Hi-hi everybody! You know what – I have more! Isn’t THAT delightful? No? Oh well, I had fun doing it, and that’s what counts, in my opinion at least. And that’s what I’m really concerned about, in the long run…

Anyway, this is dedicated to all the wonderful people in my life who are kind enough to show me that they care!

Sailor Moon is the property of Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha Comics and Toei Animation.

the persistence of memory

by Celeste Goodchild

All light went out of the young generals eyes as he realised what he had done.

Staring down at the dusty rubble below him, his eyes stark and bleak, he began to tremble, his light breath coming in jagged gasps. "No," he whispered, and somehow, he stood. His point of balance was askew, but he couldn’t care less. Only one thing he cared for…the life of his comrade.

As he ran, stumbled, choking on his sobs like a drowning sailor, he became aware of the strange uniform he wore. Grey, scratchy and woollen…lined in green, like his eyes…

He ignored the cries and screams from far away, as he crawled over the ruins of the once majestic palace, and into the ballroom.

The star-studded sky peered through the immense hole in the once-grand glass ceiling, the dust slowly clearing in the centre of the room.

"Adonis?" he called in a loud, trembling voice. The desperate sound echoed around the room – a solitary cry in the quiet now-mausoleum.

As the dust cleared, he saw a crumpled figure lying in the midst of the crumbled columns.

"Adonis?" he whispered, tears coursing down his cheeks, his voice hoarse and questioning. "…Adonis?"

Slowly, he began the long walk to his best friend, the walk that seemed to slow down and blur as he got ever closer to the target of his affections.

He looked peaceful, lying on his side amongst the rubble of the marble, as the dust cleared around them. He stood above him for a moment, as the silver moonlight coursed through the stained glass of the remaining shards of the stained-glass dome. It lit up his silent face, half shadowed as his cheek touched the cool stone. It reminded him of a night not so long ago…

A single tear fell on his silver hair as Orpheus knelt carefully beside his old friend, ignoring the pain the glass shards invoked in his knees. This crunch and this pain were easily ignored – but the pain and crunch as his heart broke were much worse.

He could’ve been sleeping – Orpheus was reminded of the night he had spent sleeping in the arms of his greatest friend and teacher, and how he had watched him sleep as the light of the moon streamed across his face as he slumbered peacefully.

Yes, he could’ve been sleeping – if not for the growing pool of blood beneath the temple that had struck the ground, and the lolling, unnatural angle his head lay on. His beautiful eyes – closed forever to the harsh world that had dealt him the cruellest of blows.

He had been murdered by his own best friend.

"Adonis…come on, don’t do this to me," he said as he wept, pulling the limp, heavy body onto his lap, caressing the soft, silken hair…though now most of it was darkened and matted by the warm blood from the gory wound. "Come on, please…get up…we’ve got to go to Endymion." Impulsively, Orpheus leant down, giving his mentor a soft kiss on his lips, one kiss he had not dared give him since the first time he had admitted he loved him.

His lips were cold, unresisting, and Orpheus choked back a deeper sob, gently letting his head move to the ground. He raised a trembling hand, seeing the blood staining the white gloves of this unusual uniform…the blood of his friend. His dying…dead friend.

A sense of overwhelming panic hit him as he staggered to his feet, spinning towards the doorways. "Help!"

The cry echoed answered around the room, just as his futile calls for Adonis had done. "I need…help! I need…" His shoulders slumped as more tears rolled freely down his cheeks. "I need you, Adonis," he whispered hoarsely, ceasing the pleas for assistance from the outside. He knew it was hopeless. "I’m so sorry," he whispered, falling once more to his knees beside the body, dropping like a fallen star. His hair shone like spun gold as he laid his head on the hard cold floor, crying bitter tears. He couldn’t brush them away…his gloves were covered in blood, the blood of his greatest friend and love…he tore them off, his tears falling harder as he buried his face in his bare hands and wept wildly.

As the sobs slowly wore down, he heard the approaching footfalls. From the sound, it was a man, the steps precise and heavy. These footsteps masked those of the shadow behind the new arrival, so that neither noticed her presence.

"Orpheus…" called the voice quietly, deep with a quiet maliciousness. He turned suddenly, still on his knees. His eyes shone with an ocean of tears, as he gazed at the man. The man’s voice lowered to a disbelieving whisper as he went on. "…what have you done?"

Trembling, Orpheus staggered to his feet. "Orion…thank god you’re here…there…t-there was an accident, and he, he tried to stop me, and…"

"Stop you from what, Orpheus?" Nephrite raised an eyebrow languidly. "What accident?"

"I-I tried to in-invoke this p-power, and he t-tried to s-s-st-stop me, and I…I didn’t wuh-wuh-want to, and…"

Nephrite tried to look understanding as he pulled the man to his feet with one gloved hand. "Orpheus, what did you do to Adonis?"

"H-he yelled at me to stop it, and…" He winced as he remembered the shout. "A-and I said n-no, and he r-ruh-ran over and held my hands…and I d-don’t know, I just got mad, and I...I didn’t mean for it to happen! Honest! I didn’t mean to push him through the dome…" His tears overflowed as he began to sob again.

A strange smile curled up his lip in a twisted sneer. He let mock understanding flavour his words so the distraught man would suspect nothing. It was obvious the trauma of the murder had temporarily taken him from Beryl’s control…but no matter. He would be hers again…once he was dead. His spirit belonged to Dark Kingdom…his soul was hers.

He pulled the younger general into a swift embrace, and the man gratefully put his arms around him, burying his face in the shoulder of his drab uniform. Nephrite let one hand absently stroke the silken strands, his voice low and hypnotic. "Orpheus, I know that you didn’t mean to do it…no one ever means to kill their greatest friend like you just did, dear heart…but Adonis is dead…" The young man looked up into his eyes, his own wide and horrified. Nephrite shook his head in disappointment. "And if it weren’t for you, he’d still be alive."

Orpheus began to shake, clutching at Nephrite even harder, not realising how he had changed. He didn’t know how wrong the name he used was. "What am I going to do without him, Orion?" He was crying still, trying to make the image of the dead man behind him leave his mind. But it was imprinted there forever, he knew that now. "I’ve killed my best friend, and I…I pushed him, it’s my fault…what am I going to do?"

"There is only one thing you can do, Orpheus," he said quietly, pushing him away slightly, just enough so that he could raise a hand to touch his porcelain cheek. He let it drift downward, and grimaced slightly as he concentrated his energies.

"What?" he whispered, his voice hoarse with pain, eyes blind with guilty tears of bitter self-hatred.

"Join him," he murmured in his ear, and he slammed the conjured dagger into the chest of the younger man.

Orpheus reeled backwards, his hand flying to the dagger, embedded to the hilt in his slender chest. His eyes were wide and bleak as he choked out the next word. A thin trickle of blood ran down from the left corner of his mouth. "…Nephrite?"

"The one and only," he smirked. Orpheus winced in agony, and despite the blade in his chest, he managed to speak more words than he theoretically should have been able to. "You…are a fool," he gasped out. Now on the threshold of death, he saw what had happened to them. "B-Beryl changed us, and made us believe we were from the dark place…but we are not of that hell…"

Nephrite laughed cruelly. "They sure brainwashed you good, Zoisite. You really believe you are Orpheus? I pity you…you are a wretched creature, you always were…but you never escaped the Dark Kingdom…come back home with your beloved Kunzite…join us. Come home."

"Never – I am Home," he spat out, his words joined by a fine spray of blood. He coughed, red liquid, growing darker in colour, spreading out like a disturbing flower around the implement in his torso. He staggered towards his friend, crumpling like a paper doll beside him. He supported himself with one arm, as he dared not remove the other from clutching the embedded object. His blood dripped over the still body, but love shone strong and true in his eyes as he continued to weep.

"He’s wrong, my friend, my love," he whispered, placing a last, lingering kiss on his still lips. His own face was now as pale as that of Adonis, and it slowly regained peace as the light faded. "We are of the light…we will not serve the darkness…we are free…we are free to live our own lives…"

He fell across his body softly, and as he lay sprawled across the body, Nephrite had the uneasy feeling that is was some kind of sick eternal embrace. He rolled his eyes at the final words – what was wrong with Zoisite? Beryl had said that the control might wane slightly, due to the heavy influence of the light upon them all, but still…

"Orion?"

At the familiar name, Nephrite spun around, to see the girl in the shadows. Dressed in a long, turquoise gown, Perseus stepped forward. The look on her face as she glanced at the two bodies, Orpheus lying with Adonis, it was obvious she knew how at least one of them had died.

"How could you have done that to him? What’s…what’s wrong with you?"

His once beautiful lips twisted into an ugly smile, his eyes cold and deadened. "Ah, Perseus. So you are still alive…Melpomene lied. But no matter…Beryl has her. She shall pay for her silence…she would not betray them, she would not yield to the true power…so, she shall pay."

She shook her auburn head in disbelief, stunned into shock. "Melpomene…she was your fiancée, Orion! You loved her! And Orpheus, and Adonis…they were your friends…and me…"

"What about you?" he asked lightly, his smile growing in darkness. He took her hand, and slapped her face lightly. He wondered why it hurt him to hurt her.

She winced at the soft stroke, but she refused to step away. "Orion…why did you do that to him?" She couldn’t seem to lift her eyes from the man collapsed over the silver-haired commander-general.

Nephrite shrugged. "He pushed Adonis off the tower, you know. And Adonis crashed through the dome in the ceiling of the ballroom. Broke his neck, by the looks of it. Seemed to break Zoisite, too…he always was weak. He couldn’t cope with killing his beloved Kunzaito-sama…so, he reverted back to the sappy personality of Orpheus. And as Orpheus is of little use to Beryl in that state… so I killed him."

She nodded faintly and she said in a low voice. "I need to tell you something…"

Nephrite looked down at her, and wondered at the sudden aching in his chest. He wondered why he suddenly felt grotesque at the thought of the murder he would have to carry out. Perseus had to die, it was his orders. Melpomene had protected her for a time, but she was gone now. Nothing stood in the way of his mission.

Perseus smiled sadly, as she gently picked up the sword lying on the ground, where it had fallen when Adonis had dropped it. After he had fallen. She regarded it for a few minutes, then looked up at Nephrite, who was watching her uneasily. "What do you want to tell me?"

Tears spilled down her pale cheeks. "You are more than what you have become," she whispered tearfully, and before he could react, she plunged the sword into his chest.

"Sleep well, Orion," she whispered. "Oh, god…I’m sorry…I had to do it…" And with those words, she began to sob.

________________________________________________________________________

Venus looked around, to see flickering behind the windows of the cathedral. Morbidly curious, she slipped in through one of the side doors, and from the shadows, she saw Hermes standing over a charred heap on the dais.

A charred heap of what? Well, that was surely the million dollar question, wasn’t it? And who was that blonde man…that blonde stranger?

"Jadeite," she whispered quietly to herself. "That is Jadeite…"

He turned suddenly, his eyes bright and filled with tears. "Hello, Venus."

She stepped out into the moonlight, and looked at the man. "Hello, Jadeite."

Looking to the ground, he grimaced. The heap of odd ashes seemed to have a morbid hold over him. "That is my name, I suppose."

She raised a pale eyebrow quizzically. "What do you mean by that?"

Shrugging, Jadeite looked to the ground, and sighed. "I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore."

Curious, Venus stepped closer to the man, though she refused to take her eyes from him. "Why don’t you know anything anymore? What changed?"

Was he crying? It seemed that he was, and this struck her as strange behaviour for the evil man he had supposedly become.

He closed his eyes, two lone tears leaking out from below his pale lashes. "Can’t you see what changed, Venus? You’re not that blind…though I am. Oh god, how come I didn’t see? Why didn’t I see..?"

Turning her gaze from the man, she looked down to see the charred corpse of a startling familiar shape.

"Deimos?" she murmured, bile rising in her throat. Her eyes softened with a flood of tears, her voice dropping an octave as a cold wave of realisation hit her. She realised her hands were shaking, as she raised them to touch her own face, as if to assure herself her eyes were really seeing this. The sight before her seemed to swim in her tears, then flounder and drown. "Oh god, no…" she cried, in a broken scream that was barely more than a whisper.

Jadeite continued to look at the body, his own eyes broken and bleak. She looked up at him, and somehow, through the gauzy haze of her own pain, she could see that this was not Jadeite. This murder must have had backlash that threw him back into his old self. Hermes was back – but it was a less than triumphant return for the general.

"I killed her," he murmured, and he turned his hopeless eyes on Venus, looking for all the world like an old man, an old man with too many regrets. "You realise that? I gave her a lighted match, and put a emphasis spell on it…and I made light of her destiny. I said her princess would die – and that she had lived in vain." His eyes seemed to beg his forgiveness from her as he actually began to cry. "Tell me I was lying," he wept, falling to his knees. "Oh Aphrodite, please! Tell me that the princess lives…that I lied to her one more time…Aphrodite, please!"

"She lives," she said softly, and he seemed to smile wistfully.

"Maybe…maybe I will be forgiven." The silence fell over them like a light curtain, as Venus stood next to the genuflecting man beside the princess’s corpse. "Tell me one last thing, would you, Lady Venus?"

"What?" she whispered, her own pain like a red hot coal in her chest.

"What am I going to do? Do you think…can I be forgiven?"

Venus let her own tears begin to course down her cheeks. "I’m sorry, Hermes. I can only give advice – not miracles."

"Then all is surely lost," he said sadly, and he stood. "May I ask a boon of you?"

"Like what?" she asked, staring the man in the eyes.

Taking the sword from its scabbard, he proffered it to her. "Would you assist me in one last way?"

She took the heavy sword in her left hand, her eyes damp with tears. She knew what he was about to ask her to do.

"I am already condemned," he said softly, casting a longing look over his dead love. "So…if I kill myself, I will only make it worse. Suicide is a sin, and I cannot bring myself to tarnish my soul any further…if such a thing is possible. But…" He looked at Venus, the tears gone, his noble face deadly serious, pale and pinched. "But I don’t deserve to live."

"I can’t do it," she whispered, her own heart aching. "I can’t take the life of the man who was my friend’s greatest love…"

"I don’t deserve your compassion," he said, the tears returning. "Look at me, look at the pathetic creature I’ve become! I don’t deserve one as noble and fine as you for my executioner…yet, you are the one who must do this!"

"Why me?" she asked, moving to stand beside him, her hand on his shoulder. "What is it about me that is so special?"

"You bear the name of the goddess of love," he replied simply. "Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, you can see those same qualities in the blackest of hearts…kill me now, and let it be done. You know, Aphrodite…"

"What?"

He smiled sadly at her. "I always wanted to be the one you loved."

She stared at him, serious and sad. "I thought you loved Deimos."

"I did – and I still do. You were always my…my fantasy, I suppose," he laughed wistfully. "I always watched you from afar, and loved the one who was near. But now…it’s ironic. The woman who was my secret love is now my executioner." He looked up at the ceiling, as if he could see the stars through it, and suddenly shouted "Why do you laugh at me?!"

Aphrodite extended her right hand, and smiled wistfully at him. "Is there anything else before I put you to sleep, my friend?"

"No," he murmured, and Aphrodite surprised them both by leaning forward, and placing a delicate kiss on his lips. "Close your eyes, little one," she whispered softly, pushing him down to the ground. Without protest, he laid down on his back beside the body of the woman who would have been his bride. His breathing was shallow, his forehead covered with beads of sweat. "Thank you, Aphrodite."

"She forgives you," she said in a low voice, her own tears falling as she stroked his fevered brow, as he lay like a frightened child on the floor of the dais of the cathedral. "We all do – in some deeper part of ourselves. We know you never meant to hurt us…"

"But I did," he said in reply, and he fell silent, as she continued to stroke his brow. "Aphrodite…"

"Shush," she soothed him with the balm of gentle words. "Go to sleep, little friend…" For that was how she was beginning to view him now, a lost and lonely child, who just needed comfort in his hour of need.

As he fell into a fitful comatose state, she whispered to him;

the sand man won’t pass by tonight…"

"Goodnight," she whispered in a voice fraught with tears, as she plunged the blade deep into his chest. The man did not even stir, it was as if the childhood poem had somehow really put him into some kind of anaesthesia…

But it was the smile…the peaceful innocence of that last smile…

Aphrodite stumbled to her feet, and rushed from the haunted cathedral. She knew she would never need see it again.

For one of her own was dead. And she would soon follow…and a feeling at the back of her mind seemed to tell her something she didn’t want to hear.

Serenity looked up from her crescent wand, her eyes blue and wide. "Oh no," she breathed slowly, the crystal bearing implement slipping from her lax grasp. The single clatter of the wand caused Mercury to look up from her own books, and rush to the sovereign’s side. "Your Majesty?! What is it?"

Serenity turned her pained gaze on Athena, and she was shocked to see that she was crying. "The four – they are dead, Athena."

A tremor ran through her body, as the truth began to sink in. She knew what four she referred to, and even though Orpheus had effectively thrown her out of his life – in favour of his friend, Adonis – she had still loved him. Greatly.

"And they are gone…they will not rest in peace. Beryl’s conditioning has a hold over them…she had a foothold in the minds of the three lowest, and even though she has no great hold in Adonis’s mind, he will follow his friend into the deepest pits of Hell…which is where they are all going…"

Athena cried without feeling her dripping tears. Serenity motioned towards the orb of earth. "That is where his body lies, Athena. But he is no longer inside there…Beryl has him now."

Staring at the planet, the Senshi Mercury knew what she had to do.

________________________________________________________________________

"Athena!"

The voice hailed her from across the street, as she moved in the shadows of the broken buildings. The slight princess turned, to see a figure waving to her. The streets were deserted now – the battle had moved on in the last hour. To the Moon.

Aphrodite rushed over, and threw her arms around the Senshi Mercury, tears rocketing down her cheeks. "Oh, Athena…I’m so glad you’re all right…Serenity told me you’d come to Earth all alone – you nut! Why?"

Athena’s heart was heavy as she hugged her old friend in return. "I…I had to see Orpheus," she murmured slowly, and Aphrodite hugged her even more tightly. "He’s dead, isn’t he?"

Nodding, Athena said sadly "Serenity said that she felt him die in the ballroom…and that is where I am going. I have to say goodbye to him…even if Serenity did say his spirit is long departed from his body."

She turned and ran in the direction of the palace, knowing where her target lay. The Senshi of Venus had no choice but to follow her, and she did so by running blindly after her friend. Somehow, in her deepest heart, she knew that when they found the body of the musician-general, they would also find the body of the general who was also a magician of sorts.

She had to blink back a lens of tears, and she tried to concentrate on her friend. Athena was moving very quickly, and she ascended the stairs to the entrance way, the huge, ornate carved doors hanging on their hinges. "Watch it, Mercury!" called Venus desperately, and the blue-haired girl turned. "That place could fall apart any second! Be careful!"

Mercury smiled sadly. "It was once beautiful here…so very beautiful…but the king is dead, his son has flown the planet – and gone right from the frying pan to the fire." She cast luminous dark eyes upward at the shining silver orb, the moon. "I wonder where it will stop."

Venus had used the opportunity to join her friend, and she took her hand as she stood beside her, looking into the darkness of the abandoned palace. The complete city was now empty, the citizens having left hours ago. The still loyal armies had swiftly proceeded with the prince – now King Endymion – to the moon, to protect his beloved, and try to stop the carnage here from repeating itself in the higher kingdom. His army was smaller than I should have been – like the two generals, a great deal of the army had defected. They had joined their commanders under Queen Beryl.

"Where are we going?" whispered Venus, still following the smaller Senshi. Mercury pointed to the closed doorway she knew led to the ballroom. It was one of the few doors still intact. "In there," she whispered, suddenly wishing she had not forced herself to do this. But she owed it to him – she had to say goodbye, even if he would never hear her again.

It was the Senshi Venus who pushed the door open, and the two girls stepped in together.

The mystical scene before them would have beautiful, if it had not been so terrible. Moonbeams streamed through the shattered stained glass dome, casting cool ethereal light over the man lying on his back in what appeared to be peaceful slumber. Another, more delicate form lay slumped over him, long coppery-gold hair obscuring the face from view. To the left of these two men was another man, cradled in the lap of a woman, who was leaning forward over him, her rich red hair covering both their faces.

"Perseus…" whispered Athena in shock. She had known that there would likely be more than one body with Orpheus’s, but…

Aphrodite stepped silently forward, and knelt carefully next to the two bodies caught in the light of the Moon. Trying to avoid the glass, she delicately moved the smaller man from Adonis’s chest, noting with startled horror the dagger he had his hand wrapped around. His eyes were closed, his expression tranquil, though the evidence of many tears was on his pale cheeks. Athena was at her side in an instant, taking the heavy dead body from the other princess, her own eyes swimming in an ocean of tears. Smiling softly despite the ache in her heart, she kissed his unresponsive lips gently, and laid him down in the pure light of the moon. She looked up to see Aphrodite moving through the same ritualistic movements as she bid her friend farewell, and she stood, the pair simultaneously looking to the direction of the moan.

"Perseus?" cried Mercury, instantly moving to the girl’s side. She pulled up her head with care, and was shocked to see that strands of her hair, and the entire head of Orion, was covered in blood. Her blood. For when she looked, she saw that Perseus had ripped two long slashes in both her wrists, and was barely hanging on to her life.

Venus was with her in an instant, eyes wide. "Perseus – what…what happened here?"

The girl smiled, her skin appearing translucent in the silver light. "I…I had to do it, princess…I killed Orion, I didn’t deserve to live…"

The heart of the Senshi Venus wrenched painfully at the softly spoken words…they had been spoken to her only a short while before… "You did this?"

She coughed raggedly, and shook her head. "No…Orpheus pushed Adonis off the tower…" Venus visibly stiffened, and it was Mercury who spoke next to the dying girl, as she wrapped her hands around the girl’s wrists. "Why did he do that?"

"I’m not sure…he said to Nephrite…Orion…that he didn’t know what came over him…he stopped being Zoisite…and Nephrite…he didn’t like…and he told Orpheus…to join Adonis…"

Mercury was crying still as she said the next question. "And you killed Orion?"

"Nephrite," corrected Perseus dully. "He didn’t change, even in death…he enjoyed…killing…Orpheus…" She coughed again. "I’m sorry…Mercury…Venus…I had to do it…"

"It’s all right, Perseus," murmured Venus softly. "Just close your eyes, rest now…"

Her ragged breathing was already beginning to wind down, and Mercury marvelled at how long she had actually stayed alive, given how much blood she had lost.

Venus laid the girl back down with the body of her former lover, and stepped back, Mercury at her side. "May they all be forgiven," she said softly, and Mercury shook her head faintly.

"Perseus may be forgiven…but the generals…they are gone, beyond our help…Beryl has taken them."

Venus spun around, her blue eyes blank, wide and staring. "What?"

Mercury had to choke back a bitter sob. "The queen of all this evil…let’s just say she has a taste for new blood in her ranks…human blood."

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