The Rebirth {Private Thread}

[ROSEMARY NERISSA MARINO]

It had only been two days but it felt like forever. It was two days of stress, horror, and fear that Claire would never return to the charming and vibrant pianist that Rosemary had grown to love.

Their friendship had started at a young age when Rosemary was eight and Claire was nine. Both of their parents had thrown their children head first into the musical scene and the two hit if off right away, so much that their parents decided to send them to the same school the next year and years to come.

Claire and Rosemary had been partners in crime and booked many concerts together. Although the newspapers had criticized Claire and claimed that she did not measure up to Rosemary's prowess on the violin, Claire had never let it bother her and their partnership had continued in years to come. The two girls grew together and while Rosemary rarely let anyone crack her emotional barrier, Claire was always there to break down the mental blocks.

The decision to attend Infinity College in Tokyo had been mostly Rosemary's choice, but ultimately it had been a wise opportunity for both. The friendship continued as the two flew over to begin a new life. Claire and Rosemary had found an apartment together and it was the time of their life.

At least, it had been until Rosemary returned from class two days ago to find Claire unconscious on the floor in their apartment. Rosemary had immediately called the hospital and Claire was transported to Tokyo Medical University. The doctors had no clue what could have caused her to collapse when she had just been suffering from a minor cold prior to the incident. As far as they knew, Claire was a medical mystery.

Rosemary called in sick to school the next couple days. There was hardly a moment when she was not at Claire's side, waiting for her partner in crime to wake up, but Claire only seemed to be getting progressively worse. The girl developed a fever that wouldn't break along with heavy dark discoloration all over her skin. Rosemary grew more and more worried, terrified that she would lose Claire completely.

So there Rosemary sat, in clothes two days old, a face without make up, and with her normally neatly wavy hair in disarray. She had begun to doze off again slightly when she heard a slight murmur of discomfort come from Claire's bed.

Rosemary's eyes darted open, sharply looking at Claire's face. At least, it had been Claire's face just a few minutes ago but now the muscles underneath her skin were crawling visibly and reshaping her face. It quickly progressed to the rest of her body and soon Claire was a writhing mess of skin. Fear turned Rosemary's stomach cold and she felt like she couldn't move or say anything. All she could do was stare.

((I hope you don't mind that I put this up, Cait, but I just really was in a posting mood last night and was way too excited to not put it up.))

[YOUMA]

This was it. The end of Claire Pelletier. Smiling in the recesses of the girl's now dark and polluted body, the Youma raked its long claws against the walls of her mind, the pain enough to make Claire scream in mental agony once again. The time had finally come for this human to die, its energy down to the very last drops. The Youma stared down at the tortured body of Miss. Pelletier, as it seemed to start fading. True, it was nothing more than a projection of the girl's mental state as a whole, but as it disappeared, the Youma knew that soon the mind of the girl herself would fade away with it. Tears, sweat, and blog were smeared across the once light and beautiful face, a face that was now gaunt and hallow. 

"Yes, darling," it crooned, crouching down to watch her turn evermore into darkness. "Giving up is your only option. Why endure more pain? This could have ended so long ago if you had just listened to my agreements." A wicked, inhuman laugh chortled from its throat, running a claw against the girl's delicate jaw line. She would have flinched, had it not been for the overwhelming lack of energy. The Youma kept its eyes on her, positively gleaming with happiness. How convenient that the human girl in the room with the actual Claire was bursting with powerful, wonderful amounts of energy, no matter how disheveled and tired she looked. Queen Beryl would be thrilled with the capture of this one, oh how the thought filled the Youma with feigned joy. 

And then, Claire Pelletier began to think her final thoughts. Her silhouette was almost gone, but the Youma could still see the movement of her mouth. "Rosemary..." It was nothing but a whisper, though still slightly audible. It was positive that the shattered bits of a smile were being forced onto her face, the realization of her dear friend's fate coming to her at last. The dark room light up briefly, flashes of a childhood, concerts, good memories, and bad memories exposing themselves one last time. The very last image was a live showing of Rosemary herself in the present, as if Claire herself was watching her friend for the last time, though her eyes still remained shut. The picture was suddenly interrupted by a bright flash of a fantastic shade of blue and the sound of a calming an ocean.

 "You're going to be great, Rosey."

And the girl, once a promising young talented pianist, was now nothing but an empty shell, her mind and energy wiped from where she had once been.

Wasting no time for tears, The Youma immediately began its work, taking over the body of Claire, and making it a new place to call home. It opened it's new eyes, the bones and muscles readjusting to fit a horrible, terrifying image. It rose up slowly, swinging its legs over the edge of the bed and standing up, revealing a height that towered over the now horrified girl; so tall that the Youma could feel the top of its new head brush against the ceiling. A disgusting smile formed on it's face, and equally disgusting noise came from it, like that of a screaming banshee; its voice. 

"Do not be afraid, darling. This will be over quickly if you only keep standing still."

And then a scream erupted from it's throat, something literally with the intent to kill as everything breakable shattered, even bones threatening to snap in half. Frightened shouts and yelps erupted from the hall, as doctors, nurses, and patients ran away from the monster in the room. 

It laughed it's horrible laugh again, before resting its eyes on its new, frightened victim.

"Don't run."

The Youma's mouth stretched open, revealing purple, shark like fangs where normal white ones had been only minutes ago. The intent to kill was stronger now. There would be no life within a twenty foot radius after this scream entered the air.

[ROSEMARY NERISSA MARINO]

Most people would have run at the first instance of anything weird, but Rosemary was frozen in place, staring at the remnants of her childhood friend. So many memories and so much time gone in an instant, replaced by.... Rosemary didn't even know what Claire had been replaced by. She had never seen anything like it before, not even in horror movies. All she knew was that this wasn't her friend anymore.

Rosemary curled her legs up into the chair, shrinking away from this thing. This couldn't be happening. It wasn't humanly possible, after all. People don't just turn into monsters in the matter of a minute, but something told her that denying the event wasn't going to be helping her anytime soon. That was when the screaming began. The sound reverberated through her body, threatening to shatter every bone in her body.

And just as suddenly as the sound began, it stopped and Rosemary looked up at the monster, her eyes full of fear. There was no remnants of Claire in that body anymore. The monster looked at Rosemary, flashing his teeth at her and she knew in an instant that she was going to die if she didn't do something soon. That was when her mind went black.

There was nothing around her except for a faint glow right in front of her face. The glow quickly developed into a faint, see-through figure that Rosemary realized looked exactly like her, but in an aqua dress floating around her. The figure reached out to Rosemary, taking her hand, and a warmth spread throughout her body, filling her with a strength that hadn't been there a second ago. The strength to move and the strength to fight.

"Rosemary," the figure spoke, "You are stronger than you know. You have been reincarnated to modern Tokyo to live a normal life but I'm afraid that is no longer possible. I am you from the past. I am Princess Neptune."

The princess paused for a second, letting the news sink in, but after hearing only silence from Rosemary, she continued. "You won't remember everything immediately, but work towards recovering your memories. I can only tell you so much. You are a soldier, though, a senshi, and it is your job to eliminate any threats to Earth. Your friend is no longer with us and her body does not belong to her. Your job is to eliminate this new threat before it destroys humanity. Take this." A scepter appeared in Rosemary's other hand. It was shaded in aqua and gold with the Greek symbol for Neptune on the top.

"Take this scepter and yell 'Neptune Planet Power, Make Up.' From there, you'll know what to do." And with that, the figure disappeared and Rosemary returned to the hospital room, back to the monster in front of her.

Between her and the monster, however, was a floating scepter in Rosemary's reach, shaded in teal and blue. Her slender fingers reached out to grasp the staff of the scepter as her eyes turned sharply up at the monster. Still filled with the energy the princess had given her, Rosemary found the will to stand up and glare down the monster.

"You've stolen Claire's life and my best friend but your time ends now! Neptune planet power, make up!"

((Lemme know if you want me to write further but I didn't want to go too far without you.))

[YOUMA]

What was this? The sudden presence of this unknown aura was enough to stun the youma into temporary silence. An energy had filled the room that was unbelievably powerful, much too powerful for this normal human girl to actually withhold?

... If she was human, of course.

No. No.

"You've stolen Claire's life and my best friend but your time ends now! Neptune planet power, make up!"

"NO," it strangled the word out, an unusual feeling making itself known. Something so strange and alien... was it fear?

That was completely unacceptable. The Youma showed no further signs of its doubtful thoughts, even as the girl transformed into the very thing it dreaded. Queen Beryl would not be pleased, and unfortunately if this didn't end its life, then Beryl most likely would.

Unless it disposed of the problem all together.

With this realization the Youma wasted no time going back into attack mode, crouching down and bringing its massive body into a defensive stance. Where soft fingernails had once been grew silver, knife-like claws. "No matter, Senshi," it's unbearable voice hissed. "I'm sure you're still absolutely delectable." And without a pause to ponder any further, it lunged forward.

[ROSEMARY NERISSA MARINO]

A warm rush of power flowed through Rosemary's body, filling her up completely with a feeling of strength she had never felt before. Her clothes shifted, warping into a sailor fuku with aqua colors and her hair flowed around her quite effortlessly like underwater seaweed. A tiara graced her forehead with a sole blue-green aquamarine gem set in the center. Short gloves covered her hands and strappy high heels supported her feet. The whole outfit felt uncomfortable but strangely familiar at the same time.

This was not the time to dwell on a mysterious outfit change, though. There were obviously more dire subjects at hand, Rosie's life being one of those. The monster had been momentarily stunned, but that no longer seemed to be the situation as knife-like nails emerged from its hands. Rosemary took a fighting stance on instinct, although she wasn't quite sure where it had come from since martial arts had never been a part of her childhood. She wasn't exactly positive what her game plan was, but something had to be done and she had a nasty feeling that she was the only one that could do anything about it.

"Too bad you'll never find out," she growled, feeling her power growing with each passing moment as the threat increased. A tingling in her fingertips intensified and a couple words began to stick out in her racing thoughts, although she wasn't exactly positive what they meant. Hey, it was worth a try, even if she looked absolutely foolish after.

"Deep submerge!" she yelled out. Sea water began to wrap in tendrils around her hands, culminating in a warping ball of water. As soon as it was big enough to cause significant damage, Rosemary hurled the ball at the youma, making direct contact with the center of its body.

[YOUMA]

"Deep submerge!"

The Youma screamed out, the room shaking with a frightful force as it did, but the Senshi no longer had anything to worry about. This scream was not aimed to kill, but to express a horrible pain that it could have never been prepared for. The attack unleashed upon it hit it square in the chest, sending it flying back into the wall. Everything seemed to crack, rattle, and shake as its massive body crashed.

"NOOOOOO." It's body was melting and deteriorating. It attempted to save itself in vain, taking the slime that was only seconds ago a solid body part and pressing it back against its body. "You brat!" It squealed. "How dare you--"

The Youma was cut off by the abrupt end of its short life.