Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Guardian of Love: The Origins ❯ Shadows ( Chapter 10 )

Guardian of Love

The Origins - Shadows

Chapter 10

By Angel Love

Author's notes: There aren't any really big notices for this one. Metellia shows in this chapter.

Standard disclaimers apply. I don't own Sailor Moon, the Greek Gods or any of the characters that I have borrowed to fashion them after. I do however own the Guardians, and I am more than willing to ruin all my dental work to bite the person who takes them without asking me first.

Roughly a week and a half after my injury I was healed enough that we weren't worried that anything but a direct physical hit would rip open my side again. And so we were now gathering in non-guardian forms in the sparring room. Rosely liked us to all power up together, something about us doing that making us all ready for the coming battle. I guess in a way it did unify our thoughts. Today she was a bit more anxious since this was her home planet at stake.

"Ready to henshin?" she asked as I handed a slightly sleepy Trista over to Eros. When she got an agreement from all she opened the palm of her hand, revealing her own quartz called the Rock Quartz. The small blue-lavender stone hovered above her hand and she closed her eyes. "Queen of the Gods, show me your glory..."

The colors of gold and black surrounded her lifting her into the air and melting away the red dress she had on. Her black bodysuit flowed up her body, and then the black skirt flowed out at her hips to cover her well-toned rump. She held open her arms and the black gloves magically slid up her arms to end with small black circlets at her elbows. She passed a hand down her body from her head down and as her hand passed over it, her golden tiara appeared, then her blood red choker and matching bows in front and back. She slid her hands up her legs and as her fingers touched the flesh her black boots formed to end at her knees. She held one hand above her, opened her palm and her staff formed above her to drop neatly in her awaiting hand. She twirled it around her, switching from one hand to the other as the Guardian Celestial opened her eyes and looked at Vega expectantly.

He nodded at her, his eyes dark with some emotion before he held out his own hand, opening his palm to reveal his own stone, a smoky clear quartz. "I call upon the God of Light and Truth for my powers..."

His black hair brushed against his face as the wind picked up around him along with a black smoke, stripping him of his simple pants and top, replacing them with his white uniform. The red dragons roared as the appeared on the front before settling themselves on his jacket. Three stars swirled around him several times before they too settled themselves on his jacket. He held up both hands and his whip appeared, he cracked it through the air as Guardian Tranquility looked up at me and winked before turning to nod at his twin.

Chesna rolled her eyes at her brother because it seemed that his wink had become a part of his transformation sequences. She opened the palm of her well-manicured hand and her clear quartz appeared hovering above it. "My Lady of wild things, bestow upon me your power..."

The symbol of peace flared out on her forehead and it seemed like a tidal wave of color flowed up from the ground to surround her. Her white braid swirled up her body to her head then slowly back down, changing her into her fuku as it went, starting with her pink choker, her white bodysuit and her white gloves with the purple circlets, the bows flared out and appeared at the same time as her blue skirt flared out around the top of her thighs, then as her braid slid over her legs her purple boots appeared. Her braid twirled up again and her staff appeared. As she grasped her staff, her braid twirled itself around her waist. Guardian Peace banged her staff on the floor before turning blue eyes towards Osmound, signaling that it was his turn to transform.

Osmound nodded at her, wasting no time in holding up his palm and silently calling forth his quartz, black in color. "I call upon the God of Fire to grant me all of your greatness..."

Spirals of fire swept up from the floor, dancing over his body, melting away his clothes to replace them with his black uniform. The fire parted to reveal a large hammer. It twirled around his body a few times before finally imprinted itself on his uniform top still blazing. He waved both hands over it twice and the blaze faded to an image, waiting to be called to its master's hand when he needed it to use in the fight, his was the only weapon that was never put in a space pocket but kept right on his uniform. Guardian Virtue smiled at his little sister softly.

Brenna gave him a soft smile in response, their sibling bond almost as strong as Rose's and mine, mental telepathy aside. She opened her palm revealing her own quartz, brown in color, hovering there. "Goddess of Wisdom, please grant me all of your gloriousness..."

A large raven came from the sky to fly around her, causing glittery magic to flow around her melting away her clothes. It flew around her a second time and she was clothed in her white bodysuit with beige bows and forest green skirt. She held up one arm and her white gloves appeared to her elbows just before the bird landed on her arm. The bird nuzzled her lips and her silver tiara and ankle boots appeared. Then the bird flew up into the air and her choker appeared, the bird dove into her and transformed into the small symbol and fixed itself onto the beige material, just as it attached itself her bow appeared and she clasped it in her hand. The Guardian of Faith turned her eyes to look over at Rose and nodded.

Rose nodded back curtly, her eyes showing that she was in her serious mode. She tugged her rose quartz from the small silver chain where she liked to keep it, so that it hovered over her hand. "Hands of Destiny, I seek your power..."

The colors of purple, gold, aquamarine, black and pink seemed to engulf her. She rose slightly in the air as white leather shorts appeared, followed by her red-cropped cotton top. A red choker appeared around her neck and a silver heart appeared to dangle from it. She stretched her arms out and black wings flared out at her back and then disappeared. Her legs tucked up in front of her and black boots with silver trim appeared on her legs. Her head tilted back slightly as a silver tiara with a red heart in the center appeared on her forehead. Her legs dropped down and she stood on her feet as she folded her hands in front of her and a silver staff that she had named Moirae appeared in front of her. She reached out with her left hand and the staff moved into her hand. The Guardian of Destiny twirled it as she placed her right hand on her hip and she opened her eyes, instantly finding mine and softly said in her mind, "Your turn, Angel."

`Time to boogie,' I said back into her mind. Then I pulled my own rose quartz from my gold chain. "Cupid's Love, grant me your strength..."

I saw the colors of orange, blue, red, green and pink swirl around me, completely surrounding me. I felt the short black leather shorts form snuggly around my bottom and the red cotton top form around my bust. My feet crossed together slightly as boots, white with gold trim, formed on my legs going all the way up to my thighs. My tiara appeared on my forehead. The red choker with its gold dangling heart appeared at my neck. I crossed my arms in front of me as I felt the white wings appear at my back for a moment and then they were gone. I stretched my arms out wide as my feet touched the ground. My staff that I had named Eros appeared before me. I reached out with my right hand and it moved to my unspoken command. I pulled it close to my body tucking it into me as I moved my hair back gently with my left hand. As the Guardian of Love I looked over at Celestial.

She nodded at me for my cue to say goodbye to Trista as she opened the door to her world. I didn't waste a second to cross over to my little sister. I knew that the leader of the Guardians only allowed this because there was always a chance that I wouldn't come back alive.

"Angel, prewwy cowors," she said excitedly, tugging on one of Eros' wings while she bounced in his arms.

I grinned at her and winked. "I am glad you liked, little one. Rose and I have to go fight some bad guys, I want you to be good for Eros and stop bugging Ares. His patience with you is sure to run out one of these times," I said sternly, trying to hide the mirth I felt at all of the pranks the little girl seemed to focus on the God of War. I was very lucky that he seemed to find it amusing and let it slid with a few stern words at her and a wink in my direction before he disappeared to go clean either himself or his quarters up. Every once in awhile he would accept my offer to help but most of the time he would decline with a small `hn' and disappear.

I looked up at Eros, his emerald eyes were watching me carefully and I found myself blushing slightly under his scrutiny, although I wasn't quite sure why. It was like this every time I left and just like every other time I gave him a bright smile. "Take care of her for me," I whispered.

He nodded and I began to turn away but he reached out and grabbed my hand. "Koibito," he began, waiting for me to look back up into his emerald green eyes. "Be careful."

For a moment I could only look at him. I knew that he worried about me, but he was never one to say anything. I gave him a soft smile and leaned up to kiss his cheek softly, my face inches from his as I whispered, "I promise." Then I turned and moved to join the others who were about to walk through the portal to Improbusaum, but I couldn't stop myself from glancing back once at Eros, ruffled slightly by the concern I saw in his eyes. As I stepped through the portal with Rose I hoped that whatever was bugging him wasn't going to be profilific for today's battle.

We stopped and looked around. The skies were black and a storm was brewing. I could feel the electricity building in the air, so at least I knew that I would not have any trouble tapping into this planet to find my own magical field. We looked around and we couldn't see a soul in sight.

"Where is everyone?" Peace asked softly, her brow creasing as she looked around the deserted planet. From everything that Celestial had ever said about her home it had seemed like a very populated place with both people and monsters, or youma as she called them.

"I don't know," Celestial answered, a frown marring her own face as she looked around. "This place was always full of people."

I was looking around when I suddenly saw something, but I wasn't quite sure what it was. I slowly moved away from the group, walking closer to whatever had pulled on my senses. Then I saw it again. "Celestial?" I called out without turning to look at her.

"What?" she answered distractedly, since she was still trying to figure out where all the people had gone.

"Are the shadows supposed to move by themselves?" I asked turning to look at her over my shoulder.

Her hazel eyes met mine, showing her confusion. "Shadows don't move by them..." she trailed off as the shadow that I had been watching suddenly came up from the ground to tower above me, her mouth falling open.

I turned to look behind me ready to defend myself against whatever had the color draining out of my leader's face, but I was too late. The shadow surrounded me lifting me in the air and swallowed me. I could hear Rose's mental scream as well as Peace's and Faith's verbal ones and a curse from Celestial as well as an order to stay on alert for more of the shadow creatures.

"Well, this is fun," I muttered just before I called upon the powers I could feel around me and the electricity swirled up my staff.

"Love's Electric Shock!"

The shadow screamed and spit me out sending me flying, making me wonder just how smart that move had been as I couldn't help the shrill scream from escaping my throat. I considered myself very lucky as Tranquility had somehow managed to get under me and catch me, but the rate I had been flying through the air sent him skidding back into a wall.

I heard him make a grunt as we impacted. Then he looked down at me, giving me a stern look. "Can you please try to refrain from getting eaten by shadows?"

I rolled my eyes at him as I slid off of his lap and helped him stand back up. "I can try and it isn't like I did that on purpose."

Then we both turned back to the others, who were now surrounded by seven of the shadow creatures like the one that attempted to eat me. They didn't seem to notice us since they were busy dodging attacks from the others. One managed to get hit with Celestial's staff and dissolved.

Tranquility readied his whip, getting into an attack stance. "I say we combine our attacks. It is sure to take out the rest of them."

"Let's do it," I agreed, already powering up my rod for another attack, this time with fire since I already knew that my electric attack didn't kill them, only made them mad. Tranquility had only found out recently that we could combine our attacks, completely by accident during a sparring match where the two of us had paired against Rose and Chesna.

"Eros' Rage!"

"Light's Harmony!"

The fire erupted from my staff to wrap around his whip. He pulled it in and a soft light began to work its way down his whip. He cracked it through the air, releasing his energy swirling with my fire on the shadows, dissolving five of them the instant it touched them.

While that was happening, Virtue and Faith took out the two remaining shadows.

Celestial looked over at me with an annoyed look. "Next time you see something; don't turn your back on it!"

"I think you better yell at her later," Destiny's slightly worried voice filled the air.

We turned to look at whatever had spooked the Guardian of Destiny. There stood a large dragon with what looked like a sneer across its face. "Peasants," it hissed. "You shall die now for I am Metellia."

"Wonderful," I muttered to Tranquility. "I wonder if I can manage to get eaten by that too."

He shot me an amused glance, but refrained from saying anything because the dragon had decided at that moment to attack, sending fire towards us.

Destiny threw up her shield but it had only managed to block her, Peace and Celestial, making the rest of us jump behind pillars and wait for the dragon to take a breath.

"Faith, hit her with physical attacks," Celestial called out. "Destiny isn't going to be able to hold up this thing forever."

I glanced at Faith, who was between Tranquility and me, since I had grabbed her when we dove for shelter. "I will cover you with my own wall of fire while you hit her with one of those nasty little arrows of yours."

She managed to smile at me before nodding. She and I both came out of our hiding place and I immediately threw up my wall of fire, momentarily confusing Metellia buying Faith enough time to shot one of her arrows through my flames, making the whole thing light on fire, adding to her own magical influence.

The dragon hollered in pain and the form shifted to our disbelief. For a split second she was a gas before taking on the form of a banshee, her screeching voice bringing both Faith and myself to our knees, clutching our ears as the sound ripped through us.

Metellia the banshee took the opportunity to hit us with a powerful wall of dark magical energy sending the two of us flying into the same wall that Tranquility and I had hit earlier. She would have hit us again if Celestial hadn't powered up and blasted her with two orbs of energy produced from her staff.

Metellia cried out again, shifting her form again to a lion and threw herself at Celestial, who was doing her best to beat her back with her staff, while Virtue was doing his best to ward off the black energy emitting from the big cat's claws with his hammer.

"Shape shifter," Faith muttered weakly next to me as we both tried to pull ourselves back together.

"How do we kill her?" I asked, knowing that Faith was the only one who ever had experience with anything like this.

Tranquility's whip flew out, grabbing the lion by the throat and pulled her back, while Peace and Destiny teamed up and hit her with a wave of their energy.

Just like the last few times, Metellia shifted again, this time changing into a large winged female creature with snake-like scales all over her body. She sent a wave of black magic at Tranquility, who barely missed getting hit by hitting the ground and rolling to the side.

"You can't," Faith said, shaking her head, clearly she was not fit to resume the fight. Her knees wobbled and I had to catch her and slowly lower her back to the ground so she wouldn't hit it hard. "Shape shifters are immortal. We will have to catch her in between bodies and trap her."

I sighed as I watched her shift into yet another form after another attack, this time from Tranquility and Virtue. "Right, she changes too fast," I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

The body that she chose this time was that of a siren. She looked at the guys, smiling sweetly and began to sing, weaving her magic around them. Both of them dropped their weapons and fell to their knees before her.

I didn't think when I saw her form a sword in her hand, I only moved, noticing that Destiny had done the same thing. I sent my staff, flaring brightly with my magical energy headlong into her at the same time that my twin did. Or two staffs collided with each other and sparked with the combined powers, dissolving Metellia's current form, sending her into a gassy state. We had drained her power enough to temporarily keep her in her gassy form while she fought to recollect herself.

"Trap her!" Faith screamed out.

Celestial and Peace combined their powers, boxing the gassy form in a diamond shaped box. But before they could touch it, it disappeared.

"You shall pay for this," an eerie voice filled the silence.

Destiny and I were both on our knees gasping for air, deeply drained from the amount of energy we had used, while Tranquility and Virtue were kneeling on the ground next to us, trying to shake themselves out of the stupor they were placed in. Even Celestial and Peace looked a bit winded.

Faith slowly made her way to us, frowning at where Metellia had been. "I don't understand how she managed to get away unless she was only toying with us."

"She could have killed us at any time," Celestial muttered. "Metellia has been alive for longer than time, at least according to legends." She heaved a sigh. "At least she is trapped and she can't use any of her magic against anyone."

"Not without a vessel anyways," Peace said thoughtfully. "But there isn't anyone alive that could handle that type of magic."

"Not yet anyways," Destiny gasped out, the sweat dripping on the ground.

Celestial suddenly smiled. People were coming out of their hiding places and surrounding us. It would seem that we had just freed our leader's planet. Too bad I ended up passing out on top of Tranquility to enjoy our success.

To be continued...

(1) Koibito means sweetheart in Japanese.