By Yohann DeSabrais
a.k.a. Technuma Saturn
Prologue
Kaolinite screamed as she awoke from her restless two hours of sleep,
her badly healed chest wound tearing out painful tears from her
blood shot eyes. Her shaking hands reached hesitantly to her
nightstand, her bedroom`s darkness masking the location of the
elusive plastic container filled with the pain killers she had now
grown addicted to.
Ripping the lip off the small container, she swallowed a few
regardless that it had been less than the recommended four hours
since her last dose. The vodka bottle on the floor next to her bed
would provide Kaolinite with the extra kick to forget the gut
wrenching torture that her wounded body had been imposing her ever
since that deadly encounter with Ronmar, the dread lord of darkness.
Moving to sit up in her bed, she felt something sticky on her skin.
"Oh shit, not again... NOT AGAIN!!!" she said in frustration.
Turning on the lamp on her nightstand, Kaolinite saw the large half
coagulated blood stain on her bedsheets. The wound had somehow
reopened itself again, the skin refusing to heal regardless of the
intensive amount of surgeries she already went through. Even without
the massive amount of internal damage the initial blow had dealt her,
the long term results from the terrible cut through her thorax were
still more than enough to make her life a living nightmare. A true
tribute to the deadly techniques used by the dread knight, the arts
of darkness.
She had always promised herself to never cry, to not show weakness.
Most of her life she had kept that promise, but the arrival of the
gold clad warrior in her life had changed all that in a quick flash
of cold steel.
Kaolinite cried once again, feeling sorry for herself. Why hadn`t
she died along with the others that fateful night of june? Why was
she still there to suffer while her collegues... no, her friends...
were resting in the great beyond?
Many times she had considered taking her own life. She had almost
done it just the previous day, while she was waiting for a red light
to change on her way back home. She saw the heavy truck barreling
down the street at full speed, and she had been inching forward into
its path ever so slowly until she was almost right in its way. A
helpful hand had pulled her out of harm`s way only an instant before
she took the final, deadly step, her kind hearted savior obviously
unaware of the endless pain that had become her daily lot. She had
thanked him absent-mindedly and went home thinking no more of it
until just now.
"DAMN YOU KNIGHTMARE BASTARD!" she yelled out as she tossed the empty
bottle to the wall where it smashed to pieces. The wounded scientist
doubled over in pain as this sudden and brutal move further
aggravated her freshly reopened wound. Kaolinite immediately
refocused her mind on her work objectives, the only thing that had
any effectiveness in numbing the pain until the drugs she took in
dangerous amounts would hit her blood stream.
She had gone over EVERY point of the daemon egg theory, from initial
design to final completion as specified in the complete works of
professor Tomoe. There was nothing more she could add to this
design, as her former boss' genius had ensured total perfection in
the final process used by the death busters to collect heart
crystals.
There had to be more, but daemon egg perfecting was a dead end for
sure.
Then a flash of insight came to her... something totally unexpected.
She remembered the manga that Mimete enjoyed reading so much, the
same manga she confiscated many times over from the blonde witch
because she would read it instead of doing her data research
regarding pure hearts prospects.
What was it called again? "Golgothian Warriors", the story of giant
war machine pilots fighting overwhelming odds to defend earth against
alien invaders. A classic in giant robot manga. She remembered
hearing Mimete mentionning something about "the pilots not being
upgradable, but the machines being under a constant improvement
process". THAT was the answer! If she couldn`t improve on the eggs,
she`d improve on the host shell!
"How hard could that be?" she wondered. After all, what had they
used so far to host the daemon eggs? A door knob, a beach ball, a
jigsaw puzzle, a plastic skeleton model... not exactly top grade
material here.
With the rush of drugs and alcohol kicking in, Kaolinite went to
sleep with a smile on her face for the first time in months. She
didn`t give a damn about her blood stained sheets anymore, as her
inspiration gave her something to look forward to other than the
final release of death...
* * *
CYCLES OF LIFE: EPISODE 36
A SPLINTER OF DARKNESS
Dokuryo paced in the small condominium that Thorelia had bought with
the money she made as a famed sculptress in human society. He was
VERY nervous ever since he and his lover had escaped from the north
pole fortress of Aebonite mere moments before it was destroyed by
the sailor senshi. He knew that the power of command now rested
solely in the hands of Beryl`s daughter, Crystallite, and that
things were bound to change in the command structure as she
reorganized her dark empire to her every whim.
Looking around at the earlier works of Thorelia, he couldn`t help
but feel awestruck at the immense talent she possessed. It was what
attracted him to her in the first place, this way she had of making
even the most warped creature a thing of beauty. Furthermore, she
had accepted his rather peculiar anatomy as being his true self, a
reason to be proud of himself and not feel ashamed of.
He loved her with all his heart. He was afraid something was going
to happen that would tear them apart.
Dokuryo felt a jolt of fear grasp his heart. A dark presence was
seeping in the house, and it scared the hell out of him.
"Who`s there?" he asked, looking around and seeing nothing.
"I am Black Baron." said a disembodied voice coming from a shifting
shadow.
"Black... Baron?" he uttered in terror.
"Yes, your... replacement." said the shadow as it formed a fluid
semi-solid form more or less human in shape.
"Did Crystallite send you here?" asked Dokuryo.
"Yes." answered the voice whose point of origin seemed not to be
fixed in place.
"What has she planned for me, now that you are her second in
command?" asked the toxic dragon, afraid of his answer.
"She left that up to me... personaly, I hate to leave things
unfinished."
As the words rang out ominously, black flames light up around
Dokuryo`s feet in a six feet wide circle. The heat was very intense,
and even his thick hide could barely protect him. He screamed out
in pain, alerting Thorelia who woke up and came running into her
small studio after throwing on a light nightgown. She was horrified
when she saw what was happening.
"DOKURYO!" she yelled out.
"Stay away, Thorelia, save yourself!" screamed the reptilian man,
as the flames were starting to eat his clothes.
"Yes, I have no quarrel with you, faceless one." agreed the cold
emotionless voice.
"No, I won`t let it end like this!" she said, grabbng a nearby
chisel and running to the shadowy figure, slashing uselessly into
the creature of night.
"You cannot harm me..." whispered Black Baron. "Your boyfriend will
die."
The agony of Dokuryo ripped her heart. She loved him too much to
stand there doing nothing, even if that meant doing something
foolish... she jumped through to fire, and into his arms.
"I love you..." she whispered, the fiery air burning her lungs as it
ate her skin.
"I love you too..." he whispered back before the fire did too much
damage and both of them fell victim to the intense heat devouring
their bodies. The fell down together, never leaving each other`s
embrace as their corpses got charred beyond recognition.
"And so it goes." simply said Black Baron, abandonning the two
smoking bodies as the flames died down.
* * *
Ikuko, Usagi and Usako all sat on the living room couch, staring at
the cutest little three year old girl that was smiling happily as
she ate the breakfast Ikuko had made for her. Despite the fact that
the initial shock had worn off, they were still baffled as to the
origin of this enigma that called herself "Chibi Chibi".
To rule out the most obvious answers, they had called in two of
their smartest friends, Umino and Ami who were set up in the kitchen
with their respective laptops. Ami, with her Mercury blue computer,
was trying to determine the genetic profile of the girl while Umino
scoured the Tokyo data banks for hospital and police records.
"She wasn`t born in Tokyo, or Japan for that matter." confirmed
Umino. "There haven`t been any children disappearances in the last
month, and all those prior to that were of kids that didn`t match
Chibi Chibi`s description." he added, removing his glasses to rub
his tired eyes. He couldn`t wait until his web page design side job
had earned him enough cash to afford that corrective laser surgery
he had wanted for years.
"And her DNA scan is inconclusive. She has some sort of inner power
that messes up my scans." said Ami. "With this kind of power, she
could very well be your child, Usako."
Chibi Chibi smiled and ran to Usako again, hugging her with all the
strenght of her little arms.
"I love you!" she said, giggling.
Usako looked at Usagi and noticed that she was obviously begin to
cry. "What`s the matter, mom?" she wondered.
"I`m too young to be graaaaaaandmotheeeeeer!!!" she wailed loudly.
"And what about me, young lady?!" replied Ikuko. "I`m a
great-grandmother and I haven`t even hit forty yet!!!"
"Let`s not be too hasty here... we still don`t know WHO she is, or
if Chibi Chibi is even her real name." said Ami as she unplugged
Umino`s laptop from hers and turned it off. "But she`s something
strange, an unknown variable. I think we should protect her."
"I will, trust me. I will watch over her as if she were my own
daughter!" promised Usako.
Usagi and Ikuko both let out a deep sigh of desperation. This could
only mean trouble the likes of which hadn`t been seen since the first
day of Chibi-Usa`s stay in twentieth century Tokyo.
At this moment, Luna came down from the stairs, yawning and surprised
that everyone was already up by seven thirty. She had spent most of
the night out looking unsuccessfuly for Artemis, and had slept like
a log the instant she returned home.
"Who`s this?" wondered Luna as she saw the cute girl.
"KITTY!!!" yelled Chibi Chibi in joy as she saw the black cat. She
outstretched her arms forward to try and reach for Luna.
"Oooooh no, you don`t!" hissed Luna, backing down and puffing up her
fur to look big.
"Oh come on, Luna, she`s just a harmless kid!" said Usagi.
"No way, I`m not a plaything!" she protested.
Usako got down on the floor to Luna`s level and used every ounce of
sugary sweet cuteness she had to convince the cat to let herself be
petted by the little girl.
"Please, Luna? Pretty please with pink sugar hearts on top???"
The sparkling red eyes of the scarlet lady were so full of sweetness
that not even Luna could resist her.
"Okay, you win... but if she pulls my tail, I`m out of there!!!"
conceded the cat.
* * *
No creatures of the night are able to withstand the harsh light of
the morning sun, not even the greater knightmares. The golden rays
of day are able to neutralize most of the darkness based powers, and
they know it well.
Unfortunately, a grandmaster of the arts of darkness fears not the
brightest sun.
The shifting forms of the monstrous Black Baron appeared within the
music conservatory where he was on his way to strike at his first
two targets.
Taking advantage of the empty corridors, he summoned one of his many
servants, the corrupted souls known as the BLIGHTED ONES. Out of the
many folds of his shadowy cape of sorts walked out the very solid
form of a three feet tall humanoid being entirely dressed in black
clothes reminiscent of those of desert nomads.
"What are my orders, Darkness?" asked the high pitch feminine voice.
Out of nowhere appeared in the half solid hand of the grandmaster
two cards, those given to him by Crystallite. He handed them both to
her so she may see them.
"What am I to do?" asked the lost soul.
"Make me proud." replied a disembodied voice as the form of Black
Baron vanished along with the cards.
"It shall be done, Darkness... you will be proud of me."
* * *
To her surprise, Luna felt remarkably good in the care of Chibi
Chibi, the small hands rubbing her in all the places she liked so
much, making her purr like she hadn`t done in decades. In all the
centuries she lived, Luna hadn`t met anyone with as soft a touch
aside from her dear friend Queen Serenity in the moon kingdom. She
was even letting herself fall over in the most undignified position
so that Chibi Chibi could rub her stomach better.
"Oh, she`s amazing!!!" thought the cat. She was lying on the lap of
the girl, on her back with all four legs open wide and her head
thrown back. This felt so good... in this reversed position she saw
the upside-down entrance of Umino`s girlfriend Naru.
"Enjoying yourself, Luna?" she asked. "So you must be Chibi Chibi,
Usagi told me about you over the phone! My, you really ARE the cutest
little girl I`ve ever seen!"
Chibi Chibi giggled, then jumped off the couch to run into the
kitchen to find Usako again, leaving on the floor the very relaxed
Luna who would have wanted more of this marvelous massage. "Usako
mama!!! Hungry!!!" she said as she ran past Ami who was getting
ready to leave.
"She is soooo cute!" said Ami, looking at the sweet girl and wishing
she had a daughter herself.
"If I had a daughter, she`d be just like that... well, in my head
she is anyway!" added Naru.
"You wanted to see me today, Naru, you said it was very important."
said Ami, changing subject.
"YES!" replied Naru, remembering what she had planned. "Remember you
wondered if it was possible for the senshi to recharge their built
up power to unleash another ultimate attack?"
"Yes, and Usagi suggested that the messiah might be able to help
us."
"She was right." told Naru, winking. "Let`s go, you`re first up!"
Without giving Ami a chance to reply, Naru grabbed her by the wrist
and flung her winter coat on her shoulders as she dragged Ami
outside.
* * *
A sleek red sportscar pulled into the main parking of the music
conservatory, coming to a sudden stop in a manoeuver that only an
expert pilot could pull off without swerving out of control. The
doors opened to let out the very chic Haruka in a pinstripe suit and
short black winter coat while Michiru opted for a feminine blouse
and skirt, her legs protected from cold by her long falling aqua
coat. She picked up her violin case from the back seat and breathed
in the invigorating winter air which was crisp and not too cold to
cause discomfort.
"It was so nice the way the weather turned out when we trashed that
freak Aebonite." observed Haruka.
"Yes, it`s so lovely around here with all these trees covered in
frost, don`t you think?" asked Michiru, looking all around her at
the wonderful scenery.
"It is lovely..." agreed Haruka who was looking not at the nature
filled decor, but rather at her seductive fiancee.
"I heard what you just thought." said Michiru, giggling.
"Huh? Is that some new talent you got from soul power?" asked Haruka,
caught off guard by this accurate observation.
"Not really. I just know you very well, my love..." replied Michiru,
staring lovingly into her girlfriend`s eyes.
"We have a few minutes before your practice, how about we go for a
walk?" suggested Haruka.
Michiru smiled silently and cuddled her, holding her by the waist.
They walked along the wooded paths all by themselves with no one
around them, save that one small black dressed figure which followed
them like a veteran hunter.
"I`ll make you proud..." it whispered inaudibly.
* * *
"Something is odd." mumbled Yaten, dropping his video game
controller.
"Yaten`s taste in manga, but I thought it was too obvious to even be
worth mentionning." snapped Seiya as he practiced his guitar sitting
on the three light`s living room couch next to Taiki.
"Shut up!" yelled Yaten from across the room. "No... not 'odd' weird,
but rather... evil... dark... pugnant even." explained the shortest
of the three brothers, turning off the game.
A cold silence caught the other two, returning them to a more
concerned state of mind.
"Where?!?" asked Seiya.
"Is it... what we`ve been sent here to find?" asked Taiki.
"Maybe, but it feels too weak yet." answered Yaten.
"Let`s check it out anyway. We can`t take chances with this." said
Taiki.
"Agreed." concluded the two others.
* * *
"Say, Naru, why did we come here?" asked Ami as Naru`s car pulled off
in a secluded part of the woodlands outside of Tokyo.
"To get your power up to its fullest, silly! Why else?" she answered.
Taking the key out of the ignition, she pointed in the distance to a
magnificient waterfall vigorously pouring hundreds of gallons of ice
cold water into a partly frozen miniature lake feeding a budding
river.
"Oh, it`s glorious!" commented Ami.
"Come on, friend, this is where we`re going." said naru.
They both left the car, enjoying this beautiful winter day. The thick
cover of pale clouds hanging overhead helped a lot to make it a cool,
comfortable day for a nice walk. The sun peered through the clouds as
well, making a barely visible glowing disk in the winter sky.
As they reached the half frozen lake, Naru halted and motionned Ami
to do the same.
"Here. You must transform now." she said.
Ami nodded and proceeded to become her senshi self. "MERCURY SOUL
POWER TRANSFORM!"
A golden glow irradiated Ami`s body, removing her royal blue skirt,
blouse and coat to replace them with her Sailor Mercury fuku. Five
metallic glints flashed in turn as her visor and guards covered her
eyes, forearms and chins. When her transformation was completed, she
noticed that Naru`s appearance had changed as well, as she was now
wearing the same dress and breastplate as when she was first revealed
as the messiah by the prayers of the eleven senshi.
"What must I do now?" asked Mercury.
"You must go sit on the rock and meditate on the nature of your
immortal soul. The first time you did this in a moment of crisis, but
now you must do it in a peaceful manner and delve deeper than you
ever have before. Only then can you truly understand yourself."
explained Naru.
"That rock over there?" asked Mercury pointing to a rock stuck in
the thick coat of ice covering the greater part of the lake.
"No, over there." corrected the messiah, pointing to another boulder
pelted by the brunt of the cascading waterfall.
"YOU MUST BE JOKING! IN THE ICE COLD WATER?!?" protested Mercury.
"I`m perfectly serious. In, as you say, the ice cold water."
* * *
"I think something is watching us, Haruka." whispered Michiru in a
nervous voice.
"You mean someone?"
"No, someTHING, I`m sure it`s not human at all..."
Haruka took a quick look around, but couldn`t see anything. Even
though everything looked calm, she suddenly felt a sensation of dread
come over her. Michiru, who was much more sensitive than she was,
had surely felt this the instant it had started, she thought.
"Can you tell what it is?" whispered Haruka, holding Michiru tight
against her in a protective manner.
A huge beastial scream arose from forty feet behind them, hidden
behind the trees. Out of its hiding place came a huge monster, an
aberration upon nature. Eight feet tall, it had very dark armored
skin, disproportionately long arms, huge fangs in its large jaws and
its fingers were no more than monstrous claws having no articulations
to make them prehensile digits. The ground shook under each step the
beast took, its chest heaving as it breathed in the crisp cold air
to breathe out noxious fumes.
"It`s that thing..." said Michiru, pointing out the obvious in an
uncharacteristic display of smart aleck humor.
A long growl greeted the two young women as the monster flailed its
arms, slicing down several tree trunks in the process. It began
moving towards them, intent on doing the same with their bodies.
"I`m not letting that thing hurt you, my love... URANUS SOUL POWER
TRANSFORM!"
"Me neither! NEPTUNE SOUL POWER TRANSFORM!"
And so began the fight between the senshi and this strange creature.
* * *
It had been quite a while now that Sailor Mercury had been sitting in
a stiff lotus position underneath a large waterfall, her entire body
totally chilled by the frosty water cascading upon her body. She felt
completely frigid by now, her skin gone numb since the instant the
cold liquid had drenched her fuku and infiltrated her boots and
gloves, but the messiah, her spiritual guide, had insisted.
At first she could only think of images of hot coffee and fireplaces,
but these primal urges of self preservation had gradually vanished
to leave way for deeper questions of self awareness just like Naru
had told her would happen.
She was getting close, she could almost taste it.
* * *
Armed with their sacred weapons Heaven`s Wrath and Monsoon, Sailor
Uranus and Sailor Neptune were trying their best to keep the hulking
monster down, but try as they might nothing seemed to be able to
subdue the creature.
"WORLD SHAKING!!!" screamed Uranus.
"DEEP SUBMERGE!!!" yelled Neptune.
The earth shook and mystical waters flooded the area as the two
senshi attacked flew to the blighted one, connecting brutally with
its chest but not doing any apparent damage.
"Can`t we call the others for reinforcements???" suggested Uranus.
"Tried already, something is jamming our signals!" replied Neptune
as she dodged a claw swipe. Although it merely grazed her, the blow
nonetheless drew blood as a painful wound was torn across her back.
Neptune fell to the ground as the searing pain tore her body.
"MICHIRU!!!" screamed Uranus who then rushed the monster with her
onyx katana. Her anger fueled blow cost the beast its balance and it
fell backwards, but was otherwise undamaged. Because the beast had
such poor balance, this would buy Uranus a few precious seconds.
"Are you all right?" she asked her lover as she helped her back up.
"Yes, I will be..." whispered Michiru, trying to hide her pain.
"Haruka, you must promise me something..."
"Anything, my love, just ask!"
"When I tell you to... you will not hesitate a second to summon your
world shaking..."
"You got it!!!"
"...and aim it at ME!" finished Michiru.
"WHAT?!?"
"Do you trust me?"
"Yes, but..." protested Haruka who got nervous as the monster was
slowly wrestling back to its feet.
"Then promise me!" insisted Michiru.
"All right... I promise!"
Neptune smiled as she heard Uranus say those words. "We have an
abomination to kill now." she said, turning her eyes to the blighted
one.
* * *
Time seemed to flow slower around Mercury as her meditation led her
to summits of inner peace she had never reached before. Following
some instinctive impulse, she slowly got up to her feet and summoned
her mystical bow Deadshot, which she held up in the position of the
archer awaiting the order to fire her lethal weapon.
And still she waited.
* * *
Sailor Uranus really had no idea what Neptune had in mind, but she
loved her and trusted her implicitly... which is why they were now
running along the main path leading back to the parking lot of the
conservatory. She would have preferred facing the beast face to face,
but Neptune had insisted she had a plan... and besides that thing
didn`t seem to take any kind of damage at all from whatever attack
they threw at it.
"Keep running, Uranus! We`re almost there!" urged Neptune`s voice
from behind her.
"You better have a damn good plan, love, 'cause that thing is running
behind us and it`s much faster than it looks!!!" responded Uranus.
Suddenly, it occured to her that she didn`t feel her lover`s presence
close to her anymore. Stopping and turning around, she saw that over
a hundred feet behind her Neptune was standing immobile in the path,
Monsoon in her hands... and that abomination was barreling down in
her direction.
"What are you doing there?!?" yelled Uranus.
"Remember your promise, Uranus... NOW!!!" she responded, looking the
monster straight in the eyes as it was running to reach grasping
range of the senshi of oceans.
She hesitated to do so, but remembered her promise. Never before had
she broken a promise to the only love in her life, and now would not
be an exception. Surely she had an idea in that clever brain of
hers...
"WORLD SHAKING!!!" she screamed, forming a bolt of energy in her hand
which she violently slammed in the ground to form a soaring ball of
force that screeched towards Neptune. It picked up more and more
speed and power as it got closer, until the very last instant before
it hit her when she jumped sideways, throwing forward Monsoon which
was engulfed inside Uranus' attack and propelled with insane strength
in a direct collision course to the huge dark creature.
* * *
Feeling a sudden contact with the deepest part of herself like no
other she had ever felt in her entire existance, not even when the
youma Ganeshya almost killed her and revealed her soul power,
Mercury then knew true power.
Without thinking or hesitating, she rose her bow high up, an ice
arrow forming on the string as she pulled it tightly backwards.
Energy began to swirl aroung the tip of the ice shaft, a small
magnetic container forming to isolate a single water molecule whose
temperature fell rapidly as its heat was ejected into the air
surrounding the senshi of ice.
"ABSOLUTE..."
The single water molecule`s atomic vibrations stopped as its
temperature dropped to the point where it could not sustain any
kinetic energy, absolute zero.
"...ZERO..."
The projectile ready, Mercury pulled on the bow string with all her
strenght... then released it.
"...DEEP FREEZE!!!"
* * *
The ball of energy exploded with mind shattering force as it
connected with the creature`s armored chest, giving the lapis-lazuli
trident enough power to pierce the armor and tear a path for itself
all the way through the blighted one that fell down immediately,
dying as its thick blood oozed out of its gaping wound.
"Yeah, you did it Michiru!" said Uranus, running back to Neptune.
"No... WE did it, Haruka." she corrected, kissing her passionately.
Then something horrible happened. The body of the dying beast started
to shift, reducing in size and taking normal human proportions. It
continued reducing even after it had taken the size of a human adult.
"Oh... my... god..." whispered Michiru, tears forming in her eyes.
"What have we done?" mumbled Haruka.
The blighted one finished her sinister transformation, returning to
her true form: a small innocent looking eight year old girl. Her
body was horribly mutilated from the senshi attack, and she would
quickly die from her wide chest wound.
"All I wanted was to make Black Baron proud of me..." she whispered
before dying of massive internal damage and hemorraging.
Michiru fell to her knees, crying in shame over what she had just
done. Haruka felt hard pressed to cry, so she expressed herself the
best way she knew how: by taking her sword and unleashing her rage
on some nearby trees that the blighted one had ripped out of the
ground during the fight, screaming as she mindlessly bashed the
dead wood.
Behind them, a shifting mass of shadow formed into a semi humanoid
shape that was Black Baron.
"They are ready to yield to me now." he thought.
* * *
The ice arrow carrying the absolute zero charge shielded in a minute
magnetic sphere surged upwards, flying skywards until it reached the
zenith of its trajectory. It then dissolved the shield, exposing the
absolute zero water molecule to the ambient air. The horrifyingly
cold explosion which followed created a subzero cold shockwave that
expanded outwards of the detonation point, freezing everything in its
path and covering all it touched in a thin layer of ice.
The waterfall cascading over the immobile Sailor Mercury in firing
position was frozen as well, encasing the senshi in a tall pillar of
solidified water. The overcast sky then began to clear itself from
the aftershock of the ultimate attack, the emerging sun glithering
over the smooth surface of the improvised ice statue.
The nearby messiah released herself from the half inch of ice that
covered her whole body, glad to see that her friend had succeeded in
achieving a new summit of personal power.
"Now if she could only free herself from that ice... shouldn`t take
too long." she thought.
* * *
Lifting up his hands, Black Baron pointed to the two distraught
senshi, feeling their negative emotions and calling them forth to
surface in a way only one of true darkness could. Both of them
screamed at once as black energy surged through their bodies.
Over each of their hearts formed a small jagged piece of black
crystal which, upon formation, flew right into the hands of the
grandmaster of darkness. A golden halo sorrounded the two young
women, their senshi fuku disappearing into nothing and their normal
clothes returning in their place. The black katana and light blue
trident of the two senshi cracked, fissures forming over the entire
length of the weapons which then shattered into dozens of fractured
shards.
They stopped yelling, falling unconscious from such a terrible
strain.
Black Baron laughed, then vanished with the two dark splinters ripped
out of their souls.
* * *
A long fissure formed along the pillar of ice that had been a
waterfall only a few seconds before Sailor Mercury`s absolute zero
deep freeze turned it into a prison of solid water. Naru smiled
because she knew that it wouldn`t hold her ally much longer.
A defeaning crash resounded in the small valley as the ice pillar
exploded under the assault of the girl trapped within. The victorious
Sailor Mercury emerged, holding up Deadshot in a sign of triumph. Her
fuku had changed slightly from this new surge of power she`d
experienced, more pieces of armor being added to the others: shoulder
pads, a full breastplate bearing the sign of mercury on the front and
an extension to her leg guards that now covered the front of her
thighs. The kanji on the fabric of her right tigh were hidden under
the armored protection, but they had been engraved on the extension
of her leg armor in a proud display of senshi honor.
Her sacred weapon had been altered as well, the sapphire carvings
being highlighted by subtle additions of pure silver along the frame.
"Thank you for showing me the way, friend. I owe you a great debt."
said the senshi.
"Think nothing of it. You always knew where to find this strenght, I
just walked along your path for a short while. From now on you will
always be able to meditate in any place and recharge your inner
powers to perform your ultimate attack again." explained the
messiah.
"How about we go home now? These wet clothes are freezing me stiff."
asked Ami.
"Sure thing. I`ll set the heater to max on the way back!" agreed
Naru.
* * *
Three sleek feminine silhouettes reached the site where the terrible
battle had taken place and remained hidden to observe what was going
on. They could only contemplate their own failure to get there on
time, Haruka and Michiru crying helplessly in each other`s arms. A
few feet away from them was the broken body of a young child wearing
torn black clothes, lying in a frozen pool of her own blood.
Everywhere about them laid the smashed pieces of their sacred
weapons.
"We failed." said the tallest silhouette.
"But we`re on the right track nonetheless, I can feel it!" said the
shortest one.
"Let`s just hope we can reach our goal before more lives are broken."
added the third one.
With swift superhuman bounds, the three mysterious women left the
scene in a hurry. They had no business left there, so they abandonned
the heartbroken Michiru and Haruka to try and close the open wounds
their souls had just suffered. It caused them even more suffering
than the many slashes the blighted ones had dealt them with her sharp
claws...
* * *
Epilogue...
Later that night, Robin went outside her house wondering where Haruka
and Michiru could be. They should have been back from Michiru`s
concert practice by now. Hotaru was in good hands with her aunt
Setsuna right now, but she was beginning to protest as she missed
her mom and dad.
"I wonder what romantic thing they could be doing right now..." she
said, looking up at the clear sky.
She sat on the front porch, looking up at the moon slowly growing
dark as the earth`s trajectory gradually blocked the sunlight from
the bright astral body that faded away from view into a glorious
eclipse.
"I read about those often... you told me about them, dad, explained
how they happened, but you never told me how beautiful it is."
thought the young lady. "And what about love, dad, is there anything
about it you might have forgotten to mention?"
She sat there for well over two hours until the shimmering moon was
no more than a dark disk with a faint glow, barely visible but to
the most sensitive eyes which Technuma had thoughtfully provided for
her when he created her genetic sequence.
A faint flicker peered through the blackened moon for an instant,
and Robin noticed that it was a piece of paper falling down in her
direction. She got up and walked down the front stairs to catch it,
and found herself excited to notice that this was an advertisement
flyer.
"COOL!" she thought. "Here`s something I`ve never been to before!"
The flyer in question announced the upcoming arrival of a special
performance group...
"Coming soon to Tokyo,
the magic is about to start as we shake up your world!
Tigers, clows and acrobats galore,
magicians, trapezists and many more!!!
Get ready to experience the ultimate in entertainment!
Get ready to go where all dreams come true!
Get ready for the dead dead dead
DEAD MOON CIRCUS!!!"
To be continued...
a.k.a. Technuma Saturn
Prologue
Kaolinite screamed as she awoke from her restless two hours of sleep,
her badly healed chest wound tearing out painful tears from her
blood shot eyes. Her shaking hands reached hesitantly to her
nightstand, her bedroom`s darkness masking the location of the
elusive plastic container filled with the pain killers she had now
grown addicted to.
Ripping the lip off the small container, she swallowed a few
regardless that it had been less than the recommended four hours
since her last dose. The vodka bottle on the floor next to her bed
would provide Kaolinite with the extra kick to forget the gut
wrenching torture that her wounded body had been imposing her ever
since that deadly encounter with Ronmar, the dread lord of darkness.
Moving to sit up in her bed, she felt something sticky on her skin.
"Oh shit, not again... NOT AGAIN!!!" she said in frustration.
Turning on the lamp on her nightstand, Kaolinite saw the large half
coagulated blood stain on her bedsheets. The wound had somehow
reopened itself again, the skin refusing to heal regardless of the
intensive amount of surgeries she already went through. Even without
the massive amount of internal damage the initial blow had dealt her,
the long term results from the terrible cut through her thorax were
still more than enough to make her life a living nightmare. A true
tribute to the deadly techniques used by the dread knight, the arts
of darkness.
She had always promised herself to never cry, to not show weakness.
Most of her life she had kept that promise, but the arrival of the
gold clad warrior in her life had changed all that in a quick flash
of cold steel.
Kaolinite cried once again, feeling sorry for herself. Why hadn`t
she died along with the others that fateful night of june? Why was
she still there to suffer while her collegues... no, her friends...
were resting in the great beyond?
Many times she had considered taking her own life. She had almost
done it just the previous day, while she was waiting for a red light
to change on her way back home. She saw the heavy truck barreling
down the street at full speed, and she had been inching forward into
its path ever so slowly until she was almost right in its way. A
helpful hand had pulled her out of harm`s way only an instant before
she took the final, deadly step, her kind hearted savior obviously
unaware of the endless pain that had become her daily lot. She had
thanked him absent-mindedly and went home thinking no more of it
until just now.
"DAMN YOU KNIGHTMARE BASTARD!" she yelled out as she tossed the empty
bottle to the wall where it smashed to pieces. The wounded scientist
doubled over in pain as this sudden and brutal move further
aggravated her freshly reopened wound. Kaolinite immediately
refocused her mind on her work objectives, the only thing that had
any effectiveness in numbing the pain until the drugs she took in
dangerous amounts would hit her blood stream.
She had gone over EVERY point of the daemon egg theory, from initial
design to final completion as specified in the complete works of
professor Tomoe. There was nothing more she could add to this
design, as her former boss' genius had ensured total perfection in
the final process used by the death busters to collect heart
crystals.
There had to be more, but daemon egg perfecting was a dead end for
sure.
Then a flash of insight came to her... something totally unexpected.
She remembered the manga that Mimete enjoyed reading so much, the
same manga she confiscated many times over from the blonde witch
because she would read it instead of doing her data research
regarding pure hearts prospects.
What was it called again? "Golgothian Warriors", the story of giant
war machine pilots fighting overwhelming odds to defend earth against
alien invaders. A classic in giant robot manga. She remembered
hearing Mimete mentionning something about "the pilots not being
upgradable, but the machines being under a constant improvement
process". THAT was the answer! If she couldn`t improve on the eggs,
she`d improve on the host shell!
"How hard could that be?" she wondered. After all, what had they
used so far to host the daemon eggs? A door knob, a beach ball, a
jigsaw puzzle, a plastic skeleton model... not exactly top grade
material here.
With the rush of drugs and alcohol kicking in, Kaolinite went to
sleep with a smile on her face for the first time in months. She
didn`t give a damn about her blood stained sheets anymore, as her
inspiration gave her something to look forward to other than the
final release of death...
* * *
CYCLES OF LIFE: EPISODE 36
A SPLINTER OF DARKNESS
Dokuryo paced in the small condominium that Thorelia had bought with
the money she made as a famed sculptress in human society. He was
VERY nervous ever since he and his lover had escaped from the north
pole fortress of Aebonite mere moments before it was destroyed by
the sailor senshi. He knew that the power of command now rested
solely in the hands of Beryl`s daughter, Crystallite, and that
things were bound to change in the command structure as she
reorganized her dark empire to her every whim.
Looking around at the earlier works of Thorelia, he couldn`t help
but feel awestruck at the immense talent she possessed. It was what
attracted him to her in the first place, this way she had of making
even the most warped creature a thing of beauty. Furthermore, she
had accepted his rather peculiar anatomy as being his true self, a
reason to be proud of himself and not feel ashamed of.
He loved her with all his heart. He was afraid something was going
to happen that would tear them apart.
Dokuryo felt a jolt of fear grasp his heart. A dark presence was
seeping in the house, and it scared the hell out of him.
"Who`s there?" he asked, looking around and seeing nothing.
"I am Black Baron." said a disembodied voice coming from a shifting
shadow.
"Black... Baron?" he uttered in terror.
"Yes, your... replacement." said the shadow as it formed a fluid
semi-solid form more or less human in shape.
"Did Crystallite send you here?" asked Dokuryo.
"Yes." answered the voice whose point of origin seemed not to be
fixed in place.
"What has she planned for me, now that you are her second in
command?" asked the toxic dragon, afraid of his answer.
"She left that up to me... personaly, I hate to leave things
unfinished."
As the words rang out ominously, black flames light up around
Dokuryo`s feet in a six feet wide circle. The heat was very intense,
and even his thick hide could barely protect him. He screamed out
in pain, alerting Thorelia who woke up and came running into her
small studio after throwing on a light nightgown. She was horrified
when she saw what was happening.
"DOKURYO!" she yelled out.
"Stay away, Thorelia, save yourself!" screamed the reptilian man,
as the flames were starting to eat his clothes.
"Yes, I have no quarrel with you, faceless one." agreed the cold
emotionless voice.
"No, I won`t let it end like this!" she said, grabbng a nearby
chisel and running to the shadowy figure, slashing uselessly into
the creature of night.
"You cannot harm me..." whispered Black Baron. "Your boyfriend will
die."
The agony of Dokuryo ripped her heart. She loved him too much to
stand there doing nothing, even if that meant doing something
foolish... she jumped through to fire, and into his arms.
"I love you..." she whispered, the fiery air burning her lungs as it
ate her skin.
"I love you too..." he whispered back before the fire did too much
damage and both of them fell victim to the intense heat devouring
their bodies. The fell down together, never leaving each other`s
embrace as their corpses got charred beyond recognition.
"And so it goes." simply said Black Baron, abandonning the two
smoking bodies as the flames died down.
* * *
Ikuko, Usagi and Usako all sat on the living room couch, staring at
the cutest little three year old girl that was smiling happily as
she ate the breakfast Ikuko had made for her. Despite the fact that
the initial shock had worn off, they were still baffled as to the
origin of this enigma that called herself "Chibi Chibi".
To rule out the most obvious answers, they had called in two of
their smartest friends, Umino and Ami who were set up in the kitchen
with their respective laptops. Ami, with her Mercury blue computer,
was trying to determine the genetic profile of the girl while Umino
scoured the Tokyo data banks for hospital and police records.
"She wasn`t born in Tokyo, or Japan for that matter." confirmed
Umino. "There haven`t been any children disappearances in the last
month, and all those prior to that were of kids that didn`t match
Chibi Chibi`s description." he added, removing his glasses to rub
his tired eyes. He couldn`t wait until his web page design side job
had earned him enough cash to afford that corrective laser surgery
he had wanted for years.
"And her DNA scan is inconclusive. She has some sort of inner power
that messes up my scans." said Ami. "With this kind of power, she
could very well be your child, Usako."
Chibi Chibi smiled and ran to Usako again, hugging her with all the
strenght of her little arms.
"I love you!" she said, giggling.
Usako looked at Usagi and noticed that she was obviously begin to
cry. "What`s the matter, mom?" she wondered.
"I`m too young to be graaaaaaandmotheeeeeer!!!" she wailed loudly.
"And what about me, young lady?!" replied Ikuko. "I`m a
great-grandmother and I haven`t even hit forty yet!!!"
"Let`s not be too hasty here... we still don`t know WHO she is, or
if Chibi Chibi is even her real name." said Ami as she unplugged
Umino`s laptop from hers and turned it off. "But she`s something
strange, an unknown variable. I think we should protect her."
"I will, trust me. I will watch over her as if she were my own
daughter!" promised Usako.
Usagi and Ikuko both let out a deep sigh of desperation. This could
only mean trouble the likes of which hadn`t been seen since the first
day of Chibi-Usa`s stay in twentieth century Tokyo.
At this moment, Luna came down from the stairs, yawning and surprised
that everyone was already up by seven thirty. She had spent most of
the night out looking unsuccessfuly for Artemis, and had slept like
a log the instant she returned home.
"Who`s this?" wondered Luna as she saw the cute girl.
"KITTY!!!" yelled Chibi Chibi in joy as she saw the black cat. She
outstretched her arms forward to try and reach for Luna.
"Oooooh no, you don`t!" hissed Luna, backing down and puffing up her
fur to look big.
"Oh come on, Luna, she`s just a harmless kid!" said Usagi.
"No way, I`m not a plaything!" she protested.
Usako got down on the floor to Luna`s level and used every ounce of
sugary sweet cuteness she had to convince the cat to let herself be
petted by the little girl.
"Please, Luna? Pretty please with pink sugar hearts on top???"
The sparkling red eyes of the scarlet lady were so full of sweetness
that not even Luna could resist her.
"Okay, you win... but if she pulls my tail, I`m out of there!!!"
conceded the cat.
* * *
No creatures of the night are able to withstand the harsh light of
the morning sun, not even the greater knightmares. The golden rays
of day are able to neutralize most of the darkness based powers, and
they know it well.
Unfortunately, a grandmaster of the arts of darkness fears not the
brightest sun.
The shifting forms of the monstrous Black Baron appeared within the
music conservatory where he was on his way to strike at his first
two targets.
Taking advantage of the empty corridors, he summoned one of his many
servants, the corrupted souls known as the BLIGHTED ONES. Out of the
many folds of his shadowy cape of sorts walked out the very solid
form of a three feet tall humanoid being entirely dressed in black
clothes reminiscent of those of desert nomads.
"What are my orders, Darkness?" asked the high pitch feminine voice.
Out of nowhere appeared in the half solid hand of the grandmaster
two cards, those given to him by Crystallite. He handed them both to
her so she may see them.
"What am I to do?" asked the lost soul.
"Make me proud." replied a disembodied voice as the form of Black
Baron vanished along with the cards.
"It shall be done, Darkness... you will be proud of me."
* * *
To her surprise, Luna felt remarkably good in the care of Chibi
Chibi, the small hands rubbing her in all the places she liked so
much, making her purr like she hadn`t done in decades. In all the
centuries she lived, Luna hadn`t met anyone with as soft a touch
aside from her dear friend Queen Serenity in the moon kingdom. She
was even letting herself fall over in the most undignified position
so that Chibi Chibi could rub her stomach better.
"Oh, she`s amazing!!!" thought the cat. She was lying on the lap of
the girl, on her back with all four legs open wide and her head
thrown back. This felt so good... in this reversed position she saw
the upside-down entrance of Umino`s girlfriend Naru.
"Enjoying yourself, Luna?" she asked. "So you must be Chibi Chibi,
Usagi told me about you over the phone! My, you really ARE the cutest
little girl I`ve ever seen!"
Chibi Chibi giggled, then jumped off the couch to run into the
kitchen to find Usako again, leaving on the floor the very relaxed
Luna who would have wanted more of this marvelous massage. "Usako
mama!!! Hungry!!!" she said as she ran past Ami who was getting
ready to leave.
"She is soooo cute!" said Ami, looking at the sweet girl and wishing
she had a daughter herself.
"If I had a daughter, she`d be just like that... well, in my head
she is anyway!" added Naru.
"You wanted to see me today, Naru, you said it was very important."
said Ami, changing subject.
"YES!" replied Naru, remembering what she had planned. "Remember you
wondered if it was possible for the senshi to recharge their built
up power to unleash another ultimate attack?"
"Yes, and Usagi suggested that the messiah might be able to help
us."
"She was right." told Naru, winking. "Let`s go, you`re first up!"
Without giving Ami a chance to reply, Naru grabbed her by the wrist
and flung her winter coat on her shoulders as she dragged Ami
outside.
* * *
A sleek red sportscar pulled into the main parking of the music
conservatory, coming to a sudden stop in a manoeuver that only an
expert pilot could pull off without swerving out of control. The
doors opened to let out the very chic Haruka in a pinstripe suit and
short black winter coat while Michiru opted for a feminine blouse
and skirt, her legs protected from cold by her long falling aqua
coat. She picked up her violin case from the back seat and breathed
in the invigorating winter air which was crisp and not too cold to
cause discomfort.
"It was so nice the way the weather turned out when we trashed that
freak Aebonite." observed Haruka.
"Yes, it`s so lovely around here with all these trees covered in
frost, don`t you think?" asked Michiru, looking all around her at
the wonderful scenery.
"It is lovely..." agreed Haruka who was looking not at the nature
filled decor, but rather at her seductive fiancee.
"I heard what you just thought." said Michiru, giggling.
"Huh? Is that some new talent you got from soul power?" asked Haruka,
caught off guard by this accurate observation.
"Not really. I just know you very well, my love..." replied Michiru,
staring lovingly into her girlfriend`s eyes.
"We have a few minutes before your practice, how about we go for a
walk?" suggested Haruka.
Michiru smiled silently and cuddled her, holding her by the waist.
They walked along the wooded paths all by themselves with no one
around them, save that one small black dressed figure which followed
them like a veteran hunter.
"I`ll make you proud..." it whispered inaudibly.
* * *
"Something is odd." mumbled Yaten, dropping his video game
controller.
"Yaten`s taste in manga, but I thought it was too obvious to even be
worth mentionning." snapped Seiya as he practiced his guitar sitting
on the three light`s living room couch next to Taiki.
"Shut up!" yelled Yaten from across the room. "No... not 'odd' weird,
but rather... evil... dark... pugnant even." explained the shortest
of the three brothers, turning off the game.
A cold silence caught the other two, returning them to a more
concerned state of mind.
"Where?!?" asked Seiya.
"Is it... what we`ve been sent here to find?" asked Taiki.
"Maybe, but it feels too weak yet." answered Yaten.
"Let`s check it out anyway. We can`t take chances with this." said
Taiki.
"Agreed." concluded the two others.
* * *
"Say, Naru, why did we come here?" asked Ami as Naru`s car pulled off
in a secluded part of the woodlands outside of Tokyo.
"To get your power up to its fullest, silly! Why else?" she answered.
Taking the key out of the ignition, she pointed in the distance to a
magnificient waterfall vigorously pouring hundreds of gallons of ice
cold water into a partly frozen miniature lake feeding a budding
river.
"Oh, it`s glorious!" commented Ami.
"Come on, friend, this is where we`re going." said naru.
They both left the car, enjoying this beautiful winter day. The thick
cover of pale clouds hanging overhead helped a lot to make it a cool,
comfortable day for a nice walk. The sun peered through the clouds as
well, making a barely visible glowing disk in the winter sky.
As they reached the half frozen lake, Naru halted and motionned Ami
to do the same.
"Here. You must transform now." she said.
Ami nodded and proceeded to become her senshi self. "MERCURY SOUL
POWER TRANSFORM!"
A golden glow irradiated Ami`s body, removing her royal blue skirt,
blouse and coat to replace them with her Sailor Mercury fuku. Five
metallic glints flashed in turn as her visor and guards covered her
eyes, forearms and chins. When her transformation was completed, she
noticed that Naru`s appearance had changed as well, as she was now
wearing the same dress and breastplate as when she was first revealed
as the messiah by the prayers of the eleven senshi.
"What must I do now?" asked Mercury.
"You must go sit on the rock and meditate on the nature of your
immortal soul. The first time you did this in a moment of crisis, but
now you must do it in a peaceful manner and delve deeper than you
ever have before. Only then can you truly understand yourself."
explained Naru.
"That rock over there?" asked Mercury pointing to a rock stuck in
the thick coat of ice covering the greater part of the lake.
"No, over there." corrected the messiah, pointing to another boulder
pelted by the brunt of the cascading waterfall.
"YOU MUST BE JOKING! IN THE ICE COLD WATER?!?" protested Mercury.
"I`m perfectly serious. In, as you say, the ice cold water."
* * *
"I think something is watching us, Haruka." whispered Michiru in a
nervous voice.
"You mean someone?"
"No, someTHING, I`m sure it`s not human at all..."
Haruka took a quick look around, but couldn`t see anything. Even
though everything looked calm, she suddenly felt a sensation of dread
come over her. Michiru, who was much more sensitive than she was,
had surely felt this the instant it had started, she thought.
"Can you tell what it is?" whispered Haruka, holding Michiru tight
against her in a protective manner.
A huge beastial scream arose from forty feet behind them, hidden
behind the trees. Out of its hiding place came a huge monster, an
aberration upon nature. Eight feet tall, it had very dark armored
skin, disproportionately long arms, huge fangs in its large jaws and
its fingers were no more than monstrous claws having no articulations
to make them prehensile digits. The ground shook under each step the
beast took, its chest heaving as it breathed in the crisp cold air
to breathe out noxious fumes.
"It`s that thing..." said Michiru, pointing out the obvious in an
uncharacteristic display of smart aleck humor.
A long growl greeted the two young women as the monster flailed its
arms, slicing down several tree trunks in the process. It began
moving towards them, intent on doing the same with their bodies.
"I`m not letting that thing hurt you, my love... URANUS SOUL POWER
TRANSFORM!"
"Me neither! NEPTUNE SOUL POWER TRANSFORM!"
And so began the fight between the senshi and this strange creature.
* * *
It had been quite a while now that Sailor Mercury had been sitting in
a stiff lotus position underneath a large waterfall, her entire body
totally chilled by the frosty water cascading upon her body. She felt
completely frigid by now, her skin gone numb since the instant the
cold liquid had drenched her fuku and infiltrated her boots and
gloves, but the messiah, her spiritual guide, had insisted.
At first she could only think of images of hot coffee and fireplaces,
but these primal urges of self preservation had gradually vanished
to leave way for deeper questions of self awareness just like Naru
had told her would happen.
She was getting close, she could almost taste it.
* * *
Armed with their sacred weapons Heaven`s Wrath and Monsoon, Sailor
Uranus and Sailor Neptune were trying their best to keep the hulking
monster down, but try as they might nothing seemed to be able to
subdue the creature.
"WORLD SHAKING!!!" screamed Uranus.
"DEEP SUBMERGE!!!" yelled Neptune.
The earth shook and mystical waters flooded the area as the two
senshi attacked flew to the blighted one, connecting brutally with
its chest but not doing any apparent damage.
"Can`t we call the others for reinforcements???" suggested Uranus.
"Tried already, something is jamming our signals!" replied Neptune
as she dodged a claw swipe. Although it merely grazed her, the blow
nonetheless drew blood as a painful wound was torn across her back.
Neptune fell to the ground as the searing pain tore her body.
"MICHIRU!!!" screamed Uranus who then rushed the monster with her
onyx katana. Her anger fueled blow cost the beast its balance and it
fell backwards, but was otherwise undamaged. Because the beast had
such poor balance, this would buy Uranus a few precious seconds.
"Are you all right?" she asked her lover as she helped her back up.
"Yes, I will be..." whispered Michiru, trying to hide her pain.
"Haruka, you must promise me something..."
"Anything, my love, just ask!"
"When I tell you to... you will not hesitate a second to summon your
world shaking..."
"You got it!!!"
"...and aim it at ME!" finished Michiru.
"WHAT?!?"
"Do you trust me?"
"Yes, but..." protested Haruka who got nervous as the monster was
slowly wrestling back to its feet.
"Then promise me!" insisted Michiru.
"All right... I promise!"
Neptune smiled as she heard Uranus say those words. "We have an
abomination to kill now." she said, turning her eyes to the blighted
one.
* * *
Time seemed to flow slower around Mercury as her meditation led her
to summits of inner peace she had never reached before. Following
some instinctive impulse, she slowly got up to her feet and summoned
her mystical bow Deadshot, which she held up in the position of the
archer awaiting the order to fire her lethal weapon.
And still she waited.
* * *
Sailor Uranus really had no idea what Neptune had in mind, but she
loved her and trusted her implicitly... which is why they were now
running along the main path leading back to the parking lot of the
conservatory. She would have preferred facing the beast face to face,
but Neptune had insisted she had a plan... and besides that thing
didn`t seem to take any kind of damage at all from whatever attack
they threw at it.
"Keep running, Uranus! We`re almost there!" urged Neptune`s voice
from behind her.
"You better have a damn good plan, love, 'cause that thing is running
behind us and it`s much faster than it looks!!!" responded Uranus.
Suddenly, it occured to her that she didn`t feel her lover`s presence
close to her anymore. Stopping and turning around, she saw that over
a hundred feet behind her Neptune was standing immobile in the path,
Monsoon in her hands... and that abomination was barreling down in
her direction.
"What are you doing there?!?" yelled Uranus.
"Remember your promise, Uranus... NOW!!!" she responded, looking the
monster straight in the eyes as it was running to reach grasping
range of the senshi of oceans.
She hesitated to do so, but remembered her promise. Never before had
she broken a promise to the only love in her life, and now would not
be an exception. Surely she had an idea in that clever brain of
hers...
"WORLD SHAKING!!!" she screamed, forming a bolt of energy in her hand
which she violently slammed in the ground to form a soaring ball of
force that screeched towards Neptune. It picked up more and more
speed and power as it got closer, until the very last instant before
it hit her when she jumped sideways, throwing forward Monsoon which
was engulfed inside Uranus' attack and propelled with insane strength
in a direct collision course to the huge dark creature.
* * *
Feeling a sudden contact with the deepest part of herself like no
other she had ever felt in her entire existance, not even when the
youma Ganeshya almost killed her and revealed her soul power,
Mercury then knew true power.
Without thinking or hesitating, she rose her bow high up, an ice
arrow forming on the string as she pulled it tightly backwards.
Energy began to swirl aroung the tip of the ice shaft, a small
magnetic container forming to isolate a single water molecule whose
temperature fell rapidly as its heat was ejected into the air
surrounding the senshi of ice.
"ABSOLUTE..."
The single water molecule`s atomic vibrations stopped as its
temperature dropped to the point where it could not sustain any
kinetic energy, absolute zero.
"...ZERO..."
The projectile ready, Mercury pulled on the bow string with all her
strenght... then released it.
"...DEEP FREEZE!!!"
* * *
The ball of energy exploded with mind shattering force as it
connected with the creature`s armored chest, giving the lapis-lazuli
trident enough power to pierce the armor and tear a path for itself
all the way through the blighted one that fell down immediately,
dying as its thick blood oozed out of its gaping wound.
"Yeah, you did it Michiru!" said Uranus, running back to Neptune.
"No... WE did it, Haruka." she corrected, kissing her passionately.
Then something horrible happened. The body of the dying beast started
to shift, reducing in size and taking normal human proportions. It
continued reducing even after it had taken the size of a human adult.
"Oh... my... god..." whispered Michiru, tears forming in her eyes.
"What have we done?" mumbled Haruka.
The blighted one finished her sinister transformation, returning to
her true form: a small innocent looking eight year old girl. Her
body was horribly mutilated from the senshi attack, and she would
quickly die from her wide chest wound.
"All I wanted was to make Black Baron proud of me..." she whispered
before dying of massive internal damage and hemorraging.
Michiru fell to her knees, crying in shame over what she had just
done. Haruka felt hard pressed to cry, so she expressed herself the
best way she knew how: by taking her sword and unleashing her rage
on some nearby trees that the blighted one had ripped out of the
ground during the fight, screaming as she mindlessly bashed the
dead wood.
Behind them, a shifting mass of shadow formed into a semi humanoid
shape that was Black Baron.
"They are ready to yield to me now." he thought.
* * *
The ice arrow carrying the absolute zero charge shielded in a minute
magnetic sphere surged upwards, flying skywards until it reached the
zenith of its trajectory. It then dissolved the shield, exposing the
absolute zero water molecule to the ambient air. The horrifyingly
cold explosion which followed created a subzero cold shockwave that
expanded outwards of the detonation point, freezing everything in its
path and covering all it touched in a thin layer of ice.
The waterfall cascading over the immobile Sailor Mercury in firing
position was frozen as well, encasing the senshi in a tall pillar of
solidified water. The overcast sky then began to clear itself from
the aftershock of the ultimate attack, the emerging sun glithering
over the smooth surface of the improvised ice statue.
The nearby messiah released herself from the half inch of ice that
covered her whole body, glad to see that her friend had succeeded in
achieving a new summit of personal power.
"Now if she could only free herself from that ice... shouldn`t take
too long." she thought.
* * *
Lifting up his hands, Black Baron pointed to the two distraught
senshi, feeling their negative emotions and calling them forth to
surface in a way only one of true darkness could. Both of them
screamed at once as black energy surged through their bodies.
Over each of their hearts formed a small jagged piece of black
crystal which, upon formation, flew right into the hands of the
grandmaster of darkness. A golden halo sorrounded the two young
women, their senshi fuku disappearing into nothing and their normal
clothes returning in their place. The black katana and light blue
trident of the two senshi cracked, fissures forming over the entire
length of the weapons which then shattered into dozens of fractured
shards.
They stopped yelling, falling unconscious from such a terrible
strain.
Black Baron laughed, then vanished with the two dark splinters ripped
out of their souls.
* * *
A long fissure formed along the pillar of ice that had been a
waterfall only a few seconds before Sailor Mercury`s absolute zero
deep freeze turned it into a prison of solid water. Naru smiled
because she knew that it wouldn`t hold her ally much longer.
A defeaning crash resounded in the small valley as the ice pillar
exploded under the assault of the girl trapped within. The victorious
Sailor Mercury emerged, holding up Deadshot in a sign of triumph. Her
fuku had changed slightly from this new surge of power she`d
experienced, more pieces of armor being added to the others: shoulder
pads, a full breastplate bearing the sign of mercury on the front and
an extension to her leg guards that now covered the front of her
thighs. The kanji on the fabric of her right tigh were hidden under
the armored protection, but they had been engraved on the extension
of her leg armor in a proud display of senshi honor.
Her sacred weapon had been altered as well, the sapphire carvings
being highlighted by subtle additions of pure silver along the frame.
"Thank you for showing me the way, friend. I owe you a great debt."
said the senshi.
"Think nothing of it. You always knew where to find this strenght, I
just walked along your path for a short while. From now on you will
always be able to meditate in any place and recharge your inner
powers to perform your ultimate attack again." explained the
messiah.
"How about we go home now? These wet clothes are freezing me stiff."
asked Ami.
"Sure thing. I`ll set the heater to max on the way back!" agreed
Naru.
* * *
Three sleek feminine silhouettes reached the site where the terrible
battle had taken place and remained hidden to observe what was going
on. They could only contemplate their own failure to get there on
time, Haruka and Michiru crying helplessly in each other`s arms. A
few feet away from them was the broken body of a young child wearing
torn black clothes, lying in a frozen pool of her own blood.
Everywhere about them laid the smashed pieces of their sacred
weapons.
"We failed." said the tallest silhouette.
"But we`re on the right track nonetheless, I can feel it!" said the
shortest one.
"Let`s just hope we can reach our goal before more lives are broken."
added the third one.
With swift superhuman bounds, the three mysterious women left the
scene in a hurry. They had no business left there, so they abandonned
the heartbroken Michiru and Haruka to try and close the open wounds
their souls had just suffered. It caused them even more suffering
than the many slashes the blighted ones had dealt them with her sharp
claws...
* * *
Epilogue...
Later that night, Robin went outside her house wondering where Haruka
and Michiru could be. They should have been back from Michiru`s
concert practice by now. Hotaru was in good hands with her aunt
Setsuna right now, but she was beginning to protest as she missed
her mom and dad.
"I wonder what romantic thing they could be doing right now..." she
said, looking up at the clear sky.
She sat on the front porch, looking up at the moon slowly growing
dark as the earth`s trajectory gradually blocked the sunlight from
the bright astral body that faded away from view into a glorious
eclipse.
"I read about those often... you told me about them, dad, explained
how they happened, but you never told me how beautiful it is."
thought the young lady. "And what about love, dad, is there anything
about it you might have forgotten to mention?"
She sat there for well over two hours until the shimmering moon was
no more than a dark disk with a faint glow, barely visible but to
the most sensitive eyes which Technuma had thoughtfully provided for
her when he created her genetic sequence.
A faint flicker peered through the blackened moon for an instant,
and Robin noticed that it was a piece of paper falling down in her
direction. She got up and walked down the front stairs to catch it,
and found herself excited to notice that this was an advertisement
flyer.
"COOL!" she thought. "Here`s something I`ve never been to before!"
The flyer in question announced the upcoming arrival of a special
performance group...
"Coming soon to Tokyo,
the magic is about to start as we shake up your world!
Tigers, clows and acrobats galore,
magicians, trapezists and many more!!!
Get ready to experience the ultimate in entertainment!
Get ready to go where all dreams come true!
Get ready for the dead dead dead
DEAD MOON CIRCUS!!!"
To be continued...