"NATURE LOVER"
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic
Chapter 8: "The Root Of The Matter"
By Bill K.
Casually the two teen girls walked from the grove of trees behind the palace to the palace gates themselves. Jun-Jun looked over at her sister pensively. Cere-Cere still glowed from her conversation with Gallan. Now that Gallan had revealed himself to her, Jun-Jun could understand why Cere-Cere was so obsessed with him. Sure Gallan was completely and utterly beautiful, but he was also gentle and caring and very brilliant. She was glad for Cere-Cere. However, she was human enough to experience a moment's envy over her sister's good fortune. She glanced over at Cere-Cere with some guilt.
But as she looked, Jun-Jun noticed her sister's euphoria begin to dim as the gravity of her situation returned to her thoughts. Her sister had asked her to accompany her out to Gallan's tree. At first she wouldn't say why, but when pressed Cere-Cere admitted that she was afraid. She feared Gallan's brother tree spirit Ailwoode was stalking her and planned her harm. Listening to her sister confess her fears to Gallan was tough. The girl's apprehension melted into gratitude when Gallan had been very understanding and supportive, despite the accusation against his own brother.
Boy, Jun-Jun really wished she could meet a guy like him!
"Thanks for coming with me," Cere-Cere whispered.
"No problem." Jun-Jun walked quietly for a few paces. "What's this Ailwoode's deal anyway?"
"According to Gallan, he doesn't like humans." Cere-Cere shrugged. "Knowing our history as a race, I guess he's got his reasons."
"Hasn't he met the queen?" Jun-Jun asked.
They walked on for a few paces.
"Can't you just use your control of plants to tell him to leave you alone?" Jun-Jun asked.
"I'm not sure I could," Cere-Cere told her. "Usually plants are very passive and agreeable when I ask things of them. But tree spirits are very powerful entities and if they take a dislike to you, they can be very willful." She walked on. "Besides, it might insult Gallan."
"But you can't live your life like this," Jun-Jun replied. "Always suspicious of your surroundings, always wondering if he's going to strike - - you can't spend the rest of your life with a bodyguard."
"Gallan said he'd try to talk to him." Cere-Cere clenched her fists. "If only he could see! I love Gallan so much, Jun! I'd do anything to make him happy! I'd never hurt him! I couldn't!"
"Maybe we should go to the queen," suggested Jun-Jun. "She's pretty good at getting people to see things her way."
"I couldn't drag the queen into this!" gasped Cere-Cere.
"OK, well how about the princess. She's not too bad with that wand, you know. And she can be pretty charming, too."
"Maybe," Cere-Cere said. "If things don't improve. I know I've got to do something. There's not much time left."
"Why, what's coming?" Jun-Jun asked.
"Fall."
Usa and Hotaru met in the corridor by the main throne room of the palace. Usa was, as usual, dressed very audaciously. She wore a white form-fitting body-suit with pink high-heel boots and a pink sash, and the stencil of a roaring tsunami emblazoned on the upper part of the suit. The suit, nicknamed a 'thirtieth century kimono' by some wags, both accentuated the curving lines of the girl's increasingly womanly figure and, using the placement of the tsunami picture, minimized attention to the bust-line beneath it. Copies of the suit sold for high sums, but the designer had presented it to the princess as a gift.
Hotaru's tastes were still stuck in the twentieth century. She had opted for a short-sleeve royal blue dress with a high collar, knee length hem and a slim black belt to gather the dress at her slim waist. White stockings, blue low heel shoes and conservative gold earrings given to her by her actual father, Dr. Tomoe, the year before he was possessed completed the ensemble. Anticipation of their night out brought smiles to the faces of both young girls.
"Usa!" gasped Hotaru. "You look so beautiful!"
"It's the suit," Usa shrugged modestly. "You look nice, too."
"This old thing? It probably stands out like anything in today's fashions."
"Well, we're going shopping after the holovid," Usa shrugged. "We can pick out a few new outfits for you."
"I'm not sure I'd be comfortable in something that revealing," Hotaru said uneasily.
"Why not?"
"I don't have your 'assets'," Hotaru replied.
"So what? Just because my chest is bigger than yours doesn't mean you don't have anything. Hotaru, news-flash - - a lot of guys think you're hot."
Hotaru shrunk into herself.
"If you want, we can make the suit basic black," Usa added sharply.
"Don't start," Hotaru replied, her eyes twinkling. "At least I don't remind people of a walking piece of bubblegum."
Usa's mouth screwed up into a smirk. The two eyed each other, then broke into giggles. Exiting the turbolift onto the ground floor of the palace, the pair ran into Yutaka.
"Hi, Hotaru," he said breathlessly, smiling.
"Hi, Yutaka, she replied tenderly.
"Um, are you doing anything tonight?"
Hotaru glanced at Usa. Silently the princess indicated that if Hotaru wanted to switch companions for the evening, she'd understand. Hotaru turned back to the boy she was growing more fond of each day.
"I'd love to," she said, "but I can't. Usa and I had plans for tonight and I really owe it to her to go. You understand, don't you?"
"Yeah, sure," Yutaka said, unable to conceal his disappointment. "Guess I can't have you every night. How about tomorrow night?"
Hotaru grimaced. "I sort of promised Michiru-mama I'd help her that night." Noting Yutaka's disappointment, she quickly added, "but I'm free the night after!"
"You are?" he asked, encouraged. "You want to go out?"
"Sure," Hotaru smiled.
"OK, I'll see you then." Then Yutaka took Hotaru's hand. "I'll, um, try to survive the heartache of our separation."
Hotaru grinned. "What book did you read that out of?"
"This new novel I'm reading," Yutaka admitted sheepishly. Hotaru leaned in and kissed his cheek, then headed for the door. Usa followed as Yutaka watched them leave.
"You know, if you really want to be with him," Usa began.
"No," Hotaru said. "There's no need to be noble, Usa. This isn't a duty. This is spending some time with my best friend. I get as much good out of it as you do."
"Admit it, you'd rather be with him."
"Well, most nights - - just like all the nights you wanted to spend your time with Helios instead of me - - right?"
"Right," Usa confessed, flushing.
"Well, tonight is a 'no boys' night. Now stop feeling guilty and let's have fun!"
"Yes, ma'am!" nodded Usa. Together the two friends headed for the theater on the promenade.
It was ten p.m. Three of the four asteroid senshi were asleep in their rooms. Only Ves-Ves was awake and she was out on the town. Cere-Cere slept quietly in her room, free for a few hours of the grip her growing conflict with Ailwoode had on her mind. The pretty young girl dreamed of pleasant days in fields of fresh grass, the air scented with the smell of hyacinth in spring. The sun shone down warmly on her as she reclined in the meadow. She felt secure. Only glades and meadows made her feel secure anymore, ever since the loss of her parents. Only they made her feel warm and safe and carefree.
She lolled in the verdant meadow, absorbing the light as the plants did and growing strong from it. Nothing could disturb her mood - - until a hand clasped her shoulder.
Waking with a start, Cere-Cere looked around the dimly lit room. Her eyes came to rest on a spirit backing away from her, a spirit who had touched her in the waking world and interrupted her blissful dream.
"What are you doing in my room?" Cere-Cere hissed as she glared at Ailwoode. Ailwoode glared back dolefully.
"So you seek to turn my brother against me now?" the tree spirit charged. His voice lacked any storm of emotion. It was cold, contemptuous, secure in its owner's belief of his superior position.
"All we want is to be in love," Cere-Cere countered. "If you listened to what he said to you, you'd know that."
"You are a human," he sneered. "There's nothing more to be said." He turned to pass through the wall.
"When are you going to leave us alone? Gallan doesn't need you to think for him!"
"You wish an end to this?" Ailwoode asked, turning to her disdainfully. "Come outside,
on the side opposite the grove."
"Why?" Cere-Cere asked suspiciously.
"Because I am a creature of nature," Ailwoode scowled. "Not a pet plant raised in a hothouse to lick my human captor's palm. I detest not feeling the sky above or the Earth beneath me. Face me outside, if you truly believe the florid words you speak."
Ailwoode passed through the wall and was gone. Cere-Cere sat up on the edge of the bed and thought. She didn't really want to face Ailwoode alone. On the other hand, she desperately wanted an end to this, for she and Gallan were running out of time. She wanted their remaining time to be good time.
"Be with me in spirit, Gallan," Cere-Cere whispered as she gestured for her henshin stick. "I'm doing this for us."
The crunch of boots on the ground alerted Ailwoode to her presence. The angular tree spirit turned and found not the human Cere-Cere walking toward him, but the senshi Sailor Ceres.
"So you choose to face me as a warrior," Ailwoode said. "How typical of your kind."
"It doesn't matter what I'm wearing," Ceres answered him, "I'm still the same girl who loves your brother. But if this is going to be a confrontation, I thought I'd better be prepared."
"I will tell you again - - renounce my brother and leave him alone."
"Why do you hate me so much?" wailed Ceres.
"Because you're a human," Ailwoode replied sharply. "Because your kind are destructive and evil and have always been so! Because like greedy children you take and use and destroy and never give back! Because you seek to control, to own your environment instead of exist within it! And woe to any who are in the way of you getting what you want!"
"You're judging everyone by the acts of a few! We're not all like that!"
"You are! Some simply have the means to commit their atrocities against nature on a grander scale. Humans use and use until they suck something dry, then they toss it away and move on to their next victim. But you will not use my dear brother that way! You will not ruin him to satisfy your petty human desires!"
"What can I do to make you see we love each other?" Ceres howled. "How can I prove to you that I'd rather cut my own throat than hurt Gallan! I love him!"
"You're human," Ailwoode replied coldly. "You're not capable." His eyes narrowed. "But there is a way."
Ceres instantly got a chill from the way he spoke and the expression on his face. She tensed for an attack.
Ailwoode gestured at her and she flinched, but no attack came from him. An instant later, though, she discovered the reason for his action. A supple branch of the tree behind her reached out and wrapped around her throat. Caught by surprise, Ceres reached up and clutched at the branch, seeking to tear it from her windpipe. At Ailwoode's behest, though, two more branches reached out and wrapped around her wrists, then pulled them out away from her body.
"There is only one sure way to prevent you from harming my brother," Ailwoode spoke with an eerie calm, "and not crush him. I considered killing you, but you have woven your spell around him too well and Gallan would be devastated by your death."
Ceres stared wildly at him as she strained to pull free.
"Thus I have concluded that you will not turn on my brother," Ailwoode continued, "if you are made to be of his kind."
And the limbs began pulling Ceres toward the trunk of the tree. Ceres' searched her mind. She had read stories, legends of humans being assimilated into barren trees that housed no tree spirit. Once assimilated, they died and became the spirit of that tree.
And that was what Ailwoode meant for her.
Digging her feet into the ground, Ceres momentarily halted her progress. Flexing the muscles of her delicate throat, she strained to speak. Her only weapon now was her power phrase. If she couldn't say it, she was doomed to death and rebirth. Her chest burned as she strained.
"Why do you resist?" Ailwoode asked. "You will be with the one you supposedly love - -
and you will be a better life form for it!"
"Floral - - stimulation," she choked out softly.
Around Ailwoode's feet a circle of green tendrils sprang up. Plants and vines of every kind, growing inches a second, wound up around the tree spirit before he could move. They encircled his body, winding tightly as they reached for the slim light of the moon. Though they dimly sensed the kinship of the tree spirit, they nevertheless eagerly obeyed the siren call of Sailor Ceres.
As the growth tightened around Ailwoode, his manipulation of the tree faltered. With a desperate lunge, Ceres was able to pull free of it. The girl fell to the ground on her knees, her chest heaving as it tried to regain lost oxygen. All the while her limbs shook from the adrenaline rush her brush with danger gave her.
"You're," she gasped out, staring at Ailwoode in betrayal. "Are you insane? Do you think Gallan would just accept making me into a tree spirit and be happy?"
"He needs to be protected!" railed Ailwoode as he struggled against the binding vines. "He needs the love and protection of his own kind!"
"What happened to make you this way?" growled Sailor Ceres. "What caused your soul to be so evil and unforgiving? You're so blind that you can't even see how happy Gallan is!"
With that, Ailwoode gave a mighty flex to his muscles and the growing vines and flowers snapped and fell away. Ceres flinched at hearing the screams of the sundered plants. Ailwoode looked around at the broken plants, deeply stricken.
"Curse you," he muttered in anguish. "Involve a human and a plant will surely die. What more evidence do I need of the danger Gallan is in?"
His hands flew up to regain control of the barren tree. Instantly Ceres whirled and faced the tree herself.
"Floral Stimulation!" she called out.
The two forces struggled for control of the tree. Two minds battled, their siren calls competing for dominance over the barren tree. Caught in the middle, the tree swayed one way and then another, unable to obey the conflicting commands from two irresistible voices.
Ceres focused everything she had on the tree. Ailwoode's power was strong. She didn't dare let up even for an instant. She began to feel the strain of what she was doing through her chest, through her shoulders and neck, across her forehead. She was locked in a tug-of-war with Ailwoode. She couldn't budge him and every moment the contest took her mind wondered when she would slip and let him win. Desperately she clung to her attempt. She had to succeed. She had to. Her sister's depended on her. They needed her.
And Gallan - - she had to hang on for Gallan's sake. The thought of never touching him again drove her on. She had to prevent it at all costs. Gallan meant too much to her.
A movement caught Ceres' attention. Suddenly she realized Ailwoode was directly behind her.
Instantly Palla-Palla's eyes snapped open. A cold grip of fear closed around her heart. Moved by utter terror, the girl flung herself out of bed and scampered across the hall to her sister's room. The door opened and she peered in fearfully. Cere-Cere's bed was empty.
"What?" Jun-Jun asked, jostled into a groggy waking. "Palla-Palla?"
"Jun-Jun, hurry!" wailed Palla-Palla, on the verge of tears. "Something bad's happened!"
"What?" Jun-Jun asked, her consciousness brought to focus by her sister's urgency. "What is it?"
"It's Cere-Cere! She's gone! Something bad's happened!"
In a youth clothing boutique, the princess and her best friend were looking over a collection of outfits. One in particular - - a molded flexible body-stocking of artificial red, gold and green leather with a flaring red skirt and audacious four-inch heels - - had caught the eye of the princess.
"Usa, I could NEVER wear anything like that!" Hotaru gasped in mortified horror.
"Why not?" whined her friend, for she had listened to Hotaru reject seven different outfits in the past forty minutes for exactly the same reason.
"It's so," Hotaru struggled, "loud!"
"It's aggressive, sure. It's OK to be aggressive occasionally. Save this for some night when Yutaka's beginning to lose interest."
"U-SAAAAAA!" flushed Hotaru.
"Well, Hotaru, you got to grow up sometime! You're fifteen! Part of the fun of being fifteen is that you don't have to dress like a kid ALL the time."
"But this?" she asked, looking askance at the outfit.
"Well, pick out something you do like!"
"I'm sorry, Usa. I'm spoiling our time together, aren't I?"
"Nah," Usa grinned, her pink ponytails bobbing behind her shoulders. "Being with you is always a blast. Even trying to drag you into adulthood is fun. I hadn't really realized how much I'd missed it." The girls clasped hands affectionately. Then Usa turned and pointed to a sleeveless black tube mini-dress with fishnet stockings and boots. "Oh, that's you!"
"Usa, I," Hotaru began, then stopped and really looked at the ensemble. "Well . . . maybe . . ."
At the same instant, Usa and Hotaru heard their portable vid-links signal. Each girl brought out the communication device and engaged it. To each girl's surprise, Juno appeared on both links.
"Princess! Hotaru! We've got an emergency!" Juno told them frantically. "Cere-Cere's in trouble!"
"Got it," Usa nodded. "We're on our way."
The two girls took a moment to exchange pensive glances, then left the boutique at a full run.
When Sailor Moon and Sailor Saturn arrived, the scene was beyond words to describe the horror. Palla-Palla was on the ground, wailing as if she were being tortured. Juno just stared in shock and revulsion at a tree near the palace. No enemy could be found, nor could any trace of Cere-Cere be seen. Renewed urgency lent their feet added speed and they closed the distance between them and the asteroid senshi. It was only when they were about ten feet away that Saturn grabbed Sailor Moon's arm in shock.
"Sailor Moon!" Saturn gasped. "The tree!"
Sailor Moon already saw it. The tree's trunk was different. Two short branches now curled down in circles, forming rings on either side. And the bark was etched into a face.
And the face was that of Sailor Ceres.
And the face screamed silently.
Continued in Chapter 9
