Hi!
^_^
Well, this is ironic. Here I am waking Seiji and Minako up, and all I want
to do is go to sleep. Forgive my rambling, but it's been a busy week or two
for me. Final exams don't leave a guy much time to work on fanfics, so I had
to basically go into "auto-author" mode at noon and stay there until...
well, now.
Please do me a favour and C&C this. Just let me know what you think. It's
distressingly easy, just click the "Reply" button. If you need more
incentive, my e-mail address is in the "Cc :" line of this post. And the
start of my story. Now, I'm done my rant. If anyone needs me, I'll be in
bed, dreaming dreams of fanfics yet to come. ^_~
Anyways, on with the fic! Hope you enjoy!
-Morgan Hudson
(so very, very tired... -_-)
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-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
OBLIGATORY LEGAL DISCLAIMER : None of these guys are mine. The Sailor
Senshi belong to DIC and Kodansha, while the Yoroiden are owned by
Sunrise and Graz Entertainment. Okay? So don't bother suing me. I'm a
student.
RONIN SUMMER : FLASHBACK
A Sailor Moon / Yoroiden Samurai Troopers cross-over
by Morgan Hudson (dataraven_659@excite.com)
Chapter Ten : WAKE UP CALLS
In the Hikawa Jinja, a small white cat sat protectively on the
chest of a young man in a black school uniform. A thick shock of blond
hair spilled about the man's head, hanging stubbornly over his right
eye. His left eye was closed as if in sleep, and a golden heart shone
from his forehead.
The cat sighed as he watched the teen. Immediately next to the
pair, a black cat sat on the chest of a young girl, also dressed in
her school uniform. From her forehead gleamed an emerald kanji, the
sigil of "Wisdom". Neither human moved, not even to breathe, and the
white cat groaned.
"Luna," he hissed, "what's taking these two so long? If they
don't hurry, Rei will come home from her date with Shin and catch us
here."
"For heaven's sake, Artemis! They've only been under for a few
minutes." With regal grace, the cat turned her gaze upon the tom who
insisted on bothering her. A crescent moon gleamed on her forehead as
she sighed expressively. "You're too overprotective of Minako,
sometimes. Our charges must become accustomed to danger, and if you
insist on smothering the girl, she won't be able to handle herself in
a real situation!"
Artemis scowled. "I'd like to hear you say that if it was Usagi
who was in danger!"
"That," Luna bristled, "would be different."
"You're a hypocrite, Luna."
"You're a jackass, Artemis."
A brief silence passed between the two felines as the humans
they sat on refused to give any sign of waking up. Artemis rose from
his haunches and crawled forward, staring hopefully at the boy's face.
His tail swung from side to side as he ground his teeth impatiently.
Finally, he hopped into the air, spinning around and landing to face
Luna. "What's WRONG with these two? Why isn't anything happening?"
"I think," Luna whispered reverently, "that something is. Look,
Artemis! The sigils!"
Artemis cast a confused look in the direction Luna seemed to
be facing. The glowing marks on both humans' foreheads were blazing
now, a nimbus of energy rising from each and twisting lazily as they
rose, creating intricate designs in the clouds of mist surrounding
them. The small white cat blinked, and fervently wished he still had
hands, to rub his eyes with. The twin symbols seemed to be hanging
in mid-air, shining briefly like distant stars before breaking back
down into swirling tendrils of energy that drifted slowly down to the
chest of each teen, causing the two cats to leave their perches and
hastily assume positions on the safer - by virtue of not glowing -
dresser.
Pulsing slightly, the energy reformed into twin globes of
light, one golden and one emerald. A gentle light bathed the two teens
and the two felines as the flowing balls reached for each other.
Breaking down for a final time, the tendrils of light raced down their
owners' arms, mingling together at the joined hands and merging with
an eagerness that Artemis couldn't quite explain. It was, he decided
after a moment, the way he had felt when he first saw Luna : the glee
of discovering an old friend.
Almost reluctantly, the gleaming tendrils retreated back into
the air, pulling away from each other and gently floating back into
the heads of the two slumbering forms. Once more, the sigils gleamed :
a golden heart from the girl, an emerald kanji from the male.
"They've done it!" Luna looked over at Artemis with as much of
a smile as a cat can hope to manage. "Minako and Seiji have done it!
Sailor Venus and Seiji no Korin are themselves once more!"
"Er, yeah," Artemis added with a trifle less enthusiasm, "so...
why aren't they waking up?"
**********
Sage, Court Scribe of the Moon Kingdom and Unwitting Heir to
its Throne, did something he had severely doubted he would be able to
do. In fact, it was something he would have bet good money on his not
doing that morning, or any morning after.
He opened his eyes.
For a moment, he had to admit he was quite disoriented. The
room he was in was not his. The last time he had been in his room, it
had been much smaller and had far less lace trimming. Definitely no
canopy over the bed in his room. Silk sheets were a pretty solid "nope"
as well. Making a face, he reached up and brushed back the blond hair
that was plastered to his face. In his fuzzy state of mind, it took him
several minutes to realise that not all of the hair in question was
actually his. Freezing in mid-motion, Sage hesitantly lifted his hand
from his forehead and moved it slightly over. More hair. How very odd.
With a concerned expression, and his gaze firmly fixed on the canopy
above him, Sage continued his exploration. The hair, as he had
suspected, was attached to a head. The head seemed to have a nose,
two ears, and lips, as he might have guessed.
Speaking of lips, his hurt. Pausing his tactile scan of the
starnge head in bed with him, Sage reached up and rubbed them with his
fingers. Definitely swollen, he noticed. In fact, he seemed to be
bleeding slightly from the lower of the pair. He shook off the vague
recollection of someone biting it and rolled over onto his side. Oh,
but his head ached! Mayhap if he went back to sleep, his world would
make sense again when he woke up.
Wait a minute. Had there been a head in bed with him? With the
slow and deliberate motions of someone who REALLY didn't want to be
proven right, he reached behind him and gently felt the pillow behind
him. No head. Well, he thought to himself, that was a relief! With a
sigh, he began to relax. For a second there, he actually thought that
weird dream of his had been real...
He continued thinking that up to the moment that the head in
question buried itself in his shoulder and wrapped a pair of arms
around his waist. Sage rolled back over to his back, and was rewarded
by having a gorgeous and familiar young woman curl against his chest.
Neith, he realised, and of course she would be in bed with him. After
all, it WAS her bed, and they had...
Sage finally reached full awakening, and immediately became
decidedly less relaxed as the exact details of the past night made
themselves known.
**********
Two hours later, his companion had also awoken, and Sage was
still far from relaxed. Dressed once more in the white hooded robe of
his office, he was nervously fiddling with his glasses and studying the
walls as if he had never quite realised how important the devices were.
He was sitting and fiddling when Venus awoke. He was sitting
and fiddling when she left for her shower, and he was STILL sitting
and fiddling when she came back and got dressed. She used the dressing
screen, of course, although a small part of her half wondered if
changing right in front of him wouldn't engender SOME kind of reaction.
All the sitting and fiddling was driving her nuts.
Once she had put on yet another of the ponderously elegant
gowns some foppish fool had decided were fashionable, Venus tied her
hair back behind her and walked out to face him.
"You know," she said primly, "the least you could do is say
good morning to me. I think I have been more than hospitable, and
frankly you are treating me quite poorly. Why, I've bent over backwards
to..." She trailed off and smacked herself in the forehead. Blast! That
speech had sounded so much better when she thought it up in the shower.
The blond scribe looked at her for a moment, then sighed. "I'm
sorry," he said calmly. "For everything."
"Why?" Taking a hesitant step, Venus could almost see the
threads that stretched between her and the young man. "Didn't you want
to become one with me? Body and soul?"
Swallowing thickly, Sage nodded. "It... was very... uhm...
pleasurable..." Shaking his head as though trying to wake up, the
scribe took a very deep breath. "Uhm... how are you feeling?"
Venus groaned and gingerly lowered herself into a nearby chair.
"Honestly? I'm kind of sore. I don't think we did it right..."
Sage made a face and returned to polishing his glasses on the
sleeve of his robe. "Well, I wasn't exactly there for all of it, but
I'm pretty sure that was how it's done. I mean, I kind of recall bits
and pieces..."
"Wonderful. I always dreamed my first time with a man would be
VAGUELY memorable." Venus sighed and rested her elbows on the table.
"Well, what has been done cannot be undone, Lord Sage. Do you still
love me?"
Sage stopped and put on his glasses. "Of course I do." He
sounded almost hurt that she would ever suggest otherwise. "You don't
think that..."
Venus shrugged, and didn't really care HOW unladylike it was
to do so. "My nanny always told me that most men only want one thing."
"Your nanny was a bitter old woman who never had a thought in
her head that wasn't placed there by a foul and capricious zephyr."
Sage scowled, then smiled. "This I know, without even meeting her."
"A zephyr, you say?"
"Quite. What but the wind could carry thoughts through a mind
so empty? She knows as much of men as she does of longbows, which is
to say that if we were to give her either, she would handle each but
unstring both." Sage grinned and took the hand of the girl next to him.
"I love you as much as Sailor Venus, as I did when you were Neith the
Guardsman."
"I never meant to lie..."
"And yet it seems we have done our share of lying, which, as
Rowen would argue, means we both are quite well laid." Sage grinned.
"I think I'm starting to like it in your head, Venus. I was never
this poetic before."
"I spend too much time with Jupiter and Mercury, I think."
Venus chuckled slightly and rested her head on her arms. With a sigh,
Sage reached over and began to gently stroke her head.
"Venus, dear, your hair is in the jam."
"Could you please call me Neith, Lord Sage?"
Sage smiled. "Very well, Lady Neith. Your hair is still in the
jam. Also, It seems we have made both our lives far more complicated
than we intended to. And there's still Ace, unless I'm mistaken. I
doubt he has been idle."
**********
As the sun set, and the giant Earth rose in its place, a
shadowy form snuck over the walls of Serenity's castle. It lingered in
no place long, flitting from garden to fountain to archery range,
searching for its goal. From wall to door, window to hedge it raced,
hunting always for the one thing that drove it.
The Princess. It had to find the Moon Princess.
Personal danger meant nothing. The Royal Guards, armed and
ready, would have been little more than wheat before a scythe had they
faced it, and several divisions wandered past the form without ever
realising it had been there. For amusement, the invader even picked
one's pocket. Not much there, really : it made a point of tracking the
man back down and returning his coinpurse before he ever noticed the
loss. Where was the Moon Princess? She had to be near, the figure knew
this as it knew that its arm was near its torso.
Where the hells was she? It was beginning to get frustrated as
it perched in a nearby tree to catch its breath. After all, it had
come a very long way and had no intention of reporting failure to
anyone.
Beneath its perch, a young girl with short blue hair and a
flowing metallic blue gown sat reading a book. Sailor Mercury, the
figure realised, and was about to ignore her when it noticed something
else. A small jewelled stickpin gleamed in her hair.
A soft gasp came from the shadows of the tree branch, quickly
muffled.
**********
"So, what do you say, Princess?" Venus grinned as she finished
explaining her strategy to the blonde girl sitting before her.
"I'll do it, of course, if you suggest, Venus." Serenity
folded her hands in her lap and smiled back at the other girl. "In
fact, I think it's rather a fun idea! Why, we haven't done this since
we were children, remember? And our mothers took DAYS to figure it
out!"
"Right!" Venus rose and walked over to the other girls'
wardrobe, randomly selecting garments and hurling them about. "So," she
asked calmly, "have you chosen a gown for the Masquerade Ball yet? I
think the white would look best on you, myself... and maybe a dashing
stranger will sweep you off your feet?"
"The only dashing stranger I care for is Endymion, Venus!"
Serenity looked surprisingly stern, before her face softened once more
into its usual placid smile. "I don't care what my mother thinks, I
know he will come for me. It's only a matter of time, and my Endymion
will take me away from all this..."
"That," Venus added under her breath, "is kind of what I'm
worried about..." According to her agents, Ace was planning to strike
tonight, and she still hadn't gathered any information that suggested
Endymion wasn't gleefully assisting them. Aloud, she giggled. "Oh, what
do you think, Serenity? Aren't these earrings just YOU? Let's try them
on!"
**********
"Cards," Sage whispered to himself as he wandered aimlessly
down the curving and twisted hallways of the castle. In each hand, he
held a card. One, a simple playing card, was a Knave of Stars, with the
picture only barely out of focus. The other was a tarot card, featuring
a picture of a man poling a boat along a canal. Torches were guttering
in the walls that surrounded the boat and its passengers, and a
bas-relief of a demon's head poured water from the wall into the river
that they floated on.
"The tides wait for no man." Sage tapped the two cards against
each other and leaned against the wall, lost in thought. "Ace said he
had to go, because the tides waited for no man, and he had a princess
to kidnap. Could he be planning to escape with her by boat? But how?
There aren't any rivers or oceans close enough to the castle to be
worth the effort. Even if he did, wouldn't he just have to arrange
some kind of transport off-planet anyway? And where the hell is the
Knave of Stars? Why can't I find him, when the other three were so
easy?"
A bell rang, and Sage's head snapped up. The watch tower,
ringing out the night bell. The sun had set, and he had the sinking
suspicion he was running out of time. With an anguished sigh, Sage
collapsed on a nearby bench, near one of the countless gushing
fountains Queen Serenity had studded the park with. Ace had claimed he
would move that very night, and how could he find him in the dark?
"Ace was right," Sage groaned with mounting despair, "I'm done
for. I may as well start to dig... my own..." He glanced down at the
cards he held again. Then he glanced at the fountain, burbling
cheerfully to itself. "No rivers," he said in a pondering tone, "and
no oceans... so where do they get...?"
A look of shock slowly spread across his face. "No..." He
whispered to himself, and quickly cast his gaze about from left to
right. Spying a familiar face walking past, Sage raced over to the
armoured man and grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Captain Kento! I have an important question for you. How
familiar are you with the castle?"
"What, me?" Kento lifted his arms and folded them over his
barrel-like chest. "Well, my poppa worked here before me, and his poppa
before him, and I've been tripping around here since I was old enough
to leave my crib... I'd say I know this old girl pretty well. Why?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, where does the castle get the water
for those fountains? Is it from a well, like our drinking water?"
The grizzled Captain of the Guard scratched his chin. "No...
the well's for drinking water only, in case of a siege. We'd never use
fountain water : that comes from the underground aquifer. It's fed from
the nearest river, the Stantos River. Water collects in a main aquifer
under the castle, and then the fountains draw from it like they would
any source of water. King Saigo the Eighth's idea, if I recall, to have
them built. One time, I had to lead a bunch of my men down there to
find out why the fountains were running red. Turned out a man had been
killed, and his body got caught in the main sluice gate..."
"Amazing!" Sage's grin was nearly large enough to split his
face in half. "One last question, Kento : did the main sluice grate
for the aquifer happen to be a demon head? Shaped like this?" Lifting
the card, he showed it to Kento, who nodded.
"Yes, quite like that, indeed. Why do you want to... " Kento
scowled, and Sage had to fight the urge to run. "Ace." He managed to
turn the word into a curse, something Sage had thought only he was
capable of. Then again, the scribe admitted, he'd been out of it for
a little while.
"Exactly. It makes sense, doesn't it? If the Moon Princess was
really kidnapped, Queen Serenity would scour the galaxy looking for
her. The one place our search would be the weakest is right under our
noses! I think Ace is still playing his games on us."
"Are you sure, lad? I don't think Ace would be foolish enough
to try such a thing..."
"This is the same man who hid a book in the same library he
took it from, Kento. He hides cards in his sleeves, and coins in his
pocket. Ace doesn't believe in hiding something far away from him ; he
prefers to keep his eyes on it."
Kento considered the young scribe's words. "Very well," he said
at length, "I'll pull together a few squadrons of the Guard, and we'll
sweep the cistern. If he's down there, we'll..."
"What?" Sage asked angrily. "You'll make more noise than a
herd of elephants and give him all the warning he needs to escape. OR
hurt the Princess, if he already has her. And if I'm wrong, we'd only
be making his job that much easier up here."
The older man placed his hands on his hips and grumbled
something under his throat that sounded suspiciously like the words
"finicky bastard". After clearing his throat, he levelled his gaze onto
the boy. "And what, then, do you suggest?"
"I'll go. I need to see this through to the end." Sage smiled
at the large mountain of a man before him. "Care to lend me a hand with
some backup?"
Kento grinned through his bushy beard and pointedly cracked
each knuckle in succession. "Glad to."
**********
Cye moaned and rested his head against the trunk of the tree
he was propping himself up with. In the distance, he could hear the
faint chime of the evening bell. "Come on, Rowen! It's time for bed
now! Can't we at least go inside?"
The blue haired lad standing nearby responded by grabbing
another arrow out of the ground and nocking it to his bow. "Just a few
more shots, Cye. I'm really starting to get it, now!" With a resounding
thump, the elfin boy sent his arrow into the distant target as surely
as if he had walked over and plunged it into the bulls-eye with his own
hand. "Did you see that?"
"Of course I saw that. I also saw the last twenty exactly like
it." Cye groaned and tugged the floppy beret he wore down over his
eyes. The thick fringe of brown hair that surrounded his head seemed to
almost conceal his face in shadow. "It's getting very, very late,
Rowen. And I am getting very, very bored. This was actually more fun
when you used to miss all the time."
"Well, thanks to some instructing from Princess Jupiter I don't
have those problems any more." Rowen grinned and flipped two fingers up
into a "V" as he lowered his bow. "I'm a lean, mean, archery machine!
I tell you, I can't ever repay her for straightening me out like
this... The next time Big Bro comes by for an archery contest, I'm
going to kick his butt a whole new SHAPE!"
"Speaking of nicely shaped butts," Cye added in a slightly more
interested tone, "here comes Princess Jupiter. Wonder why she's in her
Senshi uniform?"
"I don't know." Rowen turned and watched as the girl approached
them. "Maybe we could ask her? They might have some kind of a meeting,
or something."
Cye chuckled. "Sure, Rowen. They all get together for a late
night pajama party. In their uniforms."
"That is NOT what I meant," Rowen fumed, "and you know it."
Noticing that the tall brunette girl had already entered the clearing,
and showed no intention of stopping to say hello, Rowen reached out and
snagged her elbow. "Hey, Jupiter..."
Without a word, the girl spun to face them, raising her free
hand and glaring at them with vacant eyes as a glowing disc of
crackling electricity formed in her palm. Rowen yelped and both men
leapt out of the way as Sailor Jupiter hurled the disc at them. It
slammed into a nearby tree, which promptly fell to the ground with a
reverberating crash. The two men stared at each other in shock as
Jupiter crossed her arms, index and pinky fingers extended. A slim
antennae rose from the centre of her tiara.
"Hmmm," Cye mused, "I wonder if it was something we said..."
"She probably overheard YOU, you perverted lech!" Rowen
growled, and grabbed his friend by the tunic. "DUCK!"
Jupiter rose into the air, curling into an almost fetal
position as a globe of lightnig formed around her and burst into the
clearing.
**********
The Guards standing by Serenity's door were almost too easy
to dispatch. Before either even knew she was there, Sailor Mercury
had enveloped the hallway in a dense fog, and Ken easily knocked both
men unconcsious with the bell of his rapier.
In the swirling, frigid mists, Kaito Ace stepped forward, a
cloud of steam rising from his mouth with each breath. "Well, now,"
the masked man said calmly, "that seems a real waste, Ken. Couldn't
you have killed them instead?"
Ken frowned. "Let them live with the knowledge they have
failed to defend their Princess. That is greater punishment than even
one such as you could imagine, Ace."
The man in the tuxedo and mask glanced over at his armoured
and caped associate. "Whatever. Where's Sleeping Beauty?"
Sailor Mars walked out of the bedchamber, a body in a white
gown draped over her shoulder. Twin pigtails of long blond hair trailed
in the dust behind her as she walked past the two men with her load.
Ace smiled. "You know, I think things are finally starting to
go our way, Ken. In fact, there's something about your sister, there :
I like her spunk. Maybe we can keep her on, after the jewels wear off.
After all, she'll hardly be welcome in the Moon Kingdom, would she? A
two-time traitor, and never her fault. Talk about irony, eh?"
Ken nodded solemnly. "Shall we go, Ace? These guardsmen may be
taken care of, but there is no guarantee that more will not come. A
battle could rouse the castle, and our escape would be ruined."
"Right." Kaito Ace nodded to himself and began to walk away,
then snapped his fingers. "Oh! Ken, I think Sailor Mars is taking care
of our dear Serenity just fine by herself. Take care of Sailor Mercury,
would you? I can't stand dead weight, and the boat only holds so many."
Ken felt his fingers tighten on his sword. "As you command,"
he snarled. "Where shall I meet you?"
"The cistern, of course. Our boat will be waiting." Kaito Ace
blinked in surprise. "Well! It seems Sailor Mars is already heading off
without me. I leave this in your capable hands, Ken."
**********
Kento's string of complaints had begun as he entered the
aquifer via its main gate, continued as he waded through the freezing
cold water, and was interrupted only when he slipped on a loose stone
and went under the surface. In his intricate and finely wrought suit
of armour, he sank like only a man in metal suit can, and it required
all of Sage's strength, plus a torch used as a makeshift lever in a
somewhat sensitive area, to get him back up. Spluttering and spitting,
Kento apparently felt ready to begin a whole new string - of
expletives.
Sage stood calmly by as the nature, circumstance, and general
hygeine of his conception was brought into question at surprising
volume. Rubbing his ears (and wondering how exactly a camel and a
garden hose could be used in such a manner), he leaned against the
nearby wall and waited for his burly friend to run out of steam. Ten
minutes later, he realised that Kento had no intention of running out
of steam, and decided to shut him up.
"Kento, would you rather we just started yelling directly to
Kaito Ace? Sound carries really far in these places, you know. If he
hasn't heard us already, he's going to, and very soon."
Kento looked slightly embarassed. "Sorry, lad. I guess I did
get a little carried away. I'm sure there weren't any ferrets involved.
It's just... that torch got me right in the bajoogas, you know, and
that water was pretty damn cold, and I just lost it for a while..."
"No problem, Kento. Just try to keep it down a little, okay?"
**********
Rowen took time out of his frantic dodging to glare at Cye.
"I'm not sure how, but I'm sure this is all your fault!"
Cye, who was a bit busier dodging, unslung his biwa and
desperatelt tightened a few strings as he ducked behind a tree that
quickly became a pile of kindling. With a squeal, he dove over the
hedge. "Maybe this is YOUR fault, Rowen! All she wanted was to see you
glow, and you just had to go and tease her! Maybe she's lashing out at
YOU! Huh? Ever think of that?"
Rowen considered that as he leapt over a lightning bolt and
tumbled headfirst into a fountain. Shaking away the stars that were
starting to radiate through his field of vision, he was barely able to
lunge away from Jupiter's follow up attack : a punch that shattered the
side of the fountain, and nearly the skull of the elf, as well.
"What kind of stupid question is that? And what in the hells
do you think you're doing with that stupid guitar?"
"It's not a guitar, it's a BIWA! And I'm going to play
something." Cye began to strum on the stringed instrument.
"Oh, yeah, Cye," Rowen countered as he narrowly avoided another
of Jupiter's discs of lightning. "That's EXACTLY what we need : some
nice fight music to put us in the mood!"
"Hey!" Cye rose and began to play the biwa, clearing his throat
slightly. "I'll have you know that they say music has charms to soothe
the savage breast." Clearing his throat once more, he began to sing.
"Oh, away we go a wandering, a wandering, a wandering..."
A bolt of lightning hurtled from Jupiter's fingers and cleaved
the air where Cye had been standing. The biwa was struck, and shattered
into flaming pieces.
"Apparently 'they' are full of it," Rowen noted, and began to
laugh. The laugh turned into yet another yelp as he jumped behind a
piece of the broken fountain moments before a lightning bolt sizzled
the ground where he had been standing.
Fortunately for the two men, a certain shadowy figure's search
pattern happened to pass through that exact clearing at the moment.
With a brief moment lost to analysis, it swirled its cape and lunged
forward. Sailor Jupiter, it noticed, was wearing another of those
damned pins. For a brief moment, the figure was torn between the need
to fulfill its mission and the desire to help. The minstrel was already
cowering, and the other lad had risen to his feet once more. Strangely,
he had drawn a bow and arrow, and appeared to be taking aim at the
Princess of Jupiter.
The figure squinted. In the dim light, it was hard to tell,
but that form seemed familiar... "ROWEN! THERE'S A JEWEL IN HER HAIR!
AIM FOR IT!"
Jupiter spun on her heel and hurled a swirling disc of energy
at the figure, who easily dodged as Rowen fired and cracked the jewel
in half. Amazingly, Jupiter herself seemed unharmed, but promptly
crumpled. Exhaustion, the stranger decided as he locked eyes with
Rowen. The blue haired elf returned the steely gaze, and slowly nodded.
"Nice shot, Rowen." The man admitted.
Rowen tilted his head to one side and averted his gaze. "Nice
save... Brother."
**********
Ken sighed as he stared at Mercury. "Even like this," he stated
as he took a moment to devour her beauty with his eyes, "you are the
most stunning creature in the cosmos." Closing his own eyes, he leaned
forward and gently pressed his lips against her own.
"Farewell," he whispered, and pulled free the jewel. As she
fell, he caught her and lowered her body to the floor. Reverently
crushing the gem in his gloved hand, he walked over to the nearest
guard and slapped him awake.
"What are you doing, you idiot? The Princess has been taken!
I shall sound the alarm. You had best see to Sailor Mercury : she was
injured trying to defend her liege." That much, he decided, he could
do. The life and honour of Mercury would be safe.
"That much can I do," he said, glancing at the chess piece
he clutched in his hand before tucking it back into the breastplate of
his armour. "And my duty..." With a swirl of his cape, he was gone.
**********
Kaito Ace, sometimes called Danburite, often known as Adonis,
was whistling a happy tune as he wandered through the musty and misused
aqueducts that Serenity's forebears had designed centuries ago to
keep their fountains burbling and cheerful. Tonight, he was pleased to
admit to himself, the fountains would be a lot less cheerful. Due in
no small part to his humble self.
"For you see," he confessed to the unconscious blond girl slung
over Sailor Mars' shoulder, "there's really no law that says we HAVE
to give you back to the Queen in one piece... I thought maybe a pigtail
floating here, a finger over there... Just enough for those fools to
know that you were right under their noses the whole time."
"KAITO ACE!" Ken, Prince of Mars, raced down a connecting
passage and leaned against a wall to catch his breath. "Kaito Ace," he
repeated, "I don't know how it happened, but someone sounded an alarm!
The Guard are in arms, and the castle is roused! They search for us
even now : I but barely escaped."
The masked man rubbed his chin with one hand, resting the other
on his hip. "You know, that might cause a wrinkle or two in the plan.
Still, we ought to have plenty of time. Nobody could possibly figure
out we were down here..."
"Unless," Sage interrupted as he and Kento stormed towards the
four other people, "you had given into your stupid need to gloat, and
gave someone the very clue they needed to catch you."
"Sage?" Kaito Ace rubbed his mask lenses. "Is that really you?
I must admit, I had been fairly certain you were dead... but then, I
can always fix that, right?"
"This," Kento snarled, "is the end of the road, Kaito Ace.
Give up, and hand over the princess."
"Not while I still have an ace up my sleeve!" Kaito Ace stepped
back and pointed at the blond man. "Sage, join us! Help us crush this
fool Kento, and you can rule the entire Moon Kingdom! Don't you want
what you deserve? Don't you want to make your mother pay for abandoning
you? Serenity has been given everything that should have been yours! If
you help us destroy her, YOU could rule!"
Sage grinned and shook his head. "You obviously don't think
much of my intelligence, Ace. The Dark Kingdom plans to destroy this
realm, not conquer it. Even if I were tempted by your offer, I would
be the ruler of a dead world."
"Fine," Ace groaned, "be that way. If you don't want to be the
ruler of a dead world, then just be DEAD. Ken, kill him!"
The dark haired Prince of Mars drew his blade and advanced on
Sage, grinning sardonically. "Sage," he said almost conversationally
as he swung his blade in lazy, looping arcs before him, "I have a
little riddle for you. What could possibly take a man such as myself,
a man who had just seen his entire planet destroyed, his family
murdered, and his sister exonerated for crimes too heinous to speak
of, and turn him against the Queen who let all these atrocities occur?"
Sage gulped as he began to edge backwards. He couldn't even
dream of going head to head with Ken, not unless he planned to pull
back a bloody stump with no body attached. "I don't know," he gasped,
"what?"
Ken smiled. "Why, absolutely nothing, of course." Spinning on
his heel, he swung his sword in a glittering arc that clanged loudly
against Ace's own blade. "Allow me to reintroduce myself," he said with
a smirk. "Inspector Ken, of Her Majesty's Secret Police."
Ace ground his teeth. "You lying, stinking, mole. If you
weren't so damned honorable, I could actually have gotten to like you."
"Don't worry." Ken swung again, and Ace barely parried in
time as the blades rang off of each other yet again. "I'm sure it'll
pass... along with your last breath."
Sage glanced over at Kento. "Captain Kento! If we circle
around, we can overpower him!"
Ace chuckled as he blocked another strike from Prince
-Inspector- Ken, and reached into his jacket with a free hand. "I
don't think so. DELICIOUS FOUR CARD SHOT!"
A quartet of cards flew from his hand, spinning through the
air and slamming violently into Kento, knocking the armoured man once
more into the water. With a curse, Sage dove in after the man, and
the fight continued uninteruppted.
**********
Sage was quite thankful that Venus (Neith) had bothered to
reacquire his dagger, as it currently was coming in handy. As the water
here was far deeper than before, he had to move quickly to save Kento
from drowning. The poor man was struggling with his armour, but the
metal shell had simply never been designed for quick removal. Already,
strings of bubbles were tangled in the stocky man's beard, and his
eyes were bulging.
With a flick of his wrist, the young scribe tugged his dagger
free from the sheath he wore strapped to his wrist and jammed it into
the crease of Kento's chestplate, working desperately to cut through
the countless leather straps that were used to hold the thick metal
plates to both the man and each other. He wondered idly whether Venus
(Neith, the voice in the back of his head kept reminding him) was all
right, and how she had possibly managed to palm the stiletto from the
library.
His lungs burning, Sage regretfully kicked free of Kento and
surfaced. A quick breath, he told himself, and then he would go right
back down to Kento...
Sailor Mars smiled emotionlessly as she looked down at the
waterlogged scribe. Lifting one foot, she effortlessly planted it in
his face and thrust him back beneath the water.
**********
"One shall stand," Ken grunted as he crossed swords with
Kaito Ace yet again, "and one SHALL fall."
"Why throw away your life so recklessly?" Kaito countered,
leaping back to avoid a slash and bouncing forward to deliver a
riposte that tore open the other man's cape.
"That's a question you should ask yourself, Kaito Ace." Ken
parried another of the man's strikes, and slashed again, driving the
other man back against the wall.
**********
Sage sawed frantically at the leather straps. Damn stilletoes!
Why couldn't he have gotten a knife with a edge to it? Kento's
struggles were growing steadily weaker, and a strange buzzing had
filled Sage's ears. It felt like his head was going to expode if he
didn't breathe, and soon. Gritting his teeth and holding back the
breath for as long as he could, Sage continued his work. Slowly, ever
so slowly, he felt the trickle of air escaping from the corners of his
mouth. His chest was burning, his vision slowly going...
As a concession, he exhaled, and then held on for a bit longer.
He was nearly there, he could tell, just this one last strap to cut
through, and he and Kento could both be free! Nervously, he cast a
glance at the face of his friend, who was rapidly turning blue.
The strap seemed to creak with the sound of a drawbridge
opening to Sage's mind as it twisted in his slight grip. With a snap
that felt like it must have been the loudest sound since the creation
of Time, the final cords of leather tore free, and Kento's armour
shell cracked open like a well cooked lobster. Flailing wildly, Kento
began to swim upwards as well as he could in waterlogged clothing.
Sage, who was no better off, took the time to remove his robe and then
deliberately kicked off from the bottom of the cistern, rocketing
upwards and grabbing Kento's shirt on his way up. Together, the two
men surfaced and greedily began inhaling and exhaling with hysterical
glee.
"Yay," Kento noted with a wheeze, "now the fight can START."
Sailor Mars seemed to concur, as she hurled a fireball at the
pair, and both men were forced to dive back under the water.
**********
Endymion clutched his bare sword so tightly it trembled as he
ran, his footsteps echoing through the dank passage of the artificial
aquifer. The castle had been in chaos when he finally got there : it
seemed he had been too late after all. No more, he swore, and
increased his pace as he heard the clanging of blades in the distance.
Could it be that the villains had chosen the same escape route that he
himself had planned out to avoid the overzealous guards that thought
him a traitor? If so, he vowed, he would NOT fail his Princess... not
ever again.
No matter what the cost.
**********
Mars tilted her head to one side and waited passively for her
victims to surface once more. It was only a matter of time, she knew,
and the obstacles would be out of her way. The Dark Kingdom would
triumph, and all would be well. She was a good soldier, and would be
highly rewarded.
What? No, she didn't want to do this! Screeching in impotent
rage, Mars struggled to resist lifting her arms and extending her
fingers. She railed and shreiked internally as she felt the power,
always so comfortable and familiar to her before, betray her.
She almost cheered when she felt someone grab her hair and
swing her facefirst into the stone wall. Bouncing off and landing on
her back, she looked up and stared at the young girl in the white
dress as she stepped back into a combat stance. With an annoyed snort,
the girl flipped the long twin ponytails back out of her way, and
kicked at Mars' ribs.
That's right, Serenity! Mars tried to cheer. Give me Hell! Stop
me! And for the sake of all we love, SAVE MY BROTHER! Instead, she
remained grimly silent as she rolled out of the way and hopped up to
her feet, blocking Serenity's kick and responding with an elbow to the
face.
As she felt Serenity's jaw crack with the force of her blow,
Sailor Mars felt especially cheated by her inability to cry.
**********
Sage burst through the water surface once more, gasping for
breath and looking around for the next fireball. It had been a deadly
game Mars was playing with them : every time he or Kento rose above
the water level, a barrage of flame would force them back under.
He was beginning to wonder whether they would drown before or after
she managed to boil them.
To his surprise, no flame was forthcoming. Blinking the water
out of his eyes and slicking back his soaked hair with one free hand,
he soon deciphered why. On the stone pathway, Sailor Mars seemed to be
quite busy battling Princess Serenity, of all people. Sage found
himself blinking for a reason that had nothing to do with the water in
his eyes. Since when was Princess Serenity such a good fighter? He'd
seen her cry for hours just because she stepped on a bug! Hardly the
same person who had just stepped on Sailor Mars' instep and hurled her
into the stone floor hard enough to raise a cloud of dust.
"Princess Serenity?" Sage asked, raising an eyebrow as he
swam towards the edge of the pathway and began to pull himself up,
Kento gleefully following close behind.
The Princess glanced at him and shook her head. "Of course not,
fool!" Striking a pose, she thrust her hand into the air. "VENUS
POWER... MAKE UP!"
**********
"I must admit," Ace said with a cynical chuckle, "you made a
damn fine traitor. How long were you planning this little sting? Hmm?
Set up the argument with Queen Serenity? Faked a fight with your
sister?"
"This wasn't a sting," Ken replied calmly as he parried yet
another of Ace's blows, which seemed to be coming faster and stronger
with every second. "Just a happy coincidence. I WAS actualy tempted,
I'll admit, but I decided my path long ago. I merely took the role
you had cast me in, and played it to the hilt."
"Ah." Kaito slashed again, dropping undr Ken's guard and
driving forward with like a human spear. The two men slammed their
torsos together, panting and wheezing like marathon runners.
"As you said, Ken," Kaito Ace pointed out, twisting his blade
ever so slightly, "TO THE HILT."
"You realise," Ken snarled, "that I never liked you." And slid
backwards, the sword blade gliding back out through the hole it had
made in plunging through his chest. With a shuddering gasp, Ken fell,
crumpling to the ground. With a satisfied smirk, Kaito Ace pulled a
handkerchief from his sleeve and wiped the gore from his blade.
"Well," he muttered, "that was distressingly... easy?"
The unconscious form of Sailor Mars flopped onto the ground
by his feet and Sailor Venus smiled grimly. "Hello," she said calmly,
and proceeded to crack her knuckles in a way that made Ace's blood
thicken.
"You're probably expecting one of those apocalyptic final
battles, aren't you?" Ace smiled as sauvely as he could, considering a
spatter of Ken's blood still covered his face. "Well, I've never really
been a fan of those... they tend to end so poorly for us bad guys..."
A portal of glowing energy began to form behind him. "So, if you don't
mind, I guess I'll just be going."
"Guess again." The portal snapped shut unexpectedly, and Ace
turned to glare at the armoured man who entered the cistern, panting
heavily. His long black cape, silver armour, black suit, and dark,
tangled hair were undeniable.
"Prince Endymion?" Ace groaned and tugged off his mask. "This
just gets better and better, doesn't it?" With an exaggerated sigh,
he lifted his arms. "Well, okay. You got me. I give up alread-" In
mid-sentence, he threw his arms forward, and a full deck of razor
edged cards flew through the air. Endymion ducked, Kento cursed, and
Sage quickly knocked Venus out the way. With a final laugh, Ace plunged
into the water.
Endymion leapt back to his feet, sword brandished. "That
bastard! Come on, Sailor Venus, we can still catch him..."
"No." Venus had her back turned, and didn't even bother
turning to face the warrior as she kneeled.
The Prince of Earth blinked. "What? But he's escaping! He might
return, and endanger my love once more!"
"You're going to be okay, Sage," Venus continued, reaching
out and touching something with her hand. Curious, Endymion shifted
his position, and glanced over the girl's shoulder.
Oh. Sage lay with his back propped up against the stone wall,
four cards sunk deep into his chest. The wounds were quite nasty,
Prince Endymion noted analytically, with an experience born on the
battlefield. The white robe was stained a deep red, nearly black.
Maybe ten minutes, probably less, and the boy would be no more.
"It seems," Sage gurgled, "that I am to die. How very...
intriguing..."
Endymion shook his head sadly, and walked on to where Ken lay.
The Prince of Mars was dressed fully in black, and his cape was spread
wide around his body like a blanket... or a shroud. With a slight
wheeze, Ken looked up at his fellow Prince.
"I would have done it, you know," he whispered to Endymion.
"For her, I would have done it." The dark haired prince chuckled, his
star shaped crimson earrings glinting briefly as he let his head loll
back. "I guess... I just had my own role to play. It's the nature of
the game, you know. You have to follow the rules, or it doesn't count."
Fumbling in his breastplate, Ken came up with a small chess piece, and
lifted it to Endymion's view. "Give it to Mercury," the dying man
wheezed, "and let her know... I agreed with her choice..." His fingers
slackened, and his arm fell back to the floor.
Endymion reached down and used his gloved fingers to close the
other man's eyes even as they began to glaze. With his other hand, he
retrieved the gleaming ivory queen from Ken's grasp. "Farewell, Ken,"
he whispered coarsely, "the Moon Kingdom will honour you as the warrior
you were, and the hero you became. Let the people know that you died in
service of your Queen, defending your realm from the Dark Kingdom. The
rest... is silence."
**********
"It's really quite fascinating," Sage said calmly as he stared
down at the cards studding his body. All aces, of course. "I don't
think I've ever been dead, before... I certainly hope I like it..."
"Sage, it's not that bad!" Venus reached out and grasped his
hands, pressing them over the worst of his wounds. "We're practically
in the castle already : I can force the physicians to bring you back
from the dead, if necessary."
"Feh." Sage shrugged. "I suppose you could, but you are
forgetting that I am by nature very lazy, and that sounds like a lot
of effort. Maybe I'll just lie here and take a rest. Gather my
strength."
"Sage..." Venus' tone had a warning in it now. "Don't you dare
leave me! Not after all I went through to just get you back!"
"I fear I have to go, Lady Venus. The bell is tolling : night
has come." Sage grinned slightly, and a trickle of blood flowed from
his nose. "But for you, I'll stay... Just a while longer."
He said no more, although his breathing continued, and he
stared at Venus in silence for a several minutes. Finally, she leaned
forward, and gently brushed her lips against his forehead, and felt
half of her fade away.
**********
Sage was floating in emptiness. This, he reflected sadly, was
not exactly what he had expected the afterlife to be like. So far, he
was quite disappointed. Darkness, darkness everywhere, and the only
thing in the whole damn place was some stupid voice singing!
"Oh, show me the way to go home...
I'm tired and I want to go to bed..."
With lack of a better thing to do, Sage decided to follow the
voice. It sounded vaguely familiar to him, but he couldn't quite place
it. With a sigh, he found himself moving through the blackness. He
wouldn't mind, he thought to himself, if it weren't such a uniform
blackness. At least some changes in the shadows and lighting would have
been nice. Well, maybe this was just the part of death where one waited
in line for the good part.
"I had a little drink about an hour ago...
And it went straight to my head..."
A folding chair. Sage fought the urge to groan. His afterlife
was a folding chair? Whoever was in charge of eternity, he had the
feeling they had been working with a thin budget. Somehow, his disgust
at the idea of an afterlife that consisted of a metal folding chair and
absolutely nothing in the way of scenery had kept him from noticing the
large and menacing samurai until it glanced over at him.
"Wherever I may roam...
On land, or sea, or foam...
You will always find me singing this song... hey!" With a
friendly wave, the green armoured figure hopped out of the chair and
floated over to him. "It's about damn time you got here! Do you have
any idea how long I've been stuck here waiting for you?" Not waiting
for an answer, the armoured and masked man continued his tirade. "Six
thousand five hundred and thirty-two bottles of beer on the wall,
that's how long! Not to mention how many times that blasted farmer had
a dog, and Bingo was its name-o."
"I'm sorry," Sage said, slightly flustered, and hoping he
wouldn't be offending this god, or demon, or whatever was in charge of
wherever he was, "but have we met?"
"Well, of course!" The samurai placed its hands on its hips and
seemed to grin smugly at him. "I mean, we're talking, aren't we? And
how could we talk to each other if we hadn't met?"
"Who in the hells ARE you?" Sage clenched his fists. If this
was what he left Neith for, he was going back!
"I'm you, you insufferable idiot! Or at least, you're me. Or
we used to be..." The samurai seemed to think about that, then flipped
up its visor to reveal a young man who did, in fact, look slightly like
Sage. True, his features were a little more delicate, and his eyes were
a different colour (at least the one Sage could see), but the
resemblance was there. "Come to think of it," the boy said helplessly,
"I really can't make heads or tails of this either. All I know is that
you have to take my hand, and we can both get out of here, and back to
whatever lives we're headed to next." He offered a gauntlet. "Deal?"
Sage sighed as he stretched out his hand. "You know, I wish I
could say this was the strangest thing I've ever done..."
The emerald samurai snorted. "Tell me about it."
**********
Artemis turned to Luna. "That does it," he fumed, "we've waited
too long already. I say we just wake them up however we can. Or maybe
we should call in a doctor, or take them to the hospital. That Kaneda
Medical Centre seemed nice, I think Minako would like it there..."
"Artemis," Seiji interjected, "you're such a worry-wart."
The white cat bristled. "You have no right to judge me Seiji!
I'm just concerned about Minako and Seiji!" Pausing, Artemis slowly
turned back to look at the young man as he sat up and stretched his
arms, playing with his fingers and smiling. "Seiji! You're awake!"
"Yeah, and it sure is great to be me again!" Seiji slowly got
to his feet and hugged himself. "I am NEVER leaving me again!"
"But what about Minako? Did you... ?"
Seiji frowned and tossed back the thick fringe of blond hair
covering his right eye. "I don't know, furball. She ought to be here
any second now..."
As if on cue, the blonde girl sat bolt upright with a gasp.
Clutching her chest, Minako Aino looked from side to side in
disorientation, then sighed in relief. "I'm not Seiji any more? I-it
worked?"
"Yes, Sailor Venus." Luna stepped forward to explain. "We
believe our plan to stabilize the mental link you two shared has
succeeded. Tell me, do you remember anything about what happened while
you were under?"
Minako and Seiji shared a glance, and shook their heads in
unison. "Sorry," Seiji offered with an apologetic shrug, "can't
remember a damned thing. Was I supposed to take notes, or something?"
"Afraid I'm the same," Minako confessed. "The last thing I
remember is laying down here with Seiji and hoping you two could set
things straight. And you did, so... problem solved!"
"No more link?" Luna asked.
"No more link!" Seiji and Minako chorused.
"Fantastic!" Artemis interjected. "Now let's get out of here
before Rei comes home and catches us in her room!" The two cats bounced
off of the dresser and scurried past the open screen into the main
part of the Jinja.
Minako smirked and turned to Seiji. "Hey, Sei-chan... have you
ever considered wearing glasses?"
Seiji scowled. *Contacts,* he replied silently, *And don't
even THINK about cutting my hair, Neith!* Hand in hand, they left the
Hikawa Jinja.
**********
THE END