Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ A Change of Fate ❯ Sundown gets Dimmer! (ugh thats was so corny I think I just hurt myself...) ( Chapter 6 )

Standard disclaimer. Sailor Moon is not mine, the idea and the show belong to people much richer than I. Please don't sue!

Dimmer however is mine.. of course if someone wants to use him or any of his transformations for ANY reason "thbbt" go ahead. You have my complete and total permission. I only request you tell me… Hell, I don't care if you do it without my permission, it's not like I could find out anyway.

Warning: mild language, and first fic. Maybe lime sometime in the far future, but I seriously doubt it.

Dimmer was walking out of the woods into a clearing. He couldn't remember how he got here, was he just dreaming? Maybe it was another memory... but that didn't seem right. This place didn't seem familiar in any way. There was a hill in the middle of the clearing so he decided that he might as well take a look around, he knew he had just fallen asleep so it would probably be a while before he woke up. He couldn't ever remember having such a vivid dream before; of course he couldn't remember his entire life up unto this point, so obviously his memory didn't count for much.

He had reached the top of the small hill that was centered in the small clearing, he had noticed that on the way up the hill the sky was darkening gradually and as he arrived at the top the only thing he could see clearly was the clearing itself. He noticed dark, gray clouds on the horizon moving quite quickly toward his position on the hill. He looked all around the hill and realized it was the same from every direction, the clouds were moving miles per minute until it they converged over his spot on the center of the hill.

Upon their convergence thunder sounded and lightning crackled splitting the silence of the dream with it's first sound. The clouds formed a small, skinny pillar down to the center of the hill. Dimmer stood back so as not to get hit by it. The pillar hadn't quite hit the ground and the very bottom of it had started forming a shape. Dimmer squinted trying to make it out and he walked forward until he could see it looked like a dagger sticking straight down towards the earth.

He had to think about this first, it didn't look like the scene was going to change until he had done something. He thought it was pretty obvious that he should take the dagger by its hilt, but now that he had observed the scene for a while he could see the blade of the dagger was black. It wasn't just that, that had gotten his nerves up, it was because the blade was a darker black than anything he had seen before. Even the night seemed bright around that blade. The blade seemed to suck in the light all around it making everything within its vicinity darker.

"Well" thought Dimmer, trying to build up his own courage, "It's just a dream isn't it? What could it hurt?"

He reached into the small layer of cloud that was covering the dagger and he grasped unto the hilt. He had his answer. It could hurt him. The blade had sucked the light out of him, making him look like a mere shadow of himself. His whole body was wracked with pain; it seemed as though the dagger wouldn't stop draining him until there was nothing left of him. But to his surprise the pain stopped, he had held onto the hilt with a death grip and his arm was still shaking as he held up not a dagger, but a black bladed sword. He turned it around in his hand to see what really looked like. The grip itself was as black as the blade, but was surrounded by a golden hilt that, if one were to look, was engraved with many scales that went quite well the golden dragon head at the very bottom of the hilt.

The balance of the blade from what Dimmer could tell was phenomenal, but it mattered little any way for you could hardly tell you were lifting the sword. It felt more like he was swinging a rather large stick. It was than while looking at the sword he noticed it wasn't the only thing that changed appearance. First he had noticed that he had gloves that drew up to the knuckles of his fingers, the muffled feeling around his face told him he wore a scarf, and the black trench coat was hard to miss as well. He wore a black cowboy hat, and the collar on of his coat hid even most of the scarf that covered his mouth and nose. The scarf was tied in the back and continued down to the end of his back where it ended in five frayed ends on each opposite sides.

There was a small strap-like belt hanging from the hip area of his coat that could be used to hold the coat closed had someone wanted to. His jeans had changed into black dress pants, and his shirt into a dark red T-shirt. He also noticed a sheath on the side of his hip, but it was the sheath fitting that of the dagger from before not of the sword he now held. He clued in and stuck the point of the sword into the sheath and slid downward. The sword turned back into the dagger and fit into the sheath perfectly. He noticed his shadow on the ground, and that made him turn to see the first bit of sunlight since the walk up the hill. But to his surprise the sun was going down not rising up, which meant the dark clouds had obscured it from view completely.

The sunset shone with pink and yellow energy. Dimmer watched dumbfounded at the plain, natural beauty of the sun sinking below the tree line. The clouds had dispersed leaving three-quarters of the sky already sparkling with tiny specs of stars and a bright sliver of the moon. The other half changing from a dark purple, to a bright pink, and finally into a skinny sliver of yellow just peaking over a sea of trees.

"It's the sun setting..." Dimmer observed in a whisper so as not to disturb the sacredness of the scene. "It's Sundown."

Dimmer woke up with a start. He could feel the sweat pouring down his back. It was the dream that had been disturbing him these many nights. He looked around, having went to sleep around four he was a bit disorientated when he looked at his watch and it told it was one am. He lay back unto his futon, letting his breathing relax, and listening to his heart as it slowed down to a normal rate.

"So that's it?" he asked himself. "That's all there is to it? That dream has been bothering me for a month and that's all there is to it?" Dimmer was, to say the least of it, disappointed. He was hoping for some form of memory of his old life, and even his dreams led him to dead ends. It was weird to dream up such pain and such a strange scene. "There has to be more to it, it can't just end like that. There has to be more".

Dimmer turned over to get some more sleep hoping this time not to wake up in a sweat. His hopes would be in vain.

Meanwhile

"Serena? Serena! Are you there?" Serena looked at her alarm clock wearily. It flashed a bright one a.m. at her. She yawned as she stretched over to reach her communicator.

"Hi Lita" She yawned again. "What is it?"

"Serena, you have got to get here now! That Talenite guy is issuing a challenge to us at the old train station" It sounded as though Lita was running out of breath at the other end.

"Huh? How do you know?" Serena woke up as though someone had splashed water into her face.

"I know because the bastard followed me home last night and…. Jupiter Thunder Clash! I'm fighting his minion on my apartment roof!"

"OH Lita! I'll be right over, and I'll call the others on the way. Just stay all right! Luna?"

"I heard Serena, hurry and transform! There's no time to waste!"

"Right!"

When he awoke once more. His head was spinning.

"I gotta get more sleep." He said to himself quietly. Weak or not this just wasn't going to do. He got little sleep, and the little sleep he did get was restless with dreams of memories, and now fantasy worlds and strange visions.

"Swell"

The room was almost as dark as the black dagger in his dream, he tried to focus his eyes, but the attempt was useless in the darkness surrounding him. He decided to get up to go get a drink or something, but this was a mistake. His head started swimming worse than ever as he stumbled toward his door. Leaning on the dresser Chad and his sensai moved into his room for him, he held his hand against his forehead trying to make sense of the blurred darkness around him.

He felt around where his door ought to be, found the handle and stumbled into the hallway. All at once his vision was focused and the dizziness stopped, all that was left of the whole experience was an uneasy feeling down in his gut. He leaned back against the hallway wall to catch his breath.

"What the hell was that about?!"

Still breathing hard he left the hallway and walked toward the kitchen. He noticed that Rei's door to her room was left open a bit.

"Probably just getting something to eat" he thought, "Hey maybe she got some cheesy poofs!" Forgetting anything that just happened he ran toward the kitchen, everyone knew eating cheesy poofs around him and Chad was a stupid thing.

"Hey it isn't our fault" he rationalized "they just can't appreciate the taste of cheesy poofs as only we can."

So whenever the girls got a bag Dimmer and Chad had most of them gone the moment the attention was drawn elsewhere. Usually either Dimmer distracted them or Chad, depending on who was had the better chance of getting the bag at the time. With all this the girls had taken to eating their bags in secrecy just to spite Chad and him. Dimmer was hoping he would catch Rei digging into her stash and grab a few of these precious sweets on which, to him anyway, life itself depended on.

His hopes, however, were in vain as Rei was nowhere to be found. Just in case of some glimmer of hope for some cheesy poofs, Dimmer continued to search for her through the shrine, training hall, and even the garden outside. He was disappointed everywhere he looked though. Rei was no where to be found, he decided to check her room, just to see if she went back to bed or not. That was strange though, usually Rei would never leave her door open, not even a smidgen. She would yell at them for being perverted when they mentioned it to her once. Dimmer felt that Rei was a little bit paranoid over something. Still, he checked her room just to make sure. It was empty.

"Well she's not in the temple than, and it's 3 a.m. where could she be at this time of day? And she complains about me losing sleep!"

Elsewhere

"Aaah!" Rei shrieked as the giant rock flew by her head.

"That was close!" She looked back up at the rock monster in front of her. In short it was huge. It's broad shoulders and legs were chipped a bit from the blows that the scouts had already inflicted on it. It looked like a giant humanoid baring a large warhammer-shaped rock as it bore down on her. She rolled into a backwards somersault as the hammer made another crack in the roadway they were fighting in. somewhere in the back of her mind the thought flew up to her head that the scouts were probably costing the town a fortune in road repair.

It hadn't taken long for the battle on Lita's roof to throw everyone into the alley next to it. Talenite had shown up, and using the Sailor's surprise, he blasted them all off the roof. While they were still stunned from the fall, his minion, the rock warrior, who was unaffected by the fall, attacked once more.

Bringing her mind to the present she tried to make the monster back off by firing another fireball toward it. Usually one of the other scouts would have taken the pressure off of her, but it seemed not only focused on her, but it ignored all the other scouts attacks. Even Serena's tiara was having little effect. Every time she threw it he would parry with his hammer. The hammer would be dusted, but he would pull another one out of his back and keep gunning for Rei.

The fireball as before was ineffective, and she had to continue dodging the monster's strikes or end up as another pothole on the list of town repairs. Talenite was laughing and floating in the sky out of reach of the sailor's attacks. He would rain down attacks on the rest of the girls keeping them too distracted to barrage the rock monster with magic.

"Oh crap." The rock creature feigned a downward thrust than pulled into a sideswing. Rei was quite literally caught between a rock and a hard place, she got smashed by the rock and was pinned into a near by building wall. Vaguely she wondered if changing back to her normal self would replace the three ribs she felt were broken in her side. The hammer had her pinned to the wall; it was to heavy for her to lift, and the rock man walked toward her.

Back at the temple

Not being able to find Rei, Dimmer decided he should be in bed. He yawned and headed back towards his room. He opened his door only to be greeted by the blackness and that plagued him on his way out. Being wide awake this time he tried to fight off the dizziness, he caught a flicker of gold glinting in the small bit of moonlight that managed to trickle into his window. He forced himself forward curious about the glimmer, and unwilling to show weakness to anything, let alone mere darkness, and a small amount of dizziness. A strange silence he hadn't noticed before had enveloped him in a suffocating manner. The loneliness he felt about not belonging in this land manifested itself ten-fold. He could make out an outline floating and twirling above his bed. As he focused more on what it was the shape came to him. The dagger. It had to be! The one from his dream! Would the same thing happen?

"Only one way to find out!" he thought determinedly as leaned forward grasping at the hilt.

PAIN.

It's a strange word. It represents so much, but you can never really appreciate how appropriate it seems. Four letters can break and make even the strongest of men. How it can take your endurance to its limit, and than exceed it. You cry out as it penetrates your body, and no matter how many times you feel it, it hurts each time. Pain. It's the perfect word. Simple, just like the feeling it describes. It comes in many forms, to our emotions, body, and soul, but it's always the same. It always hurts.

That is what Dimmer felt now, but he was learning, no matter how much the pain, if you are still alive after word, you can endure it. This pain he would endure. Though pain can never be prevented, one can learn to ignore it. This pain he would ignore. He would not run away, back out the door, he felt as though this was something he needed to do. To prove to himself, he could do it. Than as before the pain subsided.

He watched as the darkness billowing around him in formless clouds, began to take shape into the clothing from his dream. He thought of nothing, as if silence had claimed ownership over his mind. The loneliness was surrounding him not unlike a second layer of skin. Strange though the feeling was, he took comfort in it, it felt as though the solitude was protecting him, keeping him from pain that others might inflict upon him physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Than came the feeling, a sense of dread. He had few friends, and someone he held dear was in pain. Was there something he could do about it? He looked down upon his sheathed black-bladed dagger. Its gold hilt glinted in answer. He needed no more convincing, and all at once he was gone, the only sound was the howling wind whistling through the curtains and the newly opened window.

Back with the Scouts

Talenite was enjoying himself immensely. He had picked up a grudge towards these scouts; they were hardly a match for the Negaverse! How dare they try to interfere with his plans! AND killing Icynia! The crime was intolerable! He would make them pay dearly! The one he had set Gravescion the stone warrior after was almost broken. One more strike and he was sure she would never interfere with his plans ever again. He set Gravescion after the annoying blonde with the long pigtails; he wanted the glory of being the first to kill a sailor scout to himself.

"HAhahhahahhhhahah! Why wait for the train station scouts! Let's finish this in the here and now!"

He gathered up his power for a fitting final strike, when a flash of white and red flew by his face cutting his cheek and breaking the warhammer that was coming dangerously close to making a sailor moon indent into the ground.

"Sailor Moon keep faith! Those of strength will always win out over the cowardly!" A young man in a black tuxedo and white mask called out over the battlefield. Tuxedo Mask stood upon the corner of a building, while his cloak billowed out behind him. He held a red rose in a white-gloved hand and continued with what he had meant to say. "It is a coward who shoots his enemies from the darkness where they cannot see, or from the air where they cannot reach. My name is Tuxedo Mask! And I have come to even the odds." He said the last with a smirk, as he threw the rose he was holding directly at Talenite.

But Talenite was ready; he released the energy he had been gathering toward his new target. This tuxedo Mask was going to learn the hard way not to mess with the Negaverse. The energy ball vaporized the thrown rose and continued toward its destination only to be absorbed by the boys black cane.

"He can defend himself against my best attack? This calls for some kind of plan!" He thought for a moment of what some of the generals would probably do. "Hey I know!" He teleported away.

Tuxedo Mask at a lost now that his enemy had run away, yelled down at the girls, "Sailor scouts! To defeat this foe will take more power than any ONE of you now have, you must work together to bring this evil to an end!"

Sailor Moon looked up to Tuxedo Mask with star-filled eyes. Time after time she could always count on him whenever she was in a bind. And once again he had come through for her and her friends. They all understood what they had to do, and simultaneously they called upon their powers.

"Mercury bubble Blast!"

"Mars fire Ignite!"
"Jupiter thunder Crash!"

"Moon Tiara Magic!"

The resulting combination led the stone warrior to a fiery, watery, electric, well-lighted death. Rei fell to her knees from the exertion of power. The others were there in a flash to help her up. By the time Sailor Moon looked back to thank her hero he had already vanished.

Tuxedo Mask frowned as he jumped back towards his apartment. He had saved the girls from horrible defeat again so why did he still have this feeling of dread, like the danger was not past? He put it down as probably an after effect of the battle and its excitement and continued on, he had work the next day, and he needed his sleep to prepare towards it. Inwardly he sighed. The Sailor Scouts must be the key, if I follow them long enough, someday they'll have to lead me to the Moon Princess. "Than to your freedom my Princess, than I can free you."

"Hey gi~irls!" Talenite's familiar voice sounded above them as they helped Sailor Mars limp away. The girl's screams of horror at the powerful ball of energy hurled toward them, filled the night. Taken by surprise and no time to act the girls could only watch stunned as the scene slowed down before them. They didn't know when the black shadow had moved in front of them, all they knew was one moment it wasn't there, and the next it was.

To Talenite's dismay his second energy blast that night was absorbed. The black bladed sword the stranger held drew in the light of his blast as simply as a black surface draws in the light of the sun.

He couldn't see the stranger's face beyond the black scarf he had over his mouth and nose, nor could he see his eyes covered by the shadow of the Black cowboy hat he wore. The black trench coat with up turned collars, stretched down to the back of the stranger's knees. The stranger had black hair though little of it could be seen under his hat, shoulder length it flowed down into the color of his coat, The tails of his scarf and ends to his coat flowing into the windy night.

Talenite didn't know who this guy was, but he had heard of their bodyguard Tuxedo Mask, and he had prepared for all situations. The chameleon-like creatures he had situated around the area during their battle now came into sight while slithering like lizards along the wall.

"Talenite was feeling cocky, the Chamaalions he stationed here were 9 in total. He would be mildly surprised if the girls and their new friend could take down 2 before they were overwhelmed, if not by quality, but by shear quantity. Of course Talenite was not like his allies in killing indiscriminately. He would at least offer the stranger a choice.

"I don't know who you are stranger, but leave here now and you may leave with your life!" The glint of gold from the stranger's sword hilt was his only answer. Not used to of his mercy being taken for granted, Talenite grew angry. "Fine than I'll need something to carve on your headstone! Tell me your name!"

A dark, deep, vibrating, and muffled voice came out from under the scarf. "You wish to know who I am? What I am called? Than I will oblige you." He charged at the gathering group of lizardmen.

"I am your event before death!" His sword flashed in and out of one of their stomachs, while a large boot came down pinning and breaking another's neck against the concrete.

"I am the darkness that clouds your sight!" So saying he sliced another through the top of its head where it's eyes were located. It fell back shrieking.

"I am the silence that echoes through your mind" He threw his sword up in the air, grabbed one that was trying to bite him by its upper and lower jaw and ripped.

"I am the solitude that envelops your soul!" He flipped over another entrapping it in the back of his coat. He grabbed his coat by its ends tightened and twisted until an audible snap was heard, its neck snapped and it slumped to the ground.

His sword came down through the head of the one in front of him.

"Mars fire Ignite!" the smell of roast flesh, and the small "thump behind him told him they had his back.

"I am the end of your day and the beginning of your night" He continued as he drew his sword out of the creature's skull where it had buried itself.

"Jupiter thunder Crash!" Once again the scent of roast flesh entered the air. That was eight he counted silently, that's one left.

"Mercury bubble Blast"

"Moon Tiara Magic"

Talenite couldn't believe what he was seeing, with this stranger's help the scouts had taken the lizardmen easily. "Waitaminute!" he thought quickly "Where did he go?!" The stranger had disappeared from where he was and was nowhere to be seen. But Talenite didn't have to see him. The blade he felt along his neck told him exactly where the stranger was.

In the same voice the man continued as if uninterrupted by the events that took place.

"I am your Sundown."

"I should kill you, you pondscum, but you tried to show me mercy, for that small sense of honor you hold, I will let you live. But be forewarned, if I ever find you against me again, I will not give you so quick a death by the steel of my blade. In fact I think I'll render you limb from limb. Now go! My sword hungers for the power it might take from your death, and if you are not quick, I just might let it have you."

Talenite needed no more encouragement than that from this "Sundown" He could only run now; Queen Beryl would never except him back after failing so utterly. "Well as that Tuxedo Mask character said, I'm a coward, and if there is one thing a coward is good at doing, its running!" With that last thought he teleported away.

The girls were no longer sure about this new rescuer they somehow recruited, his manner told of evil, and his actions spoke of honor. The only thing they knew for certain was that he was dangerous. They all looked wearily from one to another, speechless to what just took place. When he looked at them, light had finally reached his eyes, and there was almost a smile in them as he tipped his hat and than faded from sight.

The girls stood a bit stunned at seeing him go, until the pain once again overcame Rei's stubborn endurance and she fell. First things first, they would see to Rei, and agree on a scout meeting at the temple the next day. Now there was much to discuss.

Endnotes: Woot! He's Angsty, he's painful. He's Sundown! Dimmer's first of, I think, three transformations. Heh. So he finally got his transformation. Took long enough its only the 6th chapter not including the prologue. Hang on to your thinking hats people 'cause things are about to get seriously complicated! Lets hope Serena can help keep things simple eh?

If I haven't lost all my readers from my last chapter, I just wanted yas to know we just hit the true starting point to this fic. Chapter 6, Sad isn't it?

So how'd ya like it? good? bad? evil? Please reiew!