Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Michiru P.O.V.
My body froze. I couldn't say anything. All I could do was look up at my princess. She'd changed so much since I last saw her that horrible night. She didn't look like herself. Her kind and caring eyes were lifeless. There was no joy in her. It became clear to me that this isn't the Serenity I once loved. This Serenity is just a vessel for something darker.
Her strapless black dress hugged her body in the right ways. What's with the sex appeal? Is this because her purity is gone? The red-eye makeup made her bored eyes pop. And her hair. Her hair was no longer the vibrant yellow it was before. Now it is a muted grey color. My eyes continued to take in the darkness her aura now was. She wore a red tiara made of thorns. But the worst part was that the crescent moon on her forehead was no longer gold but black.
"How did you find us?" I questioned her.
Her lifeless eyes turned toward me. They were so dark. They still looked human, unlike the evil queens, but they didn't have the human glow they used to.
"When we could no longer feel you, it was only obvious that you were no longer in the same dimension as us," she said numbly.
"We?" Uranus asked.
She turned her head toward Uranus. Her eyes were stuck on her.
"You didn't really think we'd let her come alone, did you?" A voice said.
Nyx and Hikari appeared. Nyx made my blood turn cold, but Hikari, Hikari was something different altogether. He wasn't human. There was nothing human about him. The energy I felt from him made bile rise.
"I'm not a child. I don't need a babysitter," Serenity spat.
Nyx jerked her head and bore holes into Serenity's dress. Normally, Serenity would have jumped up and screeched at the burning sensation, but she just looked at the holes lazily.
"If I can recall, aren't there supposed to be two more of you?" I asked. Nyx slowly turned her head toward me. Her eyes began to glow. "Oh, how could I forget, Seleine pulled out the tainted heart of Hekate? My mistake."
Nyx's hair rose. "You just can't keep your pretty little mouth shut, can you?" She screeched. Her gown rose around her frame. Serenity lazily dragged her attention away from Nyx. She turned her eyes back to me. A small smirk played at the corner of her lips.
"Now, now ladies," Hikari purred. "Nyx my dear, don't forget that we repaid them in full. After all, their precious goddess of love was taken from them was she not?"
Nyx's hair and gown slowly came back down. Her eyes stopped glowing. "As for Lilith, she's paying your precious Seleine a visit," Hikari said with bold eyes.
Rei P.O.V
"Pluto, why must we continue training? This is pointless, we won't get our power-ups this way," I groaned. We'll be lucky if we ever get our full powers.
"Quit whining. If you want to be some use to Seleine, you will get your full powers," Kunzite snapped. We were all sick of this tireless training.
"Easy for you to say. All you're good for is barking orders!" Jupiter retorted.
Kunzite's eyes turned dark. Jupiter did it this time. He opened his mouth to snap back when I groaned. I felt an evil presence. A very evil presence.
Pluto and Saturn's eyes snapped to the east. They felt it too.
"Pluto, what is that?" I asked her.
"That dark presence is the essence of someone none of us are ready to see, but Uranus and Neptune are in danger!" She said. She turned to us. Her eyes told us everything. It was Serenity. Serenity came back to us. But her energy was dark. There was another energy with her, but this energy was far more fearsome.
Kunzite and Zoisite vanished. To Seleine or to the fight that was about to happen is not known. Suddenly there was an explosion. We all turned our eyes back to the east.
"Let's go!" Saturn said sprinting in that direction.
It took us two minutes of running to reach the battlefield. Kunzite and Zoisite were not in sight. Neptune was standing in front of Uranus. She had ascended just like Pluto and Saturn did. Uranus was still in her crystal form. She hadn't ascended yet.
"It would seem everyone is here," Hikari said sliding his head toward us. Serenity was on his right side. She brought her eyes toward us. There was nothing but sheer boredom in her eyes. Mercury and Jupiter stopped with me when we saw her. She was the exact opposite of the Serenity we all loved and cherished.
"Serenity?" Mercury squeaked.
"Don't fall for it! She merely looks like Serenity but that's not our princess anymore!" Neptune shouted. Serenity dragged her eyes back to Neptune and Uranus. Nyx moved back in front of Uranus and Neptune and struck again.
Pluto and Saturn jumped to assist them. Serenity vanished and suddenly appeared in front of us.
"You don't want to say hello and hug me, my friends?" She said mockingly. Pluto turned to Saturn. Understanding Pluto's unsaid message, Saturn blinked and appeared next to Neptune. Pluto turned back to Serenity.
"And end up like Venus? I think not," she said. "But you can say hello to my full powers."
Pluto's eyes glowed and the atmosphere turned dark. Serenity's eyes widened for a mere second before she prepared for the fight. Pluto sent out tendrils to strike Serenity. Serenity commanded her own dark gold tendrils to fight Pluto's. Serenity and Pluto connected with each other. They kept breaking apart and coming back together again. It was incredibly difficult to keep up with.
Jupiter screamed. I snapped my head toward her and saw a big gash in her thigh. A thicker tendril floated nearby.
"That thing just tore a chunk of my thigh out!" She screamed. We all turned toward the tendrils. When they charged toward us again, I called my Flame Sniper and started burning as many as I could. Mercury began to freeze the tendrils as she called her Aqua Rhapsody.
It didn't matter how many Mercury and I struck, more kept coming. They just kept multiplying. One got out of my reach. I was striking a tendril when another one tore at my skin. My arm started bleeding profusely. The blood dripped down my arm as I continued to shoot at tendrils. Mercury shrieked as she too started being struck.
When we were nearly on our knees, the tendrils vanished. With grins, we looked up to the sky expecting to see Serenity herself again. Instead, we saw Pluto crashing down at us. We all limped to the spot where she would inevitably land and caught her.
"Pluto!" Mercury screamed.
A low chuckle erupted as we crashed to the ground. I was shaking Pluto trying to wake her up. I looked up to see Serenity floating down toward us. She was chuckling softly.
"My sister couldn't do any better than that?" She continued to chuckle. Then she stopped. Her face grew sour. "You're a disappointment as senshi."
I had to be imagining it. This couldn't be real. Serenity would never say something like that about us. Sure, we weren't as powerful as her, but we're not a disappointment.
"Don't talk about us like we're beneath you. You were too weak to fight your father's influence!" Jupiter argued. Tears streamed down her face as she screamed at her best friend.
Serenity's eyes turned into something I'd never seen from her before. Pure hatred flashed in her eyes. She gritted her teeth as she turned toward Jupiter and lashed out at her. Some gravitational force pushed Jupiter down till the earth beneath her broke from the force. Jupiter screamed as she was continuously pushed into the ground.
I heard a scream. I looked up and saw Neptune on the ground. Nyx was also on the ground. Saturn was nowhere to be seen. They were both kneeling. Neptune was bloody. Nyx was injured, but she had more energy than Neptune. Nyx threw a tendril at Neptune. Neptune counteracted with a surge of salty water, but the tendril ate the energy. It kept going till it collided with Neptune.
Neptune's side was soaked in blood. Uranus was trying to stand up and hold Neptune up. Uranus tried to get up and fight but couldn't move. Nyx through her hands up and brought them down to produce a dark wave towards them. Neptune and Uranus screamed as their skin was sliced.
"Seleine!" I screamed in hope the rebel princess would show up to save us.
A flash of light surrounded us. Serenity gasped and flew back from us. It was strange. Something inside of me grew. Something inside of me was transforming. I looked to Mercury and Jupiter and saw that they were feeling the same things I did.
The light faded away. Mercury and Jupiter looked like Neptune and Pluto in their own respective colors. Mercury's fuku was still a skirt, but the white was replaced with a dark grey. Jupiter no longer had a skirt but wore short bottoms. Jupiter and Mercury still wore their boots but had dark filigree on them.
Mercury's earrings were no longer baby blue studs, but icicles. Her gloves were cut short and had baby blue trim. Her choker had a snowflake on it that glowed. Her bow was gone, and what took its place was a silver snowflake. Her tiara was nearly the same, but there were sparkles in her gemstone.
Jupiter's transformation was nearly the same as Mercury's. Her earrings were lightning bolts snaking up her ear. Her gloves were short with emerald trim near the wrists. Her choker was still green, but there were lightning bolts laced in the fabric. The bow was gone and in its place was a lightning bolt. The gemstone in her tiara looked like it had been shattered.
I looked down at myself and saw I still had my skirt. The white in my transformation was also gone and replaced with grey silk. My earrings were no longer stars, but fireballs. I could feel the heat in the dangle on the earrings. My gloves were short like the others. I couldn't see my tiara but felt a warmth where my bow once was. I examined the crystal that was there and felt heat and power radiating from it. When I looked at it longer, I saw fire inside the crystal.
"No," Serenity said. She grimaced as she noticed the change in our power. She through a blast of dark gold tendrils at us. Mercury thought fast and held up her hand and froze the tendrils merely inches from us.
I realized it was my turn. I jumped forward and cupped my hand with my palm facing up. Instantly, the tendrils turned to ash. Serenity continued floating backward. Jupiter jumped toward her. Serenity vanished when Jupiter got close. Jupiter kept running. She stopped just short of Nyx. She rose her arm up and brought it down to produce multiple strikes of lightning.
Nyx screamed as the lightning bolts collided with her skin. She dropped down to the ground. She was too weak to even lift her head. Neptune slowly got back up. She stalked toward Nyx.
A soft violin sound rose in the distance. Neptune started floating. She came close to Nyx and started to sing. Nyx looked up at Neptune and had a smile on her face. Nyx reached out to touch Neptune. Neptune merely touched her with a finger. Nyx's body started spasming. Her body started to turn old. Then she was nothing but dried up skin.
"What did you do?" Jupiter asked her.
Neptune turned toward us. "I took away the moisture that kept her alive," she said. There was no regret in her eyes. Just vengeance.
"Quick! We have to move. Seleine's in danger," Uranus said as she tried to get up. Neptune went to her side as she fell back down. Jupiter went to the other side and helped her up.
Michiru P.O.V.
"Where's Saturn?" Mercury asked me.
"Honestly I don't know. One minute we were fighting Nyx together, the next she was gone," I said. I tried to remember what happened, but all I can remember was fighting Nyx.
We finally reached Seleine's room. The door had been kicked down. We saw the Shittenou on the ground. Lilith was floating above them with a grin on her face. Her eyes were glowing.
Pluto jumped into the room and looked at Lilith. Pluto's eyes started to glow. Lilith's eyes connected with Pluto. Neither of their faces changed. Lilith slowly started pulling away. Lilith shrieked then disappeared.
"What the hell was that?" Jupiter asked.
"I got into her mind and showed her what happened to Nyx and what would happen to her if she didn't leave now," she said crossing the room. Seleine was laying down in her bed. Her eyes were closed.
"Seleine. Seleine!" she kept repeating. Pluto started shaking her.
"It's no use. Lilith did something to her," Kunzite said getting up.
"What the hell happened? You were supposed to be guarding her!" Pluto screamed.
Kunzite and the rest of the Shittenou looked down at the ground. They didn't argue. They accepted the blame.
Pluto turned back to Seleine. She kept shaking Seleine and finally slapped her when she didn't wake up. Still, Seleine didn't wake up. Pluto opened one of her eyes. I leaned forward to see what she was seeing. There was a white circle around her pupil. Pluto cursed under her breath.
"What is it?" I asked.
"It's a dream walker."
"What is that?" Mars asked.
She turned toward us. Her eyes were shiny. "A dream walker is a creature that goes into a person's mind and creates a perfect dream for them to live while it slowly drains away its victim's life force."
"How do we stop it?" Uranus asked.
"All we can do is make her want to wake up," Pluto said. She turned back to Seleine with sorrow in her eyes.
Uranus pushed her way toward the bed. She grabbed Seleine's hand and brought it to her face. Jealousy enraged every nerve in my body. "Seleine my love. Please wake up. I just found you again. We haven't even really lived yet. We haven't been together long enough for you to be ripped away from me," she sobbed. Uranus couldn't hold it in any longer. She let every tear fall from her eyes. She started shaking.
Still, Seleine didn't wake up. Uranus pounded her fist on the side of the bed. She cried Seleine's name over and over again.
"Maybe Serenity can help," Mercury said.
Uranus looked up at her. Hope shown in her eyes. "I'm not leaving her alone," she said.
"Go, find Serenity. I'll stay with Seleine," I said.
Uranus turned toward me. Suspicion gleaming in her eyes. "This is a huge palace. Who knows where she could be? I have ascended, so I can protect her against anyone who would wish her harm. The rest of you should spread out and find Serenity as soon as possible," I urged them.
Uranus nodded her head. Everyone left the room till it was just Seleine and I. I stared out the door for a few seconds. It finally settled in that Uranus and I was no longer. My heart ached but the weight came off of my shoulders. I turned back toward Seleine. They were soulmates. How can I keep Uranus from her soulmate?
I walked over to the bed and sat down next to her. I looked out her balcony doors and remembered the memory I just found earlier today. I turned toward Seleine. I let go of my transformation of Sailor Neptune and was just Princess Neptune.
"I remembered today," I whispered. I looked at Seleine's pale skin and tried to think of what to say. "I remembered you coming back from the planet entirely made of water. I remember the necklace. I remember Loki."
A tear trickled down my cheek. "I felt uneasy this morning and decided to go for a walk. Little did I know that I walked right to our special place. I sat on the edge of the fountain. The fountain relaxed me, and I no longer felt uneasy. I looked into the water and saw Loki.
"Somehow, I got Loki to give me the necklace back. It's still in perfect condition somehow. No rust and the tail didn't fade at all," I whispered. She didn't move. She was still breathing, but she was breathing very slowly.
"I don't want this to be the last thing I have to remember you by," I whispered looking away from her. More tears streamed down my face. "I don't want you to die without knowing that I forgive you. I want you to know that I was wrong. This whole time I made myself believe that you were evil, but you're not. I can't deny the purity and kindness you have when you fight for someone.
"I need you to know how much my heart hurts when I see you're in pain. I need you to know how I would kill anyone who ever broke your heart, including Uranus. I need you to know that you're not the heart of darkness anymore. Maybe you still possess that darkness and those powers, but you're so much more than the heart of darkness. You're the hope we all need to survive," I sobbed. I couldn't stop myself from talking. Once I started everything just came out in sobs.
I turned toward Seleine's sleeping body. "Please don't leave me yet. I don't want our last moments together to be remembered in hatred," I cried. I bent over and kissed her forehead. "I love you Seleine."
The goodbye unleashed the sadness inside of me. The grief that I'd been going through was allowed to pour itself out. I dropped my head in my hands and cried. Crying isn't even the right word for what I did. I broke down. The hope I once had was now gone.
I felt a warmth on my right hand. I pushed my left hand to wipe away the fallen tears when I felt something else. I felt warm skin. I jerked my body back and saw Seleine smiling up at me. Tears were falling out of her eyes.
"I love you too," she said.
I didn't even give myself a moment to understand what she said, I just jumped in her arms and embraced her.