Gundam Moon
It wasn't completely clear in the first chapter [Raye the baka mislabelled it], so I'd like to say now that this is a *merge*, not a crossover. Tsukino Usagi, Hino Rei et al will NOT be appearing.
While no more than a working knowledge of Sailormoon is necessary to follow this story, I have set it past the end of Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (the sequel OAV series), and so a knowledge of the *complete* series is necessary, or the reader may be spoiled. Especially in this chapter, as one of the characters from Endless Waltz plays a VERY important role here and will continue to do so in the rest of the story. Also, most of the biographical data I use does NOT come from the anime, which was rather reticent on that point. It comes from the novel and the manga.
If you would like more information, or even to know what on EARTH I'm talking about, please go to http://www.gundam.org/ or go to http://www.anipike.com/ , go to "Gundam Links" and read one of the information pages.
[I did try to write a summary of Gundam Wing but, what with the history and personal data, it was two pages before I even started on the story. And it wasn't even a very *good* summary. This is a VERY COMPLEX universe!]
Please enjoy!
Raye
Kidou Senki Gundam Wing is copyright Sunrise, Bandai and animevillage.com. Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon is copyright Naoko Takeuchi, Nakayoshi and DiC. I have no rights and make no claims to any. Comments will be welcome at [email protected]; flames will be given to Hino Rei for spare tinder and or Chang Wu Fei for fuel.
Sitting in her office, Sailor Pluto sighed.
Sailor Moon had finally awoken. That meant the other Sailors would also, soon. All nine would be called upon, if she read the Timestreams correctly...
Sometimes this reincarnation business was more trouble than it was worth. Did she *need* to be so young, every time? When she was young she made mistakes. She'd tell the wrong person the wrong thing at the wrong time, she'd take the wrong step, she'd even fall in love...
She rapidly squelched that thought. /It's over. He's dead,/ she told herself flatly. The pain would go away, in time. Time... technically its master, she was its prisoner as much as any other mortal. Yet she had never taken that final step, placing herself outside time. Mortality might be painful, but only mortals could forget. Without that ability, Pluto felt that she might very easily lose her sanity.
/My grip on my wits is stressed enough at the best of times./
What was really frightening, though, had to be what the Timestreams were indicating would be the resolution to the entire situation. Who the resolution would come down to.
/Saturn is going to awaken.../
Pluto stood up and walked out of her office, with that thought echoing in her mind.
/The Senshi of Destruction is about to enter my world./
"... So the doctor says I'll be walking without the braces in less than a year!" Marimeia Barton-Krushenada finished triumphantly. The image of the young man on the other end of the call nodded calmly in response.
"%That's good news, Marimeia,%" Trowa Barton-Winner's voice crackled slightly. The connection to L4 colony was due to be upgraded in the next week; it was one of the reasons Marimeia had called her 'uncle' this day rather than waiting.
His face turned slightly to one side and she heard his spouse's voice, unfortunately too soft for the vocal connection to pick up. Trowa smiled gently at the person offscreen, before returning his attention to her.
"%Quatre would like to know if you will accept our invitation before the braces come off?%"
Marimeia grimaced theatrically. "I look awful with them on! I'd rather wait until I can walk on my own before I come meet the Winner Family."
Trowa smiled at his 'niece'. "%I understand.%"
Marimeia smiled. That was one of the nicest things about Uncle Trowa - he did understand. "But I do want to come see your home, and I'd love to see you and Uncle Quatre again," she continued. "So - after then, I'll come?"
This time the voice was loud enough for her to hear without Trowa repeating the message. "%Tell her we'll visit her when we visit Earth next week!%"
Marimeia grinned at the vidscreen. "I heard," she said, before Trowa could. "I'll look forward to it."
A soft chime sounded. Marimeia glanced at the top of her vidscreen and made a face. "Oh, no, my time's up," she frowned. "I'll speak to you later?"
"%We'll call you when we make planetfall,%" Trowa promised. They bade each other goodbye and Marimeia ended the call.
Standing up, Marimeia took a few shaky steps from the desk to the couch. Gratefully she collapsed into the soft cushions. It was such a strain to walk even that much! But now that she could walk, she would never, never, NEVER get into that wheelchair ever AGAIN!
She sighed as she lay on the divan, feeling the pains that had ripped up her legs slowly subside. Her penance. She hadn't told her substitute-uncle, but the doctor had been definite; she would walk, but never far and she would have to live with pain forever. She'd felt it was worth it.
Sitting up slowly when she felt she could, she straightened herself up. Steeling herself, Marimeia stood up and took those twenty steps again, back to the desk. Collapsing into the comfortable chair Mama-Anne had bought for her, she breathed deeply. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. The pain wasn't as bad this time.
She hissed as a sudden one shot up her right leg. /Then again, maybe it is./
Two years before, she'd been in Hell. Living under her grandfather's regime, a puppet to his desires, it had taken a bullet clipping the side of her spinal column to free her from the cage of half-truths Dekim Barton had woven around her.
She'd adopted the boy who'd taken her uncle's name as her uncle, and her father's love as her mother. Ironically, she was more loved now than when she'd been in the care of her blood-relatives.
/I'm living proof that the family you pick is better than the one you're born to./
She sighed and touched the entry-pad of the computer.
/Problems come, problems go, and yet school remains. I hate maths./
Good things come to those who wait. In this case, it was Relena Peacecraft-Darlian, after work, bearing icecream.
Marimeia could have cheered - Relena had even remembered her favourite flavour was mint choc chip.
Relena, for her part, was relieved when Marimeia's attention was immediately riveted to the icecream box as soon as she appeared in the door. /The delights of being nine,/ she reflected, as the younger girl hit the confection like Wing Zero hitting a pack of Mobile Dolls.
She immediately regretted being so bitchy. The child had been through several operations to repair her spine and had managed to not only survive them, but also to grow up. Marimeia had been a spoilt child, parroting the grandiose insanity of her grandfather. Now she was a sadder, wiser girl who paid in pain every day for her innocent trust in her only blood relative.
As Marimeia devoured her icecream, gleefully ignorant of kilojoules or manners, Relena watched her, internally debating.
/Do I tell her? I couldn't tell Pargin. Milliard was out of the question - knowing him, he'd come haring back from Mars to 'protect' me, even if Lucrezia tried to sit on him. I can't risk upsetting Lucrezia either. The first trimester of a pregnancy is the riskiest, isn't it? But if I tell Marimeia, I have to tell Lady Anne too - Marimeia would tell her herself, she never keeps secrets from her 'Mama-Anne'./
Marimeia stopped eating suddenly. "What's that perfume?" She asked, sniffing. "Are you wearing a new fragrance, Relena?"
Relena sniffed the air herself and felt her eyes widening. The mysterious fragrance that had hung in the air the night of the strange meteor, that the monster-thing had worn! That meant...
"Only two. Pfah. Still, you'll serve."
Relena and Marimeia swiveled on the couch. they were sitting on to see a redheaded woman, dressed in a conservative black business suit, in the doorway.
This was odd. Not only was this woman unknown to either of them, she was physically, undeniably there. Marimeia and Anne lived in an apartment on the thirtieth floor of the main Preventer's building; the building was absolutely covered with security. How had this woman gotten through?
Frowning, Relena saw the black cross on the woman's forehead and knew how she'd gotten through. The question remained: why?
"I'm sorry," Marimeia said politely. "This is a private residence. If you wanted the Preventers' main office, you will have to go back to the fifteenth floor. And wait till 8:30 tomorrow morning." She turned away from the door pointedly. Addressing Relena in a stage whisper, she added, "I don't like that cross on her forehead. It isn't a pretty tattoo at all."
Relena stared in shock at her 'cousin'. Marimeia was able to smell the perfume and see the sigil? Then she did a double-take.
Between Marimeia's eyebrows glowed a sigil she'd never seen before. A circle, surmounted with an uptilted arc, giving the impression of horns, balanced on the top of a short cross. The pale blue glow glimmered down, catching Marimeia's eyes and endowering them with a preternatural light.
/What is she?/ Relena wondered, not able to see the sigil of the Moon appearing on her own brow.
They stood in frozen tableux, the girl-child, the girl-woman and the woman-monster, until the moment was disrupted by a figure appearing in the doorway.
"I'm home!" A woman's voice rang out, and Lady Anne stepped into the room. "What a day - YOU!" This last to the monster just inside the door.
"What?" the monster-woman was rattled. Its disguise was perfect! It had to be! How these two - not even mature specimens - had managed to penetrate it, she didn't know, and now this adult had spotted her...
Marimeia stared. Mama-Anne had come home as she usually did, but this couldn't be Mama-Anne. Because Mama-Anne didn't have a tattoo on her forehead shaped like a cup, holding a small circle, balanced on the top of a long, thin cross. Especially not one that glowed deep, dark green.
"Lady Anne?" Relena gasped.
Mama-Anne glanced over at Relena and smiled. It was not a nice smile, Marimeia felt. It seemed to say, "Everything's going as I planned, and what's happening isn't good but it's all happening the way I want it to".
Dekim Barton had worn it a lot, towards the end.
The woman thing had had enough. "I do not know who you are, but I will drain you of your energy now! My masters will be pleased with your deaths!"
"No! Moon Crescent Power, *Make-Up*!" Relena hissed, stepping forward. And Marimeia stared at her friend.
A small diamond pin in Relena's cravat, which Marimeia hadn't noticed before this, began to glow. It pulsed, once, and then blazed. The sheet of light that shot out of it hung in the air and then fell towards Relena. It clung to her, draping over her body like a sheet of cloth, then seemed to melt in close to her body. The part that had fallen over her feet ran together to form boots; the part that fell over her hands clung and formed into skintight gloves. The rest ran down or bunched up over her torso to form a glowing white leotard, with a two-inch long royal-blue ruffle over the hips in an abbreviated skirt. A sailor collar hung over her shoulders, lining the neck of the leotard. It tied into a bow at Relena's cleavage, with the little diamond pin on the knot. Finally the part that had fallen onto her head formed into a delicate filigree headband, set with a ruby.
There was only one thing to say, and Marimeia said it. "Wow!"
Relena flashed a smile over her shoulder at her before turning. "I am Sailor Moon, fighter of evil. Leave this place now and no harm will come to you."
Karotis frowned. Sailor Moon? Sailor Moon? She'd heard the name before. Where?
Oh, yes! In the briefing! Master Garnet had said to kill Sailor Moon! What she would have done anyway!
(Actually, what the order had been was: "If you encounter Sailor Moon, run away *fast*. But if you're trapped, try to kill her, and pray you succeed before she does." But Karotis had been concentrating on planning her disguise and had only been half- listening. The moral of the story: during military briefings, *pay* *attention*.)
"No," she now said with a smile, "I think that harm will come to you." She charged... to go flying headlong over the coffee table and onto the couch.
Relena blinked and looked very innocent from the position beside the coffee table she'd stepped to. Lady Anne, the sigil on her forehead still glowing, covered her mouth, obviously suppressing laughter. Marimeia didn't bother.
"All right! That's it! No more Miss Nice Monster!" The woman lurched up from behind the couch. As she stood, her skin deepened in colour to a burnt orange. Her clothing rippled and began to grow scales, flaring and spreading into a wretched parody of a noblewoman's dancing gown. Her hair glowed and grew into a particularly nauseating shade of day-glo green, while her eyes shrank in their sockets to the size of withered raisins.
Again, Marimeia rose to the occasion. "Yurk."
"And the brat DIES!"
Karotis charged over the couch, snatching Marimeia by the neck and pinning her against the wall. Head lolling forward, her hands clenching up around the - thing's - grip, Marimeia fought for breath.
/Not like this! I don't want to die like this!/
|You don't have to.|
/What?/
|You can save yourself, if you embrace your destiny.|
/TELL ME WHAT YOU MEAN!/ Marimeia shrieked at the strange thought. /Not again - not again - I don't want to be a puppet again -/
|You can save your own life. But the price for your life is your life.|
/I don't *understand*! I *don't* *want* *to* *die*!/
|Then raise you up your hand and say, "Mercury Crescent Power, MAKE-UP!"|
Marimeia opened her eyes. Beyond the circle of the monster's reach, Relena - Sailor Moon - was held up short by the monster's claws. Mama-Anne was tracing a circle around herself and she could feel the power in her cry.
"Pluto Crescent Power, MAKE-UP!"
/Mama-Anne? Relena? Me?/
Sucking in what little breath she could, Marimeia clenched her right hand. Something was lying in it, but she couldn't bend her head to look.
"Mercury Crescent Power, MAKE-UP!"
It was the strength of the ancient glacier, the power of the grinding ice that filled her. The cool of sweet snow wrapped her aching limbs and soothed away her pain. The stabbing icicles that had tortured her body now returned to fill her bones and stiffen them against the enemy.
Sailor Mercury pushed the arm of the enemy minion from her throat. Weak? No, not anymore; she was the glacier that rides over the land, carving it before her, and nothing could stop her.
Pivoting as she fell, graceful as a snowflake, facing her enemy; as she ever had. Marimeia had always been cool under pressure; now she was Sailor Mercury, the Soldier of Ice. Drawing a breath, before Sailor Moon and Sailor Pluto could react...
"Shine Snow Illusion!"
... she struck.
"I can't SEE! I can't SEE!" Karotis wailed, backing away from Mercury's sudden blizzard. She banged into a chair and collapsed into it, opening her eyes to see three Sailor Senshi staring at her with very unhappy expressions.
"I can SEE," she muttered.
Relena grinned very nastily and began to fiddle with her headband, while Karotis tried to scramble out of the chair. She almost made it.
"Moon Twilight Flash."
"AAAAIEEEEE!"
And that, as they say, was that.
Relena stood at the window, looking out.
"He didn't show," she muttered, disappointed.
"We didn't need him," Marimeia pointed out. "I think we did great." She looked down at the small sapphire cabouchon brooch she was holding. She had discovered, if she held it right, that she could see the astronomical symbol for Mercury in the depths of the gem. She was inordinately pleased with this, especially after Relena told her that the symbol had appeared on her forehead before she had transformed. "I really did it, didn't I!"
Lady Anne smiled down at her daughter. "Indeed you did."
"I'm not even sore!"
"The living room," her mother gently pointed out, "is a shambles."
"We can clean it later," Marimeia blithely dismissed all such mundanities of life.
Relena sighed, marching over from the window and plopping down onto an overstuffed chair. "I really wanted to see Trenchcoat Guy again," she mourned.
"I'm glad he didn't show," Lady Anne said. "Do you know how much it's going to cost me, right now, just to replace that chair? Bullet holes would've been worse."
"I guess," she muttered. Then she perked up. "Oh! that reminds me! I was going to ask Marimeia if she'd come with me to help me buy a cat."
Lady Anne blinked. "A... cat?"
"I think I need a pet. To absorb my attention."
Lady Anne thought about the matter for a moment. "A cat will do that, all right," she agreed. "May I come with you?"
"Of course."
Lady Anne felt like holding her breath. It was only the fact that she knew it had worked that stopped her. Getting the girls here, to this pet shop, was necessary. She'd done her bit. It was time for the Universe to turn up with the goods.
"Relena! Look at this cat! Isn't she pretty? She has a patch of yellow fur, just like your Moon! See?"
Anne smiled. /Ping-pong./
Marimeia and Relena ooh'ed and ahhed over the kitten a few minutes more, then Relena proudly carried her up to the counter, handing over the price. The shop owner didn't even notice Relena's Moon, glowing on her forehead.
Marimeia and Anne did.
"I wonder why your symbol is glowing like that?" Marimeia said in the car on the way back to Relena's home.
"Maybe because I'm not an ordinary cat?" the kitten replied, blinking her huge amber eyes. Relena and Marimeia jumped. They both knew that voice.
Anne laughed.
"Hello, Sailor Pluto," the kitten said.
"Hello. It's good to see you. It's been a long time."
"Yes, that it has."
Relena asked, in a voice that was a lot steadier than it had any right to be, "I'm sorry, but who are you?"
The cat blinked. "Oh my ears and whiskers! I forgot to introduce myself. I am Luna, the Chief Advisor of the Moon Kingdom, Last Guard of the Princess Serenity, and the one who's been telling you what to do the past two times you've faced monsters."
The stunned silence that filled the car was deafening.
"I also catch mice."
Anne shook her head. They all had a lot to learn.
Author's notes:
1) Astrological symbols: yes, I know they're not the ones used in the anime. The symbols used in this fic are modern Western Astrological symbols, the sort an astrologer would use today if you walked into his office and asked for a horoscope. I don't know where the ones in the anime came from; I certainly don't recognise them. And so I won't use them. Sorry, BSSM purists; I'd rather use something I know is accurate than something I don't.
2) Shine Snow Illusion: Weird but true; in the manga, when making her fog, Mercury says nothing. She simply wills it into existence. This attack is actually the first one she makes. It's from Volume 4, Chapter 12, and quite a pretty attack, really. Not as offensive as anybody else's but then Mercury isn't, is she?
3) All comments welcome at [email protected].