Sailor Moon is owned by Naoko Takeuchi-sensei, TOEI Animation, and VIZMedia 'cause I woke up like thiiiis.
Notes: Athena is Mars
Fun Fact (continued from ch. 42): The original Kyoto took place in Hokkaido instead of Kyoto. Her Grandfather was alive. They were the sweet grandparents that most people have. Shingo and Usagi were just visiting for the summer. I'd have like the Inners and Mamoru come to this pool and say hello or something while Usagi and Shingo were there, and she'd be like playing with some friends that she met or whatever. And her friends would be like "whoa, check out that rockin' bod" and Usagi would look and it would be Mamoru and she'd be like "lol yeah that's my boyfriend what's he doing here?" and yeah.
As for Akira, she was originally—believe it or not-a very shy character. She saw Usagi as that really cool girl that everyone wants to be like. She was very weak. I think the current Akira would either laugh at her until her stomach hurts, or punch me in the face for making her weak ;-; Maybe I'll post a side chapter about that Akira and how I originally planned for her to be.
Varuna sits up. When did she end up in a jungle? She looks around herself. She can find her way out if she can get a good vantage point by climbing up a nearby tree. She walks to the nearest tree and places her hands on the closest branches. She pulls herself up, making her way to the top. It goes well, until the third branch she steps on breaks, and the branch she grabs to save herself turns to slime. She can't catch herself, and as a result, falls to the jungle floor. She stare up at the emerald canopy, glistening crimson from the scarlet sun. She sighs. The situation can go one of five ways, if she tries to blindly find her way out:
She'll find her way out and be saved because (hurrah!) there's the building. But that's highly unlikely, not to mention too much of a deus ex machina for Lucifer Hades, unless it's a trap.
She'll find her way out, but end up back at the never-ending bloody desert and be back at square one.
She'll find her way out, but end up somewhere she's never been before. That's possibly worse than the first two.
She'll go the wrong way.
She'll never find her way out because it's a boundless jungle. That seems the most likely.
She gets up and pulls out her Space Sword. She tosses it up into the air, steps back, and lets it land in the direction in which she desires to travel, towards the other talismans, towards Michiru and Setsuna. Instead of landing in a certain direction, it lands blade-down, perpendicular to the jungle floor.
"How odd," she muses, picking the Sword out of the ground. She throws it up again, and again, and still the same result. Maybe… she's on Earth? But why is the sun red?
She tries the trees again, to no avail. She growls. She won't, can't give up so easily.
"Alright, Lucifer," she says to the skies. "I know what you want me to do, right? You want to get myself lost so you can kill me off." She smirks and cracks her knuckles. "You don't know who you're dealing with."
She jumps up, landing on a branch lightly and pushing off just quick enough to keep her momentum before the branch breaks underneath her.
I will become the air, I will become the air, I am light, I am air, she tells herself as she jumps higher and higher.
She finally pushes herself up into the sky, spotting a tall, slate-gray skyscraper shimmering ruby red of the sunset and smiles.
I am the air.
"Jose!" Hera shouts. "Where are you?!"
"Over here!" Hera whips around, looking for the source of the voices that sound like little bells. She hears them giggle, and looks around. She spots small, ebbing lights floating in the burgundy sky. Green, blue, pink, lavender; every color. Colors she'd never before imagined.
Hera furrows her brow as the lights approach and multiply. "What?" She lets the word escape her lips, totally entranced by the strange lights.
One floats up to her nose, and she backs away. "Miss Makoto!" it says. She examines the light, and finds that it's not a light, but a pixie.
"What in the…"
"Never fear, Miss Makoto! We mean you no harm!" the blue one says, as it glides toward her, the lavender one joining it.
"Allow us to offer you the greatest comfort!"
"You don't have to fight anymore!"
"Just leave it to us!"
"We'll take good care of you!"
"Have no worries!"
"It'll be wonderful!"
"Just trust us!"
Hera's eyes glaze over, and she smiles. "Right. Just trust you."
Jose pulls out his cube. "What would you—"
"Sword."
"As you wish." The cube transforms into a long, reflective sword. He picks it up and slashes through the thick vegetation of the jungle he somehow found himself in.
"Hera!" he calls at the top of his lungs. What a predicament to find himself in! "Where are you?!"
He screams in frustration. After God knows how long of this, he sits down on a nearby boulder. He rubs his face, then runs his hand through his hair. Leaning back, he takes a deep breath. "How am I ever going to find her? Usagi's going to be so mad!"
The boulder moves slightly, and he throws himself forward to save himself. It falls off a ledge he didn't know was there, and he breathes a sigh of relief. Then he hears the sound of dirt and rocks falling, and looks behind himself warily. His heart pounds, his relaxed face hardens to one of terror as he realizes that the ground is falling out, and fast. He scrambles away, but then the ground falls out from underneath him. Screaming, he falls.
Luna trots around the corner, making her way to the Crown Arcade Center, or more specifically, the Control Center, to look for . She was supposed to meet Artemis there at 5, but she got ran into Yaten and, of course, had to stop and talk. She checks the digital clock once she enters the arcade. 5:04 pm. She isn't too late.
"Hey, Luna! What's up?" Motoki greets her, and she dips her head in a polite greeting. She runs to the Sailor V Game Console and sees Artemis patiently waiting.
"Ahh, Artemis! I'm sorry I'm late, I couldn't leave on time," she lies. Artemis gets jealous easily, and it was really no big deal.
He smiles, and shakes his head. "I wasn't waiting long."
"Let's get started." Luna hops onto the game, taps in the secret code for the day, "The Red Desert Bleeds Fire," on the hidden keyboard.
Once inside the Control Center, they pull up footage from the comms, first Sailor Moon's. Nothing but static and white noise. Luna's heart pounds. What could have happened that broke the comm?
She tries the others, but still no dice. She tries Mercury's computer, and there's a little feedback before it starts showing a film.
"Luna, if you're watching this, please find the coordinates of this computer," Sailor Mercury whispers to her. "I'm giving this computer to Jupiter before she goes to save Sailor Moon—" She sighs. "It's a long story that we'll tell you later. Please, please, please find the coordinates—"
"What is that?!" a sharp voice demands.
"What are you talking about? I don't—" Then the film shuts off, and Luna and Artemis are left speechless.
Suddenly, Luna begins to type rapidly, letters and digits and codes, doing her best to find the coordinates of the computer. She hits the "execute" button, and a map appears on the large screen where Mercury's face was not 5 minutes before.
Half of the map is red, and the other half is green. A green dot pulses on the red side, and then, one by one, other colored dots pulse as well. A lighter green and an indigo on the green side that are no more than three centimeters apart, in the scale, which means that they are about 300 feet away from each other in real life. A blue and a black on the red side, right on top of each other. Luna paws at the screen, looking around to see who else she can find. There are not just five people out there, she knows it.
A blackish square comes into view on the red side, and five more dots appear; lighter blue, orange, sea green, yellow, and red. A black diamond appears next to them; no doubt the enemy.
On another part of the square, there appears two more dots; pink and white. To their left is a huge mass of black, and Luna can tell that they are diamonds, as the ones on the edges are pointed.
Directly in the center is a golden dot, surrounded by black. Luna swallows. She knows what that means.
Usagi is in huge trouble.
Queen Gaia smiles at her gaping children. "No way…" Terra mumbles, awestruck.
"Yes, and as Endymion pointed out, I am here to help. Now, you two have been travelling in this desert for quite some time now, am I mistaken?" she says. "But, alas! you have been travelling in the wrong direction. I am here to guide you back to the wretched building so that you may save your beloved ones. Come, follow me, and we shall go together unto that building, and be saved!"
She speaks like she just walked out of the Bible, Terra thinks to herself, but for once, holds her tongue. She couldn't say that to her mother if she wanted to.
She remembers suddenly that she had come upon her mother of this time, and wonders if she can go back to that place, if she can ever find it again.
She spreads her arms delicately, and leafy-green wings open on her back. "Come, children, and we shall take to the skies!"
Gaia takes her children in her arms, and they fly, Endymion for the second time since they'd been there, Terra for the first time in her life.
"Wow, this is incredible!" she exclaims.
Endymion looks over at her and smiles. She looks like a child, he notices, and the thought makes his smile grow warmer.
Their altitude increases, and before they know it, they can see the whole desert. "What's that jungle over there?" Endymion asks.
Gaia smile disappears. "That is the Jungle of Woe. Only the strongest leave it alive. I am heartbroken to say that it seems some of your own have found their way in."
Endymion's heart rate picks up. "Who?" Please not Serenity, please not Serenity, please not Serenity, please not Serenity… he prays.
"A young man named Jose," she says. Terra gasps, and Endymion bites his lip. "And a young woman named Haruka."
Endymion breathes a sigh of relief. Serenity isn't in that jungle. Haruka and Jose are strong enough to handle themselves. He knows it's selfish, but it's true.
"Look! Over yonder! That is the Skyscraper of Hell, our destination."
*stretches* I can't believe I wrote that all today.