Version 1.0 - 20th Jul 1998 ------------------------------------------------------------------- USAGI IS DEAD II DEAD IS USAGI by DARK DAY FOR ANIME Diclaimer - Sailormoon is owned by Takeuchi Naoko and Bandai, so these characters really belong to them, except ones I made up. This means I'm only using the Sailormoon characters for purposes benign. I'm not a ripoff merchant like "Anya Romanov". ^_^ ------------------------------------------------------------------- S T A R T ------------------------------------------------------------------- "This is it, folks! Over the top!" >Take a Long Line - The Angels< ------------------------------------------------------------------- STRANGERS ON A TRAIN.... "The Evil from Beyond? Who is that?" Michiru frowned as she looked from Usashin to Kaorusagi. She had met, briefly, with Usashin, in the past, but couldn't quite remember where, and had had very little to do with her.... It mostly puzzled her how similar the young samurai woman appeared to Usagi.... Her Princess.... Michiru wondered where she might be, at this point in time. She wondered if time, itself, was not leaping around, attacked by the forces of.... The forces of.... She kept thinking of chaos, but every time the image entered her mind, she would envisage the wraith-like image of the being that went by that name.... Chaos.... Chaos.... Maybe THAT was the Evil from Beyond that Usashin had mentioned. She puzzled over this. Usashin studied Michiru's puzzled expression thoughtfully. "I see.... So you have only just arrived here." Usashin had long become used to 'recent' arrivals on Wyccfaer. Both she and Kaorusagi had experienced the disorientation when they had, for no logical reason, found themselves on the planet, in the middle of nowhere. It was a plain, northwest of the Wyccfaerie capital of Shy.... They were found wandering, lost and dazed by a Grimcrest farmer, who had been sowing the latest crop of the bizarre vegetable, whose origins were said to be somewhere in the polar regions of the planet Kaa.... He had been understanding of their situation, and had taken them in. he and his wife had fed them a meal of roast Azen and some of the Grimcrest. Despite the dubiousness, on Usashin's part, of the colour and appearance of the food, Kaorusagi wasted no time on downing her serving and asking for seconds.... It was quite an amiable entrance to Wyccfaer, but they knew that there had been some that were on the grim side of horrifying. "You can say that, again. Do you have any idea as to how I came to be on this planet. One moment I was.... Well, I was something, somewhere.... Umm... The next I was waking up at a railway station...." Michiru swallowed, her lack of experience with the two Usagi clones making her question somewhat stilted in execution. Usashin nodded. "Hai. The emplacement of destiny. Your death made you a toy for the energies that control the system of Wyccfaer, and it is now using you as a warrior to defend itself against the Evil." Yes, that should make everything clear to her, Usashin mused. As clear as mud. "I think I'm getting a headache." Michiru put her hand to her head once more. Kaorusagi took her arm, showing concern. "Are you sure you're alright. I can get the conductor to break open the train's emergency medical cabinet." "Not that kind of headache." Michiru did her best to smile at the girl, rather embarassed at her forthrightness. She turned her attentions back on Usashin. "What was that you said about my death? I'm not dead. You can see that as clear as day." "Oh dear." Usashin shook her head. "She has a lot to learn." Kaorusagi stood back, crossing her arms and hmmmming in a thoughtful manner. "What? What have I got to learn?" Michiru looked from one to the next. Kaorusagi placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'll let Usashin tell you everything. Meanwhile, I'm going to try to find the food dispensing machines. I'm starving." And with that, Kaorusagi brushed past Michiru with a grin on her face. Michiru and Usashin watched her go, then Michiru turned back a painfully nonplussed expression on her face. Usashin sighed and gestured to her cabin. "Care to join me in some idle banter, hmmm?" The door on the opposite side of the corridor from Usashin and Kaorusagi's cabin swung open, and a strange, effeminate being, dressed in a long, flowing light green and gold cloak, with pale skin, green feline eyes, elven ears and large, curving gold horns, stared at them, crossly. "Look, will you please be quiet? Some of us are trying to get some sleep, here...." The being huffed and shut the door behind them as they stepped back inside. Michiru pointed at the door with a comical expression of shock and surprise on her face. Usashin closed her eyes and shook her head. "Alien races, my dear.... There are quite a lot of them on Wyccfaer. Something else I'm going to have to teach you about de gozaru..." ----o Part Nine The Long and Twisting Road to a Shy City III ----o THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS Hotaru and Makoto fell through the portal, crying out aloud their fear and shock, tears streaming from their eyes, and doing their level best to control their bladders.... It would be an embarassing way to go if they were to wet themselves whilst falling to their deaths.... Umi had only just introduced them to the small, white bunny thing she had named Mokosagi, when one of the nurses at the hospice they were visiting came screaming into the office, in which they had been discussing recent events, involving an attack on the hospice by anti-Usagi extremists. The extremists had come prepared with a device, called a Rubicon, thought to have been designed by Rubeus. The sole purpose of this device was to cancel out senshi powers.... Possibly to aid him in his revenge against them, no longer having the support of the Black Moon Family behind him. That revenge had failed, Rubeus dying at their hands.... And the last of the Rubicons were placed into the care of Hotaru's father, Tomoe Souichi, and the sole surviving Miko of the Moon Kingdom, Arachne Cobiale, who had also gone by the name Arachne Cervantes or Madame Scorpia. So they had thought.... It had been their hope that no more of the devices existed to plague them.... But this event had proved it to be otherwise.... The extremists, more a group of thugs than an organised militia, had obviously been given the Rubicon when they'd taken them on.... Natsagi, the catgirl Usagi clone member of the local police company, had told them that many of the devices had been appearing in the hands of known criminals and terrorists. Hotaru had speculated, before the interruption, that whomever had created them did so with the sole purpose of taking them down, and that those back in the growing township of Crystal Towers might be threatened.... The nurse had been in a bad state, babbling something about a large, swirling vortex appearing in one of the patients' rooms. Naturally, being an officer of the law, and seeing dollar signs for her dedication to duty, Natsagi went charging off to take a look, quickly followed by Makoto, who never thought twice about things when she went charging off somewhere at the merest hint of a potential danger.... Hotaru growled in frustration.... It didn't seem to matter what kind of beating Makoto received, like the one at the hands of the extremist thugs, she had this innate desire to receive more.... Maybe she was suicidal, something that Hotaru could sympathise with. With reluctance, Hotaru ordered CereCere to stand guard over Usako and Umi whilst she did her best to stop the pair dropping themselves into a pile of dung about the size of the World Trade Center.... CereCere mumbled something about always having to stand guard whilst others had all the fun, quickly silenced when Hotaru shot her her best withering expression. Next thing she knew, she was tumbling through the vortex, having already seen Natsagi and Makoto being sucked up by the swirly thing. Behind it, she was sure she had seen a face she recognised.... That of the patient.... They hadn't seen her before, when Usako had done her rounds.... But the person bore the sharpest resemblance to.... With that short blue hair.... But the woman was too old to be her. It HAD been several years since they had seen her last, but still.... With a whoosh, Hotaru hit the ground at the other end of the vortex with great speed, followed by Makoto, who, for some reason, ended up doubling back in the vortex, and had finished up behind her.... Hotaru muttered something about Makoto going on a diet, as she watched hundreds of little chibi Saturns, holding chibi Silence Glaives, dance around the carked form of Mistress Nine, singing "Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead".... She began to wonder if she was EVER going to get over that horrible little phase of her life, even whilst lying on the ground in a daze. As Makoto picked herself up off Hotaru's sprawled form, having had something soft to lessen the impact of her fall, she rubbed her head and stared around at the somewhat bleak and cold steppe-like landscape they had found themselves. At first, she thought it was her imagination, mixed in with the disorientation of being thrown about by the force of the vortex.... Whatever it was they had tumbled down. But as she blinked to clear her eyes, she began to realise that what she was seeing was real.... The horizon went on forever, or seemed to.... It disappeared into a mist, leaving the effect of standing in a vast bowl, over which hung the pale light of an orange sky, stars becoming increasingly visible as the world's sun set slowly in the east. "Kami shit." Makoto mumbled as Hotaru sat up, also taking in the same scene with equal surprise. "Where the hell are we?" Hotaru rubbed her forehead, then looked upwards at the vortex, now disappearing into nothingness. "It's closing!" "What is?" Makoto blinked at her. "The thing we fell through.... It's closing behind us!" Hotaru pointed upwards, and Makoto followed the lead just in time to see the vortex vanish. "Kami shit!" She stood. "What the FUCK are we going to do, now?" She rubbed her arms and did a little dance. Not exactly dressed for the cold weather, she was beginning to feel the iciness that blew through with the wind. Hotaru got to her feet and put her hands on her hips. "Where is Natsagi?" "Who gives a toss about her.... I'm freakin' COLD." Makoto looked at her, painfully. Hotaru sighed. "Well, she could be anywhere. She might be in a worse-off situation than we are." Hotaru had to admit to herself that it was, indeed, frigid. "Do you really believe that? If we don't find somewhere to shelter, pretty soon, we're going to freeze to death." Makoto now had her hands clasped around her upper arms, shivering uncontrollably. Seeing her do this made Hotaru follow in sympathy. "Well, can you see anywhere where we can shelter?" Hotaru gestured around them, helplessly. Makoto closed her eyes and chattered her teeth. "No, all that is around us is a vast, flat, rolling valley, covered in tufts of snow and grass, disappearing into the misty distance. In short, we're fucked." "We can try teleporting ourselves from here." Hotaru suggested. Makoto sighed in exasperation. "WHERE?" She opened her eyes and stared into Hotaru's. "We don't know where the hell we are! If we do try a Sailor Teleport, we might send ourselves further into the cold regions of... of wherever it is we are." The wind blew again, and the both of them felt a little more of their bodyheat being torn from them. Hotaru swallowed, now thinking with some desperation. "We could always try and teleport ourselves to where Natsagi has found herself.... Or someone of similar familiarity. That's often the way we've done it before." "For one thing, we don't know if Natsagi is..." Makoto gestured around her. "...Is wherever we are. Secondly...." Makoto blinked for a moment, then frowned, looking over Hotaru's shoulder. "What? What is it?" Hotaru quizzed. When Makoto didn't respond, she, too, turned. What she saw made her shiver, and it wasn't from the cold this time. "Ah.... Atrenar Kesseile and Erebus Todhunter. What a strange place for us to meet, wouldn't you agree?" The blue-haired woman, dressed in the long, flowing blue dress stepped up to Makoto and Hotaru from the point at which she had appeared. Neither knew what to say to her. "What is wrong? You appear most disturbed to bare witness to my strange arrival.... OH! Of course, you have ceased to go by those names, is this not the truth? Now, what were they, again?" The woman rubbed her chin, staring into space. "I'm...." Hotaru began. "My name is.... Tomoe.... Hotaru. And this girl with me, here, is...." "Kino Makoto. Yes, of course. Now I remember. It's a damn disgrace that I am so incapable of memorising something as simple as a name.... But then, the manner in which I was told them was less than ideal. Do you know what it is like to meet a future life in the middle of the night, within your darkened bedroom? I must say, I was most put out by the event." "Ami?" Makoto swallowed, feeling tears coming to her eyes. "Ami-chan.... Is it... is it really you?" She stepped forward, her hands outstretched in a helpless, grasping manner, as if trying to clutch at what she perceived to be the truth. The woman took a breath. "I'm sorry, Atrenar.... I mean, Mako... how is it said? Mako...chan? Yes, I think that is it. Mako-chan. I am afraid I am not the Ami you remember. My name is Miste Kiele. I am the former life of Mizuno Ami. And I have been sent here, by her, to change the horrible destiny into which we have all fallen...." "What.... What do you mean?" Hotaru swallowed, not liking the way this strange, alternate version of Ami looked at the two of them. There was something slightly.... bent, for want of a better term, about her manner.... As if she was being forced to act in a way that was foreign to her. "I think it best that we discuss this in the surroundings of a warmer clime, don't you?" Miste smiled, then snapped her fingers. The three of them vanished from sight. Almost as soon as this had happened, another figure appeared on the cold steppe plain. Naiad was glad for her thick, dark blue miko robes as she felt the sharpness of the cold breeze. She was also somewhat pissed off for having missed the trio. "Damn.... How many times am I going to fail to bump into them? This is starting to get monotonous." She closed her eyes, clenching her teeth. "You must be laughing at me, you freak of a creature.... But I'll stop you, yet...." She turned her head and looked into the sky as the sound of a deep-throated laugh softly rose over the hollow sound of the wind.... ----O BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS "Damn, that was a close one." The helmsman looked back at his captain as the passenger liner steered clear of the iceberg. "Yes, just a little further in that direction and we would have hit the dashed thing." "It was good that someone, at the very least, was keeping a lookout on things." The helmsman sighed. "These conditions are most difficult to deal with." "Yes, indeed." The captain turned to the young, blond-haired woman who stood in the doorway to the ship's wheelhouse. "We have much to thank you for, Miss...?" "Serenity." The Youma Usagi smiled. "You can call me Serenity." She looked down and shifted the flamboyant train of her long dress, enjoying the opportunity to play dress up. "It was most fortunate that I and my companion were taking up the view of the dark seas from the deck." The captain nodded. "It would have been a disaster for this ship to have been damaged on its maiden voyage." The Youma Usagi nodded and turned aside. "I must be on my way. Leonardo is waiting for me." With one last flash of a smile, she disappeared from the doorway. As she stepped out onto the deck once more, the young man who had been waiting for her jogged over from the railings, an excited expression on his face. "We DID it. We really did it!" "Yes, Leonardo, my dear, we did it." "I'm glad I decided to come time travelling with you, rather than continue with a dead-end acting career...." "Well, you know what they say. Travel broadens the mind. And besides, it was a hoot being given the opportunity to bed you first and become the envy of women the world over." She smiled at his blushing, shy expression.... Alright, Celine, she thought to herself, let's see ya turn that crappy, over-romantic piece of dung into a hit single, now! ----o MYSTERIOUS ACQUAINTANCES Makoto and Hotaru sat on the old sofa, looking a little worse for wear, as Miste sat herself, poisedly, in the armchair on the other side of the room. Silence, punctuated by the noise of factory sirens and machinery, passed between them. Having been transported from the cold plain by Miste's obviously greater control over her senshi powers, they found themselves in what appeared to be a two up, two down flat in the middle of a slightly industrial working class area of a city that Miste described as the capital city of the world they had arrived on. The walls, ceiling, carpet and furnishings of the flat were aged and stained, giving Miste cause to be embarassed. "I apologise, sincerely, for the tardy nature of our accomodation. Twas the best I could find on the short notice to which I was given." Makoto stared at Miste, dubiously, lounging back into the sofa with her legs and arms crossed. Hotaru was more keen than she to listen to what Miste had to say, now sitting forward, somewhat. Miste looked from one to the next.... How much they reminded her of Atrenar and Erebus. She despised that pair, despite often using them for her political purposes.... Atrenar.... The overbearing bully of the senshi, her head as hot as it was empty. Miste had never had anything to do with her.... Every time she had come into contact with her, there was just this automatic, perhaps autonomic, response of hatred within her. It was like a pure, instinctive hate.... A defense mechanism that would go mad every time they were within calling distance of each other. The hatred felt good. Miste could never understand why, but that hatred seemed to excite her, and simultaneously make her feel ill.... Like an intellectual antibody, preparing to kill that which threatens it. The first time she had met Atrenar, the two of them had shaken hands. Almost immediately, Miste knew the woman was using the gesture to test out her resolve. The disconcertion that Miste displayed brought a twisted smile to Atrenar's face. From that moment, onwards, Miste dedicated her life to using Atrenar for her personal gain, with the ultimate intention of bringing the woman to an early grave, once she had what she wanted. Erebus had been different, but no less hated, by Miste. Erebus was successful in gaining the candidacy of Saturn, and thus was to be sealed away in case she was to be needed. The thought of someone with such power, hanging like a silent noose over her dreams and aspirations brought the very worst out of her, not helped by the fact that, in their one and only encounter the black-haired harpy had tried to out-intellectualise her. A battle of wits.... Erebus had been top of her class in many fields, including quantam physics and debatable theology and philosophy. In that one meeting, Erebus took the opportunity to pick Miste's mind, in front of the old Queen Serenity. Miste felt debased by this, and stumbled to keep up with Erebus's train of thought. Feeling that she had had her massive intellect shamed within the court of the kingdom, she became determined never to face or relate to Erebus again, and was relieved when the young woman was finally sealed away. But she was still there.... Not a concious, interactive Erebus, but she was there all the same. The young Serenity would often try to calm Miste's defensiveness and paranoia. She had been the only one to understand Miste's feelings, and had had the power to break through her massive wall of personal defence. There had been moments when Miste genuinely felt love for young Serenity.... An emotion she thought she had long lost through the traumatic experiences of her early childhood.... Now that love of her life was to be denied the succession to the throne.... Miste took a breath and calmed herself. That was as things were supposed to be. Tranquility's life was to be short, and Serenity would, eventually, succeed her.... There was no need for the manipulation, the hatred... But it all came flooding back as she stared at the pair, who looked back at her with those SAME expressions.... The expressions the original Atrenar and Erebus had had when they first met her. Distrust and contempt. She even thought she could detect a slight smile on the face of Atre... Makoto, she had to keep reminding herself. These were NOT Atrenar and Erebus.... They had had a different childhood, and contained uniquely different personas. They were NOT the same. Not the same.... "So, are you going to tell us why you dragged us halfway across the universe?" Makoto huffed. They ARE the same.... Are the same are the same are the same.... Miste controlled the resonating thought, clenching her fists. "I'm sorry, I was thinking.... About you... About your past lives." "Really? Good to hear. Would you like to answer my question?" Makoto took a breath and looked aside. Hate me hate me hate me hate me hate me hate me hate me.... Miste felt the shiver run through her before Hotaru chided Makoto. "You don't have to be so rude to her, you know." "Alright. ALRIGHT. I'm sorry, okay?" Makoto huffed with annoyance. Miste swallowed and smiled, nervously. "That's alright.... I would expect you to be somewhat put out by my methods, but I wasn't given much in the way of choice." She swallowed again as both Hotaru and Makoto turned to her. "You said something about changing our current destinies..." Hotaru prompted her, waving a hand in her direction. Miste looked at the hand.... It was like an insulting signal to her.... Like the black-haired harpy was giving her the come on.... "Uh, yes.... It would appear that our destinies have been skewed, in a direction that wasn't meant to exist, by an outside force...." "What kind of force would this be?" Makoto squinted at her. Miste imagined laser beams coming from those eyes, boring into her skull, trying to destroy her, mind and body.... "A... A force that has no name, no true conciousness, yet exists within every corner of the universe.... An immense force of destruction." Miste went silent as Hotaru stood, surprised by the young woman's sudden movement. Hotaru slowly paced across the floor of the lounge room, towards the window, where she peered out through Venetian blinds at the drab exterior of the cobbled street. "Chaos." Hotaru said, eventually, turning to Miste. "You're talking about Chaos, aren't you." Miste nodded. "Yes. Chaos is what it likes to be called." END OF PART 9 ------------------------------------------------------------------- S T O P ------------------------------------------------------------------- Next Chapter ' "The Long and Twisting Road to a Shy City IV" _________ / @ \ DDFA (The Right Dishonourable Mark A Page) / / ^ ^ \ \ ayanami@merlin.net.au /\ Chief Propoganda Officer, Keeper of \/ \/ the Tapes and Co-Founder of the Saitou-chan \___________/ Appreciation Society - Adelaide Japanese /_/ \_\ PU Animation Society