Hm, been a long time since i posted anything. No I'm not dead yet!
Anyway, none of the characters below are mine, they belong to Naoko
Takeuchi and Rumiko Takahashi. C&C is veeeeeeery much appreciated *hint
hint*
5002 years ago
Quartz stood on one of the many balconies of the palace and looked out
into the midnight black skies. Behind him, the open doors to the balcony
allowed the soft sounds of music to drift out from the ballroom. If he
strained hard enough, he could just make out what piece they were
playing. If he tried hard enough. Sadly, he couldn't be bothered at all.
Gulping down his glass of sparkling wine, he set it on the balcony
ledge, out of the way as he continued staring out at the sable dark sky.
The dimmed conversations of nobles were heard easily as they laughed and
joked with one another, seemingly enjoying themselves. *Good for them,*
he thought, although without any real feeling. He wondered, if they
could only sense the darkness he was sensing right now, would they feel
as at ease as they did now?
He had sensed it only a few days ago, a sudden wrongness in the air
that had just seemingly appeared from nowhere, like a lingering odour.
It was everywhere he went, and he could not shake himself of the feeling
that something disastrous would happen. That was part of the reason he
had protested so vehemently at having to escort the prince to this ball,
even though it was tradition that the Royal Guard do so.
Part of the reason anyway. The other part had been, he had no real love
for the moon kingdom. Here on the moon, only a few patches of life
flowered, amid the constant dark patches of grey. Even then, the plant
life that bloomed here felt forced, coerced by magic to grow on the
lifeless planet. And grow they did, for the moon had some truly
beautiful species of fauna, enhanced by magic.
Too bad it all felt unnatural. Taking one last look at the ebony sky,
he quickly turned on the ball of his foot and walked inside.
----
Princess Saturn was used to the loneliness, the solitude that came with
her duty. What she wasn't used to however were the stares that seemed to
accompany her everywhere as people looked at her with frightened eyes,
the best of them seemed to treat her like a leashed lion, one that could
and would be done away with if it showed the first signs of going rabid.
It was for this very fact that she had left the ballroom, she could no
longer bear the fearful look in people's eyes whenever they saw her. If
she any more tears left in her, she would have been crying at the way
people seem to treat her, but she had grown used to the treatment long
ago. Enough not to cry about it anyway.
She looked about her, realising that she had walked all the way to the
gardens in the palace. She smiled faintly, in a sad sort of way. She
liked the gardens of the moon palace, it was here that she felt the most
comfortable, away from the harsh eyes of other people. Slowly, she sat
herself down a carved stone bench, running her fingers over it's rough
textured surface.
She smelt them coming, before she heard the unsteady fall of footsteps,
quickly approaching her. She stood up, the heavy stench of wine floating
through the air to her. Turning, Saturn regarded the males in front of
her. Three in number, they were fairly non-descript, dressed in the
clothes that seemed to be the fashion among the young noble men now. She
frowned as she smelled their wine-laden breath and the shaky way in
which they stood. She liked their drunken leers even less.
"Whot'saa babe like ya dooing inna plaace liike tis?" one of the nobles
slurred as he grinned lecherously at her.
Saturn blinked. Did they not recognise who she was? She shook her head,
it was not likely they did, being so drunk that they probably would have
trouble recognising themselves in a mirror. She prepared herself to
transform into her senshi form so that they would at least know who they
were dealing with.
"Saturn --" She never got to finish it.
"What's going on here?" Saturn watched as a man strode out from the
shadows, his crystal-green eyes staring at the boys warily. He was
dressed in formal, although she could quite clearly see that he was not
used to such clothing, nor did he like them. Dark streamers of hair
framed his face, ebony black tinged with the slightest hint of golden
blonde. There was a scar across his face, that started all the way from
his cheek to his forehead, crossing his eyes. It an old scar, nearly
totally faded, the only indication of it was that it was slightly paler
than the rest of his skin. was He swept his eyes across them, lingering
slightly on her for a second before turning back to the boys.
She could remember the stranger, he had been of those who had come with
the Earth prince, Endymion. One of his guards if her memory served her
correctly. "Quartz," she said suddenly, his name coming to her. Not just
any ordinary guard, the Captain of the Royal Guard, and one of the
King's four Protectors. Somehow, he did not look as intimidating as a
person of his reputation should have, she had imagined him to be much
older, and thickly muscled. Instead, he was young, perhaps only twenty
summers old, which was just two years older than her. He had no thick
muscles that Saturn could see, and was more slender than stout.
But death surrounded him, cloaked though it was, she still managed to
sense it. Death and destruction, she was finely attuned to both these
elements, and right now, she could sense them emanating from the man in
front of her, dim though those feelings were.
"Buzz off! Thhish none of ya bushiness!" one of nobles snarled in his
drunken stupor. He moved forward as if to push Quartz away, only to find
himself lifted into the air by a grip stronger than steel. "Get cha
handsh off me!" he struggled futilely, kicking ineffectually at the man
in front of him. "Letch me go!"
Quartz obliged him, by throwing him into a nearby pond. The other two
took a step towards him, and he turned to glare at them, crystal green
eyes shining with dire threat. They quailed, shrinking in on themselves
as his glare cut through their drunken stupor. Shivering slightly, they
stared at him fearfully as they walked away.
"Are you okay?" Quartz asked, turning to Saturn.
"Y, yes," Saturn said, slightly surprised that someone would actually
stand up for her, or even be concerned about her. Someone who was not in
any way related to the Queen or the other Senshi. Her heart beat faster
as she looked at him. "Thank you," she said, recovering some of her lost
composure.
======
Mistress 9 was annoyed. Her patience was being worn away with every
failure to find one of the three talismans. Her anger however, it was
increasing in leaps and bounds as time passed by, like a slowly growing
fire, it burned more and more brightly in her. And it was all directed
towards thosee Sailor Senshi brats. They were always getting in her way,
she would savour the day she would finally be able to rid herself of
them.
Smiling at the thought, she wondered about the new boy that had
accompanied them on their battles recently. He was a young child, hardly
a whelp in the way of life, looking like every insignificant mortal on
this planet. Yet he had managed to take on one of her daimons by himself
and live. That alone said, he was not an ordinary human. Not by any
means. She smirked, sadly the boy had made a fatal error, he had not
hidden himself as the Senshi had, fighting in his true form. That meant
he could be found, and when he was found, he could be eliminated. The
thought pleased her, if nothing else, it would act as an appetiser
before the Senshi's own deaths.
The sudden sound of the doorknob clicking open brought her alert,
whirling about, she turned to see who it was. She scowled when she
noticed the man who had walked in. At least she thought he was a male,
the voice was decidedly masculine, and so was his build. But that was
all she could tell about him, for the shadows clung to him, clothing him
in eternal darkness so that nothing of him could be seen.
"Where have you been?" she demanded, glaring at the man in front of
her. Shadow; for that was what she called him in her mind, shrugged. He
had approached her one day, how he had found out about her or her
purpose, she had no idea. Had approached her and offered to join, to
help her summon Pharaoh 90.
"About."
"That is not an answer."
"It's the only one I'll give, and you shouldn't frown so much, you'll
get wrinkles more easily if you do."
Her glare strengthened, and she would have killed him then and there
for mocking her if not for the fact that she was not sure which one of
them exactly was stronger.
----
Setsuna looked at the house in front of her, it wasn't often that she
paid a visit to one of the Senshi. But this was a special case, since
she needed to talk to Usagi about her cousin. The boy was somehow
interfering with the timeline and she did nothing, if not take her duty
very seriously. Too seriously some might say, but those who would had
died ages ago. She was about to knock on the door, when suddenly a burst
of water happened to splash onto her.
Frowning, she turned her head to the side to glare at a little old lady
with a ladle walking by. A smirk appeared on the little old lady's face,
but was gone so fast that she couldn't be sure.
A few choice words popped into Setsuna's head, but she ignored the urge
to curse and instead, slowly counted to ten. It was weird how her future
sight hadn't picked up on that, but then, ever since a certain _someone_
had come to Juuban, her future sight wasn't quite what it used to be.
It was just then that Usagi happened to come out. "Setsuna?" Usagi
asked, puzzled. "What are you doing here?" Momentarily, Usagi tried to
remember if she had done anything bad in the recent past. Setsuna
tended to have that effect on people. "And why are you all wet?"
"No reason, I just decided to swim in my clothes before coming here,"
Setsuna said dryly. "Some old lady splashed me with water, before
walking off."
"Well, why don't you come in and change? I'm sure okaasan's got some
spare clothes that can fit you while we dry up your wet clothes," Usagi
said cheerfully, dragging the wet Setsuna in.
Setsuna considered the proposal for a brief moment, before deciding
that it would be better than teleporting all the way back to get a
change of clothes.
She walked into the bathroom, closing the door with an audible click
behind her, worry wandering her mind as she considered the recent
incident. Momentarily, she wondered if she was losing her powers, or if
they were getting weaker. Whatever the case was, if this kept up, she
wouldn't be able to do her duty and fulfil the promise she had made to
Queen Serenity a long time ago.
She was so lost in thought, she didn't realise she had forgot to lock
the bathroom door.
----
Ranma wiped the sweat off his brow as he stopped in front of the
Tsukino household and knocked on the door. There wasn't really anything
better than a good morning's exercise, ending with a jog to start off
the day, unless it was a good morning spar followed by a good breakfast
as well. But he hadn't been able to find any sparring partners around
here, not any that made it actually worthwhile.
It took several moments before Usagi opened the door; he had been
afraid she was still sleeping actually even though it was already nine
in the morning.
"So...what's for breakfast?" was the first thing he said as he walked
through the door, his stomach grumbling as the adrenaline faded and left
him. He walked to the table where he had seen the meals Mrs. Tsukino had
set before she had left with her husband to take Shingo and Chibi-Usa to
the zoo. Where he saw two perfectly traditional Japanese breakfasts, he
now saw nothing. "Where's the food?!?" he cried, his jaw dropping.
"Um..." Usagi squirmed, shifting nervously from foot to foot. "You
see...when I woke up, I saw two meals...and..."
"You didn't." It was a useless question, the answer was already
staring him in the face as he looked at the empty table.
"Waaah!! I'm sorry, I accidentally ate your portion as well!" Usagi
wailed.
"How did you 'accidentally' eat my portion?!?" Knowing Usagi, Ranma
suspected that it was far from an accident. "Great, now I'm going to
starve..." he muttered, rubbing his already-growling stomach.
"But don't worry, I cooked you a new breakfast instead," Usagi said,
taking a plate out from nowhere and presenting it to Ranma.
Ranma eyed the weirdly coloured concoction in front of him with great
suspicion. "What's this?" he asked, pointing at a green,
seemingly-plastic mess on the plate.
"That's scrambled egg."
"..." Ranma pointed to a wiry, thin strand of something; he didn't know
what, that adorned the side of the egg. "And this?"
"Bacon."
"..." Ranma was becoming less and less reassured.
"Aren't you going to eat it?" Usagi asked.
"...Maybe later, I don't really feel hungry right now," Ranma replied,
and it was true. Sort of. Looking at the food on the plate had
effectively killed his appetite. He made a note to himself to get
take-out later at the okinomiyaki diner.
"Waaaaaah! You think I'm a bad cook!" Usagi wailed.
"No no! I didn't say that," Ranma said, frantically trying to hush his
crying cousin. "I mean just cause your food looks bad doesn't mean
you're a bad cook." Mentally, Ranma slapped himself. *Nice going!* he
thought sarcastically.
Usagi started wailing even louder.
Ranma sighed. "Okay, I give in. I'll eat your cooking," he said. After
all, he had survived on worse food before so how bad could Usagi's
cooking possibly be? Shoving one forkful of bacon into his mouth, he got
his answer.
Usagi watched as Ranma's eyes bulged out as he put the fork into his
mouth.
Ranma resisted the urge to spit out the vile tasting food in his mouth,
but instead, with great willpower, he began chewing on it slowly.
"So how was it?" Usagi asked.
"Fine," Ranma croaked, a little pale as the food went down his gullet.
"Now if you'll excuse me..." he said, before dashing madly to the
toilet.
"Ranma, wait! There's someone in the toilet!" Usagi tried to shout out,
but by the time Ranma got there, all she had managed to get to was
"There".
-----
He shrugged off the moody thoughts that came to him, taking off his
long pants until all he was dressed in were his boxers. He was about to
remove that when the inner door of the furo slid open.
Ranma froze, as a sudden sense of doom hit him. Turning his head ever
so slowly to look up, he saw an equally stunned woman looking down at
him. Said woman was holding a towel, which only just managed to cover
her front. His eyes travelled up till they reached her face and their
eyes met.
It was just about then that all hell broke loose.