Chapter Four: Powers

 

 

          By all rights, the building should have been considered beautiful. It was tall, crystalline, and ephemeral in appearance, what light there was prismed through the spires, throwing tiny rainbows around like insubstantial confetti.

          But the young man knew better. Those spires were neither crystalline nor ephemeral. In fact, they were mother-loving hard to knock down. But he was going to anyway.

          Ash ran.

          He couldn’t help thinking that if only there were a soundtrack of Chariots of Fire playing in the background, it would be perfect. Mental calculations were made. Leg muscles were tensed. Arms were outstretched, and the ebony figure hurtled through the air.

          Ash hit the ground.

          He glanced at his watch and grinned. The realization hit him that if somebody just happened to glance out their window, they might think it rather amusing to see some random, black-clad man dashing across their line of sight and hurling himself behind a wall of sandbags. Well, he was laughing, anyway. The laughter shifted from jovial to maniacal as he finally noticed what time it was. He also wondered what the guards must think of a random human hand popping up behind the wall of sandbags and counting down from five.

          “Did you hear that?”

          “Hear what?”

          “I thought I heard something.”

          They turned to gaze upon the pile of sandbags in the far corner of the fenced area. Abruptly, a hand—a human hand no less!—shot into view from behind the sandbags, fingers outstretched. Before they could accost and firmly admonish this intruder, one of the fingers retracted. The guards blinked. Another finger drew in followed by the one next to it, and so on. Unfortunately, it did not occur to the guards until only one finger remained that perhaps this was some sort of rudimentary countdown. The last finger disappeared.

          The hand panicked for a moment before returning behind the sandbags from whence it came.

          The guards had exactly enough time to look at each other in confusion before both of them became so many free-floating carbon atoms.

          Chunks of rock and crystal blasted past the young man’s lee at terrific speeds. Artificially created winds whipped through his hair and clothes, leaving dust behind for him to remember it by. And then it was quiet.

          The young man stood carefully, still more dust settling onto his person, and turned to survey the results of his work. The buildings and towers were gone, as were the low barracks and walls surrounding them. Indeed, the only evidence they had ever been there were rather unimpressive hunks of building material. And those were few and far between.

          The young man grinned again. “Oh, hell yeah.”

          Feeling very pleased with himself, the young man took up his pack and walked away. She was going to be happy, he decided. And that was more than enough reason to put up with dust in his ponytail.

 

 

 

Hope had taken up residence in the shrine, posing as a martial arts teacher.  Grandpa was happy enough to let her stay: she paid, after all, and did plenty of work to make her presence welcome.  Her pretense wasn’t a far cry from the truth, either, except for the fact that it had been an order as opposed to a request.  The Senshi had picked up that her orders were to be followed from the way in which she gave them, and they agreed meekly, also realizing that there was a lot to be learned from her, if she was indeed who she claimed to be. 

Minako had the most trouble with her.  Even though Sailor Moon was their leader, Venus was the understood second.  She had been leader on the moon, and her time soloing as Sailor V had given her experience the others never had.  She wasn’t the smartest or the strongest, but she knew what she was doing and the others trusted her.  Gwyn was all right, but Hope treated her like a child.

“There’s nothing wrong with my fighting!” she said.  “I don’t need you to tell me how!”

“I’m not trying to tell you how.  I’m trying to make you remember..”  Hope stared her down calmly.  “You knew these things in your old life; you’ve just never bothered to relearn them.”

The accusative tone infuriated her.  “I’ve done the best I can!”

“So I’ll continue it.”

Mina spent the rest of the lesson trying to make Hope angry, but her teacher refused to be goaded.  She never raised her voice either to praise or to threaten.  She simply said, “Well done” or “Work harder” as the situation demanded.  After three hours of focus exercises, Hope decided she was done. Still angry, Minako tossed her hair back and made herself walk breezily away.

She met Gwyn outside, who smiled at her display.  “You’re exhausted, aren’t you?” she said.

Mina rolled her eyes.  “Don’t tell Sensei Death-Queen.”

Gwyn laughed.  “She can be overbearing at times, I know.  It’s only because she’s afraid.”

Startled, Mina could think of no reply.

“Don’t be so surprised,” Gwyn said, falling into step beside her.  She kept her hands clasped behind her back as they walked.  “Hope and I have lived a long time.  You can’t imagine how hard it is.  Hope deals with it by demanding more than she expects.  Physically, Hope is still seventeen, and her mind and body are still human, even if they’re old.  She still feels pain, still remembers rejection and loss.  She feels despair and sadness and fear.  She doesn’t really think you’re inadequate, you know.  It’s just her way.  Deep down, she’s still a princess.”  Gwyn smiled.

“What was it like?” Mina asked, rubbing the sore muscles in her arms.  “The Old Kingdom?”

“Beautiful.  Peaceful.”

“I remember so little of it.”

“You were much the same as you are now.  You had matured faster because you had more responsibilities.  Serenity, especially.  That may be part of Hope’s problem, that she remembers you as princesses and doesn’t know you yet as normal girls.  But really, if there’s one person who was the least responsible in those days, it was Hope.”  Mina made a face.  “No, I’m serious.  Hope was a complete nutcase back then.  She was the youngest of three, and royal, so she was spoiled from birth.  It got to be where it was her way or no one’s.  That’s part of the reason they sent her to the Sun for a while, where I was.  They thougth having an equal would be good for her.  Mostly it was the competition that was good for her, but it worked anyway.”  Gwyn smiled.  “Again, don’t tell her.”

Minako nodded in agreement.    “I have to wonder why you’re so different from her.”

“Because I was reborn, too,” Gwyn said.  “I don’t remember as much as her, and I know what it’s like to forget, to be more or less normal.  I think she envies me.  It will be better as time passes.”  Before Mina could say anything else, Gwyn looked aside sharply and her manner shifted, as if she suddenly remembered something.  “I’ve got to get back, Mina,” she said.  “Go have an ice cream or do something fun.  Relax a while before you go to bed.  You can’t always think of fighting.”

 

 

 

Jadeite stared fixedly at the flaw in the granite-like flooring of the room.  He didn’t so much like being awake.  He didn’t so much like being asleep, either.  Wakefulness brought memories, sleep brought dreams.  Neither was a good choice.

            The tears, the screams, the begging eyes.  He took a deep breath and held it for a moment, willing the nausea to pass.  It did, after a fashion, but the shame, the shame of it all, of everything, burned in his throat like acid.  His eyes closed and saw that girl again, with skin that was soft like flowers and a voice that laughed like water.  No sense in that.  Despite his innermost desire to scream at the self-loathing such remembrances induced, he stood, silently, staring downward and tried to recall why he was here.

            Onyx.

            He raised his dark sapphire eyes, slowly, as he remembered he was in the chamber.  An unusual side effect of the crystal, he presumed.  Concentration was severely limited, his focus was constantly being disrupted.  Except when it dwelled on his past…

             “General,” the new Queen commanded quietly.  Jadeite responded.  There was something about the way she spoke that affected even the strongest of wills.  Onyx never raised her voice.  It was calm, composed, and quiet.  Always quiet.  She sat regally on her sister’s throne, her undeniably elegant form draped in black, a smooth, ebony tiara perched above the loose, flowing mass of hair that framed her terrifyingly flawless features.  Her blood red lips moved once more, fixing his eyes on her words.  “You will recover shortly, Lord Jadeite.”  Her smooth voice echoed in the wide, black chamber.  An empty chamber.  It was him and the Queen, their private conference.  It unnerved him.  “My sister did badly to exile you the way she did,” Onyx continued, rising, her soft voice speaking, luring, wrapping around him as if to convince him of its friendship.  “You were an excellent General,” she said, running a long, curved finger under his chin.  “It’s a pity big sister never saw what I did, isn’t it, Jadeite? Perhaps it may have saved her.  Alas,” she cast her eyes downward, her long, dark lashes brushing against her smooth pale skin, “she did not.”

            She’s trying to influence me with her sorcery.  The warning arose from within his newly awoken memory, that of the Guardian of Earth and its Prince.  Unfortunate that this conscience failed a thousand years before…He thrust the painful memories from his mind.  “Queen Beryl was destroyed?” he ventured.

            “Yes, by the very same little girl that defeated you, ironically.”  So Sailor Moon won in the end.  Good to know.  “And now, I will extract my revenge, and take the earth for my own, as it would have been had she succeeded.”  Here it comes.  “You will be very useful to me.  I will make you a General again, Jadeite, my chief General.  You would like that, wouldn’t you?”  Her voice hinted that it was what he truly desired: revenge for the humiliation and imprisonment they had brought about, destruction and victory, after all of those years of confinement…confinement that liberated him from Beryl’s brainwashing, he reminded himself, stunned that he had drifted so easily into her trap.  “You can be my own, personal General.  Is that what you want?” she asked, her voice a soft whisper, settling into her throne once more.

            “What I want…” Jadeite said, “is for you and the rest of this demented kingdom to leave me and the earth alone forever.”

            She stopped, fingers poised by his face.  If it surprised her, she was a brilliant actress. She even smiled.“Are you sure about that?” she inquired mildly.

            He sensed the danger, but he continued anyway.  “I want nothing more to do with your ‘dark kingdom,’ or Metallia, or dark energy, or any kind of intriguing offer you have to give me.  I want out.”

            “There is no out, Jadeite.  There is here, and there is death.” Onyx snapped her fingers, and he was immediately surrounded by her minions.  Large arms grasped him and forced him to his knees.  He endured the blows they dealt him with as much dignity as he could—it was not much.  He winced as they allowed him to stand, forcing himself upright despite his injuries.

            “Ah, your Excellency, nice try,” he managed.  “Your sister could have done better.”

            Onyx raised a dubious brow, and at her signal the beating continued.  He fell under the first few, cowered on the floor under the brutality of the blows.  Dark energy.  Creatures of enormous power.  It felt like he was being hit with hammers rather than feet.  When it ended, he managed to make it to his feet, although it was not the arrogant position he would have preferred.

            “Be careful of what you say, Jadeite,” she warned, her tone darkening.

            “Or what?” Jadeite mocked.  “You’ll send me back into space?  Or will you, heaven forbid, kill me?  What a loss that would be.  Torture me for years as I slowly die and make me beg for the end?  Quite possibly a threat.  There is one thing, however, that you’re forgetting.”

            “Which is?” she asked, in a leisurely, self-assured manner.

            “This isn’t your castle,” he pointed out.  “It’s Beryl’s.  And I know its secrets.”  With that, he vanished.

 

 

           

            Gwyn sighed as she glanced over the serene landscape, unappeased by its peaceful vestige.  “We have to figure out what we’re going to do,” she told Hope.

            The once-princess raised a brow.  “What’s that?  Do about what?”

            “I know we’ve never given much thought to blending in before, but that was because we were generally always passing through.  If we’re going to stay with the Court, then we have to stay here.  In Tokyo.  And we can’t be noticed.  Which means, as much as the thought plagues me,” she commented with a grin, “we have to blend.”

            Hope considered this, gazing out into the oncoming night.  She took a sip of lemonade.  “I see what you mean.  That’s a lot of changes we have to make, Gwyn.  Our names, even.  I’m going to need a completely new identity.  And…oh.”  An expression of disgust washed over her features.

            “Yeah, I know.  We have to name ourselves,” Gwyn confirmed, equally horrified.

            “The dreaded superhero names.  We haven’t gone through that since we were first exiled.”  Hope felt like growling.

            “Not to mention…we’ll have to…I don’t know…act normal and stuff.  Well, I say normal.  I mean, you know, natural.  Not so bad for me, I admit.  I’ve been doing it since I was reborn and all, but still…it’s completely different now.”

            “It’s so…humiliating.”

            “Ah, now there’s the Princess Hope from the Earth Kingdom days shining through,” Gwyn commented with a laugh.

            “I can beat you up.”

            “No fair!”  They laughed for a moment, forgetting the impending troubles, until Gwyn remembered herself and sighed sadly.  “Hope...I can’t transform.”

            Hope stopped laughing, stared at her in shock.  “What?”

            “I’ve tried.  Look, the rings are gone.  It didn’t matter that they were destroyed before, but now that I’ve been reborn, I’m not strong enough to call the power without it.  I almost made it, once, but…” she trailed off with a shrug.  “I don’t know what to do, Hope.  It’s like a piece of me has been ripped away.”

            Hope grasped her glass with both hands to prevent it from shaking.  She had not considered this as an option.  Surely Gwyn could still transform?  If she remembered how? “We’ll find a way,” Hope said.  She took Gwyn’s hand in hers and squeezed it.  “We always find a way.”

 

 

            The usual gathering was gathering at the arcade that Friday, mostly to complain about the tortuous week the five of them had experience with Hope as their self-appointed drill sergeant.   Usagi was particularly disgruntled; despite her bouts of immaturity, she was the leader.  Hope and Gwyn—they even admitted they’d been exiled from her court.  They had no right to assume that they could throw aside what she and her friends had established over the last two years, hardened and fused together despite their indifferences.  It was her duty.  And if it wasn’t hers, it was Sailor Venus’s at the least.  Maybe these new allies—if that’s what they were; they certainly weren’t senshi—were stronger, but they shouldn’t assume that they could appear and suddenly change everything.

            Makoto groaned.  “I thought I was in pretty good shape,” she complained.  “I try, you know.  But she says I only think I’m in shape because I’m comparing myself to ‘normal’ people.  I thought she was just being cocky, but then she had to go and prove it.  I’ve never been this sore in my life.”

            “She told me I couldn’t focus!” Rei fumed.  “I can focus enough for the fire.  That’s focus, if you ask me.  The things she wants us to do are ridiculous.  I don’t care if she can do them; she’s had a thousand years to practice.”

            “I never thought it was a bad thing that I relied on my computer,” Ami mused worriedly.  “Hope said that I was physically weaker than you guys because I relied on data and rationale, and that weakness made my intellect less effective.  Do you think that’s true?”  The others shrugged, not really wanted to offer opinions over whether she was right or wrong, only on how cruel she had been in pointing it out.

            “Actually, I agreed with most of what she said about me.  I know I could be a lot better fighter than I am, and I’m lazy.  Although I don’t think her comment about my hair was necessary,” Minako added.

            “Your hair?” Usagi asked.  Makoto shook her head, mouthing, “I’ll tell you later.”

            “Everything’s all messed up now that she’s around,” Makoto commented.  They contemplated this in silence, wondering whether it was a good thing or a bad.  “Gwyn seems nice, on the other hand.”

            “Despite her sense of humor,” Rei put in.  Now that she spoke Japanese fluently, she would take turns telling dirty jokes with Grandpa when they ate.  It was uncertain so far as to which knew more, although Rei figured that after a thousand years of accumulation, Gwyn had probably surpassed even the enormous reserves of the wrinkled old priest.

“Hope told me that she’s the strongest of all of us,” Minako remembered, thinking slowly.  “That once she regains her powers she will be more powerful than the five of us combined.  Stronger than even Saturn,” she added. 

Ami nodded.  “It makes sense.  The sun is 99% of all mass in the solar system.  Gwyn has much more raw energy to fuel her powers than do we.”  She put a thoughtful finger to her chin.  “It seems strange, now that I think about it.  The moon was the center of the Silver Millenium, despite the power of the Sun.”

“But only the royal family of the sun could draw on the power of the sun, or so Hope says,” Rei related.  “If I understand correctly, all of the Moon people were deeply connected to the same powers as princess over here, even though they were not as strong.”  She nodded toward Usagi, who was indulging in a large carton of ice cream.  “And also, the—” she stopped.  “Guys, I’m getting the vibes,” she whispered hurriedly.

Minako straightened, narrowing her eyes.  “It’s out in the street,” she said.  The five of them stood, Usagi sadly tearing herself from her ice cream, and forced themselves to walk calmly out of the arcade.  “Over there!” she called, pointing to suspiciously dressed man holding sway over a large group of people in front of his store.

They glanced around for a place to change, ducking in resignation into an alley and leaping out again in their senshi forms.

“Hold it right there!” Sailor Moon cried.  “I am Sailor Moon.  I fight for love and justice, and against all evil.  In the name of the Moon, I will destroy you!”

The youma laughed.  It was a horrible, grating sort of noise, and was accompanied by its humanoid form transforming into a large, aquamarine reptilian.  Its yellow eyes blinked as it continued its hissing laughter, wrapping its numerous tentacles around his hypnotized bystanders.  “If you’re going to destroy me, you’ll have to kill them, too.”  Mercury was on her computer as the Mars, Venus, and Jupiter spread away from her and Sailor Moon, cornering the enemy against the wall.  Jupiter had already powered up her attack, and she darted suddenly to the far left and yelled, “Jupiter Oak Evolution!”  The ball of energy flew toward one of the few unblocked portions of the youma’s body, and the youma screeched and whirled a tentacle into the attack.  The hard scales reflected the attack, and Jupiter barely managed to duck her own attack as it bounced toward her. 

“It’s not vulnerable to lightening,” Mercury reported.

“Now she tells me.”

“We have to get those people away from it!” Venus reminded them.  “Venus Love Chain Encircle!” The chain flew from her fingertips and wrapped around the nearest tentacle, wrenching it to the side.  It recoiled, dropping the unfortunate civilian to the asphalt.  Mars skidded under the flailing tentacle and grabbed the unconscious victim, leaping away again just as the enraged appendage crashed into the street.

“There are still two more!”

“Moon Tiara Magic!” Sailor Moon cried, and the tiara sped toward the youma full force.  It reacted this time, flipping a free tentacle to swat the energy disk aside. 

“Mercury, we need some help in the visibility department!” Venus informed her, recovering from the backlash of her Love Chain as her second attempt likewise failed.

“Right!  Super Aqua Illusion!”  As it attempted to recover from this onslaught, Venus and Moon hurriedly disabled the tentacles holding the remaining captives.  Mars executed a quick “Mars Flame Sniper” and called, “Finish it!”

Sailor Moon produced her wand and yelled, “Moon Gorgeous Meditation!” spinning and releasing a wave of light.  It pierced the enemy through its body, the reptilian creature evaporating into dust.  They had just begun to celebrate when the youma they thought had been destroyed arose out of the ground behind them, looming at twice its original size.  It grabbed Sailor Moon before she could react, swatting aside the other four and hurling their leader into a concrete wall.  As it reached down toward them, its tentacles sharpened into knives.  The senshi leaped out of the way as they hurtled forward, but Mercury and Venus were raked across the back as they dodged and thrown to the side.  Mars and Jupiter attacked it with a “Celestial Fire Surround” and a “Jupiter Thunder Dragon” but it deflected both attacks into their masters and moved toward its main target—their leader.

Suddenly, a dark shape hurtled through the sky toward the youma.  “Hope,” Venus managed.  The girl landed on his head, sword first.  The blade ripped through the hard scales and slit him open, top to bottom, until the youma burst into a wicked green light with a terrifying shriek.  Hope took a step back, recovering, and wiped her sword clean.  The blade vanished, and she hurried toward the senshi, worry in her eyes. 

None of them were seriously injured—even Sailor Moon, who was slowly sinking into coherency—and they accepted Hope’s aid in leaving the scene before the citizenry could react.  After they had reached a safe point, they detransformed, and Hope began to lecture.

“I told you!” she admonished harshly.  “I told you that you aren’t strong enough to defeat these youma so easily.  This isn’t Beryl you’re dealing with; it’s Onyx.  She’s dangerous.  I almost didn’t make it in time.”  The senshi were silent, unsure of whether they should refuse her right to dictate them or apologize for failing her.  After a moment, she continued, “You should all go home and get some rest.  You were hit pretty hard.  Sere—Usagi, I need to talk with you.”

The weakened teenager followed without question, the other four dispersing with a mixture of reluctance and relief.  “I’m sorry to yell at you so much,” Hope said after a few moments.  Her voice had softened slightly.  “I don’t want you to get the impression that I don’t understand what you’ve been through.  You know how to fight, or else you wouldn’t have made it so far.  I didn’t see the fight today, but I know that whatever happened out there, it happened because you’re fighting like you’ve always fought, and it’s just not going to work that way anymore.”  The girl sighed.  “I know that you’re having trouble with my being here, Serenity.  I know it doesn’t seem right for me to be taking control of you and your Court this way.  But please understand....What I want more than anything is for this threat, this evil to be destroyed.  We’re basically doing the same thing, only I’ve been doing it a lot longer.  And I don’t want to see you getting hurt because you don’t know how to fight the enemy.”

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“You’re the Princess,” Hope responded, as if this should explain everything. 

Bunny nodded slowly, still looking dejected.  Then she frowned and asked, “How are we supposed to fight them?”

Hope’s smile was neither comforting or hopeful.  “I wish I knew,” she said softly.  She glanced at Usagi’s pale face and sighed.  “You look like you’re about to faint, child.  Go home and rest.”

 

 

A few mintes later, in London, a man was walking down the street.  He was dressed all in black, nodescript, and he kept his eyes down.  There was nothing remarkable about him, except for his long hair, tied back, and the odd, measure way he walked.  Someone watching might have gotten a strange feeling, like he was older than he looked, like he seemed old-fashioned.  Not many people noticed him, however, and he kept walking, even as it rained.

He had been home, and it depressed him.

Suddenly, something beeped.  He panicked a minute before realizing it came from the phone in his pocket.  Sheepish, he reached for it and flipped it open.  *You have 1 New Text Message.*  Frowning, he muddled through the menus to find it.  There were only two people it could be from, and one had gone off to blow something up not long ago.  He found the message:

*Corbin. Found her, Tokyo. Come. Hope.*  A strange feeling filled him.  It had been sixteen years since he had last seen Gwyn, and she had been...He shook his head.  She would be almost back to normal now. At least she was old enough to remember who she was, to remember him....I’ve got to get to Japan somehow.

 

 

Hope swept the temple stairs.  Rei had been more badly injured than she had initially thought, and Hope had taken over her Priestess duties in order to let her recover from the burns.  Gwyn was helping as well, when she wasn’t training to grow strong enough to be able to transform.  Her inability was frustrating her, and Hope suggested that helping her train the other senshi might help her to grow stronger more quickly.  It was unlikely, but it would help give her something worthwhile to do.

The dark-haired girl sighed as she moved a step down, taking to the dust with less vigor than the previous.  It was becoming apparent why Rei was always sweeping the temple stairs.  They never got clean.  As she worked, she began to sense something approaching the temple.  A very unusual force.  She glanced at the street, pausing her duties momentarily, and saw a man stumbling down the street.  He glanced up as she found him, balked, and then continued again.  As he began to stumble up the temple stairs, the dark blonde hair and the pale skin resolved into a face she knew.

“Jaedite,” she said, dropping the broom and making ready to draw her sword.