Quicksilver's Quill Offers:
A Woman Scorned
mbsilvana@yahoo.com
standard disclaimers
AN: This is rough draft... lemme know what ya'll
think. My spell check is down, and I'm looking for
someone with one who would beta for me.
First season romance... done QS style!
Prologue: The Final Straw
With a flick of her wrist, she brought her fan in
front of her face, smiling slyly as her latest droido,
Droido Analytika, threw a chalkboard at the small
Mercurian Senshi. The blue-haired warrior deftly
rolled out of the way, preparing to launch an attack.
"SHABON SPRAY!" she called, flinging out a bunch of
bubbles that quickly fogged up the area.
Esmeraude quickly teleported away, aware that all the
humidity would play absolute havoc on her hair.
Analytika, though, barrelled straight at Sailor Moon,
unhindered by the magic screen. Esmeraude grudgingly
admitted that Saffir had outdone himself with this
droido, having her rely on an ecolocation system
rather then the more standard eyesight he had usually
incorporated. Whipping out a calculater, she used it
to start throwing glowing numbers around. From her
vantage point high above the fight, Esmeraude let
loose one of her trademark laughs.
It turned out she was savoring her victory too soon.
It seemed that the weakness inherent in this droido
was electricity related. Esmeraude absolutely hated
that; how could EVERY SINGLE droido be flawed?
Saffir had tried to explain to her about the price of
magic and started ranting about a "debt" system, which
had gone straight over her head. All that mattered
to her was that the Senshi always seemed to win,
destroying her plans every single time.
The mist dispersed in time for her to watch the
green-skirted Senshi (the one who had called her an
old hag!) fry Analytika with some kind of lightning
bolt. Then the pretty little moon twit finished the
job by waving around a fancy wand, and Esmeraude
almost screamed. It was on the tip of her tongue to
start swearing vengeance, but she sighed instead when
the Senshi all looked at her. "Darn it," she said,
not in the mood for any more elaborate insult. Then
she opened a portal and slid back to the future, ready
to give Demando a report.
Landing in the foyer, she stumbled slightly. Damn
floors- all of them were made of sleek obsidian, and
hardly gave any purchase for her feet. She grumbled
slightly to herself, waving the fan with annoyance.
Right now all she wanted to do was go back to her
quarters and have a nice, hot bath while reading a
totally trashy novel. Unfortunately, she had to
report to Demando first.
"Fail again, Esmeraude?" came the last voice she
wanted to hear.
Turning around on one heel with patented grace, she
stepped towards the speaker, leveling the fan at his
eyes. "What makes you say that, Saffir?" she asked,
trying to stall for time.
He smiled and leaned against the wall, his arms
folded across his chest with arogant confidence.
"Because if you had succeeded, you would have
teleported dirrectly to the throne room, rather then
out here," he said with complete conviction.
She looked at him, ready to spew some venom, then
sighed and walked around him without a retort.
Saffir watched her go with puzzled eyes, trying to
figure out why he was slightly disappointed. It was
like she was losing some of her spirit, and though he
didn't like her, it was nice to know that one member
of their Clan could be so passionate. Demando was
usually as cool as ice, while Saffir considered
himself emotionally crippled.
When Esmeraude arrived at the daunting doors that led
to the court of His Serene Highness, Prince Demando of
Nemesis, she hesitated for only a minute before
entering.
Immediately she recognized that two things were wrong
with the scene in front of her. First off, the
Wiseman was there, lurking in the shadows the way he
always seemed to. Esmeraude didn't like him at all,
but Demando relied on the strange wizard's advice, so
she did not complain. Demando couldn't possibly be
wrong- it just wasn't in his nature.
The second thing was the image of Neo-Queen Serenity
that hovered in the center of the room. Esmeraude
glared at the figure of white and gold, wishing that
Demando would get over his petty little fascaination,
and return her affections as openly as she wanted him
to. He loved her; he had to love her. With a sigh,
she walked into the room, swaying on her heels
provacatively.
Demando looked up from his comptemplation of the Neo
Queen. "You failed again," he stated, rather then
asked.
She was unable to hide a flinch. "Hai," she said,
about to launch into an explanation, but he
forestalled her his an upraised hand.
"You disapoint me, Esmeraude," Demando said. "I had
thought you more competent then Rubeus," he began, his
smooth voice like balm to her soul, no matter what it
was saying. She could listen to him speak for hours
on end. "It seems I was wrong."
"Please forgive your humble servant," she said. "I
will do better next time," she promised.
"Will you?" he asked, his voice clearly telling her
what he thought of her capabilities.
"Your Highness!" she said, protesting his apparent
lack of faith. "I have-"
He waved a hand. "You are dismissed, Esmeraude," he
said, returning his attention to the floating holgram.
She looked at him, wanted to say something -anything-
to get his attention back. Demando, though, was
absorbed by Neo-Queen Serenity. She bowed her head
briefly and teleported away to her quarters.
Very few people had ever seen the inside of
Esmeraude's chambers, and the few who had, were
surprise. Her room was very spartan, and there was
only one mirror, in the bathroom. Aside from that,
she lived simply, with little luxury aside from the
products she used to maintain her physical features.
She had one shelf in her room devoted to books, for
she used to be an avid reader... until.... until.....
she couldn't remember what had happened, but one day,
the entire way she looked at things had changed.
Sometimes she almost thought she knew why, but then
her thoughts would once again wander down the path to
Demando, and the fragile bit of understanding she had
gained would crumple, and fly away like dust in the
wind.
Esmeraude dropped her fan to the floor carelessly,
then leapt onto her bed, grabbing one of her largest
pillows and huggiing it to her ample chest. For a
while she laid there, willing her mind to still, but
her thoughts were in turmoil. Demando was so cruel
to her- how could he be? Why did that bitch Serenity
steal her beloved?
'I will not cry,' she thought. 'I have cried to
often lately,' she said. 'I am the most beautiful
and attractive woman in the world- men fall at my
feet. There is no need for me to cry,' she resolved.
She rose to her feet again, her eyes sore from unshed
tears. Stalking over to where she had dropped her
fan, she picked it up and collapsed it, thoughtfully
placing it in her top dresser drawer. She couldn't
let herself be noticed if what she was planning was to
succeed, and she knew her fan was her trademark- so it
had to go. With a sigh of resignation, she went to
Saffir's study, determined to see him.
"Saffir!" she called from the doorway, then pushed
right through. If she waited for him to give her
permission to enter, hell would freeze over.
The younger man sat at his desk, leaning over one of
his many beloved computers, running statistics. He
looked up to meet her eyes, and she could have sworn
she saw a touch of shock in them. "Esmeraude?" he
asked, as though he couldn't quite believe it was her.
She smiled at him. "I know you did a whole bunch of
research on Neo-Queen Serenity," she said. "Did you
ever manage to find out what her mundane identity
was?"
Saffir stared at the Green Lady for a few moments,
trying to gather his scattered thoughts. "Um, yes,
but you can't kill her, or else you would upset the
time-stream," he said.
Esmeraude's brown eyes flashed, and he involuntarily
pulled farther away from her. Something seemed to
have snapped within the green-haired woman, and woe
betide any who got in her way. "I know that!" she
declared, advancing on him. Before he realized what
was happening, she had him by the neck, forcing his
wide blue eyes to meet her own. "I want to know
about her- in particular, her relationship with
Endymion," she said.
"Let me go," Saffir hissed, "or I'll never tell you
what you want to know."
She did, keeping a steady glare on him as he
straightened his shirt. "Speak," she commanded.
"Serenity was originally known as Tsukino Usagi, the
Rabbit of the Moon. Her husband, Endymion, was known
as Chiba Mamoru, the Protector of Earth. They met in
1992, and after a somewhat turbulent courtship, they
settled into marriage when Serenity, still known as
Usagi, turned eighteen. In her twenty-second year,
she unfroze the Earth and ascended to the throne, and
took on her new name," Saffir spat out rapidly,
determined to get rid of this annoying woman as soon
as possible.
"Turbulent courtship?" Esmeraude asked.
"Yes. They apparently didn't get along too well at
first, and then he had his memory erased, then he
broke up with her, then he was kidnapped, and finally
he was killed, though she managed to bring him back to
life."
"Sounds like she went through a lot for him,"
Esmeraude mused, resting a finger upon her chin
thoughtfully. Then she smiled slowly, and Saffir felt
his heart catch in his throat. She looked dangerous
and brilliant, and Saffir suddenly had a flashback to
when they were younger, when she wasn't as dense as
she was now. It was almost as though she was shaking
off the dust that had clouded her brain and actually
started to THINK for a change. "Perhaps it's time to
proove that old saying...." she drawled, her smiling
widening by the second.
"Old saying?" Saffir asked, not following her train
of thought- and it WAS thought, he realized with
disbelief.
"The one that goes, 'Turn About is Fair Play?'"
Esmeraude said, letting one of her ear-splitting
laughs loose before leaving the room.
He blinked, still in a state of utter shock. "I
would have said, "Hell hath no fury like a woman
scorned,'" he said, rising to his feet. Esmeraude
was planning something, and he decided to follow her
into the past. This time it seemed that she was
actually using her mind, and that worried him. There
was no telling what havoc she was going to wreck on
the time stream. "I had better follow her," he said
softly. "I have a VERY bad feeling about this."
END PROLOGUE
All feedback is encouraged.
=====
Quicksilver
Lady of the Labyrinth
Full time student and part-time writer
http://www.homestead.com/quicksilverslabyrinth
"You haven't lived until you've danced the dagger's edge."
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