Fatal Fury Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Sailor Rifts ❯ Chapter 26: The Awaited Moment, and the Unexpected ( Chapter 26 )

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

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

Chapter 26: The Awaited Moment, and the Unexpected

The silk tresses of the pale violet nightgown shifted in a faint wave
against her lithe body, the billowing sleeves concealing smooth
shoulders and slight arms. While blue edged, hollow manifestations of
manna trailed meltingly from the practiced movement of hand and arm,
another sensed the ascension of energy, and awoke.

'Iye,' she muttered in Japanese, her breathing steep. 'Wait Yalen.'

The elemental creature yawned and stretched, then sauntered over to
her pink bunny slippered feet, and curled up closely enough that his
flame warmed her ever so subtly. She crooned softly, enjoying the
gentle waft of warmth.

'Void of Whispering,' she intoned, clapping her hands together as the
aspects of the weaving took final form. A curious rumble rooted itself
within the core of the flame lion's billowing chest for a moment,
before fading.

The long-legged black haired botanist drew to a halt, hands buried to
the wrists in rich multitoned soil within the gaze of the Pool of
Seeing.

:Who are you? Would you mind getting the; she swore with an ease Yanei
blinked at :out of my head?:

:I expressly apolagize; Yanei offered, know the futility of the
gesture. :Your guest, however, and I have dealings:

:Then get... uhh...; Professor Tamara Lillin found herself suspended
in a wakeless expanse of black, even while remotely viewing the
actions of her commandiered body. Yanei, an inexperienced body thief,
yet rapidly learning mage, sifted through her host's recent memory.

:Eventless; she sneered, noting that even while the cross polination
of exquisite flowers did, indeed, under Tamara's talented guidance
yield awe-inspiring results, she had no time for admiration.

An image of a black clothed man smiling at her while her heart pounded
in her chest caught her brief attention.

:Her uncle. Nothing more; Yanei realized. Busily, the image sped on,
drawing her to the appearance of a long haired young woman and a
blonde, metal winged child.

"Lady Tamara!" the little one had cried, even as the botanist
approached the two.

:Lady Tamara?; Yanei wondered briefly.

Apparently she had encountered a number of strangers who were
interested in her mother, and the two with whom they had escaped, none
of whom she actually placed any trust in. After a brief verbal
altercation with an oddly hair styled blonde woman and a human formed
dragon (a clear shock thus delivered to Yanei), she had teleported her
unconscious "mother" here. It seemed that Sarah, as she called
herself, was asleep, sunning herself at present, next to a partially
redirected springwater pool.

:The blonde was Tsukino Usagi, Sailor Moon, and the other... hmm,
Hino. Hino Rei, Sailor Mars. But this, this is Mizuno Ami? The pretty
Sailor Mercury? I don't believe it:

The brightly shimmering pool offered a clear, springwater tinge
against the young woman's left side, which betrayed a slight
augmentory discolouration. Ah, the benefits of the Northern
continents. Tamara neared her, seeming somewhat uneasy, and the alert
blue haired girl sat up sharply.

"Huh?" she coughed, one fist to her mouth while the opposing hand
grasped a partially full glass of orange juice. "What's up hon?"

"Just checking on you," she responded, her face surprisingly bright.
Upon gleaning that Tamara was more the deadpan sort, she altered her
borrowed expression accordingly. Not cold quite, yet distinctly
lacking warmth.

"I'm fine," she echoed in expression. "Where's m'baby?"

Astonished by the sense of lordship - or in this case ladyship - that
washed through her host, she risked a more through telepathic probe.

Flickers of of intimate symbiotic communions with humans to the point
of sharing their innermost desires, fighting to protect them, and
recieving life sustaining energy from each individual. Never more than
one at once, yet each all-encompassing, mystically inseperable, until
the point of death, or termination of agreement. The former far more
prominant then the latter.

"Lady?" inquired a soft, somewhat ethereal voice.

"Yes little one?" Yanei felt herself reply.

:I have a Death's Hunger for a host?!; Yanei balked, staggering back
onto a nearby chair.

:You have far more than that, fledgling; angrily rebuked Lady Tamara
with teeming, raw confidence. Yanei lurched forward, landing jarringly
upon her hands and knees with a sharp cry.

"Get out of my mind!! Akaaaaaarrriiiiiieeeeeeee!!"

Sarah gave a start, scrambling to her feet at the abrupt metamorphosis
of her generous and gracious host.

"Lady?!" Shyanne cried faintly.

'Calm yourself, little one,' she issued in a foreign tounge. 'Your
mother-false be safe.'

"What's she sayin' Shy?" Sarah questioned, tempering her anxiety
sternly.

"You're safe, mama," she loosely translated.

"Safe?!" she blurted, grasping a denim vest, which she slowly slipped
over her shoulders as she walked over to her daughter. "Are you sayin'
I was in danger, hon?"

A firm nod.

"A young mage foolishly attempted to prossess me," Lady Tamara stated
coldly. "I will handle her in due time. Until then, you might consider
Morcanis' advice."

"Tam, ah wanna know."

"Does 'Yanei' sound familiar?" she offered.

"No, but then I don' seem t' remember much o' anybody," she replied,
mouth twisted in a frown. "Shyanne? You wanna go back home darlin'?"

Her face scrunched uncertainly, then she nodded.

"Not without you," she squeaked, pouncing upon her mother and grasping
her thighs with her little arms.

"Nah, we're goin' togethah," she smiled faintly.

---

Hovering over the body of Kai, it was obvious she was attractive in a
rough edged sort of way, though Makoto did not really care. Upon
spying the creature, she set Ayana down and said:

'Hide. Don't come out until I call you.'

With crystal eyes, her lip trembled.

'But Mama-san...'

:Ayana, don't you argue with me!; she replied firmly in her mind.

:Hai, Mama-san; she said obediently and turned, chasing a shadow back
into the house.

"Get away from her!" Makoto cried sharply in English, drawing her
saber from the leather sheath on the belt of her robe, as she ran with
a fury in her step.

"Oh damn," the woman cursed, hopping backwards from the harshly beaten
girl, to her feet. A faint ring of steel pronounced the existence of
her two handed claymore.

"What'd you do to her!" Makoto snarled, dropping on the woman with her
weight behind her sword. She met the strike easily, and pushed Makoto
back with what seemed a minimal effort.

:Makoto, wait!:

"Listen," the blonde started to say. "I really don't want to fight
you."

A shrill cry was emitted from Makoto's throat as she struck several
times, in what seemed to be less than rational attacks. Aptly and
cleanly, the slender stranger dodged the first lunge, and parried the
following motions. With a frown of annoyance, she hit Makoto across
the head with the pommel of her sword. Stunned, she stumbled
backwards.

"I'm here with Mamoru, Makoto!" the woman cried in a partially
commanding tone. "Um... and Han needs our help!"

Makoto paused, enthralled by the mention of her husband.

"What?" she blinked.

:Hanlan, dear child. Ayana's knowledge of her father's location is
very accurate; Ellison replied calmly. Both heads turned as an
utterance of protective fury was recognized.

"What the hell...?" the woman flinched, striking towards the direction
of the voice. Her narrowed eyes eventually reached Makoto.

"Mai!" she forgot Han - for the moment - and spoke, issuing
unconditional command:

"You're Aaran, aren't you."

The other was half into a nod when she was interrupted.

"Fine. You stay here. I'm going after Mai."

Repulsed, she retorted: "By Lord Black's name! The hell you are!"

A challenge drifted nigh visibly between the two senshi, and for a
moment, also the consideration of acceptance. Finally Aaran turned as
if conceding. Her words stated otherwise, however.

"Kai will be fine. I'll just leave Need with her," as she spoke, an
oddly plain - yet beautiful - short sword was drawn from an unnoticed
sheath. Lithely, she placed the blade on the brutally marked young
woman.

A gasp rose within Makoto's mind.

:Ellison? What is it?:

Aaran turned to the apparent leader.

"Hey, you wanna go or what?"

:Ellison...?; Makoto acted only in thought, standing as of held by the
embrace of an Antarctic iceflow.

:No, it doesn't matter. Go child:

Aaran had to be impressed, Makoto moved quickly for a non-augmented
human. Quickly enough for her to have to jog to remain abreast.

"T'hell with this!" Aaran stated sharply, leaping at Makoto, who
started to duck. She yelped as she felt her feet parted company with
the earth, the rough beating of wings assaulting her ears.

"What the hell...!?"

Aaran laughed delightedly. "Don't you worry, I'll get us there a
helluva lot faster than that..."

:Ellison... what is she?:

:She smells like a dragon!; was the reply, aghast.

:We'll deal with her later, Ellison. Han can take care of himself,
right? I mean...:

:It is more complicated than that. I believe you are right, however,
that your husband is and was not in any danger from this woman:

"Aaran!"

"Not now! Just get ready!"

Makoto threw a misaimed glare upwards. Aaran flinched.

"Sorry!" she blurted. "You ready or what!"

"Hai!"

"Uh... yeah..." her grip loosened sharply, and Makoto felt the air
surge as she descended quickly towards a shadowed target.

Mai ducked and rolled forward on one shoulder as Makoto's blade
slipped easily into the shoulder of the beast. Whirling with a howl
echoing forth from a purple rend of a mouth, Makoto's vision flashed
crimson as pain seared across her face.

"Makoto!" Mai cried, pushing back her sweat matted hair with a
bloodied hand.

"That's IT!" bellowed a Boom-Gun of a voice. "No twobit creep hits MY
wife!!"

With a harsh roar, a silver-grey club of nigh ridiculous proportions
careened in a deliberated course to introduce the creature to the
earth. Makoto's ears screamed at her as the shadow-creature dispersed
in a chaotic cacophony of sound. Stumbling to her feet, she muttered:

"Love...?"

"Mako!" he cried, gently; for his voice could easily strike one down
as the strength of his fist. He received her gratefully to his arms,
and held her like a lost love, for indeed that was true. Two others
appeared beyond the wall of forest, and that of shade, taking upon the
sight of the reunited with heartfelt smiles. Tears abundant spoke to
Hanlan, even as she discovered were not so great a distance in
departure from her mind and mouth.

"I guess now y-you've got an excuse to fight..." she gazed at him,
eyes wet and imploring.

He smiled at her, all gentility, yet no restraint.

"Yeah babe, you got it straight," and he kissed her, taking words and
wind in his passion. Mai scrambled over to her pallid child while the
party gazed on, and upon taking her into her arms, cried:

"She's not breathing!"

The young woman standing aside Mamoru went to Mai without a start.

"I can help," she stated. "I'm a Healer."

Concerned Mother tucked her wit aside and stepped back from her dying
girl as Demelza replaced her, dropped her hands to the girl's chest.
Clasped together, she laid her hands on her chest and bowed her head
in silence, letting her training guide her were she knew her emotions
could not. Mai stared on, unconcealed terror in her eyes. Mamoru
stepped up next to her, sympathy flickering within.

"Can she save her? What's she doing?"

Mamoru glanced at her, manner cool, empathy flowing from him like
sanguine perfume.

"She is a psychic healer, and she can; Tenma need only want to
return."

"Ah!" she gasped. "My Goddess..." Eyes wide, hands clenched at her
breasts.

"You don't think she will...?" his hand reached for her, and did not
halt, falling upon her shoulder. With trepidation she turned and
looked at him.

:It does not concern him; she thought. :In his eyes, yet, his concern.
He fears for me!:

"Who are you?" in tones less than at any form of ease.

"Mamoru Chiba, Mai-san. Friend of Makoto."

"Mai!" Demelza's voice called, alight in warmth, and in ease. "You're
very lucky, um... Mai, isn't it? I could not've saved her with
traditional methods."

"Mama!" Tenma coughed as she was received to her mother's arms.
"Mama-san... I'm okay..."

Grateful tears stirred Mai's heart, and spilled over her cheeks as she
held her daughter and merely nodded vaguely at the Healer.

"What about Kai?" Hanlan asked, worry upon his thick-seeming brow.
Makoto pushed herself from his shoulder slightly, and pointed at Aaran
back at the house.

"She'll be fine. Aaran's taking care of her," she noted, sounding
oddly confident of the fact.

:She's not a bad girl, hon. See?; Han asserted.

:I believe you hon; Makoto replied, warmth flowing from within.

"Makoto-san?" For a moment her heart held at the voice, hardly
believing the existence of it. As she turned, Hanlan sighed, and she
saw hope again, faded though it might be.

"Mamoru!!" she nigh screamed, leaping at him with uncharacteristic
abandon. With a surprised smile, he hugged her, minding Han's crossed
tree-trunks of arms. After a time, he released her.

"Sorry I took so long," he grinned humourously. "Dimensional jumping
can be such a drag..."

Makoto's upturned mouth faltered.

"What about Usagi?"

"We must talk," Demelza stated firmly, taking Mamoru's hand in hers.
"At length, and now."

Makoto's look of puzzlement and suspicion was second only to her fear
for Usagi.

---

"Who are you?" demanded harsh male tones, protective in the extreme.
He rose from the limp female figure upon their bed, and regarded the
strange winged woman with a feral snarl.

"Your mate has threatened one of mine," declared the creature, nearing
him with a flare of light upon each hand. "I have come to see she pays
the consequences."

"Over my corpse," Akari swore, his mind balking at the reason for her
approach. What had Yanei done?

"Yours or hers, makes no difference to me."

Dimly, as Akari responded to her affront by drawing his energy inward
and assuming a defensive stance, he thought to ask of her reasoning.

"What has she done to you?" he gritted, indicating that even should he
find her reason acceptable, he would not allow her to come to harm.

"Odd that you should not be aware, soul-bonded as you are," she
observed, half to herself. "Matter it does not, for you cannot halt my
hastening of her death."

Akari's brutish face reddened.

"Try it," he dared her, gesturing in such a fashion as to invite the
onslaught. "I mean it. Attack."

She leapt at him with a banshee screech, the fingertips of her hands
formed to metal points, which slashed at his tunic, flicking bits of
grey cloth as he dodged nimbly aside. One hand rose, catching her
neck, and he held her for a moment.

"Trifling demon," he growled darkly. "You will leave my beloved alone,
or I will destroy you. Understand?"

She hissed at him, a high, whining thing with tore at his ears. His
grip tightened, and something small creaked in her neck.

"Don't waste your time trying to change. I am stronger still than even
that pitiful form."

Her face became a defeated grimace, during which she forced herself to
relax.

"I understand," she replied, voice restrained, but not by breath.

With a quick, almost robotic snap, his hand opened, allowing the demon
to collapse upon the grey carpeted floor. She glared up at him angrily
as she rose, rubbing her neck and growling.

"If even so much as a hair prematurely leaves her head," he whispered,
his temper quite well restrained for its mass. "I will kill you."

As she turned away, an insulting glare upon her fair regard, his left
hand caught her upper arm while the right gripped her shoulder. There
was a wrenching, and a high scream. Akari flipped the severed limb
aside, several thin laces of crimson arcing with the motion, and held
his eyes upon her prone figure, hating that she had dared threaten his
sole desire.

"I could have easily done that to your natural form, demon," Akari
stated, not realizing his words were unnecessary. She knew that well
by the ease of his action. Trembling with agony, her blood spattered
torso shimmered out of their reality with the rest of her.

---

"Han, when we made love, before I... um..." Makoto started slowly.

"Mama-san!"

"You were pregnant!" A welcome smile lit Hanlan's face as he watched
Ayana run up to him. With a definite leap, she landed in his accepting
arms. Laughing and cajoling her, he beamed, and Makoto could see he
would be a wonderful father.

"Ayana, how old are you?"

She rolled her little brown eyes, toying with her hair.

"Nine, Papa-san."

Hanlan threw Makoto a look.

:You've only been gone six - almost seven years; he said in her mind.

:I know, but... I don't know. Just before you got here she started...
um, we'll talk:

:Naw, it's okay, babe: "She looks just like you - Mama-san!"

She handed him a humored glance.

"And she's got your temper, Buster Brown-san," she replied easily,
albeit sharply. Mamoru wandered in, and smiled at Ayana.

"Look," Hanlan started, laughing, "It's Uncle Mamoru!"

Makoto's gaze did not share her husband's humor.

"So what, Mamoru... is that it? You've given up on Usagi?!" She glared
at him harshly, and even Hanlan winced, feeling her anger spark in
him. Ayana seemed quite oblivious.

"Do you believe I would do that?" he replied with ample fire in his
heart. "Who else is there for me? Usako is the only girl I love."

Makoto frowned.

"Then why are you with Demelza like this?" Her tones held all the
respect she would have offered a first class traditional consort.

Despite this, Demelza seemed not at all piquant.

'I saved 'is life, Makoto,' she admonished. 'It may no' be my place...
but I feel we're as kindred.'

Makoto's frown sharpened.

:Sweetie... Does it matter? You aren't interested in him anymore. You
got me, don'tcha?:

:Hanlan is quite right; Ellison agreed. :You have much greater
concerns than these petty matters:

:Uh, yeah; Hanlan started. :Uhm... No. This is important:

:Ellison, don't you dare talk to my love that way!:

:I suppose. T'were I a dragon I would have it differently...:

:But you're not; Makoto said. :Don't be unreasonable:

:Hardly:

:Mouthy broad-sword; Hanlan retorted.

"Mamoru... I don't get it, why?"

He assumed a deep, serious expression, and held the floor with his
vision for a moment before speaking. When his face met with hers, it
was full of nigh forgotten pain.

"Demelza did more than save my life. You see," he sat back
uncomfortably. "When you all disappeared, I was lost. We were all
lost. Luna and Artemis barely knew where to start."

"Luna! Oh heavens! Artemis... Are they alright?" Makoto said with
apprehension of the answer.

"They're fine. When we came through... after fighting Akari and
Yanei... they became human."

'What!?' she half shrieked in Japanese. 'What do you mean?!'

'Makoto...' he cursed lightly. 'I don't know how to say it... It's way
beyond my ability to understand.' Entreating her with his gaze, he
continued. 'They're very happily in love, Makoto. They've married.
It's amazing.'

Makoto shook her head at the impossibility.

'The human part I don't get, but the rest...' she breathed and leaned
tiredly upon Hanlan. 'Yeah. I gotcha.'

A smile appeared upon Mamoru's face.

'So you are married.' Somehow a sliver of irony failed to escape his
words.

'Well yeah,' she replied, astonished by the abrupt realization that it
was Mamoru she was speaking to. The thought fled as she squeezed
Hanlan.

"Guys?"

One and all turned to the source of the voice.

"Tenma's stable now, and Kai wants to talk to you," Demelza said
calmly.

---

"At college I met group of people who, well... have formed a secret
society based around the Bishojo Sailor Senshi. In fact," she gazed at
Makoto firmly though sleepily from her bed, bandaged almost the point
of mummification, "I joined them. I've known your identities for
almost four years now. They've known for much longer."

Dumbfounded, Makoto harbored a stupefied gaze for a moment.

"You were never suppose to know about us," she said, admitting that
she had known the answer in advance. "But we were there just in case
Sailor Moon ever really did crumble... and now I guess there's no
choice..."