This has got to be the fastest I have ever gotten a chapter out. Ever. The fastest. I can't believe it. Me creative juices must really be flowing here!
Anyway, due to the fact that I got this chapter out so early, my muses are not here. Kudos for them. And instead of a really long talk about something, I have a really SHORT talk about something; Ya seen those commercials for that movie 'Treasure Planet?' Is it just me or does Jim Hawkins look uncannily like Mirai Trunks? oo; Maybe it's just me.
And now, you may read! nn; Though I am still very upset that I only got one review…UU; People! Review!
*...*=thinking
"…"=talking
_…_=an emphasis on a word
*~*~*~*
Mirakuru Romansu
Book 1, Part 1, Chapter 5: Battle at the Gates of Time
By Lady Firefly
*~*~*~*
"_Chibiusa?_" Usagi's cerulean eyes widened as she stared at her panting future daughter. "Wow…you've…changed so much…" Which was very true. Her pink hair had grown slightly longer, her eyes had become less red and more of a russet brown color, and her senshi fuku now bore a striking resemblance to Usagi's eternal fuku, only pink (with a hint of garnet) and wingless.
"Ah…arigato, Usagi-san…" *Not only that,* Usagi noted as Chibiusa caught her breath and stood up, no longer leaning against the doorway, *she's gotten more polite too.*
"Chibiusa-chan, are you alright?" Hotaru stood up as well, her violet eyes hinting concern.
Chibi-Moon smiled, although it was a sad sort of smile. "I'm fine, Hotaru-chan." Her smile vanished and she suddenly looked very serious, something Usagi hadn't seen in Chibiusa very often. "But…but I think something's wrong with Setsuna…"
At this point, something in the back of Rei's head clicked. She suddenly remembered part of her vision, the part with Setsuna… "What happened to her?"
"She…she tried to attack me…" Chibi-Moon shuddered slightly, as if the memory of her childhood companion trying to kill her was painful. "I think she may have been brainwashed by someone…either that or it really isn't Setsuna…"
There was silence for a split second. Then Haruka stood up. "I've known Setsuna for a while now, and I know she would never let anyone brainwash her. It has to be an imposter."
"But Haruka," Michiru reasoned. "She probably would…if something important were to surface because of it…"
"Michiru-san is right," Hotaru said calmly. "Remember how, when I was possessed by Mistress Nine, Setsuna-san was against letting me live?" She looked down at the ground, embarrassed slightly. "Since she's the guardian of time, she knew that I wasn't really evil…but she also knew that if she wasn't against me, then I probably…I probably would have ended up destroying the Earth."
Haruka looked at Hotaru sideways. "You have a point, I suppose…But what could possibly surface from it all?"
"Anything is possible," Ami noted. "But naturally, Setsuna-san would never actually tell us her reasons for doing anything. If we knew what was going to happen before it happened in all of the battles we've been through, the outcomes might have been different."
"Well, whatever psychological mumbo jumbo Setsuna has planned for us all, we can't just sit around and let her wreak havoc and be just plain ol' evil," Makato said confidently. "We gotta go to the Gates of Time and stop her before the evil villain behind all of this puts some sort of plan into action. Sitting around and waiting isn't going to get us anywhere."
"You're right," Usagi said. "We do need to go and return Setsuna to her senses. But…" She looked over at Kouken, who was standing in the corner looking very bored. "Kouken, we really can't expect you to want to come with us. This whole being-a-senshi thing is probably very confusing for you. You don't have to come if you don't want to."
Kouken stared at Usagi, and raised an eyebrow. "Are you kidding? Of course I'm coming. Beats sitting around doing nothing."
Usagi blinked. "Well…anou…okay then." She fingered her brooch slightly, which was resting in her pocket. "Have you henshined before?"
"Once or twice."
"So you know how?"
"Do I _look_ like an idiot?" A blue-handled henshin wand with an ice blue six pointed star on top appeared at her fingertips, and she waved it around slightly, with an 'I-know-what-I'm-doing-so-back-off' manner. Rei scowled angrily at this.
"Um…well…okay…" Usagi blinked again.
And, as they always do, the senshi simultaneously waved their henshin objects in the air and shouted their henshin phrases loudly.
"Moon Eternal Make-up!"
"Mercury Crystal Power, Make-up!"
"Mars Crystal Power, Make-up!"
"Jupiter Crystal Power, Make-up!"
"Venus Crystal Power, Make-up!"
"Uranus Planet Power, Make-up!"
"Neptune Planet Power, Make-up!"
"Saturn Planet Power, Make-up!"
Usagi, now Sailor Moon, looked around confusedly. She didn't hear Kouken's henshin phrase at all., yet there she was, henshined like everybody else. Her fuku had an ice blue skirt with a matching collar, and navy and midnight blue bows on the front and back of the fuku. Her gloves, unlike most of the other senshi's gloves, were dark blue and fingerless, and she was still wearing her necklace looped around her right hand. A long sword in a sheath hung from her waist of a black belt. "How did you henshin without a henshin phrase?"
"I have a 'henshin phrase.'" Kouken replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You probably weren't listening to me." *Like most people,* She added silently.
"Oh." Sailor Moon blinked. "What's your senshi name anyway?"
"Sailor…sailor something." She looked over at Starr. "What is it again?"
Starr sweat dropped. "Sailor Aisuzu."
"Yeah. Sailor Aisuzu."
"Um…" Chibi-Moon fidgeted slightly. "Is everyone ready?"
"Hai…"
"Alrighty then." She slowly lifted a small golden key, similar to Setsuna's larger key, and began to chant. "Guardian of Time! Split the heavenly sky and open the door of time!" The key's garnet stone began to glow pink. "I call upon you, the almighty God of time, Chronos!" The ground underneath Chibi-Moon's feet glowed pink slightly. "Lead and protect us…" The ground under the rest of the senshi glowed pink as well. "Onward to the road of light!"
And they were gone.
Starr yelled angrily after them as the rest of the cats sweat dropped, "Hey! I wanna come! Come back!"
*~*~*~*
The Gates of Time were dark and misty, as usual. Sailor Moon looked around uneasily. *This would _not_ be a great place to get killed…* She thought. She was scared. But she was trying not to show it.
So naturally many of the senshi suggested that she switch to decaf when a maniacal laughter sounded throughout the entrance to the gates, and she leaped about five feet into the air. Or maybe six.
"W-what was that?" Sailor Venus asked with a shaky voice, playing with a strand of her long blonde hair nervously.
"Sure didn't sound like Setsuna," Sailor Uranus muttered.
And in fact, it wasn't. When the fog cleared, not only was Setsuna, or rather, Sailor Pluto standing before them, but a tall woman with long black hair and sea green eyes, wearing a dark green short length dress. A black six-pointed star was nestled between her bangs on her forehead. She laughed again. "So glad you could make it. _All_ of you." She played with a strand of her hair and giggled. "Oh, I'm sorry, where are my manners? I am Tourmaline. And of course I already know who all of you are."
"What have you done with Puu?" Chibi-Moon said angrily, letting the childish nickname escape her lips once more.
"Ah, nothing really." she calmly walked over by Pluto and lifted the green haired senshi's bangs to reveal a black star, much like the one on her own forehead, in the spot where her tiara would normally be. "Just made her a mindless little minion that most of you probably wouldn't stand a chance against."
"That's where you're mistaken," Sailor Saturn said calmly. "I could defeat her, if I had to."
"And then you'd end up killing yourself and the rest of your friends in the process," Tourmaline pointed out cruelly. "Kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?" She yawned, and pointed in the senshi's general direction. "I'm getting tired." She said to the brainwashed Pluto. "Go ahead and kill them now."
And that was when Sailor Mercury had an idea. As she and Mars both dodged a Dead Scream attack, she called out to Sailor Moon, "Usagi, do you think you could try to heal her with your Ginzuishou?"
Sailor Moon nodded as her hands flew to the brooch on her chest, and the familiar small white crystal appeared by her hands. She lifted it up over her head, and a light pink light began to form from it. She could feel it's power reaching towards Pluto--
And yet Pluto still had the star on her forehead.
*It's not working!!* Shutting her eyes, she tried to push the power of the Ginzuishou out farther, trying to heal Pluto with it--nothing happened. She could feel the power, power that would normally break a villain--that wasn't working on Pluto.
*Why isn't it working???* She continued to concentrate harder and harder. She had to heal Setsuna, _had_ to stop this madness…
It was natural that no one noticed when the golden crescent moon on Sailor Moon's forehead suddenly transformed into a silvery eight-pointed star, and shone for a split second before changing back into a moon. All they saw was a considerably large and very bright ball of light engulf most of them and then fade away.
The brainwashed Pluto dropped her key as the black star left her forehead and she blinked twice, obviously in a state of confusion.
Tourmaline mentally cursed. Eleven to one. She definitely did not like those odds. Thinking quickly, she grabbed the dropped key and pointed it in the direction of the inner senshi and Kouken. The garnet stone on the key blinked twice--
And suddenly all 6 of them were gone, leaving a very confused bunch of outer senshi, not to mention Chibi-Moon.
*~*~*~*
Kouken was not having a good day. Then again, she was never having a good day. Something always went wrong. Sometimes she wished that idiot Murphy, whoever the hell he was, didn't decide to sit down and write that stupid law about everything going wrong, because it seemed to be the center-point of every event in her life*.
This particular day, she had been dragged around the town by an idiotic hyperactive cat, dodged several attempts at killing her, and was now sitting on the ground that sure as hell wasn't the ground she had been standing on a second ago.
"Is everyone okay?" Mercury said with a concerned look in her face.
"Could be better," Kouken grumbled as she got up and brushed herself off.
"Ow…I think I landed on something…" Usagi said nervously.
She soon found out that it wasn't a something, but a someone, a large blast of light, or energy, or _something,_ erupted from under Usagi. She screamed bloody murder and was thrown into the air and landed on top of Kouken, and they both fell to the ground with a loud THUMP.
Kouken was not amused by this. "Ah, hey! Get off me, damn…" She trailed off as she noticed Usagi wasn't paying attention to her, but a large pair green and black legs with point feet. "…It…"
They both looked up at the same time. And they both saw a large, cricket looking creature, with a look that would kill if looks could and a blue energy ball forming in it's hand. A _big_ blue energy ball.
"Oh shit."
*~*~*~*
Meanwhile, higher in the air, someone else looked down at the situation, thinking the exact thing Kouken had said aloud. A certain someone that we all know and love with lilac hair tied back into a ponytail and clear blue eyes.
*Oh shit.*
*~*~*~*
*Murphy's Law: Everything that can go wrong will go wrong.
And Part 1 is OVAH! nn; I shall leave you guessing as to who 'Cricket man' is. You probably already know anyway. nn; Muahahaha! I write the most evil of cliffhangers, do I not?
Now go forth, do good things like they tell you to in Church, and review!
Anyway, due to the fact that I got this chapter out so early, my muses are not here. Kudos for them. And instead of a really long talk about something, I have a really SHORT talk about something; Ya seen those commercials for that movie 'Treasure Planet?' Is it just me or does Jim Hawkins look uncannily like Mirai Trunks? oo; Maybe it's just me.
And now, you may read! nn; Though I am still very upset that I only got one review…UU; People! Review!
*...*=thinking
"…"=talking
_…_=an emphasis on a word
*~*~*~*
Mirakuru Romansu
Book 1, Part 1, Chapter 5: Battle at the Gates of Time
By Lady Firefly
*~*~*~*
"_Chibiusa?_" Usagi's cerulean eyes widened as she stared at her panting future daughter. "Wow…you've…changed so much…" Which was very true. Her pink hair had grown slightly longer, her eyes had become less red and more of a russet brown color, and her senshi fuku now bore a striking resemblance to Usagi's eternal fuku, only pink (with a hint of garnet) and wingless.
"Ah…arigato, Usagi-san…" *Not only that,* Usagi noted as Chibiusa caught her breath and stood up, no longer leaning against the doorway, *she's gotten more polite too.*
"Chibiusa-chan, are you alright?" Hotaru stood up as well, her violet eyes hinting concern.
Chibi-Moon smiled, although it was a sad sort of smile. "I'm fine, Hotaru-chan." Her smile vanished and she suddenly looked very serious, something Usagi hadn't seen in Chibiusa very often. "But…but I think something's wrong with Setsuna…"
At this point, something in the back of Rei's head clicked. She suddenly remembered part of her vision, the part with Setsuna… "What happened to her?"
"She…she tried to attack me…" Chibi-Moon shuddered slightly, as if the memory of her childhood companion trying to kill her was painful. "I think she may have been brainwashed by someone…either that or it really isn't Setsuna…"
There was silence for a split second. Then Haruka stood up. "I've known Setsuna for a while now, and I know she would never let anyone brainwash her. It has to be an imposter."
"But Haruka," Michiru reasoned. "She probably would…if something important were to surface because of it…"
"Michiru-san is right," Hotaru said calmly. "Remember how, when I was possessed by Mistress Nine, Setsuna-san was against letting me live?" She looked down at the ground, embarrassed slightly. "Since she's the guardian of time, she knew that I wasn't really evil…but she also knew that if she wasn't against me, then I probably…I probably would have ended up destroying the Earth."
Haruka looked at Hotaru sideways. "You have a point, I suppose…But what could possibly surface from it all?"
"Anything is possible," Ami noted. "But naturally, Setsuna-san would never actually tell us her reasons for doing anything. If we knew what was going to happen before it happened in all of the battles we've been through, the outcomes might have been different."
"Well, whatever psychological mumbo jumbo Setsuna has planned for us all, we can't just sit around and let her wreak havoc and be just plain ol' evil," Makato said confidently. "We gotta go to the Gates of Time and stop her before the evil villain behind all of this puts some sort of plan into action. Sitting around and waiting isn't going to get us anywhere."
"You're right," Usagi said. "We do need to go and return Setsuna to her senses. But…" She looked over at Kouken, who was standing in the corner looking very bored. "Kouken, we really can't expect you to want to come with us. This whole being-a-senshi thing is probably very confusing for you. You don't have to come if you don't want to."
Kouken stared at Usagi, and raised an eyebrow. "Are you kidding? Of course I'm coming. Beats sitting around doing nothing."
Usagi blinked. "Well…anou…okay then." She fingered her brooch slightly, which was resting in her pocket. "Have you henshined before?"
"Once or twice."
"So you know how?"
"Do I _look_ like an idiot?" A blue-handled henshin wand with an ice blue six pointed star on top appeared at her fingertips, and she waved it around slightly, with an 'I-know-what-I'm-doing-so-back-off' manner. Rei scowled angrily at this.
"Um…well…okay…" Usagi blinked again.
And, as they always do, the senshi simultaneously waved their henshin objects in the air and shouted their henshin phrases loudly.
"Moon Eternal Make-up!"
"Mercury Crystal Power, Make-up!"
"Mars Crystal Power, Make-up!"
"Jupiter Crystal Power, Make-up!"
"Venus Crystal Power, Make-up!"
"Uranus Planet Power, Make-up!"
"Neptune Planet Power, Make-up!"
"Saturn Planet Power, Make-up!"
Usagi, now Sailor Moon, looked around confusedly. She didn't hear Kouken's henshin phrase at all., yet there she was, henshined like everybody else. Her fuku had an ice blue skirt with a matching collar, and navy and midnight blue bows on the front and back of the fuku. Her gloves, unlike most of the other senshi's gloves, were dark blue and fingerless, and she was still wearing her necklace looped around her right hand. A long sword in a sheath hung from her waist of a black belt. "How did you henshin without a henshin phrase?"
"I have a 'henshin phrase.'" Kouken replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You probably weren't listening to me." *Like most people,* She added silently.
"Oh." Sailor Moon blinked. "What's your senshi name anyway?"
"Sailor…sailor something." She looked over at Starr. "What is it again?"
Starr sweat dropped. "Sailor Aisuzu."
"Yeah. Sailor Aisuzu."
"Um…" Chibi-Moon fidgeted slightly. "Is everyone ready?"
"Hai…"
"Alrighty then." She slowly lifted a small golden key, similar to Setsuna's larger key, and began to chant. "Guardian of Time! Split the heavenly sky and open the door of time!" The key's garnet stone began to glow pink. "I call upon you, the almighty God of time, Chronos!" The ground underneath Chibi-Moon's feet glowed pink slightly. "Lead and protect us…" The ground under the rest of the senshi glowed pink as well. "Onward to the road of light!"
And they were gone.
Starr yelled angrily after them as the rest of the cats sweat dropped, "Hey! I wanna come! Come back!"
*~*~*~*
The Gates of Time were dark and misty, as usual. Sailor Moon looked around uneasily. *This would _not_ be a great place to get killed…* She thought. She was scared. But she was trying not to show it.
So naturally many of the senshi suggested that she switch to decaf when a maniacal laughter sounded throughout the entrance to the gates, and she leaped about five feet into the air. Or maybe six.
"W-what was that?" Sailor Venus asked with a shaky voice, playing with a strand of her long blonde hair nervously.
"Sure didn't sound like Setsuna," Sailor Uranus muttered.
And in fact, it wasn't. When the fog cleared, not only was Setsuna, or rather, Sailor Pluto standing before them, but a tall woman with long black hair and sea green eyes, wearing a dark green short length dress. A black six-pointed star was nestled between her bangs on her forehead. She laughed again. "So glad you could make it. _All_ of you." She played with a strand of her hair and giggled. "Oh, I'm sorry, where are my manners? I am Tourmaline. And of course I already know who all of you are."
"What have you done with Puu?" Chibi-Moon said angrily, letting the childish nickname escape her lips once more.
"Ah, nothing really." she calmly walked over by Pluto and lifted the green haired senshi's bangs to reveal a black star, much like the one on her own forehead, in the spot where her tiara would normally be. "Just made her a mindless little minion that most of you probably wouldn't stand a chance against."
"That's where you're mistaken," Sailor Saturn said calmly. "I could defeat her, if I had to."
"And then you'd end up killing yourself and the rest of your friends in the process," Tourmaline pointed out cruelly. "Kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?" She yawned, and pointed in the senshi's general direction. "I'm getting tired." She said to the brainwashed Pluto. "Go ahead and kill them now."
And that was when Sailor Mercury had an idea. As she and Mars both dodged a Dead Scream attack, she called out to Sailor Moon, "Usagi, do you think you could try to heal her with your Ginzuishou?"
Sailor Moon nodded as her hands flew to the brooch on her chest, and the familiar small white crystal appeared by her hands. She lifted it up over her head, and a light pink light began to form from it. She could feel it's power reaching towards Pluto--
And yet Pluto still had the star on her forehead.
*It's not working!!* Shutting her eyes, she tried to push the power of the Ginzuishou out farther, trying to heal Pluto with it--nothing happened. She could feel the power, power that would normally break a villain--that wasn't working on Pluto.
*Why isn't it working???* She continued to concentrate harder and harder. She had to heal Setsuna, _had_ to stop this madness…
It was natural that no one noticed when the golden crescent moon on Sailor Moon's forehead suddenly transformed into a silvery eight-pointed star, and shone for a split second before changing back into a moon. All they saw was a considerably large and very bright ball of light engulf most of them and then fade away.
The brainwashed Pluto dropped her key as the black star left her forehead and she blinked twice, obviously in a state of confusion.
Tourmaline mentally cursed. Eleven to one. She definitely did not like those odds. Thinking quickly, she grabbed the dropped key and pointed it in the direction of the inner senshi and Kouken. The garnet stone on the key blinked twice--
And suddenly all 6 of them were gone, leaving a very confused bunch of outer senshi, not to mention Chibi-Moon.
*~*~*~*
Kouken was not having a good day. Then again, she was never having a good day. Something always went wrong. Sometimes she wished that idiot Murphy, whoever the hell he was, didn't decide to sit down and write that stupid law about everything going wrong, because it seemed to be the center-point of every event in her life*.
This particular day, she had been dragged around the town by an idiotic hyperactive cat, dodged several attempts at killing her, and was now sitting on the ground that sure as hell wasn't the ground she had been standing on a second ago.
"Is everyone okay?" Mercury said with a concerned look in her face.
"Could be better," Kouken grumbled as she got up and brushed herself off.
"Ow…I think I landed on something…" Usagi said nervously.
She soon found out that it wasn't a something, but a someone, a large blast of light, or energy, or _something,_ erupted from under Usagi. She screamed bloody murder and was thrown into the air and landed on top of Kouken, and they both fell to the ground with a loud THUMP.
Kouken was not amused by this. "Ah, hey! Get off me, damn…" She trailed off as she noticed Usagi wasn't paying attention to her, but a large pair green and black legs with point feet. "…It…"
They both looked up at the same time. And they both saw a large, cricket looking creature, with a look that would kill if looks could and a blue energy ball forming in it's hand. A _big_ blue energy ball.
"Oh shit."
*~*~*~*
Meanwhile, higher in the air, someone else looked down at the situation, thinking the exact thing Kouken had said aloud. A certain someone that we all know and love with lilac hair tied back into a ponytail and clear blue eyes.
*Oh shit.*
*~*~*~*
*Murphy's Law: Everything that can go wrong will go wrong.
And Part 1 is OVAH! nn; I shall leave you guessing as to who 'Cricket man' is. You probably already know anyway. nn; Muahahaha! I write the most evil of cliffhangers, do I not?
Now go forth, do good things like they tell you to in Church, and review!