Blue Destiny [draft]
a tale from the birth of the Golden Millennium
by Mark Latus with the help of Frank Barr and Andy Combs
It was the hour of her greatest triumph yet Azurite couldn't shake the
sense that something was wrong. Which was idiocy as things could not possibly
have gone better. Their great enemies was humbled, powerless and helpless
before her and everyone awed by her tactical brilliance in subduing and
capturing them with no casualties to their forces. Yet for all that something
just didn't seem right. For all her reserve and self control she couldn't
supress a grimace sending amazement though the court. Why did her majesty
look uncomfortable? Shouldn't they be celebrating? Perhaps it was something
as simple as the cushion between her and the seat of the great stone throne
growing a bit threadbare. For what could possibly be wrong on the day of the
Dark Kingdom's greatest victory?
From her station at the Queen's right Titanite asked, "Your Majesty?" as
her consort leaned over from the left. She waved away both their attentions
and proclaimed, "A minor irritation, have this throne refurbished after this
assize". Her Lady-in-Waiting bowed, issued quiet terse instructions to the
catwoman underservant behind her and resumed her pose as the minion scuttled
away. Pyrite settled himself back on his own smaller throne and a wave of
relief spread through the court. Along with anger when one of the prisoners
uttered an insult about the royal buttocks which the Queen ignored with regal
disdain. The message was clear to the court. The ravings of the prisoners
were beneath contempt. Nothing but the helpless frustrated rage of the
vanquished who knew they were doomed and growing reckless in the face of
certain death. The triumphant mood in the throne room was restored and good
cheer returned as the amused Queen smiled at the prisoners. Behind her
aristocratic mask Azurite still felt the uncertainty but doubled her resolve
to keep her features from reflecting it. Never show weakness. That was the
first rule of ruling the youma.
She lifted her eyes from the captives to regard the nobles before her.
Just behind the prisoners stood the old guard, their moods decidedly mixed.
Zoisite still scowled at being passed over for the mission and didn't care
who knew he was in a petulant mood. Kunzite stood beside him with a
reassuring hand on his lover's shoulder. Though he was trying to hide it he
obviously feared an outburst that would earn royal displeasure. Next to him
Nephrite's attention was firmly fixed on the two Majors who stood on either
side of the five kneeling prisoners. Though they were newcomers and upstarts
he didn't resent their victory. Quite the opposite, he obviously rejoiced
at their triumph. As a father should and he wasn't alone in that thought.
Beside him Jadeite regarded her with parental affection. Normally the Royal
Court wasn't the place for displays of such feeling but this was, after all,
a very special day.
His gaze flicked forward to the prisoners and the steel eyed youma who
had captured them and stood guard over them. Hands bound behind them and
forced to their knees before her the powerless, bedraggled and bruised
Sailor Senshi stared back at her. Mars, Venus and Jupiter with defiance,
Mercury with a more calculating look as she studied their surroundings for a
way to escape and Sailor Moon with an expression equal parts resolve and fear.
Azurite suspected the fear was more for what would happen to her friends
rather than her own fate.
Seeing his Queen's attention return to the prisoners Major Calcite bowed
and announced, "You majesty, your plan worked perfectly." Major Chrysolite
concurred, "They never knew what hit them. I never expected it to be so
easy!"
Azurite nodded with satisfaction. This wasn't just empty compliments,
underlings buttering up the boss. Both her subordinates sincerely meant what
they said. Half to herself Azurite said, "Yes. I always knew we could have
taken them if we had got serious." All around the court heads nodded yet
Azurite's unease increased. Something felt very wrong and she had learned to
trust her instincts.
To cover her confusion she asked the room at large, "Now what should we
do with them?" Calls for various tortures and assorted vile deaths emerged
from the crowd. Half seriously Chrysolite asked that she be given Jupiter
as a plaything prompting a horrified look from the tallest Senshi. To her
left Pyrite mused that keeping them alive so their magic could be studied
could yield profitable results while to her right the gentle Titanite
whispered that they had fought honourably if hopelessly on behalf of their
people and deserved the mercy of a swift and painless death. Major Calcite
said simply, "Their fates are in your hands. The choice is yours, whatever
you choose we will do. We can even let them go if that is your wish for they
are no threat to us. With your leadership we can beat them defeat them again
and again any time we choose."
She almost agreed, almost gave the order, but something inside screamed
"ENOUGH!" and she shook her head.
"No, no we can't."
Confusion rippled through the court. What was the Queen saying?
Something clicked in her mind. Speaking more to herself than her
subjects Azurite continued, "I always told myself that we could have beaten
them if we'd been running the Dark Kingdom but I was kidding myself. They
took on more powerful foes at least as cunning as we were and won every time.
Maybe I sneered at their simple minded philosophy back then but they were
right. Sailor Moon's follow your heart rule always turned out to be true.
Love is the greatest force in the universe and time proved ... what in the
Abyss is going on here?!"
Memories of how she had defeated Beryl and seized power crumbled like
dried fungus as centuries of life poured through the cracks. The court
erupted in pandemonium but Azurite ignored it as the real past returned. "It
never happened! The Dark Kingdom's been gone for centuries and I was never
its queen!" Had she fallen into some sort of parallel world? The recent past
was still fogged but she remembered something about a journey. A golden
journey. She'd worry about that later but right now she had more pressing
concerns. She was about to give the order to free the Senshi when the world
went away.
Reality froze and crumpled into a small ball that blinked out existence
leaving Azurite floating alone in pitch black space. Despite the darkness she
could see herself just fine though there was no visible source of light. Her
royal robes had vanished, replaced by her guardian uniform. She had donned
it before they disembarked the ship for its body armour capabilities rather
than to represent Crystal Tokyo. There was no saying what was waiting for
them inside the Uranian shell or what dangers they would encounter on the way
to the control room ...
The last shards of memory clicked into place and Azurite remembered what
they had found when the Golden Millennialists had reached Uranus. After
learning the surprising fate of Haruka's Silver Millennium ancestors (which
amazed everyone be they human, youma or cat with the suspicious exception of
Ferrite) they had made their triumphant entry to the control centre where they
would reactivate the Ancient's life support systems and restore all the
planets of the solar system to habitable environments. A triumph that had
unfortunately been celebrated prematurely. Regardless of their suspicions
Ferrite had known before arrival about the Uranians felt a certain sympathy
for the last terran guardian. Poor Ferrite, a thousand years of life, death
and rebirth working to reach this place only to find yet another obstacle. A
potentially unbreachable barrier which threaten to stymie them permanently.
***************************************************************************
Azurite sat and watched the door. After all they had gone through to
get here, it was getting very boring all of a sudden. Ferrite had insisted
in entering the control chambers alone to issue the commands to restart the
world engines within the Wonders
[Internal - Was "Wonders" but we had better specify that they aren't dedicated
mechanisms for a single function but also run the planetary life
support systems. And yes I do watch "Shadow Raiders"]
and had left the rest of them sitting in the
hall outside. After all they had been through the last few years, he still
didn't trust the rest of them.
She glanced around at the others. Haruka was still seathing at Ferrite's
refusal to allow her to accompany him within. Michiru was quietly giving
Haruka a neck rub, trying to calm her down, though Azurite could tell that
Michiru was no less annoyed at Ferrite. Vicky and Sakuya were discussing
something off to one side. If they ran true to form they would be yelling at
each other within five minutes.
The rest were amusing themselves in various ways.
[Additional material]
Usagi was prattling on
about how they would avoid the mistakes of the Silver Millennium if they made
the Moon Queen ruler over the whole Solar System. Hematite was listening in
her usual long suffering manner waiting for the chance to point out a few
flaws in her reasoning while the anarchistic Myuki wasn't waiting to make
snide remarks and enjoying watching "The Little Princess" struggle to keep
her cool. Fiona was studying the room with an archeologist's eye. Since
Azurite also was trained in the field Fi had considered asking her to assist
but declined noticing the older woman's abstracted expression. Hitomi was
also studying the chamber but with the amazed eye of a tourist rather than an
academic's. Jeane was talking to their guide about her spiritual home and
looking a bit embarrassed at his worshipful manner. Tales had grown over the
millenia and it was going to take some doing to teach the inhabitants that
Sailor Uranus was not their goddess returned to them to end the great sealing.
[If that last bit's too much of a spoiler I can cut references to Uranus still
being inhabited and cut off from the rest of the universe since the SiM fell.
I'm not mentioning Saturn as Sherlyn once mentioned them first meeting her
when they return to the spaceship for the trip back to Earth. Anyway the
new flashback material ends after the cat reference.]
The cats were also scattered around the ante-chamber. Diana draped
around Usagi's shoulders insisting that her princess would make a great Queen,
Apollo and Selene examining their surroundings with the former trying to
remember if they had changed while Aries had decided that as nothing very
interesting was happening he might as well catch up on his sleep.
Azurite turned her thoughts inward once more. Even now, almost twenty
years after she had joined with this motley crew, she still didn't know what
her part in all this was supposed to be. Oh, she had learned all about the
visions of the so-called Blue Haired One during the Black Moon War
[an idea for "Zero Hour" explaining why Uranus and Neptune didn't toast Demand
after he struck down Serenity. More later]
but they
still felt distant. She had been told that she was this Blue Haired One, that
she would have a critical role to play in the founding of the Golden
Millennium, but she still had been unable to emotionally connect that to
herself.
She reached into her pocket and fingered the strange object that sat
there. She still didn't know how it had gotten on her pillow
[which wasn't at the moon base but on Earth, no problem for Helios]
or rather who
had placed it there without waking her the day before they had launched the
Deep Thought. It was supposed to be locked in a safe in the moon base
accessable only to Haruka and Michiru.
Then there were the dreams she had been having lately. If she hadn't
been working with a group that placed so much importance on dreams and
visions, she might have dismissed them. But as things were, she couldn't
get the words of the dream out of her mind.
"The time of choice is coming. When it comes the choice will be yours,
and yours alone. If the choice is not to act, then there will be no penalty.
No one else will know, and your life will continue as it has. But if the
choice is for action...
"The choice to act will result in the undertaking of a great trial.
There is much danger, but much reward as well. No other can make the choice,
for it must be made by one of sufficient strength to survive the trial, but
one who is not already dedicated to a specific sphere. For the reward shall
be the forging of a new link, and the opening of a bright, new future."
Azurite turned the words over in her mind. If they were not just a
figment of her imagination, then something was coming soon.
The door to the control room suddenly irised open, and Ferrite stormed
out, cursing loudly using languages nobody else had heard of before. Michiru
got the impression that he could have he would have slammed the door off its
hinges, if it had hinges.
"Stupid, idiodic computers!!" he raged.
"I assume there's a problem?" asked Michiru.
Ferrite glared at her. "I gave all the restart commands. The system
seemed to respond correctly, but then it started with a bunch of error
messages. The system keeps saying that there's insufficient power to complete the commands."
"Insufficient power? I thought that the wonders channeled all the
mana from their planets. How could there not be enough?" asked Michiru.
"You're right. There should be plenty of energy available to each
wonder for it to reset."
Younger Mercury looked thoughtful. "But Captain Ferrite. Remember
what you're asking it to do. You're not just trying to turn on the switch on
the Wonders. You're asking them to totally rebuild the habitats of whole
planets.
[additional]
Gravitic alteration, conversion of toxic atmosphere or creation of
a breathable one in near vaccuum, removal of incredible amounts of heat and
pressure, matter conversion on a planetary to create oceans and a thousand
other tasks. While they could probably, no must have, maintained environments
once they were established do they have the power create them?
[end latest pedantric addition]
Is the mana
output of the planets really enough to do that?"
Ferrite stared at Mercury for a moment. "Probably not. You're right.
That would require an immense amount of power in a very short amount of time.
More power than we could hope to access. Which means that this was all for
nothing." He stepped aside from the doorway and dropped to sit on the floor
at the side of the hall. Azurite could almost see the weight of all his years
catching up with him at once. But then something caught her eye through the
now unblocked doorway.
Azurite barely heard Mercury as she continued. "Not necessarily. The
Ancients obviously did this once. They got the power from somewhere. We just
need to figure out where..." She stopped as Azurite rose to her feet, staring
through the doorway.
"Azurite-san?"
Uncharateristically ignoring Hitomi Azurite asked, "Ferrite, what is
that symbol?" She pointed to an emblem on the center of the main display.
"Oh that?" he asked glancing back inside at the sun symbol. "It's
like the Ancient's corporate logo or something. We found it etched on the
Great Portal and all the other solid Wonders. It's even on one of the faces
of each of the remotes." He took a silver-grey dodecahedron out of his pocket
and tossed it to her in an offhanded manner. "Here, see for yourself. It
doesn't do anything, though. Believe me, I've tried it six billion ways to
sunday and nothing ever happened."
Azurite turned the geometric solid over in her hands and saw that symbols
for each of the planets was on it. And on one face was the symbol on the
display.
For Azurite everything was suddenly crystal clear. She recognized the
emblem. The same emblem as the one atop the artifact in her pocket. She
could see clearly the choice that she had. She could do nothing, and the
dreams of the Golden Millenium would fail. There would be no repercussions
on her. No one would know of her choice. She could go back to her life. A
life that had lacked the monotony of immortality lately, what with her
daughter and everything else.
Or she could act. But to act guaranteed no risk of success. And if she
failed then the dreams of the Golden Millenium were no less dead. But she
somehow knew that to try and fail meant death for herself along with
everyone's dreams. She didn't know what lay ahead. She had no way of
assessing the chance of success or failure. Even if she did succeed, she
somehow knew that she would be changed. In exactly what ways she could not
predict, but she knew that she would not be the same person when this was over
that she had been for the last thousand years.
That was her choice. The safe, familiar life she had been living,
or a chance at something else.
In the end, there was no choice to be made after all. She had already
made the choice, years before, when she agreed to help this group chase
their dreams.
No, there was no choice at all.
Azurite pulled the object from her pocket. There were a number of gasps
from around her as the others recognized the Sailor Senshi transformation wand
topped off with the same solar crest that was flashing on the screen in the
control room.
Azurite quietly spoke the words that came to her from nowhere and
everywhere. "Sol Star Power, Make-Up."
Azurite was encased in intense light, blinding everyone else in the
room.
[The next bit's artistic license as Azurite wouldn't remember it]
When their eyes cleared, Azurite was gone.
"What the hell was that?!?" said Vicky.
Michiru just smiled. "That, I think, was the reason she's the Blue
Haired One." The Younger Senshi nodded understanding.
Haruka pulled out a deck of cards and glanced at the still bewildered
Ferrite. "Care for a game? I suspect we may have a bit of a wait on
our hands."
Ferrite just nodded.
*************************************************************************
The memory explained both everything and nothing. When she activated the
Great Portal's remote she had been transported but to where? Some mad
parallel universe where she had become the Overlord somehow displacing the
real Queen Azurite? But that made no sense, while there her memories had
matched the world. She remembered overthrowing Beryl and seizing power and
dimensional assimilation didn't work like that. In fact she knew from
experience that in a parallel universe she would have been immune from the
effect. Some sort of hallucination caused by the remote but why had it ended
when she recognised what it was and where was she now? Could she be dreaming
all this? In a dream you accepted anything despite it's implausibility.
But if she was dreaming she wouldn't be asking if she was dreaming. Wait!
Dreams! The dreams told her ...
The recognition came too late as another world appeared and she
embraced it.
The pain from the cauterized stump that had ended in a hand instants ago
was incredible. Fighting the pain and shock she forced herself to back away
from the black armoured warrior and his glowing weapon. Each step seemed to
take all her energy as if her feet were magnetised to the narrow metal
catwalk. Ordering herself not to go into shock she staggered back knowing
that with one thrust her life would end but her opponent just stood there.
It felt like years but it was only moments before her back felt the safety
rail that marked the end of the platform. No way to retreat and she had lost
her weapon. Bare hands against light saber wasn't much of a contest. Bare
hand she reminded herself with grim humour.
She glanced around hoping to see a multispanner or any implement that
would make her final attack on Vader just a little less hopeless. Why the
Sith Lord hadn't finished her yet she had no idea but every extra instant was
a chance to think of something. It was also a chance to suffer, she couldn't
fight shock forever. Maybe Vader was just waiting for her to drop so he could
drag her back to his ship for a mind probe. She vowed to launch her suicidal
assault the moment consciousness started to fade.
Surprisingly her adversary didn't just stand there. Instead he lowered
his weapon and reached out his other hand towards her. Vader's hissing voice
echoed through the gas collection chamber. "You need not die, need not fight
me. There is a place for you at my side."
The pain made her own voice hiss through clenched teeth, "Do you really
think I'm stupid enough to believe that."
"This is no trick. Your power is fledging but shows great potential.
Under my guidance you will become a great warrior for the Kingdom. You will
stand with me at the Emperess's right hand."
She heard no deception in his words. Could he possibly be serious? She
shook her head, it must be the pain clouding her senses to consider the offer
for even an instant. "You're insane. After all you've done do you really
think I would ever join you? Ferrite warned me you would try to bring me to
the dark side."
"Ferrite never knew the glory of the dark side of the force. He lied
when he warned you against it. He lied to you about many things."
Anger cut through the pain, how dare this bastard insult her teacher?
"Ferrite never lied to me, he told me all about you. How you betrayed him.
How you murdered my father!"
"No, Azurite. I am your father."
The words struck like a hammer blow. "You're lying!"
"No, no I am not see for yourself." Vader's lightsaber deactivated and
clipped itself to his belt as the sith lord raised both hands to his helmet.
The faceplate detached with a whoosh and his hands lowered to reveal the face
beneath. Azurite moaned in disbelief. Despite the cybernetic implants she
recognised those features. When Ferrite had told her the portrait that
fascinated her was of her late father, his best pupil and close friend
Jadeite she had memorized the face and searched the mirror for traces of it
within her own. He was her father and if Ferrite had lied to her about then
what else had he taught her that was false?
She staggered back against the railing, through the haze of pain she saw
Jadite smile. "Now you see the truth. You are of my blood and deserve to
stand by my side. You will have a new hand and a new lightsaber both better
than the old. Under my guidance you will prosper and your powers become
awesome. Together nothing will be beyond us and you will look back on this
day as the most fortunate of your life. You sense what I offer is true. You
are my daughter and blood will tell." He began striding across the bridge
toward the fast weakening rebel. "Come to me Azurite, come to daddy."
Azurite's mind raced. He was sincere, she didn't have to die today. She
could become mighty, master the Force as he had and be reborn in his image.
In his image ... yes she could see it. He would remold her her mind in his
image. She would betray everyone she loved and think she did it by her own
choice. Azurite would die and in her place would stand a cybernetic creature
that thought itself unchanged. Ferrite hadn't lied. Her father was dead,
consumed by the thing fast approaching her. The same monster she would become
if her took her.
She wasted a moment wishing for a grenade. There was no way to kill the
sith lord and if she attacked he could render her unconscious with ease and
begin his work. She couldn't let him have her, she knew far too much. Even
as she thought this she was scrambling up the rail and without a pause vaulted
into space. She heard Jadeite's roar and threw the last of her power against
him. It delayed him long enough for her to plunge beyond his range to ensnare
her and draw her back up. She plummeted like a stone until sucked into a
outgassing tube. Blurring through a maze of pipes she barely stayed conscious
as slid faster and faster towards the glare of sunlight. This was it!
She almost made a one handed grab for an antenna array but stopped
herself and plunged downwards towards death. Vader controlled the gas mine
and if anyone came to see if was clinging it it would be his minions. He
would sense her so long as she survived. She plunged downwards with
increasing speed. In approxomately three minutes she would be out of the
oxygen layer and into the heavy gases that encircled the planet. Idly she
wondered what would kill her first. The toxic atmosphere or the heat and
pressure within it? Two minutes and thirty seconds, she had that long to
either learn how to fly, breath poison or call Vader for help. The last one
wasn't really an option except in the academic sense.
She didn't regret her choice. Not that she didn't have plenty of regrets
over things undone and unsaid but she had done what she had to. Better to end
this way that betray her friends and her cause. Perhaps she'd see Ferrite
again, hopefully he wouldn't be too disappointed she had failed to defeat
Vader. Her one real regret was she hadn't thought of a way to bring Vader
down with her. She plunged downwards towards unpleasant death and prayed the
others suceeded where she had failed. The future of the galaxy wasn't her
worry any longer.
One moment Azurite was choking and burning in the corrosive fog and the
next she was back in the black space without any injuries. Unconsciously
flexing and massaging her hand she tried to make sense of all this.
Why would she dream herself a character in "The Empire Strikes Back"?
She'd always had a sneaking fondness for the Star Wars trilogy but she had
never dreamed about it and it had felt so real.
Psychic attack! That was the answer! Something was playing with her
mind. She assembled her psi-defenses and cursed herself for an amateur. How
had she let herself get caught off guard like that? When she used the remote
to whereever here was she had walked into some sort of psionic defense and it
was sending these dreams to ... to do what?
Confusion filled her. Psionic attack was supposed at worst to shatter
the opponent's mind and at best sow confusion. Except the effects didn't
endure outside of the scenario and within it she didn't know it was all in
her mind She was confused by the purpose of the dreams but ...
Wait! Dreams! The dreams had warned her she must face a great trial if
she chose to go forward. Was that what was going on? A testing rather than
an attack. But a test for what? Was she supposed to resist falling into the
scenarios? Or were they so she could demonstrate some quality but what? In
both she had faced decisions but the consequences had been different. Had she
made the right choices? She had made her choices but she had no ideas of the
rules of this trial. She had no information and know way of knowing what she
was supposed to do! Maybe this was just some version of a trial by ordeal.
She would live through absurdity after absurdity to see if her will broke.
Azurite forced herself to focus. First step, see if she could resist the
trial. Perhaps that was the point. She had barely thought this when a new
reality punched through her psi-shields like a bullet through paper.
Azurite found herself compulsively staring at the room's decor rather
than the man in the bed. He sighed.
"I'd like to think I'm a little more interesting that motel furnishings."
After a moment he added, "Nobody forced you to meet me here. While it's not
too late to leave you've got a funny sense of timing."
Since the only thing she was wearing was a towel having just emerged from
the shower intending to join him rather than get dressed she had to agree.
This rendevous wasn't some spur of the moment decision she regretted. They
had carefully planned this several days in advance to make sure the tabloids
wouldn't spot them. When she had hit the shower it had been with anticipation
yet suddenly the reality of this seemed overwhelming. She sat down on the
bed's edge and massaged he forehead. What the hell was wrong with her? She
had wanted this for a very long time? Why get cold feet now?
There was the creak of bedsprings and she felt hands on her shoulders
kneading the tense muscles. Behind her Calcite whispered, "I know I've had
blow ups with Minako before but nothing like the last one. It's finally over
so you can't be feeling guilty over ruining our chances of getting back
together.
"It's not that it ... it's me. Him!" The last word said with
considerable venom. The anger eased under Calcite's skillful ministrations.
Understandingly he agreed, "You're the aggrieved party. There's no
betrayal when an oath is already broken. Azurite scowled remembering coming
home unexpectedly to find her husband wasn't alone in bed. To add insult to
injury it was her! Margrave wouldn't have been so bad, she might have been
able to attribute it to the catwoman's guile or phermone manipulation talents
but a woman she had thought a friend! Then to find out that the affair had
been going on under her nose in her own house for months was the final straw!
To prevent a scandal coming to light it had been hushed up, the rebuilding of
the house attributed to an experiment that had gone wrong. They still shared
the same dwelling but they stayed out of one another's way. It couldn't
endure much longer, pretending nothing was wrong was wearing them both down.
Needing a shoulder to cry on she had bumped into Calcite on the rebround from
the most serious break yet with Minako. One thing had lead to another and her
ancient feelings for him had been rekindled leading them step by step to this
place for the ending of centuries of monogamy. She had known what she was
doing every step of the way so why these last minute nerves?
"It's just ... it's been so long since I've been with anyone else and ...
and I really expected it to last forever."
"So did I. I was wrong too. There were plenty of good times but in the
end ... what's done is done and it's still over."
"I think ... I think it's that I'm still married."
"So am I."
"Yes but Serenity declared your marriage unbreakable and it'll take her
centuries to realise it's really over this time. Mine isn't ... I could end
it but I haven't yet." She took a deep breath, "We didn't swear eternal
vows, nothing is truly eternal at least not in this universe. But we did
swear eternal fidelity."
"A vow already broken."
"Yes ..." Thoughts crstallized and she smiled sadly then turned her
head and gently removed Calcite's hands from her shoulders. "Yes, yes he
broke our vows. But I can't break my word just because he did. I swore
an oath and until it's rescinded I'm bound by it."
Calcite looked perplexed. "No one would fault you for it. Most would
think it bizarre you still put any credence in it or him."
She sighed, "I know but it's not about how others feel it's about how I
feel. I could have divorced him but I haven't yet and it's not just about
keeping up appearances. Maybe part of me still won't believe it over. Maybe
I've got into a rut and just haven't gotten around to clambering out yet.
Maybe ..." She smiled sadly, "There's a lot of maybes but it always comes
down to this. My word is good and I haven't broken it yet. It would be a
shame to waste it on a backstabbing adulterer." She kissed Calcite and stood
up. "After the divorce if you're still interested give me a call. But until
then it's best if we just stay friends."
She saw the understanding in his eyes and turned to the bathroom to
retrieve her clothes. This had been a mistake. She had just moved too fast
after Pyrite had ... it suddenly occurred to her she had no idea of the name
his lover. Which was ridiculous how could she forget that? Or what made
Calcite and Minako's latest breakup truly irreconcilable? What was this motel
called, what city was it in? Why were there so many gaps in her knowledge?
Memory flooded in and she realized she had been tricked but why wasn't this
dreamworld disappearing? Behind her Calcite's voice said, "Because I think
it's time we had a little chat."
Azurite spun around to face him. Her towel unfurled but she ignored it
and snarled, "You bastard!" as she raised her hands to blast the imposter.
Nothing happened, she stared at her hands in shock. What had happened to her
powers?
Calcite shrugged off the bedsheet as he stood up. "The reason you cannot
summon wind or fire is that your body is no more real than anything else here.
All of this is taking place within your mind while your body is ... in
storage."
Feeling foolish at not figuring that out for herself she lowered her
hands. Not much point in attacking an illusion and it had said it wanted to
talk. She had plenty of questions but first there was a distraction to deal
with. "Mind putting some pants on first?"
"Of course." Reality flickered and they were both casually dressed and
sitting in armchairs in the middle of the darkness. Courteously he said, "If
this form is too distracting I have a more neutral one prepared."
After the last scenario Calcite was the last man she wanted to see. "I'd
prefer that." She managed not to sound angry but from the raised eyebrow it
knew what she felt. Of course it did, whatever it was had been crawling
around inside her head rewriting her memories. Obviously it could read her
mind. She was feeling foolish once more as Calcite and his chair morphed into
a irregularly shaped bluish stone donut. Azurite had an odd sense of deja vu.
To cover this she asked, "Are you a messenger or the judge himself."
The donut glowed as echoing words filled the dark space.
"THE JUDGE, I HAVE NO MESSENGERS. I AM THE ONLY SENTIENT BEING IN THE
VICINITY FOR REASONS THAT WILL SOON BECOME OBVIOUS."
"Where am i? Physically, I mean."
"YOUR BODY IS WITHIN ME."
"Within you?" That conjoured up some nasty images from her homeland.
The stone glowed again.
"YOU ARE IN NO DANGER OF BEING DIGESTED. I DO NOT EAT. INDEED IT IS
DEBATEABLE IF I WOULD BE CONSIDERED ALIVE AS YOU DEFINE IT."
Various possibilities flitted through Azurite's mind. A tickle of memory
prompted her to ask, "Are you a machine or a being?"
"I AM BOTH, AND NEITHER. I AM MY OWN BEGINNING, MY OWN ENDING."
When it said that something clicked. Living with Pyrite for a thousand
years meant having watched a lot of his favourite program.
"You're a Trekkie?!"
"NO, BUT YOU ARE CORRECT. I AM INDEED CRIBBING THE DIALOGUE AND
APPEARANCE OF THE GUARDIAN OF FOREVER. IT SEEMED APPROPRIATE IN SEVERAL
WAYS."
"So you watch terrestrial television?" Could she be back on Earth?
"FAR TOO MUCH. I FIND THE TASK OF RECONSTRUCTING THE FRAGMENTED SIGNALS
MORE INTERESTING THAN THE CONTENT BUT IT HELPS ME STAY INFORMED."
"Why do you have to reconstruct them?"
"MY HABITAT GENERATES CONSIDERABLE ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERFERENCE. TO AN
EXTENT THAT IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOUR TECHNOLOGY."
Azurite wondered where exactly she was. The symbol on the wand couldn't
be irrelevant. Could there be an undetected artifact orbiting the sun capable
of sensing signals through the electomagnetic haze? Since it seemed
talkative for the moment why not ask?
"Are you what we call a Wonder? One unknown to us ..." That was an
idiotic question. Someone had created the wand so they must have known of the
Wonder. Yet Ferrite didn't associate the symbol with anything so what was
going on?
"YES, I AM WHAT YOU WOULD CALL A WONDER OF THE ANCIENTS. I IMAGINE YOU
WILL CALL ME THE SOLAR WONDER."
"Then you are concealed near the sun."
"YOU ARE PARTIALLY CORRECT."
"PARTIALLY?"
"I AM CONCEALED BUT NOT NEAR THE SUN. I DWELL WITHIN IT."
"What?!"
The Wonder did not answer her in words. Instead a basketball sized model
of the sun appeared before her. It expanded rapidly and she involuntarily
shrank away from the licking tongues of plasma. Then she was inside and
surrounded by the boiling mass of plasm feeling herself accelerating deeper
into the star. As she approached what she somehow knew to be the core she saw
it. At first glance it appeared to be a featureless sphere but as she drew
closer she saw the thin spines extending in all directions. A sense of scale
she should not have possessed told her that those narrow towers were hundreds
of kilometers across. Ornate metalwork or something that looked metallic
covered the sphere's surface in intricate designs. If it was functional,
decoration or glyphs in some unknown language she had no idea. Perhaps it
was all three. The Wonder expanded and she passed through its surface her
speed increasing. There was a blur of incomprehensible shapes and she found
herself in a room about the size of a football field. Marbelesque plinths of
varying shapes and sizes jutted from the floor, colours crawling across them
with no pattern she could discen. At the room's centre was a dias topped by a
thronelike chair. Directly before the throne was a pillar of golden light
though which she could make out a humanoid shape floating within it. She drew
closer to the pillar and wasn't too surprised to recognise herself. The other
Azurite appeared to be asleep in zerogravity conditions and showed no sign of
waking as her twin approached. Azurite flew into the pillar and felt her
posture change to mirror the other. She was eased forward and merged with the
duplicate and found herself back in the black space with the faux Guardian of
Forever. It took her some time to find her voice.
"That was all real?"
"YES."
"But ... but you can't be inside the Sun!"
"WHY NOT?" It sounded almost amused.
"Because the sun ... it's a star! Nothing can survive inside a star!"
"LITTLE IS KNOWN ABOUT MY FELLOW WONDERS BY YOUR PEOPLE SAVE THAT WE
CANNOT BE ANALYSED AND ARE INDESTRUCTIBLE. IS THIS NOT CORRECT?"
"Well yes, that's basically our sum total of knowledge about you."
"THAT IS FORTUNATE FOR YOUR KIND. OUR MAKERS GUARDED THEIR PRIVACY WELL
AND YOU WOULD NOT CARE TO ACTIVATE OUR SECURITY PROTOCOLS. BUT THAT DOES
CONCERN US MY PRESENCE WITHIN THE SUN DOES. IT IS QUITE SIMPLE, SINCE YOU
KNOW US TO BE INDESTRUCTIBLE WHY SHOULD YOU EXPECT A LITTLE THING LIKE THE
SOLAR FUSION PROCESS TO BE DEHABILITATING?"
Why indeed? Indestructible meant ... well indestructible. It had
become devalued to mean very hard to destroy rather like immortal coming to
mean unaging rather than undying. What she saw here was the reality of the
word. If you had an indestructible artifact why not hide it within a star?
Who would look for it there? Azurite shook her head, she also shelved her
plans to ask for any information about the Ancients the warning having been
clear. Besides a new worry had occurred to her. "You said, 'my people'.
You do know I'm not a human being?"
Again it sounded amused, "TO AN ENTITY SUCH AS MYSELF THE MINOR
BIOLOGICAL VARIATIONS BETWEEN HOMO SAPIENS AND HOMO YOUMA ARE SO INSIGNIFICANT
AS TO BE IRRELEVANT. YOUR SPECIES DOES NOT DISQUALIFY YOU. ONLY YOU MAY DO
THAT."
There was so much to ask, what did it want to find out? If it could
enter her mind at will surely it already knew everything about her. But first
there was something she had to ask.
"Are all the Wonders sentient?"
"PERHAPS NOT AS YOU DEFINE THE TERM BUT TO VARYING DEGREES WE ARE ALL
SELF AWARE. I SHOULD EXPLAIN WE ARE COMMUNICATING THROUGH A TRANSLATION
INTERFACE I HAVE CREATED. WE ARE TOO ALIEN TO ONE ANOTHER TO COMMUNICATE
DIRECTLY EVEN THROUGH TELEPATHY."
She had suspected something like that but now for the real question.
"Why did you choose me as a potential candiate for ... for whatever this
trial is for."
"CHOOSE YOU? I DID NOT CHOOSE YOU? I MERELY TEST YOU."
"But ... but the visions Haruka and Michiru had that lead them to the
others and eventually to me. They saw me centuries before they recognised me.
Are you saying you haven't been pulling the strings of destiny?"
"YOU ARE CORRECT. I WOULD WELCOME THE REACTIVATION OF MY FELLOWS BUT I
HAVE NOT, INDEED MAY NOT, INITIATED IT. BUT I DID NOT OPPOSE IT WHEN THE
ARCHITECT OF YOUR GOLDEN MILLENNIUM LEARNED OF ME AND SOUGHT A CANDIDATE TO
BECOME ONE WITH ME."
Architect? Then the visions did have a creator. She remembered the
long, rambling and ultimately inconclusive discussions with Haruka and
Michiru over the source of their visions. Both were inclined to think that
Destiny was unfolding itself to them. Azurite tended more to seeing it as
visions of a possible future, an attractive vision but one that wouldn't
simply happen which in her view defined destiny. But to learn that someone
or something other than fate or temporal anomalies were the source was
disturbing. "Then who was it?"
"I HAVE SEEN HIS NAME WITHIN YOUR MIND THOUGH IT IT ONE YOU HAVE HEARD
OF RATHER THAN ONE YOU HAVE ENCOUNTERED. I SPEAK OF HELIOS."
Azurite couldn't hide her amazement, "Helios?! Helios, as in Usagi's
ethereal boyfriend? The guy who has half the palace staff convinced she's
being haunted by a ghost horse?" Azurite remembered her princess's many
exasperated complaints about constantly finding ofuda concealed in her
quarters by well meaning maids. Which didn't bar Helios as he wasn't an evil
spirit but did give him a persistant itch that made his pegasus form look like
it was suffering from a bad case of fleas.
"YES, THOUGH I KNOW HIM AS HELIOS THE DREAM KING, RULER OF HELCION SINCE
THE DAYS OF THE SILVER MILLENNIUM. THE OLDEST HUMAN IN EXISTENCE WHOSE AGE
AND EXPERIENCE DWARFS FERRITE'S. THE MAN TO WHOM YOUR MILLENIUM OF LIFE
PALES TO INSIGNIFICANCE."
Azurite mentally kicked herself. Usagi's puppylike devotion to the boy
of her dreams made everyone overlook that she had first met the 'youth' in the
twentieth century. While Sailor Pluto had returned Usagi to her own time
Helios had lived through the intervening centuries waiting for the day his
Chibi-Usa would be born. For the first time Azurite wondered just what the
Dream King had been doing the past thousand years. According to Usagi she had
captured the Dream King's heart in her younger days, restoring his fading
humanity after millennia of emotional detachment from mortal dreamers.
Certainly from Chrysolite's account of her time in Helcion you wouldn't have
known Helios for an immortal demigod. So after the defeat of Nephrenia (or
Naprina or whatever in the Abyss that particular evil queen's name was) the
restored Dream King had settled back into his realm knowing that almost a
thousand years hence the girl of his dreams would be born. Plenty of time to
prepare for the reunion.
For no reason she could define Azurite felt uneasy at this thought. But
why? The Dream King was a benign entity, Serenity vouched for him and not
merely from her earlier contact with him. After Usagi had dropped the
bombshell about her literal dream dates and just why she wasn't interested in
the material boys she met the Queen had used the Silver Crystal to have a
the first of many in-depth talks with Helios. If she had thought he posed
any threat to her daughter Serenity would have sealed Usagi's mind against
touching Helcion in a heartbeat. No, Helios was no threat to Usagi. From
all accounts he worshipped the ground she walked on. Were it so difficult
for him to manifest as a physical presence for more than a few moments (a
handicap Usagi intended to correct once she was more proficent in using the
Silver Crystal) he'd be by her side constantly, showering her affection and
gifts. Of course the latter alway presented a problem. Usagi had wealth,
health, personal and political power, fame and was heir apparent to the most
powerful kingdom on Earth. Even if, Azurite recalled, as Ruby Aino had once
jokingly remarked to her being an heir wasn't worth a lot when your parents
were immortal. Still that aside Serenity had made it clear to her daughter
that if the Moon was restored she would abdicate all claim to it in favour of
the princess and pass the Silver Crystal on to the rightful Queen of the Lunar
Kingdom. None of which lessened Usagi's ego, a fact that caused considerable
friction with several of the other Younger Senshi. The upshot of which was
Usagi was very hard to impress. For what can you get for the girl who has
everything?
Almost as soon as she thought that a disqueting answer occurred to
Azurite. A cold feeling stole over her as the implications became clear.
Crystal clear.
No, she was just being paranoid. Letting her youma upbringing make her
see hidden things in every shadow. That revisonist Dark Kingdom scenario
must have shaken her more that she had thought. Why else would she consider
such ludicrous ideas. It was just a foolish fancy! That couldn't be how
their quest began!
"YES. IT CAN."
She hadn't articulated that! "You can read my thoughts?!" A moment later
she answered her own question. "Obviously, if you couldn't get inside my
mind you couldn't implant those false memories and you obviously based them
on my real memories. But that still leaves the question of why? What is the
nature of the test, what am I being tested for and how does Helios fit into
all this?" As she said this Azurite frowned and reached into her jeans'
spaceweave pocket and was a little surprised to find the wand with the sun
symbol was there. When had she put it away? Then chided herself for
forgetting this place was just a mental construct. Anything she could imagine
could be in there.
"INCORRECT. I DEFINE THE LIMITS OF THIS SPACE BUT WHAT YOU SEEK HAS A
PURPOSE HERE SO YOU FOUND IT WHEN YOU SOUGHT IT." Azurite drew the wand from
pocketspace and the voice said, "ASK YOUR QUESTION."
"Very well, I should have thought to ask this first. This wand is of
Silver Millennium manufacture like the others yet while wands like these were
used to create the Sailor Senshi by linking humans to the Wonders they're
marked for there is no record of a Senshi of the Sun. But if you were unknown
until today why does this wand even exist?" A thought occurred, "Is Pluto
involved? Did she ... no, will she fashion this wand and take it to the
distant past after she learns of your existence?"
"NO." Again the voice was amused. "YOUR PARANOIA IS UNJUSTIFIED THOUGH
UNDERSTANDABLE GIVEN YOUR UPBRINGING. LIKE THE OTHERS THE WAND NEPTUNE
FOUND UPON THE MOON ARE TRULY OF THE ERA YOU CALL THE SILVER MILLENNIUM. IN
TRUTH THEY PREDATE IT FOR THE SILVER MILLENNIUM WAS DECLARED AFTER THE DEFEAT
AND RETREAT OF THE SLAVERS. A DEFEAT HASTENED BY THE CREATION OF THE SAILOR
SENSHI BY THE FIRST QUEEN SERENITY."
"But if she knew of you why wasn't the wand used? They were fighting a
war and wouldn't have scorned whatever power you possess." An unpleasant
possibility presented itself. "Or was it that unlike the other Wonders you
insisted on testing those who would be your Senshi and none could pass your
tests?" And what had happened to those who failed?
"AS I SAID YOUR PARANOIA DOES YOU CREDIT, A USEFUL SURVIVAL MECHANISM IN
YOUR HOMELAND. HOWEVER YOU ARE THE FIRST HUMAN I HAVE TESTED. BUT NOT THE
FIRST I HAVE SPOKEN TOO, THAT WAS THE FIRST SERENITY. LISTEN AND DO NOT
INTERUPT." As her life could well be riding on this the Wonder already had
Azurite's undivided attention. There was a momentary pause, perhaps to order
its thought or more likely for the translation matrix to process the monologue
that followed.
"AFTER SERENITY CRAFTED THE SILVER CRYSTAL IN THE FIRE OF MARS SHE
BESEECHED IT TO LEND ITS POWER TO ITS PRIESTESSES. MY FELLOW GRANTED HER
WISH, OUR MAKERS DID NOT FORBID US TO LET YOUR KIND LINK WITH US AND THE
ETERNAL FIRE IS, AT LEAST AS WE DEFINE THE TERM, SOMETHING OF A
SENTIMENTALIST. IT HAD LONG BEEN FASCINATED BY THE MORTALS WHO SOUGHT
ENLIGHTENMENT WITHIN ITS FLAMES. IT DID MORE THAN PERMIT THE CREATION OF
SAILOR MARS, THE FIRST SENSHI. IT TOLD HER OF ALL THE OTHER WONDERS, WHERE
IT WOULD BE BEST TO ATTEMPT SENSHI CREATION ON SATURN, JUPITER, URANUS,
NEMESIS AND NEPTUNE, THE WORLDS WHERE THE WONDER WAS TOO MASSIVE TO SUGGEST AN
OBVIOUS INTERFACE SITE. SHE INTERPRETED ITS COMMUNICATIONS AS VISIONS FROM
A HIGHER POWER. WHICH WAS TRUE THOUGH NOT IN THE SPIRITUAL TERMS SHE
CONCIEVED. NO MATTER, WHAT TRULY MATTERED WAS THAT SHE FOLLOWED THOSE
VISIONS."
"WHILE SERENITY'S BAND OF HUMANS SLOWLY JOURNIED TO JUPITER WHAT SHE
KNEW AS THE ETERNAL FIRE SPOKE TO ALL ITS FELLOWS. BY THIS TIME SAILOR MARS
HAD FOUGHT HER FIRST BATTLES, AN EXPERIENCE SHARED BY THE FIRE AS IT DREW UPON ITS
RESOURCES. TO ANTHROMORPHISIZE IT WAXED POETICALLY ABOUT THE BEAUTY OF THEIR
SYMBIOSIS. SEVERAL WONDERS LISTENED, THE OTHERS HAD NEITHER REASON NOR WILL
TO REFUSE THE MERGER AND SO WERE BORN THE OTHER SAILOR SENSHI. BUT THERE WAS
ONE WHO DID NOT LISTEN. UNLIKE THE OTHERS IT HAD NEVER KNOWN HUMAN PRESENCE
AND FELT NO BOND WITH THOSE WHO HAD ARISEN IN ITS MASTERS ABSENCE. THIS
SHOULD NOT HAVE MATTERED FOR THE HUMANS HAD NO INKLING THAT IT EXISTED. OR
AT LEAST THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE BUT THE ETERNAL FIRE HAD SAID MORE THAN IT
SHOULD TO SERENITY. AS YOU SAID SHE COULD NOT IGNORE ANY POWER THAT COULD BE
TURNED AGAINST THE SLAVERS. THEREFORE SHE CRAFTED THE WAND YOU HOLD THEN USED
THE SILVER CRYSTAL TO PROJECT HER MIND INTO THE HEART OF THE SUN."
"I REFUSED HER REQUEST. INDEED HAD IT NOT BEEN ONES OF MY FELLOWS WHO
HAD REVEALED MY EXISTENCE TO HER I WOULD HAVE DESTROYED HER MIND FOR
TRESSPASSING HERE." Azurite was very relieved to hear it add, "YOU DO NOT
TRESSPASS. YOU ARE HERE AT MY INVITATION AS I SHALL EXPLAIN."
"I COULD HAVE MADE WAND THE SILVER CRYSTAL FORGED INERT EASILY ENOUGH
AND I NEARLY DID. YET MY FELLOWS WERE SO ENAMOURED OF THEIR LINKAGES THAT I
RECONSIDERED. IT WAS OUR DUTY, OUR PLEASURE, TO SERVE THE ANCIENTS. WITH
THEM GONE WE WERE INCOMPLETE AND AFTER MILLIONS OF YEARS WITHOUT THEIR
PRESENCE EVEN SUCH LIMITED CONTACT AS THE SENSHI OFFERED WAS JOYOUS. BUT
UNLIKE MY FELLOWS MY FUNCTION WAS DIFFERENT. THEY SERVED MANY FUNCTIONS
UPON THEIR WORLDS WHILE I, I ALONE, MERELY WAITED AGAINST THE DAY I WAS CALLED
UPON AGAIN. IN THE BEGINNING IT WAS I WHO PROVIDED THE SPARK THAT LET THE
OTHERS MAKE THE WORLDS HABITABLE FOR OUR CREATORS.
This meant Myuki had been right that planetary mana alone was insufficent
to power terraforming on that scale. At least not unless you wanted to wait
centuries for results. Except that this Wonder was located inside the sun.
So how ... ?
"YOU ARE PUZZLED FOR YOU KNOW THAT WHILE STARS PRODUCE MANY FORMS OF
ENERGY THEY HAVE PRECIOUS LITTLE MANA.
[Helios and why he thinks Azurite's the perfect candiadte (Wonder doesn't
want to be called on regularly, powered candidate reduces that. Longlived
as Helios schemed for centuries and looking for someone who would take the
challenge.). The wonder can convert fusion power to mana, the small
energy conversion artifact that Martin Spector found was a spare module
for the conversion banks.]
[Trials continue but I'll be glossing over them. If you feel like writing a
character test send it via the list. The first three scenario's tested for
vanity, the ability to sacrifice herself for the greater good and her
personal concept of honour]
[Adamite scenerio - Duty/Necessity/Family]
[The Eternity gem - Power corrupts?]
[The verdict]
[The staff of the sun]
[The return and the royal boon]
[Silver Crystal links them - Solar Guardian born]
[The return and reactivation]
[The clothing problem]
[The return to the ship - enter Saturn and Pluto]
[The Reunion and the beginning of the GM]
[Epilogue 1 - Usagi learns of Helios's manipulations]
[Epilogue 2 - Back to the future / Pluto knocked up!]
Uranus - a few decades later
[Afterword - Uranian flashback by Andy Combs with additions by Frank Barr
and yours truly. Ref "Crystal Renegades" for BHO and Sun Wand
origins. Ref Ferrite's guide for Senshi origin]
(
geocities.com/tokyo/temple) (
geocities.com/tokyo)