Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Hope Saga ❯ Hope: Love and Loss ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Hope: Love & Loss




Hope: Love & Loss

The light faded around them, and they glanced around
hesitantly about them. Instead of being at Capsule Corp., now
they stood in a vast field of glittering multi-colored crystal.
"Where are we, obasan?" Trunks asked hesistantly.

"I-I don't know, aino-chan. This looks like Crystal
Tokyo, but at the same time, it doesn't." Sailor Cosmos
stared at the glittering surface. "These are my Senshi's
colors. It doesn't make sense."

Trunks's head cocked a little to the side as though he were
straining to listen to something. "Obasan, do you
hear--"

She pushed him behind her and moved both hands in front of
her. A barrier of white light formed only seconds before a firey
arrow would have hit them. "Kuso!" they both heard a
woman cry in indignation.

Cosmos's eyes widened, and she gasped in shock, dropping the
shield. "Rei-chan?" she exclaimed, staring at the
raven-haired woman before them.

Rei Hino, Sailor Mars, grinned evilly at her. "Did Vegita
send you?"

"Tousan?" Trunks whispered.

Rei stared at both of them then pointed at Cosmos and stated,
"You look a bit like Sailor Moon."

"I'm--"

Trunks grabbed her arm. "Obasan, these aren't the same
people."

Cosmos jolted slightly. "You're right. She's Rei's
opposite."

"Let's get out of here." He started to rise up into
the air.

"They can fly too!" a voice cried behind them.

"Minako-chan!" Cosmos cried, whirling to face the
blonde woman.

The sweet face she remember the leader of the Inner Senshi
having was twisted into a snarl. "Vegita must have sent
them."

"Not his best pick, ne, Venus?" came another voice.

"Michiru-san!"

"I think she has power," Mars commented. "She
blocked my attack fairly easily."

"Obasan!" Trunks called. Sailor Cosmos looked up at
him; he'd never seen such a look of pain on her face before. He
held out his hand, and she grabbed it, following him into the
air.

"Iie!" Venus yelled. "You're not getting away
that easily! Venus Love-Me Chain!"

Cosmos turned in midair and threw up the barrier again.

"Moon Tiara Action!"

"Kuso," Trunks whispered.

"Aino-chan?" Sailor Cosmos asked softly.

"Daijoubou, obasan," he assured her. "It's just
a scratch."

"I used to use that tiara. I know the damage it can
do," she argued. "I bet it's a lot worse than a
scratch. Let's get out of here."

"Hai, obasan."

The pair shot into the air and flew until they saw landscape not
covered by crystal. "I never thought mountains would ever
look so beautiful," Cosmos commented quietly. Trunks nodded
slightly, one hand clutching his side. "Let me see,
aino-chan."

"It's just a scratch, really, obasan."

"You're bleeding," she pointed out.

He grinned faintly. "I'm tough; I can take it. I'm half
Saiyajin."

She shrugged. "You have a point. I just can't help
worrying about you, musuko-chan." She glanced around.
"I'm going to scout about a bit. Try not to move too much,
okay?"

"Okay. I'll be fine."

She nodded and flew off. Only once she was out of sight did he
even let himself acknowledge just how badly he was hurt. With a
hiss of pain, he released the wound; his entire hand was soaked
with his own blood. Think of something else, he scolded
himself. Obasan's never called me that before. It's always
been "aino-chan."

Blackness pulled at him, but he resisted it and set himself to
examining first his wound and then his immediate surroundings.
Something dark floated past him. It looked a bit like a cat's
head with an antenna sticking off the top of it and a black
upside-down crescent moon on its forehead.

"You weren't dumb enough to fight Sailor Moon, were
you?"

For just a second, he thought it was his aunt speaking. No,
this woman's younger, his mind reasoned. "Who are you?
Where are you?"

A woman dressed almost entirely in black clothes stepped into
sight. Her eyes were red, and her hair was pink, done in odangos,
similar to his aunt's. He guessed her to be about his age. She
stated simply, as if it should explain everything, "I'm
Black Lady."

"Who?" Trunks asked.

She glanced closer at his face, ignoring his question.
"Kami, you look like Vegita! Who are you?"

"Trunks. I'm from a different timeline."

"I rather guessed so. Vegita doesn't have any children
here." Her face hardened. "Why were you fighting the
Sailor Senshi?"

"They attacked us."

"Us?" she asked. "Someone else came here?"


"Hai. My aunt."

"Was she hurt too?"

"Iie. Sailor Moon attacked us from behind while my aunt
tried to fight off Venus."

"Your aunt is either very brave or very foolish,"
Black Lady commented. She stepped closer. "Let me see that
wound, Trunks."

"I'm fine."

"You're just like Vegita!" she exploded. "Now
just let me--"

"Black Lady," Sailor Cosmos hissed.

"Sailor Moon!" Black Lady gasped. She and Trunks
both turned to see her standing just a few feet away from them.

"Iie," Trunks whispered to Black Lady. "That's
not Sailor Moon."

"What?!?"

His aunt's eyes narrowed. "I'm Sailor Cosmos, Black
Lady."

"Masaka. The legendary, most powerful Sailor Senshi,
here, now?"

He really didn't like that glint in his aunt's eyes. She was
angry, furious in fact, and he couldn't understand why. Granted,
there were a lot of things about her that he didn't know, like
how she knew Black Lady. She must have fought her at one time or
something; it was the only explanation that made sense.
"Obasan, remember. Opposites," he reminded her softly.

Some of the wariness dropped off her face. "Then she'd
better be a saint, aino-chan."

"She's your aunt?" Black Lady demanded, her
voice full of awe. Trunks nodded slightly. "Then we might
stand a chance after all. Come on. I should take you two to
Vegita."


He wasn't sure what he expected his father to be like. He
certainly hadn't done a good job anticipating his mother. As
Black Lady led them deeper into the mountain, Trunks's
nervousness grew with every step he took.

The wound in his side was healing. It screamed in pain with
every step, but it was healing, unusually quickly at that. It
wasn't too hard to guess his aunt most likely had a hand in it.

"Vegita?" Black Lady called out in the utter
darkness. "It's Black Lady!"

"What do you want?" a deep voice answered. The
cavern was filled with light in an instant, and Trunks suddenly
found himself face-to-face with his father. "And who have
you brought with you?"

She rolled her eyes fondly at him. "Just a couple of time
travelers, Ouji-sama, not much."

He scowled back at her. "Watch it, Oujo," he
countered before returning his full attention to Trunks and the
woman behind him. "Who are you people?"

"My name is Trunks," he answered briefly, suddenly
unsure of what to say. When his aunt first mentioned other
timelines so long ago, he'd come up with a thousand things to say
to the man in front of him. Now he couldn't think of one of them.


Black Lady laughed. "In his timeline, he's your
son," she giggled.

Vegita didn't even blink. "Then he'd better be a damn
good fighter." He turned to face the woman in white.
"And you are?"

She smiled slightly, somewhere between a grin and a smirk.
"Sailor Cosmos," she answered shortly.

"It's about time you showed up. You kept us waiting long
enough."

The smirk grew. "I didn't know we were on a
deadline." Her face hardened. "Why do you want me here
so badly?"

Black Lady took one step closer to her. She started to come
closer, but a severe look from Cosmos froze her in place.
"You're the only one who can defeat the Sailor Senshi,"
she answered simply.


"She's different from all the other Sailor Senshi,
Vegita!" Black Lady argued.

"Yeah. She's quieter."

"Don't be a smart-ass, Ouji-sama," she retorted. The
only other person in the room, a woman known only as Galaxia,
laughed shortly. "She's more powerful than even Sailor
Moon."

Galaxia sighed. "She's more powerful than even I
am," she admitted. "I have the power of this one galaxy
alone. She has the power of galaxies, universes. . ."

"The cosmos, in other words?" Vegita commented
drily.

"Hai. The power of the cosmos."

"When I said she was different from the other Sailor
Senshi," Black Lady interrupted, "I meant she has
feelings, emotions." She trailed off.

"She's been sitting out there at the cave ledge,"
Galaxia stated, "for the past hour, ever since Black Lady
got Trunks to go to the infirmary. She looks. . ."

"Tormented," Black Lady supplied. "She looks
like we just asked her to kill her best friends."

"We don't know anything about her timeline," Vegita
finally commented. "We might have. I'll talk to her. Black
Lady, keep an eye on the boy."

"Of course, Vegita. Just watch what you say to her,"
advised Black Lady. "We don't want to lose her."

He nodded shortly and walked outside. The Senshi still sat at
the cliff edge, her bare feet dangling over. She was staring at
the setting sun, seemingly oblivious of the rest of the world.
That is, until he was a few steps behind her, when she finally
spoke, her voice choked. "Do you know what you have asked me
to do?" she asked.

He sat down near her. "Tell me."

She didn't look at him as she stated, "You are asking me
to kill the friends I watched being tortured and murdered before
my very eyes. Those women died for me."

"These Sailor Senshi aren't the same ones you knew."


"I know. "Like everything else here, they're the
opposite of what I know." She sighed and finally looked over
at him. "I'll fight Sailor Moon for you, but no one else.
Without her, the Senshi should fall."

He raised an eyebrow questioningly. "She didn't fight for
you?"

"Iie. She is me."

"What?!?" he almost yelled.

"I am what she will become if the Sailor Senshi are
killed, if she ever has to fight alone."

"What is your name?"

"Usagi Serenity Tsukino. The princess of the Moon and the
queen of Crystal Tokyo."

"Crystal Tokyo?"

"Nani mo. Probably won't happen here."

"How can you be Sailor Moon?"

She returned her gaze to the sun, but she didn't seem to be
really looking at it. "An enemy named Chaos appeared. We
fought it across the galaxies before we found out it was just
toying with us. One by one, it murdered my Senshi, my husband, my
daughter, until I was finally able to become Sailor Cosmos."
She glanced back at him briefly. "That's how I once was
Sailor Moon." She sighed. "Trunks-chan and I are the
last survivors of our timeline."

"Then why'd you come here?"

"Chaos is trying to catch us. As strong as we are,
Trunks-chan and I are no match for it yet. It will take everyone,
every warrior, fighting together, to defeat it. That's the only
way."

"It will come after you?"

She nodded. "It's only a matter of time."

"Why is it after you?"

"I have something it wants, I guess. When I became Sailor
Cosmos, I gained the powers of all the Senshi who died for me.
Then, somehow, the Silver Crystal and I merged into one
being." She touched the star on her forehead briefly as she
spoke.

"Chaos wants that power."

"Yes, I suppose, and it won't stop until it gets it. It
will kill everyone and everything that gets in its way everyplace
we go until either it gets the power or it dies."

He nodded briefly and then stood up. "I hope you find
that time. You'd better come inside. The nights here are very
cold."

She looked up at him with a sad smile. "I just wanted to
see the moon."

"There isn't a moon anymore. The Senshi destroyed
it."

She sighed, nodded, and stood, shoes in her hand. "Then
that's an advantage I have over Sailor Moon. Her power comes from
the moon."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that. She got more powerful
after it was gone. It was like. . . she absorbed it."

"Kuso! She can do that here?" Cosmos exclaimed,
stopping at the cave enterance. "Maybe I should go after her
tonight then."

"I wouldn't advise it." He was silent for a moment.
"Is he really my son?"

Her smile was even more more sadly this time.
"Trunks-chan? Hai. He is."

"So I'm dead in your time."

"Everyone was dead by the time we left," she
replied, starting to walk back inside. "There were a few
other survivors, but they all died before we left."

"Like who?"

"Well, there was this guy called Tapion. He's the one who
gave Trunks the sword." She frowned. "He had part of a
demon imprisoned within him. Once he'd trained Trunks-chan, he
killed himself, so that the monster would die with him. It hit
musuko-chan hard; he didn't eat for a week and it took him a
month to start talking again."

"You called him your son. Is he?"

"Iie. Not by blood, anyway. I raised him since he was
six. It's been over ten years now that we've been together."
Now it was her turn for silence. "How is Black Lady alive
here?"

"No one's really certain. She's part of Sailor Moon's
daughter--"

"ChibiUsa."

"Yes, ChibiUsa. Apparently, she's her better half."
With a start he realized, "That means she's your daughter
too."

"That's true, only she doesn't know I was Sailor Moon
once. I won't be here long enough for her to get to know me
anyway, so I'd rather she didn't find out. Trunks-chan doesn't
even know what she is to me."

"She seems to be very interested in Trunks," Vegita
commented.

She frowned, stopping again. "Now that you mention it, I
think Trunks-chan is interested in Black Lady." She glanced
up, apparently trying to sense something. "Chaos is still
very far away. If I don't use too much power, it'll stay that
way. Is there anyplace around here where I can get some
rest?"

"There are some empty bedrooms at the end of that
hall," he answered, gesturing briefly. "We'll see you
in the morning."


"Vegita!" Black Lady yelled, her voice echoing through
the cavern. Trunks winced slightly at the loudness of her voice
and wondered briefly if she'd meant to make him half-deaf.

A worse scowl than normal on his face, Vegita appeared. Trunks
was willing to bet that yell had hurt Vegita more than it had
him. "What the hell do you want, girl?" he growled.

"Where's Sailor Cosmos?"

"Resting."

"She's not in her room," she argued.

Trunks's eyes widened and his breath caught in his throat as
he realized exactly where she'd be. That slight noise caught both
Black Lady's and Vegita's attentions, but it was his father who
spoke. "Do you know where she is?"

"She's gone after Sailor Moon alone."

"What?!?" exploded Vegita.

"She'll get herself killed!" continued Black Lady.
"Is she suicidal?"

Trunks shood his head. "She's just making sure no one
here gets killed. That's the way obasan is: she'd rather face
everything alone than risk anyone else."

Black Lady nodded in comprehension. "That's right.
According to the legend, the Sailor Senshi of the Cosmos is
supposed to have the courage to accept everything and to stand
alone."

"Then she'll have to accept some assistance,"
Vegita replied, powering up. Trunks followed suite, and they both
shot out of the cave. With a grim smile, Black Lady teleported to
the battle.

It seemed to be a deadlock. Cosmos was actually holding off
Sailors Moon, Mars, and Venus alone. The effort seemed to be
taking its toll, though. She was only actively fighting Moon and
dodging or blocking Mars and Venus. Black Lady started to move
into help, but Cosmos shouted, "Stay out of this!"

"Well," Sailor Moon taunted, "the prodigal
daughter returns."

There was a brief vacuum of the air around them as Vegita and
Trunks arrived. Mars grinned at Venus. "Vegita's back,"
she whispered.

Venus whistled, and one at the time, the other Sailor Senshi
appeared, including Sailor ChibiMoon (who was the same age as
Black Lady) and Tuxedo Kamen. As if it was planned, Vegita and
Trunks powered up to Super Saiyajin and dropped into fighting
stances. Trunks drew his sword and warily eyed Sailor Uranus and
Sailor Saturn.

Sailor Cosmos shook her head, just slightly smiling, and rose
into the air a few feet. Light expanded around her, and everyone
there felt the magnificent increase in her power. She lowered
herself until her feet touched the ground. "We'll finish
this now, Sailor Moon." In a lower voice, she continued,
"Yurusunai."

Uranus laughed shortly and tossed her sword to Sailor Moon
with the order, "Fight her, Sailor Moon! Don't start doing
speeches again! She's faster, and she can fly!"

"Obasan!" Trunks called out. She rose into the air
and turned toward him. "Catch!" He tossed his own sword
to her. She caught it easily and lowered to the ground. It could
have been rehearsed, it was all so easily done.

There was the distinctive clash of metal against metal as the
swords collided. The battle truly began. Black Lady was against
both Tuxedo Kamen and Sailor ChibiMoon, while all the other
Senshi were against two Super Saiyajins.

Blackness rolled before the rising sun. "Chaos,"
Sailor Cosmos whispered. "Trunks! Get ready!" She
raised herself into the air and channeled her power into the
sword until it fairly hummed with power, then she swung it down
with all her might. Uranus's sword shattered, and Sailor Moon was
nearly cut in half.

Sailor Cosmos doubled over in pain, falling to her knees and
almost dropping the sword. "Obasan!" Trunks called.

She struggled to her feet, using the sword to stand,
apparently ignoring the way the blade was slicing through the
tender flesh of her hands. She gestured briefly,and the Sailor
Senshi froze. "Haykuu, aino-chan. Say your good-byes. I
can't hold them forever."

He glanced at the man who could have been his father, again at
a loss for words. "Tousan. . . ano, Vegita-san. . ."

"Hurry up, boy. She can't hold it much longer," was
the closest he got to a good-bye.

"Trunks-kun," Black Lady whispered, grabbing his
hand.

"Black Lady," he returned. There was silence for a
long time as they stared at each other. Finally he nodded, slowly
released her hand, and stepped over to his aunt. "I'm ready.


She smiled weakly at him then looked just past him.
"Sayonara, Black Lady."

"Sayonara, Sailor Cosmos."

"Sarabada, Ouji-sama," she continued.

"Jo'ou-sama."

As quickly as she could, she whispered the words that would
send them to another timeline. For a brief moment, she stopped
and stared at her daughter and his father, tears in her eyes.
Then she yelled, "Cosmos Teleport!"

In a bright flash of light, they disappeared.

::Fin::




4 December 1999

Well, what did you think? Too strange? More to come soon! Let me know what you
think!