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KOKOMOJOE@COMPUSERVE.COM
110604,2436
INSPIRATIVE QUOTE:"Yes, that is a gun in my pocket, and yes, I'm happy to see
you." Kaneda
brings you...
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-=> - S A I L O R M O O N - <=-
/ / / | | | \ \ \
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Part 3 of the Sailor Moon: What if it went like this? series
While I admit that in parts 1 and 2, I said there would only be two
parts, I guess I hadn't expected the intensity of the story! So here is part
3, and there may be more parts to come...
This chapter takes place entirely in Alan's apartment, with the
exception of one flashback scene of last chapter, and a little in between.
Hope you like it!
Enjoy!
PART THREE: Good one, Shaggy!
"Ohhhhh...," she said, "...I feel like I just ate a sausage the size
of a sidewinder missile..." Serena forced her eyes open and was straining
to focus. She sat up and looked around. She was in a dimly lit room, sitting
on a navy blue leather loveseat. The room looked only vaguely familiar, with
a circular glass coffee table, bookshelves set into the wall, and sophis-
ticated forest-green walls. Her head was throbbing viciously, so she decided
to forfeit trying to recall this room in her mind. She rested her hand on her
head in dismal thought to find a band of gauze wrapped around her skull. She
caught a glance or herself in the reflection of the coffee table and saw the
gauze on her head was spotted with blood. Upon seeing this she let out a
soft gasp of despair. "What happened to me?", she thought to herself, "And
why does trying to recall it hurt so?". Through the slotted blinds and out
the window, Serena could see the bright lights of rooms in apartment buil-
dings making a maze of little bright dots in the fresh twilight of a set sun.
Serena instinctively went to sneak a look at her watch, which she wore under
her wrist at all times. To her surprise, she found it broken and the glass
shattered. She also noticed the unfamiliarity of the puffed sleeve that co-
vered her arm. She pulled the garment with her hand to see that it was a
cream-colored sweater with a simple, yet fascinating pattern of blues and
greens. For a moment, she wondered why she was wearing such a sweater. She
didn't own anything like that, but it seemed to fit her so well. Then she
decided to embrace its warm fleeciness, thinking that it must have been hers,
she just couldn't recall it due to her aching brain.
Just then, a silhouette of a friendly figure came into the room,
backlit by a hallway light that had just been turned on. "Ami?", Serena
whimpered, "Is that you?"
"Yes, it's me. How are you feeling?", Ami asked.
"I don't know. My whole body aches, especially my head. Why can't I remember
what happened to me?", Serena complained.
"Can you walk? Come on into the kitchen with me, we were really worried about
you.". Ami helped Serena up.
Serena felt a sharp pain in her knee when she straightened her leg.
"Ooh..." Ami put Serena's arm across her shoulders and helped her along.
From the kitchen, Mina could hear Ami talking to Serena.
"Easy does it, Serena. Try not to think about it..." Mina's eyes widened.
"Hey guys," Ami gasped, catching a breath, "look who decided to join us."
At that instant, everyone in the room turned their head to see Serena limp
through the doorway, guided closely by Ami.
"Whoa, Serena, you don't look so hot.", commented Lita, who was sitting at
the close end of the table.
Serena panned around the kitchen. At the table sat Lita and Mina, the two
cats Luna and Artemis were sitting on the table not far from a pot of hot
tea. In the kitchen, segregated by a counter with a row of pots, pans and
other cooking utensils hanging on the ceiling, were Raye and Alan.
"My head hurts so much... And my knee, and my... WHAT THE HELL IS
GOING ON HERE? What's Alan doing here?". She forgot about her pain for a
moment, and put her arms behind her and against the wall, so she was leaning.
"It's okay, it's okay, Serena... Alan's no harm..." Raye blurted. Serena was
in no less panic. She eyed Alan from his back, at which time he paused,
lowered his head and sighed, and then returned to his task of searching the
cupboards for something. Serena slowly sat down on a chair in the corner,
feeling the wall with her palm all the way down. "I'm confused... I want to
know what's going on.", she said. At times like this Serena's heart would be
racing a mile a minute, but as nasty as the situation seemed, inside she felt
compelled to be relaxed. She didn't let her guard down as she kept staring at
Alan, who was still busily scanning the shelves.
"Serena, I want you to listen to me, and listen to me good."
Serena was looking at Luna with her head perched in her hands, and her elbows
on the table. "Do you have any recollection of the events that occurred a few
hours ago?", Luna asked, in a commanding tone of voice.
"Like I already said, Luna, no, I can't recall anything from the point we
arrived at Raye's Grandfather's temple."
"Then you must listen to me as I explain to you what happened."
Luna told Serena of their plan to maliciously assault Alan right in his own
apartment, which she was sitting in at the moment. She explained how they
boarded a commuter bus, how Lita decapitated Guido Anchovy, and how they
found Ann and Alan on the bus. "Then,", Luna said, "We got the idea to keep
Alan and Ann from meeting their destination by distracting them. In order to
lower their guard, you went over to Alan and started to ...uh... arouse him.
Lita called Ann over to where they were seated and knocked Ann out of com-
mission."
Then, Luna explained to Serena, in close detail, what happened after
that. "You kissed Alan.", she explained. "You kissed him, and something hap-
pened to you."
"I...think I remember feeling the warmest, most pleasant feeling I've ever
felt in my life.", Serena interrupted, "I felt so powerful and happy, and
energetic, too. I felt like it had a source in my body right here.".
Serena rested her hand on her chest, just below her bosom and above her
stomach. Alan was paying close attention to what Serena was saying, and when
Serena spoke of where the pleasant feeling came from in her body, Alan looked
at his own chest, and trailed back to Serena, with no expression on his face.
It was afternoon. Ann lay unconscious in the seat of a bus cruising
down a large boulevard in a beautiful sun-filled Tokyo. While children played
happily in a residential park to one side of the street, weekend-dressed men
sat on benches, conversing with each other and quietly reading newspapers and
mangas on the other side. It was a typical early Saturday afternoon.
But that wasn't what was occupying Alan at the time. Alan sat on that bus,
receiving the most strange, yet enjoyable kiss. He always had a secret admir-
ation for Serena, something common to Earth as a "crush". He was in a vege-
tated lustful world of his own where all that existed were him and Serena, in
an ocean of black. All of a sudden, as if the world had jumped, he felt the
amazingly bold tingle of his subconscious telling him of what Serena was to
him. He could hear Serena's fair voice tell him about everything she had ever
known, and he wanted Serena to feel the same way too. Somehow, even Ann
hadn't seemed to fit the picture of his life, and all that was to be thought
was visions of Serena accompanying him for the rest of his life, and even
though he knew it just wasn't possible, he couldn't help but think of these
visions as real. It puzzled him, and made him wonder what made him think so
fondly of Serena in the first place. He felt that if these visions would not
come to exist, there would be no reality for Alan and that he, himself would
cease to exist. And so he wished with all his heart that somehow, these vis-
ions would come true. Somehow.
Serena had broken away from the kiss, and Alan felt the environment
of his real surroundings flood him again. He opened his eyes to see Serena
looking at him with great fondness and a hint of amazement. She was smiling,
and her friends were baffled at why she was smiling so. Ann had seen almost
all of this, and she was bitterly shocked. Ann was not the type to let this
kind of thing slide. "Now we're gonna get it...", Alan thought to himself.
He wanted to warn Serena, but he wasn't sure if Serena should know what Alan
and Ann really were. Ann's human facade had faded away in a spray of raw
electricity. She had suspicions of Alan being untrue, and now knowing that
her instinct had not lied to her, she was torn bitter with hatred.
Without saying a word, she let loose an orb of pure energy rushing to
the front of the bus, blowing away the front end and causing the bus to tip
onto its side and come to a stop in the middle of the road. Ann jumped out
of a window and came to rest hovering an inch off the ground a few yards away
from the bus. She let out a blood-curdling scream of disgust and hatred, and
sent a huge beam of energy surging toward the bus. The bus exploded, killing
its cargo instantly. She eyed the flaming wreckage. Then, she heard an all-
too-familiar taunt coming from a rooftop behind her.
"That'll be quite enough, scumbag!"
She turned around, looked up, and gasped to see the assembled Sailor Scouts,
and their leader, Sailor Moon.
"Looks like we finally found our quarry, isn't that right, Ann Granger!?"
Sailor Moon valiantly stepped forward, and went into her monotonous speech.
"I am Sailor Moon, Champion of justice. On behalf of the Moon, I will right
wrongs and triumph over evil. And that means you. You better be ready to get
your atoms rearranged, cause your ass is mine, witch!"
Sailor Moon's unexpectedly blasphemous call of battle made Sailor Mercury
raise an eyebrow. "Was that really necessary?" she asked Sailor Moon.
Just then, something caught Ann's attention. It was Alan, alive, kicking, and
in his true form leaning against a lamppost. "Alan! How could you do such a
thing?! You said that I would always be the only one for you!! Now you'll
pay, you two-timing bastard!!!"
"You always were a rotten little bitch...", Alan sneered at Ann. He seemed to
have lost all affection for Ann.
"Alan!! You were all I had in life!! Prepare to DIE!!!"
Ann generated a mass of green energy between her fingers and shot it at Alan.
The bolt came speeding towards Alan, and shattered as it came near him. Alan
had created a force field of sorts around himself. He looked up at the roof-
top where Sailor Moon had been to see that she had disappeared, and he found
her hovering ten feet in the air over Ann. Alan realized that Serena and
Sailor Moon were one and the same; when she kissed him he could sense it.
Sailor Moon had an overpowering feeling of contempt. She saw what Ann
had tried to do to Alan, and Sailor Moon felt as if Alan was a part of her-
self. All her newfound energy seemed to surge forward at Ann and tell
Serena's subconscious to react in anger at what she had just witnessed.
The energy seduced her. Sailor Moon lifted her arm, setting it aglow with
green electricity, and swiped it across the ground where Ann was standing.
Sailor Moon let out a loud, sinister laugh as a wave of dark energy attacked
Ann, leaving her tattered, injured and weak. Ann shrieked and looked at Alan,
who was calmly standing on the other side of the road, watching intently, and
looked at Sailor Moon, laughing down at her and moving in for the final blow.
Sailor Moon paused for a moment, glared at Ann's body, and finally said,
"Die."
She raised her arms and an orb of bright green energy engulfed Ann, and faded
away. All that was left was a mound of charred, blackened ash. Sailor Moon
floated gently to the ground and looked around the street.
The other Sailor Scouts ran up behind Sailor Moon and were shocked to
have seen what had happened.
"Sailor Moon! What'd you do to Ann?!", Sailor Venus asked.
"I... guess I... killed her.", Sailor Moon said in amazement.
"I'll say. Hey, since when can you fly?", Sailor Mars was surprised to see
how Sailor Moon defeated Ann.
"I don't know... It was like I was so angry, I lost control... That green
energy I was using... It looked so...."
"Evil?", Sailor Mercury perked.
"...Yeah... but I'm not evil...", Sailor moon looked at her hand, which just
seconds before was steeping with dark energy.
"Well, the fight was won pretty easily, thanks to Sailor Moon..." added
Sailor Venus. "That's not a bad thing... Is it?"
"Maybe you just discovered some new powers...", Sailor Jupiter said.
"Maybe... but I don't want to lose control like that anymore...", Sailor Moon
replied, "...It didn't seem like I cared whether Ann was bad or good."
"But what about Alan?", Sailor Mars asked.
"Wait just a second now, I don't want any fight.", a voice was heard to say.
Sailor Moon swung around to see Alan walking slowly towards them, in his true
form.
"Alan! Explain yourself! Why do you drain the life energy from the people of
this city?!", Sailor Mercury shouted.
"Alan...", whispered Sailor Moon.
"I can explain everything."
"Alan!", Sailor Moon exclaimed, "What did you do to that pretty young girl on
the bus when she kissed you?"
Alan laughed fondly. "It's okay, Serena, I know it's you. I know who all of
you are now. And for that, you can thank Serena."
Sailor Moon's jaw dropped. All the other Sailor Scouts gave Sailor Moon a
confused look.
"In fact, you can all come over to our...my apartment and we can share expla-
nations. I'm just as curious as you are." Alan looked at Sailor Moon, who
looked back in amazement.
"What is he talking about? It's got to be a trap.", Sailor Mars told Sailor
Moon. "It's in your hands."
"Well... we know who Alan is, and he knows who we are... he doesn't seem like
he has any grudge against us, so why should we be afraid? We're on a level
playing field... Besides, he asked us nicely...", Sailor Moon was thinking
of what she experienced on the bus. "Okay, we'll take your invitation. Just
remember that we're always prepared for trouble, you better hope there's
nothing nasty in store for us."
Alan took Sailor Moon's hand between his. "Thanks for the opportunity,", he
said, "to forgive myself."
Alan had just replayed all the events leading up to that moment. He
thought about it an awful lot. Then he walked out of the room and into his
messy study room.
"So, as we entered the apartment building, we transformed back into
our normal selves. And that's when you all noticed how injured I had gotten
in the bus crash.", Serena asked Luna.
"Precisely.", Luna replied. "That's when you blacked out."
Serena was astonished to hear Luna talk of all the stuff that had happened
earlier that day. She could make such a clear image of it all happening in
her mind. Then she realized her head didn't ache anymore. Alan came back into
the room, in his true form.
"Alan, what about Ann? Aren't you thinking of her?", Lita asked.
Alan sighed. "We were together for so long. We couldn't have been happier.
But we were flawed. We only had respect for each other. While I was on
Earth, sometimes it made me wonder how everyone got along here without war.
You all have taught me how to live without greed. And for that I couldn't
thank you enough."
"But what about your Doom Tree?", wondered Artemis.
"The energy of life is an inferior fertilizer in comparison to the energy of
love. The energy of my own love, and compassion will keep it alive, and much
more than that...", Alan replied. He had a smile on his face, because he
had just came to a realization. He had a house full of friends. And he
couldn't get enough of it. He loved having friends. It made him feel like he
belonged on Earth. And he loved Serena. He kept thinking of how Serena kept
staring at him. He felt the exact same way for Ann, many years ago, when it
was all about love.
Alan sat at the counter, thinking a lot about Ann. Serena and her
friends were talking about today's incidents.
"Serena, are you hungry at all? You must be... I can't believe you haven't
eaten a thing in eight hours!"
Serena thought to herself. "No, I'm not... hungry." Saying that surprised
everyone, ever herself! She just felt shaken and scraped from the bus acci-
dent. And she felt weak. "Maybe I'll have something to drink..."
"Atta girl." Lita walked over to the fridge and opened it.
"Hmm... this fridge is so empty!" Lita's voice echoed from within the fridge.
"There's practically nothing in it! Oh, yeah. Alan doesn't live off food!
Cool. Hey, look! I found a six-pack of root beer!" Lita shut the fridge and
slammed the six-pack on the counter. She peeled a can from the plastic holder
and held it near Alan. He nodded in raised his lower lip in polite refusal.
"Over here, Lita."
Lita tossed the can to Mina, who caught the can and popped it open.
"I'll have one...", agreed Ami.
"Here you go, my esteemed colleague...", said Lita as she passed a can to
Ami.
Raye said, "Nuh-uh, no thanks."
"Here's one for you." Lita bent over the counter and handed one to Serena.
Serena popped the can. "Thanks."
"Hey, any of you cats want one?", asked Lita, smiling.
"You have to be kidding.", replied Luna.
Mina was already almost finished. "That hit the spot..."
Serena was just staring at hers.
"Serena, what's wrong with you? You only took one sip of your root beer.",
Lita wondered.
"I don't know. Maybe my stomach's upset. I don't really feel like it."
Raye was worried. "Serena doesn't want anything to eat _or_ drink? That's not
the Serena I know..."
"Oh, give it a rest, Raye, I just don't feel okay right now.", Serena was
starting to get annoyed. Alan looked at Serena.
"Hey, Serena, d'you feel like letting me show you something?", he asked.
"Well, all right, but just for a minute.", Serena replied.
She got up and followed Alan out of the room. All of the girls were looking
out the doorway and into the hall.
Alan opened the door to his study and let Serena in, then went in himself,
leaving the door open.
Serena was amazed. "Alan, is this..."
"Yep. This is it. I don't like to call it the Doom Tree, I prefer calling it
Skippy. That's it's pet name."
"It's... so huge...", she looked around and kept getting eyefuls of it.
"I know. This is my lifeline. If I don't take care of it, it dies. And if it
dies, I die." Alan was heading towards the center of the massive organism.
"That's so cool... What do you do, plug yourself in overnight to recharge?"
Alan laughed a little. "Well, No... Just being around it is sufficient."
Serena watched as Alan floated to a branch where he sat down.
"Hey, Serena, care to join me?"
"You're kidding, right?", Serena looked up. It seemed so far to climb, and
she was in no condition to climb.
"Why not? just float up here! You were able to earlier today..."
Serena was puzzled. She only heard she hovered during battle from Luna. She
wouldn't know how if she tried.
"Don't you gotta sprinkle some fairy dust on me or something?", she asked.
"Well, take a seat somewhere, at least.", he answered.
Serena found that to be considerably less of a challenge than floating.
She quickly found a place to sit in the branches. She was a bit afraid of its
odd-looking twigs and leaves and such, but she fought it and rested her body
on a bunch of parallel branches, which she sat in like a hammock.
Alan pulled out a length of what looked like a piece of the tree itself.
Then, he held it to his mouth and started to play it.
"Oh, cool, he's going to play his flute!", Serena thought to herself, as she
crossed her legs.
Alan played a mellow, simple tune that seemed to reach Serena's ears as if he
were right next to her. It made Serena think of when she first met Alan, when
he and Ann enrolled in their high school. All the girls went wild over Alan's
sweet song and now, Alan was playing for Serena! It made Serena feel like a
very special girl. Serena closed her eyes and dreamt of all the meanings that
melody had. It made her forget all her problems and injuries. The song made
her, the tree, and Alan seem like one. Serena opened her eyes and stood up to
see Alan, still sitting on the branch and playing his song. It made Serena
wonder if Alan felt as happy and as care-free as she did. She floated up to
the branch and came to rest sitting a few feet from Alan. Alan still played.
The tone seemed to echo through the blackened void, filling it with music.
Serena lied on her stomach with her palms supporting her chin.
"Alan?", Serena asked.
Alan stopped playing, turned to Serena, and said, "Yes?"
"This tree is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life.", she
answered.
"It's beauty is second only to yours."
Serena perked up. "What do you mean by that, Alan?"
Alan looked into Serena's eyes.
"I don't know what I think. I'm very confused right now. It's just that..."
Serena was captivated. "It's just that what?"
"... It's just that... You remind me so much of Ann so many years ago."
A tear came to Alan's eye. Serena wanted to wipe the tears away and comfort
Alan, but she didn't know how Alan would react, so she decided to just move
a little closer to him.
Alan continued. "You're so much like she was... You're courageous, and you
have such a good sense of humor... You're even as clumsy as she was."
Serena now understood why it was that Alan had a crush on her in high school.
"Alan?", Serena asked, "Do you miss Ann?"
"I miss the Ann I grew up with. Ann was so tainted with hatred, you should
have seen her sometimes. I used to think that Ann was the one making me do
all those evil things. I used to think that she was dragging me down with
her. But it was my own fault. And now that she's gone and I've got..."
"What is it, Alan?", Serena asked.
"...Friends. I've found such great friends in your friends."
Serena didn't realize it, but she was wiping the tears off of Alan's cheek
and had her arm around his shoulder.
"If anyone can make friends, Alan, it's you. You may not know it, but you
have a really great personality. I think so, at least."
Alan rested his hand on the firm branch he was sitting on.
"It's not that I don't appreciate friends, Serena, but when you kissed me..."
"Alan? Did you feel great warmth in your soul, like I did?"
"No, but I did seem to find out everything about you... and I had visions of
myself, spending the rest of my life with you."
"Really?", Serena asked.
"...You're even a good listener, just like Ann used to be. I could tell her
anything. I can't explain it, but I really do love you, even though it's not
possible for you to be at my side forever, like Ann could."
"Well, you know what, Alan?"
Alan looked into Serena's eyes again. "What?"
"I love you too. And even though after you depart from Earth I can't come
with you, I will love you forever, even if you're not here, on Earth. I'll
always remember you, Alan, for as long as I live."
Alan took Serena's hand.
"Can you really promise me that?"
Serena smiled and whispered into Alan's ear, "Yes."
Serena and Alan looked into each other's eyes. In Serena, Alan saw the best
friend anyone ever had, and he remembered Ann's better days. In Alan, Serena
saw someone very lonely, who has learned to make friends. Alan felt Serena's
silky hair, and it felt like the fairest material he had ever felt before.
Serena felt so strangely comfortable resting among the leaves of Alan's Doom
Tree. It felt like a second home to her. Serena glanced down at the dim light
shining through the open doorway into the living room, and they kissed.
Serena felt like crying for Alan's past, but thinking of his future made her
smile.
Alan sighed. "We better get back down into the kitchen, your friends are
probably getting restless."
Serena took a last look around, and then nodded in agreement.
Alan lowered himself gently to the ground, with Serena following closely.
Serena returned to the kitchen to find Ami reading a book about the
formation of glaciers, Raye on the phone, Mina playing cards with Lita, and
Luna and Artemis asleep on the windowsill.
"Where have you been, Serena? We've been getting old entertaining ourselves,
you know.", Lita looked up at Serena, ant then swung back towards the cards
she held in her hand. Luna opened her eyes, stretched her front legs, and
hopped down from the windowsill.
"You know, it's getting kind of late... you think we should all be heading
home now?", Serena asked, yawning in between.
"Serena, you want me to call you a cab?", Raye asked, with her hand over the
mouthpiece of the phone.
"No thanks, Raye, I can take the subway home."
Raye raised an eyebrow.
"Serena, just half an hour ago you said you felt really weak. Are you sure
you can get yourself home?", she asked.
"Yeah, no problem. Besides, I feel okay... In fact, I feel good! I think I'll
jog home."
Ami placed the book on the table.
"What do you mean, you feel 'good'?"
Serena smiled and said, "You know, good. I rested, and now I'm fine."
"Most peculiar... Well, if you insist...", Ami closed the book and put it on
a shelf.
Alan took on his human form and followed Serena and her friends to the main
entrance of the apartment building.
"See you later, Alan, thanks for everything.", said Ami.
"Hey, Alan, it's been real nice meeting you, and next time I come over, I'll
stock up your fridge!", shouted Lita, as she ran down to the subway station.
Alan and Serena paused for a moment at the door. Serena handed Alan a piece
of paper.
"Here's my number, call me anytime during the day."
Alan looked at the paper. "Wow, thanks."
"If my Dad answers it, your name is Papa Borello, and you work at the flor-
ist. got it?"
Alan nodded. "Got it."
Serena smiled. "Great. I'll see you round then!"
"Bye!", Alan shouted as he watched Serena jog down the parking lot. She
waited for the light to turn green, then jogged down the street until Alan
couldn't see her any more.
Alan looked up into the stars. It was a perfect night for astronomy, and he
decided he'd have to get out his telescope. He looked at the flashing red
lights of a distant airplane, then at the Moon. He smiled, took his hands out
of his pockets and went back upstairs to his apartment.
THE END?
If you liked this story, which I hope you did, send me an e-mail with
your idea of what should happen next. Even if you didn't like this story for
some reason, write me about it! I'll be looking forward to your mail!
KOKOMOJOE@COMPUSERVE.COM
CompuServe UID: 110604,2436
3.7.98 Kaneda. If you always wear your hair like Serena, cool! Send me a
picture of that. Love them meatballs/dumplings! please don't alter this story
or remove my name from it... if you do, why I'll call Bubba and he'll give ya
the hurt. If you live in France, then I'll call Maurice and he'll give ya the
hurt. Later!
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