Author's Note
The normal disclaimers here of course and that I'm certainly not doing this for money.
There are a few elements that are exclusive to the manga, as you will read, but those only involve character differences than from the anime, such as the Shitennous' relationship. Also, Mamoru has the Golden Crystal.
If you need to contact me, my email is Guardian4@atlantic.net. Please put fanfiction or something in the subject line so I know what you're emailing me about. And if you're a really nice person (if this pertains to a certain fanfiction that I've done) you might want to put the name of the fanfiction you're referring to somewhere in the email.
All names are like the Japanese say them, last name first. So Kunzite's name would be Kail Rainer in America, but in Japanese it would be said Rainer Kail.
Army of Immortals
Chapter 22: Sacred Grounds
"I don't have it," Sailor Moon gritted through her clenched teeth.
"What do you mean 'you don't have it'?" screeched Mars, Beryl, and Tomi. The youma shifted nervously, awaiting orders and receiving none.
The dark queen stared in shock and turned to Endymion. "Endymion, perhaps with your Golden Crystal, she would be more apt to see the light and tell me where it is!" she hissed.
He laughed painfully. "I don't have the Golden Crystal either."
"You what?" demanded Tomi, Beryl, and Jadeite.
"We don't have what you want Beryl. You surely didn't think we were stupid, did you?" questioned the leader of the Sailor Senshi.
"What happened to them?"
It would have been funny to see a Senshi, a Knight, a civilian, and a dark queen yelling simultaneously. But there was nothing humorous about the current situation.
"It's in a place you'll never get to, Beryl," Tuxedo Kamen said smugly.
The fact that they were lying, that it wasn't a place but a person she would never get, he didn't see fit to mention. He knew the only way to make it seem convincing to her when they went through her portal to leave his friends out of the loop. If they had evidenced any kind of hope she would have caught on and possibly killed Tomi.
"Where is it?" shrieked the four of them again.
Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen exchanged superior smiles.
Shingo tapped frantically on the keys of his controller, sitting cross-legged on the floor, trying to get in a quick burst of power and finish the enemy in front of his street-fighter character. "Come on, come on, come on," he chanted, leaning forward until he was nearly double over.
"Damn," he muttered in frustration as he died and the continue screen popped up.
"You have no time to be playing a game like that!" snapped a female voice.
The boy started violently and stared at the window. In jumped his sister's black cat and stared at him in disapproval. "What on earth do you think you're doing when Usagi-chan and Mamoru-san trusted you to take care of the crystals?"
The TV screen flickered back to the menu as the ten seconds to choose if he wanted to continue ran out. "Damn," he muttered again, but distractedly. Another cat, this one white, jumped in his room. From below in the living room, his mother called up, "Hurry up Shingo or you'll be late for school!"
He shut off the Playstation® and immediately set about getting ready for his normal school day. Luna, irritated at the lack of response, leapt onto his shoulder and nearly shouted in his ear.
Shingo winced. "Cats don't talk," he muttered to himself.
The white cat scratched his hand. "We haven't time for this. You have been entrusted with a grave task indeed. Usagi-chan and Mamoru-san gave you those crystals to watch over carefully. But at present, we need to get you to a safe place. Your life is in severe danger right now and if you don't listen to us and do what we say, you'll be forfeiting the world's existence."
"What on earth are you two talking about?" he hissed at them, forgetting that normally cats couldn't talk.
"The gem resembling a topaz," lectured Luna, "is the Golden Crystal of Mamoru-san's. The diamond-resembling one is the Ginzuishou belonging to Usagi-chan. They are the keys to saving this world and they were entrusted to you because your sister believed you would protect them. Put them on and tuck them in your shirt. No one must see them. You are then to sneak out of this house without your parents knowing."
Infected by a sense of urgency and fear, he did as told. As quietly as he could he slipped down the stairs, but stopped as he peered around the doorframe. His father was sitting in the living room and there was no way he could pass without getting caught that way. His mother, making no attempt at concealment, loudly walked toward the stairs. He fled back up, but instead of going back in his room, he ducked into his sister's.
The front door was out of the question now. Usagi's window caught his eye and the tree just outside of it gave him an idea. Carefully moving, as his bag might upset his balance, he managed to climb out and into the tree. He slipped halfway down his scaling and fell with a thud on the ground.
Like shadows in the morning, the two felines approached him quickly. "Hurry. Follow us."
He had to run full out to keep up. Because he was so small, he had no trouble dodging the adults on the street and he heard mutters behind him as they wondered why he was not in school.
Shingo hadn't the slightest clue as to what this was all about, but some kind of instinctual urge kept him following the cats. He was gasping before long and with a backward glance, the white cat muttered something to Luna. They allowed him to rest in the shadow of an alley, away from prying eyes.
"What's going on?" he demanded, clutching a stitch in his side.
With hesitation written in every line of her body, Luna answered, "Usagi-chan is Sailor Moon, formerly Princess Serenity." He received a quick rundown on the current situation and where his sister really was.
"But…if I have these two crystals, how can they defeat this Beryl person?"
She didn't respond to the question. Instead, she hurried on to another topic. "We're taking you to a safe place until the Senshi and Knights either come back or Beryl takes over if they fail to stop her. If the latter happens, you will be the Earth's only hope."
"Control room, do you think, Luna?" Artemis, as he now learned the white cat was called, asked skeptically.
"No, it's not secure enough. We'll have to trust Mamoru-san's judgment and follow his directions. Come on, Shingo."
He pelted after the two smaller beings toward a hill. Just in the distance he could see some stone stairs leading up to a small building he guessed was a shrine of some sort, considering the people there. His legs aching after all the running he'd done, he forced some more life in them as he struggled up the hill.
"Stand here."
Managing to stagger to where the cats were, he paused to catch his breath. Then like a gradually, but quickly, rising sun, golden light came to life under his feet. Shingo screeched in a completely undignified way, out of alarm and fear.
Like a net being pulled in the exact center, the three of them were sucked into the Earth. It descended rapidly, almost like an elevator. "Where are we?" he demanded after nearly twenty minutes and it finally stopped. He hesitantly got off and looked around cautiously.
It was absolutely beautiful, wherever they were. Roses abounded everywhere, red as wine. Thick green grass cushioned his feet and gripped with a sudden urge, he pulled off his shoes and socks. It was as soft as a wonderfully made carpet. Not too far to his right was a huge building, marble and golden veneer. Spirals of red and gold flew up the columns on the outside. The 'sky' was as light as he could wish it, almost as if it had a miniature sun around there somewhere. A walkway was just ahead of him, the white stone absolutely gorgeous and not a stone unplaced or cracked. So thick it paled against any other bushes there, roses grew and flourished. It might as well have been an impenetrable wall. He couldn't see what was at the end of that long stretch of walkway.
"This place…is beautiful," he whispered reverently.
Thank you. It is my favorite place to be.
Shingo started nervously and turned. A stunning woman meandered up to them. But there was something strange about her, besides the fact that she had somehow managed to speak into his head. She was inhumanly beautiful, with long black hair and deep golden eyes. Her dress was pale cream, and would have trailed on the ground if it had a hem. Instead, it simply dissolved into mist around her ankles.
"Who…?"
I am Terra. I am Gaia. You have so many names for me that I can't remember them all. I am the spirit of the Earth. I prefer the name Terra, though.
Though her mouth moved, his ears didn't register sound. It was spoken straight into his head, her melodious but soft voice ringing around.
"Where is this place?"
Please make yourself comfortable. She looked to the building at his right and following the two cats, he entered it.
It was even grander on the inside than the outside. The rooms were huge, for one, all gold and pale white marble. Stairs headed up to another level where he could see, if he squinted a little, another set of stairs that led to a third floor. Tapestries that depicted many things, none of which he understood, hung from the high rafters and trailed just above the floor. Doors that were surprisingly light but wonderfully wrought with history and beauty led to other rooms.
Please, follow me. I'll show you a place you where you may sit and rest. And Terra was suddenly beside him and showing him a corridor that he hadn't immediately noticed, though it was just as exquisite as the rest of the building.
The room it ended at didn't have a door, just opened on into the hallway they had just traveled. Most of the colors in the room were dark red and pleasing on the eyes, edging the room with gold. Sofas and soft couches were set all around the room and a dark mahogany desk set with a lamp dominated the upper right corner of the room. Bookcases adorned nearly every wall and filled with books of every kind. A few were even strewn on the strategically placed tables.
This is the study, as you might have guessed. It is one of my favorite rooms. Please, refresh yourself. And as he sat down on a wine-red sofa, a tray appeared on the table at his left elbow. The cup contained water, which he gratefully drank down. There was a bowl of fruit there as well and he nibbled on a few grapes while the spirit of the Earth, sitting next to the desk, studied him.
You asked what this place was. Very well, I will tell you, but it will involve a great deal of history. Do you still wish to hear?
"Yes," he answered after a moment of thought. The cats nodded, having occupied the other half of the sofa he was sitting on.
When this planet was born physically, I emerged as its spirit. I was younger than the other spirits and they took me in like indulgent parents. Selene, the spirit of the moon, was most helpful and kind. I grew to know all of them very well and they became great friends.
But I wanted a child so very badly. Finally, I confided my wish to my fellow spirits and they were quite unhappy about something. When I asked what, they told me they were unhappy because they were unsure if they could have children. But because they loved me so very much, as friends you understand, Jupiter and Mars succored me and tried to give me a child. Uranus, after having a long discussion with Neptune, his lover, did the same in hopes that I would be happy.
Yet I remained barren. Then Pluto approached me, something that seldom happened, and told me that if he did indeed embrace me as Jupiter, Mars, and Uranus did that I would conceive child. He asked if that was what I really wanted. I told him more than anything. But he told me something else interesting. I would be the child's mother, but neither he, Jupiter, Mars, nor Uranus would be the father. According to him, the oldest of all the spirits, that the only way a spirit could have children would be if all the male spirits had given me some of their power, when they embraced me, to make that life. But that even then, the child would not be undying or a spirit. The child would be mortal.
She paused then. Shingo was just as glad and had a feeling that he knew why she had. His head was pounding from hearing her words like that. After a few moments, when he nodded that he was fine, she continued.
It took nearly three million years for me to give birth, and by that time, my physical body, Earth I named it, was ready to support something other than simple plant life. I bore a son and couldn't have been happier. As a gift to him on his tenth birthday, I solidified some of my power into a stone for him to use. The human race, the mortal race, wasn't long in existence by his birth, only a few hundred years or so, but it allowed my son to choose someone to his liking and have a child of his own.
"What did you name your son?"
She smiled. Terran. You see, I was not known as Terra with the other spirits, nor as Gaia. They simply called me Earth, as I called the others Jupiter and Mars. The only exception to the naming rule at the time, a spirit not the same named as the planet itself, was Selene. She called her body the Moon, but preferred the name Selene. So I named my son Terran. Over the course of the mortal history, they had developed different languages and then I was called Terra, a misconstruction of my son's name as the history was distorted and forgotten. Then the spirits and I started calling me Terra while my body remained named Earth.
This place, to get to your question, was a gift for my son and his children, a safe haven for them. My son eventually managed to become a leader of a kingdom of the mortals and I was never prouder. He ruled justly as did his heirs. He never told any of the other mortals that he was my son, except his children and heirs. And only when he passed down the jewel I had given him for his tenth birthday. It became a family heirloom, but I suppose it has its faults. I had only one son so when I created the stone, it would only respond greatly to one of the children of Terran, even if he had three. They could use it to an extent, but not in the way a certain of the children could. It was completely random who it would choose to allow its full access to.
"One of the Knights, Zoisite I believe it was," Artemis began when she stopped talking, "said it had a safety device that prevented the user from dying. That unless they how to use it, they couldn't use the full power of it."
That is true. I didn't want my son to die if he did a very strong spell he couldn't handle so I did put that one restriction on it.
"What about the Knights anyway?" Shingo interrupted. "Mamoru has this."
He pulled out the Golden Crystal and she reached out to touch it. It flared when her hand came into contact with it. She smiled again. Yes, Endymion has the stone. He is one of Terran's descendents. The others, his friends that swore their life for him…well, dear Kunzite was half right when he they are half-brothers. Actually, they're all brothers in a long, long way. Terran had many children with the woman he loved and the line has populated the mortal race. If they could trace their lineage all the way to the beginning, Kunzite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Jadeite would find they are descended from Terran's great-grandchildren. I always keep tabs on my children. Because of their blood, they all have special abilities, such as Nephrite reading the stars, though none is strong enough to use the stone like Endymion.
"How does the Ginzuishou and my sister fit into all this?" he asked, confused.
Who is your sister?
"Tsukino Usagi," answered Luna proudly. "Formerly Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom."
Ah. You see, Selene soon wished for a child as well. Pluto told her the same thing he told me and she agreed. She had a daughter and named her Selenity, which started the long line. It was then discussed about supporting life on our physical bodies. But we had not realized the extent of the ingenuity of mortals. While we were talking about it, mortals had used magic to make all of our physical bodies livable. Unfortunately for everyone else, their planets could not support life naturally like I could.
She sighed. We were quite unhappy and distraught at the destruction of the civilizations at the fall of the Moon Kingdom. We kept waiting for the day the other mortal races would raise up their majestic cities again, but when they lost the magic in their blood and turned to technology, we gave up hope. We've only begun to get that hope back with the mortals on Earth trying to make space livable and trying to make Mars habitable for them again.
"Does anybody live down here? What exactly was this place built for?"
Terra smiled. So many questions, young…what was your name?
"Shingo."
Well, Shingo, I designed this place for Terran and his children to come to when they wished to live out the rest of their lives in peace. It has always happened that when one of my children reaches a certain age, they come here to spend what time they have left in solitude and peace. At least it happened that way until the technological era came about. Now they don't believe in magic anymore. But I do love Selene's daughter. She managed to save the princess, Serenity, and the Senshi and sent them to this time. It may be time to bring magic back to life. And I am glad she was able to save Endymion and his brothers' lives as well.
She tapped her fingers on the mahogany desk in mild irritation. Selene and I were very displeased when the mortals forbid contact and love between the people on my body and hers. What difference was there between them after all? Living a little bit longer hardly mattered, even if it was so much longer to the…what were they called? Earthlings. I suppose it could be our fault, slightly, for encouraging, in our own mild way, the romance between Endymion and Serenity.
"What do you me, encouraging?" spluttered Artemis.
Well, whenever dear Serenity would visit Earth to see my Endymion, Selene and I made it a little easier to get here. The ban on inter-planetary travel wouldn't have allowed her to get through at all, but we easily overrode that, in a technical term. Their magic may have been good, but we were the planets and spirits ourselves with much more power to say who would and who would not come to us.
Shingo yawned a bit and rubbed his aching head. "But you didn't say if there was anybody else living here."
Enough questions, young Shingo. You are tired and your head hurts. I have forgotten how hard it is for someone who is not of my bloodline to talk with me. Rest.
He fell asleep without another word.
He should be put to bed.
"We'll take care of that Terra," Luna answered at her worried look. "We would like magic back in the world as much as you do because only here, where magic is, can we change from our feline form." She shimmered and became a young woman.
I have no doubt that you long for it as much as I do.
"Thank you for allowing us to come here," Artemis murmured as he picked up the young boy in his arms.
There is no need for thanks. Endymion and the others knew I would allow you here if they trusted you enough to tell you about this place. A bedroom is on the second floor.
"How did he know about it?"
When Endymion's parents died, he felt terribly alone. I appeared to him and told him the truth about what he was and the power he had. And about this place. Whenever everything became just too much for him, I would bring him here for a few hours to let him rest and relax before he went back to his life.
Where, or rather why, did my child send you here with such a small one with you and the stone with him?
They did not relish telling her the truth, but it was never advisable to lie to a spirit and Terra did deserve to know.
"Because Endymion, the Shitennou, Serenity, and the Senshi are going to confront Beryl and keep her from taking over the Earth the way she destroyed the Silver Millennium."
At the dark queen's name, thunderclouds appeared in her golden eyes and they knew without a doubt that a few places on the surface were being ravaged by heavy storms that had no warning.
We should have taken care of that sun demon long before the Silver Millennium fell. And that is what the spirits shall do when they have removed its puppet.
With those threatening words hanging in the air, Terra disappeared. Artemis and Luna went in search of the promised bedroom.
End Chapter 22
Long chapter. Sorry it was so late in coming, but I've been very busy. Lot of talking and history. I would have preferred to break it up somehow with other stuff, but I didn't see how. Chapter 23 will be much more exciting.