Usagi could still remember the first time that she had met him. She and the others had just defeated Queen Nehelenia and the Dead Moon Circus a few weeks earlier and were enjoying the peace; a peace they feared wouldn’t last very long as that was always the case. They were right as he and his minions appeared around that time. The monsters they had fought had been ghouls, although she didn’t learn that until much later, and were tougher then anything that they had ever faced before. Compared to them, fighting the Dark Kingdom and all the others had been a walk in the park.
It was a few weeks after the ghouls had begun showing up, when Usagi was walking home one night after a meeting at Rei’s. The meeting had ended with Minako bemoaning her rejection from a scout from an American modeling company. Usagi hadn’t had the heart to mention that she too had tried out and had been offered a contract if she wanted; that would have been cruel after all, since it was Minako’s dream to be an international superstar. While Usagi too had such dreams, her main dream was to become a bride, Mamo-chan’s bride; besides she already know what was in store for her future. Why worry about super-stardom when she would one day be the planet’s Queen and thus be super famous anyways?
That night Usagi had been walking home alone. Chibi-Usa was spending the night at Hotaru’s and her beloved Mamo-chan had a class that night. Typically he would have skipped the class if he knew she was walking home alone, but he had a test so Usagi had shooed him off with a smile and reassurances that she would be all right. She was Sailor Moon after all, well technically Eternal Sailor Moon. She could take care of herself just fine without her big strong boyfriend to walk her home.
The Senshi of the moon had been about halfway home when she got that spine-tingling creepy feeling one got when somebody was watching them. She had glanced around, but there had been nothing out of the ordinary besides the usual shadows that occurred because of the night and street lights. So the blonde had shrugged it off and attributed to the weird feeling as to her overactive imagination and continued on her way home.
“Serenity.”
The name had been whispered in a way that had chills racing down her back. The kind of chills you got when watching a horror movie and you know something bad was about to come out or when you were scared shitless by an attraction in the haunted house at the annual autumn festival. Before Usagi had time to react past the spine-tingling chills, something grabbed her and spun her around and shoved her against the wall of a nearby building. It was in that moment she first saw him and while she only saw him once more after that night, she would never forget his appearance.
He was gorgeous, but not in the same way her beloved Mamo-chan was. When one looked at Chiba Mamoru, you saw a tall muscular man who was just plain drop-dead gorgeous and sexy; even Michiru and Haruka had admitted at one time or another that Mamoru was one appealing specimen of male, and those two had eyes only for each other most of the time. It was impossible to not be attracted to man with jet-black hair and irresistible stormy blue eyes that drew you in because there was something untamed and primitive in them, yet at the same time had the ability to make you feel safe and warm.
But not this man. He was as tall and muscular as Mamoru, actually they had the same build, but that was where the similarities ended. His hair was pale blonde; the term platinum came to mind when she had first seen it. It was also long, as long as her own when she let it flow freely from the buns and pigtails, which was most unusual since none of the men she had known in this life or the last had hair that long. But the thing that was most noticeable about him was his eyes. They were the color of amber, but it wasn’t the color that made them unique and drew one’s attention. No, it was the feeling of complete and absolute dread that filled a person when you looked into those eyes.
"Serenity," he whispered again.
"Who are you," she asked.
"I'm your future, sweet Serenity," he answered, causing the feeling of dread in her to increase. "I've been waiting for you for a long time, little Moon Princess."
"What the hell are you talking about," Usagi demanded. "And how do you know that?"
"I know about your past, sweet princess because I was a part of it," he said with a smile, a smile that got scarier as canines grew longer and extended into what could only be called fangs.
‘Oh shit,’ the thought raced through the Senshi of the Moon’s mind. ‘He’s a vampire. Please tell me I’m dreaming. Vampires don’t exist. They’re not real!’
Yet there was living proof in front of her. Or was that unliving? She really wasn’t quite sure and the fact that she was debating that particular point in her head was a good indication of how panicked she was. Who gave a moon fart about the man’s living status? He was freaking vampire and he was eyeing her like some precious artifact that he wanted to keep under lock and key. The vampire caressed Usagi’s face with an ice cold hand, which seemed to also answer her previous question, seemlingly lost in his own thoughts or memories.
"You're so beautiful, just like you're mother. I loved you're mother once you know. But she didn't want to have anything to do with me. She married that damn Solarian and had me banished out of the Silver Millennium. But she couldn't keep me away forever. A few years after you were born, I managed to slip in unnoticed onto the moon. I believe you were 3 years oldwhen I first saw you. I fell in love with you right then and there and I was determined to have you when got older. But that bitch Beryl showed up and ruined it for us to be together then. But now we can finally be together now."
The vampire looked at Usagi with such an expectant expression. It was if he expected her to jump up and down with joy at the idea. The only things the blonde wanted to do was get far, far away or at least far enough to transform and blast him into moon dust. She had no memories of this creature being in the Silver Millennium nor of her mother, Queen Serenity mentioning one such as he to her. Perhaps Queen Serenity had thought him truly gone, or perhaps it hadn’t occurred to her that this blood-thirsty creature would transfer his sick obsession of her to her precious daughter.
"Don't you have anything to say my love," he asked.
"I am not your love," Usagi replied. "In fact I don't want to have anything to do with you. I have a nice family, great friends, and a loving boyfriend who will eventually be my husband so I don't need a psychotic 1000 year old vampire show up and try to screw everything up."
Perhaps she could have been a little less blunt, but with the stress of school and the ghoul attacks combined with a healthy dose of panicked fear hadn’t put her in the mood to be nice or leash the sharp side of her tongue. Needless to the say the vampire got very pissed off. Yet he didn’t hit her although he certainly looked like he wanted to.
"You're upset now," he said after a few moments of tense silence; she wasn’t certain if he had truly gotten control of his temper "That's understandable, but you'll feel differently soon enough. As soon as you get to know me, you'll realize that you love me."
"I'll never love you," she retorted. "I don't even know you or your name. How dare you show up and expect me to love you? You can't make someone love you. Love is something special that takes time and has to be given freely."
He studied her for a second and for the third time that night she felt another chill work its way down her spine. "Yes, you're right," he said slowly, shocking her. She hadn’t expected him to accept her words so easily; he had been professing his love to her a few moments ago and coming off as fanatic stalker. Yet now he was agreeing that it wasn’t possible for her to love him. She didn’t know what to think.
“It was rude of me to just expect you to love me without being properly introduced,” he continued, clearly looking pleased that he had understood his ‘love’ and her reluctance to love him. “I am Corinth, the progenitor to all vampires and ghouls, which I believe you and your friends have had the pleasure of meeting."
"Vampires," Usagi questioned confused. After all, considering the impact of the presence of this vampire, she found it doubtful that she and her friends could have met another vampire and not realize what they were dealing with. Not with Ami’s brains and Rei’s internal radar of sensing all things spiritual and weird-ass shit.
"No Serenity," he answered with amusement. "Ghouls. Or as you and your friends called them, youma."
"Y-You sent them," she stuttered.
"Of course, my dear," he replied.
"But why?"
"To test your guardians," he answered. "I had to see how strong they were and I must say I am disappointed. To think that your life depends on those clumsy girls for protection. And those so-called powers of theirs are so weak that it's pathetic. Really Serenity I think its best if you came away with me where you can have proper protection."
"No," replied Usagi, vehemently. "I'm not going anywhere with you. I told you I don't want to have anything to do with you. Not now or anytime in the future."
"You'll feel differently about it later," he replied calmly as he moved towards the Senshi of the Moon. "It doesn't matter how long I have to wait for you to change your mind, which you will sweet Serenity. Have no doubt about that. "
"Well you can wait in vain because I won't change my mind till the day I die," retorted Usagi.
"How amusing Serenity since this is the day you die or at least the mortal part of you will die," he said smiling. A smile that had her panicking once more because it wasn’t psycho obsessive fanatic lover-like anymore but ‘you look you’ll taste good’ in a predatory sort of way. He brought his wrist to his face and made a cut with his fangs. She watched in a sort of sick fascination as dark red blood welled up. Then before there was any time to react or to even realize that she needed to react, his wrist was pressed against her lips and the blood was flowing into her mouth. She hadn’t wanted to swallow it and had tried desperately not to, but when he pinched her nose so she couldn’t breath, a subconscious instinct to survive kicked in and she found herself swallowing his blood.
After what seemed like eons he pulled away and stared at her critically. "Yes," he murmured to himself, "I think that should be enough." Then he grabbed her again, pressing his lips to hers, kissing her hard in a way that was dominant and possessive before pulling away and disappearing into the night with a “Farewell for now Serenity. I will return for you soon. “
It took her a few moments before she managed to gather her wits enough and race home, arriving past her curfew which caused her mother to yell at her. She hadn’t really paid much attention to her mother’s ranting, just nodded her head and kept muttering her apologies before she was released to go upstairs to her room. It should have been then that she should have something to Luna. Concerned and loving Luna who looked so worried as she questioned Usagi, yet the blonde said nothing of the events of her walk home.
Honestly she had wanted to. She had even opened her mouth to tell the feline what had happened. She had watched enough vampire flicks to know that it was quite possible that she had just taken the first step into turning into a vampire, which was being ambitious in thinking that there were several steps instead of one. But regardless of the procedure, she had known on some level that she was going to be turned into a vampire and she had to act now if she was to avoid that fate. Ami-chan was a genius and science was her playground; if there was anyone in the world who could find a cure to stop vampirism, it was the Mercurian.
But instead of saying what she needed to say, she only apologize for being late and wished her feline guardian good night. A part of her screamed inside in protest, but she found that she could not change her actions. It was like she had programmed to do this and she had a sneaking suspicion that she had. The Senshi of the Moon suddenly was overcome by the need to sleep and as she crawled into bed the memories of that night dimmed and remained in the shadows of her mind so that the changes that occurred in her mind weren’t connected to the first meeting with Corinth.
It would be a few nights later that she would again be returning home alone from a meeting at Rei’s. Chibi-Usa and Hotaru had left earlier that afternoon with Mamoru to go on a camping trip. The meeting itself had ended fairly early since Usagi had been cranky and short-tempered which had been attributed by the others as PMS; a reasonable explanation since the days leading to her menstrual cycle always made the blonde irritable. In reality the real reason for the crankiness had been hunger pains, another acceptable excuse for the Senshi of the Moon to be bitchy as hunger usually led to migraine-like headaches for her.
However the blonde didn’t correct her friends on their misconception of the reasons for her irritability. To do so would draw strange looks for the since she had been munching on something the entire meeting. Yet no matter how much Usagi ate, she just couldn’t manage to get full. She had also noticed that she had begun to have a harder time breathing as well.
Anyways for some reason or another, she had decided to take the route through the park to get home that park. She had been munching up potato chips as she walked when she noticed the cutest little most adorable bunny rabbit trying to limp across the sidewalk. Being the kind-hearted and caring person that she was, Usagi had went to investigate to see if there was anything she could do to help. She had, after all, the Ginzuishou to use to help her heal the poor thing although she knew her friends would have a cow if they knew that she used the crystal for something like that. However, Usagi was of the mindset that the Ginzuishou shouldn’t be used merely for big epic save-the-world-battles, but in the everyday to help people as well.
When she got closer, she noticed that the bunny had somehow gotten a big nasty cut on its leg. The cut was deep and blood continued to drip from it and onto the sidewalk pavement. Usagi found herself fixated on the sight of the blood. Before she even realized what she was doing, she was suddenly on the rabbit, grabbing it by its ears and twisting its neck before her teeth sank into its neck. No, correction her fangs had pieced the soft flesh to allow more blood to be spilled which she greedily drank.
Laughter filled the air, cold and cruel, as Usagi lapped up the last few drops of blood that the small creature had in it. She stared down at the now dead animalin her hands, her eyes growing big and wide with horror at what she had done. “Oh Selene, what have I done,” she cried.
"Exactly what you're supposed to do my sweet," Corinth said as he appeared out of nowhere. The sight of the vampire ripped the shadows that had cloaked her memories of their first meeting from the blonde’s mind. There was no denying him nor what he had made her become. The proof was in her hands, growing colder and stiffer by the second as death settled in.
"What the hell have you done to me," she screamed. She wanted to fling the rabbit away, but that would have made her sin that much greater. With remorse, she gently set the rabbit on the sidewalk.
"I made you a vampire," he replied calmly, "One of the Ancients, or Old Ones to be precise."
"Is there a difference?"
"Actually there is," he replied, ignoring the murderous glares that the Moon Princess was sending him. "First of all regular vampires can't hide their vampiric appearance."
"Oh so they don't run around revealing their fangs," she retorted.
He smiled at her with amusement, as one would do to a child who said something funny in their naïve innocence. "Why don't you see for your self," he replied, gesturing for her to go look in the nearby lake.
Usagi shot him a suspicious look, but moved to the lake to see her reflection. What she saw made her gasp in shock. Her golden blonde hair was now a silvery white and her complexion which had always been fair was even paler then before; it was beautiful in a cold and unnatural way. But what was strangest of all were her eyes, they were still blue, but depending on the how the light reflected into them, they seemed to shift to another shade of blue that was distinctly different from what they had been a moment before.
"How am I going to explain white hair to my parents," Usagi wailed irrationally. Having the white hair that she been born with during the Silver Millennium to her parents was the least of her problems.
"Silvery white," Corinth corrected, "And like I said before, you are an Old One. You can control your appearance. Just concentrate on your how you looked when you were human."
Usagi did as the vampire instructed and watched in amazement at the changes took place and her appearance turned to the one she had seen in the mirror for fifteen years. The irrational upset over her appearance settled, her mind returned to the more pressing and important problem. She was a blood-sucking vampire!
"Another nice feature about being an Old One is that you're stronger and faster then the regular vampire and your senses are ten time better them. You'll also still be able to bear my children."
"I will never have your children," she replied coldly. The fear and anxiety over her situation had seeped away for the moment, to be replaced at anger at this creature who had changed her. This creature who thought that if snapped his fingers she was to be his and do as he wanted when she had had a life of her own. "I told you before I want nothing to do with you." She then turned and ran away as if running away from him and that poor rabbit might erase the truth of her current existence. But he would not let her leave without having the last word.
“Oh you'll change your mind, sweet princess. If you want your friends to live you will. You won't be able to protect them forever. I won't kill them now, but you'd be amazed at what people can live through before they beg for death.”
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Corinth had proved his point in the following weeks. He carefully arranged more ghoul attacks on the Senshi and Mamoru while Usagi had been busy elsewhere killing large packs of them, always making her late to the other battles. It had bothered her to a certain extent, but since her friends always managed to hold off the ghouls until her arrival, she hadn’t been too concerned and had thought the vampire’s boasts to be nothing more then that. Her friends weren’t weak and could hold their own.
But one day Rei had gotten a deep cut on her arm that had required her to lose a lot of blood. Mamoru had been forced to stitch the wound up because even with her accelerated healing ability, the Senshi of Mars would have bleed too much before it was healed and thus would have needed a blood transfusion. It was then that Usagi began to realize that she had to do something before Corinth’s words came true and she lost someone she loved. She realized that as long as she was here and cared about them, they would continue to be targeted until she gave in to the vampire’s wishes.
The only way they could survive was for her to not care, or at least make the vampire think that she didn’t. Vampires didn’t care about humans; humans were, after all, prey and you didn’t make friends with your burger and milkshake. In the rare case that a human meant more, they were turned as Corinth had turned her. The fact that she hadn’t done no such thing was considered in the vampire mindset as a weakness as a vampire and in general that could and would be exploited. By pretending to not care, she would protect them better then staying.
To further protect them and perpetrate the lie, she would leave Japan as if she truly didn’t care and had no ties to the people she had loved as a human. It would also cause Corinth and the rest of his minions leave. If she, the object of his sick obsession wasn’t around, there was no reason for him to be there or to torment the Senshi and Mamoru.
A few days later she had put that plan into action and had left Japan for America. As she had suspected, Corinth had followed her. He never approached her again in America, but she had seen him a few times from a distance, watching her. She figured he was waiting for her to finally break down and welcome him with open arms to begin the process of having lots of blood-sucking babies; the likelihood of that happening was about the same percentage of the Abominable Snowman getting a condo in hell.
For over six years, Usagi had stayed away from her friends. She had refused modeling assignments in Japan just to ensure that Corinth stayed away from her friends as well. She had also intended to remain completely alone, knowing that allowing any humans near her would cause them to become targets for the vampire to use. Yet then she had met the guys who had been hell-bent on killing her because she was a vampire and an Old One to boot. But then there had been some skin to skin contact which had caused her moon insignia to appear on her forehead, thus causing all of them to have trip down memory lane. Vampire or not, it was hard for the guys to harm her then and once they realized she wasn’t a bad vampire, oxymoron as that was… well the rest was history.
And now they were returning to Japan…
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Final Thought from Corinth:
MY Serenity. Always and forever mine…
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Author’s Note:
It really drives me crazy to know about mistakes. Not in the author with a ‘tude sort of way, but more of ‘I wanna smack myself because I did a million and one checks before submitting kind of a way.’ I do have a Beta reader, but his function is more to make sure the plot of the story makes sense and my characters aren’t going all OOC. Anyways, I’ll be searching for a Beta who is more grammatically concerned, but it might take a bit since the Beta and I need to mesh well to work together.
Thanks again to everyone who reviewed or added this story as a favorite or alert. While I write this story out of pure enjoyment
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SailorMoon489 • Guest • Bin82501 • Guest • GGirll • Jade Riddle 19 • ncisduckie • Themaidenvirgo • Guest • Guest • Sarah Hoshi • Amethyst and Onyx Wings • storycrazy22 • Seneka Kitsune • YukinaS • FallenBleedingAngel • LoveInTheBattleField • ashysteel • Sailor sun1234 • BlackSunSilverMoon • maryse87 • Shadow Ice Maiden • mangamania (I hope this chapter clears up some of your questions.)
DGRFA
wannabe kairi • Gwineveve301 • MissDnG • Sazzy
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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.
