Treason
11
(Battle Royale)
The journey towards the center of Tokyo was a slow one and we had already wasted valuable time convincing Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen that this was, indeed, the most sound move. Now with the burden of the little senshi they called Chibi-Moon, we could not move as quickly. It was beyond me why a senshi so young and obviously so fresh in her training was sent to a battlefield alone. I could only see her as being a burden and hindering the abilities of the senshi around her as they tried to fight their enemy and protect her at the same time. That wasn't what was important now, my mind let go of its insignificant questioning and focused on the road ahead.
Mars had been completely silent since we started moving. It was her and I in the lead while the other three followed a distance behind. I glanced back frequently to check on their position and couldn't help but feel as though I was being pushed out. I suppose it was insecurity, because what did I truly have to go on in this situation? Had she given me the slightest inkling that I could be the one in her future?
"What are you expecting when we reach the tower?" Mars' question broke through my thoughts and brought them back to more sensible manners. She hadn't bothered to turn her attention in my direction, but still stared flatly ahead.
"I don't know." I answered her truthfully as I kept up my pace. "My guess is that we'll meet with a small army of Epochs and undoubtedly some more of his cannons. I don't know anything about the cannons though, so I'm at a disadvantage."
"I'm not familiar with them either." Mars stated coolly. "But I do know this, if we take a shot in that close of a proximity to the cannon, we won't have a second chance." Her head turned to me to emphasize her point and I just nodded, already having suspected the grim reality.
"They won't leave the Chibi one behind, will they?" I asked as I inspected the three behind me.
Mars simply shook her head in response and looked up at me with saddened eyes that made my stomach sink. "Fighter, Chibi-Moon is the future daughter of Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen."
I couldn't stop myself from looking back again. A great feeling of loss swept over me along with what I could only describe as a sickness, and I felt my posture sag a little more. I was facing such defeat and yet I was carrying on? I knew Mars could sense my disappointment, my anguish and rage, but like a fool I only tried to mask it with useful battle information. "I think it would be best if she stays behind then." I thought bitterly of Kamen for a moment, unsure of whether or not it was because he had a child in the future with my Odango or if it was because he was marching that innocent child into battle.
Mars smiled as she looked back upon them too. I was sure by now they were aware we were talking about them, though they couldn't hear our conversation. "Chibi-Moon gives Sailor Moon strength."
"Chibi-Moon gives Sailor Moon a handicap." I shot back a bit too bitterly.
"Do you really not understand, or do you not want to?" Mars asked sympathetically with a bit of a smile. I didn't even have time to counter her statement, having dwelled upon my own thoughts for too long, when a row of Epochs came into our view and stopped us in our place. Moments later the others caught up.
We had not been spotted yet and took an extra measure to conceal ourselves behind a fallen structure. "Where are all the people?" Sailor Moon asked, once again concerned for the well fare of others.
"I was wondering that myself." I answered without turning my head towards her. I was finding it more and more difficult to look at her now. Just a glimpse of her face was like torture and beauty working together in perfect harmony to besiege my senses.
"I find it hard to believe you thought of someone other than yourself." I heard Kamen mumble beneath his breath, perhaps he hadn't meant for me to hear his words, but they reached my ears nonetheless. I turned around and shot him a glare, telling him that I didn't appreciate the comment and caught the stern look that Sailor Moon was shooting him as well.
The man did have a reason to resent me, but not to take it out on me at such a time. He had enough proof beside him that I was insignificant to Sailor Moon's future, his pink-haired daughter was the evidence. "Fighter!" Mars called me back to our task at hand. "You and I should go ahead and scout out just what we're up against. Saturn, you should stay here with Sailor Moon."
"I'll come with you." Tuxedo Kamen stood with his cane clutched at his side.
"What can you do?" I stood, staring him in the face defiantly before turning and walking away. He didn't follow, but I heard the heels of Mars' shoes coming up quickly behind me.
"You didn't have to say that." She commented when she finally reached me in my agitated state.
"I know." I said bluntly, knowing that I had somehow fallen down a level. I had just wanted to prove that I had something that he couldn't. I was a senshi and could protect the ones that I loved, did it matter that I wasn't allowed to? He had my Odango, but I could still pretend to have my soldier's pride.
Surrounding the base of Tokyo Tower was a massive army of Epochs. I watched as Mars' eyes lit with what I assumed to be panic. "It's not as bad as it looks." I tried to soothe her. "You and I can take the lot of them out. What I'm worried about is why he needed them as decoration?"
"Decoration?"
"Yes, there has to be something hidden behind them. Something we're not supposed to see until it's too late. He knows full well that Epochs cannot challenge a senshi. It's like a suicide wall." I strained my eyes to try and focus on what could be hidden beneath the massive steal structure of the tower. The lights that adorned the outer walls of the tower were shining outwardly and blinding me in the process. It was impossible. There was no way of knowing what we were going to face until we destroyed the Epochs.
"Are you sure about this?" Mars asked skeptically.
I nodded my head to show her I was serious. "I'll go first. I'm going to circle in from the right, just over that hill. Don't charge until you see that I've made significant progress in depleting the standing troops. If they do decide to open up with whatever is nestled beneath the tower, I'd rather only one of us fall."
The senshi of Mars stared at me with unsurety still and it didn't help to boost my ego at all. I knew I could do this, I just wish she had believed in me as well. "Ready?"
"Wait! What about Sailor Moon?" She had a hold on my arm and was looking me dead in the eye.
I pulled my arm free and returned the stare. "I don't want to see her in this battle, do you?" She shook her head. "Then we take care of this ourselves." Before she even had time to answer my statement I was gone.
The pain in my leg was slowly subsiding as I moved much more quickly over the landscape of the once flourished city. This was going to be one hell of a mess to clean up, there was no doubt about it.
My mind wandered to where Healer and Maker could be. After all of this and throughout what was going on, I didn't even want to think of losing either one of them, but the thought was inevitably chewing at the back of my mind. I was sure that Maker would have stopped me in my mini-quest just now, saying something logical as to why what I was doing was wrong or that it was going to fail. How many times had she saved me from myself? Too many to count…
I was just about ten feet from the first bordering row of Epochs. They stood as though they were just nameless, faceless creatures placed there by some greater force. This was exactly how I needed to see them. I couldn't picture them with family or friends, I had to see them as mindless pieces of meat, otherwise I couldn't do it. Rising slowly from my position, I loomed over them from atop my perch like impending death that stalked them. Gathering the last of the breath that I needed, like fueling my courage, I began to unleash my fury.
"STAR SERIOUS LASER!!" My laser crashed through at least thirty Epochs in its first run. Not even waiting for them to produce a counter attack, I raised my yell before me again. I wasn't going to let them touch me, there was no need, though a few thought they were smart and tried to circle back behind me. It wasn't long before they found my heel or my fist in their face. This wasn't a challenge at all, Healer with her whining and complete revulsion for physical exertion in training, put up more of a fight than this.
Soon I saw a snake of fire breaking a path through from the other side of our endless sea of Epochs. I knew Mars had come, but I didn't know why she had come so early. I knew we had to be getting them down in numbers, but I couldn't help the feeling that more were coming as we killed their comrades. Each dent we made seemed to be filled with yet another mindless soul. It wasn't that we couldn't handle it, the whole situation was just draining.
The heat at my back was becoming unbearable and made me risk a glance back at it. My eyes widened in disbelief as I spotted the landscape around us in flames. Mars' attacks had ignited the fallen structures around us and the inferno that had built up, would no doubt cook us alive if she continued to feed it. "MARS!" I called out trying to gain her attention. She appeared deaf to my cries and I watched as she shot yet another blast of fire out at the crowd. "MARS!!"
Her head finally turned as I was almost upon her. "You can't use your attack any more!" I explained to her, pointing out the danger that we had produced while fending off the oncoming Epochs.
"What else can I do? The only thing I have is fire!" She shrieked as she noticed the cushion she had created between herself and the Epochs was getting smaller.
"We can't run away now, we just have to fight them off the best we can." I explained but I could already feel my energy fading. I turned in a half circle with my back to Mars and fired my laser once more.
"They're increasing in numbers, you see that right?" She asked over her shoulder of me as she fought back to back with me. My body flinched for a moment as she had confirmed my own suspicions with her observation.
This battle was becoming more serious now, and I cursed myself mentally for not having thought this through all the way. I truly did need Maker and Healer, we were a team. A scream sounded behind me and it was followed by a dull thud. Mars had been hit and was about to be taken down. Now I was protecting her and myself both. There was a circle of Epochs around us now that stretched as far as my eyes could see. Where was everyone now?
Suddenly a bright light began to filter in through the bodies of the Epoch and reached my eyes. A calm and serene feeling passed through my body at its touch. What was this wave? Since the Epochs had stopped advancing, I found time to pick Mars up to her feet. "Sailor Moon." The words escaped her lips and I watched as her head picked up in the direction of the light.
I turned my eyes to take in what she had seen and saw Sailor Moon standing high above us like an angel. Her tier was raised above her head with her eyes closed in concentration while the wind rustled her skirt and wings behind her. She was beautiful. Ear piercing screams sounded all around us and I knew that it was the Epochs falling to her power. I couldn't even bring myself to tear my eyes away from the sight of her to witness the fall of the enemy, she was too captivating.
When the light began to fade and my mind began to register more than just her, I noticed she was flanked on either side by Tuxedo Kamen and Chibi-Moon. The magic died a little.
The Epochs around us had all fallen subject to her extraordinary light. Her power was truly a miraculous and unrivaled by any that I knew. A sharp pain flashed through my mind as I remembered just what was going on. Before I even thought of helping Mars with her condition, I my attention flew to the base of the tower. "What the hell is that thing?" I asked incredulously. My suspicions were correct in the fact that Zankou had been concealing something at the base of Tokyo Tower.
Swirling gases reflected a pale blue light and illuminated the steel structure of the tower from below. It looked as though it was a mini solar system, or possibly even a milky way. But that was impossible. Such a thing couldn't exist under conditions like these. Regrettable moments later, Sailor Moon had joined our side followed closely by Kamen and Chibi-Moon. "What is that?" Sailor Moon asked as her eyes stayed fixed on the unknown presence beneath the tower.
"That my dear is the outer edge fringe from the Crescent Nebula." Zankou's voice enveloped us with a contemptuous tone. "Surrender now and I will spare you this painful death."
"What?" Kamen exclaimed as his eyes tried in vain to assess the situation. I knew of the Crescent Nebula all too well and couldn't believe that we were facing a part of it now.
"The soul of the dying star." I said to answer his question and I felt their eyes upon me once more.
"Fighter?" Sailor Moon questioned me and I couldn't help but turn and stare straight into her gaze.
"That-" I pointed to the swelling mass of gas before us, ever changing in its shape and color. "Is a shell of gas, a Nebula, that surrounds a dying star. On Kinmoku-sei we called it the soul of the dying star."
"So it's just a bunch of gas, what is it going to do? Burn us?" Mars asked not sensing the severity of the situation.
I shook my head, tearing my eyes from the fascinatingly gruesome sight. "If it's resurrected, all hell will be set loose upon us."
"Resurrected?" Mars questioned me again, since I had obviously not given her all the answers that she sought.
"It is a dying star. I am a star. Stars don't die, they fade away releasing their energy slowly, until ultimately they disperse in a built up supernova explosion. The Crescent Nebula is an exception though, it is not just one star, it is a fallen army of senshi from long ago." The stories that I was told came back to me, having never truly known the stars that were trapped inside the Nebula, I didn't know personally what they were truly capable of. "It was estimated that it would disperse soon, his plan must have been acted on in desperation as he saw his chances slipping away."
"We have to face an army of Star Senshi?" Kamen asked incredulously.
"Only if they are resurrected." I chided, not turning to confront him. "He only needs one of us to do that though."
"And where are your other little friends now?" Zankou asked mocking us in the process. He didn't let on to whether or not he had them, or even if he knew. For all we knew, he had all of them, and was just waiting to feed them to the Nebula.
I was well aware that he wasn't just going to let us stand here forever debating the matter. If we didn't make a move soon, he was going to. "I'm going after him." I turned back to look at Saturn, her judgment being the one thing I feared right now. Her eyes narrowed a bit and I could tell she had felt me trying to sense her thoughts. "You know what will happen if you drop the glaive, ne?"
The adolescent's face was still as stone as her head simply nodded at me. If she were to lower the glaive to end the battle all humanity may be lost and not just on this planet. The Nebula would suck into itself all of the released souls and power up beyond belief. She was so considerably younger than Sailor Moon and Kamen, but seemed to hold a wisdom that they couldn't fathom, unlike her smaller counterpart.
"Fighter, you can't go by yourself!" Sailor Moon complained holding her broach tightly to her chest.
"Yeah Fighter baka, did you really think you could do it alone?" I turned around to see the sardonic face of Healer standing behind me with Venus by her side. "I'm coming with you."
"Maker wouldn't approve." I shot her a half smirk, amused with her cockiness even now.
"I don't see her here to complain." Her face straightened out and I was afraid to ask. Had Maker fallen?