So this little ditty was my entry in the 2011 Shitennou Forums Ficathon. The theme this year was a quote from the fuckyeahliteraryquotes blog. It is the fourth installment of my "The World Ends" series. Yes, yes, I know I've gone out of order. I don't write linearly so all you Sailor Mars fans are just going to have to hang in there for a bit longer. She's being very difficult to find a voice for.
While not necessary, there details and I think more depth to this piece by reading the others first:
The World Ends in Ice
The World Ends in Fire (not written yet, sorry!)
The World Ends in a Storm
I do hope you enjoy, as always all comments/critiques are welcome.
Setting: SilMil
Characters/Ships: Venus, Kunzite, Zoisite, Jupiter
Warnings: Graphic Violence, decapitation, mature themes such as suicide, character death, lots of angst.
"Why does the mind do such things? Turn on us, rend us, dig the claws in. If you get hungry enough, they say, you start eating your own heart. Maybe it's much the same."
THE BLIND ASSASSIN, MARGARET ATWOOD
"Why?"
The question echoed off the cacophony of chaos with chilling clarity. Midst the ravaged and singed debris of marble and flesh flickered the reflections of two strange and haunting lights.
Slouched over a fallen angel of silver, was the battered blackened gold of the Senshi of Love. She cradled her silver sister in her lap. At another time, in another place the scene would have been lovely, picturesque even. Marred by the crimson stain that trailed from the sliver angel's breast and the bruised and battered body of the Venusian Senshi.
The Shining Child of the Moon was dead. Killed by her own hand.
They had always been two shining beauties, the court loved to see them side by side complimenting and contrasting, now there was no room for comparison. Even in death the Princess of the Moon could not lose her ethereal glow of purity and kindness. As if any moment her moon silver lashes would part to reveal laughing eyes. While the Moonchild lay dead in the center of her crumbling palace looking as if she were merely sleeping, her Guardian Senshi lived with the appearance of one dead. Her golden tresses chopped and mangled with gore and dirt, the face once called a Golden Goddess now smeared and scraped like a wretched urchin. The uniform of the Princesses Royal Guardians' was barely visible, so ripped and tattered, if not for the blood and sweat it may have fallen from her body completely.
"Why?" The hoarse whisper gained no answer, just as it hadn't the hundred times before, the dead kept their secrets. It all seemed a dream to the Venusian, some strange nightmare. It had only been a moment, she was trying to secure the gates of the courtyard. A few seconds with the lock to keep it held tight, to keep them safe and alive. But then... Venus cast a glance around her and beyond, for the palace walls had all crumbled, she could see the destruction of the kingdom and knew it was no dream. She had failed. As if on cue with her despair the rain began to fall.
The north of the palace grounds were a frozen tundra had taken shape were the Senshi of Mercury fell. The first testament to Venus's failure.
"It's my fault, Seré." She brushed absentmindedly at the dampening silver hair of her departed charge, clinging to her tighter when the wind kicked up, some instinctual reflex unhindered by the lack of life in the body that remained. " I should have trained that girl harder, not let her get away with just defensive maneuvers and espionage. We all needed to be more well rounded, I knew it, and yet..." She looked down with a tearful gaze "It was easier to let them play to their strengths. It was hard enough to work as a team. I had failed you before we begun. It was my order that sent Mercury to the Archives when they landed. Power divided from the start. Stupid. Stupid!"
Her eyes drew to the blazing inferno in the east of the grounds, the funeral pyre of the Senshi of Mars. "What were all those years of training for?" It didn't matter that Serenity couldn't answer her, couldn't comfort her as she once did. Venus had never been alone. Not really alone, not like this. There had always been servants, tutors, trainers, advisers, troops, comrades, guests, lovers, someone to talk to. Here in this moment of desolation when the world was ending she needed to bare her soul and confess her sins. " First lesson of defense, don't divide your strength. But what does this fool of a leader do? Allows Mars to decided she needs to be at the firing line with the Lunarian archers. Undisciplined, rebellious!"
Venus pounded her fist to the ground causing mud and rubble to fly. "I never did manage to assert authority completely over that Martian princess. Sometimes allies, it was a constant struggle for supremacy. He told me it would cost me someday." She stumbled a little over that particular pronoun and the man it brought up, "In the end it cost Mars her life. A proper leader would have gotten through, orders would not have been questioned, she might have lived..." What spark of energy that brief moment of anger had fostered quickly faded leaving once again a crying shell. All those little things she let slide, all those weakness's he had questioned, they all came true. That was the truly frightening thought of them all, that He had planned for all her mistakes. That she had played into His hands from the beginning.
It had been the big unanswered question from the moment that they had heard about the betrayal of the Heavenly Kings. Did they go willingly? Had the demonic-red-headed earth witch brainwashed them into submission? Did they retain their insider knowledge? Endymion had maintained until the end that they were mere copies of his beloved Guardians, that they would never allow themselves to be swayed. Venus wasn't so sure, and the plague that her Lover was using all his guile against her and her Princesses was truly horrifying.
Blond wet matted hair blew into her face, breaking the concentration from bearing her soul for just a moment. The wind was picking up. Serenity's dress fluttering in it's gusts, a tendril of silver hair sprung free from the ground, it's movements panicked as if searching. Venus gently tucked the tail of hair away like a precious piece of ribbon to be kept unsoiled from the puddles growing around them. The wind and rain came from the west, where a massive storm turned with such ferocity. The moon had not seen such a storm in it's recorded history, trust Jupiter to break through the Lunarian atmosphere program and bring a tempest to the silver planet. She didn't know if the amazon woman lived or died, at this point the Link was too contaminated with whatever hellish energy that bitch Beryl had accessed. Either way, she had failed her too.
"I never ridiculed her, Seré... You know I didn't. She was the ambassador of the Outer Planets, and Princess of Jupiter, a title of respect and I never uttered 'barbarian'. But...but I let others do so." she hung her tarnished golden head in shame, "I never gave her opinion much weight, courtesy... but not respect. I never let Jupiter feel like she belonged. You know that too. No one did, except you and your mother."
She had failed them all.
The Blessed Kingdom destroyed in one fell swoop.
"Why had no one foreseen this? For all the wisdom of all nine kingdoms, all the solar system! No one had warned of this! The Blessed Kingdom, the Silver Millennium, The Reign of Beauty and Peace. A heap of idealistic hopes and shattered white marble!" The words left her mouth in sputtered raspy bouts, her voice rusty from hours crying. " The Chosen Ones we had been called. The Legendary Sailor Senshi, made even more powerful by their royal houses. A good omen upon the future. A shining hope of prosperity." She laughed a cruel laugh at the thought.
"The Cursed. That's what we are. A curse upon our kingdom, and our loved ones." She spoke venomously to her silent companion.
Bits of rock and debris flew in the air, biting at Venus's already raw wet arms. There was enough wind and pouring rain now that through her shock she felt the shivers of cold. She pulled the dead body of her princess up into her arms turning her back against the wind. Some part of her mind knew it was useless, the Princess no longer felt such things as cold. She just had so little to hold onto, so little to keep her there. She wiped blood, rain and tears from her eyes. Catching sight of her wrist she turned it over looking miserably at her ultimate failure and the symbol of her shame. Cradling her sister she cried softly.
"I would have died for you Seré. I would have taken any arrow, blast or sword to have you live, little sister! But-" Her throat swelled up raw and chocked with tears. "But I can't do it. Gods forgive me, I can't! I'm afraid Seré." She wiped her tears that had mingled with the rain off Serenity's face, not wanting to mar the beauty there. "It's my duty. I failed. I do not deserve to live. I am a coward but I cannot kill myself. Don't hate me princess, please don't hate me. " The sobs overtook the blonde woman once more and she was lost in the cycle. Time had left her since the final act, since she had locked the doors to the Courtyard of Selene and turned to find the minion of hell already there. How the redheaded witch had gotten there she would never know, but before Venus could make a plan the worst unfolded.
A single blast of black writhing energy, the Earth Prince's loving sacrifice and her beautiful charge ending her own life. It could have been months since it all played out before her. Venus sat there going through the cycles, clutching Serenity, confessing her failure, eyeing her blade, the one that had the Moon's blood on it, trying to fulfill her last duty and end her life, failing, and confessing her sins all over again to the dead. Was the war still going? She didn't know. Was the Queen still alive? Was there anyone left to fight? She held no answers, only guilt.
The persistent wind began to howl, thunder and lightning crashed and it was the need to find shelter for her princess that made the senshi move. With the wind gusting stronger and stronger she almost didn't hear the small troop of Beryl's forces until it was too late. Ducked behind a fallen pillar, heart pounding in her chest and hands clenched fast upon her blade. It was a small troop no more than six or so. She watched them like a lion watches it's prey. They were getting too close, far too close to discovering Serenity's body. A thought that filled her with dread. The fucking earth witch would not get her hands on Serenity even in death, she would make sure of it.
This new purpose filled her. Instincts slipped past the guilt of living and the Senshi's deadly gaze turned golden. She circled them twice, deciding what their easiest escape root was, judging the terrain and choosing her opening. They were huddled as much as possible in the broken corridor that used to lead to the Throne room. Each of them trying desperately to stay out of the torrential rain, hail, and general debris that the storm was kicking up. Lighting was striking so it was a sensible decision. Just as Venus had decided the order in which the unlucky troop of Terrain solders would die, she spotted him.
Walking calmly with an air of pride around and over the debris, was a lithe golden hair man that the Palace of the Moon use to hail as ally, Zoisite, the traitorous, scum, unworthy-has-been third general of the fallen Earth Prince. Venus prayed the Goddess Aphrodite would spit on his grave. As he grew closer the storm began to calm. Smug cat-like face smirking, as if by his power alone the winds began to die down. She had a new target to kill.
The lull in the storm was both a blessing and a hindrance. On the one hand it allowed her the advantage of hearing what the bastards were saying. On the other it meant her own movements were no longer masked by wind and thunder.
"General Zoisite!" one of the slack jawed soldiers called out in the Terrains clunky monstrous language. The whole lot of them clamored together like fat school boys over the star pupil.
"Is it true Zoisite? Is she dead? Is the war over?"
The green eyed general's smirk grew to a pleased grin as he planted a boot on the remnants of what had been a exquisite statue of the first Queen of the Moon.
"That's right, gentlemen. The moon brat is dead, her guardians dispatched. The pathetic white queen is being dealt with by Queen Beryl as we speak." There was a raucous sound of barbarian cheering, Venus ground her teeth.
"I'll be happy to leave this planet. It's eerie", one of the wiser oafs murmured.
"Well, we aren't leaving till every last pale Lunarian scum is dead. So get a fucking move on!"
There was a general chatter of discontent at this order before one of them exclaimed loudly enough for the hidden Senshi to hear.
"Hey General what's that?" one of the smaller oafs went to reach for something hanging off the dark general's belt. The reaction was instant.
"Don't touch that!" Zoisite's eye sharpened in fury, his bark taking on a dangerous edge. All the men took a step back and cowered. Zoisite himself handled the item delicately, slowly bringing it into Venus's view. The slim gold tiara with one bright shining Sapphire was a cold icey dagger to her already broken heart.
She crouched ready to spring, years of training keeping her stationed even as she shook with rage. Just a few more moments. His men were leaving him now. The pounding wind had ceased, there was a roll of thunder, one perfect shot. One chance to end him, one chance at a small modicum of redemption.
He stood up on one of the fallen columns, still holding the circlet of the planet of Mercury. For a moment he looked like the fresh faced young man that first came to the moon, a certain sense of wonder and curiosity dominating his fine features. She leaped sword in hand to ensure that look be that last one the Terrian Lord of the North ever held.
There was a crack of lightening, thunder bellowed, the soft clatter of the diadem hitting marble, and the muffled ba-dum-dum of flesh falling. Venus stood still at the bottom of the column stopped short by a mass of honey curls and blood that rolled a few feet from her. She blinked surprised to looked into the grass green eyes in the disembodied head of Zoisite, pale face flushed as if in anger to have his hair so disheveled.
There was no tainted earthling blood on the Moon sword that she held. Taking her eyes away from the morbidly funny sight of Zoisite's pristine face now forever locked in a slack jawed expression, as his severed head sat on the marble floor she looked up the column to see who had beat her to kill. Standing over the body of the beheaded general was a ghost. It's form covered in blood, some of it bright and ruby. Other of it, such as at the left side, blackened and caked. There was no discerning what colors lay under the ombre of red, leaning heavily against the large battle axe that struck clean and true through flesh and bone, she stood an avenging angel.
"J-Jupiter?" Venus could hardly breath, but there she was. The tall amazonian warrior never looked down at her latest kill, never even bothered to wipe the new blood that splattered across her face.
Venus could barely believe her eyes, she was alive! The only thoughts registering through her mind were ones screaming that she was no longer alone. She stepped forwarded in a frenzied rush, to embrace her comrade or to jump for joy? It didn't matter, all that mattered was that she wasn't alone!
But the tall blood soaked warrior took no notice of her. Her dead green eyes scanned the horizon and with heavy movements began to trek slowly southward.
"Jupiter!" Venus called, scrambling up the column after her, "It's me! It's Venus! Jupiter!"
But the Jovian never turned around, never flinched at her name, just continued the trudge onward. The trail of blood dribbling from her blackend side with each thud of her heavy ax-crutch made. Lightening danced around her, as the Leader of the Sailor Senshi watched her last remaining Senshi move onward the wind began to pick up, and the rain began to fall once more. Venus stood there immobile with emotion, her grasp on her sword clenched and loosened in neurotic spasms. Just as she had decided to go after her, to chase her down and FORCE her to stay together. Boot lifted to start it's forward motion she was cut off by her destiny.
"She'll kill you if you get in her way."
There was no use in trying to fool her mind into thinking it was someone else. Was there anyone else who could speak with such sharp softness? She ground her teeth, and looked down at her right wrist. A little dimmer but still there, the shackle of her true failure, her curse. She didn't have to turn around to know that the golden link trailed it's way up to the arm of the tall broad shouldered traitor Kunzite, first General of Earth. Most people had them, these links. They connected souls, they were the energetic manifestation of destiny, two souls that at some point in the tapestry of time and the universe had decided to join together. Some of them were weaker than others, some were thin newly fashioned threads, others well woven ropes. It had been the gift of the royal house of Venus to see these links, to witness these destinies. It had proved useful over the years, there was no bluffing the chain of fate. Yet now she looked at this link, this shackle and knew it to be her curse.
"That's how a warrior goes off to die." He spoke conversationally unaware of the gleaming mass of energy that taunted her. She looked up to the horizon, the rain beginning to fall harder, the wind picking up. She could faintly see the broken form of Jupiter limping onward, the eye of her own storm. She took a staggered breath finally noticing that axe that held up the senshi of protection was not an axe of Jupiter, nor was there any hint of the strong pulsing Chain of Destiny that had once followed her.
"She'll kill until she dies." again he kept talking in that maddening calm tone, she ground her heel into the marble to maintain composure. Damned if she'd let him get the best of her now. "Queen Beryl had insisted that you'd be dead by now. Honored bound to follow your pathetic princess. But I...I had a feeling I'd find you here. Very much alive."
It was the vagueness of the conversation that drove her crazy. Had anything changed? Was he still the man she'd slept with, fought with, confided in? Or was he a shell of that man? Her current position was useless, no way to know as she was with her back turned to him. Swiftly she turned on heel and unwavering she meet him eye to eye.
"General Kunzite" she nodded curtly
"Sailor Venus" bastard smirked and bowed slightly.
"Why are you here?" Her plan was to keep him talking, she needed to know the lay of this proverbial land before she could find a means to attack. It obviously meant nothing to see her, either that was due to him having no guilt of his betrayal, or that he knew what the Leader of the Senshi looked like as any good General would do. He smirked coldly with none of the luster that she had seen on occasion.
"I should think that obvious, Senshi. To retrieve the body of the moon brat to my victorious Queen."
Venus's heart stopped beating, in that moment it didn't matter whether or not he was who she remembered or some copy. They held eyes for a moment that strung on for eternity and then the race began. With the force of momentum launching herself off the column towards the resting place of her Serenity, Venus easily took the lead. The giant of a man could never match her in all out speed.
Whether he remembered this or not, he made the well placed move to blast her with a wave of dark energy just as the white moon princess came in sight. Venus tumbled to the ground still focused on moving forward, still determined to get there first. He always did forget about her long range weapon. She rolled forward springing up. There was a snickering crack as she released the Venus chain. It hit its mark with force and precision, a strong tug and the white haired man's foot went flying out from under him. In the time it took him to regain his footing she had already positioned herself between him and the still form of the silver Serenity. Out of breath, bloody, and beaten, Sailor Venus was no one to tangle with. The animosity held within her glowing golden eyes could have melted steel.
"You and your bitch of a queen will not touch her."
"Don't be a fool Venus. She's dead. She's no use to you now." He dusted himself off looking at her with agitation he took a step forward.
Venus uttered a growl and snapped the whip of light cutting a mark against his stoic face. He didn't flinch, he didn't move to clot the cut. She didn't want to talk, she wanted to fight, to scratch his eyes out, to feel his muscle tear underneath her blade. She wanted him to feel just a little of the pain she felt.
He was happy to oblige.
They fought as fiercely as they ever did, but this time there were no stolen kisses, the teeth used were not for love bites, and the powers thrown about hit their mark. On a lucky shot where the traitorous bastard used some black magic to send her sprawling back into the air and hit a marble wall, Kunzite gained the upper hand. He pulled her up roughly by her jaw, sword at the ready.
"You don't have to die you know." Again with that same sharp softeness, she groaned in pain and in fury. His grip loosened just slightly. "You're a strong, good warrior. I could convince the Queen to let you live." He was examining her with those crisp gray eyes, it was the look he got while looking over a new strategy or weapon. He turned her chin up so the rain fell away from her eyes and she could look at him directly. "For some reason I'm disinclined to part with you."
She laughed, Goddess help her she laughed. The novelty of laughter however hollow, being heard in the desolation and chaos of the place startled the stoic general enough to loosen his grip just a bit more. With a well placed sword hilt to the shin the general stumbled back and Venus stood to her full height, all 5'4" of it.
"You are disinclined to part with me?" The hard laughter still in her voice as she attacked him with a bout of golden energy and a uppercut to the left meeting his solid jaw with pleasure. Quickly she repositioned herself between the man and her Liege. "Do you hear that Seré? For some reason he is disinclined to part with me." Another shot of the Venus beam and another, had the Terrian warrior dodging behind fallen infrastructure. Her wrath falling where it may, the scope of the battle she was fighting revealed to her.
"The traitor wishes to show mercy. How does it feel Lord Kunzite to have an active hand in the death of your sworn sovereign? Did you rejoice when the Prince died, did it fill your veins with heady pleasure." She smiled darkly to see the tension rise in the statuesque general, even more sweet was to feel & see the throbbing recoil in that cursed golden chain. Brainwashed, seduced, whatever sorcery held the memories of the man who once embraced her, his soul still felt every painful barb thrown.
"You were not so disinclined to part from me, to leave against your Lord's wishes and return to a rebellious planet! It wasn't so hard for you to fall prey to the insidious powers of that redheaded demon!" They were both out of breath, he from barely dodging her whip, she from the sheer force of the situation.
"Have you gone mad, woman?" His voice cracked and for once something other than smug stoicism crossed his face. He edged a little wearily around the blond woman as one would a raging animal, some deeper part of him knowing that this creature in front of him could be his ruin.
"What sort of worm so easily breaks a vow of fealty to his prince? How proud your ancestors must be to have an oathbreaker in their lineage."
"Enough!" Kunzite found himself breathing ragged breaths at her words as if they were blows. It made little sense to him. He was First General of the Earth, protecting the people from the corrupt and vile hands of the solar system that would make them slaves. Queen Beryl would see the universe cleansed of the debauchery and weakness that the Moon Kingdom brought. He had nothing to be ashamed of in ridding the Earth realm of a weak and magic-addled Prince. Yet...His confusion stirred him to anger, and he began to launch his own attack.
This time it was Venus dodging and hustling out of breath. It didn't seem to upset her, in fact a cruel smile played on her cracked and swollen lips. True this was the end of the world. She had failed her planet, her Queen and princess. She would now die at the hands of the only man she was destined to love. But he would suffer first. Ever well place blow to the man and honor she once knew as Kunzite brought a satisfying recoil from his side of the link, as if stabbed. And that would do. In love, war, sex and politics Venus always gave more than she got, this time would be no exception.
"This is all your fault!" She threw his sword left, landing a punch in the kidney, "If I had never met you! Never laid eyes on your damned face, Serenity would be alive!" She shot a venus beam that he shielded with a blast of black energy. This would be her last stand, there was no walking away from this battle alive. As the reality of her life sunk in her moves became more wild and more furious. The two of them devolved into a crazed state. Two stars colliding trying to devour the other. Through the cuts, the stabs, the searing blasts, the broken ribs that golden link remained taunting her with what would never be. A thousand daydreams shattered. The hope of someone tending to her, protecting her. Some small amount of normalcy in her fate bound life. Born a princess never to know the shelter of the title. Avatar to the Goddess Aphrodite never to have the rewards of love herself.
"Damn you Goddess!" She shrieked parring a death blow with her sword. "Why? Why curse me? Your namesake, your servant! To know all the power and strength of love, to see with my own eyes every single day. But you deny me to have it, instead you give me the nightmare of this!"
"Do you never shut up?" Kunzite growled a ball of negative energy hitting her square in the jaw.
"Never!" She caught his sword arm with a flesh cutting snap, using his own momentum to send him hurtling into a granite wall.
Her strength was quickly fading. Breathing was hard just standing still, she had punctured at least one lung. He was just stringing her along, wearing her down to nothing to do with as he willed. She chanced a glance back at the resting body of Serenity, glowing softly in the rain. She sent a quick prayer up to the Moon goddess that Serenity may be in a better place now. Turning back to her foe she centered herself for one final attack. It was a fool's attack, maybe it would work. Maybe it wouldn't. It would force his hand whatever other consequences came about. He dusted himself off with swagger. She gathered every last ounce of spiritual and physical energy she had left. She pulled it all down her left arm, feeling the familiar tightening of unreleased power she could only ever describe as gold. Screaming the Royal House of Venus's battle cry she let loose a massive stream of energy, running forward full boar.
The Dark General's focus was solely on throwing back the energy stream, he didn't see her running straight for his sword arm till it was too late. Not till reflexes took over, with wide grey eyes he watched her swing down completely missing him. Her abdomen on an unstoppable trajectory for his sword.
But she hadn't missed her true target, the golden link that only her vixen eye could see. The great sword of the Moon came down to severe a Chain of Destiny, Venus briefly wondered in how many life times she would be damned for this act if it worked. She was expecting the pain of being run through. She braced for the pain of her soul being ripped apart. She was not expecting the blinding flash of white light. Or the sense of calm that took away all other of her senses. She could never have imagined the voice that spoke gentle and strong in her mind and everywhere.
"Never fear my darling, my dear girls. I won't let it end this way."
The last thing Aphrodite Regina, the first daughter of the Royal house of Venus, Leader of the Legendary Sailor Senshi, remembered before oblivion was not the endless pain of holding Serenity's lifeless body;
Or the terrifyingly empty darkness of her loves eyes, but the beautiful White Queen's loving embrace and tearful voice.
"Your world will not end in bloodshed and pain, your world my sweet daughter will end in Light."
Author's Notes:
As morbid as it sounds I really enjoy writing/thinking about the final moments of the Moon Kingdom. I've had these particular stories about the senshi's ends planned and plotted out for years. The tricky part was finding the girl's voices. Not only their voices but their Silver Millennium voices. Which is/was trickier because in my AU they personalities are different one life to the next but they still have to be recognizable. Jupiter's as always, was the easiest. I knew that I wanted to depict what it would look like if she every fully gave into her tempest of her powers. Mercury's was trickier and I'm still not completely satisfied with it, focusing on the numbers is what kept me going but I still feel like it's the clunkiest of the pieces so far. And now there is Venus.
Venus goes back and forth from being very easy for me to write and very hard. Here I wanted to play into her humanity. As duty bound as she is, Venus has always struck me as being the most truly human of the senshi. She wants to be an idol/is an idolizer in the series and that to me shows a certain degree of wanting to be the center of attention, wanting things that are very human but also very much in conflict with her duty and destiny. So when I read the quote it just really spoke to me about some of the flaws that Venus might face. Here is a woman, a princess, born to privilege, born to be forever tied to love and it's powers. Yet she is honored bound to serve another, to give her life for hers, to be barred from the security of love. I think this would be a demon that would plague Venus and eat at her heart.
Like I said above, I do have Mar's plotted out. I will write her story, it's just a matter of finding her voice.