FicWad

About thirty minutes later, just as the sun was setting, the two humans and the cat were at the cemetery. Merrick definitely didn't look happy at all, bloody red scratches across his face where Luna had scratched him. Serena had had to get Luna off of Merrick herself, and had reluctantly agreed to go to the graveyard with him… she needed to find out what was going on. Luna had come along because she didn't trust this man, and refused to be left behind. Merrick has wanted to kill the cat (thinking it was a demon, what else could he do?), but Serena had flat-out told him that if he did anything to her cat, then he could forget about her sticking around to see what he wanted to show her.

Merrick stood there, waiting by the grave where he had said that some guy that'd died recently to 'rise up', glaring at Luna. Damned demon cat…He thought. What does it want? There must be some reason its adopted Serena as its master… it probably plans on killing her in her sleep…

Luna glared right back, her red eyes narrowed. Who is this man, and why does he think that Serena is his 'Chosen One'? She can't be the Chosen One for both of us… can she?

The air between the two was so thick that you could cut it like butter. Serena, who was holding Luna in her lap and stroking her fur absently, couldn't take it anymore, so she broke the silence with a question.

"So… about my dreams, Merrick. You said they have something to do with me being the 'Chosen One', or whatever?"

He nodded. "Yes. Vampire Slayers have been around for centuries, and each time a new girl is who is to be the next Slayer is born, she begins to have dreams later on that are glimpses into the lives of previous Slayers. They are meant to help the girl to accept her own destiny."

She frowned. "But… what if the girl who is chosen doesn't want to be a Slayer? What if she wants to just be a normal girl?"

"I'm afraid she doesn't have a choice." Merrick's voice was matter-of-fact when he said this.

"Right."

Silence followed for a bit, and Serena sat there, examining her nails as she her mind wandered. Luna got off of Serena's lap and turned to faced her. "Serena, I don't think we should be here…"

Sere bit her lip, then shook her lip. "I know that it's creepy, but I promised Merrick I'd give him a chance to prove that he was telling the truth."

"But I've got a bad feeling… this place is dangerous for you."

"I'll be fine."

Luna considered for a moment, then surprised Serena by doing a backflip. The air sparkled for a moment, and then something fell onto Serena's lap. Serena picked it up, and saw that it was an unusual-looking broach. She looked questioningly at Luna.

Luna stared at Serena for a moment before giving an explanation. "If you insist on staying in this dangerous place, you may as well be transformed into your warrior form."

Serena looked blankly at Luna. "Huh?"

"Your warrior form. As I said, you're Sailor Moon. With this locket, you can transform yourself into the Sailor Soldier of the moon."

"Right." Serena obviously didn't believe this as she clipped the broach onto the collar of her shirt. But then again, this cat was talking to her, so she should be about ready to believe anything…

"I'm serious, Serena. Just put you hand up in the air and say 'Moon Prism Power'!"

"O…kay…" Still looking doubtful, Serena raised her hand into the air, outstretching her finely manicured fingers, and said in a firm voice. "Moon Prism… Power!"

Merrick had been listening to their conversation, not interrupting, and now he was stunned to see Serena enveloped in a glowing white light. He gave a shout and stepped toward the girl, ready to rip that broach, which was probably a cursed item, away from her, but the cat jumped at him, screeching, "Don't touch her, you idiot!" He was able to get out of the way of the cat, but before he could get to Serena, the glow had faded.

The teenaged girl was now clad in the garb of Sailor Moon. Still sitting on the ground, she looked down at herself in awe; it had actually worked! She could feel a strange energy running through her body that she hadn't felt before… it was really weird.

A moment later, though, the look of awe changed to disgust. "Oh, EW! What in god's name is this that I'm wearing, Luna!"

Luna looked taken aback by the girl's reaction. "Your Sailor Soldier garb, of course. Why, what's wrong with it?"

Sailor Moon made a face. "I don't suppose a cat like you would know about fashion, would you? This is like so TACKY! I mean, look at this –" She gestured wildly at the outfit. "–It looks like I'm wearing a modified bathing suit, or ice skater's outfit, or SOMETHING! And look at this big chest bow! I mean, could this outfit be any more heinous?"

Luna frowned. "Sailor Moon, you really shouldn't talk about your Sailor Soldier outfit like that."

Serena looked, shall we say, very irritated. "You and I are gonna have a talk about this outfit later, cat."

Merrick noticed the dirt of the grave they were watching shift slightly. He turned to Sailor Moon. "Serena, catch!"

She caught the stake and cross he'd thrown at her. "What's these for?"

"That outfit won't protect you any better than your other. Don't worry, you won't have to actually do anything, but it's for protection, just in case."

The cat looked a bit miffed at what Merrick had said about the outfit, but said nothing.

As a dirt-covered hand thrust itself from the grave, Merrick said to Sailor Moon, who had been staring at the stake in her hand, "Serena! Look alive!"

She looked up. "Huh?" Then she spotted the man clawing his way out of the grave as Merrick cried out, "Witness, Serena, the dead, now undead!"

Sailor Moon made a disgusted face. "Can I just say… Ew?" Luna let out a low feline growl; she'd known this place was unsafe.

Sailor Moon shrank back as the newly risen vampire guy saw his first sight out of the grave: her. He drooled lecherously. "Well, what have we hear? Nice skirt, girly, you look good enough to eat." He launched himself at Sailor Moon, his face vamped-out, revealing his demonic nature. Before he got close to her, however, Merrick attacked him from behind.

Luna suddenly hissed and jumped about a couple of feet away from Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon, shaken, was surprised when a hand reached out of the ground she was crouched on and grabbed her ankle. She'd been sitting on a grave! She let out a shriek and tried to pull away as a vampire woman pulled herself out of her grave, clawing her way up to yank Sailor Moon to her. As the vampire made ready to bite her, Sailor Moon struggled to free herself from the demonic grasp, but found she couldn't. Not able to do much else, she let out a scream that she'd felt building in her throat, shutting her eyes. A long, loud piercing scream that probably broke the decibel scale. The vampire let go of Sailor Moon, clutching her ears. "Aaaaaargh! Stop that racket, you bitch!"

Serena did stop screaming, and remembered the cross clutched in one of her hands. She thrust it at the vampire woman before she could get up, pressing it to her monstrous face, and she could smell burnt flesh as the vampire fell to the ground, screaming.

Meanwhile, Merrick hadn't been able beat the vampire he was fighting. He'd been grappling with it, and it now had him pinned down and was just about to rip his throat out.

Before it could, however, there was heard a low growling his and then the vampire let out a yelp of surprised pain and left Merrick, laying there on the ground, panting. The vampire whirled this way and that, trying to remove the cat clinging on his back, clawing and biting. Finally, he got a grip on Luna and flung her away from him with a snarl. He turned back to his meal only to have a stake shoved into his chest from the back. He exploded into a pile of smoldering ashes giving off a distinctly rotten smell.

As Sailor Moon pulled her stake back from the fatal blow she'd just delivered, she heard Merrick cry out, "Where's the other one?" She turned to answer him. "She was –"

She was interrupted by the female vampire's shriek as it leapt at her from behind. Sailor Moon whirled around shoved the stake through the vampire's heart as it came down. The vampire became a pile of ash matching the one the other vampire had become. Through all this, Sailor Moon's face held no fear, surprisingly, but just a mask of determination.

After she'd caught her breath, she went over to Merrick to help him up. She was about to say something, when something occurred to her. "Hey, where'd Luna go?"

They found her several headstones down. It seemed she was mostly uninjured, but she'd been knocked out when she'd hit the headstone. Sailor Moon knelt to scoop her up in her arms, not noticing as the broach automatically changed her back into Serena.

Serena looked down at the unconscious female cat laying in her arms, concern in her eyes. "What happened to her, Merrick?"

Merrick avoided meter her gaze. "When the vampire and are were battling, he had me down on the ground and I almost lost my life. But she-" He gestured at Luna. "-saved me by leaping onto his back and distracting him, but when he got her off of his back, he threw her. She was probably knocked out when she hit the tombstone. She… she saved my life." This had genuinely surprised him. The cat could have let the vampire finish him off and get him out of the way, but instead she risked her own life to save him. Maybe… maybe she wasn't a demon, after all. But if not, then what was she?

Merrick drove Serena to her house. Once he'd stopped the car, he turned to look at her, avoiding looking at the unconscious cat in her arms. "Now, Serena, you go to school tomorrow and act normally; don't let anyone know you know what's happening. This is important because once the vampires know who you are, you won't be hunting them anymore. You understand? They mustn't know your name."

"All right."

He handed her a card. "Meet me at this address tomorrow after school."

She looked at the card, frowning, then looked at him. "I have cheerleading practice, okay?"

"Well, you're going to have to skip it."

Serena rolled her eyes slightly and made to leave the car, but then turned back to him. "They can't… come in unless I invite them in, is that true?"

He nodded. "Mmm-hmm, it's true."

"Good."

Serena prepared herself for bed, her room already dark. She set herself down in front of her, her long blonde hair, down for once, billowing about her slightly like a golden cape. Reaching up, she took down a red ribbon down from where it had been hanging on her dresser mirror.

Reaching her hands under her hair, she put the ribbon there and carefully pulled the ends up so that they were even. Reaching out a hand to turn off the little lamp by her mirror, she stood, deliberately tying the ribbon nicely into a bow at the top of her head as she walked towards her bed.

She settled herself down in her bed, laying back against the vampire, Lothos, who was already there. Wordlessly, he handed her her teddy bear and she turned on her side, holding it close as she snuggled into a more comfortable position, his hand resting lightly on her face…

Serena sat up, gasping for breath. She brought a hand to her head and it touched the ribbon. Pulling it quickly out of her hair, she stared at it for a moment before throwing it down in her lap, a disgusted look upon her face.

She looked over at Luna, resting now on some soft blankets in a corner of Serena's room, before flopping back down on her pillow, hoping to get back to sleep without having to suffer any more of these weird nightmares.