A Chance For...Something...
Author's Ramblings: Redemption. Renewal. A new self-image. Have you
ever wanted a chance for those things? Or a chance to just be a little
changed after a single episode effects your life? Well, welcome to an
episode that will think on those questions. An episode with many
funnier parts. And more serious parts. And some goofy stuff that only
we could write!
--Kate and Christina--
There will be some ODD foreshadowing in the episode. Just a warning.
Perfect pitch is a gift sought after by any and all musicians. It is
the ability to sense, without knowing any better, if a note is sharp or
flat--even by the smallest bit--and only one of every 200-odd people
have it... Or some number pretty close to that.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
When you last saw G.S.Stories...
Alice spent the night at Richard and Lyra's, decided that she
would never fall in love, turned down a prom date, and somehow managed
to accidentally convince her mother that she was gay. They fought some
lovely bad guys. Tara was teased and, at the episode's end, cut her
hair. Mina decided to get little Cassiopeia to be a spy. And Ambriel
wanted a book of prophecy.
And that, my friends, is where the story begins...
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Oh my GOD!" screamed the blue-haired seventeen-year-old, dashing
from her bedroom and into the living room while waving a sheet of paper
above her head. "Look at this!" she yelled to the sleeping woman, who
laid on the plush brown couch.
Opening a single brown eye, Marie Urawa yawned and stretched.
"Gee, thanks for letting me spend my Saturday in peace like I so
requested," she mumbled with a sigh and a shake of her head. "After
all, job hunting is most certainly NOT a tiring sport."
Phoebe ignored her aunt's grumbles and dangled the sheet of paper
in front of the woman. "You won't be saying that once you read this!"
she contested stubbornly, one hand on her hip. "I, Phoebe Solaria
Urawa, am going to be a movie star!"
"WHAT?!" Marie sat straight up and snatched the sheet away from
her niece. Her brown eyes grew wide as she skimmed it once. "'Phoebe
Urawa is cordially invited to audition for a role in our new movie,
Star Struck, a daringly different sci-fi film about love and redemption
in outer space.'" She furrowed her brow and glanced up at the teen, her
silver hair falling into her eyes. "Is this for real?"
A smile crossed the charming features of the girl as she flipped
a few of her six braids haughtily and stuck her nose into the air. "Not
only is it real," she bragged, "but I'm going to try out. It's next
week."
"Is it worth it, though?" questioned her aunt, studying the black
block letters upon the paper. "You'd have to film in America... And
leave all your friends..." Her brown eyes shone as she glanced up at
the teen. "Is it worth it, Phoebe?"
Yanking the letter from Marie, the girl scowled and folded it in
half. "I don't care!" she shot angrily, her eyes flaring suddenly. "I
am going to be an actress!" She sighed upon seeing the surprised,
slightly put-off expression on her aunt's face. "I know how awful it
sounds," she admitted with a shrug of her shoulders. "And it's not like
I want to ignore my friends...and my destiny..." Clenching one of her
fists and sticking her nose into the air with a hint of indignant
determination, she took a deep breath. "But this is my big break! And I
can't let destiny, friendship, or evil lackeys get in my way!" She cast
a gentle glance at her aunt. "Right?"
The woman shrugged and, brushing her silver bangs from her eyes,
laid back down on the couch. "Well, Pheebs, I can't make the decision
for you," she remarked noncommittally. "But, if I were you, I'd sit
down and think about what means the most to me." Her brown eyes gazed
up at the girl, who was once again staring at the letter. "And, if you
find that becoming a star and living out your dream is more important
than the destiny that you were born to have, then I can't stop you from
making that dream reality." She smiled gently and closed her eyes.
"It's all inside of you, my dear, and you've just got to find it."
"Well, I can think about it," uttered the teen, her voice weak
and breathless. "And, maybe I'll figure it all out." She looked down at
her aunt. "Thanks, Marie."
"No prob," returned the woman.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The book was far too big to sit in her lap, so she had set it on
the cool marble of the floor, the musty, dusty smell of it seeming to
fill the room. And, as she had done for nearly two weeks, she sat
cross-legged in front of the book, nearly doubled over herself, gray
eyes staring through tiny silver-rimmed glasses and reading every word.
A pink-nailed finger pointed at a paragraph. "See here, Carina?"
she questioned with a cock of her head, glancing over at the little
black kitten beside her. "It says: 'The ready warriors will be lead by
the girl dressed in gold. And when the darkness nears, it will be the
priestess who will save the world from destruction.'" She smiled and
pushed the glasses farther up on her nose. "Do you understand that
one?"
The kitten made a face. "Ambriel, you've been trying to teach me
this for weeks," she whined, blue eyes gazing at the words without
comprehension. "I'm not Ara, you know."
"But it's not that hard!" protested the child, crossing her arms
in exasperation. "All it says is that the Chibi-Scouts will be lead by
a 'girl in gold' and that the priestess, who is one of the Chibi-
Scouts, will save the world." She tossed her braid over her shoulder
and pulled from under the tome a sheet of white paper. "In my studies,
I've found that the 'ready Guardians'--you guys, the third generation--
protect the 'ready warriors'. That would be us Chibi-Scouts. And as for
the priestess... Well, I don't know who she is. Yet." Her little hand
found a pencil and scrawled down a few more notes. "But I've never seen
this gold reference before."
Footsteps echoed on the floor, and Ambriel shoved her notes atop
the open page and slammed the book shut upon hearing them. Her gray
eyes glanced up just in time to see her visitors.
"We've been looking all over for you!" scolded Lisa, hands on her
hips as her azure eyes glared down at the child. "We're nearly an hour
late for lunch!"
She glanced up at Helios, who nodded solemnly. "Serenity and
Endymion both want to see you, young lady," he reported to her. "You've
not shown up to lunch ever since you got that book." He gazed down at
the great brown-covered volume, silver eyebrows knitting together.
"What is that thing, anyway?"
"Nothing!" insisted Carina suddenly, stepping forward. She
wrinkled her little pink nose at the two newcomers. "Now, if you'll
just wait outside, Master Helios, Lisa and I will dress Ambriel for
lunch."
He looked doubtfully at the cat and then the young woman beside
him. "She looks fine," he contested stubbornly. Two blue eyes glared at
him, and he shook his head. "If Reeny were here..."
The little girl stood up and wagged a finger at him. "But she's
not, young man," Ambriel shot back at him, tossing her head about. "You
should learn that she does have to go to college and that there is
nothing--absolutely nothing--that the three of us can do about it." She
beamed, pleased with herself. "Right?"
Groaning in both annoyance and defeat, Helios tramped out of the
room, shaking his head.
"You know better than to be messing around with the prophecy,"
scolded Lisa once the door had closed. She pulled open one of the
drawers to the child's enormous bureau. "Diana yelled at you days ago
for it."
Shoving the book underneath her canopy bed, Ambriel sighed and
pulled off her glasses. "She didn't," challenged the girl stubbornly,
placing her glasses on the nearest table. "She just said that I am not
to CHANGE the prophecy. STUDYING never hurt anybody."
"Still," argued the kitten as she watched Ambriel pull off her
slightly dusty gown, "you shouldn't be doing this behind her back." She
sniffed the discarded clothing and grimaced. "Besides, you're starting
to smell like that book."
Lisa supplied the child with a clean white skirt and a gray
sweater. "And, if Reeny or Serenity or Endymion found out..." She
shuddered and brushed a strand of blonde hair from her eyes. "Well, I
don't want to think about that, Ambriel," she ventured in an
apprehensive tone. "There's a good chance that we could all get in a
lot of trouble."
Ambriel smoothed her skirt and then sunk into a chair, sighing.
"I shouldn't have started with this in the first place," she admitted
softly, tucking her knees to her chin. "But, now that I'm involved, I
can't very well escape all this. I've done it for a reason, and--though
I don't know what it is--I've got to see it through." She glanced out
the window and down at Crystal Gardens, smiling at the fountain of
Serenity. "This concerns me more than anything."
Carina joined her on the couch. "Then how come you can't find
even one reference about yourself?" she questioned with a giggle.
"That's got to mean SOMETHING."
"Oh, I'm in there," responded the girl, her voice breathless as
she patted her cat on the head. "I don't know where, yet, or how I got
there, but I'm in that prophecy and nothing can be done about it."
Considering this, the handmaiden wiped her hands on her thick
wool skirt and glanced at the child. Her eyebrows rose on their own
accord as she studied the red braid, smiling gray eyes, and flawless
pale complexion. Could she be the priestess that the prophecy
mentioned? The girl was, after all, to be some sort of priestess... She
shook her head quickly. Surely, the first Angel Moon would have told
her about THAT.
"Come on, you two," Lisa suddenly ventured, breaking a soft,
strange silence that had fallen over the room. "Let's go to lunch."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Lyra's eyebrows flew to the ceiling. "MA sent you?" she gaped,
staring at the short blonde nine-year-old with wide, doubtful gold-
brown eyes. "Why in the world would she do that?"
Staring at the floor, Celeste shrugged and scuffed her feet
together thoughtfully, her pink tongue darting nervously across her
lips. She was silent for a long moment, as though no answer, however
truthful, would be good enough.
And then, she glanced up at her sister, unwanted tears boiling in
her green eyes. "I don't KNOW," she choked, voice almost angry as she
stared at her sister. "Ma just all of a sudden said that I should come
over and I didn't know what to think of it!"
With a slightly sad smile, Lyra sighed and led her sister to the
couch. "I didn't mean it like that," she apologized quickly, biting her
lower lip in thought. "It's just that... Ma is so very over-protective
of this whole thing and..."
"Do you love him more than you love us?"
She furrowed her brow and looked at the silent girl. "Wha... What
did you just say?" she stammered, shocked. "Did you just ask if I... If
I love Rich... More than..."
"If you love Richard more than you love our family." She spat the
second syllable of the young man's name as though it were a horribly
stern cuss word. "I just want to know if you do. I mean..." She sighed
and glanced away, studying the few potted plants that sat on a low
windowsill, basking in the afternoon sun. "Ma says that you left
because he was more important," she clarified softly, studying the
rather scantly decorated room, "and I was just curious if it was true."
Lyra laced her fingers together, staring down at her hands. Maybe
some of it was... She blinked, as though she was slowly coming to
understand the truth. Could it be that she suddenly realized that
Richard just meant more than her family? Was that what a destined love
felt like?
She let out a long sigh. "In a way," she admitted softly, "Rich
is more important. He holds in his hands my life, my heart, and my
destiny." She reached out and gently touched one of her sister's corn-
yellow pigtails, nearly crying out when the girl tossed her head and
scooted down on the couch, out of her reach. "But, beyond that, I think
that the real truth is that I just figured out what I wanted."
Tears streamed down Celeste's face as she heard these words, and
she tossed her head indignantly, rising from the couch. Her hands were
clenched into fists as her crying, angry eyes glared at her sister.
"How could you say that, Lyra?" she sobbed, wiping one of her eyes with
the butt of her left hand. "How could you even say that HE meant more
than us?"
"I never said that!" challenged Lyra loudly, standing and staring
down the younger girl. "I said that I figured out what I wanted! And I
wanted to live my whole life!" Her voice cracked, and her eyes watered
up suddenly. "Do you know how damn hard it is to live in a house with
ten people and still be able to breathe? Or DREAM?" She kicked the
couch in frustration. "I can't stand being under Ma's watchful eyes
twenty-four hours a day! To feel her breathing down my neck and to feel
her eyes on me! And to know that she's looking at my life with more
disdain than anyone could understand!" The tears fell freely down her
cheeks, and her vision blurred. All she could make out was the form of
a sweet, short girl. "I don't know why she's so protective, but I HATE
it! I HATE IT!"
Suddenly, arms wrapped around her waist and a head buried itself
in her chest. She wiped her clouded vision free of tears and gazed down
at a sobbing, shaking Celeste. Smiling slightly, she let the tears
continue and smoothed the soft pigtails of her sister's hair. "It's
alright, 'Leste..."
The girl kept crying. "I'm awful, Lyra! I'm an awful person to...
to treat you like I have and..." She pulled her face away from the
teen's sweater and looked up at her. "I'm just...VERY...sorry." Her
green eyes sparkled with tears as she stared up. "I never understood
why you left," she admitted, voice still shaky, "and I guess that I
just assumed..."
"Everybody jumped to conclusions when I moved out," her elder
sister informed her, smiling slightly. "The truth is that..." She
shrugged and shook her head sadly. "I'm a grown up now, 'Leste. And
grown ups..."
There was the harsh peal of the telephone and Lyra pulled herself
from her sister's grasp just long enough to lean over and pull the
phone from the hook. "Hello? Hi, Mrs. Yuuichirou... She's WHAT? Run
off? But that's not like Tara... Hasn't been acting herself? Hmm...
Well, after the hair incident... I see. Yeah. I'd be glad too. Mmm-hmm.
Bye." She hung it up, face a ghostly shade of white.
"What was that?" questioned Celeste, cocking her head to one
side.
Waving a hand, the older girl rooted around in the end table's
single drawer, pulling out a both a pencil and a scrap of paper
frantically. "Tara's run off... Completely disappeared..." She sighed
and started scrawling a note down on the piece of paper. When she was
finished, she glanced over to see her younger sister, still frozen in
place. She made a face. "Get your shoes on! We're both going!"
The little blonde girl rushed to the front foyer and pulled her
tennis shoes on frantically. "What's wrong with Tara?" She asked,
cocking her head to one side and staring at her sister.
Lyra sighed and groped for her boots. "It's a long story, but
she's gone and cut her hair."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"But this is boring, Aeris!" whined Peter, sitting cross-legged
upon the thick cloud-floor that spread out before them. That was really
all there was as far as the eye could see: clouds. Occasionally, a
white pillar dotted the bleak horizon, and even in the thick mist, the
outline of a large marble door, white as the fresh-fallen snow in
Tokyo, could be seen.
Yet Peter Chiba sat upon the ground, his chin resting in his
hands as he stared at his discarded Time Key. His red eyes were dull
with the pain and loneliness of sheer boredom, and his tuxedo and cape
were dusty from that day's training. His mother and father had long
since returned to the home which the Outer Mistresses all shared, but
his sister had insisted that they remain at the Gate. The boring,
lousy, cold, old Gate of Time.
The girl in the Sailor fuku rolled her eyes and thumped her Time
Key on the ground. "It is completely imperative that we, as the future
Guardians and rulers of this very place, earn a certain familiarity
with the Gate of Time." She took in a deep breath through her nostrils,
her colorful eyes half-closed. "Are you able to feel the slow shifts
which are occurring in the Time-Space Continuum?" she asked of him
softly, unmoving. "In the past, that very past which the Planet
Mistresses have shared, there is about to be a massive undertaking of
epic proportions." She glanced at her sibling, her face an unbreakable
mask of stone. "And they are going to need the aid of our mother in
order to succeed."
He furrowed his brow. "They're going to take Mom away from us?" he
questioned, staring at her with little comprehension in his eyes. "How
could they take her from us?"
Aeris giggled, very out of character for her. Peter stared at the
laughing girl, cocking his head to one side and raising a single brown
eyebrow. She was Chibi-Pluto. She didn't laugh...
And then, he saw it. The single glistening of one tear as it
rolled down her pale cheek and fell slowly to the ground.
"Aeris?"
"I do not know!" she suddenly cried out, her soprano lilt lifting
to the air and carrying across the empty space in odd, eerie echoes. Her
knees buckled, and she landed on the ground, little bits of cloud and
dust swirling around her suddenly. "I do not know what is going to
happen, Peter! That is what so worries me!"
Clambering to his feet, the boy crossed the thirty-odd feet to his
twin sister and knelt beside her. What was going on? Was this some kind
of unexpected foreshadowing of what was yet to come? She was Sailor
Chibi-Pluto--the strong one, the smart one, the one who was far tougher
than he. And yet, she was the one upon her knees, sobbing endless tears
and mumbling words that could not be clearly heard nor understood.
He wrapped a cautious arm around his sister. "It'll be alright,
Aeris," he whispered, pulling her into his embrace and holding her
there, just hoping that, at least for this one moment in time, she
could forget about being Pluto and just be a normal girl. "Mom can't go
too far from us. She has to train us..."
"And the past?" she glanced at him, colorful eyes both angry and
frightened at the exact same time. Peter smiled slightly, and a part of
her smiled to, whether she knew it or not.
With a shrug, the Master of Time in Training patted his sister's
head. "Who needs the past? This, sis, is the present."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Tara's missing?" asked Alice doubtfully, furrowing her brow as
she stared out through the kitchen window and at the city of Tokyo.
"Well, no, Lyra, I can't say that I've seen her." She sighed and wrapped
the phone cord around her fingers slowly, nodding as she listened to her
friend's anxious pleas for help. "I wish I could come with you, but..."
She glanced at the visitor who sat at the kitchen table. Fierce, upset
green eyes stared back. Alice gulped and sighed. "I'll keep my eyes open
for her, Lyra. Bye..."
As the elder girl hung up the phone, the visitor exhaled deeply
and continued to gaze at her friend. "I know that you don't like to lie
to the others," she admitted with a shrug of her shoulders. "But I
couldn't very well turn to Lyra this time. She has, after all, a
destined love and a life, two things I think I'm lacking."
Alice's brown eyes sized up her companion. The girl was tall,
perhaps five-foot-seven or eight, and she had the most intimidating
green eyes--they sparkled with the air of mystery and truth at the very
same time. Her blackish-purple locks had once flowed down to her knees
but now hung roughly at the level of her ears, longer in some places
than in others. She wore a large white T-shirt and a pair of wide-
legged, too-big jeans that looked nearly ready to fall off. She
looked... She didn't look like herself.
"Do you think they won't understand?" Alice cautiously asked,
sitting across the table from her friend. "They've all been through it,
you know. People have made their lives living hells before, and I don't
think it fair..."
"Hey, if you don't want to be saddled with the responsibility of
being stuck the likes of me," shot back the other, "that's no skin off
my nose." She rose quickly to her feet and started toward the front
door. "In fact, I should be going home to his and her excellency."
Jumping to her feet, the auburn-haired girl followed her friend to
the door. "You can't act like this!" she protested sternly. "They're
going to get worried!"
"Let 'em worry," snorted the tall one, pulling on her shoes. "I've
never been the least concerned about the lot of them!"
"That's not true!" persisted Alice loudly, clenching her fists.
The green eyes scrutinized her face for a moment, and she felt a strange
mix of anger and downright fondness boil in the pit of her stomach.
She'd HATED this girl! And now, here she was, lying for her... Defending
her... Trying as hard as she could to be on this AWFUL girl's side...
"That's just not true, and you know it!" she contested angrily, her gaze
lowering to a glare. "I didn't like you at first, but you have got to
believe me when I say that we all do care about you!"
Her face slightly sad, the other girl blinked and glanced at the
floor, features turning soft. She laid a hand upon her own cheek for a
long moment, and she bit her lower lip. The green gaze welled up with
tears. "But can five people really be all I have in the world?" she
asked softly, glancing up at the other teen. Alice remained quiet.
"Thought so."
And the door clicked shut.
Staring after her friend, the older of the two teens wiped tears
from her brown eyes and gulped back the ones that had not yet come.
"Tara..." she whispered after her friend, hardly loud enough for her own
ears to hear her silent plea. "Tara, what is wrong with you?"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"So, one of the Silly Scouts is having an identity crisis!" He
glanced up from the fish bowl, his lips curved into a sardonic smile.
"I could use that..."
Laughter rang out from behind him and he turned on his heal to
see Tina, her black hair rimming her laughing face. "Trying to see the
future in the fish bowl?" she asked rhetorically, her white teeth
gleaming in a perfectly evil grin. "What happened, did you give up on
the toilet bowl?"
Arthur wrinkled his nose and turned away, sprinkling a few
multicolored flakes into the top of the bowl absently. "For your
information," he shot back, head high and voice confident, "I was
getting ready to stage an attack on the littlest Sailor Scout."
"Who?" inquired Tina, cocking her head to one side and strolling
to stand behind the young man. "That weird angel-kid or the girl with
the purple stick?"
Wrinkling his nose once again, he shook his head. "No, no, the one
with the black hair..." Tina just stared at him, brown eyes wide. "The
one with the wave attack..."
"You mean Sailor Earth?" He nodded excitedly. She chortled
slightly at his enthusiasm. "Well, duh, she's not the littlest!"
He rolled his eyes. "Well, whatever." Picking up the bowl, he
stared at the large, healthy goldfish that swam in idle circles. "I
think that she's weak."
His counterpart shrugged and plopped down in a chair. "You'd hope
so, wouldn't you?" Arthur glanced at her nervously, face blank. Tina
smiled coyly. "Well, I heard the Queen talking and I don't think that
she's all-too-impressed with your performance of late." She smirked
knowingly. "I mean, zip-of-two? Come on, Arty, even Kevin could have
done better!"
"I injured one!" he defended quickly, brown eyes wide with fear.
"She busted up her knee and was limping and..."
"I'm sure we'd all be real impressed," continued Tina in a kind
tone, her face apologetic, "if this wasn't such a desperate search. But
let's not kid ourselves, here. This is a real big deal to the Queen, and
I can't let her down." She stood and sighed, shaking her head solemnly.
"I am to tell you," she informed him dryly, "that any further mistakes
means your head on a pike."
"But..."
Tina put a finger to his lip, silencing him. "So, have fun in
Hell. And we'll send you a postcard when we actually care."
She disappeared in a flash of blue light.
Arthur kicked at the air angrily. "Damn it!" he swore in
frustration. "Just... DAMN IT!"
Then, another smile crossed his lips, more evil than the first.
"But, if I CAN beat the Sailor Scouts and if I DO find the crystal, then
Ginnie can't kick me out." He beamed. "Well then. How hard could that
be?"
And his triumphant, if cocky, laughter echoed throughout the dark
palace.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Ambriel? Are you feeling alright?"
The little red-haired girl straightened suddenly, having not
noticed that she'd been slouching so. Her gray eyes, slightly lifeless,
glanced at the beautiful goddess of Crystal Tokyo. She nearly dropped
her fork--that woman's eyes could bring any and all emotions known to
humankind bubbling to the surface in a single azure flash. It was, to
the child, amazing.
She nodded solemnly at the Queen, still slowly pushing the pasta
around her plate slowly, face a bit too pale. "Yes, Ma'am," she told the
woman in a reverent tone. "I was just a bit caught up in my thoughts."
Chortling slightly, Serenity pushed a strand of silken hair from
her face and stared across the table. The girl stared back, almost
challengingly. "Now, Ambriel, as a princess here..."
"I'm no princess," she responded dryly. "I am just the daughter of
an angel."
Confusion knit Helios' brow as he turned his azure gaze toward the
child beside him. She did not notice his glance as she continued to
look at the Queen.
A small smile lit Serenity's face. She set her spoon down upon the
massive oak table of the royal dining room and folded her hands gingerly
in her lap. "And what makes you think that being an angel is nothing
impressive?"
A glint of mischief sparkled in Ambriel's eyes. "Well, I was
curious about something, to be honest," she admitted with a somber
smile. "Maybe you could enlighten me."
From under the table, there was a sound that seemed like a cross
between a mew and a groan. "Ambriel..."
At the windowsill, a pink cat that had been sleeping glanced up.
"Where am I in all the prophecy, Serenity?"
The King of the Earth, who was seated, silently, beside his Queen,
coughed suddenly on his soup. Helios' knife and fork fell onto the white
china plates with a clatter. Lisa dropped a tray of drinks she'd been
carrying. Diana's red eyes grew large. Carina mumbled something about
stupidity from her spot at the girl's feet.
But the goddess of Crystal Tokyo remained calm and cool, her hands
still folded and face still the paragon of tranquility. Her smile had
quickly faded into a tiny frown, but her other features remained
completely unchanged. "You should not meddle in prophecy," she informed
the child, her voice level and cool. "I would have thought that your
guardian knew better."
There was a slight pause before chair legs scrapped at the cream-
colored tile floor. The redheaded girl stood and glared daggers at the
Queen. "You leave Carina out of this! This is about me!" She made a face
and glanced around the room. At Helios. At Lisa. At Endymion. At Diana.
And at the little black kitten at her feet. "What am I to amount to
when the 'Master of Time' and the 'Guardian of Time' and the 'girl in
gold'..."
"That's enough, Ambriel," interrupted the Queen, rising to her
feet. "I believe we should talk."
Both Helios and Endymion made motions to get up, but the blonde
woman held up a halting hand. "You two enjoy your meal," she commanded
stubbornly. "This girl and I, and her guardian and Diana must meet
alone." She glanced at Ambriel. "You can come. Or not come."
She held her head high and smiled slightly. "I will come," she
told the Queen of the Earth in a strong voice. "I owe that much to you."
Serenity smiled. "Why yes," she returned. "You do."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Do you know what day it is?" questioned a soft voice from a stool
at the large kitchen's island.
Glancing up from the refrigerator, Alexandra sighed and rolled her
gray-green eyes. "Don't even try to tell me that it's our anniversary,
Michi," she shot in an annoyed tone, "because I know that it's on
Christmas and, right now, it's the end of February."
The musician took a long bite out of her apple and chewed on it
thoughtfully, her eyes focusing on her wife. "Well, it sort of is," she
told the woman solemnly. "Just not the one that you're thinking of..."
Alex counted on her fingers for a brief moment, eyes going wide.
"That was today?"
"The first day," responded Michelle. "When Neptune saved you and
found her Uranus."
Silence overtook the room, but it was the sweet, companionable
type of silence that did more to relax the duo than to make them uneasy.
The tall blonde continued to root around in the fridge, and the smaller
woman continued to munch on the apple.
Footsteps echoed, coming down the back set of steps and into the
kitchen. Susan sighed and shook her head. "Those children have too much
Chiba blood in them," she commented ruefully, shaking her head of green-
black hair. "They stay at the Gate for three hours, only two of which
are training, and they fall asleep the instant their heads hit the
pillows."
Terrence crossed his arms over his sweatshirt and tossed his head.
"Well, I think they have too much..." She raised at eyebrow and glanced
at the couple in the kitchen. "Did we walk into a funeral?"
Shrugging, Alexandra pulled a container of antipasto salad out of
the fridge and set it down on the countertop. "Today's just a big day in
Senshi-land, Terry," she informed him bluntly, finding a fork in the
nearest drawer.
"Already?" questioned Susan, paling as she glanced at the calendar
that hung on the wall. Her red eyes went wide. "Wow. To think that the
original Sailor Scouts will start their battle against Tomoe soon..."
"Poor me," put in Hannah, entering the room with a half-asleep
Delaney in her arms. "I don't remember much about Neptune and Uranus..."
She glanced at her parents, purple eyes rather teary, and sighed. "Poor
me," she repeated soberly. "Poor, poor, me..."
The man in the room wrinkled his nose and glanced nervously at the
women. "Well, I would like to know what's going on!" he announced
stubbornly. "Stop talking in Mistress code and tell the husband of
Pluto!" He jumped up and down. "Tell me! Tell me! Tell..."
"And I wonder where Peter gets it," muttered Alex, mouth full of
pasta.
Her daughter shook her head. "Thank GOD that Aeris takes after her
mother."
Grabbing hold of her husband's hand, the Guardian of Time glowered
at the excited man, eyes intense. "In a few weeks, the original Sailor
Scouts will begin their fight against the Soldier of Destruction." She
sent a sorrowful glance at her niece. "The Inners will lack the
understanding of what is really going on. The Outers will be very..."
She gulped. "Heartless."
Stealing a noodle from the blonde's lunch, Terry nudged his
glasses on his face and shrugged. "Business as usual for the Outers,
then?" He glanced at his wife. Her face was still pale, and her body,
rigid. A sad, upset dull sat in her usually lively red eyes, and all
the mystery that was so alluring about her gave way to fear. He glanced
at the others, who were all avoiding eye contact with the Guardian of
Time. "WHAT?" he inquired, choking on the noodle. "Did I say something
wrong?"
"No," Michelle told him softly. "We're all just too caught up in
our memories."
Hannah nodded and rocked her baby back and forth. "They're
strong."
"Scary." Alex sighed and stirred her lunch.
Susan held her head high and took a deep breath. "Haunting..."
Terrence just raised an eyebrow and, wisely, let the subject drop.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Ambriel, do you know what you are?"
She paused and shrugged her shoulders, not daring to look up at
the beautiful woman. "I am an angel."
"No, you're not. You are Angel Moon."
The little girl cocked her head and glanced up at the Queen of the
Earth. Serenity's blue eyes were gentle as she stared out at the large,
bustling city from the top tower of the great Palace. A slightly sad,
though gentle, smile touched her face as she rested her hands on the
ledge before her and looked down at her people, who were rushing like
ants below her.
Ambriel brushed a strand of hair from her eyes. "Excuse me,
Ma'am?"
The great Queen turned and crouched down to the five-year-old's
level. "You want to know where you are in the prophecy?" she asked. The
girl nodded vigorously, and the woman sighed and straightened back up.
"Well, I cannot tell you that," she revealed in a quiet, apologetic
tone. "If you would like to study the prophecy, then you must know that
Angel Moon does not appear in it."
Diana's ears perked up as she gaped at her Queen. "Your Highness!"
she mewed quickly, with a wrinkle of her nose and an arrogant toss of
her head. "You cannot ENCOURAGE her to meddle in prophecy!"
Serenity sent the cat a glance that clearly said: 'I can encourage
whomever I please.' She smiled down at Ambriel and reached down a hand.
The girl flinched, but was only greeted by a soft hand stroking her
hair. She stared up, gray eyes large, not quite knowing what to expect
next.
"You like the prophecy, Ambriel?"
The girl nodded quickly. "Very much, Ma'am. It's interesting...
And I am lonely..."
From her spot beside her aunt, Carina beamed. "She knows a lot
about it, too!" she chimed in cheerily. "She's been trying to teach me
for weeks, and I don't get it! But she does!"
"This has been going on for WEEKS?!" exclaimed Diana, shooting a
red glare of annoyance at the younger cat. "Are you two both crazy?"
Pressing her pale lips together, the Queen once again too a long,
thoughtful look at her city. Her people. "I want you to keep studying
the prophecy, little one," she breathed, her voice catching in the wind
and carrying through the air. "If you can make some sense of it, you
have quite the gift. And if you have such a gift, I must support it."
She smiled slightly and turned her cerulean eyes toward the child. "But,
you have to study under the guidance of Diana. She is, after all, the
only person in this very Palace who..."
The pink cat mewed loudly and jumped up onto the wide ledge of the
window. "That's ludicrous, Your Highness!" she protested, her red eyes
looking over the tiny girl in disdain. "I am not training a five-year-
old girl in an ART that not even the most proficient scholars
understand! No! No way!" She tossed her head and stared up at the
vaulted ceiling of the small room, shivering as a breath of wind flew in
through one of the open windows.
"Diana..." warned the Queen, her hands on her hips. "I don't need
you being so contemptuous."
"Contemptuous? Who's being contemptuous?" quipped the cat, tone
still haughty. "I'm not WRONG to be angry! She's five years old!"
Carina rolled her blue eyes and looked up at the two humans and
the pink guardian. "I could guide her," she suggested in a cute voice.
Three pairs of eyes stared down at her, and she stepped backward
slightly. "If you wanted, of course, Miss Serenity, because even though
I'm her guardian, I am a kitten. And kittens," she babbled, face a bit
flushed, "aren't very good at prophecy. In fact, I don't understand it
at all and I don't know..."
"That's a very good idea," the Queen interjected, taking her stare
from the little cat and glancing at the pink one who sat in front of
her. "I like it very much."
Beaming, the kitten straightened her back. "Really?"
"Really," the Queen remarked. "And, while we're on the subject,
Diana, I have a new order for you."
With a haughty smile, the older of the two guardians stood and
bowed her head. "Yes, Highness?"
Serenity adjusted her tiara with an idle hand. "You, Diana," she
declared, "are going to be Carina's teacher."
The pink cat's red eyes went wide and she stared at the woman-
goddess. And her single word echoed through the tower and across the
Crystal Palace.
"WHAT?!"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
She walked alone. The afternoon sun, through thick and unyielding
clouds, lit the world with an eerie glow. Not many people were out in
the downtown area, she noted as she passed a young couple with a child.
It was too cold out for most, even if it was the end of February. And
she didn't like such weather. The clouds seemed to hang low, close to
the Earth. HER Earth. She shivered and pulled her thick, green coat
closer to her body.
They were out looking for her. Why? She didn't quite know. Since
when had they cared? Sure, Alice had lied for her, but that was Alice.
Alice was like that. As for the rest of them...
At least the kids at school didn't call her a temple shrew
anymore. True, her haircut wasn't the determining factor in their
sudden, if sweet, acceptance of her--it was simply a fair-weather thing
come from her not being seen at the temple for a few days. That had, of
course, been the plan; she holed herself up inside the house and didn't
talk to anyone, not even the other Scouts. But maybe...
"Mother is not MAD at me," Tara told herself sternly, pressing her
lips together. "She is just...not...pleased."
The winter wind swirled around her as she stopped for the bright
'don't walk' sign. There was no sign of life on the street; it was as
though the whole world had closed down that Saturday afternoon but no
one bothered to inform her of it. She thrust her hands in her pockets.
One knuckle hit against the Locket of the Earth, and she gripped it, a
sort of security washing over her being. At least she was safe.
There was a flash of green light and she found herself face-to-
face with a pair of evil looking brown eyes. Tara gasped and took a long
step back, her iron fist around the disc tightening as the man placed
his hands on his hips and smiled gently at the teen. "Well, well, well,"
he chortled, batting his eyelashes behind thick glasses. "What do we
have here?"
She gulped. "Nothing, sir," she quickly responded, nodding her
head as though she was talking to a much elder patrons of her parents
temple... Damn! Why did the temple always pop into her mind at the
oddest moments? She blinked and cleared her head of the ensuing cobwebs.
"I'm just a lonely girl on my way home..."
"Oh, really?" he mocked, folding his hands and resting them on his
stomach. "Or are you Sailor Earth?"
Bristling, she did not respond.
Arthur laughed and tossed his head. "You see, I'm not dumb," he
told her, pacing up and down the small stretch of sidewalk before her.
"I can recognize you Scouts. It's not hard." He cocked his head and her
and winked. "Especially with those enchanting green eyes, Miss Earth."
Tara took another long step back. If she planned it right...
"So, what do you say?" he asked sweetly. "Turn in your friends,
maybe fight on the side of evil, and reap the benefits when Ginnie takes
over the universe?" He winked scandalously at her. "It's really a lot
of fun, you know. Being evil."
One more step... Her left foot moved slowly backward...
"And, maybe, one of us boys will take you under our wing. There's
a lot you could learn from us."
She felt pavement and glanced up. The building beside her was
short... Short enough.
Her knees bent and she launched herself into the air, eyeing the
rooftop. A smile crossed her face as the man wrinkled his nose and began
to float into the air, rising slowly. "You can run, Earthy, but you
can't hide."
Pulling the locket from its confinement in her jeans, she
shrugged. "I just needed to buy a little time," she told him cockily.
"Oh?"
The gold glimmered in the pale light. "Earth Galactic Power...
Make UP!"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
She sat straight up in her bed, pushing the thick quilt off her
tiny body and glancing nervously around the room. Her lights were off,
the shades were drawn, and everything was as it should be.
But why, then, was her heart racing? And why was her delicate brow
dripping sweat?
Springing from the bed, she pushed her feet into her thick, black
slippers and grabbed the tiny metal wand that laid on the nearby desk.
It looked absolutely innocent and sweet, but it pulsated with a
frightening warmth. She very nearly dropped it on the floor.
Quietly, she slipped out of the room and started down the hall.
She could hear voices--no doubt that of the adults--in the kitchen, and
there was a shower running on the next floor. She shivered, her wool
sweater no longer as warm as it was meant to be. When had she fallen
asleep? It couldn't have been more than an hour ago.
She strode past the bathroom and her parent's room, walking toward
the last door in the hallway. She rapped twice on the wood, the dull
hollow sound echoing through her ears even after the door swung open.
"Danger?" she questioned, her eyes wide and alert.
The brunette boy pulled the door shut behind him and stood beside
her in the hallway. They stared at one another for a long moment,
neither moving, and then he nodded. "Did you feel it?"
Aeris nodded solemnly and held her transformation stick to him.
"My wand is unbearably warm," she told him, tongue darting to lick her
lips. "And it has a pulse of some sort. It beats in synchronization
with..." She swallowed and stared at Peter, her muscles tensing. "It
fits the pounding of my heart."
With a slight shudder, he sent a meaningful glance her way.
"Haley's in the shower upstairs," he informed his sister blandly. "I
don't know if she knows..."
"She is the Sailor Scout of the Comets," retorted the small girl,
pushing a strand of green-black hair from her face. "If she is yet
oblivious to the peril that one of the others is in, she is not meant to
have such knowledge." Her brother's eyes sparked with confusion, and she
sighed. "If she doesn't know, too bad."
Peter grinned. "Okay then!" he cheered, running toward the
staircase. "Let's go!"
Rolling her eyes, Aeris followed.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
If she could just run... If she could just run faster than he
could... If only her legs would stop turning to jelly with each step and
actually show some gumption. If only...
A bolt of green energy crackled in the air, warming the left side
of her face with its fierce power. She felt her pounding heart pick up
the pace. She felt her mental wall waver.
So there she was, Sailor Earth, tearing through downtown with that
evil brunette man only steps behind her. And he was throwing bolts of
energy.
Leaping atop a phone booth and then onto the nearest building, she
gasped for breath and suddenly wanted to smack herself upside the head.
What was she doing? She was the Sailor Scout of the Earth. Sure,
maybe there wasn't a whole lot of firepower involved by throwing
thunderstorms and waves around, but she was a defender of justice. She
couldn't run. She HAD to fight. It was within her soul.
"Giving up so easily?" questioned Arthur, black boots clicking on
the rooftop as he gracefully landed a short ten feet from her. "I would
have thought a Sailor Scout would have more...guts...than that."
Earth tried to flip a strand of hair behind her back, but caught
only air. Shaking her head, she took a deep breath and glared at him,
green eyes flashing with hate. "I'm not giving up," she spat at him
stubbornly. "I'm just not running anymore."
He laughed. "You're that stupid, eh?" Shrugging his shoulders, he
stretched out his long arms and focused his brown eyes upon her. From
between his palms, there was a glimmer of green, which she instinctively
knew to be the beginnings of a bolt of energy. She pressed her pink lips
together. If she timed it just right...
"ARG!" Arthur's battle cry rang through the air as the beam of
green shot toward her.
Earth held out a hand. "TSUNAMI!"
The water and energy met and mingled, each holding the other at
bay. The heat from the evaporating wave of liquid was excruciatingly
painful, but she held her ground. Occasionally, the man would groan, but
he was trapped in the same ludicrous battle of wills she was.
An echo of footfalls sounded, and Sailor Earth knew that it was
the other Sailors. "Don't just stand there!" she roared, unable to break
her gaze from Arthur's. "Kill him!"
The four Scouts that had arrived all glanced at one another
nervously. Sailor Moon glanced down at her saber. Angel Moon stared,
awestruck, at the goings on. Polaris and Chibi-Star just pulled their
eyes from their friend, afraid to act.
"But, Earth," protested Moon with a sad gleam in her red eyes.
"We could hurt you..."
Her shaky, breathless voice hardly carrying over the melee as she
fought, Sailor Earth turned her head slightly toward that of her
friends. "Listen, no matter what life's like, we're the Sailor Scouts!
We can't give in to defeat, no matter what's going on. We've been shaky
as jellyfish and we just CAN'T be like that!" She grunted and more water
poured from her hands. "Those monsters," she went on, "should have been
easy for us. But we're so out of practice that we forget about the guts
and spunk we're supposed to have as Scouts."
Arthur's energy stream suddenly stopped and he doubled over. The
wave of water soared over his head and just barely missed him, splashing
on the deserted sidewalk below. He glared up at them, brown eyes wide as
he panted for breath. "You may think that you're tough, Sailor Brats,
but there's more to me than meets the eye."
He disappeared in a flash of green light.
"Yeah," snorted Chibi-Star, hands on her hips. "And he goes and
calls US wimps!"
Sailors Chibi-Pluto, Phoenix, and Aurora Borealis came running
across the roof, followed closely by the Master of Time and Comet. "What
went on here?" inquired Comet, making a face. "Did we miss all the
action?"
"Well, if you hadn't been in the shower..." began Peter, but he
was silenced by a stern glare from his twin sister.
Removing her tiara and wiping the thick layer of sweat from her
brow, Sailor Earth smiled weakly at the fierce-hearted brunette. "Yes,
but I have something to say."
"She thinks that we've lost our gumption to fight, Scouts,"
laughed Sailor Moon, a smile crossing her pale face. "Isn't that the
funniest thing you guys have ever heard?" She glanced out at the group
of stern-faced soldiers and grimaced. "Guys?" They all avoided her eye
contact. "Will somebody PLEASE back me up?"
Polaris wrapped a strand of curly blonde hair around her index
finger. "We have been a bit...weak...of late..." She glanced at her
bandaged knee and sighed. Wordlessly, she reached down and pulled the
white cloth off, revealing thirteen half-healed stitches. "What's a
couple of stitches when you're a Sailor Scout?"
"And maybe we just were giving up too easily to the sushi
monsters," put in Aurora Borealis, turning her eyes to focus on the
horizon. "I mean, if I'd thought of just using my shining attack instead
of worrying about not being killed, then maybe..."
Moon stuck out her lower lip and turned away. "Whose side are you
guys ON?" she questioned, moping.
Sailor Earth beamed. "See? I told you! But we've got a chance to
beat Arthur at his own game!"
"Yeah!" agreed Chibi-Pluto, a large smile gracing her face. "If
he's been tricked into believing we're all weak, and then we strike as
one, we can't possibly lose!" Everyone glanced at her in shock. "What?"
Angel Moon beamed. "A second chance!"
Phoenix's face fell for a moment as she stared at her group of
friends, but she shook off the feeling of despair she felt to smile
weakly. "And a chance for...something..."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Miss Mokoti?"
Lyra glanced up from her book to meet a fierce blue-eyed gaze.
Smiling, she nodded her head slightly. "Yes, Mrs. Neckowa?" she asked
of her plump, cheery literature teacher. "May I help you?"
The woman's usually bright face was darkened by a deep frown. In
her hands she held a thick packet of papers, which the young woman
immediately recognized as her one-hundred-point literary essay. Seeing
her always happy teacher frown made her frown, too.
Mrs. Neckowa handed her student the papers. "I asked for a four-
thousand-word paper on your favorite literary work, Lyra," she told the
teen sternly, her azure orbs lowered in a cross between a glare and a
saddened, disappointed glance. "I failed to see how 'Code Name: Sailor
V--The Complete Manga Collection' had a real life application." She
cleared her throat and placed her hands on her nearly unnoticeable hips.
"'The trials and errors of one teenage superheroine can teach the future
generations of the Earth to live a little, for the world cannot be
lived by closing your eyes and giving up,'" quoted the woman expertly.
"I did not approve, and I marked you down accordingly."
As her teacher strode away to suck the spirit from her next
victim, the curly-haired blonde took a deep breath and touched the edge
of the essay's cover. Lyra's mind was racing and she could feel her
heart leap into her throat. It was now or never. Her entire body froze,
muscles tight with worry.
And she turned the page.
Merry little red marks, all circles and cross outs and question
marks danced across the vast white. She flipped to the next page, eyes
widening as she saw the exact same things. And on the next... And the
next...
Seven pages, completely covered with red. Brown eyes brimmed with
tears of despair. Hopelessness. Hurt. She'd poured her soul into the
essay. It was, after all, her favorite type--the kind where a girl could
put her innermost thoughts to work and make them live a new life. A life
of immortality. In words. Sure, maybe she wasn't the world's greatest
writer, but this was a literary essay. A essay in one of her favorite
classes ever. And that was everything to her.
And the one last comment on the last page burned her eyes.
'Superheroes, Lyra, are not real.' How was Mrs. Neckowa to know that?
And who was to say what was real and what was fiction? She was, after
all, leading a life that would best be thought of as fiction. And she
was real.
Then, her brown eyes let go their aching prisoners. Her vision
blurred, but a single letter burned in her mind.
'F.'
* * * * * * * * * * * *
She sat in the hallway, her legs tucked up under her chin,
watching the clouds move across the darkening skyline. Beside her,
chomping merrily on her turkey sandwich and sipping green Kool-Aid from
a water bottle was Alice, just staring at her friend and not really
knowing what to say.
Tara had come, and Tara had gone in the first five minutes of
lunch, announcing that the popular girls had invited her to eat with
them and that she 'wasn't one to disappoint.' This left the duo in
complete silence.
"You know," commented Lyra finally, stretching her short legs and
opening her lunchbox, "maybe this is a sign that I should re-think my
whole life." She sighed and blinked back tears. "All my life, I've
turned to books. I've been such a nerd..."
The auburn-haired one furrowed her brow. "What do you mean by
that?" she asked softly. "You're not a nerd..."
Lyra shook her head. "My dream was to teach literature and to
travel the world. And, with Richard being just as big of a bookworm..."
She popped a potato chip in her mouth. "Maybe I've been looking at life
from the wrong direction."
"Maybe," agreed Alice thoughtfully. "I mean, look at me! I've
wanted to be a veterinarian since the first time my mother said I
couldn't get a kitten, and today I dropped Ecology." Her blonde friend
gaped at her, raising an eyebrow. The taller girl put down her sandwich
and pulled a large brown tome that looked rather uninviting from her
book bag. "I decided that, maybe, I should branch out," she explained,
opening the book gingerly. "After all, a class on homosexuality has to
be about TWENTY times more interesting than Ecology, and..." She glanced
at her friend with concern. "What?"
Brown eyes were wide and doubtful as the shorted girl stared,
aghast at her friend. "Are you... Do you prefer..."
"No!" laughed the seventeen-year-old, waving a single hand. "Oh,
Heavens no! Did you actually think that..." She glanced at her companion
and let the smile quickly melt from her face. "Wow. Do I come across as
gay?"
Just then, black-haired Tara Yuuichirou came running up to them,
her short-cropped locks flying freely behind her as she did so. "Are we
doing anything tonight?" she asked of her two friends.
The blonde shook her head slightly. "I don't think..."
"Good!" smiled the younger girl. "I'm going out tonight with a
group of girls." She winked a green eye. "Don't wait up!"
As Tara ran off, Alice stretched out her long legs and sighed.
"It's amazing how much I do for such an ungrateful wretch..."
Lyra furrowed her brow. "Huh?"
Shaking her head, the other girl let another long sigh escape her
slightly parted lips. "Nothing."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Ooh! Look at this reference!" cooed the little girl, pushing her
little reading glasses closer to her gray eyes. She picked up her
notebook and began scrawling down tiny letters in her loose, messy
script. "Come here!"
Diana opened a single eye and glanced down at the girl, perfectly
comfortable in her perch upon the windowsill. "What now?" she grumbled,
her eyebrows lowering as she glared at the girl. "For the past hour,
you've been 'ooh'-ing and 'ahhh'-ing over every three passages, and
they've been trivial at best."
Nodding in agreement, the little black kitten in the cat bed
across the room yawned and rolled over. "It's probably nothing to us,"
she put in.
Ambriel tossed her head and cleared her throat, eyes gazing down
at the pages before her. "'Before the Chibi-Scouts learn to cope,'" she
read, soprano lilt carrying through the chamber, "'there will be a great
day for the Master of Time. The Keeper, her gold flaring, shall save the
world from one evil, but her Master will her from another save. For they
are the destined ones, true rulers of the world.'" She paused for a
moment, glancing at her notes briefly before continuing. "'With the
Priestess, the Princess, and the Prince, the two shall rule the world.
And the Master will have his Guardian, a solitary soul who is destined
to guard the Gate.'" She smiled and brushed a red hair from her eyes.
"Signed: 'Mistress of the Moon, 2576.'"
With a shocked yelp, the pink cat dove from the sill and rushed
over to the book, her red eyes wide and nervous. "Does that book really
say all that?"
"The Master is Peter," Ambriel continued, studying the many pages
of notes that had accumulated in the notebook. "And the Guardian would
have to be his sister. And, that would make the girl in gold the
Keeper... That's Celeste. So, that would make me the pri..."
The book smashed shut, a cloud of dust erupting from the tome as
it closed. The little girl began coughing hysterically, her gray eyes
staring upward at the culprit.
"That's enough for today," put in Reeny quickly, one hand on a hip
while the other lifted the book from the child's grasp. "No more
prophecy."
An angry pout came to the child's blank expression as she hopped
to her feet, her gray eyes turning angry. "I am to be taught in the
prophecy!" she shot at her pink-haired 'mother,' tone full of hate and
loathing. "The Queen said..."
"Forget what she said!" retorted the young adult, cutting into her
child's statement. "I don't want you messing with this! It's dangerous!"
"But she's the only one who gets it!" shrilled Carina, dashing
from her bed and toward the gathering near the room's center. "You can't
take a gift like that away!"
Staring upward, the pinkish animal's red eyes pleaded silently
with the Princess, both wide and hopeful. "She has the Gift, Reeny," she
protested softly, her face nearly colorless. "The Gift of prophecy. She
is but the second."
"And the first was her mother," Reeny responded coolly, suddenly
seeming twenty times more adult than she had but seconds earlier. "The
real Angel Moon was killed, Diana. By her people. Because of a stupid
Gift."
Ambriel's face drained of all its glowing life as she stared up at
the young woman in the school uniform. "Was...killed?" she stammered,
eyes brimming with sparkling tears. "By her own people?"
Sighing, the Princess of the Earth just laid a gentle hand on the
child's head before taking the book and striding softly out of the room.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"You're flat."
The two words, so plain, so boring, echoed through the giant
mansion as the little boy looked up from his dripping ice cream cone.
The violinist stared, just STARED, not quite knowing what to expect.
Michelle's 'music room' was one of the two small rooms off the
kitchen on the ground floor of the large house, and she'd dubbed it so
because the acoustics had been very good for both piano and violin. It
was slightly cramped, not leaving much room for more than a two people
to stand and the upright piano to fit in (there was a grand piano in the
living room, but that was more for show than to be used daily), but the
musician had immediately taken a shining to the little room and declared
it HERS.
And that was where Peter, eating an ice cream cone and dripping
the vanilla treat all over the floor, sat with his aunt, listening to
her newest piece and commenting accordingly.
The woman pursed her lips and looked down at the child, who was
licking ice cream off his knuckles. "Flat?" she questioned, closing her
large blue eyes and drawing the bow slowly across the strings. "I don't
think..."
"Not THAT note," insisted the boy, shaking his head of shaggy
brown hair fervently. "That real high one you played a few seconds ago."
She furrowed her brow and placed her fingers in their positions,
drawing the long bow across a single string. Peter scowled and shivered
a little, and then--once she'd stopped--focused back on the treat.
"It's flat?" asked Michelle, opening the piano bench and pulling
out a tiny black tuner. "Are you sure?"
He only nodded.
Once again, she played the note, and--sure as the boy had
predicted--it was flat. But not by much. In fact, the untrained ear,
admittedly including hers (though it was far from untrained), would be
completely unable to tell that there was a problem. The tone hid the
pitch. The only person who'd be able to tell was a bassist named Steve
who she'd taught years and years ago, because...
She froze. Because Steve had perfect pitch.
Bending over, she looked in the red eyes of the boy and cocked her
head to the side. "Peter, can you always tell if I'm flat?"
"Most the time," he responded, mouth full of ice cream. "I dunno
why, though. It just happens, and it can be annoying..."
Snapping her fingers, the woman stood and quickly laid her
instrument back in its case, a large smile spreading across her
features. After she put the violin away, she seized the child by his
wrist and pulled him out of the room, ice cream and all. "We're going to
the Music Academy," she commanded.
Peter made a face and struggled to get away from the seemingly
crazed adult, dropping his ice cream cone on the kitchen floor as he was
pulled toward the front door. "But... But..." He stuck out his lower
lip as far as he could and attempted to cross his arms over his chest.
"I don't WANNA go to a music school! I'm not even old enough to attend
PRESCHOOL!"
"I don't mean THAT," responded Michelle, pulling her car keys from
a peg on the wall and crossing into the hallway. "I mean that we're
going to get you the extra flute I ordered last month."
"Oh." He smiled slightly, then the words registered and he scowled
a second time. "A FLUTE? But I don't WANT a flute!"
The woman just sighed and started out the door, still dragging the
boy behind her.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
She paced back and forth across the tiny footbridge near the large
high school, her hands folded tightly behind her back as she waited. Her
teal eyes never left the hands of the large white clock that was
displayed atop the highest tower of the school. Two fifty-six. He wanted
to meet her at three. And it was two fifty-six.
Grass Valley High was a nice private school on the edge of Tokyo
opposite her home, noted Haley as she studied the pleasant brick
building that spread out in front of her. The campus was large and
included a pleasant little park, complete with its own creek and grove
of trees. Many large, rich-looking houses had their backyards open to
the school grounds, and she promptly recognized a light blue one as the
Hartford residence.
Two fifty-nine.
What did he want? What would be should very urgent that he had to
call in the middle of his lunch hour in order to make her postpone a
soccer practice and come out to the most private part of the campus?
After all, school got out at quarter-till and...
"Haley!" called a deep male voice from behind her. The brunette
woman, her hair flying behind her, turned to face her boyfriend. His
face was slightly darkened by a forced, faded smile, and his copper eyes
were bittersweet.
The teen pressed her lips together. His yell to her had seemed
sweet and happy, but--upon further inspection of his face--she became
convinced that the call hadn't been happy at all. She cocked her head to
one side and let a nervous smile pull at her face. "Eric, are you okay?"
Placing his book bag on the bridge's wide wooden ledge, Eric
Hartford took a deep breath and focused his gaze on the cheery little
creek that bubbled through the campus' edge. "We need to talk, Haley."
She gasped, and her heart seemed to skip a beat as she stood
gaping at him. It had been, what, two weeks? Maybe three? Her mind
couldn't even recall the date of the first Scout meeting any more. Had
it really been that long ago? No. Had it been that many monsters ago?
Well, yes. Two fish, a bird, some...THING...named Kevin, and a little
spat with Arthur. Five. That was more than they'd dealt with when the
Raiders had been wandering around. The Raiders hadn't done anything. And
these dopes wanted some sort of crystal...
Shaking her head, Haley tried to clear the incoming cobwebs. The
last time he'd wanted to 'talk' to her had been right when he'd dumped
her for the seventh time in three years. And now...
"No." Her voice wavered as she stared at him with angry teal eyes,
nearly unable to move. "You can't just keep breaking up with me for
frivolous reasons, Eric Hartford," she informed him in as stern a voice
as she could muster. "If you do it this time, you're letting me go...for
good..."
The young man's brown-gold hair rustled in the cool winter wind as
he turned to look at her, face impassive. He smiled slightly and took a
deep breath. Nodding slightly, he turned his back and reached for the
handle of his book bag. Then, as though on an after thought, he turned
back to her, took two long steps and kissed her gently on the cheek.
"Goodbye, Haley."
Her breath caught in her throat as she watched him start, back
toward her, down the path that led back to the high school. "You can't,
Eric!" she called after him, high voice echoing through the area as she
stared at his back. "I can't possibly... I... I..."
Eric didn't turn around. He didn't look back. He continued to
walk, one foot after another in a strict pattern, until he crossed
through the trees and disappeared from view.
Falling to her knees, Haley allow her breath to come in shuddering
gasps as the tears began streaming down her cheeks. "Eric... I love
you..." she sobbed after him, too soft to be heard. "I really do..."
But the only sounds that she could hear were the bubbling of the
creek and the sound of her own crying.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Lita pushed the door to her apartment closed and entered the
living room. "Alice, I'm..."
POP!
She froze in mid-step, her keys clattering to the surface of the
coffee table. The brunette didn't move. What in the world was that
sound?
POP!
Furrowing her brow, she stared toward the half-open door to her
daughter's bedroom. The sound was coming from in there.
POP!
"Alice?" called the woman, crossing through the living room and
heading toward the open room. "Are you home?"
POP!
"Yeah, Mom!" responded a happy lilt. "I'm in here."
POP!
So Lita stepped into her daughter's large, open room. And she
promptly allowed her eyes to widen and jaw to drop.
The eighteen-year-old girl was sitting cross-legged on her bed, a
few brown textbooks opened before her. A large pile of what appeared to
be darts were laying haphazardly on the small round table beside the
bed, and a few were scattered upon the floor. Balloons clogged one
corner of the room, and a few dozen more were taped to the wall directly
in front of the bed. Alice waved at her mother and then picked up a
dart.
POP!
The woman jumped as the little projectile slammed into one of the
balloons on the wall, popping it and sending little scraps of latex
everywhere. Confetti fell from within the balloon. "What on Earth?"
POP!
Alice's brown eyes gleamed as she turned the page in one of her
books. "Well, I was greeted today by that Todd kid and two others, and
they each had a few dozen balloons with them."
POP!
Brushing a brown hair from her eyes, Lita placed her hands on her
hips. "What were the balloons for?" she questioned.
POP!
"Well," explained the teen, "in one of each the 'sets' is a little
piece of paper asking me to go to prom..."
POP!
"And the point is to find the paper. Even Todd went and did it,
though I said no. He really wants to be my date. I didn't quite know
what to say..."
POP!
She looked up at the adult and shrugged. "So I said that I wasn't
going to prom. And got nearly one hundred balloons for the trouble,
because Todd had some delivered here after school, too."
POP!
A scowl crossed the delicate features of the restaurateur as she
watched her daughter throw more darts and flip a page in the biggest of
the books--a strange book, one she'd never seen before.
POP!
"What's that, Alice?" questioned Lita softly, furrowing her brow
as she stared at the book. "Did you buy a new biology book?"
POP!
The teen smiled. "Nah," she commented. "It's for my..."
POP!
"Your what?" asked the woman, unable to hear her daughter's
response over the balloon popping.
POP!
And Alice grinned again. "My homosexuality class," she responded
casually. "I started it today."
Her mother just gasped.
POP!
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"But I don't WANT a flute!" whined the child as he sat in the
large instrument storage room, watching his aqua-haired aunt intently as
she fumbled with some odd lock. "It's not FAIR!" His red eyes stared at
her, noticing that she had no intent of listening to her. Peter crossed
his arms over his chest. "I'm going to start crying..."
Michelle glanced up from the lock, flipping through the large ring
of gold keys that she held. "You'll do no such thing," she assured the
boy, not looking directly at him, "or else your mother will find out
about your misbehavior." She smiled at him, blue eyes dancing with a
certain silent mirth as she met his gaze. "And you know how your mother
can get."
Frowning, he wrinkled his nose. "That doesn't mean I have to like
it," he argued.
"I never said it did," countered the adult.
A wave of silence washed over them as the woman fiddled with the
lock of what appeared to be a small closet. Students would enter and
leave occasionally, opening lockers and then closing them, either
pulling out beautiful silver or golden instruments or putting said
instruments away. It led Peter to wonder how long they had been sitting
in the room. After all, a good ten kids, all in their aqua-and-gold
school uniforms, had both come and gone in the last few minutes. He
sighed. He was the Master of Time and couldn't even tell how long
something lasted...
There was a click, and Michelle let out a long sigh. "Finally!"
she announced in an exasperated tone. "I need to get Alex to fix
that..." With those words, she pulled Peter off his chair and into the
closet with her.
From the outside, the closet had looked to be tiny, but--though it
was as narrow as it seemed to be--it was quite long. It was shelved, and
those shelves were filled with instruments and cases. There were ten or
twelve clarinets, a few trumpets, at least four piccolos, a baritone,
some funny thing that looked like a cross between a doughnut and a tuba,
a couple of saxophones, and three flutes.
The child gasped. "What is this?" he asked, raising a brown
eyebrow. "The instrument graveyard?"
"This is my private collection," his aunt responded with a slight
smile. "I have either bought or received all these over the years that
this school has existed." Her smile grew. "Sometimes, students give
their older instruments to me so that others can use them. Other times,
I buy an instrument so that a certain student can use it and then, that
student quits. Or graduates." She shrugged and opened one of the flute
cases, studying the instrument within. "And they come here."
Poking at the doughnut-tuba hybrid, Peter smiled cheerily and
breathed in the scent of the room--a scent that was of valve oil and
clarinet reeds and cool mental and warm wood, all at the same time.
"This is a pretty neat place..."
"If you can find what you're looking for," muttered Michelle,
stepping back from the shelf and running a hand through her wavy hair.
"The Gemeinhart flute I was looking for isn't here..."
"The who wasn't what?" questioned the boy, glancing up at her.
"And I thought that Aeris needed a smaller vocabulary..."
Sighing, the woman took his hand. "Hush," she scolded, pulling him
along with her and out of the instrument closet. "I wish I knew what I
did with it..."
Back in the instrument storage room, Michelle locked 'her' room--
an undertaking that was much easier than unlocking it in the first
place--and sighed a long sigh. "I don't understand," commented the
adult. "I could have SWORN..."
"Miss Kaioh!" called a young voice from behind the duo. A tall,
thin brunette girl stood in the doorway to the instrument storage room,
holding a small black case that appeared to be that of a flute. "I'm so
glad I found you!" the girl, no older than sixteen, smiled, holding out
the case. "Miss Ten'ou lent me this flute because I left mine at home,
and I believe it's yours..."
Though her facial expression clearly stated 'I'm going to KILL
Alexandra,' Michelle accepted the instrument back and smiled politely.
"Thank you, Beth," she responded kindly, shooting a forced smile at the
girl. "I was just beginning to wonder where it had gone to..."
"Mine!" announced Peter, pulling the case out of his aunt's hands
and clutching it to his chest. Both of the females stared down at him in
surprise, not knowing what to say. He smiled weakly. "What?" he
inquired, a bit confused. "I wanted my flute..."
The aqua-haired one raised an eyebrow. "I thought you didn't want
one..." she sighed, shaking her head.
"A silver flute...for an eight-year-old?" Beth raised an eyebrow
and glanced warily at her principal.
Michelle just smiled.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
A tall, lithe form, darkened by the shadows from the numerous
trees, slipped through the hardly-opened door, slipping off her small
black shoes as she did so. Her white socks made no noise on the wooden
floor as she snuck down the hall and through the dark kitchen. Silently,
she pulled the refrigerator door open and took out a cold slice of
pizza. The soft white light from the appliance illuminated the room in
its sweet glow for a short moment before she pushed the door back shut.
Bathed, once again, in the darkness, a smile crossed her face. They
hadn't noticed...
And then a light flipped on.
"Tara Larch Yuuichirou," scolded an impassive voice from the
doorway. "Did you forget what tonight was?"
She grimaced and pressed her pale lips together, running her free
hand along the edge of the countertop as she took a large bite of pizza.
"Uhh..." Her green eyes studied the emotionless features of one tanned
face and the angry, tempered glare of two violet eyes. "I don't know,"
Tara admitted with a slight shrug, leaning her school-clothes-clad body
against the white refrigerator as she spoke, "but I'm sure that you'll
inform me."
Raye's eyes, which had already been locked in a glare, lowered to
slits. Her thin red lips, the same shade as her long nightgown, curved
into a frown. "Tonight was your night to greet visitors and hang the
charms on the prayer tree," she told her daughter dryly. Glancing at the
half-eaten piece of pizza, she shook her head. "And it was your night to
cook."
"Sorry, Mother," sighed the teen, her tone not so much apologetic
as it was filled with disappointment--the disappointment of being
caught. She shrugged and tossed her crust in the garbage. "A bunch of
girls from Crossroads invited me out to a movie and then to the new
club, and I couldn't..."
"Damnit, Tara!" shot the priestess suddenly, her face suddenly
that of one in a large amount of pain. "You've done nothing around this
house for nearly two weeks! Are you expecting an invitation to be a
Shinto?" Her purple eyes held their glare as they welled up with tears.
"Do you want to be part of this religion or not, Tara?"
The teen froze, her green eyes locked within her mother's gaze.
"Is that what you're asking?" she questioned, her tongue darting across
her pale lips. "Are you asking if I want to be a priestess?"
Nodding, the woman clenched her hands around the gentle folds of
her silken nightgown.
Tara shrugged and tossed her hair haughtily. "Then, no," she
answered bluntly, pushing past her mother and toward the hallway that
led to her bedroom. She could hear Raye gasp and, for that reason,
turned around to see tears streaming down tanned cheeks.
Raye turned away, wordless.
And her daughter sighed. "I'd rather be a normal girl than a
priestess."
And her words echoed through the tiny temple as she slid the door
to her bedroom open and, softly, shut it behind her.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The dark skies of Crystal Tokyo hid the silhouette from the
watchful eyes. He could feel the eyes upon him. They were the eyes of
his Queen. The Queen of Evil. Ginnie.
Groaning inwardly, he kicked the chain-link fence that surrounded
the large graveyard.
"It's not fair," whined Arthur, his brown eyes focusing on the
ground as he strode down the sidewalk. "Really, it's not." Scowling, he
kicked the fence a second time. "I mean, I wasn't the one to lose it in
the first place."
Just then, the overcast skies opened to reveal the beautiful,
sparkling silver moon. He glanced up at it and felt anger build within
the farthest reaches of his soul. Sailor Moon... It was all that pesky
girl's fault! If she'd just left him alone, then he could have found the
crystal and solved the problem...
Pulling a strange green crystal--one shaped like a fish--from his
uniform pocket, he took a deep breath. He'd been told that this last
crystal could do dangerous things... But, then again... If he could
win...
"By the power of darkness!" he cried, throwing the green object to
the ground and watching it shatter. "I command you--bring me power!"
A dark cloud of smoke billowed up around him. Muscles bulged, fins
grew, eyes enlarged... Cackling, Arthur smiled as his new self was
kissed by the night breeze.
For he was now a strange human-fish hybrid.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Standing out on the balcony, the child let her high ponytail down
and felt the wind as it whipped around her body. The thin, white silk
nightgown did nothing to shield her from the harshness of the late
winter air as she stood, a solitary being, bathed in a stream of
moonlight. Taking a deep breath, she closed her gray eyes and centered
her mind. All that she could think of was the hurt she felt. The hurt
that she felt knowing that her mother wouldn't let her study the one
thing that meant the most to her. And it did hurt...
The building shook suddenly, and Ambriel clutched at the railing
of the tiny space, peering down into the dark streets of Tokyo for any
signs of light.
A flash of green tore through the black, and Crystal Palace once
again trembled violently. She could hear the raid sirens echo through
the night, but gray orbs were focused on but one thing...
"Ambriel!" called a voice from within the building, no doubt
coming from the hallway or from her mother's room. "We're ordered to the
basement!"
Another tremor.
Reaching into the single pocket of her nightclothes, the child
pulled a little gold, silver, and, white stick out and raised it into
the air. Her eyes didn't pull from the golden fish-human hybrid that was
throwing energy bolts at the Palace.
Someone burst through her bedroom door, and she recognized Lisa's
voice. "AMBRIEL!"
"Angel Moon Galactic Power... MAKE UP!"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"My God!" yelped Sailor Polaris, diving away from a giant stream
of green steaming energy and pulling her little blonde sister down with
her. "What the Hell is that thing?"
The giant creature, which looked suspiciously like a fish with
human feet, roared and threw a flash of green into the sky, lighting up
the night with a surreal glow. The ominous shadow that was cast by the
Crystal Palace hung over the four present Scouts (and one present
Prince), stretching toward the Heavens in some sort of silent prayer.
Groaning, the blonde-haired Scout clambered to her feet and glanced at
the brunette one. "Any ideas?"
Sailor Comet was crouching alongside a large blue mailbox,
attempting to remain undetected by the giant fish-thing as she studied
it pensively. She wrinkled her now. "Without that computer Phoebe stole
from her mom, I can't be sure, BUT..." She rose to her full height and
held her arms straight above her head. "Fiery Crater!"
A giant red-and-black ball of fire and rock flew through the air,
straight toward the monster. Leaping high into the dark night sky, the
creature avoided it and sent a quick series of eight beams of green
soaring toward the teen. She leapt out of the way and sent a second,
smaller rock streaming toward it, this one making contact and knocking
it from its feet.
Wiping sweat from her brow, Aurora Borealis held a hand out to
Chibi-Star. "Well?" she questioned.
"It's Arthur!" announced a new voice.
Everyone turned to see a girl with navy blue hair of average
height standing in the middle of the street, the red fabric of her fuku
skirt blowing softly in the wind as she typed furiously on a tiny blue
computer. On either side of her stood two small children, one in a fuku
of red and black, and the other wearing a tuxedo. The purple metal and
the red gems of their Time Keys sparkled in the pale light emanating
from a single street lamp.
"Arthur?" inquired the Starlit Prince, his blue eyes glancing
pensively at the groaning, slithering body of the monster. "But, he was
human..."
Sailor Chibi-Pluto shrugged her shoulders. "Something has changed
that young man into the horror that we see before us..."
There was a roar, and the Arthur-fish suddenly sprang back onto
its feet, licking its crimson lips ravenously. It's evil eyes made
contact with the purple-and-yellow garbed Chibi-Scout, and it smiled.
"Celeste!" screamed Sailor Polaris, whipping around to see the
creature start for the girl, who was froze in fear. "Watch out!"
Chibi-Star just whimpered and tried to take a step back.
"Fiery..."
"Starlit..."
"Rainbow..."
"Shining..."
"Dead..."
There was a dull clunk that sounded, interrupting the Scouts from
their various attempts to save the small blonde one, and all the heads
turned.
In front of Sailor Chibi-Star stood Peter, deftly using his Time
Key as a bludgeon against the giant fish-person. Each time the cretin
got any closer to the child, the small brunette boy swung his staff as
hard as he could, connecting with the soft orange-pink belly of the
monster.
Shaking her head, Phoenix held out a hand. "Shining... Dawn!"
The sun-globe fell from the air and based into the Arthur-fish,
knocking him about fifteen feet away from the two Chibi-Scouts and onto
his back. Peter grabbed Chibi-Star's wrist and pulled her away from the
creature, toward the others.
"We're screwed," muttered Comet, watching as the monster stood up
and aimed his red-eyed glare toward the frantic, shivering group of
Sailor Scouts. "Let's say our prayers before we meet the big guy."
"What big guy?" asked the blue-haired one innocently, stumbling
backward as she was glanced at by the creature. "God or King Endymion?"
Chibi-Pluto gulped. "I'm too young to die..."
The fish roared and gathered a giant ball of green in its left
fist, smiling evilly as it began to chant some sort of odd, sick
incantation. The smile grew as the ball grew.
And then, just when it looked like all was lost...
"Angelic Glow!"
A bolt of silver ripped through the air and bashed into the fish-
human, running him into one of the large quartz walls that surrounded
Crystal Palace.
The little red-haired angel, her gray eyes smiling, floated
gently to the ground on wide feathery wings. "Need some help?"
questioned she with a smirk.
"About time," muttered Aurora Borealis, receiving an elbow in the
ribs from Phoenix.
The fish-thing groaned and slowly began to clamber to its feet,
shaking its head to clear the cobwebs that had, no doubt, taken over.
The Scouts all gasped in a starling unison.
"Again?" The Starlit Prince drew a rose from inside his jacket.
Polaris wrinkled her nose. "Will it ever stop?"
"TSUNAMI!" yelled yet another voice as a wave of water rushed over
the creature's body and knocked it, once again, onto the black pavement.
Everyone turned their heads. There, in the darkness, stood three
figures--two in Sailor fukus, and one in some sort of strange silver
tunic that looked somewhat like pajamas. One of the threesome was
panting, her white-gloved hands still stretched in front of her, their
palms wet. And the center of the three smiled, pulled a sword from her
hip, and took a few long steps forward.
Sailor Moon glanced at Arthur and pointed her sword right at him.
He froze.
"Well, well, well," she drawled, amusement in her voice. "Look
what we have here..." Flicking a pink hair from her eyes, she yawned.
"Evil." She grinned. "Well, listen bud--the world is a wonderful place,
and it does not lead itself to evil. I am the pretty sailor-suited agent
of love and justice, Sailor Moon, and--on behalf of the Moon--I will
punish you." The sword's blade flashed in the pale starlight. "Any last
words, sucker?"
The monster gulped and tried to climb to its feet, but not before
three words rang through the darkness.
"Moon... Saber... Illumination."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Hey, Rob?" questioned the large red-eyed calico cat from her spot
on the arm of the couch. "Can I ask you something?"
The young blonde man looked up from his book. The brunette man at
the computer stopped his typing long enough to glance over at the
animal. The raven-haired woman stopped cleaning the feathers of a giant
emu.
Rob rolled his blue eyes. "Yes, Dolly?" he responded coolly, wary
of the stares she was receiving from his three cohorts. "What is it?"
She smiled, flashing sharp white teeth. "I don't know if it
matters, BUT..." The cat glanced over at the fish tank and at a large
goldfish. "Bubba just went belly-up."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
She stood in the shadow of the huge building, her braids whipping
her face as she stared at the skyscraper. Ice blue orbs then trailed
down to look at the sheet of paper she held in her clutches, and she
felt her breath catch in her throat.
"Phoebe?" came a timid but masculine voice from her feet. "Are you
okay?"
The teen glanced down at her orange and white cat and smiled
slightly, but it was a sad smile. A secretive smile. A smile that was
hiding the tears.
Nodding slightly, she let her tongue dart across her lips. "It's
amazing, Orb," she sighed, brushing a loose strand of blue from her eyes
and staring at the doorway. "I know this stuff cold, and I want so badly
to do this, but I keep claming up..."
Her guardian, the cynical, sarcastic Moon cat, blinked his copper
eyes and glanced up at her. "Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked
softly, voice compassionate.
"That's the problem," she chuckled, pushing a tear from her face
and taking a deep breath. "I really do."
And she left Orb on the steps of the movie studio to contemplate
as she started into the building.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Galactic Sailors Say!
(Enter all Galactic Sailors. They all try to fit on the stage but don't
quite fit, so Celeste and Aeris sit on the stage's edge and Ambriel is
held on Reeny's shoulders.)
Alice: (VERY seriously) Homosexuality is a very serious thing.
(Everybody face vaults.)
Phoebe: (shocked) THAT'S this episode's Sailor Says?
Alice: (furrows brow) What?
Haley: (indignantly) I DON'T believe this... (storms off stage.)
(Others all reposition themselves so that they have a bit more elbow
room.)
Lyra: (cautiously) Alice... Why exactly do you say this?
Alice: (smiles) We've been learning all about it in class! (doubtful
glances) Really! It turns out that ten out of twelve* homosexuals are
teased by their peers!
(Aeris mutters about her contract and walks off.)
Tara: Wouldn't that be five out of six, Alice?
(Peter wrinkles his nose and elbows past the others, following his
sister.)
Alice: (makes face) Well, whatever! The point here is that homosexuality
should NOT be taken lightly.
(Reeny and Ambriel leave.)
Celeste: (smiles) Well, I think it's good that you're taking a stand!
(softly) For your own kind...
(Everyone that's left [Lyra, Phoebe, Alice, Tara] face vaults.)
Alice: (shocked) You thought I was GAY?
(Lyra, Tara, and Celeste stride out, all laughing and giggling amongst
themselves.)
Alice: (to Phoebe; "Stunned bunny" look on face) You all thought that I
was gay?
Phoebe: (puts on hand on Alice's shoulder) Well, if the shoe fits...
Alice: (pulls off one of her shoes and lobs it at Phoebe as she peels
out of the room.)
Phoebe: (far off) We all say...
Voices: SEE YA!
*I made that stat up.
-I Know-
Look around...
(Ambriel stares down at Tokyo from the top tower of Crystal Palace)
So many things aren't clear...
(Aeris and Peter stand before the Gate of Time with terrified
expressions)
Don't worry, though...
(Haley smiles and turns a page in her book)
You know that I'll be there...
(Orion and Orb chase after the kittens)
A lot of things are so uncertain...
(Tara, near tears, bites her lip)
The future's on its way...
(Michelle holds Delaney, an amazed smile on her face)
Look into my crying eyes...
(Reeny wipes tears off her cheeks while Serenity watches nervously)
Don't take your love away!
(Alice slams the door in her father's face)
Sometimes, the road looks long...
(Lyra looks up at the North Star)
And sometimes, the world seems wrong...
(Phoebe hugs her mother around the waist)
But I know, I know, all you need is love.
(The six Galactic Sailors hold up their lockets)
Sometimes, you feel weak...
(Richard grabs onto the wrist of a falling Celeste)
And sometimes, the future looks bleak...
(Terrence shakes his head as Sailor Pluto walks through the Gate of Time)
But I know, I know, all you need is love.
(Ambriel, Celeste, and Aeris all hold up their transformation pens)
Times will change...
(Tara, robes flying, chases Joshua around the courtyard)
People will change, too...
(Haley plays with her now-long hair)
But deep inside...
(Helios takes Reeny's hands in his)
I always will love you...
(Richard bends down to kiss Lyra)
I suppose there are questions now...
(Peter tugs on Terrence's pant leg)
The answers are so far...
(Alice and Phoebe dive for a floating sphere and miss)
But look at me and smile now...
(Hannah and Brian both smile as Alex takes Delaney into her arms)
I am your guiding star!
(Lyra and Richard stare at Celeste and Peter, who are watching the
sunset)
Sometimes, the road looks long...
(Lyra looks up at the North Star)
And sometimes, the world seems wrong...
(Phoebe hugs her mother around the waist)
But I know, I know, all you need is love.
(The six Galactic Sailors hold up their lockets)
Sometimes, you feel weak...
(Richard grabs onto the wrist of a falling Celeste)
And sometimes, the future looks bleak...
(Terrence shakes his head as Sailor Pluto walks through the Gate of Time)
But I know, I know, all you need is love.
(Ambriel, Celeste, and Aeris all hold up their transformation pens)
I know...
(Chibi-Pluto, the Angel Moon, and Chibi-Star stand together)
I know...
(The Galactic Sailors stand together)
All you need is love...
(All nine girls stand together)
All you need...is...love...
(The Prince and Princess of the Stars kiss)
* * * * * * * * * * * *
So, that's that! It's taken me about two weeks and 34 revisions (a total
708 minutes or nearly 30 hours) to write this one. Impressive, ne?
The Lost Episode is next... Stay tuned...
--Kate
Author's Ramblings: Redemption. Renewal. A new self-image. Have you
ever wanted a chance for those things? Or a chance to just be a little
changed after a single episode effects your life? Well, welcome to an
episode that will think on those questions. An episode with many
funnier parts. And more serious parts. And some goofy stuff that only
we could write!
--Kate and Christina--
There will be some ODD foreshadowing in the episode. Just a warning.
Perfect pitch is a gift sought after by any and all musicians. It is
the ability to sense, without knowing any better, if a note is sharp or
flat--even by the smallest bit--and only one of every 200-odd people
have it... Or some number pretty close to that.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
When you last saw G.S.Stories...
Alice spent the night at Richard and Lyra's, decided that she
would never fall in love, turned down a prom date, and somehow managed
to accidentally convince her mother that she was gay. They fought some
lovely bad guys. Tara was teased and, at the episode's end, cut her
hair. Mina decided to get little Cassiopeia to be a spy. And Ambriel
wanted a book of prophecy.
And that, my friends, is where the story begins...
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Oh my GOD!" screamed the blue-haired seventeen-year-old, dashing
from her bedroom and into the living room while waving a sheet of paper
above her head. "Look at this!" she yelled to the sleeping woman, who
laid on the plush brown couch.
Opening a single brown eye, Marie Urawa yawned and stretched.
"Gee, thanks for letting me spend my Saturday in peace like I so
requested," she mumbled with a sigh and a shake of her head. "After
all, job hunting is most certainly NOT a tiring sport."
Phoebe ignored her aunt's grumbles and dangled the sheet of paper
in front of the woman. "You won't be saying that once you read this!"
she contested stubbornly, one hand on her hip. "I, Phoebe Solaria
Urawa, am going to be a movie star!"
"WHAT?!" Marie sat straight up and snatched the sheet away from
her niece. Her brown eyes grew wide as she skimmed it once. "'Phoebe
Urawa is cordially invited to audition for a role in our new movie,
Star Struck, a daringly different sci-fi film about love and redemption
in outer space.'" She furrowed her brow and glanced up at the teen, her
silver hair falling into her eyes. "Is this for real?"
A smile crossed the charming features of the girl as she flipped
a few of her six braids haughtily and stuck her nose into the air. "Not
only is it real," she bragged, "but I'm going to try out. It's next
week."
"Is it worth it, though?" questioned her aunt, studying the black
block letters upon the paper. "You'd have to film in America... And
leave all your friends..." Her brown eyes shone as she glanced up at
the teen. "Is it worth it, Phoebe?"
Yanking the letter from Marie, the girl scowled and folded it in
half. "I don't care!" she shot angrily, her eyes flaring suddenly. "I
am going to be an actress!" She sighed upon seeing the surprised,
slightly put-off expression on her aunt's face. "I know how awful it
sounds," she admitted with a shrug of her shoulders. "And it's not like
I want to ignore my friends...and my destiny..." Clenching one of her
fists and sticking her nose into the air with a hint of indignant
determination, she took a deep breath. "But this is my big break! And I
can't let destiny, friendship, or evil lackeys get in my way!" She cast
a gentle glance at her aunt. "Right?"
The woman shrugged and, brushing her silver bangs from her eyes,
laid back down on the couch. "Well, Pheebs, I can't make the decision
for you," she remarked noncommittally. "But, if I were you, I'd sit
down and think about what means the most to me." Her brown eyes gazed
up at the girl, who was once again staring at the letter. "And, if you
find that becoming a star and living out your dream is more important
than the destiny that you were born to have, then I can't stop you from
making that dream reality." She smiled gently and closed her eyes.
"It's all inside of you, my dear, and you've just got to find it."
"Well, I can think about it," uttered the teen, her voice weak
and breathless. "And, maybe I'll figure it all out." She looked down at
her aunt. "Thanks, Marie."
"No prob," returned the woman.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The book was far too big to sit in her lap, so she had set it on
the cool marble of the floor, the musty, dusty smell of it seeming to
fill the room. And, as she had done for nearly two weeks, she sat
cross-legged in front of the book, nearly doubled over herself, gray
eyes staring through tiny silver-rimmed glasses and reading every word.
A pink-nailed finger pointed at a paragraph. "See here, Carina?"
she questioned with a cock of her head, glancing over at the little
black kitten beside her. "It says: 'The ready warriors will be lead by
the girl dressed in gold. And when the darkness nears, it will be the
priestess who will save the world from destruction.'" She smiled and
pushed the glasses farther up on her nose. "Do you understand that
one?"
The kitten made a face. "Ambriel, you've been trying to teach me
this for weeks," she whined, blue eyes gazing at the words without
comprehension. "I'm not Ara, you know."
"But it's not that hard!" protested the child, crossing her arms
in exasperation. "All it says is that the Chibi-Scouts will be lead by
a 'girl in gold' and that the priestess, who is one of the Chibi-
Scouts, will save the world." She tossed her braid over her shoulder
and pulled from under the tome a sheet of white paper. "In my studies,
I've found that the 'ready Guardians'--you guys, the third generation--
protect the 'ready warriors'. That would be us Chibi-Scouts. And as for
the priestess... Well, I don't know who she is. Yet." Her little hand
found a pencil and scrawled down a few more notes. "But I've never seen
this gold reference before."
Footsteps echoed on the floor, and Ambriel shoved her notes atop
the open page and slammed the book shut upon hearing them. Her gray
eyes glanced up just in time to see her visitors.
"We've been looking all over for you!" scolded Lisa, hands on her
hips as her azure eyes glared down at the child. "We're nearly an hour
late for lunch!"
She glanced up at Helios, who nodded solemnly. "Serenity and
Endymion both want to see you, young lady," he reported to her. "You've
not shown up to lunch ever since you got that book." He gazed down at
the great brown-covered volume, silver eyebrows knitting together.
"What is that thing, anyway?"
"Nothing!" insisted Carina suddenly, stepping forward. She
wrinkled her little pink nose at the two newcomers. "Now, if you'll
just wait outside, Master Helios, Lisa and I will dress Ambriel for
lunch."
He looked doubtfully at the cat and then the young woman beside
him. "She looks fine," he contested stubbornly. Two blue eyes glared at
him, and he shook his head. "If Reeny were here..."
The little girl stood up and wagged a finger at him. "But she's
not, young man," Ambriel shot back at him, tossing her head about. "You
should learn that she does have to go to college and that there is
nothing--absolutely nothing--that the three of us can do about it." She
beamed, pleased with herself. "Right?"
Groaning in both annoyance and defeat, Helios tramped out of the
room, shaking his head.
"You know better than to be messing around with the prophecy,"
scolded Lisa once the door had closed. She pulled open one of the
drawers to the child's enormous bureau. "Diana yelled at you days ago
for it."
Shoving the book underneath her canopy bed, Ambriel sighed and
pulled off her glasses. "She didn't," challenged the girl stubbornly,
placing her glasses on the nearest table. "She just said that I am not
to CHANGE the prophecy. STUDYING never hurt anybody."
"Still," argued the kitten as she watched Ambriel pull off her
slightly dusty gown, "you shouldn't be doing this behind her back." She
sniffed the discarded clothing and grimaced. "Besides, you're starting
to smell like that book."
Lisa supplied the child with a clean white skirt and a gray
sweater. "And, if Reeny or Serenity or Endymion found out..." She
shuddered and brushed a strand of blonde hair from her eyes. "Well, I
don't want to think about that, Ambriel," she ventured in an
apprehensive tone. "There's a good chance that we could all get in a
lot of trouble."
Ambriel smoothed her skirt and then sunk into a chair, sighing.
"I shouldn't have started with this in the first place," she admitted
softly, tucking her knees to her chin. "But, now that I'm involved, I
can't very well escape all this. I've done it for a reason, and--though
I don't know what it is--I've got to see it through." She glanced out
the window and down at Crystal Gardens, smiling at the fountain of
Serenity. "This concerns me more than anything."
Carina joined her on the couch. "Then how come you can't find
even one reference about yourself?" she questioned with a giggle.
"That's got to mean SOMETHING."
"Oh, I'm in there," responded the girl, her voice breathless as
she patted her cat on the head. "I don't know where, yet, or how I got
there, but I'm in that prophecy and nothing can be done about it."
Considering this, the handmaiden wiped her hands on her thick
wool skirt and glanced at the child. Her eyebrows rose on their own
accord as she studied the red braid, smiling gray eyes, and flawless
pale complexion. Could she be the priestess that the prophecy
mentioned? The girl was, after all, to be some sort of priestess... She
shook her head quickly. Surely, the first Angel Moon would have told
her about THAT.
"Come on, you two," Lisa suddenly ventured, breaking a soft,
strange silence that had fallen over the room. "Let's go to lunch."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Lyra's eyebrows flew to the ceiling. "MA sent you?" she gaped,
staring at the short blonde nine-year-old with wide, doubtful gold-
brown eyes. "Why in the world would she do that?"
Staring at the floor, Celeste shrugged and scuffed her feet
together thoughtfully, her pink tongue darting nervously across her
lips. She was silent for a long moment, as though no answer, however
truthful, would be good enough.
And then, she glanced up at her sister, unwanted tears boiling in
her green eyes. "I don't KNOW," she choked, voice almost angry as she
stared at her sister. "Ma just all of a sudden said that I should come
over and I didn't know what to think of it!"
With a slightly sad smile, Lyra sighed and led her sister to the
couch. "I didn't mean it like that," she apologized quickly, biting her
lower lip in thought. "It's just that... Ma is so very over-protective
of this whole thing and..."
"Do you love him more than you love us?"
She furrowed her brow and looked at the silent girl. "Wha... What
did you just say?" she stammered, shocked. "Did you just ask if I... If
I love Rich... More than..."
"If you love Richard more than you love our family." She spat the
second syllable of the young man's name as though it were a horribly
stern cuss word. "I just want to know if you do. I mean..." She sighed
and glanced away, studying the few potted plants that sat on a low
windowsill, basking in the afternoon sun. "Ma says that you left
because he was more important," she clarified softly, studying the
rather scantly decorated room, "and I was just curious if it was true."
Lyra laced her fingers together, staring down at her hands. Maybe
some of it was... She blinked, as though she was slowly coming to
understand the truth. Could it be that she suddenly realized that
Richard just meant more than her family? Was that what a destined love
felt like?
She let out a long sigh. "In a way," she admitted softly, "Rich
is more important. He holds in his hands my life, my heart, and my
destiny." She reached out and gently touched one of her sister's corn-
yellow pigtails, nearly crying out when the girl tossed her head and
scooted down on the couch, out of her reach. "But, beyond that, I think
that the real truth is that I just figured out what I wanted."
Tears streamed down Celeste's face as she heard these words, and
she tossed her head indignantly, rising from the couch. Her hands were
clenched into fists as her crying, angry eyes glared at her sister.
"How could you say that, Lyra?" she sobbed, wiping one of her eyes with
the butt of her left hand. "How could you even say that HE meant more
than us?"
"I never said that!" challenged Lyra loudly, standing and staring
down the younger girl. "I said that I figured out what I wanted! And I
wanted to live my whole life!" Her voice cracked, and her eyes watered
up suddenly. "Do you know how damn hard it is to live in a house with
ten people and still be able to breathe? Or DREAM?" She kicked the
couch in frustration. "I can't stand being under Ma's watchful eyes
twenty-four hours a day! To feel her breathing down my neck and to feel
her eyes on me! And to know that she's looking at my life with more
disdain than anyone could understand!" The tears fell freely down her
cheeks, and her vision blurred. All she could make out was the form of
a sweet, short girl. "I don't know why she's so protective, but I HATE
it! I HATE IT!"
Suddenly, arms wrapped around her waist and a head buried itself
in her chest. She wiped her clouded vision free of tears and gazed down
at a sobbing, shaking Celeste. Smiling slightly, she let the tears
continue and smoothed the soft pigtails of her sister's hair. "It's
alright, 'Leste..."
The girl kept crying. "I'm awful, Lyra! I'm an awful person to...
to treat you like I have and..." She pulled her face away from the
teen's sweater and looked up at her. "I'm just...VERY...sorry." Her
green eyes sparkled with tears as she stared up. "I never understood
why you left," she admitted, voice still shaky, "and I guess that I
just assumed..."
"Everybody jumped to conclusions when I moved out," her elder
sister informed her, smiling slightly. "The truth is that..." She
shrugged and shook her head sadly. "I'm a grown up now, 'Leste. And
grown ups..."
There was the harsh peal of the telephone and Lyra pulled herself
from her sister's grasp just long enough to lean over and pull the
phone from the hook. "Hello? Hi, Mrs. Yuuichirou... She's WHAT? Run
off? But that's not like Tara... Hasn't been acting herself? Hmm...
Well, after the hair incident... I see. Yeah. I'd be glad too. Mmm-hmm.
Bye." She hung it up, face a ghostly shade of white.
"What was that?" questioned Celeste, cocking her head to one
side.
Waving a hand, the older girl rooted around in the end table's
single drawer, pulling out a both a pencil and a scrap of paper
frantically. "Tara's run off... Completely disappeared..." She sighed
and started scrawling a note down on the piece of paper. When she was
finished, she glanced over to see her younger sister, still frozen in
place. She made a face. "Get your shoes on! We're both going!"
The little blonde girl rushed to the front foyer and pulled her
tennis shoes on frantically. "What's wrong with Tara?" She asked,
cocking her head to one side and staring at her sister.
Lyra sighed and groped for her boots. "It's a long story, but
she's gone and cut her hair."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"But this is boring, Aeris!" whined Peter, sitting cross-legged
upon the thick cloud-floor that spread out before them. That was really
all there was as far as the eye could see: clouds. Occasionally, a
white pillar dotted the bleak horizon, and even in the thick mist, the
outline of a large marble door, white as the fresh-fallen snow in
Tokyo, could be seen.
Yet Peter Chiba sat upon the ground, his chin resting in his
hands as he stared at his discarded Time Key. His red eyes were dull
with the pain and loneliness of sheer boredom, and his tuxedo and cape
were dusty from that day's training. His mother and father had long
since returned to the home which the Outer Mistresses all shared, but
his sister had insisted that they remain at the Gate. The boring,
lousy, cold, old Gate of Time.
The girl in the Sailor fuku rolled her eyes and thumped her Time
Key on the ground. "It is completely imperative that we, as the future
Guardians and rulers of this very place, earn a certain familiarity
with the Gate of Time." She took in a deep breath through her nostrils,
her colorful eyes half-closed. "Are you able to feel the slow shifts
which are occurring in the Time-Space Continuum?" she asked of him
softly, unmoving. "In the past, that very past which the Planet
Mistresses have shared, there is about to be a massive undertaking of
epic proportions." She glanced at her sibling, her face an unbreakable
mask of stone. "And they are going to need the aid of our mother in
order to succeed."
He furrowed his brow. "They're going to take Mom away from us?" he
questioned, staring at her with little comprehension in his eyes. "How
could they take her from us?"
Aeris giggled, very out of character for her. Peter stared at the
laughing girl, cocking his head to one side and raising a single brown
eyebrow. She was Chibi-Pluto. She didn't laugh...
And then, he saw it. The single glistening of one tear as it
rolled down her pale cheek and fell slowly to the ground.
"Aeris?"
"I do not know!" she suddenly cried out, her soprano lilt lifting
to the air and carrying across the empty space in odd, eerie echoes. Her
knees buckled, and she landed on the ground, little bits of cloud and
dust swirling around her suddenly. "I do not know what is going to
happen, Peter! That is what so worries me!"
Clambering to his feet, the boy crossed the thirty-odd feet to his
twin sister and knelt beside her. What was going on? Was this some kind
of unexpected foreshadowing of what was yet to come? She was Sailor
Chibi-Pluto--the strong one, the smart one, the one who was far tougher
than he. And yet, she was the one upon her knees, sobbing endless tears
and mumbling words that could not be clearly heard nor understood.
He wrapped a cautious arm around his sister. "It'll be alright,
Aeris," he whispered, pulling her into his embrace and holding her
there, just hoping that, at least for this one moment in time, she
could forget about being Pluto and just be a normal girl. "Mom can't go
too far from us. She has to train us..."
"And the past?" she glanced at him, colorful eyes both angry and
frightened at the exact same time. Peter smiled slightly, and a part of
her smiled to, whether she knew it or not.
With a shrug, the Master of Time in Training patted his sister's
head. "Who needs the past? This, sis, is the present."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Tara's missing?" asked Alice doubtfully, furrowing her brow as
she stared out through the kitchen window and at the city of Tokyo.
"Well, no, Lyra, I can't say that I've seen her." She sighed and wrapped
the phone cord around her fingers slowly, nodding as she listened to her
friend's anxious pleas for help. "I wish I could come with you, but..."
She glanced at the visitor who sat at the kitchen table. Fierce, upset
green eyes stared back. Alice gulped and sighed. "I'll keep my eyes open
for her, Lyra. Bye..."
As the elder girl hung up the phone, the visitor exhaled deeply
and continued to gaze at her friend. "I know that you don't like to lie
to the others," she admitted with a shrug of her shoulders. "But I
couldn't very well turn to Lyra this time. She has, after all, a
destined love and a life, two things I think I'm lacking."
Alice's brown eyes sized up her companion. The girl was tall,
perhaps five-foot-seven or eight, and she had the most intimidating
green eyes--they sparkled with the air of mystery and truth at the very
same time. Her blackish-purple locks had once flowed down to her knees
but now hung roughly at the level of her ears, longer in some places
than in others. She wore a large white T-shirt and a pair of wide-
legged, too-big jeans that looked nearly ready to fall off. She
looked... She didn't look like herself.
"Do you think they won't understand?" Alice cautiously asked,
sitting across the table from her friend. "They've all been through it,
you know. People have made their lives living hells before, and I don't
think it fair..."
"Hey, if you don't want to be saddled with the responsibility of
being stuck the likes of me," shot back the other, "that's no skin off
my nose." She rose quickly to her feet and started toward the front
door. "In fact, I should be going home to his and her excellency."
Jumping to her feet, the auburn-haired girl followed her friend to
the door. "You can't act like this!" she protested sternly. "They're
going to get worried!"
"Let 'em worry," snorted the tall one, pulling on her shoes. "I've
never been the least concerned about the lot of them!"
"That's not true!" persisted Alice loudly, clenching her fists.
The green eyes scrutinized her face for a moment, and she felt a strange
mix of anger and downright fondness boil in the pit of her stomach.
She'd HATED this girl! And now, here she was, lying for her... Defending
her... Trying as hard as she could to be on this AWFUL girl's side...
"That's just not true, and you know it!" she contested angrily, her gaze
lowering to a glare. "I didn't like you at first, but you have got to
believe me when I say that we all do care about you!"
Her face slightly sad, the other girl blinked and glanced at the
floor, features turning soft. She laid a hand upon her own cheek for a
long moment, and she bit her lower lip. The green gaze welled up with
tears. "But can five people really be all I have in the world?" she
asked softly, glancing up at the other teen. Alice remained quiet.
"Thought so."
And the door clicked shut.
Staring after her friend, the older of the two teens wiped tears
from her brown eyes and gulped back the ones that had not yet come.
"Tara..." she whispered after her friend, hardly loud enough for her own
ears to hear her silent plea. "Tara, what is wrong with you?"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"So, one of the Silly Scouts is having an identity crisis!" He
glanced up from the fish bowl, his lips curved into a sardonic smile.
"I could use that..."
Laughter rang out from behind him and he turned on his heal to
see Tina, her black hair rimming her laughing face. "Trying to see the
future in the fish bowl?" she asked rhetorically, her white teeth
gleaming in a perfectly evil grin. "What happened, did you give up on
the toilet bowl?"
Arthur wrinkled his nose and turned away, sprinkling a few
multicolored flakes into the top of the bowl absently. "For your
information," he shot back, head high and voice confident, "I was
getting ready to stage an attack on the littlest Sailor Scout."
"Who?" inquired Tina, cocking her head to one side and strolling
to stand behind the young man. "That weird angel-kid or the girl with
the purple stick?"
Wrinkling his nose once again, he shook his head. "No, no, the one
with the black hair..." Tina just stared at him, brown eyes wide. "The
one with the wave attack..."
"You mean Sailor Earth?" He nodded excitedly. She chortled
slightly at his enthusiasm. "Well, duh, she's not the littlest!"
He rolled his eyes. "Well, whatever." Picking up the bowl, he
stared at the large, healthy goldfish that swam in idle circles. "I
think that she's weak."
His counterpart shrugged and plopped down in a chair. "You'd hope
so, wouldn't you?" Arthur glanced at her nervously, face blank. Tina
smiled coyly. "Well, I heard the Queen talking and I don't think that
she's all-too-impressed with your performance of late." She smirked
knowingly. "I mean, zip-of-two? Come on, Arty, even Kevin could have
done better!"
"I injured one!" he defended quickly, brown eyes wide with fear.
"She busted up her knee and was limping and..."
"I'm sure we'd all be real impressed," continued Tina in a kind
tone, her face apologetic, "if this wasn't such a desperate search. But
let's not kid ourselves, here. This is a real big deal to the Queen, and
I can't let her down." She stood and sighed, shaking her head solemnly.
"I am to tell you," she informed him dryly, "that any further mistakes
means your head on a pike."
"But..."
Tina put a finger to his lip, silencing him. "So, have fun in
Hell. And we'll send you a postcard when we actually care."
She disappeared in a flash of blue light.
Arthur kicked at the air angrily. "Damn it!" he swore in
frustration. "Just... DAMN IT!"
Then, another smile crossed his lips, more evil than the first.
"But, if I CAN beat the Sailor Scouts and if I DO find the crystal, then
Ginnie can't kick me out." He beamed. "Well then. How hard could that
be?"
And his triumphant, if cocky, laughter echoed throughout the dark
palace.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Ambriel? Are you feeling alright?"
The little red-haired girl straightened suddenly, having not
noticed that she'd been slouching so. Her gray eyes, slightly lifeless,
glanced at the beautiful goddess of Crystal Tokyo. She nearly dropped
her fork--that woman's eyes could bring any and all emotions known to
humankind bubbling to the surface in a single azure flash. It was, to
the child, amazing.
She nodded solemnly at the Queen, still slowly pushing the pasta
around her plate slowly, face a bit too pale. "Yes, Ma'am," she told the
woman in a reverent tone. "I was just a bit caught up in my thoughts."
Chortling slightly, Serenity pushed a strand of silken hair from
her face and stared across the table. The girl stared back, almost
challengingly. "Now, Ambriel, as a princess here..."
"I'm no princess," she responded dryly. "I am just the daughter of
an angel."
Confusion knit Helios' brow as he turned his azure gaze toward the
child beside him. She did not notice his glance as she continued to
look at the Queen.
A small smile lit Serenity's face. She set her spoon down upon the
massive oak table of the royal dining room and folded her hands gingerly
in her lap. "And what makes you think that being an angel is nothing
impressive?"
A glint of mischief sparkled in Ambriel's eyes. "Well, I was
curious about something, to be honest," she admitted with a somber
smile. "Maybe you could enlighten me."
From under the table, there was a sound that seemed like a cross
between a mew and a groan. "Ambriel..."
At the windowsill, a pink cat that had been sleeping glanced up.
"Where am I in all the prophecy, Serenity?"
The King of the Earth, who was seated, silently, beside his Queen,
coughed suddenly on his soup. Helios' knife and fork fell onto the white
china plates with a clatter. Lisa dropped a tray of drinks she'd been
carrying. Diana's red eyes grew large. Carina mumbled something about
stupidity from her spot at the girl's feet.
But the goddess of Crystal Tokyo remained calm and cool, her hands
still folded and face still the paragon of tranquility. Her smile had
quickly faded into a tiny frown, but her other features remained
completely unchanged. "You should not meddle in prophecy," she informed
the child, her voice level and cool. "I would have thought that your
guardian knew better."
There was a slight pause before chair legs scrapped at the cream-
colored tile floor. The redheaded girl stood and glared daggers at the
Queen. "You leave Carina out of this! This is about me!" She made a face
and glanced around the room. At Helios. At Lisa. At Endymion. At Diana.
And at the little black kitten at her feet. "What am I to amount to
when the 'Master of Time' and the 'Guardian of Time' and the 'girl in
gold'..."
"That's enough, Ambriel," interrupted the Queen, rising to her
feet. "I believe we should talk."
Both Helios and Endymion made motions to get up, but the blonde
woman held up a halting hand. "You two enjoy your meal," she commanded
stubbornly. "This girl and I, and her guardian and Diana must meet
alone." She glanced at Ambriel. "You can come. Or not come."
She held her head high and smiled slightly. "I will come," she
told the Queen of the Earth in a strong voice. "I owe that much to you."
Serenity smiled. "Why yes," she returned. "You do."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Do you know what day it is?" questioned a soft voice from a stool
at the large kitchen's island.
Glancing up from the refrigerator, Alexandra sighed and rolled her
gray-green eyes. "Don't even try to tell me that it's our anniversary,
Michi," she shot in an annoyed tone, "because I know that it's on
Christmas and, right now, it's the end of February."
The musician took a long bite out of her apple and chewed on it
thoughtfully, her eyes focusing on her wife. "Well, it sort of is," she
told the woman solemnly. "Just not the one that you're thinking of..."
Alex counted on her fingers for a brief moment, eyes going wide.
"That was today?"
"The first day," responded Michelle. "When Neptune saved you and
found her Uranus."
Silence overtook the room, but it was the sweet, companionable
type of silence that did more to relax the duo than to make them uneasy.
The tall blonde continued to root around in the fridge, and the smaller
woman continued to munch on the apple.
Footsteps echoed, coming down the back set of steps and into the
kitchen. Susan sighed and shook her head. "Those children have too much
Chiba blood in them," she commented ruefully, shaking her head of green-
black hair. "They stay at the Gate for three hours, only two of which
are training, and they fall asleep the instant their heads hit the
pillows."
Terrence crossed his arms over his sweatshirt and tossed his head.
"Well, I think they have too much..." She raised at eyebrow and glanced
at the couple in the kitchen. "Did we walk into a funeral?"
Shrugging, Alexandra pulled a container of antipasto salad out of
the fridge and set it down on the countertop. "Today's just a big day in
Senshi-land, Terry," she informed him bluntly, finding a fork in the
nearest drawer.
"Already?" questioned Susan, paling as she glanced at the calendar
that hung on the wall. Her red eyes went wide. "Wow. To think that the
original Sailor Scouts will start their battle against Tomoe soon..."
"Poor me," put in Hannah, entering the room with a half-asleep
Delaney in her arms. "I don't remember much about Neptune and Uranus..."
She glanced at her parents, purple eyes rather teary, and sighed. "Poor
me," she repeated soberly. "Poor, poor, me..."
The man in the room wrinkled his nose and glanced nervously at the
women. "Well, I would like to know what's going on!" he announced
stubbornly. "Stop talking in Mistress code and tell the husband of
Pluto!" He jumped up and down. "Tell me! Tell me! Tell..."
"And I wonder where Peter gets it," muttered Alex, mouth full of
pasta.
Her daughter shook her head. "Thank GOD that Aeris takes after her
mother."
Grabbing hold of her husband's hand, the Guardian of Time glowered
at the excited man, eyes intense. "In a few weeks, the original Sailor
Scouts will begin their fight against the Soldier of Destruction." She
sent a sorrowful glance at her niece. "The Inners will lack the
understanding of what is really going on. The Outers will be very..."
She gulped. "Heartless."
Stealing a noodle from the blonde's lunch, Terry nudged his
glasses on his face and shrugged. "Business as usual for the Outers,
then?" He glanced at his wife. Her face was still pale, and her body,
rigid. A sad, upset dull sat in her usually lively red eyes, and all
the mystery that was so alluring about her gave way to fear. He glanced
at the others, who were all avoiding eye contact with the Guardian of
Time. "WHAT?" he inquired, choking on the noodle. "Did I say something
wrong?"
"No," Michelle told him softly. "We're all just too caught up in
our memories."
Hannah nodded and rocked her baby back and forth. "They're
strong."
"Scary." Alex sighed and stirred her lunch.
Susan held her head high and took a deep breath. "Haunting..."
Terrence just raised an eyebrow and, wisely, let the subject drop.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Ambriel, do you know what you are?"
She paused and shrugged her shoulders, not daring to look up at
the beautiful woman. "I am an angel."
"No, you're not. You are Angel Moon."
The little girl cocked her head and glanced up at the Queen of the
Earth. Serenity's blue eyes were gentle as she stared out at the large,
bustling city from the top tower of the great Palace. A slightly sad,
though gentle, smile touched her face as she rested her hands on the
ledge before her and looked down at her people, who were rushing like
ants below her.
Ambriel brushed a strand of hair from her eyes. "Excuse me,
Ma'am?"
The great Queen turned and crouched down to the five-year-old's
level. "You want to know where you are in the prophecy?" she asked. The
girl nodded vigorously, and the woman sighed and straightened back up.
"Well, I cannot tell you that," she revealed in a quiet, apologetic
tone. "If you would like to study the prophecy, then you must know that
Angel Moon does not appear in it."
Diana's ears perked up as she gaped at her Queen. "Your Highness!"
she mewed quickly, with a wrinkle of her nose and an arrogant toss of
her head. "You cannot ENCOURAGE her to meddle in prophecy!"
Serenity sent the cat a glance that clearly said: 'I can encourage
whomever I please.' She smiled down at Ambriel and reached down a hand.
The girl flinched, but was only greeted by a soft hand stroking her
hair. She stared up, gray eyes large, not quite knowing what to expect
next.
"You like the prophecy, Ambriel?"
The girl nodded quickly. "Very much, Ma'am. It's interesting...
And I am lonely..."
From her spot beside her aunt, Carina beamed. "She knows a lot
about it, too!" she chimed in cheerily. "She's been trying to teach me
for weeks, and I don't get it! But she does!"
"This has been going on for WEEKS?!" exclaimed Diana, shooting a
red glare of annoyance at the younger cat. "Are you two both crazy?"
Pressing her pale lips together, the Queen once again too a long,
thoughtful look at her city. Her people. "I want you to keep studying
the prophecy, little one," she breathed, her voice catching in the wind
and carrying through the air. "If you can make some sense of it, you
have quite the gift. And if you have such a gift, I must support it."
She smiled slightly and turned her cerulean eyes toward the child. "But,
you have to study under the guidance of Diana. She is, after all, the
only person in this very Palace who..."
The pink cat mewed loudly and jumped up onto the wide ledge of the
window. "That's ludicrous, Your Highness!" she protested, her red eyes
looking over the tiny girl in disdain. "I am not training a five-year-
old girl in an ART that not even the most proficient scholars
understand! No! No way!" She tossed her head and stared up at the
vaulted ceiling of the small room, shivering as a breath of wind flew in
through one of the open windows.
"Diana..." warned the Queen, her hands on her hips. "I don't need
you being so contemptuous."
"Contemptuous? Who's being contemptuous?" quipped the cat, tone
still haughty. "I'm not WRONG to be angry! She's five years old!"
Carina rolled her blue eyes and looked up at the two humans and
the pink guardian. "I could guide her," she suggested in a cute voice.
Three pairs of eyes stared down at her, and she stepped backward
slightly. "If you wanted, of course, Miss Serenity, because even though
I'm her guardian, I am a kitten. And kittens," she babbled, face a bit
flushed, "aren't very good at prophecy. In fact, I don't understand it
at all and I don't know..."
"That's a very good idea," the Queen interjected, taking her stare
from the little cat and glancing at the pink one who sat in front of
her. "I like it very much."
Beaming, the kitten straightened her back. "Really?"
"Really," the Queen remarked. "And, while we're on the subject,
Diana, I have a new order for you."
With a haughty smile, the older of the two guardians stood and
bowed her head. "Yes, Highness?"
Serenity adjusted her tiara with an idle hand. "You, Diana," she
declared, "are going to be Carina's teacher."
The pink cat's red eyes went wide and she stared at the woman-
goddess. And her single word echoed through the tower and across the
Crystal Palace.
"WHAT?!"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
She walked alone. The afternoon sun, through thick and unyielding
clouds, lit the world with an eerie glow. Not many people were out in
the downtown area, she noted as she passed a young couple with a child.
It was too cold out for most, even if it was the end of February. And
she didn't like such weather. The clouds seemed to hang low, close to
the Earth. HER Earth. She shivered and pulled her thick, green coat
closer to her body.
They were out looking for her. Why? She didn't quite know. Since
when had they cared? Sure, Alice had lied for her, but that was Alice.
Alice was like that. As for the rest of them...
At least the kids at school didn't call her a temple shrew
anymore. True, her haircut wasn't the determining factor in their
sudden, if sweet, acceptance of her--it was simply a fair-weather thing
come from her not being seen at the temple for a few days. That had, of
course, been the plan; she holed herself up inside the house and didn't
talk to anyone, not even the other Scouts. But maybe...
"Mother is not MAD at me," Tara told herself sternly, pressing her
lips together. "She is just...not...pleased."
The winter wind swirled around her as she stopped for the bright
'don't walk' sign. There was no sign of life on the street; it was as
though the whole world had closed down that Saturday afternoon but no
one bothered to inform her of it. She thrust her hands in her pockets.
One knuckle hit against the Locket of the Earth, and she gripped it, a
sort of security washing over her being. At least she was safe.
There was a flash of green light and she found herself face-to-
face with a pair of evil looking brown eyes. Tara gasped and took a long
step back, her iron fist around the disc tightening as the man placed
his hands on his hips and smiled gently at the teen. "Well, well, well,"
he chortled, batting his eyelashes behind thick glasses. "What do we
have here?"
She gulped. "Nothing, sir," she quickly responded, nodding her
head as though she was talking to a much elder patrons of her parents
temple... Damn! Why did the temple always pop into her mind at the
oddest moments? She blinked and cleared her head of the ensuing cobwebs.
"I'm just a lonely girl on my way home..."
"Oh, really?" he mocked, folding his hands and resting them on his
stomach. "Or are you Sailor Earth?"
Bristling, she did not respond.
Arthur laughed and tossed his head. "You see, I'm not dumb," he
told her, pacing up and down the small stretch of sidewalk before her.
"I can recognize you Scouts. It's not hard." He cocked his head and her
and winked. "Especially with those enchanting green eyes, Miss Earth."
Tara took another long step back. If she planned it right...
"So, what do you say?" he asked sweetly. "Turn in your friends,
maybe fight on the side of evil, and reap the benefits when Ginnie takes
over the universe?" He winked scandalously at her. "It's really a lot
of fun, you know. Being evil."
One more step... Her left foot moved slowly backward...
"And, maybe, one of us boys will take you under our wing. There's
a lot you could learn from us."
She felt pavement and glanced up. The building beside her was
short... Short enough.
Her knees bent and she launched herself into the air, eyeing the
rooftop. A smile crossed her face as the man wrinkled his nose and began
to float into the air, rising slowly. "You can run, Earthy, but you
can't hide."
Pulling the locket from its confinement in her jeans, she
shrugged. "I just needed to buy a little time," she told him cockily.
"Oh?"
The gold glimmered in the pale light. "Earth Galactic Power...
Make UP!"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
She sat straight up in her bed, pushing the thick quilt off her
tiny body and glancing nervously around the room. Her lights were off,
the shades were drawn, and everything was as it should be.
But why, then, was her heart racing? And why was her delicate brow
dripping sweat?
Springing from the bed, she pushed her feet into her thick, black
slippers and grabbed the tiny metal wand that laid on the nearby desk.
It looked absolutely innocent and sweet, but it pulsated with a
frightening warmth. She very nearly dropped it on the floor.
Quietly, she slipped out of the room and started down the hall.
She could hear voices--no doubt that of the adults--in the kitchen, and
there was a shower running on the next floor. She shivered, her wool
sweater no longer as warm as it was meant to be. When had she fallen
asleep? It couldn't have been more than an hour ago.
She strode past the bathroom and her parent's room, walking toward
the last door in the hallway. She rapped twice on the wood, the dull
hollow sound echoing through her ears even after the door swung open.
"Danger?" she questioned, her eyes wide and alert.
The brunette boy pulled the door shut behind him and stood beside
her in the hallway. They stared at one another for a long moment,
neither moving, and then he nodded. "Did you feel it?"
Aeris nodded solemnly and held her transformation stick to him.
"My wand is unbearably warm," she told him, tongue darting to lick her
lips. "And it has a pulse of some sort. It beats in synchronization
with..." She swallowed and stared at Peter, her muscles tensing. "It
fits the pounding of my heart."
With a slight shudder, he sent a meaningful glance her way.
"Haley's in the shower upstairs," he informed his sister blandly. "I
don't know if she knows..."
"She is the Sailor Scout of the Comets," retorted the small girl,
pushing a strand of green-black hair from her face. "If she is yet
oblivious to the peril that one of the others is in, she is not meant to
have such knowledge." Her brother's eyes sparked with confusion, and she
sighed. "If she doesn't know, too bad."
Peter grinned. "Okay then!" he cheered, running toward the
staircase. "Let's go!"
Rolling her eyes, Aeris followed.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
If she could just run... If she could just run faster than he
could... If only her legs would stop turning to jelly with each step and
actually show some gumption. If only...
A bolt of green energy crackled in the air, warming the left side
of her face with its fierce power. She felt her pounding heart pick up
the pace. She felt her mental wall waver.
So there she was, Sailor Earth, tearing through downtown with that
evil brunette man only steps behind her. And he was throwing bolts of
energy.
Leaping atop a phone booth and then onto the nearest building, she
gasped for breath and suddenly wanted to smack herself upside the head.
What was she doing? She was the Sailor Scout of the Earth. Sure,
maybe there wasn't a whole lot of firepower involved by throwing
thunderstorms and waves around, but she was a defender of justice. She
couldn't run. She HAD to fight. It was within her soul.
"Giving up so easily?" questioned Arthur, black boots clicking on
the rooftop as he gracefully landed a short ten feet from her. "I would
have thought a Sailor Scout would have more...guts...than that."
Earth tried to flip a strand of hair behind her back, but caught
only air. Shaking her head, she took a deep breath and glared at him,
green eyes flashing with hate. "I'm not giving up," she spat at him
stubbornly. "I'm just not running anymore."
He laughed. "You're that stupid, eh?" Shrugging his shoulders, he
stretched out his long arms and focused his brown eyes upon her. From
between his palms, there was a glimmer of green, which she instinctively
knew to be the beginnings of a bolt of energy. She pressed her pink lips
together. If she timed it just right...
"ARG!" Arthur's battle cry rang through the air as the beam of
green shot toward her.
Earth held out a hand. "TSUNAMI!"
The water and energy met and mingled, each holding the other at
bay. The heat from the evaporating wave of liquid was excruciatingly
painful, but she held her ground. Occasionally, the man would groan, but
he was trapped in the same ludicrous battle of wills she was.
An echo of footfalls sounded, and Sailor Earth knew that it was
the other Sailors. "Don't just stand there!" she roared, unable to break
her gaze from Arthur's. "Kill him!"
The four Scouts that had arrived all glanced at one another
nervously. Sailor Moon glanced down at her saber. Angel Moon stared,
awestruck, at the goings on. Polaris and Chibi-Star just pulled their
eyes from their friend, afraid to act.
"But, Earth," protested Moon with a sad gleam in her red eyes.
"We could hurt you..."
Her shaky, breathless voice hardly carrying over the melee as she
fought, Sailor Earth turned her head slightly toward that of her
friends. "Listen, no matter what life's like, we're the Sailor Scouts!
We can't give in to defeat, no matter what's going on. We've been shaky
as jellyfish and we just CAN'T be like that!" She grunted and more water
poured from her hands. "Those monsters," she went on, "should have been
easy for us. But we're so out of practice that we forget about the guts
and spunk we're supposed to have as Scouts."
Arthur's energy stream suddenly stopped and he doubled over. The
wave of water soared over his head and just barely missed him, splashing
on the deserted sidewalk below. He glared up at them, brown eyes wide as
he panted for breath. "You may think that you're tough, Sailor Brats,
but there's more to me than meets the eye."
He disappeared in a flash of green light.
"Yeah," snorted Chibi-Star, hands on her hips. "And he goes and
calls US wimps!"
Sailors Chibi-Pluto, Phoenix, and Aurora Borealis came running
across the roof, followed closely by the Master of Time and Comet. "What
went on here?" inquired Comet, making a face. "Did we miss all the
action?"
"Well, if you hadn't been in the shower..." began Peter, but he
was silenced by a stern glare from his twin sister.
Removing her tiara and wiping the thick layer of sweat from her
brow, Sailor Earth smiled weakly at the fierce-hearted brunette. "Yes,
but I have something to say."
"She thinks that we've lost our gumption to fight, Scouts,"
laughed Sailor Moon, a smile crossing her pale face. "Isn't that the
funniest thing you guys have ever heard?" She glanced out at the group
of stern-faced soldiers and grimaced. "Guys?" They all avoided her eye
contact. "Will somebody PLEASE back me up?"
Polaris wrapped a strand of curly blonde hair around her index
finger. "We have been a bit...weak...of late..." She glanced at her
bandaged knee and sighed. Wordlessly, she reached down and pulled the
white cloth off, revealing thirteen half-healed stitches. "What's a
couple of stitches when you're a Sailor Scout?"
"And maybe we just were giving up too easily to the sushi
monsters," put in Aurora Borealis, turning her eyes to focus on the
horizon. "I mean, if I'd thought of just using my shining attack instead
of worrying about not being killed, then maybe..."
Moon stuck out her lower lip and turned away. "Whose side are you
guys ON?" she questioned, moping.
Sailor Earth beamed. "See? I told you! But we've got a chance to
beat Arthur at his own game!"
"Yeah!" agreed Chibi-Pluto, a large smile gracing her face. "If
he's been tricked into believing we're all weak, and then we strike as
one, we can't possibly lose!" Everyone glanced at her in shock. "What?"
Angel Moon beamed. "A second chance!"
Phoenix's face fell for a moment as she stared at her group of
friends, but she shook off the feeling of despair she felt to smile
weakly. "And a chance for...something..."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Miss Mokoti?"
Lyra glanced up from her book to meet a fierce blue-eyed gaze.
Smiling, she nodded her head slightly. "Yes, Mrs. Neckowa?" she asked
of her plump, cheery literature teacher. "May I help you?"
The woman's usually bright face was darkened by a deep frown. In
her hands she held a thick packet of papers, which the young woman
immediately recognized as her one-hundred-point literary essay. Seeing
her always happy teacher frown made her frown, too.
Mrs. Neckowa handed her student the papers. "I asked for a four-
thousand-word paper on your favorite literary work, Lyra," she told the
teen sternly, her azure orbs lowered in a cross between a glare and a
saddened, disappointed glance. "I failed to see how 'Code Name: Sailor
V--The Complete Manga Collection' had a real life application." She
cleared her throat and placed her hands on her nearly unnoticeable hips.
"'The trials and errors of one teenage superheroine can teach the future
generations of the Earth to live a little, for the world cannot be
lived by closing your eyes and giving up,'" quoted the woman expertly.
"I did not approve, and I marked you down accordingly."
As her teacher strode away to suck the spirit from her next
victim, the curly-haired blonde took a deep breath and touched the edge
of the essay's cover. Lyra's mind was racing and she could feel her
heart leap into her throat. It was now or never. Her entire body froze,
muscles tight with worry.
And she turned the page.
Merry little red marks, all circles and cross outs and question
marks danced across the vast white. She flipped to the next page, eyes
widening as she saw the exact same things. And on the next... And the
next...
Seven pages, completely covered with red. Brown eyes brimmed with
tears of despair. Hopelessness. Hurt. She'd poured her soul into the
essay. It was, after all, her favorite type--the kind where a girl could
put her innermost thoughts to work and make them live a new life. A life
of immortality. In words. Sure, maybe she wasn't the world's greatest
writer, but this was a literary essay. A essay in one of her favorite
classes ever. And that was everything to her.
And the one last comment on the last page burned her eyes.
'Superheroes, Lyra, are not real.' How was Mrs. Neckowa to know that?
And who was to say what was real and what was fiction? She was, after
all, leading a life that would best be thought of as fiction. And she
was real.
Then, her brown eyes let go their aching prisoners. Her vision
blurred, but a single letter burned in her mind.
'F.'
* * * * * * * * * * * *
She sat in the hallway, her legs tucked up under her chin,
watching the clouds move across the darkening skyline. Beside her,
chomping merrily on her turkey sandwich and sipping green Kool-Aid from
a water bottle was Alice, just staring at her friend and not really
knowing what to say.
Tara had come, and Tara had gone in the first five minutes of
lunch, announcing that the popular girls had invited her to eat with
them and that she 'wasn't one to disappoint.' This left the duo in
complete silence.
"You know," commented Lyra finally, stretching her short legs and
opening her lunchbox, "maybe this is a sign that I should re-think my
whole life." She sighed and blinked back tears. "All my life, I've
turned to books. I've been such a nerd..."
The auburn-haired one furrowed her brow. "What do you mean by
that?" she asked softly. "You're not a nerd..."
Lyra shook her head. "My dream was to teach literature and to
travel the world. And, with Richard being just as big of a bookworm..."
She popped a potato chip in her mouth. "Maybe I've been looking at life
from the wrong direction."
"Maybe," agreed Alice thoughtfully. "I mean, look at me! I've
wanted to be a veterinarian since the first time my mother said I
couldn't get a kitten, and today I dropped Ecology." Her blonde friend
gaped at her, raising an eyebrow. The taller girl put down her sandwich
and pulled a large brown tome that looked rather uninviting from her
book bag. "I decided that, maybe, I should branch out," she explained,
opening the book gingerly. "After all, a class on homosexuality has to
be about TWENTY times more interesting than Ecology, and..." She glanced
at her friend with concern. "What?"
Brown eyes were wide and doubtful as the shorted girl stared,
aghast at her friend. "Are you... Do you prefer..."
"No!" laughed the seventeen-year-old, waving a single hand. "Oh,
Heavens no! Did you actually think that..." She glanced at her companion
and let the smile quickly melt from her face. "Wow. Do I come across as
gay?"
Just then, black-haired Tara Yuuichirou came running up to them,
her short-cropped locks flying freely behind her as she did so. "Are we
doing anything tonight?" she asked of her two friends.
The blonde shook her head slightly. "I don't think..."
"Good!" smiled the younger girl. "I'm going out tonight with a
group of girls." She winked a green eye. "Don't wait up!"
As Tara ran off, Alice stretched out her long legs and sighed.
"It's amazing how much I do for such an ungrateful wretch..."
Lyra furrowed her brow. "Huh?"
Shaking her head, the other girl let another long sigh escape her
slightly parted lips. "Nothing."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Ooh! Look at this reference!" cooed the little girl, pushing her
little reading glasses closer to her gray eyes. She picked up her
notebook and began scrawling down tiny letters in her loose, messy
script. "Come here!"
Diana opened a single eye and glanced down at the girl, perfectly
comfortable in her perch upon the windowsill. "What now?" she grumbled,
her eyebrows lowering as she glared at the girl. "For the past hour,
you've been 'ooh'-ing and 'ahhh'-ing over every three passages, and
they've been trivial at best."
Nodding in agreement, the little black kitten in the cat bed
across the room yawned and rolled over. "It's probably nothing to us,"
she put in.
Ambriel tossed her head and cleared her throat, eyes gazing down
at the pages before her. "'Before the Chibi-Scouts learn to cope,'" she
read, soprano lilt carrying through the chamber, "'there will be a great
day for the Master of Time. The Keeper, her gold flaring, shall save the
world from one evil, but her Master will her from another save. For they
are the destined ones, true rulers of the world.'" She paused for a
moment, glancing at her notes briefly before continuing. "'With the
Priestess, the Princess, and the Prince, the two shall rule the world.
And the Master will have his Guardian, a solitary soul who is destined
to guard the Gate.'" She smiled and brushed a red hair from her eyes.
"Signed: 'Mistress of the Moon, 2576.'"
With a shocked yelp, the pink cat dove from the sill and rushed
over to the book, her red eyes wide and nervous. "Does that book really
say all that?"
"The Master is Peter," Ambriel continued, studying the many pages
of notes that had accumulated in the notebook. "And the Guardian would
have to be his sister. And, that would make the girl in gold the
Keeper... That's Celeste. So, that would make me the pri..."
The book smashed shut, a cloud of dust erupting from the tome as
it closed. The little girl began coughing hysterically, her gray eyes
staring upward at the culprit.
"That's enough for today," put in Reeny quickly, one hand on a hip
while the other lifted the book from the child's grasp. "No more
prophecy."
An angry pout came to the child's blank expression as she hopped
to her feet, her gray eyes turning angry. "I am to be taught in the
prophecy!" she shot at her pink-haired 'mother,' tone full of hate and
loathing. "The Queen said..."
"Forget what she said!" retorted the young adult, cutting into her
child's statement. "I don't want you messing with this! It's dangerous!"
"But she's the only one who gets it!" shrilled Carina, dashing
from her bed and toward the gathering near the room's center. "You can't
take a gift like that away!"
Staring upward, the pinkish animal's red eyes pleaded silently
with the Princess, both wide and hopeful. "She has the Gift, Reeny," she
protested softly, her face nearly colorless. "The Gift of prophecy. She
is but the second."
"And the first was her mother," Reeny responded coolly, suddenly
seeming twenty times more adult than she had but seconds earlier. "The
real Angel Moon was killed, Diana. By her people. Because of a stupid
Gift."
Ambriel's face drained of all its glowing life as she stared up at
the young woman in the school uniform. "Was...killed?" she stammered,
eyes brimming with sparkling tears. "By her own people?"
Sighing, the Princess of the Earth just laid a gentle hand on the
child's head before taking the book and striding softly out of the room.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"You're flat."
The two words, so plain, so boring, echoed through the giant
mansion as the little boy looked up from his dripping ice cream cone.
The violinist stared, just STARED, not quite knowing what to expect.
Michelle's 'music room' was one of the two small rooms off the
kitchen on the ground floor of the large house, and she'd dubbed it so
because the acoustics had been very good for both piano and violin. It
was slightly cramped, not leaving much room for more than a two people
to stand and the upright piano to fit in (there was a grand piano in the
living room, but that was more for show than to be used daily), but the
musician had immediately taken a shining to the little room and declared
it HERS.
And that was where Peter, eating an ice cream cone and dripping
the vanilla treat all over the floor, sat with his aunt, listening to
her newest piece and commenting accordingly.
The woman pursed her lips and looked down at the child, who was
licking ice cream off his knuckles. "Flat?" she questioned, closing her
large blue eyes and drawing the bow slowly across the strings. "I don't
think..."
"Not THAT note," insisted the boy, shaking his head of shaggy
brown hair fervently. "That real high one you played a few seconds ago."
She furrowed her brow and placed her fingers in their positions,
drawing the long bow across a single string. Peter scowled and shivered
a little, and then--once she'd stopped--focused back on the treat.
"It's flat?" asked Michelle, opening the piano bench and pulling
out a tiny black tuner. "Are you sure?"
He only nodded.
Once again, she played the note, and--sure as the boy had
predicted--it was flat. But not by much. In fact, the untrained ear,
admittedly including hers (though it was far from untrained), would be
completely unable to tell that there was a problem. The tone hid the
pitch. The only person who'd be able to tell was a bassist named Steve
who she'd taught years and years ago, because...
She froze. Because Steve had perfect pitch.
Bending over, she looked in the red eyes of the boy and cocked her
head to the side. "Peter, can you always tell if I'm flat?"
"Most the time," he responded, mouth full of ice cream. "I dunno
why, though. It just happens, and it can be annoying..."
Snapping her fingers, the woman stood and quickly laid her
instrument back in its case, a large smile spreading across her
features. After she put the violin away, she seized the child by his
wrist and pulled him out of the room, ice cream and all. "We're going to
the Music Academy," she commanded.
Peter made a face and struggled to get away from the seemingly
crazed adult, dropping his ice cream cone on the kitchen floor as he was
pulled toward the front door. "But... But..." He stuck out his lower
lip as far as he could and attempted to cross his arms over his chest.
"I don't WANNA go to a music school! I'm not even old enough to attend
PRESCHOOL!"
"I don't mean THAT," responded Michelle, pulling her car keys from
a peg on the wall and crossing into the hallway. "I mean that we're
going to get you the extra flute I ordered last month."
"Oh." He smiled slightly, then the words registered and he scowled
a second time. "A FLUTE? But I don't WANT a flute!"
The woman just sighed and started out the door, still dragging the
boy behind her.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
She paced back and forth across the tiny footbridge near the large
high school, her hands folded tightly behind her back as she waited. Her
teal eyes never left the hands of the large white clock that was
displayed atop the highest tower of the school. Two fifty-six. He wanted
to meet her at three. And it was two fifty-six.
Grass Valley High was a nice private school on the edge of Tokyo
opposite her home, noted Haley as she studied the pleasant brick
building that spread out in front of her. The campus was large and
included a pleasant little park, complete with its own creek and grove
of trees. Many large, rich-looking houses had their backyards open to
the school grounds, and she promptly recognized a light blue one as the
Hartford residence.
Two fifty-nine.
What did he want? What would be should very urgent that he had to
call in the middle of his lunch hour in order to make her postpone a
soccer practice and come out to the most private part of the campus?
After all, school got out at quarter-till and...
"Haley!" called a deep male voice from behind her. The brunette
woman, her hair flying behind her, turned to face her boyfriend. His
face was slightly darkened by a forced, faded smile, and his copper eyes
were bittersweet.
The teen pressed her lips together. His yell to her had seemed
sweet and happy, but--upon further inspection of his face--she became
convinced that the call hadn't been happy at all. She cocked her head to
one side and let a nervous smile pull at her face. "Eric, are you okay?"
Placing his book bag on the bridge's wide wooden ledge, Eric
Hartford took a deep breath and focused his gaze on the cheery little
creek that bubbled through the campus' edge. "We need to talk, Haley."
She gasped, and her heart seemed to skip a beat as she stood
gaping at him. It had been, what, two weeks? Maybe three? Her mind
couldn't even recall the date of the first Scout meeting any more. Had
it really been that long ago? No. Had it been that many monsters ago?
Well, yes. Two fish, a bird, some...THING...named Kevin, and a little
spat with Arthur. Five. That was more than they'd dealt with when the
Raiders had been wandering around. The Raiders hadn't done anything. And
these dopes wanted some sort of crystal...
Shaking her head, Haley tried to clear the incoming cobwebs. The
last time he'd wanted to 'talk' to her had been right when he'd dumped
her for the seventh time in three years. And now...
"No." Her voice wavered as she stared at him with angry teal eyes,
nearly unable to move. "You can't just keep breaking up with me for
frivolous reasons, Eric Hartford," she informed him in as stern a voice
as she could muster. "If you do it this time, you're letting me go...for
good..."
The young man's brown-gold hair rustled in the cool winter wind as
he turned to look at her, face impassive. He smiled slightly and took a
deep breath. Nodding slightly, he turned his back and reached for the
handle of his book bag. Then, as though on an after thought, he turned
back to her, took two long steps and kissed her gently on the cheek.
"Goodbye, Haley."
Her breath caught in her throat as she watched him start, back
toward her, down the path that led back to the high school. "You can't,
Eric!" she called after him, high voice echoing through the area as she
stared at his back. "I can't possibly... I... I..."
Eric didn't turn around. He didn't look back. He continued to
walk, one foot after another in a strict pattern, until he crossed
through the trees and disappeared from view.
Falling to her knees, Haley allow her breath to come in shuddering
gasps as the tears began streaming down her cheeks. "Eric... I love
you..." she sobbed after him, too soft to be heard. "I really do..."
But the only sounds that she could hear were the bubbling of the
creek and the sound of her own crying.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Lita pushed the door to her apartment closed and entered the
living room. "Alice, I'm..."
POP!
She froze in mid-step, her keys clattering to the surface of the
coffee table. The brunette didn't move. What in the world was that
sound?
POP!
Furrowing her brow, she stared toward the half-open door to her
daughter's bedroom. The sound was coming from in there.
POP!
"Alice?" called the woman, crossing through the living room and
heading toward the open room. "Are you home?"
POP!
"Yeah, Mom!" responded a happy lilt. "I'm in here."
POP!
So Lita stepped into her daughter's large, open room. And she
promptly allowed her eyes to widen and jaw to drop.
The eighteen-year-old girl was sitting cross-legged on her bed, a
few brown textbooks opened before her. A large pile of what appeared to
be darts were laying haphazardly on the small round table beside the
bed, and a few were scattered upon the floor. Balloons clogged one
corner of the room, and a few dozen more were taped to the wall directly
in front of the bed. Alice waved at her mother and then picked up a
dart.
POP!
The woman jumped as the little projectile slammed into one of the
balloons on the wall, popping it and sending little scraps of latex
everywhere. Confetti fell from within the balloon. "What on Earth?"
POP!
Alice's brown eyes gleamed as she turned the page in one of her
books. "Well, I was greeted today by that Todd kid and two others, and
they each had a few dozen balloons with them."
POP!
Brushing a brown hair from her eyes, Lita placed her hands on her
hips. "What were the balloons for?" she questioned.
POP!
"Well," explained the teen, "in one of each the 'sets' is a little
piece of paper asking me to go to prom..."
POP!
"And the point is to find the paper. Even Todd went and did it,
though I said no. He really wants to be my date. I didn't quite know
what to say..."
POP!
She looked up at the adult and shrugged. "So I said that I wasn't
going to prom. And got nearly one hundred balloons for the trouble,
because Todd had some delivered here after school, too."
POP!
A scowl crossed the delicate features of the restaurateur as she
watched her daughter throw more darts and flip a page in the biggest of
the books--a strange book, one she'd never seen before.
POP!
"What's that, Alice?" questioned Lita softly, furrowing her brow
as she stared at the book. "Did you buy a new biology book?"
POP!
The teen smiled. "Nah," she commented. "It's for my..."
POP!
"Your what?" asked the woman, unable to hear her daughter's
response over the balloon popping.
POP!
And Alice grinned again. "My homosexuality class," she responded
casually. "I started it today."
Her mother just gasped.
POP!
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"But I don't WANT a flute!" whined the child as he sat in the
large instrument storage room, watching his aqua-haired aunt intently as
she fumbled with some odd lock. "It's not FAIR!" His red eyes stared at
her, noticing that she had no intent of listening to her. Peter crossed
his arms over his chest. "I'm going to start crying..."
Michelle glanced up from the lock, flipping through the large ring
of gold keys that she held. "You'll do no such thing," she assured the
boy, not looking directly at him, "or else your mother will find out
about your misbehavior." She smiled at him, blue eyes dancing with a
certain silent mirth as she met his gaze. "And you know how your mother
can get."
Frowning, he wrinkled his nose. "That doesn't mean I have to like
it," he argued.
"I never said it did," countered the adult.
A wave of silence washed over them as the woman fiddled with the
lock of what appeared to be a small closet. Students would enter and
leave occasionally, opening lockers and then closing them, either
pulling out beautiful silver or golden instruments or putting said
instruments away. It led Peter to wonder how long they had been sitting
in the room. After all, a good ten kids, all in their aqua-and-gold
school uniforms, had both come and gone in the last few minutes. He
sighed. He was the Master of Time and couldn't even tell how long
something lasted...
There was a click, and Michelle let out a long sigh. "Finally!"
she announced in an exasperated tone. "I need to get Alex to fix
that..." With those words, she pulled Peter off his chair and into the
closet with her.
From the outside, the closet had looked to be tiny, but--though it
was as narrow as it seemed to be--it was quite long. It was shelved, and
those shelves were filled with instruments and cases. There were ten or
twelve clarinets, a few trumpets, at least four piccolos, a baritone,
some funny thing that looked like a cross between a doughnut and a tuba,
a couple of saxophones, and three flutes.
The child gasped. "What is this?" he asked, raising a brown
eyebrow. "The instrument graveyard?"
"This is my private collection," his aunt responded with a slight
smile. "I have either bought or received all these over the years that
this school has existed." Her smile grew. "Sometimes, students give
their older instruments to me so that others can use them. Other times,
I buy an instrument so that a certain student can use it and then, that
student quits. Or graduates." She shrugged and opened one of the flute
cases, studying the instrument within. "And they come here."
Poking at the doughnut-tuba hybrid, Peter smiled cheerily and
breathed in the scent of the room--a scent that was of valve oil and
clarinet reeds and cool mental and warm wood, all at the same time.
"This is a pretty neat place..."
"If you can find what you're looking for," muttered Michelle,
stepping back from the shelf and running a hand through her wavy hair.
"The Gemeinhart flute I was looking for isn't here..."
"The who wasn't what?" questioned the boy, glancing up at her.
"And I thought that Aeris needed a smaller vocabulary..."
Sighing, the woman took his hand. "Hush," she scolded, pulling him
along with her and out of the instrument closet. "I wish I knew what I
did with it..."
Back in the instrument storage room, Michelle locked 'her' room--
an undertaking that was much easier than unlocking it in the first
place--and sighed a long sigh. "I don't understand," commented the
adult. "I could have SWORN..."
"Miss Kaioh!" called a young voice from behind the duo. A tall,
thin brunette girl stood in the doorway to the instrument storage room,
holding a small black case that appeared to be that of a flute. "I'm so
glad I found you!" the girl, no older than sixteen, smiled, holding out
the case. "Miss Ten'ou lent me this flute because I left mine at home,
and I believe it's yours..."
Though her facial expression clearly stated 'I'm going to KILL
Alexandra,' Michelle accepted the instrument back and smiled politely.
"Thank you, Beth," she responded kindly, shooting a forced smile at the
girl. "I was just beginning to wonder where it had gone to..."
"Mine!" announced Peter, pulling the case out of his aunt's hands
and clutching it to his chest. Both of the females stared down at him in
surprise, not knowing what to say. He smiled weakly. "What?" he
inquired, a bit confused. "I wanted my flute..."
The aqua-haired one raised an eyebrow. "I thought you didn't want
one..." she sighed, shaking her head.
"A silver flute...for an eight-year-old?" Beth raised an eyebrow
and glanced warily at her principal.
Michelle just smiled.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
A tall, lithe form, darkened by the shadows from the numerous
trees, slipped through the hardly-opened door, slipping off her small
black shoes as she did so. Her white socks made no noise on the wooden
floor as she snuck down the hall and through the dark kitchen. Silently,
she pulled the refrigerator door open and took out a cold slice of
pizza. The soft white light from the appliance illuminated the room in
its sweet glow for a short moment before she pushed the door back shut.
Bathed, once again, in the darkness, a smile crossed her face. They
hadn't noticed...
And then a light flipped on.
"Tara Larch Yuuichirou," scolded an impassive voice from the
doorway. "Did you forget what tonight was?"
She grimaced and pressed her pale lips together, running her free
hand along the edge of the countertop as she took a large bite of pizza.
"Uhh..." Her green eyes studied the emotionless features of one tanned
face and the angry, tempered glare of two violet eyes. "I don't know,"
Tara admitted with a slight shrug, leaning her school-clothes-clad body
against the white refrigerator as she spoke, "but I'm sure that you'll
inform me."
Raye's eyes, which had already been locked in a glare, lowered to
slits. Her thin red lips, the same shade as her long nightgown, curved
into a frown. "Tonight was your night to greet visitors and hang the
charms on the prayer tree," she told her daughter dryly. Glancing at the
half-eaten piece of pizza, she shook her head. "And it was your night to
cook."
"Sorry, Mother," sighed the teen, her tone not so much apologetic
as it was filled with disappointment--the disappointment of being
caught. She shrugged and tossed her crust in the garbage. "A bunch of
girls from Crossroads invited me out to a movie and then to the new
club, and I couldn't..."
"Damnit, Tara!" shot the priestess suddenly, her face suddenly
that of one in a large amount of pain. "You've done nothing around this
house for nearly two weeks! Are you expecting an invitation to be a
Shinto?" Her purple eyes held their glare as they welled up with tears.
"Do you want to be part of this religion or not, Tara?"
The teen froze, her green eyes locked within her mother's gaze.
"Is that what you're asking?" she questioned, her tongue darting across
her pale lips. "Are you asking if I want to be a priestess?"
Nodding, the woman clenched her hands around the gentle folds of
her silken nightgown.
Tara shrugged and tossed her hair haughtily. "Then, no," she
answered bluntly, pushing past her mother and toward the hallway that
led to her bedroom. She could hear Raye gasp and, for that reason,
turned around to see tears streaming down tanned cheeks.
Raye turned away, wordless.
And her daughter sighed. "I'd rather be a normal girl than a
priestess."
And her words echoed through the tiny temple as she slid the door
to her bedroom open and, softly, shut it behind her.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The dark skies of Crystal Tokyo hid the silhouette from the
watchful eyes. He could feel the eyes upon him. They were the eyes of
his Queen. The Queen of Evil. Ginnie.
Groaning inwardly, he kicked the chain-link fence that surrounded
the large graveyard.
"It's not fair," whined Arthur, his brown eyes focusing on the
ground as he strode down the sidewalk. "Really, it's not." Scowling, he
kicked the fence a second time. "I mean, I wasn't the one to lose it in
the first place."
Just then, the overcast skies opened to reveal the beautiful,
sparkling silver moon. He glanced up at it and felt anger build within
the farthest reaches of his soul. Sailor Moon... It was all that pesky
girl's fault! If she'd just left him alone, then he could have found the
crystal and solved the problem...
Pulling a strange green crystal--one shaped like a fish--from his
uniform pocket, he took a deep breath. He'd been told that this last
crystal could do dangerous things... But, then again... If he could
win...
"By the power of darkness!" he cried, throwing the green object to
the ground and watching it shatter. "I command you--bring me power!"
A dark cloud of smoke billowed up around him. Muscles bulged, fins
grew, eyes enlarged... Cackling, Arthur smiled as his new self was
kissed by the night breeze.
For he was now a strange human-fish hybrid.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Standing out on the balcony, the child let her high ponytail down
and felt the wind as it whipped around her body. The thin, white silk
nightgown did nothing to shield her from the harshness of the late
winter air as she stood, a solitary being, bathed in a stream of
moonlight. Taking a deep breath, she closed her gray eyes and centered
her mind. All that she could think of was the hurt she felt. The hurt
that she felt knowing that her mother wouldn't let her study the one
thing that meant the most to her. And it did hurt...
The building shook suddenly, and Ambriel clutched at the railing
of the tiny space, peering down into the dark streets of Tokyo for any
signs of light.
A flash of green tore through the black, and Crystal Palace once
again trembled violently. She could hear the raid sirens echo through
the night, but gray orbs were focused on but one thing...
"Ambriel!" called a voice from within the building, no doubt
coming from the hallway or from her mother's room. "We're ordered to the
basement!"
Another tremor.
Reaching into the single pocket of her nightclothes, the child
pulled a little gold, silver, and, white stick out and raised it into
the air. Her eyes didn't pull from the golden fish-human hybrid that was
throwing energy bolts at the Palace.
Someone burst through her bedroom door, and she recognized Lisa's
voice. "AMBRIEL!"
"Angel Moon Galactic Power... MAKE UP!"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"My God!" yelped Sailor Polaris, diving away from a giant stream
of green steaming energy and pulling her little blonde sister down with
her. "What the Hell is that thing?"
The giant creature, which looked suspiciously like a fish with
human feet, roared and threw a flash of green into the sky, lighting up
the night with a surreal glow. The ominous shadow that was cast by the
Crystal Palace hung over the four present Scouts (and one present
Prince), stretching toward the Heavens in some sort of silent prayer.
Groaning, the blonde-haired Scout clambered to her feet and glanced at
the brunette one. "Any ideas?"
Sailor Comet was crouching alongside a large blue mailbox,
attempting to remain undetected by the giant fish-thing as she studied
it pensively. She wrinkled her now. "Without that computer Phoebe stole
from her mom, I can't be sure, BUT..." She rose to her full height and
held her arms straight above her head. "Fiery Crater!"
A giant red-and-black ball of fire and rock flew through the air,
straight toward the monster. Leaping high into the dark night sky, the
creature avoided it and sent a quick series of eight beams of green
soaring toward the teen. She leapt out of the way and sent a second,
smaller rock streaming toward it, this one making contact and knocking
it from its feet.
Wiping sweat from her brow, Aurora Borealis held a hand out to
Chibi-Star. "Well?" she questioned.
"It's Arthur!" announced a new voice.
Everyone turned to see a girl with navy blue hair of average
height standing in the middle of the street, the red fabric of her fuku
skirt blowing softly in the wind as she typed furiously on a tiny blue
computer. On either side of her stood two small children, one in a fuku
of red and black, and the other wearing a tuxedo. The purple metal and
the red gems of their Time Keys sparkled in the pale light emanating
from a single street lamp.
"Arthur?" inquired the Starlit Prince, his blue eyes glancing
pensively at the groaning, slithering body of the monster. "But, he was
human..."
Sailor Chibi-Pluto shrugged her shoulders. "Something has changed
that young man into the horror that we see before us..."
There was a roar, and the Arthur-fish suddenly sprang back onto
its feet, licking its crimson lips ravenously. It's evil eyes made
contact with the purple-and-yellow garbed Chibi-Scout, and it smiled.
"Celeste!" screamed Sailor Polaris, whipping around to see the
creature start for the girl, who was froze in fear. "Watch out!"
Chibi-Star just whimpered and tried to take a step back.
"Fiery..."
"Starlit..."
"Rainbow..."
"Shining..."
"Dead..."
There was a dull clunk that sounded, interrupting the Scouts from
their various attempts to save the small blonde one, and all the heads
turned.
In front of Sailor Chibi-Star stood Peter, deftly using his Time
Key as a bludgeon against the giant fish-person. Each time the cretin
got any closer to the child, the small brunette boy swung his staff as
hard as he could, connecting with the soft orange-pink belly of the
monster.
Shaking her head, Phoenix held out a hand. "Shining... Dawn!"
The sun-globe fell from the air and based into the Arthur-fish,
knocking him about fifteen feet away from the two Chibi-Scouts and onto
his back. Peter grabbed Chibi-Star's wrist and pulled her away from the
creature, toward the others.
"We're screwed," muttered Comet, watching as the monster stood up
and aimed his red-eyed glare toward the frantic, shivering group of
Sailor Scouts. "Let's say our prayers before we meet the big guy."
"What big guy?" asked the blue-haired one innocently, stumbling
backward as she was glanced at by the creature. "God or King Endymion?"
Chibi-Pluto gulped. "I'm too young to die..."
The fish roared and gathered a giant ball of green in its left
fist, smiling evilly as it began to chant some sort of odd, sick
incantation. The smile grew as the ball grew.
And then, just when it looked like all was lost...
"Angelic Glow!"
A bolt of silver ripped through the air and bashed into the fish-
human, running him into one of the large quartz walls that surrounded
Crystal Palace.
The little red-haired angel, her gray eyes smiling, floated
gently to the ground on wide feathery wings. "Need some help?"
questioned she with a smirk.
"About time," muttered Aurora Borealis, receiving an elbow in the
ribs from Phoenix.
The fish-thing groaned and slowly began to clamber to its feet,
shaking its head to clear the cobwebs that had, no doubt, taken over.
The Scouts all gasped in a starling unison.
"Again?" The Starlit Prince drew a rose from inside his jacket.
Polaris wrinkled her nose. "Will it ever stop?"
"TSUNAMI!" yelled yet another voice as a wave of water rushed over
the creature's body and knocked it, once again, onto the black pavement.
Everyone turned their heads. There, in the darkness, stood three
figures--two in Sailor fukus, and one in some sort of strange silver
tunic that looked somewhat like pajamas. One of the threesome was
panting, her white-gloved hands still stretched in front of her, their
palms wet. And the center of the three smiled, pulled a sword from her
hip, and took a few long steps forward.
Sailor Moon glanced at Arthur and pointed her sword right at him.
He froze.
"Well, well, well," she drawled, amusement in her voice. "Look
what we have here..." Flicking a pink hair from her eyes, she yawned.
"Evil." She grinned. "Well, listen bud--the world is a wonderful place,
and it does not lead itself to evil. I am the pretty sailor-suited agent
of love and justice, Sailor Moon, and--on behalf of the Moon--I will
punish you." The sword's blade flashed in the pale starlight. "Any last
words, sucker?"
The monster gulped and tried to climb to its feet, but not before
three words rang through the darkness.
"Moon... Saber... Illumination."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Hey, Rob?" questioned the large red-eyed calico cat from her spot
on the arm of the couch. "Can I ask you something?"
The young blonde man looked up from his book. The brunette man at
the computer stopped his typing long enough to glance over at the
animal. The raven-haired woman stopped cleaning the feathers of a giant
emu.
Rob rolled his blue eyes. "Yes, Dolly?" he responded coolly, wary
of the stares she was receiving from his three cohorts. "What is it?"
She smiled, flashing sharp white teeth. "I don't know if it
matters, BUT..." The cat glanced over at the fish tank and at a large
goldfish. "Bubba just went belly-up."
* * * * * * * * * * * *
She stood in the shadow of the huge building, her braids whipping
her face as she stared at the skyscraper. Ice blue orbs then trailed
down to look at the sheet of paper she held in her clutches, and she
felt her breath catch in her throat.
"Phoebe?" came a timid but masculine voice from her feet. "Are you
okay?"
The teen glanced down at her orange and white cat and smiled
slightly, but it was a sad smile. A secretive smile. A smile that was
hiding the tears.
Nodding slightly, she let her tongue dart across her lips. "It's
amazing, Orb," she sighed, brushing a loose strand of blue from her eyes
and staring at the doorway. "I know this stuff cold, and I want so badly
to do this, but I keep claming up..."
Her guardian, the cynical, sarcastic Moon cat, blinked his copper
eyes and glanced up at her. "Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked
softly, voice compassionate.
"That's the problem," she chuckled, pushing a tear from her face
and taking a deep breath. "I really do."
And she left Orb on the steps of the movie studio to contemplate
as she started into the building.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Galactic Sailors Say!
(Enter all Galactic Sailors. They all try to fit on the stage but don't
quite fit, so Celeste and Aeris sit on the stage's edge and Ambriel is
held on Reeny's shoulders.)
Alice: (VERY seriously) Homosexuality is a very serious thing.
(Everybody face vaults.)
Phoebe: (shocked) THAT'S this episode's Sailor Says?
Alice: (furrows brow) What?
Haley: (indignantly) I DON'T believe this... (storms off stage.)
(Others all reposition themselves so that they have a bit more elbow
room.)
Lyra: (cautiously) Alice... Why exactly do you say this?
Alice: (smiles) We've been learning all about it in class! (doubtful
glances) Really! It turns out that ten out of twelve* homosexuals are
teased by their peers!
(Aeris mutters about her contract and walks off.)
Tara: Wouldn't that be five out of six, Alice?
(Peter wrinkles his nose and elbows past the others, following his
sister.)
Alice: (makes face) Well, whatever! The point here is that homosexuality
should NOT be taken lightly.
(Reeny and Ambriel leave.)
Celeste: (smiles) Well, I think it's good that you're taking a stand!
(softly) For your own kind...
(Everyone that's left [Lyra, Phoebe, Alice, Tara] face vaults.)
Alice: (shocked) You thought I was GAY?
(Lyra, Tara, and Celeste stride out, all laughing and giggling amongst
themselves.)
Alice: (to Phoebe; "Stunned bunny" look on face) You all thought that I
was gay?
Phoebe: (puts on hand on Alice's shoulder) Well, if the shoe fits...
Alice: (pulls off one of her shoes and lobs it at Phoebe as she peels
out of the room.)
Phoebe: (far off) We all say...
Voices: SEE YA!
*I made that stat up.
-I Know-
Look around...
(Ambriel stares down at Tokyo from the top tower of Crystal Palace)
So many things aren't clear...
(Aeris and Peter stand before the Gate of Time with terrified
expressions)
Don't worry, though...
(Haley smiles and turns a page in her book)
You know that I'll be there...
(Orion and Orb chase after the kittens)
A lot of things are so uncertain...
(Tara, near tears, bites her lip)
The future's on its way...
(Michelle holds Delaney, an amazed smile on her face)
Look into my crying eyes...
(Reeny wipes tears off her cheeks while Serenity watches nervously)
Don't take your love away!
(Alice slams the door in her father's face)
Sometimes, the road looks long...
(Lyra looks up at the North Star)
And sometimes, the world seems wrong...
(Phoebe hugs her mother around the waist)
But I know, I know, all you need is love.
(The six Galactic Sailors hold up their lockets)
Sometimes, you feel weak...
(Richard grabs onto the wrist of a falling Celeste)
And sometimes, the future looks bleak...
(Terrence shakes his head as Sailor Pluto walks through the Gate of Time)
But I know, I know, all you need is love.
(Ambriel, Celeste, and Aeris all hold up their transformation pens)
Times will change...
(Tara, robes flying, chases Joshua around the courtyard)
People will change, too...
(Haley plays with her now-long hair)
But deep inside...
(Helios takes Reeny's hands in his)
I always will love you...
(Richard bends down to kiss Lyra)
I suppose there are questions now...
(Peter tugs on Terrence's pant leg)
The answers are so far...
(Alice and Phoebe dive for a floating sphere and miss)
But look at me and smile now...
(Hannah and Brian both smile as Alex takes Delaney into her arms)
I am your guiding star!
(Lyra and Richard stare at Celeste and Peter, who are watching the
sunset)
Sometimes, the road looks long...
(Lyra looks up at the North Star)
And sometimes, the world seems wrong...
(Phoebe hugs her mother around the waist)
But I know, I know, all you need is love.
(The six Galactic Sailors hold up their lockets)
Sometimes, you feel weak...
(Richard grabs onto the wrist of a falling Celeste)
And sometimes, the future looks bleak...
(Terrence shakes his head as Sailor Pluto walks through the Gate of Time)
But I know, I know, all you need is love.
(Ambriel, Celeste, and Aeris all hold up their transformation pens)
I know...
(Chibi-Pluto, the Angel Moon, and Chibi-Star stand together)
I know...
(The Galactic Sailors stand together)
All you need is love...
(All nine girls stand together)
All you need...is...love...
(The Prince and Princess of the Stars kiss)
* * * * * * * * * * * *
So, that's that! It's taken me about two weeks and 34 revisions (a total
708 minutes or nearly 30 hours) to write this one. Impressive, ne?
The Lost Episode is next... Stay tuned...
--Kate
