Cosmos
In the beginning, there was nothing.
And then there was something. Or rather, two somethings that filled up the nothing, so that it could never return.
Cosmos. And Chaos.
Cosmos was the force of creation and the light that birthed love. It swirled and simmered until the Galaxy Cauldron was born, and from that cauldron emerged the gods, followed by the stars. A thousand stars, a million stars, making up universe after universe, galaxy upon galaxy. Life began.
Chaos seeped into the cracks, taking up its place in the newly formed hearts and minds of the gods and people and skies. Chaos was pain and destruction, a destruction that served no purpose and forbade rebirth.
But a world without Chaos could not be. There was no beauty in a world completely still.
And so an age-old battle to maintain the balance began.
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Cosmos didn't create things, anymore than Chaos destroyed them. Cosmos was creation, was the light, flowed in all things tha shone or lived or were. There was no coniousness. No soul. Just power that made up countless points of struggle, until a conciousness was formed. Chaos was destruction. Chaos was the black hole that formed after a supernova; it was the inevitable death of all living things; it was the fear and darkness that dwelled in every true soul beside the love that made up Cosmos.
Some souls succumbed to the darkness and created evil. Some souls rose above it and created good.
Senshi were born, souls with more Cosmos than Chaos. Villains were born, with more Chaos than Cosmos. Perfect harmony, a never ending cycle. Attacking and defending. Dying and being born. Loving and hating.
But the balance was shaky-one side was forever winning, the scales were always tilted. The forces of the universe clashed and clashed, as souls met souls an sparks flew. There was war, and there were weddings. There was torture, and there was friendship. Barriers were built; barriers were overcome.
The first wisps of will developed. Cosmos had been energy; now, it gained a mind. A primitive, slow kind of thought, but it was awareness all the same. And so from the Galaxy Cauldron, a single soul as born, a soul without any Chaos in it at all. By some great luck, or careful design, the soul was born in the line of the Moon, those blessed by the goddess Selene, and those who bore a sacred stone. It was a special stone.
Chaos saw and jealousy began. Longing. Wanting. A need to tear that pure light to pieces. The avatar, the incarnation, the soul that made up everything the power of Cosmos represented walked the Earth. To birth souls was beyond Chaos's power; life was not something it could imitate, only corrupt. But it could still fight.
Serenity. Usagi. Usako. Neo Queen. Princess. Sailor Moon, Super Sailor Moon, Eternal Sailor Moon. The soul had many names.
There were a thousand enemies. There were a thousand youma. The light fought on.
Paradise formed. The balance tipped dangerously to one side.
Crystal Tokyo came crashing down. Everyone seemed to have died. But in the tomb of Neo Queen Serenity, where there ought to have been a corpse, there was a sleeping soul, a hibernating self that was relearning all that Cosmos had ever known. Usagi Tsukino-Princess Serenity-was ascending once more.
The Galaxy Cauldron heaved. A Sailor Crystal made without light was born. The Cauldron collapsed. Chaos reigned.
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She awoke.
There was nothing. Not a star, not even dust. Not even an atom of the world she had protected and known existed. The nothingness that Cosmos had been born of had returned. She had no body-all the force of Cosmos was compressed, forming the familiar shape of the Senshi in her memories.
Sailor Cosmos floated in the abyss, holding her Cosmos Crystal to her breast. It was all play, of course. She was a soul that represented that cosmic force of the universe; nothing physical could bind her. No, it was comfort that she drew from the trapping of humanity, of being a Senshi. For the price of having a soul was the long list of emotions that came with it.
Sailor Chaos approached, an empty maw playing at being a person.
They fought. They clashed. They were perfectly matched, but that was not enough; Chaos had to be shattered, so that Cosmos could give birth to a new universe. So that the soul could separate from the energy, so that she might see him again.
Sailor Cosmos, aka Usagi Tsukino, can still remember the exact shade of his eyes. She is far above the gods-they were only manifestations of herself-but she is human and small, too. And she aches for him, for them, for all the seemingly insignificant souls that were her company.
Endymion. Mamo-chan. There's no grave, no dust of the Earth left: her mourning is internal, a constant pain. She has no true body, but there's a beat in her chest any way. It's the way his heart beat when she died in his arms; steady, slow, it will thump in her until the end. Until awareness ends and the universe begins.
She goes back in time. Eternal Sailor Moon gives her strength, reminds her of her duty, reminds her that she has overcome before. She feels stronger when she awakens again in the empty void, despite Sailor Chaos's cruel smirk.
And then she realizes the truth.
In the beginning, there was nothing. But there was something, too. Once upon a time, there was a force far greater than her own-because Cosmos and Chaos, the twin energies of the universe, were children of something bigger than themselves, becase someone had to maek the nothing, too.
A spark of the force that created her…
…crystallized and wandered the universe…
…until the goddess Selene, blessed with a vision, guided it to the moon…
Her eyes open as she crashes into Chaos. She knows.
There is someone watching over her. There is a divine plan in this eternal battle. And the power she thought she didn't have is here…because Eternal Sailor Moon gave her another gift.
Sailor Cosmos reaches deep into herself and draws outs the Silver Imperial Crystal. It blooms. It glows. It pulses in time to Mamo-chan's last heartbeat.
She dissolves into a shining light, and the fireworks begin. The Galaxy Cauldron reforms, the beginnings of stars flicker into being, Chaos's single crystal shatters and spreads out.
She falls, a simple soul now, the Silver Imperial Crystal held tightly. As she passes what will someday be a moon, circling a blue planet, she lets it go.
It may be silly, but it's the only way she knows how to do things.
And she is somewhere, in the something that made the nothing from she-form which Cosmos, for she is only an aspect now and no longer has to bear the whole-because the energy is just energy and will not have a will for a while longer-
He is waiting for her.
And she runs, awkward but fast, into his arms. Usagi Tsukino leaves Sailor Cosmos behind.
She is free.