Heritage

History

Rei arrived home an hour and fourty-five minutes later. Holding back a tired sigh she removed her shoes and slide her feet into her waiting slippers. She felt better already. Being a Sailor Guardian meant fighting in highheels and as much as she loved them, sometimes she was just grateful to get her feet in something else.
The blisters were murder on her feet. At least she had calluses now...
Rei moved past the front hall, calling out that she was home, but got no answer. She checked the kitchen, telling herself that her grandpa had probably just gone out for a little but still worried. Sure enough, there was a note on the fridge informing her that he had gone out to pick up some icecream and disposable pens. The pens were specially-made 'good-luck' pens painted by a local office supply store that took 10% of the profits. The guy who painted them did so by hand and actually knew what he was doing - and had some impressive latent powers. He had worked his way through collage at the Hikiwa Shrine with her grandfather before Rei was born and had a very steady hand when painting the characters -- in caligraphy no less -- on the pens.
Rei had only met him once or twice. He was one of the few men that she hadn't disliked on sight. She would have actually felt guilty if she had; the man was inheritantly nice and very polite.
Assured that her grandfather was fine - and that he would be back three hours later than his note indicated - Rei decided to meditate, given that she had little to no apetite. Besides, she still couldn't shake the sense of daja vu that she got from Setsuna's date, nor the certainty that he was a very dangerous person. She didn't feel any threat from him, but even so... The last time she got a sense of deja vu from someone outside of her usual group was with Jadeite and that hadn't ended well.
She needed to know if Kumo Tenka was a past, present, or future enemy.

Sitting in front of the large fire it didn't take long for a vision to come as she chanted, focusing her mind. They didn't normally come so easily to her. When this one engulfed her there was a strange sense of saddness and relief.

Princess Mars, newly Sailor Mars, was walking with the rest of her team down a large hallway, heading towards their daily acedemic lessons at the Silver Millennium's castle. She had been frightened when she had first been confirmed as a Guardian, her purpose unknown. When Queen Serenity became pregnant she and the other three (Jupiter, Venus and Mercury) had all immediately understood what their mission was; protect the Princess. So, there they were on the Silver Millennium, the capital of their civilization.
She missed her home and family.
Despite that Mars embraced her purpose gladly... Also, it meant that she could be closer to the one family member that she hadn't gotten to see much of in the last two years; her father... Even if their connection couldn't be acknowledged beyond the castle walls. Her mother was long dead of a broken heart and for that Mars hated the Inter-planetary Council. Moreso because she had watched as her mother's death nearly killed her father as well of the same thing that took her mother away.
The experience had made her grow up very quickly.
"Mars!" An unexpected, strong, male voice called.
All four girls turned around at the call, startled. Walking towards them was their cheerful king. Mars was glad to see him smiling again. They all turned and bowed as protocol demanded. They were halfway through their formal greetings when Mars let out a startled cry, drawing their attention. The king had snatched her up.
"_______! This is inappropriate-!" Mars exclaimed.
"BAH!" The king interrupted loudly, "I am your ______ and that's never going to change, no matter what the Council of Idiots say."
Mars was the only one present not shocked speechless at what he had called the Council.
"Now, that aside; we've got some business to take care of!"
"My studies-"
"Will wait. As my _________ you are supposed to have Guardian's of your own."
"But, I'm not your official-"
"I already said that what the Coucil of Idiots said doesn't matter!" He interrupted angerly, startling Mars into silence.
The king's expression softened and he smiled at her.
"Sorry sweety." He said to her, "I shouldn't have yelled at you like that. This situation isn't your fault."
She nodded. He took a deep breath.
"The queen and I are in agreement on this. In fact she and your teammates are coming with us."
"Eh?!" Came from all four girls.
"Yup! The queen's brother will be running things until we get back. Not that he knows it yet." He told them all cheerfully, then spun on his heel and started walking, "C'mon! We're going to be late!"
They hurried to follow and Mars protested half-heartedly that she could walk on her own just fine. He didn't listen. No one bothered to mention that the Council was going be apopoleptic when they discovered that the queen's twin was in charge until Queen Serenity returned... Which was actually somewhat understandable given that he was the Queen's Shadow.

Rei came out of the vision more confused than she had been before. Her mind had continueously blocked out particular words throughout the entire vision. Whatever those words were would define what her relationship with the man had been.
The vision had, however, clarified one thing for her; Kumo Tenka was not an enemy - he was the reincarnation of Queen Serenity's husband and (presumably) Princess Serenity's father. The problem was that she hesitated to call him the princess' biological father and she wasn't sure why. Was there a different man that had sired the Princess? If so, what happened to him? Also, what was the Queen's Shadow and why was it such a big deal?
Rei finally gave into the urge to sigh as she realized that she had far more questions than when she had started out and only one answer.

In a lab hidden beneath Tokyo City was a monster. It had a Human form, a serpent's scales and spines in place of hair. The scientists had been studying it on government orders ever since they realized that the Sailor Guardians were not only real, but that their enemies were getting increasingly more powerful. Fearful of Humanity's chances of survival the Orochi Project was restarted and the monster that had been locked up was transfered to the new labs.
Their goal was to make a living weapon under government control.
Such experiments had been done in the past... Over a century and a half ago. Of all those past scientists' attempts there had been only one real success. That success' name had been deliberately and systematically removed from the records for unknown reasons, but they had managed to find information on the 'vessal candidates'. The information on what they were a vessal for was vague at best, but they had found that those of the 'Vessal Bloodlines' were the most compatible with their experiments. Even so, most died shortly after recieving the Orochi genetic graft. Like their forebears they'd had only one success thus far, though they were more of a clone of the monster in their possession than anything else.
The monster had no name on record - only a number (3) to identify him - and had been held since the 19th century. He hadn't aged, hadn't whithered away in the tiny room that they had kept him in and - strangest of all - he was perfectly sane with none of the usual symptoms of prolonged solitary confinement; difficulty thinking, memory problems, even hallucinations. Nothing. He just hybernated.
Then there was the long list of people who kept attempting to retrieve him from the original facilities... At least until the scientists made it look like 3 had died in a fire when they burnt down the original labs and moved to another part of the country. The new lab was shut down after WWII and 3 abandoned to die. In that time all but one of the would-be rescuers believed that 3 was dead and that one person still plagued them, despite efforts to misdirect, or outright kill him.
They weren't certain, but the person seemed to still be alive... As evidenced by finger prints, repeated visual confirmation - and the way he was massacuring everyone in the lab on his way to 3. They had attempted to capture and study him more than once with no success.
By the time he reached 3's cell he should have been covered in blood, but he was so used to killing that he had little difficulty in predicting how the blood would spray. It made staying clean while killing much easier. Standing in front of the door to 3's cell he placed a severed hand on the palm scanner. When it unlocked he pulled the door open while tossing the apendage aside.
The door slide aside in near-silence.
Within was a skinny, scaly person that had been born Human. Their once black hair had long since been replaced with slender spines and their nails with claws. 3 flinched away from the light.
"Chuutaro," The man said, illiciting a twitch in respons, "Do you recognize me?"
Chuutaro squinted at him. The light in the hallway wasn't much brighter than the inside of the cell, but the changes to his body had made him very sensitive to any amount of light. When the man got no response he reached over to the palm scanner, jammed his knife between it and the wall and - using the knife as leverage - ripped it free to dangle by a few wires. Hiding the weapon in his sleeve he stepped into the room and crouched down to Chuutaro's level.
A lavender eye peered at the man from behind an upraised, clawed and scaled hand trying to block out the light.
"Shirasu." Chuutaro finally croacked.
"Good." Shirasu responded, "I know you don't want to trust me after what I did, but there may not be another opportunity for you to leave. Will you come with me?"
"...Will I get to see Sora-nii and Ten-nii?"
Shirasu debated how to answer for a moment before replying.
"I'll try."
"Okay."