Disclaimer: Not mine, no money, no point in suing…
A/N: THAT IS IT! There will never, ever be anymore original characters! Ever! I am sick of writing descriptions! From now on I'll give a gender, and maybe a hair color, and that's it! Sorry, I'm done now. Everyone say "Thank you, astra-kelly!" I laughed so hard on that review that it kicked me back into gear. I have to go do dishes right now before they grow legs and the ability to fight back, but the next chapter will be up either tonight or tomorrow. P.S. I re-uploaded the last chapter simply because I suddenly realized I gave the first Queen of the Moon silver eyes, and they should be blue. I blame them changing my meds.
The Queen of the White Moon took the disk.
A soft tremor ran through the ground beneath them. Hotaru, Chibiusa, and the Quartet looked around with startled eyes. The ancient Kings and Queens turned their eyes down to the white marble trembling beneath them, then, as one, to the base of the stairs.
"Ano…what is this?" Pallas whispered. "I don't think I can take much more of this."
Something small flickered on the path of white sand. It disappeared with a pop. A moment later an arc of green sparks jumped into existence. Seven tiny bolts of lightning flashed out, then further, and then further still. The hair began to rise on Hotaru's arms and the back of her neck. As Juno leaned forward for a better look her arm brushed Vesta's, and both girls leapt away from each other as static snapped between them. The seven green bolts of lightning flashed once with a blinding light and a terrible crack of thunder that made Hotaru jerk her face away. Around her she heard her friends and their ancestors cry out in alarm, and against the darkness of her closed eyelids she saw an afterimage of a symbol, something almost like the Western numeral four but with a curl in one short arm.
"Jupiter," she groaned as she rubbed her eyes. "Mako-chan's ancestor is being awful loud."
"They're each getting a little more dramatic than the next, aren't they?" Ceres added in an annoyed huff.
"He's not alone," Chibiusa said softly. "Look."
Hotaru dropped her hands from her eyes to blink at the sparking green circle and saw what had arrested her friend's attention. Beside the lightning, a small blue dome had appeared, slowly rising from the ground. Filmy white shapes skittered across the surface while a light grew, then dimmed, then grew and dimmed again.
"It's almost like a heartbeat," Pallas noted curiously. "Not like a strobe, you know, on, off, on, off, but more like…bump-bump. Bump-bump."
It was true. Hotaru watched the dome as it came higher, the white floating through the blue. It reminded her of lying on her back beside Chibiusa in the park, talking and watching the clouds.
"Earth," she guessed softly.
"Hai," Chibiusa breathed. "My other great-grandmother."
Just as Hotaru began to turn towards her Vesta gasped and pointed towards the circle of lightning.
Sparks jumped and arced continuously around the circle on the ground. A small bolt flickered off the ground into the center, then bounced sharply off the first few strands of hair. The ancient King of Jupiter wore his hair, cinnamon brown and thick as Makoto's, in a long braid down the center of his head. The sides had been cut to the shortest stubble, and then swirls and spirals in primal patterns were shaved down to dark golden brown skin. Sharp brows rose over deep green eyes, and for a moment Hotaru thought she saw lightning bolts within his black pupils. A wide mouth turned up in a smile that made his face, broader than any of the kings before him, somehow both wild and boyish. He turned his head to look up at the other Kings and Queens, allowing Hotaru a glimpse at a dark tattoo of a flower, something like a rose, along the side of his face, just below the ear. Monumental shoulders, with a breadth that made even Uranus look diminutive, emerged from the lightning. Green, bronze, and gold plates, shaped, Hotaru noticed with a smile, like oak leaves, overlapped across his shoulders and chest to form his armor. Bands of leather and brilliant green feathers strained to hold themselves together as they wrapped around mighty biceps. Tattoos ran up and down his otherwise bare arms, drawings of some kind of serpent with a feathered crest etched in gold and green ink. Slashes and burns marred rough, brown leather pants, and left scars across his bare feet.
"So, are we late?"
"Princess," Ceres whispered, pulling their attention back from Jupiter. "Oh, Chibiusa, look."
The blue and white completely emerged from the sands to hover for a moment beside Jupiter. It was not a globe, not like the world that all their descendents would one day call home, but oblong.
"It's an egg," Pallas said wonderingly. "But look, there, in the center. The light that's beating like a heart…it comes from her."
She was floating in the center of the egg, barely more than an outline curled into a fetal position. The light pulsed softly, dark giving way to double flares of light, over and over.
Chibiusa gasped, her hand suddenly flying to her chest.
"What is it?" Hotaru demanded, and for the first time she could jerk her eyes away from the arrival of one of the ancients.
Without speaking, Chibiusa took her hand and laid it under her own until Hotaru could feel her racing heart.
Thump-thump.
Two pulses of light.
Thump-thump.
Two pulses.
Chibiusa's heart beat in time to the light of Earth.
The egg broke.
Blue light poured out like a rush of water. The Queen of Earth uncurled and stretched within the last flickering remnants of her shell. Glorious black tresses swooped back gently from her face, held with the slim gold tiara, then tumbled unchecked down her shoulders and back. The tiara itself peaked in a sharp point directly in the center, then curved down and back up into two smaller peaks, and finally fell away behind her ears. Her black bangs fluttered around a face like a half-opened rose, a perfect oval of soft gold tinted with pink. Blue eyes shined out at them all, as blue as her planet. Once again it was uncanny to see so much of someone dear to them in the face of a woman none of them had ever seen before. The chin, the forehead, the way her bangs naturally swept to the right… Those striking eyes moved over all her fellow Kings and Queens, and she smiled with Mamoru's smile, and it lit up her eyes the same way Chibiusa's eyes sparkled. Her gown left her throat and shoulders bare. Thin bands of gold filigree held her fluttering blue sleeves to her upper arms, and let them fall all the way down over her wrists. Her flowing gown was made of the same blue silk, perfect and unbroken in the long, simple skirt. A bodice of gold filigree covered her chest and belly, worked into a spiral that tightened to a point directly over her navel. There, in the center but held by nothing, hovered a single gold crystal. She let her feet touch down on the surface of the Moon, giving them only a quick glimpse of shoes of the same gold filigree. Then her gown and hair settled around her, the egg faded away, and the Earth spoke softly.
"Hello, my dear friends."
"Shall we, Gaia?" Jupiter murmured, and he held out his hand to her. She smiled again, took the proffered hand, picked up the skirt of her gown with her free fingers, and together the two ancient powers ascended the stairs.
Hotaru, her memories of the Silver Millennium vague, still knew the simplest but most absolute law of that kingdom. Earth was forbidden. So she blinked bemused eyes as almost all the solar system moved forward with real affection to greet the Queen of Earth, Venus enfolding her in a warm embrace. Only the Queen of the White Moon held back, her blue eyes cold but wounded like shattered ice. Just as she began to withdraw into herself, the huge, leather clad form of Jupiter swept through all their companions to wrap his massive arms around her. In his enthusiasm he lifted her right off her feet, and as she grasped his neck she burst out with a wonderful trill of laughter.
"She sounds like Mama," Chibiusa whispered.
Hotaru nodded and smiled a little, and reminded her, "She sounds like you, too."
Mercury kissed Earth on the cheek as the Moon was deposited a little unsteadily back on her feet. Straightening her gown yet again, she held up the disk she had miraculously managed to keep in her fingers. It took a moment more for the greetings to end, but after the Queen of the Earth had delivered a resounding slap to the King of Uranus' cheek which caused him to remove an offending hand, all their attention moved directly to the disk in the Moon's hand.
"So that's it, hmm?" Jupiter said quietly. "The answer to a galaxy without darkness."
Earth frowned uncertainly at the shimmering disk. "All the problems in the cosmos can be solved with something that tiny?"
"Don't you trust Mercury?" the Moon asked in a voice of brittle, mocking surprise.
Blue eyes locked with blue eyes, and Earth shook her head. "You aren't the only one with reservations, Serenity. But the things we've seen…Chaos…Cruelty…We have already had to build barriers against outsiders. Pluto must maintain not only the Gates of Time, but also keep Nemesis at a safe distance."
"The darkness has taken so much. We will pull the darkness in to a pocket outside of space and time, put it away from all that we love," Mercury said softly. "We could reclaim Nemesis."
The Moon's eyes ticked down to the silver disk, and a small smile appeared on her lips. "Nemesis. Our littlest sister. You want her back? She is so angry…What if your clever little plan merely draws her into this place of darkness?"
"She deserved to be banished," Earth cut across sharply. "What she did, what she tried to do, Serenity, makes forgiveness impossible."
"You are harsh, Gaia," the Moon said quietly. "There is always room for forgiveness."
Earth's mouth tightened, and she shook her head. "Not for all crimes. Her little power play could have destroyed this entire system."
"If it is possible for Nemesis to be redeemed, she will be cleansed with this," Mars broke in, pointing to the disk. "If she is drawn in…there was never anything we could do for her."
"So we now decide who is to be judged?" the Moon shot back.
"That is what being an Avatar to a planet means," Venus reminded her. "We speak for the planets of this system, and all our hearts hurt when Nemesis betrayed us, and we all ached when we locked the gates of Sol against her. But the Sun herself wanted her banished!"
"We don't know that! The Sun never speaks—"
"She would have stopped us if she were unhappy!"
"But…"
Ceres let out a slow sigh. "This could take awhile."
"They're only getting fired up," Juno agreed with a nod. "They're going to have to argue themselves out."
Chibiusa looked around, then backed up several steps to the nearest pillar. She put her back against it and slid down into a seated position. Hotaru and Ceres followed her example, dropping down on either side of her. Pallas drew closer to the arguing Kings and Queens with her eyes fixed curiously on the Queens' crowns, Juno stretched, her back making interesting popping noises, and Vesta tapped her fingers against her waist as she looked about for some form of mental stimulation.
An hour later there they remained, Ceres, Chibiusa, and Hotaru seated against the pillar, Pallas laying with her head in her Princess's lap, Juno caught in her sister's whip, and Vesta watching her with unholy amusement.
"Hey, something's happening!" Juno suddenly cried. She immediately had the attention of the others, all of them perking up with interest.
The silver disk that caused such dissention hovered in the center of all the Kings and Queens without any hand to hold it up. The four Senshi on the ground scrambled to their feet, Vesta snapped the whip from around Juno, and the entire group rushed to the ancestors of the system. They arrived just as a tiny green spark flew from one of Jupiter's fingers to the disk.
Flashing silver and green, the disk began to spin, faster and faster until it was nothing but a silver-green blur. An image, like a holograph, rose up into the air above it, some kind of moving model. Lines and arrows pointed this way and that, punctuated by strange symbols. As the model continued to grow, the arrows moved in a slow spiral that tightened towards the center.
"What is that?" Pallas asked softly.
"The Abyss," Hotaru said, her voice strangely hollow. She had been within that maw of darkness, and it had been within her, but never had she truly seen it. This was cold, technical, and impersonal, and it made her soul burn and her heart freeze.
"These must be numbers," Chibiusa guessed, gesturing to the strange symbols. "Equations. It's brilliant."
"It's insane," Hotaru shot back. "They claim to be wise, but they have no idea what they're about to create."
Yet as they looked up at the model all the Kings and Queens were nodding. Even the Queen of the Moon, studying the symbols critically, began to look much more comforted. She chewed her lip for a moment before she spoke.
"Perhaps…yes, yes, perhaps this might work," she said. "But we cannot do it so close to the Sun."
The others glanced at her in surprise.
"We have to," Mercury said, pointing to a string of symbols. "See? The Sun's light and energy is needed. Even we do not have the power to pull this off without solar energy."
"We have something better," the Moon whispered. She ran her fingers down her silver belt, grazing over the Silver Imperium Crystal to touch the golden star burst. "This will do as well, won't it?"
Nine sets of royal eyes blinked at her, then at each other.
"You are willing to use that again?" Neptune asked softly. "You said—"
"I will do it one more time," the Moon said. "That is the only way I will help. We must go out, beyond Pluto, beyond perhaps Nemesis. There is always a chance that something could go wrong, and I will not risk our children. You must see that."
Everyone looked to Mercury, who nodded. "It will give at least as much power as the Sun. Probably more."
"So," Pluto murmured, "then, we are decided."
"Well, perhaps," the Moon murmured, "I think…"
"You think?" Earth stared at her in exasperated surprise. "Serenity, you just said you would do this!"
"I said perhaps it might work! But the risk—"
"Mama?"
They had all been so busy studying the model that no one had notice the figure appearing in the double doors of the Moon Palace. Now all eyes were drawn down at a tiny little girl, no more than five, with silver hair pulled into buns on her head and softly curling pigtails brushing her shoulders. She smiled, her blue eyes bright, and darted forward to wrap both arms around the Queen of the White Moon's legs.
"Serenity!" the Moon cried in surprise. "What are you doing out here, dearest?"
"The door was open," the little girl said simply. "I wanted to see why."
"Your Mama came out to speak to us all," Jupiter explained with his biggest smile. "We all came by to see how you are both doing."
Peaking shyly out around her Mama's skirt, Chibiusa's grandmother gave a tiny smile and said in a little voice, "Hello."
"Hello," they all chorused back with grins. Even though Saturn maintained her silence, she raised a hand and waved at the child.
The Moon smiled down on her daughter, hugging her tightly against her side. Then she nodded, and, without raising her eyes, said, "Yes, we are decided. How soon, Mercury?"
"As soon as we like," Mercury told them. "Tomorrow?"
"That's fine. Now come along, little Princess Serenity. You are not supposed to be out. You should be in the gardens, with our people, shouldn't you?"
The Queen of the White Moon lifted the girl up to settle her on her hip, and drifted back into the Moon Palace, with the Queen of Saturn close behind. She left the doors open behind her, but she made no move to welcome the others after her. Instead of following, they waited until she disappeared, then let out a collective sigh and turned back towards each other.
"That went better than expected," Jupiter noted. "But are we sure we should be allowing her to use that thing again?"
"The Flame will offer much more power than even Sol can," Mercury reiterated, nodding. "It would be in our favor."
Shaking her head, Earth said, "I don't trust it. And since she took control of it, I sometimes wonder if we should trust her."
"You wonder this?" Uranus asked, startled. "You have always been closest to her, Gaia. If there is something we should know, now would be an excellent time to share it with us."
"She does not speak to me anymore," Earth whispered. "I barely remember what happened when she received the Flame. All I remember is a hand, and the way the fire reflected in her eyes. She hesitated, you know. She did not want it. She knew its power. But she took it, and she used it as she was ordered, and she kept it."
"Where did it even come from?" Neptune murmured. "She received the Flame, she received orders, but from where? From whom?"
"I don't remember," Earth admitted on a sigh. "But she used it against our littlest sister's attempt to rip away our powers. She locked the gates against outsiders, including Nemesis. Now she regrets it."
"So why won't she give it up?" Mars wondered, propping his shoulder against the white marble wall beside the doors. "It frightens her, and she used it to hurt one of our own. But she clings to it."
Earth looked at them all with surprise. "You really don't know?"
"Know what?" the other seven chorused.
"Our White Moon has not been pure, precisely. She so desperately wanted a child. She never found a man whose seed could grow within the Moon."
"She must have found one somewhere," Venus pointed out. "That is generally where children come from."
"I don't think she did," Earth said. "I think she used the Flame one more time. You said she clung to it while giving birth. That Flame brought more life into the cosmos than ever I could create in my own soil."
"You think Serenity has no father?" Pluto gasped. "You think the Flame created her?"
"Blessed Sol, could she be so insane?" Neptune added. "What kind of child has she created? What kind of creatures will the line of the Moon become?"
"Hey!" Chibiusa shouted, affronted. "Stop calling us creatures!"
"They can't hear you, Chibiusa-chan," Hotaru reminded her softly.
"I don't care! We're not…we're not mutants or something! We're just like everyone else!"
"Except far more powerful, and almost immortal," Ceres reminded her softly. "This could explain that, too."
"She might not have had to turn to the Flame," Mercury stated suddenly, "if she were not barren. She revolves around you, Gaia. Could you have helped her?"
"She had already begun to draw away from me," Earth reminded them all. "She wanted no help from me. She wanted none of my sympathy. She had already begun to hate me, for what I could do, and she could not. Sometimes I think that is the only reason she turned to the Flame, for that one chance at a child."
"You never told her that, perhaps, a son of Earth could help her?" Mercury continued with simple curiosity.
Earth laughed sadly. "She would not have wanted help from even one of my sons. No, Mercury, there will never be a child of the Earth and the Moon."
Slowly, Ceres, Vesta, Juno, Pallas, and Hotaru all turned to look at their Princess. She glanced at them all and shrugged. "Well, at this point it does seem very unlikely. How was she supposed to know?"
"True," they all agreed.
"So now what do we do?" Neptune asked suddenly, rubbing her eyes. "We have until tomorrow."
Mercury put out his hand. The disk fell out of the air to land in his palm. He slipped it into his tunic, saying, "Taking the Flame into consideration, I'm going to double check my math one more time. And then…my love, I think tonight would be a good night to have all the boys in for dinner."
"Yes, I think you're right," Venus agreed quietly. "And tomorrow, they could join us here at the Palace before we leave, couldn't they?"
"That would be a good choice," Mars added. "All of them here, so we know where they are, and what they're doing. You know, so they aren't getting into trouble while we're distracted."
"Of course," Earth said, her smile soft but understanding. She glanced towards the open double doors, and she made a hesitant movement, almost as if she would enter. Then she paused, and shook her head.
"I'm not welcome here anymore," she whispered. "How could someone who once loved me grow to hate me so much?"
Murmuring together, the ancient powers began to descend down the stairs, back to where they had arrived.
Chibiusa and her Senshi watched them, then looked at each other uncertainly.
"What in cosmos are we supposed to do for the night?" Vesta demanded angrily.
"Should we try to follow them?" Pallas asked, gesturing after the Kings and Queens.
"Forget them," Juno said with a big grin. "Follow me! Hotaru is finally going to get a look at the Moon Palace, and so are we!"
"Yea!" Pallas cried, rushing before them all into the Palace. Her voice drifted happily back. "It's so big!"
"Hurry up, before we lose her," Ceres sighed, but she was also smiling.
They quickly entered the Palace, all of them gazing around the first great corridor with wide, curious eyes. Giving an excited giggle, Hotaru turned back towards the doors. She wanted to see what they looked like from the other side. Instead, she gave a gasp of shock.
"Nani?" the other asked, turning her way.
They saw, though, and she did not have to answer.
Standing with her back against the wall, just out of sight from anyone outside the Palace, the Queen of Saturn cocked her head as she continued to listen to the other Kings and Queens as their voices faded away.