The Dragon And The Moon

   A Sailor Moon/Wheel Of Time Micro-teaser

   By Louis-Philippe Giroux
   <Dragon@anime.usacomputers.net>

   Sailor Moon was created by Naoko Takeuchi and the Wheel Of Time series
belongs to Robert Jordan.  Please don't sue me.

***

   This is the result of a long discussion between me and Sachs on whether
the Senshi's powers could be considered One Power...  We eventually
discussed potential storylines - one that made SM an integral part of the
WoT universe, the Senshi's powers being WoT-based and all the stuffing
around it and another storyline that wasn't quite as compatible... but we
never quite got around to do anything serious.

   Here's a potshot of what could have happened (forgive the very rushed
quality of the plot)...

   If someone wants to take it from here, they're welcome, as I don't think
I'll continue it, as I have far too many things on my hands right now,
namely my studies (time-devourers) and other stories I haven't been able to
work on lately (Differing Powers, Lines Of Destiny and Point Of No Return).
Sachs may write something of his own, eventually, and I wish him success if
he does.

   This begins in The Great Hunt, when Rand falls asleep at the foot of a
Portal Stone with Hurin and Loial.

***

   When Rand had fallen asleep the previous night, thinking about how
Moiraine kept manipulating him, even going as far as having Lord Algemar
name in second in command of the Shienaran troops, he had halfway expected
to have a nightmare or two.

   He had not expected to wake up in one.

   He had woken up to a black sky and to sounds of fighting.  The first
things he saw were a tall, silver-colored palace and the moving black
cloud.  A Shadow.

   And he was standing not two hundred paces from it.

   "Lord Rand?" came the whisper behind him.  He turned to see Hurin gaping
at the scene.  Loial was making a wonderful imitation of a stranded fish.

   "Rand," came the Ogier's frantic rumble.  "What is this?  Where are we?"

   Just as Rand was about to tell them he knew no more than they, a loud
thunderclap reached their ears.  Startled, they all looked to see black
lightning coming from the cloud and strike the silver palace.  Multiple
bolts of energy erupted from the palace in retaliation, but the cloud
seemed unaffected by them.  Rand stood still, memerized by the display of
sheer power, until he heard Hurin retch behind him.

   Rand whipped around, concerned.  "Hurin?!  What's wrong?" he asked the
gray-haired Shienaran, who was now down on his knees.  He was leaning on a
stone column, not unlike the one they'd gone to sleep under.

   "The stench, Lord Rand," Hurin managed to gasp out.  "It's unlike
anything I've ever smelled before."  He shakingly got to his knees.  "It's
that... cloud," he said after a moment.  "The Creator protect us, but if I
didn't know better, I'd say that was the Dark One."

   "The Last Battle?" Loial whispered uncertainly.  An Ogier's whisper,
which was easily overheard by the two humans.  "Are we witnessing the Last
Battle?"

   "That can't be!" Rand nearly shouted.  He would have added more if it
hadn't been for the screams.  The three looked at the side to see people
run out of the palace, chased by creatures that looked like Trollocs.
Instinct took over.  "We have to help them!" he shouted, unsheathing his
sword.  He didn't wait for the others' assent before meeting the enemy.

   He was about to engage the first one when he realized with a shock that
they weren't Trollocs.  They were hideously difformed creatures, some
human-looking and others not, but they didn't have the massive bulk Rand
had learned to associate with a Trolloc.  *Shadowspawn?* Rand thought.

   The Void came, unbidden, but he welcomed it anyway.  He would need all
of his skill and he was willing to risk using the Void, even though he knew
Saidin waited there, anxious to be realeased once more.

   Nothing mattered.  He took the first creature's head with a sweeping
slash Lan had showed him and smoothly avoided another's claws.

   He did not fear them.  Fear was emotion and emotion had no place in the
Void.  He was one with the forms Lan had taught him.  Ribbon in the Air
passed through a creature's defenses, beheading it.  Another Shadowspawn
tried to puch his head with a clawed limb, but Rand duck and River
Undercuts the Bank took its malevolent life.

   He then realized the monsters were had broken off their pursuit and were
now hunting *him*.  He did his best to hold them off, but there were simply
too many.  He was about to give in to saidin when massive arms and a short
sword made quick work of the Shadowspawn that were about to kill him.

   The Void dissipated and Rand shot a grateful look at Loial and Hurin.
"Thank you," he said, relieved.  "I owe you my life."

   The Ogier shook his head.  "You are so rash, Rand, like all humans.  You
did not take time to think."  He looked at his hands.  "I have never killed
before today."

   Hurin, who seemed to be fighting to stay conscious, shook his head.
"Things like that don't belong in the realm of the living, Builder.  Feel
no shame in what you have done."   The Ogier sighed.  The sniffer turned to
Rand.  "We have to leave this place, my Lord.  I saw thousands of those
creatures coming over the hill.  If we stay here, we die."

   Rand felt his blood boil.  Moiraine's story about how Manetheren had
stood until the end came back to him.  So what if he died?  It would be
better than waiting for the madness to claim him, Dragon Reborn or not.  It
was then that Hurin's words finally reached him.  They would die.  He
couldn't let that happen.  Not yet.  He had to find Mat's Dagger and Fain
first.  Maybe afterwards...

   "You're right," Rand told Hurin.  "We must leave."  He ignored Hurin's
grateful look and Loial's sigh of relief.  "The problem is that I don't
know how..." he trailed off at what he saw next.

  A princess.  She had to be.  A young girl in a white dress, he long,
golden hair divided into two, long tails.  She was accompanied by a young
man in black and silver armour and they were running away from the cloud,
towards a courtyard.  He felt an inexplicable pull towards her.  He was
about to take a step towards her when he saw the young man be striked down
by a black bolt from the cloud.  The princess screamed in horror and
dropped down to the body of the young man, wailing in grief.

   "You do not belong here, Dragon," came a voice behind Rand.

   Rand, Hurin and Loial all turned around to see a woman glaring at them.
Rand couldn't help blinking at the sight of her.  She was tall and
dark-skinned and her long, unbound hair looked to be a dark shade of green,
of all things.  Her outfit was even stranger, she was wearing some kind of
sleeveless white shift that hugged her curves better than anything should
have a right to.  Rand felt his cheeks heat at the sight of her body.  A
ridiculously large black bow with a red jewel on her chest, a very short
black skirt and strange black boots completed the outfit.

   Rand didn't know whether the woman's hair or her outfit was the
strangest.  She was holding a metal staff, topped with a dark red orb.  The
he remembered what she had called him.

   "Why do you call me that?..." was all he had time to say when he felt a
deep tug in his bones.  He whipped around, just in time so see on a blacony
a white-haired woman, her hair made up in the same style as the princess
raise a small crystal in the air, aiming it at the black cloud.

   And then the world went black.

   When he woke up, he saw that he was still alone with Hurin and Loial,
only this time, their horses were with them.  He looked around, but still
saw no sign of Ingtar, Mat, Perrin or any of the Shienarans.  They seemd to
be in the same hollow as they had gone to sleep in, but there was nothing
else.

   "What..." said Hurin, shaken.  "Who was that?"

   "And why did she call you Dragon?" added Loial, who seemed pretty shaken
himself.

   "I don't know..." said Rand.  "I don't undertand the slightest thing
about what just happened."

***

   <Another time - A few months after Galaxia's defeat>

   The scene opens in a deeply forested area.  Several people can be seen
hiking up a mountain trail.  They all have backpacks.  One of the figures
in the back, a young woman with two long blonde ponytails can be heard
talking.

   "Mamo-chan, tell me again why I agreed to do this?" asked Usagi plaintively.

   Mamoru smiled, despite the fact that this was nowhere near the first
time that his beloved had asked the question.  "Because you love your
friends and they decided it would be a good thing for us to get together
and do something that didn't involve saving the world or killing monsters."

   "But did it have to be camping?" groused Usagi.

   "It's not exactly camping, Princess and, we're almost there," said
Michiru reassuringly from behind them.  Usagi made a silent face and then
turned to look at the turquoise-haired woman behind her.  She couldn't
understand how Michiru could look so beautiful, even in hiking clothes.
The woman was gracefuleness incarnated.

   Haruka was one lucky woman.

   It had actually been a suggestion of the Outers that they spend a few
days in a cabin they owned in <someplace>.  The battle against Galaxia had
been draining on everyone, on some more than most and in light of what had
happened, Michiru and Haruka had suggested they do something relaxing.

   Usagi looked at the others in the group and decided that the two who
looked the most out of place were Setsuna and Hotaru.  *Setsuna wearing
hiking clothes,* Usagi decided, *is just plain freaky.  Even if the clothes
fit her.*  The Guardian Of Time looked as fashionable as ever, which came
as no surprise to everyone, but the shock *had* been considerable to Usagi,
who was unused to seeing Setsuna in clothes other than business suits or
her Sailor fuku.

   The other one was Hotaru.  Not because of her attire, but because of her
attitude.  To everyone's surprise, Hotaru Tomoe had revealed herself to be
something of an outdoors freak.  Ever since they'd left the city, the
youngest Senshi had become more and more excited and her enthusiasm did not
seem to be diminishing in the slightest.

   Makoto, who was walking in front of Usagi, was thinking along the same
lines.  She tapped Haruka's shoulder to get her attention.

   "What is it?" asked Haruka, maybe a bit more gruffly than she had
intended.  She had been daydreaming when Makoto had nudged her.

   "Just what do you guys feed her, anyway?" asked Makoto, pointing to the
purple-haired girl who was happily chatting away with Minako in the front.

   Haruka had to smile at that.  "Nothing special.  It's just that she's
never done any serious outdoor activities before because of her poor
health.  Now that she's well again, though..." she let the sentence hang.

    Makoto nodded.  She was about to add something when they heard Hotaru's
joyful shout of: "We're there!"

   <snipsnip - a little later>

   Mamoru and Usagi were taking a quiet stroll in the woods near the cabin
when they heard a few voices nearby.

    "I'm telling you, this stone is very unusual.  I've never seen anything
like it!" came Ami's voice.

   "Ami-chan, you don't know everything!  It could be just a weird rock,"
came Minako's voice.

   "Rocks aren't shaped in columns

   Usagi and Mamoru looked at each other and moved towards the source of
the sounds.  They found Ami, Minako, Rei and Hotaru looking over what
seemed like a big stone column with a multitude of engraved little signs.
"What's up?" Usagi asked.

   "Ami thinks she may have found an archeological treasure," said Rei dryly.

   "I just want to get a second opinion, that's all," protested Ami.  She
began jogging back to the cabin.  "I'll go get Setsuna."

   Hotaru came closer to the rock.  "It may be just a 'weird rock', Minako,
but it sure looks old."

   Rei smirked.  "Well, it's not evil, that much I can tell."

   Minako shook her head.  "And after all the trouble we went through to
make Ami come with us.  I've got a feeling she won't leave that rock out of
sight for as long as we're here."

   Usagi leaned towards the column.  "Wow, look at all the little carvings..."

   The Ginzuishou flashed once and the five were gone.

***

   Author's notes.

 - So, who's out for blood?  :)



**********************
* The Phoenix Reborn *              Jordanite and Mystical
**********************                  Freak at Large

Louis-Philippe Giroux

Dragon@anime.usacomputers.net
girol01@dmi.usherb.ca

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"The nameless are like dust.  No one shall come to lay flowers by their
grave.  Only those who earned their names are ever remembered."
  - Woodchuck, Records Of Lodoss War