The chapter title is a reference to a quote by Alexander Solzhenitsyn.


Is the line between good and evil so clear to you that there are no grays? If I drew a line in the sand with a stick, and told you to stand on that line without obscuring it at all, could you do it?

The line for me blurred. I don't know when or how, but looking back at her, I hate her. My younger self. She knew nothing of the true nature of the world. But this was the day that she finally learned...


Chaos disguised what it was doing with the absolute things that it knew would hurt this one who had once been a God to a mere human. Watching the incarnations of Selene being gifted, given, and grow, watching forever and not being able to take physical form, Chaos had found the one thing about these mortal bodies in this human called Tsukino Usagi. There was one thing that was paramount to her. The love of friends and family. Chaos has no sense of deep-founded logic to it, it spreads, but it is still cold and calculating in how it thinks and attacks.

This is how after spreading its arms out, and capturing knowledge from souls, it found what it needed to know. Tsukino Usagi's friends. Not those Sailor Soldiers, not those guardians of planets and power, but the ones without power. What did they call it here...?

Sakurada Haruna had long forgotten about her flaky student in high school and was still trying to find a man to marry. Huffing, she blew at her bangs. The sky had been black lately, but the Principal--as usual wasn't worried about it. If Godzilla attacked Tokyo Tower, the school would still run. More than half the school including the teachers were sick or out of school. The feeling of these occurrences happening more frequently when a certain bad English student that was once in her class was quickly dismissed as irrational.

"Sakurada Haruna, pull yourself together..." she muttered. She peered at the sky again. The usually crime-free Tokyo was filled with terrorist activities lately. She looked around for her new car when...

Ah, yes, Juuban Junior High. That's what they called it. And there she is.

Whose next? Chaos asked itself probing this human's mind. So dirty with pure thoughts of "marriage" and having a good life. Oh, someone even better, but toy with them later. They are too soon on the totem. Flailing her like a discarded doll a few feet from the Sailor Soldiers, who were still distracted with their fallen queen, it looked for the next rung on the ladder.

Umino Gurio for his brilliance had landed a job at a top firm--granted without the adoration of his high school crush, but it didn't really matter now. Despite the very thick glasses, he'd managed to land himself a fiancee. He was going to meet her now. He'd long been forgotten by that girl from high school. She never even crossed his mind now.

His beloved would be scared right now. He had to hurry because he knew the reports were getting more and more extreme. Something about the weather shifting. He thought that it might be a flux in Earth's salination of the global currents and an overall pollution of the Earth causing a general flux in the balance of the Earth. In short, something on the order of global warming.

Oh delicious, lots of knowledge, and with his body in front of her... it will be beautiful. Just where to place it...

One by one every aquaitance that Usagi had ever known in her life was slowly being stacked in front of her house. All unconscious. All dead. Outside of them their corrupted starseeds. If she revived them then they would work for Chaos, and she was blocked from getting power from her friends, but she didn't even know this yet. She had only been unconscious for a minute. In a mere 60 seconds, Chaos had systematically laid out every single last person that it knew Usagi would have ever known and next, next would be punishment to those who had ever supported her. In the next minute the sky was raining down bodies of various people.

It was hard not to notice the raining people. It was even harder to realize that all of these people were connected to the sailor soldiers, and they were all raining outside of the Tsukino residence.

Strewn over the concrete wall was Rei's kindergarten teacher whom she'd not seen in years. On top of the house was Makoto's Senpai whom she'd admired all those years ago. On the sidewalk was Marie -sensei (The author of Aurora Wedding), her husband and her dog that Minako had known in her Sailor V days. Across from her was a gentle girl with black hair named Hikaru.

That's when the leader of the sailor soldiers took action. She couldn't sit and do nothing. Even if it would kill her, she would not let Chaos do this to her, her planet, and she would not sit and tolerate this nonsense. It was time to do something, Sailormoon, Usagi, Queen or no Queen, Minako couldn't stand it. Since Minako couldn't stand it, neither could Sailor Venus.

Anger, grief, loss or whatever one would call it in such a moment struck Sailor Venus, and with her Sailor Guardian, Artemis, and every ounce of her being she transformed into a self older than the manifestation that she'd taken on Earth, long before she ever pledged to become a sailor soldier, before she'd gotten Magellan Castle from Queen Serenity. She transformed into Princess Venus and looked defiantly at Chaos.

"I am not going to let you destroy this planet! In the name of the Goddess Venus, my planet, and all is good, even if I die, I won't let you."

But the plan was to let her and the others live. Chaos had been planning this as it had collected knowledge. So easy to humiliate and manipulate, humans, and these incarnations had lowered themselves to actually become these mere creatures. Psychmetry. Dousing. Weather Sensitivity. They'd all tried to shed their past and ultimately their true power. Why be an avatar to a God in a mere shell such as a descendant that was ultimately related to the modern--what did they call it? Monkey. Yes, monkey. This was the best that Earth offered? These empty shells.

Venus pulled out her crystal for the final assault, with Artemis beside her. Even if it was her alone she could let this thing win. Despite the little effect it had, it made no difference. it was not even a bruise, it was a mere itch that Chaos chose to ignore, and like any itch all one has to do is redirect it...

Mugen Gauken's Chemistry teacher landed right next to a very pissed off Uranus who was so angry that words escaped her. Michiru's violin teacher from when she was 5 years old and had to stay in a stuffy estate with her parents practicing her fingering to this crabby, but gifted old man landed on a car next to her. Chaos was having fun at their expense, with what was twisted humor.

Neptune held her partner's hand and whispered softly, "Don't give it what it wants."

"Can Pluto...?" Uranus started.

"No, Haruka," Neptune replied before her lover could finish the sentence.

"I can stop Chaos, or at least hold it back," a young female voice called out calmly. The shiny black hair and older eyes defied her appearance of age.

"Restart everything as before?" Uranus started.

"You need to wake Neo-Queen Serenity first," Saturn replied raising her Silence Glaive.

"Everything will die," a male voice called. He had no one in the world to care about except the women before him.

"With darkness there is always light," Saturn replied spinning her glaive and facing down the monster. She nodded at Princess Venus. They both squared off to face Chaos.

The prince took the place of the other sailor soldiers as they helped with the attack. He held his future wife's head, distantly admiring her beauty despite her awful position, but it was not a feeling he was apt to b able to suppress readily.

The other sailor soldiers had also transformed into their princess forms, given no other choice. They called no only upon their castles, but upon their Gods that oversaw them to guide them in this battle. But it is never a war if it is ended in a few hours, and Chaos figured this out too. It began to hurl people one by one that it had been saving up for desert. First to distract one of the stronger ones-- mars was it? Kotono. Admirer of Rei from Rei's previous high school. The body lay in an awkward position as it landed with a huge thump right on target. Chaos rejoiced in this.

Predictable. Mars quit, too shaken, though Chaos hadn't even served up the desert yet, it was about to. Phobos and Deimos flocked around Kotono.

The one with the brown hair was next on Chaos's list. What weak and pitiful human beings had this Avatar of a God had picked up in this lifetime? From the database of new-found knowledge it had picked up, it dumped Asanuma right in front of Princess Jupiter's eyes. Beautiful how she howled. Her mind, chaos was sure, not at all clear.

Saturn was annoying Chaos the most, trying to wield her glaive, but this child led the same path as Chaos. Destruction. Murder. Death. Yes, yes, Chaos wished to toy with her. As Sailor Saturn brought down her Silence glaive, chaos, surrounded her and absorbed all the energy. It felt like the same stuff as itself. So good, an d even as she tried to tear through, Chaos palmed her in its hand, making that pathetic Neptune and Uranus cry. it probed deep into Saturn's mind and saw the image of a pink-haired girl it did not know. That girl was not to be born yet. Her father was dead, but Ahh... the secrets this girl had, she was not invulnerable. Chaos had claimed her once before. Chaos remembered that time. That was most delicious.

But, ahh, the only thing that had stopped Chaos from winning before was gone! To the future! Yes, so Chaos could succeed this time.

Neo-Queen Serenity woke up to the sight of Prince Endymion before her. Mamoru had not yet wielded the Golden Crystal, so he had not powered up to his future form. Right in her line of sight, Chaos had laid out as many friends as it could. And a new one joined them. A pretty girl with wavy hair and a blue bow that Usagi had only talked to last week to catch up on things. Naru. Osaka Naru, piled on top of her soon after came her sister and Ruruna. No one was spared, and a soundless cry was not enough to begin to describe Usagi's grief.

Words did not begin to start in on Usagi's pain. Usagi, as Neo-Queen Serenity, just rocked an sobbed, but the bodies continued and every soft thump was another person she knew and could easily identify. Neo-Queen Serenity finally shook her head and got to her feet. She screamed as loud as her thickened throat would allow her. It curdled water to hear it.

And with all her strength and anger she raised the Silver Moon Crystal. All she could see was grief, but she'd given Chaos exactly what it wanted. Then she appeared. Not Hotaru. Not Princess Saturn. Not Sailor Saturn. And she was more fearsome than Mistress Nine. It was a mere shadow. For once Chaos left Usagi speechless, and she could do nothing. Because for once Chaos was feeding this vessel directly with the power it had, and this vessel was armed with a giant sharp object.

Neo-Queen Serenity could not purify her. That's when she called for a retreat. But just as they were about to run to strategize, a loud whiz sound and then a crack--not from landing on the pavement, but much, much worse. The sound of broken bones. Rei's grandfather, Rei's father, Minako's mother and father, Mizuno-sensei, Mizuno-san and Motoki all landed with a loud audible crack. After them followed Tsukino Kenji, Tsukino Ikuko and Tsukino Shingo. With that finality there was no one left on Earth that the sailor soldiers knew or loved and Usagi, for once in her life could not handle it. Her mouth open and shut, but no sound came out. For a few seconds she didn't actually see them. Her brother was away on a trip and wouldn't be back for a while, her father was doing a scoop, but they were there, their bodies mangled and disfigured.

The sky roared above them, lightning filled the sky and it was getting darker. There would be no retreat, there would only be fighting until the victor stood with the other dead.


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