Serenity tossed and turned in bed. She couldn't seem to get to sleep. All she'd wanted was a nap, but she just couldn't feel safe enough to close her eyes. All of the guards were on alert status, patrols were doubled, and the news of the destruction of the other planets had shocked everyone into a stunned silence for the afternoon. What a terrible, terrible day, and it wasn't over yet. What irony that one of the biggest balls of the year was scheduled for tonight. What a joke. The constant ache that always resided in the back of her mind again pushed its way forward.
"Serenity! Princess!" She got out of bed. She heard the clatter of servants getting ready for the dance that would start later, and tried to filter out the noise. There it was again! "Princess! Serenity! Are you there?"
"Yes! Endymion! What are you doing here? How did you arrive? Are you here for the ball?" Serenity quietly opened her door and looked out. She could see her daughter hanging over the edge of the balcony, only instead of gazing up at the Earth she was leaning down toward the gardens. With the door open her daughter's and Endymion's voice came to her ears much more clearly. She heard a bitter, masculine laugh, then her daughter. "Is everything all right?"
"No! Metallia attacked! Those of us that could tried to fight her off, but we ended up retreating to that mountain I showed you, off in Greece."
"Olympus? The one where you stashed the last operable space-craft?"
Serenity crept forward. Her daughter was too engrossed in her conversation to notice as she peeked over the edge, down at Endymion. He was dressed in ragged battle armor, his black hair was damp with sweat and fear, and she could see dark circles under his eyes. He nodded in response to her daughter's question. "We made our last stand there. Mother was already dead." Serenity brought her hand to her mouth to cover her gasp of shock. Gaia, dead! Endymion looked down, and Serenity could tell he was struggling to hold back tears of grief and exhaustion. "My generals covered me while I readied the ship, but they were overwhelmed, and I had no choice but to take off alone. Goodness knows what the natives thought when they saw me take off." He shook his head for a moment, then looked up at Serenity's daughter, whose face was frozen in shock. "You didn't know about this?"
"No! Oh, Endymion! I have terrible news too! Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter have fallen to Metallia as well. Everyone there is dead." Endymion shook his head.
"Looks like I came to the right place then. This is our last hope, Serenity."
"Come on up, Endymion, so my mother can meet you. I'll help you get cleaned up, and then you can present yourself to her. You should come in anyway-the guards are at their highest level of alert short of war. If they see you, they'll attack first and ask questions later."
As if that bit of news had attracted their attention, three guards entered the garden and looked at Endymion with suspicion. He glanced at them, blanched a little, then turned and blew a kiss to Serenity's daughter. "Don't worry about me!" he called over his shoulder as he took off, the soldiers in close pursuit." Serenity gasped. His bravery so reminded her of Sol. She saw her daughter staring up at Earth again, only this time with fear. She was tempted to go over and comfort her little girl, but restrained herself-she could tell her daughter wanted to be alone right now. As she walked back into her room, much too wide awake to attempt to sleep again, she considered canceling the ball. After a second she shook her head and began to prepare for it herself, pulling out her most beautiful white gown. They all needed something to keep their hopes up. Metallia had done too much in the last few days-surely it would take her a while to work up enough strength to take on the Moon Kingdom. This would probably be the last ball for a long time-why not enjoy it while it was still possible?
*****
Serenity smiled as the black-clad man stepped into the room, present a red rose to her daughter. She could recognize Endymion through the mask, and she watched as a happy smile spread over her daughter's face as she, too, recognized her love. Serenity watched them dance for a bit, then turned to look at the four guardians. Their tears had dried, and they'd worn their most beautiful gowns, but none of them were in a mood for celebration.
She thought back on her short interview in Endymion. That young man impressed her. She could see why her daughter was in love with him-they would be good for each other. She sighed softly, remembering the good times she'd had with Sol. For once she didn't feel tearing grief as she thought back, instead she felt a rosy glow of bittersweet happiness. Yes, that part of her life was over, but she'd still experienced it. For a while she'd had true love, and nearly perfect happiness. She liked the way the black suit and black and red cape looked on Endymion. She was glad she'd suggested it for the masquerade. She walked over to get a glass of punch, and sipped it as she tried very hard to dismiss the disturbing news she'd heard from Endymion for a little while longer. Surely it could wait just a little while more.
"To arms! To arms! The kingdom's under attack!" Serenity dropped her punch as she saw two small shapes streak through the crowded dance floor. Suddenly she remembered where she'd seen one of those shapes before. "Luna? Luna, why are you in your cat body?" The white shape kept running, sounding the alarm, as the black one stopped in front of her, carefully avoided the puddle of red drink at Serenity's feet, and looked up.
"Your Majesty, Queen Metallia is here! As to being a cat, surely you remember it's safer to fight in this form."
Serenity nodded and scanned the room. Everyone was piling out the exits, and the few people capable of teleporting were disappearing with quiet pops from the crowd. She began to walk toward an exit herself. The four princesses were already gone, probably to get ready for battle, and Endymion and her daughter were nowhere to be seen.
There was no time to change. If she was forced to fight with Ginzuishou, it wouldn't really matter what she was wearing, anyway. She closed her eyes and brought Ginzuishou out her dimensional pocket. It began to glow faintly, responding to her desperate worry. Where was everyone?
A loud explosion sounded nearby, and the concussion threw Serenity to her knees. With a grunt she pulled herself to her feet again and began threading her way out the palace. She came to her apartment and stopped. It sounded like there was fighting on the balcony! She dashed toward the sound.
As she came to the balcony she stopped dead in her tracks and gasped. The four guardians were lying dead on the grounds in front of the palace. Her daughter was crying and clinging desperately to Endymion, and a strange, red-haired woman was shouting up at him. She waved behind herself and four men stepped up. Both Endymion and little Serenity gasped in fear, and Serenity thought she heard something about four generals. She looked up into the sky and took an unsteady step back. Before her was a huge black cloud, with the barest indication of a face etched into it, and suddenly she realized what she faced. Metallia had found some source of energy, and absorbed so much into herself that she'd lost all physical form. She recoiled in horror. She was in no way ready for this!
Beryl's eyes blazed with her possessive desire for Endymion, and she reached out toward him as he refused to stay with her and rule as her consort. She lifted him into the air with pure force and he cried out as he struggled to escape her magical grip. Then Serenity turned her horrified eyes in her daughter's direction.
"No!" she shrieked as she watched her daughter jump off the ledge in pursuit of Endymion. She held her hands clenched around Ginzuishou, desperately hoping her daughter had a plan. Surely she wouldn't have jumped without something in mind. . . Beryl attacked her daughter and Endymion with an energy field, and Serenity raised her own voice in a cry as the two lovers screamed in agony. "No! Stop! My baby!" She began to bring her hands up to her ears to block out the horrible noise when it suddenly stopped. Silence reigned for what seemed like an eternity, a horrible absence of noise that was much more horrifying then the pain-filled shrieks. Her eyes widened and began to overflow with tears as she realized what the silence meant. "No. N-n-n- NOOOOOOOOO! !" Her voice caught as she fell to her knees.
She felt two furry shapes stop beside her, and she heard Luna's voice, thick with tears. "No, no, no! Not the princess! Little Serenity! They can't be dead! They can't!" Serenity closed her eyes and tried to think through her own tearing grief and the cackling laughter of Beryl and her forces as they closed in.
There was only one solution. If her daughter were still alive, she probably wouldn't even consider it, but with her last reason for staying alive gone, Serenity suddenly knew exactly what she had to do. She pulled out Ginzuishou and raised it into the air. Artemis looked up at her in concern as it began to glow pink. She smiled sadly. Her loyal friends. The last ones left. She took a deep breath. She could do this. She could give her daughter a chance to live in peace. It hadn't worked out in this life. Flashes of her life began to flicker through her thoughts, almost faster than she could recognize them. She did remember little Serenity, angry at the world at only nine, looking at her with tears in her eyes and insisting everything wouldn't work out. She closed her eyes for a second. <How wise you were, Serenity. My. . .> she began to sob, <little. . .girl. . .> Her eyes snapped back open. She would fix this.
"Your Majesty, what are you doing?" The fear and worry in Artemis' voice was unmistakable.
"I'm going to stop them, that's what I'm going to do." She looked down at her two faithful servants, looking so odd in their cat forms. "Then I'm going to send everything to the future. I need you to promise you'll look after the girls and if the need arises, you'll train them again, to be a fighting team."
Luna and Artemis both gasped as they realized what she was planning. Luna opened her mouth to argue, but stopped as she looked into Serenity's eyes. She nodded sadly. "That's right. Don't even try to change my mind. It will just be a waste of precious time. Will you do it? I know it's a lot to ask. . ."
"Don't be silly," Artemis broke in, "we'll be honored to guard and teach them."
Luna nodded. "Honored."
Serenity smiled sadly. "I'll send back the tools you'll need." She looked up into the air. "Moon Cosmic Power!" She clenched her teeth as she felt too much of her strength being pulled into Ginzuishou. She almost grinned as she heard the screams of protest Metallia and Beryl, and all her minions uttered while she forced them into suspended animation. When they were all sealed into nearly unbreakable bubbles of space-time, she turned toward her daughter's still body. She looked as if she were sleeping, only the odd angle her head was lying at indicated that she was dead. Serenity brought forth her power again to seal up her daughter and all the younger generation of the nobility as she had the enemy. Suddenly memory tickled at the edge of her consciousness and she held back. What had Pluto said? When she sends the guardians, don't send her. Tears began to flow harder. Had that conversation truly taken place only hours ago? Very well, she would let Pluto remain to guard time.
She looked at her two friends in their animal form. "Look after her. That's all I ask."
"Yes, your Majesty."
"Of course, your Majesty."
With a groan she closed her eyes and used her power to put the cats in two small cryogenic modules. She was almost done. She just had to hold on long enough to send the planet senshi. . .
Three forms shimmered into existence around her. A strong young woman with short hair brushed back impatiently, as if she couldn't stand having to worry about it, carried a short cutlass tucked into a deep blue sash around her waist. Another young woman with flowing green hair looked around at the ruins of the Moon Kingdom with sadness in her eyes, her mirror clutched in tense hands. They both looked at their queen and fell to their knees.
"Forgive us, your Majesty. We failed to protect your kingdom."
Suddenly she knew who they were. "No you didn't, Uranus, Neptune. Your duty was to protect against outside threats. This came from us." She struggled to hold her narrowing vision intact. "How are your parents?" The girls looked at her with frightening, impassive faces, and she suddenly knew. "Oh, girls, I'm so sorry."
"It is time, Queen Serenity." She looked up in surprise at that voice-the voice of a young child, younger than her own daughter had been. < Had been. Oh, little Serenity. . .why did it have to end this way?> She studied the young girl before her. She held the Silence Glaive in a steady grip, and her dark hair blew across her face in the bleak wind that shrieked across Serenity's once bright kingdom, hiding any expression.
"Time for what?"
"I must destroy this planet, and finish what has been started." Her eyes seemed to shine in the darkness that surrounded her. "The outer layer of the planet will be scoured off, along with the water and it's atmosphere, so it will become nothing except a barren satellite, slightly larger than most, that orbits the Earth."
Serenity began to shake. "Why? Why do you have to take what little beauty is left?"
"We can't be reborn here. We will grow on Earth, and make that our home. This place will only bring painful reminders, but if it still exists, this is where we will be reborn. That cannot be allowed." Serenity cowered before the cold impersonal child, and was surprised when the girl brushed her hair back to reveal that tears were falling, unchecked, down her pale cheeks. "My sister has told me this, my Queen." She bowed her head, and the curtain of hair fell forward to once again hide her grief behind darkness. "I'm sorry."
Serenity closed her eyes for a moment and sighed, then forced them open again. "I understand. Start it now, and I'll send you."
Saturn didn't respond with words, but she suddenly raised her glaive into the air, straining to raise it high, and Serenity's failing vision narrowed to focus on the shining surface of the glaive's broad blades. "Death Reborn Revolution !" The glaive began to fall, and time seemed to stretch out into infinity. Was that Pluto's doing? Giving her time to do what she must? No matter. The glaive glinted and flashed red as fresh blood in the light of the setting sun as it approached the ground, and then it hit the ground, and everything seemed to freeze. A wave of darkness emerged from the dirt where the glaive rested, and now that the destruction of her home had started, Serenity screamed as she forced herself to once more use Ginzuishou. She brought forth time-space bubbles for each of the senshi and enclosed them safely within. Her eyes were still wide open as the wave, still seeming to move at a snail's pace, finally approached.
"Goodbye, little Serenity. I love you. I pray that you are able to finally. . .live. . .in. . .peace." She felt herself begin to fall into the darkness as her hands went limp, dropping Ginzuishou into the last time distortion. "Remember me. . ."
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SerenityThe universe's thousand year visionDied yesterday as mist in the sun. Blue, green, orange and red angels' Lightning and fire and water were broken, And love and a red rose Could not pierce the dread night. Darkness and death overshadowed Smooth marble, gorgeous flower gardens, Dazzling champagne, beauty and music. Then the moon goddess, With her white gown and steel colored hair, Her eyes like blue ice stars, Fresh peach skin blushing Like a delicate pink petal, Embraced the sacred, blazing diamond, And its brilliant shining magic Stopped the black cloud. Weak, she fell, and whispered into the breeze Of a dream of laughing, peace, love, and eternity, And asked for her daughter to remember In the light of morning. |