Hello all! Sorry I have a ton to say but I am running out the door to work so I will add more with the next chapter! Hope you all enjoy this and to those who emailed me, no the mysterious figure isn't Queen Serenity! SM not mine, standard disclaimers. NO FLAMES! Read and review but be kind! Hope you enjoy!
Rubeus closed his eye in fury and anger, unable to find where Usagi had vanished to, wondering who's power had intervened to take her from him. Without being able to enter her mind and cause her pain, his weakness returned tenfold. "Come my minions, rise for your master, let your evil shine!" he intoned. "Find her now!" he ordered. "I will not be returned to oblivion again – she is the key, she is the gatekeeper, she is holding all I need. Find her and bring her to me! The last Lunarian will be mine!"
The minions cowered and grovelled, praying he wouldn't turn his considerable temper on them, hoping he wouldn't attack them. His life was on the line, his existence in the balance, he needed to feed off her until he regained his body – everything depended on it.
Usagi blinked as a soft silver and white light greeted her. "So at last you are awake." The voice greeted her.
Usagi shook her head. It was impossible; she hadn't heard that voice… "It can't be." She said aloud.
The light parted on the figure, who smiled slightly. Orange-red hair cascading to the ground, a yellow sheath dress that covered her body, a figure who had managed to see Usagi's light and hang on, waiting for her to save her. Usagi had glanced at her and seen this figure inside, not the nightmare she had become, the ability to read souls her greatest gift. "Galaxia." She murmured.
Galaxia smiled as she walked over to Usagi, clad in a simple white sheath herself and embraced her tightly. "It had been a long time Hope."
"Hope?" Usagi glanced at her as she returned the hug, happy to see that Galaxia had become a good person once more.
"You are the light of Hope, you are the Messiah, and your name throughout the galaxy gives hope and comfort to all. I call you Hope, for to me that is what you are. Without you, you never would have saved me from that monster I had become with Chaos; the galaxy would be in ruins. It took the strength of the greatest Lunarian ever born to save me. Remember, I once told you I saw your light Sailor Moon – I felt your warmth. I see your light from anywhere in the galaxy, as others do and it comforts us." Galaxia explained as she released Usagi. "You keep the galaxy warm with your heart."
"How can I be a comfort to anyone when I fear I am going mad?" Usagi asked, searching for her soul and finding it gone.
"That is why I came." Galaxia's comforting smile slid off her face. "Your light is dimming, fading, vanishing for days at a time. Fear is growing because you mean more to this galaxy than you could ever imagine. The Starlights especially are worried, Seiya in particular – he sends his best wishes by the way."
Usagi closed her eyes, a shudder going through her. "What do I do Galaxia?" she wailed. "I cannot fight him for he attacks me in the one place I can't fight back! I feel violated, I feel filthy, I feel awful!"
"Let the tears come Usagi," Galaxia urged. "Only through allowing yourself to feel and heal will you be able to defeat him."
"I cannot let down my defences." Usagi confessed. "He will know if I do."
"Not in this place Hope." Galaxia said soothingly. "Here, you are safe from him and his prying eyes. Here is where I will tell you how to defeat him."
"My soul," Usagi began. "It's gone. What happened to it?"
"It is not gone, merely in another place for the moment. The only way I could bring you here was to force your soul out of your body." Galaxia smiled. "Worry not Hope! I love you and would never harm you."
Usagi smiled wanly, uncertain as to her strong reassurances. "What do I do Galaxia?"
Galaxia gestured to the place she had brought her. "Do you truly no longer recognize this place Hope?" she asked gently. "Has time taken so much from you?"
Usagi looked around slowly as her eyes widened. 'Let the Spirit move me.' Was emblazoned on the wall proudly. "This is holy ground." She whispered as she stumbled back a few steps.
Galaxia nodded. "And with the blessing of those who want to see him defeated, you have been given permission to set foot on this sacred soil. Here Hope, you will learn how to defeat him, here you will discover who you truly are, and here is where Sailor Moon makes her last stand. It is time to accept all that you are, and by accepting that evolve into who you are truly meant to be."
Usagi closed her eyes, relishing her mind which was free of his voice, of his unseen eyes. It had been so long she had forgotten what it was like to have only her in her head. Galaxia had given her back her life. She sighed sadly. "Look at me, you may think you see who I really am but you'll never know me. Every day it's as if I play a part. If I wear a mask I can fool the world." She murmured.
Galaxia was at her side in an instant. "But everyone out THERE knows you, and loves you. We want you to succeed Hope, we want you to win." She paused. "Show the world what is inside your heart once more, as you once did to me and you will win."
Usagi's silver blue eyes met Galaxia's pale ones as she read her intentions, read the truth and nodded. "Teach me then sister."
Galaxia smiled radiantly. "Your first lesson begins now. Free your mind Hope, and pay attention."
Mamoru paced, getting in the way of Haruka, Rei and Makoto who were also pacing, Haruka cursing profusely and muttering under her breath, Rei chanting incantations as she tried to figure out where the hell Usagi had vanished to. "The light, the light…" Rei kept repeating, certain that there was something familiar about that light, something she had recognized…
"Shouldn't we be worrying about Rubeus and his minions?" Ami ventured timidly, the fury in the room palpable. "I mean we are going to have to fight them at some point right?"
"Please Ami," Minako snorted. "We could defeat those spiny anteaters with our hands tied behind out backs. We have more important things to worry about like where is our Princess!" she burst out, concern for her best friend getting the best of her.
Luna crept into the room and sneered at them. "Honestly you confuse me by professing allegiance to that bubble brained freak." She said nastily. Chibi Usa trailed in after her as Luna made a full bow. "Here is your future Queen, show her homage and bow in her presence, you are her senshi!"
Michiru narrowed her eyes dangerously at the cat as Haruka abandoned subltly and lunged for Luna with a snarl. Only a well placed Makoto held her back. The two girls exchanged a hostile look for a moment before Haruka relaxed and turned her back on Luna and Chibi Usa. "She has her own senshi in the future if she would go there and stay there. We swore Warriors Oath to Usagi herself. No one else."
"You swore to protect her and her own." Luna reminded them.
"How can we protect a child who hasn't been born yet?" Ami asked idly as she began tapping on the Mercury computer. "Technically she doesn't exist. Either way this conversation is pointless. Our concern is for Usagi, our friend and Princess, she is being tormented in her mind by Rubeus a foe we thought long vanquished…this creates a difficulty for us…"
"What else is new?" Chibi Usa sneered. "All Usagi does is make things more difficult for you, whereas I help out!"
"She has offered to sacrifice herself in place of us and he has for the most part agreed to it…to save us she will give up all she has." Ami continued, ignoring the child.
"It's the least she can do." Chibi Usa interjected.
"We have to find a way to stop her from doing that, but once Usagi has made up her mind it's nearly impossible to change it and we all know that."
"Does she have a mind?" Chibi Usa mused out loud.
Ami closed her eyes, struggling to ignore her. "So we must figure out a way for her to fight him where he will be weak, for she cannot fight him inside her own mind."
"Where HE will be weak?" Chibi Usa said sceptically. "He was never weak whereas Usagi…"
"Would you shut the hell up!?" Ami burst out, unable to take this child for another second. "If you don't close your mouth then I will close it for you! You were not invited here to this meeting of concerned minds and you are not welcome! Leave now!" she pointed towards the door.
Silence fell through the room as everyone stared at Ami as if she had grown another head. Ami never burst out screaming like that to anyone, for any reason. "You DARE raise your voice to her!" Luna began in a self righteous fury.
"Luna!" Artemis cut in. "Enough of this!"
"I will not be silenced!" Luna yowled. "I will make my point known!"
"The point has been made Luna, the point conceded." Usagi's voice came calmly into the room. "We all know where you stand and have ever since that child has come into our lives. You have derided me and abused me, in some ways you are no better than Ingra and Merltak. You might not be openly working for Rubeus but because of you I was weakened enough that he was able to invade my mind and drive me to the brink of insanity. He listened, he watched and he learned how to penetrate into my deepest self. Because he listened to you. I thought the insults they used on me were a little too familiar and thanks to a friend I now see you for what you are."
"What are you talking about? Show yourself Odango brains." Luna snapped furiously.
"I remember now when you turned on my mother after I was born," Usagi continued. "You said your allegiance was no longer to her but to me. I should have remembered and known you would do this. You were on the brink of being expelled from court in the Silver Millennium and you knew it."
Luna glanced around, looking for someone to defend her. "What? You're babbling."
"On the contrary," Usagi's angry voice continued. "I see things clearly now, for I let the spirit move me."
Once Usagi uttered those words, Luna's eyes widened until only the whites were visible. "It's not possible! That's holy ground…" she shook her head in denial. "Only…"
"Only senshi may tread there, only the Messiah may go there, only the Hope of the Galaxy may absorb the power inherent. It is the ground where senshi are created, where senshi are born, it is where time meets and stops – Setsuna's favourite place to go I might add."
Hotaru's eyes lit up once Usagi finished her sentence. "Hope…it's not a bad thing…" she began.
Setsuna sat up from where she had sprawled on the couch. "It is what gives a person strength and courage to go on." She walked rapidly across the room. "Usagi, show yourself."
Usagi entered the room and silence fell. Her pupils were in the shape of stars and her hair fully silver. "He has re-entered my mind, he is watching me once again and his minions are coming. The battle is nigh."
Haruka dropped to her knees in front of her. "You have stood upon holy ground."
"You are she." Hotaru added as she knelt next to Haruka. "I have only seen you like this once, after the defeat of Galaxia."
"Who do you think helped me?" Usagi arched an eyebrow. "She saved me, she sensed my torment and she came to me."
Minako ran and hugged Usagi tightly. "Holy ground or not, tormented and tortured or not I don't care. Thank the goddess you are back, I was terrified."
Usagi raised her face to her friends. "I know how to defeat him. The battle must take place in my mind as Setsuna had foreseen, but I am prepared to fight him. I know how to win."
Mamoru wrenched her out of Minako's grip and pressed her to him tightly. "I don't care about any of that Usako, as long as you are safe."
"As long as he and his minions torment me I will never be safe, never be free. I am an awful and terrible and wretched person as Luna has constantly told me, I know this but I must persevere anyway. The loser, the one who has never succeeded or achieved anything in her life must do this. Though it disgusts all of you, you must trust in me, the klutz, the failure."
"Usako…" Mamoru began in an angry voice.
"Please just listen." Usagi said in a soft voice as she gestured her senshi around her. "Luna, since you are not one of us, get out."
"I will not leave and neither will this angel child!" Luna protested angrily.
"Luna, you have the option of leaving on your feet or being thrown." Makoto cracked her knuckles as Rei joined her side her lavender eyes blazing. "Please continue to argue."
Luna sniffed angrily. "Traitors. I'll deal with you later. Come on darling."
Chibi Usa stuck her tongue out as she ran out after Luna. "Now that the traitors are gone, I will tell you what Galaxia told me." Usagi began.
Rubeus fumed, he howled, he protested. She had returned and he returned to his rightful place in her mind, but she had somehow learned to put up a shield, he couldn't see everything anymore! In a anger that was as terrifying as it was refreshing to him, he ordered his minions to strike immediately and kill them all.
And so endeth this chapter. I have never had such a long time trying to write a chapter before as I did with this one since I kept getting interrupted! I hope you enjoyed it as I have more plot twists coming in the next chapters! I write based on reviews so keep them coming in, right now they are crawling and trickling in! No flames! Talk to you later!
Ja ne!
Rubeus closed his eye in fury and anger, unable to find where Usagi had vanished to, wondering who's power had intervened to take her from him. Without being able to enter her mind and cause her pain, his weakness returned tenfold. "Come my minions, rise for your master, let your evil shine!" he intoned. "Find her now!" he ordered. "I will not be returned to oblivion again – she is the key, she is the gatekeeper, she is holding all I need. Find her and bring her to me! The last Lunarian will be mine!"
The minions cowered and grovelled, praying he wouldn't turn his considerable temper on them, hoping he wouldn't attack them. His life was on the line, his existence in the balance, he needed to feed off her until he regained his body – everything depended on it.
Usagi blinked as a soft silver and white light greeted her. "So at last you are awake." The voice greeted her.
Usagi shook her head. It was impossible; she hadn't heard that voice… "It can't be." She said aloud.
The light parted on the figure, who smiled slightly. Orange-red hair cascading to the ground, a yellow sheath dress that covered her body, a figure who had managed to see Usagi's light and hang on, waiting for her to save her. Usagi had glanced at her and seen this figure inside, not the nightmare she had become, the ability to read souls her greatest gift. "Galaxia." She murmured.
Galaxia smiled as she walked over to Usagi, clad in a simple white sheath herself and embraced her tightly. "It had been a long time Hope."
"Hope?" Usagi glanced at her as she returned the hug, happy to see that Galaxia had become a good person once more.
"You are the light of Hope, you are the Messiah, and your name throughout the galaxy gives hope and comfort to all. I call you Hope, for to me that is what you are. Without you, you never would have saved me from that monster I had become with Chaos; the galaxy would be in ruins. It took the strength of the greatest Lunarian ever born to save me. Remember, I once told you I saw your light Sailor Moon – I felt your warmth. I see your light from anywhere in the galaxy, as others do and it comforts us." Galaxia explained as she released Usagi. "You keep the galaxy warm with your heart."
"How can I be a comfort to anyone when I fear I am going mad?" Usagi asked, searching for her soul and finding it gone.
"That is why I came." Galaxia's comforting smile slid off her face. "Your light is dimming, fading, vanishing for days at a time. Fear is growing because you mean more to this galaxy than you could ever imagine. The Starlights especially are worried, Seiya in particular – he sends his best wishes by the way."
Usagi closed her eyes, a shudder going through her. "What do I do Galaxia?" she wailed. "I cannot fight him for he attacks me in the one place I can't fight back! I feel violated, I feel filthy, I feel awful!"
"Let the tears come Usagi," Galaxia urged. "Only through allowing yourself to feel and heal will you be able to defeat him."
"I cannot let down my defences." Usagi confessed. "He will know if I do."
"Not in this place Hope." Galaxia said soothingly. "Here, you are safe from him and his prying eyes. Here is where I will tell you how to defeat him."
"My soul," Usagi began. "It's gone. What happened to it?"
"It is not gone, merely in another place for the moment. The only way I could bring you here was to force your soul out of your body." Galaxia smiled. "Worry not Hope! I love you and would never harm you."
Usagi smiled wanly, uncertain as to her strong reassurances. "What do I do Galaxia?"
Galaxia gestured to the place she had brought her. "Do you truly no longer recognize this place Hope?" she asked gently. "Has time taken so much from you?"
Usagi looked around slowly as her eyes widened. 'Let the Spirit move me.' Was emblazoned on the wall proudly. "This is holy ground." She whispered as she stumbled back a few steps.
Galaxia nodded. "And with the blessing of those who want to see him defeated, you have been given permission to set foot on this sacred soil. Here Hope, you will learn how to defeat him, here you will discover who you truly are, and here is where Sailor Moon makes her last stand. It is time to accept all that you are, and by accepting that evolve into who you are truly meant to be."
Usagi closed her eyes, relishing her mind which was free of his voice, of his unseen eyes. It had been so long she had forgotten what it was like to have only her in her head. Galaxia had given her back her life. She sighed sadly. "Look at me, you may think you see who I really am but you'll never know me. Every day it's as if I play a part. If I wear a mask I can fool the world." She murmured.
Galaxia was at her side in an instant. "But everyone out THERE knows you, and loves you. We want you to succeed Hope, we want you to win." She paused. "Show the world what is inside your heart once more, as you once did to me and you will win."
Usagi's silver blue eyes met Galaxia's pale ones as she read her intentions, read the truth and nodded. "Teach me then sister."
Galaxia smiled radiantly. "Your first lesson begins now. Free your mind Hope, and pay attention."
Mamoru paced, getting in the way of Haruka, Rei and Makoto who were also pacing, Haruka cursing profusely and muttering under her breath, Rei chanting incantations as she tried to figure out where the hell Usagi had vanished to. "The light, the light…" Rei kept repeating, certain that there was something familiar about that light, something she had recognized…
"Shouldn't we be worrying about Rubeus and his minions?" Ami ventured timidly, the fury in the room palpable. "I mean we are going to have to fight them at some point right?"
"Please Ami," Minako snorted. "We could defeat those spiny anteaters with our hands tied behind out backs. We have more important things to worry about like where is our Princess!" she burst out, concern for her best friend getting the best of her.
Luna crept into the room and sneered at them. "Honestly you confuse me by professing allegiance to that bubble brained freak." She said nastily. Chibi Usa trailed in after her as Luna made a full bow. "Here is your future Queen, show her homage and bow in her presence, you are her senshi!"
Michiru narrowed her eyes dangerously at the cat as Haruka abandoned subltly and lunged for Luna with a snarl. Only a well placed Makoto held her back. The two girls exchanged a hostile look for a moment before Haruka relaxed and turned her back on Luna and Chibi Usa. "She has her own senshi in the future if she would go there and stay there. We swore Warriors Oath to Usagi herself. No one else."
"You swore to protect her and her own." Luna reminded them.
"How can we protect a child who hasn't been born yet?" Ami asked idly as she began tapping on the Mercury computer. "Technically she doesn't exist. Either way this conversation is pointless. Our concern is for Usagi, our friend and Princess, she is being tormented in her mind by Rubeus a foe we thought long vanquished…this creates a difficulty for us…"
"What else is new?" Chibi Usa sneered. "All Usagi does is make things more difficult for you, whereas I help out!"
"She has offered to sacrifice herself in place of us and he has for the most part agreed to it…to save us she will give up all she has." Ami continued, ignoring the child.
"It's the least she can do." Chibi Usa interjected.
"We have to find a way to stop her from doing that, but once Usagi has made up her mind it's nearly impossible to change it and we all know that."
"Does she have a mind?" Chibi Usa mused out loud.
Ami closed her eyes, struggling to ignore her. "So we must figure out a way for her to fight him where he will be weak, for she cannot fight him inside her own mind."
"Where HE will be weak?" Chibi Usa said sceptically. "He was never weak whereas Usagi…"
"Would you shut the hell up!?" Ami burst out, unable to take this child for another second. "If you don't close your mouth then I will close it for you! You were not invited here to this meeting of concerned minds and you are not welcome! Leave now!" she pointed towards the door.
Silence fell through the room as everyone stared at Ami as if she had grown another head. Ami never burst out screaming like that to anyone, for any reason. "You DARE raise your voice to her!" Luna began in a self righteous fury.
"Luna!" Artemis cut in. "Enough of this!"
"I will not be silenced!" Luna yowled. "I will make my point known!"
"The point has been made Luna, the point conceded." Usagi's voice came calmly into the room. "We all know where you stand and have ever since that child has come into our lives. You have derided me and abused me, in some ways you are no better than Ingra and Merltak. You might not be openly working for Rubeus but because of you I was weakened enough that he was able to invade my mind and drive me to the brink of insanity. He listened, he watched and he learned how to penetrate into my deepest self. Because he listened to you. I thought the insults they used on me were a little too familiar and thanks to a friend I now see you for what you are."
"What are you talking about? Show yourself Odango brains." Luna snapped furiously.
"I remember now when you turned on my mother after I was born," Usagi continued. "You said your allegiance was no longer to her but to me. I should have remembered and known you would do this. You were on the brink of being expelled from court in the Silver Millennium and you knew it."
Luna glanced around, looking for someone to defend her. "What? You're babbling."
"On the contrary," Usagi's angry voice continued. "I see things clearly now, for I let the spirit move me."
Once Usagi uttered those words, Luna's eyes widened until only the whites were visible. "It's not possible! That's holy ground…" she shook her head in denial. "Only…"
"Only senshi may tread there, only the Messiah may go there, only the Hope of the Galaxy may absorb the power inherent. It is the ground where senshi are created, where senshi are born, it is where time meets and stops – Setsuna's favourite place to go I might add."
Hotaru's eyes lit up once Usagi finished her sentence. "Hope…it's not a bad thing…" she began.
Setsuna sat up from where she had sprawled on the couch. "It is what gives a person strength and courage to go on." She walked rapidly across the room. "Usagi, show yourself."
Usagi entered the room and silence fell. Her pupils were in the shape of stars and her hair fully silver. "He has re-entered my mind, he is watching me once again and his minions are coming. The battle is nigh."
Haruka dropped to her knees in front of her. "You have stood upon holy ground."
"You are she." Hotaru added as she knelt next to Haruka. "I have only seen you like this once, after the defeat of Galaxia."
"Who do you think helped me?" Usagi arched an eyebrow. "She saved me, she sensed my torment and she came to me."
Minako ran and hugged Usagi tightly. "Holy ground or not, tormented and tortured or not I don't care. Thank the goddess you are back, I was terrified."
Usagi raised her face to her friends. "I know how to defeat him. The battle must take place in my mind as Setsuna had foreseen, but I am prepared to fight him. I know how to win."
Mamoru wrenched her out of Minako's grip and pressed her to him tightly. "I don't care about any of that Usako, as long as you are safe."
"As long as he and his minions torment me I will never be safe, never be free. I am an awful and terrible and wretched person as Luna has constantly told me, I know this but I must persevere anyway. The loser, the one who has never succeeded or achieved anything in her life must do this. Though it disgusts all of you, you must trust in me, the klutz, the failure."
"Usako…" Mamoru began in an angry voice.
"Please just listen." Usagi said in a soft voice as she gestured her senshi around her. "Luna, since you are not one of us, get out."
"I will not leave and neither will this angel child!" Luna protested angrily.
"Luna, you have the option of leaving on your feet or being thrown." Makoto cracked her knuckles as Rei joined her side her lavender eyes blazing. "Please continue to argue."
Luna sniffed angrily. "Traitors. I'll deal with you later. Come on darling."
Chibi Usa stuck her tongue out as she ran out after Luna. "Now that the traitors are gone, I will tell you what Galaxia told me." Usagi began.
Rubeus fumed, he howled, he protested. She had returned and he returned to his rightful place in her mind, but she had somehow learned to put up a shield, he couldn't see everything anymore! In a anger that was as terrifying as it was refreshing to him, he ordered his minions to strike immediately and kill them all.
And so endeth this chapter. I have never had such a long time trying to write a chapter before as I did with this one since I kept getting interrupted! I hope you enjoyed it as I have more plot twists coming in the next chapters! I write based on reviews so keep them coming in, right now they are crawling and trickling in! No flames! Talk to you later!
Ja ne!