Dark Empress Butterfly concert
Athens: backstage
Beryl thought back to the night before, and was pleased with the show. Usagi’s first appearance onstage was a success and the blonde was a natural and keen to repeat the performance a second and third time. Beryl had laughed telling her she was developing a taste for the rock scene and would be welcome to join the band.
“Oh really!” she squeed. “Thank you Beryl, that’s just pure awesome!”
“Yeah, of course, you’re great onstage,” Beryl giggled as the woman literally jumped up and down on the spot in excitement, her bunny eared plaits bouncing quite different to her more serious role as a High Priestess of Strega. Usagi was just a normal girl, a young woman beneath the exterior and her more serious persona; it was good to see her let her hair, if not down, flouncing off her shoulders and butt. She laughed.
Usagi, tilting her head in that enigmatic way of hers thought about the offer; Beryl was almost sure she could hear the cogs moving in that odango head of hers. Seconds later, she grinned and nodded her ascent.
Mamoru was there and it seemed something had sparked between the couple.
‘You guys are just so damned fucking cute together.’ She mused, looking at them for a moment.
Beryl thought they looked so good together their Lunarian and Terran legacy notwithstanding, it was so obvious.
When she thought about Kunzite and Minako though, she was positive they were hiding something.
‘What was it?’
She’d not been so sure she wanted to know. Given her binge drinking and her spiral into self-destruction, Beryl didn’t blame any of her friends if they deserted her but would he?
She needed a pick-me-up, and the tonic Alice had provided, aside from an unwanted peck on the cheek, was just the ticket.
‘Damn that girl’s infatuation with me. She’s a fan girl, yeah, but one that wants much more than a handshake or autograph… eesh!’
She smiled, thinking of the successful attempt in pairing the girl up with her new love interest. It didn’t stop Alice’s flirtations; in fact, the bottom patting and the index finger running the length of her spine were getting a little irritating. Beryl had gotten used to it and Jolyon had told her to chill, as Alice would eventually grow tired of making her passes.
“You joking Jolyon? Alice? Hey, it is that Gothic sexpot in heat we’re talking about here; half the women in Athens would run screaming!”
He laughed, “And the other half would be jealous of the attention you get from her, so don’t worry, she’s just Alice is all.”
“Easy for you to say, I’m grateful she doesn’t do it in public; but you ready for tonight?” Beryl smirked, changing the subject.
“Yeah and how are you holding up?” he said, his eyes burning with concern and something else that she found oddly pleasing.
“I’m not getting the nightmares at the moment, and not going crazy with demonic voices in my head or speaking out of turn like that youma from the Exorcist,” she blanched at the thought.
“Sure you’re okay now?” he moved so close she could feel his breath on her face, “I am sensing trouble ahead, and I’m not about to let you get hurt; damn it Beryl-“
He pulled her into his arms. There was nobody in the corridor and for the briefest of moments his wings appeared and enfolded her; the soft downy texture making her swoon as he kissed her with a fire she’d never known. She buckled at the knees and he smiled as they parted, each breathless and grinning.
“Wow, how can I top that?” she breathed, pawing at his leather jacket, pressing her head against his chest, listening to his heart beating as he stroked her ruby curls.
“Just go out there and knock em' dead, and sing your heart out. I’ll give it all I’ve got via Sybil here,” he patted his shiny black electric guitar and stepping up on tiptoes she brushed his lips with her own and they parted as the sounds of people moving down the prefab causeway were getting closer.
“See ya out there hon,” she said, blowing him a kiss as his wings vanished.
---
Beryl went back to the make-up room; she needed to check her reflection after that wonderful kiss.
She heard the sounds of a stifled giggle, objects moving and a squeaking of furniture coming from behind the door. She tilted her head, shrugged and went in anyway.
‘Probably a couple of make-up girls trying to clean up after the band,’ but when she flung open the door to startle the occupants, she gaped, her glass, half-filled almost spilling onto the polished wooden decking that made up the backstage area.
“Oh, by the kamis… I-“
Of course, she was pissed with him, but how could she not be? It wasn’t that she’d not been unfaithful herself, ‘but with this new band member?’
“B-beryl?” Kunzite all but squeaked.
“You’ve got all the fucking discretion of a freak’n alley cat; get a room. Far be it that I should object,” she shouted, staring at the couple, as they were barely able to keep their clothes on, and hands off each other.
“You’re a fine one to talk, even if you weren’t so paralytic I’d find your attitude sucked!” Minako said, stammering, as she hurried to tidy up her costume.
“Yeah, I might have had a drinking problem-“
“Had? Look at you, you’ve got a shot glass in your hand,” Kunzite snapped, red-faced with embarrassment and outrage whilst doing up his fly. “Is it any wonder I hadn’t strayed before?”
“Shithead, it’s a tonic, not a shot of brandy or whatever you thought I was tossing back. Fuck you! Gods know I need a fucking drink. But, for your information, I don’t care anymore, Kunzy,” she laughed as his face took on a feral look as he hated the nickname, and especially when it came from her in anger.
“We’ve got a show to do. We shouldn’t be fighting,” Minako whispered, but she was feeling uncomfortable as the atmosphere chilled and it was a standoff.
Beryl looked at the pair of them, sighed and sank into a leather chair, swinging it around to re-apply her lippy.
“I have a confession to make Kunzite,” she looked at the expectant couple reflected in the mirror behind her and they were unsure how to respond so she pressed on, “I too have come to realize I was a failure, as a girlfriend and as a human being. But I am doing something about it and to tell you the truth, I am glad we’re having this conversation.” She spun around in her chair to face them and she was smiling.
“Y-you are?” Minako croaked; sitting also as Kunzite shuffled on his feet, nervous, as the show would be starting soon. He needed to check the skins and symbols.
“Yes, I am letting you go, Kunzite. I think you had more than good reason to stray. As adults we need to learn the art of diplomacy, hormonal teens seem to fair better… and when it comes to the lost art of communication, I am the most obvious candidate for that heads up. But I am falling in love with somebody else as well.”
“Alice?” Kunzite teased, feeling more relaxed at the fact she was letting him off light, as Beryl’s tempers were not too pleasant to cop full-force.
“I’d sock you in the jaw for that you bastard if I didn’t know you were teasing me, no it’s Jolyon.”
They smiled, realization and relief moving across their faces like a picture on a wide screen TV coming into phase.
“So, it worked out okay, despite our handling of our let’s say, indiscretions?” Minako offered.
“You could say that,” Beryl replied.
“I just did,” Minako, giggled.
Kunzite smirked, and pulled both women into a group hug.
“Friends?” Beryl looked at her former lover and still friend.
“I wouldn’t be hugging you princess if we weren’t,” he said, and Minako laughed and they all left the room; all was forgiven and a clean slate lay before them.
---
The concert was rocking along at a cracking pace, they were in their third set and the show was reaching its peak.
Beryl was aware something was wrong, she could feel it and she could hear a howling wind in her mind – for the moment, it was distant, not competing with the rock music and electro sequences of the various numbers they were surging through, but it was gnawing at her consciousness.
Pushing the strange sensation to the back of her mind where she hoped it would stay, Beryl refocused. She was hot, in both senses of the word she knew, letting out a whoop as she plunged into the refrain. Sweat glistened off her body as she danced, despite the obvious discomfort of the humidity in Athens that night. Added to that the physical exertions of performing live, in a short leather skirt and glittery violet tank top smothered in silvery glass beads, and high heels; she managed all this with aplomb.
She looked sexy, energized and the music was giving her that second wind that Ayumi told her she’d find a lifesaver onstage during a three-hour gig.
Warmth flooded her body as she thought about Jolyon. Of course, he was an angel, perhaps in both senses, a dark angel, not of evil, but of pure night. Thoughts of the kiss sent her entire being aflame. She remembered how gorgeous he was as he stood in silhouette on her balcony on that first night when her life had changed forever.
Lady Usagi, soon to step up front with her and the guys, was the starting point; it was she who had opened up Pandora’s Box, revealing her past life and that of the strange priestess herself stunned by the bonds between them. Nemesis, the enigmatic world that in another time and place she had seen.
She had remembered the dark past, the age of the Silver Millennium; she was free of all that wasn’t she?
Redemptress, and pop diva, her song would be the vehicle upon which she would share her passion and love of her art. With Jolyon now by her side, Beryl had all she ever wanted. She thought him the perfect example of manly grace and supernatural staying power, sensuality, sexiness and mystery that drew her as a moth to the flame.
Kunzite, she suddenly realized, as she glanced at him out the corner of her eye was with his soul mate. She could see that now. If it was Minako’s arms where he would find fulfillment, then who was she to keep them apart and especially now when she had Jolyon.
She knew she had been granted a second chance, initiated under the mysteries of Usagi and Strega. Beryl now had to deal with an unseen challenge that was, even in that moment of reflection making its presence more obvious by the second.
---
Blazing red locks flying out behind her, she spun around, winning more applause and wolf whistles from her admirers as her skirt rode up her butt a little and flashed the black silky laced panties. Beryl winked at her admirers who just couldn’t get enough of their idol.
‘So, what is the harm in a little fan-service?’ she giggled and continued her sensual dance, knowing her moves would show more than the audience expected.
“For all you Greek boys out there, and now,” she danced in a tight circle, belting out another of her classics. “Thank you Athens!”
She laughed at the reaction of her fans. The band then broke into a medley of J-rock and western classics.
---
Beryl kept up her professional demeanor, as the stage was huge and if something was happening out back, she hoped the security people would handle it. She then did a rendition of Lead Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven followed by a cover of the song by Immi, the SAMOS remix of Ups and Downs.
It didn’t take long before her spidy senses detected the supernatural cold, its fingers of clawing icy energy chilling her arms and legs. She had detected the night of the first gig, but tonight it had gone up a notch or two.
Gasping in the middle of an electro-rock instrumental, the crowds cheered again. She was worried and becoming a little frightened, for herself naturally and these people, there were thousands of them and they were in grave danger.
Then she saw the blue mist and shadows squirming behind the props - they all had.
‘Shit, those statues, were they moving? Nah, I’m too pumped and am imagining things.’ She tried to dismiss what she knew to be true, but she had to face the fact that something evil was slipping onstage. ‘I just hope nothing goes wrong, I think a break might not be a bad idea after this song,’ she decided, and gave the hand gesture to the guys behind her and the lights began to fade as the song came to an end.
Heart of the Athens CBD
The shadows moved en masse, an army of Gargoyles were facing the clock tower, and from the stock exchange end of the long plaza came the weir wolves, other odd shapes and growling sounds could be heard emerging from the nearby alleys; the power was high and the darkness all-encompassing.
“Now, let us see if we can lay claim to the powerful guardians of light and steal their prize; Beryl Canoga!” a gravelly hellish approximation of the female form snarled, her rough skin a cross between a reptile and a stone statue, her red eyes several times larger than those of a human glowed.
The air seemed to die and take on the atmosphere of a morgue; a fierce storm was brewing on the horizon.
---
‘Jolyon, his wings have appeared, whatever is going on its not good, he never reveals himself unless…’
A voice, rich, deep, seductive and chilling swept over the amphitheater.
“Beryl, I’ve come for you, and you are my solution to my ageless problem!”
The Gorgon Medusa stood resplendent on stage, organic stone, a marble wonder; her face impassive, beautiful, the snakes almost purring. The Gorgon seemed to have her ability to kill her witnesses with a glance under control, well at least for the moment anyway.
the crowds not fazed in the least, were cheering and clapping, just as well she thought as panic was the last thing they needed right then.
Jolyon was gone. People were being asked to move out of the hall in an orderly fashion by security staff careful to remain cheerful and keep everyone in good spirits. Beryl then told her fans that the next part of the performance required secrecy so as not to spoil the treat, the audience for the most part obeyed but for a few hundred out back.
Medusa was staring at Minako, her expression pale especially when one considered she was a marble statue with flesh-like dexterity.
“You!” Medusa hissed, literally. “I didn’t expect you’d be here, but then Psyche and Zeus protect you, Hera, they all do, damn them!”
“Quite an irony don’t ya think,” Minako challenged, her voice shaking a little. But she was not alone; Kohana was there as were the other senshi who for the most part had remained in the background as the planetary senshi had jurisdiction over Tokyo, but this, she reminded herself, was Athens Greece and quite within the bounds of reason given the situation.
Then they appeared in a blinding blaze of glorious color; the beautiful female warriors in sexy outfits had the commentators going wild. Sailor Mars and later, Sailor Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus and Neptune and others were ready to fight, and fight they did.
Then there was the Gorgon’s response telecast to an audience of millions worldwide. Live feed of these powerful Goddesses became more important to the media contingent than the actual battle itself. It was already much too late to place any embargo on the media, and quite impossible, for within the hour, the story was headlining across the planet.
“Mars Celestial Fire Ignite!”
“Mercury Glacial Blast!”
“Moon Tidal Surge!”
“Venus Crescent Beam Smash!”
“Blue Pearl Fire Lash!”
Atop the ancient wall, three figures looked on.
“We need to do something,” Uranus said, looking to the small girl standing between them, “Should we intervene?”
“The prophecy is almost fulfilled, it is not time yet,” Saturn said – removing her pointed hood, she held a crystal plaque, embossed symbols representing the Furies began in their turn to glow, “The others are almost ready to make themselves known. The real enemy is coming. She must tame the Gorgon and elicit her help, but will she see this in time?”
“You’re asking me? I can only say the power of the Dark Mother is almost at its peak and soon Beryl will burst into flower, I cannot say any more than this.”
“I thought not, Neptune is onstage behind that prop, she’s about to make her move… come on!”
