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Caught in the Rain by Loki

Caught in the Rain


Who am I you might ask?


I am the soft night breeze that brings comfort on a summer’s night after a long hot day as crickets chirrup and bats kiss the silvery moon,


Caressing your body with my cool touch, the sensation reminding you it is so good to be alive!


I am the dancing leaves of Autumnal splendor, I adorn the spruce, ash, rowan, cedar, elm and oak,


I am beauty in repose, I remind you of happier times offered to enchantment and fond memory,


I shift upon the mountain winds, the smoke of fires, the mulled wine and music of flute and harp, but was it in ages past, or was it merely yesterday we played in the park as children?


Song of the winter am I, I lock your pain away, beckon you to sleep, to dream to bloom again in the upcoming spring, to lose yourself in the arms of your lover beneath the blanket where kisses are most sweet,


I numb the senses, icy fingertips calling you to the fire, the love of home and hearth,


I am Vesta and Mayer I am Gaea, my dress fashioned from the golden, red and blue hue of the flames as I call you to my Terran breast so you can hear my heart pounding with a fire hotter than those tendrils of flame burning within my cupped hands,


I am the dew-splashed maiden of the springtime, she who calls the farmers to the land to pay homage to all that strives to live and grow in the rains and the sun,


Honey-splashed flower, to conjoin in life’s ceaseless tidal passions arising out of the fecund Earth,


I, the harvest of dreams made real by the sensual touch of the dawn and the caresses of dusk and surrendering of deepest night call you to my celestial bed, my love,


I offer my body to all living things, I am Kore, beautiful, responsible and reckless, the lady of dream and the mistress of waking fantasy,


I dance and I lay me down for your pleasure, I am the time-honored virgin moon that gives her fruits to my lover at the zenith of the dance under the silent stars and the shimmering moon,


Shall we kiss, shall we lie together amidst the soft grasses, the whisperings of the trees and the songs of the land as our love song, our heartbeat, the fusion of love’s outpourings of honey upon the furtive land? Yes, and then you shall know me,


Be my love, consume and honor, trust but not be too sure of your ground with me, I thrive on the unexpected and am playfully unpredictable, this you know from woven tales and pleasure of song,


I will always love you, my children of the Earth,


Lady Demeter


~/~

Tokyo before the Big Freeze


My name is Gabriella, and this is my story. Shingo and I had spent the weekend at his parent’s place, we all had a great time, Usagi and Mamoru talked about their school days and fondest memories, as had the Tsukinos.

Ikuko and Kenji are amazing people, for they too had a life not that different from their children, save the additional aspect of the Sailor Senshi and the Moon Princess and two talking cats, Luna and Artemis.

Though Usagi has her Senshi as closest friends—and I know you’re wondering how I got in on their circle, I will get to that.

There we were, standing on the threshold of the Tsukinos. The skies burst into a cacophony of crackling and rumbling sounds as Shingo kissed me.

“Did I say you look sexy in blue? Oh, and also, did I tell you I love you today?” Shingo said, and I grinned, propping up the umbrella over our heads.

“You have now, darling!” said I, kissing him. I laughed and called out to the blonde headed girl with the bunny odangos, “Usa-chan, give my love to Mamoru and Chibi-Usa, K?” said I, shaking out my tumble of long black hair and tying it back in a ponytail as the wind played with the hem of my knee-length violet skirt.

As if on cue, Mamoru and Chibi-Usa appeared at the front door behind Usagi in their dressing gowns and waved, a silly look on Chibi-Usa’s face, so cute and utterly adorable.

“Sure, and you two, careful on the roads...” Usagi called out, giggling at something Chibi-Usa had said as the little girl stood on tiptoes and whispered into her mother’s ear, almost giving Usagi a fright. Then Mamoru slipped an arm about her waist and she snuggled up to him.

Shingo and I smiled at the sight and one another as mother and daughter waved animatedly as we smiled and waved back, then linked arms and slipped through the open gate.

The walk to the car was magical, the rain, soft and warm. I grinned at my husband, lowered the umbrella and we momentarily stood there, letting the downpour drench our heads as we pashed before tossing the umbrellas into the back seat of the car, jumping into its leather clad interior and were soon on our way.

All was right with our world and though the weather was getting out of control, especially as this was supposed to be mid winter, we made the best of it -- life was good. It was tropical, yes, and the seasons were in chaos, but both of us were skeptical about the so-called flipping of the northern and southern poles predicted to occur at any moment. But boy were we surprised.

Ami thought there was something to it and sent me text messages constantly to keep me up to date on what the department of meteorology had to say on the strange solar activity and melting icecaps. I just had to know.

We felt so far removed from all that doom and gloom, despite the summery forecasts and this odd climate, but there was a nagging sense of guilt and remorse that would overwhelm me usually late at night or early morning . I couldn’t say what prompted these moments of melancholy or why, but sometimes I would stand at the window early in the morning, almost naked in my nightshift crying as I looked out onto the gunmetal-grey sky, feeling so sad. Shingo knew why but kept silent, simply hugging me from behind putting a protective arm around my pregnant belly, turning me to face him. He would kiss away my tears and then gently brush my lips with his, and we would deepen the kiss.

He would say, ‘I love you Gabriella, never forget that, no matter what the future holds, and you’re not alone. You’re all I care about, and our child.’

~*~

Later that same week, I kept telling myself that everything was going to be okay, whom was I kidding?

“How should I know!” I slammed down the phone, life as a cop isn’t easy, aside from the dead bodies, the heartbreaking tragedies and awful waste of life and all that went with the territory, add to that being a woman and pregnant to boot and you have one hell of a mix.

The phone would inevitably ring again. “No, I won‘t ship out. I have a back-up plan, and I know the weather is screwed right now, but I have a duty. No…, it’s not your typical tropical storm, and no, I’m not an alarmist. But the poles have shifted, yup, north and south, the ice the size of an island continent breaking up in the Atlantic. I’m watching live feed as we speak and there is a guy in arctic gab standing on the ice sheet with a microphone and a camera crew!” The story was pretty much the same in the Pacific and elsewhere on the planet. “Tokyo today, I’m watching it now, the UN is freaking out and panic is sweeping the globe! How the hell do you think I’m coping?” I snapped, but soon, after mumbling a half-hearted apology, I told him I would do my best. Putting down the receiver, knowing that more calls would come, I sighed, rubbing my temples.

~*~

Hysterical is one thing I am usually not. But I laughed uproariously when I heard the term, ‘Bermuda Shorts issuing from the crystalline screen.’ These look good on me I must admit. I have great legs and so yeah, the pun was all too much to resist.

Usagi always laughed at my jokes. At Crown Arcade, I would pull funny faces making her giggle. Then I would start and soon we were spluttering ice cream all over Mamoru, or milkshake over Rei and Motoki. I was mean, I know, but she loved me for it, and as I was soon to discover, so too did Shingo. I know Usa-chan and I are crazy, but when I told her I had a crush on her younger brother, she helped me and I mean, she set up dates, would advise me on what I should wear, perfume and all. She got this extra help from Minako, but hey, I wasn’t complaining.

Oh, but I digress, now where was I, oh yeah, Bermuda, a phenomenon associated with rapidly spreading mud tides, and I mean, spreading. Let’s just say, at around forty miles per hour that is pretty freaking fast!

~*~

My life was somewhat of a mystery. I had woken up lying on the grass in Azabu Park. I was wearing what Usagi described to me much later as a Gothic Lolita dress or something like that. Soaked to the skin as the rain pelted my sodden body, a glittering object on the grass at my side, but I couldn’t make it out and I noticed the dress had scorch marks upon the bodice and hem and the grass too was burned. It made no sense.

Although in their Senshi forms, I knew all their names, even Tuxedo Kamen, but had no idea how or why. Usagi, Mamoru, Hotaru, Minako, two cats, and these I had heard in my mind asking if I were okay, and then if the ‘healing wand’ had worked. I promptly fainted, this all happened four years ago now, how things had changed.

I had been adopted by my new friends. They cared for me. I lived with Makoto in one of her apartment’s large spare bedrooms. The room was lovely. She fed me, clothed me and helped me by getting Furuhata Motoki to employ me at the Crown Arcade. I have much to be thankful for to all my friends. I have no idea where I would be today if not for their love and support. I had no idea who I was and hadn’t really wished to know.

For a year, I went onto college and then the police academy. What a shift in fortunes as I wanted to help my friends, the people of Tokyo and humanity in general, it became almost an obsession for me, but I didn’t mind.

In the last two years, and gifted with powerful psychic abilities I couldn’t account for, I spent most of the time solving the most baffling of crimes with Minako’s help and of course, Artemis. Apparently, the combo had done this before and we caught a lot of dirt bags and blasted the occasional Youma, too.

Yeah, we cracked some real cold cases and were world famous. But how I had acquired these abilities, I hadn’t a clue. But there was no time to think about my murky past now, things were going down and I knew in my heart I could feel the tides of fate shifting for this world and soon it would all go to hell.

Shingo was sixteen when he first kissed me and I swooned, He’s so darn gorgeous, and shy, sexy as, that got me and I teased him with winks, swung my hips exaggeratedly, tossed back my hair, and gave him long haunted looks. I think I scared the shit out of him when I sat on his lap one day in the shortest skirt, Senshi length, and he was a nervous wreck until I pulled him to me and kissed him stupid, and then we were an item.

I remembered the day he asked me to marry him. He cried out to Naru who had procured a stunning ring for the occasion. He spoke in a deep romantic gush, ‘Naru, it is time!’ she slinked over and sat opposite and handed the ring to Shingo, and I was so surprised, stunned and as he stroked my glossy black locks, he slipped the engagement ring onto my pinky and I was in heaven. Usagi giggled as she hugged first her brother, and then she for one so petite and cute, almost squeezed the life out of me, I was so happy – we all were that day as Mamoru, Motoki and the girls and the other patrons in the arcade were clapping their approval. The best day of our lives, that is besides Jade, our baby girl, soon to be born in the next four months.

I looked out the window, category 6 they claim, what the… I couldn’t believe the evidence of my eyes, skies filled with bruised thunderheads, hammering down with rain and exploding volleys of lightning, fierce and unrelenting upon the Tokyo skyline was turning my stomach.

I felt the round bulge at my abdomen and knew it was time for me to swallow my pride and get out. I took in the shimmering waterspouts that bloomed instantaneously before my eyes as I stood, back turned to my large oak desk and looked out the fifth storey window at the bay.

“Shit, there are hundreds of them!”

As I continued to look at the seen before me, I gripped my cell and punched in the numbers to launch the evacuation plan we had in place when all chance of remaining to uphold the law was a lost cause. I screamed as I watched a series of ships berthed at the docks, ripped from their moorings and sucked into god knows what they were, super ice-tornados around fifteen miles high wreaking havoc. The precinct, despite its being five miles in from the coast, granted me little comfort as I watched in horror as huge waves pounded the shoreline.

Since the decree by the Japanese parliament that all cities along the eastern seaboard would be abandoned, I along with several other die-hards wanted to stay, ostensibly to help the locals escape, or defend their families and property. But Tokyo is a big city and how can one leave the looters, rapists, murderers and other vermin on the loose on the streets when most infrastructure was no longer working but for my department, and the remnants of the civil guard whose resources were stretched to the max.

The conversation I just had was like many I’d had before with typical department bureaucrats . They would say, ‘Where is Sailor Moon and her Senshi and I would bark back, ‘How the hell should I know, I am friends with one of them, yes, but I can’t call her up and say, Oh, girlfriend, I need your help to evacuate the city!' What is she going to do, fight the weather? Get this through your thick skull Ikarosho, they’re busy fighting enemies that are causing all this.’ And in reply, all I get is, and you guessed it, ‘Gabriella, we need more manpower, your friends would be handy right now!’

As I jousted with my subordinate, my thoughts returned to a time during college when I contacted Rei. She was my support and mentor, I had need of her spiritual guidance and had become interested in the secret Shinto mysteries and wanted protection for my child. Seems she already knew of her and of her Senshi heritage. Yes, this child, she is special. Shingo, I discovered, was a soldier of light – a Shitennou. I had no idea there were more of them, and apparently, neither did he, that was the craziest part of it all.

But as I heard the familiar purring sounds of Luna and Artemis, I smiled as they hopped onto my desk.

“Luna, Artemis, thank the Kamis you’re here!” said I.

“We’re getting you out of here Gabby, now relax and stay calm, remember… the baby!” Luna entreated.

“Yes mother!” I replied affectionately as I ruffled her soft black ears.

Artemis piped up then, “Usagi and the girls and of course, Mamoru and Shingo are on their way!”

Baby Jade must have heard them from within her womb cradle, for I felt a pleasant sensation wash over me as I heard what I thought to be a child’s voice, ‘Mother, all will be well, they’re coming, my Star Seed will protect us.’

I had to grip the edge of my desk to steady myself. For as my eyes opened wide, Shingo stood before me -- tall and gorgeous as always – especially in the navy blue uniform with its black leather gloves and those sexy knee-high boots, making me want to drag him to the store room right then and there and ravish him.

My friends, Sailor Moon, Tuxedo Kamen and the Senshi now stood before me aglow with flaring silver light beaming from crystal rods throbbing in sync with my pounding heart.

I smiled as Mars hugged me and sat me down. “Come on girlfriend, you’ve got to get out of here, I knew I couldn’t trust you to leave your post… you seen what’s going on out there?” she admonished me, tears in her eyes as Shingo came to stand by my leather chair and kissed the top of my head.

“Gabriella, we got to go, come on, there’s nothing more here to do,” Sailor Moon said.

“I know, I was about to join the others.”

“I don’t think so, they’re long gone, and so must we go now, Sailor Teleport!” Sailor Moon cried as the girls and Tuxedo Kamen shouted in Unison.

Not a moment too soon it seemed as a super-tsunami had in that moment encroached upon the row of buildings across the road and the last thing I saw was the white foam of massive waves whose whitecaps broke over thirty storey glass towers, shattering them.

As the light healed our planet, the Ginzuishou doing its thing, my friends, I and my child were safe. I felt myself floating as we shifted to a new location, far from the drowning city. In that moment my mind wandered back to the battle between a black clad woman with luxuriant long dark hair in an old world dress, frilly and elegant, with stylish black crystal sandals on her small feet, claiming to be some kind of sovereign of silence. She had come back after they’d kicked her ass once before, but she was different this time.

Saturn and this dark avenger were facing off in Izabu Park. Each held a crystal glaive, though the antagonist's was forged from transparent black stone. But Saturn may have won the day, but when her adversary, screamed, ‘Demeter help me and thrust her jet glaive into the ground and burst into flames, then the weather went crazy, and 200 inches fell in ten hours. I looked through her eyes, and then I knew, and then I cried, my heart breaking. Revelation struck its final blow, as it dawned on me who I really was, no, had been.

Oh, yes, that tormented soul, she now has a new life, a loving husband and soon a mother to be, and I, redeemed by the power of love and friendship and our world reborn because of my beautiful friends. I love you all!



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