Jadeite looked down at the corruption of the once proud city known to the pathetic humans as Tokyo and laughed. He laughed with great abandon, as he had once done a thousand years before as the Moon Kingdom had fallen before Queen Serenity's outraged eyes. He began to entertain a vision, the vision of him standing proudly before Queen Beryl. He was down gracefully on his knee accepting her praise for the success of their mission. Because of his expertise, the Negaforce was now free and the parasites of the Earth destroyed!
A desperate scream tore him from his reverie, his favorite kind of scream... that of a hapless human about to be destroyed. He looked down and laughed in delight. This had to be the best day in his life! He could barely contemplate what he had done to deserve this kind of fun!
Jadeite let his form evaporate and appear at the site of such magnificent misery. There he found his minion, Pyro-Head, sucking the lifeforce out a couple of humans, after she had stopped their ridiculous attempts to flee. That should do it! Jadeite's mind calculated large amount of energy that had been collected today. Soon she will be calling me. Soon the Negaforce will come forth! He laughed with abandon, enjoying the sight of Pyro-Head's prey being mercilessly destroyed before his eyes! What fun!
Serena awoke to hear horrible sounds. She thought that her dreams were torturing her once again, goading her about her inability to stop the chain of events that repeated itself each day. The world is better off without me.
For a reason that escaped her, she decided to see what events outside her hospital room door were creating such despicable sounds. Shaky from all the sleeping pills she had ingested just a few hours before, she put her robe over her slumping shoulders and place her two cold, pale feet into the childlike fuzzy pink slippers her mother had brought her. When did she leave to bring me my things? I didn't even notice. Where is she now?
She didn't understand how she was alive, let alone how she could move. Mom must have found me quickly... What did they do, pump my stomach? She shuddered at the thought, but sighed. Good work, Serena, you can't even kill yourself properly. How many times will it take?
Shuffling her feet, she made her way to the heavy door and opened it. "Oh my GOD!" she gasped in surprise, the sight before her was the same as an old war movie she had recently seen on TV. Temporary cots had been set up on both sides of the hall allowing only a narrow passageway for people to pass. The occupants of the cots were all badly injured, with roughly applied bandages covering their wounds, as if their care had been rendered hastily. As she passed, the injured cried out for help, some tugging weakly on her robe to try and get her attention.
She looked down at them in horror. She had never considered the destruction Pyro-Head could do in a few short hours. Her composure quickly returned, she had seen her friends die now, repeatedly. These were simply strangers and she knew tomorrow would just repeat itself again. As she neared the Emergency Room area, her limbs felt heavy and she squinted against the light that seared her blue eyes.
The Emergency Room was in chaos. People were being dragged in by their injured loved ones, some not much better off than the ones they were attempting to help. Some rested in cots, most just collapsed where they could. Medical personnel ran to and fro, helping as many as possible, as quickly as possible. The cries of pain she heard echoed through her mind. She was reminded of the screams of students as her school exploded... and of those of the Sailor Scouts at they died at the hands of Pyro-Head.
Serena watched in detached fascination as a camera crew rushed in to report on the situation. The woman began her sad monologue when she was roughly pushed out of the way by an orderly who was trying to lead a small boy to a cot. "Unless you are here to help, get out!" the tall man said roughly.
The reporter put down her microphone and instructed her camera crew to do the same. She walked over to the orderly who had just deposited the tearful child into a cot. She knelt in front of the boy, took his hand, and said, "Let me help."
The double doors burst open and two people were rushed in, unconscious. The doctor rushed over, studied both patients, and shook his head solemnly. Serena's half-drugged mind could barely make out the figures, her eyes still struggling in the light. Everything she saw was cloudy, like a dream. The paramedics pulled a white sheet over each of the bodies. The doctor motioned for them to be wheeled into a nearby room.
Glimpsing red fabric hanging out from underneath of the sheet covering one of the bodies as it was rolled by her, she waited until the ambulance attendants had backed out of the room and left the hospital once again. Is it... she wondered. Could her friends really die so horribly another time? Serena walked into that room and immediately gagged. She placed a trembling hand in front of her mouth and nose to block out the horrible smell that assaulted her senses and lifted the other to pull back the sheet.
Two hands suddenly interrupted her and pulled her out of the room. Closing the door, her mother turned Serena around to face her. "What are you doing out of bed?" she admonished her daughter gently. "This is no place for you, after what you've been through."
Serena pointed towards the door closed behind her. "They're dead..." she said, as if dazed, So many are dead... She had never been faced with so much death in her young life.
Her mother's face melted into a look of sadness that brought tears to Serena's already reddened eyes. "They were Sailor Mercury and Sailor Mars." She watched her daughter's shocked expression and pulled the teenager into her arms, as if to shield her from feeling the loss. "They tried to stop the attack on Tokyo but they failed. Tuxedo Mask was brought in about an hour ago. He didn't make it either." Serena began to cry. She couldn't help but feel sad for her friends. They had suffered so much in the last few days and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
Serena pulled away, tears dripping down her face uncontrollably. "Who's going to protect Tokyo? Who's going to save us?" It won't be me. I've tried... really... I wish you could understand that.
"I know that the military have been called in to do what they can. They'll be able to save us." Serena looked into her mother's face and understood that she did not believe her own words. Even Mom knows what's coming... "Maybe Sailor Moon will come," her mother added hopefully. Although she found it hard to believe that their existence depended on one teenage girl, no matter how strong she reputedly was
"No, I don't think so," Serena replied. Sailor Moon is a failure... I'm a failure. She held onto her mother tighter and cried at all the hopelessness and destruction around her. Why can't I make this end?!
The great portal opened up, just outside the city limits of Tokyo, or at least what was left of Tokyo now that Pyro-Head had been left on her own for hours. The skyline was consumed by smoke and flames; it looked more like a war zone than a city. Beryl appeared outside of the portal and surveyed her conquest. This was the day she had waited for, the day she had dreamed of for over a thousand years. Queen Serenity be damned! The Negaverse had won! Soon there would be nothing left of the humans that infested this world except for the memory of their pathetic cries and screams as they died.
She floated effortlessly into the air and watched as her hoards of minions marched out of the portal. Soon they would spread like a swarm of locusts to consume all of the Earth. Soon the entire Earth would be at Beryl's disposal. The Empress would finally be pleased with her...
A rush of people burst into the hospital, more people than Serena had ever expected. She was amazed at Pyro-Head's destructive capabilities; it was surprising what one slimy Negaverse monster could do. There had been no one to stop Pyro-Head and she stared at the wounded people that were filing in, some walking, some being supported by anything that could support them, a cane, a piece of broken wood, or even by just leaning on the wall. A nurse grabbed her by the arm and started to pull her towards the injured. "Don't just stand there like a ghost, young lady, come and help!" she was ordered.
Serena was about to protest, to argue the futility of helping so many people. But a something she had forgotten she had possessed stopped her. Suddenly she felt sadness for the innocent people around her. They don't deserve this kind of suffering... She began to help people into the already crowded waiting room, laying them down on the floor, helping others who had already been placed there to make room for more people. The noise from all the commotion seared her brain, her head pounding with an almost crippling throbbing. They just keep coming... What have I done?
Her head snapped up from a young man she had just helped when she heard a shrill, agonizing scream. She knew that scream and jumped to her feet. "Mom, where are you?" She found her mother six feet away, near the heavy double doors that served as the entrance to the emergency ward.
Her tall, beautiful, strong mother was hunched over a body that had just been carried into the building. It was covered by someone's half-burned coat but Serena didn't have to ask who it was. Serena fell to her knees, wrapped her arms around her mother's sobbing form, and began to cry with her. "I'm so sorry, Mom... I'm so sorry." Look what I've done. Look what I've done! This is MY FAMILY! But her mother took no notice of her and continued to cry helplessly.
Hands pulled her away and she watched helplessly as a nurse led her mother away and two others carried the body to the room where Mercury and Mars had just been left. "I'm so sorry, Daddy..." she whispered, her tears blurring her eyes, "I'm so sorry, so sorry..."
But soon she sobered. Wiping the tears from her face, she turned towards the exit of the hospital. Oblivious of what little she was wearing, she pushed open the doors with shaky arms and walked outside. "My GOD!" she gasped. Cars, trucks, and buses were crammed into every inch of the street surrounding the parking lot, even the parking lot was crammed full of vehicles. People were crawling over and around vehicles, dragging injured loved ones towards what they thought would be their salvation. The sky was gray and dim, even though it was the afternoon, filled with the smoke created by fires that burned freely throughout the city.
The ground quickly shook with the force of a building that exploded just a few blocks away. Serena was thrown to her knees, but she didn't notice the pain as her bare knees scrapped against the stones and pavement beneath her. She heard the people crying out in agony and crying out for help. What have I done? She jumped back onto her feet and looked around, studying the torment and ruin all around her. "I can't believe it! The Negaverse has won!"
Pyro-Head prowled through the devastated city, enjoying the results of her handy work. "Ha ha ha!" she cackled watching the lifeforms scatter like insects, enjoying their screams as she crushed
them! Moving away from the building she had just destroyed, she turned her attention towards the edifice where the humans seemed to be congregating.
She found where they were heading. She didn't understand why they were going there, but then why did humans do anything that made sense. You would think they would hide. And look at them, crawling or even being dragged into that building. There was hardly enough lifeforce in the entire building worth draining.
"Look at that girl!" she exclaimed with a laugh. There, oblivious to the wounded being dragged in around her, was a pigtailed wretch, just standing there staring at the chaos around her. "How stupid!" she exclaimed in her raspy, barely female voice. She wrung leather-skinned hands together in excitement. "Let's have some fun with her!"
Pyro-Head raised one bony, dry skinned hand and pointed a knurled index finger towards the hospital. "FEEL MY FIRE!" she shouted. The girl below her didn't even had time to react as the hospital exploded behind her.
The force of the explosion threw Serena across the parking lot and into an already smashed up city bus. She gasped as she collided with it. Her battered form slid down the side of the bus and she landed limply on her side, barely aware of what was happening. She weakly pushed herself up to her elbow and saw the burning remains of the hospital. Her entire world was gone, her family was now dead, her friends were now dead, even Tuxedo Mask was dead. There's no one to save me... There's no hope! her mind gasped, It can't get any worse, her injured mind decided amidst the pain of her broken body. And then it got worse... much worse.
Pyro-Head made her way to where the teenage girl landed and smiled at the results of her fun. "Betcha you didn't know what hit you, eh?" she sneered. The girl looked up at her and her eyes became wide.
"Pyro-Head?" she gasped, finally understanding.
The Negaverse monster stepped back in shock. "How do you know me?" and then she decided it didn't matter. The kid would momentarily be dead. But then the pigtailed one did something that totally shocked her.
"No more, Pyro-Head!" the girl exclaimed as forcefully as her injuries would allow her. With a determination, Pyro-Head thought impossible for a human, she pushed herself onto her knees and looked up at her tormentor without fear. "No more," she concluded. She finally understood, without Sailor Moon, the world was doomed. "This ends NOW!" she shouted and produced a small, compact. Her trembling arm lifted it into the air and she said, "Moon Prism..." Her sight dimmed so that everything looked clouded and gray... She could barely see her enemy looming above her, as if it were far away, and then darkness came.
"You'd better be scared, young lady, because if I have to come up here again and wake you up, you'll regret it!" Her mother turned her back to her lazy child, muttering under her breath that Serena's laziness would be her downfall. She shut the door behind her and her daughter listened for a moment, making sure she heard her mother's footsteps as she made her way downstairs again.
She sat up quickly, looking around the room to make sure that the day had reasserted itself. After a moment, almost certain that a Negaverse monster was not going to jump out from under her bed, she got up, moved to her bedroom door, and locked it. She grabbed the chair from her desk, threw the robe off of its back, and wedged it under the doorknob. That should keep her out for a bit.
She pulled on her clothes, surprised somehow that they were in the same heap she had left them in last night. What am I going to? Hearing the heavy, stomping footsteps of her mother as she made her way back up the stairs, Serena opened the window and looked down. Well I've jumped that distance once already and landed okay...
The teenager climbed onto the windowsill and pushed herself out into midair. She landed harshly on her backside and scowled. Some things don't change. She reminded herself angrily. She jumped to her feet and began to run down the street. I have to get away. I have to think.
She ran for a long while, until her legs hurt from exertion and her lungs gasped for air. Exhausted, she dropped to the ground, pulling her knees up close to her chest. She was sitting in a grove of tall trees and recognized them immediately. They were the trees that surrounded Rei's temple, Luna had made them train here many times. Rei had already left for school; she should find some peace in here.
Wrapping her tired arms around her knees, she leaned her forehead into her arms and began to cry. She cried like she had never cried before, the tears dropped from her face and ran down her knee. She began to sob in total abandon. Her chest heaved taking in large amounts of air to support the waves of tears that assaulted her. What can I do now? I'm doomed to watch everyone I know and love die... And it's all my fault! She had never know despair like this in all her life. I wish I never became Sailor Moon! Then I could lead a nice normal life. I could just be an ordinary kid again!
She didn't hear the footsteps as someone moved through the grass towards her. She didn't see the figure that crouched down next to her, shaking his head in sadness.
A short, wrinkled hand carassed the top of her head and then traced its way down her tear-stained cheek. Serena looked up to find Grampa Hino sitting next to her, looking at her with kindness.
"What are you doing here?" she said, wiping at her nose with her sleeve.
Grampa just smiled again and pulled out a pristine white handkerchief that he easily offered to her. Serena is such as happy, free spirited child. What could trouble her so? He watched her as she loudly blew her nose, and wiped her cheeks. She was such a cute kid. He hated to see her cry like that.
"Has Rei been mean to you again?" he asked in good humor, figuring his spirited granddaughter might have something to do with this. Rei was so stubborn and independent, she figured everyone should listen to her, and that especially included Serena.
"No," the blond teenager croaked, her voice cracking with new tears.
"Don't cry, Serena, it can't be that bad." But he sensed that it was something very important to her.
"It can and it is!" she insisted, wiping her nose again.
As if out of nowhere, Grampa produced another neatly folded hanky and handed it to his companion. "Why don't you tell me about it. Maybe it won't seem so bad after that."
"You won't believe me," Serena insisted, blowing her nose loudly again. This made Grampa chuckle and she glared at him angrily. "It's not funny!"
Grampa sobered a bit. Teenagers... no sense of humor. "You'll never know unless you try," he suggested patiently. This was a lot easier than dealing with Rei. At least Serena wasn't trying to throw anything at him, and she wasn't chasing him around with a broom.
Serena looked up at him with her puffy, tear-filled blue eyes. "Are you sure you won't laugh or think I'm crazy?"
Grampa crossed his heart. "I promise. Now tell me what's so bad that it would make you cry?"
Serena sat up, and began to speak, "Well there's this situation at school..." she began carefully. I'm not going to tell him the world's about to be blitzed. He'd have me committed. And I don't need THAT again! "And it's all up to me to take care of. If I don't, everything is ruined!" She sniffled a few times, and wiped her nose again with her second hanky. "I've tried so hard to stop it, but it won't stop!"
"Have you tried asking for help? That's what you have friends for."
"No one will believe me! They'll think I'm nuts!" she cried, burying her face once again in her arms.
Grampa rolled his eyes. My she's being dramatic, but then I've forgotten what it's like to be fourteen. "Maybe but who cares? People think I'm crazy, don't they?"
Serena looked up at the old man sitting next to her. She considered her words for a moment. "Yeah..." she agreed quietly.
"And yet they still come to the temple and ask for advice, don't they?"
Serena nodded. She had never considered that.
"But if it's important enough to you, your friends will help you," he continued gently. He liked Serena. She was a lot of fun and didn't take his granddaughter too seriously. He had to cheer her up.
Serena sniffed, not agreeing with him at all. "You're not talking about Rei, are you? Have you ever heard Rei? She'd ream me!"
Grampa chuckled. "Want me to tell you a secret, but you have to promise me you'll never let Rei know I told you. She'd chase me around with that broom of hers for sure!"
Serena felt the gloom of the last few days lifting a bit. Grampa was telling her a secret!!! "Okay!" she said and smiled earnestly for the first time since she could remember.
"That a girl!" he said, patting her on the back. "Rei is loud and bossy, but she really has the heart of her mother. And her mother was the sweetest, kindest person you could ever have met. I know Rei will help you, because she's your friend."
"She'll still say I'm nuts," Serena countered.
Grampa nodded. "Yeah, probably. But if she didn't, she wouldn't be Rei."
Serena smiled, feeling the sadness drift away for the first time in a long while.
"Stop worrying about what other people will think of you. Ask your friends for help. That's what they're there for!"
"Thanks Grampa!" Serena said, suddenly feeling cheerful.
It was lunchtime before Serena left the temple. He had fed her a few sandwiches and given her some pop to drink. That was the first time she could remember eating in a while. She arrived at school just as Pyro-Head was attacking the schoolyard at lunchtime and she quickly transformed.
"I'm back!" she called out cheerfully.
"It's about time you showed up!" shouted Sailor Mars, dodging one of Pyro-Head's attacks. "What's the matter? Did you forget to get out bed, Meatball Head?"
Sailor Moon smiled and chuckled. *At least I know she'll be this miserable again tomorrow!*
