Title: The Curse of Immortality
By: Cheska-chan
Chapter 12
E-Mail address: Minnashime@aol.com or NMakalinaw@aol.com
PG13?

Disclaimer: Don't own Sailor Moon and Gundam Wing. If I did, I
wouldn't be here right now, would I? *blink* *blink* Ok, whatever
I don't own it. They both belong to their own owners and creators, which
certainly isn't me.

Author's Notes: Thanks for the reviews to those who have taken
the time to do so! ^^ I really appreciate it. It keeps me going
and inspires me to write more. So here I am.

*********
Last Time
*********
"Serena..."Hotaru whispered.
"I'll...be..back.."Usagi began to close her eyes,"..sorry."
Then her skin paled and her eyes were closed.
"...my friend, we'll meet agan. Count on it,"Hotaru sighed and wiped
her tears that made its way down her cheek.
**AND**
"Better, now if this Usagi Akari or Serena is dead. I'm sure she'll
still be around...sooner or later. She holds a great jewel from the
legends....Serena wouldn't die so easily with such power,"Aenon smirked
and turned around to the window, staring at the clear blue sky.
*********
That's it
*********
"Have you found them yet?"asked Duo as he walked next to Hotaru.
He was wearing a leather jacket over his black shirt and jeans with
his shades over his indigo eyes. Hotaru was wearing black pants and
a dark purple sleeveless shirt.
Hotaru's purple eyes travelled across the crowd on the streets and
sighed, then shook her head.
"No, not yet...but he will show up. I'm sure of it,"Hotaru muttered.
Duo merely nodded and continued to make his way through the crowd
with Hotaru behind him.

"It's been a week now and there is still no sign of Aenon Hiba
or his men in this colony!"complained Duo to his comrades.
They were sitting quietly inside a tent, minding their own business
and talking about what they have found or to be more precise what they
haven't found.
"Just be more patient Duo. Hiba must be hiding out for the moment,
besides...the circus hasn't performed at all yet. He may be waiting till
they begin. With all the commotion going on during that time, Aenon may
strike,"Hotaru tried to calm him down.
"I guess..."sighed Duo, bowing his head and collapsing on the chair
behind him.
"Do you really think he will strike while the circus is
performing?"Trowa asked, lifting his head up and facing Hotaru.
"It's only a suggestion,"Hotaru shrugged and picked up the cup of
tea on the center table.
************
"Are you going to just stay in this stuffy old place?"asked a voice
in the shadows.
"For the time being..."answered Hiba as he looked outside the window
of the building.
"When are you coming out? It's so boring in here,"the voice sighed.
"...when the time is right,"Hiba answered softly, glimpsing at the
owner of the voice.
"Hmm..those pilots are out there. It would be fun to play around
with them.."the voice hinted.
"The gundam pilots..hmf..they're trying to find me, as usual,"Aenon
smirked.
"You going to give them a clue to where you are?"the voice asked.
"...in a while, let's let them sweat it out for a bit,"Hiba's eyes
sparkled mischieviously.
"Let's,"the voice gave a small grin.
*************
A certain senshi of time stood on the gates of time, watching what
was happening on earth. Her staff in hand, and her back turned
to the swirling image in front of her. Her maroon eyes were narrowed
and her brow furrowed.
"This really doesn't make sense to me at all. I'm afraid that my
powers are not strong enough to make this right. The future has
changed. For the better or for the worse, I don't know. All I know
is that...it is now up to them to decide. If they fail, our
future will be destroyed. Replaced by chaos, destruction, and
more wars than the pilots can handle,"Sailor Pluto stated.
Her head was downcast and she gripped her time key tighter as her
eyes squeezed shut.
"Please, please Cronos. Let our world turn out right,"prayed Pluto.
**************
Trowa was talking to his sister when Wufei came inside with Quatre
trailing behind him.
"We've spotted him, he was with an older man wearing a business suit
on this street,"Wufei told Trowa.
"Do Heero and them know yet?"Trowa calmly asked.
"Heero knows; he's following them right now. Duo and Hotaru don't.
We can't find them,"Quatre answered.
"I'll go and find those two,"Trowa volunteered and began walking
out of the tent.
"Come on Winner. We'll go and tell those damn doctors we
found Hiba,"Wufei said and went further into the tent.
"Be careful,"Cathrine said after they were gone, she was staring
at the closed flap of the tent, her eyes shining with worry.

"Hmm.."Heero was lying flat against the wall, his prussian eyes
glimpsing at what was going on around the corner where Hiba and his
'friend' were at.
(He's here...01.)Hiba smirked to himself.
Aenon already knew that the 'perfect soldier' was following him ever
since he caught sight of his friends running toward the circus
tent.
"Go and deal with the pilot,"Hiba ordered quietly to the man next to
him," and try to be less discreit over it."
The man nodded and starting walking over to the corner.

(Kuso! He figured me out.)Heero stated, hardening his eyes and
reaching for his gun.
Heero turned his head and notice the fire escape near him and jumped for
it, then started climbing up toward the rooftop.
The man looked around and noticed Heero's shadow and stared upwards,
seeing Heero just reach the top step.
************
"Hey, isn't that Hiba?"pointed Hotaru.
"Yeah, that's him,"Duo nodded but then saw something else that caught
his attention.
"That guy doesn't look like an ordinary citizen,"Duo noted, hardening
his indigo eyes as he stared at a man in a business suit start climbing
up the fire escape.
"What should we do?"Hotaru wondered.
"I want you to go follow that man from behind, I'll deal with
Hiba,"Duo instructed and handed her a gun.
"A gun.."Hotaru cautiously took it and tucked it into her pocket.
"Take it for protection, I have another with me,"Duo said and bent
down to kiss Hotaru on the forehead.
"Be careful,"Hotaru whispered and started for the fire escape.
Duo made sure she was going up safely before turning to Aenon Hiba
to watch his movements.

"I knew you would follow me,"Heero coldly told the man as he
finally set foot on the ground of the rooftop.
"Hmm, 01 I presume?"the man sarcastically said.
"Hn."Heero grunted and whipped out his gun.
"Once you fire that at me, the police will come to investigate the
area,"the man warned him but Heero didn't let up on the trigger.
"I will kill you,"Heero stated coldly, glaring daggers at the man
before him.
The man gave a grin on his face but it faded as the man collapsed onto
the cold granite floor and Hotaru stood there. Holding a gun in her
hand, the butt end was held up instead of the barrel.
"I couldn't shoot him, so I hit him with the side of the gun,"Hotaru
told Heero as she stood staring at the crumpled heap on the floor.
(((Cheska: Okay, so I'm not that great with gun talk. *shrugs*)))
"I could've handled it,"Heero said in his usual monotone.
"Yeah, well...I was here and so..."shrugged Hotaru.
At that time, Trowa came towering over Hotaru with his usual expression.
"Where's Duo?"Trowa quietly asked.
"Down in the alley, watching over Hiba,"Hotaru said.
Trowa nodded and walked to the side of the rooftop and peered down,
sure enough there was Hiba and Duo hiding behind the pile of boxes
next to the dumpster.
Aenon Hiba knocked on a side door three times and paused then knocked
two more times. The door opened and Hiba stepped inside. After three
minutes, Duo came out of his hiding place and raised his fist toward the
door.
"You don't have to do that, Dr. J said that we are to return back to
the tent and await our orders,"a voice behind him stated.
"Wu-man,"Duo grinned.
"Don't call me that, Maxwell!"Wufei growled.
"Whatever..."Duo shrugged and turned toward his friend.
"Let's get going, Maxwell,"Wufei said and began walking out of the alley.
Just as they turned the corner, Hotaru, Heero, and Trowa stood
waiting for them.
"Hey guys,"Duo greeted.
"Glad you're okay,"Hotaru smiled up at him and Duo winked.
*************
"So how was it?"a voice asked within the shadows.
"Just as I expected from them. They didn't bother to come inside
the building though,"Hiba said.
"Why not?"the voice asked.
"Probably their orders, what else?"Hiba shrugged and sat down on a chair.
"I see..."the voice sounded softly and as if in deep thought.
"The machine will be ready in a few months,"Hiba brought up.
"Good to hear, that will be quite useful once it's finished,"the voice
implied.
"I know..."Hiba brought his hands together and over the desk in
front of him.
*************
"I informed the doctors about Hiba's whereabouts. How did you
guys do out there?"Quatre said once they were settled in.
"Hiba entered a building through the alley way to be less noticable.
We didn't follow though..."reported Duo.
"What's the next step? We found him and all that, I doubt he'll
be going anywhere with the way the circus is going on and the festival
also,"Hotaru piped up.
"Festival?"Quatre inquired.
"Yup, read it off the streets. The festival of Winter. They said
that there will be artificial snow going all over the colony and the
circus will be preforming. It will be great! And there are fireworks
and the large screen in the center of the colony will be playing
lots of flashing lights and music in the background,"Hotaru said.
"With the festival going on, the shuttles will be quite busy..."Wufei
murmered, deep in thought.
"Out with it, what are we doing next?"Duo brought up again.
"Lie low and just act like normal citizens,"shrugged Quatre.
"That's it?"Duo's eyelids dropped and his arms hung low at the
disappointment that he just heard.
"That's it,"Wufei confirmed, folding his arms.
*sigh*

**Two Days Later**
Hotaru went about, feeding the animals in the circus tent. Her chore
wasn't too hard nor too difficult, just right for the frail young woman.
Just as she placed the bucket of seeds on the corner, Duo came jogging up
with a big grin on his face. The girl sighed and whirled around to
face him, her head slightly to the side and expecting him to say something.
"What is it now Duo,"Hotaru asked.
"What do you mean, what is it now? Can't I just come in here to say
hi to my favorite gal?"Duo put up his innocent look as he walked over
to her.
"Whenever you come here with that grin on your face, there's something
going on inside that head of yours. I'm thinking..you just played a
joke to Wufie, saw something really funny on your way to Wufei's place,
or...well..."trailed Hotaru.
"Hey! I don't always come around just because I'm doing something
to Wu-man!"an indignant Duo defended.
"Oh..really?"Hotaru's eyebrow raised.
"Uhh..well..now that you mention it..Wu-man did fall for..."started
Duo but stopped when he saw his girlfriend with a smile coming up.
"Told you so.."Hotaru lightly smiled and Duo smirked.
"Maxwell!!"an angry Wufei shouted from outside.
"Uh-oh..."Duo's eyes widened as he glanced around the room, thinking
of a suitable place to hide.
"When will you learn.."Hotaru shook her head.
"See ya babes,"Duo pecked Hotaru's cheeks before running out the
other exit.
"Duo..."Hotaru had a light blush in her cheeks just as Wufei came
running into the tent with his kitana.
(Gotta love the guy though..he makes me smile.)Hotaru noted.
"Hotaru! Where is that braided baka? What he did to me was
injustice!"demanded Wufei.
"You mean Duo? Well...I did see him.."began Hotaru.
"Well? Where is he? I will cut that precious braid of his when
I see him!"Wufei declared.
(I wonder what he did to....ahh...I see...)Hotaru began and stifled
a light giggle.
"I uh...saw Duo come riding by here. He left awhile ago though..
he said something about going to the streets for a break,"Hotaru
said to him.
"Is that the truth?"Wufei narrowed his eyes at her.
"Of course it is!"Hotaru frowned at being questioned.
(It's not a complete truth but not a complete lie either. He did leave
awhile ago..sort of and he was going...somewhere..)Hotaru went over in
her head.
"That baka..."Wufei grumbled and strolled out of the tent.
Hotaru arched an eyebrow at his retreating figure and shook her head.
"I wonder how Duo managed to accomplish that.."wondered Hotaru.
(Pink rouge on his lips, glitter on his eyes, I love pink scribbled
on his kitana with a fuschia handle, and pictures of kittens with hearts
around it on the back of his shirt...)Hotaru noted.

Duo continued to hide all around the tent, barely escaping Wufei's
wrath about his 'practical joke.' Quatre was over at the costume
tent, helping them get organized while Heero mainly stood around guarding
the area. Trowa, of course, was preparing for his act with Cathrine
by his side.
Hotaru went inside her room and sat down on her mattress, closing
her eyes to rest when she heard footsteps enter from within. Slowly,
she opened them and stared at the intruder then breathed a sigh of relief.
"Still hiding?"Hotaru said.
"He won't give up,"Duo slightly panted,"but I won't either."
"Duo.."Hotaru shifted her weight to the side, her head perched on the
palm of her hand and elbow resting on the mattress.
Duo admired the young girl before him, her dark purple-almost black
shoulder length hair lightly swaying to the side. Those purple eyes of
hers showing care and love just for him alone and who can forget those
wonderful pink lips of hers...He had to admit that it was love at first
sight for him when he first laid his eyes on her so long ago..and
probably for her as well. His eyes softened for that
briefest of second before he blinked and finally recognized the position
he was in. There he was standing like an idle fool while Hotaru was
staring intently up at him, waiting for him to talk.
"Uhh...heheh, sorta spaced out for a sec,"Duo gave a small laugh,
bringing his hand to the back of his neck with a sweatdrop forming on
his temple.
"Wufei won't really hurt you..."Hotaru began.
"Oh..sure he won't. He just wants to chop off my braid and then I'll
have to grow a new one. This took me a lifetime's worth of tender
loving care! I brushed it, braided it, shampooed, conditioned, and
repeated that process three times! It'll hurt me so much to see it
go!"Duo protested.
"Oh, Duo.."Hotaru's eyes softened for the one who called himself
Shinigami/The Great Destroyer.
"I love my braid.."Duo pouted.
"Maxwell! You baka! You're just like a weak onna hiding out
like this!"Wufei's voice shouted from around the corner.
"A weak onna? He's calling women weak?!"Hotaru's eyes briefly
flashed with anger but calmed down as she closed her eyes and took
a deep calming breath.
"I better get out of here,"Duo started.
"He'll give it up soon Duo,"Hotaru assured him as he leaned in for a
small kiss on the lips.
"See ya!"Duo winked as he left the room.
(Oh Duo...)Hotaru sighed in slight amusement, beginning to faze out
into a daydream.
But then she caught sight of a small glint in the bottom corner of
the room. Her expression turned from content to confusion to wonder as
she rose to a sitting position. Hotaru bent down and made her way to
the object and scooped it up in her small hands, then sat down on the
ground, examining the contraption.
It was an earring, a gold earring...shaped into a crescent moon with
an attached star dangling just below it.
Just looking at this made Hotaru sad as she began to remember the
past. The past from so long ago, the one that they couldn't return to.
It seemed like yesterday that her Queen, her princess, her friend and
companion was Sailor Moon...or Super Sailor Moon...fighting for love
and justice with the help from her comrades and friends, the Sailor
Scouts/Senshi.
Hotaru's purple eyes started to well up in tears as more past
recollections appeared. Haruka and Michiru. Yaten, Seiya, and Taiki.
Ami, Raye, Makoto/Lita, and Mina/Minako. Darien and Rini. Her old
friend Rini. So sweet and loving.
*sigh*
(The past is the past. I can't go back to it now, I only have the
future to look forward to. This place needs my protection. It's the only
home I have left. As the Silent Messiah and the Senshi/Scout of
Death and Revolution. I am held accountable to bring the death to those
who deserve it and let the others live. I am darkness while my princess
is the light.)Hotaru rationalized.
Hotaru held the small earring clasped into her hand and willed the
tears to go away.
(All of the pain, the suffering. Seeing destruction, the deaths,
the innocent die. To just watch as life after life has been taken
away from the ones that they love. Knowing that justice doesn't
always prevail. Knowing that sometimes, you just can't do anything
about it. That's the way life is. It's not fair. It never is.)Hotaru
bowed her head at the realization of the truth.
"Oh Serena...please come back soon,"Hotaru pleaded in a mere
whisper.
Silence weighed in.
"It can't be true...can it?"Hotaru wondered as she recalled a faded
memory from long ago.
*Flashback*
"We have been given immortality, Serena. We should
treasure that,"Hotaru said.
"What's so special about it?"Serena/Usagi asked bitterly.
"Because we have been given eternal life filled with endless
amounts of life times!"Hotaru answered.
"An eternal life filled with pain, sorrow, and endless images
of the past that you can not return to? An existence where we
can only be alone and unable to have the satisfaction of
going on with our life to be with our loved ones, who have
died? I can not go on with my life knowing that my friends,
family, and loved ones are dead. They are not allowed to
be reborn, they aren't going to be resurrected from their
graves. They'll be dead and sent away to the heavens.
I can not forget them...I can't,"Serena/Usagi stated.
*End of Flashback*
(What she said, it was true..but I refused to see. I denied
the fact that they are dead and will always stay dead. To continuously
haunt my mind, taunting me forever. Sure, I have memories but they
serve in good and bad aspects. The good can be the bad. Knowing
that I'm not able to see them but in my mind, my dreams, my fantasies.
She knew that..she did, she does and always will know.)Hotaru comprehended,
raising the hand which held the earring to her forehead.
"It's true..an eternal life filled with endless amounts of life times.
But the question is...what is special about it? You live, you die, you're
brought back up again. Nothing is really rare about it. After awhile,
you get tired of it. You look back and regret so many things, wanting
to change your fate, your destiny,"Hotaru stated.
"Hotaru! It's almost time!"Cathrine's voice rang out from outside
the room.
"I'll be there in a minute,"Hotaru replied, trying to sound as if
nothing is wrong at all.
Footsteps could be heard retreating from the area.
Hotaru wobbily got up, the impact that she just figured out still
residing within her head. As she stood upright, the small crescent-star
earring fell from her hand and landed on a nearby table. It slightly
twirled around and a glint of golden white shone over the small object
then fell flat onto the table. It laid there, silently and without
protest. Hotaru surveyed the earring for a moment, pondering over
her thoughts and feelings before wiping it away. Temporarily putting it
on hold till later, for now...she had to look into the present. Just
the present and nothing else. That's all she has right now.
The past is the past. And the future is just the future. Who knows
what it holds for her and for everyone else? Only you can decide, right?
Or does it decide for you?
Hotaru strolled out of the room, the tent flaps whipping silently in
the end.

To be continued...
*******************
Kinda weird isn't it? Going from weird to weirder or something like
that. Guess my mood shows in my writing, doesn't it? I was sort of
wondering about what to write and it just blurted out. ^^;;
Well, there goes chapter 12. Small glimpse of Serena in the beginning and
a bit at the end..of course that was only a flashback and a Last time type
of thing. I'll try to get Serena back into the show next time. ^_^
Maybe in the next chapter. *hint* *hint* *gets banged in the head
from behind*
Cheska: Hey! What was that for? *glares from behind her and sees
an innocent Xelloss hiding his staff behind him, whistling innocently*
Cheska: Aren't you suppose to be in Slayers? This is Gundam Wing/SM
you fruitcake!
Xelloss: *stares innocently at her with his usual cheerful expression*
Cheska: Well what are you doing here, you Mazoku? *rubbing the
back of her head still*
Xelloss: *raises his finger and opens one eye, begins to wag the
finger* That's a secret. *disappears*
Cheska: *mumbles* Fruitcake...
*stares at the readers/reviewers* Well, that's it everyone! See ya
and please review! ^^