A/N: Hey guys! First off, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE SUPPORT! I'm so glad your all liking it so far! This means a lot to me since well, English was never really my best subject ehehe ^_^'' My English teacher over the three years I had her always complained that my writing was too confusing, filled with errors, and that my grammar was horrendous. (won't fight with the grammar part though hahaha I mean really? When am I going to need to know what an independent clause is?)
SO ANYWAYS! Here's chapter 4! I'm sorry It took me so long to write it! I had a busy weekend, but now I've been sick all week (good thing) so I've had time to write this INSANELY long chapter for you guys! (its as long as the previous chapters put together ahaha)
As promised, I'm starting to give you the real story here! ENOUGH FLUFF SAYS I! ON WITH THE STORY!
So Read and Review! I love hearing you ideas and opinions! =)
~Moviefan
Chapter Four
Her eyes slowly fluttered open due to the sun peeking through the crack in the curtains. Was it morning already? Due to the fact that the clock read ten o'clock am, she assumed that yes, it was in fact morning.
She turned over and looked at the still sleeping man with gorgeous black hair. Had she actually woken up before him? This was a feat nobody thought to be possible. He had to have been extremely exhausted for Usagi to wake up before him and sleep past nine o'clock. This was a rare occasion. She was going to savour it.
She studied his every feature, starting with his hair, then down to his eyebrows, eyelids, nose, lips, chin, jaw, cheeks, ears, and neck. As tempting as it was, she held back from playing with his hair. She didn't want to take any chances of waking him up earlier than he would have by himself.
His expression was that of a sleeping child. "He's so adorable when he sleeps!" She smiled to herself.
She looked over at the clock again; 10:15. Not able to resist the urge any longer, she convinced herself that it was time for them both to get out of bed. She ran her fingers through his dark hair softly and his eyes slowly opened, squinting to adjust to the light peeking through the curtains that faced him.
"Morning sleepy-head!" she piped.
"Good morning Usako. Since when am I the sleepy-head? I thought that was always your job." He replied with a smirk.
"Since I woke up before you this morning!" She winked back. "That must have been some day yesterday for you to sleep in longer than me." She pointed out to him.
"Yeah, I guess it was." He laughed as he sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. "How about you take your shower while I make breakfast? That way you have longer to dry that beautifully long hair of yours while we eat breakfast and I shower."
"Sounds good to me." She said sitting up to hug him from behind and delivering him a kiss on the cheek. He ruffled her undone hair, kissed her hand gently, and got up to go to the kitchen.
Usagi stood up from the bed and trotted back towards the once again dry bathroom. She quickly stripped off her pyjamas and entered the shower, turned on the hot water, and stood there for a minute, taking in the relaxing and refreshing moment. She let her hair completely soak for about three minutes, inhaling the warm condensation, then pumped a palm-full of shampoo out of the bottle and lathered it on her scalp. She then rinsed it out, slathered her hair with conditioner, working her fingers through the now tangled mess, removing any and all knots that were humanly possible to remove. She then rinsed out the substance to the best of her ability, taking a breather to let her arms rest (washing and drying long hair takes strength after all, usually around half an hour each wash/blow dry).
She sat down on the floor of the shower, letting the water run down her face and body, grabbed her razor off the tiny shelf in the tile on the side of the shower, and shaved her legs. Starting at the bottom of her calf, to her knees, and up her thighs, she repeated this twice, all over both of her legs. Once finished, she placed the razor on the small shelf once again and slowly mustered up the courage to shut off the water and step out into the cold air of the bathroom. She swiftly grabbed a towel to keep warm, dried herself off, and darted back into the bedroom to get dressed.
She opened up her drawer, pulled out a bra, a pair of underwear, a white long sleeved turtleneck, a pair of warm black leggings, a red plaid skirt, a black belt, and placed them all on the bed. She took off her wet towel, throwing it on the floor, and got dressed, tucking her shirt in and wearing the belt around her waist.
She opened the door and walked through the living room and into the kitchen, only to have the glorious smell of food take over her nostrils. She put her hands on and peeked over Mamoru's shoulders to see him cooking one last crepe, which he already had a stack of cooked and ready on a plate beside the stove.
"That smells really good!" she said from behind into his right ear with her mouth watering slightly.
"That's because I'm the one cooking it!" He winked as he removed the last crepe from the pan and placed it on the plate.
Usagi grabbed sugar, syrup, and some berries from the cupboards and the fridge and placed them on the table for the crepes while Mamoru put out two plates on the table, a set of forks and knifes two glasses, and the plate with the crepes in the middle of the table. They both sat down, serving themselves to crepes with their desired toppings, and dug in.
"Mm! Ith tho gud Mamo-cha!" She perked with her mouth full. Mamoru couldn't help but laugh at this.
"See? I'm not trying to poison you after all!" He said with a lazy smirk.
They continued to eat breakfast and finished all the crepes within around twenty minutes. Much to Mamoru's appall, Usagi was the one to eat over half, causing him to drop a single drop of sweat, laughing nervously at her.
"What's so funny?" She pouted with a stern expression.
"Oh, ha, nothing. It's nothing really, I just thought of something funny." He said taking the empty dishes to the dish washer to avoid confrontation, snickering nervously.
"If you say so..." She eyed him suspiciously.
Trying to change the topic Mamoru spoke up. "Usako, now that we've finished eating and such," he snaked his arms around her waist from behind, "how about you call the senshi so we can figure out was that dream last night was all about, hm?" He nestled his face in her neck, just under her jaw and by her shoulder. She smelled like strawberries, and it was an overwhelmingly delicious sent. He struggled to keep himself together.
Usagi smiled, remembering a time similar to this one, six years previously, which had resulted in a completely wonderful... "something" (shall we say?) on the floor of this very room. Oh the numerous amounts of nights that she would call home telling her mom that she was spending the night at Makoto's house, when in reality, she was here in Mamoru's apartment. However, this time they were rudely interrupted by the phone ringing, ending this moment then and there. Startled, Usagi accidentally hit her boyfriend in the face, making him force out a minor yelp, from shock as well. She whipped around and cupped his face.
"Oh I'm sorry Mamo-chan! I was surprised by the phone! I didn't mean to hit you. Are you alright? It wasn't that hard right?" Worry flooded her face.
Ringggggg, Ringggggg, Ringgggggg.
"No I'm fine." He said rubbing his cheek. "Just get the phone." He sighed, turning to get an icepack from the freezer.
"Hello?"
"Hey there Usagi, it's Rei. What's up?"
"Oh not much, what about you? I was just about to call you actually. About a senshi meeting as soon as possible perhaps?"
"A senshi meeting? We haven't needed to hold one of those in ages! What's going on Usagi? I was just gonna see if you wanted to come shopping with the rest of us today." replied a very suspicious sounding Rei.
"Well last night I blacked out during dinner. Mamo-chan told me that I was out cold for about two or three hours, and I had this really weird dream."
"Dream about what?"
"I can explain later, but can we maybe meet at your place? I think it has something to do with Crystal Tokyo. We have a strong feeling over here that it's coming up quickly. I want to figure out if my dream meant anything. Neo-Queen Serenity ascended to the throne when she was twenty two right? Well I'm turning twenty one in June this year!"
"OH MY GOSH YOU'RE RIGHT!" She yelled so loudly that Usagi had to remove the phone from her ear. "That means it's coming before next June! Okay! You hang up then! I'm gonna call the girls and tell them to come over here A.S.A.P. What time were you thinking?"
"I don't know, maybe two?"
"Alright! I'll see you and Mamoru here at two then! I'll call the others now. What about the outers?"
"Nah, let's leave it at just the inners for now. But, then again, Setsuna may be able to help." She paused to think. "No, let's just leave it at inners for now. I just want to have sort of a brainstorming session you know? No enemies have even appeared, so why involve everyone?"
"Yeah, that's a good point." She admitted. "Alright then I'll call Mako, Mina, and Ami-chan and tell them to meet at the temple at two. I'll see you then Usagi!"
"Bye Rei! See you at two!" And with that she hung up the phone and put it back on the receiver.
"So what's the plan then?" Asked Mamoru peeking out the kitchen door with an icepack on his right cheek.
"We're all going to Rei's at two for a meeting. So, in other words, we should be leaving in an hour and a half." She smiled.
"Sounds good."
Mamoru was standing at the front door of the apartment with his winter clothes on waiting ever so patiently as his girlfriend ran around the house trying frantically to find her gloves and scarf.
"Did you check your drawers in the-" He was cut off by a yell.
"Found them!" She exclaimed rushing out of the bedroom. "They were in my top drawer in the dresser." She panted and puffed as she pulled on her fluffy black winter boots in the hallway, Mamoru holding her shoulders to keep her balanced. She then stood back up straight, wrapping her scarf around her neck and pulling on her gloves before grabbing her coat from the closet. Practically throwing it on and around her, she unlocked the door and walked into the corridor, Mamoru following close behind.
As she shuffled down the hallway to the elevator in her winter boots, he locked the door once again, and quickly jogged to catch up with her, going ahead and attacking the elevator's call button before she even had a chance to get there. The doors slid open instantly, allowing them to assume that the elevator had already been on their floor. The elevator wasn't the fastest means of transportation, but hey, it beat walking down the currently pitch black stairwell as the lights had burned out the previous day around suppertime.
"Ladies first." He ushered her, once again following close behind.
"Oh why thank you kind sir." She teased seductively, wrapping her arms around his neck and gave him a playful kiss as the doors shut behind them, getting a taste of his minty fresh toothpaste. Or was that his mouthwash?
"It's... no problem... milady." He murmured between kisses, becoming absolutely lost with her.
The elevator dinged and the doors slid open to the garage a second later, breaking them apart. The two slipped out of the elevator, his arm around her waist, her head on his left shoulder, and right arm slung around his back and onto his other shoulder. They stopped at his red sports car parked at the far end. Mamoru unlocked the doors allowing them to jump into the front seats. They then shut their doors, fastened their seatbelts, and set off for the Hikawa Shrine.
The air was chilly and the sky a deep grey as they stepped out of the car. Quickly shutting the doors and scurrying up the many steps to enter the warm temple. They reached the top of the steps and walked down the stone path towards the temple, sliding open the doors to the residence at the end.
"Rei, you there?" Piped the rabbit into hallway as she and Mamoru stepped inside, shutting the door behind them.
"Yes I'm here! So are the girls! They just arrived around five minutes ago." She replied peeking her head out of her bedroom two steps over.
They entered Rei's room and sat on the floor around the coffee table next to the other girls before they could crush them with questions.
"Hey girls! How's it going? I haven't seen you all in three days!" She complained. To be separated for more than two days at a time during regular circumstances, was very odd for these senshi.
"We're all fine," Mako started to reply.
"But what about you Usagi-chan? We're calling a senshi meeting for goodness sake! Tell us what happened! Enough chit chat!" Minako finished in place of her friend, causing Rei, Ami, and of course Mako to drop a sweat.
"Yes, Rei mentioned something about you mentioning something about Crystal Tokyo to her over the phone."
"That's right. Last night, I had a really strange dream."
"Or rather, you fainted during dinner and had a dream while you were out cold for around two hours." Mamoru corrected her.
"You blacked out for no reason at all?" Makoto questioned.
"That's right. We have no clue why though." She paused. "While I was out cold, I had a dream though, as I said before." All the girls leaned in to hear as she lowered her voice. "At first everything was black and I was falling really slowly. Then this really beautiful voice started singing, but the song was kind of sad and chilling. I am also one hundred percent certain that it was about my time on the moon and what led up to the cause of our deaths. It didn't go too far though into detail. After that, I stopped falling and was just sort of floating mid air, and a light appeared. Or was that when the voice began to sing? Wait no, it wasn't. Anyways, a light appeared around maybe a meter or two from my face and it morphed into what looked like Neo Queen Serenity from the future."
"Well, what happened?" Minako pressed.
"She started to speak to me. She told me that there's going to be an uprising. She said it won't seem like anything to pay attention to at first, but that things will get very bad. She also said that Earth will be on the verge of destruction and that there will be a battle unlike any other that we have faced. Meaning, something is going to make this one unique."
"Is that all she said?" The girls asked in unison.
"That's all." She shrugged.
"Rei, we thought you might be able to find something through a fire reading?" Mamoru stated.
"I can try, but I can't guarantee the results we might be looking for."
"Well it's worth a try either way." suggested Ami.
"Okay, all of you go wait for me by the fire and I'll be there in a minute." Rei suggested as she left the room and went the opposite way down the hall. The rest of the group stood up in the meantime, and made their way down the hall to where the fire was, taking seats on the floor by the far door.
"I wonder if Rei will be able to find out anything. I mean we don't know much to go off of." Usagi trailed.
"I'm sure she'll she something. Whether it's something minor or major, any lead right now will be good." Mamoru smiled back at her.
A few minutes later, Rei glided in, in her Miko priestess gown, and sat in front of the group and before the fire. The orangey glow reflected on her face, giving it a more dark and mysterious appearance. She closed her eyes and placed her palms together in front of her chest in a prayer position and quickly began to move her fingers in intricate ways while chanting an incantation.
"Rin Pyo To Sha Kai Chin Retsu Zai Zen! Show me what evil is soon to befall us!" She opened her eyes at this moment and concentrated on the flames. Nobody dared say a single word.
Images flashed before her eyes alone in the fire. First, she saw three people, a young boy, a middle aged man, and a woman. The woman was lying in bed with the other two staring at her from the bedside whilst boy and man seemed to be crying. The next image flashed in at that second, showing the building for the city's electrical control center. The next image was of a man being slowly tortured somehow, although strangely enough, nothing and no one was touching him. He began to cough up a substance and fell to the ground limp.
More shocking images flashed before the priestess's eyes; an image of an explosion and another image of a bloody scene, showing a dead family on the floor of their house face down with a dark shadow sneaking across the floor and over the bodies. Finally, the image of a black skull flared across the flames just before the fire went out, leaving the room in darkness.
Rei knowing her home like the back of her hand, stood up, walked to the door, and opened it, allowing some light to enter the now darkened room. Without a word, she motioned them to follow her back to her room down the hall where they could chat comfortably. So the group of five stood up and followed her back to her room without a second thought, seating themselves once again around the coffee table.
"So..." began Minako trying to break the silence. "Did you see anything?" she pried with a hopeful expression.
Everyone stared at Rei, waiting for her to begin. She took in a deep breath and spoke.
"Before any of you say anything, I want to make one thing clear." Everyone nodded and she continued. "I don't know what to make of what I saw, but I did see something. The images were actually fairly gruesome and shocking at parts." The silence continued and Rei proceeded.
"First, I saw a family, or rather, I suppose it was a family. There was woman in bed who appeared to be sick, with what appeared to be her husband and son perhaps by her bedside. The little boy was crying and probably around four years old. Then it changed to the city's electrical control center. It was just a view from the street though. Then, there was a man in a dark alley. He looked like he was being tortured by thin air, but collapsed on the ground after coughing up some stuff. He seemed to still be breathing however and his left arm was, I think, covered in blood." She squinted her eyes, trying to remember the rest. "I think the next thing was a large explosion and then the scene skipped to-" She paused, taking a breath. "It skipped to someone's living room at night. There were three people bloody and dead on the ground... and a person walked right over them. He seemed to be leaving the premises. After that, a black skull formed out of the scene and that's when the fire went out." She trailed off.
"This seems serious." said Ami. "If innocent people will be murdered, explosions, and torture is involved, we have to find out about this as soon as possible!"
"Yeah, no kidding." sighed Makoto.
"So what do you think this all means Rei?" questioned Usagi.
"I think we need to keep an eye out for anything going on at the electrical control center, any mysterious deaths or signs of torture in the news, explosions, and black skulls. There isn't really much else we can go off of at this time otherwise, is there?"
"No I suppose not." said Mamoru on behalf of the group.
Minako spoke up. "Do you suppose the ECC could be the enemy's hideout?"
"That's a good theory actually." considered Ami.
"Maybe we should investigate there before anything happens as a precaution?" suggested Usagi. "Those in favour?"
"Aye!" responded the rest of the group in unison.
"But they have top security, so we'll need to plan it through thoroughly. After all, we wouldn't want to get caught by an enemy before we even know what's happening." explained Minako.
"We wouldn't want to be caught under any circumstances Minako..." replied Makoto as a sweat dropped off everyone's head.
"Well, you all know what I'm trying to say." She huffed back.
"Well," Usagi began, "we need a plan so, what is it? We have to find out some background information first like where security is at what time. What type of security is there? We need a map of the building if possible. We need a lot of info before we can even plan to scope it out. We don't want to have to fight humans, who would be simply doing their job, which in a way is similar to ours: protecting."
"So, who should we put in charge of gathering that then?" inquired Minako.
"How about Luna and Artemis? They've almost always been able to find the information that we need at times like this." suggested Mamoru.
"Great idea Mamoru-san!" piped the girls.
"Speaking of which, where are Luna and Artemis Minako?" inquired the rabbit.
Minako began to laugh nervously. "Oh, ha-ha-ha, that's a funny story! You see, I was at the mall since I thought we were going shopping and when Rei called to let me know of the change of plans. I was really surprised and caught up about us calling a senshi meeting after so long that I forgot to uh... inform them." She explained sheepishly, bowing down her head with guilt.
The whole room face-palmed, dropping yet another sweat, while Minako continued to laugh and shake her hands nervously.
"Oh come on guys! It's not a big deal! I'll tell them all about it when I get back home okay! It's not the end of the world!"
"It technically could be if you forget to tell the cats every detail of the meeting." mused Makoto, teasing her a bit.
"For your own safety, I would try to remember." Usagi whispered into her ear laughing, causing her to gasp from the shock of the images now flashing through her mind. She grabbed the table firmly and hit her head, face down, from exasperation.
"I'll remember." She mumbled from beneath the mess of hair covering all sides of her face. Everyone laughed at the scene of a broken down Minako, for they had nailed her.
The girls continued to chat for around an hour when Rei left the room and came back with a tray of tea and snacks. Usagi eyed the cookies closely and gobbled most of them down before anyone else had a change. Typical bunny. Mamoru sat there quietly drinking his tea, as the good man he was, and said not a word as the girls chatted and chatted and gossiped while drinking their tea. Another hour later, Mamoru looked over at the clock to realize that it was five already. If they didn't head home now, they wouldn't get home by five thirty, meaning they wouldn't eat by six thirty, meaning they wouldn't be done eating at seven, and therefore would not have time to do something together before bed. Tomorrow he had a long and early shift at the hospital and needed to get to sleep early.
"I think it's time we hit the road. What do you think?" He whispered into Usagi's ear and she silently nodded back.
They stood up and the girls stopped talking looking up at them, wondering why they stood up so suddenly.
"Rei, thanks for your help. I'll keep my eyes on the news best I can, but we should really be going. We have to get home and cook supper, and Mamo-chan has to go to bed and wake up early for his shift at the hospital tomorrow."
"Oh okay, I'll see you out then!" Rei said with a knowing smile, standing up.
"I'll see you girls soon okay?" Usagi smiled at the group. "And Minako, don't forget about filling in the cats alright?" She added on with a wink. Minako choked on her left over tea that she had been sipping.
"Bye Usagi, Mamoru-san." replied Ami and Makoto.
"We'll see you soon!" smiled Makoto.
"Bye girls." waved Mamoru as they walked out behind Rei.
They stood outside the front of the temple in the chilly air and quickly said their goodbyes to the priestess. The poor girl had instantly started to shiver from the late January air going right through her very thin Miko gown and quickly rushed back inside to warm up. Usagi and Mamoru walked back down the longs steps, around the corner, and just a ways down the street to their car. Mamoru unlocked the doors allowing them to slide in once again and head home with the heater at full blast.
They arrived back at the apartment around forty five minutes later. They had been caught in heavy traffic due to school and work ending, causing their trip back home to double in length. The couple got out of the parked car in the building's garage and locked it up once again, walking back to the elevator.
Usagi pressed the button this time and they waited for what seemed like a century for it to come. Finally the doors slid open and they stepped inside, the doors once again closing after them. Usagi kissed him on the cheek and cuddled into his chest at the very slow elevator worked its way up. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her hair inhaling the wonderful scent of her shampoo.
The elevator had just passed the fourth floor but was not yet at the fifth, when bam, the lights went out and it stopped moving. Mamoru worried if the elevator was properly serviced as the building was quite a few years old. Usagi on the other hand was more worried about being trapped in the dark.
"Mamo-chan? Everything's gone black again... please tell me it's just me blacking out again and we're almost home." She shivered in his arms, clinging to him with her eyes closed.
"No Usako, I'm afraid we're stuck." he replied bitterly. "Maybe we'll be able to find a way out if we wait to let our eyes adjust to the dark alright? Just stay calm. I'm going to try to get us out of here okay?" He said trying to sooth her while he sat her down slowly on the floor. He moved over to the door, but couldn't see a crack of light from either floor.
"I guess the power's gone out." He sighed out loud to himself.
Usagi remained in the corner of the elevator, not saying a word, watching Mamoru's shadow by the door. He tugged and jerked at it shaking the whole elevator trying to pry the doors open, but to no luck. Instead, Usagi shivered in the corner fearing for her life every time she felt the compartment move.
Mamoru stood up trying to look around that dark space, but could see no other exit. At that second they both heard a loud creak followed by a low groaning. He slowly took a seat next to the terrified rabbit, holding her close to soothe her fear as they sat there in silence praying and hoping that the inevitable would not happen.
Unfortunately, their prayers were not heard as they heard another loud creak followed by a loud snap, sending them screaming holding onto each other for their dear lives as the doomed elevator plummeted downwards.
A/N: DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUH!
OH MY! WHAT WILL HAPPEN?
haha Don't worry, I'm trying to stick really close to the manga to make it as cannon as cannonly possible
(even though this is a fanfiction which technically makes that impossible... T_T)
R&R GUYS! =D 3
Hope to write and upload the next chapter soon!
(It may be a while though... My parents are starting to get mad at me for being on my computer a lot during the day rather than going outside even though its freezing for summer... those hypocrites...)