Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Pleiades Senshi: Awakening the Kingdom ❯ Sailor Taygete: Awaken, Flame of Atlantis! ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter 1: Sailor Taygete: Awaken, Flame of Atlantis

By Princess Nekosama


Disclaimer: Sailor Moon is owned by Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha, Toei, and like, half a dozen other companies. I don’t own any of it and this is not for profit in the least.

Yuuko was sent to the guidance counselor’s office again after her latest little outburst. Arms folded over her chest, she sat there quietly brooding over the situation while she waited for the guidance counselor to arrive.

It was only barely minutes before Ms. Kusakino arrived, closing the door behind her. “Ah, Yuuko-chan… sorry to keep you waiting, you know how deadlines can be,” she said softly, before sitting at her desk. “…And what was the incident today? Another fight?” she asked.

“It was Sayuri’s fault. The little snob started it, I just finished it,” Yuuko said, slouching a little in the chair. “…You should be talking to her about her attitude towards her classmates, she’s such a little priss, it’s really unfair. Just because her parents are well off doesn’t give her any right to tease the rest of the class.”

“The rest of the class meaning you, of course,” Ms. Kusakino said, letting out a soft sigh. “Yuuko-chan, you’ve really got to learn to keep your temper under control… this attitude of yours isn’t productive at all, and your grades are slipping… your teacher tells me your math grades are becoming positively appalling. You do want to get into a good class next year, don’t you?” she asked, looking over Yuuko’s file.

“Well yes… but the work’s too complicated anyhow. How am I supposed to keep up on practice and finish that much work to start with?” she asked, resting her chin in one hand.

“Hard work, for one. If your grades slip any lower you know, you’ll likely end up getting cut from the team, and I know you don’t want that…” Ms. Kusakino said softly, giving Yuuko a meaningful look. “…Tell you what, there’s an upperclassman who’s picked up tutoring math recently, I think you two will get along well. Three days a week until your grades pick up, hm?”

“If it’ll keep me from getting kicked off the softball team, sure,” Yuuko said, standing up. “…I’m done, right? I won’t punch Sayuri anymore if you can get her to keep her comments to herself.”

“Yuuko-chan, I think a broken nose should be persuasive enough of an argument for her to stop, as it is. Here’s your new tutor’s contact information, okay?” Ms. Kusakino said as she handed Yuuko the paper with another student’s address and phone number. “Run along back to class now, we don’t need you missing any more work, hm?”

Yuuko nodded and headed back out to the classroom, letting Ms. Kusakino time to lean back in the chair and let out a long sigh. “Can’t afford to have her kicked of the team, the softball club this year’s doing so well… and she’s going to need that teamwork skill soon enough…”

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Yuuko hmmed softly as she headed down the road looking for the proper address, following numbers until she found the right one. “…Well, at least it’s not too far from my house,” she murmured, as she knocked on the door, waiting to be let in.

It took a moment, but soon the door was opened by a gray haired lady just a little taller than Yuuko. “…Hi, can I help you?” she asked softly.

“Um hi, I’m here to see ah… Arashino Chie?” she asked, looking up at the lady. “…Is that like, your daughter or something?” she asked, frowning a little bit.

The lady’s expression flickered a little bit with amusement. “No miss, I’m Chie,” she says, stepping back from the door. “…You’re the student that Ms. Karakino sent me to tutor?” she asked, heading toward the table where an expanse of school books were set out.

“You’re…? Well I was gonna say, other than the hair color you look young for your age, but if… guess that’d make sense… what, are you in the local college or something?” she asked, looking at some of the textbook titles as she sat down.

Chie giggles a bit and shook her head. “Hardly. I’ve just always been advanced in math and literature, so I’m in fairly advanced courses for those. Most of the rest of my subjects are fairly on par for my grade level,” she says, holding up one of her other textbooks.

“So you’re only a year ahead of me? How come you… oh sorry, that’s kinda rude, isn’t it…” Yuuko started to say, then stopped herself.

“Ah, the silver,” Chie murmured, running her fingers through her hair. “No one really knows. My mother started silvering at an early age, but only when she was a bit older than I am now. This started when I was about six, and it’s been solid silver since last year. Not entirely sure why,” she said, giggling softly. “Now, where exactly where you having troubles on your math homework?” she asked, opening one of the books.

“Trinomial suqares,” Yuuko said, sitting back on her hands. “…Never can quite get those…”

“They’re sending you to me when you’re in that level of classwork?” Chie asked, blinking a little. “…Wow… for your grade, that’s not that bad a place to be stuck, really. Usually I have to deal with more basic issues… hm. Well then, the formula is ax squared plus bx plus c, you know, right…”

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The room was dark, but everywhere here was dark. How else would the place earn its name? Still, in this place there was a strange sort of beauty still. The deep colored stone wasn’t entirely black here, instead swirling a bit with almost hypnotic color, in deep shades that no human eyes could truly appreciate. The occasional Dark Flowers fed off the energy of humans collected by the Gardeners were kept in meticulous care, despite the dangerous runs to Earth to collect so vital a food source. For keeping the flowers alive was helping to support the lifeblood of the Kingdom, and strengthening the Kingdom helped chip away at the most hated thing in the Kingdom. That horrid seal of white-hot energy that held their beloved Queen prisoner.

The Caretaker of this area’s division of Youma strode silently through the halls, one of the few survivors of the last incident damaging their precious Kingdom and way of life. The blinding light of the invaders nearly decimating their population, and forced her to go recruit more from among the populace of Earth. Little twists here and there at the ley lines of the planet, tiny tweaks small enough to be undetected by that planet’s guardians. They kept a low profile, making minor raids and causing little damage while their enemy were fighting others from their beloved dark universe. The counterparts of the White Moon, ironically beings from Earth banished to that dark Moon instead of like them, refugees from that horrible white Moon trapped for millennia in this dark Earth, shut away from the light. The travelers from the dark Tau system who foolishly sought the light. The Mother of their own dark Queen. All served perfect cover for their plans.

The youma had learned, naturally. The attentions of the Sailor Senshi were only drawn when humans were drained to near capacity. Little sapping here and there seemed to cause no distress. Sure, sometimes the media responded faster than the senshi seemed to, noting a rise in crime rates or suicides due to their focusing on sapping strength, when amplifying their victim’s darker emotions seemed to be a direct side effect, but they’ve not seen sight of a senshi except perhaps in passing. And life rolled on, slowly restoring itself to the Kingdom’s former glory, nearly the strength they had been before the last little conflict.

Even now, there was a meeting in the former throne room that she was late to. The old throne had been converted into more on the lines of a meeting hall these days, the throne a place of worship to their martyred, fallen Queen. Even here, down the halls of the Kingdom where straggling youma were just arriving into the hall, the voice of their Leader could be heard, raising a rallying cry.

“Even now our enemies live free, happy lives while we languish here. They prosper where we have nothing, they thrive while we cling to the shreds of our existence. They gather and raise together more precious Star Seeds to defend their false existence of peace and purity, while they themselves are a beacon to foes, drawing threats from all over the universe to damage the world that is rightfully ours! And for what? To protect that traitorous princess who stole our Queens from us!” the voice called out, youma cries all around the single male in the center of the dais who stood alone, raising a fist in defiance. His golden hair fell in waves down his back and eyes gleamed brightly as he spoke with fervor to his people.

“We will have our time again. The light can’t hold on forever, even the brightest stars burn out. They do not realise that without us, their light is nothing! Without darkness there is no light! And their seal cannot last forever. Thanks to all of your valiant efforts, the losses have been minimal, and that wretched seal has been steadily weakening. Soon our kingdom will return to its former glory, and their star will fade from the light and be returned to glorious, eternal darkness!” Another rallying cry sprung up from the youma, their voices raised to praise the speaker on the dais, while the Caretaker just stood toward the back and smirked, arms folding over her chest.

“Now go, bring back more energy, stir up the chaos in the human heart. They’ll see their gilded little world fall apart with no apparent enemy, a threat they cannot even see! Pull their world apart brick by brick, and stand to watch their world crumble around them! For the Glory of the Dark Kingdom!” the speaker shouted, raising one hand again.

“For the Glory of our Eternal Queen!” the youma chanted in unison, fists and paws and such raised in defiance along with the speaker, before the crowd quickly dispersed, each to their separate missions around the world. Soon none were left but the Caretaker and the Leader.

“Rousing speech as ever, Heliodor,” the Caretaker said as she stepped closer. “How has the seal really been coming?” she asked, hands shifted to fold behind her back.

The blond man grinned and beckoned her closer, waiting for the Caretaker to approach before teleporting the two of them to the Sealed Chamber directly. Or at the least, the entrance to it. Sure enough, the white-hot barrier still covered the entrance completely, the complex spell so intricately woven and patterns of Moon Runic stamped over it so brightly that it almost was blinding to even look at. Here and there though, tiny darker spots were starting to swirl through the pattern, little graying threads in the magic weave. And in one corner, a long string of the ancient Hollow Runic writing was branded in black, deep letters.

The Caretaker ducked a little to peer at the writing. “Impressive, really. For so long of work though, to only have this… all that effort from that many youma worldwide and you’ve only this to show for your work?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“The Moon Princess’s spell is stronger than she probably knew. The fact that six Star Seeds and all their power made this, makes it all the harder to break. The fact that they were reborn again through their own wish did nothing to lessen the power any. …It’ll take more than just my doing to weaken this. You know what needs to be done here, as much as I do.”

“Indeed, Heliodor… though the way you’re going about it, I don’t think is your best idea in the world. Don’t you think Nephrite would object a bit to you wearing his clothing?” she asked, chuckling softly. “You’re a pawn, not a King, my dear. And the uniform makes you look like you’re a little boy walking around in adult’s shoes, playing dress-up.”

“Do not take it upon yourself to insult me, Cassiterite. Crossing the playing field by oneself still entitles you the right to play the part of a King,” Heliodor recounted. “Besides, I don’t see you working to help our Kingdom here.”

“That was a chess analogy, not checkers,” she said, frowning. “And what do you think I’ve been doing? Keeping our ranks in line, sending them on missions away from those meddling brats. War torn countries make for great places to stir up strife and dissent. All these fighting countries bickering amongst themselves, blowing themselves up to kill each other… it’s a great place to gather energy, and no one really misses the individuals targeted. …Besides, I found something recently you might be interested in.”

“Do tell. What in the world could you have found that could distract me from my work on the Seal?” Heliodor asked, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing his eyes.

“Tourmaline got our Queen’s old crystal active, and she’s found an unawakened Star Seed,” Cassiterite said, immediately catching Heliodor’s attention. He blinked a bit and a slow smile spread across his face.

“Oh did she now…well. Then you know what to do, hm?” he chuckled, waving her off.

“Yes sir, for the Glory of our Eternal Queen,” she said with a grin.

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It was much later, but Yuuko was walking with a bounce, humming a cheery little tune. Chie was such a nice girl for an upperclassman, she didn’t talk down to her or anything, even if she was more reserved and polite than most of Yuuko’s friends. Yuuko felt a little bit rude at times with how Chie would gently correct her speech on occasion, but Chie never seemed to actually get angry about Yuuko’s upfront attitude, and the lesson went pretty smoothly once everything got started. Yuuko was almost home when she heard a loud crash and someone shriek down the side street near her house. The redhead immediately turned and peeked down the side street, wondering what the heck could be going on. What she saw though, was completely nothing she expected.

What she saw, in fact, was a red-haired girl fallen over on her backside, and trying to creep away from a humanoid monster that looked entirely like a very strange warp off of a gingerbread house. The girl, naturally, she recognized immediately, as her elder sister Ayako. The monster held some sort of energy ball over Ayako’s chest, while the girl looked near about to fainting.

“Stupid crystal isn’t working, or this girl has stronger will than she appears to,” the monster growled, as it thwapped a crystal in its hands. It seemed to look up for a moment before focusing on its work again. “Yes Mistress,” it muttered, before concentrating again and focusing harder, making the ball of pale red energy at Ayako’s chest flare brighter while she shrieked loudly again.

“Someone HELP!” Ayako cried shrilly, before falling back and seeming to pass out.

Don’t just stand there, a voice murmured in the back of her mind. She wasn’t even sure if it were her own or another, but it was certainly compelling. That thing is attacking your sister! Do something!

Yuuko needed no further prompting, before she ran at the monster, picked up a trash can lid, and Frisbee-style, aimed it at the monster’s head, cracking a candy cane and knocking a large piece of candy off.

“Hey you! Picking on helpless teenagers in such a nice little neighborhood! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!” she snapped, hands resting on her hips and feet spread in a defiant stance. Placing herself as directly between Ayako and the monster as she could, to try to protect her sister. “Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?”

“My size? Little miss thing, you aren’t even -her- size, let alone mine,” the monster said, rising to its full height at well over six feet tall, nearly seven. Yuuko gulped visibly and didn’t back down still. The monster chuckled softly and lifted a hand. “Well fine, if you want to play too… since this girl’s worthless to me, I’ll just take your energy as well and call it a day!” the monster growled, holding the ball of Ayako’s energy in one hand and aiming the dark little crystal shard in the other straight at Yuuko, releasing a pulse of dark energy.

Yuuko did perhaps the dumbest thing she could think of, but at the same time, couldn’t imagine reacting any other way. She dove forward and lifted a foot to kick the ball of energy high, deflecting the thing off her foot like a soccer ball. The energy pulse sailed up into the air, before trying to target at Yuuko again, instead going through the cookie arm of the monster and jarring the energy ball out of its grip. Naturally, the ball of pale red light tried immediately to rejoin its source, regardless of objects in the way, such as Yuuko’s chest. The light ball shot directly through the younger girl, tearing a shriek from her as it appeared on the other side of the teen to rejoin its original owner. Ayako’s eyes flickered open as the light settled on her, sitting up and rubbing her head.

“Yuu-chan? What’s going on?” Ayako asked drowsily. Her eyes widened to nearly saucer plate size as she saw the monster was still there.

“Don’t worry about it. Just get out of here, Aya-chan! Go get some help!” Yuuko ordered. The girl was clutching the spot in her chest the light ball passed through, panting loudly. “House is right around the corner, I’ll be fine, just go!”

Ayako scrambled to her feet, not really wanting to argue with that logic. As much as she wished she could stay and defend her sister, their house was not a minute away, and she was sure the police could do a better job with this than she could. In moments the girl sprinted out of sight round the corner, leaving Yuuko alone with the monster.

“Well now… looks like I targeted the wrong red-head…” the monster muttered, peering at the crystal’s reactions carefully. “Can’t blame me really. I figured anyone possessing a Star Seed would be a little more… buxom and pretty, not some piddling little snot nosed brat like you.” With that, the crystal was raised again, but the energy pulse this time was stopped before it could even reach Yuuko, as a wave of heat around the girl’s body simply dissipates the dark energy. A symbol like a curving V in the center of an upright triangle blazing in place on her forehead.

That’s it, you can do it! Now, say the words…!

“Taygete Star Power! Make-Up!” Yuuko heard her voice shouting, though her mind didn’t seem to remember where those words came from. The wall of heat turned to a swirl of fire around her, her clothes almost seeming to burn away as the fire swirled closer, though she felt no pain. In a moment, the flames had coalesced against her body, revealing a new uniform not unlike her school clothes, though mostly redly designed and more practical for fighting.

The monster didn’t even have time to react, only stare as the transformation took place too quickly, and soon saw that instead of a helpless schoolgirl, it was face to face with a senshi.

“You don’t go around just attacking innocent children! Looks like you’ll have to be punished now, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles,” Sailor Taygete snapped, before balling her hands together. Looking like she was getting ready to throw a baseball instead of her usual softball position, a ball of light formed between her cupped hands, as the monster at first simply stared, then turned and tried to run away.

“Taygete Blazing Fastball!” she shouted, hurling the ball as hard as she could and following through with a step like a professional ballplayer. The fireball hit the monster square in the back, catching the cookie on fire, and in moments, the whole thing had gone up into flames, leaving nothing but a small pile of ash and a rather charred looking candy cane in the center.

Sailor Taygete frowned slightly, not really expecting it to be that easy. She didn’t have long to spend dwelling on the idea though, before she heard sirens approaching. With barely a thought about what she was going to do if the police saw her, the strange new uniform glowed ember red and dissolved, turning back into her school uniform.

In moments several armed officers had arrived, though not seeing any suspects, they looked a little bit confused. One of them came closer to Yuuko and ducked a little to get closer to her eye level.

“Miss? What exactly happened here? You ah, sister was it? She was pretty unclear about details on the phone…” the officer asked, trying to be as gentle about it as he could.

“Ayako was… um… attacked. A mugger I think…” Yuuko said quickly. “I didn’t get a good look at the guy… I stayed cus I know judo and Ayako is just on the track team, so I figured she’d be able to get help faster once she was up on her feet…” she murmured, tucking her hands behind her back. “…But he took off,” she added, looking in the direction of where the pile of soot and the candy cane was.

“All right then… we’ll send some officers out after him. In the mean time, how about a ride back to your house? And then you and your sister can answer a few questions so we can try to take care of the guy, okay?” he asked.

“Sure,” Yuuko murmured, following the officer back to his car. An officer stayed behind to collect what evidence he could, but he couldn’t really figure out what help a charred candy cane could be. It wasn’t long before the scene was deserted and quiet again.

Not everyone left the scene when the police did, though. A single figure on the roof top stood watching the whole little event, Arms folded over its chest as the night time breeze was starting to pick up. “So it begins, then…” the figure murmured, almost sadly. “And here I thought perhaps things might stay quiet for a while… looks like the Daughters of Atlantis might again be needed…”