Author's Note
I don't OWN Sailor Moon…. Yet the story concept is mine…. Please don't take it without my consent…. PLEASE……….
Serena or Catarina?
Chapter 2: Looks Are Deceiving
Serena awoke slowly, and quickly shivered, grabbing the nearest thing to keep her warm, only to find that it too, was VERY cold.
"Where am I?" she wondered, shivering more. She found herself looking out a window, to a land that was frozen solid. "I guess I should have taken the scarf. Oh, Raye and the others are probably really worried about me. I better find a way out of here."
"You aren't going anywhere Catarina," a voice said from behind. Serena spun to see a woman similar to the one that had held Raye.
"What? My name's not Catarina!" she said. "And I demand to be released this instant!"
"I almost believed that," she said. "You certainly could have fooled me princess."
"Princess?" Serena asked now. "Where am I?"
"Why, your home world, beloved Imperia, where you will be married shortly to your betrothed Knight Terrance."
"WHAT?" Serena screamed. She looked out the window again, and sure enough she saw the festivities below, of people singing and that she was up in a high tower of an extravagant palace.
"See, they are happy for your return," the woman explained.
"But this is all a big mistake. My name is Princess Serenity of the Moon Kingdom!" Serena exclaimed. The woman laughed.
"You certainly love your jokes. She died with that fallen kingdom so long ago. You're lucky you escaped from the fight and sent out a transmission to let us know of your location. We've been tracking you since," she replied. Serena's eyes widened, and then she angrily pulled out her brooch.
"This is my proof. This is the Silver Imperium Crystal. Only Princess Serenity, which is me, can have it!" Serena said, as the girl laughed again.
"It looks like any other Imperial Quartz to me Your Majesty. Now please dress yourself so that you can visit with your mother. She will be happy to know you are home and well."
"BUT I'M SERENITY!" Serena screamed…
"We're waiting here?" Sailor Mars asked, as the group had agreed before leaving they best transform and be ready for a fight.
"We're waiting for Darien to arrive from his overnight flight and Trista promised to check in with Rini for us, seeing as we left without letting her know about Serena. We're waiting on a signal from her. She said the best place to view it was this park," Sailor Mercury said matter of factly.
The sky suddenly lit with fireworks. Yet they spelled a message in Japanese!
"Trista, never know how she manages it," Sailor Venus said.
"Looks can be deceiving," Sailor Jupiter read. "What kind of message is that?"
"We'll find out tomorrow I'm sure," Sailor Mars sighed.
"Oh my goodness!" Sailor Jupiter jumped. Everyone looked around, tense.
"What?" Sailor Mercury asked, as Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus prepared to attack.
"I left the cookies out," Sailor Jupiter admitted sheepishly, as Sailor Mars fumed.
"HOW COULD YOU WORRY ABOUT FOOD AT A TIME LIKE THIS?" she boomed.
"We need Serena back," Sailor Mercury said, as Sailor Venus nodded.
Suddenly a girl appeared from the brush, looking slightly perturbed at the sight of the four Sailors. She said something in English, as Mercury smiled.
"Girls, she wants to know why four foreigners are here dressed like whores, and disturbing the peace I might add."
"WHORES?" Sailor Mars and Venus exclaimed.
"You got to admit, the skirts are short," Sailor Jupiter said with a laugh. "But what was that last part?"
"Disturbing the peace."
"Oh," Sailor Jupiter said, and then she snapped to life. "Apologize and beg her Mercury! We can't get shipped off to jail at this hour of the night! We're so close to Sailor Moon!"
The girl looked at them a little strangely, as all of them noticed the long blond hair and blue eyes.
"Sailor Moon?" they exclaimed…
Catarina looked at the girls again, as they all gave her a strange look in response to her own.
"Sailor Moon?" she wondered. Then finally realizing she did indeed know the language they were speaking, decided to talk back…
"Sailor Moon?" she asked. Sailor Mercury was typing away on her keyboard.
"It's the signal we followed all right. We'll have to wait for Tuxedo until the morning to verify."
"That was almost too easy," Sailor Venus said, looking around.
"I know, I half expect a demon to come jumping out of the brush," Sailor Mars said, looking around too.
"Demon? Tuxedo? Signal?" the girl asked, as Mercury stopped dead in her tracks.
"You recognized three nouns. You know what we're saying?" she asked. The girl thought for a minute, as the group looked at her.
"My name is Catarina. What brings such strange looking women to America? I am still learning, but I believe you are all from Tokyo, correct?"
"Wow, that was good," Sailor Mars. "Sailor Moon, I almost thought that you said your name was Catarina."
The girl took another minute.
"Yes, I said my name is Catarina."
The group's jaws dropped as her distinctly British accent filled the air.
"Look Catarina, you pass as a dead ringer for Sailor Moon. Did you know that?"
"What is Sailor Moon?" the girl said after another painful minute of thought.
"Get out," Sailor Venus said. "You've never heard of Sailor Scouts?"
"No," the girl answered, once again after some thought. They all sweat dropped.
"You're kidding. She's a dead ringer for Sailor Moon, yet she's never heard of us," Sailor Mars said.
"The puzzling thing is that she has a signal that isn't normal," Sailor Mercury said. The girl raised her hand, showing her desire to speak as she thought of a response.
"I am allergic to hot environments. It is a rare disease of which I rarely share with people. Would this explain your 'signal' of which you speak?" the girl asked. "And you still have not explained why you are here."
"Uhh," the group said, looking at her.
"This is a park owned by my school. If you are trespassing, I suggest you leave now before I have to call for security," the girl said, sounding angry.
"It seems we are unwelcome here," Sailor Mars said curtly.
"Wow Mars, chill out," Sailor Venus said. She looked to the girl. "Listen, we are looking for a friend of ours named Sailor Moon. She was kidnapped not too long ago and we have to protect her. Have you seen anyone else that looks even remotely like you?"
"DEMON!" Sailor Jupiter shouted, as a demon seemed to come through a rip in the sky. It landed on its two feet, its hands dragging on the ground, claws curled and scrawny arms dark. The demon reminded them of an ape.
"There was a demon here," Sailor Venus mused. The girl behind them suddenly pushed them out of the way, and walked over to the demon, a fierce, cold look in her eyes. The demon started to back away.
She said something very quietly to it, as its darkened eyes widened and it ran off, scared senseless. Sailor Mercury looked shocked.
"Translation?" Sailor Jupiter asked.
"She just told it to leave her alone," she replied. Once again her hand was raised, indicating she was trying to speak.
"It comes every night to harm me, that thing. I tell it the same thing, and it runs. That is all I do," the girl replied.
"She just scared off a demon!" Sailor Mars shouted.
"What is wrong with her to scare off a demon?" Sailor Venus mused again. "Maybe it thought she was Sailor Moon, like we did. I wouldn't blame it."
Her hand was raised again.
"This Sailor Moon, what is it?" she replied with difficulty
"The what is a who," Sailor Mercury corrected. "Her name is Sailor Moon, she is a guardian of this planet. She keeps us safe from monsters and demons, like that one."
"Or we keep her safe from them," Sailor Mars muttered.
"Not the point," Sailor Mercury said. "We need help. We must find her. The Universe is in peril if we do not."
"Peril? Peril of what?" the girl, Catarina, now asked.
"Destruction! Doomsday! What does it sound like?" Sailor Mars said, exasperated.
The girl held a pained expression on her face.
"I feel for your cause, yet I have not seen this Sailor Moon of whom you speak. Would you kindly leave the premises?"
"Yeah," the girls said dismally, leaving the grounds to find a minor refuge for the night…
"You followed this girl," Darien asked. "To find that it wasn't Serena you had found, but someone who looked almost exactly like her?"
The girls heads all hung low.
"And Lita left her cookies out?" Darien asked. No response. "Any other bad news?"
"She has a signal that is different. No disease can cause this," Amy said, looking at the computer again. "She seemed so sure of herself. Hey Raye, didn't you say a woman grabbed you?"
"Yes, but what are you getting at?"
"I think she's our key to finding Sailor Moon," Amy said. She's was welcomed with stares on that comment. "Seriously. Wasn't it beyond strange that she could so easily blame the whole thing on her disorder?"
"Okay, it was, but what are you getting at?" Mina asked.
"Maybe she knows were Sailor Moon is, but is just faking it," Lita said, catching onto Amy's train of thought. The group looked at the idea in a thoughtful manner, and Raye shook her head.
"The woman who grabbed me had blue hair."
"How do you know that?" Lita asked. Raye presented the strands of hair. "You ripped them off her head, and managed to hold onto them?"
"Believe it or not yes."
"Well, just to let you know I don't," Lita said simply.
"Let me see that hair," Amy said. Raye handed it to her, as Amy went to work on the computer, her eyes lighting up. "I thought so."
"What?" the group asked.
"Whoever has Serena, has a similar DNA structure to that girl we met."
"So we were, ironically, on the right track?" Mina asked.
"Yes, this is another example of irony," Amy sighed.
"She wasn't kidding when she said looks can be deceiving," Lita laughed. "That was a decent message."
"Let's hope that's right," Darien sighed, looking to the sky.
"If that girl has anything to do with it, I'll beat her to a pulp," Raye thought viciously…