Sailor Moon and all related characters are the property of Takeuchi Naoko, Toei Animation and DIC. Marui Mercia is a character made up by myself also the characters Jesse Devaries and Joseph Cairns. The content of this writing is strictly for entertainment purposes only and I do not intend to inflict the breaking of any copyright infringements by writing this.
The Zodiac Wars
by Ryan Bodle
Chapter Five- Rebirth
Rating: PG
Moon Palace, Silver Millennium...
Marui reached the main courtyard, he stood alone as the others took their own paths. He headed for the palace itself, he wanted to make sure the emergency craft left for Jupiter with all of its desired passengers. The Negaforce had breached the walls and were inside the palace. Marui raised his staff and prepared for multiple encounters. His skills were untainted considering he hadn't used his staff in two years. He left fatalities to what remained of his army. He couldn't do that kind of damage without a blade. Hallway after hallway and the scene seemed the same. The barracks were deserted, some bodies sprawled across its floor. Marui had seriously underestimated the forces that attacked, but it was too late for that now. He examined the room quickly, until he spied another Special Forces soldier with his weapons laying in his hands. Marui could put them to better use. They were two scythes glinting silver and crimson. He picked them up and let the battle pursue outside.
He took some rope and attached them to either side of his staff, now he could do some serious damage, and take revenge for what he saw around him. He stepped outside. A knight struggled with an opponent to his immediate right. Without remorse, Marui slashed down the spine of the creature, it bent backwards with pain and the soldier ran it through.
"Thank you sir!" The knight saluted.
"This is a battle what the hell are you doing saluting soldier, help your comrades!" The general shouted infuriated by what the army had come to.
"Sir!" the knight departed and Marui headed the opposite way. It seemed the nega-creatures became more concentrated as he went further on. He was targeted by one of them attackers. Stepping back from a deadly swipe he released his staff and slashed across its skull. It fell back and another came forward for vengeance with an overhead blow. Marui held his staff up and blocked. He used one end to attack which was blocked and parried with the other end. They came to a stand off. The creature never smiled evilly like the others did. It leapt again, Marui fell back and watched as a shadow covered his vision. Eyes closed as he felt its breath. This was it, death for the kingdom. He heard a shriek and opened his eyes. With instinct, he had his staff held up and a body impaled it. His heart began to beat again, stepping out from underneath, he drew the Defiance back to his grasp. Ignoring all other battles, he burst through the throne room doors. Another battle inside, but no Queen. Not even a body, he was comforted. Perhaps she headed for the port. Running through the apocalyptic war he headed for the known escape passage he had located for his sovereign. Pulling a royal coloured cord a wall opened for him and he ran through leaving it closed behind him.
He ran several hundred meters until he heard a cracking noise, behind him the passage opened again. Several figures could be outlined by the light. They weren't human for certain. Marui turned and ran, he had to find the Queen first. He found the exit quickly as he felt a chase taking place. Closing the door behind him he looked around. An empty corridor, laid with royal carpet and the walls finely tuned with lamps. Acting he quickly he slashed at the carpet and pulled one end from its foundations to the marble floor. He massed it to a pile. He could hear the creatures breaking through rather than find the handle. Acting quickly he used a few lamps to light the carpet. It turned into a Martian Rage. Happy that would buy him time he left again, this corridor being near to the port.
"Where's the Queen!" He shouted to workers prepping the shuttle.
"She hasn't arrived yet, Luna and Artemis are looking for her sir!" the deck master reported. The generals sat nervously for the craft to leave.
"Mercia we have to go now!" Mercer shouted.
"You stay here until the court, the Princess and the Queen get on board you coward!" he grimaced. He felt enraged by the battle. "Mind Up!" He glowed and accessed his telepathic powers. He saw a balcony, empty as it filled with a vacuum, his view panned towards Queen Beryl. A lifeless figure of the Princess floated. "Princess! No!" He powered down and rushed for the port exit. He found himself in the courtyard. "Queen Serenity!" He exclaimed watching her fall to her knees. He ran to her.
BANG!
An explosion and he was flung into the air, he landed hard and felt his lungs collapse from being winded. That laugh again. He looked up to see Malachite again.
"Come Mercia, save your Queen," he laughed.
"Malachite!" Marui grabbed his staff and flung it into the air. It missed and Malachite snickered.
"Is that it?"
"Not a chance! Mind Up!" he glowed once more and guided the Defiance through the air. Malachite turned and flinched. A scythe lay in his torso, the Defiance hanging from that. A gasp of air as he fell to the ground.
"Malachite!" Marui turned to see a distraught Zoycite dive with a sword at her lovers assailant. A burning sensation coursed through Marui's body. He felt like exploding, then he felt terrible coldness. Zoycite's angered expression never changed as his eyes closed.
The vision flashed brightly until it was too bright to look at, and then everyone opened their eyes. Serena had quietly sobbed at watching it again, Marui breathed heavily, catching his breath he addressed them.
"Something you didn't want to see again I'm sure, but they are my memories," he explained sullenly.
"Its tragic," Serena shuddered, she had never seen that battlefield before, she was blind to the other sufferings before, and she wished to be ignorant still. "It was all for," she paused, "nothing."
"I wouldn't say that princess," Marui replied, he knew she thought otherwise. "Every man and woman fought for their right to live, the same would have happened if we surrendered. It was not lives wasted." She closed herself to the nearest body possible, eyes tucked from sight as tears fell.
"Serena," Raye sighed with grief as the moon princess cried in her arms, she felt her own tears start to form, but held them back. "Get up," she trembled, "you can't act like this."
"I don't get it," Amy intruded. "Before we have proven that all those that completely died couldn't be reborn, if you died how comes you're here now?"
"I noticed also, I have only one explanation. The fact we had used our crests very previously to death and so they bore our life energies to repair us when the Queen sent us to Earth," Marui replied. "After all these crests draw our life energy to enhance our abilities."
"Our?"
"Yes, there were four of us, I am patron to Mind and Telekinetics, there was also the patrons to Strength and Power, Skill and Accuracy, and finally Speed and Agility. Perhaps it is worth requiring their aid in this new threat, their skills would be most beneficial, and besides their physical abilities they have much else to offer."
"What can you do that we can't?" Lita asked sharply.
"It wasn't meant as in an insult, myself and the others have had military training before. We can add an efficient routine in taking precautions against more attacks, something that wasn't pressured into your training," Marui chose his words carefully to avoid insult.
"Who are the other three?" was asked by Amy. Marui drew out a lap top computer and opened it up.
"I searched for their names over a thousand databanks, including passport databases, birth certificates, drivers' licenses, and many other documents, I managed to track down all three although some bad news follows about them, for start they do not live in this country."
"For start?" Raye picked up. Marui accessed a single file and let them all see.
"Firstly, Jesse Devaries, birth certificate comes from Italy, he's a student at an Art University in France, wouldn't be too hard to find him except travel money is required. Next, Joseph Cairns. I only found a driver's license, whereabouts unknown, U.S resident," Marui sighed, "lastly, Darren Jennings. Impossible to find or recruit."
"How come?" Mina probed.
"He's dead." Eyes widened in shock, not a word released. Marui explained once more. "At the age of twelve, he committed suicide, just three months after the death of his parents." Mouths dropped this time. Some how Marui felt he never had to say that.
"Why?" Lita asked almost whispering. "I mean, I never-I never even considered-,"
"Don't force Lita," Serena cut off.
"Nobody can say, he just took it differently at a guess," Mina sorrowed in explanation. "Can I ask how?" Marui took a deep breath.
"At Greenwich Docks, there was an accident, a warehouse exploded when a naked flame penetrated a barrel of ship oil, his parents were there with him, he survived miraculously, they didn't."
"I heard about that, it was in the papers," Mina replied. "I thought I recognised the name."
"If I may draw attention to the new nega-threat," Marui spoke up changing the dire subject. "It seems, the leader of these new monsters does not hesitate, and very willing to operate away from Tokyo for a higher success rate. Am I right in assuming this makes reaction times to crisis attacks in a bad way?"
"Yes it is a big problem," Amy responded, "I don't how to keep track of the attacks, with the exception of using the media."
"Ineffective, or unreliable, but no doubt you've realised that already."
"Amy said there was other ways, not technically legal," Lita began.
"In theory, this is what I was coming to, I believe we can use satellites to trace a creature attack, however first we need information from the previous attacks. How many have there been?"
"Three," Luna informed feeling adequate to contribute now.
"The creature I encountered resembled a bull, could you describe the other creatures, if we can recognise a pattern, and therefore spot weaknesses."
"Sure, me and Mina fought the first creature and it was totally gross and slimy and it had like a weird fish tail and it could fly and a totally monstrous face and-,"
"Serena! Breath in!" Raye grimaced. "You're face will turn blue in a second."
Serena gasped before trying to reply, "I'm doing what he asked, if you don't mind Raye," she retorted.
"Lets try at a slower pace please, that way we can pay attention to detail," Marui suggested. "This creature, it sounds much like a mythical creature, like a mermaid."
"No way, mermaid's are supposed to be beautiful, like me!" Serena responded.
"And graceful, not like you," Raye added. Crossing evil stares.
"True, but much to the meaning, a human's body, and a fishes' tail," Marui thought aloud. "The second creature, attacked in the same area as the first?"
"That's right," Amy answered. "I think it resembled a Ram a lot."
"Yeah, only on two feet like the one fought in Osaka, except that was a bull."
"Fish, Ram, Bull. Anybody familiar with astrology here?" Amy and Raye nodded, obviously for different uses.
"I get it, star signs," Raye caught on, "they all looked like Zodiacs."
"Zodiacs?" Mina asked.
"Yeah you know, the twelve signs of the zodiac. Pisces, Ares, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius," Raye answered thinking. "Except, Pisces was the last in the line, and Ares was first, so I thought."
"I don't think starting patterns are important in this case, except the leader of these zodiacs seems to be following the pattern you just spoke out," Marui reasoned. "However I would like to find out more."
"They have a ship," Amy informed. "In orbit of the Earth." Marui turned to her. "It was Raye that found that out, through a fire reading."
"Fire-reading?"
"Yeah, the sacred fire, can show me images through prayer, its helped us out plenty of times before, contrary to what you believe," Raye explained adding a self-defence.
"I've just relived an old life in a matter of minutes and seen pure elements materialize from a person's finger at their will," Marui responded. "Contrary to what I think, it isn't hard to believe."
"So what do these people want?" Another question from Serena.
"What do they all want? World Domination," Raye replied bluntly.
"It's a pain the ass!" Lita scowled. "What's so nice about this place anyway? Isn't there some other planet they'd rather take?" Marui chuckled a little, his face soon turning back to grim.
"So far, we've seen nobody claim a vengeance for their lost warriors, it is possible the person responsible is here for another reason," Marui reasoned. "And the fact they are in orbit around our planet could explain the pattern of their attacks."
"What do you mean?" Amy inquired.
"Consider this, they may need to be in a particular position to call forth these droids with their unique abilities. Therefore they send down the zodiacs when they reach alignment."
"Sometimes they appear so quickly, sometimes they don't, that could explain it, do you think we could anticipate their next attack?" Raye thought aloud. Marui shook his head as an answer.
"I'd have to be on the ship to even be able to have an idea, and it could take a while to figure the specific alignments, this means our enemy is either very smart or very advanced."
"I'd warrant both, I still think its world domination their after," Lita added.
"To eighties girl, its good ol' revenge, a classic," Mina responded. There were a few confused looks. "So I don't just watch romance movies anymore, sue me," she said rolling her eyes. Sighs came her way.
"We cannot be sure of what they want right now, maybe we should continue this some other time, this has been a lengthy discussion," Marui ended rising from the floor. Agreement from the others and all left with the exception of Raye who was already home.