Deep in an underground bunker below the Palace, the Moon’s tacticians roared.
There were whooping yells, astonished cries, and relieved sighs. Princess Serenity stood on her tiptoes, her small form darting back and forth in an attempt to get a visual of the small, portable screen that had displayed the battle above. The grainy image now showed Beryl’s broken and bloodied body, lying motionless on the ground. Next to her, still and quiet like an obedient dog, the man that both Serenity and Beryl loved kneeled silently, his dark eyes vacant.
“It’s over!”
Serenity was pushed aside by cheering men and women, all of them dancing and jumping and slapping hands. The Princess of the Moon felt her lower lip tremble. How could these people cheer when so many had died? Her fists balled tightly at her sides. She wanted to protest, but something made her pause.
She felt it under her feet. A gentle rumble; a precursor to a quake. She looked up to the cracks that splintered across the concrete ceiling, ripped apart slowly by earlier tremors. Her blue eyes shot back to the screen that displayed the Queen of the Earth, who, for all intents and purposes, looked very, very dead…
But the rumbling grew stronger. Bits of dust and small fragments of concrete fell from the compromised ceiling. Serenity’s voice was a raspy whisper.
“It’s not over. It’s not over!”
She wasn’t heard over the din of the celebration, and she doubted the others could even feel the beginnings of the quake. She thought of her friends, all of her personal protectors, already dead. She had cried harder than she had ever cried in her life, but now, the time for tears was over. She looked back to the tacticians, to her people, to the citizens she was supposed to protect. They were swarming her mother, congratulating the Queen on a battle that was far from over.
‘They’ll never listen to me… I have to get out there and help, any way I can!’
With a trembling smile, the Princess of the Moon edged her way backwards slowly. People bumped their way around her, not even noticing her slow retreat over the din of their excitement. Finally, she found the room’s door, turned the knob, and opened the heavy, steel door only wide enough to slip her slender body through before shutting it behind her quietly.
In the dusty hallway, Serenity kicked off her heeled dress shoes, bunched the ends of her white dress in her hands, and sprinted up the many flights of concrete steps as fast as she could, her golden pigtails streaming behind her.
Beryl’s hand twitched and she groaned as though she had woken from a horrible hangover. Her eyes were unseeing; she didn’t seem able to open them, and even if she could have, she knew she didn’t want to.
’How can I still be alive?’ Even now, she felt her heartbeats, so slow, so irregular, and she couldn’t fathom how the cold grasp of death hadn’t closed around her.
’How do you think?’
The voice that answered her was all too familiar. The tears that welled behind Beryl’s closed eyelids and the sobs that tried to rack her body ended in a sickly gurgle, for her torn stomach couldn’t complete the motion of crying out.
’You didn’t think I’d let you die, did you?’ Metallia asked.
‘Please,’ Beryl begged, ‘Release your hold on me. Haven’t you put me through me enough?’
‘Don’t be so quick to blame me for your own desires,’ Metallia snarled, ‘Besides, I didn’t invest this much in you only to be cast aside just because you’re tired of this game.’
‘I only wanted Endymion! Not all this death and destruction!’
‘And I told you he could be yours if you would help me conquer the Moon Kingdom. A deal is a deal. Now get up.’
Dark clouds and forked lightening had turned the light filled, clear atmosphere she had grown up knowing into a nightmare dreamscape. As she made her way to the rear of the palace where her warriors had fought Beryl, Serenity leapt over fallen bodies; youma, human, and Lunarian alike. Her bare feet sprinted through unending pools of blood. Finally, she fell to her knees and threw her slender arms around familiar, yet stiff shoulders.
“Endymion!” She choked down the bile that threatened to rise in her throat. “Endymion, answer me!”
Trembling lips sought the ones of her lover, but he would not respond to the gesture. Serenity pulled away with wide eyes. “You’re so cold.” She whimpered, and tears streamed down her cheeks. “I can feel it, the darkness that surrounds you. How do you stand it, my love? I’ve never felt anything so terrible.”
Serenity pulled back to find Endymion’s dark eyes. “Please, come back to me.”
The King of the Earth stared blankly into blue orbs that reminded him of his planet and something else he couldn’t quite place. His rigid arms left his sides and rested awkwardly around the waist of the familiar woman in his arms.
’I know her.’
“Endymion!” Serenity pressed her lips to his once more and tried to convince herself that somehow, his flesh had warmed. “You’re fighting it, aren’t you?”
His arms tightened around her in response, and Serenity pressed herself impossibly closer. “I know you can fight it, Endymion.”
He responded by burying his lips near her ear and taking a deep, pained breath.
“Run.” His voice was a hoarse whisper. “Run!”
Endymion pushed Serenity by the shoulders and with wide, frightened eyes, the small woman tumbled backwards and fell to the ground, resting on a hip and supported by shaky arms.
“Run now!”
From the corner of her watery gaze, she saw Beryl’s hand twitch, and then she was aware of strong arms pulling her to her feet.
“Uranus!” She gasped.
The leader of the outer senshi spun her Princess into Neptune’s waiting arms and affected a defensive position in front of the two people left in the world that still meant anything to her.
“He’s fighting it!” Serenity exclaimed, “Haruka-san, don’t hurt him!”
Uranus’ grip on her sword trembled. Neptune whispered to Serenity quietly. “It’s not Endymion we’re worried about, Princess. Metallia is moving.”
Serenity swallowed a hitching sob. Beryl’s fingers twitched again, her hand flexed, and then, pupil-less eyes of the deepest red shot open.
Neptune gasped. “Beryl’s been completely suppressed.” She confirmed. “This is Metallia.”
Uranus took an uneasy step backwards. Her voice teetered between a bark and a whimper. “How do we kill a dark energy that’s taken over a mostly dead host body?”
Metallia laughed, and blood burbled from the gaping wound in Beryl’s stomach. ’Kill me?’ It wasn’t speech, for Beryl’s lips hadn’t moved, but those left alive or dying on the battlefield heard the words and the incorporeal laugh nonetheless.
’I can’t be killed, you foolish children! I am immortal - an eater of worlds and of solar systems!’ Beryl’s body tensed, and Metallia picked herself up off the ground. His eyes cold and blank once again, Endymion rose to his feet next to her. She looked to the human man and snorted.
’I never understood what she saw in you.’ She turned her expressionless face back to the two senshi and the Princess of the Moon. ’But prove your worth by killing this irritating Princess. Once I conquer her sorry little Kingdom, perhaps I’ll let you live.’
Uranus repositioned herself in front of Endymion, but he continued to stand there numbly, his cloudy gaze directed past the senshi of the wind to the one he’d been commanded to attack.
’Did you not hear me, human?’ Metallia growled, and then snorted. ’Love.’ She spat. ’It was Beryl’s downfall, and it will be yours as well. I have no qualms with making you do it.’
When Endymion remained motionless, Metallia flexed her powers, and suddenly, his cloudy eyes darkened once more. His grip on his sword shifted, and as Metallia’s laugh echoed in all of their minds, he threw himself at the three women.
He pushed Uranus aside as though she were nothing. Neptune spun the Princess behind her protectively, but he dispatched her just as easily, throwing her to the ground like a rag doll. He raised his sword then, and charged Serenity.
The Princess didn’t so much as blink as his sword came down. There was something… something warm, something bright, somewhere deep inside of her, and she reached for it without the slightest hesitation. A white light erupted somewhere in front of her eyes and she was forced to close them for its brightness.
When she could open them again, she found herself on her knees. Endymion’s sword lay broken in half on the ground, and his head lay in her lap. His dark eyes turned a cloudy grey, and then cleared all together before he slipped into unconsciousness.
’Did I… do this?’ She wondered.
“Endymion,” she whispered.
Serenity concentrated. She had somehow managed to tap into an ability she hadn’t known herself to possess, and suddenly, she could sense that darkness that pulsed all around her. She could sense that the darkness that had tainted Endymion had lifted, but that the darkness that enveloped Metallia’s still form had shifted in the slightest.
Somehow, Serenity understood that Metallia’s malice had turned into fear.
Metallia’s voice as it echoed in their minds wavered in the slightest. ’It can’t be… that ancient weapon?’
“If you mean Saturn, then yes, you are correct.”
Neptune and Uranus leapt back up to their feet, and Serenity’s eyes shot to a greenish purple glow that acted as both a barrier between her and Metallia and heralded the arrival of Pluto and Saturn. And as the Princess examined the dark haired child that effortlessly held a deadly weapon larger than herself, somehow, she didn’t think that Saturn was the weapon Metallia had meant at all.
There was something else at work here, something she didn’t understand.
Looking to the carnage around her, Pluto cursed the confused time stream. “We were too late.”
Neptune and Uranus stepped in front of their Princess and the Prince, flanking them on either side: “What do we do now?” The Uranian asked.
“We will fight Beryl.” Pluto said coldly, flexing her grip on her time staff as she examined the vacant red eyes set in Beryl’s blank face. “Should we fail, Saturn will know what to do. Her powers have been awakened. She is ready to fulfill her duty”
“But at the expense of those that still live here on the Moon? They’ll die!”
Pluto turned sympathetic garnet eyes to her Princess. “Now you see why I chose the plan I did. To destroy the Earth would have been to save the Moon. I thought I’d chosen the lesser of two evils.”
“That makes us no better than Beryl or Metallia.” Serenity said coldly.
Neptune, Uranus and Pluto accepted their Princess’ scolding and offered no recourse. “And we’re wasting time and opportunity, for Metallia seems to have stilled.” Neptune said urgently, directing their attention to Beryl. The human’s eyes seemed to wage war, first red, then black, the colors clashed and swirled uncertainly.
Saturn hefted her glaive in a defensive position and placed herself in front of Serenity. Then, the three eldest outer senshi turned and rushed the Queen of the Earth.
Blood pounded in their ears as Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus sprinted forward, each holding their talismans in front of them. It was a wonder they heard the words, and perhaps they may not have, had Beryl’s lips not actually moved to alert them.
“Metallia’s fear gave me the strength to contain her.” Beryl groaned, her expression pinched into a grimace. “Kill me, now!”
Uranus didn’t have to be told twice, and she found herself leading the rush, her sword cocked and at the ready, but it didn’t make her any less curious, and she asked her question even as she came within range, “What’s she so frightened of?”
Those murky eyes tinged red. Beryl lost the ability to speak, but she still mouthed one word, ‘Please!’
Uranus’ sword entered the cavity Venus’ had made earlier, and Neptune followed up behind her, placing an open palm above the Uranian’s talisman, where a blast of elemental energy traveled through the blade and literally ripped Beryl’s body wide open.
The resulting explosion caused Pluto, Saturn, and Serenity to shield their eyes. When they could open them again, they didn’t know what to be more frightened by; Beryl’s body that lay scattered across the ground in many pieces, or the broken bodies of Uranus and Neptune. Pluto forced her gaze from the grisly sight, for the other fear that waited for them was even more terrible.
A dark form, ragged and incomprehensible in its shape hung in the sky. Its edges shifted and churned, the only constants in its appearance were a gasping, toothy mouth that boasted sharp, white teeth, and beady red eyes. When the lightening lit the sky above, it’s black body seemed even darker, so that no light could escape its shifting form.
“Metallia.” Pluto whispered. “Her true form.”
The Plutonian’s hackles rose. Without the body of an avatar to contain her, the true extent of Metallia’s darkness seeped from her shifting form, flooding everything it touched. And it hurt. She stole a glance to her dead comrades, both the inners and outers; so many colorful fuku that littered the battlefield. Then, she glanced back to Saturn and her Princess and knew all too well that she was the last line of defense for the Moon Kingdom as she knew it.
The Time Staff shifted in her fingers. She shut her garnet eyes and held her weapon before her. Metallia’s laugh caught in her incorporeal throat, and Pluto released her powers.
O
In the eerie silence of the void of time stopped, Serenity clung to Saturn.
The Princess of the Moon couldn’t quite believe her eyes. Pluto attacked, a massive power building at the tip of her Time Staff. Once released, it would hit the ethereal cloud that was Metallia. The dark energy would scream and be pushed back by the attack, but then, that powerful blast would travel back to Pluto’s staff, and the attack would begin anew.
“Forbidden attack.” Saturn whispered.
“I don’t understand.” Serenity whispered.
“She’s repeatedly stopping time to hold Metallia in thrall while she blasts her again and again with the power of the Time Gates.”
“I’ve never seen such a power.”
Saturn paused for a reverent moment. “You’ll never see it again. Its very use is forbidden. The punishment is to sacrifice herself.”
Serenity tore her eyes from the spectacle. Her hands wrapped around Saturn’s small arms. “Then… her powers are no different than yours!”
“That’s correct.” Saturn said quietly.
The Princess felt betrayed by this eerie girl who still held the likeness of the young Hotaru. She released her hold on Saturn and lifted Endymion’s head from her lap before resting his head on the ground gently. She stole a glance to her last two warriors to fall and then to the guardian of the Time Gates. Would she lose Pluto as well? She scrambled to her feet, readied herself to run to Pluto, to stop this madness, but a deceptively strong grip on her wrist stopped her.
Saturn’s purple eyes were flat and listless. “I’m sorry, Princess. I can not allow you to interfere.”
Serenity’s cobalt eyes watered and she swallowed a sob before sinking back to her knees alongside Endymion and the girl.
“Why are you so cold!” She cried to Saturn. “What happened to that happy infant, cradled in my arms? That cheerful toddler who just wanted to see people smile? If this is all your existence amounts to, I would have none of it!”
Saturn’s lower lip trembled then. Her eyes watered, and the woman she had once called big sister pulled her close into a crushing hug. Could she really ignore her duty for this one woman’s whims, this woman who had been the only person to show her such affection and… love?
No. She had a duty. She had one, singular purpose. She was destined for revolution.
When Saturn could find her voice, it was small and surprised, as though she hadn’t meant to speak at all. “What alternative do we have, onee-chan?”
With a bright smile, Serenity pulled back, her fingers tight around Saturn’s arms. “I’ll defeat Metallia myself. I’ll bring my friends back. I’ll save this Kingdom.”
Saturn’s eyebrows furrowed. “But how could you?”
The two turned. The body beside them stirred, and Endymion groaned. He cracked open one, bloodshot eye. “Don’t doubt her.” He said to Saturn, his voice dry and raspy.
Serenity smiled at him sweetly. “Endymion…”
He managed a weak smile for the two of them and addressed the child seriously. “If you were really one of her senshi, you’d believe in your Princess.”
Saturn’s trembling lips turned downwards in a faltering frown. “This is… foolishness.”
The forward-backward motion of time ceased, and Serenity and Saturn turned worried gazes to Pluto’s battle. Metallia had been reduced to a small point of dark energy. All that darkness had been gathered into one, small space that threatened to implode, but Pluto had reached her limit and Metallia’s voice rang true.
‘Only pure good can contain pure evil,’ she sneered, ‘and you are just as tainted as the rest of this solar system.’
“You’re… you’re wrong.” Serenity’s voice was a whisper, even as a tendril of dark energy escaped the small container that Pluto had reduced Metallia to. That tendril whipped out, caught the staff that Pluto’s body leaned heavily on, and her body sprawled to the broken ground.
Like a sea serpent, that tendril snaked out. It wrapped itself around Pluto’s body, and it squeezed.
Amid Pluto’s tortured screams as what little was left of her quickly fading life energy was sucked from her body, Saturn stood. Resolute and with cold eyes, she looked down to her Princess.
“I will perform my duty. Metallia will regenerate otherwise.”
“You can’t! You’ll die too!”
Saturn turned back to where the dark tendril had extinguished the last of Pluto’s life. “Yes, I’ll die. As will you, and anyone else unlucky enough to still be alive. But the cycle will start anew. A revolution is our only option.”
The child walked forward then. She hefted her glaive in her hands and stepped over Pluto’s withered body. She stood still for a moment, in front of the small, whirling vortex of Metallia’s intense power.
And then she jumped in.
O
The darkness was excruciating. She floated in pitch black, the screams of thousands deafening her ears. She felt her body starting to deteriorate, even as she clutched her glaive and prepared herself to begin the revolution.
A pair of warm arms stopped her. She opened her eyes to find herself dangling in the threshold between Metallia’s darkness and the world she knew. Saturn looked back to calm, blue eyes.
“If the cycle starts anew, we’ll all be reborn?” Serenity asked, the question lingering in the space as though they weren’t straddling the space between life and death.
“Yes.” Saturn replied, mystified at her Princess’ power to perform such an act. “You, your senshi, even Endymion. You have no reason to fear. You will be reunited eventually. You must let me go now, onee-chan.”
“But what about the darkness?” Serenity asked softly. “Will it too will be reborn?”
Saturn paused for a moment, but knew she could not lie to her Princess. She felt the inexorable pull of the darkness tugging at her. “Yes.”
“That is unacceptable. I will put an end to this, now.”
“You would let it all end, then? You would let Metallia regenerate and destroy the Moon Kingdom?”
“No.” Serenity smiled softly. “No. I will fix this myself. I can not allow it.”
Saturn turned questioning eyes to her Princess, but could not struggle against her as she was pulled from Metallia’s darkness. She felt the suction of the darkness lay claim to her, try to pull her back in. It wrapped around her, swallowed her, but still, Serenity pulled her back into the light.
O
The Princess of the Moon collapsed at the ground under the swirling vortex. In her arms, she held a small infant, wrapped in a purple cloth.
“Hotaru-chan.” She whispered.
Serenity looked up to the vortex. She heard Metallia laugh at her efforts.
’Foolish child.’ Metallia sneered.
The Princess felt Metallia gathering the dark energy around her, sucking it from the humans, from the youma, feeding and regenerating and gathering her strength. She scrambled to her feet and rushed to Endymion.
Still gaining his bearings, the Prince had pulled himself into a sitting position, and he quickly found a dark haired infant being pressed into his arms. He looked to Serenity, her urgent, yet optimistic expression causing her to glow against the darkness of the sky. He looked at her with no small amount of wonder.
“Take care of her.” She requested before straightening and facing Metallia.
Endymion pulled the child close to him. “What will you do?”
Serenity seemed to ponder the question. “Metallia’s wrong. There is no pure evil or pure good. There is only the need to be loved and the ability to be shaped by the experiences we live through. Even Metallia isn’t as evil as she thinks she is, and I will show her.”
“Serenity…”
She turned back to him then, and her watery blue eyes softened. She took a moment to return to him, lean down and press one, soft kiss to his lips.
“I’ll see you… on the other side. Won’t I?” She asked.
“Yes.” Endymion swallowed a lump in his throat. “Yes. I’m sure you will.”
Serenity’s fingers lingered on her lover’s cheek until the last possible second, but even as her body was left without his warmth, she felt him there with her, even as she came to stand in front of Metallia’s reduced form.
’You wish to be sucked into my darkness as well?’ Metallia taunted. ’Despite your courage and flowery words, you will not make a difference.’
Serenity didn’t feel the need to justify herself with words.
Her actions would prove her intent.
She nodded at Metallia, and then she jumped into the darkness.
Author’s Notes:
Serenity is the last line of defense for the Moon Kingdom. Her guardians are dead, and now she shows her true colors. For this and the last chapter, she reluctantly becomes the main character. You'll notice no preview of the next chapter; I've posted 20 and 21 simultaneously.
Back to A Single Voice Index - Back to Sailor Moon Shoujo-Ai Fanfiction