Author's Note
I don't OWN Sailor Moon…. Yet the story concept is mine…. Please don't take it without my consent…. PLEASE……….
Hooray for a very productive week! Someone I have the energy to play Tales of Symphonia, work two jobs, do my homework, and work on five different stories! Hooray! Here is where the message of the fires is finally explained, and Serena is a teacher? Oh well….enjoy!
Serena or Catarina?
Chapter 16: Talking About Stars
It was after school. The time had come. Catarina followed Lita into the shrine in which she had awoken only last Sunday, and it was the same place she had made the bargain in exchange for her identity. And it was in this place, she was about to hear the conclusions that the Sailor Scouts had come to thus far about her. It had only been a few hours ago when she'd seen something she hardly recognized anymore—a friendly face. Lita's reassuring smile as she had called her a friend…
"Okay Thomas. No more moping around," Serena said, smiling as she sat by the guard. "Let's play a game."
"A what?" Thomas asked.
"Oh come on! Have you ever played a game before?"
"Yes, but they were games of strength, valor, and brutality. You surely can't be planning to fight to near death with me."
"OH MY GOD! What planet are we on?" Serena screamed, jumping away from him.
"Imperia," Thomas replied bluntly. Serena sighed.
"I don't want to fight with you. I want to play a game like tic-tac-toe or rock-paper-scissors!" she explained.
"What? What are these games like? Do they involve swords or demons?"
"No," Serena said simply, as she went into the entryway, and drew a tic-tac-toe board onto the frosted ice wall. She cringed at the cold on her finger. "This is the board we play on. You be X's and I'll be O's, okay?"
"Okay, but I still don't know what we are doing," Thomas said.
"You've seriously never played this before?" Serena asked.
"No," he replied.
"Okay," Serena said, long and drawn. In one quick breath, she stated the entire game. "YoujusthavetodrawanXintheboxandthenIdrawanOThefirsttogetthreeinarowisthewinner."
"I think I got that," Thomas said, and drew a scribble on the wall.
"That's not an X," Serena started, but sighed. "It looks more like a Z, but that's okay. Now it's my turn…"
"So you see," Amy finished. "You're probably Sailor Imperia and there's a chance that you are indeed Princess Catarina, the girl that those two are hunting for."
"All that and still nothing," Catarina whispered. She smiled to them as her voice rose. "Thank you so much for telling me. It's strange, hearing all of that and yet not one word can I remember as the truth."
"We hoped that it might have triggered some sort of memory," Michelle admitted with a sigh.
"As for the fires, as you know, King Henry the Eighth was the man that Clara and I served for some time. As for Galileo and Aristotle," Catarina said, her voice distancing at "Galileo."
"Do you mind sharing?" Mina asked.
"Terrance is the Polaris, isn't he?" Catarina said finally to herself, chuckling.
"Isn't that the old name for the North Star?" Trista asked, smiling as well.
"Yes, back when I was younger, there was a man I met. His name you would know all too well, yet I will share his true story. Before him was a wide world which believed something he learned was a lie. He tried so hard to spread the truth that he had learned," Catarina explained, smiling some as tears came to her eyes. "He would spend the days preaching, and the nights running. Yet one night, he did indeed find refuge with me. We walked that night among the stars in the vast Italian sky. In one night I had fallen for him, and I wanted him to be safe from those that hunted him down. You know what I asked him? I asked if he would stay with me, and we'd be together forever, safe from those people. Yet you know what he said?"
"Whoa, you fell in love with somebody?" Mina said, stopping the story. The group crashed.
"Mina! Now is not the time to—"
"Aw Raye! But when else will I get to pester a real alien about her love life?" Mina interrupted.
"She's got a point," Lita said.
"What did he say to you Catarina?" Amy asked, pulling them back to the topic at hand.
"My lady, do you see the stars that doth settle upon our skies? They do not dwell there, as small as we see them. They are so far away, and we will never be able to reach them in my lifetime. How is it that we see them, even though they indeed live so far? Well, I believe that the stars above us are shining their lights to us, to warn us of the sin of man. That the brighter they shine, the stronger the message they must hold. So when you see the shining Polaris, remember the men of the highest power, such as Aristotle, and how their greed and corruption hold us down on this world. How it is their will that keeps us in bondage, and blinds our eyes from the truth. My interpretation of the shining of Polaris is what I'm reviled for. I will not back down from this, no matter the danger."
"So when you say Terrance is the Polaris, you're saying he's evil, right?"
"Last I checked, demons qualified as evil, even half ones."
"He's half demon? How did that happen?" Amara asked.
"I don't know. Honestly, I just remembered that now," Catarina said. She smiled some. "You know, the longer I am with all of you the more I feel like I can remember. It's given me real hope that I may actually remember before I die."
"I guess that's a compliment," Lita said, scratching her head.
"Yes Lita, it is," Catarina said, as she laughed. The group was speechless.
"She just laughed of her own accord," Mina said, as Amy's hand rose to Catarina's forehead.
"Nope, no fever."
"You're not feeling sick, are you?" Michelle asked softly.
"No," Catarina asked, blushing. "What's the deal? Can't I be nice?"
"Whoa," Raye said, shocked. "She really is turning into Serena!"
"Technically, we kidnapped you, you know that right?" Mina said, as Catarina laughed again.
"Actually, I needed a change of location," she said warmly. "It gets boring staying in the same place all the time. I was never one for staying grounded. You should have noted that when you tracked my travels in Europe."
"Holy," Mina whispered, as Lita stopped her. She also smiled.
"Let it go," she said. "You all should probably hear what our favorite duet said today."
"What are you talking about?" Amara asked.
"Jennifer and Mandessa apologized, and said they were under Terrance's influence," Catarina explained. "They also said they were unsure of the story that they had been given about my involvement in the fall of the Moon Kingdom. They were offering a truce of sorts in exchange for my return."
"Whoa," the group said quietly. Lita punched the ground.
"They had the nerve to say they were her friends," Lita said angrily. "After all they put her through."
"I told you before, they did help me at one time," Catarina replied. "That time with the flowerbed. But it was shortly after that, they chased me."
"It still doesn't excuse," Lita growled. "No friend would ever, and I mean EVER, try to kill their friends."
"She's right," Mina said. "Even Sailor Scouts wouldn't do that unless they were driven to madness."
The group thought of the girl before her, who had this look of shock. What kind of friends did she use to have?
Suddenly, another memory hit Catarina, and hard.
"They were ordered to," she said finally. The group looked to her. "I mean, what else would do it? They are free-spirited people. I know they are. I can sense as much."
"You are trusting of them?" Trista asked, amused.
"For some reason, yes," Catarina admitted with a smile. The group sighed.
"You really are turning into Serena," Raye sighed.
"Lita," Catarina said softly, as Lita looked up. "Thank you, for today. However I feel about them, I am glad that you were there."
The group was still dumbstruck…
Several weeks pass, on a Friday afternoon…
"Somehow, Old Maid isn't fun after you play it twenty times," Serena said, sighing. "Why haven't we been informed of the castle not being seized anymore?"
"It takes time to build resistance," Thomas said through staring at their makeshift cards, made from backs of a bag he had used to get food in only two days before. Floppy cards made for an interesting game, but they had worn out the game. "Besides, after I mastered tic-tac-toe, rock-paper-scissors, thumb wrestling, and several other games, all of the games lost their fun."
"Time for a new card game," Serena said, picking up all the cards. "Let's learn concentration…"
"I knew it's been too quiet!" Raye shouted. The girls all giggled. Mina, Lita, Amy, Raye, and Catarina were enjoying an afternoon at the temple.
"That's how Terrance operates. Under silence," Catarina said softly. "It's amazing all this stuff that I can remember, yet I still couldn't tell you anything about me."
"If you really were affected in any way by the Silver Imperium Crystal, I'm not too surprised," Mina said.
"All of us had no recollection of our past selves either. What still gets me is that you weren't sent to the present like we were," Amy said, looking up from a piece of paper that they had been staring at. It was sent by the wind, having landed perfectly into Raye's lap.
To the Sailor Soldiers and Fair Princess among them, I must bid welcome to the second of many trials. You may have survived my opening assault. In fact, it was because of that I have discovered that not only are you protecting Endymion, but you are also protecting the true heir to the throne of Imperia. You have lost two great allies in Sailor Nebula and Sailor Sandstonia. In fact, I'm sure that you can't even reach Sailor Imperia, for I have her transformation staff with me. As you also may have learned, I am a half-demon Imperial myself. I thought it only fair to warn you before the next attack began, that you will die unless you surrender the Fair Princess to me.
Their current attention now was to a dove that Catarina was caressing. It was all black.
"His name is Chase, and he is a dove that changes colors," Catarina explained. "Jennifer arrives with news. That's what black stands for."
Around the dove's leg had been a piece of parchment, which was also opened and forgotten on the table.
We have to return Catarina to her rightful place at home now. If she does not return, her people will die. At the moment, the castle has been seized by the Sandstonians. Mandessa had to leave with her mother. If they find the queen at any time, her people are doomed. You must understand, we cannot allow this planet to die. Please, send her home.
"They have some nerve," Lita finally said. The group looked at her. "Both of them. They threaten us to hand over Catarina. Jennifer doesn't even have the guts to tell us whether or not they've already killed Serena."
"They couldn't have found her," Catarina said reassuringly.
"But the tracer hasn't even moved for the last two weeks," Mina noted.
"And there isn't any way we can get there without becoming old?" Raye asked Amy, who nodded.
"I can't believe we hadn't thought of it earlier, but what about a portal to the Negaverse? I know it means running through there, but it would get us really close for a teleport."
The group sat silently.
"You know Trista isn't going to open one of those willingly," Mina pointed out.
"But there's already one open," Catarina said. "A rip in the sky over my old school."
"The demon came out of a portal! Of course!" Raye said, as the group smiled.
"That means we have a way in and out," Amy said. "We'll just have to have Serena or Trista close it afterwards."
"We have to go tomorrow," Lita said. The group looked at her. "We don't have a choice. If we don't get going soon, Catarina's planet is in trouble, remember?"
"Well, okay," Amy said. "Catarina, you go ahead and take a free tour of the city with Lita for now. We'll make preparations with the others for tomorrow."
"Right," Catarina replied. She and Lita walked out to travel about the town…
"They're coming soon," Thomas said suddenly. "Mandessa and her mother."
"How do you know that?" Serena said, as she picked up their half-finished game of concentration.
"You'll be able to see the night sky soon," Thomas said. "Didn't you say you were of the Moon?"
"Thanks," Serena said. "But how do you know that?"
"The walls can pass messages to us from others. That's why I've been trying to stay to this slab of ice here, where they can find me. Someone with radar has spotted the Sandstonian cruiser coming our way. This means whatever plan they have is going to be put into action soon."
"You aren't planning to fight, are you?" Serena asked, seeing him stand.
"No. My sole task is to protect you. The Sandstonians already suspect us to be in these tunnels. We have to be prepared for them to come looking for us soon. That means hiding you when they start trying to break in."
They looked around the room for places to hide. There were only two. Underneath the bed, and underneath the table. They both sighed. Silence ensued for a few minutes.
"We could always trick them," Thomas said finally. Serena gave him a curious look, as he whispered to her his plan. She laughed.
"If they fall for that, I will have to kiss you!" Serena laughed. She composed herself. "Is there really a chance I'll get to see the stars again?"
"Yes," Thomas said softly.
"I know it sounds weird, but a long ago I remember someone telling me that they always wondered what stars said. They have to shine for a reason, you know?" Serena said. "I always thought they were giving us strength, the courage we need to fight. I never did get to hear what they thought though."
"They shine because they share their history with us," Thomas replied. "They share their advice. The brighter they shine, the more important the advice is."
"That's an interesting theory," Serena said, smiling. "So I'm guessing we're preparing for a fight then after all."
"I am. You're hiding, remember? You don't have your crystal!"
"Right…"
Author's Note
Hooray for intelligence! I wonder what'll happen next time… oh wait, y'all probably want a one-liner, right? Well here you go.
"But please understand, I want to repent for my crimes I have so wrongfully committed in your name."
HAHAHA…. The evilness continues.