Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Sanctuary ❯ Chapter 6

Title: Sanctuary
Author: Maetel
Email:  maemaechan@yahoo.com
URL: N/A
Rating: M 15+
Summary: When Sailor Moon witnesses the death of an innocent, Usagi ends up turning to Mamoru in her darkest hour. Minor alterations have been made on the timeline so that Mamoru knows who he is, while Nephrite is around.
Chapters: 6/?
Status: Incomplete
Year Completed: Incomplete

“On the sidewalk of the city on the streets just a whisper

Busy people going nowhere see me soak in the rain

No compassion

Nothing matters

My resistance is waiting

Like a flower in the basement waiting for a lonely death”

- Akira Yamaoka ft. Mary Elizabeth McGlynn “Your Rain (Rage Mix)”

When Usagi regained consciousness, she felt as though her head were about to explode from the pain that was coming from the base of her skull. She forced herself to at least try to ignore the pain and looked around seeing multi-tonal light shining dimly into the room through stain glass windows. She tried to move her arms, but felt her hands bound to a rock hard chair by bonds that had sharp points that cut into her skin when she moved. She struggled a bit and felt the same cutting sensation around her midsection.

“Ugh… Where am I?” she asked, but regretted asking when she realized that whoever would answer was most likely either an enemy or… well… An enemy. Usagi groaned and looked down at her hands, trying to figure out some way to get free without injuring herself too badly. “Maybe if I henshin after getting loose, I might be able to get in touch wi-”

“Nice idea, but it wouldn’t work. You’re powers aren’t going to help you as long as you sit in that chair. Special precautions have been taken for your stay here, Sailor Moon,” said Nephrite as he walked into the room from a side door. “Besides, that little gold trinket that I noticed you wearing as both Sailor Moon, and as you are now…” He held up her broach and smirked. “I have a feeling that it has to be on your person to work.”

“Am I going to have to sit here listening to you talk all day? Sleep is calling, and you are making it look all the more inviting,” Usagi remarked, angering the general.

Nephrite strode over and stood in front of the blonde, with his face so close to hers that she couldn’t help but breathe in his harsh smelling breath. “You truly are as dumb as you appear in battle, Sailor Moon. Don’t you know it’s not wise to make such comments to the person who holds your very life in his hands?”

Usagi swallowed hard at his words. “Fine, but what do you want with me? I think I’ve been put through enough by you and your creatures for the past couple of days.”

Nephrite smirked sadistically before walking over to a small table to lay down the small broach. “Oh no. That is where you are wrong. You’re going to be wishing that what you’ve had to go through was all that had taken place when I am through with making you pay for all of the innocents which you have destroyed.”

“Innocents?” Usagi questioned. “I wouldn’t call a youma innocent.”

“So a citizen whose home was brutally ripped away from them by your precious moon queen isn’t an innocent. You’re nothing more than a hypocrite, Sailor Moon. You say you mourn for the child lost, and yet you destroy every creature that simply wishes for its true home to be returned.”

Usagi blinked at his words before her eyes narrowed. “You’re lying. I know you are. Those creatures could ne-”

“Never have become killers. I don’t know. I mean look at you. You derive pleasure from destroying our warriors. I have seen you after battle. The love of destruction shines in your eyes whenever you destroy a being from the Dark Kingdom.”

“I enjoy the feeling of knowing that no innocent person was injured or killed because of a youma being destroyed. I-” She was silenced when she saw a smirk cross his face.

“A killer always has some means to justify their actions,” Nephrite stated. “But, I am not here to argue with you. I’m here to make you feel everything that you and your precious senshi inflict upon the youma that you have destroyed.”

Usgai watched him with wary, albeit, fearful eyes as he waved a hand and a screen formed before her. She somehow doubted that his plans involved letting her watch anime on the screen, and grimaced when she heard Naru’s all too familiar screams for help, as memories of her first battle came to mind.

“Getting the idea yet, Sailor Moon?” mocked Nephrite as he himself recalled Jadeite speaking of his first loss to the blonde and how he had found the youma turned to ash after the energy he had been gathering had disappeared.

The blonde remained silent until she cringed visibly as the scene of her wailing played on the screen. She could almost feel her eardrums getting ready to burst at the intensity. ‘Luna never told me it w-‘ Her thoughts were cut short as a sharp hiss escaped her lips. Her arm felt as though it had been sliced open by a knife, and she then noticed that on the screen played the first appearance of Tuxedo Kamen.

Usagi felt her eyes watering up as she thought of Mamoru. Did he know that she’d been captured? What about… Usagi suddenly screamed out as she felt an intense burning slice through her, almost tearing her apart, and realized what had just happened. She’d just been forced to live through her own attack.

Once her screams subsided, Usagi wanted nothing more than to double over but found it impossible without causing herself more pain thanks to the chair she was trapped in. She bit her lip hard enough that she could taste her own blood as she struggled to keep back the tears that were trying to fall.

“Did that hurt, Sailor Moon?” he questioned, his voice full of cruel laughter. “Well, just remember there are more battles than that, so I suggest you take the next few seconds to re- Never mind. Here we go again.”

As time, how long she wasn’t sure, passed, Usagi wasn’t sure if she should have been glad that she was the first senshi to appear or not. The sting of Tuxedo Kamen’s roses brought tears to her eyes , and the pain of the tiara drove her to unconsciousness more times than she cared to admit, and when scenes of the other senshi appeared, Usagi truly started to feel pity towards the enemies she and the others had defeated.

She knew that they were enemies, but did they truly deserve such pain? As she was forced to live through Mars’ and Mercury’s attacks, Usagi felt as though the creatures were being tortured before finally being exposed to the source of such excruciating pain. Did they truly deserve such pain? They never killed innocents, only…

Usagi shook her head. Thoughts like those were what Nephrite was expecting. He wanted her to feel guilt for everything that she had done. She wasn’t sure why, but she was sure that was his plan. Why else keep her alive for this long? She may not have been as smart as Ami, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that she should be dead.

Usagi was once again ripped from her thoughts as she felt a pain so intense that her entire body felt as though it were being destroyed atom by atom. She would have screamed out in pain had her body not been frozen in place by the sensations she was feeling. Tears fell from her eyes as her world once again started to go black.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Nephrite appeared before Beryl with a proud smile on his face.

“How is your plan progressing, Nephrite?” questioned the dark queen. She had warned him of what would happen if he had failed another mission, and felt a small bit of hope rise up in her at the fact that the auburn haired general had appeared before her.

“Sailor Moon is almost completely broken. Her body is even now struggling to draw breath; I can see that she is questioning her very duty by the expressions which have crossed her face. I am going to allow her one day of recuperation before allowing her to live through the deaths of those who fell during the battle on the moon against Serenity,” he told her. “Afterwards, she is going to be wanting nothing more than to pay for her own crimes.”

“I am impressed, Nephrite. At first, I thought your plan to be nothing more than foolishness, but perhaps, you will succeed where Jadeite failed. But do not underestimate your enemy. She has been close to defeat many times, but managed to pull herself back up,” Beryl warned.

“I realize that, Beryl-sama, but this time she does not have her precious senshi or that masked fool to aide her. Without them she is weak,” he replied.

Beryl smirked. “Very well, Nephrite, but before you destroy her, I want her brought here. I want to see the face of the girl who cost us so many of our forces before she is destroyed.”

“Hai, Beryl-sama,” Nephrite said with a bow to the red haired figure. “Your wish is my command.”

Beryl smirked as he teleported back to what she could only call his base of operations. “Soon we shall be rid of that insufferable moon senshi, and Earth shall once again belong to the Dark Kingdom. All that will remain is finding that miserable little princess and the ginzuishou.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Mamoru stood on the roof of the tallest city in Tokyo, straining to find Usagi through their link, and only coming up with intense pain. He had tried to trace the link back to her, but it was too weak which he knew that where ever she was, she was suffering as Usagi.

He’d not contacted any of the other senshi since the day after Usagi had gone missing, four days before. He’d gone without seeing her before, but this time it was different. He couldn’t ignore the pain in his chest that came with the thought of her being injured. The only time that he’d felt anything remotely similar was after the drea- no, the nightmare of the princess impaling herself.

“Usagi-chan… Where are you?” he muttered softly as he once again forced himself to focus on their bond. He could almost feel her, he knew, but that wouldn’t help him, though neither would getting little to no sleep for ninety-six hours with only the help of coffee and the odd caffeine pill that he bought at a small store, but that wasn’t stopping him.

“Tuxedo Kamen-sama,” he heard the quiet voice of the senshi of Mercury say.

The masked man turned and looked at her. “H-How long have you been there?” he questioned.

“I just saw you up here from the building next door,” she said pointing to one of the top floor windows of a nearby building. “I just received a message from Sailor Mars. She thinks that she might have found something, but she wants you there. It’s only right since you have been searching for her.”

He nodded slowly to Sailor Mercury as a sign of his thanks. “You can go on ahead. I’ll be there soon.”

The blue haired young warrior nodded before leaping to a nearby rooftop and heading to the temple, leaving Tuxedo Kamen staring out over the city, once again focusing on the link, but this time hoping that the message he was sending was going to be heard by the young blonde: “Hold on, Usagi. We’re coming.”

He then turned and raced to the temple using the same route of the senshi that had just left him.

When he arrived, he saw Sailor Mercury revert back to her civilian form before heading inside. He looked down wondering if he should do the same, but he had yet to reveal his identity to them, so could not find the point in doing so.

He silently leapt down and entered the temple, before heading to the room which housed the Great Fire. He saw the raven haired miko sitting there with her head bowed and the blue haired genius sitting behind her. He quietly walked up beside her and knelt as well, waiting for Rei to speak.

He didn’t wait long before she finally said, “She’s somewhere nearby. I saw in the great fire the forest, and a large…” She paused for a moment trying to think of the right word. “I saw a Cathedral, shrouded by the night sky. She’s in so much pain, and though I didn’t see her, I saw previous battles in the vision.” Rei grew quiet. Her black hair screened her profile from the vision of either of the two behind her, but they knew that something was happening as the fire before her suddenly intensified. “Something is about to happen. Something important to the past, and the future.”

“The princess?” questioned Ami quietly.

Rei looked back at the girl. “I’m not sure. I-I don’t think so, but whatever it is might be connected to her.”

Tuxedo Kamen looked to the fire for a moment before sighing. “Is that all you’ve learned?”

“That’s all that the fire has chosen to show me. I can only do so much,” she replied. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I- We have some idea of where to look now. You have done your best, and I thank you for that, Rei,” he told her as he got up and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You’ve proven that she is still alive, and that is all that matters right now. We can worry about everything else once she’s rescued.”

He saw her head nod before moving towards the door. “I’m going to go and try to get a better idea of where she is. There cannot be that many cathedrals in the vicinity of the forest. I’ll find a way to contact you when I find something.”

“Arigato,” said Ami as she looked back at him. “If you need to, Luna said that Usagi-chan’s communicator is still on her nightstand. You can use it to contact either one of us.”

Tuxedo Kamen nodded solemnly before leaving the room and the temple altogether.

Ami turned her attention to Rei and sighed heavily. “I didn’t want to say this in front of him, but there was something that you weren’t telling him isn’t there?” questioned the girl genius softly. “Whatever you saw involved him in some way, didn’t it?”

“Was I that obvious?” questioned the young miko. She didn’t wait for her friend to reply before turning and looking at Ami. “He is going to find her, but something is going to happen. Something is going to be revealed to him and Usagi-chan, and I’m not sure what it is exactly, but I have a feeling that it is going to explain just how they are connected and exactly why he is also involved with the battle against the Dark Kingdom.”

Ami blinked. “You said that it was going to be connected to the past and future.”

Rei nodded. “I’m not sure how, but he was around during the Silver Millennium, meaning we need to find Luna and see if she can answer any of our questions. She might know, and give us some insight as to just how he was involved with everything that took place. If she doesn’t know, she at least needs to be informed of what was discovered here.”

“She will be relieved to know that Usagi-chan is alive,” Ami added. “She’s been blaming herself for everything, she I hate to see her in so much pain. I have a feeling that we’re all going to need to be strong for Usagi-chan when she is returned to us. This has been too much for anyone to go through in such a short amount of time, especially considering what the Dark Kingdom could be putting her through.”

Rei nodded and pulled her hen shin wand from her subspace pocket. “Let’s go then,” she said softly. “Tuxedo Kamen may have been the one to find her in the vision, but we can’t just sit around waiting.”

Ami nodded before calling forth her own henshin wand. The two then called out their henshin phrases, feeling the power rush through them before they left the temple and headed for the forest.

The two had split up after having reached the forest after half an hour of racing at top speed they weren‘t sure where to look exactly, but that didn‘t deter them. Over two hours had passed before they were forced to stop dead in their tracks by a brilliant white light as it erupted from somewhere deep in the woods, with the distant shriek of, “Endymion!” ringing in it’s wake.