Of This World And Yesterday

For some, life turns out badly: a poisonous worm eats its way to their heart.
Let them see to it that their dying turns out that much better.
Some never become sweet; they rot already in the summer.
It is cowardice that keeps them on their branch.
Thus spoke Zarathustra.
-Nietzsche

Chapter 28- Apoptosis

She was breathless.

Behind her, she could hear the swift footsteps of Tuxedo Kamen and Sailor Chibimoon, running forward at the same manic pace, every stride picking up speed until they nearly flew over the ground, the only evidence that they had not left it being the sound of their feet contacting the cement. A vast curtain wall had formed overhead, and she had recognized it as the handiwork of her friends, the other senshi. It was reminiscent of the last time they fought the Death Busters, of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto erecting a shield between the three banks of the Delta Triangle they stood upon. Its presence urged them to hurry, and as they fell upon the site of their old battle, Sailor Moon a step in the lead, they saw Inuyasha and Kagome on the street, their enemy standing on her old crystal pillar turned black.

There she had stood and used her power to return the land to what it had been; complete and whole, without the touch of the Silence Glaive. There, as Serenity, she really had felt like a Messiah, encased in the silver glow of her Crystal, bringing rebirth to the land.

Now it seemed corrupt. Her shining crystal pillar had turned to obsidian, and upon it stood Karasu, her raven familiar on her shoulder and a weapon in hand. A few steps more, and they were beside Inuyasha and Kagome. A few steps more, and she was close enough to see what it was that Karasu held in her thin hands.

"The Silence Glaive!"

The scream did not come from Sailor Moon's throat, but from Chibimoon's, horrified and frightened, strangled. Saturn's Silence Glaive in the hands of their enemy. That wasn't right...where was Hotaru? Why did she not have her weapon in hand? The thoughts spun in Chibimoon's mind, tilting and crashing against each other as various scenarios played through her imagination in an instant. Saturn was dead, unconscious, hurt, lying somewhere, alone. She should have gone back after the fight with Tellu, she'd known she should have, but she hadn't. Her best friend had needed help, and she'd turned the other way.

Out of instinct, the younger girl began to bolt forward, her scepter upraised to attack. Strong arms suddenly seized her, pulling her back, and as she struggled, she realized Tuxedo Kamen had grabbed her, keeping her from running forward recklessly. Sailor Moon had taken a place slightly in front of them, bracing herself for a fight.

Inuyasha and Kagome watched the youngest senshi fight the grip of the man for a moment, then stop, shoulders sagging slightly as she calmed down. Though Chibimoon's panicked reaction had caught their attention for a moment, they could also see a change slip over the features of Sailor Moon. They'd only seen flashes of her more serious side, fragmented moments that had given them an idea of her power. Now, the somber look seemed out of character for her, someone usually smiling. Her words were oddly spoken, accented with concern and worry, though anger was lending a hardness to her usually soft voice.

"Where is Saturn?"

Above them, Karasu arched a fine eyebrow, focus slipping partially away from the other two and onto the senshi. She was careful to keep an eye on the hanyou. If he noticed a second of inattention, he'd strike, and though she could block that Kaze no Kizu thing with the Glaive, she didn't entirely trust it. What she had said about it not liking her was true; her youki was clashing with the raw destructive power. The Glaive knew she was not its mistress, and was attempting to fight her. Karasu had anticipated that, and in some ways had hoped for it. The stronger the clash, the more powerful the destructive wave she should be able to send.

But to those below her, she called back, "Oh, she's around. Sooner than I imagined she would be, Princess." The last word was spoken with a coy amusement, making light of the honorific. "According to Evermore here," she petted his neck and shrugged, "she's partially responsible for making that shield up there. Really though, it's your friends," she turned and caught Kagome's eye, "that you need to worry about. Saturn wasn't feeling all that well when she tried to heal them. The taiji-ya's taking one of Viluy's hits had a most interesting result. I'd be so disappointed if she died from lack of proper healing."

From beside him, Inuyasha heard Kagome catch her breath slightly and murmur Sango's name in concern, the tautness of her drawn arrow lessening somewhat. Karasu was making fun of them, mocking, and it pissed him off. Kaze no Kizu had been blocked when he'd rushed her, and it made him look stupid falling back down. She reeked of the death stench of carrion birds, though mingled with that was Saturn's smell, of freshly turned soil. A more pleasant deathly smell, more natural.

Was that shield formed from Saturn's power? Or of Karasu's? If Karasu's, then could he turn it back on her? If Saturn's, then could he try to find a way to break it?

Tuxedo Kamen had loosened his grip on Chibimoon, and they had straightened themselves up beside Sailor Moon. Their battle line seemed oddly empty, while the enemy seemed perfectly content to stand above them with confidence. She seemed to need no one, or want no one. Her battle seemed to be strangely for herself to Sailor Moon, a selfish fight she didn't understand. Her behavior seemed erratic, and she seemed to hate everyone and everything. If she was a Death Buster, why not help them? If she hated the Death Busters, why fight the senshi? She alienated herself from everyone, people who were like her, or willing to be allies if she hadn't tried to kill them.

She called herself a Death Buster, but wasn't. She called herself a Magus, but rejected where she came from. She called herself a youkai, but until recently, she was the only one that Sailor Moon had ever seen. It left her so alone.

"You're lonely?" Sailor Moon asked, beginning to feel she was correct. "You're the last Death Buster...one of the last youkai, too, aren't you?"
Karasu's expression became icily blank, and her ebony eyes settled a silent stare at the senshi of the Moon. Down the time she had watched, she had seen a kind of empathy from the future Moon Princess. An ability to befriend and to sympathize with those she counted as friends, and even when the other senshi were opposing her, sense that they too wished to work as a team. But empathy was limited, and gave only a limited amount of information.

"Lonely? Yes, Princess, I am lonely. For five hundred and fifty years, I've lived on this planet alone. Maybe I am tired of being lonely. Should I tell you my sob story, Sailor Moon? Should I tell you about how depressing my life is, and wrench tears from your pitying heart?" On her blank face, a faint sneer formed, relaxing into a smirk. "No. I will not. After this is all done, and I complete what I set out to do, or you somehow defeat me as you have with your other enemies before, I will let you sit down and try to reason out what I do. Maybe I just hate the Death Busters and want to show them I can succeed where they failed. Maybe I want to create a new world for myself. Maybe I just hate humans. Or maybe I'm just playing games with you, and enjoying myself."

Her dispassionate eyes flicked from Sailor Moon, Chibimoon and Tuxedo Kamen and back to Inuyasha and Kagome. "Unlike your other enemies, I won't allow you the satisfaction of knowing if my motives are evil, merely selfish, or the actions of a coward not yet ready to die like the rest of her race." A darkly amused laugh chuckled from her throat, and a sickly smile formed on her lips, as her raven familiar took to wing, soaring upward. Her ebony eyes met Inuyasha's golden ones. "Hanyou. You should know that I lied. I'd never ask you to join me. Your heart is far too human."

Before any of them could breathe a word, the Glaive was lifted to the air.

And then it fell.

His hand looked very small against the expanse of glass in the upstairs window, and taking his paw from it, Shippou noticed the light, crescent tipped prints left where he had touched the surface. Sitting on the windowsill wasn't uncomfortable. He was still small enough to sit precariously on the ledge, to tap his fingers against the glass and look out over the empty street. Over the tops of the other houses, he could see that the sky was a nasty shade of black, setting his nerves on edge, hair prickling on end. No one was out, staying inside where there was a feeling of safety. He was glad he was 'safe' but at the same time he felt a little left out of things.

"They're fighting by now," Luna told him from where she had perched herself on the other end of the sill. He could see her pale reflection in the windowpane, and shrugged. The three cats had arrived not long ago, scratching at the front door to catch the attention of anyone inside. They'd joined him in his small vigil, Luna taking up a seat on the window while Diana curled herself up on the soft edge of Setsuna's bed. Artemis was sitting on the carpeted floor, tail twitching anxiously. Occasionally, he would stand and pace, then sit down again somewhere else, still fidgeting. "We'll wait it out."

"Don't you ever get tired of just doing nothing?" Shippou retorted glumly, looking at Setsuna. She was just lying there. He could have gone with Kami after all, be doing something. Anything. Artemis' jumpiness was getting to him, and he could feel his own tail twitching in unison with the tomcat's. "Usually I'm at least somewhere around and not just playing babysitter to a vegetable."

That promptly earned him three sharp frowns from the cats, and he looked at the ground and appeared embarrassed.

"Sorry."

"It's just because you're little too," Diana informed him, lifting her head from the sheets and looking at him. "Small Lady took a long time to train, because she needed practice fighting. And she can fight much better now than when she first got here."

Artemis suddenly took up his pacing again, head down and watching the carpet pass beneath his padded paws. "I'm sure Chibimoon is doing fine, Diana. Shippou, I'm sure you've learned some things from just being with the others in your group."

"Feh, I can't fight like that, I'm too little," he said irritably, glancing at Setsuna. The room was a jumble of history, decorated with bits of old artwork, paintings on the walls with heavy frames and with old, eclectic shaded lamps emitting light from stained glass, patterning the walls with rich colors. The senshi herself was cast in a warm glow, her bronze skin catching the warm, Bohemian reds and gleaming slightly in the dark. Her deep emerald hair spilled across the pillow and fell across the sheets, pooling around her slim arms. She seemed remarkably still, and yet lifelike, an ancient statue painted in rich colors. A Galatea just about to draw her first breath.

Then the room began to shudder. Pictures on the walls shivered on their hooks, and the lamps jittered on their stands, rocking to and fro, precariously. They were on their feet, Shippou and Luna leaping off the glassy windowsill as Diana dove off the bed, only to be shoved, protesting, beneath it by her future father. One of the pictures broke from its nail, shattering on the floor and kicking up shards of glass into the air.

"Kitsune bi!"

A green-blue swirl of light puffed out around the bed as the glass broke, bouncing off the foxfire shield. They huddled at the base of the bed as the tremors continued, Shippou's kitsune magic swirling around them as they heard other things in the house fall and shatter.

"Mom? Dad?" Diana called though the noise as she pushed herself out between them, nosing her way forward to see. "What's going on? This isn't an earthquake, it's taking too long!"

"Something is happening with Usagi-chan and the others," Luna told her, loudly enough to be heard over the rumbling of the earth. Outside, there was a deep cracking sound as the sidewalk began to fragment, and a tree split, falling to the ground with a splintering crash. "It feels like Saturn just dropped her Glaive!"

Shippou kept his shield going, but remembered what he'd been told about the various items the Outer Senshi carried. The thought of that thing falling made him feel a bit nauseous. Squeaking a bit, he shouted, "Don't joke about that! It's not funny! Waaaaah!"

His last cry was from noticing his shield was faltering, the swirls expanding and fading, caught up in a current of wind let in through the window as it broke, whipping the foxfire around wildly as it was pierced from within by a deep garnet light.

Blue gave way to crimson, a warm, rich glow that was expanding outward, increasing an area of calm in the room. It cast a scarlet shade against the broken bits of colored glass, catching and radiating, creating frozen sparks of fire scattered before their feet. Safe within the light, they were able to hear a single, familiar voice lifted, speaking a welcomed phrase.

"Pluto Crystal Power! Make up!"

The curtain wall beat against the hands of the senshi, standing in their various places around its circumference. From where each of them had been as the veil fell, they sensed its siren song, the call to join and to work as one. One by one, they turned and touched it, fingertips sending out pulses of pure magical power into the field, holding back the chaos that now reached them.

It was a crushing sensation, pushing and straining against their barrier though it held. Yet the wall of mist roiled, many colors churning as the world within sank into silence, the ground beneath their feet rumbling and pitching as the earth absorbed the blast released within. The shield bulged and struggled against the calm, brilliant power preventing its expansion, building its way upward as it sought a weak point in their dome.

Whispers sounded, and through their shared power, they were heard and echoed.

Don't give in....

Hold on longer....

I must be stronger.

This is my will.

And then another power touched the swirling mists of the dome, another mind blending into the echoing layers that transcended the link holding them. A delicate filigree began to shiver its way through the whorling mists, warm and glowing, pulsing like a star. It called to the others, a missing piece of their power, now returned and welcomed as it was rejoined. One by one, the magic of each girl formed from its hidden place, flowing out brightly and solidifying into a point of starry brilliance, shining strong and pure.

The curtain wall became translucent, its surface tipped with liquid rainbow colors, shifting and coursing over the darkness beneath.

And all within sank into the white wave of silence.

There was no sound.

It began as a pindrop, the light sound of metal touching obsidian and ringing faintly in the heavy air. It struck as a wave, consuming and devouring, a chaos that blinded the world. Now, the destruction's roar phased out the senses, muting the nothingness into a high, painful keen, the sound of soundlessness.

A trailing case of pale golden light flickered around her, and Kagome was aware she had squeezed her eyes shut sometime over the course of the last second, bracing herself against the impact of the Glaive. She could hear nothing over the silence, so loud it had become, and through a shell of thin light, she could see a dense wall of energy moving across the air. Solid, it was also transparent, moved by wind and pushed by swirling clouds of youki.

Inuyasha had turned as the blast hit, and had his back to Karasu, an arm around her to ward off the blow, while the other held Tetsusaiga out, bracing it against the catching winds. White hair streamed past her and she felt crushed in his grip. He was protecting her, shielding her out of instinct, though she didn't know how. And then she remembered as she noticed the source of their shield; it was easily forgettable. But as the wall of destruction blew its way forward, pale golden light had poured out from the sheath of Tetsusaiga, parting the wave. As she realized this, she turned her cheek slightly against the inside of his shoulder to see across from them, to see what had become of the senshi.

A blossom of bright pink light had formed, a streaming comet of energy that was flickering against the onslaught, parting it in a makeshift defense. Already the light was sputtering, dying against the overwhelming wave of destruction. But then it sparked and caught golden, the flame becoming a nova and growing stronger as Kagome realized that the defense she and Inuyasha shared was collapsing, the momentary brightness suddenly streaking and darkening as it was consumed, sucked away by the negative aura. It would not hold for long.

A scalding sensation brushed against her neck, and she felt the thin slivers of the Shikon no Tama burning against her skin, glowing brightly as it danced outside the fabric of her shirt. She could feel the dark energy brushing past her, and if she reached out, she could slip her fingers through one of the sliding openings of protective light around her, and touch it. Karasu didn't even need to have it in hand. She was expanding aura with the destructive force, feeding off its power and growing, her energy beginning to come into contact with the power of the Shikon. It was not whole...but at this rate, it wouldn't need to be. Once the sheath was overwhelmed, they would be unguarded. There had to be a way to stop this before that happened. A way to pierce it. A way to turn it back.

Though clasped tightly against Inuyasha, she still held her bow in hand, an arrow nocked to fly. Over his shoulder, she raised her head and peered through the dense vortex, scouring the ground of cement and sending it flying into the air, a whirlwind. Through a mesh of earth, cement and metal from Mugen's worksite, the dark figure atop the obsidian pillar could be seen, a shadowy silhouette that remained solid within the roiling chaos. The raven woman seemed far away, unreachable. Though as she sought out Karasu, Kagome felt as though she was being watched through unfathomable ebony eyes, observant and calculating, expectant.

What did she expect? To win? To lose? If she won, she had the world. A world clean of humans and free for her daimon-youkai hybrids to spread. If she died, then she needn't worry about what would happen to her. All or nothing. And she was still waiting to be defeated. This was her best. If, in this last second before they were swept away, she could be killed, then there was no retaliation left in her.

Inuyasha felt her movement, suddenly struggling against him. Though from the corner of his eye, he could see her lips move, he could not hear what she said over the absence of sound. But as she lifted her bow to fire, he began to understand. In the dying shield of the sheath, he felt her grow tense as she drew back the bolt and released, the arrow's flight high and true, sweeping upward as it caught alight, lavender sparkling from its tip and streaking backward as it purified a path toward its goal.

He followed the arrowhead's path though the chaos, and saw a pair of impassive black eyes tracing its course as well. She did not move, but watched as it drew closer, silently observing as the metal point pierced the destructive wave. It spun against the wall around Karasu, pushing against the clear surface. Inuyasha didn't wait to see if it would breach the shield or not. He struck.

Kaze no Kizu had be turned aside, spun away as though nothing. This place was filled with her youki, reeking of decay and of death. It swirled with the smell of earth, though the stench of rot plugged his nose and the wail of the wind drowned his ears. But through the center of it all was a tear, a purified tunnel left open by Kagome. If this place was filled with youki, then it was through that he could turn it back on its owner.

"Bakuryuuha!"

Inuyasha had to release Kagome to make the sweep with Tetsusaiga, and he stood before her, only to feel himself caught up in the howl of the silence, tearing at him as the circular winds released a stream of energy, consuming the air.

From within a globe of gold, Sailor Moon saw a nightmarish memory replay itself before her. Once again she was within the chaos, again within the storm of the silence, all sides caught in the scouring wind pitch. Here, for a moment, there was a center of calm, a haven within the expanding wave. Chibimoon had moved first, sending out a blast to part the onslaught, only to watch as her attempt was battered and tossed aside. Tuxedo Kamen was now holding her from behind, the smaller scepter Chibimoon carried as a weapon gleaming Mamoru's gold, a conduit for the father and daughter's power. Together, they were expanding their peaceful realm.

It was then that she saw Kagome's arrow fly out, and saw Inuyasha's lips move in a rough, silent battle cry.

A fleeting worry crossed her mind: What were they trying to do?

She could see a faint, half decimated glow around them. They were still alive, protected somehow, though as she watched the swing of the Tetsusaiga, it faltered and sputtered, overwhelmed as the winds around them suddenly shifted. They entered a vortex, air sucked away as a streak of golden light ripped though the path Kagome's arrow had cleft, cutting tendrils though the youki and drawing it in.

And then it burst. From where the flow had waved outward, it reversed like a riptide, spinning out of pattern and countering itself. It grew. And grew again, cyclones of negative energy consuming themselves and rearing skyward, towering upward as they churned back.

Kagome had grabbed onto Inuyasha's sleeve and he her wrist, the two of them bracing themselves in the storm they had created, feet dragging against the pavement in an effort to resist without a barrier for defense.

The tornados clashed and became larger, sweeping backward toward their source, and wiping out everything in their way. From within the roaring columns came a flash of jeweled light, and an explosion that sent shards of obsidian crystal flying upward into the gale. Through it sliced a weapon, black shafted and silver bladed, arching high in the screaming wind and impaling itself in the torn earth. It steamed.

Building towers of wind continued to feed off themselves, howling their fury into the empty space and sweeping up the things of the Mugen worksite. They grew stronger as they worked outward, pulling in the chaos.

Kagome opened her eyes narrowly, and saw through the obliterating attack Inuyasha had unleashed. Nothing was slowing the Bakuryuuha. There was an unusual element blended with the youki, the destructive force of Saturn, whose nature was to destroy. Though Inuyasha had turned it back on itself, the Bakuryuuha was feeding. Feeding not only on Karasu's youki, but on the aura of Saturn, sweeping it into itself and increasing infinitely. It was unstable, and ripping apart the world.

It was then a silver kiss of moonlight touched them, soft as a caress. Within the chaos they'd unleashed, Sailor Moon had lifted her scepter. From its tip poured a steady, gentle stream of light that pooled away from her, spreading like ripples in a moonlit pond. She was shining, translucent and ethereal, corporeal body swept aside to reveal a creature of pure magic. A white gown flowed around her, a thousand points of light defining the brilliance, radiating through her as she held her Silver Crystal aloft, pouring its energy into the storm.

Slowly, steadily, her wave began to spread, caught as well in the blackened pillars of the Bakuryuuha. Standing within the expanding circle of peace, Kagome felt warm. A gentle warm, unlike the burning that had touched her flesh where the Shikon no Tama lay against her skin. There, too, it was warm, glowing beautifully, glowing divine. Within this place, she was watching as the world was illuminated from within, the darkness fading and the storm calming. The absence of light and sound had returned with the Bakuryuuha. Now it was soothed, no longer howling and wailing fury, but quieting to a whisper as the pale, shining light washed away the dark.

It revealed a world fallen to rubble. High towers had crumbled, leaving half formed pillars in their wake. Lit by the soft moonlight, they were ghostly, windows and alleys a tangle of shadows.

The figure that had been Sailor Moon lifted her white arms upward, cupping the weighted end of her scepter and letting the light flow over her fingers. She was no longer Sailor Moon, but someone else. A princess, a moon princess, who held in her slim hands infinite power.

It was not still. The winds had faded and become a whisper, something else that carried magic. The moon princess turned to Inuyasha and Kagome, her head tilted slightly to the side as she smiled at them from blue eyes. She looked almost as though she would laugh as she said: "Don't worry. I've done this before. Saturn once told me, 'Always with the end, comes hope and rebirth.' So now will I bring that again."

The crystal in her hands was bare, the scepter faded away as she drew it close to her. It pulsated, a star that flooded its light across the empty space to fill it. And wherever it touched, things grew. Broken buildings creaked and groaned, fading as they rose back toward the smooth, translucent dome in the sky. The lucid shield withdrew, pulling back as the light flowed through it, rippling across the ground it protected.

That light spread, touching every corner of every place. It breathed and exhaled, had a heartbeat that drove it further, beyond the ring where the curtain wall had touched the ground. Flowing like the tide, the broken places were reborn, reconstructed.

In a further district, a tracery of light flowed its way up the steps of a sunset lit shrine, finding its way to an old, destroyed well. A large, leafy tree stretched ancient limbs to shade the torn place, and it was the only witness to its rebirth. Within the shattered ground, moonlight flowed not downward, but upward, out from another space in time. The ruin was touched by both moon and setting sun at once.

Though no roof sheltered the dry well, the distant shade of the Goshinboku let only dappled red light touch it again.

It was just before I wrote this chapter that I got to see Inuyasha first get the Bakuryuuha in the anime. Originally, I was not going to include the use of it in the ending, though after getting to see it in the anime, I decided to go ahead and do so. This is one of the reasons I don't like releasing fics before they're completed...once posted, it's hard to go back and thread the use and knowledge of such an attack through the fic. Its first mention in chapter 27 seems a bit abrupt due to that, and I apologize...it was a last minute change in the style of ending.

If any of you are biology people out there, you're probably wondering why I used the title 'Apoptosis' for this chapter. In a biological sense, apoptosis is cell death in the body. The term though is Greek, meaning 'falling leaves.' When I was trying to come up with a chapter title, I'd recently read an article in a magazine about the process, and how it suggests that death is as natural as leaves falling from the trees...and eventually leads to new life again.

Music for this chapter was various. 'Vespertine' by Bjork, 'Karma' by Delirium, and the second Inuyasha OST again.

I hope you've enjoyed the fic. That was pretty much the end, though there is a chapter 29 on the way, with a little wrap up. Too long for an Epilogue, I made it a chapter, though that is essentially what it is.

Any questions, comments and criticisms will be welcomed. Flames will be doused with a Shine Aqua Illusion, provided by Sailor Mercury. ^_^
Hope you've had fun.
Til the final chapter.

~Queen