Six Years Later…
Boston, Massachusetts
~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~
‘Great Selene, it stinks,’ Usagi thought, her nose wrinkled up in disgust, as she silently made her way through the graveyard. She tightened her grip on the sword she held in her dominant hand, the right, although she had gone through hours of torture (AKA training although with those two in charge the distinction was always blurred) with Kyr and Drake to be ensure she could switch to the left if necessary and get the job done. It was still slightly uncomfortable to use her left hand, but a slight discomfort was worth the knowledge and ability to use her other hand if her dominant hand got injured.
‘If it stinks this much then it can only mean that tall, dark and decaying is nearby.’
A rustling noise behind her alerted to the position of said tall, dark and decaying. She turned with an unnatural grace, swinging her sword hand and severing the ghoul’s head off. For a moment the body stumbled around clumsily before the last of the final impulses sent from the ghoul’s brain before decapitation wore off and it collapsed to the ground. She then pulled an extra-large trash bag from her subspace pocket along with some rubber gloves.
“I fucking hate this part of the job,” she muttered under her breath, as she slipped the gloves on. She grabbed the ghoul’s head, making sure to turn the face away from her so she wouldn’t have to see its gaping mouth or the maggots that were wiggling against eyeballs and out of the sockets. This one had clearly been dead quite some time.
Usagi willed herself not to gag and wondering how this kind of shit still had that effect on her, she shoved the head into the bag and then moved over to the body and managed to shove it in as well. Then just as a precaution she pulled out another trash bag, and double-bagged the corpse. She then tied up the bag and held it in front of her, using her thumb and index finger to hold it as she carried it over to a nearby truck.
“Having fun,” asked Jayce Hawke, his entire being just brimming with his amusement. He was a tall man, about 6’1” in height, with blonde hair as golden in color as her own and blue eyes that always seemed to be plotting some kind of mischief. It seemed to her, that his main purpose in his life this time around was to piss her off.
“You know you could have actually helped before,” she growled, not feeling particularly friendly or kind at the moment. That thing kinda happened when you could smell a rotting corpse through two layers of durable plastic and happened to be a bit hungry; never a good combination.
“Now either take this thing and dump it in the back of the truck so we can find someplace to burn it or else I…” she continued, trailing off and leaving the threat unfinished so he could think of all the painful things she could do to him. It worked quite well considering the man had a rather vivid imagination and enjoyed watching horror movies like Saw.
Jayce knew Usagi well enough from this life and previous incarnations to know that she wasn’t one to make threats lightly. If she said she was going to do… he blanched as his mind came up with various possibilities, then he knew she would do it. He took the bag from her, grunting a bit since it was a lot heavier then he expected. Should have known better when dealing with Usagi, but it was so easy to forget when she barely 5’3”.
“I don’t see why you can’t do it yourself,” he complained. “You’re certainly strong enough, just as you’re good enough to hunt Stinky without a partner to watch your back.”
“All very true,” Usagi replied, yanking the gloves off and tossing them in the back of the truck; she then pulled some sanitary wipes from her subspace pocket and began vigriously wiping at her hands, arms, and any other bit of skin that was uncovered during her brief fight. “But I killed Stinky, so you can deal with clean up duty. Besides if it weren’t for me, you would be a fat lazy bum right now and then you’d really never win your Princess back again. Gotta tell ya, a girl can get over the whole brainwashed betrayal thing, but a fat lazy ass is a major deal breaker in a relationship.”
“Well at least, I’d be a nice-smelling fat lazy bum,” he grumbled, heaving the bag into the truck bed. He unlocked the truck and got in the driver’s side while she took the passenger side. “I’m going to take a damn shower when we get back. Why the hell do these things have to stink so much? I mean, I know dead is dead but that thing is more rank then your average old decaying body.”
“And you would know this how,” she teased, quickly cleaning off her sword before sticking it back in it’s sheathe and returning it to her subspace pocket. “Anyways ask Zach since he’ll probably know the answer. And stop complaining. My senses are a helluva lot more sensitive then yours. Imagine how that thing would smell if you were me.”
“I’d rather not,” Jayce replied, starting up the truck.
~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~
“Man do you guys stink,” Nathaniel Reynolds, otherwise known as Nathan (or Natty if somebody was really trying to get on his nerves and piss him off), remarked as Usagi and Jayce walked into the spacious penthouse that they all shared, along with several other roommates. He was about a few inches taller then Jayce, although they shared the same kind of muscular build that indicated strength without being overly done like some wrestlers and bodybuilders were known for. His hair was a cross between auburn and dark brown. While it wasn’t exactly appropriate length for stockbrokers, he preferred to keep his hair long, about an inch or two past his shoulders; it was actually probably a bit longer then that, but he had natural body wave in it so it flowed down his back in waves instead of straight like her own. His eyes were blue like Jayce, however while Jayce’s eyes were the blue of a clear and perfect sunny day, Nathan’s were the blue of the skies that had darkened with the approaching of a storm.
It was little wonder that the man got hit on regularly, not that Jayce didn’t get his fair share, but women tended to be suckers for men with brooding and stormy eyes; she should know as she spoke from experience. However, Nathan while good looking as Jayce, had little effect on Usagi’s heart although she was still woman enough to appreciate a fine specimen of male. It was hard to be effected in that way when your heart was already taken. Besides Nathan had a way of annoying her as much as Jayce could.
“Oh really, well thank you for the observation, Captain Obvious,” she replied sarcastically. “We hadn’t noticed the stench.”
“Someone’s in a bad mood,” commented Christian Townsende, from his spot on one of the big black leather couches in the living room. As always, the man’s laptop was with him, sitting on one of those lap desks. Ever since the boys had read that article about laptops and sperm count, they had been vigilant with always having a lap desk to protect the precious family jewels from damage and giving Usagi something to giggle about every day.
Christian was another one of her annoying roommates that she hadn’t been able to ditch since meeting him. He also fit the mold of the rest of the men, being tall and yummy; however Christian gave new meaning to the word tall. He was the tallest of all the men at a whooping 6’6”. Usagi felt positively tiny compared to the man, yet in some ways that was a good thing because he also had the ability to make her feel incredibly safe because of his height. It was just an illusion she knew, since she certainly didn’t need anybody to protect her, but sometimes an illusions were nice.
Like Nathan, Christian had dark hair, although his was a solid shade of brown. His eyes were dark green like emeralds and entirely too observant for his own good. Actually all the men saw way too much, but he was the worst of them. It probably came from the fact that he was a writer and that particular group of individuals made a hobby of watching people for inspiration.
“If you had been up until three in the morning last night working and then up again at six just so you could go to work again followed by spending two and half hours tracking a damn rank-ass ghoul, you’d be in a bad mood too,” she snarled. Sensing somebody coming up from behind, she spun around and gave another one of her roommates a dirty look since being in a bad mood meant that she currently found it annoying to find somebody was in a good mood.
“Well I have some good news for you guys,” said Zachary Harrison, Zach for short, as he continued to smile and ignore his vertically challenged roommate’s aura of gloom and doom. He was the resident genius of the group, being smart enough that he would have given even a Mercurian a run for their money. He was one of the shorter men, only being 6’1” like Jayce. His hair was blonde, although not golden like Jayce, but a more pale and tawny shade that hinted more towards a lighter shade of brown; it reminded her of Haruka’s hair except it was a few shades lighter. Zach’s eyes were green like Christian’s however a lighter shade that reminded her more of the ocean then emeralds like Christan’s did.
"I don't have ghoul duty anymore," Jayce asked hopefully.
"No something better," he replied.
Usagi and Jayce exchanged glances. "What could be better then not having ghoul duty," they asked at the same time.
"I found him," Zach answered.
Usagi glanced at him sharply, her blue eyes appearing to darken so they appeared more black then blue. "Are you sure?"
"I'm positive," Zach confirmed. "Looks like our friend headed out east. Tokyo to be exact. I think he’s going after the Senshi and the Prince.”
Jayce let out a blue streak, the kind that would even make a sailor blush with the creativity and vulgarness that was aimed at him. They all felt that way when it came to him on a general basis but to know that their loved ones might be in danger….
"If he even thinks about touching Rei, I will stake that son of a b-"
"Yo, watch the language, there’s a lady present,” Tristan Grant said, as he walked through the front door. “Man why am I always getting stuck with vampire duty?”
“Who you,” Usagi retorted, arching an eyebrow. While Tristan did have long hair, probably the longest of the men, few would mistake his 6’0” form with a woman. And if they did, that killing look, from matching sea green eyes would, that he shot her would correct that assumption. “Anyways, don’t complain. You had the easy job tonight.”
“Not from my point of view,” Kyrian Westmoreland said, his voice low and smooth, as he followed Tristan into the penthouse. “You guys don’t get slammed into brick walls a few times tonight. If were regular humans, we’d be dead.”
“I’ll take wall slamming to stinky any day,” Usagi retorted, torn between the need to go take a scalding hot shower and dealing with the latest info on him. Choices, choices. She, and the others, would just have to put up with the smell.
While they could have put off dealing with the information for another day or two, since the last two of their group Drake Kavanaugh and Lance MacAllister were away in Chicago working a job at exterminating a pack of ghouls (and what fun that job must be, emphasis on the heavy sarcasm there), she knew with the temperaments of this group that they wouldn’t be able to wait. Yet they all knew how Drake and Lance would vote and a quick phone call would confirm that in the morning.
It was really hard to believe when she first left Japan six years ago, cutting all ties to friends and family, that she wouldn’t now be completely alone. That had certainly been her plan since it was the only way she could ensure the smallest guarantee that they would be safe. That night she had cut ties from her friends and then her family, she had headed to the airport and booked a flight to America. Well technically she had called Henry McBane, the man who had scouted her a few weeks earlier before her world had gone to hell, and he had been the one to book her flight via his computer. It was because of him, that she had been able to leave Japan and she would be forever grateful to him for it.
Within weeks of settling in Boston, in a crappy apartment and taking whatever modeling assignments that came her way (she learned that just because she was scouted didn’t mean she got top jobs), she had started hunting the ghouls and vampires of the world. It was through her hunts that she had run into the guys which had been quite some interesting first meetings; the meetings with Jayce, Nathan, Zach and Kyr had been particularly turbulent.
However once the shock wore off, the reality of the present had hit as well as the past. Jayce, Nathan, Zach, and Kyr had once been Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoicite, and Kunzite, respectively, the generals of Endymion and the Earth during the Silver Millennium before Beryl and Metallia had brainwashed them to Dark Kingdom’s side. Once the Dark Kingdom had been defeated in this lifetime, it seemed the power of the Ginzuishou had allowed them to be reborn, somehow setting it so they were born around the same time as Mamoru since he was their Prince (and how that happened without screwing the timeline, she never knew).
As for Christian, Drake, Tristan, and Lance… well they had been generals of the Moon and had been responsible for keeping the Moon Kingdom safe, which was the end of the Silver Millennium was a sore subject with the four since they felt as they had felt it was mostly their fault. Out of the four, only Tristan had his original name while the others had variations or names that started with the same letter; Drake had been Draco, Lance had been Lantis, and Christian had been known as Cereberus.
The irony didn’t escape Usagi that she had hurt her friends and fled Tokyo to protect them to run into another group of people who had once been precious to her in another life. She had tried to avoid the men, however once the connections had made all eight had turned male stubborn and refused to budge out of her life. The Earth Generals felt they had to take care of her because she was their Prince’s lady and the Moon Generals did it because while she hadn’t formerly ascended to the throne, she was their Queen. Add in the fact that the men already knew and fought ghouls and vampires, and she really didn’t have much of an argument since they knew how to take care of themselves in this situation while her loved ones in Japan had never had a chance.
“So Usagi’s a masochist and Jayce is cursing like a sailor,” Tristan said, as he gingerly sat down on one of the couches. It made the others wonder exactly how many times the poor man had been slammed around since they all possessed accelerated healing abilities. For him to be that cautious, meant that he was hurt a lot more then he had let on before. There were several exchanges of looks that had the end result of them silently deciding who would take on the task in making sure that Tristan was all right. He was one of the most easy going guys, but he could get a bit testy at times like when people fussed over him about injuries.
“So what else is new?”
“Zach found our dude,” Jayce replied. “He’s in fucking Tokyo.”
“I see,” Kyr said, shooting a quick glance at Usagi, who pretended not to notice by examining her manicure and making note of chips that she had incurred because of the short scuffle earlier that night. “Then we’ll have to start making arrangements to transfer our operations to Tokyo. We leave as soon as Lance and Drake return. Nobody mention our news to Drake until he’s back. The last thing we need is him having one of his moments and losing his cool and flying off the bat.”
They all nodded in agreement. Drake was one of those men who could be under constant pressure or be in midst of battle and keep his cool as if it was a walk in the park. But threaten his loved ones and you had a fifty-fifty chance that you of him going what Usagi, who still had a bit of a Pokémon fetish even at this age, had dubbed ‘going Primeape on your ass.’ Goodnights were exchanged and everyone headed to their rooms as it had been a long day.
Usagi listened patiently until she was certain that everyone was safely ensconced in their rooms, before exiting her bedroom and heading to the living room to reach their patio balcony. She always thought best out here in the fresh air and being so high up, they managed to avoid most of the city smog and pollution that you got at ground level. She a lot to think about now.
‘So I’m finally going back after all this time,’ she thought. ‘I never thought I’d be going back, let alone for that particular reason. It was supposed to end here in America.’ She heard the barest hint of noise, which had her spinning around to see Kyr, leaning against the open doorway and watching her. There wasn’t any real visible concern in his face, he wasn’t that kind of guy and he knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t take it well if he had.
“You okay?”
“Perfect.”
“You know chances are you’re probably going to wind up seeing them again,” he said. “I doubt they cut you out of their hearts like you wanted. They’re going to want answers. What are you going to tell them?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
“Usagi.”
“No, it’s better this way, Kyr,” she replied. “They’ve all suffered a lot in this life and the last. It’s better if they don’t know. Frankly, if I had it my way you and the others wouldn’t be part of this either, but you were all already hunting before I showed up. It would have taken a major working of the Ginzuishou mojo to wipe out that knowledge and that would have made you vulnerable since they know you’re hunters. You guys know how to fight them, Mamoru and the Senshi don’t”
"They could have learned," he pointed out.
"I know they could have, but now with him around. You know he would have never allowed me to train them to fight. If they knew how to fight then they would have a better chance of surviving an attack from one of his minions and he couldn't take that chance. They barely survived the attacks by the ghouls he sent. They’re his trump card.”
"They need to know Usagi," Kevin urged her. "They're going to be in danger again when you go back. He might not be certain that you still care about them, but I wouldn’t put it past him to make a try at them to see if you’re really like the rest of them or if you’re bluffing.”
"The Senshi will be fine,” Usagi replied. “You guys will protect them.”
"But-," Kyr began to say before she silenced him with a sharp glance.
“No buts, Kyr,” she said. “Everything will be fine. There is no other option.”
Despite still having doubts, Kyrian remained silent. It wasn’t that he doubted the ability of the men to protect the Senshi and the reincarnation of Prince Endymion. They all knew how to handle themselves and deal with the things they hunted. What he did doubt was how Usagi could think she could be in Japan and think she’d avoid her old friends or the truth about really happened before she left. They may have let her walk away once, but they wouldn’t do it again. But he kept his silence because it was futile to argue with the blonde.
“Fine, but you better go hunt tonight,” he said. “The next few days will be busy so I’ll doubt you’ll have any time to do so later. The last thing we need is for your hunger to overwhelm you. Especially on the company jet. Jayce complained the last time that you kept eyeing his neck.”
“Only because I wanted to freak him out a bit,” Usagi replied, laughing. “He should have expected since he left that nasty snake on my bed the week before. But you’re right, I need to hunt. I’ll be back before the morning joggers are out.”
She jumped onto the railing of the balcony, balancing for a moment as her muscles tensed before she jumped over to the roof of the building next door which was lower then their apartment building. She ran across the roof, pausing only to glance quickly at the ground for pedestrians before jumping off and landing on the ground, in a very Underworld Kate Beckinsale kind of way. Boston may have been rife with ghouls and vampires, but it also had its fair share of serial killers, rapists and psychopaths too. She felt no remorse for ending their lives to help sustain hers.
As she hunted that night, Usagi’s thoughts wandered back to memories of the past. One memory in particular stood out. It had six years ago on a night similar to this that her own life had turned upside down and the future that she had expected had been ripped out of her grasp like her humanity. It had all started when she had met him…
~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~
Final Thought from Jayce:
Lots and lots of hot water and soap… Geez I smell rank.
~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~
Author’s Note:
There are no words that can express the happiness I feel that even years after writing this story, people still read it and actually look forward to seeing it being polished up and reposted once more.
For those of you who enjoy Sailor Moon, me and some friends run a multi-RPG site that has just opened up a Sailor Moon RPG called Chronicles of the Moon.
http(semicolon)//nexuspoint(dot)b1(dot)jcink(dot)com/index(dot)php?act=idx
Ages of the characters
Tsukino Usagi: 21 Chiba Mamoru: 24
Mizuno Ami: 21 Zachary “Zach” Harrison (Zoicite): 23
Hino Rei: 21 Jayce Hawke (Jadeite): 24
Kino Makoto: 21 Nathaniel “Nathan” Reynolds (Nephrite): 25
Aino Minako: 21 Kyrian “Kyr” Westmoreland (Kunzite): 28
Meiou Setsuna: 24 Christian Townsende (Cerberus): 29
Tenou Haruka: 22 Drake Kavanaugh (Draco): 27
Kaiou Michiru: 22 Tristan Grant (Tristan): 25
Tomoe Hotaru: 19 Lance MacAllister (Lantis): 20
Chibi-Usa: 16
Thanks again to everyone who reviewed or added this story as a favorite or alert.
FF.net
raya9 • Sayain46 • LoveInTheBattleField • Shaydees • Hikaru28 • rosesong.shadowclan • MarsCrystal42 • Michelle Lily Potter • maya884 • pandas-go-rwar • Deadly Aura (Thank you, I hope I can do it better justice now then I did when I was 18.) • CherrySerenity-sama • mangamania • serenity-cosmos-10 (It’s nice to know an old story is loved) • Secluded Sapphire • TropicalRemix (No; I hope this chapter starts to explain Usagi’s reasons…) • sailorstarcharmer • angelforbesmarch • SailorMoon489 • On Silver Wings • ncisduckie • Dansfan90 • Bin82501 (I shall in a week or so. I want to give time to the people who have favorited a chance to know about it being moved and revised to my new account. I know how horrible it is find your favorite story just disappear on you.) • CthyiaMoonHeart38 • Kiara victory Tatsu • princessrana1579 • guardiana • Faerex
deviantArt
darkdex52 • TheSirKnite
DGRFA
wannabe kairi • Sazzy •
And the ladies who commented via the DGRFA Facebook group
~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~
Maboroshi no Ginzuishou - Illusionary Silver Crystal
Senshi - soldier, warrior, fighter
~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~*=*~
Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Sailor Moon or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Takeuchi Naoko and anyone else she says has rights to it.
