C&C Welcome!
"Weird."
"I dunno, I liked it!"
"Yeah, I liked it too. It's just... weird."
"Yeah, I guess you're right!" Laughed Makoto as she walked out of the
movie theater.
"So," started Nathan "who was your favorite character?"
"Hmmm, Trinity."
"I've should've known!" he laughed.
"Yours?"
"Well, I can't make my mind between Morpheus and Neo."
"Oh?"
"Well if you think about it they're almost two sides of the same coin
until the very end. One has power but lacks experience and the other
has experience but lacks the other's power, they both share an unbreakable
commitment. At the end I believe Neo was like a mixture of both."
"Weird." Makoto laughed.
Nathan smiled, remembering that Makoto had been very depressed that
morning.
"Hey, I'll buy you an ice cream, let's go!"
Putting his arm around her shoulders they started running. 'I won't
see you that depressed again Makoto, not if I can help it.' Nathan
thought as they ran.
--------------------Sailor Moon; Masks & Dragons----------------------
Chapter 4; Code of Honor
By Wanderer D
"Well? How is it?" Nathan asked.
Makoto gulped down. "Delicious! How about yours?" She immediately
placed another spoonful of banana split into her mouth.
Nathan nodded, unable to talk with is mouth full.
Both snickered, then continued eating.
"You said Jade was killed? Good riddance. I never liked the bastard."
Winter stood on a large mountain looking at an enormous Golden
Dragon. "Listen 'Gold', I couldn't agree more..."
"Tell me, Winter. Why is it that you stay in that form? Half dragon,
half human? It's convenient, sometimes, but I like better the real
dragon form, it's better suited for battle."
"That's out of the question! Are you going to pay your debt to Lord
Black or not?!"
"Be careful, white dragon. In that form you don't stand a chance
against me, even in your real form you don't. I will pay my debt to
him rest assured. I'll go to him once I've resolved some minor matters.
Now leave."
"You'll receive further instructions from Lord Black himself." Winter
said before flying away.
'Gold' watched the white dragon as it disappeared in the horizon. "I'll
pay my debt to that murderer, and then I'll be free to kill him." he
muttered.
A tree is suddenly cut by a flash of light. For a moment it remains the
same, then it slowly slides to its side and falls.
Behind it we see an armored man, his face covered by a silver mask, made
of the same material his armor is. His helm looks like the head of a
silver dragon, a black cape falls from his shoulders almost to the
ground, and in his right hand he holds a katana.
His blue eyes shine with hatred and barely controlled anger.
"They'll all die."
>From his armored hand a small beam of white-hot energy shoots out,
setting the tree on fire.
"Yes. They will die."
Turning around, Mask walked into the forest.
Inside the Hikawa Temple:
"Usagi, are you okay?" Asked Rae
"Yeah."
Minako, Rae and Ami looked at her friend worriedly. "What about your
parents?" Ami asked.
"They're okay, I guess. They left to one of my aunt's houses."
Minako nodded. "Where are you staying?"
"With me." Mamoru said, sitting down.
"With you?!" Rae exclaimed "What did her parents say?!"
"Well, after we all talked, and we told them about what had happened to
us, they figured out they could trust Mamo-chan." Usagi offered.
"Usagi's father even called me 'son'." Mamoru said smiling.
"And how wrong they are..." Minako muttered.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"
"Uh... Nothin', uh, well, I guess you're happy now, Usagi?"
"What have you got, Ami?" Usagi asked changing the theme completely.
However, everyone noticed Mamoru and her were blushing.
"Well, the book Nathan lent me did have reference to something like we
have seen." She pulled the book from her bag and opened it.
There were some drawings there. One of a human, the other of a dragon
much like Jade and another of an occidental dragon. (That's four limbs,
wings, throws fire, about 14 stories high... ever seen DragonHeart?)
"Apparently the world long ago included all the mythological creatures;
elves, griffins, Pegasus, dragons... even mermaids. A long time ago
this world was separated and the mythical creatures were stuck in another
world than ours, and that's where the dragons live." Ami pointed to the
drawings. "This says that some dragons were capable of achieving two
forms; Their own and the one we saw Jade with. Fewer still are able to
transform into three, those two and into a human. However those are very
rare and from what I've read only one could do it and he's dead."
She then closed the book. "The rest are only stories and legends which
are of no apparent use at all. The strangest part is that this book's
covering is not normal. It's made out of dragon hide, it seems."
"Dragon hide? How did Nathan get a book covered in dragon hide?" Usagi
asked as she held the book up for inspection.
"Maybe he found it?" Offered Mamoru.
"Or maybe he knew about it all along?" Minako said taking it from
Usagi's hands and inspecting it herself.
"Well, this may sound crazy. Or, then again, maybe not." Ami started.
"Have any of you considered the possibility that Nathan might be Mask?"
"What?!"
"Well, think about it." Ami argued "Both appeared at about the same
time, both have blue eyes..."
"Nathan always wears black..." Usagi muttered.
"Yes, but that's when we see him without the armor! Besides, they both
know about dragons, have the same height... and then there's the book."
"Well, even if Nathan is Mask he has helped us a lot." Minako added.
"Nathan is not Mask." Rae stated.
"How can you be so sure Rae?"
"I met Nathan recently. But every time we see Mask I can feel an...
evil presence growing each moment. I do not know what Mask is up to,
but it's not good."
"And you haven't felt that with Nathan?"
Rae shook her head. "No."
[Sigh] "Okay, maybe he's not Mask. But since he surely has more
knowledge of this than us, we ought to watch him for a while."
The others nodded.
"Wait, if he knows so much, why don't we just ask him?" said Usagi.
"Oh, yeah, right. 'Excuse me, Nathan-kun, I'm looking for information
on rampaging dragons... why do I need it? Oh, it just so happens that
I'm a sailor scout... oh, yes.. hahahaha. sure, thank you for the info.
Bye, bye now.'"
"You needn't be sarcastic Minako!" Usagi whined.
"Oh, shut up Usagi!" Rae ordered. Usagi responded by sticking her
tongue out at her, which ofcourse made Rae mad at her.
"Just great." Ami muttered.
Nathan and Makoto stood outside her apartment laughing softly.
"It's been a great day Mako-chan."
Makoto sighed happily, "Yes, it has Nathan-kun..."
"Nathan." He insisted smiling.
"Nathan. Tell me, what are you doing tomorrow?"
"I don't know... it's Saturday right? Nothing to do yet, why?"
"Ami's been calling everyone for a day at the beach. She told me
to ask you. What do you say?"
"Sure! I'd love to go!"
"Well, then I'll meet you here tomorrow at... 7:00 I guess."
"I'll be here."
"Okay, see you tomorrow then, Nathan-kun." she said kissing him
on the cheek. She went into her apartment before he could react.
"Just... Nathan..." he muttered surprise. He slowly touched with
his fingertips the exact place where Makoto had kissed him.
Still holding his hand there, he walked away. "Makoto..." he
whispered.
On Saturday morning, at about 7:15, Makoto and Nathan walked into
the train station, where Usagi was waiting for them. Usagi saw them
and waved at them until they went to where she was sitting with
Mamoru.
Makoto looked surprised from the yawning Mamoru to Usagi. "Usagi?!
Why are you awake?! I thought you'd be the last to come!"
"For a day in the beach with Mamo-chan and my friends? Never!!"
Luna had a huge sweatdrop. 'Why can't she do that when it's school
days or when we have a meeting?' she asked herself.
The next to arrive were Minako and Artemis, who was sleeping inside
her bag.
Then Rae, then Ami, who looked in surprise at Usagi and Minako.
Gold appeared before Lord Black in a half-human half-dragon form.
Nodding coldly he awaited for the dragon lord to speak.
"I see you've come." The Dragon Lord muttered darkly. "Why did it
take you so long 'Gold' ?"
"Council matters."
"That shouldn't have been a problem."
"It doesn't matter anymore, it is done. Tell me, why do you need me?"
"I need you to get some... things for me."
"What things?"
"None of your business."
"When I give you these... things... will all my debts be paid?"
Lord Black nodded.
"Well then, tell me what I should look for."
"Who owns this place?" Nathan asked looking at the house near the
beach.
"It belongs to Ami's aunt." Makoto answered.
"It's very nice..." he said as they stepped in.
Soon, everyone was playing around in the beach, eventually they
started playing volleyball and other organized beach sports. Everyone
noticed that Makoto and Nathan were always in the same team.
Gold walked away from Black's throne room, he 'felt' he had left it
before noticing. One moment he was standing in space, the next in
the halls of a large castle.
"Why are you doing this, Gold?" came a female voice from his back.
"Sapphire. It's been a while." Gold turned around smiling.
The blue dragon, however, didn't smile.
"Why have you joined Black's lost cause?"
"For the same reason as you, I guess. Besides, I haven't joined him,
I'm repaying my dept. When that is done, I shall kill him."
"Yeah, right. I think you're out of your mind, don't you remember?!"
Gold's face darkened as he frowned. "How could I?"
"He eliminated a whole dragon species! By himself." she prompted.
"Then, the last one of those dragons appeared. You know, for a moment
I had a small glimmer of faith."
"Me too. I knew that dragon. And I was Black's daughter's best friend
too. He killed them both."
"I thought Shadow would've been more intelligent, how dared he try a
frontal attack? It was stupid."
"He was blinded by pain." she argued. "We both know he was almost as
powerful as Black."
"Almost. He should have controlled himself!"
"Black killed his one love! Black's own daughter!"
"Still. There's no excuse."
"You've never been in love have you?"
"No. But that doesn't matter. It was a millennia ago."
"Not enough time to forget, is it?"
"No."
"Then why do you work for him?!"
"Because I ALWAYS pay my debts!" Gold said forcefully. Then turned
around and left. "And when my debt to Black is paid, I'll pay my debt
to both, Onyx and Shadow." he promised himself.
Gold met Winter in the halls.
"Well, hello, 'Gold'."
"What do you want, you pathetic excuse for a dragon?"
Winter ignored the comment and continued. "When are you going to go for
it?"
"Tonight."
"Tonight? Why not now?"
"Because, right now the place will be crawling with humans, and, while
they don't mean a damn to you... I don't kill for pleasure."
"Fair enough, 'Gold', but if one sees you it should be destroyed."
"Agreed. Now leave, your constant speaking is filling the room with your
fetid smell."
The smaller, white dragon walked away, leaving him to his own thoughts.
That night:
Nathan and Makoto walked along the shore, hand in hand. They hadn't
noticed it, but when they did they didn't seem to care.
They had been walking for quite a while. They couldn't see Ami's house,
but they knew the general direction.
"Makoto..."
"Hmm?"
"I wanted to tank you, it's been great being here with you and your
friends..."
"They consider you a friend too, Nathan, that's why we invited you."
"Makoto." They stopped and looked into each other's eyes.
Suddenly they heard a noise. Curious they walked away from the shore to
where they saw a small light.
Gold stood looking at his sand and water elementals. Alone, both were
slow and clumsy, but together...
The water elemental looked like a whirlwind made out of water, it sped
over the place it was supposed to dig, absorbing sand, that was,
in turn, absorbed by the sand elementals that kept it away from the
place where the other dug.
He suddenly was aware of a young couple that stared for a moment in
amazement then started running away.
"What was that?!" Nathan asked as they ran.
"I don't know..." Makoto did know, but she couldn't just tell
Nathan... not now anyway.
"Well, we'd better get out of here... wow, a dragon!"
Gold landed before them. Makoto unconsciously adopted a fighting
stance. Nathan seeing her, followed suit after a moments doubt.
"Hmm. I thought there wouldn't be any humans around at this hour. Who
would've guessed."
"Like you'd care dragon!" Makoto shouted.
"Hmm. You'd be surprised, human. I'm sorry."
Gold traced an arcane symbol in the air, and both Makoto and Nathan
were encased in a semi-transparent box.
There was enough space for them to stand, but not much.
Gold grabbed the box and spun in place twice, throwing it into the
ocean.
When it had sank completely, Winter appeared. "I thought you didn't
kill humans, 'Gold'"
"I said I didn't LIKE to kill humans."
Gold went back to work leaving Winter staring into the sea. "You
sure like kill them alright. They'll die slowly from lack of air..."
Laughing he flew into the night air.
The magic box hit bottom with dull thud. The box became completely
transparent after a few seconds, allowing both prisoners a beautiful
view of the ocean.
Makoto hit the box again, without much success, meanwhile Nathan
passed his palms against the surface of it.
"Damn that dragon!" Makoto swore, sitting down inside the box. Nathan
stood for a longer moment, then sat down.
"Well, at least it's got a nice view..." Nathan commented. To his
credit he was taking imminent death pretty good.
"Yeah, but we'll eventually suffocate in here... I'm sorry Nathan..."
'You won't die.' Gold's voice resonated inside the box.
Makoto immediately stood up. "You!"
'Yes, me.'
"What did you mean we won't die? If we stay here we'll eventually
run out of air!"
'You won't. I don't kill mindlessly. The box that contains you infact
extracts the oxygen from the water around. You'll be free after a
while, when I'm finished with these matters. You won't remember
anything, so you might as well savor the moment.'
The presence disappeared. Makoto sat down and avoiding drawing
attention from Nathan pressed a button on her watch.
They had finally found something. Gold ordered the elementals to step
aside. Looking down he saw a small object glitter in the dark. He
jumped into the hole and retrieved a small dragon statue. 'This must
be it.' he thought.
Jumping up he looked at it closely. "Hmm. Brass. Pretty good
manufacture too, I wonder if it was made by dwarves..."
A red rose hit the statue and it fell from his hand to the ground. Gold
turned around annoyed. He sighed. "Why couldn't you just leave me? I was
about finished here." With his tail he picked up the statue again.
"You won't take that statue for your evil plans! I Sailor Moon will
punish you!"
"Great." Gold looked at the rest. "Well, do you have a name?"
Everyone was taken aback for a moment, but Ami quickly recovered.
"I am Sailor Mercury."
"Sailor Mars."
"Sailor Venus."
"I am Tuxedo Mask."
"Aren't you missing some planets? Anyway, I'll fight you so you'll leave
me alone." Gold made the statue disappear.
'I'm sorry, young ones, but the appearance of a group of youngsters will
delay your freedom for the moment.'
Makoto swore under her breath, she had hoped they would think of freeing
her before fighting.
"Well then. I am Gold."
Gold mentally ordered the elementals to attack. He had given them a
simple command, they would use more force eventually, and only if necessary.
The water elemental's attack was fast, the whirlwind started spinning
faster and it shot small water bullets at the scouts. It's attack was very
fast, while the slower attack of the sand elemental made them a strange
combination.
The sand elemental attacked Tuxedo mask, Sailor Moon and Venus, While the
other concentrated on Mercury and Mars.
"Shabbon freeze spray!"
Sailor Mercury's attack hit the water elemental. It turned to ice, but it
still continued attacking. The water bullets were more dangerous now.
The sand elemental grew in size and strength as it moved towards the others.
Tuxedo Mask turned into prince Endymion and prepared his sword. "You
distract it while I destroy it!"
Venus and Sailor Moon nodded and jumped to the sides. The deformed creature
turned it's head to look at the jumping figures and Endymion attacked.
Gold watched amused as Endymion cut his elemental's magical center in two.
"Very good! But not enough!"
Endymion and the others looked in horror as the elemental reconstructed
itself. "But how..."
"Ah, remember that sand is softer than earth and that it falls back into
place." Gold hinted.
"Damn!" Tux avoided a sand mace that hit the earth below him as he jumped
high.
Below water Makoto could literally feel her friend's trouble, but unless she
was willing to tell Nathan of her secret she wouldn't..."
Just then Sailor Moon was hit by an ice bullet. The pain was endurable, but
it still hurt her a lot.
Makoto sensed Usagi's pain, and groaned. She should be up there fighting.
She turned to look at Nathan, who looked at her.
"Mars flame sniper!!" Mars fired her power at the ice elemental. This drew
Gold's attention.
The ice elemental vaporized, which earned a small cheer from the scouts. It
the started condensing and turned into a water elemental again.
The elementals stopped suddenly. Then began mixing together.
"You youngsters are pretty good for humans. If those were normal elementals
you would've destroyed them already. However, this elementals were formed
with the magic of a Gold Dragon. That means they are fire resistant.
Although not impervious to it. Now, let's see how you handle this."
The two elementals had mixed together, forming a new kind of elemental, like
mud.
It was stronger and faster than those before, as it turned completely into a
spiked ball and whirled towards them, missing by millimeters.
It stopped and turned into a human like figure with a red glow where the eyes
should be.
It lashed out with one 'arm' that stretched out and hit Endymion on the
shoulder.
Mars looked at the others. "We have to use all our energy at the same time!"
Everyone nodded. Each gathered all the energy they could, then let it out.
The huge blast was about to hit the elemental when Jupiter jumped out of the
water.
"SUPREME THUNDER DRAGON!!!"
The lightningbolt hit the elemental at the same time the combined attack did.
There was a flash of light, and, when it cleared they saw the elemental had
turned into quartz, for a moment it stood there, then it collapsed.
"I have the feeling we'll meet again. When that happens I hope you're better
prepared..."
Came Gold's voice from the deserted beach. Then Gold was gone.
Just then they heard coughing behind them. Turning to look they saw Makoto,
back in her civilian clothes, dragging Nathan away from the water.
They immediately left when Makoto made them a signal to do so.
Gold watched the two humans as they walked away. He had acquired a lot of
information about this fighters, although the 'knight' that was seen with
them for the last battles hadn't appeared. He turned to leave, but looked
at the retreating couple for a moment.
'If that girl was Jupiter... maybe the kid is the 'knight'?' he thought.
'There will be time for that later.'
End Chapter 4
-------------------
Another chapter finished! Yes! Well, what do you think? As usual comments
and such please mail to wandererd@hotmail.com
Hope you like it!
And, as usual;
Standard Disclaimer; I'm using the Sailor Moon characters with no
permission whatsoever, and therefore anyone reading this must remember
it's not what the original creators had in mind. I'm also gaining
absolutely nothing remotely similar to money and what I write is as an
appreciation of this wonderful series. The other characters however,
are my creations and are also copyrighted, anyway I know you really don't
care so I wont mention anything else.
Wanderer D