Not the Only Girl In All the World
Title: Not the Only Girl In All the World
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sailor Moon
Rating: PG
Characters: Buffy Summers, Aino Minako (Sailor Venus)
Summary: A female hero in London makes Buffy feel less alone, and inspires a different choice on Halloween. (YAHF)
Words: 2066
Disclaimer
I don't own anything. Buffy and Sailor Moon are not owned by me. They are owned by rich, talented people. I'm a nobody. Please don't sue me.
Not the Only Girl in All the World
“Moshi moshi,” the cheerful voice said.
“Um... Minako? Is that you?” Buffy asked heavily.
“Buffy? What's wrong?” Minako answered, sounding concerned.
“I need help... she took Dawnie.”
* * *
1997
Buffy and her friends were wandering around Ethan's, looking for something to wear. Buffy had spent some time groveling for hurting Xander's feelings, even though she really didn't get what she had done wrong, but he had been hurt so she had turned on her best puppy dog eyes until he had cracked. He had just begun to accept her apology when she had seen the perfect costume.
“Hello! That was our touching reconciliation moment there,” Xander said, annoyed that she had wandered off.
“I'm sorry... it's just... this gave me the perfect idea for a costume,” Buffy replied, looking at the rack.
“It's a Japanese school girl uniform,” Willow said, bewildered. “How is that the perfect costume?”
She looked at the other two for a moment, shifting uncomfortably. “Promise you won't laugh?”
When they nodded, although Xander still looked a little disgruntled, Buffy continued in a quieter voice. “Have you seen that thing in London, that Sailor V girl?”
“Still not seeing the point, Buffster,” Xander said.
“It's just, when I first saw her on the news, I thought, I'm not alone.”
“What do you mean?” Willow asked, concerned.
“You guys are my best friends, and you're great, but... You don't know what it's like to be destiny girl. When I saw her, I just thought: I'm not alone. Other girls fight monsters too.”
Xander mock leered at her. “Well, it's no spandex, but I like the skirt.”
Buffy rolled her eyes, then pulled it off the rack. She would need a few accessories, but she knew she could make it work.
* * *
Present
“How bad is it?” Minako asked, her voice gentle. “I can get there quick as a whisk.”
“It's bad,” Buffy answered, her voice exhausted. “She's a hell god, and she took my sister. I can't beat her. I can't even hurt her. And if we don't get Dawn back, she's gonna kill her. Tonight.”
* * *
1998
Buffy hadn't thought overly much about her Halloween experience in the months that had followed. It hadn't been until Angel had stood in front of her, his soul in his eyes and hell opening behind him that she had remembered the most traumatic moment in Sailor V's career.
Minako had held a man, an enemy, who had loved her, and she had felt feelings for too. She had had to kill him to save the world, and as he had died in her arms he had told her something that had haunted even Buffy, remembering it second hand.
Looking into Angel's betrayed eyes as she had sunk the sword home, she had wondered if he had felt the same way Adonis had when he had laid his curse on Minako with his dying breath. "I'll tell you your final love fortune.... Your love will be hopeless for all eternity. What's wrong? You should look happier! Now you can go on living, without having to torment yourself over the ultimate choice -- your love or your duty. Your fate is to continue fighting.”
She hadn't run away from Sunnydale just to escape the pain of killing Angel, or the hurt of her mother kicking her out, or to escape the police, or even to avoid seeing the way her friends had looked, half dead because of her calling. She had run, because she had chosen duty over love... and she knew that as the Slayer she always would. That was what she truly couldn't face.
Strangely though, while Minako's painful past had helped to drive Buffy from Sunnydale, the knowledge that she wasn't the only person facing such a crushing fate - that she wasn't the only girl in all the world to stand against evil because of a duty she had never sought - had kept her from feeling so alone. She could hide and heal as Anne, knowing in part that someone, somewhere, stood against the night.
* * *
Present
“I'll get the princess then. She'll save your sister. I promise.”
“Thank you,” Buffy said. She took a deep breath. She wasn't alone facing this apocalypse. For the first time since she had called, her voice was confident. “We're all at the Magic Box. We'll be ready to get our rescue on when you get here.”
* * *
1998
Buffy had been sitting in her room, lost in thought, when the phone had rung. She had been expecting Willow, or even Scott, wanting to discuss their potential date. Buffy had been fiddling with Angel's Claddagh ring, wondering if she was ready to move on, when she had heard the unexpected voice. “Excuse me... but are you Buffy Summers?”
“Yes,” she replied warily. “Who are you?”
“My name is Aino Minako. I wonder, did something strange happen to you last Halloween?”
Buffy straightened up warily at that. “Sailor V?”
“You do remember.”
“How... how did you know?”
“Because I remember too. I was you that night.”
“Oh,” Buffy said, overwhelmed. “Um... why are you calling? Not that you shouldn't call, because you can. I mean, I'm glad you called... yeah. Just ignore me.”
Minako giggled slightly. “I just... well. I died.”
“Oh. You sound pretty lively. This isn't some kind of, um, come slay me thing, is it? 'Cause I can't afford to go to Japan.”
“No! No. My friends, the Sailor Senshi. We all died, and Moon brought us back. It's just...”
Buffy remembered her summer, and the bitter comfort of not being the only one, and understood. “You just wanted to talk to me, 'cause I did the whole die fighting evil thing.”
“Yeah.”
* * *
Present
Buffy hung up, and walked back towards the others. Buffy had understood, and from then on, the two women, despite having never met in person, had begun to call each other from time to time when the fight against evil became too much. Neither of them was truly alone; they both had friends and family, but both were leaders in their own way, Buffy of the Scoobies, Minako of the Inners, and that leadership isolated them. Both had borne the weight of the world on their shoulders, and both found comfort in finding someone else who felt the same.
Buffy looked at Giles. “Dawn will be okay. I called for help.”
“Help?” Giles asked, bewildered. “She's a god, Buffy. Who could possibly help?”
* * *
2000
The first time Buffy had tried to call for help from her friend in Japan had been when Adam had been on the loose. She had been fighting with her friends, and nothing she had done alone had seemed to be enough to beat it. She hadn't been able to get through, however, and in the end she had left about a dozen messages, and then had returned to the Scoobies. They had gotten together, talked things out, and then had saved the world.
She hadn't heard from Minako until the next morning, after having fought off the First Slayer in a dream. Minako had finally returned her calls, and had explained why she had been missing. As excuses went, being dead, and then at the center of the galaxy fighting evil worked pretty well. And while Buffy had wanted help stopping the end of the world, she couldn't begrudge her friend stopping a foe that had already destroyed countless worlds, and was looking to add earth to the list. It wasn't until Minako had explained everything that she realized just how powerful her friend's group had become.
She was the Slayer, but she couldn't travel faster than the speed of light, or destroy planets, or resurrect the dead. While being stronger so that foes like Adam wouldn't be as much of a threat sounded nice, in the end, she was glad that she wasn't that powerful. Just being the Slayer made her concerned sometimes about what she was becoming, but if she could do those things, she wondered if she would still be Buffy at all.
* * *
Present
Buffy wouldn't explain anything, only telling the others that she had a friend who could stop Glory. She pretended not to notice the concerned whispers about whether or not she had gone off the deep end. Having to be pulled out of a coma really hurt her credibility, after all.
When five Japanese teenagers and two cats came through the door, it wasn't at all what the Scoobies had been expecting. When one of them, a blonde girl with two ridiculously long pony tails, tripped over a display and began crying, they all simply turned to the sheepish Slayer and stared.
“Come on,” Minako said, ignoring her crying princess to give Buffy a quick hug. “Let's get your sister back. A job half started is already finished!”
* * *
A While Later
Facing Glory and her minions, the new girls stepped forward confidently. The girl who had tripped in the Magic Box raised her hand and called out, “Silver Moon Crystal Power, Make Up!” She then began to glow, and her clothing disappeared. She spun round and round, a skimpy outfit slowly forming on her body, with large wings growing from her back, finally stopping in a strange pose, holding up an odd, shiny staff.
“Does she know she's naked when she does tha'?” Spike whispered loudly. Buffy elbowed him hard in the ribs.
Blushing, the strangely attired girl cleared her throat and continued. “I am the pretty sailor suited guardian of love and justice, Eternal Sailor Moon. Younger siblings are to be protected and made fun of by their older sisters, not kidnapped for evil rituals! In the name of the moon, I will punish you!”
Glory looked at the girl, an incredulous expression on her face. Spike snickered unrepentantly even after Buffy elbowed him again. The Scoobies just stared.
* * *
Later Still
“I can't believe that worked,” Willow said to Tara, who Sailor Moon had healed with a quick spell before changing back. “I mean, I used black magic, which I know, bad, but still... I use all this magic on Glory and get a big fat nothing! She just does a little dance, says one spell, and she turns Glory back into Ben, with no skanky hell god ever again! And... and... what kind of incantation is 'Sailor Moon Crystal Power Therapy Kiss' anyway!”
“You're right about that, Red,” Spike said, disgusted. “Spell like that, she prob'ly died o' shame. That was right anticlimactic.”
“I hate to agree with the Evil Dead about anything, but that was the lamest apocalypse ever,” Xander added as he watched the Slayer hug her friend goodbye. “Plus, what was the deal with what Ben said when he was de-Gloried? I mean, she's pretty in a jail bait kinda way, but if I ever came to wearing a tiny dress surrounded by diseased hobbits, I wouldn't shout 'beautiful'.”
Author's Notes
I'll preface this by saying, first, I've never written a short fic like this before. Second, I had this plot bunny and decided to write it, despite being far from an expert about the Sailor Moon franchise. I've read more of the manga than I've watched the anime, and the only one I finished all of was Codename: Sailor V. I'm also playing somewhat loose with the timeline, combining elements of both the anime and manga together to create the Sailor Moon side of the cross.
I used some dialog from the episode Halloween. I used some terms and quotes from Sailor Moon as well. Minako is infamous for her malapropisms, and that was really hard to write. I hope it worked. The quote by Minako's love interest was from Code Name: Sailor V issue 15. Sailor Moon by the end was cosmically powerful, and while normally I hate seeing a weak Glory (she was a god, so she should be very powerful) I decided to play the end for laughs and let the series power level differential stand as implied.
I'd like to thank my sister for taking a look at this piece before I published. I've never had someone beta me, and although I didn't take every suggestion she made, she caught several errors.
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sailor Moon
Rating: PG
Characters: Buffy Summers, Aino Minako (Sailor Venus)
Summary: A female hero in London makes Buffy feel less alone, and inspires a different choice on Halloween. (YAHF)
Words: 2066
Disclaimer
I don't own anything. Buffy and Sailor Moon are not owned by me. They are owned by rich, talented people. I'm a nobody. Please don't sue me.
Not the Only Girl in All the World
“Moshi moshi,” the cheerful voice said.
“Um... Minako? Is that you?” Buffy asked heavily.
“Buffy? What's wrong?” Minako answered, sounding concerned.
“I need help... she took Dawnie.”
* * *
1997
Buffy and her friends were wandering around Ethan's, looking for something to wear. Buffy had spent some time groveling for hurting Xander's feelings, even though she really didn't get what she had done wrong, but he had been hurt so she had turned on her best puppy dog eyes until he had cracked. He had just begun to accept her apology when she had seen the perfect costume.
“Hello! That was our touching reconciliation moment there,” Xander said, annoyed that she had wandered off.
“I'm sorry... it's just... this gave me the perfect idea for a costume,” Buffy replied, looking at the rack.
“It's a Japanese school girl uniform,” Willow said, bewildered. “How is that the perfect costume?”
She looked at the other two for a moment, shifting uncomfortably. “Promise you won't laugh?”
When they nodded, although Xander still looked a little disgruntled, Buffy continued in a quieter voice. “Have you seen that thing in London, that Sailor V girl?”
“Still not seeing the point, Buffster,” Xander said.
“It's just, when I first saw her on the news, I thought, I'm not alone.”
“What do you mean?” Willow asked, concerned.
“You guys are my best friends, and you're great, but... You don't know what it's like to be destiny girl. When I saw her, I just thought: I'm not alone. Other girls fight monsters too.”
Xander mock leered at her. “Well, it's no spandex, but I like the skirt.”
Buffy rolled her eyes, then pulled it off the rack. She would need a few accessories, but she knew she could make it work.
* * *
Present
“How bad is it?” Minako asked, her voice gentle. “I can get there quick as a whisk.”
“It's bad,” Buffy answered, her voice exhausted. “She's a hell god, and she took my sister. I can't beat her. I can't even hurt her. And if we don't get Dawn back, she's gonna kill her. Tonight.”
* * *
1998
Buffy hadn't thought overly much about her Halloween experience in the months that had followed. It hadn't been until Angel had stood in front of her, his soul in his eyes and hell opening behind him that she had remembered the most traumatic moment in Sailor V's career.
Minako had held a man, an enemy, who had loved her, and she had felt feelings for too. She had had to kill him to save the world, and as he had died in her arms he had told her something that had haunted even Buffy, remembering it second hand.
Looking into Angel's betrayed eyes as she had sunk the sword home, she had wondered if he had felt the same way Adonis had when he had laid his curse on Minako with his dying breath. "I'll tell you your final love fortune.... Your love will be hopeless for all eternity. What's wrong? You should look happier! Now you can go on living, without having to torment yourself over the ultimate choice -- your love or your duty. Your fate is to continue fighting.”
She hadn't run away from Sunnydale just to escape the pain of killing Angel, or the hurt of her mother kicking her out, or to escape the police, or even to avoid seeing the way her friends had looked, half dead because of her calling. She had run, because she had chosen duty over love... and she knew that as the Slayer she always would. That was what she truly couldn't face.
Strangely though, while Minako's painful past had helped to drive Buffy from Sunnydale, the knowledge that she wasn't the only person facing such a crushing fate - that she wasn't the only girl in all the world to stand against evil because of a duty she had never sought - had kept her from feeling so alone. She could hide and heal as Anne, knowing in part that someone, somewhere, stood against the night.
* * *
Present
“I'll get the princess then. She'll save your sister. I promise.”
“Thank you,” Buffy said. She took a deep breath. She wasn't alone facing this apocalypse. For the first time since she had called, her voice was confident. “We're all at the Magic Box. We'll be ready to get our rescue on when you get here.”
* * *
1998
Buffy had been sitting in her room, lost in thought, when the phone had rung. She had been expecting Willow, or even Scott, wanting to discuss their potential date. Buffy had been fiddling with Angel's Claddagh ring, wondering if she was ready to move on, when she had heard the unexpected voice. “Excuse me... but are you Buffy Summers?”
“Yes,” she replied warily. “Who are you?”
“My name is Aino Minako. I wonder, did something strange happen to you last Halloween?”
Buffy straightened up warily at that. “Sailor V?”
“You do remember.”
“How... how did you know?”
“Because I remember too. I was you that night.”
“Oh,” Buffy said, overwhelmed. “Um... why are you calling? Not that you shouldn't call, because you can. I mean, I'm glad you called... yeah. Just ignore me.”
Minako giggled slightly. “I just... well. I died.”
“Oh. You sound pretty lively. This isn't some kind of, um, come slay me thing, is it? 'Cause I can't afford to go to Japan.”
“No! No. My friends, the Sailor Senshi. We all died, and Moon brought us back. It's just...”
Buffy remembered her summer, and the bitter comfort of not being the only one, and understood. “You just wanted to talk to me, 'cause I did the whole die fighting evil thing.”
“Yeah.”
* * *
Present
Buffy hung up, and walked back towards the others. Buffy had understood, and from then on, the two women, despite having never met in person, had begun to call each other from time to time when the fight against evil became too much. Neither of them was truly alone; they both had friends and family, but both were leaders in their own way, Buffy of the Scoobies, Minako of the Inners, and that leadership isolated them. Both had borne the weight of the world on their shoulders, and both found comfort in finding someone else who felt the same.
Buffy looked at Giles. “Dawn will be okay. I called for help.”
“Help?” Giles asked, bewildered. “She's a god, Buffy. Who could possibly help?”
* * *
2000
The first time Buffy had tried to call for help from her friend in Japan had been when Adam had been on the loose. She had been fighting with her friends, and nothing she had done alone had seemed to be enough to beat it. She hadn't been able to get through, however, and in the end she had left about a dozen messages, and then had returned to the Scoobies. They had gotten together, talked things out, and then had saved the world.
She hadn't heard from Minako until the next morning, after having fought off the First Slayer in a dream. Minako had finally returned her calls, and had explained why she had been missing. As excuses went, being dead, and then at the center of the galaxy fighting evil worked pretty well. And while Buffy had wanted help stopping the end of the world, she couldn't begrudge her friend stopping a foe that had already destroyed countless worlds, and was looking to add earth to the list. It wasn't until Minako had explained everything that she realized just how powerful her friend's group had become.
She was the Slayer, but she couldn't travel faster than the speed of light, or destroy planets, or resurrect the dead. While being stronger so that foes like Adam wouldn't be as much of a threat sounded nice, in the end, she was glad that she wasn't that powerful. Just being the Slayer made her concerned sometimes about what she was becoming, but if she could do those things, she wondered if she would still be Buffy at all.
* * *
Present
Buffy wouldn't explain anything, only telling the others that she had a friend who could stop Glory. She pretended not to notice the concerned whispers about whether or not she had gone off the deep end. Having to be pulled out of a coma really hurt her credibility, after all.
When five Japanese teenagers and two cats came through the door, it wasn't at all what the Scoobies had been expecting. When one of them, a blonde girl with two ridiculously long pony tails, tripped over a display and began crying, they all simply turned to the sheepish Slayer and stared.
“Come on,” Minako said, ignoring her crying princess to give Buffy a quick hug. “Let's get your sister back. A job half started is already finished!”
* * *
A While Later
Facing Glory and her minions, the new girls stepped forward confidently. The girl who had tripped in the Magic Box raised her hand and called out, “Silver Moon Crystal Power, Make Up!” She then began to glow, and her clothing disappeared. She spun round and round, a skimpy outfit slowly forming on her body, with large wings growing from her back, finally stopping in a strange pose, holding up an odd, shiny staff.
“Does she know she's naked when she does tha'?” Spike whispered loudly. Buffy elbowed him hard in the ribs.
Blushing, the strangely attired girl cleared her throat and continued. “I am the pretty sailor suited guardian of love and justice, Eternal Sailor Moon. Younger siblings are to be protected and made fun of by their older sisters, not kidnapped for evil rituals! In the name of the moon, I will punish you!”
Glory looked at the girl, an incredulous expression on her face. Spike snickered unrepentantly even after Buffy elbowed him again. The Scoobies just stared.
* * *
Later Still
“I can't believe that worked,” Willow said to Tara, who Sailor Moon had healed with a quick spell before changing back. “I mean, I used black magic, which I know, bad, but still... I use all this magic on Glory and get a big fat nothing! She just does a little dance, says one spell, and she turns Glory back into Ben, with no skanky hell god ever again! And... and... what kind of incantation is 'Sailor Moon Crystal Power Therapy Kiss' anyway!”
“You're right about that, Red,” Spike said, disgusted. “Spell like that, she prob'ly died o' shame. That was right anticlimactic.”
“I hate to agree with the Evil Dead about anything, but that was the lamest apocalypse ever,” Xander added as he watched the Slayer hug her friend goodbye. “Plus, what was the deal with what Ben said when he was de-Gloried? I mean, she's pretty in a jail bait kinda way, but if I ever came to wearing a tiny dress surrounded by diseased hobbits, I wouldn't shout 'beautiful'.”
Author's Notes
I'll preface this by saying, first, I've never written a short fic like this before. Second, I had this plot bunny and decided to write it, despite being far from an expert about the Sailor Moon franchise. I've read more of the manga than I've watched the anime, and the only one I finished all of was Codename: Sailor V. I'm also playing somewhat loose with the timeline, combining elements of both the anime and manga together to create the Sailor Moon side of the cross.
I used some dialog from the episode Halloween. I used some terms and quotes from Sailor Moon as well. Minako is infamous for her malapropisms, and that was really hard to write. I hope it worked. The quote by Minako's love interest was from Code Name: Sailor V issue 15. Sailor Moon by the end was cosmically powerful, and while normally I hate seeing a weak Glory (she was a god, so she should be very powerful) I decided to play the end for laughs and let the series power level differential stand as implied.
I'd like to thank my sister for taking a look at this piece before I published. I've never had someone beta me, and although I didn't take every suggestion she made, she caught several errors.