A/N: Hiiii! This is Arashi-chan back again with Endymion's Heritage: The Golden Crystal's companion piece! Please look at that one as well, if you haven't already. Also, some Kakera ni Tsukiakari readers might recognise that the first seven hundred words of this one-shot is taken from Arashi – erm, Artemis' tale. /grins/ Please bear with me, though, or if you want simply skip to where the senshi's origins are.

Note I am well aware that Saturn and Cronus are the 'same' God, but there were too many differences between the two for me to… well.

Serenity's Heritage – The Silver Crystal

Ye may know of the Queen Selenity, she of silver hair and lavender eye, daughter of Selene the Moon. Ye may know also of Selene's brother Helios, the Sun, and the scion that bears his name and badge and watches over Dream – but that is another story.

Her Royal Majesty was a daughter, but she had no father to call her own; none but the lunar dust her Mother had lovingly shaped with her own hands, mixed with many lonely tears shed over the perfectly sculpted features and body.

Selene laboured over Her Selenity like Pygmalion did his Galatea, and in the end breathed life into the body so that Selenity might be Selene on the Moon and rule the people while the Goddess removed the combs that held Her hair in buns so that the infinitely fine, silver tresses – called moonlight by mortals – would reach the Earth's people, whom She did adore.

When Selenity opened her eyes, Selene was overjoyed; Her radiance shone brighter than ever, and Terrans walked the night merely to bask in the brilliance of Her happiness. Before ascending to Her True throne where She would watch, guard and counsel for eternity, She granted Her daughter three things.

Grace of the body and of the mind, that she might rule her new people wisely and tenderly, was one. For her second gift, She reached into the plane of Illusions and withdrew a sentient relic of immeasurable might – something that did not quite magnify, but rather channelled and refined – the power of its wielder.

It was called the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou; the Illusion Silver Crystal, Selene told Her daughter, and It would only find its true place by the true Lunar ruler's side. Lastly, Selene plucked the essence from the flower lavender, which She had always favoured above all, and placed it in the once-colourless orbs of Her daughter's eyes, granting her True Sight.

I spoke true when I revealed the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou was sentient, for It housed a strange and terrible power; Chaos in its ultimate form, caged by crystal. Chaos within Order – Order within Chaos. A never-ending paradox, but one that – strangely – felt what its wielder felt, and loved Selenity dearly.

As Selene had once been lonely, so Selenity now felt alone. Her people loved her, but she could not descend from the pedestal she had been placed on without betraying all she had been created and stood for. The Ginzuishou knew this, and raged that It could do no more for her, until one day…

It would give her a daughter, It decided, but despaired of the how – any daughter It would give her would be soulless crystal and illusions and chaos and order and paradoxes and, once again thwarted from Its desperate desire to please and Its promise, It resorted to Its Origins: that of the Illusion, for inspiration.

How bitter Its despondence and fierce Its joy was when It could find no other way: the Ginzuishou would father the child, and she – for she would be a daughter, It knew – would grow within Selenity herself. But what of the serene royal's honour? Would she be scorned for mothering a child whose father would never be known?

No matter. A child would be perfect, and upon deciding, It manifested Itself as a man with forget-me-not eyes and crystal locks that split the light about Him so that it seemed He glowed gently with its very blessing.

For nine hundred Terran years the seed It had planted within Selenity grew – for Its seed was cold with no potential and it takes many, many years for a new soul to be born – but nine hundred years passed quickly in the eyes of the Lunar people and their Queen, for they measured their lives in centuries and millennia.

At last, a child was born – an honour your humble companion had the good fortune to witness – and she had solemn eyes of lavender-blue that loved everything they gazed upon, Her Royal Majesty's flawless features and the same unique crystal hair as her sire.

They would have named her Aurora for her otherworldly beauty so enhanced by the ever-present glow of colour playing over her person, but the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou whispered in Selenity's ear that Its daughter was to be called Serenity, and Serenity she was.

Serenity grew to be heartbreakingly beautiful – her radiance was an inspiration for artists and poets and many flocked to the moon in the thousands merely to hope for a glimpse of her face. For this reason she was loved, yet the object of many a jealous desire.

Seeing this, the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou worried and fretted, until at last It came before the Gods themselves, in particular Selene the Moon. It begged that Its daughter have guardians and sisters who would love her because she was Serenity, and love her.

Selene herself beseeched the King of Gods, and though he was reluctant, Fate's intervention won the sweet-hearted Moon Princess eight guardians.

Hermes the Messenger, the quick-witted, sharp-tongued and fleet-footed one, blessed a sapphire with the powers of ice and the grace of wisdom. He named her Mercury, and from the sapphire's once-cold heart grew a maiden with a mischievous soul. She was the Trickster, like her deity, and her weapon was a lyre of frost.

Aphrodite, who was Selene's close sister, was quick to follow. From her own magical girdle she plucked a topaz and imbued it with all the love and passion her avatar would represent. She did not hesitate, but severed a lock of her own hair and shaped the golden mass lovingly into intricately-wrought heart-shaped links. The topaz matured into a woman of bright-eyed disposition and unwavering loyalty, and she stood for the passion of love and light, called Venus.

Ares of War, eager to fashion a new disciple, and a warrior no less, granted a ruby life and named her Mars. From his own armoury he bestowed upon the dark-haired beauty a bow of fire and arrows of lethal accuracy. Like her chosen weapon, her element was fire, and her virtue was command over spirit – she could See, she with her violet eyes, and she exercised grace of the mind.

Zeus, intrigued at the idea of creating a woman who would not live to be the human race's Trojan horse as Pandora had been, brought to life an emerald and named her Jupiter. Like he, she could call upon lightning and electricity flowed rampant through her blood. She was the epitome of strength, and her might was like thunder. Because he was King of the Olympian Gods, and she his avatar, her weapon was a wreath of leaves – oak rather than laurel to signify strength and a stalwart character – and through it she possessed a link to nature.

Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter were closest to the Moon, and consequently their namesakes were dear sisters to its princess.

However, there were elder siblings and more powerful guards – Saturn, the god of harvest-corn, which was sown and reaped year after year, and the father of Zeus himself, declared that he too would create a fighter of immense power, and her mastery would be over death and rebirth. From a shard of fluorite sprang a sweet-faced girl, and her eyes were like Selenity's and Mars' – they Saw, and they Knew. She was hardly blessed, for with her powers came fear, and she was but a destroyer, woken only if there was no other way. Her weapon was a parody of the scythe that reaped, because when wielded, the lives it took would outmatch that of the ears of corn fallen in the fields.

Ouranos, father of Saturn and one-time Lord of the Skies and Heavens, brought to life a flawless piece of amber, and named her Uranus. Her weapon was a sword of space and distance, and within her soul she carried a fragment – linked to the sword herself – that, when joined to two others, would supply her princess with a relic of immense power. She commanded the forces of wind and speed to rival the Messenger God's Own.

The Sea God Poseidon plucked an aquamarine from his jewelled trident and from the blue-green stone blossomed forth a woman who held to her bosom her weapon: a mirror that reflected none but the truth. Her powers were over deep waters and understanding, and like Uranus, she held a shard of the Relic within her looking glass. Her name was Neptune.

The last piece was contained within the live garnet that Cronus awakened. Pluto's weapon was a staff shaped almost like a key, and her powers were of time and perception from time, though to use either would be of terrible consequence. In the enormous garnet orb mounted on the staff was the final piece to the Relic, which would in later years be known as the Holy Grail, the Chalice of Life.

And so the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou was pleased – here It had eight fine guardians for Its daughter, and It bound the lives and energies of the gem-warriors, known as the Sailor Senshi, to Itself, and drew the soldiers to the Court of the Moon, where they met and loved the sprite they had been created to guard and treasure.

As the 'Inners' guarded Serenity from killers within, the 'Outers' had different roles that, much to their dismay, took them away from their beloved Princess. Pluto was set to guard and watch the Timegate, and left to dream that her ceaseless vigil might one day cease. She guarded the Princess from enemies within the timestream.

Saturn had scarce met Serenity when she was struck with the dart of endless sleep, never to awaken unless explicitly bidden so by a royal of the Moon or a Deity. Should the Princess fall at the hands of an enemy, Saturn would rise and her glaive would reap and scythe the lives of the Kingdom – with her powers of rebirth, she would allow them all a new chance, yet never receive one herself. She ensured the Princess' near-Immortality.

Uranus and Neptune were companions in their endeavour – they took up stations on opposing ends of the System and defended their Princess and her kingdom from enemies foreign to the Alliance. While Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter were often full of laughter, for and with their Princess, Neptune and Uranus, though they saw Serenity oftener than Pluto and the ever-sleeping Saturn, found it easy to hate yet love the more carefree Inner senshi. They protected what they all lived for at close quarters, and so the Outers loved and envied them.

None, however, including the Ginzuishou, could ever quite comprehend how despite all their efforts and desperation and devotion, the System would fall, and the Princess with it… but that is another tale for another night.

A/N: Review, please… Arashi has worked hard and hopes for feedback?