Mars
The two-natured Lord
Todoroki Shoto - Meleager (mythical hero)
Hino Rei - Atalanta (virgin warrior, known to be an expert archer)
Todoroki Enji - Zelos (god of rivalry and envy)
Todoroki Rei - Khione (goddess of snow)
Note: I love the Shitennou and I shipped them with the Inners ever since I saw the first Sailor Moon artbook, according to the hints in the manga they were sort-of canon so I couldn't avoid that facet. I also go by the idea they were brainwashed, as the manga and Crystal showed us. This is going to emerge, more or less subtly, in this fic, but they won't have a happy ending despite that. I just wanted to warn you and add that my portrayal of them here is biased since the pov of the narration is that of the BnHA boys.
The first time Meleager saw Princess Mars, he didn't pay her enough attention. A mistake, of course, but he was a child and in all his lives he tended to overlook important people at first, only to realize their real value later on.
His father, the powerful General Zelos of the martian army, second only to the Mars' Royals, had just torn him away from his mother's arms.
«It's time he gets his place, Khione» Zelos had said, cruel and, by paradox, colder than ice despite his fire powers.
Khione had bowed her white-haired head and cried in silence as she hugged her son goodbye.
Meleager hated to see his mother cry, even more so if he was the cause of it. He tried to get back to her, to scream and shout he'd rather stay at Mariner Castle, on Mercury, where she belonged, but his father didn't allow it, dragging him away as if he weighed nothing. As if he was nothing.
It was the first time the boy felt hatred and he vowed he would never fully bow to his father's will if it depended on him.
Zelos had one goal: for his family to become more powerful. That could be accomplished by training his child at the best of his abilities and getting him to marry one of the Royals, but to do so, Meleager had to first access the Silver Millennium Court, and with outstanding merits to be noticed.
So the boy was trained and trained relentlessly, the mercurian ice of his right side exploited to the extremes, the strong martian fire forced out his left side whenever his father obliged him to. He was forced to follow his father on battlefields, exposed to the horrors of war before he could understand them.
Fire meant soon all the worst to the young boy. It was violence, hardships, destruction. It was just like his father: unstable, unstoppable and cruel.
But it didn't matter how much he hated it. Even if he didn't want to, his control and raw power were above his peers, so he was chosen to be the sparring partner of Sailor Mars.
Hence why his father took him away from his mother for good and to the Moon, where Sailor Mars resided as Princess Serenity's guardian.
The Inner Senshi were still kids, it was their status that put them in a different position than other children.
Princesses of the respective Planets by birthright and guardians of the Moon Princess by power's right, they were already more powerful than anyone in the System, save for Queen Serenity herself.
But they were still little girls, all of them, and as such, they were allowed to play and laugh along with their Princess, the youngest of them, and other pupils of the Silver Millennium court.
Queen Serenity had expressed wishes for the pupils of Silver Millennium to grow up together, in order to forge lifelong bonds and see in advance if the future right-hands of the Inner Senshi would be apt for the task and be compatible with them in a future where they'd share key roles and tasks.
As much as Zelos rejected the notion, for he preferred the old discipline of solitude and hard training, he had to bow to the High Queen. So, as soon as they landed on the Moon, he accompanied his son to the garden where he was told the Princess and her Senshi were playing, leaving him without a word, only a single, hard glare.
"Don't mess it up" it meant. Consequences for disappointment were bound to be painful, the boy already knew.
Meleager looked at the group, unsure of what to do if not watching.
He wasn't the only boy there: a blue-haired one was running faster than he ever saw anyone to, intent in a race with two girls while another checked; at the other end, a boy with purple hair sat on the ground under a tree, next to the famed cats, Luna and Artemis, the Queen's most trusted advisors. Another, bright gold hair and fine face, was helping an equally blonde girl fix a red ribbon in her hair. Then, closer to the Princess, recognizable because she was the only one in a long white dress other for her characteristic hairdo, there was a green-haired kid, thinner than all his peers with the brightest smile on his face as he spoke excitedly about something with a brown-haired girl in a pink tunic.
It was the green-haired boy who saw Meleager first, looking at him with curiosity and attracting the attention of the whole group.
The four Inner Senshi got up and lined beside the Princess, their uniforms revealing status and position. He barely noticed their stances, unsettled by the sudden attention.
«You must be Meleager» he was called, the gentle, chirping voice of Princess Serenity felt like the melody of a hundred crystal bells «Welcome to the Moon. We were waiting for you»
True to form, he bowed, then looked at her. The Princess was tiny, bright and lively, her wide blue eyes curious and kind.
She got up and approached him in jumping steps, the rest of the kids following.
«You're hurt» she said, addressing his bandage.
He suddenly felt the burnt mark on his face, fresh from his last mishap in training, hurt all the more. He wasn't upset he'd be scarred, he half-hoped this imperfection would make his father mad to the point of shipping him back to his mother, but now he only felt self-conscious.
As if she perceived it, Princess Serenity rose her tiny hand to his face, a gentle gleam emitting from it.
The pain immediately subdued next to nothing, the skin cooled, his eye didn't itch any longer.
«Here,» Serenity said «It should be better now»
Meleager nodded, grateful but unsure what to say if not a small, half breathed «Thank you, highness»
She smiled twice as bright, as if he had given her the best praise and not only a half-mouthed thank.
«Come play with us» she ordered, happy and lively.
It was the first time in a long while, ever since his powers manifested, that Meleager could see children play freely, let alone join them.
The fast kid was taller from up close and insisted for them all to introduce themselves to the newcomer, stating his name was Koios. The Inner Senshi, although they needed no introduction, were next, but they left soon to follow Serenity, who called for them.
The green-haired boy introduced himself next: his name was Elpis and he had the terrible habit of muttering strings and strings of thought whenever some notion challenged his mind. Meleager would only later connect the boy was the cadet Moon Prince, his eager attitude a surprise in its own right. He also introduced his best friend Asteria, along with ill-tempered Cratos, a blonde one with an eternal scowl on his face, who Meleager already knew as the son of the head seamstress of the Mars' Royals.
Next was the blonde boy, Antheros, cousin to Princess Venus and self-appointed "brightest and most handsome man of the court" despite being just a boy still.
The last one was Hypnos, the lazy-looking boy with purple hair, who merely stated his name before sitting back under the tree.
It was Elpis who dragged him all the way to the playfield, explained some of the games they did, got eager to know about his power. Thanks to his and Serenity's kindness at the beginning, Meleager felt the welcome of the court.
At some point, Sailor Mars stood next to him. Even short as she still was, she made a certain impression in her tiny red fuku, raven-black hair and purple eyes, thin lips and porcelain, perfect skin.
«We'll train tomorrow» she stated «Until then, don't upset Serenity. She's very happy to have a new kid here»
And that was the first conversation he had with his Princess and future Supreme Commander.
The first training with Sailor Mars was bound to be burned in Meleager's mind as life-changing.
The Senshi had a special training ground at the Moon Castle and they used it in turns, so the Princess wouldn't be under-guarded for too long. Hence the need for external sparring partners.
When he stepped on the ground the first time, Meleager expected uncontrolled destruction and long shoots of powerful flame, just like it was when his father trained.
He certainly wasn't ready for the perfect fire spheres that danced around the girl, nor her precise aim when, one by one, she shot fireballs towards a single target, without burning a single straw more.
«You ready?» she asked, hard tone despite her young age.
He nodded, suddenly conscious his control over fire was lacklustre at best, especially in comparison to hers.
No wonder the Senshi were deemed direct descendants from the gods.
He held his ground, sure, but she was superior. Until he used ice.
«Oh. That's why they sent you» Mars exclaimed, a gleam of challenge in her purple eyes.
Against his ice, she had more troubles, but she beat him all the same with her exact aim and honed firepower.
It didn't matter to Meleager. For the first time, he had had fun in training and learned to respect his fire side more than ever before. Even his father's hard critiques afterwards went over his head.
The Moon's Court wasn't as bad as he feared.
As the years went on, Meleager was integrated into the Moon Court. Being Sailor Mars' favourite sparring partner and later appointed Lieutenant General meant he answered to her first, not anymore to his father, which meant he was allowed to visit his mother as often as he liked, as long as Sailor Mars allowed it - and Atalanta was quite permissive when she didn't need him around.
He also became friend with the rest of the Court, Elpis, Koios and Asteria first, then their common friends, in a group that became larger with time.
If anything, when he thought of friends, Elpis, Asteria and Koios were the first to jump to his mind, and they often dragged him in their antics, pardon, important Court matters.
The relationship he had with Princess Mars was... more complex.
She was elegant but fight-oriented, beautiful and powerful, wise but headstrong, all desirable traits for the future Queen of Mars.
He knew of his father's wish for them to get married, and for the same reason Meleager refused to get attached to her.
The realization this could have been a mistake, not to mention useless, came only after they reached adulthood.
Meleager learned soon Prince Elpis had two dreams, one more impossible than the other.
The first was to become a warrior as strong and as brave as the famed King Hyperion.
Meleager was raised with the same story of greatness and he too understood the attractive of the tale. According to Cratos, who was Elpis' most abrasive friend, this was an impossible thing to aim for, he said, no one could ever equal Hyperion, especially not Elpis, who had no real power of his own. Everyone else begged to disagree, but Cratos was brutally honest in the way he spoke and thought, one of the reasons everybody respected him despite his manners, or lack thereof.
The second was to go to Earth.
Now, Earth was taboo. Earth was the place where people didn't have powers like those common in Silver Millennium, the place where people envied others and hurt each other out of pure malice. Some said the Planet was twin to Mars in size and in the belligerent nature of its inhabitants and Meleager found himself never wanting to break the rule.
But Elpis wanted to visit it all the same.
What was less known was that Princess Serenity too was fascinated by that world, wishing for the communications to be open again. Only her inner circle was aware. It was one of the biggest worries among her friends.
Meleager didn't agree with that idea. At all. But it wasn't his place to speak up, not until he was questioned on the matter.
Sailor Mars did ask him, once. She asked if he believed the rift between Silver Millennium and Golden Kingdom could ever be mended. A political question, to which he answered with a simple "no".
To his great wonder, for the first time since he met her, he saw her upset.
«What is it, Atalanta?» he asked bluntly. He seldom used her given name instead of her title, despite being allowed since long before, but he felt the situation required it.
«Serenity» she replied, «We think she's going to Earth in secret. She learned to exploit the gaps in our shifts to escape, or so I believe»
«Nothing happened yet» Meleaged tried to be supportive «It may not be for worse»
«I wish, but... I feel a war coming» Atalanta announced, haunted look in her violet eyes «I'm going back to Mars. I need to see more»
The Sacred Fire burned deep in the chambers of Phobos-Deimos Castle. Sailor Mars had the habit to visit often, so she could use her divination abilities at their fullest.
She had, in truth, made an attempt to teach Meleager too, but the ability was out his grasp and she gave up with some disappointment. He lacked the spirit to wield such a delicate art, she said, because he was too attached to corporality, his mercurian mind worked on too literal grounds.
Nevertheless, he had the habit to accompany her in that trip, standing in the room, watching from some distance while he waited for the response.
When she was lost in the Sacred Fire, she changed. Gone was the constant hardness of her features, the sarcastic curve of her brow, the wariness that permeated her whole figure and signalled to anyone around she was ready to fight at any given moment.
With softer eyes and relaxed shoulders, lost in the sight in the middle of the hearth, her visage was graced with soft orange hues by the gleam of fire, her lips lost the pursed tightness and her whole being looked more delicate, more gentle, almost at peace.
Beautiful and sacred, that's how she looked in those moments.
At times, Meleager believed he lived for those instants, when he was blessed with the sight of the ethereal being beyond her physical body of a battle-ready soldier.
It was a moment, every time. Soon the visions would start to come and her face would show concern, confusion or determination, depending on what she saw.
But he treasured those fleeting moments. like his mother's smiles, instants like those were precious and only, truly, his.
As were his her concerns, the confidences, the battle plans she conceived before sharing them with the other Senshi and the rest of the commanders.
He had no idea one day he'd have to share all of this, that an Earthling would pry it from his half-open hands.
That he'd be punctured by jealousy, despite his choices, despite his wishes not to. Despite not understanding what he felt, until it was too late.
War came, just not the way everybody expected it.
It came in the form of monsters emerged from nowhere that started to plague Earth, and a request from Prince Endymion.
A request for help.
Never before the Golden Kingdom had asked the Silver Millennium's help. The inner circle of the Court had strong suspicions it was the Princess' doing.
The surprise was that the Queen accepted to send a few people to assess the situation. Not the Senshi, though. Apparently, Earthlings didn't like the idea of women in powerful positions, the fools. Even so, it was wiser not to part the Senshi from the Princess, so the next best option were the Lieutenant Generals.
Meleager, Koios, Antheros, Hypnos and the newcomer Alexiares were sent along with the cadet Prince and the new Captain of the Phobos' Dragons, Cratos.
«Whatever is lurking on Earth could be dangerous for us as well» Elpis explained before they left, «Mother thinks we need to prevent any issue before it arises»
He was pensive, which wasn't unusual for the Moon Prince. The worry in his brow, though, was new. With such grave face, no one dared to question him.
Not when one of his lifetime dreams was about to become true and he couldn't show an ounce of enthusiasm about it. Suspicious, in hindsight.
In fact, the outing on Earth revealed more than a few things.
For one, Serenity had indeed taken the habit to sneak on Earth, along with her brother.
Two: the Senshi had been forced to follow her in her latest escapades.
And third, the Shitennou, Prince Endymion's personal guards, were equally aware, and the two teams of Royal Guardians had been working together to favour the affair.
When it became clear the Silver Millennium army would be needed to deal with the turmoil on Earth, the Lieutenant Generals of the Inner planets were dispatched in a way that was way less than casual.
Meleager was sent to work with Jadeite.
The young man wasn't disagreeable, per se. As the Knight of Tranquillity, he was calm, collected, if a bit cold, not unlike Meleager himself. The major difference between them was in their abilities.
Meleager was born and raised to fight with his double power, Jadeite with his sharp senses. The Shitennou of East was attuned to feelings and spirituality in ways Meleager wasn't and couldn't comprehend.
He was more akin to Atalanta than Meleager could wish to become.
He didn't see how close they got until it was too late until he heard in passing of Hypnos' argument with Venus over the fact that, apparently, the Inner Senshi had gotten close to the Shitennou. Too close for property.
The puncture of jealousy was something he didn't recognize either. He assumed he was annoyed by the fact Atalanta gave him less priority as of late despite him being her right-hand.
Then war broke in full.
Despite their combined efforts against her, Beryl conquered the Earth bit by bit, with her dark army of angry, obtuse men who fell for her tricks and endless monsters.
Earth had to be protected, Queen Serenity had said, but no one could have anticipated how hard that would have been.
A war lost before they knew it, an event possible only if someone in high places knew when they were going to intervene, where their troops were dispatched, what their weak links were, and knew the territory better than they did...
Possible thanks to the Shitennou's betrayal.
They had had to retire from Earth in a haste, managing to take with them only a handful of Earth people still loyal to Endymion, other than the Prince himself.
The betrayal had been the most hurtful. Meleager knew Prince Endymion had reposed all his trust in his Shitennou and them turning their backs at him to side with the usurper was the last thing he expected.
But he wasn't the only one whose heart was wounded in depth.
The voices were true and the Senshi had, indeed, entertained relationships with the Earth Generals, ending up hurt beyond measure, as one could imagine. The air in the Moon Court's inner circle was somber and tense, sadness and angry regret tainted the once happy rooms.
There wasn't time to grieve the losses, spiritual and in forces as they were, but the need to do some mourning snuck in nevertheless.
Sailor Mars sat in front of the Minor Hearth, a part of the Sacred Fire she took with her from Mars when she moved to the Moon, in a futile attempt to predict when their enemy would strike.
Futile because the turmoil in her couldn't be placated. Meleager, from outside the room, heard a loud noise coming from beyond the closed door and rushed inside despite her previous ask to not follow, dismissing the command, worried as he was.
He found his Lady in the middle of a room in disarray, anger in her stance and tears running down her eyes, her fists clenched so tight her palms were bleeding.
«Atalanta...» he ran to her and took her hands in his, to see the damage. It wasn't much, he told her, a scratch at most, he could clean it with a cloth and apply some ice.
She didn't seem to be listening as he treated her.
«I'm going to kill him... if it's the last thing I do» was her promise and it didn't take him much to understand.
«And I'll be by your side to make sure it won't be the last» he replied, calm on the outside but raging inside.
She grabbed his hand, tight, as if he was her lifeline, eyes unfocused and hurt, so much he wanted nothing more than to go hunt their enemy on his own and bring his head to her, encased in eternal ice so she could curse him forever...
But then she tore down again, and those weren't the light and angry and a little restrained tears of before, but the heavy, ugly tears that broke out of grief and in attempt to cleanse up one's heart.
Regret, shame, pain without end in sight.
Meleager understood one thing from those tears: she'd have a real hard time killing Jadeite, but she would, even if it was bound to break her heart all over again.
She cried on his shoulder, muffled curses and heartache made vocal just enough he could hear, and he cradled her head without ever letting go of her hand, vowed in his heart if she didn't manage to kill Jadeite, he would in her place.
The outburst didn't last long. Atalanta cut her tears off, quickly as they came she made them disappear and gave him one look to which he nodded.
It was going to be their secret, that she cried and was hurt and would never forgive Jadeite for his betrayal or herself for falling in love with him.
Meleager was again her one and only confidant, the one who had her trust and would never break it.
For some reason, this gave him no consolation.
It came as a surprise that Queen Serenity would re-institute the Housekitennou, an old title that preceded Silver Millennium's unity and was brushed off from dust as a symbol of the alliance between Moon and Earth's Royals.
One could even consider it an engagement gift from the Queen to her future son-in-law, if one wanted to listen to the voices.
Sailor Mars had pushed for Meleager to take the title of Kalunite.
«Should anything happen to Endymion, Serenity will go out of her mind, I know her. I can't be everywhere, I need you to be there in my place»
Meleager rose a brow «Cratos is going to be named Aragonite at the Prince's request, Mars already has his representative with him. Why me too?»
«Because Cratos is the Captain of the Dragons, he's valiant and so forth, but you are my Lieutenant General. Moreover, there was no one from Outer planets willing to take the title, so there are vacant spots anyway and we need all the possible help to stay on the safe side. The Queen already gave her blessing»
«Are we sure Princess Mercury won't oppose? Kalunite is the traditional title of the mercurian Housekitennou»
«No. Koios is going to take the Uranus' title, Kyanite. Icarus should have had it, but... you know»
Icarus was a few years older than the main group and used to be a Lieutenant and Princess Uranus' brother, a man they didn't see often, to be honest, but who was known to be valiant. When the war started, he was among the first to fall. Literally: his large wings had been destroyed when he was still airborne and he precipitated to his death.
«If you're sure, I'll take it» Meleager concluded.
The power of a prediction should never be underestimated.
When Atalanta felt the war coming, she should have said she perceived how destructive it would be.
But the Sacred Fire refused to reveal the entirety of it, to show the extent of the despair they'd fall in, how much they'd lose.
That they wouldn't win.
There was a line of scarlet on the steps of the Moon Castle, beyond the crooked remains of Jadeite and his molten daggers now only metallic splatters on the ground. Meleager became blind to anything else at that sight because Mars had promised she'd kill the Shitennou of East and she had done exactly that, but Meleager had not kept his word to stand by her side while she did and if all that blood was hers...
He had been far, helping his brothers-in-arms to protect the confines of the Castle from a large horde of monsters sprouting from the portal they thought was the only one.
A trap. The real aim had been to make a second, smaller portal inside the walls to ambush the Royals, who had their only protection in the Inner Senshi and a few guards at that point.
When they realized, when Elpis realized - for they had all been too blind to see what he saw - what the trap was, the Housekitennou ran back, behind Elpis who seemed to have wings at his feet for how fast he sprinted in to run to his family's aid.
Too late.
One by one, the Shitennou had been defeated, but left devastation in their wake and took the Inner Senshi down with them.
Inside the Moon Castle, in the midst of the carnage, all seemed lost, even with the sight of Venus still standing, albeit barely, with the Sacred Sword in her hands.
Elpis' shout of horror and hurt at the sight of his sister's lifeless body resonated with his companions who rushed in.
The three remaining Senshi were all around, broken and bleeding.
Meleager ran to Mars, whose fuku was almost completely red, the white of the middle painted with her own blood. He looked for the wound, tried to esteem its depth, but to his knowledge, he already knew the situation was dire.
«I can cauterize it, the wound, I'll... let me just...» he tried to rationalize, because it was impossible she was dying, because if he kept her alive long enough the Queen could heal her with the Silver Crystal, not all had to be lost, they could still...
«Meleager» she called weakly, and he was obliged to tear his eyes from the stab wounds he wanted to make disappear to listen.
He applied pressure to stop the bleeding «I need to help you. The war isn't over, we need you to...»
Weakly, she rose a hand, the little she needed to touch his «I can't»
Breath stopped in his throat. What was she saying?
«The High Queen can save you for sure, I just need to buy you some time» he'd promised he'd be there by her side to make sure she'd walk out that fight, he did...
She sighed, he could see a hint of tears at the edge of her glossy eyes.
«Meleager, don't you feel it?»
A tricky question, the one he could never answer to the way she wanted. Feelings escaped his comprehension, whether they were in daily life or the great omens, he couldn't tell them apart, no matter how desperate he was to, and spiritual abilities were even further from his grasp.
Except, this time...
This time he didn't want to understand. He refused to. It'd mean admitting she was dying and he wasn't ready to let her go, he'd never be.
«It's too late for me. You... the war has to end, one way or another. Go. Win for me»
It was the force of a command, her last one and she barely waited to see his nod - was she really dying? was that it? why did he feel so numb? - and even the light pressure of her hand on his became empty weight.
Meleager felt everything in him burn out, a fire barely kept in check by a layer of ice ready to crumble down to scorch away his enemies.
He allowed himself the small selfishness to leave a kiss on her head, the first and only time he did such a thing, before he got up, his double powers swirling around him.
It wasn't fair, or right, and he wished this outcome never came to be, but he had his anger and her last order as permission to pull out his worst.
And he did.
It mattered little that his efforts managed to barely nick Beryl's much greater power that Metalia had granted her, that even his greatest attacks could only do so little, as long as he gave his all along with his friends.
As long as he didn't spare himself, for there would be no tomorrow either way, not for him.
And Metalia was defeated by the combined effort of all the survivors who gained enough time for Queen Serenity to seal that evil away.
Meleager closed his eyes at the end, when the lights of the Talismans resonated to call upon Sailor Saturn's power and he could exhale a last breath full of relief at the thought of not having to awake to a tomorrow broken beyond repair.
Notes: the next chapter is the only one I haven't completed yet of the series, so the wait will be a bit longer than this time, but aside from that delay the following ones will come every three weeks.
Feedback is always appreciated (on the previous chapters too! don't be shy, I don't bite!)