By Yohann DeSabrais
a.k.a. Technuma Saturn
Prologue
One thousand years ago...
Savage screams echoed in the night, brutal songs of blood sang by an
invasion forces that knew not mercy nor pity. Swords clashed against
swords, arrows flew towards their soon to be dead targets, streaks
of unnatural lightning lashed about tearing down the ancient moon
palace.
Hundreds upon hundreds of dark kingdom soldiers descended upon the
silver millenium first royal family`s haven, horribly murdering all
in their way. An era of peace and prosperity was about to end in
blood.
Standing in the distance, hidden underneath the large cloaking field
of his silent starship, an ancient being watched without comment.
Tall and muscular, his light grey skin skin gave no clue as to his
age or gender- assuming he even had one at all. Passive and
unintrusive towards this messy business between Serenity and Beryl,
he waited patiently for the outcome.
He did not have to wait very long. A huge shadow hanging over the
torn palace unleashed a monstrous wave of destruction, killing
indiscriminantly her enemies and allies alike. Queen Metalia was
just about to achieve her final victory, while at the same time her
servant Berylsavagely murdered the young moon princess and her lover,
the prince of earth.
The Prime then felt the great sorrow emanating from the battlefield-
the sorrow and pain of Queen Serenity seeing her daughter die, of a
mother losing her child; he also felt an even greater power arising
from her crescent moon wand which was mounted with the legendary
silver crystal, the Heart of Technazul, the crystallized essence of
her deceased lover.
A divine light of the purest white glowed throughout the moon palace,
blinding even the Prime who stood so very far from this battlefield.
Moments later, the great evil had been vanquished, but at a terrible
price. Queen Serenity was dying.
Walking towards the now utterly silent ruins of a once mighty
kingdom, the ancient being found himself surrounded by thousands of
tiny sparks of golden light rising from the ground the young souls
floating away to the earth where they would one day reincarnate. He
also witnessed the Queen giving her final instructions to a duo of
venusian cats before placing them in stasis pods.
Once they were gone, he went over to the dying queen.
She just laid on her back on the cracked marble floor of the
shattered court outside the destroyed palace that had seen her rise
to power, blankly staring to the earth where she`d sent the soul of
her only daughter, the greatest treasure of the universe in her eyes.
Serenity then saw the towering presence of the Prime. She smiled
faintly, her last strenght waning rapidly. "Thanks the stars you
stayed away from all this, old friend." she whispered.
Moving his finger to her lips, he silently beckoned her to preserve
what little lifeforce she still had. He delicately picked her up and
brought her back to the cloaked starship Equinox, turning his back
to the deserted palace. Neither of them would ever return there.
* * *
CYCLES OF LIFE: EPISODE 18
SAILING THE UNCHARTED
The roads of Japan were getting to be rather dangerous with the
massive snowfalls that hadbeen occuring lately, which were weird in
themselves because such massive snowfall did not usually hit the
country of the rising sun until much later in the year, yet there it
was. The ground was covered with over a foot of snow already, and
the streets where ladden with a treacherous layer of ice. The month
of november had barely started.
Not that this stopped the metallic red sportscar of Haruka from
speeding down along the deathtrap that was the japanese countryside
roads. Halfway between Tokyo and Shizuoka, the mighty Sailor Uranus
was driven to get to the coordinates given to her by the unexpected
copilot fate had chosen to be in her backseat.
"We`re almost there." said Umino, punching in wildly at the keyboard
of Sailor Mercury`s ocean blue computer which he had on his lap.
"Bear in mind that the re-entry trajectory is very hard to calculate,
I can only give you the general area."
"That`s already very good." said Naru, overlooking the screen from
the seat next to Umino`s. "Without you, we wouldn`t have made it
this far."
"Slow down, Uranus, getting us killed won`t get us anywhere!"
encouraged Sailor Neptune. Sitting in the front seat at the passenger
side, she was wearing not the usual sailor uniform that she always
wore since the first day she used her transformation pen, but rather
the futuristic fuku of the soul powered senshi. Ressembling Usagi`s
uniform in shape and cut, she also wore the high-tech eye visor and
protective shin and forearm guards, except that her own fuku had a
light green and blue scheme with a wave motif, her right tight
bearing goldenkanji that read TAIYOO NO SENSHI, "soldier of the
ocean".
"If we get there too late, she could freeze to death!" argued Haruka
who accelerated even further. Nobody was going to convince her to
slow down.
Out of the opaque white snow-filled sky, a fiery streak scorched its
way to the earth, finding a landing spot many miles away from the
four passengers of the speeding car.
"There it is!" screamed Naru, pointing to the screeching ball of
fire.
"I`m not letting it get away from us!!!" replied Haruka. She pushed
the gas pedal to the floor.
* * *
Sailor Moon arose out of her cryosleep to find herself encased in
what reminded her of a coffin, locked inside in total darkness, save
for the small blinking light that monitered her steadily increasing
heartbeat. Her mind clouded over from the stasis, she could barely
figure out where she was, let alone how to get out of this container.
Not that it wasn`t comfortable, mind you. It was shaped exactly for a
human form and the lining was soft and pleasing to the touch.
Regardless, she wanted out.
She touched and felt her way around the small ergonomical space,
looking for a door handle or something; that something was a tiny
control panel under her right hand which opened the lid in a smooth
whir of gears, brutally exposing Sailor Moon to the harsh exterior.
Cold air and snow rushed in with full force, cruely biting her skin
while her eyes were stung by the bright daylight reverberated over
the pure white snow.
In a strange way, leaving the protective interior of the escape pod
was very much similar to a second birth for her.
As her eyes got used to light once again, Usagi saw that she had
landed in the middle of a large field, forests and mountains visible
in the distance. The only thing not covered with a thick layer of
the ever falling snow was the long fire trail left by the now
disfunctional escape pod.
Although it had been several minutes now since she has awakened,
her mind was still a chaotic mush for some reason. Unable to connect
thoughts in an ordered fashion, she stepped out of the pod and
started walking aimlessly. Her senshi fuku was very uncomfortable,
stiff from the blood and unidentifiable orange substance dried in
the fabric. The bloody stains cracked and flaked as her joints
bended from her zombie-like motions.
And her head hurt, too. It pounded heavily, so much so that she
couldn`t think at all.
Sailor Moon tried to remember how the hell she got there; her head
felt like it would explode. Incapable of thinking of anything but
the pain, she collapsed on her knees and screamed, holding on to
her head with both hands.
Why couldn`t she remember what happened?
She eventually gave up to recall her memories, focusing her energies
to get back up and walk, fighting against the pain in her head and
the sharp bite of the brutal winter cold. She trembled with violent
spasms induced by the steady drop of her body temperature. Surely
even Sailor Moon couldn`t hold out forever in this hostile situation,
but she had to try.
To put it simply, she had no other options. Walk or die. Simple as
that.
Ordinarily, Sailor Moon would have been able to resist this
crippling cold much better, but she was weakened from a terrible
battle she couldn`t remember at the end of which she had witnessed
something so shocking that her subconscious would not allow her a
chance to recall. Her frozen skin was beginning to numb, while her
muscles stiffened more with each painstaking step she took.
Just before she was about to give up, a shadow pierced through the
blanket of driving snow; it was the silhouette of Sailor Uranus
running up to her.
Her legs failing her, Sailor Moon fell on her knees. She giggled and
shed a pair of crystalline tears that froze instantly in her
eyelashes. "I knew you`d come." she said before fainting and falling
face first in the thick layer of wet, sticky snow.
* * *
The soothing warmth of the electric blanket against her skin brought
back Usagi to the land of the living where she felt relieved to still
be alive. Her muscles still felt horribly stiff, which made her
suspect that there might be more to her pains than simple frostbite.
She stared at the ceiling, where large fluorescent lights beamed a
soft white glow that not quite managed to make her feel at ease.
Hospital lights were just not made for helping patients be
comfortable.
Hospital?
Of course, THAT`s where she was. The bed with the metal siderails,
the sterile white walls, the light green drape surrounding the other
patient next to her, the ever present smell of institution-brand
disinfectant...
The sting in her right arm confirmed this, as it was caused by the
needle connecting her to an intravenous nutritive feed.
Damn. How was she going to explain yet another trip to the hospital
to her parents, when she could hardly even remember where she`d been
or why? She`d have to blame amnesia again. That excuse was getting
old, even if it had done wonders in the past. This time, she wouldn`t
even be lying.
"Yes, doctor, she should have been wearing more warm clothes. I`ll
make sure she does the next time she goes on one of those wilderness
expeditions." said in the corridor a voice she knew all too well.
She smiled as Mamoru walked in.
"Hello, my bunny, I see you`re awake." said Mamoru, looking her in
the eyes with that gaze that always made her melt.
"Hi." she could barely say.
For all her pain and hazyness, Usagi could still tell something was
wrong from the almost undetectable worry showing on his face. She
knew him that well.
"You look so calm, Usagi, so... happy... tell me, what day are we?"
he asked.
"Hummm.... it`s... friday... hey, Haruka and Michiru are getting back
from their vacation in Europe tonight! I have to be there!" she said,
realizing that her condition would prevent her from going to the
airport. "Wait a minute... wasn`t it Haruka who found me in that snow
field?" she wondered, suddenly recalling her ordeal.
"It`s been a while since they returned to Japan, and yes, you were
there to greet them. maybe I should explain what has happened from
the beginning..." started Mamoru.
* * *
"It`s been months since they left, I can`t wait to see them again!"
said the little Chibi-Usa as she scooted along Usagi in the Tokyo
international airport. She loved the atmosphere of this place, the
people coming and going, the tearful separations and the happy
reunions.
There was something magical about an airport, especially when friends
were about to come back.
"You`re right, I`ve missed them a lot since Michiru got a chance to
be featured in that italian exposition; in her last letter, she told
me that they wanted to take some time off while they were in Europe."
said Usagi.
"I heard that they`re buying a house with Setsuna." said Mamoru as he
looked at the many arrival gates for the right one.
"Speaking of which... there she is!" observed Minako who spotted the
guardian of time, dressed inconspicuously stunning as only she could.
Although Setsuna was several thousand years old, she looked barely a
day over thirty.
"Over here!" said Setsuna, waving to her friends.
"Looking sharp as usual!" commented Minako, ever conscious of other
people`s fashion sense.
"Thanks. You`re all looking nice yourselves." she replied shyly.
"Michiru sounded really excited on the phone, she said she had some
really wonderful news to announce." said Usagi.
"What do you think she meant?" wondered Minako as her friends flight
began unboarding and swamping the customs agents.
"I see them there! I see them, I see them!!!" said Chibi-Usa, overly
excited.
While the pink haired girl and her friends rushed over to welcome
back the young couple, Setsuna discreetly grabbed Usagi by the arm
and took her aside. Her face was grim, and so were her words.
"You`re about to face the greatest trial of your life, young rabbit
of the moon." she said.
"What are you saying?" asked Usagi, surprised of this sudden warning.
"Never forget that sometimes death is preferable to the horrid pain
of life." she added. The mysterious Setsuna`s expression then
radically changed, returning to a happy smile as she ran to greet
her old friends who were exhausted from their long flight and
crumbling under the weight of their suitcases.
Usagi hesitated a second; she knew well that Sailor Pluto had
knowledge of future events, and as such none of her warnings could
be ignored... if only she wasn`t so cryptic!!!
So she decided to simply keep the dire warning in mind, waiting to
see what would happen. In the meantime, her friends were there! She
reached them at the gate entrance just in time to see Michiru show
off the ring Haruka had given her while in Venice.
"We`re engaged!!!" said Michiru, beaming with happiness as she held
up her glowing diamond ring. It was a delicate and beautiful work
of art.
"I could have sworn that the gondolier cried when you accepted it
and said `yes`!" said Haruka.
"Now we both have one!!!" added Usagi, holding her own engagement
ring next to Michiru`s.
* * *
Deep in the empty void separating the inner ring planets, the
starship Avatar Mark II soared at unimaginable speeds while heading
back from earth towards Saturn Station Beta. Silently gliding in the
airless vacuum, the ship smoothly carried its lone pilot to his
destination while requiring little to no human guidance. The onboard
computer did almost everything itself.
Technuma Saturn was bored out of his mind.
He had gathered a lot of data relative to his pet project, the
recreation of Sailor Saturn. It had been a complete success: using
DNA segments from himself and Technulis Mercury as well as mental
templates fused together into a single, complete mind, he`d created
a fully grown seventeen years old girl with power enough to equal
and even surpass his deceased pupil, the young Tomoe Hotaru.
Now even though the reincarnation of Sailor Saturn had been murdered
by Ronmar, the outer senshi circle was complete once again.
He was convinced his "project:second coming" to be flawless... until
the seizures started. Sudden, unexpected and violent, they struck
more and more often. He wanted to help her, find a cure to her
crippling illness, but time was running out. At the current rate,
her cerebral structure would collapse soon as her neural pathways
crashed one by one with each new epileptic attack.
He was afraid for her. He had sworn himself to stay distant and
objective from the very day he had spliced her chromosones, but he
couldn`t help himself from loving her as the daughter he had given
life to. He simply couldn`t forget that sweet smile she gave him as
she emerged from the bioengineering tank.
Staring at the apparently immobile environment his ship glided
through, he slowly fell asleep.
Around him sounded music.
Lights flashed.
Laughter echoed.
Technuma realized he was in the weirdest place ever conceived by the
human mind- a discotheque.
On the multicolored checker floor danced the eleven sailor scouts
along with his fellow guardians. The music was provided by an
orchestra with the Prime on guitar, Noratech Neptune on drums and
Technumina Venus as lead singer. The odd sight was completed by the
cage dancers, Queen Serenity and Queen Beryl.
In an instant, they all vanished. Darkness surrounded Technuma who
staggered in the dark for a few instants until he bumped into
something. A beam of light with no apparent source revealed it was
his daughter Robin; she was wearing her Sailor Saturn uniform and
had long strings wrapped around her ankles and wrists, dancing like
a mindless puppet.
As she skipped around her father, her string guided movements
ressembled the jerky spasms of a seizure. He tried to reach for her,
but she vanished as well.
In her place appeared a large stand where sat twelve young girls in
senshi fuku, their faces hidden underneath masks of jet black cloth.
Only their accusing eyes peered through.
"HERE COMES THE JUDGE! HERE COMES THE JUDGE! HERE COMES THE JUDGE!"
they all sang repeatedly in a perfect harmony of recriminations.
"ORDER IN THE COURT!!!" screamed Gallagher just as he appeared in
the same fashion as the jury of senshis, smashing hard a small
mallet on his pedestal. In addition to his black clothes, hood and
cape, he also wore a mask identical to those worn by the jurors.
"Who are you?" asked Technuma who felt tiny in the awe inspiring
presence of the hooded and masked man.
"Let the record show that the defendant shows his guilt by ignorance
of the judge`s identity." observed Gallagher casually. "Jury, how do
you find the defendant?"
"GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTYYYYYYY!!!" they all screamed in unison.
"WAIT A MINUTE! What about due process? You haven`t had a single
witness yet!" protested the accused guardian.
"Fair enough. Bring the witness." said the judge.
A beam of light appeared and revealed the presence of Technazul
Terra in the witness box.
"He`s betrayed us all by refusing to remember. He`s playing right
into the hands of the enemy. He`s nothing more than a pawn that
allowed the chess player to win the game through a queen`s gambit."
said Technazul.
"I think that says it all. Jury?" asked Gallagher.
"GUILTY!" they all screamed.
"NO! I`m innocent, I`d never let an enemy endanger humanity!!!"
yelled Technuma.
"Prove it." whispered the voice of his pupil, Hotaru. "Don`t let the
enemy commit the greatest heresy of all!"
Jolting out of his torpor, Technuma suddenly realized that his ship
was getting ready to dock into Saturn Station Beta.
There was more to this dream of his than he could think of, he was
sure of that. But what could it be?
* * *
"I thought she was dead!" said Haruka in surprise.
"She is. Hotaru was killed, but this time Sailor Saturn is somebody
else, somebody who chooses to remain in hiding for the time being."
said Setsuna as she helped Haruka unpack the many suitcases brought
back by Uranus and Neptune.
"You know who she is, don`t you? You had a vision, I can see it in
your eyes." said Haruka.
"I did. A horrible one. I`d rather not talk about it either." she
replied. "Why don`t you take her to bed upstairs?" she added, looking
at Michiru who`d fallen asleep on the living room couch. It had taken
the gentle girl but a few minutes to think of this new house as home.
"Okay, I will. But you`ll have to tell us more about this new Saturn,
after all you do know more than us about it... as usual."
"And I`ll tell you what I can that won`t catastrophicaly alter the
flow of time... as usual." simply answered Setsuna. "It`s getting
late, let`s finish this tomorrow."
* * *
Usagi felt a little bit better now that her memory was starting to
heal. These few bits and pieces of her past fell into rank, placing
the first piece of the puzzle. Unfortunately, she had no idea what
the final picture was supposed to look like.
"Mamoru, darling, are you really sure it`s safe to tell me about the
scouts with another patient over there?" she whispered, pointing to
the thin green drape.
"Don`t worry, our secret is safe. The man next to you is in a deep
coma, one he probably won`t wake up from. We can talk." he said.
"So what exactly did happen?" wondered Usagi. "After we welcomed
Haruka and Michiru, I mean. Something had to happen to make me land
here, right?"
She tried to remember, but her head pounded again. Tears rolled down
her cheeks, as her subconscious fought against her efforts with all
its might. SOMETHING was locked in her brain that the rest of her
uncontrolled mental processes were desperately fighting to keep
hidden.
"Why don`t you rest, my bunny. I`ll come back tomorrow morning."
said Mamoru.
Usagi could only agree. Knocked out by her mental effort and physical
strain, she had no difficulty getting to sleep.
"Oh poor Usagi...", thought the young man as he held her hand in his.
"...what terrible secret is your battered soul refusing to yield?"
He silently sobbed as he looked over the past few days. For all his
faith in the woman he loved and his hope that all would turn out
fine, he simply did not know if her mind could withstand to recall
what she had seen up there...
To be continued...
a.k.a. Technuma Saturn
Prologue
One thousand years ago...
Savage screams echoed in the night, brutal songs of blood sang by an
invasion forces that knew not mercy nor pity. Swords clashed against
swords, arrows flew towards their soon to be dead targets, streaks
of unnatural lightning lashed about tearing down the ancient moon
palace.
Hundreds upon hundreds of dark kingdom soldiers descended upon the
silver millenium first royal family`s haven, horribly murdering all
in their way. An era of peace and prosperity was about to end in
blood.
Standing in the distance, hidden underneath the large cloaking field
of his silent starship, an ancient being watched without comment.
Tall and muscular, his light grey skin skin gave no clue as to his
age or gender- assuming he even had one at all. Passive and
unintrusive towards this messy business between Serenity and Beryl,
he waited patiently for the outcome.
He did not have to wait very long. A huge shadow hanging over the
torn palace unleashed a monstrous wave of destruction, killing
indiscriminantly her enemies and allies alike. Queen Metalia was
just about to achieve her final victory, while at the same time her
servant Berylsavagely murdered the young moon princess and her lover,
the prince of earth.
The Prime then felt the great sorrow emanating from the battlefield-
the sorrow and pain of Queen Serenity seeing her daughter die, of a
mother losing her child; he also felt an even greater power arising
from her crescent moon wand which was mounted with the legendary
silver crystal, the Heart of Technazul, the crystallized essence of
her deceased lover.
A divine light of the purest white glowed throughout the moon palace,
blinding even the Prime who stood so very far from this battlefield.
Moments later, the great evil had been vanquished, but at a terrible
price. Queen Serenity was dying.
Walking towards the now utterly silent ruins of a once mighty
kingdom, the ancient being found himself surrounded by thousands of
tiny sparks of golden light rising from the ground the young souls
floating away to the earth where they would one day reincarnate. He
also witnessed the Queen giving her final instructions to a duo of
venusian cats before placing them in stasis pods.
Once they were gone, he went over to the dying queen.
She just laid on her back on the cracked marble floor of the
shattered court outside the destroyed palace that had seen her rise
to power, blankly staring to the earth where she`d sent the soul of
her only daughter, the greatest treasure of the universe in her eyes.
Serenity then saw the towering presence of the Prime. She smiled
faintly, her last strenght waning rapidly. "Thanks the stars you
stayed away from all this, old friend." she whispered.
Moving his finger to her lips, he silently beckoned her to preserve
what little lifeforce she still had. He delicately picked her up and
brought her back to the cloaked starship Equinox, turning his back
to the deserted palace. Neither of them would ever return there.
* * *
CYCLES OF LIFE: EPISODE 18
SAILING THE UNCHARTED
The roads of Japan were getting to be rather dangerous with the
massive snowfalls that hadbeen occuring lately, which were weird in
themselves because such massive snowfall did not usually hit the
country of the rising sun until much later in the year, yet there it
was. The ground was covered with over a foot of snow already, and
the streets where ladden with a treacherous layer of ice. The month
of november had barely started.
Not that this stopped the metallic red sportscar of Haruka from
speeding down along the deathtrap that was the japanese countryside
roads. Halfway between Tokyo and Shizuoka, the mighty Sailor Uranus
was driven to get to the coordinates given to her by the unexpected
copilot fate had chosen to be in her backseat.
"We`re almost there." said Umino, punching in wildly at the keyboard
of Sailor Mercury`s ocean blue computer which he had on his lap.
"Bear in mind that the re-entry trajectory is very hard to calculate,
I can only give you the general area."
"That`s already very good." said Naru, overlooking the screen from
the seat next to Umino`s. "Without you, we wouldn`t have made it
this far."
"Slow down, Uranus, getting us killed won`t get us anywhere!"
encouraged Sailor Neptune. Sitting in the front seat at the passenger
side, she was wearing not the usual sailor uniform that she always
wore since the first day she used her transformation pen, but rather
the futuristic fuku of the soul powered senshi. Ressembling Usagi`s
uniform in shape and cut, she also wore the high-tech eye visor and
protective shin and forearm guards, except that her own fuku had a
light green and blue scheme with a wave motif, her right tight
bearing goldenkanji that read TAIYOO NO SENSHI, "soldier of the
ocean".
"If we get there too late, she could freeze to death!" argued Haruka
who accelerated even further. Nobody was going to convince her to
slow down.
Out of the opaque white snow-filled sky, a fiery streak scorched its
way to the earth, finding a landing spot many miles away from the
four passengers of the speeding car.
"There it is!" screamed Naru, pointing to the screeching ball of
fire.
"I`m not letting it get away from us!!!" replied Haruka. She pushed
the gas pedal to the floor.
* * *
Sailor Moon arose out of her cryosleep to find herself encased in
what reminded her of a coffin, locked inside in total darkness, save
for the small blinking light that monitered her steadily increasing
heartbeat. Her mind clouded over from the stasis, she could barely
figure out where she was, let alone how to get out of this container.
Not that it wasn`t comfortable, mind you. It was shaped exactly for a
human form and the lining was soft and pleasing to the touch.
Regardless, she wanted out.
She touched and felt her way around the small ergonomical space,
looking for a door handle or something; that something was a tiny
control panel under her right hand which opened the lid in a smooth
whir of gears, brutally exposing Sailor Moon to the harsh exterior.
Cold air and snow rushed in with full force, cruely biting her skin
while her eyes were stung by the bright daylight reverberated over
the pure white snow.
In a strange way, leaving the protective interior of the escape pod
was very much similar to a second birth for her.
As her eyes got used to light once again, Usagi saw that she had
landed in the middle of a large field, forests and mountains visible
in the distance. The only thing not covered with a thick layer of
the ever falling snow was the long fire trail left by the now
disfunctional escape pod.
Although it had been several minutes now since she has awakened,
her mind was still a chaotic mush for some reason. Unable to connect
thoughts in an ordered fashion, she stepped out of the pod and
started walking aimlessly. Her senshi fuku was very uncomfortable,
stiff from the blood and unidentifiable orange substance dried in
the fabric. The bloody stains cracked and flaked as her joints
bended from her zombie-like motions.
And her head hurt, too. It pounded heavily, so much so that she
couldn`t think at all.
Sailor Moon tried to remember how the hell she got there; her head
felt like it would explode. Incapable of thinking of anything but
the pain, she collapsed on her knees and screamed, holding on to
her head with both hands.
Why couldn`t she remember what happened?
She eventually gave up to recall her memories, focusing her energies
to get back up and walk, fighting against the pain in her head and
the sharp bite of the brutal winter cold. She trembled with violent
spasms induced by the steady drop of her body temperature. Surely
even Sailor Moon couldn`t hold out forever in this hostile situation,
but she had to try.
To put it simply, she had no other options. Walk or die. Simple as
that.
Ordinarily, Sailor Moon would have been able to resist this
crippling cold much better, but she was weakened from a terrible
battle she couldn`t remember at the end of which she had witnessed
something so shocking that her subconscious would not allow her a
chance to recall. Her frozen skin was beginning to numb, while her
muscles stiffened more with each painstaking step she took.
Just before she was about to give up, a shadow pierced through the
blanket of driving snow; it was the silhouette of Sailor Uranus
running up to her.
Her legs failing her, Sailor Moon fell on her knees. She giggled and
shed a pair of crystalline tears that froze instantly in her
eyelashes. "I knew you`d come." she said before fainting and falling
face first in the thick layer of wet, sticky snow.
* * *
The soothing warmth of the electric blanket against her skin brought
back Usagi to the land of the living where she felt relieved to still
be alive. Her muscles still felt horribly stiff, which made her
suspect that there might be more to her pains than simple frostbite.
She stared at the ceiling, where large fluorescent lights beamed a
soft white glow that not quite managed to make her feel at ease.
Hospital lights were just not made for helping patients be
comfortable.
Hospital?
Of course, THAT`s where she was. The bed with the metal siderails,
the sterile white walls, the light green drape surrounding the other
patient next to her, the ever present smell of institution-brand
disinfectant...
The sting in her right arm confirmed this, as it was caused by the
needle connecting her to an intravenous nutritive feed.
Damn. How was she going to explain yet another trip to the hospital
to her parents, when she could hardly even remember where she`d been
or why? She`d have to blame amnesia again. That excuse was getting
old, even if it had done wonders in the past. This time, she wouldn`t
even be lying.
"Yes, doctor, she should have been wearing more warm clothes. I`ll
make sure she does the next time she goes on one of those wilderness
expeditions." said in the corridor a voice she knew all too well.
She smiled as Mamoru walked in.
"Hello, my bunny, I see you`re awake." said Mamoru, looking her in
the eyes with that gaze that always made her melt.
"Hi." she could barely say.
For all her pain and hazyness, Usagi could still tell something was
wrong from the almost undetectable worry showing on his face. She
knew him that well.
"You look so calm, Usagi, so... happy... tell me, what day are we?"
he asked.
"Hummm.... it`s... friday... hey, Haruka and Michiru are getting back
from their vacation in Europe tonight! I have to be there!" she said,
realizing that her condition would prevent her from going to the
airport. "Wait a minute... wasn`t it Haruka who found me in that snow
field?" she wondered, suddenly recalling her ordeal.
"It`s been a while since they returned to Japan, and yes, you were
there to greet them. maybe I should explain what has happened from
the beginning..." started Mamoru.
* * *
"It`s been months since they left, I can`t wait to see them again!"
said the little Chibi-Usa as she scooted along Usagi in the Tokyo
international airport. She loved the atmosphere of this place, the
people coming and going, the tearful separations and the happy
reunions.
There was something magical about an airport, especially when friends
were about to come back.
"You`re right, I`ve missed them a lot since Michiru got a chance to
be featured in that italian exposition; in her last letter, she told
me that they wanted to take some time off while they were in Europe."
said Usagi.
"I heard that they`re buying a house with Setsuna." said Mamoru as he
looked at the many arrival gates for the right one.
"Speaking of which... there she is!" observed Minako who spotted the
guardian of time, dressed inconspicuously stunning as only she could.
Although Setsuna was several thousand years old, she looked barely a
day over thirty.
"Over here!" said Setsuna, waving to her friends.
"Looking sharp as usual!" commented Minako, ever conscious of other
people`s fashion sense.
"Thanks. You`re all looking nice yourselves." she replied shyly.
"Michiru sounded really excited on the phone, she said she had some
really wonderful news to announce." said Usagi.
"What do you think she meant?" wondered Minako as her friends flight
began unboarding and swamping the customs agents.
"I see them there! I see them, I see them!!!" said Chibi-Usa, overly
excited.
While the pink haired girl and her friends rushed over to welcome
back the young couple, Setsuna discreetly grabbed Usagi by the arm
and took her aside. Her face was grim, and so were her words.
"You`re about to face the greatest trial of your life, young rabbit
of the moon." she said.
"What are you saying?" asked Usagi, surprised of this sudden warning.
"Never forget that sometimes death is preferable to the horrid pain
of life." she added. The mysterious Setsuna`s expression then
radically changed, returning to a happy smile as she ran to greet
her old friends who were exhausted from their long flight and
crumbling under the weight of their suitcases.
Usagi hesitated a second; she knew well that Sailor Pluto had
knowledge of future events, and as such none of her warnings could
be ignored... if only she wasn`t so cryptic!!!
So she decided to simply keep the dire warning in mind, waiting to
see what would happen. In the meantime, her friends were there! She
reached them at the gate entrance just in time to see Michiru show
off the ring Haruka had given her while in Venice.
"We`re engaged!!!" said Michiru, beaming with happiness as she held
up her glowing diamond ring. It was a delicate and beautiful work
of art.
"I could have sworn that the gondolier cried when you accepted it
and said `yes`!" said Haruka.
"Now we both have one!!!" added Usagi, holding her own engagement
ring next to Michiru`s.
* * *
Deep in the empty void separating the inner ring planets, the
starship Avatar Mark II soared at unimaginable speeds while heading
back from earth towards Saturn Station Beta. Silently gliding in the
airless vacuum, the ship smoothly carried its lone pilot to his
destination while requiring little to no human guidance. The onboard
computer did almost everything itself.
Technuma Saturn was bored out of his mind.
He had gathered a lot of data relative to his pet project, the
recreation of Sailor Saturn. It had been a complete success: using
DNA segments from himself and Technulis Mercury as well as mental
templates fused together into a single, complete mind, he`d created
a fully grown seventeen years old girl with power enough to equal
and even surpass his deceased pupil, the young Tomoe Hotaru.
Now even though the reincarnation of Sailor Saturn had been murdered
by Ronmar, the outer senshi circle was complete once again.
He was convinced his "project:second coming" to be flawless... until
the seizures started. Sudden, unexpected and violent, they struck
more and more often. He wanted to help her, find a cure to her
crippling illness, but time was running out. At the current rate,
her cerebral structure would collapse soon as her neural pathways
crashed one by one with each new epileptic attack.
He was afraid for her. He had sworn himself to stay distant and
objective from the very day he had spliced her chromosones, but he
couldn`t help himself from loving her as the daughter he had given
life to. He simply couldn`t forget that sweet smile she gave him as
she emerged from the bioengineering tank.
Staring at the apparently immobile environment his ship glided
through, he slowly fell asleep.
Around him sounded music.
Lights flashed.
Laughter echoed.
Technuma realized he was in the weirdest place ever conceived by the
human mind- a discotheque.
On the multicolored checker floor danced the eleven sailor scouts
along with his fellow guardians. The music was provided by an
orchestra with the Prime on guitar, Noratech Neptune on drums and
Technumina Venus as lead singer. The odd sight was completed by the
cage dancers, Queen Serenity and Queen Beryl.
In an instant, they all vanished. Darkness surrounded Technuma who
staggered in the dark for a few instants until he bumped into
something. A beam of light with no apparent source revealed it was
his daughter Robin; she was wearing her Sailor Saturn uniform and
had long strings wrapped around her ankles and wrists, dancing like
a mindless puppet.
As she skipped around her father, her string guided movements
ressembled the jerky spasms of a seizure. He tried to reach for her,
but she vanished as well.
In her place appeared a large stand where sat twelve young girls in
senshi fuku, their faces hidden underneath masks of jet black cloth.
Only their accusing eyes peered through.
"HERE COMES THE JUDGE! HERE COMES THE JUDGE! HERE COMES THE JUDGE!"
they all sang repeatedly in a perfect harmony of recriminations.
"ORDER IN THE COURT!!!" screamed Gallagher just as he appeared in
the same fashion as the jury of senshis, smashing hard a small
mallet on his pedestal. In addition to his black clothes, hood and
cape, he also wore a mask identical to those worn by the jurors.
"Who are you?" asked Technuma who felt tiny in the awe inspiring
presence of the hooded and masked man.
"Let the record show that the defendant shows his guilt by ignorance
of the judge`s identity." observed Gallagher casually. "Jury, how do
you find the defendant?"
"GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTYYYYYYY!!!" they all screamed in unison.
"WAIT A MINUTE! What about due process? You haven`t had a single
witness yet!" protested the accused guardian.
"Fair enough. Bring the witness." said the judge.
A beam of light appeared and revealed the presence of Technazul
Terra in the witness box.
"He`s betrayed us all by refusing to remember. He`s playing right
into the hands of the enemy. He`s nothing more than a pawn that
allowed the chess player to win the game through a queen`s gambit."
said Technazul.
"I think that says it all. Jury?" asked Gallagher.
"GUILTY!" they all screamed.
"NO! I`m innocent, I`d never let an enemy endanger humanity!!!"
yelled Technuma.
"Prove it." whispered the voice of his pupil, Hotaru. "Don`t let the
enemy commit the greatest heresy of all!"
Jolting out of his torpor, Technuma suddenly realized that his ship
was getting ready to dock into Saturn Station Beta.
There was more to this dream of his than he could think of, he was
sure of that. But what could it be?
* * *
"I thought she was dead!" said Haruka in surprise.
"She is. Hotaru was killed, but this time Sailor Saturn is somebody
else, somebody who chooses to remain in hiding for the time being."
said Setsuna as she helped Haruka unpack the many suitcases brought
back by Uranus and Neptune.
"You know who she is, don`t you? You had a vision, I can see it in
your eyes." said Haruka.
"I did. A horrible one. I`d rather not talk about it either." she
replied. "Why don`t you take her to bed upstairs?" she added, looking
at Michiru who`d fallen asleep on the living room couch. It had taken
the gentle girl but a few minutes to think of this new house as home.
"Okay, I will. But you`ll have to tell us more about this new Saturn,
after all you do know more than us about it... as usual."
"And I`ll tell you what I can that won`t catastrophicaly alter the
flow of time... as usual." simply answered Setsuna. "It`s getting
late, let`s finish this tomorrow."
* * *
Usagi felt a little bit better now that her memory was starting to
heal. These few bits and pieces of her past fell into rank, placing
the first piece of the puzzle. Unfortunately, she had no idea what
the final picture was supposed to look like.
"Mamoru, darling, are you really sure it`s safe to tell me about the
scouts with another patient over there?" she whispered, pointing to
the thin green drape.
"Don`t worry, our secret is safe. The man next to you is in a deep
coma, one he probably won`t wake up from. We can talk." he said.
"So what exactly did happen?" wondered Usagi. "After we welcomed
Haruka and Michiru, I mean. Something had to happen to make me land
here, right?"
She tried to remember, but her head pounded again. Tears rolled down
her cheeks, as her subconscious fought against her efforts with all
its might. SOMETHING was locked in her brain that the rest of her
uncontrolled mental processes were desperately fighting to keep
hidden.
"Why don`t you rest, my bunny. I`ll come back tomorrow morning."
said Mamoru.
Usagi could only agree. Knocked out by her mental effort and physical
strain, she had no difficulty getting to sleep.
"Oh poor Usagi...", thought the young man as he held her hand in his.
"...what terrible secret is your battered soul refusing to yield?"
He silently sobbed as he looked over the past few days. For all his
faith in the woman he loved and his hope that all would turn out
fine, he simply did not know if her mind could withstand to recall
what she had seen up there...
To be continued...