Chapter 16:It is Only A Dream until the Love Runs Sour
Ixion laughed.
It was too easy. He stood across from a woman in the darkness, one who was con-ing people in her little shop; A fortuneteller of dreams? He laughed and emerged into the dim lighting of her table, just as a man left the room who seemed to have believed his luck of love had not yet run out. He had however run out of money she'd just taken from him.
" So is that what you really tell people? That dreams have meanings? Give people answers? What about the nightmares then?" He sat down in front of the pale violet haired young woman. Her azure blue eyes did give her the look though. Her glass ball, the starry drapes secluding them from the windows of the store. It was nothing but a look. "Deceptions for a price?" He continued after his once over.
"I do no such thing." She nodded. "Do you want your fortune? What do you dream of?"
"I dream of a world you cannot even begin to imagine as such a human as yourself. You're a con-woman aren't you? I know when true spiritual power is around. I can't sense it on you." Ixion leaned back in the chair, smugly. "I mean I understand. You have an aura of mysticism and beauty, but frankly your just lying to them, Madame Ayumi."
"I tell people what they need to hear. Dreams can often be decoded. If they give me a donation that is their - wait did I tell you my real name?"
"Lies. Deception. Quite frankly I don't see the point. As soon as they leave and when what you told them does not happen they're going to come back and you'll be on the line." Ixion leaned forward and touched her wrist. "Plus I'm sure nightmares have all the same significance as dreams…warnings, omens…"
"What do you want from me then? If you're not here to get a reading or to help-"
"Oh, I'm here to help." Ixion lifted his finger and all the candles of the room lit up in amber flame. "You see I'm a bit of a mystic myself, and I can see how to make your little deceptions a little more – real." He leaned in closer to the woman, His face sensually close to hers.
She inhaled as her eyes opened. "How?"
He drew his finger up her chin. "This."
With the other hand he embedded the Seed of Pseudia between his lips and pressed it into hers.
So petty the women of this world where – at the first sight of admiration they were already adorning for a kiss! He saw her eyes flash a color red, as the demon Seed took her over.
It would happen tonight. Tonight the world would reverse itself. All the lies would be told, in the most deceptive of states humans indulge in – the worlds of illusions and chaos – dreams.
He looked over the city. What fun it would be to put people into their own minds. Chaos of disillusion. Chaos of lies. The question was: what darkness to emerge from their subconscious … what reality to create when consciousness was not their own?
"I'm really happy we went last night." Serena clutched onto Darien's arm as they sat in the summer heat down by the umbrella-ed tables by the shops. The sun was loosing spot in the sky as the evening closed in.
"It the least I could do after yesterday Serena. I really hope you realize it troubles me more that I always fall victim to these evil ruses that push us apart." Darien leaned back as she sipped on a soda.
"I don't blame you. I really am beginning to think I am a nuisance to you sometimes though…" Serena looked down.
"No, no it's not that. Honestly I think it's that, I used to think the future was so clear. I know I'm meant to be with you Serena, and I know that we will bring a new millennium to the Earth and Solar System of peace… but I realized that there is a lot in between. I don't know how we should be spending it – should we just wait for it to arrive or should we be preparing not just as protectors but also as leaners? I know now that we have a formidable enemy again…but sometimes I wonder what it really means to be the Prince of the Earth…what that responsibility means. I guess I was so concerned with trying to do what was best for the Earth…in terms of focusing on learning, that for a moment I forgot about what it meant to balance relationships too…I guess I'm actually kind of confused by the whole idea. "
"Wow, Darien I didn't know you were so … concerned. Frankly I mean it is my own fault…I don't really think things through as much as you do but-" Serena put her arm behind her head guiltily. "But whatever you decide I will support you!"
"I know you do Serena. Frankly I feel bad that your gift turned out to be such a bad ploy for those Rogue Scouts. I know you meant it."
"Well you paid for dinner so lets call it even." She drank the rest of her soda float.
"It's not hard with you to make even with your love of food and all is it?" Darien laughed.
"Hey, don't tease. I'd choose you over food any day!"
"I'm glad to hear." He smiled. "So what were the scouts doing today?"
"I don't know… Honestly sometimes I feel bad. We always go on dates; but they never get to go out with guys or anything. They're always busy scouting or …well being responsible."
"Yea, Rei's been really been working hard at the temple…and Ami studies a lot doesn't she outside school to become a doctor?"
"Yea, plus Mina…I mean she's always looking for a boyfriend, but kind of like Lita they've always kind of hit a rough patch."
"Well Ami has Greg doesn't she?"
"But he's not here, and I get the feeling their relationship will kind of be at a distance. And Rei really doesn't seem to want to give in around Chad either…"
"Well I'm sure they'll figure it out. If you that concerned, I'm sure you'll be able to help them out one day. When you're the Future Queen you can make sure they make the time too…by then I'm sure they'll all have achieved their own goals."
"Yea, maybe Ami will be a doctor…Rei will have the temple full time…Mina well she'll probably manage to be a star somehow…I mean she was Sailor V before we knew we were scouts…and Lita well she'll become a cook for sure!"
"And they're sailor scouts; they've always been there for you Serena."
"Yea, sometimes I just wonder if there' s someone that they were meant to be with. Like us." Serena leaned on Darien's arm.
"So what exactly do most people come to you about Ayumi dear?" Ixion looked over the darkened streets with her on his arm.
"Love. Love is always the first. Will I find love? What does this mean when I dreamed about my ex lover? My heart was broken and I lost my love…"
"Hmmm…love is a hard card to play…hard to fight through the illusions of the heart, let alone the illusions of one's mind."
"Most dreams are the deepest of subconscious traits of a being. If they're heart is broken, or is at odds, most people wish to not wake up from those dreams or they find themselves in the darkest of nightmares strewn with breaking someone's heart or regaining a heart they lost." Ayumi's blue eyes were like gaping holes of azure now; she was only partially herself, lost to the demon Seed Pseudia inside.
"Love. It is such a petty thing, and yet when infatuation grows strong enough it seems to call itself that." Ixion bit his own lip. He knew he'd never intended from the start to become obsessive. "So if you put this city under your spell, do you think any of them would actually fall into their own illusion? If you think it meant they would have the chance to relive their own darkest secrets?"
"They would receive the seed of Disillusion? Of course they would. Who else wouldn't want to receive my kiss?"
"I wonder the same thing myself sometimes." Ixion smirked and looked over the city. "Then lets see what happens when they realize the hearts they broke in the past…lets awaken the heartbreak and pain? Lets see who can break through true illusion?"
Ayumi changed her form into Pseudia. She turned into a pale green skinned being, her violet hair turned deep in color, her blue eyes batted, and she looked as if she was half woman half butterfly demon as her wings spanned out to create a kind of illusionary ghostly face on them. Her lips were stained with a black diamond in the middle where Ixion had planted the Seed.
"Goodnight city world. Let's see how well you can decode your own dreams?"
"Just wait, Pseudia." Ixion suddenly stopped her.
"First, I'd like to find a face in this city I know most familiarly now. I want to make sure the moment she escapes from her dream, one I will have you weave, I will have a chance to speak to her alone, amongst a city of lovely nightmare."
"How do you know she will escape my dreams?" Pseudia cocked her head to the side, flying in the air.
"She escaped another Demon Seed's before you, and I suspect will be the least probable to fall victim to questions of love unless she is brought into dark, dark doubts."
"Shall we find her?"
"Yes." Ixion closed his eyes and called upon his spiritual fire-wheel, His ancestor's sins of fortune granted him this power. As it spun he asked for it to direct him to a girl, a girl he'd seen on the Moon a long time ago. A girl he'd had on his mind on for a long time.