Author: Irongrip
E-mail:Irongrip62@aol.com
Rating: PG
A decently original Sailor Moon FanFic by Jesse Rozelle
So are you ready for a long history lesson? I'll try and make it as painless as possible in case you don't love epic background stories like I do.
The Father of the Moon Princess
Episode 4:
A Ten-Thousand Year History. . .Condensed
Hino Rei was in a foul mood. She stormed through the palace, trying to ignore the curious stares which followed her. There was nothing odd in this alone- everyone knew Sailor Mars had a potentially violent temper - but the fact that she was not in senshi form was what drew the stares. Few people ever saw the Inner planet senshi in their normal state. And those who did were almost always senshi themselves.
The reason for this was also the reason for her angry mood. Ever since the battle of the previous morning, she had been unable to focus at all when in senshi form. Images deluged her mind. Images she had never before seen or even thought of imagining. Describing them was impossible because she had no idea what they were or where they came from. She could barely work, as she found herself dwelling on these images in a nearly unconscious reverie. Also, she had been unable to concentrate on during this morning's workout, allowing Sailor Umbriel to win a sparring match for the first time. Rei growled again.
The only consolation to this was that when she detransformed, the images faded to the back of her mind. Apparently they only liked Sailor Mars, not Rei. She growled to herself again as she exited the palace, and headed east in an air taxi. At least I won't be mobbed like a celebrity when I'm in this form. But it was small consolation for not being able to transform.
Minutes later, the taxi stopped in front of a small house on a hill, about a mile from the coast. Now she would get some answers. Yesterday, after the battle and after the doctors had released her, Rei had spent an hour looking through the Crystal Tokyo databank trying to match the phone number Michael had given them with an address. It was bad enough he had just thrown a number at Serenity like the queen would have to pursue him out, without him disappearing into the city, to resurface whenever it pleased him. As head of palace security, this infuriated her.
It's his fault. He must be causing these images in my mind.
It was late-afternoon now, and Rei was making sure she could talk to him alone- before the queen summoned him -to find out just what in the world he had done to her. Coming alone and without telling anyone where she was going was probably unwise, but Rei was not in a good mood. And when the sailor senshi of Mars became irritated, caution was not foremost in her mind.
Still, she hesitated before hitting the doorbell. It's probably a bogus address anyway. And she pushed it. As she waited, she straightened her sweater and pants, then stopped as she realized why she was doing it. I don't need to impress him. She shook her head to try and clear it, and unconsciously ran her fingers through her hair, which prompted another inward directed scowl. What are you doing, Rei?
Before she could answer herself, the door opened.
For a moment, neither recognized the other. The man before her was very tall, wearing a sleeveless shirt and long shorts, a definite switch from the total black which had enveloped him before. His face was the same, but that wasn't what she was looking at. Now it must be said in Rei's defense that as a planet senshi, she had very little contact with men outside of business. And Michael was an extremely well put together individual, and after a moment of staring at his physique, she looked at his face and blushed furiously.
For Michael, the girl- senshi retained a ageless look of about eighteen to twenty years old -at his front door was casually dressed, but stunning nonetheless. He narrowed his eyes for a moment and then snapped his fingers. "Hino Rei, right?"
For a moment, her jaw hung open foolishly, but she recovered quickly and said with a frown, "Is there anything you don't know?"
He grinned. "Well, I didn't know you'd be coming here." He looked passed her at the street. "And alone I might add."
"Well," she said to him, "you and I have something to talk about. . .without them."
"Oh yeah," he said motioning her inside, "That."
She sat down in his living room, as he disappeared into the kitchen. "Can I get you anything?" he yelled.
"No thanks," she replied impatiently, "just answers."
He reappeared with some kind of drink and sat down on a seat opposite her. He stared at her for a long moment, saying nothing. She squirmed under his gaze, completely uncomfortable. Finally, he spoke, "You want to know what I did yesterday."
Know-it-all, she thought to herself, but said only, "Yeah, it's really been bugging me."
He frowned. "How so?"
She sighed, and told him about the images flooding her mind since his healing of her. He grinned when she told of Umbriel's triumph in the palace gymnasium, much to Rei's annoyance. But he frowned when she told him of the indescribable images she saw.
"Oh dear," he said when she finished. "I didn't see this kind of side-effect coming."
"What side effect?" Rei asked almost in a pleading tone.
"Well, I'll tell you what happened, but I guarantee you're not going to like it."
"Lay it on me."
"Well, as you know, Elethar's Thalaxian Spear attack has a poison on it which severs the bond between body and spirit. Not by killing the body, but by attacking the bond itself. Therefore no normal healing method could help you. So I had to. . ." he paused, shifting uncomfortably.
"Had to what?"
He brought his eyes up to hers. "I had to bond our spirits together for those few moments. For a few seconds, we were completely one."
Rei's face went ashen. Bonding spirits was expressly forbidden among senshi. It was extremely dangerous, and was regarded as a violation of the most personal and private parts of an individual. "You did what?"
"I'm sorry. There was no other way. It was the only way to restore your spirit and purge the poison. I did not in anyway read your thoughts or touch your private memories, but there is something I did not guard against. And that was my thoughts and memories."
Rei's jaw dropped again. She shut it instantly, but was getting annoyed by how often it was happening. "You're telling me that I'm seeing images from your mind?"
"Well, not precisely," he said, narrowing his eyes in thought. "I think that this is different. I believe that in touching your spirit so violently, I've awakened your memories form your life as the Princess of Mars. The images you describe to me sound like The Moon Kingdom. I know, I was there."
"You were-!"
There was a ringing of the doorbell. Rei struggled to keep her mouth closed again, but was losing the struggle. Michael at the Moon Kingdom! No wonder he treated her so familiarly. She shook her head. It was too fantastic to believe. It couldn't be true.
Suddenly, Michael's living room filled with senshi. All the planetary senshi filled the room, and in their midst was the ruler of Earth, Neo-Queen Serenity. Rei jumped to her feet, and gave a bow to Serenity's disapproving scowl. She bowed her head, ashamed. "I'm sorry Serenity, I needed-"
The queen cut her off, "Don't explain. Just try not to do that again. You had me worried, Rei." There was an uncomfortable emphasis on how the queen said her name. She turned to Michael. "So, this is the dwelling of our newfound savior. We thought we'd do you the honor of coming to you this time. It's the least we all can do after you saved us all."
Michael bowed deeply to her. "Thank you, your majesty. It is a great honor to have you here in my home."
She smiled sweetly back at him.
He looked at all the people in the room- all the planet senshi, along with Sailors Triton, Nereid, and Umbriel -and said, "Excuse me for one moment," and disappeared into a hallway.
Serenity patiently sat down on the large sofa, along with Endymion. All the senshi were not as patient. Did he just excuse himself from the queen's presence?
He reappeared after a minute holding several folding chairs. "I'm sorry about the seating. I wasn't expecting company."
He then went about the room, placing the chairs, looking as nervous as someone who was meeting the queen for the first time.
"This is a great warrior?" muttered Uranus quietly to Neptune. She, Neptune, Jupiter and the cats had all arrived in the early morning, recalled by the queen immediately following the battle in the Crystal Throne. "He's more like a nervous schoolboy." The queen silenced her with a hard look.
Mars kept silent through all of this, mind still shocked by what Michael had just told her. She felt uneasy, like someone had just read her diary, or looked through private letters. 'Exposed' was the word she was looking for. And now she was seeing into his mind. She felt guilty looking at the images instead of trying to shun them away. They were still jumbled, and faint in her normal form, but she thought she could see faces of all kinds. Alien and human, kind or sad or angry. It was overwhelming. She was so withdrawn, that she almost didn't see that Michael had stopped his fidgeting, and was looking at the cats, Luna and Artemis, whom he had just noticed, with wide eyes. He swallowed hard and bowed to them. "Hello, Luna. Artemis. It's been quite some time, hasn't it?" Artemis' jaw was hanging open, which drew a small smile from Rei. Luna took several steps closer, and squinted at him, trying to figure out if she knew him or not. Suddenly, her jaw dropped as low as Artemis' had. "Your. . .your Highness!"
He inclined his head.
"Is that really you?" asked Artemis with a bit more composure.
"Yes, it's me."
Luna recovered from her shock quickly, and then said sternly, "I think you have some explaining to do." Rei frowned at the cat. There had been anger in that last statement. Hidden, but definitely there.
Michael lowered his head sadly, nodded, and turned to sit down. "I supposed it's long overdue. Please, everyone sit. This story may take awhile."
Everyone sat except Uranus, who crossed her arms defiantly. Neptune looked at her, frowned, and also stood next to her. Triton and Nereid withdrew. As personal guards to the queen, they were to keep and eye on things outside the house.
Michael grinned at Uranus- much to her displeasure -and took a deep breath. "Where to begin?" He tapped his finger on his chin. "Well, I suppose you need to know it all, so I'll start at the very beginning, which is approximately ten-thousand years ago on the other side of the galaxy." Neptune promptly sat down, drawing a scowl from her lover. "There, nearly to the galactic rim, was a world called Elar. It was populated by a beautiful race known as the Elaru. They were an old race, so back then they were just about to discover space travel. During this time of industrial upheaval, there was a man, no one knows what his name was, who discovered he had a rather extraordinary and dangerous gift."
"Idan," said Pluto from her seat beside Saturn.
Michael's eyes went wide for a moment, then he smiled. "I should have known you'd know this story already."
"Not all," she said, face as unreadable as a stone. "But I have looked in on most of the important events in the galaxy. Please, continue."
"He discovered that he could harness some of the raw, primitive emotions- anger, grief, aggression, for example -and manifest them in the form of physical energy. It was a powerful magic, and always threatened to consume him, but he was willful, and kept his sanity and fought off the madness. Thankfully, he was good of heart, and used his powers for good, despite the negative source of those powers. The people of Elar grew to love and respect him.
"Despite all of this, Idan was alone on his world. As far as he knew, he was the only one capable of being able to use this power. He did not age, the same as senshi do not age, but there were no senshi on Elar either. It was a very lonely existence. When the Elaru finally discovered interstellar travel, Idan journeyed around the galaxy, going from world to world, trying to find someone like him to befriend. Finally, around nine-thousand years ago, he came to a world where there was a man like him. A man who could harness. . .these powers and did not age. They became friends quickly, and joined together, began to search the galaxy for others. After a long time of searching, Idan and the few they had found returned to Elar, where they founded an order of Gaurdian Knights called the Thalaxians. It's from the Elar word thalaxi which means 'guardian'."
"Um, excuse me," said Uranus, fidgeting and crossing her arms. "This is very nice and all, but what in the world does it have to do with us?"
"I'm getting there," he replied with a scowl. "To understand what's happening here, you must know everything. But I will try to make it as brief as I can."
"No," said Serenity. "Tell us everything we need. Do not edit out for time's sake."
"Okay, you asked for it," Michael said with a slight smile. "The Thalaxians soon found that some of them could sense others on planets far away. So they went out and sought them, though they were few. About three or four every century. Apparently the gene for using this power is very rare. More rare than the senshi gene, if that's possible.
"Around seven thousand years ago, the galaxy erupted into the most horrible war it had ever seen, and has ever seen since. Whole sectors of the galaxy went to war, and a thousand races decided that they were the only ones that had the right to live. Whole systems were enslaved, and xenocide was a very common thing in those days. Nowadays you can see the evidence of this. There are many systems around the galaxy that have nothing but ruins and dead soil. They were utterly annihilated."
Most of the senshi were now totally enraptured in the story. But some, like Jupiter, Uranus and Venus, had a glazed over expression that said they were going to nod off soon.
"What happened?" asked Umbriel eagerly.
"Well, at that point some long forgotten race attacked Elar, and wiped out half its population. The Thalaxians went nearly mad with rage, and nearly destroyed themselves in the process along with that other race. It was decided that the Elar would no longer stand for what was happening in the galaxy. So they loosed the Thalaxians to restore order, and end the myriad atrocities that were happening. It took about ten years, but the Thalaxians controlled so much power, that no one could oppose them. It was a controversial decision, but if it hadn't been made, there probably would be no life left in this galaxy."
There was dead silence in the room. Every Sailor in Michael's living room threw a glance at Serenity, remembering the things she and they had had to do to save life on Earth. Needless to say they were not pleasant memories. Serenity herself showed her usual calm, although there was a trace of recollection in her eyes.
"So a relative peace settled through our galaxy. Yes, there were other wars, system against system, even sector against sector. But the Elaru were very thorough in creating guidelines about when they could interfere and when they could not. Things like slavery, genocide, and xenocide were among those that warranted the interference of the Thalaxians. Politically motivated wars and such were left alone, as the Elaru did not wish to rule, but they merely enforced every species' right to exist."
"That was fairly arrogant of them," said Jupiter, with a renewed interest, "determining what was right and wrong for everyone."
"Perhaps," said Michael, "but there was never another galactic war for five thousand years after that. Every race that survived the First Galactic War lived until the Second unless by some planetary catastrophe. The Elaru and Thalaxians were a big part of that. Anyway, right or wrong, those days are long gone, and unchangeable." He hesitated before continuing, and glanced at Pluto uneasily. Rei saw the guardian of time smile with amusement, and nod at Michael.
He looked at everyone and smiled. "Don't worry, we're almost there. The order of Thalaxians grew strong in that time of peace, and their numbers swelled. They recruited", there was harsh emphasis on the word 'recruited', "many young men from their worlds and trained them on Elar. There they learned to harness and control their powers, and use them to help and promote good- along side the senshi, of course -on all the worlds in the galaxy that would have them. Different Thalaxians had different strengths, much as you senshi do. Some use energy, some use the elements, some do not fight but can foresee things. These rarest of Thalaxians began to see that all the life forces of all the Thalaxians could be interpreted as strands of energy. This in itself means little, but they began to see that all the energy strands were coalescing into two forms; concentrations, if you will. Some said they were two individual strands, so powerful that they were represented in this web by figures instead of strands."
Sailor Venus' head drooped in slumber, then shot up again as Jupiter jabbed an elbow into her ribs.
"Four thousand years ago, one of these strands came into being. He was born on Elar, and his name was Zeldelak."
Rei recognized the name Elethar had spoken at the Throne the previous day. It sent a chill down her spine.
"He was the first Thalaxian to be born on Elar since Idan, and showed incredible strength even at an early age. By the time he was fifteen, he was stronger than any Thalaxian who had ever lived. He upheld the laws and customs and the Thalaxian honor as well as anyone. But the Elaru showered him with praise and admiration. They were so proud of the fact that the strongest warrior was one of their own, that they didn't think about what all their praise would do to someone with that much power at his disposal."
"The power corrupted him, didn't it" said Serenity. "It always seems to work that way."
"Not always, you majesty," Michael said to her carefully, with a reassuring smile. "Actually, the Elaru only planted a seed within him. He upheld the laws and traditions of the Thalaxians with great diligence. It took an outside influence to make him see darkness, and succumb to evil. Which is where our story begins, two thousand years ago or so in the southern hills of Scotland."
That took everyone aback. All this talk of distant worlds and alien races had made Earth seem insignificant. Now, the senshi showed a renewed interest in the story.
"I was born in the year 164 C.E. near what is now the England/Scotland border, in a small village. My parents named me 'Michael' after the Biblical archangel, which was a very new concept to them at the time. My family was a Celtic family, and as far as I can remember, were some sort of farmers. My memory gets pretty vague that far back and-"
"You've got to be joking," interrupted Uranus again, ignoring the warning look from the queen. "That would make you. . .um-"
"Two-thousand and fifty-one years old," offered Mercury.
"Yeah," continued Uranus. "You expect us to believe that?"
"Well, yes," replied Michael. "You all haven't aged a day in two-hundred years. Why should that be so hard to fathom?"
"We can understand that you do not age as normal humans," said Serenity, heading off any further ugly arguments, "but you must understand our skepticism."
Michael chuckled to himself. "My dear Queen Serenity, it gets much, much better than that. You think you're skeptical now, just wait until I hit the good parts." He gave her a roguish smile before continuing.
"Now then, because of the distance of Earth from Elar, it was some time before the Thalaxians could find me on Earth. They didn't take me until I was twelve. By then, I was a stubborn adolescent who very much didn't appreciate being ripped away from my home and family. Usually, they take you when you're young to avoid that, but instead they found a loud, violent, and rather vulgar little kid." Michael's eyes were distant, and he had an impish grin on his face.
"By the time we got back to Elar, I had trashed their starship and caused so many injuries to the crew that the Thalaxians who found me recommended I be locked away for a very long time. But there was a problem. The limited training I had received on the journey showed that I had more potential than any Knight since Zeldelak himself. You see, I am the other form in the Thalaxian web."
That made sense to Rei, considering how quickly he had defeated Elethar, and how afraid that madman had been of him. She was beginning to have images flash through her mind again. Even in her normal form, they were rushing through her mind like a river, becoming stronger each time Michael revealed more of his story.
"So I was trained," continued Michael, "and learned to control my anger and rage, and pushed away my bitterness towards the Elaru- though I never could completely forgive them for taking me away form my ma and da."
"You had no choice when they took you?" asked Serenity.
He gave an appreciative smile back to her. "No, your majesty. They felt justified in a few abductions in order to strengthen the ever-small Thalaxian ranks. This, unfortunately, was their ultimate downfall. Enter Galaxia."
This brought every head up in the room, with hard glares at the big man. "Galaxia," whispered Rei. "But that was so long ago."
"You didn't think she conquered the whole galaxy in a few short years did you? No, she began her conquest before I was born, taking over worlds slowly, keeping her quest for star seeds secret, being sure not to violate any Elaru edicts as to avoid the Thalaxians. One time, some of her forces did encounter Thalaxians, and fought them. They were utterly annihilated, and Galaxia had to halt her advance, and rethink her strategy.
"Wait," said Endymion, the first time he had spoken. "I thought you said they could not interfere."
"You're right, they can't. But they may defend themselves when attacked. The rules were very specific about it. Anyway, Galaxia ceased her conquest of force, and decided to begin a conquest of a different kind. She came to Elar under the disguise of a queen. Beautiful, generous, she was quickly accepted by the Elaru, who were so convinced of their own greatness, that they suspected nothing. Years passed and the Elaru learned to love her, as she befriended most of the major leaders of the planet, bewitching them with her charms. One of these leaders was Zeldelak, who was Second Knight of the order by then. She praised him and earned his love, although she had instantly recognized what he was as well as his weakness, and was exploiting it. She knew he was the key to eliminating the Thalaxians, and became as close to him as. . .two people can be, I suppose." He blushed slightly.
After a drink from his glass, Michael continued. "I think she didn't care for him- at that point she was incapable of it -but saw him as a kindred spirit. While they never married, they were inseparable. He would love her more, and she would feed lies and dissension into him, in the most clever ways imaginable. In his arrogance, he never saw it; or never wanted to. He found that he had always craved the power she could give him. The strongest warrior in the galaxy. No one to oppose him. . .except the other form in the Thalaxian web. Me.
"I remember the day Zeldelak summoned me to his chambers in one of the great orbital cities. Galaxia was there at his side, with a triumphant grin on her face, though I didn't know why at the time. Apparently, at that point Zeldelak was not far gone enough to kill me outright, so Galaxia convinced him to send me far away. A place where I wouldn't be able to interrupt their plans for the Elaru and the Thalaxians. He appealed to my ever-present sense of longing for home, and recalled my obligation to obey the commands of those higher in rank. I did not have a problem with this, the sense of honor is ingrained into a Thalaxian's mind from the beginning. So, he sent me to. . ."
He stopped for a moment. Rei could see that his eyes were troubled, and that an inner conflict was raging beneath him. "It's okay," she said to him gently. "You can tell us."
He smiled gratefully at her, his eyes soft. She was reminded at how cold and merciless they had been merely a day ago. Now, there was no trace of it. She supposed it had something do with being over two-thousand years old.
He took a deep breath, then continued. "He sent me to a remote kingdom, one without wars, but was being threatened from a dark force. At first I objected, but then he reminded me of my duty, and I had no choice but to relent. So I went to the glorious kingdom on the moon of a planet called Earth."
A collective gasp rippled through the room. Rei had been expecting this, but the other senshi were wide-eyed. Serenity's eyes narrowed slightly, but she gave no outward sign of shock. Instead, she murmured, "Continue."
The tension seemed to flow out of him, but not completely. "Well, so I went to the Moon Kingdom, ruled by a powerful but notoriously kind monarch named Serenity. That was around the year 700 C.E. or so. At first, the Moon Kingdom did not welcome me at all. They saw the Thalaxians as a brutal and barbaric breed, and totally unneeded in a peaceful kingdom like theirs. But Serenity's kindness came to play and she allowed me perform my duty and live on the outskirts of the kingdom, away from the people."
"I remember that now," said Luna. "As I recall, you were none to happy about any of this."
"Very true," said Michael to her with a smile. "I cursed my bad fortune, and lived like a hermit on the outskirts, forgotten quickly by the people. But, not long after that, the forces from the Negaverse began to probe into the Moon Kingdom, a prelude to their eventual invasion. They sent assassins from Earth to kill the queen and her royal court. But I sensed their arrival and intercepted them at the Silver Palace. I fought and killed twelve of them before the queen's throne, though I was wounded in the struggle."
Serenity's eyes were wide now, and she looked at Luna and Artemis, both of which nodded confirmation to her.
Michael continued. "Your mother- excuse me -Queen Serenity took me in at that point, grateful now for my presence, and gave me a place as her bodyguard. The people didn't like that much, but after a time, they became accustomed to seeing the 'Big Black Knight' always standing behind their queen."
Artemis laughed. "I think accustomed is the wrong word. More like terrified. Any plots against the queen probably died the first day they saw you, old friend."
Michael nodded and smiled sadly, his eyes faint. "That was the idea. So, time passed, and Serenity and I became. . .close friends."
Rei looked at the cats, who seemed puzzled by that statement.
"I guess that happens when you spend a lot of time with someone like that. She helped me to once again push aside all my anger and bitterness, though even for her it took over a hundred years. When you were born, your majesty, I inevitably spent a lot of time with you and your friends here. I actually knew you all very well, and taught you many things to prepare you for being the Princess' guardians." He paused and looked at each of the inner senshi.
"Is this weird to anyone else?" said Jupiter. Receiving nods from Venus and Mercury, but Rei's eyes were distant.
Instead, Rei asked, "Why weren't you there when the Negaverse attacked?"
"Yes, that's my question," agreed Luna, with a bit of venom in her voice. "If you had been there, the Silver Millennium would never have ended."
All eyes boring into Michael, he buried his head into his hands. When he looked up, his face was ashen with guilt. "I know," he murmured softly. He grabbed the glass with one shaking hand, and took a long drink. After he set it on the table again, he continued. "I couldn't have known. I should have, but I didn't. While I was away from Elar, Galaxia and Zeldelak had begun making their moves, never actually speaking out openly against the Elaru, but allowing their allies to spread dissent for them. After a long and tedious process of slowly dividing the people of Elar, a civil war finally broke out. At first, the Thalaxians stayed out of it, but after a short time, they joined in the fight to try and stop it. But it became clear that Zeldelak had also divided the Thalaxians, and they began choosing sides. For the first time in history, Thalaxian fought against Thalaxian."
He paused again, taking a deep breath, then continued. "One day, my mentor, Ba'iran, came to me on the moon, and told this to me. He asked that I come to Elar with him to help end the struggle before it got out of hand." Michael looked at Serenity, regretful eyes deepening, filling with more and more sorrow with each passing moment. "I was torn between obligation to the Order, and my love of. . .the Moon Kingdom. But finally your mother told me: 'Go and help your friends. Though I will miss your company, I will not make you stand by while your friends are killed. Go.' So I went with Ba'iran in his starship back to Elar. But we were too late.
"As soon as we entered orbit, we saw the most horrifying sight I'd ever seen. Elar was on fire. The land, the seas, all on fire from some horrible weapon that one side had used. It didn't matter which side had done it, but all of them were dead. All of them. Every Elaru died, except one. Most of the Thalaxians were dead, too. Even their power could not hold against that awesome doomsday weapon. Ba'iran and I watched the planet for hours, weeping at the death of that great world. I should have been there." His eyes were distant, and Rei could see his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles were white.
Serenity had pity in her eyes, as did most of the other senshi. "The one who survived was Zeldelak, right?"
Michael nodded. "He escaped with Galaxia, and who was resuming her conquest of the galaxy, now that her greatest obstacle was gone," he stopped and looked at the queen and smiled, "or so she thought. I don't think you'll ever realize how much the universe was shocked by what you did to Galaxia."
Serenity smiled.
"Anyway, so I returned to the Moon Kingdom, and teleported to the surface, just in time to see the Negaverse about to kill Queen Serenity. I was already grief-stricken, but before I could destroy Beryl's army, Serenity used the Silver Crystal." Michael then went on to describe his brief fight with Malachite, his last words to Serenity, how he nearly went Mad with rage after she died, and the vow he made, never to shed tears again. "Zeldelak was hunting the remaining Thalaxians who opposed him. But when I departed the ruins of the Moon Kingdom, I left there all my emotions, all my happiness, all my grief. I became the Hunter, and I tracked every delthalaxi, or 'betrayers', and killed them. One by one, until only five remained.
"For a thousand years, I slew the delthalaxi, venting my rage upon them, always near the brink of the Madness, only my vow to Serenity keeping me on this side of it. And then I found you, your majesty." He smiled at her and exhaled deeply, as if the telling of the story had been a release for him. "I found to you shortly after you had destroyed Beryl, and I saw how you had grown, and matured. You were powerful already, I could tell, and you had your friends, too. But I. . .could not. . .bring myself to confront you. Even after a thousand years, I still had not let go of the guilt. And seeing you all hurt so much, that I simply left again, and continued my hunts. By then, it was all I had."
He hung his head low, then looked at all the senshi in there astonished eyes. "I am so, so sorry. I can never give you back what you lost, and I cannot expect forgiveness, but I am so sorry."
Rei, got up, and sat next to him, and put her arm around him, ignoring the astonished looks of the other senshi. "And then you hunted Elethar here, right?"
He nodded again. "Yes, he sort of forced the issue. Now you know who I am, and my crimes."
"No," said Luna, a frown on her face, "you've left some things out, haven't you?"
"Yes," he said, shooting her a warning glance, "but those things should come out on their own, right?"
Luna only grunted and rolled her eyes. "If you say so."
Uranus cleared her throat, getting everyone's attention. "Um, that's a sad story and all, and it's probably true, but how can we know? I mean, for all we know, you could be one of Zeldelak's agents or something."
He glared at her for a moment, and nodded reluctantly. Then he stood, walked over to the mantle, and picked up a foot high cylinder, which was made of a reflective material, like a mirror. He gave it to the queen, and stepped back. "Push the button on the base," he said to her.
She did so, and the mirror material faded to translucence. Inside was a coiled up lock of silver hair. Serenity gasped and dropped it, but it did not break, just bounced around. "I'm. . .sorry," she said, picking it up quickly.
Rei was reminded of the clumsy Usagi of many years passed.
"It's okay," Michael said. "It's almost unbreakable. And it's airtight, which is why her lock has survived to this day. It's all I have left of her, until now." His eyes widened for a moment, and flushed in embarrassment at something Rei did not know.
"It's true, then," the queen said, still gazing with wonder at the silver stream of her mother's hair.
"Yes," he said. "It's all true."
Luna sniffed at him, and Artemis' eyes narrowed slightly at him, but they said nothing.
***
Whew! Finally! I hope you're still awake. Now that that's all said and done, we'll get to know some people better. Next time we'll get to see the villains, as well as some of Umbriel's rather flirtatious side.
