Title: Sailor Moon N(ouveau)
Chapter: 4. Final Destination
Rated: PG-13
Shakunage heard the door shut behind her, over the fast thumping of her heart ringing through her ears. The space around her was dark, with only a red carpet and a row of dim lights hung over, to give her direction to where she needed to go. She walked for a while with not change, except the carpet changing to match the colors of the prism. Then she came to an arched opening, leading into a large room of crystal with a white marble pond at the center. She walked up to the pond and felt a need to touch the water. As she moved her fingers over the water, the ripples grew larger and stronger as they traveled away from the epicenter. Then the water rushed away from the center and held up as a wall all around the pond edge.
A being began to form in the center of the pool. She was fair skinned with bright and lush red hair, with a simple gold circlet atop her head. Her eyes were blue, to reflect the aqua in her light and flowing gown. As she stared at the girl, Shakunage backed away slowly in terror.
“Don’t be frightened my child!” laughed the lady, “My name is Omokage, and I am the Princess of the Cosmos. I have come here in the name of my mother, the Queen Cosmos, to charge you into the true Sailor Moon.”
Shakunage was astonished, “How can I be Sailor Moon? And who is this Sailor Moon?”
“Sailor Moon was the hero of the earth long ago, but Shogun Yoiyami destroyed her when she tried to stop him. But her legacy has survived through you, for you have been chosen by the Silver Imperial Crystal to save the earth from Shogun Yoiyami and his evil warlords and war ladies,” explained Omokage. “You have the blood of Princess Serenity in you, which means you have the gift of life.”
“But how do I use this crystal?” asked Shakunage.
Omokage extended her hand, “Place the crystal in my palm and I will change it, so that you will be able to use it.”
Shakunage hesitated, “How do I know that you’re not one of Modoky’s daemons in disguise?”
“You know in your heart that I am not one of Modoky’s damned soldiers of doom,” said Omokage with a bit of bitterness on her tongue. “You must believe me for your friend Takura is in grave danger.”
“How do you know Takura?” asked Shakunage.
“I have a gift of foretelling the past, present, and future. I believe your people call it, the Sight?” said Omokage, “So, do you trust me?”
Shakunage sighed deeply, “I suppose,” and placed the crystal in Omokage’s palm. Omokage closed her hand and a light began to glow in her hand. Then a bright flash erupted and sent Shakunage’s hands over her eyes. When she opened her eyes, she could see a platinum pendant in Omokage’s hand. It was circular in shape, with the crystal in the center. Four crescent moons surrounded the crystal with the points turned outward. The outer rim was fluted and a simple pin was molded on the back.
Omokage bent down and placed the pendant in the middle of her bosom. “I present to you, the Silver Crystal Pendant. To activate it, just say the words, ‘Moon Silver Make-up!’, and your sailor suit and Crescent Tiara Magic will be at your disposal. But I warn you. Do not use the Silver Imperial Crystal’s full power unless it is of dire need. The crystal is too strong for you right know and it could inevitably destroy you if you try to use its full power.”
“I understand,” bowed Shakunage. “And I thank you and the Queen Cosmos for this most precious blessing.”
Omokage smiled and vanished into the water, which lowered back into the well calm, as if it was never disturbed. Shakunage turned to leave when she saw a shadowy figure hiding in the corner.
“Who are you?” cried Shakunage. “Show yourself at once! I command you!” The figure stepped from the shadows, it was a daemon, but it was much larger and it wore a red stained cloak, as opposed to the gray ones she had seen earlier. It then began a quick stride at her, too quickly of a stride, for as she tumbled to the side, it sliced a gash in her left arm. She grabbed at the cut and grimaced in pain. But when she looked at it, she could see it start to heal and after a moment, there was nothing there, save for a little blood on her hand from holding the cut. She looked down at the pendant to see it glowing; she guessed the crystal had healed her cut. This gave her the confidence to stand up. The daemon was coming back around for another strike, but this time, she would be ready.
“Moon… Silver… Make-up!”
The words resonated throughout the hall as time itself seemed to stop and a heavenly voice began to sing as bright silver light erupted from the pendant. Transparent silver ribbons of light flowed from the crystal and covered her bare torso. As they burst, they created a white body suit with a red bow surrounding the pendant. Then, ribbons covered her arms and left white gloves that covered up to her elbow, in their aftermath. A pair of shiny red boots was left by the ribbons that wrapped around her legs and feet. The sparkles that were left swirled around her mid section and exploded into a cloud of smoke that rose and left a blue pleated skirt with a red bow above her backside. But the cloud wasn’t done. As it rose over her neck and face, a red choker with a gold crescent moon, a pair of gold loop earrings, and a gold tiara with and opal crescent moon formed in their proper places. Finally, the cloud began to shrink as it traveled the length of her golden hair and placed it into two long braids, meeting at a bun on the back of her head.
The music faded and the world began to move as usual, as if it only took a couple of seconds to change into her sailor suit, even though it seemed longer to her. The daemon was very close to swiping at her neck, but she jumped with great reflexes in the air and flipped over the daemon’s head. As she landed, she grabbed for her tiara, on which the crescent moon began to glow. As she took it off, it turned into a disk of golden light. She tossed the disk at the daemon and cut it in half before the daemon disintegrated into dust. The tiara returned and nestled itself back on Sailor Moon’s forehead.
“Hey! Good job!” said a male voice from behind as he placed his hand on her shoulder. Sailor Moon was quick in giving him a toss over her shoulder and laying him out on the ground hard. She put her booted foot over his throat and reached for his tiara.
“Wait!” yelped Asahi. “I’m one of the good guys!”
Sailor Moon snickered, “Yeah right! Like I’m going to believe any man who…” then she stopped, for she noticed it was Asahi. She had had a crush on him for a long time… but she couldn’t let her guard down. After all, he was one of Modoky’s lackeys.
“Whom do you serve?” asked Sailor Moon.
“I serve the Queen of Cosmos by protecting you from any danger that threatens you,” recited Asahi, as it was part of his oath. “I was given my powers by Odayuka la Libra, which is focused through this sword.” He pointed to the sword in his hilt at his side.
“Fine!” said Sailor Moon, taking off the pressure on his neck, then pushed back down again quickly. “But if you turn out to be one of them,” pointing to the pile of dust of the former daemon, “then you’ll lose more than just your pride!” She let off of his neck and started towards the double doors from which she came in a little while ago.
“Hey! Where are you going!” asked Asahi as he frantically scrambled to his feet and san to Sailor Moon’s side.
“I’m going to go get my friend, Takura back,” she said opening the door.
“Are you crazy!” said Asahi re-closing the door. “You don’t even know where to start. And even if you found Takura, what are you going to do then?” Sailor Moon stopped and lowered her head, a couple of tears fell on to the carpet. “I don’t care! I just have to find her. I know that Modoky had her so that’s a start. After that, you’ll just have to trust that I’ll do the right thing. Will you trust me?” Sailor Moon looked up into Asahi’s eyes; he saw an innocence and sweetness that he hadn’t seen in most girls in a long time. It was almost turning him on! “Oh, all right! I trust you!”
Sailor Moon squealed and hugged Asahi, who returned the hug. She then got her senses back and let go, busying herself with smoothing out her pleated skirt, Asahi cleared his voice and looked at the ground.
“Do you have any idea where we should go?” asked Sailor Moon.
“Well,” said Asahi recollecting his past, “when I was in the militia, we used to go up to a manor somewhere in the mountains.”
“The mountains?” said Sailor Moon, “How are we supposed to get up there?” Asahi scratched his chin, and then snapped his fingers. “We took a freight plane up to the manor. So if we go in disguise as workers, we should be able to get past the guards.”
“But we don’t even have the clothes for it!” said Sailor Moon. Oh dear Queen Cosmos! Grant us one more blessing, please! A whizzing noise came down the darkened corridor. Then an object flew into Asahi’s hand.
“What’s that?” asked Sailor Moon. Asahi looked at the side, of what looked like to him a pen, “It’s called… the Luna Pen. It says that you need to say ‘Luna Pen Makeover’, and then tell it what you want to change into.” Asahi handed the pen to Sailor Moon.
“Alright, here goes!” said Sailor Moon, taking a deep breath. “Luna… Pen… Makeover! Change us into freight plane workers!” The pen’s red gem top sent out an explosion of different colored light that bathed over the two of them. When the warm light was gone, two men in dirty overalls and brown caps stood in the two warriors wake. One had a straggly beard and the other looked like he hadn’t shaven for a couple days.
“Where do we go know?” asked the bearded one.
“The mountains are ten miles north of here,” said the unshaven one. “We should get there in about three to four days.”
“Then lets get going!” replied the bearded one and opened the door, heading in the direction their destination. The unshaven one followed behind, closing the door behind them, which disappeared into the air. They noticed that the rock seemed to have eroded away, but that was impossible! They had been in the temple for only a couple of hours; there was no way that they had been there longer, for there was no sense of forgetfulness while they were in there. But they couldn’t stop for this; they needed to gain ground quickly.
The walk started out easy enough and by the end of the first day, they had progressed about midway to where they needed to go. They kept their disguises on; just in case any of Modoky’s new militia was scouring the area for Shakunage or Asahi. They slept under the shade of an old oak tree and ate some berries and mushrooms they had found. They couldn’t risk being caught if they had built a fire. The next morning, after a quick bath in a nearby lake, they managed to build a small fire and cook some fish to eat then and to carry along as a snack.
By the end at the second day, the way was becoming more difficult for them to handle. The incline of the mountainous region was hard on their feet. They managed to gain an extra quarter of the way to the freight plane station. Which they could hear and see at night from the vantage point they took in a tree. The next day, they made their way into the airport and made themselves useful to the crew by helping them out with odd jobs and loading the next plane that would go to the Modoky Manor tomorrow. When the crew would ask where they were from, they would say that they had amnesia and didn’t know what happened before what they found out was a year ago. When they woke up, they found themselves in a field somewhere. The crew of course believed this, since it was known that the Shogun’s scientists abducted humans out of the blue to test and analyze them for what they could handle in different atmospheres.
They ate some gruel with bread and dried meat then spent the night in straw beds. The next morning they moved quickly with the crew to finish loading the plane with crates of food for Modoky and his servants. The plane took off and flew for about two hours before landing at what could be their final destination.