The Crystal Senshi

Savagekitty

Dedicated to those who are true senshi of the heart and spirit.

Chapter Six

My Life for Yours

Caty sat across from Artemis. The large wicker chair was comfortable, and as out of place as everything else in the apartment Artemis and Luna had lived in for a little over 60 years. The two guardians of the young senshi had lived on the Earth, aware of who they are and what they came from for a little over 490 years. Before that, they couldn't remember what their lives were like. Now Artemis was alone for the first time since he could remember. He sat in a chair that seemed to be one large piece of wood with a high back. He was slightly slumped, his once shining silver hair a dull and greasy gray. His clothes, rumpled, slept in. His eyes were red rimmed and a fine stubble of beard covered his pale face. He was grieving hard for Luna, her funeral having been only a few weeks before. It was small, quiet, and the people present all cried enough to fill a bathtub twice. Usagi cried the hardest. Caty didn't cry. She never cried in public. Now she wished she had. At least tried to, for Artemis's sake.

"I would like to go back to bed." Artemis said gruffly. He had closed the antiques shop and became a hermit in the apartment above it where he and Luna lived.

Caty removed a file from the messenger bag slung across her shoulder and slid it across the glass top of the coffee table. He looked at it, but didn't touch it. "That's everything I could find for the Dark Kingdom. All of Ami's notes, and Luna's. The one thing I couldn't find was the location. Longitude and latitude. I want them."

Artemis looked up from the fold on the table and at her, his sky blue eyes bloodshot, "What would you do if you had them?"

Caty sighed. She really didn't know. She thought if she had every scrap of information she could get her hands on, she would be able to come up with something. Since she refused to use her senshi abilities, things would be rather harder for her.

"I don't know. I just thought… if I had everything…"

He nodded and closed his eyes, "That's what we thought, but it didn't really help that much."

He opened his eyes again, "You couldn't even get there under your present form, Caty."

"I know that!" She rubbed her face, lowering her voice, "I know that. Its just that… these damn little battles are stupid. Just hit and run, hit and run. The real war needs to be waged up there, where they are. I am not one to just sit around and wait… when Sailor Moon forbid me… Sailor Emerald, I mean, not to do something…" she sighed again, frustrated.

"She didn't forbid you to not do anything. She forbid Sailor Emerald from going to the enemy for a fight. You were angry, she was shaken. You need to understand that Usagi is a very loving person and when we loose people, when she looses people, it kills away a piece of her. She loathes suffering and seeing friends harmed, and it makes her do things don't seem right, she just wants to protect you."

"I don't need protecting, I need to kill something."

Artemis actually chuckled and then sighed, a flush coming to his face as if he did something he wasn't suppose to. He was quiet for a moment and then looked at her frankly, "If you really need something to do that's helpful. Why not find the Silver Crystal?"

Caty looked puzzled, "Uh, ok. It's with Sailor Moon. I win a cookie. Next assignment."

Artemis was still serious, "Actually, we don't know where it is."

Caty's face went to puzzled to pissed off in 2.5 seconds. She jumped from her seat, her face flaming red, "WHAT! What do you mean find the Silver Crystal?" She started pacing the room like an angry tiger, "Are you tell me that after all this time, the reason that the God damned Dark Kingdom hasn't been defeated is because you haven't found the GOD DAMNED SILVER MOON CRYSTAL!"

Artemis watched this, unabated, "That is exactly what I am saying. Luna and I have been searching for it before we even activated Sailor Moon and the others into action. We searched through Earth legends, records from the Moon Kingdom that weren't destroyed in the war, and even modern history. Luna and I had been looking in old records from the Moon about 6 months before we activated you. Before we found proof of the Guardian Senshi we…thought that… that you were fractured memories of lower power tiers of the Planetary Senshi."

Caty blew air out her nose, snorting, and dryly replaying, "Thanks."

"Well, what were we to think? The others remembered very little of you other then distant visits. You turned into legend. We were ecstatic about the proof the Guardians were real and we would get some help. We were also excited to see if one of you contained the Silver Crystal. Luna had a theory that the Queen, before she sealed everyone away and the Dark Kingdom, she had sealed the Silver Crystal within one of the subjects of the Moon or shattered it, hiding the pieces until it was needed again."

"Well I don't have it. But now I have a headache." She sat back in her chair, rubbing her temples. Artemis looked at her messenger bag that now sat beside her chair. He stared at the small mesh pouch that held her transformation pendant, "Its glowing." She looked down at it then sat back, continuing to rub her temples, "Yah, it does that."

He blinked a few times, "You're going to ignore it?"

She looked at him through slotted eyelids, "Yes? I'm on my own now Arty. If she was going to forbid me to try and save my friend, then Caty would have to try. But now this shit with the Silver Crystal…" She slumped back, rolling her head back. Artemis stood, angry, "Then why did we give you that crystal? Why did we activate you if you're just going to go rogue like a spoilt brat? They need help! Yes Sailor Moon is difficult, but she means well! You were angry! She was saddened by the death of her friend!" He heaved with anger, "Go…and…HELP…THEM!"

She only blinked and stood, "Yes sir!" She grabbed her bag and hightailed it out of his apartment, tossing her bag over her shoulder to get to the pouch. She drew out the pendant and as she ran into a back alleyway, put it on. She shouted the words and the familiar feeling of Sailor Emerald came over her. She was on a stone fence before she knew it, over looking the battle. She felt the rush she had been ignoring for the weeks since she and Sailor Moon had fought. The rush of being able to help others because it was the right thing in a form that could actually do something. She felt the strength, agility, and the power.

Looking down, Sapphire, Jupiter, and Moon carried on in battle with Nephrite and one of his minions. Nephrite had been one of the lesser of the evils of the Dark Kingdom. He seemed only about material possession and not about the big picture. The evil Queen seemed to only put him on tasks involving kidnapping people. Or maybe he had to, to collect the energy. They still hadn't figured out, or at least Sailor Emerald hadn't, why the Dark Kingdom needed the energy. Maybe it was to break the bonds of the universe they were trapped in? Maybe it was to free their evil Queen that used them all as puppets, like Caty had read in the Sailor Moon manga. She would have to ask someday.

Nephrite was laid out on a bench, they were at the very edge of the park, the youma fading in and out of the dark shadows of the trees. The moon overhead provided more light then expected, but it was still rough going. The youma seemed made of shadow. There were couples that littered the ground. Out for a moonlit stroll and get your energy sucked out of you. Sailor Jupiter incinerated a large pine tree with her Oak Evolution. No one noticed her, so she would take the element of surprise, jus the way she liked it. Sapphire used a wind tunnel attack called Hurricane Funnel as Emerald came around the wall of the park and slipped inside the park, slinking behind the bench Nephrite watched the fight from. Emerald noticed in his hand, a small crystal. So the manga had been right on that. Nephrite liked to use crystals to control or create his youma. Destroy the crystal, destroy the youma. She took this option with great exuberance, standing at where his head was on the park bench and kicking his hand. The crystal flew into the air and hit the pavement, shattering. Nephrite sat up, gripping his now broken hand. The youma seemed to disappeared like a puff of smoke and the three senshi, confused, turned to Emerald who held Nephrite in a choke hold. Sailor Moon strode forward, "Emerald!"

The tall senshi turned to Sailor Moon, a crystal dagger coming into the sight of the others, "An eye for an eye, Sailor Moon. That is what the Bible taught up." The blade's tip was pressed to Nephrite's throat, a thin line of blood snaking down into the collar of the dark gray uniform he wore. His auburn hair, long and wavy, was now tangle into Emeralds hands as she jerked his head back painfully, "Where is she, Nephrite?" Emerald talked through gritted teeth while her comrades stood, watching in horror. Nothing like this was ever in the manga. He opened his mouth then closed it, refusing to talk. His eyes darted from the small part of Emerald he could see to Sailor Moon and the others. Emerald pressed the blade harder, "Don't think I will kill you? I am not like THEM, Nephrite. I don't just fight off the youma and wait for another one to attack innocent people. I will kill you. You have killed three of my friends and countless innocent citizens of Earth. I am your judge, Nephrite. I am your Judge, your jury and your executioner. I am Sailor Emerald." She pressed the blade ever harder until a cold clear voice from the shadows on her left rang out, "Stop, Sailor Emerald."

She turned towards the voice, Nephrite still in her grasp as Kunzite stepped from a vortex of shadows. He stood tall, his silver hair gleaming to his waist. His black uniform trimmed in silver was clean and neat as a pin, as it always was in the Silver Millennium. A long black cape was pinned to his shoulders by silver fasteners and in the middle, a stone that was his namesake. His face was blank, free of feeling as he stared at his comrade and the senshi that held his life. Nephrite bared his teeth, "I don't need you to fight my battles! Did your pet Zoicite send you? Wouldn't let you back into his bed without a glimpse of me in humiliation?"

Emerald shuttered at that. So that's what had happened. Kunzite had taken Zoicite into his bed. They were probably lovers even before the war. They had used Emerald to get information about the kingdom. That made her seethe in fury and press the blade until Nephrite moaned. Kunzite didn't looked embarrassed at the accusations, or even look like anything but cold stone. He waved a hand and a portal of shadow opened in the ground. Up rose a stake and tied to it, was a weakened Erin. She was pale, close to death as she slumped against her binds. She was bruised and battered and Emerald was so overjoyed just seeing her alive. "A trade then?"

Emerald narrowed her eyes, "I demand satisfaction, Kunzite."

Kunzite looked from Nephrite to Emerald, no notion of recognition on his face. The thought crossed her mind again, they must modify memories in the Dark Kingdom. Or he just used her and forgot about her. That made her heart hurt worse.

"What is it that you wish, Sailor Emerald?"

Precise as always, he didn't beat around the bush. She could ask for anything now. She had Erin back. Her Erinchan. Sapphire, Jupiter, and Moon just stood by, gaping. She glanced down at Nephrite who shook, in anger or fear, she couldn't tell by the expression on his face. She looked at Kunzite, "Nephrites life isn't worth asking for you all to just leave Earth alone, is it."

Kunzite actually chuckled, "No."

Emerald shrugged the best she could, "Can't blame a girl for trying. I demand satisfaction from you, Kunzite, but now is neither the time or the place. When it happens, you will know. For now, as it stands…" She pressed the blade into Nephrite neck and carved a small letter E. She whispered in his ear, making him pale and then kissed his cheek. She pushed him at Kunzite. Kunzite stepped away from the portal leading back to the Dark Kingdom so Nephrite could stumble through it. Emerald strode to her friend, cutting her binds and catching her. She was so close to Kunzite, she could smell the cologne he used. He looked down at her as she gripped Erin. She looked up at him, her eyes stark with pain of love lost, "My life for yours, Kunzite."

He looked puzzled at this sentiment, then shook his head. He blinked at her and then stepped back into the portal. It snapped closed wetly and the others rushed forward. Sailor Moon kneeled by Emerald as she laid Erin out on the ground. Sapphire had faded back to Bonnie and was calling 911 on her cell phone. Sailor Moon was looking at Emerald, "Are you one of us again?"

Emerald looked at the blonde, "I have to be. Artemis told me you don't have the Silver Moon Crystal. No legs in an ass kicking contest, Moon girl. We need to find it. And fast. To do that, you need all the help you can get."

End Chapter

My Life For Yours