Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or Dragon Ball/Z/GT because…THEY'RE REAL! THEY EXIST! I SWEAR THEY REALLY DO EXIST! I JUST TALKED TO GOKU THE OTHER DAY, AS HE WALKED MY NEIGHBOURHOOD. THEY'RE REAL! (Men in white uniforms come take her screaming and kicking to the Nut House).
Fear is born of the Night
The dark purple-haired female seriously couldn't help but gradually become more and more concerned as time went by, hands fidgeting nervously with a handkerchief, impatiently waiting for a certain black-haired and eyed Saiyan or at least a certain blond Queen to appear at the entrance of the villa, so that she could put all her troubling thoughts to rest.
All she wanted was to make sure once Goku came back that things hadn't gotten out of hands with Serenity; the maurian advisor had the oddest hunch, telling her things were far from well with her charge. Something else, other than Chaos' persecutions and Kunzite's insinuated threats, was not right.
She couldn't explain it, she couldn't explain how she knew, but the fact was that she did. Ever since the day Usagi returned, the maurian had experienced this sense of foreboding go off in alarm.
Luna didn't like this feeling. It felt too much like the proverbial calm before the storm.
Should I go check on them. Would it be unwise to intrude…?
Why isn't Goku coming back?
…Ishe coming back at all or has he decided to stay with her? If he has, then he should remember to let us know so that we don't worry over him!
Having already walked the length of the hallway back-and-forth at least nine times, the maurian decided it was time to go wait for them at the front door, in case they were visibly and undoubtedly on their way towards the house already whereas she was standing there like an idiot trying hard not to pull at her own hair in a burst of frustration and paranoia.
Anxious steps turned around the corner walking past the main door's threshold and onto the deserted porch at the front of the residence, silent and quieting at this hour of the afternoon. Luna just stood there studying the faraway end of the cobbled path that disappeared from view once getting across the outer line of trees amongst the dense forest, a light breeze lifting a few locks of her dark purplish hair. But that was not to be the cause of her distress.
It was the very scent of danger in the air.
Something was definitely not right.
Maroon pools directed their sight towards the burning bright star setting into the horizon, cold fear filling them to the core at the very unsettling scene reflecting in their depths as it was taking place in front of the now very dread-struck woman.
She knew there were still a good five hours before sunset, henceforth its coming this early could only mean one thing
The hand that grasped the handkerchief tightened considerably around the delicate piece of cloth, rising from her position at the side of the woman's thigh to be clasped by the other over her chest, as if the gesture would make an attempt at stopping the woman's racing heart. Then, the other hand let go of the one clutching the handkerchief to rise and cover the woman's mouth; the universal proper gesture to express pure and utter shock with not less intense disbelief.
In slow motion, Luna felt the scream tear through her throat before she'd even let it out.
"HEELIOOOSSS!"
"I'm here, Luna" came the surprisingly close reply from the youth; he'd only been a couple of steps behind the maurian when she screamed for his name, even though she hadn't heard him coming after her at all, busy as she was with the despairing vision far ahead.
He looked at the older female questioningly.
"What is it?"
"Look at the sky!"
The panicked note in her voice made him fear the worst, and when the maurian advisor pointed in the direction of the sunset, the High Priest of Elysion almost refused to look, in fear of what he might actually see.
When he did look, it was just as he had guessed. Darkness was starting to taint the wideness of the Elysian firmament. Darkness not that which was naturally and predictably brought at the end of day with the foreseen arrival of the night, but the vast, looming darkness only true, untarnished evil could emit.
Helios' lips pursed as his facial expression grew stoic.
"Luna" he turned to the frightened woman "where is Neo Queen Serenity?"
"Look, I know you don't want me here and think I'm only getting in your way, and I know you've had quite the hard time" Goku admitted "but I'm not gonna just sit around and watch you do this"
"Do what exactly?" Serenity all but snarled at him with what was starting to become permanent embittered anger.
"Bring harm to yourself. Besides" he looked at her, his eyes pleading with her to understand, "what you want to accomplish, that way, it's not gonna last…" he shook his head for emphasis.
The hardness in her eyes didn't leave, but still he saw that it wavered, their resolve for the first time truly hesitating.
Goku decided that he couldn't lose this golden opportunity.
"Look inside" he challenged, serious, "just look inside your heart, for real, right now, and tell me you still really believe, with every ounce of your being that the enemy will leave the earth citizens alone once you've given it your star-seed"
She stared at him, unblinking, while he waited patiently for an answer that he knew would never come.
For the longest moment, charcoal black clashed with deep ocean-blue in an intense though unspoken battle.
Then the blue broke the steel gaze, in silent acceptance and submission.
The Saiyan regarded the fragile woman in front of him with an ache in his own chest.
How he wanted to make it all better for her, someway, somehow
However, he resisted the impulse, knowing he couldn't be lenient if he truly wanted to get his point across the blanket of hopelessness and heart-ache that numbed her vision.
"Serenity, don't lie to yourself any longer" Goku whispered.
It was as if she was carrying a heavy weight in her chest and could no longer support it, her limbs shaking uncontrollably as she knew her strength was quickly leaving her to have it all soon crumble on top of her, burying her soul alive under a mountain of concrete.
She'd gotten used to carrying the unbearable charge all by herself now; knowing nobody else around her would be able to help without the risk of loosing their own lives. She'd never wanted anyone else to suffer the way she had and currently was, so now it was so hard letting go of any part of the burden, even if it meant passing it onto the shoulders of the universe's strongest physical-combat fighter and hero.
The fear, the loneliness, the need to spare him the horrors she knew he would have to endure if she allowed herself to let him in… it all mixed-up, and boiled and twisted and thrashed and clawed at the core of her very being, desperately wanting out.
And then Usagi collapsed.
She did finally and completely; to be caught for another time yet instantly by the arms of a much relieved saiyajin.
"It's ok. I'll take care of you. I'll protect you" he murmured in her ear, while she took refuge in the secure nest of his powerful arms once again, although this would be first time she would do it consciously and willingly.
"God! It hurts… so, so much!" he heard her cry in a much breaking voice.
Goku once again found himself caressing the back of the broken angel in his arms tenderly.
"It'll be alright, I know it doesn't seem that way right now, but eventually, you will feel better. Not even the worst of grieves is eternal, my sweet, so the pain won't last forever; you will heal. You will heal, and someday, you'll find happiness again. I know it. You just have to believe it, and then you will"
His voice didn't waver the tiniest bit, confident and passionate.
"I promise it'll be okay… Serena"
Neither noticed the use of the new nickname, nor commented on it. Goku was content just to bury his nose in her silvery mane and welcome the intense sensation of happiness that coursed through him due to her mere proximity, to the close touch of her body so tightly and fully against his.
No fighting, no uncertainties, no reservations, fear or resistance…
Just… feeling.
It was a powerful one, rising from the very centre of his heart, deep, strong, unrelenting, warm, fulfilling, happiness, completeness like no other sentiment he had ever experienced with anyone.
He dazedly wondered where such a potent feeling was coming from, and then what place he could take her to where they wouldn't be disturbed, and that was the moment his mind finally awakened back to reality.
The Hollow Hunters, Hope City, the star-seeds! These people and Queen Serenity were counting on him. What was he thinking!
'How can I be thinking of doing that at a time like this? Have I gone crazy!' He yelled at himself, shocked beyond words at his behaviour. 'Has being in Shenlong's world with no true female contact for so long truly affected me this much that it's clouding my mind?'
He glanced at the woman in his grasp disbelievingly, eyes wide-open.
'We barely even know each other… What the hell is wrong with me'
A torn look covered Goku's features. 'I can't do this right now!
He needed to pull away and take care of the Hunters, and then he would try to figure out what was happening to him.
We have to hurry
Soon the warrior decided he would use his Instant Transmission to take him and the Silver Senshi to the city of Hope so that they could help the Asteroid Scouts and allies to battle against the cursed folk.
He decided he would tell the Queen what he was going to do, so as to not take her by surprise and frighten her unnecessarily.
"Serenity…"
That was when a muffled moan interrupted him.
As if she had been reading his previous thoughts, Serenity pulled away, meeting his eyes with a look of pain.
"Huh?" the warrior looked at her not understanding "Serenity… I─"
"Goku…" she breathed in what close to become a tortured sigh.
She was suddenly looking ghostly pale and pained, and Goku grew more and more confused. Sweat had started to trail down her forehead when he hadn't been looking. The saiyan immediately realized that for some unknown reason at the moment she was feeling extremely unwell.
"Seren─"
Before he had the chance to say or think anything else, there was another flash of light and she de-transformed, fainting clear away, her body slipping through his fingers out of the smoothness of her silky dress and dropping all the way to the ground, her hair spilling like a large golden blanket all around her.
Goku looked down alarmingly at her unconscious form. He couldn't understand why this was happening so out of the blue.
"Serenity..? What is it! What's wrong! Serenity?"
He crouched down, touched her face and marvelled at how cold her skin had suddenly become. Lifting her up to sitting position, he began shaking her gently when he realized she was deeply out of it.
Goku felt himself slowly growing panicked.
"Are you ill? Usagi?" he tried calling her by her usual nickname, shaking her with a bit more force to no avail "Please, answer me. Can you hear me? Wake up! What's happening to you…Open your eyes… …USAGI!"
'Getting read of the nasty youmas', like Ceres had put it, was proving to be more difficult than it sounded. The sky all above Hope City and it surroundings was currently darker than the darkest sunset, since the demons had called the night earlier to envelop everything so that they could attack from their safe hideouts within the Dark.
They could not see where the demons were coming, for they could barely see anything, their main source of light coming from their own magical strikes. They just waited until some of them approached enough to become visible, and then attacked them with all their might. They were afraid not only for their people, but because they knew that, if the youmas came close enough, touched them long enough, they could feed of their energy to the point of exhaustion, growing stronger as the Asteroid senshi and their allies grew weaker and eventually lost their consciousness.
It had turned into a desperate fight for survival.
Their magical powers, though strong ones, took a precious amount of time to turn the shadow-made forms to dust. They could only hope to aim them in the right direction in time to vanquish as many of them as possible, before the others regrouped in a massive offensive again. Fish-Eye was doing the best she could to keep her liquid nest raised high in the air like a protective wall in order to guard the city from all of the fronts the demons were showing, while Hawk Eye and Tiger-Eye did their best to guard the Asteroid's backs, but the seven of them just weren't enough, as they were all slowly realizing.
Sailor Pallas gave an ear-splitting scream when the claw of a demon pierced her skin on her right arm just before she attempted to purify it. The light blue-haired senshi feel to her knees clutching her wounded limb in agony, her eyes shut tightly and releasing a few tears, so she didn't even hear when Sailor Vesta jumped to her rescue, vaporizing the shadow looming over her menacingly, with a proper launch of her Vestal Hearth Fire Blaze in just a couple of seconds.
When Fish-Eye realized Pallas' predicament, she hastily separated a part of the large fishing-net and sent it spreading widely against the demons approaching the Senshi of Wisdom, with such a force and speed that it caught almost all the ones heading for their group, and successfully forcing them to retreat for a while.
Vesta run to her friend frantically, crouching next to her and taking a look at the deep cut in her arm.
"Palla-Palla! Are you okay?"
Seeing she only got a wince in response, Vesta directed her gaze towards their leader standing a few feet to their left.
"Dammit, CereCere!" she yelled "I thought you said the Queen was coming!"
"And she is" Ceres merely stated, not taking her eyes off the enemy ahead "We mustn't' be distracted, we have to hold them off until she comes"
Vesta frowned at her and growled.
"Well then pray tell me when that'll be?" she roared "In case you haven't noticed, Ceres, we're being slaughtered here!"
At these words Hawk-Eye and Tiger-Eye turned to the two of them with a questioning glance.
"Ves?" Tiger-Eye murmured, but Vesta had all her attention focused on the Asteroids leader.
The Senshi of Nature Renewal turned to her red-head friend and her determined eyes met with the dispair-filled eyes of Sailor Vesta. VesVes was hiding it well, but CereCere could still see it. She was growing scared and even though she would never admit to it, she still reacted exploding with hardly suppressed anger, unleashing it towards the closest person she thought could somehow be at fault.
Vesta didn't like feeling scared, never had, and never would. Ceres new she had to try to at least try to ease her friend's dismay in some way or Vesta would have a hard time enduring the rest of the fight. Like her name suggested it, the Senshi of the Sacred Hearth found her strength in the fierceness of her own emotions. When she couldn't maintain her faith in a better future it ended affecting her fighting will drastically.
Ceres' eyes focused on Vesta's blood-red ones unblinking.
"No matter what happens" she started "we mustn't give up, we must keep fighting, and believe in the Queen now more than ever, for she's the only one that can save us and save our future"
"Of course that's true, are you girls suggesting otherwise?" Hawk-Eye interjected, eager to dissipate any doubts, not knowing what exactly it was that was happening, but still feeling something was amiss between the Senshi's of the Sacred Hearth and Nature's Renewal. He knew that, with their Princess gone, the one that would always keep them stick together, since she'd been gone the four Asteroids had had a hard time coping and trying not to allow their sorrow be the excuse for starting an argument among each other. However, Hawk-Eye's comment didn't seem to faze or at least reach any of the addressed females since they were still holding their stares unperturbed and locked.
Juno and the Amazon Trio looked at their two quarrelling friends with curiosity. Vesta was about to speak again when Ceres stopped her.
"But that doesn't mean" she continued saying "that we mustn't ourselves give our all so that our world has a chance of surviving. We're sailor soldiers, too, and we are going to fight on our own as many times as it is necessary so that Chaos gets what it deserves for murdering our families!" she finished in a yell that surprised Vesta.
Ceres' eyes became teary, and VesVes felt guilt begin to eat her from the inside for having being so inconsiderate of her leader's own suffering.
"Those were our friends, our loved ones… too, and we can't just rely on the Queen, waiting for her to get revenge for everything that Chaos took from all of us…" Ceres murmured "We can not, we are not, gonna depend on the Queen, to fight every single one of our battles… …we're gonna show those bastards who we are to make sure they find out of our existence!"
Vesta's eye widened for a while, and then closed again. She nodded in comprehension and agreement.
"CereCere's right, guys" came the voice of Palla-Palla as she was struggling to get up "I won't give up, either. I am not gonna let this enemies, no matter how monstrous, to scare me." she supported her weight on Vesta's shoulder and weakly managed to stand "I will fight along with you guys till the end!"
Hawk-Eye and Tiger-Eye looked at one another, then at Fish-Eye, and smiled.
"So will us!" they yelled in unison, turning towards the Asteroids Quartet.
Ceres nodded at all of them in gratitude while Juno and Vesta looked on in amazement: Palla-Palla had always been the most fearful out of the four of them. JunJun recovered soon enough, though, and grinned at her fellow scout encouragingly.
"Right" she said, without the tiniest bit of sarcasm. Her eyes caught something out of the corner of her sight, and her face glowed with enthusiasm.
"Guys! Look!" she exclaimed, pointing.
Immediately, the rest of the Asteroids and the other three magical warriors turned their gaze towards the direction she pointed, to the group's right. Faraway in the sky there was an eerie glow getting wider and wider as it looked like it was coming their way fast.
Sailor Pallas looked at it blankly while Vesta narrowed her eyes.
"What is that?" she wondered out loud.
Sailor Ceres, who was frowning too, looked at her and then turned to Juno questioningly.
"Jun?"
The Senshi of Commitment smirked at her while she regarded her leader with vibrant emerald eyes that said everything. CereCere opened her mouth, closed it, and then opened it only to close it again, taken by surprise. She quickly turned to Vesta with a smirk that imitated Juno's.
Vesta's face brightened.
"They're coming! They've come to help us!" she squealed with excitement while they all watched with renewed hope as the glow got nearer and nearer enough to make all the fairy individuals within it discernible.
END TO THE SEVENTH CHAPTER.
A/N: I'm sure many of you were wondering when this update was going to appear. Well, fear not, my dear PC addicts. I have a pretty good idea of where chapter eight will be going; that being so I'll update sooner next time.
Love,
Jay.