Author's Notes:
If you need to email me, contact me here: Guardian4@atlantic.net. Please put fanfiction in the subject line so I know what it's pertaining to. I don't own Sailor Moon. It is the property of Naoko Tacheuchi.
Crystal Hearts
When The War EndsChapter 5: Crystals Shattering
The night shrouded the ground, giving the Senshi plenty of cover. She flitted from shadow to shadow, always looking out for danger. Stopping and clutching a stitch in her side, she snapped her visor over her eyes.
Mercury shivered. She had not realized how cold Africa was at night. Nothing showed up on her visor as friend or foe and she ran ahead. The stings on her body throbbed in an annoying way. They didn't hurt; they just distracted her concentration, something that was very dangerous when their enemies were everywhere.
After teleporting, she had fallen into a tree with many sharp branches. Ami nearly groaned at the memory and the headache it evoked. She had fallen head down. Not only did all the blood rush to her head, she had only gotten out of tree by dislodging herself, rolling down to the ground with her arms over her head and protecting herself from a concussion.
Mercury dropped to her knees and let the tears come to her eyes at last. From her readings, she had teleported miles, literally tens of thousands of miles, away from where the stone should be. If hers went so askew, then the others hadn't had a hope or prayer. She had failed to do something; something that would have teleported them to the right locations.
She curled up on her side, staring into the night. She had failed Serenity and Endymion and because of her, they would die, Crystal Tokyo would fall, and the Earth would be destroyed. And it would be all her fault.
A headache started, making her temples throb, but Ami didn't pay much attention to it. It was all her fault…
A face flashed in her mind, a glimpse that was too fast to recognize. She finally noticed the aching in her head and her eyebrows drew together. It wasn't like her to be wallowing in supposed guilt. Sitting up, she looked around her through her visor. A small red glow on the screen at the edge of her vision alerted her.
She knew what kind of creature it was. It would reach up to just the middle of her calf, gray in skin and no hair, and have eyes that took up most of its face and very oval. The ears would be pointed and two feet long. It would have teeth so sharp that it could split a hair down the middle and have a cruel smile on its lips.
It was not very big, but more dangerous than any of the other creatures. It took over your mind with guilt, sadness, and other deadly emotions until you just gave up and died, not willing to live anymore.
Mercury frowned. This was not a good thing. Sure, they were simple to kill, if you could get it to stay in one spot long enough to kill it. Since it was very fast, it had the benefit since it was small and not built for bulk. She stood up, finally shaking its hold off of her mind.
Quickly, she called out softly, "Shabon Spray!"
Mist slowly formed from her fingertips and enveloped both her and the creature. She watched through her visor, not daring to even turn her head to look at it. It moved to the left and then the right, as if it couldn't see her. A triumphal smile lit her features. Now to get rid of it…
"Shine Aqua Illusion!" she whispered. Tossing the water in the air and using a mental command, it froze on the ground behind her. She watched in her visor as the creature stopped moving abruptly, as if it couldn't.
"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!" she finally yelled. It let out a screech of protest, but its lungs filled with water too quickly for it to do anything. The water froze on its lungs and it fell on its side, dead.
Mercury breathed a sigh of relief and rapidly left the scene of the battle in case something else had heard anything. However, the farther she went, the harder it became to go. An insistent feeling in the back of her mind kept telling her to go back. That she needed to go back.
Ami stopped and stared up at the sky, once so blue during the day and so black at night. Now it was simply gray most of the time; a dark, foreboding melancholy color.
Finally she turned around and stopped whenever the feeling no longer held any sway over her. She found herself near her battle site, but there was nothing but the body of the creature there, something that was a relief. Mercury set her computer to analyze and gather data on the dead creature while she looked around.
A tree stood near her and she walked up to it. She spotted a small knothole in the wood and ran her fingers over it. It was a very dark color, in contrast to the light tan the rest of the tree was. It rocked under her fingertips and she blinked in surprise.
Mercury pried it off the tree and had just the smallest glimpse of a crystal inside when flower petals blinded her. She jumped back, covering her eyes. When she looked again, she gasped in shock.
His hair still caught back in a loose ponytail at the nape of his neck by a green hair band. His green eyes locked with her blue. An evil smile crossed his lips.
"Zoisite," Mercury whispered, stunned. "I thought you were dead."
"So did I. I'm apparently not as dead as I thought I was," he retorted. "Now, to finish what I started…Wait a second…"
He looked around, noticing that they seemed to be in something like a desert. It couldn't be a complete desert since there was still a relative abundance of plant life. He shivered with the cold of the night.
Cold, Zoisite? I can make it freezing, Ami thought angrily to herself. "Water and ice crash down and flood the mind, I am Sailor Mercury! As the princess of Mercury and a Senshi of this planet now, I will defeat you! Mercury Aqua Mirage!" she cried and balls of water flew at him.
Zoisite's eyes widened in shock and he jumped out of the way. Glaring at her, he yelled, "Zoi!"
Flower petals grazed her cheek, leaving a few more cuts, these deeper than the scratches and hurting a lot worse. He struck out with his hand and it lashed her jaw, knocking her onto the ground.
"Zoi!" he yelled again.
She gasped in pain as his attack raced and cut her body. Her fuku was torn nearly to ribbons as she lie on the ground, trying to survive the pain.
With only the thought of Serenity lying in the hospital bed back at the Crystal Palace and the jewel that would help her, Mercury cried out almost reflexively, "Mercury Ice Music!"
Something flooded her brain and she looked up at him as the attack formed in her head. It seemed to be in slow motion for her. Her mouth had formed the words, but her harp had not come. Instead, her palm flew up toward him and water sprayed from it, blasting Zoisite in the chest.
He knocked backwards and onto the ground. Mercury stood up hastily and did her attack again. This time her harp did appear, but it was different. It was much more extravagant than it had been before, studded with sapphires, and the strings were made of water streams. Yet the attack was still as powerful as the last time she had done it without it.
She plucked a few strings and slightly transparent water streams surrounded her hands. As she lifted her hands from the instrument, it disappeared. Holding her arms in the air, water spiraled down around her on both sides. At her feet, a tidal wave erupted and attacked Zoisite.
"Zoi!"
Flower petals and water crashed into each other. They held even for a minute until Mercury's power smashed through his and enveloped his body. When the water was just a pool of liquid on the soil, Zoisite was nowhere to be seen.
Ami stared at her hands. Where had that power come from? She looked up at the Moon and inexplicably, she thought of the face that had flashed before her when the creature had had control of her mind. Who was that and why had they saved her?
Her vision suddenly filled with blue and when she blinked, a smiling man was standing before her. A short, golden rod was in his hand, having two wings on it either side of it near the top. He was a rather skinny man, looking to be built more for speed and agility than strength. He wore golden sandals and a white toga that went down to his ankles. His short hair was blonde and wavy and he had a boyish grin on his face.
"Mercury," he said to her affectionately.
"How do you know me?" she asked, bewildered. Her readings from her visor were going out of control on the power scale and because she wanted to concentrate on him and not the readings, she switched it off.
He chuckled. "How could I not know my own daughter?"
"Daughter? I'm sorry, sir, but I think you must be mistaken. My mother is Mizuno—"
"Pish, tosh," he said, waving his hand. "I was not talking about the present. I was talking about the past. Your complete essence is my daughter." Suddenly his eyes went soft and a little sad. "I know you don't remember me and I doubt you will ever believe me. You always wanted proof no matter what. I can't give you any proof to my words, my dear Mercury."
"You're….you're the god Hermes, aren't you?" she faltered. Why does he keep calling me Mercury like it's my real name, like Ami?
"Yes, I am."
Could he be my father? My father from the Silver Millennium? But how? Could I actually be the daughter of a god? I can't be! But then how can I explain being a Senshi if I'm not? Her face reflected her indecision. But would that make me only a half of a god then? Mercury glanced at his face and decided then was not the time to be asking such questions. After all, she had more pressing matters with Serenity and Endymion.
"Please believe me," he begged.
The word 'believe' echoed in her head. She looked at him hesitatingly. "I believe you." And she found that she did. She smiled at him and saw tears leak down his cheeks.
"Thank you," he whispered. "Your power is yours to keep. But you must hurry back to your King and Queen now. They are waiting."
He disappeared and Ami was saddened for a moment. Would she see him again? However, in her heart something told her she would see him again and that brought a smile to her face.
Mercury turned back to the tree, the whole reason she was in Africa in the first place. She tugged on the crystal, but it was surprisingly stuck. It was deeply embedded there, despite its rather flimsy looking holding.
Frowning, Ami pulled carefully. She didn't want to break it after all. It still didn't come out. Bracing her legs and putting one palm flat on the wood of the tree, she grasped the crystal firmly in her fist. She gave a hard yank and fell backward onto the ground as it came free almost instantly. She stared at the stone surprised. That had been strange. After all the tough work it was as soon as she had really put some strength behind her pulling it had come out.
Mercury shrugged. At the moment, it wasn't particularly important. She smiled, relieved that she had what she had come for. Concentrating, the Senshi of Water glowed blue and disappeared.
Zoisite's spirit eyes opened and he stared at the blackness around him. He had no idea what was going on. The last thing he remembered was…
End Chapter 5