"Happy Birthday, Candra!" Confetti rained down on
Candra as she walked through the front door of her apartment.
"Lord Kami-sama! Minna!" she screamed. She kicked a path
through the balloons on the floor, then put her grocery bags on
the recliner so she could give Mako a hug. "Who told?"
"Let's
just say that after her party, Usagi-chan wanted to return the
favor," answered Mako.
Candra let go of her brown-haired
friend as Usagi kicked her own path through the balloons.
"Serenity! Thank you!" Candra leaned over to give Usagi
a hug. "This is so cool!"
Her brothers walked in with
the rest of the groceries. "Whoa," commented Jim.
"If
I woulda know there was gonna be a party when we got back, I
woulda worn a better T-shirt," added Ozzie.
"Alright!
Party!" yelled Lance.
"Great," Greg uttered.
"Look at this untidiness. And we just cleaned the
house."
"Don't worry." Setsuna took the bags
from Greg. "We have a vacuum and duster in reserve."
"We
also have cake!" said Rei as she and Michiru brought the cake
into the living room.
"Not in the living room!"
stated Greg.
"House rule, minna," Candra explained.
"Edibles may only be consumed in the kitchen."
"Huh?"
asked Usagi.
"Food in kitchen only," Candra
translated.
"Oh."
Something exploded. Everyone
jumped. "What was that?" asked Usagi.
ChibiUsa
blushed. "Gomen," she said as she pulled a piece of
balloon out of her hair.
After that, everyone piled into the
kitchen. Minako and Michiru helped the guys put away the groceries
while Mako cut the cake and Rei handed out the ice cream. "You
know, Candra-chan. I believe I have given you three pieces, and
you still don't have one in front of you," commented Mako.
"Are you inhaling them and hiding the plates?"
"No,"
replied Candra. "I decided to let the little ones have their
pieces first." She pointed to ChibiUsa and Hotaru.
"But
that's only two pieces," said Minako as she closed the
refrigerator door.
"Yeah, what happened to the third?"
asked Rei.
Candra rested her chin on her hand and her elbow on
the table. "That one went to her." She pointed her thumb
at Usagi, who was sitting to her right, frosting all over her
face.
"Usagi! Honesty!" said Michiru.
"What?
I wanted cake," Usagi insisted.
Everyone sighed. "Here.
I'll cut you another one," Mako told Candra.
Ding-dong!
"I'll get it," said Lance.
"You know,"
said Candra as she stuck her fork into her cake, "I have
never had this many people at a birthday party. It's always been
just the five of us," she said, meaning her brothers and
herself.
"Even when you were touring?" asked Michiru.
She took a piece of cake from Mako. "Arigato."
"Too
many would be at the party. I wouldn't show up." Candra put
a forkful of cake in her mouth, then covered her mouth as she
continued. "The record company would plan these big things
with two, three hundred people, most of whom I don't even know.
I cannot stand big crowds unless I am on stage. Hey,
Chiba-san!"
"Hello, everyone," said Mamoru. He
handed an envelope to Candra. "Sorry I'm late. They would
not let me leave work today."
"Want some cake?"
Mako asked as she cut a piece for Rei.
"Of course. I may
be overworked, but I'm not dead." He leaned over and kissed
Usagi on the cheek. "So we're telling them
tonight?"
"Telling who what?" asked
Hotaru.
"They still haven't told Usagi's parents about
the engagement ring," said ChibiUsa.
"You have had
that thing for five days and they still don't know?" asked
Minako.
"Iie. They haven't looked at my hand close
enough, I guess," Usagi answered.
Haruka shook her hand
and smiled. "You are so strange,
Odango."
Mako
came out of the bathroom wearing a light green nightgown, rubbing
a towel on her head to dry her hair. "Thanks for letting me
spend the night, Candra-chan," she said.
"Hey, no
problem. You need your apartment fixed and I need a bodyguard. It
all works out in the end." Candra smiled. "So, you
honestly don't remember anything?"
"No," Mako
replied. "I just remember watching TV and it being dark
outside." As Mako searched her bag for her hairbrush, she
asked Candra, "Candra-chan? What exactly is your relationship
with Sir Grety? I mean, I know it's not a good one, but how did
you two meet? How long have you been fighting? That sort of
thing."
Candra sighed as if she were remembering a found
memory. "Well, about two weeks after I first henshioned, a
friend of mine and I were on our way to school.. .
."
"You
didn't remember the report?" Candra stopped walking and
turned to her friend with wide, panic-stricken eyes.
Her friend
gulped. "Just my part," she squeaked out.
"Which
was only the more important part." Candra closed her eyes and
slowly counted to ten. When she opened them, her friend had backed
away just a bit. "You aren't mad, are you?"
Candra
took a deep breath. "No. FURIOUS is the word!" It took
all she could not to kill her friend. "I have had straight
A's ever since kindergarten and if this ruins it. . .! What
happened? Why didn't you do it?"
"Ricky and I did a
few things on Saturday."
Candra raised her eyebrows.
"Tina, that's nasty."
"We couldn't help
it."
"Yes, you could have." Candra started
walking again.
Tina jogged to catch up with her. "So, what
am I going to do? I'll fail if we don't do well."
You
should have thought about that in the first place, Candra
thought. Out loud, she said, "Just let me do the talking."
She pulled a floppy disk out of her purse.
". . .then
my printer wouldn't work and by that point, the computer store
was closed. So, then we were going to use the computers here, but
none of them have the program she used."
The teacher
raised an eyebrow. "So, basically, you aren't ready to go
today."
Candra nodded. "That sounds about right. We
are going to work more on my printer this afternoon."
"Why
didn't you last night?"
"Uh, well, we had spent
three hours making sure we had everything accurate and by the time
the printer went on the fritz, it was midnight. . .and we didn't
want to fall asleep for the other presentations." Candra
flashed her Please-Believe-Me smile.
The teacher smiled. "Well,
Candra, since you are excellent at turning homework in on time, I
believe you. But I want it by tomorrow and if there is not enough
time in class, you are going to have to do it after
school."
Candra and Tina quietly breathed a sigh of
relief. "Thank you, Ms. Carter."
Tina bought lunch
for Candra. "It's the least I could do; you really got me
out of a jam there."
"Well, I was bailing myself out
as well."
They sat in a booth. "So, what time do you
want to come over after school?" asked Tina.
Candra placed
her napkin on her lap. "What do you mean?"
"So
you can help me finish," Tina replied.
The fork's trip
to the beef stew suddenly halted as Candra gave Tina a
You-Have-Got-to-Be-Kidding look. "I'm not gonna help you.
You wanted to do this part!"
"I know, but. .
."
"Tina, you begged me to let you do it. It is your
responsibility to complete it yourself. Besides, I have track
after school, then my flute lesson, followed by softball practice.
Then I have to study for my German test and Algebra 2 quiz. I
might be done by one in the morning." Candra started
to eat.
Tina huffed. "See if I ever work with you
again."
"I don't really care. We had three weeks to
work on an eight to ten minute presentation. I got my part done
within the first week, then offered to help you. You told me you
had it all under control." They finished lunch in stony
silence.
"I hated to do that, but it is her fault,"
said Candra as she and the team warmed up for the track meet.
"She
did something similar to me, expect she was trying to get me to
help her the night before," one of her teammates said.
"However, I had done enough on my own, so even though she
didn't get finished, I still got a 93 on it."
"Alrighty,
ladies!" yelled their coach. "You know that the Panthers
are undefeated this season. But I know we can take them on. I have
the confidence that we will hand them their first loss!"
"Let's
begin!" called out the announcer. "Welcome to Central
High School! We have the Bears vs. the Panthers!" At the
mention of the Panthers' name, the crowd started to boo. "Geez.
They don't have to be so rude about it," said another
teammate.
"Why do they always boo the other team?"
asked Candra. "Their fans never do that to us."
"I
don't know, but I find it very annoying even though it's in
our fav," said the first teammate.
Many races later,
Candra found herself at the starting lane for the 200-meter. The
Panthers had three racers while the Bears had only two: Candra and
the new girl, Haruka. "Are you nervous, Haruka-san?"
Candra fumbled through her then limited Japanese.
"No."
Haruka was snobbish and full of herself to everyone, but Candra
still took it hard when Haruka was curt towards her. Still, Candra
put on a smile. "Well, good luck, then." She stuck out
her hand. Haruka looked at it for a few seconds, then shook hands
with her.
"Racers, ready? Set!" The gun fired and the
race began. Haruka took a quick lead and pulled away from the pack
before the other girls even had a chance to start. Wow!
Candra thought. I had knew she was fast, but I have never seen
her like this!
Haruka won with a time of 24.1 seconds;
Candra was in second with 29.0 and a Panther had 29.9 for third
place.
"Congrats!" called out a third
teammate.
"Thanks!" said Candra. "You, too,
Jamie. First in the 800. You have been trying to get that for a
year."
"I know. Too bad about that girl stealing your
first," Jamie commented.
"Now, now. Haruka deserves
that award. She's worked very hard. I can tell."
"There's
a rumor that she takes steroids," Jamie whispered.
"There
are too many rumors in this school and 95 of them are wrong,"
Candra shot back. "Sure, she may look a little manly. .
."
Jamie raised an eyebrow. "A little?"
"The
point is, until she gets tested and it comes back positive, I
won't believe it."
A few feet away, Michiru told Haruka,
"Don't listen to her.. . .Haruka? What's wrong?"
"I,
uh, just had something in my eye." Haruka wiped away a tear.
And after the way I treated her at the starting line. .
.
Suddenly, the sky went black. Lighting hit the baseball
field's scoreboard. Everyone in the shot-put area had to quickly
evacuate or become pancakes.
Evil laughter was heard. "This
planet will be mine!" All of the exits disappeared as the
crowd tried to get away.
Candra ran off to find a place to
transform. She just so happened to notice that Haruka and Michiru
were gone. With no time to ponder how they had left so quickly,
Candra found a place and yelled out, "Moon Starlight Power!
Make Up!" Then she jumped over the fence and landed on the
track. "Hold it!"
"Oh! And you would be?"
asked Sir Grety.
"Sailor StarMoon. And you?" demanded
StarMoon.
"Hmmm. I don't remember you. But never mind
that. Sir Grety is my name. It was nice knowing you in the last
moments of your life." A ball of energy formed in front of
his chest. "I hope you got to do all you wanted to do!"
The
ball headed straight for StarMoon. She cartwheeled out of the way,
then pulled her Wand out her brooch. "Moon Starlight Attack!"
she yelled.
The Attack hit Grety in the shoulder. "You're
more powerful than you look. No matter; I will win."
"In
your dreams!" She took her tiara off. "Moon Frisbee!"
she said and flung it at Sir Grety.
He managed to avoid it. He
gave her an angry look, then gasped. The crescent moon insignia
was on her forehead. "So, you are Princess Serenity of the
Moon. I should have known. You were always a fighter."
"Huh?"
At the mention of the name, memories started to flow through
StarMoon's head. She had heard the story from Queen Serenity, but
it hadn't clicked with her until just then that the story was
real. But Princess Serenity was my sister. "Serenity
is my. . ."
I loved her as a sister and a friend and I
died trying to protect her.
". . .name, that's
right. I'm surprised you knew it was me. You always had me
confused me with Cynthia."
"I did. But she is dead.
And you are alive, my love." He landed several meters in
front of her. "Now, we can start our lives together,
uninterrupted by that Prince."
"'That Prince' was my
True Love!" StarMoon tried her best to think of what Serenity
would have said. "How dare you dirty up his memory! And my
dear sister's! Tiara Beam!"
Grety cried out in pain. He
gave her an evil eye. "This isn't over! I will be
back!"
Uranus and Neptune watched from the shadows as the
exits reappeared. "The Death Busters have set up shop here
and now we have a new enemy," Uranus commented.
Neptune
could tell where she was going. "An alliance with her does
not seem to be a bad idea."
"Just as long as she
knows her boundaries," Uranus said.
Neptune smiled. "You
have to admit that she has really improved in two weeks."
"I
will gave her that." Uranus sighed. "Let's go ask
her."
"Wow.
So, what's it like to fight by yourself?" asked Mako.
"It
can be kinda scary." Candra pulled the sheet to her chin. "If
you can't handle it, will there still be a world next week? I
mean, I knew that Uranus and Neptune existed, but I didn't know
if they would find out in time. You get very worried." Candra
looked at Mako. "At least I did. . . .How did you get your
powers, Mako-chan?"
"Luna found me. I had a crush on
this guy, but he was being followed by Zoisite. I tried to help,
but then he became a youma. Sailor Moon showed up, but got tied
up. I wanted to help, so I lifted him up over my head and threw
him into the bushes. Luna saw my symbol on my forehead and gave me
my pen."
"Oh." Candra looked up at the ceiling.
"So, I guess we were both doing our jobs before we fully
understood what we were doing."
Mako took a deep breath.
"Yeah," she said, letting it back out.
"It seems
odd that everything that we did in our past lives is happening
now. I mean, there are obvious differences, but your duty was to
protect the Princess and my instincts had always told me to do the
same." Candra rolled onto her side and looked at Mako. "I
wonder if it has always been that way; you know, we live, we die,
and we are reborn to perform the same functions we did the last
time."
"It is a possibility," agreed Mako.
"And
not just us," Candra continued. "Everyone. What if we
all are designated to perform the same actions with the same
people with only minor differences? It's just that we are lucky
enough to see what happened last time and prevent it from happning
again."
Mako shrugged. "I don't know, but yawn
all this thinking is making me sleepy. So, I'm gonna go to
sleep." Mako rolled over. "'Night."
"Goodnight,
Mako-chan." Candra rolled over. If what I just said was
true, what will happen to
me?
"I
will have energy! I will have my bride!" Sir Grety and his
youma had boxed in the gym and the basketball team started to fall
to the ground. "It is almost time!" he yelled
gleefully.
Greg walked out of the locker room, completely
unaware that Grety was there. When he saw what was going on, he
said, "I guess practice is cancelled." Quickly ducking
back into the locker room before Grety saw him, he dialed Candra's
number. "Come on, come on! Candra!"
"Wha?"
answered Candra who was in the middle of brushing her teeth while
working on her website. "Geg?"
"You and the
girls need to get down here now! Grety's stealing the energy
from my team!"
Candra spit out her toothpaste. "On
it! Thanks! Mako-chan!" Candra closed her cell phone and ran
into her room. "Greg called. His team is being attacked by
Grety."
"Jupiter Crystal Power!"
"Starlight
Crystal Power!"
"Make Up!"
Greg, Jupiter,
StarMoon, and Venus helped the EMTs carry the players to the
ambulance. "I don't get it; we got here and he was gone. We
didn't waste anytime or anything," said
StarMoon.
"Greg-san, why weren't you affected?" asked
Venus.
"I had gone into the locker room. We had ten
minutes before we began, so I took my time," said Greg. "He
might have been almost done when I finally saw what was going on.
I'm sorry."
"That's okay," said Venus. "We
know. . ."
StarMoon's cell phone rang again. "Moshi
Moshi? Jim?. . .Okay, we'll be there. Jim's at the Crown.
Grety's there now."
"Let's do it!" said
Venus.
"Hold it right. . .! Huh?" Venus stopped
herself has she and the other two looked around.
"He's
already done here, too?" said StarMoon. "But Jim called,
like, two seconds ago. It should have taken Grety longer than that
to do this."
"Jim-chan!" Venus tapped his face,
but he did not respond.
"He got everyone this time, even
the people in the back," reported Jupiter.
StarMoon pulled
out her mini. "Minna! Grety is randomly attacking places and
quickly stealing their energy! We need spread out and search for
him! We can't let anyone else get hurt!"
"StarMoon!
He's here at the mall!" yelled Moon. "It's just
ChibiMoon and me!"
"Let's go!" yelled
StarMoon. Jupiter and Venus
nodded.
"Pink
Sugar Heart Attack!" The hearts destroyed one of the youma,
but they just kept coming. ChibiMoon gasped as she and Sailor Moon
were backed into a corner. "Sailor Moon! What are we going to
do?"
"Let me try again. Starlight HoneyMoon Therapy
Kiss!"
The rest of the youma disappeared, but Grety just
snapped his fingers and more took their place. "So, Sailor
Moon. I guess this is the end of you and that little girl. You
know, all I wanted was your sister as my bride and Endymion dead.
I wasn't going to touch you. However, you and all the rest have
foiled me for the last time! This world will now be
mine!"
"Starlight Supreme Thunder!" yelled
StarMoon. An even brighter lighting bolt came out of her Wand
along with more crescent moons and now stars. Grety screamed in
agony. His cape caught on fire and he had to quickly discard it.
His youma also disappeared. "You are getting on my nerves!"
he screamed. "Marry me and I still might let your sister
go!"
"See, there's that word 'might'. I don't
trust it," said StarMoon. "At least, not coming from
your mouth."
Grety screamed and started throwing blasts of
energy everywhere at random. The girls did their best to dodge.
"Venus Love . . .and Beauty. . .Shock!"
"Sparkling
. . .Wide. . Press. . .ure!"
"Moon. . .ACK! Moon
Frisbee!"
Finally, it just got to the point that they had
to hide to save themselves. "Now what?" asked
ChibiMoon.
"I'm here!" called out Saturn.
"So
are we!" called out Mars with Mercury.
StarMoon pulled
ChibiMoon away from the others. "We're gonna do something.
We will be right back."
"Um, okay," said Moon.
"As for the rest of us. . .?"
"Let's see if we
can't keep him in the building," said Venus. "We need
to made sure that the mall does not collapse." Across the
way, one of the stores caved in. "Hopefully he calms down
soon. Come on!"
As he continued his assault, Grety
muttered. "I was loyal to the Moon Queen, but was rejected. I
was loyal to the Earth Queen, but was rejected. I was loyal to the
Dark Queen, but was rejected. My bride! I will not be rejected
again!"
Standing out of the way of the attacks but within
sight of each other, the Sailor Senshi closed their eyes and
started to concentrate all of their energy into forming a barrier
in the mall. Uranus and Neptune ran in and joined them. They could
only hope to keep the mall standing until he calmed down. There
was nothing they could do until then.
"What are we
going to do?" asked ChibiMoon.
"We are going to
unlock our greatest powers," StarMoon answered.
"What
do you mean?"
"When I powered up to Super, right
before I did, I had this. . .feeling. I'm not really sure how to
describe it, but I feel it now." She placed her hand on
ChibiMoon's head. "Somehow, I feel that I need to share
this with you."
ChibiMoon smiled. "Alright!"
StarMoon
smiled right back. "Put the palms of your hands on mine."
ChibiMoon did as she was told. "Now, think about what you
want to do with your powers. Be honest; this won't work for
either of us if one of us is lying."
ChibiMoon nodded. "I
will do my best."
They closed their eyes.
By now, Pluto had joined the others. Grety was starting to wear himself out. Since his attacks weren't as powerful or as frequent, the Senshi were able to repair some of the damage. However, the building was still in danger of collapsing. Also, unbeknownst to them, Grety was also slowing down to start taking their energy.
I
have never had such great friends until I got here, thought
StarMoon. Rarely did a person take the time to really get to
know me. I want to protect these girls, my friends. She
started to glow gray.
I may make fun of her, but I really
love Usagi, thought ChibiMoon. She is so kind and caring
and even though she can be a ditz, I know that I can count on her
when things get really rough.
ChibiUsa is a great kid. Like
Serenity. She can be counted on in a pinch, even if she doesn't
have the power or the knowledge to back herself up.
I just
adore Candra. She is just like Usagi: always ready to help when
things are going wrong. ChibiMoon started to glow pink.
Venus
fell to her knees, followed by Mars and Mercury. Grety had stopped
his attack but the girls were already having what was left of
their energy drained. They had spent so much on trying to keep the
building up, they now they didn't even have enough to attack and
Sailor Moon was too weak to even attempt to fly. "You all
fell for it!" screamed Grety. "And now, in mere moments,
I will have all the energy I need for total domination of the
galaxy!" He smirked. "How ironic; the people who are
supposed to be protecting the Earth are the very people who are
going to bring it's demise. Isn't that right, Prince?"
Mamoru
appeared. He came standing, but since he was also unconscious, he
fell to the ground.
"Mamo-chan," Moon breathed
weakly.
However. . .
. . .without a place to live. .
.
. . .taking care of them becomes. . .
. . .pointless. So,
I want. . .
. . .to use my powers. . .
. . .to protect this
planet. . .
Together, they thought, to live with the
ones I love!
The gray and pink glowing grew brighter until
each was covered by her own light. StarMoon opened her eyes and
saw ChibiMoon's light. She smiled. We are ready.
Chapter Seventeen: StarMoon and ChibiMoon's Power Within. The Moon Queen Arrives!
