By Yohann DeSabrais
a.k.a. Technuma Saturn
PROLOGUE...
"Try hard to remember, sweetheart." said Doctor Ogawa to her young
teenage patient. She`d been searching for an explanation as to how
her dangerous charge Coran Demsy had managed his escape, and the
two police officers who assisted her in getting information from the
young schizophrenic girl were pretty much lost in her ramblings,
mostly because she was convinced she was alice lost in Wonderland.
"Have you seen how the mad hatter left wonderland?"
She used the term "mad hatter" because it had become clear after a
very long discussion that she saw the dangerously insane Psyche as
such. She also saw her doctor and the two police officers in dark
trenchcoats as the white queen and two black knights of chess.
"I remember seeing him leaving the tea party." she said. "I wished
him a happy unbirthday, but he didn`t feel like celebrating that day.
He left in a real hurry, and he overpowered the three of spades.
After taking his weapon, he took out the five and six of clubs." she
explained.
That makes some sense, the doctor thought, he did steal a firearm
from a security guard before shooting two other guards...
"He was really freaked out, you know..." said the young blonde girl
who hugged tightly a stuffed toy shaped as a white rabbit.
"Do you know why?" wondered the doctor.
She nodded. "The grim reaper was after him." she said.
"Okay, Alice, that will be all. Thank you, sweetie." said the doctor
who returned to the police officers to tell them what little
information she could get from the deranged sixteen years old.
She spoke with them calmly, trying to interpret the Lewis Caroll
tainted views of her patient, but there was one grave detail she
overlooked.
"Alice in Wonderland" contained no such thing as the grim reaper...
* * *
CYCLES OF LIFE: EPISODE 30
PICKING UP THE PIECES
The darkness shrouding the mind of the Tsukino Shingo, the mighty
Emerald Knight, slowly began to fade away. He awoke painfully,
clutching his chest that was still badly hurting from the electric
discharge that came from Lupina`s crystal weapon. Wrestling with his
hurting head, he pieced back together the events that preceeded his
bout of unconsciousness.
His class had been the victim of a youma attack, one who knew that
the Emerald Knight was there. He managed to take advantage of the
confusion to push back the monster, transform, and fight it as best
he could, which wasn`t enough at the time. He had tried to pool all
his energy into a single dramatic blow, only to hideously miss his
target and be knocked out by that horrible blast of electricity that
traveled all the way through his metallic armor with great ease.
Now his mind was sharp again and his eyes opened, but the total
darkness around him prevented him from seeing anything.
"I can`t be dead, I hurt too much." he thought out loud.
"Quite correct, although in a few moments you will wish you were."
said a deep voice filled with the arrogance of one used to getting
all he wants.
"Who said that?!?" replied Shingo, who realized as he got up that
his armor was gone; he tried to reform it, but his powers seemed
shortcircuited somehow.
"Don`t bother trying to create that green shell of yours, my aebonite
crystals are draining you of any of your precious Technum strenght."
taunted the voice.
"Show yourself!"
Powerful lights turned themselves on, and Shingo almost wished that
he hadn`t asked for them to show him what he saw. He was standing
inside a dark cavernlike room, whose dark walls and ceiling seemed
to be absorbing any light that might come in contact with them. In
front of him, standing prominently in the middle of the room, was a
gigantic statue of the most horrific thing he`d ever seen, a
shapeless creature whose only recognizable features were a face
twisted by an unspeakable evil that flowed from within. At the base
of this statue was carved out a throne where a tall, slender man sat
proudly, his dark blue hair tied in a long ponytail that fell freely
along his chest. He wore a uniform whose origin he could only guess
at, adorned with many gemstones that were a perfect match for the
single sample of aebonite mineral captured by Sailor Mercury before
her battle with the youma Ganeshya.
By his sides stood three menacing figures: a reptilian humanoid being
wearing a uniform slightly less intricate than the man on the throne,
a caped man whose head was engulfed in permanent fire and a hooded
woman whose face Shingo could have sworn was slowly melting away.
All around the very large room, a small crowd formed itself,
constituted of many creatures whose forms were better left hidden
in the darkness in which they stood.
"This is sooooo not good..." thought Shingo, his face starting to
be covered in nervous sweat. It was then he noticed that the clothes
he wore were not the school uniform he had put on for class, but a
strange looking uniform made out of black leather. He also had a
gemlike collar wrapped around his neck, making his swallowing motion
very unpleasant.
"Just you wait a few moments, Emerald Knight. You will be begging us
to make things unpleasant again..." said the man with the flaming
head.
Hey, had this guy just read his mind? This was simply too horrible
to accept... that meant that he could... no, musn`t think that...
that my sister is... is... thought Shingo, fighting his own
undisciplined mind not to reveal any of the sensitive information
it contained.
"Yes, I can read minds, young one, so would you mind just remembering
who Sailor Moon is, for a few seconds?" said Ghangoroth, scanning
Shingo`s mind. The young boy grabbed his head with both hands,
fighting off the images that popped in his mind of Sailor Moon, who
was really his sister Usagi...
"So, what does he know?" asked Aebonite to his psionic general.
"Not much, I`m afraid." he replied. "He fights side by side the girl
warriors, but they don`t trust him with their identities, not even
Sailor Jendra whom he`s involved with." said the man with great
mental powers.
For just a second, Shingo wasn`t sure what was going on- had he
really managed to suppress his own thoughts? He could have sworn
that the image of Usagi had appeared in his mind, along with those
of the other senshi...
"Do with him as you want, now, the rest of his memories is quite
expendable." concluded Ghangoroth.
Looking at the wicked smile drawing on Aebonite`s face, Shingo felt
his stomach twistng with fear, like a black cloud of sticky oil on
his skin that was rapidly spreading through his legs and chest. What
was he planning to do?
The answer came quickly as the ruler of the dark empire snapped his
fingers and made a small black sphere appear out of thin air.
"This jewelry I gave you on your arrival among us is not only
beautiful, it`s also functional." said the blue haired megalomaniac.
Grabbing the collar with both hands, it dawned on Shingo that
without his powers, he could do nothing to remove the gemstone
artifact around his neck or even defend himself from his enemies.
All he could do was wait for their move.
"Tell me, have you ever felt the glory of pure darkness coursing
through your veins?" asked Aebonite, grazing the sphere`s surface
with his hand. In response, a charge of black power was sent right
through the collar strapped on Shingo`s neck. His knees buckled as
he let out a loud scream of pain.
"Painful enough for you?" he asked mockingly.
"Bite me." whispered Shingo. He received a second, stronger jolt in
response to his defiant attitude, and this time he fell face down
on the cold stone floor.
* * *
Makoto was really beginning to get the hang of her wheelchair,
mostly because she already had the superior upper body strenght
required to quickly move around. Right now, she was reaping the
rewards of learning to operate the wheelchair adapted elevator,
going to the cafeteria all by herself and enjoying her lunch. It
was surprisingly good, considering the large amounts of food
prepared there every day.
As she picked up her dessert spoon to attack her bowl of strawberry
pudding, she accidentaly knocked her coffee cup off the table with
her elbow. While she looked at it fall down, it seemed to slow down
gradually, a scream of horrendous pain filling her mind. It was the
voice of Shingo that echoed in her head, and it was the most gut
wrenching thing she had ever heard. When the cup hit the floor and
smashed itself, a strange image appeared in her mind`s eye.
She was standing in a dark room, an evil place filled with wicked
beings who laughed at a man lying on the floor. She recognized
Usagi`s young brother who writhed in horrid pain, dark energies
flooding his body from a black collar strapped around his neck.
"Not so valiant now, are we?" asked the man besides her, a slender
figure wearing a variant of the dark kingdom uniform and cape.
Sitting on a menacing throne, he appeared to be in control of
Shingo`s slow torture using a black sphere floating at his eye
level.
"I`ll never give up..." he said, refusing to surrender.
"Of course not. Nor would I want you to." said Aebonite, grazing the
black crystal again. The dark energies invading the Emerald Knight`s
body were increasing exponentially with each jolt.
The scream ripped out of his throat twisted Makoto`s heart- she tried
to jump Aebonite and take away the accursed crystal from his hands,
but she couldn`t move. It was only a vision, so she was helpless as
her friend was.
"If you gave me your servitude, what would stop you from taking it
back later?" asked Aebonite, sending another blast of raw power
through the collar. This one was so strong that Shingo was unable
to scream, twisting in agonizing spasms and resisting the onslaught
as best he could.
"But what I take away from you, I`ll never give back!!!" concluded
Aebonite, grabbing the sphere in the palm of his hand and sending an
uniterrupted shower of pure evil lightning through the heroic but
defenseless young man. His final yell of resistance resounded in
Makoto`s mind as both of them fainted.
* * *
"Here you go, sweetheart." said Ikuko as she brought some food to her
daughter Usagi. She hadn`t eaten anything since she`d gotten back
from class, which was very unusual for her. Then again, having her
own daughter from the future wrap herself into an intricate coccoon
of her own creation could hardly constitute something normal.
"Thanks mom." said Usagi.
"You`re too kind, miss Tsukino." said Robin as she dug in the plate
of gingerbread as well. Ever since she`d tasted this spicy treat,
she couldn`t get enough of it.
"Please, Robin, call me Ikuko. You`re a warrior of destiny and I`m
just a plain housewife." asked Usagi`s mother, embarassed by such
formality from her daughter`s friend.
"There`s nothing plain about you, Ikuko. Anyone who could raise such
a caring and loyal girl like Usagi is nothing short of
extraordinary." complimented Robin.
"She`s right mom, you`re the best mother a girl could want!" agreed
Usagi.
"I think you will be an extraordinary mother yourself, Usagi, judging
by our small lady`s honor and courage in front of danger..." she
said. All eyes turned towards the coccoon, whose shape suggested the
small body of a seven years old girl curled up in a foetal position.
"I just hope she knows what she`s doing this time, though..." added
Usagi.
At that moment, Usagi and Robin`s communicators both ringed at the
same time. The terrible news of Shingo`s kidnapping was about to hit
them hard, Ikuko especially.
* * *
"I think she`s coming around..." said a nurse as she saw Makoto`s
eyes flutter and open slowly.
"You scared us there, young lady, especially with that scream you let
out before hitting the floor." said doctor Mizuno. "You should take
it easy for a while, your efforts to overcome your condition are
starting to take a toll on your health."
"Huh... yeah, I should." said Makoto who remembered the vision of
Shingo`s torture with vivid detail. She didn`t know how she saw this,
but she knew for sure that something terrible had happened to her
friend`s brother.
"We`ll let you rest for now, but I want you to promise you`ll take
better care of yourself now." ordered Akane.
"Okay, I promise." said Makoto who waited until everybody was gone
to retrieve her golden pen to try and transform again into Sailor
Jupiter. She feared the result as she had tried to transform several
times already, and failed with each one.
"JUPITER STAR POWER MAKEUP!"
Nothing.
"JUPITER STAR POWER MAKEUP!"
Nothing still.
"DAMN YOU!!! TRANSFORM ME, JUPITER STAR POWER MAKEUP!!!"
The inert artifact simply refused to yield its power to Makoto who
remained her ordinary self. She threw the useless object to the
ground out of frustration and cried in her hands. She wanted to help
the others... Rei, Laurella, Shingo... they all needed her more than
ever and her powers were gone, just like her ability to walk. If it
wasn`t for her newfound boyfriend, she`d hardly have any reason to
go on...
* * *
Flying across the empty space between the second story of a giant
pay parking and the hard surface of the ground below, the screaming
man who`d become known to the japanese crime syndicates as "the
eraser" for his talent in disposing of tainted money in the most
creative ways was scared out of his mind. Landing brutally, he
clearly felt his right arm and several rib bones shatter on impact.
And where criminals got their bones crushed, Sailor V couldn`t be
far away.
"That concludes our first freefall lesson. Next time maybe you`ll
remember to pack a parachute before you jump." mocked Sailor V,
looking down from the second floor where she`d thrown him down from.
"Oh yeah, I forgot... I`m the one who tossed you out into the open!"
With a long leap and a double flip, she nimbly landed on her feet
with catlike agility next to the seriously injured man.
"Please, Sailor V, spare me, I`m just a money launderer!" begged the
wanted criminal, terror stricken and twisting in pain from his
multiple fractures.
"It`s your talent that makes crime appealing. If the scum of this
world couldn`t turn a profit, they`d be forced to do something legal
for a change." said Sailor V, whose hair and fuku were now almost
totally blackened. "That`s why you must perish."
The man screamed even louder as he saw the insane vigilante point
her index to his head, the tip of her finger charging itself with
golden energy.
"Die, scum... SOUL... CRESCENT... SMA..."
Before she could complete the word SMASHER, a flash of rational
thought snuck into her vile vindictive mind. Pointing away from her
victim, the blast shot away and dissipated harmlessly into the air.
Conscious that she had been mere seconds away from killing a man in
cold blood, she felt sick with herself and fled.
Interestingly enough, the eraser thought he`d been given a second
chance by Sailor V and never took part in any other illegal
activities from that point on.
* * *
Sailor Jendra finally stopped running when she ran out of strength,
collapsing into a small alley and sobbing for her lost boyfriend.
He`d been lured into an obvious trap and fell right in it. She had
tried to help him out, but the catwoman had seen to it that she
couldn`t.
"Shingo, where have they taken you? Why can`t I feel you anywhere???"
she thought. Ever since they had united themselves physically to
express their love to its fullest, they`d been able to feel each
other`s presence for miles away, although they rarely ever separated
over such long distances. If she couldn`t sense him now, he was
either over a hundred miles away... or dead.
"No, I refuse to believe that!" she thought. She got up and resumed
walking very slowly, her stiff legs riddled with muscle cramps.
"Your love will guide my steps, Shingo, as soon as I get close
enough, I`ll feel your presence."
She kept on walking, her mind as clouded and her movements as
hesitant as the days of hell when she suffered from hard drug
withdrawal. She hadn`t touched those toxic substances in almost a
year now, but her mental and physical distress were making her look
exactly like she was back then.
"Sailor Jendra!!!" screamed a young teenage girl from Laurella`s
class. She`d been the biggest Sailor Jendra fan ever since she`d
ever shown up.
"Go back to school, Mitsuko." snapped the exhausted Jendra, not
realizing that she`d just call her friend by her name. The girl
wondered how she knew, but quickly forgot about that when she saw
how messed up Jendra was.
"You`re in no shape to go on!" she argued.
"I have to help Emerald Knight! He`s counting on me, he`s..."
"He`s no better off if you kill yourself trying to save him!"
"Leave me alone, girl." said Jendra between two tears. "You can`t
help me now."
"Maybe not me, but I found some people who can." whispered Mitsuko.
"OVER HERE!!!" she yelled in direction of the main street. Two
silhouettes came from there, which Jendra recognized as Sailor Moon
and Sailor Saturn.
"I met them by random chance while they were looking for you." she
said to Laurella.
"I... I barely even remember calling them after the fight..." she
said, confused.
"You need their help right now. You can`t do a thing for Emerald
Knight in your current state." said Mitsuko. "Let your friends help
you, Endymion is scoping the place right now."
Watching silently as the two senshi helped Jendra walk away, Mitsuko
felt good that she was able to help her rolemodel... who would in
turn help out Emerald Knight, whom she had the biggest crush on. She
knew she would probably never even meet him, but hey, a girl can
dream.
"Hey, Mitsuko..."
"Yes, Sailor Moon?"
"Well done. We couldn`t have found her without you."
Mitsuko was happy to hear that.
* * *
Picking up the homework of his friend Tsukino Shingo who had suddenly
"come up with a nasty pneumonia", Mamoru checked out the courtyard
where the battle had occured. It hadn`t been too difficult to find
out the exact location, as every student there was talking about it.
Witnessing Sailor Jendra in action and Emerald Knight`s disappearance
had made enough of an impression on them that they even forgot about
the phoenix that had struck down Gingitsune- for a while at least.
"That`s the place, sir. You can still see the melted hole in the snow
where the portal thing opened." said a young student proud of telling
Mamoru what he`d seen. "I saw it all, Emerald Knight is SO cool...
much cooler than that Tuxedo Kamen guy, I mean, what`s up with that
old fashioned costume?!"
About time I changed my fighter persona, thought Mamoru.
"Thanks, I heard of what happened. I was curious to see the place
myself since I was coming here anyway." said Mamoru, showing the
math and kanji homework he was supposed to bring to his girlfriend`s
brother.
"My pleasure sir, it`s become the school`s main attraction." said the
teenager as he went back inside for the last afternoon class that
would soon start. The courtyard emptied itself rapidly after the bell
rang, leaving the handsome hero alone with his thoughts. Good, he
could better concentrate if he was alone.
opening his mind to the surrounding impressions, he tried to remember
the familiar feeling of his precious Usagi. Starting there, he could
get a better idea of what Shingo`s presence felt like and take it
from there.
After a while, he began to feel something. It reminded him of Sailor
Moon, but it was more brute in its form, more raw in its energetic
pattern. "It has to be him." He followed the impression to its source
and discovered something interesting; stuck in the snow where it had
been trampled by several people, he found a small opaque piece of
crystal which still had a small static charge, an obvious residue to
the electrical discharge Shingo was given by the wolf monster he was
described by many witnesses.
Even after a very short contact with the Emerald Knight`s Technum
based armor, the small piece of conductor crystal had managed to
carry an impression of his energy pattern. Shingo had become so very
powerful in so little time... god only knew how powerful he could
get in the future, and what the dark empire was planning to do with
those powers of his... whatever the answer, Mamoru had a very bad
feeling that he wouldn`t care to find out.
He pocketed the crystal and wondered why he hadn`t been able to reach
Mercury yet... he really could use her intelligence and expertise in
those matters right now.
* * *
"You wanted to see me, Lord Aebonite?" asked Ghangoroth as he entered
the personal quarters of his ruler.
"Yes, come in." he said, picking up a bottle of chilled white wine on
the table of his living room and filling two delicately crafted
crystal glasses. "I wanted to give you my heartfelt congratulations
on the great success of your personal initiative. Getting this
walking energy generator in our hands will greatly increase our
collection rate. We`ll have enough power to restore our dark empire
in no time, once the final master pieces of aebonite mineral are in
place." said Aebonite as he handed the psionic man a glass.
"Thank you. This was one of my better ideas, I must say. It came to
me in a flash of inspiration a few days ago." said Ghangoroth,
unhooking the gold button that held his light blue cape on his
shoulders and removing the soft cloth garnment so he could sit down
on one of the room`s many comfortable couches. Aebonite eyed the
gold button and smiled as he finally remembered where he`d seen that
strange sign that adorned it.
"The greek letter PSI, I believe. How appropriate." he remarked.
"For all of their flaws, humans have many things we can learn from."
replied Ghangoroth.
"You are in good spirits of late, my old friend. I never seen you
this uplifted before. You`ve always been the gloomy curmudgeon
type..."
"Things change. I`ve learned to accept that the past can`t be
changed, and that the present can give you other reasons to enjoy
life."
"Amen to that... to living in the here and now!" toasted Aebonite.
The two men clinked their glasses and drank a long sip of the
delicious wine. Ghangoroth heard the thoughts of his master and was
intrigued of his plans.
"You seem preoccupied by something... an heirloom of yours, I
believe." said the psionic warrior as the flames engulfing his head
danced in a spiral of red and orange shades.
"Correct. Follow me, I`ll show you." said Aebonite, gesturing him to
his bedroom where he showed him a large glass display case containing
a fearsome armor dark green in color with stripes of many varied hues
of green. It was a field plate of exceptional quality that had been
enhanced in its terror by the strategic addition of small spikes on
the gauntlets, shoulders, calves and helmet.
"Is that made of malachite?" asked Ghangoroth.
"Quite correct. The purest malachite crafted in the forges of the
dark kingdom by my father Kunzite himself. Father gave it to me
shortly before he and Zoisite died fighting off Sailor Moon, but
I`ve never worn it. I despise body armor, I find it restrictive and
suffocating."
"But our guest enjoys wearing armor, doesn`t he?"
"Very much so. And seeing how the shining emerald plate has got to
go..." suggested Aebonite, leaving his general to read the rest of
his sentence directly out of his mind.
Both of them agreed that this was indeed a very good plan.
* * *
The darkness he floated in had been very good to his wounded chest,
mending his broken ribs sufficiently so that he may keep solid form
and move around once he`d leave Rei`s subconscious mind. Ronmar had
waited there for long hours, leaving his body seemingly asleep on a
chair next to Rei`s bed. Doctor Mizuno had helped him out, giving
him permission to "stand watch over her sleep" without being
disturbed by the nurses.
Finally, what he had waited for was happening: her shapeless
dreamscape was starting to take form, turning into a vision of
things unreal brought on by night.
What he saw forming was a truly frightening sight; a dry wasteland
of cracked soil, a few rare and shriveled trees, greyish skies devoid
of any sunlight and ruins of what looked like a temple of some sort.
"Poor girl. She must be devastated to be spending her sleep in this
dead world." he thought.
Crackling vultures above his head brought his attention to the many
rotting carcasses lying about in several mounds that had been heaped
up in total disregard to the dead. Some of these bodies were human,
some were animal and much more were beyond anything Ronmar had ever
seen in any of the universes he visited.
It saddened the dread knight to know that this was Rei`s dreamscape,
a reflection of her current emotional state. Even though his own
mindscape was probably very close to this wasteland image, Rei was
a sweet girl who didn`t deserve this.
"She`s following the same path I once took... if I don`t stop her,
she wil surely end up being consumed by her growing darkness..." he
thought.
He walked on for a while, putting on his shades to protect his eyes
from the dry winds that were dragging along a constant cloud of sand
and dust across the dead lands. In a way, these looked like his old
home on the tenth sphere, a many plains had died and looked just like
this... but even the lethal beauty of thornbloom flower could grow
in those dry wastes, and this imaginary place had not the most
miserable of weeds to bring as much as a flicker of life.
Waving his hand, the knightmare created himself a long black cape
out of dream matter; he slung it around his shoulders in order to
keep warm from the sudden chill brought on by the cold gusts of wind
that were blowing stronger with every step he took. Within minutes,
the amount of sand dragged in the air made it almost impossible to
look where he went; he could hardly breathe, the cruel gusts of air
laced with dry dust infiltrating itself in his nose and mouth. He
would have loved nothing more than to summon his battle armor to
shrug off the attack, but this blasted wind would have laughed at
his protection, slipping in inside the visor and making sand seep
in through the joints. He would have to be content with his black
clothes and cape for the time being.
The strong winds soon increased into a hurricane, making any further
progress almost totally impossible. Seeing the opaque silhouette of
a small abandonned house within his reach, the dread knight opened
the door and rushed inside, closing the door behind him with great
difficulty.
"Guess I`ll have to wait this one out." he thought.
The sound of painful sobbing arose from the corner of the dark,
windowless house. Ronmar`s eyes peered through the darkness and saw
the slumped silhouette of a young woman who was crying her way to a
slow death, curled up in a ball.
"Rei, I found you." he said softly.
"Go away!" she replied, tears running down her dust covered face.
"I came this far for you, I won`t so easily be turned back." he
added.
"I don`t care, leave me here!"
The dread knight felt pity for this broken girl who had once been
his daughter a lifetime ago. Her spirit was shattered by the tragedy
of losing her unborn child, but he knew that she had more strength
of will than any other girl he knew. It was only a matter of
unlocking this potential.
"Come with me, Rei, I must show you something." said Ronmar, holding
out his hand to her. She stared at him sadly, not budging an inch.
"I`m not going anywhere until you`ve seen what I have to show you,
you know." he added. She finally took his hand, allowing the
knightmare to lift her up and show her to the door.
Rei covered her eyes as he opened the door to protect her sensitive
eyes from the sudden burst of light from the outside. The wind had
died down, so he motionned her to follow him outside. She silently
did, her tears flowing freely from her eyes.
"Look out there. This is your soul you see." said the dread knight,
waving his hand at the forsaken wastelands. "It looks awful right now
for all the hurt you suffered, but for all this pain you harbor there
is still hope hidden beneath the surface, begging to resurface."
With a dramatic gesture, Ronmar summoned a superb long sword crafted
out of a single piece of hematite gemstone, sparkling gloriously with
the fires of mars.
"This is the pure power of your faith brought to form, stronger than
steel and more devastating than the fires of hell!" he said, handing
the weapon to Rei.
"Hellfire..." she whispered, gazing at the marvelous blade. Her
tears stopped, and a glimmer of hope came to her eyes.
"Let your strenght shine through, my soul daughter! Let it cut
through the darkness and pierce the despair that is choking your
mind!" urged Ronmar.
With a mighty battle cry, Rei ran forward to the dead plains, the
torn rags she wore turning into the burning red fuku of Sailor Mars,
senshi of all fires both hellish and heavenly. She then swung the
blade up high and struck the ground with all her strenght, driving
it all the way into the cracked soil. As she pulled it back up,
water started to spurt out of the hole, spurting in gushes and
revitalizing the wounded earth with its refreshing touch.
"Look at it... the ground is coming back to life..." she whispered
in amazament.
"Yes, it is." said Ronmar, hugging warmly Rei. "But it will take time
to heal. The hurt will still be very strong for a while, but it will
grow less until one day it will lose its hold over your heart. Just
remember that you have your friends to help you heal, Rei. They will
always be there for you, and so will I."
Rei then shed one more tear, this one charged with as much pain as
hope in the future. Ronmar then knew that Sailor Mars would pull
through.
* * *
A serie of small muscles shook the sleeping Mitchell Dreadborne, as
Ronamr was now known to human society, and he woke up to find that
it was now late in the afternoon. He looked onto Rei and found that
her drug induced sleep was now much more peaceful.
"Hi, Mitchell." said Akane as she walked in the room. "That is how
you wish to be called now, right?"
"Yeah, Mitchell Dreadborne. I don`t think human society is ready to
accept a knightmare just yet. But look who I`m telling this to..."
said Ronmar.
"So, how is she really?"
"In a pretty bad shape, mentally speaking. She was on the verge of
total psychic collapse, but I was able to contain her
self-destruction. Her healing has begun. You can stop giving her
those tranquilizers now."
"Thank you, dread lord of darkness." said doctor Mizuno with a warm
smile.
"I am that now, but not for long." said Ronmar, stretching his sore
muscles and inspecting his almost totally healed ribs. "The time of
the Challenging has come, I`m afraid."
"The... Challenging?" wondered Akane.
"An age old tradition among the knightmare society. I`ll explain
later." he said, vanishing into a cloud of smoke. Akane noticed that
the smell of the vanishing dread knight was not quite as offensive as
it was earlier, smoothing over from a sharp acrid smell to a softer
spicy perfume.
Maybe his love for his daughter from another life was returning him
to the honorable man he used to be...
* * *
Finding solace in the desert hall of a train station, the shaken
Sailor V staggered with great difficulty as her mind reeled from the
inner conflict that was ripping her apart. One side of her was
revolted by the fact that she had almost commited a cold blooded
murder, while her other half was enraged that she let off the
scumball alive, failing to kill him when she had the chance.
"What`s happening to me?" she wondered, falling into a seat of the
departure gate waiting area.
An employee of the station saw Sailor V, and recognized the vicious
vigilante for who she was. He wondered why she was there, and went to
her after he realized that she was crying.
"GET OUT OF HERE!" she screamed when she noticed the young man
approaching her. Her eyes were shooting bolts of lightning at him,
and he understood the message quite clearly, running for his life.
He read the newspaper regularly and knew damn well what Sailor V
was capable of.
Once she was alone, Sailor V finally stopped crying, although her
inner turmoil had increased tenfold by then. She was pulled in two
opposite directions, between gentle goodness and dark, seducting
evil. The distraught Sailor V stood up and screamed with all her
inner pain, the headache she was suffering was rapidly turning into
something far worse.
"PLEASE MAKE THIS PAIN GO AWAY!!!" she pleaded to whatever deity
might be watching her at that moment. Her prayer was answered, as
the pain tore her in half- litteraly.
In a burst of searing light, Sailor V was seperated into two
seperate beings. One of them was the kind and pure Sailor Venus,
whose hair had taken its golden blonde color again, her eyes turned
back to their old deep blue color, while her senshi fuku was restored
to its gold, yellow and black scheme. Minako was back to her true
self.
The second being who was standing up besides Minako was a devastating
surprise to Sailor Venus. She was like looking at herself through a
dark mirror; her face was identical, but everything else about her
was tainted by her inner corruption, from the jet black hair to the
dark senshi fuku who seemed to absorb all light around it.
"Who are you?" asked Sailor Venus. "Are you... the Sailor V aspect
of myself?"
"Sort of." said the dark Venus. "Just call me V... next time we
meet." she added, using her soul powered superhuman speed to slip
out of the train station before Minako could get a chance to ask
another question.
She sighed, trying to think of a way to appologize to her friends
for her inexcusable behavior of the past few weeks. Assuming that
they even wanted to ever speak to her again, her troubles were
just beginning, she was sure of that.
TO BE CONTINUED...
a.k.a. Technuma Saturn
PROLOGUE...
"Try hard to remember, sweetheart." said Doctor Ogawa to her young
teenage patient. She`d been searching for an explanation as to how
her dangerous charge Coran Demsy had managed his escape, and the
two police officers who assisted her in getting information from the
young schizophrenic girl were pretty much lost in her ramblings,
mostly because she was convinced she was alice lost in Wonderland.
"Have you seen how the mad hatter left wonderland?"
She used the term "mad hatter" because it had become clear after a
very long discussion that she saw the dangerously insane Psyche as
such. She also saw her doctor and the two police officers in dark
trenchcoats as the white queen and two black knights of chess.
"I remember seeing him leaving the tea party." she said. "I wished
him a happy unbirthday, but he didn`t feel like celebrating that day.
He left in a real hurry, and he overpowered the three of spades.
After taking his weapon, he took out the five and six of clubs." she
explained.
That makes some sense, the doctor thought, he did steal a firearm
from a security guard before shooting two other guards...
"He was really freaked out, you know..." said the young blonde girl
who hugged tightly a stuffed toy shaped as a white rabbit.
"Do you know why?" wondered the doctor.
She nodded. "The grim reaper was after him." she said.
"Okay, Alice, that will be all. Thank you, sweetie." said the doctor
who returned to the police officers to tell them what little
information she could get from the deranged sixteen years old.
She spoke with them calmly, trying to interpret the Lewis Caroll
tainted views of her patient, but there was one grave detail she
overlooked.
"Alice in Wonderland" contained no such thing as the grim reaper...
* * *
CYCLES OF LIFE: EPISODE 30
PICKING UP THE PIECES
The darkness shrouding the mind of the Tsukino Shingo, the mighty
Emerald Knight, slowly began to fade away. He awoke painfully,
clutching his chest that was still badly hurting from the electric
discharge that came from Lupina`s crystal weapon. Wrestling with his
hurting head, he pieced back together the events that preceeded his
bout of unconsciousness.
His class had been the victim of a youma attack, one who knew that
the Emerald Knight was there. He managed to take advantage of the
confusion to push back the monster, transform, and fight it as best
he could, which wasn`t enough at the time. He had tried to pool all
his energy into a single dramatic blow, only to hideously miss his
target and be knocked out by that horrible blast of electricity that
traveled all the way through his metallic armor with great ease.
Now his mind was sharp again and his eyes opened, but the total
darkness around him prevented him from seeing anything.
"I can`t be dead, I hurt too much." he thought out loud.
"Quite correct, although in a few moments you will wish you were."
said a deep voice filled with the arrogance of one used to getting
all he wants.
"Who said that?!?" replied Shingo, who realized as he got up that
his armor was gone; he tried to reform it, but his powers seemed
shortcircuited somehow.
"Don`t bother trying to create that green shell of yours, my aebonite
crystals are draining you of any of your precious Technum strenght."
taunted the voice.
"Show yourself!"
Powerful lights turned themselves on, and Shingo almost wished that
he hadn`t asked for them to show him what he saw. He was standing
inside a dark cavernlike room, whose dark walls and ceiling seemed
to be absorbing any light that might come in contact with them. In
front of him, standing prominently in the middle of the room, was a
gigantic statue of the most horrific thing he`d ever seen, a
shapeless creature whose only recognizable features were a face
twisted by an unspeakable evil that flowed from within. At the base
of this statue was carved out a throne where a tall, slender man sat
proudly, his dark blue hair tied in a long ponytail that fell freely
along his chest. He wore a uniform whose origin he could only guess
at, adorned with many gemstones that were a perfect match for the
single sample of aebonite mineral captured by Sailor Mercury before
her battle with the youma Ganeshya.
By his sides stood three menacing figures: a reptilian humanoid being
wearing a uniform slightly less intricate than the man on the throne,
a caped man whose head was engulfed in permanent fire and a hooded
woman whose face Shingo could have sworn was slowly melting away.
All around the very large room, a small crowd formed itself,
constituted of many creatures whose forms were better left hidden
in the darkness in which they stood.
"This is sooooo not good..." thought Shingo, his face starting to
be covered in nervous sweat. It was then he noticed that the clothes
he wore were not the school uniform he had put on for class, but a
strange looking uniform made out of black leather. He also had a
gemlike collar wrapped around his neck, making his swallowing motion
very unpleasant.
"Just you wait a few moments, Emerald Knight. You will be begging us
to make things unpleasant again..." said the man with the flaming
head.
Hey, had this guy just read his mind? This was simply too horrible
to accept... that meant that he could... no, musn`t think that...
that my sister is... is... thought Shingo, fighting his own
undisciplined mind not to reveal any of the sensitive information
it contained.
"Yes, I can read minds, young one, so would you mind just remembering
who Sailor Moon is, for a few seconds?" said Ghangoroth, scanning
Shingo`s mind. The young boy grabbed his head with both hands,
fighting off the images that popped in his mind of Sailor Moon, who
was really his sister Usagi...
"So, what does he know?" asked Aebonite to his psionic general.
"Not much, I`m afraid." he replied. "He fights side by side the girl
warriors, but they don`t trust him with their identities, not even
Sailor Jendra whom he`s involved with." said the man with great
mental powers.
For just a second, Shingo wasn`t sure what was going on- had he
really managed to suppress his own thoughts? He could have sworn
that the image of Usagi had appeared in his mind, along with those
of the other senshi...
"Do with him as you want, now, the rest of his memories is quite
expendable." concluded Ghangoroth.
Looking at the wicked smile drawing on Aebonite`s face, Shingo felt
his stomach twistng with fear, like a black cloud of sticky oil on
his skin that was rapidly spreading through his legs and chest. What
was he planning to do?
The answer came quickly as the ruler of the dark empire snapped his
fingers and made a small black sphere appear out of thin air.
"This jewelry I gave you on your arrival among us is not only
beautiful, it`s also functional." said the blue haired megalomaniac.
Grabbing the collar with both hands, it dawned on Shingo that
without his powers, he could do nothing to remove the gemstone
artifact around his neck or even defend himself from his enemies.
All he could do was wait for their move.
"Tell me, have you ever felt the glory of pure darkness coursing
through your veins?" asked Aebonite, grazing the sphere`s surface
with his hand. In response, a charge of black power was sent right
through the collar strapped on Shingo`s neck. His knees buckled as
he let out a loud scream of pain.
"Painful enough for you?" he asked mockingly.
"Bite me." whispered Shingo. He received a second, stronger jolt in
response to his defiant attitude, and this time he fell face down
on the cold stone floor.
* * *
Makoto was really beginning to get the hang of her wheelchair,
mostly because she already had the superior upper body strenght
required to quickly move around. Right now, she was reaping the
rewards of learning to operate the wheelchair adapted elevator,
going to the cafeteria all by herself and enjoying her lunch. It
was surprisingly good, considering the large amounts of food
prepared there every day.
As she picked up her dessert spoon to attack her bowl of strawberry
pudding, she accidentaly knocked her coffee cup off the table with
her elbow. While she looked at it fall down, it seemed to slow down
gradually, a scream of horrendous pain filling her mind. It was the
voice of Shingo that echoed in her head, and it was the most gut
wrenching thing she had ever heard. When the cup hit the floor and
smashed itself, a strange image appeared in her mind`s eye.
She was standing in a dark room, an evil place filled with wicked
beings who laughed at a man lying on the floor. She recognized
Usagi`s young brother who writhed in horrid pain, dark energies
flooding his body from a black collar strapped around his neck.
"Not so valiant now, are we?" asked the man besides her, a slender
figure wearing a variant of the dark kingdom uniform and cape.
Sitting on a menacing throne, he appeared to be in control of
Shingo`s slow torture using a black sphere floating at his eye
level.
"I`ll never give up..." he said, refusing to surrender.
"Of course not. Nor would I want you to." said Aebonite, grazing the
black crystal again. The dark energies invading the Emerald Knight`s
body were increasing exponentially with each jolt.
The scream ripped out of his throat twisted Makoto`s heart- she tried
to jump Aebonite and take away the accursed crystal from his hands,
but she couldn`t move. It was only a vision, so she was helpless as
her friend was.
"If you gave me your servitude, what would stop you from taking it
back later?" asked Aebonite, sending another blast of raw power
through the collar. This one was so strong that Shingo was unable
to scream, twisting in agonizing spasms and resisting the onslaught
as best he could.
"But what I take away from you, I`ll never give back!!!" concluded
Aebonite, grabbing the sphere in the palm of his hand and sending an
uniterrupted shower of pure evil lightning through the heroic but
defenseless young man. His final yell of resistance resounded in
Makoto`s mind as both of them fainted.
* * *
"Here you go, sweetheart." said Ikuko as she brought some food to her
daughter Usagi. She hadn`t eaten anything since she`d gotten back
from class, which was very unusual for her. Then again, having her
own daughter from the future wrap herself into an intricate coccoon
of her own creation could hardly constitute something normal.
"Thanks mom." said Usagi.
"You`re too kind, miss Tsukino." said Robin as she dug in the plate
of gingerbread as well. Ever since she`d tasted this spicy treat,
she couldn`t get enough of it.
"Please, Robin, call me Ikuko. You`re a warrior of destiny and I`m
just a plain housewife." asked Usagi`s mother, embarassed by such
formality from her daughter`s friend.
"There`s nothing plain about you, Ikuko. Anyone who could raise such
a caring and loyal girl like Usagi is nothing short of
extraordinary." complimented Robin.
"She`s right mom, you`re the best mother a girl could want!" agreed
Usagi.
"I think you will be an extraordinary mother yourself, Usagi, judging
by our small lady`s honor and courage in front of danger..." she
said. All eyes turned towards the coccoon, whose shape suggested the
small body of a seven years old girl curled up in a foetal position.
"I just hope she knows what she`s doing this time, though..." added
Usagi.
At that moment, Usagi and Robin`s communicators both ringed at the
same time. The terrible news of Shingo`s kidnapping was about to hit
them hard, Ikuko especially.
* * *
"I think she`s coming around..." said a nurse as she saw Makoto`s
eyes flutter and open slowly.
"You scared us there, young lady, especially with that scream you let
out before hitting the floor." said doctor Mizuno. "You should take
it easy for a while, your efforts to overcome your condition are
starting to take a toll on your health."
"Huh... yeah, I should." said Makoto who remembered the vision of
Shingo`s torture with vivid detail. She didn`t know how she saw this,
but she knew for sure that something terrible had happened to her
friend`s brother.
"We`ll let you rest for now, but I want you to promise you`ll take
better care of yourself now." ordered Akane.
"Okay, I promise." said Makoto who waited until everybody was gone
to retrieve her golden pen to try and transform again into Sailor
Jupiter. She feared the result as she had tried to transform several
times already, and failed with each one.
"JUPITER STAR POWER MAKEUP!"
Nothing.
"JUPITER STAR POWER MAKEUP!"
Nothing still.
"DAMN YOU!!! TRANSFORM ME, JUPITER STAR POWER MAKEUP!!!"
The inert artifact simply refused to yield its power to Makoto who
remained her ordinary self. She threw the useless object to the
ground out of frustration and cried in her hands. She wanted to help
the others... Rei, Laurella, Shingo... they all needed her more than
ever and her powers were gone, just like her ability to walk. If it
wasn`t for her newfound boyfriend, she`d hardly have any reason to
go on...
* * *
Flying across the empty space between the second story of a giant
pay parking and the hard surface of the ground below, the screaming
man who`d become known to the japanese crime syndicates as "the
eraser" for his talent in disposing of tainted money in the most
creative ways was scared out of his mind. Landing brutally, he
clearly felt his right arm and several rib bones shatter on impact.
And where criminals got their bones crushed, Sailor V couldn`t be
far away.
"That concludes our first freefall lesson. Next time maybe you`ll
remember to pack a parachute before you jump." mocked Sailor V,
looking down from the second floor where she`d thrown him down from.
"Oh yeah, I forgot... I`m the one who tossed you out into the open!"
With a long leap and a double flip, she nimbly landed on her feet
with catlike agility next to the seriously injured man.
"Please, Sailor V, spare me, I`m just a money launderer!" begged the
wanted criminal, terror stricken and twisting in pain from his
multiple fractures.
"It`s your talent that makes crime appealing. If the scum of this
world couldn`t turn a profit, they`d be forced to do something legal
for a change." said Sailor V, whose hair and fuku were now almost
totally blackened. "That`s why you must perish."
The man screamed even louder as he saw the insane vigilante point
her index to his head, the tip of her finger charging itself with
golden energy.
"Die, scum... SOUL... CRESCENT... SMA..."
Before she could complete the word SMASHER, a flash of rational
thought snuck into her vile vindictive mind. Pointing away from her
victim, the blast shot away and dissipated harmlessly into the air.
Conscious that she had been mere seconds away from killing a man in
cold blood, she felt sick with herself and fled.
Interestingly enough, the eraser thought he`d been given a second
chance by Sailor V and never took part in any other illegal
activities from that point on.
* * *
Sailor Jendra finally stopped running when she ran out of strength,
collapsing into a small alley and sobbing for her lost boyfriend.
He`d been lured into an obvious trap and fell right in it. She had
tried to help him out, but the catwoman had seen to it that she
couldn`t.
"Shingo, where have they taken you? Why can`t I feel you anywhere???"
she thought. Ever since they had united themselves physically to
express their love to its fullest, they`d been able to feel each
other`s presence for miles away, although they rarely ever separated
over such long distances. If she couldn`t sense him now, he was
either over a hundred miles away... or dead.
"No, I refuse to believe that!" she thought. She got up and resumed
walking very slowly, her stiff legs riddled with muscle cramps.
"Your love will guide my steps, Shingo, as soon as I get close
enough, I`ll feel your presence."
She kept on walking, her mind as clouded and her movements as
hesitant as the days of hell when she suffered from hard drug
withdrawal. She hadn`t touched those toxic substances in almost a
year now, but her mental and physical distress were making her look
exactly like she was back then.
"Sailor Jendra!!!" screamed a young teenage girl from Laurella`s
class. She`d been the biggest Sailor Jendra fan ever since she`d
ever shown up.
"Go back to school, Mitsuko." snapped the exhausted Jendra, not
realizing that she`d just call her friend by her name. The girl
wondered how she knew, but quickly forgot about that when she saw
how messed up Jendra was.
"You`re in no shape to go on!" she argued.
"I have to help Emerald Knight! He`s counting on me, he`s..."
"He`s no better off if you kill yourself trying to save him!"
"Leave me alone, girl." said Jendra between two tears. "You can`t
help me now."
"Maybe not me, but I found some people who can." whispered Mitsuko.
"OVER HERE!!!" she yelled in direction of the main street. Two
silhouettes came from there, which Jendra recognized as Sailor Moon
and Sailor Saturn.
"I met them by random chance while they were looking for you." she
said to Laurella.
"I... I barely even remember calling them after the fight..." she
said, confused.
"You need their help right now. You can`t do a thing for Emerald
Knight in your current state." said Mitsuko. "Let your friends help
you, Endymion is scoping the place right now."
Watching silently as the two senshi helped Jendra walk away, Mitsuko
felt good that she was able to help her rolemodel... who would in
turn help out Emerald Knight, whom she had the biggest crush on. She
knew she would probably never even meet him, but hey, a girl can
dream.
"Hey, Mitsuko..."
"Yes, Sailor Moon?"
"Well done. We couldn`t have found her without you."
Mitsuko was happy to hear that.
* * *
Picking up the homework of his friend Tsukino Shingo who had suddenly
"come up with a nasty pneumonia", Mamoru checked out the courtyard
where the battle had occured. It hadn`t been too difficult to find
out the exact location, as every student there was talking about it.
Witnessing Sailor Jendra in action and Emerald Knight`s disappearance
had made enough of an impression on them that they even forgot about
the phoenix that had struck down Gingitsune- for a while at least.
"That`s the place, sir. You can still see the melted hole in the snow
where the portal thing opened." said a young student proud of telling
Mamoru what he`d seen. "I saw it all, Emerald Knight is SO cool...
much cooler than that Tuxedo Kamen guy, I mean, what`s up with that
old fashioned costume?!"
About time I changed my fighter persona, thought Mamoru.
"Thanks, I heard of what happened. I was curious to see the place
myself since I was coming here anyway." said Mamoru, showing the
math and kanji homework he was supposed to bring to his girlfriend`s
brother.
"My pleasure sir, it`s become the school`s main attraction." said the
teenager as he went back inside for the last afternoon class that
would soon start. The courtyard emptied itself rapidly after the bell
rang, leaving the handsome hero alone with his thoughts. Good, he
could better concentrate if he was alone.
opening his mind to the surrounding impressions, he tried to remember
the familiar feeling of his precious Usagi. Starting there, he could
get a better idea of what Shingo`s presence felt like and take it
from there.
After a while, he began to feel something. It reminded him of Sailor
Moon, but it was more brute in its form, more raw in its energetic
pattern. "It has to be him." He followed the impression to its source
and discovered something interesting; stuck in the snow where it had
been trampled by several people, he found a small opaque piece of
crystal which still had a small static charge, an obvious residue to
the electrical discharge Shingo was given by the wolf monster he was
described by many witnesses.
Even after a very short contact with the Emerald Knight`s Technum
based armor, the small piece of conductor crystal had managed to
carry an impression of his energy pattern. Shingo had become so very
powerful in so little time... god only knew how powerful he could
get in the future, and what the dark empire was planning to do with
those powers of his... whatever the answer, Mamoru had a very bad
feeling that he wouldn`t care to find out.
He pocketed the crystal and wondered why he hadn`t been able to reach
Mercury yet... he really could use her intelligence and expertise in
those matters right now.
* * *
"You wanted to see me, Lord Aebonite?" asked Ghangoroth as he entered
the personal quarters of his ruler.
"Yes, come in." he said, picking up a bottle of chilled white wine on
the table of his living room and filling two delicately crafted
crystal glasses. "I wanted to give you my heartfelt congratulations
on the great success of your personal initiative. Getting this
walking energy generator in our hands will greatly increase our
collection rate. We`ll have enough power to restore our dark empire
in no time, once the final master pieces of aebonite mineral are in
place." said Aebonite as he handed the psionic man a glass.
"Thank you. This was one of my better ideas, I must say. It came to
me in a flash of inspiration a few days ago." said Ghangoroth,
unhooking the gold button that held his light blue cape on his
shoulders and removing the soft cloth garnment so he could sit down
on one of the room`s many comfortable couches. Aebonite eyed the
gold button and smiled as he finally remembered where he`d seen that
strange sign that adorned it.
"The greek letter PSI, I believe. How appropriate." he remarked.
"For all of their flaws, humans have many things we can learn from."
replied Ghangoroth.
"You are in good spirits of late, my old friend. I never seen you
this uplifted before. You`ve always been the gloomy curmudgeon
type..."
"Things change. I`ve learned to accept that the past can`t be
changed, and that the present can give you other reasons to enjoy
life."
"Amen to that... to living in the here and now!" toasted Aebonite.
The two men clinked their glasses and drank a long sip of the
delicious wine. Ghangoroth heard the thoughts of his master and was
intrigued of his plans.
"You seem preoccupied by something... an heirloom of yours, I
believe." said the psionic warrior as the flames engulfing his head
danced in a spiral of red and orange shades.
"Correct. Follow me, I`ll show you." said Aebonite, gesturing him to
his bedroom where he showed him a large glass display case containing
a fearsome armor dark green in color with stripes of many varied hues
of green. It was a field plate of exceptional quality that had been
enhanced in its terror by the strategic addition of small spikes on
the gauntlets, shoulders, calves and helmet.
"Is that made of malachite?" asked Ghangoroth.
"Quite correct. The purest malachite crafted in the forges of the
dark kingdom by my father Kunzite himself. Father gave it to me
shortly before he and Zoisite died fighting off Sailor Moon, but
I`ve never worn it. I despise body armor, I find it restrictive and
suffocating."
"But our guest enjoys wearing armor, doesn`t he?"
"Very much so. And seeing how the shining emerald plate has got to
go..." suggested Aebonite, leaving his general to read the rest of
his sentence directly out of his mind.
Both of them agreed that this was indeed a very good plan.
* * *
The darkness he floated in had been very good to his wounded chest,
mending his broken ribs sufficiently so that he may keep solid form
and move around once he`d leave Rei`s subconscious mind. Ronmar had
waited there for long hours, leaving his body seemingly asleep on a
chair next to Rei`s bed. Doctor Mizuno had helped him out, giving
him permission to "stand watch over her sleep" without being
disturbed by the nurses.
Finally, what he had waited for was happening: her shapeless
dreamscape was starting to take form, turning into a vision of
things unreal brought on by night.
What he saw forming was a truly frightening sight; a dry wasteland
of cracked soil, a few rare and shriveled trees, greyish skies devoid
of any sunlight and ruins of what looked like a temple of some sort.
"Poor girl. She must be devastated to be spending her sleep in this
dead world." he thought.
Crackling vultures above his head brought his attention to the many
rotting carcasses lying about in several mounds that had been heaped
up in total disregard to the dead. Some of these bodies were human,
some were animal and much more were beyond anything Ronmar had ever
seen in any of the universes he visited.
It saddened the dread knight to know that this was Rei`s dreamscape,
a reflection of her current emotional state. Even though his own
mindscape was probably very close to this wasteland image, Rei was
a sweet girl who didn`t deserve this.
"She`s following the same path I once took... if I don`t stop her,
she wil surely end up being consumed by her growing darkness..." he
thought.
He walked on for a while, putting on his shades to protect his eyes
from the dry winds that were dragging along a constant cloud of sand
and dust across the dead lands. In a way, these looked like his old
home on the tenth sphere, a many plains had died and looked just like
this... but even the lethal beauty of thornbloom flower could grow
in those dry wastes, and this imaginary place had not the most
miserable of weeds to bring as much as a flicker of life.
Waving his hand, the knightmare created himself a long black cape
out of dream matter; he slung it around his shoulders in order to
keep warm from the sudden chill brought on by the cold gusts of wind
that were blowing stronger with every step he took. Within minutes,
the amount of sand dragged in the air made it almost impossible to
look where he went; he could hardly breathe, the cruel gusts of air
laced with dry dust infiltrating itself in his nose and mouth. He
would have loved nothing more than to summon his battle armor to
shrug off the attack, but this blasted wind would have laughed at
his protection, slipping in inside the visor and making sand seep
in through the joints. He would have to be content with his black
clothes and cape for the time being.
The strong winds soon increased into a hurricane, making any further
progress almost totally impossible. Seeing the opaque silhouette of
a small abandonned house within his reach, the dread knight opened
the door and rushed inside, closing the door behind him with great
difficulty.
"Guess I`ll have to wait this one out." he thought.
The sound of painful sobbing arose from the corner of the dark,
windowless house. Ronmar`s eyes peered through the darkness and saw
the slumped silhouette of a young woman who was crying her way to a
slow death, curled up in a ball.
"Rei, I found you." he said softly.
"Go away!" she replied, tears running down her dust covered face.
"I came this far for you, I won`t so easily be turned back." he
added.
"I don`t care, leave me here!"
The dread knight felt pity for this broken girl who had once been
his daughter a lifetime ago. Her spirit was shattered by the tragedy
of losing her unborn child, but he knew that she had more strength
of will than any other girl he knew. It was only a matter of
unlocking this potential.
"Come with me, Rei, I must show you something." said Ronmar, holding
out his hand to her. She stared at him sadly, not budging an inch.
"I`m not going anywhere until you`ve seen what I have to show you,
you know." he added. She finally took his hand, allowing the
knightmare to lift her up and show her to the door.
Rei covered her eyes as he opened the door to protect her sensitive
eyes from the sudden burst of light from the outside. The wind had
died down, so he motionned her to follow him outside. She silently
did, her tears flowing freely from her eyes.
"Look out there. This is your soul you see." said the dread knight,
waving his hand at the forsaken wastelands. "It looks awful right now
for all the hurt you suffered, but for all this pain you harbor there
is still hope hidden beneath the surface, begging to resurface."
With a dramatic gesture, Ronmar summoned a superb long sword crafted
out of a single piece of hematite gemstone, sparkling gloriously with
the fires of mars.
"This is the pure power of your faith brought to form, stronger than
steel and more devastating than the fires of hell!" he said, handing
the weapon to Rei.
"Hellfire..." she whispered, gazing at the marvelous blade. Her
tears stopped, and a glimmer of hope came to her eyes.
"Let your strenght shine through, my soul daughter! Let it cut
through the darkness and pierce the despair that is choking your
mind!" urged Ronmar.
With a mighty battle cry, Rei ran forward to the dead plains, the
torn rags she wore turning into the burning red fuku of Sailor Mars,
senshi of all fires both hellish and heavenly. She then swung the
blade up high and struck the ground with all her strenght, driving
it all the way into the cracked soil. As she pulled it back up,
water started to spurt out of the hole, spurting in gushes and
revitalizing the wounded earth with its refreshing touch.
"Look at it... the ground is coming back to life..." she whispered
in amazament.
"Yes, it is." said Ronmar, hugging warmly Rei. "But it will take time
to heal. The hurt will still be very strong for a while, but it will
grow less until one day it will lose its hold over your heart. Just
remember that you have your friends to help you heal, Rei. They will
always be there for you, and so will I."
Rei then shed one more tear, this one charged with as much pain as
hope in the future. Ronmar then knew that Sailor Mars would pull
through.
* * *
A serie of small muscles shook the sleeping Mitchell Dreadborne, as
Ronamr was now known to human society, and he woke up to find that
it was now late in the afternoon. He looked onto Rei and found that
her drug induced sleep was now much more peaceful.
"Hi, Mitchell." said Akane as she walked in the room. "That is how
you wish to be called now, right?"
"Yeah, Mitchell Dreadborne. I don`t think human society is ready to
accept a knightmare just yet. But look who I`m telling this to..."
said Ronmar.
"So, how is she really?"
"In a pretty bad shape, mentally speaking. She was on the verge of
total psychic collapse, but I was able to contain her
self-destruction. Her healing has begun. You can stop giving her
those tranquilizers now."
"Thank you, dread lord of darkness." said doctor Mizuno with a warm
smile.
"I am that now, but not for long." said Ronmar, stretching his sore
muscles and inspecting his almost totally healed ribs. "The time of
the Challenging has come, I`m afraid."
"The... Challenging?" wondered Akane.
"An age old tradition among the knightmare society. I`ll explain
later." he said, vanishing into a cloud of smoke. Akane noticed that
the smell of the vanishing dread knight was not quite as offensive as
it was earlier, smoothing over from a sharp acrid smell to a softer
spicy perfume.
Maybe his love for his daughter from another life was returning him
to the honorable man he used to be...
* * *
Finding solace in the desert hall of a train station, the shaken
Sailor V staggered with great difficulty as her mind reeled from the
inner conflict that was ripping her apart. One side of her was
revolted by the fact that she had almost commited a cold blooded
murder, while her other half was enraged that she let off the
scumball alive, failing to kill him when she had the chance.
"What`s happening to me?" she wondered, falling into a seat of the
departure gate waiting area.
An employee of the station saw Sailor V, and recognized the vicious
vigilante for who she was. He wondered why she was there, and went to
her after he realized that she was crying.
"GET OUT OF HERE!" she screamed when she noticed the young man
approaching her. Her eyes were shooting bolts of lightning at him,
and he understood the message quite clearly, running for his life.
He read the newspaper regularly and knew damn well what Sailor V
was capable of.
Once she was alone, Sailor V finally stopped crying, although her
inner turmoil had increased tenfold by then. She was pulled in two
opposite directions, between gentle goodness and dark, seducting
evil. The distraught Sailor V stood up and screamed with all her
inner pain, the headache she was suffering was rapidly turning into
something far worse.
"PLEASE MAKE THIS PAIN GO AWAY!!!" she pleaded to whatever deity
might be watching her at that moment. Her prayer was answered, as
the pain tore her in half- litteraly.
In a burst of searing light, Sailor V was seperated into two
seperate beings. One of them was the kind and pure Sailor Venus,
whose hair had taken its golden blonde color again, her eyes turned
back to their old deep blue color, while her senshi fuku was restored
to its gold, yellow and black scheme. Minako was back to her true
self.
The second being who was standing up besides Minako was a devastating
surprise to Sailor Venus. She was like looking at herself through a
dark mirror; her face was identical, but everything else about her
was tainted by her inner corruption, from the jet black hair to the
dark senshi fuku who seemed to absorb all light around it.
"Who are you?" asked Sailor Venus. "Are you... the Sailor V aspect
of myself?"
"Sort of." said the dark Venus. "Just call me V... next time we
meet." she added, using her soul powered superhuman speed to slip
out of the train station before Minako could get a chance to ask
another question.
She sighed, trying to think of a way to appologize to her friends
for her inexcusable behavior of the past few weeks. Assuming that
they even wanted to ever speak to her again, her troubles were
just beginning, she was sure of that.
TO BE CONTINUED...