Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Mended Wing ❯ Mended Wing - Chapter Three ( Chapter 3 )

Authors Notes: Yay! Chapter three at last! How long have you guys been waiting? I've lost track! Anyways, I had some trouble with the Word program on my computer at home, so unfortunately the first part of this chapter is going to be really screwed up in the formatting. I'm trying to fix it, but I have the sneaking (sinking) suspicion that no matter what I do, it'll long bad. That's the part (the first part) that I could only open in Notepad, and then only in one big long section. I re-formatted it in Word, in a .doc file… however it changes back to one long paragraph whenever I save it into .HTML… so well… that's bad, yes, but… I FINISHED IT! YAY! Teehee. Thankies to Marika Webster who is suffering from husband withdrawal, thought she won't admit it. ;o) Girl-chama ::huggles:: I sowies I been such a downer! ::sniffles:: Forgive me? Fuuzaki-chan BEHAVE YOURSELF! Trenchcoat Man Hey, aren't you glad to be back in touch with the astral realm, ne? Everyone else: Thanks for you support and for loving BW enough to come back for more of Sailorcelestial's Cliffhanger Craziness!

Disclaimer: I dun own em. Neither of em. Well… I sorta own part of em from here on in… but you'll see. Full steam ahead!

Mended Wing - Chapter Three

Rei saw the air around Usagi's body ripple, then the wave burst out in all directions. Her arms raised instinctively to fight it off, but energy is an unstoppable force and she could only close her eyes as it hit her. Behind her Setsuna's shrill screaming cut off abruptly. Minako and Ami both moaned their own durges as Makoto howled in pure rage. Haruka cursed. Hotaru began to intone some dire warning that really came much too late. Michiru actually sounded as if she might collapse. Rei felt a rough hand push her aside as Mamoru heaved forward to go to his wife's side, but something inside the priestess told her all she needed to know.

As her hair settled around her form, Rei finally found the courage to lower her arms and open her eyes. The first thing she saw was the hunched form of Mamoru over Usagi's lifeless form. He reached forward a shaking hand to her face, tracing the line of her jaw slowly, carefully, as though his mere touch might cause her to shatter irrevocably. At last she saw the river of anguish spill over his bottom eyelids and the pillar of a man lurched forward, scraping his hands on the concrete in his desperation. Mamoru clutched the corpse of their princess to him, entire body trembling in violent heaves. Rocking her back and forth as a father would a loved child, Mamoru murmured under his breath and Rei knew he begged her to return to him, as would she beg were she in his position. She felt her fingers clench tightly into her palms and only barely the sharp sting of her nails biting into the flesh.

"What the HELL is going on here and who are you people?!?" cried a voice. A familiar voice. But a wrong voice. Rei looked past the scene of her prince and dead princess towards the five who came from the future. The voice had been Quatre's. Only . . . why did he have such dark circles under his eyes? And his entire body spoke not of the gentleness she had come to expect from him not only by Usagi's stories, but by the short time she'd seen him at the shrine. This person exuded pure hatred, not of anyone around him, but of himself.

Feeling her throat constrict and her lungs refuse to pull in air, Rei turned her gaze to the remaining four.The most noticeable difference about Trowa came in the guise of his shorter bangs. No longer did brown hair hide half his face. Two emerald eyes stared out from that countenance, shining with confusion. He wore a stylish uniform, what looked liked something someone would wear to a private school, though she got the impression from the way he stood and carried himself that this man dressed like this at all times. Wufei did not look much different, save for the glasses perched on his nose and the traditional Chinese silk shirt he now wore, the same as the one he'd been wearing over his blue tank top. Instead of white, now the color was a deep crimson red. He looked around with a hard, snobbish expression and seemed to carry himself with a practiced rigidity.

Hiiro looked on the scene with pure, unhidden curiosity. Behind his Prussian eyes now could be seen his entire soul, from the sorrow he felt at seeing Usagi's body and its wound, to the shame at being fascinated even as he mourned her. He swallowed, those eyes shifting to look at Rei, who had to turn her gaze elsewhere.

Duo surprised her the most. He wore a full Catholic priest's outfit and clutched a Bible to his chest. His hair no longer fell down his back in a long braid, but was cut around his head in the normal manner of men. His violet eyes were wide, innocent, and frightened, void of the trickster and ladies man he'd been before.

Before? Before what?

Oh yes. Usagi's . . . Usagi's . . . death.

"I demand to know what's going on!" Quatre shouted again, his voice rising to catch the attention of several onlookers who had not noticed Usagi's swift demise by soundless shot. Now people crowded about, many asking if the lady had fainted before seeing her forehead. Several screams rose through the crowd at once, and one man ran off to find a telephone.

"Shut up!" Mamoru growled at the young man, his midnight eyes closing against everything around him. His arms tightened around his wife, so tightly Rei feared he might break her.

"How dare you! Don't you know who I am?!? I'm Quatre Raberba Winner, heir to the Winner Corporation-"

"You're Quatre Winner?" Hiiro asked with wide eyes, stepping closer to the blonde to inspect what seemed as if to him was a living legend. Trowa also looked faintly surprised, but stayed where he stood. His eyes carried no overt connection to Quatre, no obvious feeling. He didn't even know the other man. None of them knew each other. Rei could tell by the suspicious and curious glances they gave each other as well as the nine Senshi and their fallen leader. Wufei sniffed towards Quatre.

"I heard you'd been exiled to a far colony by your father so he wouldn't have to deal with your whining and pathetic suicide attempts anymore."

This is insane, Rei found herself thinking.

"You brainless peon!" Quatre turned to Wufei, fist clenched, dark-ringed blue eyes sparking with fury, sorrow, desperation, and pleading all at the same time and none for the same reason, "You goddamned, idiotic moron! I could have you arrested for looking at me the wrong way!"

"Peon?" Hiiro laughed loudly, a little too loudly as he turned away from the morbid sight of Usagi's body, "What are we, in the feudal age?"

Rei looked between the three as they continued to argue amongst themselves, the idea of someone's death completely lost on them. They worried only about their petty disagreement. She saw this in their clouded eyes and felt from them a complete disregard for life, something they had not had before. Usagi had told her about the pilots, and how they appreciated life more than most people because they were forced to take life every day. These were young men who had never fought a war, never seen death, and didn't understand the value of one life lost. Especially this one.

"What's happened?" she asked to no one in particular, to the wind, because she thought that only the wind might be able to answer.

"Usagi-chan . . ." Haruka murmured just loud enough to be heard. Her eyes watched the five as well. Trowa could be seen glancing about at the window shops as though bored with everything. He didn't really seem confused anymore. Perhaps he merely felt that someone would eventually explain it to him. Duo stood slightly apart, eyes flickering back and forth between the ones who had once been his comrades, and the dead girl below him.

"The future is different," a sobbing Ami completed Haruka's thought. "If she's . . . d-dead . . . then Crystal Tokyo was never created. Who knows what effects the absence of Crystal Tokyo will have on the whole span of the future?"

"Apparently a whole hell of a lot," Makoto shouted, mouth curling with lost patience. "They're five completely different people than they were five minutes ago, and they won't be any help to us in bringing Usagi-chan back!"

A gentle hush fell over the nine, and even the arguing three. In that silence the priestly form of Duo stepped forward quietly and knelt beside Mamoru and the corpse- Usagi- opening his Bible to a certain section. His voice began in a low intonation, reading verses Rei had heard before at her Catholic school years ago. Last Rites.

"Bring her back?" the priestess asked in a hushed voice, barely daring to believe it might be possible. "How? Only the Crystal has ever brought any of us back from death, and only Usagi can use it."

"We'll find another way, then." Makoto stood, jaw set. Green eyes flashed to the five who stood in shocked silence. She walked over to Quatre. His silence the past few moments only added to the way her slap resounded across his cheek and through the air. "I don't know what happened to you Quatre, but you had better keep it in line." She looked at the other four, all staring back at her in different shades of shock, "That goes for every single damn one of you. We need your help, and you're going to help us whether you like it or not." Makoto spoke through a clenched jaw, teeth scraping against each other with every word. "Now come on, we need to get Usagi-chan out of here before the cops show up." She glared at Quatre, who found the strength to glare back for a few precious moments. Then he shrank beneath her gaze and the pilots- or what was left of them- moved to help pick up Usagi's body. Mamoru stopped them.

"No. I'll carry her myself." He lifted her so easily, despite how weighty her death seemed to them all. "Hey . . ." Minako looked around with a small sniffle. Rei moved close to her to see if she might need help walking or if she might faint. But Minako's blue eyes roamed a moment longer. "Where's Setsuna-san?"Rei blinked and passed her own violet eyes over the scene, seeing a throng of curious and horrified passer-bys who hadn't passed by. But none of them carried the green-black hair or carriage of strict duty of Setsuna.

"Good question."~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~

They're insane, all of them.

Quatre placed a hand at the still stinging cheek. Quite obviously none of them knew who he was or what he could have done to them for kidnapping him in such a cruel and rather odd way. He remembered dreaming about the long-banged boy, then suddenly being here among these strange people and their dead friend. Idiots. They should worry about their own welfares and not that of someone who couldn't care anymore.

"We'll take her to the shrine," the tall girl ordered, motioning the man in a specific direction. Quatre saw the muscles of her arms. Not someone to trifle with, oh no, at least not without long and hard planning. Somehow he had to get out of this place and get home.

But why? What about his home made him so desperate to get back? Certainly it couldn't be Iraya, or their father. The man didn't even live with them. Bastard.

"Come on," the tall girl shouted, shoving him to follow the man and the corpse.

"Stop it, Mako-chan." A little blue-haired woman stepped forward. Surely all of these people were about the same age, but somehow this one became a woman, while the rest remained girls to him. "He's confused, just like we are. This isn't his fault."

The tall one, Mako-chan, looked down on her friend and sighed, then turned away.

"We don't have much time," the man barked from ahead of them, "Let's get out of here now."

"Okay, little man," said a rougher voice from behind, "whether you like it or not you're coming with us." Hands to match the voice gripped him by the shoulders and forced him forward, nearly bumping into one of the other boys who seemed to be in a similar bad situation. None of them could possible be as harmed by this experience as he, though. Not nearly so.

That boy looked down on him with brilliant green eyes, partially condescending, partially appraising. Quatre looked up into those green depths, up and up and up and upwards into forever never stopping, never coming down and something seemed so familiar about that gaze, only not so, something was different, something wrong about that face, shouldn't part of it be hidden but it wasn't no just those two emeralds staring out and down on him and he felt as if all of the world hid within those eyes and that boy and who was he who could he be why did he cause this sort of reaction?

"Hey, little man, keep going." The hands pushed him. Not a hard shove, like before, merely a prodding reminder that a world existed outside of the stranger's eyes. One of which winked at him. Quatre felt a bright blush rise to his face even as he took the hands' reminder and started forward, following this strange band of people to wherever they might lead him.

~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~

"We've got to find Setsuna-san."

Father Duo looked on the one who spoke, a raven-haired Jezebel who wore deceptive covering of red and white. Her violet eyes looked truly worried, truly troubled, but he could not trust her. No, he couldn't trust any of them. Not a one. Except . . .

His gaze trailed to the golden-haired girl who lay cold and motionless on the floor in front of the man, Mamoru. She was dead. She would be no trouble to him. A dead girl could do no damage. However, a deep sadness entered his heart when he saw how pale she became and thought on how that skin would never be the vivid color of live flesh again. Something inside told him that even in life this girl had been safe. She would hurt no one if she could possible help it, such evidence of a pure soul written on the completely lineless surface of her white face.

"Usagi-chan's body needs to be suspended to give us time to find a way to bring her back without the Crystal," the Jezebel continued, "Who knows, maybe she can tell us a way to do it. But we won't know until we find her."

"But we don't even know what happened to her," the blonde said, leaning forward to place her elbows on her knees and her chin in her palms, "I mean, did she vanish when the wave hit, or did she leave on her own?"

He knew their names. Introductions had been exchanged upon reaching this shrine of some religion unfamiliar to him. However, thinking of them as Jezebel's, in general terms instead of by specific names, made them easier to keep at a distance. A safe distance.

"Either way, it's a question of finding her." The tall one said this, calmed now and not sending off such an impression of hot-headedness.

"We don't have a Key." The sophisticated aqua-haired woman clung to her blonde companion, the only other man in the room other than Mamoru. Father Duo knew his name to be Haruka. "The Time Gate would be the first place to look, but we can't get there without a Key and she didn't leave any behind."

"That is not entirely accurate." The little blue-haired woman shoved her glasses further up her nose and concentrated on the small blue computer before her. All eyes landed on her and she seemed to slump under that weight. "A few years ago Setsuna-san came to me about finding another way to access the realm of the Time Gate without a physical Key. It's possible she knew something like this might happen."

"What?!?" The tall one leaped from her sitting position, brown ponytail swinging and giving her the bearing of an Amazon. "She knew and she didn't tell us so we could stop it?!?"

"I'm saying she knew something like this would happened, meaning something where she would not be here and we might need to find her. I don't believe she knew Usagi-chan's life was in danger." Ami- he decided it might be safe to think of her name, only think it- adjusted her glasses again and gave her taller friend what could only be deciphered as an icy glare. "Setsuna-san was worried, in any case, and we worked together to create a way for us to get to her without a Key." She paused, looked down at her computer, and spoke again in a confused tone. "Well, technically we are still using a Key, it's just not physically a key anymore."

"Ami-chan, what the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm not sure, Mako-chan. In all truth, Setsuna-san and I didn't really work together. She took my computer for adjustments and brought it back saying that it could now transport as many people as necessary to the realm between Times. The coordinates are supposed to be saved in a special voice-activated file. Later I looked at the inner circuitry myself to see what she'd done." Here the little one paused. Her friend allowed her to remain silent for a good minute before pressing her for what she had seen. "Somehow, Setsuna-san planted a Key within the wiring and chips of the computer . . . even if I wanted to take it out, I would never be able to; it's a part of the computer now. And it doesn't just serve this function. Since then the Mercury computer has been running on higher power levels and at higher efficiency in general."

The others blinked at her for a few moments, and Father Duo didn't blame them for looking confused, even though they were supposed to know more about what was going on than he. At last it was the raven-haired one who dared to speak.

"You mean there's a Time Key inside the Mercury computer and you can use it to transport us all to the Time Gate?"

The little blue woman sighed, pushed her glasses up for a third time, and glared at her friend.

"Yes, Rei-chan, that's what I mean."

"Then let's go." The tall one stood, reaching for something inside her shirt. Father Duo gasped, pulling his Bible up to cover the indecency. Jezebels they were! All of them!

"Don't worry, Duo," said one of the others, the blonde who resembled the dead girl, "she's not going to do a strip show. She's just getting her henshin wand."

"Henshin wand?" What was this woman talking about? "How do you know my name? You're a demoness!" Demons! Finally the demons had come for him, that's what this was all about! He had a vision of himself lying on his bed in the church, Father Maxwell and Sister Helen hovering over him praying, trying to force the demons away. At least he knew he had those on the side of God working with him, and they would never let him fall to-

"Demoness?" The blonde began to laugh, and when one of her companions spoke to her in another language, she responded with one word, "Youkai" Then she continued cackling like his worst image of evil.

I must be in Hell. Only Hell could be this horrible.

~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~

Masurao watched intently as all of these women brought out little pens that looked similar to each other, only done in different colors, with different designs. He sat closest to the priestess, Rei-chan. He leaned in close to get a better look at the pen she held. Red and gold, the object sported an etching of the symbol of Mars. Masurao looked up into her annoyed violet eyes and grinned his famous Masurao grin.

"Hiiro," she asked him, "what are you doing?"

He blinked. What name had she called him? Hiiro?

"Are you talking about Hiiro Yui?" She couldn't. How could she know about that man? This world of hers seemed to be completely different than his. Strange how he wasn't more upset about this sudden turning upside down of his life.

"That's your name, isn't it?" she spat back, a little nastily if he did say so himself. And he did.

"No," he replied just as nastily, "it isn't. That's the name of a rebel who was rightfully executed for trying to overthrow the Counts. My name is Junsei Masurao." He saw her blink at him.

"Junsei Masurao?" she asked quietly, a different air falling around her, a mystical feeling. "Perfect Warrior . . ."

"Hai," he slipped into his home language, "*my family has a long tradition of fighting and combat. We haven't actually fought in a war for about five generations, since there haven't been any wars, but the family name remained, as well as the tradition of naming the child a good warrior's name.*"

"*You can't escape your destiny,*" she replied, a hazy blank veil falling over her eyes, and he had the sudden impression that he no longer spoke to the girl Rei, but to the priestess. "*No matter what time you are in, no matter what life you live, you cannot escape the stain of blood that follows you. Those lives were taken by your hands, and they are your responsibility.*"

"N-Nani?"

She blinked the light back into her gaze, the misty priestess expression wiped clean as quickly at it had appeared. She looked at him another moment as if he were completely insane, then stood with the rest of her odd friends.

She acts as if I'm some kind of murderer!

"Mars Crystal Power- Make UP!"

He looked up just as her words were being followed by similar ones from all of the women. Red, blue, gold, green, yellow, aqua, and deep violet swirled through the room, bathing the body of the woman who had called it. Rei's brilliant shower of fiery red splashed him, marking him with its sparking glow even as the lights began to fade. Masurao felt strangely energized by the light's touch, as if he could go out and fight the Counts himself. If he wanted to, which he would never dream of wanting.

In the place of the seven women and two men stood eight sailor- skirted women and one man in a tuxedo and cape, white mask hiding his eyes. At first their faces seemed hidden, blurred by some power he had yet to understand. Then, slowly, those delicate expressions came into focus and Masurao recognized them as the same women who had been in their presence only moments ago. These women were different, however. Stronger. More deadly.

"Demons!" the priest screeched from his corner, "The power of the Devil! They work Satan's magic!"

The one named Mako-chan, probably short for something longer, clenched her fist and looked ready to pummel the poor man. Luckily for the shivering mass of fear, Ami-chan stopped her taller friend's hand as she had when the woman had slapped that insufferable Quatre Winner. Correction: Quatre Raberba Winner. So Mako-chan opted for harsh words instead of harsh fists.

"Listen you little . . . I don't even know the proper word for a cowardly worm like you-"

"I'm not a coward, Demoness!" he screamed from behind the protective cover of his Bible. "I simply don't deal with the likes of you!"

"Right, and Pharaoh 90 didn't almost destroy the world."

Masurao understand the blank looks being given by those who seemed like his fellow misplaced ones.

"That's not important, what IS important is the fact that you have to stop cowering behind your book and your religion and help us, or your future, present, whatever, is never going to be like it was before."

"My future will be just fine without your evil interference!"

"Okay, first lesson: I'm not evil. None of us are. We're about as far as evil as you can get without being God, you understand?"

The little priest opened his mouth again, face flushed, and Masurao understood that he meant to call her a blasphemer and who knew what else. He never got the word out of his gaping hole.

"Second lesson: we won't deny you help just because you're too ignorant to know you need it, but we WILL make you think you're in Hell if you don't at the very least stay out of our way. You got that?"

He nodded, then proceeded to mutter something that Masurao hoped the tall woman either didn't hear or chose to ignore.

"That's all for now, but trust me, I'm sure I can come up with more as I need to, so behave yourself and don't run around shouting anything about demons." She turned to face Ami-chan, who now wore a sailor outfit in white and different shades of blue. Her glasses had been replaced by a blue visor that nonetheless made her look even more intelligent than the glasses did. Despite her small and initial mousy appearance, Masurao recognized the hiding beauty beneath that visor and knew that if she lived in his world, she would be the type of girl his parents would want him dating. Not Rel. He wondered whether Rel thought he had left her standing there on purpose, or if she understood that something quite inexplicable had occurred. He smiled as he knew she would understand.

"Okay, minna-san," the blonde, Minako-chan, ordered, "let's get going. Mercury, if you would do the honors."

Mercury? But Ami-chan nodded and leaned forward towards her small computer and spoke.

"In all the vast reaches of Time, one place remains untouchable."

For the second time in one day, Masurao's world turned upside down.

End Chapter Three.