A Double Edged Sword Part 16
Shining Light
by
Sailor Janus
"Look! All the red light bulbs are breaking," Venus announced, pointing out the shattering glass, which the others ducked away from as glowing light flooded out from the cracks around the door.
"What is going on in there?!" Sailor Mars exclaimed as Mercury tried to use her VR visor to see through the door, but unfortunately, it did no good.
Smoke slowly peaked out through the door and faded, as the building grew brighter.
"It is over," Pluto sadly said as the other senshi stared wide-eyed at the green-haired woman.
"But the question is, who won?" Mars thoughtfully said as she crossed her arms.
The door softly creaked as it fell open. Quickly the sailor senshi rushed into the destroyed room, only to find Deidera lying unconscious on the floor, bleeding.
"Deidera!" Eternal Sailor Moon cried out as she raced to the girl, and knelt beside her. Saturn walked calmly towards her while examining the room.
"She did it. She destroy Lord Cacus for good," the purple clad girl softly said.
The other senshi had left to call for an ambulance after noticing the girl's blood on the floor. Within minutes, it finally arrived.
*~*~*~*
The sun shone brightly through the window as Deidera slowly awoke. Squinting she brought her hand to her face, shielding her eyes.
"Hey, you're finally awake," Michiru smiled.
"Huh? What happened?" the girl in the hospital bed softly said as confusion hit her.
"You annihilated Lord Cacus and survived. Don't you remember?" Hotaru answered as she looked at her friend with a smile.
Deidera had been out for a few days after having surgery to repair her broken bones. Luckily, Hotaru managed to repair most of her cuts before the ambulance came, so there was no risk of scars as well as investigation on what exactly happened to the girl. They already had enough problems as it was trying to explain what happened to them.
"Good, I never want to see that monster as long as I breathe, and then some," Deidera sighed with relief as her memory of the fight slowly came to her. 'At least they remained safe. I have already hurt them enough as it is.' The girl looked confused at all the people around her. All the senshi including Tuxedo Kamen were gathered around her bed. 'Wait. Why are they here?' Taking a deep breath she asked, "I don't understand. Why are all of you here to begin with? I mean, my evil half tried to murder all of you and then there was all the events of the Silver Millennium. I figure you all would still hate me."
"You are not the only one to regain their full memory back," Setsuna said firmly. "We understand that you were used with the only thing that you ever wanted was used as a weapon against you. Love."
Deidera glanced at everyone's faces. They seemed very sincere as they nodded, even Haruka who was finally out of the wheelchair. Tears came to Deidera's eyes as she recalled her last moments on her planet before she died and it blew up.
*~*~*~*
"I will fight you to the end Queen Beryl! You will not get your hands on the other kingdoms as long as I stand!" Sailor Janus shouted with venom in her words. 'What have I done?! I turned my back on them! I won't hurt them again!' she angrily thought as her fans materialized in her gloved hands.
"Then I shall see to it that you fall!" Queen Beryl snarled as she threw black energy at the girl, who tried to reflect it off her fans, but it was too strong, sending the burgundy and hunter green clad sailor senshi soaring through the air and slamming painfully into a pillar.
Wincing as she climbed to her feet, she searched with her eyes for that damned man who betrayed her, but he was no where to be found. Silently the princess cursed as she approached the evil woman before trying to gather as much energy as possible while she joined the two fans together. "United Fan Radiance!" Sailor Janus cried out, sending gold and silver light hurtling towards Queen Beryl who instead of showing fear, laughed at the girl as she batted the attack away as if it were a common housefly.
Sailor Janus stared wide-eyed in fear at the woman. "No, that was my strongest attack! Now what?"
Panic soon took over as another of Queen Beryl's black energy lightning hit her.
Crying out in pain, the girl was forced to the ground. Janus lifted her head and clenched her teeth and spit out the blood that was in her mouth. She knew she would not live through this fight but she'd be damned if that evil witch was going to wreck havoc in the other kingdoms.
Biting her lip as the look of determination filled her eyes, she rose from the ground. Closing her eyes, Janus concentrated all of her energy towards her attack to the point where she was glowing with burgundy energy. The burgundy-haired princess knew this would be her final attack, killing her in the process, but she didn't care, she couldn't let that woman get her hands on the others!
Opening her eyes, she stared deadly at the witch who was smirking. Swallowing, Sailor Janus took a deep breath and screamed with all her might to the point where she hoped Sailor Mercury could hear her. "UNITED FAN RADIANCE!"
Bright gold and silver energy emitted from the huge fan striking out and hitting Queen Beryl, fazing the woman slightly, but it did not kill her.
Sailor Janus's legs gave out as a surreal feeling filled her body. Tears came to the girl's eyes as she fell to the ground. 'I couldn't do it! Damn it! I couldn't do it. I'm sorry. Everyone. Take care.' Slowly Princess Janus breath gave out as her last thoughts echoed in her head as Queen Beryl began to blow up her planet. 'I'm sorry.'
*~*~*~*
Deidera looked up with tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry."
The others fell silent and smiled. "What's in the past is in the past." Ami said, trying to reassure the girl.
"If only I wasn't so stupid!"
"But you corrected your mistake by defeated that demon. You did a good thing," Makoto grinned.
Deidera smiled back and decided that it was going to take some getting used, especially the fact that everyone was being so nice to her. Finally. Acceptance.
*~*~*~*
Six Months later
"Hotaru. Hotaru! Are you okay?" Deidera knocked on her door before quietly opening it. "We're going to be… late for school," she finally said when her eyes caught sight of her friend sitting on the bed wearing a pair of indigo jeans, a black tank top under a deep purple lace shirt rather than her school uniform. She had a very solemn expression on her face that looked like someone just died. "What's wrong?"
Quietly the girl said without looking up, "My father is dying."
Deidera blinked at the girl's answered as she bowed her head slightly allowing a piece of hair to fall into her face. Normally she'd push it out of the way and grumble about having to get a hair cut thanks to the fight, but at least most of it had grown back. Instead she sat on the edge of the bed, "I'm sorry. Hotaru," the burgundy-haired girl softly said.
Just then Setsuna rushed into the room. "Hotaru, It's your father."
The girl glanced up and nodded her head. "I know. We have an hour left. May I skip school today?"
Setsuna nodded her head, "Yes, both you and Deidera may skip if you'd like. This is a family emergency after all. Go get ready. I'll take you to the hospital." Quietly, the woman left the room leaving the two girls alone once again.
Deidera looked at her friend. "I'll come with if you'd like."
A tiny smile appeared on Hotaru's sorrowful face. "Thank you."
Silently, Deidera left the girl's room so she could change out of her school uniform.
A few months after Deidera was released from the hospital, her neglectful aunt had died. Feeling that the girl needed as much support as possible, especially since Deidera never really knew what a family was, the outer senshi adopted her. Unfortunately, the past few months had been very trying on Hotaru. Her father seemed to become weaker each day. Deidera always felt guilty because of it. She did watch him collapse after all, when her evil self tried to kill his daughter. The outer senshi also promised become Hotaru's legal guardians as well after her father died but still supporting her while he was alive as well.
The car ride was the most difficult, and the endless minutes in the waiting room while they were trying to revive him felt like hours and days even, were the most excruciating minutes of Hotaru's life. But she knew there would be no hope.
Slowly, a doctor walked out of the room her father was in and motioned for the three young women to follow him. Hotaru knew exactly what he was going to say as he led them to the room.
"Hotaru. I'm sorry, but there is nothing we can do," the doctor calmly said as they entered the room.
The words echoed in her head as she stared at her father's still form lying on the starchy, white sheets in his hospital room. Shock. Numbness soon took over as reality finally set in. Her father would never come back.
*~*~*~*
Author's Notes: I have FINALLY gotten this story revised and edited. Now I happily say this is my first story. Amusingly enough, I found several elements which I repeated in other stories that are present in this one.
If you want to read more on Deidera, I have several stories which feature her.
Dimensional Disaster: the true sequel to this story is a SM/DBZ story which takes place exactly after this story when Deidera tries out her dimensional powers. Unfortunately, I still have the dub names, but many readers seem to still like it.
Shattered Reality: a SM/GW story where certain members of the sailor senshi are in GW's time line.
Tragic Rain: takes place a few years after this one when Deidera and Hotaru are forced to leave their dimension and end up in the GW time line.
Forgotten Destiny: another SM/GW story involving Heero with a case of amnesia and the senshi are known under different names.
Plus several others. Unfortunately, this story only featured snippets of Deidera's real personality which is quite sarcastic and playful. She is proudly my first created character, which is why I chose her for a pen name and oddly seems to appear somewhere in most of my stories.
I hope you enjoyed reading this story.
*~*~*~*
SJ