Sailor Moon Z: #13 - Winds of Change By: Janelle Jimenez Official WebPage: http://www.indy.net/~pandora/sailormoon/zodiac/intro3.html Shikami stared at the blood red sunset. So beautiful. She looked down at a pale hand and lightly raked her long black fingernails against her arm. "I miss you Leadan..." she whispered quietly. She played with a beautiful silver ring on her finger, set in the middle was a stone that looked like a gobule of blood, identical to the necklace she was never without. However, no one ever got close enough to see it was actually filled with the blood of her immortal love, Leadan. He was a fellow general of the Black Star Army, the one Sulfiria had pined her whole miserable life away wishing for. He was as good as hers now, with Scorpio gone..but she wasn't High General Scorpio Beraku-Sta'a anymore, she was simply..the human.. Shikami Dokuno. "I could see you if I have the Golden key, Leadan, and I can remove you from the Black Star where you are so unhappy.." she said to herself. "SHI-CHAN!" screamed a voice, Shikami narrowed her eyes, her deep thinking being interrupted by the voice of some incapable Zodiac Senshi. Had they always been that way? Were they that immature back in the Golden Millenium? Unlike the rest, Shikami had not been reborn on Earth..she had never even died. She was kidnapped thousands of years ago when she was Sailor Scorpio, defending Queen Selestia and her bratty daughters in the naive times of the Golden Millenium. She had lived immortally in the land of the Black Star, eventually fitting in. Eventually forgetting she was a Zodiac Senshi. Eventually helping them take over other galaxies..and eventually forgetting goodness and embracing the darkness that had surrounded her for so long. Now she was back..back to where she 'belonged.' Queen Selestia had never let her forget she was a traitor. "SHI-CHAN! The fireworks are going to start!! This is going to be so great!" Janie exclaimed gleefully. Shikami glanced at her. "Watch fireworks?" She snickered, "All you ever do is play. Is that why you suggested this park AT NIGHT to have a meeting?" she asked. Estrella looked at her. "Exactly, I'm glad SOMEONE here has a sense of duty." she nodded. "Shut up, Estrella." Jessica muttered, she was lying under a tree, her eyes hiding behind unnessecary sunglasses. "Sooo..Natalia..How's it feel being one of the Ledgendary Zodiac Senshi?" Janie asked, turning to the newly found Zodiac Senshi. Since the day she came, Janie had been hanging on her every word and followed her around like a puppy. She seemed to worship the blue and silver haired girl. "I had never heard of the Zodiac Senshi before. Sailor Senshi, yes. Sailor Moon..yes..Sailor V yes.." Natalia replied, she was dressed in another designer outfit, and sitting properly on a picnic table. She then turned to chat with Veronica, the one person she had most in common with. Joanna had moved and was now sitting with them not really paying attention. "Whoa.." she said all of a sudden, no one paid attention. "Look at that! There's not even the slightest breeze out here!" she exclaimed and pointed towards the sky, all heads turned to see a beautiful shimmering green kite with an extremely long tail that almost touched the ground, even if the kite was high in the air. The kite itself was utterly exquisite, it was a giant crab surrounded by eleven stars. Joanna followed the string down with her eyes, to see who was flying it. It was a girl with very long dark green hair. She seemed to be in deep concentration. "That so sugoi (cool)!!" Joanna exclaimed and ran towards the girl. "Hey! How are you keeping that thing up?" she asked the girl. The girl glanced back in surprise and the kite suddenly fell to the ground. "Oh god! I'm so sorry!" Joanna apologized and picked up the kite. "Sailor..Capricorn..?" the green haired girl asked. Joanna's eyes widened. "Excuse me?" she coughed, suddenly frightened. "Sailor Capricorn..that's who you are." the girl answered. "How the..how the hell..did..what...on.." Joanna stuttered. "Sailor Capricorn, hello, I am Sailor Cancer..of the Golden Millenium..just call me Hikari Kaze." (Note: means 'Light Wind' not like, the weight tho..the opposite of dark) * * * * "Cancer.." Shikami said, she smiled and hugged the green haired girl. "It's so good to see you.." she added. The girls where surprised, Shikami was never affectionate or even kind to any of them. The green haired one smiled. "Umm..tell me again who you are, please?" Tenshi asked, she was looking at Hikari carefully, Hikari was extremely beautiful, she thought even more so than Jessica or Shikami. Hikari possessed long jade colored hair, and bright green eyes that where fringed with long lashes. She was the tallest of all of the girls so far, and looked the oldest as well. "I am Sailor Cancer, but in this day and age it seems you all have.. alias names to go under, so I am called Hikari Kaze." she answered, Jessica snickered. Hikari ignored her, "Like Scorpio..excuse me, Shi-chan, I was not reborn as all of you have. I am directly from the Golden Millenium, Queen Selestia ordered me to come here, because the future Zodiac Senshi were not doing as told." she explained. Scorpio's eyes glassed over, "I remember when you left, Hikari-chan..Queen Selestia never told us why you had to go to the future..you just did. After the Invaders attacked.. I hardly remember it though. This is so surreal..to be remembering you going to the future..and almost three thousand years later..I'm in that present." she said, remembering the past. She glared at the rest of the Zodiac Senshi. "If only you'd stopped playing! You could have changed it!" she hissed. "All this talk about time paradox stuff gives me a headache.." Veronica whined. "Anyway, Queen Selestia told me to appoint a new leader of the Zodiac Senshi." Hikari said. Jessica jumped up, "WHAT?! Hell NO! I am the leader of the Zodiac Senshi! That old.. ghost can't tell me what to do!" she screamed. "Shut UP!" Shikami shouted, "You are the most IMMATURE, arrogant.." "ARROGANT?! Look who's talking!!" Jessica cut in, "..self centered, egotistical, annoying..person..I have EVER MET!" Shikami finished, "Your even worse than the generals of the Black Star!" she added. Jessica lunged forward, ready to strangle Shikami. "Wind Flash.." Hikari whispered quickly, a light wind came out from behind her and pushed Jessica away. "Leo, please comply with the Queen's requests. You had a chance to prove yourself, but you remained frivolous and failed repeatedly, we cannot save the Golden Millenium and obtain the Golden Key if we do not get started immeditely." Hikari said. "FINE, let me pick who's leader." Jessica replied. Hikari shook her head, "I'm sorry, it is not your choice. Queen Selestia has already chosen the leader." Hikari answered. "WHO? YOU?!" Jessica demanded. "No, though I may have more power than all of you, I am not skilled at leading. I'm a passive person, Selestia wants not only a good fighter, but one who is aggressive." Hikari answered, "Well, please Hikari-san, tell us who is going to be leader." Tenshi urged. "Ah..Virgo, always the most polite.." Hikari smiled. "Oh c'mon! Just hurry up!" Joanna exclaimed. Hikari shook her head, "Capricorn, American Television has made you impatient.." she smiled, "Anyway, the leader of the Zodiac Senshi is.." "IS..?" Capricorn urged, "Is..." Alana repeated, "IS?!" Jessica said gripping the bench she was sitting on tightly, "..is Sailor Scorpio.." Hikari said, smiling at her friend, Jessica threw her head back and let out an ear piercing scream. * * * * "Arseniru..how could you fail like that?!" Lithia exclaimed, looking disappointedly at man before her, standing beside him was his brother, Leadan. "I see that I was correct. You did underestimate them, did you not, Brother?" Leadan asked, a tiny smile of self-satisfaction on his face. "It wasn't the Sailor Senshi, it was those damnable Zodiac Senshi." Arseniru answered angrily. "It was that traitor of yours who brought me down." he spat. Leadan's eyes gazed wistfully at a spot over Arseniru's head. "Ah..my Scorpio.." Leadan sighed. Arseniru glared at him. "That traitor will die. Without a doubt..I'll destroy her." he promised. Leadan gazed at Arseniru worriedly. "You must not do that.." Leadan whispered. Sulfiria cleared her throat. "Sorry to interefere with the melodramatics, but this matter is important. Arseniru, you are to go to Earth immediatlty and gather the stars. Do NOT fail this time." Sulfiria ordered. Arseniru shifted his gaze towards Sulfiria. "Yes, M'Princess..I will immediatly." he muttered and disappeared in a burst of flame. * * * * Arseniru watched the girls from his perch in a tree. They were all seated at a picnic table, a beautiful black haired girl was screaming as if the world had come to an end. He narrowed his eyes at the former General Scorpio, who stood there looking smug. He tapped his fingers impatiently and began to wonder how he could sucessfully attack them. Arseniru wasn't a powerful General, as Cyanida and Scorpio were, but he was brilliant. Suddenly, he remembered something very important, he brought his hands together and then moved them apart, a small bubble appeared between his hands. Inside of it was an odd looking wand. Arseniru reached into the bubble and pulled it out. The wand was one of the many inventions of Leadan, it created demon beings out of living things. The beings could be controlled by the mind and were exceptionally strong powerful. Leadan had named these creatures 'Spawn'. Aresniru took the wand clicked ON button, a beam of red light and a strange buzzing sound began to emit. He turned and drew a large X on the tree in he stood in then jumped into a nearby tree. The marked tree began to shake. Several leaves shook off and floated down gracefully to the girls below. A leaf landed on Tenshi's shoulder. She looked up at the tree and gasped. It was shaking furiously, as if it were in the middle of a massive earthquake. Everyone noticed the tree, as leaves came falling down in them. Eyes glanced towards Joanna. "WHAT?! What?! I didn't do it! Geez, everytime the Earth shakes you think I did it..!" she exclaimed defensively. Suddenly the tree's roots lifted out of the ground and wrapped themselves together, and seemed to form two legs. Veronica screamed. "OHMIGOD! What IS that?" she shrieked. The tree quickly began dropping its leaves on the girls in a steady stream. Once the branches were stripped of green, they wrapped themselves around each other and made menacing arms. "Its alive!" Alana exclaimed in shock. "Of course its alive, its a tree." Jessica snapped, "Stop yelling and transform already!" she added, she was already pulling her henshin wand out of the bag she was holding. "LEO COSMIC STAR POWER MAKE UP.." she shouted and transformed quickly ahead of them. "Sagittarius Cosmic Star Power.." "Aquarius..COSMIC..STAR..POWER.." "Capricorn Cosmic Star POWER.." "Taurus Cosmic Star Power.." "Virgo Cosmic Star Power.." "SCORPIO COSMIC..STAR..POWER.." "Gemini Cosmic Star Power.." "Cancer..Cosmic..Star..Power.." the girls shouted, all throwing up their henshin sticks. "MAKE UP!!!" they exclaimed in unison, and soon they too had transformed. The tree however, had too transformed..into a disgusting brown demon-like creature. "What IS that?!" Sailor Sagittarius exclaimed. "Its a Spawn." Sailor Scorpio answered. "A whaaaat..?" Sailor Aquarius asked. "A Spawn. Created by Leadan..not too hard to defeat. The only General weak enough to even use them is.." she began, she looked up at the demon-tree, then looked at the next tree beside it. She narrowed her eyes, "is..Arseniru.." she finished and wordlessly, she shot a ball of red energy at the tree, it shook violently and a man fell out, but before he hit the ground, he disappeared in a blaze of flame and reappeared just feet away from them. "Scorpio, Scorpio, Scorpio..your parlor tricks are virtually USELESS against me." Arseniru smirked. "Parlor tricks? Don't get so cocky, Arseniru. Just because I'm not a General doesn't mean I've lost my power." she said her eyes red eyes darkening. "Do you like?" he asked, changing the subject and pointed at the demon-tree. "Can't you fight your own battles, Arseniru?" Scorpio asked smirking slightly. Arseniru frowned, "I thought you'd appreciate a gift from you little lover." he said sneering. Sailor Scorpio's eyes raged. "Let's stop playing the games, and fight." she said finally, she flicked her wrist and extended her deadly claws. "I am Sailor Scorpio, the face of Death, and the leader of the Zodiac Senshi." she said introducing herself. Sailor Leo cringed at the word 'leader' "Sayonara, Arseniru." she whispered and jumped into the air. The demonic tree suddenly sprang to life and with its massive arms swatted at her. Scorpio defied the laws of all gravity and physics and quickly changed the direction of her flight in mid-air, "Leo! Use your fire on it!" Scorpio hissed. Sailor Leo glared at her, and then raised her left arm to the sky. "SUN LION DESTROY!" she shouted, the lion of flames jumped from her hands and ran towards the tree. The lion ran directly into it and it quickly caught on fire. "We are not so easily defeated." Arseniru laughed, as soon as he said that, the tree stopped burning. It was obviously hurt, several sections had been charred. "Double Ice Freeze!" Sailor Gemini shouted, the braiding ribbons of ice and water flew towards the demon-tree. It became encased in a block of ice, but quickly melted out. "Earth Tremble!" Sailor Capricorn shouted, "Gravity Crush!" Sailor Virgo exclaimed, the two attacks caused the tree to topple over. "Destroy it now!" Scorpio shouted. "Everyone..combine attacks..before it stands back up!" Sailor Leo ordered. "That's hardly necessary." Sailor Scorpio fired back. "Its getting back up!" Sailor Aquarius squealed. "Red..Poison..!" Sailor Scorpio shouted finally and shot a ball of red energy at the tree. It let out a strange scream and disintegrated into ash. "You..you..killed it!" Sailor Leo exclaimed. "Of course I did, I had to. Spawn are created by living things, and they live off that creatures energy. The only way to defeat them is to destroy them." Scorpio replied coldly. She then turned towards Arseniru, but he had disappeared. "He'll be back..but I'm sure he's not going to be bringing a Spawn with him..we need to prepare." Scorpio muttered and closed her eyes. Suddenly she heard a clapping, Scorpio opened her eyes. Sailor Cancer came out from the shadows she was hiding in. Her green hair blew in the wind. No one had realized what she looked like till just now. Her fuku was very different from everyone's..evern Scorpio's. The body was black, like everyone else's..but more of a dull black. Her skirt was a shimmering shade of green, and she had a long yellow bow in the middle of her green collar. In the center was a silver brooch lined with pearls, the sign of Cancer engraved in the gold. Unlike everyone else, her choker was made of pearls as well, with her sign resting in the center. Her tiara was also different, it was made up of strings of star-shaped pearls and in the center a large star shaped diamond. "Wonderful job..Queen Selestia was so wise in choosing you as leader.." Sailor Cancer smiled. Sailor Leo's eyes narrowed, "Yea right, when I lead we killed monsters in two hits." she muttered under her breath. The sun had set long long ago, and Jessica had reverted back into her normal form. She looked up at the sliver of the moon, thinking about how unfair the whole situation was. She was true leader, she knew it. A shadow in the corner of her eye caught her attention. It was Hikari. She came up beside Jessica and looked down on her. "I know your upset about not leading, Jessica." Hikari replied. Jessica's gaze shifted to Hikari and she at her quizzically. What does she want with me anyway? Jessica thought. "Just..to warn you.." Hikari murmured. "What?" Jessica demanded. "You do not hide your thoughts very well. Even a poor psychic could read you.." Hikari said shaking her head. Jessica stared at her and blinked. "You know what I'm thinking then?" she asked. Hikari nodded and gazed out at the pale moon. "There was a Prediction made by a wiseman in the Golden Millenium. He said that when nine Stars had risen in the future, and the Moon disappeared from the Earthen sky, that the invaders will win their first major triumph." Hikari replied cutting the brief silence. "What's that have to do with anything?" Jessica asked, folding her arms. "The Zodiac Senshi, represent the nine stars..and in a few days the Moon will be new.." Hikari explained. "The Moon will be new? What?" Jessica said looking slightly confused. "Oh Jessica! Don't you know your science? During a New Moon, the moon is completely darkened by Earth's shadow..we won't see it. We need to prepare..when the New Moon rises, then that shall be the first major victory of the Invaders of the Golden Millenium!"