Title: Existence Without Living
Theme: Other Kingdoms
Genre: Drama
Version: Manga
Rating: PG
Summary: In the Silver Millennium, Sailor Saturn only has one purpose: to die. And yet for a few moments she experiences life Cosmos wished her to have.

I feel nothing. Trapped in a void from all eternity, perhaps from the beginning of time. But at the beginning I felt something before I came here to my gilded tomb. Light in joyous waves curled and pulled to form the nucleus of my being. Someone held me softly, someone cared for me, someone cooed encouragement to my budding star. I remember her briefly. She greeted me as my eyes opened for the first time, and in that moment I learned my name, my purpose, the course of my entire life. She sent me away shortly after, not giving me time to form the ability to accept nor protest. But I remember her face, now grown somewhat faint in endless time, I remember her smile.

I've learned from time that her smile was of sorrow.

She sent me to Titan Castle, the orbiting monarchy of the planet Saturn, to spend my years waiting to be summoned by the death of my sovereign. I've never met my Queen, nor know her face from my own, but I'm bound by duty to serve as a star protected by her kingdom. I am Sailor Saturn, the Soldier of Ruin. I stand in nothing waiting to feel again, and in that moment perform my duty to eliminate that feeling.

Her sorrow came from my circumstance.

To nurture a star shining with all the cosmos, a brightness very few stars are graced to have. To assign such beautiful brightness to the duty of death is disheartening, if one had a heart. To grant a star with such potential to wield power to change the cosmos is logical. To sentence a star of life to isolation and fear is inhumane. As a star with only a moment of life, I never obtain such feelings.

But she did.

I can feel the cosmos calling, my chest burns in response. I can feel feeling tingle through my veins from the very core of my star, perhaps this is life entering reanimation. The Silence Glaive rests lightly in my hand as I greet life for the second time in my existence. Before me stands three with duties I recognize bearing the weight of my own. Their instincts had called me, their powers glowing in their hands, and in their faces I see the horror of betrayal. Each one feeling but not knowing the guilt resting in their birthrights.

My birthright gains weight in my hand.

I drop it. The Glaive slices quietly through the atmosphere of the Outer Rim. My duty has been fulfilled. Light funnels through the Silver Millennium obliterating what had been. In that final moment the three look on, mouths agape, the word choked in their throats.

Before death befell me, I gain the ability to protest, too.