Sailor X #27 Protoplasm
By: John Brengman
Edited by: Thomas Schell
From SX20:
Silence.
Everywhere.
A small mote floated within the silence.
Nothing else existed.
Nothing.
Anywhere.
Suddenly, a blast of light exploded in front of the mote and before it could flee, it was drawn into the light.
The spiraling tunnel filled with swirling light was as different from its home as land is from an ocean. Bewildered by the newness of it all, the speck barely noticed the brief flash within the swirling mass of tunnels that seemed to be its prison. It neither noticed the small metal shape nearby, nor the blue and white thing that marred the blackness.
Then with another brief flash, the small metal thing disappeared, leaving the mote alone with the big blue and white thing that destroyed the beauty of the blackness around it…
…well, it was almost black. Small specks of white pitted the surface of the universe like billions of tiny imperfections…and the mote could HEAR some of the nearer ones, including a small distant yellowish ball-like THING! They all seemed to whisper at the mote…
All except for the big ugly blue and white thing. Where the other imperfections whispered into the darkness, it shouted!
"I, Richard Milhouse Nixon, will resign…"
"Video killed the radio star…video…"
"Four all-beef patties, lettuce, sauce, pickles…"
"Qadafi counted on America to be passive…"
"This is KIRO, in Seattle…"
"Read my lips…no new taxes…"
"I did not…have…sexual relations…"
"America is seen as a nation that can't control violence committed with guns…"
"This world is bullshit…."
"The city of Tokyo is in ruins following a massive earthquake…"
"NOOOOOO!" The mote screamed as it was bombarded with the shouting from the ugly blue and white ball. As soon as it could, the mote frantically tried to get away. As the noisy object receded behind it, the mote relaxed a little…but not much…because the other objects still were staring at it…and whispering…
== * SM * ==
Cyberworld – Several Months Before SX20
Laser bolts flashed violently around the orb, which shook under the impact as it tried to flee from the ship chasing it through space. Another volley bracketed the orb, nearly piercing the protective barrier it had surrounded itself with.
Aboard the pursuing ship, Cybermars sat at the command station and glowered. On the viewscreen, it could see the laser bolts from the ship as they lanced out and hammered the orb.
"Its shields are down thirty percent," Cybremercury reported from the science station.
"Continue the attack," Cybermars ordered. A twinge of anticipation shuddered through the cyborg despite its programming. Cybermars had been following the Orb of Chaos for three years and a number of months, and this was the closest it had come to capturing the elusive artifact.
Another trio of energy bolts slammed into the orb.
"Its shield is down," reported Cybermercury.
"Close to tractor range," came the order. Cybervenus moved to comply.
Just then, the orb emitted a flash of light. It would have blinded a normal human, but automatic adjustments protected the cyborgs.
"Power spike," Cybermercury reported.
"Trying to throw us off the trail," Cybermars thought. "Yes, the orb was just as unpredictable as its name indicated."
"Another power spike," Cybermercury reported, this time an instant before the flash occurred.
"Continue closing," came the order. "Ready the tractor beam."
Then space itself seemed to shift around the orb. The ship shuddered.
"Wormhole generator," Cybermercury said. "We're being pulled in."
"Fire lasers," Cybermars ordered. "Disrupt its field."
Cybervenus's fingers flew over her controls and the cyborgs could hear the lasers firing.
The lasers scorched the surface of the orb, which barely managed to keep itself from breaking apart under the stress. However, there was a balancing act being done. The orb had to control the gravitational and temporal forces in the wormhole in order to escape from the cyborgs. Surrender meant death.
It also had to keep its sanity.
It could do one or the other, but not both.
Unfortunately, the second volley of lasers meant that the orb did neither too successfully. Before the fog of non-existence smothered it like a blanket, the orb could feel the coarseness of time as it shifted slowly out of its normal ebb and flow. It also felt itself break the speed of light…while inside the wormhole it had created.
A cloud-like thing erupted in space, looking a bit like a miniature galaxy. From the center of this "galaxy" a ship drifted slowly into the normal space outside the mouth of the wormhole.
"Report!" Cybermars shouted as it got to its feet and surveyed the smoldering ruins of the Bridge of the ship. A look at the viewscreen confirmed its fears. They had lost the orb. It might take years before they would find it again.
"Power failures on most systems," Cybermercury said. "Weapons, and navigational failures." There was a pause, then: "Engine nearing critical failure. Engine breach in seven seconds."
"Then again…" Cybermars thought. "Perhaps the hunt for the orb would be a bit longer."
"Transmit mission logs to the Luna Foundation," Cybermars ordered. "Initiate engine shutdown…"
Deep space was lit briefly by the fusion implosion. A fiery sun was created for a few seconds, then the materials rapidly cooled and dispersed into the surrounding darkness.
== * SM * ==
In the Present Day…
A cloud-like thing erupted in space, looking a bit like a miniature galaxy. From the center of this "galaxy" a small round object hurtled into the normal space outside the mouth of the wormhole. The stars streaked by as the orb careened at faster-than-light speed heedless of anything that might be in its way.
The inhabitants of the planet Khalmis were peaceful and industrious. The first steam ship had sailed across the Pardonesh Sea, breaking speed records set by older ship, much to the delight of business men. Burgeoning new technologies across the spectrum of thought seemed to beckon to the inquisitive people of this planet.
But none of those dreams were to be realized. On the 216th day of the 1173rd Khalmisian year, the world ended.
Within a few seconds, the entire planet imploded. There was not time for the doomed people to even fathom their fate. For one second Khalmis was an Earthlike world with over half a billion lives upon its surface, the next second it was a mass of festering molten rock mixing with the steaming remains of the atmosphere.
The orb, which had hit the planet at a speed a few thousand times the speed of light didn't even notice the destruction it had wrought. However, the planet, and the three asteroid fields in the solar system started the process that eventually would slow the orb's speed.
== * SM * ==
The mote wandered almost aimlessly through space looking for some place…any place that was quiet. But here in this cluttered universe there was no respite from the assaults against the senses. Brilliant colors of distant nebulae and galaxies clashed with supernovas, younger stars, and complete solar systems.
And all of them added their own cacophony to the din. Even the interstellar dust pecked at the silence as it flowed past, carried on the interstellar winds, and those too made nose.
After some time, the mote began to think that perhaps it would never again see the dark folds of its home, never again hear the nothingness of complete and utter silence.
While obsessing over its loss, the mote nearly missed the howl of pain that arose from somewhere nearby. Since fleeing from that putrid blue-green ball when it had first entered this place, the mote had not heard a single distinct sound, and as much as it was repulsed by the new noise, curiosity overrode both obsession and repulsion and the mote went to investigate.
The mote didn't have to travel far before it saw a sphere floating through space. It was surrounded by a swirling blue energy that crackled as it flowed over the surface of the sphere, which was scorched from something the mote could not identify.
Well, as much as the mote's curiosity was aroused, the small round thing was just another noisy disturbance, so it started to head off in search of refuge.
"STOP!" A voice thundered through the mote. "I SENSE YOUR PAIN…YOU WANT REFUGE…SILENCE FROM THIS PLACE."
The mote agreed, and thought to make its agreement known to the spherical shape it assumed had spoken. Through the thought came action, and the mote spoke for the first time in its existence.
"Yes," it said.
"I CAN AID YOU," thundered the sphere. "I CAN HELP YOU FIND THE SILENCE."
The mote was overwhelmed with joy. Finally it would again find shelter in the all-encompassing silence.
"FOR A PRICE…"
Having never interacted with another thing, the mote was confused, and this flashed through its thoughts.
"YOU WILL HELP ME," the orb said. "IN RETURN, I WILL GIVE YOU THE POWER TO FIND WHAT YOU SEEK."
"What must I do?" the mote asked.
It was simplistic really. The mote discovered that the object it was assisting was called the Orb of Chaos, that it was injured, and the mote could indeed help in the healing. All it needed to do was to throw some of its own material onto the orb to form a bandage. Unfortunately, it would take a lot of material to complete the process.
The mote spent time absorbing dust from the space around it. Then, once the material was converted into usable stuff, it was shot toward the orb.
The black ichor splattered against the flowing blue energy cascading around the orb, and globs of the pasty oil-colored substance were flung into space.
The mote continued its work, tolerating the noises in the background in the knowledge that they would soon be silenced. Forever.
The oily blob floated amidst the interstellar dust like a leaf on the surface of a river. It was a small part of what had been within the mote. As such, it was barely conscious, barely intelligent, and it barely noticed that it was floating toward the blue-green planet until too late. Then it barely noticed that it was flying through the atmosphere…
== * SM * ==
Auckland, New Zealand 2:30 am
The man in the late-model car listened to the thub-thub-thub his car was making. In the dim night sky, he could still see the tilt of the hood sinking limply to the right.
The man pulled over to the curb and fell back in his seat. With a growl, he slapped at the steering wheel and stared forlornly out the driver's side window. Because of this, he didn't see the yellowish spear of light shoot down and impact less than a block away.
The man got out of his car and took the spare tire and a lug wrench from the trunk. Soon his deep into the task of changing his flat tire.
His back was to the oily black ooze that flowed toward him from the darkened alley. When it got a few feet away from the man, it launched itself at it. Before the man had time to scream, the ooze had dissolved him and was happily assimilating him. It converted muscles and bones and organs to grow its mass. Then it absorbed the man's brain.
If it had been larger to begin with, the absorption of the human brain would have immediately transformed it into sentience. As it was, the brain cells were soon scattered uniformly throughout the ooze like a gestalt of one-celled intelligences. Then a small quiver of energy coursed through the entity, and through an act programmed into it from before its "birth", this particular acquired all of the "brains" it was ever going to get.
The ooze flowed away from the now-ownerless car. It was an animal. It was an animal that knew that it could assume rudimentary shapes for a limited amount of time, and it knew that it could grow by absorbing more biomass.
It also knew that it was hungry.
== * SM * ==
New Zealand National Crime Center – Pegasus Project
Four Weeks Later
"I don't see why we're involved here," Rachel complained as she looked around at the rows of computers that comprised this "nerve center" of the Pegasus Project. Through a door to her right she could see other Luna Foundation personnel as they were shown around the file room, a cavernous place filled almost to the brim with musty old boxes full of files on everything from crimes committed by state intelligence bureaus to the activities of the world's serial killers. All of that was too much for Rachel, who had quickly vacated the room.
A concerned Amy had followed her.
"Are you all right?" Amy asked. "You don't look very well."
"It's nothing," Rachel replied as she strode across the control room toward the flight of stairs.
"Well then," Amy said grabbing Rachel's arm. "You won't mind if your friendly neighborhood doctor scans you real quick." With that, she produced a scanner from her lab coat and waved it slowly in front of Rachel. Then she fished a portable data recovery unit from her coat and plugged the scanner into its data port. The results popped up onto a small screen.
"Ah," Amy said. "You have…"
Quickly Rachel lunged forward and covered Amy's mouth.
"Don't say it…" Rachel said. Then realizing that she was in close physical contact with a person who was technically a superior, she let go.
"You're claustrophobic," Amy whispered.
"Yes," Rachel hissed as she started to walk up the stairs. "Now, would you mind dropping it?"
"Certainly," Amy replied as she too climbed the stairs. "Doctor-patient privilege."
Rachel leaned on the metal railing at the top of the stairs and looked out over the room. To both sides, stairs led down to the control room, but she could hear the quiet bustle of people doing their jobs, sending out information about criminal activity throughout the world.
Amy settled into a similar perch over the railing next to her protégé.
"I don't see why we're involved here," Rachel complained as she looked around at the rows of computers that comprised this "nerve center" of the Pegasus Project.
"The Pegasus Project is possibly the next step in crime fighting," Amy replied. "Where Interpol and the FBI dealt with crimes that affected their citizens or their nation and the intelligence services deal with covert ops to defend their nations, the Luna Foundation is hoping that the Pegasus Project will be sort of a combination of both and available to all who need it."
"Oh," Rachel said, although the tone in her voice said that perhaps she wasn't buying it. "I have a question."
"Yes," came the reply.
"If a certain bit of information that a certain person knows is as dead on as this certain person thinks it is, why are we bothering? After all in a few months there won't be anyone here to worry about this sort of thing."
"First off," Amy said sternly, "we are not supposed to be talking about that around people who don't already know about it, and secondly, the Luna Foundation is not about to sit around and sulk when there is valuable work that can be done, are we clear?"
Rachel's answer was cut off when the doors behind them opened and a gray-haired man walked in.
"Ah!" Commissioner Frederick Davies exclaimed. "I thought I might find you two here. Checking out the work that your people are doing. Allow me again to thank you for putting this facility here, and let me say that Prime Minister Bellingham is pleased as well."
"On behalf of Her Majesty's government, we again accept your compliment," Amy said pleasantly.
"Yeah," Rachel thought. "Especially when Her Majesty's government has enough money to underwrite the entire planet for the next few centuries."
"I am glad that I found you," Davies said, his voice more serious. "It seems I have a mystery for you. A number of people in the Auckland area have disappeared almost without a trace."
"What do you mean, 'almost'?" Amy asked.
"A couple people were driving their cars, so we have more clues on where the attacks took place. There were also bone fragments taken from a couple of the locations."
"How many are we dealing with?" Rachel asked.
"Six."
"Any patterns?" Amy asked.
"Not really," Davies replied, "but the attacks all happened in a three-block square area in the run-down area of the city."
"Rachel, get Sandra and the others and head out to that area," Amy ordered. "I have a hunch that whatever it is, it hasn't left the vicinity. I'll report in, then join you."
"Gotcha," Rachel said.
== * SM * ==
Auckland, New Zealand
Near Dusk
"So, you're telling me that whatever it is we are looking for is not even remotely human?" Sailor Moon said as she walked down the street, scanning the area for signs of something amiss.
"Yes," Amy replied simply.
"How do you know this?" Sailor Moon asked.
"The bone shards have a residue on them," Amy said. "We are assuming this residue came from the attacker and it shows that whatever it was, it was not human."
"Which is why we are involved instead of the police," Sailor Mon replied.
"And the thing is usually active during the night, based on what the authorities have been able to gather from the people in this area," Amy said. "So, we're hoping that six people in a relatively small area will be a sufficient lure."
"We're bait?" Sailor Moon asked, looking startled.
"I'm glad you agreed to this plan," Amy replied.
"Wait a minute," Sailor Moon said turning to the older woman. "I didn't agree to be bait for this thing."
At that point, Sailor Moon's wrist-com beeped at her and she pressed the small button on it.
"Yes?"
"This is Sailor Mars, I think I've found it, but I also think it saw me."
"I'll be right there," Sailor Moon said. Turning to Amy, she glared. "Alert the rest of the team."
"Get here quickly," Sailor Mars said, fear seeping into her voice. "It definitely saw me."
"Damn," Sailor Moon said as she broke into a run toward where Sailor Mars had been searching.
Sailors Mercury, and Venus had arrived by the time Sailor Moon reached the scene – a U-shaped building that had definitely seen better days. It didn't help that the ooze had decided to make the building its home, and seemed to be inhabiting the second floor of the four-story structure.
All of that was speculation. As Amy and Sailor Moon arrived, they could see the ooze crawling toward the other Sailors, and they could see that part of it was still flowing down the building and across a small concrete lot.
"How did something that big get past the authorities?" Sailor Moon asked.
"According to my data," Amy replied as she checked her computer, "the building is listed as abandoned. Probably only a few homeless use it for shelter." Then she turned her computer on the still-advancing ooze and ran a scan with the push of a few buttons.
"Oh God…" she said when the results came back.
"What is it?" Sailor Moon asked.
"These readings match the readings the computer has for the Wiseman!" Amy exclaimed. "Whatever that is, it is definitely evil!"
"That settles it," Sailor Moon said. "Time to fry us a badguy…" With that, she reached up to her forehead and pulled off her tiara."
"MOON TIARA MAGIC!"
The tiara arced outward and slammed into the surface of the ooze. After a few seconds, it emerged and sailed back into Sailor Moon's hand. The ooze continued to move forward.
"I'm guessing that didn't work," Sailor Moon growled.
"Yeah," replied Sailor Venus, "but this will….VENUS WHIP!"
A whip handle
appeared in Sailor Venus' right hand, and with a flick of her wrist, she sent
the weapon's energy ribbon forward at the ooze. It slapped against the ooze and
the area surrounding where it hit glowed briefly, but that was all.
"Well," Venus said
disgustedly, "that was certainly effective."
Then Sailor
Jupiter and Tuxedo Mask flashed into view nearby.
"Thanks for the
ride," Tuxedo Mask said to Jupiter, who nodded briefly before joining the other
Sailors.
"You gave him a
ride?" Sailor Moon asked.
"Leonard is no
King Endymion," Sailor Jupiter replied quietly.
As if he had heard
Jupiter, Tuxedo Mask pulled one of his roses from within his cape and hurled it
at the ooze. It stuck in the oily mess several inches from its front edge.
"If my predecessor were here, no doubt he'd say something that'd be totally lost on this creature!" Tuxedo Mask shouted. "I…" But then he saw the creature absorb the rose and continue forward.
"MARS FIRE IGNITE!" A gust of fire rippled forth from Sailor Mars and seemed to scorch the ooze, but when the fire vanished, the Sailors could see no ill effects.
The Sailors had slowly but steadily been backing up during this battle and were now nearly out of room. The back of the building behind them was only a few feet away and still the ooze advanced.
"Why is it so slow?" Sailor Mars asked. "Didn't they say this thing was faster?"
"Be glad it isn't," Sailor Jupiter quipped.
"It's probably the size of the entity that has slowed it," Amy replied.
A shower of sparks erupted as the ooze reached Sailor Mercury and tried to grab her foot. The only thing stopping that was the energy shield that Amy had ordered each of them to wear before leaving the Pegasus Project. Each person's shield would buy them a few minutes of direct contact with the creature, but Sailor Mercury could already see the rippling disturbance in her shield, as though someone threw a rock into a lake.
"Uhm, guys," she said. "I think a little haste would be nice about now!"
"MARS FIREBIRD STRIKE!" The huge phoenix-like energy bolt leapt from Sailor Mars and seemed to burn a large area of the ooze, but when the attack faded, there was no change.
"How did you defeat the Wiseman?" Sailor Moon shouted toward Amy.
"Princess Serena and Rini used two Silver Crystals and overloaded the power of the Dark Crystal," came the reply.
"Well," Sailor Moon said. "I don't have a spare Silver Crystal around, but then again, this is not exactly the Wiseman we are facing." With that she raised her hand in the air.
"MOON STAFF!"
Light flared and the Moon Staff, a longer version of the Moon Scepter appeared in Sailor Moon's hands.
Sailor Moon leveled the staff toward the ooze, which was about at her feet.
"MOON HEALING ACTIVATION!"
The circle of light that the elder Sailor Moon would have traced with the Moon Wand instead shot forth from the tip of the staff and flowed into the ooze.
The ooze moved forward…not as fast as before. Not as fast as it would have preferred, but the two-legged prey had retreated backward and were now trapped. They now could not flee without being caught.
As they retreated, the two-legged ones brandished various weapons and assaulted the body, but the body was strong. The weapons of the prey were useless, and in fact, the small red and green colored one had been assimilated. There was nothing these prey could do except die and become a part of the body. The body had already caught one and was feeding off of the energy surrounding it. The energy was weakening, and soon it would crack this shell and feast.
There was nowhere for the other prey to run either, and one by one they too would be consumed.
Then a bright light flared from one of the prey, and unlike the other weapons, the effects of this one were felt throughout the body. It was not a painful sensation, but one that weakened the body nonetheless.
It doubled its efforts to grab its prey but it could already feel a numbness around the perimeter of its being…
"The creature was clearly affected by that attack!" Amy yelled.
"Then we need something bigger," Sailor Moon said as she opened her locket and allowed the Silver Crystal to float into her hands.
"Sailor Moon," called Sailor Mercury. "I can't move!"
"Have no fear," Sailor Moon said calmly. "We will come to you." The other Sailor soldiers gathered behind Sailor Moon and linked hands. It was not quite as efficient because of the energy shields around each of them, but Sailor Moon knew she could adjust for that. She knew she could.
Sailor Moon reached out mentally and sensed each of her comrades as they closed their eyes. "Trust me," she said mentally to them. "Clear your minds, and let your power flow like a river into a lake. Focus on that, and focus on me…"
Almost involuntarily, each Sailor whispered "Sailor Moon" as her mind relinquished her powers to the control of their leader.
With a flash, the energy shield surrounding Sailor Mercury disappeared and the ooze collapsed onto her foot, absorbing her boot almost instantly. Sailor Mercury screamed in pain and that pain was transmitted to all of the Sailors.
"Focus!" Sailor Moon shouted. Then mentally: "Focus on me! Not the pain! Me!" Sailor Moon mentally reached out to each of them, but she could not find Sailor Mercury in the link.
Sailor Mercury reeled just outside of unconsciousness from the pain, yet somehow focused enough to channel her powers. She knew what she was about to do would hurt about as much as what the ooze had done, but it was either suffer a self-inflicted wound or certain death.
"Damn oil slick," she grumbled as she pointed her arms down at her foot. "MERCURY ICE BUBBLES FREEZE!" The air filled with bubbles and Sailor Mercury could feel the air solidify around her foot. She figured it would still not stop the ooze, but when she tugged on her foot, it broke free. Apparently her hunch had been right. The intense cold had slowed it down to the point where a sudden jerk would free her.
Sailor Mercury tried to clear her mind and joined hands again with her friends.
Sailor Moon mentally held on to the raw power that her friends had given to her and gently pulled her hands free of the other women so that she could aim the Silver Crystal. Its facets glowed with a reddish-white hue as she watched it…a constant reminder of her less than pure spirit…and a reminder that the Silver Crystal understood this fault and had made certain adjustments for it. "Use your powers for good, Grasshopper," was a thought that flittered through her mind before she cleared her throat to regain her focus and concentrated on the power and the Silver Crystal.
Then she was ready, and just before she spoke, Sailor Moon opened herself to the power that her friends had collected for her.
"COSMIC MOON POWER!"
The collected energy of the Sailor soldiers flowed through Sailor Moon and she in turn channeled the energy through the Silver Crystal. A pale red beam of energy shot forth from the Silver Crystal and slammed into the ooze…
A pang of victory reverberated through the body as the energy surrounding one of the prey faded and the body finally made contact. New energy flowed into the body and it continued toward the other prey, who had gathered into a convenient clump. It barely noticed the puny attack the one prey used against it.
Then a brilliant shaft of light shot out and hit the body. Again, this was not a painful experience, but suddenly the numbness that it felt around the edge of the body exploded toward the center. In fact, after the first few moments, it could not feel the prey it had captured anymore. It tried to extend itself further to again grasp its prey, but it could not seem to move the body in that direction.
Frustration rippled through the body as it tried in vain to expand. Instead, it was soon forced to rapidly contract. However, that frustration combated against a new sensation…one that the body had never felt before….
"You're doing it, Sailor Moon!" Sailor Venus shouted.
Sailor Moon could see this. The ooze was completely gone from the building that had been its home and it was contracting quickly. Still, she kept her concentration on controlling the power flowing through her, and the healing beam continued to bombard the creature.
Soon, the creature was roughly the size of a loaf of bread, and Sailor Moon released the beam. The creature then did something unexpected.
The rippling form of the ooze contracted itself and formed a new shape. Blooming red and green from a small black base, a solemn rose stood alone on the concrete lot.
Sailor Moon let out a slight gasp before the color faded from the flower, and its now black form crumbled to dust.
As the other Sailors looked on in silence, Sailor Moon moved forward. Kneeling, she pulled a small plastic packet from her uniform and scooped a bit of the dust into it. Standing, she then looked down at the remains in silence for a moment before joining her friends, who were already starting to walk away.
== * SM * ==
The Moon Palace – South Balcony
Later That Evening
Sandra was looking out at the Earth, nestled among the sea of stars when she was disturbed by a quiet voice.
"I was told you might be here," the voice said.
"Hello, mother," Sandra replied quietly.
"Is that it," Neo-Queen Serenity said as she joined her daughter at the balcony. "Just, 'hello, mother'?"
"I'm sorry," Sandra replied. "I just don't feel like talking right now."
"Well then just listen," came the reply. "The lab results came back from that sample you brought back. They found that the monster you fought was a 'free-flowing form possessing limited intelligence and a remedial shapeshift ability' to quote Amy'."
"You mimicked her good," Sandra remarked.
"That comes with having known her for years," Neo-Queen Serenity said. "There was something else."
"Yes?"
"Amy said that her scanner readings were not the same as they were when the fight started. She said that the creature seemed to read as the Wiseman to her scanners."
"Yes."
"That's not what it reads now," Neo-Queen Serenity said. "It reads almost completely free of negative energy. However, Amy said that the creature didn't have the intelligence to truly be good or evil, and it did not know what to do with the new emotions the Silver Crystal was feeding it."
"And that means?" Sandra asked.
"I know you've been blaming yourself for the past couple of fights," Neo-Queen Serenity. "Know this: you should not blame yourself for either of them. In both fights, you did what you had to do, and in both fights, you did the right thing."
"That doesn't make how they ended any easier," Sandra said.
"There were times when I felt the same way after defeating an enemy," Neo-Queen Serenity replied. "Sometimes there just isn't enough good in the monsters to save them. When that happens, the best way to relieve their suffering is to destroy them. You've got to quit blaming yourself and hoping that the job of Sailor Moon will get easier, because if that ever happens, then it is time for you to quit doing it. Being Sailor Moon should never be easy."
"It's a tough job," Neo-Queen Serenity said. "And it's a job you do very well."
Mother and daughter then hugged tightly. When they broke the embrace, Sandra said, "I need to go see Rachel…see how she's doing."
"I'm sure she'll enjoy the visit," Neo-Queen Serenity said. She watched her daughter walk away, then turned to gaze out at the stars.
== * SM * ==
In Deep Space
The mote looked at the large spiky thing that it had created and pleasure flowed through it. Soon it would use the orb and this crystalline form to bring the silence upon this noisy universe.
The Orb of Chaos apparently sensed the thoughts of the mote, because it replied: "I WILL BE USED BY NO ONE. YOU HAVE HEALED ME, AND NOW I WILL GRANT YOU THE POWER TO FIND THIS SILENCE THAT YOU SEEK. WE WILL WORK TOGETHER…AGREED?"
The mote agreed.
"GOOD," the Orb said.
Then a beam erupted from the Orb and flowed over the mote. "YOU HEALED ME WITH A MATERIAL CAPABLE OF SUSTAINING LIFE," the Orb said, and the words flowed into every recess of the mote's being.
"I WILL IN TURN USE THAT SAME MATERIAL TO GIVE YOU THE FORM YOU NEED TO BRING THE SILENCE UPON THIS UNIVERSE!"
And it was true. The mote could feel itself growing larger. "WILL YOURSELF TO ATTAIN A SHAPE, AND IT WILL BE YOURS!" Scanning through its most recent memories, the mote found a suitable form…a form that would strike fear in the hearts of those who cluttered this universe with their incessant noise.
Finally, the bean from the Orb of Chaos disappeared. With a quick flash, a sky-blue crystal ball floated into being. "USE THIS SCRYING DEVICE IN YOUR QUEST! USE IT TO SUMMON MY POWER!"
The entity that had been the mote accepted the gift from the orb.
"ARISE…WISEMAN!"
And for the first time in its existence, the Wiseman laughed.
- FINI
Sailor X series inspired by Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon,
ã 1992 by Toei Animation Co Ltd. and based on Kodansha's
manga production of "Sailor Moon", written by Naoko Takeuchi
This fanfic is freely distributed.
Release date: April 23, 2001
Edited: April 23, 2001