Summary: Bad news arrives for Sailor Mercury; Lun@ dreams; Giles and Miss Calendar discuss books.
Author's note: I am in no way responsible for the workings of my twisted mind. I was terribly sick with brocchitus when I wrote this, and I blame everything on it. Everything. Um, and there's possibly some OOC Cordelia. Yeah, sorry, I'm working on that.
Possible Discontinuity note: Okay, I'm sure Oz has a last name. Problem? No clue what it is. So, he's last-nameless. Sorry.
Japanese note: An "Odango" is basically a Japanese dumpling, or big, round noodle that has meat or vegetables in it; the comment refers to Usagi's hair style.
Website: The Scribs: Home of the Insane Fanfiction Writer Cassima
God was my copilot, but we crashed into the mountains and I had to eat him.
"Xander."
"Cordelia."
"Oz!" an ecstatic voice cried.
"Will!" he acknowledged as the red-head tackled him. "You've been eating your Wheaties."
"Oh, sorry," she murmured, letting go and taking a step back. "It's just... wow. I mean, you look... the same as when I left."
"Yeah, I thought about changing, but it was time-consuming. So, anything exciting happen?"
Rei mentally reviewed the list in her head. Eggs, bread, vegetables, rice, noodles, milk, butter, fish, crackers, chocolate, clam juice, hamburger meat... the list went on and on.
"Makoto, hurry up!" she snapped at her friend.
"Um, Rei," the tall girl tried, muffled by all the packages she was carrying. "I, um, I can't see where I'm going..." She struggled to push a hole for her face around the assorted boxes and bags. "This isn't exactly what I agreed to help with, you know."
Rei's face softened. "I'm sorry, Mako, but I can't possibly carry all of this back to the Shrine by myself."
"Just tell me there isn't anything else on your list."
Rei thought for a minute. "Nothing I can't carry by myself. You head back, okay? I'll follow you in about ten minutes."
"See you!" the tall girl called, and started heading back to Hikawa Shrine.
Stopping at the last market stall, Rei was extrodinarily glad that the Americans had offered to cover the costs of food. "It's not like we're not here on an all-expenses paid free trip, right?" Xander had said with a shrug, and Giles had stopped squirming to write the check.
"Yeah," Buffy had agreed, "I think Synder has been getting off way too easily in the funds department."
The fruit stand was her last stop. She didn't usually shop in the market, but some of the fish and fruit were fresher and cheaper, so she made her way through the crowded stalls.
Selecting a bag of cherries to top off the meal, she turned--
And froze.
Through a break in the people, two men with long ponytails could be seen. They were leaning close to each other so they could hear their own conversation in the din.
The people around them closed her window, though, and she darted off before she lost the familiar faces.
"Yaten! Seiya!" she yelled, grabbing her cherries and racing in their direction.
"Miss!" the cherry seller called after her. "You forgot your change!!" He looked at the yen in his hand. "Oh, well." With a shrug, he stuffed it back in his apron. "A donation to the cause."
Rei couldn't find them. She looked up and down the alleys, around near-by stands... had she even really seen them?
The famous Three Lights. The band that had rocked Japan and the rest of the world with their powerful music. The band that had gone to Juuban High School with Usagi, Ami, Makoto, and Minako. The band that had been the cover for the alien Sailor Senshi Starlights.
She was overworked; she was imagining things. The three Starlights had left, had found their Princess and taken her off this God forsaken planet back to their own world.
So why would they return? Vacation?
No, it didn't make any sense. That's what happens when you're under a lot of stress, scrying with the holy fire for the location of that Lun@, running a temple, playing hostess to more people than she would be sane to host, being Sailor Mars.
She began to walk slowly towards her grandpa's shrine.
"Hey, Rei," came a cheery voice.
Her head whipped around. "Yaten?"
He grinned. "In the flesh!"
"YATEN!" Dropping the cherries, she gave him a huge hug. Yes! She wasn't losing her mind!
"Rei... Rei... Yaten can't breathe." Gasping with relief as she released him, he grinned. "It's good to see you!"
"Where are the rest of the girls?" Seiya asked with a grin. "We were going to wait and surprise you tonight at dinner, but we couldn't wait."
"They're probably at the temple, waiting for me. We were going to have lunch there, and a meeting..." She grinned. "Want to surprise them?"
"I see we're staying in a temple." Oz looked about Hikawa Shrine approvingly. "I like."
"Oh, it's really nice here!" Willow gushed. "Very--uh--quiet."
"It seems peaceful," he agreed.
"Oh!" she cried, "and the Priestess? Who works here? She knows magic."
"That sounds pretty cool. You never told me--did you guys find any vampires here? 'Cause, y'know, if not--free vacation to Japan an' all. I'm not complaining."
The red head looked a little nervous again. "Uh, well, you see... she's been kidnapped."
Oz blinked. "I see." He didn't, but his calm, accepting tone never faltered. "I'm betting that's why the small reception committee."
"Um, yeah. You see, there was this big monster? And, and he tried to kill Agent Mulder--he's with the FBI. He and Agent Scully--that's his partner. She's a little, y'know, sick, but that's not the reason they're at the hospital. I mean, they're okay, well, obviously, they're not okay, 'cause they're at the hospital, and if you're at the hospital and you're okay, they make you go home without any cherry jello, and--"
"Will, focus."
"Oh, yeah." She blinked for a moment to re-direct her thoughts. "Well there was this monster, and he... walked off with her. This morning."
"Sounds painful. We know where she is?"
"Not-not really," Willow stuttered sadly. "Um, we're still looking."
"Oh, Willow!" a voice called, and Minako's head popped over the side of the stairs. "We're back!" She raced over, Haruka and Michiru in tow. "Who's this strapping young man?" she asked rather flirtatiously, sidling up to Oz and giving him a coy glance. "Hi, my name is Minako Aino! Are you Willow's boyfriend?"
Oz blinked as the stream of Japanese ran over his English-born ears. "Um..."
A rush of understanding ran through his girlfriend. "Ooooh..." She turned to Minako, suddenly glad for the language barrier. "He doesn't speak Japanese, Minako, and Lun@'s not here to put the spell on him." Oh, darn! she thought gleefully. "And, yes, he's _my_ boyfriend." She grabbed his hand possessively--and blushed profusly.
Oz was surprised for one of the only times in his life, though he didn't show it. Willow spoke Japanese? What an extrordinary girl...! He learned more and more about her every day.
"Hello," the blonde Japanese girl said again in heavily accented English. "My name is Minako Aino. Pleased to meet you!"
"Oz." He nodded and shook her hand, eyeing the two hovering people in the background. "Nice to meet you, too."
The man exchanged a look with his girlfriend. "Haruka Ten'oh," he said cooly. He didn't offer his hand.
His teal-haired girlfriend seemed amused by it all, but offered her hand to the guitarist of "Dingos Ate My Baby". "Michiru Kaiou. Your flight just arrived in Tokyo?"
He nodded and shook, repressing a shudder at the tingle that raced from her hand through his body. "Yeah, just a couple hours ago." He frowned. "Wait a minute--Kaiou? Michiru Kaiou? I think I've heard of you. You play violin, right?"
She nodded, her smile masking the hardening of her eyes. "I see my music proceeds me."
"I love what you did on your blues CD. You have very talented fingers." There was something about those two... they were hiding something.
Waitaminute... Haruka was a woman.
Nope, that wasn't it. Well, yes, Haruka definitely was lacking in the "y" chromosome department, but that wasn't what these two were hiding. In fact, they seemed to get some sort of inane pleasure out of tricking people--he could see it in their eyes--but there was something else, something dangerous, almost akin to what he himself hid from the world at large.
But, hey, their perogative. He shrugged, but made a note to keep an eye on them. Those two could be incredibly dangerous if they chose to be.
Really, though, the look on Cordelia's face would be priceless.
Cordelia eyed the handsome blond man from her spot next to--but in no means close to--Xander. He was kinda cute... like Angel, in a non-Vampirish kind of way.
"Everyone," Rei sang happily from the door to the room. "Guess who's he-re?"
"Lun@?" Buffy asked hopefully, jumping up. "She escaped?"
"Uh, no, not really." Rei winced as the hope on the American's faces was crushed rather violently. "It's... um... Seiya and Yaten."
"Yeah, right," Minako rolled her eyes. "Very funny."
"What are they saying?" Oz whispered to Willow, head moving back and forth as he tried to follow the conversation.
"Hey, Odango-head!" a familiar voice called out, and the door slid open the rest of the way.
"Seiya!" Usagi squealed, jumping up from the table and running over to black-haired man.
Minako and Makoto followed, crowding around the two men with bright, wide eyes and grinning faces. Michiru and Haruka remained a little farther back, false aloofness covering up their amusement, amazement, and discomfort.
Cordelia watched Haruka, but eyed the two new boys as well. So many hunks, so little time...
Ami remained where she stood, a slight sense of dread worming its way through her.
"How are you?" Minako squealed, flirting outrageously.
Xander cleared his throat loudly. "English for those of us so impaired, please." Cordelia shot him a nasty glare, and he returned it, full force. "For your information, I was talking about Oz. So there!" He stuck his tongue out at Cordelia, who immediately retaliated.
Rei hid her laughter and ignored them, dutifully adressing Oz and the rest of the company in heavily accented English. "Oh, I'm sorry! Let me introduce my guests. Mr. Giles, Ms. Calendar, Buffy Summers, Xander Harris, Willow Rosenburg, Oz... I forget his last name, Cordelia Chase, Angel, these are Seiya Kou and Yaten Kou. Guys, Buffy is the Slayer."
"Hey, hey," Buffy cried, hands on her hips, as Giles sighed deeply. "Do the words 'secret identity' mean nothing to you people?"
"Oh, you're one to talk," Giles muttered at his charge, who sent him a muted glared.
"Sorry," Rei said, abashed.
Giles mumbled something about a world-wide broadcast.
"Didn't you guys have a band?" Oz asked mildly, extending a hand to shake.
"Uh--yeah, for a while," Seiya said with a grin, shaking his hand.
"Your music wasn't too bad."
"'Not too bad'?!" Yaten exclaimed. "We held #1, 2, and 3 on the charts for the entire time we were together! We haven't had a concert in a year, and we're still in the top 20!"
Oz shrugged.
"Hey, come in, guys, sit down," Usagi said eagerly, pulling them away from the door and into the temple. "How long are you here for?"
"A while," Yaten responded with a small smile, momentarily forgetting Oz's insult. "Princess Kakyru told us we could visit."
Ami, silent up until this point, suddenly asked, "Where's Taiki?"
The smiles melted from their faces, and the two men exchanged a pained glance. "He..."
There was an uncomfortable pause.
Yaten sighed. "We have met your new enemy."
The blue haired girl nodded. "Excuse me." Just as quietly as she had spoken, she walked out the door and down the temple steps.
Usagi started after her friend, but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Haruka shaking her head, Michiru right next to her.
"Leave her alone for a while, Usa," the blond woman said quietly.
Reluctantly, the pig-tailed girl nodded and turned back to her new guests. "What can you tell us about them?"
Stifling an uncharacteristic squirm, the man took another pull off his dwindling cigarette. The smoke curled comfortingly around him, almost shrouding him from the ridiculousness of his perdictament. He'd had some strange schemes in his time, but none of them had ever forced him to wear a dress.
The words "Drag Queen" rolled through his mind, and he covered his grimace with another lungfull of nicotine.
The door to his throne room opened with its usual silence as someone entered--one of the Four. His favorite one, actually.
"Liam," he said cooly, unobtrusively adjusting his crown.
The Ancient bowed low. "My Queen." At the man's signal, Liam rose and approached the throne. "I have the modifications you wished right here."
The Cigarette-Smoking Man frowned. "Why haven't they been implimented yet?"
"Well, your majesty," he said, "The only place *possibly* secure enough to store this much energy would be the Octogon Room, and--well--we have the food stored there now. Ivory was able to expand the refridgidation unit to accomodate all the products that need to be cooled, but the dried foods still need a home."
"What about the dungeon?" the Queen asked mildly, absently lighting another cigarette. "The gross amount of cells we have down there is a frivolous waste of space, considering I'd rather eliminate any possible threats rather than imprision them in the middle of my impenetrable fortress. It could be easily converted."
"We thought of that, your majesty. Jade ran the numbers, though, and we're short about 2 square meters of space."
His Queen stared at him impassively, taking a firm pull off his cigarette.
"That's, uh, about 20 square feet."
Nodding in acceptance, he took a look at the diagrams in the Ancient's hand. "There should be more than enough room," he pointed out.
Liam pointed to the two cells near the entrance of the dungeons. "We have our two prisoners in there, remember? We gave the vampires the first shot at breaking the Angel of Death, and the other prisoner is the one with the special energy. The runes on the walls cut off her magic."
The smoking man handed the documents back. "Put both of them in the same cell."
He bowed. "Your wish is my command, my Queen. I shall inform the rest of the Four imediately."
The Cigarette Smoking Man sat back in his throne, only mildly pleased, and scratched at his shoulder. It looked spiffy, but chiffon was itchy.
She rattled her chains absently, more out of habit than out of any misguided notion that she might escape. She'd been here for--all the days ran together after the first week. Her internal clock seemed to keep fairly good time, however, and she marked the wall everytime they fed her. Assuming two marks per day, she could probably calculate the amount of days she had been locked up here, but since their fortress was in a Pocket Outside the Universe, it was pointless, anyway, damn it.
Damn them. Damn them all!
Her eyes automatically slid to the face of the New Girl. New Girl had been beaten, badly, by that vampire scum, Spike. Lacerations covered her face, and her arms and legs were bloody and bruised, the pale flesh torn. Her long hair was tangled and knotted, and crusty with blood, sweat, and dirt against her skull, and her black robe lay torn against her limbs, stiff with blood and urine. She lay, unchained, where they had left her, unmoving, dead to all rights but her shallow breathing.
She remembered how New Girl had looked Spike in the eye, exhausted beyond all normal reason, and smiled a hard smile that didn't touch her eyes before she cried out and her eyes stared at the wall, memorizing it. New Girl's expressive, old green eyes had gone blank under the hot iron pokers, white from the fire and slightly black with ash.
New Girl had gone off to her own land, the realm within her own mind, and not yet come back to the horrors that shaped reality. Honestly, she wished she could join her.
The cell was dank, lit only dimly by the light bulbs that scattered the cement ceiling throughout the converted warehouse. She wished suddenly, violently for the comfort of her sisters, for their protection and comfort and presence. She prayed for her home, and the places she had learned to call home. The people she called family... that she yearned to call family...
Sudden tears pricked her bright purple eyes, and she blinked them back. She refused to think about What Could Have Been. She refused to mourn for something that hadn't even broken sanctity with words. She would be strong...
She _needed_ to be strong, strong for New Girl. New Girl was breaking slowly, splintering at the soul. She could be someone for New Girl, someone strong and needed. Someone useful. She could force herself to live for New Girl, to survive this Hell...
New Girl stirred and breathed a moan so quiet it was almost air.
"It's okay," she said quietly, not wanting to scare New Girl. "They're gone for now."
New Girl chuckled bitterly, a bit hysterically, though the grim look in her glazed eyes said she knew there was nothing funny about the situation. "I wish I was dead."
"I'm glad you're not," she responded, equally quiet. "I was getting lonely."
"Kalguna," New Girl murmured, eyes straying to the ceiling. "Who is Kalguna?"
She did not answer.
"He is strange... old but not... the keeper of dreams..." New Girl seemed not to notice she was answering her own questions. "He will not let me sleep the sleep of remembrance... let me dream of the past..."
She looked at New Girl oddly, and said nothing. What strange words.
And the pathetic sight of New Girl staring as if through the ceiling inspired a little-known feeling in her heart: pity.
It had been so long since she'd felt pity, instead of spite or anger.
In the last case, it had led to love.
She closed her eyes against the sudden sight of her loved one's face.
What might have been...
The man sat in the book-filled room at his huge round oak table in the hard oak chair. His long fingers were not writing with the fountain pen that lay, forgotten, on the table above his book, nor did his his brown eyes look thoughtful and kind, or pleased and vengeful.
They were half closed and sad. So terribly sad.
His mood was regret, and though the hands that he cradled his head on entwined in long silver strands of hair, he was not by any means an old man. Rather, eternally youthful and brilliant.
The past... The past was coming, like it or not, and too quickly for his liking. It could smother their spirits or lift them to victory. It could do both at once.
"You are a foolish man, Kalguna," the dreamweaver scolded himself. You knew this would happen." He swallowed and sighed, sitting up to look at the ceiling, not quite lit up by the numerous oil lamps scattered around the Victorian style room. "It will come soon," he murmured sadly.
"What will come?" came a sudden voice, taking him by surprise. She was back. "What will you not tell me?"
Kalguna looked over at her, her green eyes a mixture of anger, fear, and desperation. "S--Diabolique..."
