Saphir barely suppressed a shiver, thankful that this errand that the Queen had sent him on had at least guided him to an underground cave in this frozen wasteland. It was no surprise to him that there were no human inhabitants here, even those with magic as he possessed, would be hard pressed to survive in such temperatures. At least here in the cave there was barely any wind blowing at it had been outside (he had the misfortune to of being sent during a storm apparently), except for a few drafty breezes that reminded him of the cold.
The next time he was being sent off as an errand boy, he was going to make damn sure that it was somewhere warm. Let that cackling hyena, Emeraude deal with subzero temperatures. He wasn’t particularly thrilled with the new Queen of Nemesis but at least he had the sense not to come off as hostile and defiant as Emeraude had; love had made her foolish, although he was of the opinion that the woman had a fangirl crush on his elder brother.
The dark-haired man wandered through the caverns, glancing occasionally at the map that he had been given. The only thing it had done for him thus far was give the coordinates of where to look; it had yet to give any sign of him being near his goal. It made him question if there was anything here. He didn’t doubt that Queen Serenity had sent him to retrieve something, only that perhaps the item no longer existed where she thought it would be. Yet one could not discount the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou and its power. Hadn’t it been the jewel that had told her?
Suddenly the map began to glow bright and grow warm in his hands. Saphir paused to look it and then glance around his surroundings. There was nothing that could be seen yet obviously what he sought was here. Cautiously he took a few steps in one direction and noticed that the glow of the paper had dimmed. Okay, so the map was working as a divining rod; he switched directions and kept moving as the map grew brighter and warmer in his hand. It finally got to a point that it was to hot from him to hold. He dropped it and soon as it hit the ground, it burst into flames that soon died out after a few minutes.
The flames had melted a hole into the frozen floor. Saphir knelt down and reached into the whole, his hands closing onto something solid and rectangular in shape. He pulled out a plain wooden box. Curiosity of what it contained and to find some answer of why he was sent to seek it, made him open the box. The inside of the box was lined with black velvet and laying in a row were four stones of varying shades.
“What could these stones possibly do against the Senshi,” he pondered aloud. He traced a finger against one of the stones, wincing as he felt a shock go through his body. The stones, or at least that one stone, held some sort of energy. There was a certain flavor to the energy… it was almost masculine.
“What do you have planned,” he whispered, but there was no answer. The only one who could wasn’t here to answer him and even if she was, he doubted he would get an answer.
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“I have my eye on you mister,” Rei’s grandfather said, shaking his index finger at Mamoru. It was clear that the old man considered the younger man a threat to the virtues of his granddaughter and her friends. Considering the pervy thoughts that went through his own head, it wasn’t particularly surprising. As to why he didn’t freak out about Yuuichirou’s presence around the girls? Well it was clear that the brunette was very much cowed and in awe of Hino-san.
“One wrong move, my boy and you’ll see my Hino High Kick of High Pain!”
“Yes, yes, I’m sure Mamoru-san is suitably terrified,” Rei said, ushering her grandfather from her bedroom. “Honestly. There are six of us and one of him. You’d think you’d be more worried about his virtue.”
“What? Rei? What are you-”
The door was firmly closed in the old man’s face. Rei let out a breath and waited a few minutes, until she was certain her grandfather had left to go complain to Yuuichirou about how mean she was being. It wasn’t as if she was but sometimes the old man, as much as she loved him, could be embarrassing. Besides, they had more important things to tend to and they couldn’t have her grandfather around asking questions.
“Lay down Mamoru-san,” Ami instructed, as she and Makoto helped the man lay on his left side. While like the Senshi, Mamoru had a higher healing factor when he was in the form of his alter ego, they had needed to discuss the new turn of events and standing in the forest near Rei’s shrine in their transformed forms wasn’t the best place for such discussions. There were just too many people that visited the shrine who enjoyed taking a stroll through those woods.
So to avoid being stumbled upon by anyone (which would have led to being badgered with questions and autographs; as much as they liked to keep under the radar it was hard thing to do when you saved the word bi-annually from bad guys), they had decided to return to Rei’s place. Unfortunately this meant they had to revert back to the civilian forms, which while sustaining a higher rate of healing then the average person was far too low when having to heal a wound such as one that Mamoru had sustained. His wound had to be taken care of before they could do anything else.
With patience and care, Ami eased off the man’s green jacket and passed it to Minako. Despite the seriousness of the situation, the Senshi of Mercury had to bite back a smile as she saw her blonde friend hide the horrendous fashion disaster in her subspace pocket. Selene only knew how often Usagi had complained about that jacket and how she had tried to remove it from Mamoru’s wardrobe; yet she had always failed because the man had seemed to possess some kind of radar on it. Her amusement faded as she thought about the reason why the jacket’s removal had become possible. They had to get Usagi back.
Ami pulled up Mamoru’s black shirt, wincing as she saw the cut in his side that had been caused by Motoki. No, she corrected, Nemesis Knight. If she thought of the other man as the friend she knew, it would be harder to fight him. Just as it would be harder to fight the Dark Senshi and her own best friend. Yet the Senshi of Wisdom had realized after the end of their battle, that the only way to win and thus gain back the ones they had lost to the Black Moon was to fight seriously. To do any less would mean they would lose because the Dark Senshi had no qualms about fighting them.
“This is going to need stitches…” she said, glancing up at Rei.
The miko nodded before leaving the room for a few minutes before returning with a large First Aid kit and a half-full bottle of whiskey. “I figured it’d help,” the Senshi of Mars said when her friends looked at her weirdly. “Well they’re always drinking some kind of alcohol in the movies when somebody’s getting stitched up. I figured it’d help.”
“Thanks Rei,” Mamoru said, raising himself up enough to take the bottle and take a quick swig. The liqueur burned its way down its throat, but the burn of alcohol was a lot less then the burn in his side. He had been stupid; he had let himself too open in the fight when he had hesitated. He honestly didn’t think he had it in him to actually hurt his friend, let alone kill him, but he should have been smart enough to at least make sure that he was on guard at all times.
“Maybe Chibi-Usa should go outside for this,” Artemis suggested, glancing at the little girl who was currently staring at Mamoru with wide-tear filled crimson eyes.
“No,” the little girl said in a tone that was very similar to Usagi’s when the blonde decided on something that she wouldn’t budge on. “Mamo-chan got hurt protecting me. The least I can do is be here and hold his hand while he gets stitched up.”
The white cat wanted to argue against it, but a sharp claw in the tail had him biting his tongue. He glanced at Luna who gave him a look that was easy enough to interpret. The child had seen a lot in her young life that was a lot worse then seeing a man having a wound stitched up. For whatever reason, whether it really was out of gratitude, the child was going to stay and it was a waste of breath to continue arguing.
Chibi-Usa sat by the bed and took Mamoru’s free hand in hers. The man smiled at the little girl who was trying to be brave for his sake; one would think it was she who was being stitched up and not him. He nodded at Ami to continue and looked away, knowing that watching the procedure would only make it hurt worse.
The blue-haired teen got the needle ready and swallowed nervously. Her dream was to be a doctor one day and she read medical textbooks in her spare time, but it was one thing to dream of a someday and read about something and quite another to do. She glanced at her friends who all nodded at her encouragingly. Swallowing again, she set to work trying not to flinch when Mamoru visibly winced when the needle entered his flesh for the first time. She focused on her task, moving as quickly as possible but not so much to sacrifice efficiency.
Twenty minutes and thirteen stitches later the task was done. Ami moved away as Makoto stepped and took over to make sure the closed wound was properly cleansed and then bandaged. Another few minutes and Mamoru was sitting up with his shirt pulled over the wound and not a moment too soon as Rei’s grandfather barged in once more ‘to bring them treats to enjoy’ but in reality to check up on them. Rei chased the old man away once more and set about passing out the snacks.
“Okay, can I say we’re like officially screwed nine ways to Venus,” said Minako, biting into a cookie glumly. “I mean we barely walked away without having our asses handed to us.”
“The Dark Senshi don’t even have to lift a finger and they’re stronger then us,” Makoto added. “I really had to focus my power to actually stand a chance against Sailor Setekh.”
“They’re also not brainwashed like Usagi-chan,” Rei added, her expression thoughtful as thought back in the battle. “Their eyes were perfectly clear. Nothing cloudy or glassy looking about them at all. Motoki-onii-san was the same. If anything I think something was done to them to change them into what they are now. I don’t think they respond if we called them by their real names.”
“Well fu-” Minako started to curse and noticing a pointed look from everyone, remembering that Chibi-Usa was present which meant using certain four-letter words wouldn’t be acceptable. “-udge. If they don’t know their own names then we can’t get that as a way to help snap them out of it. I mean at least with Usagi-chan she knows who she is even if they fudged up her memories.”
“That’s not the only problem,” Ami said, who had previously taken out her Mercury data computer and typing at it. “I didn’t know when Usagi-chan would show up so I created some data cams to be used during the battle.” The others thought back and remembered vaguely Ami throwing what appeared to be pebbles in the air; so that’s what that had been. “From the data I collected, what’s been done to Dark Senshi and Motoki-onii-san isn’t natural. None of them were ever meant to be warriors, not like us. We were born to fight and protect but they’re truly civilians. They’ve had magic and powers forced into them and changing them.”
“Somehow I have a feeling there is more bad news coming with that,” Makoto said.
“If they don’t get changed back to their former selves soon, this change is going to kill them,” Ami said, her face grim. “And it’s not going to be nice and easy death either.”
The room fell silent as the Senshi of Wisdom’s words sank in. The silence in the room seemed to deepen as they realized that the young woman they loved and cared about had done something so horribly wrong as what was done to the Dark Senshi and their male companion. The Usagi-chan they knew would have never harmed another being like that unless it happened to be a bug and anyone made an exception for those creepy things. Out of all them, Usagi was the one who hated fighting the most. She fought to protect the planet and her loved ones, but their Princess was really a pacifist and would prefer to find another way then to use the great and deadly power that she possessed.
“I uh also managed to record that bright light that surrounded Chibi-Usa,” Ami said, changing the subject as it was more then depressing. “It’s going to take another few minutes but I think I’ll be able to pinpoint what it is. Just another second…” The blue-haired Senshi blinked. She then pulled her glasses out of her subspace pocket and put them on and glanced at her computer again.
“Ami what’s wrong,” Luna asked.
“Um… well… the Mercury computer has identified the light that was emitted from Chibi-Usa but… I’m not sure how this can be right.”
“What is it?”
“The energy signature that came from that light… it’s the same as the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou.”
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Final Thought from Mamoru, Makoto, Minako, Rei, Luna and Artemis:
SAY WHAT????
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Author’s Note:
Some people have requested permission to draw fan art of some of the characters and here is my response to all of you who asked:
http://darksongstress.deviantart.com/journal/Tourniquet-Characters-309679892
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-chan - suffix for a name that means family or close friend. may be offensive if you don't know that person well.
Senshi - soldier, warrior, fighter
-sensei - suffix for a name, usually used when a student addresses a teacher
-san – common honorific used to refer to someone that one respects and looks up to
Maboroshi no Ginzuishou - Illusionary Silver Crystal
baka - stupid, idiot
miko – priestess
Seshat - Egyptian goddess of wisdom, knowledge and writing
Menheit – Egyptian goddess of war, also known as “she who massacres”
Setekh – another spelling for Set, Egyptian god of storms
Isis – Egyptian goddess of fertility
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Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Sailor Moon or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Takeuchi Naoko and anyone else she says has rights to it.
