We do not own Sailor Moon or any of its characters.
This holiday tale that is our "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Stars" season movie, takes place in between Sailor Stars Episodes #187 Baseball "The Shining Power of a Star! ChibiChibi's Transformation" and #188 Plane ride "An Invitation to Terror! Usagi's Night Flight".
Story based on "Sailor Stars Merry Christmas" Poem, Prologue, & Song Album. Please watch for several scenes included in this story, based on artwork in the CD booklet and the Christmas songs sprinkled in as the Three Lights play and carols are sung by the five Inner Sailors on the CD. We wish you a Merry Christmas as we celebrate the gift of Jesus together in this four-part Christmas story, Sailor Moon style!
"Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon "
"Sailor Stars Merry Christmas!"
Chapter 2
"Shadows in the Snow"
"C'mon ChibiChibi-chan! Be a good little girl!" Usagi finds herself pleading to the small fuchsia creature less than two feet high, ChibiChibi always giving quite a struggle when it came to getting dressed.
"ChibiChibi!" She happily sings her own name without a care in the world, it seemed. as ChibiChibi whacks Usagi in the face with the Santa Claus shaped lollipop she had been sucking on. Sugar candy for breakfast at 8AM was not a good idea for little toddlers, but what did teenager Usagi know of such things?
"Oh, ChibiChibi-chan!" Usagi frustratingly sighs, finally able to pull on the cutest tiny ballet slippers Mom had gotten for "her youngest child" to wear this season.
Now onto the rest of you, squirmy bean! Usagi was just about to delve into the really hard part of dressing a bouncing pink ball of energy. "Now this goes over your head, ChibiChibi. I know you don't like that, but you've got to do it!" Usagi prepares the little red velvet dress to yank over ChibiChibi's head when a knock comes to the hotel room door. In a flash, Usagi's tiny subject squiggles away from her fate, ChibiChibi's poorly aligned undies sliding down as she hops up twice to turn the doorknob.
ChibiChibi had absolutely no fear of strangers, apparently.
"Good morn—huh?" Independent track and field runner and race car driver Haruka Tenou was not much on children. And the view of a half-dressed, google-eyed babe cooing at her feet, was not the most pleasant sight in the morning.
"Kitten? Are you…here?" Haruka dismisses the brainless look ChibiChibi was giggling up at her as the tall woman peeks inside the room for Usagi.
"I'll be right there!" Usagi quickly finishes pulling her own clothes on in the other room, sticking her head out the bedroom door.
"Look, Haruka—isn't she just the cutest? No, no, ChibiChibi, a little girl still needs her panties," Michiru, herself a softy when it came to those wide eyes and chubby cheeks, scoops up the tiny child. She too now struggles to dress the wriggling ChibiChibi as she sticks the baby up right in Haruka's face. "Isn't she—ugh—a darling?" Michiru coos as Haruka and ChibiChibi exchange blank looks.
"Right…uh…whatever, Michiru. You know I don't do babies." Haruka grimaces, beginning to check out the high class hotel room their little friend Usagi was staying in.
Michiru chuckles at her cousin's discomfort around little children as she follows Haruka into the room, closing the door behind them.
"See that, Michiru?" Haruka states simply, her observant eyes taking in the "gift" basket on the bed full of candies and cookies and Christmas treats. Her eyes slit as she reads the card attached, courtesy of a certain rock star's scrawled signature.
"I know, Haruka, I know," Michiru answers with a sigh, she too recognizing the danger signs in this forbidden relationship.
"Oh, Kitten—don't you look adorable this morning?" Being caught guilty fingering the card on the gift package from you-know-who, Haruka quickly smiles, making Usagi blush as if a man had just complimented her little pink minidress.
"Thank you, Haruka-san," Usagi smiles those big blue eyes up at her dashing older friend. "ChibiChibi-chan! Please be good for Michiru-san!" She scolds the child to stop wriggling enough for Michiru's efforts to dress her.
"Good morning, you two! Have some! Have some!" Usagi bounces in her own Christmas outfit to match ChibiChibi's, it all velvet fuchsia, making her appear like a girly elf. Haruka's defensive eyes can't help but change to a smile upon gazing at her treasured princess, she knowing from last night's little outburst she would have to deal with the pressing subject on her mind about prowling wolves more delicately. But 'delicate' was something Haruka Tenou wasn't accustomed to doing.
"About last night—" Haruka was one to always get straight to the point, it eating at her mind all night how she drove her princess to tears at the dance…All because of him.
"Last night? What happened last—? ChibiChibi-chan, please be good! Don't wiggle anymore!" Usagi goes to Michiru's aid and holds up ChibiChibi's tiny arms (boy, she's strong!) for Michiru to slide on ChibiChibi's dress, it proving to be an impossible task for one person. Little ChibiChibi knocks Usagi to the ground on her head. Even Michiru, by now flustered and red-cheeked, becomes exasperated with the bouncing jelly bean as well. ChibiChibi was about to best at the two adults attempts and sprint off to spread mischief, wearing only her underwear somewhere else.
"Child—CEASE." With a raised eyebrow and a few sharp words, low and commanding, Haruka does what Michiru and Usagi's gentle urgings and cooings could not. ChibiChibi, on the spot, drops Usagi's spaghetti strands she was hanging from in mid-motion, her eyes going wide as she looks up to the commanding figure standing in front of her.
"ChibiChibi?" She whispers her baby question as Michiru hurriedly takes the chance to shimmy the velvet frock over ChibiChibi's head.
"There, it's on." Michiru sighs in a huff, her hands on her hips, as Haruka helps Usagi up from her facedown splat on the floor.
"You are amazing, Haruka-san!" Usagi hops up with a smile, all pain of the emotional night before she caused well forgotten.
"I'm glad you still think so, my pretty Kitten," Haruka wished at this moment for Usagi to keep thinking so and believe in her judgment when it came to more important matters—
Like a certain dark-haired boy with those drop-dead good looks and dangerous come-hither blue eyes.
"Always, Haruka-san." Usagi gives her tall friend a great big Usagi-hug, she wanting this Christmas Eve—no matter how sad and lonely for her secretly inside—to be special with these beloveds she had around her.
"Good. Because I think you're an amazing person yourself." Haruka takes an unusually tender stance for her, hugging the innocent little princess to her chest protectively in a way she reserved only for one other precious maiden.
"Yes, you are, Princess," Said ocean 'maiden' Michiru smiles at the pair, placing an agreeing hand on Usagi's shoulder. "Please, always stay this way." the warm toasty feeling inside Michiru is threatened by the foreboding intuition she's been having of late, of something terrible going to happen to this young girl.
Broken wings, Michiru sees the same message in Haruka's eyes, both of them shaking their heads determinedly not to let that ever happen.
"Why wouldn't I?" Usagi's naiveté was another one of her great strengths, she smiling at the looks of concern on the two older Guardians' faces, her indomitable spirit not able to grasp the upcoming dangers they intimated.
"Of course." Haruka responds. Usagi feels her friend's strong grip tighten even a bit more around her, as if she were afraid to let go.
"Yes! And today's Christmas Eve, isn't it? Oh, Usagi-chan did the girls give you theirs to display on that sweet little tree of yours? Would it be too much for ours to join in the holiday fun?" Michiru, not wanting to depress further this girl hanging on the precipice of depression already—her empathic mind could easily pick that up, though she didn't pry—changes the subject with a bright smile. She whips out the little plushie dolls Makoto had just given them as they passed by in the hall
I think Makoto-chan made mine a bit too plump, hmm, Michiru vainly thinks critically of her own Santa suited plushy.
"Ooh, ChibiChibi!" Quiet up until this moment, the child comes to life at the revelation of a new dollie to play with, she grabbing it from Michiru's hand and making a run for it.
"ChibiChibi-chan! Wait! Don't knock the rest—" Usagi's scolding had not an ounce of the same command over ChibiChibi as Haruka had, the child bouncing up on the bed and hanging Michiru's plushie on the tree.
And subsequently knocks down the rest that were so painstakingly neat already hanging.
"—down. Oh well," Usagi sighs the rest of the warning. On her way to rehang the fallen ornaments for an on-the-verge-of-tears ChibiChibi, Usagi feels a strong hand press on her shoulder.
"Michiru and I have places to go. Tell the girls to have a 'Merry Christmas' for us, would you?" Haruka says looking down into Usagi's eyes.
The blonde girl's face drops.
"Aren't you guys gonna spend Christmas with us? Oh please, please, Haruka, stick around! You were going to come to my Grandma's, right?" Usagi pleads, seeing so little of these two, as they were always off and doing their own thing.
"Haruka, 'stick around' in one place for more than a day? Hardly likely," Michiru chuckles teasingly at her wild cousin's need to be free as the wind.
"Sorry, Bunhead, you heard the lady. We've got something to do," Haruka shrugs her shoulders in that conclusive way, Usagi knowing that there was no use arguing.
"Merry Christmas, Princess, ChibiChibi-chan." Michiru waves a fond farewell in the doorway.
"Merry Christmas, my little Kitten." Haruka lands a soft kiss on Usagi's forehead. "In whatever you're doing—remember us, all right?" And with that last bit of advice and a tightly squeezed hand, Haruka Tenou and her partner in life, Michiru Kaiou, were off again. Usagi watches the door close behind her two mysterious soldiers who always did what they pleased, with not a soul to answer to.
"Merry Christmas, you two." She whispers sadly, wishing everyone could be together at this special time. She didn't understand why they had to be apart…especially…especially…
…Mamo-chan…
"ChibiChibi!" Trying to be a helpful little sprout, ChibiChibi proves that good intent doesn't always cut the cheese. Her attempts to rehang all the "dollies" she knocked down, had now sent them all to the floor as a result, tree included, ChibiChibi herself too.
"Ohh! ChibiChibi-chan! Please behave! I'm never gonna get my breakfast!" Usagi races across the room to salvage what was left of their fallen fir friend. ChibiChibi, the biggest, cutest plushie of all, was tangled in the mini tree's branches, giggling hysterically at her own funny self.
"ChibiChibi?" And with the most innocent face, the sorry-eyed little pip-squeak offers Usagi the one plush toy she had gone tea over kettle to save from falling, the black haired, masked tuxedo wearing boy plush, with a cute face smiling as if he were telling Usagi to cheer up for this happy day coming.
You got it, Muffin. Usagi thinks with a nod and a deep breath.
"All right, ChibiChibi-chan! Let's get this tree back up! And then more yummy Christmas cookies for us both, okay?" She smiles, laughing with the little piece of fuchsia sunshine with her.
"It's better this way, isn't it, Haruka?" Michiru reiterates what she and Haruka had already discussed previously as the two skulk in the hallway's shadows.
"Sometimes the best way to keep a close eye is from a distance." Haruka says in her deep, thought provoking way.
"Yes." Michiru nods in agreement, the seriousness of the situation grave in her voice. But the Christmas spirit must hit her, too, her soft strains becoming teasing.
"I did enjoy the way you handled the child, Haruka. Is there some kind of motherly instinct inside you hold hidden from us all deep down, perhaps? Hmm?" Michiru teases in that French voice, her fingers toying at Haruka's stiffened neck. For she knew of her cousin's disdain for such normal, expected, and redundant things for women in general, such as children and motherhood—not needed, not wanted , and not even imagined for either of these soldiers' dutiful lives. Their recent brief contact with baby Hotaru was both enlightening and pleasant, but still the thought of the real thing—and everything that had to come preceding—didn't suit either of these two independent soldiers of the New Epic at all.
"Leave me alone, Michiru," Haruka snaps in an annoyed voice, her eyes trained on Usagi's door down the hall.
"Such a thing to say to me—of all people, Haruka—on Christmas Eve, too," Michiru's pouty whine was cut off by Haruka's sharply tensing body. Her eyes slit ablaze with anger in that way Michiru was almost…jealous… of…that worrying boy garnering so much of my Haruka's attentions of late…Sigh...
Michiru shrugs that jealousy off, thinking more of her sweet princess and the threat that her weakness for that boy may prove to that sweetness. Just as in the visions, Michiru's mind reels at this child of the moon's fateful destiny as she and Haruka slink into the shadows…
"Hey, Bunhead! You ready to go?" Seiya Kou had this certain way of making himself noisily known. Bellowing and banging on a girl's door was not the most gentlemanly thing at eight in the morning for a young man. But then again, Seiya was never much of a routine gentleman.
"Go where?! Do you have to shout so loud? You'll wake everyone up! What's with you?! Have you no manners?" All of a sudden ditzy Usagi becomes a strict majorette, finding it natural to reprimand him. Something about Seiya brought the bossy side out in her. She was usually a meek and sweet girl to most people, boys particularly. The only other man she ever considered a jerk and had such a need to yell back at was…
Usagi quickly dismisses the comparison, dragging Seiya by the arm into her hotel room.
"Sheesh. Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the hotel bed today." Seiya pouts as Usagi slams the door shut behind them. "Hey! ChibiChibi!" Seiya leans down, offering the little girl a candy cane from the basket on the bed.
"I did not! Civilized people just shouldn't shout in a public hallway!" Usagi sticks her all-knowing nose up in the air at her classmate with an advisory tone she was copying from her mom. She had heard it far too many times to count, in her own case.
"Who was shouting? Hey, Bunhead, you look cute this morning." Seiya, at first purses his lips in a defensive look, as just then he notices Usagi's indeed "cute" fuchsia Santa outfit.
"Uhh—don't change the subject, you!" Usagi feels her cheeks reddening under Seiya's intense gaze. Why do his eyes always look at me like that? She disguises her embarrassment at the outright compliment with crossed arms and a condescending attitude.
"All right." Seiya smiles, giving in to her cuteness. "What was the subject, anyway?" Seiya cocks his head as he arrogantly leans against the closed, glass sliding doors of the ritzy hotel room like he owned the place.
"Subject? Well…" Usagi puts her forefinger to her lips, she herself forgetting what she was ranting and raving about a moment ago.
"Then the subject is…I'm taking you out skiing today! It's all the rage here. Come on, put on some thick pants and a warm jacket and I'll show you how." Seiya boldly offers his coaching services—even though he and a ski pole had never been formally introduced—since he was so confident of his excelling abilities in every other sport.
"SKIING!" The chorus of four excited voices nearly knocks a Usagi about to protest off her rocker. She and Seiya turn to find four peeping girls eavesdropping on their conversation from the connecting hotel door to Usagi's room.
"Oh, Seiya-kun! Is that an open invitation to four other lovely ski bunnies, too?" Minako bats her eyelids at the taken aback rock idol, as she nearly swoons on his arm she races up and grabs.
"Those of us who know how to ski deserve to go more anyway." Rei poses in her already "ready-for-skiing" purple and white striped ski outfit as she considered herself an expert in the field, and Usagi far less than an amateur. More like a total klutz on her feet, never mind skis!
"Yeah, I'm rearing to brush up on my own skiing. It sure needs help." Makoto, on the other hand, was painfully honest about herself to own up to her less than spectacular ski legs.
"All right! Sounds great. You guys get changed and we'll meet you there! Just the five of you gals, right?" Seiya was unusually suspicious today, as his eyes dart into the adjoining room which the four girls just came from. His high spirits were tempered by the thought of a certain unwanted pair tagging along…
"Oh, you mean Haruka-san and Michi—" Minako innocently answers his danced around question.
"They've left already. Haruka-san said they had something to do, so…" Usagi sighs to her friends.
"Really?" Makoto asks, she for one enjoyed their times with the older Sailor Soldiers together.
"Oh, that's too bad." Ami frowns.
"Well!" However, Seiya seemed to be smiling brighter now, but Usagi didn't notice his obvious relief. "They'll be missing all the fun. Right, my ski pals?" He puts a relieved joyous arm around Rei & Ami's uncomfortable shoulders at his boldness.
"Yeah!" Minako sings out happily, already planning her Christmas Eve get-up.
"Yeah! Yeah!" ChibiChibi mimics Minako's "go-for-it" hand up in the air pose.
"Great! See you all there! Just gotta go see if Taiki managed to drag Yaten out of bed by now." With one final swipe at his absent and lazy "brother", energetic Seiya was off and running again, so full of life and vigor he almost takes the breath out of the group of teenage girls with his vivid zest.
"Seiya-kun's so much fun, isn't he?" Minako, another vivacious one, finds comradeship in the boy who just left, as she and the other girls hurriedly get changed.
"He's such a baby though." Rei says, with a nasty smirk, shaking off the pawing feeling of his chummy hand on her shoulder. She for one, had never fell for his famed charms. Seiya's immaturity was just not her style.
"Oh, Rei, that's mean to say on Christmas Eve. After all, he and Taiki-san were kind enough to offer to bring us all the way out here, and even pay for this entire hotel stay." Ami had a charitable heart, although she too held Seiya with some reserve, for Usagi's sake.
"Taiki-san? Hmmmm, Ami-chan?" Makoto giggles with a joke, knowing just which of the aforementioned Three Lights was Ami's personal fave, though the brainiac was rather competitive with him when it came to academic scores.
"Mako-chan. Don't." Ami blushes cutely into her fur-trimmed scarf she was wrapping around her ski suit.
"Like you don't have a major crush on Taiki too, Mako-chan." Rei teases with a pinch on her taller friend's red and green trimmed arm. It was Makoto's turn now to blush at the thought of the tall, mahogany red haired idol and her…dancing through life together…He's way dreamier than my last boyfriend. Sigh.
"Don't forget Yaten-kun! He's just too cute! Luna, you're so LUCKY to be able to SIT on his LAP and be petted by him all the time!" Minako sighs to Luna, as she pulls on her outfit's boots feeling a nose bleed coming on at the intimate fantasy for herself.
"Yes, I suppose he is cute." Luna says out loud of her favorite of the three boys, she weak against his beautiful minty green eyes.
"Luna?" Artemis' cry comes from around the corner, having been eavesdropping after Rei had shooed him away. Artemis, though in cat form here on Earth, was still a man, after all.
"Artemis! Are you spying on us, again!" Makoto yells at the tomcat's bad habit to peek through his kitty paws all the while they were changing.
"Me! Spying? No! I-AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! ChibiChibi-chan, don't do that! ChibiChib-chan, please STOP! That's my tail, not a jumping rope!" Artemis' wailing show that he was little muffin's obvious new fuzzy "play toy."
"Just ignore him. He gets like that." Minako waves away Artemis' cries for help. "Usagi-chan …Seiya-kun is SO nice to you." Minako fingers Usagi's special basket of Christmas goodies on the bed. I'm jealous Yaten-kun didn't send me up anything. Sniff Sniffle.
"Look at all this stuff!" She devours, without even asking of course, the great big giant Santa cookie in front. "This is so yummy! I'm glad he dotes on you." She decides with a fingered "V" at how good the cookie tasted.
"Dotes on me? What do you mean, Minako-chan? We're just friends." Usagi looks up from her quiet writing a letter to a certain-someone, to ask Minako with a defensive tone in her quavering voice.
"Uh-huh." Minako gets that all-knowing look as she continues to chomp the snacks for her breakfast.
"We are!" Standing up with hands on sassy hips, Usagi stands her ground, affirming her relationship with a dark-eyed Mr. Kou totally platonic.
"Yeah. Sure, sure. That's why he spoils you rotten. Because you're 'just friends'." Minako was enjoying this playful tease about her favorite subject—boys—though Rei, Makoto and Ami exchange worried looks on the delicate subject behind them.
"Yes, we are, Minako!" Usagi and Minako's argument could be heard all the way out in the hallway, down the hall and into the ski lodge's wide lobby.
"Sooooo. Where are they?" Usagi taps an impatient boot on the lodge's ski outlet, where she, Makoto, Ami and Rei were just standing around loitering like wallflowers, all suited up, ski poles ready, with no place to go. Right now, none of them minded the roadblock anymore, for this chance of adventure and romance at the famed Love Mountain ski slopes.
"We've been waiting twenty minutes out here in the cold! Geez! Where are those jerks?!" Rei was anxious to go speeding down the ski trails and strut her stuff. There are a lot of cute guys out there! She thinks as she and Ami survey the people coming down the mountain's path and going up in the motorized ski lift.
"Let's just go by ourselves without them." Rei wasn't one to just sit and wait as she leads the girls out to where the ski lift would carry them up.
"Yeah!" Usagi casts an eye around the lodge. "But I wonder where Minako-chan, Artemis and ChibiChibi-chan have disappeared to? She said they'd be right back. And Artemis is with them so…he'd at least remember, right?" Usagi says, more than slightly worried for her young charge. Minako was not the most suitable of baby-sitters, even in Usagi's immature eyes.
"Oh, that lazy cat wouldn't remember where his tail was if it wasn't attached." Luna was always tart about her adoring feline partner, especially the recent way he seemed to believe he owned her when a silver-haired idol was concerned.
"Don't worry, Usagi-chan. Let's just go have fun, okay? I'm sure they're fine." Makoto squeezes her friend's shoulders, helping her put on her skis as they step out onto the snow.
"Look at that tall hunk coming our way, girls! Wow! He's a great skier! Even better than the instructor inside!" Rei whispers femininely when a tall, helmeted skier leading in the front, who was coming towards them with perfect speed and impressive Olympic grace.
"Yes, he is very good." Ami was fond of anything to do with ice and snow. And though studying many ski manuals diligently, she knew it took more than book learning to master this difficult sport.
"Great! Great!" Usagi excitedly claps her gloved hands for his flawlessly fine, freestyle display.
"That guy behind him is pretty good too. He's a little shakier looking, though. Do you think they're together? Same kind of slick ski uniform…" Makoto observes that the almost a foot shorter, a little more slight and slender of body, and a bit more tentative on his skis person following behind the tall, confident one. He had form, too, but it wasn't quite so naturally athletic.
But at least he was still on his feet.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Which was more than what could be said for a third uniformed and fortunately helmeted skier just coming down the steep hill. The girls caught only a short glimpse of his fateful descent down the mountain of the careening winter sportsman. His high pitched, yet perfect C musically hit cry echoed across the otherwise still countryside, making it obvious now to Usagi and the other girls just who that flying down the ski slope at alarming speed, out-of-control person was.
"Seiya!" Usagi shrieks in fear for her friend, as he tumblesaulted past his two partners, who could do nothing other than pray for his safety as he rolled right past them like a human missile. Seiya's wild body begins rolling and rolling into a big, big, and bigger snowball. The sight would be comical, with only skinny arms, legs and flying ski poles sticking out, had the dangerously speeding human projectile not been coming right for them…
Meanwhile, close by, sliding slowly down the hill, also in the girls' direction, a Christmas sled makes its grand entrance.
"I'm a Sweetheart of Santa Claus!"
"That great big old Santa Claus"
"Presents he is bringing just for me now!"
"I'm a Sweetheart of Santa Claus…"
Minako, diva "Santa Claus-ed" all the way up to her fuzzy Santa hat, sat prettily in the midst of a load of pink-sacked treasures and gifts, as little ChibiChibi played the sleigh's driver.
Reigned out to a set of furry sled dogs, both ChibiChibi and Minako singing with glee, sleigh bells ringing, they were unable to hear the screams and squeals of one huge, deathly descending "avalanche" snowball named Seiya Kou.
Until it was too late.
"Watch out!" Makoto and Ami call out in unison to a waving Minako. Minako, not comprehending the danger from her vantage point, was just waving back, happy to be playing the "Sweetheart of Santa Claus", not seeing anything until it was just a moment too late.
CRASHHHHHHH!
The "Seiya" snowball comes to smashing halt—right into Minako's sleigh. Pink ribbons and gift packages fly everywhere as the loosened, barking sled dogs scatter all over the snowy fields. The sled was covered in snow, turned over into the banks, as the horrified girls rush over to help their fallen friends, Minako and ChibiChibi certain to be hurt—or worse—in a terrible crash like that…
"ChibiChibi-chan!" Usagi cries out for the sweet child who had become so dear to her, falling to her knees in the snow at the sled.
"Minako-chan!" Rei and Ami dig at the snow, all of them finding the upturned sled empty with zero clue as to their missing compatriots.
"Here I am! Taiki-san saved me. Isn't he a true hero? Studly, too." Minako's voice was full of utter "sighing-girl-in-love-adoration" for the fact Taiki Kou had rescued her like a knight n shining armor of old. She was being held as light as a feather in Taiki's strong arms, he having swooped in at the speed of a star's light to save this damsel in distress from an accident.
"ChibiChibi! ChibiChibi!" ChibiChibi also sings of her amazing rescue, via one grumpy Yaten Kou. He quickly extricates himself of the bothersome little creature, dumping her into Usagi's happy arms.
"Oh, thank goodness. That was close." Ami sighs in relief for her friends.
"Are you all unharmed? Forgive Seiya, he—" Taiki asks Minako as he gently puts her down, though she does her best to cling to his nice warm chest for as long as possible.
"Seiya!" Usagi shrieks in worry, just remembering his own danger. Racing to the clump of snow he was sticking out of, wild arms and legs spread about, ski poles jut out like some of kind large insect caught in a trap. "Seiya! Are you hurt?" Usagi digs him out frantically, soon finding his head hanging loosely. Praying his neck wasn't broken, she yanks off the helmet, holding his limp body in her arms tenderly.
"Is that you, Bunhead? I thought you were an angel." Seiya, only a bit dazed and delirious after such a fall, amazingly, was more putting on the "flirt", with his long lashed eyelids fluttering up at her in that wounded puppy look, seeking her gentle attentions.
"Heh, heh heh. Good thing you landed on your head, Seiya." Yaten cackles with an evil, knowing smile.
"Really, Seiya. In such a situation, you should have taken the instructor's warnings and started on the lower slopes." Taiki instinctively sensed Seiya was all right, and that his dreamy, dazed expression was only a "stage show" for their adoring girlish audience.
"Yeah, the kiddie run." Yaten smirks, unable to help himself from tormenting stupid Seiya as he dusts himself off from the wet snow marks that child had left on this model's otherwise pristine ski fashion. Instead the silver haired teen idol scoops up the warm kitty purring around his legs and nuzzles a much preferable starstruck Luna to his cool cheek.
"Shut up, Yaten." Seiya turns from weak and wounded to vicious in a second, and gives Yaten a nasty look. Then he turns to everyone as he pleads his case. "I was pushed!" He exclaims.
"Uh huh." "Sure, you were." Makoto and Rei exchange smirks at the klutziest of the Three Lights.
"I was! I was shoved by someone!" Seiya exclaims profoundly. "I swear it!" He pledges over his crossed heart passionately.
"Uh-huh." Usagi, finding his limp body quite animated and vital again, just drops this wolf who cried wolf's head to the snow. Then she follows the others Taiki was leading into the lodge for a nice warm hot cocoa break after such a harrowing moment.
"HEY! I'm telling the truth, Bunhead!" Red in the face–and other places, too, after such a calamity fall—Seiya calls loudly after them, but the only one listening to him was one of the scattering sled dogs, giving him a big wet lick on the face. "Hey! Wait for me!" Seiya calls after them, sighing at his own unusually faulty sportsmanship when it came to the balance and control game of skiing. Well, I was pushed. I'm sure I was. And when I find the guy who did that…There'll be hell to pay…With a pout, Seiya refused to believe his overconfident self could less than excel at anything, and silently vows a threat to whoever had sent him on a de-sanctimonious descent. His sieve like mind forgets about all that soon though, as he chases the Bunhead headed girl he had just totally embarrassed himself in front of.
"Ugh…Did someone catch the name of that dogsled that hit me? Oof…guys? Anybody…?" A thin voice whispers up from where Seiya's ski boot nearly had clunked him in the kisser where the pure white cat laid stretch out unobserved in the white snow.
LICK!
That massively friendly sled dog giving yet another victim of the crash a bolstering 'kiss', poor Artemis was left behind again. With only the unhelpful aid of the marauding licking puppy who was indiscriminate apparently about cats, too, Artemis had to dig himself out of the sacks of presents still buried in the snow. After hitching a solitary ride on the pooch, the chilled to the bone, forgotten and dismayed white kitty skulks towards the lodge dejected. Luna didn't even come to ask about me. She doesn't care anymore. Not since that guy came to town…
And at the top of the steep snowy hillside, a dark haired woman of foreign descent—truly foreign to this planet—waits for the cloud to clear, and the shadowy form of a dark crow gazes down upon the ski lodge.
After a few morning treats—Taiki Kou was very kind and very generous to his friends—and a few cups of warm cocoa in their tummies, the girls were still determined to get out and ski, even after that poor morning showing. They were smart though, to take a less difficult run to start out with this time.
Undefeated by any dumb old sport, Seiya was rearing and ready to go tackle that mountain like a true fighter along with the girls. Gracious Taiki and a grumpy Yaten accompany him there to make sure their energetic Three Lights' lead singer didn't kill himself this time. Taiki was glad they were headed to the lesser slope course, even though he himself could master even the toughest slopes, though Yaten sighed at the thought of spending the whole morning with these noisy girls in the cold. But what could he do?
Although, skiing was just not her thing. Usagi discovers the sad fact when she finds herself once again lagging behind the others, in the company of her other fellow amateur skier, though Seiya still wouldn't admit that what happened before was anything more than a purposeful sabotage.
"Wanna take a ride on that? Looks like fun." Nonetheless, Seiya was seeking adventure, though Usagi was a little less bold as she looked up with frightened eyes at the "Big Ski Lift". It was named correctly, for Usagi had never seen before a machine that size.
"No." Usagi answers honestly, shaking her doubtful head. Mouth hanging open little ChibiChibi was in her arms, mimicking the same grave face and negative head shake.
"Good. Let's go." As usual ignoring her words, Seiya grabs Usagi's arm anyway, as she and ChibiChibi were physically dragged along by the tenacious boy.
"Don't you ever listen to anyone?" She yells out to him, her arm being yanked out of its socket almost by Saye's indefatigable zest.
"Huh?" Cementing her words, Seiya calls back over the noise of the huge ride, which was no more than an oversized ski lift. It was an attraction here only due to the large amount of couples wanting to have some "private" time alone here at the skiing mountain's Love Resort. But it made it hard for them to hear each other.
"Seiya, maybe I shouldn't…go up there…with you." Usagi spies the other occupants of the descending car, where a man and a woman were inside still, kissing. The two people going into the car next to them were also an obvious couple with all that hand holding and whispering sweet nothings in each other's ears. Mamo-chan…Did we used to be like that? Right now, for some reason, I can't remember… Usagi looks confused into Seiya's deep blue eyes.
"Why not? We're friends, aren't we? Besides, I think ChibiChibi-chan really wants to go. Don't you, ChibiChibi-chan?" He asks, with such a warm, friendly, dazzling star shine smile that even ChibiChibi was caught up in it. Then, dispelling all her fears, she becomes entranced by the balloons that one lady coming out of a car behind them held. In her little mind, there was some big, bright balloon world way up there, where the cars disappeared into the cloudy mists.
"ChibiChibi!" She nods in excitement, jumping up and down, her excitement to go up where the balloons magically appeared.
"See? Come on, Bunhead. It'll be fun for the three of us." Seiya takes her hand, more gingerly, and Usagi feels a genuine tenderness in his softening voice.
"All right." She smiles faintly, following Seiya into the ski lift cabin. The car suddenly jerks to a start, just as the door seals them in.
"Huh? Starting already? I thought we had another five minutes." Seiya checks his watch under his white-gloved hand. It matched his sporty red and white striped jumpsuit.
ChibiChibi's big curious eyes gaze out of the window…up…up…up…
"Oh well." Seiya shrugs off the first signs of danger, thinking it must be his already frayed nerves. He always did feel…strange…when he was around this girl. He studies Usagi for a few seconds, the quiet silence falling over them inside the closed compartment reminded him of that first "date" they had gone on in an elevator ride lift similar to this one, when they two were completely alone.
When they had spoken of that boyfriend of hers who was so cold. That jerk's probably just leading you on, leaving you like this, for all these months.
Months in which Seiya Kou had come to know her and care for Usagi Tsukino…
"Hasn't he called you for Christmas, Bunhead?" Out of nowhere, Seiya can't help but delve into Usagi's private matters. He was concerned, more than he could logically explain, now that he had come to care for someone like this. He wished he could solve all her sorrows and end the cause of those sad eyes she was staring out the window with, into the bleak whiteness of the hillside, when she was a girl who had so much life and joy in her to offer.
Sadly, Usagi shakes her head, not meeting his quizzical eyes. Mamo-chan was the exact subject on her depressed mind, Seiya had picked that up.
His usually jovial face turns angry at the thought of some man ever hurting his Bunhead like this. So much so I can see the tears in her eyes when this is supposed to be a happy time…Damn fool!
His mind curses that Mamoru of hers for so heartlessly tossing aside this sweet creature and leaving her here all alone to spend Christmas without a boyfriend…Something he would never do to the person he loved…I wouldn't. You'd never be able to get rid of me!… Seiya's own beleaguered mind tries to emotionally imagine away all of his own serious problem— his mission that brought him to this earth—instead, trying to think of some way to ease this girl's pain right now…
…There's so much I want to tell you. If only I could take you away with me...I can make you smile all the time and you will forget all about this jerk who caused you to cry...
"Oh." Usagi looks up in surprise to find Seiya had moved from his seat across from her to sit right beside her. Both his hands, with gloves removed, clasp tightly around her trembling ones with serious, intense eyes.
"Look. I can't stand seeing you sad like this. You're so good and pure…like a piece of sunshine, you know that? I want to see your shining smile again." Lifting her chin with tender fingers, Seiya encourages that smile with a bright one of his own into Usagi's shaking eyes.
But her tears remained. "That man you're waiting for…forget about him! You're way too good for him, you hear that? You're way too good for any of us…but…" Seiya, tender words hard to say for this man of action and passion, tries to gather up everything he wanted to tell her. He wanted this to be a happy Christmas Eve for her.
Maybe even a happier one for him too, if he could just tell her all he thought…all he felt…all he was…
…She has to know the whole truth…that's the only way…
"No, no, I'm not. I'm not good at all. If I was, I could be stronger. But I'm so weak." The tear that falls from her eye breaks his heart as he wraps an arm around her.
"You're not weak. Look at me, I'm the weak one. I've got so much to tell you trapped inside this body, this heart... But I just can't seem to find the guts to just spit it out—" Seiya was just that close to telling her everything.
Everything. Their mission as that started as celestial powered female Sailor Starlights, until their shooting stars fell to Earth and transmuted the three to men; their secret lives as singing idols 'Three Lights' by day who transform by night to stop the dangerous Farces unleashed on the innocent public in a hunt for true 'star seeds'; their desperate search for their missing Princess and the fierce fight with Galaxia that started it all, bringing the three of them across the cosmos to this green planet to find one and stop the othet…and, most of all, how he felt now that he had the heart of a boy beating in Star Fighter's passionate chest…
At this ephemeral moment, this special star of a young man really felt the need to divulge all this, when suddenly their car was rocked by an unknown massive blast of energy.
SCCRREEECCHHH!
Metal screeches as it plunges from way up in the sky towards the snow capped ground below…
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"CHIBICHIBI!"
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Three screams plunge to the snow covered valley below, echoing off the mountain, and the resulting crashing ski car tumbles over and over in a horrific scene that would have surely ended in tragedy—
If not for an extra helping hand…
"Wasn't that playing it a bit close, Siren?! Did you want to kill your target without seeing if she holds a true Star Seed yet? You can't take it from her if she's dead already." Sailor Lead Crow's angry and exasperated voice demanded an answer from her rivalrous partner whose "tidal wave" had severed the single ski car's support wire and knocked the metal transport from the sky, without a thought for the intended target on the inside.
"Oh, Crow I wasn't worried at all. I knew you'd slow its fall. It's because you had rice cakes this morning." Sailor Aluminum Siren sings out in her singsong fashion, as her spacey face turns into one ditzy smile, for Crow to huff at her with a shaking head.
"What do rice cakes have to do with anything!?" Lead Crow exacerbates, waving her dark-skinned arms up and down at Siren's ditzy features.
"Well, my mummy said that rice cakes are very good for you. 'They'll make you alert and strong and happy'." Siren often recited her mother's teachings, still of a little girl's mind it seemed. And from these sayings, Crow was certain this oft-spoken mother of hers was every bit the ditz as her daughter now was. Sigh.
"Sometimes I wonder how you became my finest rival, Siren. Really I do." Crow shakes her head as she begins tromping through the snow towards the fallen ski car that still hopefully held the intended target yet alive within.
"Oh, thank you so much, Crow! You're so nice to me, aren't you? Oh, dear! My stockings are becoming...soggy? What will I do?" Siren's floating mind misunderstood, as usual, Crow's sarcastic swipe as a compliment. Now, drifting to complaints of snow and cold weather and her frozen feet, they stalk side by side towards the crashed compartment that was half buried in the snowed in valley below.
Mamo-chan…I'm so cold…hold me tighter…Usagi's fuzzy mind comes to in a blur. The feel of her Mamoru's warm arms around her was slowly bringing her back to reality, she wishing she didn't have to wake up and leave his embrace a moment before she realizes—
It was not Mamo-chan's strong arms holding her so protective and tightly. That's not his scent…It's someone else's…But does it feel that wrong…?
"Seiya?" Usagi whispers, the utter silence around her scaring her into a fearful whisper into the ear of the young man who was protectively holding her to his chest.
"Ugh….Bunhead?…ungh….." Seiya ignores the multiple deep cuts, scrapes and scratches on his bruised back as his body had taken the brunt of the impact, when quickly, in a split second, he had grabbed Usagi and ChibiChibi both up in his embrace as the ski car descended the chasm.
"Are you okay?" Danger all around, his senses flare, and Seiya withstands the pain as his inhuman strength easily overturns the bench pinning them down. He rights himself and Usagi up from the corner side window ceiling of the inverted ski car they were squished against.
"I'm fine! Are you—?!" As he lifted her, Usagi touches the bleeding through his no longer white, ripped up ski suit arm and gasps with concern, as Seiya grits his teeth with a manful smile.
"I'm all right, just a few scratches—Hey! Where's the jellybean—?! I'm sure I had her covered too whn we went down!" Seiya jumps up, despite the pain, his eyes frantically searching the vehicle for the vivid pink child his left arm without doubt had certainly snagged and pressed into Usagi prior to the crash.
"ChibiChibi-chan!" Usagi finishes his thought in panic, looking everywhere for the little girl she was certain was wrapped tight in their arms as the lift was falling. But where is she now?!
"She must've crawled through this hole while we were out! Look I can see her footprints in the snow moving away!" Seiya ducks down to where a small hole in the fallen side of the crushed car, just big enough for a ChibiChibi to slip through, was leading with the evidence of her departing little pawprints in the white snow.
"Oh, ChibiChibi! Get me outta here, Seiya! I've gotta find her! It's too cold for her to be out there alone!" Usagi cries out in maternal terror and worry, tugging at Seiya's poor arm. But the hole ChibiChibi had escaped from was far too small for either of them to pass through the twisted metal opening. And as Seiya soon discovers, the usually automated doors were still firmly shut in place, warped so badly that even a powerful, well exercised leg kick up could not budge the on the side metal doors.
But he wasn't the giving up type, Seiya athletically wedges himself up there in a long shot attempt at knocking the doors open, using all his impressive strength. But strangely this time, to no avail…
"Damn it! Why won't it budge?! Damn!" He swears, in total disbelief that, even injured, his incredible star might wasn't up to the task. Was there something other than earthly construction at work here…?!
Oh, ChibiChibi-chan! Wait for me! Meanwhile, Usagi clenches her fists in frantic worry for the missing child, looking out the shattered, but not pierced, window that was unfortunately made of that impermeable automotive Plexiglas sort of substance. But it, too, was oddly fused and just as tough to penetrate as the ski lift's metal, it seemed when angry Seiya gave it a determined, thrashing punch.
With frantic eyes, Usagi helplessly stares out, praying for ChibiChibi to come over the snow bank and be giggling at her silly "sister" stuck inside here 'til help arrived. But instead, Usagi sees someone else entirely approaching, someone totally unwelcome.
"Seiya! We gotta get out of here—now! Oh, no, ChibiChibi's all alone out there!" She starts ordering, whining and weeping simultaneously at the terrible predicament as the boy was resorting to kicks and punches until his hands were bleeding and bruised from all the screaming effort.
"Seiya! Someone's coming!" Usagi calls to him above his noisy thrashings trying to escape. But Usagi's panic now was doubled at the sight of those two awful, self-proclaimed 'sailors' who had attacked so many innocents of late.
"Oh, good! Hey! We're in here!" Unaware of their identities, he stops punching the walls and ceiling and starts to cry out in his loudest booming voice, Usagi's wild hand gestures to be quiet going disregarded. In his intense panting, Seiya was too relieved to notice. After all, he was just on the verge of revealing just who he was to Usagi, just seconds way from breaking his sworn secret so he could transform into Sailor Star Fighter and simply laser his way out of this tin can. But now, that wouldn't be necessary.
Right?
"Maybe they can get us out of here quick, so we can look for—" The dark navy blue ponytailed young man was glad that help had arrived in such a timely fashion already. He was usually the self-sufficient , arrogant type who didn't generally "need" help, but where a child's urgent safety in bitter weather was concerned, maybe a tiny bit of extra assistance wouldn't be such a bad idea.
"Oh, we'll get you out, all right, Handsome," Sailor Lead Crow cackles maniacally as she bursts open a hole in the doors with a powerful blast of dark twister energy. The impact rocks Seiya and Usagi back to the ceiling 'floor' of their entrapment, helplessly looking up to see Crow's rust colored mahogany and black, imposing form glaring down at them.
"Here's you chance now, Siren! I made it easy for you! Don't blow it! You can't miss! Like shooting fish in a barrel!" Crow calls out to her partner, feeling chivalrous enough to let Siren take the Star Seed to impress Galaxia-sama, even if I'm the one doing all the hard work!
"Oh, Crow-san! Please don't speak of fish that way! I know some of them and they're very gentle and friendly—" Siren's sweet whine is cut off even as she raises her golden bracelets to the air aimed at a wide open and wide-eyed Usagi below...
Just then a pair of strong hands from behind grabs one each of hers and Crow's legs, crashing their bodies together with great momentum force. And these two minions of Galaxia plummet backwards to the ground from atop the car in a heap.
"Who're you calling fish, Crow-face!? Bunhead, get outta here! Go find ChibiChibi fast! I'll take care of these freaks!" Athletically swinging himself up, bloodied arms and slashed back and all, Seiya Kou had seen more than his share of being able to pull himself out of scrapes. In the same action-reaction movement, he yanks Usagi out of the compartment as well through the blasted hole on the ski car's bottom/ top Crow had opened. He lowers Usagi to the ground without giving her a chance to say a word.
"But Seiya! They're too bad—!" Usagi knows just how powerful these two are, that it would take more than a crazy, brave boy to stand up to them—that a Sailor Soldier was needed to fight energy with energy. Usagi's palm clutches her transform brooch ever pinned close to her heart under that thick ski jacket.
"Hurry! Go! ChibiChibi needs you! She's just a little kid! Don't worry 'bout me, I'm a street fighter! I'LL BE FINE!" The desperate panic in Seiya's voice reminds Usagi of her own worry for the missing little girl she was in charge of keeping safe. Her decision was a hard one to make in the split second required.
His tone commanding, like he needed for her to go away, Usagi in that moment decides to do as told, find ChibiChibi as quick as she could and then return as Sailor Moon, and just pray that Seiya would still be okay by the time she got back. I can't waste another second!
"All right! I'll get help!" Usagi calls out as she runs as fast as her skinny legs would take her, not looking back once, her eyes glued to searching for a little fuchsia spot on the white horizon.
And the moment she's out of sight, Seiya Kou reaches inside his jacket pocket, a feathered emblem and star microphone headset about to appear in his hand.
"Don't move." Hot tempered Lead Crow growls up from the snowbank, about to show her wrath at being humiliatingly felled by a mere human, as she scrambles to her feet, raising a blasting hand towards the man now standing atop the fallen ski car.
"Crow-san? Excuse me, Crow-san? That's polite in this country, isn't it?" Siren dusts herself off from the snowbank she and Crow had been plunged into headfirst. "Crow-san?" Siren persistently tugs at Crow's arm.
"What now? I'm about to punish this human, Siren! What do you want!"? She screeches in anger.
"Crow-san, I think our target got away. Oh dear," Siren sighs, peering into the shattered glass window of the downed ski car to find Usagi missing. And she's Sailor Moon too, oh dear, what shall I do? Siren's brainless priorities didn't see too much of the importance of that fact, just another disappointing turn of events. Oh, and I did so want to be rid of Sailor Moon for you today, Madame Galaxia-sama. That would make you very happy, wouldn't it? Maybe then she'll even come to have a nice cup of tea with me, Siren's mind wanders.
"What!? Which direction did she go?!" Crow, on the other hand, knew exactly where priorities should lay, her anger at this human boy not as important as finding a true star seed. Though right now, Crow was beginning to doubt Siren's accuracy in that little girl.
She didn't seem anything special at all, and knowing Siren…For Crow herself was still unaware that this bunheaded blonde was Sailor Moon's alter ego, airhead Siren just not deeming it important enough to inform her yet.
"I am sorry, Crow-san, I wasn't looking. I lost my favorite seashell in the snow. Have you seen it?" Siren's eyes were busily scanning the ground, Crow grunting as she rolls her eyes at her.
"Where'd he go, now! Damn it, Siren! Why did you stop me?!" Crow angrily looks on top of the car, that bothersome dark haired boy now too disappearing.
"Crow-san, you don't have to swear. See, I found my choker—" Siren just clips her brooch back on when another clicking sound comes, like the snapping of fingers…
"Penetrating the evil darkness of night,"
"An air of freedom breaks through!"
"We are the three sacred shooting stars!"
"Sailor Star Fighter!"
"Sailor Star Maker!"
"Sailor Star Healer!"
"Sailor Starlights! Stage On!"
In that moment of Crow's inattention, on top of the fallen ski car in place of that navy blue curled young man were three Sailor Soldiers—those dark leather-clad pain in the blank, Sailor Starlights were standing there posing with a starfield sky behind them.
"STAR GENTLE UTERUS!" The Sailor of the Star Maker calls out, the acid broiling towards where Lead Crow and Aluminum Siren were standing.
"C'mon Siren! We've got another job to finish first!" Seeing no need to beat these three bugs into the ground—another time, definitely—Crow grabs Siren and the two of them speedily zap away into their shared telephone booth as Maker's acid attack sizzles the ground where they stood, leaving bare scorched earth in its wake.
"Fighter, are you—?" Maker turns to where Fighter was standing between them, both Maker and Healer seeing the accident in the distance and had quickly come as fast as possible to aid their fallen comrade.
"You heard them! They're after her!" Fighter ignores Maker's concern, already taking off in the direction Usagi Tsukino had disappeared into the snowcapped forest.
"All this trouble over that silly girl? Fighter, we're only looking for the Princess, remember?" Healer had a cold streak that made this star dislike humans naturally. The devoted starlight did not understand Fighter and Maker's desire to always help them.
"Silly girl?! You cold bast—" Star Fighter swears at Healer as he races off, with a temper to match those intense passions.
"Fighter's right, Healer. We have to protect the innocents of this world, no matter who they are. It's what the Princess would want, isn't it?" Maker spells it out in more logical terms to Healer, chasing after Fighter.
Oh well, Healer throws up his black-blue pleather gloved hands and sighs with a slight smirk, taking off after the other two.
"Come… Come to me… Almost here now…" A voice whistles through the cold air and a little girl pitter patters towards it, entranced by the high strains and musical lilt that was ringing through her tiny ears, bell-like and beckoning through the icy snows at the base of the mountain.
"ChibiChibi…?"
The word echoes inside the cavern opening that the voice had led this tiny child to.
"ChibiChibi?" The frightened question repeated on her cold lips, ChibiChibi almost turns and runs from the dark, dank, ice-filled cave, its dense eerieness, crooked hanging stalactites dripping with ice daggers. The utter silence within would be frightening to any child and this tiny angel of wonderment was no exception to that rule.
"Yes, child… Come… it has been a very long time… and I am lonely…" This high voice spins a sad tale, cooing invitingly. Sweet-hearted ChibiChibi had not an ounce of suspicion in her innocent body, nor a bone of reason within her it now seemed. Hearing only the sad forlorn voice and the loneliness in it, she shuffles slowly into the cavern—for little ChibiChibi didn't like for people to feel alone, even total strangers.
But today her childlike goodness was her downfall.
That tantalizing golden glow, dazzling as it was beautiful against the dank cavern wall, captivated ChibiChibi as it sparkled to her through the cave, the irresistible gleam of galactic proportions felt familiar to ChibiChibi's faintly aware mind and yet not quite right…
"So you have finally come to me… my Sister…" The golden woman ChibiChibi so good-naturedly waddled to changes the pasted inviting smile to a smirking ugly frown, frightening the little girl as the perfect gleaming white teeth become fanged and her golden beauty transforms to deathly black, her hair now a flaming shade of fire red.
"ChibiChibi!" The sense of fear now gripped her tiny form, and a squealing ChibiChibi turns to flee. But her little stout legs had not the speed they needed to escape a sharp, long-nailed hand.
"You cannot run from me! As clear as this cold ice you have ensnared me within, I can sense you inside this frail body. You can't hide from me anymore! You can no longer deny me my heritage!" The songstress' soft voice transforms into a screech from the depths of hell itself, as this shadowy form of a woman grasps hold of ChibiChibi's chubby arm, yanking the screaming child back ruthlessly.
"Millions of light years I have crossed in search of you. Ages of time have passed, without even a glimpse of light within me. All you have stolen, all you have taken from me, I will rip from you now, tear you apart as you have left me, this forgotten worthless wretch of a shadow. I have only sustained myself through sheer force of will.
For that was something you could not strip away from me, my Sister. You who always believed yourself so perfect and pure. You would not dare to face my ugliness… in your cruel vanity…
The eons of torment come spilling out in a barrage of threats and despised remembrances of a past unforgotten, a stripped life unforgiven, as the memories of what once was flashes mercilessly…
On the grassy knolls of an amber gold planet, the tall flowers sway to and fro on the breeze, their golden splendor almost masking the same hued long hair descending in endless waves from a young girl's head. She lies in the field basking in the sunlight, the sweet scent of the long sun-gold flowers surrounding her, and the soft winds touch her flawless cheek, her low melodic voice humming a tune to the bees, she without a care in the world.
"There you are, Galaxia! Did you think you could hide from me here?" A high voice cries out with the same inflections as the lower one humming. A bit annoyed that she was the dutiful one who was left with the meetings and royal household responsibilities, whilst her rebellious twin sister dawdles in the flower gardens.
"Of course not, Buttress! I was just admiring the golden blooms you had planted here and—" The beautiful, golden haired girl sits up with a smile warm for her beloved sister, her large eyes catching the sunlight in that dazzling way, glinting on her twin sister with overwhelming shine.
For twins they were, exact duplicates some would confuse the pair. Although, responsible Buttress piled her shocks of golden waves upon her head in an older, more serious, pinched look while carefree Galaxia let the waves roll down unchecked and flowing free. They were identical twins, save for their outlooks on life itself. Buttress saw life as an endless stream of things to do, for a Princess' tasks were never complete, duty by far the most important part of each day. Galaxia on the other hand, believed in the sheer joys of life. Running wild barefoot through the soft blades of grass; singing of dreams and romance to the night sky; imagining a sun that never set, reveling in its golden glow with not a thought on her mind but for what adventure she may tumble into next.
Shaking her head at her quixotic, headstrong twin sister, Buttress puts her hands on her angry hips.
"You leave me all the duties, Galaxia, while you're out here playing! Really!" Buttress huffs with a frown down at her carefree sibling.
Galaxia was usually full of endless apologies and excuses and yet this time—
"Well, why not Buttress? I can do what I want. You're just a worthless shadow of me. I am the favored child you know." Galaxia's sweetly innocent face turns nasty, Buttress taken aback by the sudden change of demeanor, as if a chaotic shadow had befell over Galaxia's lovely face.
But it was true. It was all true. Galaxia was mother's favorite. Galaxia was the princess everyone liked better. Galaxia had the beauty and charm while she, Buttress, only had the brains. And what good were they when a princess' duty was just to stand there and look pretty?
"Nobody knows of the true duties of a princess except for me." Buttress would repeat to her depraved mind over and over.
And though the two were born exact twins, Buttress always knew herself to be considered the lesser one. She was not as pretty or personable as her outgoing sister, she often feeling a mere shadow of Galaxia's golden glow.
Standing in the field, suddenly the summer scene turns into a dead and barren battlefield, their beautiful golden planet nearly obliterated to dust and lifelessness. The flowing summery frock Galaxia was wearing a moment before transforms into a battle uniform, the golden armored soldier outfit that was her inheritance as a soldier warrior queen—Sailor Galaxia. Her hair was now up and in that tight crown-like setting, her eyes slitted in a heartless smile. Galaxia raises her golden sword over Buttress' head, and mercilessly runs her sister through, with not a word nor explanation save for the whispered phrase in her ear which has haunted what was left of Buttress' soul for a millennia since that fateful day…
"For the greater purpose, Sister, let me take your soul…" And with those mysterious words echoing through her, Buttress lets herself once again slip into the shadow realm she was thrust into and in that moment, absorbed by. With a vow of revenge one-day upon she who had stolen who she was away, Buttress was determined to retrieve what she had lost, and that meant destroying Galaxia in the process, too.
"ChibiChibi!" Back in the cold present, the frantic screaming and squiggling of the little girl clenched tightly in her arms rings this dark Galaxia back to reality. Still, the words she had longed to say to her despised sister for countless tortured eons was yet hissing from Buttress' lips.
"Now Sister, allow me to take your soul—to oblivion!" The coal black mists surrounding Buttress swirl around her grasping hand, the sheer force within her shadow form now willing a blade of pure black evilness to materialize in her clenched fist.
"A sword for a sword." Buttress raises the weapon high above ChibiChibi's tiny body, pinning her against the cavern wall with one amazingly strong arm. All the screaming and squirming of ChibiChibi's small form would have not a hope of survival against such a crazed with anger foe...
But hope was always just around the corner.
"Put her down! ChibiChibi!" Usagi Hart felt herself somehow led to this particular cavern, she racing through the ice and snow at a frantic pace to find her little friend. And now she finds ChibiChibi in the clutches of this strange and dark monster reminding her of some eerie phantom from a horror movie that frightened her so as a child that she wanted to do nothing more than turn and run. But with that past fear came a future of responsibilities and a heart full of love and justice that could never see any of her beloveds in danger.
"Let her go, Monster!" And with a courage—not to mention some good aim that Luna's training had pounded into a clutzy girl—Usagi, the teenager who once thought herself too weak and clumsy for anything, grabs hold of a big rock from the cavern floor. She pretends it was her tiara, and zings it with as much precision and force as her thin arm could muster.
And it would have been a precise hit, one to chalk down in the record books hitting the monster plainly on the arm grasping ChibiChibi and yet—
The stone passes right through the creature of shadows.
"What? How can that be!?" Usagi gasps as the rock falls clattering to the ground several feet beyond the grasping monster.
"Ha Ha Ha! See, my Sister, there are some advantages to this decrepit form you have abandoned me to." Buttress cackles, not even seeming to even register the young girl begging for her to stop her deadly campaign.
"Why have you chosen this weakest of weak forms? Once again you have proven to me, Sister, that I possess far more of the intellect you always lacked." Absorbed in her self, Buttress does not appear to notice or care about Usagi's brave charging down upon her. For angelic Usagi would do anything to save another's life—even if it meant the cost of her own…
"NEPTUNE SUBMARINE REFLECTION!"
From somewhere behind Usagi, a flash of aqua light streams in, its sparkle gleams throughout the cavern as its glimmer strikes Buttress. She lurches back from it, dropping ChibiChibi to the ground.
"That energy! It is not of this world!" Buttress cries out, shrinking back deeper into the cave.
"Wherever evil presence makes itself known, my mirror of visions will expose it!"
Usagi turns to see two familiar figures standing back to back silhouetted against the blinding white snowscape behind them.
"Lured by the New Epic! Soldier of the deep waters! I am Sailor Neptune!
Indeed an elegant creature of beauty, the aqua skirted Sailor announces herself to the enemy.
"Likewise, Lured by the New Epic! Soldier of the wild winds! Sailor Uranus!
Neptune's partner calls out, her low voice resounding throughout the cavern.
Both were standing there threateningly, their arms crossed in a no-nonsense pose—well, almost.
"I hope you don't mind I took your intro, Uranus. But things are a little more interesting upside down sometimes, don't you think?" Neptune teases in an adult mood, sideways glance to Uranus.
"That's one word for it." Comes Uranus' amused reply with an embarrassed smirk as she raises her muscular arm to the sky.
"URANUS SPACE SWORD BLASTER!"
Uranus calls out, her invisible gleaming sword appearing in her hand, slicing a yellow blaze of light that zings across the dark cavern.
"ChibiChibi-chan, come here!" Usagi beckons to the scared child as Uranus' sword takes her unforgiving wind in the enemy's attention. ChibiChibi begins waddling to Usagi as fast as she could—
But it was not fast enough.
Though momentarily weakened by Neptune's Submarine Reflection, Buttress didn't travel light years and eons to be stopped so easily. She raises her own shadow sword, absorbing Uranus' lighted blade energy into its ebony.
"As you can see, light is so quickly drowned out by the darkness! I will have my revenge!" And with that, Buttress' witchlike hand clutches the thin air, and the cavern's shadows mimic her movements, coming to life to grab hold of the four females within it. The relentless shadows then drag ChibiChibi's little body back to Buttress. Then both disappear further back into the cave, leaving Usagi, Uranus and Neptune captured and helpless, shadows tearing at their bodies.
"ChibiChibi!" Usagi cries in panic as the child's whimpering could be heard moving further and further away.
"Dammit! Neptune, who is that!" Frustrated, Uranus swears, demanding the answer to her angry question as she struggles furiously with the shadows grasping her.
"A shadow creature filled with rage and vengeance. But what does she want with the child?" Neptune raises some frustrated questions of her own, not requiring much of her psychic sense to feel the palpable anger of the monster they had just faced.
"I don't know! Oh, ChibiChibi-chan!" Usagi closes her eyes, feeling that warmth that little girl added to hers, praying for it to always be with her.
"MOON ETERNAL POWER!-"
Usagi cries out, her hand clutching that winged brooch inside her jacket and holding onto it tightly despite the shadows grabbing at her from all directions and trying to snatch it away.
"-MAKE UP!"
White light, feathers aflutter and radiant shimmering transform this simple young girl known as Usagi Hart into the winged Soldier of Love and Justice called Sailor Moon.
Her sparkling Eternal form dazzles in the darkness, instantly dissolving the dark shadows holding her captive.
"SILVER MOON CRYSTAL POWER KISS!"
With one swipe of her powerful Moon Tiare, Eternal Sailor Moon sets Super Sailors Uranus and Neptune free of the shadows threatening to engulf them. All three, without a single word, then take off in the direction ChibiChibi was dragged to.
"Crow-san, Crow-san… Did you see it?" Sailor Aluminum Siren tugs at Lead Crow's red-orangy sleeves, pointing in the direction of the cavern that light just exploded from.
"Yes, I saw it, Siren. That was Eternal Sailor Moon's energy signal, wasn't it?" Crow asks her quick mind analyzing the energy flash.
"Hmm? Sailor Moon? What? Where?" Siren looks around confusedly around at the mention of the name getting her into so much bother.
"C'mon, Siren! Sailor Moon might already have stolen our star seed from that girl you targeted here! We can't let that happen!" Crow feared Madame Galaxia's wrath for her friend more than the loss of one more, no doubt dud, star seed.
"Yes, Crow-san but that would be very hard for her to do, I think, since Sailor Moon really is—" Siren's dawdling voice slowly was about to reveal something very important to Crow.
"—a truly difficult opponent to defeat, with all those supposed soldier friends she always has surrounding her! But if we destroy Sailor Moon this time perhaps Galaxia-sama will forgive your past failures. We'll definitely defeat her this time!" Crow talks over Siren's babbling with these determined assurances.
"Whatever you say, Crow-san," Siren shrugs as her rival drags her away towards the cave in question.
Three pairs of high-heeled Sailor Guardian feet echo as they pound through the cave, their eyes straining through the darkness in search of one tiny little girl and her evil monster of a captor.
"This creature! It's as if she is nothing more than a shadow, no soul to read!" The teal haired empathic Guardian vents her frustrated attempts to reach through the cave and find ChibiChibi or the monster. Touching a hand to her head, Neptune analyzes her brief psi scan on the shadow creature. But she comes up with no clear picture, just a faint distant impression that this monster was part of a far greater enemy, one she thought she once glimpsed in a nightmare as if through another's eyes.
Whatever that means, Michiru, take hold of yourself. Neptune chides her own wandering thoughts. But visions and thoughts meant everything to her. And beyond the nightmare, she often wondered of the dreamer.
"There!" Uranus' eagle eyes were first to spot the kidnapper and her prey. The evil woman, to Sailor Moon's horror was standing bent over ChibiChibi's held down form, the shadow sword in her hand readied to slice the child asunder.
And yet, the attacker seemed frozen in place, her eyes dilated and frightened—as if she had just seen a ghost. It was then that ChibiChibi seemed to explode in pink fuchsia beams of light.
"Buttress! Please remember me as I was! I am your sister! I only did what I had to because… because… I loved you then! As I still love you now! No matter what! That sweet longhaired Galaxia of 'erefore cries out to Buttress' tortured mind, the warmth her shadow heart had not glimpsed for eons taking her aback by the plea.
"Go away! Die! Leave me be! You can't fool me again!" Buttress' bloodshot eyes flash back to reality again, so filled with vengeance she prepares to go through with ChibiChibi's bitter, bloody end, despite the pleas.
"URANUS WORLD SHAKING!"
Super Sailor Uranus sends a blast of energy towards Buttress. The rise and fall of her earthquaking blast shaking the cavern's unsteady insides, stalactites falling like deadly spears around them. Buttress laughs at their sorry attempts, she putting up a shadow forcefield around herself.
"URANUS WORLD -"
Hot-tempered Uranus starts to repeat the attack that at least had disturbed the creature, determined to wipe that laugh off Buttress' ugly face.
"Do you wanna kill that kid!?" Another voice enters the cave from behind them, boldly grabbing Uranus' arm to stop her quaking attack and sending a more exacting one in Buttress' direction.
"STAR SERIOUS LASER!"
The precise laser beam cuts through Buttress' shadow field and knocks the sword from right her hand just as she was about to do ChibiChibi in. Sailor Star Maker, seizing Fighter's in, swoops down and grabs poor ChibiChibi in a flash, racing back with her before Buttress could do a thing.
"Come on! Let's get out of here! The cave's collapsing!" As Sailor Star Maker warns, Sailor Moon gratefully touches the cheek of the child held in Maker's arms, the two hustling ChibiChibi out to safety before the entire cave collapses. Buttress' anger was evident from the walls reverberating with shadows reaching out and trying to keep them in the disintegrating cavern.
"C'mon, let's go!" Fighter repeats to Uranus, but she seemed not that prepared to leave until she got one final shot at the evil demon sending those shadow minions after the rest of her team.
"Uranus! There's nothing more you can do here! Let's go!" Fighter reiterates, grabbing her arm again, ready to beat it after Star Healer and Neptune gad joined the others departing down the cavern corridor.
"Let GO of ME!" She bitingly yells at this leatherclad troublemaker, shaking him off her arm. "Why do you care about all this, anyway!? This is our affair, so stay out next time! It's NONE of YOUR concern!" Uranus berates right into Fighter's smug face. There was something about this mysterious new soldier from outside this galaxy, in particular, that so badly put her nerves on edge—and she didn't like it.
"Well, it looks like I care a little more than you! Didn't you think your earthquake might bring the house down, huh?" Star Fighter swipes at the tall, golden haired soldier as the crumbling rock ceiling was still shaky and crumbling over them.
"Shut Up! We didn't ask for your help!" Uranus stands toe to toe with Fighter, they still arguing even as rubble from the cavern ceiling starts falling all around them.
"You sure needed it!" Eyes flash in anger, neither seemed to notice that the world was coming down around them, no one ever quite maddening Uranus or Fighter as much as each other did.
"We could've handled it without you—!" Uranus was the most stubborn person alive—though Fighter here seemed in competition for that award, he not backing down either—even as dangerous rocks crash to the floor at their feet, blessedly just missing hitting the quickstepping, quarreling pair.
"Time to go, Uranus!" Interrupting the two fighters' feisty foxtrot, Super Sailor Neptune comes racing back in, sensing the argument her partner was having was not in any hurry to break up, which couldn't be said for the cave. So she knew it was necessary to whisk away her tall companion by the arm, leading an angered Uranus quickly away.
His damnably stubborn sparring partner's undeniable dazzle departed, frustrated Fighter takes off after the two heading back to the cave exit. Just in time, too, because that end of the cave totally collapses behind the three.
"STAR GENTLE UTERUS!"
Handing ChibiChibi to Eternal Sailor Moon for the pair to flee towards the entrance light, brave Maker fends off the attacking shadows crawling off the walls leeching towards them as they ran towards the cave entrance. Just then, an influx of Buttress' darkest shadows guarding the exit conflagrate, to not only block their exit, but tremble with the intention to crush whatever light had tried to step through its bleakness—
"STAR SENSITIVE INFERNO!"
Surprising his Star partners and Neptune and Uranus, too, after sending a massive, cold inferno of magnetic electricity to back up Maker's courageous acid attempts to eradicate the attacking shadows, generally recalcitrant Sailor Star Healer physically rolls across the ground when his heightened senses cried out. Surprising himself most of all, Healer rescues both that bothersome Eternal Sailor Moon and the whimpering child she had reclaimed, just in the nick of time before they tried to escape the collapsing tunnel that would've spelled their doom.
"Futile beings! You won't escape me! This is the end!"The creature's high shrill voice emanates from every shadow stalking the remains of the cavern. A sudden burst of the fearsome shadow's entire force disintegrates what was left of the supporting cavern walls, they all coming crashing down on the group of sailor soldiers.
Just when there was light at the end of the tunnel, it fades again from view in the silencing, smothering shadows…
