The Rules of the Game
Last edit 6/11/08
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters of this story with all rights being owned by the appropriate copyright holders; I make no claim of any ownership. Should you wish to distribute this story only do so freely and with proper attribution.
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It was late that night when Luna returned to the Tsukino household after having checked in with "Central Control." While she had chided Artemis for his deception, she was quite glad to have that fur ball back. It was good to know that there was someone else who was going through the same things that she was with her charge. Though, he did have a nice expression on his face when he had learned that the warrior whom they had been sending out to battle was none other than the princess that they were supposed to find and protect. Her report, however, had not included anything related to ChibiUsa, believing that he would not believe her if she had included those revelations. She know that she would not have believed it to be true if the situation had been reversed and anyways it would be fun to watch his reaction to finding out that ChibiUsa is the daughter of the princess tomorrow.
Entering the house, Luna noticed that a light was still on in the living room. Heading over to investigate, Luna found Ikuko sitting on one of the chairs, obviously trying to come to terms with all that she had learned that night. Hopping up onto her lap, Luna cuddled up to her and began to purr.
Even though Ikuko had not noticed Luna jumping up into her lap, being too lost in her thoughts, the calming effect of a purring cat was quick in coming and Ikuko found her mind begin to clear. No longer was she besieged by an overwhelming number of worries, concerns, and questions. Looking down, she found the source of her comfort and thought 'I always wondered why you were such a perceptive cat. It is going to be strange, at least for a while, talking to a cat.' “Luna-san can you tell me about my daughter as Sailor Moon?”
Looking up at the blue haired mother of her charge, Luna nodded her head and began to describe to Ikuko the Usagi that was Sailor Moon. Listening to Luna talk, Ikuko found many of her worries reassured as she learned that as much as Usagi was apparently a soldier that she was still the same girl at heart. Those worries were even more put at ease when Luna delved into the few vague memories of Princess Serenity that she had been able to recover, memories that had increased in number since the afternoon.
When Ikuko finally decided to turn in about an hour after Luna came home, she did so proud of what her daughter was and reassured that Usagi was still the same girl that she had always been. There were still some lingering concerns regarding what might happen when Usagi recovered her memories of her past life, would she still be content living as she was or would she long for the life she once had, but that was a worry for the future. The one thing that had reassured her the most was hearing that Luna had as much trouble getting Usagi to do anything other than eating or sleeping as she herself did. She knew that she should feel a little guilty about taking comfort in that, but that more than anything else told her that Usagi was Usagi.
Stopping at her daughter's room, Ikuko softly opened the door and poked her head in. Seeing the two girls asleep in Usagi's bed with Usagi having her arm protectively wrapped around the smaller child who was snuggled up against the elder one brought a smile to Ikuko face. Closing the door, Ikuko headed off to her own room and sleep. ________________________________________
Late the next day saw two still sleepy eyed Usagis finally return to the land of the living. As the two sat down to breakfast, Luna sighed. 'It looks like ChibiUsa has inherited all of Usagi’s bad habits. I was hoping with her being just a child that she would be up early in the morning.'
Seeing Luna’s sigh, Ikuko said, “Usagi was a late sleeper even as a young child. I guess she needs all that sleep for the bottomless energy that she has during the day,” finishing just as someone rang the door bell. ________________________________________
--Earlier on the way to the Tsukino household--
“Artemis there better be a good reason why you got me up early on a Sunday morning. Otherwise someone is sleeping outside tonight and is not getting any tuna for a long while,” declared a blond, who was not in the best of moods.
“Minako-chan you remember how I said there were others?” At her nod, the white cat continued, “Well we will be meeting them today. Additionally, they have located the Moon Princess, princess Serenity. That is who we are going to see now.”
“A princess, I am going to get to meet a real princess?” bubbled Minako excitedly. Seeing where this was about to go, Artemis decided to burst her bubble before she got too wrapped up in her star chasing.
“She currently does not remember her life as a princess. We are going to meet her so that you can start to protect her, remember that is the primary reason why you are a Senshi. Do to some circumstances that Luna refused to explain last night, her family knows the truth.”
When they arrived at the Tsukino household a few minutes later, Minako walked up to the front door and pressed the buzzer. Though, as the door opened, Minako realized that she did not know what to say. She could not really say I am here to see Princess Serenity, what if this was the wrong house. Plus that seemed the wrong thing to say anyways. As it turned out, she did not have to worry as a black cat accompanied the woman who opened the door with a crescent moon on its forehead.
“Artemis, I see you were able to find your way here, without too much trouble.” Turning to look at the blond whose shoulder Artemis was laying on Luna continued. “And, you must be Sailor Venus. Come on in. Usagi-chan will want to meet the two of you.”
Leading the two in, with Ikuko bringing up the rear, Luna led them to the living room. Sitting down, Artemis and Minako chatted with Ikuko while Luna went to retrieve the two girls.
“Usagi, ChibiUsa this is Artemis and this is Minako-chan. Minako-chan is Sailor Venus,” Luna said when she reentered the room with Usagi and ChibiUsa in tow.
Realizing that Luna was not describing all of who she was, Minako decided to finish her introduction by saying, “I am also known as code-name Sailor-V,” along with flashing her trademark V-sign across the front of her face.
Understanding the inevitable result of Minako declaration, Ikuko chuckled slightly as Luna, for the next few minutes, lost full control of the situation. “V-chan! You’re V-chan!” screamed Usagi as she raced forward to grab hold of the now slightly bewildered other blond. The rest of what Usagi said was lost to most, as her mouth moved at a mile a minute with no pauses for breath.
“Hey Odango-Atama why don’t you stop drooling over Minako-chan,” chastised the pink haired child, which was enough to temporarily divert Usagi’s attention away from Minako.
Minako took that opportunity to move back a bit. Since her identity as Sailor-V was a secret and Artemis never let her stay around after stopping a crime, she had never experienced the crazed fan syndrome. For just a fraction of a moment, it caused her to reconsider her desire to be an idol, but only for a fraction of a second.
Loudly clearing her throat, Luna once again regained control of the floor. “As you may have noticed Usagi is a major fan of Sailor-V. Even though she is now Sailor Moon, she still sees Sailor-V as her hero. Maybe you will be able to help her with her training Minako-chan. Now to continue from where I was interrupted.” The last part she stated while looking at Usagi, who at least had the good grace to look slightly guilty.
“This is Tsukino Usagi, Sailor Moon, and the Moon Princess, Princess Serenity. This small child next to her is from the future; she is also named Tsukino Usagi, though we call her ChibiUsa. She is the new Senshi I told you about last night Artemis. Since she is the future daughter of Usagi, she is Sailor ChibiMoon and is back here in the past to train as a Senshi.”
“NANI?!?” came the expected response from the two newcomers who had not really made note of Luna’s mentioning of ChibiUsa being from the future. Giving a slight sigh, Luna began the long explanation of the circumstances surrounding ChibiUsa.
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--The lake--
With the sun starting to reach high in the sky, a redheaded man appeared near the large body of water in the park that he had been found in. 'This feels like the area where at least part of my ship came down. Hopefully there will be something useful left in the wreckage.' he thought to himself a few minutes later before vanishing.
About an hour later, the redheaded man reappeared, having gathered what he could from the remains of his ship. 'Well most of the ship is toast, which is what I had expected from my fragmented memories of its last moments. However, a dozen of the droid crystals survived the crash. At least, I will have droids when it is time to make my move against the future Neo-Queen Serenity.'
Moving away from the edge of the lake, he began to walk around the park like any normal person lost in their thoughts. Rubeus was considering his new mission objectives. His original one of obtaining the Ginzuishou and the rabbit before returning to the future was now long gone. Now he was to make the moves to take over Crystal Tokyo by destroying its ruler before she could come into her own. This was going to be harder, as he remembered from his history books that she was protected by strong glamour magic until she came of age. Though, with the rabbit here, he might be able to use her to find Serenity. But he was also going to need to find a way to exist in the local society as he no longer had his spaceship.
While the redhead had been walking, he initially had been oblivious to the stares that he was receiving. But, now looking up as paused for a moment in his ponderings, he noticed the looks he was getting. 'I am going to need to blend in. It will do me no good to draw attention to myself. First thing is to find something to cover the mark of the Dark Moon Family.'
Leaving the park, Rubeus passed by an aqua haired young lady who was in her late teens. Not knowing why, the young lady suddenly shivered and felt as if someone had just walked in her grave. Looking up, she saw the redheaded man walking away, and realized that he was the cause of her sudden discomfort. However, as quickly as the sudden shiver came it was gone, leaving her to ponder its meaning and its cause. She just hoped that the evil feeling that it had left would be fully gone by her recital tonight. It would not do any good to have her playing tainted by that dark energy. ________________________________________
--The park later that day--
Usagi sighed as she watched the pint-sized version of herself swinging on the swings before taking her eyes off her daughter for a moment to see if the other Senshi were around. Happily finding none, Usagi turned her attention to Luna who had apparently given up her original plan of keeping a vigil and was now basking in the sun on the grass. It had been a real fight earlier in the day to keep Minako and then later Ami and Rei from accompanying her to the park. Now that they knew that she was their princess, they did not want let her out of their site. 'I guess I should feel happy for their concern, but I will NOT be watched 24 hrs a day!' Usagi thought to herself as she remembered the effort that it had taken to convince the others that she did not need body guards. That effort had included a royal order and the promise of taking additional training from Sailor Venus, something that she was actually looking forward to. Usagi's normal reluctance in training being overshadowed by the need to protect ChibiUsa and the fact that is was going to be V-chan giving the lessons!
When they had first arrived in the park, ChibiUsa had been completely carefree enjoying the swings to heart's delight. However, after having noticed that Usagi appeared to be contemplating something, ChibiUsa's own thoughts had begun to focus on the blond haired girl. Already in just the day's time that she had known the other girl, she was seeing noticeable differences between this Usagi and the one that she had remembered from her previous trip into the past. This one was much less sure of herself, and from the way that Ami-chan, Rei-chan, and Luna-chan were talking earlier today she was not a good warrior yet. She wanted to be able to tease her mother’s younger self, but something told her that this was not yet the time, maybe later after her mother gained some confidence in her abilities.
Elsewhere in the park, a man dressed in a gray uniform came across what he was looking for. In front of him lay a young lady who appeared to currently be on a date with a young man with blond hair. To those who knew the young lady’s date, they might not have recognized him at first, as he was not wearing his typical apron. The newcomer stood in front of them waiting for the young lady’s attention.
“Can I help you sir?” The young lady questioned with a slight quiver in her voice when she noticed the stranger standing over her and her boyfriend.
“Yes, you can. You can return to serve our great leader,” the man said before removing a crystal, which began to emit light. Moments later energy started to glow from within the lady’s chest as a crystal began to painfully emerge from within her. Attempting to protect his love, the boyfriend rushed the stranger, but was easily backhanded into a tree for his effort.
Hearing the young woman's scream, both ChibiUsa and Usagi’s heads immediately popped up. Catching each other's gaze, the two girls quickly made their way over towards the source of the scream. Arriving at the scene, Usagi peaked around a bush that they were using as cover and saw the unfamiliar man wearing the all too familiar uniform of a Dark Kingdom General.
"It's the Dark Kingdom," Usagi said as she ducked back behind the bush with ChibiUsa and Luna.
“Henshin, yo!” Luna replied.
Nodding in response, Usagi with some foresight used her communicator to alert the others before joining her daughter in calling upon the power of the moon.
Stepping out into the open, Usagi declared, “Hold it right there Dark Kingdom sleaze. How dare you interrupt the love of two young lovers. I am the pretty suited soldier of love and justice, Sailor Moon…”
“And Sailor ChibiMoon…” ChibiUsa added
“And in the name of the Moon…”
“And the future Moon…”
“We will punish you,” the two said together.
Hearing a new voice and a new Senshi name, a disgruntled Zoisite thought, 'Just great another Senshi,' as he turned around. That disgruntlement, however, was short lived for as soon as he saw the new Senshi his thoughts instead turned to, 'What? This one is just a child! They must be getting desperate; though what did she mean by future moon?' "You are too late Sailor failures, as this crystal is mine," Zoisite stated as the crystal finished emerging from the victim’s body and dropped into his hand.
Behind Zoisite, black energy began to emerge from the
victim and caress her, in much the same way that Usagi’s energy caressed her as she became Sailor Moon. There was good reason for this similarity as the source of this black energy was the soul of the victim. Unlike the soul of her lover, hers was an ancient one; one that had last seen life about a thousand years ago. The crystal that had just been removed had trapped the true nature of her soul in dormancy. But with the crystal removed, the soul could finally return to its former glory as one of the Dark Kingdom’s Shadow Warriors. However, the presence of a human body along with it being incredibly weak from its imprisonment prevented it from actually assuming its true shadow form; instead, it had to settle for altering the human’s body, much the same way a youma spirit would.
However, none of the other’s except for the victim’s love was paying attention to the transition at this time. Instead, they were focused on the crystal that Zoisite now clutched. ChibiMoon vaguely recognized the crystal and was wondering from where when her broach began to glow. In response, the crystal that Zoisite now clutched also glowed, and then the crystal vanished from Zoisite’s hands only to appear in front of ChibiMoon. Grasping it, she quickly placed it in her dimensional pocket, before getting ready for the imminent attack from Zoisite.
“Why you little brat, you are going to pay for the taking of that crystal. At that moment, the Shadow Warrior’s transformation was complete. “Shadow Warrior destroy the Sailor Senshi, in particular that small one with the pink hair.”
Hearing those commands, Sailor Moon moved in front of ChibiMoon, determined to protect her child, and braced herself for the energy that had just been hurled in her direction. Normally she would have dodged, but doing so now would mean that it would hit ChibiMoon instead. Thankfully, she did not have to experience the pain of taking that attack head on, as like clockwork a single rose connected with the attack and dissipated it. “Tuxedo-Kamen” came the happy call from the two moons.
“Be strong Sailor Moon you can defeat this evil,” Tuxedo-Kamen said in his normal reassuring tone. The rest of his speech, however, died on his tongue as he noticed for the first time the other Senshi that was with Sailor Moon. 'She has a kid with her. What is she thinking?' he thought to himself, but the recriminations that he felt towards Sailor Moon were tempered by his realization that she had been about to use herself as a human shield to protect the child.
Taking advantage of the distraction that Tuxedo's-Kamen’s rose provided, Sailor Moon and ChibiMoon jumped away to open up some distance between themselves and the demon. 'How am I going to defeat both that youma and that Dark Kingdom general at the same time? Also that youma is Motoki’s fiancée, I can’t kill her,' Usagi thought to herself as ChibiMoon attempted to use her Pink Sugar Heart Attack on Zoisite. However, unlike the limited minded monsters, Zoisite was not amused nor was he severely distracted by the attack. Instead, ChibiMoon found herself cowering behind a rock as a non-stop barrage of attacks flew by.
“Hold it right there! How dare you disturb the peace of this park. In the name of Mars, Mercury and Venus we will punish you!” the cavalry said as it arrived.
Seeing yet another new scout in the group that had just arrived, Zoisite decided that a strategic withdrawal was the best option open for him now. 'Beryl is not going to like this. Not only did I fail to get that crystal, but also there are now two additional Senshi.' Zoisite thought to himself as he teleported away, just barely avoiding being pierced by a golden beam of energy.
With Zoisite having fled, the Shadow Warrior now had the undivided attention from all the scouts and it quickly found itself surrounded. No longer was it able to keep Sailor Moon and Tuxedo-Kamen pinned down, and, instead, it found itself being battered by fireballs, crescent beams, and the occasional tiara.
Knowing that she would not be of any help to the others with only her non-existent hand-to-hand combat skills to offer in the way of attacks, Mercury moved off to check on ChibiMoon. Finding the young girl slightly dazed from having taken a glancing blow, Mercury quickly scanned her and found her to be uninjured. Though, the same could not be said for the landscape around the young girl. 'It is going to take major landscaping to repair this scar.' Mercury thought to herself as she began to rouse ChibiUsa.
“Sailor Moon finish it off,” shouted Mars once the youma showed signs of weakening.
“I can’t that youma is Motoki’s fiancée,” Usagi replied.
Mars was about to tell her that they had no choice when Luna provided a second option. “Sailor Moon, use the Crystal Moon Wand, to heal her,” Luna said upon which she performed a back flip. Then picking up the wand that had fallen to the ground, she brought it to Sailor Moon.
Grasping the wand, understanding immediately flashed through the young warrior’s eyes as she straightened up. Bringing the wand up, she began to carve out a circle before saying, “Moon Healing Escalation.” Following the end of incantation, golden energy flew out of the wand towards the Shadow Warrior. The energy quickly penetrated the warrior’s body seeking the dark soul. When it found the soul, the soul was blasted into non-existence, leaving behind a nascent human soul. Freed of the darkness, the magical aura that had created a youma body around the young lady vanished, leaving behind an unconscious victim who thankfully would have no recollection of the battle and only vague memories of Zoisite. All that she would remember clearly from the day's incident would be waking up in Motoki’s arms.
As was normal, bystanders had immediately fled when the fighting began. While the public was interested in learning more about these mysterious Sailor Senshi, no one was stupid enough to actually stay and watch a battle. One man, however, did stay to watch, but he was no normal human. Rubeus had returned to the park finding that his thinking worked best there.
Floating up in the sky, he got a good view of the battle. Like Zoisite, he also did not like what he saw, but for different reasons. The first was the presence of the mini-Sailor Moon. 'I remember hearing stories about a legendary warrior called Sailor Moon, but never one about a Senshi who was a miniature version of her. That one does look familiar, I just can’t place why.'
However, what troubled him the most was the presence of the Dark Kingdom general. 'This is not good; I was supposed to arrive after the Sailor Senshi destroyed the Dark Kingdom. Any moves against them now would only allow Metalia to be freed from her banishment. I want to rule over a planet of living subjects, not be consumed in that creature’s desire for power. I better lay low till the Senshi destroy that creature.'
Though as he thought more about the fact that he had traveled too far into the past another thought crossed Rubeus's mind. 'What if this damage to the timeline causes the Senshi to lose that battle?' and with that, he realized that as disgusting as it sounded that he may need to aid the Senshi in their battles against the Dark Kingdom. 'Well I guess I will be playing a role similar to cape boy, observing the battle and discreetly adding my help' The only question remaining was how was he going to be able to keep tabs on the Senshi, it was not like they were going to call him when they needed him.
-End chapter
