p class="MsoNoSpacing"strongspan lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"6 Mystery of King Endymion and Neo-Queen Serenity/span/strong/p
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p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Neo-Queen Serenity marches through the glimmering corridors of the Crystal Palace. Her heels make harsh clicking sounds against the floor, and she absently wonders why they got a palace made of bright and clear see-through crystal. It's utterly /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanShe finds her husband in the smaller meeting room, reading papers. As always. Nothing /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Endymion, I need five minutes," she says sharply. He hums and gives that little wave of his hand that means he will talk with her later. Serenity snarls, the Silver Crystal bursts from her chest, shining /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"You will look at me when I wish to talk you, husband. That is the very bloody least you can do." It's only years of training, years of playing pretend, that stops Serenity from screaming, and she prides herself for it. Control. Control is the /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"What is it, Serenity? What are you doing with the Crystal?"br /He looks disinterested, annoyed. She stares him down, puts all the power in her eyes. He looks /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"What it is? Let me tell you. You sent those very fake vision dreams to yourself and to Usagi, emyou/em made her doubt her worth, made her doubt herself, created a hole in her heart. In emmy heart/em. And you dare ask me emwhat it is?/em"br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"I needed to see if they would survive."br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"By Selene! Are you truly that stupid, Endymion? If they wouldn't, we would not be here! You would not have been able to make that emoh so stupid/em decision because emthis world would not be/em if they had failed. What you did, husband of mine, was to split their souls! Do you not wonder why we no longer feel as we did back then? Why our love is gone, our passion run dry?"br /He shrugs, emshrugs/em, and looks down on his /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"People change, Serenity."br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"That much is obvious," she huffs and glares at him, wishes she could turn him to ice to make him feel the cold she has inside her. She does /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Since you seem unable to grasp what you have done, let me tell you. You severed the bond between Serenity and Endymion of the Silver Millenium, and in doing so their bond to their human hosts, us. The only reason we still have powers is because of what happened when I battled Chaos. The only reason you and I are here in this room, in this palace, posing as a couple, is because the future, our present, has always been so set in stone that there could be no other way. And now I'm done. I didn't know until today what you had done, I thought it was some weird magical happening. But now I know. And I am done. I want you out of my palace, Endymion, out of my life. And I want it emnow/em."br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanThe Silver Crystal is burning hot and cold, it sends flashes and tingles through her entire being, ready to defend her if need be. A streak of sadness flutter through her heart. When and why did it come to this?br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"As you wish."br /That's it. No argument, nothing. No more words. Serenity watches as the man she has thought to be her other half for so many ages, leaves the room. and her heart cracks a little more. Love is what powers her, what makes her go on, and there is frighteningly little love in her life these days. She sits on the floor in the smaller meeting room for hours, and crystal leaks from her body and covers everything in the room, reduces it to crystal dust that melts together with the floor to form a new layer. /span/p
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p class="MsoNoSpacing"span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Her daughter's voice is far, so very far /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"emMama!/em"br /It's the desperation that breaks through Serenity, and she blink, sees Usagi's face, pale and worried. Saturn is beside her. Oh, and Mercury /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Yes, sweetheart?"br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Mama, what's wrong? You're covered in crystal!"br /Serenity frowns, looks down at her body and sees that it is so. From her feet up to her hips. Curious. Very /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Mercury, do a scan of this, would you?"br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Ah, now? But Serenity-"br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"emPlease, Ami/em," Serenity begs, and Mercury relents. Use of their old names always hold a special meaning to them /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Mama, where is papa?" Usagi asks /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"He's left, sweetheart."br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Oh."br /Serenity touches her daughters cheek. It's warm and /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"You can still see him," she tells her daughter, and she means it. Her sweet precious daughter has nothing to do with what's between her and /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Mama, you're not well. here, let me help you."br /Pink light flicker around Usagi as she calls the Pink Moon Crystal forth, and Serenity feels warmth merge with the coldness of her Silver Crystal. The crystal that keeps her merged with the floor melts away. Mercury's computer beeps twice. br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Usagi…"br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Mhm?"br /She's almost disgustingly /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"You're… not well," Mercury says, and Serenity /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"I think I can tell as much, bookworm," she teases gently and tries to stand up. Usagi helps her, and her grip is firm and sure and real, and love seeps into Serenity and makes her a tad less tired, enough that the world no longer blurs before her /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"C'mon mama, let's get you in bed," Usagi says and there is no room in her voice for any argument. Serenity is pretty content being led around. It's a nice temporary break from leading others. br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanHer bed is cool and comfy, and she snuggles down into the comforter. Mercury flutters around like a bird, check her pulse and does scans, calls for Venus and tell Usagi to go to the garden and get Jupiter and /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Okay, doc Mercury, what's the verdict?" Serenity tries to joke when her Senshi and her daughter plus Saturn are all hovering around her /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Ah, well, you see… the thing is… I mean… that is, you…"br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"I'm dying, aren't I?" Serenity says bluntly. Usagi, closest to her, makes a sound that breaks Serenity's /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Yes. Your body can't hold the power anymore. It's been a emvery/em slow decrease in compatibility, ever since Chaos. Serenity.. Usagi, why haven't you said anything?"br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"I honestly though it was a depression and that my powers reflected that," she says softly and looks up at the /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Stupid odango," Mars huffs and pokes her arm. Serenity looks at her, and still thinks her as beautiful as when she first saw her so many, many years ago. It must have shown in her eyes because Mars blushes as quickly as she can lit fires. Venus giggles. br /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"Mama, you can't die, not now, not yet!" Usagi protests, and there are tears in her eyes and on her cheeks. Serenity sits up a little, bring the only child's she's ever had into a hug, caresses the pink long hair, marvels over how quickly time has gone. Usagi is ready to be queen, to take over, to make her own future. To create the Pink Peace /span style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /span"It'll be alright, sweetheart. I have some time left," she promises softly, and kisses the pink hair, dries off the tears from the crimson eyes, smiles, hugs her daughter for as long as needed./span/p