Something About That Girl

By : Rhyaniwyn, Lady of Crying Shadows

Disclaimer: Sailor Moon and all associated characters are the exclusive property of Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha Ltd., Toei Animation, Co., Ltd. The English dub is copyright 1995 DiC.

Foreword: Yawn. My eyes hurt. I was rewrapping the lines on Parts II-IV. It took about half an hour and made my eyes sore. One positive thing came of it. I now know exactly where I want the lines to stop. Other than that... It was really a big waste of time.

Dedication: My poor sore eyes.

~Something About That Girl~ (Part V: Rei)

The trail of blood ended at Serena's prone body lying under a tree. Serena's breath rattled in her throat, chest hardly moving. Her abdomen and chest both were torn open and bled profusely. Luna could see the whiteness of her ribs exposed by the ragged slashes.

Serena's eyes fluttered open momentarily. "That thing had claws," she choked out as she came awake. "Find help?" She passed out again.

Luna was near to hysterics. She ran off blindly to find someone --anyone--to help Sailor Moon.

Rei Hino sat in front of the sacred fire. She couldn't see a thing, but she just KNEW something was wrong. Her vision slowly cleared and the fire showed her a shadowy figure lying under a tree. Rei felt a strange compulsion and, hands tingling, she called, "Grandpa? I'm going to the park for a little while!" She ran off before he could reply.

She walked toward the park briskly, and started to jog, her robes fly- ing out behind her, as the sense of urgency increased. Suddenly she went sprawling onto the ground. "What the?" she muttered. Hearing a disgruntled "meow" she glanced about to find a black cat glaring at her. It meowed again and nipped at her hand lightly then ran off in the direction Rei had been heading. Rei shrugged, instinctively following the strange cat. Rei actually ran past the girl, before noticing that the cat had stopped behind her. She turned around and saw the girl lying completely still under a tree. Rei gasped and kneeled beside her. "Are you okay?" she asked. "What happend to you?" As she removed the girl's mask, her eyes fluttered open for a moment, then closed again. "What beautiful eyes!" Rei exclaimed in a muted whisper. She lowered her voice further, "If the eyes are the window to the soul, then this girl has a lovely one." Rei's hands moved briskly, but gently over the girl, inspecting her wounds and noticing that she was wearing a slightly strange outfit. It was ripped all over and covered in some slimy black substance. As she watched, the mucusy matter began to bubble, and the cloth became burning hot under her hands. "Ouch!" Suddenly the substance was gone and, miraculously, the girl's clothes began to knit back together, tiny threads glowing silver as they rejoined. "But her skin isn't," she noticed. "I've got to help her before the cloth completely reknits. I can't very well rip it, obviously, and I don't have scissors. There's no way to get this thing off, either."

"You have to do something quickly, before her uniform reforms completely," Luna said, "The black substance is keeping her power from regenerating her. Her uniform burned it off, but her skin can't do that."

Rei started to nod, then stared suspicously at the cat. "How come you can talk?" she demanded.

"Don't worry about that, that's not important right now. Help Sailor Moon!"

Rei sat back. How could she move the uniform out of the way to look at the girl's--Sailor Moon's?--wounds? She couldn't very well burn it off with sacred fire! The tingling in her hands turned to a chapped sensation. Well, for lack of anything better, she thought. She lay her hands on the girl's chest, and concentrated on burning off the black slime, but only the slime... In a cloud of steam, the sludge dissapeared. "Ha!" she crowed triumphantly, not noticing the red light emitting from the symbol on her forehead.

"Mars..." Luna whispered..

Suddenlly, a swirling hole of black appeared in the night sky. Out of it stepped a monster. It resembled a spider streched into a grusome human form. "I am Arachnia," it hissed, "I have come for this... Sailor Moon child. Please move away from her, mortal."

Trembling a little inside, but knowing for certain that she could not allow this...thing...to get the girl, she jumped up, eyes blazing. "No, I will not move. You can eat...Well, bugs! If you think you can take her without getting past me first." she challenged. "Not that I'm overly formidable or anything..." she murmered worriedly. Something about this girl... She knew she had to protect her.

Apparantly Luna had heard her doubts. "Yes, actually you are!" Before Rei's mark had a chance to even fade in brilliance Luna cried, "You are Mars!"

Mars? There was something pricking at her memory... *Mars Power Make- up!* something cried inside her. "Mars Power Make-up!" Rei yelled defiantly. A transformation pen formed in her hand. The mark blazed, and streams of red light poured from the matching symbol on the pen to form rings of fire around her. Rei was now Sailor Mars.

Luna cried out, "Just like the sacred fire of the priestess, you control the spirit of the fire. You are the warrior of fire, Sailor Mars."

"Well, hey, I like fire!" Rei said confidently. "Burning Mandala!"

The creature dodged. "Man, it's pretty fast. I've got to slow it down some. Hmmm... Can I use my priestess charms at the same time as the Mars power? It's worth a try!---I call upon the power of Mars to banish this evil creature. Mars fireballs charge!" She tossed the oufada at Arachnia, now charged with Mars firepower. The creature froze, now was her chance. "Burning Mandala!" It shrieked as it was consumed by fire.

The girl had gotten up at some point in the fight and Rei turned toward her to wink.

'She's so beautiful,' Serena thought, wishing she had hair like that. "Thank you so much," she said.

"No problem," she replied, "My name's Rei."

"I'm Serena."

They shook hands and Rei paused for a moment. Images in her head... A black-haired man, a pink-haired girl... A Queen? There was a crystal palace surrounded by a multi-colored shield... Blue, red, green and a yellow-orange. 'What?' Rei thought, 'this isn't like my other visions...' "I've got to go, " Rei said, "I live at the Cherry Hill temple. I'm a priestess-in-training there. Come to see me tomorrow."

End Part IV

Afterword: Till we meet again.