"COMING OF AGE"
Chapter 10: "Freedom Is Never Free"
A Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K., from the original story by Naoko Takeuchi and the teleplay by Yoshiyuki Tomita
"Let him go!" Sailor Moon demanded. She received a sneer of contempt from Queen Beryl for her trouble. Endymion rose to his feet. He was towering over her again, like he had when she was a tot, and those old feelings of subservience came creeping back.
"Endymion," Beryl said with unconcealed disgust, "kill the Princess."
Leaping from the throne platform, his sword drawn, Endymion attacked. Sailor Moon backed up reflexively and barely parried his sword thrust with the Moon Kaleidoscope. He shoved and she stumbled back, then gave more ground. The Princess could see her father was being controlled, that his free will was gone. But though he was doing Beryl's bidding, he was doing it with all the skill and power he naturally possessed. Fencing was a skill Usa didn't possess. Her father had offered to teach her, but youthful indifference had led her to defer. Now she could use those skills.
"Well, I'll just have to settle this my way," Sailor Moon muttered. "Moon Gorgeous Meditation!"
The pink energy hit Endymion point blank and stopped him dead in his tracks. Bathed in the healing radiation, the future monarch of Crystal Tokyo doubled over, wracked with pain as pink and black energy fought for his body and his soul.
"A futile effort, Sailor Moon," Beryl said haughtily. "You lack the power to counteract the dark energy of my sovereign, Metallia, here in her strongest point."
To punctuate her boast, a blood-curdling scream of agony wrenched from her father's throat. Sailor Moon hesitated just for a moment, intimidated by what her father was enduring. With that, he broke free. Endymion slashed at Sailor Moon with his sword. The senshi dodged it, but was under attack again before she was prepared. Avoiding the downward slash of the blade threw her off balance and Sailor Moon tumbled to the cold stone floor. Her Moon Kaleidoscope skittered away along the polished surface.
She was about to scramble after it, but the shadow of her father looming over her stopped Sailor Moon. She looked up at him anxiously. Endymion held a black rose to his face.
"Sailor Moon," he said - - her own father said, coldly and mercilessly, "die."
The rose spun towards her. Sailor Moon tried to scramble away, but the flower struck her side. Instantly thorny tendrils sprang up from the rose and wove around her torso, binding her arms to her sides. Sailor Moon toppled and fell down again. And then pain coursed through her body as the rose emitted a charge of black energy. It was worse than being electrocuted. The black energy not only set her nerve endings on fire, but raked and twisted at her very being. It was like drowning in a pit of the harshest acid. The energy assaulted her mind as much as it did her body. The teen shrieked before she could think to contain herself. The torment lasted for hours, it seemed. Only when it ended did Sailor Moon realize that it had only been a few seconds.
Panting, gasping for breath, struggling for control over her body, Sailor Moon looked up into the dull, dilated eyes of her father. Before she could speak, another shock stormed through her. Sailor Moon's mind reeled. It felt like she was being cleaved from head to foot. She could barely feel her connection to Helios over the blistering agony. When it ended, she didn't notice that the tendrils from the black rose had disintegrated. All Sailor Moon could think of was to find a way to end this assault.
Able to offer no resistance when he bent over her, Sailor Moon was hoisted up into the air by Endymion's hand around her throat. It was no small feat, as the rabbit-eared princess was as tall as her father. The girl felt an urgent need to escape, but she had little strength to resist. The searing black energy had left her body numb and uncoordinated. Sailor Moon gurgled out something that might have been "Pop".
Once more the black energy flowed through her body. Vision, hearing, all senses shut down under the assault. All she could see, hear, think or feel was white-hot agony clutching her entire body. How did her mother endure this a thousand years ago? She had been three years younger than Usa was now and far less developed in her career as Sailor Moon.
"That's enough, Endymion," purred Beryl.
Sailor Moon was thrown to the floor like garbage and she didn't care. It was an end to the agonizing energy discharge. Casting around desperately as she lay prone on the floor, Sailor Moon spotted the Moon Kaleidoscope a few feet in front of her. With a quivering hand, she reached out for it, but it was too far. It was too far. Sailor Moon felt like she wanted to cry. But she knew she couldn't. Too much was at stake.
"Why do you persist?" Beryl asked, as if this were a gigantic waste of her time. The woman sighed. "Endymion, cut off her head."
The Moon Kaleidoscope remained just out of her reach. Feeling was coming back into her body. If she had just a few more seconds - - but a shadow appeared between her and the Moon Kaleidoscope. It had to be Endymion. She didn't have to see the sword raised to know it was there. She had to do something - - gain some time to regroup. But what? What card did she have left to play?
With speed born of desperation, Sailor Moon twisted, flinging her converted tiara into Endymion as she croaked out the power phrase. The energy disk struck her father square in the mid-section. His eyes bulged as he doubled over, then staggered back A strangled cry escaped from his throat.
"I'm sorry, Pop," Sailor Moon said softly. With some effort, she struggled to her knees.
Endymion was once again in agonizing turmoil as a war was fought for his soul. Sailor Moon knelt and watched her father as the warring energies threatened to tear him apart. She wanted to run to his side, but she was too weak and dizzy to even gain her feet. The senshi could only watch the struggle unfold before her eyes. Back and forth it went.
Finally, the dark energy won again.
"Sailor Moon!" Endymion growled, the guttural exclamation of a wounded beast. Furiously, he raised his sword up to deliver the killing blow.
"Pop! I'm not just Sailor Moon! I'm your daughter!" wailed Sailor Moon. "Can't you remember?"
The sword reached its apex.
"I've got to do it!" Sailor Moon thought.
Reaching within herself, Sailor Moon summoned her pink crystal. It emerged from her chest, hovering between her cupped hands. Without hesitating, Sailor Moon directed a full blast of pink energy directly from the crystal to Endymion.
The young warrior toppled over backwards, screaming in agony. His sword clattered to the floor beside him as he landed on his back, stunned. A black rose slipped from his lapel and onto the sword hilt.
Then, before Sailor Moon's elated eyes, it changed from black to red.
"Pop?" Sailor Moon inquired cautiously, scrambling on her knees to his side. Her pink hair trails spilled across his chest. Endymion looked up at her. She didn't see recognition, but she also didn't see the hypnotic control of black energy.
"How is it possible?" gasped Beryl.
"Who are you?" Endymion asked, dazed and confused. "I don't recognize you - - but I feel I know you."
"You haven't met me yet," Sailor Moon said, grinning so widely that her tears trickled down her jaw line. "I'm your daughter."
"Then I did find her," Endymion smiled as Sailor Moon helped him to a sitting position. "You look a lot like her. You have to be her daughter."
"Yeah, Pop," Sailor Moon said, beaming through her tears. "You found her. And you and her lived happily ever after."
"I will not TOLERATE THIS!" roared Queen Beryl. Using her dark energy, she fashioned pointed spears out of the onyx rock around her throne and launched them at the huddled pair.
Sensing as much as hearing it, Endymion pivoted. As his left hand shielded Sailor Moon, his right threw a rose in Beryl's direction. Then he stiffened and fell against the young Princess. The rose shot across the room like a bullet and lodged stem first between Beryl's breasts. She stared down incomprehensibly at the rose impaling her as her energy swiftly drained from her form.
She wasn't alone.
"Pop!" Sailor Moon shrieked when she saw the onyx stone lodged in her father's back. Endymion quickly slipped to the floor. As she bent over him, he tried to reach up to her with a shaking hand.
"Wish I could have seen," Endymion whispered hoarsely.
"Pop, don't talk! I'll help you!" Sailor Moon wailed.
She brought the crystal up again to heal him. But when she looked down at him, she saw it was too late.
"P-P-Pop?" Sailor Moon stammered, tears flowing like rivers. "You can't die. You didn't give me a chance to save you."
And as the pink-haired senshi wept over the body of her father's younger self, Queen Beryl passed down into the lower chambers of the complex through the floor, while her body was spider-webbed with fissures emanating from the stem of Endymion's rose.
With her sobs echoing through the now empty chamber, Sailor Moon didn't notice the presence next to her at first. Eventually she sensed it, though. The senshi looked up and found Desdaemona standing, watching her with some amusement.
"You seem upset," the creature commented. "Didn't things go as you hoped, Princess?"
"Go away," Sailor Moon sobbed bitterly. "Go away and leave me alone!"
"But your test isn't finished."
"TO HELL WITH YOUR TEST!" Sailor Moon bellowed. "MY POP IS DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!"
"Me?" Desdaemona mocked. "I'm not the one who failed to protect him."
"DAMN YOU!" Sailor Moon roared. "I HATE YOU!" and she went back to sobbing on the body of her father. "Hate you . . ."
"Why?" Desdaemona inquired. "Because I point out truths you find inconvenient?"
"Because my father is dead!" Sailor Moon snarled. "Because my friends would have died, too, if I hadn't saved them! And because none of it means a thing to you! You'd snuff out seven human lives just for your stupid tests and it wouldn't mean a thing to you!"
"Well," Desdaemona replied calmly, her smooth red scalp gleaming in the low light, "hating me is your choice to make. But are you truly considering allowing the Earth and all its inhabitants to fall to the dark energy of Metallia and her vessel so you may indulge your feelings of sorrow? Do their lives mean nothing to you?"
"That's right," Sailor Moon replied with a soft voice hoarse with emotion. "Beryl merges with Metallia. I have to face her down."
Struggling to her feet, Sailor Moon turned her back to Desdaemona. She concentrated for a moment. Her Sailor Moon guise faded and Helios appeared next to her.
"Helios," Usa said, "I have to get to Beryl before she destroys everything. Could you fly me there?"
"Maiden, you have expended far too much energy," Helios cautioned her.
"Can't be helped," Usa replied. Still he hesitated. "I'll walk if I have to."
"All right," Helios relented. "I will convey you there."
"Thanks," she said and leaned in, kissing his cheek.
Helios turned to Desdaemona. "We will have words when this is done," he told her.
"I am at your disposal, Dream Guardian," the red creature replied with amusement.
Helios changed into his Pegasus form. With Usa astride him, he winged up into the air and out through the opening in the top of the fortress. Banking, they flew toward Beryl. She wasn't difficult to spot, as she now towered fifty feet in the air.
"Look!" Pallas cried, pointing up into the air. The senshi were still outside the fortress. "It's the Princess and Prince Horsie-Man!"
"We have to follow them!" Saturn gasped urgently.
"Through all this snow?" Ceres asked. "We'll never keep up with them!"
"Never tried this before. Hope I can pull it off," Vesta said. "Fauna Combination - Pegasus Elephant!"
The senshi instantly morphed into a replica of Helios's equine form. However, this form was as huge as an African elephant. Immediately the enormous winged equine knelt down.
"Get on my back! We don't have time to waste!" barked Vesta. The other four senshi clamored onto the equine's back as quickly as they could.
Helios and Usa banked into view of Queen Beryl, then landed. Beryl was even more intimidating close up. Her merger with Metallia had caused her skin to mutate to a pale green and her sinister beauty to change to an almost vampire-like look. She was also now a fifty foot giantess, her arms outstretched and radiating black energy to the sun. Sunspots had nearly clouded the glowing orb black. As Usa and Helios merged once more so she could become Sailor Moon again, Beryl looked down upon them. She wasn't happy.
"Still you persist in opposing me, little would-be Princess?" Beryl sneered and the canyons of ice in the Arctic Circle shook from the vibrations.
"I have to. No one else can," Sailor Moon replied. "It's the obligation of those with power to protect those without. My mother and father taught me that."
"And did your mother and father teach you how to die?" Beryl asked.
Black energy poured from Beryl's hands, aimed directly at Sailor Moon. But Sailor Moon countered by drawing her crystal out once again. Pink energy radiated out and met the black energy midway. The two radiant forces struck and neutralized each other.
"Well met," Beryl chuckled. "But you haven't matured yet, girl! You play at being a princess, but you're one in name only! The power of your crystal hasn't come to full bloom just yet! You haven't the strength to oppose me!"
"Yeah?" Sailor Moon replied through clenched teeth. "Just watch me!"
The pink crystal pulsed and sent a burst of energy at Beryl. The Queen barely dissipated it, her demeanor shocked. Renewing her efforts, Beryl sent more of Metallia's black energy funneling down at Sailor Moon. However, her field held and neutralized the energy as it struck. It was difficult, that she could tell. Sailor Moon was under considerable duress holding the destructive power back.
But she wasn't crumbling. She wasn't buckling. If anything, the teen seemed to be even more determined than ever. And with that, her appearance morphed. Her sailor uniform became a flowing white off the shoulder gown with a brocade bodice. Rabbit ear barrettes appeared in her hair, with a string of pearls extending across her hair between the right three barrettes and the left three.
"So, there is a Princess in the little girl after all!" Beryl called out. And she poured more black energy down on Princess Usagi.
"I'm not the only one fighting you!" Princess Usagi yelled back. "Everyone on Earth is fighting you! Everyone on Earth is behind me! I will not let you destroy them and all they have!"
"You'll die is what you'll do!"
"If I have to!"
The dimmed skies of the Arctic were lit up by the display. The sizzle of energy reacting with energy echoed over the wasteland. All life had long since fled this area. No one was there to witness the gigantic struggle between them, save a nude, red-skinned woman with glowing eyes. She watched the display with keen interest, but with no favor for either combatant. The result was the important thing to her, not the victor.
Effects of the discharge of black energy caused Beryl's red hair to flow back from her and her skirt to billow. Both items were caught in the air currents disturbed by her mighty display. Similarly, Princess Usagi's skirt billowed and her pink trails blew behind her. Neither combatant showed any sign of weakening, nor any sign of giving in.
"There they are!" Saturn cried, pointing. She and the others sat astride Vesta's massive back as the huge winged equine came over the horizon.
"That woman! Is she Queen Beryl?" Juno asked out loud. "She has to be fifty feet tall!"
"That pink energy down there!" Ceres said. "It's got to be Sailor Moon!"
"Hurry!"Saturn exclaimed. "We have to help her!"
"I'm going as fast as I can!" Vesta shouted. "The way they're kicking up the air currents, it's all I can do to stay airborne!"
Princess Usagi struggled to maintain her assault on Beryl's black energy. There seemed to be no limit to what Beryl could throw at her. But there was a limit to what she could generate and Usa could feel the strain now. Her chest was growing tight and her limbs were aching.
And the black energy was beginning to draw closer.
"Helios!" Usa thought. "Can you give me anymore?"
"Alas, Maiden, I cannot," she felt him reply. "We are at our limit."
"But it's not enough! Mom beat her! Why can't I?"
"Perhaps if you had not expended some of your power rescuing your friends from the attacks of the D-D Girls . . ."
"I had to do that!" Usa mentally screamed. "What was I going to do, stand there and let them die?"
"No one questions your good intent, Maiden," she felt Helios respond. "But every act comes with a price."
Princess Usagi looked up at the black energy. It was getting closer. And she could feel her strength waning.
Continued in Chapter 11