Chapter One – Memoriam Overdrive
No matter how fast she ran, she couldn't get away. A terrible chill had settled over her, causing quivers to join the quaking of her body, a product of her intense fear and apprehension. The echoing of her footsteps through the damp alleys of Tokyo were a thousand monsters chasing her at once, though she had only truly seen the one. Memories of shadow and claw filled her head while drowning out any rational thought. She had never been more afraid in her life.
The girl slowed a bit at the fourth alley, blindly trying to find anyone who could aid her or send for help. For some reason, no one seemed to be around. The streets seemed cold and barren, even in the late afternoon, and the cool winter air was searing her skin. Her vapor clouded her vision, but she couldn't stop. Biting back her gasping and whimpering, she ran on. She had to get away from it! Unfortunately, that wasn't how this story was going to end.
The first glimpse of the face again made a scream force its way out of her mouth. Deceptive and deadly, that smile was not the kind which made someone stop and chat about the weather. She knew that if she stopped, she would die. Whatever it was chasing her wouldn't be interested in her upcoming bridal shower or newly purchased wedding dress. All it wanted was her fear. That fear was brought to the surface in a shrilled scream which broke the cold air; a scream instigated by the one thing she hoped for more than anything. Someone had come for her.
Grasping onto the shirt of her savoir, her sobs wet the cloth as she pleaded for help and safety. Perhaps it was the need to not be alone when danger was about, but she didn't care who it was as long as they were with her. Something had to scare the monsters back into the darkness. She was merely grateful someone had come to help her.
"Are you afraid?" asked the figure that felt her clawing fear. The voice cut colder than the air and she froze, her fingers still wrapped tightly around the fabric of the clothes. Despite running faster than she ever had before just moment ago, she was now feeling the quake of fear fill her anew. Though every part of her wanted to just freeze and wish everything to go away, something forced her to look up to her savior.
Blazing green eyes bronzed the failing light and wedged ice throughout her body, promoting insolence to the biting air of night which came blowing in almost as her eyes fell upon him. Something unholy burned with those eyes. She could see hatred, malevolence and a resentment which she had never seen in the eyes of a person before. It was more terrifying than a thousand smiling fangs following her in the night. Remarkably, she completely forgot the fear of the first monster.
Her false savior darkened his brow, looking down at her as bird to stone. "Don't worry. It will all be a dream in a moment. Sleep," the man cooed. This time the voice had the opposite affect on her. Her body loosened at his chest, then a piercing at her neck tweaked her senses. As she fell into the waiting arms of a smaller shadow, the false savior pulled his flawed shirt tight and scowled, still dwelling within the shadows. "Another soldier for her army. Get out of my sight," he snarled. The smaller shadow bowed, then faded into the air without a trace.
The savior lingered a moment, staring at nothing and feeling much the same. Time passed like a grain of sand in a breeze, an instant falling prey to thoughts of the past. The city looked the exact same, yet was colder – more repugnant. When his empty hand moved up to his collar, he weaned like a dying tree – only to dry and break at the first weathering of a storm. With a glance into the sky, peat green eyes narrowed into focus at the great beacon in the heavens. "The moon. I hate the moon. I hate the stars. I hate…" he said but such hatred seemed to overpower words. As the words of his own lament came back to him, his voice faded. Empty of anything valuable, he closed his eyes and quivered, immersed in his own distress. He felt as cold as the world around him. He finished his malicious thoughts with a bitter laugh, "Everything."
A flash of black lighting signaled his departure, leaving the alleyway empty and fearful. No one would speak of the young girl's fate in the morning. Even the sun, as it dipped below the horizon, would forget the moment of one girl. She would not be the last. As inevitable as life itself, harm came to the Earth once more. To defend, the planet would call upon its champions to deflect the evil and spare the population. This story would begin like any other.
The story would begin with a dream.
Dreams had always been a source of inspiration, consultation and prediction for Usagi. Things which would come and things which had been had always seemed to be illustrated within the bounds of her dreams. Dreams seemed to be the novel of existence. Fear and lament were dissolved in her sleep, or intensified tenfold with a breaking gasp and a cold sweat. However, they were also the warm embrace of a destiny and heritage. Like any valuable thing, dreams were as sharp as they were brilliant.
Her dreams lately were those of lament.
Sitting up quickly, Usagi's breath played a cruel trick on her as it eluded her lips, the force of the air she reached for swelling her bosom and rattled the smallest joints of her bed. She had been having nightmares even before the news began to fill with the strange statistics of missing girls in Tokyo. This news fell onto her heavily for she could not dismiss the fact that things hadn't been concluded with the events of a few months prior. Her life had changed when they had all come and gone. Now, with the memories barely beginning to fade and her heart barely beginning to sleep at night, things began to spiral out of control once more.
Looking to her nightstand, Usagi's eyes dulled in the sparse moonlight seeping in from her window, the object of her attention casting shadow onto her mirror with malicious innocence. "Mamo-chan…" she whispered. Even her voice seemed to fail at fully expressing the depth of how hard his disappearance had hit her, not to mention the circumstances at which she lost him. Not only had Mamoru been lost into want, but also the jaded senshi of which she had grown very close to. These were days when she couldn't even look at Rei without feeling a tearing of her heart.
Hunched forward and catatonic, Usagi stared at the intricate designs the obstructions of the moonlight made on her bed cover. No one she longed for showed themselves in her dreams anymore. Mamoru's face was blurred and obscure, Yamito's memory had all but diminished and even Rei would not comfort her in her sleep. She truly felt alone for the first time. All which permeated her dreams now were screams of fear and desperation which could not be quenched by her waking.
Always, there was the gathering of water and the reflection. Never was it her reflection, but a person of great malice and power who stared back with eyes burning red. This woman, always staring right back at Usagi in any form she felt, was the embodiment of all which kept Usagi awake at night.
Her dreams were then torn in two by a flash of light and a mere instant of clarity which always escaped her a moment after she awoke. Frustration had never dreamt before.
The only other thing she could ever remember was a tree, waning low to the ground and hanging leaves just above the water. With leaves browning and trunk cracking, only one thing kept this being from falling to the water to drown and it was a shackle of white metal which clasped the trunk and fastened a chain to a spot on the ground. It was this white metal which kept the tree aloft and, as much as Usagi could understand, suspended it from consumption. Of these things, she didn't know the meaning.
All she knew was that her dreams abandoned her.
The Ministry of Education had declared a special vacation for all schools within Tokyo because of the growing number of young girls disappearing. The schools in the Juuban district were barren of life as worried parents and attentive police officers kept an eye on the street for anything suspicious. Not one person had seen one of these abductions, which seemed like a probable impossibility since there had been so many, but it was all they could do to help.
Yet, there were others who could do more.
It was defiance to the request. All of the senshi had gathered in a single place to discuss this growing threat, giving some criminals the perfect chance to snare an entire group of prime subjects. At least, that was what Rei's grandfather had been preaching about the entire time. Despite having a polite Ami to sit and listen to his ranting about the dangers of such a party, the girls had all come.
Meetings of this sort had radically changed in the waning days of the year. Usagi, along with Rei, seemed eternally preoccupied with the matters of their hearts, though every one of the girls could be prescribed this condition. Usagi and Rei were the hardest hit. "Another three girls disappeared this week. It's unreal," Minako remarked and idly flipped through a newspaper whose front page read loudly of girls going missing in Tokyo. It was such broad news that all directions pulsed with the sound of it.
Makoto was pale, for she had felt somewhat sick as of late. All of the girls had made comments about it but nothing seemed to make sense about it. Physically, she felt fine. None of her joints ached, nor did any of her muscles. Her head was fine and her stomach set. It was something buried which ailed her, something that had neither cure nor symptom. Letting out a weak sigh, she leaned back against the steps and looked to Haruka and Michiru, hoping for some wisdom and grace. Neither had any quick answers. "We've been looking for weeks now and there isn't anything to find. These girls just vanish," Haruka snorted and shifted her arms across her chest, a distinct contrast to the light presence of her significant other.
Michiru nodded and looked dim. "There is no trace or sign. If it is someone, they aren't making themselves known," she added.
"Perhaps they are looking for one of us again," Ami asked as she broke away from her conversation to joint them. None of them seemed to really have an idea about what was going on, but they all wanted to know the truth. "What do you think, Rei-chan?" she said as she turned her eyes to the priestess of the shrine.
Rei had been staring at a bare cherry tree since everyone had come. She wasn't usually so distant, but it was getting harder and harder to stay focused lately. She had Yamito to blame for that. Unlike Usagi, her dreams had been completely bare, forcing her to reach out for memories which burned more than they soothed. Where she lay hoping for a touch on her skin, she found cold air. When she looked into the flames for those dark eyes and that reserved fear of himself, she only found destruction. Even now, as her friends looked on and her grandfather lingered elsewhere in concern, she could find no relief of him. No one knew the loss of something so precious.
"Rei-chan?" Ami asked again.
"Hmm?" she finally responded and looked back to her friends. They all looked at her in great concern and she did the cruelest thing to them. She smiled and feigned happiness. "I'm sorry. I guess I spaced out there a little," responded the distraught girl.
"There's something going on," said someone else. Everyone was quick to look to Usagi, who sat forward leaning on her knees and staring into the ground. She had been distant as well. Everyone knew why. "I've been having these terrible dreams lately. They seem so peaceful, but they're cold and empty. I keep hoping to see Mamoru in them but he never comes. But…" she began but the subject became too painful. Her face had explained the depth of these concerns more passionately than any words could have, causing each of the girls to frown slightly. Usagi slowly looked up, though didn't even attempt to mock them with a smile. There was pain in her that burned and pierced and nothing she knew of could make it go away.
Yet, as time and destiny had always proven, hope still existed somewhere in those eyes. "Things aren't finished yet. There are too many questions that were left unanswered and too many things which were still in that place. He has to be behind this. I know I couldn't have finished him," she said, her brow dropping at the thought of Anubis. It was something sweet and sour to all of them. Anubis had been a foe of tremendous power and ability, mocking them with his superior smirk through the lips of their loved friend, but his survival also meant that somewhere Mamoru could still be alive. If they could do anything to help their princess, they would do so.
This note of hope was accented by the arrival of another. A figure was approaching that sent all of them on guard. It caused the soldiers in them to stand. Yet when they saw who it was, a wave of relief and happiness came over them. Her return marked the beginning of their convalescence.
Setsuna stepped into the courtyard slowly, her figure breaking the scene in hues of green and purple. There was a distinct expression of sorrow in her eyes as she approached them, for the tidings from her absence lay on her like a great weight. The things Jikan had told her, she knew, were superficial due to the fact that her involvement in this would be directly relevant to the outcome. In fact, he had told her many things which had come as very strange, almost foreboding. It didn't sit well with her. It was the small details which he had told her that caused the worst pain. She looked over each of them, tapping what she knew as truth for each of them and giving them her support with each timid step. "I'm afraid Usagi is correct," she said as she broke the air with her voice. Each of the girls looked to her with an impending dread of knowledge; knowledge that what Setsuna had to say was usually what had to be. She was, after all, the senshi of time. "I have learned who it is that is taking all of these girls. What she plans to do with them, I do not know, but what I do know is that Mamoru is with her," she said bluntly. She had always been one to bypass the drama of words. She simply did her duty. Her explanation made Usagi gasp, heightened by the information of her beloved.
Haruka quirked a brow. "She?" she said gravely.
Setsuna nodded. "Yes. I do not know her name, nor do I know how she is involved with Anubis, but what I do know is that she has adopted his objectives. She is the one who is taking all of these girls to create a barrier of protection around her. She fears you all. But, there is another thing which makes this critical," the ageless soldier explained. The potential of having enemies was not lost on any of the girls, so this revelation did not hit any of them hard. It was the lingering silence which Setsuna let fall onto them which unsettled their faces. She continued with a dropping tone, "It concerns the fate of the Scion."
This had an entirely different affect on the girls. Those who had cherished the fallen soldiers of the other realm felt disbelief wash over them. In their hearts, they each knew that somehow they would see their cherished ones again – that theirs was a death too unnatural and too early for mercy to allow. Yet it was still difficult to believe and it was only because Setsuna was the one telling them that they truly appreciated its merit. Questions about Anubis fell away. Concerns about Hotaru were laid aside. Even Mamoru's state of being felt secondary.
They were gripped by the ignorance of love.
However, Setsuna's eyes, though hoping to show her happiness to the few, could not hide the intense remorse she felt towards the one senshi she now approached. Things would only become harder for her, but she could not say a word. Everything was speculation, even to her, since Jikan had refused to say more. Yet she did know that an element of the return would be so sour that it could possibly spoil the sprouting smiles on the girls' faces. She lamented the fact that good things never came alone. There was always a tarnished lining.
There was just pity in Setsuna as she placed a hand on Makoto's shoulder, beginning the path of pain and tears for the young girl. She knew the young princess wasn't prepared for it, though there was little choice in the matter. Whether or not any of them would endure the trials ahead, Setsuna looked deeply into Makoto's fearful eyes and rang the gong of anticipation with her soft voice, "It's time."