Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Neptune: Year One ❯ III ( Chapter 3 )

-Neptune: Year One-

Disclaimer: I do not own the series Sailor Moon or the character Sailor Neptune. Both are owned by Naoko Takeuchi.

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-III-

Professor Souichi Tomoe frowned as he pulled the sheets of his bed back. Today had not been a total waste of time. After all, he had been able to offer the Mistress a pure young heart crystal. And Zultan had managed to infiltrate into what she claimed to be a prime source of pure hearts.

But that was not what he'd sent the young witch out to do. He needed the Grail, and to obtain the Grail he needed the three talismans.

Perhaps Kaolinite was right. Perhaps he should've handed the task over to her instead of to the young witch. With a yawn, he decided that for the moment such considerations could wait. If Zultan didn't come through soon though, he would turn things over to Kaolinite. And no doubt after he made a necessary example of Zultan the Witches Six would become the Witches Five.

Professor Tomoe turned off the lights and crawled into bed.

--

Ever since she could remember, Michiru has had a love affair with the ocean. Her earliest memories were of her mother's beach house, playing on the shore and collecting seashells. When she was six, her mother took her out on a boat with other tourists to go whale watching. Gigantic, majestic and, to the youngster watching, almost all powerful, they both terrified and attracted her at the same time. It had filled her with a sense of awe which nothing before or since had ever been able to compare to.

Until now.

"Pluto?" Michiru asked. "Wait a minute, Pluto was the god of the underworld. Then... Then am I in..."

"No," Pluto quickly interrupted. "You are still very much alive, and this is no land of the dead."

Michiru allowed a small sigh of relief to escape her.

"I am not the god or goddess of any underworld. I am the Guardian of the Time Gate, charged with the administration of temporal affairs. Do you understand?"

"That I'm not in Hell, yes," Michiru answered, the young teen still sitting on the ground. "I also get the feeling that, although you're no doubt quite powerful, I'm in no danger at the moment. But other than that no, I don't understand."

Pluto smiled slightly. "That 'feeling' you have is part of your awakening."

"My what?"

"Here," she responded as she held her hand out, "Let me help you up. Do you remember two days ago when you saw that strange girl in the red mask?"

"You mean Sailor V?" Michiru asked, noting as Pluto lifted her that she was stronger than she looked.

"Yes, Sailor V. Sailor V is a Sailor Senshi, just as I am. And just as you are."

Michiru's eyes widened. "Me?"

Pluto took a deep breath. "I can better understand Serenity's decision now. Such news is better coming from a cat. More subtle, less threatening, with the added advantage of being almost whimsical." Ignoring Michiru's confused and questioning gaze she continued, "But as I've already said, we haven't much time, and thus I don't have the extravagance of a cat's subtlety at my disposal. Michiru, a new age is coming, but what kind of era it will be depends upon us, the Sailor Senshi. The Earth is about to be caught in a series of conflicts against enemies both new and centuries old."

She turned away from Michiru and began to walk towards something partially obscured by mist. Michiru followed. "Wait, please, I... I think there's been some sort of a mistake. I'm no warrior..."

"Twelve thousand years ago, I pulled this from the cold fingers of someone very close and dear to me," Pluto said, turning around with something wrapped in rotting leather. Patches in what remained of the leather had been hand-sewn in, and even the patches had an appearance of decrepit antiquity. "I now give it back to you."

"Back?"

Pluto strode over to her, an almost unbearable intensity flashing across her normally stoic eyes. "Guided by a new eon, you are Sailor Neptune." She then carefully placed the rotting leather package into Michiru's hands. "Unwrap it."

Michiru looked up at the taller woman, and noted the look of anticipation evident in her crimson eyes. Looking back down at the bundle in her hands, she began to peel the leather away, the timeworn and tattered material ripping and crumbling to dust under her fingertips to reveal a strange looking wand. It was light blue in color, and was topped with a shiny green crystal carved in a crescent shape, with a ring surrounding the crescent at an angle. A six-pointed star of gold jutted out of the top of the crystalline sculpture, with what looked like a stylized trident engraved into it (even though she'd never seen the symbol before, she somehow recognized it as the planetary symbol of Neptune). The other side of the wand ended in a golden orb, and as she held it she noted that the rod part fit perfectly in the palm of her hand, almost as if it had been tailored to her.

"Hold the henshin wand up," Pluto explained, "And say 'Neptune planet power, make up!'"

Michiru was about to protest again, but stopped. Pluto had an air of authority about her, and it wasn't as if the young freshman had much of a choice in the matter. After all, what was she going to do? Run? Run to where? And while swimming had made her more physically fit, the woman standing before her was taller than she was and had a large ornate staff that could easily double as a weapon. She also hesitated because, strange at it might seem, she was experiencing a sense of deja vu as she held the wand.

She held the wand up above her head. "Neptune planet power, make up!"

Michiru wasn't quite sure what happened next. If she had to, she might've describe the euphoric sensation as something of a cross between a religious ecstasy and an orgasm. The seas swirled and blew around her like a hurricane with her in the eye of the storm as her clothing disappeared, an ocean wind blowing up and around her. She closed her eyes and held out her hands as a fuku similar to that of Sailor Pluto and Sailor V formed itself around her, and she could feel the threads weaving themselves into place around her body as a tiara appeared on her forehead.

Opening her eyes again, she felt different.

She felt powerful.

"Destiny has chosen you, Michiru," Pluto said. "There is a great evil at work in the world, and it has recently struck within your school. Aya's death was no heart attack. She was attacked by a daemon, and her pure heart crystal was stolen from her."

"I see..." Neptune began, "Then the three of us are to stop the daemon, correct?"

"Three?"

"You did say Sailor V was one of us, correct?"

"She is, but she will not be helping you."

"Wait, I don't understand. You just confirmed that Sailor V is a fellow Sailor Senshi. Why wouldn't she be able to help us?"

"She can't. She musn't even know of our existence, not yet anyways. She has her own mission, one that only she can perform and which, even now, has called her to travel half a world away to England. You likewise have a mission..."

"Yes, I know," Neptune interrupted, "Catch the daemon that killed Aya, right?"

Pluto's face was unwavering as she shook her head. "No."

"No?" Neptune asked incredulously.

"This is bigger than Aya," Pluto began, "Bigger than your school, bigger than Japan even. I'm not all seeing, unfortunately, but from what I can see through my Time Gate the enemy appears to be hunting for the talismans necessary to create the Holy Grail. The Grail can either be used for great good or to unleash an unspeakable evil."

"Unspeakable evil?" Neptune asked. "What do you mean?"

"Neptune, do you not remember the dream of the great Silence?"

Neptune's eyes widened. "Then... that was real too?"

"Not if we can stop it. Your mission is to find the talismans first. The daemon struck your classmate because it thought the girl might have one of them within her. Sooner or later, one of the talismans will be found, and when that happens you must be there to snatch it first, to keep it out of the hands of our enemies."

"But... You say that one of these things stole Aya's pure heart crystal, and that's the true reason she died. If one of them finds one of the talismans and I take it away, the victim will still die, won't they? Only then I'd be the cause of their death, not the daemon. Correct?"

Pluto looked away from Neptune's gaze and sighed sadly. "This is a war, Michiru. A crusade, if I might borrow terminology a girl such as yourself with a Catholic background might better understand. Yes, innocent people will have to die, just as one already has, before this crusade is over. For what it's worth, we don't need the heart crystals of those who do not possess one of the three talismans. Those you may return to their rightful owners after you dispose of the daemon who stole them. Such is the path of a warrior that destiny has chosen for you. I wish I could tell you more, but for the moment I must not."

Neptune listened to everything Pluto had to say, and thought about all she'd just learned. Slowly, she began to frown as she narrowed her eyes at Pluto. "Then, if everything you've said so far is true, that means in essence that we are more or less equals, correct?"

"To a point, yes."

"Good. Then here's my conditions."

Pluto's eyes widened ever so slightly. "Conditions?"

"I won't be lied to or manipulated, nor will I allow myself to be patronized. If, as you say, there are reasons why you cannot divulge certain things to me at this time, fine, but do not think me a fool. This is no grand crusade, and I am no hero. The role you have cast for me is that of a vulture, a scavenger who must wait until innocent people are attacked to see if they are carriers of the talismans. 'Destiny' has given me the exact same mission as the enemy, only our ends differ. The carriers of the talismans will still have to die."

Pluto did not become angry by the outburst, nor did she seem apologetic either. If anything, she looked at Neptune with a bit of pity. "You see things very black and white, don't you?" she asked rhetorically. "Michiru, if you were able to travel back in time, to Austria in the year 1894, and ran into a five year old Adolph Hitler, would you be able to kill him? Or would you not, knowing that by not doing so you'd be sentencing six million Jews to death, to say nothing of the other victims of the holocaust and World War Two?"

Neptune was taken aback. "What kind of a question is that?"

"You've seen the dream, and the vision you saw is the same as the one I saw. All life on Earth, every man, woman, child, plant and animal down to the smallest of insects will be destroyed in the event known as the Silence. To prevent the Silence, we must have the talismans before the Death Busters do. This is a war, Michiru. It is a war for all of life on Earth, and if it should cost two or three lives to save six billion, then it must be."

Neptune was silent.

"When you come upon a daemon and wish to attack, say 'Deep Submerge!' and aim the attack at the enemy. Afterwards, close your eyes and will yourself to transform back into Michiru Kaioh. And now," she said as the mist surrounding them became thicker, "You must go back. Trust in your growing psychic powers. They will alert you to when Sailor Neptune is needed, and will help you to survive."

"No, wait!" Neptune yelled out as the mist began to slowly clear, "I..." her voice died off as she found herself once more in her dorm's bathroom at St. Agatha's. She closed her eyes as Pluto had instructed, and willed herself to transform back. This time she could feel the fuku dissolving around her even as power drained from the young girl, leaving her momentarily light headed. Once again she could feel cloth weaving itself around her, only now it was her nightgown reforming itself.

She left the bathroom a short time later and checked the time. It was four thirty in the morning. She wasn't scheduled to be up for another two and a half hours, but she knew she wasn't going to be getting any more sleep tonight. She turned the lamp on next to her bed and sat on the edge of her bed, still feeling frazzled and shell shocked from all she'd just learned. As she looked over to see her roommate still fast asleep, something suddenly occured to her.

"I should have asked about the blonde in my dream," she whispered to herself.

When morning came, Takayo was surprised to find Michiru already up and showered. After she had showered herself, both girls got dressed. Takayo noted with some concern that Michiru was quieter than usual that morning, as if something was heavily weighing on her mind.

"Michiru-chan," she asked, "Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine," Michiru responded as she covertly slipped her henshin wand into her violin case. "Why?"

Just then there was a knock at their door. Takayo answered it, and smiled pleasantly. "Konichiwa, Miyuki-san."

"Onee-sama?" Michiru asked, grabbing her books and violin case as she rushed to the door. Quickly bowing, she blushed involuntarily beneath the older girl's gaze. Miyuki had her hair pulled back into a pair of French braids, the bangs in front cut just above her eyebrows. The older girl's dark eyes seemed to mesmerize Michiru, holding her captive as she watched the light glitter and dance across their surfaces.

"Konichiwa, Michiru-chan."

"Onee-sama, I... What are you doing here?"

Miyuki chuckled a bit. "I was on my way to first period classes, and thought I'd stop by and see if you'd like to go with me as far as your own classroom. Of course, if you had other plans..."

"Michiru?" Takayo quipped, "Are you kidding?"

Michiru flashed her roommate an icy stare.

"Good. Then let's get going, ne?"

"Huh? Oh, hai," Michiru answered, consciously pushing last night's events out of her mind as she followed the older girl.

Elsewhere, Pluto was contemplating their conversation. It was funny how the old, familiar personality traits were still there just under the surface. As soon as the wonder and fear of the situation had subsided, Neptune's strong-willed personality flashed through the girl. Michiru had demanded not to be lied or manipulated with, and Pluto had given her word not to.

Ignoring the pangs of guilt threatening to rear their ugly heads, Pluto reasoned that she'd had to lie to Michiru, that it was for her own good and the situation demanded it. She needed Neptune, not just to hold back the tide of what was to come but to find Uranus. Just as fate had decreed that the love between Prince Endymion and Princess Serenity would unite them again in this day and age, so the unbreakable bond between Uranus and Neptune would soon begin to call out to Michiru. When that day came, surely she would forgive Pluto her machinations, wouldn't she?

Meanwhile, back in the St. Agatha's school library, something began to stir...

-To be continued-