Disclaimer: I own nothing blah blah blah.
A/N: Special thanks go out to aiisha, as usual, kuyaga (for all the reviews), and cardcaptor eternity. Everyone had the reactions I was hoping for, especially with the Haruka-Michiru fight.
Fingers gently combed through her hair. Someone kissed her on top of her head. A warm hand rested between her shoulder blades.
"Serenity. Wake-up, dear."
Her eyelashes fluttered. Her chest ached strangely, and she felt languid, weak. Her limbs seemed too heavy to move.
"Wake-up, Serenity," the sweet voice insisted again.
"Why?" she whispered, eyes closed.
"I don't have much time. Neither do you."
"Why not?"
The hand stopped playing with her hair, and lay heavy on the back of her head. "Wake-up, Serenity!"
"I feel so strange… so very tired."
"That is because your heart has stopped."
"Nani?"
"You are dying, Serenity. Please, open your eyes."
She tried to take a deep breath, but found her lungs frozen. Frightened, she forced her eyes open.
"Now sit up. We don't have much time, my dear, and I have much to tell you."
"Mother?"
Queen Serenity smiled down at her. "Hai, little one."
"I had a terrible nightmare! I called out for you, but you didn't come!" her daughter whispered accusingly.
"I have been trying to come to you since that night, but it has blocked my way," the queen explained. "It took all my love for you to get me this close."
Princess Serenity sat up, then took her mother's hand and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. Glancing down, she saw the white gown of the Princess of the Silver Millennium. Under her skirt was the floor of the Moon Palace, a silver so pure it reflected the sky, until it looked like they were standing in a field of stars.
"How did I get here?"
"You're not really here," Queen Serenity explained, still holding her hand. "You are actually on Earth, lying on the side of the street, and dying. This is just the place your mind and heart best remember me." She reached out and brushed a lock of her daughter's hair behind one ear. "This is where you will always find me."
The princess looked up, and gasped.
Behind Queen Serenity loomed a roaring maw of destruction. It filled the sky, devouring souls, crushing civilizations, shredding bodies, and laughing.
"Mother!"
The queen turned to follow her gaze. "Hai. It is coming closer, Serenity. It is growing stronger. That is why you must listen to me."
"But it's right there!"
"It is always right there, waiting to consume us." The queen shook head sadly. "The Abyss in its physical form is frightening enough. But when we find it in our own hearts, it is terrifying beyond words."
"What is it, Mother? What is the Abyss?"
"It was…an experiment." The queen paused, then started again. "It was a noble idea that went wrong. Very, very wrong. Evil has always existed in this universe, Serenity. We have all of us faced it in some way. But there were those who thought they could trap it away, and leave this universe pure.
"So ten people, five men and five women, all came together to make a place to hide evil away forever, and let only light shine throughout all of creation. They wanted to make the universe safe for everyone, forever."
"Who were they?" Princess Serenity asked.
"The first of the Royal Houses," her mother said. "The King of Mercury. The Queen of Venus. The King of Mars. The King of Jupiter. The Queen of Saturn. The King of Uranus. The Queen of Neptune. The first to descend, the Queen of Earth. The first Time Keeper, the King of Pluto.
"The strongest and the bravest, the wisest and the noblest of their lines. They saw evil in the hearts of their people. It was only small things; lying, cheating, jealousy…But these little things could lead to much worse. Other systems, older than ours, had fallen to darkness. What was to stop their own people from doing the same?
"So wise Mercury and kind Venus, brave Mars and mighty Jupiter, mysterious Saturn and wild Uranus, elegant Neptune and gentle Earth and knowing Pluto came together to speak. They feared for their people, and for their future. Most of all, they feared for their children."
"Their children?"
Queen Serenity nodded. "They were the ancestors to the Silver Millennium. Their children would become kings and queens of the solar system. They wanted them to be safe, and to be happy. For that desire, they staked their very souls." She closed her eyes, her brow furrowing in tender pain. "And I fear they lost that gamble."
"What happened?"
"Mercury laid the design. It was elegantly simple. There are different levels to space and time, Serenity, different dimensions. All they needed to do was make a bubble between two dimensions, something compact, where they could safely store the evil. He worked for hours, careful to make sure they could contain the evil, to be absolutely certain their endeavor would not fail."
The queen opened her eyes, and sighed.
"It failed."
Princess Serenity frowned in thought. "You said there were ten people. I count five men, but only four women. Who was the last?"
"The first Queen of the Moon," Queen Serenity explained. "My mother."
"My…my grandmother?"
"Hai. Her true name was Queen of the Moon, but they called her Serenity as a kind of nickname, an endearment between friends. Of them all, she had the purest heart. She warned the others that this was a bad idea. To defeat evil, you must meet it with good. It is a battle that must be fought, not avoided. But they truly believed in their plan, and when they asked her to help them, she looked down at her own daughter, and she could not deny me that one chance to be safe forever."
"So she helped them," Princess Serenity guessed. "Did they all die?"
"I honestly don't know." Her mother shrugged helplessly. "All their children gathered to watch, but not I. I went into the prayer room. It was there I felt her ripped from me, but I cannot say if she died."
"What did the other children see?"
"Nothing of use, really," the queen whispered. "Our parents gathered together outside of the sun's pull, so they could be certain we were all safe should something go wrong. The others said that they stood in a circle, hand in hand. They began to glow, at first each with their own color, but then it merged into blindingly white. The space around them…twisted into a knot. Then it came at them.
"Darkness. Inky black streamed into the center of their light, and seemed to be sucked into that knot. It flowed in, more and more, from the very edges of the universe. Evil came from all sides.
"Young Saturn told me later that it was my mother who screamed first, but I suppose it does not matter. Suddenly they were all shouting, arguing, some shaking their heads. And then they were gone."
"Just gone?" the princess asked.
"Without a trace," her mother answered. "There was not even a sparkle of light left. Nothing."
"But if they put it in a safe place, into a bubble it couldn't escape from, how has it become…what it is?"
"That," Queen Serenity sighed, "was because of the stars."