Chapter Four- The Past, the Present, the Future
Serena collapsed on her bed, Luna sitting beside of her. Her chest was heaving as she just barely raised her head to glare at the window she'd just climbed into. Luckily, there was a tree just outside that window, and the lessons of tree climbing after Diane came in handy for sneaking into the house at such ungodly hours as this. Wait...what time was it? Glancing over at her clock told her that it was nearly three in the morning. With a groan, she turned over, bringing a pillow with her to cover her face. Somewhere beside of her, the cell phone rang, and, keeping the pillow on her face, she reached out blindly for it until her hand met it, then answered it from under the pillow.
"If this is a prank call I swear to you..."
"Serena, it's me!" Lita answered annoyedly. Serena sat up, pillow dropping to her lap.
"Oh, hi, Lita. Sorry about that...you know, people usually get like that at THREE IN THE MORNING," Serena said sarcastically.
"I get the point, Iwas just calling to shut Mina up. She's on the phone 3-way with Amy and Rei. They were all kinda worried about you."
"Oh, well tell 'em I'm just peachy...at a loss of sleep, but peachy."
After a pause, Lita laughed as she got back on the phone, "They say to go to sleep then. And good night. Oh, hey, Serena?"
"Mm?"
"What do you think of this...Grief person? I mean, she claims to be a Phantom Scout or something, but we don't really know too much about her OTHER than the fact that she's only betrayed your family umpteen times!"
"Well, I sorta trust her. I mean, she seems so sad. It's almost like she regrets what she did to everyone, but since she can't take it back, she goes on living it," Serena admitted.
"Whoa..."
"What?"
"That's deep, Serena. Better be careful...you may get responsible on us!"
"Shut up. I'm goin' to bed, g'night," she mumbled, hanging up the phone without waiting for Lita's answer. She almost didn't bother changing, but then Luna sniffed her arm.
"Pew, Serena, you smell like you just went through an obstacle course."
"Ugh....okay, I'll go take a shower....stupid cat..." she mumbled, dragging herself into the shower. Surprisingly, the extremely cold water seemed to awaken her enough to think about the girl they'd just met. She'd said her name was Grief. Why would someone who seemed so sad be so rebellious? Was it just a way of covering up her sadness? Did she really have a completely different story than they were giving her credit for? She was strong; they had to give her that. But underneath the strength, Serena could sense a young girl...a young, lonesome girl who just wanted to go home, but couldn't find her way. So what was this 'Grief's' story? As she lay down a little bit later, Serena made it her duty to discover that.
~~~
She was sitting on the top of the tower, legs dangling over the edge, arms folded on the railing that, head touching the next bar of the railing. With a sigh, she looked down at the glittering city below her, thinking deeply about the girls she'd just met. It wasn't the first time she'd spoken to them...well, not them themselves, but the future them and the past them.
In the past, she was known among them as the Princess of Earth. Her older brother, the Prince Darien, was suspected of treachery, so they never really got to see the court, but for the times that Darien snuck in to see the love of his life, Serena. She was always on the sidelines, sworn to her parents to be the watcher and keeper of her elder brother.
So she watched; she watched him fall in love, watched him grow so attached to the princess that he personally asked her to protect Serena. With the Queen's permission, the young princess stayed just to fulfill her promise, but only on one condition. The Queen had requested her to make sure that, if ever Serenity were to die, she'd make sure Serena got out of it all right.
She failed. Searching for the princess and her brother on the night Baryl attacked the kingdom, she got captured by the evil queen, and tossed aside like a rag doll. It had been with a heavy heart and a bruised body that she had dragged herself to the queen's side, asking for a second chance.
"You'll...have the second chance, young one," the queen said, just before her loyal cats arrived. "None of them will remember you, you must stick to the shadows. Watch over my daughter, I beg of you..." Phantom felt herself dissapearing before Queen Serenity spoke to Luna and Artemis about sending them into the future. Indeed, when Phantom was reborn, she remembered the past, but the past didn't remember her.
She grew up, and, still at a tender age of six, was introduced to two young gentlmen whom her guardian seemed to know. Echola and Ryjen were twin brothers, both supposedly from mid-Asia. What neither the girl nor the elderly lady knew was that these two had a completely deranged plan...that involved Phantom's abilities.
After luring her with them on a so-called 'vacation,' she found herself in the future. With the future Sailor Scouts, and the Future Royal Family. The reincarnation of her brother, Darien, the reincarnation of the Princess Serena, and their child, Rini. Phantom was in the future for almost a year. In that time, she spent her days training under Echola and Ryjen, and watching her family. Rini was always chasing Little Diane around, Darien and Serenity were constantly spreading their joy throughout the kingdom. It was then that Phantom discovered Ryjen and Echola's true intentions.
They were going to use her to steal the Millenium Crystal from Serenity. She couldn't exactly warn the queen about it without alarming the royal guard to the fact that she had recently earned a burnt tattoo into her throat, the symbol of earth crossed with a black moon.
So Phantom did what she had to do; she injured the guards, but only enough to stun them. Then she faced the Sailor Scouts. Boy, what a mess. As she remembered trying to plead her case, Phantom Star slapped her palm to her forehead. She vaguely remembered the conversation.
"Please- I'm not trying to actually hurt anyone-"
"Who the hell are you and why do you so extremely want to see the queen?"
"I told you, I have to warn her-"
"Warn her of what?"
"She's going to be attacked!"
"Well, not her! You took care of the royal guard, you won't take care of us!"
"You don't understand..."
"Damn right we do!"
"Ugh..."
After embarrassing the Scouts miserabley, Phantom Star had finally reached the Queen; only to discover her lying in a state of a coma, Echola and Ryjen standing over her, two parts of the crystal in each of their hands. Once again, she had failed the princess.
It wasn't long after that that they were caught, and all three of them were charged with treachery. Phantom Star didn't bother trying to explain; she deserved what she got. They were banned to the Utsuri Realm, where they spent a good few years rotting in redemption.
Phantom Star became rebellious, growing up around the two men she now hated most was making her crazy and she had to get out. The only question was: how?
After six long months of thinking, she figured it out. The Queen had her crystal, yes, but Phantom had something better...the Queen's mother. After praying to the dead queen of the Moon Kingdom, she finally got her answer.
She could break through the lock on the portal that kept her in the Utsuri Realm by using the powers she gained as princess of Earth. Fire, earth, wind, and water; she'd acquired access to all four elements as part of her role.
So she used them. And broke through, finding herself once again in Crystal Tokyo. Once there, she did show some of her anger, yes...but she also saved people. She did everything in her power to confuse the entire kingdom until, finally, she found a way home to her regular time. All she had to do was create a portal.
It had been almost six years since she'd first gone to Crystal Tokyo, and her guardian at home hadn't really missed her. In fact, she didn't remember any of it. At all. She remembered the past six years as if Phantom had never left. As strange as that was, Phantom couldn't help loving the fact that she was home.
Glancing at her watch, Phantom stood up and stretched her limbs a bit. "Time to get going..." she murmered as if to someone else there. "Miss Tomeya will be worried..." With that, she leapt off into the night...
~~~
Serena rang the doorbell, then looked at the others, who were all there with her. Rini was holding all three cats in her arms where she sat on Lita's shoulders. "Hm...wonder what's keeping her?"
"You looking for me?" Anne asked from behind them. Every one jumped, and turned to the slightly surprised girl, who was just coming up the sidewalk, wearing an indigo skirt and cream turtleneck. Serena hadn't noticed before, but she wore a lot of turtlenecks...
"Yeah, actually," Serena said with a smile. "We need to ask you a question."
"Shoot."
"What would the name of someone who calls themself 'Grief' be?" Lita asked seriously. Anne looked up suddenly, eyes slightly frightenened.
"Where did you hear that from?" she asked, shocking the others with her tense appearance.
"A friend. Do you know what it means?"
"Yes," Anne sighed, motioning for them to follow her inside to sit down in the living room. With a deeply thoughtful look, she said, "There's a legend that exists about a different realm...the Utsuri Realm. There, the language is based around all the reflections of this world, mostly of its emotions. The word 'grief' in this world, is also the name of that realm's mirror image of earth; Anenara. There's another thing about Anenara...the planet Anenara had a female guardian once...one thousand years ago. She was banished there after failing her queen, or at least, her soul was. Until she was reborn, anyway...the Utsuri Realm was created completely out of those emotions of guilt and sadness."
"So...then she really is grief!" Mina exclaimed.
"Might I ask whom?" Anne said, raising an eye brow.
"It doesn't matter. Thanks for the info., Anne. I guess we ought to be glad that you love astronomy and history, huh?"
"Yep, I'll see you all later," Anne said, seeing them outside. As soon as they were gone, Anne leaned against the door, and lowered the nape of the turtleneck, revealing a small burn mark...a circle with four smaller sections, and a dark crescent moon carved over it... "Damn you, Anenara...damn you straight to hell."
'Been there...done that,' a voice inside her mind answered for her.
"Crap..."
~~~~
Okay, so what'd you think? Hey, I'm satisfied. It's longer than it was...^_^ Tell me all!
Serena collapsed on her bed, Luna sitting beside of her. Her chest was heaving as she just barely raised her head to glare at the window she'd just climbed into. Luckily, there was a tree just outside that window, and the lessons of tree climbing after Diane came in handy for sneaking into the house at such ungodly hours as this. Wait...what time was it? Glancing over at her clock told her that it was nearly three in the morning. With a groan, she turned over, bringing a pillow with her to cover her face. Somewhere beside of her, the cell phone rang, and, keeping the pillow on her face, she reached out blindly for it until her hand met it, then answered it from under the pillow.
"If this is a prank call I swear to you..."
"Serena, it's me!" Lita answered annoyedly. Serena sat up, pillow dropping to her lap.
"Oh, hi, Lita. Sorry about that...you know, people usually get like that at THREE IN THE MORNING," Serena said sarcastically.
"I get the point, Iwas just calling to shut Mina up. She's on the phone 3-way with Amy and Rei. They were all kinda worried about you."
"Oh, well tell 'em I'm just peachy...at a loss of sleep, but peachy."
After a pause, Lita laughed as she got back on the phone, "They say to go to sleep then. And good night. Oh, hey, Serena?"
"Mm?"
"What do you think of this...Grief person? I mean, she claims to be a Phantom Scout or something, but we don't really know too much about her OTHER than the fact that she's only betrayed your family umpteen times!"
"Well, I sorta trust her. I mean, she seems so sad. It's almost like she regrets what she did to everyone, but since she can't take it back, she goes on living it," Serena admitted.
"Whoa..."
"What?"
"That's deep, Serena. Better be careful...you may get responsible on us!"
"Shut up. I'm goin' to bed, g'night," she mumbled, hanging up the phone without waiting for Lita's answer. She almost didn't bother changing, but then Luna sniffed her arm.
"Pew, Serena, you smell like you just went through an obstacle course."
"Ugh....okay, I'll go take a shower....stupid cat..." she mumbled, dragging herself into the shower. Surprisingly, the extremely cold water seemed to awaken her enough to think about the girl they'd just met. She'd said her name was Grief. Why would someone who seemed so sad be so rebellious? Was it just a way of covering up her sadness? Did she really have a completely different story than they were giving her credit for? She was strong; they had to give her that. But underneath the strength, Serena could sense a young girl...a young, lonesome girl who just wanted to go home, but couldn't find her way. So what was this 'Grief's' story? As she lay down a little bit later, Serena made it her duty to discover that.
~~~
She was sitting on the top of the tower, legs dangling over the edge, arms folded on the railing that, head touching the next bar of the railing. With a sigh, she looked down at the glittering city below her, thinking deeply about the girls she'd just met. It wasn't the first time she'd spoken to them...well, not them themselves, but the future them and the past them.
In the past, she was known among them as the Princess of Earth. Her older brother, the Prince Darien, was suspected of treachery, so they never really got to see the court, but for the times that Darien snuck in to see the love of his life, Serena. She was always on the sidelines, sworn to her parents to be the watcher and keeper of her elder brother.
So she watched; she watched him fall in love, watched him grow so attached to the princess that he personally asked her to protect Serena. With the Queen's permission, the young princess stayed just to fulfill her promise, but only on one condition. The Queen had requested her to make sure that, if ever Serenity were to die, she'd make sure Serena got out of it all right.
She failed. Searching for the princess and her brother on the night Baryl attacked the kingdom, she got captured by the evil queen, and tossed aside like a rag doll. It had been with a heavy heart and a bruised body that she had dragged herself to the queen's side, asking for a second chance.
"You'll...have the second chance, young one," the queen said, just before her loyal cats arrived. "None of them will remember you, you must stick to the shadows. Watch over my daughter, I beg of you..." Phantom felt herself dissapearing before Queen Serenity spoke to Luna and Artemis about sending them into the future. Indeed, when Phantom was reborn, she remembered the past, but the past didn't remember her.
She grew up, and, still at a tender age of six, was introduced to two young gentlmen whom her guardian seemed to know. Echola and Ryjen were twin brothers, both supposedly from mid-Asia. What neither the girl nor the elderly lady knew was that these two had a completely deranged plan...that involved Phantom's abilities.
After luring her with them on a so-called 'vacation,' she found herself in the future. With the future Sailor Scouts, and the Future Royal Family. The reincarnation of her brother, Darien, the reincarnation of the Princess Serena, and their child, Rini. Phantom was in the future for almost a year. In that time, she spent her days training under Echola and Ryjen, and watching her family. Rini was always chasing Little Diane around, Darien and Serenity were constantly spreading their joy throughout the kingdom. It was then that Phantom discovered Ryjen and Echola's true intentions.
They were going to use her to steal the Millenium Crystal from Serenity. She couldn't exactly warn the queen about it without alarming the royal guard to the fact that she had recently earned a burnt tattoo into her throat, the symbol of earth crossed with a black moon.
So Phantom did what she had to do; she injured the guards, but only enough to stun them. Then she faced the Sailor Scouts. Boy, what a mess. As she remembered trying to plead her case, Phantom Star slapped her palm to her forehead. She vaguely remembered the conversation.
"Please- I'm not trying to actually hurt anyone-"
"Who the hell are you and why do you so extremely want to see the queen?"
"I told you, I have to warn her-"
"Warn her of what?"
"She's going to be attacked!"
"Well, not her! You took care of the royal guard, you won't take care of us!"
"You don't understand..."
"Damn right we do!"
"Ugh..."
After embarrassing the Scouts miserabley, Phantom Star had finally reached the Queen; only to discover her lying in a state of a coma, Echola and Ryjen standing over her, two parts of the crystal in each of their hands. Once again, she had failed the princess.
It wasn't long after that that they were caught, and all three of them were charged with treachery. Phantom Star didn't bother trying to explain; she deserved what she got. They were banned to the Utsuri Realm, where they spent a good few years rotting in redemption.
Phantom Star became rebellious, growing up around the two men she now hated most was making her crazy and she had to get out. The only question was: how?
After six long months of thinking, she figured it out. The Queen had her crystal, yes, but Phantom had something better...the Queen's mother. After praying to the dead queen of the Moon Kingdom, she finally got her answer.
She could break through the lock on the portal that kept her in the Utsuri Realm by using the powers she gained as princess of Earth. Fire, earth, wind, and water; she'd acquired access to all four elements as part of her role.
So she used them. And broke through, finding herself once again in Crystal Tokyo. Once there, she did show some of her anger, yes...but she also saved people. She did everything in her power to confuse the entire kingdom until, finally, she found a way home to her regular time. All she had to do was create a portal.
It had been almost six years since she'd first gone to Crystal Tokyo, and her guardian at home hadn't really missed her. In fact, she didn't remember any of it. At all. She remembered the past six years as if Phantom had never left. As strange as that was, Phantom couldn't help loving the fact that she was home.
Glancing at her watch, Phantom stood up and stretched her limbs a bit. "Time to get going..." she murmered as if to someone else there. "Miss Tomeya will be worried..." With that, she leapt off into the night...
~~~
Serena rang the doorbell, then looked at the others, who were all there with her. Rini was holding all three cats in her arms where she sat on Lita's shoulders. "Hm...wonder what's keeping her?"
"You looking for me?" Anne asked from behind them. Every one jumped, and turned to the slightly surprised girl, who was just coming up the sidewalk, wearing an indigo skirt and cream turtleneck. Serena hadn't noticed before, but she wore a lot of turtlenecks...
"Yeah, actually," Serena said with a smile. "We need to ask you a question."
"Shoot."
"What would the name of someone who calls themself 'Grief' be?" Lita asked seriously. Anne looked up suddenly, eyes slightly frightenened.
"Where did you hear that from?" she asked, shocking the others with her tense appearance.
"A friend. Do you know what it means?"
"Yes," Anne sighed, motioning for them to follow her inside to sit down in the living room. With a deeply thoughtful look, she said, "There's a legend that exists about a different realm...the Utsuri Realm. There, the language is based around all the reflections of this world, mostly of its emotions. The word 'grief' in this world, is also the name of that realm's mirror image of earth; Anenara. There's another thing about Anenara...the planet Anenara had a female guardian once...one thousand years ago. She was banished there after failing her queen, or at least, her soul was. Until she was reborn, anyway...the Utsuri Realm was created completely out of those emotions of guilt and sadness."
"So...then she really is grief!" Mina exclaimed.
"Might I ask whom?" Anne said, raising an eye brow.
"It doesn't matter. Thanks for the info., Anne. I guess we ought to be glad that you love astronomy and history, huh?"
"Yep, I'll see you all later," Anne said, seeing them outside. As soon as they were gone, Anne leaned against the door, and lowered the nape of the turtleneck, revealing a small burn mark...a circle with four smaller sections, and a dark crescent moon carved over it... "Damn you, Anenara...damn you straight to hell."
'Been there...done that,' a voice inside her mind answered for her.
"Crap..."
~~~~
Okay, so what'd you think? Hey, I'm satisfied. It's longer than it was...^_^ Tell me all!
