FINALLY HOME
Diana Crescent
Chapter Forty-Nine: The Finale
Okay, been a long time, but suddenly I'm on a role. Maybe it'll stay this way until it's over.
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Serena could feel the evil of Chaos emanating from beyond the closest star. He was speeding towards The Cauldron and them. Hopefully, though, he knew nothing of them.
Lexi was inside, briefing the sisters. If they failed, it would be up to them to somehow stop Chaos. Though they knew this, it didn't hurt to remind them and it gave Lexi something to do.
She sensed the attack before she saw it. She called forth her powers and deflected the energy beam away, destroying a nearby star in the process.
The scouts came to back her up and they waited for the arrival of their nemesis.
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"What do you mean they've gone?" Quatre asked, still not quite getting the fact that the girls had gone to fight without them.
"Raye had a vision yesterday and they've gone to go finish this war." Maurimaya explained again.
Heero looked up at the stars. They had no way of getting to them to help, and he felt helpless and tired. I need you to come home Serena. We have so much to live for.
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The battle was in full swing. Her blood ran from a wound she'd taken in the leg, but she kept on. She knew she had to finish this, here and soon.
Around her were the scouts, dead or dying. Mercury, Neptune, and Jupiter had already fallen past the clutches of fate and destiny, going beyond the realm of the living. They had all taken a blast meant for her.
Mars had taken a fatal blow in her chest. She lay not ten feet from where Serena stood, coughing up an unnatural amount of blood. What amount she wasn't coughing, was coming out of her fist-size wound.
Pluto was trapped by a weird yoma's powers, which covered the victim in a black goo. Serena didn't know it this was meant to drown or suffocate the victim, only that it was meant to kill. And Pluto was dying slowly and painfully.
Rini, her Rini, was encased in glass, slowly filling with sand. She too would suffocate. No one had been able to break the barrier around her glass cage, let alone the glass.
Serena killed yet another yoma, only to watch as Venus was stabbed with a sword from behind, falling down lifeless, never knowing what had happened.
Next went Uranus, taken apart by an energy blast from one of Chaos's many minions.
Only three now stood. Herself, Galaxia, and Saturn. But both of the later two were severely wounded, even more so than she.
Galaxia had taken a dagger to the chest, it barely missing her heart, but poison was seeping into her muscles and tissues, released by the blade. The worst part of her wound, though, was not taking it, but finding out that Thanatos's fiancée had given it to her.
Saturn could barely move from a leg wound that had drained her of blood. Serena could see the bone where flesh and muscle had been ripped from the inside of her thigh, leaving a hole the size of a grapefruit.
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The battle raged on until only Serena stood. Lexi's body had finally given out and she had dropped in a slow progression of death. She had staggered back, her knees had given out, she'd slumped forward, her eyes, haunted and broken, had closed, and her breathing had stopped.
Saturn had taken out all of the yoma's in a single blow with her glaive, but that still left the generals of each of their old enemies, their old enemies, and Chaos. It was nice though, not to have to deal with the demons as well.
Saturn had thrown herself in front of an energy blast, protecting Serena and her unborn child. Serena wasn't sure how she'd done it, for she had been on her knees for the last ten minutes of her life, trying to fight the pain and fatigue.
She didn't know where they were, only she wished they were still with her. She needed them to help her fight.
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Lexi looked at her companion. He was a skeleton driving a boat. This was not what she wanted for her afterlife. "Can you speed up, I really want to deal with someone when I get over there."
"You didn't have silver to pay, I should, by all rights, not even be driving you." Charon's bony jaw moved, but without the flesh there, it was a little freaky. But his attitude was grating her nerves.
Lexi crossed the length of the boat, picked him up, and tossed him into Styx. "I have business with the future Lady Death. She's a traitor to the gods and I am here to make her pay for that. In blood."
She took up the rowing herself and charged into Hades' Hall when she was done.
"Lexi! How wonderful! What a surprise! You hardly ever visit darling." Persephone said, coming to meet her.
"This is business. Where is that nymph?" Her voice was hard, knowing that the battle coming would be sweet. She could no longer die.
"Is something wrong?" That was Thanatos. He saw she looked warn, but none noticed her appearance. None knew of the battle raging to save life itself.
She shifted her garnet eyes to him, and he finally noticed the state she was in. Her suit was bent, cracked, and even ripped. Blood was crusted on her chest, coming from a thin opening in the upper right corner. Her skin was pale, her veins showing purple under her skin. (A/N: for those of you who have seen "Underworld", think how Lucian or Michael's skin looks after they've been shot with Silver Nitrate.) Her eyes were haunted, crazy, and blazing.
"Lexi, what has happened?" He had her arms in his hands now, worry evident in his voice.
"Can't the god of death tell? I'm dead, Thanatos, slain by that wretch you have claimed to love! She is a traitor and a minion of Chaos. I have come to extract punishment in blood." She was mocking him, ridiculing him, and had the look of battle still on her countenance.
He had never heard her speak this way. It was true that she reeked of death, but that could also be from battle. He had never thought of her as capable of dying. Nor had he believed that Dahlia, his nymph, could hurt anyone. But here was his best friend of many millennia telling him that not only was she capable of dying, not only was Dahlia capable of harm, but Dahlia had killed her.
"Lexi . . ." word failed him. He wanted to make it better for her, but he knew she wouldn't listen, not yet.
"Well, well. Hello. Looking for me?" There stood the beautiful, curvaceous nymph, full of life.
All Lexi saw was death and blood. Dahlia would bleed.
In all of two seconds, the nymph lay pinned to the floor, Lexi's sword shoved at her throat. "Tell them!" Galaxia demanded.
"Chaos is my master and I poisoned the great Sailor Galaxia, warrior to the gods."
Zeus chose that moment to appear with Hades. "Now, now, Lexi. Calm down."
"Shut up, Zeus. I tire of your games and your commands. I hold more power and status than you. I was born to deal out punishment to those who are evil and to protect those who are innocent. I see only evil in her."
Zeus knew she spoke the truth. She was the princess of the galaxy and therefore his better. He had control only of Earth's weather and people. He held his tongue and only said, "Yes your grace."
Dahlia drew a breath. She had no idea that the woman she killed, the child she had visited, was more powerful than Zeus. And she was angry. And already dead.
In one swift movement, Lexi slit Dahlia's throat. "You will pay me in blood. And you will bleed until you owe no more, whether you have that much blood or no, you will bleed until your debt it paid. And then you will die, wiped from Time forever, never to be reborn."
Thanatos watched as fiancée died, but his love for her had died the moment she admitted her sins. He watched the red-black liquid spread out and kept on. He did not know how much of a blood-debt she owed, only that she would bleed just as hard and as strong as she was now for days.
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Mina stood from where she lay on the floor, her parents staring at her from over breakfast.
"Mina?" Her mother's voice was soft and unbelieving.
"Mom?"
"It's been over a year baby! I thought you could never come back!"
Mina sat down. "We couldn't. But, I died." She began to tell them of her final moments.
"Has it been nothing but war since you went?" Her father was quiet in his questioning, worried for his little girl.
"No. There was Quatre." She was speaking softly now, thinking of her love.
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"Who's he?" Ken and Andrew asked. When Lita had appeared five minutes before, they had been very surprised. The entire Arcade had been when a Sailor Scout had suddenly appeared after their disappearance sixteen months before.
Now she was talking of a man named Trowa.
"He's the man I was going to marry."
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"Marry!" Raye's father said, his voice loud now.
Her step-mother and sister both had dreamy looks on their faces.
"Wufei sounds like a strong name." Her step-mom said.
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"I don't care if it sounds like a strong name our not, you're only twenty! How can you think of marriage!" Her father said, outraged.
Amy's mother hit him on the arm, and went on. "So, what else has happened?"
"I'm a librarian. It's good money and an easy job and some days I get to just sit there and read."
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"That's nice, dear. But tell me more about this young man of yours." Mina's mother said, trying to get information while her husband had a conniption.
"He's the youngest of twenty-nine and the only boy. He also owns a couple of multi-billion dollar corporations."
"Multi-billion?"
"Yeah, but mostly he spends his time as a kind of . . .hmmm. . .what would be a good comparison. . .Interpol."
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"Interpol?" Andrew asked, the guy was from a rich family and he was an Interpol?
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"Yeah." Raye said, wondering what was so bad about that.
"Why?" Her father asked.
"I don't know. It's fun to him I guess, but there's a lot more politics involved than policing. I guess he's more like a diplomat."
"Moving on. How are the others?"
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"I don't know. I died. I can only hope they aren't dead, but are still with Serena." Amy said, wishing against hope that her worst fears and her gut feelings were wrong.
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The outers and Rini sat in Molly and Nephrite (now Maxwell)'s kitchen. Molly was waddling here and there, her belly large with child. She and Max had married some thirteen months prior to the five DROPPING in.
Molly had taken over the jewelry shop from her mother and Max was a very successful sci-fi novelist. His take on antagonists was astonishing. He wrote mostly about the inter workings of the enemy's layer.
Max sat there, trying to get Molly to sit down and rest while listening to the girls' account of the last sixteen months. He was glad that the other three generals were able to fight Beryl's control.
"And that's when we died."
"So Serena's alone now?" Molly said, finally sitting down.
"I was the last to die." Hotaru said. She confirmed everyone else's fears.
"Where are the others?"
"They are with their families at the moment." Trista said, sipping her green tea.
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Serena looked down through a haze of pain and horror as she sank to her knees. The same thing that had ripped a hole into Hotaru's leg had now ripped a hole in her abdomen.
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The scouts felt the connection to Serena waver. In a hasty good bye to their loved ones, they ran to the only place they could think of. The Cherry Hill Temple.
They had all changed, getting out of their torn and bloody suits into an extra pair of sweats and a shirt they had borrowed from mothers, fathers, and friends.
They eventually all arrived.
"What do we do?" Mina asked.
"Where's Lexi? She'd know." Rini asked.
"She's gone to the underworld to deal with that nymph of Chaos's." Trista said, knowing they needed Lexi desperately to save Serena and her baby.
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Lexi felt a wrenching sensation in her stomach. Serena was hurt. And Destiny's words came back to her. She knew what needed to be done.
Thanatos looked at her as she dropped to her knees in pain.
Zeus looked to her too. "She is dying. Serenity is dying."
"No." Lexi said. It was a command on her part. Serena would not die. She would not allow it. If she had to give up her place in the cosmos, her powers, even if she had to be wiped completely from the time line forever, she would not allow the moon princess's death.
She stood proud and called on her princess form. It was easier to access her full powers that way.
Thanatos' mouth dropped open. For all their years as friends, he had never seen her in this form. She was a warrior, or a human, but never the princess she claimed to be.
He hair was free, and fell to her ankles in all of it's two-toned glory. Her dress, diaphanous and beautiful, hugged her upper body and flowed into a puddle of snow-white fabric. A gold bracelet encircled her upper right arm. She was no longer beaten or bloody as she had been and she had a healthy glow to her face instead of the purple spider-web tattooing the poison had caused her veins to create.
Her red-wine eyes went blank and she separated herself from them to save her friend.
"My life for yours and the life you carry inside. All that I am, all that I was, all that I will ever be in this time or any other, I offer to you for the continuance of your own life. I am Galaxia, Princess and Ruler of this Galaxy, and I forfeit my very soul for Princess Serenity, Lady of the Cosmos!"
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To say there were surprised when an image of Galaxia found itself in the center of their circle would be an understatement. But it was the greatest blessing they had received.
They heard what she said and understood they too must do so.
Each changed into their princess form, dresses flowing and unearthly.
Amy was the first to follow Lexi's example. "My life for yours and the life you carry inside. All that I am, all that I was, all that I will ever be in this time or any other, I offer to you for the continuance of your own life. I am Amy, Princess and future Ruler of this Mercury, and I forfeit my very soul for Princess Serenity, Lady of the Cosmos!"
They each continued on until they had all done it. And slowly, they began to fade.
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Thanatos's eyebrows knit together as Lexi started to flicker out of focus. Her life force truly was leaving her and Time itself.
"Isn't there another way?" Persephone asked Lexi, begging her friend to not leave her.
"There are worse things in life than laying your life down for your friend and her child. I think it is better this way. I will not be reborn, forced to walk the lonely road of a warrior again and again as I have thousand of times before. But from the death of my soul will be born a ruler like no other. Serenity's daughter will be an even greater Queen than her mother or grandmother. There has never been a ruler like her, nor will there ever be." That was her only comfort to Persephone. That Lexi wished more to really die than to be reborn to fight again. Her death was for a greater good.
"What of Thanatos?" He asked, knowing she was too far-gone to know who was speaking.
"He will find someone who will love him more than I ever could. My only regret in life is that I never once told him of my love for him.
His eyes closed. He had no idea she had loved him as a woman loves a man. And she would never know he loved her as a man loves a woman.
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Serena felt the healing warmth before she took the time to get up.
Surrounding her were her friends, pouring their life into her so that both of them could live.
Their souls, after her healing, went on into battle. Destroying every evil creature in their path, until only Chaos remained. Then, in slow procession, they stood behind her, waiting for her move.
Bodies littered the expanse in front of her, all of the minions who she had not killed herself.
Serena took on the form of Cosmos and began fighting.
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Hours later, Chaos had been worn down, but Serena was still going strong. Any moment she felt the slightest bit of fatigue, her scouts filled her with strength and removed and tiredness from her.
With a last Bolt of immense power, she encased him in a crystal prison, much like the one she would have been trapped in had she continued on her path in the other world.
She looked at Chaos's true form. There lay a woman, not man, her hair long and black, skin was tanned, lips full and red. Her dress was black and was light and seemed more like an ancient Egyptian burial dress (A/N: think the dress Anuk-su-Namun was wearing when she was being brought back by Imhotep in "The Mummy" at the very beginning). She was very beautiful and Serena watched as she slept, trapped in the sleep of the crystal.
"Who is she?" Serena asked Fate and Destiny as they came to her from their home near the Cauldron.
"She is Chaos. In the beginning, three sisters where born. Almost triplets. The middle child, as most middle sisters tend to, became the mother to the other two. She, called Mana, became the universe. Her soul is the stars, planets, and everything you see in front of you. The eldest, called Xaos, was dark and wild, ready to find adventure or cause mischief at a moment's notice. This woman you see here is Xaos, now called Chaos. The youngest child was Sympan, later called Kosmos. She was order and peace. She is you." Fate said, quietly explaining the things that were set into place before even her own creation.
"Neither you nor Xaos can live without the other, but you cannot be awake while the other is. You alternate, one awake, one asleep. That is the way it has been since the beginning. There is always a war between you, but the winner alternates. It is a balance. For every time of peace, there is a time of unruliness. The length of times is different. The last time you lost was the Sailor wars." Desitny told her the things of how they were, the conditions of her life.
"But the last time I was alive was in the Silver Alliance--"
"Yes, that was the time that you should have battled, however, you had not regained your place as Cosmos when Beryl struck. That was the first time that the order was ever thrown off. You are thinking that the Silver Alliance was peaceful. Yes, your home was peaceful, but that was only a place of peace." Fate continued the story.
"The reason you died with Beryl is because of Galaxia taking Chaos into her body. She disrupted the chain, though she cannot be blamed. She did not know, and it was her destiny to do so. You see, Lexi is your niece, daughter of Mana and Incubus, a sprite who was friends with Chaos. She was once called Xpysa, though it is hard for her to remember such early times.Your great-grandmother, Selene, was your daughter. That is why the moon people value peace, because they essentially come from peace. Your lover, a king among sprites, named Ponemisths, is the man you know as Heero. And so things continue on and on. Each of your friends were handmaidens to you. Each of their lovers were sprites under Ponemisths. Life is a continuing circle." Destiny smiled at her, trying to ease the confusion.
"And Rini?"
"Was born to rule earth when your father's interference got in the way of us. We created her to rule earth when Lucretia, called Kypia, was not in the world to take over from her brother. Though things have changed in Rini's home as well." Fate knew Serena needed all the information they could provide.
"And my friends? What will happen to them? You have told me the past, but nothing of our future, except a long rode of repetition."
"It is a time of peace! It is not their destiny to die at this time, by Chaos's hand or their own accord." Destiny smiled, knowing this would make her happy.
"What?"
"They have given their life sources so that you and your child that was lost but is now regained might live. Lexi initiated it, even though she was trapped in the underworld, she felt it. The others felt a waver in their connection to you, and they followed Lexi's example." Fate said.
"If the girls weren't in the underworld, where did they go."
"They went to the world you were put in before you came here. They needed to see their families."
Serena nodded. "When will they be back?"
"The Scouts are already inside our home. They arrived after Chaos was locked away."
"Lexi, though, is recovering from the poison. It still wracks her body. It was a poison strong enough to kill the titans, but she is stronger than that. But do not fear, Thanatos is taking care of her. He loves her."
"But the nymph--"
"Dahlia is dead. Slain by Xpysa. Thanatos never knew of Lexi's feelings, else he would have married her long ago. However, fate willed it to be later in their lives, and destiny wished for their alliance. Love is strong between them." Destiny explained.
"But she is in pain."
"The poison. She will be fine eventually." Fate said. "It is not for you to heal her."
"Do not speak to her of fate, sister. Sympan never held you in high regard, though she listened. We are her own creation. We must respect our sire's wishes." Destiny said, watching Serena teleport to the underworld. "We shall watch over the Handmaidens."
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Lexi lay there, pain wrenching her body. She felt Serena coming to her.
Thanatos held her in his arms. He was never letting her go.
"How can pain still reach her? She is dead." Persephone asked, Hades holding her.
"Because the poison was meant to kill titans and gods. Since Galaxia is stronger than both, it is slowly killing her again. She is alive now, thanks to Fate and Destiny." Serena stood there, in her truest form, Cosmos. "I have come to heal her, as she healed me."
Thanatos stepped away, knowing he could do no more for Lexi.
"Fear not, death-god. My niece will be as she once was." Serena whispered, placing her hands above Lexi's heart, and a glow emanated from the both of them. Then, a black stone floated from Lexi, the poison's hardened state.
Serena wrapped her hand around the rock and slowly it became a staff, a golden, eight pointed star set on top of it, along with the symbol of the universe in the universe, Mana's seal. Serena labeled Galaxia as she was, the daughter of the universe and ruler of the galaxy. "Wake Xpysa, daughter of Mana and Incubus."
Lexi's eyes fluttered. "Sympan."
Serena looked at Thanatos and smiled at the look of relief. "Go to your love Xpysa. Thanatos needs you."
"And your love?"
"He is waiting for me. My scouts are already on their way to Earth. I shall join them."
Lexi smiled, understanding her place was with Thanatos.
"You will come for the birth of my daughter?"
"I would never miss it. She shall be named Selene?"
"No. Seleste is a better name."
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The scouts stood out in front of Quatre's mansion. The lights in side were burning bright, the moon was full and up, the stars were out, and everything was quiet. It really was a time of peace.
Heero opened the door and ran out to Serena. "Don't ever do that again."
The other girls ran inside to go to their loves.
"I had to, but don't worry Heero, it will be many years until the next battle. I have defeated Chaos. She is locked away for now. And your child grows strong inside of me. Seleste will rule strong, a Queen like no other. All will remember her name for thousands of years, until the time of Chaos. But even then, all will fear Seleste, and all those who are good will love her.
Heero listened to her. He would be a father and his daughter a queen who would become the most powerful royal in the universe in her own time.
Heero bent and kissed the woman he loved, and mother of his child.
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Okay. It's over. Done. Finite. But stay tuned for an Epilogue. Let's make it fifty, even.
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