Petra: I wrote this a long time ago and just haven't gotten around to posting it. I actually like this one, though it is sad...
Kati: *sarcastically* Surprise!
Petra: *glare* Anyways, I just want to say that this came to me because of the song, it sounded so sad that I had to write something with it, so I did... Also, I read a poem, I don't know who by, about how politician's deaths are told on the newspaper by a soldier, who fought for our freedom, isn't and how stange it is.
DEDICATED: To all the soldiers who fight for us, but will never be recognized because they did so.
WARNING: Angst, as usual, and this is a songfic.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Sailor Moon. I really wish I did. But since I don't I shall go on with writing fanfiction. And I don't own the song... I don't know where it's from or who sang it... but it's pretty, ne?
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-
For On This Day a Soldier Died
"If nothing else, I will live and fight to make sure that no one else has to see or do the things that we have to. So that no one else will become an empty shell . . . or come to hate themselves . . . or lose themselves . . . or not even be able to find themselves in the first place . . . Or forget how to cry . . . like I have." -Kim; Cry (GW)
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-
*AMI'S POV*
~*~*~*~
There's a grief that can't be spoken,
There's a pain that goes on and on.
Empty chairs at empty tables,
Now my friends are dead and gone.
~*~*~*~
You know, it's funny. Even though it's been years, millennia even, since I've been there I can still see it as if it were yesterday. I remember that arcade, Crown Arcade to be specific, like I remember nothing else. Now I am actually seeing it for the first time in years... and I'm smiling, tears streaming down my face. With sure-footed steps I walk across the rubble toward a booth in the corner, a booth away from everyone else, a place where no one could hear us, where we used to hold our Senshi "meetings". They usually, much to the horror of our mentor, Luna, turned into gossip-fests.
~*~*~*~
Here they talk of revolution,
Here it was, they lit the flame.
Here they sang about tomorrow,
And tomorrow never came.
~*~*~*~
We used to sit and dream in that booth, dream of days when we would just be normal school girls; our only worries zits, boys, and clothes... but those hopes and dreams dropped out of the sky with Small Lady. No, I correct myself, my fingers leaving trails in the thick dust on the table, not so small. In fact, she's Queen Lady Serenity, a fair and just Queen, but never as good as her mother. Oh yes, Lady, as I call her now, appears to have more power, but her experiences in the past and future changed her heart and, unlike Usagi, she couldn't keep it pure. With a tearful smile I sit down, the dust rising to cling to my tear-stained face and sweaty body. It was here that we first learned our true destiny, who we really were and why... It was here we first learned about Princess Serenity, but we wouldn't know that we already had Serenity until it was almost too late...
~*~*~*~
From the table in the corner,
They would see a world reborn,
And they rose with voices ringing.
I can hear them now!
~*~*~*~
It was from this table, my first real talk with Usagi, that I saw the world through Usagi's eyes... and what a beautiful world it was... I often dreamed of being able to see with eyes so pure and unclouded, but I knew I never would. But I would dream... In fact, I can almost see them now. Rei is sitting on the inside of the booth, grumbling about Usagi being late again, while Makoto, sitting next to her, is talking hungrily to Minako about how cute Andrew is. I, sitting next to window and Minako, pretend to read a book. In fact, it was here where we first started the planning for Crystal Tokyo, it seemed that everything happened here, as a matter of fact. "Ami-chan!" I can almost hear Usagi's cry as she runs in, once again late. Will that girl ever learn...?
~*~*~*~
The very words that they had sung,
Became their last communion,
On the lowly barricade...
At dawn.
~*~*~*~
I think, that even when Crystal Tokyo came, and after everything became adjusted... I think we all still secretly wished that one day we would wake up and find it was just a dream, or a nightmare. It wasn't meant to be and now, here I am... that last of the immortal, goddess-like Sailor Senshi... They all died wishing they were normal, I know they did, just as I know that I will die wishing that I had grown up normal also. Sometimes, I wish it so hard, I can't breath, can't think, can't even move and, for a moment, it's a dream, a wish, come true. We're just sitting at a booth talking about everyday things, not a care in the world. No evil threatening the world with destruction or take over, no fears forever lurking in the back of our heads. I miss them so much... I stare absently out the window at the street outside. No one is in here, no, this is one part of the neighborhood left unchanged, and for a reason, so that when needed to get away we could. We never tried to keep up its maintenance and, every year we came back, it was even more eroded, destroyed, falling apart... like our hearts. When you're immortal... you have a lot of time to dream and wish... to let the 'what ifs' and the 'maybes' tear at the last of your sanity.
~*~*~*~
Oh my friends, my friends forgive me,
That I live and you are gone.
There's a grief that can't be spoken,
There's a pain that goes on and on.
~*~*~*~
"Why?" I whisper to the dusty air. "Why must I be left?" No one had warned us that a neighboring kingdom had been building up power, planning to destroy... everything. No, Sailor Pluto seemed to leave out that fact. When we finally learned what they were up to we made the gravest mistake that any kingdom can ever make... we underestimated our opponent. When we went to destroy what the other kingdom had built up it was just we eight Senshi in the early dawn, no Sailor Chibi-Moon or Sailor Moon... and we were overpowered. Rei, Neptune, and I were the only ones to make it out alive and then, when we got back to report to the Queen, we got back just in time to see a knife fly from no where and strike her in the back... straight through the heart... Michiru died first, lost without her soulmate, Haruka, here in this world and Mars was soon killed also, this time on a suicide mission to avenge all our friend's deaths. I'm happy to say that her own death was not in vain; she avenged all of our friends, blood for blood, and life for life. So now, I am the only one left and everyday I watch with saddened eyes as we are forgotten, as our tales grow fewer and fewer...
~*~*~*~
Phantom faces at the window,
Phantom shadows on the floor.
Empty chairs at empty tables,
Where my friends will meet no more.
~*~*~*~
Soon, no one will remember anything we have done, nor what we did to achieve it, except for scholars. Everything... forgotten... just as easily as this building... but it all means so much to us and so little to them. All the times we fought, all the times we almost died, all the times we DID die... they will all be forgotten, swept away with the wind. No one will remember the way Makoto's cooking was the best, simply because it was made with love. No one will remember the way Rei used to fill with the fire that was hers, the passion that shown from within. No one will remember the way Haruka ran like the wind, or Michiru played the violin like the ocean itself. No will ever see the way Minako's blue eyes sparkle with life and happiness or the way Setsuna used to smile that same smile that meant she knew something you didn't. No one... will remember how Hotaru used to smile her so rare, but wonderful, smiles. No will remember the way a young woman, with golden-spun hair that matched her disposition so well, waltzed into each of these people's lives and turned it completely upside down...
~*~*~*~
Oh my friends, my friends, don't ask me,
What your sacrifice was for.
Empty chairs at empty tables,
Where my friends will sing no more.
~*~*~*~
All we fought for will be forgotten and soon, the peace we worked so hard for will be lost, lost by people who know nothing of what we have done. Something we spent our whole lives working on... it will all be dead or lost in a moment... all forgotten... just like this arcade... just like this life... I close my eyes and for a moment I can hear their voices and, when I open my eyes I see a brunette, a girl with raven hair, and a blond walking down the broken street. It's gone, though, as soon as I blink and, as I turn my eyes to the table, I can almost swear there there's five shakes on it and a familiar shadow with twin buns passes over the glasses. Yes... even today when I walked down the street I saw it, fewer people talking about the Senshi, more talking about war. We're being forgotten... we died for nothing... and soon I will too... everything we worked, died for, will be gone. And we never even wanted it to begin with...
~*~*~*~
Oh my friends, my friends, don't ask me
Why I'm here and you are gone.
Empty chairs at empty tables
~*~*~*~
Oh god, oh god, what am I going to do... I'm all by myself and, as soon as I am gone, no one will remember what we went through... My elbows, resting on the table, support my head as my face collapses in my hand, sobs shaking my petite body. Nothing I can do... no one will remember... we all died in vain... "Ami-chan..." the voice is low and I look up in surprise... Who...? It's a strange person, a mixture of all the Senshi put together into one person, sitting in front of me. "Ami-chan... you can't let our deaths be in vain... you have to do something... You have to MAKE them remember. Write our story, Ami-chan, please? Write it, so that way, we will always live on... if only in their memories..."
~*~*~*~
Now my friends are dead and gone...
~*~*~*~
Weeks later...
A small girl of about six or seven was watching her afternoon anime when, suddenly, it was switched off. The girl, already in tears at her show being interrupted, stopped as she saw her beautiful and beloved queen appeared on the screen. "Good afternoon..." her bright hot-pink eyes were full of tears and her cheeks tear-stained. "Today is a sad day for the entire world, for today the last of the Senshi, Ami Mizuno, Sailor Mercury, died. At the very second she died, I was delivered a small note attached to small manuscript. After reading it, I have decided that I need to read it to you all... and here it is: Dearest Small Lady, I'm sorry that I must leave you, but without my friends I find my strength waning. Now, I have one last thing to ask of you, and that is that this small story be published and read by everyone, so that our fight was not in vain. Signed, Ami Mizuno. I would like to be the first to read this to you and I ask you to call your friends so that they may also hear this, children call your parents, for this is a story that should, and must, be read and known by all... It begins: Usagi Tsukino was a normal teenage girl..."
............................................................................................
.........................Crystal Tokyo Newspaper:...............................
.........................The Crystal Keeper reads:...............................
"Today the world is in mourning, for on this day, a soldier died..."
...........................................................................................
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-
IMPORTANT NOTE: For those of you that wish it, DUE TO MY SPORADIC postings, I am offering you, the readers, A MAILING LIST to sign up to. When I finally UPDATE, I will SEND OUT AN EMAIL informing those of you that are on the list that I have finally updated. I need you to EMAIL me, telling that you wish to sign up, and whether it's for ORIGINAL FICTION or FANFICTION. I WILL NOT accept those people that ask to be up on it in a review because I can't be sure that email is real. The mailing list will ALSO OFFER the TITLES of those works that I am posting, the COUPLES (if any) that are in it, which FANDOM it is from, and whether it is a SEQUEL to anything.
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-
Kati: Well, guys, here it is.
Petra: Thanks for reading.
Kati: R&R if you want to, but it really helps me know that someone is actually reading the dang-blasted thing. ^_-
Petra: I don't really feel like talkin' much, so I think I'll just say, goodbye.
"I dream of a day when I can open my eyes, and my dreams won't disappear."
-Rose Marie Ledam
~Petra Megami Assari~
*The Gentle Tiger Goddess*
Kati: *sarcastically* Surprise!
Petra: *glare* Anyways, I just want to say that this came to me because of the song, it sounded so sad that I had to write something with it, so I did... Also, I read a poem, I don't know who by, about how politician's deaths are told on the newspaper by a soldier, who fought for our freedom, isn't and how stange it is.
DEDICATED: To all the soldiers who fight for us, but will never be recognized because they did so.
WARNING: Angst, as usual, and this is a songfic.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Sailor Moon. I really wish I did. But since I don't I shall go on with writing fanfiction. And I don't own the song... I don't know where it's from or who sang it... but it's pretty, ne?
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-
For On This Day a Soldier Died
"If nothing else, I will live and fight to make sure that no one else has to see or do the things that we have to. So that no one else will become an empty shell . . . or come to hate themselves . . . or lose themselves . . . or not even be able to find themselves in the first place . . . Or forget how to cry . . . like I have." -Kim; Cry (GW)
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-
*AMI'S POV*
~*~*~*~
There's a grief that can't be spoken,
There's a pain that goes on and on.
Empty chairs at empty tables,
Now my friends are dead and gone.
~*~*~*~
You know, it's funny. Even though it's been years, millennia even, since I've been there I can still see it as if it were yesterday. I remember that arcade, Crown Arcade to be specific, like I remember nothing else. Now I am actually seeing it for the first time in years... and I'm smiling, tears streaming down my face. With sure-footed steps I walk across the rubble toward a booth in the corner, a booth away from everyone else, a place where no one could hear us, where we used to hold our Senshi "meetings". They usually, much to the horror of our mentor, Luna, turned into gossip-fests.
~*~*~*~
Here they talk of revolution,
Here it was, they lit the flame.
Here they sang about tomorrow,
And tomorrow never came.
~*~*~*~
We used to sit and dream in that booth, dream of days when we would just be normal school girls; our only worries zits, boys, and clothes... but those hopes and dreams dropped out of the sky with Small Lady. No, I correct myself, my fingers leaving trails in the thick dust on the table, not so small. In fact, she's Queen Lady Serenity, a fair and just Queen, but never as good as her mother. Oh yes, Lady, as I call her now, appears to have more power, but her experiences in the past and future changed her heart and, unlike Usagi, she couldn't keep it pure. With a tearful smile I sit down, the dust rising to cling to my tear-stained face and sweaty body. It was here that we first learned our true destiny, who we really were and why... It was here we first learned about Princess Serenity, but we wouldn't know that we already had Serenity until it was almost too late...
~*~*~*~
From the table in the corner,
They would see a world reborn,
And they rose with voices ringing.
I can hear them now!
~*~*~*~
It was from this table, my first real talk with Usagi, that I saw the world through Usagi's eyes... and what a beautiful world it was... I often dreamed of being able to see with eyes so pure and unclouded, but I knew I never would. But I would dream... In fact, I can almost see them now. Rei is sitting on the inside of the booth, grumbling about Usagi being late again, while Makoto, sitting next to her, is talking hungrily to Minako about how cute Andrew is. I, sitting next to window and Minako, pretend to read a book. In fact, it was here where we first started the planning for Crystal Tokyo, it seemed that everything happened here, as a matter of fact. "Ami-chan!" I can almost hear Usagi's cry as she runs in, once again late. Will that girl ever learn...?
~*~*~*~
The very words that they had sung,
Became their last communion,
On the lowly barricade...
At dawn.
~*~*~*~
I think, that even when Crystal Tokyo came, and after everything became adjusted... I think we all still secretly wished that one day we would wake up and find it was just a dream, or a nightmare. It wasn't meant to be and now, here I am... that last of the immortal, goddess-like Sailor Senshi... They all died wishing they were normal, I know they did, just as I know that I will die wishing that I had grown up normal also. Sometimes, I wish it so hard, I can't breath, can't think, can't even move and, for a moment, it's a dream, a wish, come true. We're just sitting at a booth talking about everyday things, not a care in the world. No evil threatening the world with destruction or take over, no fears forever lurking in the back of our heads. I miss them so much... I stare absently out the window at the street outside. No one is in here, no, this is one part of the neighborhood left unchanged, and for a reason, so that when needed to get away we could. We never tried to keep up its maintenance and, every year we came back, it was even more eroded, destroyed, falling apart... like our hearts. When you're immortal... you have a lot of time to dream and wish... to let the 'what ifs' and the 'maybes' tear at the last of your sanity.
~*~*~*~
Oh my friends, my friends forgive me,
That I live and you are gone.
There's a grief that can't be spoken,
There's a pain that goes on and on.
~*~*~*~
"Why?" I whisper to the dusty air. "Why must I be left?" No one had warned us that a neighboring kingdom had been building up power, planning to destroy... everything. No, Sailor Pluto seemed to leave out that fact. When we finally learned what they were up to we made the gravest mistake that any kingdom can ever make... we underestimated our opponent. When we went to destroy what the other kingdom had built up it was just we eight Senshi in the early dawn, no Sailor Chibi-Moon or Sailor Moon... and we were overpowered. Rei, Neptune, and I were the only ones to make it out alive and then, when we got back to report to the Queen, we got back just in time to see a knife fly from no where and strike her in the back... straight through the heart... Michiru died first, lost without her soulmate, Haruka, here in this world and Mars was soon killed also, this time on a suicide mission to avenge all our friend's deaths. I'm happy to say that her own death was not in vain; she avenged all of our friends, blood for blood, and life for life. So now, I am the only one left and everyday I watch with saddened eyes as we are forgotten, as our tales grow fewer and fewer...
~*~*~*~
Phantom faces at the window,
Phantom shadows on the floor.
Empty chairs at empty tables,
Where my friends will meet no more.
~*~*~*~
Soon, no one will remember anything we have done, nor what we did to achieve it, except for scholars. Everything... forgotten... just as easily as this building... but it all means so much to us and so little to them. All the times we fought, all the times we almost died, all the times we DID die... they will all be forgotten, swept away with the wind. No one will remember the way Makoto's cooking was the best, simply because it was made with love. No one will remember the way Rei used to fill with the fire that was hers, the passion that shown from within. No one will remember the way Haruka ran like the wind, or Michiru played the violin like the ocean itself. No will ever see the way Minako's blue eyes sparkle with life and happiness or the way Setsuna used to smile that same smile that meant she knew something you didn't. No one... will remember how Hotaru used to smile her so rare, but wonderful, smiles. No will remember the way a young woman, with golden-spun hair that matched her disposition so well, waltzed into each of these people's lives and turned it completely upside down...
~*~*~*~
Oh my friends, my friends, don't ask me,
What your sacrifice was for.
Empty chairs at empty tables,
Where my friends will sing no more.
~*~*~*~
All we fought for will be forgotten and soon, the peace we worked so hard for will be lost, lost by people who know nothing of what we have done. Something we spent our whole lives working on... it will all be dead or lost in a moment... all forgotten... just like this arcade... just like this life... I close my eyes and for a moment I can hear their voices and, when I open my eyes I see a brunette, a girl with raven hair, and a blond walking down the broken street. It's gone, though, as soon as I blink and, as I turn my eyes to the table, I can almost swear there there's five shakes on it and a familiar shadow with twin buns passes over the glasses. Yes... even today when I walked down the street I saw it, fewer people talking about the Senshi, more talking about war. We're being forgotten... we died for nothing... and soon I will too... everything we worked, died for, will be gone. And we never even wanted it to begin with...
~*~*~*~
Oh my friends, my friends, don't ask me
Why I'm here and you are gone.
Empty chairs at empty tables
~*~*~*~
Oh god, oh god, what am I going to do... I'm all by myself and, as soon as I am gone, no one will remember what we went through... My elbows, resting on the table, support my head as my face collapses in my hand, sobs shaking my petite body. Nothing I can do... no one will remember... we all died in vain... "Ami-chan..." the voice is low and I look up in surprise... Who...? It's a strange person, a mixture of all the Senshi put together into one person, sitting in front of me. "Ami-chan... you can't let our deaths be in vain... you have to do something... You have to MAKE them remember. Write our story, Ami-chan, please? Write it, so that way, we will always live on... if only in their memories..."
~*~*~*~
Now my friends are dead and gone...
~*~*~*~
Weeks later...
A small girl of about six or seven was watching her afternoon anime when, suddenly, it was switched off. The girl, already in tears at her show being interrupted, stopped as she saw her beautiful and beloved queen appeared on the screen. "Good afternoon..." her bright hot-pink eyes were full of tears and her cheeks tear-stained. "Today is a sad day for the entire world, for today the last of the Senshi, Ami Mizuno, Sailor Mercury, died. At the very second she died, I was delivered a small note attached to small manuscript. After reading it, I have decided that I need to read it to you all... and here it is: Dearest Small Lady, I'm sorry that I must leave you, but without my friends I find my strength waning. Now, I have one last thing to ask of you, and that is that this small story be published and read by everyone, so that our fight was not in vain. Signed, Ami Mizuno. I would like to be the first to read this to you and I ask you to call your friends so that they may also hear this, children call your parents, for this is a story that should, and must, be read and known by all... It begins: Usagi Tsukino was a normal teenage girl..."
............................................................................................
.........................Crystal Tokyo Newspaper:...............................
.........................The Crystal Keeper reads:...............................
"Today the world is in mourning, for on this day, a soldier died..."
...........................................................................................
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-
IMPORTANT NOTE: For those of you that wish it, DUE TO MY SPORADIC postings, I am offering you, the readers, A MAILING LIST to sign up to. When I finally UPDATE, I will SEND OUT AN EMAIL informing those of you that are on the list that I have finally updated. I need you to EMAIL me, telling that you wish to sign up, and whether it's for ORIGINAL FICTION or FANFICTION. I WILL NOT accept those people that ask to be up on it in a review because I can't be sure that email is real. The mailing list will ALSO OFFER the TITLES of those works that I am posting, the COUPLES (if any) that are in it, which FANDOM it is from, and whether it is a SEQUEL to anything.
-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-._.-
Kati: Well, guys, here it is.
Petra: Thanks for reading.
Kati: R&R if you want to, but it really helps me know that someone is actually reading the dang-blasted thing. ^_-
Petra: I don't really feel like talkin' much, so I think I'll just say, goodbye.
"I dream of a day when I can open my eyes, and my dreams won't disappear."
-Rose Marie Ledam
~Petra Megami Assari~
*The Gentle Tiger Goddess*