Version 1.0 - 26th 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.
(And if you believe that, you'd believe anything. ^_^)
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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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FLY ME TO THE MOON
Neil slowly scampered down the metal step ladder, from the
airlock door of the small landing craft. He was hampered by the
bulkiness of the space survival suit he was wearing, unsafe in
the knowledge that the suit itself was fairly experimental and had
only gone through a very few years of rigourous testing.
This was the first true opportunity anyone had had to actually
use one for the purpose to which it was designed, and the strangely
light gravity that was to be found on Earth's sole satellite didn't
make it any easier for him.
Remembering that millions of people were watching him back on
the his homeworld of Earth, keen for this apparently historic event
to be done with quickly so they could get back to watching their
favourite soapies, he glanced over at the camera, mounted some small
distance away, and decided to go through with the speech he had
prepared as his feet touched the barren, irradiated and long-dead
dusty surface of the moon.
He was not to know that mankind had been here before, so many
thousands of years ago, using technology that would make what he was
using look like.... well.... crap, for want of a better term....
Nor was he to know that the society that had existed here was far
more advanced and, in many ways, considering the penchant for sheer
imbecility the human race was capable of, civilised, than anything
he was capable of imagining. Even as he stepped down the ladder,
with the occasional hop and jump, he had the most haunting feeling
that there were eyes watching him....
Eyes of the dead.... Eyes of spirits older than entire
civilisations. For a few moments, the hairs on the back of his neck
stood up, and he could feel little tingling sensations running up
and down his spine. And every so often, he could hear the sound of
stones, being thrown by someone not that far away, hitting the top
of his helmet, mocking him.... After spending close to a minute
looking for the little bastard who was doing that, he decided to get
on with things.
"This is one small step for man...." He began, his voice
crackling across the tv sets around the globe. "One giant leap for
mankiiiiiiiaaaaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhhh....."
He slipped as his foot came down on the banana peel that was
waiting for him, collapsing backwards and landing heavily on the
moon's surface. Millions around the world winced as he blinked with
stunned surprise, then shot to his feet and posed for the camera,
hoping nobody would think twice about his fumble.
"Ultra....MAN!" He stuck a hand into the air and
sweatdropped. Then he felt another stone hit the top of his helmet
and spun to see a young girl in an odango-bearing suit sticking a
tongue out at him from the nearest rise, pointing to a wooden sign
that bore the words 'Serenity waz 'ere first! Go home, Earth
wankers!'
She then promptly leapt from the rise, landed in front of him,
slapped him across the back and pointed to the sailorfuku additions
made to the body of her suit.
"If you're going into space, boyo, the very least you can do
is do it in style."
She then performed a space-suit Can Can dance for the
television viewers back on Earth, complete with music broadcast over
the suit radios.
"HAH!" The Youma Usagi thought. "Let's see 'I Love Lucy'
outrate this NOW!"
----o
AS HAS BEEN NOTED....
"You said something about changing our current destinies..."
Hotaru prompted Miste, 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.... She swallowed
and clenched her fists.... The rage within was almost too much to
control, and they could see it.... Their expressions were a mixture
of amusement and distrust.... Don't read their faces, she repeated
in her mind, like a mantra, don't read their faces....
"Uh, yes.... It would appear that our destinies have been
skewed, in a direction that wasn't meant to exist, by an outside
force...." Miste's voice was barely a warbled croak by the end of
the statement. Makoto sat forward, studying her.
"What kind of force would this be?" Makoto squinted
inquisitively 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."
Out of earshot, across the dimensions, a deep-throated chuckle
entered the universe with no destination....
----o
Part Ten
The Long and Winding Road to a Shy City IV
----o
DARK SALVATIONS
The Austrian artist made a toast to his lovely companion,
sitting across the dinner table, raising high the sweet red German
wine in acknowledgement.
"Ah, Fraulein Serenity.... If it vas not for you, I may haff
abandoned my painting career for ze perils of political life."
"Indeed." The Youma Usagi said, putting on a sweet smile for
the somewhat middle-aged man with the funny little moustache,
leaning her chin against the backs of her hands with poise. "Your
latest display of works has been an outstanding success." 'Amongst
all those boring, Tutonic bastards, yes.' She thought to herself.
'And the only reason he listened to me in the first place is because
I'm a blond.... Probably have an apoplexy if he ever discovered I
was Japanese.... Maybe that wouldn't be so bad....' She chuckled
to herself, quietly.... Some people were born to be lead....
"And I owe it all to your guidance, my dear fraulein." Adolf
smiled. "To the Weimar Republic, may it live long and prosper."
And he downed his wine, studying her attractive figure through his
glass. She leaned back and brushed down the burgundy dinner dress
he had bought her only a week ago, telling her how lovely she would
look in it. She wasn't quite so sure, but she wore it, anyway.
"Sounds like a good line for a silly tv show, 'live long and
prosper'...." She giggled. Adolf looked at her as he contemplated
a refill of his glass, leaning over to the keraff that sat off to
one side.
"What is this.... tv thing... you talk about?" He lifted an
eyebrow. Every so often, she seemed to drop little hints and ideas
in a roundabout manner, ones with a financial gain to be reaped....
The rotary engine, micro-circuitry, reverse cycle air
conditioning.... Well, everything except the UHT milk, but he could
deal with the blunders.
"Ah.... Just a little idea I have for you to take up, Herr
Hitler. It might make you a fortune, if you're quick...."
----o
CHAOS THEORY
"Everything that has happened to you.... will happen to me, is
because of the influence of Chaos. It is one of the most powerful
forces to have ever existed...." Miste leaned forward, gesturing
earnestly to her companions.
"But I thought we'd rid ourselves of Chaos.... Or, at the
very least, Serenity had rid Galaxia of Chaos...." Makoto scratched
her head. "We know, all too well, what can happen when Chaos runs
amok. We experienced its power, first hand."
"By dying." Hotaru added, sullenly.
"The force of Chaos is essential in the cycle of life, death
and rebirth.... It is the destructive element that wipes the slate
clean when all has degenerated into state.... And from its void
comes Creation.... Creative energies designed to make the slate
anew..." Miste's eyes turned to the floor as she thought to
herself.
"But what we experienced was no passive force.... It had
intent. Intent upon wanton destruction, almost for its own
pleasure. It was a CONCIOUS entity." Hotaru paced the carpet,
watched by Makoto.
"Galaxia did warn us, however, that it would return...."
"We treated Chaos as we did all our other defeated enemies...
Like something that would go away and never return...." Hotaru
swallowed. "Why did it return so soon? HOW did it return?"
"I have watched the paths of your existence.... Time and time
again, you have ignored the fact that there have always been darker
powers behind that which you have initially faced. Need I mention
the names of Metallia? Wiseman? Pharaoh 90? And all these
culminated with the being known as Chaos itself. Has it never
occured to you that all of these beings resemble, in some way, shape
or form, the same essential entity? Bodiless, with precisely the
same intent...." Miste smiled, shaking her head. "I have, within
my grasp, information of this nature. Information that could stop
our Kingdom from ever falling.... Information on how to remove
Chaos from the body of Galaxia before she starts to eradicate the
Senshi and Miko of the universe...."
"You're trying to tell us that all the enemies we've faced....
All the REAL enemies, have been one and the same?" Makoto's eyes
went wide. Miste looked up at her, surprised to see the shock in
the face that bore such a resemblance to Atrenar Kesseille. It
amused Miste.
"They might have had individual minds, initially, like Galaxia
herself.... But slowly, over time, their minds and bodies are eaten
away until there is nothing left but the force that drives them.
You managed to save Galaxia in time. Kami help us if the most
powerful being in the known universe were to have fallen to the
powers of Chaos...."
----o
TRAVELLING DIARY
"But Galaxia didn't fall.... She was renewed.... And
returned to her world afterwards." Michiru leaned back in her seat
as Kaorusagi shared her edible discoveries with Usashin.
"Galaxia new better than anyone the threat that Chaos posed.
Why do you think she sealed Chaos within her, even at the cost of
her own being." Usashin munched on the bar of something that had
been handed to her, unwrapped from its greasepaper cover. It had a
strange kind of taste to it.... A bit like roast beef with spicy
plum sauce. She momentarily looked at the foodstuff, that bore a
strange resemblance to an off-white chocolate bar, with a similar
consistency.
"So the whole episode with Chaos.... We were fools to think
that things could end so easily...."
"Chaos wants to destroy everything that exists.... There
should be no mistaking this fact. This desire is purely nihilistic.
It does not care that what will result is void. Perhaps it
glorifies the concept of that eternal nothingness.... We shall
never know. One cannot simply have a conversation with it to find
out." Usashin nodded, solemnly.
"So why is it trying to manifest itself, here on Wyccfaer?"
Michiru frowned. "This world is, by no means, a central point in
the universe in which to launch some form of universal campaign of
nihilistic extermination."
"Ah, but it is. You see, Wyccfaer is a universal hub, for all
kinds of trans-universal systems and structures. It is why we are
here." Kaorusagi gestured to Michiru with a half of a small meat
bun, the other half in her mouth. "On Wyccfaer, there is no such
thing as death, merely differing forms of dispensation. We were
fortunate enough to have died during moments of immense pan-
dimensional upheaval. Thus we were all salvaged by the energies of
the world at the heart of those upheavals."
"Wyccfaer? A universal hub?" Michiru looked out of the train
window at the passing darkness beyond. "It looks like nothing more
than humdrumsville out there."
"Try staring into it with your REAL eyes, Sailorneptune. The
eyes of a Senshi. Then you shall see the ley lines that exist."
Usashin leaned forward. "You will see nothing of greater beauty or
horror for as long as you exist."
"I don't really think I WANT to see it, now." Michiru
swallowed. She watched as Kaorusagi munched away at her bag of meat
buns with childish abandon, doing her best not to salivate. Usashin
nudged her partner in the side.
"What?" Kaorusagi looked up at her. Usashin pointed to
Michiru, and Kaorusagi giggled. "Oops, sorry. Forgot to give you
yours...." She handed Michiru a greasepaper bag, full of steaming
something or other.... Michiru looked in at the small, golden-
coloured, biscuit-like nuggets with trepidation.
"Don't discard them, Sailorneptune." Usashin smiled, staring
out of the window. "We shall have to use these ley lines if we are
to defeat Chaos." Usashin lowered her face as Michiru tried one of
the nuggets, finding it to her taste. "And this time, it must be
defeated completely."
----o
EXPERTS IN THE ART
"But how does one defeat something like Chaos completely?
After all, Chaos isn't a physical entity." Makoto rubbed her face,
getting a little tired at the metaphysical nature of the
conversation.
"Is there anything that can really BE destroyed? After all,
Chaos is really nothing more than the physical manifestation of
negative emotions and thoughts...." Hotaru took a breath, thinking.
"I've seen much in my time as Sailorsaturn to convince me of the
essential darkness that exists within the universe. You can't
destroy it. It is as indestructible as the light."
"You can destroy something like Chaos by placing it back from
whence it came." Miste rubbed her hands together, getting to the
point of her argument. "In the minds of the denizens of the
universe."
"What? Take Chaos into ourselves?" Makoto seemed aghast at
the suggestion.
"Chaos was born of us.... Therefore there is no reason why it
should not find its resting place within us also."
"NO!" Makoto jumped to her feet. "No! I'm not having
something like that inside of me." She stepped away from the sofa,
towards the wall. Miste and Hotaru watched her.
"It is ALREADY inside of you, Jupiter. That is where it gets
its energy from. You can't fight it, no matter what you do."
"No...." Makoto croaked. "Galaxia tried to do that, and she
failed."
"Because she tried to seal it away, alone. The very nature of
Chaos is such that it feeds on that loneliness.... The only way to
defeat it is through the many...."
"I'M NOT GOING TO ABSORB THAT CREATURE WITHIN ME!" Makoto
spun on them. "And there is nothing you can do to make me."
----o
THE BLUE ROBES
The silver-gray 1956 Rover 75 rolled, majestically, through
the streets of Shy.... In a world where such a car should never
have existed, its appearance would often gain the car's owner quite
a bit of attention.
Its mixture of squared-off lines and curves.... The vast
silver front grille and badge.... The car was more like a motorised
work of art, despite its middlebrow intentions. It had been so well
kept that most of the factory accessories were still sitting within
the vehicle. Mostly because the owner couldn't quite figure out
what the accessories did.
The chauffeur revved the 2.2 litre straight six engine, a
curious motorised device that he had made his life's duty to
engineer and adapt. The small front window didn't allow him much of
a view of the road, but the vehicle's vast front was enough to
intimidate pedestrians and other vehicles out of the way.
Especially in the district known as the Callitan.... A fairly
bohemian district filled with a multitude of markets and even more
con artists. The car's eccentric owner knew them well. When she
had first arrived on Wyccfaer to lead a resistance movement against
the Petrice, she had almost fallen prey to some of them. She
mourned not having her friends.... her Senshi.... with her.
The Petrice. The owner of the car, sitting in the back seat,
staring out at the passing crowd, sighed to herself. She had been
told of their intrusion here. The Empire's own resident mafia....
Immensely powerful and influential, for all the wrong reasons. Her
world had only just been able to shake off their scourge.
But here on Wyccfaer there was no similar evangelical zeal
with which to stir the masses into dealing with the problem. She
knew why.... and knew that only someone with the bearing of a
Princess would be able to stir them from their lethargy.
It hadn't been easy, though. By their very nature, Wyccfaerie
wanted to have as little to do with outside cultures as they
possibly could. In that climate of weak-willed apathy, the Petrice
slipped in and started to despoil heaven with great rapidity. Only
the Princess and her resistance group stood a chance against them.
"Would you look at that...." Her chauffeur had his face
turned to the footpath, his exclamation shaking her from her
reverie.
"What.... What is it?"
"I'm sure she must be a Miko.... Those robes.... Just have a
look at them.... They couldn't belong to anyone else."
The Princess turned, and as he had said, there was a young
woman, covered in the most glorious blue robes she had seen since
she had left her homeworld, virtually creating a path in the
pedestrian traffic, as she had made her way along the Callitan
street.
The chauffeur turned aside to him mistress. "What should we
do about her? She stands out like a beacon around here...."
"It would be most interesting to speak with her, I think. How
about it, James?"
"You're wish is my command, milady." He smiled and picked up
the radio handset....
----o
Naiad had followed the scent of both Hotaru and Makoto to the
capital, determined not to lose them again.... Having gone out of
her way to actually find their point of origin on Wyccfaer, for
reasons best known to some tiny little voices at the back of her
mind that it would be a good thing to do, she was annoyed by the
fact that someone else already acted, with the same intention.
She liked the effect that her Miko robes were having on the
locals of Shy's Callitan district. Obviously, despite the
disconnection they had with the empire as a whole, there was still a
deference for the position of office within them. Well, most of
them, anyway. One particularly nasty individual had spat at her
feet, for which she had instilled twenty years of panic seizures in
the back of his subconscious. Being a mind-based Miko did have its
benefits.
"Would tha lady like to peruse our wonderful range of Siderian
carpets?"
"Fresh Coltep, three Dio's a pound."
"Damn his Coltep, lady... I've got the mother of all Coltep,
here, on sale, only two Dio fifty a pound."
"Well I have its father, lady."
"Oh yeah? Well I have the Great Granduncle!"
Naiad walked past the two warring butchers as she continued
her search for the owner of the more-powerful signal she had
detected as soon as she had entered Shy. The signal had, literally,
dwarfed Hotaru and Makoto, and even their newfound companion which,
to her chagrin and concern, felt remarkably like Miste Kiele.
She almost spat at the very thought of the name.... The Witch
of the Senshi.... She had spent much of her time, since her
ascendancy to Miko status, trying to counter much of the ill will
the damned woman had spread throughout the Kingdom.... Now she was
here, in the presence of two future Senshi incarnations.... What
did she want from them?
It was that that she was thinking about when she felt the
cloth being pressed over her mouth. She gasped, instantaneously,
and realised that it was the wrong thing to do as the fumes from the
chemicals that stained it entered her lungs....
----o
Naiad's eyes popped open with comical surprise as she sat up
from her resting place on the small banana lounge.
She could hear a slow, rhythmic ticking sound, and turned to
see an old grandfather clock sitting off to one side of a large
open fireplace, wood burning and crackling with zeal at its heart,
with elaborately carved mantlepiece around it. On top of the
mantlepiece were a pair of glasses, filled with some kind of dark
liquid, warming in the traditional fashion that one warmed alcohol.
Naiad turned and looked down at her robes, making sure that
they were all there. The robes were quite expensive to produce,
being made of imported fibres.... One of the benefits of being a
member of the Court of the Kingdom, or any Kingdom, for that matter.
The price such robes would fetch on the open market would have been
quite high. Added to that the jewellery that went with it....
But no, everything was still where it had been. The robes,
themselves, were folded carefully so as not to crease underneath her
form. She found that to be rather interesting.
Slowly standing, and feeling momentarily dizzy as the last
effects of the chloroform wore away, she heard a voice coming from
deep within the leather armchair that sat on the other side of the
room, turned away from her.
"You're awake. Good." The young woman's voice was genuinely
cheerful and friendly. But Naiad had heard people speak that way
before, and followed it up by killing the person they were talking
to. She squinted at what could be seen of the figure as they stared
out of the sole window onto the rain-soaked street beyond.... A
deep shade of straight red hair.... Scarlet, even....
"That wasn't entirely the best method of inviting me here.
Asking me might have been preferable." Naiad shook her head to
clear it, then held her nose in the air, haughtily.
"Used to the charms of the aristocracy, aren't we?" The
woman's voice was tinted with an air of amusement.
"Obviously. I get the impression I would have been a less
interesting target for kidnapping had I not been...."
"A miko?" The woman turned the chair, and Naiad frowned,
seemingly recognising the partly-mature, partly-youthful expression
on her face, framed by that long, deep scarlet hair. The woman wore
a black and white dress with gilden fringes, and it was only as she
stood that Naiad realised those fringes really WERE gold.
"Have we met before?" Naiad studied the young woman as she
paced across the room to where the two glasses were sitting.
"Possibly, in the days when the Empire was at its peak, and
all the various members of the aristocracy would gather...."
"So, you're a Princess." Naiad rubbed her chin. "I should
have recognised the fact sooner. Something of a comedown for you,
being on this world."
The Princess smiled, taking the two glasses from the top of
the mantlepiece and offering one to Naiad. Naiad stared at the dark
liquid with some trepidation. The Princess chuckled.
"No need to be wary. I brought you here for your own safety.
It is not good for members of the various courts to walk the
Callitan in full dress."
"Why would this be?"
"That is what I want to talk with you about."
"It would be better if you gave a name to your title." Naiad
took the glass and dubiously tested the contents with her nose,
finding the aroma quite inviting.
"Really. You are a most untrusting soul."
"It has come with the territory. The Kingdom from which I
hail has had its fair share of.... internal problems."
"And that would be...?"
"The Moon Kingdom of Sol."
The Princess's eyes opened wide. "Serenity's homeworld." She
calmed herself, then nodded. "Yesss.... There have been occasions
on my planet...." She shook her head. "I'm sorry. I'm being rude,
I really should introduce myself. My name in Kakyuu." She took
Naiad's free hand, shaking it. "Princess Kakyuu to the more loyal
of my subjects. I am the leader of the Wyccfaer Resistance
Movement. Pleased to meet you."
Naiad took a long shot of the drink and let it soak into her
system before she felt like going much further with this
conversation.
END OF PART 10
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S T O P
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Next Chapter ' "The Long and Twisting Road to a Shy City V"
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