Author: Abigail aka Moonchild aka Drive Me Mercury
Email: abigail@makenai.org
Rating: PG-13
Chapter started: 2-17-03 Chapter ended: 2-22-03
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon and all characters and settings belong to
the one-and-only Naoko Takeuchi. All created characters and plots within this
story are my own.
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*Chapter 3*
-Going Backwards-
A shadowed hand pulled
open the desk drawer, trying desperately to be quiet as possible. There were
probably no people awake in that entire quarter of the palace, but still she
cringed at every smallest noise she accidentally made. A small flashlight
guided her actions in the otherwise pitch-black room. With confident movements
that showed she knew what she was looking for and exactly where it was, she
pulled out pens, staplers, boxes of paper clips, and other such common items,
placing them on the desk’s smooth surface. With the drawer now cleaned out, her
small hand reached in, running over the back, the bottom, the sides of the
container. She knew it was here somewhere, she’d even seen Setsuna reach in and
put…
There. She felt the panel
give way under her fingers as a secret compartment opened up. She pulled out
her treasure, cold and hard against her palm. It was a small key, with stylized
engravings and encrusted with small jewels.
Soft fingers wrapped
around the cool metal.
Now, to put her plan into
action.
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Setsuna woke startled to
the shrill cry of the alarm that filled her bedroom. Groggily she dragged
herself out from under the warm covers to silence the machine that was
networked with her office and the time chamber. Pulling on a robe, she wondered
softly to herself, “What on Earth…?”
Her swift footsteps
covered the distance between her bedroom and office several hallways away. As
her mind cast off the fogginess of sleep and started thinking more clearly,
more questions and an underlying worry began to form. There had been no
indications of trouble in Time since Crystal Tokyo was born, and certainly not
recently. Perhaps a malfunction of the alarm? But even that seemed unlikely.
Opening her office door,
the same shrill alarm greeted her ears. Setsuna winced as she flipped the light
switch and reached for the button that would turn off the piercing noise. That
accomplished, she swept her eyes over the office momentarily and gave a sharp
intake of breath when her fears were confirmed, and she saw the bare drawer
with its secret compartment exposed. With just two touches to her control
panel, a view of the Time Gates jumped onto the screen. There was no stirring
of human nor creature in the realm of Time, and to the untrained eye everything
seemed peaceful and untouched as it had for thousands of years. But in front of
the timeless gates a glow was slowly fading – evidence that someone or
something had been active in the time warp just minutes earlier.
Setsuna spoke as the
realization struck her.
“She wouldn’t have… ”
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The first thing Miya did… was
panic.
And rightly so. She had
landed in 20th century Tokyo with no money, no friends, and no clue how she was
going to find her real parents. Not only that, but she was sure she had
overshot her birthdate by nearly a whole year. No one had ever told her time
travel was such a precision art. The plan had seemed so brilliant when she
first conceived it on impulse, but now it struck her in the pits of her stomach
that she had no idea what her parents looked like or what their names were.
There were thousands of couples together on this sunny afternoon in Tokyo.
Which one was –her- mom and dad?
Maybe she should have
begged Setsuna for more information. She asked a random person for today’s
date: August 4, 1997. She wouldn’t be born for another eleven months. No one in
this time even knew she would exist. Now Miya had nothing to do but fret over
this huge oversight on her part. She couldn’t very well walk up to any of the
passing couples on the sidewalk and ask, “Hey, do you know if I’m your future
daughter?” For the first time in her life, she felt utterly, entirely, lost and
alone.
She wasn’t even entirely
sure how to get back home, but she was putting all her trust into the key for
that. She kept one hand in her pocket wrapped around the metal object, almost
frightened to death of losing it. She had no idea where to go next, but an
emerging stubborn streak prevented her from immediately returning to Crystal
Tokyo. It was strange looking to the east and not seeing the towering spires of
the Crystal Palace dominating the skyline. This place was almost like another
planet, and yet oddly the same.
Miya paused to gaze at her
face reflected in a shop window. Stubby, turned-up nose, large, slightly
slanted blue eyes, black hair tinted blue in the sunlight… she looked around
but didn’t see one adult that even resembled her. She decided to look a little
more, but the chances of actually finding the right person seemed hopeless.
With a pout she continued walking and window shopping – might as well enjoy a
little fun and freedom before she figured out how to return to her own time.
But surely… there had to
be some way to find them. Right?
She wandered for an hour,
watching people, peeking into stores, and giggling at a few 20th
century fashion fads. She came upon a street that she recognized, though it had
changed – a place where she had been before with Setsuna. There was a small
park nearby, and at that moment there seemed to be a large crowd gathering.
Curious, she stood on tiptoes, only managing to make out that there was some
sort of stage set up in the center of the park. Drawn toward the area by some
unexplainable urge, Miya picked up her pace. As she came nearer, the smooth
notes of a song flowing through the air found her ears.
…Passing through the distant night sky
Now I’ll wish on a shooting star
Whispering ‘I want to be with you’
Please tell this to her, starlight…
The crowd was packed
together in front of her so that she couldn’t get a glimpse of anything but a
row of human behinds. She tried to squeeze, push, slither, her way through
somehow without being extremely rude but didn’t manage to get very far. Taking
advantage of her small size, she finally made progress crawling through
people’s legs, although she stepped on quite a few feet and even got her own
fingers tromped once. Somehow she emerged unscathed barely an arm’s reach from
the stage. The music could be heard clear and loud here so close to the speaker
system.
Search for your love
A ship floats adrift
She could see now that there
were three singers on the stage – young men in different colored suits, faces
twisted in passion, only in song letting their true emotion shine through for
all to see as they poured all their soul into one melody. The lead singer was a
dark-haired man in red, with a ponytail like the two others. As Miya watched
him she thought she had never heard a voice so beautiful. It’s deep, rich
sounds were stirring up a warmth inside her heart, a warmth like she had never
felt before – beginning coiled in the depths of her stomach and washing over
her being like the gentle waves of the ocean.
Search for your love
In the madness
And yet… she felt sad. The
man’s eyes opened for moment in the middle of his song, and for the briefest
second, his sapphire eyes met with hers. The feeling was unexplainable. In that
moment, Miya felt as if she could glimpse his soul – the conflict, the passion,
the longing… there was a message he needed to convey to her. As the warmth
turned to fire…
Swept out to you…
Everything else seemed to
fade away until there was nothing but the music… the –sight- of the music, the –touch- of the music.
Violence. Destruction.
…Death. A blur of horrified faces, and the pungent smell of evil. The clash of
weapons, and the blood of pain.
Then escape. A darkened
sky. The dim color of sadness. Desperation… clinging… searching…
Loneliness.
Can you hear my voice calling?
Where are you now?
My princess…
Princess? Were they
calling to her? ‘Am I a princess? It feels as if they are reaching out to
me… yet I can’t reach back, and I can’t answer.’ Who
was this lady they were searching for? The fire in her heart burned, enveloped
by the music. A vision wavered before her closed eyes – long, flowing hair, a
gentle smile… Miya was comforted by her very presence, this woman who was
friend, guardian, and lover.
Answer me
Right away
Answer me
So gently…
Where are you, mysterious
princess? Your soldiers are longing to see you. Come back to them once more…
Miya wanted, needed to
reach out to them, comfort them, but she didn’t know how. She felt an
unexplainable connection to the three on stage, like a long-lost twin you never
knew you had. Someone who could –feel-;
someone who could –understand-. And
there was a force inside her stirring, burning, wanting to be…
Released.
Miya opened her eyes as if
awaking from a dream. The crowd around her was shouting, she realized, as the
noise gradually seeped into her consciousness. The song had ended and the men
on stage were now talking to the audience. A lingering feeling in her chest
left Miya to wonder what had just happened. Had she fallen asleep and dreamed?
The thump of her heart told her otherwise, and the vision had seemed so real.
She looked around her to see if anyone else had been affected in the same way,
but no one else even noticed the short girl beside them, happily chattering as
they watched the concert. Miya’s eyes turned again to the figures on stage.
She tugged at the
shirtsleeve of the girl beside her. “Ne… who are they?”
The teenager stared at her
like she had just walked off a UFO. “You don’t know? It’s Three Lights, of
course!”
“Oh…” She looked up at the
man in red again, laughing now as he flirted with the crowd. Miya puzzled how
his careless attitude now could contrast so much with the depth of feeling she
had heard in his song just seconds before, making her wonder if she had
imagined it all. “And who is he?”
“The lead singer? That’s
Seiya Kou. He’s sixteen and he’s the most popular of the three. And best of
all, he’s a Leo! Isn’t he just the hottest?” the girl gushed.
The trio was waving to the
fans now as they prepared to leave. As he turned before disappearing behind
stage, Miya recalled the eyes that had met hers for only a moment.
“Seiya Kou…”