Zonks

5/25/2003- original

3/31/2012- remixed

Summary: 21st Century Serenity Knolland and her all male crew find themselves in a land other than their own. There are competing prophecies from the locals, one in which they are known, and the other in which they play no part.

–

AN: This was originally titled Far Ago to Today and the story was different but also very similar. I'm going to use ideas and thoughts I had in that one, but expand on them and create something more suited for my writing skills today, rather than try to force myself to fit back into my 2003 beginnings. (Not to say though that I was immature then, that might actually be today's description of me. ;P ) I also like the idea of using the title of Zonks. It reminds me of a few things in the past, but that might be more of an inside joke than I might realize. Oh well.

AN2: I also originally had all of the female characters named differently, except for Serenity. They all still started with the same letters and they all had names meaning what they should, fitting of the characters. I'm going to miss those names, though they were all different and difficult to keep track of, they had an older and western sounding to them. So instead of as a first name, they'll be their last names. So that in mind, each will be double lettered initials. Haruka Harvati for instance. So.. HH. At the end I will share with you their names laid out simply and what they all mean. Taking Harvati for an example, it means Army Warrior. I know I will get a lot of negativity for changing the names, one or two would have been ok, but all of them is just confusing so I've refrained from doing so altogether.

AN3: This is going to be very confusing at first and its meant to be that way. These are just pieces to the puzzle in the first part of this chapter and then it will start pulling in, together and it will make sense later on after the prologue. It doesn't all follow one character and its not happening at one time, not at all, not until things start becoming more linear again (after the prologue). Thanks for listening to my ramblings, onto the story! I know you were all looking forward to it. :D

Prologue

–

Running. There was a lot of running.

Wheezing? Were they really that out of shape or was it just the leader?

Oh dear, that blade did look very sharp and dangerous. It had a very clear target and that target was here. The sword swung and eyes shut painfully tight to try and block it out. Hoping that something magically would happen to stop this from happening. Maybe even wake up and discover it was all a bad dream. Oh that would be very nice.

–

"Endymion!"

Endymion gasped loudly, waking with a start as not only the shout but also the hand on his shoulder grabbed him awake. He looked about the small area, trying to calm his breathing. He looked up into the violet eyes of his favorite. She held his gaze for a long moment before she turned her eyes away to glance behind her where another woman stood.

"Come on, Endymion! They're setting fire to the place." She looked back at him and he saw the urgency in her eyes. He scooped up his small belongings and followed her out. The other was behind him with not too much time between.

"The others?" He asked, breathing in the smoke that reached them quickly.

"They're up ahead." The one who stayed behind to take care of their tracks answered. "I sent them out earlier to scout out a safe place to regroup."

It wasn't too much longer that they finally met up with the other three. There were six of them in total. One was still brand new to their group and she hadn't been with them more than a day. They were not through yet. There were still three more that they had to find. Endymion smiled, pleased to see all of the ones they had now, alive and well. They had quickly become his family.

–

"OW!" Serenity complained as her brother hit her in the abdomen with his elbow. She rubbed at the spot under her long slinky blue dress. "We're going to a party, why do you have to be so rough?"

"I didn't mean to Sere." Her brother apologized. "I thought you'd react quicker than that." He was flicked in the head by another man. "Hey!"

"I thought you'd react quicker than that." The other man responded innocently, getting the first man back for harming Serenity.

"I don't always need to be on, do I?" Serenity tried to breath past the pain. Her brother hadn't meant to hurt her, he hadn't even meant to touch her.

"With the way you go about things, it might be safer." A third man added to the discussion and when Serenity leveled him with a gaze he held up his hands in self-defense. "All right, maybe not always, but when you're alone or when there isn't at least two of us present, then you do."

Serenity bobbed her head. "Yeah, yeah yeah. I still don't know why I need to know this stuff. You're the ones always getting into trouble."

The second man wrapped his arms around Serenity and looked down at her with a raised brow. "Excuse me?"

Serenity only laughed as a fourth opened the car door for them so they could get on their way to their party.

–

The room was hot and the bed was sticky. Serenity lifted her head off of his chest. She had just had another dream. This was the umpteenth one in the last year. They hadn't been there before. They hadn't been there for any other relationship, however short lived those had been, and they hadn't been there to stall this one off.

The feelings she had in this dream about a man other than the one she laid with were so much stronger than the one she was now seeing, or rather they were different. How could she be having feelings so deep for an individual she had never met? She owed him so much more than this, she had to be fair to him, even if she didn't want it herself. She at least needed to give them the option. She had to tell him, or if that failed, she had to call this off.

It might just break her heart more than it would his.

–

She pleaded with him, begged him to give it a chance. He wouldn't have it. He tried to let her down gently, but no matter what he said, it broke her heart.

He left the room, and she sagged onto the ground in tears. She cried into her knees, her wool dress soaking up her tears. One of their friends came out and offered her comfort. She turned her head and buried it into her friend's chest, sobbing. A hand came and rested on her back, making soothing circles to try and calm her. Words were said to try and reassure her, to ease her pain. But nothing could do that.

–

Endymion opened his eyes to a pendant laying on the hay next to his head. His forefinger hooked around the delicate chain as he sat up and looked around the barn that they had been hiding in. His mother, whom the pendant belonged to, was no where to be found.

Even at fifteen, he was well aware of the meaning her absence meant. For some reason though he had been expecting it and had only been surprised she had lasted so long. He'd never see her again.

He opened the pendant and he found a scroll older than time hidden within. It took his eyes a moment to adjust to the script he had never seen before, in a language he had not known he was could read. The words inside forever changed his life.

–

Serenity popped off the wooden top of the crate they had just received. She was so excited. This was the first time her major had allowed her actual hands on experience. She set the the crowbar and hammer aside and slid the lid back so she could get at the things inside easier. She started moving around the packing material. She took out a few to be unwrapped from the protecting shells and went digging for the large items that she had been promised would be inside.

She found the mostly still intact pot from Herculaneum out of the wooden box. She pulled back the newspaper surrounding it with awe as the intricate designs started appearing. She shifted it so she was holding the pot in her bare hand against the red clay and black interface so her other hand could remove the paper from it completely.

However she never finished as she was suddenly thrust into a land not of hers. Her feet were still on the ground in the basement of her major's building, but her mind and sight were sent years back, to the time just as the volcano was erupting. They had very little warning. They all piled into the boat house, waiting for the next one to come and take them away from here. Ash blew in around them, they wouldn't even make it to see the lava. It was difficult to breathe. One by one people around her started sagging to the ground, turning from their olive tones and white togas to ashen and gray. White speaks coated their black hair and their clothes once white were dirty instantly. Everything was being gray-washed, rather than white-washed.

"Serenity?" Someone asked, but not from where she was in her mind, but from where she still stood. Serenity was pulled back to the present with such speed she felt whiplash. She felt sick and she almost dropped the pot. The one that had interrupted her caught it before it even left her grasp. "Are you feeling all right?"

Serenity blinked, not quite believing this world was real. She looked up into her professor's kind blue eyes and she nodded slowly. Then she shook her head. "I don't think so- I- I have to go. I'm sorry!" She ran out of the room, not sure where to go, or who to talk with about this. Would anyone believe her?

She stopped outside, the sun was starting to set and she found a bench overlooking the pond near her old dorm room. She sat upon it and buried her head in her hands. What was that just then? Was it real, was she going crazy, or had she imagined the whole thing because she was seriously sleep deprived?

Serenity heard someone jogging and then their pace slowed to one spot, but they were still jogging and then they were coming closer to her. "Sis?" It was her brother. "Is everything alright?"

Would he understand? "No!" She complained, burying her head into his sweaty chest and sobbed. She didn't know what was happening.

–

He was lifting her head with his finger, looking into her eyes and she was starting to lose track of her own thoughts. "You have quite an ability, my dear." Her eyes were open but it was as if she was being lulled into sleep but her body would remain awake.

She was sure she made some sort of sound of protest.

He laughed. "Together we would make the best team. Say you'll join me? Then I wouldn't have to do any of this, you could be left alone."

A mewl came out as she wasn't even sure if she was hearing him correctly. Then she was suddenly awake and she saw the man on the ground, tackled by one of her friends. Then she was out of the room and they were heading towards safety.

–

"That's a pretty scepter." Serenity commented, her hand going out towards the jewel encrusted item in front of her. Her brother was by her side, and her other friends across from her.

They were agreeing with her until they understood exactly what she was doing. "No!" Her brother reached for her but it was too late, her fingertips had already brushed against it.

"Where are we?" One of the other men asked once they realized that they were no longer where they had once been standing, in their little antiques and relics shop.

"Nice going Sere."

"Oh leave her alone!"

"Don't be cross with me just because-"

"Enough!"

"Sorry..."

–

"Ah crap." She complained as her sword hand became embedded in the man's spine.

"That's the problem when you use that kind of sword. You have to either lose it, unlatch it and use both hands to pull it out or get someone to help you. Seeing as the second one will lose time, you always need someone around with you to protect you and to help you."

"I can get it out with both by hands while the one is still latched." She argued.

"All right then." Laughter followed the words. "I'll just protect you while you struggle with that."

She tried to to pull it out but was unable to. She struggled with it for a moment longer before she called for help. "If you would have let me finish my sentence, instead of challenging me, we would have been done with this a long time ago. I was going to say, unless it was stuck in bone."

"You got it there, can't you get it out? Or does your strength go only one way?"

"Enough ladies." He sighed as he came over and helped her remove the sword from their enemy. "Switch it up next time, would you?"

"Yes."

"Sorry." The both bowed their heads in apology for causing him distraction.

"Good." He walked away, taking out two more as he went to go check on the others.

–

Serenity looked up and there he was. Her smile brightened and only grew as he came near. He held her gaze for a long moment before he completed what they both had wanted. He leaned in and kissed her. Full on the lips and she sagged against him. His hands caught her and he whispered something throaty down to her.

She nodded and they went running off to go do more of what they wanted, behind closed doors and in complete privacy.

–

"Serenity, I know this is out of the blue-"

"Shut up." She cut him off but there was a smile dancing along her lips, so he knew she wasn't being mean. "Go out with me?"

"Of course." He gathered her close and kissed her. "It's all I've ever wanted."

"You're speaking my mind."

Her brother was watching on and he chuckled. He clasped a hand onto the man's back and shoulder next to him. "Tough luck bud."

–

He was barely on his own for two months when he came across a woman with long dark hair and violet eyes. She was crouched and facing off two other men. He would have interfered anyway. The fact that he felt drawn to her in a way he was not used to had very little to do with this but it did give him more of a reason to. She looked like she could handle herself and the men were fools for even attempting whatever they were after.

He had taken a step forward when she lashed out at one, he went down quickly. Endymion quickly dealt with the next one and he turned to her to offer her praise and see if she was all right, but when he did so, he was looking down a very long shaft of a blade.

Endymion looked up into her eyes and was floored by the color, very unusual and beautiful. They looked at each other for a long time before she cracked a smile. "I'm Rei."

"I'm Endymion." And their bond in that moment was forever cemented. Rei would deny it was savior worshiping that had lead her feelings towards him and he would try to deny those same feelings for a long time. No words of thanks were necessary either.

–

Rei watched on as he took a local woman to bed. All eight had been gathered and he was free to finally act on his impulses without worrying he was going against his orders completely. Her lips quivered as they kissed on top of the stairs before heading into the room. A woman stood near Rei. "I am so sorry."

Rei's eyes turned to the blond next to her and they were watery. "Thanks Mina." Today she wouldn't sob into her friend's shoulder. Today she would be strong and walk away. "How's Makoto? Still sore from having her hand devoured by a man's chest?"

Mina laughed at the imagery, it shouldn't have been funny, it should have been very scary, but having seen a youma's chest do just that, the fact that it was a mere man let her blow off steam. "Sore pride, perhaps. Haruka's not helping matters." Rei nodded, though her back was turned to her blond friend and tears were streaming down her cheeks.

–

These were two very different worlds and no one knew that soon they would be colliding. Well perhaps one or two did, maybe even three or four, but they weren't talking. One knew it would eventually happen, maybe not this exactly, but it was bound to turn out to have a chance occurrence like that at some point, perhaps. At least prayed that it would.

Still, it was a surprised to all what happened next.

EAN: So, that's it for the prologue. I know it is topsy-turvy and jumps around a lot. It's meant to be like that. It's giving you insight into both worlds without giving away too many details. More shall be uncovered in the future. It'll be a lot more linear from now on, and perhaps your answers will eventually be uncovered. :D