Disclaimer: Claims. I have none. Fancy that, huh? I hope y'all enjoyed my first chapter, and I'm on to my next chapter. Hopefully, it'll be a bit longer. But, we'll see, now won't we. And I still want to throw Demando down and shag him senseless *giggles*. Thirty points to Gryffindorks and ten to Slytherin per request. As for Setsuna throwing Demando down and shagging him senseless... *evil cackle* You'll have to keep on reading, now won't you?
FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT BEFORE THE FIC....
"[About Hitler] And he was a vegetarian and painter, so he must have been going, 'I can't get the fuggin trees, DAMN! I will kill everyone in the world!'" ~Eddie Izzard (Gomen... I found that RATHER hilarious... *gigglegiggle*)
I think that we think that, you know, somebody kills one person, that's murder, and you go to prison. You kill ten people, you go to Texas, they hit you with a brick, that's what they do. Twenty people, you go to a hospital and they look through a small window at you forever. And over that, we can't deal with it, you know. Somebody's killed a hundred thousand people, we're almost going, "Well done! Well done! You killed a hundred thousand people! You must get up very early in the morning. I can't even get down to the gym! Your diary must look odd. Get up in the morning, death death death death death death death, lunch, death death death, afternoon tea, death death death, quick shower, you know... ~Eddie Izzard
Astute Observations of the Time Guardress
by: Me... Achicagoil. The Gryffindork of them all!
rated: PG-13. The longer Setsuna's forced to stay with Demando, the testier she gets!
chapter two: Observations of the Just Plain Pissed
Minor note: I'll be sticking dream sequences in italics. I also place emphasis on some words in italics, but you'll know when it's a dream scene...
It didn't take long for Demando to recover. That was one of Setsuna's regrets, she would later tell herself. She hadn't even time to walk out the back door of her kitchen and merrily dimension-hop to a Demando-Free Zone before her surroundings melted. Thanking Kami-chan her henshin wand was in her sub-space pocket, Setsuna crossed her arms and turned to the recovering prince, who was slowly but surely standing.
"That wasn't smart, Senshi," he spat, fighting for breath. She smirked, slow and long. It had felt surprisingly good to sink her knee in his groin, something he'd been asking for since... ever. Throughout her Moon Kingdom days, Demando had always been performing some task that would piss her off. But before she could hurt him, he would disappear or make wrongs right. It was a known specialty of his.
"No, my moves were rather rash, weren't they. But damn, it felt good to do that. Do you know how long I've been waiting to do that, you conniving little bastard?" she asked, hands now on her hips and looking around to where she was. Black marble covered the entire room, from the large throne to the front to the large doors in the back. Decorations were nonexistent, and light came from some sort of mysterious source she could not find. The only thing in the room that was not black was the flashing pink of the dark crystal indicator behind the throne. The throne room of the Black Moon. How quaint. How... she searched her brain for the right word. Appropriate. She'd kill him in his own throne room! It would look good on her résumé.
There were other bodies present in the room, was her next observation. The blue-haired, white skinned body of Saffir stood near the throne and watched as his older brother slowly hobbled to his throne, a skeptical look on his face. "What did she do to you this time?" he wanted to know.
Setsuna's temper flared. This time? What did he mean by that? "I kicked him where he deserved it. You'd be careful or the same would happen to you, Saffir-san," Setsuna replied. Out of all the members of the Black Moon, Setsuna had always been closer to the more compassionate Saffir. He wasn't as hard-headed as his brother and was more fair that the other members. He also didn't try to pull a move every five minutes, as Rubeus would often attempt.
Demando rolled his eyes. "Our you'll what? Henshin into that mini-skirt and hooker booted outfit of yours?" he asked, holding up her henshin wand. Setsuna's eyes grew wide and she ran a hand through her hair, rubbing her eyes in disbelief.
"How'd you get that? It was in my sub-space pocket!" she cried, throwing arms up in defeat. He grinned.
"And why else do you think I would kiss you, senshi?" he wanted to know.
"You look better in what you're wearing anyway," a voice told her in her ear. Setsuna turned to find Rubeus hovering over her shoulder. Pushing him away, Setsuna took several steps forward, looking down at her attire. White poets blouse, rather tight in the chest and the clasp at the top untied, letting the three males gain an unwanted view of her cleavage. Her hands flew up to her chest to retie the knot. Going past the blouse, Setsuna stared at her full-length navy blue skirt with a slit on each side that reached her mid-thigh. Rubeus was helplessly trying to get a glimpse of her long legs. She pulled the skirt down a bit. And then, of course, she was shoeless. She wore slippers on her feet. But that was it for her feet. And the rest of her attire.
"This isn't funny, Demando-baka. I'm going to step on something sharp and that's it for my toesies," she complained, tossing her loose hair over her shoulder. She hadn't had the patience for it this morning, and it hung freely down her back, most likely gathering many tangles on the way.
Two more men entered the throne room. The twin brothers, Kin and Gin, stood to the back with all their glory. Setsuna sighed sadly. In the past futures, both brothers had died on the Black Moon's biggest attacks to Crystal Tokyo. They had been Setsuna's favorite people back in the Moon Kingdom days, and both had been angered and saddened by her refusal to join the Negaverse. "Sets-chan! We've missed you, Fukai Mori," Gin, the sweeter of the two, cried out sadly.
'Fukai Mori. Deep Forest. Them and their overly stupid affectionate nicknames for me,' she sighed to herself. She looked at them sadly. "You two know me better than that. I could never betray my Queen and her people for an eviler cause. Such as yourself. Tell me. Was it fun mercilessly killing Cris off? Was there an evil sort of pleasure in it?" she wanted to know, eyes narrowing.
Saffir shifted uncomfortably. Besides Setsuna, he had been the closest to the younger princess of Pluto. The two had nearly been engaged. Demando snorted from his throne. "Still holding grudges, senshi? It's not healthy to hold them for longer than a decade, let alone several millennia," he replied lazily.
"Did you know that, on an average, 12 babies are given to the wrong parents each day? I think you made up one-twelfth of that ratio, Demando-baka. To even think that he," she pointed to Saffir, "is related to you, the Evil Conniving Bastard of the Twenty-First Century, would be enough to make any being's head turn. I recall it did my parents for several years when they finally met the both of you."
Demando's eyes narrowed dangerously and she stood abruptly. "All of you," he said, referring to the accumulating male population in the throne room, "Out."
When the room was cleared of almost all beings (but not without an almost-grope from Rubeus that would have resulted in several broken bones on his behalf), Demando stormed up to Setsuna, looking down the several inches into her eyes with malice. "You have nerve, Setsuna," he spat. She cringed at the lack of suffix.
"I didn't know we were so close that we were on a mainly first-name basis," she countered back, crossing her arms.
He ran an aggravated hand through his white-blond hair, rubbing his temples for a moment. "Old habits are hard to break, senshi. I called you by your first name for a good eighteen years," he replied, looking up. The macho 'Prince of the Black Moon' look had left his features, and left was a rare look he reserved for those who knew him well enough that they wouldn't cringe when seeing it. The actual look of personality that wasn't bastardish. "I'm sorry of the way things went back then. I'm sorry of how they're going now. But I really don't have a choice. My people want revenge and I want revenge and what better way than to attack now? I don't want to hurt you more than we already did, Sets-chan," he stopped to smile at her cringe. Damn pet-nicknames. "If you join us, you won't have to get hurt. We don't want your power over time. We just... want the friend we used to have back in the Moon Kingdom."
Setsuna slowly backed away from him, pulling her Time Staff out of mid-air. "If you didn't want to hurt me, then you should have thought about it before you killed my little sister. And if I 'join' you, I'll still be hurt. You can't just apologize for killing her an expect me to forgive you. It is because of that action that I will never be able to retire... or even rest for longer than a day, without worrying who or what could be causing chaos in the Time Warp," she informed him.
He grabbed a firm grip on her staff, keeping her from leaving. "But it's been... how long since Cris died? It's unhealthy to be upset for so long, Setsuna-chan!" he informed her.
She tried tugging her staff from his grasp. "You really aren't getting this are you?" she asked him, sighing. "Let me put this in terms you can understand. I am sworn to Chronos, not Serenity-sama. If Chronos ordered me to jump off a bridge and Serenity-sama counter-acted his orders, I'd listen to him. Not her. Because he is my first priority. Sere-san has been, for the past century, trying to get me away from those gates, but I'm not allowed to! Why? Chronos says I may not leave without Sailor Charon to guard the gates when I am gone. Sailor Charon is dead and I cannot procreate until I have a Sailor Charon to guard those gates. I'm not even fertile every month until the henshin wand of Sailor Charon is regularly activated. That means I have not had my period in over... I've lost count on how many centuries it has been. Now may I have my staff back so I can leave?" she begged.
Letting go of her staff, Demando bitterly watched as Setsuna stumbled back several feet. "I find it hard you blame me more than any other enemy that was in on the whole 'Take over the Silver Alliance' deal. Why not treat Beryl with the same malice?" he asked as she straightened herself and turned to walk away.
She stopped and turned to look at him in her tracks. "Because I loved you and you used it against me. Good bye, Demando-oujisama," she replied sadly, disappearing.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Haruka and Michiru returned from the meeting solemnly, to see Setsuna still sitting at the kitchen table. "Have you been there all day, Setsuna-san?" Michiru wanted to know. The Time Senshi shrugged ever so slightly. Haruka rolled her eyes.
"Ami-san verified that the Black Moon family is the one attacking us, like you said. All senshi were given stations through the city to watch every few hours. Your station is at the gates, Setsuna-san. You're required to help fight should there be an attack on the city. Otherwise, Koneko-chan wants you to rest and be prepared to jump up and henshin any minute," Haruka informed Setsuna.
She nodded blankly, before coming to attention. "Henshin wand!" she cried, jumping to her subspace pocket and groaning. Demando had not given it back to her and it was a much needed device. "I'll kill him. I will jump up, castrate him, and carry his penis around as an emblem!" she spat, running to her room to change into something she could kick in.
There, sitting on her bureau was her henshin wand. Next to it was a note. She picked it up, read it, and crumpled it again before searching for matches. If she couldn't burn down the Black Moon castle, she could at least take pictures of the burning note.
It was later that night when Setsuna finally trudged back to her room. She had spent all her energy looking for matches. When she had found the matches, she had to find a camera. When both had been located, the note disappeared. It seemed to have jumped into blankness, making her more than slightly angry. Changing into pajamas, Setsuna climbed into her large, empty queen-sized bed and fell into a long, dream-filled sleep.
"Setsuna-onee, if you don't hurry, Mama and I will leave you behind," a voice cried from behind a small girl of ten. With large, long, dark hair and tanned skin, the girl could have easily been mistaken for a member of Earth, but upon closer inspection, her garnet eyes and green shade of hair would have told a person otherwise.
"I hear you Cris-imouto, and I am going as quickly as I can. This staff is heavy. You staff is lighter than mine and smaller. If I trip over it one more time, I am going to leave it here and explain to Mama that I lost it," the girl replied, turning to face her sister. There was little difference between the two. Eyes of dark blue and hair of black, Cris could have easily been mistaken for her elder, twin sister, Setsuna. The two often traded places to confuse masters, but their parents would always find the difference between the two. According to Sharon, the queen of Pluto, their auras were of different colors. Where Cris had a dark amethyst aura, Setsuna had a deep onyx-colored aura.
"Girls, please don't fight with each other," a woman informed them. Standing at near six feet with long black hair and deep crimson eyes, Queen Sharon proudly held to her staff with an air of authority. Next to her, King Tamas of Pluto stood, with his criticizing blue eyes and forest hair. The two were a proud pair. The four were an even prouder family.
The four headed for the Plutonian throne room, the girls merrily skipping about and joking with each other, occasionally smacking the other and running to hide behind a parent. Usually, the king and queen would laugh at their daughters' antics and encourage the ways they fought back. Now, the queen sent her daughters a look, telling them to stop. "Not now, girls. This is important business. Depending on how we act, this could either be war or a peace treaty," Sharon told the daughters.
Setsuna nodded, her already long, green hair falling in her face. "Hai, Okaa-san. Who's coming over to visit us?" she wanted to know. Her father smiled as his daughters.
"Queen Opal and King Onyx, of the Black Moon," was the reply. Setsuna made a face at the reply.
"Hasn't the Silver Alliance been at war with the Black Moon for the past few centuries, Mama? Their last known attack was about twenty years ago, and caused millions of silver crescents in damage to the outer planets. Her majesty of Uranus is still bitter about it, if I can recall. Her palace was almost completely destroyed on the main attack to the outer solar system. Selenity-jo'o made a No-War treaty with them after the attacks, and the biggest trouble from them since then has come from sniper attacks," Setsuna recited.
Cris made a face. "Photographic memory much?" she asked under her breath. The king grinned as they approached the throne room. Already, guards and sentries stood around. In the center, a tall woman and an equally tall man proudly stood, dressed in dark colors. Next to them, two pre-teen aged boys stood, just as proudly as their parents; The taller had white-blond hair and the shorter with deep, sapphire blue hair.
The woman smiled coldly at the royal family that had just entered. "King Tamas and Queen Sharon! It is a pleasure for us to visit your palace," she stated. Her eyes fell to the two daughters that stood next to their parental units. "And Princesses Setsuna and Chrysalis. I am only hoping the two of you will get along well with my sons, Demando and Saffir. It would be quite a tragedy if the four of you did not get along, if I understand correctly from the circumstances our peace treaty has entailed." Her cold smile chilled Setsuna to the bone, and Cris turned to her parents slowly.
"And what circumstances might this be?" she pondered out loud. A leisurely grin lit Demando's face.
"Our betrothal, of course."
Setsuna awoke, sweat on her face. That had been her first memory of Demando, and almost at the instant she had met him, she had disliked the boy. It had taken her years to warm to the man.
Climbing out of bed, she padded over to her bathroom and looked in the mirror. Many a night she would do this, wondering why no man ever seemed attracted to her form. With a cat-shaped face, long hair, and a tall body, the male population ought to have been flocking to her form. She did not lack in bust. Her bra size informed her on that matter. And she was the second tallest senshi, coming in right after Haruka-san. Her long legs were as tanned as her arms. And a tight stomach finished off her look perfectly.
Sighing, she padded back to bed, and stopped suddenly. On the white sheets, blood was splattered around, staining them to red. Had she hurt herself in her sleep?
A quick inspection of her body told her otherwise, and nearly did she faint. There were no wounds on her body. And blood smeared her thighs. She swallowed very hard. What did this mean?
Authoress Notes: Hmm... interesting. I hope I didn't leave y'all on too much of a cliffhanger. I guess it would be correct to tell you now that I do not beta read this. It makes me nervous to do as such. So sorry if it was at all confusing. And sorry it took so long to get this out to you! My many apologies. Stay tuned??? for the next chapter???
~Kim-chan