Serena Devlin eyed the paper on her desk with the wariness that one reserved when facing a poisonous snake that was in the position to strike at you at any moment. The paper in question was a French quiz that had just been returned to her. Considering her low scores on the past four quizzes, one could hardly blame her of not wanting to see how badly she had done this time. Damn it, it wasn’t like she hadn’t tried on them. She had given it her all and then some. She just didn’t get the language with all of its rules that seemed to change on her ever time she thought she got a concept.
It also didn’t help her that the professor was a complete and utter witch, although on the bright side she was just a temporary substitute. But seriously, if this quiz didn’t look any better then the last ones she took, Serena was going to have consider dropping the class because there would be no way for her to bring up her grade even if the real teacher returned. She would be fine; she was taking eighteen hours at the moment so dropping one measly three-hour class wouldn’t cause her to lose full-time status. It would be better to drop the class since she didn’t have a clue when the real teacher would return or if the teach taught any better then the sub and she wasn’t risking her GPA for one class.
Okay so she didn’t have a GPA yet since this was her first semester, but she knew how hard it was for a GPA to recover for one bad grade. And besides the class wasn’t even a requirement. She had just signed up for it because she had a thing for French vampires after she got hooked onto the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series back in her junior year of high school so she thought learning French would be cool. After only two weeks of French class, she decided she was thinking she’d leave the French to the vampires, because the language was a serious pain in her ass.
Slowly she turned the paper over and winced as she saw the big red ‘F’ scrawled off the top and all the red X’s scrawled over most of her answers. How could she be this bad? She could have sworn she had gotten at least some of the answers right. She half-paid attention as the French witch gave instructions for the next homework assignment as she shoved her book and notebook into shoulder bag. She was going to have to drop the class as soon as she returned to her dorm room. There was no way she was going to be able to pull a decent grade in the class. Between quizzes and homework, her total grade was pretty much completely shot to the ground.
“Guess I won’t need this,” Serena muttered under her breath, crumpling up the quiz. As she passed a trash can, she tossed the quiz over her shoulder carelessly although the movement really was anything but that. She had become quite adept at being able to sink paper balls into a trash can from behind. It came with years of finding something wrong with a drawing she was working on that made her crumple it up and toss it behind her into the cute little Hello Kitty garbage can in her room.
But this time it didn’t happen the way she planned it.
“What the hell,” snarled a male voice behind her. “Does my head look like a damn trashcan, meatball head? And what’s this? An ‘F’? You’re not too bright either, are you?”
Now normally Serena would have apologized for beaming some unsuspecting soul with a paper ball. But she had a just left the class from hell and while she had come to the conclusion that she had to drop the class since she lacked the ability to gain a handle upon the language, that didn’t mean she wasn’t disappointed with herself for having to give up. She didn’t like to give up. It wasn’t in her nature to do so easily. Secondly, she did not like having someone make fun of her hairstyle, something she had come up with herself as little girl to make herself completely unique from the other girls in her class. And of course, there was the fact that the ‘victim’ in question had been nosy and discovered her quiz grade and then had the nerve to insinuate that she was stupid because of one damn quiz grade and announce it the entire freaking building!
She whirled around, cerulean blue eyes blazing with the fire of righteous anger. But as soon as she saw her adversary, some of the fire in her left. Or to be more accurate, the fire of anger was replaced by another fire, the fire of pure and unadulterated lust because she was staring at a 6'0" muscled Greek sex god. The white button up shirt he wore, couldn't hide his muscled abs which Serena was almost 100 certain was an 8-pack, and it was a physical effort to resist the urge to press her hands against his chest and feel for herself if she was right.
Her gaze wandered up and she noted that his hair was jet black, the black of a night sky you saw whenever you were out in the country away from all the city lights and the moon and stars were hidden from sight. His face was sculpted with sharp angles that gave him a rugged masculinity that she had always found attractive in a man. And his eyes were a dark blue, the type of eyes a woman would willing let herself drown in.
If the possessor of those eyes weren't staring at her with an amused and knowing expression. Her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment as she realized that he knew she had been checking him out. But feeling embarrassed helped her remember her anger.
“It’s rude to read other people’s papers,” she said, snatching the paper from him and shoving it into her bag. “Furthermore it’s rude to insult a person’s choice of hairstyle or any style for that matter for something that wasn’t intentional.”
“It’s pretty stupid and rude to throw something over your shoulder like that,” he countered. “You know the school does use some of that tuition money we all pay to provide us with trashcans to use, Meatball Head.”
“Don’t call me that, jerk,” snarled Serna. “If you hadn’t been in the way, then it would have landed it in the trash. It’s your own fault that you got hit. And-” she broke off when she caught a glimpse of a clock on a wall nearby. “Oh crap, I’m going to be late to Trig. This is all your fault!” With one final glare, she raced down the hall, praying that she could make it across campus in three minutes to make it to class in time.
Unbeknownst to the blonde, she was being watched as she exited the building. However, it wasn’t just by the male she had accidently assaulted with a flying projectile, although it was clear to anyone who knew the man that while he was annoyed, he was also intrigued by the pretty co-ed. No, there was another set of eyes on the blonde that glowed from the shadows where it watched.
‘Could she be the one,’ thought the owner of those eyes. ‘Such a strong aura. It has to be her.’
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“He was such an unbelievably rude jerk,” Serena complained to her best friend, Molly Baker as they left StarBucks. She and Molly had been best friends since elementary school, always supporting each other. She didn’t know what she would have done if the redhead had chosen another college to attend and she had been alone, not knowing a soul in the world on campus. Well she would have survived, but life wouldn’t be half as fun with Molly.
“Probably a guy from that one frat,” Molly said, sipping on her latte. “Omega something… guys from that house give the rest of the Greeks a bad name.”
“I don’t know. He didn’t have that frat guy aura to him.”
“Frat guy aura?”
“Don’t be a brat. You know what I mean,” Serena retorted, shooting her friend a look for picking at her as they walked back towards their dorm, Tudor Hall.
They heard a feline yowl of protest. Near the museum was a large group of elementary school students that had come to see whatever exhibit that was there this semester. Several hassled looking teachers were giving out orders and trying to maintain order as excited children asked questions and basically acted as any child around the age six or seven on a field trip. To one side, they noticed a group of little boys stood apart of the group, a few of them kneeling in a circle and looking entirely too suspicious. Another yowl was heard and left little doubt of what the little monsters were doing.
There was one thing that Serena couldn’t stand the sight of and that was an animal being tortured. With a snarl, she marched over to the group of the boys. If there teachers couldn’t control them and make them leave a poor defenseless cat alone, then she would.
“Hey! What are you doing to that cat?” she cried, instantly causing the boys to move away and allowing her to see the poor feline in question. The cat was black, yet there was a purplish tint to the fur which she wondered was natural or because of the way the sun hit it. Surprisingly, the cat’s eyes were a striking shade of scarlet. A cat with red eyes? Who would have thought? On the cat’s forehead was a large band-aid which it was trying desperately to remove.
“Have you no shame? How dare you pick on that poor cat!”
“You should talk you old hag,” said one of the boys, who was obviously the ringleader. “Haven’t you any shame? Picking on little kids. Tsk..tsk. And what kind of hairstyle is that? Spaghetti and meatballs?”
“Old…hag…” Serena hissed, her eyes narrowed to slits. That little brat had been picking on a poor defenseless cat and had the nerve to say she was in the wrong for defending the feline. And to call her an old hag and make fun of her hairstyle? Her hands clenched into fists. She would never hit a child, but this kid would surely tempt a saint to the sin of murder. The kid apparently saw that he had pushed her too far and quickly led his band of miscreants back to the rest of their classmates where his teacher got a hold of them and gave them a scolding.
“Down girl, he’s just a kid,” Molly said, grabbing the blonde’s arm and dragging her off towards the dorm.
Serena pulled away to pick up the cat, who was still focused on trying to remove the band-aid from its fur. She had been cautious when she picked up the cat; no matter how much she felt bad for it she didn’t know what it had, so she didn’t want to risk getting scratched. But the cat seemed to settle down instantly in her arms. “That’s it, sweetheart,” she said softly, as she eyed the band-aid and debated on whether it would hurt less if she peeled it off fast or slow.
In the end, fast seemed to be the best choice. With a quick flick of the wrist the band-aid was gone. Although the cat yowled in pain, it made no attempt to scratch her. Serena blinked in surprise to see gold crescent moon on the cat’s forehead. Had somebody shaved the poor thing and tattooed the crescent moon? She moved her hand to touch the crescent moon, but at that moment the cat jumped out of her arms and landed a few feet away. It turned to stare at her moment and then ran off.
“Did you see the crescent moon on the cat’s forehead,” Molly asked her. “You don’t think somebody tattooed that onto the poor thing do you?” And with that question, the two were drawn into a conversation that led into animal abuse, something they felt very strongly against and was guaranteed to get their blood up.
Serena sighed as she flipped through the different TV channels, hoping to find something worthwhile watching to beat back her boredom. It was rather sad that she was sitting home alone on a Friday night. But then she really wasn’t in the mood to go out after that phone call with her father earlier that day. She had actually called to talk to her mother, but her father had picked up instead. He had asked her about school and she had admitted to not doing so well in French and deciding to drop it.
Kent Devlin had been fairly okay with his daughter’s decision on that. He didn’t particular care for the language having had a bad experience with a French client. What he did take issue with was when he finally got Serena to admit to what major she was going to declare. She had refused to say anything when she had first began school, saying she wanted some time to decide since many of the classes she had to take for her freshman requirements allowed for her to have a taste of different majors. And she had chosen and been accepted to a school that offered so many opportunities.
But that had been a lie. Serena had known since as far back as she could remember what she wanted to be was an artist. She wasn’t sure of what medium she wanted to focus upon or what sort of art she wanted to create. That was what college was for, to learn and experiment so she could decide. But the need to create was strong in her. She would never be happy in any of the careers that her father wanted. She was no lawyer or businesswoman. If push came to shove, she might be able to do it but it wouldn’t satisfy her.
Her father just didn’t understand that. And so they had argued about it, with the end result that both were angry and hurt and no one had really won. Feeling the way she did, Serena wished that Molly was here. Her best friend/roommate always seemed to know exactly what to say to make her feel better. The redhead also had an uncanny ability to figure out ways to make both parties of an argument happy and satisfied with the end results. She hated to disappoint her father but she had no intention in being a lawyer.
In any case, Molly wasn’t here. She had gotten a call earlier from one of her mother’s employees begging her to come in to help. Mrs. Baker owned a chic little jewelry store in their hometown and for some reason had gotten into her head to have an all-out, to-end-all sale and the jewelry. Of course, such a sale caused the place to be totally bombarded for customers that the three employees of All That Sparkles just couldn’t handle on their own without some help.
Since her best friend still hadn’t returned, Serena figured that her friend planned on spending the night at home. It was already a quarter to ten and their hometown was a good hour and half a way from the college. It was best that Molly stayed at home, but she still felt rather lonely. Sighing, she plopped backwards on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Maybe she should just go to sleep. After all, she wasn’t in the mood to go out and there was nothing decent on TV (tragically since it was a Friday night).
A breeze filtered swept through the room from the open window by her desk. She shivered, but it wasn’t because of the breeze. It had been cool, but refreshing especially since the dorm AC was broken again which was why she had left the window open in the first place. No, that shiver had been caused by something else. Like a knowing or edge of a cliff kinda thing. She really couldn’t pinpoint the feeling except that she felt like something was about to start.
Something jumped on her bed and she for a brief second she felt a brush of fur. She little out a short scream and sat up quickly, grabbing her pillow as if it could actually serve as a weapon to protect her. There sitting on the foot of her bed was the cat she had rescued earlier from the little heathens.
“Oh my God, you scared the crap out of me,” she said, lowering the pillow.
“I apologize then, for that wasn’t my intention,” the cat said, the crimson eyes of the cat staring at her in a calm and intelligent manner.
Serena froze. Cats did not apologize for doing anything. And they didn’t talk for that matter. So either she had lost it or there was a talking cat sitting on her bed. Neither option looked that appealing to her.
“No, you haven’t lost your mind,” the cat said, guessing from the emotions flickering in the blonde’s eyes of what she was thinking. “Look, I know that all this is rather strange but it’s real and you’re not crazy.”
“Cats’ don’t talk,” Serena said, now clutching the pillow to her chest as if it was a shield that could protect her. It was a ridiculous idea since a pillow could never be a real shield and what could a shield do to help her when the universe had gone stark raving mad?
“Not here they don’t,” the cat said, although the young woman had the distinct feeling that the cat was talking more to herself then to the human. Serena was slowly getting over her shock and noted that the cat’s voice was feminine and sounded like it belonged to a girl around her age.
“Look, I don’t know any way how to tell you this without it being a total shock, so I’ll just have to be blunt about it all,” the cat continued. “My name is Luna. And I’ve been searching for you for a long time.”
“For me? Why?”
“Because you, my dear, or no ordinary girl. You’re a Senshi.”
“Senshi? Isn’t that a Japanese word,” Serena asked, choosing to focus on the word since she recognized it as being part of the world she knew before cats began having conversations with her. Besides she was an avid anime fan, so of course she’d recognize the word.
“It is, but it’s a word that’s been existence long before it became to be recognized as Japanese,” replied Luna, an almost pitying expression in her yes as if she realized how the blonde was feeling about the situation. “In fact, a lot of words that you know today and associate with your language or others have been around far longer then you think. In any case, Senshi refers to a warrior or guardian. You, Serena, are the Senshi of the Moon.”
“The moon?” Something seemed to shift inside Serena. She had always loved the moon, felt a connection to it. But somehow hearing Luna speak of it caused something to change inside her. She could almost hear a key inside her turn, just a tiny little bit and that which it held locked inside press against the thing that kept it sealed.
“Yes, you’re not an Earthling,” Luna said, and then added quickly noticing the rising panic that that statement had caused. “Oh, that’s not to say you’re not human. But you’re not a human that is native of Earth. Well you are, sort of now, but not really. I’m confusing you, aren’t I?”
“Just a little,” Serena replied dryly, finding that despite the oddity of the situation she was feeling comfortable.
“Sorry. What I mean to say is that you’ve been reincarnated. Originally you were born on the Moon. But after the destruction of the Moon Kingdom and all the other Kingdoms of the Silver Millennium, those who died were all reborn upon Earth, which was the only place that survived the destruction intact enough to allow life to exist again.”
Luna paused, waiting to see how Serena would take it. She was pleased to see the girl wasn’t in hysterics, although she couldn’t really blame her if she did. It was a lot to expect any person to behave calmly when someone came, and a cat at that, to tell them that they had been reincarnated and once been Lunarian. But Serena seemed to be taking it rather well, considering the circumstances.
“In any case, I like to thank you for helping me earlier with those brats earlier. It would have caused quite a few problems if my crescent moon was still covered and continued breaking me of my link to my powers. I suppose it was fate that a Senshi would come and help me, although there’s never been a Senshi of the Moon before. Her Majesty, probably thought it best to have another Senshi around to help should another war break out again.”
The word war caught the blonde’s attention.
“War? What do you mean war? Are you saying you want me to fight?”
“I thought we already established that Senshi meant warrior and guardian,” Luna retorted sardonically.
“Yeah, but you never explained the job details of Senshi. A war? Hell no! Are you crazy? I’m a pacifist, not a warrior.”
“So you’re just going to sit back and watch while the Dark Kingdom takes over your world,” Luna asked, eyes flashing. The feline hated herself for what she was doing. This young woman seemed to be so pure and sweet. One of those people that you wished the world had more of because of their goodness. Or you wished the world really was a good place because people like them didn’t deserve dealing with all the ugliness. And here she was setting out to talking the girl into putting aside that gentleness so she would become a tool of war. It was the whole concept of sacrifice for the good of all, but it still felt so wrong.
“The Dark Kingdom is ruled by a sadistic bitch that will enslave your world. All of this that you enjoy will be no more. She will make all of you her slaves to do her bidding or be cannon fodder as she expands her realm of control over the universe. The only ones who won’t suffer their fate are those who sell their souls to and become a part of her ‘court.’ Is that what you will allow to happen because you’re pacifist? Do you want to see your family laboring in the fields for her pleasure? Or have your pretty friend Molly be the pleasure slave for one of her generals?”
As Luna talked, Serena’s eyes had gone big and wide with horror at the things she was being told. No, this couldn’t possibly happen. What kind of power could this woman have to be able to do this? Although she hated it, her county did have nuclear weapons and all other sorts of weapons to defend itself and help its neighbors. Yet the way Luna spoke implied such weapons of mass destruction would be nothing. That the only way to protect everything she loved and knew was to fight.
“But what can I do? I don’t have any training or powers to fight, Luna,” Serena replied. “Are you sure I’m the one you’re looking for?”
Serena may have been doubting, but it was clear to Luna that the girl was reluctantly accepting it. The girl may have not been a warrior by nature, but she would become one to protect the ones she loved. She swiped at the air, accessing her subspace pocket and dropping the Moon Prism Brooch, the transformation device that would allow Serena to start accessing her powers as Senshi of the Moon. As time went by, Serena would be able to access them whenever she pleased, but for now this would help and later it would merely be used to transform to separate the warrior and the woman.
“What’s this,” Serena asked as she picked up the brooch, examining it curiously. It was silver in color and would have been big enough to pin on the bow of her the sailor style uniform that her town’s board of education forced upon the female student population while the guys got away with wearing white button up shirts and dark slacks that matched one of the school colors of whatever school they attended. In the center of the brooch, was a gold crescent moon, which was surrounded by the nine planetary symbols, all in array of different colors.
“This is the Moon Prism Brooch,” Luna replied. “It will allow you to transform and to access your Senshi powers. As time goes on, you won’t need it to access your powers although you’ll prefer to transform to fight.”
“Why is that?”
“Because when you transform, the fuku, your guardian armor, had magic put into its making. Senshi, being born what they are, have a healing factor which means they cell regeneration and healing is faster then a normal human. But while transformed and wearing the fuku, it speeds up the process even more then when you are in your civilian persona.”
“Useful in battle when you’re hurt bad and you still haven’t defeated your opponent,” Serena murmured, earning an approving look from Luna. The blonde may have not been a warrior by nature, but she was smart and seemed to show signs of being a good strategist
“The fuku also has magic woven into it so image is distorted to all who see you except for those who know your civilian identity. It’s safer for you and your loved ones. You don’t need the media or our enemies to know who you are.”
Serena nodded. She knew quite well how the media was with celebrities and politicians. She could just imagine how they would react towards a young super heroine with magic powers. It’d be a bloody feeding frenzy. And let’s not forget that she was supposed to be fighting this Dark Kingdom. If she wanted to get rid of the enemy and knew the enemy’s civilian identity, she would use their loved ones to get them right where she wanted them (she had read too many books and graphic novels not to be aware of this tactic).
“Now then. Take the brooch and repeat this transformation spell: Moon Prism Power! Make up!”
Serena shot the cat a skeptical look, but picked the brooch of the bed as she slid off. Somehow now she felt rather ridiculous having to use a magic item and cry out some transformation phrase. Geez, this was so Power Rangerish! With a little shake of the head, she held the brooch over her head.
“Moon Prism Power! Make up!”
While she had felt Power Rangerish about the whole transformation, the transformation was definitely nothing like the Power Rangers. You never saw the Pink Ranger naked while she transformed, yet the moment the last syllable of the transformation spell had been said, lights had glowed around her and she was without a stitch of clothing. She had little time to be embarrassed as pink ribbons suddenly appeared and began to swirl around her body to form some protection before in a flash of light they solidized and become the fuku Luna mentioned.
Sensing that the transformation was complete and she was now in her heroine form, she moved in front of the full length mirror that Molly had brought for their room. Her reaction was instantaneous as she got her first look.
"Shit," she cried in outrage, stomping one foot in indignation.
"Watch your language, Serena," Luna ordered, turning her head towards and looking disapprovingly at the young woman.
“This is not the time to be griping about my use of four-letter words,” Serena retorted. "This thing has male fan service written all over it! Whoever designed this thing better hope they weren't reincarnated anywhere near me! Thank Selene, this thing has identity protection magic in it! My dad would kill me if he saw me wearing this!!!”
Serena turned back and glared into the mirror. She new wore a sleeveless white bodysuit that clung to her body like a second skin, with a skirt short enough to make a miniskirt blush and a sailor collar. The skirt and collar were a dark blue. The silver compact that she had used to transform rested on a big red bow on her chest.
Turning around, she discovered another red bow resting on the base of her spine. Her arms were encased, up to a few inches above her elbows, by white gloves trimmed in red at the ends and she wore red knee-high boots that had two-inch heels and had a white trim and a gold crescent moon. Around her neck was a red choker, with a gold crescent moon hanging from it. A gold tiara with a red jewel rested upon her forehead. Star and crescent moon earrings dangled from her ears and her hair was adorned by two white feathery pins. White trimmed, red disks covered the front of her buns. Her face was covered by a demi-mask that was similar to the one worn by Sailor V, some mystery girl who had had started making the news in her senior year as a vigilante who had caught quite a few criminals for the cops.
“Okay, what powers do I have in my arsenal? I am not running around like this without any sort of protection because every pervert in a five-mile vicinity will be after my ass,” Serena said, hands on her hips as she looked at her feline companion.
“Check your subspace pocket,” Luna replied. “There should be some sort of weapon in there, although I was never told what weapon that Sailor Moon would use.”
“Subspace pocket? Sailor Moon?”
“Sailor Moon is your Senshi identity. As for a subspace pocket, I’m not going to go into too much detail in that. It’s a Mecurian technology which means it’s too complicated to explain. Suffice it to say, think of it as your own personal invisible pocket in which you can store anything in. Just think of it and you should be able to access it and pull something out of it. Or whatever you want to pull out of it if you know what that is.”
“Sweet,” Serena said, her eyes lighting up the idea of having something that would hold as much stuff as she wanted and pull out without having to dig it out. “You know-” She stopped speaking as her vision went white and then she heard the familiar voice of her best friend as images filled her mind.
“Mama? What’s wrong? No, stop! Please!,” Molly pleaded as Serena watched as the redhead’s mother approach her with a disturbing look on Mrs. Baker’ face that the blonde had never seen. She gasped in horror as Mrs. Baker, wrapped her fingers around her throat and began squeezing. The beautiful and rather youthful looking (for a woman Mrs. Baker’ age) began to decay and wither into something monstrous.
“Serena, what is it,” Luna demanded, noticing her blonde pale considerably.
“It’s Molly,” Serena cried. “I just saw her mother attack her, but it wasn’t her mother. It was some creepy zombie thing!”
“It’s the Dark Kingdom,” Luna said. “They must be starting to make their move. Thank Selene, I’ve found you. Serena you have to save her.”
“How? She’s an hour and half away by car. I’ll never get there in time!”
“Teleportation,” Luna replied. “Close your eyes and concentrate hard on where your friend’s at. Don’t doubt. Think you can and you will be able to use the magic that is yours as the Senshi of the Moon.”
Serena nodded, her friend’s life too important for her to question or allow herself to doubt. She closed her eyes and envisioned the Bakers’ store. ‘Please, oh please work. Molly needs me.’
~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~
Final Thought from Serena:
*glances down at the fuku* Complete and utter fan service for guys.
~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~
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.
