THE PRICE OF FREEDOM,
Part Ten: "The Union of Souls"
By Bill K.
Oblivious to everything that was happening elsewhere, Haruka continued to wedge the bobby pin between the connected halves of her collar. She had been trying for an unguessed amount of time. Frustration was beginning to mount in the tall blonde. She shoved it aside. Discomfort was beginning to mount, too, as was doubt. That was the work of the collar, so she shoved that aside as well, though with far more difficulty than she liked. The image of her imminent failure loomed in the back of her mind like a spectral spirit, planted possibly by the collar and possibly by her own fatalist imagination. But doggedly she pressed on, fighting the image with the more recent memory of Serenity being locked into one of the foul collars, too.
"What are you doing?" a voice whispered near her.
Haruka turned her back to the voice, shielding her efforts, and glanced over her shoulder. It was Vontrell. She was from another planet - - Haruka had heard once, but forgot - - and had been downed by Queen Desiree's secret photon cannon as she and Michiru had. She, too, had fallen into slavery in Desiree's harem. With her milky pale skin, slim figure, delicate face with large pool-like red eyes and flowing pale white hair, she had caught Haruka's notice. Naturally Desiree found her 'exotic'. For a time, Vontrell had been Desiree's favorite - - Haruka knew what that entailed - - until the fickle queen acquired a new slave and forgot Vontrell.
Vontrell was shunned by the native slaves of this place, just as Haruka was. She had suffered a fate similar to Haruka. Yet Haruka turned away, fearful of what Vontrell might do should she discover what Haruka was trying.
"Are you trying to open your collar?" Vontrell asked. Her voice always reminded Haruka of the trill of a songbird, even after all that had happened to them.
Haruka ignored her.
"It won't work," Vontrell told her, placing a delicate hand on Haruka's shoulder. "The collars are permanent. We can't escape them." She fell silent for a moment. "Though I wonder if that's my thinking or that of this devil's-made device."
Haruka kept working, grimacing as the collar nipped at her again.
"You're very stubborn," Haruka heard the pale beauty say. It didn't sound like a condemnation. "Perhaps that will allow you to succeed where I have failed."
There was a pause, as if she were waiting for Haruka to react. Haruka kept working on her collar.
"I admit, I've resigned myself to living out my life in this wretched purgatory. I've - - done things that I never would have thought myself capable of when I was a free woman. Laid down with another woman - - oh how I have debased myself in the eyes of the Blessed Mokt. Perhaps that's why he's forsaken me. I have broken his commandment that only male and female shall mate. Or perhaps - - he just despises the weak."
"We've all been weak," Haruka said softly, without looking at her, "in our own way. Don't blame yourself. We can only do what we're able to do."
"T-Thank you," Vontrell said. "You're generous to say so."
"Forget it. Actually you reminded me of something I learned a long time ago - - that being overcome by a superior force isn't a sign of weakness. It's just bad fortune. I kind of forgot that for a while."
"It's easy to do," Vontrell said softly. "We fall so easily into despair. I don't know if it's these wretched collars or the agony of our lot here."
Haruka continued to work on her collar.
"Do you miss your love?" Vontrell asked.
"Every day," Haruka whispered. "You?"
"I had no love when I ran afoul of this place. I had many suitors. I miss that. I miss being pursued. I miss being courted. I miss the thrill of experiencing a new male." Haruka heard her shudder out a breath. "I've been here so long, though, that I can't recall why I was attracted to them. I have been in this place of no males for so long - - I can't remember what they look like."
Dismissing her momentary sympathy, Haruka pressed on.
"Can you still recall your male?" Vontrell asked.
"I-I'm going to get out of this," Haruka said haltingly. "I have to. Too much is at stake."
"Then, if he will still listen to me, I pray that Blessed Mokt grant you his aid."
"Thanks, I guess." Haruka pressed on. "Vontrell - - when I get free, I promise I won't leave you behind."
To Haruka's surprise, she felt Vontrell's lips press gratefully to her shoulder.
With growing contempt, Sailor Moon watched her mother crouch at the feet of their captor, Queen Desiree, and beg for the life of Sailor Mars. She wanted her mother to do something to humble this arrogant queen, or to do it herself, but every time she considered such action, the girl felt suddenly listless and nauseous. No doubt Serenity was feeling the same, preventing her from turning the chains and collars into dust. And everybody knew how much her friends, or any life, meant to Queen Serenity - - certainly more than her pride.
But she should be above this, the young princess thought irritably. It was embarrassing.
"These collars are too tough," whispered Sailor Ceres, captive beside the princess. "I want to use my power to take control of the plants in this room, but every time I try I just feel so weak." She looked at Sailor Moon glaring at the queen. "How about you?"
"Same here," Sailor Moon replied. "But at least I'm facing it like a warrior."
"Queen Desiree, please!" cried Serenity. "You can't take Mars' life! It's not right!"
"She is a traitor to her kind," Desiree said coldly. "Death is all she deserves."
"Oh, please, won't you understand? We're all the same kind! All of us! Hair color doesn't separate us anymore than any other feature! We all have life! We all love and grow and feel! We're all humans! To help one person isn't betraying all the rest! It's enriching them!"
"Again you preach this drivel to me," sneered Desiree.
She looked around and focused on a scullery slave in the corner of the room. The woman wore tattered rags covering her modesty and the standard collar and chains. Her green hair was faded and her face and body were withered with age and abuse. She mopped absently, as if her mind had shut down from the drudgery of her life.
"You! Slave! Come here!" barked Desiree.
The scullery slave worked for several more moments, not realizing she was being addressed. One of the guards finally stomped over and slapped her. Once she realized she was being summoned, the woman scurried over on ancient legs and cowered ten paces from Desiree.
"Do you see this - - thing?" Desiree asked Serenity, the loathing vibrant in her eyes. "This thing you claim we are all equal with? This THING owned my mother."
Serenity stared up in surprise.
"This city in the clouds was built by the green hair, her among them, but with the forced labor of my people. They bled us all dry and then tossed the empty husks over the side to land below. They grew fat from the sweat of my ancestors. But my mother was a brilliant mind, too brilliant for them to break. She found a way to turn the tables on these - - animals - - and allow my people to reclaim their dignity as beings and assume their rightful place."
Serenity looked at the old woman. She seemed so sad and pitiful. It was easy to picture her having fallen far and endured much.
"And you claim that such a thing deserves kindness? No. May I be struck dead before I show one of them mercy. And so shall any black hair who does the same."
"Do you think she can talk her out of this?" Ceres whispered to Sailor Moon.
"I guess if anybody can, Mom can," Sailor Moon whispered back. "I know I'd rather depend on my wand right now."
"I'm very sorry for all you've endured, Your Majesty," Serenity said, head bowed. "You and your people suffered greatly from a terrible, undeserved fate. If I could ease your pain, I would without any thought of reward, for no one should have to go through such treatment." She then raised up her head and opened her blue eyes. They locked on Queen Desiree without showing any fear or malice. "But can't you see how your pain has twisted you? You've become exactly what you loathed in your oppressors. What does that gain? What can that bring besides more suffering and hatred?"
"It gains me vengeance," Desiree said proudly. "If you saw the joy in my mother's face when her captors were finally in chains, ground beneath her heel, you wouldn't say such silly things."
"But vengeance is a drink that steals one's humanity rather than enriches it, and leaves the person only thirsting for more. It only continues a circle of pain and revenge, oppression and pain, until everyone is consumed by it. Please, Your Majesty, for your own sake - - for the sake of your people - - stop the circle. Embrace your enemy and show them a better way."
Serenity waited patiently, hopefully, as Desiree stared at her. Sailor Moon looked at her mother - - perhaps in a new light.
"Either you are a fool," Desiree began dourly, "or you think me one and seek to mock me. I have heard enough either way." Desiree slid out of the throne and to her feet. She took two steps toward Sailor Moon, reaching out to the girl. "Come, my beautiful new slave - - I must show you your new duties."
"USA!" Serenity gasped out. With a sudden surge of maternal desperation, the queen, still on her knees, lunged past Desiree at her daughter. Serenity's collar took on a deep blue glow and the queen grimaced, but it wasn't enough to quell the desire to shield her only child from harm. Sailor Moon reached out to her, equally desperate not to be separated from her mother, and two hands clasped.
And the room exploded in light.
A hair pin slipped from groaning, pain-wracked fingers. It bounced once on the marble floor, then skidded to a stop. Tired eyes looked at it. Haruka wanted to bend down and pick it up, but she just couldn't summon the energy to do it.
"What's the use," she sighed. "It was never going to work."
She felt Vontrell's hands caress her shoulders and the woman's chest press up against her back in sympathy.
"Don't curse yourself, please," Vontrell whispered. "You did what you could."
Haruka wanted to scream, curse, break something. She'd failed - - failed herself, failed Serenity and the others, failed Michiru's memory. But she couldn't muster the strength to do it. If it weren't for Vontrell's sympathy, she might begin crying again and that wouldn't help anything.
"Share your warmth with me?" Vontrell asked.
Haruka tensed. Was Vontrell asking what she thought Vontrell was asking?
"Forgive me if I seem forward," Vontrell said, sensing Haruka's tension. "I don't know where that came from myself. I have always been attracted to males until I came here. This place - - the things I've been forced to do - - perhaps they've changed me somehow. I - - find comfort being near you. I think of you in ways I used to think of males."
"Vontrell," Haruka began.
"I have shocked you. I apologize. I meant no insult."
"It's not that."
"Then," Vontrell began, "perhaps you don't find me attractive."
"No. You're easily the most beautiful woman in this room. But I can't. I won't dishonor the memory of Michiru that way."
"Me-Che-Ru is your mate?"
"Was."
"I grieve for your loss. He must have been a fine male."
Haruka found herself smiling at that, something she was amazed she could still do.
"Your devotion to this Me-Che-Ru is humbling. Would that I had once known a devotion that strong. I will not tempt you further, Ha-Ru-Ka," Vontrell said. "But if ever you need the comfort of another, please seek me out. Your Me-Che-Ru would understand."
Haruka felt a lump forming in her throat. Michiru would probably understand. Those words unleashed a dam of memories that flooded over Haruka, of the times they spent together, of the places they visited and the battles they fought. It brought back intimate times. It brought back the touch of her fine silken hand on Haruka's breastbone and the feel of her head against Haruka's chest, her nose buried in the sea-foam green of Michiru's hair. It brought back the gaiety of her laugh, the petulance of her frown and the gleam of triumph that twinkled in her eyes.
Gods, she missed Michiru all the more. She didn't think it was possible to miss someone more than she had before, but she did. At once it seemed like a weight on her chest, threatening to crush it.
"Do it," she whispered, choking back her tears. "Crush it - - do it and get it over with - - please!"
Vontrell stared at her with curious sympathy.
And then a miracle happened.
"Usa?" Sailor Moon heard in her head.
"Mom?" Serenity heard in hers.
"Do you feel it, honey?"
"The collars - - they aren't sapping my will anymore! I can barely feel them!"
"Apart we weren't strong enough. Together, though, we can do it! Burst your chains, honey! Take all my energy and set everyone free!"
"Maybe you better do it, Mom," Sailor Moon thought. "You've got more experience at - - being a savior than I do."
"Honey, please don't doubt yourself. You've always done a fine job and you're just as suited to do this as . . ."
"WOULD YOU JUST DO IT! Honestly, Mom . . .!"
"Oh, all right!"
Sailor Moon began feeling light-headed. She couldn't shake the sensation she was floating. Her first thought was how stupid it would be for her to faint at a time like this. It would only prove her parents' long contention that she wasn't ready to be Sailor Moon, as well as confirm one of her deepest fears.
Then she looked down. She actually was floating. Her mother reached out and grasped her other hand. Sailor Moon noticed it was glowing like it was made of solid white light. Her mother's hands were the same. Looking up to her, Sailor Moon saw Serenity seemed composed entirely of light. There were no features save her large blue eyes and her familiar outline. Everything else was brilliance. She should have been blinded by the amazing brilliance Serenity (and apparently she as well) was giving off, but she wasn't.
And before her eyes the chains and shackles that bound her wrists began to dissolve like ash in water. They simply changed to photons and slowly merged with the light. The chains and shackles around Serenity's delicate wrists similarly dissolved. Sailor Moon adjusted her gaze slightly to the right. Queen Desiree had fallen back against her throne. Her arm was up over her eyes, shielding them from the brilliance. Her mouth was pulled into an angry grimace.
Beyond Desiree was the four slaves forced to sit by her throne. Sailor Moon watched one by one the chains and collar of each slave dissolve into mist. At first they were too busy shielding their eyes to notice they were free. But the truth dawned one by one on them. Sailor Moon looked next to the scullery slave. Her chains dissolved, too. The woman stared down at her hands, seemingly unable to comprehend freedom after so long in captivity.
"I'm freeing everyone," Serenity replied to the unspoken question. "I'm destroying every chain and collar on the planet. No one will ever suffer from these wretched devices again."
"Can you do that?" Sailor Moon asked.
"I can now," and she gestured with her newly-freed hands. "Thank you for all your help, dear." Sailor Moon felt herself lowering to the ground. When she touched the floor, her glow was gone. She squinted back up at her mother. "I couldn't have done it without you - - Sailor Moon."
Sailor Moon smiled timidly. "What should Ceres and I do?"
"Stop it!" bellowed Desiree impotently from her throne. Sailor Moon could hear her now. "You're destroying everything!"
"Find Mars and Haruka," Serenity thought-cast. "Bring them back here. It's past time we were leaving this place."
Sailor Moon nodded. She gestured to Ceres and was off in the direction Mars was taken, Ceres behind her.
"Aaaagh!" Serenity heard Desiree scream. In her mind's eye, she saw the green-haired scullery slave viciously attacking Queen Desiree with her mop handle, jabbing her with the end of it. She floated between Desiree and her attacker. The woman's eyes grew wide with fear and she drew back.
"Please stop," Serenity told her gently. "Nothing is accomplished by such actions save injury and hatred."
The woman fell to the floor, covering her head and cowering in Serenity's presence. It wasn't the reaction she'd hoped for, but Serenity accepted it. At least the violence was stopped. But when she turned to Desiree, she saw a fleeting glimpse of the monarch slipping out a panel in the wall.
A laser blast lanced harmlessly through Serenity's form. She turned and saw the guards, weapons out and leveled at her.
"No, no," Serenity said humbly, gesturing at them. "You might hurt someone." Her merest thoughts made the weapons in the guards' hands and on their belts vanish.
Sailor Mars walked down the hall toward the execution chamber. She had spent the entire short trip searching for a means of escape. Seeing none, she'd spent her last few moments praying to the gods to grant her a trouble-free passage into the next life and to give their aid to Serenity.
The tickle of the hairs on her arms was the first sign of it. She looked down just in time to see her wrist restraints dissolve. Her hand went up to her throat and found her collar gone. Her guards noticed at the same moment and began to draw their weapons.
Her captors turned on her, unsure as to why the chains had evaporated from their charge, but ready to put down any hope she might have of escape. Sailor Mars, though, was too quick for them.
"Fiery Perdition!" she yelled.
Instantly a wall of flame surrounded each guard. The walls, circular tubes of crackling fire, were uncomfortably close. Each guard froze, fighting back panic.
"I suggest none of you exhale too deeply," Sailor Mars said. "You might get singed."
Then she ran off to help Serenity.
Haruka felt it. Her hand traced up to her throat and felt it to confirm what she couldn't believe she felt. The weight of the shackle around her wrist was missing, too. She didn't want to believe it, fearing she'd finally let go of reality in her anguish over Michiru.
"Ha-Ru-Ka!" hissed Vontrell. "The collars are gone!"
She wasn't mad - - or else Vontrell was.
"We're free!" Vontrell gasped.
It had to be Serenity. There was no other explanation. Only Serenity could make the impossible happen. For the first time in a long, long time Haruka felt the length and breath of her free will rise and stretch from its long night's slumber.
And Haruka felt something she hadn't felt for a long, long time. She felt angry. Climbing to her feet, her muscles flaccid from disuse, Haruka held out her hand. This was the final test.
Her henshin stick appeared.
"Uranus," she began, savoring each word, "Millennium Power Make Up!"
Vontrell looked on in amazement as Haruka transformed into Sailor Uranus. The other harem slaves, excited and at once fearful over their sudden freedom, hushed and shrank away from the towering senshi. She radiated power. Her expression radiated vengeance.
"World Shaking!" she demanded.
Geo-force collected in her hand. Uranus flung it at the twin doors and the force ripped the doors into splinters, then bore through the wall opposite. Gasps of shock and fear sprang up among the newly freed harem slaves. Ignoring them, Sailor Uranus walked to the gaping hole in the wall and boldly stepped through the debris. Once in the hall, she strode purposefully toward the throne room.
There were scores to settle.
Continued in chapter eleven
Part Ten: "The Union of Souls"
By Bill K.
Oblivious to everything that was happening elsewhere, Haruka continued to wedge the bobby pin between the connected halves of her collar. She had been trying for an unguessed amount of time. Frustration was beginning to mount in the tall blonde. She shoved it aside. Discomfort was beginning to mount, too, as was doubt. That was the work of the collar, so she shoved that aside as well, though with far more difficulty than she liked. The image of her imminent failure loomed in the back of her mind like a spectral spirit, planted possibly by the collar and possibly by her own fatalist imagination. But doggedly she pressed on, fighting the image with the more recent memory of Serenity being locked into one of the foul collars, too.
"What are you doing?" a voice whispered near her.
Haruka turned her back to the voice, shielding her efforts, and glanced over her shoulder. It was Vontrell. She was from another planet - - Haruka had heard once, but forgot - - and had been downed by Queen Desiree's secret photon cannon as she and Michiru had. She, too, had fallen into slavery in Desiree's harem. With her milky pale skin, slim figure, delicate face with large pool-like red eyes and flowing pale white hair, she had caught Haruka's notice. Naturally Desiree found her 'exotic'. For a time, Vontrell had been Desiree's favorite - - Haruka knew what that entailed - - until the fickle queen acquired a new slave and forgot Vontrell.
Vontrell was shunned by the native slaves of this place, just as Haruka was. She had suffered a fate similar to Haruka. Yet Haruka turned away, fearful of what Vontrell might do should she discover what Haruka was trying.
"Are you trying to open your collar?" Vontrell asked. Her voice always reminded Haruka of the trill of a songbird, even after all that had happened to them.
Haruka ignored her.
"It won't work," Vontrell told her, placing a delicate hand on Haruka's shoulder. "The collars are permanent. We can't escape them." She fell silent for a moment. "Though I wonder if that's my thinking or that of this devil's-made device."
Haruka kept working, grimacing as the collar nipped at her again.
"You're very stubborn," Haruka heard the pale beauty say. It didn't sound like a condemnation. "Perhaps that will allow you to succeed where I have failed."
There was a pause, as if she were waiting for Haruka to react. Haruka kept working on her collar.
"I admit, I've resigned myself to living out my life in this wretched purgatory. I've - - done things that I never would have thought myself capable of when I was a free woman. Laid down with another woman - - oh how I have debased myself in the eyes of the Blessed Mokt. Perhaps that's why he's forsaken me. I have broken his commandment that only male and female shall mate. Or perhaps - - he just despises the weak."
"We've all been weak," Haruka said softly, without looking at her, "in our own way. Don't blame yourself. We can only do what we're able to do."
"T-Thank you," Vontrell said. "You're generous to say so."
"Forget it. Actually you reminded me of something I learned a long time ago - - that being overcome by a superior force isn't a sign of weakness. It's just bad fortune. I kind of forgot that for a while."
"It's easy to do," Vontrell said softly. "We fall so easily into despair. I don't know if it's these wretched collars or the agony of our lot here."
Haruka continued to work on her collar.
"Do you miss your love?" Vontrell asked.
"Every day," Haruka whispered. "You?"
"I had no love when I ran afoul of this place. I had many suitors. I miss that. I miss being pursued. I miss being courted. I miss the thrill of experiencing a new male." Haruka heard her shudder out a breath. "I've been here so long, though, that I can't recall why I was attracted to them. I have been in this place of no males for so long - - I can't remember what they look like."
Dismissing her momentary sympathy, Haruka pressed on.
"Can you still recall your male?" Vontrell asked.
"I-I'm going to get out of this," Haruka said haltingly. "I have to. Too much is at stake."
"Then, if he will still listen to me, I pray that Blessed Mokt grant you his aid."
"Thanks, I guess." Haruka pressed on. "Vontrell - - when I get free, I promise I won't leave you behind."
To Haruka's surprise, she felt Vontrell's lips press gratefully to her shoulder.
With growing contempt, Sailor Moon watched her mother crouch at the feet of their captor, Queen Desiree, and beg for the life of Sailor Mars. She wanted her mother to do something to humble this arrogant queen, or to do it herself, but every time she considered such action, the girl felt suddenly listless and nauseous. No doubt Serenity was feeling the same, preventing her from turning the chains and collars into dust. And everybody knew how much her friends, or any life, meant to Queen Serenity - - certainly more than her pride.
But she should be above this, the young princess thought irritably. It was embarrassing.
"These collars are too tough," whispered Sailor Ceres, captive beside the princess. "I want to use my power to take control of the plants in this room, but every time I try I just feel so weak." She looked at Sailor Moon glaring at the queen. "How about you?"
"Same here," Sailor Moon replied. "But at least I'm facing it like a warrior."
"Queen Desiree, please!" cried Serenity. "You can't take Mars' life! It's not right!"
"She is a traitor to her kind," Desiree said coldly. "Death is all she deserves."
"Oh, please, won't you understand? We're all the same kind! All of us! Hair color doesn't separate us anymore than any other feature! We all have life! We all love and grow and feel! We're all humans! To help one person isn't betraying all the rest! It's enriching them!"
"Again you preach this drivel to me," sneered Desiree.
She looked around and focused on a scullery slave in the corner of the room. The woman wore tattered rags covering her modesty and the standard collar and chains. Her green hair was faded and her face and body were withered with age and abuse. She mopped absently, as if her mind had shut down from the drudgery of her life.
"You! Slave! Come here!" barked Desiree.
The scullery slave worked for several more moments, not realizing she was being addressed. One of the guards finally stomped over and slapped her. Once she realized she was being summoned, the woman scurried over on ancient legs and cowered ten paces from Desiree.
"Do you see this - - thing?" Desiree asked Serenity, the loathing vibrant in her eyes. "This thing you claim we are all equal with? This THING owned my mother."
Serenity stared up in surprise.
"This city in the clouds was built by the green hair, her among them, but with the forced labor of my people. They bled us all dry and then tossed the empty husks over the side to land below. They grew fat from the sweat of my ancestors. But my mother was a brilliant mind, too brilliant for them to break. She found a way to turn the tables on these - - animals - - and allow my people to reclaim their dignity as beings and assume their rightful place."
Serenity looked at the old woman. She seemed so sad and pitiful. It was easy to picture her having fallen far and endured much.
"And you claim that such a thing deserves kindness? No. May I be struck dead before I show one of them mercy. And so shall any black hair who does the same."
"Do you think she can talk her out of this?" Ceres whispered to Sailor Moon.
"I guess if anybody can, Mom can," Sailor Moon whispered back. "I know I'd rather depend on my wand right now."
"I'm very sorry for all you've endured, Your Majesty," Serenity said, head bowed. "You and your people suffered greatly from a terrible, undeserved fate. If I could ease your pain, I would without any thought of reward, for no one should have to go through such treatment." She then raised up her head and opened her blue eyes. They locked on Queen Desiree without showing any fear or malice. "But can't you see how your pain has twisted you? You've become exactly what you loathed in your oppressors. What does that gain? What can that bring besides more suffering and hatred?"
"It gains me vengeance," Desiree said proudly. "If you saw the joy in my mother's face when her captors were finally in chains, ground beneath her heel, you wouldn't say such silly things."
"But vengeance is a drink that steals one's humanity rather than enriches it, and leaves the person only thirsting for more. It only continues a circle of pain and revenge, oppression and pain, until everyone is consumed by it. Please, Your Majesty, for your own sake - - for the sake of your people - - stop the circle. Embrace your enemy and show them a better way."
Serenity waited patiently, hopefully, as Desiree stared at her. Sailor Moon looked at her mother - - perhaps in a new light.
"Either you are a fool," Desiree began dourly, "or you think me one and seek to mock me. I have heard enough either way." Desiree slid out of the throne and to her feet. She took two steps toward Sailor Moon, reaching out to the girl. "Come, my beautiful new slave - - I must show you your new duties."
"USA!" Serenity gasped out. With a sudden surge of maternal desperation, the queen, still on her knees, lunged past Desiree at her daughter. Serenity's collar took on a deep blue glow and the queen grimaced, but it wasn't enough to quell the desire to shield her only child from harm. Sailor Moon reached out to her, equally desperate not to be separated from her mother, and two hands clasped.
And the room exploded in light.
A hair pin slipped from groaning, pain-wracked fingers. It bounced once on the marble floor, then skidded to a stop. Tired eyes looked at it. Haruka wanted to bend down and pick it up, but she just couldn't summon the energy to do it.
"What's the use," she sighed. "It was never going to work."
She felt Vontrell's hands caress her shoulders and the woman's chest press up against her back in sympathy.
"Don't curse yourself, please," Vontrell whispered. "You did what you could."
Haruka wanted to scream, curse, break something. She'd failed - - failed herself, failed Serenity and the others, failed Michiru's memory. But she couldn't muster the strength to do it. If it weren't for Vontrell's sympathy, she might begin crying again and that wouldn't help anything.
"Share your warmth with me?" Vontrell asked.
Haruka tensed. Was Vontrell asking what she thought Vontrell was asking?
"Forgive me if I seem forward," Vontrell said, sensing Haruka's tension. "I don't know where that came from myself. I have always been attracted to males until I came here. This place - - the things I've been forced to do - - perhaps they've changed me somehow. I - - find comfort being near you. I think of you in ways I used to think of males."
"Vontrell," Haruka began.
"I have shocked you. I apologize. I meant no insult."
"It's not that."
"Then," Vontrell began, "perhaps you don't find me attractive."
"No. You're easily the most beautiful woman in this room. But I can't. I won't dishonor the memory of Michiru that way."
"Me-Che-Ru is your mate?"
"Was."
"I grieve for your loss. He must have been a fine male."
Haruka found herself smiling at that, something she was amazed she could still do.
"Your devotion to this Me-Che-Ru is humbling. Would that I had once known a devotion that strong. I will not tempt you further, Ha-Ru-Ka," Vontrell said. "But if ever you need the comfort of another, please seek me out. Your Me-Che-Ru would understand."
Haruka felt a lump forming in her throat. Michiru would probably understand. Those words unleashed a dam of memories that flooded over Haruka, of the times they spent together, of the places they visited and the battles they fought. It brought back intimate times. It brought back the touch of her fine silken hand on Haruka's breastbone and the feel of her head against Haruka's chest, her nose buried in the sea-foam green of Michiru's hair. It brought back the gaiety of her laugh, the petulance of her frown and the gleam of triumph that twinkled in her eyes.
Gods, she missed Michiru all the more. She didn't think it was possible to miss someone more than she had before, but she did. At once it seemed like a weight on her chest, threatening to crush it.
"Do it," she whispered, choking back her tears. "Crush it - - do it and get it over with - - please!"
Vontrell stared at her with curious sympathy.
And then a miracle happened.
"Usa?" Sailor Moon heard in her head.
"Mom?" Serenity heard in hers.
"Do you feel it, honey?"
"The collars - - they aren't sapping my will anymore! I can barely feel them!"
"Apart we weren't strong enough. Together, though, we can do it! Burst your chains, honey! Take all my energy and set everyone free!"
"Maybe you better do it, Mom," Sailor Moon thought. "You've got more experience at - - being a savior than I do."
"Honey, please don't doubt yourself. You've always done a fine job and you're just as suited to do this as . . ."
"WOULD YOU JUST DO IT! Honestly, Mom . . .!"
"Oh, all right!"
Sailor Moon began feeling light-headed. She couldn't shake the sensation she was floating. Her first thought was how stupid it would be for her to faint at a time like this. It would only prove her parents' long contention that she wasn't ready to be Sailor Moon, as well as confirm one of her deepest fears.
Then she looked down. She actually was floating. Her mother reached out and grasped her other hand. Sailor Moon noticed it was glowing like it was made of solid white light. Her mother's hands were the same. Looking up to her, Sailor Moon saw Serenity seemed composed entirely of light. There were no features save her large blue eyes and her familiar outline. Everything else was brilliance. She should have been blinded by the amazing brilliance Serenity (and apparently she as well) was giving off, but she wasn't.
And before her eyes the chains and shackles that bound her wrists began to dissolve like ash in water. They simply changed to photons and slowly merged with the light. The chains and shackles around Serenity's delicate wrists similarly dissolved. Sailor Moon adjusted her gaze slightly to the right. Queen Desiree had fallen back against her throne. Her arm was up over her eyes, shielding them from the brilliance. Her mouth was pulled into an angry grimace.
Beyond Desiree was the four slaves forced to sit by her throne. Sailor Moon watched one by one the chains and collar of each slave dissolve into mist. At first they were too busy shielding their eyes to notice they were free. But the truth dawned one by one on them. Sailor Moon looked next to the scullery slave. Her chains dissolved, too. The woman stared down at her hands, seemingly unable to comprehend freedom after so long in captivity.
"I'm freeing everyone," Serenity replied to the unspoken question. "I'm destroying every chain and collar on the planet. No one will ever suffer from these wretched devices again."
"Can you do that?" Sailor Moon asked.
"I can now," and she gestured with her newly-freed hands. "Thank you for all your help, dear." Sailor Moon felt herself lowering to the ground. When she touched the floor, her glow was gone. She squinted back up at her mother. "I couldn't have done it without you - - Sailor Moon."
Sailor Moon smiled timidly. "What should Ceres and I do?"
"Stop it!" bellowed Desiree impotently from her throne. Sailor Moon could hear her now. "You're destroying everything!"
"Find Mars and Haruka," Serenity thought-cast. "Bring them back here. It's past time we were leaving this place."
Sailor Moon nodded. She gestured to Ceres and was off in the direction Mars was taken, Ceres behind her.
"Aaaagh!" Serenity heard Desiree scream. In her mind's eye, she saw the green-haired scullery slave viciously attacking Queen Desiree with her mop handle, jabbing her with the end of it. She floated between Desiree and her attacker. The woman's eyes grew wide with fear and she drew back.
"Please stop," Serenity told her gently. "Nothing is accomplished by such actions save injury and hatred."
The woman fell to the floor, covering her head and cowering in Serenity's presence. It wasn't the reaction she'd hoped for, but Serenity accepted it. At least the violence was stopped. But when she turned to Desiree, she saw a fleeting glimpse of the monarch slipping out a panel in the wall.
A laser blast lanced harmlessly through Serenity's form. She turned and saw the guards, weapons out and leveled at her.
"No, no," Serenity said humbly, gesturing at them. "You might hurt someone." Her merest thoughts made the weapons in the guards' hands and on their belts vanish.
Sailor Mars walked down the hall toward the execution chamber. She had spent the entire short trip searching for a means of escape. Seeing none, she'd spent her last few moments praying to the gods to grant her a trouble-free passage into the next life and to give their aid to Serenity.
The tickle of the hairs on her arms was the first sign of it. She looked down just in time to see her wrist restraints dissolve. Her hand went up to her throat and found her collar gone. Her guards noticed at the same moment and began to draw their weapons.
Her captors turned on her, unsure as to why the chains had evaporated from their charge, but ready to put down any hope she might have of escape. Sailor Mars, though, was too quick for them.
"Fiery Perdition!" she yelled.
Instantly a wall of flame surrounded each guard. The walls, circular tubes of crackling fire, were uncomfortably close. Each guard froze, fighting back panic.
"I suggest none of you exhale too deeply," Sailor Mars said. "You might get singed."
Then she ran off to help Serenity.
Haruka felt it. Her hand traced up to her throat and felt it to confirm what she couldn't believe she felt. The weight of the shackle around her wrist was missing, too. She didn't want to believe it, fearing she'd finally let go of reality in her anguish over Michiru.
"Ha-Ru-Ka!" hissed Vontrell. "The collars are gone!"
She wasn't mad - - or else Vontrell was.
"We're free!" Vontrell gasped.
It had to be Serenity. There was no other explanation. Only Serenity could make the impossible happen. For the first time in a long, long time Haruka felt the length and breath of her free will rise and stretch from its long night's slumber.
And Haruka felt something she hadn't felt for a long, long time. She felt angry. Climbing to her feet, her muscles flaccid from disuse, Haruka held out her hand. This was the final test.
Her henshin stick appeared.
"Uranus," she began, savoring each word, "Millennium Power Make Up!"
Vontrell looked on in amazement as Haruka transformed into Sailor Uranus. The other harem slaves, excited and at once fearful over their sudden freedom, hushed and shrank away from the towering senshi. She radiated power. Her expression radiated vengeance.
"World Shaking!" she demanded.
Geo-force collected in her hand. Uranus flung it at the twin doors and the force ripped the doors into splinters, then bore through the wall opposite. Gasps of shock and fear sprang up among the newly freed harem slaves. Ignoring them, Sailor Uranus walked to the gaping hole in the wall and boldly stepped through the debris. Once in the hall, she strode purposefully toward the throne room.
There were scores to settle.
Continued in chapter eleven