Title: If dreams Came True; Chapter 13
Author: Lady Hesperide
Address: ladyhesp@hotmail.com
Rated: PG-13
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon and all its characters belong to Naoko Takeuchi, not
me, I don't have any claim to them. Also, this work of fanfiction is written
purely for my own pleasure and that of others, I'm making no money here, so no
one should have a problem. The story is fully mine, and the rights to that are
mine as well, use the story for anything but enjoyment without my permission,
I'll hunt you down and...... You get the idea, it will not be pretty.
Chapter 13
Infused with the power of last night's decision Haruka came to try out her
new car. It was a neat little number that purred when she started it up. The car
was an unnecessary addition to her collection, but when she'd seen it up for
sale after the last race she simply had to have it.
She had already changed into her racing suit and was passing by another
garage on the way to her own when she was stopped by a scream. Quickly she
looked around, but saw no-one in the open. There was another scream, more like a
whimper this time. Haruka thought that she could identify where it came from,
and, acting on instinct, ran over to a garage some four meters away. She looked
in cautiously before entering, but saw nothing.
"Hello, is someone here?" she asked going farther into the
entrance.
"Help." She heard a croak from the corner. Haruka turned to see a
young boy doubled over on his knees and rushed towards him.
She bent over him with concern, "What's up? Are you all right?"
Something felt very wrong. The air had a strange sulfuric taste to it. The hair
on the back of her neck were rising one by one, and her spine was starting to
crawl.
With another grunt and a whimpered "Help," the boy completely
collapsed. For a moment he remained unmoving, Haruka could not even see if he
was still breathing. Suddenly strange appendages burst from out of the boy's
body.
"You monster…." Haruka stepped back from the emerging creature.
"Help!" the boy begged one last time before the red and black mass of
the thing fully consumed the human.
Completely formed, the slug-like monster reared up screeching. Spiky, gray
tentacles writhed at it's sides and slashed at the air about it. A great maw
occupied the place where a head should have been, foul jaws snapping in front of
it, grayish tongue tasted the atmosphere.
Haruka could not stand by and just watch. She had to try to save the bay who
had been there a second ago. She tried to think of the right trying to do.
Haruka searched herself for her warrior resort, hoping perhaps there would be an
answer. But she found nothing. The spirit did not come at her call.
The monster flopped down onto the concrete floor and was contracting its
body, like a snake, preparing to strike.
Haruka prepared herself for an attack, taking a defensive stance.
Abruptly, with a sharp crack, before her face was a glowing pen. The item
pulsed with Power, a force that drew Haruka to reach for it.
She stretched out her hand to take it, mesmerized.
Michiru startled. The birds in the park rose up in a cloud of screeches. A
chill wind passed over her spine, rising the fine hair of her neck. Somewhere an
Evil was taking a step out of it's world into this one.
Without much thought put into it, Michiru took both her violin and bow into
her left hand and with the right went for her transformation stick. In the blink
of an eye Sailor Neptune was racing- nearly flying- over the city rooftops. She
opened her inner eye and let it guide her to the intruding force.
In this fashion she came to a stop on a slopping steel roof, one among dozens
of the same kind. She was in a garage city.
A growl issued from below her and the roof shook under her feet. Lightly
Sailor Neptune jumped down in front of an open doorway. Turning she took in the
scene before her.
Ten'ou stood in a driving get up in the middle of the square room that was
the garage. To one side was the abandoned car. To the other a monster very
unlike the humanoid deamons she'd been facing until now. A particularly nasty
looking deamon, for that matter. But the most alarming, and unexpected, was the
object suspended in mid-air in front of Ten'ou. The object for which she was
purposefully reaching. The Uranus transformation pen, which until this moment
she'd been sure was securely contained in her purse.
Neptune processed all of this in under a second. She blinked to get her mind
back into real time.
"Don't!" she screamed for Haruka to turn her attention away from
the pulsating glow of the item. The racer's hand instantly snapped back to her
body. As if she'd been burned by Neptune's voice.
Haruka turned to the door, not instantly comprehending what had happened. She
focused her eyes on the figure silhouetted by the entranceway. The figure
stepped forward and understanding dawned on Haruka. Sailor Neptune, the soldier
come for her. Kaiou Michiru, though her voice was now deeper and her expression
stern.
"Don't touch it. Once you've touched it you can never return to a
normal life." Her eyes were cold as she said this. All emotion was erased
from those eyes.
The monster chose that moment to launch an attack for Sailor Neptune.
Temporarily forgetting the racer Sailor Neptune turned to face the attack,
jumping to avoid the spiky tentacles speeding in her direction. Refocusing her
direction in mid-jump she turned her landing into a double kick to the general
vicinity of the monster's head. The impact of her heels sent the slug-thing
rolling over in pain, and she cleared away from it in a roll of her own. Neptune
came up on her feet and threw herself into another assault of the thing's
head.
"Stop it!" Haruka screamed from somewhere to the side, her eyes
wide with horror, fists clenched in a futile show of aggression. "This was
a human being until a little while ago."
Sailor Neptune showed no intention of relenting. "Are you okay… with
killing people?" Haruka asked incredulously. Everything was moving so fast,
she could not make her mind follow every nuance of the tableau in front of her.
"The Silence is approaching!" Neptune threw over her shoulder,
"If I don't do this, there will be more innocents sacrificed."
"So, you're not going to choose your methods." It was more a
statement then a question.
This got Neptune to stop momentarily to give Haruka a long, searching look.
"No, I'm not going to choose the way."
"Are you still…" but she was interrupted by Neptune's sudden
out-bust. "Look out!"
Her initial yell had caught the monster's attention and it now decided to
attack an easier target. Displaying a surprising speed and agility it dashed
toward the unsuspecting girl. Neptune jumped to push Haruka out of the way of
the attack, but the monster had had too much of a head start. It hit Sailor
Neptune in the back, sending the two girls bouncing across the floor.
Once they stopped moving Neptune untangled herself from around Ten'ou and
pushed herself onto her feet. She felt the Power of her guardian planet surge
just beneath her skin, begging to be let loose on whatever had dared to harm
her. She was all too willing to oblige.
Centering on her inner strength she brought out the Power and focused it.
"Deep Submerge!" The ball of water raced toward the monster, released
from her grip on it. The attack hit it's mark with a master's precision,
enveloping it purifying liquid.
She felt the wrongness recede from the garage. With the immediate danger gone
so was her strength. The pain of her injuries from the tumble across the rough
concrete made itself insistently known. Succumbing to a moment of weakness,
Sailor Neptune collapsed.
Haruka picked herself up and, on all fours, went to see if Neptune was all
right. Once next to the limp form she pulled the head and as much of the torso
as she could of the other into her lap. Cradling Neptune's head in the crook
of her arm she took her two hands up to inspect the gashes on them.
"The monster?" Neptune asked, her eyelashes fluttering open.
Haruka looked behind them, and heaved a sigh of relief. "It has returned
to human form. Don't worry."
"I almost killed it…" she whispered, coughing a bit, "No, I'm
sure I'll kill it next time." Her eyes opened fully and Haruka was
riveted by her direct stare. "It isn't easy, but I chose to become a
soldier."
"Then why did you protect me? If you hurt your hands you can't be a
violinist." Haruka gently turned the others hands so she could clearly see
her own injuries. She was contradicting herself with her words, but somehow
Haruka knew that what was being said was the truth. A truth she had sensed but
refused to acknowledge.
"I didn't snoop around just because I knew you are a soldier."
Those eyes, Haruka could drown in their aqua depths. "Once I knew you were
the other I watched, but not only because of that. I saw you drive by the
coastline, and then at the last race, I wanted to drive by the coast in your car
with you…" she drifted off for a second, swallowing convulsively. Such a
moment of truth this was. Would she understand what I am trying to say? Would
she let herself understand? "You are always faithful to your
feelings."
"I'm not faithful," Haruka cut her off, "I am always running
away…"
"I know more about you then you do, because I watch you all the
time." She made herself focus on Haruka's face, not to miss a single
twitch of muscle in the sculpted features. "I don't want you to take the
same way as I took. Still, I am happy that you are the other one…"
There was a stillness in Haruka that disturbed her. She could not read the
other's face or feelings. What must she sound like to this proud creature.
"I'm sorry, I did not mean to talk about it, sorry…" She let her
eyes close again, concentrating only on restoring herself.
Haruka looked down at the face she held on her arm. The noble brows and nose,
the mouth now pulled by pain, all are so familiar. In her mind's eye she was
thrown back to when she was a child, when she'd first met her warrior self.
Could this be her true partner? The only one who could ever understand?
She raised her head, no longer able to stand the sight of the jeweled tiara
crowning Neptune's head. The symbol of her position. But instead of finding
solace in the empty floor her eyes settled on the stick that had earlier
appeared before her. It no longer glowed quite so brightly, and Haruka did not
feel the same compelling pull. Now it lay placidly on the floor, the only
extraordinary factor about it was a pulsing sign of Uranus at the center of a
globe it had on it's tip. Uranus, her guardian planet.
She had been given her choice. Michiru had prevented her from taking up the
stick when it beckoned. And now she demanded nothing of her. Haruka's eyes
widened in realization, her entire life had led to this moment. To this
decision. She had been sure enough last night to make the promise.
She looked at the object on the floor, within arm's reach.
Do I have what it takes to be a soldier today?
Narrowing her eyes so that all she saw was the item with it's bright symbol
Haruka reached out for it.
The power
rushed from her fingers into her arm and up to her brain. All thought and
emotion was swept away in the face of the all consuming energy. It tore down her
barriers and demanded admittance to the very depths of her soul. In fusing her
with power and strength as it went. Long learned defenses and reflexes were bent
and twisted to fit and accommodate the new force. The old world spun in an
orange colored avalanche of misconceptions. In the middle of the maelstrom,
rushing inexorably closer, was a figure in shining armor. Haruka had a second to
see silver gray eyes before she plunged strait into them. For a moment more she
was disoriented and then it all came into sharp focus.
She was
still on the floor of the garage. Still holding the lax body of Sailor Neptune
whose entire being was concentrated on healing herself. The prone body of the
boy who'd turned into a monster was still in the corner, alive but uncontious.
The only difference was that the person who sat on the floor was no longer Ten'ou
Haruka, champion junior racer. It was Sailor Uranus, warrior of wind and space,
sworn to forever fight against darkness.
In the
distance she heard sirens. Someone must have reported a disturbance to the
security.
Effortlessly,
she stood with Sailor Neptune in her arms. The other stirred from the sudden
motion.
"Hush,
heal," Uranus said bending her head close to Neptune's, "I'll get
us to a safe place."
Securely
holding her light burden Sailor Uranus sped off to her own apartment.
Michiru
opened her eyes to a passing blur of street passing by. For a moment she did not
understand what was going on, but memory quickly returned and looking up she saw
Uranus' determined face. A calm went through her and she dropped off again.
Haruka
arranged the limp body on her couch and covered her with a light blanket. She
looks so peaceful there, like an ordinary girl protégé, she thought looking
down at the soldier who wanted to kill all monsters. She shook her head, there
will be no peace for either of them for a long time now.
Walking into
the kitchen area her mind let go of her transformation and her own clothes
settled around her body. Haruka realized she was still in her ridding gear. And
I didn't even get a chance to test the new car, she mussed as she put on a pot
of coffee. Not her most favorite drink, but at times called for.
Michiru woke
once more to find herself staring up at an unfamiliar ceiling, with the smell of
freshly brewing coffee wafting in from somewhere off to her right. Vaguely she
thought about the strange blanket around her and the fact that she was still in
her sailor soldier uniform. Gingerly sitting up she looked around the sparsely
furnished room. The light colored furniture was definitely unfamiliar, but
tasteful.
Slowly,
taking care to make as little noise as possible, she got up from the couch and
walked over to a writing table which stood under a set of full shelves. On one
of the lower ones stood a lone photograph in the plainest of plastic frames. The
picture was of a small girl with straw blond hair standing between a tall man
with the same color mane and a slim woman with a generous mouth and smiling
eyes. The background was a placid lake full of water lilies and a giant willow
tree with its branches reaching down into the water.
"My
family," came a voice from behind her, "The last time we were all
together and happy about it."
Sailor
Neptune whirled around to face the voice. Haruka stood leaning against a closed
door, her lean form framed by a bright red ray of the setting sun.
"They
separated shortly thereafter, my father's mistress decided that she no longer
wanted to live in my mother's shadow and came forward. My grandparents took me
in for a couple of years, until I left." Haruka pushed away from the door
and came forward to take the picture out of Neptune's hands. After looking at
it for a moment she set it back on the shelf. "I think they are still
fighting over who has custody of me."
There was no
bitterness in her voice, Michiru noticed. If anything Haruka seemed to be very
tired of the story she told, as if to her it was the most boring tale ever told.
Detachment could do funny things to the human psyche, she thought to herself.
Watching
Haruka watch her she put two fingers to the jewel of her tiara and let go of her
transformation. The Sea swelled momentarily and ebbed away to leave her standing
before Haruka in a light floral print dress that ended around her knees and her
violin, now returned to her from where ever it or any other objet disappeared to
when she transformed.
Haruka
watched the other de-transform, catching a brief glimpse of the rushing water as
it enveloped her. It was only fair, she mussed, that both of them stand on equal
ground now. She looked to the depths of Michiru's eyes, what secrets did she
hold there, in her inner heart? The colors seemed to swirl in towards the iris,
whirlpools out in the untamed sea.
The moment
stretched. The silence settled over them. A sense of aloneness surrounded the
pair. There was no one and nothing but a past that finally ran into the future.
Haruka
blinked. "Do you want to tell me what's this all about, now?" she
broke the moment. It had started to get just a bit too strange for her and the
girl had seemed all too comfortable remaining so suspended in time and space.
Michiru
pities the lost tranquillity, the passing connection. "Of course, but I
think you know most of it by now." She stepped around Haruka and went in
the general direction of the coffee smell.
Haruka
followed her into the white kitchenette. Without questioning her guessed she
pulled down two mugs from a cupboard and set about filling them with the
steaming liquid. Once done she set the mugs along with two little pitchers of
cream and sugar on a table by the only window in the small space.
"I do
know that the end of the world is coming. We must find and destroy the Messiah,
and to do so we need the three Talismans. I also know that you see a much
clearer picture and that there is another one who helps us."
She finished
speaking as she sat down and moved out a chair for Michiru. She did not watch
for her reaction. If she had then she would have seen a look of profound
surprise on the other's face. How could she know about Pluto? For a second
Michiru wondered if maybe she meant someone else, Elsa or even Daniel, but she
dismissed that thought off hand, Haruka could not sense any but the most
powerful of auras. It had to be Pluto. Calm down, she admonished herself, this
is a plus if anything.
"How do
you know of the other?" she asked cautiously as she took the preferred
chair and sat. The coffee smelled of vanilla, and she was all too glad to wrap
her hands around the warmth of the mug, the warm promise of the morning had
blossomed into a chilly afternoon.
"She
came to see me at practice once. I had the same feeling of recognition from her
as I did from you. Familiar though I'd never met either of you before. She
told me to keep up my guard even at the very end," Haruka finally looked up
from her coffee at Michiru, "that I could never tell who was saving their
strength for the last two meters."
"Setsuna
is very wise, in her own way," Michiru said softly. Would she ever help us
again after what I said to her? If not, would she take her anger at me out on
Haruka as well? Doubtful, Sailor Pluto was indeed too wise and old to give in to
such pettiness. Or so she hoped. She flashed briefly to the little room, the way
Pluto had stood framed by the window, her back proud and her eyes unwavering.
"She
was the one to awaken you," it was more statement than question. There was
more then that to it, Haruka knew. Strange how well I can read this girl whom I
just met when usually I need time to truly understand a person. Haruka did not
want to dwell on it, that way led to their previous lives, and what the
decisions they made then would mean for them now. A discussion for another day
lay that way.
"Yes,
she did. But she remains apart, her duty is to the Gates of Time and Space, not
directly to this world. She… has done all she could for us by bringing us
together. We must find the Talismans before the Dark ones do, that is our only
objective, at any cost. The Talismans are hidden in the pure hearts of innocent
people. We must let nothing stop us," Michiru finished by taking a sip from
her mug, she did not feel the force she put into her voice and was afraid the
other might sense it. But the truth was plain, they took no prisoners, and
finding the Talismans was all that was important.
"And
what of saving the people from those who would hunt for their hearts as
well?" Haruka asked the inevitable question. The deciding moment of
revelation. The subject they had surcled and tested each time they met before.
"They
will be sacrificed for the greater good of our world." Michiru did not
hesitate. There was only one answer and it had already been put to use and
practise. "If we do not find our weapons, they all will die at the coming
of the dark Messiah. There is no turning back now, for anyone."
Haruka
watched her hands and the corners of her eyes. She was reassured by the
miscomforture they showed. Whatever she has done till now, she is still
sensitive to human life, we are not too different in that at least. What is it
like? Haruka could not help but wonder. She put the question to her companion.
Michiru
stared into space a long minute. How can I explain the power and the rush.
"I do not believe it will be the same for you. It cannot be the same for
anyone else.
"When I'm
in that other form I can hear so clearly my past. The devotion and loyalty of
that person drives me to accomplish my mission with all speed. The world narrows
to the final goal and my inner vision opens to admit a whole new platoon of
observations." She finally turned to look sharply at her inquisitor. Her
eyes shone with the banked fires of the power she'd just described and for a
second she thought there was understanding in Haruka's silvery gaze. "Why
do you ask such a thing? Have you not already turned to Sailor Uranus and felt
what the planet gives you."
"I want
to know what makes us capable of working together," Haruka answered without
delay, she was already concentrating on another part of her speech. "But
you said you remember the past. What do you know of it?"
Michiru
startled. "Our past?" Why were those silver-gray eyes suddenly so
intense? What was it that she'd said to raise such interest now when the
knowledge of the world's end brought out only a sense of duty? "I know
only what Sailor Pluto told me on our first meeting. She described to me the
Moon Kingdom and the War that ended the Moon's reign over the universe. I can
tell over the tale if you want, but not now, it'll take too long," she
looked thoughtfully at Haruka across the table. The answer she'd given seemed
to confuse the other, satisfaction was warring with disappoinment.
"Do you
remember nothing of yourself in that time? Anything about your own
persona, something beyond what Pluto told you?" is it possible that only
she had such clear visions of what they were like in their old lives? Back then
it had always been Neptune who had the clearer vision, did something get mixed
up when they were reborn?
"No,"
Michiru shook her head to reaffirm her answer, "I can remember nothing of
my previous life."
Haruka sat
back, half closing her eyes for fear that the other would read too much in them.
Elation surged through her like fire, like the Power had earlier on. Michiru, if
she did not lie and Haruka would have known such an outright deception, knew
nothing of their previous connection. She would neither depend on it nor try to
reestablish it again just for the sake of keeping true to the old. Anything that
would come from now on was their own and new, not colored by old knowledge. At
least on the part of her partner, and Haruka could not worry about her own
actions, knowing the past made her too scared of the future. She'll be fine
letting the future unravel without her help, thank you.
After a
moment more of silence the two fell to talking of the enemy. It's nature and
it's purpose. Michiru recounted her previous encounters with the daimon who
would hunt for pure hearts, with Haruka mostly listening, commenting only
rarely. The discussion was long winded and not the most pleasant, but necessary.
At least it was in Michiru's opinion. For the moment she did not mention the
attack she'd seen in her dream, that might be asking Haruka to accept too much
all at once. It was enough that the girl did not out right refute her every
word.
The evening
drew on, and before either noticed it the sky darkened to dim twilight.
