Well I'm back again and when I checked I found more reviews than I'd ever gotten for so little before. Wow and thank you and please keep it up. Good and bad feedback is welcome. Anyway here's the next part (there will be eight in all) and I hope you all enjoy.
Draegyn
The Choices we make: part three
It was over a thousand years between the day I gave my daughter to Starseeker and the day I saw her once more. A thousand years. A lifetime for my people and more than ten for those of Earth. In that time she grew from the precious little bundle of joy I had known to a treasured and beautiful lady of light. So many lives had she saved in her time. So many worlds there are that call her saviour. She was a light in the darkness and would have been either way I chose on that day so long ago.
I chose her future as honour and duty bade me. I set her upon a Hellish path of responsibility and yet she thrived. Whether she will ever admit it or no, she was born with destiny and fate as midwives. It did not surprise me, I who loved her sire, that she was Cosmos and it did not surprise me that she of all the Senshi, Greater or Lesser, was the one whom Chaos feared. It, a being that was entropy personified, feared her.
My sisters of the Greater Kindred had not exaggerated when they told me of the threat that was to come. In time, when I came to fully understand the truth of their words, some of my guilt for my precious Serenity's absence faded. When my child was barely grown and still coming into her full strength as Senshi the universe spawned forth a primal force that should never have been concentrated into a single being. When I learned of this I knew then that my daughter would have been ensnared by the Senshi's war whether or not she had gone with Starseeker. Chaos would have been drawn to her, as happened in truth, and she would have had to fight it.
She had no choice in this. She never would. She was her sire's daughter, and mine. She was the Senshi of life.
She was Cosmos.
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Cosmos released the threads of power she had commanded and opened her senses to the real world once more. Three Starlight Senshi watched her patiently. She smiled at them in quiet satisfaction, the damage that Chaos had wrought had been undone and she was now free to pursue it once more. Perhaps this time she might find it before it discovered another world with which to hide on and behind.
"It is done," she assured her sister Senshi. "I am free to take up the chase yet again." She straightened and stretched to banish the stiffness her slender limbs. Starfighter extended her hand and Cosmos accepted the raven-haired Senshi's help gratefully. She had been still for far too long. "Have you any news?" she inquired as she worked her uncooperative body. A thousand years ago she could have spent a year spell-working with no adverse affects and now a mere month caused her body to rebel. Perhaps she was growing old… or perhaps it was the eternal hunt that wore at her. Soon, she promised herself, soon she would have her friend back and Chaos would be no more than a bitter memory. Soon.
She realised that her companion Senshi were regarding her in silence. Her sapphire eyes fixed on the auburn-haired Sailor Starmaker. "Maker? What have you not told me?"
"We have found were Chaos has fled Serenity."
Her stomach knotted. Never did her friends call her by her birth name unless there was something very wrong. "What?" she demanded softly.
Starmaker looked away and Starhealer's light green eyes followed as their owner whispered reluctantly. "It is as we feared; Chaos and those it has enslaved have already found another inhabited planet."
"It is the world which your mother's moon orbits," Starfighter finished.
Cosmos accepted the news with as much calm as she could summon. Her mother… Queen Serenity of the White Moon. She had always wished to meet the woman who had borne her and had known that one day she would no doubt have that wish granted. At the very least the double destiny her teachers Starseeker and Starteacher had prepared her for would have led her back to the Moon but the Senshi Wars had made that impossible… until now. She considered the information as rationally as possible, her exhaustive training as a child making that far easier than it might otherwise have been.
Chaos had gone to Earth and taken those Senshi it still controlled with it… Galaxia… By this time it, in all probability, had reached the distant world and if it had not it soon would. She would not be able to challenge it when it left the depths of space and that once more left her at the disadvantage. She could not risk becoming embroiled in full battle with Chaos on the surface of an inhabited world, especially not when it was possessed of Galaxia's abilities as it was now. Cosmos had no doubt she would survive and indeed win but the fate of any such world was less certain.
"So we do this as per normal?" Starhealer asked her. "The three of us go in, stop whatever Chaos is getting up to and lure it off planet for you to deal with?"
"Only this time we do it before it can set entropy in motion," Starmaker added blandly, "It rather defeats the purpose to get it within your reach only for you to be forced to let it go while you rush to undo whatever disaster it has set in motion."
"Maybeso," Cosmos agreed thoughtfully, "Then again, maybeno." She looked at her companions carefully. "You are still determined to accompany me? You will not return to Kinmoku and Kakyuu?"
"We will see this through to the end Cosmos," Starfighter swore seriously. "Our people and our princess understood that when we left our home with you. After what you have done for us they will expect no less."
Cosmos nodded and pulled away from Starfighter. Absently she retrieved her staff and flipped one of her long streamers of silver hair over her shoulder to fall amongst the folds her cloak. She stepped back from the three Senshi so that she could examine them all together and then, abruptly, she gave them one of her brilliant smiles, the kind she knew they found to be as intoxicating as any alcohol.
"It has just occurred to me that Chaos may have outsmarted itself this time." She knew she sounded impish but she could not help herself.
"Oh?" Starhealer responded archly, some of Cosmos' levity having spread to her.
Cosmos nodded cheerfully. "When I was still in training, during those times that Starteacher was not running me ragged, Starseeker would often take me aside and tell me of my people and our history." It was not essential for those of the Greater Kindred to know such things of remote civilisations but Starseeker had been there when queen Serenity had placed a second roll upon her daughter's shoulders. What was not necessary for Sailor Cosmos to know would be for Sailor Moon.
"Queen Serenity… my mother is possessed of a powerful gem, a crystal called the Ginzuishou to be exact. Have you heard of it?"
Starmaker inhaled sharply. "Are you thinking what I think you are?"
"If you mean that I thinking that perhaps my mother will accomplish what I can not and prevent Chaos from holding an entire planet hostage then you are right." Cosmos felt the many-pointed star on her forehead blaze white-hot in her growing anticipation. "I am wondering if my royal mother might not be able to hold Chaos in space until we arrive. I am wondering if the Ginzuishou might enable Galaxia to slip from Chaos' power. There are many possibilities but I am sure of several things. First is that my mother had and still has the potential to be a Stellar Senshi, her help will undoubtedly be of great use to us. Second is that there are eight of the Lesser Kindred who serve in my mother's court. Eight Soldiers who could be very great allies to us… or very great enemies should Chaos corrupt them."
"Is there a third?" Starfighter asked quietly.
Cosmos nodded and felt her companions flinch as her insignia became blinding. "Third is that I am tired of holding back. I am tired of avoiding confrontation with Chaos for fear of destroying the very worlds I am supposed to protect. I want this ended," she finished grimly.
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Aino Minako and Kino Makoto sat together, sipping their tea in open air and unobtrusively watching three men who sat a few tables away. Of the three, each radiated power and danger but only the one with the short dark hair gave the sensation of bleak desolation. He was the true danger, his name was Chiba Mamoru and he was the current incarnation of the Senshi's nemesis Endymion.
"What do you think?" Minako, Senshi of Venus, asked her sister. "Is he up to something?"
The disguised Jupiter snorted softly. "You mean aside from trying to drive us crazy? Odds are yep."
"So far he's tried to resurrect the Dark Kingdom twice this time round and he helped those aliens a while back as well. He's twenty-two!" she exclaimed and then lowered her voice when the silver-haired man with Mamoru looked over at them. "It's like his heart isn't in it any more…" she paused and then looked at her friend hopefully. "You don't suppose he's getting tired of the whole evil bit? It's been how many lifetimes now? Twenty? Thirty? Maybe he's finally decided that there's no point to stirring trouble the way he does."
"He's probably just thinking up better and more original ways to cause trouble," Makoto sighed. "You know Endymion, if it's worth doing it's worth doing well. You should know that by now… especially after the World War II incident. Great Serenity, he enjoyed being Hitler Mina-chan. Because of him the entirety of Eastern Europe was almost completely depopulated. He has proved long since that there's no atrocity he's not capable of and no lengths to which he won't go to accomplish the goals he sets for himself."
Minako slumped and rubbed the old scar on her cheek wearily. "I always thought that his vanity would help limit him you know. When he masqueraded as Rudolph Hitler he totally blew that notion out of the water… I still recall the day we found him surrounded by corpses. Do you remember? He had even piled several to use as a chair, and then he looked up at me with that stupid little moustache and he was smiling!"
"We've been through it before Minako, we can't judge him like other people. He's too different."
"He's crazy, that's what his is. Psychopath, sociopath, psychotic, you name he is it. He's completely insane."
"Define sane."
Both Senshi stiffened at the sound of the deep voice. Minako looked up at the three men who had approached them unnoticed. "It's what you're not, now go away. We may have to watch you but we don't have to associate with you."
"Why Venus, you're going to hurt my feelings if you keep talking like that." Mamoru's voice was calm and friendly as was his smile but deep within his indigo eyes Minako swore she could see the evil truth of what appeared to be an ordinary young man. It did not help her that for the first time in several lifetimes he had chosen a form that greatly resembled his original appearance. Or that Kunzite and Jadeite stood beside him, looking like almost exact replicas of themselves in the past. Tatsuo Kai and Saori Jin they were in this lifetime.
"What do you want?" Makoto snapped wearily and knocked the blonde general's hand aside before it could rest on her shoulder.
"Jupiter-sama, is that any way to act with an old friend?" Jin asked snidely but he did not dare to touch her again.
The Senshi stared to eyes as green as her own and bared her teeth it what could not even charitably be called a smile. "Saori-san if you do not leave me alone I will take great pleasure in breaking you nose. Have a nice day."
"You would deny these gentlemen and myself the joy of your company? For shame!" Mamoru pouted slightly. Some women would have swooned. Minako thought he looked foolish. Behind her she could feel Kai smile and she knew that he was aware of her opinion. Mamoru, in all likelihood, was as well but he was impossible for her to read. "What about you my lovely Venus?" he continued. Minako could have ignored both his persistent use of her title and his presence had he not had the temerity to cup her chin in his fingers and force her to look at him. "Well Mina-chan?"
Minako wrenched away from his touch and both she and Makoto lurched to their feet. "Don't ever touch me," she hissed.
He held up his hands as if to placate her but his smile was singularly insulting. "Now my dear Mina-chan…"
"Listen to me Chiba-san," she growled at him, "You revolt me and I cannot wait for the moment I can extinguish your wretched life yet again. You are the most evil and repulsive bastard to ever walk this planet."
"And what's your basis for comparison?"
"Just give me an excuse Chiba, all I need is one."
Minako never heard his response for even as his mouth opened to give it, her universe turned upside down. She stumbled backwards and a pair of strong hands steadied her while emotionless indigo eyes stared at her coolly. She could not have cared less that she was in the arms of one enemy while an even more dangerous opponent assessed her. The Power that she felt arriving on Earth was of far greater import to her.
It felt like an eternity before her world finally returned to a semblance of normality but it was probably only a few seconds. She looked to Makoto and found her leaning on her abandoned chair with a pale face.
"Did you feel that Mako-chan? Senshi!"
"One of the Greater Kindred," Makoto confirmed, "It had to be, it was so strong!"
"Do you think…?" Minako couldn't finish the question but her fellow Senshi knew what she meant. What Lunarian would not? The return of their princess was much anticipated and eagerly awaited.
Makoto frowned. "But it felt different… wrong somehow."
Minako nodded, understanding instantly. They should not have been so overcome by even the power of the greatest Celestial Warrior.
"It's unpredictable," Mamoru commented.
Minako finally noticed her position and quickly wrenched herself from Kai's arms. She turned on Mamoru once more. "What are you talking about?"
He raised an eyebrow, an eloquent and infuriating mannerism that Minako had often dreamed of destroying with a razor… a blunt one. "Your guest," he drawled as if it were obvious. "She is rather unpredictable, if it is a she of course. I would not be too certain of that."
"Senshi are always female," Makoto stated.
His expression did not change. "Whatever. I don't give a damn." He didn't, but then he never did. Not in any lifetime. He smiled and she blinked when she identified something that was almost yearning in it. "There's more here than you think… but then why am I telling you this?" His smile became a smirk as he taunted her, "You're an almighty Senshi. You don't need a mere human to tell you something that you must already know!" The smirk grew perfectly malicious and his persona of a solemn young man fell away to reveal the demon-like truth. "You are going to have an interesting few days I should think pretty Venus. It should be very interesting." With that he walked away, Kai and Jin at his side.
"I hate him," Minako said passionately.
"He was right though," Makoto added honestly, "Everything he said just then rang of the truth."
Minako didn't stop scowling. "I still hate him and he's still crazy."
Makoto's eyes became distant. "I wonder…"
"What?" the blonde questioned, "If he's crazy? Of course he is. Why else would he be the way he is?"
"Sometimes I think that maybe he's like that because he's sane, frighteningly sane. I wonder if the way he behaves is pretence and he acts the way he thinks a crazy person would act to keep us on the wrong track. Sometimes I even wonder if he's thrown himself so thoroughly into the roll because he doesn't want to be himself and then I wonder, what's so bad about being in his head that he prefers to pretend to be in someone else's? Does that make sense?"
Minako thought about it for a moment, forcing her brain to follow the torturous logic. She winced. "Sort of but thinking about it too much hurts Mako. It's been a thousand years and I don't want to understand him. I just want to stop him."
Makoto's emerald eyes were sober and strangely sad when she replied, "To stop him we're going to have to understand him."
Mina shook her head. "I don't want to go into his head… I'm afraid of what I'll be like when I get out again." She looked away and then blinked. "Uranus and Neptune just got here. We should go."
"Pluto and Saturn are with them," Makoto added.
Minako's sky blue eyes darkened with worry as she felt what her friend did. Together they began to walk in the direction they could feel their fellow Senshi gathering. "He was right," she admitted heavily, "But I still hate him and I still think he's crazy."
Makoto was silent for a moment and then she murmured, so quietly that Minako almost didn't catch the words, "I hope he is… for his sake I really do."
Neither said a further word.
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She was a petite young woman with an inky-black shock of hair and intelligent blue eyes. Her name was Mizuno Ami and she ran into the alley dressed in a neat pants suit with a white doctor's coat over the top. She left the alley several inches taller with dark blue hair and dressed in something that very much resembled a present day Terran sailor suit, only with a much shorter skirt and far more useful accessories. Her name was Sailor Mercury, Senshi of ice.
She pelted through the streets of Tokyo with a speed that left bystanders gaping and as soon as she could she took to the rooftops, the highways that she and her sister Senshi used. Below her people once more returned their attention to everyday things. The Sailor Senshi had become, if not a common sight, at least a harmless one. No Terran living, bar a certain five, remembered the truth of the Senshi. They were called superheroes now. She smiled at the thought.
Moments later another ran at her side, long raven locks trailing like a flag behind her. Without a word Mercury welcomed Mars and together they ran on. The incredible but dreadful power drew them like moths to a flame. Duty compelled them yo go while self-preservation warned them to flee. Duty won.
In the middle of Tokyo lay an expanse of parkland. On such a bright summer's day it was filled with families and children, hundreds of defenceless humans. It was there the power led them. Mercury perched on the edge of a building that overlooked the green area and stared out at the crowd. Somewhere in there was something that was not human, she could feel it, and it would not be long before all those innocents learned of it as well.
A brief mental command and her visor materialised from her tiara. Through the blue crystallised window she searched the park, her computer's readings superimposed over her vision.
"Can you find her?" Mars' asked calmly.
Mercury frowned. She could find nothing that registered on her computer anything like the way the mysterious power had set her own senses off. "No," she replied as she swept another sector of the park. I can't… wait!" She adjusted her visor's magnification and focused on a single figure in the crowd. In front of her left eye a transparent image of the stranger in question formed and readings began to scroll down her visor as she examined it. After a moment she gasped. "She's Senshi!"
Mars glance at her sharply. "Who?" she demanded harshly.
Mercury pointed. "There in black. Weird boots, fishnet stockings, revealing dress, gloves up to her shoulders, feline head-like hat and tail."
Mars searched and after a moment found her. "Your basic Senshi uniform done in black leather to a cat theme," she agreed. "I can feel the bad vibes even from here."
"She's a metal Senshi," a cool voice said from behind them. Four more Senshi stepped up beside Mars and Mercury. Pluto stared out at the park in the direction of the one she had described as a Metal Senshi and her ruby eyes were hard. "I do not know who she is but she should not be here."
"How'd she get past us though?" Uranus started to ask and then she looked hard at the smaller Saturn. "You…"
Saturn's face was unreadable. "Yes, I distracted you at the critical moment. Neither you nor Neptune would have survived an encounter with the power that one travelled beside, had you met them alone. Pluto and I deemed it best that you should meet them here with our sisters by your side."
"I don't like it…"
"Of course you don't Uranus, none of us like it when someone suggests we need help. I'd deck anyone who'd even think that I couldn't handle my job but that doesn't change the fact that sometimes we all need help."
The last two of the Senshi sworn to the Moon Kingdom arrived and Jupiter nodded in wry greeting to her friends. Venus copied her absently, her pretty face twisted into a scowl.
"He's still watching us," she muttered darkly.
"Who?" Neptune asked with a slight frown but they all could see that she had a fairly good idea already. There was only one man that Venus loathed so passionately.
"The Prince, who else?" Jupiter sighed then snorted. "Come on Venus. He said himself that this was going to be interesting. He's probably out there somewhere and thinking of this as entertainment put on for his benefit."
"Whoever she is she's a Senshi right? One of our sisters? Why should it interest him?" Venus persisted mulishly. Mercury looked at her commander and blinked.
Neptune said with unaccustomed venom, "It would amuse Endymion to no extent to watch Senshi battle each other."
"Is it inevitable?" Mars asked Pluto. The Senshi of time nodded and her fingers beat a small tattoo on the polished wood of her staff.
Mercury flicked off her visor. "She's a Metal Senshi but she's stronger than you think," she warned, "A lot stronger."
Venus muttered something unmentionable under her breath and Jupiter gave the rest of them with another of her dry smiles. "She was hoping that she could prove the prince wrong…" the brunette started to explain only to be interrupted by the blonde.
"Prove him wrong? Oh no, more than that. I want to rub his nose in it. I want him to drown in the evidence of his mortal fallibility and one day I will. You just wait and see."
"When there's time you will have to explain exactly what he said but until then get over it Venus," Mars snapped and turned her vivid eyes back to the distant Senshi. "Whatever she's up to is about to begin."
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The golden light faded and silver and black resolved into the barren landscape of the moon under an endless night sky. Starfighter turned in time to see Cosmos lower her staff and look at the world of her birth for the first time in her memory. Dark blue eyes narrowed in concern as her Sister's face paled at the unexpected emptiness of the White Moon. Starfighter allowed her own eyes to roam for the merest instant and she too was taken aback at the complete devastation that must have taken place to so completely and irrevocably erase the traces of an entire civilisation. When her eyes once more returned to her silver-haired friend she felt a pang of sorrow.
Whatever homecoming the beautiful Senshi had hoped for would not be found here. Even if by some miraculous turn of fate the Lunarian nation still existed, Cosmos no longer belonged here. She had become a being that surpassed the stars and if the Moon's pale landscape enhanced her beauty, in some intangible way it also shied away from her. It was as if the Moon itself was in awe of her. Starfighter dismissed her musings with an abrupt shake of her head.
"It's so empty," Starhealer whispered, "What happened here? Where's everyone that's supposed to be here?"
In the same breath Starmaker asked softly, "What happened here?"
Wings of gold shimmered and disappeared to be replaced by a golden cloak that draped elegantly about its wearer. Gracefully Cosmos stooped and laid her free hand against the dusty, rock-littered ground. Her inimitable sapphire eyes drifted shut and Starfighter held her breath. A part of her hoped that there would be something for the Senshi of life to find but another, wiser, part of her hoped that the search would be fruitless. She could not help but think that in the long run it would be less painful for her sister if nothing on the Moon remained that would attempt to bind her here. All such efforts would fail but that would not prevent Cosmos from being hurt.
Abruptly the woman in question rose to her feet and strode off between the jagged rocks that decorated the landscaped. Starfighter exchanged a concerned glance with her fellow Starlights and then the three hurried after their commander.
"Serenity?" Starfighter called out. The slender figure stopped and turned back. Her heart-shaped face was almost dreamy and her eyes distant.
"Yes?"
"You know that Chaos has already reached Earth?" Starfighter hoped that her friend would free herself from whatever reverie held her. She could feel something stirring beneath the surface of this ancient moon. It was coming and, more and more, the Starlight wished to take Cosmos away from it.
"I know." In the same distant voice the silver-haired woman murmured. For a moment she began to sway to some hidden melody. Her two pigtails twined sinuously around her body, the crescent clips against her heart shaped buns glimmered with hidden secrets. For an instant the eight-pointed star that adorned her brow seemed to blink like a great golden eye leaving an impression of a softly shining crescent. Her arms lifted and her cloak flared and shimmered into her elegant wings. Wings and arms outstretched, her mind lost in that concealed song, she allowed her power to rise and guide her.
Her unseeing eyes closed and she walked unerringly backwards. Hesitantly the three Starlights followed her. They had known and travelled with her for nearly ten years, leaving her side only rarely in that decade they had been her companions and never had they seen her like this. Even in the grip of the full strength of her magic, never had she been so distracted in the past. It bewildered them and frightened them also. A part of Starfighter's mind involuntarily went to Chaos but whatever strangeness that had locked the primal force and the universe's greatest guardian into an unbreakable cycle of predator and prey did not cause this. No it was some other power mesmerising Cosmos.
It took only a moment for the Starlight to ascertain that the power was not from the Moon either. A short time ago that would have made her feel better. Why did it not now?
Gold power wrapped around their limbs and the silver-grey landscape seemed to merge with the power that compelled them forward. Cosmos spurred them onwards to her mysterious goal. Time flowed and stopped in fits and starts. Distance became nothing and helplessly they could do naught but follow in their companion's footsteps. A light began to build somewhere. It was not yet visible but in each of the Senshi's hearts they could feel it grow. It was not power that called them, although the light echoed with it. There was just that light and Cosmos' need.
Starfighter's apprehension grew and so did the sense of fate. What she would have preferred no longer mattered. Events had now been set in motion, mostly like had been the moment Cosmos had first touched the soil of her birth world, and they would run their course. There was no more she could do for the woman who had saved her people aside from standing with her through the trials that would come.
No sooner had the raven-haired Senshi surrender to Cosmos' magic then the spells that bound them all vanished. The Starlights were released by the gentle compulsion that Cosmos had cast upon them. The universe was released from whatever magic had twisted it so they had travelled half the breadth of the Moon unknowing. And Cosmos, glorious Cosmos, opened her sapphire eyes and smiled joyfully with newfound understanding.
"You must go. Tin Nyanko even now draws the Senshi from Queen Serenity's court into Chaos' grasp. They are unaware of the danger either poses to the Earth or their souls. They will need your help."
Starfighter opened her mouth to say something, anything, when the tall column of rock behind the older Senshi caught her eye. There was something about that but what…? She narrowed her eyes and stepped past Cosmos. Another, smaller, rock formation came into sight and a spark of ruby light blinked inside it. Curiously she reached towards it but another hand intercepted her and its partner laid across the rock possessively.
"No." No explanation was offered but Starfighter felt no inclination to protest. Not when she saw the hand that lay on the rock begin to bleed.
Starhealer stepped forward. "Serenity?"
Rose coloured lips curved into a smile. The hand moved from the rock, a trail of golden sparks trailing in its wake, and it was displayed palm up. Each Starlight looked at the perfectly healthy skin. None spoke. Slowly, silently, Starfighter took the hand holding her wrist and turned it over. She had not been mistaken. There it was, identical to the mark that now traced her second hand; a silver crescent-shaped scar.
"Go," Cosmos told her. Confidence and anticipation seemed to flow from her.
Starfighter hesitated a moment but her sisters did not. Starmaker nodded. "I will not be surprised to see you there Serenity."
Her smile grew a little. "Cosmos cannot risk conflict on an inhabited world."
Starmaker's own lips twitched into a knowing smile. "As I said Serenity, I will not be surprised."
Starhealer nodded, the beginnings of understanding in her pale green eyes, and Starfighter found herself being led away by her fellow Starlights. She did not fight but nor did she leave without another glance back at the solitary Senshi. In the single instant that her dark blue eyes lit upon the other Warrior the fey Senshi once more touched the slender pillar of rock. At her touch the rock dissolved and a sword was revealed embedded in the rock, Sailor Cosmos' hand on the hilt.
Starfighter nodded to herself, finally understanding. Her sisters had already become two balls of sparkling light and they shot towards the planet that even then was beginning to rise over the jagged horizon. As her own power engulfed her in light she caught a final glimpse of her precious friend. Her silver haired danced in a breeze that did not exist and her beautiful face was composed as she waited. For what Starfighter was not sure but already it came. Silver power rose from the Moon's centre in answer to a summons that had waited a thousand years to be made. Then all she knew was music and magic and light and, in the end, Earth.
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And that was how I found her, her crystal blade cradled within her arms. She turned to me and once more I looked into those utterly unfathomable sapphire eyes and I knew then that she was beyond me. She had grown past me, in those lost centuries, and I no longer understood the being that stood before me. In those endless depths I found love and I gave it freely but it was not a mother's love I gave. I looked upon her for the first time in a millennium and I could see myself in her visage yet there was nothing of me in her. I did not know her. She did not know me.Mother and daughter. Queen and princess. Crystal bearer and Senshi. We were all of those.
We were strangers.
What we might have been to each other had forever been lost and it would never be recovered. She felt no more for me than any of her sister Senshi. I could see this and I saw that it hurt her. It was if she were seeking a piece of herself in me and did not find it. As for the piece of myself that was in her, it had changed beyond recognition and it was foreign to me.
My choice ensured that she was prepared. The Greater Kindred trained her and her partner was no less than Sailor Galaxia herself. I lost that millennium with her, true, but was it a millennium I would have had otherwise? Perhaps if she had stayed within my realm Earth would not have attacked and she and Endymion would have sealed our two nations in peace. Or perhaps the Dark Kingdom would have assailed me and mine decades earlier and delivered death to us all. Who am I to know what might have been?
I lost her, yes, yet I can say this with utter certainty; because of my choice it was my daughter who was the hunter and Chaos that was the prey. Is that worth what might have been?
Perhaps but, as I have said before, who am I to judge?