Crystal Tears
Chapter 1: The Awakening
By Aisuru
"What an awful mess!" Nephrite complained, looking into the tatters that had been the mind of a child. "I don't know what could have caused this." His telepathic skills were weak, but this child was in a mindless state, unable to block the weakest telepathic probing.
"It looks like the work of an untrained telepath, sir," stated one of Nephrite's soldiers. "Maybe the extended unconscious state made him more susceptible."
Nephrite nodded and went on to the next child. The four Generals had been the first to be awakened by Queen Beryl after the thousand years of imprisonment Queen Serenity had surprised them with. Now the Generals were awakening the Dark Kingdom citizens a few at a time, trying to prevent the wide spread panic that would be caused by a mass return to consciousness. Most of the process had gone
smoothly, with the vast majority of the citizens awakening with no ill effects. Only two groups had suffered casualties. The first group noticed to be effected were the youma creators. While no problems were detected and the awakening protocols had gone smoothly, a few had slipped way
without taking a first breath. Others were breathing but
appeared brain dead. Still others were fine, and were even now creating fresh batches of youma. The loss of the youma creators was a nuisance, but there were still more than enough youma creators given the limited energy supplies available for the production of youma.
More confusing had been the children. The children had been saved to awaken last, as they had the least importance and were safer kept in their semi-conscious states away from the other adults while the adults became absorbed by their tasks. Now that the children were being awakened, it appeared as if none were salvageable.
"If you ask me, it's just as well," Zoicite stated. "Annoying sniveling little brats. The Dark Kingdom will be better off without them."
Jadeite looked up from the child he was studying and shot Zoicite a look of annoyance, but stifled any comment he would have said when he realized that Kunzite was nearby.
"Are any of them revive-able?" Kunzite asked.
"None so far," Jadeite admitted, moving on to one of the last children. Jadeite had a fondness for children,
finding them more easily teachable in the arts of mental training than the adults, and found the loss of the children to be a devastating loss to the Dark Kingdom. He looked at the child before him, unmoving in the long sleep, her purple-white hair hanging limp around her body, her tiny face smudged with dirt from whatever task she had been doing when she was taken. Then he looked more closely at her face. There was a mark on her forehead, a pale purple sunburst design that looked as if it had imprinted there by some sort of energy. He had never seen the likes of it before. Then he noticed that her eyes were moving beneath her closed eyelids. REM sleep. She was dreaming.
"Um, guys..." he started. The other generals approached, following Jadeite's gaze to the sleeping child.
"I think we found a keeper."
Nephrite motioned to his telepathic soldier, and he came forward. He frowned when he noticed the sunburst design on her forehead, but he swallowed his apprehension and put the palm of his right hand onto her forehead. Then he focused his energy in an attempt to reach her mind. After a moment he broke contact. "I can't get in, sir," he stated, looking confused. "It is as if her mind is somewhere else, in a literal sense."
"You mean she is on another plane of existence?" Nephrite questioned.
"It is possible, sir," the telepathic soldier agreed. "Although I didn't know that was possible in one so young."
"If she has been aware on some level for the last thousand years, we can't know what to expect," Jadeite stated. Then he turned to Nephrite. "If she is in an alternative plane of existence, is it safe to wake her?"
"As you said, Jadeite, we can't know what to expect." Nephrite answered.
"What is this mark?" Zoicite asked, pointing to the sunburst design on the child's forehead.
Kunzite, who had been quiet during this exchange, pointed to the girl's tightly fisted right hand. The edges of a purple energy-storage crystal could be seen peeking out through her fingers. "All of the children that were put in the sleep were on the moon touched side of the earth when Queen Serenity cast the sleep spell," he started. "This one seems to have been gathering the life forces of the wounded. It would appear that she was connecting with the crystal when the blast occurred."
"So the life-force energy made her partially immune to the sleep spell? Lucky girl," Zoicite muttered.
"Lucky?" Jadeite exclaimed in surprise. "This girl has been in a concious isolation for the past thousand years! How can you possibly call that lucky?"
"Not in total isolation," Nephrite muttered, looking at the room full of dead children with meaning.
Zoicite gasped. "Do you mean to say that you think this little girl fried the brains of all the other children?"
Kunzite nodded. "It makes sense. We can't even begin to imagine what a conscious isolation would do to a person after a thousand years. Surely she would have done all in her power to reach out for someone else." He paused for a moment, thinking. "We need to decide right now what should
be done with this child. It is highly likely that this girl is responsible for the deaths of all the other children. It is also possible that she is responsible for the casualties among the youma creators. We have never seen such a level of telepathy before. Couple this advanced and detrimental telepathic power with the emotional state of a child isolated from all interactions with conscious people for a full thousand years. Do we want to unleash this girl
on the Dark Kingdom, or do we kill her now and report to the people that all of the children died of unknown causes?"
"I say we snuff out the little twerp," Zoicite said with a shudder. "I don't like children, and I'm not too fond of telepathy either. It sounds like a perfectly horrifying combination. A brat that can shred your mind to tatters if you don't keep her happy? No thank you."
Nephrite was also concerned about the risk, but Zoicite's prejudice against telepaths annoyed him. "Remember that these children were in a state of extended unconsciousness. It is very likely this made their minds more susceptible to telepathy. Do we have a file on this girl? What is her name? Maybe she doesn't even have telepathic powers under normal circumstances."
Zoicite picked up the girl's wrist with obvious distaste and read the identification bracelet worn by all Dark Kingdom children. "Her name is Amethyst."
Jadeite walked over to a wall display and typed for a minute or so. "Okay, here are the children identification files. Amethyst, originally known as Amelia, was the only daughter of one of Prince Endymion's soldiers. She joined our ranks about a year before the great sleep, when she was
five, and was being trained in gemology."
"What?" Zoicite interrupted. "There is no way I'm going to be responsible for this girl's training," he cried. Zoicite was the expert on gemology, the creation and use of crystals as energy storage devices, locators, and weapons.
Jadeite glared at her before continuing. "She was showing the beginnings of levitation and teleportation skills at last check." He looked up from the wall display.
"She tested negative for innate telepathic powers."
"She received no training in the travel on other mental planes of existence?" Nephrite asked.
Jadeite pushed a few buttons. "Children that young aren't even tested for that talent," he replied. 'In the
Dark Kingdom they usually aren't expected to reach adolescence, when such talents are usually revealed,' he thought to himself. "In fact, it says here that her only
detectable talents involved gemology."
Kunzite cleared his throat. "Zoicite has made his opinion quite clear. What say the rest of you?"
"Well, the records say she has no telepathic powers under normal conditions," Nephrite started, glancing around at the dead children. "It is possible that she'd be perfectly harmless once awakened, and it would be interesting to work with someone that can travel alternative planes of existence at such a young age..."
"She isn't young," Zoicite interrupted. "She has been at least semi-conscious for the last thousand years!"
Nephrite nodded. "Yes, I suppose you are right. And there is no guarantee that she won't lose that ability once
she is awakened."
"I'll take her," Jadeite suddenly said.
"Are you sure?" Kunzite asked. "She would be your full responsibility, and we can't be sure what she is capable of or likely to do when awakened."
Jadeite nodded. "If she does maintain her telepathic powers and can be taught to control them, she would be a great resource for Queen Beryl. If her ability to travel
alternative planes of existence stays intact, she might be able to connect other telepaths with the alternative planes. We have never seen such a combination of talents before. I must put my loyalty to the cause of my Queen before my own safety. I must take this risk."
"And you think you can teach her to control her powers?" Kunzite asked.
"The desire to do the Queen's will runs strong in Dark Kingdom children," Jadeite pointed out. "They absorb the Dark Energy quickly and completely upon their capture. There are few things a child won't do in service to the queen. This child was scavenging supplies and energy from the dying after a battle. Her loyalty runs strong. I am sure of it."
Kunzite nodded. "Then it is settled as far as I am concerned. Jadeite is solely responsible for this child and the preservation of the Dark Kingdom citizens where she is concerned." Kunzite looked at the other generals. "There is to be no word of this to anyone. As far as the citizens are concerned, this child was a lucky survivor of the sleeping spell. Our suspicions about her potential telepathic abilities and their consequences will remain classified." He then looked at Zoicite. "This child is to be under our protection as a potentially valuable commodity of the Queen. I will not hold it against her if she uses her powers in self defense."
Zoicite nodded. "But I don't like it, and I'm not going to work with her on her gemology!"
Kunzite agreed. "Very well." Then he added, "If my suspicions of her are correct, she probably won't need your
help."
Jadeite approached the child, and the other generals and the soldiers that had been accompanying them left the room of dead children and a potentially deadly girl. Jadeite noted that some of the soldiers looked unhappy, recognizing that being privy to now-classified information would probably mean their deaths if the energy couldn't be spared for brainwashing treatments.
When they were gone, Jadeite reached for the child's hand, the one holding the energy storage crystal, and gently uncurled her fist. The crystal in her palm had maintained its swirls of life force energy after all these years. He carefully took the crystal out of her palm, and he watched the rapid movement of her eyes under the lids slow and then cease. She was finally in a dreamless peace.
He performed the awakening procedure quickly and efficiently, and the girl's eyes fluttered open. They were an intense shade of purple.
"Hello, Amethyst," Jadeite said with a non-threatening smile. "Welcome to the world of the living."
Amethyst stared at him silently. Her eyes were too mature for her physical age, holding too much knowledge, too much wisdom, too much suffering. Then she looked around herself, taking in the sight of the still bodies of the other children. She looked back at Jadeite.
"Yes, they are all dead," he said, answering her unspoken questions. Then he added, "Queen Serenity cast a sleep spell on everyone her silver light touched." He shuddered slightly at the memory of the intensity of the light, the disgusting purity of it. Nothing so pure should be so powerful. "It would appear that your connection with the energy-storage crystal at the moment of the blast's impact left you partially immune to the sleep. You were awake, weren't you?" It was more of a statement than a question.
Amethyst only nodded. "A thousand years have passed, and Queen Beryl has awakened. You are the last to be revived. Do your loyalties still lie with Queen Beryl and the spirit Metallia?"
Amethyst nodded again, a slight movement, her purple eyes serious.
Jadeite handed her the energy-storage crystal, and she took it. She looked startled to see the sunburst symbol on her hand. "It is from the crystal," he commented. "You have a similar one on your forehead. It is really quite striking with your purple eyes."
Amethyst looked as if she was caught between pleasure at the complement and cynicism that the hell she had been through was far too high a price to pay for an attractive marking.
"My name is..." Jadeite began.
"Jadeite," the girl finished. Her voice was the voice of a child, high pitched and soft, in startling contrast to her eyes.
"How did you know that?" Jadeite asked, feeling a little wary that she was using telepathy.
"Someone recognized you," she replied cryptically.
Jadeite was silent for a moment, and then realized that she had found the information from a stolen memory.
"Are you telepathic?" Jadeite asked in a soft voice that indicated confidentiality and trust.
"Not anymore," she replied with the beginnings of a hesitant smile. "I am not alone anymore."
**first posted October 27, 2001***
Author's Notes:
I know, I know, still no Sailor Senshi! Actually, they don't appear in the next chapter either, but be patient with me! If you want to see a dedicated Usagi and Mamoru fanfiction, be on the lookout for another fanfiction I am working on called "Source of Strength."
PLEASE e-mail me at aisuru_chan@yahoo.com with questions or comments or encouragement -- or give me a reivew! I have through Chapters 1-7 and 10 epilogue) written, so more reviews means faster pdates! Remember, my author name is simply Aisuru (not Aisuru-chan). Thank you! And while I do not own Sailor Moon or Jadeite or Nephrite or Zoicite or Kunzite, I do claim Amethyst as my very own!
Once more, I would like to thank Aisuru-chan for Being my editor (of course, I rearranged the story again after she edited - Gomen nasai). I would also like to thank my Koudanshi-chan for his final editing of my stories, even though he is not a fan of Sailor Moon. Can you believe it?
Chapter 1: The Awakening
By Aisuru
"What an awful mess!" Nephrite complained, looking into the tatters that had been the mind of a child. "I don't know what could have caused this." His telepathic skills were weak, but this child was in a mindless state, unable to block the weakest telepathic probing.
"It looks like the work of an untrained telepath, sir," stated one of Nephrite's soldiers. "Maybe the extended unconscious state made him more susceptible."
Nephrite nodded and went on to the next child. The four Generals had been the first to be awakened by Queen Beryl after the thousand years of imprisonment Queen Serenity had surprised them with. Now the Generals were awakening the Dark Kingdom citizens a few at a time, trying to prevent the wide spread panic that would be caused by a mass return to consciousness. Most of the process had gone
smoothly, with the vast majority of the citizens awakening with no ill effects. Only two groups had suffered casualties. The first group noticed to be effected were the youma creators. While no problems were detected and the awakening protocols had gone smoothly, a few had slipped way
without taking a first breath. Others were breathing but
appeared brain dead. Still others were fine, and were even now creating fresh batches of youma. The loss of the youma creators was a nuisance, but there were still more than enough youma creators given the limited energy supplies available for the production of youma.
More confusing had been the children. The children had been saved to awaken last, as they had the least importance and were safer kept in their semi-conscious states away from the other adults while the adults became absorbed by their tasks. Now that the children were being awakened, it appeared as if none were salvageable.
"If you ask me, it's just as well," Zoicite stated. "Annoying sniveling little brats. The Dark Kingdom will be better off without them."
Jadeite looked up from the child he was studying and shot Zoicite a look of annoyance, but stifled any comment he would have said when he realized that Kunzite was nearby.
"Are any of them revive-able?" Kunzite asked.
"None so far," Jadeite admitted, moving on to one of the last children. Jadeite had a fondness for children,
finding them more easily teachable in the arts of mental training than the adults, and found the loss of the children to be a devastating loss to the Dark Kingdom. He looked at the child before him, unmoving in the long sleep, her purple-white hair hanging limp around her body, her tiny face smudged with dirt from whatever task she had been doing when she was taken. Then he looked more closely at her face. There was a mark on her forehead, a pale purple sunburst design that looked as if it had imprinted there by some sort of energy. He had never seen the likes of it before. Then he noticed that her eyes were moving beneath her closed eyelids. REM sleep. She was dreaming.
"Um, guys..." he started. The other generals approached, following Jadeite's gaze to the sleeping child.
"I think we found a keeper."
Nephrite motioned to his telepathic soldier, and he came forward. He frowned when he noticed the sunburst design on her forehead, but he swallowed his apprehension and put the palm of his right hand onto her forehead. Then he focused his energy in an attempt to reach her mind. After a moment he broke contact. "I can't get in, sir," he stated, looking confused. "It is as if her mind is somewhere else, in a literal sense."
"You mean she is on another plane of existence?" Nephrite questioned.
"It is possible, sir," the telepathic soldier agreed. "Although I didn't know that was possible in one so young."
"If she has been aware on some level for the last thousand years, we can't know what to expect," Jadeite stated. Then he turned to Nephrite. "If she is in an alternative plane of existence, is it safe to wake her?"
"As you said, Jadeite, we can't know what to expect." Nephrite answered.
"What is this mark?" Zoicite asked, pointing to the sunburst design on the child's forehead.
Kunzite, who had been quiet during this exchange, pointed to the girl's tightly fisted right hand. The edges of a purple energy-storage crystal could be seen peeking out through her fingers. "All of the children that were put in the sleep were on the moon touched side of the earth when Queen Serenity cast the sleep spell," he started. "This one seems to have been gathering the life forces of the wounded. It would appear that she was connecting with the crystal when the blast occurred."
"So the life-force energy made her partially immune to the sleep spell? Lucky girl," Zoicite muttered.
"Lucky?" Jadeite exclaimed in surprise. "This girl has been in a concious isolation for the past thousand years! How can you possibly call that lucky?"
"Not in total isolation," Nephrite muttered, looking at the room full of dead children with meaning.
Zoicite gasped. "Do you mean to say that you think this little girl fried the brains of all the other children?"
Kunzite nodded. "It makes sense. We can't even begin to imagine what a conscious isolation would do to a person after a thousand years. Surely she would have done all in her power to reach out for someone else." He paused for a moment, thinking. "We need to decide right now what should
be done with this child. It is highly likely that this girl is responsible for the deaths of all the other children. It is also possible that she is responsible for the casualties among the youma creators. We have never seen such a level of telepathy before. Couple this advanced and detrimental telepathic power with the emotional state of a child isolated from all interactions with conscious people for a full thousand years. Do we want to unleash this girl
on the Dark Kingdom, or do we kill her now and report to the people that all of the children died of unknown causes?"
"I say we snuff out the little twerp," Zoicite said with a shudder. "I don't like children, and I'm not too fond of telepathy either. It sounds like a perfectly horrifying combination. A brat that can shred your mind to tatters if you don't keep her happy? No thank you."
Nephrite was also concerned about the risk, but Zoicite's prejudice against telepaths annoyed him. "Remember that these children were in a state of extended unconsciousness. It is very likely this made their minds more susceptible to telepathy. Do we have a file on this girl? What is her name? Maybe she doesn't even have telepathic powers under normal circumstances."
Zoicite picked up the girl's wrist with obvious distaste and read the identification bracelet worn by all Dark Kingdom children. "Her name is Amethyst."
Jadeite walked over to a wall display and typed for a minute or so. "Okay, here are the children identification files. Amethyst, originally known as Amelia, was the only daughter of one of Prince Endymion's soldiers. She joined our ranks about a year before the great sleep, when she was
five, and was being trained in gemology."
"What?" Zoicite interrupted. "There is no way I'm going to be responsible for this girl's training," he cried. Zoicite was the expert on gemology, the creation and use of crystals as energy storage devices, locators, and weapons.
Jadeite glared at her before continuing. "She was showing the beginnings of levitation and teleportation skills at last check." He looked up from the wall display.
"She tested negative for innate telepathic powers."
"She received no training in the travel on other mental planes of existence?" Nephrite asked.
Jadeite pushed a few buttons. "Children that young aren't even tested for that talent," he replied. 'In the
Dark Kingdom they usually aren't expected to reach adolescence, when such talents are usually revealed,' he thought to himself. "In fact, it says here that her only
detectable talents involved gemology."
Kunzite cleared his throat. "Zoicite has made his opinion quite clear. What say the rest of you?"
"Well, the records say she has no telepathic powers under normal conditions," Nephrite started, glancing around at the dead children. "It is possible that she'd be perfectly harmless once awakened, and it would be interesting to work with someone that can travel alternative planes of existence at such a young age..."
"She isn't young," Zoicite interrupted. "She has been at least semi-conscious for the last thousand years!"
Nephrite nodded. "Yes, I suppose you are right. And there is no guarantee that she won't lose that ability once
she is awakened."
"I'll take her," Jadeite suddenly said.
"Are you sure?" Kunzite asked. "She would be your full responsibility, and we can't be sure what she is capable of or likely to do when awakened."
Jadeite nodded. "If she does maintain her telepathic powers and can be taught to control them, she would be a great resource for Queen Beryl. If her ability to travel
alternative planes of existence stays intact, she might be able to connect other telepaths with the alternative planes. We have never seen such a combination of talents before. I must put my loyalty to the cause of my Queen before my own safety. I must take this risk."
"And you think you can teach her to control her powers?" Kunzite asked.
"The desire to do the Queen's will runs strong in Dark Kingdom children," Jadeite pointed out. "They absorb the Dark Energy quickly and completely upon their capture. There are few things a child won't do in service to the queen. This child was scavenging supplies and energy from the dying after a battle. Her loyalty runs strong. I am sure of it."
Kunzite nodded. "Then it is settled as far as I am concerned. Jadeite is solely responsible for this child and the preservation of the Dark Kingdom citizens where she is concerned." Kunzite looked at the other generals. "There is to be no word of this to anyone. As far as the citizens are concerned, this child was a lucky survivor of the sleeping spell. Our suspicions about her potential telepathic abilities and their consequences will remain classified." He then looked at Zoicite. "This child is to be under our protection as a potentially valuable commodity of the Queen. I will not hold it against her if she uses her powers in self defense."
Zoicite nodded. "But I don't like it, and I'm not going to work with her on her gemology!"
Kunzite agreed. "Very well." Then he added, "If my suspicions of her are correct, she probably won't need your
help."
Jadeite approached the child, and the other generals and the soldiers that had been accompanying them left the room of dead children and a potentially deadly girl. Jadeite noted that some of the soldiers looked unhappy, recognizing that being privy to now-classified information would probably mean their deaths if the energy couldn't be spared for brainwashing treatments.
When they were gone, Jadeite reached for the child's hand, the one holding the energy storage crystal, and gently uncurled her fist. The crystal in her palm had maintained its swirls of life force energy after all these years. He carefully took the crystal out of her palm, and he watched the rapid movement of her eyes under the lids slow and then cease. She was finally in a dreamless peace.
He performed the awakening procedure quickly and efficiently, and the girl's eyes fluttered open. They were an intense shade of purple.
"Hello, Amethyst," Jadeite said with a non-threatening smile. "Welcome to the world of the living."
Amethyst stared at him silently. Her eyes were too mature for her physical age, holding too much knowledge, too much wisdom, too much suffering. Then she looked around herself, taking in the sight of the still bodies of the other children. She looked back at Jadeite.
"Yes, they are all dead," he said, answering her unspoken questions. Then he added, "Queen Serenity cast a sleep spell on everyone her silver light touched." He shuddered slightly at the memory of the intensity of the light, the disgusting purity of it. Nothing so pure should be so powerful. "It would appear that your connection with the energy-storage crystal at the moment of the blast's impact left you partially immune to the sleep. You were awake, weren't you?" It was more of a statement than a question.
Amethyst only nodded. "A thousand years have passed, and Queen Beryl has awakened. You are the last to be revived. Do your loyalties still lie with Queen Beryl and the spirit Metallia?"
Amethyst nodded again, a slight movement, her purple eyes serious.
Jadeite handed her the energy-storage crystal, and she took it. She looked startled to see the sunburst symbol on her hand. "It is from the crystal," he commented. "You have a similar one on your forehead. It is really quite striking with your purple eyes."
Amethyst looked as if she was caught between pleasure at the complement and cynicism that the hell she had been through was far too high a price to pay for an attractive marking.
"My name is..." Jadeite began.
"Jadeite," the girl finished. Her voice was the voice of a child, high pitched and soft, in startling contrast to her eyes.
"How did you know that?" Jadeite asked, feeling a little wary that she was using telepathy.
"Someone recognized you," she replied cryptically.
Jadeite was silent for a moment, and then realized that she had found the information from a stolen memory.
"Are you telepathic?" Jadeite asked in a soft voice that indicated confidentiality and trust.
"Not anymore," she replied with the beginnings of a hesitant smile. "I am not alone anymore."
**first posted October 27, 2001***
Author's Notes:
I know, I know, still no Sailor Senshi! Actually, they don't appear in the next chapter either, but be patient with me! If you want to see a dedicated Usagi and Mamoru fanfiction, be on the lookout for another fanfiction I am working on called "Source of Strength."
PLEASE e-mail me at aisuru_chan@yahoo.com with questions or comments or encouragement -- or give me a reivew! I have through Chapters 1-7 and 10 epilogue) written, so more reviews means faster pdates! Remember, my author name is simply Aisuru (not Aisuru-chan). Thank you! And while I do not own Sailor Moon or Jadeite or Nephrite or Zoicite or Kunzite, I do claim Amethyst as my very own!
Once more, I would like to thank Aisuru-chan for Being my editor (of course, I rearranged the story again after she edited - Gomen nasai). I would also like to thank my Koudanshi-chan for his final editing of my stories, even though he is not a fan of Sailor Moon. Can you believe it?
