Relativity
by
Sexylyon
joannee@access.victoria.bc.ca
http://www.access.victoria.bc.ca/~joannee/story.htm
The spring day breezed through the window, carrying
scents of fresh grass and flowers, the warmth of the
sunlight carrying lazy motes of dust on the air and the
pervasive, not unpleasant smell of rock. The distant hum of
activity wafted through his open window and tempted the man
sitting behind the large desk with the first songs of the
growing year. Scribbled notes, snatches of drawings, samples
of different materials were strewn around the room. The man
currently was occupied with the study of a blueprint
carefully rolled out on the desk, only occasionally sparing
a long suffering look to the day outside. He was dressed
casually, he could have been an engineer or architect to
judge by the clutter around him. Meticulously he made notes
on the drawing, correcting subtle errors and adding
notations to the builders for the correct materials for use.
He studied each print intently, the afternoon making
its slow curve towards the distant, cool dusk. When the
aching of his hand and mind grew too much, he paused to
drink long swallows of clear water from the pitcher left
enticingly for him. He brushed long, untended black hair
from his eyes, promising himself absently to have it cut
sometime soon. Leaning back in the creaking chair, Mamoru
wistfully thought of throwing all the paper out the window,
letting it all drift to the ground like some kind of odd
butterfly and walking away from all this responsibility. To
say the planning and building of Crystal Tokyo was a
momentous challenge didn't even scratch the surface of the
task. Even now, there were no doubt several vital problems
collecting outside in his antechamber, eagerly awaiting
their turn to sink their teeth into his flesh.
Mamoru winced, but could not really deny the aptness of
the predatory analogy. Someone had to be in charge, someone
to give order to the chaos and increasingly it looked like
it had to be him. People had always deferred to him even as
a young man, and now he could not shake the trappings of
power and respect that chained him here. Holding the cold
glass to his forehead he closed long eyes and wished
mightily that he was in the north with Mako and Rei. That
border had always been uneasy and had recently erupted again
into near open conflict.
As commander generals of the home army, both women were
on the front line, assessing damage and making vital
decisions concerning defense and retaliation. The northern
problems must be solved for good this time vowed Mamoru
silently. The constant bickering did nothing but drain
resources and kill men on both sides - a distressing
reality. There must be a way to resolve the political
differences, to bring the northern lords into alliance with
the growing hegemony that was centered on the building of
Crystal Tokyo. Mamoru's mind worried at the problem like a
dog with an old bone, too meatless to chew but too stubborn
to give it up. With a sigh, Mamoru knew that Mars and
Jupiter were the best choices to be there, and that he was
stuck here to give clear leadership to his people and
reinforcing visibly the surety of his dominion of this land.
His dominion. The phrase struck warning bells in his
psyche and he gave up all pretense of studying the latest
revisions in front of him, leaning back into the complaining
embrace of his chair. The plans were for the new phase of
the palace to be erected for the Emperor and Empress, their
Supreme Majesties Neo King Endymion and Neo Queen Serenity.
Mamoru winced again at the pompous phrasing but knew that
the people lived and died for that certainty, that the King
and Queen ruled the empire and that all the world must now
bow to their combined authority. And that was the problem on
his horizon - * his * dominion should rightfully be * their
* dominion. Increasingly, Usagi was absolving herself of
responsibility, allowing Mars and Jupiter to take command of
the empire's defenses, Venus controlling the court and all
its machinations, balancing the power of the world's leaders
against the desires of the imperial court. Mercury continued
with what she did best, researching and discovering many
useful things, delving into mysteries that sometimes proved
invaluable to them. Even the wandering souls of Michiru and
Haruka aided the growing power, acting as diplomats in
foreign courts - sometimes as persuasive mediators and
sometimes as spies. Setsuna remained as she always had,
Guardian of the Time Gates, although thankfully not alone at
the moment, having Hotaru there keeping her company.
And despairingly, Mamoru knew he did all of it -
liasing with the war effort and its generals, soothing the
fears of political guests in court, trading diplomatic
insults and power maneuvering on the dance floor of the
imperial residence, increasingly becoming more involved with
Ami and her research assistant Natia as they moved ever
closer to the solution of the machine ruins that had been
found so near to the palace grounds. Increasingly he had
seen less and less of Usagi, usually breaking his fast with
Mina sometime in the early morning to discuss diplomatic
solutions to the escalating problem of the northern
provinces. Then came a full and overfull day that left him
working way into the night, only to crawl into a cold bed as
Usagi distracted herself with fawning courtiers and late
parties. He was up with the dawn while she slept late, only
to begin another round of giddy butterfly dances the next
day.
Lord knows, he had tried to give her more
responsibility, to make her feel more involved and to show
her the vital need for her involvement. The problem was, she
tended to things only half-heartedly, usually leaving more
problems in her wake that if she had never been involved at
all. Look at that near disaster with the minister of Orana
Province! Only Mina's skillful maneuvering had saved that
situation, and a certain amount of her disarming smile. He
had thrown his hands up at the time and Usagi had retreated
emotionally into petulant sulking, an unattractive trait she
still resorted to in times of stress. It had seemed simpler
to let her go her bubble headed way, to allow her to charm
her way into the affections of the people around her without
forcing her to mature before she was truly ready.
Intellectually Mamoru knew she was frightened of the
responsibility that was increasingly laid upon them as the
governmental figure heads, that her retreat into vacuousness
was a typical Usagiism for avoiding making any decisions at
all. But that left him holding her reins of power as well as
his own, and worse, being seen by other as the only one with
control. If this trend was allowed to continue much longer,
it would soon be King and consort, not a ruling pair of
joined powers.
She had to grow up, to make her mistakes and learn from
them although it made his head swim on how he was going to
accomplish this character transformation alone. It was an
annoyance now, but it would be real problem in later years
if Usagi was seen as merely his mate, and not as a ruling
power in her own right. If she ever needed to wield that
power, it would not answer her . . . and that could prove a
catastrophic error.
Yet that was a problem for tomorrow - he hadn't seen
Usa in days, knew she was gadding about with some of the
younger courtier set and discovered he was only able to feel
a pale shadow of the anger that usually came over him. He
was just so tired, exhausted by the long hours and decisions
that multiplied like locusts. She had so much more to offer
- her star was brighter than anyone's when she let it be,
was the true match both for his heart and mind - but fear
ruled her soul. He couldn't even talk to her about it, they
always ended up shouting at each other, saying hurtful
things that neither of them truly meant. Then would follow
long days of silence and stiff conversations. He truly
didn't think he could deal with any of that tonight and
sneakily hoped she would be out when he returned to their
apartments. He loved her with all his heart, knew she felt
the same - but still, they couldn't even talk civilly to
each other anymore.
Sometimes he would be walking a corridor with someone,
discussing some weighty problem or other, and he would
suddenly smell her perfume and know that she had recently
walked this way and his spirits would rise for no reason.
Once he had smiled to her across a room, delighting in the
colour of her hair and she had tentatively smiled in return,
blooming like the honey child she was. He loved her
desperately, fiercely and was totally at a loss as to how to
give her confidence in herself. He, who handled the fate of
an entire empire in his hands every day, couldn't handle the
frustration of one frightened, not-so-little girl.
As the sun sank towards evening, Mamoru mused on the
twin problems of a kingdom in turmoil and a girl with hair
of golden light.
------------------------------
It was a similar afternoon a few months later when
Mamoru knew that their solution to at least one of their
problems was working. It had been a missive from Rei that
had triggered it, as she reported the quelling of the
hostilities along the hilly northern routes earlier in the
year.
To Neo-King Endymion from Commander-General Hino:
Greetings. As you are no doubt aware, the uprising
along the Kinshan Province border has been dealt
with and I remain to make certain the clean up is
complete before returning to the capital. The root
cause seemed centered with the local clan lords,
and after much talking through their thick skulls,
it seems to have boiled down to concern over the
taxes the northern provinces pay to enter the
trade fairs in this area. The sheep they are
bringing into the local area is starting to drive
down the price of wool and our people are
justifiably worried that a drop in pricing will
ruin the local economy.
This may be a calculated plot by the rebel leaders
to bring conflict to this area, or it could simply
be unfortunate timing. I have taken the time to
enter the rebel territory myself and this year's
floods have been particularly severe on the
grazing ranges. The clan leaders seem to have no
choice but to bring their surviving herds into our
trade fairs and although they are paying the
appropriate taxes in all but a few cases, a glut
is a growing concern.
I give this problem back to you, my king. Things
are as settled as they ever are in this area but
there must be some way to turn this to our
advantage - I leave it to your clever thoughts to
find the benefit in this.
By my hand and seal,
Rei Hino
Commander-General
As he had read the short note, an idea had begun to
bloom and after a number of discussions and refinements with
Venus, he had implemented the new plan. They had decreased
tariff taxes on sheep and wool for all the other producers
within that trading area. Now the threatened glut of wool
and mutton in that area was a harsh reality, and the rebel
provinces were being forced to trade their goods at a much
lower price than they had bargained for when they had
brought them over from their own flooded lands. It had hit
their government where it hurt most, the treasury. And now
they had a diplomat from the North dancing courtly steps
with Venus in the evenings and whirling his way closer and
closer to inclusion into the hegemony of the empire. It had
taken the astute eyes of Mars to discover the root cause,
not an easy thing to do in the midst of a bloody guerrilla
war. Silently he raised a thought to the sharp notice of Rei
Hino and was rewarded by distant laughter in the farthest
reaches of his awareness. Brat of a priestess he thought
with warm amusement. She was psychically tethered to all of
them now, that her insights and visions could be given
directly to them should the need arise. They had worked that
out during the Great War when her warnings could be given
mind to mind, as quickly as she was aware of it. It had
saved them all on at least one occasion.
They all had grown in surprising ways, he mused to
himself as he leaned back to stare out the window blankly,
even the pretense of work abandoned. Each of the warriors
had transformed into mature women, in power and outlook even
as their bodies had slowed in their growth. As the most
mystic of them, Rei had naturally bloomed into a deeper
understanding of her power, both as the warrior of fire and
as a true priestess of her element. She could light a candle
sitting on her desk - or cause a firestorm to rival any that
nature could unleash.
Each had delved into understanding of their birthright,
Jupiter commanding the forces of weather and wind, although
her strongest affinity was still for storms. When not
otherwise occupied, she monitored the weather, handling
minute adjustments that diverted or reduced the worst nature
had to offer. If you needed Makoto, she would probably be
found supervising the seedlings in the palace gardens,
communing with the slow growing oak trees. When he had
asked, Mako had replied with a dreamy voice that oaks were
the most tranquil of trees and that the surge of sap in
their trunks felt like the universe breathing. Mamoru knew
his lack of understanding must have shown on his face, for
Mako had laughed before she patted his cheek and sauntered
off.
To Venus fell all the frightful power of the sun and
its healing, destructive strength. It had been in the middle
of the true war that brought the peace that was Crystal
Tokyo when Neo-King Endymion had commanded Venus the Warrior
of Love in a voice that he hadn't recognized as his own -
and she had answered with a living column of light too
bright to look upon. Beams of coherent light had hurtled
from her fingers like daggers from her soul - and every
machine arrayed before them on the battlefield had fallen
smoking to the ground, pierced through their metal hearts.
The light did not discriminate between metal and flesh
and many had died simply for being in the way of the fearful
light. It was nearly a human generation since that battle,
all the blood long ago soaked into the forgiving earth, but
Mamoru knew that Minako still grieved for that instant of
radiant power. And it was that power that complimented her
but still did not consume her. Venus was many things that he
knew Usagi would eventually be; accomplished, confident,
graceful and competent in the arenas of diplomacy and tact,
a true boon in both the court and the council chamber. Many
looked to Venus for guidance, seeing in her a true power.
Already there were subtle questions and machinations of the
court, that Usagi should be put aside and that Venus should
ascend the double throne in the yet unfinished room that
would be the final seat of power in the empire.
Mamoru had never formalized their match, knowing that
their marriage would be in that unbuilt hall of power, but
the short-sighted conspirators saw only a love match made in
their youth and two people desperately far apart from each
other. Venus was logically a better match, but impossible
for all the reasons he could not explain if anyone had dared
to broach the subject directly. Mamoru clung to the hope
that Usa would eventually grow into that same self assured
power - and finally match her life to his in full equality.
Mercury was the quietest of all, as she had always
been, a voice of reason in the chaos that had been their
lives for so many years. A doctor and a research scientist,
Ami had studied and measured their powers, a mystery she
enjoyed tracing to its roots. It was she who had discovered
why they stopped aging, why Jupiter's affinity was for oak
trees but not pines. Her own mastery of the waters of the
deep were as complete as she knew how to make them,
surpassing even the priestess of fire which miffed Rei no
end whenever she thought about it. Perhaps not so
surprisingly, Jupiter and Mercury had become the best of
friends, tall war-like Makoto balanced by the gentle healing
nature that was Ami. Jupiter's command of the forces of
nature meshed beautifully with Mercury's dominion over the
waters of life. They were a formidable team, if the most
unlikely.
As if his musing had cued her, Mamoru looked up from
his pondering to see the door opening lightly and Ami
walking with a quick step towards him. He grinned and stood
up from his seat, bowing gracefully over the intervening
desk and planting a small kiss on her offered, upturned
wrist. Wrinkling her nose, Ami sat on the nearest available
space, in this case a piece of cool gray marble that would
eventually become part of the floor of the reception hall.
She swung her heels naughtily against the stone, making
small clicking sounds of impatience. Her eyes shone at him
with laughter at his courtly behavior and a certain
something he wasn't sure of, but thought might have been
understanding. It wasn't often anymore that he could share
the comfort of having a friend to tease - and he was glad it
was Ami who always had interesting things to say.
'Practicing your manners, you lout?' Ami inquired
sweetly, needling him with long familiarity. Mamoru grinned
into her sparkling blue eyes and settled back into his
chair.
'Such beauty deserves notice.' he quipped back. Ami was
normally a bright person, but today she brimmed with some
irrepressible news. Mamoru grinned laconically and waited
for Ami to spill it in her own way. She kicked at the rock a
few more moments then hopped down to wander the small space,
poking at papers and peering intently at the clutter that
littered the place. She looked like an incorrigible child at
this moment, all bright eyes and restless movement - a far
cry from the accomplished doctor and princess she was.
'You don't need a good broom, you need a good
fireplace,' she observed wryly, wrinkling her nose again but
this time at the mess. Ami could only be described as
compulsively neat at the best of times and the chaos that he
lived in probably had her fingers twitching in nervous
reaction. Finally, Ami could contain herself no longer, and
with a sly glance at the long suffering look on his face,
mentioned casually, "Natia's figured the machine out, she
thinks."
Lightning excitement straightened his spine and he
leaned forward eagerly against the once polished desk
surface. "Really?! That's great! Is it something we can use?
What does it do exactly? How did she figure it out?" Mamoru
brimmed with a thousand instant questions but settled for
the more urgent ones in his head. Laughing, Ami held up both
hands to fend off the deluge.
"Who knows, not sure, how about we go ask her? I've
only got the message myself and I knew you'd never forgive
me if I didn't include you in on the juicy details." Ami's
eyes were just as eager as his, this was unexpected good
news.
When Usa and he had walked over this site so long ago (
was it really that long ago? Surely not! ) and had made
plans for the vision of Crystal Tokyo, neither of them had
realized that the area held another treasure - a buried
complex dating from ancient times, perhaps even older than
the Silver Millennium. When the first buildings had been
started and the foundations dug, the ruins had been
discovered and a research team had descended like so many
birds come to roost. It had all seemed fairly
straightforward at first, a few remnants of building, broken
unidentifiable items of no discernable purpose, strange
patterns on the surviving fragments of wall and floor. It
had been interesting enough, but he had been much more
concerned with the living city, not a dead one. That had
changed drastically when the archeological team had widened
their sampling area and had discovered another building away
from the main complex, intact in every regard. The structure
was domed and quite large, made of some reddish brown
material that looked like stone but instead had proved to be
a metal alloy that resisted any attempts to pierce it, even
with conventional plasma welders.
The outside walls were most remarkable, thickly
carpeted with weird designs that one moment resembled
twisted, looping script, the next looking more like fanciful
animals and birds. After the earth had been cleared away the
structure had stood alone and naked in the bare bones of the
earth, its single door carefully outlined and impenetrable.
Although unusual in its size and location away from the
first group, it hadn't been odd enough to captivate Mamoru's
interest. It had taken Ami and a young archeologist, the
daughter of the project leader as it happened, to solve the
problem of opening the door. After months of careful study,
Ami had made the breakthrough of finding the designs
responded to minute heat sources, and the daughter, Natia,
had connected that to the intricate scroll designs and had
traced the correct opening pattern. And then all hell had
broken loose. The place had contained intricate machinery,
apparently in good working order, and totally
incomprehensible to anyone.
The first time he had entered the structure, he had
thought he'd been fooled by the walls outside - it seemed
much larger inside than outside. The effect was achieved
with the subtly reflective surface that coated the interior
of the dome. The walls carried no decoration at all
surprisingly, considering the surplus of it on the outside.
The only things in the single room were squarely in the
center - a dais of pale grey stone that contained within its
borders a ghost image of a translucent shimmering fire -
flames that reached perhaps a man's height high, twisting
and reaching languidly, subtly reflected by the walls
surrounding it. It was Ami who dubbed the place a temple,
since nothing else really seemed to describe its function.
Mamoru had had to agree, it had a feeling of presence that
he really only noticed in churches.
In a half arc around the dais was the machinery that
looked to control the quasi-fire. The control surface was
raised and tilted at a comfortable working level for a
standing person, arguing for terrestrial origins. The whole
panel was covered with the scrollwork designs, looped and
relooped on itself, so intricate it made his eyes swim to
stare at it. The whole thing could have been a weapon, a
place of worship, or an object of art - there was no way to
know. As Natia had had the insight as to the working of the
entry door, she had been given sole charge of this puzzle as
well. Personally, Mamoru felt she was a little young for the
responsibility, but she seemed to be handling it
brilliantly. A number of times he had talked with her
regarding her progress on the workings of the machine and
thought her capable if a little unstable, too involved and
mono-focused in her work to be a balanced individual. Like
he was one to talk, he thought wryly. After the first few
sessions with Natia, he had seen something like hero worship
and adulation in her eager eyes, and afterwards he had
confined himself to receiving updates through Mercury. He
had been on the receiving end of possessive adoration a few
times - it was not a feeling he cared to encourage in
anyone.
But this, this was momentous. If Natia had indeed
solved the puzzle, if she had figured out even a portion of
why the machinery worked and what it was good for, it would
be invaluable if only for the prestige of it. Mamoru was not
above using any tool for the enhancement of the empire, even
snob appeal could work with some touchy lordlings. With a
smile that was rarer that it had been in times past, he
stepped away from his desk and gave a casual glance at
himself. He was wearing simple, comfortable clothes that
were easy to work in for long periods of time. He shrugged
mentally, it didn't really matter if the court saw him in
relaxed dress and he wasn't going to waste the time to go
and changed into something more formal. It was with a sense
of true anticipation that Mamoru paced the long lengths of
hallway and corridor with the dimutitive Ami at his side,
leaving his chains of paper aside for the moment.
------------------------------
Natia waited, and her attention was more dangerously
focused that anyone around her truly realized. It had taken
many months of dedicated, patient work to reach this point,
where it had finally fallen into place. Natia knew she had
run her team to the edge of exhaustion and beyond with
correlating the designs on the outside of the temple with
any matching patterns on the control panel. Natia herself
had laboured long hours over the patterns, trying to repeat
that moment of insight that had shown her how the doors
opened. Young and brilliant, Natia had struggled to prove
herself, to outshine her illustrious father's success in
this field. For every success she had, for every theory
formulated and proved correct, she had hoped for her
father's approval, to force him to say that she was good at
this, that she was worth something. But her father had never
seemed to notice or to care, had always been too busy with
his own work, his own pet theories.
But this . . . this machine could be the break she had
been waiting for. If she could get the panel to respond,
could figure out the rest of the sequencing of the markings
. . . that might finally earn her the attention of her
abstracted father. And even sweeter, the attention of Neo
King Endymion.
Natia ran caressing hands over the golden alloy that
made up the half arc of the console. This hunk of machinery
would give her the means to entrap the Neo King, would make
him her very own for as long as she wished it. And after
having gazed into those deep blue eyes, Natia knew she would
wish it for a very, very long time. She gazed pensively into
the translucent, swirling flames and waited for the moment
of her greatest desire to arrive.
------------------------------
Oblivious to Natia's intentions, Mamoru strode with Ami
along the corridors of the palace. Looking out the passing
windows, he could see the bones of the palace grounds being
raised into place, even the completed sections still with
that raw look that spoke of their recent erection. It would
be many years until it was completed, many more until it
would truly be the center of the empire, but Mamoru was not
displeased with the progress they were making. The spring
sunshine shone over everything indiscriminately, and
unconsciously he started to breathe easier and to stand a
little taller. It had been a long time since he had gone
anywhere for pleasure, longer yet with someone who shared
that pleasure. A glance to the side showed the look on Ami's
face was as keen as his own. He understood Ami's
protectiveness towards the young Natia, perhaps seeing in
her an echo of her own childhood, the aloneness Ami had felt
before the discovery of the senshi that had given her
friends to rely on. Mamoru grinned at the alert expression
in Ami's normally calm eyes. Ami looked up and caught the
quirky smile, giving him a mock punch in the shoulder for
his insolence.
'This is what is missing with Usa,' he suddenly
realized with a pang of anguish, his casual gaze sharpening
suddenly. ''I can't remember the last time that we were
together that we laughed . . . that we did anything that
wasn't state related. Political dinners, construction plans,
restructuring of supply routes . . . I probably wouldn't
even recognize her unless she disguised herself as a damned
map. I need to make more time for us . . for her and I to be
together again the way we were before." Mamoru's step
faltered a little as he mused silently to himself. Ami gave
him a questioning look, but he missed it as his sharp
perception focused inwards. He tried to remember the sound
of Usagi's laughter, and when he had last heard it for him
alone. "We've been together so long . . . gods how I miss
her." Lost in this moment of revelation, Mamoru failed to
notice the gradual increase of voices ahead of them until
they rounded a corner and stumbled into a large gaggle of
people congregating in a hallway intersection. Looking up,
Mamoru realized something strange was going on but tall as
he was, he couldn't see over the backs of everyone to the
middle where the action seemed to be. Loud shouts of
encouragement and excitement echoed around the large open
area, and with a quizzical look to an equally mystified Ami,
he started to work his way forward along the corridor edge.
Finally they managed to worm their way into a spot of
vantage to see what all the shouting was about. In the
center, surrounded by a rough circle of onlookers, two men
were blindfolded with paint brushes in their hands. As
witnessed by their stained clothing, both men had scored
hits, although apparently not 'fatally' so as the match
continued. The smaller of the two, dressed in a peacock
wardrobe of scarlet and gold, seemed to be the crowd
favorite, the hoarse shouts ebbing and flowing like water
around the combatants.
"What's going on?" he asked of his nearest neighbor, a
dimutitive woman of indeterminate age, who was presently
trying to peer through several thick bodies to see the
fight. Without turning, the woman replied, Mamoru straining
to catch the answer through the roaring of the crowd that
was getting larger and more unruly as the contest went on.
"Oh, 'tis truly a sight isn't it? I was with Lord
Priaric's party as we were travelling in some haste to
attend the summer pavilion in the gardens. When we came to
this intersection, m'lord himself did not pay as much
attention as perhaps he should have, and bumped into yon lad
as he carried his pail of paint. The poor lad spilled the
paint, through no fault of his own I might add, and m'lord
Priaric got his lovely shoes splattered. For a moment it
looked quite ugly, as m'lord is not a patient man, but then
she appeared down the other hallway with such laughter on
her face that both lads couldn't help but be enchanted." A
roar went up through the crowd, and the woman strained on
tiptoe to see the commotion, Mamoru noting that one of the
combatants had fallen to one knee. He strained to hear her
through the increased hilarity.
"She said that such an insult needed to be avenged, and
that as no one could determine who had bumped into who, the
duel should be equal and with the offending paint. The loser
must finish the bas-relief and the victor a kiss from the
lady for the defense of his honour." As she finished her
brief summation, a large howl arose from the crowd and
Mamoru looked up swiftly to see the young lord in scarlet
and gold who had slipped in the half congealed paint
covering the floor. The other boy, with clothing now
revealed to be a painter's smock liberally splashed with
colour, seemed to sense his momentary advantage and started
swinging the paintbrush with wild abandon. A number of
spectators too close to the fighting area got their own dose
of justice, and cries of foul play were raised into the air
to be ignored by the majority of eager participants.
Finally the end came abruptly as the standing boy
bumped into the retreating lord on the floor and with a
quick swipe was able to plaster the smaller boy with a
faceful of paint. Howls of laughter and groaning were heard,
and Mamoru saw many an item change hands as the bettors were
forced to pay up their wagers. It was with a sense of deja
vu that he heard an all too familiar voice raised in
laughter, calling an end to the conflict and proclaiming the
winner.
It was with fresh eyes that Mamoru watched from the
anonymity of the crowd as Usagi stepped gracefully forward,
clutching skirts to keep them from trailing in the sticky
paint. Both boys lifted their blindfolds and stood arrayed
before her like knights errant about to receive roses from
their lady fair, or perhaps more like school children about
to receive a scolding from the head mistress.
And queen she was in this moment of comedy and
laughter. It was with grace and a sparkling good humour that
she dubbed the worker lad as the winner with a swift peck to
the one clean spot on his cheek. And with equal grace, Usagi
praised the young lord Priaric for his valiant fight,
successfully forestalling the incipient anger in his body
and even coaxing a true smile to his face. Lord Priaric was
granted a stay of judgment as it was deemed that all the
paint for the wall had been used in the fight and none was
left for the work. Like a mother goose with unruly chicks,
Usagi lifted white hands and started to shoo everyone away,
sending the young labourer to find a work crew to clean the
mess.
Mamoru slipped down silently from his perch of
observation, and sinuously glided mostly unseen through the
dispersing crowd, approaching Usa unobtrusively from the
side as she laughed with the court followers. A once
familiar quirky smile was on his lips as he slipped up
beside her, noting absently the belated obeisances of the
nobility, most of them awkwardly dropping into formal
courtesies as his approach was seen. Usagi looked around in
startlement and her face mirrored confusion for a moment
before she realized they were not suddenly bowing to her.
She turned quickly and a look of astonishment crossed her
precious face as she came nose to nose with the silent
Mamoru. He didn't give her a chance to say anything, but
grabbed her by the waist and hauled her in for a long kiss.
It was just like it always was for them, the moment he
kissed her he forgot the rest of the world even existed,
that they had ever said hard words to each other. He loved
her so much it seemed that his soul shook with it. When they
finally broke the kiss, Usagi's eyes were dreamy and soft,
the look he so much loved to see. He gazed deeply into her
beloved eyes and leaned forward to kiss her again. It was
the silence that made him raise dazed eyes to the people
surrounding them, most still in formal obeisance around
them. His sharpening gaze caught some looks of
embarrassment, in a few women a look of undisguised lust.
But wonderingly he also saw no few gazes that held respect
and some undefinable emotion that might have been
wistfulness. He turned back to Usagi in time to see her look
of love fade back into uncertainty and wariness. He
forestalled her slight movement as she tried to get more
distance between them, tucking her more closely into his
side. Leaning down, he tickled her ear with his lips,
delighting in the gooseshivers he gave her. Wickedly he
whispered in her ear, ignoring her blushes. " I'm kidnapping
you. Don't try and fight me, I'll only chase you. It could
prove embarrassing if I have to carry you away from here
over my shoulder."
Usagi's eyes flew wide and she looked up uncertainly at
him. Whatever she saw there must have convinced her, for she
blushed even more furiously but nodded shyly at him.
Hesitantly she pulled away, but only to twine her fingers in
his. With a wave, Mamoru acknowledged the courtiers and
grandly announced that the Neo Queen had pressing business
elsewhere at the moment. Her heightened colouring said
everything, and with knowing glances, the glittering
ensemble paraded out to attend the summer pavilion's
entertainment. Soon they were alone with the drying paint
and the tactful, out of easy earshot presence of Mercury.
" I'm tired of being cooped up indoor, Usako," he
murmured. " Let's go outside and sit in the trees and feed
birds or something. I love the sunlight in your hair . . . "
he said, reaching to tug caressingly at her long tresses. "
Ami and I were just going to talk to Natia for a moment,
then how about you and I find a quiet spot and we'll pick
flowers for your hair?" Mamoru smiled coaxingly at Usagi,
and was rewarded by that famous pinball smile that lit her
whole face. .
" I'd love that Mamo-chan, that sounds just heavenly,"
Usagi replied hesitantly, ducking her head and blushing
still for no apparent reason. Sensing the intimate moment
was lessening, Ami walked up and the three of them paced the
hallway together, passing the approaching workmen as they
attended to the scene of the accident. Mamoru and Ami
chatted amiably about the possibly discoveries Natia might
have made, wondering which of the lines of research had paid
off. Mamoru knew this kind of talk made Usa either bored or
anxious depending on how much self esteem she had at the
moment, so as they walked he frequently raised her hand to
his lips and kissed her fingers. Usagi made no demure,
instead opting for stately dignity as they walked.
Eventually they reached one of the palace exits and
proceeded into the courtyard.
It was perhaps a half hour's walk to the excavation
site, and Mamoru blessed the fact that the temple structure
was away from the main working archeological dig. They
wouldn't have to trek through the inevitable dust and grime
that was raised at the main site. They wandered to the right
of the dig and slightly behind, passing by the young tree
plantings and flower beds of what would eventually become
another extension of the royal garden. Over a slight rise
they looked down into the slight pit where the house stood.
It's scrollwork decorations shone iridescent in the spring
sunshine, creating a lovely, if slightly disturbing effect.
Personally, Mamoru found the patterns made him slightly
nauseous if he looked too long at them so he studiously
avoided looking at them directly. Ami on the other hand
professed no such sense of vertigo and would blithely trace
patterns for hours on end, a pastime he privately thought
was better off left to those employed to figure them out. He
grinned ruefully at himself, an amused glance passing over
the shining blue hair of Mercury at his side. Of all people,
he should understand the acquisition of knowledge simply for
its own sake. Heart light for the first time in many days,
Mamoru held the hand of his beloved and walked down the
incline into the slight shade of the depression, keen with
anticipation of the promised outing to decorate her hair
with flowers, and to renew again the reasons he loved her to
distraction.
------------------------------
Natia heard the echoing footsteps in the outer entry,
and then the warm voice of Ami Mizuno calling out. Anxiously
she smoothed down her research coat, and turned to smile
brightly at the approaching party. Her shining gaze fell
immediately on the tall form of Neo King Endymion, and she
drank in the sight of his broad shoulders, narrow waist and
the flex of strong thighs under the smoothness of his softly
worn denims. Reflexively her tongue licked her lips, and she
jerked her eyes back to his face. Even halfway across the
room she could tell the exact shade of his eyes, and her
body shivered slightly in reaction to his nearness. He
raised a hand in greeting and Natia knew her mouth was dry,
her loosely clasped hands shaking a little with the
approaching moment and her mind suddenly blank with
awareness of what she was about to attempt.
Endymion turned to his other side slightly to whisper
something behind him, away from the familiar form of Doctor
Mizuno, and with disbelief Natia saw that he held the hand
of a radiant blonde woman. For a moment her mind went white
and her eyes went flat and narrow. Her memory struggled to
give her a name - Neo Queen Serenity. Her anger started to
rise under her momentary confusion. She had heard that the
king and queen barely spoke and she had mentally relegated
Serenity to non status in her proposed conquest of Endymion.
Yet suddenly she was here where she was most definitely not
wanted, a third party when Natia had bargained on only two.
Natia seethed silently at this sudden turn of events, but
stepped forward crisply with her bright grin still firmly
attached to her lips.
" Your Majesties," she said as calmly as she could,
inclining her head in acknowledgment. Endymion waved away
the need for anything formal as they closed the final few
steps. " I didn't expect to see you so soon."
"Wild horses wouldn't have kept us away," Endymion said
smoothly. His expressive eyes looked down into hers and
Natia was sure they held more than a trace of warmth for
her. " If half of what Ami was saying is true, you've done a
miraculous job. If you've managed to get even a portion of
the controls working, I'll nominate you for the highest
medal in your profession myself." Natia knew she was going
to blush like a schoolgirl under that intense gaze and
hastily she stepped back, lowering her eyes to maintain her
composure.
"Perhaps even better, my king, for not only have I
determined the working of a portion of the panel, I can also
tell you what the machine is." Natia was rewarded by the
sudden indrawn breath from Ami and the eager expression on
Endymion's face. She looked up firmly again, this time
fixing her eyes studiously on the familiar face of Ami.
"Come here and I'll show you," she said calmly.
Obligingly, Ami quietly stepped around and Natia
retreated to indicate the nearest portion of the control
surface. "The charts and progression chains you can read
over later, but for now I'll give you what I've found," she
said briskly, putting the first motion of her plan into
action. "Here and here," she said, " controls the opening of
the portal." Her suddenly graceful hands traced certain
patterns on the surface, fingers stroking the brilliant
designs. Under her warm fingertips they began to glow an
intense blue, seeming to raise slightly from the cool
surface around them. The dream like flames on their dais
began to deepen in colour.
"Portal?" queried Ami in a fascinated tone. Natia gave
Ami a grin and confirmed it.
"Portal. This sequence opens the smallest power
connections and causes the colours of the tendrils to
reflect the increase in energy consumption." Natia reached
casually and a few more patterns sprang to life under her
knowing fingers. The mock flames began to reach upwards and
became a deep hue of gold and red. Natia dared a look over
Ami's bent head to see how Endymion was reacting. He was
leaning forward eagerly and his rapt expression was
everything she could have hoped for.
"As you can see, power flow and consumption are clearly
visible simply by visual observation. This 'machine' had
been left in power down state, with only minimal energy
requirements. I'm not sure what energy it uses, although I
suspect the outside designs are photosynthetic to some
degree and that reserve energies are stored throughout the
network. That can be studied at leisure now that I know how
to get the 'machine' to respond, and to be in active mode."
Ami looked at her pupil sideways. "You keep saying
'machine' Natia, as if you really mean to say something
else."
"You're right. I say machine, but it isn't really,
precisely, a construct. From the little I've been able t o
discover, the framework is what we would consider a machine,
but the physical flame wall holds something alive - or at
least, very definitely not machine. It's entirely possible
that there is intelligence of some degree sorting through
the machine responses to the console. But was for what that
thing is - if its even really there - that's a little too
complex at this stage of investigation." Natia tried to take
an unobtrusive breath. Then smoothly, in the tone of voice
she had rehearsed for hours - "My king, would you care to be
the test subject for the next revelation?"
Endymion chuckled and inclined his head, as she had
earnestly hoped he would. "Is it going to hurt?" he said
warmly.
Natia smiled but inwardly rejoiced. "Assuredly not my
liege. What I would like to demonstrate is a part of the
machine's capabilities. Dr Mizuno, if you would care to
stand here, I'll show you the readouts. My lord, if you
would care to stand in front of the platform, perhaps a
dozen even paces from it."
Ami shifted over to Natia's left, bright gaze focused
on the now actively lit console. Endymion moved to comply,
pacing into the center of the room and leaving Serenity
looking a little lost at the console's edge. As he stepped
away from her, Natia's sharp gaze saw her indrawn breath and
furrowing brow, as if she sensed something amiss. Hurriedly,
she started her rehearsed patter again.
"The machine itself has a number of functions that I
have been able to determine, and probably several dozen more
that I have yet to figure out. This one that I am about to
demonstrate, is simply a medical scan. It seems to be
sampling DNA, circulatory and respiratory rates, measuring
brain wave patterns - in short, just about every test you
might want to run, and without the pain of even having to
remove a stitch of clothing."
Watching out of the corner of her eye, Natia saw him
walk into the required distance from the flames and her body
tensed with the peak of excitement screaming along her nerve
endings. Lightly, her hands stroked the panel one more time.
Dusky lines of green and silver flared to life, and a
questing tendril of flame lifted away from the writhing mass
and began to lean out towards Endymion. He eyed it warily
but did not move as it encircled his waist like a snake made
of light, wavering and then firming into a solid connection.
Natia's smile grew larger and more predatory, and she began
to point out to Ami the various readings that now flickered
across the console. At this crucial moment, almost her whole
attention was attuned to the machine, the unattached part of
her brain continuing to respond to the anticipated presence
of Ami at her side. Her eyes flickered over the more
sinister displays, waiting for the moment when the machine
finished sampling the Neo King for identification. The
seconds ticked by with agonizing slowness and Natia made a
conscious effort to breathe normally, all senses at
hyper-alertness. An eon later, a previously dark section
flared to life and her heart bumped painfully in her chest.
She watched her own hand as if it was in slow motion, raise
to the new lights and casually trace their patterns. She
heard the sudden roar as she opened all the power channels
to full potential and the flames rushed to the ceiling, the
sudden crazy light nearly bright enough to make her wince.
She raised her head just in time to see the outline of her
beloved Endymion encased in living flame, as the flame drew
him into its uncaring embrace.
------------------------------
In a sudden move, before Ami could appreciate the
sudden horror that had happened, Natia's hand dived into her
pocket and suddenly the deadly length of a gun was in her
grasp. Ami had already turned, testament to her battle
reflexes with arms raised to attack. Natia's arm whipped
back and with a madman's sudden strength brought the heavy
metal across in a vicious attack that caught Ami on the
temple. She dropped almost without a sound, bright blood
streaming across her face, blood that now stained Natia's
hand. With a delicious, heavy feeling, Natia turned to face
the unwanted presence of Serenity.
Usagi screamed in rage and terror, the ghost image of
Mamoru against a backdrop of writhing flames burning in her
eyes. She ran forward with outstretched arms but there was
only air where he had stood. She whirled in the dancing
light and in her suddenly raised hand the ginzuishou flared
to incandescent life, a point of diamond clarity against the
incipient madness in her eyes. "Bring him back!" she shouted
wildly, taking a few steps towards Natia. Her pretty
features were twisted by rage and Natia fell back in sudden
fear. "Release him!" Usagi demanded again.
Natia's spine stiffened, and she raised the gun she had
unconsciously lowered. "Never!" she hissed vindictively. "
If he can't be mine, I'll make sure he'll never be yours!"
Then unbelievably, she turned and the gun flared to life,
burning half the console into slag in a few short moments.
With an insane light in her eyes, she twisted to face the
stunned queen. "You had everything," she snarled, the light
playing mercilessly over her contorted features. "Wealth,
power, friends . . . and you had him, and you didn't care.
Everyone could see how little you cared - he should have
been mine!" The last was nearly howled, and Usagi was frozen
in her own terror and sudden, overwhelming guilt.
Natia continued, oblivious to everything but Serenity's
stricken face. "Well, he's not yours anymore - he's right
there where you'll never see him again." Natia waved wildly
with the gun at the raging flames, and Serenity stepped
forward a few paces. The gun swung back instantly, and
Natia's eyes refocused on hers over the gleaming barrel.
"All mine," she whispered calmly. "All mine, never to be
taken away."
Usagi hesitated, unable to attack, knowing only that
Natia might still be able to operate the damaged machine.
"He'll die in there Natia, please, please let him out before
he dies."
Natia drew her lips back in a crazy grin, but the gun
barrel didn't move. "Oh, he won't die, pretty queen, he'll
just - exist - there forever. Perfect and inviolate. Mine,
where only I can reach him." Natia's gaze began to turn back
again to the roaring flames, and Usagi dared one step, then
another. Natia's eyes returned to her and she smiled at
Serenity, long and slow.
"Mine," she dreamily repeated. Then casually, Natia
turned the muzzle of the gun around and Usagi had time to
draw in one horror-stricken breath before the finger
tightened on the trigger. Dazedly, she saw the body crumple
behind the slagged console. "Oh god, Mamo-chan," she
whimpered and slowly sagged to the ground herself, her mind
automatically denying the horror around her, him lost and
beyond retrieval.
When Venus found her there she was in a dead faint,
long hair pooled around her like blood in the flickering
flames.
------------------------------
It seems he fell, although there was no real sensation
of movement. The once pallid flames leaped around him,
fierce red and sullen orange, inflicting him with a sense of
vertigo as they whirled in front of his eyes. His sudden
fear and rage were overwhelming, threatening to cloud his
mind as the flames blinded his eyes. He had to get back, had
to get out of this trap before Natia attacked his beloved
Usako. He raged, and the flames leaped higher as if in
mocking response, the sun-bright cage a perfect shield over
and around him.
He raised his fists and struck out wildly, trying to
physically push his way back to the world. Like hissing
snakes, the flames curled up and over his wrists and arms,
covering his flesh in a carpet of writhing colour. He felt
no pain, only the pressure of restraint as the shield wall
contained his movements with instant smooth response. His
panic peaked and with wild eyes filled with the searing
light he struck out again and again, fists coiling and
uncoiling with trained speed and desperate intent.
Exhaustion stopped him, his heart pounding with sick terror
and the strenuous attempt. His blood pounded in his temples
but his harsh breathing was lost in the omni-present growl
of the fire.
His world hadn't changed in the slightest, the shield
wall curling up and over him like a possessive lover, its
breath in his ear and filling his eyes with pulsing,
hypnotic movement. Swallowing convulsively, he purposely
closed his eyes and forced calm on himself, his self
discipline kicking in at last. Struggling to breathe in time
with his heart, he removed his mind from the sick feeling of
helplessness that tasted like wood in his mouth. His
thoughts cleared and sharpened in hard, diamond edges of
clarity. Her danger rumbled in his blood like a
thunderstorm, and he * reached * for the core of his
strength, intending to punch his way out with raw power if
he had to.
There was nothing, no lightning leaping to his hands in
instant response, no flowering of potential across his nerve
endings. His eyes flew open with shock and the glimmering
light seemed to mock his efforts. He tried again, plunging
ethereal fingers into what had been the source of his
limitless energy. There was an absence so profound that he
reeled with it, as if it had never been, had never filled
him with life giving light and power. In a mental anguish so
profound it bordered on insanity, Mamoru recklessly opened
the soulgates of his power and plunged headlong into the
gaping void in his heart, grasping desperately for any
trickle of what had once been a raging torrent. Where his
earth sense had been was as empty and echoing as the empty
stretches between stars, and as mind numbingly cold. He
wailed in anguish and loss, and the heart-rending sound was
swallowed uncaringly by the consuming, flickering flames.
------------------------------
It was hours before they could convince Usagi to leave
the room now brightened by the towering column of flame in
the center. In a heart-rendingly small voice she told Venus
what had happened and then had lapsed back into apathetic
silence. The ginzuishou still shone above her as if she had
forgotten it, and its bright light played down mercilessly
on her haggard features. She seemed numbed to everything,
her mind in a frozen shock that Venus couldn't break
through. With bleeding heart, Minako had the princess
sedated and went to see to the state of Ami in intensive
care in the hospital. With her own mind struggling to
comprehend the sudden loss of Endymion and the collapse of
Serenity, she clutched at the news that Ami would live, that
the healing powers of Mercury were already working on an
injury that would have killed another. Venus viciously
shoved her own sense of loss firmly behind doors in her
mind, and turned her attention to the ones still within her
reach to care for. Although she knew that Makoto and Rei
would have been aware the instant that Usagi was in danger,
she stopped and concentrated, sending along an emphatic
pulse to Rei to tell her to get back to the palace as
quickly as possible. The body of the young researcher she
ordered to be available for autopsy should the need arise.
Ami was doing as best as could be expected and with Usagi in
sedated shellshock, Minako went back to the temple where
everything had gone so disastrously wrong. With a warrior's
callousness, she ignored the wash of blood over everything
and studied the console with care. Even her unfamiliar gaze
saw the extend of the destruction made by the illegal plasma
weapon and she bleakly doubted that anything would ever be
able to be done with it again. Moving away, she returned to
face the dais proper with its contained firestorm,
unconsciously mimicking Mamoru's last position.
Concentrating, Venus expanded her mind. She was not as
skilled as Rei perhaps, but she was still formidable.
Reaching out, she traced her connections to the sleeping
Usagi, and from her to the unbreakable bond that held her to
Mamoru. The fine cord still existed as it always had,
shining silver in her othersight but when she attempted to
trace it to Mamoru himself, she hit a wall of flame, a force
that resisted any attempts to pierce its secrets. No matter
how she tried, it repelled her with ease and finally she was
forced to give up the attempt with the beginnings of a
serious reaction headache starting between her temples.
In defeat Minako returned to the palace. Usagi was
still unconscious and Mina had her examined as well while
she couldn't resist, in case anything else had happened that
didn't show. When the doctor had finished his private
examination, he whispered to Venus his findings and then had
left the room, leaving the two senshi alone for the moment.
In a different kind of shock, Mina walked to the bedside of
her beloved friend and slowly sank into a chair there. Her
helpless gaze fell over the features of her fragile queen,
still drawn and anguished in her forced repose. Almost
unwillingly her gaze travelled down the length of Usagi's
body, resting on her flat stomach lifting with the gentle
sway of her breathing, a body that still betrayed nothing of
the changes taking place. 'Oh Usa-chan,' she thought
despairingly, ' what will you do now? And how will I hold
you together until Rei can get here and heal your heart? '
Venus lowered her head into her heavy arms and night
began to fall on the palace proper.
------------------------------
" You will, Usagi! You will walk down that aisle and
you will ascend the double throne if I have to carry you
there myself! " Rei was angry and her long hair nearly
crackled with the force she was flinging it around with.
"You don't have any choice in this!"
Usagi's face was pale but determined, and again she
shook her head to indicate her refusal. " I will not
Rei-chan. I will continue to refuse until you turn blue in
the face and die on the spot. I will not rule without . ."
her voice shook for a moment, and then firmed again, " . .
without him. Let Minako take the throne, I don't care
anymore. She would rule better than I would anyway." Usagi's
eyes and voice were bleak and reflected none of the day's
brightness visible through the windows.
It was three months since that fateful day when Mamoru
had been lost, and each day Usagi died a little more. Now it
was all any of them could do to get her to eat, to do
anything but stare out the window lost in the darkness of
her thoughts. Rei had finally confessed in worried
conference the night before with all of them that she
couldn't reach the mind of the princess anymore, that all
she could get was a roil of guilt and anger, a formless mass
of aching loss that defied description. Mina had desperately
hoped that Usagi would pull out of this despondency on her
own, but Rei's admission of defeat had forced this
confrontation. With a renewed sense of determination, Venus
joined her voice into the argument.
" You are the Neo Queen Serenity." Usagi's face fell a
little farther at Mina's voice and she turned away from them
again to face out the window. " I do not want the throne, it
is not mine by right, and I will personally help Rei carry
you down there if you won't walk. Give it up Usagi-chan !
You can't get any of us to take that burden away from you,
and you have to face it ! Each day you delay the empire
falls that much farther into confusion. The northern borders
are troubled again, and Rei wastes time here trying to mend
you when she is needed elsewhere." Mina deliberately couched
her phrases to hurt, silently urging Usagi to argue with
them, to get angry, to show any sign of returning life.
" The people need a leader, and they have the right to
expect that person to be their princess! Mamoru-kun spared
you that responsibility while he was here, but he's not here
to protect you anymore," Minako continued inexorably. If
possible, Usagi's face became paler at the mention of his
name, but she didn't turn back to face the room. Mina threw
up her hands in disgust and despair at the fixed stoniness
on Usagi's profile. Nothing was sinking through it seemed.
She looked for help at the tall figure of Jupiter leaning in
the corner, but surprisingly it was Ami that spoke up next.
"Usagi-chan." Her soft voice seemed to cut through the
rising tensions like a swimmer through swift water. " I will
tell you why you will take the throne and learn to rule, why
you already know this fight is futile. " Usagi looked up
blankly at Ami, and her expression of refusal began to waver
into confusion. Ami continued calmly, only the white lines
around her mouth showing the strain she endured with all of
them as their princess sank slowly towards a self willed
death. " You carry in you the next heir to the throne, the
one who will be Small Lady. " Almost unwillingly, Usagi's
hands drifted to the now unmistakable swell of her belly. "
And in order for her to be the next princess, you must be
queen. We know this. And we know that Endymion-sama will
rule with you, for we have all foreseen it. Remember, we
know at least this part of the future. That Neo Queen
Serenity and Neo King Endymion rule Crystal Tokyo and that
Mamoru-kun cannot rule if he is trapped. Somehow, some way,
we will find him again and restore him to you. You know that
he lives - we are tied to you and you are soulbound to him -
we all can sense his presence that is still connected to
you. Do not lose faith ! Live for your daughter and trust
that the fates will restore him to us. Believe in yourself
Usagi-chan. You can do this ! "
Ami sank back down again, easily exhausted after that
devastating head blow and the emotional impact of her
speech. Mina looked hopefully at Usagi, and realized after a
few moments that something was happening. Usagi's hands were
clasped over her unborn daughter and she was rocking a
little. Her eyes were still blank but they appeared to be
focusing inwards on Ami's words. Her lips moved slightly,
and Minako realized that she was trying to reach Mamoru
again, calling along the lines of destiny that tied them
together. Usagi's shoulders slumped and Mina cried inside at
the inherent sadness in that repeated admission of defeat.
None of them could reach Mamoru - although they had
squandered shocking power resources against the column of
living light that held him. Each time they had failed, Usagi
had wilted a little more. Eventually she had even stopped
going to the chamber of light, preferring instead to sit in
her lonely room, ignoring everybody and everything, until
the senshi were nearly as haggard as she was with worry for
her. Mina waited with baited breath and firmly told herself
not to hope too much.
The moments ticked by and Usagi continued to commune
with herself. Rei silently walked over to Mina and sat
beside her on the low bench, resting her heavy head against
her friend's shoulder. With a sharp glance she saw the dark
circles under Mars' eyes and knew that she herself probably
didn't look much better. Venus hadn't realized herself how
much Mamoru had held on his shoulders until she had had to
take on that shockingly heavy burden. And now she was
forcing her friend to take that tortuous load, when she knew
better than anyone that Usagi was woefully less than
prepared to accept it. But truthfully, there was no other
choice. Venus couldn't hold the hegemony together - only one
of royal blood could hope to do that and for each day that
passed, that hope grew fainter as the princes and lordlings
began to carve up the power between them. Venus leaned her
fair head against the darker one on her shoulder and waited
for her friend to choose between her death wish or life
without the one she lived for.
Finally Usagi's eyes cleared of reverie and she turned
to face the inner senshi. Jupiter still leaned in her corner
and Usagi saw with painfully clear eyes that the only reason
she hadn't fallen down was because she had wedged herself
carefully against the stonework. Ami sat on a chair and
although the bandages were gone, she could still see the
livid red scar on her temple where Natia had struck to kill.
On the other wall, Rei had collapsed on Venus' arm, Minako
herself seeming to hold together with nerves of twisted
steel and a mind that refused to admit defeat. In that flash
of insight, Usagi groaned in remorse at what she had done to
her closest friends. With a hesitant smile, she opened her
arms and they all staggered forward to collapse in her
urgent embrace and their tears of relief were like a
benediction to her.
" If you really can't live without me, I guess I can't
leave you yet," she said hoarsely. As if in response, the
child kicked for the first time.
------------------------------
Mamoru drifted in soulshock for a time that could have
been hours or aeons. Flames dancing and swirled in his
unknowing gaze, his prison reaching insurmountably high
overhead. Mesmerized he watched the dancing lights, little
flame creatures sporting fancifully in his surreal vision.
His sense of earth was a raw, aching void deep in his heart,
a gaping maw of darkness where there had only been purest
light. For all the years of this lifetime, that light had
sustained him, had fed him the strength to defend his planet
against threat, had upheld his spirit in the worst of
trials. Now there was less than nothing, an absence so
profound he could have wept from it.
The tie that had bound him to his planet had never been
threatened before. His life, his mind, his memories even had
been taken from him, and he had survived. Dimly, he wondered
how this could have happened - he was the guardian of this
blue planet, it should not have been possible to separate
him from the source of his power, from the golden crystal
that was both symbol and anchor of his mastery. Jolted from
his apathy, Mamoru attempted the smallest of things - to
call forth the crystal into his cupped hands, to make it
manifest itself as a physical item. For a wild moment he
thought he felt it, a shimmer of light behind his eyes and a
thread of melody in his ears that came through the hiss of
the flames. And then it was gone, so elusive that he thought
he had imagined that lightest of touches. The crystal was a
part of his physical being, like the colour of his eyes, it
should have been impossible that he couldn't even touch it.
He felt his soul freezing over again with bleak despair and
he lapsed back again into semi-consciousness, flamelight
playing over his stark features. Unable to move, unable to
summon even the remotest spark of power, he drifted in
solitude as a single point of darkness in the conflagration
around him.
------------------------------
"Mama?"
Serenity turned and gazed down at her daughter. Small
Lady was looking at her feet, her voice seemingly rising in
the air from no apparent source since all she could see was
a shock of pink hair and hands busily engaged in playing
with Luna P's ears. Gently she replied, "Yes, sweetheart?"
"How come Jamis has a daddy and I don't?" said the
little girl bluntly. Now she did raise her head and Serenity
could see the budding determination on her face. With a
sigh, she leaned back in her chair and contemplated how best
to describe the indescribable to an eight year old. It was
early morning and Serenity had been having a quiet breakfast
with her daughter, something she tried very hard not to
spoil with matters of state. Intellectually she knew this
moment had been brewing for a long time but emotionally she
still wasn't really prepared for the dull ache the idea
brought.
Letting her mind ruminate on the proper approach,
Serenity sipped her hot tea and appreciated the fine beauty
of the daughter that was all she had left of him. The
directness - that came from her for sure, and the wide eyes
as well. The eyebrows, the shape of her exquisite heart
face, even her occasional displays of temper - these were
Tsukino Usagi all over again as she hadn't been for years.
Nothing seemed at first glance to be anything but the
birthright of Serenity and the indefinable something that
made Small Lady an individual, complete in herself.
It was the look in the child's eyes that reminded
Serenity most of who she had lost - the solemn, wounded
expression deep in the gaze that told her this was truly her
beloved's child. Mamoru had carried deep, unseen scars on
his soul from two lifetimes of nearly unrelieved duty and
pain. No one knew the depths of emotion that had ruled his
soul - more sensitive than any could have guessed - save
her. It was part of her burden and her joy that no one else
knew the doubts and desperations that he had whispered to
her in the nights, the easing of his soul in her arms and
body, safety and assurance in her love. On a day filled with
sunshine cruel as knives and heavy as sand, he had called
with a voice as cold as iron for Venus to kill - and only
she knew the unashamed tears he had cried into her hair for
the nights after. And now his daughter faced her over
another sunlit place with hands about to tear apart her
comfort toy and Serenity had to find words to explain why he
was not here.
"Small Lady," she started slowly, trying to find her
way through the minefield of words, "do you remember when
Alis cried because her mama was hurt and in the hospital for
so long?"
The little girl's hands still momentarily and a small,
hesitant nod was her answer. "I remember mama, I remember
Alis was really sad for a long time." Small Lady thought a
moment but then said accusingly, "But her mama came home
after a while, and I still don't have a daddy!" Her little
mouth trembled but then firmed into defiant mutiny. Serenity
tried hard not to laugh even through the ache in her heart,
and hid her mouth behind another swallow of tea.
"Your father's name is Chiba Mamoru, which means
Protector of Earth," she told her pouting daughter. "We were
in love for many years, he and I, and we made you to be our
daughter. He would have loved you very much but . . . well,
something bad happened and he was . . lost, very far away
from here." Well, that's one way to say it, she thought to
herself wryly.
"But is he ever going to come back mama, you know, so I
can have a daddy too, just like Jamis?" Small Lady's
expression was hopeful as she peeked out from long lashes.
"He could take me to the lake, and to the park to climb
trees, and even," she said with a wistful look, "read me
stories in bed?"
Serenity's heart thumped painfully and she wondered how
much truth was the right amount to say, how much a child
could understand of the complexities of the adult world. She
opted for as much truth as she herself could bear to say.
"I'm sure that one day you will have a daddy too, and that
he will love you even more than I do. But," she said gently
as she saw the growing joy in her daughter's eyes, "it could
be a long time. A very long time. He was lost so far from
here it could take all the time until you grow up before he
can find his way back."
"Grown up?" she squeaked breathlessly, clutching the
mangled Luna P tightly. "All the time until I'm grown up?"
Serenity nodded slowly and let her daughter try to
assimilate that cautionary word. She hurt for telling her
daughter this particular truth, for letting her know that
some things nobody could fix. She tried to take cold comfort
from the knowledge that bleak as it was, it was still a
truth she believed in every day of her life. One day he
would return and one day she would see his beloved face
again in truth instead of in the reflection of his daughter.
"You promise mama, you promise that even if it takes
until I'm grown up, my very own daddy will come back?" she
insisted of her mother.
"I promise Small Lady, I will swear it upon the
Illusion Silver Crystal that one day your father will find
his way back to be here with us," she said firmly, seeking
to give an assurance that even her daughter could not doubt.
It seemed to work as her eyes got really large at the
mention of the legendary power of her mother's, but it
seemed to satisfy her and the meal progressed without
anymore undue bumps to Serenity's peace of mind. She might
have been a little less calm if she could have read her
daughter's mind that day.
Throughout the day, Small Lady turned the problem over
in her head. It was obvious, once you knew that you might
have to wait a long time for something. She didn't know how
long it took to grow up, but it sounded like it could be a
while. "If I'm all grown up," she whispered to Luna P
quietly, "he might not recognize me. He might think some
other little girl is his daughter and he might want to be
with her instead of me. Well, he'll be MY daddy and I have
to make sure he knows who I am." Small Lady tried to figure
out how to make sure somebody she'd never seen would
recognize her as his daughter and not mistake her for
somebody else.
It was night before she figured out the obvious
solution. Happy at her new thought, she hugged Luna P
tightly to her chest as she snuggled down into the covers.
"I know what I'll do!" she crowed happily. "I'll just never
grow up! That way, I'll always be a little girl, and he'll
know who I am. That was pretty smart of me, don't you
think?"
Luna P beeped at her in what she assumed was agreement.
Small Lady smiled happily and settled down for sleep.
"That's it," she thought warmly as she drifted off, " I'll
just never grow up and he'll have no trouble finding me when
he comes looking."
------------------------------
It seems he drifted like a forsaken child, an abandoned
doll. At times it almost seemed his prisoning walls
comforted him, supported him in his overwhelming despair.
Times untold he checked the soulgate, peering within to find
the absence as chill and bleak as before. The flames writhed
and swirled in his desolate gaze, at times resembling
dancers or storm-tossed trees. He imagined he saw whole
armies marching to battle, heroes on horses that dissolved
into falling cascades of brilliant butterflies. He hung
suspended in flameflowers and dreamed he had been a man.
How long he stayed in that suspended animation he could
not after say with anything approaching certainty. Slowly,
the flicker of his unconquerable spirit began to rise again,
and he roused from the stupor he had fallen into.
Unflinching, he once again opened the pathway to his power
and felt the chill of that intimate loss reaching out to
him. With a callousness that had a border of
self-destruction to it, he slipped deliberately into that
void, drawing it over his head like a sea of black water, a
whirlpool of loss that matched in intensity the firestorm
that raged outside his mind. With singleminded focus he
began to reweave that darkness into the framework of his
psyche. With endless tenacity he followed the absences where
they lead; myriad branching pathways leading from the main
core of his lost power. He traced each minute pathway, each
slippery connection a reminder of the vibrant power that had
once poured through it. With delicate touch and intent of
steel, each cord began to rework itself. Dimly he began to
realize that he traced a web of power conduits that ran
through his body like a tissue overlay of his blood.
As he slowly assimilated and absorbed the knowledge
contained in these empty corridors, he realized how
extensive the network was and how instinctive his reactions
had been to it. It had always served his needs and he had
never needed to question its workings before. As the pattern
became clearer and more complete in his mind's eye, he
marvelled silently at its complexity. His power did not
spring into simple life when he needed it, as he had always
assumed it did, a miracle granted to him by being born the
guardian of this planet. He traced all the minute
connections back to their origin, where the great strength
of the golden crystal had rested. The core was bare and
empty, a shimmering curtain of flame seeming to stretch
endlessly across the place where his power should have been,
just as the flame wall trapped his body in this nowhere
place. He dared not approach that greater strength yet, and
he retreated back into the smaller branches and lost himself
in exploring their enchanting lacework patterns.
As he discovered the way and reaches of his absent
power, a flickering from the world of his consciousness
gradually filtered through his awareness. Like a diver, he
swarmed up through the darkness in his soul to full
consciousness in his body. Looking around, he realized that
the flamelight was shifting in front of him - fingers of
agitation curled and spasmed in front of his startled gaze.
In a reflexive action he tried to summon power to build a
shield of protection, knowing the futility of his cause. He
* felt * the newly discovered pathways flexing to channel an
energy that wasn't there, something he had never been aware
of before. And in a different awareness, he realized with a
growing excitement that the light in front of him was
wavering in a locked rhythm to the beat of his opening
channels. The movement was small but unmistakable. Somehow,
the shield energy was reacting to him and his unfilled, open
channels. He experimented a little, his scientific mind
making cold calculations. It definitely was responding -
perhaps if his channels were void of power, the flame wall
was drawn to try and fill the emptiness. Coldly, he decided
that the makers of this trap may never have expected it to
contain someone versed in the uses of power channels. And he
had all the time in the world to make this discovery work to
his eventual benefit.
He went back to his frustrating, elusive efforts. With
conscious effort this time, he traced his entire power
network, leaving only the guarded central core of himself
untouched. Like muscles trained with repeated test his
control grew stronger and more conscious. With each mental
effort he was rewarded as his channels began to open and
close in a demanding rhythm. It was heartbreakingly slow; at
first only the smallest of pathways responded. He continued
doggedly, not knowing what else he could do and resting only
when the mental strain grew too great to bear. Soon larger
conduits were responding and then the smaller nexus points
where pathways joined to each other. He trained himself to
open them wider and wider, struggling to affect the shield
wall. When the nexus points began to react, the pulsing of
the flames was obvious and he exulted that he was on the
right track. It was as if the emptiness of his channels were
drawing on the nearness of the shield energy, attempting to
draw its power along the pathways. He allowed himself the
hope that if enough pressure could be built up inside his
channels, enough force of energy, he might be able to burst
apart the shield wall and free himself.
------------------------------
In the deserted temple, the flame on the altar began to
pulse with a steady regularity, faint but noticeable in the
shifting complexities of fire. Crystal roses in urns around
the chamber reflected the pattern of light over the walls,
making the room like a living altar to a fire god.
------------------------------
Neo Queen Serenity smiled remotely at the courtiers she
passed in the hallway, leaving her body on autopilot as it
greeted people on her behalf as she continued along her way.
With measured tread she paced the great length of her chosen
route, and eventually gained the outside. Breathing with
careful control, she continued to walk with steady pace,
winding her way along the paths to the house she visited
every year on the anniversary day when her heart had died.
In her hand she carried one long stemmed crystal rose,
carefully crafted for her by the best artisans the empire
could employ.
The walk did her good, freed at least temporarily from
the dull matters of state. With a pang she saw the beautiful
flowers of spring surrounding her, fresh fragrances mingling
in the crisp air. She remembered again that last promise and
the look in his eyes when he had said for her ears alone
that he loved flowers in her hair. Stooping, she picked a
pretty little orange one and with a wistful smile tucked it
behind her ear. The long rolling land of the palace grounds
flowed all around her, more formal structured gardens within
her gaze should she choose to visit their calming confines.
Yet her feet followed where her heart insisted she had to
go, and eventually she looked down into that hauntingly
familiar depression. For a moment her eyes insisted she
still saw the bare earth that had been there that day
instead of the carefully tended lawn that existed now.
With a heart nearly inured to the sight of it, she
walked down and forward to the main entrance, sealed as was
proper for a tomb. Only she and Ami remembered the sequence
that opened the great door and she preferred it that way -
it kept the curious and the disrespectful away. Spring
sunshine over her shoulder, she traced the opening pattern
and the doors swung open as they always had, mysterious
machinery still working as it must have done for millenia.
She stepped out of the growing warmth of spring into the
coolness of his burial chamber.
The column of flame was undiminished, as bright and
vivid as the day he had been stolen away from her. With
heavy heart Usagi paced forward with measured stride to
place the crystal rose with the rest that she had created
for him. Absently she noted the profusion that surrounded
the dais, one for each year that she came here, and noted
absently that she really should get some more urns to place
them into. Her face was calm as she looked into the swirling
flames, only her eyes betrayed the bone deep sorrow that
still existed there - the mourning that she only showed
here, where only he could see it.
She let her thoughts drift with the flames - all her
words had long since been said and all her tears had been
cried, so many years that she had almost forgotten what it
had felt like to have him at her side, to turn and to see
him there with that look in his eyes that was meant for her
alone. Only her faith still remained unshakeable, that Ami
had to have been right those many years ago when she had
said that he had to return - that someday she would be
complete again. With a sigh, she let her gaze wander over
the flames, idly wondering if she looked hard enough if she
might see his face in them. Let the lordlings and petty
kings maneuver for position, dreaming of the empty seat of
the double throne and her hand in marriage. She knew, as the
senshi knew but would not mention in front of her, that only
one man could sit there beside her. Each year the jockeying
for power became fiercer and each year she cared less about
it. Only Small Lady could make her laugh anymore with
anything approaching joy. She took comfort in her friends,
and ruled Crystal Tokyo with gentleness and a firm touch -
but her heart was frozen in stasis in a day that was nearly
four hundred years gone.
Serenity knew the common gossip that said that this
little place was a burial chamber for her lost love, that
she came here in remembrance each year on the day he had
died. One rumour had said he was a rogue, a pirate that had
stolen her heart and been executed by the palace guard on
her orders. Another had disagreed, saying that he was her
betrothed husband before being cut down by an assassin of a
rival lord. Others had affirmed that he had been a peasant
lad that she had loved in her youth and had been forbidden
to marry. Serenity had ignored them all and continued to
bring her roses, hoping against hope that she would open the
door and find him standing there, with blue eyes that
contained all of her sky in them. And each year that hope
became a little more faded with time, until it had etched a
soft groove in her heart that really didn't hurt all that
much anymore when he never answered her silent calling. He
still lived behind his prisoning walls, she could feel it,
but she knew no more than that. No call she made was ever
answered.
She stayed a little longer, watching the pulsing,
hypnotic flames that seemed to beat in time to her heart,
and then she returned the way she came. The door closed
softly behind her, and the flames were softly mirrored again
by the walls that contained them, their steady cadence a
comforting rhythm in the room.
------------------------------
He laboured and his control became more and more sure.
As each pathway opened, his mind's eye saw the framework
filled with the essence of his life spirit. He stretched
himself to greater and greater capacity, until finally only
the great nexus remained untapped, its great void as
daunting as before. The shield around him was now anchored
to his heartbeat, flexing inexorably to his imposed rhythm.
As he opened himself on each pulse, he felt the wild rush of
his soul essence streak out, spreading the pathways to their
maximum carrying capacity and creating pressure on the
inside of the shield wall. He held it as long as he dared
and then reversed its direction, drawing the energy back
down and away, incidentally causing his prison flex in the
other direction as it yearned to follow in the open
pathways. He held this demanding rhythm for long moments,
testing his control and nerves. Then, with a sense of
fatalism, he reached for the final, core nexus.
It seemed that he floated again in a vast sea of
darkness and loss. Inside, he could see branches that lead
away and a braided cord of silver, gold and deepest black
that plunged into the blocking flame wall across his soul.
When he touched the gold one with ethereal, spirit hands, he
heard an echo of faint power and a sense of earth that was
so faint he hardly recognized it. The black he knew was
himself, despair and loneliness forged into a physical
presence. But when he touched the silver, it vibrated like a
small bell and it sang softly of Usako. He wrapped grateful
hands around it and realized that she still lived somehow,
that wherever she was, she was safe. His joy was like a
heady draught of brandy to his senses and with reckless
abandon, he filled the nexus with his awareness and forced
it to respond to his wishes. When the great nexus began to
beat in controlled time, his mind sang with crystal clarity
of purpose. His eyes opened for the first time in aeons and
he began to deliberately force the pace.
The flames fluctuated wildly around him and he forced
his abused channels to straining point time and time again,
watching with cold calculation for the moment when the
pressure would become too great and it would break outwards.
In a physical mimicry of what he was trying to do, his arms
and legs spread wide and with unastonished eyes, Mamoru saw
the silver pulse of his power channels overlaid on his skin.
He knew without thinking that this was unheard of. He knew
that Rei could see the power networks, and could even trace
the connections that bound them all together, but he doubted
she could have remotely conceived of the control that had
every conduits down to the smallest of branches flexing in
perfect time and under total conscious control. His world
narrowed to steadily increasing beat, and he knew in cold
blood that this solution would either kill or free him. With
grim determination, he set out to do either.
Finally, his will straining to the bursting point, he
felt the shield wall start to give a little. The web of his
power blazed with a silver light that rivalled the golden
flames around him and he felt the wall crumbling. His heart
exulted and he * pushed * with all his might.
And then with an unbelievable, unforeseen movement, the
shield wall twisted against the pressure and did something
he could never have expected - it turned and struck back at
him like a coiled serpent might strike, with deadly force
and ferocious intent. His pathways were opened to their
maximum and Mamoru knew in that instant of disaster that to
close them would destroy him instantly as the power would
backlash against his physical body, annihilating him. In
that same instant, he knew the shield was broken entire, his
earth power surging back again through the reestablished
connection. He chose to fight instead, and he retreated back
along his channels, the roaring flames flashing after him.
He struggled to absorb that overwhelming energy desperately,
healing himself again and again as it tried to destroy him
from the inside out. He realized in a moment of no time that
he couldn't contain it, that he would reach the core nexus
before enough energy had dissipated and that it would roar
into his final sanctuary and blow it apart in a maelstrom of
fire. He had no power reserve to fight it off, to hold it to
a standstill long enough to dissipate the energy harmlessly.
Still he fought, unable now to give up, absorbing vast
amounts of energy that he threw away as fast as he got a
hold of it, still burning himself with every tortuous
moment.
------------------------------
In the chamber where nobody was watching, the pulsing,
towering flames burst outwards, crystal roses flying
everywhere as a disruption wave shocked through the air. The
flames whirled upwards as if drawn by a cyclone, and then
suddenly turning in a vicious movement downwards again. In
the middle of the broken wall, a form of a man could be seen
with arms and legs flung wide and neck outstretched in a
soundless scream. Golden flames poured from the figure, his
eyes twin beacons of light. Sentient fire swirled around the
figure, hiding and revealing him like a shifting cloak of
fog. Crystal shards lay like a carpet of diamonds.
------------------------------
Mamoru fought and knew he was losing. Too soon he
reached the core nexus and he despaired, knowing that too
much overload remained - that as strong as he had become in
power manipulation, stronger perhaps than anyone ever had
been, it would not be enough for this conflagration. With a
final supreme effort, he grabbed the remnants of his power
and fled deeper inside himself, letting the flames begin to
consume his physical body as he sought to protect himself.
He knew that he only delayed the inevitable but he retreated
through the nexus. Finally he stood in the core of himself
and turned to die. With incorporeal hands he grasped the
braided cord that was his soul and lifted its essence into
himself, the remains of his earth power covering him like a
tattered cloak. As the ravenous flame roared towards him, he
lifted his hands and opened his fingers so that the light
shone through like an offering. "Guard her for me," he said
simply.
The flames struck him and he screamed in a cascade of
blinding pain. Dying, he curled himself around the light in
his hands and tried futilely to protect it from the final
blast. Broken he lay there like a discarded doll, streaming
flames flickering over and around him. Faster and faster
they whirled until they joined into one entity, a thing with
golden scales, eyes of sun bright intensity and cold red
talons. One eye dipped down as the being cocked its head at
the dying man.
"What do I guard her for?" it asked, it's voice like
sweetened smoke. Mamoru had no fear anymore, no curiosity at
this sudden, sentient being in the heart of what he assumed
was cold machine. held up his final light in wavering hands,
a small globe no larger than his fist.
"Guard her for memory of my love," he whispered. The
globe brightened and softly an image of his Usako came
clear. She was asleep, her hair tumbled around her shoulders
in an artless grace she never possessed when awake, lashes a
sooty smudge against rose cheeks in the pale dawnlight. He
had watched her sleep thus so many mornings, his love an
irresistible surge of ocean for the moon. As his life faded,
he entreated again helplessly, "Protect her."
The beast whirled in front of him, breaking into
individual flames again. It sounded like they were talking
to each other, each dervish raising a voice of fire into the
roar. Then just as quickly, they merged again, this time
into the shape of a young man. With a numb shock he realized
that he looked into his own face, as if he had been the one
to turn to flame. His sight started to dim as his body
reached its limits and died; he looked into eyes that were
still bright as sunlight as the other's face dropped down to
his. Hands reached out and cradled his face; a kiss of
surpassing sweetness brushed against his lips. "Guard her
yourself," breathed that honeyed voice.
For an instant, Mamoru despaired utterly and his life
began to gutter out. The mock-Mamoru melted again, and a
small salamander ran on red feet to the small globe he still
held tight. With unhesitating accuracy it plunged into the
light that was the very soul of Mamoru and melded instantly
with his power. The firestorm exploded outwards now, sealed
with the earth power that was his by birthright. The healing
flooded through his channels and into his body, mending the
damage caused by the last few moments of agony. He breathed
normally, a great gulp of air untinged with exquisite pain.
With an ease that would have astonished anyone else, he
tapped his core and contemplated the inviolate globe that
held the core of his soul. In his mind's eye she still
slept, daylight streaking over her beloved face. A small
lizard slept on her pillow. One bright eye opened and looked
at him with amusement, then contentedly closed. Dazed, he
looked around.
------------------------------
Sunlight drifted down lazily through motes of diamond
dust. The interior of the room was dark, the only light was
coming in from the crazily twisted doors ahead of him. He
drew one breath, then another, marvelling at the absence of
pain. In a daze, he stepped down from the dais,
automatically looking around for Usako where she had last
stood. There was nothing, only the crunching of glass under
his feet. He looked down but could make nothing of it, the
light not reaching that far into the room. Gingerly, he
walked towards the light. With each step, his body sang with
power and he could feel the earth singing its song of
possession in his soul, a thread of melody he had always
heard but had never understood before. Tenderly he touched
the silver light that was Usagi and revealed in the feeling
of love that poured out of that fragile connection.
As he walked closer to the light, he saw with some
amazement that the doors hung on crazily twisted hinges, one
of them having been blown off entirely. Looking down near
the entrance he saw something that wasn't just glass shards,
and carefully he picked up an object that looked to have
survived somewhat intact the destruction that had levelled
everything else in the room. As his hand closed around it,
an image shocked through his mind in crystal clarity.
Usagi knelt, a crystal rose in her hand and tears
poured down her beloved face. Her sorrow was unmistakable
and the tears fell from her eyes onto the fashioned rose she
held. She was unchanged in form, but somehow older, a look
of self possession still in her eyes that he hadn't seen
before even through her grief. The image faded, and Mamoru
was left shaken in the hazy light as he stood in the
doorway. He passed a slow hand over his eyes and he walked
through the wreckage into the daylight.
The sunlight shone down indiscriminately over the
landscape. He knew that time must have passed while he was
trapped in his nightmare, but this - this was beyond
comprehension. The depression where the temple stood was
carpeted in thick, soft grass where there had been only bare
earth. He passed the large piece of door that had been blown
away and walked steadily up the incline. At the top he
halted again, his blue eyes startled.
Under his stunned gaze, the details began to pick
themselves out of the horrifying whole. The palace seemed
complete in every respect, its towers and walls
scintillating in the sunshine. The gardens spread out
lushly, at this distance a hazy green interspersed with
patches of darker shade. But the object the drew his
anguished gaze were the trees. Hours ago, when he had
entered the room that had become his prison, the saplings
had lined the walk where he and Usagi had held hands. Now
towering oaks had impossibly mushroomed, growing into
stately old age with large canopies shading the walk
underneath their spreading branches. He walked slowly away
from the temple, his mind blank with the horrid realization
of the passing of ages. Eventually there was no where left
to climb, and Mamoru sank down on the small hill and looked
over the beauty that was Crystal Tokyo, as he had always
imagined it would be.
------------------------------
His mind remained blank as he looked over the palace
grounds. It was as if his heart wouldn't, couldn't accept
what his eyes saw as fact. Again and again his gaze fell
upon the oak trees, their height and power telling him
incontrovertibly how much time must have passed. The warm
summer sunshine felt good upon his hair again, and the
breeze that drifted by seemed created especially for his
delight. He would never have thought that he would miss the
smell of pollen. If he had been gone so long . . . what was
Usa doing now? Did she still rule in Crystal Tokyo? His eyes
closed halfway and he checked again the silver cord that
held him to her. She lived and was in good health - more
than that he couldn't say. A faint pull on the connection
told him what direction she was in and it pointed towards
the palace proper. That told him that she must still rule
there - he couldn't imagine her living in the palace if she
was not queen of it. But so much time! . . . his mind
couldn't comprehend it.
The sun began its descent from the high heavens and
Mamoru watched with serious eyes as the light played over
the sparkling spires of Crystal Tokyo. With aching heart he
slowly came to the realization that there was no way to know
what had happened, the passing ages seemingly taking place
in so short a span of time. His mind kept blanking out, his
emotions tumbling over each other in chaos. The lowering sun
was shining in his eyes before he moved, finally stretching
long bones before gazing soberly down the small incline that
lead through the palace grounds. He had to know, had to
understand for himself how things had changed - even though
he knew that if he truly let himself appreciate what had
happened to him, he might go mad from it.
With hesitant stride he began to walk towards the
palace proper, descending into a formal garden that was well
cared for, lushly surrounding the crystalline presence of
the palace. As he wound his way closer and closer his pace
got slower and slower until finally he halted unmoving by a
small copse of trees, shade reaching out and enfolding him.
People and activity had been apparent even from a distance
and skillfully he had avoided either, evading notice and
scrutiny until he stood here, almost near enough to the
walls to touch them. Everyone seemed to be passing through a
number of inset doors, moving back and forth from inside to
the gardens. Bright jewels glittered on both the men and
women, as couples and groups swayed back and forth in easy
formation. Snippets of conversation drifted past his mute
ears and Mamoru wondered idly what would be the best way to
get inside, to see Usagi. His heart spasmed and his face
closed down in a grimace of pain - that casual thought hurt
him as a knife might, bright and keen.
Usagi. His Usako, now uncountable years of living
behind her. "Oh gods of my fathers," he thought to himself
in sudden despair, "how much time has it been? Oh cruel
gods, will she even recognize me?" He breathed shallowly and
willed his emotions back into some semblance of order.
People passed him unaware as he struggled to control
himself, a darker shadow among others. Minutes passed and
Mamoru held himself as still as midnight, sharp confusion in
his mind. Desperate to restore his faltering sanity, he
grasped desperately at his bond to her, the silver cord
falling into his spirit fingers like a lifeline. Still as
strong and bright as the day he realized he loved her, his
golden child, it sang its simple song into his soul.
safe and happy alive and well safe safe safe . . ., the
little song went round and round his heart, his Usagi
singing her contentment into his deepest awareness. Fiercely
he willed himself to believe that that was all they needed,
that her love sang to his like music across the waves of
their separation. That was all they had left, it would have
to be enough.
Conversations whirled and coalesced around him and he
realized vaguely that there was some event coming due, that
each person was anticipating it to judge by the references
and sly tones. The doors apparently led to the Great Hall
where this event was to take place. Mamoru blinked as he
picked that tidbit out of the passing air - he didn't recall
commissioning doors to be opened onto the gardens, the Great
Hall should have been totally enclosed. It seems someone had
changed the plans, another jarring note of discontinuity, a
certain sense of the surreal settling over him.
And then a passing group, louder than the rest, spoke
of something that sealed his nebulous intentions - Neo Queen
Serenity was to be there, presiding over the ceremonies and
he knew without even thinking about it that he would be
standing inside the hall when she appeared. His hunger for
her was acute and abrupt in his body, and his intentions
crystallized in that moment. It didn't matter that she might
not know him, as much as that might kill him should her gaze
pass over him without recognition. It didn't matter at all -
to see her was enough at this moment, to know she still
walked the earth as he did, breathed the same air. A memory
of her perfume in the long ago corridors of the palace was a
taste on his tongue, a deep burn in his spine.
He started to step forward but realized suddenly that
all these new courtiers had been dressed in their finest,
regardless of the earliness of the hour. He looked down and
realized that at the last he had been looking over maps and
schedules and was dressed accordingly; a comfortable pair of
faded denims snugged to his long legs that had been popular
in his youth, a loose shirt of softest gray tucked
haphazardly into the waistband, tied with careless cord at
his throat. Hardly the attire of someone attempting to
gatecrash an imperial party. He stepped hastily back into
the concealing shadows and began to summon a quick change of
clothes, his form as Prince of Earth or even the protector
of Sailor Moon with its formal tuxedo. The energy gathered
as it always had before, its familiar presence soothing his
anxiety that he would be unable to do this, a legacy of the
hours when he had tried to call power in to his hands and it
had not answered. Potential swirled over him, sparks
shifting in multihued tones over the edges of his body but
it refused to frame itself into a familiar pattern. He
struggled in long moments to make his mind form the image of
his transformation but it kept breaking apart into flame
tipped chaos.
Realizing futilely that it wasn't responding as it
should, Mamoru attempted to release the summoned power back
into the earth that he had called it from but was
unsuccessful. As soon as reversed his grip on it, pale flame
leaped up around him, startling him as it drew on the
unchained earth power and coated him in liquid light. It
only lasted a few heady moments and then began to recede in
lapping waves down his body. He heard faint, amused laughter
in his mind and his heart chilled at the dawning horror that
the flame creature had taken him as its new host, abandoning
the machine in the instant he had broken it. An intense
feeling of smug satisfaction radiated through him for a
moment and then it was gone as if it had never been. Shaken,
he wondered if he was always going to have an interfering
alien entity joined to his soul - but then had to grin wryly
to himself that Usagi was joined there as well.With a shrug
that was pragmatic in its acceptance, he determine not to
concern himself with ramifications, his sanity was
questionable enough as it was. So far the creature had only
asserted itself to amend his choice in clothing. He decided
to hold judgment in abeyance, realizing that his emotional
stability was in a much more precarious position than his
physical one. Looking down at himself he wondered idly if
the flame creature had any sense of fashion.
It seems that it did, for he was still dressed in his
accustomed black although in a style wildly different from
his own. The colour was the only similarity, for the
material seemed to be of some cross between heavy silk and
softest suede. Soft black boots graced his lower legs,
comfortable with the ease of long use. The pants were snug
down his thighs, flaring slightly at the bottom to
accommodate the boots, a slim piping of gold running down
the outside seams. It was the tunic however that made him
wonder what era the vortex creature had pulled this outfit
from. Cut from high neck to his mid thigh it was heavily
embroidered with gold patterns and glinted with gemstones.
Fingering the high cut collar, he could make out the heavy
scrollwork design that seemed to continue down the front of
the tunic in geometric patterns. There were no sleeves,
baring his muscular arms to the caress of the slight breeze
and it fastened asymmetrically over his right breast,
narrowing to a triangle at his waist. Slit at the side to
allow for his long stride, crimson jewels blazed at each
fastening and a chain of them ran from his shoulder to the
fastening seam on his chest. The whole seemed a study in
black, gold and bloodred and seemed a trifle barbaric
against his normally restrained dress choices.
In concern he ran his hands through his hair but
encountered no other decorations that might have magically
appeared. On a sudden hunch he touched his left ear and
winced as his fingers encountered a cold stone. With
trepidation he unfastened the earring and brought it to
where he could inspect it. Perhaps half the size of the tip
of his smallest finger, it seemed to be a ruby of such a
deep red it was nearly black. It winked somberly at him in
the lowering sun and he passed a thoughtful finger over its
finely etched facets. It was beautiful, no question, and
Mamoru replaced it slowly back into his ear. Wistfully, he
wished he had an idea what he looked like from the outside,
but suspected it was more than formal enough to pass muster.
With luck, everyone would mistake him for some outland
prince and not the interloper he was.
Stepping forward, Mamoru let himself be drawn into the
light streaming from the open doors that led to the place
his heart might break.
------------------------------
The assembly was glittering, enchanting. Encircling the
room was a promenade that led to the gardens, blocked off
from the main room by tall graceful columns of marble - the
same marble he had chosen to grace this place with its warm
pinks and cool greys. The throng of people wove in and out
between the columns, adding sparkle and wit to this place.
Between the rising columns the dome arched high overhead,
the bright crystal reflecting and spangling the main floor
with streaks of rainbow. Stained glass windows paced the
length of the upper walls, adding to the sense of brilliance
and life as the descending sun struck chords of transparent
colour along the floor.
To his left were a set of ornate double doors, perhaps
twice the height of a tall man, imposing and regal. To his
right was a dais, tiered with six long and shallow steps
that lead up to a double throne. Each step had an ornate
chair that led down in alternating sides from the throne
itself, forming a staggered wide triangle with the two
imperial thrones at the apex. It was difficult to tell at
this distance, but each chair appeared ornamented
differently - it was obvious each of the senshi sat there
for formal recognition. In the back of his mind where his
logic was hiding, he approved of the arrangement. Anyone
needing to reach the Queen would have to run a gauntlet of
her strongest warriors. Whimsically he wondered what would
happen if he just walked up and sat down on that second
throne. A wicked sense of humour filled him and he toyed
seriously with the idea, almost taking a step towards the
open area, imposing and so far away.
A man and woman walked by, wrapped in each other and
their laughter jarred him out of his black humour and he
stared at them with something approaching shock. He was
suddenly overwhelmed again, seeing this room finished and
vibrant with life. This was the place where he would have
been married, where he and Usagi should have ruled together
for the years he seemed to have lost. Overcome with mental
vertigo, he leaned against the nearest column and let its
cool strength support him. Every time he thought he was
beginning to get a handle on this, it overwhelmed him again.
The people ebbed and flowed around him, his inward gaze
and barbaric clothing a deterrent to them all. He almost
seemed a malign presence in the brightness that encompassed
this hall, dark and brooding, and all but one avoided his
direct gaze or notice. This one was bolder than the rest, a
young woman dressed in butter yellow with curly dark hair
and inquisitive eyes. From some space away, she studied him
under lowered lashes. Although this was not her first High
Assembly she was not so far away from it. It still
fascinated her, the power contained in the individuals in
this room, the maneuverings and struggles that took place
behind open fans and with quiet conversations in corners.
And although it was impossible to know everyone in this
place by sight, she knew she would have noticed this man
before.
He was stunningly handsome, his blue gaze a casual
study in brilliance and danger. His clothing was almost
unrelieved black, but with a wealth of scintillating gems
gracing the high points of his lean form. Black hair gleamed
softly, framing a face seemingly made entirely of sharp
angles and predatory intent. He shifted restlessly, and a
stray beam of colour tinted sunlight hit his hair and for a
moment he seemed encased in a rainbow before it faded away.
He leaned casually against a column, so still and contained
that he seemed almost a frightening force, as if at any time
he would uncoil like a serpent or a fierce animal and rend
everything in the hall. She shivered delightfully in the
vividness of her own imagination, eyes bright with mischief
and curiosity. His slow gaze seemed to piece right through
everyone, as if he could see everything and cared nothing
for it. His eyes drifted in her direction and suddenly she
felt exposed, immediately turning to talk to the nearest
person to her. When she dared to glance back at him, his
smouldering gaze had returned to the center of the room.
With perfunctory words, she excused herself from her
unwitting accomplice and began to wind her way closer to
him. She had this feeling that something infinitely more
interesting than another marriage proposal for the queen was
about to occur tonight, and she knew it centered on this
strange man somehow.
Mamoru stood there and watched the sparkling crowd flow
by him. He could see into the main room past the gently
curving archways and his eyes kept being drawn back to the
double throne at the end away from the main doors. It was
achingly empty and a cool analytical voice told him that the
queen would need to arrive soon -- after everyone had
assembled but before the power machinations got too far
under way. As he stared broodingly at the empty dais, his
peripheral vision told him someone was approaching - not
simply passing by, but making a line directly for him. He
waited until the butter yellow dress was nearly at his elbow
before he turned his gaze away from the fascinating panorama
before him.
Her gaze was direct and inviting under heavy curls of
glossy brown. Mamoru had met many such gazes before but this
little slip of a girl seemed more kitten than coquette. Her
eyes seemed as full of mischief as they were of curiosity
and the rosebud of her mouth seemed quivering on a grin.
Although he didn't let his expression cool to warn her off,
neither did he answer that incipient smile. Instead he
waited for her to say whatever she felt she needed to say --
soon Usagi would enter this room and everything else would
be background any ways.
" I haven't seen you before and I thought I knew
everyone. Is this your first time for a Great Assembly?" she
inquired sweetly, trying to draw this stranger into
conversation. This close, the hairs on the back of her neck
were rising, as if he exuded some potent force that she
couldn't see but her body could sense. For a long moment she
thought that he wouldn't even acknowledge her, but then that
long neck inclined in assent and a smoky voice said, "Yes. I
don't believe that I have been here before."
She tried to smile brilliantly, knowing that nothing
less than her best effort would interest this man. "I am
well pleased that you are here though," she attempted to say
with the correct amount of warmth and flirt, "I thought I
would die of boredom before the ceremonies started."
The man seemed to visibly hesitate, and his eyes raked
scathingly over the crowd before returning to her. "This
ceremony. I came here . . unexpectedly and I am at a loss.
Why is this gathering here?" Again there was that slight
hesitation and she wondered what he had really meant to say
there. She almost dared to put a hand on that tight arm but
a small glance to his closed face warned against such overt
familiarity. Instead she opted to answer his strange
question. Didn't everybody in the empire know what this day
was? Maybe not in foreign, faraway places that this man
obviously came from. His blue gaze was steady upon her and
she felt a small trembling inside caused simply by the
pressure of his regard.
"Why, today is the day of each year that the Neo Queen
allows those with titles and lands to challenge for the
right to sit on the double throne of Crystal Tokyo." His
indrawn breath was sharp and she looked at him in
astonishment. If possible, his face had become cruel ice and
his gaze was like lethal shards of glass. A frisson of fear
touched her heart before his expression melted away, as if
he simply turned another countenance to the world while his
true face lurked still in the taut eyes. She was spared any
possible rejoinder as a subtle movement through the air
warned her of imminence and she turned with the rest to face
the center of the hall, his keen gaze passing over her head
like a cold wind.
------------------------------
A man dressed in sombre clothing now stood near the
dais, unmoving in the ebb and flow around him. An ornate
staff was in his hand - otherwise he was unremarkable. He
stepped forward the three precise paces that placed him
directly in front of the double throne. The room seemed to
be waiting for this man to move as the crowd began to clear
away from the center aisle. He raised his staff and brought
it down sharply on the marble floor - by the second tap the
room was quieting and the sound echoed clearly through the
hall. Upon the third stroke, the room was eerily hushed and
his voice rang out distinctly in the calm. "Lords and ladies
of the court, I give you Neo-Queen Serenity, Princess of the
Moon and Queen of Crystal Tokyo." His voice was melodious
and deep and Mamoru took a moment to appreciate the sheer
artistic merit of having that voice in the court.
And then all thought ceased as through a small archway
to the side of the dais came the senshi. He straightened
unconsciously, making his companion give him a sharp look
that he didn't notice. Like a phalanx or an honour guard,
they came in pairs - each dressed as the princesses they
were. First Rei and Minako arm in arm, followed by Ami and
Makoto, looking as fresh as morning sunshine in their regal
splendour. At the last came Michiru and Haruka, Michiru
resplendent in a dress of ocean green. Mamoru grinning wryly
- all of them were dressed in ball gowns of rarity and
beauty, except for the rebellious soul of Haruka - who cut a
shining figure in a white suit with accents of the same deep
green as Michiru's dress. Each of the senshi pairs took
their places on the smaller chairs on each of the dais
steps, with Rei and Minako sitting closest, most able to
have a quiet conversation with whoever sat on the throne.
And then she came.
His throat clenched unexpectedly and his vision swam
with an onslaught of sudden emotion. This was not his Usa,
his beloved girl of the sunbright hair and explosive temper.
This truly was Serenity - dressed in a gown of purest white
that had only tracings of gold in its embroidery, stately
and regal as she paced to the dais. Silver hair flowed to
the floor and her face was calm and composed before her
court. In one slim hand she carried her staff of office, its
delicate length supporting the quiescent power of the
Illusion Crystal, seemingly a mere decoration at this
moment. Cradled in the crook of her other arm a small gray
kitten was softly seen. As she passed each pair of guardians
on the dais steps, they sank to one knee before her
presence. She mounted the steps under his hungry gaze and
then turned and sat regally on the double throne. On cue,
the senshi rose and seated themselves, turning their still
faces to the assembly.
The small ceremony was apparently over as the room
began to move again, small conversations springing to life
around him. Mamoru took his first breath of release. He
questioned why he was here; so much time having passed, it
was almost ludicrous to think that she would still need him,
still love him the way she had always done. She had ruled
here alone for so long, and had ruled well by all
appearances. The beauty on the throne had only a picture's
resemblance to Usagi; only an artist could have traced the
memory of a beloved face in that of a stranger's.
He stood in blank shock for long moments, with a half
hysterical feeling that he should just walk out the way he
came in and let the memory of her fade from his heart, no
doubt the way hers had done. As his dizzy thoughts whirled
around his head, the melodious man stepped forward again and
this time the buzz died down with an aura of predatory
anticipation.
"You are called before this assembly and before her
Majesty the Queen to hear the petitions of the claimants to
the double throne, that you may hear their voices and see
their contest. On this, the 430th year of the reign of Neo
Queen Serenity, we ask that all claimants step forward and
announce their candidacy."
The people began to murmur and reshuffle, and then a
single man strode forward into the emptiness before the
imposing dais. His hair was a bright red, his eyes a
piercing blue and he walked with the arrogance of confidence
in every line of his body. Mamoru detested him on sight. He
walked the requisite number of paces to the center of the
aisle and as if by pre-arranged formula, announced himself.
"I am the Alain Vissan, Lord of Orinai Province, Baron
of the Wisenden Reaches, Grand Marshal to the Northern
Levies, and I claim my right to vie for ascension to the
throne of Crystal Tokyo and the hand of Neo-Queen Serenity
in marriage."
Mamoru's lips drew back in unconscious savagery and he
leaned forward, hands flexing at his sides. The girl in the
yellow dress stared at him in curious appraisal but he
continued to ignore her, concentrating on the drama in front
of his unbelieving eyes. How dare this upstart announce his
intention to marry his Usa! It fell out of his head that he
had just been contemplating leaving himself, and instead
focused with burning intensity on the man standing alone in
front of the assembled court.
Lord Alain seemed poised and calm as Serenity inclined
her head in regal dignity from the throne. Haruka was the
one to rise from her chair on the lowest step of the tier,
pacing forward so that she stood directly in front of the
young Lord. Her eyes were steady on his and Mamoru could
sense the seriousness of her intent even from where he
stood.
"Your first test to prove your worth to ascend the
double throne is to show the strength of purpose that will
guide the empire. You stand before me, star of wind, fighter
of skies and you will defend yourself." With that, Haruka
reached elegantly to her side as if grasping an invisible
sword hilt. As she drew her empty hand forward, the blade of
legend appeared as if being drawn from an invisible
scabbard. The court stirred restlessly at its appearance,
its menacing gleam unwavering before Lord Alain. With calm
determination he drew his own sword from its elaborately
jeweled sheath. The blade itself was unornamented and
Mamoru's estimation rose a small notch at the economy of
movement in its motion. Here, it seemed, was a master
swordsman.
This seemed to be a test of purely physical skill as
the advance and riposte danced before his eyes. Haruka did
not release the deadly striker attack that he knew the blade
was capable of. It was hard to say since he was no real
expert on swordsmanship, but it seemed she was holding her
own skill back a little. Eventually the contest ended as if
by pre-arranged signal as Haruka stepped back and saluted
her opponent, silently declaring the draw. Lord Alain seemed
as calm as before but Mamoru could sense the faint sheen of
the exertion on his brow. Haruka might not have been
exerting her full strength but it had not been a walk in the
park either. She stepped aside to stand silently before her
chair, the sword of legend apparently resheathed at her side
in an easy motion, although he knew it was merely reabsorbed
into her body.
Lord Alain ascended one step to stand on the lowest
tier of the dais. Now it was Michiru who stepped forward to
confront the claimant, and Mamoru wondered what she could do
for a test of worth. He privately doubted that drowning the
man in a Reflection would really prove anything worthwhile.
From the same space that Haruka had used to bring forth the
sword, Michiru reached and brought forth her Mirror.
"You have passed the first test, that of outward
strength. Now you face me, star of deep waters, fighter of
embrace. Mine is the test of truth. Face yourself." And with
that, Michiru brought up the Deep Aqua Mirror and a blinding
white light burst out of it to surround the form of Lord
Alain. The light was pure and cold and Mamoru had a sneaking
suspicion that the hapless, paralyzed Lord saw the truth
about himself at all levels, all dark corners illuminated in
the merciless light of the mirror. After long moments, the
light faded and the mirror again reflected only dark
shadows. Lord Alain looked shaken but still undeterred, his
private battles with his own demons obviously long
conquered. Michiru remained stone faced as she returned her
mirror and stepped aside, gracefully waving him onward to
the next step on the dais.
The butterfly at his side brought her hands to her
mouth in burgeoning excitement. "Oh, he's doing so well,
Sailor Neptune is such a difficult test! I wonder what he
will do for the next one though . . ." Lord Alain had
already taken the next step, so she was spared Mamoru's
sharp question about the nature and purpose of these
testings. Frustrated, he turned back to the drama, unwilling
to miss any nuance.
This time it was Ami who stepped forward, her soft blue
hair a specially welcome sight to him. He wondered
abstractedly if she had gremlins deep in her eyes as she
always had before during important occasions, but it was too
far away to tell with any certainty.
"You have passed the second test, that of inward
strength. Now you face me, star of water, fighter of wisdom.
From water comes life and with life comes death. Mine is the
test of courage." She brought her hands together and
suddenly a fog began to swirl over the dais floor. Mamoru
watched in astonishment as the droplets condensed out of the
air and realized how great Ami's control had become. The
created cloud began to swirl in earnest and then with an
audible sound hardened into solid ice, trapping Alain's feet
to the ground. The fog continued to climb his body and the
ice rose like a creature with a mind of its own. Quicker
than he would have believed possible it rose to cover his
head and where the Lord had stood was an ice statue in the
rough shape of a man.
He looked down at his companion in concern and realized
that she was gnawing on her fingertips in her distraction.
She smiled at him haplessly and whispered, "This always
makes me nervous. I know that if he doesn't free himself
quickly she will dissolve the ice and let him go - but I'm
always afraid she'll wait too long."
"How many have passed this test?" he asked in a voice
of question.
"In all the years of the trials, only two have made it
past Mercury and of those two, neither passed the next
test."
The statue didn't move and Mamoru began to wonder just
how long Ami would continue to hold the impudent Lord in
suspension. The crowd began to stir in its anxiety and
Mercury began to raise her hands again. Suddenly the ice
began to shake and then shake again. Finally the chest
section fragmented entirely and the ice burst away in
shards. Mamoru noticed absently that the fragments became
fog even before they hit the ground but his attention was
taken up with tense posture apparent in Lord Alain's
posture. His chest was heaving and Mamoru imagined that he
must look truly shaken now, perhaps the sheer feeling of
being trapped had unnerved him somehow. Mamoru winced and
realized that he could sympathize. Mercury inclined her head
and stepped aside to allow him to take the next step. The
woman in yellow clutched at his arm in glee, but Mamoru
noticed that the man took the next step only after a long
moment to compose himself.
The next one to step to the forefront was Makoto,
beautiful with her hair in lustrous strands and the warm
brilliance of her green eyes. "You have passed the third
test, that of life in the face of death. Now you face me,
star of thunder, fighter of protection and mine is the test
of death in the face of life." Makoto reached outward and a
long rod coalesced in her hand. It looked like ordinary
wood, dark and smooth with the patina of long use. It was
perhaps half as tall as she was, yet she handled it easily,
grasping it firmly in one hand at the full extension of her
arm. Lord Alain reached without haste or hesitation and held
it firmly, wrapping long fingers around the core of it.
Mako's expression became fierce and Mamoru could almost
hear the thunder in the skies echoing the call of her power.
For long moments the two stood there, facing off with the
staff between them. Then the staff began to crackle with
lightning, sharp and brilliant. Streamers of blue white
energy began to surge and snap up and down the length of the
rod. Makoto seemed unaffected, her hair beginning to wave
gently in an unseen breeze but Lord Alain was obviously
suffering. Standing on the cold marble as he was and holding
a rod of chained lightning the electrical charge was routing
through his hand and down to the floor. Mamoru could almost
smell the singing cloth from where he stood. He watched the
unequal struggle, wondering what the purpose of this test
could be for. Lord Alain struggled to hold fast to the staff
as it became increasingly more painful. In a burst of
insight Mamoru realized that was the point and the purpose.
Makoto had temporarily created a powerful energy source and
was requiring Alain to simply hold it. It mimicked to him
the way he needed to support Usagi when she used the
Crystal. Her whole body would become filled with the pure
merciless energy and touching her to give her his strength
was like plunging his hands into the raging heart of the
sun. Makoto was testing the man's ability and determination
to hang on through intense pain.
It seemed he would win this contest as well, and the
crowd began to murmur with anticipation as he continued to
grimly hold on. The lightning twisted like a living thing in
Makoto's control and it almost seemed to snarl at the
interfering man. The power leaped higher and Mamoru could
feel the intense light imprinted itself on his eyes. With a
muttered curse not far from a real shriek, Lord Alain jerked
his hand away from the rod and cradled his spasming fingers
in his other hand. His handsome features twisted into a
brief snarl of rage and disappointment, but then he bowed
most correctly to the illuminated form of Sailor Jupiter and
retreated back down the steps of the dais between the
guarding presences of the senshi. At the bottom he turned
and bowed again, this time to Serenity who still sat unmoved
on the throne. Then he moved away into the crowd, his
supporters enclosing him away instantly from prying eyes. On
the steps, Jupiter stood until the Lord had disappeared
before retreating back to her own seat of power, small
lightning still crackling in her hands as she finished the
discharge of energy back into the air she had drawn it from.
The non descript man stepped forward again and rapped
his staff of office on the floor twice, echoing sharply in
the rising hum of conversation. "The first claimant to the
double throne is defeated." He rapped the stick once again
on the floor. "We call on any others to step forth and
announce their candidacy." The murmur of the crowd swelled
and died as eager eyes searched the room for more sport but
no other brave figure stepped forth. The man rapped his
staff twice and called again for any other challengers to
appear. He was raising his staff to call for the third, and
presumably the last, time when there was a disturbance at
the large double doors that marked the entrance to the great
hall.
It almost seemed as if it was some sort of scuffle, and
Mamoru could only make out a few guards and their waving
weapons clustering around someone who was making a lot of
noise. The crowd exploded into a frenzy of whispered
excitement as a hundred necks craned to see what was
happening. Although he couldn't make out was was being said,
it seemed fairly urgent going by the tone of determination
in the voice of the central speaker. The guards seemingly
made a collective decision and the mob sorted itself out
into an impromptu escort and began to move rapidly down the
center aisle towards the queen on the dais. The senshi all
came to their feet in a rush and Mamoru watched as the
little group hastily made its way before the queen. The man
with the musical voice and the staff uncertainly stepped to
the side as the four guards came to a halt perhaps a dozen
paces away from the lowest step. Hesitantly, an older man in
a stained smock took a few shaky paces away from the safety
of his hulking escort. The senshi obviously knew this man
and Mamoru saw Makoto and Ami exchange a quick, baffled
glance before turning back to the unfolding scene.
One of the guards spoke up into the silence, Mamoru
couldn't see which one from his angle. "My queen, we bring
to you this one, the head of the gardens, your servant
Shinra, who claims an urgent matter he needs must lay before
you now."
At the sound of his name, the man sank to his knees and
started to visibly tremble. Serenity looked a little
astonished herself but raised a slim white hand to still the
incipient whispering. "Speak your news worthy Shinra, you
have come before your queen bearing news of great import and
we will hear your words now, in this place and time." Her
pure voice washed over Mamoru like a benediction and he lost
the next few moments in the sudden noise inside his mind.
When he was able to focus again, the man named Shinra
had bowed his head over clasped hands and although Mamoru
couldn't see it, he knew the man had to be shaking
convulsively. It wouldn't be often that a man of his stature
would come face to face with his Empress on a formal
occasion. Tentatively he started, "My queen. . " He stopped
to clear his throat again and tried again, this time a
little louder. "My queen, the doors of the Shrine to the
Eternal Fire are cracked wide open and in monstrous pieces
upon the ground. The roses are dust and the Great Fire burns
no longer!"
They all sat stunned upon the tiered rows, Serenity
seeming to absorb only the surface words and not their
deeper meaning. Then the crowd cracked open into uproar as
Serenity's face began to register shock and her eyes became
large pools of deepest marine. Her head started to shake
slowly in the negative as she said, "You jest worthy Shinra,
surely you jest. No one could force those doors open with
anything less than the full power of the Illusion Silver
Crystal." She licked her dry lips unconsciously and rose to
a standing position, one hand clenched convulsively on the
staff that held the Crystal, the other flexing agitatedly at
her side. The senshi mirrored her bewilderment, and the
assembled court was hushed again observing her rigid
stillness. She reiterated again, slowly and clearly as if
trying to get the man to reconsider his words, "No one could
have broken in to extinguish the Great Fire."
"My queen," said Shinra in a humble voice, "the doors
were shattered from the inside. It's as if the Great Fire
exploded, tearing them from the very walls."
"From the inside?" she nearly whispered. She was
unmoving on the elegant dais, cold and serene as a wax doll,
face pale and sharp.
"Mamo-chan!" she cried and instantly the senshi turned
to her as one and began to feed her power. For so many years
had they been together that physical touching was not
necessary anymore and Mamoru could almost see the instant
linkage of power as Serenity's call went forth on a wave of
pure raging emotion. He knew that she would instinctively be
attempting to reach him on all the lowest levels where they
were connected, and he could only close his eyes in helpless
anticipation of that undeniable grasp around his heart.
Inside, he could feel the silver soul cord swelling with the
strength of her desire to find him, and wildly, futilely he
tried to shield himself away from her demanding summons.
The imperative call of Serenity began to surge through
him and with slitted eyes he braced himself for that
irresistible summoning, waiting for his soul chain to
stretch to an intolerable level, a low groan of pure agony
rising through his chest. The silver tie in his heart began
to tug on his will, and he realized that this one thing he
never had control of. He could feel the golden fire of heady
power reacting in confusion, a bright heat in his veins as
if it sensed a threat to its new host. Animal-like, he could
almost taste its indecision, its desire to protect him from
outside invasion. But this overwhelming power surge was as
much a part of him as the colour of his eyes or the flavour
of destiny, part of his soul and the power division inside
him began to tear his mind apart. It seemed to want to
defend him and his body was awash with conflicting waves of
pure fire and silver call. He felt as if his sanity was
starting to fragment in those two conflicting necessities.
In his mind's eye, Mamoru envisioned the form of a
containing shield like the one that had held him, a passive
resistance against this new unexpected torment; and in a
heartbeat it was there - a shimmering wall of cradling force
that encased but did not damage Serenity's call.
Dimly he realized that she still called him, still
pulled on his heart, but it was not an urgent thing anymore.
He stood there in shock and let the waves roll over his
psyche, finally realizing after long moments that whatever
he had taken away with him from out of the fire meant he
could walk away now, that nothing forced him to remain. For
perhaps the only time all his combined lifetimes he could
leave, that the love of Serenity was not a strangling silver
hair wrapped around his heart like a chain.
His back was braced against the cool marble and his
fists were aching from the strength of his grip clenched
against his side. His dazed eyes opened and his brilliant
storm eyes fixed on the wavering form of Serenity. He
blinked, and the vision of silver and gold shattered and
reformed.
Freedom.
It tasted like salt and a fierce unequalled heat. He
swallowed convulsively, his love and confusion lodged in his
throat. He flexed his abused fingers unconsciously and
licked dry lip, passing a hand over the tight planes of his
face and straightening from the slight crouch he had fallen
into.
Beautiful Serenity. Visions of his beloved Usa formed
and reformed in his mind's eye. Hair as golden as the purest
sunlight, a questioning hand on his arm and the love and
trust in her eyes. Tears of pain, tears of joy, a spirit as
bright as the Illusion Crystal and as indomitable. The girl
she had been, the glimpses of the woman she would become -
that was his Usako, the girl-not-yet-woman who had loved him
unconditionally through all their lifetimes together. Never
before had she been this figure of power and authority, the
cold light of the Crystal summoned effortlessly, the true
authority of a queen on her face and in her body. This was a
stranger on the dais, no matter that his soul was connected
in all its deepest levels to her.
His head came up slowly and his sight slowly hardened
as he watched with an impassive face as the call of Serenity
faltered and died, all the senshi stepping towards her as
the linkage broke apart into a visible shower of crackling
sparks. "Why doesn't he answer?" she nearly whimpered. In
unaware mimicry of his earlier pose, she passed a shaking
hand over her face, tears streaking down her cheeks.
"Mina, there's nothing," she said brokenly. "It is
still as it has always been, and the fire still encloses
him, pushes me out." Her voice was raw but still bell pure,
all her own agony laid out for his sensitive ear to hear.
"Mina, he can't hear me!" she cried aloud, and Venus took
her hand tightly as Rei moved in to gently push the queen
back into a sitting position on the throne. The shocked
silence of the court burst into hysterical babbling and
Mamoru realized he was breathing again as a shaken intake of
air made him give a queer half-sob.
"You."
The voice was small and clear. Mamoru had forgotten his
inquisitive companion at his side and he turned in
startlement to look into her eyes fully for the first time.
Her brown eyes were wide and clear and he noted absently the
small green speckles that floated across the iris. She gazed
up at him with a measure of conviction, certainty and a
growing excitement. "It's you," she breathed again.
His face spasmed into a grimace of pain and he tried to
bring himself back under conscious control. The past few
minutes had shaken him badly and the realization of his new
strength had left all his emotions raw and scraped. He began
to edge himself away, thinking of escape away from this
scene of agonizing confusion too strong to be endured. His
mind began to clamor at him, a quiet place to think, to
reevaluate who he was, who she was.
The young woman laid a light hand on his arm,
preventing his motion away. He looked at her with a face as
closed as granite and waited for her to remove the intrusive
arm. They presented a picture of tense calm in the furor of
the room.
"She's calling for you," said her soft voice, low and
wondering in his ears. "She's been waiting for you for
longer than anyone can remember. And, oh gods! You're here .
. now. Why are you standing here? Go to her!" Her expression
was wide open, trusting and vulnerable. Mamoru could see the
instant hero-worship, the adulation in her eyes as the image
of romance thrilled her naive soul.
He deliberately made his voice harsh as his gaze
sharpened to a sharp, smouldering fire. "She is not the
person I loved." He stiffened and his fists clenched again
in agitation. Her soft mouth opened in imminent denial and
he brought one hand up in a swift, slashing motion. "I have
changed beyond recognition and she is not as I remember. The
girl I loved was as pure as summer's light and as open as a
flower. She . . ." he said, waving a hand at the cluster of
women next to the double throne, " . . . has been queen for
longer than I have lived. I don't think we would have
anything to say to each other anymore." His angry eyes were
intent upon hers and her face was shocked white under that
smoky glare.
She whet her lips and made as if to speak but the words
seemed to freeze in her throat at the cruel ice in his
expression. He waited for long moments, eyes raking her soft
features and pale, shaken skin. Finally he stepped back and
turned away, her hand losing its tentative grip on his arm.
Unwillingly his eyes moved beyond her again and rested on
the woman in the white dress, the one that looked so much
like, and yet unlike, his Usa. His breathing was harsh again
in his ears and the noise and motion of the crowd was like a
swarm of crazed mayflies beneath his gaze. Waves of
confusion, anger and unreasoning love coursed through him,
shaking his fragile emotions like a leaf in a windstorm, a
faint trembling in his limbs whispering to him of the need
for control. Never before had he been given this choice, all
compulsions fallen away, his soul solely his own if he chose
it to remain so. He felt so raw with aching need that he
wondered if he would fall away from the world.
A breath of springtime air was at his shoulder, her
clean scent washing over his nostrils. He didn't turn to
acknowledge the hesitant touch on his shoulder, and her hand
fell again to her side.
"Faith," she finally whispered, nearly in his ear as
she stood behind him. His spine stiffened in shock and his
eyes went blank. "Such a small word, that," she mused, "that
it can encompass so much. Four hundred years ago, two lovers
were torn apart. And now two strangers meet across a crowded
room and wonder what it is that they see in each other's
eyes." He closed his long lashes and let the waves of truth
run through his heart. The small voice faltered, then spoke
again at his shoulder. "The only thing that anyone can say
is a truth when nothing else is certain . . is that what was
right and true once can be right and true again." The small
sounds ceased and Mamoru could only feel the easing of his
heart and the sudden quiet of the raging storm of his
emotions. Once before he had heard truth into the echo of
another's words; it was not something he would mistake
again.
Faith. He had loved her for so long and she had been
the princess in his dreams, the one that held him, that
relied on him, that enfolded him in a surety that had never
wavered. Surely his Usako still existed in the strong slim
body of this imperial queen. It had taken a small slip of a
girl to remind him of something that he ought never to have
forgotten.
He opened his eyes, looking again upon the frantic
noise and motion of the court, the tense knot of private
despair on the dais. "Yes," he breathed gently, all of his
life wrapped up in that unadorned word. He turned to face
her, this nameless girl who had said a truth that he had
lost. "Thank you," he said simply and raised one of her slim
hands to his lips. "You have returned to me something that I
had feared forever lost beyond retrieval."
She blushed and slipped her hand from his after a
moment. Her eyes twinkled and she gave a lopsided smile.
"The shortest distance between two points is a straight
line. I am pleased to have met you . . . my lord."
Mamoru smiled back, looking but not seeing the echo of
regret deep in her soft eyes. He turned purposefully this
time, and began to walk with long, unhurried strides to the
still clear center aisle. People began to eddy and swirl
around him, making way like waves parting in a sea.
Something in his countenance brooked no argument and the
whispering began to center on his presence. He strode out
into the clear space, a lone figure in black, winking jewels
at wrist and shoulder. He walked forward down the aisle and
the court moved as one, falling silent before that
imperious, commanding stride. The drama and tension was
obvious and the room once again attained that crystal
silence of anticipation.
As he drew closer, the senshi on the dais turned back
to face the room and Mamoru could see the expressions of
shock and dawning realization in his peripheral vision. But
it was Serenity's face under his calm gaze, the pale shaken
skin and the beloved blue of her eyes. Her lips formed his
name but no sound emerged.
Soberly he came forward, long legs covering distance
like a panther on the hunt, and he stopped where the Lord
Alain had so many eternities ago. The court was hushed,
waves of tension and eagerness in the air like a shimmering
curtain.
With a clear ringing voice he spoke, his eyes fixed on
the face of the queen. "I am Chiba Mamoru, Prince Endymion
of the Earth, Guardian of Illusion and bearer of the Golden
Crystal. I claim my right to the throne of Crystal Tokyo and
the hand of its beloved ruler."
The senshi were frozen as if in stone, a tableau of
surprise and confusion. It was Haruka that moved first,
drawn back down to the first step of the dais as she had
done for years untold. He met her eyes as calmly as he could
and saw the fierce joy contained in her own gaze.
She whet her lips and spoke huskily at first, then with
more assurance. "I am Ten'ou Haruka, king of the distant
sky, fighter of wind. You must prove your strength of
purpose before this assembled company. Defend yourself."
Again the legendary talisman appeared in her hand and with a
powerful grace she brought it up and down over her head in a
beautifully executed strike. It would take his head from his
shoulders and for a moment Mamoru had no idea what to do
about the gleaming death above his head, curving for his
throat. Then his two hands came up with swift motion and
with simple economy trapped the bright blade between his
upright palms. He gazed at her, the straight edge of the
keen steel between their eyes. His eyes went blank and
unexpected fire bloomed between his hands, travelling the
swift length of the blade. Haruka recognized the immediate
threat and with a shocked curse threw herself backwards,
releasing the blade into his hands as she fell backwards to
avoid the power strike. She looked at him with wonder in her
eyes as he grabbed the hilt of the sword with swift
movements and reversed it, offering it back to her over his
arm. Shakily she arose from her fallen position and with a
smoky smile he released the captured sword to her hand and
she resheathed it. Then with an unexpected move she sank
gracefully to one knee and brought his right hand to her
cheek, cropped blonde hair under his startled gaze. "Welcome
home Endymion-sama," she said simply.
She stood and moved back to her seat, standing before
it like an honour guard. Mamoru took one step to the next
level, this time meeting the eternally calm gaze of Michiru.
For the assembled people she gave her name and titles but
her eyes spoke only of contented happiness to his. Her
Mirror came up and the white light of forced truth washed
over him, and his doubts and fears became apparent in the
cruel twisted shadows of his soul. His own demons were as if
exposed again in the flickering flames of his long
entrapment. He silently accepted that he would never be
perfectly worthy of the love of Usagi. The light left him
and Michiru repeated the same greeting as her lover Haruka,
her cascading hair soft under his hand. "Endymion-sama," she
said clearly, and then moved away to her place of honour.
This time it was his Ami, her fierce joy barely
contained in the mobile quivering of her lips. Shaking, she
spoke her words and with a fluid motion the mist began to
swirl at his feet. As the cold air began to wrap around him,
he flexed his power channels, bringing a surge of nearly
living energy through his veins. He could feel the ice
trying to form around his body but the heat expanding from
him prevented it. Mist and rain and shattering ice crystals
surrounded him as Mercury strove to encase him. The crowd
began to murmur in quiet astonishment as it became apparent
that Mercury couldn't even begin to hold this tall, proud
stranger.
With awe in her eyes, Ami gave up the unequal struggle
and the mist streamers melted away into the air. To one knee
she went, bright hair a coronet under his gaze. She clutched
his hand to her face and he could feel the dampness on her
cheek as she cried for joy. "Mamoru-kun, we have missed you
so!" she whispered softly, her fingers threaded through his.
Unnoticed by any in the Great Hall, a small gray shadow
blanched and bolted from the room on paws of streaked
lightning.
After long moments she stepped aside, proud face held
high. Makoto came forward and the long rod of power
coalesced in her hand in a heartbeat. Her expression was
eager and Mamoru met her gaze unflinching as his lean,
strong fingers grasped the smooth wood. Lightning flashed
between them, lighting Mako's face like a demon in a play.
Her hair lifted in the energy currents and Mamoru could feel
the surge and twist as lightning danced along his body.
Higher and higher she drew her power and Mamoru opened his
channels to absorb it, letting the overflow wash over and
through him to crackle ominously against the floor. The
light was intense and difficult to look at, two dark
shimmering figures standing in the midst of a storm of
thunder.
With a grin as wide as a wolf's, Mamoru ended the
contest. Rooting himself to the earth he sank his awareness
into the planet, the deep slow beauty enfolding him. He
opened his nexus points and began to deliberately pull the
lightning into himself, routing it through his body and down
into the earth, faster and faster. Makoto realized instantly
what he was doing and her eyes widened in consternation and
respect as her own energy was being pulled from her control.
She struggled to retain it, but Mamoru's control of energy
forms was too strong and with a gasp she released the rod
before he could drain her entirely. Lightning crackled a few
more times in his grip and then the staff was only wood
again, held in the grip of a tall, black-haired man who
smiled at the woman who went to one knee in front of him.
Makoto gave him no words of greeting, only the tears on her
cheeks giving her away. Strength and beauty were hers as she
stood again, taking back her wooden stave to let it vanish
back into the power grid she had pulled it from. She stepped
aside to allow him free passage, the wisps of her hair
nearly brushing his face.
Now there was Mina, the shining star of her planet.
With unhurried pace she stood before him, her softly lit
hair like a fire's corona on her shoulders. "You have passed
these the tests, but now you stand before me, star of
beauty, fighter of love. If you would stand beside our
queen, your love must be as true as the eternal stars." As
she spoke she unwound her girdle of linked hearts, dropping
the coils gently into her hand. With a fluid motion, lazy
and quick she snapped her belt forward and he brought up his
hand to instinctively defend himself. The chain wrapped
itself over his arm instantly like a living snake might,
constricting gently. It glittered dully there and Mamoru had
time to wonder what this test actually was. His answer came
in a few seconds. "Love me," she said simply and the chain
flashed a rainbow of color.
Mamoru felt the power slam into his partially open
channels, a wave of imperative force and intent. Under his
shocked gaze, Minako began to glow with soft radiance and
stars shimmered in her hair. She was beauty incarnate, the
singing power in his veins whispering a song of maddening
desire. The urge to worship at her feet was nigh
irresistible and his sight saw only the deep blue turning of
her eyes.
She smiled at him and her beautiful voice matched the
feeling thrumming through the strangling heartchain. "Name
the one that you love," she commanded.
He looked at her with brilliant eyes, his arm tingling
in the grip of her subtle power. "Tsukino Usagi," he said
clearly, "the Princess of the Silver Millennium and the
beloved of my heart."
Mina's smile was brilliant and the heartchain slithered
away from his arm to coil once again around her slim waist.
She knelt and kissed his hand, pressing her long lashes into
his palm. "Does this mean I'm not your favorite anymore?"
she said slyly even as tears dampened her cheeks. His
chuckle was low and delighted and she raised her bowed head
to smile into his eyes. "Welcome home Endymion-sama," she
said huskily.
He ascended the the hard won step, this time to meet
the chill gaze of Rei, she of the warrior's spirit and
priestess of the world. Her eyes were like agates and Mamoru
wondered in alarm if he was going to have to face a trial by
fire or art of combat. She looked cold enough to try and
roast him alive. She didn't announce herself as had the
others, throwing aside all convention and ceremony.
"Who are you to come here and give my queen grief with
the memory of a long beloved face?" Her voice held neither
anger nor challenge, merely implacability. This was not what
he had expected and he could only look at her in a kind of
shock. Rei's face was all cold lines and austere expression
and Mamoru began to feel that chill in his bones. "You wear
the form and face of our lost one, but your clothes are
outland and your power is alien. I do not accept you and you
shall not pass."
Mamoru gaped momentarily, his mind blank with the sheer
rejection of it all. This was Rei, the one with clearest
sight, the brightest perception. There was no way she could
not know who he was under the outward changes. Anger and
betrayal tinged his voice as he replied.
"What has changed?" He challenged her clearly, his bold
eyes seeking some recognition from hers. The thought formed
that he could simply push her aside, physically or mentally
but immediately rejected that simplistic view. This exchange
of words was a test somehow - he had to discover the riddle
and solve it to gain that crucial step. "I am still Chiba
Mamoru, protector and guardian as I have been through three
lifetimes. Yesterday I walked into a carefully laid trap -
today I have freed myself to find things changed beyond all
belief and recognition. It is you that have changed, warrior
of Mars, not I."
Her long eyes narrowed in contemplation and her gaze
travelled the length of his lean body, seeing the tension
and anger coiling in his bones. "Show me your power," she
said simply, switching her attack and throwing him again off
balance. Mamoru scrambled to follow her thinking as rapidly
as he could, realizing that she didn't mean him to raise
power against her but not able to immediately grasp the
deeper meaning. Long moments passed as Rei waited and Mamoru
thought about power. The smallest connection was made in his
quick mind and he suddenly flashed a wolf's grin at her. If
she wanted to see his power, he'd give her an eyeful.
He planted both feet firmly on the tier, shoulder width
apart for greatest balance. He began to raise his hands up
as if in supplication to the heavens even though he
maintained eye contact with Rei, a small laugh still upon
his lips. As his palms came level nearly level with his
head, he began to open his power conduits, to show her what
his strength had become during the long fight of his
entrapment. He knew that Rei would be able to see the
channels even when empty but he wanted them all to see, to
understand. Earth was under his feet, deep and slow; fire
was in his heart; fierce and bright. He stood as if a statue
of himself, ice pale and draped in deepest black.
Green fire began to bloom as his feet, drawn from
earth's heart, a singing force that was clean and bright.
Sinuously it climbed his body, drawn through the vacuum of
channels that he opened effortlessly to guide the flow.
Unknowingly his head tilted back and his long eyes closed,
savoring the pure feeling of the earth's heartbeat coursing
through his body. His arms and legs shimmered with the
coiling streamers of energy - wrapped as a long forgotten
statue might have been with vines for support. He knew
vaguely that he shone in the sight of the mesmerised crowd -
that the senshi would sense the true source, unmistakeably
scented with earth's roots. Rei would see further yet, would
know that only the major channels were filled - something
that any of them would do when holding power before
striking.
With an uknowingly cruel smile, he drew on what they
did not know, what Rei had subtly asked him to prove. The
deepest black of his hair began to wave as fire bloomed
between the soft threads. Golden flame, scintillating and
brilliant raced down from the sun's corona on his head,
flooding through and around the pure earth source, filling
him down to the smallest passageways. Elation filled him -
he had been fighting for his life when this had happened
before - the feeling was undescribable. He let the two
powers play over and through him, revelling in the exquisite
sensation of near limitless energy. Dimly he wondered if
this was what Usagi felt when she handled the Crystal in all
its glory.
To those of the court, the tall man on the stairs had
become a creature out of legend, crackling with unbridled
colour that surged and flowered over his straight form,
rivalling the spangled light coming through the stained
windows. Myth had spoken of the birthright of the queen's
warriors, but few indeed had seen any more than the smallest
manifestations of strength. The one that stood and accepted
the challenge of Mars was frighteningly alien to them. The
crowd stirred uneasily, but waited for the judgement of
their warrior princess.
The senshi saw differently - all were born to this
power, familiar with the singing voice that whispered to
them in the midst of battle. They all saw past the outward
play of shifting color to the true source he was drawing it
from - solid earth beneath his feet, a bright fire that came
from within. Wonderingly, they waited for Rei to proclaim
him prince and lord.
The princess of Mars saw the open channels, saw with
carefully disguised shock the precise control that separated
the two forces into discreet entities. To her othersight he
stood as the Tree of the World, Yggdrasil, the roots of the
planet holding him together, bright power whispering along
the branches, and a corona of leaves that rejoiced in
limitless strength. And her straining perception saw further
yet, past the man on the stairs, through the Tree that stood
in the otherworld to the core of Mamoru - that was still
untouched, untapped. All that he showed her was not all that
he was - the Golden Crystal remained quiescent, hidden from
her direct sight.
If Serenity saw anything else, she remained silent.
Mamoru allowed one last caress of power to thrill along
his spine, and then with soft reluctance began to release
his hold, letting the pressure ebb as the passageways began
to empty. Rei watched with outward calm, inner turmoil
carefully hidden as she picked her way through the minefield
of words that she needed to say, for the test he had yet to
pass. Finally he stood before her again, a tall man with
eyes still reflecting beauty.
"I see you, Chiba Mamoru, prince of earth," she said in
a deceptively simply voice, acknowledging what she had seen
to all - the intimate connection of earth that only a
starseed bearer would be able to command. "But I still do
not recognize you," she continued implacably. "You have
hidden the greatest part of you, the part of you that has
changed beyond all reckoning. If you would pass, you will
show me all that you are, and all that you are not."
Mamoru's face went blank as stone and Rei thought she
might have seen anger, or perhaps fear in his eyes before he
shuttered his eyes with long lashes. The room was deathly
quiet as everyone waited for his response. Ami bit her lip
but remained quiet. She had to trust that Rei knew what she
was doing, was attempting to reach some unseen goal that Ami
couldn't immediately fathom. Provoking Mamoru would not have
been wise at the best of times - Rei was courting disaster
with her blunt rejection.
All Mamoru could feel for long moments was a wash of
rage followed by soul deep reluctance. He had given her what
she asked for, proof of the most intimate kind that he was
all that he claimed he was, and all that he had learned in
his long struggle. She was demanding the unreasonable, and
she knew it too by the light of battle in her eyes. His
frustration leaped to new heights and his hard fingers began
to clench. This was too much to ask, and he raised hot eyes
to tell her so.
Eyes of softest brown looked directly into his from her
vantage point on the step above him. Her face was cold,
sharp lines telling him that she disapproved of him, the
tension in her body saying as clearly as if she had spoken
it that he had failed somehow. It was her eyes that stopped
him, for he could see clearly into their depths, saw the
hope and encouragement that she was trying to give him. He
was missing some crucial understanding, and he hesitated,
sharp blue eyes searching the unseen currents buried in his
opponent.
Finally he spoke aloud, voice strong and deep. "You are
asking me to open my very soul, to let you stand in the
heart of me and see with my eyes."
"You understand me perfectly, prince of earth," she
said unperterbed by the dawning horror in his voice. Rei saw
Ami and Makoto trading shocked glances, saw in one sweeping
look the odd grin on Haruka's face. She dared not wonder at
what Serenity's expression might hold so she ignored them
all, conscious again only of the tight face in front of
hers, and the heavy prickles of the queen's stare on her
back.
"You are skilled, priestess, and you do not need my
permission to see into the soul of someone," he countered
deftly, searching for a way to avoid this requirement.
She nodded her head in agreement and her mobile mouth
twisted in acknowledgment of his parry. "Then you will still
hide the true essence of yourself and I will not let you
pass without this. You were strong before this, earth's joy,
but now your power is beyond my skill. You will give
yourself to me, wholly and without reservation, or you will
leave here without that which you most desire." Rei hoped
fiercely that her inner turmoil didn't show, that Serenity
didn't demand an explanation before she was able to force
this admission from him. This was necessary, and she didn't
have the luxury of time to explain it to anyone.
Mamoru was silent a moment longer, sullen jewels
winking in the diffused sunlight as demons howled in his
mind. When he spoke again his voice was still deep and
strong, but his words were pleading. "Rei, you of all people
understand exactly what you are asking of me. In all of my
lifetimes, only two have stood where you demand entrance."
He stopped a moment as sharp memory overcame him. His voice
was husky as he continued. "In a garden under moonlight I
saw a girl with eyes of bluest summer and she has lived
within me ever since." He opened his hands in supplication.
"The second time a demon broke open my body and ravaged my
soul with fire - I live only because the demon loves eyes as
blue as sky as much as I do. Both times," he said, his eyes
steady upon the face of Mars, "I was violated. Neither time
did I choose the invasion to happen, although one is the
reason I live, the other nearly my death. Do not ask this of
me, Mars! I don't think I can bear another voice in my
heart."
Rei was as still as a statue, but she forced her heart
to harden against the desperate plea in his voice. Her body
ached with the force of his unconscious rejection and her
voice was correspondingly harsh. "This is required of you,
prince. If you would pass me, you will give me the keys of
your power and you will give me access to what you most wish
to remain secret."
The room was deathly quiet, and Mamoru could only hear
the frantic racing of his heartbeat. He swallowed
convulsively, unwilling to define to himself why his
reluctance bordered on hysteria. Finally he nodded his head
in abrupt assent. "Only because it is you that asks this,
sister of my soul's twin. Only for you, and only for this
reason," he said finally in a voice of smoothest silk. He
spread his arms wide in a gesture of welcome and Rei could
see the lowering defenses. Before he could change his mind,
she slipped in and down with the lightest of touches. She
had barricaded herself tightly for this, but was still
nearly overwhelmed with the sudden onslaught of pure emotion
that roiled through his mind. Like a bright bubble on a
maevolent sea, she desperately cast line after line of
tethering thread back to her body, trying to find stability
in this frightening maelstrom of surging power. One of her
lines caught, held tenously to something and she recklessly
poured more strength into the bond. With a shock she
realized that she had grabbed Serenity somehow, and that her
queen was beginning to feed her the power to ride the
turbulent waves. Secure now that she would not become lost
in the complexity that was the prince, she rode the surface
tensions of anger and betrayal, dark despairs lurking
underneath the smoother patterns that comprised his very
self. She balanced there for a moment, before braving the
darker waters that contained what she needed to know.
To the others, nothing changed except for the unnatural
stillness of the two figures. Mamoru remained with arms
outstretched, Rei with one hand that she had reached out to
touch the smooth curve of his breastbone. Serenity sat on
her throne, eyes closed, watching closely what her friend
was doing to her beloved. She allowed this because she had
no choice and because she believed that somehow, Rei knew
what she was doing. She trusted to her friend to do whatever
was right and she played out her strength to hold Rei to her
body, not willing to trust that Rei could find her own way
back. His soul had the most complex, compelling and
dangerous beauty she had ever seen and she had fallen in
love with him before she realized the cruelty of it. She
would not let him trap another.
Rei let Serenity's tenuous grasp settle around her
before she took the plunge into the darker depths that
surrounded the emotion wracked consciousness of Mamoru. What
she needed to know was buried deep, intertwined with his
power and the Golden Crystal, a dark thread of some
carefully hidden thought that she had sensed vaguely when
the pure light of the Deep Aqua Mirror had flashed. Down and
down she plunged, a bright spark of fire in a world of
flaring madness and coiling darkness. Power rippled and
surged through her sight and she clutched Serenity's passive
awareness to her breast as she fell. Rei realized coldly
that she could die here, cut off from her body if Mamoru's
restive power surged against her in anger or terror.
Silently she accepted that risk, and that if she did perish
here, Serenity would know what had triggered the upwelling
of death in his heart. It would have to be enough.
Finally she stopped falling and she looked around
vaguely, trying to get her bearings. Power conduits branched
everywhere, and she extended her essence to feel the
strength of his body tied up in this small chamber. The
light began to brighten around her and suddenly he was
there, Prince Endymion of her youth, armour and sword at his
side - the way he had looked the night he died. Rei knew
that was Serenity's thought and felt her queen shiver
through their linkage before she pushed that connection out
of her mind.
"Where are we?" she asked the manifestation of
Endymion, waiting to see he would admit to this deeper
knowledge.
"We are where you wanted to be, warrior of Mars," he
said mockingly, stepping forward with unhurried step. The
light brightened again and she realized that it was his form
that was glowing faintly, casting the shadows around them
into deeper relief. A small pedestal was revealed in the
burgeoning light, a crystal couched upon it in seeming
negligance. Mamoru stopped by the small stand and rested a
possessive hand upon the round form. "You stand in the heart
of Chiba Mamoru, priestess, a place you seemed to desire
most greatly to be in. And now that you are here, what is it
that you wanted to see?"
Ami watched in astonishment, shivering a little at how
uncanny they looked. When Mamoru spoke, his voice was clear
and strong, yet Rei's lips moved with his in perfect
mimicry. Rei was bathed in the lightest of red glows,
touching highlights in her hair. Mamoru also showed the
barest traces of golden power and his body seemed to shiver
every now and again. If she didn't look at them straight on,
she thought she saw the faintest reflection of silver over
the two of them but it was gone as soon as she thought she
saw it. She compressed already worried lips and listened in
frustration with the rest of them as the ghostly
conversation continued.
Rei looked around and raised her hands to her arms,
shivering a little. "So cold Mamoru-kun, so bleak." The
walls were stripped to bare rock, echoing passageways
leading from the small space. The only decoration was the
pedestal and crystal under his hand, smaller still in the
darkness of this place. "Where is the light of your heart
Mamoru, the joy of any life that lives under the sun? I see
only cold and barren walls, sense only power feeding through
the darkness.
The spririt form of Endymion grinned wryly at her and
waved a negligent hand, which only made her shiver more.
"You look priestess, but you do not really see. This is all
that there has ever been. I have always been this empty at
the core of me, holding only power and responsibility. Look
at the darkness that surrounds us, Rei, tell me what you see
in its depths."
Rei looked at the deeper shadows, the darker places
that fled from the golden light around his form. At first
she didn't want to truly see what it contained, suspecting
already that she had demanded more from him than she was
really ready to take. She cursed her pure sight, for she
couldn't even pretend not to understand what she saw there,
coiling and snaking through the currents of emotion. "Has
this, too, always been here Mamoru?" she said as gently as
she could.
"Always," was his equally gentle reply. "Only she ever
saw this part of me, saw it, accepted it, and still tried to
change it. Only she keeps it from devouring me entirely." As
if in reponse to his acknowledgement, the dark current
swirled towards him, wrapping tendrils of its unique power
around his shimmering form. He seemed all the brighter for
the darkness coiling around him, not diminished by the
shadow, but enhanced by it.
"Someday you will die of it, you know," she said
vaguely, struggling to maintain some sort of conversational
tone. She had known he was a driven man, with greater depths
that only Serenity really saw into - but this was a more
that she could really cope with. Her long memory of
friendship with a man of casual laughter suddenly cracked
into a different picture, broken edges softened with raw,
wounding compassion. A small current of silver strength
flowed into her and she tried to stand a little straighter,
to accept what she saw only too clearly now, what Serenity
had somehow known all along. "None can stand against a death
dream that strong, that complete, for long and remain alive
or sane." Frighteningly, she wondered if that was what she
had sensed earlier when he challenged Michiru for dominion,
the start of the final dissolution between his iron will and
his nigh overwhelming desire to die.
Endymion laughed a little and then his form blurred and
reformed into the more familiar form of Mamoru, casual
clothes hugging his lean body. He lifted the small crystal
away from its cradling stand and walked towards her, dark
shadows flickering and flowering around him. Here in his
center, his form was that of an avatar surrounded by an
whispering evil, a light against the greater dark. Rei
wondered if that was a deliberate image that he gave her, or
something unconsious, that he would percieve himself always
surrounded by shadow. She was distracted from her musing as
he came closer to her, his eyes carrying a soft smile. "I
will never die of that particular shadow," he said with
surprising calm. "Once that might have been a truer
statement than you know, but it has not been that way for
years beyond counting. That depth of despair might have
claimed me once - but a moonlit girl changed that and I will
never allow myself that easy escape. Look at what you came
to see Rei, look and be at ease with me." With unhurried
hands he raised the crystal to her and gave it to her grasp.
Wonderingly she raised it to her eyes, crystal lights
playing over her awestruck face.
The interior of the crystal was murky gold, depths a
slow turning wealth of color. It began to brighten in her
hands and Rei suddenly realized that she held the Crystal
itself, its only match the one carried by her queen. Before
she could panic entirely, his hands came up to cup hers and
his face bent to watch the brightening globe. Her gaze
travelled with his and she saw what he was giving her to
see, to know.
Ami's heart was beating like a trip hammer. Mamoru - a
death dream? Strong enough that she could sense Rei's
terrible fear even from where she stood, her linkage
vibrating with the horror and compassion streaming from the
warrior of Mars. Ami risked a look at Serenity, where she
sat as cold marble upon the double throne. Her long eyes
were closed but her face reflected none of the horror that
reverbertated through the rest of them, none of the despair
that that only now leaving them through that instant's
linkage. The truth that had shocked Rei had washed right
over Serenity, leaving her untouched. Looking at the calm
face of her queen, Ami suddenly understood. Mamoru had
always been the darkest of them all, always the one driven
by mysterious forces and desires, always the one to walk his
way alone. And whatever Rei had found, Serenity had already
known - known and had not flinched. Ami resolved that her
faith in her friend would not be shaken, no matter what
terrible thing Rei had discovered.
Rei watched the globe as it cleared, a soft image
forming in its center. Mamoru's hands were warm over hers in
this chill place and she shivered again in a different kind
of reaction. The vision became closer and she bent towards
the Crystal. Suddenly it snapped into place and Rei clearly
saw the soul of Mamoru.
Usagi slept on the bed, a dawning sun playing over the
brilliance of her long hair. Every line of her face seemed
as fresh as clearest water, loving drawn from his memory.
Her eyes played over the scene, noting absently the detail
in the recollection, the pure truth of his regard for her.
The image was as beautifully etched in the Crystal as the
rest of his soul was coldly bare. Then her sharp regard saw
the lizard on the pillow, a painfully bright image against
the softness of the rest of it. Her eyebrows frowned, and
carefully she reached out to touch the image contained in
the Crystal with her othersense, trying to get an idea of
the nature of this incongruity.
It wasn't like putting her hand in a raging fire, but
only because it did not burn her, merely overwhelmed her
sight as a bright light in darkness might have.
Scintillating power ran through her and she let it slide
through her mind, carefully sorting the tastes and textures
of it. The lizardbeing was not natural to the Crystal, but
seemed to be melded with it just the same. She caught the
flavor of metal, and a sense of an unnaturally long memory,
flavored with alien experiences. It seemed to regard her at
the same time as she watched it, but she sensed no overt
threat, no hostile intention. Carefully, it gave her mind a
brief touch, a taste of who/what/why it was and Rei withdrew
back to her ethereal body, eyes thoughtful. Alien it was,
but not malignant - not in any way that she could sense. It
was the source of the strange fire that had bloomed in
Mamoru's hands, a quasi intelligence that had been
constructed at some point in the far distant past - one that
had been set to guard. Its brief touch had told her that it
had shifted its intent from the machine it had been with to
the man who housed it now. Rei worried, but realized that it
was merely another type of power, and not immediately
dangerous. Mamoru seemed to have accepted it unconditionally
- the fact that it had become an icon in his framework told
her more intimately of its nature than if he had described
to her what had happened. To try and remove it now - it
would be like ripping his power entire from him, guaranteed
to drive him to insanity before he died.
Rei brought her eyes up again, and looked at the
avatar-form of Mamoru as he held her and the Crystal. More
and more clearly, she could see the cords that held him -
the gold light of the Crystal which contained his power,
black darkness of cord that was his tortured soul - and the
silver that wove the two together, kept them from destroying
him. With hands of spirit, she reached to touch those
esssences - this was what she needed to see, needed him to
understand about himself before he could pass this test. She
touched it and then she swarmed up her link to Serenity,
back to the world of the living, carrying her stolen
treasure with her.
In the world above, Mamoru suddenly stiffened and his
eyes opened in horror upon the girl in front of him. Rei's
hand clenched against his breastbone, and Mamoru's breath
left him in a rush as pain and fear crossed his features.
Jolted out of the spirit realm, his features mirrored sudden
confusion, his hands beginning to rise to defend himself.
"Rei, what are you doing?" he cried as her hand pulled upon
something unseen. The look on Rei's face was still calm, but
her outstretched, clenched fist was like iron.
"This is your test, Mamoru-kun, and you face me, star
of fire, fighter of war," she declared abruptly. "Three
desires bind you, each of which would destroy you, each of
which would destroy those around you. You are the most
dangerous creature I have ever faced, a beloved friend
returned changed beyond all recognition." Her free hand came
up uncannily, guided by whatever she still saw in the spirit
world and made a gesture in the air, one that looked like
she was threading something. That hand suddenly clenched
into a fist, raised above her head as if threatening him
with something terrible. "Answer me with full honesty
Mamoru, your life depends upon it," she warned as tears
began to leak slowly out of his unknowing eyes. "Which
desire do I hold in my hand?" she demanded.
His voice was nearly a cry, sharp and terrible.
"Power," he said and his fists clenched suddenly against his
side in an agony of restraint. "Pure power, earth's heart
next to my heart, fire singing in my veins like blood," he
continued, answering Rei's question.
"How much power, Mamoru, how much power do you hold?"
she asked intently.
His face was tight with suffering but Rei's hand didn't
release its punishing grip. "Down and down, warrior of Mars,
you can feel the heat of the molten rock against my skin,"
he whispered in answer. "Rain falls upon my cheeks, the rise
of the oceans caresses my hands. My power is the earth,
immeasurable. If I should desire it, continents would crack
and the oceans would boil. How much power is that, Mars?
This planet is a marble in my pocket, a plaything if I
should choose it." His voice was rising in power, and the
forgotten courtiers began to react in shock, a murmuring
swelling in the crowd, approaching a terror that none of
them could see. Alone, a woman in a yellow dress went numb
with the idea, a white light in her head.
"Power corrupts Mamoru, and I know longer understand
you as the friend of my youth. What is to keep you from
using that power to rule absolutely? None could withstand
you, none would dare try. What is to keep you from tearing
open this planet on your whim?" Her voice was again cold as
cracked ice, her tone a whip of pure command.
Mamoru's breathing was harsh with agony, the long
muscles in his body wracked with the pain of whatever Rei
held. Ami knew she didn't want to know, didn't want to
understand what the far-seeing priestess saw, what drove her
to hurt this man who was the best of all friends. "Nothing
holds me, priestess," he said finally through clenched
teeth. The crowd stilled again to frozen immobility as the
tall man knelt on the stairs, proclaiming his dominion.
"Nothing holds me. The ginzuishou alone would destroy me but
the damage would already be done. I alone keep myself in
check, I alone claim responsibility to hold the power inside
me, untapped."
"And if I do not accept your word, your strength to
keep yourself in balance with such a great power?" Rei said
remotely.
His voice was calm suddenly and Ami at least could hear
the wry humor running through it. "Then you must destroy me
now priestess, for none will ever hold me in this bondage
again. My word is all I can give you, and it is the only
thing that binds me. Here on my planet of birth, my power
wells beneath my feet like water." Suddenly he grinned and
Ami blinked at the pure insolence of it. "You ask me of the
strength of power, yet you hold it yourself and can feel its
depth. Why are you even asking me, Mars?"
Her voice softened as she looked at him. "You needed to
admit that to yourself, that you alone are responsible for
what you do, for what you can do. The ultimate judge and
jury is yourself, for you alone know when you have abused
this strength."
Mamoru closed his eyes and nodded at her. "I have
always known Rei, I have always understood this," he said.
"Then this part of the test you pass, for strength
defines what you are, and what you will offer to the people
of Crystal Tokyo." She made a releasing gesture with her
second hand and Mamoru's face eased a little, his breathing
less harsh. Her deft fingers made another plucking motion
and although his expression didn't change one iota, his
tension became apparent. "And this desire, what do I hold in
my hand?" she asked again.
"Love," he said gently.
"You lie, Mamoru," she said equally softly. "Love is a
pale shadow to this. Name this desire that unbalances you to
the point of insanity."
His teeth snapped at her but the smile still tugged at
his tight lips. "O brat of a priestess, that I ever agreed
to let you see this," he said. "Love is the right word, the
same way you could say that a lighted match is similar to a
firestorm." Mamoru's face suddenly became drawn and tight as
he gazed up into the eyes of the listening woman. It was as
if he spoke only to her, as if the room full of listeners
did not exist. "It has been my obsession for years and it
kept me alive even before I met her when I wanted only
oblivion. My life is consumed with it, subsumed by it. At
her demand, my life is as nothing. Twice I have died to
protect her and even if I knew it to be the final death,
that I would never again stand at her side, I would step
into it with my arms wide. Only power contains it, distracts
me from it. Obsession doesn't even touch the surface of it -
she is everything to me. I would sacrifice this planet if I
thought it would save her."
"Then where is the balance of it, Mamoru-kun?" Rei
asked quietly, eyes intent upon his drawn face. "That
overwhelming need to protect her is as dangerous as the pure
power you hold. You would strip a planet of life in order to
save one woman, simply because you alone could do such a
thing."
"She is everything to me - and she holds the keys that
keep me balanced between power and oblivion. Her smallest
laugh is more important to me than food - the touch of her
hand more dear to me than water. And she alone gives me the
strength I need, gives me light to show me the tightrope I
walk." His mouth twisted into something like cruelty and his
voice was suddenly accusing. "Damn you Rei! That need is
deliberately buried deep inside me, through the Crystal that
contains its power. Why have you forced me to examine it
again?! It nearly drove me mad the first time I understood
it - why do you force me admit its hold over me again?" Rei
continued to look at him and finally he dropped his eyes as
his palms spread upwards in mute supplication. "She is the
balance for it," he snarled at her in admission. "If she
were cruel, mad, power-hungry . . . I would give her my
world because I would have no choice. But she loves me Rei.
Loves me as no other ever has or ever will again. She would
never demand it, never wants more of me than that I love her
in return. She holds me fast like the moon over the tides -
and she keeps me locked in the blue of her eyes." He took a
deep breath and again looked squarely into the eyes of Mars.
"She keeps the balance, because I cannot."
"Then this part of the test you are freed from, for you
depend upon another's strength instead of your own." Her
second hand moved again as if releasing a puff of down, and
Mamoru's head dropped with the release of emotion roiling
through his heart. His chest heaved with a deep breath and
he raised stiff hands to rub the tears from his cheeks.
Rei's hand, outstretched through all this time, came back to
her chest, still clenched with the third, unseen smoky
thread. "Then name the third desire Mamoru-kun, name your
last and final test."
The room was as hushed as a church, the last of the
day's sunlight still somehow colouring the room incongrously
with the joy of life. "The last desire of my self," he mused
quietly as stray light touched the depths of his hair,
flickered alien fire in his eyes. "O you know the third
thing you hold Rei - something that you never knew before
until you stood within my heart." She nodded at him, her
expression suddenly desperately compassionate. His small
smile tried to absolve her of its guilt, its necessity.
"Death." The word was clear, unadorned. Now that he had
said it, Mamoru felt a sudden easing in his chest, a
lightening of the darkness he had carried so long. He raised
his eyes finally to the woman on the throne, the one that
had understood this right from the start somehow - had
understood and had recklessly pledged herself to him anyway.
"All of my life, in this time or that, it calls me somehow -
so tight inside me that each day that I wake I am somehow
surprised. It follows me, holds me, waits for me around this
corner or around that one. And each time that it comes for
me - I have to remember to fight, that it can't have me just
yet." Serenity's eyes were accepting upon him, clear and
bright and for an instant, he saw only the love in her eyes
as pure as the first time he met her in a moonlit garden.
"Never have I seen such a darkness in another before
Mamoru, never would I have thought to look for it in you."
For the first time, Rei's voice shook with her own emotion.
"What keeps you fighting such a geas? For so deeply is it
wound through you, that to attempt to cleanse it away would
drive you to dangerous unblance, and the oblivion you so
desperately crave at the heart of you."
His gaze returned to her soft brown eyes. "Life keeps
me here, Rei. You of all should know, should understand.
Shadow only makes the light taste sweeter." Rei remembered
the spirit world, where he had been wrapped in shadow and
glowing like the son of a god. "Understand me Rei - death is
what keeps me alive. Always I live because I know that death
calls me. One day," he said raggedly, "it will have me. But
not today Rei. Each day I say, not today."
"Then the third test you pass, because you understand
that some things no strength can resist. And because you
know the demon in your heart so intimately that you call him
friend." Her hand opened and the watching court could almost
see the release in his body as the plucked spirit thread
sank once more into him. "Power and responsibility,
obsession and love, death and life . . . three desires bound
into one whole, each of which alone would destroy you and
destroy those who love you." Her voice lit with joy and
suddenly her face was transformed with the release of
tension. "You have passed the last test Endymion-sama, that
of spirit. Welcome home, my prince!" She cried silently and
her arms came around him in a hug that was as much a need as
a greeting.
Finally she stood aside as all the others before her
had done and he ascended the last step to face her - the
pale queen on the throne. All expression slipped from his
face and his breath caught in his throat as she rose to
stand steadily before him - slim and imperial in her
moonlight gown and silver hair. Tears were on her cheeks
like softest rain but she seemed not to notice or care.
Without taking her gaze from him, she reached up to her long
staff and the Illusion Silver Crystal was in her hand, a
glowing diamond rose of pure power. The room was as still as
midnight and Mamoru could hear his breathing echoing in his
blood.
"Prince Endymion of Earth," she began in a strong voice
untainted with hesitation, "you stand before the double
throne of Crystal Tokyo, having passed all the tests to
prove your right of ascension. Now you face me, fighter of
justice, star of mystery - I am Neo-Queen Serenity of
Crystal Tokyo and you will prove yourself to me that you are
still the equal of my heart."
The motion was fluid and familiar and Mamoru felt a
keen sense of deja vu as she brought the Crystal in cupped
hands to between the soft swell of her breasts. The
ginzuishou lit like a silver flame and power, raw and
uncontrollable slammed into him. The ginzuishou was
incomparable and he struggled to retain his identity,
absently healing his body again and again just as he had
done once before. It threatened to blow him away, to shred
his very self apart in the wind of its light. Concentrating,
he brought his hands up in front of his chest, mimicking the
stone statue pose of Serenity.
The golden light sprang forth like sunlight, like a
raging firestorm, like an irridescent curtain of liquid
gold. Silver shot through the golden light, mingling and
twining like two flowers and Mamoru stood before his queen,
the Golden Crystal a ball of power between his strong
fingers. No longer subsumed by her raging power he stood
tall and unconquered, matching the effortless beauty flowing
from her. Her tears were falling again and the two Crystals
floated out of their hands to rise above them as he stepped
towards her. "Beloved," he whispered as her arms came up and
he stepped into her desperate embrace.
------------------------------
Kitten paws are soft as velvet and Diana made no sound
as she careened down the long hallways. Her breathing was
harsh in her own ears and she ran as if a pack of hungry
wolves chased her. He was here - as Diana at least had never
truly believed he would ever be. The faces of the senshi,
Serenity's frozen gaze had said it all. Thrilled and scared
beyond words to say, she ran for the one that truly needed
to hear this before any other.
Skidding, she turned the final corner and plied to an
abrupt halt in the middle of a small room, sumptuously
painted a rather interesting shade of purple. Pillows were
scattered everywhere as usual and Diana noted in a corner of
her attention that her mistress had no doubt been trying on
all her dresses again - probably to figure out which one she
was going to wear at the formal reception tonight. It was a
matter of much concern judging by the plethora of outfits
discarded on the floor, bows and fripperies draping the
chairs and bed haphazardly.
A muffled sound drew her attention and Diana was
finally able to make out the direction of her friend. A pair
of legs wiggled out from under the bed, closely followed by
the rest of a small body, bright pink hair made dusty by her
excursions into the nether regions of childhood nightmares.
"Found it!" cried the little girl triumphantly,
clutching a ribbon in one chubby hand. She stood up,
unconcerned about the state of partial undress she was in
and turned, brushing her hair back absently with one hand
and leaving a grime streak on her face. Her happy eyes fell
upon the panting form of Diana in the middle of the room and
a wider grin appeared on her face.
"Hi Diana, what are you doing here? I thought you were
supposed to be attending that boring Assembly so you could
Luna all about it when she got back." Question seemingly
forgotten as soon as she uttered it, Chibi Usa moved away
from the bed and towards the child sized mirror hung upon
the wall. Already her hands were tugging on her hair in
preparation for the new ribbon addition.
"Small Lady," started Diana urgently, " You have to get
dressed NOW! You need to come to the Great Hall right away!"
Diana jumped onto a convenient chair in her agitation and
then again to a desk so that she was more nearly a height
with the dimutitive form of the princess. "You have to come
now!" she reiterated, tail lashing.
Chibi Usa barely looked over her shoulder at the tense
cat, hands busy with trying to braid the gray ribbon into
her bouncy ponytails. "Diana, can't you see that I'm BUSY
right now? What's so important that it can't wait til dinner
tonight? I'm sure mama is busy with things right now . . .
I'll see what she wants later, ok?" Patting her hair, she
inspected the ribbon decision carefully before clapping her
hands in approval. "You've haven't seen my grey dress
anywhere, have you Diana? The velvet one . . you know which
one I mean. I thought it was in the chest but I couldn't
find it anywhere. . ." One hand waved around in the air as
if to indicate the current shambles of strewn clothing, no
doubt made in her dress finding mission. She looked about
ready to dive back into the offending closet again, and
Diana spoke hastily, trying to break into Chibi Usa's
monofocused concentration.
"Small Lady, you have to come now! Get dressed right
away and come to the Great Hall with me - there's no time to
waste with searching around!" Her impassioned plea brought
no response and Diana mightily wished her mother hadn't
decided to take these few days off with her mate. Luna could
have spoken to this child-not-child and gotten what she
wanted within the first few words. Mumbles and various
noises started to emerge from the yawning closet as the
small girl began again to quest for her favorite dress.
Standing on all fours, Diana fluffed her fur and yowled
warningly, sparks nearly flashing from her eyes in her
anger.
"Princess Usagi Small Lady Serenity! Get out here, get
dressed and get going! I said there's no time to waste and I
MEANT IT!" The last was nearly howled and she was smugly
gratified to see a small shocked face peeking out from the
closet door.
"Wow," said Chibi Usa appreciatively. "That was really
loud, even for you. What's so exciting in the Great Hall
that I have to go right now? It just people pretending to be
important in front of mama."
Diana sat down on her haunches again and contemplated
the bemused princess. Carefully, realizing the desperate
importance of this news to her charge, she enunciated
slowly, "Get dressed. Come to the Great Hall. A tall man
with black hair is challenging the senshi - and winning.
Princess Haruka greeted him as a prince." Diana watched the
still puzzled face of Chibi Usa intently.
Finally the girl said hesitantly, emerging a little
more from the depths of the closet, "Diana, other men have
challenged before and won the first few matches. I don't
understand what is so * urgent * that I have to drop
everything now."
"Small Lady," she tried again, "He passed the first
three tests without even trying. Neptune knelt before him
and I heard her name him Endymion, speaking as if he were
higher royalty than she." Chibi Usa's gaze was still blank
and Diana grew impatient at the denseness of her student.
"Endymion, Small Lady, Endymion. Surely you remember ancient
history better than this - Endymion, beloved of the moon
goddess Selene." A dawning light began to grow in Chibi
Usa's eyes and Diana completed the sentence Small Lady had
been waiting all her long life to hear. "I think it's your
father," she said softly.
"Oh." The only thing that moved in the entire room was
Chibi Usa's eyes as they got larger and larger. Suddenly her
face flared into a fierce flush and she raised shaking,
unknowing hands to her hot cheeks. "Oh!" she said again,
helplessly.
The moment of paralyzed immobility passed and without
another word she dived to grab the nearest clothing,
regardless of colour. For the first time Diana changed
herself to human so she could help her princess dress to
meet her lost father.
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