"NATURE LOVER"
A Neo-Sailor Moon fanfic

Chapter 9: "Poisoned Oak"

By Bill K.

Spurred by the sudden sense of dread that seized her, Queen Serenity put down her book (it was "Stone Soup" - - she loved her collection of children's books just as much as her adoptive children did), got up out of her chair and left the room. Moments later Endymion peered in,
expecting Serenity to be there. When he found she wasn't, he followed his senses, too.

"Your Majesty?" Luna asked, finding Serenity out in the corridors of the palace. Diana was with Luna and equally perplexed. "What are you doing roaming about at this hour? Is something wrong?"

"I," Serenity began, obviously torn between speaking to Luna and following the sensation she had. "Um, I felt something just now."

"Indeed? Can you describe it?"

"It was a - - a momentary flash of - - of horror." The urge to follow the sensation overpowered the queen and she went off down the hall. Luna and Diana bounded off after her.

"Do you know from whom?" Luna asked.

"It wasn't the Princess, was it?" Diana asked with concern.

Serenity didn't answer. She entered the second floor ballroom of the palace and glided over to one of the balconies that overlooked the grounds. Luna and Diana heard her gasp in alarm. Quickly they leaped onto the railing and looked down.

One of the trees below them now had a face that resembled Sailor Ceres. That face was frozen in a scream of terror.

"Juno?" Sailor Moon asked.

She and Sailor Saturn had arrived at the frantic summons of Sailor Juno only to find this horrific tableau. She looked at her senshi, hoping that this was some sort of fantastic ruse while she heard Saturn gasping for breath behind her. Juno only stared back helplessly. Nearby Palla-Palla sat on the ground crying like she would never see another happy day in her life. Too much was happening. Sailor Moon had to sort this out somehow.

And then they heard Vesta running up. Upon seeing Ceres, Vesta stumbled to a stop. She stared, stunned, for a few moments. Then her entire body twisted in rage. She whirled on the approaching Sailor Juno.

"Who did this?" Vesta hissed. "Was it Gallan?"

"It must have been his brother, Ailwoode," Juno mumbled. "Ceres told me she thought he was following her - - that he was out to get her. He wanted to break them up."

"Fine, I'll settle up with him later," Vesta growled. "How do we get her out?"

"You can't," came a male voice behind them, a voice as light as a spring breeze rustling through leaves. But it was a voice tinged with disdain over speaking with beings he thought unworthy, and with pride at achieved victory. Vesta and Juno turned and were surprised, as were Sailor Moon and Saturn, for the wondrously beautiful form of this tree spirit was visible to them.

"I am Ailwoode," he said. "I have made myself visible to your eyes. I come to you to warn you. This is the price of daring to aspire to something above your lot as scuttling,
cancerous parasites upon the green of the Earth. Go, now, and leave the green in peace,
humans."

"What do you mean 'we can't'?" Juno asked.

"Do you not comprehend your own tongue?" Ailwoode replied.

"Who says 'we can't'?" Vesta demanded with a low, rumbling menace to her voice.

A sneer curled Ailwoode's soft lip.

"Her physical form is dead," he proclaimed, "and beyond your power. She is one of us now."

Above them Endymion and Rei joined Serenity and the cats. They heard Juno's explanation. They saw and heard Ailwoode's pronouncement. Dimly aware of her presence, she turned to Rei and saw the priest horrified.

"Rei?" Serenity asked.

"It's true," Rei nodded softly. "A human spirit can be merged with a barren tree and become a spirit for that tree. But you have to die first."

"No," Serenity shook her head emotionally. "No, that can't be!" Endymion grasped her around the arms from behind for support while Serenity stared down at the tree. Below the young senshi learned the same thing from Ailwoode.

"She's dead?" Sailor Moon asked, beyond belief.

"It was necessary," Ailwoode replied. Saturn could see that he seemed so contemptuous of them and of Ceres' adulterated form. It made her own anguish that much keener.

"But maybe there's still a chance!" Sailor Moon pleaded. She whirled on Saturn. "Remember when Ctesias turned you into a tree! I cured you then!" Turning back to the tree,
Sailor Moon summoned the Crescent Moon Wand.

"You think there's a chance?" Juno asked.

"I have to try. Moon Healing Escalation!"

Pink particles poured out from the wand, bathing the tree in its radiance. The tree began to shimmer while everyone watched and held their breath. Sailor Moon struggled to keep her power flowing out through the wand and the pink crystal embedded in it. She strained hard to maintain the power flow, but in the end collapsed to her knees before the unchanged tree. Saturn knelt down beside her.

"Sailor Moon?" she inquired gently.

"Couldn't do it," Sailor Moon panted. "Not enough power."

Above them, Serenity grimaced over her daughter's exertions and their failure.

"Maybe I need to step in," she mused.

"No!" Rei said quickly. "Serenity, she's gone."

"But Rei!"

"Your Majesty!" Luna said sharply. "You know very well the cost of attempting to resurrect the dead, even for someone of your power! I sympathize, Serenity, I do! But you must not attempt it!"

Serenity's face twisted up in anguish. Surrendering to the wisdom of Luna's words, she whirled and buried her face into Endymion's chest. He held her as she cried, while Luna and Rei looked on sadly.

Below, Saturn saw Sailor Moon silently begrudge herself her failure.

"Sailor Moon," Saturn whispered.

"Once again I wasn't good enough," Sailor Moon whispered.

"Maybe you just need some help," Saturn softly suggested.

Sailor Moon looked at her curiously.

"Maybe if we combine our power through your pink crystal, we can do it," Saturn offered. Sailor Moon stared at her dumbfounded for a moment. Then her face brightened with the possibilities of the suggestion. She nodded and let Saturn help her up.

Saturn offered her hand. Sailor Moon clasped it and, while the other senshi looked on,
the two teens took on a glow, pink from Sailor Moon and violet from Sailor Saturn. As their brilliance reached its apex, Sailor Moon raised her wand above her head while Saturn raised her glaive.

"Moon Healing Escalation!" she shouted.

"No!" roared Ailwoode, starting forward.

"Fauna Assimilation - - Veloceraptor!" bellowed Vesta as she blocked his path. The senshi's body mutated into a vicious ten foot dinosaur with bared razor talons and sharp teeth. It glared at Ailwoode. "One more step and I let the sap flow," she cautioned.

The area was bathed in a pink light so brilliant that everyone had to look away. When it dissipated, everyone looked back. Sailor Ceres lay on the ground at the base of the tree, sleeping peacefully. Sailor Moon and Sailor Saturn stood unsteadily for a moment, then each girl collapsed. Though they were clearly drained, both girls were also clearly alive, so Sailor Juno ran to check Ceres.

"Amazing," Endymion whispered from the balcony, Serenity looking back from her place in his arms.

"Miraculous might be more accurate," Luna commented in awe.

Below Diana joined the two fallen senshi. She perched on Sailor Moon's shoulder and licked the girl's face.

"Diana," mumbled Sailor Moon. "Your tongue is so scratchy."

"Oh, My Lady, you gave me such a fright!" Diana fretted.

"'m OK," Sailor Moon wheezed. "Saturn?"

"I'll make it," mumbled Saturn. "Feels like I just ran fifty kilometers uphill, though."

"How's Ceres?" Sailor Moon asked, working up to a sitting position.

"Ceres?" Juno asked, shaking the girl in an attempt to wake her. She knelt beside her sister senshi. "Come on, Ceres, don't scare me like this!"

Ceres, however, remained unconscious. Then Ailwoode spoke.

"She is not there to hear you," Ailwoode told them. "The power of your princess and her partner has restored her body, but the girl's spirit is still consigned to the tree. Though they surprised me by accomplishing what they did, it is all you may hope for. All they have achieved is a functioning, barren shell. So shall it remain."

Palla-Palla's wailing resumed.

"Then you'd better make her well!" snarled Vesta the dinosaur.

"I refuse," Ailwoode replied.

"I'm going to give you to the count of one."

"You do not intimidate me, parasite."

With lightning speed, Vesta fell backwards, balancing on her tail, and lashed out with her foot talons. Though surprised by the nine-inch razor sharp claws, Ailwoode was able to go intangible and the attack passed through him.

"Your violence is useless against me," Ailwoode said. "Make your farewells and be gone,
or the same will happen to you!"

"Think I can't hurt you just because I can't touch you?" bellowed Vesta. "How about I rip up every tree in the area and turn them into splinters? One of those trees has to be yours!"

"You'll die first," Ailwoode replied, his eyes flaring.

"You'll try," Vesta shot back, her eyes flaring just as much.

"Vesta, stop it!" Sailor Moon said, inserting herself between Vesta and Ailwoode. Vesta turned angrily on her. "You'll hurt a lot of innocent spirits that way, including Gallan. We don't do things that way."

"But what about Ceres?" Vesta demanded.

"We'll do what we can for her," the princess told her. "But there are certain lines we can't cross, Vesta - - remember? Not and still be thought of as the good guys."

Vesta began to shake with frustration and for a moment Sailor Moon wondered if the senshi could control her volcanic temper. Finally Vesta's body sagged in defeat. She changed back into a human and turned away. Juno was there to gather her in.

Undaunted by his threat, Sailor Moon turned and walked up to Ailwoode.

"You speak quite wisely, for a human," Ailwoode replied, regarding her curiously. "Perhaps there is hope for your race - - someday."

"I'm asking you, please," Sailor Moon began, "change her back. Free Ceres from the tree and make her human again."

"What you ask cannot be granted," Ailwoode replied stonily.

"Why not?" Sailor Moon persisted. "She's not a threat to you or Gallan, or anyone else! I pledge my life on that!"

"The life of a human?" Ailwoode snorted.

"You don't seem to think very highly of us. But how much better are you, to just move in and snuff out a girl's life like that, for no good reason?"

"Her spirit resides within the tree. I have merely made her shed her human form. If anything, she is better now - - more beautiful . . ."

"And if I cut your tree down," Juno piped up, glaring at Ailwoode, "and cut it up into a bench, I could say it was better and more beautiful as a bench! But it wouldn't ease your loss,
would it?"

"You humans have no one to blame but yourselves!" countered Ailwoode. "Since you first crawled up from the seas, you have done nothing but kill and maim our kind! You cut the dwellings of innocent spirits down for your furniture or your fires or because the tree inconveniences you! And you expect sympathy now? You expect me to care if one of yours expires? You expect me to stand idly by while you use my brother and then discard his empty shell when you have finished with him?"

"It wouldn't have been that way!" shouted Sailor Moon.

"You're humans! You know no other way!"

The echo of angry voices took a few seconds to die away. In that time, the bitter feelings poisoned the area around the two parties.

"And anyway," Ailwoode continued, more softly, "you cannot fuse a spirit into a body without a price."

"A price?" Saturn asked.

"Naturally I would have to explain this to your kind. Once gone, life's energy cannot be recaptured," Ailwoode said. "In order for your Ceres to live, another would have to provide the necessary life energy - - and die. If it were my brother, Gallan, I would gladly do it. But I would never do it for a contemptible human. Are any of you, who love her 'so much', willing to make such a sacrifice?"

"Palla-Palla will," a tiny voice squeaked.

"Shut up, stupid!" Vesta spat desperately.

"If it meant Ceres would live again," the girl said tearfully, getting up on shaky legs,
"Palla-Palla would do it." She walked up to Ailwoode, looking up at him with the eyes of a true innocent. "Because Ceres is Palla-Palla's sister and she loves Ceres very much. And even though Ceres calls her a baby all the time, she knows Ceres loves her, too. And Palla-Palla doesn't want Ceres to be gone. So please, Mr. Ailwoode Sir, please make Palla-Palla's sister well."

Ailwoode stared down at the young girl with the balls dangling from her blue hair and the pleading innocence of her eyes. He tried to search her eyes and her expression for some sign that this was a deception. She was human and humans were not to be trusted. But humans weren't supposed to be capable of such utter innocence and lack of guile.

As he searched Palla-Palla's expression, Vesta tore loose from Juno's grip and for a moment Ailwoode thought she was going to attack him. But she only went as far as to seize Palla-Palla and pull her back, shielding the girl from him with her own body. She looked back at him with angry venom. This was more what he expected from humans, but he knew somehow that the venom was inspired by her feelings for the girl and not contempt for him. Was what he saw in her so different from what he felt when Gallan was threatened by his love for the human?

The tree spirit's eyes traveled from Vesta to Juno, where the anger was tempered by hope that the situation wasn't lost, that the inevitable wasn't loss of a family member. Then from Juno he met Saturn's eyes and found the incredible sadness she had over a tragedy that could have been avoided. Finally he saw in Sailor Moon's eyes her desperate need to work this situation out so that everyone was safe and happy, not just her own.

Palla-Palla still looked up expectantly at him, her last wish lingering over all. Would he grant it? Could he?

"Cere-Cere!" came a gasp and everyone turned to look.

Sailor Moon and Sailor Saturn were instantly struck by the youth's exquisite appearance. But that admiration was tempered by sadness over what he beheld, sadness the others shared. As one their hearts went out to him, for they knew he shared their loss and could commiserate with him.

And the true impact of his own tragedy struck home as Gallan knelt down next to the prone form that had once been Sailor Ceres. He picked up her hand gently in his. Gallan reached out and softly caressed her face, silently pleading with her to respond. He pressed her hand to his chest as he bent over her, waiting in vain for her to open her eyes and smile at him. A tear trickled down his cheek and Rei was amazed to learn that even a tree spirit could cry.

"Cere," he whispered and even his whisper was thick with emotion. "Please, my wonderful Cere, please tell me this has not happened. Please say to me that I do not face the rest of eternity with nothing more of you than memories." His head bent down over the body of his love. "Oh, the mere thought of it is such utter desolation."

"Gallan," Ailwoode said, easing up to his brother gently out of respect for his grief, "she is not lost to you. She is one of us now. She will not betray you now."

"Think that a spirit of the trees is incapable of betrayal?" Gallan said through clenched teeth. "What do you call this?"

"Brother!" gasped Ailwoode. "She lives! I have merely separated her from her animal self! Probe the tree!"

"You probe it, 'Brother'!" snapped Gallan. "The shock of her separation, of being forced into the womb of the tree was too much for her! Her spirit may live, but it sleeps the endless sleep!" Gallan rose to his feet, naked loathing in his eyes, and faced his brother. Ailwoode retreated a step. "My love is lost to me - - lost to us all - - as lost as if you had snapped her neck!"

"Brother!" Ailwoode pleaded.

"She came to you," Gallan continued. "She wished nothing more from you than your blessing! She would have settled for peaceful disdain if that was all she could hope for. She was a gentle soul, Ailwoode. She loved us all - - even you. She was - - so much more than what she appeared to be. But your hatred blinded you to that."

Ailwoode turned to the tree. He stared at it, curious more than anything. Then his eyes bulged with shock. His gaze whipped back to his contemptuous younger brother.

"Gallan," Ailwoode pleaded desperately. "I only did what I thought was best for you."

And a ball of energy exploded from Gallan. It passed harmlessly through Saturn and Sailor Moon, tracked across the lawn and struck Ailwoode square. The tree spirit was flung across the lawn and slammed against the outer wall of the palace. Ailwoode sagged against the wall, in obvious pain. It was a few moments before he could gather himself. What he saw was Gallan's piercing eyes burning with loathing for him.

"Gallan," he gasped out with difficulty, "please . . .!"

"No brother of mine, who claims to love me, could ever do something so heinous,"
Gallan replied, his eyes blazing but his heart cold. "For that reason alone, you are not my brother."

"Gallan," Ailwoode implored.

"I dismiss you!"

"Gallan, think of what we have meant . . .!"

"BEGONE!" Gallan howled.

Another energy bubble exploded from him and slammed Ailwoode against the wall. The spirit crumpled, fading from sight as he slumped down.

"How many cruelties have been perpetrated upon the world under the banner of doing 'what we thought was best'?" Diana mused sadly.

Gallan's shoulders sagged. His head bowed. He seemed rooted to the spot, bereft of movement, of anything save overwhelming grief. Sailor Moon walked over and touched his shoulder.

"Gallan, I'm sorry," Sailor Moon whispered. "I wish we could have done more. We're going to miss her as much as you." She looked down. "I wish we could have met under better circumstances."

"As do I," Gallan whispered. "It seems silly now - - but we are taught to hide ourselves from most humans. My Cere-Cere - - spoke highly of you."

"Gallan," Sailor Moon persisted. "Maybe it's not too late. Maybe we can still do something. Saturn and I were able to bring her body back. Maybe we can bring her spirit back,
too. We're willing to try."

"My Lady," warned Diana. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"Quiet, Diana!"

"No, My Lady, I will not be silent! Resurrecting life is beyond your power! It's too dangerous! Even with your energies merged to Sailor Saturn's, it would still be too much for you! You can't risk it!"

"What about from all five of us?" Sailor Juno asked. "If we all pitch in, maybe we can do it."

"No," Gallan said, shaking his head sadly. "Your offer is greatly appreciated, but I fear it would only succeed in taking one or more of you without bringing back my love."

"Well we can't just - - leave her like this," Vesta protested feebly.

"No," Gallan said, his face suddenly hardened with resolve, "we can't. It must be done. She must be made whole again."

"But that's still going to mean one of us has to die, doesn't it?" Saturn asked.

"A sacrifice must be made," nodded Gallan. "Let it be me. For a world without the light of my beautiful Cere-Cere is a world I can no longer endure. Let it be me."

Concluded in Chapter 10