Rebirth
By Coira
A Woman stood alone amidst destruction. Her silver hair blew softly in a wind that didn't exist. Blankly she looked around her. Something on the ground caught her platinum eye; she cocked her head to the side, studying her shadow. She stepped to one side but her shadow remained, forever burned into the ground. Slowly she walked, surveying what was lost, the destruction of hope, of happiness, of future. It was no different here than anywhere else. Desolation had been spread, there was nothing, no buildings, no shelter, no life, and only the indelible shadows remained, as testament to what had happened. Everywhere was in ruins. Everywhere was leveled, and only nowhere remained. Only a few poor souls still clung to life, but not for long. Not for long. And when they too disappeared she would be alone. Alone, with nothing to do, no one to protect. She had stood, and now she would suffer because she was the only one strong enough, the only one left.
She came upon a man in her wanderings. He had fallen to the ground and was weeping. Mourning on his knees with eyes that saw nothing, staring straight ahead of him. He did not cover his face with his hands, there was no one there to see him weep, and he did not even notice his tears. Slowly, the Woman came to kneel before him she raised her hand to softly touch her fingers to his wet cheek. Pulling her hand away she turned it to look at her fingers, to study the sparkling tears that clung to them. She looked puzzled as she felt the wet tears with her thumb; she looked as though she didn't understand tears, didn't understand weeping. Softly, she spoke. "Tell me." she said. "Did the men weep while they were slitting your throat?" He did not answer her, did not notice her. "No." she said if he had. "They didn't weep while they were slitting mine either."
The Woman rose from her knees, the sun cast her shadow across the man's face. He started suddenly, as if the darkness had woken him. Squinting into the sun, he looked up at her, gasped, and began to weep anew, clinging now to her skirts. "Angel" he cried. "Please, please let me rest, please angel." This struck the Woman as odd, only myths, only legends would have held angels for him, and yet, he cried out to her, calling her "Angel," begging her to help him. Softly she lay a hand on his forehead. "Please" he cried again. "I'll believe what ever you want me to... just please... help me rest."
"I don't want you to believe anything," she said, as she lay her lips softly on his charred skin," I only want you to sleep." The man slumped to the ground.
If the Woman could have cried, she would have then. That man was just like her. He too was cursed to live, if only for a little while. Everything had been taken from him, even his faith, and he had nothing left.
"The hardest thing in this world, " she said softly to herself, "is living in it."
This was not the way things were supposed to have happened. There was supposed to be love and happiness and a city of crystal, but now, now there was nothing. It hadn't even been something she could fight; they had done it to themselves. In the end there was no evil fiend to end the world, only man himself.
"This is wrong," she said softly. "This was not supposed to happen."
This had to happen.
The Woman started, she looked around, but found no one who could have spoken.
This was meant to happen.
"You did this," she spoke aloud.
No, but I knew that it would be done. This is the way it was meant to happen.
"Who are you? How do you know?"
I am you.
"That's impossible."
Yet it's true.
"I don't understand."
I am the part of you that was always suppressed. I am the power you never realized.
"What power is that?"
Names.
"Names?"
Yes.
"How is that power?"
Names are truth. Names are power. To know a being's true name is to hold power over it.
"I don't get it, I pick up an apple, I know it's an apple, that doesn't mean that I hold any power over it, besides, you know, the fact that I can eat it and make it disappear."
That's not what I mean. You know the name that has been given, I give the name, only one other has had that power."
"What other?"
The First. The one who was there at the beginning. The Creator.
"So what does that mean for me?"
To know the names is to know the truth.
"Am-am I omniscient?"
Nearly.
"This - here, there is nothing left?"
Nothing. Mutually Assured Destruction.
"What happens now?"
Rebirth.
"It will be cold soon."
Yes.
"I don't know what to do."
You will.
So the Woman began the rebirth. Through the endless winter she built the metropolis. Through the impossible cold she built a city of fathomless beauty that she could not see. Remembering the names that had been forgotten, making new ones where none had existed.
It was impossible to say how long she worked, for the morning star had not shown its face since that day. But she worked, endlessly, tirelessly. She never stopped, not for food, not for rest, she needed neither. Finally she finished, and the time had come to resurrect the morning star. When the light touched the city it sparkled and shone, as if it were trying to dazzle her back into humanity, but it's beauty was lost on her. She turned her back on it, hating it for it's conceit.
The time has come.
The voice inside her head spoke.
It is time to bring them back.
So the Woman summoned her power to bring the people back, to populate her city. Within minutes the city was full, teeming with people. She looked around. Over. Finished. She was through.
Rebirth.
The woman walked through the city, her city. People were milling about everywhere. Dazed, as if they had forgotten what they ought to be doing. Walking straight through the city she made her way to the building she had designated as her own. The city held nothing for her, its sparkle was only glare, it's glamour only narcissism. Voices called to her from the street.
"Usagi!"
"Princess"
"Kitten."
"Usako"
But she didn't turn, they meant little to her, only voices, nothing more.
People came to her. Pulled her into their arms and wept. The Woman only stood, stiffly, looking at them with empty eyes.
A man came to her. Looking at her tenderly through midnight blue, he stroked her hair. The Woman only stared back at him, blankly.
"Usako?" He said softly. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." The Woman said, turning from him.
"Usako, wait-"
But when the Woman turned back, he saw the terrible emptiness within her, the horrible pain that left her hollow, the sorrow so deep she had forgotten how to cry.
"Usako-"
The Woman turned and walked away without responding.
"We'll give her time." They all agree.
"She must have had a hard time, there is no wonder she is so distant."
So they waited, but nothing happened. The Woman, who used to be Usagi, stayed inside her palace, ruled her city from a distance. She never came out, she invited no one in. So eventually the man who used to be Mamoru sought her out. He found her out on the balcony, overlooking the city.
"Usa-" he started. But he realized that this Woman was not Usagi, she had changed, this Woman had no name.
"I don't know what to call you," he said. "If not Usako."
Slowly she turned to face him.
"My name is..." She racked her brain, trying to locate her name, but strangely, she could not find it. She had the power of naming, but she could not descry her own. Slowly she shook her head.
"We have all changed." She said. "Not one of us can claim our former names as our own, but you may call me Usako if you wish, it makes little difference."
She spoke blandly, void of all emotion, monotonic.
"What's wrong?" The man who used to be Mamoru asked, "What went wrong?" The Woman looked at him blankly, cocking her head to one side as if studying an anomaly.
"You left her behind" she said simply. "You and everything else that Usagi loved left her, it was inevitable that she too would leave, I am only what remained after."
"What happens now?"
" I will rule the city, as it was meant to be. What else? I don't know."
"I was meant to rule beside you."
"Were you?...oh yes, I remember. If that is what you wish to do, I'll not stand in your way."
"I don't know what else to do." The Woman shrugged.
"Follow me." She said.
She took him to a room she said he could call his own. It was beautiful and vast, within a day he had his belongings moved in and arranged.
They ruled together, side by side. They were the perfect combination, just and compassionate a flawless blend of humanity and law. The city was peaceful. The people were happy and had no complaints, but still violence broke out. Feuds were established and fights ensued. Not many, five in all, resulting in two deaths, but it was enough. It was enough for the Woman called Usagi to look upon her people and doubt her utopia.
They are no different. The voice said.
It was all for nothing, they will destroy themselves too.
"No." she told herself, "not again, not ever again."
She left the palace to stand on a hill, overlooking the city. It was the same hill she had stood upon when she created this disappointment, ironic, since now she would take it all away. Coldly, she summoned her power and began to shatter the city. Slowly at first, she caused the ground to rumble, caused the beautiful crystalline buildings to crack and crumble. She looked on, detached, disinterested. A cry rose up to hill where she stood, but she disregarded it, blocking the testaments of pain and sorrow from her mind.
"No" she said. "Don't cry to me for help, you deserve this, you all deserve it."
Even from the hill she could see eight women as they ran through the city like tiny ants. They were busy; they ran from one end of the city to the other in a matter of seconds, carrying people away in their arms. Soon she saw them only as flashes of color.
Crimson
Apricot
Prussian
Sable
Emerald
Saffron
Turquoise
Jade
Then one stopped with a small child in her arms and pointed up to the hill.
Yes, of course they would see you; you made no attempt to conceal yourself. Why should you?
She waited on the hill for them to come to her, for them to try and destroy her. Only two crested the hill.
"Kitten wait!" One called to her.
"Kitten," the Woman said "that's a silly name, I have no fur and I am certainly not cuddly, I do have claws though." She raised her hand and flung the woman through the air.
"No!" Her companion cried out as she ran to her side. After a moment she turned to the woman who was not Usagi. "Why?...Usa...princess...kitten...why?"
"They are no different from the others, they don't deserve this world."
"You don't know that."
"I do," she said, her silver eyes flashing. "I am the Creator."
The woman, called Michiru, who was still kneeling by her lover slumped, unconscious to the ground.
The Woman turned to face the city again, but another had crested the hill, and now stood between her and the city she must destroy. It was him the Man, Mamoru.
"You can't stop this." She said coldly.
"Yeah, I get that...it's just... where else am I gonna go? You've been my best friend my whole life, worlds gonna end, where else would I want to be?"
"So that's the master plan?" She scoffed "Your going to stop me by telling me you love me?"
"When my parents died, I felt like the world abandoned me, I was alone. Then you came in and you gave me a rose. You told me that you were so happy that you didn't want anyone to be sad. The thing is, yeah, I love you, I love the Usako who befriended me when I thought the world didn't care, and I love the Usako who feels like the world has abandoned her..."
It has, it did.
"...If I'm going out, it's here. You want to kill the world? Well, then start with me. I've earned that."
"You think I won't?"
"It doesn't matter, I'll still love you." He took a step toward her.
"Stop." She flung out her hand and three thin lines of blood traced his cheek. Slowly he reached a hand up to touch the sanguine fluid.
"I love you," he said to her, taking another step.
"I said stop!" She hurled a blast at his stomach, sending him to his knees, but he struggled up and took another step.
"I love you."
"Shut up!" She threw attack after attack at him, but nothing could halt his progress, soon he stood directly in front of her.
"I love you Usako."
"Stop calling me that, that's not who I am."
"Then who are you?"
"I-I don't know." She could feel tears well up and stream down her face.
"I love you, no matter who you are." He took her into his arms.
"No!" she screamed as she beat him with her fists. "No! No! No!"
"I love you." He murmured. " I love you, I love you." Eventually her fists slowed, until they stopped all together and her tears took over. She wept bitterly, her face buried in his chest.
"I love you" he murmured again. Her knees gave out and she sank to the ground, he knelt with her.
Perhaps she wept for minutes, perhaps hours, she could not tell, all she knew was that he was there, always there, holding her, murmuring to her.
"I love you, I love you" he said.
Images flashed before her eyes. She saw Usagi, a beautiful girl with long blond hair and azure eyes, she could be so powerful, but her humanity did not allow it. She saw the Woman, with silver eyes and platinum hair, she could be human, but her power left no room for it. She saw Serenity, so powerful and yet so human, the perfect combination.
She saw Mamoru, a man who was convinced he had to protect the woman he loved, from everything. She saw the Man, a ruler who was afraid that since the woman he loved didn't need his protection anymore, she did not need him for anything. She saw Endymion, a man and a ruler who knew that all she needed was love.
When she had calmed, she pulled away to look at him. Her tears had washed much of the silver from her eyes, leaving only tiny flecks, like the moon in the afternoon sky. A bit of gold had returned to her hair as well, warming the cold silver considerably.
"Usako?" he whispered softly.
"No," she said. "My name is Serenity."
Rebirth.
Ok, that was a first attempt, please tell me what you think, I would appreciate any and all comments.
Coira.
By Coira
A Woman stood alone amidst destruction. Her silver hair blew softly in a wind that didn't exist. Blankly she looked around her. Something on the ground caught her platinum eye; she cocked her head to the side, studying her shadow. She stepped to one side but her shadow remained, forever burned into the ground. Slowly she walked, surveying what was lost, the destruction of hope, of happiness, of future. It was no different here than anywhere else. Desolation had been spread, there was nothing, no buildings, no shelter, no life, and only the indelible shadows remained, as testament to what had happened. Everywhere was in ruins. Everywhere was leveled, and only nowhere remained. Only a few poor souls still clung to life, but not for long. Not for long. And when they too disappeared she would be alone. Alone, with nothing to do, no one to protect. She had stood, and now she would suffer because she was the only one strong enough, the only one left.
She came upon a man in her wanderings. He had fallen to the ground and was weeping. Mourning on his knees with eyes that saw nothing, staring straight ahead of him. He did not cover his face with his hands, there was no one there to see him weep, and he did not even notice his tears. Slowly, the Woman came to kneel before him she raised her hand to softly touch her fingers to his wet cheek. Pulling her hand away she turned it to look at her fingers, to study the sparkling tears that clung to them. She looked puzzled as she felt the wet tears with her thumb; she looked as though she didn't understand tears, didn't understand weeping. Softly, she spoke. "Tell me." she said. "Did the men weep while they were slitting your throat?" He did not answer her, did not notice her. "No." she said if he had. "They didn't weep while they were slitting mine either."
The Woman rose from her knees, the sun cast her shadow across the man's face. He started suddenly, as if the darkness had woken him. Squinting into the sun, he looked up at her, gasped, and began to weep anew, clinging now to her skirts. "Angel" he cried. "Please, please let me rest, please angel." This struck the Woman as odd, only myths, only legends would have held angels for him, and yet, he cried out to her, calling her "Angel," begging her to help him. Softly she lay a hand on his forehead. "Please" he cried again. "I'll believe what ever you want me to... just please... help me rest."
"I don't want you to believe anything," she said, as she lay her lips softly on his charred skin," I only want you to sleep." The man slumped to the ground.
If the Woman could have cried, she would have then. That man was just like her. He too was cursed to live, if only for a little while. Everything had been taken from him, even his faith, and he had nothing left.
"The hardest thing in this world, " she said softly to herself, "is living in it."
This was not the way things were supposed to have happened. There was supposed to be love and happiness and a city of crystal, but now, now there was nothing. It hadn't even been something she could fight; they had done it to themselves. In the end there was no evil fiend to end the world, only man himself.
"This is wrong," she said softly. "This was not supposed to happen."
This had to happen.
The Woman started, she looked around, but found no one who could have spoken.
This was meant to happen.
"You did this," she spoke aloud.
No, but I knew that it would be done. This is the way it was meant to happen.
"Who are you? How do you know?"
I am you.
"That's impossible."
Yet it's true.
"I don't understand."
I am the part of you that was always suppressed. I am the power you never realized.
"What power is that?"
Names.
"Names?"
Yes.
"How is that power?"
Names are truth. Names are power. To know a being's true name is to hold power over it.
"I don't get it, I pick up an apple, I know it's an apple, that doesn't mean that I hold any power over it, besides, you know, the fact that I can eat it and make it disappear."
That's not what I mean. You know the name that has been given, I give the name, only one other has had that power."
"What other?"
The First. The one who was there at the beginning. The Creator.
"So what does that mean for me?"
To know the names is to know the truth.
"Am-am I omniscient?"
Nearly.
"This - here, there is nothing left?"
Nothing. Mutually Assured Destruction.
"What happens now?"
Rebirth.
"It will be cold soon."
Yes.
"I don't know what to do."
You will.
So the Woman began the rebirth. Through the endless winter she built the metropolis. Through the impossible cold she built a city of fathomless beauty that she could not see. Remembering the names that had been forgotten, making new ones where none had existed.
It was impossible to say how long she worked, for the morning star had not shown its face since that day. But she worked, endlessly, tirelessly. She never stopped, not for food, not for rest, she needed neither. Finally she finished, and the time had come to resurrect the morning star. When the light touched the city it sparkled and shone, as if it were trying to dazzle her back into humanity, but it's beauty was lost on her. She turned her back on it, hating it for it's conceit.
The time has come.
The voice inside her head spoke.
It is time to bring them back.
So the Woman summoned her power to bring the people back, to populate her city. Within minutes the city was full, teeming with people. She looked around. Over. Finished. She was through.
Rebirth.
The woman walked through the city, her city. People were milling about everywhere. Dazed, as if they had forgotten what they ought to be doing. Walking straight through the city she made her way to the building she had designated as her own. The city held nothing for her, its sparkle was only glare, it's glamour only narcissism. Voices called to her from the street.
"Usagi!"
"Princess"
"Kitten."
"Usako"
But she didn't turn, they meant little to her, only voices, nothing more.
People came to her. Pulled her into their arms and wept. The Woman only stood, stiffly, looking at them with empty eyes.
A man came to her. Looking at her tenderly through midnight blue, he stroked her hair. The Woman only stared back at him, blankly.
"Usako?" He said softly. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." The Woman said, turning from him.
"Usako, wait-"
But when the Woman turned back, he saw the terrible emptiness within her, the horrible pain that left her hollow, the sorrow so deep she had forgotten how to cry.
"Usako-"
The Woman turned and walked away without responding.
"We'll give her time." They all agree.
"She must have had a hard time, there is no wonder she is so distant."
So they waited, but nothing happened. The Woman, who used to be Usagi, stayed inside her palace, ruled her city from a distance. She never came out, she invited no one in. So eventually the man who used to be Mamoru sought her out. He found her out on the balcony, overlooking the city.
"Usa-" he started. But he realized that this Woman was not Usagi, she had changed, this Woman had no name.
"I don't know what to call you," he said. "If not Usako."
Slowly she turned to face him.
"My name is..." She racked her brain, trying to locate her name, but strangely, she could not find it. She had the power of naming, but she could not descry her own. Slowly she shook her head.
"We have all changed." She said. "Not one of us can claim our former names as our own, but you may call me Usako if you wish, it makes little difference."
She spoke blandly, void of all emotion, monotonic.
"What's wrong?" The man who used to be Mamoru asked, "What went wrong?" The Woman looked at him blankly, cocking her head to one side as if studying an anomaly.
"You left her behind" she said simply. "You and everything else that Usagi loved left her, it was inevitable that she too would leave, I am only what remained after."
"What happens now?"
" I will rule the city, as it was meant to be. What else? I don't know."
"I was meant to rule beside you."
"Were you?...oh yes, I remember. If that is what you wish to do, I'll not stand in your way."
"I don't know what else to do." The Woman shrugged.
"Follow me." She said.
She took him to a room she said he could call his own. It was beautiful and vast, within a day he had his belongings moved in and arranged.
They ruled together, side by side. They were the perfect combination, just and compassionate a flawless blend of humanity and law. The city was peaceful. The people were happy and had no complaints, but still violence broke out. Feuds were established and fights ensued. Not many, five in all, resulting in two deaths, but it was enough. It was enough for the Woman called Usagi to look upon her people and doubt her utopia.
They are no different. The voice said.
It was all for nothing, they will destroy themselves too.
"No." she told herself, "not again, not ever again."
She left the palace to stand on a hill, overlooking the city. It was the same hill she had stood upon when she created this disappointment, ironic, since now she would take it all away. Coldly, she summoned her power and began to shatter the city. Slowly at first, she caused the ground to rumble, caused the beautiful crystalline buildings to crack and crumble. She looked on, detached, disinterested. A cry rose up to hill where she stood, but she disregarded it, blocking the testaments of pain and sorrow from her mind.
"No" she said. "Don't cry to me for help, you deserve this, you all deserve it."
Even from the hill she could see eight women as they ran through the city like tiny ants. They were busy; they ran from one end of the city to the other in a matter of seconds, carrying people away in their arms. Soon she saw them only as flashes of color.
Crimson
Apricot
Prussian
Sable
Emerald
Saffron
Turquoise
Jade
Then one stopped with a small child in her arms and pointed up to the hill.
Yes, of course they would see you; you made no attempt to conceal yourself. Why should you?
She waited on the hill for them to come to her, for them to try and destroy her. Only two crested the hill.
"Kitten wait!" One called to her.
"Kitten," the Woman said "that's a silly name, I have no fur and I am certainly not cuddly, I do have claws though." She raised her hand and flung the woman through the air.
"No!" Her companion cried out as she ran to her side. After a moment she turned to the woman who was not Usagi. "Why?...Usa...princess...kitten...why?"
"They are no different from the others, they don't deserve this world."
"You don't know that."
"I do," she said, her silver eyes flashing. "I am the Creator."
The woman, called Michiru, who was still kneeling by her lover slumped, unconscious to the ground.
The Woman turned to face the city again, but another had crested the hill, and now stood between her and the city she must destroy. It was him the Man, Mamoru.
"You can't stop this." She said coldly.
"Yeah, I get that...it's just... where else am I gonna go? You've been my best friend my whole life, worlds gonna end, where else would I want to be?"
"So that's the master plan?" She scoffed "Your going to stop me by telling me you love me?"
"When my parents died, I felt like the world abandoned me, I was alone. Then you came in and you gave me a rose. You told me that you were so happy that you didn't want anyone to be sad. The thing is, yeah, I love you, I love the Usako who befriended me when I thought the world didn't care, and I love the Usako who feels like the world has abandoned her..."
It has, it did.
"...If I'm going out, it's here. You want to kill the world? Well, then start with me. I've earned that."
"You think I won't?"
"It doesn't matter, I'll still love you." He took a step toward her.
"Stop." She flung out her hand and three thin lines of blood traced his cheek. Slowly he reached a hand up to touch the sanguine fluid.
"I love you," he said to her, taking another step.
"I said stop!" She hurled a blast at his stomach, sending him to his knees, but he struggled up and took another step.
"I love you."
"Shut up!" She threw attack after attack at him, but nothing could halt his progress, soon he stood directly in front of her.
"I love you Usako."
"Stop calling me that, that's not who I am."
"Then who are you?"
"I-I don't know." She could feel tears well up and stream down her face.
"I love you, no matter who you are." He took her into his arms.
"No!" she screamed as she beat him with her fists. "No! No! No!"
"I love you." He murmured. " I love you, I love you." Eventually her fists slowed, until they stopped all together and her tears took over. She wept bitterly, her face buried in his chest.
"I love you" he murmured again. Her knees gave out and she sank to the ground, he knelt with her.
Perhaps she wept for minutes, perhaps hours, she could not tell, all she knew was that he was there, always there, holding her, murmuring to her.
"I love you, I love you" he said.
Images flashed before her eyes. She saw Usagi, a beautiful girl with long blond hair and azure eyes, she could be so powerful, but her humanity did not allow it. She saw the Woman, with silver eyes and platinum hair, she could be human, but her power left no room for it. She saw Serenity, so powerful and yet so human, the perfect combination.
She saw Mamoru, a man who was convinced he had to protect the woman he loved, from everything. She saw the Man, a ruler who was afraid that since the woman he loved didn't need his protection anymore, she did not need him for anything. She saw Endymion, a man and a ruler who knew that all she needed was love.
When she had calmed, she pulled away to look at him. Her tears had washed much of the silver from her eyes, leaving only tiny flecks, like the moon in the afternoon sky. A bit of gold had returned to her hair as well, warming the cold silver considerably.
"Usako?" he whispered softly.
"No," she said. "My name is Serenity."
Rebirth.
Ok, that was a first attempt, please tell me what you think, I would appreciate any and all comments.
Coira.