Celestial Moon by: drama81 Chapter Three It had been a couple weeks after the last attack. The senshi had been keeping up their guard at all times. Hotaru had avoided most of the senshi, only seeing them when there was a meeting. Even then she tried to find back ways to Luna and Artemis's house. She was perhaps the most paranoid of the senshi. Jadeite had seen her transform and she knew he would be after her. It was only by her body giving out each day that she got any sleep at all. Still it was not a restful sleep. In her sleep she was plagued by nightmares of Jadeite standing upon the bodies of her friends. Each day she seemed to slip away a little more. The other senshi, although not as severe as Hotaru, seemed down more since the last attack. Makoto ran into her house and up to her room. Although she was twenty-one, she still lived with Artemis and Luna. It was simply easier because of her duties as a senshi. Luna walked up the stairs to Makoto's room and knocked on the door. "Mako-chan is something wrong?" she asked. "Please leave me alone Luna-mama," Makoto cried out from inside the room. "Alright, I'll leave you alone for right now, but I want you to talk to me later okay?" Luna said from her side of the door. Quiet, muffled sobs was Luna's response and she grew worried. She had given her word, though, and she was not one to go back on her word. She quietly left the door and went back to what she had been doing before, although her work now was not as good as it had been a few minutes before. After an hour Luna went back to Makoto's door and knocked again. "Whoever it is, go away," Makoto yelled. "Makoto, let me in. I want to talk," Luna said in a firm voice. "Please, just leave me alone. I don't want to talk right now," Makoto said, still sobbing. "Well that's too bad, because I'm coming in," Luna said as she opened the door. Makoto glared at Luna as she entered the room. "I said I don't want to talk," she hissed out. "And I said too bad. We need to talk. I know something is bothering you and I want to help," Luna said, sitting down on the bed. "You can't help it, unless you can change the past," Makoto sobbed. "You know I can't do that or else you wouldn't be here right now. Artemis and I would have gone back and warned Serenity-sama of the coming attack," Luna said. "So you can't help me," Makoto said through her sobs. "I never said that. I said I cannot change the past. That does not mean I cannot do something to help you through this time. If you open up I'll see what I can do," Luna said. "Fine, I'll tell you what happened. Do you remember Shinozaki?" Makoto asked. "Hai, I remeber Shino-san," Luna said nodding. "Well recently there has been a new girl hanging around him all the time. She has him wrapped around her finger and has turned him against me. She's fed him full of lies, saying that I want to be more than friends with him. Then today, while I was at work, they came and asked to talk to me. As it was, I was going on break anyways, so I said okay. We went out and she began saying that I wanted to be more than friends again. She asked him if he wanted to be more than friends, and he said no. I told both of them that it has never been like that between us. Yes, we did go on a few dates, but we both knew it wouldn't work out and valued our friendship too much to keep it up. That fell on deaf ears and she launched into another verbal assault. I finally had to walk away to keep from hitting her. Later I talked to Shino-chan's mother and now know that she has been filled with lies as well. That baita has taken my best friend away from me," Makoto said before a new waves of tears began to wrack her body. "Oh Mako-chan, I'm so sorry," Luna said, drawing her adopted daughter into a hug. Makoto returned the hug and hung onto Luna, tears falling from her eyes. "Why do these thing always happen to me? Why kaa-san, why?" Makoto asked. "I wish I knew. I wish I knew," Luna said, comforting her daughter. ~~~~~~~ Beryl glowered on her throne. Jadeite had failed her in his mission again, but he had brought back invaluable information. She could now find at least one of the senshi. With that one, she would find the others. It was now only a matter of time before the threat of the senshi was eliminated. She had done nothing for a few Earth weeks now, one to put the senshi at ease, and two to put fear into Jadeite. While he did bring back Sailor Saturn's identity, he had failed. Failure was not something that Beryl tolerated. Metallia had been getting restless as of late as well, further adding to Beryl's dilemma. Metallia would have no qualms about destroying Beryl and finding another to take her place. As it was, Endymion would most likely be chosen. He was already a formidable mage, and had been taught the dark magics shortly after he had been brought into the Dark Kingdom. Then again, it could be Neherenia. Metallia had taking a shining to the black sheep of the royal moon line. Her specialty was transfiguration. She could turn anything into anything else. She had turned three animals into her own generals. Her heart was black from being denied the crown in place of her sister, Serenity. Though Neherenia was older, she was denied, the priests proclaiming that her soul would never be pure enough to weild the crystal. Metallia found the woman shortly after they began their conquest of the moon. Now she was a formidable sorceress to deal with. Beryl could not wait any longer to make a move, to do so would sign her death warrant for sure. "Jadeite show yourself!" she demanded. The general of fire appeared and kneeled before Beryl. "Yes Beryl-sama," he said. "It is time for you to attack Earth again. Now pick your youma and be off. If the senshi interfere, then destroy them. Do not fail me again. This is your third chance, and any more would be foolish on my part," Beryl commanded. "Yes my queen," Jadeite said. He quickly stood and vanished to pick his best warrior. A moment later a shimmer appeared in the air and Nephrite appeared. "He will fail. The stars have foretold it. Should I destroy him?" he asked, a wicked smile on his face. "If he fails, he is of no use to us. Yes you may destroy him if he fails. Now go Nephrite," Beryl said, dismissing the dark general of the stars. ~~~~~~~ The youma appeared in Tokyo Central Park and ensued in creating chaos. Soon many bodies laid at that youma's feet, or rather it's hooves. The youma would best be described as being a demon made in the likeness of the Dark Prince of the Christian religion. It held a female victim in the air while it drained her of her energy. To someone trained to see energies, it would appear that a white mist was floating from the girl into the monster. As it took the last of her energy it threw the girl down. As soon as the girl had hit the ground a purple sphere smashed into the youma. The youma flew several yards and skidded on the ground. It looked up at its attacker. There stood eight warriors with one in dark red and with green hair holding a staff towards it. "You will have one chance to leave now before we destroy you," she said, her eyes burning with hatred. "Diablos will not be destroyed, it shall be you destroyed human," the youma sneered in its deep, gravely voice. The youma seemed to blink out of existense, and reappeared a second later above the senshi. It fell towards the senshi, a clawed hand extended. As it landed it hit one senshi with short, blue hair on her shoulder. The youma smirked as it licked its hand, the blood of Mercury on its talons. Sailor Venus was the first to recover from the sight of the youma licking its hand clean of Mercury's blood. She quickly entended her hand at the youma. "Crescent Beam!" she shouted, releasing her golden beam of light. The attack smashed into the youma's stomach, sending it flying back into a tree. The youma tried to pull its speed attack again. This time as soon as it reappeared a bolt of lighting and a fire ball met it. The youma fell to the ground as pain consumed it. A new pain exploded in the youma as its features became those of Jadeite. As soon as the process was complete the dark general glared at the senshi. "It ends this time. You shall die by my hands now. Firestorm!" he yelled. The fireball sped towards the senshi and burnt several of them. Uranus looked at Jadeite and raised her fist into the air. "World Shaking!" she called out. The golden globe of energy flew at Jadeite. It impacted upon his sheild and dispersed. Jadeite clucked his tongue. "Will you senshi never learn. I always have a sheild, but for your troubles you can have this. Inferno!" he said. The small fireball smashed into Uranus, sending her to the ground and burning a good part of her fuku and body. Mars saw the attack hit Uranus and nearly screamed. She turned her attention towards Jadeite. She quickly raised an ofuda scroll that she always kept with her. She began chanting a small prayer to one of her Shinto gods. At the end she snapped her eyes open and threw the charm towards Jadeite screaming, "Aku Ryo Tai San!" The small charm flew through the sheild and placed itself upon Jadeite's forehead. The general tried to remove the charm, but found he couldn't move. A second later a burning pain went flowed throughout his entire body. He opened his mouth and let out a scream of pain. "Jadeite, you are correct. It does end this time, but it shall be us who win, not you," Pluto said, leaning against her staff. She began to make her motions for her Dead Scream attack when a bright light distracted her. The senshi from before made an appearance that rivalled the last time the Earth senshi had seen her. As she landed the glow subsided and she drew her wings into her back. "Thank you Pluto. You and your team have done the hard part. Now I can free him from the Dark Kingdom," she said, pulling out a large staff. The staff was silver and had a crescent moon at the top. She raised the staff high in the air and began to channel power through it. "Celestial Seperation!" she called out. A bright light flew from the staff and hit Jadeite. Jadeite was engulfed in the bright light. A second later he split into two objects, one of them the youma. The youma screamed as it exploded from the holy light. Jadeite seemed to try and scream, but his voice did not come. A few seconds later the light died down and Jadeite fell to his feet. The mantles on his shoulders fell and disintegrated before they touched the ground. His eyes shined with a happiness he hadn't felt in ages. Then something neither senshi, nor general expected happened. A blast made of two smaller blasts orbiting around a larger one smashed into Jadeite. His cry could be heard for a half mile radius. As the attack subsided Jadeite stood frozen in place. His body shimmered and then turned into a jade stone. The stone then flew into the bushes. An evil laugh could be heard from the bushes. "Thank you senshi. You made my job easier. Oh and don't worry, your time will come. Just not today," the voice called out. The senshi ran to the bush the voice had come from, but found nothing in it. "Shimatta!" Jupiter shouted. "I'm sorry Jadeite, I failed you," the winged senshi said, a tear falling down her pale cheek. With that her wings grew back and she took off, before any of the other senshi could stop her. The senshi began to scan the victims of the youma, seeing if any were dead. Jupiter came across the one the youma had finished draining when the senshi arrived. A gasp escaped her lips. It was the girl that had taken her friend away. "If anyone deserved this it is you, Miyaki," she said sneering. A hand touched Jupiter's shoulder. She whirled around and took up a battle stance. She relaxed when she saw it was Sailor Neptune. "You shouldn't sneak up on people Michiru. You could get hurt," Jupiter said. "Haruka says the same thing," Neptune said, supressing a giggle. "Did you mean that about this girl deserving to be drained?" Jupiter nodded her head and Neptune had a look of disappointment come over her face. "Then we have already failed. If one of our own thinks something the Dark Kingdom has done is deserved, then we should throw in the towel now. Don't you see Makoto? No one deserves what the Dark Kingdom does to people. That is what we fight to stop. No matter if the person or people we save scorn us, it is our duty to protect them," Neptune said, a tone of sadness in her voice. Jupiter looked down in disgrace. 'How could I have forgotten that. Luna and Artemis have told us that since day one. Still, she took my best friend away,' Jupiter thought. 'Yet I cannot hate her for that. Shinozaki had to make that choice on his own. He chose to go with her, so I guess it isn't entirely her fault. That doesn't mean I like her, though. She will never be in my good graces. She has caused too much pain to me.' "I guess I was wrong about it. I may not like this girl, but she didn't deserve it. I'm sorry Michiru," Jupiter said. "It's alright, but you should apologize to her. Just remember, no matter what you will always have us to rely on," Neptune said before walking away. Neptune walked back to where Uranus was. "Was everything alright?" Uranus asked. "Hai, I just had to remind Jupiter what we fight for," Neptune said, smiling. "What do you think that new senshi meant when she said she failed Jadeite?" Uranus asked. "I wish I knew. She is a mysterious one indeed. More mysterious than Pluto it seems. I guess all things will be revealed in time. Until then let's enjoy the ride," Neptune said. ~~~~~~~ Well that's the end of Chapter Three. Yes I know, things are moving fast. However, I have been reading the manga lately and things there move really fast. In fact it is in Act Three that Jadeite is defeated in the manga as well. No, I'm not trying to do this in time with the manga, it just happened this way this time. Okay, well until next time, ja ne.