OK, business first, I don't own Sailor Moon. Second, this is the third in a trilogy, if you want to know what happened before, read the other stories, I can guarantee it'll be confusing if you don't. Third, this isn't edited yet. If you want the reason why, check out my bio. Fourth is… I know there was something but I can't think of it right now, it can wait.
Read, hopefully enjoy and feel free to send me comments.
Draegyn
The Heir of Morpheus - Prologue
In the beginning there was entropy. Nothing existed in this state of primal disorder. There were no dimensions and no substance, only chaos.
Then from the chaos came light. It was energy and it was substance. It was order and it was chaos. It was power and it was aware. Light wished for growth and evolution.
It imposed Its will upon the chaos around It and so a balance with order was formed. Order gave chaos form and chaos caused order to change. So the universe came into being.
In the remnants of untouched chaos, Darkness coalesced. It was a void and It was an absence. It was power and It was aware. It was angry. Darkness desired the return of chaos to the universe.
It fought to undo what had been done, to induce entropy once more. It strove to erase the creation that had been born. In Its efforts It created evil.
Light and Darkness, They were enemies from the moment They came into being. When They warred the universe trembled. At the height of Their conflict, when the blows They struck against one another were strongest, the universe shattered.
Light keened with grief as the shards of Its work lay about It.
Darkness gloated but the order Light had created to balance with chaos was too strong. The shards annealed but the healing was incomplete. So the universe was split into realms. Each realm was unique and still shards of the first reality remained apart but Light remained constant.
Darkness cast spears of evil to extinguish Light. Pride, Anger, Envy, Gluttony, Avarice, Sloth and Lust assailed Light but Light created a defence of humility, patience, kindness, abstinence, liberality, diligence and chastity. The spears failed, returning to Darkness, and the arrows of Light dissolved and spread to each dimension and shard of existence therein.
Light grew weary of the never-ending battle. Yet It created Hope and Faith for It would stand fast against Its enemy. Darkness recoiled.
Light created Justice, Temperance, Courage and Prudence and they were the javelins it hurled at darkness. Darkness formed injustice, extravagance, cowardice and foolishness yet they failed to equal the weapons of Light.
Darkness retreated in defeat to Its small portion of chaos. There It dwelled as the new dimension of time spun.
Light rejoiced and the power of Its javelins spread throughout the remains of the universe. The new dimensions joined and intertwined, forming realms. The remaining shards basked in the brilliance of Light and awoke to awareness in Its ambient radiance.
And so came life.
Light shone in benediction. It created Love and shared it with Its new children. Those children flourished but Light was too bright and they could approach their creator. So Light learned of loneliness.
Reality felt Light's pain and from each new realm and dimension came shadow. Shadow was of all realms and none. It did not fear Light and in Shadow's embrace Light found peace.
In Shadow's dark folds, Light's brilliance was concealed. Thus it came that Light, with Shadow ever at Its side, was able to walk among Its children.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Focusing on a child's story, the woman curled tightly in a foetal position, doing everything within her power to block the presence of her captors from her consciousness. However, there was no relief from her unrelenting tormenters and even this last bastion of defence would not endure for long. She could sense them, even now eating away at her psychic boundaries. Creeping ever closer to the core of her being. But she would not… could not… submit. She was the Council's champion and would serve faithfully no matter the price.
She whimpered into the darkness of her mind and the illusion she had built from the legend of creation crumbled. Her fear built; fear not solely for herself but for the information with which she had been entrusted, information that could not allow to fall into enemy possession.
Who do you serve?
What do you know?
Who are you?
What do you see/hear/perceive?
Control of her body was stolen from her, leaving her powerful form helpless to resist the enemy's procedures. The mental whispers assailed her psyche and she convulsed, psychically and physically. Her screams reverberated throughout her prison and spurred the invaders on in their quest.
Who are you?
Who are your allies?
What did you come for?
Why were you here?
NO!
She must not submit! The danger to the universe was infinite, should the Darkstars ever pry her knowledge from her. She should have been more cautious, yet how? She had done all within their power to remain concealed and still she had been discovered.
Futilely she withdrew further into her own mind. Barrier after barrier she erected around her essence yet the barrage of alien thought persisted.
What do you serve?
Who are you?
She could not endure for much longer and it was essential that she protect the information with which she had been charged. How could she escape? The Council needed to be told!
WHO ARE YOU?
WHAT DID YOU LEARN?
WHY ARE YOU HERE?
Her back arched and she was frozen in a rictus of agony.
Fingers of power embedded themselves within her shield and she convulsed, as her shields were gradually ripped apart. There was no method or discipline that could prepare her for the coming misery as her core was laid bare before her insidious interrogators.
The last shield was broached, leaving her mind completely accessible to the invaders but she refused to submit. She was the Champion and she would die as one. For all of the vast power arrayed against her, this was her mind and she would shape the confrontation it would hold. The landscape of her psyche stilled and settled as her self-image prepared to do battle. She did not have long to wait.
Two shadows coalesced before her. Neither possessed form yet the woman perceived one as masculine and the second as feminine. She raised an imperious eyebrow. "I do not suppose either of you rekva would care to release me? I am a law abiding being and have done nothing to merit this punishment."
In the reality of the mind their malice was visible in the intangible darkness that formed them.
You trespassed within our Master's realm.
You are no longer within the purlieu of any law.
You are mercy to the whim of those with power.
Our whim.
The woman tossed her fall of long golden hair over her shoulders and felt the constriction in her chest ease. Her position was hopeless. She had known that before yet hearing her two adversaries seemed to free her from the fear that had almost drowned her. With a serene smile, she asked, "May I know who it is that would control me?"
Silence! You are not the one who will demand answers.
Such presumption for a lesser being.
"I only wished to know because I prefer to name those I battle." She drew the form of her sword's gold hilt in the aether around her and it formed in answer to her will. Her eyes became deathly intent. "I will not submit to you or you kind."
You stand no chance against the foremost lieutenant of Kaos.
And the Handmaiden of Kaos.
You will reveal your secrets to us.
The Doom Phantom and Metallia then. She was damned but she had known that already. All that remained in the ruins of her task was to ensure that the future was saved. She spared a thought for the Divine Stars who awaited her message and for the future that was even now being worked towards.
Shadowy hands reached towards her and she brandished her sword before her. There was no substance in their forms for her sword to work against but that was acceptable. She had not intended to use it upon them. Cold seared her where shadowed fingers brushed her skin and tendrils of power started to entangle themselves in her soul. Then her blade was reversed and with surprising little pain she impaled herself upon it.
Distantly she felt the outrage of the two Darkstars but she felt the realm of Death beckon and with abandon she hastened towards it. Freedom and a measure of triumph, despite her failed mission, lay in the embrace of infinity. She could not salvage anything but she could deny Kaos the information his servants sought and she would as the last of her soul's energy left her empty body. The news of Elysion's birth would remain secret yet, giving the young Star time to mature into his power. The Renewal would come and there was nothing that any of the Council's enemies could do about it, not even the Darkheart itself.
A tendril of darkness reached towards her fleeing soul and brush against her but then she was beyond its reach and then she knew nothing but light.
The tendril of darkness withdrew as even the evidence of the Guardian Star's passing dissipated along with the last possibility of gaining the knowledge that the dead guardian had possessed. The reality around it dissolved as the young immortal's mind shut down in the absence of her essence. Unable to enter the realms created and governed by the Speaker and its children the raw darkness was left to inhabit the void between realms. Yet it was not displeased.
Two other presences joined it and debased themselves before the greater darkness. For an eternity and yet less than an instant the darkness considered them with its utterly alien perspective. They had failed it and yet without their service it would not have learned a single, world-shattering fact from the fleeing soul.
The time of Elysion had come.
With that thought came, not mercy for such a concept was foreign to the darkness, but reprieve. Plots teemed within the thought processes of the darkness and then a course was decided upon. The assassination of the mate of its future nemesis was assigned to the darkness' handmaiden. Then the darkness turned its attention to more immediate concerns. Metallia's orders would be decades in the fulfilling and the darkness would not be idle. It required a cats-paw for the realities that obey the laws of the Council and a suitable candidate had been delivered into its possession.
The uninhabited body of the Guardian remained for the most part undamaged and still potent with power. A portion of the darkness detached itself from the main and, witnessed by its servants, it filled the empty vessel.
Crimson eyes blinked open as the darkness viewed the physical realm for the first time. The darkness commanded its lesser self to stand. Gathering the reigns of its new form's power and claiming it as its own the darkness loosed its lesser self upon the universe.
The darkness writhed in evil glee as its new golem departed. It was only a fraction of the strength of the entirety of the darkness, yet the golem possessed the power to level galaxies and leave chaos in its wake. Thus the work of the Speaker, the accursed Light that formed the universe, would be undone.
The Darkness that the Guardian would have named Kaos, laughed.
Rekva – untranslatable epithet in the high tongue