Destiny's Hold: Season 6
© 2003-2006 By Stacey Padjune (Serena CrystalMoon)
Disclaimer: Sadly enough, I do not own Sailor Moon or any of the other characters; I just manipulate them...
Chapter 10: To Commandeer Or Not To Commandeer?
Short red hair cut in today's punk-like style stood spiked on a young woman's head as she stood with her twin brother in the front of their diner, his matching hair a bit longer, un-spiked and messy. Their place was closed, for a bit of cleaning duty. Their matching green eyes shone brightly while they yelled out the lyrics to one of their many favorite Jack Off Jill songs; breathing hard and sweaty the twins continued on scrubbing down the stainless steel table with S.O.S pads. Shiero's swirling green and yellow eyes took in the atmosphere of the place and it's two owners. They seemed to fit well. The girl, with a piercing on her left eyebrow and another on the middle of her lip was dressed in a grunge look of striped purple and yellow tights, a short "car-wash" ripped black shirt with an assortment of fishnets here and there, covering her legs and dangling from different positions on the shirt, a clunky pair of black combat boots and a ripped black shirt with fishnet stitched over it's holes and safety pins galore. Her brother, with two piercing's also, had one on the left side of his lip and one on his upper right ear, was dressed in black Tripp pants obviously from a Hot Topic-like store with bondage straps, covered in random with safety pins and a black shirt with the letters AFI on the front, the back reading A Fire Inside. They fit well with their place, it's dark purple walls and black velvet furniture, it's ebony marble tables and it's black lights, it's numerous candles and it's incense… He watched as the girl walked to the back room before following a minute later. Their loss would be such a shame. He almost hated what he had to do, almost.
She stood, piling dirty dishes into the sink; a light touch on her shoulder startled her. Turning, her eyes met the swirling depths of his hypnotic eyes. Lost immediately in their power, she stood stock-still, unaware of anything. Lifting his hand Shiero faced his palm toward the girl, a large jet black pendant sat in his palm, held in place by a leather strap around his finger. Her body glowed with a dark black light as her life-energy was vacuumed into the gem before she dropped to the floor with a thump.
"Becca-chan?" Shiero heard the brother's voice, followed by hurried footsteps.
The gothic brother stepped through the doorway, not believing his own eyes. Some sort of creature was standing over his sister; she was on the ground, pale, not breathing. It turned, he gasped, it's eyes met his and he was lost, gone in their swirling depths. Raising his hand to his next victim Shiero watched as the boy glowed black, his energy being sucked into the pendant just like his sisters before his lifeless body fell to the floor with a thump next to his sisters. With a smirk, Shiero disappeared.
"So let me get this straight." Ikuko said pointedly to her daughter as she and the odd group sat around the living room. "My daughter is my daughter but is Sailor Moon and lived one thousand years ago and is a princess and her real mother a queen. Your cat can talk and is your guardian from back on the Moon. Minako-chan has another cat that is also a guardian and can talk, she is a princess herself and the leader of the senshi. All of your closest friends are senshi and princesses and daughters of gods. And you're engaged to the prince of earth and will rule the Solar System with him as King and you as Queen?"
"Yes," Sailor Moon said nonchalantly, "simple isn't it?"
Kenji looked around wide-eyed at all the pale faces around him of the others that this had all been dropped upon. Another wave of shock hit him as he witnessed a smile creep it's way onto Grandpa Hino's face followed by another on Marie Mizuno's face.
"Rei Hino, not only have you reached my expectations as miko but you've surpassed them as well." Grandpa Hino spoke to Sailor Mars with love and pride, "A psychic, a senshi of fire, a fierce warrior and a respectable princess. What more could a Grandfather ever ask for?" He finished with a bow.
"Hino-san is right Ami dear. I'm far from angry, I understand why this was all kept a secret and I'm so proud of you!" 100-watt smiles graced the faces of Ami and Rei to match that of their parents.
"YOU ARE ALL INSANE! HOW CAN YOU JUST ACCEPT SOMETHING LIKE THAT SO EASILY?" Kenji shouted crazily at Mr. Hino and Ms. Mizuno, "HOW CAN YOU RULE THE UNIVERSE AND WHY SHOULD WE ALL BELIEVE YOU?" Kenji shouted again, loosing his patience just as he had earlier. "I'VE SEEN WHAT SMOKE AND MIRRORS CAN DO! I've seen people change genders, fly and use magic. Working in the media you learn that things are never what they seem!" he finished with a stamp of his foot and a powerful huff.
"You will hold your temper in front of the Princess." Mars ground out lethally, "Or you will regret it... " The fire senshi already on her feet next to Kenji and holding him by the throat in a superhuman grasp, ready to snap his head off.
Yuuichirou's face was pale, his eyes wide as he stared at his girlfriend. She was ready to deliver death, with a look on her face that he'd never seen before. A look that said she'd enjoy it… that she'd enjoy delivering death to anyone or thing that threatened her 'Princess'. Usagi was a Princess then… not now… Why are the girls and her so adamant about the Princess, and her most of all? He thought with a pang of jealousy. She was Sailor Mars. Sailor Mars. A Warrior. A Princess. He did not know this girl. He stared at the soldier in shock; realization dawning on him, this was the real Rei. He watched as she tightened her grip on Kenji's neck and lifted him a few inches from the ground. He stared wide-eyed, she was a stranger compared to her other self, and she scared him.
"Mars let him go," Sailor Moon calmly told her senshi.
Sighing exasperatedly Mars released Kenji and threw her hands down in a huff and stalked out of the room, her every step heard as she stomped up the steps to Usagi's bedroom. "How can she just let him talk to her like that, even if he is her father here… she's the princess!" She huffed after closing Usagi's door.
Darkness clothed Shairon, his large frame seeming darker than the pitch-blackness around him. He stood in his chambers, the wall sconces all without flame, as he stood with his eyes closed holding the pendent that Sheiro had used to capture his most recent energy sources. Drawing the power into himself Shairon focused on it, a third eye appearing closed on his forehead. The eye began to glow a dark purple, almost black, before opening to reveal a violet pupil… brighter it glowed, the light becoming more of a haze of lilac rather than the dark smudge it had been. Concentrating more Shairon pushed the energy gathered from the pendant into the eye, making it glow even brighter. Exhaling slowly, the third eye dulled and finally closed. Opening his eyes, he turned to where the closest sconce should be, light bursting into vision immediately as it caught aflame. The others around the room followed suit. "Sheiro!" he bellowed before walking to his black throne and taking a seat.
"Yes, master?" the green, scaly minion answered after walking into the room.
"You did well, Sheiro. They were excellently large amounts of energy. But I need more! Take this." He told his youma, tossing him the dark pendant. "Go out once more, I need more energy, much more!"
"Yes master." Sheiro said with a bow before turning to leave. "Master?" he asked, facing Shairon once more. "Would your excellency mind an inquiry as to why you need such energy?"
"Curious are you?" He smirked, before continuing. "There is a prophecy, throughout all of the dimensions, an old prophecy not many remember to have ever existed. A human of Terran birth is said to be the most powerful of all. The One. The one is supposed to live a thousand year after a great destruction of what was Utopia. It is said to have dormant power within, power unbridled. Once that power is awakened fate and death mean nothing to it, it will be an all powerful being, creating and destroying what it wishes. But this power can only be activated when The One is connected to The Key. The Key, another human with power, power enough to be The Ones opposite. It's other half. How these two connect, it's not said. But to have them both under my leadership, brainwashed…as my minions, they're power will be under my control. I will be unstoppable. The energy is needed to force a portal open leading to the spirit realm. They're all knowing and with a bit of my "persuasion" I'm sure they'll hope in location The One and The Key." The plan was explained to his servant, who stood with a growing smile on his face. "Take Onyx with you to gather as much energy as you can. He's just come back from a mission on the other side of Earth and has brought back much energy. Don't make a scene. Remember, I need the power of the energy to open the portal. The longer we take, the longer the senshi have to wiggle out of their little problem and figure out my plans." He sneered the last bit, glad that the stupid humans were causing such a predicament with it's protectors.
"How dare he talk like that about my Princess!" she sulked, her hands shaking as she held Usagi's huge pink pillow in a strangling death grip. "She's the savior of this universe and he has the gall to call her a liar and fraud!" A cold and livid stare fixed itself to the pillow as she tightened her grip on the pillow, puncturing it with her dark red nails. "Even if he is of this planet, even if he's supposed to be her father here, even if he doesn't understand the importance of her or any of us… he never should've disrespected her like that!" she ground out in a growl. A knock sounded lightly on the door, startling her as she gripped the pillow even tighter is rage, tearing it open and causing the stuffing to fall down into her lap. Her head snapped up as the door opened, a growl escaped her lips as she watched Yuuichirou walk into the room, closing the door behind him.
Flinching at her growl Yuuichirou set a calm resolved expression on his face and walked over to his girlfriend. Lowering himself to the bed behind Mars he silently wrapped his arms around her. "Are you okay, Rei-chan?" he whispered into her ear.
Closing her eyes Mars felt her skin crawl at his closeness and shuttered inwardly. Saying nothing, she sat there, breathing in and out willing herself to stay calm and not to castrate him where he sat. Anger definitely needs to be released in a less destructive way… she couldn't keep it bottled up and couldn't go around torturing the people that care for her, neither would be too good.
"Honey?" Yuuichirou whispered a bit louder as he pulled her closer to him, "Are you alright?"
A grimace fell over her features before she took a few deep breaths, needing to clear her thoughts and calm her mind and her nerves. "Yes, Yuuichirou-chan… I'm alright. I just needed to calm down a bit. I wasn't exactly thrilled with the way Serenity-hime's father was acting," She dead-panned, "and I didn't like the fact that she wouldn't let me do my duties either. The penalty for such a treason as he committed isn't death but is a mild scare-session with a bit of a beating, a warning to not disrespect the Silver Princess like that ever again."
Not knowing what to say Yuuichirou stayed quiet for a moment before standing, kissing his girlfriend on the cheek and waking to the door.
Letting her transformation drop, Rei sat on the bed and watched him. "Thank you." she said lightly as he reached the door. Watched as he turned to face her, she looked into his eyes. "Thank you, Yuuichirou-chan. I know this must be difficult for you. I'm changing, I'm not who I was when I first became a senshi and I'm not the person you know." She told him, standing up. She walked slowly to him, standing next to him she continued. "I'm not the person I know. All of us, the senshi, we're changing…and we can't stop it. It has something to do with the missing timeline. I-I just wanted to apologize for the way I've treated you lately and the way I've been acting. I'm sure it's been hard and probably kinda scary…and I just wanted to say I'm sorry." She finished, kissing him lightly on the lips. Walking back to Usagi's bed, she sat down and grabbed another pillow and held it to herself. "You go back out to the others, I'm going to stay in here a while longer and try to get a grip on myself. I'll come out in a bit. I promise."
Nodding in acceptance Yuuichirou opened the door and walked out, closing it behind him before making his way back to the meeting.
"…so we'll go into hiding. We'll have food and shelter and everything we'll need. Does everybody agree?" Wincing Sailor Moon sent a glare to her right, hearing her father begin to run his mouth again. "Does everybody ELSE agree?" she asked pointedly, continuing to glare at him.
Receiving positive answers from all around, she nodded before continuing. "My plan is to disappear. From the enemy and Tokyo. We can't risk being seen and we can't risk our loved ones lives. So…we get ourselves a house in the upper side of Tokyo…a mansion. We stock it and hide out there. We can use the disguise pen if any of us need to go out, for any reason"
"A mansion? A mansion? How are we supposed to get to the upper side of Tokyo? How are we supposed to hide all of us in a mansion? It's just a house. How are we supposed to stock a mansion? How are we even supposed to get a mansion!" Jupiter's questions came in a never-ending sentence as she looked to her Princess.
"Yes, Jupiter, a mansion. How are we supposed to get there? Sailor Teleporting. How do we teleport these extra people? We're stronger now than before, and we're continually getting stronger. And if I have to, I'll pull on the Ginzuishou's power. No don't say it." She interrupted, seeing her friends expression about her using the crystal's power. "If I have to, I will. How are we supposed to hide ourselves within the mansion? That one's a bit tricky…" Looking to Pluto, Sailor Moon smiled before continuing," Pluto, that one requires you. You and Saturn are skilled in the mystic, correct?" Receiving a nod, she continued once more. "I need a cloaking spell to cover the mansion, to make it appear as if it was never there in the first place."
"I believe I can do that, you're Highness."
"Good." Sailor Moon smiled, "How are we supposed to stock the mansion? You don't wanna know. That's a job for Mars and I. And last, you asked how we're supposed to get a mansion… and that's simple. We commandeer one of course. It will disappear as if it were never there, they won't miss it."
"Commandeer? You're going to commandeer a mansion?" Shingo chuckled, "Bravo, Sailor Moon!" He gave the 'thumbs up' to his suer-hero sister before immitating Captain Jack Sparrow from The Pirates Of The Carribean, "We're going to commandeer the mansion, savvy?" he looked to Sailor Moon and smirked before once again immitating his favorite character. "...but why is the rum gone?"
Sailor Moon laughed in amusement and ruffled her brother's hair. "Now, tomorrow I want all of you to take care of anything that needs to be done before we make our disappearing act. You want to say goodbye to someone, do it. Collect all that's important, once we do this, there's no turning back. We'll be gone…to a point…" A sly smirk pulled at her lips with the last few words before turning to the leader of her senshi. "Venus, go check on Mars, I need to speak with her, she's probably in my room."
"Rei-chan…?" Minako's voice flitted lightly through the hall as she climbed the stair to the second floor. Standing at the top of the stairs she willed her transformation away. Knocking lightly on Usagi's door, she called her name again.
"Yeah, Minako-chan, I'm here." Her voice came low, barely above a whisper. Turning the knob, Minako set her eyes on the fire senshi and lightly pushed the door closed behind her before walking over to the raven-haired warrior. "Rei-chan, Usagi-chan wants to speak to you. The meeting's over…"
"She probably just wants to make sure I'm not going to attack that man that calls himself her father." She grumbled.
"No, I promise that's not it. I'm sure she understands why you acted the way you did. She wants to fill you in on her plan. And she came up with a job for you two to execute tonight when everyone's sleeping… She won't tell anyone what it is… Setsuna-san's putting a spell on the house tonight to put everyone asleep and calm their nerves." A light blush colored her cheeks and a glint of happiness twinkled in her eye.
"Mi-Minako-chan…can I talk to you?"
"Sure, Rei-chan is it about senshi business or is it something else?"
"No. No, it's not…really…senshi related, I mean, it could be… It's complicated." Rei looked into Minako's eyes before averting her gaze back down to her hands clasped in her lap. "It's…I…no, we. We've grown apart, Yuuichirou-chan and I. I never really liked him to begin with and… And the real me, I mean the me that I don't have to hide…that's a big part of me. And we, me, all of us…we're changing. He doesn't know me. And, though I don't really know me, I do, to a degree. I mean, I know what I'm capable of and I'm more in tune with my abilities and, and what I want…"
A smile formed on Minako's lips, seeing where the miko was going with her jumbled thoughts. "Who is it Rei-chan? You like someone don't you? I could feel those vibes coming from you earlier downstairs. I just couldn't pinpoint who they were for… Your thought and feelings were so jumbled… Rei-chan, tell me it's not Mamoru-san." She ended seriously.
"No. No, it's not Mamoru-san…I…I don't know who I like." She grimaced at her choice of words. "I know I like someone, she, she haunts my dreams every night…Sometimes it's dreams of the past, sometimes they seem as if they're the future…some seem as if they would be happening now… but I can never see her face."
Minako's eyes widened as something inside grasped onto Rei's psyche, the part that had escaped her before. Feelings of love and happiness and longing filled her soul and her vision blurred. Two cornflower blue eyes glowed in her mind before a creamy complexion with long blonde hair in pigtails and a happy smile entered her mind as well. Usagi-chan! How can this be? She loves the Princess! "Her, she, it's…" Then in sunk in. She doesn't know. "you're a lesbian." She finished blandly, catching herself before she said the name. She's gonna have to figure it out on her own. It wouldn't be right for me to tell her and she's gonna have to deal with that bundle of complications when she gets there… "You-you're in love with her, who ever it is I mean, aren't you? Actually in love with her?"
"Love? Me? Where'd you get that from…?" The miko scoffed lightly. Shaking her head she laughed. A bewildered look took over her face as her laugh died with a nervous gulp. "I couldn't possibly…I-I don't even know who it is…"
"Yes, yes you do. You know but you're afraid to or don't want to know…Your dreams are just your subconscious trying to get you to listen."
"Wow." Rei smiled in surprise at her blonde friend. "Incisive…" Her smile faltered a bit. "What, what if she doesn't like me? What if it can't work? What if I don't like her?"
"It'll be fine! You'll like her. I can't give you insight on her but you'll like her. I know it. She's beautiful and smart and-" Her eyes went wide as she realized she had said to much.
"Minako-chan, you-she, you know who she is? How? Who?" she could hear her heart beating faster.
"It just exploded in me, I could feel an echo of your feelings for her and I could see her in my mind, she was a fuzzy vision, surrounded in white light… My abilities have advanced along with my strength and my powers. I sensed your love for her. But… I… She… It's not my place to tell you. Everything happens for a reason and everything will happen in good time. I-I can't tell you Rei. I'm sorry"
"It's, I undertstand." The Miko sighed lightly.
"Rei I…you came to me to talk but…could I… I mean-"
The fire senshi smiled and cut her off, "Of course Minako-chan. You know you can always talk to me."
"Arigatou Rei-chan, you're a true friend. It's about, well, I had a dream last night." The blonde blushed before continuing, "In it I was in a relationship with Setsuna, we…we had sex in my dream. Rei-chan what should I do!"
The Shinto priestess could feel the waves of distress rolling off the girl, it was so sudden…like the opening of flood gates and the backed up water just bowling into her. "A relationship with Setsuna!" she repeated in surprise. "Wow, at least you know who you like… Oh, uh… what about those abilities of yours? You are the senshi of love after all."
"I used to just get very light vibrations, like they were barely there. Most of the time I didn't know what they were. They're just starting to become more advanced…and I don't know if they'll work on me…or my crush. What if-"
"Girls!" came a third voice as the door opened a foot or so. Both sets of eyes fell on Luna as she walked into the room. "Usagi-chan's waiting downstairs and Setsuna-san's about to do the spell." The cat told them, a raise of her eyebrows telling them their princess was becoming impatient.
"Yes Luna-san, we're coming." Minako told the cat as she stood up, followed by Rei. She watched Luna turn and walk back through the door and silently mouthed "Later." To her raven-haired friend as the two girls followed the cat down the stairs.
Authors Note: I'm so sorry it took so long to get this chapter out and since people seemed to be confused a bit about Minako and Setsuna and that fact that they didn't actually have sex or anything, I brought it up just a teeny bit in this chapter to make sure everyone understood that it was a dream that Minako had. They're not together. It was a dream, in the scene Minako is asleep and is hearing the giggling and such in her head. In this dream Minako's not witnessing it as a bystander but living it, which is why she blushes when she sees Setsuna later on at the Tsukino house. I'm sorry if anyone was confused by that scene, I should've made it more clear… Oh and a poem of mine is being published in a book called Soul Disclosure which is supposed to come out in March. It's a collection of short stories and poems and we hope it will get as popular as the Chicken Soup books. They should be selling for $16.95 I believe… So everyone check that out!
--Stacey Padjune aka Serena CrystalMoon (February 8, 2006)
