AN: ::glomps crowd:: THANK YOU MINNA-CHAN!!!! And wasn't Reloaded spectacular? (Yeah, Zion was a bit... disturbing, but I thought it was well done. And I loved the Key Maker!! ::glomps::).
Still debating about the pairing. (Mouse/Usa would be unique though, Loopy Lu! :D) I have a feeling I'm just gonna let this story grow and see how it turns out. Basically, Sadie Joyce, I am re-writing SM to an alternate universe. I'm not following it episode by episode or anything, but I'm taking the general idea and transferring it to a world where the senshi themselves must be saved before they can save the world.
Do not own SM, Matrix, or any others that randomly appear. Picking up right where we left off last time...
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Her eyes snapped open, and they widened in shock at what they saw.
The familiar weight of her long hair was gone, and her clothes were missing. Instead, she was submerged, bald and naked, in a pool of a gelatin substance. What happened? Where was she? How did she get here? A million questions flooded her brain as she panicked and desperately struggled to the surface. Breaking through the gelatin covering, she pulled the air tube from her mouth and let it drop. Slowly breathing in true air and covered in the sticky substance, she looked out at the horror around her.
Thousands upon millions of containers like her own stretched far into the distance. Like terraces, they were layered one on top of another on hundreds and hundreds of round electric towers. The electricity was raw and crackled up the towers. And in each container, there was a body...
Usagi began to breathe rapidly and fearfully and tried desperately to awaken from whatever nightmare she'd fallen into. She pinched and slapped herself, but to no avail. Finally, she found a large chord "plugged in" to the base of her neck and tugged it. It held firm.
Attracted by her movement, a strange machine flew over. The flying metalloid launched out an arm that clamped tightly around her neck as it gazed at the speechless human for a few moments, processing information. Then it determined that she was indeed dead to the Matrix and must be disposed of. It flew behind her and pulled some sort of needle from the large chord. The chord came off followed by numerous tubes that seemed to be connected to her spinal chord that consecutively popped off. Then the machine disposed of her,
With a slight squeal from vocal chords that had never been used, Usagi found herself flushed away like garbage. She tumbled down a large black tunnel, hurried along by the liquid from her container. She was strangely reminded of the slides in water parks back in Japan.
All too quickly, the "slide" ended and dumped her from the ceiling of some strange large sewer tunnel. Usagi fell deep into a mass of thick liquid. She struggled to reach the surface, but her limbs were weak from lack of use. She flailed her limbs desperately underwater, refusing to give up. But with the muscle capabilities of an infant in the body of a teenager, her body could do nothing.
After several minutes of desperation to no avail, her body succumbed to the darkness. Her eyes glazed over and her limbs stilled. Liquid seeped in through her partially opened mouth and continued to fill her lungs, drowning any life left in her.
~*~*~*~
A very angry captain stormed through the small passages of the resistance ship, Eros.
"I can't believe you, Luna!" she said with frustration as she whipped around the corners. "What came over you?! You find this girl, but you don't even *think* of giving her one of the pills. And with an agent knocking on her door, you didn't even give her much of a choice either! Do you *realize* how much she will hate you? How much she'll hate us for ruining her perfect life?!"
Aino Minako, captain of the Eros, stormed into the main deck with a black cat following meekly. "And that assumes that we can actually find her, of course. Without the pill, we have no tracking program pinned to her. For all we know, she could be anywhere, probably drowning in the sewers by now. How we are to find one soul among billions, I have no idea. Kami help us."
Luna swallowed nervously as Minako stormed over to the computers. "Quatre," she said, slamming her hand onto the Operator's table. "We need to locate the target. Presumably, she is somewhere in the 263-013011 sector. But since Luna forgot the crucial tracking program, *glare* we can't be sure. I need a map of the sewers of the area. We're going to have to fly through and see if the ship can pick up any strange movement in the area."
Quatre didn't interrupt for fear of angering the hyperactive captain even further. He furiously typed on the keyboard, and in a few moments, a 3-D blueprint of the maze of tunnels appeared on the screen.
"Right-o," said Minako with a sigh of annoyance. "We're gonna have to move into the main passage here," she said, gesturing to the map. "Follow that for awhile till we get to the area of the 263-013011 sector. Then we'll have to bring her down and move quietly through the side tunnels, praying to Kami that no squiddies are about. Keep your eyes open, but realize that our chances of finding this girl are now slim and none. The death waters will probably drown her body, and their current, drag her corpse to the birth farms before we can get there." Minako glared at Luna again. "And next time, don't waste our target." She stormed out of the room.
"Whoa, what's with her?" asked Duo, the Eros mechanic, as he entered the room after brushing against the seething Minako. Luna only looked meekly at the floor. "Luna freed the target but forgot the pill," Quatre explained quietly.
"Aw, Luna-babe," said Duo as he bent down to the cat's level. "Don't worry 'bout it. Everyone messes up every now and again. Even miss perfect kitty can't do it all all the time. There will be others--"
Luna looked up, her amber eyes glassy with water. "No... you don't understand. She trusted me. Trusted me so much that she sacrificed her life. I sensed great magic in her, greater than I have ever felt before. I was convinced that it would be enough, that with a little help, she could free herself and find her way her and... and save us all." Luna quickly turned away so that the teens wouldn't see her tears of shame. "I killed her..." she whispered in horror.
"Listen, Luna," said Quatre, jumping up suddenly and swinging into the Operator's seat. "This isn't over yet. We're gonna find this girl, and we're gonna save her!"
~*~*~*~
Her body succumbed, giving in to the sweet empty darkness, but her spirit refused to give up.
Had she been conscious, Usagi would have seen strange things happening to herself under the dark water. A faint glowing symbol appeared on her forehead, above her blank eyes. Even under water, some strange unseen wind or current seemed to push her body upwards, as the symbol's intensity increased. As she neared the surface, a great light erupted from her chest, which threw her out above the water.
Any witness would have seen strange things as ribbons shot from the light on her chest and clothed her in a strange pearly gown from ages past, while keeping her floating several feet above the liquid. A great burst of silver light shot forth from the symbol on her forehead as her trademark hair appeared in the odango style.
There she remained, the princess of a lost people, shining faintly in the darkness with her head slightly tilted back and her chest pointed upward, floating above the death waters of the Matrix.
~*~*~*~
Hours had passed, but they had found nothing. Quatre hopelessly guided the ship through the endless tunnels as Duo pessimistically watched. The rest of the crew had come, tried assisting for a few hours, but found nothing and gave up hope. Luna had already given up all hope and had left to be alone. All was silent, dark, and dead.
"You really should turn her around," said Duo quietly as he stared into the endless darkness. "We've passed into the next five sectors and found nothing. We're getting too far from the path..."
"I've got to keep going," insisted Quatre. "I said I would find this girl. I promised Luna I would save her. I know she's just another target, but I can only imagine how horrible it must be to finally be freed but die. And I can't let it happen. Not to someone Luna's worked so hard to free and believes in so much."
"Quatre, I'm sorry, but she could not have survived in the waters this long..."
But even as he said the words, Duo saw some strange light shining from the bend in the tunnel.
And as they turned the corner, he knew their search was over. There could be no mistaking it. This was the girl that Luna held so much faith in, the girl with the great magical potential, the girl that could not drown in the death waters.
The girl that could save them all and end this war forever.
Duo suddenly freaked out and broke the amazed silence. "Luna, Luna, LUNA!!!" he cried, running from the room, dancing around madly. "Luna! The target! You were right! LUNA!!!" He slid into the wall as the doors in the hall swung open in response to his commotion. Duo broke down laughing madly and nearly collided with Ranma, who was returning from the engine from. "Ru-man!" cried Duo with glee, jumping up again. "You've got to come with me, you won't believe it!"
Duo led the bewildered teen into the main deck, followed by a crowd of the rest of the crew. Minako pushed her way through, carrying both Luna and Artimes. "What's this abou--" she began, suddenly catching sight of the girl in the sewer.
Her hair golden hair shone like the sun with a silvery aura surrounding her. She appeared to be an angel or some celestial being, trapped amid the darkness of the dead Earth. "L-Lower the claw," Minako stammered.
It seemed as though the girl knew her wait was over. The aura suddenly disappeared and the gown became simple rags. Suspended in the air for a moment, gravity regained mastery and she suddenly plummeted towards the water. With a splash, the girl became submerged in the death waters. "LOWER THE CLAW!!!" screamed Minako.
There was a desperate dash towards the lever until someone found it and controlled it. Out of the dark waters rose the strange girl, up into the belly of the Eros to begin her new life...
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AN: So, what do you think? If you want to see any particular characters from certain anime/books/TV shows etc, email me. Depending on how well I know the ____ , I might need you to give me a brief bio of this character. (And FYI, DBZ and probably HP will be making their appearances in the near future...) Thanks for reading and remember to let me know of any thoughts you have on the pairing. Thanks! Ja!
~Calli-chan
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