Author's Note
I don't OWN Sailor Moon…. Yet the story concept is mine…. Please don't take it without my consent…. PLEASE……….
This will be the last chapter in this tragic little side-story. Please review and tell me what you thought of it all. I do have anonymous review, so please, tell me!
There are many thanks to the few who have reviewed me thus far, and there is also thanks to SailorThunder, who put me on her favorites list!
Well, enjoy! Or cry, whatever works…
SOC: Silver Millenium
Chapter 5: Never Has She…
It was a strange place. Two Sailor Scouts lost in memories both their own and others, as Mandessa started to move away from the field. With each step, a different moment was born. A different name was cried in the very field of memories. The three had been inseparable, and she had no desire to destroy it now. At the last step prior to entering the ship, she saw the fading image of the day she had finally questioned her newest friends…
"You two fight way too much!" Mandessa proclaimed, as Catarina and Jennifer looked at one another, and turned away. "Why do you still hang around each other if you're not total enemies?"
There was silence, as Mandessa watched the two lean against one another. They smiled simultaneously.
"It's kind of like our friendship with you," Catarina started.
"Even though we're different."
"Even though we may never see eye to eye."
"There is something that we've never done to one another in the mist of all the pranks and fights."
"You guys have never really told me what it was that made you want to be my friend," Mandessa said softly.
"You've got such a positive aura," Catarina replied. "I can never hate you, no matter your faults."
"She saw that in me too, and I've gotten to trust her instinct over time. She's a good judge of people," Jennifer added.
"So what was it? This thing you've never done."
"She's never blamed me for what's happened to her," both girls said. And with that, they broke apart from one another.
"In all the years I've known her," Jennifer said warmly. "She ain' never gone and told anyone that it was my fault she's unable to cry properly no more."
"She's never blamed me for my mother's actions," Catarina said, looking down. "However horrible they were."
"What have you never blamed me for then?" Mandessa asked.
"We've never blamed you for anything your people have done to us, and you've done the same. You're a person to us, as we are to you," Catarina replied. "Don't you see? This is why we've gotten so close. We've gone beyond some stupid societal stereotype. So we're your friend because you don't blame us for anything! You don't expect anything of us but to be ourselves…"
Jennifer felt it. The pain these people, that group had suffered. She wanted to reach out, to cry for them, but as she finally healed the last of her friend's injuries, she started to leave. Her heart told her to screw whatever grand plan was in store, to ignore the requests of whatever deity was controlling this event, but Catarina had always told her not to question destiny. She would respect that. As she started to step on the earth beneath, a new name, another new memory came to mind.
/Step/
"Oh Endymion! These roses are beautiful! Thanks so much for picking them for me!"
/Step/
"Serenity! You're going to be late for your lessons!"
/Step/
"Rei, you do such a wonderful job of protecting Serenity."
/Step/
"Serenity, I love you."
/Step/
"ENDYMION!"
/Step/
"Endymion?"
/Step/
"Rei!"
/Step/
"Serenity…"
/Stop/
She saw one more image. One longer than the rest as she turned back to the field, to look at Catarina…
"Rei, it's unhealthy that you're so interested in Prince Endymion. You know that the two are bound to be married. You really should say something," Minako said, as Makoto giggled. The trio were at a fountain in the Lunarian palace.
"Yeah, you should tell her how you feel."
"She knows," Rei replied, looking at the ground.
"How are you two still friends then?" Minako asked. "I heard that whenever something like that happens, there's a big fight and stuff. Yet you two fight quite a bit on your own, but you haven't been fighting otherwise, have you?"
"No," Rei said with a smile, as tears came to her eyes. "The reason we're still friends is because she doesn't blame for these feelings, and I'll never take Endymion from her."
"So you're going to keep him at a distance forever? You'll never tell him?" Makoto asked.
"Maybe one day, when we're all old and aged, I'll tell him the truth," Rei said with a laugh, as a few tears fell from her cheeks. Makoto and Minako both hugged her. "But until then, I'll just watch in the shadows, and I'll protect them both."
"Oh Rei!" they exclaimed…
She watched the place in the field where she was forced to leave her friend. Where Catarina was slowly rising, watching them leave her alone. Tears crested in her emerald eyes. With that final step, she heard the screams of those who had died here. Their desolate, haunting cries of death filled the ears of the poor Nebulan princess. A chorus of voices that would now haunt her forever. Those cries—of the fallen world of the Silver Millenium.