Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Magic Knight Rayearth Fan Fiction ❯ Shadow of the Absent Moon ❯ Cephiro Revealed! Mamoru is Finally Found! ( Chapter 8 )
Anime/Manga: Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Magic Knight Rayearth Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Fantasy / Romance | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 01.30.2010 | Updated On: 01.30.2010 | Pages: 1 | Words: 1.8K | Visits: 466 | Status: Work In Progress
Shadow of the Absent Moon
- Cephiro Revealed! Mamoru is Finally Found! -
Usagi let her hand trail down the glass of the window. This was getting her nowhere. The image of the monster she'd blasted with Moon Princess Halation kept replaying in her mind. It had died so easily. Why did she have to stay in the castle? It wasn't like she couldn't defend herself, right?
Right. She had her shoes on and had her head poked into the empty hallway before she could talk herself out of leaving. She moved down the corridor as quietly as she could manage. For the longest time the hallway was lined with oval windows that looked out over the barren Cephiro on one side and the periodic dotting of doors on the other. It finally broke into a three-way fork.
Left fork; more windows and doors. Right fork; just doors. Center fork; nothing but hallway, but it was twice the width of the side forks. Usagi proceeded down the center. It ended in a coup-de-grais and a huge set of double doors.
Her fingers slipped up and gently touched the gold of the doors. They swung inward to reveal the backs of Lantis, Hikaru, Umi, Fuu, the green-haired guy from earlier and a kid. They were all gazing intently at something in the center of the room. Usagi crept up to peek around Hikaru's shoulder. Floating about three feet off of the ground was a sphere of glowing fog. In the middle of the sphere was the image of a spaceship.
Umi breathed. "It's that battleship we saw."
"I believe it was from Autozam," Fuu volunteered.
The kid turned to Lantis. His light blue eyes lingered on Usagi for a moment before he decided to continue. "Lantis, you were in Autozam before returning to Cephiro. Do you recognize this battleship?"
Lantis let his gaze fall on Usagi. "NSX."
"NSX?" Hikaru asked.
He let his eyes narrow to slits. "The battleship of Eagle, the strongest commander of Autozam."
Umi jumped. "That's what the guy in the white mecha said when we fought him."
Hikaru nodded some secret command. Umi and Fuu returned the nod, before the three of them shot for the door, brushing past a puzzled Usagi.
"Where are you going?" Green Hair demanded.
They turned around. "Eagle of Autozam," Hikaru said. "I want to talk to him."
"Talk?" asked the kid.
"I don't want to fight anymore without knowing what the other side wants for!" Hikaru let that sad look lap over Usagi, before turning and leading the three down the corridor.
All eyes left the empty doorway to settle on the very confused blonde. Usagi was left facing down a man who thought she was the enemy, a man she'd only met once, briefly and a kid who now that she had another look at him didn't dress or act at all like a kid.
It was the not-kid who broke the silence. "So, you are our visitor from another world."
"Excuse me?"
"Did not the Magic Knights explain anything to you?"
Magic Knights? "Who?"
"Fuu, Hikaru and Umi," replied Green Hair.
Magic Knights/Sailor Senshi. There really wasn't that big a difference. "Can't say I gave them the opportunity."
"I see. Perhaps we should start from the beginning. My name is Clef." He gave a nod of respect.
"Ferio," said Green Hair bowing.
"Tsukino Usagi." She noticed a smile tugging at the corners of Ferio's lips, though he wisely kept his comments to himself. She swept her hand in Lantis' general direction. "I've already had the astute pleasure of meeting Lantis." Was that a bit of scorn dripping through her offenses? Naw.
Usagi avoided looking in Lantis' direction. It wasn't that she was afraid of him, it was just that he had a way of bringing out her offensive side. It was safer for everyone if she ignored him. "Okay, so I have your names, but who are you really? That just looked like a tactics meeting. Nobodies aren't involved in tactics meetings."
Clef cleared his throat. "I am the most powerful magician in Cephiro. Known as Guru. Known as Master Mage."
Ferio bowed again. "I am the younger brother to the late Emeraude-hime, Pillar of Cephiro."
"See now, there you've lost me. Cephiro, I understand. This has got to be some kind of alternate dimension. It's 'Pillar' that I'm having trouble grasping."
"Imagine a world where one's heart rules over everything," Clef began in a soothing teaching voice. "In this world, if one wishes a wish strongly enough, the wish will come true. This is Cephiro."
"This doesn't look like that type of perfect world to me."
"No one ever said it was perfect. This world will crumble and fade away if there isn't someone praying continually for its existence and stability. That person is the Pillar."
"One person has to spend their entire life wishing for Cephiro's existence?"
Clef nodded.
"But this Pillar, this Emeraude-hime, is dead and now you have no Pillar?"
Another nod.
"That's why this place is so awful." It wasn't a question, but Clef nodded anyway. "Why don't you pray? Or him? Or even him?" She pointed to Ferio and Lantis in turn.
"We are barely strong enough to maintain this castle. The stability of Cephiro is beyond the strength of our hearts."
It finally was coming together. The Pillar had to be a person with an extraordinarily strong heart, completely selfless or the world would end. "No one is that strong."
She saw Lantis nod out of the corner of her eye. "My sister was... For a long time." Ferio hung his head to hide the pain and sadness Usagi could feel fill the room.
"Like I said..." she breathed.
"What's goin' on?" someone cried from the hallway. A crowd shoved their collective way into the room. "Ascot and I saw some fightin'."
"You said fighting, Caldina?" asked Clef.
"Uh-huh."
Clef waved his staff and the image in the fog animated again.
With everyone pushing in close to the fog, Usagi snuck out. There had to be way out of the castle. If she could find that first intersection again, she knew the way out.
She found a balcony instead. The last storm had blown out while she was dreaming in the reflections of the window glass, but another one was rapidly taking it's place. "Mamoru, you're out there. I know you are. Hold on for just a little bit longer. I'll find you, I promise."
"Moon Crystal Power! Make Up!"
There were colored lights flashing along with the lightning. It had to be what Caldina meant when she said she'd seen fighting. Usagi took a moment to study the rocky landscape. These people and their little war meant nothing.
Red light flashed. Hikaru...
Green light flashed then lingered to dissipate. Fuu...
Okay, maybe it does matter, but so does Mamo-chan. She launched herself over the edge of the balcony toward the monster kill site. There had to be clues there. Clues? Tactics meetings? Usagi, you're becoming entirely too brain functions on. You're starting to scare me.
There were no clues. There was only the little pieces of monster flesh and blood. Sailor Moon crouched down in the center of the devastation. She closed her eyes and "reached" out trying to "feel" Mamoru with her mind. It wasn't anything she actively worked at before. She had learned in extreme situations that Mamoru occupied a part of her soul. It was the link to this part of her soul she was attempting to locate.
If one wishes a wish strongly enough, the wish will come true. This is Cephiro.
"Mamo-chan, I wish for you to be with me." The ground vanished. Sailor Moon fell for what seemed like six feet and then landed on the floor of a dark, humid cave. It was the cave in her vision.
Mamoru was lain out on a stone altar. Sailor Moon ran to him, catching one of his hands in her own. "Mamo-chan," she whispered, desperately fighting back tears of fear. "Mamo-chan, wake up." Her other hand sat against his cool cheek.
He scrunched up his face, responding to something in his dream.
"Mamo-chan, wake up!" she said a little more forcefully than she intended.
He shook his head, finally opening his eyes. The look in them was anything, but welcoming. "What do you want from me?"
"What do I want?" Her hand slipped off his face. "It's me, Usagi." The tears cut off anything else she might have said.
"No, it's not." He looked away. "Usagi's dead. You're not real." He threw away her hand.
"No, that's not true. Mamo-"
"Of course it's true." It was the shadow voice. "But it doesn't have to be, Sleeper. I can give her back to you. I have the power." Mamoru shook his head. "I also have the power to make you suffer." Black lightning caught Sailor Moon in the back. She screamed and fell over Mamoru. "You want her. Why do you resist? Look at her face and refuse me again."
He did look at her. The pain in his eyes was enough to steal Sailor Moon's breath from her lungs. "Don't listen to her, Mamo-chan..."
More lightning exploded through Sailor Moon's body. "This could be her," the shadow being continued. "You need only say 'please'."
He was caving. He couldn't see through the pain. He would do anything to make it stop. "Mamo-chan, don't!"
"Are you going to watch her die again? Make it stop! Just... Say... 'Please'..." Each word was accented with a lightning bolt.
Sailor Moon's voice deserted her.
"Please," Mamoru begged.
The shadow creature's laughter rolled Sailor Moon's mind into a jumble of confusion. The last words she heard before fainting were, "Watch me feed on the fears of the innocent."