'Black holes are a gravitational hazard. A point in space that, if you approach to close to, you will probably never escape.'
Home universe:
Amaterasu sighed, as she contemplated the scene being displayed in the crystal globe in front of her. "Akane," she eulogized in dismay, "would that I could take this pain you feel away. But to pass this test, you are going to face even greater pain. Be strong..." She put her face into her hands and wept.
Nabiki sat in her office, idly flipping a pen between her fingertips. After four years, she was finally able to feel as if she were beginning to make some restitution to the spirit of her little sister's true love. Even if it had been settled by every court in the land, in her heart she knew that the reason that two people died that day was because of her meddling.
She set the pen down and reached over for the picture frame on the corner of her desk. Opening it wide, she looked at the pair of pictures within.
On the left, dressed in his usual clothing, a picture of Ranma, in the midst of a beat-down/sparring session with his father. The look on his face was one made up of equal parts joy, - of the battle, certainly, - and concentration. The angles of his limbs indicated that he was rising to engage in midair with his then-worthless father. Life and joy seemed to seep from the paper.
On the right, in a stained white suit, was a black-and-white incident photo that showed the fallen warrior, her body slack in death and sprawled over that of her mother. The redhead's head was being held in the lap of her youngest sister, the photo clearly showing the splashes of Akane's tears upon the dead girl's face. The image was as stark and gripping as the event that it displayed.
She split her attention between the images as she spoke into the air, as if she were talking to them.
"Hey, little brother," she stated in a joyless voice. "it's me. I'm doing what I can, like I promised. You know that your Art isn't mine; but I've tried to find something that would make you proud of me. I've been trying to atone for the mistakes I made with you and Akane; I was too blind to see what my focus on money was really costing me." She sniffled slightly, then continued in a softer voice. "It took your death to make that clear. By the Kami, I was such a fool. Of all the gang, I thought I was the most observant one, the person with all the answers. No martial-arts jock could see something I might miss." She barked out a choked laugh. "You were so good for all of us, weren't you? Your heart held enough love to forgive anyone who hurt you, be it physically or emotionally. No matter how much I blackmailed you, you were willing to help out when it was for the family. Gods, Ranma, you were even ready to pose for lingerie shoots even before I asked, when we were going through a lean month. Why was I so eager to foist you off on Akane?"
She paused, as if hearing him respond. Because, 'biki, the pictures seemed to say in both the male and female voices, you were afraid, back then. I was only a splash of water away from being the opposite gender; hell, if'n anybody woulda' asked me, I'd've denied liking it.
Her breath caught momentarily. "But you did like it, didn't you? You actually liked being able to laugh at life, being able to jump the gender fence at will and look into the greener pasture that everyone else could only be envious of. You were wise, in a way that others could only dream of: you could read a person's heart and give them joy in life, where they couldn't see it."
Who could see it, 'biki? Everyone was so caught up in the madness, it couldn't end any other way. The Grim Reaper was waiting for someone, and here the male voice fell silent, so who best to die than the focus?
"Baloney, Saotome." she growled, focusing fully upon the colorless image. "Life isn't always cruel, you could've found a solution. Hell, I've dedicated my life to finding them; I won't let any more people loose their hope."
The voice was now completely male. You're right, too, neechan. It wasn't all suffering; we had plenty'a laughs as well. Keep it up; the world needs people like you.
She closed the frame and replaced it in it's original position. "I swear to, Ranma-imuoto, I swear...." She broke down into tears, unable to continue.
Ukyo sighed as her body sank into the heated water. She had spent the previous night working for a major telethon, providing the food for the phone crew so they could work at their places without any delays. Hard work, without any pay, but she didn't mind. Out of all the things that had happened in her life, this was one of them she could be really proud of.
There were damn few of those. Ten years of questing for vengeance, her heart filled with hatred; a year and a half of obsession, chasing after a guy because he called her cute; then finally these last four, trying to piece her life back into some semblance of order. If it weren't for Kasumi being close by to give her a shoulder when she needed to cry and a slap when she got crazy, she'd probably have followed 'Dachi into the nuthouse. The evening of that fateful day, it was Kasumi who held her, like a mother, and let her cry out the immediate pain. It was the same woman who wrote her father and, using words that she wouldn't ever speak, blasted the Kunoji elder repeatedly with statements such as, 'what sort of $($))## $#(@$(*, #$)#$() parent takes away his daughter's right to be a female just to soothe his $)#$(&*() $()_$*(#, $_#@*#( wounded pride?!!?' The selfsame woman who stood beside her when her father returned and forced him to make her clan head.
So she worked, to repay her debt. Not just the debt of honor that she owed the Tendo family; she also donated time and ingredients to non-profit causes like last night to repay a spiritual debt. A debt that was as much for the man she helped to kill as it was for her own spirit.
She never noticed the tears that dripped from her face as she was immersed in the near-scalding water. As they did every time since that day.
Labor timeline:
The planetary Senshi were gathered in the house of the Outers, all sitting in varying states of shock or fear as they watched their usually smiling and chipper Makoto curled around Usa. Usagi would rub her back from time to time as the blond was explaining the incident.
"Let me get this straight," Haruka finally ground out. "Galaxia is now a super-goody-two-shoes who wants to eradicate us because we're beginning to tap into the Dark side of our powers?"
The pink-haired future-Princess nodded grimly. "She is willing to eradicate anything that has the slightest bit of evil inside it," she stated. "If she has her way, this planet will be filled with nothing but soulless automatons."
Makoto rasped out a choked sob and fell asleep. Usa slid the lax body down until the auburn haired girl's head was laying in her lap.
Hotaru blinked owlishly. "What caused Makoto-oba to access her powers?" she probed.
Ami tapped the controls of her computer. "From the information I could gather," she began, faltering slightly as all eyes, including Setsuna's, were pointedly staring at her, "w-what triggered her access was a high concentration of negative emotions." She fiddled with her palm-sized supercomputer for a second, then continued. "It seemed that her rage, at life and other things, caused the ancient seal that the Queen placed to shatter. I can now detect equal wells of Silver Millennium and Negaverse energy. The description that Usagi gave was that she accessed this to transform; if she did so, then the Kuro-Jupiter powers must be at the 'Crystal' level."
Usagi hummed. "She did use the phrase 'dark crystal empower' to transform," she agreed. "So I figure that adding 'dark' to our normal phrases and ending with 'empower' instead of 'make up' will probably do it."
Everyone sat stunned for a moment, then shivered. Ami swallowed once. "That won't work until we can access the power," she countered. "Like our advancement in our Silver powers, there is the blockage to bypass."
Setsuna swallowed. "Scan me," she stated in a hollow voice.
After a moment, the smaller girl gulped. "You're already able to access it," she confirmed. "In fact, I cannot find any trace of a binding on your powers, nor any fragments of a broken one."
The jade-maned woman gave a short, sharp nod. "I was empowered by the first ruler of the lunar kingdom, Princess Serenity's four-greats-grandmother. Even if Serenity Ishtar wanted, she could only remove my powers, not bind them." She delicately reached into subspace to pluck a sullen golden rod that seemed to be all sharp edges and angles, topped with an almost-black garnet. In the sullen depths of the distorted gem, the glyph pulsed like fresh blood. She set the henshin rod in front of her as if it were made of some toxic waste, then produced her usual rod and set it beside it's dark counterpart. "As Dark Pluto, I am the senshi of the Void. My attacks, in order of power are: Gravity Crush, Stellar Compression and the Suicide Collapsar." The others blinked as the unbreakable facade that their eons-old teammate had always shown shattered in a wash of silent tears. "I can also call upon the curse of the Microcollapsar Swarm. In one second, the gravity stress can decimate an entire army from that attack." Her eyes were showing her age. "I have used that curse only two times. The first was during the reign of the the Third Serenity, obliterating the renegade senshi of Tau Seti. The second was fifteen hundred years ago, to purge the remaining youma on the Moon."
No one dared to refute her claim.
Makoto found herself in the dreamscape standing in an open plain, the skies above starting to fill with dark clouds.
"What's happening?" she asked the air around herself, her voice cracking slightly.
What do YOU think it is? a snarling, enraged voice barked out from all around her, as the area surrounding her went from daylit to dusk. You're used to light, but we've got to have a little... discussion.
She was about to answer, when she suddenly found herself watching memories. Images that came from an era before the Silver Millennium.
^*^*^*^
The young redhead sat in her stiff chair, her small heels tapping idly against the rungs that braced the legs. Bo-ring, her mind chanted in rondo, as she watched various scholars, priests and officials scurry here and there. The focus of their impatience being, of course, herself.
She watched as her mother, a woman of an imposing height that was willowy-thin and whipcord, reached out her hand to her aunt, a shorter woman with indigo-black hair and a stocky build. Both women bore the markings of Jupiter's powers: her mother's being that of the energies of Growth, while the powers of Decay inhabited her aunt. The pair weren't afraid of each other's strengths, as the other's abilities matched with her own shortcomings.
"Mako-chan," her aunt caroled, her voice gentle instead of the usual growl that would be heard by anyone else other than the woman beside her or the child she was calling for. "Are you ready to visit the Moon?"
She quickly hopped out of the chair. "Yes, auntie," she giggled. She enjoyed these trips to the lunar surface, as her friends and fellow princesses were always allowed to visit at the same time.
The trio clasped hands and in less time than it would take to describe, were standing on a disk of light on the surface of the Moon itself, the blue and white of the Earth's surface casting it's glow above them. Little Makoto's first encounter was with her counterpart from the planter of mists, Venus.
The blond-haired girl was bouncing around the targeting pad, the chains of an unfocused Venus Love and Derision Encircle combination being used like a pair of ribbons to mark her path. "Hey-a, Mako-chan," the slightly shorter girl sing-songed. "See what I can do?"
She shook her head at her friend's antics. "Mina, Mina, Mina," she muttered in a perfect imitation of her auntie's 'child, you're embarrassing me' tone. "That's only because you have attacks that have physical form for both." She held up her hands, allowing them to fill with a cloud of light and dark motes of emerald energy. "I can't use my power as anything but beam attacks."
The pair continued to chat as they approached the entry arch to the castle. As they passed through the doorway, a pair of small hands tapped the top of each of their heads. They both looked upward to stare into the red-violet eyes of the princess of the red planet, her face split in a fanged grin as she hovered above them, face-downward.
"The other's are already waiting for us," the floating priestess purred as she sank down until she was hovering just above the floor, feet just above the marble surface. "The queen wants to see all of us Younger Senshi."
The three girls made haste to reach the chambers. As they opened the door, A flash of blindingly silver light washed over them, tearing at their very souls....
^*^*^*^
Makoto gulped, as her mind returned to the present. Her eyes narrowed to attempt to pierce the dusk, she called out, "You're right."
A short shadow formed in the darkness. "Am I?" the voice, now recognizable as a younger version of her own, snarled at her. "You loved your fellow Senshi, back then. You loved Serenity Greychild, loved her with every bit of your soul." The shadow neared, allowing the taller girl to see the clothing more clearly; details such as the rings of silver and iron, on a hand that had sharp, pointed fingernails. One of which pointing right at her face.
"I was crushed into your psyche," the tiny past-self hissed, her eyes glowing emerald for a moment. "For two millenium, I have been held down by Ishtar's disgust of that love." A tear sparkled on the shadowed face. "I know you, Makoto Kino, who was once Akane Tendo. I know that you were orphaned when your family and the Saotomes died. You were Ranma's only friend." The child's voice softened. "Love Serenity, or love Ranma. I only ask that you accept me."
Makoto dropped to her knees and opened her arms. As her past self approached, she once again fell into a flashback, this time of the recent past....
^*^*^*^
Akane and Ranma, both six years old, were sitting side by side, watching the TV with the same awe that all the children of the developed world ever have shown. Little would disturb them from the rapt attention devoted to the consumption of their favorite characters.
Or so it would seem to anyone looking over them. Just the day before, they had found out that they were the remaining members of their families. So, as they watched the pictures in front of them, they were quietly conversing.
"What'm I gonna do?" Akane asked in a hoarse whisper, hugging her knees to her chest and rocking slowly back and forth.
Ranma let his bare feet slowly tap a staccato rhythm on the tamai. "I'll protect 'ya, 'kane," he whispered. Tonight I'll go out and look for smethin' to help us."
"We're goin' to be split up," she whimpered. "We ain't gonna be near each other any more."
He turned on his side and looked into her eyes. "Don' say that, 'kane. If I'm not there, stay strong. Keep fightin' for what you believe in and I'll find 'ya, wherever you are."
She gave him a tiny smile. "'kay" she hiccuped.
He rolled back to face the TV. "Promise?" he asked quietly.
She drew her finger across her heart in an age-old gesture. "Cross my heart," she swore.
^*^*^*^
She opened her eyes to the wizened face of Mrs. Hidoshi, the neighbor woman who had been watching over her and Ranma for the last week. The old woman was frantic with worry and asked, "Have you seen Ranma?"
She shook her head and looked over at the other futon. Everything was there – except for the dark-haired little boy. It looked as if he had just vanished from underneath the covers sometime in the night. All that was left behind was a note, scrawled in his usual hand:
[Akane, a pretty lady in a long white and black dress came and asked me to go with her. She promised me I'll always be able to watch over you, but only if I go now. I'm going to the moon now, so don't worry, Okay? Ranma]
She gulped. He went to the moon? Oh, my....
^*^*^*^
...and as the piece of her past merged with her present self, she mused upon the trials she faced after that. She fought to keep herself happy as much as possible, and once the Kino's had adopted her, she had thought that as Makoto Kino, she would be happier. She was, for all of three years; then her new Mom and Dad had followed everyone else.
She never returned to the orphanage after that. Better to be alone in the world, than to be left behind again.
That lasted until she rescued Usagi. Finally, she found a place to belong. Friends, a family that truly would be with her for over a thousand years. Through even death, they would be together.
As the dreamscape began to fade, she felt herself begin to smile in relief. She knew that she was going to find Ranma, he would keep his promises.
Sailor Loki dropped her head into her cupped palms. I just have to wonder if Usagi or Luna have ever had days like this? she mused to herself. Watching her new teammates as they battled another of the multibeasts, she had to question it.
The first announced herself as Sailor Thantos, the slate-gray clad protector of Ordered Chaos and the avatar of endings. She bore a western style grain-scythe that she used as if it were made of foam. The effects of her attacks, however, gave lie to the true strength of her weapon's power. The girl shouldered her odd-shaped pole arm after another swing and brushed an unruly lock of her crystal-white hair over her ear. "Do you see a weakness yet, Hephaestus?", she hissed in a surprisingly melodic soprano lilt.
The other Balance Senshi, a willow-thin violet-maned girl clad in chocolate colored silk, glared through a set of wood-rimmed goggles carved with Greek writings. "By the Forge," she swore, "This one is only damaged by a combined overpowering shot of magic right," and here she snickered slightly, "between the eyes." In that moment, she made a perfect demonstration of her position as the senshi of Anarchistic Chaos. She stuck her hand into her subspace pocket and produced a small, handgun-shaped device and aimed it at the attacking creature. "By the fires of the smithy, by the sparks of the hammer, endow my shot with THE ETERNAL FLAME!" As she stroked the trigger, an intense beam of white light, tinged with red-gold streamers, emitted from the barrel to connect with the spot she had just spoke of.
As she released the trigger, thereby halting the beam, the monster simply halted in it's tracks and dissolved into a powdery cloud that faded with it's death-scream. The senshi of construction twirled the mystic handgun and lifted the visor. "That, Thanto-chan," she giggled, "is how you dust a beastie."
The pale-haired girl grimaced. "Showoff," she growled.
The green-suited senshi sighed. They probably have, she concluded.
TBC.....
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Sorry for the extreme delay in releasing this part, but RL decided to kick my butt, then the old Writer's block added to it. I finally beat them and managed to release this next section.
Hopefully, the next part will take less than four months to get out....
OMAKE------------------OMAKE---------------------OMAKE---------------OMAKE
SENSHI ROLE CALL!!!!! (No, this is not a mistake!)
[A six foot tall redhead wearing a pair of dark tinted glasses steps from the darkness. She is dressed in a pair of black jeans and a skin-tight black t-shirt. This is the author, and she is looking down at a PDA phone as she positions herself on-stage.]
CENTAURESS:[Looking up] Oh, hello. I've received a bundle of reviews about using 'Chaos' instead of 'Neutral' for the Balance Senshi.
NARU/LOKI [Off-stage]: Yeah, what's up with that, huh?
CENTAURESS:[Shooting a glance at Naru] Right. Well, I could go on about the theories I've had about the whys and wherefores, but let's just say that in real life, there's no such thing as 'Neutrality.'
[Slipping from the shadows, Thantos slides up beside the author and leans against her. Centauress just rolls her eyes and tolerates the shorter girl's atttitude with a small smirk.]
THANTOS: And to add to this, Chaos is neither/nor more than Neutrality. So, when in AD&D terminology they use CN, this might cause a problem. To cover for THAT, she uses Anarchy and Order in place of Chaos and Lawful. That turns 'CN' to 'AC' or 'Anarchistic Chaos.'
[A hatch opens just in front of the pair onstage. From it jumps Hephaestus, who lands on the hatch as it closes behind her.]
HEPHAESTUS:[Striking a Planetary Senshi pose] And I am classed as that because Technology can, and often is, used for both evil and good in the same way; both within the law and outside of it.
THANTOS:[Coughing into her hand] Ahem. Meanwhile, I am OC; better known to you RPGers as 'LN.' Everyone, good or evil, has an end. It is a fact of life, inescapable. So my alignment becomes obvious from that.
[Centauress taps on the PDA a bit, causing the lights to dim. The two pantsuited Scouts take the hint and leave the way they entered.]
CENTAURESS: I hope this answers that Question. Keep reading the fic, I hope with enough time, my plot will become clear. [shrugs] Ehh, it could happen.
[She taps the PDA screen once more and the lights fade out.]
CENTAURESS[Voice only]: Ja ne!