A14: The Fight for Ki, chapter 8
"It's about time," Shis grumbled as he dragged yet another
human into the apartment. He looked around at his collection. More then
thirty humans carpeted the floor; their eyes were closed in dreamless
sleep. In the center of the room was an open space. Shis walked over
the human bodies until he reached the center, then sitting down, tried
to remember exactly what the old prisoner had told him.
~When you absorb someone's ki, you have part of them. All you
have to do is separate their ki from your own and manipulate it. By
adding to their ki, you increase your puppet's strength.~
The Seline looked at the tranquil face of a woman by his leg.
He placed his hand on her cheek and felt the signature of what energy
she had left. Closing his eyes, he felt within himself for that same
signature.
A soft blue string woven in with the rainbow of colors from
everyone he had absorbed matched the woman's. In his mind, he pulled it
free from the weaving of his energy. It wrapped itself around his
fingers as he focused his will on it.
The sound of a body standing up caused him to open his eyes and
look at the woman, who stood before him, her head bowed. He focused his
attention on her ki, quickly discovering how easy it was to control a
human being.
As he practiced with more and more humans, a single string
stood out. Several times he had tried to grasp it, but it seemed
resistant to his will. A string of white and black fibers entwined, it
was faint. Clearly the remaining energy of a victim in the past. He
could sense power within those fibers, much more then any of the human
threads.
Memorizing where the thread was for a later time, he stood
among the crowd of blank eyed humans. He grinned evilly as they all
bowed their heads to him in silent obedience. They were weak, but the
planet was overflowing with them. He had an army.
The living room in the Capsule Corp building was crowded, to
say the least. Unfortunately, it was also too loud to even think in.
"If everyone would quiet down, we need to discuss some things."
Bulma frowned angrily as no one listened and continued talking. "OI!
Minna! Shut up!"
"Need help?" 14 asked, appearing at Bulma's side. The scientist
nodded, sighing as she tried to see through the group. "Cover your
ears." Bulma looked at the android, confused as she watched the woman
bring her fingers to her lips. Moments before the deafening whistle
filled the room, she brought her hands to her ears. The resulting
silence as everyone stared at them nearly made her laugh.
"Thank you, 14," Bulma whispered to the smirking android.
"Okay guys, we have a lot to discuss. Please, everyone sit
down." The CC owner sighed in relief as most of the large crowd
listened and found a place to sit. "Alright, I think our first concern
is Shis, hai?"
"You said a name, Endymion, right?"
"Hai, you look just like him," Yukai replied, shaking her head
slightly. "He's a man I see a lot in my dreams. It's probably just
coincidence though. We should get back in there before we miss
anything," she continued, smiling nervously.
Mamoru watched the Usagi look-a-like walk back into the living
room. He wasn't sure what was going on here, but the girl must have
some kind of link to the Silver Millennium. He couldn't shake off how
much she looked like his Usako.
'But 14 is Usagi! And the princess! Even if I can't have her, I
love her. I can't let myself fall for another girl who looks like
Usagi, especially after I've found the real thing.' Mamoru sighed,
resting his head against the wall.
"Yukai, there you are. I think Bulma wants me to tell everyone
about you and 14." Umi managed to cross the room as Setri told the
group everything she knew that could help them fight her charge.
"But I don't think I could be a sailor senshi. Besides,
everyone thinks 14 is Sailor Moon. And she has the power to show for
it. I don't have any power."
"14 is Sailor Cosmos. She will never be the princess or Sailor
Moon. That is you, if I'm right. And the sailor senshi would be able to
figure out for sure."
Yukai looked across the room where 14 sat with 17's arms around
her. "Does she know what you saw yet?" Umi looked over at 14 before
shaking her head.
"I didn't get a chance to tell her before the crowd got here."
"Then maybe we should wait until we can talk with her first. I
don't want her to be angry at me for taking what she believes is hers."
14 slowly moved her gaze from the alien woman speaking, her eyes
meeting Yukai's.
Umi sighed as she watched the two of them. She was used to
being able to see auras. But never had she seen two try to reach out to
the other like theirs did.
Mamoru could hardly catch his breath. He wasn't exactly sure
what he had just overheard through the wall, but it could explain a
lot. The problem was it also brought up so many more questions.
He'd never felt 14 was exactly right, but he knew she was the
reincarnated princess, or at least that's what everyone said. She did
turn out to be Sailor Cosmos, after all, the supposed final
transformation of Sailor Moon. But if this new girl was really the
princess and Sailor Moon, what did that mean? And why had he felt such
attraction to the android female, when his true soulmate was another
woman entirely?
"The only people who can touch Shis without the risk of being
drained are the androids and myself." Setri stood in front of the
group, answering questions and explaining things about Shis. She knew
if they wanted to win with such a small army, everyone had to know
everything.
"Well, 17 and 18 almost won against him last time. And now 14
is awake again. Why don't we just let them take care of Shis?" Goten
asked.
"It won't be so easy. He's fought them, knows he could loose if
he goes against them again, and will change his strategy. It was for
this very reason that he's such a dangerous person. It took years to
track him down and contain him the first time, during which he caused
the deaths of countless civilizations. We are still coming across
cities full of victims that were left in their sleep to die. We must
work quickly or Tokyo could become another of those cities."
"There is another problem with allowing 14 to fight." 14 turned
to look at 17 who sat behind her, confused why he would object to her
fighting.
"That's right!" Gokou's voice shouted out. "14 can use ki! She
draws both from her own energy as well as the same power 17 and 18
use."
"Well, won't she be alright then? If Shis drains all of her ki,
she can just fall back on the eternal power source," Makoto reasoned,
looking at Gokou.
"Iie," 14's soft voice answered. "My ki is what keeps the EPS
going. It was another reason Gero didn't make more like myself. If I
use all of my ki in an attack, or if its drained from me, the EPS fails
as well. That is probably why I went into the same coma Chaos did."
"Well, that's not very eternal, now is it?" Rei grumbled,
eliciting a faint laugh from 14.
"It wasn't called eternal when Gero first invented it, but it
contains many similarities to the EPS. Besides, its easier then saying
semi-eternal power source, or ki-powered eternal power source, now
isn't it?"
"What about the sailor senshi? Their attacks weren't as
powerful as 17 and 18's, but he can't absorb them."
"If he were to get close enough to us, he could drain our ki.
In a way, we're like 14. If our ki is gone, so is our magic. And it's
hard to keep up an attack like that for a sustained amount of time. If
we had continued to fight back there, our attacks would have become
more and more weak until they caused no damage at all," Minako
answered, frowning.
"What about us?" Chaos asked, pointing at 14 with her thumb.
"We're a hell of a lot more powerful then the senshi are, and I'd
rather like busting that guy up for what he did to Corwin."
"You said he also drained you, correct?" Setri asked the darkly
dressed senshi.
"Yes. Just another reason for me to fight," Chaos answered,
sneering.
"It might not be wise for you to fight him. It has been a long
held belief by my kind that one a person has been drained, they leave
something behind in the person who drained them. It has actually been
proven that some have the ability to use the traces of the person left
behind against them."
"You mean part of me is in him?" Chaos asked, frowning.
"Most likely, yes."
"Artemis! Get your lazy butt down here!" A tall, white hared
man walked down the steps, pulling a jacket over his shoulders. He
pulled his long hair free and tied it in a loose ponytail, before
coming behind his wife and wrapping his arms around her waist.
"You're nervous," he whispered into her ears, grinning.
"Of course I am! The last time either of us saw them was over
fifteen years ago, and now both of them are all grown up! They won't
even remember us." The woman turned around in her husband's arms,
looking up at his blue eyes. Sighing, she placed her cheek against his
chest. Her long, wavy black hair hung over her shoulders, her bangs
covering her eyes as she let him to comfort her.
"Luna, it will be fine. If we hadn't let Dr. Gero take Azami,
she wouldn't have been strong enough to become Cosmos. And Yukai has
lead a very good life. I wish we could have raised them too, but you
know the queen wouldn't let us." He caressed Luna's cheek, raising her
face so he could look at her. "They are both wonderful young women now.
Let's go meet them again." Luna nodded finally, smiling faintly.
"Kassan! Tousan! I'm ready!" The couple looked towards the
stairs as their seventeen-year-old daughter rushed down, her gray wavy
hair flying behind her. She slipped her house slippers off quickly,
dipping her feet into her boots and pulling the zipper on both up.
Looking back at her parents, she released another bright smile. "I
can't wait to see Azami-neesan and Yukai-neesan again!"
"So you don't think I'm the princess the sailor senshi think I
am?" 14 asked, staring at Umi. The younger woman nodded, her eyes
meeting the android's.
"You and Yukai share a soul. I believe it was split in two in
your last life as you died. From what I saw, you possess the part of
that original soul that can become Sailor Cosmos. Yukai's is that of
the original Princess Serenity, as well as that of Sailor Moon."
14 looked at Yukai. The CC employee was watching Umi talk, and
was clearly avoiding 14's gaze. Even without the eye contact that
spurred the longing earlier in the living room, 14 could still strongly
feel an attraction to this other woman.
"Take it." Yukai finally met 14's eyes, widened in shock that
they were. 14 chuckled, smirking at her surprise. "I never wanted to be
anyone's princess. But I'd watch out. I think the title of princess
comes complete with your own stalker. That Tuxie guy has been after me
since he found out who I was. If I didn't know I could beat him to a
pulp anytime I wanted, it'd frighten me."
"Hey Ririna! I thought you had classes this afternoon." The
woman ignored the man that spoke to her and continued to walk, almost
zombie-like, towards the Capsule Corp building in the distance. Others
like her made their way through the crowd on the sidewalks, unaware,
uncaring of the results their brushing against other people gave their
master.
Many of the puppets carried a touch of Shis's own ki, an
experiment of a sort that the Seline tried. Those puppets not only were
slightly stronger then their human counterparts, but it seemed when
they came in contact with the flesh of another human, Shis gained a
touch of their ki. With a whole army of these puppets, he would never
have to hunt again. Making enough puppets for him to gain the energy he
wanted though would take far too long. His primary targets were still
the sayijins.
"So are we supposed to tell everyone?" Yukai asked softly,
looking between 14 and Umi.
"Your choice. I don't really care."
"What don't you care about?" a male voice asked. 17 stepped up
to join the small group outside and, standing beside 14, placed his
elbow on her shoulder to lean on. 14, with a normal expression, stepped
out from under his arm, smirking only when he stumbled to keep from
falling.
"Well, it seems I am only Sailor Cosmos. This girl here is
actually Sailor Moon as well as the Moon Princess."
"Does that mean your stalker will back off?"
"Probably."
"I'm still not sure who you mean by your stalker," Yukai asked
nervously. If it meant someone was going to be following her around
everywhere and she would be in danger, she didn't know if she wanted to
be any kind of princess or senshi!
"Tuxedo Kamen, aka Chiba Mamoru," 14 said, sighing. "Apparently
he had been Sailor Moon's boyfriend, and if I remember right, he and
the princess were lovers in his past life. I never got the memories
back of us being a couple, so I didn't feel like I owed him a
relationship." 14 shrugged. "Besides, I'd already trapped myself with
this baka by then." She chuckled as she felt 17 glare at her.
"Is a new shift coming on or something?" Umi's words broke the
others out of their personal thoughts as they noticed the crowd of
people walking up to the CC building.
"It's about five, so people should be leaving. Only a few
people work at night," Yukai said, frowning as she watched the people.
"It looks like they are going to fall asleep where they are though.
Something isn't right."
They were all too occupied by the crowd to notice Yukai's
crescent moon necklace flash brightly under her shirt.
There goes another chapter! Aren't you proud of me? I even
bashed Mamoru a little bit! And that means a lot, as I really do like
him. *grins* And Ririna too! I've never seen the series GW, but I have
seen Endless Waltz. And I just wanted to kill her for holding MY Hiiro
near the end! Sure, it wasn't really bashing, but I wanted someone I
don't like under Shis's power.
Things becoming a little bit more clear now? You guys know who
is who yet?
~Jade Nova
moon_archer82@lunap.com
"It's about time," Shis grumbled as he dragged yet another
human into the apartment. He looked around at his collection. More then
thirty humans carpeted the floor; their eyes were closed in dreamless
sleep. In the center of the room was an open space. Shis walked over
the human bodies until he reached the center, then sitting down, tried
to remember exactly what the old prisoner had told him.
~When you absorb someone's ki, you have part of them. All you
have to do is separate their ki from your own and manipulate it. By
adding to their ki, you increase your puppet's strength.~
The Seline looked at the tranquil face of a woman by his leg.
He placed his hand on her cheek and felt the signature of what energy
she had left. Closing his eyes, he felt within himself for that same
signature.
A soft blue string woven in with the rainbow of colors from
everyone he had absorbed matched the woman's. In his mind, he pulled it
free from the weaving of his energy. It wrapped itself around his
fingers as he focused his will on it.
The sound of a body standing up caused him to open his eyes and
look at the woman, who stood before him, her head bowed. He focused his
attention on her ki, quickly discovering how easy it was to control a
human being.
As he practiced with more and more humans, a single string
stood out. Several times he had tried to grasp it, but it seemed
resistant to his will. A string of white and black fibers entwined, it
was faint. Clearly the remaining energy of a victim in the past. He
could sense power within those fibers, much more then any of the human
threads.
Memorizing where the thread was for a later time, he stood
among the crowd of blank eyed humans. He grinned evilly as they all
bowed their heads to him in silent obedience. They were weak, but the
planet was overflowing with them. He had an army.
The living room in the Capsule Corp building was crowded, to
say the least. Unfortunately, it was also too loud to even think in.
"If everyone would quiet down, we need to discuss some things."
Bulma frowned angrily as no one listened and continued talking. "OI!
Minna! Shut up!"
"Need help?" 14 asked, appearing at Bulma's side. The scientist
nodded, sighing as she tried to see through the group. "Cover your
ears." Bulma looked at the android, confused as she watched the woman
bring her fingers to her lips. Moments before the deafening whistle
filled the room, she brought her hands to her ears. The resulting
silence as everyone stared at them nearly made her laugh.
"Thank you, 14," Bulma whispered to the smirking android.
"Okay guys, we have a lot to discuss. Please, everyone sit
down." The CC owner sighed in relief as most of the large crowd
listened and found a place to sit. "Alright, I think our first concern
is Shis, hai?"
"You said a name, Endymion, right?"
"Hai, you look just like him," Yukai replied, shaking her head
slightly. "He's a man I see a lot in my dreams. It's probably just
coincidence though. We should get back in there before we miss
anything," she continued, smiling nervously.
Mamoru watched the Usagi look-a-like walk back into the living
room. He wasn't sure what was going on here, but the girl must have
some kind of link to the Silver Millennium. He couldn't shake off how
much she looked like his Usako.
'But 14 is Usagi! And the princess! Even if I can't have her, I
love her. I can't let myself fall for another girl who looks like
Usagi, especially after I've found the real thing.' Mamoru sighed,
resting his head against the wall.
"Yukai, there you are. I think Bulma wants me to tell everyone
about you and 14." Umi managed to cross the room as Setri told the
group everything she knew that could help them fight her charge.
"But I don't think I could be a sailor senshi. Besides,
everyone thinks 14 is Sailor Moon. And she has the power to show for
it. I don't have any power."
"14 is Sailor Cosmos. She will never be the princess or Sailor
Moon. That is you, if I'm right. And the sailor senshi would be able to
figure out for sure."
Yukai looked across the room where 14 sat with 17's arms around
her. "Does she know what you saw yet?" Umi looked over at 14 before
shaking her head.
"I didn't get a chance to tell her before the crowd got here."
"Then maybe we should wait until we can talk with her first. I
don't want her to be angry at me for taking what she believes is hers."
14 slowly moved her gaze from the alien woman speaking, her eyes
meeting Yukai's.
Umi sighed as she watched the two of them. She was used to
being able to see auras. But never had she seen two try to reach out to
the other like theirs did.
Mamoru could hardly catch his breath. He wasn't exactly sure
what he had just overheard through the wall, but it could explain a
lot. The problem was it also brought up so many more questions.
He'd never felt 14 was exactly right, but he knew she was the
reincarnated princess, or at least that's what everyone said. She did
turn out to be Sailor Cosmos, after all, the supposed final
transformation of Sailor Moon. But if this new girl was really the
princess and Sailor Moon, what did that mean? And why had he felt such
attraction to the android female, when his true soulmate was another
woman entirely?
"The only people who can touch Shis without the risk of being
drained are the androids and myself." Setri stood in front of the
group, answering questions and explaining things about Shis. She knew
if they wanted to win with such a small army, everyone had to know
everything.
"Well, 17 and 18 almost won against him last time. And now 14
is awake again. Why don't we just let them take care of Shis?" Goten
asked.
"It won't be so easy. He's fought them, knows he could loose if
he goes against them again, and will change his strategy. It was for
this very reason that he's such a dangerous person. It took years to
track him down and contain him the first time, during which he caused
the deaths of countless civilizations. We are still coming across
cities full of victims that were left in their sleep to die. We must
work quickly or Tokyo could become another of those cities."
"There is another problem with allowing 14 to fight." 14 turned
to look at 17 who sat behind her, confused why he would object to her
fighting.
"That's right!" Gokou's voice shouted out. "14 can use ki! She
draws both from her own energy as well as the same power 17 and 18
use."
"Well, won't she be alright then? If Shis drains all of her ki,
she can just fall back on the eternal power source," Makoto reasoned,
looking at Gokou.
"Iie," 14's soft voice answered. "My ki is what keeps the EPS
going. It was another reason Gero didn't make more like myself. If I
use all of my ki in an attack, or if its drained from me, the EPS fails
as well. That is probably why I went into the same coma Chaos did."
"Well, that's not very eternal, now is it?" Rei grumbled,
eliciting a faint laugh from 14.
"It wasn't called eternal when Gero first invented it, but it
contains many similarities to the EPS. Besides, its easier then saying
semi-eternal power source, or ki-powered eternal power source, now
isn't it?"
"What about the sailor senshi? Their attacks weren't as
powerful as 17 and 18's, but he can't absorb them."
"If he were to get close enough to us, he could drain our ki.
In a way, we're like 14. If our ki is gone, so is our magic. And it's
hard to keep up an attack like that for a sustained amount of time. If
we had continued to fight back there, our attacks would have become
more and more weak until they caused no damage at all," Minako
answered, frowning.
"What about us?" Chaos asked, pointing at 14 with her thumb.
"We're a hell of a lot more powerful then the senshi are, and I'd
rather like busting that guy up for what he did to Corwin."
"You said he also drained you, correct?" Setri asked the darkly
dressed senshi.
"Yes. Just another reason for me to fight," Chaos answered,
sneering.
"It might not be wise for you to fight him. It has been a long
held belief by my kind that one a person has been drained, they leave
something behind in the person who drained them. It has actually been
proven that some have the ability to use the traces of the person left
behind against them."
"You mean part of me is in him?" Chaos asked, frowning.
"Most likely, yes."
"Artemis! Get your lazy butt down here!" A tall, white hared
man walked down the steps, pulling a jacket over his shoulders. He
pulled his long hair free and tied it in a loose ponytail, before
coming behind his wife and wrapping his arms around her waist.
"You're nervous," he whispered into her ears, grinning.
"Of course I am! The last time either of us saw them was over
fifteen years ago, and now both of them are all grown up! They won't
even remember us." The woman turned around in her husband's arms,
looking up at his blue eyes. Sighing, she placed her cheek against his
chest. Her long, wavy black hair hung over her shoulders, her bangs
covering her eyes as she let him to comfort her.
"Luna, it will be fine. If we hadn't let Dr. Gero take Azami,
she wouldn't have been strong enough to become Cosmos. And Yukai has
lead a very good life. I wish we could have raised them too, but you
know the queen wouldn't let us." He caressed Luna's cheek, raising her
face so he could look at her. "They are both wonderful young women now.
Let's go meet them again." Luna nodded finally, smiling faintly.
"Kassan! Tousan! I'm ready!" The couple looked towards the
stairs as their seventeen-year-old daughter rushed down, her gray wavy
hair flying behind her. She slipped her house slippers off quickly,
dipping her feet into her boots and pulling the zipper on both up.
Looking back at her parents, she released another bright smile. "I
can't wait to see Azami-neesan and Yukai-neesan again!"
"So you don't think I'm the princess the sailor senshi think I
am?" 14 asked, staring at Umi. The younger woman nodded, her eyes
meeting the android's.
"You and Yukai share a soul. I believe it was split in two in
your last life as you died. From what I saw, you possess the part of
that original soul that can become Sailor Cosmos. Yukai's is that of
the original Princess Serenity, as well as that of Sailor Moon."
14 looked at Yukai. The CC employee was watching Umi talk, and
was clearly avoiding 14's gaze. Even without the eye contact that
spurred the longing earlier in the living room, 14 could still strongly
feel an attraction to this other woman.
"Take it." Yukai finally met 14's eyes, widened in shock that
they were. 14 chuckled, smirking at her surprise. "I never wanted to be
anyone's princess. But I'd watch out. I think the title of princess
comes complete with your own stalker. That Tuxie guy has been after me
since he found out who I was. If I didn't know I could beat him to a
pulp anytime I wanted, it'd frighten me."
"Hey Ririna! I thought you had classes this afternoon." The
woman ignored the man that spoke to her and continued to walk, almost
zombie-like, towards the Capsule Corp building in the distance. Others
like her made their way through the crowd on the sidewalks, unaware,
uncaring of the results their brushing against other people gave their
master.
Many of the puppets carried a touch of Shis's own ki, an
experiment of a sort that the Seline tried. Those puppets not only were
slightly stronger then their human counterparts, but it seemed when
they came in contact with the flesh of another human, Shis gained a
touch of their ki. With a whole army of these puppets, he would never
have to hunt again. Making enough puppets for him to gain the energy he
wanted though would take far too long. His primary targets were still
the sayijins.
"So are we supposed to tell everyone?" Yukai asked softly,
looking between 14 and Umi.
"Your choice. I don't really care."
"What don't you care about?" a male voice asked. 17 stepped up
to join the small group outside and, standing beside 14, placed his
elbow on her shoulder to lean on. 14, with a normal expression, stepped
out from under his arm, smirking only when he stumbled to keep from
falling.
"Well, it seems I am only Sailor Cosmos. This girl here is
actually Sailor Moon as well as the Moon Princess."
"Does that mean your stalker will back off?"
"Probably."
"I'm still not sure who you mean by your stalker," Yukai asked
nervously. If it meant someone was going to be following her around
everywhere and she would be in danger, she didn't know if she wanted to
be any kind of princess or senshi!
"Tuxedo Kamen, aka Chiba Mamoru," 14 said, sighing. "Apparently
he had been Sailor Moon's boyfriend, and if I remember right, he and
the princess were lovers in his past life. I never got the memories
back of us being a couple, so I didn't feel like I owed him a
relationship." 14 shrugged. "Besides, I'd already trapped myself with
this baka by then." She chuckled as she felt 17 glare at her.
"Is a new shift coming on or something?" Umi's words broke the
others out of their personal thoughts as they noticed the crowd of
people walking up to the CC building.
"It's about five, so people should be leaving. Only a few
people work at night," Yukai said, frowning as she watched the people.
"It looks like they are going to fall asleep where they are though.
Something isn't right."
They were all too occupied by the crowd to notice Yukai's
crescent moon necklace flash brightly under her shirt.
There goes another chapter! Aren't you proud of me? I even
bashed Mamoru a little bit! And that means a lot, as I really do like
him. *grins* And Ririna too! I've never seen the series GW, but I have
seen Endless Waltz. And I just wanted to kill her for holding MY Hiiro
near the end! Sure, it wasn't really bashing, but I wanted someone I
don't like under Shis's power.
Things becoming a little bit more clear now? You guys know who
is who yet?
~Jade Nova
moon_archer82@lunap.com