By Yohann DeSabrais
a.k.a. Technuma Saturn
Those of you who`ve read any amount of Sailor Moon fanfiction know
that every author has its own style, each located somewhere
in-between the two ends of the spectrum wich ranges from unaltered
japanese names and wordings to entirely americanized.
One of the most important aspects of this variety is the designation
of the heroes themselves... are they the Sailor SENSHI (the original
japanese designation- it means warrior) or are they Sailor SCOUTS
(american "translation") ?
From the start, I`ve chosen american names and designations- up to
the point where I made all of my stories into a huge continuing
universe where I chose to use japanese names. So far I`ve kept on
calling the girls scouts, but I`d like to change that. To this
effect, several options present themselves to me:
a) Go back over everything I`ve ever written and change each
occurance of SCOUT with SENSHI (unnecessarily long and tedious)
b) Arbitrarily start calling them Sailor Senshi without a valid
reason and no explanation (like THAT would make any sense...)
c) Have some fun with the idea and come up with something that`s
actually ORIGINAL
As we all know, the opposite equivalent of options a) and b)
were used by the american translators at DIC when SAILOR MOON
came to the US... with a generous amount of censorship and
mutilation of the original story. I`d hate to be associated in
any way with these people, so I decided to go with option c)
Stay tuned, people, something big is coming your way.
* * *
PROLOGUE
Sleeping uneasily, Tsukino Usagi tried to get as much rest as she
could knowing well that she needed to be ready for her first day of
college; after years of oversleeping through grade school and high
school, she was determined to wake up on time for a change. To make
sure she would, Luna was sleeping on her bed next to her- she was
certain that Usagi would need help to be dragged out of bed once
again.
Through nervous dreams of arriving to school late and missing the
most important exam of the year (a recurring dream so many students
have...) she saw a flash of light and heard a voice calling her
name in the distance; she was late again! She woke up in a
panic... only to find out it was still three o`clock and the sun
was a few hours away from rising. Where did this light come from?
On her dresser, she saw a faint glow of light, the same light that
had woken her up; it lasted only an instant, then died down. Only
one thing could make that sort of light by itself.
"Why did my locket glow like this? The silver crystal hasn`t acted
up in weeks..." she thought.
She looked at the locket for a few minutes, but nothing more
happened. Strange, she thought.
"What`s going on?" asked the sleepy Luna whom Usagi had just
disturbed.
"Nothing, Luna, just go back to sleep."
* * *
CYCLES OF LIFE: EPISODE 14
DESCENT INTO DARKNESS, PART 1: FALLING FROM GRACE
The dawning sun hit the windows and sneaked its way through the
pulled shades and right into Usagi`s eyes. As she woke up, her old
reflexes kicked in and she panicked:
"HAAA, I`m late, I`m late! I`m so..." she screamed. She then looked
at her alarm clock and noticed it wasn`t set to ring for another
ten minutes.
"... NOT late!" she finished.
"Force of habit, Usagi?" asked Luna.
"Looks like it."
For the first time in recorded history, Usagi actually had time to
dress up slowly and chew her breakfast instead of just swallowing
it whole. To make this day more extraordinary, she didn`t even
argue with her brother with whom she was getting along much better
since the past few weeks.
"It just occured to me that you two haven`t fought in over a month."
said their mother Ikuko. "Could this have anything to do with
Usagi`s friend, Laurella? She is a very cute girl, after all..." she
added, giving her son a big "I know about you two" smile. He turned
red as a tomato. At this point, he would have given everything for a
new topic of conversation.
"Better get ready for class, Shingo, miss Haruna can get pretty ugly
when you`re late. I speak from first hand experience, you know."
said Usagi, cleverly steering away the attention from her brother.
"Hey, you`re right. Better make sure I have all my books ready and
my uniform on straight!" he replied, dashing out of the kitchen. "I
owe you one." he whispered to his sister as he ran by.
"You should get ready as well, young lady, you don`t want to be late
on your first day." said Ikuko.
"I`m ready, mom, don`t worry. I got up early so I could get dressed
the way I want; it`s a nice change from the high school uniform!"
replied Usagi.
"Oh, my little Usagi is going to college..." said her mother, tears
forming in her eyes.
"Please don`t cry, mom..." pleaded Usagi to no avail as her mother
hugged her and cried.
Luna, eating from her bowl in a corner of the dinning room, had to
bite her lips to keep from laughing out loud.
* * *
As a traveller goes thorugh the parallel universes, few places will
scar his psyche in the way the tenth sphere can.
A dark land, sheltered by even darker starless skies, made of huge
tracts of barren, scorched land with a few inhabitable spots.
Survival is possible in these rare pockets where the land is a
little less hostile, though no one would live there by choice. As
if it were not enough, violent storms permanently raged across these
ravaged hills and mountains, even if no clouds were to be seen. The
powerful weather system was just chaotic enough to create insanely
strong lightning bolts out of a clear sky. It would take someone who
is both terribly powerful and not quite mentally stable to desire
living atop one of these thunder-ravaged peaks.
That someone was the descendant of a great demonic dynasty, Lady
Daemonfang, whose ancestors had forged a fabulous empire from this
blighted land and created its stronghold atop the highest mountain
they controlled. On that spot they built the Changraloor fortress,
which Daemonfang lovingly called home.
Much like an iceberg -which this world had none of anyway- the
fortress`s visible exterior was nothing more than a small portion
of the entire structure. Many passages dug deep within the ground`s
entrails, going so deep that a few of the deepest chambers were
actually kept warm by the underground volcanic activity, a technique
known to the tenth sphere`s architects for many millenia. Within
these lowest chambers, the ancestral crypt of Daemonfang`s family
rested far from view and held many secrets wich the entire
multiverse would rather forget altogether.
One of these secrets, Lady Daemonfang wanted for herself to use in a
war that had cost her too much already. She would now seek payback
for the terrible losses the sailor scouts inflicted to her army. Due
to the time lag between the first and tenth sphere, over two years
had passed on her side while only a few months had ellapsed on
earth, giving the demon lord plenty of time to rebuild her forces.
Now was the time to heal her wounded pride.
Her lantern`s light faintly lit up the gloomy passage she walked
down; after much waiting, she was about to get what she wanted. At
the end of the deepest, darkest passage of the mountain she made it
to a pair of huge steel doors; from the amount of dust collected on
the floor, it had been many years since anyone had walked through
this doorway.
"In the name of the mighty Mephistofeles, I command you to open!!!"
she screamed. Slowly and with much noise, the huge doors obeyed,
opening to let in the wicked queen. She walked in with all the
grace and elegance a twisted demon was capable of, followed by the
duo of bronze clad knightmares who had enough courage to follow
their mistress into the family crypt.
So great was the treasure garded in this room that it warranted its
own room with very strong doors and even stronger guardians: as
Daemonfang entered the room, twelve mold covered statue surrounding
an ancient metal chest began to stir and groan. Their eyes glowing
bright green, the gargoyles moved towards the terrified knightmares
and the utterly calm demon. She rose her clawed hand and commanded
them to stand down.
"I am Daemonfang, daughter of Vennomklaw, son of Zurenthril! The
rightful owner of the great weapon of Lord Mephistofeles orders you
to stand down!" she said in a commanding voice. Without a word, the
gargoyles obeyed.
"You two will pick up this chest and bring it to the throne room
where I will be waiting. Make it snappy, I have plans for this
weapon." she ordered to the knightmares, then turned back and left.
All alone with the growling gargoyles, the soldiers picked up the
amazingly heavy chest hurried back to the throne room, unwilling to
spend a single instant more with the terrifying stonelike creatures.
* * *
When the time came for Usagi to choose a college, there were many to
select from. Unfortunately for her, she wasn`t so fortunate as the
rest of her friends who knew many of those in their class; knowing
no one who applied to her college, she was alone in a huge new world.
She would have to make new friends unless she wanted to go through
her studies in a lonely manner, but she`d always been good at that.
Having gotten out of bed on time, she had plenty of time to take the
bus downtown and get to her college with time to spare. The front
lawn of the building had been turned into a beautiful park many
years before; over time, it had grown into a warm, restful place,
so she sat down on a bench and enjoyed the cool morning breeze,
watching as dozens of students walk by, both freshmen and seniors.
At this point, a young girl arrived on campus, attracting everyone`s
attention, especially Usagi. Tall and slender, she looked like she
was the daughter of a japanese woman and an american man, judging
from her superbly chiseled features, silky skin, emerald green eyes
and dark black hair. The silver mane brushing her forehead gave her
a distinctive elegance that complemented superbly her magnetic aura.
One look at her and you just had to get to know this striking
beauty.
"Wow, she`s really amazing!" thought Usagi. "She`s incredible and...
she`s coming my way!"
Usagi was right about that; the girl came straight for her bench and
sat next to her. She gazed at Usagi and looked as though she was
straining her memory. "Excuse me, you seem familiar, have we met
before?" she finally asked.
"No, I`d remember someone gorgeous as you." replied Usagi, slightly
embarassed.
"Oh, you`re too kind... You`re quite the looker yourself, I`ll bet
you have to beat off the hordes of boys with a stick."
"That`s not necessary. I`ve already made my choice..." said Usagi,
showing her beautiful engagement ring. "He`s the nicest guy I`ve
ever known, great looking, too!"
"Does he treat you right?" wondered the girl.
"Like a princess!" said Usagi, giggling. "What about you, how`s your
boyfriend?"
"I don`t have one yet, but I hope on finding one soon. Love is very
important for me, but I haven`t been around long enough for that
yet. I arrived in Tokyo just three days ago, and it`s been a mad
race for my dad and me, finding an appartment and getting me
registered in time for class. He`s had to go back home with my
mother for some medical emergency, so I`ll be living by myself for
a while "
"So, your father is some kind of doctor?" asked Usagi.
"Yeah, he is." said the girl, pulling a class schedule from one of
her books. "I have to go, I have math in fifteen minutes"
Usagi peeked at the schedule and noticed it virtualy matched her
own, save a class or two.
"It seems we`ll be seeing a lot of each other... hum, my name is
Tsukino Usagi, what`s yours?"
"I`m Robin Redwing, pleased to meet you."
* * *
Carved out of the mountain`s sheer basalt foundation, the Changraloor
fortress throne greatly increased the commanding aura of whoever sat
on it. This is exactly why Lady Daemonfang liked to be seen there as
much as possible, wether she was declaring war on another nation,
pronouncing a sentence of death against a traitor or simply getting
her claws sharpened by one of her slaves, as she was doing right
now. Her knightmares were taking a long time to come back, but she
was in no hurry. She learned years ago that patience was a virtue
no leader could do without.
"They`re taking too much time, it`s an insult to their mistress."
claimed Akuma Kamen, her new husband who stood by her side. She was
really happy on how her black magic experiment had turned out; he
was powerful as a darkbeast, cunning like a hellfox.
Most of all, he had the face of Sailor Moon`s boyfriend, the
greatest way she ever imagined of mocking her enemy.
"It`s impatience that got my darling Ronmar, your predecessor,
killed in the first place. You should learn from his mistake in
order not to repeat it. Besides, my trinket is well worth waiting
for, you`ll see." she said. "Somebody get me a cup of blood wine!"
"An entire army of knightmares failed to destroy the warrior girls
of earth the first time; asuming that the little maggot Ithzhanh
will even manage to get support from the northern kitling tribes,
it strikes me that our troops will be marching to their doom, no
matter what precious trinket you bring along!" argued Akuma Kamen,
flaring his fangs.
"It all depends HOW it is used, as you will see. Tell me, have you
ever heard of the chains of Mephistofeles?" asked Daemonfang, picking
up the bloodwine cup her servant handed her.
"No, I can`t say I have."
"Your subliminal teaching is not quite as perfect as I had hoped, it
seems... no matter, I`ll tell you myself. Nine generations ago, my
ancestor forged a great weapon, a weapon so powerful that it allowed
him to conquer a huge part of the storm lands in a single night! The
might of the Changraloor rulers has been resting on possession of
these mighty chains ever since. The remarkable power of Mephistofeles
has been somewhat diluted down along the centuries, unfortunately,
and they can only be used one time every decade. This matters little,
however, as they hold enough power so tip the scales of virtually any
power conflict by allowing its user to destroy the leader of any
opposing legion, regardless of his or her strenght." she explained.
"Is that how Vennomklaw killed his enemy Grimlorr the immortal?"
wondered the male demon.
"Exactly."
The two courageous knightmare entered the throne room at last,
carrying the unnaturaly heavy chest containing the legendary
chains. They were quite relieved to drop their cargo after hauling
it from the deepest pits of the fortress.
"Thank you, my loyal guards. You are indeed very strong for carrying
such a burden all the way here. Would you please open it for me,
before you... leave?" she asked sweetly, repressing an evil laugh
at the thought of what would happen next.
* * *
Leaving her geography class, Rei caught up with Ami in her college`s
cafeteria; even though they went to the same institution, they did
not as much as share a single class. They had indeed little time
during the day to meet up and chat.
"Hi, Ami, what brilliant piece of work are you doing now?" she asked.
"I`m programming my laptop to follow the nexus cycles so I can
predict the moments where Daemonfang might try to open another
portal. From my latest observation, it could be anytime in the next
two or three days. After that, she`ll have to wait another week;
from that point on, the nexus goes into a recessive formation that
will keep it shut for at least sixty or seventy years. Keeping track
of the time lag effect in the nexus, it`ll be at least five hundred
years on her side before another portal can be opened!" she
answered.
"That`s more info than I was expecting..." commented Rei.
"How simple do you want this explanation?"
"So that Usagi can understand it when I call her later this
afternoon."
"Oh dear god..." blurted out Ami. "In plain english it means that
she must strike before mid-september unless she wants to wait a
very long time to exact her revenge on us." she then said.
"Thank you. I`ll warn the others first chance I get. Now rest your
brain, for crying out loud, you have neurology class in ten
minutes!" said Rei who then left the cafeteria after picking up a
cup of coffee.
Ami looked at the monitor of her blue laptop and stared at the
energy waves rippling from the waning nexus who would soon close
itself shut for good. She closed the small computer, thinking she`d
be glad when this demonic mess could be put behind and forgotten. As
she picked up the laptop, she took a moment to stare at the
alchemical symbol of Mercury adorning its ocean blue casing. The
golden paint had, over the years, been worn down to a dull
yellowish grey.
So much time had passed already, so many evil beings had been
destroyed and still they kept coming strong, like there was an evil
creature faucet somewhere and whoever was in charge had forgot to
turn it off...
* * *
"How much time to open this portal yet? Mother is getting impatient,
and when she gets impatient, my whip handle gets itchy!!!" said
Ithzhanh to the royal mage in charge of all magical operations. He
was lying about his mother getting impatient, of course, because
she rarely did. As royal overseer of Changraloor, however, Ithzhanh
was authorized to kill a whole lot of people if they didn`t work
fast enough to his liking. Few people ever worked THAT fast and a
whole lot of people often DID get killed this way.
"Tell my lordship that the portal will be ready in time, as will all
the other doorways and the nexean cube. Your constantly asking
questions, overseer, WILL result in delays unless it stops right
now." answered Traxis. As grand magus, he knew damn well that his
life was one the few that was considered unexpendable to
Daemonfang`s eyes... as long as he kept satisfying her requests,
which he had so far. "Now leave me alone, and stop stinking up my
ritual area with your stench of carrion!" he added.
"You better not fail us, wizard, otherwise I`ll be having your
rotting corpse for lunch next month." grumbled the foul little
demon as he pathetically stomped away.
A pair of blood curdling screams welcomed him as he entered the
throne room. He smiled wickedly as he remembered what day this was.
His vile mind rejoyced as he laid eyes on the seemingly alive chains
that were shooting out of the open chest, mercilessly grabbing and
strangling the two knightmares who hadn`t expected the chains of
Mephistofeles to be so vicious. They gurgled in a vain effort to
scream again.
"Has it been ten years already since the last time you unleashed the
chains, mother? My, my, how time passes." commented the disgusting
little creature.
"I thought you`d enjoy seeing the chains in action again. You can
have their bodies if you wish." said Daemonfang, who dared not even
imagine her son as he would feast on the fallen guards.
"Was this really necessary? If those chains need to feed before you
can use them, couldn`t we just toss them a prisoner or two? We
certainly could spare that scum rather than two of our best
soldiers!" asked her husband.
"The chains are picky when it comes to their prey. They will refuse
to attack anything that will not put up a decent struggle; anemic
prisoners can barely stand up. That`s not a bad thing, having
dungeons that can break the strongest of wills, but it`s useless
to feed my precious chains." commented the she-demon.
"The portals will be ready on time. I saw to that, mother." said
Ithzhanh with pride.
"Good. I still have a few more details to take care of and I will
need all of the remaining hours ahead of me to do it, too. Come to
my chambers, Akuma, I will require your talents for this." said
Daemonfang, taking his hand and leading him to her private chambers.
Ithzhanh looked at his mother and how she lovingly gazed at this
handsome demon she had created; the loathsome son of Daemonfang
despised Akuma Kamen as he was a direct threat to his plans for
claiming the throne of Changraloor for himself in the near future.
He hated him even more for possessing every charm that nature had
so unjustly denied him, for making him the twisted eater of corpses
he was, instead of the handsome creature Akuma had been created as.
The carrion eating beast had to do something about it; it was in
his blood to be both vindictive and underhanded.
* * *
With their monday classes lasting only until noon, Usagi and Robin
decided to go spend their afternoon together; Usagi felt like she
had known Robin her whole life and had really liked her from the
first moment they talked earlier that day. Although Robin had been
in town only a few days, she seemed already comfortable in her new
hometown.
"So, Usagi, did you give any thought to that idea I had? We have
plenty of time ahead, and we don`t really need more than an hour
or two to do it..." asked Robin.
"Well, I must confess I thought about doing it a few times
before... my friend Minako has been on my case to try it for weeks
now; it worked out great for her when she did it, but I don`t think
everyone would agree with that kind of radical change." said Usagi.
"You can`t spend your whole life worrying about other people, live
for yourself! Trust me, you`ll wonder why you haven`t done it
sooner. I need to do it myself, so we can do it together; it`ll
be fun, you can count on it!" urged Robin.
"Oh, what the hell, I`ll try it at least once in my life!" said
Usagi. "Come with me, Robin, and I know a great place to do it!"
* * *
An hour and a half later, the girls came out of a hair salon with
their hair done in style. Robin had the lower part of her head
buzzed clean with the rest of her head shortened to match in a very
modern look; Usagi`s hair wasn`t quite that short, but her ponytails
were definitely gone for good. This new style had matured her of a
few years and she looked that much sexier for it.
"Oh my head feels so much lighter... I feel liberated, I can feel
the wind through my hair!" she said, twisting her head side to side
with no fear of having her hair hitting something as she had done
so often over the years.
"I told you so, didn`t I?" said Robin who rubbed the small of her
neck wich could now breathe freely.
"My friends are going to be so surprised... my hair is almost as
short as Ami`s!"
At this moment, Usagi`s watch beeped loudly; her disguised
communicator was not something she cared to explain to her new
friend. She placed her hand behind her head in a gesture of
embarassment, hiding the watch at the same time.
"That`s just my pager." she blurted. "If you`ll excuse me, I have a
phone call to make."
"I really must be going myself, so I`ll see you tomorrow. Bye,
Usagi!"
"Bye!" said Usagi, relieved of not having to lie more than she had
to. She quickly found a lonely spot and answered her call. "Yeah,
I`m here, what`s the matter?"
"Minako, here, I`m calling to say that Ami`s been registering
intense portal forming activity throughout the city. She thinks
that the nexus closing down is distorting her detector readings,
but it`s definitely going to open in the park close to your
college. Say, Usagi, have you done something different with your
hair?" asked Minako who had trouble seeing through her com-watch`s
tiny screen.
"Yeah, a friend from class talked me into it. Combined with your
persistent encouragements to do it, I finally had my ponytails cut
off."
"Good for you! Ami says you should go straight for the portal site,
we`ll catch up with you ASAP. Minako out."
This couldn`t be good, she thought. She took advantage of her unseen
location to transform into the powerful (and short-haired) champion
of justice Sailor Moon and ran to the nearby park. She was hoping
the others would join her fast enough...
* * *
"Look, mom, it`s Sailor Moon, and her hair is short, now!" said a
little girl who saw her run by. Unknownly, Usagi had just started
what would be hippest trend among young girls... hundreds of them
would trim their flowing long hair the same way she had.
Located inside the locket she wore on her chest, the silver crystal
began to pulse nervously.
"I must be close." thought Usagi. And she was right, too- since the
reality collapse provoked by Metalia, the crystal had retained a
small part of the pulse energy charge placed in it by the future
version of Sailor Mercury that she had run into. Sailor Moon was
still able to locate portals before they formed, but she had to be
right on top of them. As for closing them, that was simply out of
the question. She could only wait until it opened and hold off
whatever poured out.
And open it did; in the middle of the small glade where Sailor
Moon had run into, a flat swirling circle of silver light appeared
and partly stabilized into a dimensionnal portal. Her heart began
to pump furiously and her stomach twisted in fear, for she
intuitively knew who was coming through...
The warrior demon stepped through with majesty, keeping her wings
folded over her shoulders to give the illusion of a cape. Lady
Daemonfang was back in Tokyo and ready for action.
"I was hoping you`d be there when I arrived." commented Daemonfang
as she saw Sailor Moon. "You even came alone, too. That`s very good,
since this is between you and me, child."
"I`ve beaten you before, demon, and I`ll beat you again. I don`t fear
you." she courageously boasted to the seven feet tall creature.
"So much strenght and courage in such a small body, this is so
amazing..." said Daemonfang, taking a step towards Sailor Moon who
used every ounce of her strenght not to take one step back. "... but
this time, however, you don`t have Storm Seeker in your delicate
little hands..." she added, taking another step and suddenly opening
her wings to their full extent. Usagi noticed the dark steel chains
wrapped around her right forearm.
"What are the chains for?" she asked, fearing the answer.
"I`ll show you if you behave." replied the demon, growling
menacingly. She ran forward to attack and Sailor Moon jumped over
her head in a nimble bound- the battle had begun.
* * *
"Quickly, everyone in!" said Mamoru to Rei, Ami and Minako as he
opened his car door. "I have the feeling that Usagi`s in grave
danger!"
"That`s not just a feeling, it`s a fact! My computer shows the
portal is already open and SOMETHING came through." said Ami, he
attention focused on her computer screen.
"I`ll bet my last yen that your something just happens to be
Daemonfang!" said Minako as she squeezed in.
Rei pushed Ami on the back seat and jumped in the red sportscar
along with the two other girls. "No time to waste, we have to go-
Ami, you give us directions, Mamoru, you drive!" ordered Rei.
Mamoru wouldn`t usually let anyone push him around and give him
orders, but his sweetheart was in danger, so he thought nothing of
it. "Hang on, my bunny, we`re coming!" he whispered.
* * *
Running down a flight of stairs and out of the door from her
gastronomic school, Makoto saw a speeding Velociraptor model
motorcycle come to a grinding halt on a very short distance, sliding
in a controlled half-turn that almost hit her. Through the driver`s
helmet, she recognized Laurella`s eyes.
"Hop on, Makoto, there`s an emergency and I`m going to where it`s
at." she said, pointing to the spare helmet strapped on the back of
the seat.
Twenty seconds later, they were both speeding down the street.
* * *
"No, this isn`t possible..." said Ami to herself, punching wildly
her keyboard with her one hundred and fifty words a minute typing
skill; she couldn`t believe what she was seeing, yet the same
result kept repeating itself over and over.
"What`s wrong?" asked Minako.
"The anomalous readings I got from the first portal... they`re not
anomalous at all." she answered.
"Wait a minute, does that mean...?" asked Rei, unwilling to believe
what she tought Ami was saying.
"Exactly, more portals all over Tokyo. Dozens of them. Maybe even
hundreds." said Ami.
"It`s not just revenge she wants..." said Rei.
"It`s a full scale invasion!" completed Mamoru who accelerated his
car even more- things were getting uglier by the minute and Usagi
was caught right in the middle.
* * *
Holding their ground firmly and panting heavily, both the demon
lord and Sailor Moon stared at each other, trying to gauge just
how much damage they inflicted during their savage hand-to-hand
fight. Both were covered with bruises, bleeding slightly from
various body parts.
"Getting tired... are you?" asked Daemonfang.
"No way, I`m... just getting... started. You`re the one... who`s
tired!" replied Sailor Moon.
"In that case, you`ll have no trouble dealing with this..." said
Daemonfang, unwinding the dark steel chains from around her arm and
getting ready to use them; for some reason, there seemed to remain
just as many links wound around the she-demon`s arm as there was
before the fight started even tough she unwound five or six feet
long of the chain already.
"You got THAT right, monster! MOON TIARA MAGIC!" she screamed,
throwing her golden tiara turned into a blazing disk of light.
Swinging the chain, Daemonfang easily deflected the disk wich fell
to the ground several dozen feet away.
"How did you do that?!?" said the bewildered Sailor Moon.
"It`s easy to do, actually. After all these are the CHAINS OF
MEPHISTOFELES!" screamed the monster. As she mentionned their name,
the chains soared towards Sailor Moon on their own, moving furiously
through the air. Sailor Moon dodged the first chain, but more chains
emerged from the those still wrapped around Daemonfang`s arm,
charging madly for the young hero. For all of her skill, she could
barely keep up jumping left and right to avoid behind getting
trapped in what was starting to look like a huge spiderweb.
Trying one last desperate tactic, she leapt toward her tiara, but
she failed; twelve more chains emerged from the ground, surrounding
her completely. She only had time to let out a gasp of surprise
before she was trapped in more chains than she had ever seen in
her entire life.
"There`s no escaping the chains, young Sailor Moon, your fate has
been sealed from the instant I let them loose upon you!!!"
Slithering like snakes, the web of dark steel closed in on poor
Usagi, wrapping around her body and limbs, squeezing until she
couldn`t move anymore. Then they squeezed more, crushing her throat
and chest. After years of fighting vile monsters and never losing
a single battle, Usagi`s nightmare was becoming true.
Sailor Moon had finally met her match, and she wouldn`t live to tell
about it.
* * *
The sailor scouts ran as fast as their legs would allow them, Tuxedo
Kamen ahead of them, going through the trees that surrounded the
place where Sailor Moon was fighting for her life. Seconds seemed
to last for centuries as they just couldn`t move as quickly as they
wanted to. They managed to find their way only to find her being
slowly murdered by the chains of Mephistofeles.
"You`re too late to save her, there`s nothing you can do." said
Daemonfang who enjoyed each second of her enemy`s slow, painful
death.
"We`ll see about that..." said Sailor Venus. "VENUS CRESCENT
BEAM SMASH!"
Forming on the tip of her finger, a golden bolt of energy soared
through the air and conncted directly with one of the chains which
help Usagi in the air like a fly in a spiderweb. Upon contact, it
dissipated with no effect.
"Didn`t I say you couldn`t win? Just surrender and I assure you a
swift death, unlike your doomed leader." said the demon.
"We still have a chance: we must combine our powers!" said Sailor
Mercury.
So they did. In an instant, five powerful attacks combined in a
single point: Mercury`s ice blast, Mars`s fire rings, Venus`s energy
chain, Jendra`s chromatic blast and Jupiter`s thunder bolt. An
explosion of light ensued, and when the scouts could see again they
witnessed the result of their combined effort.
Total failure.
Sailor Moon was still being strangled by the dark steel chains.
Tuxedo Kamen finally jumped in the air, avoiding most of the moving
links to reach the middle of the huge web where his lover was held.
"Hold on, Sailor Moon, don`t die!" he pleaded as he tried in vain to
break the chains that couldn`t be broken.
Darkness began to veil Sailor Moon`s vision and sounds around her
became faint and distant. "Please don`t die..." she heard him say
one last time. Unable to speak, she just smiled as a single tear
rolled from her eyes. She the stopped breathing and fought the
chains no more.
"No...this can`t be happening..." whispered Tuxedo Kamen in
disbelief. Their work done, the chains swiftly retreated to
Daemonfang`s arm where they moved no more. Sailor Moon`s body fell
to the ground, any trace of life crushed away. The scouts stood
unmoving, frozen in shock.
"Goodbye, everyone, it was nice seeing you again. I must return
these to my ancestor`s crypt, so I`ll take my leave now. Don`t look
so sad, we`ll see each other real soon, I promise!" said Daemonfang
who then stepped back in the silver portal wich then disappeared.
Thunder wracked the sky and a hundred portals opened throughout
Tokyo, both on the ground and in the sky.
The invasion had begun.
* * *
The memories of Usagi where fleeting and hard to recollect; fighting
Lady Daemonfang, the chains coming to life, her darling Tuxedo Kamen
begging her to hold on... then darkness. One thing was sure: the
pain was gone, and so were all her fears and anguishes. She felt
released, liberated, she was free to bathe in the blinding light all
around her. As bright as it was, it still did not hurt her eyes.
There had to be a reason, but she did not care to find out. All she
wanted to do was to rest and dream of peace and quiet.
"Usagi..." whispered a familiar voice.
"Who is this?" she softly asked, unable to tell where it came from.
"Usagi... come to me, my daughter..."
"Father? Is that you?" she asked.
"Yes."
Like an angelic vision, the spirit of Technazul Terra appeared to
her. Tall and muscular, he was just like Usagi had imagined with
blond hair and blue eyes. Even in this ethereal form, he still wore
his silver guardian uniform. He opened his arms and Usagi did not
hesitate a second to hug him.
"I`ve waited a thousand years to do this." she said.
"I know. I`ve always been with you, my angel."
"Father, I must ask... am I dead?"
"That is not certain yet. The chains of Mephistofeles did kill your
body, so you stopped breathing and your heart does not beat anymore.
I was able to prevent your soul from being stolen by the chains,
however, and it may reach the great beyond without further
hindrance. Your friends are trying to bring you back to life and
your body may still be revived, although you may not return there
without paying a heavy price for doing so." explained Technazul.
* * *
"Come on, Usagi, don`t give up on us!" pleaded Sailor Mercury as
she tried to kick start Sailor Moon`s heart with CPR while Tuxedo
Kamen gave her mouth-to-mouth ressucitation. It had been almost
seven minutes since the chains had released her inanimate body and
her friends were losing hope quickly.
Above their heads, unnatural storm clouds had formed in seconds,
delivering a fierce thunderstorm to welcome the dozens of demons,
knightmares and wicked beasts wich entered the first sphere through
a hundred portals.
"This is terrible, she can`t die like this!" said Minako, breaking
in tears.
"Hold on, Usagi, you`re not dying on us today, I won`t allow you!"
ordered Ami, holding back her own tears with all her might.
* * *
"Father, you say I may still go back to earth instead of dying, if
I pay the price... what may this price be?" asked Usagi to the
spirit of the man who had been her father a millenium ago.
"Something you may not be able to accept, yet you must." he said.
"Please tell me!"
"You must give up your powers. You must also accept that you will
NEVER BE A SAILOR SCOUT AGAIN!"
"What? Give up being a scout?" she said, bewildered.
"Yes, my daughter. You will never achieve your true destiny if you
do not give this up."
"If I must make this sacrifice... then I will." she sadly answered.
"You will one day understand it was not in vain." whispered her
father in her ears.
Then she felt her lungs burning, along with a horrible stabbing pain
in her chest.
* * *
"She`s breathing! She`s breathing again!" yelled Tuxedo Kamen, tears
of joy rolling down his face, mixing with the dreadful rain brought
on by the demonic invasion.
"Her heart`s beating too!" added the ecstatic Sailor Mercury to
everyone`s relief.
Then, by some unexplained phenomena, Sailor Moon`s locket opened,
revealing the silver crystal; the crystal removed itself from the
locket, floating upwards slowly. It glowed brightly as a flurry of
magic ribbons transformed Sailor Moon back into Usagi. After the
change was complete, it vanished in a blinding flash after which
Usagi opened her eyes again.
"Did I miss anything?" she mumbled.
"Take it easy, bunny, you just came back from the dead." said
Tuxedo Kamen as he took off his cape used it to protect her from
the icy cold rain.
"Would you mind telling us what was the deal with your crystal
disappearing like that?" asked Sailor Jendra.
"Yeah, why did you change like this before you came back in the land
of the living?" asked Mars.
"It`s the price I had to pay to come back here, in this body... I`ll
never be a sailor scout again." explained Usagi who cuddled to Tuxedo
Kamen who picked her up.
Armies of darkness marched into the japanese capital, spreading their
evil to all that they could see and touch. This battle the scouts
would have to fight without their leader who was no more, her
supernatural powers stripped away.
"You must go on fighting evil without me..." she said in sad
resignation. "I`m finished."
To be continued
a.k.a. Technuma Saturn
Those of you who`ve read any amount of Sailor Moon fanfiction know
that every author has its own style, each located somewhere
in-between the two ends of the spectrum wich ranges from unaltered
japanese names and wordings to entirely americanized.
One of the most important aspects of this variety is the designation
of the heroes themselves... are they the Sailor SENSHI (the original
japanese designation- it means warrior) or are they Sailor SCOUTS
(american "translation") ?
From the start, I`ve chosen american names and designations- up to
the point where I made all of my stories into a huge continuing
universe where I chose to use japanese names. So far I`ve kept on
calling the girls scouts, but I`d like to change that. To this
effect, several options present themselves to me:
a) Go back over everything I`ve ever written and change each
occurance of SCOUT with SENSHI (unnecessarily long and tedious)
b) Arbitrarily start calling them Sailor Senshi without a valid
reason and no explanation (like THAT would make any sense...)
c) Have some fun with the idea and come up with something that`s
actually ORIGINAL
As we all know, the opposite equivalent of options a) and b)
were used by the american translators at DIC when SAILOR MOON
came to the US... with a generous amount of censorship and
mutilation of the original story. I`d hate to be associated in
any way with these people, so I decided to go with option c)
Stay tuned, people, something big is coming your way.
* * *
PROLOGUE
Sleeping uneasily, Tsukino Usagi tried to get as much rest as she
could knowing well that she needed to be ready for her first day of
college; after years of oversleeping through grade school and high
school, she was determined to wake up on time for a change. To make
sure she would, Luna was sleeping on her bed next to her- she was
certain that Usagi would need help to be dragged out of bed once
again.
Through nervous dreams of arriving to school late and missing the
most important exam of the year (a recurring dream so many students
have...) she saw a flash of light and heard a voice calling her
name in the distance; she was late again! She woke up in a
panic... only to find out it was still three o`clock and the sun
was a few hours away from rising. Where did this light come from?
On her dresser, she saw a faint glow of light, the same light that
had woken her up; it lasted only an instant, then died down. Only
one thing could make that sort of light by itself.
"Why did my locket glow like this? The silver crystal hasn`t acted
up in weeks..." she thought.
She looked at the locket for a few minutes, but nothing more
happened. Strange, she thought.
"What`s going on?" asked the sleepy Luna whom Usagi had just
disturbed.
"Nothing, Luna, just go back to sleep."
* * *
CYCLES OF LIFE: EPISODE 14
DESCENT INTO DARKNESS, PART 1: FALLING FROM GRACE
The dawning sun hit the windows and sneaked its way through the
pulled shades and right into Usagi`s eyes. As she woke up, her old
reflexes kicked in and she panicked:
"HAAA, I`m late, I`m late! I`m so..." she screamed. She then looked
at her alarm clock and noticed it wasn`t set to ring for another
ten minutes.
"... NOT late!" she finished.
"Force of habit, Usagi?" asked Luna.
"Looks like it."
For the first time in recorded history, Usagi actually had time to
dress up slowly and chew her breakfast instead of just swallowing
it whole. To make this day more extraordinary, she didn`t even
argue with her brother with whom she was getting along much better
since the past few weeks.
"It just occured to me that you two haven`t fought in over a month."
said their mother Ikuko. "Could this have anything to do with
Usagi`s friend, Laurella? She is a very cute girl, after all..." she
added, giving her son a big "I know about you two" smile. He turned
red as a tomato. At this point, he would have given everything for a
new topic of conversation.
"Better get ready for class, Shingo, miss Haruna can get pretty ugly
when you`re late. I speak from first hand experience, you know."
said Usagi, cleverly steering away the attention from her brother.
"Hey, you`re right. Better make sure I have all my books ready and
my uniform on straight!" he replied, dashing out of the kitchen. "I
owe you one." he whispered to his sister as he ran by.
"You should get ready as well, young lady, you don`t want to be late
on your first day." said Ikuko.
"I`m ready, mom, don`t worry. I got up early so I could get dressed
the way I want; it`s a nice change from the high school uniform!"
replied Usagi.
"Oh, my little Usagi is going to college..." said her mother, tears
forming in her eyes.
"Please don`t cry, mom..." pleaded Usagi to no avail as her mother
hugged her and cried.
Luna, eating from her bowl in a corner of the dinning room, had to
bite her lips to keep from laughing out loud.
* * *
As a traveller goes thorugh the parallel universes, few places will
scar his psyche in the way the tenth sphere can.
A dark land, sheltered by even darker starless skies, made of huge
tracts of barren, scorched land with a few inhabitable spots.
Survival is possible in these rare pockets where the land is a
little less hostile, though no one would live there by choice. As
if it were not enough, violent storms permanently raged across these
ravaged hills and mountains, even if no clouds were to be seen. The
powerful weather system was just chaotic enough to create insanely
strong lightning bolts out of a clear sky. It would take someone who
is both terribly powerful and not quite mentally stable to desire
living atop one of these thunder-ravaged peaks.
That someone was the descendant of a great demonic dynasty, Lady
Daemonfang, whose ancestors had forged a fabulous empire from this
blighted land and created its stronghold atop the highest mountain
they controlled. On that spot they built the Changraloor fortress,
which Daemonfang lovingly called home.
Much like an iceberg -which this world had none of anyway- the
fortress`s visible exterior was nothing more than a small portion
of the entire structure. Many passages dug deep within the ground`s
entrails, going so deep that a few of the deepest chambers were
actually kept warm by the underground volcanic activity, a technique
known to the tenth sphere`s architects for many millenia. Within
these lowest chambers, the ancestral crypt of Daemonfang`s family
rested far from view and held many secrets wich the entire
multiverse would rather forget altogether.
One of these secrets, Lady Daemonfang wanted for herself to use in a
war that had cost her too much already. She would now seek payback
for the terrible losses the sailor scouts inflicted to her army. Due
to the time lag between the first and tenth sphere, over two years
had passed on her side while only a few months had ellapsed on
earth, giving the demon lord plenty of time to rebuild her forces.
Now was the time to heal her wounded pride.
Her lantern`s light faintly lit up the gloomy passage she walked
down; after much waiting, she was about to get what she wanted. At
the end of the deepest, darkest passage of the mountain she made it
to a pair of huge steel doors; from the amount of dust collected on
the floor, it had been many years since anyone had walked through
this doorway.
"In the name of the mighty Mephistofeles, I command you to open!!!"
she screamed. Slowly and with much noise, the huge doors obeyed,
opening to let in the wicked queen. She walked in with all the
grace and elegance a twisted demon was capable of, followed by the
duo of bronze clad knightmares who had enough courage to follow
their mistress into the family crypt.
So great was the treasure garded in this room that it warranted its
own room with very strong doors and even stronger guardians: as
Daemonfang entered the room, twelve mold covered statue surrounding
an ancient metal chest began to stir and groan. Their eyes glowing
bright green, the gargoyles moved towards the terrified knightmares
and the utterly calm demon. She rose her clawed hand and commanded
them to stand down.
"I am Daemonfang, daughter of Vennomklaw, son of Zurenthril! The
rightful owner of the great weapon of Lord Mephistofeles orders you
to stand down!" she said in a commanding voice. Without a word, the
gargoyles obeyed.
"You two will pick up this chest and bring it to the throne room
where I will be waiting. Make it snappy, I have plans for this
weapon." she ordered to the knightmares, then turned back and left.
All alone with the growling gargoyles, the soldiers picked up the
amazingly heavy chest hurried back to the throne room, unwilling to
spend a single instant more with the terrifying stonelike creatures.
* * *
When the time came for Usagi to choose a college, there were many to
select from. Unfortunately for her, she wasn`t so fortunate as the
rest of her friends who knew many of those in their class; knowing
no one who applied to her college, she was alone in a huge new world.
She would have to make new friends unless she wanted to go through
her studies in a lonely manner, but she`d always been good at that.
Having gotten out of bed on time, she had plenty of time to take the
bus downtown and get to her college with time to spare. The front
lawn of the building had been turned into a beautiful park many
years before; over time, it had grown into a warm, restful place,
so she sat down on a bench and enjoyed the cool morning breeze,
watching as dozens of students walk by, both freshmen and seniors.
At this point, a young girl arrived on campus, attracting everyone`s
attention, especially Usagi. Tall and slender, she looked like she
was the daughter of a japanese woman and an american man, judging
from her superbly chiseled features, silky skin, emerald green eyes
and dark black hair. The silver mane brushing her forehead gave her
a distinctive elegance that complemented superbly her magnetic aura.
One look at her and you just had to get to know this striking
beauty.
"Wow, she`s really amazing!" thought Usagi. "She`s incredible and...
she`s coming my way!"
Usagi was right about that; the girl came straight for her bench and
sat next to her. She gazed at Usagi and looked as though she was
straining her memory. "Excuse me, you seem familiar, have we met
before?" she finally asked.
"No, I`d remember someone gorgeous as you." replied Usagi, slightly
embarassed.
"Oh, you`re too kind... You`re quite the looker yourself, I`ll bet
you have to beat off the hordes of boys with a stick."
"That`s not necessary. I`ve already made my choice..." said Usagi,
showing her beautiful engagement ring. "He`s the nicest guy I`ve
ever known, great looking, too!"
"Does he treat you right?" wondered the girl.
"Like a princess!" said Usagi, giggling. "What about you, how`s your
boyfriend?"
"I don`t have one yet, but I hope on finding one soon. Love is very
important for me, but I haven`t been around long enough for that
yet. I arrived in Tokyo just three days ago, and it`s been a mad
race for my dad and me, finding an appartment and getting me
registered in time for class. He`s had to go back home with my
mother for some medical emergency, so I`ll be living by myself for
a while "
"So, your father is some kind of doctor?" asked Usagi.
"Yeah, he is." said the girl, pulling a class schedule from one of
her books. "I have to go, I have math in fifteen minutes"
Usagi peeked at the schedule and noticed it virtualy matched her
own, save a class or two.
"It seems we`ll be seeing a lot of each other... hum, my name is
Tsukino Usagi, what`s yours?"
"I`m Robin Redwing, pleased to meet you."
* * *
Carved out of the mountain`s sheer basalt foundation, the Changraloor
fortress throne greatly increased the commanding aura of whoever sat
on it. This is exactly why Lady Daemonfang liked to be seen there as
much as possible, wether she was declaring war on another nation,
pronouncing a sentence of death against a traitor or simply getting
her claws sharpened by one of her slaves, as she was doing right
now. Her knightmares were taking a long time to come back, but she
was in no hurry. She learned years ago that patience was a virtue
no leader could do without.
"They`re taking too much time, it`s an insult to their mistress."
claimed Akuma Kamen, her new husband who stood by her side. She was
really happy on how her black magic experiment had turned out; he
was powerful as a darkbeast, cunning like a hellfox.
Most of all, he had the face of Sailor Moon`s boyfriend, the
greatest way she ever imagined of mocking her enemy.
"It`s impatience that got my darling Ronmar, your predecessor,
killed in the first place. You should learn from his mistake in
order not to repeat it. Besides, my trinket is well worth waiting
for, you`ll see." she said. "Somebody get me a cup of blood wine!"
"An entire army of knightmares failed to destroy the warrior girls
of earth the first time; asuming that the little maggot Ithzhanh
will even manage to get support from the northern kitling tribes,
it strikes me that our troops will be marching to their doom, no
matter what precious trinket you bring along!" argued Akuma Kamen,
flaring his fangs.
"It all depends HOW it is used, as you will see. Tell me, have you
ever heard of the chains of Mephistofeles?" asked Daemonfang, picking
up the bloodwine cup her servant handed her.
"No, I can`t say I have."
"Your subliminal teaching is not quite as perfect as I had hoped, it
seems... no matter, I`ll tell you myself. Nine generations ago, my
ancestor forged a great weapon, a weapon so powerful that it allowed
him to conquer a huge part of the storm lands in a single night! The
might of the Changraloor rulers has been resting on possession of
these mighty chains ever since. The remarkable power of Mephistofeles
has been somewhat diluted down along the centuries, unfortunately,
and they can only be used one time every decade. This matters little,
however, as they hold enough power so tip the scales of virtually any
power conflict by allowing its user to destroy the leader of any
opposing legion, regardless of his or her strenght." she explained.
"Is that how Vennomklaw killed his enemy Grimlorr the immortal?"
wondered the male demon.
"Exactly."
The two courageous knightmare entered the throne room at last,
carrying the unnaturaly heavy chest containing the legendary
chains. They were quite relieved to drop their cargo after hauling
it from the deepest pits of the fortress.
"Thank you, my loyal guards. You are indeed very strong for carrying
such a burden all the way here. Would you please open it for me,
before you... leave?" she asked sweetly, repressing an evil laugh
at the thought of what would happen next.
* * *
Leaving her geography class, Rei caught up with Ami in her college`s
cafeteria; even though they went to the same institution, they did
not as much as share a single class. They had indeed little time
during the day to meet up and chat.
"Hi, Ami, what brilliant piece of work are you doing now?" she asked.
"I`m programming my laptop to follow the nexus cycles so I can
predict the moments where Daemonfang might try to open another
portal. From my latest observation, it could be anytime in the next
two or three days. After that, she`ll have to wait another week;
from that point on, the nexus goes into a recessive formation that
will keep it shut for at least sixty or seventy years. Keeping track
of the time lag effect in the nexus, it`ll be at least five hundred
years on her side before another portal can be opened!" she
answered.
"That`s more info than I was expecting..." commented Rei.
"How simple do you want this explanation?"
"So that Usagi can understand it when I call her later this
afternoon."
"Oh dear god..." blurted out Ami. "In plain english it means that
she must strike before mid-september unless she wants to wait a
very long time to exact her revenge on us." she then said.
"Thank you. I`ll warn the others first chance I get. Now rest your
brain, for crying out loud, you have neurology class in ten
minutes!" said Rei who then left the cafeteria after picking up a
cup of coffee.
Ami looked at the monitor of her blue laptop and stared at the
energy waves rippling from the waning nexus who would soon close
itself shut for good. She closed the small computer, thinking she`d
be glad when this demonic mess could be put behind and forgotten. As
she picked up the laptop, she took a moment to stare at the
alchemical symbol of Mercury adorning its ocean blue casing. The
golden paint had, over the years, been worn down to a dull
yellowish grey.
So much time had passed already, so many evil beings had been
destroyed and still they kept coming strong, like there was an evil
creature faucet somewhere and whoever was in charge had forgot to
turn it off...
* * *
"How much time to open this portal yet? Mother is getting impatient,
and when she gets impatient, my whip handle gets itchy!!!" said
Ithzhanh to the royal mage in charge of all magical operations. He
was lying about his mother getting impatient, of course, because
she rarely did. As royal overseer of Changraloor, however, Ithzhanh
was authorized to kill a whole lot of people if they didn`t work
fast enough to his liking. Few people ever worked THAT fast and a
whole lot of people often DID get killed this way.
"Tell my lordship that the portal will be ready in time, as will all
the other doorways and the nexean cube. Your constantly asking
questions, overseer, WILL result in delays unless it stops right
now." answered Traxis. As grand magus, he knew damn well that his
life was one the few that was considered unexpendable to
Daemonfang`s eyes... as long as he kept satisfying her requests,
which he had so far. "Now leave me alone, and stop stinking up my
ritual area with your stench of carrion!" he added.
"You better not fail us, wizard, otherwise I`ll be having your
rotting corpse for lunch next month." grumbled the foul little
demon as he pathetically stomped away.
A pair of blood curdling screams welcomed him as he entered the
throne room. He smiled wickedly as he remembered what day this was.
His vile mind rejoyced as he laid eyes on the seemingly alive chains
that were shooting out of the open chest, mercilessly grabbing and
strangling the two knightmares who hadn`t expected the chains of
Mephistofeles to be so vicious. They gurgled in a vain effort to
scream again.
"Has it been ten years already since the last time you unleashed the
chains, mother? My, my, how time passes." commented the disgusting
little creature.
"I thought you`d enjoy seeing the chains in action again. You can
have their bodies if you wish." said Daemonfang, who dared not even
imagine her son as he would feast on the fallen guards.
"Was this really necessary? If those chains need to feed before you
can use them, couldn`t we just toss them a prisoner or two? We
certainly could spare that scum rather than two of our best
soldiers!" asked her husband.
"The chains are picky when it comes to their prey. They will refuse
to attack anything that will not put up a decent struggle; anemic
prisoners can barely stand up. That`s not a bad thing, having
dungeons that can break the strongest of wills, but it`s useless
to feed my precious chains." commented the she-demon.
"The portals will be ready on time. I saw to that, mother." said
Ithzhanh with pride.
"Good. I still have a few more details to take care of and I will
need all of the remaining hours ahead of me to do it, too. Come to
my chambers, Akuma, I will require your talents for this." said
Daemonfang, taking his hand and leading him to her private chambers.
Ithzhanh looked at his mother and how she lovingly gazed at this
handsome demon she had created; the loathsome son of Daemonfang
despised Akuma Kamen as he was a direct threat to his plans for
claiming the throne of Changraloor for himself in the near future.
He hated him even more for possessing every charm that nature had
so unjustly denied him, for making him the twisted eater of corpses
he was, instead of the handsome creature Akuma had been created as.
The carrion eating beast had to do something about it; it was in
his blood to be both vindictive and underhanded.
* * *
With their monday classes lasting only until noon, Usagi and Robin
decided to go spend their afternoon together; Usagi felt like she
had known Robin her whole life and had really liked her from the
first moment they talked earlier that day. Although Robin had been
in town only a few days, she seemed already comfortable in her new
hometown.
"So, Usagi, did you give any thought to that idea I had? We have
plenty of time ahead, and we don`t really need more than an hour
or two to do it..." asked Robin.
"Well, I must confess I thought about doing it a few times
before... my friend Minako has been on my case to try it for weeks
now; it worked out great for her when she did it, but I don`t think
everyone would agree with that kind of radical change." said Usagi.
"You can`t spend your whole life worrying about other people, live
for yourself! Trust me, you`ll wonder why you haven`t done it
sooner. I need to do it myself, so we can do it together; it`ll
be fun, you can count on it!" urged Robin.
"Oh, what the hell, I`ll try it at least once in my life!" said
Usagi. "Come with me, Robin, and I know a great place to do it!"
* * *
An hour and a half later, the girls came out of a hair salon with
their hair done in style. Robin had the lower part of her head
buzzed clean with the rest of her head shortened to match in a very
modern look; Usagi`s hair wasn`t quite that short, but her ponytails
were definitely gone for good. This new style had matured her of a
few years and she looked that much sexier for it.
"Oh my head feels so much lighter... I feel liberated, I can feel
the wind through my hair!" she said, twisting her head side to side
with no fear of having her hair hitting something as she had done
so often over the years.
"I told you so, didn`t I?" said Robin who rubbed the small of her
neck wich could now breathe freely.
"My friends are going to be so surprised... my hair is almost as
short as Ami`s!"
At this moment, Usagi`s watch beeped loudly; her disguised
communicator was not something she cared to explain to her new
friend. She placed her hand behind her head in a gesture of
embarassment, hiding the watch at the same time.
"That`s just my pager." she blurted. "If you`ll excuse me, I have a
phone call to make."
"I really must be going myself, so I`ll see you tomorrow. Bye,
Usagi!"
"Bye!" said Usagi, relieved of not having to lie more than she had
to. She quickly found a lonely spot and answered her call. "Yeah,
I`m here, what`s the matter?"
"Minako, here, I`m calling to say that Ami`s been registering
intense portal forming activity throughout the city. She thinks
that the nexus closing down is distorting her detector readings,
but it`s definitely going to open in the park close to your
college. Say, Usagi, have you done something different with your
hair?" asked Minako who had trouble seeing through her com-watch`s
tiny screen.
"Yeah, a friend from class talked me into it. Combined with your
persistent encouragements to do it, I finally had my ponytails cut
off."
"Good for you! Ami says you should go straight for the portal site,
we`ll catch up with you ASAP. Minako out."
This couldn`t be good, she thought. She took advantage of her unseen
location to transform into the powerful (and short-haired) champion
of justice Sailor Moon and ran to the nearby park. She was hoping
the others would join her fast enough...
* * *
"Look, mom, it`s Sailor Moon, and her hair is short, now!" said a
little girl who saw her run by. Unknownly, Usagi had just started
what would be hippest trend among young girls... hundreds of them
would trim their flowing long hair the same way she had.
Located inside the locket she wore on her chest, the silver crystal
began to pulse nervously.
"I must be close." thought Usagi. And she was right, too- since the
reality collapse provoked by Metalia, the crystal had retained a
small part of the pulse energy charge placed in it by the future
version of Sailor Mercury that she had run into. Sailor Moon was
still able to locate portals before they formed, but she had to be
right on top of them. As for closing them, that was simply out of
the question. She could only wait until it opened and hold off
whatever poured out.
And open it did; in the middle of the small glade where Sailor
Moon had run into, a flat swirling circle of silver light appeared
and partly stabilized into a dimensionnal portal. Her heart began
to pump furiously and her stomach twisted in fear, for she
intuitively knew who was coming through...
The warrior demon stepped through with majesty, keeping her wings
folded over her shoulders to give the illusion of a cape. Lady
Daemonfang was back in Tokyo and ready for action.
"I was hoping you`d be there when I arrived." commented Daemonfang
as she saw Sailor Moon. "You even came alone, too. That`s very good,
since this is between you and me, child."
"I`ve beaten you before, demon, and I`ll beat you again. I don`t fear
you." she courageously boasted to the seven feet tall creature.
"So much strenght and courage in such a small body, this is so
amazing..." said Daemonfang, taking a step towards Sailor Moon who
used every ounce of her strenght not to take one step back. "... but
this time, however, you don`t have Storm Seeker in your delicate
little hands..." she added, taking another step and suddenly opening
her wings to their full extent. Usagi noticed the dark steel chains
wrapped around her right forearm.
"What are the chains for?" she asked, fearing the answer.
"I`ll show you if you behave." replied the demon, growling
menacingly. She ran forward to attack and Sailor Moon jumped over
her head in a nimble bound- the battle had begun.
* * *
"Quickly, everyone in!" said Mamoru to Rei, Ami and Minako as he
opened his car door. "I have the feeling that Usagi`s in grave
danger!"
"That`s not just a feeling, it`s a fact! My computer shows the
portal is already open and SOMETHING came through." said Ami, he
attention focused on her computer screen.
"I`ll bet my last yen that your something just happens to be
Daemonfang!" said Minako as she squeezed in.
Rei pushed Ami on the back seat and jumped in the red sportscar
along with the two other girls. "No time to waste, we have to go-
Ami, you give us directions, Mamoru, you drive!" ordered Rei.
Mamoru wouldn`t usually let anyone push him around and give him
orders, but his sweetheart was in danger, so he thought nothing of
it. "Hang on, my bunny, we`re coming!" he whispered.
* * *
Running down a flight of stairs and out of the door from her
gastronomic school, Makoto saw a speeding Velociraptor model
motorcycle come to a grinding halt on a very short distance, sliding
in a controlled half-turn that almost hit her. Through the driver`s
helmet, she recognized Laurella`s eyes.
"Hop on, Makoto, there`s an emergency and I`m going to where it`s
at." she said, pointing to the spare helmet strapped on the back of
the seat.
Twenty seconds later, they were both speeding down the street.
* * *
"No, this isn`t possible..." said Ami to herself, punching wildly
her keyboard with her one hundred and fifty words a minute typing
skill; she couldn`t believe what she was seeing, yet the same
result kept repeating itself over and over.
"What`s wrong?" asked Minako.
"The anomalous readings I got from the first portal... they`re not
anomalous at all." she answered.
"Wait a minute, does that mean...?" asked Rei, unwilling to believe
what she tought Ami was saying.
"Exactly, more portals all over Tokyo. Dozens of them. Maybe even
hundreds." said Ami.
"It`s not just revenge she wants..." said Rei.
"It`s a full scale invasion!" completed Mamoru who accelerated his
car even more- things were getting uglier by the minute and Usagi
was caught right in the middle.
* * *
Holding their ground firmly and panting heavily, both the demon
lord and Sailor Moon stared at each other, trying to gauge just
how much damage they inflicted during their savage hand-to-hand
fight. Both were covered with bruises, bleeding slightly from
various body parts.
"Getting tired... are you?" asked Daemonfang.
"No way, I`m... just getting... started. You`re the one... who`s
tired!" replied Sailor Moon.
"In that case, you`ll have no trouble dealing with this..." said
Daemonfang, unwinding the dark steel chains from around her arm and
getting ready to use them; for some reason, there seemed to remain
just as many links wound around the she-demon`s arm as there was
before the fight started even tough she unwound five or six feet
long of the chain already.
"You got THAT right, monster! MOON TIARA MAGIC!" she screamed,
throwing her golden tiara turned into a blazing disk of light.
Swinging the chain, Daemonfang easily deflected the disk wich fell
to the ground several dozen feet away.
"How did you do that?!?" said the bewildered Sailor Moon.
"It`s easy to do, actually. After all these are the CHAINS OF
MEPHISTOFELES!" screamed the monster. As she mentionned their name,
the chains soared towards Sailor Moon on their own, moving furiously
through the air. Sailor Moon dodged the first chain, but more chains
emerged from the those still wrapped around Daemonfang`s arm,
charging madly for the young hero. For all of her skill, she could
barely keep up jumping left and right to avoid behind getting
trapped in what was starting to look like a huge spiderweb.
Trying one last desperate tactic, she leapt toward her tiara, but
she failed; twelve more chains emerged from the ground, surrounding
her completely. She only had time to let out a gasp of surprise
before she was trapped in more chains than she had ever seen in
her entire life.
"There`s no escaping the chains, young Sailor Moon, your fate has
been sealed from the instant I let them loose upon you!!!"
Slithering like snakes, the web of dark steel closed in on poor
Usagi, wrapping around her body and limbs, squeezing until she
couldn`t move anymore. Then they squeezed more, crushing her throat
and chest. After years of fighting vile monsters and never losing
a single battle, Usagi`s nightmare was becoming true.
Sailor Moon had finally met her match, and she wouldn`t live to tell
about it.
* * *
The sailor scouts ran as fast as their legs would allow them, Tuxedo
Kamen ahead of them, going through the trees that surrounded the
place where Sailor Moon was fighting for her life. Seconds seemed
to last for centuries as they just couldn`t move as quickly as they
wanted to. They managed to find their way only to find her being
slowly murdered by the chains of Mephistofeles.
"You`re too late to save her, there`s nothing you can do." said
Daemonfang who enjoyed each second of her enemy`s slow, painful
death.
"We`ll see about that..." said Sailor Venus. "VENUS CRESCENT
BEAM SMASH!"
Forming on the tip of her finger, a golden bolt of energy soared
through the air and conncted directly with one of the chains which
help Usagi in the air like a fly in a spiderweb. Upon contact, it
dissipated with no effect.
"Didn`t I say you couldn`t win? Just surrender and I assure you a
swift death, unlike your doomed leader." said the demon.
"We still have a chance: we must combine our powers!" said Sailor
Mercury.
So they did. In an instant, five powerful attacks combined in a
single point: Mercury`s ice blast, Mars`s fire rings, Venus`s energy
chain, Jendra`s chromatic blast and Jupiter`s thunder bolt. An
explosion of light ensued, and when the scouts could see again they
witnessed the result of their combined effort.
Total failure.
Sailor Moon was still being strangled by the dark steel chains.
Tuxedo Kamen finally jumped in the air, avoiding most of the moving
links to reach the middle of the huge web where his lover was held.
"Hold on, Sailor Moon, don`t die!" he pleaded as he tried in vain to
break the chains that couldn`t be broken.
Darkness began to veil Sailor Moon`s vision and sounds around her
became faint and distant. "Please don`t die..." she heard him say
one last time. Unable to speak, she just smiled as a single tear
rolled from her eyes. She the stopped breathing and fought the
chains no more.
"No...this can`t be happening..." whispered Tuxedo Kamen in
disbelief. Their work done, the chains swiftly retreated to
Daemonfang`s arm where they moved no more. Sailor Moon`s body fell
to the ground, any trace of life crushed away. The scouts stood
unmoving, frozen in shock.
"Goodbye, everyone, it was nice seeing you again. I must return
these to my ancestor`s crypt, so I`ll take my leave now. Don`t look
so sad, we`ll see each other real soon, I promise!" said Daemonfang
who then stepped back in the silver portal wich then disappeared.
Thunder wracked the sky and a hundred portals opened throughout
Tokyo, both on the ground and in the sky.
The invasion had begun.
* * *
The memories of Usagi where fleeting and hard to recollect; fighting
Lady Daemonfang, the chains coming to life, her darling Tuxedo Kamen
begging her to hold on... then darkness. One thing was sure: the
pain was gone, and so were all her fears and anguishes. She felt
released, liberated, she was free to bathe in the blinding light all
around her. As bright as it was, it still did not hurt her eyes.
There had to be a reason, but she did not care to find out. All she
wanted to do was to rest and dream of peace and quiet.
"Usagi..." whispered a familiar voice.
"Who is this?" she softly asked, unable to tell where it came from.
"Usagi... come to me, my daughter..."
"Father? Is that you?" she asked.
"Yes."
Like an angelic vision, the spirit of Technazul Terra appeared to
her. Tall and muscular, he was just like Usagi had imagined with
blond hair and blue eyes. Even in this ethereal form, he still wore
his silver guardian uniform. He opened his arms and Usagi did not
hesitate a second to hug him.
"I`ve waited a thousand years to do this." she said.
"I know. I`ve always been with you, my angel."
"Father, I must ask... am I dead?"
"That is not certain yet. The chains of Mephistofeles did kill your
body, so you stopped breathing and your heart does not beat anymore.
I was able to prevent your soul from being stolen by the chains,
however, and it may reach the great beyond without further
hindrance. Your friends are trying to bring you back to life and
your body may still be revived, although you may not return there
without paying a heavy price for doing so." explained Technazul.
* * *
"Come on, Usagi, don`t give up on us!" pleaded Sailor Mercury as
she tried to kick start Sailor Moon`s heart with CPR while Tuxedo
Kamen gave her mouth-to-mouth ressucitation. It had been almost
seven minutes since the chains had released her inanimate body and
her friends were losing hope quickly.
Above their heads, unnatural storm clouds had formed in seconds,
delivering a fierce thunderstorm to welcome the dozens of demons,
knightmares and wicked beasts wich entered the first sphere through
a hundred portals.
"This is terrible, she can`t die like this!" said Minako, breaking
in tears.
"Hold on, Usagi, you`re not dying on us today, I won`t allow you!"
ordered Ami, holding back her own tears with all her might.
* * *
"Father, you say I may still go back to earth instead of dying, if
I pay the price... what may this price be?" asked Usagi to the
spirit of the man who had been her father a millenium ago.
"Something you may not be able to accept, yet you must." he said.
"Please tell me!"
"You must give up your powers. You must also accept that you will
NEVER BE A SAILOR SCOUT AGAIN!"
"What? Give up being a scout?" she said, bewildered.
"Yes, my daughter. You will never achieve your true destiny if you
do not give this up."
"If I must make this sacrifice... then I will." she sadly answered.
"You will one day understand it was not in vain." whispered her
father in her ears.
Then she felt her lungs burning, along with a horrible stabbing pain
in her chest.
* * *
"She`s breathing! She`s breathing again!" yelled Tuxedo Kamen, tears
of joy rolling down his face, mixing with the dreadful rain brought
on by the demonic invasion.
"Her heart`s beating too!" added the ecstatic Sailor Mercury to
everyone`s relief.
Then, by some unexplained phenomena, Sailor Moon`s locket opened,
revealing the silver crystal; the crystal removed itself from the
locket, floating upwards slowly. It glowed brightly as a flurry of
magic ribbons transformed Sailor Moon back into Usagi. After the
change was complete, it vanished in a blinding flash after which
Usagi opened her eyes again.
"Did I miss anything?" she mumbled.
"Take it easy, bunny, you just came back from the dead." said
Tuxedo Kamen as he took off his cape used it to protect her from
the icy cold rain.
"Would you mind telling us what was the deal with your crystal
disappearing like that?" asked Sailor Jendra.
"Yeah, why did you change like this before you came back in the land
of the living?" asked Mars.
"It`s the price I had to pay to come back here, in this body... I`ll
never be a sailor scout again." explained Usagi who cuddled to Tuxedo
Kamen who picked her up.
Armies of darkness marched into the japanese capital, spreading their
evil to all that they could see and touch. This battle the scouts
would have to fight without their leader who was no more, her
supernatural powers stripped away.
"You must go on fighting evil without me..." she said in sad
resignation. "I`m finished."
To be continued