At Mugen Academy, the Cellphone owned by Hotaru Tomoe rang and rang - but no one was present to answer it.
Shuichi Tomoe had been a Unseelie Sidhe, that was true, and his wife had been a Baen Sidhe - one of the deathsingers, who's voice could slay any she directed it at. Neither had been what one would call 'nice' - however, they *had* been popular; A bit *too* popular, in fact, as they were both younger children of Nobles amongst the Unseelie tribes. Jealousy of their popular support amongst the common Dark Fae had eventually driven their elder siblings to attempt to assassinate the lovers - successfully, on the part of the Lady Banshee, but not so successfully on the part of Dr. Tomoe or their young daughter.
Realizing he could not survive many more assassination attempts while caring for his infant daughter, he had fled to the mortal world, and dedicated his life to gathering enough power that his enemies would not dare to face him when he was ready to return - a search that had eventually lead him to a force to strong for him: Mistress 9 and Pharaoh 90, Darkling entities from another galaxy where the DarkStalker realm was completely dominant, and the mortal worlds of that ocean of darkened stars burned barren - a meeting which eventually lead to his demise.
In the Makai, however, competition was fierce; Both of Hotaru's families were all but wiped out - by continuing intrigues bent mostly on finding him and his bride at first, and then later by assignations from Dimitri Maximov's court, as the Vampire King took advantage of the paranoid nature of Unseelie politics to decimate their strongest mages and warriors: their nobility. By the time that the Unseelie began to unite themselves against him, only bastards of noble blood were believed to be alive, leaving them without a leader of power enough to possibly stand against Dimitri.
Or so they had thought until an ancient crone of a Baen Sidhe had revealed what she alone knew: That the Unseelie who had taken the name Shuichi had fathered a daughter, and fled with her to the human world; When the identity of the mother came to light, a black and wicked hope was born in the court of goblins Dark Fae - for Hotaru's mother had been one of the most potent Banshee, and Her father had been one of the top five sorcerers in the realm; Any child of theirs would have the potential to match the strongest Unseelie nobles ever produced - and she was of pure noble blood, born in wedlock.
Boggarts had stormed out of their holes, Red-caps had prowled the streets, Will-o-wisps had flown like streaks of moonlight across the face of the Human world at the news. The Black crows sacred to the now slain Queen of the Unseelie flew in murders, looking for the daughter of her last son, who would take the Queen of Air and Darkness’ mantle up again, and the Unseelie became like phantoms in the Makai while they searched, and searched - and just a few days ago, found.
When Haruka, Michiru, and Makoto reached the Academy, they found that Hotaru had disappeared entirely.
In the Makai, however, the pale young woman was finding that the swarm of monsters that had very politely asked if she was Hotaru Tomoe were excellent hosts; They were even keeping a gate open for her use as they told her their tale - one of a nation under attack, of a royal family all but wiped out by their blood-thirsty enemy, and of a single hope that they had found -
Her. Apparently.
For some reason, the stories were familiar. The fact that they had a number of excellent pictures of her mother in Makai finery - along with an elflord who looked very much like her father - gave them another bit of credence. The biggest reason, however, that she was not freaking out and vaporizing the horde of boggles, red-caps, goblins and lesser Fae around her was that she felt a /rightness/ about this dim-lit place that she had never been able to feel in the mortal world.
As the dark energies of the Makai and the peculiar energies of Faerie magic Seeped into her bones, Hotaru changed, her DarkStalker heritage, already stirred by the princesses breakthrough, awakening fully. She grew tall first, and her ears took on long, elegant points as her hair became a waterfall of purest ebony, and she assumed a shape more like that Mistress 9 had known she was destined to wear.
A shroud of shadows grew about the gown they had given her, until she seemed to be nothing but a suggestive womanly shape within a pillar of shadows, except for the pale parlor of her hands and face; The shadows were a part of her powers as a Baensidhe - a cloak of death that would absorb most physical attacks - which, matched to the potential power of her sorcery would make her a force to be reckoned with indeed.
When the court of the Unseelie Sidhe asked her to become their Queen, and be trained to help them fight off the vampire lord, and lead them after his defeat, however, she faced a Delimma.
She needed to talk to Mama and papa and Usagi-chan about this before she made a commitment. Sure, the people looked monstrous, but they didn't *act* really monstrous, and they obviously needed - and *wanted* her. They weren't afraid of her freakish powers, or disturbed by the strength of her aura - (which already had some of them worshiping at her feet) - and Hotaru felt kinship with them.
But she also had a responsibility to the Senshi who had, after all, saved her from the *thing* that had taken possession of her body..and the Unseelie weren't willing to let her just disappear again without an escort and bodyguard. She needed to figure out how to introduce them to her Mama and Papa without provoking a battle.
While Hotaru made her plans -
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(Posted Fri, 14 Feb 2003 05:36)
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