Circles of Flame
ACT 9
“What do you think of this?” Chibi-Usa asked, holding up an indigo shirt that altered tones according to the light.
It was made of a very soft material, and Usagi fingered it, closing her eyes, marveling at its softness. “I like it,” she said, with a grin. “It suits Mamo-chan perfectly.”
Chibi-Usa nodded vigorously. “He deserves a nice present for acing his exams.”
Usagi ruffled her daughter’s pink hair. “You’re right as usual, Chibi-Usa-chan,” she agreed. “Let’s buy this for him.”
“’Kay,” Chibi-Usa said, happily.
~*~
Mamoru smiled when he opened the door and saw his wife and daughter standing there. “And what brings two such lovely ladies to my door this fine day?” he inquired, opening the door further to allow them to come in.
“We brought you a present,” Chibi-Usa announced.
Mamoru raised an eyebrow. “That’s very nice of you,” he replied graciously, as they sat on the sofa.
“It’s a surprise,” Usagi added, “so close your eyes, Mamo-chan.”
He stifled a grin as he complied, and soon a box lay in his outstretched hands. “Am I allowed to look now?” he asked.
“Yup,” Chibi-Usa answered. “But you have to guess what it is.”
“You two are very mysterious this morning,” Mamoru commented, smiling, as he weighed the box in his hands. “Let me see. It’s too light for a book, and too big for a CD, so those are two less options. And it can’t be food, and it’s nothing breakable. Is it clothing?”
“Yup,” Chibi-Usa said, a mysterious smile on her face.
“I’m glad I got that right,” Mamoru said, laughing as he looked down at the box. “It can’t be a suit, so it has to be… a shirt?”
“And he wins the prize!” Usagi declared, laughing. “Okay, you can open it now.”
Mamoru did so, and when he saw the deep purple shirt lying neatly folded in the box, he was surprised and touched. “I saw this shirt the other week,” he told them. “But I couldn’t decide whether or not I could afford it. You girls must have put your heads together to get it for me.”
“Go try it on,” Usagi said, and he disappeared into his room. He returned a few minutes later, and Chibi-Usa beamed. “It suits you,” she told him clapping her hands.
Mamoru tried not to look pleased. But the shirt did go well with his hair and brought out the deep blue of his eyes. “Thank you both very much,” he said, holding his arms out to both of them, and they ran to him with squeals of delight.
“You deserved something nice for acing your exams,” Usagi told him, and he smiled from ear-to-ear.
“That was very thoughtful,” he said, bowing to each of them. “I must be the luckiest guy in the world to have such a caring fiancé and daughter. And now it’s my turn to treat you to ice cream and thick shakes.”
Usagi and Chibi-Usa looked at each other and beamed. “Thank you, Mamo-chan,” they chorused.
~*~
Rei pressed her face against the glass of the most elegant boutique in Tokyo, wide-eyed with wonder at the beautiful black lace top and matching skirt. The top had a lace-up collar, and the skirt, a thick ruffled hem. They were, unfortunately, out of her price range, but she could still look. It wasn’t wise to look at clothing she couldn’t afford. But she didn’t care. It was Saturday, and she was allowed to catch up on her window-shopping if she wanted.
She turned away with a wistful sigh, and almost ran smack bang into someone coming along the sidewalk.
“I am so sorry!” she exclaimed, as she regained her balance, with the help of the stranger.
“No, it’s my fault,” she said apologetically, and Rei then saw who it was.
“Birdie!” she exclaimed, and the two women exchanged a hug. “It’s been ages since we’ve seen you!” Rei said, excitedly, as she took a good look at the other woman.
“I know,” Birdie agreed, smiling. “What have you been up to, Rei-chan?”
“Lots,” she replied, laughing. “Wanna go for a coffee and a big catch-up?”
“Sure,” Birdie agreed. “My treat; I owe you something for nearly bowling you over back there. I should have been paying attention to where I was going. But when you’re daydreaming, you tend to pay less attention to your surroundings.”
“Don’t I know it,” Rei said, laughing, as they linked arms and walked along the street. “How are your sisters?”
“Doing great,” Birdie replied, as they entered a nearby mall. “Catsy set up a cosmetics shop, and you should see her now. She’s in her element. A cosmetics seller was her favorite disguise when she used to go on missions for Rubeus, and now she’s the owner of her very own shop.”
“She sounds like she’s happy,” Rei told her, as they entered a coffee shop, opposite an ice-cream parlor and sat down in one of the booths.
“She is,” Birdie affirmed. “Avery’s entered the fashion industry, and her creations are now being modeled all over Tokyo, if you can believe it. You may have seen some of her fashions in the shops around here.”
“I sure have,” Rei responded, as a waitress approached them to take their orders. “I’d like a hot chocolate, please,” the raven-haired girl said.
“The usual,” Birdie told the girl, and she nodded, writing their orders down.
“I guess you come here pretty often,” Rei ventured, once the waitress had gone.
“It’s become my haunt,” Birdie told her, with a smile. “The service is good, and so’s the food, and they make the best cappuccinos in Tokyo. Being the owner of a coffee shop myself, I should know what a good cappuccino is all about.”
“You own a coffee shop?” Rei was amazed. “I’m going to have to come in one of these days.”
“You’re welcome anytime,” Birdie told her, smiling. “Prisma seems to be the best off of us all. She’s become a model, and she is in demand by every respectable fashion house in Tokyo. She doesn’t model for Avery, though, simply because it would be a conflict of interests.”
“I can understand that,” Rei said, with a nod.
“Well, now that you’ve heard about us,” Birdie said, leaning forward on her elbows. “Tell me all about you and what you and the girls have been up to. I don’t think we’ve seen or heard from you ever since… I can’t even remember now.”
“It would’ve been over a year ago,” Rei said, thinking back. “We healed you and Avery in December of last year… I don’t even know where to start.”
“Did the Wiseman get toasted?” Birdie asked, her eyes filled with burning curiosity.
“You bet he did,” Rei answered triumphantly, with a laugh. “Usagi and Chibi-Usa-chan used the Silver Crystals of the present and future to put him away. Diamond and Emerald were toasted when we traveled to the future, and Sapphire, as you know, joined our side.”
“I can understand Sapphire doing that,” Birdie said, thoughtfully. “He was the most sensible of that branch of the family -- as for Emerald, good riddance. She was a scheming, backstabbing little bitch with her own agenda, and all she ever wanted was to share Diamond’s bed.”
“She never got that privilege,” Rei told her, with a painful laugh. “He abducted Sailor Moon and under Wiseman’s malevolent influence, raped her. She has a daughter by him, named Miranda. She’s the Sailor Senshi of the dark side of the moon. One of Diamond’s ex-servants, Zoë, was the surrogate mother. She was Sailor Nebula when she and Miranda joined us early last year, but she died when the Purity Chalice was found, or so we thought. She somehow survived. I saw it in the fire of prophecy only recently.”
“I can see that we’re going to be here for a little while yet,” she said, saddened at the shock of Usagi’s ordeal, and then smiled at Rei’s affectionate expression at the mention of the girl, Miranda. “I’m all ears,” Birdie said, smiling warmly, although she was a little pale. “And what’s Sapphire doing with himself these days?”
“He’s an assistant at the temple,” Rei replied, her cheeks going pink.
Birdie correctly interpreted the blush. “I see,” she said, her tone one of understanding. “Has the relationship taken any interesting turns?”
Rei nodded, turning a deeper shade of crimson. In the last week, her relationship with Scott-- formerly Sapphire – was on a more intimate footing, and he had moved into her bedroom . Grandpa and Chad had accepted the new state of affairs reasonably well, and Rei felt far happier as a result. “You could say that,” she said, blushing.
“I won’t ask any more,” she said, offering the raven-haired woman an understanding hand. “I can see this is somewhat a personal subject with you. So come on, tell us everything, Rei-chan. I want to have something solid to tell the others when I see them later.”
“Okay,” Rei agreed, smiling. “You’re going to have to make it worth my while, though.”
Birdie laughed. “Say no more,” she said, as their drinks arrived. “I saw you eyeing that top and skirt back there.”
“I didn’t mean that,” Rei said, going a darker shade of crimson. “That’s way too much to ask of you.”
“Not another word,” Birdie told her , bringing a finger to Rei’s lips. “You’re going to need something nice to wear next weekend for Avery’s first fashion show of the year.”
Rei was gob smacked. “Thanks,” she said, as her face lit up like a newborn star. “That is really nice of you.”
“Anything for a friend of mine,” Birdie said, smiling and she squeezed Rei’s hand once again. “And get the others in touch with me, so I can buy nice outfits for them too, ‘K?”
“You have yourself a deal,” Rei said, extending her hand and the two women shook on their agreement. ”We owe you, big time.”
“No you don’t,” Birdie corrected. “Friends don’t owe friends favors.”
Rei lifted her mug. “To friends,” she declared. Birdie responded in kind and raised her mug and they completed the rite.
~*~
“You’ll never guess who I ran into today.”
“Who?”
Rei beamed. “Birdie,” she said, with a smile.
Scott’s jaw dropped. “It’s been ages since we’ve seen any of them,” he said, at last. “How are they?”
Rei went over the afternoon’s events, telling him of the fortunes of the four Sisters, and Scott was amazed. “I guess it shows you can not only adapt to life as a human, but also blend in so well that it would be almost impossible to tell you weren’t a human all your life,” he said, shaking his head in wonder.
Rei smiled, as she took his hand. “You’re a good example of that,” she said, softly and they smiled at one another.
“I guess you could say that,” he agreed, as he stood and stretched. “I’d better get back to work,” he said, planting a kiss on Rei’s brow. “I’ve got to finish helping Chad cut a fresh load of firewood for the bathhouse.”
Rei stifled a laugh at the look of mock-resignation on his face as he left, and she changed into her temple robes with a contented sigh. She would go meditate for a little while. She had been feeling a little tetchy and unsettled for the last couple of days, and she could easily guess why, she thought with a rueful smile as she walked to the fire room and slid the door open. Some meditation would do her good. She slid the door closed and knelt in front of the fire, emptying her mind as she had been taught. She clasped her hands together, index fingers touching, and closed her eyes. The snap and crackle of the fire filled her thoughts, and then all faded away as she entered the suspended state between waking and sleeping that opened her inner eye, allowing her to see things not normally seen by most people.
However, she hadn’t been long in her trance when a cry of pain brought her abruptly out of it. Her head snapped up, she gasped, and leapt to her feet. “Scott!”
She ran from the chamber onto the balcony, and was transfixed with shock. Scott was tied to a huge spike of red crystal that was as tall as a tree. His arms and legs wrapped several times by a chain of glistening red metal. A woman clad in her red cloak, the top and skirt with the same waist-length black hair she’d seen once before was holding a staff and was causing the ground to shake violently as something was struggling to emerge. The dream mirror had just expanded, assuming its true form of the archway into the kingdom of sleep where Scott’s dreams swirled in a mosaic of colorful visions.
She could see the slight figure of the intruder as she moved deeper into this sacred realm in search of her target.
Enraged, Rei charged down the steps at a frightening pace. “Get the hell out of his dreams, you parasite!” she screamed.
“Beat it…human,” she warned, raising her staff. Then a hissing and lightning fast red firedrake emerged from an abyss that had appeared as if from nowhere, the creature, much faster than the dragon youma. The sinuous red body reminded her of one of those raptors from Jurassic Park IV.
Once again, Osan smiled, waved her staff and a vortex appeared. She turned on her heel and sauntered towards it, tossing her glossy long black hair back behind her as she stepped towards the swirling light. “That should keep you occupied for a little while,” she said, as she vanished.
Rei gasped as the firedrake bore down on her once again, but she hoped Scott was okay. “Call the Senshi,” she gasped, not caring if Grandpa or Chad heard her; she was too preoccupied with keeping herself one-step ahead of the firedrake to be concerned about revealing her secret identity.
The firedrake suddenly stopped its attack and hovered in mid air, burrowing relentlessly into Rei’s fiery orbs. She went icy cold with terror as it directed a long stream of fire towards her, the flames, moving too fast for her to avoid. She cried out as she was engulfed by the deadly flame. She collapsed into a defensive position, trying to shield herself as best she could, but already she could feel her robes burning away. She knew it would only be a matter of moments before she was fried. At that moment, Rei had heard, as from a great distance, the anguished cries of Moon, who had arrived on the scene with Chibi-Moon and Dark Moon in record time. But all was growing dim as she felt herself succumb to the searing pain, tearing her senses apart.
As a merciful numbness began to creep over her, Rei’s mind began to float freely. With a shock, she realized she was looking down on herself. Her spirit had escaped her body to be free of the pain. But this was of little comfort to her right now. She had other matters to be concerned about, such as the red globe of light hovering before her, and at its centre, the symbol of Mars pulsed with an intense burgundy light. An arrow and bow surrounded the planetary symbol, and she extended her hand towards it. When her fingers pierced the fire, a brilliant flash of ruby red light assumed the form of a magnificent power wand and it materialized in her hand. With a start, Rei came back to herself, realizing the flames were gone. She was unharmed.
Filled with renewed power, her jaw hardened as she lifted her wand. “Mars Crystal Power, Make-UP!” she cried.
The symbol of Mars began spinning and pulsating with a fiery-red light, and then streams of fire burst forth from the globe atop her power wand and encircled Rei’s radiant body. It was the same transformation, but when it was complete, there were subtle changes to her fuku .
The firedrake hissed once again, preparing to launch another assault. But Super Sailor Mars faced it without fear. She held her hand out, and streams of fire flew from her palm. A bow wrought of flame appeared in her hands, and she aimed the fiery arrow at the drake’s heart. “Mars Flame Sniper!” she cried, and fired the arrow -- neutralizing her adversary’s attack and the drake shrieked as it dissolved.
Mars ran towards Scott, supported by Sailor Moon. “He was very quick on the communicator,” the blonde Senshi said, holding back tearful laughter as she let Mars take charge. “He had only managed one word; trouble.”
Mars blinked back tears of her own. “He wasn’t wrong on that score,” she said, with a weak laugh. “I was almost sushi at one stage!”
“I take it, that new attack was developed in the heat of the moment?” Dark Moon joked, and they all laughed.
“You saved the day,” Scott told his lover, and she turned a dusky shade of red.
“I guess I did,” she said, modestly.
“You were great, Rei-chan,” Chibi-Moon told her fellow Senshi, and she turned a darker shade of red, if that were possible.
“At this rate, I’m going to become obsolete,” Moon complained, but she was smiling as she looked at Mars.
Dark Moon put a hand on her mother’s shoulder. “Sometimes we have to step back and let others have a chance to prove their worth,” she counseled, and Moon nodded.
“I know,” she responded, hugging her daughter and Mars. “Mako-chan and now Rei have had to prove something to themselves over the last week, and I am so glad they did. I don’t mind in the slightest. I’m happy for them.”
“So am I,” Dark Moon agreed.
“Me too,” Chibi-Moon chipped in.
Moon smiled at her daughters. “Let’s go get something to eat,” she suggested.
“Pancakes?” Chibi-Moon asked, hopefully.
“Sure thing,” Moon told her. “I’ll even make them myself.”
“Yay!” Chibi-Moon responded, happily.
~*~
“Can you believe that?” Osan cried with frustration, kicking over a stool and standing before the others.
“Yes, as a matter of fact I can. And I am as unhappy about it as you are,” Akinari said, doing his best to console her.
“Are we going to get a chance to get our own back?” Kenji enquired, arching an eyebrow as he leaned upon the mantle over the hearth.
“Soon. It won’t be much longer. Once Mistress Hecate is strong enough to come into this world, she will be able to tell us exactly who is the keeper of Pegasus, and then we shall snag him and his dreamer and bring them back to our Mistress, who will be able to take possession of the talisman Pegasus possesses. And we shall have the pleasure of eliminating his dreamer once and for all,” Akinari said, his eyes feverish with the pleasurable thought of victory. The others nodded and sipped their wine and ate their freshly prepared meals.
