It is far away, cold and dark.
It was also here, after "here" and "there" have lost their meanings.
He – It – stopped at the end of the Universe and hesitated but for a moment.
Its name was Despair, and it Despaired.
And here, there, at the ends of What Is, the brim of the Expanding Edge, the god cuts himself on the keen Edge – and thus it was, that all things ended with it.
He was there, and She. Her, too, though she was barely a sliver of a soul and knew this not.
And so the great organism that was all things as one stopped dreaming, and died.
And with it, Space-Time crumbled.
Slowly, at first, then faster, louder, making an un-noise, caving in like an old mineshaft, under its own weight.
It falls…
And it ends, having no Time in which to fall in.
It disintegrates
And simply wasn't, having no Space in which to once have been.
And thus, it ends
The Order of the Silver Knights has stood guard over them for a thousand years, commanding beneath it, the Ebony and Gold Legions of the Sunken Kingdom, and Lapis Knights of Rahu-Ketu, such as they were.
The White Messenger was the first to stir, so, as according to instructions handed down to them for over a millennia, they placed him, twitching aggravatedly in his dreaming, under the open night sky in a field on a crescent-shaped island under the dwindling moon. He will wake soon in the after-glow of his dead kingdom and embark upon the first steps of his quest, which will in time, shape their true quest.
The Black Messenger dreamed on. Soon she too, will stir, and the knights shall do the same with her. They could do no more for them. They were the only ones who could carry on now. It is the Messengers who must find the way, not them.
Imagine a clock of clockwork, its second hand balanced precariously on a point, counting time away.
Tick, tick…
It slips, for just one second, backwards, then rights itself. But you can't help wonder, if only for a moment, what would have happened to that single moment. What difference would that have made?
"If, but for a tiny slip in the clogs of Fate, we could have been together and made the perfect pair."
-- Kaitou Ace, Codename wa SAILOR V
SailorMoon RR: Kaonashi no Karei-naru Henshin
The Elegant Transformation of A Nobody
Mizuno was running late, though she had no idea how she could be. She was certain she had set her alarm right and has never slept through one in all of her fourteen years. There was, however, no denying that the first bell was already ringing as she took a guilty shortcut through an unsecured yard.
She had vague recollections of a dream in which someone beautiful was calling out to her through a tenuous light, just beyond reach. "Ami-chan", it chimed softly to her in a voice full of the bubbly laughter of a gentle brook. Ami-chan, As if she was… a dear friend. Mizuno did not have many… friends. She had a following.
This was made up of people who would swing by after every test score bulletin, hoping to discover the secret to her success. Mizuno hated them. More to the point, she hated the question they made her try to answer – how do you do it?
Benkyoushimasu. She would answer firmly. Study!
The truth was, Mizuno did not know. Understanding came to her unbidden, like an unconscious bad habit. Most people bit their nails or picked their nose. Mizuno Ami understood things. So in the same way, she understood the ugly intentions behind those hands of "friendship" and the humanity of this appalled her.
"Resigned" isn't the right word, but it is the first word that comes to mind. Mizuno was resigned to knowing more than she wished to. She was resigned to admit that she was insignificant to her peers, if not for her grades. She was resigned to the situation; and determinedly resigned to being herself.
The circle of five-year-olds would have been unremarkable, had they been poking at something other than a particular crying black cat. Children like these were always gathering in their little circles, poking at this or that off the side of the road until they grow up and learn to poke at other people instead. Ami was not a nosy person. She was the sensible type, which in today's society meant you keep your head down and keep walking… …
In a distant part of her mind, Mizuno stepped in behind the boys and loomed sternly over them, as formidable as an irate parent or kindergarten teacher. "Okkochi nasai!"
The boy dropped his stick in automatic submission. His friends stared up into her stormy face for a few uncomprehending, then evaluating moments, and reached the unanimous decision to run. Abandoned by his faithful comrades, the would-be cat-punisher Sailor V-Takashi tried to creep away as unobtrusively as possible while Mizuno watched, forking her waist. He got as far as the end of the lot before gathering the courage to stand up, then made a face at her and darted around the corner.
The cat was writhing about irately, trying to reach a pair of adhesive bandages crossed on its forehead. Wordlessly, Mizuno reached down and tugged it away. The cat yowled and jumped away as she did, leaving thin scratches on her forearm, and was gone.
She would not be able to explain afterwards why she'd stopped and why she'd protected the little hissing creature, only that she had somehow felt a tug of recognition, and the fleeting sensation that it was important.
"Baka." She mumbled dully of herself, rubbing a sudden ache between her brow. The episode had drained her and she wanted, suddenly, to go home and crawl back into bed. But that would be undutiful. And so, even though she was to spend most of the day being sent to the Nurse's Office and not fulfilling her obligations as a student anyway, boring old reliable Mizuno hurried away to school.
Ami herself could not see the symbol; the crescent, circle and cross arranged top to bottom, glowing, for a moment, the faintest blue on her pale face, where it hurt: spirit, soul and matter.
And once her nerves settled with some extensive grooming, the cat Luna, for that was her name, Luna, set out after her. The adhesives released a perfect crescent mark of shining gold, and she knew with the certainty of that burning Moon-brand that she must find this girl again.
"The Kuroishi is reporting in, ma'am."
The Officer startled, nearly dropping the slim folder file she was reading.
"It seems she may have a clue to one of the Guardians."
The technician looked to her dutifully, awaiting instructions. The Officer frowned a little, pulling herself back to the situation on hand.
"Very well." She responded. "Open a read-only access to level 1 preliminary contact files, and submit a report to the Council."
He wondered why they were not being more helpful with the vast resources of their organization, but then, it was not his place to question his superiors. That has always been the way around here.
Jewellery OSAP, on her way home from Crystal Seminar, was having a sale. Usually Mizuno would not have noticed such a thing, but today, something about the bustling store troubled her.
Such a feeling would have cued most people to avoid the store, and indeed, this was what her logic attempted to assert upon her as she ventured shyly among the other shoppers. But Mizuno Ami, despite her logical and cautionary nature, despite, even, her apathetic front, was the one person in a thousand who would venture into the darkness, in the full knowledge of all its dangers and consequences, of her own volition. If only to satisfy her need to see and believe. If only so that others, of lesser understanding and capabilities, would not have to.
She just didn't know it yet.
"Hello!" The owner swept up beside Mizuno immediately, wearing the same smile people have always worn whenever they wanted something from her, fake and anticipating, even gaudy, like Venetian comedy masks.
"Are you looking for anything in particular? We're having a special blow-out sale! All prices slashed! Even a Secondary School student like yourself can afford to buy something!"
Mizuno leaned back, startled and somewhat intimidated by the aggressive sales pitch, she stuttered. "I… uhm… I'm just….."
The lady smiled, and dragged her before a display counter. "We have a large selection of gems and stones in all kinds of accessories, I'm sure we can find something that suits you!" The lady pressed on persistently, pulling out a trays of simply set rings, running her fingers across the rows as if an index, now and again picking them out to thrust before the girl's reluctant perusal. Pearl, aquamarine, opal, blue topaz… …
Mizuno's mind was clouded over, her brain functions groping for some polite way of excusing herself and finding none.
"Aha!" The woman cried in sudden inspiration and opened a new drawer. "I have just the thing for you! It's a little pricey, but… I'm sure we can come to a deal!" She took Mizuno's unresisting hand and slid an intense blue stone on an elegant gold band onto her middle finger.
"There, isn't it beautiful?" Mizuno stared blankly at the stone. "Star sapphire, a rare stone for a rare girl. You have such beautiful hands, dear, look at how well it compliments the ring! It suits you, don't you think?"
"Medium light, strong blue, opaque…" The girl murmured in a daze.
"Excuse me?"
"This sapphire… the language of the sapphire is loyalty and trust… this doesn't look like a linde star, but…" Mizuno trailed off. But it doesn't feel like a real stone sounded like a silly thing to say.
"You sure know a lot about sapphires," The woman continued to smile, and leaned in, whispering conspiringly. "I'll give you a super discount on it if you promise to wear it all the time, just because it looks so good on you!"
"But… …"
"For you, only 15, 000 yen!"
"I… I'm sorry, I… don't want this…"
Mizuno's head started to clear.
"But isn't it gorgeous? It would be such a pity to let such beauty slip away from your fingers, wouldn't it? Think of how much all your friends will envy you…"
"Yes, but the true beauty isn't in the gem that one wears; it is in the one who wears it." Mizuno replied quietly and pulled the stone off her finger with some regret. She could sense the frantic hostility of the store owner as she placed the ring down on the counter, but did not understand it.
Suddenly, the atmosphere in the crowded store dampened. A low humming seemed to fill the mind, just out of hearing range. She inched carefully towards the door, as the shoppers and browsers around her started to droop. The low hum bore into her mind.
"Na…"
She must be coming down with something. In her vision, the well-dressed, smiling woman started blurred into a sinuous, contorted parody.
"Why…? Why aren't you affected?" She hissed in a strangely hollow voice.
"A… affected?"
Slowly, the people around Mizuno rose again. Like stringed puppets, they shuffled jerkily towards her, the jewels adorning their arms and necks glowing harsh and strange. Mizuno backed away, holding her school bag protectively before herself.
A dull, aching heat started to spread across her forehead, burning away the humming, replacing it with a mind-clouding sensation of its own, at once making Mizuno more aware of her surroundings, and less aware of herself.
"Mizuno Ami!" An urgent voice cut through the haze, crying out her name. Something spun through the air, over the crowd towards her. "Grab the pen and cry out 'Mercury'!"
She reacted without a thought. The object, a pen, fell into her raised hand like a ball to a glove.
"Mercury… Power! Make Up!"
She wasn't sure where the last three words came from, they just followed naturally. For a moment, it felt as though she was disconnected from the world, freed, just drifting away in a delicious coolness the scent of fresh running water – and she opened her eyes and saw the world in a new clarity. She felt the same, yet different, although she could not describe how.
"I…"
There was a moment when it seemed she was remembering something important, but it passed quickly and became forgotten. The first thing she noticed was the extremely short skirt.
"Ami!" The voice called again. "Sailor Mercury! Use your powers! Defeat the youma and save these people!"
"Pow… Power?" Youma… Demon? The day has definitely taken a turn for the stranger. Zombies, magical girl transformations and… demons? Even as Mizuno pondered this, her body moved of its own accord. Cool metal freezing against the spot on her forehead which was burning before, her arms stretched out in a video-game attack pose.
"Shabon Spray!"
Power coursed through her body in a pleasant tingle, blossoming at her fingertips into a thick white fog that filled the room. The zombie hoard stopped slowly and milled uncertainly in the opaque blindness as Mizuno groped along the walls for a way out. It occurred to her that there must be some way for her to see through her own fog and felt instantly stupid for not knowing it.
A small part of her wondered if she had snapped and if this was all a strange hallucination. How did it look to everyone else? Was she flapping madly around like she thought she was or had she merely collapsed and started dreaming?
And then she tripped and hit her head, and the world turned blue.
Preliminary investigations revealed that a wide visor covered her face from brow to nose and was activated by a tiny embedded button on the side of the thin metal circlet she inexplicably wore.
"Oh…" She murmured softly, slightly embarrassed.
The visor provided read-outs too, which did not look like anything she should be familiar with, but Mizuno found no problems understanding. Power levels and energy activities flickered in the corners of her eyes, running a constant analysis over her situation, which she found to be highly distracting after the first two minutes. She would have removed them, except the visors were her apparently sole ability to navigate the otherwise impenetrable blankness.
She could see, now, the skewed display cases and confused, ambling people. At the heart of the sprawl, the creature the voice had identified a demon. She could also see, in little scrolling golden numbers that it was feeding off it puppets and how it was controlling them.
"Hidoii…" A shiver of anger ran down her arms. She could not say why, only that something about this scenario made her… riled. Like earlier, with the strange cat with the crescent mark. She raised her arms again, barely commanding her own actions. The words tumbled out of her, more power than language, summoning consequences she did not yet understand.
"Shabon Spray… Freezing!"
The youma turned just in time to get the full force of her attack as it impacted, causing the readings on her visor to ricochet, and shattered the demon into a shower of ice crystals, strangely beautiful as it scattered away. The fog began to lift.
"Hurry, Sailor Mercury, this way!" That voice beckoned again.
Mizuno looked around, searching for its source. Through her visor, she spotted a hazy young woman all tainted blue, her hair caught up in buns on the sides of her head and tumbling down in a splendid waterfall. But she was gone as soon as Mizuno reverted to normal vision.
"Come on," The voice continued to urge. "These people will be alright, but you can't let them see you."
"Why?" Mizuno asked, unsure of which direction to direct her question to.
"Because you are a Sailor senshi. It is better that you keep your identity a secret."
Mizuno looked down.
It was a cat.
A talking cat.
"I must be coming down with something…"
A secondary school girl stood across the street from Jewellery OSAP, cradling a black cat with a strange, crescent moon mark between its ears in her arms and holding an old-fashioned leather school bag in one hand.
She watched as men in meticulous grey suits and white-suited paramedics rounded up the confused scene for a few moments, then finally, turned and wandered towards home.
Inside OSAP, two men in grey watched as the 'paramedics' carefully checked each of the unconscious people in the store, running small pale blue crystals over their bodies to check for signs of residual contamination from dark energy. The taller blonde spoke to his companion, who was shorter and had brown hair. "This was unexpected."
"Not entirely." The paramedics were finishing up, three of them gathering the frozen remains of the youma into small plastic bags, another group straightening the jewellery cases. "After all, we suspected the Dark Kingdom had abandoned their initial plan to gather energy in England when they lost their commander there. I myself am not surprised they would start an operation here to gather more."
"I suppose you're right."
A third figure joined the pair – this newcomer, however, looked faintly ridiculous, a small girl of about twelve wearing a tiny grey suit. Like the other two, and the so-called paramedics around them, she had a crescent moon cast in silver pinned to her lapel. The girl's pin was more elaborate, however, and the two men bowed low when she approached. "Mistress." They pair said, in unison, and there was a real reverence in their voices.
"No one here will remember clearly the events of this day." She said, in a manner that left no room for questions. Her voice was high and childish, but there was a certain sharp edge to it, like she was used to being obeyed without question, which was indeed the case.
The tall blonde man nodded. "Excellent, mistress. How shall we proceed?"
The girl closed her pale blue eyes for a long moment, saying nothing as a symbol flickered fleetingly across the pale skin of her forehead. When she opened her eyes again, they remained unfocused, and she spoke in a low, monotonous voice – receiving instructions telepathically from their distant leaders. "Be sure this scene is cleared of all contamination. Do not interfere with the Kuroishi or her charge. You will be given new instructions soon enough, the Council meets tonight."
The men nodded. "Hai, mistress. It shall be done."
The girl's eyes focused once more, and she spoke again in her normal voice. "We are done here, I think."
"Hai." The grey suits bowed once more, and then shouted orders to the paramedics. The whole group was gone before the first of the people who had been knocked out by the youma awoke. Aside from a splitting headache and a certain amount of confusion, they were all uninjured. Most became embarrassed and left. Within a few hours, none could remember even the slightest detail of what had occurred at OSAP.
Silvery light shone from a source far above, illuminating the massive stone table. Ten people sat upon tall backed chairs around the table. Nine wore coloured robes and bore glowing brands on their foreheads – the symbols of the nine planets. The tenth wore robes of white, interwoven with shining silver threads and had no symbol on his aged and wrinkled brow. Not long ago it had been rare for the heads of the nine ancient houses and the lord-commander of the Silver Path to have a mass meeting of this type, but such meetings had become all too frequent since the troubles had begun a year ago.
A messenger had just finished relating the events of the youma incident in Tokyo to the council. The head of the house of Selene, resplendent in his blue and gold robes and with his shining gold hair, was overjoyed. "At last the second senshi has appeared. The others will surely follow soon..."
The head of the house of Mercury nodded; sea blue robes and thick glasses giving her a most serious, studious look. "Indeed. The weight of destiny would suggest so…"
"Ah, but we thought the same when the first appeared, and that was almost twelve months ago. Let us not get too optimistic." The red-robed head of the house of Mars, grim and serious as always, interjected.
"Nonsense!" The head of Selene house spoke up again. "We have long since agreed that the awakening of Sailor V was… premature, to say the least, and our agent's reports confirm this belief. The Shiroishi has been ineffective in his task..."
"We can speak of destiny all day and get nowhere, whatever it dictates, will occur." A deep, strident and somewhat arrogant voice cut in on the Selene-head's speech. It came from the far end of the table, from a man looking uncomfortable in his purple and black robes, round-frame glasses even thicker then the Mercury head's agleam in the bright light of the room. The symbol for Saturn shone dull violet between his eyes. The man's bespectacled gaze turned to the messenger. "Were samples taken of the creature, the youma?"
The messenger bowed. "Hai. They are already on their way to your labs, Tomoe-sama."
The head of Saturn house, Tomoe, grinned. "Excellent, excellent. This new senshi has already won my favour. V so rarely leaves anything useful behind when she defeats a youma. Far too inelegant in her methods, that girl… if only..." Tomoe trailed off, and laughed. "Gomen nasai, please continue, Hansu-kun."
Hansu, the head of Selene house, glared a moment at Tomoe for being referred to in such familiar terms, and shrugged. "I was more or less finished. I suppose the issue at hand would be to determine our next move. What do you think, Hideto-sensei?"
The white robed old man, the one who had no mark on his forehead, scratched his chin in thought. "This new senshi..."
"Mizuno Ami." The messenger supplied, automatically, then blushed slightly, realizing he had interrupted the high commander in the middle of a sentence.
"Hai, hai. Mizuno Ami. She is being watched?"
"Hai, lord. By two agents; the details of her mortal life are in the report." The messenger willed the blood away from his cheeks, as Hideto did not seem upset by his interruption.
"Yes, I see." Hideto glanced down at the report.
"Excuse me..." The voice was melodious and elegant.
Hideto let his gaze fall on the speaker. "Hai, Galouse-san? What is it?"
Galouse of the house of Venus was a man with an aristocratic and almost feminine caste to his features, clad in exquisitely decorated robes of pale taupe. "What agents, may I ask?"
"Himono and Baldwyn, of the houses of Mars and Uranus, respectively, sire." The messenger supplied dutifully.
"Ah." A light chuckle from Galouse. "So it is to be two men in grey, following the poor girl to school, always passing her in the street, always nearby when she is in trouble. The report says that this Mizuno Ami is a clever girl, non?"
"Hai…"
"I cannot help but feel, with her cleverness in mind, that she will quite quickly realize something is amiss." Galouse folded his hands on the table, looking around at the heads of the other houses. "A more subtle choice is perhaps in order?"
"An excellent point, Galouse-san." Hideto paused thoughtfully for a moment. "One of the Knights, perhaps? Hades?"
"Hades!?" The head of Mars house rolled his dark eyes. "Honestly, Hideto-sensei, you favour that boy too much…"
"Nonsense." Hideto raised a thin hand and ticked off points on his fingers. "You yourself have declared Ares' training inadequate for field work at this time. Hermes and Aphrodite are both in England sorting out the mess that Sailor V left behind her, and will be there for some time. Diana, Cronus, Ouranos and Poseiden have yet to awaken… and I think we can all agree that Zeus is completely unsuitable for any work that involves subtlety of any kind."
Galouse interjected. "Hades is currently keeping tabs on the first senshi, is he not, Hideto-sama?"
"True, and he has performed admirably against difficult odds. It has been almost a year, now, I feel he is in need of a change – with the enemy in England defeated, I consider this new outbreak to be our top priority."
"Who will keep track of Aino-hime if Hades is reassigned?" Hansu tried not to let any resentment creep into his tone – Hideto's mentioning that the Knight of the moon had yet to be discovered had troubled him. Having a knight representing one's house was important, and his house, the natural head of the others, lacked one still.
"Normal agents should do for her at this time, with Zeus as back up in case serious trouble erupts." Hideto tapped his knuckles on the table. "This is my decision. Besides..." Hideto nodded towards the head of Mercury house. "The 'weight of destiny' as Lady Hadora phrased it will surely bring V into cooperation with this new Senshi before too long."
The other council members, some reluctantly, all tapped their knuckles on the table as Hideto had done. Hideto smiled broadly and wrote a swift letter onto a piece of vellum laid out before him. He handed it to the messenger. "Relay the message to Mitsukai-san with all speed. Onto other business, then…"
The messenger hurried out of the council room and into the corridor. He was stopped, just outside the door, by a very muscular, red haired man in his late teens, bearing a grin almost too wide and feral to be human. "You have a message to be delivered? To Mitsukai?"
The messenger bowed nervously. He had heard tales of the knight of Zeus, but never met the man in the flesh. "Um… hai, Kino-sama."
"Give it to me, would you? I will deliver it to him." The messenger looked slightly worried, but the red haired man laughed disarmingly. "Don't worry, he's an old friend of mine, after all. Just looking for an excuse to drop in on him..."
"Ah, well, okay..."
"Arigatou." The man snatched the rolled scroll from the messenger's hand and vanished down a side corridor.
In another vast chamber, far darker then the one the Council of the nine houses had met in, another meeting was taking place. The architecture of the chamber would not have been unfamiliar to a Silver Path member, though it would be altered from what they were used to, twisted and warped. At the rear of this chamber was a raised dais, the stone of the cavern carved into steps, their sides covered in carvings of scenes of battle and sin. Atop this dais was a throne, and on the throne sat the Queen of the Dark Kingdom. Presently, she was berating one of her servants.
"With my beautiful Quartzite vanished, his mission lays in your hands, Jadeite..."
She still had not, to her servant's disgust, said 'killed', had not admitted Quartzite was dead. She, and by extension the whole dark kingdom, were better off without the arrogant pig, in Jadeite's humble opinion – which, having amongst many other features of his personality a strong sense of self-preservation, did not voice. "Yes, Queen Beryl."
The queen delicately nibbled on one of her claw-like nails – nails that Jadeite had seen her use to eviscerate a youma for spilling a drop of wine on her dress once. Her tone changed from lecturing to soft, almost sweet, quite an accomplishment for Beryl really. "Your early attempts have been quite successful, but this latest..."
"Was disrupted by forces unknown, my Queen. I will look into the matter and deal with the culprits personally, of course." Jadeite's face burnt from rage and embarrassment. He would deal with whoever did this, and would see to it that they knew exactly what a bad idea it was to cause him even the slightest irritation before he let them die.
"I am sure you will." The queen's voice was now almost a purr. "I hope the other generals will go about their missions with that same fiery passion, my dearest Jadeite. You may go, and make me proud." Beryl waved him off, and Jadeite stood, bowed so low he was nearly kneeling again, then turned on his heels smartly and marched the long walk out of the throne chamber.
He had grown cocky, was the problem, he knew. Jadeite would never make such a mistake again – leaving Morga alone and unobserved at that jewellery store had been the problem, as he now was not only short one youma and who knows how much precious energy, but he had no idea who had done it. He would keep closer tabs on his projects in the future. He would succeed where Quartzite had failed, and gather enough energy to revive the true Empress in no time at all.
Authors' Notes:
SailorMoon RR: Bonus Track
Today's random RR meaning is:Rodent Revolution
and Riboflavin Robots
SailorMoon RR is the final permutation of the 1996 SailorMoon epic fanfic Chaos Rising. It is not a rewrite, but a new story spawned from its original possibilities. It also serves as a "resting place" of sorts for old characters from various original SailorMoon related sources.
The writing styles may switch between the two Authors, shar-dono and jadedangel and sometimes, their cat.
The Meaning of RR is left deliberately open. Arbitrary meanings will also be suggested by us as it comes to mind. There is no point to this exercise. It's just something that happened in a discussion and amused us so much we have no intention of ceasing.
Fanart and Fics, although not required, are largely appreciated.
Suggestions or requests to include your old or original characters may be considered, but only if you use EMAIL. and even then, it is at our sole discretion.
This will be the longest A/N for this story on FFN.
This story is mirrored at Fictionised and Anime-Fiction under the username a56kbpsmetaphor, together with further explanations and thoughts on the story itself (more detailed A/Ns, in other words), plus a little section to answer important questions ("what pairings will be featured" is NOT an important question).
Disclaimer: This is a work of Fanfiction. SailorMoon is copyrighted to Takeuchi Naoko, Koudansha, TV Asahi, Toei Douga and various other subsidaries. Although the Authors hold no claim to SailorMoon itself, all attempts to plagerise the following story will result in mysterious and painful consequences.
jadedangel
04-Oct-2004