Sailor Moon Remastered Episode 1 (10)

Sailor Moon Remastered 1

Hotaru woke up surrounded by green liquid.

Her eyes blurred as she found herself floating in water, tightly packed
into a narrow cylinder with one window looking out into a dimly lit
room. Her hands pounded the case in a panic, each blow impacting the solid glass over and over again until the act began to drain away at her strength level by level, until she could no longer punch the glass.

"Nooooooo---" she thought to herself, panic gripping her, "It can't be!!
It can't be!!"

Her eyesight cleared enough so she could see outside -- that is when realization set in, she was back in hell again.

The cylinder was a suspension pod, and she was being put in hypersleep
against her will. She pounded her fists against the canister, feeling
steadily sleepier and sleepier. "NO!! CHIBI-USA!! GODDESS!! SOMEBODY GET ME OUT OF---"

What she saw before her stopped her heart cold.

The scene before her was too carnal and perverted to even bring to
words, but what she saw scared her.

Chibi-Usa laid in a pool of her own blood, bloodied and beaten, as she was being tortured and raped by her friends and family, the other Sailor Soldiers. They were naked, bruised and beaten, themselves, yet they looked downright demonic as they lashed out with wicked glee. She couldn't hear their words, but it scared her nevertheless.
But fear turned quickly to hate… and hate into anger… as her eyes narrowed and turned red, and her fists clenched before her now rage filled eyes. Before she could lash out at the unbreakable glass again, however, two arms wrapped around her, and something behind her whispered in her ear, "Why don't you love me anymore?"

Pink hair floated into her eyesight, and a hollow face with empty eye
sockets stared at her from the glass.

Hotaru screamed in rage, and shattered the glass with one strike sending shards of glass, gushes of green liquid, and driplets of blood flying.

* * * * * *

Hotaru woke up in a cold panic, her sheets gripping her nude form as she
held herself tightly. She wasn’t a young girl anymore, she was 17 years old now, she had to get that through her head and grip to that tightly. She wasn’t a child anymore, she was older now.

She had thought that was behind her. Year after year had passed since
that world, that pain she left behind when her and the other Soldiers
were rescued from their personal hell. Only ChibiUsa didn't make it,
because she was killed and dumped into a shallow grave, her soul ripped
from her body and cast to the four winds unable to be "reborn" ever
again. But yet there was a ChibiUsa waiting for her here, even if she was not the one she fell in love with that age long ago which seemed to have been another exstience ago.

"Why am I dreaming about that now -- why --?" Eve whispered to herself,
her eyes glancing over at ChibiUsa's side of the bed. The loud pink fireball of emotions and spunk slept quietly, her face at peace when she often would sport a mischevious look on her features when awake. She didn’t even seem to notice that Hotaru was wide awake, and that (in Hotaru’s estimation) was for the best. She carefully got out of bed, shaking off the “dust” of sleep as she went into the bathroom. Closing the door behind her, locking herself in, she started to wash her face absentmindedly. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes she stared at her reflection in the mirror, with Former ChibiUsa’s eyeless hollow tortured face behind her, blood flowing down like tears across her cheeks. “Don’t you love me anymore? I miss you…“

With a yelp of panic Hotaru spun about, only to find nothing behind her. With a stifled groan she turned back towards the mirror, almost expecting to see ChibiUsa’s dead face again only to find herself staring at her own reflection alone once again. With a resentful sigh she shook her head, bending down to splash water onto her face a few times in a futile effort to convince herself that she was still sleeping.

"What the hell was that.“

There was a knock at the door. "Hotaru? You OK? What's wrong??"

Hotaru dimly turned her gaze back to the door, a small smile on her face, “Nothing’s wrong. I’m just…“ (sighs) “…tired.“

"Tired people stay in bed if they’re tired.“ ChibiUsa counters, knocking again as if by knocking X amount of times on the door it would open magically. “Come on, this isn't funny. Don't lock yourself in there, what's going…"

Hotaru opens the door and takes in ChibiUsa‘s nude beauty as she stares at her, "Just getting to see you like this makes waking you up all the more worth it, ChibiUsa.“ (kisses ChibiUsa on the cheek) “I’ll be along shortly, I have to go to the toilet first.“

"Oh." ChibiUsa responded, head lowered abit. “You’re right though, it is worth it just to see you naked like this.”
Hotaru huffs her breath, playfully pushing ChibiUsa out as she closes the door behind her, “If you’re so needy then wait in bed and I’ll take care of all your “needs” when I’m done!“

“Alright!“ she calls out as the door shuts, “Come to bed when your done, I‘ll be waiting!"

"OK!" Hotaru called out, sighing as she walks over to sit down at the toilet (“Might as well cover this while I think about what I’m doing.“ she quietly whispers to herself). Her hand picks up the cellphone from her clothes (she left in the bathroom before bedtime hours ago), her hand absentmindedly dialing a number by memory.

* * * * * *

The first thing Haruka thought when she heard the phone ring was whether
or not she could get away with killing the telemarketer on the other end
if she claimed it was self defense.

Then she thought it was probably Ami-chan with yet another awkwardly
embarrassing question about her sexual relationship with Mako-chan. It
seemed that even though they've been an item for a few years she still
called her, being that they was the only "real" lesbians Ami-chan knew
personally, and riddled either her or Michiru with embarrassingly
intimate questions since Mako-chan apparently had too much pride to
admit that she needed help in those situations. True, in recent years
two new couplings had sprung up yet somehow Ami-chan has yet to feel
comfortable asking for advice from either coupling.

The first, Minako and Artemis, have been a pair ever since he became
human, though since two years ago when he became a "she" Minako had
been flaunting their relationship as now being lesbian in nature
(mostly in a vain attempt to take Ami under her "wing" and become the
"wise role model figure" she felt Haruka/Michiru were to her... though
technically Artemis was more Amazonian than human female considering--
at this point Haruka clenches her teeth and shivers abit, the rest
Haruka usually blocks out since she's about as apprehensive about
thinking about Amazonian sexuality as Hotaru was.

Couple #2 was one that even Haruka thought would never happen. Usagi and
Rei, with Rei filling the void in Usagi's life since Mamoru disappeared.
Apparently while they seemed to be working out rather well, it seems Rei
felt just as irked as Minako since Ami didn't take her advice to heart
as she didn't take Minako's advice to heart. Just as well, considering
Rei often came to Haruka/Michiru for advice herself and had no real
advice of her own to give other than what she got from the two and
"claimed" as her own "advice".

The last time the phone rang it was Michiru who answered, and after a
few affirmative answers and a few nods of the head, she simply replied
"Tell Mako-chan the taste will eventually go away and she didn't damage
her taste buds for eternity by giving you a --" (Haruka's pissy
expression gave Michiru a clue to cut it short) "--bye." (smiles at
Haruka) "Wanna know what she did?"

Haruka rolled over and covered her head in response.

"Guess not."

Minako and Rei, it seems, were the least prepared for the way their
hearts turned, but moreso for Minako since she had the double twist of
falling in love with a very humanoid Artemis, then having him turn into
a "her". But this all happened in the span of five years.... Five years.
Of all the Soldiers, only Haruka, Michiru and Setsuna remember the
horrors of the world before the Realm of Dreams, and each year that they
lived there the horror became less and less until it faded into a
footnote in their past and nothing more. Eventually they moved on with
their lives, and for these two the chance eventually came to fulfill a
dream of theirs that they only had once they found peace in the Realm of
Dreams.

Haruka/Michiru had a Winterian style wedding two years ago, finally
becoming one in an official sense. They even kept a photo album of the
event, with pictures of everyone who attended.

Highlights of the ceremony included Usagi volunteering to eat the high
priced leftovers (and costing Rei 1000 Credits because she bet Usagi
could never eat all the leftovers), Minako stealing the spotlight at the
reception afterwards by dancing up a storm with every Priestess in the
room, and the pre wedding "last night" ritual (a Winterian ceremonial
ritual where it's believed that all temptations to wander from one's
appointed love can be swept away with a last "night" of sex with the
priestesses of the temple) which left a dozen priestesses exhausted and
wiped out physically from the ordeal of the ritual (substitute
priestesses had to be brought in just for the wedding ceremony). (As a
side note of the event now the two have standing invitations at several
Winterian temples in Japan in case they ever want to "renew" their last
night vows.)

Also, by the way, this is how Artemis became female. The story goes that
Minako wanted to sneak Artemis into the bachelorette party because she
heard it was going to be a blowout orgy and wanted her lover there. She
convinced him to take these pills that made him into a woman so he/she
could go, but during the party Artemis kept hitting the drink table,
which turned out to be a mistake. Bad planning had put blue Gatorade and
Winterian Blue Ice on the same table and Blue Ice was a strong drug used
to keep Winterian body temperatures lowered (as the wedding was held
during the hot summer the Winterian guests needed it to keep their body
temperatures at a comfortable lowered rate). In short Artemis hit the
Blue Ice more than the Gatorade, and the two chemicals (the sex altering
one and the temperature one) screwed his DNA up and made him permanently
"female", with a few minor--- well, you get the point.

As Haruka picked up the phone, ready to tell Ami, Rei, Minako or
whoever off, she heard a wheezing soft cry and a voice whisper in her
ear "---mama---"

Haruka froze for a second, her hand finally moving to nudge Michiru
awake as she spoke in a hushed whisper, "Hotaru? What's wrong?"

"I… I think I‘m going… c-crazy."

Haruka - “Hotaru? What are you talk…”

"I saw ChibiUsa, the dead ChibiUsa from before… she was calling out to me, asking me why I didn’t love her anymore… it was so real, as if she was really standing right behind me, broken…“

Haruka - "But she’s de…“

"I know! I know!“ Hotaru countered, “I know but -- if you saw what I saw you’d have doubts too -- dammit I know the difference between a dream and reality but this…“

“You’re beginning to sound like that Yamanaka woman.” Haruka whispered, but that was it as Michiru takes the phone from Haruka, overhearing the conversation, and begins to sing in a soft melodious tone. Slowly but surely Eve calms down on the opposite end, and begins to relax.
“She’s going bathroom now.“ Michiru announced.

Haruka - “I didn’t really need to know that.“

It takes a few minutes but as she calms she eventually settles down enough to confide in Michiru the rest, including her dream, before hanging up. Before the phone disconnects Michiru makes Hotaru promise to visit in the morning. As she hangs up she's greeted by Haruka's frowning visage. "Something’s wrong, isn’t there. Hotaru suddenly seeing dead ChibiUsa visiting her… something’s up.“

"She doesn't need speeches,” Michiru replies, turning to face Haruka as they laid back down in bed, “It still eats her up on the inside that she let ChibiUsa die like that. She’s still not over her guilt, no matter how much she tries to kid herself otherwise. She needs to find inner peace with herself before she can truly put it behind her.“

"I thought she was over it already. She seemed as if she was finally putting that part of her life behind her.“ Haruka sighs, rolling over in bed much to Michiru's dismay. "Obviously your not going to listen to a word I have to say on the subject, so I won't bother trying to defend myself Haruka."

"It's wrong." Haruka countered, eyes narrowing, "She was recovering just fine, and all of a sudden she has a bad dream? That doesn’t mean she hasn’t gotten over her feelings, it’s just a bad dream.“

A mischievous smile crosses the mistress of water's lips, "Hypocritical
since you're not entirely all of your hang-ups yourself."

"That's different, it’s not like I have some dead former lover hanging over our heads or anything," Haruka shot back, feeling Michiru's persistence wearing her down. "Is there a point to this?"

"When she's ready she'll learn to live with what happened, and forgive herself for what wasn’t her fault to begin with. When that happens she'll find the new ChibiUsa to be far more understanding and accepting of her past than she gives ChibiUsa credit for."

"We'll see, Michiru, we'll see."

As the lights shut off Haruka grumbles beneath her breath, "The phone
better not ring again or so help me..."

The phone rings.

"---argh---" (answers phone) "WHAT?!?" (silence) "It's way too early in
the morning to even think of such an absurd thing! Go to bed! Or let
nature take it's course! Just shut up and leave me alone!" (slams phone
down and rolls over in bed grumbling)

"Who was it?" Michiru asks, to which Haruka growls "Go to bed."

Michiru - "Mako-chan is having a hard time getting Ami to go along with
it, isn't she. And after you went through all the trouble to buy the
right one that fit Mako-chan like a glove and---"

Haruka - "---I don't care--- go to bed."

Michiru - "You were the one who recommended that to them but you know
how Mako-chan is so overtly energetic when she's---"

Haruka (rolls over and gives Michiru a dirty look) - "I don't care! Now
GO TO BED!"

Michiru lies down and closes her eyes. "You started it."

The frustrated yelp from Haruka side convinces her not to push her luck
any further.

* * * * * *

In the dimly lit room he paced about his associate, watching the sitting
man as he did. With every step his armored boots clanked against the
metal flooring, making an odd click-clack-click-clack noise as he
walked. Holocaust regarded his "associate" as he spoke.

"Everything is in flux, up in the air. The situation has changed since before but we seem to have the same “lot” in our lives as before.”

“The darkness beyond our reach teems with the restless dead, and a threat far beyond even the Clow itself lays just out of reach, teasing us with possibility and risk.“ he smiles as he continues to pace, eyes never leaving his still silent companion.

"But somethings never change. Bringing us Assassin Guilders' together and offering us just about anything imaginable just to retrieve your little Sailor Soldier girls so you and your remaining associates could once again enjoy their "company" was quite an proposal. We take them down, you have the fun of making babies with them and putting them in little tubes to freeze until you wanted to make more babies in them -- or was it just the sex and torture that was the fun? I could never tell. I know you would emphasis all the joys of whipping, beating, slicing and raping young women --" he said, walking forward to stand next to the man as he plucked his head from his limp shoulders, "If you weren't already dead. But that's what you get for being sick retarded bastards who thought more with their penises than their heads."

He held the head aloft, staring into the shocked _expression on the
face at the moment of death. "I wonder how it must have hurt you so to
realize that we only went along with your lovely schemes if only to
gather you all together. But, then again, you did believe that nothing
is more valuable than a den full of 12-14 year old girls stripped naked
and willing to please."

He spins on his heels, chucking the head back into it's body which
knocks the whole ensemble into the flooring with a loud thump. "Strictly
speaking I'm not a loliconer, even if Code 8 forbade rape. But just
between you and me? I think it was the 1 million credit's a crotch
reward by the Winterian forces that purged your world of your filth that
made all the difference to me." (smiles as he looks at the body) "Fun is
fun, but money makes the galaxy rotate."

With a slight salute he taps a button on the wall, and makes his exit.
As he does the floor slowly yawns open and drops the body into the
darkness below. "Well I have work to do. Our advance units have been on
the ground for a week now and have been receiving resistance from a very
interesting source (again). That I should check on, but you be a good boy and feed the sharks, will you?" (as the body falls away, plummeting towards the ocean below, Holocaust waves slightly as the lift doors closes behind him). "Now there's a good lad."

* * * * * *

Rei woke up to find herself sitting in the middle of a destroyed Tokyo,
with a familiar face staring at her.

"Lazarus."

He looks at her as if hurt, if only in jest, and taps her shoulder,
"Lazarus. Is that all you have to say? I bring you out to see the end
of Tokyo and all you can say is "Lazarus"?"

Rei smiles a little bit, if only to get Lazarus to get to the point,
which he does. "Things are all up in the air, juggled and mixed up. If I was not so certain about what I said to you the first time we talked (which I know you don’t remember but bear with me) then you most certainly won’t like what little I have to say now.“ (sighs) “Feel free to make insulting comments anytime now.“

"Is it that bad.” Rei mutters.

"It was all in threes once, now it’s jumbled and messed up. CLAMP School is suddenly gone, the powers of darkness and light are in flux, salvation cannot be guaranteed as we need to know what brings destruction before we can estimate what will bring salvation.“

Behind them loomed a building Rei had never seen before, with the words
"WISEMAN IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE ENDLESS CIRCLE!!" written in red scrawled across the face of the building. "I see."

"Not yet. But you will--- (me too I guess)"

With a gasp Rei wakes up, sweating abit as she caught her breath.

"That wasn't a dream." Rei muttered, eyes working hard to focus in the
dark room.

It wasn't hard to do a fire reading. From experience she knew that
Usagi could sleep through anything and everything, so her crawling out
of their bed and doing a fire reading was the easiest thing she could
do. In fact she could set half the house on fire to do her reading and
still not wake Usagi from her slumber.

Inside her private shrine room, one she had built just to meditate and
get away from Usagi's occasional "Get on Rei's nerves until she snaps"
days she read the fire. As she read the flames she felt a presence
nearby, and sighed. "Why don't you just come out with it and tell me
already?" she whispered, eyes turning to face Jack Lazarus, the Raven.
"If I could, I would." he admitted, the fire illuminating his black
uniform as he looked straight at her, "But I can't because what
information I have is now really and truly hearsay. If what I had before was bits and pieces of reliable info, now I have bits and pieces of next to nothing to go on… short of one thing, the so called “Endless Circle” mentioned in the blood written message on the wall.”

"Then what does it all mean? What is “The Endless Circle“?"

"You tell me." he countered. “But since you can’t let’s just leave it that I’ll have to get back to you on that at a future date.”

With that he vanished, leaving her behind to ponder his words.

* * * * * *

The one thing Rei hated the most was mornings. Especially when it came
to rousing Usagi from sleep.

"USAGI WAKE UP IT'S EIGHT O'CLOCK!!" she yelled one final time, hitting
Usagi in the head which finally jolted her from slumber. "We have to get
to classes!!"

Usagi, already up, rushed to get ready. "WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU WAKE
ME?!?"

"Why did I have to feel sorry for you anyway---" Rei mumbled, walking
into the kitchen in a really bad mood. "We'll miss our first class at
this rate."

"That's because Usagi never changes. She's ALWAYS going to be a child."
ChibiUsa shot, chewing on her toast as Hotaru watched her from her place
next to her, "I HEARD THAT YOU PARASITE!!" Usagi screamed from the next
room. "WHY'D YOU LET HER IN?!?"

"She brought hot food for breakfast, which is more than I can you do
when it comes to meals!"

Usagi screams again as the shower comes on, leaving Rei to chew her
food as Hotaru turns the TV on (mostly to calm the air between the two.
ChibiUsa had grown, the Realm of Dreams being a positive thing to her
physical development. She was now a fully grown healthy young woman
physically, as was Hotaru who now resembled young woman of 17 (same as
ChibiUsa). The two had been lovers ever since they can remember, though
that was for five years -- what came before they did not know, and
somehow felt that they never really wanted to know.

The news was on, and filled the room with talking that didn't concern
Usagi/ChibiUsa insulting each other.

"Once again our top story--- yesterday unexplained graffiti was found scrawled onto King Penguin in New King Penguin Park, the words “WHO DRAWS THE ENDLESS CIRCLE?“ written in a red substance discovered to be cloned blood product etched for all to see.“ (silence as the reporter listens into her earpiece) "This just in. Reports of attacks on children near the King Penguin slide are coming in -- yes, it appears to be another Clow Card attack. Camera crews are now on the way as we continue to cover the late breaking events."

* * * * * *

Somehow Tina could only pray that the morning would be easy on the both of them. As she took cover, as per Nina’s orders, she could only watch as the card was confronted. She felt abit bad for Nina, because if she was hoping for a lax day then she was sorely disappointed.

Keiko jumped back, backpedaling as she slashed at the shots of sand
coming straight at her, taking as much sand in the hair and face as she
reflected away with gusts of wind.

The huge King Penguin slide shook as the sandy ground beneath it
liquefied and began to suck it in. Sakura barely had time to leap onto
the back of the huge slide and climb up to the two trapped kids on the
top. Eve, hands full protecting three young girls with a shield spell,
turned her attention towards Nina. "Nina we need some help here! Give Sakura some cover fire!" she yelled, continuously fortifying her NovaShields spell with her willpower as it came under continous attack.

Nina, lugging her pulse rifle upwards, carefully took shot after shot,
clipping each sand tentacle as it tried to latch onto Sakura to drag
her down, all the while slowly dragging the huge penguin slide downward
into the now liquid sand beneath it. "Nina! Behind you!" Tina suddenly
yells out from her vantage point, just as two sand tentacles attack Nina from behind. She barely manages to dodge them as the whoosh over her, her rifle firing blindly upwards as she tries to nail them.

Tomoyo, filming Sakura's heroic acts, cringes inwardly as she watches.
'All the trees are too far away.' she thinks to herself, 'I can't use
Gaia's ring to help Sakura-chan -- but maybe --’
Tomoyo's free hand raises upwards, Gaia's ring pulsating with energy,
"Trees! Use your roots to cut down Sand's tentacles!"

Almost instantly long strings of roots shoot out from the ground near
the trees, whipping through the air hacking into each sand tentacle that
rises from the ground. As the tree roots keep Sand occupied, Sakura
reaches the two children and grabs onto them, using Windy's ring to give
her a boost over Sand and onto the grass in one long jump from slide to
safety.

As she sends the children to Eve for protection, she turns and regards
Sand, her hand bearing the Water ring rising into the air. "Umi! Give me
your strength in the form of a waterfall to restrict Sand!"

From above a shimmering disc of blue begins to form, the air growing dry
as moisture is drawn into the circle and condensed. From that circle a
powerful blast of water shoots into the sandy ground, soaking it through
and through making the entire sandy pit into a dense clump of sand. From
the quagmire, Sand's true form appears, covered in the sandy gunk and
bogged down by it's weight. Quickly Sakura rushes up and slams her staff
down, "CLOW CARD RETURN TO YOUR POWER CONFINED! SAND CARD!!"

Tendrils of energy shoot out, encapsulating the card's physical form,
transforming it, and turning it back into a card. It shoots into the
air, and lands in Sakura's hand.

Nina, dazed and dirty, turns and claps from her resting position on the
ground, "You did it!"

As everyone gathers around Sakura, whose blushing, Tomoyo taps her on
the shoulder, "Now all we need to do is retrieve King Penguin, maybe clean off the graffiti while we‘re at it."

"What?" Sakura asks, confused, "What do you --" (stops and looks)
"-- hooooeeee!!!"

King Penguin rested half trapped in the sand, tilted at an awkward
angle. Nina, putting her rifle down, moves in a mock stumble towards the
slide and screams "Damn you!! You finally went and did it! Damn you!! Damn you all to hell!!"

"Yeah, yeah, Planet of the Apes. Figures." Keiko grumbles, annoyed by
Nina's antics. "Get a life."

“But I do have a life.” Nina retorted, “My life is to bother you.”

Keiko - “Up yours.“

It takes a little effort, and the tech shuttle of Nina's which she
summons to the park via remote, but eventually the penguin is dug out
and set upright again. By the time the news crews arrive everyone had
already left and the situation was resolved.

To Be Continued