Title: The Taste of Quartzite & Sapphire

Author: Kitty Malfoy

Rating: Pg-13

Summary: Set during the Black Moon story-arc, but in a sort of twisted alternate reality.

Disclaimer: All Sailormoon paraphernalia belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. The plot, though, was dutifully thought of and recorded by my faithful plot bunnies: Fufu, Tofu, Mushu, Kovu, Washu, Princess, Rags, and Patches. (Rags and Patches are twins)

A/N: If you have any suggestions for Usagi pairings email me @ thetasteofstrawberries@hotmail.com or include it in your review.

This is Usagi/Saffiru, btw!

^%^%^%^%^%^%^%^%

"Rubius and Emerald have failed. I want those Sailors destroyed, and I want SERENITY!"

White hair and angry silver eyes.

"Yes my Lord. I understand. It will be as you command."

A woman kneeled in the shadows beneath the Prince's throne. Translucent hair, covered in varying shades of glitter fell to the woman's feet in a mass of wild curls that coiled and twisted about her like deadly serpents. The features of her face were cloaked in darkness, but her eerie, bleached-pink eyes emitted a soft glow in the twilight of the throne room.

Her manner of dress was indiscernible amongst the layers and pools of satiny white cloth that billowed about her kneeling form like liquid moonbeams. She nodded her head in obedience and submission to her Lord's will.

"Don't fail me...I can't lose you. You are too important for the future I shall bring to pass with Serenity as my Queen."

The woman rose in a single fluid moment to her feet, and bowed once again, her body moving into the single stream of light filtering through a crack in the wall. A collar of tiny crystals wrapped around her neck and affixed to the straight neckline of her dress just above her breasts. The waist of the dress tightened along her stomach in such a way that it was painful to look at. The empire waistline flowed out in several folds of silk that were virtually impossible to separate.

She turned on her heel and glided gracefully to the chamber exit. A floor-length overjacket of white mesh and rainbow sparkles fanned out behind her as her path led her around the corner and back into the shadows.

^%^%^%^%^%^%^%^%

"Silly Sailors..."

The soda can dropped from Minako's hand and clattered to the concrete slabs of the sidewalk. Her bright blue eyes were immediately alert and menacing as she searched for the source of the voice.

"Scurrying around...like little mice..."

Rei and Makoto turned back to back and held their tennis rackets in a knuckle-whitening grip. All five sailors had one hand in their pockets; fingers wrapped tightly around their henshin pens.

"Show yourself!" Rei called out.

Icy coldness swept around them as soft as a person's breath. "Today...one of the Crystal points WILL fall..." The voice whispered upon the frigid breeze that had swept around them despite that hot July sun overhead.

"Coward!" Usagi called out, trying her best to hide her own cowardliness betrayed by the shaking of her legs.

"Ssh..." The voice giggled, in a way that implied that not all the lights were on upstairs. Rather than feeling relieved at this presumption, Ami felt even more threatened. A sane person could be reasoned with...

"Such names...nope......won't tell, won't tell..."

Another giggle.

"We're going to play a game..........its called 'Cat and Mouse'. It's my favorite..."

"What are you talking about?" Makoto demanded losing her temper at the enemy that simply refused to reveal themselves.

"That's the question...Which One? Which One? Can YOU decide?"

Then it hit Ami like a ton of bitter bricks. "The Crystal Points! She's talking about the points!"

"There's no way we can guard each one!" Usagi exclaimed in frustration, clenching her tiny fists.

"Smart Mercury mousey!.............which will you save and which one will fall......"

^%^%^%^%^%^%^%^%

The woman sighed as she stepped from the teleportation mirror and she became visible again. The cold, crystal onyx wall upon which she leaned was soothing and helped ease her troubled mind.

She immediately was aware of another being's thoughts in the room with her. A shadow detached from the wall opposite her resting-place and moved towards her.

"Lord Saffiru." She nodded her dazzling head in acknowledgement, and straightened. She let her gaze fixate on the wall just behind the door of the transport room and walked past the Prince's brother.

A warm hand grabbed her arm and pulled her backwards. Her thin heels stopped their rhythmic clicking and slid dangerously across the tiled floor almost bringing the woman to the floor. She turned angry opalescent eyes on his azure ones, but held her contempt at that, biting her tongue to keep from lashing out at the stupid man.

Saffiru, so aptly named for his appearance, chuckled and blew ocean- colored bangs from same-colored eyes. He made no move to turn her towards him, but rather leaned in. He was so close that his hot breath raised the hairs on the back of her neck and gave her a pleasant sensation.

"You may have fooled the others..." He breathed thickly.

The woman stiffened.

"But your mind games don't work on me, your 'Highness' "

The woman smiled in an albeit sad and pessimistic way, "They never did, my Lord."

^%^%^%^%^%^%^%^%

"Way to moon dust that monster, Sailor Moon!" Venus complimented, tugging affectionately on the other blonde's pigtails.

"Sailor Mousies!"

The Senshi looked up at the woman's silhouette resting atop the building beside them.

"We're here! Now, Who are you?!" Mars demanded.

The woman leapt off the rooftop in a flurry of glitter, sparkles, and evil laughter. "I am......Quartzite! And I now hold the golden keys to four of Crystal Tokyo's Crystal Points!"

"What?!" Jupiter exclaimed in despair. "But we destroyed all the youma at those points."

Quartzite snorted and tossed her glittering hair over her shoulder, "And what was stopping me from retrieving them after you left?"

"For Sailor Mousies revered all over the cosmos, you aren't too smart........Can't play the game..."

"How dare you! Venus Crescent-"

"Cut it Venus. It's not worth your energy. You'll need all you have for my Lord."

The four Sailor Senshi beneath her looked up in bewilderment and surprise. Then in a rare show of intelligence, for Usagi's current age period, the sailor-suited, soldier of love and justice pulled out her moon wand and stepped forward.

"Moon.......Healing.......ACTIVATION!"

{A/N: Sorry I actually don't remember what healing weapon/attack Usagi had in Season R. Sorry all you super loyal fans out there!}

The white light engulfed Quartzite in a flurry of rainbows and crescent moons. The hopeful smiles of experience rose on the faces of the planetary senshi until Quartzite's annoyed voice sounded.

"Damn it, Moon! You CAN'T heal me!" She shouted, her apparent façade of insanity dropped and her voice rose in the experienced maneuver of one who was used to ordering others about. "I said don't use your powers unless you have to - PAY ATTENTION!"

Whatever Moon had been expecting, a verbal tongue-lashing hadn't been high on the list of possibilities. Her arm dropped to her side and she took an unconscious step backwards as Quartzite's presence grew.

"You never did-" Quartzite's tirade was muffled, but not completely silenced by a strong hand over her mouth belonging to a man that appeared behind her.

This was not what the Senshi had expected either. They stood hooked to the ground and stared dumfounded at their supposed "enemy's" new situation. Saffiru stood behind the woman with one arm wrapped around her waist and pinning her arms against her sides. The other remained across her face, halting her protests and holding her mouth shut against any further outbursts.

"You're compromising the mission, Quartzite!" He hissed at her. She growled and struggled to free herself from his grip.

"What mission?" Mercury asked quietly in a vain hope that the pair would act in the typical enemy fashion and reveal their entire battle plan. But it seemed that neither had heard her.

Saffiru howled in pain and wrenched his hand away from Quartzite's face. The flesh of his palm was pink and embedded with deep bite marks. With inhuman speed and agility, the woman spun out of his grasp and shoved him roughly against the brick wall of the building upon which she had earlier been standing.

"I have captured four of the points!" She shouted at him, her voice rising shrilly. "Stay out of this!"

She whirled around with a desperate look in her eyes. With a yell she thrust her arm into the sky above her. Raw white energy cackled around her hand like static lightening as a single staff materialized in her hand. She didn't even blink as the unseemingly deadly weapon sliced the air in front of her as she twirled it around her body in a complex pattern.

"Lesson number one!" She shouted and leapt at the unprepared Senshi. The blunt edge of her spear cracked over the heads of Venus and Mars at the same time a well-aimed sweep-kick took Mercury's legs out from under her. A double roundhouse sent Jupiter into the side of a brick bank like a limp rag doll. Swinging her spear around her, she caught Moon on the shaft of it and lifted her up into the air only to fling her back down into Mars and Venus as they struggled to get back to their feet; and who then in turn crashed into Mercury.

"Some enemies don't hide behind magic or youma. You have no weapons...use your powers in defense and hone your speed and agility."

The Sailors regrouped together before the woman who was becoming stranger and more mysterious by the minute. The insane and lightness of her voice was gone and what was left behind was cold, harsh, and demanding.

"Lesson number two, are you ready?"

"No...actually." Mars retorted hotly, "What are you-"

"Too bad!" Quartzite snapped, crudely, and beat them down again with her spear. "Your enemy won't wait until it's convenient for YOU before they try and kill you..." A breeze ruffled Quartzite's garments and lifted her opalescent hair up into twisting torrents about her. She clenched the shaft of her spear in her right hand, and her eyes beneath the fringe of her hair were as cold and sharp as the steel blade upon her weapon. "...You'll already be dead."

"Lesson number three." She lifted her spear above her head and twirled it around as she spoke. White beams shot forth from each end of the deadly device and blurred into the curved arms of a nebular cloud of dusty white energy. "The attacks won't always be head on."

The butt of her spear hit the pavement with a crack and the power stored within it peaked, "QUARTZ PRISM-LANCE!" There was a muffled boom and then the sound of a firecracker dying out. The Senshi stood dumbfounded and looked around in confusion. The ground began to quake and tremble and wide ribbons cracked through the street cement.

"Oh Shit!" Venus realized too late, as the pavement beneath them split and surged upwards amidst bright pillars of sizzling energy. The five girls screamed in pain as their bodies were shot out of the column of energy and slammed into the hard street.

Quartzite lifted her spear again, but a hand on her shoulder made her pause and turn. "That's enough, Quartzite." Saffiru ordered. She glared and resumed her attack, "I'm not finished here!"

Saffiru grabbed her arm and began to pull her away. "No! They're not ready!" Angry tears filled her eyes and her voice took on a hysterical lit. "They have to learn!" She pushed off the ground in an attempt to leap free from his strong grasp, but failed. His hand trailed down her face and grasped her chin forcing her to look into his sapphire eyes. "Quartzite. You are. Compromising. The. Mission."

The Senshi pulled themselves from the craters their impacts had forged and forced their battered bodies into a standing position. They staggered forwards and watched the scene play out between the pair of their enemies.

Quartzite clenched her eyes against the crystalline tears that formed at the corners of her frustrated pastel eyes. Her lip quivered, but her voice carried a foreboding edge. "If they don't do something then They. Will. Die....I will die."

Saffiru held her tense body to his chest and ran a hand comfortingly down her back. "The Mission, my Hime. Focus on the mission."

"I can't!" She shouted in frustration.

"Just let it go!" He grabbed her shoulders and shook her as if that was the only way that he could think of to jog some sense into her. Her spear fell from her numb grip and disappeared as it clattered to the sidewalk.

"He'll be watching us soon...I can feel it..." He whispered. Quartzite nodded mutely and knelt to pick up a shard of shattered glass. The Senshi immediately moved into battle positions, but were at a loss for words or actions when the woman took the glass and slashed across her arms and legs.

Mercury realized what Quartzite was doing when the woman began to rip her clothes and smear dirt across her body. "She's making it look like we attacked her!"

"I could make it more realistic!" Jupiter threatened and stepped forward with a clenched fist only to sway and almost fall to her knees.

Saffiru moved his hand in a circular motion across the air behind them, and a swirling black vortex appeared. He stepped into it and disappeared. "Don't speak of this until you are far from this place. I trust you can follow those directions, Moon?" Usagi sweatdropped but nodded in understanding. The remaining scouts nodded grimly, but a bit uncertainly.

"Catch!" Quartzite called out and threw an object up into the air before taking a step back into the portal and disappearing closing the portal with her exit.

Moon snatched the object out of the air and juggled it several times before it final settled in her open hands. "That's impossible!"

"What?" Venus asked, deathly curious.

Moon ignored her, but pulled an object from her sub-space pocket. She held the second object in her hands with the first one and was wide- eyed and silent in shock.

The Senshi surrounded her and discovered the source of Moon's astonishment. In her palm rested her Luna Disguise Pen, shining pink and smooth in the July sun. But beside it laid the exact same item. But the second one was slightly faded in color and worn from the passage of time.

It was a clue and they knew it, but a clue for what they had no idea. Mostly, they were still trying to adjust to the fact that their enemy had just taught them a lesson and then become completely unglued at the thought of their deaths; which was totally BIZARRE!

^%^%^%^%^%^%^%^%

By the time Quartzite had reappeared on the other side of the portal her composure was regained, and she assumed the posture and air of someone who had just escaped from a hard battle. She spared one longing look in Sapphire's direction and then steeled herself for her meeting with Prince Demando.

Just outside of the throne room, her spear re-materialized in her weapon hand and she leaned upon it as the ceiling-to-floor French doors opened and she walked forward.

"My Lord," She greeted him with a nod of her head and kneeled before his dais, "You asked me to report after my skirmish with the Senshi."

"Yes...Quartzite." He paused his drawling tone to look over her appearance. Quartzite willed her body not to appear revolted as his gaze lingered upon her torn clothing longer than politically necessary. "Have you succeeded in capturing the Crystal Point?"

She lowered her head in shameful way and let her silken tresses fall about her shoulders and over her face. "The Black Moon now has in its possession four of the five Crystal Points of Crystal Tokyo. I was forced to retreat during the final skirmish and was unable to gain control of the fifth Point. I have failed you, my Prince."

"Failed?" Demando's tone was a mixed one of surprise and mocking. "You have succeeded far beyond my hopes...and all in a single try. You will be rewarded Quartzite..."

"Thank m'Lord." She nodded her head again and began to stand.

"Quartzite...tell me.......how have you succeeded, in outstanding measures nonetheless, where others have failed?"

Quartzite froze. She swallowed quickly and smiled cockily at the Prince. Without hesitation she replied, "The others were weak and stupid."

Demando smirked slightly before losing his momentary emotion beneath his solemn and pale, emotionless mask. "Your reward will be sent to your rooms within the hour."

Quartzite nodded, and left. Demando snapped his fingers, and Saffiru slid from the shadows and moved to the Prince's side. "Brother, see that she gets her 'reward'."

"Of course, Demando."

^%^%^%^%^%^%^%^%

"Quartzite..." Saffiru stepped into the woman's room and closed the door behind him. The woman in question stepped out of the bathroom, wearing a red, silk, nighty, and clean of any trace of dirt, blood, or grime.

"It's all right Saffy. My room is protected from all sights, sound, and thoughts."

"Are you feeling better, Serenity?" He asked sitting down upon the edge of her bed cavalierly. Quartzite's translucent hair darkened to the silvery color of moonbeams, and her haunting pale pink eyes flickered to their original, depthless, azure hue.

"Yes, and now I feel truly stupid for endangering MY mission that way. I was sent to the past to make sure that Demando and Wiseman don't seize control of my kingdom, but I totally suck at undercover!" With a pitiful whine the royal, and majestic Queen of the Future flopped down onto her bed and hugged a lacy pillow.

Saffiru chuckled, "You're far from being bad at undercover. You're my brother's favorite."

"All the other ones are dead or turned!" Serenity pointed out, "The Akayashi Sisters, Rubius, Emerald-"

"Still." Saffiru insisted. He moved closer to Serenity and caressed her bare shoulder. "Do you know what doesn't exist in this time?" He asked.

A smile played upon her lips and her hands dug into the bed covers, "My marriage..."

He smiled in agreement and slid the silken strap of her nightgown down her arm. Her hands lifted to the folds of his navy silk shirt and she pulled his body towards her as he pushed hers down against the soft mattress of the bed.

His warm lips caressed her forehead, her jaw, her nose, her temples, everywhere but the one place where she desired it. Her hands slid down the back of his shirt and she delighted in the pleasure she gave him as she massaged the muscles she found there. The tips of his fingers created swirling patterns across her arms and neck that tickled her petal-soft skin. She shivered in delight and nipped at his exposed ear.

This ended in the desired result as his own lips stilled hers and melted her body into a puddle of mush. She took it to the next step, before he could regret his actions, and slid her tongue swiftly into his mouth. Now it was her turn to seize control and she rolled over placing herself on top; straddling his legs.

With quick and nimble fingers the buttons of Saffiru's shirt were undone and the restricting article was flung to the floor. The lights in the room dimmed as Saffiru reached up and Serenity's nightgown fell to her waist.

%^%^%^%^%^%^%^%

R & R!

How was that? I know the background info was pretty much the whole thing, but I had to set up the scenario.

KissThis