A View From The Other Side
Chapter 10: "The First Casualty Of Conflict"
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K.
"The Skoteinos . . .!" Cassandra exclaimed.
A cloud of black mist rose up from the grass, surrounding the herd as the fog coalesced into the inky Skoteinos. Whinnies of alarm rose up as the cloud enveloped onto the herd.
"NO!" gasped Sailor Saturn. She turned on her hooves and ran up the hill, skidding to a stop long enough to grasp her glaive between her teeth. Vesta was already alerted by the commotion. Juno and Pallas trailed behind her, more puzzled than their sister.
"What is it? An attack?" Vesta yelled.
"YETH!" Saturn shot back through teeth clenched around her glaive. The winged black horse darted back down the hill. Juno and Pallas peered over the side of the hill and found the ground below engulfed by the deadly mists of the Skoteinos, while Cassandra galloped up the hill to safety.
"Pallas! Call the Princess! Tell her we're under attack!" Juno barked. Vesta was about to launch herself into the air. "No, Vesta! Stay here!"
"Why?" demanded Vesta.
"There's nothing you can do!" Juno told her. "Saturn's probably going to use her Azrael attack on them! When she does, I'll hit them with monsoon rains! You don't want to be in the air when that happens! Go roust Ceres and get her to make more of those castor plants!"
Vesta nodded and galloped off. By now Saturn was within feet of the writhing cloud of black mist.
"Azlealsh schlumbuh!" she cried, slamming the blade of the glaive into the ground.
Immediately the glaive began to leech energy from the mists. As before, the outer parts of the mist began to lose energy and coagulate into a liquid form. The mists on the outer rim began to retreat, settling back in the grass as a light fog. The mists on the inner part of the cloud could not retreat and continued to liquify.
But this cloud was much bigger than the one Saturn had dealt with previously. Dark energy leeched from the cloud began to creep perilously close to Saturn as it inched up the handle of her glaive. Juno and Pallas both recognized that Saturn was barely holding on, trying to leech as much as she could before breaking contact.
"Is Miss Saturn-Ma'am going to be able to change all of the bad cloud, Juno?" Pallas asked anxiously.
"I don't think so, Pallas," Juno replied. She stood ready to act when Saturn couldn't any longer.
Suddenly Saturn pulled her glaive away. She spun it up until it pointed directly into the air and discharged the energy that was being stored in it. Her black body glistened in the moonlight with the sweat of her exertion.
"Aqua Initiation, Poor Down Rain!" Juno shouted, invoking her command of water.
Quickly clouds began to form in the night sky. The air seemed to saturate with water vapor, becoming heavy like a wool cloak.
"Beautiful Incantation!" Pallas shouted and gestured toward Saturn's glaive. Suddenly it was easier to hold for the winged black horse, as if invisible hands steadied it. She continued to discharge energy from the glaive even as monsoon rains came. The heavy pounding rain diluted the liquified portion of the Skoteinos and washed it away into the pasture surrounding the hill. As the rains pounded the immediate area, the fog that hung over the grasslands dissipated.
"Juno, look!" wailed Pallas.
Washing away the remains of the Skoteinos revealed their handiwork. Dozens of unicorns lay dead at the foot of the hill, desiccated husks laying in a bed of brown, brittle grass. Nothing lived where the Skoteinos had been. Pallas turned away, tucking her head under her wing. Juno could hear the mournful sobs from her sister, but she was too stunned to move. She only stared as the rain began to slacken. Saturn had stopped in her ascent up the hill and just looked. Then she turned and bowed her head.
"If only I had foreseen this," Cassandra mumbled in shock. "I could have warned them. I could have saved them. If only I had foreseen it." Then a realization made the unicorn's eyes widen in horror. "Nerites!" Her eyes darted from corpse to corpse, looking for the unicorn that had claimed her heart as he had so many in the herd. "NERITES!"
"Cassandra!" a voice boomed through the darkness. Desperately Cassandra followed it, running across the top of the hill to the side that faced the pond.
Vesta was there. Further down the hill was Ceres. Below was the same devastation as on the other side. Dozens of unicorns, as well as a few winged horses mixed in, were dead and desiccated. The grass surrounding them was dry and dead. The pond had a sickly blackness to it that warned someone by its very appearance that it wasn't fit to touch. And on the other side of the pond, with two mares from the herd, was Nerites. Cassandra galloped down the hill, leaped over the ring of corpses surrounding it, and ran up to Nerites. She pressed her body against his and rubbed her neck against his.
"Thank the gods you are still alive, my Nerites!" Cassandra gasped, her voice trembling.
"And I am doubly blessed, Cassandra," Nerites replied softly, "for you live, too."
Vesta and Ceres turned and walked to the center of the hill. They met Saturn and Juno there. Vesta looked around them and spotted Pallas. She was still crying.
"Same thing happen over here?" Vesta asked them.
"Yeah," Juno replied. "The mist was on top of them before Saturn could draw out their energy and liquify them. You?"
"I sacrificed about fifty plant men, all of them castor plants," Ceres said, in dull shock. "But their effect isn't quick enough to stop those mist creatures if they got hold of a living being." Resolve seemed to flicker and grow within the horse. "This can't go on. They're ravaging this pasture, not to mention the animals. We've got to do something."
"Wait for the Princess," Juno advised.
Vesta scowled.
A few minutes later Sailor Moon appeared on the horizon. As she drew closer to the area, she could see what was left. Landing on the hill, she found Saturn and the Asteroids waiting for her. Nerites and Cassandra were waiting for her, too.
"What happened?" Sailor Moon asked anxiously.
"The Skoteinos," Nerites spoke up before anyone else could respond. "They came. And as they always do, they destroyed."
"They disguised themselves as a ground fog," Saturn related. "Nobody was aware of them until they struck. It was a total ambush."
"Yeah, they hit hard and fast, and they knew what they were doing," Vesta added. "Looks like they got their revenge."
"You're assuming emotion, Vesta," Sailor Moon softly disagreed. "They demonstrate a tactical ability, yes, but they may have just been acting out of self-defense . . ."
"What does it matter!" Nerites seethed. Startled, Sailor Moon looked at him. "My herd is dead! Most of the finest breed mares born to this area, gone! What is to become of us now, Princess? How is this herd supposed to promulgate? It matters not why the Skoteinos did what they did! What matters is they did it! And if they are not stopped, they will do it again!"
"Nerites . . ."
"One of the reasons I brought you here was to help avoid this!" Nerites continued unappeased. "I hoped that you might have the power to end this threat to our way of life! And I was right! You do! You have already succeeded twice in neutralizing these creatures so they are not a threat to anything living! YOU JUST LACK THE WILL!"
"Hey, back off!" snarled Vesta.
"Wait a minute," Sailor Moon said. "'One' of the reasons?"
"Yes, I admit it!" spat Nerites. "The spell Cassandra helped me cast was no accident. I changed you into an equine to lure you here, in hopes that you would grow to like it and join my herd, as well as help us stave off the threat of the Skoteinos! CLEARLY I was wrong to think you could aid us with the latter! And as of now, I wouldn't want you in what's left of this herd if you were the last breed mare in the universe!"
Shoving past Vesta, Nerites jammed his face up into Sailor Moon's.
"Destroy the Skoteinos or go and leave us to our fate!" Nerites demanded. "But by the gods, make a decision! All you've done so far is get my herd killed!"
And the unicorn stormed off. Cassandra paused with a last look, silently saying she sympathized with Sailor Moon without agreeing with her actions, then followed her herd male.
"Thanks for sticking up for me, Vesta," Sailor Moon whispered.
"It's my job," Vesta muttered. "I agree with him."
Sailor Moon stared impatiently.
"Yeah, Sailor Moon," Ceres spoke up. "How many more have to die? Look at the scars on this pasture. It used to be beautiful. It'll be decades before it's beautiful again. Look at the apple trees down by the pond. Some of the leaves are already beginning to wither because they're drawing water from a poisoned pond."
"The Skoteinos - - they're just trying to live," Sailor Moon argued.
"But they killed all of the horsies!" wailed Pallas.
"Why are you defending them, Sailor Moon?" Ceres demanded. She was tearing up, too. "They don't contribute anything to this planet! They just destroy! God, it's like you're defending cockroaches! Who cares if a cockroach dies?"
"There has to be a way to resolve this problem without exterminating an entire species!" Sailor Moon persisted.
"Because that's what the Queen would do?" Juno asked. She was trying to be deferential to Sailor Moon's position, but it was a struggle. "Look, no disrespect - - but be careful that you don't let this situation spiral out of control just because you're obsessed with being like your mother."
The silence that surrounded the group was suddenly oppressive. Sailor Moon didn't respond, but she wouldn't look at anyone either. Vesta and Ceres took the opportunity to move away. Pallas followed Vesta as she always did. Unwilling to endure a suddenly uncomfortable environment, Juno joined her sisters. Sailor Moon stared off into space. Saturn eased up to her and rubbed her friend's neck with the side of her head.
"I'm not trying to be like Mom," Sailor Moon choked out. "I'm following Mom's philosophy. I'm doing it because it's right, not because it's Mom. There has to be a way, Saturn."
"I believe you," Saturn replied. "But the thing you have to ask yourself if how much time do you have left to look for that solution? They're dying, on both sides. And the longer we wait, looking for that perfect solution, the more die. I don't want to exterminate an entire species any more than you do. But after what happened here, there may not be any other option - - aside from giving up and going home."
"You too?" Sailor Moon asked softly.
"Sometimes life makes you choose," Saturn said forlornly. "I don't want to choose, but if I have to choose, I'm not going to choose the Skoteinos. Ceres is right. They don't contribute anything. They just destroy."
Sailor Moon nodded sadly. Then she flexed her shoulders and hind quarters and launched up into the air. Saturn stared after her, heart breaking.
"Maiden?" Sailor Moon felt in her brain as she flew aimlessly.
"Please, Helios. Not you, too," she thought back. "I'm not wrong. I'm not! There has to be a way! I can't just resort to exterminating an entire species because it's convenient. I believe in what Mom has always believed in, just like Pop and the Inners do. If I abandon that the first time things get rocky, do I truly believe in it?"
"I was merely seeking to comfort you, Maiden," Helios offered. "Your adherence to your beliefs in the face of personal adversity is what makes you strong. But nothing in this life comes without a cost. If you are not willing to accept that you may be sacrificing the equines, the wolves, the smaller rodents and all of the flora of this world in order to pursue those beliefs, then you are not seeing the total picture."
Sailor Moon sighed. "Maybe I am fooling myself. Maybe there is no way. Maybe to save four species, I have to exterminate one."
"If you must make such a choice," Helios suggested, "know that the Skoteinos came from another world after they consumed it. And they will consume this world if left unchecked and either die out from lack of sustenance or move on to another world - - possibly Earth."
Luna entered the Royal Chambers and found the Queen sitting in a chair, her legs pulled up to her chin. One of the cat's eyebrows cocked.
"I knew I would find you here," the black cat said acidly.
"Luna, go away," the Queen replied petulantly.
"I most certainly will NOT," Luna huffed. She marched into the room, tail straight up and her nose defiantly in the air. "Your confidence in your daughter's capabilities is astounding." The cat turned to the Queen. "And that was sarcasm, by the way."
"Luna, that girl could be five hundred and three and I'll still worry about her," Serenity shot back. "It's a big, bad universe out there and it just waits for young, idealistic girls to reach for the stars so it can knock them down." Her chin rested on her knees. "I know." Serenity sighed. "What I wouldn't give for her to be five again."
"Ask for the moon and the stars, while you're about it," Luna scowled. "You're going to have to let go one of these days, Your Majesty. Suppose she decides to marry Helios, as you've been not-so-subtlety pushing her to do, and moves away to become a missionary in Borneo or the Martian Moons?"
"Why can't she be a missionary here?" Serenity asked. Luna rubbed her temple.
"Debating with you always gives me a headache," Luna sighed.
"Luna, it seems like every mission she's gone on lately has been some sort of trauma for her," Serenity maintained. "You see her. You've heard what Diana tells us about her. I don't want her to go through anymore of that!" Serenity's lip quivered. "I want my old daughter back - - the one who always argued with me, the one who knew everything and was obsessed with proving that she was better than I ever was." Serenity turned to the cat. "How many scars is she going to have to endure?"
"Adversity makes us stronger, Your Majesty," Luna suggested.
"Or destroys us," Serenity whispered.
"It won't destroy her," Luna assured the Queen.
"That's probably what they said in that other dimension," Serenity said sadly. "Kousagi's dimension."
The cat gave her a curious look, which Serenity missed entirely.
"Your Majesty," Luna began, concerned. "As long as I've known you, your philosophy of life has always been 'expect the best of people'. Doesn't that apply to Usa as well?"
Serenity's head lifted from her knees and she shot Luna a horrified look. She looked away, her hand coming to her mouth. For a few seconds there was silence. Then a timid smile crept onto her lips.
"Thank you, Luna," Serenity said softly.
"Not at all, Your Majesty," Luna smiled.
Saturn and the Asteroids stood at the top of the hill, looking out over the land. They searched for any sign of the Skoteinos, but they also searched for any sign of Sailor Moon.
"When do you suppose they'll be back?" Ceres wondered aloud.
"Depends," Juno surmised. "If they think the threat to them has been neutralized, they'll go back to feeding. If not . . ."
"Maybe we should take the fight to them," Ceres pondered.
"Go against Sailor Moon?" Saturn questioned openly. She was aghast at the thought and didn't care to conceal it.
"Yeah, that's the big question," Juno frowned. "She leads. We go where she leads, whether we agree or not. If we don't, do we belong being her senshi?
"I just," Ceres began. "It's such a waste! And we can stop it! I mean, what if she's wrong?" Saturn silently flashed back to what Mizuno-Sensei had told her earlier.
"Then she's wrong," Vesta grunted. "You go where your leader tells you to go. You do what your leader tells you to do. Or you get out."
"So if she leads you over a cliff, you follow her?" Ceres argued.
"Yeah," Vesta responded without hesitation. Then she smirked. "Of course, I can fly."
Ceres smothered a laugh with great difficulty and just a little embarrassment.
"Look!" Pallas exclaimed. "It's the Princess!"
Swooping in out of the north, Sailor Moon landed near the gathered senshi. She stood tall, her wings extended majestically for a moment until she folded them into her body. They all could see she had that look in her eye, the one she always had when she had settled on a course of action and wouldn't let go until she was victorious or dead.
Maybe she was going to pull off a miracle, just like her mother so often did.
But there was still a gulf of ill-will between them. She was about to speak, then hesitated as memories of the confrontation, of their doubt, of hers came flooding back. The others waited, praying that she could salvage the situation, because they didn't know how to and save face. Finally Saturn stepped forward and that broke the ice.
"Talk to us, Sailor Moon," Saturn told her. "We're ready to listen."
"I've got a plan," Sailor Moon announced. "But I can't do it alone. I need you five. I might need every being on this planet, but I definitely need you five. Are we still a team?"
"Are we finally going to kill these things?" Vesta asked point blank.
"No," Sailor Moon replied in a tone that wouldn't be argued with. "But I may end up killing us."
Continued in Chapter 11