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Time Dance III
Title: Time Dance
Authors: Dark Puck and LexKixAss
Fandom: Sailor Moon (with hints of The Dresden Files)
Rating: PG-13 to be safe
Genre: Mahou Shoujo/Romance
Summary: As he lives out the life of a normal human, Saffir, now Orimoto Satoshi, encounters Aino Minako, Sailor Venus. If he isn't careful, she'll figure out who he is and kill him -- and yet he is drawn to her, and her to him... (Backstory for Time Warp)
Another night, another campus performance, another chance to sing. She grinned at her reflection in her temporary room's mirror (she loved that she warranted a backstage room), making sure one more time she looked fine. She would have to see about getting her hair trimmed as it was almost to her knees, but otherwise she was pleased with what she saw. Nothing overly elaborate, just nice-casual clothes for an outdoor concert so the oppressive summer heat plus the stage lights wouldn't make her swoon. Her way of preparing was to constantly drink water all day (prompting many the bathroom trip) and do as little moving about. It was a successful strategy, and not one she messed with.
"Okay, Artemis, you know the drill," she said to the cat dozing on the extra chair. She stroked the soft white fur. "Watch my stuff and keep a whisker out for anything odd."
He mumbled something in his sleep about moon mice and curled up tighter, his tail wrapped around his body and covering the crescent on his forehead. In the heat, however, he couldn't keep that position long; in seconds he was sprawled again.
Minako laughed softly and rubbed his belly. A knock announced one of the techies who stuck her head in. "Aino-san? One minute."
"Hai," she replied and checked herself once more. Showtime!
Satoshi stood to one side of the crowd waiting for another concert from Aino Minako. He did like the concerts, and he liked Minako, but he hated crowds. Lurking in the shadows was good enough for him. I guess some habits really are hard to break, he thought idly. He let out a soft, amused sound, shaking his head slightly. Would he constantly compare Satoshi's life to Saffir's? Of course, in the doing, he'd come to realise that Satoshi was, on the whole, a much happier person than Saffir ever had been. No wonder Petz and her sisters chose to abandon their old lives.
Something brushed against his senses, dark and alien - but not extraterrestrial. Frowning, he turned his head in that direction. What...?
Minako took the microphone that was handed her and did a quick check to be sure the little red light indicated it in fact did have power. Even from behind the stage she could feel the excitement, and she took a moment to inhale, exhale, and start drawing a little on the energy the crowd was generating. It helped keep her going, and it also improved her performance. Any other energy she drew upon was actually used in the creation of a kind of shield so she didn't get overwhelmed by the onslaught of emotion as the concert progressed. Flash of light, gout of smoke, peal of music and burst of song as she made her entrance into the first number while her fans roared. She responded with the same amount of enthusiasm to give the people what they paid for, and more.
Energy and music and movement; like a prism focuses light so she did with all three before releasing it back. She loved her work and it showed.
Whatever that thing was, it was coming closer. Satoshi glanced around, then slipped away from the crowd. As Saffir, he'd studied the Sailor Senshi, as well as their tactics -- and the tactics used by their enemies. If there was one thing he had learned, it was no matter what the Enemy had wanted -- be it energy, pure hearts, dream mirrors, or whatever it was the Animates had been after, crowds had been a good way of gathering what had been wanted. And now there was a plethora of young adults, putting off Erebus only knew how much energy and emotional output... a perfect hunting ground.
He cast his sense out further, trying to ascertain what the creature was, but it was taking more concentration than he was used to. Not for the first time, he cursed this new body he had awoken in.
Minako's first indication something was wrong was when a weak-sounding scream cut through the music. Soon more of greater strength followed suit as the crowd began to scatter in the confused, disorganized way of herd animals in a small place. She made a chopping motion with her hand to cut out the music and wished the lights weren't killing her night vision. Not that it mattered much when she heard a deep-throated inhuman roar over the chaos. Youma.
It was an ugly thing, thrice the height of a human as it reared. Dark, tattered wings slapped the air and allowed it to better blend with the dark, but there was no mistaking the glowing eyes. Fine tendrils shot out from the wings, ensnaring those closest to it. Wings and tendrils glowed as the creature began feeding off human energy.
Furious that a youma would dare, Minako did the first thing to come to mind: she hurled the microphone for dead between the glowing eyes. It snarled its pain. "Over here!" she shouted. She wanted to piss it off, to get it to focus on her so she could lead it away from the civilians. To protect them, and to make sure no one would see her when she transformed.
Too fast!
Saffir dodged the panicking fools fleeing the creature, wishing he'd been able to reconstruct his ability to levitate. No matter, if he could distract the creature long enough--
And then a microphone struck it in the head, drawing its attention straight to the blonde on the stage. "Minako-san!" Saffir cried, guessing immediately at her intent. Yes, it was best to lead the creature far from these students. He dodged a few more students, considering, then removed the ring he used to disguise his power, throwing it to one side. There was more than one way to attract attention, as well he knew.
The sudden surge of dark power and earth magic threw Minako off enough to have her freeze up for two moments as the youma's attention was drawn away from her. She couldn't see the source, and much as she wanted to know what it was she had to admit the youma's distractedness gave her a fantastic opportunity, so she fled. Once in an out-of-the-way nook, she pulled her henshin wand from the dimensional pocket. "Venus Eternal Power, Make Up!"
The familiar power saturated her, changed her, and the next moment she was sprinting back. She already had her chain in hand, ready to use.
Meanwhile the youma had released its first victims to focus on the new prey that was so much more attractive than the lesser beings. It roared in hungry glee and lashed out with a sheet of fine tendrils to catch the better meal.
Saffir brought up his forearm and yelled, "Schild!" The tendrils slammed into a wall of hardened air inches from the young man; the force of the impact drove him back a few paces. He shook his head and moved to one side, always keeping a wary eye on the creature.
The youma brought its head down closer to the ground, eyes intent and watching Saffir's every move, the wing-tendrils flaring out in light-catching fans. The tendrils drew back in, then struck out again to attack from both sides while it sucked in a breath and belched purple-black flame.
"Crescent Beam Shower!"
Golden fire rained down on the youma, which writhed and shrieked in pain while also granting much-needed illumination. Venus' eyes widened; the youma was attacking Satoshi? He was the source of that energy surge?
She'd have to worry about it later. Right now, there was still the youma to finish off.
"Venus-san," said Satoshi, his eyes never leaving it. He didn't sound surprised to see her. He also didn't seem to be his usual self. Something was colder about him now. The surge of power had settled down, but he was still emanating darkness.
This time the youma didn't bother with tendrils. Wounded, it attacked with flame and with wind from its wings. Dazzle the prey, it thought, then devour it the good old fashioned way with teeth.
The young man didn't even bother to dodge. He crossed both arms in front of his face, crying, "Schild!" a second time. Again the attack splashed against hardened air, then Saffir dropped his arms, his blue eyes glittering. "Du bohren mich," he commented, then raised his hand. Dark blue energy surrounded by white gathered in front of his palm, then shot out as he suddenly spread his fingers wide.
Venus' response was to jump up and out of the way, as far as she could, since she lacked a personal shield. Given Earth's gravity she could get pretty high. With all the room she had as she began to fall back down, she was able to snap her now-glowing chain around in the air to build up momentum before lashing it down. The youma screamed when Satoshi's attack slammed into it, sending it rolling. Venus had to jerk the chain to the side so that its path would alter to hit the youma and not the ground. The youma screamed again, angry and confused as the chain wrapped around it tightly, pinning its wings. She landed several meters away, still pulling the chain taut. She looped its links around the wrist of her left hand and kissed the fingertips of her right hand. "Eternal Love and Beauty Shock!" she cried before hurling the vaguely heart-shaped energy at the raw gaping maw of a wound Satoshi's energy attack had gouged into the creature.
The high-pitched scream of agony cut off abruptly as the creature expired, the body crashing ponderously to the earth. It twitched a few moments, then began dissolving into a rapidly-evaporating goo that was unfortunately becoming common with the youma of late. Personally, Venus rather preferred the seemingly purer white dust of a few years back to this disgusting crap. Though she was thankful that there would be no real need for cleanup.
She looked to Satoshi, feeling another slight chill. The first had been when he had produced the attack. There was darkness there, a taint, and that familiar-but-not sensation returned. She didn't know why that power felt vaguely familiar. By rights, it shouldn't have. She said nothing, her pale eyes studying him with frank though cold curiosity. Who are you?
He watched her right back, blue eyes utterly unreadable. It was he who broke the silence between them. "So, Venus-san. What happens now?" Despite the outward calm, however, his emotions were in turmoil again. That fear was back, along with a strange... reluctance, whereas before, against the youma, he had simply been angry, tempered by a dark amusement.
"That depends in large part on you." She needed to make a decision, quickly. By rights she should truss him up for Princess Serenity to make a decision on. Yet despite the inner turmoil of his, she still couldn't sense any foul intent. He had helped her by distracting the youma. And she couldn't blame him for not being open about his powers -- she wasn't forthcoming herself. "Unfortunately, this is neither the time nor place for a talk," she added as she could hear the sirens of the approaching police. Damn them.
The chain disappeared with a thought, only to reappear as a gold-and-topaz belt about her waist. She gave Satoshi a long, hard speculative look before taking a long step back and closing her eyes. A soft golden glow emanated from her, and the release of energy as she de-transformed back created a bit of wind that stirred her hair. When she opened her eyes to look at him again, there were still traces of Venus' coolness in Minako's admittedly kinder though equally serious eyes. "I'm trusting you, Satoshi."
"M-Minako-san...?" he said then, his eyes going wide.
And yet his emotions betrayed no surprise at all...
He shook his head. "You're right. This isn't the time or the place. Where?"
"Not here," she answered, not liking the lack of surprise from him. It made her suspicious and she would need a bit of time to consider this. "Let's see what we can do to help the victims."
"Right," he agreed. He walked with her back to the others, pausing only briefly to pick up a ring and put it back on. The power immediately cut off -- masked by the ring.
...Interesting. Very, very interesting.
It took several hours and quite a few questionings before the police would deign to release her back to her manager. The older woman was one hell of a guard dog, for which Minako was grateful. Instead of trying to cut through the press to get to a car to take her home, or disguising herself again, she simply hid in her dressing room and paced. Her eyes were icy and not really looking at anything in the room while she turned over the events of the evening. She and Satoshi had already decided on a 'story' to tell those they needed to, and happily the disjointed details from the distorted recall of a large group unable to accept the reality of a youma coincided with what they'd said. Such things had been useful in the past, and would probably be useful well into the future.
When would she get to speak to Satoshi? Right now she was trying to avoid more press-glare, so she had told him they couldn't speak tonight. So then, when? And where? This wasn't exactly the sort of conversation they could have over tea. And also, Usagi would need to be told. Minako wasn't about to out the others to him, but Usagi needed to know that Satoshi knew of Minako being Sailor Venus.
Artemis watched her pacing, then leapt down from his chair and twined gently around her ankles. "You said yourself months ago that he wasn't a threat," he pointed out, with some reluctance.
"And he's still not," she replied. "And I did make the choice to detransform in front of him. Until tonight, I had no idea his power was so strong, or that he could use it sort of like the way we use our powers. He's been using a 'restraining ring' as it were to mask the strength." She stopped pacing to stare hard at nothing. "I think what bothers me the most is that something seems oddly familiar about him, and it's not because I've known the guy for a few months. That darkness... The more I try and recall when or where I've felt it, the more it eludes me. It's bothersome."
Artemis frowned. "There could be a good explanation. Or there could be no explanation at all." He sighed. "And he did help you against that youma. That alone is in favour of him not being with a new Enemy." He gave a catlike approximation of a shrug. "Perhaps one of his parents started out with an Enemy but then had a change of heart."
"Maybe. He wasn't surprised when I detransformed, though. Acted surprise, but wasn't in truth." She let out a sigh of her own. "Of course, if he's a little more than simply human, then it's probably that despite whatever keeps other people from figuring out who we are simply didn't work."
Artemis hesitated for a moment. "It's possible that he's a wizard," he said at last.
".....A wizard? As in, Merlin?" Really, the possibility shouldn't earn skepticism from her, but it did.
"I don't really know," the white cat admitted. "Luna and I don't know very much about them. They exist, and they're very secretive. But it would explain at least some of what we're both getting from Orimoto."
First youma, now wizards. What was next, vampires? Faeries? She actually paused at the thought. Unlike what popular culture perceived faeries to be like, she had learned the original British tales and the Fey were not creatures one wanted to have dealings with.
Still, Artemis' explanation was fitting for what they knew. Minako gathered the furball into her arms and sat in the chair. "Satoshi and I still need to have our talk. Will you be joining in?"
A near-demonic, pleased expression crossed the cat's face.
Mina stared at the Chesire cat wannabe for several moments before she burst out laughing.
"So that means I can come, right?" he asked, purring.
"Yes, you can come."
Current Location: my bed
Current Mood:  calm
Current Music: Heavyweights
Tags: fanfic, sailor moon, time dance
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