By Yohann DeSabrais
a.k.a. Technuma Saturn
Prologue
Three years ago...
It was a very slow night for the dark kingdom forces at their secret
fortress in north pole`s D-point. The latest plan designed by Kunzite
to grab Sailor Moon`s silver crystal had failed miserably once again,
leaving the general sad and sulking in the dark palace`s room which
had the closest ressemblance to what the humans called a bar.
He had gone through an entire bottle of a thick, spicy orange liquid
that burned all the way down to his stomach. And still he wanted to
have more.
"Damn. That insufferable brat will be the end of me... she already
cost my poor Zoicite his life, could this possibly get worse?" he
thought out loud.
"I think it will get worse before it gets better, loser!" said the
contemptuous Endymion, mocking his rival`s futile efforts.
"I had to open my big mouth..." thought Kunzite. "What do you want
now?" he asked.
"To see you crash and burn, of course." replied the brainwashed
prince of earth. "But aside from that, Beryl sent me here to tell
you she wants to hear your next plan to get the crystal. She`s
expecting you right now."
Oh great, thought Kunzite. I don`t have the faintest idea what to do
next and this puny puppet of Beryl will be there to see me arise her
anger!
Walking along the empty corridors leading to the bustling throne
room which he heard in the distance, Kunzite would have given
anything to have a distraction, something that would keep his
queen`s mind off his string of failures that could only end in
disaster unless he managed to get his hands on the crystal, and
give her Sailor Moon`s severed head as a peace offering.
Ask and you shall receive, goes the saying. At the very instant
Kunzite and Endymion were about to enter the huge dome shaped room
dominated by a gigantic statue of Metalia, a scream of terror
erupted behind them some hundred feet away, along with a menacing
growl.
"INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!!!" resounded a loud alarm signal.
"Who could possibly be stupid enough to attack us in a frontal
assault?" wondered Kunzite.
"We`ll know in just a second..." replied Endymion, unsheating his
sword for the dark mass that was barreling down the corridor in
their direction.
It only took an instant for the brutish creature to be upon them, a
furious manwolf seven feet tall with disproportionately large
muscles. His vicious claws and fangs flew in a deadly dance of
blood, and the two men in his way were no match for him.
Their uniforms shredded and their bodies covered in bleeding bruises,
they could only watch as Fenris Wolfang, the most powerful manwolf
assassin in history, was making a run for his latest target: the one
person in this world Beryl actually cared for in any way.
"Stop him, he`s heading for my daughter`s room!" screamed Beryl to
her youma hordes who huddled in front of the doorway leading to
Crystallite`s living quarters. It mattered not to the manwolf who
tore them apart like so many rag dolls, tossing their dismembered
carcasses aside to bleed themselves to death.
Even Beryl attempted to stop him, sending a sharp piece of black
crystal in his direction which he easily avoided. Entering the
doorway, Beryl knew that her daughter would have to save herself if
she was to survive this murderous creature`s assault.
Crystallite knew this was coming. She had sensed the danger to her
life the very instant that the assassin had entered the fortress,
and that his unflinching rage would lead him right to her in no
time. She had to act quick, or else she would die. Picking up the
few special items she needed to complete the spell she`d been
working on for a few minutes now, she began to whisper the words to
the enchantment that was her last hope. She still missed one final
spell component for this potent magic she was weaving, but she`d get
it soon, she was sure of it.
The doors to the bedroom blasted open in a thousand shards of
mahogany, the hulking lupine beast shook the ground with each heavy
step he took. He had to weigh at least four hundred pounds, all of
it muscle. Undeterred, Crystallite kept on whispering the power
words of the only magic that could help her now. Taking a victorious
step forward, Fenris plunged his right hand into her chest claws
outstretched, carving a deep wound which spurted blood everywhere.
Still reciting her magical wordings, Crystallite fell down and
quickly fainted, hemorraging herself to a quick death.
Fenris let out a loud yell of triumph, raising up his blood covered
hand in pride. Just as he was about to strike it down to crush the
young girl`s skull, he felt the blood of Crystallite covering his
skin beginning to heat up, burn and boil, very painfully forcing its
way into his own body. Driven by magic, the blood of Crystallite
mingled with his in a way that he never could have thought
possible...
Looking down on the mortally wounded heir of Beryl, he suddenly
felt concerned for her, as if a huge claw was crushing his heart at
the idea she might die right there.
"NO!" he screamed, picking her up in his arms like a broken doll and
carrying her back to the throne room as her chest wound bled all over
his fur. "SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP HER, SHE`S DYING!!!" he screamed in
despair, tears flowing from his eyes.
The youma which had survived the initial attack got ready to move in
for the kill, but Beryl ordered them to stand down.
"She`s enchanted him with her own blood..." she said, snickering.
"He`s HERS now!!!"
* * *
CYCLES OF LIFE: EPISODE 37
FIRST ONES TO FALL
A soft knock came at the door to the home of the outer senshi,
announcing the arrival of Usagi, Mamoru, Umino and Naru. They had
heard from Rei about what had happened and came as quickly as they
possibly could.
"Thanks for being here, we really could use some help..." said Robin
as she opened the front door and showed them in.
"When did they return?" asked Mamoru, worried about Michiru and
Haruka.
"And why didn`t they call us for help?" added Usagi.
"You`ll understand when you see them..." said Robin, trying really
hard to hold back her tears.
She took them to their bedroom where Setsuna was keeping a watchful
eye over them. They were laid side by side on their bed, seemingly
asleep yet apparently conscious of their surroundings somehow. Their
bodies shivered from cold even though the room was very warm, and
they were completely covered with sweat.
"Some jogger found them in the park next to the music conservatory
where Michiru was supposed to play, but the doctors can`t find
anything wrong with them... Rei thinks their souls are mortally
wounded, but she can`t do anything for them..." said Robin. She
couldn`t hold back her tears anymore.
"Unless anyone of you knows how to treat them... they`ll die." said
Setsuna without letting go of that impassibility mask she always
wore, although on the inside she was being torn apart at the thought
of losing her dear friends. Please, somebody do something she wanted
to scream out.
Naru approached them, looking at them... through them, it seemed to
Usagi. She touched them over several key points of their bodies to
figure out what could be wrong, and finally came to her conclusion.
"I wasn`t sure just by looking at their aura, but my first impression
was confirmed..." she said dramatically.
"You can see auras?" wondered Usagi, amazed at her friend`s abilities.
"Yes. And from what I`ve seen... their dark splinter has been
forcefully removed." said Naru who knew right there nobody knew what
she was talking about. "You see, in every being there is an
equilibrium between good and evil, with one of the two usually
overpowering the other. But regardless of whichever wins, the other
is never totally erradicated. Even in the purest of soul there is
always a small speck of darkness, a smidgen of corruption, a hint of
evil. In those good and pure souls, the evil is focused towards
greater goals and often drives these beings to achieve more glorious
feats than anyone could think possible."
"Like righteous wrath, so to speak?" suggested Umino.
"Precisely, that`s one aspect of it. In all heroes, this speck of
darkness is focused in a form more powerful than that of average
people: the dark splinter. Without it, the soul is incomplete, and
very much in pain." she said. "Usagi, I need your help to heal
them."
"How?"
"You did bring your crescent moon wand, right?" asked Naru.
"Of course, in my backpack." replied Usagi.
"We`ll need to transform to do this." said Naru, transforming into
the same dress and breastlate she was wearing when she was revealed
as the messiah. Umino was amazed to see his girlfriend in this form.
She had told him many times of the battle against Aebonite so he had
a pretty good idea what she must have looked like, but seeing her
with his own eyes was breathtaking.
Usagi followed her lead, turning into Sailor Moon after retrieving
her wand from her bag. "LUNAR SOUL POWER TRANSFORM!"
"Stand ready to receive my healing powers, Sailor Moon, you will need
to focus them so they can work on their very soul, not just their
bodies." said the messiah, her golden aura filling the entire room
with a heavenly radiance that inspired awe to all present. She placed
her hands on Sailor Moon`s shoulders and allowed her divine energy to
flow through her friend.
The senshi of the moon felt a wonderful warmth enter in her body
through her shoulders and then spread in her chest, arms and legs.
She was more at peace with the universe, sure of herself and her
role in the grand scheme of things... is that how Naru felt, she
asked herself.
"You can start, now." whispered Naru in her ear. Sailor Moon
silently nodded, this magical and peaceful sensation inside her
trapping the words in her throat and leaving her speechless.
A spark of gold formed on the crescent moon wand, glowing stronger
with each passing moment until it shone as powerfully as the love
of the two young healers of souls. Without hesitation, Sailor Moon
pointed the wand to the senshi of Uranus and Neptune, flooding their
bodies with a beam of soothing light. Slowly beginning to stir and
groan, they regained their consciousness and smiled faintly, sharing
the inner peace of their two allies.
"Their souls are away from danger, though they still miss a part of
themselves." said the young messiah, a concerned on her face as the
golden light died down and she returned to her normal self.
"Is that important?" asked Umino who finally snapped out of his
awe-inspired rapture.
"Very much so. You see, in every human being is the seed of a star,
every star in the heavens is linked to someone somewhere, if not on
this planet then on another. The sailor senshi have a special
starseed, an eternal one whose power is such that it allows them to
use greater power than any other of their race." she explained.
"Like me and the other girls." said Haruka.
"Exactly... but without a dark splinter to focus the power of their
eternal starseed... their power cannot surface. This is why your
sacred weapons were shattered." said Naru.
Sailor Moon looked at one of the pieces of Monsoon which Robin had
gathered that morning in the park and brought back in their bedroom.
It seemed lifeless somehow, dull and without any of the marvelous
luster she remembered to see in the lapis-lazuli trident. The
fragments of Heaven`s Wrath were equally bland in appearance. She
took a blue shard of the trident in her hands, moving it in her
hands to try and catch a ray of light reflecting on its surface,
without any success.
"Better bring back a piece to Ami for analysis." suggested Michiru.
"Hold on to a piece, Usagi."
"If you don`t mind, Michiru..." she agreed.
"Can you tell us what happened?" asked Mamoru.
"The only thing I remember is fighting this huge creature that came
out of nowhere..." said the blonde tomboy, wracking her mind to hold
on to the few sketchy details she could recollect.
"After we killed it... it turned into a young child..." added her
feminine fiancee, shedding a tear as she remembered.
"She said she wanted Black Baron to be proud of her." contiued
Haruka.
"That`s all I can recall I`m afraid." concluded Michiru.
"Anything you can tell us will be of great help." said Naru.
"We`ll let you two rest, now." said Setsuna, motionning everyone to
leave the bedroom of the two wounded senshi.
"Thanks, said Michiru before falling asleep in Haruka`s arms who did
just the same after kissing her forehead.
* * *
Fenris devoured through his very large plate of varied barbecued
meats, regaining strenght to fill his enormous daily energetic
requirements. In a stark contrast, Crystallite sat on the other side
of their dining room table and pecked lightly at an anemic looking
portion of a few choice vegetables she enjoyed most.
"Pensive, darling?" asked Crystallite to the lupine beast.
He swallowed his large bite of food and hesitated a moment to reply.
Knowing she would never be angry at him for speaking his mind as
he`d done so often in the past, he went ahead and expressed his
thoughts.
"This Black Baron... I don`t trust him." said the manwolf.
"Me neither, silly! Do you really think mother ever trusted anyone?
In my position, you must learn to rule others not from honor or
loyalty but by blackmail and fear. Someone as dark and twisted as
Black Baron is bound to not be trustworthy. I`ll bet he`s following
his own agenda even as we speak." she said.
"But... how can we be sure he won`t kill us both???"
"We can never be sure he won`t try... but we can be sure he won`t
suceed. My instincts are telling me that his objectives will only be
completed if ours are met, thus he won`t try to do anything dangerous
to us until then." explained the frail girl, charming her hulking
guardian with her shining black eyes that complemented perfectly her
long red hair.
Fenris said no more, but disliked the shifting being with all his
being. There was a faint smell of evil hanging about him, a stench
so minute only his acute sense of smell could pick it up. Although
he never met Black Baron before, there was something familiar about
this odour of his. Had he met this monster, he would have remembered
it his whole life for sure... of all the vile monsters he had ever
encountered, killed or worked for, none had such a foul presence
capable of rotting its surroundings.
"I don`t care what monstrosities my love Crystallite deals with." he
thought. "I`ll be by her side no matter what."
At this very moment the barely discernable stench of evil that
hovered around Black Baron at all times assaulted the very sensitive
nostrils of Fenris, telling him of the shadowy gransmaster of
darkness` arrival.
"He`s here." said the manwolf.
"Good. I take it your mission was successful?" asked the young
crippled woman, moving up slowly not to overexert her weak body.
The shifting semisolid form moved up what could be assumed was an arm
and two small black shapes formed in the air: two jagged pieces of
black crystal, the dark splinters of Haruka and Michiru, taken away
by the evil powers of Crystallite`s agent.
"Ooooh they`re simply beautiful!" said Crystallite, reaching out and
grabbing them. She could feel the raw power throbbing in her palms,
coursing through her body and vibrating with her sympathic resonance.
She knew that she was meant to wield such power from the day she was
born, and Black Baron would make it all possible.
"Almost as gorgeous as you are, my lady." said Fenris.
Crystallite smiled at the compliment, and putting the two shards
together she fused them as a single piece of black mineral. "Two
pieces are mine, but I need many more. Who shall be next?" she asked
Black Baron, pulling the cards of Gallagher from her robe pocket and
spreading them in a fan so that the shadow creature could pick his
target.
Pointing to one, he made it float out of Crystallite`s hand and fly
to his own. In an instant of sudden darkness dissipated as quickly
as it came, Black Baron was gone.
* * *
"Give it up, Mercury, there`s nothing here to be found." conceded
Sailor Mars after almost an hour of combing the area where Neptune
and Uranus fought the blighted one.
Sweeping the area over and over again with her ocean blue portable
supercomputer, the senshi of mercury would not admit defeat. It had
been barely twenty four hours since the messiah had guided her to
pool upon the nearly unlimited power ressources of her soul, and all
this added strength was leading her nowhere.
"There has to be some minuscule detail we overlooked!" she argued
without taking her eyes off the bleeping color screen. "You can
leave if you want like the others already did."
"I feel nothing in the area, be it good or evil. We can`t do
anything anymore." said Mars. "Laurella and scarlet lady couldn`t
help us out in this case, I agree, but not even your laptop or my
psychic senses can detect a single thing, it`s time to give up and
figure out another strategy."
"You go back with the others, Rei, but I`m staying here."
Rei sighed, knowing that when Ami decided to show her resolve this
way there was nothing to do that could change her mind.
"By the way, Ami..." she said hesitantly.
"Yes?"
"I don`t think you should let it get to you that Jedite was your
biological father... after all, he`s not the man who raised you, is
he? He`s not the man you call 'dad'... he`s not the one who read you
stories at bedtime, taught you to read, healed your bruises or made
the monsters under the bed go away." said Rei, lowering her voice to
a near whisper.
Ami didn`t respond, knowing well that Rei was right. In her heart,
the famous artist Mizuno Masato would always be the one she would
love as her father. Her one, true and only father.
"Thanks, Rei, this means a lot to me." she then replied just as
softly.
"You know I`ll always be there for you." said Rei. She knew how Ami
felt about her biological father, a man who`d never been there and
had never cared about her, mostly because her own father had been so
taken by his political career that he barely had time to notice that
his daughter Rei was growing up.
With an exchange of glances, both of them knew that they now shared
a common bond, one that would bring them closer together, a new link
of sistership that could not be broken. They shared a silent hug,
then Rei left.
* * *
Wearing his dark sunglasses and a hat in an attempt to be as discreet
as possible, Seiya left the admission office of the university he`d
chosen to attend classes in. He knew that the media would soon find
out where he studied, but he was planning to keep them out of his
academic life as long as he possibly could. That was surely going to
be a very short amount of time, but the life of an idol singer had
its inconveniences...
As he walked back to the parking lot, he met with a young woman he
was hoping to see again: Tsukino Usako was coming his way, apparently
on her way to the admission office herself.
"Okay, Seiya... this time, don`t screw this up!" he thought. The
young man had been obsessed by the scarlet lady ever since he met
her by chance in a restaurant of the jyuban district. Being convinced
she was his princess, he had to reach through her "normal human"
facade, but without revealing his secret directly... there was still
an outside chance she wasn`t the woman he was looking for, as Taiki
was glad to point out whenever the subject came up.
Mustering all his courage, he composed himself into the cool guy act
he liked to use so much and walked up to her directly. He opened his
mouth to speak, but froze in place as his senses were mesmerized by
the delicious cinnamon odour of her sweet perfume.
"Oh, hello Seiya." said Usako, giving him a warm smile. She thought
that maybe she had met him on a bad day before, that he was really a
nice guy after all...
"Err... hiya, odango!" blurted out Seiya desperate for words, his
brain overpowered by the cinnamon smell which his memory associated
with his princess in a powerful manner.
"I told you before not to call me that, my name is USAKO, you big
jerk!!!" she snapped, very much insulted.
"Don`t get your ponytails in a tangle, I remember your name
perfectly, you never forget hair like THAT!" he replied, taking a
defensive position.
"I can`t believe I actually thought you could be a nice guy... I know
better now!" concluded Usako, walking away in a furious pace.
"I can`t believe I blew this again..." thought Seiya as he walked to
his car.
* * *
Walking among the twisted wreckage of hundreds of cars, Black Baron
searched for the next one of his servants whose services he now
required. The grinding noise of junk compactors crushing old clunkers
into small steel cubes echoed in the dirty lot while a few workers
here and there went about their business, unaware of the presence of
the grandmaster of the arts of darkness.
It took a few moments in the falling darkness for Black Baron to find
the conceiled form of his blighted one, to the foul being`s great
pleasure.
"You learned your lessons well." whispered a dreadful voice coming
from Black Baron though not exactly from the place where he stood.
"I had a great teacher." said the weak looking blighter one, his
thin wiry frame barely hidden by his long black arabian looking
clothes. Like all blighted ones, his suit made him look very much
like a desert nomad. "And what may be my lord and master`s pleasure?"
he asked.
One of Black Baron`s hands moved up- or did it just slightly shift
its form?- and presented the weakling warrior with one of
Gallagher`s cards. The long thin hand of the blighted one swiftly
grabbed it and turned it around and around in a nervous fidget. Any
being less corrupt than Black Baron would have been sickened by the
sight of the ungloved hand, the pale skin with a greenist tint oozing
a pugnant, thick yellow liquid from several cuts that were badly
covered by a sloppy bandage.
"Is she the one you want, master?" he asked. Black Baron`s silence
was answer enough for him. "And... how am I to bring her here?" he
wondered.
"Any way you see fit." said the ominous voice of the shadowy
creature.
"Understood." said the feeble warrior, grinning like a maniac under
his black facial veil.
A menacing growling sound resounded all around the two beings, a
dozen pairs of burning red spots piercing the darkness like so many
flaming coals. The dark forms of twelve hulking hounds of hell made
themselves seen, though just barely. Their large musclebound bodies
were barely recognizable by earth animal criteria, being wolf,
panther, bull and lion all at once in an unholy blend.
"Feeding time, boys..." said the weakling blighted one.
In an instant, the twelve beasts sprang into action, hunting down
and ripping apart all of the unlucky men who happened to be working
on the evening shift of the large scrapyard. The blighted one
laughed out loud at the gory massacre, encouraging his loyal fiends
to increase their lust for blood in an orgiasctic butchery.
Black Baron just walked out silently, not even bothering to look at
the hellhounds tearing up the junkyard forman a few feet away from
the management office he was headed past.
To be continued...
a.k.a. Technuma Saturn
Prologue
Three years ago...
It was a very slow night for the dark kingdom forces at their secret
fortress in north pole`s D-point. The latest plan designed by Kunzite
to grab Sailor Moon`s silver crystal had failed miserably once again,
leaving the general sad and sulking in the dark palace`s room which
had the closest ressemblance to what the humans called a bar.
He had gone through an entire bottle of a thick, spicy orange liquid
that burned all the way down to his stomach. And still he wanted to
have more.
"Damn. That insufferable brat will be the end of me... she already
cost my poor Zoicite his life, could this possibly get worse?" he
thought out loud.
"I think it will get worse before it gets better, loser!" said the
contemptuous Endymion, mocking his rival`s futile efforts.
"I had to open my big mouth..." thought Kunzite. "What do you want
now?" he asked.
"To see you crash and burn, of course." replied the brainwashed
prince of earth. "But aside from that, Beryl sent me here to tell
you she wants to hear your next plan to get the crystal. She`s
expecting you right now."
Oh great, thought Kunzite. I don`t have the faintest idea what to do
next and this puny puppet of Beryl will be there to see me arise her
anger!
Walking along the empty corridors leading to the bustling throne
room which he heard in the distance, Kunzite would have given
anything to have a distraction, something that would keep his
queen`s mind off his string of failures that could only end in
disaster unless he managed to get his hands on the crystal, and
give her Sailor Moon`s severed head as a peace offering.
Ask and you shall receive, goes the saying. At the very instant
Kunzite and Endymion were about to enter the huge dome shaped room
dominated by a gigantic statue of Metalia, a scream of terror
erupted behind them some hundred feet away, along with a menacing
growl.
"INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!!!" resounded a loud alarm signal.
"Who could possibly be stupid enough to attack us in a frontal
assault?" wondered Kunzite.
"We`ll know in just a second..." replied Endymion, unsheating his
sword for the dark mass that was barreling down the corridor in
their direction.
It only took an instant for the brutish creature to be upon them, a
furious manwolf seven feet tall with disproportionately large
muscles. His vicious claws and fangs flew in a deadly dance of
blood, and the two men in his way were no match for him.
Their uniforms shredded and their bodies covered in bleeding bruises,
they could only watch as Fenris Wolfang, the most powerful manwolf
assassin in history, was making a run for his latest target: the one
person in this world Beryl actually cared for in any way.
"Stop him, he`s heading for my daughter`s room!" screamed Beryl to
her youma hordes who huddled in front of the doorway leading to
Crystallite`s living quarters. It mattered not to the manwolf who
tore them apart like so many rag dolls, tossing their dismembered
carcasses aside to bleed themselves to death.
Even Beryl attempted to stop him, sending a sharp piece of black
crystal in his direction which he easily avoided. Entering the
doorway, Beryl knew that her daughter would have to save herself if
she was to survive this murderous creature`s assault.
Crystallite knew this was coming. She had sensed the danger to her
life the very instant that the assassin had entered the fortress,
and that his unflinching rage would lead him right to her in no
time. She had to act quick, or else she would die. Picking up the
few special items she needed to complete the spell she`d been
working on for a few minutes now, she began to whisper the words to
the enchantment that was her last hope. She still missed one final
spell component for this potent magic she was weaving, but she`d get
it soon, she was sure of it.
The doors to the bedroom blasted open in a thousand shards of
mahogany, the hulking lupine beast shook the ground with each heavy
step he took. He had to weigh at least four hundred pounds, all of
it muscle. Undeterred, Crystallite kept on whispering the power
words of the only magic that could help her now. Taking a victorious
step forward, Fenris plunged his right hand into her chest claws
outstretched, carving a deep wound which spurted blood everywhere.
Still reciting her magical wordings, Crystallite fell down and
quickly fainted, hemorraging herself to a quick death.
Fenris let out a loud yell of triumph, raising up his blood covered
hand in pride. Just as he was about to strike it down to crush the
young girl`s skull, he felt the blood of Crystallite covering his
skin beginning to heat up, burn and boil, very painfully forcing its
way into his own body. Driven by magic, the blood of Crystallite
mingled with his in a way that he never could have thought
possible...
Looking down on the mortally wounded heir of Beryl, he suddenly
felt concerned for her, as if a huge claw was crushing his heart at
the idea she might die right there.
"NO!" he screamed, picking her up in his arms like a broken doll and
carrying her back to the throne room as her chest wound bled all over
his fur. "SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP HER, SHE`S DYING!!!" he screamed in
despair, tears flowing from his eyes.
The youma which had survived the initial attack got ready to move in
for the kill, but Beryl ordered them to stand down.
"She`s enchanted him with her own blood..." she said, snickering.
"He`s HERS now!!!"
* * *
CYCLES OF LIFE: EPISODE 37
FIRST ONES TO FALL
A soft knock came at the door to the home of the outer senshi,
announcing the arrival of Usagi, Mamoru, Umino and Naru. They had
heard from Rei about what had happened and came as quickly as they
possibly could.
"Thanks for being here, we really could use some help..." said Robin
as she opened the front door and showed them in.
"When did they return?" asked Mamoru, worried about Michiru and
Haruka.
"And why didn`t they call us for help?" added Usagi.
"You`ll understand when you see them..." said Robin, trying really
hard to hold back her tears.
She took them to their bedroom where Setsuna was keeping a watchful
eye over them. They were laid side by side on their bed, seemingly
asleep yet apparently conscious of their surroundings somehow. Their
bodies shivered from cold even though the room was very warm, and
they were completely covered with sweat.
"Some jogger found them in the park next to the music conservatory
where Michiru was supposed to play, but the doctors can`t find
anything wrong with them... Rei thinks their souls are mortally
wounded, but she can`t do anything for them..." said Robin. She
couldn`t hold back her tears anymore.
"Unless anyone of you knows how to treat them... they`ll die." said
Setsuna without letting go of that impassibility mask she always
wore, although on the inside she was being torn apart at the thought
of losing her dear friends. Please, somebody do something she wanted
to scream out.
Naru approached them, looking at them... through them, it seemed to
Usagi. She touched them over several key points of their bodies to
figure out what could be wrong, and finally came to her conclusion.
"I wasn`t sure just by looking at their aura, but my first impression
was confirmed..." she said dramatically.
"You can see auras?" wondered Usagi, amazed at her friend`s abilities.
"Yes. And from what I`ve seen... their dark splinter has been
forcefully removed." said Naru who knew right there nobody knew what
she was talking about. "You see, in every being there is an
equilibrium between good and evil, with one of the two usually
overpowering the other. But regardless of whichever wins, the other
is never totally erradicated. Even in the purest of soul there is
always a small speck of darkness, a smidgen of corruption, a hint of
evil. In those good and pure souls, the evil is focused towards
greater goals and often drives these beings to achieve more glorious
feats than anyone could think possible."
"Like righteous wrath, so to speak?" suggested Umino.
"Precisely, that`s one aspect of it. In all heroes, this speck of
darkness is focused in a form more powerful than that of average
people: the dark splinter. Without it, the soul is incomplete, and
very much in pain." she said. "Usagi, I need your help to heal
them."
"How?"
"You did bring your crescent moon wand, right?" asked Naru.
"Of course, in my backpack." replied Usagi.
"We`ll need to transform to do this." said Naru, transforming into
the same dress and breastlate she was wearing when she was revealed
as the messiah. Umino was amazed to see his girlfriend in this form.
She had told him many times of the battle against Aebonite so he had
a pretty good idea what she must have looked like, but seeing her
with his own eyes was breathtaking.
Usagi followed her lead, turning into Sailor Moon after retrieving
her wand from her bag. "LUNAR SOUL POWER TRANSFORM!"
"Stand ready to receive my healing powers, Sailor Moon, you will need
to focus them so they can work on their very soul, not just their
bodies." said the messiah, her golden aura filling the entire room
with a heavenly radiance that inspired awe to all present. She placed
her hands on Sailor Moon`s shoulders and allowed her divine energy to
flow through her friend.
The senshi of the moon felt a wonderful warmth enter in her body
through her shoulders and then spread in her chest, arms and legs.
She was more at peace with the universe, sure of herself and her
role in the grand scheme of things... is that how Naru felt, she
asked herself.
"You can start, now." whispered Naru in her ear. Sailor Moon
silently nodded, this magical and peaceful sensation inside her
trapping the words in her throat and leaving her speechless.
A spark of gold formed on the crescent moon wand, glowing stronger
with each passing moment until it shone as powerfully as the love
of the two young healers of souls. Without hesitation, Sailor Moon
pointed the wand to the senshi of Uranus and Neptune, flooding their
bodies with a beam of soothing light. Slowly beginning to stir and
groan, they regained their consciousness and smiled faintly, sharing
the inner peace of their two allies.
"Their souls are away from danger, though they still miss a part of
themselves." said the young messiah, a concerned on her face as the
golden light died down and she returned to her normal self.
"Is that important?" asked Umino who finally snapped out of his
awe-inspired rapture.
"Very much so. You see, in every human being is the seed of a star,
every star in the heavens is linked to someone somewhere, if not on
this planet then on another. The sailor senshi have a special
starseed, an eternal one whose power is such that it allows them to
use greater power than any other of their race." she explained.
"Like me and the other girls." said Haruka.
"Exactly... but without a dark splinter to focus the power of their
eternal starseed... their power cannot surface. This is why your
sacred weapons were shattered." said Naru.
Sailor Moon looked at one of the pieces of Monsoon which Robin had
gathered that morning in the park and brought back in their bedroom.
It seemed lifeless somehow, dull and without any of the marvelous
luster she remembered to see in the lapis-lazuli trident. The
fragments of Heaven`s Wrath were equally bland in appearance. She
took a blue shard of the trident in her hands, moving it in her
hands to try and catch a ray of light reflecting on its surface,
without any success.
"Better bring back a piece to Ami for analysis." suggested Michiru.
"Hold on to a piece, Usagi."
"If you don`t mind, Michiru..." she agreed.
"Can you tell us what happened?" asked Mamoru.
"The only thing I remember is fighting this huge creature that came
out of nowhere..." said the blonde tomboy, wracking her mind to hold
on to the few sketchy details she could recollect.
"After we killed it... it turned into a young child..." added her
feminine fiancee, shedding a tear as she remembered.
"She said she wanted Black Baron to be proud of her." contiued
Haruka.
"That`s all I can recall I`m afraid." concluded Michiru.
"Anything you can tell us will be of great help." said Naru.
"We`ll let you two rest, now." said Setsuna, motionning everyone to
leave the bedroom of the two wounded senshi.
"Thanks, said Michiru before falling asleep in Haruka`s arms who did
just the same after kissing her forehead.
* * *
Fenris devoured through his very large plate of varied barbecued
meats, regaining strenght to fill his enormous daily energetic
requirements. In a stark contrast, Crystallite sat on the other side
of their dining room table and pecked lightly at an anemic looking
portion of a few choice vegetables she enjoyed most.
"Pensive, darling?" asked Crystallite to the lupine beast.
He swallowed his large bite of food and hesitated a moment to reply.
Knowing she would never be angry at him for speaking his mind as
he`d done so often in the past, he went ahead and expressed his
thoughts.
"This Black Baron... I don`t trust him." said the manwolf.
"Me neither, silly! Do you really think mother ever trusted anyone?
In my position, you must learn to rule others not from honor or
loyalty but by blackmail and fear. Someone as dark and twisted as
Black Baron is bound to not be trustworthy. I`ll bet he`s following
his own agenda even as we speak." she said.
"But... how can we be sure he won`t kill us both???"
"We can never be sure he won`t try... but we can be sure he won`t
suceed. My instincts are telling me that his objectives will only be
completed if ours are met, thus he won`t try to do anything dangerous
to us until then." explained the frail girl, charming her hulking
guardian with her shining black eyes that complemented perfectly her
long red hair.
Fenris said no more, but disliked the shifting being with all his
being. There was a faint smell of evil hanging about him, a stench
so minute only his acute sense of smell could pick it up. Although
he never met Black Baron before, there was something familiar about
this odour of his. Had he met this monster, he would have remembered
it his whole life for sure... of all the vile monsters he had ever
encountered, killed or worked for, none had such a foul presence
capable of rotting its surroundings.
"I don`t care what monstrosities my love Crystallite deals with." he
thought. "I`ll be by her side no matter what."
At this very moment the barely discernable stench of evil that
hovered around Black Baron at all times assaulted the very sensitive
nostrils of Fenris, telling him of the shadowy gransmaster of
darkness` arrival.
"He`s here." said the manwolf.
"Good. I take it your mission was successful?" asked the young
crippled woman, moving up slowly not to overexert her weak body.
The shifting semisolid form moved up what could be assumed was an arm
and two small black shapes formed in the air: two jagged pieces of
black crystal, the dark splinters of Haruka and Michiru, taken away
by the evil powers of Crystallite`s agent.
"Ooooh they`re simply beautiful!" said Crystallite, reaching out and
grabbing them. She could feel the raw power throbbing in her palms,
coursing through her body and vibrating with her sympathic resonance.
She knew that she was meant to wield such power from the day she was
born, and Black Baron would make it all possible.
"Almost as gorgeous as you are, my lady." said Fenris.
Crystallite smiled at the compliment, and putting the two shards
together she fused them as a single piece of black mineral. "Two
pieces are mine, but I need many more. Who shall be next?" she asked
Black Baron, pulling the cards of Gallagher from her robe pocket and
spreading them in a fan so that the shadow creature could pick his
target.
Pointing to one, he made it float out of Crystallite`s hand and fly
to his own. In an instant of sudden darkness dissipated as quickly
as it came, Black Baron was gone.
* * *
"Give it up, Mercury, there`s nothing here to be found." conceded
Sailor Mars after almost an hour of combing the area where Neptune
and Uranus fought the blighted one.
Sweeping the area over and over again with her ocean blue portable
supercomputer, the senshi of mercury would not admit defeat. It had
been barely twenty four hours since the messiah had guided her to
pool upon the nearly unlimited power ressources of her soul, and all
this added strength was leading her nowhere.
"There has to be some minuscule detail we overlooked!" she argued
without taking her eyes off the bleeping color screen. "You can
leave if you want like the others already did."
"I feel nothing in the area, be it good or evil. We can`t do
anything anymore." said Mars. "Laurella and scarlet lady couldn`t
help us out in this case, I agree, but not even your laptop or my
psychic senses can detect a single thing, it`s time to give up and
figure out another strategy."
"You go back with the others, Rei, but I`m staying here."
Rei sighed, knowing that when Ami decided to show her resolve this
way there was nothing to do that could change her mind.
"By the way, Ami..." she said hesitantly.
"Yes?"
"I don`t think you should let it get to you that Jedite was your
biological father... after all, he`s not the man who raised you, is
he? He`s not the man you call 'dad'... he`s not the one who read you
stories at bedtime, taught you to read, healed your bruises or made
the monsters under the bed go away." said Rei, lowering her voice to
a near whisper.
Ami didn`t respond, knowing well that Rei was right. In her heart,
the famous artist Mizuno Masato would always be the one she would
love as her father. Her one, true and only father.
"Thanks, Rei, this means a lot to me." she then replied just as
softly.
"You know I`ll always be there for you." said Rei. She knew how Ami
felt about her biological father, a man who`d never been there and
had never cared about her, mostly because her own father had been so
taken by his political career that he barely had time to notice that
his daughter Rei was growing up.
With an exchange of glances, both of them knew that they now shared
a common bond, one that would bring them closer together, a new link
of sistership that could not be broken. They shared a silent hug,
then Rei left.
* * *
Wearing his dark sunglasses and a hat in an attempt to be as discreet
as possible, Seiya left the admission office of the university he`d
chosen to attend classes in. He knew that the media would soon find
out where he studied, but he was planning to keep them out of his
academic life as long as he possibly could. That was surely going to
be a very short amount of time, but the life of an idol singer had
its inconveniences...
As he walked back to the parking lot, he met with a young woman he
was hoping to see again: Tsukino Usako was coming his way, apparently
on her way to the admission office herself.
"Okay, Seiya... this time, don`t screw this up!" he thought. The
young man had been obsessed by the scarlet lady ever since he met
her by chance in a restaurant of the jyuban district. Being convinced
she was his princess, he had to reach through her "normal human"
facade, but without revealing his secret directly... there was still
an outside chance she wasn`t the woman he was looking for, as Taiki
was glad to point out whenever the subject came up.
Mustering all his courage, he composed himself into the cool guy act
he liked to use so much and walked up to her directly. He opened his
mouth to speak, but froze in place as his senses were mesmerized by
the delicious cinnamon odour of her sweet perfume.
"Oh, hello Seiya." said Usako, giving him a warm smile. She thought
that maybe she had met him on a bad day before, that he was really a
nice guy after all...
"Err... hiya, odango!" blurted out Seiya desperate for words, his
brain overpowered by the cinnamon smell which his memory associated
with his princess in a powerful manner.
"I told you before not to call me that, my name is USAKO, you big
jerk!!!" she snapped, very much insulted.
"Don`t get your ponytails in a tangle, I remember your name
perfectly, you never forget hair like THAT!" he replied, taking a
defensive position.
"I can`t believe I actually thought you could be a nice guy... I know
better now!" concluded Usako, walking away in a furious pace.
"I can`t believe I blew this again..." thought Seiya as he walked to
his car.
* * *
Walking among the twisted wreckage of hundreds of cars, Black Baron
searched for the next one of his servants whose services he now
required. The grinding noise of junk compactors crushing old clunkers
into small steel cubes echoed in the dirty lot while a few workers
here and there went about their business, unaware of the presence of
the grandmaster of the arts of darkness.
It took a few moments in the falling darkness for Black Baron to find
the conceiled form of his blighted one, to the foul being`s great
pleasure.
"You learned your lessons well." whispered a dreadful voice coming
from Black Baron though not exactly from the place where he stood.
"I had a great teacher." said the weak looking blighter one, his
thin wiry frame barely hidden by his long black arabian looking
clothes. Like all blighted ones, his suit made him look very much
like a desert nomad. "And what may be my lord and master`s pleasure?"
he asked.
One of Black Baron`s hands moved up- or did it just slightly shift
its form?- and presented the weakling warrior with one of
Gallagher`s cards. The long thin hand of the blighted one swiftly
grabbed it and turned it around and around in a nervous fidget. Any
being less corrupt than Black Baron would have been sickened by the
sight of the ungloved hand, the pale skin with a greenist tint oozing
a pugnant, thick yellow liquid from several cuts that were badly
covered by a sloppy bandage.
"Is she the one you want, master?" he asked. Black Baron`s silence
was answer enough for him. "And... how am I to bring her here?" he
wondered.
"Any way you see fit." said the ominous voice of the shadowy
creature.
"Understood." said the feeble warrior, grinning like a maniac under
his black facial veil.
A menacing growling sound resounded all around the two beings, a
dozen pairs of burning red spots piercing the darkness like so many
flaming coals. The dark forms of twelve hulking hounds of hell made
themselves seen, though just barely. Their large musclebound bodies
were barely recognizable by earth animal criteria, being wolf,
panther, bull and lion all at once in an unholy blend.
"Feeding time, boys..." said the weakling blighted one.
In an instant, the twelve beasts sprang into action, hunting down
and ripping apart all of the unlucky men who happened to be working
on the evening shift of the large scrapyard. The blighted one
laughed out loud at the gory massacre, encouraging his loyal fiends
to increase their lust for blood in an orgiasctic butchery.
Black Baron just walked out silently, not even bothering to look at
the hellhounds tearing up the junkyard forman a few feet away from
the management office he was headed past.
To be continued...