May 08, 2011 2:10AM - If you haven't already read the summary/profile to those who have already begun Fatalis, I am rewritting the first three chapters. I will be putting down the second and third chapter since I will now be working on a differently paced story. Don't worry the main 'idea' of the story is still conserved.
Disclaimer: No, I do not own Sailor Moon.
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Chapter 1 - Little Princesses and the Queen
The main entrance of the Martian palace, Dome, was filled with its most promising blood thirst soldiers standing in endless rows as they hugged their sharp neck cutting spears by their strong arms, which have been shaped after countless wars and battles. The menacing weapon showed no mercy to its opponent and was in alert mode if anything were to go wrong. Even Ares, God of War and the leader of planet Mars, was seen between the rows of his men. He fashioned his best armor, which exhibited his great achievements and high status. Instead of his usual brutally dented golden armor he wore to every battle, he sported his one and only red armor he wore in special occasions. Today wasn't just a special day, but more like his very own judgment day. His father, Zeus, God of Gods and Goddesses, was to arrive to see his foolish son.
The foreign wind finally approached the faces of the Martian soldiers and motioned its invisible wand as if it were conducting an army to harmoniously raise its head to respectfully see the white shuttle preparing for its grand landing. Ares stood motionlessly and illustrated a stoned face.
-fatalis-
"Princess Rei! Please stop fussing around!"
The young princess ignored her talkative head servant and majestically dodged her way through a number of her personal servants. In high-speed, she eventually passed six servants, stood proudly on her gigantic sofa, and crossed her arms over her petite chest in her cute red nightgown.
"Hmph! Only if you can manage your old bones to catch me!"
"Who can possibly stop our seven year old princess?" the head servant cried as she miserably moved her stiff body around the bedroom.
When one of her seven servants reached for the raven princess, Rei hopped off her sofa and dashed straight towards the double doors of her spacious bedroom. As she managed to grab onto the doorknob, she was pulled forward and collapsed embarrassingly on the marble floor.
"Princess Rei Scarlet Hino! You still haven't gotten out of your nightgown!"
The Martian princess recognized the striking yet loving voice. Her mischief vanished as her own eyes to meet her mother's amethyst. She slowly stood up from her fallen position on the grand floor and gripped the hem of her favorite nightgown. Once she confirmed that her mother wasn't so happy with her, she glued her eyes to the floor and flushed dangerously as she tried to form words with her sealed lips.
Quickly Rei… we don't have much time to lose. I am sure you will have lots of time to play once we see your grandfather."
Rei raised her hung head and hastily rushed to hug her mother's long legs. Her warmth and love was too addicting for Rei to disobey her mother's sweet yet strict commands and words. Even if she were scolded, she could not remove herself from her mother. The raven child was only obedient and loving when her mother was near her. The queen could do many miracles that the personal servants wished to do; the queen's existence could erase her daughter's anger, mischief, and sadness without a single word spoken.
The young princess finally removed herself from her mother's legs and gently tugged down on the queen's beautiful white long dress to make her move closer to her. Once the queen's hand was reachable, the raven child hooked her pinky finger to her mother's and began to vocalize such shy words.
"Mother, would it be so hard to be next to me while I get changed?"
Once again, the raven child resumed to fidget with the hem of her scarlet nightgown and began to curl it up and down. Slightly hesitant with her decision, the queen eyed the servants and received all seven pairs giving her encouraging bows. She kneeled next to her daughter, took both of Rei's hands and smiled.
"Yes dear, but you must be quick. We don't want old grandpa to be sleeping in his seat when we arrive, do we?"
The young princess removed her nervous hands off of her slightly rolled nightgown and hastily hugged her mother. Within seconds, she was already on her feet ready to change herself out of her pajamas and into a more appropriate clothing to see her famous grandfather. Her mother silently sighed but went back to smiling her face off as she saw her own daughter working her little limbs across her bedroom.
-fatalis-
"Your Majesty, it has been a long time since greeting you in person."
Ares bowed respectfully to his father. Most of the soldiers were screaming and laughing inside as it were their first time watching their leader show respect to another.
"Ares, no need to be so formal. After all, you are my son."
"Yes Father."
Ares returned back to his stiff standing position.
Zeus was here to stop his ignorant son from his insane thirst for war and mindless mass murder. Before Ares began to fall into his inhumane addiction, Zeus was trying to understand his son's odd interests but eventually decided that his son was the God of War and could not possibly betray his love for war. As time flew, this duty as the God of War was slowly killing the sanity of his son.
Ares, the most powerful man in the battlefields, began to drop from his rankings and was almost defeated by a number of normal men from his opposing planets. These men who have envied the power of a god worked diligently to even set their feet in Ares' domain. Their dedication and persistence eventually overthrew Ares' sanity and pushed and forced Ares to abuse his powers as god.
It wasn't until when he almost experienced a severe injury from one of the ordinaries. He knew he was no longer the king in the battlefield. To mend his own weakness from laziness, Ares misused the gifts of a god and mindlessly used them against normal people. This was not allowed and Zeus became aware of his son's actions.
Eventually, the planets who have been defeated through Ares' misuse of his gifts formed an alliance to isolate Mars from all meetings, organizations, and relationships. Mars was no longer the command center for organizing battles and was highly neglected by the other battling planets. Zeus was more than concerned that he contacted Queen Akira to deal with Ares' mess.
Ares' had completely ignored his wife's constant reminders and continued to abuse his powers. In order to pacify the alliance against Mars, Zeus and Queen Akira had to undergo several public humiliations in order to keep Mars an existing, safe planet. They also prevented any public exposure of this issue because then Ares would have the whole planet revolting against himself.
"So, Ares. Have you found your answer to why I may be here?"
Zeus asked as he took his seat on his son's throne. He sensed his son shift uncomfortably in his heavy yet glamorous armor and held both of his hands behind his back.
"I believe… I believe you have come to praise my recent accomplishments against Uranus and Neptune."
He stuttered. Yes, he stuttered. Zeus could only sigh greatly and placed his left hand over his aging eyebrows. He could not believe his son's stupidity.
"Son. Don't you see your planet might be the next vanishing planet because of your ignorance and stupidity? You. I am going to seal your gifts of a god and I want you to publicly announce the reason behind abusing your power. You still don't understand how much I and Akira had to face for you?
The war god was left speechless. An awkward silence filed between the gods and now Ares had to come up with an appropriate reason to forfeit tomorrow's organized battle.
Thankfully, the god of war was saved by his small servant who bowed and ran at the same time.
"Your Majesties, the Queen and Princess are ready to begin the welcoming ceremony."
The gods both gave his a quick nod and turned to moved inside the palace. Just before Zeus stepped forward, he motioned his finger and one of his personal servants appeared like lightning; ready at his service. He asked for his grandchild to follow him inside to watch the ceremony.
The servant softly knocked on the door of the grandchild's room and asked politely to follow her grandfather to the palace. When the sliding door opened, a girl with slightly curly brown hair, which was neatly tied into a ponytail, walked out of her shuttle room. She seem to have slept through the landing and was stretching her thin arms as if she were reaching for the clouds. Having several yawns, she thanked the servant and quickly exited the shuttle with her extra long, long legs.
-fatalis-
The ceremony was way too long, boring and tiring for the raven princess. Eventually, she slept through it until when she was lightly poked by a servant. Her servant quietly whispered into her ear.
"Princess Rei, you have a visitor."
The raven princess was confused, yet she decided that meeting a visitor would be far more interesting than to sleep through the now dead ceremony. The attention was now all shifted to her popular grandfather. Rei stood up from her throne and followed her servant to the flower garden.
Once they arrived at the garden, the servant removed himself. The princess walked closer to the visitor who was kneeling beside an army of Martian flowers. The brunette picked up a fallen rose and turned to face the Martian princess.
"Scarlet... is a beautiful color. Isn't that why your middle name is Scarlet?"
The raven froze at how her guest knew such a unpopular knowledge. She knew her middle name, which was rarely outspoken to the public. The brunette was tall. A bit too tall for her to be a seven-year-old Jovian princess. Her face was handsome and Rei noticed her very long slim legs walking closer to her. She eyed the brunette.
"Who are you and how do you know my middle name?"
The raven crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow up her forehead. The brunette softly laughed and began to kneel down on her right knee and tugged on the princess's hand. She brought it closer to her face and planted a small kiss on the raven's hand.
It was too much for Rei to handle. Her face blushed furiously. She removed her hand so violently from the brunette that she almost slapped her face. Quick at such reaction, the Jovian stood on her feet and raised her hands to indicate innocence.
"Relax Rei. I'm your cousin, Princess Makoto Kino of Jupiter."
Rei refused to see her cousin and eventually buried her face in her hands and felt the lingering burning sensation on her features. She wasn't mad at Makoto but she was too unprepared for a kiss.
Queen Akira walked closer to the princesses as she giggled yet tried to fight against her small laughter by covering her mouth with her hand. She was spying on her daughter and niece and witnessed the cute scene of Makoto's gentleman-like manner and Rei's shy embarrassment. She gently shook her daughter, shaking the shock out of her raven child.
"Rei, honey. You shouldn't be like this when your cousin kissed you on your hand."
As if on cue, the raven princess woke from her sleep and removed herself from her mother. She looked back to her now grinning cousin and spoke once again.
"Sorry Makoto. I was just surprised."
Makoto only grinned harder at her cousin. However, the brunette kneeled once again and repeated her kissing to the Martian queen.
"Your Majesty, it is a great honor to meet you. I have heard many nice things about you."
The queen could only laugh at her niece's cuteness and patted gently on her head.
"No need to be so formal, Makoto. Akira san is fine. Now princess Rei and prince Makoto, why don't we go inside? I am sure you'll much rather enjoy playing without the heat glaring at you too."
Akira placed her hands on both of the girls' shoulders and guided them indoors.
-fatalis-
It was already Makoto's third day in Mars as her grandfather's duties have not yet been completed. During her short stay, the brunette was surprised at how her cautious and shy cousin easily opened herself to the Jovian. Makoto was actually predicting a couple of weeks would do the trick. Nevertheless, the brunette and the raven quickly found that they shared a few common interests. Both enjoyed being physical so they spent most of their times outside and went on pony rides while the queen took charge of their supervision.
Akira san was also a caring aunt. She was actually more like a mother to Makoto because the queen also acknowledged the brunette as her daughter during her three-day stay. The queen would have probably known that Makoto had lost both of her parents when she was born. Her parents have died in a shuttle crash when they were summoned for a public meeting regarding Jupiter's relationship with other planets.
At the time, Jupiter wasn't in such a stable condition because the brunette's very own grandfather, Zeus, was caught up trying to fix his own family issues. It was always a hassle when his god and goddess child got into a fight or a childish argument. No one could keep them quiet and nonviolent during the epic disputes.
Nevertheless, the brunette was too young at age to quite understand the meaning of her parents' death. Even if she did miss her parents, because she had never really met them before, her feelings were often quite dead. Makoto had also failed to understand the meaning of love but she always put her effort into comprehending and exhibiting love to close people.
Thankfully, Queen Akira had showed several actions of illustrating love and care for her. Makoto eventually began to pick up what she missed in her. It was such a valuable lesson to exhibit love to whomever she really cared for. Makoto eventually understood how her raven cousin would never leave her mother.
"Makoto, wake up!" Mother will be teasing us and I don't want to be embarrassed with you."
Rei said as she looked down at her Jovian cousin who was sleeping beside her on the king size bed. The two had spent the night having a grand pillow fight that went past their regular bedtime. Exhausted, the two fell asleep next to each other and even slept on top of the massive blanket.
Failing to be a morning person, Makoto covered her handsome face with her arm and faced away from her annoying cousin. Furious at the brunette's action, Rei squinted her eyes and dived at her cousin's ribs with her bullet-like fingers.
"Wake up."
Gasping and moaning for air, the brunette struggled to maintain herself but eventually bursted into laughter and tried to shove off Rei's fingers. Defeated by the Martian, Makoto slipped off the bed and pulled the raven with her. The brunette successfully pinned the raven princess on the marble floor and quickly pulled down the bed sheets and cover. In seconds, Makoto had skillfully rolled the raven around the sheets and cover and formed a cocoon.
"This is what you get for waking your sleeping prince charming!" exclaimed the brunette as she placed both of her hands on her hips and laughed victoriously at her poor raven cousin.
When her laughter died down and her throat asked for oxygen, the double doors opened violently as they smashed against the wall. Two pairs of eyes watched the queen rush into the bedroom.
Akira panted and clumsily leaned against the wall to relax her tired legs. She raised her head and looked out the window. The tall trees in front of Rei's bedroom blocked the sunlight.
Good. I still got time.
She rose up to her weak legs and straightened her back.
"Children, I want you out of the bed, ready for breakfast. Now quickly princesses, breakfast is about to be served."
Akira spoke in jagged sentences. Makoto was confused at the queen's unnecessary rush and eyed the raven cousin. The Martian princess was out of her previous form and looked at her mother. Amethyst met amethyst. The child saw a nervous worried pair of eyes in her mother.
"Mother…why the rush?"
Fat silence filed the bedroom. The queen could no longer see into her daughter's eyes and shifted them back to the window. She checked on the sun and realized it was now half visible. Before it was too late, she needed to sell her story to her girls. The queen closed her eyes. Even if it were to lie, she had to in order to protect them. She was going to lie.
Flashback - Previous night in her bed chamber.
The queen sat in front of the fire. She fed it exactly fourteen tree sticks and patiently waited for the fire to evolve. Strangely, the fire was too small and it was cold; unusually low at temperature. Fearing that she would lose her chance to fire read, she closed her eyes and navigated through the cold flames in search for a vision.
It was cold, dark yet familiar. It was too familiar for her to be in the state of fire reading. She tried to open her closed eyes in her reading state but miserably failed. This was not common. Even during her reading state, Akira was either watching the whole scenery as a third person or was the person who was doing or receiving an action.
Still feeling oddly blind yet being able to see, Akira navigated through this strange place. Suddenly, she could feel warmth and heat glaring at her. She shifted her eyes to the right and saw the sun staring directly at her. Thankfully, the sun began to lid up the familiar place and she began to gradually record her surroundings. The queen noticed a window, a large door, and two girls near a massive bed. Looking through her closed eyes, she saw her daughter and niece hugging each other by their small arms.
She then moved to focus on their faces. Her vision was blurred except for the mouths. Only if the queen had the ability to hear in her fire reading state, could she have possibly understood the whole situation.
She eyed the brunette but could not understand a word from her. It looked as if Makoto was forming foreign words; possibly the Jovian language. She then locked onto her daughter's lips and noticed how fast she was speaking. Her first word was crashed immediately by her second.
Don't
No
Mother
Please
Leave
Go
Me
That wasn't even a sentence. When the queen zoomed out of her daughter's mouth, she saw her raven princess weakly stretching her arm out as if she desperately wanted something. The queen eventually followed what her daughter was reaching for and turned to face it.
She saw an object lying helplessly on the marble floor. Her vision was once again blurred so the queen moved herself forward. She saw a pair of long pale arms on the floor and saw a trail of red streak of lines heading towards the object.
It wasn't an object. It was her, dead. Dead; lying on her daughter's bedroom floor. Blood was dripping out of every limb of her body and noticed the red lines, blood lines running out of the bedroom and down the hallway. She had dragged herself to her daughter's room.
Akira felt like someone had punched her in the stomach and her guts were forcefully stuck on her throat. She wanted to throw up and stop looking at her dead body. She was too shocked and confused to move herself and turn away from her own corpse. What she how had to do was find a way to prevent herself to die in front of her girls' innocent eyes. What was more important was that she was going to die. Tomorrow.
End of Flashback
Akira finally opened her eyes and rechecked the sun's status. It was now almost completely glaring at her with its menacing eyes. Having no time to waste, Akira wiggled her silver ring from her ring finger and laid it on her daughter's little hands. She kissed Rei's forehead and turned to skillfully pull out her silver rose earrings from her ears and placed them in the brunette's hands. She placed two light kisses on Makoto's eyelids.
"I want you girls to keep them for me. Now, no matter what happens I will always love you and you must promise me to understand and remember that I will never do anything to hurt you young ladies."
She patted both of the girls' heads and smiled encouragingly. She could feel the confused face of the girls and her guilt was gradually getting onto her. With a quick flick of her right hand, the lips of the princesses were sealed and their bodies were stoned.
She looked into the amethyst and brunette eyes for the last time, respectively, and turned her back to her loving girls. She could hear the confused, panicking, and now crying moans behind her weakened back. Fighting her own will to turn back and hug the girls, she walked out of the girl's room and went to approach her fate in the form of an explosion.