Fatal Fury Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Sailor Rifts ❯ Chapter 10: Temper of Fire, Hands of Steel ( Chapter 10 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Sailor Moon/Rifts Crossover (Revised Edition) By Simon Woodington

Chapter 10: Temper of Fire, Hands of Steel

"Why can't I sense anything?" she asked, purple eyes squinting into
the translucent blue energy clearly visible before her in the
darkness.

"Give yourself a moment to adjust," a brown robed figure said.

She stopped.

"What is it Rei?"

She glanced at him, "Juan, I asked you not to call me that!"

"Sorry gorgeous."

"That's okay," she replied somewhat absently. Her eyes swept the
valley which the small cliff overlooked, her gaze ponderous, alert,
searching. Her voice came to his ear hushed, as if she feared being
overheard by someone, or something; "I do sense something."

"Didn't I tell you?"

"Yeah, you're right... but I sense something else." Her words turned
harsh again, "Don't give me that look! I don't know what they are!"

"Damn Fal, I don't know either!" he snapped in reply. "You don't have
to yell at me!"

She grabbed him by the shoulder of his robe, pulled him over to her,
and made sure he was within arms reach.

"This was your dumb idea, you cute twit. It's not safe, we shouldn't
even be here." She guided him to edge the cliff, where a section rose
like a protective shield. They sat down behind the relative safety of
the stones. He took several calming breaths, realizing why she was
being so argumentative.

"Falra, would you calm down for a sec? We're safe, this is pretty well
neutral territory. The Coalition is a long ways off."

"I'm sorry," she sighed, pressing a hand to his shoulder, and
frowning. "I've never been to a nexus before. I didn't realize they
were so big!"

Indeed, massive glowing lines of blue psychic energy, some three
hundred feet high, wavered and shimmered in the cool night, as if
swayed by some otherwise ineffectual wind. Where they crossed, a
towering oval of loudly crackling energy formed, very much like the
portal...

-'Jupiter no!'-

Usagi!

...that had brought them here. Images flooded her mind. Where they had
arrived after the portal had closed. The lion had gone. Why? She still
failed to understand that. The strange floating ship, the blind women
aboard it. Why did they not retaliate against the Splugorth? Again,
another answer which was beyond her. She shook her head. Thoughts of
Atlantis, death, and slavery, made her shudder.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Juan breathed, holding her shoulders as they
gazed at the incredible swelling of energy.

"Makes me wish I'd finished my Line Walker training..." she
half-whispered.

Dully, she stared at the fantastic manifestation, her mind
transporting her to a place much safer, and more forgiving than the
savaged Earth upon which she now lived. The power of the massive ley
lines made her entire body tingle, a powerful rush moving through her
slender frame. Never before had she felt quite so alive! As Juan
observed the tiny spots fly through the great portal, he found his
memory faulter in attempts to recall just what the heck they were.

"What are they..." he muttered, frustration beckoning.

"Hmm?"

Juan looked serious.

"Look," he said, pointing towards the portal. "I think the leader, the
queen, or whatever, is coming through the portal."

"Are you sure, Juan? I don't see anything," she squinted into the
light of the dimensional doorway. "Wait, no, you're right, I do see
something..." Carefully she watched as a larger humanoid insect came
out of the portal. It looked as though the creature had skin made up
in plates, like armor, or was it an exoskeleton? She could not be
sure. As she watched it fly through, she noticed that its abdomen was
much larger than the others of its kind. It reminded her of a queen
bee, from her homeworld. A pang of homesickness struck her. After a
time of study, she realized abruptly that the queen-bee creature was
looking back at her.

She cursed.

"We've been seen! It knows we're here!"

"Oh hell," he said, not wanting to believe that they were in grave
danger.

"Run!" she grabbed him as she turned to act upon her word. He uttered
an oath, and hurried to catch up to her. Her long black hair flew out
behind her as she ran. She threw a glance over her shoulder.

"We're not going to make it!"

Juan could see the hovercycles in the distance, and judged that she
was right. If they had left a few moments earlier perhaps they might
have had to start their engines. At that point, they would be just
short of reaching their means of escape before the creature caught
them.

"We need a distraction!" she called out. "Any ideas?"

"Well if I can just get a sec to cast a spell..."

A myriad of spotlights lit the sky, announcing silently another
distinct presence.

"Oh beautiful," Juan quipped. His eyes widened in alarm. "Duck!"

"Huh?" was her startled and stunned reply.

As Juan fell face first into the dirt, he reached out with a hand in
hopes of dragging her to the ground with him. Via a combination of
tripping over an unseen stone, and being grabbed by Juan, Falra found
herself painfully winded as the ground came up to greet her by
smacking her soundly on the forehead. Juan heard the low rumble of
what he recognized to be jet engines as they flew over him, tossing,
tangling his short hair, and rippling his robe as the violently
expelled exhaust pushed at the two of them. He spat dirt, and crawled
over to Falra's fallen form. He pushed at her shoulder gently.

"Rei?"

She groaned and coughed. Her wildly disheveled hair lay in the dirt,
twisted and mangled. She put a hand to her head as she turned over, a
dull throbbing washing through her skull. She did not speak, mainly
due to her struggle for air. Once she found it, she croaked an effort
at vocalization.

"Wha- What was that?"

"SAMs," he said, sounding defeated by a battle she did not even know
they had been fighting. She lay there, not trying to move, and gave
him a quizzical look.

"The Coalition."

As if to make a point of their presence, a lone 'Smiling Jack' SAMAS
approached the two of them. The winged armor landed, and waved a gun
in their direction.

"Get up," a deep voice said behind a very prominent metallic grin, the
namesake of the power armor.

"Come on," Juan whispered, "numbnuts here won't take kindly to
argument."

"We can handle him," she snarled, lighting beginning to manifest
within her clenched hand.

"No, don't. Not yet, anyway."

"Get up!" the 'Jack snapped impatiently, and threateningly.

"Wait until I say 'when'," he ordered in hushed tones, helping her up.
Once on their feet, Falra winced when she set her weight on her right
foot.

"Hurt bad?"

She nodded.

"I think it's broken."

"Shit," he sighed.

"What are you to doing here?" the 'Jack demanded.

Juan gazed at the armor with his best false cock sure mask.

"We heard a loud buzzing, thought it might be a good idea to check it
out. You know, D-bees. Thought maybe the good Coalition might want to
know about it."

With a pair of mechanical whur-thwumps, the darkly smiling armor
stepped towards them.

"Your ID. Let's see your ID."

:So it's not just the grin that's stupid; Falra thought sardonically.

The bravado quickly fled Juan Nathan Iridian.

"Would you believe we left them at home?"

There was a dull click.

"Didn't think so." Juan muttered something under his breath, then
dropped a magic net on the grinning idiot armor. "Falra, let's go!"

Falra hung frantically on to Juan with one arm as they fled, trying to
reach the...

"They're gone!" she gasped.

"Halt magic users!" another commanding, deep voice demanded. "Halt or
die!" Two larger Super SAMAS armors stood at the site where the
hovercycles had been.

"I'm sorry Rei," he apologized uselessly in hushed tones, "If we get
out of this alive, I'll make it up to you. I..." His voice fell
silent, lacking words in the seriousness of the situation. Falra
merely nodded, her head at his shoulder.

"I guess you can drop Falra," she noted just as cautiously. He started
to speak, but she did not give him the chance.

"Wouldn't be good for the kids, right?" she chuckled faintly, pain
creasing her brow.

"Well, well," one of the grunts in the armors said with a hint of
false pleasure. "What've we got 'ere?"

The other SAMAS turned to the first.

"It looks like th' D-bee girl we been searchin' for," the second
stated with a laugh in his words.

"I don't s'pose they'd mind if we played wit' her fer a bit?" the
first asked the second.

Rage poured through Juan as his mind registered what they dared
conjecture. Rei gasped, stunned by the flow of power from his flaring
aura.

"Not't all." The first seemed to ponder something. "What 'f," the
first dropped the supposition.

"What?"

"What 'f she's too inhuman for us?"

"No!" Juan screamed, a swirling silver light encompassing the two
young mages as he did something unique to his class:

He winged it. No spell in store, no wit in summoning, just a sharp
blast of white energy, which tore into the first of the two robust
armors, knocking it aside with a deep, male grunt.

"You won't touch her, not if I..."

"Oh shut up!" bellowed the second, a multicolored bolt reducing Juan's
head to particles. Rei fell away from the sudden corpse, and collapsed
into a shrieking heap.

"You too hussy," the armor grunted, slapping her softly. A large red
welt formed across the side of her face. "Hey Joel, you cool?"

"Yeah, cool," he replied as he got to his feet. "That jerk hit hard,
but I'm still kickin' shit. I tell ya, I like these new PAs!"

"Ain't they sweet?"

"Oh yea. So, who first? Oh man she's gonna be a great piece of
action..."

"What... she's out! Are you really gonna..."

"What's she gonna do, wake up?" the first laughed. "You're bloody
paranoid, Dallas. Witch bitch won't be casting nutin' when we're up in
her..."

There was a hiss as the back of his armor opened. The noise was muted
by the short deep air cutting sounds of helicopter blades. A small
spotlight lit the collapsed figures, and reflected off the glossy
darkness of their armor.

"Report!" a loudspeaker voice rang.

"Emperor Prosek! Sir! We captured a D-bee sir!" the second replied
frantically, his fear keeping him from error in words.

"Ah, so I see. And the other?"

"Tried to kill me sir!" the first armor snapped off as his armor
hissed closed.

"I see you dealt with the creature appropriately. Good. Take the
corrupted one and report back to Headquarters."

"Aye sir!" they agreed in unison.

The first sighed as the spotlight and the sound of the helicopters'
presence faded.

"Damn!"

"That was close. Well, lets get busy. I can't wait to get a taste..."

"No," the first Sam said, sounding angrily disappointed. He turned to
the body of Juan, and fired off a quick round. The body dispersed into
the air, vaporizing in a thin burst of smoke. "You know what happened
to the last guys who ticked him off, right?"

"Uh..."

"So shut yer damn trap and grab the D-bee hussy," he snapped.

---

When Rei awoke, the first thing she felt were broken bones. Or rather,
the bonds that held them. They had not set her broken leg, there was
no support for it, they had merely tied her to a chair, unsympathetic.

:Why should they care?; she thought. Her hands were bound behind her
back. Useless. She also felt something around her neck. It was cold,
metallic. A collar was her first thought. Then; :why?: Movement was
limited to her head and shoulders. She felt a wetness on her cheek.

:Tears?:

She remembered suddenly the grinning armor and the tornado of manna
which slammed the first of the threatening armors aside like a tinker
toy. Juan had been so protective, and she had felt so safe in his
arms, as if nothing could touch them....

Yet something had, and now she was alone again.

"D-Bee," said a voice. There was a click, and suddenly lights were
upon her, blinding her. She wished she could shed her robe; the lights
were so warm.

"Hey bitch," demanded another voice. A hand appeared from the
darkness, collided with her face, then disappeared again. "Answer the
man." He stressed the word; man.

"Wh-wha..." she gasped, feeling her splintered lip pulse sharply.

"You got a name there, D-Bee?"

Silence. A stocky man stepped out into the silence, and the light,
then hit her again, palm open.

"Every time I don't get an answer, you get another one of those," the
voice from behind the lights said. "Okay, let's start from the top..."

Rei kept her split-lipped mouth shut as she jutted out her chin
defiantly, a clear expression of hatred souring her features.

"Get vaped, losers," she snarled.

"You're not very smart, are you," qouth the voice as the hand snapped
against her face again.

That was not a question.

"What are you called?"

Silence broken. A whimper.

"Uhh..."

"No, clearly no intelligence here," the voice stated coldly. "What do
they call you?"

Silence once again.

"No name? Really?" Followed by a gesture, and the taste of blood. "Too
bad. You know what? 'Bitch' sounds pretty good to me."

"It fits. She's a real tough Bitch. Real quiet, too," a more robust
tone growled as she felt a closed fist make her head snap to the side.

"Uuuhk...!"

"That's enough," the voice said, "let her fry for a while."

They were all too soon gone. The lights did not relent their warming
stare. She was sweating, close to tears, all hope fled. After a time
of silence, she heard a barely audible hiss. The lights went out.
Falra flinched numbly when she felt a cool cloth dabbing at her face.

"Uhh!" she grunted, at first unable to think to speak, or to make her
sore mouth obey.

"Hey there," a cool voice said. This one was different, it had a calm,
trusting tone. "How are you doing, Rei?"

"Huh-h-how do you know my name?" she whispered, mollified.

"I'm a friend."

She was silent.

"I know you can't really trust me, but you're in no position to refuse
any help I offer. For Your Information, I have as much an interest in
your life as I do that of your friends." He wiped the blood from her
lip, and pressed a finger to it.

"Yes I know about them. We've found Minako, but we're still looking
for the rest of them."

"Are...' she swallowed, tasting unpleasantly sweet blood as her tongue
worked at the unusual mass of her split lip. "Are you going to free
me?"

"I can't, not just yet. I need some time. In a couple of days I'll be
able to, once I've got the people I need." She felt something, a vial,
pressed against her lips. "Drink this."

Rei hesitated.

"It'll dull the pain. I'd give you something stronger, but they might
suspect interference if you don't react. I'm sorry."

Understandably reluctant, she hesitated several moments before
deciding to trust him. Once there, she realized she was thankful for
any help, at that point. She tipped her head back slightly as he held
the vial. She breathed a slightly pleasured groan at the cool soothing
liquid warding the burning in her throat. As he stood to leave, a
warmth gradually fogged her mind.

"Wait," she said, "what do I..."

"Silver," he replied, still cool as ice. "I'll see you in a couple of
days."

Only moments later did the two men return, with their words and
violence.

"Okay, let's start from the beginning..."