Untitled Document

Part Thirty-Two: The whole story! Orion's rebirth

Uranus awoke from a heavy, thick sleep. She had the uncomfortable feeling that something was wrong, that something unpleasant had happened, and slowly she became aware of a throbbing through her left cheek. Recollection came to her then, and she remembered the fight with Orion, the blue flashes of light, and the Guardian's sudden appearance. Damn that meddling Guardian, anyway. He always seemed to be sticking his nose where it didn't belong.
The soft strains of a familiar melody reached her ears, and she opened her eyes and sat up. Demetrius had brought them to the Celestial Hall. She recognized the soft gray-blue stone of the walls, the gentle lavender light shed from the torches on the walls, and the smooth white stone floor. They were in a large rectangular room that looked almost like a hospital ward, with a row of white beds along each wall. Each bed was occupied by one of the Sailor Senshi, covered in various scratches and bruises from their battle with the jaki. The Orion Music Sphere hovered in the air, floating back and forth between the beds with an unusual reddish glow and healing song. Uranus could feel the cleansing, strengthening influence of the music as the pain in her muscles decreased, and noted that the senshi who occupied the other beds were also beginning to stir. Each of the girls was dressed in the white and gold gowns of Silver Millennium princesses as a result of the Celestial Hall's centering energy, which presented everything and everyone within it in their truest of forms. Uranus grimaced as she looked down at her own body. True form or not, she'd never been the dressy type, and the gold loops, beads and embroidery of the elaborate gown were just not her style.
The Guardians were gathered around the bed at the far end of the room, and Uranus' jaw clenched as she caught sight of Orion, in her Sacred Child get-up. The blood had been cleaned off her pretty face, but one of her eyes was so swollen and discolored that it looked like a rancid Easter egg. Her lip bore several small black stitches, and even though the rest of her body was concealed by the long white folds of her gown, Uranus was well aware of the broken bones and bruises that covered just about all of it. She moved to stand, and the three Guardians turned to pin her with their jewelled eyes.
"Don't move." The voice was Demetrius', and it shook with anger. Uranus suddenly found she could not disobey. She was frozen in place. The red glow from the Music Sphere, she noted, was coming from the biggest of the Guardians, the one with the ruby eyes. He was manipulating the Sphere in order to heal the others, since it was obvious that Orion couldn't do it in her condition. All three of them were staring at her with expressions she did not much like.
"You—" Demetrius took a step forward, but one of the others put a hand on his arm.
"Peace, Guardian Brother."
"Peace, nothing." The young man shrugged the hand off, keeping those terrible sapphire eyes fastened to Uranus. "She almost killed her. She almost ruined everything."
"But she didn't. The Child will live."
"At what cost?!! Do you have any idea what you've done?" This was demanded of Uranus. "Of course you don't. Because you don't know…you don't know anything."
"I know enough," Uranus answered coldly.
"You don't know anything," Demetrius repeated. He clenched one fist, and it was shaking. "But I'm going to fix that."
"Guardian Brother, you mustn't. It's not your right."
"Yes it is, Neophilus. It's my right to protect the one I love." He moved away from the Sacred Child's bed, coming to stand before Uranus. "She told you what she did. Did she tell you why? Did she tell you about the Curse?" Uranus stared back blankly, and he shook his head. "She wouldn't. She'd never tell you herself. She only gave you half the story, Princess of Uranus."
"What's going on?" Jupiter's voice sounded from across the room, and several of the girls, having regained their strength, were sitting up on the cots to stare curiously at the three Guardians. Uranus felt a hand on her shoulder, and knew that it was her partner.
Princess Serenity was the first to rise from her bed and walk towards them. To Uranus' great surprise, the petite girl positioned herself defensively between Demetrius and Uranus, and regarded the Guardian with regal calm. "Guardian Brother, you must explain yourself." Her voice was soft.
The young man took a deep breath, finding that the presence of the Moon Princess did much to soothe his anger and frustration, and he nodded. "Yes. But this time, to everyone. You all deserve to know the full story." He waved one arm.
The senshi found themselves standing in the library of the Celestial Hall, before the great table that held the Book of Balance. The two members who had not been involved in the fight, Pluto and Tuxedo Kamen, had been added to their number, and they stood blinking in surprise at their sudden arrival. There was a moment of confusion as everyone adjusted to the new location, and Princess Serenity greeted her Prince, attired as Endymion under the influence of the Celestial Hall's magical atmosphere, with happy squeals. The Neo-Princess also made a big fuss over Endymion's appearance, and so it took several minutes for everything to calm down sufficiently to allow Demetrius to speak. Uranus noticed with mute satisfaction that Orion was not present.
The sapphire-eyed Guardian held up his hand for quiet, and indicated the Book in front of them. He nodded at Uranus and Neptune. "You were given part of the story. The Child told you about the way that she destroyed your planet with the Soul Dissolver." He turned to Pluto. "Do you remember?"
The graceful woman closed her eyes for a moment in thought. "It was a long time ago…" she began hesitantly, and Demetrius nodded.
"Here. I will help." He touched her forehead lightly and his fingertips glowed blue. Her face contracted suddenly in an expression of horror, and her eyes flew open.
"I…" she gasped for breath. "I remember."
He nodded again, sadly, and motioned to the rest of the planetary princesses. "Tell them what you know, Princess of Pluto."
Haltingly, she tried to explain the events of millennia ago; the false attack that the Prince of Darkness had staged on Neptune, drawing Sailor Uranus away from her home planet in order to swoop in and destroy it. By the time she had finished, the other girls and Endymion were all staring open mouthed at Uranus, and Princess Serenity's face was streaming. Pluto shook her head dazedly. "I cannot believe I could have forgotten such a thing. How terrible."
"No wonder you were so mad," Serenity sobbed, flinging herself on Uranus in a violent hug. "Your whole planet and everything! And your family…"
Uranus stood stiffly, staring at Demetrius. When she finally spoke her voice was cold. "You know what that monster did to my world, Guardian Brother. Whatever sentimental attachment you may have to her now, it cannot erase the fact that she deserves to pay for what she has done. You don't have the right to deny me that."
"She has paid, Princess of Uranus. She has paid more than you know." Demetrius shook his head. "The Child only told you the part of the story she wanted you to know. She only told you about her mistakes. But she didn't tell you why, and she didn't finish the story. Think, Uranus. The monster you saw in your memory…did it ever occur to you to wonder how such an evil man of the Negaverse became a gentle girl of the Posiverse?" He sighed. "The Sacred Child has been suffering for her mistakes for thousands of years, in ways that you couldn't even guess. She's spent over a thousand lifetimes enduring a Curse for her past wickedness."
"What kind of curse, Guardian Brother?" Endymion asked.
"The worst kind. But first, you must be told the whole story. Only then will you be able to understand." He laid one hand on the open pages of the Book of Balance. "All of you, place your hands on the Book, please." The others obeyed, except for Uranus. She stood back and glared defiantly, folding her arms.
Princess Serenity looked up, fastening crystal blue eyes to the rebellious soldier. "Uranus." She didn't have to say anything else. Gritting her teeth, Uranus stepped up and placed her own fingers on the open page.

**********

25 G.W. (Twenty-five years into the Great War)

The door to the prince's private study swung inward silently, and a young woman in a flowery pink halter top and skirted white leggings entered the room without speaking. For a moment she stood at his back, looking up at the dark globe that was suspended in midair before them. He was watching that human girl again; she could see the images that flashed through the hovering sphere as well as he could, and her rosy brows knit together in a frown. This was becoming tedious. However, she kept her voice light as she approached.
"Well, well, my love. What's your little Sailor Planet up to now, hmm?" She slid her arms around his neck, and blew seductively into his ear.
He made a grunting sound, almost like a growl. "I don't recall sending for you, Lady Slipper. What are you doing here?"
The pretty woman giggled lightly. "Do I need a reason for wanting to be with my betrothed?" she purred, nibbling delicately on his earlobe. He batted her away.
"I wish to be alone."
Lady Slipper gave a petulant sigh and stuck out her lower lip. "I just don't understand it, Orion. What's this girl got that makes you so taken with her, hmm?"
The pitch black of his eyes remained fastened on the vision of the girl in the sphere. "She's a soldier."
She rolled her eyes, moving onto his lap and pretending to be engrossed in the floating sphere as well. "Of course she's a soldier. She's a Sailor Soldier just like all the rest of them. And the little brat nearly killed you."
"Yes, she did." The comment did not sound uncomplementary. "She's strong, that one."
"Strong?" Lady Slipper repeated incredulously. The girl in the sphere was currently sitting on a mountainside with a group of other women. Her long sandy-colored braids were nearly the same length as Lady Slipper's own, and she was dressed in a simple blue cotton sundress. Her feet were bare. She tilted her head back to laugh at something one of the others had said, and all the while her fingers were busily employed, stringing a pile of daisies in her lap into a long chain. Lady Slipper snorted. "That country mouse doesn't even look like a princess, much less a Sailor Planet."
"But she is both." The Prince of Darkness rose to his feet, unceremoniously dumping his fiancee to the floor in the process. He did not seem to notice as he proceeded to walk around his desk, examining the sphere from all angles and thus receiving a panoramic view of the girl in question. "Sailor Uranus is the only member of the Sailor Planets who has ever looked at me that way, with death in her eyes. She's the only one with the magnificence, the potential. She could be a killer, that one. She'd make a fantastic Negaverse soldier."
"You can't be serious." Lady Slipper picked herself up off the floor, forgetting dignity in her surprise. "You're saying you want to recruit her? Orion, that's insane."
"I saw it, Lady Slipper. She had her hands around my throat and she was going to kill me. It's the first glimmer of hope I've seen from the Posiverse since this war started. The beauty of it! The determination, the killer instinct, was there. She would have done it."
"I fail to understand why that is such a good thing."
"You fail to understand a lot of things." He chuckled darkly as she scowled. "I don't think I can explain it to you, Lady Slipper. She's just…" He looked back at the globe with a bitter smile. "She's beautiful."
Lady Slipper arched an eyebrow. "Well if that's all it is, my love, it's easily taken care of. You've never had trouble taking any girl you fancy, you know. If you want this one, I'll get her for you, and you'll soon find that you tire of her just like all the others."
"You will not touch her." The vehemence in his voice was surprising. "This one is different, Lady Slipper. She must come to me of her own free will."
The beautiful woman regarded him dubiously. "That will never happen."
"Perhaps not now," he agreed thoughtfully, continuing to stare into the hovering Sphere. "But it is not for lack of spirit or ability on her part. She has the necessary strength to kill, but she allows that strength to be chained down by those insignificant humans." His eyes narrowed as Princess Uranus rose from the ground, a completed daisy necklace in hand, and the Sphere followed her as she walked a few feet away to place the flowers around the neck of a smiling red haired man. She rose on tiptoe and the two shared a lingering kiss, which was interrupted by a small redheaded boy who tugged at her skirt. With a laugh, she knelt down so the child could put his own ring of flowers, noticably messier than his mother's neat circle, on top of her sand colored braids. She kissed the boy's cheeks tenderly, and administered a playful slap to his bottom as he ran off to gather more flowers. The Prince shook his head in disgust. "She has such potential, and those humans she calls her family are what hold her back from fulfilling it. Her man, that little brat, the sniveling royal family, that dumpy sister, and the entire pitiful planet are her own worst enemy and she doesn't even know it. Her love for them is hindering her."
Lady Slipper observed as the husband and wife pictured in the Sphere exchanged a long, emotional gaze. She giggled. "Love. What a stupid notion. There is no such thing as love. Ambition, endurance, even lust, those are the only things that count." She tried again to regain his attention by moving between him and the Sphere, sliding her hands up his chest and rubbing the hard muscles sensuously.
He looked down. "You're wrong, Lady Slipper," he snapped. "Love exists. Just…not for us." There was a strange tone in his voice, and his fiancee stared at him. Was that longing she heard in his words? A suspicious expression filled her sea-green eyes as she searched his face. Orion had always been a little different from the others. Ever since they had begun construction of the Doomsday Gate, ever since their first forays into the Posiverse, he had experienced brief spells of odd behavior. Lady Slipper had occasionally come upon him and discovered him lost in a pensive sort of trance. He seemed to be wishing for something he could not name and did not understand. She had brushed it off as being the effect of overexposure to the Posiforce; after all, it had been millennia since any of them had been exposed to it and Orion was the one who spent more time in the Posiverse than any of the others, planning and leading the attacks of their armies. But the spells were happening more and more often now, and Lady Slipper couldn't help wondering if there was something else going on. It was as if there was a part of Orion that was connected to the Posiverse in some way, and the more time he was exposed to it the stronger that connection grew.
"I think you're spending too much time in their world, my love," she replied, using her last two words with deliberate irony. "You're getting too obsessed with this love idea. You're even starting to believe in it, for heaven's sake. Maybe you should take a break, hmm? Give yourself a chance to rest. All this Posiforce is playing with your head."
"You may be right." He sighed and rubbed his temples. "It's late. I think I'll go to bed early."
"An excellent idea," she purred, slipping her hands around his neck. But he shook his head and removed them.
"Alone."

She pouted, but he was adamant, and so he led her to the office door and bid her goodnight. After the door was closed, he turned to stare at the girl in the Sphere again. He sat down at the large desk, chin in hand, and watched the light dance over her features and sparkle in her soft gray eyes, those same large, fathomless eyes that had glared at him with the strength of steel only a few months ago, when he had threatened to destroy her planet. So magnificent, he mused, and felt a tugging inside that plagued him. He wanted her, but it was unlike any desire he'd ever felt before. With other women he felt only the need to conquer and destroy.

But with this one, I want… I want… He slammed his fist down on the desktop with frustration. I don't know! I don't know why I feel so strange when I think of her. It's like she's inside me, always, even when I close my eyes. I see her face everywhere. I hear her voice in the wind. And I want… He shook his head, his black mane falling around his eyes. I don't know!!
The Princess of Uranus was still standing with her husband. They were talking together, and then the man reached forward and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. She caught his hand, holding it to her cheek gently, and he said something that made her smile. He leaned down to kiss her again, their lips connecting with a sweetness unlike anything Orion recognized. It wasn't simply passion or physical pleasure. There was something between the two of them that went deeper, and he felt instinctively that it was an incredibly powerful force that bonded husband and wife. That's what the humans call love, isn't it? Lady Slipper was wrong. It exists, all right, and it's such a strong energy. With a power like that, I could… His midnight brows suddenly shot up with shock. That's it! That's what I want. I want the power of human love. I need to understand it. And if I had her, if she would look at me that way, she could teach me about love and I could gain its power. And then who knows what I could accomplish? He chuckled then, from deep in his throat. All I need to do is to make her love me. And that's simple enough. It was obvious to Orion that the problem lay in the humans and their sentimental, weak spirits. But if the humans were eliminated, Uranus' weaknesses would die right along with them. She could become truly strong then. And if he was the one to help her achieve that strength, she was sure to fall in love with him. He was certain of it. He'd observed human behavior long enough to know that they had the tendency to fall in love with people who did nice things for them, and so if he took the trouble to do something nice for the Princess of Uranus, she would naturally fall in love with him and then he could learn the secret that would give him love's power. Wouldn't Lady Slipper, and all the Sailor Constellations, be surprised? He'd bring the Negaverse the power of love, and conquer the Posiverse humans with their own precious ideals. Nothing could be more apropos. He chuckled again, this time a little longer.

**********

28 G.W.

The screams of the dying filled his ears, and he could not stop laughing. It had taken him over three years to plan this attack, and to develop the weapon he'd need to accomplish his goal. And now, after all that hard work, he was rewarded with the exquisite sight of the entire planet and all its despicable inhabitants burning.
When he'd first come up with the idea of the Soul Dissolver, it had been out of anger. He'd wanted to try it out on Sailor Uranus, to make her pay for humiliating him in battle when she'd nearly choked the life out of him. But the more he'd obsessed about her, the more he realized that he didn't want to kill her. He wanted to possess her. And more importantly, he wanted her to give him the power of her love. He'd seen how strong it was, what kind of might it had. Over the years, watching the humans, he'd observed how the thing they called love could make them do all kinds of things they would normally never do. Sometimes these were foolish things, and sometimes they were amazing feats of physical or mental endurance that should have been, by all natural laws, impossible. Love was a Posiverse concept. It didn't exist in the Negaverse. His fellow Sailor Constellations didn't believe in its existence at all, but he knew better because he was more perceptive than all of them. He'd prove it by conquering love and making it serve his purpose just as he did everything else.
This was the first step. Of course, there was the small problem that Uranus had unwittingly created when she asked the Guardians to give that man of hers the same eternal soul that she possessed. But with the creation of the Soul Dissolver it was no longer a problem. Gayen was gone now, eternally, and could never come back to bother her again. And with the entire planet reduced to a charred, dead rock, she would finally be free of all those who had imprisoned her with their expectations and ideals, and with their love. They were gone; the love she had for them would burn right along with their souls. And all that would remain, then, was for her to realize that he was the one responsible for setting her free from their imprisonment. She could become what she was meant to become; a powerful, invincible soldier. A real soldier who could kill. And once she'd realized this, she was sure to share her love with him out of gratitude. Then he'd finally have what he wanted.
He'd imagined this scene countless times over the past three years. He'd approach her, tell her all about the Soul Dissolver and how he'd worked for such a long time to create it in order to free her from the tyranny of those humans. He'd watch her face as she began to understand, now that the blindfold of love had been lifted, that he had rescued her. He could just picture the gratitude on her face. She'd thank him, with dignity befitting a soldier, and then she'd look at him the way that she had looked at Gayen and he'd finally understand what this whole love thing was all about. He'd take her back to the Negaverse, show her his world, and she would of course want to rule it with him, especially when she saw how much more powerful they were than the Posiverse and how inevitable the fall of the Posiforce was. He'd agree to let her be his First Concubine, in charge of all others in the royal harem, and he'd even let her bear him a few sons, to be raised as princes and generals in his armies. Only Lady Slipper, his queen, and ChibiOri, their future son and heir to the throne, would rank above Uranus. After ChibiOri was safely born, Orion could always arrange for his wife to experience a little post-delivery trauma that would take her life, and Uranus, as First Concubine, would ascend to queen. They would rule the world together, conquer the Posiverse together, eliminate the Posiforce once and for all, and live happily ever after. It would be perfect.
The flames engulfing the planet gradually died off, and finally all was silent. The smoking, blackened earth was the only thing left, and it was with great satisfaction that he saw Sailor Uranus materialize on the edge of the cliff, overlooking the valley where her little farm had once stood. Orion grinned expectantly and took a step forward, waiting to hear her exclamation of joy when she understood what he'd done for her.
She made an exclamation, to be sure, but it was far from joyful. Orion was stunned as the woman in front of him dropped to her knees, letting out a cry of pain as if someone had run a sword through her heart. He stopped, puzzled. Maybe she just didn't yet realize what was happening. He put on his most pleasant smile. "You're free now," he said, moving towards her.
The expression on her face as her head snapped up took him aback. He had never imagined that anyone could look so sad. He'd seen suffering on countless faces in battle; he'd enjoyed it because it was a sign of victory. But this was different. She was supposed to be pleased. Her rich, deep voice was hoarse and her eyes were streaming with tears that smudged her face with ash. "What have you done? Why?" She planted the tip of her sword in the ground, using it to stand, but her legs were trembling.
He cocked his head curiously, and felt a flash of indignation. "You should thank me," he reminded her reproachfully. She obviously didn't understand what he meant, so he explained, pride filling his voice with each word. "Now that they're gone, you can be the warrior you're destined to be. You're the only one, Uranus…the only one of these pitiful Sailor Planets with the real essence of a soldier." He watched her face, expecting her to be pleased with his complements, for it was a rare occasion indeed when he praised anyone. But there was nothing. Her face was becoming more and more of a blank, and so to save her the embarrassment of asking he generously decided to offer the invitation. "Come with me, to the Negaverse. Become what you were meant to be." He held out one hand.
For a moment she didn't say anything. Her face was as passionless and frozen as a carved statue, and it was beginning to unnerve him. This certainly was not going the way he had planned. When she finally replied, there was scarcely any identifiable tone in her voice. "You want me to be a soldier? I'll be a soldier." To his bewilderment, she raised her sword to her neck.
Sailor Orion took a step forward in concern. What was she doing? She looked so cold. So dead. Surely she wouldn't… But no. The sword did not break skin. There was a soft shing of metal, and one of her long sand colored braids fell to the ground lifelessly at her feet. The blue ribbons which had been entwined so prettily among the strands of golden hair were stained nearly black by the soot. He stared at her as the other braid followed the first, so that all that was left was the sad, choppy wisps blowing desparately about her face. Orion swallowed hard. Feelings he'd never experienced before began to grip his chest so that it was becoming hard to breathe. What had he done? What was happening to her? For the first time in his life, he began to wonder if maybe, just maybe, he'd made a mistake.
She spoke again, in that dead voice. "I wouldn't go with you for anything in the world." The words, spoken without any hint of malice or anger, were almost like physical blows. He could feel the endless hopelessness behind them, and it was far worse than if she'd screamed or cursed at him. "Not even if it would bring them back."
He stumbled back a step. She wanted them back? But, he'd done this for her. It had all been for her. Why wasn't she happy? What had gone wrong? "I…" He wanted to explain. If only she could understand what he'd been trying to do, surely she would see that this was good for her. This was going to help her. It was going to make her happy. Wasn't it? Suddenly he wasn't sure. In fact, he had the sinking feeling that there was something terribly wrong with his entire plan. "I just thought…I didn't mean to…" He turned in a circle, surveying the destruction as if he was seeing it for the first time, and for the briefest of moments he was able to see through Uranus' eyes. He'd made a terrible miscalculation. He'd thought that if he destroyed the humans, it would also destroy her love for them. He'd thought love was like a spell they'd cast over her, using it to manipulate and control her actions. But maybe that wasn't it at all. Maybe love couldn't be killed along with the loved one. Maybe that was the real power of this love thing…why hadn't he seen it before? What if love couldn't die, couldn't be killed or destroyed or lifted like an enchantment? If that was true…
What have I done? Orion met her eyes again, those passionless steel eyes. I didn't just kill this planet, he realized numbly. I've killed her. He didn't understand why this thought distressed him so much. He was a murderer, after all. He'd killed countless millions of people in this war and never thought twice about it. But I didn't want to kill her. I didn't want this. He shook his head, dazedly. If love didn't die, and if she was destined to love that man he had destroyed, and if that man was never reborn, she would be alone forever. She would spend an eternity without love, without family. She would never love again. As this realization dawned, it was almost more than his spinning mind could bear. He fumbled for the Opal bracelet at his wrist. He needed to get out, to get away from those lifeless eyes before they tore him apart. Pressing the stone, he felt himself being whisked back through the Gate, back to his own universe. He still didn't know exactly what had happened today, but one thing was certain; nothing would ever be the same again.

**********

33 G.W.

"I could kill him," Lady Slipper offered calmly to the rest of the table. "It wouldn't take much. Just a little nightshade in his wine before bed and he'd never wake up."
"No." Sailor Libra shook his head, and the Constellations all turned to look at him. The garnet-haired soldier had a thoughtful expression. "Our humble citizens are too fond of Orion. If we assassinate him ourselves we risk losing their support."
"But the humble citizens," Draco hissed sarcastically, "don't have to fight beside him on a daily basis. He's become unstable, irrational, soft. The man's gone crazy, ever since that victory at Uranus five years ago. He used to be a genius, and now…" The reptilian Sailor Senshi shook his head in disgust. "Now all we get is 'Don't attack there, don't kill them, stop stealing that…' He's seriously cramping our style. We can't get anything done around here."
Sailor Scorpius nodded, bringing a meaty fist down on the table with such force that a large crack opened down the center of the thick oak. "He yelled a' me," the massive Constellation whined petulantly, sounding like a spoiled child. "I pulled da heads offa dose human baybies 'cause dey was makin' lotta noise an hurtin' my head, an da Prince, he yelled a' me." The big man sniffled, and Phoenix rolled his eyes.
"What's the matter, Scorpius? Did the Prince's pet actually get into trouble for once?" The Constellation of Fire grinned. "It's about time…he's been harping on the rest of us long enough. But I agree, we have got to do something. Orion's going to cost us the war, you know, with all these insane 'relocation' policies and rules. We're Negaverse soldiers. We kill. We steal. We rape. We destroy. We do NOT relocate survivors. We're not supposed to leave any survivors."
Taurus spoke up from the end of the table, with his hand on Delphinus' shoulder. "My brother and I have tried to talk to him. He won't give us the Soul Dissolver, and he refuses to use it himself. When we have a weapon like that, a weapon that could have ended this war years ago, what are we doing still fighting these pointless little skirmishes with the Sailor Planets? Orion has to go."
There was a chorus of nods and affirmation around the table, and Sailor Gemini finally rose to his feet, holding up his hands for silence. His handsome face, almost too pretty to be male, was set with determination. "I just wanted to make sure we are all in agreement as to what must be done," he said quietly. "Sailor Orion must die. He's become useless to us in this lifetime. The Avatar will simply have to father him again, so we can start over. Libra is right, however; we cannot allow it to look as if we've assassinated the Prince of Darkness or we may incite rebellion among our soldiers. So here's the plan…"

**********

The flaps of the tent lifted, and Sailor Mercury came in, running so fast that she nearly tripped over her own feet. She fell to one knee in front of the low table. "Your Majesty… Queen Serenity, we have him. We actually have him."
The white haired queen rose wearily to her feet, brushing strands of hair out of her eyes. There was a blood soaked bandage around her waist. She had been wounded by a stray lance in battle the previous day, but refused to leave the battlefield. Though her injury caused great pain, she forced herself to stand. For Sailor Mercury to be this excited it had to be important. "Who, Mercury?"
Before the blue-haired woman could reply, however, the tent flaps were torn aside, and Sailor Moon came charging in, tumbling in a heap on the floor in a most undignified fashion before leaping back up, and ignoring the scuffs to her knees and elbows. "Mother! Mother, it's the Prince! The Prince of the Negaverse himself. He's wounded and couldn't escape this time." The petite blond lurched forward, siezing her mother's shoulders and shaking her with excitement a few times before realizing what she was doing. Her cheeks blushed a little and she stepped back as the Queen regarded her reproachfully, one hand pressed to the aching wound in her side. "Ooops," Sailor Moon mumbled, and after taking a moment to gather herself she performed the proper curtsy. "I mean… Your Majesty, it is my pleasure to inform you that the Sailor Senshi have taken Sailor Orion captive and are awaiting your orders."
The queen gazed at her daughter for a moment with an inward smile. So full of life, the princess was, even if she wasn't always the most dignified and regal of young girls. There had been a time, she could recall, when she herself had not been much different. But she knew that it would not be much longer before it would be necessary for her daughter to give up her careless ways. The constant twinges of pain in her side spoke all too clearly to that effect; there wasn't much time left. She allowed a few more seconds of uncomfortable pause, just enough to make sure her daughter had been sufficiently chastised for her imprudent behavior, and then she allowed the smile to creep onto her face as she nodded. "I understand, Sailor Moon." She turned to Mercury. "Bring him to us." The soldier of air nodded and left the tent.
A moment later she returned, and this time Sailors Mars and Jupiter were right behind her. Jupiter had a large black-caped man slung over one shoulder like a sack of meal, and as she approached the queen she flung her burden to the ground with distaste. If they hadn't been in the queen's presence, she would have kicked the limp form a few times just for good measure. Sailor Mars moved to stand with pointed warning beside Sailor Moon, keeping one of her fiery arrows trained on the man on the ground just in case. She inclined her head respectfully to the queen, never taking her eyes off Orion, and spoke.
"Jupiter and I have been guarding him, Your Majesty. Sailor Venus is doing damage control among the troops so they don't form a mob and lynch him right out of our hands. Tuxedo Kamen's helping."
Queen Serenity nodded. "And Uranus?" she asked quietly. At the name, the man on the floor moved slightly. Mars shook her head.
"As soon as Neptune heard, she took Uranus back home. Hopefully we can get this taken care of before she finds out we've captured him." Mars' violet eyes were troubled. Uranus hadn't spoken a word in the last five years, not since the holocaust of her planet and family. Sailor Neptune had taken her in, bringing her to the palace on Neptune and doing everything she could to keep her comfortable. They had all tried to get Uranus to take some time off, or at the very least to rest quietly for a while, but it was as if the soldier of earth had lost all emotion. She appeared at every battle, slashed and attacked with her sword until every enemy within reach had been destroyed, and then retreated back to her room on Neptune again. Even Princess Serenity had been unable to get through to her. The only one Uranus responded to was Neptune, and even these responses were minimal. She lived in her own world now, a place no one else could reach. But if she discovered that Orion was here, in their power, who knew how she would react?
The queen sighed. Of all the terrible things she'd witnessed in the war, what happened to Uranus was by far the most difficult to deal with. She had tried so hard to help her friends, her Sailor Soldiers, to work through the anger and hate that was the natural reaction to such devastation. But from the way Jupiter was glaring at Orion's prostrate form, she knew they all still had a very long way to go before they'd be able to come to terms with it. "Very well," she said, and then for the first time spoke directly to Sailor Orion. "Are you going to tell us what happened?"
He lifted his head then, to reveal a bloody gash that ran from his forehead almost to his ear. "I was betrayed." He didn't sound too unhappy about it. In fact, the queen could have sworn she heard a sadness and weariness in his voice that matched her own. Could it be that this war was wearing on him as well? "The others have decided I am a liability. Sailor Gemini—you're familiar with him, I'm sure—used his little duplication trick, and 'accidentally' caught me in the crossfire." Queen Serenity nodded. She'd seen Gemini fight, and was well aware of the Constellation's ability to duplicate his own body so that he could attack from two places at once. Sailor Orion took a deep breath that was more like a sigh. "They arranged to wound me, then left me here. They knew you Planets would finish me off." He shrugged. "If you don't mind, I'd like to get it over with as soon as possible. Unless you have some sort of public celebration planned for the execution."
"We don't perform public executions of war criminals," Sailor Jupiter spat. "That's a Negaverse custom, and it's disgusting."
To everyone's surprise, the Sailor Constellation nodded. "Yes, it is." He surprised them even more by adding, "You don't have to bother torturing me for information, though I doubt you Posiverse soldiers hold that custom, either. I'll tell you anything you want to know."
"You would betray your friends and family?" Sailor Mars' eyes widened.
"I have no friends. I have no family." He turned to look at her with coal black eyes that seemed to have no bottom to them. "There are no such things where I come from."
"You're a coward and a traitor as well as a murderer," Sailor Jupiter snapped. She looked up at Queen Serenity, green eyes burning. "Your Majesty, let me do the execution, right now."
The queen did not meet her eyes, but continued to gaze down at Orion with an inscrutable expression. "I wish to speak with Orion alone," she said quietly, and the other Senshi exchanged glances.
"Your majesty, we can't leave you alone with him. He'll kill you," Sailor Mercury protested.
"No. He won't." She closed her eyes for a moment. "Leave."
When Serenity used that tone of voice, they all knew better than to press further. But as Sailor Moon moved to follow her friends, the queen called her back. "Sailor Moon. You stay." Obediently the girl returned to her mother's side, looking down at Orion. The queen knelt down on the ground, careful of the wound in her side, and settled herself on her knees so that she could look Orion directly in the eye. "I do have one question I've wanted to ask for five years," she began softly. "Why did you destroy Uranus?"
He blinked at the injured queen. "You don't know how lucky you people are," he answered, his deep, cruel voice sounding not quite so cruel at the moment. "You have this connection to each other that's so strong. None of you are alone. You don't know what it means to be alone." He shook his head. "In my world everyone is alone. No one cares. No one feels. No one loves. I just…I wanted to know what love is." He rubbed his temples wearily. "But I didn't understand. I still don't. I don't know what went wrong."
Sailor Moon's mouth dropped open. "You're saying you killed all those people because you were looking for love?" She shook her head. "But that's…that's… It's crazy."
He shrugged. "I'm supposed to be the Prince of Darkness, ruler of the Negaverse. I'm not supposed to need love. But…I do. I need it, and I don't even know what it is." He turned back to the queen. "I can't even feel sorry for what I've done. I feel…unsettled, lonely, but not sorry. Regret doesn't exist for me, either." He looked down at the Opal on his wrist. "That's why I'm going to give you this." He pressed the black stone, and with a soft rush of air a large weapon materialized in his hand, looking like a small cannon with a container of red liquid attached to one end. "It's the Soul Dissolver. The weapon I created to destroy eternal souls. Use it on me."
Sailor Moon stared at him in shock. "You want us to dissolve your soul?"
"Yes." Orion met her eyes with a humorless grin. "I'm dead already. Without being able to feel, I can't really live. I'm a walking corpse, out of control, don't you see? Every day I become weaker, less and less alive. I cause suffering, and I can't even enjoy it anymore. If you don't dissolve my soul I'll just be reborn to go through it all again. I don't belong in the Negaverse, and I certainly don't belong here."
The queen smiled at him then, a genuine, warm smile that was tinged with wonder. "Sailor Orion, there's nothing wrong with you. There's something right with you. That's the problem." She tilted her head to the side. "You know the story of the Great Division. The way the ten soldiers of the Blend were split into separate beings, positive and negative. And you are the negative half of my daughter." Sailor Moon's eyebrows shot up, and the queen's smile widened. "Orion, I understand now. The soldier with the powers of Soul was the most powerful and pure of all. And during the Great Division there wasn't enough negative energy to make a whole Negaverse soldier. You must have taken some of Sailor Moon's positive energy with you, and that's what creates these longings for emotion and love." She took the Soul Dissolver from his hand, setting it on the ground, and held his hands in her own. "There's a part of you that remembers love, Orion. There's a part of you that knows it exists, and it's that same part of you that craves love in order to survive. When you began spending time in the Posiverse, this positive energy was awakened."
Sailor Moon looked back and forth from one to the other in amazement, digesting this. Then she made a fist. "That settles it, then. We can't kill you." She turned to her mother. "We have to help him."
Orion snarled and pulled his hands away. "If you want to help, pick up the gun and shoot me, before I change my mind. It's the only thing you can do. Posiforce or not, I'm a soldier of the Negaverse."
"I refuse to believe that," Sailor Moon retorted. "There's always a better way. If there's even just a tiny bit of good in you, it's never hopeless." She looked at the queen. "Mother—give me the Crystal."
Queen Serenity's eyes widened. "Sailor Moon, don't be ridiculous. The Imperium Silver Crystal has great power, but not enough to purify a being with this kind of negative power. It would never work."
"You always told me I was the first. The first to hold the Crystal. That I could control it even better than you can."
"But your powers are not developed enough yet. If you try to release the full power of the Crystal now, it will destroy you." Queen Serenity shook her head. "I can try it myself."
"No, you can't. You don't believe it will work, and if you don't believe, it won't." Sailor Moon met her mother's eyes evenly. "I know I can do this, Mother. Please."
The queen shook her head. "Even if it did work, you have no way of knowing what it would do to him. How it might change him. It might be painful. It might even kill him, or transform him into some mindless monster. Such a thing has never been done." Her gaze fell on the Soul Dissolver. "Orion may be right. We may not have a choice. And--" she turned to look at Orion. "As much as I hate to say this, I don't believe this man is worth losing your life for. He doesn't deserve it, Sailor Moon."
"Maybe not. But it doesn't matter." Crystal blue eyes sparkled with tears. "Try to imagine, Mother, just for a moment, what it would be like to go through life always alone. Never having a single friend, or feeling connected to anyone, ever. Never loving anyone or being loved. It wouldn't be so bad if you didn't know or care. But what if you did know? That something was missing. You even knew what it was, but you were incapable of feeling it. Imagine what kind of living hell that would be." She clenched her fists. "If there's a chance that he might find what he's been looking for, I have to help him." Queen Serenity was still shaking her head weakly, and Sailor Moon frowned. "If you won't give me the Crystal, Mother, I'll summon it myself." Serenity's eyes widened as her daughter, with a determined set of her jaw, closed her eyes. Orion watched curiously as the Sailor leader concentrated, her delicate hands fluttering up to clasp at her heart in a position of prayer.
For several moments it seemed as if all three had been frozen, without breathing. Then, with a soft humming sound and a brilliant flash of silvery light, the Imperium Silver Crystal shimmered into being within Sailor Moon's hands, transforming her from Sailor soldier into Moon Princess in the blink of an eye. The light was so bright that Orion had to shut his eyes, but even from behind closed eyelids he could still feel the gentle, achingly beautiful waves of energy that suddenly swept through the tent until it seemed he could bear it no more. He was being split in two, the darkness in himself screaming in agony in the presence of such light, while another part of him, a brighter part, was gaining strength with each moment and helping the light to clear the darkness away.
It hurt, so much. Orion had never imagined that such pain could exist. He thought he was dying, that this must be what it had felt like to all those people when he destroyed their planet with fire. His body was changing, getting smaller and larger and losing shape, then gaining it again in the strangest of places. He was losing himself. He could feel the light carving into him, dissolving everything that was not light. He wasn't anyone. Orion was a thing, a being without identity or allegiance or emotion, simply one mass of living, breathing pain. It was simply a constellation of stars, a melody, a symbol without a name.
Orion could feel purity pouring in and around and through every molecule, coming from someone else. Someone who was purity. They were one and the same, from the same place, with the same soul. They were complete, together, and they made a balanced whole. The darkness of Orion, the brilliance of the Moon, the souls of dark and light together as they were always meant to be. And it was then that Orion knew love. It was a love so powerful, so alive, so much more exquisite than the wildest of imaginings, and it was in Orion's hands. It belonged to both of them; she had shared her love and it was something that could finally be embraced and understood and remembered, and with the love the pain changed. Suddenly the memories of death and fire were brought into focus, and Orion understood why they hurt so much. They were wrong, plain and simple. It had been wrong to kill all those people. It had been wrong to try and force Uranus' love. It had been wrong, and Orion felt overwhelming sorrow.
What a beautiful, terrible thing this love was. How it hurt! How it overjoyed! Orion was a new being, with this love. No longer a Prince of Darkness, or a prince of anything. What Orion was now, was the opposite of everything that had been. No longer dark, but light. No longer man, but woman. No longer alone, but loved…loved by the one person in the universe whom she had sworn to hate. Orion knew herself. She was completely different, and yet would always be the same. Her soul had been transformed, but it was still hers.
When she opened her eyes she could not see; tears poured down her cheeks faster than she could blink them away. What a monster she was. She was alive, more alive than she had ever been, and she was herself in a way that she had never been before. The Moon Princess stood before her, looking up at her, holding her hands so tightly that it seemed as if they were still joined as one being, one consciousness. Orion could feel the separation, ever so gradually, as their souls were drawn apart, back into their separate minds. Part of her grieved at the separation, and she held more tightly to the Princess' hands wishing that it didn't have to end.
When it did end, however, Sailor Orion was finally aware of herself. Of what she had become. Gone was the black hair, the black eyes, the massive muscles and long dark cape. Gone was the coldness, the hardness, the cruelty. She was a woman now, with a woman's heart and a woman's body. Her clothing, still black and peach, had been redesigned to suit the Sailor fuku worn by the female Sailor Planets. Her hair was silver. Her eyes were silver. She felt new, and alive, and in love, and the feelings overwhelmed her senses until she lost them. With a cry halfway between a laugh and a sob, she fell to her knees before the small Princess and allowed her newfound heart to break.