The Celestial Warrior

Part two: Are We Being Watched? Usagi and Raven Followed.


\"And you didn\'t see anything?\"

\"I told you everything that I told the cops,\" R sig sighed as she
stretched out on her bed. \"I was in the bathroom fighting off this
sick feeling, I think I passed out once I heard the guns go off, then
I came to with this fever. I think I\'m sick.\"

Mamoru laid a hand on her forehead. \"You are very hot. You better
take your temperature.\"

\"Doctor?\" Usagi piped in.

\"I can\'t afford one,\" she replied. \"There\'s a thermometer in my
medicine cabinet in the bathroom. Can you get it for me?\"

\"Uhh, sure.\" Usagi wasn\'t exactly sure what she was to look for, but
got up to look for it anyway.

\"Something sounds odd with all of this,\" Mamoru whispered to Raven.
\"These men come in and shoot this place up, the one place you work at,
and you managed to save yourself from it. Even though there was not
one wall that was not filled with bullets. For all I know, if you
were passed out on the floor, theyld hld have shot you to death, not
pass you over.\"

\"I don\'t know. Geez, you\'re giving me a headache with all of this,\"
Raven moaned, pressing the heels of her hands into her eyes. \"I\'m a
sick woman, stop grilling me.\"

\"You have to admit, a lot of this doesn\'t make sense. Either for a
moment you weren\'t in the restroom...or ...\"

\"Yeah, I know where your \'or\' leads to. That I\'m involved with all of
this. Well, I\'m not. There is a group of people trying to look like
the Untouchables going around and scaring the crap out of people.
They\'re all over the news recently.\"

\"Have the police figured this out?\"

\"No, they\'re clueless. Turn on the television and you\'ll see what I
mean.\"

Mamoru got up and walked over to her entertainment system. Flipping
on the TV the news was on. \"We are at the site of the mysterious
shooting. This only took place in one area, The Light Side Cafe.
Only one of the people working there was injured, one managed to
excape any damage. The Cafe was completely destroyed by bullet holes,
so the police are suspicious that one managed to escape harm.\" Raven
muttered some English curses that he didn\'t understand. \"Here is the
Police Commissioner Gerold to speak of the case.\"

An out of shape man in his 40\'s came on the screen. \"We\'ve found the
perpetrators, in various degrees of burns and slashes, possibly by a
knife. Now, these men were armed and dangerous, but this person or
persons who attacked these boys should be either thanked or thrown
away in jail. The only lead we have is this rose,\" the camera focused
on the flower in his hands. \"It\'s almost like something out of a
superhero comic, and just as confusing.\"

Mamoru turned off the TV, worrying about them having one of his roses.
If they led it to him, he\'ll be barred from the States forever and
forced back to Japan with a very horrid reputation. \"I guess they
don\'t know what is going on.\"

\"Whoever did all that must be nuts. How in the world did they burn or
slash those idiots? Flame-throwers and swords? He\'s right, it does
sound like a comic book.\"

He bit his lower lip, he couldn\'t tell her all their secrets, about
the woman that they confronted with the powers of Sailor Mars and
Jupiter on a grander level. Something wasn\'t right. He excused
himself from the room and walked into her kitchen. He went into the
fridge and pulled out a bottle of saki. He was surprised the bottle
was there, yet he wasn\'t the type to drink it. But this was a
different occasion that called for something to calm his nerves.

Usagi came into the room looking for him. Spotting him sitting at the
table, she immediately walked over and sat next to him. She gave him
the biggest smile she could, but he didn\'t seem to notice her.
\"Mamo-chan, what wrong?\" she asked in her broken English.

\"We could be in trouble,\" he whispered in Japanese. \"Police have been
investigating the shooting site. They found the burned bodies, and my
rose.\" Usagi gasped. \"I thought I could destroy those flowers once I
was done with them, but I may have missed one. I don\'t think we can
be found out, but if we are, we\'ll have to leave for Japan as soon as
possible.\"

\"What about this other senshi? Can she be a part of all of this?\"

\"Doesn\'t seem possible. This Celestia doesn\'t seem to be an enemy,
but she didn\'t remove the evidence. When we fought the Dark Kingdom,
we at least removed all the evidence that there was a youma or general
or something like that. She\'s a little too careless.\"

\"What are we going to do?\"

\"I don\'t know. Just hope for the best, I guess.\"

Usagi never liked it when he talked this darkly. It always spelled
trouble when he did. She knew her worry was going to show, so she
excused herself and went to her bed. She laid down and crumpled the
blankets under her chin. Mamoru followed her and saw the panicked
look in her eyes. He walked over and sat next to her, stroking her
hair. \"Why so worried?\"

\"I just don\'t know how to handle this. I thought there was just the
six of us, and there was just so many of these bad guys. Now they\'re
everywhere, and there are more senshi. Is she a renegade or someone
I\'m supposed to lead.\"

\"Usako, that will fall into place. There is something familiar about
her, yet I can\'t place her. But we\'ll find out if we can trust her or
not. When the moment comes where we find out, we\'ll deal with it
then. There\'s no point in worrying about it now.\" He leaned over and
kissed her on the cheek. \"We\'ve handled tough times before, we\'ll be
fine.\"

\"I wish I could share your feeling,\" she muttered into the covers.

********************************************************

The next day, Raven bought a newspaper to check out other jobs. Usagi
took the funnies section, and even though she could barely read it she
was still laughing her head off. She found a few leads, but when she
called they had already filled the positions. Instead of being angry,
she just folded up the paper and tossed it on the floor.

\"No luck?\" Usagi asked.

\"Nope. She sighed then shook her hair out. \"But it won\'t discourage
me, Usagi-chan. I refuse to let it get to me.\"

\"Good attude,\" she responded.

\"That\'s attitude, my friend.\" Usagi blushed. \"Don\'t worry, you\'re
getting used to it.\" Raven stood up and went to her refrigerator,
with company trailing behind her. \"You can take anything out of here
without me always opening the door.\"

\"Try be polite.\" She ended up grabbing a candy bar and a bottle of
soda pop. \"What next?\"

\"I\'ve got some money in my bank account, so I\'m okay for a while. I
guess I get a chance to catch up on my reading.\" Taking a bottle for
herself, Raven took her glasses and sat on her sofa in the living
room. Usagi followed her and sat next to her.

\"How did you and Mamoru . . . uh . . .\"

\"Meet?\" She nodded, making her hair bob along with her head. \"It was
rather simple. He and Motoki came here to study some specialty
courses that I was in. Since he was the best in the class, I asked
him for some help in my studies. Well, he said, as best he could,
that he would help me in my course if I would help him out with
American culture and language. I agreed, and eventually Motoki joined
us. He and I dated for a while, till I did something stupid.\"

\"Nani?\" Usagi slipped into Japanese again.

\"I broke up with him, saying that we seemed to be on two different
levels. He was always calm and cool, whereas I was irrational and
quick tempered. I got angry with him because I wanted him to be angry
too. It didn\'t happen. He walked out and I never heard from him
again.\"

Usagi toyed with the wrapper, knowing how bad Raven felt at that
moment. \"I know how you feel. I\'ve been broken up by Mamoru few
times. Not easy to take.\"

The corner of Raven\'s mouth crooked up in a half smile. \"I don\'t want
you to worry about me and him. We\'re good friends, and we want to
keep it that way.\"

\"I not worried!\" she blurted out, blushing. Raven jokingly looked
over the rim of her glasses. Usagi was reminded of Haruna-sensei
peering at her like that when shs das day dreaming in class. \"Okay, a
little. But now I know, and I\'m not anymore.\"

\"Good. Let\'s go out, I\'m tired of sitting in here.\" Usagi nodded as
they grabbed their coats and walked for the door. But before she
left, Usagi ran back in to take the candy along with her.

*****************************************

It was a cool day, and the sun was shining in a cloudless sky. The
season was slowly turning into summer, but it decided to take it\'s
time. The two girls decided to spend the day in the park while Mamoru
was out visiting some of his other classmates. They took their time
strolling through the local park, bumping into some of Raven\'s friends
who had to inquire about her health, and watching the ducks and swans
in the lake. When the weather decided to heat up, the girls found a
bench in the shade to sit and talk.

But there was something nagging at the back of Raven\'s mind, like she
felt something out of place but didn\'t know what it was. She looked
around and saw nothing, but it still bothered her. Someone was
watching them. Or something. Whichever it was, it wasn\'t done with
the best of interests. To get out oe che chill of this stare, Raven
asked Usagi if she wanted to go out to lunch somewhere, which she knew
she\'d get a yes out of. She tried to hurry out of the park, but yet
not too much to arouse her suspicions. There was too much of that
already.

***************************************

\"Oh, is that for me?\" she spoke in a false coquettish voice.

\"It\'s only a little thing compared to the beauty of your face,\" he
whispered, holding out the jewelry box to her.

She took the box out of his hand without lifting a finger. With a
blink, the lid popped open, revealing the diamond encrusted broach
inside. She examined her new bauble, and frowned when she saw it had
the emblem of The Holy Royal Family of The Moon, brought out with
rubies, a sapphire, an emerald, and a topaz. But regardless she
closed her fingers around the broach and asked, \"Where did you get
this, darling?\"

\"I saw something like that on a different woman, and I thought that I
could present you with one better than she had.\"

She thought for a moment. \"What did this woman look like, hmm?\"

The man bowed his head, \"She was no comparison to you, my ess.ess. In
fact, she couldn\'t be more than a teenager, hardly any concern to
you.\"

The woman placed the tip of her finger under his jaw to tilt his eyes
directly to hers. \"I want to know what she looks like. Is that too
much to ask?\" Her eyes flashed with an inner light, making him want
to run away. She dug her fingers into his face to keep him from
moving. Probing into his mind, she could make out the girl. Long
blonde hair tied up in tails with the symbols of the moon piled up on
top of them. Large blue eyes, a tiny figure starting to come out of
her teenager awkwardness. There was no doubt to her that this was the
daughter of this system\'s Goddess, Serenity. A Goddess that was the
last to fall to the might of another, the Goddess she served,
Metallia. She knew Metallia was obliterated, while Serenity resides
now in the true realm of the Gods. And she hated them for that.

She knew everything that happened, because she was the right hand of
Metallia, almost a daughter to her. She never liked Metallia choice
of the human avatar, Beryl, because she was the high priestess of the
reigning Goddess. Regardless, Metallia saw enough hatred and betrayal
in her heart and used her. She accepted her Goddess\' decision. Their
mission was a success, except they didn\'t count on Serenity\'s usage of
her Heart Crystal, what they call now the Silver Empyrean Crystal.
Metallia and her court were sent and locked into another dimension,
possibly the first gate of Hades because it wasn\'t hard for them to
gain supporters. Metallia was weakened, so she sealed herself in a
cocoon of sorts for her to rest. Beryl turned Hades into a home for
herself and gathered followers there. She, in the meantime, went into
sleep until she heard her Goddess burst out her shell. She watched as
Metallia absorbed the form of Beryl until the two were
indistinguishable from their former selves. And the little would-be
Goddess destroyed them both in one shot.

Since then, she swore to rid this system of this Goddess. But then,
while she sent out her feelers for the offspring of Serenity, they
uncovered another Goddess. This one came from a different galaxy, one
very far from this one. How she ever came here is a mystery, but this
didn\'t matter. What mattered was that this Goddess was fueled with
anger and vengeance, but yet was on the side of Love. It made no
sense to her in any case, but she knew she had to get rid of them.

She let go of his face. He gasped for air like his breath was held
far too long. Such was a side effect of this spell, but she always
charmed them again so they could be her servants. Human males are
always weak, and she used their weakness to aid her in her mission.
Once he recovered, she sat back in her throne and smiled darkly. \"Who
is your Goddess?\"

\"You alone,\" he responded, sounding like a school boy reciting to the
class.

\"Who is your sole reason for living?\"

\"You alone.\"

\"Then complete this task for me, even if it costs your life.\"

\"So you say, so it is done.\"

\"I want you to find the wearer of this broach. You will know it is
her because you will feel the power it contains inside. Bring her to
me, alive. Harm her if you must, but she must remain alive. If you
succeed, you will be greatly rewarded. Fail, and die. Understood?\"
The man nodded his head once. Her smile widened, the fangs gleaming
in the half light. \"Do as you are told.\" With a wave of her hand, a
portal opened and the man walked through it.

***************************************************

\"It\'s a good thing I\'ve still got some money, I can\'t believe you can
pack all this in.\" Laid out on a table, the remaif a f a pizza, some
fries, and a half full glass of a chocolate shake (third helping)
remained on her plate. \"Usagi, how do you not gain weight?\"

\"I\'m active,\" she said smiling as she downed the last of the shake.
\"Have to keep strength up.\"

\"You and Mamoru that busy, huh?\" Raven asked, raising one eyebrow.

Usagi looked at her blankly. \"Nani?\" Then it hit her, and she
blushed a deep red. \"No!! No!! Not that!\"

\"Relax, I\'m only joking. Well, are you ready to go?\"

\"What about dessert?\"

Both her eyebrows shot up into her bangs. \"Where do you intend to put
it?\"

\"I still have room,\" as she patted her stomach.

Raven sighed. \"Go ahead, but none for me.\"

As Usagi tried to grab the attention of their waitress, Raven stared
out the window. The afternoon was growing late and people were
rushing home from work. Cars were piled up at the signal and she
could see the people growing increasingly frustrated in the heat. As
the signal changed and the cars pulled away, she noticed a man
standing across the street in a raincoat. Something\'s not right about
this, she thought. The sunglass covered eyes seemed to hit hers at
that moment, burrowing into her. She held her breath as the ice
poured through her veins. Usagi saw her staring out the window, her
face frozen with fear. She reached over and shook Raven\'s shoulder to
wake her up. \"Raven, what is it?\" she asked. She seemed to snap out
of it, turned to look at her, then back out the window. The man was
gone.

\"I . . . I don\'t know. There was a man standing out there, and now
he\'s gone. There was something wrong about him, but I don\'t know
what.\" She turned back to her. \"I think we\'re being followed.\"

Her blue eyes widened. \"Followed. By who?\"

\"I don\'t know, but he looked like the same guys that came in and shot
up the restaurant. We better go home.\"

\"Police?\" she asked.

\"I don\'t think they can help us. They\'d rather lock up me for
suspicion rather than this character. We better go.\"

Usagi nodded. If there was anything that could take her mind off of
food, danger is one of them. They grabbed their coats, paid their
bill, and hopped into her car, taking the long way back to her
apartment. Raven kept checking her rear view mirror, but no one
followed them. Relieved, they parked in the underground ramp and went
upstairs.

Mamoru was back, and he was watching the news when the elevator
brought them up. He turned around and walked over to the doorway.
\"Usagi, Raven, where have you been?\"

\"We went to the park and went out to eat,\" Usagi said after she gave
him a hug.

\"We were also being watched,\" Raven added.

His face darkened, \"By whom?\"

\"I don\'t know. In the park it felt like someone was watching us, but
I couldn\'t see anything out of the ordinary. Then, when we were
finishing up at the restaurant, there was a man across the street that
looked like the men that came in yesterday, and then when I looked
back he was gone. No one followed us back here, I made sure of that.
But we could be in trouble.\"

\"As long as you are both safe, that\'s all that matters.\"

\"Did anything else come up on the news?\" she asked as she took off her
jacket.

\"Nothing. All they said was the police were still looking for clues
and suspects.\" Mamoru helped Usagi out of her jacket and laid it on
the nearby chair. \"There\'s been no messages on the answering machine,
and I didn\'t see anyone following me today.\"

\"This is really odd, and you know I hate mysteries.\" Raven shook out
her hair and sat down at her kitchen table. Grabbing an orange out of
the bowl placed there, she stabbed her nails into the skin and ripped
the peel off. Usagi wanted to cringe, thinking that\'s what she could
do to a person.

Mamoru sat down across from her and laid a hand on hers. \"Take it
easy, we\'ll figure this out. Just calm down.\"

\"I can\'t calm down, now when all this is happening. I don\'t like
being threatened, and I don\'t like it when it could bring harm to my
friends. If I could catch the people responsible for this, I\'d rip
their heads off.\" To emphasize her meaning, she tore the orange in
half. \"I\'m upset and I have every right to be.\"

\"I didn\'t mean that. But it\'s not going to help anything. Look, I
was browsing through the paper and I saw this movie that looked
interesting. Let\'s go and see it, my treat. Might get your mind off
of all this.\"

She thought for a moment. \"Okay, there\'s a theater nearby so we don\'t
have to go too far. All right, I\'ll go. What do you think?\" she
asked Usagi.

\"Sure, I\'d love to go.\"

********************************************

\"That was pretty good, even though it got bad ratings.\"

\"Can\'t believe everything you read in the paper,\" he joked.

\"Really now,\" Raven laughed. Suddenly, that same chilled feeling went
through her and she stopped.

Usagi knew that look, something like Rei\'s when she sensed evil
nearby. \"Are they back?\" she whispered.

Raven nodded her head. \"Act like nothing\'s wrong, but keep your ears
open for anything.\" They continued on, moving farther away from the
people leaving the theater. But there were footsteps following them.
Only one set at least. Three can outwit one. With a nod, they
started to walk faster, the steps behind them quickening to match
them. They broke out into a run, so did their follower.

The three were running into a bad part of town, and they all could
feel the trouble they were getting into. Somewhere along the way,
Raven couldn\'t hear the others behind her. She stopped and turned
around. There was no one behind her, and she was alone on a strange
street.

*******************************************

\"Do you think that was wise leaving Raven-chan like that?\" Usagi said
between gasps.

\"I think this guy\'s after us,\" Mamoru said, just as winded as she was.
\"I hope she can find her way home.\" He grabbed her elbow and veered
quickly into an alley. As they flattened themselves against the wall,
they heard the man pass them. Usagi slid down the wall to sit on the
ground, while he bent over trying to catch his breath.

\"I think now\'s our chance,\" she whispered as she took out her broach.
She stood up and spoke thell.ell. \"Moon Crystal Power, Up! Up!\"

\"Let\'s go for it.\" He took out one of his roses and powered up.

******************************************

\"Usagi! Mamoru!\" she shouted. The only good it did was frighten an
alley cat. And, it seemed, that\'s not all it called out.

Twenty men came out of alleys and run down buildings. She spun around
and saw them, slowly surrounding her. Fear built in her that
surpassed the feeling she got from the mysterious follower. There was
nowhere to run. She could see the leer in their eyes, and the switch
blades flashing out of their pockets. There was no escape. I don\'t
want to die like this, her mind screamed.

Then, suddenly, she felt the fever rush through her, feeding off the
adrenaline in her body. Her eyes blanked as they started to glow with
inner power, slowly turning from gold to red, lighting up like a
cat\'s. With a will not of her own, she let the power consume her. A
sigil burned into the center of her forehead, a two-armed spiral
galaxy. Her body started to glow with red light as her clothes burned
away, and then resplended with the sailor-goddess uniform.

The men said nothing, did nothing. They were awestruck with the scene
played out in front of them. Some were frightened, but their peers
made them stay.

Raven\'s transformation was complete.

She was now The Goddess Celestia.

\"Shouldn\'t boys like you be home doing your schoolwork?\" she hissed.

\"We ain\'t no boys!\" the leader shouted. \"Your on our turf and now you
have to pay.\"

\"And you expect to accomplish this with those tiny things?\" She
raised her hand to the sky, and a hilt dropped into her hand. As she
clutched it tighter, a flame burst from it, forming the blade. Half
of the men jumped back just from the fire.

\"Who the hell are you?\" the leader shouted.

Celestia laughed darkly. \"Vengeance.\" She leaped into the air,
twisted around, and landed outside of their circle. As they tried to
recover from their shock, she took a deep breath and blew them down on
their backs. \"Stand up! I thought you were warriors!\" she taunted.

With growl few few got up fast and tried to rush her. She merely
laughed as she punched one in the stomach while she kicked the other
in the head. As they fell, more recovered and tried the same thing.
She took a swing with her sword, purposefully missing them.ey
ey
skidded to a halt a few inches from the jagged blade. \"Now how many
of you boys try to gang up on people? On women? Don\'t you know that
no matter how many people you terrorize or kill, there will always be
someone to exact punishment on you?\"

\"The cops can\'t touch us, they\'re afraid of us.\"

\"That\'s not what I mean. There are more of me than there are of you
hooligans. And many of us are sick of people like you. Savages in a
concrete jungle. Humanity is destined for so much more than this, and
you\'re holding up progress.\"

\"And what do you know, bitch!\"

\"I am a Goddess, mortal. I\'ve seen more and done more than any of you
ever will. Face it, I am your better and your elder. And each one of
you can be snuffed like a candle.\" Celestia\'s eyes narrowed, \"Anyone
like to try?\"

The leader stepped forward, flicked the cigarette from his fingers,
and took out a pair of knives. She smiled darkly, \"Nice to see
stupidity has reached your head. I hope you never procreate.\"

He lunged at her, knives pointed at her. She whipped out her sword,
the blade connecting with his, and flung him away. He landed in a
pile of garbage cans with a crash. He got up quickly and tried to
rush her again. She leaped in seconds, having him pass beneath her.
She landed like a cat while he ran into a telephone pole. His
followers were starting to snicker at this till he glared at them.

Celestia twirled her blade in front of her, forming a golden circle
dancing around her. \"Do I kill you now, or are you going to find a
reputation worthy of a king?\"

\"Go to hell,\" was all he muttered.

\"I think you\'ve got that backwards.\" Her eyes started to glow as she
prepared her spell.

***********************************************

Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask heard the fight going on down the street.
\"What\'s that?\"

\"I don\now,now, but we better check it out,\" he said, fear starting to
build on him. If anything happened to Raven, he thought, I\'ll never
forgive myself. He broke out in a run, his cape snapping in the wind.
Sailor Moon followed him.

As they neared the fight, a sight was there that made them both sick.
A group of men were starting to back away in horror, revealing Sailor
Celestia standing over a body laying in blood. With a horribly evil
smile on her face, she motioned to the dead body, as if calling it to
stand up. Something did. An ethereal form rose out of it, taking the
form of it\'s former life. \"Bow to the Goddess, mortal.\" It did so.
\"Guardian of the Gate,\" she shouted to the heavens, \"take this soul to
his judgment, and may it be fair and swift!\"

Sailor Moon clutched onto Tuxedo Mask\'s arm as what seemed to be an
angel swooped from the sky and scooped up the ghost and ascended back
into the sky. Tuxedo Mask held her tightly as she cried in fear. He
never seen anything like this before, not even in his previous lives.


\"Is there anyone that wants to join their comrade in judgment, or do
you want to continue living so that you can make a positive
difference?\" she offered the terrified men. They made no move against
her, many fell to their knees. Those who did took out some form of
prayer beads and started praying to various gods. Some prayed to her.
\"Turn your lives around and be a model of love and peace. That is the
greatest prayer you can ever offer to Us.\" And with that, she leaped
up and flew off into the heavens.

Tuxedo Mask took her off the side before they were spotted by the
refo gan gang. \"What is she? She does good, yet she kills people to
get her message across. I don\'t understand,\" Sailor Moon asked him.

\"I wish I knew what to tell you, Usako. She frightens me, too.\" They
stood in silence for a nt snt so they could calm down. \"We better
find Raven. Let\'s start for home, hopefully she\'ll be there.\" She
nodded as they powered down.

*********************************************

Raven woke up in her room, the window open and the breeze cooling off
her fever. She remembered vaguely what happened again, becoming this
warrior and fended for her life. A goddess of some sort, she thought.
\"This is too much for me. Am I losing my mind?\" Suddenly she sat up
in her bed. \"Usagi, Mamoru! They\'re still out there!\"

Just then, she heard the elevator approaching. She leapt out of bed
and ran into the main room. The door opened, and they stepped out of
the car. \"Thank god, you\'re all right!\" she shouted as she scooped
them both in a hug.

\"You all right? You safe?\" Usagi said as she was muffled by the hug.

\"Yes, I\'m fine.\" She loosened the hold on them. \"I\'m so glad we\'re
all safe.\"

\"We are safe,\" he said as he hugged them again.

For now . . . at least . . . I think . . . , Usagi thought.


To be continued....