"What...?" Makoto stood floating in the air, over viewing a strange
isle bellow. She was dressed in her 'civilian' clothes, wearing a
green sweatshirt and deep purple pants with white running shoes.
She turned sharply around. "Where is everyone?" she looked around a
little bit more. "Great, I'm alone!"
"You're not alone." Makoto turned yet again to face the origin of the
voice. Her voice.
Sailor Jupiter floated facing her, but, before she could say anything,
she heard her own voice yet again.
"Indeed, you are not alone."
She somehow hovered back so she could face both, Sailor Jupiter and
the other.
When she saw who had spoken she gasped in disbelief.
A black female dragon, much like Sapphire, looked back at her.
"Who are you?" She asked both.
"We are you." both answered at the same time.
--------------------Sailor Moon; Masks & Dragons----------------------
Chapter 10;
By Wanderer D
"What do you mean?" She asked the female dragon. "I know I am Sailor
Jupiter, I've always known."
"Look at me, and tell me, Makoto, who am I?" the dragon answered.
Makoto looked at the dragon and slowly a name came to her lips.
"Darkshine..."
The dragon smiled. "That's us."
********
Black. The most powerful dragon Sapphire had ever known of, the murderer
of her two dearest friends.
The sadist who had killed countless beings to reach his ultimate goal...
whatever that was.
He was starting a war. That much was known to all. Why? Probably
because that beast had nothing better to do at the moment. So, why
not kill a few thousand beings?
Who needed after all the wonders of dwarven stone and metalwork?
Who needed the merry songs of the elves during spring, or the hearty,
strong ones of the centaurs in their beer festival?
Or the creativity of the humans?
'Dragons were born to rule!' He had said. 'Lesser races pollute the
very air we breathe!' And we had bought it, for years we were all
convinced of that ultimate truth, we were dragons. We were born to
rule. We were meant to exist!
Then, he came. He fought, he bled, he learnt, he became almost as
powerful as the black dragon himself, we all envied him... and admired
him.
But, he was different.
He respected the dwarves, why? Because we should respect those who
could do what we couldn't, if nothing else.
'Like what?' she had asked.
He had taken them, Darkshine and her, to the caves, and showed them.
Great halls of crafted stone, each detail exquisitely done, the
impressive doors of metal with the emblems of the families also
crafted into them.
Then... they had watched the elves sing to life, and the centaurs
parties.
And things changed.
They were not longer cattle. They were not longer bugs to crush under
our feet.
Black didn't like that, and killed them both, Darkshine and the last
of the shadows.
He didn't care that Darkshine was his dear Onyx. His daughter.
Her friend.
He would pay!
All this thoughts flashed through Sapphire's mind, however she found
she was almost frozen with fear.
*****
"But that's impossible! I am the reincarnation of Sailor Jupiter from
the Silver Millennium, I'm not a dragon!" Makoto said to the black
dragon, floating back.
Sailor Jupiter looked at the dragon and shrugged.
"Well, what do you think your soul did for the last thousand years?"
Darkshine asked.
"The scout's souls have been reincarnated time and again during the
years it took for the nine of you to be born in the same timeline."
Sailor Jupiter explained.
"These various factors have served to define your personalities, you
don't think that you had the same attitude in the Silver Millennium as
you do now, do you?" Sailor Jupiter added smiling.
"Actually, from what I remember... no?"
"That's right. I might say that most of the fighting part of your
current personality you got from me." Darkshine muttered.
"So I'm not human?"
"Yes. You are, just not completely human in spirit." Sailor Jupiter
explained.
"Why do I get to know this now? I thought I'd start remembering after
my transformation into Sailor Jupiter."
"You would remember your life as Jupiter's Princess and Sailor
Jupiter, but recent events have made you remember flashes from your
previous lives. In this case from your previous life." The black
dragon sighed softly. "I'm not taking your place, Makoto, I've lived
already, as has Jupiter's Princess, but you have the chance of knowing
our lives, three different lives of someone who are one and the same.
I want you to know who you were before. I learnt about Jupiter until
I died and became you. Of course I didn't have a consciousness then, the
pat of you that is my spirit learnt all this when your memories were
reawakened by Jade's appearance."
Darkshine paused for effect.
"But I won't force you, I can give you only the knowledge of dragons I
knew, and leave it like that. You wouldn't have to know me or my life,
just... technical data which might help you fight Black."
Makoto considered this. She didn't have to think much about it.
"Yes. I want to know you, Darkshine." Makoto smiled at the dragon, who
was by now smiling hopefully. "In a way you will live again through me
as Sailor Jupiter has."
Sailor Jupiter floated next to Makoto and touched her. The two fused
into one.
Makoto, Sailor Jupiter and Princess of the Planet Jupiter, opened her
arms to the black dragon.
Darkshine, smiling and shedding small tears, nodded and moved in to
embrace Makoto.
*****
"You bastard! Die!" Sapphire opened her mouth and a blast of pure
electricity flew towards Black, who stopped it casually with his open
palm.
Mask didn't waste more time before jumping to attack the black dragon
with his sword. Black blocked with his forearm, his thick black scales
stopping the blade.
Mask roared and pushed the blade down and back towards him. The
katana's blade pierced through the scales and nicked Black's arm,
which didn't mean much because he used that same arm to bat the knight
away.
The senshi were slower to react but mere moments after he had hit Mask,
Black was engulfed in fire, encased in ice, hit by rays, water and a
sphere of energy, courtesy of Sailor Pluto and Co.
Soon an Earth Shaking blew up the ground he was standing on.
When the dust settled however, the senshi gasped in surprise.
Black was unscathed. He was in fact standing there holding the battered,
melted and dirty form of Mask infront of him.
The black dragon smiled viciously at the senshi. "I think you missed."
He threw the knight at Sailor Saturn, who was trying to sneak up to him,
and dashed forward towards the Senshi.
He got past between them, and the Senshi were blown away in different
directions.
Sapphire jumped at him from behind, but Black blew her out of the way
with an unseen energy blast, sending her crashing into the rocks nearby.
Sapphire tried to get up, but a sharp pain in her arm stopped her, she
almost passed out, but shaking her head she looked at the offending
right arm... which was twisted in an unnatural angle. She swore.
*****
'What is happening?' Makoto thought as images of places she'd never
seen drifted by her.
'You are remembering...' Darkshine whispered.
Suddenly Makoto was engulfed in light.
*****
"This is definitely NOT good!" Mercury told Pluto.
"Mercury, you have a unique ability to state the obvious." the elder
Senshi answered as Uranus flew past her to land with a thud behind her.
"Oww! That guy's tough!" Uranus muttered.
"Dead Scream." Pluto whispered, as she and the other two Senshi ran
again into battle.
The battle evolved thus, the senshi slowly getting tired, Jupiter was
still out and was shortly followed by Neptune.
Sapphire had tried various spells, but the black dragon's mastery in
magic had saved him so far from any damage and the blue dragon had
suffered the results as some of her spells ricocheting back to her.
Sailor Moon had tried to use her sword, but so far the useful attacks
evaded her.
Finally, Black had had enough, and an invisible force threw everyone
to the ground. The same power prevented them from standing up as Black
marched towards Coldfire and picked her up.
"It's been fun, Senshi... but I have more important things to do.
Farewell."
A moment later both dragons were gone.
Suddenly everyone was able to move again. Tuxedo Mask helped Sailor Moon
get to her feet, and after checking if she was okay, went to pick up
Jupiter.
Neptune was already in Uranus' hands, and Sailor Saturn was healing
Sapphire's arm.
Mask had disappeared yet again, but the Senshi had more pressing matters
to attend.
Mount Fuji's eruption had subsided into a small rumble that died slowly.
"It's as if the very Earth knew that that bastard was here and complained."
Sapphire commented.
"There might be something true about that statement, dear." A new voice
commented.
Sapphire turned, ready for battle, as did the other senshi.
Rae looked closely at the old man dressed in red. "Hey, you're..."
"Red." Makoto said, as she was slowly helped into a seating position by
Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask.
Red looked at Sailor Jupiter. "I didn't realize I had told you my name..."
"You never do, old lizard." She answered smiling slightly.
While the others gaped, Ami noticed a brief change in Sapphire and the old
man's eyes, a flash of remembered pain. It quickly disappeared, and Makoto
acted as if she hadn't said anything, which further confused the others.
Mercury glanced at the others, and noticed that Sailor moon had noticed the
same thing.
Sapphire quickly changed the subject.
"You said there was some truth to what I said about Black?"
Red nodded. "There are... many things nobody knows about Black, but what
is known can enlighten you to find the truth, Black's evil is so great
that Nature itself despises him. He's not just evil, he's patient, cunning,
he will do anything to complete his purpose. And to finally do that, he
needs all the statues."
"What's the deal with the statues, anyway?" Haruka asked.
"I don't know, but I have found the location of the rest of the statues,
it is possible that if the rest are found an answer to that question will
also be found, the problem is who will find them first."
"Where ARE the other statues?" Sailor Moon asked, casually fingering the
hilt of her new sword.
"I believe you already have the answer to that." Red answered looking
pointedly at the sword.
"You don't mean..."
"Yes, the statues are in Avalon."
*****
Usagi looked over at Makoto, who was sitting alone, and turned to the
others. "Someone should talk to Mako-chan..."
"She said she wanted to be alone. We should let her... for a while, if
she doesn't come out I'll snap her out of it myself." Minako answered.
"She'll snap you right back, if you get my meaning." Rei muttered.
Usagi and the others nodded.
Setsuna limped into the room, still a little hurt from the battle with
Black. Sapphire followed her shortly, and both sat down.
Sapphire spoke first.
"We have found a way to go to Avalon... however, there's a problem."
"When not?" Rei asked sullenly.
Makoto had drifted to where the others were, but was still keeping to
herself.
"Well, the problem is that in Avalon time passes much more differently
here," Sapphire explained. "In Avalon, one day is about two months here."
"WHAT!?"
Setsuna nodded. "It'll probably take us months in Avalon to get all the
statues, IF we get them."
The 'If' didn't pass unnoticed by the Senshi, but it was a reality they had
to face. Black hadn't taken any damage from their fight, while the senshi
themselves needed time to recuperate.
"But... there is a way to avoid that... Sapphire commented."
Setsuna nodded, seemingly not to happy about that.
"How?" Usagi finally asked.
"We'll have to stop time." Setsuna answered.
End Chapter 10
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeah, well. We all know that Setsuna's main rule is not to stop time, but,
give me a break, will you? I'll explain all later in chapter 11.
C&C, flames, cars, love letters, all can be sent to wandererd@hotmail.com
or wandererd@yahoo.com you can find me on either.