Crystal Tears Chapter 6: Amethyst Challenges the Senshi
by Aisuru
aisuru_chan@yahoo.com


General Kunzite had left Amethyst shortly after revealing Jadeite's fate. Jadeite was gone, and he wouldn't be coming back. Feeling more alone than she had since the long sleep, Amethyst sat on the couch with the book of mythology. "There are worlds beyond here," she told herself, "Worlds where I would not be alone, if only I could reach them."

While Amethyst could reach these worlds to summon creatures, she had never been able to go physically to these other worlds. She flipped through the familiar pages abstractedly, letting her mind wander. She found her thoughts returning to that last child, the one she had killed while extracting his knowledge of creature summoning.
Whenever Amethyst summoned, she felt that somehow she was fulfilling his dream for him. "That is a little twisted," she muttered to herself, recognizing the irony.

Amethyst returned her gaze to the book. A sketch of a fierce dragon glared back at her. Its scales were a black-edged crimson, and Amethyst knew the two colors would fight for dominance as the creature moved. Its eyes glowed a molten yellow, reflecting the fire in its belly. Its teeth were blackened with its own smoke. "If I were as powerful as this dragon," Amethyst murmured, "I would have a
real chance at revenging Jadeite's torment. This dragon could rip the Sailor Senshi limb from limb!" She froze, her eyes wide as an idea came to her. Then her eyes narrowed as she calculated the plan. "I will be as powerful as this dragon," she declared. "I will summon him, and he will do my bidding!"

*****

An odd, purplish haze appeared in an alley somewhere in Tokyo. The haze rapidly expanded, and a child stepped out of it. Her hair, which she wore in a messy braid that she had probably done herself, was purplish-white in color. She held a glowing purple crystal in one hand. On closer inspection, a purple sunburst design could be seen on this same hand. A similar pattern adorned her forehead. The color of her hair, her intricate tattoo-like decorations, the glowing crystal, and her unearthly method of transport were unusual enough, but what really frightened the man in the alley only meters from where the young girl emerged, was the child's eyes. As the purple haze evaporated, it was more obvious that this girl's eyes were the strangest shade of purple. Not a purplish-brown or violet-blue that could be considered exotic and still human. No, her eyes were living
purple ice, and they froze him with the look of hatred and possession she directed towards him. He found he couldn't look away from her as she raised the glowing purple crystal in his direction. "Thank you," she said. The man vaguely noted that the child's voice was too sweet, too innocent, to belong to the same girl as those intense eyes. He had no time for any other thoughts before he crumbled to the ground, drained of energy.

'That was too easy!' Amethyst thought, pleased with her success so far. Without Jadeite's force field in place, it had been child's play to teleport to earth. Before even leaving the alley she had collected a significant amount of energy. Even with Jadeite's repeated explanation, she had never understood the new Dark Kingdom policy of draining only non-essential energy, finding it a waste of time, so she had disregarded it. The real power was in the final burst of life-energy emitted at the victim's death. 'He is probably thankful to have given his life to service the Dark Kingdom,' she thought, not bothering to remember that this energy was not going to the Dark Kingdom's plans, but to fulfill her own.

Amethyst could not cast an illusion spell, as Jadeite would have, so she would just have to go into this world as she was. She smoothed down her dress and tried to assume an innocent look, but innocent looks were not her forte. 'The first thing I need to do is collect more energy,' she thought. 'It is going to take a lot of energy to summon a creature as large and as powerful as a dragon.' Pulling the mythology book out of a subspace pocket, she leafed through to the picture of the dragon. Using this dragon, she would
defeat the Sailor Senshi with ease. According to the book, dragons were highly intelligent, unlike the stupid youma the Dark Kingdom insisted on using to gather energy stores. Amethyst smiled to herself; she would get her revenge.

As she stepped from the dim alley and into the cheery light of a Sunday morning, she scanned the bustling Tokyo sidewalk stretching to either side of her. It was still early but there were many people going intently to their own destinations. Though gathering the energy from the nice gentleman just laid waste was simpler that she imagined, Amethyst was hesitant to unleash this ability before the
current populous. She needed her energy gathering to be done secretly, or the Sailor Senshi would appear before she had summoned her dragon. Aside from avoiding premature discovery by her adversaries to be - the senshi - it was unclear if she could drain the energy of several humans at once. Energy draining with her crystal took concentration, and she wouldn't be able to drain a person of energy while evading capture or attack by other humans.

'I need to find some isolated humans,' Amethyst thought. As she watched, a group of giggling adolescent girls entered a beauty parlor. Two men exited a coffee shop, the bell on the door chiming brightly, the men nursing their Styrofoam cups like something precious. A boy pulled on his mother's arm as they walked by, begging her to buy the newest sugary cereal at the grocery store.

Only one building lacked the buzz of conversation and loitering patrons - the library. It stood in elegant silence amng the other buildings, its brick surface proper, decorative molding borrowed from another era, the wrought iron handrail on the front steps curved gracefully in loops and whirls. As Amethyst watched, a single figure approached the building, pulling open the heavy wooden doors and slipping inside. 'This is the perfect place to find my next victim,' she thought.

The inside of the building was dimly lit as older uildings tend to be. Other than the occasional muffled cough or the turning of a page, the silence of the room hung heavy around her. The building smelled of polished wood and old books. In fact, books were everywhere. They crowded the shelves that lined the walls, reaching the vaulted ceiling, and filled row after row of bookcases. The weight of her own mythology book Jadeite had given her now was somewhat smaller in comparison. Memory of the hours she had recently spent learning about the creatures from other worlds modified her next actions. 'I'll collect energy here,' she thought, 'but I'll not summon the dragon here. These books are too precious to be damaged by the dragon's fire.' She idly fingered the spine of her tomb.

Beyond the nearest bookcases were large wooden tables. Seated around the tables were quiet absorbed readers. On closer inspection, it became apparent that a few of the more silent patrons were actually asleep. If it weren't for the presence of an ebony-haired man that kept glancing around the library suspiciously, Amethyst would have collected the energy of the sleepers in the fashion she had so recently used. The way that man was acting, however, she doubted she could do so and remain undetected.

Amethyst continued on, eventually finding a small room in a far corner of the building. Here, a woman sat behind a desk, mending the spine of a well-used book. In fact the room was full of similar books in various stages of disrepair. She looked up at Amethyst as she entered the room, peering at the odd child through eyeglasses that might have been as old as the book she was trying to mend, and nearly as thick. The woman wore a faded brown dress, and her brown hair was liberally streaked with gray. "Oh, my, you startled me!" the woman exclaimed in her hushed librarian voice. Squinting oddly in her direction she continued, "Did you find a damaged book, child?"

"Damaged?" Amethyst echoed, surprised that an adult was
speaking to her without hostility. Then she looked down at the mythology book now gripped comfortingly in her hands. She had tried to be careful with it, she really had, but now she noticed that the cover did hang a little loosely from the pages. "I suppose it is a little damaged," she continued in her soft, childish voice, "but this is my book."

"Oh, my," the woman said again, "That sure is a big book for your age," she said cheerfully, obviously unaware that the child in front of her was over a thousand years old. She leaned forward, giving Amethyst a conspiratorial glance. "If you don't tell the other librarians, I'll fix it for you."

"Will I get it back?" Amethyst asked.

The woman was clearly amused. "Of course! And I can fix it right now. I'm sure you won't want to be without your book any longer than you have to. Just set it down on the desk and I'll get right to it!"

Amethyst couldn't resist giving a small smile. After only a moment's hesitation, she set the heavy book on the woman's desk. The woman picked up the book, chattering while she worked. She put her face mere inches from the embossed title on the cover before she could read it. It was obvious the woman's vision was quite poor. "Oh, my, I just love mythology," she said. "I used to sit under a
cherry tree in the park and read about damsels in distress and their fairy godmothers while the other children played their silly games. But do you know what my favorite stories were about?" she asked, once again leaning forward as if she was sharing a big secret.

"What?" Amethyst asked, intrigued by the woman.

"My favorite stories were the ones about the dragons!" the woman said with a smile.

Amethyst grinned back. "Mine too!" she exclaimed.

The woman chuckled and handed back the book. "Thank you," Amethyst said, inspecting the firmly attached cover. Then she paused. Those words triggered her memory of her mission, to collect energy, summon the dragon, and kill the Sailor Senshi. She hardened her heart and narrowed her eyes at the woman that had been so kind to her. "Thank you," she repeated, raising her arm towards the woman and pointing the now-glowing purple stone in her direction. The woman slumped forward limply as her energy was efficiently rained,
her face resting against the smooth leather cover of the book she had been repairing before Amethyst's arrival. Amethyst pulled the stone away, removing its effect before the final living surge of energy left the myopic woman. 'I am not becoming soft-hearted,' she told herself as she left the building, rejecting the idea of using any of the other librarians or patrons for energy gathering. 'These people
have uses beyond the energy I could take. They care for books.'

As Amethyst looked for her next victim, she also searched for the best place to summon the dragon. She followed a group of children from a distance, and found herself in the park. There was a big open field, now being used by a boy's soccer team, which would easily accommodate her dragon. There were also shade trees nearby that the dragon could catch on fire. Birds chirped in these trees,
the water splashed merrily in a fountain, and the sounds of laughter was everywhere. A young girl was tossing bits of bread into the lake, feeding swimming birds of some sort, and lovers enjoyed the semi-privacy of rowboats.

Amethyst ducked out of sight behind a clump of trees as she pulled out her energy storage crystal. She held the crystal up to her forehead, feeling the new swirls of energy. She savored the energy, which she could taste when connected to the crystal in this manner. "I'll need more energy yet, to summon the dragon and have my revenge on the Sailor Senshi," she muttered. "I can't wait until I hear their cries of pain and anguish as the dragon destroys them!"

She was about to leave the park in search of more secluded victims when she heard a soft moan coming from behind her, followed by a stifled giggle. Curious, Amethyst turned and crept towards the sound, deeper into the clump of trees. Two teenagers were locked in a heated embrace, alternating between unskilled kisses and hesitant touches.

"Oh, you don't know what you do to me!" the boy muttered, burying his face in her hair.

The girl giggled, stroking the back of his head. "And what do I do to you?" she murmured, trying to sound seductive.

The boy groaned. "Mmmmh, you make me feel weak all over!"

Amethyst gave a twisted smile. She always loved a paradox! 'No,' she thought, 'This will make you feel weak all over!' She raised her crystal towards the two unaware lovers, and its swirling glow brightened by degrees as it stole the life-energy of the young lovers. Seeing no usefulness in these giggling fools, she drained them entirely, relishing the final burst of energy as their lives
were snuffed out. The teenagers now lay in the dirt under the trees, their still bodies in an embrace of sorts. Amethyst tested the energy level in the crystal again and smiled. "Now you feel weak all over," she said, although she knew the boy would never hear her, or anything else, ever again.

*****

Amethyst had taken the non-essential energy from a college study group - they had books with them, so they were useful - and had taken the full life-force energy from an elderly couple feeding pigeons from a park bench. Ducking behind some bushes again, she connected to her crystal. The crystal's glow and the taste of the energy seduced her, and she was unsure how much time had passed before she broke the crystal's hypnotic spell and remembered what she had to do next. "I must now summon the dragon and destroy the Sailor Senshi," she told herself as she broke her connection with the crystal.

Leaning against an old tree on the edge of the soccer field, she settled her mythology book on her lap, opening it to the picture of the dragon. A sketch of a fierce dragon glared back at her. Its scales were a black-edged crimson, and Amethyst knew the two colors would fight for dominance as the creature moved. Its eyes glowed a molten yellow, reflecting the fire in its belly. Its teeth were blackened with its own smoke. "It is time," she whispered.

Amethyst closed her eyes then, focusing on her mental image of the beast. As she focused, she loosened her grip on the reality in which she physically existed. She no longer felt the rough bark behind her back, the weight of the book in her lap, the breeze rustling the loose tendrils of hair that had escaped her braid and tickled her face. Instead she felt the dry heat of another world warming her face, and she smelled the acridity of smoke.

The world around her had been laid to waste by the east that now loomed in front of her. Leathery feet with curved talons crushed the burnt remains of what had once been some sort of vegetation. Its tail swept across the dusty ground as it turned towards Amethyst. It snorted, emitting smoke and sparks from its nostrils, and it narrowed its glowing yellow eyes at the shadowy figure of the girl. The dragon snarled, showing the blackened teeth, before hurling its fire in her direction. The fire rushed towards Amethyst, charring the ground beneath her feet, but leaving her untouched. The dragon tilted its head to one side, curious about the figure that resisted its fire and emitted no smell.

"I'm not really here," Amethyst told the dragon. She raised her hand towards the dragon, and its glowing yellow eyes widened in surprise as it was engulfed in purple light from the crystal the child held. "I give you this energy that you might serve me," she chanted. "You will now accompany me to the plane on which I reside, and you will do my bidding." The dragon lumbered towards the girl, intending to devour her before she could cast her spell upon him, but his teeth passed right through her. Moments later, the purple energy had infused the beast, and its eye color shifted from glowing yellow to a purple that mimicked the color of Amethyst's own eyes. "Be loyal to me, dragon," she said in her childish voice. "Destroy the human world, and destroy the Sailor Senshi when they arrive." Amethyst smiled and teleported the dragon to the earth's dimension.

When Amethyst opened her physical eyes, she still sat
under the old tree in the park, the heavy book resting on her lap, but the picture of the dragon was missing from the book. A large swirl of purple fog engulfed the soccer field in front of her. When the fog cleared, the dragon emerged. It looked oddly out of place, its leathery feet now resting on the lush grass of the field, its scales, black-edged crimson, shimmering in the brilliant sunlight. The dragon's purple eyes took in scene before it. The mingling scents of
mown grass, car exhaust, and the countless humans that resided in Tokyo were unfamiliar to it. This air seemed to burn its lungs, being richer in oxygen than it was used to. It snorted, and the sparks emitting from its nose burned brightly in this atmosphere.

The children on the soccer teams had halted their game and raced for cover when the purple fog filled the field. The dragon shot his fire across the now-abandoned field, singing the grass. The sound of screams filled the air, and he followed the noise, approaching a clump of trees the children had just passed by. Another shot of fire, and the trees were reduced to tree-shaped ash. Amethyst wondered vaguely if the college study-group had awakened from her energy-drain in time to escape. They had been studying near those trees.

"Mercury Bubbles Blast!" a girl's voice cried, and a bubbly fog suddenly hid the dragon.

"The Sailor Senshi have arrived," Amethyst thought, trying to see through the fog from her position.

Before the fog had completely lifted, another voice was heard. "Mars Fireball Charge!" another girl's voice called. The resulting fireball burned away the remnants of the fog, and the senshi were revealed. Both girls wore white body suits with bows and short skirts. The one with the short blue-black hair had a blue bow and skirt, and wore blue boots. The other girl, whose long black hair hung loose down her back, had a red bow, red skirt, and red high-heeled shoes that looked as inappropriate for battle as the shoes Jadeite's youma seemed to favor. There was no sign of Sailor Moon, the only senshi Amethyst had ever seen.

"For disrupting the peace on a beautiful Sunday..." the girl in blue began.

"For using your fire for evil and destruction..." the girl in red added.

"You will not be forgiven!" the girls chorused.

"In the name of Mercury..." the girl in blue yelled, striking a defensive position.

"In the name of Mars..." the girl in red added.

"We will punish you!" they chorused again.

'How cheesy!' Amethyst thought. 'Why don't they just attack the dragon so it can burn them to a crisp?'

As if hearing her thoughts, the Sailor Senshi attacked the dragon again. It seemed a hopeless endeavor. Sailor Mercury cast her fog again, hiding the girls from the dragon, who started shooting fire in all directions. Then Sailor Mars would send fireballs of her own at the dragon, but the dragon's scales were immune to the effect.

The battle was slowly moving off of the soccer field and towards the benches and fountain in the center of the park. 'Eventually the dragon will hit them, and I'll win!' Amethyst thought, 'but I want to destroy all of the Sailor Senshi. Where is Sailor Moon?'

"Where is Sailor Moon?" Sailor Mars cried to Sailor Mercury. "She should be here by now!"

"I'm here, I'm here!" the blond senshi called, rushing towards the battle.

"It took you long enough!" Sailor Mars hollered.

"Not now, Mars!" Mercury scolded. She sent another blast of Mercury Bubbles, giving Sailor Moon cover as she reached the other girls. "This is no normal youma," she instructed to Sailor Moon. "My calculations tell me that this is a real dragon, not a Dark Kingdom creation. It doesn't belong in this dimension."

"Forget that!" Sailor Mars cried out as another fireball was deflected from the dragon's scales. "How do we beat this thing?"

"Sailor Moon, fire isn't working against this, uh, creature. Try your tiara," Mercury finished.

"Um, okay," she answered. "Moon Tiara..." she began.

"You idiot, look out!" Sailor Mars cried, rushing towards Sailor Moon. A fireball was hurdling towards the girl, but Tuxedo Kamen appeared out of nowhere, pushing her roughly to the ground and out of the way.

"Oh, my! Thank you, Tuxedo Kamen!" Sailor Moon cried.

"Be careful," Tuxedo Kamen warned, a tenderness in his voice that didn't escape Amethyst's notice. He helped her to her feet. "Do you want to try that again?"

Sailor Moon looked at him blankly for a moment. "Oh, the tiara!" she replied after a moment. "Yeah, let me try that again."

Tuxedo Kamen rushed away from Sailor Moon, running past the dragon as he threw his roses in its direction. One embedded itself into the dragon's eye, and it thrashed about in pain and anger.

"Moon Tiara Action!" Sailor Moon cried, throwing her tiara at the distracted dragon. The tiara missed the dragon on the approach, but managed to clip off one of the fleshy spikes that lined the dragon's spine on the tiara's return. The dragon roared in fury again, lashing out its tail. The flying tail struck Sailor Moon, and she was sent flying into the fountain, striking her head hard on the edge before flying into the water.

"Sailor Moon!" the other senshi cried out in horror as Tuxedo Kamen pulled her sodden body out of the fountain and flew off with the clearly unconscious heroine.

Amethyst resisted the urge to cheer at the senshi's fate. The dragon was now wounded, but the remaining senshi had no way to fight against the dragon. 'Their doom is sure,' Amethyst thought with a grin.

The senshi broke out of their stunned inactivity. Sailor Mercury grabbed Sailor Mars' arm as she rushed at the dragon. "No, we need a plan if we are going to fight this ourselves!" Mercury scolded. She then whispered something into Mars' ear.

'What are they plotting?' Amethyst wondered. Mercury filled the battle scene with more Mercury Bubbles, and Mars shot off yet another fireball. This time, however, instead of being deflected by the dragon's scales, the dragon let out another yelp of pain.

"Come and get me, you stupid lizard!" Sailor Mercury taunted. The dragon lumbered towards the sound, furious. Sailor Mars shot more fireballs at the dragon's retreating form as Sailor Mercury's taunting brought it closer and closer to her. "Mercury Bubbles Blast!" she cried between taunts. The dragon was heading towards her blindly.

'What are they doing?' Amethyst wondered. Then she heard the splash. The senshi had taunted and herded the dragon into the lake. The dragon roared in helpless fury, and as the Mercury Bubbles faded away it became clear that the ferocious dragon was no match for the lake. Its heavy, scale-covered body was not meant for swimming, and its leathery feet and sharp claws could not grip the silt bottom of the lake. "It's going to drown!" Amethyst cried. She jumped to her feet, clutching her energy-storage crystal. She forced herself to close her eyes and envision the desolate world that was the dragon's origin. She then thrust the stone in front of her, her eyes still closed, forcing the crystal's power into the dragon and willing its teleportation back to the world she was envisioning.

"Where did it go?" Amethyst heard one of the senshi cry out before the world went black.

*****

Amethyst woke up an indeterminable time later. The light was dimming, the sky darkening as evening approached. "Damn!" she swore. "I channeled too much energy into the dragon's teleportation." She forced herself to ignore the beginnings of a pounding headache and stood on shaky legs. "Is this what it feels like when I drain others with my crystal?" she wondered. She had to lean against the tree
behind her. "I'll never be able to teleport back to the Dark Kingdom like this. I need to drain more energy first."

Her next target came in the form of a little boy. He was trying to hide the fact that he was crying, but his sniffles and the hand he rubbed across his eyes gave him away. "What's the matter with you?" Amethyst asked him.

The boy looked up at her with startled eyes. He looked to be about Amethyst's apparent age. "It's my randparents," he said, sniffing loudly. "They were supposed to meet me here, but I can't find them. I heard there was a monster attack, and I'm worried they got hurt."

Amethyst looked at the boy more closely, and noticed a slight resemblance between the boy and the elderly couple she had drained before summoning the dragon. "I think I know where they are," she said, leading the boy to the bench they had been seated on. The elderly couple was still there, slumped limply against each other. They must have been dead for hours.

"What happened to them?" the boy blurted out, rushing towards them and trying to shake them awake.

"This," Amethyst answered as she drained the child as she had his Grandparents.

*****

Amethyst returned to the place she still referred to as Jadeite's quarters. The boy's energy had been sufficient to power her teleportation back into the Dark Kingdom. She was still tired from the great amount of energy it had taken her to use the crystal for the repeated energy collections and the bit of her own energy she had used to teleport the dragon back to its own dimension. After only a moment's hesitation, she crawled up into Jadeite's own bed, comforted by the pillows that had held his head, the blankets that had embraced his body. The faint remainder of his scent hung round her. "I'm not sure if Sailor Moon is still alive or not, and I failed to destroy the other two senshi and Tuxedo Kamen, but I will try again," she muttered to him as she quickly fell into a deep sleep. "You will be avenged."

*****

Author's Notes:

This story isn't too dark for you, is it? What did you expect from a Dark Kingdom child? Please email me with any questions or comments or encouragement. Please?

Oh, one more thing. I have finally found a way to weave an older fanfic I started about two years ago into "Crystal Tears." I will start posting this modified story, "A Love of... Science?" as soon as possible. It will run parallel to "Crystal Tears," showing the senshi viewpoint of this dragon attack, for instance, and it is much more light-hearted.