Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Elysion
Dawn of Light
Chapter One - Three Mischievous Siblings
The soft steps echoed in a soft clatter against the cushion of the solid crystal surface of the walls, ceiling, and floor. Only buffered slightly by the soft, woolen cotton red carpet stretched out before the careful feet, the young girl smiled. Holding up the tresses of her royal garments, she moved leisurely and at peace.
The world was quiet. A soothing feeling enveloped her, filling her young mind with thoughts of the birds dipping beaks into the waters for a plentiful drink, of deer flitting back and forth through meadows, of the sun above glittering like a golden gem of the heavens, a relaxing, energetic force that wrapped around her and made her feel very glad to be alive.
The girl wasn't tall nor statuesque. With raven black hair up in a set of two odango, heart shaped bangs, and messy tails that wavered and curled down to the middle of her back, her blue eyes glittered like the Earth did from the moon, crystallized stars that shone a radiance not of this realm. Her skin was carefully clean, slightly darker than peach, for she took good care of herself else she'd be ridiculed in some way, and she almost always dressed in royal garment.
Her full title was Princess Lady Elysium Koe, the first three to showcase her blood and the last as a name to the personal that she knew and loved. Koe had been the second born of Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion, a much wanted and difficult conceived child. She hadn't known the true facts of her birth, however, and now that she did, she thought differently a bit of certain people.
She moved around a corner, still no one to be seen. Dressed in a lilac and white dress, the top half was spaghetti strapped, tied to the back of her nape. Her top half was divided by a metal, goldenrod band, with a stylized bra style for her chest. From the metal downward were two layers, the topmost lilac as the top half but open in the front and falling only to her hips, while the white dress fell more heavily and over her strapped high heels. From her back, she bore a set of squarish-shaped lilac wing-like fabric, a transparent set that glittered in bright light. Her arms were covered by white, skin-tight soft fabric, the top captured by two metal, goldenrod bands with a line of white beads in between them and then white fabric fluffed out from the other ends, going in opposite directions.
And upon her brow shone the iridescent crescent moon, a golden hue of light.
She raised a hand carefully and knocked three times and waited patiently. There was a metallic click and the door opened with a whoosh.
"Koe-chan! How nice to see you. How did you know I was here already?" Aino Minako beamed. She looked freshly scrubbed, having taken off the layer of makeup she used while in performing mode. Her hair fell down graciously down her shoulders and past her hips, her blue eyes narrower but still just as sweet as they had been since she was a teenager.
"A little birdie told me," Koe said cheerfully.
Minako waved her in. It was still amazing how younger Minako looked despite that she was around her mother's age. Koe must've stared too long because Minako coughed gently, staring back pointedly.
"Sorry," Koe said with a humble smile.
"I'm only here for a week or so," Minako sat down on her bed, bringing out her soft bristle brush.
"Can I?" Koe asked hopefully.
Minako relinquished the brush and settled down as Koe settled behind her.
"Mina-mama, I saw your last performance on the pay-per-view, and I must say that your outfits are so.. unbelievable," Koe commented. "How can you still dress like that?" She gently pulled the hair to cleanse of knots.
"If you're hinting that I'm old, I beg to differ," Minako remarked dryly. "Aside from that, did you like my songs?"
"I liked the one about finding the mirror self and discovering it was you all along."
"Yes, that was a nice one," Minako leaned back. "How has Serenity-chan been?"
"All gaa-gaa over Helios. I don't see the big deal, myself."
"You'll find out."
"Like you did?"
"Oh, it was a sudden romance," Minako sighed happily, stroking the golden band across her ring finger. "He moved in for the kill and I fell for it all. I'd do it again, too."
"Where is Aizu-sama, anyways?"
"Tending to the home. The recent storm did a little bit of damage that needed to be fixed."
"The power went out?"
"And a few windows."
Koe giggled. "He's a handyman."
"Among other things," Minako agreed. "How is Serenity-sama and Endymion-sama?"
"Busy, busy, busy. I barely see them. With the re-alliance with Elysion in the works, and Helios as the ambassador, everyone's trying to make it all make sense."
"It is a part of this world, you know," Minako smiled lazily, enjoying the careful administer of the brush.
"I can't really feel it," Koe admitted.
Minako's eyes opened to mere slits. She was thoughtful. "Have you discussed these... feelings with anyone else?"
"It'd make me out to be weird," Koe stammered. "I mean, I'm a Princess, not a freak."
Minako jerked around. "I will not have my goddaughter talk as such!"
She pulled up, causing Koe to nearly fall off the bed. "Koe! There are times in a person's life when their fates are revealed!" She clapped her hand vigorously against her chest. "I was thirteen when my life was forever changed!"
"By a talking cat who blah, blah, blah.." Koe wagged her finger listlessly in the air, looking bemused. "Mina-mama. I have not met any talking cat for my own. I have never received a brooch, and I am not nor shall I ever be a Sailor Senshi. That all went to Little Miss Perfect."
"My, my, a note of jealousy?" Minako mocked gently. "Come now, you are as valuable to this world and more so. She is to be Queen, she cannot be a Sailor Senshi too. There are certain things to give up once you enter that type of role."
"Like Mama?"
"See?" Minako raised an eyebrow.
"I won't be convinced until otherwise." She crossed her arms as she stood up.
"You watch and see, Koe, that fate doesn't always listen to what you say but what lays within," Minako said quietly. "Trust in that and bring light to what otherwise could be a lonely fate. If I hadn't met Usagi or the others, I would have been so lonely and in pain. People need others beside them, in all forms."
"Does this relate in anyway to Helios and Usagi?"
"Why do you always pick on your sister?"
"How can I? She never gets my jokes!" Koe floundered out the door. "I'll see you latter, Mina-mama. Have fun with Mama and Papa!"
She disappeared around a corner, nearly running. She exited to the outdoor gardens, the opening adrift in a land of red roses.
She stared at them. She'd been around them before. They were all familiar. She wanted to see something more imaginative.
"Elysion.." She mused. Remembering Usagi's exclamation of the vibrant colors, crystal roses and swells of tall wheat grass as green as leaf petals, it sounded almost like a fairy tale come true.
But she had never gone there. She could not enter the realm, forbidden by her father first most and then seconded by her mother. She groused about it, crossing her arms tiredly. She didn't understand that reason.
"Hey! Are you bored?" A girl peeked over the fence, arms crossed and resting comfortably. Her pale blue hair was pulled to the side by a fishbone clip, the bangs falling down and following the left as it curved. Her hair was thick and curly, with curls from her ears pulled carefully. Vibrant blue eyes looked out, cooled slightly by the pale skin surrounding them. She climbed over a bit ungracefully, falling down in a heap. She was all arms and legs for a moment before straightening.
She beamed. "I'm Benten! I'm here with my two brothers, Fujin and Hiruko." She seemed to tower over Koe though she was being very friendly. The girl was well-developed and an elegant piece of work. She was dressed in a yellow sun dress, with golden flower clips at the meeting point of the straps and dress. She wore gold ballet slippers, tied in a crisscross just across her ankles.
"And who are your brothers?" Koe inquired politely, since if she didn't ask, she'd never know.
"Benten!" A rather short teenager ran up to the other. His hair was a vibrant dark pink, layered and cut short, nearly in a crewcut, his hair pulled upwards. The square glasses perched over his nose percariously, with deep brown eyes peering out, brought out by the also pale skin. He dressed in a long sleeved red shirt, the collar folded and gleaming white. He wore his blue jeans loosely, tied tightly by a black belt. His sneakers were old and well-worn.
"Fujin!" Benten grinned and waved. "I'm right here!"
"I CAN see you, I'm not blind!"
"Not yet anyways," scoffed a new voice, another male, behind him.
Koe had thought Benten was tall. She had nothing on the lanky older teenager. His hair a contrasting orange, that curved upward toward the outside of his face, giving him a rather spaced out horn set. The rest were pulled back to the base of his neck in a stubborn and short tuft that was a tail. He had bronzed skin, with dark blue eyes that seemed to be constantly narrowed. He wore nearly all black with mesh wrist gloves with the fingers cut off and a black leather vest over an dark orange shirt. His black jeans hugged tightly, a metal chain clipped from the left to hug around to his left backside to re-clip at a hook.
Koe also noted the double rings in his left ear. She smirked. A self-made bad boy by the looks of it, she mused to herself.
"And this is Hiruko." Benten waved airily toward her brother.
"Hello," Koe curtsied, the others following suit with a bow. "What brings you here?"
"You!" Benten beamed. "Wanna go see Elysion?"
Koe blinked slowly. "I can't go in."
"Why not?" Benten sounded very whiny.
"Because my parents told me not to."
"Why?" Benten asked insistently.
Koe shrugged. "If I knew, maybe I wouldn't feel so frustrated."
"So why not just go in?"
"I don't know where the entrance is," Koe explained carefully, as if talking to a child.
"Oh but -we- do," Benten offered with a half-closed eye gaze. "Don't you want to see your namesake?"
"My namesake?"
"You are Princess Elysium, right? Where did you think Elysium came from?"
"I don't have time for this. I was told strictly..."
"And yes, good girls must always do as they're told," Hiruko butted in, staring the other down. "Sometimes you have to do things yourself to get the ball rolling."
"I suppose.." Koe said weakly.
"Then it's settled!" Benten resumed beamed. "Let's go!"
Koe felt herself be dragged by the enthused girl. She looked back toward the rose gardens, the world quiet and empty of souls. It reminded her of something but she turned and found herself facing a tall, wooden door, with a carving of a picture of a rose encasing a golden diamond.
"Where'd this come from?" Koe looked around and then back behind her. She could no longer see the castle and she became confused and frightened. "We only took a few steps!"
"Here we go!" Benten was behind her as she shoved Koe uncermoniously.
Her ensuring scream echoed as the world was swallowed in hued lights of the rainbow. She rolled to a stop as she staggered to her knees. Her dress was remarkably whole, despite the harsh landing.
"Where.. am I?" She looked up. Crystalized trees of white birch, with golden yellow meshed with green leaves. The ground grew plentiful tall grass, that hid ankles and flowed like a calm sea with the gentle winds.
She turned in a full circle, her chest slowing it's heaving as she became calmer. She turned to face back and found a path blazed across the ground for her, made of hard stone layered bricks.
She moved slowly, hesitantly. Her eyes washed over the whole area, trying to see as much as possible but the strangeness was an overloading of senses and she wasn't aware of the pillar temple until she turned and faced it with surprise.
Two women, with white hair perched up in odango, identical in everything in looks and clothes, stood as if waiting for her. "We are the Menard," both spoke though in one harmonious voice.
"I.. I'm sorry. I came with.. with others.." Koe looked around wildly for the others but she was as alone as she had ever been. "I..."
"Princess?" The two spoke. "Please, come with us."
She was waved to follow inward. The area cleared to show the glistening red roses. She felt as if they were different somehow, then the ones she had known all too well. In fact, something was surfacing in the back of her mind, filling her senses. A sweet scent, a powerful feeling deep within her.
She breathed in the taste of the roses, the air filling with a power that was tantalizing. She was allured to relax. She stumbled, reaching out to the Menard but they turned a corner and disappeared from her sight.
She tried to speak, her tongue swollen as her head spun and she fell in a slump, sleep overtaking her.
The roses around her blossomed, the pollen swirling around her before centering and entering her.
She was dreaming, of a lost world in a hidden world in a yet more encompassing world. A figure out of her reach, dripped in shadows. Light reflected from the throat, a soft blue hue like a bright star. It encased the lone figure as she reached out.
And fingers touched hers, the two hands moving to be palm to palm, mirrored. She saw dark skin of sienna brown, light cerulean blue eyes that glistened like diamonds.
She was surrounded by a powerful feeling but it no longer was from outside. Her heart throbbed as light blossomed from her chest as the male figure disappeared into the shadows. "No.. No... come back! Come back!"
Her heart ached, a feeling that suffocated her. A suffering, a pain that tore through her.
Her fingers tightened as she felt something solidify in her grasped grip. A diamond of golden hues, a crystal within a crystal. It sparkled and shone brilliantly, the shadows swirling around her, breaking and falling back more and more as the world became a pillar of light.
And the pain continued. But something else was born. She gritted her teeth, finding her voice.
"I will find you!" She shouted, each word adding light to the gleam. "I will save you from this Nightmare!"
The light imploded as she felt the ground give. Falling backwards, she started, to find herself in front of the door that she was so graciously shoved in.
"Oh.." She staggered up, exhausted. A sound of metal hitting rock echoed dimly next to her. She looked down at her feet in surprise. A round brooch of dark purple crystal, rimmed with goldenrod metal and a line of four round beads at each side, going top to bottom in large to small sized. She picked it up carefully, dubiously studying it.
"Hey!"
She jumped out of her skin as Benten beamed. "How'd it go?"
She glared. "What was that about shoving me in? You left me alone!"
"Not really. We were there, just not as you thought we were," Benten nodded brightly. "We're here to help!"
"Yes, but I don't think Helios will be pleased," Fujin sighed. "Another rule broken."
"Don't you mean promise? Koe was just saying.." Benten winked at Koe.
"Oh NO! He'll tell my parents!" Her face paled. "I'll never see daylight!"
"It won't be that bad," Hiruko snorted. "Don't be so overdramatic."
"Chiba Koe!" A familiar figure appeared as King Endymion approached with great speed. "Where did this door show from?" He asked her, almost angrily.
"We brought it!" Benten said cheerfully.
King Endymion took a double take. "Fish Eye?" He hadn't meant to say it out loud.
Benten tilted her head, confused. "Come again?"
"Come on, Benten. Let's go and get the third degree from Helios," Fujin and Hiruko bowed deeply to the King, Benten following suit hurriedly before taking off with her siblings.
He stared at their retreating sides, emotions warring on his face. "Did they set you up?" He asked gravely.
"If you mean they shoved me through the door, then yes, they did."
"What happened?" He asked it very carefully.
Koe was aware of the brooch, that she instinctively tried to hide. She was tempted to tell him but gave a shrug. "I met the Menard. Who are they?"
"Priestesses, who help Helios watch over the Golden Kingdom," King Endymion looked like he wanted to say something. He looked almost disappointed. "Please, don't go in until we say so, Elysium."
She winced. When he called her that, it meant it was a big thing for her to listen to. She was already feeling guilty. She was aware of the compound of emotions in her father, yet disappointment was nearly the strongest and she felt saddened. As if she had let him down.
Her fingers tightened on her brooch as her father left her alone. 'I won't disappoint you ever again, Father. Count on it.'