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 Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 8:50 pm
Destiny City. Once a sprawling Metropolis boasting stunning gardens, charming suburbs, and a low crime rate (haha), Destiny City had become a cavity, a canker of death and it was barely registering a blip on CNN. Which was rather odd, considering that every other day was "Breaking News! Tiger Woods spotted without his wedding ring!" and "Lindsay x Sam, back together? THE SHOCKING STORY!" on CNN, and the local news networks were reporting mysterious deaths in dry monotones. Had everyone gone mad? Possibly.
There was also the possibility that something else was tampering with Destiny City and their apparent lack of being of any interest to the 24 hour news programs. Destiny City was definitely a hub of tampering at the moment, what with the entire Barren Pines incident (big huge building fire? No ambulances? No fire trucks? NO PROBLEM), not to mention the current threat to the general populace with nothing but "terrorists" to help.
The Terrorists were losing the battle-- how can you destroy something that seemed to be everywhere? And they were everywhere; case in point, at that very moment in time, one fallen Senshi was making her way down main street.
Nova didn't bother concealing herself. Nova didn't bother jumping from rooftop to rooftop, avoidance her top priority. No, Nova had no qualms about meeting any Senshi this night, too often had she backtracked from fear and submission to those she had once considered her peers. She was a part of the Negaverse, as cold and unyielding as the terrible darkness of space, and she had felt it, intimately, twice-- though she did not remember the first time except for a fleeting memory of pain. She was young, she was hale, and she was <******** pissed off.
She hoped some poor deluded Senshi would come and find her. She hoped that they had heard of her.
She hoped it was Nerissa.
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 9:07 am
As it turned out, it wasn't Nerissa. It wasn't even Kunzite. It was Miriam Jacobs walking home from the hardware store, on the third day after her awakening and the day before her next day at work at Things Recollected. She was dressed in her same weatherbeaten winter coat, a white knit hat and knit mittens, and a chartreuse scarf that didn't remotely match; her purchases were in her backpack so her books were in her hands. Senshi were not on her mind. Negaversers, even, were not on her mind. Her left shoulder had scabbed over again and she was sure that lightning couldn't strike three times in the space of three days; she was sure she had time to dwell on her upcoming Spanish exam. Which, at the moment, she was doing.
Ladrar. Lamentar. Lastimar. Lavarse. Leer --
She tended to watch the ground while she was walking, which was why she only saw Sailor Nova when she walked right by her.
The senshi took no notice. Miriam stared straight ahead and walked right by, as if she hadn't noticed either. But once they passed each other Miriam pivoted and turned left, into an alleyway. This one had puddles. She made a discerning effort to lay her backpack down between the puddles, and then her Spanish books on top of that.
When she stepped out again, in uniform, Nova was about a hundred yards away. "Stop," she ordered, which was probably a rude greeting for a sailor senshi: but then again, she was already starting to wonder if something was terribly wrong.
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 11:47 am
Nova stopped where she was, and turned; Nova had always been good at following orders, even when yelled by someone her own age. This order was not yelled in her face by Charonite, and yet it still held the same sway. Curious.
And then the uniform of the girl came in to question, and Nova stared. There had been no Negaverse memo of what had happened to Charonite, of what had marred Serandite's pretty little face. Nova was completely in the dark as to whom she was looking at, but it was pretty clear that all the white didn't usually denote Negaverse.
"You're new," Sailor Nova stated, as if she had known of enough Senshi to know this. She didn't.
Nova stayed where she was. The last time she stood too close to a Senshi, she was thrown off a building. The time before, she had been owned by an umbrella. Neither time had she had a chance to attack herself. She wasn't about to make the same mistake again.
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:01 pm
Kunzite's sword was in her hand, but pointed to the ground to one side of her. She stared at the other girl: she looked like a senshi, had the skirt for it and all, but a sour note of wrong struck the air when she looked at her. She wondered, after a fashion, if this was the same sort of confusion that the senshi grappled with when they saw her for the first time. The words corrupted senshi were fresh in her mind; still, she wouldn't risk it when there was still a chance that the young woman was just gloomy, rude and had the outfit to match.
God, but luck had not been a lady of late.
"Who are you?" she demanded, ignoring Nova's reply.
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:14 pm
If Destiny City could be considered a frigid b***h, then this girl certainly could as well. Even if her words were simply a request as to whom she was speaking to, there was an air of obligation, as if Nova owed her an answer.
At least this wasn't someone that Nova had run in to before; at least with this girl, both of them had no clue of what the other was capable of, though Nova was unaware that she had already been a topic of discussion with Kunzite. Nova herself hadn't a clue what she was capable of, not entirely. Wanton destruction, check.
No use being fearful, she had walked this street looking for trouble.
"I'm Sailor Nova-- who are you?"
She seemed to have found it.
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:18 pm
Kunzite's chin went up a little, which didn't help with (or very much helped with, depending on your perspective) the air of entitlement to answers from Sailor Nova. The truth was that she'd found the more she acted entitled to answers, the more she got them -- true, there was also some adage about flies and honey and vinegar, but she was pretty certain that "honey" had never been something in her skillset.
"Captain Kunzite," she said curtly, and left it at that. She wasted no time in getting to business this time. "What happened to you?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:42 pm
Long, drawn out explanations were unneeded, and Sailor Nova was never one to spout long, drawn out monologues. She really wished she could, they seemed rather invigorating, but she always found herself tongue tied. Or headbutted.
"Stand your ground, Captain, I'm not attacking you," Sailor Nova called, and began to pick her stockinged feet through the icy puddles. It was dark, and her clothing was dark, but there was a single lamp post between the two of them.
Which threw the gaping hole in her chest in to sharp relief. Sailor Nova tensed. At least she was still out of range of the glinting sword.
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 1:09 pm
In response Kunzite brought her sword up into a defensive ward and shifted her feet accordingly. She would abide by the rules of battle; when she surrendered, she surrendered, and when she promised she wouldn't attack she didn't attack. She had no guarantee that Sailor Nova would do the same. Even so, she didn't move forward, only stared the corrupted senshi down.
It had been disturbing, like a jarring chord in a horror film, to glimpse the hole in her chest -- not only because no human should survive such a thing, but because Kunzite knew what it meant Nova was missing.
"Stop and come no closer," she ordered once Nova reached the lamppost. "How long have you served the Negaverse?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 6:55 pm
"I do not serve the Negaverse," Nova retorted, crossly, "I am a part of it; I am neither Captain nor Lieutenant. I do not need to prove my worth."
Nova had made no move towards Kunzite, wary of her sword. It was clear that "Captain" Kunzite knew how to use it-- it was also clear that she was aware of precisely what Nova was. Or what she had been. Made it easy enough to figure out their positions. Nova would take black, thank you very much.
"I think the more pressing question is how long you have served Serenititas; or is she still missing, the trollop," Nova remembered her Princess. Remembered the driving need to find her-- except it was different now, the urge to destroy and render her incapacitated was far higher on the list than to suffer her leadership, "It has been a few months, though how long I was a Senshi before that I have no idea."
No use lying. Nova had no idea what Kunzite was planning to do with this information.
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 7:13 pm
The girl was confident. How much reason, Kunzite wondered, did she have to be? I am neither Captain nor Lieutenant bode not well at all, if not unexpectedly, either. Angry, too, if trollop was anything to judge by. And how long I was a senshi before that I have no idea was honesty she did not expect. It struck her that Sailor Nova might have no memory of being Sailor Nova.
Well, that could make this a little easier. Perhaps there was no more Nova. Perhaps Nova had died when Charonite had taken her starseed. The thing that stood in front of Kunzite was a husk; it was a shell. It was here to torment the living and mock the dead. There would be nothing ugly in striking it down where it stood.
It didn't entirely remove the distaste from her mouth at the prospect of drawing her blade on a senshi once again.
"I do not serve the Moon Princess," she said, fixing her eyes on the hole in Nova's chest. "I am a soldier of Earth and I serve Prince Endymion, as a Cavalier and the captain of his guard. Princess Serenity's whereabouts are none of my concern." This was a lie; Prince Endymion would ache for the loss of Princess Serenity if he were here, and as long as -- as long as she served Endymion, she would find him his Princess. Wherever she might be. "Do you know I was once among your ranks, Sailor Nova?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 7:44 pm
Do you know I was once among your ranks, Sailor Nova? Nova was baffled. The idea of leaving the Negaverse in any capacity other than in a bodybag seemed to be a falsehood, a slander; and yet here was this girl, cocky as can be, standing in front of her with a shining sword and as of yet, not attacking her.
"I was not aware," Nova was unsure if this Captain meant to offer her a chance for a respite, a chance to turn her back on the Negaverse. If so, she was sadly mistaken in any belief that Nova could just leave. The gaping hole alluded to her first problem-- her pitch dark starseed, only glowing weakly in her chest, was the second. She had only residual memories of the past, questions by the dozen, the burning desire to find one particular senshi, but she had no desire to turn coat. How could she? It would be fighting against her base instincts.
It was too bad for everyone involved that Sailor Nova was a lot more complicated than just a simple husk; she was still the same person that she had been before, if twisted.
"Are we at an impasse, Captain? Are you planning to ask me questions all night, and just let me leave?" Nova raised a hand, and Kunzite tensed, but she was merely moving a lock of hair behind her ear, "My turn; Do you know anything about a Sailor Nerissa?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 8:01 pm
"You should know I wouldn't tell you that." Kunzite was still, very still, with all the stillness of someone who was used to having to poise to strike and then wait a very long time for the strike to happen. She could wait. But she wouldn't, not a second longer than she had to -- she couldn't, she told herself. Mercy was no more appropriate for Sailor Nova than it had been for anyone else. Maybe even less appropriate. "As long as the Prince aligns himself with the Court of the Moon," she shifted her grip on her sword, "then we align ourselves with Sailor Moon and her senshi. Including your Nerissa."
In fact Sailor Nerissa was just a name she'd heard from Charlie, one of the senshi he knew. Some pisspot beginner like Castor. That was unkind. Some young lady like Castor. "I can't imagine you did," she said, "but I chose my fate of my own accord, all those years ago. I chose the Negaverse. I chose poorly. I'd rather you not pay the price I did."
She fixed Nova with a steady stare. "Change to civilian form and go with me. I am giving you the opportunity to surrender. No one will think less of you."
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 8:36 pm
Nova was a cocky, deluded Negaverse... something or other, but she wasn't completely stupid. Her first instinct was to retort that she couldn't henshin down; that would have been awfully telling, and Nova was right to assume that Kunzite probably could use that information. She seemed like someone who could see a smudge on the ground, and infer that a grisly murder had taken place in that very place, 4 hours ago, and one man smoked Cuban cigars.
Nova would see the same smudge, and take out the Lemon Pledge.
"Saving me is not going to make up for your past, Kunzite. You're still just as dirty as I am," And Nova hesitated no longer, raising her hands up for her first attack; Kunzite had betrayed that she knew no whit about Sailor Nerissa, or was not about to tell her anything. No matter.
"Falling Stars, Destruction," A volley of black stars shot from above their heads, splintering the concrete as if it were butter, leaving star shaped, smoking holes in cars, twisting the lamp post in to a smoking, charred metal lump.
Astraea had been right; she had been one of their strongest.
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 8:53 pm
The black stars rained. Kunzite dodged, but not quickly enough: they seared her hair and tore her uniform to shreds on her arms, drew burned red trails over her abdomen, and burned straight through her boots and feet. Pain resulted. It was worst on her arms, which had only just been beginning to heal from Charonite's attack. She was wet with blood again; her left foot was in agony if she tried to support herself on it. She wondered if the star had hit any of the bones, dimly, through a haze of pain and adrenaline. Well. There would be time for that later.
Her sword hand burned too, but only the skin: she could still wield her weapon with ease. She was fine. She lunged for Nova, swinging her sword in a sweeping blow that was meant to remove her head or else lodge itself deep in her side -- but she was limping, and it slowed her down.
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Posted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 9:15 pm
The stars were meant to be enough, Nova frantically thought as the injured Captain rushed her. She should have known that the Captain was squirrelly; should have stayed a HECK of a lot further back. Nova had NEVER been part of any track team, her reflexes never pushed in anything more stimulating than a jovial game of badminton-- ping pong if she was feeling brash.
Even with her wounds, Kunzite was still coming at her fast, faster than Nova could dodge the sword-- squeaking, Nova sucked her stomach in, stumbling back, desperate to keep herself out of its angry path. Unfortunately for Sailor Nova, this didn't work. Just didn't work at ALL.
Nova dodged having her head lopped off, which was a boon; the sword still snaked in to her side, and she stumbled, her side dripping scarlet. There was no time to gasp, no time to yell, and she thrust her arm towards Kunzite, screaming her attack again; in all the time that she had been with the Negaverse, and if she had remembered, all the time she had been a Senshi, Sailor Nova had never been injured.
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