The Dark Princess

Disclaimer: I don't own the Sailor Moon Manga/Anime/etc... but I do own the chara of Alexandrite... and I'm using the chara of Jacinth with permission of my friend. So don't steal them.
Author's notes: So far the story's included Demando/Diamond (If you couldn't tell by his description you have not seen/read enough Sailor Moon...) as an out of timeline chara... there may be more... I'm not sure at this point. And I'm going to have to add here that this chapter and the next one might be rated PG-13 with some of the stuff that happens... you've been warned... so close this page if you think you can't handle it. The next chapter will be worse... to give you a fair warning...

        The child-like screams echoed through the room while Zoisite and Malachite waited outside the chamber. Malachite watched coldly, while Zoisite got more and more concerned for the girl within. Finally the loudest ear-splitting scream tore at his heart.
        "Malachite!! The pain will kill her if she's left in there much longer!!" he yelled over the screams.
        Malachite stood silently, with no expression on his face. "She needs to be older, a ten year old brat causes trouble."
        "So? Thirteen year olds aren't much better..."
        "We're not making her thirteen..."
        "Fourteen then." Zoisite amended.
        "No, fifteen."
        "FIFTEEN? You're adding FIVE years? That's too much! She'll be in pain for a week after she gets out!" Zoisite said angrily.
        "She'll be fine. She needs to build up her immunity anyway. Maybe she'll be able to handle her energy now." Malachite said coldly.
        "I thought she hated you for no reason, just because you were pushing her a little too hard in her training... this is crazy." Zoi sighed and held his ears covered. "Did she scream like this the other times?"
        "A little less..." The screaming intensified as her body stretched more and her mind was filled with more and more age.
        "Stop it. Stop it! It's killing her!!"
        "She'll be fine." Malachite kissed Zoisite's cheek absently. "See to her when she comes out. She'll need new clothes and that ten year old's bed will be too small." Malachite glanced nonchalantly at the chamber then walked away calmly. He hated to do it, but it had to be done. Beryl ordered it and Demando had requested it.
        Zoisite sighed and waited for the endless screaming to stop and Alex to come out hating everything around her because of her pain. When the screaming stopped, a seemingly lifeless body fell out of the chamber. It was fifteen in height and muscle tone and her hair was past her knees, but... her maturity was...
        Zoisite clenched his teeth... he knew someone had plans for her that would require that supple body. Who and what were his objectives to find out. He wrapped the unconscious girl in a black cloth and sent for her dresses to be made to fit her new body. He now understood why Malachite had left right before Alexandrite had come out... he didn't want to see his daughter like that. He knew she'd look that way... now he'd tell Zoisite why. Zoisite carried Alex to her bed and laid her on the mattress that was a few feet too short. He clenched his teeth again and left her to awaken and realize what happened to her. *********************************************         Over the next week, Alex moved carefully, everything hurt from being forced to grow and mature so quickly. Zoisite's heart wrenched to see the "child" so in pain and came close to hating Malachite for it. He could see by the sparks glinting in the shattered crystals of her eyes that Alex didn't have any problem with hating him.
        He'd gotten his wish for her though... Alex used her power of anger so much she'd nearly killed any sparring partner she'd had that week. And soon all the realm was frightened of the fury that hid behind her shattered prizms of eyes. The only thing intact in the training room whenever she left was the wall with the hole in it that she'd blasted when she was seven...
        "Alex?" Zoisite asked quietly as Alex was leaning on a wall, snarling to herself.
        "What?" Alex snapped dryly.
        "You've changed, sweetie."
        "Yeah I know." Alex agreed resignedly. She glared down the hall at a Youma who went running when he noticed her. "I kind of like it." she added with an evil smirk.
        "No you don't. The pain's making you crazy." Zoisite said sadly.
        "Yes I do. I like it. Daddy doesn't get upset at me anymore. He doesn't yell. I don't have to go back in that machine anymore either. He told me that." Alex said softly and smiled distantly.
        "Oh, Alex... Why did he do this?" Zoisite sighed and got no answer from anyone.
        Eyes watched the two from a distance in the shadows and smiled, glancing up and down to appreciate Alex's new body and the way her loose hair flowed around it. She was perfect now. *****************************************************         Alex jumped in the air in a flash of black and gold. She easily landed in a lunge, easy for her in her leggings and shirt, glared at her opponent and flipped over them before they had a chance to react. She stayed in the air behind them and blasted a wickedly sharp crystal at their back.
        "Alex!" Zoisite called from the door. "Your father wants to see you." Zoisite did not look happy, she obviously knew something...
        Alex sighed. "Coming." She glared down at the Youma as he pulled the crystal out of his arm and glared back. Jedite would have easily blocked that, but Jedite was hiding from her after her last vicious spar. Alex frowned and tossed a bit of hair behind her shoulder, then walked out past Zoisite. *****************************************************         "You called, father?" Alex asked dryly and noticed the man she'd seen talking with Malachite before. "Why's he here?"
        "Technically, I didn't call you, he did. His name is Demando, and he needed to talk to you about something."
       Alex glared at Demando through narrowed eyes. "What do you want?"
        "I need to talk to you... alone." Demando replied and cut a glance to Malachite, who left quietly.
        "I don't like you. Go away." Alex snarled.
        "Why?" Demando asked innocently.
        "I told you. I don't like you."
        "No. Why don't you like me? You don't even know me."
        Alex snorted at that. "I can tell a hell of a lot just looking at you. And I know you've been watching me. I can sense it, I'm not dumb you know."
        "I know. That's partly why I wanted to talk to you."
        "Don't bother telling me the other part. I can guess." Alex glared behind firey eyes.
        Demando smirked. "You are smart. So should we cut to the chase or what?"
        "What chase? I haven't even started running yet." Alex huffed.
        "I have the feeling you aren't the kind of girl who runs anyway."
        Alex did not like the way this was going. She'd sooner spend time alone with Jedite than this jerk. She stood silently glaring daggers at him and flushing with fury that the only thing she got in response was a charming smile. Well, an attempt at one... She was lucky she didn't get charmed easily... or did she? She hoped she didn't.
        "Well? Start talking already. I'm not getting any younger." Alex tapped her foot shortly.
        "Really? Very well." he stepped closer to her and she instinctively slid about a foot back. "What's wrong? Don't tell me you're afraid of me..."
        That hit straight to Alex's core. She didn't dare get called a coward. She stood her ground the next time he stepped up to her and tried not to flinch when he brushed aside one of her stray hairs.
        "Why don't you leave me alone?" she said with a soft anger.
        "You're too pretty to ignore, especially now." he replied and slid his hand down her cheek. Alex fought off a flinch and stared icily into his eyes. A major mistake. "What's wrong?" he asked with mock concern and brushed her neck lightly. She flinched then and tore her eyes away from him.
        "Leave me alone!"
        He caught her chin when she tried to get away. "Not so fast. You're mine." Alex was horrified. She was no one's! She stomped on his foot and he flinched, growling.
        "Let me go!!" she almost screamed and twisted in his grasp. If she hadn't been so panicked by what she'd seen in his eyes she would have teleported away.
        Suddenly a flash lit on his forehead. Alex instinctively looked away, knowing it couldn't be good.
        "Look at me. Why are you afraid?"
        "I'm not afraid..." Alex said, still looking away with closed eyes.
        "Then look at me."
        "I'm also not crazy." Alex said haughtily. That coaxed a shake from him. She flinched again, her father would have been so disappointed in her fear.
        The glow on his forehead grew brighter. "Open your eyes!"
        "Let me go!!!" she yelled loudly. She twisted out of his grip finally only to be grabbed again. She was so infuriated that she looked at him... and froze... ********************************************         "Alex? Alex!!!" Zoisite's voice was far down the hallway, it combined with another voice, she didn't recognize it... but in her state she barely recognized Zoi-chan's either...
        "Ignore them." the voice in her head said. "Listen to me."
        "But--I--"Alex tried to speak, but for some reason her body was too weak.
        "Ignore them." the voice said again. She felt a touch on her arms, being held close to someone... the voice was whispering in her ear...
        Alex stopped hearing the other voices.
        "You are mine. No one else will ever have you. Understand?"
        Alex tried to fight it off, but she nodded weakly.
        "Good." A brush of warmth crossed her lips. It tingled her and made her gasp and almost come to consciousness again.
        Suddenly another voice broke through again. "Let her go!!!"
        Demando let go of Alexandrite and the young teenager fell unconscious to the ground as Zoisite and a strange teenage boy came running up, yelling angrily.
        Alex heard the argument, a bit of it at least... but her head was swimming in darkness and she couldn't keep things straight. That strange voice was familiar... it was... Zoi-chan? But who was the other man? He seemed to sound familiar too, but she couldn't remember who it was. Then everything went black and even the voices in her head stopped. ********************************************         Alex was having a fitful sleep, if it was even sleep, she yelled and cried out as she twisted around as if fighting something off. Zoisite paced the room angrily and made sure no one came in, especially Demando.
        The teenage boy was there too, and sat worriedly at her bedside, fearful for her and her sanity. "If only we'd gotten there sooner..."
        "Don't start blaming yourself. You said he was like this with a lot of girls, which means he knows how to work fast. He probably had the whole thing planned out. He knew someone would find her and he wouldn't have her completely today." Zoisite said softly then smirked. "I just don't think he was expecting you."
        The boy laughed then looked down at Alex as she writhed from another nightmare. "Is she gonna be okay?"
        "She should be. She's had worse fits before." Zoisite sighed and put a cold compress on her forehead. She stopped moving soon after and relaxed in a more peaceful sleep. "I just wish I knew what he did."
        "What did he have planned for her?" the boy asked.
        "He never told Malachite, just that he wanted her. Don't you know what he does with his girls?"
        "Only a few of them." the boy shuddered.
        "I take it he's not very gentle?"
        "He's gentle, but overly so... the girls fall before they know what's hit them." the boy sighed and brushed Alex's wild hair to a gathered mass.
        "Poor kid... she's been through so much... and she's only supposed to be about four years old."
        "Four? They've really been keeping her in that thing haven't they?" the boy looked shocked and a little angry.
        "She was three, then seven, then ten, and now she's fifteen... She never had a childhood, she'd never be able to enjoy one anyway." Zoisite sighed. "It was practically a necessity... children wouldn't last long here."
        "She seems strong."
        "I told you: She's been through a lot. And I doubt that time with Demando helped her much."
        The boy cursed silently and watched Alex sleep. She looked as young as she should have been. They'd had no right to do that to her, not Malachite, not Demando, or anyone else who'd hurt her...
        Alex shifted jaggedly, like someone awakening, then lay still for a few moments. Then her eyes fluttered and opened. They looked blind for a moment, then with a deliberate blink returned to the shattered burning crystals they'd been since her last growth.
        "Are you okay, princess?" the boy at her bedside asked.
        Alex blinked again then answered slowly. "I'm fine... why do you ask?"
        "You were blacked out for hours, Alex..." Zoisite told her.
        "I was? I thought I fell asleep."
        "You did... kinda." the boy answered softly.
        Alex gave him an odd look. "Who are you anyway?" For half a second the boy looked shocked. Maybe she had amnesia from her encounter... "Zoi-chan, who is this guy?" Scratch that, she knew her old friend.
        The boy smiled and took her hand. "You don't remember me?" he kissed it gently.
        Alex smiled sweetly, "Now I do. You've changed." she frowned, remembering the only way he could have changed and how badly it hurt.
        "It didn't hurt." he said bravely. She merely hiked an eyebrow and sighed.
        "Men, always have to be so strong. Oh well. You never told me what happened..."
        "And I'm not going to." he said curtly. "It's best you don't know."
        "Come on Jacinth, she needs her rest after that." Zoisite said and led the boy out of Alex's room.
        "Zoi-chan?" Alex said weakly before he left.
        "Yes?"
        "What did he do to me?"
        Zoisite sighed. "I don't know, princess." ******************************************         About a week later, Alex was walking around on her own again without any sign of knowing a bit about what had happened to her. All she knew was that that... "Stranger" (she didn't dare even think his name)... was talking, then she'd gotten mad, looked him in the eye.... and blacked out.
        After that, she avoided her father like the plague. He'd been the cause of it and she wouldn't let it happen again. She kept to herself, except for talking with her "new" friend, the boy who'd bruised Jedite when she'd wanted to and saved her when she'd needed it. He wasn't so bad when he wasn't trying to pick on her personal punching bag...
        However much she kept away from other people, Alex always felt "eyes" watching her.... She didn't know what it was, but she didn't like the creeping, tingling feeling it gave her. She'd almost caught the eyes once, but they'd vanished away before her mind's eye registered what they were. She turned away from where they'd been, only to feel them again...
        The only time Alex was completely alone was in her room. Not even Zoi-chan was allowed there anymore. She only went there to sleep and to be alone in a fit of anger... Even then, Jacinth tried to come in and calm her down. She even threw him out... actually threw something at him to get him out... *******************************************         A month later, Alex was checking out an area she'd never seen before, there seemed to be a wall, but when she touched it, she practically fell through. She looked up from the ground and saw a few red flowers...
        "What the--? I thought flowers didn't grow around here...." she gasped and touched a blossom, it was real and softer than anything she'd ever touched. Alex smiled and smelled it, it was sweet and almost intoxicating. There weren't many, but Alex decided to change that... *******************************************         "Alex! Wait up!" Jacinth was chasing her down the hall and failing miserably at trying to keep her in sight. He stopped to catch his breath and when he looked up, she'd vanished. "Aw great..." he sighed and rolled his gold eyes.
        "Miss me?" Alexandrite said suddenly and tapped his shoulder.
        "ACK! Alex don't do that!"
        "Why not?" she smiled sweetly and turned it into a smirk, "Can't keep up with me?"
        "I could if I knew how to snatch energy out of everything and turn it to power, but I don't so chill and wait for me." Jacinth huffed.
        Alex's frown was genuine. "Sorry. I forgot. I figured you could keep up with me by now. It's been a month."
        "Yeah well some people don't have the perkiness of a four year old when they're fifteen..." he smiled. She crossed her arms and scowled.
        "Call me perky one more time and your gonna be smiling through your toes!" Alex snarled and turned on her heel. The last thing she needed was a reminder of what she really should have been.
        "Alex, wait, I didn't mean--" she was gone in a mist of crystals before Jacinth could finish. "Damn!"
        Alex stormed down another hallway and stopped to clear her head. She really shouldn't have snapped at her friend like that, it wasn't his fault she was so grown-up and that it had hurt so much. She sighed and leaned her back on a wall, gazing down the hall.
        A cool bit of air flowed past her in less than a breath's speed, she looked up and her frown grew to a fiercer scowl than she'd given her friend. "You again?"
        "Problem?" Demando asked and crossed his arms, hiking an eyebrow.
        "Yeah, I'd prefer to be alone."
        "We are."
        "Not with you!" Alex snarled and narrowed her eyes.
        "Sorry, but I was here first."
        Alex blinked, "I didn't see you."
        "Trust me, I was here before you were." he smiled. "Why so upset?"
        "I got in a fight with a friend, which really isn't your business."
        He smirked, but said nothing.
        Alex did not feel safe alone with him, she never did. True, she'd always gotten away from him without a scratch, but some wounds could be deeper than that.
        "Don't you know how to take orders? Leave me alone!" Alex shrieked, unable to stand the smirk any longer.
        "Learn who you can order around, princess. You're not on a throne yet. The highest person under you is a minion."
        "Wrong. Jeddy's lower." she smirked right back at him.
        "In your opinion."
        "Oh enough already, I'm sick of quarrels, what do you want?"
        "What I already have. What belongs to me."
        Suddenly, like a flash of lightning, Alex remembered what had happened before, when she'd "blacked-out". "No! Not a chance!"
        "You're mine." he grabbed her arm before she could run.
        "I'm no one's." Alex had gotten wiser since the last quarrel, she didn't even look at his feet, much less his face. Instead she stomped down hard on his foot. Demando yelled and jumped back, releasing her. "You want me? Catch me first!" Alex vanished in a flash of light.
        "Damn that brat. Fine, two strikes, but third time's the charm!" Demando grumbled then teleported off himself. *********************************************** Author's closing note: Okay so maybe it's not so bad... yet... but the next chapter will go much further and farther in depth about the stuff between Alex and Demando. And more things will happen too, sort of a plot twist, and don't forget the battle for the Moon Kingdom's due soon. Anxious to see how Alex and Jace stand up against the Senshi warriors and Earth? You have to wait to see who lives and dies... (okay duh, they all die, they're the bad guys, but... who dies first? and how? and who kills them...? ¬_¬ trust me, it's not predictable!)