This Fanfiction is, in fact, a work of fiction. Any resemblance of the characters to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. People who insist otherwise need help. The Sailor Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen are all copyright of Toei Animation and Takeuchi Naoko, as if you didn't know that. This fic is considered PG-13 by its Author due to violence, mild horror and potentially offensive language. If you can't handle Buffy the Vampire Slayer, don't read on. Shades of the Soul - By Gaunt Chapter One. ------------------------------------- "It's still coming!" Jupiter roared as the savage beast shrugged off her Supreme Thunder. The Senshi dove for cover as the massive thing hurled slabs of uprooted pavement at them, under the watchful eyes of she who created it. As the sabre toothed, scarlet-furred youma continued to assault the hard- pressed Senshi, its mistress laughed. The woman stood on top of a ruined wall, her arms crossed over her chest in a pose of haughty supremacy. She wore her tight black jumpsuit like armour, the spiked metal shoulder pieces only enhancing the image. Her right hand casually clasped a scarlet wand, all points and edges. For a helmet, a smooth plate of reddest copper adorned her head, thousands of fine wires rising from it in the place of hair, in a coarse, wild style. "Is my slave too much for you, O `Guardians of the Earth'?" The sorceress's voice dripped with sarcasm. "That's so sad. Perhaps if I enslaved someone who cares for you, they wouldn't try so hard. Maybe you'd like to suggest someone? Friends, family, a lover perhaps?" Cruel laughter echoed across the battlefield. Mars, recovering from a bad fall, gritted her teeth. "This is insane. We can't risk hurting the monster because it used to be an innocent person, but if we hold back we can't even slow it down!" With a flash of blue, Mercury rushed into the fray. "I'll try and distract it. SHABON SPRAY!!" Abruptly, the whole street was shrouded in thick mist. "That should slow..." Mercury was cut off as several hundred pounds of red-furred muscle drove into her like a freight train. "MERCURY!" Sailor Moon rushed to her downed friend's side. As she cradled the unconscious Senshi in her arms, the sorceress' laughter drove into her back like knives of ice. "Oh how tragic. It seems the poor blue moppet is all wet. I suppose I'll just have to put the two of you out of my misery." With that, the sorceress raised a black-gloved hand. A crack of thunder split the sky, the lighting casting highlights on her burnished-copper hair. "You BITCH! BURNING MANDALA!" Fiery of eye and voice, Mars hurled wheels of fire at her opponent. With a laugh, the sorceress deflected them easily with her wand. "How amusing. You Senshi are really too much fun. If you survive this, I think I will choose your next playmate from the children's park. Won't THAT be amusing? Oh, wait, I forgot, there won't be a next time." A savage glow enveloped the end of the wand, and the sorceress levelled it at Mars. There was suddenly a flash of red. "Aiagh!" The sorceress grabbed her right bicep, which now sported a lovely red rose. "YOU? Who are you, who rescues these snivelling children again and again?" The sorceress glared at Tuxedo Mask, gritting her teeth at the pain. "No matter. "Slave! Destroy the interloper!" "DEEP SUBMERGE!" From nowhere, a wave of blue light engulfed the youma, slowing its advance to a crawl. "Now, Sailor Moon!" Neptune cried, landing her jump gracefully next to the injured Mercury, as Uranus and Pluto rushed the sorceress. As Sailor Moon healed the monster, five attacks struck at the sorceress. Vanishing in a burst of fire, the sorceress' voice echoed across the battlefield: "This isn't over!" The Senshi's attacks spent themselves on the torn pavement. ------------------------------------- A temple which would not be out of place among the ruins of Greece floated in the middle of a blue void of sky. In the distance, slipping in and out of banks of clouds, four grim castles floated, unseen, above the innocent city. At the centre of the temple, waited on by wild-eyed minions, lounged a woman in revealing black. She reached out to caress a stack of gold coins, the countless jewelled bracelets on her arms jingling together with every move. From a gold skull cap, long `hair' of spun gold flowed across her shoulders. Avaria looked up from the game of "poker" her slaves were trying to teach her. A fiery flare announced Ranka's arrival at the common. "Back so soon, Ranka? Your little sortie was a crashing success, I suppose? Your hordes of new extra-strong slaves crushed those meddling Senshi like chaff before the wind? Your tummy all full of nice spicy anger?" Ranka glared at Avaria, and didn't try too hard to not bleed on the game. "Cove's new crystals aren't worth spit. Of the twenty she gave me, only ONE worked." At this, Ranka's face became thoughtful. "Though that one WAS quite effective. He came quite close to destroying those INFURIATING Senshi." "Oh? Oh I SEE. Had a run in with lover boy, did you?" Ranka sneered at the rose which still protruded from her arm. "Him... and three more Senshi." The slaves in the common dashed for the shadows, and the gold coin in Avaria's hand slipped and fell to the floor, it's chime echoing in the sudden silence. "I find your humour lacking, Ranka." "If only I WAS joking. I was winning and cape boy and three Senshi interrupted. They appear older, more experienced AND more powerful than the five we've already encountered." Avaria frowned. "We will have to speed up our `special' projects." A growl is heard. "And I haven't fed in days as it is..." ------------------------------------- "Ami? AMI? Are you okay?" The girls and Mamoru were gathered around a bed which had been set up in the temple. A battered and bandaged Ami Mizuno rested with her eyes closed. "Geez, Usagi, give her a break! She took a major hit back there, do you THINK she's okay?" Rei Hino glared daggers at the crying blonde. "Gnn. R-Rei. Don't...don't pick on Usagi. Sh-she's just concerned about...me." Ami, now awake, attempted a weak smile. Setsuna, checking Ami's injuries, patted her on the shoulder. "You should rest," she turned her gaze on the room. "And the rest of you should give her the opportunity to do so." At this, Michiru smiled gently and left, with Haruka swaggering out behind her. Mamoru gave Usagi's shoulder a reassuring squeeze and lead her out, Minako and Rei following. Makoto paused at the door. "Are you sure she's fine?" Concern shadowed the tall girl's face. Setsuna just nodded, and Makoto, still not fully reassured, drifted out to the discussion in the next room. "We could have handled it ourselves. I was about to give that monster the cooking of its life." Rei angrily glared over her tea. "Oh sure, that's why that witch was about to enamel you onto the pavement." Haruka smirked back across the table, tossing her bangs out of her eyes. Artemis, who was attempting to shield himself from a shower of senbe* crumbs coming from his left where Usagi was `refreshing herself', broke in. "Look, you two, I think we have more important things to discuss here than who saved who's buns from what fire for the umpteenth time." (* Rice Cracker) Luna nodded. "Yes. That youma was stronger than any we've seen recently." "Yeah, and it was acting a lot different then the ones that usually hang around with that sorceress. They usually taunt people and make a mess. This one was just destroying things, and it came straight for us as soon as we arrived." Minako punctuated this statement by popping a senbe into her mouth. "You ask me, they've decided that they've got to waste you guys before they can finish whatever it is they're really doing." Haruka raised an eyebrow at Rei. "You wouldn't by any chance KNOW what it is they're really doing?" Rei frowned. "We have some theories. Ami thinks it has something to do with the fact that each sorceress we've seen seems to act in a consistent way, attacking the same type of targets with the same type of youma. Usagi, on the other hand," Rei shot at look at the blonde, who paused her feast at the sound of her name long enough to look at Rei with a questioning expression. "Usagi thinks they're stealing energy to resurrect their King." Usagi laid into Rei with a burst of righteous indignation, not bothering to clear her mouth first. The other assembled girls shielded themselves from the spray of crumbs as well as possible. "Hey, it makes SENSE! Queen Beryl sent her generals, who were men, to collect energy with monsters who were usually the same, in order to resurrect Queen Metallia!" "Then why weren't any of these latest victims drained of ANYTHING?" "We're just so amazing, we stopped them before they could do anythi-!" Usagi was cut off by a large pillow which had found itself lodged in her mouth, its source unknown. Everyone looked around innocently. Michiru turned to Rei. "What is this about the sorceresses acting consistently?" It was Makoto who responded. "The one we fought today, for example, always taunts us during fights, and her youma do it too. That's why this one was so weird, it never said a word, only attacked." Minako nodded. "Yeah, there's another sorceress who's youma usually do that." She frowned. "They're usually uglier than that though, and not nearly as strong." "How do the youma act around ordinary people?" Everyone looked up as Setsuna walked in and quietly closed the door behind her. "How is Ami?" Usagi asked, having removed the pillow from her face. Setsuna smiled. "She will be fine, given rest. My question?" Minako thought for a minute. "Well, it depends which of the sorceresses they work for. The youma of the sorceress we fought today tend to do a lot of property damage. Y'know, wreck cars, storefronts and things, and they taunt people." "Another sorceress and her youma seem to enjoy terrorizing people." Luna added. "The youma are really horrible looking, and they always attack people, but they don't really seriously hurt anyone. All the youma we've seen also try to keep people from leaving the area." Setsuna nodded thoughtfully. "Fear and Anger." "What?" Haruka sat up and paid attention. "Fear and anger. The sorceresses you've described seem to be going out of their way to inspire fear or anger in their victims." Makoto slapped a fist into her palm. "Hey, yeah! And that other cheap floozy who was pretending to be a rich movie star must have been going for jealousy, right?" Silence fell and Makoto was confronted with a room of shocked faces. "What, don't you think I could have thought of that myself?!" Setsuna continued, "Do you agree with Makoto's assessment?" The others nodded. Rei thought for a minute. "I guess the last sorceress we've seen has been fostering greed." "Then they may be feeding off of strong emotion directed at them, or using it for some other purpose." Michiru held her chin thoughtfully. "This is bad," Mamoru frowned. "Two of these sorceresses have been getting stronger by fighting us. We're going to have to learn to fight them without getting angry or afraid." Usagi suddenly felt four pairs of eyes staring at her. Haruka could sympathize. As if cued, they spoke as one. "WHAT??" ------------------------------------- Stone flags floored a room where the opulence was only limited by the need for utility. Rich tapestries warmed the walls, interspersed with fine bronze sculptures and mahogany tables dripping with wealth. In the centre of the room, below a beautiful stained glass skylight and bathed in the rainbow cast from it, stood a ceramic brazier in an intricately wrought iron stand. Standing next to the brazier was a woman who's appearance matched the room for both opulence and purpose. The clean, smooth lines of her black sheath dress were set off by the gleaming planes of a half cloak of raven-dark feathers. Her skirt was slit high on the hip for ease of movement, her simple earrings, bangles and pendant were encrusted with countless carats of sparking diamonds, and from a gleaming plate on her head, strands of brilliant platinum cascaded like the finest hair down to the small of her back. Cove stood, relaxed and focused, before her crucible. Arms outstretched, she shaped the delicate strands of power that held and shaped the crystal which floated in the glow from the skylight, rippling with colour like oil on diamond. After an indeterminate time, the crystal came to rest in Cove's hand, and the light faded. Sweeping from the room, she strode purposefully to her throne room where her ice-white wand floated, upright in the centre of space. Rotating slowly, the wand glowed brightly, giving light to the room and power to the castle and its wards. Cove sunk gratefully into the purple satin cushions of her golden throne, resting a hand on the head of one of the two sculpted griffons that formed it. A single, heartbreakingly handsome slave paced silently in with a tiny crystal glass of wine. He presented her with the wine, kissed her hand, and kneeled. Refreshed, Cove waved a hand at her wand, causing an image of Gothic horror to appear in the air above it. A grim chamber, lit by guttering torches and strewn with grisly remains, framed a throne of sinew and bone. Her slaves slithering and chittering in the shadows, Terra looked out of the image at Cove. Her heartless face was framed by the ragged spray of blued-steel spikes that passed for her hair. Her voice was an echoing void. "Is this a social call, Cove, or do actually have a good reason for wasting my time?" Cove absently petted her slave. "I believe I have created something in which you would be interested." A negligent gesture indicated the flawless crystal formed but minutes ago. "That, then, is your new `miracle'? Ranka was less than impressed with your last model." Terra stared coldly at Cove through the vision. "We are becoming very disappointed with you, Cove." Cove dismissed the whole idea with a flip of her hair. "You are welcome to do this research yourself, if you are capable." The jab meeting only silence, Cove continued. "An untested weapon is as dangerous to its wielder as to the enemy. I will strengthen these new crystals at any rate I see fit." "And how strong have you made THIS one, O mighty shaper of facets?" The dark tone of Terra's sarcasm hinted at a threat. Ignoring Terra, Cove admired her crystal in the light of the wand. "Oh, no stronger than the last, Terra. The slave it created was quite effective as it was. No, the problem was that very few humans seem susceptible to the crystal's influence. To expend a crystal with no guarantee of success is undesirable." "I KNOW that! What have you done to solve this problem? What makes a human susceptible?" Cove paused in her scrutiny to look back at the fuming Terra. "I really have no idea, but it does not matter. If we effect enough humans, some will be enslaved. To that end, this crystal throws out a wide field of chaos energy, effecting everything within its radius, rather than a specific target." Terra threw herself angrily back into her throne, cracking several of its ribs. "Hmph. Very well. I will take this new surprise of yours on my next sortie. I will enjoy watching those cursed children fleeing from a host of enhanced slaves." She favoured Cove with one more knife-edged glare. "I hope you know what you're doing. A field of chaos that broad may have unexpected effects." Cove smiled sweetly. "What ever is the matter, Terra? Are you perhaps...frightened?" Terra shut down the image, but Cove's crystal-bell laughter continued to echo in her mind. ------------------------------------- Ami carefully walked towards Rei's temple. The climb up the countless stairs had been agony, even with Makoto helping. However, this meeting was important, and couldn't be avoided to ease a little discomfort. Ami looked over at her tall friend. "Thank you for helping me, Makoto. I'm afraid I've made us both late." Makoto smiled. "Hey, they can't complain too much, you're hurt. Besides," she laughed, "we're way earlier than Usagi." As they walked across the grounds, they couldn't help but notice Rei's grandfather loudly showing off the temple to a large tour of high school students. Makoto smirked at the old man who had cornered several young ladies. "Heh. Looks like Rei's grandfather is looking to show some young girls the secrets of Shintoism." Ami just blushed. The two friends walked into the room where the others were assembled. Luna and Artemis were recounting the inner Senshi's previous encounters with the sorceresses and their minions to Setsuna, Haruka and Michiru. Usagi was attempting to embellish the stories with claims of bravery, which Rei was diligently giving the lie. All looked up as the two girls entered. Setsuna looked a little cross. "You should be resting Ami." Ami carefully sat down. "This is important. Besides, I feel much better." Setsuna only frowned. "Hey," Makoto plopped into a sitting position. "How come Usagi's here already? I'd have thought we'd have to wait at LEAST half an hour for her to show up." Rei, arms crossed and eyes closed, grumbled. "She was here two hours ago asking to borrow my new Sailor V Manga. She didn't even remember we had a meeting today." The assembled girls, cats and Mamoru turned away from the heated argument that ensued, and continued the discussion. Michiru spoke. "We've decided that the sorceresses are creating, and probably gathering, strong emotion, usually directed at themselves. It's probably a good bet that they're gaining strength or feeding off this emotion." She looked around, and when nobody disagreed, continued. "The good news is, if we can keep them from succeeding, they will probably weaken. However..." "However, they will also get desperate, and dangerous." Mamoru finished for her. ------------------------------------- On the roof of the temple, a flare of green fire appeared. Leaving a burning trail in the air, the flare traced out a large, vertical square in space. Two figures stepped through the square as through a door. Terra stared over the edge of the roof at the crowds of laughing high school students below. She licked her lips. "I think _I_ should create the disturbance, and YOU should wait in ambush." Ranka frowned disgustedly at Terra's back. "I don't understand how you can stand that cold, sickly garbage. It's revolting." Ranka flipped the chaos crystal in her hand, and shook her head. "Go on, pork yourself out. I'll smash those fashion-challenged little drama queens when they show up." "You're too kind." Terra pulled out a wand of entwined, living snakes. With a pass of the wand, she was disguised as an American tourist. Slipping from the roof, Terra was quickly lost from view. Ranka absently caressed her wand. As she waited for Terra to act, she muttered to herself. "She is such a fool. To sacrifice the opportunity to enslave the Sailor Senshi for one plain slave and a meal is a tremendous waste." ------------------------------------- "So, you're saying we're going to have to focus on teamwork more than ever, right?" Minako looked across the table at Ami. "That's right. Not only because we may encounter youma too strong for any one of our attacks to stop, but also in order to prevent the sorceresses from singling any of us out to be enraged or terrified." Ami, still uncomfortable, adjusted herself on the cushion. "Hey, we're the Pretty Sailor-Suited Soldiers, right?" Usagi clenched a fist in the air. "We're the greatest team that ever was! We'll beat these guys and have time left over for snacks!" Rei slammed her hands on the table. "Be serious for a minute, can you? This isn't some kind of stupid game!" "I AM being serious! We'd be a perfect team if you weren't always yelling at me!" "I AM NOT YELL-!" Rei's yell was cut off by terrified screaming from outside. "The tour group is under attack?" Minako was shocked. Makoto was already raising her henshin wand. "Somebody is either real brave or real stupid. JUPITER STAR POWER!" As the others began to transform, Rei rested a hand on Ami's shoulder. "You're still recovering from the last fight. Sit this one out." Ami nodded resignedly. "Hey, don't worry." Sailor Uranus gave Ami a thumbs up at the door. "We'll give that monster an extra kick in the head for you." ------------------------------------- Shrill, piercing laughter ripped through the screams of terrified students. "Fear me! Fear me you snivelling worms!" Terra's wand barked and a whirling orb of light tore into the pavement in front of a pack of kids who were trying to flee, driving them back towards the temple. Barring escape in the other direction was a terrible, four-armed youma. The corpse-like monster had until moments ago been a short teenage girl who wanted nothing more than for the class bully to stop picking on her. Terra granted that wish. The beast roared at its former classmates with the ghastly mouth its ribcage had become. The beast was all the more horrible for having the same innocent face as the girl it had once been. "Run! Run, you sheep! Run when there is nowhere to run to!" Terra gleefully herded another batch of students with a blast from her wand. "SPARKLE VITAL PRESSURE!" Terra was caught off guard by the ball of energy, barely parrying with her wand in time. Jupiter's follow-up kick was more easily avoided. "So you've realized that you cannot overcome me in straight battle? How clever. Unfortunately, you cannot overcome me with cowardly surprise attacks either!" Terra spat at four points surrounding Jupiter, concentrated, and raised her wand. "WARD!" Four sickly-green walls of light erupted from the ground around Jupiter, forming a box bounded by Terra's spit. "Jupiter!" Sailor Moon cried at her friend's plight. Mars grabbed Sailor Moon by the arm. "The best way to help her is to stop the sorceress and her youma. You're the only one who can heal the youma, so Venus and I'll cover you, while the others take out the sorceress." Without waiting for a reply, Mars dragged Sailor Moon towards the monster. The teams rushed their targets, and Terra found herself in desperate hand-to-hand with Tuxedo Kamen. "Give it up, witch, you're outnumbered." Tuxedo Kamen casually parried Terra snake-fanged wand with his cane. Uranus and Neptune circle the two warily, looking for an opening in the flurry of blows. Pluto stood back near where Jupiter was imprisoned, ready to add her strength wherever it might be needed. "That's about to change!" Ranka yelled at Tuxedo Kamen, leaping from the tree where she was hiding and hurling a black chaos crystal straight at the trapped Jupiter. Reacting on instinct, Pluto whipped her staff around to point at the incoming crystal. "Dead scream." As Pluto's energy gathered, the onrushing chaos crystal burst, and a sphere of blackness erupted, growing rapidly, from the shards. Pluto's planet strike, still not fully formed, collided with the racing darkness. There was a blinding flash. ------------------------------------- "Ngg." Ranka painfully picked herself up off the ground, blinking the spots from her eyes. That stupid Senshi had rammed her staff into the sphere of chaos energy and... Ranka whipped her head around to look at Pluto. Gritting her teeth, Sailor Pluto fought to free her staff from the black sphere of energy. Streamers of power from both her incomplete planet strike and the ball of darkness intertwined and merged. As she felt her strength being drawn off, Pluto watched the sphere begin to twist and warp. Something was terribly, dangerously wrong. The sphere flattened and began to spin, resembling nothing so much as a... time portal. Suddenly, the disk TWISTED in an indescribable direction, reversed spin and began to rush even faster in its mad circle. "No, this can't be." Pluto's eyes widened with horror. Ranka, giving the chaos crystal ploy up as a lost cause, whipped out her wand and rushed the occupied Sailor Pluto. Sailor Venus, seeing Pluto vulnerable, left the youma to Mars and Moon, and rushed to intercept Ranka. Without warning, the ebon disk rocketed off the end of Pluto's staff, hurling her back into the wards surrounding Sailor Jupiter. Solid as steel, the seething green walls smashed Pluto into unconsciousness. Like an insane linebacker, the black portal smashed into Ranka, driving her off the temple steps, and ricocheted, still not slowed, into Venus. As Venus passed through the temple's door, the disk spiralled through the sky deep into the city. Moments after it disappeared behind a building, it exploded, throwing shards of black energy into the clouds, which glowed darkly for a moment. Terra, narrowly avoiding a handful of thrown roses, saw Ranka fall and caught the tell-tale sparkle of a slave being freed from the corner of her eye. Outnumbered, the plan a failure, Terra realized she had only one option. She gave Tuxedo Kamen a triumphant smile. "And you thought duelling me would save your friends? How naive!" Laughing, Terra dove and rolled, opening a portal in her path long enough to leap through but not be followed. A corresponding flash from the direction of the steps showed Ranka had come to a similar conclusion. Abruptly, there was silence, broken only by the sobbing of the girl who had been enslaved. The green walls of warding faded, and Jupiter moved to the side of the fallen Pluto. "Are you okay?" Concern showed on the tall girl's face. Blinking slowly back to consciousness, Pluto grimaced. "We have a problem. A big problem." ------------------------------------- ------------------------------------- I'm not sure why I'm writing this. It's as if I have fallen under some strange and nefarious influence. Maybe I just want to prove to the world that I can write a better story than most of the dreck I've had to sift through in pursuit of decent fan fiction. For those of you will ask, yes, this is in fact the first chapter. No there is no other story which introduces the four (ask me about the number four sometime) sorceresses, at least not yet. I just decided I was going to skip all the boring prelude and introduction, and get to the meat of the story. (Though I've gotten several people bugging me about this. I may very well end up writing such a `prequel'.) Yes, the names of the sorceresses are derivative, yet they're much better disguised than most such. I take particular twisted pleasure in having a VILLAIN named Terra. If any of you are looking for Sailor Saturn, don't hold your breath. This takes place before she dies and is reincarnated, so she's still dangerously mental, and wouldn't fit in the plot anyway. Why did I try to keep the original names and attack names? What can I say, I'm a purist. If I was fluent enough, I'd probably write it in Japanese. This is the first chapter of what looks like a potentially long story. It may take me some time to finish, so don't rush me. I'll write it when I write it. Comments, critiques and the like may be sent to John.Evans@ng.gryn.org, though this may change. If it does, I'll put the updated address in later episodes. I will seriously consider and take into account any well-thought-out and well written messages. Mindless one-liners and flames, as well as anything that looks like it was typed by a caveman will receive much lower priority. ~~~ Telegard v3.02/mL