"Horrible, isn't it?" a calm, quietly furious voice inquired.
The leader jumped. "Solar. I didn't hear you coming."
"Nor should you have. I teleported." Her narrowed eyes surveyed the section of ruined city that lay before them. There was a cry in the air, like the call of an eagle. Wind whistled through barren buildings. There wasn't a sound or soul in sight.
"Why?" Sailor Moon's breath exploded in a cry. "Why did he do this?! What is he after?! It's not right!"
Solar put a hand on her shoulder. "He did it because he can. Put plainly, he wants to kill us, Serena. Right now he's only threatening us."
It didn't even bother Sailor Moon that she knew who she was. "It'll get worse?"
"Much worse."
"What are you doing?"
"Calling the bird to us."
"Why?"
"So we can destroy it." A small ball of fire exploded into Solar's hand, and she tossed it up into the sky. It exploded like a signal flare.
"Where are the others?"
"They're coming."
"How do you always know all the answers?"
"When you've lived as long as I have, you'll find there's little you don't know."
The clattering of the other senshi's feet were drowned out by the angry shriek of the shadow bird. Sailor Moon whimpered and grabbed Solar's wrist as it reared up over the horizon, hiding the sun behind its giant wings. Instead of black, though, it was blood red. It looked more like...
"A phoenix!" Pluto and Solar chorused. Solar's mouth dropped, and Pluto shook her head in disbelief. "It's an illusion, then?" Pluto murmured.
"Yes." Solar's chuckle caught them all off guard. She snapped her fingers, and the larger-than life bird suddenly shrank to a size about her own height. "Praises be."
"A phoenix did this? There's no way. If it was that size, it's a miracle the entire population of earth wasn't wiped out."
"The bird didn't do it. No bird did it." Solar's expression turned crestfallen.
"If the bird was an illusion, is the city?" Destruction whispered, voicing the senshi's hope.
"No. The city is...as it appears."
All the senshi were sobered and near tears at the destruction of Tokyo. "How do we fix it? How do we bring back all the lives that were lost?" Jupiter inquired.
"Had this been anywhere else, I would have left it. Had this been another time, I would have left it." Solar watched the phoenix, silent now.
"But our friends our down there, dying, dead!" Tuxedo Mask said, voice sharp in alarm.
"If you're worried about the girl again, my prince, she is safe."
"How can anyone be safe down there?" Venus demanded, voice tight.
"Atia." Uranus stared at Solar and Tuxedo Mask in surprise. "You're talking about Atia."
"If that's her name, then yes. Again, don't worry about the girl. She can take care of herself."
"If she's okay, then prove it! Call her or something! Make her come to us!"
Solar never once looked at the senshi. "Why is this girl so important to you, Tuxedo Mask?"
"I know her the same way I know you. You're both shadows, hovering in my memories but never brought into the light. She's ill, Sailor Solar, and I worry about her constantly. I feel responsible for her in a way I cannot possibly describe."
"Ah." Solar lifted her head a little. "Look out there, Tuxedo Mask. Look at the people." Her voice shook in quiet fury and sorrow. "Look at them, dead and helpless. Left to die while their guardians wallowed in their own problems." Her fists clenched.
"Solar..." Pluto's voice held a warning note.
Solar cried out and spun around, arms wrapped tight around herself and eyes shut tight. "He knows what he's doing, Pluto! He knows what he's doing to me! I can feel myself slipping, loosing, giving in."
"But Solar," Pluto was smiling, "this isn't the past. This isn't the Silver Millennium. This is Tokyo. It's only a city. You can fix a city."
"I can fix a city, but I cannot fix an empire." Solar stared at the ground, eyes open now. "I cannot fix my own kingdom." She whirled around, swept a hand, palm-up, before her.
Suddenly the city began glowing. The buildings flew back into place; roads were rebuilt; bridges reconstructed. Everything was as it was before. Except for the people. The people, lifeless corpses, with blood tainting everything.
Solar's outstretched fist clenched, and the blood vanished. The bodies were healed, and the people looked like they were sleeping. Her fist tightened to the point of drawing blood, and the droplets pooled in her palm before splashing to the ground. A rose shot up, and suddenly the people woke up, sat up, got up, and walked around as though nothing had happened. Nor did they notice the hovering phoenix.
The newest sailor lifted her bleeding hand to the sky, and a blue bolt shot from her hand and covered the entire sky, then vanished. The phoenix disappeared as well. Solar's shaking hand came to rest before her eyes, then the cuts and blood vanished.
"Pluto." The woman looked at Uranus. "Why aren't you worried about Atia?"
"I know she's capable of taking care of herself. When you know her as long as I have, you just...know...these things."
Solar stared over the city. "They know nothing. The world knows nothing. If only I could...if there was a way..." She sank to one of her knees and picked the rose on the ground. "An emblem of promise and hope. And yet..." her thumb pricked itself on a thorn, "It has the ability to create tears and draw blood. Just like love."
She stood and tossed the rose off of the hill. A breeze picked it up and carried it out over the city, far out of sight. "Your friend, Atia? She isn't ill." She began walking down the hill. "She needs your love, trust, and faith. She doesn't need medications or constant watching." The girl glanced over her shoulder. "She needs your help. She's caught in a triangle that has only one way out. Make sure that door stays closed." Grabbing her hands behind her back, she continued walking.
Her voice carried melodiously over the breeze in acapella song. "...and I never stopped to realize what was passing me by...with love as a gesture. Catch a glimpse, reflections of what would, should, and could have been...pictures, and memories, and hope once again..."
Serena flew up from her sleep with a gasp, sweat beading and running down her face. Had it really happened? Had Tokyo really been destroyed, only to be brought back again? The song Solar had been singing rang in her ears. "Hope once again," she whispered, flopping back down onto her bed and staring at the ceiling. "It would be nice to be able to hope for something besides hoping we can beat an enemy."
The blonde found herself unable to sleep. She rolled over onto her stomach and stared at her headboard. "It's Solar. That's it. She seems so sad. And angry; defiantly angry." She sighed. "She's a good fighter. Loyal." Serena looked towards her window, at the sky. "And then there's Atia. She's so nice. and helpful. She's a good friend, too." She shook her head. "What to make of them."
She silently got up and walked over to her window, sitting down on the ledge as she stared at the moon. "Why does my life have to be so complicated?" she whispered.
"Because, deep down, you know you love it," a familiar voice answered.
"Solar?" Serena started, staring at the sailor now sitting on her bed in surprise. "How'd you get here?"
"I teleported." Solar shrugged. "I could feel your confusion and thought I'd come pay you a visit, princess."
"You felt it?"
"M-hm. I can feel all of yours and the others' feelings. Most of the time I let it be, but I thought you might want some questions answered," Solar replied, smiling gently.
"Actually...yes. First of all, where do you get your accent from?" Serena shrugged down her surprise.
"On Saturn, we spoke many languages. I personally find some clips of the Japanese language difficult, but usually there is no accent."
"You mean, we had our own language?"
Solar nodded. "Each planet has it's own language - universal language, that is. For example, the earth's is English. The Moon's was Lunarian."
"Wow." Serena was silent for a moment. "Can you tell me some things about the Silver Millennium? I mean, not everything, but...well, tell me about you in the Silver Millennium. Tell me about Saturn."
For a moment, Solar looked uncertain, maybe even distraught. Then, she smiled. "I'd be glad to tell you about Saturn."
The sailor smiled, then stood silently and covered Serena up gently. As she turned towards the window, a hand enclosed around hers. "Solar?"
"Yes, Serena?" Solar turned back around.
"Thank you. Would you do me a little favor and...*yawn*...check on Darien?" she asked sleepily.
"Of course I will."
Serena smiled, then released her hand and fell asleep.
"-no sense!" he nearly shouted, grabbing at his hair in frustration. "What could be wrong with her?"
Darien stood up and paced, arms behind his back and head down ever so slightly. He was hot, wearing no shirt and rolling his pants legs up as a result. He sighed angrily, then paused to rub his increasingly-heavy eyelids.
Suddenly he heard keys on his keyboard tapping and whirled around, astonished out of speaking to see Sailor Solar sitting before it and typing in words on his internet research. "There's no name for it, prince. It's many things." She folded her hands in her lap and looked up at him with a soft smile.
"S-Solar! What are you doing here?" he asked, tone not un-kind.
"Serena asked me to come check on you. Good thing I did. Looks like you're near a breakdown. Wanna talk about it?" she asked, stretching her arms above her head.
He couldn't help from smiling, even if it was a sad one. "Can we go in the back? I think I need to lay down."
"Of course." She followed him to his bedroom and plopped down onto his bed, leaning against the headboard with her hands behind her head. "So, let me guess what's bugging you. A little bit of everything, including me. Am I right?"
Darien's eyes widened as he lay down beside her. "Yeah." Strange, he felt comfortable with her near him. Reassured, even.
"You're under a lot of stress. School's a bear, you're confused about the enemy, worried about the girl, and wondering what my deal is."
He didn't answer for a minute. "You're exactly right." It was her turn to listen now. "I just feel all this weight on my shoulders when we fight an enemy. It's like everyone looks to me as to what we should do when I really don't know myself. It's like they all lean on me, but the truth is...well..." she heard slight embarrassment in his voice as he sat up, "I don't feel I have anyone to lean on."
"Everyone needs someone to lean on." Solar put a hand on his shoulder. "You know, Darien, you can always lean on me."
"But...Solar...you keep saying you're going away soon. What will happen when you leave?" He was so stressed out she could hear tears in his voice.
She put an arm around him, and he leaned against her. "I honestly don't know. But until then, I'm here for you."
"You were there for me in the Silver Millennium. Something happened, and you were always there. Like a sister or even a mother," he said suddenly, remembering vaguely.
Solar's eyes softened. "Something did happen. When Brooke died, nobody knew what to do with you. Your father was double-loaded with responsibility and had no time to raise you. By that time, Lia had been decreed ruler of Saturn, leaving me with an open doorway. As fate would have it, Serenity brought up the notion that I could take care of you. So...I did."
"You were my mother?"
"I played the part, yes. Boy, did we have some interesting times," Solar replied wistfully. "I still remember, very clearly too, the day I arrived to take care of you. It was nearly two weeks after Brooke's death, and you were so depressed for a six year-old. You had given up eating, never talked, did nothing but mope. People always said you were fond of me, but I never really thought that much about it until you saw me arrive. You lit up brighter than the sun and ran up to me, and when I picked you up, you said very clearly, 'I missed you lots! Are you going to stay with me for a while? I have a picture I want to show you.' Then you ran and got a picture of me holding you when you were just a baby. You were so happy then, even without your mother."
Darien was having difficulty holding tears back. This woman was all but his mother, and she wouldn't even let him remember her. It was then he realized that she was suppressing their memories for a very important reason, one he was quite sure he didn't want to know.
He switched positions, leaning against her and leaning his head against her shoulder, stretching out the lower half of his body as though to lay down. Solar closed her eyes, then brought her other arm up and held him. Darien felt more secure, safe, and loved in that one moment that he could ever remember in his entire life.
The tears of frustration, confusion, hopelessness, and pain that he had been holding back broke free, cascading lightly over the edges of his eyes and coursing down his cheeks. They were absorbed by Solar's white body suit, and she gently ran her hand through his hair for reassurance.
When Darien woke up the next morning, Solar was still there, and he was still in her arms. Amazingly enough, he felt no aches or pains usually accompanied by sleeping in one/odd positions during the night. Glancing up at her, she slept easily, looking perfectly content.
Darien yawned softly, studying her. She, like Pluto, didn't show the age she surely must've been. Right now, she had the serenity of a goddess, but he knew that the peaceful features could flatten into murderous anger in no time flat.
Just as he was trying to think of a way to wake her up, his alarm clock went off, and the sailor that held him jerked ever so slightly and blinked sleepy eyes at the unfamiliar sound. She looked down at him, and they exchanged smiles.
"Good morning," she said around a yawn.
He chuckled. "Good morning."
"I guess I'd better get going, since you have school and all."
He heard the regret in her voice and sighed. "I guess so." Another odd thing - he'd been up half the night and didn't even feel tired. Neither moved for a few minutes, then Darien sat up, and Solar swung her legs off of the bed. "Oh! The phoenix...the city..."
Solar stood stiffly at the question. "That was not a dream."
He was stunned out of speaking for a moment, then, "Solar? Thank you."
"You're welcome. Anytime you need me, just call. I'll be there."
He didn't doubt her for an instant.
