I DO NOT OWN SAILOR MOON!
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5. BACK HOME OR HIGH IN THE SKY!
The first thing she sensed as she opened the door to her appartement was the deep and chocking smell of alcohol; liqueur to be exact. She understood right away what was going on and that her mother's mood won't be so high later in the night.
She had finally finished her photo-shoot at the new agency and it all went unthinkingly well. Even better, it seemed that the director of a new movie-to-be had spotted her at that photo-shoot and had immediately offered her the leading role in his production.
It was a movie about a young girl who has a normal life by day and who is a superhero by night.
„ How most ironic..", she thought to herself.
The newspapers predicted that it will be the new Japanese „blockbuster" and they had high hopes for it to get nominated at the European and even American film awards.
Suddently a loud crash was heard and she also heard her mother let out a high scream. But the voice of a man cut it off immediately as the sound of a slap followed.
„ Bitch! You're just a good for nothing piece of shit!"
She heard again the deep voice of the man coming from her mother's room and froze in her spot.
Immediately, the door shot open with a loud noise and a half naked man appeared in her view. It was easy to see that he was drunk, because he could hardly walk.
She saw him barely managing to zip his pants and put his shirt on while approaching the appartement door.
Still, she stood there, frozen with something alike fear and deep disgust.
„ Get out of my way!", he yelled at her and roughly pushed her aside to open the door and leave the flat.
For a while a heavy silence settled in and she thought she could hear even the beatings of her mother's heart.
Then, a serie a high-pitched cries and hick-ups followed. The cries came from her mother's room, but she couldn't find the strenght to raise herself and go confort her. She didn't want to see the state her mother was in at the moment.
Gradually, her mother's cries decreased until they stopped.
She decided that it was a good moment to go check on her, altough she knew what the scene would look like.
She raised herself slowly from the wooden floor and headed towards the white door of her mother's room.
She opened it and carefully entered.
The sight that met her was a usual one: broken glass on the floor, and empty bottle of alcohol on the scratched nightstand, clothes thrown on the floor and, the most painful one, her naked mother sprawled on the bed, the sheets barely covering her body.
„ Mommy..", she whispered mostly to herself, not expecting an answer.
„ Mina, dear…is that you?", her mother's ragged but still soft voice allerted her and she stopped from gathering the clothes on the floor.
„ Yes, mommy. I just got here a minute ago.", she lied knowing very well that it was for the best.
Her mother turned around slowly to look at her and smiled. Mina did her best to contain her tears and smiled in response.
She looked at her mother now, analyzing her like she did when she was little.
Even in the current state, her mother was a beauty. Altough the years had left their signs on her face, one could clearly see the soft shaping and the perfect oval of her face. Like Mina, she had big blue eyes that had hardened through the years and were now almost grey and red rimmed. Her once golden hair was now a faded blond but still thick and soft.
„ How was your day, honey?", her mother tried to act like nothing was wrong, like it was all normal.
„ Good, mother..", she answered and started to, once again, pick up the clothes on the floor as well as the broken glass.
„ I brought you something to eat.", Mina said after finishing her task and headed towards the door to get her mother what she had bought with the little cash she earned from the photo-shoot.
„ No, darling…I'm not that hungry..", came her mother's answer but, after seeing the frown on her daughter's face, she added „ I'll eat later. Now… I just want to rest."
Her mother turned around in her bed and threw the sheet to cover herself.
Understanding her mother's unspoken message, Mina exited the room and closed the door behind her.
She let out a heavy sigh and stood there for a while, her back leaning on the door and tears falling on her face.
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After finally managing to convince her to eat, Zoicite left for the usual training, leaving Amy by herself in his room..again.
Amy was starting to get used to her surroundings and she decided that, if she had to stay there and waint for that „obnoxious" general to return, she might as well do something with her time.
The first thing that came to her mind and seemed very appealing was the large stone bookcase. It was deffinetly one of the largest she had ever seen. And she briefly wondered how could Zoicite get the books from the higher shelves, the ones close to the unseen ceiling. She couldn't see any ladder around.
„ He's a demon. He surely has his own ways.", she concluded in her mind and headed towards the bookcase.
A strange thing happened when she got close to it: a large, square and virtual-like screen appeared in fron of her.
It had various symbols on it, most of them unknown to Amy. Taking a closer look, she found that she recognised some of them. They were signs from mostly all of the modern and ancient alphabets on Earth. She even found the egyptan hieroglyphs. „Amazing!", she thought.
She found the symbol of the Japanese alphabet and put her finger on the virtual screen. It suddently changed and appeared a list of various books, sorted by type, author and timeline. It even had a special „search" field where, Amy guessed, you could find easier a searched book.
She finally settled for a book called „The Masma culture- in situ monuments", that she found on the history-culture field, the timeline being 5000 years A.D. She selected it by putting her finger on the screen where the name of the book was written and then, another strangely-amazing thing happened: the book automatically got out of one of the higher shelves and placed itself right ontop the single triangular table in the room.
„ So, that's how it works", Amy thought and sat herself besides the table, on the low-round stone chair.
She was halfway through the tenth page, very concentrated, her brain working overtime to collect and analyse all the information; most of it known only by a privileged circle in the scientific world, if known at all.
Concentrated as she was she still felt the change in the air and the sudden blocking of the sun-rays coming from the central window.
„ Gomen nasai for disturbing you from your reading, lady Amy..", she heard a deep and ragged voice, almost unhuman, coming from the central window, but she didn't see anyone there.
„ Who's there?", She asked anxiously.
„ Memerink, mylady.", the same voice answered back, this time a little low in baritone. „ I have come to appologise for the earlier event. I had wanted neither to frighten, nor to harm you, mylady."
„ Where are you?…Why can't I see you?", she asked, being now more at ease after findin out who the speaker was.
Slowly, the dragon's head entered the window and turned towards the table where Amy was.
„ I deeply appologise for frightening you and I thank you for you intervention in front of Ice Master: Shitennou Zoicite."The dragon spoke again, all the while having his eyes cast down.
„ Ice Master?…Shitennou?", Amy's attention suddently refocused from the book in her hands towards the dragon and what he said about the general.
„ Yes, mylady. Lord Zoicite is Master of Ice, his origin element from his birth planet. He is also one of the four renowned Shitennou: High Kings of the Sky who, long ago, ruled and protected the lands of Terra and the borders of this system." Memerink answered politely, almost like teaching a child something important.
„ Oh…I..didn't know that", she now realised that she didn't know much about the history of the Dark Kingdom, nor of its generals.
She had only been told by a strange woman, when she had received the transforming brooch, that she was to fight and protect Earth and its inhabitants from then on. That was it. No details, no nothing. The strange woman told her that she would surely recognize and sense evil. The rest of the story just developed by itself, just like her encounter with the girls in their senshi form.
„ Tell me about him. About your master..", she asked him softly after a while of reflecting. Maybe there was more to it than they thought.
Memerink rose his eyes from the ground and stared at the girl in front of him , considering her strange request. He had never spoken to any of his master's mistersses, nor had he wanted to. From his knowledge, his master only had demon mistersses and rarely went to human women to please him. Evem more, his master had never brought humans in his chambers. He didn't even think that humans were allowed in the castle.
But she was different. Something made her special in his master's eyes, but was it his place to ask?
„ Please. I need to know.", Amy urged, seeing clearly the doubt in the dragon's eyes.
„ My lord comes from a planet far from this one. His birth planet is one of the protector planets of Terra, and so he has been blessed by birth with the power of it and sent here to protect the young Terran prince- Endymion, just like the prophecy had said a long time ago. Mercury, his planet and the power it ruled, had chosen him…."
Memerink, the blue dragon, started the tale of his master's origin as clearly as possible for the young girl to understand. If his master trusted to leave her alone in his chambers, then he could trust to tell her a part of his story.
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She left abruptly from the meditation room and from the man who had so easely entered her and her grand-father's life, without notice.
Her senses were still allert and her head was spinning with numerous thoughts. She could still feel the chill and remembered those steel-blue eyes. Eyes that wouldn't leave her mind and let her rest for a while.
Her whole being was exhausted and she could barely hold the broom to sweep the fallen leafs.
„ Rei…Rei!", her grandfather's loud voice startled her from the twirling thoughts in her mind and she let the broom fall to the ground.
„ For Kami's sake, child, where is your mind wondering!", her grandfather was clearly mad at her."Listen, Rei. I need you to stay here and take care of the shrine while I'm gone."
„ Gone?.. Where are you going, oji-san!", Rei asked paniked.
„I'm going to visit an old friend of mine at Hodoko Jinja, close to mount Fiji. I'll only be gone for a week…"
„ But, why so sudden, Rei asked and put her hands on her head, trying to stop her head from spinning around.
„ It is not sudden, rei. I've been telling you about this departure for about a week. But you seemed to be focused on other things more important that this shrine.", her oji-san's voice was harsh and he looked at his niece with reproachful eyes.
„ But..", Rei tried to speak.
„ No buts, young lady. You will collaborate with Himitzou-san and you will take care of the shrine! When I return I want to see everything in its place."
„ Oji-san, that's not fair!", Rei got angy and yelled at his retreating form.
„ You need to learn respect, Rei!", his voice left no agrument." Goodness, child. You're starting to be more like your father everyday", her grandfather said with a sigh and left to enter the temple.
His last statement shut Rei up completely.
It hurt her. He could have said anything about her; anything than that she looked like that…that bastard.
Her grandfather should have known better. The memory of her father was not a pleasant one. It was something she had tried to forget; it was part of a past she wanted to put behind and start over…but could she really do that?
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The dragon finished his story with sadness in his voice. It was clearly painful for him to speak about the disaster that had followed Metallia's coming to rule Terra and the war started against the protector planets. Even though the Shitennou's powers were great, the darkness that had surrounded the system was far too great for them to handle. There had been another personal disaster that had added to their current situation. An event that Memerink didn't want to speak about.
After the darkness had almost completely enveloped the entire system, the Shitennou were forced to pledge allegiance to Metallia's army and to fight at her side. But the Moon Queen- Selenity- had sacrified herself and used the powerful crystal she posessed in order to defeat Metallia's evil army. By doing so, she died but managed to lock the evil queen into a deep semi-slumber and thus ending her rule on the entire system, including Terra.
„ And now..", Amy asked a little dazed after hearing the whole story. „ What are the Shitennou doing now? Why are they gathering energy from humans?"
„ That is all I can tell you, mylady. The rest of it should be told by my master."
The dragon ended the conversation with a polite bow and wanted to retreat himself.
„ Wait..", Amy pleaded him softly and rose from the chair to come close to the dragon. She put her hand on his nose and started to caress it gently.
„ I'm sorry if I insisted too much. I understand that you can't tell me everything..'
He appology was truthful because, even if Memerink couldn't tell her about their present purpose, he told her a lot about the past of the Ice Shitennou and a little of the others too. It was an information that made her reconsider everything about what she thought she knew of the Negaverse.
„ No need, mylady.." , the dragon assured her and wanted to retreat before his master found him again in his chambers.
„ Could you…could you take me to him?", the young girl cut him off.
„ He is on the training fields today. It is his turn to train with the army..", Memerink explained to her, but he heard Amy release a long sigh and her stance faltered.
He could take her above the trening fields, that way his master wouldn't know about it.
„ I'll take you there, but only for a short while. You are to be careful and not do any noise because human's aren't allowed anywhere in the castle or near it."
She hopped on his long neck as he retreated his head from the chambers.
The sky was an intense combination of colours, just like the aurora borealis and she couldn't distinguish what part of the day it was, or even if it was day at all. One thing was for sure, the whole castle was surrounded by a huge electromagnetic shield that creaded the impression of that of the northern lights and illuminated the whole surroundings like it was day.
Memerink didn't even have to fly to get her to the trainig fields. It only had to climb a little higher and envelop a part of the castel with his immense body. He averted his head towards the Southern walls. There, Amy saw a huge trainig area and, on it, four different units distinguished by the coulour of their uniforms: red, blue, green and silver.
They were grouped in four different areas and were looking in the centre where Zoicite was speaking to them. After he finished, they saluted military-like and started the weapons training: sword, lance, spear and bow.
Amy was mesmerised by the soldier's arrangement and their perfect syncronize with each other in the training performance. She briefly wondered what would the humans do if the negaverse were to send their army and reconquer Earth's territory. She didn't think they had any chances, even with the senshi at their side.
Zoicite was pacing back and fourth through the soldier lines, supervising their training and sometimes showing them some moves with the different weapons they possessed. He looked confident and emanated authority. She wondered what his reaction would be if he saw her there.
As if on cue, he turned his head upwards and locked eyes with her. She didn't know how long they stood like that because, when she blinked, he wasn't on the trening fields anymore. He had disappeared completely!
Her heart froze when she felt something move behind her, on Memerink's back.
„ You were told to stay in my chambers.", Zoicite told her sternly and moved closer until his chest was pressed to Amy's back and few of his hair strands reached her bare shoulders.
„ I..wanted to see what was outside..", she answered reddening already from their closeness.
„ I'll show you then.", he bend his head to whisper in her ear these words as he circled her waist with his left hand.
„ Go, my pet!", he ordered and tapped the armour on the dragon's body.
Flashes of images with a beautiful coloured sky, warm wind enveloping her and the feeling of someone holding her close while flying higher in the sky; images that soon faded away as she found herself in her room, tucked in her bed.
„ Was it all just a dream?", she wondered to herself while trying to raise on her elbows.
She found her answer when she got out of bed: she was still dressed in the light blue dress from her „dream" and, on the nightstand was placed a small white note that wrote in a beautiful calligraphy:
„ Sweet dreams!"