Sailor Moon X

Chapter 18;; Flicker

I can't sleep now, no, not like I used to
I can't breathe in and out like I need to

“I think it’s a good idea.”

They turned to stare at Haruka. Shock and confusion was clearly written among their faces.

“What?” Haruka asked nervously.

“Well, Ruka...You’ve never been the most...accepting,” Michiru said gently.

“What do you mean?”

“It took you ages to finally accept Seiya, and considering what happened with Asuka, I thought you would-”

“Ostracize,” Seiya offered.

“I was going to say, ‘Be extremely cautious.’ But I suppose that works too.” Michiru sighed.

“I was planning on it, but I realized that we need him. Asuka knows everything about us. That’s my fault. I never would’ve thought she was capable of this. But I can’t change anything. Now she’s going to tell everything to them, and we’re screwed. Our only chance at equalizing us again is Daemon. He was their inside link. He knows what’s going on there. We need this.” Haruka looked around the room, taking in the different expressions.

Ami was the first to speak. “Well, the decision rests with Usagi.”

“I think Haruka is right,” she said quietly.

“So it’s settled?” Makoto asked.

“Yes,” Usagi grinned, “Setsuna, go get Daemon and tell him he’s in.”

X

“And you want me to...?”

“Asuka, you’re aware of your responsibilities.”

“Uhhh apparently not. I’ve been shut out the last day and a half for doing somethingwrong, but no one will tell me what.”

“You’re fully informed.”

“NO I’M NOT!” she screeched loudly, stamping her foot, “YOU WON’T FREAKING TELL ME ANYTHING! YOU CAN’T EXPECT ME TO DO WHAT YOU WANT IF YOU DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO.”

Suddenly she was flying backwards. Quickly, flying backwards. She was going so fast she didn’t process what was happening until she hit the wall behind her. Hard.

“Ow…” she mumbled, rubbing her back.

“Your temper, Asuka!” The voice made a ‘tsking’ noise as if it was scolding a small child.

She rolled her eyes in response.

“Your powers are strong, my dear, but you have to learn how to control yourself. You can’t go about throwing hissy fits. You’ll end up severely punished or dead.”

Asuka stared at her, teal eyes searching the darkness for her queen. She couldn’t even make out and outline.

Without another word, she stood up and gracefully walked out of the room. She continued her stroll until she was looking at a familiar door, threw it open, tightly shut it behind her, and sank down to the ground.

She buried her head in her arms.

“What the hell am I doing here?” She whispered. Her voice broke.

X

“Ew. Sweat.”

Minako giggled and continued walking, dragging him along behind her.

“I’ll never understand what you see in sports, Mina-chan.”

She grinned at him. “I like you better, if that counts.”

“Oh great. You like me more than running around like an idiot chasing an inanimate object that doesn’t move unless you move it first. Fabulous.”

“I know you were worried. Don’t try to hide it.”

“If only.”

She giggled again, but stopped when she noticed he had stopped walking.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, staring at him.

“Turn around.”

She slowly turned and let out a gasp. There was a man, a helpless man, lying dead in street, surrounded by his own blood. There was a girl next to him curdled into a ball, shaking violently. Her blonde hair was sticking to her face with blood. Her clothes were flickering back and fourth, from blue and lavender to red and black.

“Is that...”

“Yes. Transform.” He pulled out his star yell, and she followed his lead.

“What the hell have you done?”

Sailor Xena looked up at the unfortunately familiar faces of Sailor Star Healer and Sailor Venus. Her fuku was still flickering, changing, as if it was confused. Her face was completely blank. Finally, the changing stopped. The red and black outfit stayed.

Her expression hardened, and her eyes turned darker. She grinned wickedly and quickly jumped to her feet.

She started to move closer to Star Healer, who stood there in shock. The blonde revealed a knife and suddenly lunged at her.

Venus screamed and ran toward her. She knocked the blonde to the ground, the knife falling on the concrete in the process.

“Rolling Heart Vibration!”

Eris hit the wall, and crumpled to the ground. Her fuku began to flicker again, and this time it decided to be blue. Her eyes returned to their normal teal shade, and she stood up again. She looked over at the couple; Venus was frantically asking Healer if she was alright, Healer trying to get her calm down. Her eyes finally landed on the red body.

“Oh...oh...oh my...oh dear...” Her hands flew up to cover her mouth. She took a step back and bumped into the wall. She vanished in a flash of black light.

“Shit!” Healer ran over to where Xena had last been. “She got away.” She detransformed and sighed.

“Yes...Are you alright, though?”

He smiled. “I’ll be fine. But look at you.”

She looked down at her self and noticed the different skirt and boots. She gasped and spun around, beaming.

“You did it,” Yaten told her. “I knew you could.”

She squealed and flung her arms around his neck, not noticing him flinch.

X

“Okay, this is the worst book ever.” Minako tossed it onto the table and crossed her arms.

“You hate all books, Minako,” Rei reminded her.

“This one’s especially bad.”

“I agree with Minako. This is awful. I’ve fallen asleep twice.”

“That’s no surprise, Usagi.” Rei rolled her eyes.

“I have to agree with Usagi and Minako,” Ami sighed, closing the book. “This is poorly written. There’s no plot. The author spent the first twenty pages talking about how his last book was a flop and about the eating nature of sloths.”

“Who names their kid, Piscine?” Yaten groaned. He shifted his position and felt pain shoot through his abdomen. Stupid wounds.

Seiya smirked. “The parents set their kid up for the pissing nickname.”

“Not to mention the lack of punctuation throughout the entire chapter.” Taiki shook his head.

“I’ll be right back,” Makoto stood up and walked over to the counter.

Usagi stood up to follow her, but Seiya grabbed her hand, holding her back.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to let you out of my sight.” He sounded almost desperate, pleading.

“I can take care of myself.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”

She sighed and sat down next to him again. “I love you, but you’re so overprotective of me.”

“I have to be. I’m worried,” he whispered.

“I know, but I promise, I’ll be okay if I just go to talk to Motoki and Makoto.”

“But what if you start to like Motoki better than me?” Seiya teased.

“Then I guess I better stay here so I don’t have to risk it.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“THIS BOOK STINKS,” Minako screamed. Nearly everyone at the Crown turned to stare at them, and she blushed, sitting back down and burying her face into Yaten’s shoulder.

X

“So heights are your forte?”

Daemon looked below and noticed Setsuna’s head out of the window.

He smiled and extended his hand, “Hey, Set.” She took the hand and climbed up next to him.

“What are you doing up here?”

“Thinking.”

“If you want to think alone, I can go back inside...”

“Don’t bother. I like having you around. You help me think.”

“Alright.”

He was silent, and she preoccupied herself with watching the sunset.

“Hey, Set...What do you remember about your past life?”

“Well, since I’m the guardian of time, I remember more than most. But my past life hasn’t been all that exciting. I’ve basically been guarding the gate of time since the beginning. Of course, there were a few battles in there. When Saturn destroyed the world, all of that...Why?”

He shrugged, then answered, “I just can’t remember mine.”

“Nothing?”

“Nothing.”

“That’s odd...”

He chuckled, “You’re telling me.” Suddenly he start to laugh again.

She starred at him. “What?”

“I just think it’s funny you’re Set and you’re watching the sunset!” he choked out between laughs.

She smiled at him. “You’re fun to be around.” He stopped laughing.

“I am?”

“Yes. You have this...aura about you. It just makes me want to be around you.”

She was starring at the horizon. She looked up and realized his face dangerously close to hers. Her heart sped up.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Kissing you.” He responded simply.

“Oh.”

He got closer, and she spoke up again.

“Should I hold my breath?”

He smirked, “You don’t have to.”

“Should I close my eyes?”

“Most people do.”

She nodded, and he put his hand against her cheek and leaned in.

She could’ve sworn her heart woke the dead it was beating so loud.

X

“As if. They’re too fueled by their emotions. You should’ve seen Minako when I attacked her little boyfriend.”

Dominic sighed, “Maybe so, but their emotions are helping them. When she was mad, she powered up, didn’t she?”

“Well, yeah, but-”

“Exactly. We have to find out how to stop them. It certainly doesn’t help that they have that traitor...”

She lost interest in what he was saying, so she stopped paying attention. She wasn’t truly aware of what was happening until she collided into someone. They fell to the ground.

She was about to insult them for not watching where they were going, when she noticed it was a girl. She had black hair and dark eyes, though that seemed to be a common factor around here. Most of their eyes looked dark. It was hard to really make out colors. It took adjusting to.

The girl was petite, but couldn’t be any younger than Asuka was.

“Ah. Here’s the new addition. You two go have fun; I’ve got some business to attend to.” He sulked off, his waist length black hair flying behind him.

“Sorry!” the girl cried, scrambling to her feet.

“Well, in fairness, I wasn’t paying attention either.”

“It’s my fault, really-”

“Do you want a tip about how to get around down here?” The blonde said harshly, cutting the girl off.

“Don’tapologize. Blame others.”

“But-”

“I don’t care about ethics. Trust me, if you want to avoid getting your ass kicked that’s the only way to do it.”

“...I see.”

“I’m Asuka, by the way.”

“Tanaka. I’m supposed to be finding some girl named Chihiro...”

“Ah geeze. She’s a drunkard. Who knows where she is. Come on, though, I’ll help you look.”

“Thank you so much!” The girl squealed, quickly jumping up.

“Yeah, yeah.” She rolled her eyes, leading the way.

X

Sweat was pouring off his body. The pain was mind blowing. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. All he could feel was pain.

Her mangled body was in his arms. She whispered an apology, and her eyes closed. He desperately shook her, begging her to open her eyes. She didn’t respond.

It happened in slow motion. It was soaring straight toward him. She looked up in horror. Everything began to speed up. She jumped. He screamed. She crumpled to the ground. The car drove off. People surrounded them, screaming about calling 911. He kept repeating the same thing over and over again.

“You can’t leave me! Don’t leave me! Please don’t leave me!”

He screamed, his eyes shooting open.

“Daemon!” Setsuna placed her hand on his shoulder.

He jumped, and made out her figure in the dark room. “Set?”

“It’s me,” she said gently, removing her hand. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine!” he faked a laugh.

She eyed him suspiciously, “You screamed...”

His smile faded, “Did I wake you up?”

“We’re all light sleepers around here. Too many years of communicators going off in the middle of the night...”

“I still woke you up.”

“It’s fine,” she assured him. “Are you really alright?”

“I’m fine.” His voice came out rougher than he meant it to, and she looked slightly taken aback. “Sorry,” he muttered.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said softly. She was sitting on the side of his bed, her hands folded in her lap.

“Set...” He placed his hand over hers.

“You’re just a confusing person. At times you’ll say anything, but at other times you won’t open up at all...” Her voice trailed off.

“I’m sorry, Set. I don’t mean to...”

“I know.”

Silence fell upon them.

“Set?” he said quietly.

“Yes?”

“What do you want to know?”

She was suddenly reanimated. “Well, for starters, what did you dream about? I know it had to be pretty bad the way you were reacting, and you don’t have to tell me if you don’t-”

He caught her lips against his. When he pulled away, she seemed to be slightly in shock. He smirked.

“Still not used to it?”

She slowly shook her head. He laughed.

“I’ll tell you if you want to know, Set.” He leaned back against the pillows.

“I’m not entirely sure what most of it was about,” he admitted. “But I know the first part was from before you saved me.” He smiled a little, then it slowly faded and he shook his head, “The pain was just...so unbearable... But the rest of the dream, I don’t know what happened. There were two girls. One with black hair and the other with brown. Whatever happened, they both died and I was there...”

“You were screaming, ‘Don’t leave me!’ when I came in.”

“Hmm...Well, that would make sense, I guess.”

“Yes.” She appeared to be deep in thought, then she suddenly stood up.

“What?” he asked urgently.

“I just remembered something. Right after you escaped you were still slightly unconscious, and you were talking in your sleep. You said ‘Don’t leave me’ at one point.”

“Huh.”

“Reoccurring dreams, maybe?”

“Maybe.”

“It was just a guess.” She sat back down on his bed.

“No, it’s a great guess. I’m just sort of...I don’t know. In shock, I suppose.”

“I can understand.” She laid back, her feet dangling over the edge.

At least five minutes passed, and the room was dead quiet.

“Sorry for waking you,” he whispered again.

“I already told you it was fine.”

“I feel bad though.”

“Don’t.”

She became quiet once again, and he realized she was asleep. He carefully maneuvered her so she was upright in the bed, then tossed a blanket over her.

He sighed and rolled over, hoping he would shake the dream soon.

X

It was...melting. Whatever it was. It was definitely melting. People were screaming and running for their lives. She could feel anger and despair, and it was overwhelming. She began to feel light headed, and she squeezed her eyes tighter, trying to concentrate.

The scene faded away to a happier one. They were all there, laughing, smiling. Then an eerie feeling fell upon them. The doors opened, and a figure stumbled in. Someone gasped, but she didn’t know who. Her head was spinning. She couldn’t breathe.

Someone grabbed her arm. She shrieked, jumping back. Her arm began to burn, and she realized it was burning. She quickly pulled it away from the flames and cradled it against her chest. She looked up at the familiar face that startled her.

“Oh. Yuichiro.”

“Your arm...I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I wasn’t scared!” she spat.

He looked slightly taken aback. “Oh. Sorry. Is your arm okay?”

No. She thought.I think it’s going to fall off it hurts so bad.

“Yes, it’s fine.”

He stared at her intently, and she began to squirm under his gaze. How could he even see under that mass of hair?

“You’re lying.”

“What? No I’m not!”

“Yes you are.”

“No. I’m not!”

“Yes. You are.” She opened her mouth to retort, but he interrupted, “Whatever. I’m going to get you some ice.”

Ice. Ice cold. Cold good. Ice good.

“Fine.”

He left and returned quickly. “Sit down.”

“I’d rather stand.”

“Rei, why are you so difficult?”

She shrugged. Why was she so difficult? She wasn’t normally this difficult. Not around her friends.

She sat down, still slightly puzzled. He held the bag of ice to her arm, and she flinched at the sudden change in temperature.

“I really didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I wasn’t scared.”

“You said that before. But you were lying.”

“God! No I wasn’t!”

“Rei, give it up. I’ve been around here a long time. I’m more observant than you give me credit for,” he grumbled.

“Oh, you are?”

“Yes.”

“Then tell me something you’ve observed,” she said patronizingly.

“Fine,” he cleared his throat and began, “Every night for the past two months you’ve been locked away in here having visions. You rarely watch tv when your friends aren’t around, but you read manga obsessively. You study too, but you try to sound like you study more than you really do. Most of your time is spent helping out around here or reading manga. Right now you’re on that one about the girl who ends up in ancient China.

“You’re not only rude to me, in fact, you’re rude to all guys, so I never take it personally. You make your friend, Usagi, cry on a regular basis, and you always regret it afterwards. When all of your friends are here, even the older ones, you tend to keep them all in the same room as if you were having some secret meeting or something.

“I’ve never met anyone who spends more time around fire. You disappear at random times with no real explanation, and your favorite color is red.” He finished, breathless.

“Wow,” she said quietly. “You know me better than I thought.”

He smiled. “Well, you’d be surprised how much a person can pick up from being around you for so long.”

“I always thought I was good at being secretive. You just ruined my career as a spy.”

He laughed and handed her the bag of ice. “I’m going to go to bed. No more visions for tonight. Seriously, one of these days you’re going to pass out during one of them and not know what happened until you wake up with the room on fire.” He stood up and left, leaving her in awe.

X

“Morning, love,” Haruka kissed Michiru’s cheek, grabbing the coffee pot.

“You seem bright and cheery,” Michiru said, surprised.

“Yeah, well,” Haruka shrugged. “I had a really good idea last night.” She sat down at the table.

“Oh?”

“How do you feel about a beach trip? We could all go for the day.”

“Really?” she said incredulously. The excitement was clear in her voice, and the blonde grinned.

“Yep. Once everyone gets up I want to leave as soon as possible. We need to get there by lunch time.”

“I’ll start fixing lunch then!”

Haruka laughed, and Michiru was suddenly at her side again. She kissed her, and Haruka noticed how blue the sea goddess’s eyes were for the first time in what felt like ages.

Setsuna stumbled into the kitchen looking slightly flustered.

“Setsuna?”

The woman jumped at Michiru’s voice. She turned around, laughed, and reached into the cabinet to grab a glass. Unfortunately, she ended up knocking three out by accident.

“Oh!” She quickly tried to grab them and put them back. Thanks to how fast she was moving, she succeeded in knocking two more off the shelf.

Michiru looked at Haruka curiously, and Haruka raised an eyebrow. Michiru smiled and hugged the blonde. “You have no idea how great it is to have you back,” she whispered in her ear.

“You have no idea how great it is to be back,” she whispered back.

Setsuna finally managed to get the glasses back into their original positions, and she began to fill it up with orange juice.

“Morning guys!”

Setsuna dropped the glass, and it hit the floor, shattering into pieces.

“A bit klutzy today, Set?” Daemon laughed, crouching down to pick up the larger shards of glass. Luckily, there weren’t too many small pieces.

Setsuna blushed and bent down to help him. She found herself not paying attention to picking up the mess, but analyzing the way his dark hair fell over his left eye. Suddenly, a shock of pain sent her back to reality.

She looked down and noticed she had cut her finger.

“Let me see.” He grabbed her hand roughly, examining the cut. She felt her cheeks heat up again. “You got lucky, Set. It just cut you. Good thing you didn’t get any glass in your finger.” He let go of her hand and stood up. “Michiru, where do you keep the band aids?”

“Above the sink,” She said, still trying to figure out what was going on. She shot a glance over to Haruka, who mouthed “Something’s off.” She nodded, her blue curls moving with her head.

“Here,” Daemon crouched next to her and carefully put the band aid over the bleeding cut. “Be more careful, Set.”

“Sorry,” she said softly.

“Don’t be.” He shrugged, going back to picking up the rest of the glass. “I just worry about you.” He scooped the rest up and dumped it in the garbage.

Michiru caught Haruka’s eye again, then nodded toward the direction of Daemon and Setsuna. Haruka beamed, nodding back. Communicating wordlessly had always been their specialty. It was something that came naturally to them, and they could fully understand each other without even opening their mouths. It came in handy when one was discussing the people around them...

“Good morning!” Hotaru said. The choruses of ‘morning!’ followed.

“Haruka has an idea that she wants to run past everyone,” Michiru said.

“I wondering how you guys would feel about a day trip to the beach.”

“REALLY?” Hotaru squealed, and began bouncing up and down in her seat.

“She’s been around you too long.” Haruka smirked, and Michiru smacked her arm. The blonde laughed.

“We want to leave as soon as possible,” Michiru explained, “So go get your things ready.”

Hotaru skipped off to her room.

“I’ll go find my bathing suit,” Setsuna stood up, and walked out of the kitchen.

“Come on, Daemon. We don’t have all day,” Haruka teased, tossing the dishes into the sink. Michiru winced.

He looked slightly surprised at her remark; as if he was shocked he was included. He nodded and left.

“Alright, what’s the deal between those two?” Haruka asked now that they were out of earshot.

“I don’t know. We could check the damn mirror but that’s personal gain.”

Haruka rolled her eyes. “You’re not going to drop that, are you?”

“The damn mirror? No, I won’t. Poor mirror.”

“I was mad when I said it, Michi. You can’t blame me forever.”

“Oh I can’t, can I?” She turned around and smiled wickedly.

“If you’re going to blame me forever, I’m going to be forced to buy you the Final Destination trilogy on DVD for your birthday.”

Michiru’s eyes widened. “You wouldn’t!”

“Oh, I would.” Haruka smirked.

“Consider it dropped!”

“That’s better.”

X

"Yeah, I think it hurt. I just think he's trying to be all strong and manly for Minako," Seiya joked. Usagi and he were seated on her porch steps. She was starring up at the stars, her bright sapphire eyes sparkling with their light.

"I never realized how over protective Minako was until today. The way Yaten told the story made her sound like she did everything but strangle Asuka."

"She probably did." Seiya laughed. Usagi grinned and yawned loudly. "I can let you go to bed if you want," Seiya said. "I don't want to keep you up."

"No thanks. I'd rather be awake with you." She yawned again and laid her head on his shoulder, putting her arms around his waist. He smiled and looked back up at the sky. The moon was shinning brightly, completely full.

He looked back down at her and whispered, "Odango?"

"Hmm?" Her eyes were closed.

"I won't let anything hurt you."

She smiled softly. A few minutes passed, and he thought she had fallen asleep.

"Seiya?" she said quietly. Her voice was plagued with drowsiness.

"Yes?"

"You are good enough."

He stared at her oddly for a few seconds, before it finally clicked. Last year. On the rooftop. In the rain.

He kissed her forehead. "Are you asleep?" he whispered.

"No...I want to stay awake..." Her words slurred together.

He laughed and pried her arms away from his body. She said something in defiance, but it slurred too, so he didn't catch it. He picked her up and carried her inside.

X

I wrote this chapter backwards. O-o No joke. I wrote the last scene first, then the others. Idk. I’m weird like that. xD

I really love this chapter. It was packed jam full of fluff, but I feel like there was so much plot and character development that it was perfect.

I hope the wait was worth it. I tried to make it as good as I could. :P

The Final Destination reference is something from back in chapter two or three. I’ve probably rewritten it since some of you guys read it. So go check it out. It was a fun scene. Haruka and Michiru were on a date, and they had just seen Final Destination 3. They were pretty disappointed with it, and they just kept going on and onabout it. Anyway, go back and read it if you don’t remember. xD

I really need to go to bed. xD It’s one in the morning. Ahhhaaaa. –slap happy-

I can only write at night though. O-o In the day time, I feel like people are watching me. Lmao. I sound like a freak. Idk.

I’m going to go to bed before I start to speak in tongues. xD Night.