_Krypt_, sorry if it's a bit confusing. I think I mentioned that Usagi
was Eternal Sailormoon somewhere, so I figured it would be kinda
obvious that the Outer Senshi were around. They've just been watching,
and so far the Inner Senshi have been able to take care of their
enemies but well... now they can't ^___^
Adyen -- I know Chapter 16 wasn't up to my normal standards, and I
don't think Chapter 17 is either, but then I'm just creating background
for the big final battle I've fleshed out. *grin*
True Identity
Chapter Seventeen: Truth
Li Xiang
Oz gave a wave of acknowledgment, before moving out of the doorway. As
Rache slipped past him, he hissed to her, "What are you _doing_?!"
"Nothing at all, Ozzy."
Hotaru missed the exchange completely, although she followed the
redhead in, casting another glance at the guitarist. Once he was out of
sight, she turned back to her guide, "Naru?"
"Yeah Hotaru?"
"Why are you living with Daniel?"
"I live with Nobuyuki and Fei Li, as well," Rache grinned at her
guest's stunned look, "Welcome to the House, Hotaru. Xue Shi purchased
it for us a few months back."
"Xue Shi... aren't you afraid she'll attack you?" Hotaru was confused,
and only got more so when some strange emotion flickered across the
eighteen year old's face.
"Why did you want to talk to me, Hotaru?" Rache dropped herself into
the plush couch in the House's general 'living room area'. Hotaru
shifted nervously.
"I've... been having these dreams," an eyebrow arched, and Hotaru
hurried to explain, "I mean, dreams about... well, about living your
life."
"... really now."
She bobbed her head, nodding rapidly, "Yes. Did... did you _really_
think we were... keeping Usagi from you...?"
Rache stood abruptly, the dark look shadowing her face making her
appear more viscous than the youngest Senshi could ever imagine Bastet
to be, "Yes," she snapped, brushing past the stunned girl, "Usagi was
my _life_, dammit! Everything I did, it was for her. And when she got
the Senshi, I was suddenly pushed away. Pushed, insulted both behind my
back and to my face, tormented...! It never ended!"
"I..." Hotaru didn't know what to say-- but someone else did. Violet
eyes widened impossibly with shock as Horus-- Horus!-- seemed to melt
out of the shadows and embraced the ranting woman. Rache calmed almost
immediately, going so far as to _smile_ up at their enemy!
"But I don't need her anymore," she purred, "I found my brother, I
found new friends, I found a new reason to live. I'm not alone
anymore..."
Hotaru swallowed the lump that was building in her throat. What... what
was going on? Two people who beat on each other as Charon and Horus...
were hugging each other? And it was the 'more than friends' type hug,
at that! And Rache... she had been talking like she hated the Princess.
/Ah, but she does, liebechen./
Hotaru let out a shriek that woke up the rest of the current occupants
of the House, and caused Rache and Horus-- who was wearing a pair of
grey pajama bottoms and nothing else-- to groan, "Schuldich..."
/Liebechen has a good set of lungs, Schweister,/ came the amused mental
voice, /but she woke up Bishoujo and Farfie./
Hotaru was panicking, searching for the voice. Rache moaned about the
horrid conditions, even as the man the Senshi knew as Ptah barreled
into the room. A black haired, blue-eyed man following after him,
silent as a spirit.
"Senshi," Ptah growled, and the other man's eyes narrowed.
"Naru, Kudou, what's Saturn doing here?"
This man, Hotaru decided, must have been Amun-Ra. Who else could it be?
"Sorry Ranma," Rache shrugged, "She called, and I brought her here. I
never thought everyone would wake-up."
"Murphy's Law," intoned Oz, who'd come to investigate the scream, "You
can't get a break. Why'd the pipsqueak squeak?"
"Schuldich," was the tart reply, green eyes warily watching 'Ptah'
circle Hotaru, "Cool it, Irish. I wanna figure something out."
"What?" wondered the single-eyed psychopath, "Oh, fine. But do it
quickly. Her blood _screams_ to be spilled."
/On Rache's oh-so-expensive carpet?/ mused the telepath. Everyone--
excluding Hotaru whose panic attack was just getting worse-- ignored
him.
"Poetic, isn't he?" the dark haired man asked of Hotaru, in reference
to Ptah, "Wonderful ways with words," he turned to the redhead of the
room, flashing her a grin, "You hear Jei-sama, Naru. Do what you gotta
do."
"I thank you from the bottom of my soul for your oh-so-expressed
permission," she bit out sarcastically, "Alright Hotaru. You said you
dreamed you were... me?"
She nodded, "When... when Usagi-hime was... was to busy to be yo-your
friend," she stammered, violet eyes trained on the two frightening men
eyeing her with blatant malevolence.
"Now, why would you dream of _that_?" Kudou wondered, before looking at
his girlfriend, "Did you heal her, Rache?"
"No, I--"
"You can heal people, too?!" Hotaru cut her off with a wide-eyed stare.
"Too...?" echoed a confused playboy.
"You mean you can heal people as well?" Rache wondered, eyeing the
girl, "How odd. Maybe it's a healer thing...?"
"Have you ever been dreaming yourself as Saturn?" Ranma questioned. At
her negative response, his expression darkened, "Then that can't be it.
Naru-- I know you can heal and push your ki around enough to make ki
stamps, but can you understand the differences of a ki signature?"
"Not really," Rache shook her head, "I can create a ki stamp for others
to follow, like you said, but I can't really _read_ anyone's stamp."
He ignored the second half of her response, "No two people can have the
same signature. Or, at least, that's the theory that old monk in Tibet
once told me. It was something I believe in, up until I met Saturn.
Naru, you and she had the _exact_ _same_ aura!"
Stunned silence entered the room as they watched the frustrated martial
artist pace. This was his area of expertise-- anything pertaining to
martial arts, which included reading auras to sense incoming attacks,
he'd know. So they watched him pace as he muttered to himself, "I've
never _seen_ this before! It's strange... Hotaru's aura is... 'lighter'
I guess is the best word, while Naru's is 'darker'. It makes no
goddamned sense!"
"Ranma," Oz offered after a few more minutes of silence, "You're
ranting."
"I _know_ that!" he bellowed, surprising them, "What I don't know is
how this happened! Naru is _four_ _years_ older than Saturn!"
They stayed that way, Ranma thinking up one magical device or another,
and systematically eliminating them from his list, for approximately
two hours, trying to figure it all out. That was when a grumpy and
annoyed Tendou Nabiki, flanked by Jadaeite, stalked into the House.
She'd been awoken by the blonde man and told to head to the House from
the Dojo, right in the middle of a very nice dream.
"Alright, what the hell is-- Holy shit!"
"Nabiki?"
She cast Ranma a dark look, eyes glinting, "Stay out of my way,
Saotome. Now, can someone explain to me just _who_ cast a high end dark
magic spell to separate these two?" and she pointed at Hotaru and Naru.
"They're one person?" question Kudou, eyeing the younger girl
critically. Nabiki crossed her arms.
"I know dark magic when I see it. Someone separate the kid from Rache
about eight years ago. The kid represents the light and good, while
Rache is the darker, more evil half," Nabiki frowned, "Looks like you
were supposed to be a Senshi, Revenge-girl, and someone decided against
it."
"So what now?" Kudou was nervous. He and Rache were just starting their
relationship. What would this do to them?
"We recombine them, baka," Nabiki rolled her eyes at the obvious.
"Hey! Don't I get some say in this?" Hotaru didn't want to lose her
life just to 'recombine' with Naru. She liked her life!
"No," Ranma clamped his hand on her shoulder, "Either you live, by
being a part of Naru... or you die, and I take all your powers. What's
it going to be, short-stuff?"
"You... you'll kill me?!"
Ranma grinned nastily, "Killed Jupiter and Mercury already. Want to add
to the list?"
"Ranma, stop scaring her," Nabiki snapped, annoyed with the
gender-bender, "Let's go Kiddo, Rache. Jadaeite, tell Omittchi and
Shampoo I've gone to the lab."
"Right!"
She waved at one of the walls, and a chill ran down the spines of all
present. The wall warped and changed, and Hotaru tried to make a run
for it. She didn't get far, as Ranma was already holding her in place
with one hand.
Nabiki frowned, then reached out with her power, wrapping it around the
girl's mind, "Come, child, follow me. Rache, hurry it up."
"Demanding, isn't she?" Rache offered with a cheeky grin, she darted to
Yohji's side, planted a kiss on his lips, and then ran through the
portal. Nabiki followed, shaking her head, and then the portal morphed
back into a normal wall.
"Weird," was the combined chorus of those present. Well, except for the
depressed whine from Farfello, since he did not get to spill any blood.
---
Hotaru jerked back into control of her mind and body, only to find
herself locked to a bar in the middle of a cave. Well, 'cave' was a bad
description. Yes, the walls were stone, and the ceiling bore the
tell-tale stalagmites, but the floor was smooth, glinting black stone.
The natural shelving of the walls hosted a number of strange compounds
and devices.
"Where...?"
"Welcome back to the Land of the Living, Hotaru," she jumped, twisting
to face Rache. The redhead was kneeling on the ground, surrounded by
pillows. A blonde man and a lavender haired woman she did not know
leaned against a wall.
Nabiki stood slightly between the redhead and the ebony haired girl.
The brunette was beginning to glow, her chant getting louder and
louder, in time with the glow.
"What's going on?! Naru!!"
Rache shot her a wry grin, "One way or another, we were going to get
rid of all the Senshi. This way... you won't die."
Horrified eyes turned to Nabiki, even as she shrieked the final words
of the spell. Her mind split with pain, it thrummed and danced through
her mind and body, twisting and twirling and aching.
Then the pain vanished into a welcoming abyss, leaving her numb, with
eyes wide and unseeing.
Rache, on the other hand, felt the same pain, but her mind did not shut
down. Through her extremities did she feel the burning tingle, and her
stomach it felt as though white hot railroad spikes were being rammed
through it.
The tingle steadily became a screaming pain, washing over her as it
did. The placement of the pillows suddenly made sense, as she collapsed
into them, staring up at the roof of the cave.
She could see motes of energy filling the air around her, dancing on
the soft breezes that stirred the oxygen. They were white and black,
ice-pale and violet, and even, oddly enough blood red and forest green.
They captivated her attention, drawing her away from dwelling on the
pain.
Power and energy filled the air as the connection between Hotaru and
Naru was rebuilt. Time would tell how they fit back together.
---
End Chapter
Hehehehehe, I cut it off at a _good_ place, ne? And what's up with the
red and green energy flicks. Mwahahaha, I'm not telling~.
was Eternal Sailormoon somewhere, so I figured it would be kinda
obvious that the Outer Senshi were around. They've just been watching,
and so far the Inner Senshi have been able to take care of their
enemies but well... now they can't ^___^
Adyen -- I know Chapter 16 wasn't up to my normal standards, and I
don't think Chapter 17 is either, but then I'm just creating background
for the big final battle I've fleshed out. *grin*
True Identity
Chapter Seventeen: Truth
Li Xiang
Oz gave a wave of acknowledgment, before moving out of the doorway. As
Rache slipped past him, he hissed to her, "What are you _doing_?!"
"Nothing at all, Ozzy."
Hotaru missed the exchange completely, although she followed the
redhead in, casting another glance at the guitarist. Once he was out of
sight, she turned back to her guide, "Naru?"
"Yeah Hotaru?"
"Why are you living with Daniel?"
"I live with Nobuyuki and Fei Li, as well," Rache grinned at her
guest's stunned look, "Welcome to the House, Hotaru. Xue Shi purchased
it for us a few months back."
"Xue Shi... aren't you afraid she'll attack you?" Hotaru was confused,
and only got more so when some strange emotion flickered across the
eighteen year old's face.
"Why did you want to talk to me, Hotaru?" Rache dropped herself into
the plush couch in the House's general 'living room area'. Hotaru
shifted nervously.
"I've... been having these dreams," an eyebrow arched, and Hotaru
hurried to explain, "I mean, dreams about... well, about living your
life."
"... really now."
She bobbed her head, nodding rapidly, "Yes. Did... did you _really_
think we were... keeping Usagi from you...?"
Rache stood abruptly, the dark look shadowing her face making her
appear more viscous than the youngest Senshi could ever imagine Bastet
to be, "Yes," she snapped, brushing past the stunned girl, "Usagi was
my _life_, dammit! Everything I did, it was for her. And when she got
the Senshi, I was suddenly pushed away. Pushed, insulted both behind my
back and to my face, tormented...! It never ended!"
"I..." Hotaru didn't know what to say-- but someone else did. Violet
eyes widened impossibly with shock as Horus-- Horus!-- seemed to melt
out of the shadows and embraced the ranting woman. Rache calmed almost
immediately, going so far as to _smile_ up at their enemy!
"But I don't need her anymore," she purred, "I found my brother, I
found new friends, I found a new reason to live. I'm not alone
anymore..."
Hotaru swallowed the lump that was building in her throat. What... what
was going on? Two people who beat on each other as Charon and Horus...
were hugging each other? And it was the 'more than friends' type hug,
at that! And Rache... she had been talking like she hated the Princess.
/Ah, but she does, liebechen./
Hotaru let out a shriek that woke up the rest of the current occupants
of the House, and caused Rache and Horus-- who was wearing a pair of
grey pajama bottoms and nothing else-- to groan, "Schuldich..."
/Liebechen has a good set of lungs, Schweister,/ came the amused mental
voice, /but she woke up Bishoujo and Farfie./
Hotaru was panicking, searching for the voice. Rache moaned about the
horrid conditions, even as the man the Senshi knew as Ptah barreled
into the room. A black haired, blue-eyed man following after him,
silent as a spirit.
"Senshi," Ptah growled, and the other man's eyes narrowed.
"Naru, Kudou, what's Saturn doing here?"
This man, Hotaru decided, must have been Amun-Ra. Who else could it be?
"Sorry Ranma," Rache shrugged, "She called, and I brought her here. I
never thought everyone would wake-up."
"Murphy's Law," intoned Oz, who'd come to investigate the scream, "You
can't get a break. Why'd the pipsqueak squeak?"
"Schuldich," was the tart reply, green eyes warily watching 'Ptah'
circle Hotaru, "Cool it, Irish. I wanna figure something out."
"What?" wondered the single-eyed psychopath, "Oh, fine. But do it
quickly. Her blood _screams_ to be spilled."
/On Rache's oh-so-expensive carpet?/ mused the telepath. Everyone--
excluding Hotaru whose panic attack was just getting worse-- ignored
him.
"Poetic, isn't he?" the dark haired man asked of Hotaru, in reference
to Ptah, "Wonderful ways with words," he turned to the redhead of the
room, flashing her a grin, "You hear Jei-sama, Naru. Do what you gotta
do."
"I thank you from the bottom of my soul for your oh-so-expressed
permission," she bit out sarcastically, "Alright Hotaru. You said you
dreamed you were... me?"
She nodded, "When... when Usagi-hime was... was to busy to be yo-your
friend," she stammered, violet eyes trained on the two frightening men
eyeing her with blatant malevolence.
"Now, why would you dream of _that_?" Kudou wondered, before looking at
his girlfriend, "Did you heal her, Rache?"
"No, I--"
"You can heal people, too?!" Hotaru cut her off with a wide-eyed stare.
"Too...?" echoed a confused playboy.
"You mean you can heal people as well?" Rache wondered, eyeing the
girl, "How odd. Maybe it's a healer thing...?"
"Have you ever been dreaming yourself as Saturn?" Ranma questioned. At
her negative response, his expression darkened, "Then that can't be it.
Naru-- I know you can heal and push your ki around enough to make ki
stamps, but can you understand the differences of a ki signature?"
"Not really," Rache shook her head, "I can create a ki stamp for others
to follow, like you said, but I can't really _read_ anyone's stamp."
He ignored the second half of her response, "No two people can have the
same signature. Or, at least, that's the theory that old monk in Tibet
once told me. It was something I believe in, up until I met Saturn.
Naru, you and she had the _exact_ _same_ aura!"
Stunned silence entered the room as they watched the frustrated martial
artist pace. This was his area of expertise-- anything pertaining to
martial arts, which included reading auras to sense incoming attacks,
he'd know. So they watched him pace as he muttered to himself, "I've
never _seen_ this before! It's strange... Hotaru's aura is... 'lighter'
I guess is the best word, while Naru's is 'darker'. It makes no
goddamned sense!"
"Ranma," Oz offered after a few more minutes of silence, "You're
ranting."
"I _know_ that!" he bellowed, surprising them, "What I don't know is
how this happened! Naru is _four_ _years_ older than Saturn!"
They stayed that way, Ranma thinking up one magical device or another,
and systematically eliminating them from his list, for approximately
two hours, trying to figure it all out. That was when a grumpy and
annoyed Tendou Nabiki, flanked by Jadaeite, stalked into the House.
She'd been awoken by the blonde man and told to head to the House from
the Dojo, right in the middle of a very nice dream.
"Alright, what the hell is-- Holy shit!"
"Nabiki?"
She cast Ranma a dark look, eyes glinting, "Stay out of my way,
Saotome. Now, can someone explain to me just _who_ cast a high end dark
magic spell to separate these two?" and she pointed at Hotaru and Naru.
"They're one person?" question Kudou, eyeing the younger girl
critically. Nabiki crossed her arms.
"I know dark magic when I see it. Someone separate the kid from Rache
about eight years ago. The kid represents the light and good, while
Rache is the darker, more evil half," Nabiki frowned, "Looks like you
were supposed to be a Senshi, Revenge-girl, and someone decided against
it."
"So what now?" Kudou was nervous. He and Rache were just starting their
relationship. What would this do to them?
"We recombine them, baka," Nabiki rolled her eyes at the obvious.
"Hey! Don't I get some say in this?" Hotaru didn't want to lose her
life just to 'recombine' with Naru. She liked her life!
"No," Ranma clamped his hand on her shoulder, "Either you live, by
being a part of Naru... or you die, and I take all your powers. What's
it going to be, short-stuff?"
"You... you'll kill me?!"
Ranma grinned nastily, "Killed Jupiter and Mercury already. Want to add
to the list?"
"Ranma, stop scaring her," Nabiki snapped, annoyed with the
gender-bender, "Let's go Kiddo, Rache. Jadaeite, tell Omittchi and
Shampoo I've gone to the lab."
"Right!"
She waved at one of the walls, and a chill ran down the spines of all
present. The wall warped and changed, and Hotaru tried to make a run
for it. She didn't get far, as Ranma was already holding her in place
with one hand.
Nabiki frowned, then reached out with her power, wrapping it around the
girl's mind, "Come, child, follow me. Rache, hurry it up."
"Demanding, isn't she?" Rache offered with a cheeky grin, she darted to
Yohji's side, planted a kiss on his lips, and then ran through the
portal. Nabiki followed, shaking her head, and then the portal morphed
back into a normal wall.
"Weird," was the combined chorus of those present. Well, except for the
depressed whine from Farfello, since he did not get to spill any blood.
---
Hotaru jerked back into control of her mind and body, only to find
herself locked to a bar in the middle of a cave. Well, 'cave' was a bad
description. Yes, the walls were stone, and the ceiling bore the
tell-tale stalagmites, but the floor was smooth, glinting black stone.
The natural shelving of the walls hosted a number of strange compounds
and devices.
"Where...?"
"Welcome back to the Land of the Living, Hotaru," she jumped, twisting
to face Rache. The redhead was kneeling on the ground, surrounded by
pillows. A blonde man and a lavender haired woman she did not know
leaned against a wall.
Nabiki stood slightly between the redhead and the ebony haired girl.
The brunette was beginning to glow, her chant getting louder and
louder, in time with the glow.
"What's going on?! Naru!!"
Rache shot her a wry grin, "One way or another, we were going to get
rid of all the Senshi. This way... you won't die."
Horrified eyes turned to Nabiki, even as she shrieked the final words
of the spell. Her mind split with pain, it thrummed and danced through
her mind and body, twisting and twirling and aching.
Then the pain vanished into a welcoming abyss, leaving her numb, with
eyes wide and unseeing.
Rache, on the other hand, felt the same pain, but her mind did not shut
down. Through her extremities did she feel the burning tingle, and her
stomach it felt as though white hot railroad spikes were being rammed
through it.
The tingle steadily became a screaming pain, washing over her as it
did. The placement of the pillows suddenly made sense, as she collapsed
into them, staring up at the roof of the cave.
She could see motes of energy filling the air around her, dancing on
the soft breezes that stirred the oxygen. They were white and black,
ice-pale and violet, and even, oddly enough blood red and forest green.
They captivated her attention, drawing her away from dwelling on the
pain.
Power and energy filled the air as the connection between Hotaru and
Naru was rebuilt. Time would tell how they fit back together.
---
End Chapter
Hehehehehe, I cut it off at a _good_ place, ne? And what's up with the
red and green energy flicks. Mwahahaha, I'm not telling~.