Chapter Seventy-three: Supporting Weapons
Helios had taken Chibi-Usa's parents to Elysion, leaving the pink-haired Guardian to protect them for a change. With not only Puu by her side, but also Vesta and Juno. Her Guardians.
Nehellenia darkened. No one to hide behind.
Despite everything the fallen queen had done, Chibi-Usa's heart softened. When it came down to it, she was alone.
"Where's Zirconia?" Chibi-Usa said to anyone who would answer.
Nehellenia's mouth twisted into a smile. "Your colleague—Juno, she calls herself now—killed her."
"By accident," Juno quickly added. Chibi-Usa didn't blame Juno.
Chibi-Usa's brow knit together. "Why are you smiling about that?"
"I was planning on killing her anyhow. Glad I didn't have to get my beautiful hands dirty with a useless woman's blood."
A part of Chibi-Usa said that maybe Nehellenia deserved to be alone. The more sympathetic part won, saying, "Who did this to you?"
"Must there be an explanation for everything? No one did anything to me. I'm simply the dark side of the moon. You may not have learned yet, in your over 900 years of living—"
Chibi-Usa cringed at the menace, the mocking of her ignorance in old age.
"—but with light, there's always darkness. I am the darkness to your mother's light. To your light." Her smile broadened. "I'd love nothing more than to cram you all inside a mirror to rot for eternity while I rule the Moon Kingdom."
Chibi-Usa aimed her shaking Kaleidoscope at the queen. "Never." When had her hands started to shake?
" 'Never'?" Nehellenia laughed. "How weak you sound. Are words the only retaliation you have?"
Juno and Vesta slid before her. The tiger that Vesta sat upon roared, disrupting skulls from their places alongside the wall.
"She has us." Vesta hooked her whip at her waist. Perhaps she no longer wanted to lash beasts. She was so connected to them that she didn't need a whip, directing them with only thoughts and words. One good thing Nehellenia had done for the Quartet, building their skills from when they were Guardians.
The little good Nehellenia had done was going to bite her here.
Nehellenia didn't move. "Too bad she's deceived you two, JunJun, VesVes. Perhaps you need your sisters to remind you of where you came from." She aimed the palm of her hand at a smaller mirror floating in the darkness. She spread her fingers, and the mirror shattered.
"CereCere, PallaPalla…Fisheye." Nehellenia tacked on the last part, like she'd forgotten that one member of the Amazon Trio lived. "Come home. Your mother needs you."
Vesta ground her teeth. "You bitch."
Juno gripped Vesta's wrist. "Not yet."
"But she's—"
"I know. Maybe we can convince CereCere and PallaPalla who they really are. Then Nehellenia's plan will backfire."
Vesta bared her teeth. "Sweet revenge."
PallaPalla leapfrogged through the mirror. CereCere and Fisheye were close behind, CereCere holding Fisheye's arm as they passed through. PallaPalla landed on her feet. CereCere almost landed on hers, but Fisheye stumbled facedown, pulling down CereCere.
PallaPalla rolled and then popped up, raising her arms. "PallaPalla's here." Her expression hardened at the Sailor Team. How swiftly her mood had swung from joyful and playful to angry and deadly. "PallaPalla will keep them from doing anything else."
Chibi-Usa faced PallaPalla. Yet another person she'd have to hurt.
Juno stepped forward. "Don't worry, Princess. This is our battle to fight, not yours."
"What are you talking about?" Thunder rumbled within CereCere's voice.
"They're on our side."
PallaPalla tapped her chin. "They're on Dead Moon's side now?"
CereCere balled her hands. "That's not what you mean."
"No, it isn't." Juno worked her mouth and then stopped, seeming to realize that doing so made her look nervous and untrustworthy. "I mean, we're supposed to be protecting Sailor Chibi-Moon. CereCere, PallaPalla, we are her Guardians, and our 'mother' is a liar. She's been lying since she woke us up from our slumber in space, where we were waiting for Chibi-Moon to awaken so we could serve her."
CereCere stiffened. "They did a number on you."
"No, CereCere. Nehellenia did."
"How dare you call Mother a liar? She's done too much for us."
"You're the most logical out of all of us. Search your memories. Look closely at them. See all the holes, like Vesta and I did."
CereCere ground her teeth.
"Please. For your sisters."
CereCere's breath hitched. She uncurled her hands. "Fine."
She closed her eyes. Chibi-Usa gulped, white-knuckling her Kaleidoscope. If Nehellenia attacked, she needed to be ready to counter.
CereCere sunk. A tear rolled down her cheeks.
The freeing truth would indeed be painful.
JunJun didn't know what the hell she was talking about. Whatever the Sailor Team had done to JunJun and VesVes, they'd done a good job.
Their manipulating her sisters would not go unpunished. CereCere would kill them so that Dead Moon could retake the Moon Kingdom and Mother could rule, like she'd been destined to. Serenity had stolen Nehellenia's destiny. Another unforgiveable act.
Why had CereCere listened to the brainwashed JunJun, following her younger sister's ask to "remember?" There was nothing to remember but their mother's goodness.
So CereCere decided to remember their mother's goodness.
How Nehellenia had found them in the forest, only surviving, not thriving; how Nehellenia had given them a warm place to stay, devoid of beasts whose sole purpose was to devour them.
Beyond that, Nehellenia had only commanded them. Not given them the freedom they'd craved.
CereCere froze. Where had her rebellious thoughts come from?
Her mother was good. Had always been good. Still did plenty for the sisters. Like, like…
Confining the sisters to the tent, forcing them to complete life-threatening missions, aiding in her quest to fill the world with nightmares and conquer the Moon Kingdom. CereCere had believed that she and her sisters had had no right to ask Nehellenia of anything else. Food and shelter were enough to be grateful for. Saving their lives was enough to do anything that Nehellenia asked.
Nehellenia had never done anything for them since.
One could argue that providing food and shelter every day was doing something for the sisters. But they provided their own food and shelter in the Amazon. The queen was doing the bare minimum. Under Nehellenia, the sisters were, once again, surviving, not thriving.
CereCere choked. She couldn't have been so foolish, to whisk her sisters out of the Amazon only to let someone else capture them.
Nehellenia hadn't promised that the sisters would gain a sliver of the Moon Kingdom for themselves. All would be hers.
On the other hand, the Guardians and the sea creatures were thriving.
Unrelated by blood, they behaved like a family. The Sailor Team had befriended the sea creatures. Dead Moon had isolated themselves, even VesVes. She had tried to only control the sea creatures from the outset.
Although they'd been at the bottom of the ocean, the Quartet wasn't free from Nehellenia. The queen dwelled in another dimension, yet they were puppets controlled by her every whim.
Not the life CereCere had hoped for her sisters.
The sisters' relationships with the Trio were nothing like what the Sailor Team had with the sea creatures. Having no notion of friendship, the Quartet had only commanded the beasts, causing two of them to die. The Guardians had never killed Tiger's Eye and Hawk's Eye. Their deaths had been the Quartet's fault all along.
CereCere wiped her eyes. When had she started crying?
"Do you see?" JunJun said. Gentle.
"I do. Not what you think I see." She rubbed her eyes. "Our own selfishness. My selfishness."
"You're the most unselfish person I know, CereCere. You always looked out for us. It's not your fault Nehellenia stole us."
Nehellenia's robes swept upon the ground. Was the woman moving?
"I don't know if this'll work, but I'll try to help you remember our true lives." JunJun walked toward her, hand extended.
Nehellenia pointed the palm of her hand toward the two. Chibi-Moon and Vesta swung in front of the queen.
"PallaPalla too." PallaPalla stepped beside CereCere. JunJun placed her hands on each of their foreheads.
Nehellenia's roar drowned under the weight of the girls' memories.
CereCere had always been at Chibi-Usa's side, as her advisor.
Advising her about how to avoid the bullies. How to handle her royal obligations. Planning Chibi-Usa's days, juggling her social appointments. Trying to balance Chibi-Usa's duties with fun. CereCere was so serious herself that her efforts often failed.
She listened to Chibi-Usa when the princess confided about her struggles in school. Most of her complaints went to Sailor Pluto. CereCere's blood boiled whenever Chibi-Usa left to see Sailor Pluto. She always sought Pluto for advice, not CereCere and her sisters. Did she think the sisters too immature to handle playground antics, bullying, and the pressures of royalty? The pink-haired Guardian said that she needed some freedom from anything and anyone royal, including the Quartet.
Quartet…
Sailor Chibi-Moon had called the sisters the Quartet, too. But they were a different Quartet.
They were Soldiers, sworn to protect.
They were the Sailor Quartet.
We are the Sailor Quartet.
Everything clicked.
How had CereCere never noticed the holes that Nehellenia had carelessly punched in the story she'd told the sisters, in her haste to gain allies, to corrupt the Quartet?
"Thank you, Juno." A voice whispered in CereCere's heart. "I remember now. Almost everything. Most importantly, my true name."
Ahead, her princess unleashed Moon Gorgeous Meditation while Vesta rode her tiger, the tiger chomping at Nehellenia. The queen dodged, pulsed another black beam against Chibi-Moon's. Sailor Jupiter remained near Usagi and Mamoru. Pluto and Saturn flew forward, to help Chibi-Moon and Vesta.
She spoke her name to make it real. "I am Ceres. It is an honor to serve the heir of the Moon Kingdom." Instead of serving a self-proclaimed queen, Ceres had been called to not only protect Chibi-Moon but also prepare the heiress for ruling. Like the Sailor Guardians had been charged with protecting Sailor Moon and the solar system.
CereCere turned toward PallaPalla. "Do you remember?"
"She remembers everything." Referring to herself, but refusing to say that false name. PallaPalla's eyes grew distant. "She remembers playing in the castle with Chibi-Moon. Balancing on the moon's rocks and boulders. When we couldn't find anything to balance on outside, we balanced on stairs and chandeliers. And got in a lot of trouble. Queen Serenity saw everything. Our true queen never scolded us badly. Banned us from climbing around and banished us to a flat room—nothing to play on!—but she was never cruel." Her eyes sharpened at Nehellenia. "Not like her." She rubbed her arm. "I never told any of you, but I flew for the first time. Like the other Guardians."
Ceres staggered backward, like she'd been punched. "When was this?"
"Not long ago, when I escaped from the graveyard. Or, when Sailor Mars let me go."
More proof that the Quartet was not who Nehellenia claimed. Even Queen Serenity's Guardians were compelled to not hurt the Sailor Quartet.
Ceres looked at each of her hands. "Then we should all be able to fly." She scowled at the queen sweeping her black beam throughout the area, the Guardians returning fire with their own beams, Vesta the only one attacking at close-range.
PallaPalla winked. "We're Guardians now. Of course we can fly. Should be a lot of fun." Still the same old PallaPalla.
Not PallaPalla.
"What's your name?" Who would've thought that Ceres would ask her sister what her name was?
She gazed at Chibi-Moon fighting as hard as the others, if not, harder. A princess willing to fight alongside her people. Perhaps PallaPalla wished she could introduce herself to her charge first.
She straightened. "Pallas is honored to serve alongside her sisters." Becoming a Guardian had brought out a level of maturity in Pallas, so that, when she was acting playful, she'd deceive opponents into thinking that she was harmless.
Pallas. Her name was Pallas. Felt like Ceres was meeting her sisters for the first time.
Pink, blue, red, and green lights glowed around Sailors Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, and Juno, respectively. Vesta flew into the air, off her tiger, and joined her sisters. The little color Nehellenia had drained from her. The other Guardians faced the sisters.
"Princess Usagi Small Lady Serenity." Ceres walked toward Chibi-Moon, her sisters close behind. Feet away from their charge, she and her sisters bowed on one knee. "I am Sailor Ceres."
Vesta placed a hand on her heart. "Myself, Sailor Vesta."
"I am Sailor Juno."
"Sailor Pallas is here."
Ceres peered up at the gaping Chibi-Moon. "We are sworn to protect you. Not only out of duty, but because we've adopted you into our own family. You are our sister, too." She gestured toward her biological sisters. "Together, we are the Sailor Quartet."
Sailor suits etched themselves over the Quartet, over the clothes marking their slavery to Nehellenia. Their old clothes tore, drifted onto the ground, their sailor suits replacing their old clothes as quickly as the old wear fell.
Ceres was no longer the falsehood that Nehellenia had created. She was the person she was meant to be.
Ceres walked toward the barely breathing Nehellenia. Her sisters walked alongside her, past Fisheye, who was opening and closing his mouth soundlessly, as if he couldn't decide whether to speak, more fishlike than he'd ever behaved. "Nehellenia, we are no longer yours. We were never yours to toy with, to enslave. How dare you disrupt our duty to protect the true heir of the Moon Kingdom?"
Nehellenia's eyes darted every which way.
"You're afraid. You want to run. Like you made so many others fear. Like you brainwashed others through the ploy of fun and lightness when a world under your rule would be anything but. Not only did you try to destroy our dreams and visions of our past lives, but you also destroyed the dreams of countless others. Princess Serenity is not pleased. She considers your corruption a serious offense against the solar system. Therefore, so do we."
Nehellenia's pupils contracted. Fear was dictating her actions, like she had made fear dictate the actions of many. Her eyes latched onto SteelPants, fighting with the other half of the Sailor Team. "Help me."
Ceres extended a hand toward Nehellenia. "Never again will you rule. Never again will you keep others from reaching their potential. My sisters and I, we will punish you with death."
Chibi-Moon walked before the sisters. "I will fight with you." She extended her Kaleidoscope toward the fallen queen. Sailors Saturn, Pluto, Mercury, Jupiter floated near the unconscious Helios, Sailor Moon, and Tuxedo Mask. Letting the Sailor Quartet and Sailor Chibi-Moon finish the war that Nehellenia had begun.
Nehellenia smiled again. "Yes." She clasped her hands behind her back.
Something was boosting her confidence.
"Now, now, are you sure you want to kill me? I know where your precious Golden Crystal is."
Chibi-Moon froze. Ceres stopped, as did her sisters. They only acted with the princess' permission, and the princess no longer seemed like she wanted to defeat Nehellenia.
Helios cried out.
Chibi-Moon whipped toward Helios. Usagi's and Mamoru's blank eyes fluttered. Helios collapsed onto the ground, growing transparent.
"No." Chibi-Moon rushed toward Helios.
No, echoed Ceres' mind. They had been so close, and now…
"Nehellenia's lying." Vesta ran forward. "We have to—"
"Not yet." Chibi-Moon crouched at Helios' side. Usagi and Mamoru climbed upright, stayed near Helios themselves.
"She's attacking Elysi…" Helios faded further. "Save Ely…"
He was gone.
Chibi-Moon stared at the barren ground, where Helios had been, eyes dead.
Usagi reached for her daughter. "Chibi-Usa?"
She stood slowly, like she hadn't heard her mother. Turned toward Nehellenia. "We will find the Golden Crystal ourselves. We don't need help from you." Never had Ceres heard viciousness fill her princess. She pointed her Kaleidoscope at the woman. "You've stripped people of their dreams. Their identities." More softly but just as venomous, she said, "Their loves. You place your trust in your beauty. I place my trust in those around me, in the power of Elysion. Elysion will stand against your attack. Helios is powered with Elysion. He will survive your attack. You will not survive ours."
Unlike her mother, Chibi-Moon was merciful. She had tried to give Nehellenia the benefit of the doubt, but she could no longer.
She was growing more like her mother every day. For better or for worse.
"Chibi-Usa, don't kill her," Usagi said.
Chibi-Usa smiled sadly. "I can't stay a kid forever if I'm going to be queen someday."
Usagi shook her head rapidly. "Not this soon. Don't grow up so quickly, like I had to."
Chibi-Usa's eyes softened. "I'm sorry, Mother. Now I have to." She nodded at her own Guardians. "We have to."
Nehellenia backed away, sweat beading onto her forehead, the palm of her hand facing the Guardians. Chibi-Usa walked toward the fallen queen, her Guardians alongside her.
"My mother's right." Was Chibi-Usa addressing Nehellenia? Her voice projected throughout the void. "Somehow, my innocence has been protected for over 900 years. Should I lose it to someone like you? You may have murdered Helios…" She drew in a breath, but she pressed on. "But I won't stoop to your level."
Usagi began to brighten.
"Unlike you, I'll be a merciful queen." A pink glow surrounded Chibi-Usa, soft in normal light, harsh in Nehellenia's lair. "Ladies."
Emotions washed over Ceres. Not Ceres' own emotions—Chibi-Usa's. Her princess' warmth, pity for the dark queen, her desire to protect and show mercy, even when others hadn't shown mercy toward her and her people. Her patience for the woman.
Chibi-Usa was more mature than she believed, beyond the old and wise.
Like Chibi-Usa was speaking telepathically, the words came to Ceres. Their attack, full of mercy and compassion but justice. Chibi-Usa's encouragement, her belief in the Sailor Quartet.
The pink glow spread from Chibi-Moon to Ceres, Juno, Vesta, and Pallas.
Grinding her teeth, Nehellenia turned, only to face Chibi-Moon and her Sailor Quartet.
Together, they said, "Pink Ladies Freezing Kiss!"
A pink beam loosed from Chibi-Moon's Kaleidoscope, Vesta's whip, Ceres', Pallas', and Juno's Amazon Stones. The beam battered back Nehellenia's black one. The black beam slammed into Nehellenia first, and the woman rotted before their eyes, aging centuries in seconds, looking older than Zirconia, wrinkles upon wrinkles folding her face.
Nehellenia slapped her cheeks. "My beauty."
All this time, Nehellenia had cared only about her beauty. She never deserved to be responsible for a kingdom, much less the solar system.
The pink beam swallowed Nehellenia, freezing the woman. She gawked, paler than usual. Hundreds of wrinkles creased her ashen skull of a face. Frozen in her grotesqueness for all to see.
Chibi-Moon clenched her free hand. Nehellenia remained, harmless. The attack was designed to shatter the target, but Chibi-Moon wouldn't break Nehellenia. Instead, she'd let Nehellenia live in her ugliness forever, inside the prison that Queen Serenity had created.
"Maybe killing her would've been better than trapping her inside of here. But she must be punished." Chibi-Moon lowered her Kaleidoscope. "I'm not as kind as I thought."
Usagi was at Chibi-Usa's side so quickly that Ceres hadn't seen the mother move. "That's not true, Chibi-Usa." She embraced the young Guardian. "You've saved the Moon Kingdom, Elysion, and Bikini Bottom. I'm so proud of you, Daughter."
Chibi-Usa couldn't even smile. Nehellenia was imprisoned for eternity, but her knight was dead.
