Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Mercury Mask ❯ All the world's a stage ( Chapter 7 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Mercury Mask
Episode VII
"The Whole World's A Stage"
Scene I
"Okay, here's your breakfast kiddo," Rini said handing Amanda a bowl of oatmeal.
"Thanks," Amanda looked depressed and melancholy. She hadn't felt even close to normal since the beginning of August, but now, September eighth, she felt even worse. She had decided to spend some time with her friends, and Raye hadn't minded that she left the shrine to get some of her energy back. Even Raye had noticed that Amanda wasn't the same.
Amanda had a lot on her mind, one question that she wanted to ask Neo-Queen Serenity. She settled for Rini. "Rini?"
"Yeah?" she said sitting down at the counter next to her.
"Every scout is supposed to have a special power inside them right?"
"I'm not sure I know what you mean," Rini said 'confusedly'.
"You know, like you. When you have the desire to save your loved ones you can release the power of the Silver Crystal, and use its powers to your best ability. And the crystal is stronger than it usually is."
"Yeah, so I still don't see why you're so interested in the Silver Crystal," Rini said trying to get her to the point of the conversation.
"How come I couldn't use my power when I wanted to help my friends the a couple weeks ago?"
"Hahaha, Amanda you can't use your power against other Sailor Scouts!" Amanda looked disappointed in Rini's answer, that's not what she meant.
"I mean...I don't know what my power is and how to find it. I'm talented, academically superior, athletic, even humorous if needs be. Why can't I find it?" Amanda said sounding frustrated.
"Look, you have a power that some kids would kill for. You're young, I'm sure you'll find your real power when you need it. When you need it, all you have to do is look inside your heart. Right here, deep inside yourself," Rini poked Amanda in the middle of her chest.
Amanda giggled, "Yeah, you're right. I've got plenty of time to find it. I guess I can have patience for one thing." Scene II
Two days later, Amanda dressed for school, still not looking well. It was very cloudy outside. Amanda was going to be late for school, but she made no effort to be there on time. She didn't care; she wanted to go home. Home, home to the future. When she reached a particular corner, she turned the opposite direction, away from the school.
A few minutes later it started to rain. Amanda reached a crosswalk and waited for the light to change. Amanda felt someone pull her close to them underneath an umbrella. She looked up and saw Darien smiling down upon her. She took a step away back out into the rain. "I thought you were avoiding me," she said quietly.
"Up until now," he said pulling her back underneath the umbrella, "plus, you're soaking wet."
"It doesn't matter anyway," Amanda said, tears trickling down her cheeks, "No one will notice I'm gone. Remember? I don't even exist yet. I belong in the future, at home."
They had walked quite a ways in silence after that. Darien finally said, "Do you know why your parents sent you here?"
Amanda shook her head no.
"Olivius." He said simply.
Amanda looked at him in confusion, "But Olivius was sentenced to two-thousand years in a distant remote galaxy by the great Serenity. Or so my history book says. She couldn't possibly be here or in the future, if Serena banished her to another galaxy."
"I never thought anybody would confuse the two Serenity's. Olivius was banished during the Moon Kingdom."
"What does Olivius have to do with why I'm a sitting duck in 1997!?!?"
"Calm down, it has plenty to do with why you're here. Do you know who and what Olivius is?"
"Olivius was known as The Marionette, because she used her magic to control people's minds and bodies." Amanda said with a slightly fearful tone in her voice.
"You seem to know a lot about her, but you don't know the connection between you two?"
"The only connection I know is that we posses like powers."
"She's not a Sailor Scout, she's-"
"A witch. I am a sorceress. Witches are just an evil form of that."
"Olivius tried to kill your mom during the Silver Millenium. I helped stop her, along with another girl from the Earth." Darien looked thoughtfully at the sky as if trying to remember something. Though the look did not disappear from his face, he continued, "Olivius said she's return to kill the successor to the throne of Mercury. Which would be-"
"Maige."
"What?"
"The girl from Earth. Your friend Maige, it's a pity Serena never met her. But, can we change the subject?" Amanda said timidly.
Someone laughed from right behind the two, "Oh, no, no, no, I think this is a perfect subject, considering the circumstances."
Darien whirled around, only to catch a glimpse of Malina and then be pinned to a tree. Amanda was pulling on Malina's arm to make her let go of him, but to no avail could she break her grip. "You stupid bitch; let him go!" Amanda screamed and aimed a high kick for Malina's back. No sooner had Amanda's foot left the ground was her ankle in Dainel's hand and he had her flipped upside-down.
"Now, now that's not very ladylike. Now is it?" he said tauntingly.
Amanda gave a little scream of frustration. Then did what her knight instincts told her to do; she kicked Dainel across the face with her free foot. Dainel let go of foot, and Amanda hit the ground with a small crack. Darien heard her whimper, so to speak, in pain.
"Let him go," she croaked, "he's not the one that has it anyway, I am."
Malina loosened her grip from Darien slightly; she seemed interested, "Why should we trust you?"
"Please, I'll go with you, if you just leave Darien alone."
Darien couldn't believe it; Amanda was sacrificing herself for him, when he'd be perfectly fine if they didn't find what they were looking for. Malina gave a little snort, but she let go of Darien. Darien dropped to his knees next to Amanda. Mostly because she was clutching her arm in a way that looked very unnatural. Malina snapped her fingers and Darien and Amanda were surrounded by a pink light. With a pop noise the odd quartet disappeared.
Scene III
Serena nibbled a bit of her rice cake, but set it down deciding she wasn't hungry. She sighed and stared outside listening to the droplets of water pelt the classroom windows.
"Hey girl, something getting you down?" Lita asked kindly.
"Yeah Serena, you're usually finished with lunch before any of us get started!" Mina said worriedly.
"I just can't shake this feeling like something is wrong..." Serena said suspiciously.
"Could it be the Negaverse? Should we call Raye and see if she senses anything too?" Amy said, she being the one to think ahead.
Serena pulled out her communicator and pressed one of the buttons. Raye's face appeared looking quite cross, "If this isn't important Meatball Brain, I swear I'll-" Raye was cut off by Amy who quickly inquired about the strange feeling that Serena was having. Raye had said she didn't sense anything at the moment but had felt that way when she watched Amanda leave the shrine that morning.
Not a moment after Serena turned off her communicator did Amara, Michelle, and a boy none of them had ever seen before came into their classroom. There were two odd things about this boy; one: he wasn't wearing a school uniform; two: he was carrying a sword and a laptop. This to Serena seemed odd, and she thought there would be people staring at him but no one did in fact no one even noticed them.
The three didn't come all of the way into the room, Michelle just nodded at them and they understood and went to the door and into the hallway. In the hallway stood Ken and Greg, looking incredibly confused. The boy who appeared to be about their age was walking away from them, when he was a few feet away he turned around and asked, "Are you coming?"
It finally dawned on Amy to ask who he was, "Who are you?"
"We're on the same side," the boy (JJ) turned his head and sized up Serena. "If you don't want to help me that's fine, but I can't save Endymion myself." He left out Amanda because he was unsure of the grounds she was on with the Sailor Scouts after their last encounter with Sailor Mariner. There was no doubt in his mind they would find out who Sailor Mariner truly was today.
Serena looked alarmed, JJ had said Endymion, which meant he knew about the Sailor Scouts. And that Darien was in some sort of danger.
JJ continued to walk down the hallway, and the Sailor Scouts cautiously, but nonetheless did, follow him. "Where are we going?" Ken asked JJ.
"The auditorium."
"Well he looks ready to brief us on the situation," Amara said questionably and quietly to Michelle. Michelle tried to stifle a giggle, but everyone else gave Amara disapproving glances. JJ also heard this and smartly said, "I didn't intend on it, but if you insist…"
They reached the doors to the auditorium and JJ opened the laptop, which Greg recognized as Amanda's. He sat down on the ground and started typing away. A map of the school appeared and there was a pink line traced around the auditorium. JJ now stood up and looked at the doors as if to study them. "I think you should transform out here, I don't know if you'll be able to inside Malina's barrier," he said decidedly. The Sailors looked at each other hesitantly. "No one can hear you, or see you. And I have memory charms if they do."
"Eternal Moon Power!"
"Mercury Crystal Power!"
"Venus Crystal Power!"
"Jupiter Crystal Power!"
"Neptune Planet Power!"
"Uranus Planet Power!"
"Mercury Knight Power!"
"Jupiter Knight Power!"
JJ cautiously opened the door after all was done. When all were in, the door slammed shut. Amara made an attempt to open it, it didn't move.
"Welcome Sailor Scouts!" Malina's voice said. It was weird; it seemed to come from all around them. There must have been speakers somewhere. "I invite you to watch our wonderful show..."
Spotlights lit up seven seats in the audience. "No thanks, we'll stand," Jupiter said more loudly than she had planned.
"Very well," the spotlights disappeared, but one diverted to the stage. Onto Malina, who stood, microphone in hand, and in a slinky red dress. "May I introduce the stars of our show...To my left we have the incredibly talented, or should I say annoying and weak, Sailor Mariner." Another spotlight appeared on Amanda, her hands tied behind her back, she groaned and didn't look up. "And the incredibly handsome, and gullible, Prince Endymion!" A spotlight presently appeared on Darien, who had put up a fight, and was inside the pink bubble looking particularly angry.
"Darien!" Serena screamed as she ran towards the stage. She didn't get halfway there before she hit the barrier between them and the stage. She pounded her fists on it, tears streaming down her face. No sooner had she felt a small shock was she screaming in pain. Then next thing she knew she was on her knees, crying. Darien heard Serena scream but couldn't get her attention, he could hear them, but they couldn't hear him.
"Hahaha, It's rude to interrupt someone's performance," Dainel said from the side of the stage.
"And now for the main event," Malina said and turned to Amanda, "Now for you my dear." Amanda's screams filled the auditorium as Malina's pulled her hand out of Amanda's chest. Revealing a sparkling heart song, which was only visible for only a moment, for it turned into a clear glasslike flute.
Amanda's eyes went dark as she fell unconscious. Darien took one last attempt to break the shield, and succeeded. Dainel saw this as a threat and with a blast of energy. He hit the wall at the back of the stage.
"If you want to try and get this back, you have two hours, we'll be waiting for the star. I'll see you at the Rewot you pesky little knight." Pop. They disappeared. Serena stood up and tried to touch the barrier, it was gone. And she was off; Serena had never run faster. Scene IV
JJ was typing furiously on Amanda's laptop. Everyone was sitting in Darien's apartment; they had succeeded in getting Raye out of school with a small white lie.
A side drive popped out of the laptop as if it were a CD-Rom drive, displaying three tiny iridescent (if you haven't noticed I like that word) triangles. JJ picked one up and stuck it on Amanda's forehead. She was lying next to him in a bed on the floor. JJ typed for a moment, then the computer responded, "Voice activation activated."
JJ looked at Amanda, "Command, open, 3PPP.exe."
"Opening 3PPP.exe, password entry please."
Everybody was watching him, he felt uncomfortable. He didn't know her password.
"Meatball." Darien said shortly. Everyone thought he was kidding.
"Access granted, welcome to Personal Profile Program, Endymion. Access is un limited."
"Search mode, search Mariner normal vitals." JJ said still not taking his eyes off Amanda.
"So you still haven't told us who you are and why you're here." Serena said curiously.
"It doesn't matter. I'm here to help, I'm on your side and this is my job."
"That explains a lot," Amara said to herself. JJ gave her a remorseful look, "No offense but you're usually a lot nicer to me."
"I've never met you!"
"That's what you think," JJ went back to working with the computer, "Access line in, file save as Mariner current vitals, compare stats, current condition and how much time..."
This all came out very fast and Amy was impressed, for her love of computers had brought her down next to JJ to watch what he was doing. Two things surprised JJ, Amy hadn't asked a single question, and she was sitting next to him.
"Line in accessed, compared stats, current condition is unstable, one hour twelve minutes and thirty-two seconds remaining."
"Send instant SOS e-mail to Charon, rendezvous at Starlight Tower."
"Message sent, time remaining: one hour eleven minutes and ten seconds."
JJ now spoke to everyone else, "I'm going to guess out of guilt I'm going to get help from most of you."
Amara gave him a suspicious look, "What 'guilt'?"
JJ stood up and said, "Well?"
Serena stood up with a determined look on her face, "Come on guys, we're really not giving this guy credit, who cares if we don't know him, he's still Amanda's friend and we should trust him."
"Thanks for the support Princess, by the way name's JJ, How's about we gat lunch sometime?" Darien gave JJ a challenging look; JJ just laughed and said, "I've always wanted to do that. You guys coming, we only have like an hour." JJ was already half way out the door.
Serena was last out the door, she turned to Darien, "I don't want to leave you behind, but someone has to stay behind," she smiled and embraced him, "I don't want you anymore hurt than you already are."
"I'm fine Serena, just hurry and catch up with the others."
Serena nodded and ran down the hall. Scene V
Darien was sitting on the couch looking at the screen of Amanda's laptop; it showed Amanda's decreasing vitals. Then the doorbell rang.
Darien got up and opened the door. Standing at the door was a woman with brown curly and very bushy hair dressed in somewhat renaissance. She smiled at Darien. "Long time, no see you highness."
"Maige?" Darien said in astonishment.
"I may look a little older but I know I haven't changed that much in fifteen hundred years. Aren't you going to invite me in?"
"Yeah sure, I'm just surprised to-"
"No you aren't, you knew I'd show up, especially when JJ sent the SOS to Piper."
"You always see right through me don't you?"
Maige didn't answer, she was looking at Amanda, "I hope to God they hurry," she said quietly, "Where's JJ?"
"He went with them."
"That kid is going to get himself suspended from training, he wasn't supposed to go with them, he's not even a knight yet." Maige said while shaking her head. She kneeled next to Amanda looking at her bruised arm, she clasped onto it with her hand and the bruise seemed to disappear. "That's about all I can do here. This is a waiting game isn't it? I suppose we just wait until they succeed."
Lightning flashed outside, the lights went out. It seemed very dark for a September afternoon.
In the middle of the room a light seemed to glow it was small at first then grew larger. Then it disappeared. Maige heard a groan. Amanda sat up and rubbed her eyes. "I think Sailor Moon and the scouts have succeeded in at least half of their mission," Maige said quietly to Darien.
Lightning struck again and the lights flickered back on. "Huh?" Amanda looked around, "I think I need to stop eating so many of those candies, they give me the weirdest dreams."
Maige smiled and said, "This is no dream Little One." Scene VI
"Damn you stupid pests! Now we've lost it!" Malina screamed.
"Where'd it go?" JJ yelled to Amara who had succeeded in placing a well-aimed World Shaking attack.
"How the hell should I know?"
"I've got it!" This was a voice of the unseen foe. Olivius. "You two are useless, I send you to do a simple job and you can't do it without alerting every one of the princess brats!" Olivius appeared floating above them as everyone watched in awe, in Amy's case, horror. Olivius pointed at Dainel and Malina. Dark lightning sprang from the tip of her finger and struck them, there was a short cry for help from each of them then they disappeared, this time for good.
"Super clones, they're useless without a human accomplice." Olivius cackled. Scene VII

"He didn't?!?!" Amanda yelled so loud Maige thought that all of Tokyo could hear.
Maige brandished a dark brown wand and pointed it at Amanda's throat, "Do I have to make you quiet down, or are you going to listen?"
"Listen, but make it quick, with Jijiko in charge, God knows how much trouble they're in!" Amanda didn't stop yelling even after the threat.
"Calm down, you don't believe that, he's the best knight we had at the time, considering we knew you would consider yourself so insignificant that you would try and sacrifice yourself because you were here."
"Oh, stop telling me off you old bag!" Amanda yelled.
"Amanda!" Darien finally said; he was enjoying Amanda's reaction to what had happened in the last half of an hour.
"Screw this! How does this work?!" Amanda shoved the necklace that contained the funny symbol (A/N: I have to get a scanner, or Lady Nightmare could kindly let me scan what this necklace looks like!) and the time key.
"That?" Maige pointed to the symbol, "Well, I figure you know about the sword, by the way that's not yours. So, you must mean the actual staff. Well, use the same incantation, except replace 'sword' with 'wand'. Easy enough even for you…"
Amanda stuck her tongue out, then sighed and held it out in front of her, "Great gods of Mercury, your power is the key. Surrender the staff given to me!" (A/N: kinda like Card Captor Sakura…I love that show…) The small charm that had appeared to be wire twisted to look slightly like a sign of Mercury with a marble inside one of the loops of wire; now grew into a large staff slightly smaller than Amanda herself. On the top of the staff was a large hollow glass ball with something shining inside of it, though it was empty. "Cool…so this is just likes my wand?"
"It can be used that way, yes, but you can use it for much more too. You sort of accidentally created your own magic, remember when you had that thing about mythology? Yes, just your thoughts created it. You have to remember everything though, every god and goddess, so you can call upon them to help you."
Amanda was stunned, and Darien didn't get it. Though Amanda must have because she nodded and raised the staff so high that it almost touched the ceiling, and then she lowered it and said, "Not here, I'll wreck your apartment with this one. Amanda ran to the door threw it open and ran down the stairs.
"Well, I guess we follow, she's the one who's got to end this…" Maige sighed and followed Amanda out the door quickly and Darien followed.
"She's got to do this herself? From what I've seen…we're all doomed."
"She's got one hell of an act going, she even has you fooled. Maybe she should try acting again. Let me guess, you even think she's speaking like she normally does right?" Maige said this sarcastically, but by the look on his face she said, "Guess so…"
They got outside where it had stopped raining but the wind was whipping and the clouds looked dark and torrential. Amanda twirled the staff like a baton for a moment then raised it once again…
"Maige, which way is north?"
Maige took the wand in her hand and laid it flat in her palm, "Point Me" she said. The wand spun around and pointed forward. "Straight ahead."
"Notus, lend me the wind of the south!" A strong wind began blowing from the south and Amanda lowered her staff and let go. The staff lay horizontal in midair about waist-level for Amanda. "Alright," she said hopping onto the staff like a witch to a broomstick. She turned around and looked at Maige and Darien, "Please come Darien,"
He nodded and went around the corner and returned with is motorcycle. Amanda smiled, "Thank you very much. Hermes, lend me your speed, let no one see me!" He didn't notice how her voice seemed so much sweeter and much more proper as she sped away. Scene VIII

At the Starlight Tower, the scouts weren't having much luck with Olivius. Every attack they threw at her she reflected and it came back at them. So now, they were worse off than they had started, and not a single attack had landed. A bolt of lightning flashed outside and all of the lights went out again. "Oh, great, first we can't hit her, now we can't see her!" Serena said in a panic.
(A/N: This is about to get a bit Harry Potter-ish, I'm sorry, but I'm not good at making up nonsense words to use as spells!)
"Pestering the Pretty Soldier Princesses now are we Olivius?" Came a sweet sing-song voice from the darkest of corners, "Tsk, tsk Olivius, I thought you would've learned by now, that sort of thing gets you banished to Aragog. Oh, you already know that though, don't you?" The owner of the voice muttered something and a light came from the end of a staff. "I believe you have been looking for me? Well, you've got me; and I'd like you to meet my friends. Hesperus?"
Seven more lights appeared all around the room, almost completely illuminating it. Or at least enough that it was hard to see the stars in the sky through the glass ceiling. (They're at Starlight Tower) "Grazie (Grah-zee, "thank you") Amanda! We are the Pretty Soldiers of the future!"
"We are here to protect what has already occurred, from your hands of destruction!" Callisto yelled.
"We are the protectors of this solar system!" (Phobos)
"We are the Children of the New Age!"(Titania)
"Crystal Tokyo will not be destroyed!" Amanda yelled along with the rest of her Sailor Team.
"Buon Giorno Principessa!!!" JJ yelled waving at Amanda, "Vasto tempo no vedere!"
(A/N: That is Italian, and the first part is from one of my fave movies "Life is Beautiful" it says "Good Morning Princess", and I sort of winged it on the second part and it literally translates to "Long time no see")
Amanda bent her head down and shook it, "Nice way to ruin the mood Jijiko…"
(A/N: Amanda calls JJ by his real name, Jijiko, there's two J's so everybody (-Amanda) calls him JJ.)
"Naw, I wouldn't do that…" (Just like JJ…my x-bf…)
"Pathetic…you're not even fighting me!"
"STUNNIFY!" All of the CNA girls bellowed at once, sending beams of light (from the end of what looked like wands (Amanda's is still a staff) to the scouts) at Olivius. These attacks, to the scouts' surprise, were not deflected, but hit her. Olivius screamed out in rage, she too held out what looked like a wand.
"I'll show you real magic!" She pointed her wand at Sailor Saturn, "Crucio!"
Saturn doubled over on her hands and knees and screamed in pain. "Hotaru!" Amanda yelled, "Grr, (heheh) nobody but me can curse my friends…Expelliarmus!"
Olivius' wand flew from her hand and was caught by Maige, and Saturn stopped screaming. "That's alright, I don't need one…I've got this." Olivius held up the flute (nope, I didn't forget about it) to her thin lips and played a short shrill tune. When she finished a circle of blue fire engulfed, and trapped the "original" scouts.
"Don't touch it! It will turn you to ice!" Charon called from the outside of the ring.
"Olivius, be reasonable, this will only get you another two-thousand years on Aragog. Or maybe a lifetime." Maige said trying to negotiate.
"You're forgetting I'm immortal my dear Maige…a lifetime is an eternity. It's no use trying to negotiate anyway this belongs to me!"
Olivius played a very low note on the flute and the fire ring disappeared. "Accio wand!" Olivius' wand flew to her hand. JJ drew his sword and the Sailor Knights followed suit. The CNA scouts each seemed to wield something also. (Phobos: a bow and arrow, Hesperus: umm…a bag of love dust…heheh, Callisto: The Oak Staff, Dione: a very small Silence Glaive, Titania: The Space sword, Triton: The Aqua mirror, and Charon: Something similar to the Garnet Rod)
Olivius let out a high dry evil cackle (Nehelania…O_O…*shudders*).
Amanda's mind was racing with one thought, the same one as Sailor Mercury, Tuxedo Mask, and Maige, "Someone's going to be in her control, but who?"
Olivius stopped the annoying cackling and quietly said, "Imperio!"
Amanda glanced around, no one looked out of the ordinary, except some of the Sailor Scouts looked scared nearly to death, and Mercury looked like she had see a flock of five-thousand ghosts. Then she noticed JJ was walking sideways towards her. She didn't look straight at him, figuring Olivius would make this happen a lot quicker (Killing her that is…for god knows what reason…actually I do! So am I god? No I'm the writer)
Once he reached her and glanced down at her and gave a quiet grunt of satisfaction, "Stupid twit." He pinned her to the wall in under a millisecond. Big mistake; Phobos, Callisto, and Hesperus practically jumped on top of him. Though he made no attempt or even show signs of moving.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Olivius yelled and pointed her wand at the three girls hanging off JJ's arms. They fell to the ground as rigid as boards.
This helping JJ's mobility he raised the sword he was holding with one hand and held Amanda to the wall with the other. She wouldn't have moved even if he had. He held the point an inch away from her face. "I'm going to kill you. Are you scared?" Amanda didn't move as he pulled the sword away from her face a few inches then thrust it forward…

Next Chapter coming up! (Suspense is best in this case…but should the next chapter continue on to more adventures? Will Amanda die? Will JJ be Olivius' slave forever? What the heck is so important that Rini can't be at the Starlight tower with everyone else?)