Fallen Stars: Chapter 0

    Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Sailor Moon or anything 
that comprises it. This is a non-profit story written solely for my 
own enjoyment and that of anyone who wishes to read it. 

    Story notes: This story is a sort of alternate universe 
continuation (you'll know what I mean a few paragraphs in) but can be 
considered to take place after Sailor Stars, although really it 
doesn't matter. As long as you at least know the characters to some 
degree, if not the canon plots, you won't get lost here. Oh, and it 
will be shoujo-ai flavoured too.
    
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                             Fallen Stars

              - A Sailor Moon Fan-Fiction by Nutzoide -


     Chapter 0: Separated Times Two!
               Lost in a Senshi-less World.


     Mizuno Ami watched with resolve as the inevitable finally came, 
and the Mercury Computer's batteries gave out at last. For some 
reason she had expected the incredible machine's screen to slowly 
flicker like a dying candle, but it was almost a relief that it 
appeared to happen in a single instant, as if someone had simply 
turned it off for the night. Now she was on her own. The last piece 
of Sailor Mercury was gone. At least Ami had come to understand a 
little of the world she now inhabited. 
     
     She hoped the others were doing as well as she was. Thankfully 
they could all speak the language there, which seemed to be an 
eccentric and old fashioned sort of Japanese, but she thought her 
knowledge of history probably gave her a benefit the others might 
lack. The almost arbitrary-seeming blend of cultures left even her 
uncertain of how to behave at times, but at least it mostly comprised 
feudal-esque Japanese and medieval European. Enough that she could 
give them all a few pointers on potential etiquette before they had 
separated. Some people in this world were still prepared to take 
physical steps against someone who had treated them 'inappropriately'.
     
     Splitting up had been Minako's idea at first, but the others must 
have seen a degree of sense in it that had passed Ami by. Had they 
all stuck together they could at least have helped to cover each 
other's mistakes. Now she could do nothing but wait for them to 
return with whatever insights and skills they had learned in their 
month apart. In the mean time she did what she could in the town they 
had first come to, researching and furthering her own understanding 
of the place. 
     
     While the magic that allowed them their powers as Senshi did not 
exist in this world, the place did have its own magic users. Early on 
her computer had let her know that while their own magics were 
incompatible with this world, it did leave them with a much greater 
affinity for the arcane than others here would normally have. By her 
own calculations they should each be able to gain some level of power 
and skill in the arcane and she had encouraged them to do what they 
could to embrace that. Despite their experience of battle only Makoto 
and Haruka were really suited to fight in this place, and even they 
would be at great risk against the samurai-like armed soldiers they 
had seen. 
     
     After all, none of them were prepared to lie down and accept this 
place. If they were going to find a way home it would mean travelling 
for the answers, and coming up against who knew what in the process. 
With her computer now useless it was either that or wait to be 
rescued by Usagi and the others back home. That was why she had 
decided to remain in the town while the others explored, just in case 
their princess managed to find her there. After almost two months 
however it looked like rescue wasn't coming, not unless they could do 
something to help their friends find them.
     
     Ami closed her eyes and shut the lid of her computer, tucking it 
into the large travelling bag that sat against the leg of her desk. 
After all the answers it had given her over the years she didn't 
think it really owed her anything now. She let out a heavy sigh and 
flopped onto the old bed, wishing her friends would come back soon. 
She had been lonely after the first week, and now even her poor 
results at practicing magic were nothing compared to the need for her 
friends' company. She found it difficult to connect to the people 
there. No, she knew she always had difficulty with people that way, 
but more so now that she was an intelligent teenaged girl of the 
microchip age in a land of superstitious peasant farmers.
     
     At least being a science prodigy now had some definite benefits 
other than good test scores. She knew how to do things that probably 
wouldn't be discovered for over two hundred years.

***

     Aino Minkao beamed as the warmth from her applauding audience 
filled the tavern. 'This is what being a star is about!' she thought 
to herself as she curtsied before leaving the stage. When she had 
first learned what the publican had wanted her to do she had been 
more than a little wary, but being a dancing girl here did not cross 
the boundary of what she considered decent. It might have teased a 
bit and skirted close to the edges, but it was all in good fun. While 
these people might not have had television to keep them cultured they 
were a great audience who knew what they liked, and they liked her!
     
     It would almost be a shame to leave, but her apprenticeship was 
up and the others would be waiting for her. After all, it was a three 
day ride back to the town they had first appeared in.
     
     The reason she had come to the tavern in the first place had been 
finally hearing of someone with real magical skill. The short plays 
that were put on seemed to be famous for the effects that accompanied 
them, and Minako had eagerly applied to study under the man behind 
them, in return for whatever acts, dances or songs she could perform. 
     
     The man had reluctantly agreed, considering she would be working 
every night just for tips rather than a normal performer's share, but 
it had turned out that Minako was just as poor at studying magic as 
she had been at most other things at school. The combination of 
spontaneity, concentration and mental fortitude that her tutor tried 
to instil in her just didn't click. Had it just taken one of them he 
said she would have been the greatest stage magician ever to have 
lived. Managing two together on the other hand was more than a little 
difficult with her flighty enthusiasm, and since she had to keep up 
the effort for all three at once it was remarkable she could do 
anything at all. However, what she could manage by the end was pretty 
good considering the way she was, and she had gained more than just a 
few magic tricks during her time there.
     
     Her dancing had also been improving and it was one thing she 
showed great skill in. When one of the performers thought it might be 
fun to teach the young girl something a bit more difficult Minako had 
jumped at the chance, even though she had needed to lose over a foot 
of her blonde pride and joy to do so. The old southern blade dance 
took only sixteen days to learn, and with surprisingly few cuts along 
the way, so by the end of her month long magical apprenticeship she 
could both perform the dangerous dance flawlessly and hold her own 
against her teacher with the pair of short scimitars. What she lacked 
in mental skill with magic she seemed to make up in agility in the 
acrobatic close combat.
     
     Oh, she knew the tan-skinned woman had been holding back when 
they had fought as part of the dance training, but she had learned 
far more about fighting than she had ever expected to. Had it just 
been fighting lessons she probably would have flunked, but as a dance 
she could understand what she was being taught. How to cover herself 
and defend against both accidents during the dance and real attacks 
would be a great benefit if what Ami and Haruka had said turned out 
to be true.
     
     She hoped that by now someone had found them, or that Ami had 
worked out a way to get back, and all this wouldn't be needed much - 
outside getting her that showbiz job of course - but if not then at 
least she had learned enough to be useful. And she knew how these 
people thought now. Yep, she wasn't leader of the inner senshi for 
nothing!
     
***

     In some ways Kino Makoto felt very relieved to be leaving the 
forest that had been her home for the last three and a half weeks, 
but she knew that whatever happened when she got back to Ami it would 
be a time of her life that she would never forget.
     
     If she were honest with herself she knew that she had wanted to 
stay behind with her studious friend while the others ventured off. 
They were always the more sociable ones, unlike Ami and herself. It 
was a small piece of common ground that Makoto thought she must have 
needed, because without it she seemed to be nothing but trouble: 
always after the wrong guy or working herself up about something. Ami 
knew how to deal with being that kind of private, obsessive person, 
and some of it seemed to rub off when they were around each other.
     
     Still, she had left just like the others, with no idea where she 
was supposed to go. She might had wandered from place to place for 
weeks if the nomad caravan hadn't offered her a lift, and in the end 
she had stayed with them as they headed to the glade that was their 
seasonal home. Even by this world's standards they were strange 
people: uninhibited, self-contained and deeply superstitious. But, 
for all their gaudy clothing and their inclination not to wear much 
of it, she found them an easy group to be around. There was something 
she trusted in their open honesty and conviction in their ways and 
beliefs.
     
     Makoto soon admitted she knew little of the place, though not 
explaining just how far removed she was from her home, and they were 
all too happy to help her for no other reason than the fact that they 
could. She did her share of the daily work and they treated her like 
family for it. Her physical prowess impressed them, and in exchange 
for the muddled combination of karate, judo and plain street-brawling 
Makoto used they agreed to teach her their own magics, known only to 
their own people if they were to be believed. The only condition was 
that she shouldn't use it to disturb the 'natural order' their lives 
revolved around. The way Makoto came to understand it was 'not biting 
the hand that fed you'.
     
     In the end she was the lucky one when it came to magic. Her own 
affinity with lightning that had come as Sailor Jupiter meant that 
the nomadic power felt familiar when she finally managed to get it 
right. It worried her teachers that her ability was so heavily biased 
towards that element, but she had assured them that it made perfect 
sense, and the fact that she made steady progress helped confirm that 
trust. Had she been abusing the power that she had connected to it 
would have protected itself by limiting her access, or even lashing 
out.
     
     The thing that felt strange for her was to have fighting and 
self-control becoming such large parts of her life again. She had 
grown to like all the feminine things she had forced herself to learn 
in the vain hope of impressing her old sempai, and since finding the 
friends she now had her need to stand up and to prove herself had 
slowly subsided. Now it seemed that had to become important again, 
not for herself, but to protect the others. She didn't try to dwell 
on her morbid thoughts, but if they did have to find their own way 
home then it would be her responsibility to keep them safe. It didn't 
prey on her mind in the way it once had though. Her nomadic surrogate 
family had given her another way to protect them.
     
     As she shouldered her bag and said her goodbyes she wondered if 
she could re-create some of these people's food for Ami and the 
others, the way they had adopted some of her own culinary touches. Or 
whether she would start forgetting to get dressed properly once she 
was back with people who cared about stuff like that!

***

     Hino Rei couldn't help but wonder what had led her to such a fate 
as she trudged through the rain back to their meeting point. She was 
cut off from the princess she had to protect, lost in a world that 
was all too ancient for her liking, and in more than a little 
spiritual turmoil after the last month. What would her grandfather 
have said to her if he had been there to see what she had done?
     
     She should have been one of the better prepared for the world she 
and her friends now found themselves in. Thanks to one of her 
favourite spells as a senshi, learning the finer use of a bow to 
protect herself had been easy. She had already spent the last of the 
money they had traded their jewellery for in buying an archer's 
harness for herself so that her bust would not get in the way. The 
bow she had taken from the terrified highwayman she had left by the 
side of the road on her way to the Great Northern Library.
     
     Her large collection of fantasy manga and doujinshi should also 
have given her a good idea of how a world like this one might have 
worked, but the distinct lack of elves, orcs, heroes and princesses 
there made it a great deal harder to think of the place as anything 
but the kind of mangled history homework Usagi might have turned in.
     
     Although it had been a long and tiring hitch-hike to the Great 
Northern Library it had been a journey she had been given no choice 
but to make. She had not sought out a short apprenticeship or a tutor 
when it came to magic, but trusted in the teachings of her shrine to 
give her some answers. She had created her own fire and meditated for 
hours, but her sight was patchy at best, even though her innate 
intuition seemed to be heightened in this world. Then in a great 
explosion all hell had broken loose. She had found the power of her 
fire, but it was a far cry from the shinto traditions she had weaved 
into her senshi magic.
     
     She had spent weeks studying in desperation within the huge halls 
of the library, trying to understand and control the power she had 
unleashed. She learned a great deal in that time, but in the end it 
had been the singular release of that power that had defined what it 
would be and how it would work for her. All she could do now was 
learn control. She knew in her heart it wasn't a force of evil, no 
matter how despised it was. She just had to make sure none of the 
'natives' found out.
     
     But thanks to that, she had also be able to look up the things 
she felt Ami might have advised her to, studying ladies' etiquette, 
decorum and the various social classes of the country. Some of the 
others might not be prepared to go along with those traditions, but 
as long as one or two of them could appear to fit in they would all 
have an easier time around these people.
     
     She staggered a bit as her foot fell into a pothole in the dirt 
road, and an amused little laugh appeared out of nowhere and floated 
through her head. Rei shook her head and sighed. This whole thing was 
just typical of her luck.

***

     Tenoh Haruka stared at the front door as she stood in the clear 
moonlight, her knuckles raised from beneath her cloak but not 
knocking, just resting on the poorly kept wood. Was she ready to see 
the younger girls again? She honestly couldn't tell. After everything 
that had happened between them, most of it less than pleasant, she 
felt uneasy going back to them like this.
     
     She was the only one of the outer senshi that had been cast into 
this alternate world, and as that had happened she had lost half of 
herself as well. Perhaps the better half. Haruka had always been 
strong, but that strength belied the inner turmoil that had dogged 
her life ever since she had chosen not to hide who and what she truly 
was. Michiru had been the force that had allowed her to fully accept 
her own lifestyle, and since realising what they meant to each other 
they had been inseparable. Now, after two months without her and 
their little Hotaru, she realised how self-contained their world as a 
family was. Without them, what did she have left? Racing? She would 
have to learn to ride a horse properly if she was ever going to feel 
the thrill of speed while she was here.
     
     Her separation from the others stemmed from more than those 
superfluous aspects of her life. The inner senshi had long since 
accepted Michiru and herself as an item, but socially they had always 
been apart from them. A few years really did make all the difference, 
and both their maturity and the image that surrounded them because of 
that had done nothing to stop it feeling like 'them and us'. 
Especially when she had looked down on them as immature so often. 
Then from that had come the inners' high hopes and ideals that the 
real world and real battles had somehow not managed to wring out of 
them. As one of the outer senshi it was her duty to do everything 
necessary to safeguard their future. Everything necessary had not 
always been pleasant, but she had known it had to be done. 
     
     But now that outlook had been fractured. In betraying their own 
she and Michiru had felt certain they could end their last battle, 
and then they had watched as all their sacrifices came to nothing. 
The others had forgiven them, but that left even more of an 
uncomfortable distance between them. Could she really trust her own 
judgement after being proved so fallible? Could the others really let 
it rest so easily? Even just coming together as friends left her 
feeling that both sides were trying hard not to notice the eggshells 
they walked on. But Haruka noticed. It was far too familiar from her 
time before Michiru and the senshi, and far too unpleasant. As a pair 
they had always been there to reassure each other of the rightness of 
their actions. Now she only had the younger girls to follow, and to 
fight with, and she would have to deal with their objections to her 
methods as well as with her own aversion towards their impossible 
ideals.
     
     But fight with them she would, and that was something she was 
very good at. Come to think of it, it was strange that she had not 
followed through from her experience with a sword. Her space sword 
was lost to her now, but it had been one of her greatest weapons as a 
Senshi. Now, under the tutelage of the cabal she had affiliated 
herself with, the staff had become a weapon she could both wield with 
some degree of skill and which would aid her far better than the cold 
iron of a scimitar or katana. Such weapons were not conductive to the 
'Art', and the 'Art' was a far more powerful tool to wield, 
especially useful when channelled through the ritually prepared wood. 
Unlike other magics the 'Art' required touch to do anything at all, 
but at the end of her eight foot staff she could remain out of the 
reach of most weapons and still use the power she had unlocked.
     
     That 'Art' had come with a price, but - unlike the others - she 
knew that that was the case with all things in life, whether you 
realised it or not. Now that price could be her penance for her 
betrayal of her friends and princess. She was sure the younger girls 
would object, and that drew out her hesitation, but she would fulfil 
her duty to them regardless. With Michiru and Hotaru gone, that would 
be what sustained her. And it would lead her back to them.
     
     It had to.
     
***

To Be Continued...

***

Please send any comments and constructive criticism to:

nutzoide@nutzoide.net

They are always greatly appreciated, and there is no better reward 
for a writer than to hear back from the readers.

Many thanks to Richard King for his proofreading assistance.

(c) Nutzoide 2006

http://www.nutzoide.net