THE END OF EDEN
Chapter 11: "For Evil To Flourish"
A Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K.
Rei Hino lay in bed, a computer monitor displayed in holographic form over her in arm's reach. Displayed on it was the stored image of a scroll from the fourth century. The scroll had been found outside of Yokohama in 1927 and preserved in a museum until it was scanned to disk in 2021. A translation was available, but Rei had the translator switched off. She was translating it herself, for ancient writings fascinated her and translating the ancient Japanese into modern Japanese was half the fun. Above her, a vital signs monitor silently displayed her vital medical information.
Tiring of the work, Rei closed the hologram. She flopped her head back on her pillow, which in her opinion was too soft, and exhaled in frustration. An idea crept into her head. Rei examined it, turned it over, found no flaws outweighing the benefits, and seized upon it. She flung away the sheet over her, swung her legs over the side of the exam table, and touched the floor with her bare feet. Her medical unit issue gown rode up her thighs and she was momentarily annoyed. She jerked at it, but it didn't ride down much.
"Going somewhere?" she heard Ami ask. The doctor was framed in the doorway of her recovery unit.
"I thought I'd get a little exercise," Rei replied, then shot Ami a challenging glance. "Is that all right with you?"
"Yes, actually," Ami replied, unfazed by Rei's grouchiness. "I was about to suggest it myself. We can't have your cardio-vascular system atrophying during recovery. Just don't move too suddenly or walk too fast. I don't want you to injure your back again."
"My back is," Rei started to say, then seized up as she tried to rise. The pain was evident on her face, but she kept her balance and forced her way up. ". . . fine."
Ami gave her a fisheye look over her glasses. "Your back suffered a large trauma. You're fortunate it was only ligament sprains, but your entire lumbar region was involved. That's not something you recover from overnight, in spite of modern medical technology or senshi healing factor." She gently took Rei by the elbow and escorted the priest out into the hall. "So was there anyplace in particular you wanted to go?"
Rei glanced at Ami and saw the teasing glint in the doctor's eye. Rei's protectiveness of Serenity was well-known throughout the palace and even Ami wasn't above teasing her about it occasionally.
"How is she?" Rei asked.
Ami sobered. "Still comatose. Physically, she's recovered from the trauma of separating from the crystal. But there's a psychic link between her and the crystal that, frankly, I still don't have any way of understanding or measuring. That's still repairing itself."
Rei nodded.
"I couldn't give you an accurate estimation of how long it will take even under normal circumstances. Factor in that she was already overextended because she was trying to heal little Yoko - - well, I just don't know how long it will be."
"I understand," Rei replied, much more calmly than Ami expected. "You can't force these things."
"Do you have some insight into this?" Ami asked.
"Just peripherally. I understand psychic connections and I understand how traumatic it is when they're disrupted. When she's ready, she'll come back to us."
The pair walked along the hall a little more.
"Is Endymion any better?" Rei asked.
"He's putting up a brave front," Ami replied. "With the continued disintegration of societal laws and mores, Endymion feels he has to be strong for the nation. He visits Serenity when he can." Ami sighed. "But the news about Yoko hit him hard. In my professional opinion, the strain is showing."
"How is she?"
Ami looked ahead grimly. "The knife wound was bad enough, but it could have been treated. Unfortunately, we were all busy fighting Death Phantom and worrying about Serenity. I couldn't get to her in time. She lost so much blood, particularly to her lower extremities."
"Ami, it wasn't your fault," Rei told her. "You're only one person. You can only do so much."
"I'm sure Yoko will find that of little comfort when she learns that she's paralyzed from the waist down," Ami frowned.
"You can treat that, can't you?" Rei asked. "I thought they'd made a breakthrough with cloned spinal nerves."
"It's still experimental, and not guaranteed successful in all patients," Ami warned her. "I've even begun to research some of the groundwork in nano-bot technology that Yui pioneered. She had theories about nano-bot induced synapse regeneration that are still ahead of their time. Of course I could always use prostetics. Though I'm not sure how Serenity will react to that."
Rei nodded. "I'll make her see the light - - even if I have to sit on her. How about Sosuke?"
Ami frowned. "Physically his injuries are healed. Emotionally," and Ami hesitated, choosing her words, "this has opened up some old wounds and possibly inflicted new ones on him."
"How so?"
"Well, Serenity's injury is bringing up old fears of parental abandonment, which are natural in any orphan." Rei nodded sympathetically. "He also has to deal with the permanent injuries to his adoptive sister and the human mind can't always cope with such tragedies." Ami seemed to want to say more. Rei waited. "I also suspect that he may feel some misplaced guilt over the incident. Unfortunately, he won't open up to me, and Endymion and the other senshi are far too busy trying to find and contain Death Phantom."
"Is it bad?"
"Death Phantom? They're doing their best, but he seems to be growing stronger. In just two day's time his influence has spread to the continents. Society seems to crumble a little more each day." Ami looked at her watch. "I have to go. I've got a strategy meeting to attend."
"I'll go, too," Rei said.
"Absolutely not! You're still recovering."
"Ami!"
"No, Rei. You're not ready to fight yet." Ami seemed to get an inspiration. "Although if you're adamant about helping, talk to Sosuke. Perhaps you can sense what's troubling him and help him get past it."
Ami went into her office and sat at her desk. Pulling a miniature cord and plug from her senshi communicator, Ami plugged it into a jack on her computer console. The send codes for Jupiter and Venus were input. While the call was broadcasting, Ami linked her computer with Endymion's, because she knew he was monitoring it as he worked the city.
"Hope this is good news, Ami," Venus said, pausing long enough to stun someone with her Crescent Beam.
"Just discussing strategy," Ami replied. "I've hooked everyone in on conference mode."
"How's Rei doing?" they heard Jupiter ask.
"She's up and around, but it's going to be a day or two before she can return to combat," Ami informed them.
"Hope we're still in the game by then," Venus mused.
"And Serenity?" Jupiter asked.
Ami sighed. "No change."
There was silence on the conference call.
"Have either of you had any luck locating Death Phantom?" Endymion said finally, breaking the silence. "The city-wide monitors haven't picked up anything."
"He must be lying low," Jupiter suggested.
"Or he can cloak himself," Venus added.
"I don't see that as likely," Ami told them as she worked on her computer. "The power expenditure isn't beyond him, but it would hamper his obvious efforts to corrupt the world. My estimation is his single-mindedness would keep him from wasting the energy. Besides, he has no reason to fear us after our last encounter."
"Way to suck the wind out of a girl's sails there, Ami," Venus commented dryly.
"I'm merely stating fact, not predicting the future," the doctor countered. "Are any of you close to the Kanzaki residential development?"
"I am," Endymion volunteered. "Do you have something?"
"Nothing definitive," Ami qualified, "but the heaviest concentration of violence seems to be in that area. If the radiant energy from Death Phantom is more concentrated at its source and disperses as it radiates farther away, logic would indicate that would be where the energy is being radiated from."
"Understood. I'm headed that way," Endymion replied.
"Well I didn't understand a word you said, but I'm willing to buy into it, too," Venus quipped. "I'll swing over there and give Endymion a hand."
"Meet you there, Blondie," Jupiter added.
"Not just yet!" Ami said urgently. "How is your emotional control at the moment?"
"Why? You afraid I'm going to slip over to the dark side?" Venus inquired.
"Death Phantom's energy dissolves the mental inhibitions against negative desires," Ami warned. "It fans anger, jealousy, envy and hatred. You've both suffered incidents where Death Phantom's energy has influenced you. If you're both not in one-hundred percent control of your emotions, it might be better for Endymion if you stay away." There was a pregnant pause. "Forgive me for being blunt, but the situation demands it."
"I hear what you're saying, Ames," Jupiter admitted. "But what about Endymion? Isn't he at risk, too?"
"Endymion and Serenity have demonstrated an ability to resist Death Phantom's influence. I believe it's a factor unique to them. We don't have that factor. I've been feeling a little irritable myself and I have to wonder if it's Death Phantom's influence."
"Because you've 'never' been irritable, right?" Jupiter replied. Ami could hear the teasing tone in the woman's voice and felt herself flushing slightly.
"Just, please be careful," Ami added. "For your own sakes as much as for Endymion's. I'll join you as soon as I can."
"Understood," Venus replied. "Got to sign off now. These roaming charges are going to break me otherwise."
In the Kanzaki district, the streets were littered with debris. Some of the dwellings were dark and dead-looking, either from vandalism or from the inhabitants cowering in fear from the violence of the past two nights. Eden had died a quick and hostile death in this area and the perpetrators were people they had once called neighbor. The air was acrid with smoke from a burned out shell that had once been a CDP hover-car. Occasionally the air would be pierced by a scream of terror, followed by ominous silence.
Just then a figure emerged from one of the dwellings. He was a CDP officer, though his uniform was torn and unkempt. He was dragging a struggling woman by the hair. She fought to get free of his grip while squealing hoarsely in utter fear. The officer reached the middle of the front yard, then boldly flung her down. In fear for her life, the woman looked up at him and saw his shock club raised to use as a bludgeon. And she saw the joy of violence dancing in his eyes. Her life flashed before her as she feared she had breathed her last.
But as the shock club came down, it was blocked and caught by a black walking stick. Both assailant and victim turned and found King Endymion at the other end of the stick. A simple compact rotation of the stick sent the shock club flying. The officer grasped his injured hand, then grunted angrily and charged. Endymion deftly parried the charge, then brought the walking stick down across his head and the officer fell in an awkward heap to the ground. Though he had little time to do it, Endymion still bent down and extended a hand to the woman.
"No!" she shrieked. "Please don't hurt me!"
Surprised, Endymion pulled back. Seizing the opportunity, the woman scurried back into her dwelling as fast as she could.
"Quite lacking in gratitude, wouldn't you say, King Endymion?" a sepulchral voice behind him commented.
Endymion whirled, armed with roses, on the voice. Hovering ten feet off the ground thirty yards behind him was Death Phantom's skeleton. It was in a lotus position, its bony hands continuously waving from side to side of the crystal orb that hovered between them. A fine black energy, barely visible to the human eye, surrounded him and gave him a glow like that of illumination from a black light.
"Yes, I am Death Phantom," the apparition told him. "My contact with the silver crystal merely destroyed the last vestiges of my former human shell. I have been - - born again."
"Then you'll die again," Endymion replied grimly and let fly with the three roses in his right hand.
The roses flew straight and true. Though Death Phantom was surrounded by a barrier, the roses pierced the barrier with little trouble. Each rose struck the skeleton stem first into its sternum and Death Phantom flinched back. The King produced three more and readied to hurl them as well.
But the roses embedded in Death Phantom's chest began to give off a black mist. A closer look told Endymion that they were dissolving. Finally, in a violent puff, the roses disappeared.
"Annoyances," Death Phantom exhaled, already recovering from the assault, "but little more than that."
"Even a giant can die from a thousand bee stings!" Endymion shot back. More roses hurled toward Death Phantom.
"Then it behooves the giant to swat the bee," his adversary replied.
A huge pulse of dark energy exploded out from Death Phantom and shot toward
Endymion. Reflexively the monarch drew his cape up as a shield. The energy hammered him.
Endymion was hard pressed to stand his ground, but stand it he did. When the pulse dissipated,
Endymion let his cloak fall away.
"Were I not occupied with corrupting this world into one of hatred and murder, you would not readily survive my onslaught," Death Phantom rumbled.
"I feel what you're trying to do," Endymion crowed confidently. "Your energy can't corrupt me like it does everyone else." The monarch seemed to stand just a little straighter. "She's touched me too deeply and for too many years for me to ever yield to you."
"But you are only one man against the tidal wave," sneered Death Phantom. "Save what you can. You cannot defeat me alone."
"Jupiter Coconut Cyclone!" Sailor Jupiter roared.
"Rolling Heart Vibration!" Sailor Venus joined in the chorus. "By the way, I think you've taken that diet a little too far!"
The attacks came speeding in from either side and met where Death Phantom hovered. The impact shook the area and a deafening clap of thunder exploded overhead and rumbled for miles. But when the energy dissipated, Death Phantom remained unaffected.
"You can't hope to succeed," the apparition said with maddening even-tempered confidence. "Surrender to the inevitable. Your little attempt at Eden is over."
"I disagree!" Endymion said, leaping at the hovering Death Phantom, his armor on and his sword in his hand. Before another blast of obsidian energy could be launched, Endymion swung the sword. Angry sparks jumped off of Death Phantom's shield.
"Humanity has reverted to its natural state," Death Phantom persisted. "All the creatures on this planet are inherently dark. Violence, anger and fear are the building blocks humanity was constructed from."
"Lies!" Endymion spat back, flinging roses in close quarters. Death Phantom just managed to ward them off.
"How difficult a process has it been for you and your mate to build this 'Utopia' of yours?" Death Phantom taunted. "And see how easily it crumbles to the ground with just a subtle nudge from me."
"Twist and manipulate all you want," Endymion responded, hacking at the shield again and again with his sword, "but I have seen the glory humanity can aspire to! I will not allow you to drag humanity back into the mud its ancestors crawled out of!"
Sailor Jupiter stood and watched, ready to assist if needed. She wanted to attack again, but Venus had signaled her to hang back. Reluctantly, she admitted to herself that it made sense. Their attacks had done nothing to Death Phantom. Ami had once again proved prophetic, in that they'd been more of a hindrance to Endymion than a help. A movement on her left drew the senshi's attention, but she found it was only Sailor Mercury.
"Glad you're here," Jupiter smiled weakly. "Maybe you can do something. All I can do is sit here and watch. I've never felt so useless."
"It's not a sin to be over-matched," Mercury said to her, pulling her visor down so she could analyze the energy swirling around the two combatants. "And it isn't always how hard you hit. Sometimes where and when is more important."
Jupiter smiled. One more reason to love this woman.
"Though you cannot destroy me," Death Phantom proclaimed as he warded off blow after blow from Endymion, "you prove to be an annoyance I am no longer willing to tolerate. If I must surrender my growing grip upon this world for a moment in order to deal with you . . ."
"Endymion, move!" Mercury shrieked suddenly.
" . . . then so be it!"
Suddenly the area grew dark as light seemed to be sucked into a massive pulse of energy. It shot out from Death Phantom at terrific speed. Mercury saw Endymion struck by the pulse and pitched backward for sixty feet. Mentally she calculated that the energy output would leave Death Phantom vulnerable for about fourteen seconds. Then the residual shock wave struck her and Jupiter, pitching them off their feet
Elsewhere, an eye opened.
Similarly struck down, Sailor Venus struggled to a sitting position. The blast in England that had nearly ended her career as Sailor V was like being struck with a marshmallow compared to this. She scanned the area, trying to get her bearings and locate her team. Mercury and Jupiter were struggling to rise twenty yards away. Endymion was flat on his back, barely awake. Then Death Phantom levitated over the King.
"You survive? Impressive," he murmured, powering up again. "But you won't survive this."
A second ebony pulse shot out and Venus thought it was the end. Then, before she realized it was there, a second source of energy appeared in the path of the pulse, catching it before it could strike King Endymion. As it held the ebon pulse, the energy elongated, seemed to shimmer brightly against the darkness of the energy it held. Finally something took form within the energy field.
It took only a second, but Queen Serenity suddenly stood between Death Phantom and Endymion, holding his black pulse at bay.
Continued in Chapter 12