Gundam Wing Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Time's Wheel ❯ Ch. 6: Masquerade ( Chapter 6 )

Dragon Lady

Time's Wheel

Ch.6: Masquerade

Disclaimer: Don't own em.

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

Tokyo, Japan

Heero stares at the clock on the wall with impatience. The day has never seemed so long before, the minutes ticking by like hours. The small convenience store at the corner of 45th Street between the bus stop and the candy shop has been around as long as anyone can remember, but in recent years, seemed to be acquiring very little business. Heero had taken up a position at the store a week ago, when the money given to them by Rei began to run low.

The last customer had walked out nearly an hour ago, but the boredom had set in long before that. Why did I take this job? There's so much more that I could be doing, like finding out why there are Red Wings in this time and why they are trying to hunt us down. I could even be tracing that computer!

Heero looks up as the bell on the door rings, signaling that someone has entered the store. A small woman walks in, her blond hair tied back in tight bun, sunglasses shielding her eyes. The woman is wearing a thick raincoat and boots that come up to her knees. Her rouge red lips curve up into a smile as she sees Heero at the counter.

"Can I help you?" Heero asks her casually, not bothering trying to shield the boredom in his voice.

"Perhaps," she says quietly. "Perhaps you can help me Heero Yuy."

Heero's body goes rigid and his hand very nearly pulls out the pistol he has concealed in his boot. "How did you know my name? What do you want?"

The woman laughs. "Why, I was told your name silly boy. As for what I want…" The woman crosses her hands in front of her face. The sound of something cracking echoes through the room. Suddenly, the woman's form shatters into millions of pieces, like glass after it is hit. The woman's skin is now blue and shiny, her hair green. Small fangs replace what once were perfectly white teeth. The glasses are gone, revealing a pair of piercing red eyes.

With a speed that is inhuman, the woman's arm shoots out, grabbing for Heero's neck. Her hand pushes him against the wall, her nails drawing blood from his neck. "What I want is your energy! Beryl wants you dead boy, and dead you shall be!"

Heero gathers all his power into one forceful kick, which he aims at the monster's stomach. The woman recoils and loosens her grip. Another kick sends her flying over the counter. Heero wastes no more time and vaults over after her running for the door, knowing full well that a gun would have no effect on her.

"I don't think so little boy."

The air leaves his body as he is shoved from the side. Pain tears through his shoulder as he collides with a glass window. Once he lands, he reaches out a hand, feeling the cool concrete beneath, pieces of glass getting stuck in his hand.

What the hell is she! Using his good hand, Heero sits up and wipes a drop of blood off his face. The creature is standing near the remains of the shattered window. She smiles wickedly and begins to make her way toward him. Now what the hell do I do?

"Jupiter Oak Evolution!"

The monster howls in pain as a series of lightning charged leaves are hurled toward her. She collapses to the ground, her hands moving to shield her face. "What the hell, who are you?"

Heero stares behind him toward the familiar figure in the green fuku. A gentle breeze sweeps up her hair and brushes it into her eyes and around her rose earrings. The girl lifts a hand and absently brushes away the stray locks of hair. Her eyes glare at the monster on the ground. Slowly, she advances toward them. Electricity circles up her boots where they hit the ground, wrapping around her gently.

The girl smiles. "I think you should know who I am by now, but if it comforts you to hear me say it, I am Sailor Jupiter, the defender of love and justice."

She turns towards Heero, her face becoming more relaxed and gentle. "Are you okay?"

Heero grunts in response and waves her off.

"Good."

A shard of ice catches Heero's eye. The monster is no her feet again and the dagger-like ice shard in her hand looked like it could do some damage. The monster smiles wickedly, her eyes icing over, becoming a dark void. "No one takes me down Jupiter, no one. That was the last mistake you shall ever make."

Before Heero can let out a cry of warning, the shard of ice leaves the creature's hand, on a path toward Jupiter.

"Watch out!" Heero cries, climbing to his feet. Jupiter sees her peril and freezes, throwing up a hand to shield herself. Heero rushes toward her and with all his strength, shoves her out of harm's way.

"You okay?"

Jupiter stands up and opens the palm of her hand. Blood covers her palm where a deep ugly gash has cut through her glove. Blood from her hand drips onto the sidewalk, forming a stain on the ground.

"Just a cut, I'll tend to it later," Jupiter says.

Heero stares at the blood a moment longer and then, in a strange streak of kindness, tears off a strip of his shirt and wraps it around her bleeding cut, tying it off tightly to stop the blood.

For a moment, blue eyes meet brown and a feeling of understanding passes between the two soldiers and neither seems to want to move. Heero's hand remains on Jupiter's, still gripping the knot in the makeshift bandage. Then, Heero blinks and the moment as gone. His eyes become cold and distant again.

"Have you no feeling at all," Jupiter whispers.

Heero remains silent and backs away.

"Well that was touching," a voice interrupts. "Now let's get on with the show." The monster reaches out a hand and lets forth a strong blast of icy water.

"Jupiter Thunder Dragon!"

Jupiter's dragon hits the wall of water, struggling to gain dominance. While the monster is distracted, Heero risks a low kick to her legs, unwilling to stay on the sidelines again. The monster, surprised, goes down. Jupiter's dragon rushes forward as the wall of ice disappears, striking the monster head on. With a final cry, the monster shimmers and vanishes.

Jupiter turns back toward Heero. "Thanks for your help."

"Hn."

Jupiter frowns. "Could you answer a question for me? Why is it that these creatures want you? Why are you always the ones in trouble."

Heero turns around, heading in the direction of his apartment. "I don't know, and I don't care. It is none of your business."

"Hey! Wait…" Jupiter reaches out a hand and steps forward, preparing to chase him, but seems to think better of it. Instead, she only stares as Heero walks away.

North of Tokyo: Military Base

Amarad passes the floor, his brow furrowed in annoyance. The chamber he stands in is cold and dark, no sunlight whatsoever hitting the walls. What were formerly dark, crimson tapestries hand in tatters around the room. A queen-sized bed sits in one corner, and a desk with a candle on it is opposite. A fireplace is lit, the jumping flames providing the only light in room.

Why aren't they dead yet? I have sent scores of men out to kill them. Even that witch hasn't been able to find something that will rid me of those pests. And what is with these little girls!

"Calm down general, all has been arranged."

Amarad turns toward the voice at the door. He had long since gotten used to her appearing out of thin air, her pale, ghostly figure haunting the corridors of the old base.

"If all has been taken care of, then why aren't they dead. Before I can return home, I must be sure that they can not follow."

"My servants will get them general, I assure you."

"And what about those girls, they have spoiled your every move!"

Beryl nods. "Unfortunately, yes they have. I had problems with them last time as well. I thought perhaps I could simply take out your boys first and then persuade some of your soldiers to find out these girls' identities, but it seems my plans have failed. I did not foretell that they would end up working together."

Amarad smiles. "I see, so that's your problem. I'll make you a deal Beryl. You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours. If you take care of those little nuisances for me, I'll try to find out who these girls really are."

"Well, well, it seems you've taking the words right out of my mouth. It would be my pleasure to take care of this little problem of your general. But how will you find out about the girls?"

"There is more than one way to skin a cat Beryl. Even those girls are vulnerable to military weapons and this base really is quite spacious. Let's just say that I would like to take them all out in one blow."

Cherry Hill Temple

The heat of the temple fire races through Rei's body, comforting her. Her breath comes in deep, even breaths, her whole being relaxed. For some time now, nightmares had been plaguing her dreams. It is time to find out why.

"Oh, sacred flame reveal to me the peril that is coming to our shores. Reveal to me the destruction yet to come."

She feels her astral body fall through into the other realm. A cool darkness surrounds her, taking her into a less solid reality.

In her mind, her feet hit the hard ground of the Tokyo streets. The road beneath her is torn to rubble, buildings have collapsed and fallen to ashes. Wires poke up through the ground and hang over crushed cars and traffic lights. Water covers the areas where fire hydrants once stood. The tunnel to the subway is completely caved in, denying entrance to all who try to enter.

Is this Tokyo?

Flashes of light can be seen coming from about two blocks away. Cries of rage echo through the air. The scent of blood reaches her nostrils and she winces. A battle.

Within the blink of an eye, she makes her way to the battle scene. Rei's eyes take in the sight of it all, terror racing through her body. Sailor Mercury is on the ground near her, blood seeping through her sailor uniform from a sword that had been shoved through her. Her eyes stare lifelessly into oblivion. Jupiter is nearby, her hair out of her ponytail and cascading around her face. Blood flows out of a huge gash in her head. Uranus and Neptune rest next to each other, their fukus torn and covered in blood.

In the middle of it all, Sailor Moon is on her knees, facing the form of a large, deadly looking woman with white hair and black, lifeless eyes. Sailor Venus stands guarding her.

Rei stares at the woman in shadows. It can't be! It looks like Beryl, and yet…

Rei shakes her head, trying to clear away the image. No, Beryl's dead, we defeated her years ago! This can't be. My friends and I can't die like this!

The evil queen raises her hand, and evil smile on her face. Her lips move, as if she is saying something, but no sound emerges. A blinding flash of dark light illuminates the area and everything vanishes, leaving Rei in a world of darkness.

"No!" Rei shouts into the void, her voice rising to a panicked note, her screams echoing. "No, it can't be!"

Rei tries to pull herself out of the astral realm, but is too panicked to do so, her mind beginning to panic. Out, I must get out!

A voice echoes through the void…

When the day of darkness comes, and starless night drapes a dark veil over the Earth, the dark queen will rise again, in glory, and triumph.

The blood of innocence shall be spilled and stain the scorched earth.

Water shall fade away,

Ice shall shatter, gone forever.

Fire shall be quenched, trying to keep darkness at bay,

Light shall vanish altogether.

Wind shall fall to the reaper's wrath,

Time shall be frozen in her path.

Thunder shall be silenced, once and for all,

The princess shall be doomed to fall.

"No!"

All shall vanish, swallowed by darkness, their ashes scattered to the four winds. Darkness will triumph over light, the dark queen will enforce her might. Worlds will fall and dreams will end, never again will the light shine through, vanquished, gone, all hope, gone away, gone forever. (I was aiming for melancholy here)

"NO!"

Rei can dimly feel tears running down her cheeks, sobs erupting from her chest, but she can't find her way out of her own darkness. Suddenly, her world seems so much closer and more cramped.

Help me…

Warm, gentle arms wrap around her, pulling her closer. Something graces her cheek, wiping away a tear. A hand strokes her back gently, soothing her. Slowly, her sobs calm, and her eyes open, leaving her lying weakened and trembling in a stranger's arms.

Wufei grumbles as he walks up the steps to the temple. The apartment building, he had found out, is a poor place to try and meditate. The sounds of the contestant everyday rucus make concentration impossible. He had tried everywhere he could think of, from the schoolyard to the park, but none of them offered the quiet and solitude he needed. Finally, he had decided to go to the last choice on his list; Rei's temple.

As he reaches the top of the steps, he looks around, making sure that the Shinto priestess is no where in sight. Sighing with relief, he makes his way toward the rear of the temple, closer to the trees and a small stream. Leaning up against the trunk of a large cherry blossom, tree, Wufei closes his eyes and begins his descent into blissful oblivion.

Finally, peace and quiet. No one to bother me, no one to tell me what I have to do, I could stay here all day.

A mournful sound echoes through the temple grounds. Wufei's eyelids flutter as he tries his hardest to ignore whatever it is. For a moment, it seems to die away, but soon comes back at full force.

"No!"

Wufei's eyes snap open and he stands up, staring back toward the main building of the temple with annoyance. Now what is it! Can I not get any peace at all in this city? It was easier to find a quiet place in one of the colonies half the size city than it to find one here!

Wufei follows the voice toward the area of the temple that houses the sacred flame. He pauses a moment before the door, suddenly feeling a little hesitant to go in. Who is in there? Why can't I go in?

Wufei shakes off the feeling and opens the sliding door. The chamber is dark, lit only by the flames of the sacred fire. Rei is sitting by it, her eyes closed and her body trembling. Tears stream down her face and fall to the floor beside her. Strands of her hair fly upward toward and into the fire, rustled by an unseen wind, yet for some reason, her hair does not burn. Hoarse cries escape her throat, which from the sound of it, has been raw for some time now.

Wufei takes a step closer, his face suddenly softening. What is she seeing that is so terrible? What on Earth could make her act like that? Without knowing why, he finds himself moving closer to her. Kneeling down, beside her, he takes her into his arms and pulls her to him. Using his thumb, he wipes away a tear that has escaped her eye. He gently begins to rub her back trying to comfort her, and slowly, her body stops shaking and becomes calmer.

Wufei looks down at her as her eyes open. She stares up at him in confusion and then, surprise.

"Wufei?"

Wufei nods, biting back some harsh words. "Are you okay?"

"I think so," Rei replies and backs away from him. "I'm just a little tired." She stands up and begins walking toward her room. "Thank you for your help Wufei."

Wufei says nothing and lets her walk away.

Lita bounces a basketball against the wall near the court, boredom begging to set in. Turning around, she aims for the hoop, ignoring the pain in her hand. The ball slides easily through and she goes to retrieve it.

Geez, it still hurts! How much longer will this take to heal? Her hand is still tightly wrapped from her last battle. A small streak of red seeps up through the white gauze she had tied around the injury. Lita winces, This is definitely going to leave a scar.

From across the courtyard, Lita spots a familiar figure coming out from inside the building. Lita smiles and begins to walk toward him.

"Heero!" She heaves the ball toward his turned back. Heero turns around and catches the ball with little effort and begins to glare at her.

"How about a game Heero?" she asks, running up beside him.

"Hn."

Not a very good conversationalist is he? "Come on, just one and then I'll leave you alone. I promise."

Heero continues to glare, but reluctantly nods.

"Great!"

He had to admit, she was good. The score was close and seemed to be tied more often than not. Heero sets up for a jump shot, but Lita quickly knocks the ball from his hands. Cursing under his breath, Heero chases her to the other side of the court. Reaching out, he pulls the ball from her.

"Ouch!" Lita stops and grabs the hand that had previously held the ball. Heero turns back and looks at the hand she is cradling. It is heavily bandaged and a small streak of red stains the middle.

Lita looks at him. "It's nothing," she retorts. "I was just a little clumsy with a kitchen knife. Let's just keep going."

"Hn."

A kitchen knife huh? No way. I wonder…

Quatre watches in amusement as Amara rounds the turn nearest to them, leaving a pack of other racers in the dust. It had taken Mina and Ami a while to convince him to come, but he had to admit, he was enjoying himself.

"She's not that bad is she?" Michelle yells over the roar of motors.

"No, she's doing great!" Quatre replies. "I'm glad I came."

A checkered flag goes up as the racers hit the final turn. As Amara's bike passes the finish line, the audience roars.

"She won!" Mina shouts happily.

"Of course, I had no doubt of that," Ami replies.

"Amazing, I didn't know that your friend was so good," Quatre says happily.

A streak of sudden darkness catches Quatre's eye and he tries to follow it with his perpetual vision, but it soon moves out of his sight. What is it? Quatre bites his lower lip in frustration and turns away from the girls.

"Excuse me, I'll be right back."

"Okay," Mina replies. "But hurry back, we don't want to be caught in the crowd when we try to leave."

"Of course."

Quatre follows the figure towards the concession stand, where he is standing with his back turned toward him, staring up at the menu. When he catches sight of the pale hared boy following him, he heads off at a dead sprint toward the other side of the track.

"Oh no you don't" Quatre catches onto the back of his jacket and pulls him to the ground. In a desperate move, the man wriggles out of the jacket and continues running leaving a stunned Quatre behind.

Quatre throws the red jacket onto the ground, silently cursing himself for letting his opponent get away. A small disk falls out of the pocket and onto the ground. Quatre kneels down picks it up, turning it over in his fingers. Finally, he shrugs and places it into his own pocket, then, makes his way back to the girls.

Heero leans over Trowa's shoulder, staring at the computer screen. The day has been a long one, and he is looking forward to having a rest, but from the way things are going, it didn't look likely that he would be sleeping anytime in the near future. The disk that Quatre had brought home had had one hell of a lock on it and it had taken both Trowa and him two hours to break it.

After a few moments, Trowa jammed the enter key down, finishing a very long string of numbers. "Done."

Quatre comes over and looks over Trowa's other shoulder While Wufei remains seated on the edge of the bed near the desk. A blurry image appears on the screen, and slowly begins to clear as it downloads. Heero watches as landmasses form and a familiar body of water appears.

"Looks like a map," Trowa says.

"Yes of Japan and the Tokyo area," Quatre agrees.

The image finishes downloading and then suddenly zooms into an area near the Tokyo Bay outside of the city.

"Looks like we've found our guys," Trowa says as he studies the map.

"Hn."

"You do realize that this is a trap don't you?" Heero meets Trowa's gaze, showing that he knew perfectly well what was happening. "Alright then. Let's get ready to go."

"Why are you calling a scout meeting at this hour!" Serena cries, staring in disbelief at her watch. "It's ten o'clock at night. I should be asleep!"

"Can it Serena!" Rei yells. "We wouldn't have called this meeting if it wasn't important."

The others nod in agreement. Ami looks up from her computer and sighs. "Many things have happened in the past few days that just don't add up. It looks like a new enemy has appeared, yet at the same time, the attack pattern is eerily familiar."

Lita looks over at Ami, the puzzlement showing clearly on her face. "Pattern?"

"Yes, in the past, many creatures of the negaverse took energy to power whatever fiendish plots they had, but they all had a different way of doing, whether it was by stealing heart crystals, or dreams, or whatever. This enemy however, steals its victim's energy directly. There have been very few who have done that. At first, I thought the enemy was new, but after Rei came to me, I wasn't so sure."

Rei closes her eyes for a moment, trying to dispel the painful memory. "I had a vision of Beryl, she's back and stronger than ever. And she's coming for our world."

"No!" Serena shouts. "Beryl is dead, we defeated her! She's gone!"

Silence follows her outburst, everyone afraid to speak of what they already know to be true.

"So, what do we do?" Mina asks. "How can do we defeat her again?"

Ami snaps the lid to her computer shut and sets it back into her school bag. "There was one other very obvious thing I noticed about these attacks. Armed soldiers have always accompanied the monsters that are sent after us. Beryl has never used nor had armed soldiers before, especially not human one. That can only mean that Beryl has human allies."

"This isn't good," Lita says. "We're good, but if she has a whole army at her back..."

Ami nods in understanding, but suddenly smiles. "Yes Lita, that is true, but these soldiers don't seem to be after us. Have you noticed that during each attack, one of those four boys is always there?"

"You mean Heero, Quatre, Trowa, and Wufei?" Lita says, not sounding surprised.

"Yes, odd as it may seem, these soldiers are after them."

"So…" Serena asks, urging her to continue.

"If we follow them, we find Beryl."

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

Author: Okay that's the end.

Rena: What! You're ending it there! What about Hotaru and Duo?

Author: I'll leave it for the next chapter.