Second chances are precious and not to be squandered. From bustling Juban in the 20th century to a lonely asteroid in the far flung future, that is a lesson many know all too well. Anime Canon. Post-Stars. Written for the 30th Anniversary of the Rainbow Crystal story arc…and a few other characters too…
Chapter 3: Whoever Saves One Life…
Amidst a crisis that threatens to end her kingdom, a desperate queen receives a message that could spell salvation or doom.
Rated: T - Spiritual/Friendship - Words: 1,889 - Ayaskahi Sisters/Four Sisters, Nehellenia/Nephrenia, Rei's Grandfather, Ryo U./Greg
A/N: This chapter is in part a sequel to my other story 'The Message', specifically chapter 2 of the latter . Hopefully you don't NEED to have read it to follow along.
Please feel free to share your thoughts on my fic. Take care.
The circus tent was silent.
The little girl stood at the very heart of the ring.
The ground beneath her was silver glass that reflected the golden spotlight beams over and over again.
Then it began to crack.
The fractures multiplied and spread ever outwards like twisting spider webs. As the cracks reached the circumference of the ring, they transmuted into true webs that crept their way up to the stands, ensnaring first the crowd and then the performers, their screams breaking the eerie silence beneath the big top.
For a moment the screams grew muffled, the victims disappearing from sight beneath layer upon layer of webbing. Then, as one, they burst forth from their cobweb cocoons, mutated into surreal parodies of themselves, jabbering, jeering, and cackling as they invaded the splintered ring. They began encircling the little girl, juggling, breathing fire, backflipping, and otherwise performing for her amusement. Except she was not amused.
In horror and revulsion, she tore her gaze from the twisted creatures and dropped to her knees, burying her face in her hands. Through the gaps in her fingers, she saw yet another of the freaks. This one was making no noise and was keeping perfectly still. She was simply copying the girl's posture and gesture, staring intently at her through the gaps in her own, considerably more withered, fingers.
In rage the little girl removed her hands and screamed at the freak to stop it! Her vision no longer impaired, she drank in the pale blue face, weighed down by unfathomable age and an insect-like 'crown'. She was so taken aback by the creature's appearance that she did not immediately notice that it was once again copying her, except when it had yelled out, there had been no sound. It had been as if the little girl had spoken for the both of them.
A terrifying thought entered the little girl's mind. It was a terror that only grew when she noticed a fear in the freak's eyes that matched her own.
Slowly, shakily, she began to reach a hand up to her cheek. The freak, in perfect synchrony, made the same motion. The little girl and her reflection screamed again, first in fear and then in fury.
The cry further splintered the glass beneath her before it shattered completely. Both the girl and the surrounding circus freaks fell through the ground itself into a pitch black void.
Tumbling through the darkness, the little girl found herself looking up through the hole where the ground once was. In the distance, she saw the ceiling of the Big Top, now a mess of webs. And yet, there was something shining through them.
It was a circle of dim silver and gold light. And it was growing ever larger. Soon the dimly lit circle was replaced by a great shining orb. The light of the orb pierced the webbing, the tangled sheets disintegrating. The orb was growing closer and closer…or perhaps the girl was growing closer to it.
At last, the girl and her fallen companions were drawn up from the darkness and back into the ring. Applause and cheers erupted from the stands, now filled with the restored crowd, and not a single crack nor web could be seen.
The little girl, now fully grown, looked skywards at the orb again, only to find it had vanished. And in its place was an angel.
An angel whose hair somewhat resembled her own. Except it was less curvy, less untamed and rather than ebony black, it was…
Curly strands of ebony hair obscured kind blue eyes as Nehalennia sat up in her four poster bed. Half goraning, half yawning, she pulled back the bed sheets and padded over to the window that overlooked the palace gardens.
Despite knowing what she'd see, her heart nevertheless sank at the sight that greeted her. Where once lush red roses bloomed, now there were but a few scant blackened petals and meagre crops of corn, wheat and other foodstuffs. The gardeners and farmers attending the weak yield looked downcast and exhausted, but nothing like the workers from the less fertile lands across their asteroid world. As she stared forlornly down at them, one of the workers happened to look up and wipe the sweat from his brow, catching sight of her. She gave him a friendly wave and the warmest smile she could muster this early in the morning. The farmer returned her friendly gestures and continued with his work, perhaps seeming a little less fatigued than he'd been before.
Nehallenia moved away from the window and began making herself presentable. It was a process that, over the years, she had come to regard as rather tedious. She understood that a degree of glamour was necessary in her role as ruler, but even so, she lamented the time she lost in front of the mirror. It was as she was arranging the first of her twin hair buns that she spotted the door of her chambers opening within the mirror. Through it stepped a tall, elegant, yet powerfully built woman with hair and armour like the sunset.
"Are you ready, my queen?"
Nehalennia sighed.
"For the last time Asteri, you don't need to call me that. I understand everyone else can't break the habit, but you at least weren't raised in this kingdom."
Asteri chuckled. "I might have adopted this asteroid as my home, but it is my home nevertheless. That makes my monarch as much as anyone else's here. At least until I move on."
Nehalennia paused mid-way through tying her second hair-bun.
"You're…leaving?" she said, trying to retain a degree of serenity in her voice.
There was a soft clinking sound as the warrior crossed the bedchamber and stood behind Nehalennia. The act had surprised the ebony-haired queen, and she lowered her hands to stare quizzically at her bodyguard in the mirror, squinting slightly due to the glare off the armour.
"No," said Asteri, gently taking a hold of some of Nehalennia's hair. "Not so long as you need me," she fixed a clip into the ebony locks completing the second hair bun, "...my queen."
Asteri's hand was resting upon her shoulder, and within the mirror, Nehalennia saw her own hand raise up and place itself upon her guard's, giving it an affectionate squeeze.
"Thank you," she whispered.
"Now, how about we get you out of here so you can get thanked by the people who need you?"
Nehalennia rolled her eyes and let out a deep sigh of exasperation. "What do they have to thank me for? I can't do anything to help them."
She felt a comforting pressure upon her shoulder. "You know that isn't true. Putting aside all the relief efforts you've organised, just seeing you in all your radiance gives them a much needed boost of morale."
Nehalennia gazed at herself in the ornate mirror, zeroing in on the few grey strands amidst her mane of black hair, the odd wrinkle about her eyes and forehead. Then she thought of her subjects. The farmers who'd had to work all the harder in recent years. The healers whose jobs were like fighting a hydra. Even the members of her court who, following Nehalennia's example, had willingly sacrificed their rations to help feed the ever hungry children of the kingdom. Children who had no servants to read stories or sing them to sleep as she'd had growing up.
"If it'd help my people, I'd sooner give up every trace of my beauty and become a withered old…"
The steel that had laced Nehalennia's voice rapidly vanished as she trailed off.
"What is it?" asked Asteri.
Nehalennia shook her head. "Oh, nothing. I just remembered a strange dream I had last night."
Her bodyguard raised an eyebrow. "What was it about?"
Nehalennia shrugged. "Something about a circus, my people mutating into monsters, and my becoming a bizarre insect creature. Do you think it was some kind of metaphor for the current crisis?"
For a moment a very strange and unreadable expression came over Asteri's face. "It was just a dream, my queen. I wouldn't worry about it. And if it is portentous of anything bad, I will soon put a stop to it."
Nehalennia was half-tempted to pursue the subject but decided she had better things to do with her time than interrogate her own bodyguard. "You're right. Although, now that I think about it, it all seemed oddly familiar. Especially the endi-"
BANG!
Asterid immediately moved to cover Nehalennia as the doors of the chamber slammed open. She relaxed however upon seeing the palace servant bolting into the room. Nehalennioa's heart sank yet again noting the dishevelled appearance of her long suffering advisor. The embroidery on his blue waistcoat was frayed and his tiny moustache, much his periwig, was unkempt.
"Your Majesty!"
"Yes Madrahund?" Nehalennia said lethargically, dreading whatever the latest bad news was about to be. "What is it?"
Madrahund took a moment to catch his breath before barrelling on. "We've received a transmission, a message from just outside our asteroid's atmosphere."
"What did it say?" Asteri asked firmly. Nehalennia suspected she was preparing herself for a potential fight.
"It said they come in peace and wish to send a dozen of their representatives to meet with our leader as soon as possible."
Nehalennia locked eyes with Asteri. "What do you think?"
Asteri narrowed her eyes. "It's risky, and a little too convenient for my liking."
"I remember my people and I accepted another stranger long ago," countered Nehalennia, pointedly meeting Asteri's eyes. "That worked out for the best."
"You got lucky," Asteri replied bluntly. "There are many people across the galaxy who aren't just looking for a fresh start and aren't so friendly either."
Nehalennia frowned and began pacing her chambers in thought.
"On the one hand, we are weak and vulnerable. On the other hand, these visitors might be able to help us."
"And on the other other hand," Asteri interjected, "even if they're not dangerous they might be looking for us to help them. We don't have enough food to get us through the rest of the year. With more mouths to feed we'll be condemning ourselves."
"Maybe…" pondered Nehalennia. "But…would it be right to condemn them in return?"
"Begging your pardon, Your Majesty," piped up Madrahund, "But our priority must be to our own people first and foremost."
"True," replied Nehalennia, "But our people are living on borrowed time as it is. All our attempts to end the famine and grow our crops have failed. The light of hope is the only thing we can realistically cling to." She locked eyes with her guard again, cool blue meeting warm red. "This is worth the risk. If we are to be doomed then let us at least meet our end knowing we remained kind. And if they are invaders-"
"They won't get far." Nehalennia might have been annoyed by Asteri's second interjection if not for the absolute steely reassurance in her voice.
"Well, then," Nehalennia raised herself up to her full height and summoned up that indefinable aura of regality she always adopted for her duties, "Let's meet these visitors."
With Nehalennia leading the way, the trio exited the bed chambers and made their way to the castle courtyard where a group of a dozen men and women were gathered, none of whom resembled the asteroid's native residents.
"Greetings, I am Queen Nehalennia. I believe you had something urgent to speak with me about?"
A male and female alien, clearly the heads of the delegation, stepped forward and bowed in deference.
"Greetings, Your Majesty, I am Ailigiv," said the female alien. "We are ambassadors of the Eneiru people."
"And I am Omada," said the male.
"We sensed that the life energy of your asteroid and its people were dwindling."
Nehalennia maintained a polite and engaged expression, but inside she was steeling herself, trusting Asteri to act if the moment came. As if reading her mind, the guard's hand inconspicuously moved over to her sword.
"And we wish to help."
Relief momentarily sparked within Nehalennia at Ailigiv's words, but from the corner of her eye, she noted Asteri hadn't released her weapon.
"With the utmost respect, how might you be able to help us?" Nehalennia's gaze zeroed in on the pair's faces, expertly scanning them for any kind of subtle tells. Their expressions were kind and open, but that might not mean anything.
Both Omada and Ailigiv cupped their hands together and extended them out. Nehalennia remained stationary but dropped her eyes to the open hands before her. Within them were mounds of round, tiny silver seeds.
"These are morpheus seeds, cultivated from a tree on our home world," explained Omada.
"They are fueled by the beautiful dreams of those that plant them and contain vast quantities of life energy that can replenish your world," added Ailigiv.
Despite herself, Nehalennia felt an overwhelming urge to grab the seeds and begin planting them in the courtyard herself. But, digging deep, she found the resolve to stay on the alert.
"Apologies, but what assurances do we have that you are telling the truth?"
Internally, she primed various arguments and phrases that might diffuse anger or indignation on the part of the ambassadors. To her pleasant surprise, though, the visitors chuckled.
"We get that a lot," said Ailigiv. "A demonstration, perhaps?"
"Very well," said Nehalennia, Asteri casually advancing nearer to her.
Omada's eyes seemed to light up, and a small hole in the ground between himself and Nehalennia appeared, the grass and earth having been moved by invisible hands.
"Telekinesis?" asked Asteri.
Ailigiv nodded as Omada engaged his mental powers once again, levitating and then dropping a single seed into the hole before replacing the grass and earth. With a nod over his shoulder, another of the ambassadors began playing a beautiful melody upon an ocarina. Even after the music concluded, the song seemed to hang in the air.
"I should warn you," began Nehalennia, "the earth in this courtyard isn't particularly fert-"
She half-leapt back, her eyes wide as a tiny tree sprang up in front of her, rich red apples hanging from its branches.
"For the record," began Omada, "my beautiful dream was that you would accept our help."
"That's a dream we all share," Ailigiv said with a wink.
Between the fruit, the leaves and branches, Nehalennia spotted the pair's satisfied, and slightly smug, expressions. However, given the circumstances, Nehalennia felt they were quite entitled to their moment of self-indulgence.
Tentatively, she reached out and took one of the argent seeds. "Madrahund, if you wouldn't mind?" Obediently, Madrahund fetched a trowel and dug out a patch of earth at Nehalennia's feet. Bending down, the queen's hand hovered just above the hole, the morpheus seed pinned between her thumb and index finger. However, she hesitated as the nightmare from the previous night repeated in her mind. It was only upon remembering the angel who had appeared at the end of the dream that she, shakily, dropped the seed into the ground and stepped back.
Nothing happened.
Guilt and despair began to gnaw at Nehalennia. Was this confirmation that she did not possess a beautiful dream? Or worse, that these visitors were indeed frauds with malicious intent? Her aura of regality faltering, she turned, almost childishly, first to Madrahund and then to the ambassadors.
"Don't worry," reassured Ailigiv, "without the aid of our instruments, the morpheus seed just takes a little more time to-"
A rose bush popped up from the ground in a shower of sparkles.
"-do that," chuckled Omada.
"Why help us?" The bluntness and mild accusation behind Asteri's words served to abruptly recentre Nehalennia, immediately banishing all sense of awe and wonder from her. Nevertheless, within her core, a tiny flame of hope had ignited. Asteri's scepticism ensured that flame was kept in check, but Nehalennia was now positively dying to let it out.
"It is our people's mission to go out into the universe and help those in need," Ailigiv said simply.
"To help spread love and kindness wherever and however we can has been the way of our people," added Omada. "It has been so since the sapling of the Life Tree was planted over five hundred years ago."
"Love was the guiding principle handed down to us from our ancestors."
"Their teachings speak of how they learned the true meaning of love from a warrior angel who resided in this very Solar System," said Omada, casually brushing a strand of pink and, more predominantly blue, hair out of his green face.
"...An…angel…" repeated Nehalennia. For the second time in under five minutes, memories of her nightmare replayed in her mind. Only now she wasn't so sure it had been a nightmare.
"It's funny actually," began Ailigiv, tilting her head slightly and causing pink and blue locks of hair to fall into her own face. "Based upon all the writings and artwork left behind by our ancestors, Your Majesty somewhat resembles the angel they spoke of."
"Yes, except in father Ail and mother An's paintings, the angel was blonde."
A soft gasp resounded across the party.
It took a moment for Nehalennia to realise the noise had escaped from Asteri. Once again, cool blue eyes met warm red ones that seemed so much softer than Nehalennia had ever seen them before. Though Nehalennia didn't understand the change that had come over her guard, nor the tiny tears welling in her eyes, there was no mistaking the nod of affirmation Asteri gave her.
Not bothering to conceal her own tears of joy, Nehalennia turned back to Omada and Ailigiv. "Then, on behalf of my people, I am very happy to make your dreams come true."
Nehalennia and Madrahund wasted no time summoning the palace servants, guards, farmers, gardners and anyone else who could carry the vast quantities of seeds. Many hours later, Ailigiv, Omada, and their entourage set about explaining how best to stimulate the seeds' growth. For her part though, Asteri was standing apart from the proceedings, quietly observing one of the seeds at the centre of her own palm.
Turning her gaze skyward, peering through the glittering stars dotting the now night sky, she zeroed in on an object far in the distance. Like the seed, it appeared small, silver, and perfectly round.
The sight of it made her feel, for the first time in a long time, truly worthy of the name she had once borne with so much unearned pride. The name she had discarded when her previous mission had ended and she adopted a new one upon this humble asteroid.
And, far from the first time, she felt an overwhelming wave of gratitude to her.
"Thank you again…Sailor Moon," said Galaxia.
A/N: The title of this chapter alludes to the an excerpt from the Talmud: 'whoever saves one life saves the world entire'. The idea being that Usagi in saving Any one of the people in this story had a wider spread positive impact, her helping Ail and An being merely the biggest example as shown in this chapter.
I've had this story on my mind since 2020, I kid you not. I dreamed it up one day whilst working from home (in those halcyon days before I developed long covid). I wrote a load of story ideas down back then and figured someday in like the next ten years maybe I'd write them but this was one of THE big ones I wanted to do. Then with my anthology it seemed too perfect a fit to celebrate not only all the characters featured within this fic, but also the redemptive quality of Usagi's character.
To that end I originally meant for this to go out in January 2022, sandwiched between the two official anniversary dates for Sailor Moon chapter 1 (December 28th 2021 and February 2022). But then life made that unfeasible and I pushed it back to the same month as Metalia's 30th anniversary (you know, like a villains' month kind of thing), but then THAT became unfeasible too. So I am dropping it now, around the anniversary of the Rainbow Crystals arc since that whole arc involves healing villains.
What was surprising and satisfying about this story is how much of it DIDN'T change from my initial ideas two years ago. Seriously, the biggest changes were:
The Spectre Sisters scene was originally going to depict them first meeting Jadeite and going into business with him, not already being successful.
The Amazon Trio and Fiore scene, which was a last minute addition
The fic being three chapters. Originally, I intended the Rainbow Crystal stuff to be its own story and everything exempting the Trio/Fiore scene to be another fic and went back and forth on that until my beta advised me the Nehalennia/Galaxia stuff be its own chapter
Everything else is pretty much as I envisioned it way back when, albeit obviously fleshed out with more details.
If you are curious about how Jadeite wound up a good guy please read my older story 'Legacies' a.k.a. 'Revenge of the Last Commander'. Kinda sorta same deal with 'The Message'.
A few things about the names I chose for this fic.
So, Nehalennia's name has been spelt variously across different translations of the manga and subs of the anime. In the official Viz subs it is spelt 'Nehelenia' but in an fic I wrote a while ago I decided to use that spelling for the Crystal version of the character and reserve 'Nehalennia' for the anime canon version. It should be noted that the name of the real life goddess the character is named after is spelt variously too.
Speaking of the real life Nehalennia, she is debated as either a Celtic or Germanic goddess and often depicted with a dog, so for her servant in this fic I named him 'Madrahund' which is a combination of the Irish and German words for dog.
As for 'Omada' and 'Ailigiv', they're names are simply 'Adamo' and 'Virgilia' spelt backwards, each name being Italian for 'Adam' and 'Eve' respectively. I figured there might just be a bit of a Biblical influence in the Hell Tree story arc of the Anime and with Ail and An and then Fiore (who is PROBABLY another member of their species) was named after the Italian word for flower. So I just kind of mixed these elements together to get us to those two names.
By contrast to that nonsense, I simply combined Ail and An's romanji names (Eiru and En) to come up with 'Eneiru' for the name of their species.
Furthermore, in redrafting this fic it became necessary to develop an alias for Galaxia as I wanted that surprise ending. So I asked around to help me develop ideas for her real name, trying to follow Takeuchi's naming convention for the Solar System Senshi (i.e. Usagi Tsukino = Rabbit of the Moon). Eventually, I settled on Hakaino Asteri. Hakai is Japanese for Destruction and Asteri is Greek for Star. So Galaxia is, roughly, 'Star of Destruction'. Granted that fits her manga version more but I still think it is cool.
Also, just to let you know I am involved in a discord called 'Moonlight Legends' which is dedicated to sharing all sorts of Sailor Moon fanworks, including other fanfics. If you would like to join so you can share your own work, get help with your current projects or just connect to other fan creators shoot me a PM and I'll send you an invite. All are welcome!