Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Pandora's Hope ❯ Pandora's Hope ( Chapter 1 )

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

Pandora's Hope, by Jayde




Sailor Moon: Pandora's Hope


"It's in your soul that the true distortion lies."
-Christine, to the Phantom of the Opera

~~ By Jayde, arcenciel9@yahoo.com

~~ Disclaimer- Sailor Moon and all of the characters except for Pandora belong to Naoko Takeuchi, DiC, and various other people with bloodthirsty lawyers that could sue me if I left this out.



Sailor Pluto opened the Gateway of Time. Rather than Tokyo of
the present or the Crystal Palace of the future, she entered an empty
void. Inside a girl looked up in surprise.

She was wearing a dress like the one belonging to Princess
Serenity, but where that dress was pure white this was ebony black.
Gold edging, bracelet, and earrings had been replaced with silver.
Her hair was long and dark red, braided and wrapped around her head.
She had light gray eyes that were wide in surprise with the pain that
usually filled them pushed away temporarily. When she recognized
Sailor Pluto she stood and curtsied. "Guardian."

"Princess. How do you like your ... accommodations?"

The redhead laughed bitterly. "They are what I deserve. If I
may ask, why are you here? Has Queen Serenity changed my sentence?"

Pluto took a deep breath. "Things have happened since you
entered this moment, princess. The universe has progressed." She
hung her head. "The Silver Millennium has ended, murdered by the
Negaforce you released, and Queen Serenity sacrificed herself to
contain it. After a thousand years it has been destroyed by the
Sailor Senshi and Princess Serenity, who were reborn in the present
after they died fighting in the past.

Surprise turned to fear turned to pain as Sailor Pluto spoke.
By the time she finished the girl's entire body was shaking as she
cried. "You should have killed me. Better that then eternity
knowing what I've done."

"Your punishment was for the queen to decide, not me. Perhaps
the Neo-Queen will change it in another thousand years." Before the
redhead had a chance to ask what she meant Pluto continued. "I am
here because Metallia was not the only evil that ever existed, and the
Sailor Scouts have no defense against Sin."

"Sin." She laughed again. "After a thousand eternities I can
still remember every one of them. She had a fondness for those
chimeras. Am I supposed to coach the senshi? Train them?"

Pluto threw her a small pocket mirror. "No, princess, you're
supposed to fight with them." She gestured with her Time Key and the
gateway opened.




When the gateway closed behind her, the redheaded princess
took a first look at the mirror Sailor Pluto had given her. It was
just smaller than her palm, and the back was decorated in patterns of
ebony and ivory beads around smaller shards of mirror. > She
shrugged and set it against her chest. A brief pulse of light changed
her gown into a black skirt and blouse.
"Okay. Now I just have to find the Sailor Senshi."


***************************************************************** *****


>

"Usagi! Do you even know what her name is?"

Usagi jumped. There was a new girl standing next to Miss
Haruna, grinning. She was already wearing the school uniform and had
red hair braided around her head. While the teacher's back was to her
she traced her name on the blackboard. As soon as Usagi had time to
read it she rubbed it out.

"Hope." Everyone stifled a laugh as Miss Haruna's jaw
dropped. To give herself time to recover she pointed the redhead to
sit next to Usagi. They exchanged a wink and giggled as she sat
down.



At lunch, Usagi introduced Hope to Ami and Makoto. She bonded
with Mako immediately, ignoring the fighting reputation as easily as
Usagi had, especially after they found out they were both orphans.
Her American father had died several years before in an earthquake and
her mother more recently of cancer. She also had the ability to eat
almost as much of Mako's cooking as Usagi could. She explained that
she had missed breakfast, and felt like she hadn't eaten 'forever.'


**********************************************************************


Usagi's watch began to beep. She looked down at the
communicator and back up at Hope, who she had been taking to the
arcade. "Uh, I have to go. Gomen ne. See you tomorrow." She took
off towards the park.

> She looked at the
arcade. >

She froze with her hand on the door as a tingling shudder ran
down her spine. >




"For love and justice, I am the pretty sailor-suited soldier,
Sailor Moon! In the name of the moon, I will punish you!!" She
struck a pose.

The chimera dropped the young couple it had just drained of
energy and turned to face the senshi. It was basically a woman, seven
feet tall if you didn't count the delicate antennae on top of her
head. Iridescent blue butterfly wings stretching out behind her made
her look more like a fairy than a monster. Sailor Moon had already
pulled her scepter out, but she paused.

"Ooh, she's beautiful. Are you sure she's evil?"

The chimera answered that by swinging her wings forward and
releasing a spray of razor edged crystal shards. All of the senshi
threw themselves to the ground but were unable to dodge all of the
fragments. Blue crystal sliced through fabric and skin.

"Hai, Sailor Moon," Sailor Mars hissed. "Nice going.
MARS CELESTIAL FIRE SURROUND!" The fire rings glanced off of the
wings without doing any damage. "Uh oh."


"You're no beauty!" > Everyone looked. Standing on the dock was a Sailor Senshi.
Her knee high boots and her bows were gold, while the skirt and collar
were black. Instead of a regular brooch her chest bow was centered
with a design in black and white, with small pieces of mirror. And
her red hair was wrapped around her head in a braid.

"You're a beast! I am the defender of truth, and you have no
right to show yourself this way. Prepare to face cold reality,
because I will punish you!" The butterfly woman turned toward her but
wasn't given a chance to throw her crystals. "PANDORA!" The new
scout brought her hands down to the brooch. "INNER!" She pulled it
off and turned it toward the chimera, reflecting its face. "SOUL!"
She threw it down to the ground. "REVELATION!" With the last word a
golden mist formed above the mirror.

The mist condensed and took shape. The chimera faced its own
soul.

The soul was much less beautiful than the creature it had come
from. Ragged wings the color of an old bruise hung off a twisted
body, horns instead of antennae topped an even more twisted face.
There were no eyes, only empty holes. Immediately the soul roared and
attacked the chimera. It was a very uneven fight.

Before the chimera even finished turning into dust the soul
had vanished. The scouts still hadn't moved, but now they all turned
to the new scout.

She curtsied to Sailor Moon. "Princess. I don't know if it
means anything after a thousand years, but I am sorry." Then she put
her hand up to her chest- at some point the mirror had returned- and
flipped the brooch. A brief flash of light off the mirror, and she
vanished as completely as the chimera's soul.


"Okay. Everybody, back to the temple. Meeting. Now."





"But she knew I was the Moon Princess! And she knew it had
been a thousand years since the Moon Kingdom was destroyed!" Usagi
wasn't crying, yet.

> Luna
sighed. "Usagi, calm down. I'm sure there's an explanation.
Perhaps she simply has more of her memories from the Silver
Millennium."

Artemis spoke up too. "Are you girls sure that she said
Pandora? As in Sailor Pandora?"

"It was Pandora," Mako said. "Do you know who she is?"

Luna and Artemis glanced at each other. Luna spoke. "Well,
there was a myth during the Silver Millennium about a princess of
Pandora, one of Saturn's moons."

Artemis picked it up. "The Pandoran royal family had the
hereditary duty of guarding a box-"

Ami cut him off. "Pandora's box? Like in the Greek
mythology?"

"Exactly. Princess Pandora opened the box and released the
evils of the universe. Then she disappeared."

"But Pandora would have died long before the Negaverse
attacked," Rei pointed out. "She couldn't be reborn without the
power of the Ginzuishou, and I can't see that being used for
someone who literally let all hell break loose."

"Mina-chan," Ami said suddenly, "can I see your compact?"

"Huh? Sorry, I zoned out there."

"I noticed," Artemis muttered darkly.

Everyone ignored him. "Your Sailor V compact," Ami repeated.
"Can I see it?"

"Sure." She pulled it out and handed it over. "Why?"

Ami started scanning the compact with her minicomputer. "Well,
Sailor Pandora threw a mirror on the ground for her inner soul attack,
and she used it again to vanish after the fight. That sounds sort of
like what your compact can do- reflect true forms and disguise you.
I'm running a multi-level algorithm to try to track any parallelities
between the two."

Everyone sat there for a minute while she continued the scan.
"Huh?"

"I'm comparing the compact with Pandora's mirror." She
punched a few more buttons. "I thought so."

Mako smiled at her. "Care to enlighten us idiots?"

"They're not just similar, they're identical. Your compact
contains part of Pandora's mirror. It's not much, though. I don't
think it will have any effect on her."

"And that means what?"

"If she can disguise herself, she could be anyone, and there's
no way for us to find her. Other than that, I have no idea." She
shrugged.

Sweatdrops.


**********************************************************************


"AAAHHH!!! I'M LATE!!" Usagi wailed. She was running full
speed towards the school, and didn't see Hope before they collided.
Hope picked herself up, and helped Usagi. "What's the rush?"

"I'm late for school!!" she wailed again. Hope gave her a
weird look.

"Uh, Usagi-chan, it's Saturday. There is no school. Do you
want to go to the arcade or something?"

This took a moment to grasp. "Saturday?"

Hope nodded. "Saturday. Where did you run off to yesterday,
anyway? I didn't think you could move that fast."

Usagi just couldn't think fast enough to get a grip on
things. Except that she was going to kill Luna when she found her.
"Um, I had something I forgot to do. Kind of an emergency. Gomen
for ditching you like that. Did you say something about the arcade?"

"Yeah," Hope laughed. "I have no clue what that Sailor V game
you were talking about it."

"You've never heard of Sailor V? Where have you been?!"

Hope laughed again. "You'd be surprised."



Inside the Arcade, Usagi introduced Hope to Motoki. Then she
dragged her back to show her the Sailor V game. "See? Sailor V is
this way cool crimefighter- not as cool as Sailor Moon, of course,
but-"

"I heard that, Odango Atama."

"Uh, Mina-chan, hi." All Hope saw was a lot of blond hair
and a red bow hovering over the Sailor V game.

"Odango Atama?"

Usagi sighed. "Don't you dare. I have enough people calling
me that when it's just Rei and Mamoru. Don't start." She took
advantage of changing the subject. "Minako, this is Hope. She just
moved here and she's in my class. Hope, Minako."

Minako muttered something over her shoulder before turning back
to Sailor V. She had already died. "Thanks a lot, Usagi. Hi, Hope.
Nice to meet you."

"Same. Hey, you did pretty good. You got one of the top
scores." She looked again. "You have most of the top scores."

Minako smiled. "I'm pretty good as Sailor V. How 'bout you?
Ever played?"

"Iie. I'll leave it to the expert. Usagi- Usagi?"

Usagi was totally oblivious. Mamoru had walked in, and it
looked like they were making up for lost time. A lot of lost time.

"That's Mamoru," Mina explained. "Usagi's boyfriend. They
just got back together."

They were still kissing. "She's going to be attending his
funeral if she doesn't let the poor man breathe." > They finally surfaced for air.

"Hope, this is my boyfriend Mamoru."

"Mina pointed him out," she said dryly. "What on Earth could
have broken you two up? You look like soulmates."

Mamoru was suddenly uneasy. "Well, it seemed right at the
time." He turned to Usagi and smiled at her. "But you're right
about soulmates. We're going to be together forever." He kissed her
again.

> It was impossible to mistake the
feelings and memories those two were all but glowing with. Especially
for one who had not lost memories and abilities through death and
rebirth. > Something else clicked into place.
> She burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?"

Hope decided quickly that now was not the time. "You two just
reminded me of something. > "See you Monday, Usagi-chan."




"VENUS LOVE-ME CHAIN ENCIRCLE!" The golden string of hearts held
the chimera while the Senshi caught their breath. None of their energy
based attacks had affected the thing, which was part man and part
peacock. The feathers, while gorgeous, were as sharp as Tuxedo Kamen's
roses. They could also block said roses. "Any day now, Sailor Moon!"

Sailor Moon pulled out her scepter. "MOON SCEPTER
ELIMINATION!" The chimera took the blast and grunted, but didn't die.
Sailor Moon began to wail. "What do I have to dooooooooo???????"

"All of you at once! Finish it!" Pandora was on a fire
escape and seemed content to just offer advice.

Without questions, they got into a circle. Before the chimera
could recover, "SAILOR PLANET POWER!" had moondusted it.

Tuxedo Kamen couldn't help, so he headed for Sailor Pandora.
She shook her head. "Curious, aren't you Mamoru?" She smiled when he
froze. "Say hello to the girls for me. Again, I'm sorry." Again,
she vanished.

"Senshi? We need to talk."




"She knows who I am."

"What?" "How?"

Mamoru shrugged. "I don't know. But she called me by name,
and not as a prince. She knows who I am in this life."

Usagi was staying calm. "Do you think she knows that I'm
Sailor Moon?"

"Probably." Mamoru's smile was a little bit rueful. "Our
relationship isn't exactly a secret, and everyone knows that Sailor
Moon and Tuxedo Kamen are an item." Usagi blushed.

"If she knows who you two are, it's not a very large leap to
identify the rest of the senshi," Luna pointed out. "And once she's
certain about your identities, the enchantment in your transformations
won't prevent her from recognizing you."


Perched in a tree outside the temple, Pandora petted Phobos
and Deimos as she listened.


***************************************************************** *****


That Monday, thanks to a delicate application of claws by
Luna, Usagi escaped detention. During lunch, before she sat down
with Ami and Mako, Hope managed to catch her. "Hey, Usagi-chan.
Can I talk to you after school?"

"Uh, I was going to meet some friends of mine." Ami though
she might be able to come up with a program to track Pandora, and they
were going to compare notes. She was going to try to get a hold of
Rei's manga collection.

Hope grinned a little evilly. "If it's Ami, Makoto, Minako,
Rei, and Mamoru you can bring them." She handed her a piece of
paper. "I'm staying at this address. Luna and Artemis would probably
have some things to share as well, once their memories get jogged."




"Do you think we should transform?" They were at the address
Hope had given Usagi. "We still aren't sure if she's on our side."
Ami shook her head. "She may not be positive about who we all
are yet. We don't want to give ourselves away."

"In order- not yet, I am, I am, and you just did." She was on
the fire escape again. "I'm still not sure about you, Mamoru. There
were no male senshi in my time and I know nothing like your roses."

"It's a gift. I was the Prince of Earth." Hope nodded. It
fit.

Luna spoke up off of Usagi's shoulder. "You know who we are,
but who exactly are you? The only Princess of Pandora that we know of
died long before the battle with the Negaverse."

She bowed. "Gomen nasai. And you are mistaken- I did not
die." She closed her eyes. "Would that I had."

"Are you saying you're *the* Pandora?" Mako was incredulous.
"How is that possible?"

More pain crossed her face. "The Queen Serenity sentenced me
to imprisonment in an eternal moment regulated by Sailor Pluto. I do
not recommend it for vacations. The Guardian released me when one of
my evils returned."

Evils were Rei's turf. "What kind of evil? And why did she
release you? We'd have worked out using the Sailor Planet Power on
our own."

"True. But the chimera will continue to gain strength, and if
you are drained from fighting them you will have no chance against
Sin."

"Sin?"

"She's the one sending the things. That's another bonus of
mine. I can take you to her."

Ami was fascinated. "You know where she is?" The computer
was out and scanning.

Hope nodded. "An unfortunate side effect of releasing them.
I have some sort of link to them, probably similar to the one shared
by you two." She pointed to Usagi and Mamoru. "You do realize that
it's not going to get any easier if you wait for her to come to you.
Now, if none of you have anything pressing, shall we?"

"What, now?" They were willing to fight any evil, but this was
very short notice. Hope seemed to be taking it very casually.

"You have something better to do?"

Everyone exchanged glances, shrugged and shook their heads. Rei
mumbled something about being way too optimistic.

"Moon Crystal Power Make-Up!"

"Mars Star Power Make-Up!"

"Mercury Star Power Make-Up!"

"Jupiter Star Power Make-Up!"

"Venus Star Power Make-Up!"

Darien pulled out a rose and transformed into Tuxedo Kamen.
For some reason Hope seemed to find that hilarious, especially when
he threw his hat.

"Pandora Mirror Power Make-Up!"

For a second, as she held her mirror over her head with one
hand, the black skirt and blouse seemed to become something else.
Then her body began to shimmer gold as bars of light shot down into
something like a cage. The bars pulled in around her, exploding in
bursts of white light, and when everyone's eyes cleared Sailor Pandora
was posing with her hand punched into the air. The mirror was
centered on her bow.

"Just do it like a standard teleport. Follow my lead."


**********************************************************************


The teleport dropped them in the middle of nowhere.
Literally. There was something solid under their feet, but nothing
except black was visible in every direction.

"Homey little place she's got, isn't it?" Pandora observed.
The black in her uniform gave her the appearance of a group of
floating body parts. "She could use a good interior decorator."

"That's the understatement of the century. Any ideas on which
way to go?"

Pandora shook her head. "Don't bother. She's here."

"Spoilsport." The voice came from all directions. "Of course,
I should thank you. I owe you so much."

Pandora smiled pleasantly. "Save it. Would you please just
be somewhere? I know you can."

The darkness drained into one figure that was more or less
human and shifted continually. It didn't walk, it flowed, and made
your eyes hurt if you watched too long. Everyone took the chance to
look at their surroundings, revealed now that Sin had condensed
herself. It was a rough-walled room, or maybe a partially smoothed
cave. Either way, Pandora had been right about a decorator.

"Satisfied, liberator?"

"Iie. I think I will be after everyone else has a chance
to say something." She gestured to Sailor Moon.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I stand for love and justice, and in the name
of the moon, I'm going to punish you! I am Sailor Moon" She posed
as everyone sighed.

"I was thinking of something more along the lines of 'Moon
Scepter Elimination.'"

Sailor Mars resisted the urge to smack them both. "MARS
CELESTIAL FIRE SURROUND!" The streaks of fire passed through Sin
without any effect. "Not again."

Sin laughed. "If that's all you have I'm amazed you managed
to defeat even two chimera. No matter. They'll have free reign when
you die."

Sailor Jupiter stepped up. "Yeah, about that. SPARKLING WIDE
PRESSURE!" She threw the ball of lightning that had as little effect
as Mars' fire. However, it did annoy Sin.

With the bad lighting in the cave no one had thought the
number of shadows unusual. Sin had put herself somewhere.

She never said it was all of herself.

Within seconds the little strips of shadow rose everywhere,
even off the silhouette cast by each senshi. In a few more seconds
they were all being slowly suffocated by formless darkness. Except
for Sailor Pandora.

She looked at the shadow-held senshi. "How amazingly
unoriginal. I guess I released plagiarism too. One more thing to
lock me away for."

"PANDORA INNER SOUL REVELATION!" The gold mist of the attack
was streaked with black before it even finished taking shape. Before
it finished it was totally black and had melted back into Sin. She
laughed again and held up one amorphous hand. She held Pandora's
mirror.

> A quick movement by Sin snapped the mirror in
two and threw it to the ground. Sailor Pandora winced as her fuku
dissolved, leaving her in the black and gold princess dress. Around
her the senshi and Tuxedo Kamen were beginning to gasp for air.

Princess Pandora knelt and picked up the broken halves of her
mirror. She sighed softly. She's been hoping that this wouldn't be
necessary, but it was clear that she had only one option.


"Pandora's Box."


Gold light glowed softly from each piece. She looked up for a
moment and slammed them together.

Blinding light erupted out from her hands. It was impossible
to look directly at the gradually forming gold cube in the center of
the radiance. When it faded a golden box floated. Sin pulled back in
fear and the shadows constricting the scouts flooded back into her.

The box opened as Sin fell back even further. What emerged
was a gentle glow that enveloped the scouts. Each of them took a deep
breath and stood.

"Mars Power!"

"Mercury Power!"

"Venus Power!"

"Jupiter Power!"

"Cosmic Moon Power!"

The pure white light of the Ginzuishou flooded out and
drove the shadow that was Sin into a solid mass. Then it burned
the darkness away.



"Hope!" Sailor Moon ran over to her friend. "Hope, get up!"

Sailor Mars walked over to her. "She's dead, Usagi." She
put a hand on her leader's shoulder. "You can't help her."

Sailor Moon was still crying when the Gate of Time opened.
Sailor Pluto stepped through and lifted the body.

Serena looked at her accusingly. "You could have done
something."

"I could not. She gave you hope. It was all she had left and
all she could do." She looked down at the body in her arms. "It was
the most she could do." The gate closed behind her.


Sailor Jupiter walked to the gold box that lay on the ground.
Enameled in black on the lid were the words,

"Open me, and you shall see
not what is but what could be."

She lifted the box and opened the lid. It dissolved into a shower of
gold sand and left her holding the Pandora Mirror.