Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon.
Summary: The Moon Kingdom ended…. In war… In pain… yet it was some how different… something was changed.
'Till
the end.' -
by: Sirenic Griffin
Part Six
Artemis and Luna ran through the hallways, as soon as they had heard their queens shout the delegates had transformed back into their cat forms and bolted in her direction...
The eight warriors found their queen locked in a deadly power struggle against Queen Beryl and her body guard Sol using her powers to keep the army back from interfering. Quietly Jupiter looked at the scouts and each in turn nodded.
Neptune stood behind the Queen and held the mirror in front of her. Slowly the mirror began to rise till it hung directly above her head. An amplifier. She stood at direct north.
"I, solider of the oceanic planet Neptune, dedicate my powers towards my Queen. In the ancient projectory I seek to proclaim: K'an, water." She called out, her usual soft voice loud with authority and Jupiter smiled. The trigram pattern was the most powerful boost that they could come up with given the situation.
Uranus moved beside Neptune in a northwest position. She raised her sword which buried itself straight in front of her.
"I, solider of the heavenly planet Uranus, dedicate my powers towards the Queen Serenity. In the ancient projectory I seek to proclaim: Ch'ien, heaven." Uranus' strong voice ran through the destruction calling the army to stop pushing and watched the strange ritual. Pluto smiled and moved to stand next to Uranus.
"I am the solider of the deadly planet Pluto and I dedicate my powers towards the Queen Serenity. In the ancient projectory I seek to proclaim Tui. The marsh, a preserver of time."
She moved her body into direct West and stood there directly. She was getting pretty close to the energy but she could take it and slowly let go of her key which floated centimetres above the ground. Saturn moved forward.
"I am Sailor Saturn, the soldier of Saturn. I dedicate my powers in the hope of good to Queen Serenity. In the ancient projectory I seek to proclaim K'un, who signifies earth." Slowly she stood in the south west and drove her glaive into the earth, like a scythe, tilling the earth.
Endymion blinked and leaned over to whisper in Jupiter's ear.
"I am familiar with this enhancement." She looked sideways at him and he blinked.
"If the Li representative enters just yet she will die for the direct South is the direction in which Serenity has directed her energy at Beryl. I will start from the other side." She nodded and slowly he smiled walking forward confidently.
"I am Endymion, a prince of Earth and its representative. I dedicate my powers to the Queen Serenity to save this planet. In the Chinese Trigram I seek to represent Ken, the mountain for my planet will always be a mountain; unmoving and resting even with chaos lose upon its streets." Slowly he came to stand next to Neptune and his sword slipped out of his scabbard to float in front of him at eye level. The blade and handle were covered with his families' flower; the rose. He stood in the Northeast. Jupiter smiled and bowed to the delegate of Mau.
"Jupiter. We don't have you powers. We are only delegates not princess or princes or senshi." Artemis said looking sad and Jupiter laughed.
"I would like you to represent-" She began but was cut off by a cold voice.
"Come now, Jupiter. I hope your not forgetting me." She turned to see a ten year old figure walking towards her.
"Artemis? Princess Artemis?" She whispered fearfully and the girl shook her head, letting black hair cascade down her shoulders.
"Nay, you should've learnt by now that I was named after the Minoan triple goddess." Jupiter let out a breath of air.
"The triple goddess? Artemis, Hecate and Persephone?" She nodded simply.
"When all these people began dieing my role was needed again." Jupiter looked at her fearfully.
"I am the one who leads the souls from the living world to Charon. Or don't you remember the steps?" Jupiter sighed.
"For a second I had thought you were here for my soul." She said letting out a breath of air.
"Nay, yours will elude me yet for centuries, I asked if you remembered the steps?" Jupiter nodded.
"Death to Hecate to Charon to Judgement at Hades." Hecate smirked.
"I am here for the souls but why not help my hosts living brother while she is dead." Hecate smirked and moved towards the southeast and Endymion's eyes widened.
"I was Artemis, princess of Earth, sister to Endymion but I am that no longer. I am now the woman of purgatory, Queen of the witches, I am Hecate. I dedicate the necessary energy to Serenity, the moon queen. I will represent Sun, the wind."
Jupiter sighed and the cats smiled and slowly she moved towards the gap.
"I, soldier to the planet Jupiter dedicate my energy to Queen Serenity. I represent Chen, thunder in this ritual." She stood in the east and her lightening rod quickly raised high in the sky. Sol blinked as the circle was almost complete. She dropped her shields against the army and raised them about herself and completing the circle as the South point.
"I dedicate my energy to my Queen Serenity for I am Sol, of the Sun." She yelled. "I will represent Li, fire." She screamed and instantly their energy left the eight, who collapsed, and congregated at Serenity who used the boost to push Beryl. The energy quickly overpowered her and was about to destroy Beryl and the army when a dark cloud appeared and Serenity knew something. It wasn't her destiny to defeat Beryl or the Dark Kingdom. She took a deep breath and began to mutter.
"I shall bind you evil creature." The being laughed mockingly.
"How fair queen shall you do that?" It asked and she gasped.
"Your scouts have fallen. Everyone is dead." Serenity closed her eyes and when she opened them they were pure silver.
"I shall bind you under the prophesy of the revelations chapter twenty." The being laughed.
"The Bible? How pathetic." Serenity opened her mouth and the words that poured out were not hers but those of her ancestor Selene.
"Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain." Instantly the sky shimmered and figure appeared, her red hair flowed from the holy hairstyle. She carried a huge key and a great chain. Her eyes were a crystal blue and Serenity smiled and her voice appeared for a moment.
"The Light of Hope..." She muttered for a moment before the voice again took over.
"And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years," again the voice paused and the angel swung her chain around the shadow and bound it and it was clear that the being was stuck and began to chant, instantly the whole army, Beryl and the Generals were thrust into it's body as it searched for more power but the voice hadn't finished because the Fates always left loopholes.
"And threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were ended. After that he must be loosed for a little while."
And with that the Angel sealed away the Dark Kingdom and flew off. Serenity sighed and collapsed.
"Your majesty? Are you all right?" The Mau representatives asked confused.
"Luna? Artemis?" She gasped and when they nodded in accent she smiled.
"It takes a lot out of me to channel Selene. But her powers were necessary." Instantly the cats both nodded.
"Oh! Has the Queen used all her power?" Serenity's head shot up. Before her was the one creature that she hadn't sealed away. The Seventh Shadow.
"Not quite" she muttered and the monster blinked and took a step backwards, weary of the person who defeated her master but Serenity was too quick. She raised the crystal.
"Flee monster, I seal you inside my crystal." The monster blinked but when the vortex appeared it struggled for a moment before being sucked inside the crystal which broke into seven pieces.
"Serenity!" The cats looked at her scared and she smiled.
"The prophesy of the Gods is complete. The nine kingdoms are ruined and the Silver Millennia has come to an end. But the sacrifice. Everyone is dead." She sighed and looked around at the destruction and the pain of her daughter's death struck her.
"No," she muttered and Hecate laughed. Serenity whirled around quickly to face her as the rest of the soldiers awoke and stood up.
"They are dead and the sacrifice has been great don't you think Serenity?" Hecate looked at her sadistically.
"Artemis! Watch what your saying!" Endymion burst out and the girl looked at him with an eyebrow raised.
"The remands of our family are cursed Endymion, How does that feel? Besides I am not Artemis. Her dead body is my host." He looked in horror as she indicated the hole in her chest where she had stabbed herself to death.
"Your love is dead." The collector of the dead said carelessly and Endymion's eyes travelled in horror and found that this was right. He went to grab his sword but it was missing. Spinning he looked at Jupiter.
"What..." He said looking at her and she winced.
"They must've been destroyed." His eyes searched around for a sword, a blade but found nothing.
"Nooo!" He cried falling to his knees and Saturn's eyes travelled to Hecate who huffed.
"I can't bring people back from the dead. You lot being alive is already cause enough to get me expelled from the council." Serenity looked at her for a moment and sighed.
"Then I will opt for the alternative." Hecate raised an eyebrow.
"I will give you all my power to make sure that everyone who died here tonight will be reincarnated in the future." Hecate looked at her incredulously.
"People's lives aren't something that can happen twice. It messes with the natural order. It-" But the sight of Serenity's tears halted her.
"Please Hecate. Please. You are good, otherwise you would've dedicated energy to lock the Dark Kingdom away. Besides it will be back in a thousand years. You heard the prophesy." Hecate sighed.
"Loopholes. How I hate them. Serenity, I will. I'll take everyone whose lives were taken here into the future to reincarnated but I will need ALL of your energy. I don't have enough." Serenity nodded and smiled and drew out her Crescent wand when Endymion stopped her.
"What about us!" He said indicating the scouts and the Mau delegates and Serenity turned to Hecate.
"They're not dead. They can blissfully live out there lives till they die. You have two males and seven females." They all looked at her and she sighed.
"I can't do anything. They have no purpose in the future! The others can at least defeat the Dark Kingdom, what can they do?" Serenity blinked.
"They can guard the shards." Hecate looked at her.
"WHAT!" And Serenity opened her hand. In her hand were the seven shards of the rainbow crystal.
"Fine, that's a purpose." Hecate muttered and Serenity smiled.
"When my court is reborn Hecate." Hecate blinked.
"When they are reborn I don't want then to remember anything." Hecate looked at her incredulously.
"WHY!" She burst out.
"Because that will only cause them pain. I want to give them a chance. A future." Hecate nodded knowingly.
"Fine."
"And if the Dark Kingdom does awaken I want Luna and Artemis to awaken with memories." Hecate nodded again.
"Your majesty you can't do that! We wish to stay with you!" Luna burst out with Artemis in tow but Serenity looked at the all lovingly.
"Cheers!" She said, "To a loving future." They all looked at her ask Hecate began to rise and joined hands with Serenity and bubbles began to envelop everyone and they knew no more.
"Serenity?" The Queen turned to Hecate. "Yes?"
"I just wanted to say that I've left you enough energy so that you can use the moon as a battle station." Serenity nodded and Hecate's body was inclosed with a bubble but her soul stayed out and watched it all. Serenity refused to shudder at the three headed soul and it refused to laugh at her attempts, the three heads smiled. A beautiful adolescents head, an adults head and the head of a crone.
The woman floated and the bubbles grew smaller to the size of pebbles and she disappeared. Serenity sighed and smiled.
"To a loving future." She said smiling before she disappeared off the physical plane and began her life on the spiritual plane.
Review
End….. Or is it?
Comments: please! Out of all the chapters I am least happiest with this one, any idea's: how you think it should've ended will be appreciated. Anywhere you know I did wrong: tell me. Because I am my own beta reader and editor and that makes me very biased and I don't know much.