Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 3: War games.
Episode 46: Game on.
By Razor Knight
Last update: April 30, 2013
Last edited: May 31, 2017
"I have summoned you, my warrior, because you will have the honor of killing the Senshi."
The figure just stared blankly at the man as he spoke, its large mouth and beady eyes showing only slight signs of intelligence.
"Attack Juuban, that's the area where they're always seen. You will draw them out and destroy them for good!"
The figure, again, just stared at him.
"... Just go already." The man waited for a few seconds, then sighed in exhasperation. "Fine, I get it. If you kill at least one Senshi, I'll summon some ghosts for you to gnaw on." The figure smiled and made a noise close to a chuckle before vanishing. The man stared at the spot where it had been for a few seconds before sighing again. "Okay, perhaps Pac-Man wasn't the best choice for this job."
Several minutes later, Moon was staring in disbelief at their supposed target. "Girls, please tell me you're seeing the same thing I'm seeing."
Nemesis was also staring at the creature in shock. "If you mean a truck-sized Pac-Man chomping cars to bits, then yeah."
"So this is the new enemy? A Pac-Man?" Mars said. "Let's end this quick. Fire Soul!"
Pac-Man heard the shout and turned around, noticing the flame blast heading straight for it. Upon realizing it wouldn't be able to dodge it in time, it did the only thing it could do in such a situation: It ate the fire.
Mars' jaw dropped as her attack was literally eaten by the yellow orb. "What. The. Fuck?"
"I think you need to use something stronger," Nemesis said. "Dark Shot!" Again, Pac-Man simply ate the attack, but this time he burped after a few seconds. "This is just too stupid."
"Hmph, I'll show you how you do it. Moonlight Flash!" Pac-Man, once again, ate the beam, but this time he shot it right back at them as he burped. "Eeek! Okay, this is annoying."
"Flametongue." Pac-Man turned and looked up at the newcomer. Warwitch stared down at it and chuckled. "Hey, perhaps this time around I'll finally be able to beat Pac-Man."
"Flame Sniper!"
Moon frowned as the creature turned to them, eating the flame arrow as it had eaten everything else. Still... "Girls, keep shooting at it."
Mars knew Moon enough to see that the blonde had a plan. And while Usagi wasn't as smart as Ami, she also knew Moon could come up with some good ideas once in a while. "Okay. Fire Soul! Fire Soul! Fire Soul! Fire Soul! Fire.."
Warwitch saw Mars shooting a barrage of fire bolts at Pac-Man. It was quite pointless, what were they planning? She then noticed Moon slowly circling around the yellow ball, as Nemesis started shooting at it as well. Being so focused in eating the attacks, it was oblivious to the fact Moon was right behind it, and charging up her chakrams.
"Double Flight!"
The two chakrams shot right through Pac-Man, and for a second nothing happened. Then the yellow ball whimpered and shrank until it vanished.
"Well, that was easy," Mars commented, then heard a clapping noise. "Who the heck..."
Nemesis looked up, and saw a man wearing a blue suit which somehow seemed familiar to her. His face was hidden by a visored helmet, so only his mouth could be seen. "Who is that?"
"Bravo, Senshi, I knew you would have little trouble defeating that one."
"You sent that thing here?" Moon asked.
"Isn't that obvious?" the man asked back. "My name's Game Master, and today's attack was just a test. I have plenty of minions to use, and not all of them will be as weak as that one was."
Nemesis snapped her fingers and smiled. "Of course, Rockman!"
"Huh?" Warwitch didn't quite get what she was talking about.
"His armor. It's almost like Rockman's one, except for the visor. I know that because Umino loves those games."
"So, that's who we're facing, a nerd cosplaying as Rockman?" Mars asked. "Let's just beat him here and now. Flame... Sniper!"
Game Master rose his hand, and the arrow was stopped by a forcefield. He then smirked. "Fight fire with fire, Rei. Firaga."
Moon fell to her knees as the attack passed. She could tell the fire wave was even stronger than Mars' strongest attack, this man was not joking. "He's... Too strong."
The man sighed. "Bah, you girls won't be a challenge for me yet. There's no point in playing if my enemies will be this easy to defeat."
Nemesis saw the man vanish and frowned. "He may push three of us around, but I don't think he can handle all of us together."
Moon nodded. "Yes, we could-" she stopped and reached out her hand, her communicator appearing in it. "Huh? Hi guys, what's up?"
Mercury's face appeared in the screen, and Moon saw her suit looked different. "Nova attacked again."
"Is everyone okay?"
"Yeah," Mercury said, and Moon saw she was hiding something, "and I don't think she'll be back to fight us, not after what I did... Or what she did."
"Huh? Hey, what happened while we were-"
"Come back to the base and we'll tell you."
"Okay, we also have something strange to tell you."
"Alert, entity known as Nova has appeared."
Ami looked up at the screen. "She's come to say hi again," she said with a humorless smile. Indeed, the scanners were showing that their foe was right outside their base.
"Good. Let me do the talking, guys."
"As long as she doesn't mind us," Brad joked.
"Normally I would find that amusing," Terry said. "Let's go," he added before walking into the elevator.
"Wow, this must be really upsetting him," Brad noted.
"Let's just get that girl back to her real self," Minako muttered.
Nova didn't show it, but she was quite nervous. She wasn't here to fight, she just wanted to know why Zero had stopped his allies before. Something bugged her about the whole picture. The Terry she knew, the Terry she loved, would do that, but also, the Terry she knew would not ally with evil beings.
And the Senshi... She couldn't sense any evil intent in them. "Good, most of you are here."
"Hana, we're not your enemies."
She looked at the Dragon. He seemed sincere, but the memories in her mind were still the same. She could see him, standing over her as she bled to death, his sword dripping blood, and he was smiling, a cold, sinister smile. "I... I don't know if I can trust you."
"You don't know?" Dragon Mercury asked. "Can you really mean that? You know me, Hana. The real me. The guy who would fight battles for you even when you didn't need me to. The guy who was there to comfort you when your brother died, the guy who would make a fool of himself just to see you smile. I don't know what they did to your mind, Hana, but you should know the one you're seeing there... That's not me."
Mercury looked at him. "Terry..."
Nova saw the Dragon turn to Mercury, and smile at her. She knew that kind of smile. But it couldn't be. "Terry, who is that?"
"Hana... I came to Japan looking for your murderer, and I met the Senshi here. We defeated the youma together, and the one who had killed you."
"Luminite..." Nova said. No, Luminite had only helped Zero kill her. That's what her memories were telling her. But for some reason, she wanted to believe this Terry, not the one in her mind. "And who is that girl to you, Terry?"
The Dragon sighed. He knew exactly what she was asking, and a part of him dreaded answering, but he had never lied to her. He wouldn't start now. "You were gone for over one year, Hana. I used the memory of you as an excuse, but... In the end, I realized I had to move on. I still consider you a friend, and I'm glad to see you alive, but..."
"But what? You're telling me I've been brought back just to watch you be with someone else? I can't accept that."
"That's not for you to decide," Mercury said.
Nova glared at her. "You... Who the hell are you, anyhow?"
"My real name is Ami Mizuno," Mercury said, "and I know all too well why you feel how you feel about him. He's kind, he's sincere, and he may be a bit of a pervert at times, but he's also a charmer when he must. I'm sorry, but I love him, and as he said, he's moved on."
Nova's glare turned darker. "No! He's mine!"
Dragon Mercury paled. It was the first time he had seen one of Nova's attacks. True, he had felt their effects a few times, when they trained back home, but her attacks were always invisible. The large, black bolt heading straight at him right now, there was something very wrong with it.
No, it wasn't heading for him, and he realized it just in time. "Ami, out of the way!"
Venus froze in shock, the attack had been too fast for any of them to react. Any of them except for Dragon Mercury, who had shielded Mercury with his body. As he slumped to the ground, she saw Mercury's face, and knew things could go very wrong from that point on.
Saturn rushed to check on the Dragon. "Whatever that blast was, it was powerful. It will take me a while to heal him, if I can even-" she stopped as she looked back, and saw Mercury had a thin blue aura surrounding her. "Shit..." She flinched, but knew she couldn't stop her. All she could do was try to heal the Dragon and hope the others could stop the battle before things went wrong.
"Mercury Star Power!"
"Ami, wait," Venus started, but Mercury was already moving. Nova wasn't moving, however, she was just staring at Terry's prone form. So she knew what she had almost done, but that apparently made no difference for Ami right now.
"Mercury..." Mercury's right hand was quickly covered by ice as she spun. "... Frozen..." The ice turned a dark blue, and her hand could be barely seen inside it. She stopped, taking a moment to glare at Nova again before swinging her fist forwards. "... Rage!" The barrage of ice needles that shot forwards was much more dangerous than it looked, because of the magic backing it up. The attack hit Nova, knocking her off the sky, but Mercury wasn't done yet. "Frozen Rage!"
"Ami, wait, please!" Venus pleaded as she saw Nova trying to stand up.
"Frozen Rage!" This time, the attack knocked her foe to the ground, and Nova only moved her arms weakly, still trying to get away. "Frozen-"
"Ami, stop it already."
Mercury gasped and stopped her attack before it shot, then looked back, her glare turning into a happy smile. "Terry!"
Dragon Mercury sighed as she hugged him, then noticed she was sobbing. "Ami, it's okay-"
"It's not okay... I... I could have killed her if I kept on attacking. I- A part of me wanted to do it. I'm..."
"You're not to blame for that, neither is she for attacking me," the Dragon said, then frowned. "Fuck, she left again."
"In her state, she won't be a threat, and after the beating Mercury gave her..."
"I don't know what happened to me, I just reacted, I didn't think at all."
"Love can be quite a weapon in the right hands, huh?" Jupiter mused.
Mercury decided to call Moon, and the others waited for the call to end. Saturn looked at Dragon Mercury and frowned. "Terry, are you okay?"
"I'll live."
"That was extremely foolish of you."
"I'm aware of that, but I would do it again if I had to." He looked to the point where Nova had fallen before escaping. "I was dreading this from the moment I realized it was really her. For her, it was only yesterday that we were laughing and kissing... Waking up to this, she must be- No, I don't know how she must be feeling."
"If she comes back," Jupiter said, "we'll ask her who revived her. We'll find him, her or it, and give them our thoughts on it." As she said that last bit, she rose her fists and looked at them, and everyone knew what she meant.
Mercury put her comm away and sighed. "Okay, let's go back in."
"Ami, I'm sorry for making you worry like that."
"It's okay, I'm used to you being foolish by now."
"And also..."
"Yes?"
"Don't hate Hana. That... That's not how she is. Her mind must be a mess right now, she's not someone who would shoot to kill-"
"She didn't shoot to kill," Mercury said. "You said it yourself, if she really meant it..."
"You're right. But I don't know what she will do from now on. We should all be careful."
Several minutes later, the Senshi were back inside their base. Yukiko was also there, and was shocked to hear about what Nova had done. "I know I'm a bit of an outsider, but are you... Are you sure you can bring her back?"
"Yes," Terry said, almost instantly. The others stared at him in shock. "Guys, I know Hana, she's not evil, she will not willingly choose the side of evil."
"You keep saying she could kill us if she wanted to. Can you be sure of that?"
Terry bit his lip and his face turned grim for a minute. He finally let out a sigh. "Okay, I know you heard me tell her about her brother. Let me tell you exactly what happened back then. See, Hana was born in a wealthy family, like me, but she was the exception. Her brother, born five years before her, was a normal guy, but he never let Hana down. Her powers could freak people around her at times, but her parents and brother didn't mind her special skills at all. I remember it, that day her brother had left for a meeting with some classmates, a car run him over while he was heading back home, the driver was drunk... Hana heard about an accident close to her house, and somehow she had the feeling something had happened to her brother."
"And she found him," Usagi guessed.
"When we got there, the ambulance was already there, but the paramedic said it was too late. Hana took off running, I didn't know what she would do, but I knew her powers let her see things I couldn't see, so I feared she would... And, indeed, she was able to follow the car. She didn't mind people seeing her as she run, faster than any human could run. I followed her as well as I could, snd when we found the car, I realized if Hana wanted revenge, she had, in a way, found it. The car had crashed down from a bridge, and straight into a river."
"Wow, that's just..."
Terry smiled sadly at Mako. "That's not the end of it. See, I had seen Hana's powers, the part of it she keeps under control, she could move objects with her mind, she could knock people around, she could stop bullets with it. I was awed by all that, but that day I realized just how little I knew about the nature of her powers. Grief can be a powerful weapon, and Hana let out all of her grief as she fell on her knees. I heard her cry, and then saw the area around her... It's hard to explain, and it was a good thing there were no civilians close to us. It was frightening, the way the concrete under her seemed to shimmer and melt away, the bridge was reduced to nothing but shreds in a matter of seconds, and the air around us seemed to be burning. And yet, I realized something almost instantly. All the destruction she was causing, all the power she was displaying, I had been standing right next to her when it started. I should have been ripped to pieces by the psychic storm, but I was fine. She took her rage on inanimate objects, but she couldn't hurt me, even though her mind was a mess right then. I managed to calm her down and we left before anyone could see us. That was the first and only time I saw Hana's power unleashed."
"So that's why you said..."
"Ami, your upgrade makes you much stronger than the rest of us, not counting Moon, but if she had really wanted to kill you, then Saturn would have been forced to revive you."
Usagi looked at the others. "Guys, ChibiUsa attacked us too. I know none of us knows Hana that much, but... What I heard about her from Terry is different from what we've seen. That's not the real Nova, in a way, and while we can't let her hurt innocents, we shouldn't treat her like an enemy, either."
Hana frowned. She hadn't realized this at first, but she could speak and understand Japanese without even trying. She could read Japanese as if it had always been her native language. It was surely Onara's fault. She had spent the last few hours searching, researching... She knew it now, the Senshi were not evil. Onara and A had tricked her, but she couldn't sense them. They knew she could find out about it, and that's why they had left. But that wasn't quite important for her right now.
She couldn't stop replaying it in her mind. Her blind rage, her attempt at injuring Mercury (not killing... She wouldn't be a murderer, even at such a state of mind,) and Mercury's attack. She had never felt something like that, the ice seemed to cool down the blood in her veins, after the second attack, even the air she was breathing in was freezing cold. And yet... Mercury could have killed her, right then, right there. Terry could have let it all end, if he wanted to be with that girl, then why save her?
Hana flinched as she saw it in her mind. All the times Terry had protected her, helped her, turned sadness into happy smiles. "He's mine?" she said, remembering the line she had said before attacking. "What an idiot I am. He's not mine, he's not a toy I can get back like that, he..." The last memories of her former life appeared again. Zero, smiling with a bloodied sword. No, that was a lie. She could see the image changing, Zero crying as she weakly tried to cheer him up. That was the last thing she remembered before she woke up in that room.
Now she knew it, those two assholes had used her, made her believe a stupid lie. If she ever saw them again... No, she couldn't worry about that now. She had to decide what her next step would be. She knew where all the Senshi were, she could see them in her mind. She could just teleport in and- "And what?" After what she had done, they would not trust her, and she couldn't blame them. No, she couldn't bear facing him again, she had to leave, to-
'That's something I like about you, Hana. You don't run away.'
That made her freeze on the spot. It was something Terry had told her, after one of their battles, one in which they had faced twenty very armed thugs. And she realized something as she remembered that. She had run away, not once, but twice, since she had been brought back. And she had been about to run away a third time, even without trying. That was not her, and she was quite tired of not being sure of who she was. No, she would face her problem head-on, for better or for worse.
With only a thought, she vanished from the alley she had been at, her mind set on her destination. The place the Senshi called their base.
A/N: If you think Sailor Moon versus Pac-Man was weird, you have no idea...