The Storm before the Calm
The Storm before the CalmPart 3 of “Jedite’s Story”
By Jon Brinkerhoff aka “Kryten 2X4B 523P” (kd7jkm@DEATHTOSPAMyahoo.com) Oct 15th, 2005
Naoko Takeuchi is hereby thanked for her involuntary contribution to this fanfic. Dr. Xadium is thanked for creating and nurturing Suburban Senshi into what it is today.
With a sharp intake of breath, Jedite sat bolt upright. His mind was a raging torrent of memories; images, sounds, feelings; he remembered them all at once and yet none of them at all. He looked around; he knew that these were his chambers, but how he got here and why he could not be certain.
While Jedite was pondering this, Beryl entered the room. Jedite, wrapped up in his thoughts, did not notice until she spoke. “Jedite, you have regained consciousness. Are you well?” Jedite certainly did not feel well, but suddenly thought that it would be unwise to say as much. “Yes, Beryl-sama; I am well. May I ask what happened?”
“You collapsed; your initial awakening may have been premature.” Jedite tried to reconcile this information with his swirling memories. He could remember first opening his eyes and seeing Beryl’s face in the dark. He could remember seeing Beryl’s face again from the floor as his eyes closed. The explanation seemed to fit so far, but something still seemed amiss. He felt a sudden chill, but assumed it had come from the open door of his chamber.
Jedite spent the next six months preparing his Youma for the coming assault. The news of Danburite’s death had been unexpected. Jedite had been chosen to lead the second wave, but because he had been incapacitated his forces were not ready. Beryl should have chosen another of the Generals, but they were unable to pass through the gate to the surface. The reason was not known, certainly not to Jedite; perhaps Beryl had some master plan, or perhaps it was Metallia’s doing. Whatever the reason, Jedite would be next.
Danburite’s death was unsettling by itself, but being chosen to go next caused a sense of dread within Jedite. Every time he became discouraged however, another feeling flared up inside him. He felt that his discouragement was unbecoming; he should be stronger than that. The source of these feelings was always a mystery though; for want of a better source, he attributed them to the Dark Kingdom power he knew was coursing through him.
Finally the time came when his forces were prepared. Jedite decided that rather than go to the surface himself, he would send his Youma to scout the situation and do his energy collection by remote. Morga was the first; the jewelry store should have been an easy target for her, but she was destroyed. Her assailant was unknown.
Jedite decided that with a proper disguise he could do some scouting, if he stayed away from the actual energy collection his life would not be at risk. Unfortunately his fortune telling plan was also ruined. Whether this Youma was killed by the same force as before or a different one Jedite could not know for sure. He realized that he would have to take matters into his own hands.
Jedite personally oversaw his next plan, from the safety and comfort of the FM No. 10 studio. Those brooches would allow him to be almost directly involved, but still maintain his distance. That night, his enemy showed herself. “This weak little girl dares to stand up to the Dark Kingdom?” He thought. “She’s no match for me!”
As he walked confidently toward his target, a rose flew seemingly out of nowhere and impaled itself in the roof of the building they were on. Jedite had a sudden flash of memories; he saw an image of a prince and his guards. It passed and he looked back toward his weakling target. Another flash; this time one of himself. This memory was much clearer, it was of himself and the other Generals; they were mocking him, taunting him, calling him weak. He didn’t understand, but he had more important matters just now. Jedite tried to concentrate on his purpose, but the memory kept interfering. There was no other recourse, he had to retreat. This little girl could wait; first he needed to clear his mind.
Jedite returned to the Dark Kingdom to rest. The following day his memories had subsided. He wished to explore them some more, but Beryl was relentless when it came to energy collection. His Youma had not collected very much before they were destroyed each time. Jedite decided on a new plan; instead of stealing small amounts of energy from large groups, he would steal huge amounts from a select few.
For a while the gym worked out, but as usual Sailor Moon showed up to ruin the day. Jedite directed his minions toward her, but he hadn’t yet delivered the collected energy to the Dark Kingdom, and did not wish to risk dissipating it in a fight. The pesky girl would have to wait once again.
His next few plans, the chanelas, the subliminal music, the Cinderella Caravan, the crystal disks, the clock shop; all of them failed. Jedite knew he needed to be present; he knew Sailor Moon could defeat his Youma. Every time he tried to go, his memories would resurface. He would be racked with images of himself training Youma, plotting revenge, being verbally abused by the others. The last was the hardest to understand, the other Generals had been quite tolerant since he had been reawakened. They weren’t exactly pleasant, but they certainly weren’t overtly critical. He could barely tolerate this weakness he developed, and desperately wanted to know the source.
Sailor Moon had acquired a companion during the last two incidents and Beryl was becoming more and more insistent about the energy collection. Jedite had to master his concentration and take a personal role in the next plan. The Hikawa shrine was the site; he would sell charms to collect energy and use the nearby bus stop to take them partway into the Dark Kingdom’s realm to focus the energy collection.
If only Jedite had known, the miko of the Hikawa shrine was another Senshi. There were three of them now, and he would need a well organized plan to defeat them. He cursed his debilitating memories for the trouble they had been causing him. To make matters worse, he hadn’t had any time to figure out what they meant. To stall for time he tried the Candy House plan while he attempted to come up with a plan that would defeat the Senshi while keeping himself safe. If he planned well enough he might even be able to get rid of that annoying Tuxedo Kamen as well.
Beryl was becoming enraged both with the lack of incoming energy and with the success that the Senshi kept having against their minions. Jedite could sense this quite well; the screaming certainly didn’t hide it. Before he could execute his newly laid plan to rid himself and the Dark Kingdom of the annoying presence of the Sailor Senshi, he was approached by Tetis, one of the Youma who had climbed the ranks and held a position nearly on par with his own. Tetis knew that Jedite was the strongest General, even if he did not at the moment, and did not wish to see Queen Beryl destroy him.
Her plan was brilliant, even Jedite had to admit it. With both of them executing it, they should have had no problem gathering more energy than ever, and they might even take out the Senshi in the process. Sailor Moon showed up, but the other two were not to be found. Tetis wished to destroy Moon herself, and since it was her plan, Jedite stayed back and watched. Too late he saw the others coming, and before he could step in Tetis was dead.
He’d had quite enough of these Senshi and focused all of his rage into a single strike. Before he could bring down his hand and bring about their death, Beryl forcibly returned him to the Dark Kingdom. Jedite was enraged! He had those Senshi right in front of him; he was ready to strike. He suddenly had another memory flash; he remembered wanting to leave the Dark Kingdom and take on the world himself. This didn’t sound like too bad an idea at this point; Beryl had become overbearing and he felt quite under appreciated. He realized that he might still have the chance, but first he’d have to rid himself of the Senshi.
After one last confrontation with Queen Beryl he made his challenge to the Senshi. The airport would make an excellent place to destroy them; he could crush them with the force of the jumbo jets and keep himself out of harm’s way. He found it extremely gullible of his prey to show up as civilians before transforming into their Senshi forms. Even if his plan were thwarted tonight, unlikely as that was, he now knew who the pesky Senshi were, and he could attack then at his leisure.
The Senshi, concerned over property damage that Jedite didn’t think even once about, had no recourse but to run from the plane until they reached the end of the runway. Jedite laughed; soon it would all be over! Jedite’s concentration was suddenly broken by a flying rose. “So the Tuxedo man wants to play too, huh?” Jedite mused. “Those girls seem quite distracted by his presence, they can wait a moment.” Jedite leapt at Tuxedo Kamen and drove them both into the bay. Jedite used his power to keep himself from drowning as he pushed Tuxedo Kamen to deeper and deeper depths.
Jedite resurfaced and continued his assault on the Senshi. He expected an easy fight now, but the death of their friend only strengthened their resolve. Suddenly the entire tarmac was covered in a fog. Jedite could no longer see his prey, until Sailor Moon came running from the mist away from the following jet. They had split up under the cover of this accursed mist. His anger could not be contained as he shouted for the others to show themselves. Mercury appeared behind him, and as he turned toward her, he summoned another jet to the chase.
Suddenly despite his control over the planes, they turned in his direction. Jedite concentrated harder, but that only caused the planes to increase their speed toward him. Suddenly all three Senshi appeared before him. He tried to move, to attack, to do anything, but he could not. They spouted some nonsense at him and then Moon threw that damn tiara in his direction. He was just able to dodge it, but as he fell to the ground and looked up, one of the jets was baring down on him quicker than he could move.
Jedite felt himself beginning to be crushed under the immense weight before he was once again forcibly returned to the Dark Kingdom. He stood before Queen Beryl, clutching his stomach. “Jedite, you have failed for the last time!” Beryl boomed. “You have proven yourself unfit for the Dark Kingdom again!”
“Again?” Jedite asked aloud. Suddenly the insufficient job that the memory wipe had done came unraveled and Jedite remembered. He remembered lying alone in the dark listening to the other Generals. He remembered their constant torment of him. He remembered that fool Danburite being chosen over him. He remembered turning on Beryl and wanting to rule the world. “And I remember, you froze me and tried to wipe my memory. You used me!” Jedite fumed. “You were never going to give us anything once we captured the planet for you. Not me, nor the other Generals. I should destroy you! The world should belong to me!”
Jedite raised his hand and summoned a ki blast, but in his weakened state Beryl easily deflected it. “You are too dangerous Jedite. You know too much. You will sleep now.” As Beryl raised her hand Jedite felt the ice forming around him once again. He had been too weak, too slow. He was certain that Beryl would not give him another chance, memory wipe or no. If he ever got another chance, he would not make the same mistakes again. He would be in charge, he would rule the world. He would do it for himself.
To be concluded in “The Last Goodbye”, Suburban Senshi time period |