July 2, 2000
Author's Notes:
First off, let me apologize
to anyone who has been following this story
since '96. I am sorry I haven't posted anything in over
a year, almost two,
I think. I was writing mostly based
on thoughts I conjured in High School,
and when I left, I ran out of the need to send my thoughts into a fantasy
world. I wrote some freshman year of college, and
then I just stopped.
I re-read everything about
a few months ago (If you'll note, there are
a lot of version 1.2's of the previous episodes) and made a few changes,
mostly in grammar and spelling. Then
I rummaged around and found all of my
old papers and story notes.
I am currently re-writing
a lot of things, but I hope to have
everything finished in the next few months. I
mean, the whole story will be
finished and posted definitely by the end of September, at the latest.
I
hope to get it done by the end of July, but we'll see how school and job
permit.
I apologize to everyone, I know the
story lost many followers from my
lack of attention and my lapse. I hope you all enjoy how it all ends up.
I
actually wrote the basic outline of how I wanted it to end long before I even
came up with the beginning. It has
just taken me a dreadfully long time to
get all the way there.
Thank you all for coming
back and reading again and again. And thanks
to everyone who has emailed me or has written in my Guestbook about my
stories. I would have never gone back
to read any of it or to work on it if
not for some of your emails and entries.
I would especially like to thank a
certain Demosthenes (nice reference name, too, btw, and I read your Guestbook
entry long before you emailed me) who left me a little note that really helped
me change my mind and decide that this was something I really needed to do
(and
it made my day, too).
So I hope you all have enjoyed up to this point, and continue
to like
the story through its end. I've loved having you all read my work. Thank
you.
By : MakotoJade - makotojade@hotmail.com
Episode 14 : Serenity's Mistake
Risa gaped. She couldn't really do anything else. A few moments ago
her mind had almost ceased to function. In one moment, she was laying near a
fallen Tuxedo Mask, Sailor Moon crying over him. The next it seemed as if she
were half the field away as Queen Serenity knelt behind Princess Serenity...
who was crying over a fallen Endymion. She gazed around. All of the senshi
stood the same distance away as well. They all made up a rather large circle.
And in the center--
The Princess... There she was, Princess Serenity, the Princess she
and thousands of others had sworn to protect so very long ago. The
Princess... and... her mother.
Serenity... The light of the Universe, the one who's hand once held
onto galaxies. The ruler of the Silver Millennium... and her own savior as
well.
But, what had happened? A blinding flash of light and then they were
all here, on the moon, the battle and Sabi forgotten, everyone staring at the
specter of their royal highnesses.
And lying lifeless before the Princess... Mamoru!! Risa tried to
push herself to her feet, then failed with a moan. Her body had still not
recovered fully from the first of Sailor Moon's scepter blasts, let alone the
fight and beating the girl had then given her. She desperately kept her eyes
open and forced herself to think and to try and ignore the pain.
It was all she could do to just try to stay conscious, and watch...
* * *
"Mother?" Princess Serenity stared up in surprise. Then she looked
around her. "The moon. I'm on the moon again..."
Mamoru! The thought snapped back into the front of her mind as she
again looked down to the unmoving body she tightly held in her arms. She
choked out a sob, "Oh, what have I done!"
She felt her mother's hand grip her shoulder tighter. "Darling, would
you bid your Guardians to revive him?"
The Princess looked again at the elder Serenity, "Heal him?" She
looked back down at her love, "Yes! Yes, whatever can help him, please!!
Anything!"
Queen Serenity nodded, then stood, and swept her gaze across the area,
speaking in a quiet voice that shouted in certain minds. "GUARDIANS, I BID
THEE HEAL YOUR PROTECTORATE, THE ROYAL PRINCE OF EARTH, ENDYMION, WHO NOW
LAYS HERE BEFORE YOU."
* * *
Leeota's mind swam. Images and things that were happening around her
meant nothing. She, as well as the rest of the senshi around her, had entered
a trance-like state. Induced by Serenity, it controlled and blocked all but
four of the minds on the field. She would most assuredly never remember this
time.
When the tall white haired woman looked up next, a powerful golden wave
of command flowed over Leeota. She must follow it, she had to. She began to
walk towards the woman, to the center.
* * *
Pluto watched with great interest as the guardian senshi separated from
the rest of the group and walked to form a circle around the Princess and
Endymion.
She spoke to the Sage, "Wonderful! So many have survived! In all
accounts of my memory, only five other such rituals by Guardian senshi have
ever been performed. I have never been able to observe one myself, thought I
have been tempted many times to bend time slightly to go see one, isn't it so
intriguing..." She glanced at the girl beside her. The other senshi was
staring mindlessly towards the Queen.
Pluto sighed. "Oh well." The thought occurred to her to look around
for others who may still be aware. She couldn't see anyone but the Princess,
the Queen... and then her eyes fell on Risa and widened.
"Sailor Sabi is still very much aware." She thought for a time, "I
wonder if Serenity wanted this, or if her spell was somehow incomplete."
* * *
Risa watched as Leeota and several identically dressed others walked
down to form a large circle around Mamoru (Or Endymion? But he was Mamoru
either way to her) and the Princess. From where she was, she had heard every
exchange so far between the Queen and her daughter.
After the circle was complete, the Guardians suddenly began chanting,
not in any intelligible tongue, but in monosyllabic song rhythms, up and down
the scale.
Risa had almost fallen into the rhythm, enchanted, when suddenly every
girl in the circle began to glow. As she watched, the glow condensed, flowing
out of their arms and legs as their costumes became luminous. Then small
spheres formed in front of each girl, their intensity building with each second.
The brilliance almost burned itself into Risa's eyes, when suddenly each girl
screamed. The glow burst from them and pelted into Mamoru's body.
Risa cried as she watched him bounce around, as if someone were
punching him rapidly. Then he was still.
All of the Guardians seemed to melt. They fell to their knees,
released hands, and then fainted. Many fell gently to the ground. One
slammed into it.
"LEEOTA!" She forced herself to her knees, nearly passing out, and
weakly began crawling towards her friend. All my fault. She was so weak...
never should have let her come...
* * *
Tears continued to flow from the eyes of the Princess. Although she
suspected the senshi surrounding her were trying to heal him, the wild
thrashing of Endymion's body had terrified her.
"LEEOTA!"
She turned as she heard a cry. The red suited senshi whom Tuxedo Mask
had been protecting was struggling towards them slowly.
She felt her mother kneel back down beside her. "You should heal her,
she has been protecting this planet, as well as your love for the past
weeks."
"But... how can I?"
"You have the power, you are powerful enough to do that."
And as she spoke, the Princess knew exactly what to do.
She nodded, then clutched the crystal on her chest as she pointed her
other hand at the girl. "Moon Crystal Power," she whispered. Energy flew
toward the other girl from her outstretched hand.
"NO!!" The other girl screamed in terror... and then the energy washed
over her.
* * *
Risa saw the Princess shoot some sort of energy beam at her. She
screamed and tried to fling her hands up to block it, but they wouldn't
respond. She closed her eyes, and then it hit her.
She was awash in sudden life. She felt wounds closing on her body,
felt the tiredness fleeing and her alertness returning to her.
Then it was over and she realized she had been healed.
Risa breathed in slowly. Then, she tried to get up. She found it
suddenly easy, when moments ago her muscles had screamed in pain.
She stared at her hands for a moment, then her head cleared as she raised
her eyes back up. She hurriedly made her way to her friend's fallen body.
"Leeota?" Rolling her friends body over, she found her skin cool. She
quickly checked for a pulse... and found it, but weak, it was so very weak.
"Why?!?" she asked as she accusingly looked up at Queen Serenity. "Why
did you make her do it, she's so weak, she could die!"
The Queen's eyes saddened, and then, she bit her bottom lip. If Risa
hadn't been so worried, so unsure, she might have smiled, it made the dignified
Queen look very, very young. For someone so... ancient...
"I didn't know, and I am sorry. But her power was needed, and Guardians
do have special reserves for such a job." Her voice suddenly assumed a detached
quality, "It is their duty, to guard the royal family, and to give their lives,
if need be. It has been done time and time again—"
"Damn it, I don't care." Risa angrily interrupted. Something in her was
alarmed, was she yelling at Queen Serenity?!?! But she went on, "She's my
friend, and she is important to me, and it should be voluntary anyway." She
waved her hand and gestured at the others, "They all look like they've been
drugged. I understand it is important to save Mam-- Endymion, but not like
this, you forced it, they would have done it. The Silver Millennium doesn't
even exist anymore and I—-"
A tear suddenly escaped the Queen's eye, and Risa halted mid-sentence.
"I- I'm sorry, I was just angry, I- I care about Leeota and it just—-"
"No, it's alright, it's just that, it seems I've made another mistake."
She wiped her face and then sighed. "But, it is important that none of them
remember this, I want their lives to be less confusing, and I plan on restoring
everything as best I can as my last move in this game." She looked at Risa,
then turned to her daughter, "Serenity, do you feel up to healing her friend as
well?"
Risa turned to the Princess. The girl had been silently watching them.
She nodded. "I can tend to the others, too." She carefully moved out from
under Endymion, who appeared to be sleeping now, peacefully. She leaned over
Leeota and whispered some words. The color seemed to come back to Leeota's face
somewhat. Then the Princess moved on to the next girl.
Risa turned back to the Queen. "Is that it, then, is that why you are
here, to save Endymion?"
The Queen sighed, and then, in a very un-lady-like fashion, hiked up her
dress and then sat on the ground opposite Risa, who still held Leeota in her
arms.
"No, that was just something that happened, I had no real idea that was
going to occur. I actually came here to repay a debt."
Risa frowned, "A debt?"
"Yes, one that I owe you and the rest of these girls standing together
here. From long long ago."
Risa frowned more, if such a thing was possible and repeated, "A debt?"
Serenity sighed, "Because of a mistake."
* * *
"You remember, long ago, the fight against the darkness? How all of the
senshi of the galaxy were called in to help the fight. You, and the others that
were on this planet were about to take off in the space ship to bring you to the
Moon's system. The others, the ones you see here now from other planets, plus
countless thousands more, were either near the battle, or preparing to travel to
it.
"Then, the Princess was killed before my eyes, along with Endymion, and my
mind came up with only one solution. Save everything, save them all, and send
them to the future.
"I cried... but then I did it. And they were all sealed, Luna and Artemis
could go find the Princess when her soul awakened again, and could guide her
should evil ever befall her again.
"And then... and then...
"Well, and then I did something that occurred to me to be the right thing
to do... at the time...
"I sealed you all as well. With the power of my wand gone, I used the
scepter. I thought to save all of you for the future. You would all be born
again, a few years or so before or after the time Serenity's soul was released,
and I thought that you could all bring the galaxies back together, that you
could bring harmony back again.
"In the centuries that have passed since then, I have never regretted
anything more than that single act.
"I stole you away from a galaxy that needed you. Your planets were left
defenseless from the remnants of the Dark Army and without your powers, they
were quickly taken over. Empires fell, cultures deteriorated, your races became
slaves.
"All because of a single selfish act, from a vain Queen who pretended to
be a guardian. I basically left the universe defenseless.
"I have mourned this act, for eternity, and have awaited for a time to
arrive that I could somehow, in some small way, repay back to you, somehow,
something worthwhile."
* * *
Risa didn't know what to make of anything right at the moment. All she
could think about was the fact that the Queen, the one person she had deemed
infallible, in all of the memories she could recollect, had made a mistake.
But...
Serenity's eyes shone with unshed tears. Risa looked down and then looked
back up at her. "You couldn't have thought of everything in a single instant.
But, it still was wrong to think only of the future. In life, if you don't
think about where you are, what you are doing and what is going on, you won't
have a future to get to. What if the DarkNites had destroyed the Earth, then
even the Princess would not be here."
Serenity sighed, "You aren't telling me anything I haven't thought ten
thousand times in the hundreds of years that have passed. Repaying this debt
has been one of the things that has caused me to linger here as long as I have.
And I do not have that much longer."
She stood, all graceless manners gone, as she resumed the eerie Queen
stance of Risa's dreams, the elegance of something so old, so timeless. "And so
I must begin. First, your strength."
She leaned down and touched Risa's forehead. Risa gasped at how cold the
touch felt, and then she felt shields forming in her body, and a strength, as if
she could now hold something, contain something powerful...
"Then, Pluto?" The Queen turned.
Risa blinked, and then looked to where the Queen was facing. Sailor Pluto
stood, momentary shock passing her features, then she regained her silent
control, as she walked towards the Queen, "Yes, your Highness?"
"I trust you will be recording all this so that you may tell the Neo-Queen
as she will forget all of this until that time."
"Yes, your highness."
"And Pluto, I thought you were supposed to be in the time Gates at all
times, that is where you were, even during the attack on the moon."
"Ah, yes your Highness..." Risa thought she heard her mumble something
about 'stepping out for some coffee' before she looked back up at the Queen.
"It will not happen again."
The Queen looked at her and smiled slightly, "Oh, I'm sure it will, but
try not to do it too often, important events shall happen..."
The Princess had found her way back to them. "Moth—- Serenity, I have
healed as many as I could find injured. What should I do now?"
The Queen smiled at her, "You and Sailor Sabi must now save this world. I
have given her the power to use the power of others. You already have this gift
and have utilized it, have you not?"
The Princess nodded.
"Then together, you two must save Sabi. Then I will take care of the
rest. Well, most of it."
Risa slid Leeota off her lap carefully and then stood up. "What does that
mean? And just what am I supposed to do with other people's power, I mean, what
am I supposed to do."
"First the Princess must free their minds, then, you must all fight,
together, and then... then we will see."
"See?!?!" Risa said, anger rising in her voice, "What the hell does THAT
mean?? I mean-"
The Queen smiled.
The they were back on the plains of Sabi, and the battle raged around
them once more.
End Ep. 14
