Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Chasing the Moon ❯ Chapter Eight ( Chapter 8 )

Chasing the Moon

By Kuroi Koneko

 

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*bows head in shame* I have no excuses.

 

I have gone back through all the previous chapters and made a few various corrections. They're not exceptionally important - a few added details, tied up some forgotten characters (thanx __ for pointing out the tutor! I'd forgotten her... *^_^*) and the like, but just so you all know...

 

This picks up a few nights after last chapter but it will jump several years in the future about halfway through or so. Don't worry, I'm not jumping back and forth in time, just finishing up one time "period" before moving on to the next "period" or part of the story. I have more planned out readily for the middle and end than I did for the beginning so - time (and job) allowing - I'll have more chapters up more quickly. Every few weeks or so, I think.

 

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Chapter 8: Rebirth

 

 

Serena and Lana decided, after that first night, that they would never have Senshi training the night before they had gymnastics practice. They were both so exhausted after training that night, then school, then gymnastics, that practice was a disaster for them. Eos, after seeing them both stumble around afterwards, agreed to the idea.

 

"At least until we've been able to work more on your stamina, but that'll take a few years when you don't require as much sleep," Eos had added.

 

 

 

Eos, now having two Senshi to train, rather than just her original "foundling", decided to forego the mechanical defense-training since both were more adept at defensive maneuvers thanks to gymnastics. She began teaching them they're unique senshi attacks.

 

The girls looked blankly at Eos.

 

"All right," Eos sighed, "try it this way. I want you to close your eyes." They did. "Now think of your Guardian Star - what you're named a senshi after. See it glowing in your mind... feel its warmth surrounding you, giving you strength..." Eos looked closely at the two girls and gave a small grin as she noticed them both glowing faintly in their respective colors. "Good, good... now... take a deep breath in... good, that's it... now listen carefully." Eos lowered her voice to a soft whisper, beginning to move away from the shining Senshi in front of her. Several yards away at the other end of the clearing, she set up two practice youmas in front of the girls. "Can you hear them? The voices whispering to you, telling you your words of power? Feel them filling you, feel the strength rising through you, expanding until you feel the words..." The girls began glowing even brighter. "Release!"

 

Their eyes snapped open as they both shouted out their attacks.

 

Sailor Moon's hand automatically reached up to grip her tiara, effortless pulling it off as she shouted, "Moon Tiara Magic!" and released the glowing disc at the doll in front of her. The orb impacted dead on and the doll disintegrated with the disc. Moon's tiara appeared to have never left her forehead.

 

Sailor Sun raised both her hands above her head, her eyes still closed. Flicking her wrists so that her hands opened upward a small glowing ball appeared, the size of a marble. Twisting her hands as she brought them down in front of her chest - now crossed - she flung her arms straight out in front of her, twisting the small light which began to spin as it soared towards the doll, her words ringing out as she called, "Solar Flare!" The growing light engulfed the doll at the opposite end and then began to grow dark until only a small line of gold was visible around the edges. As the light grew brighter Sailor Sun's eyes snapped open and then the light vanished, leaving a small twin pile of dust next to Sailor Moon's decimated doll.

 

Sailor Moon and Sailor Sun looked at each of their piles, then at Eos, and at each other before squealing loudly, and jumping up and down as they clutched the other's hands. Each began babbling quickly and mostly incoherently.

 

"That was so - "

 

"Did you see - "

"And the light - "

 

"It was so warm - "

 

"I know! It - "

 

"GIRLS!"

 

They instantly quieted and stilled. Turning slowly they faced a tail-slashing feline.

 

"Thank you." Eos's tail slowed to a soft flicking motion. "Now, congratulations on your first attacks. They were both spectacular and highly effective -" she waved a paw at the piles of dust "- as you can see. Now our next task is our most important, I believe."

 

The girls looked at each other quickly before turning back to Eos who merely watched them. Not able to take the silence any more, Sailor Moon spoke first.

 

"And what would that be, Eos?"

 

Eos smiled almost deviously, and said, "Immunity." (1)

 

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A sharp CRACK! ripped through the quiet air, followed by an inaudible thump of something hitting the grass softened ground. A flash of light was concealed behind a thick shroud of trees where two girls and a solitary cat stood motionless in shock.

 

"Serena! I - Wha - I'm sorry - Eos, wha! - Oh Rena!" Sailor Sun babbled hysterically as she clasped her hands to her mouth, staring in shock at her pajama-clad friend, tears filling her eyes as they all looked down at the ground where the source of everyone's shock lay glinting innocently in the faint moonlight.

 

The two halves of Serena's transformation broach. (2)

 

Serena numbly fell to her knees with a boneless flop, staring unseeingly at the shards as she mumbled under her breath, "Luna..."

 

Lana had stopped babbling, instead she sniffed and muffled her whimpers beneath her tightly clenched hands.

 

Eos hesitated, then cautiously approached the silent girl. A soft thump behind her alerted her to Lana's own collapse, though she still whimpered. She gently nudged one of Serena's legs with her head, hoping for some sign of acknowledgement. Nothing. She turned away from Serena's blank gaze and focused on the split broach. Several stones had fallen out of place, but the sparkles in the grass easily revealed the broach's fallen comrades. Eos examined the broach from all the angles she could without blocking Serena's view of it - to which she'd reacted with a violent swipe of her hand to remove the offending obstruction - but could see no way to repair the damage. The broken edges of the broach had been melted by the heat of the attack, the gems' indentations had crumpled, and there were multiple areas where the damage was simply irreparable. However, even if Eos believed that she could have repaired the locket, she didn't know if the magic held within it could be repaired. If it had broken through natural means, it would've been a relatively simply fix, but through a magical cause? The only one who would have even a remote chance of repairing all the damage would be the one who gave it to Serena in the first place. And she was gone...

 

Once again nudging the immobile Serena, Eos murmured a soft, "I'm sorry" before curling up in her lap and purring.

 

Serena did not seem to notice Eos' presence. Tears slipped silently down her cheeks as she reached out a trembling hand towards the remains. At her tremulous touch, the broach exploded into a blinding light. A soft chiming sound echoed through the clearing, and as the light cleared and all could see again, the absence of all traces of the broach was noticeable instantly. Serena's sharp gasp seemed to jolt her out of her trance, and as the full impact of the loss of her transformation broach hit her, she swept Eos up into her arms and sobbed.

 

Lana, having de-transformed during the blinding flash of light, crept her way towards her sobbing friend, and carefully put her arms around her. As Serena leaned into her warm embrace, Lana too, began to cry.

 

And all Eos could do was purr.

 

 

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The next several nights Serena did not join Eos and Lana for training. She had become very withdrawn from everyone, much as she had been when Luna died. Lana was wracked with guilt about breaking Serena's precious broach and could barely stand to look Serena in the eye without breaking into tears. Everyone else thought that Lana and Serena had a fight - about what, they didn't know, and why, they couldn't guess, but only the three of them knew the truth about Serena's behavior.

 

Eos, because she was not Serena's original Companion, could not fully replace her lost and broken broach and still expect her to retain her full senshi abilities. She debated with herself for an entire week before she decided on what to do. While she could not "bring back" Sailor Moon, she could adapt her, so to speak. It took another week for her to create the new henshin wand, but she was very excited about it. When she woke Lana up one night, it wasn't for the nightly training session, but instead for a stop at Serena's. When they reached her house Lana jumped up near her bedroom window and began knocking as insistently and loudly as she dared. Serena, predictably, slept on.

 

Exasperated by the heavy sleeper, Eos stood on her back legs, her front paws braced against the window pane as she traced a symbol onto the glass. The sign glowed for an instant and there was a soft click as the window unlocked. The symbol faded as Lana pushed the window open. The duo quietly crept into the room and approached the bed's slumbering occupant. Lana gently began to shake Serena awake.

 

When Serena finally awoke she gave the pair a small but empty smile. Eos winced a little but quickly stepped forward to speak.

 

"Bunny," she began affectionately, "while I can neither bring back nor repair your beloved broach, I can at least make you a senshi again. I can't exactly make you Sailor Moon, either," she said quickly, seeing the rising of hope on her face, "but I can... revise it, in a manner of speaking.," she added in a rush. "Nothing once gone can ever come back the same, Bunny. I want you to know that now. I can't make you Sailor Moon, but I can make you a... a variation, you could say. Is that alright?"

 

Serena was silent. For several minutes she just sat there and stared blankly at her bedspread. Neither Lana nor Eos said a word, not wanting to disrupt her thoughts. After what felt like an eternity of silence, Bunny looked up at Lana and locked eyes with her for a long minute before turning her gaze on Eos and giving a firm nod yes. Lana gave a happy shout to which Eos and Serena both immediately shushed her for. She covered her mouth to muffle the happy giggles but could not prevent herself from bouncing happily on Serena's bed. Eos herself gave a wide happy smile.

 

"Very well, I'm glad you agreed," Eos said proudly. "Now, this," Eos paused a moment as she stood on her hind legs again, but this time she twisted around in a circle, her paws raised as though chasing an invisible string. When she completed her single revolution and set her paws down on the bed again, there was a small thump and a pen-like wand lay in front of her. "This will be your new henshin wand." Eos gestured for Serena to pick it up and she did so.

 

"Who am I suppose to be now?" she whispered, her gaze fixed on the silver pen.

 

"Why don't you tell us? What do you hear, Serena? What words are being called to you?"

 

Serena went silent once more, her eyes examining her pen as she tried to "listen" for its activation words. The pen was unremarkable for the most part. It was maybe twice as thick as a normal pen and completely silver. Its only decoration was a silver crescent moon - turned on its side so only one point was in contact, the other stood defiantly away from its twin peak and glinted almost malevolently in the faint starlight. As her gaze fixed upon the silver decoration though, words began forming in her mind.

 

"Crescent Moon Power!"

 

 

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(Several Years Later [We're moving on now! ^_^])

 

 

"Attention all passengers, we will be preparing to land in Tokyo, Japan in just a few minutes. Please return to your seats and follow the landing instructions of your nearest flight attendant."

 

(It's just become apparent to me that I've never described Lana, so I'm going to now since it's more relevant, k?) A girl in here late teens, her red-and-pink streaked blonde hair held back in two looped braids on either side of her head, (3) attempted to wake her sleeping seatmate.

 

"Bunny," she crooned softly, "it's time to wake up now. We're almost at the airport. Bunny..."

 

After several minutes of failure through gentle means, Lana gave Serena a hard push and a loud "Wake UP!" which finally managed to rouse the sleeping blonde. Serena jolted upright with an automatic "I'm awake!" Lana got a good luck at the half-asleep girl and burst out in a fit of giggles. Serena's usually neatly kept twin buns were half falling out of their confinements; the several feet of hair hanging from the buns were tangle in total disarray.

 

Serena glared at her madly giggling companion, tried to brush her hair out of her face - only to get her fingers somehow entangled - and then transferred her glare to her hand and hair.

 

"Lana-chan, shut up! It is NOT that funny. Quiet!" Serena glowered at her still-laughing friend before trying to rescue her hand and untangle her hair. She managed to emancipate her hand, but gave up on her hair. She managed to take down her buns and redo them even though they weren't as neat as before. The streamers she finger-combed a few times and then looped around the buns twice. Turning to Lana for inspection, she waited.

 

Lana, having conquered her fit of giggles, raised an eyebrow at the frizzy makeshift hair-do and attempted to suppress another giggle-fit.

 

"You'll definitely want a hat or scarf to cover the frizz, at least 'til we get to a bathroom and you can brush it out, but it'll do for now."

 

"Good."

 

A stewardess walked by, reminding them to put their seats and trays in the proper and upright positions, to please buckle their seatbelts, and that they'd begin landing in just a few minutes before moving on to the next row. Serena and Lana sat their seats up and waited to land.

 

 

"I don't see her anywhere, do you?"

 

"No, but if she's trying to hide from fans she might've forgotten we might not recognize her either."

 

"True. Oh hey! I think that's her!"

 

"What? Where?"

 

 

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(1) Anyone who has read - and remembered - one of the last future-chapter teaser I posted, this is important. So... I'm curious though, what do you all think it means? ^_^ Depending on answers, I might just revise a few idea points about it.

 

(2) This is the main reason why this chapter was so late. I had to figure out a way to get rid of the broach but still have a loop-hole to get it back (so-to-speak). I finally got it! Not how I originally planned to take it though... the chapters wrote themselves out differently than I had envisioned, but came out better than I had planned. Thank you Muses!

 

(3) If anyone's seen/read Naoko Takeuchi's other works, particularly "The Cherry Project", the hair is based on Cherri's. If you want pictures I can send some to you (email required of course, I'm not psychic) or you can search On Google's Images. There's plenty out there.

 

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I'm not finished with the actual chapter yet, there's still another one or two pages I want to write out, but since it's so close to Christmas/Chanukah (sp?) I wanted to get this out for all of you. I don't think I'd finished it until a little after the 25th, and I really wanted to get this out before my Muses takes off on me again.

 

All praise the boredom of work! That which gave me time to think of things to write and the free time (occasionally) to write the scenes out! Huzzah! *thud*