Sailor Moon: Hidden Memories

Chapter 10

Tanya slowly made her way to her locker as she yawned, covering her mouth. It was just after the first period and still very early, and the girl was very sleepy. She and her cousin Anna had spent almost all night talking with Marco and Dief about the recent battle at Central Park the other day. They did more research and readings on Alexi, who was Anna's little sister during the Silver Millennium, and came to understand what befell the little girl. Once again, the girls cried at the cruel fate that was passed to the girl, as she was killed during a surprise attack by the enemy known as the Meerages, named after their king.

Anna had whispered that she wished Alexi would have been reborn like she, Tanya, and the other Sailor Senshi were so that she could have grown up with a little sister. Tanya nodded in agreement, knowing personally all too well how lonely it was to be an only child and without a mother. They tried to figure out how and why Alexi's voice came to Anna as the taller girl explained how she was encouraged to help Tevra, but after so many hours and barely any sleep, they still had no clue. Finally they went to bed feeling just as confused as when they started.

Tanya sighed as she gathered the books she would need for her next class and closed her locker with a soft bang. A whole crowd of students where passing by her throughout the halls, hurrying off to their next assigned class and talking loudly with each other. Within moments, the halls began to clear as the late bell rang. Suddenly, three figures walked up to the shorter girl just as she was about to turn away and head to her next class. They quickly backed her up against her locker and prevented her from going anywhere.

"Well, well, lookie here! If it isn't the little brown monkey!" sneered a tall blonde girl with cruel, piercing green eyes. The other two girls with her snickered and folded their arms across their chest. One girl had long, red hair that fell past her waist and had blue eyes, while the other had dark brown hair that was styled in a bun.

The blonde girl laughed cruelly and leaned into Tanya's face. "Face it monkey, you and your people don't belong here. Why don't you go back to the bushes where you belong?" This made the other girls laugh more, and Tanya could feel her heart pounding hard as she clutched her books closer to her chest. She gulped and looked up in fear at the tall blonde girl. She then blinked in confusion, as she didn't know why a student she barely knew would call her a monkey. Then a thought hit her. Maybe she wasn't calling her a monkey. Maybe she was mistaken. She swallowed again and tried to make sense of it all.

"Monkey? I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about. Do you have a monkey? You seem to know a lot about them..." Tanya tried to look around to see if anybody would help her sort this all out, but the halls had already emptied.

The girl's mouth dropped open in shock and surprise at what Tanya said, and her two followers could do nothing but stare at Tanya for a moment, then covered their mouths as they desperately tried to hold in the laughter from her comment.

Before Tanya could say anymore and try to clear up the situation, the taller girl, her eyes flaring with rage, pushed her heavily against the locker, nearly making her drop her books. "What was that? You think you're so funny, don't you, you little ni..."

"HEY!"

Suddenly, all heads turned to a tall, dark-skinned figure walking down the hall towards them.

"Anna!" Relief like no other flooded through Tanya then, and she nearly fell to her knees with the feeling of it. Anna walked with a confident stride up to the group and fixed the blonde girl with a hard stare.

"Rachel Wilson, I should have known," Anna said with contempt. She narrowed her eyes at her long time gymnastics rival. "Didn't I warn you to leave my cousin alone? She has nothing to do with anything between us," She stepped closer to the Southern bred girl and balled her fists. "This is going to be the last time I'm telling you this; LEAVE US ALONE! I'm warning you, leave now, or you'll be sorry..." Her eyes narrowed again dangerously.

But the blonde girl threw back her head and laughed loudly, not frightened at all. "Oh, and what are you going to do, fight me? Go ahead, get expelled so you can't be there for me to whoop your butt in the gymnastics finals later today! HA! What a delight! Go ahead, I dare you! Take a shot!" For emphasis, the pale girl thrust her chin out for Anna to hit, daring and challenge shining in her eyes. For years she held in the disgust and hate for the taller dark skinned girl before her. She hated how Anna beat her in nearly all of the competitions to qualify for the finals. She hated how ANNA was the popular girl in school because of her winnings, and not her! Rachel had forced herself to train grueling hours to beat Anna in a competition, sometimes to the point of over exhaustion, but Anna always seemed to come out on top, always seemed to beat her in everything, even grades, and she herself always came in second. But no more. She was not going to lose to a...a FREAK like her again, and if this was the only way to do it, then so be it!

Anna's right fist trembled from wanting to hit the girl so badly, to finally teach her a lesson that she would never forget. For a second, just one tiny second, she considered doing it, and even slightly raised her hand to do so. But then at that moment she turned to look at Tanya, who was looking at her with wide, confused eyes. Although Anna was only a little over two months older than her, she knew Tanya looked up to her a lot, and at that moment, she knew she couldn't stoop to a level so low as to fight just because of what someone said. Anna shook her head as she stepped back, and was about to tell Tanya it was time to go when a nun from the school suddenly walked up, shaking a ruler at them and clucking her tongue in indignation.

"What's all this? What's going on here? Why aren't you all in class?" The old woman seemed to hobble slowly before them, her small blue eyes darting back and forth between the girls.

Anna could only breath out a sigh of relief at the intrusion. "N..nothing Sister Ruth. We're going, please excuse us...," Anna quickly took her cousin's hand, and before they hurried off, she gave one last look of warning at Rachel and her followers. She narrowed her eyes and gave a dark look that said "this better be the last time!"

"HMMPH!" Rachel flipped her long hair over her shoulder, and with a snap of her fingers, turned and walked down the other way down the hall, the two girls following her like trained dogs.

With a light bow to the nun as they rushed past her, Anna hurriedly led Tanya towards their next classroom, the nun following not too far behind. The smaller girl looked up at her cousin with questioned filled eyes, "Anna, I don't understand. Why did she...how could she...say those things..."

Before she could ask anymore, Anna sighed and shook her head to stop her. "It's a long story, but don't worry about it. Sometimes, it's just sad at how some people just WANT to be ignorant. It's even sadder that such ignorance is taught in certain homes,"

Tanya looked at her with even more confusion at those words, but Anna shook her head to end the discussion and both went into their second class of the day.

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Arctic Circle: The North Pole

In the spaceship tucked away neatly in the depths of the frozen Arctic Circle in the North Pole, Valera smiled cruelly at the sight before her. Sitting in front of her was the former Dark Kingdom General, Onyx. But he certainly wasn't comfortable nor seemed a famed general anymore. Attached atop his head was a large mind controlling machine, built to reprogram and control even the most resistant mind. Valera had anticipated that somehow, something would compromise Onyx's loyalty to the plan, and for this reason she had kept the device secret. She had found it in one of the many secret chambers in Queen Beryl's former frozen fortress, through the guidance of the holographic image of King Meerages. It was the same device that was used to first turn Onyx from the noble Tevra he once was back in the Silver Millennium to the evil, cold-hearted warrior he was in this century.

When the woman brought back Onyx unconscious from the battle in Central Park, she knew what she had to do; turn him back to her side before their plan fell apart! Valera rubbed her hands greedily as she watched the lights from the machine blink on and off.

It was large and slightly mushroom shaped that covered most of his face, and had many wires connected to his eyes, face, and neck. Each of the many lights that were surrounding the device blinked quickly as information poured into the man's mind, erasing what little memories he had of the past and filling it with false images. Onyx was barely able to move as pain shot through his body. His hands were strapped to the armrests by thick black ropes, as was his feet to the chair's front legs.

Valera smirked again in satisfaction and walked around Onyx in a slow, suggestive circle, softly caressing her hand across his shoulders as she did so. She had left the device on him for days now, and she was certain everything was back to normal. At least, as normal as being him an evil warrior for the Dark Kingdom. He had to be by now...no one was able to resist the mind transformer, and Tevra was no exception to the rules.

She looked him up and down and flipped her green hair over her shoulder. "So, tell me, who are you, and who do you pledge your allegiance to?" Valera asked, her voice low and husky.

For a few moments, the man could only gurgle unintelligable words, then he took a deep shaky breath and answered "T..Tevre..I am.."

"NOO!" screamed Valera, going to stand in front of him as her eyes blazed red. "You are Onyx, and your allegiance is to King Meerages, Queen Beryl, and the Dark Kingdom!" So furious was she that some spittle began to fly out her mouth. Valera narrowed her eyes and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, then fought hard to compose herself. Well, it looked like this would take longer than she expected. But no matter. He will be evil again, no matter what. Once she was calmer a few moments later, she turned to look at him again. "You will be turned back to Onyx! Even if you have to DIE in the process," the woman hissed. The dark-skinned man, unaware of what she just said as he couldn't hear then, shivered from the cold.

Valera balled her hands into fists and continued to walk around Onyx. She touched a small button in the side of the machine on his head, and the lights from the tiny bulbs began to blink faster and faster. Onyx screamed loudly as the pain in his head increased and information that would have killed a normal person poured heavily into his mind. Sweat trailed down his body and face as electric sparks flashed around him. When the electric shocks dissipated and he finished screaming, he panted heavily, his breath making a thick fog in the unforgiving cold of the room.

"Now, let's try this again, shall we?" Valera smiled sweetly as she leaned over again and lightly traced her finger along the man's strong jaw line. "Who are you, and who do you pledge your allegiance to?" She straightened up and waited for his answer.

The tall man gulped and took in another deep breath before he answered. "I...I am..O..Onyx. I s...serve Queen..Beryl, and the...the...Dark Kingdom..." The pain proved too much for him, and his head dropped to his chest in exhaustion.

Valera reached over and lifted his chin up with her finger. "Good, I knew you'd get it sooner or later," she smirked. She took her hand away and let his head drop back on his chest. "Now, be a dear and stay where you are. There's a little business I need to attend to before I'm finish with you; like gathering the Sirius and Polaris Star stones and destroying those two pesky Sailor Senshi once and for all. And this time, with both Star stones, I'll destroy ALL the Sailor Senshi!" The green-haired woman gave a loud, shrill laughter, and with a shimmer in the air, she disappeared.

Seconds after she left, the pain-filled man lifted his head and a lone tear fell and trailed down his dark cheek as he sobbed softly.

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Anna quickly made her way through the small park in front of the Catholic high school. She wanted to be one of the first contestants in the gymnastics competition to arrive at the world renowned Madison Square Garden. She was allowed to leave school early today because of it, and she knew Rachel would be on her way there as well. She just didn't want to meet up with her at all, and being there first would be the best way to avoid the cruel girl. She turned to look to her left and saw with surprise that she was alone. She sighed and turned around to look behind her. When she saw her cousin walking slowly behind, she rolled her eyes.

"Tanya, come on! You know I want to be the first one there so I can get some practice in. Let's go!" the girl said in annoyance.

She waited until the shorter girl caught up with her, and was about to scold her when she looked into her eyes. It was still filled with sadness and slight tears. "Tanya, what's wrong?" Anna asked in concern.

"Oh, ahhh, nothing, really. It's just...I..." Tanya's voice faltered as she still couldn't comprehend the scene that happened earlier that day. It bothered her to no end, and she didn't know how she would deal with it if it ever happened to her again. Never in her life had smaller dark-skinned girl had to deal with someone hating her just for the color of her skin. In her country of Libya, such things were hardly ever considered, since so many races from other countries and shades of Black people lived there. But from what Tanya could see, there were just as many races living here in America too, yet their attitude about racial issues were so different...and so confusing.

Anna gave one look at her cousin's face and knew what she was thinking. She walked up to her, smiling gently. "Hey, don't worry about it. People like Rachel, they miss out on special things when they accept only one way of thinking. All we can do is just go on with our lives and not let them get to us. It's like what Eleanor Roosevelt once said; 'No one has the right to make you feel inferior without your authority.' Besides, I'll be there for you whenever you're in trouble, okay?" She gave her cousin a soft hug.

"Right," smiled Tanya, feeling a lot better as she hugged back.

Anna gave a soft giggle and pushed the smaller girl ahead of her. "But we'll still be late if we don't hurry! Come on, I told my dad to forget about the ride in the limousine to show him I can be there on time on my own! He and Leslie are probably on their way by now. Coach Mason too, so hurry!"

Tanya nodded and walked on. Behind her, Anna smiled mischievously. She bent down and scooped up a handful of snow, then made it into a ball. Since there was a snowstorm the other night, there was nearly 5 feet of snow on the ground, and Anna decided to take full advantage of it.

"Oh Tanyaaaa," the taller girl sang out playfully. When Tanya turned around, she was hit full force in the face with a cold snowball. She was so surprised that she fell over right into a mound of freshly shoveled snow. Anna pointed and laughed out loud as the shorter girl struggled to sit up, not expecting such a funny turn out.

"Why you...!" snarled Tanya. She shook the snow off her face when she finally stood up, then scooped a handful of snow of her own. Anna gave a shriek and tore off out of the park and down the street. For the whole while on the way to the subway to take them downtown, the girls laughed happily and threw snowballs at each other, drawing funny stares from everyone as they rushed by. Silently in her heart Anna was glad she as able to make her cousin forget her troubles for now...and just smile again.

Soon, they reached the large Madison Square Garden building and hurried inside after showing some I.D. Once past the turn style and through the doors, the girls parted ways. Anna headed towards the make-shift locker room and changed, while Tanya went to the audience section to look for her aunt and uncle. She spotted them after a few minutes, and waited along with them for the tournament to start as the contestant girls came out to get some last minute practices with the assistance of their respective coaches.

Moments later, Anna came out in her lucky leotard and began doing some practice flips and moves to the cheers of Tanya. Anna had just finished doing a double flip when Rachel and her followers walked up to her, a smug smile on their lips. "Hey freak. So are you ready to lose this tournament? There's no way I'm losing to you today." she smirked.

Anna narrowed her eyes and her lips thinned, but before she could reply, there was suddenly a flicker of lights. It went out completely a second later and was followed by loud screams as the whole building was plunged into darkness. Seconds later, the lights went back on, and Valera floated high in the air, laughing loudly as her eyes glowed an evil red blaze. "Ahhh, such young energy and hope. And it's all mine now!"

The competing girls that were practicing all screamed and cowered in fear as Valera raised her hands and prepared to fire.

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To Be Continued

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