By Yohann DeSabrais
a.k.a. Technuma Saturn
Prologue...
In the flickering light of a half-consumed red candle, a young
teenage girl shuffled her tarot cards as she did so often, although
her expert motions were more an exercise in futility than an actual
ritual for seeing the future.
She was already quite adept at clairvoyance, much too adept to her
own taste. She had the uncanny ability to predict the future that
had made all her friends desert her ever since this talent- or
curse as she referred to it- had manifested itself. Having
predicted the soon to come bankrupcy of her parents` family
business, she had been sommarily kicked out of her home in a rash
moment of fatherly misdirected anger.
Forced to fend for herself, she had taken to read the future for a
living, but had quickly discovered that few people wanted to hear
about the future... what they wanted to hear was that they would be
getting promotions, lots of money and find love soon. Nobody wanted
to know how soon and horribly they would die, how fast their spouse
would leave them for their secret lover or what bad news the doctor
would tell them at that appointment tomorrow afternoon. She did
manage to get a few clients here and there who wanted to know the
REAL future and not just some well rehearsed fairy tale, but those
were few and far between. Certainly not enough to make next month`s
rent, that was for sure.
Besides, she knew exactly who was coming along right now, and her
path had been traced already. Yoshie was ready to accept her dark
fate, a tragicly ironic one considering her name meant "good fortune
and prosperity". She laid down the tarot cards on the table in a
cross formation. As she placed the last one, she heard a knock at
the door. Yoshie had a faint smile, as the cards` dreadful
prediction matched exactly what she knew would happen.
"You can come in, Anubis, I`ve been expecting you and your friends...
Sukeko and Alice, I do believe it is?" she said as the door opened
behind her, not even bothering to turn around. She intuitively knew
that her visitors were two girls; one blue haired and one red haired,
both dressed in clothes colored to match. They were there along with
a white cat whose brow bore a golden crescent moon.
"Correct." replied the white Venusian cat in the blue haired girl`s
arms. Sukeko was petting him short white hair with her long slender
fingers, and she sat in front of Yoshie still holding the cat so the
two of them could talk. "I came here..."
"...because I have something you want and I don`t especially
treasure, in exchange of which you want me to accept your green gem.
It will, of course, burn itself into my palm with excrutiating pain,
but grant me great powers in the process." interrupted the
clairvoyant Yoshie.
"Err... yes..." admited Anubis who was surprised that Yoshie was much
more insightful than he had expected. This might put a grain of sand
in the gears of his plan...
"Don`t worry, I accepted this fate long ago. I accept your deal,
even if you`re a demon asking me to sign on the dotted line in my
own blood." she said, handing over her open hand to ask for what
she knew the cat and his acolytes had for her.
"Give it to her, Alice." ordered the cat.
"Of course, Chesterfield!" replied the insane Yohko, lost as always
in her "Alice in Wonderland" fantasy world where Anubis was the
vanishing cat and Sukeko the blue caterpillar. She produced a small
glithering gem similar to the ones Sukeko and herself had in their
palm, burned in placed by the stone`s own power. She placed it in
Yoshie`s hand where it immediately started to heat up, hissing as
the nauseating smell of charred flesh filled the small appartment.
Anubis was rather impressed by this new recruit who showed little
sign of discomfort as the green gem chewed its way through her palm,
almost totally oblivious to the terrible pain that had sent his
other two minions into a fit of screaming agony.
"The pain of the body means nothing to me. The pain of the soul is
much worse by far... and that is why I surrender my fate to yours,
Anubis." said the girl as her eyes and short hair turned bright
green in color. She clenched her fists and grinded her teeth,
determined not to show any sign of the terrible pain that was
shooting up her arm and threatening her very sanity.
Anubis just laughed. He didn`t give a damn about her life, or anybody
else`s for that matter.
* * *
CYCLES OF LIFE: EPISODE 47
REVELATIONS OF SELF AND OTHERS
"Now THIS is what I call a quest of personal exploration!" sighed
Robin, comfortably set on the couch in front of the fireplace. The
ski lodge of Naru`s parents was indeed a magnificient one, and the
genetically engineered girl was very pleased that the messiah had
insisted on dragging her there with her friends that day.
"Amen to that, sister!" agreed Usako, equally sunk in the soft couch,
clanking her cup of hot chocolate to Robin`s in a gesture she had
seen her own parents do whenever they shared a drink.
"Why do you suppose lightning struck so strong this time of year,
anyway? I thought it was during summer that thunderstorms occured."
wondered Robin.
"Most likely that was Makoto. She went up there to claim her power
boost, remember? It`s my guest that this lightning was her doing."
answered Usako.
"Indeed it was." came Naru`s voice as she opened the front door of
the lodge and walked in. Her messiah clothing was gone, she was once
again her ordinary self.
"So where is she?" asked Robin before stuffing her face with a piece
of toasted bread.
"Still up there, she has a lot to work out. And so do you both, you
know. You turn has arrived, girls, you two must now go through your
own trials." said Naru, taking away their cups of hot chocolate.
"Must she always break our fun?" mumbled Robin to herself.
"Okay... where do we go?" asked Usako, getting up to stretching her
arms and legs.
"Far from here... but you won`t be walking there. You only need to
sit down in front of the fireplace, it`ll be the best place to
proceed." explained Naru. Robin and Usako looked at each other
with confused expressions on their faces.
* * *
Umino smiled when he reached the badly damaged factory where he knew
his friends lived. It looked as if it were going to crumble at any
second, although it had been thoroughly reinforced by its current
residents. Their tactic was simple: keep unwanted people away by
having their place look like a ruin. And it worked well.
He pushed the button by the small out of the way door, a shrill
buzzing sound announcing his presence. A hidden camera whirred as
its lens focused on the visitor`s face.
"Who`s there?" came a badly distorted voice from an intercom.
"Gurio Umino. You guys are expecting me." replied Umino.
"I`ll let you in... if you can answer me these questions three!!!"
claimed the voice. "Question the first..." started to announce the
voice.
Without further concern for these guys` weird sense of etiquette,
Umino slammed his fist onto the intercom.
"Okay, nevermind, you obviously know how we work around here."
replied the voice. A different buzzing sound, lower and louder,
indicating that the door was unlocked.
Walking in, Umino met once again the familiar decor of the computer
hacker/scavenger group which came to call itself the "grave robbers"
because of their habit of going through the dumpsters of computer
stores to rummage thrown away parts. Many stores would rather just
discard unsold models rather than to offer them at bargain prices
and lower market prices. It was this very reasoning which had created
the grave robbers, one of the great enemies of the larger computer
stores.
Not much had changed in the general look of the place, it was still
filled with a wide array of disconnected computer parts, arcade
games rebuilt from motherboards fished out of dumpsters, a fridge
and pantry stuffed in a corner to maximize workspace, loads of anime
posters covering every inch of the bare concrete walls, dozens of
power connectors and heat sinks, and a home made computer network
that was the pride of the three members of the grave robbers,
Toraji, Miyoji and Tatsunosuke.
"Sorry about Miyoji being a bit overprotective of our home, Umino."
called out a short, nerdish looking teenager who could have easily
been mistaken for Umino`s brother with the possible exception of his
hair, which was dark black. Sitting up from his computer equipped
with a permanent internet link, he took a pause long enough to greet
his friend which he hadn`t seen in a long while.
"I wouldnt`need to be if SOMEONE hadn`t been so careless during his
last hack! I barely had time to reroute the signal so they wouldn`t
find us, and they came way too close to this place this time! They
could discover us if you don`t work more carefully!" accused Toraji,
a slightly taller boy with light brown hair and soft blue eyes.
"And exactly HOW was I supposed to know YOUR firewall wouldn`t
hold?!?" snapped back Miyoji.
Umino counted himself lucky to have known Miyoji for so long- he was
his entry gate into the lair of the grave robbers, as they rarely
let anyone in outside of their ranks.
"Okay, break it up you two!!!" came the commanding voice of another
man, one in his mid twenties. "Hey, Umino, long time no see!" came
the deeper voice of the tallest, oldest and sneakiest of the trio,
Tatsunosuke. Although he had the looks and athletic abilities that
could have made him the star of his high school and the most popular
guy all around, his passion for all things electronic had sent him
on the lonely path of the computer geek where he hooked up with his
two partners Toraki and Miyoji, the only two hackers whose skills
came even close to matching his own. Tatsunosuke was also the buffer
of the group, keeping the constant personality frictions between his
friends to a tolerable level.
"Hi guys. So did you manage to get those parts I asked you for?"
asked Umino, hugging his boosted laptop under his arm, his reserve
of material close at hand to trade what he came for.
"We certainly did, Umino. The first half was child`s play." answered
Toraji.
"Yeah, we already had plenty of those in stock." added Miyoji,
receiving a slap behind the head from Toraji for opening his big
mouth. As good a hacker as Toraji was, he certainly had no sense
of business or negotiation.
"I think you will be quite pleased with what I got for you regarding
the easy stuff." said Umino as he plugged his computer into their
network and downloaded a small selection of senshi pictures, the
very ones Ami had scanned for him that day.
"Interesting." went Miyoji.
"You got a deal there. The easy to get parts are yours." agreed
Tatsunosuke.
Umino smiled. That was the easy part, but he knew the value of the
one piece he REALLY needed. It was going to be hardball getting them
to admit they even had one, and harder still to get his hands on it,
but he wasn`t afraid. Ami had given him something that was going to
win them over for sure.
* * *
Throwing their fist up in the air, both girls shouted out their
power-up phrases:
"TERRA SOUL POWER TRANSFORM!!!"
"SATURN SOUL POWER TRANSFORM!!!"
The usual golden glow engulfed Usako and Robin, taking away their
shirts and skirts to replace them with the mighty fuku of the sailor
senshi, defenders of love, justice and life. When the glow if their
transformation subsided, they saw that Naru had changed as well into
the messiah. All of them were ready.
"Please sit down in a lotus position." she urged them both, and
joined them on the luxurious persian rug that graced the hard wood
floor. "Now I want you both to relax, to allow yourselves to come
to understand the nature of reality. Open your minds to the
possibility, and let your spirit soar."
"But... I`m no good with relaxation!" objected Robin. "Remember
what happened with that 'sounds of the ocean' tape Makoto gave me
for christmas?"
Neither Usako or Naru could hold in their chuckles as they remembered
seeing Robin burst out of her bedroom late one evening and throw said
tape as far as she could out the window while she screamed her head
off to the effect of that she couldn`t possibly relax with that
incessant noise in her room. All the senshi had laughed their heads
off, and only Naru had been able to calm down the tense Robin with
her healing powers.
"Don`t worry, Robin, I`ll help you relax." said Naru as she took her
friend`s hand and infused her gently with soothing golden energy
which she directed to her nervous system, tuning it to her precise
harmonics so that she released her excessive stress level. The soft
moan Robin let out told Naru that she had indeed succeeded.
After a few moments, there was no more laughing or talking in the
ski lodge. Only three young women lying on the floor of the living
room in front of the fireplace, their eyelids fluttering as their
minds entered the state of consciousness that science called "Rapid
Eye Movement" and foolishly assimilated with mere brain functions to
regulate cerebral hormones during the dream state.
So much more than this was happening.
* * *
"I don`t think this is working Naru. I`m sorry, but I`m just not
relaxing." said Robin as she stood up from the floor, feeling sad
that she failed in her effort.
"I wouldnt`be so sure about that, my dear friend." said the messiah.
Robin looked at her and noticed that she looked absolutely radiant
in a golden aura just like the first time Naru revealed herself as
the chosen one to guide the senshi.
"You look so beautiful, Naru... so radiant..." said Robin in awe.
"As do you, Robin." observed Usako. Robin looked at her and noticed
the superb swirling colors around her other friend- she could see
auras!!! Looking at her own body, she noticed that she looked
somehow... different as well. And then she looked to the floor, and
she saw that the three of them still sprawled there, sound asleep.
"What happened? Why am I here... and there at the same time?!?" she
asked, going to try and to wake herself up, but Usako stopped her.
"This is your astral form travelling outside your body... if you go
too close to your body, you`ll be snapped right back inside and you
will have failed." explained Usako.
"But... won`t I die if I leave my body?" asked Robin, afraid of this
strange experience.
"Not as long as your spirit remains linked to your body... and that
link is a very strong one, my friend." told her the messiah as she
pointed out the vibrant silver cord linked Robin`s spirit and body
from heart to heart. "It can stretch as far as you will go without
ever getting thinner. You need not be afraid, you`re quite safe
here."
"So... where do we go?" wondered Usako.
"Usako, you will be going to Tokyo. There your soul will know what
you`re looking for, even if your head doesn`t acknowledge it quite
yet. As for you, Robin, you will come with me."
"To go where?" asked Robin.
"Up." replied Naru. Robin looked up at the roof of the lodge, but
Naru shook her head. "Not THAT way up... you`ll understand when we
get there."
The two of them vanished from the sight of Usako`s spirit form who
found herself alone. She had done this before in the future under
the guidance of Sailor Pluto, so she knew what she was doing; she
gracefully left contact with the ground and floated in the air,
going through the ceiling and out into the sky. On her way up, she
saw Sailor Jupiter on the mountain top, lost in thought as she gazed
into the sky. Usako noticed her fuku was much more beautiful now,
and felt great joy for her friend.
Somehow in this form, her emotions were more true, unhindered by the
confines of a limited human brain or the dictates of society. She
felt the love that she had for her friend. She also felt the love
she had for her other senshi friends, glowing and beautiful. She
then thought of her parents, how much she loved her mother
Neoserenity and her father Endymion. The image of Seiya then came
to her as well, and once again this joyous feeling of love
overwhelmed her soul. She truly felt alive.
"Usako..." came a voice in the distance, a voice that seemed
familiar even if she had never heard it before. "Come to me, scarlet
lady..." called the voice. Feeling no malice in this voice, she
decided to follow it to its source, which she was sure came all the
way from Tokyo.
* * *
After spending half an hour haggling over some minor pieces of
computer hardware and various electronic components of lesser value,
the trio of scavengers came to the last item on Umino`s list,
although it was one they hesitated on letting go.
"This is where we have to draw the line, I`m afraid..." said Miyoji,
holding on to a component made incredibly valuable for its capacity
to handle data transfers and its usefulness in converting visual
signals into radio signals. Only the most performant television
transmission systems had one of those.
"You`d have to give us something amazing to convince us to let you
have it." added Toraji.
"We could easily get upwards of half a million yen for that baby."
commented Tatsunosuke. He seemed very sad not to be able to let his
friend have it, but there was a limit to how much help he could
afford to give anyone.
"And what if I DID have something out of this world for you guys?
Something unique that you can`t even buy?!?" offered Umino, a large
grin on his face. He got their attention all right, and they were
quite curious to see what he was talking about.
"It doesn`t hurt to take a look at what he has..." proposed Toraji.
The other two agreed.
Umino punched a few buttons on his laptop and turned it around so
that they may see the video sequence that had been recorded by
Sailor Mercury`s powerful laptop computer: a fully digitized
rendering of the battle of Mercury against the evil youma Ganeshya,
and the final attack of Mercury against the tigress centaur with
her ultimate power, the Absolute Zero Deep Freeze. The three of
them were struck with awe as they watched the single absolute zero
molecule freeze the youma`s body at near absolute zero temperature
instantly, only to destroy it with the crushing pressure of the
resulting temperature shock. Umino knew what Mercury fans these
guys were, and getting that video sequence from Ami was the best
way to get what he wanted from them.
"That... was... BEYOND AMAZING!!!" said Toraji, his eyes wide open.
"Oh, I never dreamed of being able to SEE this with my own eyes!
They`re still trying to remove the leftover ice where that battle
occured!!!" added Tatsunosuke.
"I think this would be absolutely perfect for... THE SHRINE!!!" said
Miyoji.
"THE SHRINE! THE SHRINE! THE SHRIIIINE!!!" the three scavengers
screamed.
"The... shrine?" wondered Umino.
"That`s right, my friend. A shrine dedicated to the most beautiful,
sexiest and certainly most BRILLIANT of all the senshi... Sailor
Mercury!" announced Tatsunosuke, taking Umino by the arm and
dragging him to a hidden room where he saw the most incredible
arrangements of assorted Sailor Mercury toys, news clippings, fan
art and other knick-knacks possible and impossible. All of those
around a life size mannequin of Sailor Mercury in a designer fuku
based on the scout version of her costume.
Umino couldn`t believe his eyes. Her knew they had a website that
was the most complete over the web, having the best information on
Sailor Mercury and plenty of images of her... but this display of
undying fandom gave a new meaning to the word "loyalty".
"We wanted to add a video display to the shrine, and we know exactly
what to put on it now!" said Miyoji, tears coming to his eyes.
"All thanks to you, my friend... remember, you`ll always be welcome
to visit the grave robbers at any time of day or night!!!" added
Toraji.
"Take it my friend... you more than deserve it!!!" concluded
Tatsunosuke as he gave Umino the one piece of hardware he really
wanted into his hands. He had finally obtained the last piece of
hardware the senshi needed to implement Usagi`s clever plan.
Ami would be very pleased with his success.
* * *
In her spirit form, Usako was unhindered by the confines of her
physical body and the laws of physics- she traveled as fast as she
wanted, gliding gleefully through the skies and admiring the
landscape below. She was taking her time to enjoy this marvelous
experience, though, as she could have reached her destination at
the speed of thought, faster still than actual teleportation.
The winds of the astral seemed to be taking her somewhere, though,
and she followed this lead that was unmistakingly guiding her to the
voice she had heard earlier. She floated unseen in the air above the
streets, flew unstopped through the buildings themselves and reached
her final destination unchallenged, landing gracefully on the snow
covered grass of a tranquil graveyard.
She knew this place well... it was here that Naru had been buried
temporarily before she had been resurrected, the final resting place
of Hotaru after she was slain by Ronmar, the same place where
someone else had been buried, someone who had a very special link
to Usako...
"Usako..." came the voice again.
Walking slowly, Usako made her way to a small but tasteful
gravestone engraved with a name she knew all too well.
Hino Celeste.
Her previous incarnation. The original Sailor Mars, the murderous
senshi responsible for the death of Kitechnuma Jendra and Sailor
Jendra and in doing so of the doom of an entire planet. Usako
couldn`t help but feel a shudder at the sight of the grave, the
legacy of her tainted soul.
And at the same time she felt sad, so sad at how this once kind and
dedicated girl fell into the clutches of the Prime, turning her into
an instrument of mass destruction. In a way, she was responsible
herself, she couldn`t help but feel.
"That`s where you`re wrong, my dear friend." whispered the soothing
voice. Usako turned around and saw a woman she`d never met before
yet was so very familiar. Standing at roughly the same height as she
was, she had amazing short fiery red hair and shining black eyes.
Wearing proudly the uniform of Sailor Mars, there was no doubt as
to who she might be.
"Celeste... but how?" wondered Usako who walked to her, and
discovered that she could touch the other soul as if they both
were physical beings.
"I`m the part of you that expresses regret. That feels sorrow,
guilt, and wishes it could take back what cannot be undone." said
Celeste, taking Usako`s hand in hers.
"Why did you call to me?"
"I can`t answer that here. But if you accompany me, I`ll show you
why." offered Celeste. Usako nodded and silently accepted. Both of
them vanished, leaving instantly for some other destination of
Celeste`s knowing.
* * *
"Well... this is... err... it`s so... wow!" uttered Robin, incapable
of finding any better words to describe what she saw.
She had never imagined that such a place could exist. A long and
majestuous hall entirely made of the purest marble, the floor
checkered black and white while the columns along the sides were
entirely black with gold veins gracing their surface. In the
distance, she could make out an altar and some kind of tapestries
hanging on the wall behind.
"I`m glad you appreciate the beauty of this place, Robin." said the
messiah as she appeared besides Robin.
"Where are we anyway?" wondered Robin, looking all around her. She
had never seen such a beautiful hall, not even in the image
archives of Saturn Station Beta.
"This is a manifestation of the physical aspects of reality as we
know it... the sephira at the bottom of the tree of life, the
temple of Malkuth." explained Naru.
"Malawazza???"
"I`ll give you lessons on metaphysics later, but for now all you
need to know is that you will rise through levels of consciousness
your newborn soul does not even phatom yet. This will be an
exploration of yourself and of the universe all at once." said Naru.
"But it`s not my role to guide you all the way there, only get you
as far as the first step."
"How will I know I`m on the right track?" asked Robin, afraid of
getting lost along the way.
"The archangels will guide you. The first one is called Sandalphon.
Just go to the altar over there, he already awaits you." answered
Naru, pointing to the other end of the great hall.
So Robin walked down the hall, her each step echoing in the peaceful
silence of Malkuth while the messiah watched upon her, hopeful her
friend would succeed in her soul quest. She slowly advanced to the
altar made of two large cubes sculpted of the same black marble as
the floor and columns, marveling in the perfection of its cutting.
She looked at the three immense tapestries on the wall; one of the
represented an hermaphrodite being holding a wizard staff in
triumph, surrounded by an eagle, lion, taurus and angel. The second
was a lobster crawling out of a moonlit pond, crawling towards two
howling dogs. The last one was three praying people looking up to
the sky as an angel from heaven trumpetted the moment of final
judgement.
"I never had any dreams so weird, that`s for sure..." thought
Robin out loud. At this moment, a large flame formed behind the
altar, turning into an immense angelic being robed in shifting
colors of brown, black, olive and yellow. The radiating holy light
of the great archangel was too bright for the young woman to see
its face.
"Oh... hi there, Sandalphon, is it?" asked Robin, shy before this
great being who incarnated all the aspects of the earth element.
"I can`t help but notice you dress in autumn! Did you ever consider
switching to summer colors to bring out your complexion?" she
suggested.
The archangel`s flame grew taller and brighter as a response.
"Then again, what do I know?!?" quickly blurted out the young woman
who felt foolish giving fashion advice to an eternal being.
Sandalphon silently made a motion for her to follow him, which she
did without hesitation. Somehow, it felt right to do so. Pulling
on the tapestry in the middle, the drawing represented in the tarot
deck as "The World", he revealed to Robin the passage to the next
sephira, Yesod, where the great archangel Gabriel would await her.
"Thank you." whispered Robin before entering the passage. Although
he used no words, Robin could have sworn he gave her the nicest
goodbye she had ever heard.
* * *
Makoto felt incredible. She was truly enjoying her walk down the
mountain path, secure in the knowledge that she had even more power
at her fingertips than ever before. Her soul quest had been a great
success, allowing her to discover that she had greater strength in
her loving heart than in her muscles. The child of Jupiter wanted
to share this happiness with her friends.
Arriving at the ski Osaka family ski lodge, she met Naru who was
waiting for her on the front porch with two cups of hot coffee.
"I take it from all that thunder crashing down and the smile on
your face that you have realized a bit more on the nature of your
soul today." suggested Naru, offering Makoto a cup.
"Thank you." she said, nodding her head to agree with her friend.
"It was both mystical and spiritual."
"I`m happy for you. I have some hot food ready inside, if you`ll
follow me."
"I would have prepared a meal myself, if I had found enough time...
you really caught us off guard with this, you know." replied Makoto,
looking a bit sad.
"You cooked for us many times already, it`s about time we returned
the favor!" said Naru, slowly opening the front door not to make any
grinding noises. "Just don`t talk too loud, okay? The others
haven`t... returned yet." added Naru, poiting to Sailor Saturn and
Terra sound asleep on the floor, their spirits far away from the
living room floor where their bodies laid.
"Oh... I`ll be careful." whispered Makoto, smiling as she watched
upon the peaceful faces of the two girls travelling deep in the
astral plane. She wondered to what amazing places they might have
gone, what people they might meet. Only Robin and Usako could answer
that when they would return.
* * *
"That`s GREAT, Umino!!!" said Ami as she unpacked all the electronics
and computer hardware pieces her friend had gathered for her with
nothing more than some pictures of the senshi she had taken herself.
"That was nothing, Ami. I know the right guys, and they worship the
ground you guys walk on." explained Umino who judged preferable to
keep the Sailor Mercury shrine part to himself. That sort of detail
had a tendancy to freak out those concerned, as a general rule.
"Let`s get to work right away, we have a lot to do." said Ami.
"Usagi, I`ll also need your help to get these special items ready
in time for tomorrow. Mamoru, I`d like you to take this transmitter
and move around town in your car so we can test the reliability of
the reliability of the equipment under different conditions. Shingo,
do you think you could check out the location for the best spot to
operate from?"
"No problem." replied Mamoru as he took the small test emitter built
in a hurry by Ami.
"Sure thing... would you like me to take you home, darling? You look
tired." said Shingo who noticed that Laurella wasn`t feeling so good.
"Yeah... I`d like that. I have to be ready for tomorrow... you guys
are counting on me." replied Laurella in a totally emotionless tone,
her face devoid of expression. Her head understood that she would
play a key role in Usagi`s plan and that exposing Black Baron`s plan
wide open could mean the difference between life and death for
millions of people- but in her heart, she felt nothing.
"Okay, let`s go." he said, taking her hand and leading her out of
Ami`s luxurious place.
Moving through the long corridor on Shingo`s arm, the young girl
felt lonely. Ever since her empathic ability had risen, she had
always been surrounded by a constant flow of feelings, emotions,
states of mind, but now nothing, just silence. At first it had
been soothing, healing even, but now it was turning into torture,
slowly maddening her one second of quiet after the other.
Although her empathy would have normally picked that right up, she
had not the slightest idea that she and her boyfriend walked right
by a pair of spirits, Usako and Celeste. The two of them looked
upon the young couple and followed them from a distance even though
they wouldn`t be able to see them if Celeste and Usako were right
in front of them.
"They look sad." observed Usako.
"She faced the most horrible being she could ever meet, and felt his
presence more strongly than anyone could have through her special
senses. After so much horror, her heart just gave out, her emotions
shutting down." explained Celeste. "But as hard as it was on poor
Laurella, it`s even worse on Shingo. He`s been her anchor as she
let herself glide aimlessly in a world that just stopped making
sense... his mind is growing weaker from such strain, and his
strength dwindles even as we speak. He will not hold long like
this."
"I feel so... sorry for them." appologized Usako.
"For something you couldn`t stop? Something you couldn`t prevent?
Something FATED to happen?" pressed on Celeste, pointing out the
futility of her guilt.
"I just can`t help it. I should have been there." said Usako,
looking at the young couple walking away from them.
"But you where there a thousand years ago, weren`t you? Or should I
say... I was there. For all my good intentions, that didn`t stop me
from killing them both." reminded her the fallen Sailor Mars.
"It was... my fault... that they died that day." Usako accused
herself. Celeste`s voice went up a notch as she objected her.
"So you got manipulated by a conniving mind-control freak a lifetime
ago- are you going to let THAT stop you from repairing what the
Prime destroyed himself? Will you waste my chance at redemption
because of needless guilt? Shingo and Laurella will ALWAYS be
together, it doesn`t matter that either of them dies, that one of
them gets turned into a bloodthirsty fiend by his worst enemy or
that Laurella loses her emotions- their souls are BONDED and will
ALWAYS find each other. They are your friends, Usako, and you can
either help them or feel sorry for yourself. Your choice." told her
Celeste, opening her eyes to the obvious facts she was too blind to
see.
"I can make a difference in their life, this time around... help
them be happy and grow old together... see them raise my cousins..."
sighed Usako, realizing that in this life, she indeed had the power
to make a difference.
"I`m glad you see it this way now..." said Celeste, smiling again.
"Will we ever see each other again, Celeste?"
"Everyday in the mirror... just look into your own eyes, you`ll see
me there." answered the manifestation of Usako`s old soul who hugged
her and gave her a sweet kiss. Then everything around her was bathed
in blinding golden light, the whole world disappearing from view as
her spirit was yanked back into her sleeping body.
Usako had finally managed to free herself of this millenium old guilt
she carried over the brutal deaths of Laurella and her lover
Kitechnum Jendra.
* * *
Following her upwards progression on the many sephirot of the tree
of life, Robin had so far been through three of them, entering
through Malkuth where she was shown the way by the archangel
Sandalphon, then reaching Yesod, domain of Gabriel and on to Tiferet
where she met briefly with Raphael. Continuing her ascension, she
had reached the midway point in between Tiferet and her ultimate
goal, the first sephira of Keter, the greatest light in all of
existance as she`d been told on her way up.
From her current position, however, she wasn`t too sure if she hadn`t
gotten lost on her way there. She was floating in something which
looked a lot like the old stereotyped vision of heaven, with clouds
strewn about and strange beings resting on them, their shape somewhat
reminiscent of winged humanoids. They seemed totally uninterested in
her, though, and failed to respond to her when she addressed them.
"Excuse me, is this the right way to... what`s the name again...
there`s a 'K' in there, I know it, it`s just on the tip of my
tongue..." she mumbled, as she tried to remember. The being nearest
to her didn`t budge, utterly failing to even notice her.
"KETER! That`s the name... it`s a miracle I remembered that, all
those mystic names just never seem to stick in my head... I`m better
at remembering song lyrics and that sort of stuff... HEY, are you
LISTENING to me?!?"
Obviously, he was not. Robin couldn`t as much as guess if he could
SEE her at all. It was becoming increasingly clear that her
surroundings were getting more and more... cryptic in nature,
defying the conventional human modes of thinking. Moving around
would certainly require more imagination than logic, more intuition
than reason. Emptying her mind of any preconceived ideas she was
hauling around, Robin allowed her spirit to do the thinking...
"DAATH!" she yelled as she felt a spark of understanding cross her
relaxed mind. "Gabriel mentionned the place... not quite a sephira,
not quite a world, a mystery all its own... so that means I still
have a bit of travel to go... there!" she thought out loud as she
looked up to the "sky" and saw there a faint haloed disk, like the
sun shining through the clouds on a brisk winter day.
"See you around, angel boys!" said Robin, waving to them as she
soared upwards at the speed of thought.
The enigmatic being whom she had spoken to looked to her for a
brief instant- but no longer. Some mysteries were just not meant
to be solved, it seemed.
* * *
"Something is happening." whispered Yaten to his brothers as they
were taking a small break in between two songs they were recording
their latest album. The silver haired singer was being careful to
cover his microphone so that their producer and recording crew
wouldn`t hear him talk.
"Feeling this dreadful darkness spreading again? Newsflash: we don`t
need your empathy to tell us things are doing bad!" snapped back
Seiya.
"No, not evil this time, more like an infusion of light from several
candles lit in the night." tried to describe Yaten. The joyous look
on his face was showing that he was experiencing some much needed
relief from all the evil Tokyo had been subjected to lately.
Taiki and Seiya looked at each other- they knew that this could
only come from the sailor senshi of the earth, the defenders of
light whom they had encountered a few times already.
"You think we`ll see the senshi again anytime soon?" asked Seiya,
hitting his drum sticks against one another and keeping the rhytm
of the previous song they recorded. Unconsciously, Yaten and Taiki
tapped their foot on the floor to follow Seiya in harmony.
"I`m counting on it." replied Taiki, grinning as he anticipated
meeting once again with Sailor Mercury.
"Okay guys, we`re all set to keep going with the next one!" came the
voice of their producer through their earphones. They interrupted
their conversation right then and returned to their music, playing
their instruments and singing without a second thought to the
horrors yet to come.
* * *
She had finally made it. The newborn soul of the young Robin had
returned to the place where everything began, the glorious light of
Keter, the first sephira from which all others had been born.
"It`s... glorious..." uttered Robin, finding her words a pale
impression of the amazing array of sensations she was going through.
Like a single hydrogen atom before a gigantic sun boiling in
everlasting nuclear fusion, she was awed and humbled before this
marvel beyond all time and space.
Even though she`d never been there before, she knew she was home.
"Like a billion voices singing in perfect harmony... please let me
be part of you..." whispered the young girl as she felt her astral
form change shape- having kept her physical form by a subconscious
effort so far, her human female form was fading rapidly before the
one-in-all to that of a single point of conscience, pure thought
and spirit, a soul unbound from the shackles of physical reality.
Suddenly, out of the billions of voices, she heard one she
immediately recognized.
"Robin... you came, my daughter."
"T... Technuma? DAD?!? I`m here, dad, wait for me, I`m coming!"
she said, the tiny point of golden light she`d become flying to
join in with the countless souls already there. But for some reason,
something wouldn`t let her, an invisible force halting her like a
wall of unseen resistance.
"Dad? Why won`t they let me join you?" she asked.
"Your time is not now, my angel. You still have a long life ahead of
you, but remember, I`ll always be here. We can have eternity together
when the time is right." whispered the serene voice of Technuma
Saturn in her mind, resounding with complete and unconditional love
for her. She could feel his every thought and emotion, and she knew
right there how proud he was of her, how dedicated he had been to
create her a living work of art perfect in every way... she was
touched to tears, which she would have shed if she had a body right
now.
"I miss you so much, father... I love you!!!" she said as she felt
the pressing urge of her silver cord pulling insistently so that
she return to her body.
"I love you, my dear daughter... for as long as the stars shine."
was Technuma`s last message to his daughter before she was violently
pulled back as her silver cord snappped back like an overextended
rubber band released suddenly.
* * *
Both Robin and Usako awoke on the floor of Naru`s lodge, the fire in
the fireplace almost burned out with little more than sparkling red
ashes left. As they looked at each other, they saw that both their
senshi fukus had been upgraded with the matching breastplates,
shoulder plates and leg protector thigh extensions where their
senshi designation had been engraved in sublime kanji lettering.
"I... I spoke to him, Usako! I was finally able to tell dad how
much I loved him!" said Robin as she rushed her friend to hug her,
tears of joy running from her eyes.
"And I was able to relieve myself of an ancient burden... I`m free,
Robin, free!!!" replied Usako who joined her friend in her tears.
"Hey, you think our weapons have been improved too? Let`s see!!!
SOULSTAR, COME TO ME!!!" yelled Sailor Saturn, ribbons of ruby
color swirling around her hand to form a superb glaive of solid
ruby identical to her predecessor`s weapon of choice. It had
indeed been enhanced as well, platinum highlights covering both
the shaft and the cutting edge of the blade.
"HARBINGER, I BID YOU COME!!!" joined in Usako. Black ribbons created
in her hands her sacred weapon Harbinger, an obsidian scythe. It was
now superbly decorated with runes and designs traced in the purest
bronze this planet had ever seen.
"Congratulations to the two of you!" said Naru as she returned from
the kitchen with Makoto who transformed into Sailor Jupiter to join
in on the celebration, pulling out Mjolnir and brandishing it up in
a sign of victory.
"We`re ready to face whatever may come!!!" said Jupiter.
"To destroy all evil!!!" added Sailor Terra, clashing her scythe
to Jupiter`s warhammer in a resounding echo of newfound power.
"And to make love triumph over all!!!" concluded Sailor Saturn,
connecting her glaive to the two other sacred weapons and releasing
an even greater echoing crash as she did so.
"SAILOR SENSHI!!!" the three of them went all at once.
"Even though this day has been a complete success for these
three..." silently thought Naru, "I`m afraid my work is still far
from complete... the biggest challenge still lies ahead for me."
To be continued...
a.k.a. Technuma Saturn
Prologue...
In the flickering light of a half-consumed red candle, a young
teenage girl shuffled her tarot cards as she did so often, although
her expert motions were more an exercise in futility than an actual
ritual for seeing the future.
She was already quite adept at clairvoyance, much too adept to her
own taste. She had the uncanny ability to predict the future that
had made all her friends desert her ever since this talent- or
curse as she referred to it- had manifested itself. Having
predicted the soon to come bankrupcy of her parents` family
business, she had been sommarily kicked out of her home in a rash
moment of fatherly misdirected anger.
Forced to fend for herself, she had taken to read the future for a
living, but had quickly discovered that few people wanted to hear
about the future... what they wanted to hear was that they would be
getting promotions, lots of money and find love soon. Nobody wanted
to know how soon and horribly they would die, how fast their spouse
would leave them for their secret lover or what bad news the doctor
would tell them at that appointment tomorrow afternoon. She did
manage to get a few clients here and there who wanted to know the
REAL future and not just some well rehearsed fairy tale, but those
were few and far between. Certainly not enough to make next month`s
rent, that was for sure.
Besides, she knew exactly who was coming along right now, and her
path had been traced already. Yoshie was ready to accept her dark
fate, a tragicly ironic one considering her name meant "good fortune
and prosperity". She laid down the tarot cards on the table in a
cross formation. As she placed the last one, she heard a knock at
the door. Yoshie had a faint smile, as the cards` dreadful
prediction matched exactly what she knew would happen.
"You can come in, Anubis, I`ve been expecting you and your friends...
Sukeko and Alice, I do believe it is?" she said as the door opened
behind her, not even bothering to turn around. She intuitively knew
that her visitors were two girls; one blue haired and one red haired,
both dressed in clothes colored to match. They were there along with
a white cat whose brow bore a golden crescent moon.
"Correct." replied the white Venusian cat in the blue haired girl`s
arms. Sukeko was petting him short white hair with her long slender
fingers, and she sat in front of Yoshie still holding the cat so the
two of them could talk. "I came here..."
"...because I have something you want and I don`t especially
treasure, in exchange of which you want me to accept your green gem.
It will, of course, burn itself into my palm with excrutiating pain,
but grant me great powers in the process." interrupted the
clairvoyant Yoshie.
"Err... yes..." admited Anubis who was surprised that Yoshie was much
more insightful than he had expected. This might put a grain of sand
in the gears of his plan...
"Don`t worry, I accepted this fate long ago. I accept your deal,
even if you`re a demon asking me to sign on the dotted line in my
own blood." she said, handing over her open hand to ask for what
she knew the cat and his acolytes had for her.
"Give it to her, Alice." ordered the cat.
"Of course, Chesterfield!" replied the insane Yohko, lost as always
in her "Alice in Wonderland" fantasy world where Anubis was the
vanishing cat and Sukeko the blue caterpillar. She produced a small
glithering gem similar to the ones Sukeko and herself had in their
palm, burned in placed by the stone`s own power. She placed it in
Yoshie`s hand where it immediately started to heat up, hissing as
the nauseating smell of charred flesh filled the small appartment.
Anubis was rather impressed by this new recruit who showed little
sign of discomfort as the green gem chewed its way through her palm,
almost totally oblivious to the terrible pain that had sent his
other two minions into a fit of screaming agony.
"The pain of the body means nothing to me. The pain of the soul is
much worse by far... and that is why I surrender my fate to yours,
Anubis." said the girl as her eyes and short hair turned bright
green in color. She clenched her fists and grinded her teeth,
determined not to show any sign of the terrible pain that was
shooting up her arm and threatening her very sanity.
Anubis just laughed. He didn`t give a damn about her life, or anybody
else`s for that matter.
* * *
CYCLES OF LIFE: EPISODE 47
REVELATIONS OF SELF AND OTHERS
"Now THIS is what I call a quest of personal exploration!" sighed
Robin, comfortably set on the couch in front of the fireplace. The
ski lodge of Naru`s parents was indeed a magnificient one, and the
genetically engineered girl was very pleased that the messiah had
insisted on dragging her there with her friends that day.
"Amen to that, sister!" agreed Usako, equally sunk in the soft couch,
clanking her cup of hot chocolate to Robin`s in a gesture she had
seen her own parents do whenever they shared a drink.
"Why do you suppose lightning struck so strong this time of year,
anyway? I thought it was during summer that thunderstorms occured."
wondered Robin.
"Most likely that was Makoto. She went up there to claim her power
boost, remember? It`s my guest that this lightning was her doing."
answered Usako.
"Indeed it was." came Naru`s voice as she opened the front door of
the lodge and walked in. Her messiah clothing was gone, she was once
again her ordinary self.
"So where is she?" asked Robin before stuffing her face with a piece
of toasted bread.
"Still up there, she has a lot to work out. And so do you both, you
know. You turn has arrived, girls, you two must now go through your
own trials." said Naru, taking away their cups of hot chocolate.
"Must she always break our fun?" mumbled Robin to herself.
"Okay... where do we go?" asked Usako, getting up to stretching her
arms and legs.
"Far from here... but you won`t be walking there. You only need to
sit down in front of the fireplace, it`ll be the best place to
proceed." explained Naru. Robin and Usako looked at each other
with confused expressions on their faces.
* * *
Umino smiled when he reached the badly damaged factory where he knew
his friends lived. It looked as if it were going to crumble at any
second, although it had been thoroughly reinforced by its current
residents. Their tactic was simple: keep unwanted people away by
having their place look like a ruin. And it worked well.
He pushed the button by the small out of the way door, a shrill
buzzing sound announcing his presence. A hidden camera whirred as
its lens focused on the visitor`s face.
"Who`s there?" came a badly distorted voice from an intercom.
"Gurio Umino. You guys are expecting me." replied Umino.
"I`ll let you in... if you can answer me these questions three!!!"
claimed the voice. "Question the first..." started to announce the
voice.
Without further concern for these guys` weird sense of etiquette,
Umino slammed his fist onto the intercom.
"Okay, nevermind, you obviously know how we work around here."
replied the voice. A different buzzing sound, lower and louder,
indicating that the door was unlocked.
Walking in, Umino met once again the familiar decor of the computer
hacker/scavenger group which came to call itself the "grave robbers"
because of their habit of going through the dumpsters of computer
stores to rummage thrown away parts. Many stores would rather just
discard unsold models rather than to offer them at bargain prices
and lower market prices. It was this very reasoning which had created
the grave robbers, one of the great enemies of the larger computer
stores.
Not much had changed in the general look of the place, it was still
filled with a wide array of disconnected computer parts, arcade
games rebuilt from motherboards fished out of dumpsters, a fridge
and pantry stuffed in a corner to maximize workspace, loads of anime
posters covering every inch of the bare concrete walls, dozens of
power connectors and heat sinks, and a home made computer network
that was the pride of the three members of the grave robbers,
Toraji, Miyoji and Tatsunosuke.
"Sorry about Miyoji being a bit overprotective of our home, Umino."
called out a short, nerdish looking teenager who could have easily
been mistaken for Umino`s brother with the possible exception of his
hair, which was dark black. Sitting up from his computer equipped
with a permanent internet link, he took a pause long enough to greet
his friend which he hadn`t seen in a long while.
"I wouldnt`need to be if SOMEONE hadn`t been so careless during his
last hack! I barely had time to reroute the signal so they wouldn`t
find us, and they came way too close to this place this time! They
could discover us if you don`t work more carefully!" accused Toraji,
a slightly taller boy with light brown hair and soft blue eyes.
"And exactly HOW was I supposed to know YOUR firewall wouldn`t
hold?!?" snapped back Miyoji.
Umino counted himself lucky to have known Miyoji for so long- he was
his entry gate into the lair of the grave robbers, as they rarely
let anyone in outside of their ranks.
"Okay, break it up you two!!!" came the commanding voice of another
man, one in his mid twenties. "Hey, Umino, long time no see!" came
the deeper voice of the tallest, oldest and sneakiest of the trio,
Tatsunosuke. Although he had the looks and athletic abilities that
could have made him the star of his high school and the most popular
guy all around, his passion for all things electronic had sent him
on the lonely path of the computer geek where he hooked up with his
two partners Toraki and Miyoji, the only two hackers whose skills
came even close to matching his own. Tatsunosuke was also the buffer
of the group, keeping the constant personality frictions between his
friends to a tolerable level.
"Hi guys. So did you manage to get those parts I asked you for?"
asked Umino, hugging his boosted laptop under his arm, his reserve
of material close at hand to trade what he came for.
"We certainly did, Umino. The first half was child`s play." answered
Toraji.
"Yeah, we already had plenty of those in stock." added Miyoji,
receiving a slap behind the head from Toraji for opening his big
mouth. As good a hacker as Toraji was, he certainly had no sense
of business or negotiation.
"I think you will be quite pleased with what I got for you regarding
the easy stuff." said Umino as he plugged his computer into their
network and downloaded a small selection of senshi pictures, the
very ones Ami had scanned for him that day.
"Interesting." went Miyoji.
"You got a deal there. The easy to get parts are yours." agreed
Tatsunosuke.
Umino smiled. That was the easy part, but he knew the value of the
one piece he REALLY needed. It was going to be hardball getting them
to admit they even had one, and harder still to get his hands on it,
but he wasn`t afraid. Ami had given him something that was going to
win them over for sure.
* * *
Throwing their fist up in the air, both girls shouted out their
power-up phrases:
"TERRA SOUL POWER TRANSFORM!!!"
"SATURN SOUL POWER TRANSFORM!!!"
The usual golden glow engulfed Usako and Robin, taking away their
shirts and skirts to replace them with the mighty fuku of the sailor
senshi, defenders of love, justice and life. When the glow if their
transformation subsided, they saw that Naru had changed as well into
the messiah. All of them were ready.
"Please sit down in a lotus position." she urged them both, and
joined them on the luxurious persian rug that graced the hard wood
floor. "Now I want you both to relax, to allow yourselves to come
to understand the nature of reality. Open your minds to the
possibility, and let your spirit soar."
"But... I`m no good with relaxation!" objected Robin. "Remember
what happened with that 'sounds of the ocean' tape Makoto gave me
for christmas?"
Neither Usako or Naru could hold in their chuckles as they remembered
seeing Robin burst out of her bedroom late one evening and throw said
tape as far as she could out the window while she screamed her head
off to the effect of that she couldn`t possibly relax with that
incessant noise in her room. All the senshi had laughed their heads
off, and only Naru had been able to calm down the tense Robin with
her healing powers.
"Don`t worry, Robin, I`ll help you relax." said Naru as she took her
friend`s hand and infused her gently with soothing golden energy
which she directed to her nervous system, tuning it to her precise
harmonics so that she released her excessive stress level. The soft
moan Robin let out told Naru that she had indeed succeeded.
After a few moments, there was no more laughing or talking in the
ski lodge. Only three young women lying on the floor of the living
room in front of the fireplace, their eyelids fluttering as their
minds entered the state of consciousness that science called "Rapid
Eye Movement" and foolishly assimilated with mere brain functions to
regulate cerebral hormones during the dream state.
So much more than this was happening.
* * *
"I don`t think this is working Naru. I`m sorry, but I`m just not
relaxing." said Robin as she stood up from the floor, feeling sad
that she failed in her effort.
"I wouldnt`be so sure about that, my dear friend." said the messiah.
Robin looked at her and noticed that she looked absolutely radiant
in a golden aura just like the first time Naru revealed herself as
the chosen one to guide the senshi.
"You look so beautiful, Naru... so radiant..." said Robin in awe.
"As do you, Robin." observed Usako. Robin looked at her and noticed
the superb swirling colors around her other friend- she could see
auras!!! Looking at her own body, she noticed that she looked
somehow... different as well. And then she looked to the floor, and
she saw that the three of them still sprawled there, sound asleep.
"What happened? Why am I here... and there at the same time?!?" she
asked, going to try and to wake herself up, but Usako stopped her.
"This is your astral form travelling outside your body... if you go
too close to your body, you`ll be snapped right back inside and you
will have failed." explained Usako.
"But... won`t I die if I leave my body?" asked Robin, afraid of this
strange experience.
"Not as long as your spirit remains linked to your body... and that
link is a very strong one, my friend." told her the messiah as she
pointed out the vibrant silver cord linked Robin`s spirit and body
from heart to heart. "It can stretch as far as you will go without
ever getting thinner. You need not be afraid, you`re quite safe
here."
"So... where do we go?" wondered Usako.
"Usako, you will be going to Tokyo. There your soul will know what
you`re looking for, even if your head doesn`t acknowledge it quite
yet. As for you, Robin, you will come with me."
"To go where?" asked Robin.
"Up." replied Naru. Robin looked up at the roof of the lodge, but
Naru shook her head. "Not THAT way up... you`ll understand when we
get there."
The two of them vanished from the sight of Usako`s spirit form who
found herself alone. She had done this before in the future under
the guidance of Sailor Pluto, so she knew what she was doing; she
gracefully left contact with the ground and floated in the air,
going through the ceiling and out into the sky. On her way up, she
saw Sailor Jupiter on the mountain top, lost in thought as she gazed
into the sky. Usako noticed her fuku was much more beautiful now,
and felt great joy for her friend.
Somehow in this form, her emotions were more true, unhindered by the
confines of a limited human brain or the dictates of society. She
felt the love that she had for her friend. She also felt the love
she had for her other senshi friends, glowing and beautiful. She
then thought of her parents, how much she loved her mother
Neoserenity and her father Endymion. The image of Seiya then came
to her as well, and once again this joyous feeling of love
overwhelmed her soul. She truly felt alive.
"Usako..." came a voice in the distance, a voice that seemed
familiar even if she had never heard it before. "Come to me, scarlet
lady..." called the voice. Feeling no malice in this voice, she
decided to follow it to its source, which she was sure came all the
way from Tokyo.
* * *
After spending half an hour haggling over some minor pieces of
computer hardware and various electronic components of lesser value,
the trio of scavengers came to the last item on Umino`s list,
although it was one they hesitated on letting go.
"This is where we have to draw the line, I`m afraid..." said Miyoji,
holding on to a component made incredibly valuable for its capacity
to handle data transfers and its usefulness in converting visual
signals into radio signals. Only the most performant television
transmission systems had one of those.
"You`d have to give us something amazing to convince us to let you
have it." added Toraji.
"We could easily get upwards of half a million yen for that baby."
commented Tatsunosuke. He seemed very sad not to be able to let his
friend have it, but there was a limit to how much help he could
afford to give anyone.
"And what if I DID have something out of this world for you guys?
Something unique that you can`t even buy?!?" offered Umino, a large
grin on his face. He got their attention all right, and they were
quite curious to see what he was talking about.
"It doesn`t hurt to take a look at what he has..." proposed Toraji.
The other two agreed.
Umino punched a few buttons on his laptop and turned it around so
that they may see the video sequence that had been recorded by
Sailor Mercury`s powerful laptop computer: a fully digitized
rendering of the battle of Mercury against the evil youma Ganeshya,
and the final attack of Mercury against the tigress centaur with
her ultimate power, the Absolute Zero Deep Freeze. The three of
them were struck with awe as they watched the single absolute zero
molecule freeze the youma`s body at near absolute zero temperature
instantly, only to destroy it with the crushing pressure of the
resulting temperature shock. Umino knew what Mercury fans these
guys were, and getting that video sequence from Ami was the best
way to get what he wanted from them.
"That... was... BEYOND AMAZING!!!" said Toraji, his eyes wide open.
"Oh, I never dreamed of being able to SEE this with my own eyes!
They`re still trying to remove the leftover ice where that battle
occured!!!" added Tatsunosuke.
"I think this would be absolutely perfect for... THE SHRINE!!!" said
Miyoji.
"THE SHRINE! THE SHRINE! THE SHRIIIINE!!!" the three scavengers
screamed.
"The... shrine?" wondered Umino.
"That`s right, my friend. A shrine dedicated to the most beautiful,
sexiest and certainly most BRILLIANT of all the senshi... Sailor
Mercury!" announced Tatsunosuke, taking Umino by the arm and
dragging him to a hidden room where he saw the most incredible
arrangements of assorted Sailor Mercury toys, news clippings, fan
art and other knick-knacks possible and impossible. All of those
around a life size mannequin of Sailor Mercury in a designer fuku
based on the scout version of her costume.
Umino couldn`t believe his eyes. Her knew they had a website that
was the most complete over the web, having the best information on
Sailor Mercury and plenty of images of her... but this display of
undying fandom gave a new meaning to the word "loyalty".
"We wanted to add a video display to the shrine, and we know exactly
what to put on it now!" said Miyoji, tears coming to his eyes.
"All thanks to you, my friend... remember, you`ll always be welcome
to visit the grave robbers at any time of day or night!!!" added
Toraji.
"Take it my friend... you more than deserve it!!!" concluded
Tatsunosuke as he gave Umino the one piece of hardware he really
wanted into his hands. He had finally obtained the last piece of
hardware the senshi needed to implement Usagi`s clever plan.
Ami would be very pleased with his success.
* * *
In her spirit form, Usako was unhindered by the confines of her
physical body and the laws of physics- she traveled as fast as she
wanted, gliding gleefully through the skies and admiring the
landscape below. She was taking her time to enjoy this marvelous
experience, though, as she could have reached her destination at
the speed of thought, faster still than actual teleportation.
The winds of the astral seemed to be taking her somewhere, though,
and she followed this lead that was unmistakingly guiding her to the
voice she had heard earlier. She floated unseen in the air above the
streets, flew unstopped through the buildings themselves and reached
her final destination unchallenged, landing gracefully on the snow
covered grass of a tranquil graveyard.
She knew this place well... it was here that Naru had been buried
temporarily before she had been resurrected, the final resting place
of Hotaru after she was slain by Ronmar, the same place where
someone else had been buried, someone who had a very special link
to Usako...
"Usako..." came the voice again.
Walking slowly, Usako made her way to a small but tasteful
gravestone engraved with a name she knew all too well.
Hino Celeste.
Her previous incarnation. The original Sailor Mars, the murderous
senshi responsible for the death of Kitechnuma Jendra and Sailor
Jendra and in doing so of the doom of an entire planet. Usako
couldn`t help but feel a shudder at the sight of the grave, the
legacy of her tainted soul.
And at the same time she felt sad, so sad at how this once kind and
dedicated girl fell into the clutches of the Prime, turning her into
an instrument of mass destruction. In a way, she was responsible
herself, she couldn`t help but feel.
"That`s where you`re wrong, my dear friend." whispered the soothing
voice. Usako turned around and saw a woman she`d never met before
yet was so very familiar. Standing at roughly the same height as she
was, she had amazing short fiery red hair and shining black eyes.
Wearing proudly the uniform of Sailor Mars, there was no doubt as
to who she might be.
"Celeste... but how?" wondered Usako who walked to her, and
discovered that she could touch the other soul as if they both
were physical beings.
"I`m the part of you that expresses regret. That feels sorrow,
guilt, and wishes it could take back what cannot be undone." said
Celeste, taking Usako`s hand in hers.
"Why did you call to me?"
"I can`t answer that here. But if you accompany me, I`ll show you
why." offered Celeste. Usako nodded and silently accepted. Both of
them vanished, leaving instantly for some other destination of
Celeste`s knowing.
* * *
"Well... this is... err... it`s so... wow!" uttered Robin, incapable
of finding any better words to describe what she saw.
She had never imagined that such a place could exist. A long and
majestuous hall entirely made of the purest marble, the floor
checkered black and white while the columns along the sides were
entirely black with gold veins gracing their surface. In the
distance, she could make out an altar and some kind of tapestries
hanging on the wall behind.
"I`m glad you appreciate the beauty of this place, Robin." said the
messiah as she appeared besides Robin.
"Where are we anyway?" wondered Robin, looking all around her. She
had never seen such a beautiful hall, not even in the image
archives of Saturn Station Beta.
"This is a manifestation of the physical aspects of reality as we
know it... the sephira at the bottom of the tree of life, the
temple of Malkuth." explained Naru.
"Malawazza???"
"I`ll give you lessons on metaphysics later, but for now all you
need to know is that you will rise through levels of consciousness
your newborn soul does not even phatom yet. This will be an
exploration of yourself and of the universe all at once." said Naru.
"But it`s not my role to guide you all the way there, only get you
as far as the first step."
"How will I know I`m on the right track?" asked Robin, afraid of
getting lost along the way.
"The archangels will guide you. The first one is called Sandalphon.
Just go to the altar over there, he already awaits you." answered
Naru, pointing to the other end of the great hall.
So Robin walked down the hall, her each step echoing in the peaceful
silence of Malkuth while the messiah watched upon her, hopeful her
friend would succeed in her soul quest. She slowly advanced to the
altar made of two large cubes sculpted of the same black marble as
the floor and columns, marveling in the perfection of its cutting.
She looked at the three immense tapestries on the wall; one of the
represented an hermaphrodite being holding a wizard staff in
triumph, surrounded by an eagle, lion, taurus and angel. The second
was a lobster crawling out of a moonlit pond, crawling towards two
howling dogs. The last one was three praying people looking up to
the sky as an angel from heaven trumpetted the moment of final
judgement.
"I never had any dreams so weird, that`s for sure..." thought
Robin out loud. At this moment, a large flame formed behind the
altar, turning into an immense angelic being robed in shifting
colors of brown, black, olive and yellow. The radiating holy light
of the great archangel was too bright for the young woman to see
its face.
"Oh... hi there, Sandalphon, is it?" asked Robin, shy before this
great being who incarnated all the aspects of the earth element.
"I can`t help but notice you dress in autumn! Did you ever consider
switching to summer colors to bring out your complexion?" she
suggested.
The archangel`s flame grew taller and brighter as a response.
"Then again, what do I know?!?" quickly blurted out the young woman
who felt foolish giving fashion advice to an eternal being.
Sandalphon silently made a motion for her to follow him, which she
did without hesitation. Somehow, it felt right to do so. Pulling
on the tapestry in the middle, the drawing represented in the tarot
deck as "The World", he revealed to Robin the passage to the next
sephira, Yesod, where the great archangel Gabriel would await her.
"Thank you." whispered Robin before entering the passage. Although
he used no words, Robin could have sworn he gave her the nicest
goodbye she had ever heard.
* * *
Makoto felt incredible. She was truly enjoying her walk down the
mountain path, secure in the knowledge that she had even more power
at her fingertips than ever before. Her soul quest had been a great
success, allowing her to discover that she had greater strength in
her loving heart than in her muscles. The child of Jupiter wanted
to share this happiness with her friends.
Arriving at the ski Osaka family ski lodge, she met Naru who was
waiting for her on the front porch with two cups of hot coffee.
"I take it from all that thunder crashing down and the smile on
your face that you have realized a bit more on the nature of your
soul today." suggested Naru, offering Makoto a cup.
"Thank you." she said, nodding her head to agree with her friend.
"It was both mystical and spiritual."
"I`m happy for you. I have some hot food ready inside, if you`ll
follow me."
"I would have prepared a meal myself, if I had found enough time...
you really caught us off guard with this, you know." replied Makoto,
looking a bit sad.
"You cooked for us many times already, it`s about time we returned
the favor!" said Naru, slowly opening the front door not to make any
grinding noises. "Just don`t talk too loud, okay? The others
haven`t... returned yet." added Naru, poiting to Sailor Saturn and
Terra sound asleep on the floor, their spirits far away from the
living room floor where their bodies laid.
"Oh... I`ll be careful." whispered Makoto, smiling as she watched
upon the peaceful faces of the two girls travelling deep in the
astral plane. She wondered to what amazing places they might have
gone, what people they might meet. Only Robin and Usako could answer
that when they would return.
* * *
"That`s GREAT, Umino!!!" said Ami as she unpacked all the electronics
and computer hardware pieces her friend had gathered for her with
nothing more than some pictures of the senshi she had taken herself.
"That was nothing, Ami. I know the right guys, and they worship the
ground you guys walk on." explained Umino who judged preferable to
keep the Sailor Mercury shrine part to himself. That sort of detail
had a tendancy to freak out those concerned, as a general rule.
"Let`s get to work right away, we have a lot to do." said Ami.
"Usagi, I`ll also need your help to get these special items ready
in time for tomorrow. Mamoru, I`d like you to take this transmitter
and move around town in your car so we can test the reliability of
the reliability of the equipment under different conditions. Shingo,
do you think you could check out the location for the best spot to
operate from?"
"No problem." replied Mamoru as he took the small test emitter built
in a hurry by Ami.
"Sure thing... would you like me to take you home, darling? You look
tired." said Shingo who noticed that Laurella wasn`t feeling so good.
"Yeah... I`d like that. I have to be ready for tomorrow... you guys
are counting on me." replied Laurella in a totally emotionless tone,
her face devoid of expression. Her head understood that she would
play a key role in Usagi`s plan and that exposing Black Baron`s plan
wide open could mean the difference between life and death for
millions of people- but in her heart, she felt nothing.
"Okay, let`s go." he said, taking her hand and leading her out of
Ami`s luxurious place.
Moving through the long corridor on Shingo`s arm, the young girl
felt lonely. Ever since her empathic ability had risen, she had
always been surrounded by a constant flow of feelings, emotions,
states of mind, but now nothing, just silence. At first it had
been soothing, healing even, but now it was turning into torture,
slowly maddening her one second of quiet after the other.
Although her empathy would have normally picked that right up, she
had not the slightest idea that she and her boyfriend walked right
by a pair of spirits, Usako and Celeste. The two of them looked
upon the young couple and followed them from a distance even though
they wouldn`t be able to see them if Celeste and Usako were right
in front of them.
"They look sad." observed Usako.
"She faced the most horrible being she could ever meet, and felt his
presence more strongly than anyone could have through her special
senses. After so much horror, her heart just gave out, her emotions
shutting down." explained Celeste. "But as hard as it was on poor
Laurella, it`s even worse on Shingo. He`s been her anchor as she
let herself glide aimlessly in a world that just stopped making
sense... his mind is growing weaker from such strain, and his
strength dwindles even as we speak. He will not hold long like
this."
"I feel so... sorry for them." appologized Usako.
"For something you couldn`t stop? Something you couldn`t prevent?
Something FATED to happen?" pressed on Celeste, pointing out the
futility of her guilt.
"I just can`t help it. I should have been there." said Usako,
looking at the young couple walking away from them.
"But you where there a thousand years ago, weren`t you? Or should I
say... I was there. For all my good intentions, that didn`t stop me
from killing them both." reminded her the fallen Sailor Mars.
"It was... my fault... that they died that day." Usako accused
herself. Celeste`s voice went up a notch as she objected her.
"So you got manipulated by a conniving mind-control freak a lifetime
ago- are you going to let THAT stop you from repairing what the
Prime destroyed himself? Will you waste my chance at redemption
because of needless guilt? Shingo and Laurella will ALWAYS be
together, it doesn`t matter that either of them dies, that one of
them gets turned into a bloodthirsty fiend by his worst enemy or
that Laurella loses her emotions- their souls are BONDED and will
ALWAYS find each other. They are your friends, Usako, and you can
either help them or feel sorry for yourself. Your choice." told her
Celeste, opening her eyes to the obvious facts she was too blind to
see.
"I can make a difference in their life, this time around... help
them be happy and grow old together... see them raise my cousins..."
sighed Usako, realizing that in this life, she indeed had the power
to make a difference.
"I`m glad you see it this way now..." said Celeste, smiling again.
"Will we ever see each other again, Celeste?"
"Everyday in the mirror... just look into your own eyes, you`ll see
me there." answered the manifestation of Usako`s old soul who hugged
her and gave her a sweet kiss. Then everything around her was bathed
in blinding golden light, the whole world disappearing from view as
her spirit was yanked back into her sleeping body.
Usako had finally managed to free herself of this millenium old guilt
she carried over the brutal deaths of Laurella and her lover
Kitechnum Jendra.
* * *
Following her upwards progression on the many sephirot of the tree
of life, Robin had so far been through three of them, entering
through Malkuth where she was shown the way by the archangel
Sandalphon, then reaching Yesod, domain of Gabriel and on to Tiferet
where she met briefly with Raphael. Continuing her ascension, she
had reached the midway point in between Tiferet and her ultimate
goal, the first sephira of Keter, the greatest light in all of
existance as she`d been told on her way up.
From her current position, however, she wasn`t too sure if she hadn`t
gotten lost on her way there. She was floating in something which
looked a lot like the old stereotyped vision of heaven, with clouds
strewn about and strange beings resting on them, their shape somewhat
reminiscent of winged humanoids. They seemed totally uninterested in
her, though, and failed to respond to her when she addressed them.
"Excuse me, is this the right way to... what`s the name again...
there`s a 'K' in there, I know it, it`s just on the tip of my
tongue..." she mumbled, as she tried to remember. The being nearest
to her didn`t budge, utterly failing to even notice her.
"KETER! That`s the name... it`s a miracle I remembered that, all
those mystic names just never seem to stick in my head... I`m better
at remembering song lyrics and that sort of stuff... HEY, are you
LISTENING to me?!?"
Obviously, he was not. Robin couldn`t as much as guess if he could
SEE her at all. It was becoming increasingly clear that her
surroundings were getting more and more... cryptic in nature,
defying the conventional human modes of thinking. Moving around
would certainly require more imagination than logic, more intuition
than reason. Emptying her mind of any preconceived ideas she was
hauling around, Robin allowed her spirit to do the thinking...
"DAATH!" she yelled as she felt a spark of understanding cross her
relaxed mind. "Gabriel mentionned the place... not quite a sephira,
not quite a world, a mystery all its own... so that means I still
have a bit of travel to go... there!" she thought out loud as she
looked up to the "sky" and saw there a faint haloed disk, like the
sun shining through the clouds on a brisk winter day.
"See you around, angel boys!" said Robin, waving to them as she
soared upwards at the speed of thought.
The enigmatic being whom she had spoken to looked to her for a
brief instant- but no longer. Some mysteries were just not meant
to be solved, it seemed.
* * *
"Something is happening." whispered Yaten to his brothers as they
were taking a small break in between two songs they were recording
their latest album. The silver haired singer was being careful to
cover his microphone so that their producer and recording crew
wouldn`t hear him talk.
"Feeling this dreadful darkness spreading again? Newsflash: we don`t
need your empathy to tell us things are doing bad!" snapped back
Seiya.
"No, not evil this time, more like an infusion of light from several
candles lit in the night." tried to describe Yaten. The joyous look
on his face was showing that he was experiencing some much needed
relief from all the evil Tokyo had been subjected to lately.
Taiki and Seiya looked at each other- they knew that this could
only come from the sailor senshi of the earth, the defenders of
light whom they had encountered a few times already.
"You think we`ll see the senshi again anytime soon?" asked Seiya,
hitting his drum sticks against one another and keeping the rhytm
of the previous song they recorded. Unconsciously, Yaten and Taiki
tapped their foot on the floor to follow Seiya in harmony.
"I`m counting on it." replied Taiki, grinning as he anticipated
meeting once again with Sailor Mercury.
"Okay guys, we`re all set to keep going with the next one!" came the
voice of their producer through their earphones. They interrupted
their conversation right then and returned to their music, playing
their instruments and singing without a second thought to the
horrors yet to come.
* * *
She had finally made it. The newborn soul of the young Robin had
returned to the place where everything began, the glorious light of
Keter, the first sephira from which all others had been born.
"It`s... glorious..." uttered Robin, finding her words a pale
impression of the amazing array of sensations she was going through.
Like a single hydrogen atom before a gigantic sun boiling in
everlasting nuclear fusion, she was awed and humbled before this
marvel beyond all time and space.
Even though she`d never been there before, she knew she was home.
"Like a billion voices singing in perfect harmony... please let me
be part of you..." whispered the young girl as she felt her astral
form change shape- having kept her physical form by a subconscious
effort so far, her human female form was fading rapidly before the
one-in-all to that of a single point of conscience, pure thought
and spirit, a soul unbound from the shackles of physical reality.
Suddenly, out of the billions of voices, she heard one she
immediately recognized.
"Robin... you came, my daughter."
"T... Technuma? DAD?!? I`m here, dad, wait for me, I`m coming!"
she said, the tiny point of golden light she`d become flying to
join in with the countless souls already there. But for some reason,
something wouldn`t let her, an invisible force halting her like a
wall of unseen resistance.
"Dad? Why won`t they let me join you?" she asked.
"Your time is not now, my angel. You still have a long life ahead of
you, but remember, I`ll always be here. We can have eternity together
when the time is right." whispered the serene voice of Technuma
Saturn in her mind, resounding with complete and unconditional love
for her. She could feel his every thought and emotion, and she knew
right there how proud he was of her, how dedicated he had been to
create her a living work of art perfect in every way... she was
touched to tears, which she would have shed if she had a body right
now.
"I miss you so much, father... I love you!!!" she said as she felt
the pressing urge of her silver cord pulling insistently so that
she return to her body.
"I love you, my dear daughter... for as long as the stars shine."
was Technuma`s last message to his daughter before she was violently
pulled back as her silver cord snappped back like an overextended
rubber band released suddenly.
* * *
Both Robin and Usako awoke on the floor of Naru`s lodge, the fire in
the fireplace almost burned out with little more than sparkling red
ashes left. As they looked at each other, they saw that both their
senshi fukus had been upgraded with the matching breastplates,
shoulder plates and leg protector thigh extensions where their
senshi designation had been engraved in sublime kanji lettering.
"I... I spoke to him, Usako! I was finally able to tell dad how
much I loved him!" said Robin as she rushed her friend to hug her,
tears of joy running from her eyes.
"And I was able to relieve myself of an ancient burden... I`m free,
Robin, free!!!" replied Usako who joined her friend in her tears.
"Hey, you think our weapons have been improved too? Let`s see!!!
SOULSTAR, COME TO ME!!!" yelled Sailor Saturn, ribbons of ruby
color swirling around her hand to form a superb glaive of solid
ruby identical to her predecessor`s weapon of choice. It had
indeed been enhanced as well, platinum highlights covering both
the shaft and the cutting edge of the blade.
"HARBINGER, I BID YOU COME!!!" joined in Usako. Black ribbons created
in her hands her sacred weapon Harbinger, an obsidian scythe. It was
now superbly decorated with runes and designs traced in the purest
bronze this planet had ever seen.
"Congratulations to the two of you!" said Naru as she returned from
the kitchen with Makoto who transformed into Sailor Jupiter to join
in on the celebration, pulling out Mjolnir and brandishing it up in
a sign of victory.
"We`re ready to face whatever may come!!!" said Jupiter.
"To destroy all evil!!!" added Sailor Terra, clashing her scythe
to Jupiter`s warhammer in a resounding echo of newfound power.
"And to make love triumph over all!!!" concluded Sailor Saturn,
connecting her glaive to the two other sacred weapons and releasing
an even greater echoing crash as she did so.
"SAILOR SENSHI!!!" the three of them went all at once.
"Even though this day has been a complete success for these
three..." silently thought Naru, "I`m afraid my work is still far
from complete... the biggest challenge still lies ahead for me."
To be continued...