AN: Guys, I'm going to say this again. THIS IS DARK. Usagi is dead, and Endymion has spent years trying to live his life despite that. It's sad and painful and all that sort of thing, and honestly not at all where I expected this story to end up. However, like I said when I started this, I was just letting it go where it chose and this is what it became. Hate it or love it, it's your call.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or any of the related material, but I do have a deep emotional investment in this particular version of their fates. I don't think it's the same.

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King Endymion traced his hand over the crystal facets covering the one person he'd ever loved. Seeing her unchanged even through the ruin and rebuilding of the world was the only comfort he had as he struggled through life.

That and their daughter.

Even 'Chibiusa' was too close to her name for him to tolerate, so he raised the tiny princess as Small Lady instead. All he could give her of her mother was stories of the Sailor Moon he'd known before everything had gone wrong, the beautiful heroine who had fought so hard despite the odds.

The Ginzuishou he placed under lock and key, unwilling to let it be used. Though he had been told Chibiusa would someday inherit its power and that when she did he'd be free, he'd grown to love his daughter too much to want to see her carrying such a burden.

He'd hoped for a long time she would reincarnate like she'd told him she always had, but the years had cut down that wish until there was nothing left. Endymion had been forced to give up.

"Endymion, it's time," Jadeite said behind him.

The Shitennou had been revived to help him and atone for their own wrongdoings so they too would be free. The Senshi, the king thought, had never really forgiven them, but they had accepted them. Of course, he wasn't sure if they'd ever forgiven him either.

"Endymion?"

"I'm coming. Just give me a moment, Jadeite."

The blond general nodded and left, understanding that his king preferred to be alone. He'd emerge when he was ready; it wasn't as if anything could happen without him there.

"She's taking the Ginzuishou today," he whispered. "Our Small Lady is all grown up, and after this I won't even be able to call her that. She'll be Princess Lady Serenity, and once she gets married she'll be queen. She's so much like you. Please tell me she doesn't need her old father any more. Tell me I'm done. I don't know how much longer I can deal with all of this."

"Endymion-sama, the princess is looking for you." Kunzite said as he appeared, setting a hand on his master's shoulder. "She is ill at ease."

Taking a deep breath, he nodded. "Okay." The king managed a tight smile. "Is she in her rooms?"

"I'm right here, actually."

He turned and met his daughter's oddly ruby-colored eyes. He'd never understood how she'd ended up with pink hair and red eyes when he and her mother had much more mundane colors. He wondered if it was the result of her mixed heritage and the darkness that had been in him when she was conceived.

"Are you all right?"

"Just nervous, Daddy. It's a lot of responsibility. I know you want me to be ready, but I don't know if I am."

Endymion swallowed. "I've told you a lot about your mother, right?" When she nodded, he continued. "She wasn't either. That's the part I never told you. She didn't want to be a hero. She didn't want the crystal and its powers. She just wanted to be a normal girl, but she knew people would be hurt if she didn't fight. That's how I know you're really ready, Small Lady- because you think you're not."

"Mama was scared too?"

His heart seized a little when she called Usagi that, but he nodded. "Very much so."

Chibiusa glided forward and looked at her mother's face through the crystal. "I wish I'd known her." She bit her lip. "I'm sorry. I know you don't like discussing it."

The king shook his head slowly. "I think today of all days you have the right. I'll just try to deal with it."

"What happened to her?" the princess asked in a rush. "Why did she die? Why did she leave us? The Senshi won't tell me, no matter how many times I try talking to them about it. What happened that Sailor Moon lost?"

"She didn't lose. Gods, I wish she had."

"Then what? Jupiter said she wanted to protect me, but was something after me? What did I need to be protected from?"

Endymion swallowed. "From- from me."

With that, he told her everything. How he'd been taken by the Dark Kingdom, what he'd put her mother through. He covered the years he'd spent searching for her and with tears in his eyes, he relived her last fight.

"She died so I'd survive and you'd have a father. She sacrificed herself to save me."

Chibiusa looked horrified. "You did all that?"

"Yes. And believe me, I regret every bit of it more than you can imagine. Why do you think I'm so slow to exercise my authority? I know I can't be trusted with power. I'm only king because that's what I was told I had to do if I ever wanted to be able to reunite with your mother in whatever afterlife there is for people like us."

"But why? Even if you were being controlled by the Dark Kingdom, why would you go so far?"

"I know you won't believe me, but it was honestly because despite everything the Endymion I was still cared about her, and she loved me. He didn't love her, but she was the only person in the world he would even think about as more than a pawn. I know what I did was inexcusable, but if she hadn't loved me she never would've let it go as far as it did."

The princess nodded. "Can I have a minute to think about this? With Mama?"

Endymion left without another word, managing a greeting when a young man passed by. Helios joined her by her mother's coffin, wrapping his arms around her shoulder. She leaned back into him, tears in her expressive red eyes.

"Did you know all that?" she asked.

"About your mother and father? Yes. Master told me not long after her death."

"You never said a word."

"Had I ruined your image of him, you would have been devastated. It was not my place to tell you, Usa."

Chibiusa flinched. "He used to call her that, you know. Before he stopped saying her name. What do I do, Helios? Knowing he'll probably kill himself when I get married, how can I tell him you asked me?"

"I requested his permission first. He already knows."

"He's my father! Even after finding out about all this, he's still the man who raised me and has always been there for as long as I can remember. The person he used to be, my mother, I don't know them. I know him, and I can't bear the thought of losing him like that!"

"Even if you delayed telling him, he knows you are ready to stand for yourself. He would not allow you to inherit your mother's crystal if you were not."

"But choosing to die is too much! Can't he wait until he dies of old age? At least then it would be natural and he wouldn't be choosing a dead woman over his daughter!"

Helios sighed. "I do not think that is what he is doing. He simply realizes that his task in this life is complete and that you do not need him now. He is tied to your mother on the most fundamental of levels. She was his reason for existing."

"What about me? Even if I don't need him to take care of me any more, I still need him! He's my father, Helios! I'll always need him!"

"And he needs your mother. Do you want him to stay knowing he is completely miserable without her?"

She scrunched her shoulders, looking very small and hurt. "Can't I be enough?"

"It isn't that you're not enough," Endymion said hoarsely, standing in the doorway. "I'm sorry; I had to hear what you were thinking. Small Lady, you're all that's kept me alive since she died. Not because I had to, not because of your mother. When I looked at you, I could remember what it was to have hope. You're not lacking in any way."

"Then why?" she demanded.

"Because I can't live without her forever."

She hated that she was crying. It made her feel weak, like she was never going to live up to her heroic mother. "Is it because I'm not enough like her? I can try to be brave and strong like she was, I promise, just don't leave me!"

His face fell. "Oh, sweetheart, that's not it at all. You're so much like her; every day I see something you do that makes me think of how proud she would be." Endymion swallowed hard before continuing. "Small Lady- no, Chibiusa, please. I can't go until you make peace with this."

"Then I won't! I don't want you to die, Daddy. I want you to stay! I want to be enough for you want to live!"

"I don't have that much time left. I've accepted that. Now it only comes down to whether or not I can reunite with your mother. If you can't let me go, I'll never see her again. Please don't put me through that. Chibiusa, I'm asking you to say goodbye."

Helios slipped out, giving them privacy. Chibiusa sank to her knees, hands over her face as her father hesitantly came closer and put his hand on her shoulder. When she only cried harder, he knelt and gave her a hug.

"I don't want you to go… I don't know how to say goodbye!"

Endymion's grip tightened. "You don't have to say the words. If you can stay with me till the end and say you love me before I go, that'll be enough. I'm not dying today; it's not even going to be this week or this month. I'll be here until you're married, baby. I want to give you away so when I see your mother I can tell her about our little girl's wedding. She never had a chance to have one. But when the time comes, sit with me and tell me you love me. I'll know you've accepted it and I'll be free to rejoin your mother. When it's your time to die, you'll see me again. It's not like you're saying goodbye forever. You'll join us someday."

"Did Pluto say you had to wait for that too? Is it just another task for you to complete so you can go back to Mama?"

"No. Chibiusa, I'm staying that long because of you. If I can't be there for your wedding, if you can't accept my death, I won't be able to go to your mother because I won't be able to accept it. I need these things."

"But why so soon?"

"I've held on as long as I can, baby, I swear. I just…" He sighed. "I've been sick for a few years. I asked Zoisite to keep it quiet so you wouldn't worry, but the clock's running out. I only have three more months at best. I was so happy when Helios asked my permission to marry you. I finally thought I'd be able to see you get married. I'd been so afraid that I'd die first and you'd be alone."

"What's wrong with you?" When he hesitated, Chibiusa pressed. "Daddy? Please, you have to tell me if you want me to accept this."

"I have a cardiac angiosarcoma," the king finally responded.

"A what?"

"It's a very rare type of tumor in my heart. It should have killed me a while ago, but my healing powers and Zoisite's have been buying me time. We can't keep it up much longer; it's spreading too quickly."

"So you're dying of a broken heart," she said with a humorless laugh.

"That's one way to look at it, I guess."

Chibiusa was shocked and horrified, but she was finally able to tell her father she would be able to do what he needed before he died.

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"It will not be much longer," Zoisite said as he stepped out of the king's chamber. "I do not think he can even hear us now."

"It was only a matter of time, but he'll hear me," the young queen said before brushing by and entering her father's room for the last time.

Seeing King Endymion a thin, wasted wreck of a man was hard, but she'd spent their remaining time together preparing for it. He'd given her away at her wedding a month after he finally told her the truth, and she and Helios had learned everything he could teach them about how to run a kingdom on their own. She had ascended the throne three weeks after her marriage, taking the title of Queen Lady Serenity in deference to her grandmother. And to her mother, who would have been Neo Queen Serenity had she lived.

In the last week, his condition had deteriorated rapidly. He had several minor heart attacks in a two day span. Healing spells were no longer effective, even when he, Zoisite and Sailor Mercury combined their powers. She knew part of it was because he was ready to move on. He'd only tried to put it off for her sake, but finally she'd said to stop. She wasn't going to make him linger when he was in so much pain.

His eyes flickered open as she sat next to him. "Chibi…usa…"

"I'm here, Daddy."

Endymion managed a weak smile. "Not so little… now… You're all grown up…"

"I guess I am. Does that mean I'm Usagi now instead of Chibiusa?"

He flinched, and she immediately felt bad. Still, he nodded. "Yeah, I think… you are. I love you… baby…"

"Daddy, please. You have to say my name, my real name, at least once first." She was an inch away from crying, but she'd sworn not to until he was gone. "Please."

"My beautiful daughter…" The king swallowed. "Usagi…"

Chibiusa bit her lip. "Thank you. I guess it's time to say goodbye."

"You don't… have to…"

"Yes, I do." She took a deep breath. "Good-bye, Daddy. I love you."

"Love you… too…"

He was gone as soon as the words left his lips, and she burst into tears. Helios came in and held her as her father's generals pulled a sheet over the body, preparing to bury him. He and her mother were to be placed in a tomb she had ordered built overlooking the ocean. She wanted that sort of beauty for them.

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Usagi was the first thing he saw after he died, gowned in white and reaching for him as they stood in the center of a place he could only describe as heaven. They really wouldn't be reborn again. He took her hand, realizing his own was suddenly as firm and strong as they'd been before their lives were irrevocably ruined by the Dark Kingdom.

"Welcome home, Mamo-chan. I love you."

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AN: I thought about all sorts of possible things for her to say, for him to respond, but ultimately this is what felt right. Home for them is each other, and after everything there wasn't much to say except how much they loved each other. As for the stuff with Helios and Chibiusa, I thought it was fitting. The new couple, the next generation of the Lunar royalty, had an important discussion in the place that had meant so much to the previous one. Chibiusa learned the truth about her father and mother and came to terms with her father's impending death. I realize this ending was horribly sad, and I apologize, but this is where the Muses decided to go. It's been a long time coming, and I hope you appreciate how it turned out. I almost cried writing this. I hope you'll let me know what you think. This is officially the end of 'Matter of Time'. Maybe I'll see you again in some other tale. If so, till next time.