Authors note: This is an Alternate Universe fic. Have fun.
Home on the Range
By Kallie
The wind swept over the lowland plains. Nothing but scrub and the occasional tree greeted the eye for miles. A horn rang out in the distance, calling everyone in. The two people it was meant for looked at each other and swung their horses around. They headed toward a settlement in the distance.
"What do you think it is?" The speaker had long raven hair done in a braid. Her violet eyes squinted against the sun. She had on a long-sleeved shirt and red vest. She also wore brown pants.
"I don't know Raye. But it must be important." This one had short blue hair, which was hidden under a hat. She wore a long sleeved white blouse, and pants. Her intelligent dark-blue eyes scanned the distance.
"Maybe we should step on it then Ami." The two urged their horses into a run.
After about ten minutes they had almost reached the settlement. It was a huge fenced in yard. It had a big main house, a bunkhouse for hired help, a stable, and a storage house. There was also some fenced off areas with cattle in them, and next to the house was a garden.
The two young women rode into the yard and were greeted by another young woman. This one had blonde hair done up in two buns so that they looked like meatballs. She had bright cerulean blue eyes. She wore a light blue blouse and long midnight blue skirt. "Come quickly! Mina's about to blow!"
Raye and Ami dismounted. They followed Serena into the main house, then the parlor. A group of four people were sitting there. The only male in the room stood up. "Good, you're here." He had long white hair and blue eyes. Sitting next to him was a woman with wavy black hair and brown eyes. She looked around 40. The other two in the room were the same age as Raye, Ami, and Serena. One had lemon blonde hair, which was pulled into a half ponytail. She had light blue eyes. Her name was Mina. She was wearing a pale orange dress with a white shawl over her shoulders.
The other young lady had Auburn hair that fell to the middle of her back. She was taller than the rest and had forest green eyes. She was dressed in a green and white shirt with a matching skirt. She turned toward the two adults. "Well, what's so important?"
"Lita, have patience." Lita glowered at them.
"Girls," Luna, the older lady, started, "We've decided to get ranch hands."
"WHAT?!"
"How could you?" came Ami's quiet reply. "Don't you think we're capable of running the ranch ourselves?"
"That's not it Ami. You're all beautiful young women, and you deserve the chance to get away from here." Artemis said.
"Don't lie to us. We'll never fit in with polite society, and we don't want to." Mina snapped.
"Girls! That's not it at all!" Luna exclaimed. "You've done an excellent job running this ranch considering, but your young ladies of privilege and this is not behavior befitting ladies of your station."
"Father left us this ranch. It's ours and we will run it. We don't need or want help." Serena commanded. She gave the two adults a look that clearly said the conversation was finished.
"I'm sorry girls. But Luna and I are still your guardians, and we've already hired a group of people. There's not much you can do about it." This earned a glare from each of the girls. One by one they stormed out of the room.
Luna looked at Artemis. "Well, what do we do now?"
"There's not much we can do."
"So you're just giving up?"
Of course not! I don't want outside help anymore than they do, you know that!"
"I do."
"But we won't be able to keep the ranch up, plus there are more and more attacks by outlaws. We have to keep the girls safe."
Luna sighed. "Yes. But they're never going to forgive us."
"When does the help arrive?"
"Thursday."
"But today's Tuesday! That doesn't give us much time to get things ready."
"We'll have the girls start it tomorrow."
"But we'll be short two, Ami and Raye have to go to town."
"Oh, I forgot. Maybe we should go try to make peace with them?"
"All right." They stood up to go find the girls, who were spread out everywhere. Ami was sulking in the library, Serena was in her favorite tree, Mina was in the stable, Lita in the garden, and Raye was by the cattle.
Luna headed for Ami, then Serena, and Lita. Artemis had Mina and Raye. By the time they had convinced the girls that this was for the best, it was evening.
The girls were quiet and moody throughout dinner, and went up to their rooms right after. The main house had a parlor, four bedrooms, a big kitchen, and a library/office. Ami and Lita shared a room; Mina and Raye shared another. Serena got her own room, and Luna and Artimus had the other.
The next morning dawned early, and the whole house was up. Ami and Raye left for town right before dawn. Lita made breakfast for everyone else. It was over breakfast that Luna broke the news.
"Girls. I need you to fix up the bunkhouse."
"But Luna . . ." Serena whined.
"Uh-uh. You're fixing that place up, and you'll do it right after breakfast."
"And what are you going to be doing Luna?" Mina asked sweetly.
"I'm going to be going over our expenses and things like that."
The girls grumbled but changed into scruffy clothes. They hauled paint and linen and chairs over to the bunkhouse. The bunkhouse was painted white inside and out. Serena set about opening all the windows and airing out everything. Mina touched up the paint job and Lita started to fix the leaky spot on the roof. When Mina and Serena had finished their jobs, they climbed up on the roof to help Lita.
"Why do we have to do this!?" Mina exclaimed after she hammered her thumb for the fifth time.
"Because our guardians think we can't handle the ranch by ourselves." Serena stated. "What right do they have to do that to us! The ranch was left to us, not them."
Lita sighed. "Let's face it. We finally find someplace to call home, and we're told we can't handle it."
Mina was about to say something but was interrupted by someone entering the courtyard. They all turned to see who it was. It happened to be a young man a few years older than them, with jet-black hair and stormy blue eyes.
Mina and Lita grinned at Serena who was blushing. "Your gentleman's come calling." Mina teased.
The young man rode up to the bunkhouse. Hello ladies."
"Hi Darien."
"Need some help?"
"YES!" Mina shot out before Serena could say anything. Darien climbed off his horse and up on the roof. Soon he was working side by side with Serena. The two were talking quietly. Lita and Mina were smirking at each other. They all knew that Darien and Serena were sweet on each other.
They finished with the bunkhouse about mid-afternoon. "Woo." Lita said wiping off her face, "It's really hot out here." The others nodded in agreement while heading toward the house. They made small talk for awhile, and then Lita left to make supper. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful.
That is until about 3 in the morning. Serena was woken up by the cattle. She was about to roll over and go back to sleep when she heard someone shouting. Her heart beating faster she silently slipped out of her room to go wake Mina and Lita. As she was passing by the window movement caught her eye. The 3/4-quarter moon illuminated a group of eleven people. They were stealing the cattle!
Serena whirled around and ran into the room Lita and Mina were sharing. Darien was spending the night so Lita and Mina decided to share a room.
"Guys wake up!" Serena whispered urgently, while shaking them wildly. "We've got bandits!" Lita and Mina were up in a flash. "Go get Darien. We'll get Luna and Art." Mina commanded.
A few minutes later they were all gathered in the library. "Artemis what's the plan?" Luna demanded.
"You stay here. Darien and I will take care of them."
"Like Hell we're staying here!" Lita exclaimed. "LITA!" Luna admonished. "We know how to shoot. We'll help." Lita continued, ignoring Luna.
"Fine. Luna you come with me, Darien you protect the girls." Everyone nodded. Darien, Artemis, and Luna grabbed riffles; while the girls were stuck with handguns.
The girls went around the back of the house, Luna and Artemis toward the cattle. The girls crept in the shadows keeping as silent as possible. At one point Mina stubbed her toe on something, almost giving them away. At one point Mina stubbed her toe on something, almost giving them away. Darien spotted 4 of the bandits and motioned for the girls to get ready. The girls looked at each other and Serena held up three fingers. She silently ticked them off and the girls all struck at once. They managed to knock out three of them. Darien pointed his riffle at the other one. "Don't move." He commanded. Mina tied up the ones that were out of it, and they herded them toward the other side of the house.
They were just rounding the corner when shots rang out. Serena and Mina ran toward where the noise had come from but Darien and Lita grabbed them.
"We've got to stay in the shadows." Darien hissed.
They inched over so they could see what was happening. Three bodies lay on the ground. Luna stood protectively in front of one with long white hair, her riffle trained on the leader of the bandits. The two were in a stalemate, with each having their weapon aimed at the other.
"Get out of my way." The leader demanded.
Luna narrowed her eyes. "And you expect us to just stand by while you steal our livelihood. Not going to happen, we'll never survive the winter if you do!"
"And I feel so bad for you too." He said without conviction.
Serena and the others were watching quietly, when suddenly one of their captives moaned. Luna whipped her head in their direction. The leader seeing this as his chance fired at her.
Luna clutched her abdomen and toppled forward.
"NOOOOOO!!!!!!" Serena screamed out and ran towards them. The others followed her. The remaining bandits turned toward them. The leader strode up to them; his men were between the girls and their fallen guardians. "Give me my men." He demanded harshly.
His men were hastily pushed toward him. "We're taking some of your cattle. I'll let you be if you promise not to stop us." He was feeling slightly sorry for the girls who were bawling.
"Just leave!" Lita spat at him. He motioned to his men and they moved out of the way. The girls immediately ran to Luna and Artemis. Darien stood there watching them steal the girls livelihood. When they'd ridden out of sight he turned to comfort Serena.
As she was turning from Luna she heard something. She looked down to see Luna staring at her. "You look so much like your mother." She whispered. "My sweet Princess." Luna smiled at her, then closed her eyes. Serena broke down, sobs raking her body. She felt warm arms encircle her.
"Wait!" Mina cried, she was bent over Luna's body. "She's still alive!"
They all looked at each other. "We've got to get her inside, maybe we can save her." The girls rushed inside, while Darien carried her.
He took her to her room, where Lita was waiting. Mina was filling pots with hot water, and Serena was gathering every medical supply they had. They ran the stuff up to the room.
Lita had ripped away the clothing from the wounded area. Serena shooed Darien out of the room. When he protested, she told him to go get the doctor. He agreed and rode off as quickly as possible.
The girls bustled about the room performing basic first aid. When they'd got the bleeding under somewhat control, they moved Luna, but just long enough to change the bedding. Lita ran the old bedding downstairs and dumped it in the garbage pit. When she got back to the room, the bedding was changed and Luna resting.
"What are we going to do with Artemis?" She asked.
"Bury him of course." Mina answered. They all looked out the window, to where the horizon was starting to turn colors.
They buried Artemis under Serena's favorite tree. The sun was coming up when they'd finished. Serena, who'd been watching Luna, came out for the "funeral". The sun's rays shone on the girls faces, which were dirty and tear stained. For the moment they had no more tears.
A hard look of resolution was on Mina's face. "Now there's no way we can give up on this ranch. We won't let them have suffered in vain." The girls nodded. Suddenly Lita started to sing. The others picked up after the first verse. The song they were singing was:
Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see.
They moved inside to check on Luna. They decided that the schedule would be Lita, Mina, and then Serena. The morning sped by while they moved about their chores in a kind of a daze that morning.
They forgot to change their blood stained clothes, and were anxiously waiting for Darien and the Doctor.
Meanwhile . . .
"Why are we doing this again?" A young woman asked. She had long red hair pulled up into a bun. She turned her blue-green eyes toward the young man next to her. He sighed.
"You know why we're doing this Mia." He had black hair and tiger blue eyes. He was also Japanese.
"I know Ryo. It's just that I'm going to miss everyone." Ryo leaned over and grabbed her hand.
"It's OK."
The rest of the group consisted of 4 other boys. One had blonde hair and pale violet eyes. His name was Sage, and he was half-american. The boy next to him was Chinese and had ash-blue hair and dark blue eyes. His name was Kento.
The other boy was named Cye. He was British and had brown hair and sea colored eyes. And last by not least was Rowen. He was from New York. He has blue hair and eyes.
The group was an odd one, but they were almost family. They'd met up while working on the railroad, and had all felt a connection. They'd left the railroad due to bad working conditions. Now they were headed toward a ranch to help out. Mia was the one who'd found the job and done all the negotiations.
"I'm starting to worry about this job." Rowen commented. "They didn't show up to meet us, and we had to get directions from that crazy dude at the station."
"That's not a very nice thing to say Rowen." Cye admonished.
"When are we going to get there. We've been riding for hours." Kento whined.
"We should be almost there. According to that guy it should be about two more miles." Sage answered.
They continued in silence for awhile. Then the ranch came into view in the distance. They all sighed in relief, and urged the horses to go a little faster. They rode into the courtyard only to find it deserted. Mia dismounted and led her horse to the stable with the others following her.
When they left the stable the yard was still empty. So they headed toward the main house. When they were almost to the front door it was opened. Someone with blonde hair came out, but her back was to them. She was talking to someone inside. She turned around and gave out a cry of surprise when she saw them. The next thing they knew she'd run back in the house and slammed the door.
The guys looked at each other. Then back to the door.
"Who wants to go knock?" Mia asked.
The guys all pointed toward someone else. Mia sighed. "Fine, I'll pick then. Kento can go."
Kento gave Mia an evil look but walked up to the door. He was about to knock when the door was thrown open. Kento found himself face to face with a gun.
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So how did you like it? In case you haven't noticed yet this is a RW/SM x-over. Please review, I'll be indebted to you for like forever if you do. Thanx.
-Kallie
Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon or its characters, I don't own Ronin Warriors either. I make no money off of this. But it'd be cool if I did.