Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, nor do I own the works of H.P. Lovecraft of August Derleth.
Chapter 4: Dragon's Teeth
It was fairly early in the afternoon as Rei came to Dr. Ichinose's office again with Jun and Grete. Rei still wasn't sure if the doctor's sessions were really going to help, but she really was getting desperate. Yet another nightmare had plagued her again during the night, and that time Rei had been sure the monster was going to get her. Rei felt she had to uncover the mystery behind her nightmares if she was ever going to get a sound night's sleep again, and Dr. Ichinose's methods seemed at the moment like her only option. The only trouble was Grete insisted that Jun undergo the session with her once more.
"Explain to me again why Jun has to do this with me?" Rei asked Grete as Dr. Ichinose put the electrodes on her temples.
"It is merely a precaution for your own protection," Grete told her. "If you refuse to let Mr. Aragaki take part, I will be forced to remove you from this office. I will also speak to Ms. Sampson and have you banned from here."
Rei looked at Grete suspiciously. "What's your real reason for having Jun do this with me?"
Grete took off her sunglasses for the first time in front of Rei and looked at her with those iron-grey eyes. "That…is need-to-know. But your life really may depend on both of you recalling the past life memories you've forgotten."
"I don't like this any more than you do, Rei," Jun told her. "But neither of us have much of a choice here."
Rei let out a defeated sigh. "Fine. But we had better find out something about my nightmares this time."
Dr. Ichinose went over to her machine and fired it up. The green spiral on the end of the device facing Rei and Jun lit up and began to spin.
"Just like before I want you both to gaze at the spiral," Dr. Ichinose told them. "Concentrate on nothing else. As you do, your bodies will become heavy and you will begin to fall into a deep, deep sleep. As I count backwards from ten, you will both once again go back to the time in your past lives when you knew one another."
Dr. Ichinose's voice had already started to echo before she had even started counting back. Before either of them knew it, Rei and Jun were traveling back to the time of the Silver Millennium before the Dark Kingdom had risen and destroyed everything.
Several weeks had gone by since Jadeite had started working together with Sailor Mars on chaperone detail. During those times, Jadeite and Mars had at least learned to tolerate one another, and were often even civil during their shifts. It was soon very clear though that Jadeite and Mars simply couldn't stand one another. On this particular afternoon, Jadeite was pacing around the private lounge in the palace used only by the Shitennou, ranting about how his previous shift with the Guardian of Mars had gone. At the moment, Jadeite's fellow Shitennou, Nephrite was lounging on the couch eating an apple while their other comrade, Zoisite had his nose buried in a book.
"…If that woman calls me a barbarian one more time, I swear to the gods I will slap that arrogant face of hers!" Jadeite raved.
"Yeah, that'll show her," Nephrite sarcastically remarked.
Jadeite dramatically pointed at his friend lounging on the couch. "You have no idea what I have to put up with, Nephrite! That woman is the coldest, most stuck-up aristocratic bitch I have ever met! Who knew a woman who commanded the element of fire could have such an icy heart? Every time we're together it takes every last ounce of willpower I have to keep myself from strangling her with my bare hands!"
Nephrite took another bite from his apple. "You know…from the way you're talking about Sailor Mars, you must really have it bad for her."
Jadeite blinked in utter bewilderment. "Are you INSANE? Have you not been listening to a single word I've been saying this whole time?"
"Face it Jadeite, Sailor Mars isn't the first difficult woman you've dealt with over the years, but she is the only one I've known to drive you this crazy. That makes me think you're actually attracted to Sailor Mars."
Jadeite was speechless for several moments before finally speaking again. "That is…the most idiotic theory I have ever heard! I mean the thought of me being attracted to that…that shrew! This is definitely the dumbest thing I've ever heard you say, Nephrite!"
Nephrite rolled his eyes. "Zoisite, you'll back me up, right?"
Zoisite finally took his nose out of his book. "Huh? I'm sorry, what are you talking about?"
"This buffoon thinks that I'm in love with Sailor Mars!" Jadeite explained. "Will you tell him how ridiculous that sounds?"
"I haven't really been paying attention to what either of you have been saying, but Sailor Mars is the one you've been ranting about for the past few minutes, correct?"
"Yeah, and I think the reason Jadeite's complaining about her so much is because he's wild about her," Nephrite confirmed.
Zoisite raised an eyebrow. "That seems highly illogical. Why would Jadeite complain so much about someone he's in love with?"
Nephrite let out a heavy sigh. "I totally forgot who I was talking to."
"I'm telling you Nephrite, you're talking out your ass on this one!" Jadeite declared.
"Really? So you're telling me that you don't find Sailor Mars the least bit attractive."
Jadeite turned away from him and crossed his arms. "Well…of course I think she's attractive, beautiful really. In fact the first time I saw her I thought she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She's also very strong and noble, and gentle in her own way." He then blushed when he realized what he was saying and cleared his throat. "But…that's all besides the point!"
Nephrite smiled and shook his head. "Uh-huh. Well, this has been a pretty enlightening conversation."
Jadeite looked back at him and scowled. "If you'll excuse me, I have duties to attend to."
Thus Jadeite finally left the lounge. As he stormed off down the palace hall, he couldn't help but think about Nephrite's theory of him being in love with Mars. The idea had gotten stuck in his head like a piece of annoying music playing on a loop. And as Jadeite pondered this idea, he couldn't help but wonder if it might be true.
At about the exact same time on the Moon as Jadeite had been ranting about Sailor Mars and how he supposedly despised her, Mars was pacing around Venus's office like a tiger in a cage ranting about how much she despised Jadeite. Venus at the moment was sitting at her desk massaging her temples. Meanwhile Sailor Mercury was sitting at a computer in the corner of Venus's office doing some research the blonde Sailor Guardian had asked her to conduct.
"…I swear to the gods! The next time that barbarian flashes that charming smile of his at me, I am going to punch him right in the mouth and knock out his teeth!" Mars raved. "I've had just about all of him I can stand, Venus!"
"Enough!" Venus commanded. "My head is going to explode if you keep going on like this!"
"I want to be reassigned to a new detail, Venus! I can't stand being in that man's presence anymore!"
"It's a done deal, Mars. I'm not reassigning you, mainly because as much as you seem to hate Jadeite, you hate the other three Shitennou even more. Especially Nephrite!"
"Nephrite's not that bad."
"You almost set him on fire! We'd probably be at war with the entire Earth Kingdom if Jupiter hadn't been there to stop you!"
"Well I can't keep working with Jadeite!" Mars declared as she slammed her hand onto the top of Venus's desk. "If you don't reassign me, the next time I see that man I'll probably burn his face off!"
The conversation was interrupted when the two of them heard snickering coming from the doorway. Mars and Venus both looked to see Princess Serenity peeking through the open door.
"Princess, what are you doing?" Venus asked.
Serenity walked into the office with her hands folded behind her back. "Sorry, but I couldn't help but listen when I heard Mars yelling about Jadeite. It was…pretty interesting."
Mars sighed and crossed her arms. "Honestly Princess, you can still be such a child sometimes. What could possibly be so interesting about me complaining about Jadeite?"
"Well…I was thinking the reason you're complaining about him so much is because you're in love with him. Am I right?"
Mars' face turned a bright shade of red. "You…you couldn't be more wrong!"
"Ah-ha! I knew it!" Serenity cheerfully declared. "Endymion told me once that sometimes people bicker with each other because they're actually in love. I didn't really get it when he told me, but the way you blushed just now tells me I'm right!"
Venus smiled and shook her head. "Okay Princess. You've had your fun, but I kindly ask you to run along now. I believe the Queen was looking for you a few minutes ago."
Serenity bowed to the two of them and left the office. Mars let out a heavy sigh once she had left.
"Well?" Venus asked.
"Well what?" Mars responded.
"Is Serenity right? Are you in love with Jadeite?"
Mars was totally flabbergasted. "Don't be absurd! You actually take stock in what the Princess just said?"
"Well, she's not wrong about that sort of thing happening. Remember, I'm the Goddess of Love, and I know for a fact love can sometimes take some strange and twisted forms."
"Mercury, for the love of the gods, help me out here!"
Mercury looked away from the computer and blinked. "I'm sorry, what were you both talking about?"
"For the last several minutes, Mars has been ranting about how much she seems to hate Jadeite, and our Princess suddenly burst into the room and flat out accused Mars of being in love with him," Venus explained.
Mercury scrunched her face in confusion. "That seems highly illogical to me. If Mars was in love with Jadeite, why would she have spent the last several minutes complaining about him?" She turned her attention back to the computer. "I think our young princess has a lot to learn about these matters."
"See?" Mars responded as she pointed a hand towards Mercury. "Total nonsense!"
Venus shook her head. "You know very well that Mercury is hardly a romance expert."
"And neither is the Princess! Despite what she thinks she knows, there is nothing at all between Jadeite and I."
"Well good, because that would only cause even more problems for us. We're already breaking the rules big-time by letting the Princess see Prince Endymion. You becoming the lover to one of the Shitennou would only make things a thousand times worse. Now if you're done Mars, I must kindly ask you to leave. Mercury and I have work to do."
Mars did as Venus requested and left the office. As she headed off down the hallway, Serenity's suggestion about how she was in love with Jadeite continued to repeat in her head. As fiercely as she denied it, Mars somehow couldn't help but wonder if the Princess's suggestion might be true.
Two days had gone by, and Mars and Jadeite finally reunited again to watch over Serenity and Endymion on another one of their dates. During those two days, neither Jadeite nor Mars had been able to dispel the utterly ridiculous idea they might be in love with each other; in fact the thought had almost consumed them both, leaving the two a little nervous about working their next shift together. Once Serenity and Endymion had gone off to be in their own little world, Mars sent forth Phobos and Deimos to monitor things from the sky while she and Jadeite went to watch the royal couple from their usual tree. Neither of them had said a word to each other since the shift started. Each of them was afraid of accidentally saying something that would give away what they thought they felt for one another.
Every now and then Mars and Jadeite would sneak glances at each other when they felt sure that the other wasn't looking. During these hidden glances, Mars had been forced to admit that Jadeite was incredibly handsome and had a sort of boyish quality she found she really liked. Jadeite meanwhile had only affirmed his own view that Mars was the most beautiful and elegant woman in existence.
At last, Jadeite cleared his throat to try and finally break the awkward silence that had been hanging between them. "So…lovely weather we're having today, isn't it?"
"Um…yes, it is," Mars agreed. "Days like this one make me realize why the Princess loves this planet so much."
Suddenly there was a loud cawing noise that startled Mars so much that she cried out and threw herself at Jadeite. On reflex, Jadeite had wrapped an arm protectively around her and drew his sword. The two of them looked up into the tree from where the sound came from and saw that Phobos and Deimos had landed on one of the branches.
Mars let out a sigh of relief. "Looks like they only came to report that they didn't find anything out of the ordinary."
"Well that's good," Jadeite replied as he sheathed his sword. "They made such a racket I thought we might actually be under enemy attack."
After a moment, Mars and Jadeite realized the position they were now in. They looked at one another for a few moments and blushed before finally pulling away from each other.
"Uh…sorry!" Mars spoke as she averted her gaze. "I don't know what got into me."
"Don't…don't worry about it," Jadeite responded as he averted his own gaze and rubbed the back of his head.
This was the moment when the two of them realized the truth. There was no longer denying what Nephrite and Princess Serenity had claimed; the reason Mars and Jadeite drove each other so crazy was because they were strongly attracted to one another, and there was no longer any denying this attraction. The big question was now that they had realized these feelings with each other, what were they supposed to do with them?
The minds of Rei and Jun were soon being pulled back to the present. In another moment they were once again sitting in front of Dr. Ichinose's machine. The green spiral on the device had stopped spinning and was no longer lit up.
"So? What memories did you experience this time?" Dr. Ichinose asked the two. "Anything that might relate to Ms. Hino's nightmare?"
Rei and Jun looked at one another and blushed. Neither of them was sure about how to answer the question.
"Did you experience any more memories of your time together in the past?" Grete asked.
"Uh…you could say that," Rei answered. "Nothing about my nightmares though."
Dr. Ichinose jotted something down on her clipboard and looked thoughtfully at it for a moment. "Hmm…well, we can always try another session. Feel free to come by again tomorrow. It could only be a matter of time before we get some real answers."
"Uh, Rei? Do you think I could speak with you for a moment in private?" Jun asked.
"…Sure," Rei answered.
The two of them then went out into the hallway together. Jadeite looked around for a few moments to make sure they were totally alone.
"So what do you want to talk about?" Rei asked.
Jun took a deep breath. "I'll just come out and say it. Back during the Silver Millennium, were you ever…attracted to me?"
The question caused Rei to blush again. "Honestly…yes. I did feel a strong attraction towards you. Did you…did you feel the same way about me?"
Jun nodded. "I guess for me it was love at first sight. I mean I did hit on you when we first met. You were the loveliest woman I had ever laid eyes upon. It makes me a little curious about if anything actually happened between the two of us back then."
"I doubt it that anything did, which is probably for the best."
"True, but…what about now? There's no longer any taboo to keep us apart."
Rei shook her head. "There still couldn't be anything between us, Jun. Not because of any taboo, but because of my own personal reasons."
After a moment, Jun gave her a small smile. "It's probably just as well. I'm sure we'd made a pretty bad match anyway."
By this point Grete exited Dr. Ichinose's office. "Ms. Hino, now that we're done here, I believe you have an appointment to meet with your father."
Rei let out a heavy sigh. "Okay, let's get it over with."
Kaidou was traveling in the elevator down to the lowest level of the facility. It was down in this basement level were they kept what the entity controlling Kaidou hoped would be the greatest achievement of the Foundation. The elevator doors opened, and Kaidou stepped out into a large cylindrical chamber with multiple levels of its own. The walls of each level were lined with grey rectangular pods, each with a small square display window near the top and some form of control panel on the front. The panels included screens displaying the vital signs of whatever was inside the pods.
Manning a control station in the very center of the lab was a man in his early fifties in a white lab coat. He was tall, gaunt and had greying hair and pale skin. This man was the scientist in charge of the project, a geneticist from Great Britain known as Dr. William Higgins. Unlike most of the entity's current servants, Dr. Higgins had required very little brainwashing.
Dr. Higgins quickly noticed Kaidou walking up and smiled. "Ah! Master, this is an unexpected pleasure."
"How is the project progressing, Dr.?" Kaidou asked as he looked around at the pods.
"Every one of the specimens here have accepted the genetic samples taken form your true form. Already twenty of them have nearly completed the transformation."
"There's an old Earth legend that I've always been rather fond of. A great warrior slew a dragon and its teeth became buried in the ground. The teeth became like seeds, and from them sprang an army of soldiers. Now it appears I have some Dragon's Teeth of my own."
"From the way the specimens have been developing, I think they are worthy of such a name."
Kaidou smiled. "You said twenty of them had nearly finished their transformation, correct? I think it would be best to test some of them out."
Dr. Higgins smiled. "I was hoping you'd say that. Three of them should be ready for a field test tonight."
"Good. I will send those three after Rei."
"An interesting subject to test our soldiers against, Master."
"I'm not merely testing the strength of our soldiers, I'm also testing Rei's strength as well. I want to see just how strong that pathetic little girl really is."
Night was starting to fall as Rei was walking around the Foundation's indoor garden. She had wanted to go to the garden alone to try and collect her thoughts, but unfortunately Grete had compelled her to take Jun with, and Jun was the last person Rei wanted to be around at the moment. Thankfully Jun had been keeping a fairly discreet distance in order to give Rei at least a little space. Still, Rei felt like the only place she could truly be alone was in her quarters, and not even they provided her with much solitude because Jun was right on the other side of one of the doors. It seemed almost as if fate was trying to force them both together, when all Rei wanted was to be as far away from Jun as possible.
After about half an hour of walking the garden, Jun finally approached Rei. "We should probably get back to our quarters now. Unfortunately Grete gave me orders to have you back by a certain time."
Rei scowled. "That woman really is a hard-ass, isn't she?"
"You can say that again. I'll be glad when I'm finally free of her."
"…Assuming Grete does release you, what do you plan to do then?"
Jun shrugged. "Probably try and get back the life I had this time around before Beryl showed up again, and go back to protecting Endymion…not that I'm worthy of such an honor anymore."
Rei shook her head. "Don't be ridiculous. I feel like I've gotten to know the kind of man you really are over the past couple of days, at least a little bit. Endymion…Mamoru couldn't ask for a better protector. And I'm sure he'd be thrilled to have you back in his life."
Before Jun could respond, the two of them suddenly heard a rustling noise coming from the nearby trees. Rei and Jun froze on the spot, focusing all their attention on where the sound had come from. Then at last three monsters emerged from the trees. They were humanoid with muscular bodies covered in off-white reptilian scales; each of them bearing three blood-red eyes and a large mouth filled with fangs. From the forearms of each creature grew large bone-white spikes shaped like blades.
Upon seeing the creatures, Rei placed her hand over her chest. "Mars Crystal Power…MAKE-UP!"
In a flash, a pillar of red flames enveloped the raven-haired priestess, breaking apart moments later to reveal her as Sailor Mars. At the same, Jun placed a fist over his chest and was surrounded by a twister of ice and snow, which soon broke apart to reveal him as Jadeite. Only a second after the two had transformed, all three monsters spewed out streams of flame from their mouths.
Jadeite stabbed his sword into the ground as the flames came near. "Absolute Ice Fort!"
Four gargantuan walls of ice rose up out of the ground around Jadeite and Mars only seconds before the flames could strike them. All three streams of fire blasted the front wall of ice and melted it to nothing in mere moments.
Mars brought up her arms and crossed her wrists under her chin. "Mars Snake Fire!"
A large snake made of crimson flames flew from Mars and struck the broad chest of the creature on their right. It roared in pain but quickly recovered from the attack and charged towards them.
Jadeite thrust his sword at the oncoming creature. "Sub Zero Lance!"
A massive spear of ice flew from the blade of Jadeite's sword and struck the oncoming abomination in the chest, blowing a hole straight through its torso. In mere seconds the creature's body became totally frozen and shattered apart like cheap crystal. The creature on their left then charged for them, and as it moved in for the kill the spike on its right arm extended outward and began to glow bright red like molten steel. Jadeite charged n and struck his sword at the creature's glowing blade right when it slashed at him.
As Jadeite attempted to force the creature back, he could feel real heat radiating from its glowing spike. With such intense heat, Jadeite knew it was only a matter of time before the creature's spike cut through his sword like butter. The blonde warrior began to channel his power into his sword, and soon an icy mist formed around the blade. The heat from the monster's blade spike suddenly began to subside, and in another few moments the spike broke in half.
Jadeite took advantage of the opening and slashed the creature across its chest. "Ice Dragon's Claw!"
Upon being cut, the creature was instantly frozen just as his fallen comrade had been before. In another few seconds, cracks quickly formed throughout the monster's body, as Jadeite ran back towards Mars, the fallen beast shattered to bits. Meanwhile, Mars pointed an arm towards the remaining monster and prepared to fire a Flame Sniper attack at it. But before she could even summon her bow and arrow, the creature let out a hissing noise that caused Mars to freeze completely. It was the exact same hissing sound the monster in her nightmares made right before it attacked her.
Mars was left completely paralyzed by fear, just like she had been in her nightmares. It seemed like all she could do was wait for the creature to come at her and scream when it tried to take off her head. Only when Mars felt Jadeite shaking her hard by the shoulders did she come back to her senses. It took her a few moments to realize that it was Jadeite who had slapped her.
"Snap out of it!" Jadeite told her. "Now's not the time to be daydreaming!"
Suddenly the remaining creature's scales seemed to change color, and in another instant it had vanished. Jadeite and Mars stood where they were, searching the surrounding area for where it might strike at them from. Several seconds later, Jadeite saw a stream of flames coming at them from behind. He grabbed onto Mars and pulled them both to the ground, getting them out of the attack's path at the last second.
"This one's pretty crafty," Jadeite remarked. "It hung back and watched its friends take us on to see what we were capable of. Now it's using some sort of invisibility trick to get the drop on us."
"So what do we do?" Mars asked.
Jadeite got up on one knee and plunged his sword into the ground again. "Ice Dragon's Mist!"
The blade of Jadeite's sword glowed, and suddenly an icy mist formed throughout the entire garden. All of the plants in the indoor garden including every single blade of grass became covered in a tick layer of frost. Jadeite scanned the mist all around them, and in a matter of seconds he saw a large bulky shape slowly moving towards them.
"Gotcha!" Jadeite declared as he thrust his sword at the slow-moving shape. "Sub Zero Lance!"
Another large spear of ice flew from Jadeite's blade and struck the invisible creature. The monster's body soon became a hideous ice sculpture that shattered apart in an instant. With the final monster destroyed, the mist surrounding Mars and Jadeite faded and the frost covering the plants melted to nothing.
"From the way it was moving towards the end, I'd say these creatures don't do well in the cold," Jadeite speculated. "Guess that makes sense though, since they seem to be lizards of some sort."
"You talk almost as if you think there'll be more of those things," Mars observed.
Jadeite turned to her. "I really hope I'm wrong, but my guess is more of those monsters will show up soon. They're probably the soldiers used by whatever enemy Grete and I came to take on. But never mind that for now. What the hell made you freeze up back there?"
"It was…the noise the third creature made before it disappeared. It was the exact same noise the monster in my nightmares makes right before it tries to attack me. In fact…in some ways those monsters were very much like the monster from my nightmares."
"But how can that be?"
"I don't know. But right now I feel certain the enemy you and Grete came here to face is an enemy somehow connected to my past."
Kaidou and Dr. Higgins had been watching Mars and Jadeite's battle with their Dragon's Teeth soldiers on the large monitor in Kaidou's office. Both of them were fairly satisfied with how the battle had turned out.
"I would've preferred if those specimens had survived the battle, but overall it wasn't a bad test," Dr. Higgins declared.
Kaidou nodded. "You did fine work, Doctor. I couldn't ask for better soldiers to carry out my will. It was a stroke of genius to give them the power of invisibility."
"Well, part of the praise should go to you, Master. Your blood was the best material I had to work with. I will admit though, their lack of tolerance to the cold is a bit troubling."
"Indeed. This warrior the Princess has for a bodyguard could prove to be a nuisance." Kaidou then grinned. "Still, this battle proved the Princess is ultimately powerless against me."
"How so?"
"She froze because those soldiers reminded her of me, because they are me to an extent. I am the embodiment of her most primal fears. Sailor Mars may be a powerful warrior, but when she finally comes face to face with me, she'll be nothing more that a weak little girl. It will be child's play for me to dominate her."
Grete had arrived at the garden not long after Rei and Jun's battle against the reptilian monsters. The dark-haired bodyguard had sensed the arrival of the creatures earlier, but hadn't been able to arrive until after all three had been slain. Jun and Rei had quickly informed Grete on the battle they had just been through.
After Jun finished his report, Grete held her chin in thought. "So it seems the enemy has at last made its move. There are two possibilities here. Either the creatures were sent to eliminate Ms. Hino, or they were sent to kill you, Mr. Aragaki. It could very well be that the enemy has already detected our presence here."
"My guess is they were after Rei," Jun told her. "I mean if Rei's right, the enemy we're up against here is the monster from her nightmares."
"I'm not convinced of that."
"But those things were so much like the monster I keep seeing!" Rei told her.
"Only because you perceived them to be, Ms. Hino. Perhaps those creatures were similar to the monster from your nightmares, but that does not at all mean they are connected. The bigger question right now is exactly where those creatures came from."
"My guess is they came right from this building," a voice interrupted. Grete and the others looked to see Virginia approaching them. "Hope you don't mind me crashing your little party."
"What do you want, Officer Sampson," Grete asked.
"I happened to see the whole battle between your two friends and those monsters," Virginia answered. "Don't worry. I don't plan to out their secret identities or anything. In fact the reason I'm coming to you is because I'm hoping you help me take down the Foundation. I don't have all of the details, but I know for a fact this place is up to no good, hasn't been for years."
"What proof do you have of this?"
Virginia began tapping a few things on a tablet she was holding. "I don't have much, but I've been able to dig up some pretty interesting things. You know how this Foundation was started, right? It was formed when they found what looked like a face on the surface of Mars."
Grete nodded. "I'm aware of this from the research I did on the Foundation before coming here. But recent evidence has shown the face you're talking about to be nothing more than an optical illusion."
"That's exactly what the Foundation wants everyone to think. But I found out how agents at NASA secretly working for the Foundation altered the most recent satellite photos of that part of Mars. After I started working here I hacked into their system and dug this out of their servers." Virginia held the screen of her tablet to the others. "This is the real face of Mars the Foundation didn't want anyone to see."
The screen of the tablet showed an areal photo of the red surface of Mars, and in the very center taking up most of the picture was a large finely carved stone face. The face seemed to be of some sort of reptilian humanoid with two thin slits in place of a nose. On its head it seemed to be wearing some sort of crown or helmet. The moment Rei saw the face she went totally pale and backed away in horror, placing a hand over her mouth to stifle a scream.
Jun quickly noticed Rei's reaction. "What is it?"
Rei was trembling as she moved her hand away from her mouth. "That…that's it. That face is…is of the monster from my nightmares."
Author's Note: I of course did some extensive research on the "Mars Face" before going into this story. Full disclosure, I was a little disappointed when I learned the face was nothing more than an optical illusion. Learning this face didn't stop the progress of this story though. It took me only seconds to come up with the idea of the more recent photos of "the face" being altered by certain people at NASA as part of the coverup. I wouldn't at all surprised though if there were other people that came up with this theory and also believe it to be fact.
Please review and let me know what you think. Until then, I'll be back next week with another update.