Matte!

It's the last chapter of La Morte …. Can you imagine? There was a time when I never saw this day coming ^^;; (OK.. so I always saw this day coming but still… I can ACT surprised can't I?) This fic seemed to go on and on and on ^_~ (I mean that in a good way really … but having never written anything non academic that was longer than a page… after all how many people really want to read 80 pages on the meaning of music? … well I was surprised when this fic reached 61 pages ^^; ) At any rate… please enjoy and please write me! I love hearing from minna. Also a huge thanks to both of my sugoi editors Ekaterinn Sama and Aria Sama. They have helped me more than you guys will ever know ^_~. (Which is the way is should be!) Also this chapter is dedicated to all of the people who have proved me wrong and read, time after time, even when I was convinced that no one was listening. A million thanks to all who have e-mailed me or IMed me. You guys are awesome!!!

^_^ Bejiin

La Morte

I claim innocence for what I have done.

The gun in my hand is just a prop

The knife in your back is just a fake

The blood on your side is another's…

Chapter 9: Le jugement

The crystal began to glow softly at first and then growing in intensity. Slowly the glimmering object ascended until it was directly above her head. The crystal began to spin as it covered her in its silvery power. She closed her eyes and sighed as the familiar energy hummed through her body.

"Please, don't make me live without him."

She felt her body begin to grow in warmth and power… the power of life.

"Don't make me"

Her eyes opened slowly as the blue of her irises projected the silver light.

"live"

Her hands slowly reached for his, the tips of her fingers sending the silvery beams into her prince's body as well.

"without him."

A bright flash of silver consumed the car removing the princess, her prince, and their car from sight. When the light died down nothing remained…

~~~~~

The green-haired enigma sighed in relief. She had been worried when the he had taken the girl into his arms that Endymion would use his 'talent' on her, so strong was his desire to protect her. In order for everything to work both of them had to die. Now that the crystal had done her task for her, she could go. She truly was grateful to it, for that small mercy. It might have been her duty but she could have not done it if it meant harming her princess.

~~~~~

Evan glanced pensively at the door. Letting Lita Kingsley live much longer would be a mistake. He did not particularly want to dispose of her just yet, he had after all promised Alan that if Darien Reynaud died in a car accident as he had proposed earlier then he would let Lita go… not that there had been much truth to that. Still it would be better to have her as insurance until Alan returned, and he was bound to return soon. How long did it take to drive someone off the road anyway?

He walked uncertainly, a rare situation for Dimando, after all he was used to controlling everything. Things hadn't been the same since his ambition had grown. Back when he and Saphir had shared the dream of owning a club, things had been different. He had always known where he was going and how he would get there. Now things seemed out of control, he continually played catch up with his past actions, always covering or reinforcing some earlier plan. Things hadn't gotten easier when 'she' had shown up to act as his boss, but by that time he was in too deep. He hadn't done anything serious at that point, but if 'she' had revealed some of his shady business dealings to the police, he would have lost everything. He had been left with no choice but to do her bidding, and it had seemed to be for such a good cause...

Turning away from the door, Evan walked toward the other end of the hall. He had too much to lose if he were to dispose of Lita Kingsley before Alan returned. He almost did not notice when the dark haired woman entered the corridor. Her eyes looked sad and haunting, and their deep red color alarmed him as it always did.

"How have things been?" she sidestepped him and began walking towards his office.

"They're alright, all things considered."

"Oh?" she stopped and turned back toward him, her floating slightly upwards with her sudden motion.

"Most of what you requested has been done. I'm still waiting on the outcome of a few things, however, I think by the end of the day-"

"There are only three more things to be done, I believe." She interrupted him.

He raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"If you were properly informed, Evan Dimando, you would know that Darien Reynaud and Alan Williams are both dead. You would also know that Mina Vannel and Lawrence Saphir were taken care of. I doubt that you would know that Ann Banks died about an hour ago or that Serena Livingston was in the same accident that Darien was involved in… however, if your intelligence was good enough, you might have even know that." She turned back around and continued toward his office.

Although her tone was solemn, her face lacked seriousness. Evan could not decide whether her face expressed her insanity or if she just found the situation amusing; part of him was afraid to ask her which it was. Evan stared blankly as she opened the door to his office and stepped in. A gunshot brought him out of his daze. When he had agreed to help her he hadn't agreed to so much death…

He walked into his office and grimaced at the corpse on the sofa. Blood slowly oozed down the seat cushions and on to the carpeting.

"One down, two more to go." The woman observed as she put the pistol back in its holster beneath the maroon jacket she wore.

Evan frowned, her earlier report coming back to him. "You said that Serena was in the same accident as Reynaud?"

The woman nodded, her red eyes once again overwhelming him.

"But surely she's not dead… right?"

The woman's eyes apologized for what she would not confirm.

"But she can't be dead… I thought we were doing this all for her?"

The woman nodded slowly.

"But if all of this deception, all of this murder was for her, then why is she dead?"

"All I ever said was that Serena Livingston needed your help, Dimando. I never told you why she needed your help."

"But I assumed that-"

"You assumed wrong."

"I only wanted to help her, to save her…"

The woman nodded, the sorrow returning to her eyes. "And you've helped her more than you will ever know, but still it is not enough. There is one more thing required of you, Evan Dimando."

Evan frowned. "No, I've had enough of this. You said we were going to help her, to save Serena from her fear of life, from her fear of love. I don't see how KILLING her has helped anything."

"But it has. Serena Livingston will know great love and great happiness thanks to you. I doubt that you will ever realize the chance that you have given her-"

"How can I have given her anything? SHE'S DEAD!"

The woman sighed and reached into her jacket once more. "Just know that you helped her and find peace in it. I wish that I could say it was enough."

"How could it be? She's dead!" he stormed further into the room and toward his desk.

"That is not what I mean." The woman said with a frown. "There are things to come more horrible than you can imagine, and yet you will be the cause of them Dimando. You will destroy the happiness and the hope of many. Your service to Serenity will continue longer into the future and into the past than you can possibly conceive. Consider this your first atonement, Dimando, for a crime you have yet to commit. It shall not be your last."

"What are you talking about? I've done everything that you asked, followed your every plan to the final detail-"

The woman gave a sign and held up the pistol. "Yes, you have, Dimando, but still you will pay for your future crimes now. Farewell, white prince. Perhaps when we meet again you will understand, though I doubt you will ever forgive me."

Evan watched in horror as her finger slowly pulled the trigger. A loud echoing noise ricocheted through his ears as a sharp and mind-numbing pain hit his forehead and began to spread throughout his body. His eyes focused on the remorseful garnet eyes that stared so intently at him and with one last gasp, Evan fell to the floor limp, a pool of crimson surrounding him.

She stared at him sadly. "I think you could have been a good person once, Dimando." She observed as she placed the still warm gun in his hands. "Maybe in some far off future you will be." Placing a sealed envelope on his desk, she took one more look at the dead man and was gone.

~~~~~

The darkness of the moment slowly lightened to the warm autumn breezes from the salt filled air. The sense of oppression that had been felt so heavily in the future was easily lost to the airiness of the carnival feel. The utter tragedy of the end was no match for the lively crowds of Luna Park, and so time, having no way to go forward went back instead, back to a happier time.

~~~~~

With only one card left to turn, Setsuna caught herself wondering how this fortune would end. Could it end with a happy note? Would any card left in the deck redeem her from the fate the other eight had set out for her? The girl, that's what Setsuna had finally decided she was: not quite yet a woman, watched the final card with more enthusiasm than she had the other eight. It wasn't so much that she cared about her fortune as it was her human, but still overwhelming sense of curiosity shining through. The other eight cards would not matter to her, after all, she seemed to find the whole concept of fortune telling to be a joke. But her desire to know the last card was probably much like any desire to know the unknown, the curiosity that killed the cat…

Setsuna edged her unsteady hand toward the final card and took in a breath. With nimble fingers she snatched the card and flipped it. As the card fluttered back toward the table Setsuna examined its face carefully. It was a rather simple card, the picture of the golden balance neither ominous nor foreboding. Out of all of the cards, this was one she could truly identify with: judgement. It wouldn't have worried her normally, a card like this was one of the better things one could get, after all judgements happened all the time; however, in conjunction with the other cards Setsuna wondered what it would mean.

The girl pushed back a wisp of blond hair that had been caught by the wind and stared at her. Then shifting slightly in her chair she glanced down at the card and then giving a shrug looked back at her. /She did not understand the cards…/ But Setsuna had known that all along.

"This is the card of judgement. Sometime in your future you will be judged." She frowned. Surely she could say more than that, but did she want to?

The girl gave a careless shrug. "I'm judged all of the time. People who have never met me and know nothing about me make snap judgements of me and they will never know me. Why should I care about this particular judgement?"

Setsuna glanced at the rows of cards thoughtfully. Whenever it was, it would be the judgement that made the difference. It could be as serious as life or death. "Whether you care or not, your future has been set out before you, Serena Livingston. I've given it to you in the hopes that you can improve your fortune, however, if you chose not to care, there is nothing I can do for you."

The blond haired girl bit her lip as she stared at the table for a moment. Then shaking her head in defeat she rose from the table. "I've never believed all of this stuff anyway. I was just doing this for Lubina…" Then with a shrug she turned back toward her friends.

Setsuna sighed as the girl and her friends moved further away from her table. There really was nothing she could do; the cards controlled a realm she had no power in. Pushing the cards back together, she shuffled the deck and placed the whole deck back on the center of the table in wait for the next customer.

~~~~~

One might imagine that being free from the forward flow of time would be a blessing. Without normal limits to constrain a person, perhaps one could finally conquer all. A lesser person probably would have taken great advantage of the extra time, but Pluto was not such a person. In actuality, Pluto had stopped being a person when she had taken the vow of senshi. Now, with the blood of Chronos running through her veins she was no longer mortal, but part of time instead. Jumping from point to point in an incongruous time-stream, she was the keeper of reality; the final moment of time would be hers alone to shape. This task, as always, was one step closer to omega, and as such she kept on task. Jumping from one point to the next was her normality and calmly leaving the moment she had been in she stepped into an earlier moment, a happier time, if one could truly call it that.

~~~~~

It was weird watching herself as she moved about the small tent. She supposed that she made a fairly decent gypsy. Her skin was the dark olive that everyone expected of a carnie. Her long green hair was quite exotic and the contrast with blood red eyes was enough to convince anyone that she was a witch, or at least a magician. She was loath to interfere with her double. The woman went about her business not even noticing her double, intruder and harbinger, the very fate she had cursed the day through.

~~~~~

Glancing down at the worn leather satchel, Setsuna frowned. This was the part of the day that she had dreaded. Usually it was not such a chore, revealing the card that had controlled the deck for the day, but judging from her only fortune of the day she already knew what it would be, and the confirmation would only torment her more. She slipped her hand into it feeling the roughness of the inner suede lining as she grasped for the card. Before she could pull the card out of its container she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned around in shock. She stared into the deep soulless eyes for a long moment before letting the satchel fall to the ground in fright, her hand still clutching the card.

"You…"

The woman nodded sadly.

"You're… you're me!"

Again the woman nodded.

"But that's not right… it's…"

"Impossible?" her double suggested.

"Well yes, but…" she chewed on her lip thoughtfully. "You're not real… you can't be real."

"Actually… you're the one who's not real Setsuna. I on the other hand am very real."

"But… how?"

The woman shrugged and stared down at the card Setsuna clutched. "Time is very hard to explain. I'm not actually sure if this was meant to be or not. Just because I had no previous knowledge of the event, doesn't mean that it wasn't meant to happen. Time is flexible like that. As long as the final outcome is the same, I've done my job."

"You were controlling the cards!" Setsuna accused suddenly.

Her double nodded sadly. "I had to, Setsuna. You do understand, don't you? It's my destiny to protect the future, and as I am you, it's your destiny as well."

"That's not possible! All the people that will die, you're going to kill them!"

Her double nodded and reaching into space pulled out a glimmering dagger with a large garnet in the hilt. "Not only is it possible, it's necessary. Do you think I enjoy this? If there were some other way to fix this problem I'd do it! This is our duty, Setsuna. WE have no choice." Her double sadly handed the dagger to her.

She stared at the weapon in horror and then glanced down at the card. Of course, it made sense. If they all had to die for that card… so would she. After all no one escaped it, and if it was for the future- but HOW could she be thinking like this? Why did she have to die for it? Was it truly her duty?

"This isn't a joke, Setsuna, and it is necessary. Trust me, this is for the best. I wouldn't ask this of you, of myself, if it weren't required of us."

Setsuna held the knife in her hand and stared at the glimmering blade as the weight of it pushed her down. She could almost believe this version of herself. If this was her duty … then so be it.

She watched with resignation as Setsuna drug the tip of the knife from the center of her wrist upward along the artery. What would it have been like to be normal? Perhaps she would never know… She glanced at the card her double had dropped as it landed on the floor. Of course she knew what the card said, she had known all along. After all she had placed the card there to begin with; death. Not bothering to look at the bleeding body, Pluto picked up the dagger and summoned a portal. She was no longer needed in this time. The timeline had once again been restored.

~~~~~

He had been watching her from a distance for a long while. He wasn't really certain how long it had been, time flowed differently here. She almost seemed sad as she stared into nothingness. He wanted to comfort her, but he wasn't certain how. Upon his arrival to this place he had felt so frustrated. Just when they had finally worked everything out, it had been ripped away from the both of them. He understood why she had followed him; but now that it was done, why did she seem so sad about it? Did she regret her decision? He gave his hair a nervous go through and walked towards her. They had to discuss this eventually; it might as well be now.

~~~~~

She stared into the deep waters of her memory. She could still remember the cool morning of her birthday when the ship had cut effortlessly through the calm ocean and headed towards Coney Island. That had been such a long time ago, now. She couldn't help wondering how her life would be different if she had not gone to Luna Park that day. Would it have mattered? Was the eventual outcome inevitable? She chewed her lip thoughtfully. Did it even matter now? She had gotten her wish after all.

The realization was reinforced as warm arms encircled her waist. She could feel the warmth of his breath on the back of her neck and she shivered in happiness. This was all that really mattered, wasn't it? Being with him. Whatever the price had been, she would have paid it.

"Serena" he whispered softly into her neck. "I love you my Serenity." One of his hands traveled up to her shoulders and he pulled her into him for a tight hug.

She gave a soft sigh and turned to face him. "We're together at last, my prince." Her hand reached up and she traced his cheek with her fingertips. "Finally, my love." She whispered.

He nodded as his hands resituated around her waist. What he had to say would be difficult if this was truly how she felt. "Do you miss it, my love?"

"Miss what Endymion?"

"Living…being alive."

Gazing carefully into his deep blue eyes, she tried to form an answer. Of course she missed living… but she would have missed him more, and if this was the price… "It was a price I was willing to pay, but yes, I miss being Serena Livingston. Just when everything was worked out, we lost it, and I wonder what it would have been like if-"

"Would you like another chance?"

"Another chance?"

"To start over my love. We'd have to find one another again, but, I know that I'd always find you and I have every confidence in you as well. Our bond is far too strong for us not to find one another. We could meet and fall in love again and we'd finally get to marry and have a family. Just think of it Sere, we'd finally get to grow old together."

She giggled softly at the dreamy look in his eyes. Laying her head on his chest she closed her eyes and they slowly rocked back in forth. "Would you still love me when I'm old and wrinkled, Endy?"

He chuckled and gave her a playful peck on her cheek. "I'd have to wouldn't I?"

"Why you… you!" she slapped a palm accusingly on his chest.

"Now, now Sere, no need to start that so soon."

Her laughter stopped suddenly. "But what if we're cursed Endymion? What if it ends tragically once more?"

He rubbed a hand up and down her back. "What if we're not? Won't it bother you for the rest of time if we don't try? Just think about it Sere, a family of our own… another chance for happiness."

She nodded slowly. "Alright, Endy, lets do it."

He pushed her away to shoulder length and stared into her crystal blue eyes for a moment and then leaned back towards her and gave her a long kiss. "Thank you, Serenity. Thank you, my love."

~~~~~

Perhaps you, dear reader, are familiar with what happened next. Most are familiar with the struggles of Usagi and Mamoru and the triumph of Neo Queen Serenity and Neo King Endymion. The end of Serena and Darien is what allowed everything else to occur. Their death was not truly the end that it seems but instead a beginning. This was the beginning of the next try, a chance for happiness and a chance for love.

I suppose this isn't quite the ending that a lot of you were envisioning ne? ^^;; *coughs* I'd been planning this for a long time ^^" *Winks* hatemail (which is always welcomed ^_~ ) should be sent to Bejiin@aol.com as this last chapter is officially not Stef's fault! Other than that please keep a lookout for Kiss Eternal which I will be putting out the first chapter of some time next week and thanks for reading minna! It's been wonderful writing this for all of you and thank you so much for your kind responses and IM's. I've enjoyed the chance to get to know each of you.

Domo Arigatou Gozaimasu,

Bejiin Ripley

2/14/02 (scary how I finished this on Valentines Day, ne?)

www.wishing-blue.net/bejiin

AIM: Bejiin

Bejiin@aol.com

And please please please, for the love of small children and puppy dogs everywhere, leave me a review? Onegai? (Oh yeah.. that was subtle)