Ice Princess by Athena nikita@sgi.net Hi! Hi! Well I'm back again. If you'll take notice, I've started two new stories and I have two possibly three more in the works right now. If you enjoyed my last one, then you'll like this one too. The generals are back! Serena still has her grown up version of Sailor Moon, but that's about where the similarities end. You notice the changes that I've made to the original SM story...I hope that you like it. A big thanks to Alicia Blade...the other half of my brain! She is absolutely the best..you must read her work!! That's so much for your support and encouragement on everything that I've written, you're Fabulous!!! And it really is freaky how we seem to come up with the same ideas and thoughts all of the time...like I said, the other half of my brain! The usual disclaimer apply here: Sailor Moon is not mine, so please don't sue me! Also nothing in this story is meant to be realistic or truthful, so if it seems too good to be true or if I've described something wrong or out of context....TOO BAD! I wasn't doing any research...it's not meant to be realistic..just ENJOY! Please send me e-mails! I really enjoy getting them. Love and Peace Athena ************************************************************************ "Hey guys, hurry up! You're gonna miss the figure skating competition!" Raye bellowed to her friends in the kitchen who were busy preparing snacks for the group assembled. Lita sighed and yelled back, "Well Raye, if you would only help us instead of snuggling with Jason, we could get this done in no time!" Raye mumbled to herself and got up and went to help. Her boyfriend Jason just laughed. He was bloned with blue eyes that sparked with mischief. Just then a pillow hit him from behind, "I wouldn't laugh too loud, Jason," said the man with red hair and blue eyes, "You know how Raye gets when you rile her up and I for one plan on enjoying the evening, not watching you two bicker all night." "Chill out Nick, Raye is in a good mood tonight. And thanks for the pillow!" Just then Raye, Lita, Amy and Mina all walked back into the room bearing food and drinks for their boyfriends and their one lone friend, Darien. The group of nine were the best of friends. They were practically in separable and had been that way for years. But not only were they friends, they were also the protectors of the universe. The girls were known as the Sailor Scouts. Raye was the powerful Sailor Mars, Lita was the mighty Sailor Jupiter, Amy was the intelligent Sailor Mercury and Mina was the breathtaking Sailor Venus. The Scouts were sworn to protect the Princess of the Moon, Serenity. The only problem was that Serenity hadn't been discovered by them yet. They were still searching for their Princess. Darien, who was Tuxedo Mask, was also Prince Endymion of Earth. He was Serenity's long lost love. He too was searching for his lost Princess. His Generals as they called themselves, were the Scouts' significant others. There was Marcus/Malachite, who was the leader of Darien's Generals. He was a quiet man with long white hair and piercing ice blue eyes. He was tall and lean with a stance that eminated his power and strength. Marcus was known to send people running for cover with just a look. His partner was Mina/Venus and it is believed that the lovely Venus melted the ice surrounding his heart. Next came Nicholas/Nephlyte who believed that the stars led the way in life. Nicholas was tall like Marcus, but he was muscular with wide shoulders, long red hair and intense blue eyes. His girlfriend was Lita and together they made a deadly team. There was also Jason/Jedite who was always creating more mischief than getting any work done. Raye was his overseer in many respects. She was constantly bailing him out of trouble. Finally there was Zachary who was always leaping before he looked. His long blonde hair and emerald eyes were always causing a stir among the ladies, but Amy held his only interest. So as the group settled in to watch the Women's Figure Skating competition at the Olympics, the program got under way. It was the long program tonight and only the top eight were skating. It was obvious when the girls ranked sixth through eighth skated, why they were ranked were they were. The competition wore on and finally it was down to the American skater, Serena Thompson and some Russian that no one ever heard of. Before Serena's skate, the program did showed an interview that was taped earlier. In the interview, Serena talked about her long program and why she chose what she did. As the interview began, the others began talking amongst themselves, with only Amy paying attention to what was being said on the t.v. There was something familiar about the girl that held Amy's attention. Just then, the announcer mentioned Serena's passion for mythology led her to her idea for her long program. "Shhhh, you guys, listen to this!" she said, getting up to turn up the t.v. Everyone sat in silence as they finally gazed on the blonde beauty on the screen. "Serena," the annoucer said, "we hear a rumor that your long program is based on a mytholigical story." "Yes, Scott, that's correct. You see there is this myth about a Kingdom on the Moon." "What did she just say?!" Raye gasped. "Shut up, will you!" Lita hissed. "In this kingdom lived a beautiful princess named Serenity and she was in love with the Prince of the Earth, Endymion. Well Endymion was killed in the final battle for the Moon Kindom when it was invaded and his beloved princess witnessed his death. She was so grief stricken that she took his sword and killed herself with it." More gasps from around the room as the announcer says, "Wow, that sounds like Romeo & Juliet." "Yes, that's true." Serena said laughing, "The difference is that the princess's mother could not accept her daughter's death so she used her powerful magic to send the prince and princess and all of their friends into the future to live again. The romance of it all is that the prince and princess's love is so strong that it will eventually bring them together again. So when I heard Celine Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On', it just seemed perfect to tell the story of the princess's love for her prince." "That sounds really terrific Serena and we can't wait to see you perform it. Good Luck!" "Thanks, Scott!" Just then everyone started talking at once. "There's no way!" "It's gotta be a coincidence!" Just then the t.v. went back to the competition when Serena Thompson took the ice for her performance. Her appearance caused everyone to gasp! Serena came out in a white dress that was molded to her upper body and outlined in gold and then flared to just above her knees. The most surprising thing was her hair. It was done in two ponytails on eith side of her head with two balls at the top of her head where the pigtails started. Then the music started and she began to tell her tale. Her performance was flawless as she skated around the ice moving gracefully and serenely. It soon became apparent that she was crying by the time her performance was over. As she came to a finish, the entire audience was utterly quiet, almost afraid to disrupt the moment that she created and then they broke out in wiild applause throwing flowers on the ice. Serena wiped the tears from her face as she took her bow and waved to the crowd as she skated off. She made her way off the ice and over to the scoring bench to await her scores. Everyone watched and studied the girl and the camera focused in on her as she tried to calm down. Then her scores were announced and she began to cry again. Perfect 6.0s across the board! "Ladies and Gentlemen, a perfect score! Serena Thompson has won the gold medal!" the announcer yelled into his microphone. Everyone at Lita's watched as the blonde girl stood at the top of the podium and received her medal. Then they turned off the t.v. and sat speechless as they stared at each other. Finally Amy broke the silence and said, "Are you all thinking what I'm thinking?" "What, that we've found the princess?" Marcus said. Amy nodded her head. Marcus sighed and said, "I don't know, but the similarities are just too damn coincidental for me." Everyone nodded their agreement. Then Amy looked at Darien and asked, "Darien, is she our princess?" He took a moment before answering and said, "I'm not sure. But I think that I'd like to talk to her." Everyone seemed to be in agreement, so they spent the rest of the evening discussing how they could find out more about her and how they could get in touch with her. *************************************** Serena sat in her hotel room that night and stared at her medal. *I can't believe that I won! My prince must have been watching.* she thought to herself. Yes, it was true that she choreographed her long program to tell the story of that undying love, what no one knew however was the she was Sailor Moon and that she was the princess in the story. She had known that she was Sailor Moon for years now. She discovered that she was SM about eight years ago when she was fourteen when Luna, her cat had found her, quite by accident and realized who she was. Over the years, she develped SM. As she matured so did SM becoming more powerful with each passing year until she made her who she was today. In addition to her endless hours of skating, Serena also took martial arts classes to help her in her battles as SM. The Silver Imperium Crystal however, was the source of all her power. She use to wear the crystal on a broach and when she needed to be SM she would use it to transform. Today, the broach was gone and she now wore the crystal around her neck set in a round setting that shown like a flat cut diamond. The gold chain that the crystal rested on would lengthen and shorten based on whatever she wanted. Now when she wanted to transform she merely had to call out "Moon Crystal Power!" Then in a swirl of black ribbons, (she changed her transformation and sailor fuku when she was 18 deciding that it was time to grow up) she became Sailor Moon. Her sailor fuku was now white with a black skirt, collar, and bows. Her boots were black with white around the tops and her gloves were white with black around the elbows. As a child and teenager, she wore her hair as she did when she skated the other night, but decided that it too was too juvenille for her. Therefore, her 'meatball' do was gone, so were the red orbs that use to sit on each ball. Now her hair fell straight down her back and only her tiara shown at her forehead. But instead of the red stone that use to be there, the crystal now shone brightly in its place. The other changes that SM made were to her arsonal of powers. First, she decided to get rid of her scepter and instead she created a glaive for herself. The glaive was taller than her and had a razor sharp rounded edge that completed the cresent moon shape. . Serena fought off many youma over the years as SM. What she always found amusing was a comic book called Sailor V who was a lot like her. She even had a fuku. Many times Serena had wondered whether or not Sailor V really existed or if she was just a figment of someone's imagination. She knew that during the Silver Millenium that she had protectors. They were the princesses from Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter. Somehow, she knew that they were out there now too, just like her prince was. The question was, where? She had read about the Sailor Scouts being the female warriors of Japan, but she thought that they, like Sailor V, were just apart of some comic's imagination. Serena wasn't sure how to find her companions, something deep inside her told her that the time was coming soon, but she just didn't know when. Then before the competition, she had a dream. It this dream her mother, Queen Serenity, came to see her. In this dream, she told her to be prepared, that the time was coming when she would be reunited with her firends and love, but that she was to go to Tokyo, Japan and wait for them. In response to the dream, Serena decided that it was time to retire from the competing world. Besides, she decided that she had had enough of competition. She could wait and train for the next three years for the next Olympics, but she would be twenty-five then and she just couldn't see herself competing against girls who were ten years younger. Besides, she just won the Olympics, it was time to give someone else a chance. So tomorrow she was declaring her intensions on becoming a professional skater. A few months ago she sent feelers through the skating gossip mill that she wanted to relocate to Tokyo, Japan, simply for a change, and that she wanted to become a skating coach there as well as continue training for an Professional Competitions that she wanted to enter. The national skating team in Japan wasted no time in offering her job with them, that included lodging and a car in addition to her normal pay, plus they were opening a new training facility in Tokyo. She had decided to go. *Boy,* she thought as she drifted off into sleep, * I sure am glad I won tonight. Now I have no regrets. Tokyo here I come!* ****************************************************** A month later, Serena was getting settled into her new life. Tokyo seemed to be pretty exciting. She thanked her lucky stars daily that she made her parents get her a Japanese tutor years ago. Her Japanese was a little rusty, but it was coming back rather quickly. She loved her new job...She would train herself from 6-noon and then she'd have two 2 hour sessions with her students beginning at 1 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Saturday she'd go and train her normal training schedule and Sunday she'd be off. So she was really happy here in Tokyo. It was much better than her grueling ameture schedule. Except today was the grand opening of the new ice rink at which she was doing her training,so they were having an open house and having a free skating session every hour for a group of twenty people. Since she was one of the instructors, not to mention a public figure, she had to make an appearance at every session. This was the final session of the day now and she was truly beat. She had no idea how many autographs she signed or how many times that her picture had been taken. she thought, Finally the last group was in and seated in the obsevation bleachers all with skates on, ready to go. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she felt a tingling sensation. It was strange, but something told her that her prince was actually here! While the GM of the rink was welcoming everyone, she quickly began scanning the crowd for some spark of recognition. But she couldn't make out anything from here, she would have to wait until everyone came down on the ice and then check them out. Suddenly, she realied that she was about to be introduced to the crowd "And finally," the GM was saying, "we are so pleased to have this wonderful young lady, not only as a part of our staff, but also doing her Professional training here, from the United States of America, this year's Olympic Gold Meadalist, Serena Thompson!" The crowd went wild as she skated forward and waved to everyone. "Now everyone, Serena will be available after the session to sign autographs and take pictures, so please, don't ask until then. O.K. then everyone, take the ice!" He might as well shouted "Fire" because the bleachers cleared out so fast the Serena barely had time to get out of the way as the crowd hit the ice and headed straight for her. But she quickly exited the ice from the other side of the rink and encouraged everyone who stopped to keep going and that she'd be happy to talk to them later. Finally the crowd took the hint and left her alone to watch all of them skate around the rink. Then a group of about nine people caught her attention. They seemed a little older than the rest of the group and they were all laughing and trying really hard to help their one friend who just couldn't seem to get it. She watched him for a moment and immediately realized his problem, he was trying to walk instead of glide. It was really funny, because the poor guy kept falling down and taking two or three of his friends with him. Finally they pulled him up and attached him to the wall and left him. He seemed a little upset by this because he yelled after his now quickly departing friends "Thanks alot!" But Serena felt sorry for him, because it seemed like it was all he could do just to hold onto the wall. Quickly, she opened the door back to the ice and began skating against the oncoming traffic to get to the stranded man. Again people tried to stop and again she shooed them along. Finally making her way to the man, she stopped in front of him and said, "Would you like some help?" His head had been down, concentrating on his feet below him, so when she spoke his head came up. They both stood there speechless for a moment. For him, it was her, the girl from his dreams, the girl who had skated just for him, only she didn't know it. For Serena, he was quite possibly the most beautiful man that she had ever seen. He had the most beautiful eyes that she had ever seen in her life...eyes that she could just lose herself in for the rest of her life. Finally, common sense returned and she smiled up at him. That was a mistake because he let go of the wall and fell down, almost taking her with him. Serena laughed, it was like music to his ears. His angel finally reached down and he took her small delicate hand. She was a lot stronger than she appeared because she had him on his feet in little time. She was still smiling as she said, "Come on, I'll help you." she said as she began to pull him along. But he tried to stop her nearly falling again, but she had a firm hold on him this time. "No, I don't know how to do this and my butt's sore from falling." She laughed, but said "It's o.k. I have you. Your problem is that you are trying to walk instead of glide." "Yeah, that's what Lita said." "Just let me pull you along and just feel the ice, o.k? Look I'll keep going backwards and I'll pull you along. Oh and quit looking at you feet. Just look at me and 'feel' the ice." His head came up again and he looked at her. A small blush now covered his face and her smile intensified. "Well, you know that I'm Serena, but I'm at a loss at who you are." Embarrassed now, he stumbled out, "Oh..um..I'm..uh..Darien. Darien Chiba." Her smiled softened and she then softly said, "It's nice to meet you Darien Chiba." Then another feeling overtook her and she stared into his eyes. It was the same tingling feeling that she had before. she thought to herself. Across the ice, gradually catching up to Darien and Serena were his friends. They were all chatting excitedly at the sight in front of them. "Can you believe it? She's actually skating with him!" Ami sqeeked out. "I know, it's a good thing that he's never bothered to come skating with us before now." Lita said. "Well I guess that takes care of how we are going to get ourselves introduced to her." Nicholas said. The others agreed and just watched. Meanwhile, Darien was having the time of his life being pulled around the ice by this angel. It was weird though, he's had this strange tingling sensation since he walked into the building which had since intensified since Serena had joined him. He hadn't noticed at first because he had been too busy trying to skate, but now that she was in control and he was no longer concerned with falling, he was able to concentrate on it. He was about to ask her how she liked Tokyo so far, you know, just to make small talk because he couldn't come right out and ask, "Are you the Moon Princess?" it just wouldn't work, but then, a buzzer sounded signalling the end of the session. Slowly, Serena led Darien over to where his friends were now getting off the ice. Once there she said, "Well Darien, it was nice skating you." "Yeah, same here." It was an awkward moment, both not quite sure what to say or do next, finally, Serena began to skate away. "Well, bye!" and she was gone through the door on the other side. Darien watched her go until Marcus and Michael came over to ask if he needed help getting off of the ice. "No, I've got it." he said, carefully stepping off. He slowly came over and sat down next to Raye and sighed as he bent over to take off his skates. Raye, who was already ready to leave, said to him, "Well, how was it??? Don't leave all of us in suspense!!! Give us the details!" The other girls now joined in with their own pleas for details. "Come on, Darien!!" "Give us the scoop!" Darien actually blushed as he said, "Come on guys, you've got eyes. You saw what happened." Exasperated Mina grabbed his arm as said, "But what did she SAY?" "Oh, not much, she said 'hi!' and told me what I was doing wrong and kept telling me that I was doing good and that's about it. Oh yeah, she did mention that she thought that you guys were really cruel to leave me all by myself when I couldn't skate." Raye actually had the nerve to get a little upset over that and said, "Hey, I thought that was part of the plan!" But Jason came over and put an arm around her shoulders, kissed her temple and said, "Put your claws back, hon, he's just kidding with you." Raye looked up at Darien and a small smile (the most he believed he was capable of) was faintly outlined on his lips. Finally the group gathered their things and headed for the exit. At the exit, there was large line standing there waiting for Serena, who was seated at a table, signing autographs and taking pictures. "Hey, do you guys want to wait and talk to her?" Ami asked, but the group as a whole declined saying that they were hungry and the line was too long. But Darien stood there for a moment and stared at Serena, willing her to look up at him one last time. Currently, she was signing something for a small girl. Suddenly, she took her gaze off of the little girl and looked around for a moment. Then her gaze settled on him and she smiled. He actually smiled and waved to her and then left whistling to himself as he walked to his car. Later that night, Serena was thinking about the mysterious Darien, who had showed up so suddenly in her life. She couldn't explain it, but she definately had some kind of bond or link to him. She had never felt more alive than when she was skating with him, merely holding his hands. And then, when she saw him standing there looking at her, it just didn't make sense, but she just knew that he was there and that he wanted her to look up at him. she thought to herself. Suddenly inspired, she put down her cup of hot chocolate and began to concentrate on Darien. At first, there was nothing, and then his essence hit her like a ton of bricks! She could actually feel him! She could feel the lonliness inside of him at that moment and it made her cry. she thought. with that final thought, she decided to go to bed. **************************************************************************** The next day, Serena had just finished training and was now using her new 'sense' to track down Darien. The snow was gently falling as Serena walked the streets of Tokyo, thinking that it would be better to follow her instincts on foot rather than by car. The tingling in the back of her head suddenly intensified as she passed the local cafe/arcade. She looked up at the sign that read "Crown Centre Arcade", shrugged her shoulders and walked in. Slowly she scanned the room and finally spotted a dark haired gentleman sitting at the counter in the cafe part. Straightening her shoulders, she walked over to the counter and sat down next to the man, who was talking to a blonde haired man that had an apron on. The blonde haired man was saying as she sat down, "Wow, Darien! That's pretty incredible! Did you get her phone number?" Just then the blonde haired man smiled at her and said, "Can I help you miss?" Serena barely heard him due to her heart pounding so loudly in her chest. she thought, Then she realized that the blonde guy was staring at her with a worried expression on his face. Hurriedly she said, "Coffee!" The blonde guy smiled and turned to get her coffee. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Darien sitting next to her and he was slumped over his own cup of copy with a really depressed look on his face. Taking a deep breath, she turned to him and asked, "Darien?" His head snapped up at the sound of his name and he turned in the general direction that he heard it come from. There he saw the most beautiful woman that the had ever seen in his life. More incredible was that she knew him, but he didn't know her. "I'm sorry," he said, "But do I know you?" Serena laughed, he knew at once who it was. That laugh had been haunting him ever since he left the rink yesterday. "Serena?" he asked with awe in his voice. "Yeah, so you do remember, huh?" A faint blush crossed Darien's face as he said, "I'm sorry, I just didn't recognize you." Again she laughed as she said, "It's o.k., I get that all the time. Most people don't recognize me with my hair down." She said as she tossed the waist length golden hair over her delicate shoulder. He nodded numbly.He just couldn't believe that she was here. Then the blonde guy interrupted by asking, "Hey, Darien, who is this?" Darien looked at the guy and actually smiled a real smile. The blonde guy had stepped back at that and thought "Andrew, this is Serena. Serena, this is my best friend Andrew." Andrew smiled at her and she said, "Hi Andrew! Nice to meet you." "Yeah, same here. So Drien was just telling me how he got to skate with you yesterday." Serena looked over at Darien as his blush deepened and said, "Oh really?" "Yeah," Andrew continued, "It was the highlight of his life!" Serena laughed. "Andrew!" Darien snarled, "Shut up or I'll kill you!" Andrew and Serena laughed even harder and Darien blushed harder. "So Serena, can I get you some lunch?" Andrew asked. Serena looked thoughtful for a moment and then said to Darien "How 'bout it Darien? Want to have lunch with me?" Darien looked stunned for a moment and then said, "Sure!" "Great!" Serena responded and then got up and went over to an empty booth and waited for Darien to join her. However, he seemed to be stuck in his spot as he watched her walk over there. Her long glorious hair swayed with her every movement and if he thought that the workout outfit that she had on yesterday was provacative, then he was gonna have to pick his jaw up off of the floor for how shw was dressed today. She had on a pair of tight faded blue jeans, high heeled black boots and a black crop top sweater on that showed the bare skin of her stomach if she moved the right way. She had just turned back to look at him when Andrew finally prodded him along. When Darien got to the booth, she sat down and he sat across from her as Andrew handed her a menu. He looked at Darien and said, "You don't get a menu, Dare, you know what we have. I feed you everyday!" With that he laughed and walked away. Serena watched him go and then turned to find Darien staring at her. "Is something wrong?" she asked. Darien's mind screamed, but instead he said, "Ah, no. I'm just a little surprised to see you and all." She just smiled. The next three hours went by in a total flash for them. They had finished eating long ago, but now sat and talked about everything under the sun. Serena told him all about her life in America and growing up constantly training for skating and how she basically never had time for friends or boys because she was always busy skating. Darien, on the other hand, had never felt more relaxed and comfortable in his life. He found himself telling her about his parents and the crash, growing up in an orphanage and basically being on his own. He saw the sadness in her eyes when he talked about how lonely he had been in the orphanage and he never mistook it for pity, just sadness. He suddenly realized that he wanted to share every- thing with her and was on the verge of telling her about being Tux when the voice of reason stepped in and stopped him. his mind screamed. That's where he was wrong though. America had it's own Scout, Sailor Moon. So instead he sat there as the conversation fell into a comfortable silence. Then all of a sudden, he jumped in his seat and looked at his watch. "Oh no! What time is it?" Serena saw the panic on his face and said, "It's about 3-3:30 I think, what's wrong?" Quickly he was getting up, throwing money down on the table as he explained. "Remember those people I was with yesterday? Well, I was suppose to meet them at the one girl's temple about fifteen minutes ago!" Quickly she stood up with him, gathering her coat, scarf and gloves as he continued, "I'm really sorry to cut this short, but I've got to go." "Well, how about I go with you?? I've never seen a temple before." Darien stopped in his tracks. She wanted to go with him?? He looked back at her, his mind clearly deliberating the choice, after all, it was Negaverse business that they were meeting on. Serena's hopes were crushed when she saw him trying to decide whether or not to take her. In her mind, it was clear that he wasn't ready for her to meet his friends, so intead, she smiled and tried to hide her disappointment as she said, "Hey, it's o.k. I understand. Maybe some other time then." Darien clearly read what she was trying to hide in her eyes. "No, it's not like that..." he began, but she wouldn't let him finish as she walked past him and out the door. "Thanks for lunch, I had a nice time." And then she was gone. Darien hung his head and debated whether or not to chase after her. Finally deciding to go after her, but when he got outside, she was gone. he thought and then got in his car and drove to the temple. ****************************************************************************