Dream Makers
Ode to Darkness by the Black Lady
Oh, my world of shadow,
Core of my icy heart – my palace where my web of obsidian thread seeks to entangle my prey,
This day I seek to bring to you, moonchild my gift of dread,
I am the ice maiden and mistress of darkness,
I kiss the dark, I steal your heart and I consume it,
I am the unspoken unutterable curse, the unknown Gorgon,
The terror unbidden,
She who will rob life its prize and make it monstrous,
I am the bitter brew, the sting of the nettle, the poison chalice, the betrayer , the dark mother who sheds her blood in the pleasure of death’s seductive cause,
I am the one who you bow before, the one you pay homage and pour your life force to my well of shadow as I stand before you, clad in the coat of hungry stars that decorate the depths of empty night,
I press your pink rosy skin against the razor sharp shards of those dreams I crush in my hands and draw strength from you,
Those beautiful dreams I helped you destroy and the thrill of the kill as you surrender to me, your blood my libations to the mouth of darkness, my kingdom I inherit from the queen of vermillion I shall bequeath to you my daughter mine,
My child protégé, I shall crush your spirit, banishing all light and hope from your soul and we shall rule with ruthless abandon --you will be mine little crown Princess – future Monarch of the kingdom of ebony,
You shall engorge yourself upon the fire of fear and the chill of icy thorn – your legacy naive little girl,
I visit upon your world its rightful reward as it has called me, cooed to me, and sought my bloody glaive,
I shall gather my obsidian harvest,
I am the dark huntress, Black Lady!
Crystal Kings
It was a night of mixed emotions for the Shitennou of Earth. One of great joy and regret, much celebration and feelings of love rekindled and deep sadness at the realization King Endymion and Neo Queen Serenity were gone. Sere sat with the Generals as shock, grief, and boundless pain appeared upon their faces at the shock news of their demise.
“But what kind of enemy was this! I don’t understand. The Dark Kingdom was banished and its monarchs you destroyed!” Nephrite exclaimed, unable to comprehend the gravity of what he was being told by the new queen of Crystal Tokyo. It was enough of a shock to emerge a millennium later after being confined to the gemstones where only their essence could communicate with Endymion and his princess. But to find on their re-awakening and subsequent release from their internment that the King and Queen were swallowed up by an unknown nemesis was more than they could take.
“No… I can’t believe it!” Kunzite bellowed as he flung his crystal goblet at the opposite wall, startling the Queen and her courtiers as thousands of tiny crystal shards and red wine droplets showered to the floor. Luna and Artemis drew their swords on instinct and then re-sheathed these after Sere raised her hand and bade Lord Kunzite sit and calm himself.
“We all miss them, Lord Kunzite, and I know you were especially close to my father and held my mother in the highest regard. But we need to protect the Earth from all her enemies, be they known to us, or no. I must protect them. I need your help, noble Shitennou!”
“You shall have it,” Kunzite assured her as Artemis handed the General a fresh goblet of wine after palace staff quickly cleaned up the mess. “I am sorry for my outburst, our loss is the lesser as you’ve obviously lost your parents and your pain runs far deeper than ours. You have our sympathies and undying loyalty.”
“Thank you, Lord Kunzite. We must leave for the moon tomorrow, so I suggest you attend the ball held in your honor as I am sure you’ve got a lot of catching up to do.” Ami blushed as she gazed shyly at Zoicite and a smile escaped Minako’s lips as she chanced a look in Kunzite’s direction, garnering a sheepish grin from the General. “All right, we meet at the spaceport tomorrow. Late morning for pre-mission briefings and Rei, I want you to train with the guys before heading out at daybreak, all right?”
“As you wish, my queen,” the sovereign of fire said, bowing formerly before straightening and striding confidently towards Jadeite and linking her arm through his and all rose as the audience with the queen ended.
Night Terror
The forest was dark and sinister. She stumbled over the gnarled roots of ancient trees and screamed as a swarm of fluttering bats squeaked their protests as they rose into the night sky, scared by her panicked vocalizations.
The silent trees wrapped their vicious talons around her delicate feet, causing her to fall, tears streaming down her face as she struggled gingerly to her feet, a stitch piercing her side. She gasped for air.
She was frightened, her dress torn and dirty, and there was dried blood on her face and hands from the thorns. Insects feasted on her smooth virgin flesh, adding to the discomfort afforded by the long scratches on her bare legs. Her amethyst hair tangled and matted.
Suddenly, an unseen hand pressed itself firmly against the small of her back, sending her forward into a pool of water.
She felt herself dragged up by the scruff of her tattered dress and flung against the mossy bank. The sound of cruel laughter washing over her trembling form as blazing red eyes illumined the ghostly trunks of nearby trees and the intricate canapé of branches overhead, giving the setting the patina of nightmare.
The woman was standing over her, long pink hair fell to the backs of her legs.
~She looks like mommy, but surely, it couldn’t be!~ she thought staring back at the pretty lady.
“Oh, sweet little brat, precious one, I’ve been waiting for you…come to mommy!”
Chibi-Chibi heard the woman’s taunts and refused to believe it to be her mother. She looked like her, sounded like her. But she knew in her heart that it wasn’t she. “Go away! You’re not my mother and keep that black ugly thing away from me!”
“Oh, darling, that’s no way to talk about your dark flower, the power that is yours to command, to rule and to destroy!” the woman cackled, throwing back her pink locks. She stomped through the water towards her, splashing slime over Chibi-Chibi’s drenched form as she moved ever closer to the terrified girl. ”She wants to play. Come and play with Hydra!”
The woman stood a short distance away, hands on hips after plunging her staff into the water. Its stem secured by the suction of the greedy marsh mud.
She shook her head, grinning maliciously down at the shivering young princess, sitting in the fetal position upon the wet mud.
Chibi-Chibi looked at the long black crystal staff as it began to transform. Its smooth crystalline stem now rived and hissed in the woman’s hands. It slowly, and almost seductively, twirled itself about the bare arms of the black clad Senshi. The flickering fiery-red tongue licking -- almost kissing -- the glistening skin of the woman’s shoulder and working its way along her collarbone, neck and the hollow of her throat before winding its way around her chest, stomach and hips before sliding down her right leg. Chibi-Chibi watched in morbid fascination as the reptilian changeling splashed into the water.
Panic gripped Chibi-Chibi as the serpent encircled her ankle and moved quickly up her shivering body, the soft and cold texture of the reptile as it ascended her leg made her sick with fear. She screamed once again as it slid over her dress and wound itself around her chest. She couldn’t move. The head of the pulsating snake hovered before her, staring back at her with fathomless blood-red eyes. She was powerless to do anything about it.
The woman growled in a low menacing tone, “accept your destiny, child. Be my servant. Be the ruler of the darkness and know the riches and power of that realm and be heir to eternity with me!”
“No, leave me alone!” she cried, releasing a primal scream from so deep a place within, a light blazed from her heart and fire leapt from Chibi-Chibi’s hands and surrounded the reptile in a corona of flames.
Then it was the serpent screaming with her mother’s voice, “You little bitch!”
The creature retreated into the water. The dark clad woman fell to her knees, her thighs covered in mud, her hair trailing in the stagnant pool. She sobbed and gathered the scorched snake in her hands, clutching it to her chest protectively. She shouted at Chibi-Chibi in an unknown tongue as the crystal returned to its natural state. The princess chose this moment to jump to her feet and make a run for it.
~*~
She was moving quickly through the underbrush when she found her path blocked by a tree fashioned from pure onyx, its surreal face looming overhead. Again, a fiery blaze of light disintegrated it. Suddenly, she fell into an abyss, crying out to Pegasus.
She woke and sat bolt upright, bathed in sweat with tears pouring down her cheeks, hands clutching the sheets as she realized it was all a dream.
~*~
As so often happened these days, Sere would begin to drift into sleep, her body began to glow with a soft pale-blue light as the Ginzuishou filled her heart, spreading to all extremities, forming a pool of silvery light around her as she lay on her bed. It was an exhilarating experience, her body would transform into a kind of liquid crystal. She could see through her hands, arms and every part of her body. She couldn’t see her internal organs and figured she had simply become pure crystal, a kind of living gemstone life form that defied conventional science, and all anyone knew of the Ginzuishou and its power.
She began to hear music, the music of her mother’s locket. She heard it every time she fell into slumber, and the power of the Ginzuishou throbbing within made her part of the music, a link to her lineage and put her at rest as sleep finally claimed her.
Ebony Dreaming
She stood on the border that separated the marshes and the forest that lay outside the palace gardens. Sere’s eyes penetrated the veil of night stretching out into the fecund darkness before her. She was in her fuku, her palms raised in supplication to the full moon.
Then the light of the crystal bloom within her body, pierced the hearts of the nearby trees. Then she saw them. First one warrior stepped forward from a long gash that appeared upon one of the ancient trunks of these primordial trees. Soon others began to emerge. She gasped as one after another, the warriors came forth. It was the Shitennou. But there were thousands of them. The markings of all the planets of the Crystal Kingdom, including those worlds beyond the solar system emblazed upon each uniform.
They drew their crystal swords en masse, holding these aloft in a royal salutation. She bowed to them in acknowledgement. A mighty flash heralded their disappearance. She understood they were bound for their planets.
Then she found herself once more alone in the forest. A crystal frog croaking on the ground on a nearby rock blinked at her with the most enchanting and stunning ocean-blue eyes she’d ever seen. She thought it was speaking to her, and indeed, she could hear his voice as she knelt before the beautiful creature.
“My queen, danger lurks nearby, you must hurry. Chibi-Chibi needs you!”
“Where is my daughter, and what is this danger of which you speak?” she prodded the amphibian. She recognized the creature, yet couldn’t understand where she’d seen him before. But her thoughts were interrupted by the screams of a girl somewhere in the blackness. “She is in trouble, help me…”
Without warning, a black spire of translucent stone shot into the sky from the depths of the forest as if challenging the silvery moon for supremacy as it began to throw off waves of dark light. Laughter issued forth from the megalith as it shattered, sending shards falling like a black rain upon the ground as these bored like eerie insects into the forest floor. Sere jumped to her feet and followed the frog into the foliage to seek her daughter. As the sounds of Chibi-Chibi’s crying grew louder, she began to feel as if something was calling to her, almost a whisper. It was pleasing, desirable and seductive. But she also knew it was evil.
She noticed the blood-red flare of light ahead and heard laughter and more crying. But she was too far away to lend a hand, her feet heavy as with most night terrors.
But the sounds of a woman’s screams – part human, part something else – reached her ears. By the time, she reached the place where she thought her daughter was, the forest, once more, fell into a predatory quietude.
She then saw her, a mirror image of herself. “Black Lady!” she hissed, as the doppelganger, every bit, as deadly as the formidable Kaori Knight, Beryl, or for that matter, any other nemesis she and her family had ever taken on, stood before her. She was clad in a skimpy black fuku and a pair of knee-high boots, the sight making Sere grimace.
“Why, am I not surprised!” It was tine. The woman appeared Almost kawaii, but she knew this was no minstrel of light.
“So, we meet again, Sere, and I will have my way this time. If I cannot have you, I will take your daughter!”
“You keep your filthy hands off her you snake!”
“How apt, as I was going to introduce you to my friend. She is a little wonder you had so long ago rejected after destroying my liege, Wiseman, or The Doom Phantom if you will. But no matter, I have inherited his dominion. The children of chaos like the darkness of this forest come in so many forms. Why, my queen, we even live in the hearts of the most virtuous of humans and other creatures. Observe!”
The staff once more became a snake and launched itself at Serenity. But she lifted her arms, surrounded herself with a sphere of silvery-blue light and the snake burst into flames, and vanished. “You’ll have to do much better than that you wraith, I can take you on and win, and I am no innocent helpless child any longer!”
“Oh really,” she sneered, venom dripping off her words, “I think your powers are wonderful. But foolish girl, I am part of you. You nurture me. I feed from your light as an infant takes nourishment from its mother’s breast. I know of your powers with your Ginzuishou and I bask in the light as I turn it to dark purpose and make no mistake,” Black Lady spat, her tone taking on a more dangerous edge, “I will have you, your children and the Crystal Kingdom -- a pretty name, but a plaything for my dark ambitions. You should think yourself fortunate as I have new friends, and these allies are much more powerful than those who claimed your stupid parents and that wimp of a husband of yours. I so wanted to steal him from you. Who knows, I might yet have my way on the darker planes if I get the chance to take his soul!”
“You bitch! I will stop you. I promise you. Don’t think you will come between me and my daughter, because you’re greatly mistaken!”
“Oh sweetie, but I already have,” Black Lady, laughed.
~*~
Sere woke with a start, her nightgown soaked and clinging to the skin of her back as her heart thumped against her chest.
“Oh those dreams again. I know she is real. But I can’t endanger Chibi-Chibi. If I go to her now, Black Lady may use this contact to get at her. But what if I’m wrong and she is trying to get me to react like this. Mommy, I am so confused. What would you do?” she asked the darkness.
~*~
The sun was embracing Crystal Tokyo in a magenta light as the day began its long trek across the sky. The Shitennou were busy at the city’s spaceport, making ready for the flight to the Moon. Rei was sitting on the flight deck on a foldout chair eating sushi and sipping an orange juice while reading the morning briefs on the mission Jadeite had given her a short time before.
“Jad, this is really efficient work. I must say you wasted little time on this. You are thorough I must say, as are you in matters of love,” she winked at the General and he blushed as he bowed to his lover.
“Only the most beautiful woman in the cosmos could ever elicit such proficiency on my part,” he grinned, meeting her fiery eyes. He then planted a kiss upon her sweet red lips.
Jadeite was thrilled to be both free from the stones and the darkness surrounding his heart, as was the case with all his fellow Shitennou. He was not surprised to learn of the other Shitennou from the long ago past who harkened from not only his home planet, but throughout the stars. It would take some getting used to, and he didn’t mind in the slightest, as he was more than happy to get to know these noble fighters. Many related to one another, those from the ancient Terran Kingdom at least anyway.
Jadeite found Turquoise -- one of the earliest Shitennou serving under Queen Freya, a distant relative of Endymion’s royal lineage -- a most entertaining and skilled strategist. Having found this out after he’d defeated Nephrite and Kunzite at chess, Zoicite didn’t even bother trying after the fall of his comrades.
Drawing up the plans for taking control of the outpost and observatory as well as deploying new stealth shields on the Crystal Kingdom’s assault fighters, this was all Turquoise’s doing. He had to thank the Kamis for these amazing new allies.
~*~
The morning was glorious. Dew had settled upon the flowering plants of the botanical gardens of the Crystal Palace as the day continued to awaken in a blaze of pastel color upon the horizon. The palace’s kitchen staff was busying themselves as Makoto organized breakfast.
Queen Minako, with her royal attendants was engaged in light conversation at one of the long tables as Chibi-Chibi looked at the time. Nijizuishou was hopping from one leg to another, squawking a new refrain, “Hail the noble Shitennou!”
Chibi-Chibi found her feathered friend always helped to lift the nightmarish shroud after one of her disturbing dreams better than any tonic ever could. She stood up, walked to the bird’s perch, and extended her arm. Nijizuishou jumped onto her hand as everyone piled into the mess hall after the morning training run was done.
The Earth’s Shitennou seated with the girls and the Celestial Shitennou from the planets and beyond sat in animated conversation at the guest tables that seated fifty at a time. There were several such tables set aside for their honored guests, the throng reminding Makoto of a swarm of bees making honey. She smiled as Chibi-Chibi and Nijizuishou approached the Shitennou’s table.
“How are you princess?” Nephrite asked, between mouthfuls of coffee and a cinnamon and apple filled croissant.
“I am well, sir,” she replied shyly and bowed, careful to keep her arm level for Nijizuishou.
“Child, you can address me as Neph. Everyone else does, so I would be honored if you would do me the great honor, my princess,” he smiled and bowed his head as a gesture of respect.
“Okay, I like that, Neph.”
With that, Nijizuishou barked out, “Neph, noble Shitennou… I salute you!”
The table broke into a chorus of raucous laughter as Nephrite and his Shitennou companions found themselves amused by the humorous antics of the Rainbow Parrot.
~*~
The silvery disk began to pulse with a golden light as it hovered above the apron and moved skyward. Within the hour, they were in orbit around the moon. “I will set us down a quarter of a mile from the observatory, but the stealth fighters will patrol the perimeter looking for any signs of trouble while we move on foot towards the outpost. I will put the ship in cloaked mode, nobody will find it.”
“Haha… so long as we don’t have trouble finding it ourselves,” Zoicite chuckled, hugging Mercury around her slim waist.
“Well, let’s suit up!” Mars announced.
The moon was silent and dark. The crystal glow from their Star Seeds allowed them to navigate the terrain easily enough. The dust lay like a thick coating of talc on the ground, barely disturbed by the motion of their boots as they moved towards a dark alcove in a nearby crater and began the long descent to the subterranean conduit that led to the observatory.
“We’ll check out the base and secure it. I have detected nothing yet. But the observatory is easier to pick up. What I’m really nervous about is the outpost below,” Mercury said, as they entered the central chamber. “Now, here is the crystal touchstone. Give me a moment and we can take off the headgear; these are way lighter than the old world’s spacesuits of the moon missions, but still make me feel cumbersome and claustrophobic.” she admitted as her palm pressed on the smooth panel and engaged the life support systems throughout the complex and the observatory hummed into life.
“I’m surprised it still works after so long,” Venus said in awe, her eyes dilating as the light adjusted itself to suit its newly arrived inhabitants.
“That’s because I did a pre-orbital check, Venus,” Mercury giggled. “Its fine, you think I’d have us enter this dusty old place without knowing it was safe and in order?”
“Just checking,” Venus chuckled.
Artemis and Luna frowned at the huge hole in the granite wall after having moved a little further along the corridor as they scanned for dark energy signatures. “Something was here,” Artemis speculated.
”But what exactly I can’t say, guys,” Mercury said to a worried Luna and Artemis, who offered Sere and the others puzzled looks.
Nephrite knelt upon the ground to examine something and gasped. “Its Endymion’s, it’s his graduation ring from the academy in Serenity City… But what is it doing here?” he scowled, sensing it was a trap.
“All right, it is obvious we are expected, so I will alert the fighters to be on standby to teleport us out if we need to get out fast,” Sere declared as Nephrite handed the ring to her and she turned it over in her hand and Mercury scanned it for traces of negative energy.
“It’s cool, nothing here, Sere.”
The queen nodded and she held her staff aloft, closing her eyes, and hummed. Suddenly something approximating an elongated scream could be heard coming from a duct at the end of the alcove, and something was emerging. “I am drawing them to us. They won’t expect it, nor will they be able to resist the Ginzuishou!”
The Generals struck a battle stance as did the Senshi and the feline metamorphs, all giving one another nervous glances as the sounds that defied description continued to grow louder as the silvery light emanating from Sere’s heart center sent a stream of force into the shaft and literally pulled a series of slimy black blobs from the abyss.
“You…!” Sere snarled between clenched teeth.
“What are they?” Kunzite asked as he raised a hand and it began to glow.
“It killed my parents, or others of its kind did,” Sere said, her voice wavering as tears filled her eyes.
“Mars Celestial Fire-ignite…!” Mars declared as the strange creature roared its indignant protests at being dragged reluctantly to the battlefield without notice.
The creature retreated as the black bulk of its body turned a bright purple and the flames incasing the blob-like entity burned and it screeched with pain and rage.
Without warning, a number of long thick glossy tentacles lunged at the Shitennou, one of these taking hold of Zoicite. He found it impossible to breathe as the air was slowly being squeezed from his lungs. But Jadeite, stepped in and in a casual manner moved towards the creature, his footfalls and the creature’s cries the only sound as he grabbed its vine-like tentacle with his glowing orange hands that began burning their way through the glistening appendage. Then, like a cracking whip, it snapped and the wailing creature retracted its mutilated extremity.
Zoicite unraveled the severed organ from around his neck and bowed to his companion. “Thanks, I owe you one, Moon Ales for a week!”
“I’ll hold you to that ol’ boy. Now let’s as they say, kick ass!” Jad replied.
They then launched a series of energy spheres as other blobs joined the larger one as it rived in pain and sought shelter behind its fellows, its angered companions, spitting out a kind of venom in retaliation, one burst of this disgusting fluid temporarily blinding Luna.
Artemis threw several razor-sharp crystal stars towards the blobs in the front ranks. These burrowed all the way to their hearts and the blobs instantly imploded.
“Good job, Artemis, now let’s finish the rest of these creatures!” Luna shouted as the Senshi and Shitennou launched another volley of attacks.
Sere then stepped forward and raised her arms in an incantation. “Soul of Moon, soul of stars – I command you to take my net and cast it thrice. Bind these dark ones and purify in light!” stepping out of Sere’s body, a double of herself, fashioned from the light from the Ginzuishou.
Mercury and mars stood there in shocked silence at the awesome display of power they’d never seen used by Serenity, or Sere’s mother, Usagi. Then the warrior of light attacked the creatures until each were nothing but a pile of white ash upon the floor of the chamber. Everyone looked at Sere as she stood in a posture of peaceful repose as the luminous being of light fashioned from the Ginzuishou stepped back into her body.
“By the Kamis, queen Serenity… what was that!”
“All in good time, Lord Kunzite; let’s just say, these creatures won’t be putting in a report to their masters any time soon,” Sere said in a cryptic tone as she blinked away tears of elation and grief. She stretched and yawned. “I think its time to secure the base and have a permanent presence here on the moon. I will have the rest of the surface scanned. Mercury, are there any other negative signatures here?”
“Yes, I’ve detected something in the power core below. But it’s not a life form as such, rather a crystal homing device or beacon.”
“Okay, let’s deal with it!” Venus said as Sere nodded. After a salve was applied to Luna’s eyelids, everyone left the chamber.
~*~
The Senshi and Shitennou explored the nether regions of the outpost and after knocking out the beacon, they had found a host of ancient records cast in crystal and other historical treasures. Whatever couldn’t be transported to Crystal Tokyo for study would be left for Crystal Kingdom science teams to study once the base was reactivated.
“My queen, I will be happy to assist the setting up of the Crystal Kingdom’s first active military base since the Silver Millennium,” Kunzite announced as the fighters landed and went to work getting the base ready for supply ships and other military spacecraft.
“We may have won the day, Lord Kunzite. But rest assured, these creatures were sent here to ambush us, and I want to know who sent them. And when I find them…” she trailed off, a look of rage so intense it almost frightened the General, as he swore it was not the queen’s eyes that looked back at him for that fragment of time. “They will pay!” she snarled.
