Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot on this fanfic and a couple
or more characters you certainly won't find in either animes so when I say
anything I mean anything! Heck, I don't even own this computer! I'm just
renting it until I get my own. So please bear with me if my updates are
slow? ;;;
Spoilers: You'll know 'em when you see 'em! ov!!!
Author's Note 1: Eh... I'm just going to warn you guys that it'll be some time before I update again after this. Real life has a tendency to intrude, you see, and I do have to work. Besides, I'm taking classes in advance this summer but I'll still try to update as fast as I can. ;;;
Jane: hey, thanks. Welcome to the world of Sailor Moon Crossovers. Say, there's a really good SM/WK fic called Kamereon down in the Miscellaneous section of by Sailor Ronin Usa-chan. She wrote it with Aideen-san. Really good. I recommend it highly.
kst: thanks. I'm glad you loved it. Hope you enjoy this chapter. Say, you don't have any fanfic recommendations, do you? I'd so love a new good fic to read. ''v
anonymous: eh heh... ;; thanks for liking this story, I really didn't expect such enthusiastic response from anyone. Sorry for torturing you ;;. But here's a new chapter. Here boy! Come see the new chapter! (throws chapter like a frisbee) ;;;.
Arigatou gozaimasu to all my precious readers!
And, oh yeah, if any of you guys are interested in Harry Potter fics, I have three ships going on. You'll find them on my profile and I hope you'll tell me what you think. Tell me what ship you like best. See ya!
Author's Note 2: Enjoy!!!
Chapter Eight:
The tension in Rei's room was palpable as everyone sat quietly around the low table. Everyone was lost in their own thoughts as they remembered Usagi's last call which was few a minutes ago. Finally, Luna stood up, fuming.
"I CAN'T STAND THIS ANYMORE!" she screamed. "She can't do this to us! She can't just tell us she won't be able to come back and that we shouldn't make any kind of contact with her! This is unfair! We're her friends, for Kami's sake! She has responsibilities! She's the future queen of Crystal Tokyo! Can't she understand that?!"
"I'm going to serve that odango atama on a plate of spaghetti when I get through with her." Rei growled but, despite her threats, her concern was plain for everyone to see.
"The hime is beginning to become obsessed with finding her brother. This can't be good." Michiru spoke calmly belying the worry she felt.
In the middle of the angry tide of voices, Ami spoke hesitantly, "Personally, I can't say I blame her. Shingo is her only brother and her parents are already confined in a hospital because of this. You heard her explanation about what happened at her house today. I don't think anyone will let her have any peace until she has justice."
Everyone silently agreed with her. Usagi called them through her communicator, narrating everything that happened before explaining where she had to stay before shutting her line off.
"And isn't it that what she's always fought for?" Makoto added quietly.
Again, silence reined in the room. Everyone wanted to be with Usagi. She was their princess, their friend! She's sacrificed much for them and to be parted from her now when she was in a scrape seemed to speak of abandonment!
"Can't you do anything, Setsuna?" Artemis looked hopefully at the guardian of time. Usagi had great respect for Setsuna, even feared her a little, and may listen to her if she told her to come back.
Setsuna shook her head slightly. "Gomen, I am only the guardian of time and space and she is the queen. However she wishes to live her life shall be her decision. To be queen may be her destiny, she cannot shirk that, but how she will go about to that path is her decision."
"Demo what about Chibiusa?" Hotaru asked. Her solemn purple eyes directed on one of her foster mothers.
Setsuna smiled softly at her. "I really am not sure. One thing I can tell you is that Chibiusa is mostly Serenity's child. As long as she gets married, a child will still be born. She may not be Chibiusa in appearance or in name but her heart shall stay as it is. With Usagi for a mother, I can recommend that."
Hotaru smiled in relief. Inwardly, she wanted Usagi happy too, but her concern for the future princess was too great for her to ignore.
"Demo what about our futures, Setsuna?" Rei couldn't help asking.
The dark haired woman fell silent for a while before answering. "Gomen, but I can't tell you that."
Everyone fell silent and, after a few moments, Haruka stood up and leaned on the threshold of Rei's room. She saw the girl's pet crows staring at her with their dark, dotty eyes and she glared at them. Seething with a frustration that she can't help Usagi the way she wanted to. The way she needed to. Damn destiny! If only things weren't so difficult!
"We can't do anything but wait for now and be ready when she calls." She finally said, drawing all eyes in the room on her. "This is something Koneko has to do for herself. We've been pressuring her too much to fulfill the destiny that we want her to have. It's time she thought about herself." She gave a low chuckle as an irony passed through her thoughts. "Come to think of it, she isn't doing this directly for herself, but for Shingo. If this is selfishness then she's saved us all because of her selfishness, ne, Luna?"
"D-demo this is different, Haruka!" Luna protested.
"Maybe but we can't do anything about it. Unless we want a bitter queen to rule Crystal Tokyo, we'd better support her even if it is just this once." Haruka answered almost casually.
"I agree." Ami whispered.
"D-demo, what will we do if something bad happens to her?!" Rei asked, worriedly.
Haruka half smiled, hiding the concern that's tearing her apart. She didn't want Usagi to be alone either but, if the Koneko was serious about this, then they had no right to interfere. "We are her senshi, aren't we? Our mission is to protect her and this world and that's exactly what were going to do. Koneko may be impulsive but she's not stupid." Haruka's eyes narrowed a bit as she remembered the look in Usagi's eyes when she and Michiru found her with those four guys. She saw that expression in the beautiful blonde's eyes when she used herself as a barricade trying to protect Hotaru whom she and Michiru tried to kill, once upon a time. A stubborn Usagi was not a nice Usagi to reason with.
Setsuna nodded, her affection for her hime and her concern as a senshi tearing her apart. Upon hearing Haruka, she realized that this was something they can't decide for their princess. "Haruka is right. We walk with her every step of the way but we do not interfere unless we were meant to. She needs this time for herself before she can truly come to terms with her destiny."
Everyone looked down on their tea cups, their feelings all mixed up. Silently acknowledging the things that they have to do with different levels of difficulty mostly provoked by fear. Fear of the unknown they are facing without Usagi there to lead them. It was the first time they seriously understood how important Usagi was to all of them... and their futures...
"Is he ready yet...?"
A woman in a chick business suit stood in front of a large crystal tank, filled with a clear, but toxin laced liquid. She peered inside it with a cold gaze from behind her fashionable tinted glasses. Her question was directed at the man behind her, sitting calmly behind a desk with a mad smirk on his face and surrounded by four beautiful women who were all glaring at her threateningly.
"He will be ready for testing. Just give me two to three weeks to gather more samples." The man answered her, drawling. "There's no need to hurry, is there?"
Mischievous, cold golden eyes turned to stare at him and she smirked when she noted the sudden tension in the bodies of the women surrounding the only male in the room. It amused her, really, to provoke such a response to a bunch of simpletons. "I want to please my... superior with this little project of ours. My... colleagues will be delightfully displeased once this new weapon is released under my command. I presume you know what I mean?"
The man's glasses glinted as he lowered his head to his tented fingers, still regarding the strange woman in front of him. "Actually, I do..."
The woman smiled coldly. "I'll come back after two weeks to check on your... progress... Takatori-san..." she turned to face the huge glass tube once more and almost lovingly caressed its surface with a gloved finger. "I will be back... my pet..."
And with that, she conjured a phone booth, dialed a number, and was gone in a matter of seconds amidst the merry tinkling of bells. Leaving the five occupants in the room among themselves.
"I don't like her. Why can't we just kill her, Papa?"
"There, there now, my darling Tot. She has after all, helped your Papa with his newest pet project." The man drawled as he patted the youngest female on top of her light blue head.
The blond haired one narrowed her beautiful blue eyes at the large tube and pouted. "I don't trust her, Masafumi. We don't even know who she is."
"Neither do I, Shane, but without her, I wont be able to access the ingredients required to achieve the success of my experiment." Masafumi Takatori got up from his seat and went to a table holding a bunch of vials containing a bluish, bubbly liquid. The insane glint in his eyes, intensifying. He held one up to the moonlight and laughed quietly. "Who would have thought that this child's blood sample can have such an interaction with my gene mutating formula? Incredible. Soon, I shall create a world where I alone, am God..."
The four women watched him adoringly as he laughed like a lunatic while, inside the huge glass tube, a small human figure twisted with the bubbles from the oxygen mask trapping his mouth and nose. Held helpless by the cables attached to different parts of his body and slowly draining him of his blood. His hand reached out unconsciously as he twisted as though trying to reach something he can hold on to...
...and knowing that there was nothing there...
Usagi found herself underwater. Or a place that looked to be underwater. She felt like she was in an aquarium and the origin of the bubbles around her were nowhere to be seen. There was nothing around her but water and nothingness and a cold so deep, she shivered. She looked around but she can see nothing but darkness. The only thing she could see was herself.
She swam upwards, looking for a way out of this tank like place, but as she started to paddle away, a hand grabbed hold of her foot. Startled, she looked down and was horrified by what she saw...
There, holding on to her ankle, was Shingo's hand, but it was a Shingo she had never though possible. His eyes were wide open in shock and panic. Their pupils blank and soulless as though he were... dead... Usagi screamed.
His cheeks were sunken and he was all skin and bone. His mouth opened and cried out to her...
"Oneechan!!!" he croaked out desperately, hoarsely, still staring at her with those dead, dead eyes. "Help... me...!"
But before she could react, thick cables shot out from the darkness beneath Shingo and wrapped around his neck, wrists and waist. He tried to fight back and keep on holding on to her and, as Usagi reached out to help him, he was pulled back into the darkness, screaming in terror. Screaming her name...
"USAGI-NEECHAN!!!"
"SHINGO!!!!"
Usagi jerked up and opened her eyes only to stare at a very unfamiliar ceiling. A scream caught in her throat. She sat up in panic. Cold sweat beading across her forehead and her body shaking all over. Only the rapid recollection of the things that happened yesterday and the soft breathing of a pink haired child beside her made her heart beat normally again, but the trembling continued. It was something she couldn't control.
She placed her forehead on one hand and contemplated on the horrible dream. Shingo's face remained vividly clear on her mind. She choked on a sob, not wanting to disturb the sleeping angel beside her. What did that dream mean? Could it be Shingo was possibly...
IIE!
Usagi got out of bed and ran straight out of her room and to the bathroom on the second floor (the only upstairs bathroom around the place.). She filled the sink with cold water and sunk her face into it for a while before emerging and looking at herself in the mirror. It didn't take a genius for someone to notice that she was a painful wreck.
Tears ran with the water that flowed down her face as she recalled her brother's terror. She felt it! His fear. His pain. Oh so much pain...
Suddenly, the image in front of her face, her very reflection in the mirror before her, morphed from her own, to the face of her little brother. His cheeks sunken and pale and his eyes, dead. Dead...
"IIE!" she screamed and struck out blindly at the image, the Ginzuishou reacting instantly to her fear and reducing the mirror in front of her into tiny little fragments with a very loud crash without her skin making contact with the object.
o
Miles away, in different parts of the city, eight females and two cats sat up from their beds as their link to that one, great power source made itself felt. Their bond with their princess made them catch a glimpse of the terrible pain and fear Usagi was feeling then and there. Her feelings were so heavy and filled with such agony that all of them shed tears albeit unknowingly...
o
Usagi stood there, staring blankly at the shards that now lay before her, unmindful of the blood running from her cheeks, hands and feet. Pieces of the glass shimmering like diamonds as they lay, embedded onto her blue pajamas. The pieces of the mirrors making it seem as if the smiling quarter moons and stars imprinted onto the cloth were shedding tears for her. Seconds later, a mixture of water and tears joined the blood she continually ignored. The noble Lunarian blood which she was so prized for. On her forehead, faintly visible, was the legacy of her birth. The silver crescent moon. Her consciousness drifting... drifting into a place where, she knew instinctively, the Ginzuishou's power must not go...
"Who's in there?! Yohji, is that you?!" shouted out a youthful male voice from outside the bathroom.
"I'm right here, chibi, what's going on? Whose making all that racket?" Came a deeper voice, uncharacteristically alert despite the hour. "Are we being infiltrated?!"
"Iie! Someone's in there, Yohji-kun!" the younger voice said. "I heard something breaking!"
The second voice then turned lazy. "It's probably just Ken. Must've slipped on a goddamned soap bar or something while he was peeing."
"I'm right here, Yohji," growled an irritated male voice, different from the first two voices.
"Hey! If all of us are out here, then who's in there?" asked Yohji.
A few seconds of silence reigned before a cold, icy monotone broke it, "Out of the way."
One good kick was all it took to send the door flying from it's hinges. The four men stood there, stunned— pajamas and all— as they stared at the motionless form of their house guest who didn't even so much as flinch at all the commotion around her. She kept staring at the shards that lay before her. Her face blank. Her blood and tears dripping on the bathroom floor.
"Usagi-chan!" Ken cried, breaking the silence and he attempted to approach her but when she lifted her face to stare at them, he stopped.
Her eyes looked fathomless! They were a deep, deep blue of a power that silently told them to stay away. They couldn't see it, but they could feel it. The silver crescent moon still glowing. She looked like a twisted paradigm of a psychopath's doll. A delicate porcelain doll that signified innocence but was covered in blood and tears. The irony of the picture was almost... poetic...
Silently, Usagi raised her bloody right hand to her chest. She knew what to do, she was still in control. While the Ginzuishou considers her as master, and as long as she possessed Lunarian blood, the gem is stable. She then muttered her wish to the silver stone she kept beside her body and muttered, "Onegai, Ginzuishou... Yamerou... Gomen nasai... Onegai... yamerou..."
The deep, fathomless cloud that covered her eyes dissipated slowly, as did the silver crescent moon on her forehead. Her eyes cleared until the light within them was restored and she was now looking at the four men clearly, standing in front of the doorless doorway, staring back at her with a mixture of awe, fascination and wariness in their eyes.
Usagi then looked down at her feet again and saw the mirror she destroyed. Surprise and then regret filled her face as she realized what she must have done.
"G-gomen." She stammered, her voice husky. Trembling, she started to kneel down and pick up the shards of glass from the bathroom floor. Not even conscious of the cuts she was exposing her body to. Her mind was so attuned to Shingo's pain, and yet, she couldn't understand what happened. Or how it happened. "I-I'll just—"
"Leave it."
Usagi looked up and saw Aya with his amethyst eyes as hard as stone, staring down at her. He looked furious! "D-demo..."
"I said, leave it!" he hissed at her. Then he turned to the others. "Omi, patch her up. Make sure you throw her clothes away. Yohji, get the dustpans and brooms. Ken, make her something hot to drink."
Yohji started off and Omi made his way towards Usagi using the path Aya was making by brushing off the shards of glass aside with a wide bath sponge he found nearby. But Ken kept on staring at the girl. His warm brown eyes concerned and worried.
"Move it, Ken." Aya snapped at him.
Ken stared at her for a moment more before turning around reluctantly and heading for the kitchen.
"Usagi-san? Let's go." Omi told her gently. She looked so lost and lonely that it almost broke his heart. She looked different now. A far cry from the unusual being they just saw in her eyes. "Come on, let's fix you up."
Usagi's attention was still on the destruction around her and she whispered a very soft, "G-gomen..." she then looked at Aya and Omi. "I'll replace it as soon as I can..."
Aya, who was still trying to gather the broken shards of glass in one place, didn't look up, but the ice in his voice was unmistakable. "Get her out of here, Omi."
Omi carefully tugged on her sleeve and held the tips of her fingers to avoid hurting her further. "Let's go, Usagi-san..."
Usagi glanced at Aya's busy form sadly before letting Omi lead her out of the bathroom...
"Crawford-san, we're ready to leave now—"
Nagi was cut off by the scene he found in Crawford's office. He saw Schwarz' unflappable leader standing before a piece of canvas. His eyes glassy and staring at absolutely nothing. Not even at the canvass he was working on. They were unfocused and yet his right hand moved deftly across the white surface with gentle and precise accuracy. He didn't answer Nagi's call. And he looked very, very angry.
Knowing better than to disturb him, Nagi remained standing before his desk. Waiting. Watching his leader and messiah sink completely under the force of his powers. Despite his stoic demeanor, Nagi was worried. Crawford was acting a bit off right now. He's never seen his leader so completely enthralled by a vision before, at least not like this. Usually, Crawford just gave them orders which they follow with deadly accuracy with a little side trip from Farfarello or Schuldich, but Crawford always had a back up plan because he always anticipated those little side trips. Seeing him so unguarded was... unusual...
A few moments later, the frantic movements of the paintbrush in his hand stopped and, as Nagi watched silently, Crawford's eyes slowly regained the onyx indifference he was so well known for. He looked at the young man waiting patiently and silently before him and Nagi saw a fleeting look of confusion pass through his face before being replaced by the ice.
"Is everything ready?" Crawford asked the young man coldly.
Nagi nodded. "Hai."
"Good." The older man replied curtly.
Nagi didn't move. "What have you seen? Is it something Esset should know?"
Crawford stared at his work and Nagi saw the distinct clenching of his jaw. "No."
He then left without looking back. Still looking distracted.
Nagi was usually too well trained to give in to curiosity but the odd behavior of his leader disturbed him. And he had a feeling that it had something to do with what was painted onto that canvass. The young man willed the canvass to float into the air and face him. What he saw made his eyes widen.
It was a rough sketch of a familiar girl but with a pair of deeper eyes, a faint crescent moon on the forehead and blood smeared all over her face. It shouldn't be anything extraordinary to him, except the fact that Crawford drew it. No, blood on much more beautiful faces have been exposed before his eyes too many times for him to be disturbed by such a scene. What disturbed him was the ethereal beauty he felt, more than saw, in her eyes. She looked human enough but he knew that this person wasn't human.
Yes... he's seen this face before. The four of them had pictures of her given to them by Takatori's sources. But the representation of her here was different. Nagi didn't know how can a person be different without changing at all!
Now he knew why Crawford was so disturbed. Looks like their priorities will be taking a bit of a turn soon...
The bathroom was an absolute disaster area but was immediately cleaned up. Yohji was helping Aya pile the mirror shards into the black plastic bag they used for trash, carefully wrapping them to avoid any more accidents. They were both almost through and Yohji was now leaning against the bathroom wall.
"Sure didn't know she had it in her. Imagine, punching a mirror and breaking it. Who would've thought that someone that delicate looking can be a blood thirsty, mirror punching, ball breaker? Assumption on the last one, of course."
He spoke in a light tone but in truth, he was deeply shaken. The look in her eyes! The sorrow, the grief. The pain...
But how could it be? How can someone that innocent know anything about pain that deep? That all consuming? What was it about Usagi Tsukino? Who was she? For a moment there she didn't seem... human...
"She didn't punch the mirror," Aya said quietly, his back to the blond man.
"Sorry?" Yohji asked, turning his attention to his teammate. His thoughts being pushed to one side of his brain.
"She didn't punch the mirror." Aya repeated and turned to Yohji, holding up a shard of glass. "The whole mirror was shattered into fine little bits. It couldn't have been made by her fist unless she was repeatedly stomping on it with a shoe, and that should be an intentional action. Besides, except for a few cuts, her fists weren't all that bloody."
Yohji raised a honey blond eyebrow as he stared at the shard. His sleuthing instincts cutting in. "What do you think happened, then?"
Aya scowled. He really didn't know. He knew something happened here but he couldn't, for the life of him, explain what that was. When he walked up to his teammates, who were all standing in front of the bathroom and saw the alarm in all their faces earlier, he drew in on the only conclusion left. So he ordered them to get out of the way and kicked his way into the bathroom. And his heart seemed to have stopped beating when he saw the picture the girl had presented.
She looked like the world they were living in, painted onto a canvass and given life. Blood and tears and innocence all rolled into one. And her eyes... And that crescent moon on her forehead...
Both men finished cleaning up and stood to find their way into the kitchen. Yohji cast Aya a couple of worried glances. "Erm... Aya? You aren't going to slice her into telling you what you want to know, are you?"
"Hmp."
Hmm... Not a stable enough answer. "Cause, you see... we're supposed to be taking care of her. Persia's orders, you know?"
"...hmp."
Yohji breathed a little again. In truth, he was more worried about what Aya can say rather than what he could do. Women are delicate little things... and he'd hate to kill his teammate just because he made the mistake of laying a hand on Usagi.
Both went for the kitchen, Aya intent in getting information out of the unusual girl, only to stop at the doorway.
Sitting on a chair beside the dining table close to the window was Usagi. Her long golden hair, loose around her shoulders and her delicate fingers combing the strands to get any unwanted shards out. The early morning sunlight running its golden fingers across her fair hair making the filament like locks shine like spun silk. Even with the bandages and patches on various parts of her face, hands and neck, there was still something... ethereal about her... Yohji was mesmerized. And by the looks on his teammates' faces, they were all in the same predicament.
Ken was leaning beside the stove, looking at her (gaping actually), while the kettle whistled. Omi was beside the girl. Yohji guessed he was supposed to be looking at the floor for shards and pieces of the mirror but the poor kid was too enthralled by the spectacle of a girl with her hair loose in the room. Aya, on the other hand, was trying hard not to display any interest. If he hadn't known the red head this long, he would have believed that the look on Aya's face was more murderous and not the signs of a smitten little puppy. He doubted that it'll help Usagi much, though. And him?
Well, Yohji could admit that he'd seen far more intimacies on other women. He was supposed to! Heck, he was the prince of Tokyo! The Love Magnet extraordinaire! He'd had more action than all the guys living with him put together! And yet... this girl was playing him like a malleable string.
They all watched as she threw her hair back and inspected a strand for one last shake before speaking. "I think that's all, Omi-kun."
Ken immediately approached her and presented her a mug of hot chocolate. "Here, Usagi-chan. Drink this before it goes cold."
Usagi smiled at him slightly, "Arigato, Ken-kun." She then noticed the two men standing at the doorway. Her blue eyes widened and she stood up and bowed low to them. "Gomen nasai, minna-san. I... I didn't know what came over me. I promise I'll pay you back. Gomen ne."
Aya seemed to have shaken loose of the extraordinary hold the girl was putting over him. Growling at himself, he spoke to her coldly. "I think you know exactly what just happened to you back there. And I want answers. Now."
Usagi straightened slowly and looked him straight in the eye...
Chapter Nine:
"Iie... I'm sorry, I can't answer that..."
Aya, however, was having none of it. He reached her in three quick strides, grabbed her wrists and pulled her closer to him. Looming over her malevolently as he had done with others before her.
"You will answer me." He growled out slowly and coldly.
"Aya!" Omi cried out as he stood up and tried to make his read headed leader see sense.
"Now, Aya," Yohji tried cajoling him, making sure is hand stood at te ready on his watch. "We've talked about this before."
"She's keeping things from us." Aya snarled. He refused to let the soft limb beneath his palm go. "That is not acceptable."
"Aya, let her go. Now." Ken said cautiously. His temper, always held in check, rising to the occasion. "Onegai, Aya."
Spoilers: You'll know 'em when you see 'em! ov!!!
Author's Note 1: Eh... I'm just going to warn you guys that it'll be some time before I update again after this. Real life has a tendency to intrude, you see, and I do have to work. Besides, I'm taking classes in advance this summer but I'll still try to update as fast as I can. ;;;
Jane: hey, thanks. Welcome to the world of Sailor Moon Crossovers. Say, there's a really good SM/WK fic called Kamereon down in the Miscellaneous section of by Sailor Ronin Usa-chan. She wrote it with Aideen-san. Really good. I recommend it highly.
kst: thanks. I'm glad you loved it. Hope you enjoy this chapter. Say, you don't have any fanfic recommendations, do you? I'd so love a new good fic to read. ''v
anonymous: eh heh... ;; thanks for liking this story, I really didn't expect such enthusiastic response from anyone. Sorry for torturing you ;;. But here's a new chapter. Here boy! Come see the new chapter! (throws chapter like a frisbee) ;;;.
Arigatou gozaimasu to all my precious readers!
And, oh yeah, if any of you guys are interested in Harry Potter fics, I have three ships going on. You'll find them on my profile and I hope you'll tell me what you think. Tell me what ship you like best. See ya!
Author's Note 2: Enjoy!!!
Chapter Eight:
The tension in Rei's room was palpable as everyone sat quietly around the low table. Everyone was lost in their own thoughts as they remembered Usagi's last call which was few a minutes ago. Finally, Luna stood up, fuming.
"I CAN'T STAND THIS ANYMORE!" she screamed. "She can't do this to us! She can't just tell us she won't be able to come back and that we shouldn't make any kind of contact with her! This is unfair! We're her friends, for Kami's sake! She has responsibilities! She's the future queen of Crystal Tokyo! Can't she understand that?!"
"I'm going to serve that odango atama on a plate of spaghetti when I get through with her." Rei growled but, despite her threats, her concern was plain for everyone to see.
"The hime is beginning to become obsessed with finding her brother. This can't be good." Michiru spoke calmly belying the worry she felt.
In the middle of the angry tide of voices, Ami spoke hesitantly, "Personally, I can't say I blame her. Shingo is her only brother and her parents are already confined in a hospital because of this. You heard her explanation about what happened at her house today. I don't think anyone will let her have any peace until she has justice."
Everyone silently agreed with her. Usagi called them through her communicator, narrating everything that happened before explaining where she had to stay before shutting her line off.
"And isn't it that what she's always fought for?" Makoto added quietly.
Again, silence reined in the room. Everyone wanted to be with Usagi. She was their princess, their friend! She's sacrificed much for them and to be parted from her now when she was in a scrape seemed to speak of abandonment!
"Can't you do anything, Setsuna?" Artemis looked hopefully at the guardian of time. Usagi had great respect for Setsuna, even feared her a little, and may listen to her if she told her to come back.
Setsuna shook her head slightly. "Gomen, I am only the guardian of time and space and she is the queen. However she wishes to live her life shall be her decision. To be queen may be her destiny, she cannot shirk that, but how she will go about to that path is her decision."
"Demo what about Chibiusa?" Hotaru asked. Her solemn purple eyes directed on one of her foster mothers.
Setsuna smiled softly at her. "I really am not sure. One thing I can tell you is that Chibiusa is mostly Serenity's child. As long as she gets married, a child will still be born. She may not be Chibiusa in appearance or in name but her heart shall stay as it is. With Usagi for a mother, I can recommend that."
Hotaru smiled in relief. Inwardly, she wanted Usagi happy too, but her concern for the future princess was too great for her to ignore.
"Demo what about our futures, Setsuna?" Rei couldn't help asking.
The dark haired woman fell silent for a while before answering. "Gomen, but I can't tell you that."
Everyone fell silent and, after a few moments, Haruka stood up and leaned on the threshold of Rei's room. She saw the girl's pet crows staring at her with their dark, dotty eyes and she glared at them. Seething with a frustration that she can't help Usagi the way she wanted to. The way she needed to. Damn destiny! If only things weren't so difficult!
"We can't do anything but wait for now and be ready when she calls." She finally said, drawing all eyes in the room on her. "This is something Koneko has to do for herself. We've been pressuring her too much to fulfill the destiny that we want her to have. It's time she thought about herself." She gave a low chuckle as an irony passed through her thoughts. "Come to think of it, she isn't doing this directly for herself, but for Shingo. If this is selfishness then she's saved us all because of her selfishness, ne, Luna?"
"D-demo this is different, Haruka!" Luna protested.
"Maybe but we can't do anything about it. Unless we want a bitter queen to rule Crystal Tokyo, we'd better support her even if it is just this once." Haruka answered almost casually.
"I agree." Ami whispered.
"D-demo, what will we do if something bad happens to her?!" Rei asked, worriedly.
Haruka half smiled, hiding the concern that's tearing her apart. She didn't want Usagi to be alone either but, if the Koneko was serious about this, then they had no right to interfere. "We are her senshi, aren't we? Our mission is to protect her and this world and that's exactly what were going to do. Koneko may be impulsive but she's not stupid." Haruka's eyes narrowed a bit as she remembered the look in Usagi's eyes when she and Michiru found her with those four guys. She saw that expression in the beautiful blonde's eyes when she used herself as a barricade trying to protect Hotaru whom she and Michiru tried to kill, once upon a time. A stubborn Usagi was not a nice Usagi to reason with.
Setsuna nodded, her affection for her hime and her concern as a senshi tearing her apart. Upon hearing Haruka, she realized that this was something they can't decide for their princess. "Haruka is right. We walk with her every step of the way but we do not interfere unless we were meant to. She needs this time for herself before she can truly come to terms with her destiny."
Everyone looked down on their tea cups, their feelings all mixed up. Silently acknowledging the things that they have to do with different levels of difficulty mostly provoked by fear. Fear of the unknown they are facing without Usagi there to lead them. It was the first time they seriously understood how important Usagi was to all of them... and their futures...
"Is he ready yet...?"
A woman in a chick business suit stood in front of a large crystal tank, filled with a clear, but toxin laced liquid. She peered inside it with a cold gaze from behind her fashionable tinted glasses. Her question was directed at the man behind her, sitting calmly behind a desk with a mad smirk on his face and surrounded by four beautiful women who were all glaring at her threateningly.
"He will be ready for testing. Just give me two to three weeks to gather more samples." The man answered her, drawling. "There's no need to hurry, is there?"
Mischievous, cold golden eyes turned to stare at him and she smirked when she noted the sudden tension in the bodies of the women surrounding the only male in the room. It amused her, really, to provoke such a response to a bunch of simpletons. "I want to please my... superior with this little project of ours. My... colleagues will be delightfully displeased once this new weapon is released under my command. I presume you know what I mean?"
The man's glasses glinted as he lowered his head to his tented fingers, still regarding the strange woman in front of him. "Actually, I do..."
The woman smiled coldly. "I'll come back after two weeks to check on your... progress... Takatori-san..." she turned to face the huge glass tube once more and almost lovingly caressed its surface with a gloved finger. "I will be back... my pet..."
And with that, she conjured a phone booth, dialed a number, and was gone in a matter of seconds amidst the merry tinkling of bells. Leaving the five occupants in the room among themselves.
"I don't like her. Why can't we just kill her, Papa?"
"There, there now, my darling Tot. She has after all, helped your Papa with his newest pet project." The man drawled as he patted the youngest female on top of her light blue head.
The blond haired one narrowed her beautiful blue eyes at the large tube and pouted. "I don't trust her, Masafumi. We don't even know who she is."
"Neither do I, Shane, but without her, I wont be able to access the ingredients required to achieve the success of my experiment." Masafumi Takatori got up from his seat and went to a table holding a bunch of vials containing a bluish, bubbly liquid. The insane glint in his eyes, intensifying. He held one up to the moonlight and laughed quietly. "Who would have thought that this child's blood sample can have such an interaction with my gene mutating formula? Incredible. Soon, I shall create a world where I alone, am God..."
The four women watched him adoringly as he laughed like a lunatic while, inside the huge glass tube, a small human figure twisted with the bubbles from the oxygen mask trapping his mouth and nose. Held helpless by the cables attached to different parts of his body and slowly draining him of his blood. His hand reached out unconsciously as he twisted as though trying to reach something he can hold on to...
...and knowing that there was nothing there...
Usagi found herself underwater. Or a place that looked to be underwater. She felt like she was in an aquarium and the origin of the bubbles around her were nowhere to be seen. There was nothing around her but water and nothingness and a cold so deep, she shivered. She looked around but she can see nothing but darkness. The only thing she could see was herself.
She swam upwards, looking for a way out of this tank like place, but as she started to paddle away, a hand grabbed hold of her foot. Startled, she looked down and was horrified by what she saw...
There, holding on to her ankle, was Shingo's hand, but it was a Shingo she had never though possible. His eyes were wide open in shock and panic. Their pupils blank and soulless as though he were... dead... Usagi screamed.
His cheeks were sunken and he was all skin and bone. His mouth opened and cried out to her...
"Oneechan!!!" he croaked out desperately, hoarsely, still staring at her with those dead, dead eyes. "Help... me...!"
But before she could react, thick cables shot out from the darkness beneath Shingo and wrapped around his neck, wrists and waist. He tried to fight back and keep on holding on to her and, as Usagi reached out to help him, he was pulled back into the darkness, screaming in terror. Screaming her name...
"USAGI-NEECHAN!!!"
"SHINGO!!!!"
Usagi jerked up and opened her eyes only to stare at a very unfamiliar ceiling. A scream caught in her throat. She sat up in panic. Cold sweat beading across her forehead and her body shaking all over. Only the rapid recollection of the things that happened yesterday and the soft breathing of a pink haired child beside her made her heart beat normally again, but the trembling continued. It was something she couldn't control.
She placed her forehead on one hand and contemplated on the horrible dream. Shingo's face remained vividly clear on her mind. She choked on a sob, not wanting to disturb the sleeping angel beside her. What did that dream mean? Could it be Shingo was possibly...
IIE!
Usagi got out of bed and ran straight out of her room and to the bathroom on the second floor (the only upstairs bathroom around the place.). She filled the sink with cold water and sunk her face into it for a while before emerging and looking at herself in the mirror. It didn't take a genius for someone to notice that she was a painful wreck.
Tears ran with the water that flowed down her face as she recalled her brother's terror. She felt it! His fear. His pain. Oh so much pain...
Suddenly, the image in front of her face, her very reflection in the mirror before her, morphed from her own, to the face of her little brother. His cheeks sunken and pale and his eyes, dead. Dead...
"IIE!" she screamed and struck out blindly at the image, the Ginzuishou reacting instantly to her fear and reducing the mirror in front of her into tiny little fragments with a very loud crash without her skin making contact with the object.
o
Miles away, in different parts of the city, eight females and two cats sat up from their beds as their link to that one, great power source made itself felt. Their bond with their princess made them catch a glimpse of the terrible pain and fear Usagi was feeling then and there. Her feelings were so heavy and filled with such agony that all of them shed tears albeit unknowingly...
o
Usagi stood there, staring blankly at the shards that now lay before her, unmindful of the blood running from her cheeks, hands and feet. Pieces of the glass shimmering like diamonds as they lay, embedded onto her blue pajamas. The pieces of the mirrors making it seem as if the smiling quarter moons and stars imprinted onto the cloth were shedding tears for her. Seconds later, a mixture of water and tears joined the blood she continually ignored. The noble Lunarian blood which she was so prized for. On her forehead, faintly visible, was the legacy of her birth. The silver crescent moon. Her consciousness drifting... drifting into a place where, she knew instinctively, the Ginzuishou's power must not go...
"Who's in there?! Yohji, is that you?!" shouted out a youthful male voice from outside the bathroom.
"I'm right here, chibi, what's going on? Whose making all that racket?" Came a deeper voice, uncharacteristically alert despite the hour. "Are we being infiltrated?!"
"Iie! Someone's in there, Yohji-kun!" the younger voice said. "I heard something breaking!"
The second voice then turned lazy. "It's probably just Ken. Must've slipped on a goddamned soap bar or something while he was peeing."
"I'm right here, Yohji," growled an irritated male voice, different from the first two voices.
"Hey! If all of us are out here, then who's in there?" asked Yohji.
A few seconds of silence reigned before a cold, icy monotone broke it, "Out of the way."
One good kick was all it took to send the door flying from it's hinges. The four men stood there, stunned— pajamas and all— as they stared at the motionless form of their house guest who didn't even so much as flinch at all the commotion around her. She kept staring at the shards that lay before her. Her face blank. Her blood and tears dripping on the bathroom floor.
"Usagi-chan!" Ken cried, breaking the silence and he attempted to approach her but when she lifted her face to stare at them, he stopped.
Her eyes looked fathomless! They were a deep, deep blue of a power that silently told them to stay away. They couldn't see it, but they could feel it. The silver crescent moon still glowing. She looked like a twisted paradigm of a psychopath's doll. A delicate porcelain doll that signified innocence but was covered in blood and tears. The irony of the picture was almost... poetic...
Silently, Usagi raised her bloody right hand to her chest. She knew what to do, she was still in control. While the Ginzuishou considers her as master, and as long as she possessed Lunarian blood, the gem is stable. She then muttered her wish to the silver stone she kept beside her body and muttered, "Onegai, Ginzuishou... Yamerou... Gomen nasai... Onegai... yamerou..."
The deep, fathomless cloud that covered her eyes dissipated slowly, as did the silver crescent moon on her forehead. Her eyes cleared until the light within them was restored and she was now looking at the four men clearly, standing in front of the doorless doorway, staring back at her with a mixture of awe, fascination and wariness in their eyes.
Usagi then looked down at her feet again and saw the mirror she destroyed. Surprise and then regret filled her face as she realized what she must have done.
"G-gomen." She stammered, her voice husky. Trembling, she started to kneel down and pick up the shards of glass from the bathroom floor. Not even conscious of the cuts she was exposing her body to. Her mind was so attuned to Shingo's pain, and yet, she couldn't understand what happened. Or how it happened. "I-I'll just—"
"Leave it."
Usagi looked up and saw Aya with his amethyst eyes as hard as stone, staring down at her. He looked furious! "D-demo..."
"I said, leave it!" he hissed at her. Then he turned to the others. "Omi, patch her up. Make sure you throw her clothes away. Yohji, get the dustpans and brooms. Ken, make her something hot to drink."
Yohji started off and Omi made his way towards Usagi using the path Aya was making by brushing off the shards of glass aside with a wide bath sponge he found nearby. But Ken kept on staring at the girl. His warm brown eyes concerned and worried.
"Move it, Ken." Aya snapped at him.
Ken stared at her for a moment more before turning around reluctantly and heading for the kitchen.
"Usagi-san? Let's go." Omi told her gently. She looked so lost and lonely that it almost broke his heart. She looked different now. A far cry from the unusual being they just saw in her eyes. "Come on, let's fix you up."
Usagi's attention was still on the destruction around her and she whispered a very soft, "G-gomen..." she then looked at Aya and Omi. "I'll replace it as soon as I can..."
Aya, who was still trying to gather the broken shards of glass in one place, didn't look up, but the ice in his voice was unmistakable. "Get her out of here, Omi."
Omi carefully tugged on her sleeve and held the tips of her fingers to avoid hurting her further. "Let's go, Usagi-san..."
Usagi glanced at Aya's busy form sadly before letting Omi lead her out of the bathroom...
"Crawford-san, we're ready to leave now—"
Nagi was cut off by the scene he found in Crawford's office. He saw Schwarz' unflappable leader standing before a piece of canvas. His eyes glassy and staring at absolutely nothing. Not even at the canvass he was working on. They were unfocused and yet his right hand moved deftly across the white surface with gentle and precise accuracy. He didn't answer Nagi's call. And he looked very, very angry.
Knowing better than to disturb him, Nagi remained standing before his desk. Waiting. Watching his leader and messiah sink completely under the force of his powers. Despite his stoic demeanor, Nagi was worried. Crawford was acting a bit off right now. He's never seen his leader so completely enthralled by a vision before, at least not like this. Usually, Crawford just gave them orders which they follow with deadly accuracy with a little side trip from Farfarello or Schuldich, but Crawford always had a back up plan because he always anticipated those little side trips. Seeing him so unguarded was... unusual...
A few moments later, the frantic movements of the paintbrush in his hand stopped and, as Nagi watched silently, Crawford's eyes slowly regained the onyx indifference he was so well known for. He looked at the young man waiting patiently and silently before him and Nagi saw a fleeting look of confusion pass through his face before being replaced by the ice.
"Is everything ready?" Crawford asked the young man coldly.
Nagi nodded. "Hai."
"Good." The older man replied curtly.
Nagi didn't move. "What have you seen? Is it something Esset should know?"
Crawford stared at his work and Nagi saw the distinct clenching of his jaw. "No."
He then left without looking back. Still looking distracted.
Nagi was usually too well trained to give in to curiosity but the odd behavior of his leader disturbed him. And he had a feeling that it had something to do with what was painted onto that canvass. The young man willed the canvass to float into the air and face him. What he saw made his eyes widen.
It was a rough sketch of a familiar girl but with a pair of deeper eyes, a faint crescent moon on the forehead and blood smeared all over her face. It shouldn't be anything extraordinary to him, except the fact that Crawford drew it. No, blood on much more beautiful faces have been exposed before his eyes too many times for him to be disturbed by such a scene. What disturbed him was the ethereal beauty he felt, more than saw, in her eyes. She looked human enough but he knew that this person wasn't human.
Yes... he's seen this face before. The four of them had pictures of her given to them by Takatori's sources. But the representation of her here was different. Nagi didn't know how can a person be different without changing at all!
Now he knew why Crawford was so disturbed. Looks like their priorities will be taking a bit of a turn soon...
The bathroom was an absolute disaster area but was immediately cleaned up. Yohji was helping Aya pile the mirror shards into the black plastic bag they used for trash, carefully wrapping them to avoid any more accidents. They were both almost through and Yohji was now leaning against the bathroom wall.
"Sure didn't know she had it in her. Imagine, punching a mirror and breaking it. Who would've thought that someone that delicate looking can be a blood thirsty, mirror punching, ball breaker? Assumption on the last one, of course."
He spoke in a light tone but in truth, he was deeply shaken. The look in her eyes! The sorrow, the grief. The pain...
But how could it be? How can someone that innocent know anything about pain that deep? That all consuming? What was it about Usagi Tsukino? Who was she? For a moment there she didn't seem... human...
"She didn't punch the mirror," Aya said quietly, his back to the blond man.
"Sorry?" Yohji asked, turning his attention to his teammate. His thoughts being pushed to one side of his brain.
"She didn't punch the mirror." Aya repeated and turned to Yohji, holding up a shard of glass. "The whole mirror was shattered into fine little bits. It couldn't have been made by her fist unless she was repeatedly stomping on it with a shoe, and that should be an intentional action. Besides, except for a few cuts, her fists weren't all that bloody."
Yohji raised a honey blond eyebrow as he stared at the shard. His sleuthing instincts cutting in. "What do you think happened, then?"
Aya scowled. He really didn't know. He knew something happened here but he couldn't, for the life of him, explain what that was. When he walked up to his teammates, who were all standing in front of the bathroom and saw the alarm in all their faces earlier, he drew in on the only conclusion left. So he ordered them to get out of the way and kicked his way into the bathroom. And his heart seemed to have stopped beating when he saw the picture the girl had presented.
She looked like the world they were living in, painted onto a canvass and given life. Blood and tears and innocence all rolled into one. And her eyes... And that crescent moon on her forehead...
Both men finished cleaning up and stood to find their way into the kitchen. Yohji cast Aya a couple of worried glances. "Erm... Aya? You aren't going to slice her into telling you what you want to know, are you?"
"Hmp."
Hmm... Not a stable enough answer. "Cause, you see... we're supposed to be taking care of her. Persia's orders, you know?"
"...hmp."
Yohji breathed a little again. In truth, he was more worried about what Aya can say rather than what he could do. Women are delicate little things... and he'd hate to kill his teammate just because he made the mistake of laying a hand on Usagi.
Both went for the kitchen, Aya intent in getting information out of the unusual girl, only to stop at the doorway.
Sitting on a chair beside the dining table close to the window was Usagi. Her long golden hair, loose around her shoulders and her delicate fingers combing the strands to get any unwanted shards out. The early morning sunlight running its golden fingers across her fair hair making the filament like locks shine like spun silk. Even with the bandages and patches on various parts of her face, hands and neck, there was still something... ethereal about her... Yohji was mesmerized. And by the looks on his teammates' faces, they were all in the same predicament.
Ken was leaning beside the stove, looking at her (gaping actually), while the kettle whistled. Omi was beside the girl. Yohji guessed he was supposed to be looking at the floor for shards and pieces of the mirror but the poor kid was too enthralled by the spectacle of a girl with her hair loose in the room. Aya, on the other hand, was trying hard not to display any interest. If he hadn't known the red head this long, he would have believed that the look on Aya's face was more murderous and not the signs of a smitten little puppy. He doubted that it'll help Usagi much, though. And him?
Well, Yohji could admit that he'd seen far more intimacies on other women. He was supposed to! Heck, he was the prince of Tokyo! The Love Magnet extraordinaire! He'd had more action than all the guys living with him put together! And yet... this girl was playing him like a malleable string.
They all watched as she threw her hair back and inspected a strand for one last shake before speaking. "I think that's all, Omi-kun."
Ken immediately approached her and presented her a mug of hot chocolate. "Here, Usagi-chan. Drink this before it goes cold."
Usagi smiled at him slightly, "Arigato, Ken-kun." She then noticed the two men standing at the doorway. Her blue eyes widened and she stood up and bowed low to them. "Gomen nasai, minna-san. I... I didn't know what came over me. I promise I'll pay you back. Gomen ne."
Aya seemed to have shaken loose of the extraordinary hold the girl was putting over him. Growling at himself, he spoke to her coldly. "I think you know exactly what just happened to you back there. And I want answers. Now."
Usagi straightened slowly and looked him straight in the eye...
Chapter Nine:
"Iie... I'm sorry, I can't answer that..."
Aya, however, was having none of it. He reached her in three quick strides, grabbed her wrists and pulled her closer to him. Looming over her malevolently as he had done with others before her.
"You will answer me." He growled out slowly and coldly.
"Aya!" Omi cried out as he stood up and tried to make his read headed leader see sense.
"Now, Aya," Yohji tried cajoling him, making sure is hand stood at te ready on his watch. "We've talked about this before."
"She's keeping things from us." Aya snarled. He refused to let the soft limb beneath his palm go. "That is not acceptable."
"Aya, let her go. Now." Ken said cautiously. His temper, always held in check, rising to the occasion. "Onegai, Aya."