by Sailor Earth
*Author's Notes*
Whew! This chapter's taken weeks! Well here it is, I hope you like it, and I hope it makes sense, cos it's my 'explain lots of stuff' chapter! Enjoy!
*Chapter Nine - The Meeting*
"Then a great and mysterious sight appeared in the sky. There was a woman whose dress was the sun and who had the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars on her head."
Revelation 12 v.1
With Luna was another cat, who I realised must be Artemis. Between them, Luna and Artemis introduced me to everyone else. There were Makoto and Nephrite, whom I'd already met, and Ami and Zoisite, the couple that I'd seen earlier that morning. Ami told me that she and Makoto shared the cottage on the with two of the other girls, Rei and Minako. I recognised Rei and Minako as the two girls who had been singing at my birthday celebrations. Rei was busy indulging in a heated discussion with a young man named Jadeite, and Minako was draped flirtatiously across a slightly older man who called himself Kunzite.
I also gathered that Kunzite, Jadeite, Zoisite and Nephrite lived in the cottage on the right of Mamoru's. The fourth cottage, on the far right, was inhabited by four other girls - Haruka and Michuru, who'd been playing piano and violin on my birthday, and also Setsuna, and a much younger girl, Hotaru.
"OK Serenity," began Luna when the introductions were over, "I am going to start right at the beginning, and I just want you to listen carefully. Understand?"
"Perfectly," I replied.
"Good. Once upon a time, Serenity, Artemis and I were just an ordinary pair of kittens. One night we were sitting quietly in the moonlight, minding our own business, when the moon began to glow so bright, and we heard a voice. I don't know whose voice it was, or where it came from. Some may say it was a dream. Others would call it Divine Intervention; the voice of a God. Anyway, the voice spoke to us saying,
Luna, Artemis, you have been chosen to find the One, the daughter of both the Sun and the Moon, who can save this Earth from the growing threat of darkness. She is the key, for she alone holds the source of pure light that can protect this planet."
"What do you think the voice was, Luna? Do you think it was Divine Intervention?" I asked.
"Do not ask me of such matters. I am just a cat," she said solemnly, "Please just let me continue. After the voice spoke I asked how we would find such a person as the One.
Find a Prince and his Generals, and a girl in a mask. Eventually the Prince will lead you to the One. You shall gather 12 warriors to aid him - the 4 Generals, and 8 females warriors named after the planets they guard. To help you on your quest, I grant you both one power: the power of human speech. Go now, and when the time comes, you shall know what to do.
We each felt a burning on our foreheads, and a cresent moon appeared there. Then the light faded, and once more we were alone." Luna paused here, and Artemis took over.
"For a while nothing more happened, and we started to forget, but then, one evening, I saw a beautiful girl in the street, and she enchanted me, so I followed her. She was wearing a silk Kimono, the traditional dress where we come from. The robe was a startling orange colour, and her hair was pinned up in an ornate style, decorated with a single red ribbon. Her face was pale, and her lips deep red. She was a geisha, a hostess, and I followed her to the royal palace, home of the Emperor, and his son, Prince Endymion. She was there to entertain Endymion and four other men, who were all Generals in the Emperor's army. Hidden in the room with them, I observed the the six of them, listening intently to their conversation. I could see that Endymion was angry with the way his father was treating his citizens - taxing them more than they could afford, and wasting the money on parties and women. The Generals were angry too, because their army was now hated by the general public simply because they took orders from the Emperor. As the men discussed the subject, the geisha arose, and suggested she performed a dance to cheer them up. As part of the dance she wore a mask, and that was when it dawned on me that I had found the first link in our quest..."
I noticed how Minako had started to look impatient, and then she piped up,
"Oh, Arti, can I tell the next bit? Please? Pretty Please?"
"Well, I guess so..."
"Yay! I love you, little kitty! Mwah!" she kissed him and hugged him so tight he couldn't breathe.
"Aargh...get off me!" Artemis wailed.
"You love it really!" Minako giggled, before turning to me and looking serious, "You see Serenity, I was that Geisha, the one that was dancing in a mask. As I left, late that night, I was aproached by a white cat with a cresent moon on his forehead.
Don't be afraid
he told me,
I am Artemis. I need your help.
Well, I almost died of a heart attack! Whoever has heard of talking cats?! But I listened anyway.
Minako, I heard the Generals' conversation, just as you did. And I can help them, but I need you to bring them to me and my partner, Luna.
And so I told him how Kunzite, one of the Generals was my Danna (AN - a geisha's wealthy boyfriend who supports her financially).
Let me talk with him, Minako-san
Artemis rquested. Well of course, I agreed to, but only on certain conditions. They were that he let me be part of his plan, too, and also that he proved to me he was not wasting our time. Then Artemis did something I really didn't expect. He leapt into the air, and grabbed a cresent moon-shaped compact out of nowhere. He dropped it at my feet and I picked it up.
Call out 'Moon Power Transform!'
Artemis instructed. So I did. And then the most amazing thing happened. I found myself dressed in a strange outfit with a red mask.
You are no longer a geisha,
Artemis told me,
You are now Sailor V, guardian of the planet Venus, and it is your duty to find the other guardians, and eventually you shall also find the Chosen One, who will save this planet from Darkness."
"That's enough, now, V," Artemis interupted, jolting me back to reality.
"Aaww... OK, you carry on," Minako conceded sadly.
"Thankyou. Now then, I went home with Minako that evening, and in the morning I found Luna and brought her to Minako's, also. Luna spoke to Minako, and told her how important our mission was. Then we waited. When Kunzite chose to visit that afternoon, Luna and I spoke to him, explaining that we could help him and the other Generals, in return for his taking us to the Prince. Kunzite was much harder to pursuade than Minako had been. For a start, when he first saw talking cats, he accused Minako of putting hallucagenics in his tea! But after Minako showed him the power she had been given, he agreed to help us. Kunzite delivered the three other generals - Jadeite, Nephrite and Zoisite - along with Prince Endymion, to Minako's home. Endymion asked how we could possibly hope to bring fairness back to his Kingdom. So Luna focused her powers into the five men, and created a new persona - Tuxedo Kamen - for Endymion to adopt, in order that he would not be recognised by his father. Equipped with new super-human strength and talents we sent them out.
Take from the rich, and give to the poor, Luna advised them, But don't get caught. And while you are working, search out and recruit the other seven female warriors to work with Minako.
From then on, Endymion and Minako took charge of the operation. The two mysterious masked strangers, Tuxedo Kamen and Sailor V, haunted the night, like shadows, they wandered the city, robbing the rich, helping the poor, and never resting until the light of dawn broke over the country. Our first recruit was a doctor, Mizuno Ami. Infact, we didn't even have to search for her - she came straight to us. One day, Zoisite was injured, and we sent for a doctor. Ami treated him, and on seeing how quickly her recovered, she guessed he was one of those that she had heard so much about. she offered to help us, and that was when we knew we had found the second senshi - Sailor Mercury. The second to join was Hino Rei - a shinto preistess. Jadeite recruited her when he visited her temple to deliver a donation, and ask for blessings. Rei received the powers of the red planet, and became Sailor Mars. The fourth senshi to join us was Kino Makoto, a girl who loved to garden, and had a great talent for cooking. She is now Sailor Jupiter. We also recruited a seamstress, Meiou Setsuna, as Sailor Pluto, and two women who back ran a music shop, Kaiou Michuru and Tenou Haruka, as Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus. Last, but not least, a young orphan-girl, named Tomoe Hotaru, joined up, and we named her Sailor Saturn. With our Prince, and team of 12 soldiers - 4 Generals and 8 Senshi - all in place, we set out to find the One, the daughter of both the Sun and the Moon, who could save us. And now, we finally believe we have found her.