Of love and Fate
souna no miko
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon and all original characters mentioned in this story is owned by the great Takeuchi Naoko. There is no way I would claim them as my own. The song/s that will be used as part of the story are not mine either, they are owned by their respective writers and singers.
Chapter 10
Akashtra, Queen of the Underworld
Inside the ruins of the Celestial Palace lies the throne room of a lady that has long been feared by those who knew her. This tall slender woman with long silver hair was said to be the keeper of the celestial crystal but then she learned greed, lust and selfishness, which corrupted her mind and made her hungry for power. Young Prince Endymion had to exile her before she could take the crystal and use it to fuel her evil plans. Since that day, Callisto the gentle and loyal keeper of the celestial crystal vanished, and in her place stood the Queen of the Underworld, known to all as Akashtra.
Akashtra devoted herself into getting revenge against the kingdom that banished her, and so he gathered people that would believe and follow her ideals and among her minions she had three generals of some sort, Enyodus and Erisia, the twin prodigal children of Hades, and Psyche...the weird quiet girl with short light brown hair tied in ponytails...
Psyche's a small little girl, about 7 or 8 in age. She usually contradicts Akashtra's plans but then she proposes a new plan that actually gets them somewhere.
Upon the news of Erisia's demise, the evil queen called for her remaining two generals,
"Enyo, report to me."
There was no answer.
"Enyo....Enyo?" Akashtra called out again.
She looked down and saw Psyche staring at her blankly with her hands behind her back.
"Where is that insolent fool?"
Psyche merely shrugged.
"Enyodus!" Akashtra screamed at the top of her lungs.
Sounds of horse's hooves clacking on marbled floor resounded throughout the ruins. Soon a pure white horse with a rider clothed in an all black armor with matching cape came into the room. The rider dismounted the horse and approached the throne. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs, kneeled, bowed and said,
"I apologize for my tardiness my Queen. I was attending to my sister's funeral service."
"Boo-hoo your sister's dead. It's her fault so I don't really care now do I? When I call for you Enyodus, you come at once, understood?"
Enyo kept his head bowed and replied,
"Wakarimashita. (I understand)"
"Now...report."
Enyo stood up and replied.
"After my sister's death..."
"Failure" Akashtra corrected.
Enyo's teeth gritted as he continued,
"Failure...after Erisia's failure the princess has regained her memory and so did her guardians...."
"WHAT?! You imbecile! Now that she's confident of her identity she can easily cut your head off...especially with those troublesome guardians of her slithering beside her all the time! This is you and your sister's fault!" Queen Akashtra roared.
Silence.
"If you may permit me to speak your greatness...." Psyche started.
"Yessss?" Akastra hissed as she eyed the young girl.
"I think I have a plan to catch that girl and–"
"I have a plan as well your malevolent-ness!" Enyo suddenly butted in and so upon getting Akashtra's attention he continued. "Let me redeem my sister's name."
Akashtra closed her eyes in thought and finally decided by saying,
"Very well. But if you fail and manage to live....I shall be the one who will personally cut your throat up and send you back to your father's realm....this time as a costumer."
Enyo bowed in respect and went on his way, but before riding off with his horse he looked back at Psyche with a smirk. Psyche smiled inwardly as she thought to herself,
'Enyo you little nitwit....you'll be dead before you know it.'
Chapter 11
Exposed
The week passed by quickly and it was already Saturday and the whole Tenou household was busy preparing themselves for Michiru's recital. It's already past 6pm and Michiru's running late because of a certain golden brown haired girl,
"It's almost 6:30! My recital starts at 7pm! Where the hell is she?!" Michiru exclaimed when she saw Haruka coming down the stairs.
Haruka flopped down on the couch and adjusted his cuff links.
"Well?"
"The blue, the black or the red...you know, the story of you girls picking a dress." Haruka replied.
"And?!" Michiru asked impatiently.
"Aaaand I told her that she'd better use the red one since it looks good on her."
"AKAI?! (RED?!)" Hotaru exclaimed.
"Why red?!" Setsuna added.
Haruka looked at both of them and replied,
"It's my favorite color!"
"Demou...akai? (But…red?)" Hotaru asked innocently.
Then at that moment, Haruko slowly walked down the stairs wearing lavender Greecian gown with matching shawl. A silver slave bracelet wrapped her right arm and she was also wearing a 3-inch silver tie-up jimmy choos shoe. She was a beautiful goddess; the only disorganized thing was her hair.
As Haruka watched his sister glide down the stairs, his heart ran faster and his stomach felt twisted. He felt like Haruko was a different person....a different woman,
'Kami-sama(1), why do I feel like this? It's as if I'm crushing on my own sister!' Haruka told himself.
Haruka could feel the same things he felt when he saw Michiru for the first time, maybe even more and it's both scaring him and making him feel lightheaded.
Michiru's frustrated sigh snapped him out of his trance so he looked and saw Michiru fixing his sister's hair,
"I thought Haruka told you to wear the red one? Oh Haruko your hair's a mess!" Michiru said as she removed one of her hair pins from her head and placed it on Haruko's.
"Gomene Mi-chan...I found this lavender dress at the back of my closet and...Well, it goes with my eyes a lot better don't you think?" Haruko replied.
Michiru finished fixing Haruko's hair and started tugging Haruka's hand,
"Well it does fit you. Now let's go please!"
"Chotto mate, they're not here yet." Haruko called out.
"Who's not here yet?" Setsuna asked.
"The Three Li—"
Ding. Dong.
"That must be them." Haruko said after hearing the doorbell ring out.
All of them followed Haruko to the door and was shocked to see the three lights and Calliope. Haruka was about to blow his top,
"We can go now. I'll be riding with them, ne oniichan? Ikuzo!(2) (Let's go!)" Haruko said with a smile.
Haruka stood there immobilized until Michiru pinched his right ear and dragged him to the car.
All of them arrived at the theater just in time. Michiru had to run to the backstage with Haruka tailing behind her carrying her things.
They all sat at the front row with Haruka at Haruko's right and Yaten at Haruko's left side together with Taiki, Seiya and Calliope.
Both Haruka and Yaten kept on glancing at Haruko...both feeling flushed and somewhat different.
At the middle of Michiru's cello performance, a black portal opened from Michiru's back and a youkai that resembled a plant came out. The youkai opened the petals of the huge flower on its head and all the people in the theater fainted and fell on the floor, all except for Setsuna, Hotaru, Michiru, Haruka, Haruko, Calliope and the Three Lights of course. The outer soldiers hesitated to transform because of Haruko and Calliope's presence so Haruka told Michiru to bring the two of them outside. Of course Michiru protested, suddenly the youkai aimed a vine towards Michiru. Haruko jumped in front of Michiru and became the youkai's hostage.
"Look-y look-y I've got a prettly little princess in a hook-y." The youkai taunted.
"Itai! Let me go! Haruko screamed.
"Oujosama!(2) (Princess!)" Yaten exclaimed,
Everyone turned to him as Seiya, Taiki and Calliope nodded at one another.
"Sailor Star Fighter make up!"
"Sailor Star Protector, make up!"
"Sailor Star Maker, make up!"
"Sailor Star Healer, make up!"
Haruko's eyes widened in shock, not believing that the three lights and Calliope were her soldiers,
"Caleb, Casseopeia, Soul, Draco....." Haruko said beneath her breath.
"Sailor Starlights, stage on!"
All four starlights tried to attack the youkai but to no avail. Left with no choice, Haruka and the remaining three white moon soldiers transformed,
"NO, HARUKA DON'T!!" Sailor Star Fighter screamed the moment Haruka raised his transformation item.
"Kusou." Sailor Star Maker cursed underneath her breath.
The other starlights turned and saw Haruka's transformation into sailor Uranus, everybody saw it...including Haruko.
"Let go of my sister youkai!" Sailor Uranus exclaimed after transforming.
"Ah...ah..ah...my lord would love to see her pretty face first before we destroy her..." The youkai replied waving a vine in front of Sailor Uranus.
Confused and hurt, Haruko stopped squirming from the youkai's grip. Instead she lowered her head and said,
"Hey..."
"Hmmm?" the youkai turned its head and asked, "What is it princess? Pleading for mercy already? But I haven't even done anything yet!"
"Do me a favor and tell your lord to tell his queen to please...
"Yes? Please what?"
"Stop pestering me....summer blaze!" Haruko exclaimed as she slammed her hands on the youkai's vines which held her.
The youkai immediately felt the sudden agonizing heat coming from Haruko's palms so it released her right away. Teary eyed, Haruko brought out her transformation item and transformed into Sailor Earth, shocking the outer soldiers, especially Sailor Uranus.
Her appearance this time was a bit different from when she first transformed. With the power of the celestial crystal within her, the golden tiara disappeared and instead, at the center of her forehead appeared the symbol of earth and a lavender colored crystal shaped like fire replaced the transparent lavender star. Her skirt now has two layers of cloth and her boots that used to reach above her knees now just reaches half way below her knees. Most importantly, her most prized possession is now back in her hand, the Fate's rod.
"You're a, a, a...."
"A, a, a, ,a soldier!"
"B-but t-this c-can't be!" the youkai exclaimed.
"P-p-perhaps E-Eris f-forgot t-t-to te-te-tell y-y-y-y-you....." Sailor Earth said in a mocking way.
"Oh wait that's right, I killed her." Sailor Earth shrugged and continued; "Now it's your turn.....Spring Creation!"
The youkai was damaged by Haruko's attack and the starlights wanted to finish it off but Sailor Earth stopped them,
"Let it live so that he can give his lord and his Queen my message."
She approached the youkai, lifted its head and said,
"Tell them what you saw and what you felt. Tell them that I'm back and that I'm ready for them. I won't run away, I won't cry ever again, but if they try and hurt my friends all hell will break loose and they'll get exactly what they're looking for....death. So stay away from my friends. This is between us so let them be. Got it?"
"Got it." The youkai replied weakly.
Sailor Earth dropped its head on the floor and let it crawl back into the portal from which it came from. When the portal closed, Sailor Earth lost her transformation and slumped on the floor wearily, her four guardians rushing to her side.
"Haruko-neesan...." Sailor Saturn called out as she took steps towards Haruko.
"Haruko, you're Sailor Earth?!" Sailor Pluto asked.
Haruko slowly stood up, helped by Protector and Maker. She looked at every one of them, smiled and nodded,
"Then that means...." Sailor Neptune started.
"She is also Princess Persephone. Princess of the Celestial Kingdom, guardian of Earth, keeper of souls..." Protector continued.
"Soldier of the white moon." Haruko ended.
"Uso....(It's a lie)" Sailor Pluto whispered
"Sore wa dekimasen. (That's impposible.)" Sailor Saturn said.
"Sou na kutou! (Oh no, it can't be)" Sailor Neptune exclaimed.
Silence.
Haruko looked at Sailor Uranus with hope that she'd say something, but the tough soldier merely looked away as she clenched her fist beside her.
"Sailor Uranus...will you...will you say something...anything?" Haruko pleaded.
"What else is there to say?" Sailor Uranus replied coldly.
"Alexis please..." Haruko started as she took a step towards the golden brown haired soldier.
"Don't!" Sailor Uranus exclaimed. "Don't call me that. I'm not....I'm not Alexis anymore so don't come near me Earth Princess." Sailor Uranus continued.
"Uranus, that's harsh she's still your—"Sailor Pluto was cut off when Sailor Uranus shot an angry and dangerous glare at her.
Tears flowed out of Haruko's eyes as she tried to absorb the things he told her.
"You...you don't mean that do you Alexis?"
"I said don't call me that!" Sailor Uranus exclaimed as she glared at Haruko with so much anger Haruko has never seen before.
Haruko stepped back and ran out of the theater, her guardians running after her immediately except for one.
Yaten glared at Sailor Uranus with the same amount of anger and said,
"Eight hundred billion millenniums and you're still the reason for her tears...."
Yaten turned his back and ran off to follow the others.
Sailor Neptune looked at Sailor Uranus, who had his back facing them, not noticing the drops of tears falling on the ground.
All four outer soldiers stood there in silence not knowing what else to say or do.
Tsuzuku…
A/N:
(1) Kami-sama = pertains to a higher being, 'god'
(2) Ikuzo = a variation of Ikemasho which means 'Let's go!"