Ailan stared at the crystal in her hands, lavender eyes entranced by the tiny silver stone. It whispered to her, singing a sad song of loss and loneliness as she felt more and more of her hum in response. She didn't recognize the stone from having ever seen it in the Silver Millennium, but some part of her –blood, body, soul—beat in tune with it. In a very old, very ancient way, Ailan knew that she belonged to the stone, that she served the stone, and she was ready to help its quest. But she had no idea why. "Ailan?" She looked up as Setsuna entered the bedroom they shared. The Senshi of Time recoiled from the new light in her lover's eyes, knowing that the struggle to find a new balance with the stone would soon end and that their daughter had endured the same strain. But the ginzuishou was not half so old or a tenth as powerful as the gekkouzuishou could be, and that frightened Setsuna in a way she could not put into words. Ailan seemed unaware of her change. "Setsuna?" "I wanted to see how you're coping. The stone is very powerful and you haven't channeled vast amounts of planetary mana in a very long time." "It's older than the Silver Millennium," Ailan whispered, "older than all of the ages of peace and great wars and times of darkness. She's older than any peace treaty and alliance, any light or hope, but younger than the darkness she fights. She's lonely Setsu-chan; she lost her daughter long ago and keeps trying to get her back, but they never meet. It has not been their destiny to do so yet. When she meets her child, the world will change and all Balance will be irrevocably cast in a new direction. She'll change the world, but even she cannot say for good or ill." "Daughter? The ginzuishou, maybe?" Ailan wrinkled her nose. "The ginzuishou is her shadow, her follower, merely another defender of the light. Her daughter helped write the new order, the one she defends and recreates every time she is called, and she is powerful, too. But they have not crossed paths since the Sailor Wars, I think." Ailan's eyes grew distant, and Setsuna stepped back as more power pulsed from the crystal. She still wasn't entirely certain the tiny stone she had begged her father for was safe. Ailan seemed to notice the action, and she frowned, glancing at the power weaving its way into her soul. "This, Setsu-chan? She worries you?" "She was supposed to go back, Ailan. Hades was afraid of her, keeping her locked away in his palace far away. Anything that makes a god nervous scares the hell out of me. I'm just worried that you're becoming one with her too fast, that she'll subsume your personality until there is no more Hikarino Ailan. I don't want that to happen." Ailan looked at her crystal again, urging it to return to the star locket. "I don't know why she won't go back. She feels that it is her time, I think. I don't know why she chose me, though. If she had to choose someone, why not Usagi?" "She couldn't have chosen Usagi. First of all, Usagi has the ginzuishou, and while it may be less dangerous, less powerful, and younger, it is not less sentient and demanding. It is linked to her soul, perhaps more intimately that it ever touched yours, since Usagi was born with the stone inside her. Second, she is not only the daughter of two senshi, but the granddaughter of a god, the God of the Underworld. I've spoken to some of my family and consulted some of the oldest texts tonight while you were recovering, and they and what legends I've heard of this ‘First Stone' indicate that she deals in the eradication of all evil, all darkness, and all pain. Death is pain. She would not choose the granddaughter of death. Thirdly, she is a very demanding stone. Persephone tells me that her other hosts in the very distant past were pure, untainted by power. Usagi has had her dark moments, and her moments of evil, and she's died. Taints like that drive the stone away. It takes a woman pure of heart, mind, body, and soul, free of any and all other power, to accept the crystal. You're human; there is no greater innocent purity." A slow smile spread across Ailan's face, and Setsuna recognized her lover taking control. "You mean that I'm only a Senshi because I never was a senshi? I'm one of you because I was born human?" "Yes, but she'll only take a child of the Moon. The part of you that still is Lunarian, your soul, is what made the ginzuishou refuse to heal you. It won't heal one it once controlled once it has a new host. That same part identified you as a daughter of the Moon and a candidate for the Silver Moonlight Crystal, and it latched onto that. It must have a mission here. With Usagi taken, it needed you as the only other Lunarian who could help it. That must be why Balance ordered that you not be reborn." Ailan closed the broach and placed it on the table beside her, wincing as she lost contact. She sensed Setsuna relax, and she smiled as she patted the bed. "If it's really that powerful, I'll take it slow and make sure not to let it control me. Come to bed, Setsu-chan." Setsuna slipped into bed beside Ailan, stroking the smaller woman's silver hair as they both settled down to sleep, exhausted. "Setsuna?" "Hmm?" "I don't know if I can do this. Be a senshi, I mean. I've never done it before." "Don't worry," Setsuna purred as they both fell asleep. "I'll watch out for you." *~*~*~*~*~*~* Neptune chased the solid wraith across the beach, her element calling to her, begging her to be careful, offering to help her. For the moment, she was alone, but her fellow senshi would arrive soon. A brief second of thought led her to conclude that she had not been alone since Ami told her that she was pregnant, especially not fighting the servants of the Dark One, as they had come to call the queen of their enemies. They had only glimpsed her once, before Ailan became a senshi, and the last Queen of the Silver Millennium had yet to prove herself in battle. Perhaps she would answer this call, Neptune mused. Haruka, the ever-protective ‘father', had been at the track all day, so Michiru had been walking home alone from her brief violin recital with three of her colleagues. When she spotted the wraith hovering near the water's edge within striking distance of a few families, she called the other senshi and took off after it. She was tiring quickly, her body sore in places she hadn't dreamed of months earlier, the added weight and bulk slowing her down and shifting her center of balance enough to prevent her usual agile leaps. Haruka didn't want her running or fighting, but Michiru refused to let her pregnancy endanger Tokyo or her princess. The wraith turned and entered a sea-side cave, Neptune close behind. She stopped just inside, the cool waters of her element caressing her bare and swollen ankles, her wife's wind calling her name, begging her to be cautious, urging her to wait. The others would arrive in just a little bit; she could wait until then. Neptune brushed the words away. She was tired of being cautious and tired of waiting for the others. She could fight alone. Neptune entered the cave, raising her mirror to reveal the dark recesses. Light surrounded her, and little gems sparkled in the dim glow. She heard a sound deeper in the dark cave, and she swallowed once before moving forward. When the last of the light behind her vanished, Neptune stepped onto a shelf of rock looking down on a shallow crater in a huge cavern where her mirror was no longer required. A tall, dark woman sat on a throne in the center, her long black dress flowing to the ground in silky layers, her wraith minions swarming around her. She was the source of the light and, oddly enough, the darkness, her red eyes seeing everything. All activity stopped as the senshi entered the cavern, and the queen stood, her feet finding a walkway from her dais to Neptune's ledge, her skirts fluttering around her feet as she walked. "Sailor Neptune," she greeted, her voice a growl and a gentle whisper, barely a breath but loud enough for all of her minions to hear and understand. "I was wondering when you senshi would finally arrive." The woman stopped in front of the senshi, a mocking smile on her face as she peeked behind the frozen woman. "Where are your friends?" Neptune took a step back, automatically placing a protective hand on her slightly-swollen belly, the five-month bulge more easily apparent in her Sailor fuku. The Dark Queen's blood red eyes widened, flying to the aqua-haired senshi's belly. "No," she whispered. "Not again! She was supposed to stop this! I will not tolerate such a blatant disregard for the balance of fate!" She returned to her throne in an instant, waving her arm at the woman. "Dispose of her and rip that child from her belly." "No," Neptune whispered, backing up. For the first time in her life, the senshi of the eighth planet was going to run away, but she had to for the sake of Haruka's baby. A sound behind her, a whispery hiss, informed the senshi that she was surrounded and there could be no running away. Raising her hands, both glowing with the blue of her power, Neptune prepared to fight for her life and her daughter. She would not go down so easily. "Moonlight Flash!!" Light filled the cavern, eradicating the nearest dark minions. The queen hissed her displeasure at the sudden interruption, eyes widening as a silver-suited senshi entered the cave, clothed in a silver power that lit the cave and drove away the darkness. "Ai to seigi no, Seeraa fuku Bishoujo Senshi, Sailor Moonlight! Tsukini kawatte, oshiokiyo!" Neptune almost laughed as she heard Usagi's traditional greeting from her mother, but the silver-haired woman did not speak for the same reason the blonde princess did. Usagi's voice was her strongest weapon, and the distraction her speeches provided often provided the senshi with an opening to defeat the youma of the week. Ailan used the words as a last resort, desperate to buy Neptune a few seconds, still uncertain of her own powers. The Dark Queen was not amused. She stared at Moonlight, her glowing eyes even more furious than before. "That stone was hidden in the depths of death itself! It was not to be used ever again." As the shadowy wraiths backed away from the light Ailan emitted, the newest senshi crossed her arms over her chest, Pluto and Uranus appearing behind her. "We don't care anymore about your plan. You never wanted Helios to be born and you wanted Earth to fall into darkness. So I don't care what you think about me or my stone and I will personally insure the safe birth of this child. Regardless of what you think." Uranus scooped Neptune into her arms, letting Pluto defend them as she leapt away, heading out of the seaside cave. Ailan waved her hand, and a long, pearlescent white staff appeared in her hand, a silver crescent moon on top, a tiny clear crystal in the curve of the moon, silver flaws sparkling from the inside of the stone. The dark queen moved to fight Pluto, but Moonlight raised her new staff, defying her. "You cannot stop me. It is time for Chaos to cover this galaxy once more. The time of the senshi is over! All of you will die with that child, especially you, abomination." "None of that, now," Moonlight warned, a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach at the mention of the baby. "Go, Pluto." An instant later, the dark queen was alone. She clenched her fists, vowing that Moonlight and the child of Uranus and Neptune must die. She sensed that another daughter had been born of two senshi, long before even Helios, but the twists of power and time kept the child's identity from her. She knew, though, that only a few senshi in the Silver Millennium were strong enough to birth a daughter, and one was her own servant. One of the others was the queen of the moon. "Wraiths! Have you located any of the Cupids yet?" "No, mistress," the leader hissed. "They have been remarkably silent of late. I think they know you are looking for the cupid assigned to your servant." "Which means we won't find him. Very well, Plan B." *~*~*~*~*~*~* Uranus placed Neptune on the ground underneath the old tree, green eyes scanning her wife for injuries. "Are you okay?" "I'm fine," Neptune whispered unconvincingly, hands shaking. "They wanted to kill our baby, Haruka. She really wants her dead. Haruka, I'm so scared. For the first time in my life, for the first time since I became a senshi, I'm afraid." Uranus embraced her aqua-haired partner. "I'm so sorry, Michi. I should have been with you. From now on, for the rest of your pregnancy and as long after that as needed, I will never leave your side." "Haruka! What about your races? You have a life of your own, parts of your day that don't include me, and you can't give that up." "If you can't make it to my races, then I won't go. It's not like a few months off will hurt my career at all—it'll probably make me more popular. I will protect you." "Haruka, you can't give up racing for me. It's your dream." "No, Michiru." Haruka placed her hand on Michiru's swollen belly, a smile on her face. "This is my dream. You two are my future, the only future I want or need, and I will make sure that this dream, this future, at last comes true. Nothing else matters." Neptune wiped the tears from her eyes, pulling herself into Uranus's arms. "I love you so much, Ruka." "I love you, too, Michi." A few feet away from the old tree, Pluto touched the smooth white staff in Moonlight's hand. "So, where did that come from?" "I haven't the slightest. When I faced the Dark Queen, some old instinct buried in the Moonlight Crystal called this staff forth. Like Sailor Moon, I use a tool to channel my power. I didn't need it for the Moonlight Flash, but it might have helped. And I also have no idea where my power even came from. But when I heard the Dark Queen threaten Michiru-san's child, I felt light and knowledge fill me. I knew how to eradicate the darkness, and I did." "Ailan, I don't know much about that crystal, but I do know that its primary power is the creation and maintenance of order above all other callings. She's powerful and her only duty is to fight chaos. But Balance requires that Chaos rule every now and then, and now that she knows that Eurynome has chosen a carrier for her crystal, Balance will be after you." Pluto shook her head, trying to hide the tears in her eyes. "I wish you had never gotten into this." Moonlight pulled Pluto into her arms and rested her head on the taller woman's shoulder. "I never gave you a choice, Setsu-chan. I want to protect you. You had no idea that the crystal would react to me as it did, and you certainly had no idea that Eurynome would choose me to be her next avatar. Besides, I wish your weren't involved in this whole senshi business either." "I have an excuse," Pluto whispered, a smile lighting her face. "I'm Hades's daughter. I was born to be the senshi of Pluto." "I was the queen of the Moon. I was also born to be a senshi." Moonlight smiled as her staff disappeared, wrapping both arms around her lover and former husband. "Look, I have faith that we will get through this. As long as Balance is focused on me, she won't notice Usagi. I think our old shields and blocks are enough to keep our daughter safe. I am not afraid of her." "That comes from the stone, love. Don't let it overpower you." "Don't worry; I know what I'm doing."
Back to Kazeko Index - Back to Sailor Moon Shoujo-Ai Fanfiction