where she was,
which made the scouts imagine the worse. The police had her
description, but nothing turned up so far, not even the smallest
clue to her whereabouts.
"I`m so afraid for her, Ami!" said Usagi.
Minako hugged Usagi to reassure her. "We all are." she said.
They all missed Rei very much; things had not been the same without
her around.
A knock at the door disturbed this sad moment. It was Yuuichiro.
"Sorry to barge in like this, girls, but there`s someone who says
that she has to see you right away and that it`s very important.
Should I let her in?" he said in a dull lifeless tone.
The scouts had been suspecting for months now that he was secretly in
love with Rei. If that was true, he was certainly suffering a lot.
Yuuichiro did manage to keep a strong face nonetheless.
"Show her in, please." said Ami.
With a really shy expression on her face, Celeste walked in.
"I`ll go see my friends around town, maybe they heard something."
said Yuuichiro before leaving.
The girls noticed how tall Celeste was; almost as tall as Makoto. She
introduced herself.
"Hello, my name is Celeste. If I`m not mistaken, you must be Minako,
Ami, Makoto and Usagi, right?"
She guessed correctly and intrigued the girls.
"Last night I had a dream. Well, more like a vision actually." she
explained. "I was in a great temple with many gold torches burning
around me. A priestess with long black hair came to me saying that
the power of mars had been vanquished in her and that it had been
bestowed on me so that I may replace her as Sailor Mars. She told
me to seek the other sailor scouts in this place and revealed your
real names. She also said she was sorry to leave her friends
behind..."
She took out of her purse the singed luck charm.
"I found it next to my bed, this morning, along with a
transformation tool to become Sailor Mars." she said.
"I can`t believe it... Rei is... really... gone." said Usagi as
tears rolled down her face.
"We`ll never forget you, Rei." barely managed to say Makoto.
Amy couldn`t talk at all; her usual countenance and restraint just
broke down in an emotional tsunami as she cried out her pain.
Minako didn`t say anything either; she just held Usagi even closer,
trying to bring comfort to her friend as well as to herself.
"I`m so sorry for your loss..." said Celeste, her eyes filled with
fake sorrow.
In her head, however, she was smiling like a maniac. Celeste was
playing the scouts like a well-tuned violin and would have no trouble
winning their trust.
"How are we going to tell Rei`s grandfather?" asked Makoto who was
still trying to get a grip on her emotions.
"What about poor Yuuichiro?" asked Minako.
* * *
Technuma Saturn sat in the cockpit of the Avatar, occupying but one
of the many pilot seats. It had been many centuries since all seats
were used at once by the Technum guardians. At that very moment,
this thought was far from his mind as he was working to stop yet
another surge in the ship`s power systems.
"Having hiccups again, old girl? Let me take care of that for you."
he said in a paternalistic fashion.
All over the ship, lights were blinking on and off for a while. This
light show woke up Rei who was lying in a bed of what seemed to be
some kind of recovery room. Her body was stiff and sore, but she had
no injuries that she could see. This was odd because she distinctly
remembered being torched alive. Even her hair had grown back to its
full lenght! Her mouth was filled with the bitter-sweet taste of the
dermal regeneration fluid and she found it rather pleasant.
Her wounds healed and injuries tended, Sailor Mars came back from
what almost was her tragic death.
On a chair next to the bed, she saw a folded sapphire blue uniform
waiting for her. It was at that point she realized her sailor scout
uniform went up in smoke and that she wasn`t wearing anything under
the bedsheets- quite embarassing, actually. She picked up the
uniform and reckognized the symbol of saturn sewn on the chest and
right arm. When she unfolded it, she noticed it was way too large
for her. Hell, Mamoru wasn`t that tall himself! A small note fell
from a pocket. It said:
"Sorry about the size, it`s all I have."
Rei slipped in the oversized suit and rolled the legs and sleeves
until she could see her hands and feet emerge. This wasn`t the
greatest choice of clothes she ever had, but she could hardly walk
around naked, could she? She left the room and took a coridor,
unsure of where she was going. Wherever she was, it certainly looked
like some kind of spaceship. She went around for a minute or so
before she smelled a delicious odour of bacon; she hadn`t eaten in
what seemed like days and was famished, so she followed the smell all
the way to what looked like a mess hall.
A tall man was sitting at a metallic table, eating his meal. He was
wearing a blue uniform identical to the one she had found next to
her bed, except it fitted him like a glove. Rei assumed he was the
one who lent him the uniform.
"Ah, Rei, you`re awake!" said the man as he noticed her come in.
"For a moment there, I was afraid you wouldn`t make it. Come sit
down, I`ll fix you breakfast. It`s almost midnight, but seeing how
you skipped quite a few meals recently it`s best to start with
something not too overly elaborate to get your stomach back on
track."
Rei`s stomach growled a loud positive response to the suggestion.
She sat down as he got started on fixing her meal.
"Hum... did I dream being toasted alive? I mean, my skin is all
right and my hair looks fine." she asked.
"That was no dream, I can tell you. You had third degree burns over
most of your body; the dermal regeneration fluid took care of that
with the additional side effect of having your hair grow sixty times
faster than normal. You`re fine now, you won`t even have any scars."
he explained as he cracked a couple of eggs to fry alongside a few
slices of bacon. "The only downside is that ALL of your body hair
grew faster; it`s just like you haven`t shaved your legs in months."
he added.
"You know me but I don`t know you; last time, it got me fried."
said Rei.
"I`m Technuma Saturn." he said, presenting Rei with an appetizing
plate. "Eat up, Sailor Mars. You need it after your extended
treatment."
"Who are you and why are you here?" Rei asked as she dug in.
"I`m a Technum guardian, the last one to be exact. We had the ability
to feel and control a force called the Technum. Its flux binds the
solar system together, creates and sustains life. To ensure the
security of the moon kingdom a thousand years ago, Queen Serenity
asked us a favor: for each one of us to select a special girl and
train her to tap and use the power of Technum. Being in her debt,
we accepted. Their training was long and hard, so difficult that
not even the memory loss of reincarnation would alter their skills.
They became the SAILOR SCOUTS!"
"Wait a minute!" interrupted Rei. "If EVERY guardian trained a
scout, where are Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and... Saturn?"
"You need not know this at the present. All that matters is that
after a long training, they were ready and defended the moon kingdom
with great distinction... until one of them commited a terrible
crime."
"Which one?"
"It was Celeste, who had been trained to be Sailor Mars. She
attempted to drain the essence of both Sailor Jendra and Kitechnum
Jendra, killing them in the process."
"But there`s no planet Jendra!" observed Rei.
"No, not any more. When she tried using her newfound power, she
instead released it all at once; it`s Technum flow destabilized
beyond tolerable levels, Jendra was destroyed and turned into the
asteroid belt located between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars." he
explained.
"THAT`S AWFUL!"
"Yes, it is. When Celeste was captured and brought to justice,
Queen Serenity would not hear of a death sentence, so the disgraced
Sailor Mars was condemned to float in deep space, trapped in a
derelict ship. afterwards, you were chosen to replace her. Never
again was Celeste`s name mentionned in the Queen`s court who
considered you to be the TRUE Sailor Mars. At that moment, Queen
Serenity had us all take an oath of non-interference so that we
never tempt anyone else with our great power."
Rei swallowed another bite and kept on pressing him with questions.
"Didn`t you say earlier you were the last one alive?"
"True. While I was making sure that Celeste`s ship stayed on course,
Queen Beryl attacked the moon- the guardians were there when she
released Queen Metallia. Suddenly, I was all alone in the universe.
I floated around for all this time until I realized her prison ship
had left orbit and crashed on earth. I figured she`d want her old
job back and I was right. I`d like to appologize for not reaching
you in time."
"You mentionned an *extended treatment* a few minutes ago, how long
did it last?"
"A week, which is remarkably short for the extent of your wounds."
"A WEEK?! How am I going to explain this to grandpa and my friends?"
"To your grandfather, you could pretend it was amnesia. It`s a
plausible story that would pretty much cover your week AND save
you a lot of complicated explaining. To the sailor scouts, just
tell the truth! They`ll understand."
Another power surge made the lights blink again. This time, an
alarm went off as well.
"The cloak is unstable- we could be detected!" said Technuma.
"Where are we anyway?" asked Rei.
"An abandonned amusement park; the only place I could land my
starship discreetly. If someone sees the cloak go off, we`ll be
found for sure."
* * *
By some strange twist of fate, Celeste was passing in front of the
old amusement park gates when she saw the Avatar`s cloaking system
flicker. She smiled wickedly, for luck was with her tonight. Not
only had the police not been able to identify Rei`s charred corpse-
who hadn`t been reported as murdered yet- but now the last
remaining witness of her past crimes was right at her fingertips.
"MARS STAR POWER... MAKEUP!"
Rings of fire circled around her and she transformed into Sailor
Mars; she was ready to silence the Technum guardian once and
for all.
"Time to reach out and TORCH someone." she whispered to herself.
* * *
Leaving Rei behind in the mess hall to finish her meal, Technuma
Saturn went to the cockpit to inspect the engineering subsystem
control programs. One of them had to be the root of the recurring
problem. He was so busy going through the various submenus that he
didn`t notice his security monitors picking up on the intruder
making her way to the cockpit.
At the same time, Rei finished her plate and decided to see if
Technuma needed any help with his repairs. Ami would have surely
known what to do to fix the ship, but she wasn`t there. She had a
little difficulty locating the cockpit at first, however the
efficiency-oriented layout of the Avatar helped her a lot. Rei
was shocked to see the guardian unconscious in his seat, knocked
out form a severe blow to the back of his head.
"Technuma, wake up! WAKE UP!" she screamed as she shaked him hard.
The computer was going hyper and was counting down to some
unidentified time-delayed function. Slowly opening his eyes, he
looked at Rei and whispered "It was Celeste, wasn`t it? I should
have killed her when I had the chance."
"How could you know she was going to blindside you like this?"
asked Rei.
"I mean a thousand years ago, after she killed Laurella, Sailor
Jendra. After she murdered Kitechnum Jendra. After she destroyed
planet Jendra. When I finally captured her, you pleaded me not to
kill her, to give her a chance at a fair trial."
"Why would I have done that? She was so dangerous and had taken
so many lives already..."
"Because despite her sins, you did not want your older sister to
die." said Technuma.
Rei didn`t know what to say. Technuma analysed his computer readings
and looked rather grim.
"She rigged a self-destruct sequence in the ship`s core." he said.
"How much damage can that do?"
"She must have thought this ship has a standard fusion drive which
could flatten a few city blocks, but she`s wrong. The Avatar uses
a prototype transfusion core that could wipe out the entire city
and most likely ignite the oxygen in a chain reaction that will burn
out the atmosphere."
"That`s bad. Can you stop it?"
"No, the overload sequence is too far ahead to be turned back. You`ll
have to leave the ship now- I`ll take it into the upper atmosphere
where it can explode without destroying the whole planet. Go, go, go!
There`s less than four minutes left." he said.
"Thank you for saving my life." said Rei.
"It was my responsability to correct my mistake- but it was also a
great honor to help you. Leave now, Sailor Mars, you must stop
Celeste yourself!"
* * *
Seconds after Rei stepped off the Avatar, it took off in a hurry
and blasted up in a straight line into the highest reaches of the
atmosphere, further than the highest artificial satellite`s orbit.
It became a small bright point in the sky, indistinguishable from
the surrounding stars.
There was a blinding flash followed by utter darkness.
When Rei was able to see again, she saw the carcass of the Avatar
re-entering the atmosphere as a flaming meteorite, a final farewell
to the heroic Technum guardians of the silver millenium.
The asphalt under Rei`s feet was pretty cold, making her wish
Technuma would have had some footwear roughly her size to go with
the oversized clothes he had given her. She then remembered she
could get a perfect fit with her sailor uniform.
"MARS STAR POWER... MAKEUP!" she screamed.
Blazing rings of fire surrounded Rei, eclipsing the blue uniform
with the red scout attire of Sailor Mars. Fortunately for Rei,
the magical transformation process had not been compromised by
her previous incineration at Celeste`s hands.
A voice all too familiar came from behind her as she transformed.
"No, you`re dead! I destroyed you!" said a fear stricken Celeste.
"Wrong, Celeste. You only killed yourself by staining your soul with
the blood of others. Your actions are inexcusable and justice will
be served!" replied Rei with conviction.
Celeste panicked and ran off with Rei in pursuit.
* * *
"No doubt about it." said Ami, her attention focused on her active
laptop. "That explosion up there was some kind of space vehicule,
and so was the strange power reading I got earlier. I have the
origin of the signal pinpointed, I think we should go see if there
are any passengers left behind."
"Okay, Ami, you go ahead while I gather the other scouts. We`ll
meet you in a few minutes." said Makoto who was having a study
session with Ami at the time. She was glad for this interruption
as the session was running really late; was there no limit to Ami`s
capacity to study?
* * *
Knowing she couldn`t run all night, Celeste tried to hide by
entering one of the abandonned attractions. Rei was able to discern
her go in despite the darkness, so she followed her. She quickly
located a light switch and flipped it on; in the now very bright
room, a hundred mirrors gave a thousand reflections of both sailor
scouts.
"Celeste, I know you`re here. Why not take advantage of these
mirrors to look upon the blood marks on your soul?"
"Because I would only see you, how you cheated me, robbed all I ever
was! No one deserved it more, no one was dedicated like I was!"
The sound of their voices bounced around in chaotic patterns, making
it impossible to locate each other amidst the images.
"It was your insatiable lust for power that caused your fall and
pushed you to cold blooded murder." observed Rei as she tried to
find Celeste.
"Maybe so... but at least one of us has the guts to get what she
wants!" said Celeste before sending a fireball to Rei, thinking she
finally figured wich one was real. "MARS FIRE IGNITE!"
The fireball impacted one of the many mirrors; it was instantly
smashed by the intense heat.
"Missed." clamly said Rei, her image reflected by dozens of mirrors
from all angles possible and impossible.
Celeste fired again, again, again still, breaking a shining silver
surface each time.
"Heed the mighty call of karmic justice, Celeste, hear it call your
name!" said Rei, her voice so calm that it was almost frightning.
Unable to contain her boiling rage anymore, Celeste screamed and
unleashed all of her fiery power in one single thundrous roar,
showering the entire hall of mirrors with scorching hellfire. All
of the remaining mirrors were shattered at once, sending thousands
of lethal glass shards flying in the air.
Then silence returned, dreadful song of death.
* * *
Guided by Ami`s computer readings, the scouts arrived at the old
amusement park minus the new Sailor Mars who was nowhere to be found.
They saw the burning hall of mirrors.
"What happened here?" asked Sailor Moon.
"Could Sailor Mars possibly be here... IN THERE?" wondered Sailor
Jupiter.
"Someone`s coming out!" said Sailor Mercury.
Out of the searing fire came two silhouettes, one carrying the other
in her arms. When they got close enough, they reckognized Rei; she
was holding the lifeless body of the girl who would have replaced
her at any cost, her body torn by a dozen deadly shards. Celeste
had lost too much blood to sustain her earthly existence and had
passed away.
"Rei... you`re still alive... but how?" said the astonished Usagi.
"She tried to destroy me to regain what she lost by her own
disregard for life. A lifetime ago, she was my sister, a destroyer
of worlds. Now she`s a lost soul who will spend eons atoning her
blood-stained existence." explained Rei.
The scouts` joy over Rei`s return was marred by the death of Celeste;
they had barely begun to know her and she seemed so nice from what
little they knew of her.
"She will need a proper funeral. She deserves this much." added Rei.
* * *
Two days later, Celeste was put to her final rest. Rei was there,
along with the scouts, Mamoru and her good friend Yuuichiro. The
pouring rain, the gloomy sky, the black clothes, the headstones...
this depressing setting was exacting a heavy toll on Sailor Mars.
After all, she`d been so close to ending up here herself...
Usagi must have felt it because she moved close to Rei and gave
her a warm hug.
"You know, Rei, when Celeste told us you were dead, I felt like
my whole world was collapsing." she said.
"Hey, you`ll always need someone to push you in the right direction
every now and then. That`s why I`m here." said Rei, a hint of a
smile on her lips.
"What`s that supposed to mean?!?" replied Usagi, a big smile on her
face.
* * *
EPILOGUE...
In the earth`s upper atmosphere, some junk pieces of the Avatar
floated around in nearly total weightlessness. One of them, a long,
black, unmarked cylinder emitted a homing signal undetectable by
human communication systems.
The starship Banshee decloaked next to it, picked it up, recloaked
and left.
After a few hours travel, it docked on a secret starbase stationned
near a moon of saturn. The cylinder was unloaded by the pilot of the
starship, a deceptively young looking black haired woman whose ruby
red uniform bore the crest of mars. She opened the cleverly
disguised escape pod and awoke its passenger.
"Wake up, Technuma, that`s enough deep sleep for now!" said Technara
Mars.
"Well, hello Technara. It`s been a few weeks since I`ve been away
from saturn station dealing with that Celeste situation, how have
things been going in my absence?"
"Like usual. What about your mission? Were you able to keep our
secret from Sailor Mars?"
"Yes and no. I had to reveal myself after Celeste almost killed her,
so I told her you were all dead and then faked my own death. Celeste
tried to destroy the Avatar and I could have averted her amateurish
attempt easily, but it was too good an opportunity to preserve our
secret to pass up. Besides, the Avatar had fifteen hundred years of
continuous service already, so it was close to reaching the end of
its useful life anyhow."
"Did Sailor Mars destroy Celeste?"
"Yes, I felt the Technum fluctuate just before I went into deep
sleep. She`s gone for good. You trained a fantastic sailor scout,
Technara."
"So did you, Technuma."
"I wouldn`t say that, you know what happened to Sailor Saturn."
"You shouldn`t worry, the scouts can handle that problem when they
face it. The Prime is confident everything will turn out fine.
Speaking of him, he`s expecting you in his meditation chamber."
"I`ll be right there, I just want to drop by the memorial room
first."
* * *
The memorial room was a remembrance gift to the one Technum guardian
who ever truly died, Kitechnum Jendra. So was the great secret of
the guardians: if one of them dies, the Technum flux is so affected
by it that this guardian`s planet is immediately destroyed. Queen
Serenity understood this only too well, this is why she asked them
to remain out of sight to prevent another greedy individual to try
and steal their power.
A huge statue of Kitechnum Jendra and his scout student Laurella
along with an accurate map of the solar system that included planet
Jendra dominated the room. At the bottom of the statue was ingraved
a warning:
NEVER AGAIN
The guardians` lives were primordial to the survival of the planets,
but no life was quite as important as that of the Prime, for his
life was linked to the source of all Technum, the sun. His death
would turn the sun nova within seconds, swallowing the entire solar
system in fiery cosmic shockwaves.
The guardians, for all their strenght and powers, could never risk
themselves to defend the solar system. That is why they trained the
greatest defenderd the universe had ever known, the SAILOR SCOUTS.
"Maybe the Prime is right after all, everything will be just
fine..." thought Technuma to himself.
The End.