Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Sailor X ❯ SX4: The Cycle Broken ( Chapter 4 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Sailor X #4 The Cycle Broken

By: John Brengman

Edited by: Jamie Lewis &

Thomas Schell

PROLOGUE

Beryl wrenched herself free and whirled around. Mars dropped to the
floor, already unconscious. "MOON ZERO MAGIC!" A disk of destructive
magic appeared at the tip of the staff and floated outward towards the
queen.

Beryl roared as the energy consumed her. Scorching pain seared through
the very fiber of her being. Her scream shook the Sailors to their
bones as her body disintegrated before their eyes.

A wraithlike entity floated up from the spot Beryl's body occupied
only moments before. With an evil laugh, the shadow-form swirled
around the room. Beryl's voice boomed, "You still have not defeated
me!"

The wraith rushed across the throne room and slammed into Sailor
Mercury, knocking her to the ground as it vanished into the floor.

Sailor Mercury opened her eyes. She felt icy all over, and it hurt to
breathe. Weakness. She never tolerated weakness. She forced herself to
sit up. Jupiter and Pluto grabbed her hands and helped her to stand.
She shrugged them off. "I'm fine," she muttered coldly.

Too much had happened for the others to be concerned over what was
possibly a quirk of Rachel's combustible personality. The wraith shard
buried itself deeply in the background of Rachel's psyche and settled
down to wait. It needed time to recover. It had found a new home. If
it were careful, it would have all the time it needed...

==> * SM * <==

Noruma District, Yotochib Prefecture 2:24 PM

Near the shore of Tokyo Harbor

The rain continued to pour from overcast skies. Prefecture police
chief Hikari Kumada grimaced into the sky, the weather matching his
mood. He stepped through a large puddle next to the railroad tracks
and joined another officer stooped down near some dense undergrowth.

Partially obscured by the brackish weeds was the naked body of a young
woman. The rain had washed her clean, but both men could clearly see
the thin red line that unnaturally cut across the young woman's
throat. Her ripped undergarments hung waterlogged from one leg.

The police assumed that the unidentified woman was the tenth victim of
a terribly active insane individual who was terrorizing the slums in
this area of the Tokyo-Yokohama-Chiba megacity. The police chief had
been called in by city elders who hoped his expertise might shed some
light on this old case. At the very least, his presence lifted the
morale of the local police, and soothed local fears. The perpetrator
of these crimes would soon be in custody and on his way to the maximum
security facility on Mikura Island. *

But the perpetrator had not been apprehended, and was not yet on his
way to a maximum security facility. While the city maintained its
faith in the police chief, Hikari himself was beginning to show signs
of his frustration.

"What have you found?" He demanded tersely.

"Not much," Lieutenant Ryunosuke replied as he took pictures of the
corpse's neck. "The individual was possibly assaulted and raped.
Obviously, she was then killed and dumped here."

"I don't think we have to pay you thirty-five thousand yen a year for
that sort of expert observation,"

Kumada replied. Was it him?"

Ryunosuke turned toward the nearby shoreline and scanned the
rock-encrusted ground to the north. Taking a few steps, he stooped
down to peer at a wilted scrap of paper. Using tongs he carefully
placed it in an evidence bag. He handed the bag to Kumada. A line of
worry appeared in between the Chief's eyebrows.

It was a playing card, the Queen of Hearts. On the back of the card
was a large red heart surrounded by wicked-looking thorns driving deep
into the heart.

"It's him," Kumada muttered as the coroner arrived and Ryunosuke
continued the picture taking, then gathering the woman's soaked
clothing. It was scattered haphazardly manner near the body. The
clothes were torn and mangled, a testament to the violence of the
crime. Kumada briefed the female coroner, while the Lieutenant
continued to pick up debris. Ryunosuke noticed that the coroner was on
the verge of tears. Empathy and horror were evident on her features.
That must make her job difficult, he thought. Looking at her again, he
also felt a flash of pity in his heart. It hurts, but she is a better
coroner for it.

Kumada was just finishing up with the coroner when he heard Ryunosuke
give an excited shout from a storm drain along the walking path.
"Sir," he waved, "here's another one....and she's alive!" The coroner
turned her head so that the neither her smile of desperate joy and
relief nor her tears would be revealed.

==> * SM * <==

Bethany's House 5:07 PM

South side of Tokyo

"And in local news," the television anchor said, "the Playing Card
Killer has struck again, this time in the Noruma District near
Yokohama. Police reports indicate..."

Sandra, Rachel and Bethany sat transfixed by the news. Precautions in
their neighborhood had been taken after the first couple of victims
had been found.

Luna originally advised the girls to return to their residence at the
foundation headquarters, but Sandra objected. "I think we could all
use some time away from there," she said. When Serenity agreed, the
majority of the girls headed to Earth for a bit of much needed rest
and relaxation. Two days after they arrived, the police reported the
first victim. That was three weeks ago today.

The news report continued. "Again, police found the trademark playing
card at the scene of the crime..." A picture of the playing card
appeared on the screen behind the anchors' head. "Police advise the
population that they are making progress on this case. Additionally,
there are reports that one of today's victims was found
barely-alive..."

"I think we may have to rethink the whole R&R idea," Sandra said
quietly. "The base would certainly be safer right now."

Bethany agreed. "The novelty of being back here has certainly worn
off."

The girls turned to Rachel, still entranced by the news coverage.....

.... she was carried through the dark living room toward her parents'
bedroom. Whimpering with panic, she craned her head towards the couch
and saw her mother was draped unconscious over the side. A bottle
stood on the end table, uncapped. A shot glass lay on its side,
alcohol still dripping onto the carpet.

The back of her head cracked against the door frame as he carried her
into the bedroom. It didn't hurt. She could not seem to feel normal
things. She didn't understand. She didn't have a voice.

The girl was thrown roughly onto the bed with filthy sheets. It was
like a silent movie. Hurt and violence twisted on her face, but the
scene was carried out in complete, oppressive silence. Before she
could scamper away and hide like she always did, his arms pinned her
to the blankets. His hand slapped down over her mouth, bringing tears
to her eyes.

She squirmed but it was no use. He pushed her nightshirt above her
hips. His weight pressed down, compressing her lungs, forcing her legs
apart...She gasped silently, mouthing words she couldn't voice, not
even knowing what she was trying to say. No.

His hand reached out gripping the nightstand near the bed. A deck of
cards tumbled to the carpet. One landed face down...a picture of a
heart pierced by thorns....

She tried to leave her body...

"Rachel?"

Rachel jerked out of her past and saw her two friends looking at her
with concern. She suddenly stood up and crossed the room, grabbing her
jacket and striding towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Sandra asked.

"...hospital..." drifted back through the door as Rachel left the
room.

Beth and Sandra exchanged worried glances. "We'd better go with her,"
offered Bethany. Sandra grabbed her jacket and headed out the door,
Bethany a step behind her.

==> * SM * <==

Yokohama Regional Hospital 6:48 PM

Rachel wrapped her coat around her body as if to shield herself from
harm as she ghosted down the halls of the hospital. She lost Sandra
and Bethany easily and got as far as the nurse's station before she
was stopped. Stating that she was a relative of the victim she marched
firmly into the room.

When she reached the bedside of the woman, Rachel stopped and looked
down at the frail figure swathed in bandages. Machines whirred in the
background, keeping the battered form alive. Shadows shrouded the
room.

A hand touched Rachel's shoulder and she whipped around to see Sandra
standing there, forcing a smile. Rachel stiffened and turned her back
on the girls. Oblivious to Rachel's uncontrolled emotions, Bethany and
Sandra stood and looked at the unconscious form in front of her,
letting the sights and sounds of the room wash over them.

A police officer entered the room. "Who here is the relative?" he
asked brusquely.

Rachel immediately turned and left the room. The police officer turned
and put his arm out to stop her. Sandra started after Rachel, leaving
Bethany to face the policeman. Rachel had only a few seconds head
start but those precious seconds were enough. Sandra's friend was
nowhere to be found. She stopped and scanned the halls. Noticing the
stairway she decided that might be the quickest way out of the
building.

The door slammed shut as Sandra ran down the stairs. The light glared
harshly off the white concrete walls. Sandra ran, searching ahead of
her hoping for a sign that she was going in the right direction.

"Stop," a cold voice ordered as Sandra reached the second floor
landing. Sandra looked and saw Rachel, her eyes the eyes of a
stranger, her face a mask.

Sandra started to jump down over the railing to Rachel, but as she
stepped forward, Rachel snarled. A feral noise emerged from her
throat. Sandra froze. Rachel backed into the wall, growling like an
animal. Sandra steeled herself, and jumped over the railing. Faster
than she could have imagined, Rachel moved forward, grabbed the front
of Sandra's shirt and slammed her into the wall. Sandra's head smacked
hard against the concrete wall and she slumped in a heap on the floor.

Only minutes later, Sandra was seated on a bed while a doctor checked
her head. An officer grimly stood guard outside the door. Bethany sat
next to her friend as Sandra told her what happened in the stairway.

"She did that?" Bethany's eyes widened with hurt at the thought.

Sandra refused to look up. The officer stepped forward. "Ms. Usagi,
we're going to have to ask a few questions."
"We don't have time, officer," Sandra replied as she produced her
business card from her purse. "Tell your superiors to call the Luna
Foundation's legal offices. They will provide you with a complete
report as soon as it's available." She grabbed Bethany's arm and
hurried them out of the room. "Where's Rachel?" Bethany asked as they
hurried down the hallway toward the exit.

"I don't know," Sandra replied. "Which is why we have to call Luna and
have her use the base's scanners to lock in on her."

==> * SM * <==

The shard rejoiced. The perfect hiding place...a person with huge
emotional resources to feed upon. Gleefully it watched from the inside
as Rachel ran through the slums of Yokohama. They grew around the
industrial coastline like a fungus. She passed discarded buildings and
piles of rubble without noticing, intent upon only one thing...

"Revenge!" The wraith shrieked happily. Then, to ensure that nothing
would stop her from carrying out her vengeance, it pulled a memory
from her past...

.....Rachel got off the school bus near her house in Noruma where her
mother had taken her after the two women were kicked out of the house
by her father. The fence protected the adequate yard from debris and
trash outside. The battle against the slums was a hard one. Blue paint
on the house showed its age. Debris piled up against the outside of
the fence, closing in the house. Most of the people on the block were
either old or too poor to move themselves to a better neighborhood, or
too useless for their families to move them.

This neighborhood had one thing that kept Rachel and her mother here.
That was safety. Her father would never find them.

Rachel pulled her key from her pocket and reached for the doorknob.
She felt a flash of apprehension as the door opened without
resistance. "It's usually locked...Maybe she forgot?" Rachel didn't
really think so, and she entered the house cautiously.

There were no dishes to be done in the kitchen. A first. Rachel
shrugged off her fears. That's one chore I don't have to do, she
thought.

She entered the living room. The curtains were closed, and the lamp
was on. At four in the afternoon?

Rachel went to turn the light off, but as she reached the couch she
saw her mother lying on the ground behind it. "Mother?" Rachel said.

It was then she noticed the blank stare.

"Mom...." Rachel whispered weakly. Her eyes stung with tears.

The woman's necklace was wrapped too tightly around her throat and a
small trail of blood escaped from her nose.

Rachel turned and stumbled from the room. She didn't notice, in the
living room, obscured under the coffee table...a playing card...

Not even the wraith could retrieve the memory of what happened after
that.

==> * SM * <==

The Yokohama slums 7:50 PM

The house she arrived at had not fared well, even compared to the rest
of the neighborhood. Parts of the roof had caved in. Some of the walls
looked like they were about to. The windows that remained were cracked
or entirely gone. This place was no longer a family home.

It was however, an excellent place for a man to hide if he never
wanted to be found.

Rachel stepped over the rubble and entered the house, not bothering to
hide her movements or mask the noise her feet made, crunching over the
debris littering the ground. A familiar coffee table stood along one
wall. Gas lamps illuminated the room.

Near the center of the table, on top of a pile of scraps and trash,
sat a deck of playing cards, thin from use.

"Can I help you with something?" A rough voice inquired from the
doorway. She turned and saw a man in the shadows. Tattered clothes did
their best to conceal his body, but the man's skin could be seen
through the gaps. His dark hair and stubble blended with the darkness
of the doorway.

"This is over," Rachel stated flatly. She walked two steps over to the
table and kicked it viciously. The cards spilled to the floor.

The man looked at Rachel blankly. "What?" All I need is a new deck of
cards..."

Anger stirred within Rachel. The game, beginning all over again. Act
innocent. Act like you haven't done anything wrong.

"NOT the cards!" her mouth turned down, blocking tears. "It's what you
DO!"

"Now, I'm not sure that I-" recognition changed his face. A slow smile
spread across his decadent face. "Rachel," he hissed.

==> * SM * <==

The Slums 8:15 PM

Sailor Moon, Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto rushed down the deserted
streets. Most of the people who lived here retreated into the rubble
before sunset. The Sailors didn't have to worry about being stopped.
It was still early for the criminals, and the
authorities...well...they didn't have to worry about being stopped by
authorities.

"You're sure she's in this area?" Sailor Uranus asked.

"Yep," Jupiter brushed her bangs back from her face. "According to
Luna, we're within five blocks of her location."

"I hope we're not too late," Uranus was close to Rachel.

"Hold on, Rachel," Sandra thought to herself. "We're coming."

==> * SM * <==

Rachel backed up to the wall near the table.

"I told you what I'd do!" he growled, brandishing his knife as he
advanced toward her. "I warned you!"

"Like you `warned' mom," Rachel fought her own emotions.

"That bitch! She took what I gave her, and deserted me! She betrayed
me! Faithless BITCH!"

"You...you...I was NINE!" She couldn't hold back the tears now. Not
even the years of living behind herself could stop them now.

"You wanted it!" The words spat out from his twisted mouth.

"I wanted to love you!" Rachel sobbed now, doubled over, hugging
herself, squeezing her eyes shut and moaning. ""Daddy!"

With a wordless snarl he grabbed her shoulder and ripped her shirt
off. Rachel rocked back and forth on her heels and turned her head
away from him. She convulsed rhythmically, eyes swollen from tears. He
threw her roughly against the wall and she staggered back to her feet.
As he came at her again, she threw her arms out and screamed. It was
like a wounded animal inside her mouth. The harsh noise forced him
back in surprise.

"NO!" her red face contorted, cheeks shining from tears.

"MERCURY POWER!" As the transformation sequence progressed, the wraith
drank in the emotional energy that radiating from the girl. Soon, it
would be fully healed... Mercury was screaming in the background.

"Don't you ever touch me again!"

The man snarled with rage. He lunged at Mercury, who slammed her foot
into his stomach and sent him flying into the far wall.

"You BITCH!" he screamed as he tried to stand.

Mercury ignored his words, his unimportant words. He was like a
distant fog to her as she prepared to call upon her full powers.

A globe of ice enveloped her, then began expanding, filling the room.
The pale blue light imploded all the lamps and blew out the windows.
The wind howled through the room savagely.

"My thanks, Sailor Mercury," Queen Beryl howled with joy. "I am whole
once more!"

The temperature in the room plummeted as Queen Beryl emerged from the
shell of Rachel's body.

"My gift to you," Beryl sneered within Mercury's mind. "Arise, ETERNAL
SAILOR MERCURY!"

Snakes of pure energy swarmed out of her ruined body and snaked around
the room, eagerly searching out energy. Wisps of blue fog descended
upon Rachel's father, tearing into him, leaching every ounce of energy
from his twisted form.

The darkforce bloomed within Rachel as the death energy flooded her
being. Searing shards of light ripped every bit of flesh from the
corpse, and blasted the bones into rubble.

Her task finished, Mercury tried to release the power and sink into
oblivion...and found she couldn't. As she tried, a blanket over her
consciousness forced her into a corner of her mind. Falling into a
trance, she hummed an eerie melody.* Wavering a bit as she hit the
high note, the sphere of primal energy blasted out of the house,
tearing open the walls.

In the depths of Mercury's mind, Beryl laughed cruelly as the deadly
sphere expanded.

==> * SM * <==

"Oh My God!" The words escaped Uranus' mouth as she stared in horror
at the sphere of light.

"What is that?" Jupiter pointed to the blue sphere.

Sailor Moon snapped out of her mental fugue "Whatever it is," she
gulped. "Luna just messaged me. Its off the scales. We're getting the
hell out of here, now."

"Mercury!" Uranus started towards the bubble.

"She's in the center of that!" Sailor Moon shouted through the howling
wind as she pointed to the frozen light, expanding in its deadly
circle. "We can't get to her! Sailor Jupiter, do it, now!"

The Sailors vanished as Jupiter teleported them to safety.

==> * SM * <==

The Crystal Palace

Neo-Queen Serenity entered the Star Chamber with silent footsteps. The
walls were made from quartz crystal and lighted by a large circle of
nine clear crystal globes. Each crystal represented a planet dedicated
to the defense of the Moon Kingdom. The queen entered the circle in
silence and stood at its center, briefly noting that the blue crystal
representing Mercury was dark.

Suddenly, she tilted her chin up. "May the use of this power protect
the innocent!" Serenity cried. "PLANET POWER!" The planet crystals
flared to life, bathing the room in harsh crystal fire. Serenity
raised her royal scepter and shouted, "MOON REJUVINATION MAGIC!"

A bright beam of intense light bloomed in the chamber and shot through
the ceiling. Shooting through space, the magical energy circled the
moon once, then sped for Earth.

==> * SM * <==

The moonbeam slammed into the blue dome. Waves of energy ripped over
the sphere, engulfing it. Both the sphere and the moonbeam vanished.

In the slums of Yokohama, nothing stirred. Within the crater, Sailor
Mercury was gone.

==> * SM * <==

"Are you sure?" Brandy demanded intently. The Sailors were gathered at
the Luna Foundation, on orders to recuperate as best they could.

Sandra turned her head away from the window, tearing her eyes away
from the view of the Earth. "She is alive, that's all we know," she
said.

"What can we do?" Brandy asked impatiently. "Let's do it now."

"Nothing," Sandra stated firmly. "She doesn't want to be found. The
Foundation has contacted the authorities in Tokyo. If they find her,
we'll know."

Brandy swallowed the tears in her throat and left the room. "We have
to help her..." Tears spilled over her cheeks and she walked faster,
towards the privacy of her room.

FINI

FOOTNOTES AND EXPLANATIONS

Notes:

1: While this story is not hentai or ecchi in nature, an advisory will
be posted due to its content.

2: Mikura Island, also called Mikura Jima is located approximately 150
km southeast of Tokyo.

3: The melody Sailor Mercury sang to unleash the primal sphere was
taken from "Smack my Bitch Up", by

Prodigy, copyrighted 1997. (The above title is a guestimate...the
album labels substitute a picture of an ant for the word "bitch"

Fanfic ©1999 - John Brengman and Artemis Publishing

Sailor X series inspired by Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon,

© 1992 by Toei Animation Co Ltd. and based on Kodansha's

manga production of "Sailor Moon", written by Naoko Takeuchi

This fanfic is freely distributed.

Release date: September, 1998

Edited: November 11, 1999

Release: 2^nd Edition: November 11, 1999

Release: 3^rd Edition: January 16, 2001