Version 1.1 - 20th Jul 1998
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USAGI IS DEAD II DEAD IS USAGI
by DARK DAY FOR ANIME
Disclaimer - 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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"This is it, folks! Over the top!"
Take a Long Line - The Angels<
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STRANGERS ON A TRAIN....
"The Evil from Beyond? Who is that?" Michiru frowned as she
looked from Usashin to Kaorusagi. She had met, briefly, with
Usashin, in the past, but couldn't quite remember where, and had had
very little to do with her.... It mostly puzzled her how similar
the young samurai woman appeared to Usagi.... Her Princess....
Michiru wondered where she might be, at this point in time.
She wondered if time, itself, was not leaping around, attacked by
the forces of.... The forces of....
She kept thinking of chaos, but every time the image entered
her mind, she would envisage the wraith-like image of the being that
went by that name.... Chaos.... Chaos.... Maybe THAT was the Evil
from Beyond that Usashin had mentioned. She puzzled over this.
Usashin studied Michiru's puzzled expression thoughtfully. "I
see.... So you have only just arrived here." Usashin had long
become used to 'recent' arrivals on Wyccfaer. Both she and
Kaorusagi had experienced the disorientation when they had, for no
logical reason, found themselves on the planet, in the middle of
nowhere.
It was a plain, northwest of the Wyccfaerie capital of Shy....
They were found wandering, lost and dazed by a Grimcrest farmer, who
had been sowing the latest crop of the bizarre vegetable, whose
origins were said to be somewhere in the polar regions of the planet
Kaa....
He had been understanding of their situation, and had taken
them in. he and his wife had fed them a meal of roast Azen and some
of the Grimcrest. Despite the dubiousness, on Usashin's part, of
the colour and appearance of the food, Kaorusagi wasted no time on
downing her serving and asking for seconds....
It was quite an amiable entrance to Wyccfaer, but they knew
that there had been some that were on the grim side of horrifying.
"You can say that, again. Do you have any idea as to how I
came to be on this planet. One moment I was.... Well, I was
something, somewhere.... Umm... The next I was waking up at a
railway station...." Michiru swallowed, her lack of experience with
the two Usagi clones making her question somewhat stilted in
execution.
Usashin nodded. "Hai. The emplacement of destiny. Your
death made you a toy for the energies that control the system of
Wyccfaer, and it is now using you as a warrior to defend itself
against the Evil." Yes, that should make everything clear to her,
Usashin mused. As clear as mud.
"I think I'm getting a headache." Michiru put her hand to her
head once more. Kaorusagi took her arm, showing concern.
"Are you sure you're alright. I can get the conductor to
break open the train's emergency medical cabinet."
"Not that kind of headache." Michiru did her best to smile at
the girl, rather embarrassed at her forthrightness. She turned her
attentions back on Usashin. "What was that you said about my death?
I'm not dead. You can see that as clear as day."
"Oh dear." Usashin shook her head.
"She has a lot to learn." Kaorusagi stood back, crossing her
arms and hmmmming in a thoughtful manner.
"What? What have I got to learn?" Michiru looked from one to
the next. Kaorusagi placed a hand on her shoulder.
"I'll let Usashin tell you everything. Meanwhile, I'm going
to try to find the food dispensing machines. I'm starving." And
with that, Kaorusagi brushed past Michiru with a grin on her face.
Michiru and Usashin watched her go, then Michiru turned back
a painfully nonplused expression on her face. Usashin sighed and
gestured to her cabin. "Care to join me in some idle banter, hmmm?"
The door on the opposite side of the corridor from Usashin and
Kaorusagi's cabin swung open, and a strange, effeminate being,
dressed in a long, flowing light green and gold cloak, with pale
skin, green feline eyes, elven ears and large, curving gold horns,
stared at them, crossly.
"Look, will you please be quiet? Some of us are trying to get
some sleep, here...." The being huffed and shut the door behind
them as they stepped back inside.
Michiru pointed at the door with a comical expression of shock
and surprise on her face. Usashin closed her eyes and shook her
head.
"Alien races, my dear.... There are quite a lot of them on
Wyccfaer. Something else I'm going to have to teach you about de
gozaru..."
----o
Part Nine
The Long and Twisting Road to a Shy City III
----o
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
Hotaru and Makoto fell through the portal, crying out aloud
their fear and shock, tears streaming from their eyes, and doing
their level best to control their bladders.... It would be an
embarrassing way to go if they were to wet themselves whilst falling
to their deaths....
Umi had only just introduced them to the small, white bunny
thing she had named Mokosagi, when one of the nurses at the hospice
they were visiting came screaming into the office, in which they had
been discussing recent events, involving an attack on the hospice by
anti-Usagi extremists.
The extremists had come prepared with a device, called a
Rubicon, thought to have been designed by Rubeus. The sole purpose
of this device was to cancel out senshi powers.... Possibly to aid
him in his revenge against them, no longer having the support of the
Black Moon Family behind him.
That revenge had failed, Rubeus dying at their hands.... And
the last of the Rubicons were placed into the care of Hotaru's
father, Tomoe Souichi, and the sole surviving Miko of the Moon
Kingdom, Arachne Cobiale, who had also gone by the name Arachne
Cervantes or Madame Scorpia.
So they had thought.... It had been their hope that no more
of the devices existed to plague them.... But this event had proved
it to be otherwise.... The extremists, more a group of thugs than
an organised militia, had obviously been given the Rubicon when
they'd taken them on.... Natsagi, the catgirl Usagi clone member of
the local police company, had told them that many of the devices had
been appearing in the hands of known criminals and terrorists.
Hotaru had speculated, before the interruption, that whomever
had created them did so with the sole purpose of taking them down,
and that those back in the growing township of Crystal Towers might
be threatened....
The nurse had been in a bad state, babbling something about a
large, swirling vortex appearing in one of the patients' rooms.
Naturally, being an officer of the law, and seeing dollar signs for
her dedication to duty, Natsagi went charging off to take a look,
quickly followed by Makoto, who never thought twice about things
when she went charging off somewhere at the merest hint of a
potential danger.... Hotaru growled in frustration.... It didn't
seem to matter what kind of beating Makoto received, like the one at
the hands of the extremist thugs, she had this innate desire to
receive more.... Maybe she was suicidal, something that Hotaru
could sympathise with.
With reluctance, Hotaru ordered CereCere to stand guard over
Usako and Umi whilst she did her best to stop the pair dropping
themselves into a pile of dung about the size of the World Trade
Center.... CereCere mumbled something about always having to stand
guard whilst others had all the fun, quickly silenced when Hotaru
shot her her best withering expression.
Next thing she knew, she was tumbling through the vortex,
having already seen Natsagi and Makoto being sucked up by the swirly
thing. Behind it, she was sure she had seen a face she
recognised.... That of the patient.... They hadn't seen her
before, when Usako had done her rounds.... But the person bore the
sharpest resemblance to.... With that short blue hair.... But the
woman was too old to be her. It HAD been several years since they
had seen her last, but still....
With a whoosh, Hotaru hit the ground at the other end of the
vortex with great speed, followed by Makoto, who, for some reason,
ended up doubling back in the vortex, and had finished up behind
her....
Hotaru muttered something about Makoto going on a diet, as she
watched hundreds of little chibi Saturns, holding chibi Silence
Glaives, dance around the carked form of Mistress Nine, singing
"Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead".... She began to wonder if she was
EVER going to get over that horrible little phase of her life, even
whilst lying on the ground in a daze.
As Makoto picked herself up off Hotaru's sprawled form, having
had something soft to lessen the impact of her fall, she rubbed her
head and stared around at the somewhat bleak and cold steppe-like
landscape they had found themselves.
At first, she thought it was her imagination, mixed in with
the disorientation of being thrown about by the force of the
vortex.... Whatever it was they had tumbled down. But as she
blinked to clear her eyes, she began to realise that what she was
seeing was real....
The horizon went on forever, or seemed to.... It disappeared
into a mist, leaving the effect of standing in a vast bowl, over
which hung the pale light of an orange sky, stars becoming
increasingly visible as the world's sun set slowly in the east.
"Kami shit." Makoto mumbled as Hotaru sat up, also taking in
the same scene with equal surprise.
"Where the hell are we?" Hotaru rubbed her forehead, then
looked upwards at the vortex, now disappearing into nothingness.
"It's closing!"
"What is?" Makoto blinked at her.
"The thing we fell through.... It's closing behind us!"
Hotaru pointed upwards, and Makoto followed the lead just in time to
see the vortex vanish.
"Kami shit!" She stood. "What the FUCK are we going to do,
now?" She rubbed her arms and did a little dance. Not exactly
dressed for the cold weather, she was beginning to feel the iciness
that blew through with the wind.
Hotaru got to her feet and put her hands on her hips. "Where
is Natsagi?"
"Who gives a toss about her.... I'm freakin' COLD." Makoto
looked at her, painfully. Hotaru sighed.
"Well, she could be anywhere. She might be in a worse-off
situation than we are." Hotaru had to admit to herself that it was,
indeed, frigid.
"Do you really believe that? If we don't find somewhere to
shelter, pretty soon, we're going to freeze to death." Makoto now
had her hands clasped around her upper arms, shivering
uncontrollably. Seeing her do this made Hotaru follow in sympathy.
"Well, can you see anywhere where we can shelter?" Hotaru
gestured around them, helplessly. Makoto closed her eyes and
chattered her teeth.
"No, all that is around us is a vast, flat, rolling valley,
covered in tufts of snow and grass, disappearing into the misty
distance. In short, we're fucked."
"We can try teleporting ourselves from here." Hotaru
suggested. Makoto sighed in exasperation.
"WHERE?" She opened her eyes and stared into Hotaru's. "We
don't know where the hell we are! If we do try a Sailor Teleport,
we might send ourselves further into the cold regions of... of
wherever it is we are." The wind blew again, and the both of them
felt a little more of their bodyheat being torn from them. Hotaru
swallowed, now thinking with some desperation.
"We could always try and teleport ourselves to where Natsagi
has found herself.... Or someone of similar familiarity. That's
often the way we've done it before."
"For one thing, we don't know if Natsagi is..." Makoto
gestured around her. "...Is wherever we are. Secondly...." Makoto
blinked for a moment, then frowned, looking over Hotaru's shoulder.
"What? What is it?" Hotaru quizzed. When Makoto didn't
respond, she, too, turned. What she saw made her shiver, and it
wasn't from the cold this time.
"Ah.... Atrenar Kesseile and Erebus Todhunter. What a
strange place for us to meet, wouldn't you agree?" The blue-haired
woman, dressed in the long, flowing blue dress stepped up to Makoto
and Hotaru from the point at which she had appeared. Neither knew
what to say to her. "What is wrong? You appear most disturbed to
bare witness to my strange arrival.... OH! Of course, you have
ceased to go by those names, is this not the truth? Now, what were
they, again?" The woman rubbed her chin, staring into space.
"I'm...." Hotaru began. "My name is.... Tomoe.... Hotaru.
And this girl with me, here, is...."
"Kino Makoto. Yes, of course. Now I remember. It's a damn
disgrace that I am so incapable of memorising something as simple as
a name.... But then, the manner in which I was told them was less
than ideal. Do you know what it is like to meet a future life in
the middle of the night, within your darkened bedroom? I must say,
I was most put out by the event."
"Ami?" Makoto swallowed, feeling tears coming to her eyes.
"Ami-chan.... Is it... is it really you?" She stepped forward, her
hands outstretched in a helpless, grasping manner, as if trying to
clutch at what she perceived to be the truth. The woman took a
breath.
"I'm sorry, Atrenar.... I mean, Mako... how is it said?
Mako...chan? Yes, I think that is it. Mako-chan. I am afraid I am
not the Ami you remember. My name is Miste Kiele. I am the former
life of Mizuno Ami. And I have been sent here, by her, to change
the horrible destiny into which we have all fallen...."
"What.... What do you mean?" Hotaru swallowed, not liking
the way this strange, alternate version of Ami looked at the two of
them. There was something slightly.... bent, for want of a better
term, about her manner.... As if she was being forced to act in a
way that was foreign to her.
"I think it best that we discuss this in the surroundings of a
warmer clime, don't you?" Miste smiled, then snapped her fingers.
The three of them vanished from sight.
Almost as soon as this had happened, another figure appeared
on the cold steppe plain. Naiad was glad for her thick, dark blue
miko robes as she felt the sharpness of the cold breeze. She was
also somewhat pissed off for having missed the trio.
"Damn.... How many times am I going to fail to bump into
them? This is starting to get monotonous." She closed her eyes,
clenching her teeth. "You must be laughing at me, you freak of a
creature.... But I'll stop you, yet...." She turned her head and
looked into the sky as the sound of a deep-throated laugh softly
rose over the hollow sound of the wind....
----O
BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS
"Damn, that was a close one." The helmsman looked back at his
captain as the passenger liner steered clear of the iceberg.
"Yes, just a little further in that direction and we would
have hit the dashed thing."
"It was good that someone, at the very least, was keeping a
lookout on things." The helmsman sighed. "These conditions are
most difficult to deal with."
"Yes, indeed." The captain turned to the young, blond-haired
woman who stood in the doorway to the ship's wheelhouse. "We have
much to thank you for, Miss...?"
"Serenity." The Youma Usagi smiled. "You can call me
Serenity." She looked down and shifted the flamboyant train of her
long dress, enjoying the opportunity to play dress up. "It was most
fortunate that I and my companion were taking up the view of the
dark seas from the deck."
The captain nodded. "It would have been a disaster for this
ship to have been damaged on its maiden voyage."
The Youma Usagi nodded and turned aside. "I must be on my
way. Leonardo is waiting for me." With one last flash of a smile,
she disappeared from the doorway.
As she stepped out onto the deck once more, the young man who
had been waiting for her jogged over from the railings, an excited
expression on his face. "We DID it. We really did it!"
"Yes, Leonardo, my dear, we did it."
"I'm glad I decided to come time travelling with you, rather
than continue with a dead-end acting career...."
"Well, you know what they say. Travel broadens the mind. And
besides, it was a hoot being given the opportunity to bed you first
and become the envy of women the world over." She smiled at his
blushing, shy expression....
Alright, Celine, she thought to herself, let's see ya turn
that crappy, over-romantic piece of dung into a hit single, now!
----o
MYSTERIOUS ACQUAINTANCES
Makoto and Hotaru sat on the old sofa, looking a little worse
for wear, as Miste sat herself, poisedly, in the armchair on the
other side of the room. Silence, punctuated by the noise of factory
sirens and machinery, passed between them.
Having been transported from the cold plain by Miste's
obviously greater control over her senshi powers, they found
themselves in what appeared to be a two up, two down flat in the
middle of a slightly industrial working class area of a city that
Miste described as the capital city of the world they had arrived
on.
The walls, ceiling, carpet and furnishings of the flat were
aged and stained, giving Miste cause to be embarrassed. "I
apologise, sincerely, for the tardy nature of our accommodation.
Twas the best I could find on the short notice to which I was
given."
Makoto stared at Miste, dubiously, lounging back into the sofa
with her legs and arms crossed. Hotaru was more keen than she to
listen to what Miste had to say, now sitting forward, somewhat.
Miste looked from one to the next.... How much they reminded her of
Atrenar and Erebus. She despised that pair, despite often using
them for her political purposes....
Atrenar.... The overbearing bully of the senshi, her head as
hot as it was empty. Miste had never had anything to do with
her.... Every time she had come into contact with her, there was
just this automatic, perhaps autonomic, response of hatred within
her. It was like a pure, instinctive hate.... A defense mechanism
that would go mad every time they were within calling distance of
each other.
The hatred felt good. Miste could never understand why, but
that hatred seemed to excite her, and simultaneously make her feel
ill.... Like an intellectual antibody, preparing to kill that which
threatens it. The first time she had met Atrenar, the two of them
had shaken hands. Almost immediately, Miste knew the woman was
using the gesture to test out her resolve.
The disconcertion that Miste displayed brought a twisted smile
to Atrenar's face. From that moment, onwards, Miste dedicated her
life to using Atrenar for her personal gain, with the ultimate
intention of bringing the woman to an early grave, once she had what
she wanted.
Erebus had been different, but no less hated, by Miste.
Erebus was successful in gaining the candidacy of Saturn, and thus
was to be sealed away in case she was to be needed. The thought of
someone with such power, hanging like a silent noose over her dreams
and aspirations brought the very worst out of her, not helped by the
fact that, in their one and only encounter the black-haired harpy
had tried to out-intellectualise her.
A battle of wits.... Erebus had been top of her class in many
fields, including quantum physics and debatable theology and
philosophy. In that one meeting, Erebus took the opportunity to
pick Miste's mind, in front of the old Queen Serenity. Miste felt
debased by this, and stumbled to keep up with Erebus's train of
thought.
Feeling that she had had her massive intellect shamed within
the court of the kingdom, she became determined never to face or
relate to Erebus again, and was relieved when the young woman was
finally sealed away. But she was still there.... Not a conscious,
interactive Erebus, but she was there all the same.
The young Serenity would often try to calm Miste's
defensiveness and paranoia. She had been the only one to understand
Miste's feelings, and had had the power to break through her massive
wall of personal defence. There had been moments when Miste
genuinely felt love for young Serenity.... An emotion she thought
she had long lost through the traumatic experiences of her early
childhood.... Now that love of her life was to be denied the
succession to the throne....
Miste took a breath and calmed herself. That was as things
were supposed to be. Tranquility's life was to be short, and
Serenity would, eventually, succeed her.... There was no need for
the manipulation, the hatred...
But it all came flooding back as she stared at the pair, who
looked back at her with those SAME expressions.... The expressions
the original Atrenar and Erebus had had when they first met her.
Distrust and contempt. She even thought she could detect a slight
smile on the face of Atre... Makoto, she had to keep reminding
herself. These were NOT Atrenar and Erebus.... They had had a
different childhood, and contained uniquely different personas.
They were NOT the same. Not the same....
"So, are you going to tell us why you dragged us halfway
across the universe?" Makoto huffed.
They ARE the same.... Are the same are the same are the
same.... Miste controlled the resonating thought, clenching her
fists. "I'm sorry, I was thinking.... About you... About your
past lives."
"Really? Good to hear. Would you like to answer my
question?" Makoto took a breath and looked aside. Hate me hate me
hate me hate me hate me hate me hate me.... Miste felt the shiver
run through her before Hotaru chided Makoto.
"You don't have to be so rude to her, you know."
"Alright. ALRIGHT. I'm sorry, okay?" Makoto huffed with
annoyance. Miste swallowed and smiled, nervously.
"That's alright.... I would expect you to be somewhat put out
by my methods, but I wasn't given much in the way of choice." She
swallowed again as both Hotaru and Makoto turned to her.
"You said something about changing our current destinies..."
Hotaru prompted her, waving a hand in her direction. Miste looked
at the hand.... It was like an insulting signal to her.... Like
the black-haired harpy was giving her the come on....
"Uh, yes.... It would appear that our destinies have been
skewed, in a direction that wasn't meant to exist, by an outside
force...."
"What kind of force would this be?" Makoto squinted at her.
Miste imagined laser beams coming from those eyes, boring into her
skull, trying to destroy her, mind and body....
"A... A force that has no name, no true consciousness, yet
exists within every corner of the universe.... An immense force of
destruction." Miste went silent as Hotaru stood, surprised by the
young woman's sudden movement. Hotaru slowly paced across the floor
of the lounge room, towards the window, where she peered out through
Venetian blinds at the drab exterior of the cobbled street.
"Chaos." Hotaru said, eventually, turning to Miste. "You're
talking about Chaos, aren't you."
Miste nodded. "Yes. Chaos is what it likes to be called."
END OF PART 9
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S T O P
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Next Chapter ' "The Long and Twisting Road to a Shy City IV"
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