Almost there! The end is in sight!!! YEA!!! Man, this is long…
Master 45 sat around in human form looking through various portals and windows, searching for a suitable location.
"How about up at the arctic?" Mistress 9 said. "Anybody who's anybody attacks up there." He just shook his head.
"Nah… been done. To properly attack, one has to find a weak point, something to use against one's opponent. In Saturn's case, I think we should go with the obvious, use her powers against her. She knows too little about her powers to actually know how to control them."
"Then we should go where her powers are the strongest? Are you suicidal?" She cried in vexation.
"She may be stronger there, but she's not yet learned to harness that power, which we will use in our favour. What one can't control can kill you." He said as she shut all the visualizations, save one.
"Can't we just play with her mind a little more? We could probably take over her mind and use her to destroy everything!" She said, grinning maliciously.
Master 45 sighed and hung his head. "Did you learn nothing from the last time you died? That's what happened with the last of kin, and she was strong enough to push everything away and turned it to dust… no, we have to destroy her. Lets see who can have more fun doing just that."
"She knows that we're going to attack today." Mistress 9 said exasperatedly.
"Then lets not keep her waiting…" He said as he disappeared into the darkness, taking everything with him.
*****
I stood on top of a tall building, one that overlooked the remains of the Mugen district. Many years later, they still had not completely rebuilt the area. They left the immense crater filled with water, to serve as a lake, since it was too hard to reclaim the immense loss of terrain, and instead had opted to turn half the area into a park. The repaired land was a beautiful park, perhaps one of the best in all Tokyo, but I still couldn't bear to visit. Not until now.
I knew it was going to happen today. Every cell in my body, every voice in my head, they all told me the inevitable. And for some reason, I felt compelled to come here. And if the fact that I had just returned to the place where I last died, before a fight that I was sure someone would be lost, didn't hint towards one conclusion, then I didn't know what to think. But deep down, I knew what I had to do. I henshined, and held my glaive tightly, in both hands. My glaive, perhaps the one thing I knew I could depend on. Besides Death and taxes, of course. And it might just come to that… taxes, I mean. I brought the deadly weapon down, and pressed my finger deep down against the coolness of the sharp blade. The blade I knew was sharp, lethally sharp, but it never cut my skin. Loyal to a fault. Good, another thing to count on.
I looked out towards the area, or what was being rebuilt from it. I knew I was the cause of the massive destruction the area was subjected to, or at least played a large part in it. Yet it was being rebuilt. Even though it was just because of human development, it was nice to know that I wasn't the only form of rebirth in the world. Everything has to have a beginning to have an end. And an end to reclaim a beginning.
"I don't want you to go." I said to the Senshi who stood behind me. A couple stirrings told me that they thought I didn't know they were there. I knew that they would come with me one way or another, but I at least wanted to know what they thought about going – which I knew was to their deaths. Pluto was the first to speak up.
"We can't let you do this alone." She said in a gentle voice.
"Yeah, we all know what happened last time one of their kind challenged the world. You ended up sacrificing yourself for the world. Which is probably why we found you here." Usagi pointed out. It was so like Usagi to point out the blatantly obvious. Kudos' for that, she'll never change.
I gave in, knowing that I could not persuade them otherwise. It pained me that they would die… No. No they won't. Fate isn't decided. I'll change their fates.
"Let's do this, then." I said to the other Senshi. I took one last look at my previous place of death and turned towards them. Casting most thoughts aside, I walked towards the centre of the rooftop and slammed the end of my glaive against the ground. A dark portal appeared before us, and I let them enter first.
"Still want to go?" I asked them as maniacal laughter erupted from the vortex. "You knew we're heading to our doom?" I said, trying to convince them of leaving… or maybe I was just trying to convince myself.
"Hey… quit being so disparaging." Haruka said as she walked towards the portal. "That's my job."
The others followed her, and I paused before finally stepping into the portal. "So this is it, huh?" I said, and as I tool one last glance at the earth, I saw a lone firefly float by, hovering before my face . It was fighting the wind, and was barely crossing the air. "Be kind, little firefly, for every one you meet is fighting a harder battle." I said, as I watched it fight the wind with renewed strength before finally stepping into oblivion.
*****
Pluto looked around as she walked through where the
portal led, a stone passageway that twisted and turned every 20 metres or so.
As they approached the end of the tunnel, the Senshi saw a bright light, not a
light that was harsh and foreboding, but a gentle, warm light. As the rest
stepped through the end of the tunnel, the entrance closed up, leaving them
stranded wherever they were.
"Why would the final battle be here?" Pluto heard Venus ask, as they all scanned their surroundings. They had been led to… Saturn? "Do they know Hotaru has the home town advantage here?" she went on, as they started walking in a random direction.
""Bonus for us, but it doesn't make sense…" Uranus said as she walked beside Neptune. Nobody noticed Hotaru's eyes darken as they continued walking.
'What's happened to this planet?' Hotaru thought as she surveyed her previous kingdom. Memories as old as the Silver Millennium came back to her in waves, and she felt the hidden power of her crystal inside her, throbbing with renewed strength. She remembered how beautiful the old kingdom was, warm and friendly compared to what was left. If she weren't the hardened warrior, Saturn, she would have shed a tear. A memory suddenly surfaced in Hotaru's mind, one so striking she couldn't help but gasp.
A little version of Hotaru, who must have been around
6 years old, called out for a person. She toddled around dark passages, and
walked into a dark room, looking for something familiar to help her find her
way home. She had gotten lost in the immense Saturnian castle on the planet's
surface, a palace she hardly visited from her home on Titan. She walked out an
archway into a dark garden, following a path that led through it. On one side
of the archway, hundreds of flowers bloomed, with fireflies that glowed with a
white light zooming around the blossoms. On the opposite edge, wilted petals
and shrubs lay dead, with haunting shadows sweeping across the dead ground.
"Okaa-san!" Little Hotaru cried out, as a shadow
brushed by her ear. She continued down the path, her cries for a mother getting
more and more desperate. She turned to look to where she had come, only to find
that the path had disappeared in the mist.
"Firefly?" a soft, melodious voice called out from
behind her. Hotaru spun around, and dashed into the awaiting arms of a tall
woman, clad in a purple sailor fuku. She whispered soft nothings as she hugged
her daughter tightly. "Shhh… Momma's here." She said, as she sat Hotaru down
and took her hand.
"Momma… what is this place? I'm scared." She said, as
she gripped her mother's hand tightly and held on to her skirt.
"This is my Gate. I protect it, and someday you will,
too. This is where everyone goes when they die."
"What's beyond the doors?" She asked, now more curious
that scared.
"Peoples dreams. When people go to heaven, they can
live in peace. Everyone deserves to live their dream, not dream their life.'
She replied, aware that her daughter was starting to show an interest in her
future.
"Will you go through the white door?" Hotaru asked
innocently to her mother. The elder Sailor Saturn looked down at her daughter,
and a smile crept upon her face. "I hope so."
Hotaru's face crumpled up, and she hugged her mother's
knees tightly, softly sobbing. "NO! I don't want you to go! I wanna stay with
you forever!" she said, and let her mother pick her up.
"Hotaru, what is our faith? What's the one thing that
happens to everyone, when the time is right?" Keiko asked her daughter, not
wanting to make her grow up too soon, but knowing that, as the next Sailor
Saturn, she had to come to terms with the one thing that happens to all beings
in the universe. The only thing she could do to help her daughter was be there
through her journey to the inheritance of her oppressing powers. If one had to
do it alone…
"Death is as much a reality as birth, growth,
maturity, and old age. It is the one certainty of Life." Hotaru recited,
looking at the ground. She looked up to her mother, tears streaking her rosy
cheeks. "But if - if you leave, then I'll be alone. And if I'm alone and fall,
I'll have no one to pick me up. I don't want you to leave me."
"I won't. I'll never leave you. Ever. This'll be our
special place. I'll always be here, waiting for you. Never forget that." She
said, as she wiped her daughters tears away. "Don't be sad, my little firefly…
despair weakens our sight and closes out ears. We can see nothing but spectres
of doom, and can hear only the beating of our agitated hearts." Keiko said,
gently repeating their little motto, and was relieved when she saw Hotaru nod.
She was so lucky to have such a little angel like Hotaru. So pure, innocent,
and so intelligent, even for her age.
"Momma… is Death final?" Chibi - Hotaru asked as her
and her mother walked away from the gates.
"No, firefly. The especially righteous always have a
second chance. I, as ruler of the Gates, control who may enter and who may
exit. If I deem a soul just to be reborn, then that person may have another
chance. That's what makes us wiser that some people: We acknowledge that people
don't choose a happy life or a sad one. It's what one does considering the
circumstances that makes that person good or bad."
*****
"HOTARU!" Michiru shouted in my ear. I jumped out of my reverie to find Michiru and the others looking at me strangely.
"What?" I said, as I rubbed my sore ear.
"You phased out on us! We weren't sure whether you were gonna snap out of it!" Minako said, a relieved look on her face.
"I'm fine, gomen ne. I was just dreaming." I said, as we resumed our brisk march.
"What were you dreaming about?" Setsuna asked, worry etched into her countenance.
"My mother…" I trailed off as I hit an epiphany: I had a mother. I didn't get a chance to dwell on it as a black circle formed around me. The circle turned to a glass like substance, and I pounded on the walls to break free. The last thing I saw was Setsuna and the others trying to break their way through before blackness swirled around, stealing me away.
*****
"Hotaru, no!" Sailor moon cried as the black orb
containing her friend disappeared before her eyes.
"Ami, can you find her?" she said, panic giving her voice a hard edge that the others were not used to. Mercury pulled out her computer and began typing away, before blanching.
"Minna… She's a long way off, and she seems fine, but I'm
detecting massive amounts of energy signals coming in our direction. They're
like nothing I've ever seen!" She said as she looked around. The others noticed
it, too. The usually grey terrain had long shadows along its surface… shadows
that moved. They circled the senshi before taking form, semi-transparent beings
that looked like liquid.
"What the hell! It passed through!" Mars cried as the shadow warriors circled them, waiting for someone to initiate another attack.
"It passed through them because they're already dead!" Mistress 9's cold voice rang out through the oppressive air. Setsuna glared as she saw her, and swung at her with her time staff. With that, the battle was on.