"What...?" Makoto asked as she looked down from where she stood floating in the air, overseeing a strange isle bellow. She was dressed in her 'civilian' clothes, wearing a green sweatshirt, black pants and green running shoes.
She turned sharply around. "Where is everyone?" she asked as she looked around a little bit more. "Great, I'm alone!" she muttered when she couldn't find anyone.
"You're not alone." Someone said.
Makoto turned yet again to face the origin of the voice. Her voice.
Sailor Jupiter floated facing her, but, before she could say anything, she heard her own voice yet again.
"Indeed, you are not alone." Another voice, again similar to hers, only a little deeper said.
She somehow hovered back so she could face both, Sailor Jupiter and the other.
When she saw who had spoken she gasped in disbelief.
A black female dragon, much like Sapphire, looked back at her.
"Who are you?" She asked both.
"We are you." both answered at the same time.
Masks & Dragons
Chapter 10
Darkshine
By Wanderer D
"What do you mean?" Makoto asked the female dragon. "I know I am Sailor Jupiter, I've always known."
"Look at me, and tell me, Makoto, who am I?" the dragon answered.
Makoto looked at the black dragon and slowly a name came to her lips. "Darkshine..." she whispered.
The dragon smiled. "That's us."
---
Black. The most powerful dragon Sapphire had ever known; the murderer of her two dearest friends. The sadist who had killed countless beings to reach his ultimate goal... whatever that was.
He was starting a war. That much was known to all. Why? Probably because the beast had nothing better to do at the moment, so, why not kill a few thousand beings?
After all, who needed the wonders of dwarven stonemasonry and metalwork?
Who needed the merry and delicate songs of the elves during spring or the hearty and strong chants of the centaurs in their beer festival?
Or human creativity?
'Dragons were born to rule!' Black had said. 'Lesser races pollute the very air we breathe!' And they had bought it. For years they were all convinced of that ultimate truth, they were dragons. They were born to rule.
Then, he came. He had fought, he had bled, he had learnt and he became almost as powerful as the black dragon himself. They had all envied him... and admired him.
But, he was different.
He respected the dwarves. Why? Because we should respect those who could do what we couldn't, if nothing else.
'Like what?' Sapphire had asked.
He had taken them, Darkshine and her, to the caves and showed them. Great halls of crafted stone, each detail exquisitely done, the impressive doors of metal with the emblems of the families also crafted into them.
Then... they had watched the elves sing to life, and the centaurs parties.
And things changed.
They were not longer cattle. They were not longer bugs to crush under our feet.
Black hadn't liked that and he killed them both, Darkshine and the last of the shadows.
He didn't care that Darkshine was his daughter.
Her friend.
All these thoughts flashed through Sapphire's mind, as she stared frozen with fear at the cause of so much pain.
---
"But that's impossible!" Makoto argued. "I am the reincarnation of Sailor Jupiter from the Silver Millennium, I'm not a dragon!" Makoto said to the black dragon, floating back.
Sailor Jupiter looked at the dragon and shrugged.
"Well, what do you think your soul did for the last thousand years?" Darkshine asked.
"The other Senshi's souls went directly to the future to be reborn… ours had a little detour, so to speak." Sailor Jupiter explained. "Although the past lives affect somewhat who you are now, being reincarnated doesn't necessarily mean that you are exactly who you were in your last life. You don't think that you had the same attitude in the Silver Millennium as you do now, do you?" Sailor Jupiter added smiling.
"Actually, from what I remember... no?" Makoto answered with a sigh.
"That's right. I might say that most of the fighter attitude of your current personality you got from me." Darkshine muttered.
"So I'm not human?" Makoto asked.
"Yes, you are, just not completely human in spirit." Sailor Jupiter explained.
"Why do I get to know this now?" Makoto asked. "I thought I'd start remembering after my transformation into Sailor Jupiter."
"You would remember your life as Jupiter's Princess and Sailor Jupiter only, but recent events have made you remember flashes from your previous life." The black dragon said and sighed softly. "I'm not taking your place, Makoto, I've lived already, as has Jupiter's Princess, but you have the chance of knowing our lives… three different lives of three beings that are one and the same." She locked eyes with the twentieth century girl. "I want you to know who you were before. I learnt about Jupiter until I died and became part of you. Of course I didn't have a consciousness then, the part of you that is my spirit learnt all this when your memories were reawakened by Jade's appearance." Darkshine paused. "But I won't force you. I can give you only the knowledge of dragons I knew, and leave it like that." Darkshine offered. "You wouldn't have to know me or my life, just... technical data which might help you fight Black." The dragon finished.
Makoto considered this. She didn't have to think much about it before nodding. "Yes. I want to know you, Darkshine." Makoto smiled at the dragon, who was by now smiling back hopefully. "In a way you will live again through me as Sailor Jupiter has. Not many people can say they had a chance to really know who they were in previous lives."
Sailor Jupiter floated next to Makoto and touched her. The two fused into one.
Makoto then opened her arms to the black dragon.
Darkshine, smiling and shedding tears, nodded and moved in to embrace Makoto.
---
"You bastard! Die!" Sapphire shouted and opened her mouth, sending a blast of pure electricity flying towards Black, who stopped it with his open palm.
Mask didn't waste more time before jumping to attack the black dragon with his sword.
Black blocked with his forearm, his thick black scales stopping the blade.
Mask roared and pushed the blade down and back towards him. The katana's blade pierced through the scales and nicked Black's arm, which didn't mean much because he used that same arm to drive his fist into the knight's gut.
The Senshi were slower to react but mere moments after he had hit Mask, Black was engulfed in fire, encased in ice, hit by rays, water and a sphere of energy, courtesy of Sailor Pluto and Co.
Soon an Earth Shaking blew up the ground he was standing on. When the dust settled however, the Senshi gasped in surprise.
Black was unscathed. He was in fact standing there holding the battered, melted and dirty form of Mask in front of him.
The black dragon smiled viciously at the Senshi. "I think you missed."
He threw the knight at Sailor Saturn, who was trying to sneak up to him, and dashed forward towards the Senshi. He got past between them, and the Senshi were blown away in different directions by an unseen force.
Sapphire jumped at him from behind, but Black blew her out of the way with a wave of his hand, sending her crashing into the rocks nearby.
Sapphire tried to get up, but a sharp pain in her arm stopped her, she almost passed out, but shaking her head she looked at the offending right arm... which was twisted in an unnatural angle. She swore.
---
'What is happening?' Makoto thought as images of places she'd never seen drifted by her. New feelings enveloped her as she started remembering just what it felt like to fly, the thrill of claw and fang… battles and spells.
"You are remembering..." Darkshine whispered in her mind.
Suddenly Makoto was engulfed in light.
---
"This is definitely NOT good!" Mercury told Pluto.
"Mercury, you have a unique ability to overstate the obvious." the elder Senshi answered as Uranus flew past her to land with a thud behind her.
"Ow! That guy's tough!" Uranus complained as she tried to get up.
"Dead Scream." Pluto whispered, as she and the other two Senshi ran again into battle.
"Deep Aqua-" Neptune stopped suddenly as black grabbed her by the bow of the fuku and slammed his fist on her chin. He let go and Sailor Neptune crumbled to the ground.
Sapphire had tried various spells, but the black dragon's mastery in magic had saved him from any damage and the blue dragon had suffered the results as some of her own spells ricocheting back to her.
Sailor Moon had tried to use her sword, but she still had to learn to control and use her new found power.
Finally, Black had had enough and an invisible force threw everyone to the ground. The same power prevented them from standing up as Black marched towards Coldfire and picked her up.
"It's been fun, Senshi... but I have more important things to do." The black dragon stated "Farewell." He said with a smirk.
A moment later both dragons were gone.
Suddenly everyone was able to move again. Tuxedo Mask helped Sailor Moon get to her feet and after checking if she was okay, went to pick up Jupiter.
Neptune was already in Uranus' hands, and Sailor Saturn was healing Sapphire's broken arm.
Mask had disappeared yet again, but the Senshi had more pressing matters to attend.
Mount Fuji's eruption had subsided into a small rumble that died slowly.
"It's as if the very Earth knew that that bastard was here and complained." Sapphire commented.
"There might be something true about that statement, dear." A new voice stated.
Sapphire turned, ready for battle, as did the Senshi.
Raye looked closely at the old man dressed in red. "Hey, you're..."
"Red." Makoto said, as she was slowly helped into a seating position by Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask.
Red looked at Sailor Jupiter. "I didn't realize I had told you my name..."
"You never did, old lizard." She answered with a small smile.
While the others gaped, Ami noticed a brief change in Sapphire and the old man's eyes, a flash of remembered pain.
It quickly disappeared, and Makoto acted as if she hadn't said anything, which further confused the dragons. Mercury glanced at the others and noticed that Sailor moon had noticed the same thing.
Sapphire quickly changed the subject.
"You said there was some truth to what I said about Black?" she asked the old man.
Red nodded. "There are... many things nobody else knows about Black, but what is known can enlighten you to find the truth. Black's evil is so great that Nature itself despises him. He's not just evil, he's patient, cunning, he will do anything to complete his purpose. And to finally do that, he needs all the statues."
"What's the deal with the statues, anyway?" Haruka asked.
"I don't know, but I haven't found the location of the rest of the statues. It is possible that if the rest are found an answer to that question will also be found, the problem is who will find them first."
"Where ARE the other statues?" Sailor Moon asked, casually fingering the hilt of her new sword.
"I believe you already have the answer to that." Red answered looking pointedly at the sword.
"You don't mean..." Usagi asked, looking down at the sword.
"Yes, the statues are in Avalon." Red answered.
---
Usagi looked over at Makoto, who was sitting alone, and turned to the others. "Someone should talk to Mako-chan..." she whispered.
"She said she wanted to be alone. We should let her... for a while, if she doesn't come out I'll snap her out of it myself." Minako answered.
"She'll snap you right back, if you get my meaning." Raye muttered.
Usagi and the others nodded.
Setsuna limped into the room, still a little hurt from the battle with Black. Sapphire followed her shortly and both sat down.
Sapphire spoke first. "We have found a way to go to Avalon... however, there's a problem."
"When not?" Raye asked sullenly.
Makoto had drifted to where the others were, but was still keeping to herself.
"Well, the problem is that in Avalon time passes much more differently than here," Sapphire explained.
"WHAT!?" the Senshi asked.
Setsuna nodded. "It'll probably take us months in Avalon to get all the statues, IF we get them."
The 'If' didn't pass unnoticed by the Senshi, but it was a reality they had to face. Black hadn't taken any damage from their fight, while the Senshi themselves still needed time to recuperate.
"But... there is a way to avoid that..." Sapphire commented. And the Senshi looked up hopefully.
Setsuna nodded, seemingly not too happy about that.
"How?" Usagi finally asked.
"We'll have to stop time." Setsuna answered.
End Chapter 10