Author: Chesza
Category: Gundam Wing/Sailor Moon
Genre: Drama/Romance
Rating: R (just to be safe)
Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or Gundam Wing.
Summary: The senshi face off against their toughest foe yet. All the senshi have lost their lives except for Sailors Saturn and Mars, who are spared because of a mistake on the enemy's part that sends them to the year AC 200. Physically uninjured, but in barely living state, Saturn and Mars are discovered by the ex-Gundam pilots. This meeting sparks a turn of events that were never meant to happen.
Author's Note: This is slightly AU, just so you know. Also, I've never seen the Stars season of Sailor Moon, so I'm just going on hunches here. I've also never read the manga so I'm basing this entire story on the anime. Same for Gundam Wing. Saturn and Mars have already progressed to their "Eternal" form so you'll be seeing two new attacks. This is most definitely Hotaru/Heero. I'm thinking about pairing Rei up with someone, but I don't know who yet. Probably not Wufei as that is completely overdone. Besides, I firmly believe that Rei was very much in love with Yuuichiro, so I feel that she is attracted to that sort of guy. Anyway, please read on! I promise my author's notes usually won't be this long in the beginning.
(By the way, this chapter is titled "Ai no Senshi" mainly because I was listening to "Ai no Senshi" by Ishida Yoko, which is incidentally from Sailormoon to begin with.)
Chapter One – Ai no Senshi
Brilliant lights of every spectrum of colour erupted from the centre of Crystal Tokyo. Buildings crumbled and collapsed as each light grew brighter and brighter, illuminating the midnight sky that was covered with a thin veil of dust.
A group of fourteen people were there, five of them facing off with the other four. The rest of them were scattered throughout the area, bodies limp, lifeless, and completely broken. They were momentarily ignored as a more important matter needed to be faced.
"You stupid, stupid senshi," chided a young girl no older than twelve with long, luxuriously flowing ice-blue hair. Her three minions, Thistle, Ivy, and Saffron stood in front of her, acting almost like a shield. "How many times do I need to beat you until you get the hint?"
A wind picked up around the girl, swirling about her, running through her long ice-blue hair. Her eyes glowed a fierce red. "You cannot win!"
Like a volcano, fire erupted from the ground near Sailor Mercury, scorching her and causing her to fly across the area, landing harshly against a concrete building. As she slid down, she left behind a trail of blood.
"Mercury!" Sailor Venus cried out as she ran to her friend. However, more fire erupted from the ground beneath her, sending her flying on the opposite side of the clearing. When she landed, her body became limp and was soon as still as stone.
"I can't take it anymore!" cried Sailor Moon, who until then, merely stood and watched in horror as her friends were slaughtered in front of her. "I won't allow her to kill anymore! You're going to pay for this, Zinnia!"
Swiftly, she took out her sceptre. "Silver Honeymoon Therapy," she said, charging her weapon. "Kiss!"
The array of light burst toward Zinnia and her three guardians. Zinnia merely smirked. "Thistle!" she demanded.
Thistle, a dark-green-haired and pink-eyed young woman, nodded. She held out her hand. Without any incantation, a bright green light shot out and pierced through Sailor Moon's attack.
"Sailor Moon! Watch out!" Sailor Saturn cried, knowing that if the light had penetrated Sailor Moon's attack, it was going straight for her friend.
All Sailor Moon could do was gasp as the light came directly at her and shot through her heart. Her previously furious eyes went blank and as if in slow motion, she began to fall.
Sailor Mars caught her, with Sailor Saturn close behind.
"Usagi-chan... Usagi-chan, wake up. Wake up! USAGI-CHAN!"
Saturn pressed a hand over her mouth as the tears threatened to fall.
In the distance, they heard a devious chuckle. "Stupid, stupid girl. Thought she could use such a puny attack on me? Doesn't she know that her powers are nothing compared to mine and my friends' powers? Did she really think-?"
"Shut up," ordered a calm, yet edgy voice.
Zinnia blinked. "Excuse me?"
Sailor Mars looked up at her, her eyes bright with unshed tears. "I told you to shut your fucking mouth."
Zinnia blushed naively at the use of the foul word. "How dare you-!"
Sailor Mars jumped up. "I told you to SHUT UP!" she screamed.
Saturn clenched a fist over her heart and looked away, trying to stop the tears from flowing.
Zinnia bristled and clenched her fists. "Thistle! Ivy! Saffron! Get rid of those girls and hurry up! I will not have someone be so rude to me!"
All three nodded in unison. But before they could charge their attacks, Sailor Mars began charging towards them. Startled, they leapt out of her way. As she ran, Mars pulled her arm back and just as she neared Zinnia, she threw it full-force into the girl's face.
The punch sent her flying a few feet. Once she stopped skidding, Zinnia gingerly touched her jaw and cringed. "I…i…i-itai…." When she pulled her hand away and saw blood, she became enraged.
Zinnia stood immediately, her previously beautiful doll-like face twisted with pure hatred. This time, not only did her eyes glow red, but her whole person was saturated with the eerie glow. "I'm going to kill you for this!" she cried at Sailor Mars.
Volcanoes erupted all around the group. Saturn jumped back just in time to avoid being hurled into the air and back down again, effectively killing her in the process, and narrowed her eyes at the brightness of the molten rock.
Sailor Mars looked around, fear edging its way into her adrenaline rush, but she refused to stumble back. She stared at Zinnia, defiance sparkling in her violet eyes.
Zinnia, who usually relied on the environment as a focal point of her attacks, threw her hands out in front of her. A swirling ball of red light form in her palms. She felt a surge of adrenaline at the shear power radiating from her attack. With a nasty grin, she gathered more of her power and then thrust it out, pushing it from her and towards the senshi of Mars.
Sailor Mars gasped as the red light neared her. She could vaguely hear Saturn calling out to her and the girl's fast approaching footsteps. But she could not tear her gaze from the dazzling light heading straight for her. It was beautiful in a way that should've never held beauty.
Sailor Mars felt something collide against her, but it was too late. She gasped as she realised that not only was she going to be hit with this attack, but so was Sailor Saturn, who had tried to tackle her so she would get out of the way.
The red light struck them, and everything suddenly flew into slow motion. The girls tightened their hold on one another as if that would shield them from the obvious result of the attack. The last thing either of them saw before everything blacked out was the other and bright crimson light.
The light vanished as if it had never been, and left no traces of its existence – not even the bodies of the girls who had been targeted.
Saffron, Ivy, and Thistle looked on. Why weren't they there, their bodies as still as statues? Surely Zinnia's attack wasn't powerful enough to completely eradicate them. They looked up at Zinnia, questions in their eyes.
Zinnia stood where she was, panting heavily, her power slowly flickering away. Exhaustion hit her like an anvil and she fell promptly onto her knees. Her three loyal friends caught her. Thankful for the tight hold Saffron had around her small, frail body, Zinnia half-heartedly tried to fight off the sleep that threatened to take hold of her, just enough to see the result of her attack.
When her eyes fell upon the site of the attack, dread crawled through her. "Where are they?" she asked in a soft voice, laced with lethargy and trepidation.
"We don't know," Ivy replied in an equally soft voice. "They just…disappeared. The light was so bright, we couldn't see inside the attack. That was very impressive, Zinnia."
Zinnia's mouth twitched into a lazy smile. "I hadn't even known myself capable of such a feat, but alas," she commented in a light, amused voice. "I just don't know what could've happened. They weren't supposed to…well, they were supposed to be there."
Thistle furrowed her brow. "What power did you tap into?"
Zinnia sighed into Saffron's chest. "I'm not sure. I was positive I had used the power I reserve for killing, but I can sense that it is just as prominent as ever. I must've…oh, no…." A sudden wave of cold fear gripped at her heart. No, it couldn't possibly be. She searched and searched inside herself, but she could find no significant trace of it left. It was still there, but she could barely feel it.
"What is it, Zinnia?" Saffron asked, concern etched in his features.
How could she have been so stupid? So reckless? "I used the wrong power. I can't believe it…," she whimpered. "I used my time-travel powers."
Thistle, Ivy, and Saffron exchanged wide-eyed glances.
"I…sent them into the future."
The first thing Sailor Saturn felt upon awakening was pain, horrible pain laced through every muscle and bone in her body. Wait. She felt something?
Her eyes flew open, and she was greeted with a blinding light. She closed her eyes again and rolled over onto her stomach, moaning lightly.
She heard her moan echoed by someone close to her. Her heart thudded in her chest. This time, she opened her eyes slowly and kept them narrowed, trying to block out any light that would most likely shine through.
Her vision was annoyingly blurry, but she could make out a vague shape to her right, clad in red and with very long dark hair. "Rei-chan?" she asked hoarsely, her throat burning.
She heard her own name come muffled from her friend's lips.
Ignoring the flashes of pain, Sailor Saturn pushed herself up into a sitting position. She tried to shake the intense wave of vertigo that ensued, but the result just made her stomach rebel.
Eventually, the vertigo subsided and she was able to look around at her settings. Even though her vision was still slightly blurry, she was able to make out that she didn't recognise her surroundings at all. In fact, everything looked so unfamiliar, that it sent a wave of panic through her already stressed system.
"Where are we?" Obviously, Sailor Mars had come to all the way and had done exactly what Sailor Saturn had done.
Buildings that were crumbling beyond repair, wary children alternating between filtering through the trash bins and staring at the newcomers, and a smell that reminded the two senshi of pollution and waste. This was most certainly not Crystal Tokyo. Or, at least, not the Crystal Tokyo they knew.
With equal assistance from the other, the girls managed to get on their feet. They were pleasantly surprised to find that they weren't injured physically, except for sore muscles, a very unpleasant headache, dry throats, and slightly blurry vision that was slowly, but surely, returning to its normal clarity. Their brains were muddled a bit, but they weren't in the least surprised about that. Their whole situation was very confusing at this point.
"I think the first thing we should do is de-transform. I'm pretty sure we look like aliens in these outfits," Sailor Saturn murmured as she looked at herself.
Sailor Mars agreed with a grimace. With little effort, their senshi uniforms disappeared and were replaced with their street clothes: Hotaru sporting a thick maroon sweater that was stifling in the heat, a pair of faded blue jeans, and a pair of white trainers; and Rei clad in a long-sleeve red T-shirt, a pair of dark blue jeans, and a pair of red Mary-Jane shoes.
"What do we do now?" Hotaru asked after a short moment of silence.
Rei, feeling more exhausted than she had ever felt, shrugged. "I don't know," she replied in a sort of dead voice. "We could probably walk around, at least get a vague idea of where we are and what we can expect."
"Do you think we're in another part of Japan?" asked Hotaru as they began walking.
They began walking down the streets, littered with parentless children, stray animals, and unfriendly-looking people who barely glanced in their direction. "No," replied Rei. "Look at these people – they're definitely not Japanese. Definitely Western."
Hotaru nodded. She reached into her pocket and pulled out two pairs of earrings – one pair black, the other pair purple. "In that case, we'll need these." She offered the black pair to Rei, who put them in her earlobes, discarding her previous red ones. Hotaru did the same with her purple ones.
"Hotaru…?" Rei asked as they began walking again.
"Yes?"
"Um, what are these for exactly?"
Hotaru blinked and then realisation dawned on her. "Oh, that's right – you five didn't come with me, Haruka-papa, Michiru-mama, and Setsuna-mama to Europe, did you?" Rei shook her head. "Well, these earrings act as sort of a translation device. We'll hear people who aren't speaking Japanese speak Japanese in our ears, while we'll automatically begin to speak whatever language they're speaking in. They're very useful."
Rei nodded, amazed. "I could've really used these on my foreign language tests," she muttered.
Hotaru chuckled. "Setsuna-mama wouldn't have allowed you to."
At the mention of Setsuna, Haruka, and Michiru, the previous events flashed through their minds, and they sobered up instantly.
After an extended period of silence, Hotaru finally spoke up, fighting down the tears that threatened to surface. "So," she said with bated breath, "we know we're in a Western country – most likely England, America, or some other English-speaking country judging from the billboards. What do we do now?"
"We should probably find somewhere to sleep. But, since we only have yen and this isn't Japan, I don't see how we'd be able to pay," offered Rei.
Hotaru cursed under her breath, and then another dawn of realisation lit up her face. "Of course – now I feel really stupid," she muttered, reaching into her pockets.
"What?" Rei asked curiously.
Hotaru pulled out a black leather wallet. It seemed simple enough. Rei wondered why Hotaru looked so excited, and she asked. "Because," Hotaru answered. "Once you put any form of currency into this wallet, it immediately turns into the equivalence of its foreign counterpart. In this case, yen into…whatever it is they use in whatever country we're in. We'll just have to find out what that is first, or else we'd pull out yen again."
Rei nodded and smiled, looking forward to a hot shower and a comfortable bed.
They ventured around and after about an hour or so, found a decent hotel that wasn't too expensive (it turned out they were in a place neither had ever heard of, but they thankfully took dollars, a currency the wallet was familiar with.) After all, they were still school-aged and were surviving off a saved-up allowance. Thankfully, Hotaru was substantially richer than Rei, or they would've had to settle for a flea-infested rat-hole.
They, instead, opted for a comfortable-looking room with a single bed – it was unnecessary for them to spend more money than they absolutely had to. Hotaru's finances would only go so far, and they still had to eat.
Hotaru fell on the bed, having already showered. Rei was getting herself ready to do the same. "Even though it's still the afternoon, I'm so tired. I think I'm going to take a nap," Hotaru informed her.
Rei nodded. "I think I'll do the same."
When Rei shut the bathroom door behind her, Hotaru turned on her side and fingered her pillow with a lost, sad expression in her eyes. She could hear soft sobs penetrating through the noise of the shower coming from the bathroom, and understood Rei's depression completely. She was suffering from it herself.
Her friends, her very best friends in the entire world, had sacrificed their lives. And for what? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Zinnia had won in the end, or at least she thought so, everyone she ever loved or cared about were dead, and she and Rei were stranded in some place unfamiliar, and to Hotaru's limited knowledge, it was a place that didn't exist. Her stressed brain couldn't remember the name of the place, but it wasn't familiar to Hotaru's ears.
Tears welled up in Hotaru's eyes once more, but just like all the other times, she suppressed them with whatever willpower she had left. She barely registered the water turning off and the bathroom door opening before she slipped into a place between sleeping and waking. She could hear what was going on, but she didn't quite register it.
When she felt Rei sink into the mattress beside her, sweet Morpheus finally claimed them both. They slept that day, plagued with nightmares of death, blood, and a bright red light.
"Do you know where they are?" asked Ivy immediately after Zinnia had regained her composure.
Zinnia's eyes slid shut for a moment, but she shook her head violently and opened them again. "They're in the future – that much I am certain of. How far into the future, is another question entirely. Definitely not after the year known as After Colony 300, but most likely not before the Third Apocalypse."
"So, they could be anywhere in a time period of 300 years?" Thistle chuckled bitterly. "Shouldn't be too hard to track them down."
"We have time, Thistle," sighed Zinnia. Staying awake was far harder as time progressed. "We won't be able to travel in time – or at least, very far in time – until I regain all of my power back."
"How long do you think that will take?" asked Saffron in his smooth, soft voice.
"Probably…a few…months…at…least…," Zinnia trailed off, unconsciousness sweeping over her.
Saffron gathered the small girl into his arms and stood. "We'll have to go back now," he told the girls. "This place holds no meaning for us anymore."
Ivy sighed. "How I loathe it when things don't go as planned."
Thistle sneered. "I wish Zinnia wouldn't have gotten so angry and attacked with that power – it could have totally made us fail."
Saffron smiled fondly at the slumbering girl in his arms. "Zinnia's just like that – always acts before she thinks. She's very much a child in that respect."
"Yes, but she could have killed her. Then where would we be?" Ivy asked.
Thistle grinned wickedly. "I guess it's a blessing in disguise, isn't it, that Zinnia used her time travel powers instead of her killing powers?"
They nodded simultaneously. "We'll wait, for now. But when Zinnia recovers fully, we'll complete our mission."
They disappeared in thin air, leaving behind the corpses of the former senshi.
A few second passed, and then the clouds parted. A ray of glittering light that could have been mistaken as sunshine fell upon the bodies of the senshi. It showered upon them for a moment, before it slowly crept back towards the Heavens, carrying with it the eight souls of the dead Sailor Senshi. The bodies faded into nothing, and the area was left with no evidence that there had ever been a battle at all.
Afterword: What did you think of that? I know, the G-boys didn't appear in this chapter at all. I'm very sorry about that, but getting the senshi into this time period took a lot of time. Don't you fret, my little pets, because the G-boys will absolutely will be making their debut in Chapter Two. Any feedback or constructive criticism is highly appreciated and will be loved and adored by this fanfic writer.
Chesza
