Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ BSSM: Star Kingdom (Arch I: DeathSong) ❯ The StarFire Ruby ( Chapter 2 )

That night I had gone to bed at nine, like I'd been told. And I'd finished my homework before dinner, so I could read for an hour before bed. Same old, boring routine. But… Why had it felt so strange to do normal things?

I head straight to my first hour a half-hour before school would start, so I thought that I could braid some of my ribbons that I always carried. I pull out the ribbon and some tape and start braiding.

"*Let's see… a pink braid for Usagi, a blue braid for Ami, a green braid for Mako, a silver braid for me and…*" I say as I point to the corresponding braids.

"*How about a gold one for me?*"

I spin around to see a boy not much taller than me. He looks like some one I'm related to. That thought gave me the creeps.

"*And whom might you be?*" I ask the boy.

"*Kumohoshino. Kumohoshino Reisakka.*" he answers.

"*Oh.*" I say. Confusion clouds my mind quickly. He looked almost exactly like Mark, only a little older and taller.

"*Well, could you make me one?*" he asks again.

"*One what?*" I ask, still confused.

"*A gold braid. Remember? I asked you earlier.*" he answers.

"*Oh.*" I said, still a little dazed. "*I'll have it ready for you by lunch.*" I tell him.

"*Okay.*"

"*I'll be with Ami-chan, Usagi-chan, and Mako-chan. I'll see you then?*" I say.

"*Usagi-chan!?*"

"*Yes. What of it?*" I ask.

"*Didn't you know that she's the lowest in the class?*" he asks rhetorically.

"*Yes but why would I care?*"

"*Never mind.*"

And with that, he left. He left me feeling uneasy about something I couldn't quite put my finger on.

When French class was over, I go to my Art class. Someone in the Administration Office screwed up and switched my first and second hours. So now I have French first hour and Art second hour. Since I had come in the middle of a project, Art was basically a free hour for me, until the next project, as long as it involved Art. I decide to braid eleven strands of ribbon together. It was hard at first, but I got the hang of it after a while. When I was done with that braid, or as my teacher had said, "weave", I worked on Areinosei's braid.

It didn't take me long seeing as how it was just a three-strand braid. I can do those in two minutes flat.

I met Ami in Geometry. I give her the braid I made for her. She says, "*It looks like something you wear as a bracelet.*"

I said, "*It could be a bracelet. Or something you tie in your hair.*"

I take the braid and tie it around her wrist.

"*Now, don't take this off. It's tied with friendship. If it's taken off, the friendship is broken.*" I warn her then laugh. "*At least that's the lore that goes with this kind of braid.*"

"*Okay.*" Ami answers. She gave me a look that said plainly 'I'm friends with a wacko'.

"*I'll see you at Chem. I have to go to the office and do something.*" I say to Ami.

"*Okay. See you then.*" Ami answers.

With that I left for the office, again I feel the same feeling of awkwardness that I was doing something new. I know I was just going to the office but it felt strange to do something so normal.

I shake it off, and went to the office.

As it turns out they wanted to take measurements for my new school uniform. There was a slight problem when they found out that if they went big enough for the length in the skirt it was too large around the waist, and when they went small enough for the waist, it was much too short in length.

They said that I should just keep wearing what I was, and not worry about a uniform.

I went to Chemistry and sat by Ami. When I got the chance, I showed the other braids to Amy. I asked her, "*Could you tie mine on?*" I handed her my braid.

"*Sure.*" Ami says as she takes the silver braid from my hand to tie it on to my wrist. She gives me the same look as before. That same skeptical look that had troubled me earlier. That look that said, 'Does she really believe in this lore that if you take this braid off, the friendship was broken?'

I was so very troubled that I didn't notice a boy walk up to me. A boy! Me? Not notice a BOY come up to me? That doesn't happen often, but when it does… you need to start worrying.

"Ahem!"

A person clearing their throat awakens me from my little daze. I look up only to see Areinosei. I wasn't really expecting him to come up to me during class.

"*Is my braid done?*" he asks.

"*Yes.*" I answered, and handed him the braid that I had made for him.

"*Thanks.*"

He took the braid and tied it to his own wrist. He acted if he was tying his own friendship into it. "Does he know what the lore is?" I think to myself.

"*Gina!*"

A stern voice snaps me alert. It was Ami.

"*We need to study for tomorrow's test. Or are you going to be like Usagi-chan and not study?*"

"*Oh! Yeah. Let's study.*" I pulled out my textbook and began to fake read.

Finally, lunch rolled around and I was able to give Usagi and Mako their braids.

They looked like they thought it was strange that I was so quick to make them best friends, but they didn't bother to ask me 'Why'.

School was boring for the rest of the day. I was… was… preoccupied. I couldn't pay attention to my work.

After school I wanted to get home as soon as possible. My mom said that she'd buy me a pendant for my gold chain that I had gotten from my best friend back in America.

There was a cool shop at the local mall and it had this beautiful gem that looked like it was made of a pigeon's blood ruby mingled with transparent silver lines on the facets for an eight-point star. And if you held it up to the light, the gem would have all the colors of the rainbow dancing inside.

My mom wanted me to keep looking around because that was the first pendant I saw here. I kept looking and trying to take my eyes away from that beautiful pendant, but that gem had stolen my eyes and wouldn't let me walk away from it for long.

My mom reluctantly paid for the pendant, saying that I should have a more open mind. While she paid for it, I slipped the hoop for it over the latch and on to the chain. When I put it on, it felt like I belonged to it and not the other way around. I loved it.

The lady that owned the shop says, "*I'm glad someone finally bought that. It's been in the case for months.*" My mom didn't agree that it was the best one there. She favored the peridot pendant, which was my birthstone and was larger. I thought that peridot green was just another puke color. Besides, my pendant looked as though you could draw a circle around it about nine centimeters wide that would fit perfectly around it.

When we got home, we found a cat there just looking at the numbers as if it were looking for the right apartment. We stopped to see if it was going to park its furry butt on our doorstep. As the lady had it, we were right, and the cat chose our doorstep to park and wait. We crept up slowly, so we wouldn't alarm it.

The cat was a golden yellow like the sun. If it didn't belong to someone, maybe we could keep it. I would name it Apollo if we did. "Isn't Apollo a boys' name?" I think to myself. Yes. I search my memory and remember that Apollo was the Greek god of the sun and stars.

"Now where did you come from little kitty?" I ask the cat as I pick it up and stroke its fur. Like it was going to answer!

"It doesn't have a collar," my mom says, pointing at the cat's neck. "Maybe it lost it on it's way here."

"I can make found posters in Art class, and post them on my way home from school. And maybe I could get Usagi-chan, Mako-chan and Ami-chan to post them on their way home from school too." I offer.

"You're using Japanese endings while speaking English again, but that sounds like a good idea. OH MY! Look at this!" Mom yelps, pointing to Apollo's forehead.

Right in the center of Apollo's forehead was a miniature, silver eight-point star, like the star that symbolizes that someone was from the Star Smith crafthall on Pern in my books. Never mind. I won't go into that. But it was like someone had put a tattoo of the star on Apollo's head and made it so there wouldn't be any hair growing but it was semi-hard like a silver plate in the shape of the star was put there.

"Wow. I wonder where it got it." I say in awe, unable to say anything else.

"Oh! Can we keep it if we don't find the owner?" I blurt out. I liked the cat so much that I couldn't hold that burning question in anymore.

"I'll think… WAHCHOO!!!" my mom sneezed. "Maybe I should go to ah doctor and see if I'm allargic to cats. Whaht say?" my mom continues in a stuffy sounding voice that she got whenever she had sneezed recently.

"I hear that Ami's mother is a doctor, or was that a pediatrician? No. Ami wants to BE a pediatrician, and her mom's a doctor. Or was it the other way around???" I babble.

"I don't know or… WAHCHOO!!! Chare." Mom replies, "I'm justh going to fhind a doctor thaht doeths allargy teshting."

"Okay, mom. But for the mean time, can I keep him or her in my room?" I ask plaintively.

"Shure. Justh kheep it awhay fram meh." Mom says, still trying to recover her normal voice.

I made a b-line for my room. With Apollo in my arms, I managed to open the door. Which was a miracle in itself because that door has been known to cause trouble every now and then.

I put Apollo down on my bed and went to my desk to do my studies. I was in the middle of a French word puzzle when I hear, "Bonjourno." out of nowhere!

I spun around and looked about the room. Telescope, cat on the bed, easel in the corner, everything else is fine. "*You've just been studying too hard Gina. That's all.*" I assure myself aloud.

"*Nope. Afraid not, Dawn Helios.*" That same voice again.

"*Come out and show yourself! And my name isn't Dawn. My name's Gina.*" I called out to the voice as I grabbed my notebook. A NOTEBOOK!? How laughable is that?!

"*No. You're right. You're not Dawn Helios yet. And come out? I already am out and right underneath your nose.*" The voice was grinding on my nerves and I had very little left.

"*ARGH! Then at least tell me where you are.*" I say, frustrated.

"*Where am I? I'm in your room.*"

"*Can you be a little more specific?*" I ask, trying, but failing miserably, to control my anger that was welling up.

"*Sure I can but that doesn't mean I will…*"

"*You are such a smart allelic! Where are you exactly?*" I ask, carefully letting enough anger in my voice so he knew I meant business. But not so much that it would frighten him out of his wits or what little wits he had.

"*I'm…*" he starts, but just then I caught the direction his voice was coming from and I saw the CAT TALKING!

"Ah-HA!" I practically scream at him as I snatched him up from the bed.

"*Hey, hey! Put me down!*" he cried as he struggled to free himself of my grasp.

Just then my mom knocks on the door. "Gina! Keep it down in there! I'm trying to throw off this… WAHCHOO! Snheeze. Oh, forghet iht! Ih'm ghoing to bhed."

"*Well… She threw it off for about two minutes.*" I mutter to no one.

"*Yep. That sounds about right.*" the cat says.

"*Alright. You know my name but I don't know yours. Do tell before I throw your furry butt out on the street.*" I say a sweetly as I could as I moved toward the window.

"*What was your guess? And could you please put me down?*" he asks me, sounding perturbed. Not that I could blame him either. I'd been holding him like a baby so he couldn't have been too comfortable. I set him down on the bed, sat down next to him and he looked at me expectantly.

"*Apollo.*" I answer truthfully. It doesn't pay to lie to a freaking cat that can talk!

"*Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding! That's correct! Bob, tell her what she's won.*" Boy, this cat could get on your last nerve and make it seem like it was frayed beyond belief.

"*How about an explanation?*" I ask hopefully.

"*Yoooouuuuu got it!*" I swear! That cat was cruising to get choked here pretty quickly. I try to get into a lotus position like my sensei always said I should for calm concentration.

"*Hmm… Where should I start?*" I could tell Apollo was deliberately stalling, and he wasn't doing anything to try and get in my good graces.

"*How about at the beginning?*" I ask drolly.

"*Oh, are you sure that's where you want to start? Not the middle or the end, the beginning is so blaze.*" Apollo waffles as he stretched out on his side.

I sigh heavily and sincerely hope that he would stop playing the fool I wasn't too sure he wasn't and just get to the point.

"*Please,*" I plead, "*Just get to the point.*" About then, I give up on calm and got up and opened the window and glared back with a hint in my eye.

"*The point? That's pretty blaze too if you ask me.*" Apollo keeps waffling like his life depended on it. I can tell you one thing, Apollo was dangerously close to causing his own demise. Obviously a hint wasn't going to do it. I reach for the scruff of his neck as he scrambles out of reach under the bed.

"*I don't believe I did ask you whether it was blaze or not. I asked for you to just get to the point!*" I screach at the floor.

"*Okay! I'll tell you the point of the situation. But please don't freak out. I hear that Luna had her paws full with just one princess…*"

"*WHOA! Hold it!! What princess? And who's Luna?*"

"*You want me to get to the point or not?*" Apollo asks rhetoriclly as he strolled out and jumped back on the bed.

"*Fine.*" I subsides and sat back down next to him.

"*Alright. You're Super Sailorsun.*"

"*Super Sailor what?*" I blurt out as I jump up again. I was seriously thinking about waking up from this weird dream.

"*Super. . . Sailor. . . Sun. The Sailor Senshi of the Sun. What? You never heard of Sailormoon?*" is Apollo's snide reply.

"*No. Should I?*" I ask as I paced across my room.

"*Well then, you and I should go to the library and check out the newspaper from two months ago.*" Apollo answers then gestures for me to open the door. When I did, Apollo zips out and heads straight to the front door then waited for me there.

"*I don't see what reading an outdated newspaper will do to prove that I'm Sailor Sun or whatever you called me.*" I say as I clump down the stairs and out the door.

"*Oh, you're right. It won't prove that you're Super Sailorsun, but it will prove that there are other Sailor Scouts that need your help as your Super Sailorsun identity.*" Apollo replies. Okay, now I'm a schitso! I thought to myself.

"*How can you be sure I'm Super Sailorsun?*" I ask. We were walking along the street. Thankfully, it was close to dinner time so I was pretty much alone, talking to a cat. Wait! What am I saying?!?!? Talking to a CAT?!? Oh, now I really need to see that doctor Mom is always talking about.

Brushing the hair off my forehead, I contemplate my current situation. It doesn't look good. I have just gone right 'round the bend, over the edge and out into space!

"*Excuse me!?! I do talk and you are NOT off the deep end!*" Apollo says sharply like he had read my thoughts. "*You are needed and it is my job to help you see that!*"

We turn into the library just then and go to the newspaper racks. Apollo leaps up to the back of a chair and was pointing at an issue of the Tokyo Banner from two weeks ago. The headline on the front page was '*SAILORMOON AND SAILOR SENSHI DEFEAT GALAXIA!*'

"*Yeah. So what? This girl and her friends beat some villain named Galaxia. What does that have to do with me being Super Sailorsun?*" I ask, still skeptical and with good reason too. I mean… how often does a talking cat appears on your doorstep, you find out you're some sort of warrior and that there are other warriors that need your help? Not often, I can tell you that right now!

"*They're the ones that need your help. And there's nothing you can do to get out of it because you're Super Sailorsun and no one else can be!*" Apollo tartly replies. His words may have rung true in my ears but I wasn't going to trust my ears just yet because they were telling me that a CAT was telling my ears that I had to fight with these Sailor shenchi or whatever they are.

"*Really? Why not? Why can't someone else be Super Sailorsun? All I want to be is a normal girl with normal friends at a normal school. That's all I want to be! Got that?*" I ask. (Authoress's Note 1: Yes, I know the argument is old but it was the best I could come up with.) My voice had gotten shrill towards the end and the librarian scolds me for not being quiet in a library. After that, I grab a struggling Apollo and left the library.

"*Yeah. I got it. But I won't keep it. You ARE Super Sailorsun. And not all you're friends are normal. I was just checking up on Luna and Artemis and…*" Apollo scolds me on the street when I interrupt.

"*There you go again about Luna and whoever! Who ARE they? And who are these princesses?*" I snap at him. Equally annoyed in every way.

"*Luna and Artemis are the guardians for the others like I am for you. And as for the princesses, they're sixteen to twenty-two year old girls that are in great need of assistance.*" Apollo answers, "*I can't tell you some specific things because you're, and I quote, 'not', unquote, a sailor senshi, or so you proclaim.*"

"*Yet you say I am. So, say I accept that I'm this Super Sailorsun character, what would happen?*" I ask Apollo. We continue towards my apartment. We stop at a light and wait for it to turn in our favor.

"*I would give you the necessary training for you to do your job correctly and give you the means to do so.*" Apollo answered as we crossed the street.

"*Fine. I'll accept it, but how will I turn into this Super Sailorsun person?*" I ask.

With that Apollo jumped into the air, did a sort of back flip, and something formed in the center of the flip as he landed just in time to catch it in his teeth. It looked like a pen of some sort. It had a silver eight-pointed star on top that looked almost exactly like the star on Apollo's forehead only it had a smaller version of my ruby in its center. "*Here.*" he says as he gave the pen to me.

"*What do I do with it?*" I ask as we walk up to the apartment complex.

"*Let's wait till we're in your room.*" he answers. I accept this and get into the elevator. We're silent as we walk towards my apartment because it would look suspicious for me to be talking to a cat. Also because I'm sure that there were people that would wake up if they heard talking in the hallway.

As quietly as I could, I open the door and listen for my mom. All I hear was the T.V. playing in Japanese. When I look in, I see my mom was lying on the couch watching TV. "That's strange. Mom only learned German in school. Oh yeah! I forgot she took a few Japanese lessons before we came here." I think.

I slip into my room with Apollo just as my mom starts sneezing again. Apollo jumped up on to the bed and stretched out.

"*All right. Now how do I transform into this Super Sailorsun?*" I ask as soon as I shut the door. I lock the door just in case my mom got one of her sudden urges to check on me.

"*Repeat after me,*" Apollo says calmly, "*Solar Crystal Power, Make Up.*"

"*SOLAR CRYSTAL POWER, MAKE UP!*" I yell into the air. I hold my hand above my head with the pen in my hand.

Suddenly, my fingernails were done in a silver color. With the movements seeming naturally to me, a globe of stardust formed from me spinning the pen around with the stardust spurting out from the top point of the star on the pen.

Then the globe suddenly closes in on me. Then, just as the stardust became form-fitted, it rebounds like in a super nova, leaving a white sailor body suit. I spin in a circle with the pen at waist level with the dust still coming out. That dust turns in to a white skirt with three ribbons of color at the bottom. The top is gold, the middle is silver and the bottom is copper.

More stardust appears, and wraps itself around my arms up to my mid-forearm, but some of the dust stays aloft to form ten silver bracelets; five bracelets for each arm.

Yet more dust wraps itself around my feet and ankles, then quickly solidifies into silver high-heeled shoes with a gold anklet right above my ankles.

Then, as if to put the final touches on a piece of art, a silver eight-point star appears on my forehead, then quickly turned into a silver tiara with a gold zig-zag inlay and in the center of the tiara was a dark red, oval cabochon gem.

Quite suddenly, I'm done transforming, back in my room with Apollo on my bed. I chance a brief look in the mirror and wasn't quite as shocked as had I thought I'd be. I had a silver choker at the base of my neck as well as a sort of triangle collar that was white with the same three ribbons of color as my skirt. At the lowest point of the collar was a silver bow and in the center of the bow was a gold eight-point star.

When I turn around, I noticed that I had another bow in back down by my skirt. It was also silver and had the same gold eight-point star in the center, but the ends of the bow were longer than my skirt.

"*Here. Take this.*" Apollo says rummaging under my pillow. When he backs up, he has a sort of wand in his teeth. It looks a lot like the pen, save for that the wand was about four inches longer, and had a silver star on top instead of a gold one like on the pen. That's only a few of the differences that I saw between the wand and the pen.

"*This is the source for most of your attacks. There are still some secrets that I haven't remembered yet, but you'll find them out as you go along.*" Apollo tells me, "*Now, to get out of uniform say 'Civil form, make up'.*"

I did so and was soon back into my casual clothes that I wore after I get home from school; a copper- colored top and a gold-colored skirt. I normally didn't wear miss-matched clothes but today was an exception as I was in a hurry to go out and buy a pendant.

Immediately, my hand flies to my neck to find my necklace. I couldn't bear to lose my last reminder of the friends I had back home. I find the chain, but instead of lingering on the chain, my hands go to the ruby that I had gotten.

"*Wait a minute,*" Apollo said as he got up to see better. "*What's that in your hand?*" he asks.

"*Oh. This?*" I say opening my hand so he could see my pendant, "*I just got it today. Why? Are you holding out on me?*" I ask impatiently. I wanted to know the whole story, and he was holding out on me.

When Apollo saw my pendant, he reared back as if he'd been slapped. "*Hold it up to the light.*" Apollo snaps.

"*How can I hold it up to the light when the sun has gone down.*" I ask.

"*It doesn't matter what kind of light, just light!*" Apollo roars at me. I did so and we see the same rainbow colors dancing in the crystal. Apollo rears back again. Shocked, I guess.

"*The starfire ruby.*" Apollo says in a whisper that was barely audible.

"*The star-whata what?*" I ask, puzzled.

"*The starfire ruby. A gem that was past down in the Star Kingdom from the queen to the princess. It got as far as the two Dawn Helios' in the Silver Star Millennium. Right before the dark kingdom attacked, Queen Serenity came to warn us about the forth coming attack on her kingdom and that they might attack the Star Kingdom next."

Apollo stops to catch his breath and then continued, "*The queen, a stubborn woman, was set that she, and she alone, would save the kingdom of the Stars by using the StarFire Ruby. The princess wanted to help her mother, because the queen would be the first to use the ruby since its creation.*"

"*What happened then?*" I ask, intrigued.

"*Well, the queen wouldn't let her daughter risk her life by using the gem with her, as the princess only knew how to use half its power. Princess Dawn wasn't pleased and screamed at the queen she wouldn't survive. Queen Dawn merely said that she had to do what she must do even if she didn't like the consequences. The princess put up a fight till the very end. The queen and her court died in the transfer from the sun to the earth in the future as well as the princess's court, leaving the princess as the only surviving member of the Star Kingdom. Princess Dawn was reincarnated as a girl in the twentieth century somewhere in the world and she would find the ruby that no one could tolerate for it rejected all that wasn't of the royal line. I knew that you were the protector of the princess but not that you were the princess.*"

I was shocked that this princess was willing to risk her life to help save her kingdom. Also, that the princess was me.

"*When the Dark Kingdom destroyed the Moon Kingdom, they were unable to attack the Sun for Queen Serenity had trapped them in the negaverse, but since Queen Dawn didn't know that, she died to send her daughter, and her daughter alone to the earth in the future. Or that's how I think it happened? I can't be entirely sure of my memory. It currently has enough holes in it to make Swiss cheese jealous and a lot of what I told you was just guesswork.*" Apollo continues, but then he stops and caught his breath again; he didn't continue.

I was bereft of words as he and I sat on my bed. I find it hard to believe that I was this princess from so long ago, but I know, deep down I just know, that Apollo had told the truth.

"*It's late.*" I think. It had suddenly dawned on me that it was just that. I was incredibly drained. With that I crawl into my bed, pull the covers up and no sooner had my head hit the pillow, I was asleep.

Disclaimer and Authoress's note: Okay. I only own Reisakka Kumohoshino, Apollo, Mrs. Helio, and Gina Helio. All the rest belong to Takeuchi Naoko-sama ^_^ Phrases in asterisks ("*…*") are spoken in Japanese while phrases in normal quotations are spoken in English. Eventually, this will change and it will be visa versa (Japanese in normal quotes and English framed in asterisks). That's all for now! Tah-tah!

~Queen Tessandry de Sanyochisei~