Chapter 28: Charon's Past Revisited
A shining light blinded me as I sat up. "The time for my return draws near," a young woman's voice called to me. Her glowing figure came into focus as my eyes recovered. She was transparent, like the people in my hallucination of the Moon Palace, but she glowed with a purple hue. She was dressed as a Sailor Scout, with a purple and white uniform and laced-up purple boots. Unlike the others, she carried an intimidating bladed polearm weapon.
I froze in terror when I looked into her face and saw a teenage Hotaru wearing the golden tiara."S-Sailor Sat-turn..."
But Sailor Saturn smiled and her eyes filled with affection. "I have not come for revenge. I have been watching you. You were kind to Hotaru and helped keep her safe."
Her words were meant to comfort me, but they confirmed that I really had attacked Princess Saturn. "I tried to hurt her a thousand years ago. I betrayed Queen Serenity," I admitted.
"You have only seen fragments of your past. Soon I will restore Hotaru's memories. I have come to restore yours." I notice Sailor Saturn raise her left arm and point at me. A white magical orb grew around her finger.
I instinctively leaned away as she approached me. If I had more memories of betraying my friends, I didn't want them. "You are afraid," she noticed. "You cannot doubt yourself now. The Scouts need you. Close your eyes," she ordered. "And remember..."
"Queen Serenity, your guests have arrived." Princess Venus' voice welcomed me back to the Moon Palace, before the fall of Silver Millennium. Once again, I stood beside the future Spymaster and my nemesis, 'Henry'. Unlike before, the figures were not transparent and their voices did not echo...these really were my memories. Once again though, I could only watch the events unfold through my own eyes.
Queen Serenity, a magnificent sight in her regal white dress, stood in front of a silver throne with her back facing us. I felt the Spymaster's cold hand press against the back of my neck as he pushed me into a bowing position. My heart raced when Serenity turned to face me again. "I am honored to welcome you to the Palace, young one. Thank you, Princess," she replied gracefully.
Princess Venus bowed to her, then turned towards me and Henry. "It was my pleasure to meet you both."
"You too." I could feel myself pushing the words out. I half expected the future Spymaster to slap me on the back of the head.
Princess Venus smiled. I shyly looked away when she focused her brilliant blue eyes on me. "I hope you'll tell me your name next time," she said with a wink. I felt my eyes look up and follow her as she walked away from us.
The Spymaster and I both stood before Queen Serenity wearing plain gray robes, devoid of the crescent moons or other Shadow symbols. "She's growing into a fine young woman, isn't she? A good role model for my daughter," commented Queen Serenity. I heard the Spymaster whispering an order for me to look at her.
"She is, your highness." She smiled at my answer, but a puzzled look fell on her face when I asked, "did you know my father?"
"Your father said he was from here?" She was facing the Spymaster instead of me when she asked.
"He told me stories about how wonderful Silver Millennium was. I never understood why he left." I felt my younger self fighting to suppress tears. "That's why they killed him."
"Who?" Her previously calm and measured voice was now filled with alarm.
"Soldiers! They served..."
"Queen Beryl." The Spymaster finished my sentence. "The situation on Earth is far worse than we feared, your highness."
"I was there," I sobbed. Queen Serenity walked to me and placed a hand on my shoulder, causing me to shudder. "They said my mother was a traitor and she had to kill him, or they would kill us both. Then they separated us..." my voice trailed off.
"Do you know where they took her?" Queen Serenity asked me. I shook my head. She turned her attention to the Spymaster. "Did you know about this?" she asked.
"I did, Queen Serenity. When I told you I found a potential inside source, I considered his background irrelevant - "
"YOU THOUGHT HIS FATHER'S MURDER WAS IRRELEVANT?!" Queen Serenity shouted. "I can't send him back there!"
I looked up in terror at the Spymaster. "You said you would take me away from there!"
"And I kept my word!" the Spymaster snapped back. "Queen Beryl has been hunting our informants while turning the forces of Earth against us! The same soldiers who killed your father and imprisoned you are loyal to her."
"What do you need me for?" I asked.
"In the fortress where I rescued you, there is a powerful Warlock serving Queen Beryl. We need you to steal something from him. You've had far less exposure to the energies of the Silver Crystal. It will be harder for them to detect you," Henry explained.
"We'll find another way! I will urge the royalty of Earth to take action!" insisted Queen Serenity.
"They will do nothing! They claim that Beryl rose to power out of nowhere, but they were simply oblivious to all the signs! If we do not act now, their forces will attack us here! They will burn this Palace to the ground and scatter our ashes!" shouted the Spymaster.
"I don't want her to destroy the Moon Kingdom," I said quietly as Queen Serenity opened her mouth to argue. "I'll help if I can."
Queen Serenity knelt down and looked into my eyes. "Are you sure?" she asked. I nodded and said, "I don't want them to kill anyone else, like they killed my father."
"My cover has already been blown. We can use that to our advantage, Queen Serenity. He can bring me back to the Warlock's fortress as his prisoner. There, we will find the Warlock's bracer and bring it here." After explaining his plan to Queen Serenity, the Spymaster turned to me. "The Warlock is developing a magical bracer that helps the wearer master dark magic in days instead of years. It's a crude device, but if Beryl equips an entire army with these bracers, we will have no chance. We need to put an end to the Warlock's research."
"Give him as much training as you can before you return him to the fortress. I want him back here safe," Queen Serenity commanded the Spymaster. Queen Serenity went back to her throne and returned holding the same locket that I would later give to Serena. She lifted it over my head and placed it around my neck. "You have an incredible heart. I want you to have this locket as a reminder: there will be a home for you here once peace is assured.
A wide smile stretched across my face. "Thank you, your majesty."
"The only thing left to decide is what to call you, in case you run into Princess Venus again," she teased. After pondering for a moment, she pointed her finger in the air. "I know! Charon!"
I turned to the Spymaster and said, "you never told me your name."
"Because you don't need to know," he answered coldly.
Queen Serenity laughed. "He was always paranoid, Charon. With our agents being hunted, I suppose we can't be too careful. He will train you well." Queen Serenity's smile dropped from her face and she turned to the Spymaster. "Could I speak to you privately?" she asked him.
"Wait outside," he ordered...
After several minutes standing alongside the silver-armored guards who stood in front of the Queen's chambers, the future Spymaster emerged from the door to the throne. I looked around for Princess Venus, but sadly I didn't see her before we left. When we returned to Earth, I did not ask him any more personal questions and he did not waste any spare time instructing me. With only a dilapidated wooden house for shelter, he taught me the basics of stealth: how to move while making as little sound as possible and how to exploit a person's blind spots. He tried to teach me to climb through trees, but I lost my grip and fell constantly. He also tried to teach me hand-to-hand, but every exercise ended with him landing a successful blow or throwing me to the floor.
After a few hours of training and a meager meal of tea and leaves, he whispered it was time. He allowed me to hit him several times to make it look like there had been a struggle, but he ended up throwing himself into trees to make his bruises look more convincing. Then I tied him up and led him through the dark forest to the obsidian fortress I had been held for one week. Its black towers spiraled upwards at an angle, like swords pointed at the moon. Inside, their goal was to indoctrinate their captives to serve Queen Beryl and hate the Moon Kingdom. They never told us why we were supposed to hate them, yet most of their captives came to believe they did eventually.
Two soldiers wearing light green armor stopped me in front of the fortress. I was not sure if they were shocked to see I had subdued one of Queen Serenity's spies, or if they were shocked I had returned. Either way, they opened the gates and escorted me through the bleak black halls, full of miserable subjects wearing robes and armor, until I found myself face-to-face with the Warlock. I had seen him walking through lines of prisoners, drawing glee from our misery. His menacing yellow eyes widened with surprise at my return. I thought my face would be easily lost among the dozens of captives here. Not anymore...
The Warlock's appearance was strikingly similar to the Shadows; his black and gray hooded robes were missing the crescent moons and a handful of small insignia. He carried an obsidian staff similar to Saturn's glaive, with a sharpened dark shard tip.
"I heard that someone had escaped!" I saw the Warlock's rotted yellow teeth as he spoke. "But you have returned...with a Lunarian spy!" The guards forced the battered Spymaster to his knees so that the Warlock could look him over like cattle. "I am looking for an apprentice. I planned to select the first inductee that gained enough prestige through deeds and favors...but you have already bested them all!"
"That's not fair! He wasn't part of the process!" A teenage boy screamed behind him. I glanced around the Warlock and saw five grizzled teenagers behind him wearing simple black cloaks and green armor. The Warlock vanished in a cloud of black smoke, appeared in front of the boy, and placed his hand around the defiant teenager's neck. As the boy gagged, the Warlock's hand simmered with a black-purple hue. The boy screamed in agony before he abruptly fell silent. I felt myself wince when the Warlock simply released his grip and let the body drop to the ground with a thud.
"Would anyone else like to challenge my decision?" he asked the remaining four teenagers. All of them backed away in terror. "Take them back to the pit," he ordered the two guards. The Warlock grabbed the Spymaster by the collar and dragged him towards his dungeon. I followed them into a dark and empty cell. The Warlock dropped the Spymaster onto the ground, then kneeled down to pull out one of the bricks in the ground. He pulled out a small wooden box and opened it to reveal a brown bracer.
"Put this on, my new apprentice" he ordered. It looked like it was made of worn leather. As I turned it in my hand, I could see the dark shard crudely shoved in. The bracer irritated my arm and was more uncomfortable to wear than the one that Luna would give me 1000 years later. I coughed and gagged as dark magic swirled around me: when the smoke cleared, I saw I was wearing the same robes as the Warlock himself.
"This prototype is my life's work, my apprentice. If we succeed, Queen Beryl will be able to raise an army of sorcerers and warlocks in weeks! The Moon Kingdom's stupid queen has horded the power of the Silver Crystal for herself and a select few. They will be powerless to stop us!" he declared. "Now, harness your inner pain and test your new powers on this Lunarian spy!"
The Spymaster started crawling on the ground away from us when I walked towards him and flipped him over. "Do what he says", he mouthed quietly. After a few seconds of concentration, I channeled dark energy to my hands and pressed against Henry's chest.
"Yes! Yes!" the Warlock screamed in delight as the Spymaster grimaced in pain. "But put more effort into it acolyte! Make him suffer as much as you have! Just like we will make Queen Serenity and her pompous court suffer!" he jeered.
Seeing that I understood how to use the bracer, the Spymaster nodded to me. I teleported behind the Warlock and struck him with the same attack. I caught the Warlock off guard, but he quickly recovered and swung his staff at me. I grabbed the his wrists and pushed him into the wall, but the Warlock headbutted me and grabbed my forehead.
"No crescent moon," he noted. I teleported away to strike him again, but he kept his guard up and elbowed me in the face, knocking me off balance. "But I sense something about you. Could it be?" I tackled him, grabbed his wrists again, and kicked him away with enough force to loosen his grip on the staff. The Spymaster leapt forward and took the Warlock's staff, although the Warlock brushed him aside like a pest.
"Surrender," I commanded. I stood before him with an orb of dark magic in my right hand, warning him to back down. The Warlock's dark shard-tipped staff glowed and I just barely managed to roll away from a dark magic sphere that blew a crater into the wall behind me.
The Warlock cackled like a maniac. "You're a half-breed! Do you think you'll be welcome in Silver Millennium? What did your companion promise you? A Palace? A date with a Sailor Scout? Did he tell you that the Moon is made out of cheese and you can eat to your heart's content?" he mocked. His laughter was silenced when the Spymaster slammed his staff into the back of the Warlock's head, then turned the pointed edge towards the Warlock's body on the floor and ran him through.
"Did you have to kill him?" I asked uncomfortably. The Spymaster let go of the staff and left it in the Warlock's body.
"Yes; now he will not be able to recreate the bracer for Queen Beryl. But I wonder..." Henry reached out towards my bracer and touched the dark stone inside. I saw the dark hunger swirling around in his eyes like a tornado. "If Queen Serenity is unwilling to commit to direct action, we can use their own magic against them."
"It sounds like that's her decision to make," I answered.
He snapped out of his trance and took his fingers off the dark shard. "We must leave quickly. I have an escape route." He raised his hand in the air when I began to unbuckle the bracer. "Keep it. You've earned it." His rare moment of praise was followed with a discomforting half-smile. I could tell he wasn't used to smiling either.
When we returned to the Palace gates, I felt myself reach down, grab a fistful of Moon Dust, and open my mouth. Here was one moment I really wished I could control myself during my flashbacks...
"What are you doing?" asked the Spymaster. I gagged when the dust landed on my tongue.
"The Moon does NOT taste like cheese." I bent over and spit the rest out of my mouth, only to see it landed disturbingly close to a pair of red high heels. I looked up to find a puzzled Sailor Mars wearing them and staring at me. At least I was sort of bowing...
"We didn't need a researcher to tell us that," she remarked. She examined me from top to bottom. "Does everyone on Earth dress like that?" she asked.
"Not everyone," I answered. "Have you been there?"
"No! Why would you ask me that?!" Sailor Mars fumed.
"I meant - I didn't - I'm sorry!" I babbled...though at the time, I didn't realize what was wrong with my question.
Sailor Mars' face softened. "I think Venus mentioned you earlier. She said you were a bit awkward. I'll let it go this time," she gently cautioned.
"I am the Queen's High Researcher on Earth, this is my new apprentice. He gets...enthusiastic about his work," explained the Spymaster. Now I had my official cover.
Mars crossed her arms and stared at me. "No wonder Venus is fond of you! Queen Serenity is waiting in the throne room." We found Queen Serenity gently stroking Luna's fur as the guardian cat lay across Serenity's lap. Henry and Mars bowed. This time, I remembered to bow with them. Luna leapt off of Queen Serenity's lap and followed Mars outside, casting me a quick glance before Mars closed the door. I found the buckle that held the crude bracer to my arm and removed it for Queen Serenity to see.
She smiled warmly as she stood from her throne and approached us. I couldn't resist smiling back. "You've done Silver Millennium a great service, Charon. I'm very proud of you." I extended my arms so she could take the bracer from me. She ran her fingers across the brown leather until she touched the dark shard itself. I could see her eyes fill with terror and she dropped the bracer to the ground.
"Your highness!" shouted the Spymaster. She must have seen the visions of herself doing terrible things with dark magic, like I did when Luna gave me the dark shard to hold 1000 years later.
"I'm alright!" assured Queen Serenity after we both rushed to her side. She picked the bracer up off the ground by the leather strap. "I hope you can find a way to shield our informants. I don't feel comfortable having a dark shard in the Palace," she noted.
"Your highness, Charon helped me defeat the Warlock using this bracer. He was able to wield dark magic almost immediately after putting it on. Perhaps our own agents will be able to use it, as well," suggested the Spymaster.
Queen Serenity looked utterly appalled by his suggestion. "The use of dark magic is strictly forbidden!" she shouted.
"We can take measures to ensure that no one using the bracer can use dark magic against us! Even a handful of agents wielding the dark shard's powers can tip the scales against Queen Beryl, your highness!" the Spymaster insisted.
Queen Serenity placed her head in her hand and turned her back on us. She paced back and forth before facing us again. "We have to consider who can know about this very carefully," she decided. "Tensions are already high between us and the Kingdom of Earth. If they found out we were spying on them and breaking our own laws in the process..."
"I can have the bracer broken down and replicated without anyone learning its true purpose, your majesty," the Spymaster promised after Queen Serenity trailed off.
She turned back towards me. "Charon, there is something I meant to tell you before you left but I decided to wait until after you returned. It's about your father."
"What about my father?" I asked.
Serenity became sullen as she knelt in front of me. "Before you were born, your father broke one of our most important laws. As punishment, he was exiled from the Moon Kingdom."
I felt my eyes swelling with tears again. "What law did he break?" I asked.
Queen Serenity turned away, so the Spymaster answered: "personal relations between the people of both Kingdoms are strictly forbidden. Your father openly violated the law by bringing your Earthborn mother here. Because she was pregnant, Queen Serenity had your parents exiled as quietly as possible."
I glared at Queen Serenity as she still couldn't bring herself to look at me. "But you brought me here! You broke your own law!"
"Contact with the people of Earth is permissible under certain circumstances," noted the Spymaster. "In your case, it was necessary to ensure the protection of Silver Millennium."
"You're saying she didn't break the law because she only used me to get the bracer? Now I know what the Warlock meant when he said I wouldn't be welcome here!" I snapped.
Queen Serenity finally turned with sorrow flooding her eyes. She placed her hands on my shoulders, but now I refused to look at her. "I share the blame for the loss of your parents, I know that. Even as Queen, there are few things I can change on my own, but I will keep my promise to give you a home here. Silver Millennium still needs you. Princess Venus and Mars need you. Please..."
To Be Continued
A/N: I hope you've enjoyed this glimpse into Charon's past! I've had this chapter in mind for a long time and have struggled over the best way to explore his past. I was going to wait until later or break it into pieces, but I decided knowing the origins of the Shadows would enhance the rest of the story rather than pull you away from it too much. I'm surprised I was able to stuff so much into one chapter. The next chapter will definitely contain more of Charon's past - depending on how things go, we may return to the present at the end of the next or somewhere in the middle of the one after. Stay tuned!
