-------------------------------------------------------------------
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. ^_^)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
S T A R T
-------------------------------------------------------------------
"This is it, folks! Over the top!"
Take a Long Line - The Angels<
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The young woman had only just escaped from the side house,
the sweat of fear running freely across her brow, when she felt the
ringing of the church, resonating through her head like the
lingering aftershock of a cathedral bell. She shivered
uncontrollably, staring up at the tower, hoping that the noise she
was hearing was, indeed, a church bell, but she knew differently....
The church stared back at her impassively, beckoning her forward, to
enter its dark domain.
Her feet moved by themselves, even though she knew she
shouldn't allow the church its way. But she wasn't given a choice,
as she approached the large, wooden front doors. This time, there
would be no turning back. After having been removed from the church
by its strange verger upon her previous incursion within the sacred
temple's domain, she had heard the peculiar ringing.... As if she
had been linked to something that hid within its walls....
Something that was greater than the physical world, like a chorus of
angels, beckoning her to join them. But she had been drugged and
locked in the cellar of the side house by the verger, and it had
taken her some time to escape.
She stepped up to the doors and gripped their handles with her
weakened hands, the days without food and water taking their toll.
She leaned back, using her weight to pull the doors apart, moving
back with them as they gave way. A breath of warm air rushed past
her, as if she had given the church the opportunity to exhale. The
comparison of the building with a living entity had occasionally
occured to her as she struggled with her bonds and the lock on the
cellar door.... She certainly felt as if there were some
intelligence behind whatever it was that had been calling to her,
and not a hostile intelligence, either....
Light penetrated the gloomy interior of the atrium, and she
peered for any sign of the verger's presence. Seeing nothing, she
realised that the ringing noise had increased, the opening of the
doors giving the church its voice. With trepidation, she stepped
inside, her bare feet padding against the tattered maroon carpet....
Either side of the entrance, staircases ascended to the upper
galleries of the main hall, their dark wooden frames glinting in the
light. She checked the landing, at the top of the stairs, then
moved further into the atrium, staring at the inner doors of the
main hall. She crossed her arms in front of her, holding herself,
shivering with anticipation and recalling the emotions that ran
through her the last time she had crossed this threshold. Those
emotions were even stronger now, creating a kind of delirium. A
delirium only broken by the wetness of the carpet in front of the
doors.
She stared down at her feet. There seemed to be a wet patch
of some five square feet, emanating from the crack underneath the
doors. A sense of forboding filled her. It was not water that
soaked the carpet. She reached forward and pushed the doors open,
and stood back, aghast at the sight that befell her eyes.
Bodies. Hundreds of them, filled the main hall of the church.
Piled up, one atop the other, all looking as fresh as the day they
were killed, from the doorway to the altar at the far end, each body
bearing horrific wounds, the blood running away, slowly across the
floor, to the wet patch that covered the carpet.
She placed a hand to her mouth as she gagged.... This was not
how it was meant to be.... The church did not want this to happen
within its domain. It was angry.... Angry at the person who had
perpetrated this crime! She looked upwards, at the peak of the
pile, and spied the small hatch, the doorway, that she had seen in
her first visit, in the roof of the church. It was from there the
ringing sound was coming.... It was from there the church's spirit
was housed. Someone was using the bodies to create an access to
that door. Someone....
She jerked forward as the knife thudded into her back. Oddly
enough, she didn't feel much pain, as she spun to stare into the
calm eyes of the verger. He ripped the knife's blade from her, then
thrust it in again, gripping her suddenly weak form with his other
arm. She tried to mouth a question, but seeing it, he shook his
head, sadly.
"I wanted to keep you from here for a reason. I didn't want
to have to add you to my little mountain of bodies." He wrenched
the knife from her, once more, as she felt the warm trickle of her
blood, running down her back, staining her simple white dress. He
lifted the knife to her throat. "You, perhaps, would like to know
why you didn't see the bodies the first time you entered? I would
like to know that, as well.... It has long been a mystery to me,
but it would seem that, every time someone enters this place, they
fall under the spell of the door.... And once they fall under its
spell, the truth of this place becomes clear to them. Well, that is
the best explanation I can come up with."
"Why...?" She swallowed, tasting blood in her mouth as her
breathing became difficult. The verger chuckled.
"Why not? That doorway up there.... It was the doorway the
vicar used to find his salvation. It has a direct access to the
place we like to call Heaven. Why the vicar should be allowed to
use it, and not I, is quite beyond me.... I have every RIGHT to use
it, after all the years of service I gave to him and this church."
He pressed the knife into her throat, the blade just cutting into
her flesh. The angry expression he had gained whilst talking about
the church's old vicar softened to one of sadness, as he stared into
her face. "I'm really sorry it had to end this way, my child, but I
must now add you to the sacrifices I have made to gain access to
that door."
She barely had the time to scream when he ripped open her
throat.
----o
Part Eleven
The Door to Paradise I
----o
The stench of cigarettes and sweat hung around the man like a
plume that repelled anyone who approached him. His greasy, short
and straight black hair clung to his scalp, appearing wet even
before he had stepped into the gentle, misty rain that fell upon the
cobblestone streets that were common in this part of the unofficial
Wyccfaerie capital of Shy.
He stood within the alcove, staring up at the small town house
in which his target, or targets, as the case may be, lay.... He
hunched the heavy, black overcoat over his thin, almost skeletal
frame, shivering with the cold. Time had not been kind to him. He
knew this too well on the coldest of days. He comforted himself
with the last vestiges of a smoking cigarette.... thin, spindly
fingers, holding the filter to drawn lips.
He wondered if Miste Kiele had told the pair of Earth Senshi
about Chaos, yet.... And of the warped, twisted version of their
old princess, who was now running amok throughout time and space....
It amused him to think of someone, such as Miste, attempting to do
something out of the goodness of her heart.... In his few
encounters with the one-time senshi, she had never struck him as
someone who was worthy of the position as a Senshi of Light.... He
could even find it within him to feel a certain affection for her,
if it wasn't for the fact that they were so diametrically opposed in
their ideology and destiny.
He flicked the dying embers of the cigarette into the street,
flexing his fingers in preparation for the fight that was about to
commence.
"Don't do TOO much, Thierry." Said the voice without source.
The man chuckled to himself. "I'd like for there to be something
left to feast upon." The voice continued.
"Don't you concern yourself." He replied in a deathly,
rasping tone. "I'm only interested in Kiele.... The others belong
to you."
The owner of the disembodied voice sighed. "Ah, but if only
that other pair would be so kind as to remain on the sidelines of
your fight with Kiele. Jupiter and Saturn have never been the sort
to resist a fight."
"Then if they dare to interfere, I shall clean them up in the
same manner with which I shall deal with Kiele."
----o
"There is.... There is just NO WAY you can make me take that
THING.... Chaos.... Into my body...." Makoto clenched her fists,
facing the wall of the loungeroom, as if trying to shut Miste, and
what she was saying, out of her mind.
"I'm afraid you really don't have a choice, Jupiter...."
Miste crossed her arms, shaking her head with her eyes closed. This
version of Jupiter was well-versed with her predecessor's pig-
headedness, she had to agree.... So arrogant. So impertinent. How
did the spirit of her next life expect her to work with someone like
this? "Chaos is free.... Free to do whatever it likes, and you've
already seen a fragment of the results." Hated her. She hated her
SO much.... She held her left arm with her right hand.... The
anger was taking control again. Wait for the bitch's answer and
reply calmly....
"I... I know...." Makoto swallowed. "It's too much.... The
thought of THAT within ME.... My body is my sanctuary.... To place
a portion of Chaos within myself.... It just feels.... It
feels...."
Ohhhh.... Your body is your SANCTUARY, is it? Miste licked
her lips with delight. So, there were aspects to this Jupiter that
mirrored her own. Paranoias and fears she could play upon. "Like a
corruption of the shield that protects you from the outside
universe?" Miste opened her eyes, smiling at Makoto. The tall girl
did her best to avoid Miste's gaze. The old Mercury senshi sighed
and leaned back in her seat, gazing between both Makoto and Hotaru,
both girls now lost in thought. Well, at least they were
CONSIDERING her words, which was more than they ever did in their
previous life. Maybe she should just use them to achieve her goal,
then kill them when she had the opportunity. She was really tempted
to do without them, if it weren't for the fact that she'd be
haunted, for all time, by her successor....
Not that she expected to live long enough for it to be a
worthy haunting. The Mizuno Ami assured her of that. She sighed
again as she felt the presence of the man, who was standing outside
the town house, staring up at the first floor loungeroom window.
Well, at the very least, he would provide her tortured mind a
diversion, and display to this pair of imbeciles the kind of enemy
that they were up against. It might also act as a good example of
exactly the kinds of powers she had in her reserve.
She stood, and slowly made her way to the window, looking out
at him with mock-concern, watched by Hotaru, who joined her by her
side.
"What? What is it?" Hotaru frowned, following Miste's gaze
to the man in the street.
"I'm afraid we may not have the time to argue about this any
further...." Miste sighed, her tone matter of fact.
Hotaru frowned. "Who is he?" She pointed at the man,
knowing, instinctively, that she would get her answer in a more
practical way.
The wall to the apartment lounge crumbled away, as if the
bonds that held it together had simply been canceled out. Miste
gestured towards the roadway below, almost too casually. "He is one
of our enemies. And that was an example of his power. Pleasant
thought, is it not, that he intends to do that to us?" Hotaru
didn't like the smile that came to Miste's face.
----o
The door to Mamoru's apartment opened, and he emerged, a blank
expression on his face, followed by the strange Usagi who had
seduced him the night before, both dressed in black leather jackets,
shirts, jeans and shoes. Well, thought the Usagi, if one is going
to play the villain, one might as well dress like one.
He almost walked into the wall on the opposite side of the
corridor, too. "Stop!" The Usagi barked at him, and he stood, an
inch from the wall, staring at it like a mannequin. The Usagi
smiled and lifted a set of keys from the pocket of the jacket,
shutting and locking the apartment door behind her. She turned back
to Mamoru. "Turn to your right and follow me."
"Yes, my mistress." Mamoru replied tonelessly.
"I've told you time and time again.... Call me QUEEN!" The
Usagi sighed, putting a hand to her forehead. "Wasn't the whipping
you received last night enough to convince you?"
"Yes, my mistress." Mamoru turned to his right and waited for
the Usagi to move. She clenched her teeth, trying to settle the
anger within her. It seemed that, even whilst being controlled,
Mamoru's mind was still capable of minor acts of rebellion....
"Just follow me, okay?" She started off down the corridor,
followed by her servant.
----o
"One of our enemies?" Makoto stepped over to the vast empty
space that was once the wall of the loungeroom, and stared down at
the man who stood on the cobblestone road, below.
He smiled up at the open side of the apartment with the
peaceful expression of a corpse in state. "I see you have friends
over for dinner, Miste Kiele.... I'm so terribly sorry to have
disturbed you."
"Very rude, I must say, Thierry Du Prae." Miste sneered
contemptuously at the man. "But then, you have never had the
greatest sense of timing."
"Who is he?" Makoto turned to Miste, but received her answer
from Hotaru.
"Thierry Du Prae.... A member of the organised crime network
that operates within the city of Shy, and a Dark Senshi of a lost
homeworld." Hotaru's lips quivered after saying this. "He has
dedicated himself to the shadow."
"How do you know this?" Makoto quizzed Hotaru, who turned to
her taller companion, and shrugged.
"I.... just do...."
"So, these are the famed Senshi of the Moon Kingdom....
Jupiter and Saturn...." Du Prae slapped his gloved hands together,
rubbing them with glee. "So, I get to take out three in one go....
How very appropriate that I should be the one blessed with this
gift."
"You think a great deal of yourself, don't you, Du Prae?"
Miste leapt from the apartment, and landed catlike on the
cobblestones standing to face Du Prae. Might as well make this
quick, she thought to herself. No point in stretching things out
for the benefit of the two bitches. Even so, it was a bit of a
worry that Saturn already seemed to know something about Du Prae....
But then, Saturn was always a conundrum upon a conundrum.
One of the reasons Miste hated her so much. She didn't like
conundrums.... It made her wonder why she had never been chosen as
a Saturn senshi.... Made her wonder about just what it had been in
her own conception that was deficient.... That prevented her from
becoming a senshi of such immense power.... For a senshi whose
purpose was to act as a spoiler for any enemy who dared to threaten
the Silver Millennium, by destroying everything, she could think of
no more perfect candidate, no one more dedicated to the preservation
of the Kingdom, than herself.
The fact that she was chosen as the senshi of Mercury....
Purely the intellectual amongst the hierachy.... And nothing more.
She should have seen it from the start.... From the moment she had
joined the Academy. From the moment she entered the School of Water
Energy studies. From the moment she became a prime candidate for
the position of Mercury....
"I'm flattered that you should see me this way. I have had an
excellent teacher.... But I'd really like to learn some more from
you, Kiele-sensei." Du Prae leaned forward with a mocking
expression. Roused by this from her musings, she felt the anger.
The anger that had become her energy.... The anger of hatred, of
spite, of contempt, of emotional impotence.... The overwhelming
sense of helplessness in her destiny. And, as she had always done,
she wrapped all those feelings up into the one person who was her
current target.
"My patience has just about run out with you...." Gentle
sparks of blue energy started to sizzle their way around Miste's
hands. Du Prae sneered.
"Can you translate those words into action, Miste? You have
failed to defeat me in all of our previous encounters." He turned
aside, affecting a contemptuous disdain. For Miste, it was the very
WORST thing he could have done. Her face screwed up and her hands
crooked into claws, her body lowering, ready to pounce upon him like
a wild animal.
Watching this, Hotaru swallowed, gripping Makoto's arm. "He's
goading her into acting."
"Yeah, so?" Makoto shrugged. "I'm sure she's big enough and
ugly enough to handle a half-dead wuss like him."
"That's not the point...." Hotaru sighed.... "She's.... I
can feel the anger inside her mind.... It's not NORMAL."
"Of course it's not normal. Nothing about what has happened
to us over the past couple of hours can be construed as normal, and
that includes this Ami clone." Makoto shrugged Hotaru off and sat
on the edge of the loungeroom floor. Hotaru bopped her one over the
head. "Oww.... What was that for?"
"You're not listening to me.... I said her anger is not
NORMAL.... She's.... Everything about her is an extreme.... She's
a monster."
"Great." Makoto looked up at Hotaru, rubbing her head. "So
she has a massive inferiority complex. Why should we be concerned?"
"Because she is about to launch that anger, along with all of
her senshi powers, in a densely populated city.... Alongside which
that man down there shall be using whatever powers he has in his
retinue to defend himself."
"Oh... I see. You're talking about collateral damage....
People dying by friendly fire and all that." Makoto pursed her
lips.
"How can you talk about it so casually? People might die."
Hotaru huffed and booted Makoto from the ledge. "If you think it's
nothing to worry about, why don't you join them down there?"
Makoto landed face-down on the ground with a thump.
Unsurprisingly, Miste used this as the spark to launch her first
attack. "SHINE AQUA ILLUSION REVELATION!" A burst of aquatic
energy exploded from out of nowhere.... Razor-sharp particles of
water, flying in Du Prae's direction, catching the man off guard.
"A medium-scale energy attack first...." He thought to
himself, as he lifted up his hands to create a counterattack. "She
must be serious.... How quaintly amusing."
"DEATH MIST REPULSION!" Du Prae shouted, and Miste's attack
struck a wall of energy that saw the particles of water flying off
in all directions. Makoto lifted up her angry face, just in time to
leap to safety as a shard of energy blew away the cobblestone in
front of her.
"What the fuck...." Makoto backed up against the town house
wall as she watched the duel attacks with awe. "I hope this don't
last too long...."
Du Prae smiled, smugly. He could easily defend against a
Shine Aqua Illusion Revelation.... Miste had used the attack on
him, previously, and was less than impressed with the power it
contained. He had that thought in his mind, as he lowered his
energy shield upon the subsiding of Miste's attack, and came face
to face with Miste's elbow.
"Surprise." She grinned, and pounded him one across the
street. "You have to be a moron to think I would use nothing more
than magical attacks, Du Prae...." She followed his flying form,
almost on all fours, and gripped him around the throat with her
clawed hands. "What was that you said about my failing to defeat
you on our previous encounters, Du Prae, eh?"
Du Prae felt her fingers tighten, dazedly. It looked as if
he was going to have to be a little more brutal with her, this time.
"Honestly.... Kiele.... You really... are... such an... arrogant...
fool..." He kneed her in the belly, then punched her one across the
face as she let go in surprise.
"Oi oi oi...." Makoto clenched her fists, angrily. "That's
not very nice."
"Did you think this fight was going to be an honorable one?"
Hotaru landed beside her, surprised to find Makoto's arm locking
around her neck.
"You know, kicking me off the ledge like that was a little
painful...."
"Gomen..." Hotaru swallowed.
"FOETID SLASH!" Du Prae whipped up his right hand, in a
cutting arc, at Miste. A beam of energy struck her, and threw her
back against the nearest town house, the wall crumbling upon her
entry.
"That wasn't very nice, either." Makoto swallowed.
"No, but he is, like, one of her enemies." Hotaru freed
herself from Makoto's grip. "They have tried to kill each other
before."
"Maybe I should even up the score." Makoto held up a couple
of fingers, smiling. Hotaru watched in horror.
"Not THAT! I wouldn't use that...."
It was too late. Du Prae, who had only just stood from where
he had fallen, cried out in agony as little explosions emerged from
within his body. He staggered back several feet as he clutched the
wounds Makoto had inflicted upon him.
"Your so-called telekinetic attack...." Hotaru hid her face
in her hands. "That'll really make him mad."
"It's not really telekinetic, you know. I just place little
pockets of electrical energy into his boy, then let them go....
Kaboom. It hurts come Winter, you know...."
----o
"Water-based powers?" Usashin frowned. "There shouldn't be
any Earth senshi here.... Unless, of course, Mercury survived."
"I'm telling you, someone is using water-based powers,
nearby." Michiru clutched her chest, staring out of the window of
the train carriage at the passing countryside as she leaned back
in her seat. Usashin and Kaorusagi watched her with worry. "It's
strong.... A powerful signal... It can't be anyone else but an
Earth senshi...."
"That is impossible, and you know it is impossible. There
aren't ANY Earth senshi on this planet, as far as we know." Usashin
paused. "It is possible, of course, that Uranus or Pluto survived,
and that, along with Jupiter or Saturn, have come to this world....
But Mercury WAS killed, long before the events of the Cataclysm....
There can be no other Water Earth Senshi on this planet."
"I know what I'm feeling, and it isn't good." Michiru sighed,
closing her eyes. Kaorusagi shrugged and stared out of the window.
"Well, we'll soon know. We're approaching the capital. I can
see the towers, now...." She turned back to Michiru. "And if there
is anywhere on this planet that a senshi may be called to use their
powers, it shall be there."
END OF PART 11
-------------------------------------------------------------------
S T O P
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Next Chapter - "The Door to Paradise II"
_________
/ @ \ DDFA (The Right Dishonourable Mark A Page)
/ / ^ ^ \ \ ayanami@merlin.net.au
/</ w \>\ Chief Propoganda Officer of the
\/ \/ AustrALIEN Alliance
\___________/ "I want only two things from you, your
/_/ \_\ PU submission, and your obedience to my will"!
Version 1.0 - Monday October 12th 1998