"A Nightmare On Tenth Street"
Chapter 1: "Intruder"
Rating: R
By Rose Priestess
Obligatory Disclaimer: "Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha, Toei, etc. "A Nightmare On Elm Street" and Freddy Krueger belong to Wes Craven and New Line Cinema. Please don't sue, you won't get rich off food stamps.
--------------------------------------
As the blue-green globe of the earth spins ever steadily on its axis, so progresses the lives of the planet's inhabitants. And as self-centeredness is largely a part of human nature, it isn't at all peculiar to conjecture that we would like to consider ourselves unique individuals and our lives significant in some aspect.
Sadly, this is not the case. When our physical layers eventually wear and rot away, what are we to leave this world with but memories? Only those who knew us can adequately attest to who we were and even then it's all entirely subjective. Centuries will pass and any recollection of our existence will be obliterated. But such is the normal course of nature and no one knew this lesson better than Setsuna Meioh.
For millennia, more than she could remember sometimes, Setsuna had stood sentinel at the Gates of Time as Sailor Pluto. Her job was to guard the flow of Time from being tampered with by trespassers and to smite them accordingly. Of course, calling it merely a job was glossing it over. It was her duty, her obligation. In this "job," there were no breaks or days off and Setsuna was stuck working back-to-back twenty-four hour shifts until the end of eternity.
She leaned against her Garnet Rod and sighed. *Christ, this job sucks,* she thought.
Stretching like a cat, she retired to her throne in the middle of the castle through which the time stream ran ceaselessly. She sighed again, this time in relief as she plopped down onto the smooth marble of the throne. The coldness chilled the backs of her exposed thighs, but relaxed her taut muscles nonetheless. After all, Setsuna had been standing for three days now.
Although she was the Time Guardian, she was still human in some aspects. Because of her duty, she didn't and couldn't age. She was mortal, however, and as such she could also die. Right now, she was feeling the effects of her mortality upon her heavy lidded ruby eyes.
She desperately shook off sleep's heavy shroud. It was vital that she portion her hibernations for the most inactive times of the stream. Otherwise it could mean a potential Armageddon for the future. For the most part, trespassers were few and far between and those that tried were ill-prepared to face an ancient creature like herself. Even so, Serenity would never tolerate slacking off, let alone sleeping, on the job.
Speaking of Neo Queen Serenity, Setsuna wondered what she was up to now. Truthfully, though, she was more concerned with what King Endymion was doing, but to let such an utterance escape her lips would be ruinous.
She stood and walked over to a small pool in the floor ringed with stones. While appearances could certainly be deceiving, the pool was Setsuna's only real contact with the outside world. It acted as a portal to allow her to see anyone on the planet anytime she asked. She knelt in front of it and swept a hand over the undulating mercury-like surface. The garnet gem on her tiara glowed like a fire bug trapped in molten gold.
"Show me the Neo Queen, Serenity of the Moon!" she ordered. Wherever the Queen was, the King was sure to follow.
The pool wavered and imploded upon itself. The surface melted away to reveal the Queen's chambers and the extravagant canopy bed, which occupied the center. Two silhouettes could be seen moving behind its delicate white curtains. As the shadows collapsed into one, soft murmurings emanated from the bed.
"Oh my..." Blushing fiercely, Setsuna turned her face away, embarrassed for having stumbled upon such an intimate moment between her King and Queen.
Before she could dispel the image, some strange desire compelled her to keep watching. As she returned her gaze to the pool, she saw her beloved Endymion, hair tousled and beautifully nude, lean over his supine love.
Setsuna squeezed her eyes shut, willing them not to overflow with tears once more. She couldn't bear to have her heart mercilessly shred to pieces for, what was it, the millionth time? It really was all her fault, though. It was she who spied upon them of her own accord. She had to see his face, needed to see it, or else she would finally forget how to love. And there would be nothing left of her but what already belonged to the Time Stream. She would be dead inside. Her morbid curiosity roused her from her inner turmoil and she opened her eyes.
Endymion looked down lovingly to his queen. "My darling," he whispered as he trailed kisses along the hollow of her neck.
Setsuna took a deep breath and braced herself for the pain that would soon be twisting like a knife into her heart. Instead she heard only her own voice resonate from the pool. "My prince," the voice answered exactly as it had answered in all of Setsuna's dreams.
With disbelief, she looked back at the images swimming before her. Her doppelganger continued kissing Endymion's chest as soft moans escaped his throat. Mouth agape, Setsuna met a sinister and alien gaze in the eyes of her double. She dashed a handful of small stones into the pool, destroying the image and kicking up a spray of the metallic liquid.
Crashes of thunder echoed violently outside the dimensional time castle, but it sounded as if it were landing directly on the roof itself. The Time Stream flickered and buzzed as a chorus of child-like voices swam around her. Through her, it seemed.
She wept wretchedly into her hands as the crying became more urgent. Such sorrow in voices so young. What could have evoked pain like that?
Drowning out the choir of tortured children, a guttural laughter resonated from the still shimmering pool. A figure of the same liquid obsidian rose up from the depths bearing Setsuna's shape. It stepped out of the ring toward her, all the while shaking off more of the silvery substance and revealing its true form. No doubt it was Setsuna.
Setsuna retreated a step, her Garnet Rod poised to attack. She couldn't help but inwardly wonder if it would be of any use to her at all. "Intruder," she accused.
"What's wrong?" the doppelganger smirked. "See something you like...or rather something you don't?" Beneath its skin, something unsettling scuttled among the blood and bone. Something dark that crept like a shadow behind its eyes.
Just the sight of it turned Setsuna's stomach slightly. Despite this, it was enough to spur her into action. She swung the Garnet Rod with ferocity and it landed hard against the doppel's head. Logically, a blow of that caliber should have cleanly taken its head off, but it stood its ground. The only trace of any damage was the gash on the left temple, weeping blood steadily down the creature's nude body.
It rolled its shoulders up in laughter and strolled closer to her. "Oh Setsuna, if you wanted to do any of that kinky stuff, you should have told me!"
Deciding to engage in the queer mind game, Setsuna replied, "Then I'm sure you'd love to see the trick I can do with my rod. Dead Scream!" From the garnet orb atop her staff, she summoned a sphere of purple energy and aimed it for her doppel.
A perfect hit as always. She hadn't been a senshi for centuries for nothing. The smoke from the blast slowly cleared, revealing the doppel's now rotting skeleton. And yet it moved, defying death still. Unless it itself was death.
"Impossible! How could you have survived that?!" Setsuna screamed. Without realizing it, fear had crept into her indignation at the creature.
It stumbled forward a few feet, steaming flesh dragging on the marble. It cocked its head curiously, swollen tongue poking through broken teeth as it struggled to speak. "Are you really that afraid of yourself, Setsuna? Or do you fear the loneliness that will come when there is eventually nobody left but you?"
Nausea overcame Setsuna. She'd never admit it, but the thing was right on the money. Too many thoughts flashed through her head at once: the King and Queen, Chibiusa, what could have been, the too frequent ponderings of just ending it all. Most of all, that dreaded icy pit in her stomach had returned after so many years of willing it away. She felt as if her head was gripped tightly in a vice, threatening to propel her brains across the time castle floor. But at that point in time, she really wouldn't have cared. Everything seemed so much smaller and the sickly air practically choked the life out of her.
*Poisoning me...poisoning my mind.*
In her mind's eye, she felt the skin peel from her bone and muscle, as if desperately trying to escape the foul creature's grasp. Her eyes bulged until they nearly burst from their sockets, tears of blood trickling down her cheeks.
She screamed into the dead hum of the Time Stream, convinced that even the farthest dimensions could hear her anguish. She looked at her gloved hands, instinctively gripped into talons, but there was no blood. She was still inside her own skin, albeit not safely. Setsuna shook uncontrollably. The Garnet Rod unceremoniously dropped from her hands and the orb atop it shattered into scarlet dust upon the stone. Setsuna slumped against the throne, paralyzed mentally and physically.
Her decaying doppel kneeled before her and touched her face tenderly. Tracing skeletal fingers under her uplifted chin, a raspy laugh gurgled up from what remained of its throat. "Hehehe...why Setsuna, you seem...beside yourself!"
Setsuna rolled her eyes and met the creature's stare. No longer was the tattered skin dripping off its bones, but was squinched into horrible burn scars that covered its face. His face. She recognized the masculine jaw structure revealed to her by a sadistic grin. He held her chin hard with a scarred hand.
"What...are you?" she queried, now running short of breath.
"The man of your dreams," he replied.
The last thing Setsuna saw were those murky brown eyes shaded under a dark fedora. Then she plummeted into darkness as four steel blades lodged themselves into her brain.
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Author's Notes: Well, boys and girls, it was bound to happen sooner or later. That's right, all this lurking around FF.net combined with repeated viewings of "Freddy vs. Jason" eventually turned into the Crossover Fic From Hell: Sailor Moon and "A Nightmare On Elm Street." Yes, I'm ashamed, too. I just hope I can get back into the groove of writing actual scenes rather than script as I had been doing with the Utena Self-Insertion Fic From Hell. Speaking of which, the second part of that little endeavor, "Children of the Revolution," will not be finished…at all. There are just too many real life obstacles to write around for my characters (i.e. most of the couples have broken up). So fuck it. I think writing the second one was overkill, anyway. As always, comments, flames, and MSTs are heartily welcomed.
e-mail: sstarhealer@hotmail.com
Chapter 1: "Intruder"
Rating: R
By Rose Priestess
Obligatory Disclaimer: "Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha, Toei, etc. "A Nightmare On Elm Street" and Freddy Krueger belong to Wes Craven and New Line Cinema. Please don't sue, you won't get rich off food stamps.
--------------------------------------
As the blue-green globe of the earth spins ever steadily on its axis, so progresses the lives of the planet's inhabitants. And as self-centeredness is largely a part of human nature, it isn't at all peculiar to conjecture that we would like to consider ourselves unique individuals and our lives significant in some aspect.
Sadly, this is not the case. When our physical layers eventually wear and rot away, what are we to leave this world with but memories? Only those who knew us can adequately attest to who we were and even then it's all entirely subjective. Centuries will pass and any recollection of our existence will be obliterated. But such is the normal course of nature and no one knew this lesson better than Setsuna Meioh.
For millennia, more than she could remember sometimes, Setsuna had stood sentinel at the Gates of Time as Sailor Pluto. Her job was to guard the flow of Time from being tampered with by trespassers and to smite them accordingly. Of course, calling it merely a job was glossing it over. It was her duty, her obligation. In this "job," there were no breaks or days off and Setsuna was stuck working back-to-back twenty-four hour shifts until the end of eternity.
She leaned against her Garnet Rod and sighed. *Christ, this job sucks,* she thought.
Stretching like a cat, she retired to her throne in the middle of the castle through which the time stream ran ceaselessly. She sighed again, this time in relief as she plopped down onto the smooth marble of the throne. The coldness chilled the backs of her exposed thighs, but relaxed her taut muscles nonetheless. After all, Setsuna had been standing for three days now.
Although she was the Time Guardian, she was still human in some aspects. Because of her duty, she didn't and couldn't age. She was mortal, however, and as such she could also die. Right now, she was feeling the effects of her mortality upon her heavy lidded ruby eyes.
She desperately shook off sleep's heavy shroud. It was vital that she portion her hibernations for the most inactive times of the stream. Otherwise it could mean a potential Armageddon for the future. For the most part, trespassers were few and far between and those that tried were ill-prepared to face an ancient creature like herself. Even so, Serenity would never tolerate slacking off, let alone sleeping, on the job.
Speaking of Neo Queen Serenity, Setsuna wondered what she was up to now. Truthfully, though, she was more concerned with what King Endymion was doing, but to let such an utterance escape her lips would be ruinous.
She stood and walked over to a small pool in the floor ringed with stones. While appearances could certainly be deceiving, the pool was Setsuna's only real contact with the outside world. It acted as a portal to allow her to see anyone on the planet anytime she asked. She knelt in front of it and swept a hand over the undulating mercury-like surface. The garnet gem on her tiara glowed like a fire bug trapped in molten gold.
"Show me the Neo Queen, Serenity of the Moon!" she ordered. Wherever the Queen was, the King was sure to follow.
The pool wavered and imploded upon itself. The surface melted away to reveal the Queen's chambers and the extravagant canopy bed, which occupied the center. Two silhouettes could be seen moving behind its delicate white curtains. As the shadows collapsed into one, soft murmurings emanated from the bed.
"Oh my..." Blushing fiercely, Setsuna turned her face away, embarrassed for having stumbled upon such an intimate moment between her King and Queen.
Before she could dispel the image, some strange desire compelled her to keep watching. As she returned her gaze to the pool, she saw her beloved Endymion, hair tousled and beautifully nude, lean over his supine love.
Setsuna squeezed her eyes shut, willing them not to overflow with tears once more. She couldn't bear to have her heart mercilessly shred to pieces for, what was it, the millionth time? It really was all her fault, though. It was she who spied upon them of her own accord. She had to see his face, needed to see it, or else she would finally forget how to love. And there would be nothing left of her but what already belonged to the Time Stream. She would be dead inside. Her morbid curiosity roused her from her inner turmoil and she opened her eyes.
Endymion looked down lovingly to his queen. "My darling," he whispered as he trailed kisses along the hollow of her neck.
Setsuna took a deep breath and braced herself for the pain that would soon be twisting like a knife into her heart. Instead she heard only her own voice resonate from the pool. "My prince," the voice answered exactly as it had answered in all of Setsuna's dreams.
With disbelief, she looked back at the images swimming before her. Her doppelganger continued kissing Endymion's chest as soft moans escaped his throat. Mouth agape, Setsuna met a sinister and alien gaze in the eyes of her double. She dashed a handful of small stones into the pool, destroying the image and kicking up a spray of the metallic liquid.
Crashes of thunder echoed violently outside the dimensional time castle, but it sounded as if it were landing directly on the roof itself. The Time Stream flickered and buzzed as a chorus of child-like voices swam around her. Through her, it seemed.
She wept wretchedly into her hands as the crying became more urgent. Such sorrow in voices so young. What could have evoked pain like that?
Drowning out the choir of tortured children, a guttural laughter resonated from the still shimmering pool. A figure of the same liquid obsidian rose up from the depths bearing Setsuna's shape. It stepped out of the ring toward her, all the while shaking off more of the silvery substance and revealing its true form. No doubt it was Setsuna.
Setsuna retreated a step, her Garnet Rod poised to attack. She couldn't help but inwardly wonder if it would be of any use to her at all. "Intruder," she accused.
"What's wrong?" the doppelganger smirked. "See something you like...or rather something you don't?" Beneath its skin, something unsettling scuttled among the blood and bone. Something dark that crept like a shadow behind its eyes.
Just the sight of it turned Setsuna's stomach slightly. Despite this, it was enough to spur her into action. She swung the Garnet Rod with ferocity and it landed hard against the doppel's head. Logically, a blow of that caliber should have cleanly taken its head off, but it stood its ground. The only trace of any damage was the gash on the left temple, weeping blood steadily down the creature's nude body.
It rolled its shoulders up in laughter and strolled closer to her. "Oh Setsuna, if you wanted to do any of that kinky stuff, you should have told me!"
Deciding to engage in the queer mind game, Setsuna replied, "Then I'm sure you'd love to see the trick I can do with my rod. Dead Scream!" From the garnet orb atop her staff, she summoned a sphere of purple energy and aimed it for her doppel.
A perfect hit as always. She hadn't been a senshi for centuries for nothing. The smoke from the blast slowly cleared, revealing the doppel's now rotting skeleton. And yet it moved, defying death still. Unless it itself was death.
"Impossible! How could you have survived that?!" Setsuna screamed. Without realizing it, fear had crept into her indignation at the creature.
It stumbled forward a few feet, steaming flesh dragging on the marble. It cocked its head curiously, swollen tongue poking through broken teeth as it struggled to speak. "Are you really that afraid of yourself, Setsuna? Or do you fear the loneliness that will come when there is eventually nobody left but you?"
Nausea overcame Setsuna. She'd never admit it, but the thing was right on the money. Too many thoughts flashed through her head at once: the King and Queen, Chibiusa, what could have been, the too frequent ponderings of just ending it all. Most of all, that dreaded icy pit in her stomach had returned after so many years of willing it away. She felt as if her head was gripped tightly in a vice, threatening to propel her brains across the time castle floor. But at that point in time, she really wouldn't have cared. Everything seemed so much smaller and the sickly air practically choked the life out of her.
*Poisoning me...poisoning my mind.*
In her mind's eye, she felt the skin peel from her bone and muscle, as if desperately trying to escape the foul creature's grasp. Her eyes bulged until they nearly burst from their sockets, tears of blood trickling down her cheeks.
She screamed into the dead hum of the Time Stream, convinced that even the farthest dimensions could hear her anguish. She looked at her gloved hands, instinctively gripped into talons, but there was no blood. She was still inside her own skin, albeit not safely. Setsuna shook uncontrollably. The Garnet Rod unceremoniously dropped from her hands and the orb atop it shattered into scarlet dust upon the stone. Setsuna slumped against the throne, paralyzed mentally and physically.
Her decaying doppel kneeled before her and touched her face tenderly. Tracing skeletal fingers under her uplifted chin, a raspy laugh gurgled up from what remained of its throat. "Hehehe...why Setsuna, you seem...beside yourself!"
Setsuna rolled her eyes and met the creature's stare. No longer was the tattered skin dripping off its bones, but was squinched into horrible burn scars that covered its face. His face. She recognized the masculine jaw structure revealed to her by a sadistic grin. He held her chin hard with a scarred hand.
"What...are you?" she queried, now running short of breath.
"The man of your dreams," he replied.
The last thing Setsuna saw were those murky brown eyes shaded under a dark fedora. Then she plummeted into darkness as four steel blades lodged themselves into her brain.
------------------------------------
Author's Notes: Well, boys and girls, it was bound to happen sooner or later. That's right, all this lurking around FF.net combined with repeated viewings of "Freddy vs. Jason" eventually turned into the Crossover Fic From Hell: Sailor Moon and "A Nightmare On Elm Street." Yes, I'm ashamed, too. I just hope I can get back into the groove of writing actual scenes rather than script as I had been doing with the Utena Self-Insertion Fic From Hell. Speaking of which, the second part of that little endeavor, "Children of the Revolution," will not be finished…at all. There are just too many real life obstacles to write around for my characters (i.e. most of the couples have broken up). So fuck it. I think writing the second one was overkill, anyway. As always, comments, flames, and MSTs are heartily welcomed.
e-mail: sstarhealer@hotmail.com