Thick plums of smoke, chokingly thick air, devastation all around, the fires of the day before still burning before me... Standing on a frighteningly unsteady husk of building. The smoke not even the thing at fault for the redness of my gaze. My hair wiping aggressively to the side behind me, a few strays clinging to my grey streaked cheeks as I stood expectantly. A fearful heart beating in uneven time. A fearful, unknowing heart... Determined to get its future back.
Yet already looking at it.
"I'm off!" Usagi waved cheerfully back towards the house as she stepped around the corner, leaving her mother and the three cats safely behind. Turning around she stopped short and stared in surprise at me as I stood at the corner of the street, my hands twisted together in front of my legs. I didn't speak, but offered her a childish smile and hum of greeting.
"Chibi Chibi!" She exclaimed but quickly her surprise turned to a scowl as she closed the gap between us. "I was worried sick! You didn't tell me a thing!" She fumed as she bent down and placed her briefcase next to her. "Where did you go?" She demanded. For the last hour I had wandered aimlessly, thinking and gathering myself together for the day's events. And once I felt ready enough I had waited anxiously for Usagi to emerge.
"No where." I said innocently. Usagi's scowl disappeared and was once again replaced by surprise. My lack of copycatting had caught her off guard. She watched me for a moment trying to figure me out again, but to no avail.
"Chibi Chibi..." She began and I watched her patiently. "I think it's best if you stay here, with Mama, and the kitties." She said cautiously. My eyes narrowed dangerously and my heart beat with determination as my muscles tensed. I took a step back out of her arms and turned away from her, making my way towards the park, not letting her get another word in. "Hey-" She began, but I could hear her slump, and could picture her biting her lip, thinking her argument over. I heard her sigh in failure and stand up with briefcase in hand before following along. "Are you gonna tell me anything?" She all but whined as she followed. I glanced back over my shoulder at her as we continued to walk, my eyes unforgivingly serious. The unspoken 'no' absolute as I turned away from her again. She sighed loudly behind me.
I stopped at the park entrance, and Usagi looked ahead, drawing to a stop beside me. There wasn't anyone in sight, but the calm sounds of life was noticeable in the air. A soft vibrant hum... Cars in the distance, the city... the peaceful chatter of wildlife within this green pocket within the city.
Usagi's eyes scanned over the park for a moment, taking it all in before looking upwards towards the blue sky, her hair swaying behind her in the gently caressing breeze. Her fearfully hoping heart beating unevenly in her chest. She breathed in more readily and her muscles tensed with determination as she stepped into the park. After a few moments of watching her I followed suit.
"Oi! Odango!" Seiya's voice cut through the park as we reached our destination in a more secluded, hedge and concrete guarded area. "You're actually on time." She said with a wink, perhaps trying to lighten the mood, and it was the only thing keeping me from being insulted. As if we'd be late to something like this... Usagi seemed less phased by this than me and the corners of her mouth half raised for Seiya's sake, but fell again in an instant.
"Are you alright?" Kakyu's soft voice greeted us as we came to a halt in front of them, a mere yard away from the fountain. It's waters giving a continuous pattering noise. The ghost of Usagi's smile returned more genuinely this time and she nodded slowly. As 'alright' as she was going to be. I glanced up at Kakyu, taking her in. She seemed to have gained more colour to her cheeks since yesterday, and seemed a lot more capable today. As she turned towards the Starlights, I detected less pain to her movement, but my lips still pressed together in concern. She really shouldn't be coming with us... Not in this state. I could lead them! But... I swallowed as I pushed it aside. A Senshi unable to fight for what she loves when so much was at stake... There wasn't a pain more torturous than that. No matter how much I wanted to keep her safe, how much The Starlights wanted it, it was out of our hands. "Let us begin."
"Fighter Star Power!"
"Healer Star Power!"
"Maker Star Power!"
Usagi lifted her arms out in front of her and The Holy Grail appeared, it radiating with power as her eyes closed determinedly.
"Moon Eternalu!"
I closed my own eyes and tilted my head back, summoning The Cosmos Crystal's power gathering in my heart.
"MAKE UP!" We cried, and in a flood of light that faded away readily, we stood in a circle with our fukos, turning to Kakyu who had remained in her Princess form all along.
"We should head to Uranus first." Usagi said softly after a moment had passed and the power within us had settled. My eyes drifted softly to the fountain, a vistage of memory settling before me. Of me... Of Haruka...Feeling the pain in her troubled heart. My head lowered as my eyes closed. The other four glanced Usagi's way.
"So those three are at their castles?" Fighter managed, and Usagi nodded half-heartedly. Forcing herself to believe it... Not yet willing, or able, to accept the truth she already knew. I snapped up at the term 'three'.
"Hey! You know," I said lifting my arms as I stepped forward, forgetting myself. "Hotaru-chan went after those three too!" I exclaimed. The others besides Kakyu stared down at my in surprise as I stood in the middle of them, and my cheeks flushed red at realizing my mistake. There was no backing out now. My charade was kinda silly now anyways. And besides, Kakyu had heard me talk normally before, so...
"Woah.. Chibi-squirt! You can talk normally!" Healer goggled. My eyebrows furrowed, insulted, and my arms flailed to me sides in anger. Seiya had shown me respect and trusted me, but I hadn't thought about the other two.
"No!" I pouted. "I'm Chibi Chibi! Not Chibi-Squirt!" Not that "Chibi Chibi" was really any better.
"You've been to their castles before?" Maker asked ignoring me as my rant continued in Healer's direction. Like usually she wasn't really phased, just momentarily caught off guard, but was quickly focused back towards the task at hand. Usagi's shock dispelled as her eyes softened sadly.
"No. I haven't been to anybody's mother planet." Usagi admitted.
"We haven't heard from any of them." Fighter commented. "I think something's happened to those four." I turned back towards them, my rant complete, and my serious concerned gaze had returned. Her eyes were a mirror of my own now, her mind drifting to her last conversation with Haruka. "How long does it take to get to The Outer Solar System?" Usagi's lips pressed together again in concern.
"It's not that far at all to Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto." Kakyu assured turning her back towards us, and as she arched her back, two large wings spreading out behind her with an elegant stretch. The other three had followed her lead and hovered a few feet off of the ground as Fighter turned back towards us and reached out for Sailor Moon.
"Your hand?" Usagi's face flushed redder than mine had after my blunder.
"It's okay." She said, yanking me to her as a shield, knocking the wind out me. "I'm gonna try my best to keep up so I'm not a drag." She promised. Fighter's face softened, and a genuinely caring smile rested on her face and it was an expression that seemed to belong on Pluto's face more that Fighter's.
"You don't have to try so hard," She said with a soft laugh. "You're a princess." She said more kindly, and Usagi released me, but I remained in front of her, staring up at Fighter with the same thoughtful expression as Usagi. "It's all right to be protected by others." Fighter assured, and my heart dropped a bit, and I made my way up sadly beside them...
They protected me... And got hurt...
"For princesses..." Fighter said rising up higher in the sky, looking down at us expectantly, with an equally assuring smile. "Get stronger by being protected." I paused and looked her way. Bellow us Usagi seemed to ponder this, her hands curled over The Silver Crystal, but I was busy with my own thoughts about this. I didn't feel stronger having them fight for me and standing back. It was the worse feeling. I didn't want them protecting me...
We soared higher, Sailor Moon finally joining us, a reluctant smile on her face.
I wanted to be the one protecting them...
"Let's be on our way."
I glanced downward as we soared upward, the disoriented image of the fountain, the ripples of light off of it's waters, the last true image of my home leaving me behind. My heart ached, and a single tear settled at the corner of my eye.
"Goodbye..."
Mamo-chan's arm settled around my shoulders and I turned my head upwards with a warm smile, closing my eyes in a silent message of encouragement and assurance that I was fine. My eyes opened and I glanced around the group. Mina and Rei-chan close together talking, most likely about strategy. Ami-chan typing away at her computer, finding us the best travel plan with Mako-chan nearby, looking on, but not fully comprehending how Ami-chan's quick, agile fingers were keeping up with what she wanted to do. Setsuna, Haruka, Michiru, and Hotaru-chan... All of them talking, and having their own way of preparing. My eyes scanned over each of them merrily.
"Alright." Minako said readily. "Let's go." I nodded just as eagerly.
"Hai!" I had turned, Mamo-chan letting me go, and I spread my wings out behind me. My fist hand rested over my heart. "Let's go protect our future!" Mamo-chan hand grabbed my other hand then and we had shared another smile.
My last smile...
My last moment...
With their power, their hearts flowing through me.
How carelessly I had taken it, thinking I would be back in a matter of days, that they would always be with me now.
That the worse I could ever fall had already happened. 5 years before...
Foolishly ignoring all the tension the others were feeling, giving them their own sense of false hope, accepting their trust and dreams and ultimately failing them.
The tear at the corner of my eye refused to fall and I dragged my eyes away from the park, now a small speck of green bellow us. Now not taking my time for a different reason. This time knowing I would never be back, and the ignorance behind me as I accepted the truth without any whimsical delusions about my mission and place, about my fate. I glanced towards Usagi who was racing beside me.
A truth I was determined to not be true for her.
I wouldn't let it be her truth.
"Uranus! Uranus! Guardian Uranus!" Her voice anxious and her heels barely touching the ground as her wings spurred her forward in her mad dash. "Uranus!" She pleaded only to be met with silence in the large communications room with Uranus' planetary symbol towering above us, directly across from the large screen...
A thin, pile of scattered ash before it.
Sailor Moon slowed down as she reached it, her heart pounding in her ears, refusing to believe it.
Her hands slammed down onto the communications keyboard and immediately began pressing the comm, shouting into it.
"Neptune?! Pluto?! Saturn?!" She pleaded, but the screen remained giving off pure static.
"Let's go check out Neptune." Kakyu advised, Fighter placing her hands on Sailor Moon's shoulders, trying to keep her together.
"Neptune?! Guardian Neptune?!" Her voice even more desperate, anxious, hopeful... Her speed dizzying, and throwing caution to the wind as she raced across the large planetary symbol on the ground. "Neptune?!" She slowed and her heels clicked to a halt in front of the ashen pile. She let out a staggered breath as she crouched down and placed her hand upon it, her eyes wide and horrified, her hand moving slowly, and unaccepting.
"Please... Don't tell me these four were..." She got up, refusing to let the idea settle in her mind.
I watched sadly beside the others, my head falling as my eyes closed.
Why have all this power...
"Pluto?! Guardian Pluto?! Saturn?!" She raced ahead of us, and I picked up speed, my heart racing at memory, not wanting her to get there alone. Fighter surged ahead of me, and both of us got there just as the system kicked in, the empty, silent castle flickering with new light at the sound of her voice.
... if I couldn't stop this...
"PLUTO?! SATURN?!" Sailor Moon's scream filled the castle as the visions of Pluto and Hotaru crumbling to ash attacked her. "NOOOOOOOO!" Usagi's piercing scream echoed around us as she tried to fall to her knees, but Fighter had reached her and caught her in her arms. Sailor Moon's arm pushed awkwardly against her, trying to break free even as the others tried to explain to her that it was just a recording, but that couldn't dilute the pain of the facts. Sailor Moon successfully pushed Fighter off and knelt down beside the streams of ash on the floor, grasping at it, shaking with shock.
... if I couldn't stop her pain...
I tried to take a step closer to her, but my legs felt funny, and unable to make the other three steps necessary. My eyes were vacant and distant, watching her come apart again, lifting her hand up to stare at the ash running from her fingers. The idea not just settling in her mind, but forcing itself into harsh reality. Her fingers coiled together tightly, and she bent forward, looking incredibly broken with her curled hands pressed to her forehead.
"If she's after my Crystal, she should come after me, not the others!" She half cried, half raged in a broken, shrill whisper. Her head lifted in quick anger. "Princess Kakyu! Please take me there! To Sagittarius Zero Star!" She demanded through her hot, unnoticed tears.
"Sailor Moon?!" Kakyu was taken aback. "You know about Sagittarius Zero Star?" Sailor Moon's hands slowly lowered to the floor as she stared ahead, her eyes hardening and determined.
"Galaxia told me." She said evenly, as her fingers coiled more tightly.
"I'm coming right now! Galaxia!"
Heading to where this battle was always meant to end.
I stepped beside her taking a deep breath and placed my hand on her shoulder. Sailor Moon turned towards me, her fist and tense muscles relaxing at my touch. Her determined eyes giving way to blank curiosity, as if she was remembering we were here.
And Galaxia was not.
"Then let us go..." Kakyu agreed, and The Starlights shared an uncertain glance, but did not speak up in opposition. "To where Galaxia is waiting."
He stuck his head out past the door, his eyes peering curiously at the empty bed. He entered the room with a sigh and stared at it leaning carelessly against the door. It was what he had expected, but it still didn't settle with him. Maybe if we had exchanged a small goodbye, he could have rested a bit easier?
No.
Nope.
Not even close.
He fidgeted, a scowl on his concerned face. He couldn't just sit here. He turned and left the room, the door swinging carelessly closed behind him, the back of his coat flapping as he raced down the halls back towards the console.
Fish people...
The vast amounts of planets narrowing slightly, and then even more as he focused his thoughts on The Milky Way solely...
Thousands of planets at the front of his mind, one of those even being Earth...
But from there he could narrow it even further.
He reached the console and grabbed the computer screen to twist it towards him, looking at his work from the night before, the aquatic planets Galaxia had visited in her long, drawn out search...
The search narrowed to about a hundred different planets.
He had to give this to Galaxia, she sure had gotten around, a wanderer after his own heart.
If those quests for truth hadn't ended so violently, that is.
But he could still narrow it down even further.
A temple...
A well known, but mysterious, temple...
That left about a handful considering the vague description I had given him, but considering Galaxia probably did not travel into the depths of a raging sea, that left one with the temple above on dry land. He had it. It had to be there.
And he would find it.
What he would do after that, he wasn't actually sure, but he would come to that when he got more information! Unfortunately, he had not been entirely joking about that "half a plan" thing. Normally his plans weren't evn plans! They were... things. Him not telling me that was definitely for the best. But this time was different. This time there really was no room for error. Because too much was at stake. Things too important.
"Alright Beautiful," He said moving away from the screen, his hands twitching anxiously to get on the move, and he pulled down on one of the levers nearby as his dark ringed eyes blazed with determination as he watched the pillar that was now moving up and down. He'd get to the bottom of this. "Allons-y!"
The orb of light expanded and consumed our vision, forcing us to shield our eyes as we were dragged down together unexpectedly. We had arrived at our destination much quicker than I had expected, Sailor Moon's determined strength had pulled us forward, and we had floated above the bright star system in preparation, knowing the way ahead of us would be fierce, but not prepared for the action to begin before we had even entered. I had grabbed onto Sailor Moon's leg, determined not to get separated from her, not even for a moment.
The Starlights landed behind us, and Kakyu lifted herself off of the ominously glowing, gaseous floor. For her first time, to Usagi, it would remind her of the soft pink mists of The Fourth Dimension, but agitated... My hand pressed down against the floor suddenly... A memory pricking at the back of my mind. An agitated Fourth Dimension... Perhaps there was something in those memories I had forgotten that this would remind Usagi of that I didn't have... My fingers coiled together. So even how Usagi was thinking and feeling was different now. I knew nothing... I had to be prepared and keep my thoughts clear and straight forward. My heart had to remain firm.
Because I did know what this was, and it was not The Fourth Dimension...
"What is this?" Sailor Moon questioned stepping forward, The Starlights lingering behind with Kakyu, and I following a few steps to the side behind her. I lifted my head expectedly, having known this scene too many times to count, stepping past her as a loud creaking noise filled the dimension and she froze expectantly, but my eyes hardened as I stared ahead, as those fated double doors appeared, opening up, beckoning us forward ominously unguarded. My breathing was becoming a bit panicked, but forcing myself to remain strong, knowing where this all lead. Where this was. How many times I had done this.
That Chaos lay in wait for me like a spider.
For Usagi...
"The Gate to The Zero Star?" Sailor Moon exclaimed, putting the pieces together. I stopped short inside The Gateway, coughing at the sudden dusty breeze. Behind me, Sailor Moon's throat hitched and she coughed lightly, Kakyu's coughing covered hers, and I found my tiny lungs couldn't fight the urge for long. This wasn't where it usually lead me! But it was familiar... My mind felt... Sorta funny...
"I'm so thirsty." Healer complained.
"Let's just get going." Maker suggested. "Maybe we'll find something deeper in." We had relaxed upon entering through The Gateway, our discomfort at the forefront of our minds, our imminent danger...
Forgotten.
My mind just felt a bit hazy... We had to get out of this desert. We were going to choke here! And... I had this uneasy feeling, but the others seemed fine, and unconcerned so I was probably just overthinking this. What did I... know?
A dark figure emerged in the side of my vision and I perked up curiously. Sailor Moon noticed my movement, as somehow I had come to cling to her side again, and the other soon followed our gazes. The new arrival was shrouded in a dark hood, a grim reaper on the horizon, her long ore of a glaive descending into the sands beside her boat, an ashen, sand covered husk of a tree behind her. A clearly, ominous, and fearful warning as to what to expect for us, but... it just didn't click. Sailor Moon wrapped her arm around me as we all stood in line watching her expectantly, a small set of coughs escaping my throat.
"I am Lethe..." The figure's evenly kind and devious voice greeted us, none of us questioning her presence in this forsaken place. "I am the ferryman of this River of Sands... Please..." She beckoned. "Step aboard, strangers." We each stepped forward slowly, Sailor Moon's gloved arm leading me in my action as my mind spun with difficulty. Trying to put the pieces together. We stepped obediently into the boat, and Lethe pushed us off from the imaginary shore, a sickening 'splish' sounding off as we inched forward. Sailor Moon released me and leaned forward, looking ahead over the vast, eternal desert. Fighter stood over her and the other two Starlights, looking forward as we moved, her face not a hard mask like one would expect in this type of situation.
Wait... What sort of situation? What were we in?
I peered over the side of the boat towards the sand parting ways beneath us, my dim mind fighting for control as I let out another small cough.
"This is so surreal..." Maker hummed from somewhere behind me, but I had inhaled another gust of wind, and my mind spun as I coughed again. It was just so difficult to breath here. And my mind felt like... When The Doctor had talked to me earlier...
The Doctor...
MY MEMORIES!
I jolted in semi-understanding as my mind spun anxiously. My mind was being played with! The Cosmos Crystal vibrated... THE COSMOS CRYSTAL! The vibration caught me off guard as I tried to snap out of the sand's hazy, trust inducing, grasp, but it was working too slowly, and as Lethe's deadly ore struck the sand-
Splish
"The desert! It's turning into water?!" Sailor Moon cried out beside me, shrinking back in surprise, but as she called out, the boat beneath us jerked to the left, causing a chorus of confused shrieks, and my mind clicked into fearful focus, the knowledge of the threat pressing down upon me as it returned.
"Usag-" I called, reaching out for her as the boat suddenly jerked in the other direction.
Sending us right over the edge. The waters crushing down in a swirl around us. My hand was still outstretched as I choked down the horrible waters, and my eyes squeezed shut as reality and fantasy, my past and present swam together in my mind.
"Mamo-chan! Everyone...!" My fingers coiled together as I continued to choke and fall downwards through the water... "EVERYONE! HELP ME!"
It all...
Disappeared.
...
Neo Queen Serenity's hands moved away from the two cats resting in the comfortable basket she had set up for them.
"There..." She said gently, knowing they were too deep in their sleep to actually hear her, but it made her feel a bit better anyways. Her fearful, knowing heart was still overshadowing her in this deceitfully, pressing calm. Her head lifted mournfully towards the crystalline ceiling, her hair cascading gently behind her. Somber eyes to the waning moon above...