Author's Note
I don't OWN Sailor Moon…. Yet the story concept is mine…. Please don't take it without my consent…. PLEASE……….
Hey, if anyone knows anything about Japanese table manners, I'd like to know. It's for a future chapter, and I'm not up to looking too much like an idiot on etiquette…he he. So please e-mail me if you know something.
Okay, so the chapter has a downer title with better news than what we were given last chapter. Enjoy and Happy Holidays!
Serena or Catarina?
Chapter 9: Tears
"Are you okay Sailor Moon?" Luna exclaimed from the sidelines.
"I'm alive!" Sailor Moon/Catarina said, sounding somewhat terrified.
"It would help so much more if you could use the Moon Tiara," Luna sighed. Then the cat jumped. "SAILOR MOON! LOOK OUT!"
Sailor Moon/Catarina saw the blade coming and screamed, out of time to move. The rose struck, as the two looked to the area from whence it came.
"Tuxedo Mask!" Sailor Moon/Catarina exclaimed, noting that both Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mercury were jumpy now. This must be Endymion.
"How dare you threaten a life as sweet as the cherry blossom? In the darkest of hours she seems to see through your evil like a devil behind the ice. We just try to live in peace, and you threatening that peace is unacceptable."
"Who are you?" Terrance asked, bewildered as Sailor Moon/Catarina scurried back from him while his attention was drawn.
"I am Tuxedo Mask," he announced.
"You are all annoying," Terrance said, turning back to the spot where Sailor Moon/Catarina had been, and was furious to discover that she had moved and was back on her feet. "And I will kill you!"
"Thank you Tuxedo Mask," Sailor Moon/Catarina exclaimed, holding the scepter firmly. He landed by her.
"Your welcome. What are they up to?"
"No clue. I'm the distraction," Sailor Moon/Catarina whispered. "Are you who he's looking for?"
"He doesn't know that," Tuxedo Mask replied.
"Good point," Sailor Moon/Catarina replied.
"Look out you two!" Luna shouted again, as Tuxedo Mask and she both turned to look too late to jump away. Instead Sailor Moon/Catarina used the scepter to block the shot, pushing against it with all her might. Terrance pushed back, trying to break her down, and effectively was distracted again. She watched as Sailor Mercury and Sailor Jupiter both placed a scarf on the back of his belt, tying a knot and backing away. Then it was time for them to get serious.
"Hang on Sailor Moon!" Sailor Jupiter shouted.
"MERCURY—"
"MARS FLAME SNIPER!"
The three turned to see that Sailor Mars had fired, and almost singed Sailor Moon/Catarina's hair. Then she spun, and Tuxedo Mask caught her.
"It's okay," he whispered.
"I know," Sailor Moon/Catarina said, tears in her eyes. "I know."
Terrance came out of the flames well-scathed, as he cursed under his breath.
"I'll be back," Terrance said to the now Sailor Scouts to the left of him. Then he looked at Tuxedo Mask and the girl he held close. "YOU TWO! YOU WILL DIE BY MY HANDS ONE DAY! THIS I SWEAR!"
And with that, he was gone. Sailor Mercury, Jupiter, and the third all ran over to Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon/Catarina.
"Are you okay?" they all asked.
"I wish I knew," she whispered. "I wish I knew."
"You wish you knew what?" the red Sailor Scout asked.
"Who I am. Never mind the fact that I was scared beyond all reason, but I am pretending to be a girl with superpowers in hopes that I can find my own identity."
"It's all right. You don't have to do anything. We can scare him away."
"It's not him I worry about. It's demons. Like the one that showed up at my school. It could come here, and then what?"
"We kick its butt!" Sailor Jupiter replied. Sailor Moon/Catarina shook her head.
"They've beaten you before. Otherwise you wouldn't be here before, in the time we're in now. You would still be in that time, that place. In fact, the fact that you remember and I don't is almost haunting. The fact that you somehow whisked away to this time without having to watch countless of people you learn to live for and care about deeply die, as you never age, is more torture than any fires I could ever face. In fact, this Serena girl that you know and love, she's probably the same way."
"Hey, don't be taking out your personal issues on us!" the red scout shouted.
"Yeah! What's the big deal?" Sailor Jupiter demanded.
"I'm sorry," Sailor Moon/Catarina said quickly. "You're right. I shouldn't be placing my personal issues in your care. You can hardly comprehend them as is."
And with that she ran off from the group…
Serena awoke in the arms of Guard Thomas, who was trying to fan her awake.
"Are you all right?" he asked her, as she slowly came to her senses. Grabbing her brooch, she looked again to have her fears confirmed, and her eyes welled up with tears. Thomas held her close, giving her what little comfort he could.
"Why? Why? WHY?" Serena sobbed. "Why must this happen to me? Why must I have to be kidnapped? Why did I turn down Raye? Why?"
"Relax Princess," Thomas whispered. "You'll survive. You'll get home. I'll make sure of it. Besides, there is some good news."
"What's that?" Serena asked.
"I just," Thomas started, and stopped himself, wondering what possessed him to start that strange phrase. "I just found out that Terrance has returned without a head today. Endymion is still safe and sound. Yet he claims he has a trophy showing that he has even managed to try and slay a few of Endymion's protectors. It's a white scarf."
Serena suddenly, upon hearing that, burst out laughing. Thomas was so confused that he couldn't help but stare. It was the first time he had ever seen one of the princesses laugh.
"That? A trophy?" she laughed. She dried her eyes, as Thomas helped her to her feet. "That, my friend, was good news! The girls are going to find me!"
"Who? The girls?" Thomas asked.
"Remember when I told you that the royalty of the Silver Millennium came back? They're Sailor Scouts! They swing a teleport and get here in no time!"
"Even with teleports it would take several years to get here," Thomas said sadly. "The only way to go is to travel by a ship or by portal, but even then the technology is ours alone."
Serena sighed.
"And I was in a good mood too," she said.
"That doesn't mean there isn't hope!" Thomas said, shocked with the mood change. "They have definitely found you! That is more hopeful than it was this morning, when Terrance went out. He'll return tomorrow, and I'm sure they'll have a better plan of action for him!"
"You're right," Serena said, her eyes now dry. "Are the demons gone?"
"Yes," he said, looking down some. "I had to leave you here for a moment to tell them that I would go fetch you. They know that could take hours, so I hope you forgive me for leaving you unprotected."
"Leave me unprotected? I'm hardly concerned about that!" Serena said. "I need to get my crystal back…"
Catarina ran down to a classroom, and took a seat, and looked out the window.
"Why did I get so upset?" she wondered, the tears hitting the desk as flowers arose. "Why does this happen every time I cry?"
She watched as the group began to run out of the school building in search of her.
"Is it because they were spared this pain that I feel so angry? I shouldn't have said that though. They were right. However, I cannot begin to understand them. They are so carefree, so willing to risk their own lives. It was like I was useless, and when I tried to fight back, I was helpless."
She looked at her gloved hands as the magic of the Lunar Pen faded, and her scepter she had set upon the desk became the pen.
"I am not Sailor Moon. I am Catarina."
She stared at her hands even more, as she aimed at a board, and thought, but nothing happened.
"Yet I can hardly control my own powers. They only seem to help me when I need them."
She cleared the desk of the flowers, and she wondered what the day would have been like if she had not been interrupted by that man, Terrance. The one who she remembered. It wasn't often that had happened to her. There had been someone in the past who she had remembered their name so clearly, yet they had died before these girls had been reborn.
"Clara."
This girl had been a servant at the palace of King Henry IV, and the two were instant friends. It was one of the few relationships that she had that she was torn to pieces when they died. She was sure someone had gone to test her, and had sent someone from her past to see how she held up. In fact, it was because of Clara that she knew she had indeed been to the Moon Kingdom, and that her miniscule memory was more than just dreams. She sighed as she rested her head, her hand on the Lunar Pen.
"Serena, is that you?" a squeaky voice asked, as Catarina jumped. She saw the gray kitten, and jumped to her feet. "I guess you're Catarina then. They were right. You do look a whole lot like Serena!"
"Diana, are you—Catarina, what in the blazes? You have them searching high and low for you," Luna exclaimed as she came in.
"I'm sorry Luna," Catarina sighed. "I needed to clear my head."
"You were scared, weren't you?" the white cat, Artemis, asked.
"Of what?" Catarina asked, her arms crossed as she took her seat again.
"Of that man, what else?" Artemis said.
"I wasn't afraid of him," Catarina said, as she looked out the window. "This has nothing to do with him..."