Prologue: A Limbo Proposition
May took a deep breath...and then another, relishing in the feeling. It
was the first time in the last five - or was it fifteen? - minutes that
she could so without pain. All that smoke made it hard to breathe. It
made it hard to see too, for that matter.
She remembered how she'd ended up in all that smoke. She had been trying
to work on her still unfinished thesis and had become extremely frustrated.
Since it was a lovely day in April and she wasn't making progress on her
thesis, May left the campus to walk in the neighborhoods just beyond "the
ivory tower". She wasn't really paying attention to where she was going,
but her feet seemed to lead her to that particular street. It was her
natural curiosity that led her to the crowd.
Disasters lead to pandimonium and confusion, someone once told her. And
that was definitely true at the scene of the fire. People were screaming,
running, and crying; May got hit by passing people a couple of times as
she tired to get closer to the the burning house. Then she heard,
"Somebody help me! My baby, my Melissa is still in there! Somebody help
me, PLEASE! My baby, my baby!"
Now normally, like all onlookers, May would have been properly saddened
and worried, but not about to dash into any burning building. This case
was different. Melissa was the name of a sweet little girl she tutored...
and the fire was in Melissa's neighborhood. Without really thinking about
it, May fought through the panicky crowd and dashed into the building.
The smoke choked and blinded her almost immediately, but she found Melissa
and was fighting back toward the door...and then...
And then she was here, wherever here was. Hey, at least she could breathe.
"Good. You're awake. Hello, May Lavon Hammond."
May opened her eyes slowly. At first she saw a lot of white, then she
saw a female in a long white shirt and white pants. The woman's skin was
the color of peanut butter, making her only slightly lighter in color
than May herself. She had shoulder length hair that was a reddish-brown
color, almost bronzy. The woman's hair also seemed to glow. 'Maybe I
should ask who her hairdresser is,' May thought. The most strikingly
thing about this woman were eyes. They were brown, but they were kind
eyes, almost too kind to be believed. The woman smiled, "That was a very
selfless thing you did down there. It impressed a lot of us here."
"Melissa? Is she-"
"She's fine, May. Not a scratch on her, just some minor smoke inhalation.
But she'll be fine."
"And me?" May asked as she slowly got up, noticing that there were no
IVs or any kind of medical equipment in the room at all. She also
noticed that the room was unnaturally white. "Where am I? What hospital
am I in?"
The woman standing in front of May smiled again, but it was sad this time.
"May, you aren't in a hospital."
May looked down at what she was wearing. It was the same thing she put
on that morning...with no soot or fire damage. That wasn't possible...
unless..."I'm dead, then?"
Her companion nodded.
Strangely enough, being dead didn't really bother May much...yet. "So,
is this Heaven or Hell?"
"Neither."
"Is this Purgatory?"
"Of course not, May. You're Protestant, not Catholic. We don't send
Protestants to Purgatory."
That last statement puzzled May. Now she had a lot of questions and was
getting a little nervous. "So where -?"
Her companion sat down in front of May and took her hands, which were
beginning to shake. "I don't mean to frighten you. Let me start over.
First, my name is Imani, and I'm a proposer. I guess the best way to
think of me is...well, think of me as a 'Special Projects' angel."
"Like Monica, Tess, and Andrew on 'Touched by an Angel'?"
Imani shrugged, "Well, sort of. Anyway, if you were bound for judgement
immediately, you'd be asleep right now."
"Asleep?"
Imani smiled, "Yes, May. But you knew this on some level already. Why
else would dead people look like they are sleeping? Besides that, you
know the story of Jesus healing Jairus's daughter. Didn't he tell the
people morning her death that the girl was 'merely sleeping'?"
May slowly nodded her head, still confused. The angel Imani continued,
"As I was saying, the people who aren't given a proposition sleep until
the judgement...for the most part...except it is more complicated than
that. After that, they go onto where they belong."
"So, there is no Heaven or Hell?"
Imani smiled again, "Of course there is, but it is more complicated than
that. For starters-" Imani paused. Then, as if remembering a time
constraint, she stood, still holding on to May's head...effectively pulling
May to her feet. "Well, if I keep running my mouth like this, we'll
never get to the point. Follow me."
May followed Imani down a long white hall to a white office. After
stepping inside, May asked, "Why is everything so blindingly white?"
"It is what makes you comfortable."
"Excuse me?"
"This whole area is generated by what would make your spirit comfortable.
Don't feel bad about the white; most people I talk to see white...well,
expect for that Lutheran that had the intense interest in all things Goth.
Anyway, have a seat," Imani finished, pointing to a white rocking chair,
whose back and arms were made of green ivy.
May sat... or rather sank into the chair, which she also discovered was
a recliner. "I see what you mean by the comfort thing."
Imani smiled as she sat across from May. "Now, you're being offered a
unique opportunity. You don't have to take it; and, should you refuse,
your refusal will not affect your judgement in any way. Neither will
your acceptance. You were chosen for this opportunity because of who you
were, what you did to save Melissa, and because of the faith of the family
you'll be helping."
The middle reason made sense to May. The last seemed a little odd, but
May just chalked that up to the power of prayer. The first reason Imani gave,
however, made no sense at all...to the point where it bothered May. She
didn't think being May merited any special favors. "Because of who I
was?"
Imani nodded, "Most souls live and die in one life. In a few special souls,
however, is a fission or part that has appeared more than once. In your
case, it has appeared three times. And, like most people carrying a
fission, you have stuck near your bases of origin in each life."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, the first time your fission popped up, its home was where Richmond,
England is now. Remember how tied you felt to London and the Thames when
you visited in your most current lifetime?"
May nodded.
"And the second time your fission appeared, it was born in the county
closest to your most recent hometown...and - well, let's put it this way.
Remember how tied you felt to Jamestown? And how that year when you
watched the Colonial ships sail into port, it felt odd because you
thought you should be on one sailing away?"
May nodded again. She remembered thinking that feeling of wrongness
mixed with deja vu was a little odd at the time, but she had chalked it
up to being a native Virginian who loved colonial history. Imani's
mention of it raised a few more questions. "But I don't understand. Who-"
Imani looked at the confused May with compassion, "Your people named you
Matoaka, but the world came to know you as one of the saviors of
Jamestown, the Indian princess-"
"Pocahontas," May breathed. "I was Pocahontas?"
"Part of your soul was Pocahontas. You aren't the same people, although
you are similar. Remember that."
May nodded.
"So would you like to hear about this opportunity?"
"I'll admit, I'm curious." And frightened and suspious and totally confused,
May added in her head. She didn't say this aloud because...well, one
doesn't talk to an angel like that. She was beginning to understand how
Mary felt when the angel Gabriel visited her. But Mary didn't have to
deal with being dead on top of her news.
Imani paused for a moment and smiled, almost as if she knew that May was
totally confused. "May, I promise that everything you need to know you
know already or I'll tell you soon. I'll just tell you the background
and you can decide what you want to do. Okay?" Imani smiled and patteMay on the shoulder before she walked around to sit at the desk beside
May's chair. "Okay, let me give you the background. A long time ago,
Earth was ruled by a royal family. The family was responsible and kind
with a strong faith in the Creator you call God. This king and
queen were blessed with a properous planet, few problems, and three sons
who had all found love like the ones their parents shared.
"But a powerful nearby empire took a greedy interest in the planet and
sought to force Earth into its empire via an alliance. In the best
interest of its people, the Earth royal family did much to protect its
planet, even agreeing to the tough terms of the alliance. But evil saw
its opening and took it, ending the lives of many innocents.
"The leader of the nearby empire had at her disposal someone with the
ability to move through different dimensions and time. She charged
this time walker to arrange the future to best benefit her daughter.
This time walker acted accordingly. Among the things she did was to
scatter the Earth royals and their loves across dimensions and time-"
"And God, MY God, just LET this happen?" May asked, outraged. 'Who were
these people who just thought they could interfere with time, with God's
plan? Who asks someone to screw with the universe to for their own
benefit? And surely people just couldn't up and interfere with God's plan,
could they?'
"Let it happen? Yes. Approved of it? No. Time and the events within
it are His domain, for a variety of good reasons. But He allowed this
to happened so He could place fissions of souls in necessary places
according to His will. In other words, God used this to place the members
of the royal family where and when they were most needed."
Hearing that calmed May down a little. 'God's plan happens in spite of
everything. At least this is something that I can understand. But the
rest of this...' May tuned back in as she realized that Imani was
continuing.
"Lately, however, this time walker is becoming very smug. In order to right
one of the wrongs this time walker committed and to put her on notice
that she is being watched and judged, you are given the opportunity to
become a time walker for a month to reunite the sons of the royal family.
Do you accept?"
May stared at Imani. It was a lot to be thrown at a person all at once.
On top of this, her head was spinning with lots of unanswered questions.
'This is everything I need to know? Yeah, right.' May thought. It was
very hard to have coherent thoughts. And no wonder! Her beliefs had
been proved, disproved, and confused all in about twenty minutes.
She realized it all wasn't about her. It was about this poor family.
This was probably the result of prayers from the queen. Yet, one question
still had to be answered for May, before she could put anything in
perspective, before she could make a decision. "But why me?"
Imani smiled and there was a twinkle in her eye this time, as if she knew
something that May did not. "A fission of your soul was alive when this
family ruled. Part of you knows the whole family well. That fission will
help you talk to the sons once you find them...should you accept."
May sighed. Three brothers torn apart by a power play. A planet destroyed
by greed. It she could help this royal family in any way, she would.
She would want someone to help her family if the situations were reversed.
Besides, hadn't she been praying for God to use her? This just wasn't
what she had had in mind when she prayed. 'It pays to be specific,' May
thought to herself. What she actually said aloud was, "I accept."
Imani smiled, "Thank you, May. Now take a look at the screen behind you
while I tell you more about the three princes, scattered across three
dimensions."
A picture of a young dark haired male appeared. He was wearing what looked
like a green uniform of some kind. "This is the youngest, Prince Arlington.
In this incarnation, the person who holds the fission is known as
Urameshi Yusuke, that is Yusuke Urameshi to you. He has a bit of a foul
mouth and a temper. He is also a spirit detective in this dimension.
You can contact him at any point in his life, but he'll probably be more
likely to believe you after he's become a spirit detective than before he
does."
A second picture flashed up. Like the first young man, this one also had
dark hair. This new picture was somewhat older than the first, maybe
around the age of 17. "This is the middle son, Prince Termaine, in this
incarnation the person holding his fission is known as Terry McGinnis.
Terry has a history of being what some would call a juveline delinquent,
much like Yusuke actually, except that Terry grew out of it...with some
help from a juveline detention facility.
"Terry now has a new 'after school job'. He is Batman, a masked superhero
for the city of Gotham, although not necessarily well liked by the police.
He has strong protection instincts and is very loyal. I'd keep that in
mind."
The picture changed for the third time. May laughed to herself as she
looked at the latest picture. Talk, dark and handsome seemed to be the
theme of these pictures. Okay, Yusuke wasn't all that tall, but he was
the youngest.
"This," Imani continued, "is the heir apparent, Prince Endymion, known
to many in this incarnation as Chiba Mamoru, again Mamoru Chiba to you.
The plus here is that Mamoru knows that he is Prince Endymion and is
aware of the existence of time walkers. The drawback is that this
dimension, which is, incidently, the same dimension in which you lived
as May, is most heavily manipulated by the rogue time walker. Endymion
doesn't remember his parents from this lifetime or from his life as
prince. All he knows is heavily influenced by the 'reality' created by
the time walker for the benefit of the empress's daughter. He knows
nothing of his brothers or his former love."
As the screen went black, Imani got up and walked across the room to
a closet. She opened it and pulled out a staff with what looked like an
axe and a crystal ball fused together on the end.
"There are a few rules," Imani said as she held the staff. "First, you
have a month. Exactly four weeks. That's it. As this entire situation
proves, giving anyone unlimited sway over time is a bad idea, hence the
time limit. Anyway, before the end of the month, you must return everyone
to their correct dimensions. This won't take more than four seconds, but
you need to make sure you have those four seconds.
"Second, you cannot force anyone to go with you. All of the sons have a
right to refuse. No kidnapping.
"Third, this opportunity is for uniting the royals only. No 'fixing'
other tragedies. This is not the time to see what would have happened
if Malcolm X wasn't shot or if LBJ had pulled out of Vietnam early.
And no side trips to Florida to see what would have happened if Al Gore
became president in 2000." At this Imani smiled, "We know you, May. So
no helping."
"Fourth, while you can wear anything appropriate in whatever dimension
you are in, you must wear the standard uniform when walking time or
using the staff." Imani tossed May the outfit.
May held it up and stared at it. "It's a sailor unifom...except the
skirt is practically non-existant! And it is skin tight! And why is
is it white, pink, and navy?"
Imani smiled, "There is a reason for that, which you'll see during your
journey. Also, be careful. Although the empress's time walker won't
notice you right away, she will eventually. And she may react as if
you are a threat. Be prepared to defend yourself.
"Finally, May, don't forget your faith and ethics. You'll need them
when you make decisions."
Imani tossed May a watch and the staff, "The watch will count down the
month for you. It starts as soon as you enter the realm of time. You'll
have a space outside of time to view dimensions and make decisions."
Imani smiled, "Good luck, May."
'I'm probably gonna need it,' May thought.
- to be continued -
Hello everyone. Yes, I know I should be working on Not All Masks, but I'm
a little stuck at the moment. I promise I'll get back to it soon.
Anyway, the above is a prologue for a massive cross-over I've started
with Sailor Moon, Yu Yu Hakesho, and Batman Beyond. It is a rather huge
undertaking, especially since I introduced the original characters of May
and Imani. So, I actually need your help...with several things.
First, I really want opinions on this prologue. What did you think? Did
parts of it confuse you? What doesn't make sense? More than likely this
will take longer than a few sentences. Please feel free to email me (my
address is in my profile). At this point, I'll even take flames, as long
as there is some useful content in them. This is my first cross-over and
I want to be fair to all the series involved.
Second, I need a few beta readers. Qualifications: knowledge of Yu Yu
Hakesho, Batman Beyond, and/or Sailor Moon; honesty (if something is
wrong or awful, I need to know); and good writing and editing skills.
Experience is a plus, but not essential. If you are interested, please
email me.
Thank you in advance for your help and support. I'm very excited about
this undertaking. Also, if you have any questions about some of the
references I made in the story, please let me know so that I can make them
clearer.
~December
May took a deep breath...and then another, relishing in the feeling. It
was the first time in the last five - or was it fifteen? - minutes that
she could so without pain. All that smoke made it hard to breathe. It
made it hard to see too, for that matter.
She remembered how she'd ended up in all that smoke. She had been trying
to work on her still unfinished thesis and had become extremely frustrated.
Since it was a lovely day in April and she wasn't making progress on her
thesis, May left the campus to walk in the neighborhoods just beyond "the
ivory tower". She wasn't really paying attention to where she was going,
but her feet seemed to lead her to that particular street. It was her
natural curiosity that led her to the crowd.
Disasters lead to pandimonium and confusion, someone once told her. And
that was definitely true at the scene of the fire. People were screaming,
running, and crying; May got hit by passing people a couple of times as
she tired to get closer to the the burning house. Then she heard,
"Somebody help me! My baby, my Melissa is still in there! Somebody help
me, PLEASE! My baby, my baby!"
Now normally, like all onlookers, May would have been properly saddened
and worried, but not about to dash into any burning building. This case
was different. Melissa was the name of a sweet little girl she tutored...
and the fire was in Melissa's neighborhood. Without really thinking about
it, May fought through the panicky crowd and dashed into the building.
The smoke choked and blinded her almost immediately, but she found Melissa
and was fighting back toward the door...and then...
And then she was here, wherever here was. Hey, at least she could breathe.
"Good. You're awake. Hello, May Lavon Hammond."
May opened her eyes slowly. At first she saw a lot of white, then she
saw a female in a long white shirt and white pants. The woman's skin was
the color of peanut butter, making her only slightly lighter in color
than May herself. She had shoulder length hair that was a reddish-brown
color, almost bronzy. The woman's hair also seemed to glow. 'Maybe I
should ask who her hairdresser is,' May thought. The most strikingly
thing about this woman were eyes. They were brown, but they were kind
eyes, almost too kind to be believed. The woman smiled, "That was a very
selfless thing you did down there. It impressed a lot of us here."
"Melissa? Is she-"
"She's fine, May. Not a scratch on her, just some minor smoke inhalation.
But she'll be fine."
"And me?" May asked as she slowly got up, noticing that there were no
IVs or any kind of medical equipment in the room at all. She also
noticed that the room was unnaturally white. "Where am I? What hospital
am I in?"
The woman standing in front of May smiled again, but it was sad this time.
"May, you aren't in a hospital."
May looked down at what she was wearing. It was the same thing she put
on that morning...with no soot or fire damage. That wasn't possible...
unless..."I'm dead, then?"
Her companion nodded.
Strangely enough, being dead didn't really bother May much...yet. "So,
is this Heaven or Hell?"
"Neither."
"Is this Purgatory?"
"Of course not, May. You're Protestant, not Catholic. We don't send
Protestants to Purgatory."
That last statement puzzled May. Now she had a lot of questions and was
getting a little nervous. "So where -?"
Her companion sat down in front of May and took her hands, which were
beginning to shake. "I don't mean to frighten you. Let me start over.
First, my name is Imani, and I'm a proposer. I guess the best way to
think of me is...well, think of me as a 'Special Projects' angel."
"Like Monica, Tess, and Andrew on 'Touched by an Angel'?"
Imani shrugged, "Well, sort of. Anyway, if you were bound for judgement
immediately, you'd be asleep right now."
"Asleep?"
Imani smiled, "Yes, May. But you knew this on some level already. Why
else would dead people look like they are sleeping? Besides that, you
know the story of Jesus healing Jairus's daughter. Didn't he tell the
people morning her death that the girl was 'merely sleeping'?"
May slowly nodded her head, still confused. The angel Imani continued,
"As I was saying, the people who aren't given a proposition sleep until
the judgement...for the most part...except it is more complicated than
that. After that, they go onto where they belong."
"So, there is no Heaven or Hell?"
Imani smiled again, "Of course there is, but it is more complicated than
that. For starters-" Imani paused. Then, as if remembering a time
constraint, she stood, still holding on to May's head...effectively pulling
May to her feet. "Well, if I keep running my mouth like this, we'll
never get to the point. Follow me."
May followed Imani down a long white hall to a white office. After
stepping inside, May asked, "Why is everything so blindingly white?"
"It is what makes you comfortable."
"Excuse me?"
"This whole area is generated by what would make your spirit comfortable.
Don't feel bad about the white; most people I talk to see white...well,
expect for that Lutheran that had the intense interest in all things Goth.
Anyway, have a seat," Imani finished, pointing to a white rocking chair,
whose back and arms were made of green ivy.
May sat... or rather sank into the chair, which she also discovered was
a recliner. "I see what you mean by the comfort thing."
Imani smiled as she sat across from May. "Now, you're being offered a
unique opportunity. You don't have to take it; and, should you refuse,
your refusal will not affect your judgement in any way. Neither will
your acceptance. You were chosen for this opportunity because of who you
were, what you did to save Melissa, and because of the faith of the family
you'll be helping."
The middle reason made sense to May. The last seemed a little odd, but
May just chalked that up to the power of prayer. The first reason Imani gave,
however, made no sense at all...to the point where it bothered May. She
didn't think being May merited any special favors. "Because of who I
was?"
Imani nodded, "Most souls live and die in one life. In a few special souls,
however, is a fission or part that has appeared more than once. In your
case, it has appeared three times. And, like most people carrying a
fission, you have stuck near your bases of origin in each life."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, the first time your fission popped up, its home was where Richmond,
England is now. Remember how tied you felt to London and the Thames when
you visited in your most current lifetime?"
May nodded.
"And the second time your fission appeared, it was born in the county
closest to your most recent hometown...and - well, let's put it this way.
Remember how tied you felt to Jamestown? And how that year when you
watched the Colonial ships sail into port, it felt odd because you
thought you should be on one sailing away?"
May nodded again. She remembered thinking that feeling of wrongness
mixed with deja vu was a little odd at the time, but she had chalked it
up to being a native Virginian who loved colonial history. Imani's
mention of it raised a few more questions. "But I don't understand. Who-"
Imani looked at the confused May with compassion, "Your people named you
Matoaka, but the world came to know you as one of the saviors of
Jamestown, the Indian princess-"
"Pocahontas," May breathed. "I was Pocahontas?"
"Part of your soul was Pocahontas. You aren't the same people, although
you are similar. Remember that."
May nodded.
"So would you like to hear about this opportunity?"
"I'll admit, I'm curious." And frightened and suspious and totally confused,
May added in her head. She didn't say this aloud because...well, one
doesn't talk to an angel like that. She was beginning to understand how
Mary felt when the angel Gabriel visited her. But Mary didn't have to
deal with being dead on top of her news.
Imani paused for a moment and smiled, almost as if she knew that May was
totally confused. "May, I promise that everything you need to know you
know already or I'll tell you soon. I'll just tell you the background
and you can decide what you want to do. Okay?" Imani smiled and patteMay on the shoulder before she walked around to sit at the desk beside
May's chair. "Okay, let me give you the background. A long time ago,
Earth was ruled by a royal family. The family was responsible and kind
with a strong faith in the Creator you call God. This king and
queen were blessed with a properous planet, few problems, and three sons
who had all found love like the ones their parents shared.
"But a powerful nearby empire took a greedy interest in the planet and
sought to force Earth into its empire via an alliance. In the best
interest of its people, the Earth royal family did much to protect its
planet, even agreeing to the tough terms of the alliance. But evil saw
its opening and took it, ending the lives of many innocents.
"The leader of the nearby empire had at her disposal someone with the
ability to move through different dimensions and time. She charged
this time walker to arrange the future to best benefit her daughter.
This time walker acted accordingly. Among the things she did was to
scatter the Earth royals and their loves across dimensions and time-"
"And God, MY God, just LET this happen?" May asked, outraged. 'Who were
these people who just thought they could interfere with time, with God's
plan? Who asks someone to screw with the universe to for their own
benefit? And surely people just couldn't up and interfere with God's plan,
could they?'
"Let it happen? Yes. Approved of it? No. Time and the events within
it are His domain, for a variety of good reasons. But He allowed this
to happened so He could place fissions of souls in necessary places
according to His will. In other words, God used this to place the members
of the royal family where and when they were most needed."
Hearing that calmed May down a little. 'God's plan happens in spite of
everything. At least this is something that I can understand. But the
rest of this...' May tuned back in as she realized that Imani was
continuing.
"Lately, however, this time walker is becoming very smug. In order to right
one of the wrongs this time walker committed and to put her on notice
that she is being watched and judged, you are given the opportunity to
become a time walker for a month to reunite the sons of the royal family.
Do you accept?"
May stared at Imani. It was a lot to be thrown at a person all at once.
On top of this, her head was spinning with lots of unanswered questions.
'This is everything I need to know? Yeah, right.' May thought. It was
very hard to have coherent thoughts. And no wonder! Her beliefs had
been proved, disproved, and confused all in about twenty minutes.
She realized it all wasn't about her. It was about this poor family.
This was probably the result of prayers from the queen. Yet, one question
still had to be answered for May, before she could put anything in
perspective, before she could make a decision. "But why me?"
Imani smiled and there was a twinkle in her eye this time, as if she knew
something that May did not. "A fission of your soul was alive when this
family ruled. Part of you knows the whole family well. That fission will
help you talk to the sons once you find them...should you accept."
May sighed. Three brothers torn apart by a power play. A planet destroyed
by greed. It she could help this royal family in any way, she would.
She would want someone to help her family if the situations were reversed.
Besides, hadn't she been praying for God to use her? This just wasn't
what she had had in mind when she prayed. 'It pays to be specific,' May
thought to herself. What she actually said aloud was, "I accept."
Imani smiled, "Thank you, May. Now take a look at the screen behind you
while I tell you more about the three princes, scattered across three
dimensions."
A picture of a young dark haired male appeared. He was wearing what looked
like a green uniform of some kind. "This is the youngest, Prince Arlington.
In this incarnation, the person who holds the fission is known as
Urameshi Yusuke, that is Yusuke Urameshi to you. He has a bit of a foul
mouth and a temper. He is also a spirit detective in this dimension.
You can contact him at any point in his life, but he'll probably be more
likely to believe you after he's become a spirit detective than before he
does."
A second picture flashed up. Like the first young man, this one also had
dark hair. This new picture was somewhat older than the first, maybe
around the age of 17. "This is the middle son, Prince Termaine, in this
incarnation the person holding his fission is known as Terry McGinnis.
Terry has a history of being what some would call a juveline delinquent,
much like Yusuke actually, except that Terry grew out of it...with some
help from a juveline detention facility.
"Terry now has a new 'after school job'. He is Batman, a masked superhero
for the city of Gotham, although not necessarily well liked by the police.
He has strong protection instincts and is very loyal. I'd keep that in
mind."
The picture changed for the third time. May laughed to herself as she
looked at the latest picture. Talk, dark and handsome seemed to be the
theme of these pictures. Okay, Yusuke wasn't all that tall, but he was
the youngest.
"This," Imani continued, "is the heir apparent, Prince Endymion, known
to many in this incarnation as Chiba Mamoru, again Mamoru Chiba to you.
The plus here is that Mamoru knows that he is Prince Endymion and is
aware of the existence of time walkers. The drawback is that this
dimension, which is, incidently, the same dimension in which you lived
as May, is most heavily manipulated by the rogue time walker. Endymion
doesn't remember his parents from this lifetime or from his life as
prince. All he knows is heavily influenced by the 'reality' created by
the time walker for the benefit of the empress's daughter. He knows
nothing of his brothers or his former love."
As the screen went black, Imani got up and walked across the room to
a closet. She opened it and pulled out a staff with what looked like an
axe and a crystal ball fused together on the end.
"There are a few rules," Imani said as she held the staff. "First, you
have a month. Exactly four weeks. That's it. As this entire situation
proves, giving anyone unlimited sway over time is a bad idea, hence the
time limit. Anyway, before the end of the month, you must return everyone
to their correct dimensions. This won't take more than four seconds, but
you need to make sure you have those four seconds.
"Second, you cannot force anyone to go with you. All of the sons have a
right to refuse. No kidnapping.
"Third, this opportunity is for uniting the royals only. No 'fixing'
other tragedies. This is not the time to see what would have happened
if Malcolm X wasn't shot or if LBJ had pulled out of Vietnam early.
And no side trips to Florida to see what would have happened if Al Gore
became president in 2000." At this Imani smiled, "We know you, May. So
no helping."
"Fourth, while you can wear anything appropriate in whatever dimension
you are in, you must wear the standard uniform when walking time or
using the staff." Imani tossed May the outfit.
May held it up and stared at it. "It's a sailor unifom...except the
skirt is practically non-existant! And it is skin tight! And why is
is it white, pink, and navy?"
Imani smiled, "There is a reason for that, which you'll see during your
journey. Also, be careful. Although the empress's time walker won't
notice you right away, she will eventually. And she may react as if
you are a threat. Be prepared to defend yourself.
"Finally, May, don't forget your faith and ethics. You'll need them
when you make decisions."
Imani tossed May a watch and the staff, "The watch will count down the
month for you. It starts as soon as you enter the realm of time. You'll
have a space outside of time to view dimensions and make decisions."
Imani smiled, "Good luck, May."
'I'm probably gonna need it,' May thought.
- to be continued -
Hello everyone. Yes, I know I should be working on Not All Masks, but I'm
a little stuck at the moment. I promise I'll get back to it soon.
Anyway, the above is a prologue for a massive cross-over I've started
with Sailor Moon, Yu Yu Hakesho, and Batman Beyond. It is a rather huge
undertaking, especially since I introduced the original characters of May
and Imani. So, I actually need your help...with several things.
First, I really want opinions on this prologue. What did you think? Did
parts of it confuse you? What doesn't make sense? More than likely this
will take longer than a few sentences. Please feel free to email me (my
address is in my profile). At this point, I'll even take flames, as long
as there is some useful content in them. This is my first cross-over and
I want to be fair to all the series involved.
Second, I need a few beta readers. Qualifications: knowledge of Yu Yu
Hakesho, Batman Beyond, and/or Sailor Moon; honesty (if something is
wrong or awful, I need to know); and good writing and editing skills.
Experience is a plus, but not essential. If you are interested, please
email me.
Thank you in advance for your help and support. I'm very excited about
this undertaking. Also, if you have any questions about some of the
references I made in the story, please let me know so that I can make them
clearer.
~December