The Four Lovers: Interim
CHAPTER FIVE
THE FINISHING TOUCH
They appeared in the large, empty study at
Nate's house.
"Whoa...that was odd," she said as she
stood. The three of them still knelt, though
the pain seemed to be easing. She gently
touched each of them on the shoulder, saying,
"We're safe now."
The three of them seemed to open their eyes
as one, and looked around. "I'm...home,"
Nate said. His eyes widened suddenly. "Oh
no--the car!"
"We'll get it later," Kevin said, standing.
He winced slightly at the throb in his head,
then looked squarely at Sailor Moon. "Right
now, there's some explaining that needs to be
done."
She sighed, and then de transformed in front
of them, revealing plain, old Serena. For a
moment, indecision flickered in Kevin's eyes,
and she wondered if she was going to be let
off the hook. Then, they hardened again, and
she knew that there was no hope.
she thought,
sitting on the comfortable floor and
stretching out. She really wanted to take a
nap--being Sailor Moon after so long was
harsh--but she knew they wouldn't let her see
her pillow until she explained somethings.
"Where do you want me to start? The
beginning, or why I left?" Pain flickered in
her eyes for a brief moment, then vanished;
still, Kev noted it.
"From when you left," he said. "We don't
have time to listen to the WHOLE story."
She nodded. They didn't, really.
"It began," she started, "one day, as I was
walking with Molly..."
* * * *
Concisely, Serena's story goes like this:
During the time period between Beryl's
"death" and the arrival of Ann and Alan, the
Senshi had no idea who the others were. They
chose to pursue their own interests, and did
so with success. And one of Serena's
interests was romance, and with romance came
traveling, and what better romantic, far off
place than America? She often dreamed of the
stories she'd heard, and even though her
English was terrible, she longed to go there
in her secret dreams.
One day, while she and Molly were walking
home, they spied an advertisement that caught
Serena's eye. "Go to High School in
America," she read. "Oh Molly! That would be
just so cool!"
"It would, Serena," Molly'd replied, but she
internally rolled her eyes. Serena ALWAYS
was going off on tangents like these, and she
knew she'd hear about it for days on end.
The only thing was that this trip was about
SCHOOL. Serena would NEVER make anything
that had to do with SCHOOL, in her opinion.
However, Serena had other ideas. She
obtained as much information as she could,
and then filled out an application. To her
surprise (and most others), she was picked
for an interview.
Now, there are two versions of the story
here, and since they don't quite jibe and are
short, you'll hear both. One is that the
woman who chose Serena for an interview was
one of those SPECIAL people who know things,
and she knew that Serena had to go to
America. The other is that the person was
youma who scanned her sheet, found out who
she was, and decided to exact a little
revenge by getting her out of the country.
Which one to believe, no one knows, and no
one cares. Yet it is known that all Serena
had to do was "be cool" with going, and she
was on her way.
Then Alan and Ann showed up, and the return
of Sailor Moon put the trip on the
backburner. Somehow she knew that letting
Luna or the reformed Senshi know about the
trip wouldn't be right, and she never
mentioned it. She also failed to inform her
family...and later, when love came upon her
again, Darien.
Meanwhile, her contact--Yvonne--was patient
and flexible. She knew that somehow Serena
was going to end up in America; all it would
take was time. And she was right. The
advertisement, the application, the
interview, the choice--they'd all subtlety
changed the course Serena was on.
She first thought about accepting the offer
as she lay in a phone booth, devastated
beyond belief. But she'd resigned herself to
winning back his love, and she would fight
until she got to that end.
Until the day when he crushed that rose.
Their rose...the symbol of their love. As
she watched the rose petals fly and called
out after him, her heart had wrenched and
broken completely. Now her mind whispered
once again of her leaving--and she didn't
have to come back.
How was Serena to know that across the city,
Darien stood on a pier and cried for the
first time in years? How was she to know
that he'd FINALLY realized the impact of her
love upon him, and that he truly loved her in
return?
She never saw Lizzie that day in the
restaurant. Instead, she went to visit
Yvonne.
All the way up the stairs, thoughts of
Darien and tears threatened her resolve, and
she nearly turned and bolted back out.
Still, she pushed the thoughts and tears
away, composed herself the best she could,
and opened the door to the woman's office.
"Why, hello Serena!" the woman said upon
looking up, her English pleasantly accented.
"Come to give me an answer?"
"Yes," she said instantly, surprised to hear
the English coming from her. "I go." It was
thick, but much better than usual.
"Have you been practicing, Serena?" she
asked slowly.
"Hai. Um, yes," she replied.
"Good. You'll need it." The woman's purple
eyes sparkled. "When will you be ready to
go?"
"Leave..could leave...now?" she asked, then
amended. "Today?"
The question surprised Yvonne, but she
replied, "I don't see why not. Would you be
ready to leave in about two hours?"
Serena thought for a bit, a pang surfacing
in her heart. Right then, the urge to turn
back and refuse to go struck her, and a
struggle began, heart against mind. She
fidgeted under it.
Yvonne wasn't blind, nor stupid; she could
see the internal battle. Once she said those
words, she'd be off to America for high
school. Three-four years away from
everything she'd ever known, into a totally
different world. "Serena, if you're not
ready to leave your loved ones..."
Darien's painful words flashed through her
mind, sending fresh pain screaming through
her heart. She nearly slumped into it, and
tears began to cluster at her eyes again--and
at the same time, gave her the resolve she'd
lack. She straightened and said, |No, I'm
ready. I'll be here in less than two hours!|
|See you then, Serena,| Yvonne replied.
* * * *
"And so you left, just like that?" Jared
asked.
She closed her eyes, and he could see
splashes of pain and weariness across her
features. Quickly he added, "You don't have
to tell us."
"It's not that," she sighed. "I just
haven't...really...dealt with everything yet.
Give me a moment." She set herself,
something she was developing a skill at.
"What did you do?" asked Nate, his dusky
voice questioning and curious. She was quite
a storyteller, and he waited anxiously for
her next bit.
She opened her eyes, gaze light and
curiously strong, and quietly said, "I said
good-bye forever."
* * * *
Pain, heartache and sorrow are some of the
greatest motivaters that EVER inspired
humanity. Fabulous works of art have been
drawn of sorrow; pain can produce poetry that
would make a hard man cry; heartache and
music have been intertwined throughout the
ages. It also tends to harden a person, make
them hard where they were gentle, and fierce
where they were not. Unbeknownst to Serena,
her mind was already shoring up its barriers
and fuzzing out memories; things she didn't
discover until much later.
At home, she found herself alone. Where her
mother, father, and brother disappeared to
was questionable, but definitely not the
first thing on her mind. She knew Luna was
out investigating something or other with
Artemis. It was almost as if someone had
stacked the deck in her favor.
Quickly she got out her suitcase, a large
tan thing, and began throwing things in it
According to Yvonne, her host family was
going to take care of her, so she should
bring necessities only. In went her favorite
clothes, a pair or two of shoes, the Luna
Pen, her stuffed bunny, some drawing she'd
been working on, and two jackets. She
hesitated for bare moments before throwing in
pictures of the Senshi and one of the actual
Tuxedo Mask, snapped secretly by Mina one day
and presented to her on her fifteenth
birthday. Hesitantly she held up her star
locket, then decided against it. The picture
was enough to remind her of days gone by, and
the man she loved. However, she did tip open
the lid and rest it on her dresser, letting
the music fill the air.
When she'd packed what she felt was
necessary (including money and her passport,
which everyone in her family had due to her
father's job), she sat down to add the
finishing touch. She was going to make them
believe her truly and completely gone.
Her first letter was to the Senshi.
Unknowingly, she phrased it very much like a
will. She told them in kind, Serena words
that she was gone now, never to come back,
and that they should just move on now. Then
she addressed messages to each of them: to
Ami, thanking her for her wonderful mind,
inspiration, and patience; to Raye, a few
remarks on their sweet friendship and a
comment on how to develop interpersonal
skills; to Lita, for protecting her, cooking
for her, and being there for her; and finally
to Mina, thanking her for being a warm, kind
friend and sharing all her troubles, never
backing down. In a moment of strange
inspiration, she left the leader role to Mina
and her communicator to all of them; she
couldn't bring herself to part with her
broach, so she said she would take it with
her to her final place, as a remembrance.
Next came the letter to her family. In it,
she poured out how much she loved them, but
circumstances surrounding her convinced her
that she had to move on. ("I was concerned
about their welfare--after all, the people we
fought wanted Reenie, and I wasn't going to
sacrifice my family for the spore!" she told
the men.) She praised her mother and her
patience; her father's loyalty and caring;
her brother's incredible mixture of annoyance
and love. She wistfully wished she could
watch him mature and grow; tearfully, she
asked that they remember her happily, for
they would ALWAYS be with her.
Now came her true opus, her masterpiece and
crowning jewel. She carefully wrote his full
name on the top, and paused as the locket's
music ended. Then she set to writing.
"I can remember every word exactly," she
told them softly, eyes closing on the memory.
"Dear Darien Chiba: My love, last night as
you drove away, you said words that broke us
apart. Now, as I write this letter, I will
break us apart forever. I now realize that
our love was only my love, and that you, lead
by the confusing string of destiny, didn't
love me. It hurts to write this, because I
love you with everything I have, but I must."
She swallowed a little--it still hurt, no
matter how much she tried to convince herself
otherwise. "I release you, Darien Chiba.
Please, take the Star Locket and Luna, and
remember me and my love whenever you look at
the white moon. I'll be watching you, my
love, my Mamo-chan. Love, Serena Tsukino."
She sniffed once, sadly, then opened her
eyes. "Then I snipped a piece of red thread
and folded the letter like the others,
placing it all together on my bed with my
select items. Then, I went to Yvonne's,
making it just in time, and we left. And now
I'm here."
The boys digested it while she fought the
tears brought back by her memory of that day.
She had no idea how much she'd be affected by
this all, and the fatigue of being Sailor
Moon didn't help much. She wished she could
just collapse and cry.
"Serena," Kevin spoke up. "Why did you cut
the string?"
"There was a saying I had about me and
Darien--connected by the red string of
destiny," she said. 'And by doing that, I
showed him that he was truly free."
"Oh," Kevin said softly. They lapsed back
into silence, her eyes closed, they watching
the pain and weariness on her face. Finally,
"Serena, I'm sorry I asked you about this. I
didn't know it was going to be so painful."
"I was going to have to do it someday," she
said quietly. "I'm just glad..it's out now."
She sighed, then suddenly perked up. "Are
you three all right? I've never hit a PERSON
with the Elimination before, and even if it
wasn't the right..."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa Serena, slow down," Jade
said. "First off, what's the Elimination?"
"OH! That's right! You have no idea!" she
said, and color began to return to her pale
face. The boys all exchanged glances; she
was getting happier...and so were they.
"As Sailor Moon," she started, "I have an
item to use for my power. This one that I
used here is called the Moon Scepterand I use
it to destroy youma." She paused. "That's
what that beast was."
"What's a youma?" Nate asked.
She sneered, an odd expression for her. But
too much had been done to her friends by
youma--flashes of blood on Arctic snow came
to mind--for her to ever truly feel pity for
them.
No, that wasn't right. She did pity them.
It didn't stop her hate, though.
"It's a creature of the Dark Kingdom," she
finally said. "They served the Negaverse
Generals, Ann and Alan, those Weird
Sisters..." she cut off suddenly.
"What?" the three of them asked in unison.
"The Negaverse Generals," she said. "The
youma I fought knew about...Beryl...and said
they were gathering energy for their Dark
King."
Kevin paled immediately, his mind two steps
ahead of hers. "The Generals could've been
called Kings, right? And if they know Zach
is a General...Maley."
"What? Kunz, tell us!" Jared cried out.
"Think! His nurse showed up about the time
he got sick--which was right about the time
these changes started to happen. Something
must have tipped her off..." he jumped to his
feet. "Miss Maley's a youma!"
"SHE'S A WHAT?!" Serena shrieked, eyes
widening. "BUT..."
"No time," Nate said, voice
uncharacteristically firm. "We have to get
over there and help Zach." He started for
the door. "I'll drive."
* * * *
Zach felt his resolve crumble as the thought
slowly wound its way through his head. He'd
tried to keep up good, tough spirits so he
could fight all this off, but what was
happening to him was so disconcerting that it
hurt. Memories flashed in his mind, painful
memories, of both his life and Zoycite's
twisted one.
"Zoycite," he spat. The name was a bane to
him. When they'd first started using it in
the room, he thought they'd been referring to
the General he knew, his other half, Zoicite.
Then he'd been set straight, and he now they
knew they spoke of the lady Gen of the
Negaverse. he
though to himself.
Those other pieces were what Miss Maley, AKA
Malice, had told him. She was no longer the
strange, thin beauty of before, but a female
shaped figure of tan gel and spiked hands.
Her eyes were cruel beacons of amber-red
light, her claws a sharp tan, and the weapons
she bore effective, especially on any of the
five slow peons around her. He wouldn't want
to meet her in a dark alley; he wished he'd
never seen her it all. That was the first
piece of information he wished he knew; if he
had, he would have run away to live with Jade
and Serena, or Nate, or Kev, or bums on the
street. Just as long as she was away from
him.
The other piece was something he'd never be
able to tell the others, and that pissed him
off/depressed him greatly. He'd finally
learned why they could never reach their
powers.
"You foolish, foolish man!" she'd said when
he tried to bluff her. "I know you can't
reach your powers!" Her eyes grew sly, and
she cackled. "Despite the fact that the
other Zoicite, the one from before, exists
within you, you will never be able to touch
him because of her! When Queen Beryl created
her Generals from them, she stole a piece of
them, which only return after her Generals
died--contaminated by the Negaforce!" Here
she laughed again. "The only way to touch it
is to get rid of that, or turn you completely
evil." Her eyes shimmered. "Guess what we
are going to do, Great Lord Zoycite?"
He trembled at the thought. Right now he
was alone in his bed, imprisoned by a web of
dark energy that had been spun by a spidery
type youma. he thought to
himself as he brushed the field, and was
shocked. he stopped.
That had been his only moment of peace, the
brief appearance of a woman in an odd sailor
suit with long, odd hair and beautiful eyes.
She'd been so warm and loving, her voice so
beautiful, that he knew she had to be his
angel. Then Maley had come back, and she'd
gotten away safelybut he still held her
memory most precious to him. It was the
memory that flashed in front of his eyes now,
as the preparations were being made to turn
him.
"I will not," he muttered to himself.
"I...WILL...NOT!"
Yet he knew that all promises cannot be
kept.
"I saw him," Kev reported.
The four of them were clustered outside of
Zach's house, in the low bushes that lined
the side. Serena grimaced to herself as she
touched the house again; improved senses or
not, the evil here ran off the house in
sticky waves. She wished she could be ten
miles from this place...or at least, ten
feet. It was horrible.
she thought.
Her face pulled
tight at that, and her eyes glowed. She was
NO coward. Not anymore.
"How is he?" Nate asked.
"Worse than his usual pale and thin. I
could read some of his body language--and it
was mostly fear."
"I'd be scared too, if I just found out I
was going to be turned evil," Jade muttered.
"I wasn't holding it against him," Kev
quickly muttered back. "Serena...?"
She looked up from the grass she picked at,
eyes glossy. His gray ones held her for a
second, and he breathed, "There are four
others in there, Serena. Five counting
Maley."
She drew a breath. she
thought. For a moment, she could feel
fear seize her, the urge to break down and
run away. She sniffed automatically, and
took a deep breath, preparing to whine--then
she met their eyes. Pale blue, deep brown,
steady gray. All depending on her to fish
out their friend. Her friend.
she reminded herself
as she slammed the feeling deep into her
chest. This was no time to be Serena. This
was time to be Sailor Moon.
"It'll be a challenge," she said.
They raised their eyebrows. "Only a
challenge? Serena, I bet you've never faced
this many enemies in your lifetime!" Nate
said.
"Well...once. With the Senshi," she
admitted.
"Are you sure you can handle this Serena?"
Jade asked, blue eyes quietly worried. She
knew that she could back down their, and he
wouldn't give a lick.
she thought to
herself. "No," she admitted. "But you can't
stop me. MOON CRYSTAL POWER, MAKEUP!!"
The pink power pulsed from the crystal,
driving the boys back. This was the first
time she'd ever let anyone but the Senshi see
her transform----and if she'd known that she was naked
briefly, she probably wouldn't have.
However, none of them noticed that; they were
too awed by the pink energy ribbons and white
feathers that sluiced across her body. In
less than a minute, she was Sailor Moon once
more.
"I'm outie!" she whispered to them, bounding
away. She didn't register the faint cries of
protest from them; she was already psyching
herself up, getting in the whole battle mode.
To her surprise, she sank into it fairly
easily; she thought
sarcastically.
She ran around back to the find the door the
boys said was never locked, and slid quickly
inside, her boots making faint scuffing
sounds on the floor. Quickly she headed
towards the stairs--the boys said that's
where Zach would be--and immediately found
youma. Two of them, to be exact, both of the
snarling, bestial, "I want to eat for lunch"
sort. Without even a thought, her hand was
on her tiara, whipping it about as she
whispered, "moon tiara...magic!" The power,
she noted bemusedly, seemed to work as well
when whispered as it did when screamed. The
tiara cut cleanly through the first, then
looped back and smashed through the other.
With an air of triumph, she caught it; it
flashed back onto her head. "Sorry," she
drawled, "no Moon burgers today."
"Are you sure?" hissed another voice, and
she spun to find a feline youma crouched
behind her. As the cat sprang, she
backflipped off the stairs, her heel catching
the tip of its chin and knocking it back.
She landed on her feet, somewhat stunned
being an understatement. she thought to herself as she
stared at the sleepy looking, big kitty. It
raised its head and snarled, eyes flashing,
just as another snarl came from the basement
steps. She looked down to see another
animalistic youma, fangs dripping
something...
"Uh-oh," she whispered as both converged on
her at once.
"You're friends attempt to save you," Malice
snarled. She'd dispatched four of her youma
to deal with the intruders, saving just the
one, most human-like one to help her prepare
to turn him. "But they will fail." Her
hands began to pulse tan, and the field over
him crumbled. Fear held him stiff to the bed
as she moved over him, but it wasn't just of
her. It was of the responding blackness that
was spreading through his chest, the one that
was slowly creeping into his thoughts.
he thought to himself.
Outside, the three boys heard a yell.
Immediately Jade was up and ready to go, but
the other two hauled him down. "Are you
crazy?" Nathan asked.
"Crazy? CRAZY? Yea, to be sitting here!"
Jade fired back, trying to stumble to his
feet again.
"Jade, we can't..." Nate started, but he cut
him off rapidly.
"You think I DON'T KNOW THAT? You think I
didn't know that at the mall? We at least
did something there!"
"Jared, we can't touch our powers, and
without those, we have no chance," Kevin said
softly.
"So what? We have most of the physical
ability, and I've seen some of the knives in
Zach's house," he spat back.
"Jared, DON'T be a FOOL! I want to go help
her as much as you do, but we could end up
harming instead of helping! Jade...JADE!"
Jared Gold was not a man to anger easily.
His emotions were flighty things, swinging in
predictable arcs; his personality was mostly
happy. He cracked jokes, not people's heads.
Yet the thought of Serena in a pool of her
own blood pissed him off in ways he didn't
think possible. he
thought, and his fists clenched.
And glowed.
"What, KEVIN?" he asked, voice roughened
with fury.
He couldn't speak, and Jade could see
the...amazement? flickering in his pale eyes.
Nate had the same emotion, and maybe envy?
floating around in there, too. "What?" he
asked again.
"You're glowing."
His eyes widened, and he stared at his
hands. Yep, there was a definite red sheen
there. He looked down at himself; the red
glow had enveloped him from head to foot,
pulsing as his heart did. He could feel his
pulse thrumming in his head now, and his
mouth drying, and his eyes glowing.
"My powers," he whispered.
The next thing he knew, the world was
exploding around him. Memories rushed into
his mind, along with a delightful tingling
that burned along his veins. He felt like he
was swimming in a suddenly choppy sea, all of
red power, and for a second he was afraid.
Afraid of losing himself to it totally;
afraid of what was going to happen if he went
under.
>Don't fear what you must do,< said a voice
in his head. He was startled that to find it
was his, only older. No, not him--Jadeite.
Obediently, he didn't fight the power. He
let it suck him under, and his eyes slammed
shut as the power slammed through him, arced
over him, filled him completely.
To Nate and Kev, it seemed as if Jared was
about to faint. His skin had turned a near
white color, and the glow around him had
increased ten fold. As the blinding red
static turned to a blinding red sheet, Nathan
whispered, "Lucky one."
Kev didn't reply, but instead reached inside
himself. He knew that if Jared could touch
it, he could too--he had to of!
Nate didn't noticed Kevin start to glow, his
hair whipping up and behind him in some
imaginary breeze as the gray of his eyes
suddenly appeared around him. His eyes were
on Jade completely, for suddenly the boy had
been lifted off the ground, red an opaque
shield around him. Then, with a faint
pinging sound, he dropped to the ground.
Wearing a General's uniform.
He felt the breeze suddenly, and turned to
see Kevin starting on his descent upwards.
Anger tumbled inside him----but then he felt the
sensations start...
When he opened his eyes to find himself on
the ground, Jade and Kev--no, no, Jadeite and
Kunzite--were staring at him bemusedly.
"What took you so long?" Jade asked. "The
Princess is in trouble."
"Then why are we sitting here talking?"
Nephrite snapped, and vanished. The other
two followed.
"Urea, prepare the extraction crystal. He
is ripe," Malice barked, and the yellowish
youma nodded and moved to do so. Her hand
still pulsed, though now it had changed to a
puke green color. Zach was sweating bullets,
and she grimaced inside.
"Don't try to resist, fool," she whispered
in her sweetest tone to him, something
reminiscent of the way serial killers speak
before they kill. "It will only make this
harder."
His lips moved, and he rasped, "I cannot. I
will not...."
She chuckled, and stood up straighter. Was
it her imagination, or did he seem to
be...developing? She chuckled again.
"You will," she laughed. "You WILL!"
Serena
thought as the feline's claw caught the
fabric of her suit and ripped it away as if
it was just air. The other youma, the
nastier, poisonous one, followed the strike
with her own, reaching for bare skin.
she thought as she scrambled out
of the way yet again, the youma's claws
sticking in the deep softness of the couch,
"You will not escape, foolish Moon child,"
the cat hissed again as her "friend" tried to
extricate herself from the sofa. Serena
flipped backwards again--she was definitely
getting the hang of this--and reached for her
tiara.
"MOON TIARA....MAGIC!" she said without her
usual preamble. That was another thing.
They didn't wait for her to finish her
speeches here. The first time she'd tried to
do that, she'd nearly had her throat ripped
out.
The tiara flew away from her hand, sparks
illuminating the room, towards the more
poisonous one. The cat seemed smug enough to
start to bring around her claws--they
extended on command, curled, able to rip as
easily as she actually was close to
scratch--until the Tiara bored into her back,
and she vanished in a sparkle, screaming
loudly.
Malice looked up from Zach, who gulped for
air as sweat poured down his face. His scalp
felt like it was sweating as well, and he
could feel it leaking out of him all over his
body.
"Urea," she commanded curtly, "go stop
them." With that, the yellow filled, human
shaped sack of evil nodded, put down the jar
she held in both hands, and scurried out of
the room.
"It may take longer now," she whispered to
him in a clenched tone, eyes sparkling, "but
you will be a Dark King once more. Once more
you will be ZOYCITE!"
He had no strength left to tell he would
not.
Serena had been ready to take down the still
struggling youma with a second throw of the
shimmering Tiara when a yellow arc appeared
in the corner of her eye. Without thought,
she launched herself backwards, into a table;
as she struggled to pull herself from the
broken glass, the yellow arc leaped toward
her at a dizzying speed. She tried to move,
but the table wouldn't budge, and the glass
stung in her ripped uniform. As Serena, she
would have been bleeding crazily by now; as
Sailor Moon, the shattered pieces left
nothing but harsh scratches. Didn't mean it
hurt any less...
The yellow arc seemed to chuckle as it
reformed itself into a fairly human looking
youma, all yellow with just the outlines of
features, even hair. A faint odor emanated
from it, and Serena's nose wrinkled in
disgust; it smelled nasty, even if she
couldn't place it.
|I have you now, Sailor Moon,| the youma
said simply, funneling liquid into her hands.
As it splashed over her and pulled taut,
Serena wretched; it was sticky, slimy, ugly,
and smelled even worse when it touched her
skin. Frantically she kicked herself to a
stand, but with her arms tied she could do
nothing.
Then she saw the poisonous one break free,
and cackle. |My turn, Sailor Moon!| she
cried, and launched herself into the air.
|I think not, slime bag,| came a low,
stunning male voice which caused the youma to
fall short. Even the yellow one looked.
"Lords..." breathed the first, but suddenly
a crackle of energy surrounded her, and with
a scream she turned into a pile of dust.
"Let her lose, youma scum," came a sharp
voice, and Serena's eyes followed it to a
tall, handsome blond man who wore a gray-
black uniform trimmed in red. His eyes were
a pale, flashing blue, and the gloves on his
hands slightly misty, as if he held something
there.
"No time for that," said another man, his
hair a deep auburn brown that fell halfway
down his back. His eyes were so dark a brown
that it seemed one could swim in their velvet
depths forever. His uniform was trimmed in
purple-blue, and a clear blast of white
trimmed black power was in his hands.
"Indeed," said the last man. His hair was a
shocking white, almost clear, with a green
sheen to it; it set off pale, bright gray
eyes, tainted with a strict seriousness. His
uniform was lined with steel gray, and the
power that crackled around his hands was
tangible to Serena.
The yellow youma cackled and squeezed her
bonds tighter around Serena, making her
squeal in pain. "Walk away, or she dies,"
the woman said, her voice an unholy mix of
woman and man. It sent shivers up her spine,
and she couldn't get very far due to the
current holding her there.
"Not today," said the blond lightly.
On a silent count of ".00000009" the three
men unleashed their powers at the youma. The
thing didn't even see it coming before she
was melted away to nothingness, her shriek
barely uttered.
She stumbled out of her glass filled
enclosure, on edge. The three men...where
had they come from? Why did they seem...
her mind shrieked, and
without thinking she threw herself forward
into Jade. "You found your powers!" she
crooned as she squeezed him.
"Ye..a..s..s..." he choked out. "Sere...let
me...
"NOOOOO!!! I WILL NOT!!! I WILL..."
The scream died out before it'd run its
whole course. In an instant, Serena had
sprung to the top of the stairs. She looked
back at them, eyes wide.
They stared back at her, and the barely
compressed fury in Jade's eyes nearly toppled
her over. "Could handle them, could we?" he
said.
She looked down, and grimaced. She'd only
lost part of her shoulder, and some of her
skirt--more than she'd wanted to, but they'd
have to deal with that. "Later," she said
curtly. "What was that?"
"NOOOO!!!" came the cry again, and all three
men went dead white.
"Petal," Kunz whispered.
"We've got to..." Serena started, but the
three of them faded out in quick flashes of
power. Muttering to herself, she leaped over
the railing, sailing downwards to hit the
stairs. She only had to step a short
distance before she found the three men
again...powers in full force.
Malice glared back at them. she thought. She grinned at the
thought, and put more firepower into the
shield she'd woven. She may not have been
the best magician, but Lord Kunzite himself
had taught her how to weave a shield. It
would hold against these inexperienced whelps
who THOUGHT they were Generals. Perhaps,
afterwards, she could turn them as well...
Serena tried to scramble through the
onslaught, but the Gens wouldn't give her
shoulder room. "Let me through!" she demanded
in Neph's ear.
"Not...the time, Sailor Moon," he grunted.
She could almost see the direct flow of star
power as it shimmered from the stars to him,
flowing right out through his fingers again.
It smashed against the shield--woven in plain
sight, in mockery, of thousands of tiny
little strands--and dissipated.
She checked the other two. The same. And
inside, she could feel the evil growing.
Zach was never going to make it out of this
good if they hesitated long. She could hear
the blasted youma witch inside murmur some
words, and feel the dark forces riot at that.
she thought
helplessly.
"MOVE!" she ordered Kunzite.
"Not now!" he bellowed back. Fury sizzled
inside her, red fury--they may have been
powerful, but they were going to burn it
right out of themselves if they kept this up.
>You have to stop them, Serena!< she heard
the crystal clang.
*But how? They won't let me through!* she
whined back, frustrated.
>You're the Princess, Serena! Be one!<
The thought stopped her in her tracks just
as a wave of darkness pounded at her through
the room. Even the three winced and turned
pale.
And suddenly it came to her. She moved down
by Jadeite, got up right next to his ear, and
whispered, "You're dismissed."
Immediately the power stopped flowing from
his hands long enough for her to scurry in,
her scepter emerging in a flowing stroke. In
the same stroke, she cut through the shield;
apparently, the crystal was taking about as
much guff as she was.
The youma turned from Zach, and Serena
nearly blanched at the pale, thinness of the
boy, and the evil that swirled near him.
"NO!" the youma cried, stepping away. "I
WILL ROUSE THE DARK LORD!"
"All you'll be rousing are the neighbors!"
Kunz snarled behind her, and a blast of
energy struck her right in the chest. She
fell back, but shakily, slowly started to
rise...until Serena stepped in.
"This is enough!" she shouted. "Trying to
turn my friend evil is wrong and spiteful and
I'm sick of it! In the name of the moon, I
will DUST YOU!!!"
She took a breath and screamed as loudly as
she could, "MOON CRYSTAL SCEPTER
ELIMINATION!!!!!!!"
Pouf! All that was left of the great youma
who'd tried to turn Zach was dust, and that
gently swirled away.
Immediately, the darkness in the room went
down by a half, and the walls began to
lighten. They'd been, Serena suddenly
noticed, a shade very close to black when
she'd stepped in; now they were a medium
gray.
Which left it above Zach...she and the three
stepped over to the bed.
Fury seized the faces of the three men as
they stared at Zach. His face was ravaged,
and he seemed so pale and thin as if he was
going to break. His body was curled and
contortioned into painful shapes, and they
could see purple bruises on his neck.
It still surprised Serena to see the boys
she knew as Generals. It surprised her even
more when they began to fire on their friend.
"What are you doing?!" she yelled.
"The evil...is within..." Jade said through
gritted teeth.
"Shielded," Nephrite growled.
"Heavily," Kunzite breathed, his voice
deeply disgusted.
"I can heal him with the crystal," she said
softly, the added nowhere but her
mind.
"Just a moment, Sailor Moon," Kunzite
sneered.
"No tricks," Jade immediately put in.
"Just a little more...NOW!" Neph said, and
suddenly something around Zoicite shattered
into sparkling pieces, fading away from them.
Serena's eyes widened, and the heavy, dark
tinged atmosphere of the room lessened
another quarter.
she
thought to herself quietly.
"Go ahead, Serena," Neph rasped. "The floor
is yours."
Hesitantly she stepped up beside him, eyes
staring down at the bed.
>Child, the wand didn't heal. I DID. Say
the normal thing, and use me to cleanse this
poor young man.< The voice was shifting wind
chimes again, not like the clanging it had
been before.
"Moon Healing Activation," she whispered
softly, her fingers tapping the crystal.
White light filled the room, a white so
bright that the three men had to back away.
They felt the transformations they wore melt
off of them, no longer needed or too small
for the brilliant, white light; whatever the
case, normality returned to them.
His body slowly straightened itself out to
become relaxed, straight The tangles of hair
that had wound themselves about the bedposts,
or anything nearby, pulled themselves back to
splay on the pillow. Something on his chest
almost seemed to break, and then another, and
then another, until he began to take deep,
regular breaths. Blood ran to his face once
more, to his tauntly pulled lips and
shrinking gums and gaunt cheeks so that they
fell right once more. Finally, it seemed
that all traces of the evil that had crawled
inside him disappeared, and he opened his
eyes.
"Angel," he whispered lowly, his green-gray
depths shimmering with kindness.
* * * *
A week passed. No one really spoke of the
event after that day, when four million
discoveries had been made in one quick
afternoon. Sailor Moon. Zach. Malice. The
Generals. Everything had crashed down at
once, and after the clean up, everyone needed
to recover.
Still, it was Zach who had to bring up the
whole issue that day, and carefully the
afternoon's events were told, including a
very concise version of Serena's story. He
seemed amazed by it all, and he'd leaned back
in against the couch (they were in Nate's
study again) and cocked his head, eyes
twinkling. He'd been more healthy after that
day then he'd been his whole life, and had
returned to school within days. He also
seemed to have inherited an ability to
assimilate and analyze nearly everything
since then, and the four of them developed
small sweat drops when he looked at them that
way.
"How did you three break the Current?" he
asked. That's what they referred to that
thin line of darkness as; it seemed fitting.
"Not sure," Kevin said, eyes low.
"All we know is that it's gone," Jade added
quickly.
"Actually, I know how," Nate said softly.
He'd become quieter since the incident,
and--if it was truly possible--more
introspective.
"You do?" Serena asked in a bubbly tone.
There hadn't been much of a change in her;
that had all happened on the plane flight to
America.
He nodded. "You told us that the power you
used, the 'Moon Crystal Scepter Elimination',
basically eliminated any trace of youma."
"Usually," she agreed.
"I say that it doesn't do that."
They all gave him odd looks.
"I'm merely refining the definition," he
said, staring at the apple he was peeling.
"What I say is that the Scepter eliminates
EVIL, and since youma are made of dust and
evil..." he trailed off, and they followed
his point for him.
"So you think that when Serena hit us with
her power, it scorched the Current from us?"
Jade asked. At the nod, he whistled. "No
wonder it hurt so much."
Soft silence descended as they all began to
rummage for more fruit.
"So, Petal, had any luck with your powers?"
Kevin asked as he peeled a banana.
He mumbled something into his strawberries.
"Huh?" Nate asked.
"I haven't tried," the boy admitted
sullenly.
They all stared at him. Not gaped, not
shocked...just a silent stare.
"WHAT?" he asked. Then, his voice fell back
into a mumble, and he said, "I don't even
think I have them anymore."
Now their eyebrows raised. "Why, Zach?"
Serena asked.
He turned his shining green shaded gray eyes
on her again, and sighed. "When you healed
me with the crystal, it stripped away
everything within me, wrung it out, and
placed it back. But I didn't feel...quite
right when it all came back. Like I was
missing something. But I don't know.." his
eyes stared off into space, and he let loose
a sigh.
Quiet again, except for the soft scrapping
at Nate finished up on his apple. He placed
the peelings on the tray with the fruit, then
looked up at Zach. "Never hurts to try, you
know."
"What?" Zach asked, eyes flying open.
"You know what he means," Kevin said, his
voice slightly less than gentle. "You can do
it."
"He's right, Petal," Jade said with a smile.
"We all know you can do it. Just try."
"Do you think I haven't?" he asked,
incredulous. "Ever since I saw you, all..."
"Try it," Kevin commanded, his tone more
than a touch Kunzite.
Zach sighed harshly, and stormed to his
feet. "I will," he snarled. "But I
hate...fail...ure??"
A sweet green shimmer swept over him, and
Serena watched curiously as it brightened and
strengthened. Instead of lifting him off the
ground, though, it sucked inside him; his
eyes opened, brighter than any gemstones.
Then, in a wave, he was no longer Zachary,
but Zoicite. His hair fell in loose, long,
blond spirals nearly all the way down his
back; his eyes were a fiery green again, but
with a touch of neutral, balancing gray. The
uniform he wore was a little different from
the others, more gray than the rest, but
still outlined in a trim, his a hunter green.
"I did it," he said, voice soft.
Wordlessly, the three other Generals joined
them, shaking his hand, sharing shy smiles.
"Hey," Serena suddenly said, "ya'll wear
capes!"
" 'Ya'll', Princess?" Kunzite asked.
"Your mother would throw a fit," Zoicite
said cautiously.
She shook her head, then stood and walked to
them. "Right now," she said softly, "I can
speak however I want." Then she smiled, a
huge, crushingly bright smile. "It's good to
see all four of you together."
"It's good to have you here with us,
Princess," Zoicite said quietly, eyes
flickering.
A soft smile between the two, and then
Jadeite said, "Oh, this is so loving its
sick. Might as well complete it!" Power
pushed at them from the sides, and he
chanted, "GROUP HUG!"
Laughingly, they complied.
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