Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Not Without You: a reimagining of Episode 110 ❯ Part One: The Call of Destiny ( Chapter 1 )

DISCLAIMER: Obviously, I don't own Sailor Moon or any of her companions. Also, this is intended to use the names and situations from the North American dub, not the original Japanese. Thus, I have used the NA names, not the original names. So please don't get on my case for the use of the NA dub names - that was done deliberately. I actually wrote two versions of this story - one using the original names and relations, the other using the dub names and relations - and prefered this version to the other.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I have taken some creative license because this is how I feel the episode should have played out. Obviously, some of the things that happen here aren't in the anime; they're little plot elements I've thrown in. I've tried to limit it to things that could have happened, had the "camera" stayed in place long enough. As the subtitle of the story suggests, this is a reimagining of this episode: it's my take on how I think the episode should have been, in addition to what it was.

  NOT WITHOUT YOU:
A reimagining of episode 110 (North American dub)
by Joanne Calypso Blessing (sirbartonslady)
first published April 2002 PART ONE: THE CALL OF DESTINY

The thrum of the waves was a bit hollow, and a poor substitute for the true sounds of the ocean, but in a pinch, a conch shell did the job sufficiently. Michelle Kaioh slowed her breathing to a rhythmic, trance-inducing meter. Slowly, she felt the call of the sea as the tranquility rose up around her, to envelope her, and banish her ill feelings. She would always have the sea...

A strong gust of wind blew across the waves of reverie, and Michelle felt another presence.

"It's not fair, Michelle," the seawind wept in the husky, seductive timbre of the voice of Michelle's partner and cousin by virtue of related fates, Amara Tennoh. Michelle stirred at the soft plea. "You go off into your own world..."

Michelle felt her senses crash back into her mortal body, and she just barely throttled down a groan.

"Don't leave me alone here," Amara continued as Michelle opened her eyes and looked up into a tidepool of weary anguish in Amara's eyes. 'I need you.' The words weren't spoken aloud, but her eyes cried it with all the voices of the winds and the seas. The same disturbance that plagued Michelle was affecting Amara too.

Michelle pulled the conch shell away from her ear, sighing as she became aware again of her surroundings. The still, mirror-glass surface of the Olympic-sized swimming pool, the slight chill of a drop in temperature, the eerie silence of the enclosed structure, and the complaints of her tensed muscles against the vinyl chaise-lounge. Amazing how easily one could lose contact with these tiny realities when horrific visions drove one into deep meditation.

Amara was leaning over the chaise-lounge back, looking down on her with a soft but impassive expression. Michelle could read in her eyes the thought that passed across Amara's mind: What do you feel? What is happening in your heart?

"This morning," she said softly. "I had a dream; I haven't been able to shake off its effects. It's never happened to me before."

"Yeah," Amara said. "I know."

Different than the Silence. It was a painful dream. You felt the pain of a Heartsnatching, yourself. You felt the world implode on you, the seas drown you.

The words remained unspoken, but Michelle heard them as if they had been issued from Amara's throat directly.

Sometimes we can almost read each other's mind, Amara had once told their friend Lita Kino when trying to explain the depth of their bond. Almost? Sometimes Michelle wondered if "almost" was putting it mildly. She didn't believe in telepathy existing... but sometimes things happened that no one could explain.

"You mean, you already knew about it?"

"Of course. I noticed."

I had it too.

Michelle shivered as an eerie feeling prickled at her skin. "So what does it mean?"

"It means destiny has arrived. The pure-heart crystals will finally appear."

Underneath that, Michelle began to sense a current of self-loathing issuing from Amara's soul, and a deeper-still ebb and flow of sickness of the heart.

All the blood I've shed needlessly. All for a mission. Innocent lives risked. How am I any improvement over the Silence?

Amara leaned over a little further and brushed her lips against Michelle's forehead before she turned and left the pool to go back up to their apartment. Michelle felt the current of anguish slowly wane as Amara put more physical distance between them. It did nothing to assuage her fears and her trepidation; it only served to direct her worries to a new subject: could Amara be wasting away? Would she have the stamina to endure this to its final end, whatever that end be?

And if not, could Michelle find the strength to continue on if Amara failed?

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2285349/1/