Sailor Moon - Warriors of Ether
by David Farr

Disclaimer: The characters of Sailor Moon belong to their copyright holder.
They are used here with permission for fanfiction purposes.


Part 7

*****

	The sun peeked through the crack between the curtains. Outside the birds
serenaded the people as they hurried about their business. Outside not a
cloud hung in the sky. Inside Serena snored.
	Luna lay on the bed, paws covering her ears as her charge slept in. She'd
learnt to live with this on holidays, although recently Serena had been
getting up early for one reason or another. Like taking Raye to the fair.
That had been a good idea, the girls had managed to spend a day not worrying
about monster attacks. And for once there hadn't been any.
	Serena continued to sleep. Her mother had long since given up trying to
wake her and Luna had never tried, but that didn't mean she had to wait
around listening to Serena snore. The black cat got to her paws and
stretched in the way only cats can, then leapt to the floor. Without a sound
she padded to the windows and leapt up to it. She glanced back at her
sleeping charge before jumping out.

*****

	Neatness and simplicity were the words that immediately occured to anyone
entering the room. Amy preferred it that way, an ordered room minimised the
distractions when you worked. Against one wall, next to her desk, was a
shelf full of books. She had never felt the need to alphabetise them, that
seemed just a little too much effort, but they were arranged in subjects,
chemistry, physics, computer science, biology and the couple of fiction
books she had brought on impulse.
	Amy herself sat the desk busily working away at some practice problems. No
professor or teacher had set these, it being the holidays and all, but Amy
felt she needed to keep her skills up.
	The thump of a bird crashing into her window disrupted her chain of
thought. Amy glared at the window, then back at her work. Her study mood was
gone now, and it would take some time before she could get it back.
	"Ah, well, I guess I can go for that walk early," she said to herself. Amy
stood at and stretched, then leaned forward to look at her books. She
carefully laid bookmarks into each one, then closed them and left them
sitting in a neat pile on the desk.

*****

	Mina sighed deeply. 'Beautiful days like this should be spent with a guy,'
she thought bitterly, looking out over the park. Many couples were out
enjoying a lunch time stroll along the lake or through the trees. Unlike
them, Mina was only depressed by the beautiful sights.
	'Why can't I be like Serena and have a guy destined to love me,' she
thought bitterly. 'Even Amy has better luck than me, though Greg did leave
her.' A cute guy walked past. 'Then again.'

*****

	Lita hummed merrily as she stirred the batter. She almost always mixed by
hand. Oh, she could have used an electric mixer, but somehow that lacked
something. She did own a mixer, even used it sometimes when she was pressed
for time, but whenever she could she used the good old wooden spoon.
	The cakes she was making was for the scout meeting they'd planned for the
following day. What seemed like a long time had passed since she'd had no
one to cook for.
	She was still glad of the day when she met Serena. The strange loud mouthed
girl had simply approached the new girl, fulling knowing about her
reputation. They'd quickly found a common interest, a love for food, Serena
eating and Lita cooking. One thing was for sure, as long as Serena was
around Lita's food wouldn't go unappreciated.

*****

	Raye frowned. Okay, yes so the reconstruction crew had arrived to fix the
temple grounds at last, that was good, but did they have to make so much
noise?!
	The Miko stormed back into the temple, the sounds of jackhammers and
concrete saws following her through the thin walls. Chad, for once noticing
her mood, scampered out of the way.
	'Why couldn't Serena have planned something for today instead of
yesterday?!' Raye demanded silently. 'Then I wouldn't have to spend all day
listening to that racket.' She stalked into her room and dropped onto the
pillows. She grabbed a manga, one of the ones Serena had managed to spoil
for her already, but found she couldn't concentrate.
	Moments later the door slid open and grandpa poked his head into the room.
"Raye, why don't you go shopping?" He asked, ignoring the scowl she directed
at him. "We won't get many people stopping by with all the construction."
	Raye groaned. "Okay grandfather."

*****

	The streets were packed with people hurrying about their business. Amy, who
wasn't in as much as a hurry as the rest of the pedestrians, was swept along
by currents. After trying for several moments she finally managed get out of
the stream of humans and into the calm of a shop.
	The store was dark and a musty smell filled the air. Curios, pendants and
charms hung from displays on the counter, while the wall behind it held
shelves full of skulls, shrunken heads and stuffed animals. The last was not
the cute type you find in toy stores, but the kind of thing a taxidermist
worked on. A mad taxidermist.
	"Welcome deary." The motherly voice issued from pile of clothes seated
behind a table in one corner. On closer inspection it turned out to a woman
wrapped in the trappings of a gypsy woman. "Come sit and let Madam Arcana
read your fortune."
	Amy, curious moved over to the table. A single chair sat opposite the woman
and nothing sat upon the table. "Don't you want me to cross your palm with
silver?"
	Madam Arcana shrugged. "A few yen wouldn't go amiss."
	Amy reached for her purse before remembering that she'd been on her way to
the bank to get some spending money. The fair had been fun, but costly. She
looked at the fortune teller and shrugged helplessly. "Sorry."
	Arcana waved her hand dismissively. "Oh, never mind, I've had no customers
all day, so giving away a freebie won't cost me. Besides which you might
tell your friends about me."
	Amy smiled and sat down before her. "Thank you."
	The fortune teller pulled a set of cards from her sleeve. They weren't made
from the flimsy cardboard that most decks were made of, instead thye looked
almost antique. Amy could see that the back of the cards were ornately
decorated with pictures of fawns playing in forests.
	Madam Arcana took a card for the top of the deck. "This card defines you,
the essentials that define the girl you are." She laid the card on the
table. The picture showed the greek statue that bore the same name as the
card. "The Thinker, symbol of intellectuals. You excel at academics, you
prefer using you mind to solve your problems." She glanced at Amy, who
didn't twitch at all. Arcana pulled a second card from the top of the deck,
and placed it sideways across the first. The card showed a wolf standing
proudly atop a rise. "The Wolf. In this position its suggests you are a
loner, for some reason either fate or desire, you find yourself separate
from the people around. Perhaps you spend too much time thinking, hmm?" The
fortune teller again glanced up at Amy, who sat impassively.
	"Now, to look at your past." Looking back at the table Arcana pulled a
third card from the deck, placing it closer to herself. The picture was of a
girl in a long dress with a golden circlet in her hair. "The princess, how
unusual. Sometime in the past you were very important, something raised you
above those around you. Yet, you weren't the most important person." Amy
suppressed her reaction, this was starting to hit a little close to the
truth. A fourth card was placed upon the third. Amy felt a chill run down
her spine, the card bore an illustration of a ruined castle. "The ruins.
Your importance was destroyed in a disaster of some kind. It was sudden, but
there was the chance to rebuild." Amy continued to hold back reaction. A
couple of years before she would have dismissed it as coincidence, but now,
having met a talking cat and discovering she was the reincarnated princess
of a long dead magical kingdom, she felt slightly ill-at-ease.
	"Now to delve into your more recent past." The fifth card was placed on the
table to the left of the original pile, creating a L shape pointing towards
Arcana. The new card bore the picture of a ring of golden links.
	"Is that suppose to indicate me falling in love?" Amy asked.
	"No," Arcana replied. "The ring is a symbol of strength, but not individual
strength. It is strength in numbers, the strength of good friends or
co-workers. Strange, the wolf indicated that you're a loner." She lay a
sixth card on the fifth. This one was of a warrior in a suit of armour
holding aloft a sword. "The defender. Your new strength comes from defending
something, obviously you and a group of others have banded together to
protect what you hold dear." Amy nodded, forgetting to hide her reaction.
	"The next two cards describe your present, how you are now." The new card
was placed to the left of centre pile, forming a T pointing away from Amy.
The card's name was The Warrior and depicted a man swinging a sword. "Hmm,
the warrior. You fight for you're beliefs, while it is not part of you're
core self, it is something you are forced to do." Without looking up at Amy
she dealt another card upon the warrior. The picture of the western devil
stared out of the card. "Not good. The devil signifies that whoever or
whatever you are up against bares you ill-will. Whether or not you have the
strength to prevail has yet to be seen." She dealt a card in front of Amy,
completing a cross on the table.
	Silence fell upon the pair. They both looked up into the other's eyes.
"What's this supposed to mean? I have no future?" Amy inquired.
	"No, no," Arcana assured her, but Amy detected a catch in her voice. "The
void means that your future is uncertain. You are approaching a time of
great choice, where the path of your life will be forever altered." Before
Amy could comment she dealt another card. This one showed a stylised hour
glass. "Time. Somehow time is involved in the uncertainty. Maybe your past
interfering with your future or present. I don't know."
	Amy looked at the flustered fortune teller. "Are you okay?" she asked,
leaning forward.
	"I don't know, usually interpreting the cards is easy, but every time I fix
on something it slips through my fingers." She shook her head. "Its all very
confusing."
	Amy nodded. "Well, I was impressed by your reading anyway." She pushed her
chair back and stood. "I'll be sure to tell my friends about you."
	Within her cowl Arcana smiled. "Thank you child." She paused as Amy headed
for the door. The fortune teller remained still until long after Amy had
left. Finally she stood and moved to the door. The lock thudded into place
as she turned the opened sign to closed. It had been a very draining
afternoon.

*****

	The Pigeon's Nest's bar was packed, but that wasn't unusual just before
seven. Most of the regulars were in. Aki and his half crazed scientist girl
firend talked animatedly with Tashiro, the old man seeming to be interested
in their scientific theories about magic. The twins Jiro and Ichiro were
laughing and joking with Junko whenever she was free, which wasn't often
with this many patrons. The only one missing was Dominique, off on some fact
gathering mission to the local library.
	That left poor Namoyi sitting alone to work at her pictures. Not that she
was bothered by that. She quite often spent time sitting at the bar either
busily sketching or scanning the crowd for faces to include in her pictures.
Tonight she was working on a still forming picture. It was one of the ones
that seemed to draw itself, she had no idea what it was and probably
wouldn't until she completed it.
	The young artist paused her scribbling for a moment and reached out for her
glass. She raised it to her lips, only to realise that it was empty. She'd
spent so much time in the Pigeon's Nest, with the bartender who paid
attention to everyone at the bar, that having an empty glass surprised her.
She looked around, spotting Katsuko standing not far down the bar, a frown
on her face.
	"Ah, Katsuko, excuse me," she called, waving the glass at the woman.
	Katsuko snapped out of her stupor, and looked over. She smiled and shook
her head sadly before walking over. "Sorry Namoyi, I got a little
distracted." She took the glass and started filling it.
	"Well, just don't do it again," Namoyi scolded with mock seriousness.
	"Yes, ma'am," Katsuko returned, smiling, passing the glass back to
teenager.
	Namoyi put down her sketch pad and pencil and took a sip from her drink.
"Is something wrong Katsuko?"
	Katsuko didn't answer. Namoyi looked up to find her friend had gone
suddenly pale and was swaying slightly. She looked down to find Katsuko's
white knuckles gripping the bar.
	"Katsuko!" Namoyi cried.
	The bartender blinked a couple of times. "I'm okay," she muttered, then
collapsed to the ground.
	"KATSUKO!" Namoyi was over the bar in seconds. She knelt beside her friend,
ignoring the sudden silence descending over the room. Katsuko lay doubled
over, clutching her chest, her face a mask of pain. Namoyi reached out and
grabbed her arm

	peace and contentment
	a crystal city
	a beautiful queen
	birds singing
	children laughing
	couples walking beside a lake
	a storm gathering
	darkness falling
	crystal groaning, cracking
	people screaming
	children dying
	war and death
	a frozen world
	void

	Namoyi blinked and swayed sightly. What had that been? A strange series of
images cascading through her mind. How long had she been out?
	"She okay Namoyi?" Tashiro asked, leaning over the bar.
	Not long obviously. Namoyi glanced down at the woman lying on ground before
her. She was still curled up, but her breathing was now regular and her face
had softened.
	"She seems to be getting better," Namoyi replied. Gently shaking Katsuko.
	"Good. Junko, why haven't you called the ambulance yet?" Tashiro demanded
of Katsuko's barmaid.
	"No ambulances," Katsuko groaned. "I'll be fine." She reached out to grip
Namoyi's shoulder. "Help me up will you."
	Tashiro shook his head. "No way, girl, you're staying put."
	"I tell you, it was nothing." Katsuko struggled to her feet. "I'm fine
now."
	Tashiro stood and waved his finger at Katsuko. "That was not nothing
Katsuko," the old man told her. "You had some kind of seizure there, and
you're not just going to shrug it off."
	Katsuko shook her head. "I know what caused it, and there's nothing a
hospital can do. I just need to rest. If you'll excuse me." The bartender
stepped out from the bar. "Junko, tell Koan I've gone home." Katsuko strode
out of the room.
	Tashiro shook his head. "That is one stubborn lady."
	"No argument here," Aki muttered.
	Namoyi sighed and slowly walked back around the bar to take her seat.
Somehow her drink had survived her flight over the counter. She picked up
the glass and raised it up to her lips. It never got there. Her hand froze
as she looked past the glass at the wall beyond. One of her own paintings
sat there, it was of the Sailor Scouts and Tuxedo Mask. They were playing in
a field, Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask standing side by side while the other
four played with a young girl, but that wasn't what caught Namoyi's eye. In
the distant background, just sitting there, was the crystal city. Her glass
slipped from Namoyi's fingers.
	"Katsuko!" Namoyi cried. She had made it to the employees only door before
the glass hit the ground.

*****

	Astra slipped over the rooftops. Thankfully the powers of Astra dulled her
precognition to a degree, so she was no longer overwhelmed by feelings of
wrongness as she had been in the bar. The images of a bleak future still
shone in her memory. She had always been thankful for her little gift, but
never before had she been cast down by its strength.
	Being able to fly was useful, but you simply float through space. Throw
away the obvious problems of people below looking up your robes, the real
problems occurred when you arrived at your destination, along with whatever
crowd had decided to follow you.
	Flashes of coloured light and the sounds of combat ahead confirmed what
Astra had already guessed. The Scouts had already arrived. Which meant that
whatever was going to happen involved them. Great, as if she didn't have
enough problems.
	She soared across the space between the buildings. Approaching the combat
scene and could almost pick out the voices yelling. She started murmuring
prayers to every god she knew she hadn't pissed off in her life.
	"MOON SCEPTRE ELIMINATION!" Sailor Moon's voice carried the distance
between them. Moments later so did the massive roar and screams.
	The her precognition flared once more, this time overpowering her. As the
pain seared her soul her powers fled her, Astra vanishing to leave Katsuko
Chino to fall to the rooftop, gasping in pain.

*****

	"Witnesses report that the battle between the Sailor Scouts and the monster
rampaging through the street mall ended when Sailor Moon struck down the
beast, causing it to shatter. Unfortunately whoever or whatever had
dispatched the beast had booby trapped it, and the scouts were consumed by a
tornado.
	"Thankfully no citizens were permanently hurt, most escaping with cuts and
bruises and a small number rushed to hospital to be treated for broken bones
or concussions. Also there sign of the five heroines that have reportedly
been protecting this city for the past couple of years."
	Katsuko reached up and turned off the TV. There were a number of complaints
from the others in the hospital waiting room. Ignoring them she turned and
walked over to the distraught young man pacing nearby.
	"Is that helping Darien?" she inquired, watching him.
	He stopped and stared at her. "I just feel so helpless. I should be out
looking for them."
	"Well, there's nothing we can do until Raye wakes up. She may be the only
lead we have to finding the others." Katsuko, sat down in the seat next to
the basket Darien had fetched from Serena's house. "We'll just have to
wait."
	"I know. Doesn't mean I have to like it."

*****

	Rei Hino opened her eyes slowly. The light reflecting off the stark white
ceiling stabbed at her eyes, causing her to wince and groan. She heard the
rustle of clothes next to her.
	"Raye, are you awake?" The voice, despite being old and quite, set her ears
ringing. She groaned again.
	"You are!" the old man cried, sending more lances through her head. "Hey,
she's awake!" The speaker moved away as he spoke.
	There was a clammer from outside, feet running, and the quiet murmur of
other voices. Her head was starting to clear so she pushed herself off the
bed.
	She was in some kind of hospital room. The other bed was empty and the
window was wide open, letting both fresh air and sunlight in. A group stood
at the door.
	Just inside the door was a funny old man wearing preist's robes, he was
probably the one who had been sitting next to her. A scruffy young man, also
wearing priest's robes, stared anxiously across the room at Rei. Next to him
stood another young man that sent Rei's heart fluttering, he was dressed
casually, like he had just been out jogging. Finally standing behind the two
men was a woman wearing what looked like a very formal dress.
	"Excuse me folks," said a jolly voice. "Let the doctor through."
	The three blocking the door parted and a man in a white coat pushed his way
in. The doctor walked over to the bed, picked up Rei's wrist. "How are you
feeling?"
	"A little groggy and my head hurts," Rei replied quietly.
	"And tell me, what's the last thing you remember?"
	Rei furrowed her brow. "I was at home studying biology. How did I get
here?" she inquired quietly
	"You don't remember the attack at the mall?"
	Rei shook her head and immediately regretted it. "What would I be doing at
the mall? I'm far to busy studying for summer school."
	The old man crossed back to the bed, a worried expression on his face.
"Raye honey, you don't go to summer school."
	Rei looked at the strange old man quizzically. "I'm sorry, do I know you?"

-----

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Rarstarr,
David Farr
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~djfarr/
djfarr@ihug.co.nz