A/N: A oneshot about how Usagi ascends from Eternal Sailor Moon to Neo Queen Serenity and the finally into the form of Sailor Cosmos.
Enjoy!
Usagi sits on the hill that is the highest point unmarked by pavement or houses in Tokyo and surveys they city that has been her home for twenty two years.
Looking back, it really is quite surprising that she has made it this far, that they all have. Evil and chaos could break many, she knows this all too well, but not them. At least, not for long. In this timeline, she knows that each and every one of her friends, her family, have chosen light and good.
That, she figures, was why they have made it. Despite darkness skulking around, they have remained pure and faithful, believing in a bright life. Choosing good. Picking their future, staked out as it is, despite other offers.
'The time approaches, mistress. To grow, to protect, we need to put earth and its people to sleep for a long, long era. Frozen in time, everyone will be open to our powers of healing and purity. Soon, mistress, you and I shall be unleashed as one.'
By now, Usagi is used hearing the voice that isn't truly a voice. The silver crystal does not speak as a human, or even a lunarian, but it sends its intention into her mind and her mind turns the intentions into words. Usagi rises from the grass and looks out over the city once more, for one of the last times.
"We need to prepare," she says out loud. Inside her, the silver crystal hums happily.
#
"Okay! We're done, right? I mean, we're doing this, and we're prepared!" Minako is, still, bubbly and rambled. Usagi loves her for it.
"Yes. I've calculated everything. We're all set," Ami confirms calmly.
"Let's do this!" Makoto huffs and cracks her knuckles, determined as ever..
"Today is as good a day as any," says Rei and her eyes hold fire that never stops burning.
"The future is a good thing to turn into present," Mamoru agrees.
#
The hill is, as always, green and peaceful. Usagi stands in the circle formed by Ami, Rei, Minako and Makoto on one half, and Haruka, Michiru, Setsuna and Hotaru on the other. Mamoru is behind her, arms around her in a steady reassuring embrace.
The shift into their magical forms is exhilarating in a new way. It is as if the magic they all carry can feel that today is a different day, a day not for fighting, but for the start of healing and peace.
Eternal Sailor Moon raises her hands towards the sky and the silver crystal burst into form, a beautiful shining crystal flower, overflowing with power atop the Eternal Tiare.
"Silver moon crystal eternal power," she whispers, and although she knows that she does not need to use words this day, it feels good to activate the powers of her heart, her friends, and the silver crystal in this way, one last time. The last thing she knows is the serene smiling faces of her friends and the embrace of Mamoru as she sinks down on the grass, wrapped in his arms.
#
'Mistress. Awaken.'
Everything is clear, ironically, as crystal as she opens her eyes. The change is instant. The person she has been does no longer exist, at least not in the manner that humans would say. She knows, without seeing herself, that she is different in looks as well as how she feels different on the inside, that more of her lunarian heritage is showing. She is, once more, Serenity, but a different Serenity.
Serenity sits up, and the arms of her lover fall of her form. White fabric tangles around her legs as she stands and takes the first look on Crystal Tokyo, the soon to be new heart of the world. Feeling no evil and no darkness, only goodness and light, she nods to herself, pleased. The humans are still asleep. Her comrades and lover are, as well.
'Wake up,' she calls gently, sends the message into the deep consciousness of everyone that rests on the grass by her feet. Her comrades stirs first, she feels them before they stand up to join her.
"You and the crystal sure didn't say waking up would feel like being reborn. Am I supposed to feel this warm?" Mars says in mild surprise, and Serenity can see the shimmer of flames upon her friends skin.
"Hm. I did not know that would happen. Assuming here, but it seems to be the power growth. I think it's a matter of you getting used to it, and then it'll fade," Serenity offers as Mars's hands promptly bursts into flame.
"Anyone who doesn't want to be electrified, stay a bit away!" announces Jupiter, and Serenity hears small fizzing sounds from sparking electricity and when she turns around Jupiter's hair is a mess of brown hair and white-blue jumping sparkles.
"Mars, maybe we can help each other, because this is cold," huffs Mercury and sounds a bit flummoxed.
"Oh, I can see love everywhere," sighs Venus happily, and Serenity thinks she almost sounds a bit high.
"Earth is healed," Endymion proclaims calmly.
Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Saturn says nothing, they seem to immersed in their own power raise, which really is not that surprising to Serenity as she knows they are the strongest of the guardians still.
Serenity sees the moon in shy, as white and clear as during night-time even though it is a brand new day. It shines brightly, gives her more strength.
"Shall we get to work?" she says and gestures towards the still sleeping city below the hill. The earth needs to awaken to a new era.
#
According to Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Saturn, the vote is unanimous. The people of earth wants her to be the sole ruler. Even though Serenity knows this to be the outcome of the future that is now her present, it still feels like the most wonderous honour, to have so much trust. To be believed in.
The crown, forged in silver by a true artist, rest upon her head with surprising ease, and as she bows low to the ground in front of the crowds and the TV crews that sends a worldwide broadcast to every corner of earth, Serenity weeps with joy, and as her tears wet the ground at her feet, the Crystal Palace grows into shape, bright and shining in the light from the moon that is still high in the sky. The palace sparkles like the silver crystal, and Serenity wonders if they two crystal pieces are somehow connected.
#
The little infant stares up at her with dark crimson eyes, a sheen sheet of pink hair atop her head.
"It's a strange world, Chibiusa," Serenity tells the new born, who blinks up at her with those large eyes.
"Just think about it; I already know you from my past, but it hasn't yet happened for you, and now I'm going to know you up until that point when everything goes bad and you go back in time. It's like a whirlpool made of time. Time… Oh, I need to get Pluto in on this, unless she already knows, of course. Ugh. What do you say, Chibiusa? Mad, huh? My precious Small Lady."
The baby gives a happy squeal and hugs one of her fingers with a small, warm hand.
#
"Remember, Small Lady, that the path one walks determines the soul."
"Yes, mama!" the little girl agrees as she skips round and round on the floor, following the pattern etched into the crystal.
"Even when times are hard, there is light. It may be hidden and seem lost forever, but it's always there."
"Uh-huh! Like you, mama, you're a light!"
Serenity's heart grows three sizes and she captures her daughter mid-skip and hugs her close, pressing kisses on her face.
"You're a light too, always. My light."
#
Her daughter is back, and Serenity knows that this time, there will be no more travels to the past for Chibiusa. Now, she is to be trained on home ground. Time is rushing forward and Serenity intends to make the most of every heartbeat, every second.
#
The dreams have turned into one, and the one nightmare has been her companion for several nights. Serenity lays still upon the soft silk sheets, watches the crystal ceiling high above her head and wonders when it will come to pass, the nightly vision that haunts her like a broken record on repeat.
#
It starts innocently enough, and if she hadn't been having the dream, Serenity knows she, and by extension her Guardians, would have missed the signs. She sends a silent wave of gratitude to the ever present hum inside her veins, the small remnant of the silver crystal after their final merge. In response, the crystalized veins in her body shine brighter for an instant.
#
Reports start coming in at a frequent speed exactly three months and two weeks after the first time the had the one dream, and Serenity observes, listens and files away all the new knowledge. People see shadows that seem to have no body. Some feels sudden bursts of anger for no reason at all. Another few complain about a heaviness in their heart that has no visible cause.
Serenity sends out every Senshi except her daughter. Chibiusa – they all still called her that when alone, and Usagi Serenity out in public – has to learn, and do it quickly, what it means to rule during a growing crisis. So Serenity keeps her daughter by her side at meetings, during audiences, everywhere she goes in her duty as Queen. To her immense pride, Usagi Serenity takes in the knowledge like a flower bathes in sunshine. She will, Serenity knows, make a fine queen once it is her time to take to throne.
#
Serenity watches her daughter. No longer small and most certainly no longer a child, the pink haired woman has laid aside her nickname and is now referred to as Usagi Serenity, Small Lady a thing of the past. Serenity thinks it fitting. After all, one should always chose one's own name and title, if it is doable.
"Mama… I don't know what to do. No attacks are working, be it mine or the others," Usagi Serenity says as she lets the pink and white uniform of Sailor Moon fade away, the pink dress taking its place.
"Blessings, then. Protections, do try that, sweetheart, it will work," Serenity reassures her only child.
"Can't you do something, mama?"
The red eyes look to her with such belief, such sureness that she will always be there. Serenity clenches the fabric of her white dress, waits for the ghost of emotion to leave her calm and serene once more.
"This is not my fight. This is yours, Usagi Serenity. You must stand on your own, together with your own guardians. Your time is soon, the dawn of the pink moon is on the threshold. Do not be afraid, my sweet girl. Everything will be alright."
"Yes, mama. Thank you."
There is a new spring in Usagi Serenity's steps as she leaves the throne room, and Serenity is satisfied. Almost there. Just a little more time until the wheels are set in motion once more.
#
Serenity raises her arms towards the sky, and on the streets below her the people who have come to see the ascending of their new queen grow silent.
"People of earth, heed me! A circle has no end. One era ends and evolves into another. Today is the last day of the white moon, the last day I reign over earth. It is with joy I give you your new queen, Usagi Serenity, and the era she brings upon us all, the era of the pink moon!"
Stepping back, Serenity turn, holds out a hand for her daughter who takes it and steps forward, upon on the little platform at the front of the balcony.
"I am honoured and grateful to be here for you, my people. We stand at the threshold of a new era, and to mark this occasion I call upon the powers of the pink moon crystal, I mark this day as the start of the pink moon era!" Usagi Serenity calls out and raises her arms upwards, hands spread wide open.
High in the clear blue sky, the white moon changes, it wanes out of existence and is replaced by a smaller moon. A soft pink moon that, Serenity knows with certainty, will grow fuller and darker through the years to signify the new era of peace. A soft tingle erupts over her skin, and her crystalized veins glow brighter. Soon. The single word echoes faintly inside her, not really a word in the proper sense, but still something she can hear.
#
Serenity sits by the fountain in the palace garden when Usagi Serenity finds her.
"Mama!" her daughter cries out, and Serenity knows the time is here. Without a word, she rises on bare feet and follows her daughter back into the palace, through corridors and down stairs, out the gates, up to the peak of the hill that is untouched by any hand.
In the distance, darkness is assembling like a black and grey cloud.
"I have my guardians setting up protective shields, yours are spread over earth, but this… this feels all wrong, mama! I don't know what do. My crystal and I… I don't think we're strong enough. Help me, mama, please."
Serenity feels the soft hum inside her very core, a soft whisper of words that are not words. And she knows the time has come. Reaching out with both arms high in the sky, she calls her Guardians back home. It is time to fight.
The eight guardians lays on the torn up ground around her. Her daughter and her guardians lay a bit away, just as tor and drained, and Serenity sees her husband somewhat closer to her on the ground, just as broken.
Darkness, evil, all things she opposes, laughs as it tears into her mind and heart, intent on crushing her.
Serenity refuses. In all her life, she has never bowed to evil, never let darkness take her. She will not start today.
'Please, just this once, let me in again, at whatever cost, whatever price it takes to fight,' she pleads within her own mind, reaches out and places a hand over her heart, begs the silver crystal to lend its powers once more.
White light explodes and wraps her in cold heath – something that has always made perfect sense to her but to no one else – and she feels the change.
Power, like nothing she has ever felt, surges through every fibre of her being, into her core, fills her to the brim and runs over. All the powers of cosmos, in the palm of her hand, in her very soul. A myriad of parallel worlds and all the knowledge from the different versions of this form floods her mind. They all have one key point; she ran away.
Tilting her head, Sailor Cosmos remembers. One form of this shape has already told her this, back when she fought Chaos at the cauldron; this is her ultimate, true form and only in this timeline, where she has never run from evil, can she fully control the powers she has unlocked.
Cosmos feels more than hears or sees her guardians, her family in all but blood, stir on the ground as her new powers surges through them. The first to speak is her daughter.
"Mama?" Usagi Serenity whispers and there is hope in her voice.
"Serenity?" Endymion's voice is full of wonder, but deep, deep down she hears a sliver of fear, and she knows that he know, instantly. Just as she does.
Looking at her arms, Cosmos sees in silent wonder that the veins no longer shimmer like the silver crystal, but rather her entire being glimmers with power.. The humming in her core has stopped, changed its flow and is now everywhere within her.
"Cosmos? But… that would mean giving up a part of yourself to loose so you can win." Mercury sounds as calm as ever, as logical as always.
"Usagi!" The horror in Mars's voice combined with the use of a name she herself had not really acknowledged for years tears at Cosmos's heart.
"Don't worry. Everything will be fine. This is a part of my destiny as much as everything has been. Have faith."
And she smiles at them all even as she raises the white staff and draws upon the power that she had, unknowingly, used back by the cauldron oh so many years ago.
The Lambda Power crashes and washes like water upon rocks against the darkness, and just like water does rocks, it hollows the darkness, bears down on it with no mercy, but with all the light and love she can muster. Everything is white, white as the pearls that adorns her and the staff, white as her new hair, white as a new beginning.
