USAGI IS DEAD II DEAD IS USAGI
by DARK DAY FOR ANIME
Diclaimer - Sailormoon is owned by Takeuchi Naoko and Bandai, so
these characters really belong to them, except ones I made up. This
means I'm only using the Sailormoon characters for purposes benign.
I'm not a ripoff merchant like "Anya Romanov". ^_^
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S T A R T
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"Usagiiiiiiii....." She could hear the soft voice, whispering
across her dazed and confused mind. "Uuuuuusaaaaaaagiiiiiii...."
It was musical in its low tones.
She opened her eyes, and stared into her face.
"Ah, I see you're awake, now. That's good."
Usagi blinked. "Who... What is...."
""Hmm.... I could have predicted this conversation was going
to start that way. You asking who I am and all that. Well, I'm not
going to tell you, dearie. It just wouldn't be sporting."
----o
Wind raced across the tarmac as Makoto and Hotaru concluded
their little tale of how they came to be at this point in time, when
they obviously belonged somewhere else. Of course, Naiad also
belonged to another point in time, but that was beside the point, so
to speak....
"Hmmm...." Naiad put a hand to her chin. "So, the problem
runs that deep, does it?"
"Hmmm...." Makoto put a hand to her chin. "Yes it does."
Naiad sighed, dropping her hands to her side. "Why do you
mock me so? I am not your enemy."
Makoto and Hotaru looked at each other, a half-smile on
Makoto's face, a half frown on Hotaru's.
"Look...." Hotaru turned back to Naiad and stepped forward,
allowing her glaive to dissipate into its dimensional pocket. "The
last time we bumped into you, you were not entirely friendly...."
"I have not encountered this incarnation of your beings at any
previous stage." Naiad said, indignantly. "It is most unlikely
that I have committed this act."
"Oh, it was you alright." Makoto crossed her arms and turned
aside. "You told us to stop meddling with time. That what we were
doing was making things worse, whilst doing things to stuff the
situation up even further...."
"I do not believe this to be true...." Naiad strode forward,
past Hotaru and up to Makoto. The Jupiter senshi looked at her
warily. Naiad was one of the few women who could honestly be said
to be taller than Makoto, a physical presence that Makoto disliked
when encountering someone she didn't trust. "I would do nothing to
change the timelines. What is set in stone must remain that way....
Time paradoxes, by their very nature, cannot exist...."
"So what do you call that?" Makoto pointed at the bodies of
Sailormoon, Mars, Mercury and Jadeite. "I'd call that a monumental
stuff up in your theory."
"A time paradox cannot occur because it creates events that
cancel out the cause. Therefore, a time paradox cannot exist. This
reality is a splinter."
Makoto blinked, not comprehending. "A splinter?"
"Every fraction of a nanosecond, a splinter reality is
created. That is what the passages through the worlds of the dead
lead to.... Alternate realities are created that are not the core
reality. We exist as a part of the core reality. Every possibility
that is to exist happens to us...."
Makoto's head spun through all this metaphysical jargon.
Hotaru stepped up behind Naiad. "What you're saying is, it doesn't
matter if she goes through time, screwing around with events. These
events will never change the core events of time."
Naiad looked aside at her. "There is a limitation. That is
why the doors to the worlds of the dead must remain closed,
accessable to only a very few...."
"What is that limitation?"
"When the splinters involve major events in history, creating
larger divergents.... Then the splinters start to have splinters,
and so on and soforth.... The smaller the event creating the
splinter, then the more likely that that timeline shall fade back
into the core reality...."
"So we can only have so many major blots on the copybook, so
to speak?" Makoto chuckled. "Then we start to run out of space for
all the new realities created."
"Precisely."
"What would happen if too many major splinters are created?"
Hotaru asked, a dark thought coming to her mind.
"A mass annhialation.... The core timeline shall be
destroyed, time shall cease to exist.... What remains shall be a
jumble of confused and incomprehensible elements...."
"Chaos, in other words?"
"Indeed."
Hotaru and Makoto felt a cold chill run through them.
----o
"BAH!" Miste Kiele threw her hands in the air, striding
purposefully around her darkened bedroom. "How dare you invade my
private domain to address me with such lies."
"The truth....." Ami started, softly. "....Is sometimes hard
to accept."
"Accept? Accept!? I will not accept that I am to be partly
responsible for the downfall of the Kingdom." She turned on Ami and
stepped up to her. "So you're my future life, eh? I guess one can
go backwards in their development, after all...."
Ami smiled. "Your insults don't work on me, I'm afraid.
You're only berating someone who has learnt from your mistakes."
Miste sneered. "Do you really think I shall betray my
position? I am the Senshi of Mercury. I promise you, I take the
duties of that role very seriously."
"And they are?"
"To defend my Queen from attack, be they physical,
psychological or otherwise." Miste crossed her arms as Ami smiled
back at her.
"And who is your Queen?"
"There is no Queen, at present. The old Queen Serenity has
passed on.... Wait...." Miste looked at her intently.
"Yes, indeed. The new Queen is to be Tranquility, not the
Princess Serenity." Miste's face went dark, and she turned from
Ami, trying to hide that expression. Ami's smile also faded. "Now
let me ask you, Miste.... To whom do you hold your loyalties?"
"To the Queen, of course."
"Are you so sure?"
Miste did not answer.
----o
Hotaru stood, triumphantly, over the unconcious forms of the
anti-Usagi extremists as the crowd, standing around the scene
outside of the hospital, started to applaud. Hotaru put a hand
behind her head and giggled inanely.
"Arigato...." She felt embarassed to be the centre of
attention like this.
"Puuuuuu...." Said the small, white bunny senshi, sitting on
the bodies of the thugs, smiling. Hotaru turned to it, confounded
but amused by her saviour.
"Uh, thanks for your help.... Sailor PuPuPu....?"
"Pu puuuuu." Sailor PuPuPu waved one of her little paws at
Hotaru, then with a dramatic flourish, bowed to the crowd and leapt
high into the air. "Pu puuuuuuuuuuu........" It landed on the
building from which it had made its entrance and turned one last
time to the crowd.
"Three cheers for Sailor PuPuPu...." Hotaru heard someone say
as she watched Makoto being helped out of the crowd by a young
woman, with cat's ears and a tail, dressed in a semi-official police
uniform. "Hip hip...."
"HOORAY!" The crowd chanted.
"Hip hip...."
"HOORAY!"
As the crowd gave its last cheer, Sailor PuPuPu waved to her
adoring fans, and bounded dramatically into the darkness....
"What the fuck was that about?" Said Makoto when she reached
Hotaru. The dark-haired senshi shrugged.
"Buggered if I know, pal. Buggered if I know...."
----o
Usagi stared at the stranger. She was dressed in a singlet
and denim shorts, and wore her long, silver-white hair down, without
the odango affectations. So in some respects, this wasn't the same
person. However....
She tried to move, but found her arms had been tied to the
back of the chair in which she had been sitting. "Why have you tied
me like this? Who are you anyway?"
"Who am I...." The double lifted up her head, staring at the
ceiling of the dark, bare room they were in. "I really wish I knew.
I thought I was you, but it seems I made a mistake."
"How could you be me? I'm me. At least, I think I'm me. I
was me the last time I looked." Usagi's head began to spin.
"Enough of this.... Why have you tied me up like this?"
"Because I don't want you wandering about. It's not good
practice, you see, when you've kidnapped someone, to allow them to
chance an escape. Even, in your case, to go through the henshin
procedure, and become Eteranal Sailormoon, or whatever you like to
call yourself."
"Why have you kidnapped me?" Usagi was furious. Her double
shook her head and giggled, which faded into a cackle that caused a
chill to run down Usagi's spine.
"Oh, it's 'why' this and 'why' that, is it? You really are
the most unimaginative individual. I can barely believe I was
spawned from someone as overtly stupid as you."
"How dare you.... Just you WAIT!" Usagi started to thrash
about in her chair, causing it to topple sideways. She crashed to
the floor with a painful thump. For a few moments more, she was
flying amongst the stars. When she came to, the double's face was
in hers again. Not a pleasant sight from floor-level.
"What did you think you were going to achieve by that little
display of emotion? An easy escape?"
"You can't just call me stupid and get away with it...."
"But I did. It isn't any more likely that you're going to
thump me from where you're lying now than when you were sitting up."
"Oooooh! Just wait until I get my hands on you!"
"And you'll do what, eh?" She poked Usagi's nose with a
finger. "Bite my ankles, or something to that effect?"
"Bitch."
"Aww, now that's just TOO nasty. Wouldn't it be better if I
sat you up, like a good little girl?" Her double simpered. It made
Usagi feel sick.
"Why would I want any help from you? You've kidnapped me, for
whatever reason, and you've tied me up in this chair. Just what the
hell is going on, here?"
"Oh, so you'd prefer it if I left you on the floor? Have it
your own way, then." The double stood and walked across the floor,
stopping at the far wall, chuckling. Usagi blinked in surprise.
"Hey, I didn't mean it that way. You can't leave me on the
floor...." The double ignored her. "Hey! Please, I can't stay
like this.... I get funny dizzy spells.... Hoi!"
"You should have thought of that before you dissed me, bitch.
Now you're stuck down there. What are you going to do about it?"
----o
"Your allegiances have always.... ALWAYS... been to Serenity.
You allowed yourself to get close to the girl. You NEVER allow
yourself to get close to anyone, and yet, with Serenity, you found
a power of will you could not ignore. And so, to find that she is
not to be Queen must have come as a monumental shock to you."
"My duty is to my Queen." Miste's response to Ami's statement
carried an annoyed tone. Ami paused for a few moments, allowing the
words to sink into Miste's mind.
"So why are you leaving the Palace to take up the position of
Serenity's advisor in her new role as a colonial Governess?"
"Because I follow my heart. My heart tells me that I shall
find more joy in life as Serenity's advisor than to be couped up
here in the Palace."
"Yes, the Palace does have an awfully anaemic atmosphere.
However, I wonder if that statement really rings true...."
"Are you suggesting that I am lying?" Miste turned on Ami.
"I don't really believe, for one moment, that someone with the
political drive that you have had in your time is willing to give
everything away because of an attack of the warm fuzzies." Ami
almost laughed at Miste's expression.
"What do you mean, 'warm fuzzies'?" Miste asked, slowly.
"I mean, you are a puppeteer. You're more at home
manipulating people than making yourself feel good by doing
charitable works."
"I beg to differ. I am the convenor and patron of many of the
Kingdom's charities."
"Well bully for you.... I'm sure everyone thinks of you as a
warm and cuddly individual. It doesn't change the fact that, after
a week of the fresh air around Garnia, you'll be itching to chop
some tall poppy down. You might even take to lynching the poor and
stealing candy from babies to get your kicks."
"That does it. I don't have to listen to this from you."
Miste ranged up on Ami, threateningly.
"Remember who I am, Miste? I am your future life. I have
learnt from the mistakes YOU made." Ami prodded Miste in the chest,
displaying absolutely no fear of her. Miste was taken aback by
Ami's brazen attitude.
There certainly were aspects of her that had survived her
passing, that was for sure.
----o
Makoto and Hotaru sat quietly in one of the offices at the
hospital. CereCere rubbed Makoto's back, trying to relax the pent-
up frustrations of the tall woman.
"Dammit!" Makoto punched a fist into her other hand. "Where
in Kami's name did they get themselves a rubicon. I thought the
last one of those was dispensed with when we raided Rubi's shrine
fortress...."
Natsagi, the young policewoman who had attended the scene,
leant against the wall beside the door, looking out as hospital
workers cleared away the damage from the attack by the Usagi
extremists. "Did you really think you were going to be able to rid
yourselves of the problem by ridding yourselves of all the rubicons
that had been constructed?" She sniffed and pawed at her hair.
Makoto stared at her as she became distracted and started licking
herself. "Nyaa... Nyaa..."
"Well, she is a cat...." Hotaru sweatdropped.
"What she says is true, though." CereCere leant over Makoto's
shoulder. "We smashed the symptoms, but not the cause. We never
found the plans for the rubicon, itself."
Natsagi wiggled her ears and returned to the conversation.
"We've had some problem with criminals using the rubicon against
those of us who have magic powers. So far, none of us have been
able to find who is constructing them...."
"Most likely not in this town." Hotaru nodded.
"If it had been in this town, we'd have caught them by now."
Natsagi screwed up her nose in a kawaii fashion. "Anyway, now that
my people have the identities of the individuals who attacked this
hospital, we'll be able to track down where they got their hands on
the rubicon...."
"I certainly hope so." Hotaru looked at the floor.
At that moment, Usako and Umi appeared in teh doorway. Umi
had a smile on her face as wide as the Grand Canyon, as she carried
a small, white bundle into the room. "Hey guys, look what I found
while we were hiding...."
Everyone in the room looked up. In Umi's arms sat a small
bunny thing. For a moment, both Hotaru and Makoto blinked.
"Puuu...." Said the bunny. Umi hugged the bunny tightly.
"Isn't she just the cutest thing you've ever seen? I've
called her Mokosagi." Umi pointed to the small tuft of gold hair
sitting on top of the bunny's head. "I think she's another Usagi
clone. She certainly seems to like the name. Don't you, Mokosagi?"
"Puuu..." Mokosagi nodded in agreement.
Hotaru was the first to speak. "It couldn't be...."
Makoto was next. "It has to be...."
They both stared at each other, then shook their heads.
"Nahhh... It couldn't be that obvious." Hotaru shrugged.
"Puuu...." Mokosagi said, with her perpetual smile.
----o
Swing, slice....
Usagi opened her eyes.
Swing, slice....
She looked up.
Swing, slice....
There was something swinging over her.
Swing, slice....
Attached to the ceiling.
Swing, slice....
It had a large blade on the end, making slashing movements
across her middle. She let out a gasp, and could hear laughter from
all around.
Swing, slice....
She tried to move away, but found she had been tied down.
Swing, slice....
She was tied down to a pool table. She turned aside, and saw
all of the members of the Hotel's Activities Room watching her,
drooling. Even the monitor was standing there, taking bets on how
long she would last before she finally broke....
Swing, slice....
That might not be very long, at the rate the blade was being
lowered.... She wanted her teddy, right here, right now....
Swing, slice....
....And slowly, her tenuous hold on reality started to slip.
Swing, slice....
She felt the urge to scream.
Swing, slice....
And then there were explosions. Other people began to scream
for her as she felt blood splatter over her body. At first, she
thought she'd been struck by the swinging blade, and closed her eyes
to endure the pain in her final moments. But there was no pain,
What there was, following the fading screams and explosions, was a
few moments of silence, where she felt her bonds being relaxed.
She opened her eyes, to see the Security Guard, leering over
her. She sat up quickly, almost banging their heads together,
holding her hands over body, as if she were naked.
"What is...." She looked at him for a few moments, and
realised he wasn't alone. There were five other Security Guards
with him, carting away the bodies of the Activities Room residents.
She almost fainted. He chuckled.
"I told you not to get involved in their little games." He
shrugged and turned away. Usagi climbed off the pool table and
slided around to the opposite side. She put her poot into
something, and realised it was the monitor's shattered head. She
screwed up her face as she removed her foot and shook it with
disgust.
"I didn't try to get involved. I didn't really have any
choice in the matter." She started to pick her way towards the rear
door of the large room. The Security Guard half-looked at her.
"At least you didn't use the lifts, like I told you to."
"Never use the lifts. Right. Thanks for reminding me." She
turned and ran around the swimming pool, almost slipping on the wet
surface surrounding it, and made her way through the rear door....
Which was rather painful, since she didn't have an opportunity to
open it first. The Security Guard winced, then patted his gun.
"Don't worry.... We'll have her down to you in no time, my
master." He smiled.
----o
Usagi growled and started thrashing about. "I'll get you!
I'll get you for this!"
"Why?" The double turned and looked down at Usagi, her face
a softened mask. Usagi stopped and frowned at her. She just
couldn't work this girl out.
"Umm.... About sitting me up again...."
"Say please." The double smiled. Usagi clenched her teeth.
"Puhleeeeeeze...." Oh, how she hated saying that. The double
smiled and stepped over to her. With a grunt, the double had
righted Usagi and the chair. She stood back, patting Usagi on the
head.
"See, that wasn't too hard, was it?"
Usagi fumed, then feigned a friendlier expression. "So, umm,
can you puhleeeeeeeeze tell me who you are, and what is going on,
here?"
The double smiled sweetly. "Of course I will. Niceness
begets niceness, you know." She stepped back and leaned on the
wall. "You see, I've saved you from being killed."
"Killed? Me?" Usagi sweatdropped. "Who would want to kill
me?" The double shrugged.
"Your friends, for one thing, although I dare suggest they
aren't feeling this way because of anything they have control over."
"My friends? What do you mean, my friends?"
"Your senshi. Our senshi. Those traitors who have pretended
to be our senshi.... Whatever you want to call them...." The
double's face went dark. "I know, now, it wasn't their fault, but
how can I let it go? This anger...."
"I don't believe you...." Usagi said, eventually, after
boggling over this little piece of information. "They would never
do that to me..."
"Are you so blind as to not have seen the signs?" The double
spat, angrily, then put up her hands, calming herself. "Sorry,
sorry.... Yes, you are indeed blind enough not to have seen the
signs of their incipient betrayal.... You... We trusted them with
our lives. We loved them and thought they loved us back. But love
is such a tenuous emotion when it comes to the kind of psychological
manipulation that they have undergone...." She clenched her fists.
"Their minds have virtually been raped, by being greater than them,
and they don't even realise that this has happened...."
"So.... Why kidnap me like this? Why tie me up and all...."
"Because they will chase you here.... By removing you from
that stream of history, I have changed everything that was to
follow. Even my own creation. And yet, I still exist. What does
that say to the concept of the time paradox, eh? What does that say
about my existence? I'm strong enough.... POWERFUL enough... to
resist the pull of the paradox."
Usagi recoiled as her double leapt forward, slamming her hands
down on Usagi's shoulders. "I can do anything, because I've been
removed from the seed of my creation. I am now an individual
entity, with thoughts and feelings of my own, dragged from the
worlds of the dead by a power greater than you can conceive. Now I
shall change time, to create a universe where the destiny to which
you were born shall come to pass...."
Usagi was about to say something, when her double clamped her
lips over hers in a passionate kiss. Usagi couldn't fight her
strength, and felt sickened by the expression of lust, or love, or
whatever it was her double was trying to express. The double pulled
herself away, panting heavily, and gripped Usagi by the back of her
hair.
"Yes.... Together, we shall change HISTORY! Like it has
never been changed before...."
END OF PART 6
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S T O P
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Next Chapter - "A Shy City"
Version 1.0 - May 13th 1998
DDFA (The Right Honourable Mark A Page)
Chief Propoganda Officer, Keeper of the Tapes
and Co-Founder of the Saitou-chan Fan Club
ADELAIDE JAPANESE ANIMATION SOCIETY (AJAS)
http://adelaide.net.au/~nene/ajas.html