Title: Consequences: Book One- A Changing Destiny

Rating: 13-R

Genre: Alternative Universe

Author: Sean Wright

Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon, I'm just a fan.

Sean!

Chapter Eight

            She had gone running that morning for thee hours, then she had cleaned her apartment, gone shopping and returned only to cook up a large amount a food only to put it away. 

            Since that night at the Jinja, that was all that Lita had been doing and in not one of her actions had she felt any sense of her usual pride or accomplishment.

            She walked around the silent apartment, eating one of Bunny's favorite cookies, and waiting for the sun to go down. 

            She prayed for a battle that night, anything to end the monotony of her life. She prayed that they would find the Moon Princess soon. She prayed that she could give her life meaning once more.

            Most of all, she prayed to the Goddess Hera for the answers that Bunny would not give them.

            Why couldn't she come out and tell them what they had done that was so wrong? Lita had never failed to protect her in battle. They had fun outside of the Sailor business. They went to the movies, hung out in the mall or had slumber parties.

            Their last sleepover had been at Bunny's house. Lita smiled in remembrance. Bunny's rooms were huge, about the same size, if not a bigger than Lita's entire apartment, and that was really just her bedroom. But she wasn't bragging or showing off, despite what Rei had said the next day while they waited for Bunny to meet them at the mall.  Bunny couldn't help it if she was rich or that her mother liked to shower her with gifts. When they went shopping, Bunny bought things off the bargain racks and then that were on sale or half off. She was happy just being with them, even Rei, sometimes. And she always shared.

            Bunny was always there when any of them needed her. She was just that type of person—And they just took advantage of her gentle and very giving personality.

            It hit Lita like a ton of bricks.

            Rei was always pointing out Bunny's mistakes and then complaining about Bunny's wealth or her house, but she always the first one suggesting that they go to Bunny's house and then the first to talk about her once Bunny's back was turned. Lita and Ami would defend Bunny on all fronts, but that night they failed her.

            She had a bad day in school and it didn't help her disposition to see Bunny actually pass their oral French Test when she had failed. Bunny didn't get detention, but Lita did and at the arcade, Bunny had hogged all of Andrew's attention, telling him about some charity ball she had gone to with her mother. Then Bunny failed to come to their meeting and she came late to the battle and they were doing bad before she had come. Bunny saw them in a bind and without warning or a care for her own life, she threw herself head long into the battle. She was promptly thrown out, but she got up, no tears or wailing and defeated the monster with one blast. And that was when everything went down between them and Bunny.

            Shame washed over her when she realized what she had done. The shame and hurt at being separated from one of her dearest friends and the first person who had befriended her when others would have written her off or just used her. Like all the Senshi had used and mistreated Bunny.

            Rei had it wrong all along; It was them who didn't deserve to be Senshi, not Bunny. How could they call themselves defenders of love and justice when they mistreated one of their own? How could they defend a world when they fought with and abandoned their leader and the only person who dared to befriend them all?

Not one of the Senshi or Luna had any honor, nor were they good people much less good friends for if they were, they would have never driven Bunny away.

Lita walked into her bedroom and picked up the transformation pen and for a long time she just looked at it, studying it. Then with a furious cry, she threw the pen against a wall and to her disbelief it shattered, like glass.

Lita stared at it in horror, and then clasped a hand over her mouth.

   "Dear God," she dropped to her knees, her face deathly pale as she stared at her ruined pen. "What have I done?"

At that moment her communicator just had to go off.

******

Ilene walked into her home shortly after five. At the door, she found two pairs of shoes and two bags, the white and silver one was obviously Bunny's, and the sensible navy blue satchel could have only belonged to Ami.

            Ilene removed her shoes and picked up her shopping bags and headed up stairs to her daughter's room. She paused outside the door and listened to the conversation, before announcing her presence.

               "Ami, I am willing to give you another chance, but as for the others—"

               "Bunny, I'm not trying to defend any of them or myself, but I am just trying to say—" Ami sound like she was trying to convince, to take the others back—"It took me awhile to figure out what you were saying—"

               "From your own words, neither Rei or Luna will ever give me with the respect I deserve—" Bunny sounded disappointed by that prospect.

              "Bun, I won't try to change your mind," Ami told her. Her voice sympathetic. "I will not tell them, if you don't want me to—"

               "I don't." Bunny said firmly. "They must come to the realization the same as you and I. If either of us were to tell them, it would be like robbing them of this learning experience—"

               "But not tell them that you are our Princess—"

            Ilene clamped a hand over mouth. How did they know?

               "It will only push them further away." Bunny said sadly. "As much as it pains me. I will not force any of you to accept me."

            Both girls were silent and that was when Ilene decided to make her entrance.

               "Bun," She called merrily as she swept into her daughter's room. "I have our dresses for tomorrow evening and I made reservation at the new American restaurant near the theater."

               "That's great, Mama." Bunny bounced up from her bed and grabbed the white shopping bag her mother held out to her. She rushed back to her bed and spilled the contents out and marveled at the white silk gown her mother purchased for her. She held it to herself to show to Ami, "What do you think?"

               "It's very lovely." Ami said with a half shy smile.

            Bunny beamed at her as she hugged her mother. "Mama has the best taste when it comes to evening gowns and dresses. Did you know that before I was born, Mama used to be a model in Paris?"

            Ami looked surprised, "No, I did not." She looked at the petite, lavender haired woman. Ami's eyes settled on Ilene's dark sapphire orbs and for a moment, she caught a flash of silver.  Ami blinked and looked at her again, but say nothing. She chalked it up to being a trick of the light or something.

            Ilene invited them both down stairs and asked Bunny to order dinner while she went to make a few calls. However, before she left, Bunny asked her to drop the restraining orders.  Ilene glanced at Ami, but the girl was going through the phone book Bunny had dropped in her lap, she met her daughter's gaze and denied her. She would drop the one against Ami, but the other three, she would not.

            Bunny sighed, "At least she did not say no completely."

******

            Endy shifted through his copy of Umino's daily report absently as he half listening to what the undercover soldier was saying; The rest of his mind feeling out the dimensional riff in the Juuban Park. He could sense a great deal of negative energy in that area and all around Juuban.

Kris was out in the Park at that moment, investigating the riff.  A surveillance team and a group of psychics were monitoring him and the riffs on the topographical hologram map that in the secret room beneath the Arcade.

Endy had Andrew show the effected area which was presented in an eight star formation, with smaller out lying regions in the north and west of the area.  Endy sensed strong vibrations coming from the delta. He knew without Andrew telling him that the delta was man-made, for he could feel that the earth and sea were trying to destroy that profanity, but something was holding it back.

               "What is in the Mugen Delta?" Endy asked suddenly, interrupting Umino's monologue.

            Andrew typed something into his laptop and the holographic screen changed and the entire area appeared, building, people, and all. He typed in another command and the three condominiums came into focus and he enlarged it show the buildings at 3/10th their scale.

            Endy rose and walked around the conference table, studying the buildings and the layout and he swore.

            Andrew groaned, this really was not his day.

            Endy turned on him, his dark blue eyes flashing, "Would you mind telling me why the Outer Senshi are allowing a world destroyer from another universe in your backyard?"

               "What?" Andrew cried out in horror.

            Endy pointed at the three condominiums, "Tell me that you can't sense or see their planetary energies because I sure as hell can." He was positively seething.

               "We can't anything." Andrew swallowed hard as he tried to meet Endy's dark gaze. "We could not find any proof." He almost squeaked. He cleared his throat, desperately wishing for a reason to be away from the crazy man who was his Lord and Prince. "Whenever a team entered the area, they complained of a distortion. Something about time and space. Truly, your Highness, we have tried everything within our power to try and investigate the area, however—"

            Endy held up a hand and Andrew stopped talking. "There is evil in that area, it feeds off the those points closest to the center of the grid." He told him, "Umino, I want you to stay with Serenity at all times—"

               "On it, Sire," Umino said quickly, "I've already have her bugged, her phone lines are tapped, surveillance cameras are in the main rooms of the house and cover every street she normally walks on and in all her favorite hangouts."

               "Andrew." Endy snapped.

            Andrew gave a curt nod. "Shadow teams follow the Princess from the moment she walks out of her front gate to where ever she goes. Five guards are with her in every class, Patricia Haruna is their commander."

               "Highness," A soldier sitting a monitor called, "Lord Kunzite has made contact with Princess Nike of Jupiter."       

            Endy took a deep breath before he asked how.

               "She, Princess Eros of Venus and Lady Bellona of Mars are engaging a Dark Kingdom beast in battle, Sire."

            Endymion laughed and shook his head. "Kris must be pissed since he can't fight—"

            There was a resounding blast. Without promoting, Andrew brought the scene on screen. Endy dropped down in the closest chair and put his feet up.  As he watched the battle being played out, Endy had chortled, snorted, and finally fell out of his seat laughing.

            Not one of them had managed to keep a straight face through the entire thing.  The girls were poorly trained, they missed the beast more times than they hit, some where in the middle of the fight, Mars had decided to do a little dance and song combo and the creature almost set her on fire.

            Jupiter at least had enough sense not to try the speech making, she aimed true and zapped the poor creature in the butt. Absently Endy noted that her fuku was slightly different that Venus and Mars. The broach in the center of her bow seemed to glimmer like a jewel. And she was stronger that the others and more professional, but then so was Venus. They stepped into this battle more determined—He wondered why Mars was still prancing about determined to strike a pose and say a speech.

            Venus threw out her chain, catching Mars about the waist and yanked her out the way of an on coming blast.

               "Damn it, attack," Venus yelled at her. "We don't have time for Luna's tactics. Fight, damn it or get out of our way."

               "Shut up!" Rei yelled back at her. "You aren't—"

            Jupiter tackled her to the ground. Another blast flew over the spot the bickering Sailor Mars had been. Jupiter jumped quickly and countered with her own lighting attack. Venus had grabbed a fallen tree branch and was using it like a club.

               "Shabon Spray!" Mercury's attack came out the trees, but the Senshi did not appear.

 Kris had crawled away on his hands and knees, his body was jerking badly because he was laughing so hard.

            Umino just closed his eyes as he shook his head.

            Endy managed to pull himself up from the floor, but one look at the screen and he was down for the second time, laughing like hyena.

               "No," Andrew was knocking on the table; tears of mirth were just streaming down his face, "Not the death pose!"

            Mars was posing again, her sister Senshi were powering up for their final attack against the trapped youma.

            At this point, Umino stumbled out of the room and collapsed outside the door. They could still hear him howling.

            Finally, the torture was over, but it took the terrans fifteen minutes to actually get up.

            In the park, Kris was sitting on the ground, his back against a tree and he was still laughing his ass off.

            Venus and Jupiter released the power and Mars followed along. The beast went down and disintegrated and so did Venus iron clad control. Everyone in the control room knew hadn't Jupiter interfered Mars would have been picking up all her teeth. Venus glared at Jupiter, then without a word she tore her arm free and stalked away from them. She heard laughing. Curiously, yet still alert, Venus, approached Kris. Her face filled with concern as she knelt before the hyperventilating young man.

               "Sir, do you need help?"

            Kris just shook his head. If he didn't stop soon, he was going to wet himself.

            Rei had reached her breaking point, stormed over to them, Kris took a peek and that sent him over the edge.

              "You—you," he took a deep breath to calm himself, before continuing or at least trying to continue.

               "Yeah, we're the Sailor Senshi," Mars rolled her eyes. "You wanna autograph or something?"

            Kris shook his head, "You're pathetic."

            It suddenly got very quiet, but you know what they say.

Rei blew up and started towards him and Lita had to restrain her, for the second time in under five minutes she was stopping Senshi from fighting. Mina threw an apologetic glance his way and the girls left, dragging the furious Sailor Mars away.

            As he sat there, letting the last of the laughter escape his system, he felt Endy's mental tug on his mind.

            It was time to close Metallia's little backdoor once and for all.

******

Ami had caught up with the Tsukinos at the restaurant Ilene decided to take the girls to for dinner.

A half hour into their meal, Bunny cried out in pain. She grabbed her chest as she hit the floor, screaming in agony.

            Ilene rushed to her daughter as Ami dialed 911 on Ilene's cell phone. Bunny lay on the floor, writhing in pain, clutching at her heart. Ilene was at a lost, she did not know what was going or what could be causing her daughter so much pain. She felt a faint tugging on her heart, but was unconcerned with it. Her attention was focused solely on her child.

            Minutes or hours later, paramedics arrived, Bunny was no longer convulsing, but her heart rate was slightly erratic.  They wanted to take her to the hospital, but she said she was fine. Faced her still frighten mother and promised her that everything would be okay.

            They could not force her to go to the hospital, but she did go home and was put immediately to bed.  Ilene gave Ami her tickets to the Opera and told her to take a friend.

            As she walked home, Ami decided who that friend would be. Twenty minutes later, she stood at the door she had been to in a long time, it was going on three weeks and the only time she had seen this person was in battle.

            The door swung open and Ami smiled in greeting. "Lita-chan, I have two tickets for the Opera tomorrow night and I was wondering if you like to accompany me?"

            Lita stood there, speechless. Ami began to fidget nervously, thinking she had over stepped her boundaries and had invaded another person's privacy.  Which was why she was so surprised when Lita stepped back and opened the door further and asked, almost fearfully, if Ami wanted to come in for a cup of tea.

******

            Mina sat on the balcony of her new apartment staring at the night sky.  The full moon had passed and they were no closer to finding their Princess than they were four months ago.

            She tipped back the beer in her hands and took a long swallow before dropping her head down on her arms.

            In their short meeting at the at Lita's, Rei had mentioned something in passing about Luna have been missing for a few days.  Not that Mina cared, she never really liked the arrogant little feline and prayed that she was dead.

Mina humped, Luna had ruined the Senshi. She had lied to them, she caused arguments and discord amongst the ranks and encouraged insubordination. That's why Sailor Moon really had a hard time, Luna would constantly tell the girl that she was the Leader of the Senshi, they were her responsibility, but when ever she tried to be a leader, Luna would undermine her authority or her little cheerleader, Rei would do it and Luna would back up the stupid bitch. Oh yes, o Lord yes, Rei was stupid and a fucking embarrassment to be around.

Mina hated to go anywhere with all the girls as a group. Bunny and Ami weren't bad, they tended to stick to each other and seemed happy that way; She recalled on day when they were just taking a day to be normal girls and were just walking through the mall. She absently noticed how Bunny held on to Ami's arm like some little girl would do with her older sister, merrily eating an ice cream cone and listening to whatever, she, Mina, would be saying and at the same time, be pointing out something of interest to boy-crazy, happy-go-lucky Lita, when for no reason in the world, Rei would start a fight with Bunny and she would not stop until Bunny was in tears. Mina would have sworn that was the only reason Rei did that, she wanted to see Bunny in tears. Then she would walk off with a self-satisfied little smile on her face.    

Mina looked down at the beer bottle in her and studied the label. Her agent made sure it was the best, everything Mina had was the best.

   "That crock of shit, if I do say so myself." She muttered as she hauled herself and headed straight for her bedroom. She dropped the half empty bottle in the waste basket near her door, pulled off her peach colored robe and climbed into her bed of golden silk sheets.

   "Beautiful Aphrodite," she prayed, "Hear your child's prayer. Show me the path of righteous, lead me away from the evil. Help me find my mistress, so I may for fill my destiny as her champion and yours."

******

            Across town, in a condominium, Endy and Kris were pouring over all the data they had collected on the mysterious delta.  Terran and Artemis were finalizing battle plans. Mike was coming to Tokyo as was Troy and Jamie. Artemis did not think it was necessary, but he did not want to take chances with the Prince's safety.

            Endy was more than happy to have them, something about the distortion was really throwing him for a loop, and he was counting on his combined powers with Mike and Jamie's and Troy's technology to be able to counter effect whatever it was that was damaging his planet.  But he had a hunch a Senshi was behind it. And if it was who he though it was, there was going to be some serious hell to pay if that pompous busy-body was doing this.

            Ilene was angry.  She was more than angry, she was royally pissed off.  How dare Pluto order her to do anything.  She was the Queen, not Pluto.

            Ilene chucked the holographic message in the waste basket, and for the hell of it sat the damn thing on fire.

               "You damned fool." She half screamed, "Are you so blinded by your own desires that you cannot see what you are asking for?" She slumped down in her chair and massaged her temples as dreamed up a hundred different ways to kill Pluto.

            She just knew Pluto was going to try something to force Destiny in the direction she wanted it. But unfortunately she just did not know what or most importantly why.  Why was Pluto so hell bent to destroying everything?

Ilene recalled the visions Pluto had shown her as she lay taking her last breaths on the Moon.  There were years of war, pain, strife, and betrayal for her daughter and her Senshi, yet Pluto did not see any of that. She saw only her precious Small Lady standing beside her beautiful Serenity, both becoming stronger, both facing the enemies.

In Pluto's vision, the line of Serenity would continue, with Terra being the new Silver Millennium.  Endymion would have been weak, his loyal guardians would have betrayed him and during their reign, or rather Serenity's reign, there would never be peace.

            Why didn't Pluto ever question the reason she could not see beyond Serenity's reign in her precious Crystal Tokyo? Did she not know why Serenity would have cursed her own daughter to life as an eternal child or why she would never allow her to step onto the Moon or hold the Silver Imperial Crystal. Or why the child's crystal would be corrupted and change it's color when Sere became an Eternal Senshi?  Did Pluto ever think about the fate of the Universe other than her own selfish wants?

            Ilene could take it no more.

            Something had to be done, Pluto was a danger to not just the Universe, but to others as well.

            A half hour later, Ilene sat at her daughter's bedside still contemplating on what was to be done next. 

            She smiled sadly at her daughter, as she remembering all the good times they had shared in both life times.  She could remember the day she was born on both the Moon and Terra, her first words, her first steps, her first birthday, there were so many first. Except for one and as Queen Serenity of the Imperial Silver Alliance, she was going to make sure they had many more wonderful firsts together.

            She leaned down and brushed a feather light kiss on her daughter's brow before she the room.

               "I will not let you destroy my daughter or her future you arrogant, little bitch." Ilene declared as she stepped out into her garden.  One moment, there stood the small human woman and the next second, was the full-bloodied Lunarian Queen. But she stopped. A cruel smirk appeared on her lips and she once more became Ilene.

               "I don't have to do anything." She said to air. "I may have been Queen of the Silver Millennium, dear Pluto, but I never had a say on Terra.  You fool, you forgot one of our greatest taboos."

            With a merry laugh that she had not been capable of since this mess had gotten started, Ilene Tsukino, Queen of Serenity, returned to her house with a light heart. 

               "Revenge is mine, sayth the Lord," she quoted. "Revenge is mine."

Remember: NO FLAMES. IF YOU DON'T LIKE THIS, DON'T READ IT.

See ya!