By Yohann DeSabrais
a.k.a. Technuma Saturn
Prologue...
The earth shook and rumbled violently.
Windows smashed everywhere, shelves dropping their contents on the
floor. Bookshelves toppled throughout the city of Tokyo, people
panicking and hiding under door frames and desks. The sky had
darkened, ominous clouds spreading from above the Poldzer Triangle
to the surrounding area and choking the dying light of the day which
was almost over.
Car alarms went off all at once, adding the shrieking noise to the
fear-charged atmosphere. Terror was palpable among the populace of
the japanese megalopolis, and had reached levels never seen before,
as if it were alive, a breathing semi-intelligent entity that
spread to everyone like a malicious disease.
A lone figure observed the Poldzer Triangle, his nerves of steel
keeping him calm under pressure. His feline companion ever perched
on his shoulder remained cool as well.
"This looks amazingly bad." observed the man dressed all in black.
"I have to agree... but if these new senshi are anything like their
previous incarnations, they will prove successful in the end."
replied the black cat, a bright silver ankh shining on his forehead.
"They`ve done a lot already in the last six months. I think we should
stay away from their battle, we can`t risk having them see us. All
we did would just crumble if they knew we were out there." said
the man, scratching the cat behind the ears.
"I agree. And besides, at this point it`s not likely that your
presence might tilt the balance any further." replied the cat.
"Do you think any of these people know what`s happening right now?"
wondered the man, looking down from the roof of the appartment
building where he was hiding in shadows.
"For their own sakes... it`s better they remained in ignorance."
said the cat, purring loudly.
"Tell me, Osiris... do you think that you and me can ever get our
normal lives back when this mess we bathe in is over?"
"Not a chance in hell, Kurotenshi old friend." replied the cat in
his usual cynical tone. "You know that better than me. Not after
what they did to us."
"Yeah, I know. I guess hope will always carry me to that dream...
even if it`s an impossible one to attain." concluded the mysterious
man who turned away from the dreadful scene in the horizon and
walked down the stairs back to the streets.
* * *
CYCLES OF LIFE: EPISODE 51
ANCIENT HEARTS OF LIGHT AND DARK
"Come now, Crystallite." whispered Black Baron in his most soothing
voice to the young daughter of Beryl who cried her grief over the
death of her lover and protector Fenris Wolfang.
"I don`t care anymore. Go away!" she snapped back, tears staining
her pale face.
"The black crystal is complete. You can use it to destroy this
world... avenge your lover`s death and kill the girl who murdered
him!!!" enticed Black Baron, handing her the black crystal which
now seemed to glimmer with a life of its own, radiating from within.
The red haired girl`s tears stopped as she took a look at the black
crystal, the single objective she had worked so hard for these past
few months. She took it from her ally`s hand, and felt a jolt of
raw power go through her body. Her face hardened from grief to
anger, attaining levels of hatred she had never experienced before.
Looking upon her fallen enemy Sailor Moon, she had an evil grin.
Usagi laid on the floor wearing not her senshi fuku anymore but
rather her ordinary sweater and jeans, clothes of an average girl.
She looked not like the formidable opponent her mother had spoken
of, but a mere child now. Usagi kept in a foetal position, shivering
from the unnatural cold that her spiritual hemorrage was causing.
Lying amidst the shattered remnants of her broken sacred weapon,
she was no threat anymore.
"Yes... I`ll use the crystal... I`ll make them all pay for my pain,
our pain. I`ll kill them all, my darling." she whispered in the ear
of her deceased manwolf bodyguard, a wicked snarl twisting her face.
"Come with me, Black Baron, I`ll need your help to get to the roof."
The shadowy being nodded and took Crystallite by the arm, leaving
the suffering Usagi by herself.
"She`s no threat to us, Black Baron, lets leave her to her pain a
little longer before we return to finish her off... she`ll die only
when she`s seen her entire planet die." said Crystallite to her
ally. Both of them laughed as they abandonned Usagi.
It was the most horrible thing she had ever felt.
Her every fear, nightmare and anguish had been made real, tearing
her inside out like so many knives ripping through the fabric of
her being. Now she knew how the others had felt going through the
same ordeal, something she would never wish upon her worse enemies.
Her trembling hand reached for her back pocket, her fingers trying
to seize the one object capable of saving her, the moon crescent
wand. It slipped out of her grasp, clanking on the floor and sliding
right in front of her eyes. It then occured to her that it was
useless without the power of the messiah to power it up- without
Naru to help her out of this situation, she was doomed.
She started to cry, the pain reaching intolerable heights.
A few minutes passed, every second seeming like an eternity.
Light footsteps approached Usagi. This is it, she thought, in a
few seconds Crystallite would kill her and finish it off. Turning
her head, she saw not the tall redhead, but rather a petite pink
haired angel.
"Chibi Chibi!!!" went the toddler who smiled as always.
"Chi... bi.. Chibi? How... did... you... get here?" uttered Usagi,
barely managing to pronounce the words.
"Usagi hurt..." said Chibi Chibi, concerned about her friend.
"Get out... kid... they`ll... kill you if..."
"Chibi Chibi help Usagi." said the sweet girl, picking up the moon
crescent wand and kneeling in front of Usagi, holding the wand in
her tiny hands.
"Won`t work... need... power to..." started Usagi, knowing that the
wand would only work with immense amounts of the holiest power. To
her immense surprise, a radiant golden aura flared around the little
girl. Her hair flew wildly as if a strong gust of wind was blowing
through the penthouse, and the eyes of Chibi Chibi surged with this
same golden light as her smile returned.
"Usagi feel better now." said the toddler as she touched Usagi`s
forehead with the wand and infused her with healing energy.
* * *
Her eyes flared with the untamed rage of pain and loss. Holding
the black crystal in her hands, Crystallite was ready to start. As
she lifted her hands up to the dark skies, powerful gusts of winds
blew her hair back and nearly knocked her down, but she managed
to stay up despite her weakened state.
Reciting from memory, she muttered the strange arcane words of
power that were meant to unleash the full strength of her newly
acquired artifact.
Standing from a distance, Black Baron watched with great interest,
anticipating the moment where everything he`d worked for would come
together at long last. Unfortunately, something rather unexpected
happened; he felt the presence of a strong holy power coming from
the floors below. He could not understand how it was that this
power could still emerge after he handled the messiah only a few
minutes before.
Looking at Crystallite, he saw that she was well on her way to
complete the final ritual of the black crystal. She did not need
his help anymore, if only to prevent intrusions that could disrupt
her work. Content in knowing she was doing as he had planned she
would, he set out to quelch this holy power once and for all.
Black Baron`s form shifted slightly as he glided through the
doorway and floated down the stairs. He molded his fingers into
sharp claws, feeling that they would be best suited to tear
this annoyance apart into bloody pieces.
Entering the penthouse of Fenris and Crystallite where he had left
Sailor Moon to writhe in pain. Surely enough, she was gone from the
spot where he thought he`d find her. He smiled. It would be much
more fun to hunt down the little senshi and her messiah friend.
"Won`t you come out and play?" asked Black Baron to the seemingly
empty place, looking around to see if he could locate the two
girls. They were here, he could feel the residual traces of two
pure auras lingering around him, and they were still very fresh.
Hidden behind the sofa, lying down on the ground, Usagi held the
little Chibi Chibi close to her with a hand over her mouth. The
toddler was shivering in fear at the displaced sound of the
dark fiend`s hideous voice.
"Please stay silent, angel, don`t let him hear you..." pleaded
Usagi in hushed words, tears rolling down her cheeks. Usagi was
afraid, so very afraid. Not for herself, even if she knew that
within minutes she`d be nothing more than a mauled corpse drained
of all her precious blood, but rather for Chibi Chibi, at the
very though that this monster would surely do the same to her.
What possessed the little pink haired girl to come all the way
here, she wondered, and... HOW did she get there?!? It simply
made no sense.
"You`re only making this harder on yourselves..." threatened
Black Baron as he kicked over the cofee table to see if anyone
was hiding underneath.
As the table smashed and splintered itself on the floor, Usagi
couldn`t quite completely keep the toddler in her arms from
letting out a fearful yelp of surprise.
Usagi cringed as she heard loud footsteps resounding her way,
one after the other, ominous and terrifying. She had to do
something. She had to keep him away from Chibi Chibi.
There was no way in hell she could stop him when she still had
her powers as Sailor Moon. What chance did Tsukino Usagi stand
against the grandmaster of the arts of darkness???
"Fancy seeing you alive, Sailor Moon." taunted Black Baron as he
circled the sofa and met with the two girls. "And who might your
little friend be? She`s so young... so innocent.. so pure...
it sickens me."
"You stay away from her, monster!!!" screamed Usagi, crying her
eyes out, experiencing primal fear that shook her to the core of
her soul.
"And how will you pull that off, child? With your hollow threats
and your puny fists?" mocked the shadow entity, advancing upon
them menacingly. The sound of his feet was unnerving Usagi to
the very limit, a fact Black Baron counted on, having made sure
his shape had materialized booted feet to enhance his fearful
aura to the maximum.
Chibi Chibi just stared at him, paralyzed where she stood. Usagi
placed herself between the two, interposing herself.
She wouldn`t let Black Baron touch the little girl while she
still had an ounce of life left in her body. Maybe Chibi Chibi
would get a chance to bolt and leave this place with her own
life while the vile fiend was busy gutting her alive...
"I`ll do you a favor, Sailor Moon..." said Black Baron, swiping
Usagi with the side of his hand to avoid cutting her with his
monstrous claws. She collapsed a few feet away, her breath
knocked out of her. "...I`ll let you WATCH me carve up the
little one."
"No..." tried to scream Usagi, crawling up to her knees with her
entire body wracked in pain. She was helpless as the large shadow
advanced upon the pink haired toddler who looked at him unaware of
what was going on.
"Any last requests I can refuse for you?" asked Black Baron, slowly
moving his claws over her, poised to rip her tiny body to shreds.
"You reek!" said Chibi Chibi, her golden aura flaring up again
to surround her, the large claws suddenly unable to touch her.
She was shielded against the dark one, and it drove him mad.
"I`ll teach you to defy the great Black Baron!!!" he yelled,
hitting the golden sphere over and over, scraping the surface with
all his evil might, unable to pierce it. Chibi Chibi just giggled,
happy to watch smoke come from the hands of her enemy who was
burning himself on the purity of her power.
"Your power of goodness is so strong... once I find your stain
of evil, I`lll weave your soul and obliterate it, crush it into
oblivion!!!" menaced Black Baron who used all of his skill to try
and turn the little one`s soul against itself as he had done to
all the senshi.
Except this time, there was no evil to be found there, not the
smallest spot, not the slighest speck. She truly was pure to the
strictest sense of the word.
She would be the death of him.
Her aura flared into a storm just like the one that Black Baron
had summoned, except that this one was gold in color, burning
the evil shadow in ways he never imagined possible.
"No... no... NO!!! I can`t be beaten by a mere whelp!!!" screamed
Black Baron as his hands and arms melted and vaporized.
"Black man go bye bye!" said Chibi Chibi, waving to her enemy.
The final rush of golden energy swallowed him whole, taking him
to his final, eternal punishment.
The light died down. Chibi Chibi giggled and ran into Usagi`s
arms, hugging her tight. Usagi kissed her on the forehead,
counfounded and astonished.
"Who are you, angel?" she asked her, still crying but from joy
now.
"Chibi Chibi!!" she just replied.
* * *
Dark bolts of power struck down from the sky, hitting the black
crystal in the young girl`s hands without hurting her; they were
rather infusing her with the strength to go on with her ceremony,
calling forth even more power.
As she pronounced the last arcane word, the glow within the jagged
piece of dark crystal intensified further still, attaining its
summit.
"It`s ready... I`ve done it! I reached my goal!!!" yelled the
power hungry Crystallite as she help up her prize to the sky,
her tears of sadness drifting off in the howling storm winds.
"So have I!" came a purring voice from a hidden location behind
a large ventilation roof duct. Moving in a flash, an agile blur
swiftly rushed her, grasping both her hands before she could
even let out a word of surprise. When surprise wore off, the
red haired mage recognized her attacker.
"CATHRA?!?" she let out in astonishment.
"Glad you remember my name, honey, because frankly I was starting
to wonder if you did." replied the catwoman, squeezing the wrists
of her mistress with no care as to wether she caused her pain or
not.
"You`re hurting me!" complained the young girl, trying to keep
hold of the precious crystal in her left hand. She knew Cathra`s
behavior could only mean she wanted it for herself, and she had
no intention of letting her treacherous minion have it.
"I`M hurting YOU, am I? And what about you letting me be the only
one of my kin survive the Osaka massacre, you think that was FUN?
And having your little Black Baron kill my parents, that was a
laugh riot, I`m sure! And your big wolfish boytoy turning me down,
that was hilarious!!!" snarled Cathra in disdain, her face twisting
in repressed rage unleashed with no restraints. "HOW DARE ANYBODY
TURN ME DOWN???" she screamed, digging her claws in the soft flesh
of Crystallite`s wrists, drawing blood as she did.
"What do you want?" asked Crystallite, trying to find a way to
end this situation to her advantage.
"What I want? I WANT IT ALL!" replied Cathra. Her eyes turned to
the glowing gem in her mistress` hand. "And for starters, I`ll
take that trinket of yours." she added with a sly smile.
"Think fast." whispered the daughter of Beryl.
Crystallite opened her hand, the gem falling down. Cathra never
took her eyes from it as she let go of Crystallite`s left wrist
to catch the gem in mid-fall with an agile swipe.
"I GOT IT!" she yelled as her fingers closed on the precious gem.
"Do you really?" snapped back Crystallite, whispering an
incomprehensible word of magic and grabbing Cathra`s face with
her free hand.
The burning hand spell was the most horrid pain Cathra had ever
felt, freezing her in shock as her brain processed the unlikely
fact that the hand pressed against the right side of her face
was hotter than a branding iron pulled out of a smith`s forge.
Releasing the gem she`d gotten hold barely just seconds before,
she yelled so loud as to wake up her dead brethren and pushed
away the burning hand from her face. Her loud scream drowned out
the sound of the black crystal landing on the skyscrapper`s metal
roofing.
The sickening smell of charred flesh assaulted the nose of the two
women. Still yelling in pain, Cathra ran in a panic. Just as she
leaped and smashed her way through the weak grating of the
ventilation duct, Crystallite quickly cast a second fire spell-
a much more powerful one since she now had both hands free. The
feline youma rapidly slid down the ventilation shaft as the
exploding fireball completely melted the duct`s part that extruded
out of the rooftop and filled the shaft with deadly flames.
"My body may be weak, but I`m not helpless yet." snarled Crystallite
as she looked upon the mess of scrap metal that was still white hot.
With a simple gesture of her finger combined with a magic word said
in a hushed voice, the black crystal flew back to her hand.
"Where was I?" wondered Crystallite.
Damn. She was going to have to start that last part all over again.
* * *
Darkness. It was wrapping up his mind and clouding his thoughts.
Old memories resurfaced in a jumble, flashing before his eyes
at the speed of light, leaving little more than a vague sense of
familiarity.
The color of Crystallite`s eyes. The taste of nearly toxic drinks
from his watering hole in the ourworld he`d been brought over
from. The sound of Black Baron laughing his head off. The feeling
of the arctic cold biting his furry hide as he approached D-point
on his mission to kill Crystallite. The sorrow he felt as he
dragged her blood stained body, dying from the wound that would
destroy her health and leave her scarred for life.
And all through those images, that smell. That horrible, pungent
smell of corruption brought on by Black Baron, infecting all
the beings he came near. He smelled that odour before, he was sure
of that. Somewhere before he even met his darling Crystallite, but
where?
Then, out of the deepest recesses of his forgotten memories, the
answer came in all its shocking horror. Fenris remembered where
he first encountered the vile stench, and it made him mad with
rage.
* * *
"Wolf man not dead!" said Chibi Chibi pointing to the inanimate
body of Fenris Wolfang.
"What are you talking about, sweetheart?" replied Usagi who was
trying to open the door of the penthouse to take the little girl
outside to safety. Unfortunately, the door now seemed to be
locked with an unseen magnetic system.
"Wolfie alive! Gonna wake up now." she added with a giggle. Usagi
kneeled down next to her and just as she was about to explain to
her that this was the kind of sleep you don`t wake up from, Fenris
proved her right.
He breathed again, then groaned and stirred.
Usagi felt her heart freeze in her chest. She took Chibi Chibi in
her arms, and slowly backed away from the manwolf.
"BLACK BARON, YOU BASTARD!!!" he screamed as he sat up suddenly.
Looking down at his chest, he saw to his satisfaction that his
superhuman healing had closed the stab wound nicely. "Oh man, I`m
getting soft... five years ago, I`d have LAUGHED at a wound like
that, Sailor Moon."
"I thought you were... dead..." she uttered in surprise.
"I wouldn`t be much of an assassin if I died so easy, don`t you
think? And speaking of which... I think I just figured out just
WHO is behind all this mess..." said Fenris as he slowly got up,
stretching his numb limbs. "And you AIN`T going to like the answer
I just came up with."
Usagi relaxed a little in the manwolfs` presence. He wasn`t acting
in any hostile way towards her, yet he was very distraught.
"What happened exactly, then? Who`s behind this?" asked Usagi,
trying to buy herself some time against this beast who could kill
her easily without her powers.
"The smell. That foul stench emitted by the guy who hired me. It
was Black Baron`s, that shadow set me up to kill Crystallite,
knowing that I`d fail and make her what she is! We`ve all been his
puppets from the start!!!" explained Fenris, his breathing
accelerating to a frenzied beat as his anger built up like it did
in the old days.
"So Black Baron`s behind all this? He`s the secret mastermind?"
"That`s not the horrible part, darling..." said Fenris to Usagi.
"I don`t think he acted alone. If my intuition is right... and it
usually is... he`s working for somebody else. Somebody with enough
power to dwarf his own." suggested Fenris.
Usagi immediately knew exactly what the manwolf meant.
"Oh god... we have to stop Crystallite from..." she said.
"You`ll do no such thing!" interrupted an all too familiar voice
for Fenris.
"YOU! You`re the one who hired me to kill Crystallite!" he snarled
as he saw the spanish looking blighted one walk down the stairs
leading to the rooftop.
"And you failed miserably I might add. Which is why you never got
the other half of the deal we struck over her death." said
Velasquez, coming into view of the two girls and the manbeast.
"You set me up, miserable wretch of a knightmare!" said Fenris.
"Of course... and considering how we never really intended you
to kill her, but only maul her like you did and then watch over
her for the next few years... five million is pretty cheap to hire
the most lethal assassin money can buy!!!" laughed Velasquez,
pulling his slim, jagged blade sword, a black flamberge.
"You almost had me kill the love of my life... I`ll kill you for
that, monster!" growled Fenris, his eyes glowing bright red.
"No need for name calling, Fenris, I have a name you know. I`m
Velasquez." promptly replied the blighted one, proud to be the
only one of his kind to be allowed to bear a name. "And besides,
you`d NEVER have met her if I hadn`t hired you to kill her."
Fenris stopped advancing on him a moment to ponder this argument.
"Point taken. I`ll kill you anyway, but I`ll make it quick!" came
Fenris` answer, a wicked grin on his face. With that, he leaped on
the blighted one and their battle began.
USagi panicked thinking of Chibi Chibi`s safety, but... when she
turned back to her, she was gone!!! She looked around but couldn`t
see her anywhere... how could she leave a LOCKED room without a
trace???
"Go stop Crystallite, Sailor Moon! If you don`t, we ALL die!!!"
urged Fenris as he wrestled Velasquez. "I`ll protect the little
one from him!!!"
She knew he was right. The secret mistress of Black Baron wasn`t
even there yet but Usagi already felt its sickening presence choking
up the atmosphere. She ran to the stairs, not knowing what she
would do once she reached the top.
All she knew was that she had no time to waste.
* * *
Endymion was bleeding again, and pretty bad. His metabolism was
many times quicker to heal than most humans thanks to his powers,
but it didn`t him much good this time. Whenever his hemorrage
would stop, he`d painstakingly get back up on his feet to try and
bash through the dark energy shield, succeeding only in opening
his slash wound and bleeding himself one step closer to his death.
"I won`t give up... I won`t give up... I won`t give up..." he
muttered repeatedly to numb his mind to the searing pain. He got
up again, raising his sword slowly with both hands firmly gripping
the handle and striking it down on the shield.
Once again, it merely bounced off as if it had struck a brick
wall, his sudden motion causing even more damage to his already
aggravated injury. He fell back to his knees again, his weapon
slipping from his fingers and clanking down no the ground
alongside his slumped body.
"I won`t... give up... Usagi..." he muttered again, tears running
on his blood stained face.
"And neither should you do so." whispered a soft feminine voice
approaching him.
He turned his head to see the senshi dressed all in black, the
original Sailor Saturn. She placed her gloved hand on his wound,
and he felt the soothing warmth of her healing powers closing
it for good, weaving the skin and muscle back to perfect shape.
"Your strenght of character and noblety are proven yet again, my
lord Endymion." said Saturn, smiling to Endymion who got back
up, this time with little pain at all. "You`ve lost a lot of
blood, be careful not to overextend yourself too fast."
"Thank you..." he replied. Looking at her and at the others
who were with her, this entire picture seemed... right somehow,
like some great wrong finally put right. "You`re Hotaru, aren`t
you?!?"
Sailor Saturn bowed to the prince and offered her weapon as a
sign of allegiance.
"Kids grow up so fast..." observed Michiru.
"Yeah... my sister`s already all grown up and destroying worlds!"
added Robin. She got several angry stares in response to that
comment.
"She`s right you know... if this dark menace can`t be stopped...
then all will come to silence by my hand." said Saturn in her
gravest tone of voice.
No one present dared to say anything more, simply staring up
and silently praying Usagi would prevail.
* * *
Usagi ran up the stairs, the sounds of the battle between Fenris
and Velasquez being progressively drowned out by the storm outside
she was getting closer to with every step. When she got to the
rooftop, she saw Crystallite standing there on her own and showing
no apparent sign of weakness. She was giggling insanely, a chilling
sound loaded with menace.
"Crystallite, you have to stop this, you have no idea WHAT you`re
about to unleash..." she pleaded to the young girl.
When the redhead turned to face her, her eyes were glowing a
powerful crimson glow. Usagi knew right there she was too late.
"Nice to see you again, princess, glad to see you could make it
for my triumphant return..." she cackled.
As she taunted Usagi, a large shadow formed above her like a
mighty predator of darkness standing ready to strike down its
unwary prey. The ever growing shadow had eyes, evil eyes Usagi
remembered only too well as she saw them whenever her slumber was
haunted by nightmares from the past.
"Now the fun REALLY begins..." said Crystallite, her voice deformed
into a booming growl that echoed the thoughts of the primeval
entity that had taken her over.
"Metalia..." she let out in fear.
To be continued...
a.k.a. Technuma Saturn
Prologue...
The earth shook and rumbled violently.
Windows smashed everywhere, shelves dropping their contents on the
floor. Bookshelves toppled throughout the city of Tokyo, people
panicking and hiding under door frames and desks. The sky had
darkened, ominous clouds spreading from above the Poldzer Triangle
to the surrounding area and choking the dying light of the day which
was almost over.
Car alarms went off all at once, adding the shrieking noise to the
fear-charged atmosphere. Terror was palpable among the populace of
the japanese megalopolis, and had reached levels never seen before,
as if it were alive, a breathing semi-intelligent entity that
spread to everyone like a malicious disease.
A lone figure observed the Poldzer Triangle, his nerves of steel
keeping him calm under pressure. His feline companion ever perched
on his shoulder remained cool as well.
"This looks amazingly bad." observed the man dressed all in black.
"I have to agree... but if these new senshi are anything like their
previous incarnations, they will prove successful in the end."
replied the black cat, a bright silver ankh shining on his forehead.
"They`ve done a lot already in the last six months. I think we should
stay away from their battle, we can`t risk having them see us. All
we did would just crumble if they knew we were out there." said
the man, scratching the cat behind the ears.
"I agree. And besides, at this point it`s not likely that your
presence might tilt the balance any further." replied the cat.
"Do you think any of these people know what`s happening right now?"
wondered the man, looking down from the roof of the appartment
building where he was hiding in shadows.
"For their own sakes... it`s better they remained in ignorance."
said the cat, purring loudly.
"Tell me, Osiris... do you think that you and me can ever get our
normal lives back when this mess we bathe in is over?"
"Not a chance in hell, Kurotenshi old friend." replied the cat in
his usual cynical tone. "You know that better than me. Not after
what they did to us."
"Yeah, I know. I guess hope will always carry me to that dream...
even if it`s an impossible one to attain." concluded the mysterious
man who turned away from the dreadful scene in the horizon and
walked down the stairs back to the streets.
* * *
CYCLES OF LIFE: EPISODE 51
ANCIENT HEARTS OF LIGHT AND DARK
"Come now, Crystallite." whispered Black Baron in his most soothing
voice to the young daughter of Beryl who cried her grief over the
death of her lover and protector Fenris Wolfang.
"I don`t care anymore. Go away!" she snapped back, tears staining
her pale face.
"The black crystal is complete. You can use it to destroy this
world... avenge your lover`s death and kill the girl who murdered
him!!!" enticed Black Baron, handing her the black crystal which
now seemed to glimmer with a life of its own, radiating from within.
The red haired girl`s tears stopped as she took a look at the black
crystal, the single objective she had worked so hard for these past
few months. She took it from her ally`s hand, and felt a jolt of
raw power go through her body. Her face hardened from grief to
anger, attaining levels of hatred she had never experienced before.
Looking upon her fallen enemy Sailor Moon, she had an evil grin.
Usagi laid on the floor wearing not her senshi fuku anymore but
rather her ordinary sweater and jeans, clothes of an average girl.
She looked not like the formidable opponent her mother had spoken
of, but a mere child now. Usagi kept in a foetal position, shivering
from the unnatural cold that her spiritual hemorrage was causing.
Lying amidst the shattered remnants of her broken sacred weapon,
she was no threat anymore.
"Yes... I`ll use the crystal... I`ll make them all pay for my pain,
our pain. I`ll kill them all, my darling." she whispered in the ear
of her deceased manwolf bodyguard, a wicked snarl twisting her face.
"Come with me, Black Baron, I`ll need your help to get to the roof."
The shadowy being nodded and took Crystallite by the arm, leaving
the suffering Usagi by herself.
"She`s no threat to us, Black Baron, lets leave her to her pain a
little longer before we return to finish her off... she`ll die only
when she`s seen her entire planet die." said Crystallite to her
ally. Both of them laughed as they abandonned Usagi.
It was the most horrible thing she had ever felt.
Her every fear, nightmare and anguish had been made real, tearing
her inside out like so many knives ripping through the fabric of
her being. Now she knew how the others had felt going through the
same ordeal, something she would never wish upon her worse enemies.
Her trembling hand reached for her back pocket, her fingers trying
to seize the one object capable of saving her, the moon crescent
wand. It slipped out of her grasp, clanking on the floor and sliding
right in front of her eyes. It then occured to her that it was
useless without the power of the messiah to power it up- without
Naru to help her out of this situation, she was doomed.
She started to cry, the pain reaching intolerable heights.
A few minutes passed, every second seeming like an eternity.
Light footsteps approached Usagi. This is it, she thought, in a
few seconds Crystallite would kill her and finish it off. Turning
her head, she saw not the tall redhead, but rather a petite pink
haired angel.
"Chibi Chibi!!!" went the toddler who smiled as always.
"Chi... bi.. Chibi? How... did... you... get here?" uttered Usagi,
barely managing to pronounce the words.
"Usagi hurt..." said Chibi Chibi, concerned about her friend.
"Get out... kid... they`ll... kill you if..."
"Chibi Chibi help Usagi." said the sweet girl, picking up the moon
crescent wand and kneeling in front of Usagi, holding the wand in
her tiny hands.
"Won`t work... need... power to..." started Usagi, knowing that the
wand would only work with immense amounts of the holiest power. To
her immense surprise, a radiant golden aura flared around the little
girl. Her hair flew wildly as if a strong gust of wind was blowing
through the penthouse, and the eyes of Chibi Chibi surged with this
same golden light as her smile returned.
"Usagi feel better now." said the toddler as she touched Usagi`s
forehead with the wand and infused her with healing energy.
* * *
Her eyes flared with the untamed rage of pain and loss. Holding
the black crystal in her hands, Crystallite was ready to start. As
she lifted her hands up to the dark skies, powerful gusts of winds
blew her hair back and nearly knocked her down, but she managed
to stay up despite her weakened state.
Reciting from memory, she muttered the strange arcane words of
power that were meant to unleash the full strength of her newly
acquired artifact.
Standing from a distance, Black Baron watched with great interest,
anticipating the moment where everything he`d worked for would come
together at long last. Unfortunately, something rather unexpected
happened; he felt the presence of a strong holy power coming from
the floors below. He could not understand how it was that this
power could still emerge after he handled the messiah only a few
minutes before.
Looking at Crystallite, he saw that she was well on her way to
complete the final ritual of the black crystal. She did not need
his help anymore, if only to prevent intrusions that could disrupt
her work. Content in knowing she was doing as he had planned she
would, he set out to quelch this holy power once and for all.
Black Baron`s form shifted slightly as he glided through the
doorway and floated down the stairs. He molded his fingers into
sharp claws, feeling that they would be best suited to tear
this annoyance apart into bloody pieces.
Entering the penthouse of Fenris and Crystallite where he had left
Sailor Moon to writhe in pain. Surely enough, she was gone from the
spot where he thought he`d find her. He smiled. It would be much
more fun to hunt down the little senshi and her messiah friend.
"Won`t you come out and play?" asked Black Baron to the seemingly
empty place, looking around to see if he could locate the two
girls. They were here, he could feel the residual traces of two
pure auras lingering around him, and they were still very fresh.
Hidden behind the sofa, lying down on the ground, Usagi held the
little Chibi Chibi close to her with a hand over her mouth. The
toddler was shivering in fear at the displaced sound of the
dark fiend`s hideous voice.
"Please stay silent, angel, don`t let him hear you..." pleaded
Usagi in hushed words, tears rolling down her cheeks. Usagi was
afraid, so very afraid. Not for herself, even if she knew that
within minutes she`d be nothing more than a mauled corpse drained
of all her precious blood, but rather for Chibi Chibi, at the
very though that this monster would surely do the same to her.
What possessed the little pink haired girl to come all the way
here, she wondered, and... HOW did she get there?!? It simply
made no sense.
"You`re only making this harder on yourselves..." threatened
Black Baron as he kicked over the cofee table to see if anyone
was hiding underneath.
As the table smashed and splintered itself on the floor, Usagi
couldn`t quite completely keep the toddler in her arms from
letting out a fearful yelp of surprise.
Usagi cringed as she heard loud footsteps resounding her way,
one after the other, ominous and terrifying. She had to do
something. She had to keep him away from Chibi Chibi.
There was no way in hell she could stop him when she still had
her powers as Sailor Moon. What chance did Tsukino Usagi stand
against the grandmaster of the arts of darkness???
"Fancy seeing you alive, Sailor Moon." taunted Black Baron as he
circled the sofa and met with the two girls. "And who might your
little friend be? She`s so young... so innocent.. so pure...
it sickens me."
"You stay away from her, monster!!!" screamed Usagi, crying her
eyes out, experiencing primal fear that shook her to the core of
her soul.
"And how will you pull that off, child? With your hollow threats
and your puny fists?" mocked the shadow entity, advancing upon
them menacingly. The sound of his feet was unnerving Usagi to
the very limit, a fact Black Baron counted on, having made sure
his shape had materialized booted feet to enhance his fearful
aura to the maximum.
Chibi Chibi just stared at him, paralyzed where she stood. Usagi
placed herself between the two, interposing herself.
She wouldn`t let Black Baron touch the little girl while she
still had an ounce of life left in her body. Maybe Chibi Chibi
would get a chance to bolt and leave this place with her own
life while the vile fiend was busy gutting her alive...
"I`ll do you a favor, Sailor Moon..." said Black Baron, swiping
Usagi with the side of his hand to avoid cutting her with his
monstrous claws. She collapsed a few feet away, her breath
knocked out of her. "...I`ll let you WATCH me carve up the
little one."
"No..." tried to scream Usagi, crawling up to her knees with her
entire body wracked in pain. She was helpless as the large shadow
advanced upon the pink haired toddler who looked at him unaware of
what was going on.
"Any last requests I can refuse for you?" asked Black Baron, slowly
moving his claws over her, poised to rip her tiny body to shreds.
"You reek!" said Chibi Chibi, her golden aura flaring up again
to surround her, the large claws suddenly unable to touch her.
She was shielded against the dark one, and it drove him mad.
"I`ll teach you to defy the great Black Baron!!!" he yelled,
hitting the golden sphere over and over, scraping the surface with
all his evil might, unable to pierce it. Chibi Chibi just giggled,
happy to watch smoke come from the hands of her enemy who was
burning himself on the purity of her power.
"Your power of goodness is so strong... once I find your stain
of evil, I`lll weave your soul and obliterate it, crush it into
oblivion!!!" menaced Black Baron who used all of his skill to try
and turn the little one`s soul against itself as he had done to
all the senshi.
Except this time, there was no evil to be found there, not the
smallest spot, not the slighest speck. She truly was pure to the
strictest sense of the word.
She would be the death of him.
Her aura flared into a storm just like the one that Black Baron
had summoned, except that this one was gold in color, burning
the evil shadow in ways he never imagined possible.
"No... no... NO!!! I can`t be beaten by a mere whelp!!!" screamed
Black Baron as his hands and arms melted and vaporized.
"Black man go bye bye!" said Chibi Chibi, waving to her enemy.
The final rush of golden energy swallowed him whole, taking him
to his final, eternal punishment.
The light died down. Chibi Chibi giggled and ran into Usagi`s
arms, hugging her tight. Usagi kissed her on the forehead,
counfounded and astonished.
"Who are you, angel?" she asked her, still crying but from joy
now.
"Chibi Chibi!!" she just replied.
* * *
Dark bolts of power struck down from the sky, hitting the black
crystal in the young girl`s hands without hurting her; they were
rather infusing her with the strength to go on with her ceremony,
calling forth even more power.
As she pronounced the last arcane word, the glow within the jagged
piece of dark crystal intensified further still, attaining its
summit.
"It`s ready... I`ve done it! I reached my goal!!!" yelled the
power hungry Crystallite as she help up her prize to the sky,
her tears of sadness drifting off in the howling storm winds.
"So have I!" came a purring voice from a hidden location behind
a large ventilation roof duct. Moving in a flash, an agile blur
swiftly rushed her, grasping both her hands before she could
even let out a word of surprise. When surprise wore off, the
red haired mage recognized her attacker.
"CATHRA?!?" she let out in astonishment.
"Glad you remember my name, honey, because frankly I was starting
to wonder if you did." replied the catwoman, squeezing the wrists
of her mistress with no care as to wether she caused her pain or
not.
"You`re hurting me!" complained the young girl, trying to keep
hold of the precious crystal in her left hand. She knew Cathra`s
behavior could only mean she wanted it for herself, and she had
no intention of letting her treacherous minion have it.
"I`M hurting YOU, am I? And what about you letting me be the only
one of my kin survive the Osaka massacre, you think that was FUN?
And having your little Black Baron kill my parents, that was a
laugh riot, I`m sure! And your big wolfish boytoy turning me down,
that was hilarious!!!" snarled Cathra in disdain, her face twisting
in repressed rage unleashed with no restraints. "HOW DARE ANYBODY
TURN ME DOWN???" she screamed, digging her claws in the soft flesh
of Crystallite`s wrists, drawing blood as she did.
"What do you want?" asked Crystallite, trying to find a way to
end this situation to her advantage.
"What I want? I WANT IT ALL!" replied Cathra. Her eyes turned to
the glowing gem in her mistress` hand. "And for starters, I`ll
take that trinket of yours." she added with a sly smile.
"Think fast." whispered the daughter of Beryl.
Crystallite opened her hand, the gem falling down. Cathra never
took her eyes from it as she let go of Crystallite`s left wrist
to catch the gem in mid-fall with an agile swipe.
"I GOT IT!" she yelled as her fingers closed on the precious gem.
"Do you really?" snapped back Crystallite, whispering an
incomprehensible word of magic and grabbing Cathra`s face with
her free hand.
The burning hand spell was the most horrid pain Cathra had ever
felt, freezing her in shock as her brain processed the unlikely
fact that the hand pressed against the right side of her face
was hotter than a branding iron pulled out of a smith`s forge.
Releasing the gem she`d gotten hold barely just seconds before,
she yelled so loud as to wake up her dead brethren and pushed
away the burning hand from her face. Her loud scream drowned out
the sound of the black crystal landing on the skyscrapper`s metal
roofing.
The sickening smell of charred flesh assaulted the nose of the two
women. Still yelling in pain, Cathra ran in a panic. Just as she
leaped and smashed her way through the weak grating of the
ventilation duct, Crystallite quickly cast a second fire spell-
a much more powerful one since she now had both hands free. The
feline youma rapidly slid down the ventilation shaft as the
exploding fireball completely melted the duct`s part that extruded
out of the rooftop and filled the shaft with deadly flames.
"My body may be weak, but I`m not helpless yet." snarled Crystallite
as she looked upon the mess of scrap metal that was still white hot.
With a simple gesture of her finger combined with a magic word said
in a hushed voice, the black crystal flew back to her hand.
"Where was I?" wondered Crystallite.
Damn. She was going to have to start that last part all over again.
* * *
Darkness. It was wrapping up his mind and clouding his thoughts.
Old memories resurfaced in a jumble, flashing before his eyes
at the speed of light, leaving little more than a vague sense of
familiarity.
The color of Crystallite`s eyes. The taste of nearly toxic drinks
from his watering hole in the ourworld he`d been brought over
from. The sound of Black Baron laughing his head off. The feeling
of the arctic cold biting his furry hide as he approached D-point
on his mission to kill Crystallite. The sorrow he felt as he
dragged her blood stained body, dying from the wound that would
destroy her health and leave her scarred for life.
And all through those images, that smell. That horrible, pungent
smell of corruption brought on by Black Baron, infecting all
the beings he came near. He smelled that odour before, he was sure
of that. Somewhere before he even met his darling Crystallite, but
where?
Then, out of the deepest recesses of his forgotten memories, the
answer came in all its shocking horror. Fenris remembered where
he first encountered the vile stench, and it made him mad with
rage.
* * *
"Wolf man not dead!" said Chibi Chibi pointing to the inanimate
body of Fenris Wolfang.
"What are you talking about, sweetheart?" replied Usagi who was
trying to open the door of the penthouse to take the little girl
outside to safety. Unfortunately, the door now seemed to be
locked with an unseen magnetic system.
"Wolfie alive! Gonna wake up now." she added with a giggle. Usagi
kneeled down next to her and just as she was about to explain to
her that this was the kind of sleep you don`t wake up from, Fenris
proved her right.
He breathed again, then groaned and stirred.
Usagi felt her heart freeze in her chest. She took Chibi Chibi in
her arms, and slowly backed away from the manwolf.
"BLACK BARON, YOU BASTARD!!!" he screamed as he sat up suddenly.
Looking down at his chest, he saw to his satisfaction that his
superhuman healing had closed the stab wound nicely. "Oh man, I`m
getting soft... five years ago, I`d have LAUGHED at a wound like
that, Sailor Moon."
"I thought you were... dead..." she uttered in surprise.
"I wouldn`t be much of an assassin if I died so easy, don`t you
think? And speaking of which... I think I just figured out just
WHO is behind all this mess..." said Fenris as he slowly got up,
stretching his numb limbs. "And you AIN`T going to like the answer
I just came up with."
Usagi relaxed a little in the manwolfs` presence. He wasn`t acting
in any hostile way towards her, yet he was very distraught.
"What happened exactly, then? Who`s behind this?" asked Usagi,
trying to buy herself some time against this beast who could kill
her easily without her powers.
"The smell. That foul stench emitted by the guy who hired me. It
was Black Baron`s, that shadow set me up to kill Crystallite,
knowing that I`d fail and make her what she is! We`ve all been his
puppets from the start!!!" explained Fenris, his breathing
accelerating to a frenzied beat as his anger built up like it did
in the old days.
"So Black Baron`s behind all this? He`s the secret mastermind?"
"That`s not the horrible part, darling..." said Fenris to Usagi.
"I don`t think he acted alone. If my intuition is right... and it
usually is... he`s working for somebody else. Somebody with enough
power to dwarf his own." suggested Fenris.
Usagi immediately knew exactly what the manwolf meant.
"Oh god... we have to stop Crystallite from..." she said.
"You`ll do no such thing!" interrupted an all too familiar voice
for Fenris.
"YOU! You`re the one who hired me to kill Crystallite!" he snarled
as he saw the spanish looking blighted one walk down the stairs
leading to the rooftop.
"And you failed miserably I might add. Which is why you never got
the other half of the deal we struck over her death." said
Velasquez, coming into view of the two girls and the manbeast.
"You set me up, miserable wretch of a knightmare!" said Fenris.
"Of course... and considering how we never really intended you
to kill her, but only maul her like you did and then watch over
her for the next few years... five million is pretty cheap to hire
the most lethal assassin money can buy!!!" laughed Velasquez,
pulling his slim, jagged blade sword, a black flamberge.
"You almost had me kill the love of my life... I`ll kill you for
that, monster!" growled Fenris, his eyes glowing bright red.
"No need for name calling, Fenris, I have a name you know. I`m
Velasquez." promptly replied the blighted one, proud to be the
only one of his kind to be allowed to bear a name. "And besides,
you`d NEVER have met her if I hadn`t hired you to kill her."
Fenris stopped advancing on him a moment to ponder this argument.
"Point taken. I`ll kill you anyway, but I`ll make it quick!" came
Fenris` answer, a wicked grin on his face. With that, he leaped on
the blighted one and their battle began.
USagi panicked thinking of Chibi Chibi`s safety, but... when she
turned back to her, she was gone!!! She looked around but couldn`t
see her anywhere... how could she leave a LOCKED room without a
trace???
"Go stop Crystallite, Sailor Moon! If you don`t, we ALL die!!!"
urged Fenris as he wrestled Velasquez. "I`ll protect the little
one from him!!!"
She knew he was right. The secret mistress of Black Baron wasn`t
even there yet but Usagi already felt its sickening presence choking
up the atmosphere. She ran to the stairs, not knowing what she
would do once she reached the top.
All she knew was that she had no time to waste.
* * *
Endymion was bleeding again, and pretty bad. His metabolism was
many times quicker to heal than most humans thanks to his powers,
but it didn`t him much good this time. Whenever his hemorrage
would stop, he`d painstakingly get back up on his feet to try and
bash through the dark energy shield, succeeding only in opening
his slash wound and bleeding himself one step closer to his death.
"I won`t give up... I won`t give up... I won`t give up..." he
muttered repeatedly to numb his mind to the searing pain. He got
up again, raising his sword slowly with both hands firmly gripping
the handle and striking it down on the shield.
Once again, it merely bounced off as if it had struck a brick
wall, his sudden motion causing even more damage to his already
aggravated injury. He fell back to his knees again, his weapon
slipping from his fingers and clanking down no the ground
alongside his slumped body.
"I won`t... give up... Usagi..." he muttered again, tears running
on his blood stained face.
"And neither should you do so." whispered a soft feminine voice
approaching him.
He turned his head to see the senshi dressed all in black, the
original Sailor Saturn. She placed her gloved hand on his wound,
and he felt the soothing warmth of her healing powers closing
it for good, weaving the skin and muscle back to perfect shape.
"Your strenght of character and noblety are proven yet again, my
lord Endymion." said Saturn, smiling to Endymion who got back
up, this time with little pain at all. "You`ve lost a lot of
blood, be careful not to overextend yourself too fast."
"Thank you..." he replied. Looking at her and at the others
who were with her, this entire picture seemed... right somehow,
like some great wrong finally put right. "You`re Hotaru, aren`t
you?!?"
Sailor Saturn bowed to the prince and offered her weapon as a
sign of allegiance.
"Kids grow up so fast..." observed Michiru.
"Yeah... my sister`s already all grown up and destroying worlds!"
added Robin. She got several angry stares in response to that
comment.
"She`s right you know... if this dark menace can`t be stopped...
then all will come to silence by my hand." said Saturn in her
gravest tone of voice.
No one present dared to say anything more, simply staring up
and silently praying Usagi would prevail.
* * *
Usagi ran up the stairs, the sounds of the battle between Fenris
and Velasquez being progressively drowned out by the storm outside
she was getting closer to with every step. When she got to the
rooftop, she saw Crystallite standing there on her own and showing
no apparent sign of weakness. She was giggling insanely, a chilling
sound loaded with menace.
"Crystallite, you have to stop this, you have no idea WHAT you`re
about to unleash..." she pleaded to the young girl.
When the redhead turned to face her, her eyes were glowing a
powerful crimson glow. Usagi knew right there she was too late.
"Nice to see you again, princess, glad to see you could make it
for my triumphant return..." she cackled.
As she taunted Usagi, a large shadow formed above her like a
mighty predator of darkness standing ready to strike down its
unwary prey. The ever growing shadow had eyes, evil eyes Usagi
remembered only too well as she saw them whenever her slumber was
haunted by nightmares from the past.
"Now the fun REALLY begins..." said Crystallite, her voice deformed
into a booming growl that echoed the thoughts of the primeval
entity that had taken her over.
"Metalia..." she let out in fear.
To be continued...