PRETTY SOLDIER SAILOR MOON: FUTURE
Chapter 69: Inaudible Despair
Chibi-Moon, Zarnik and the Sailor Quartet flew back to Crystal Tokyo, where the Outer Sailor Soldiers were still maintaining their positions around the barrier protecting the city. Sailors Pluto and Saturn were the first to eagerly rush toward the princess, and Saturn hugged her.
"Are you okay? Do you have any big injuries?" she asked worriedly.
"I'm okay, Hotaru. We managed to defeat the invaders."
"We saw it from here," Pluto said. "That flash of darkness was Sailor Zarnik's power, wasn't it?"
"It was…" Chibi-Moon murmured and glanced at the depressed Zarnik.
Pallas continued crying as she sobbed, "We couldn't save her friends though… Eris killed them before we could bring them here…"
Neptune put her arm around Pallas' back and said, "It's not your fault. You did the best you could."
"We should get inside," Uranus said. "Venus and the others need to rest from maintaining the barrier."
The group flew back to the balcony leading to the throne room. Serenity, Endymion, and the three feline advisors greeted them there. Serenity kneeled before her daughter and said, "I'm so glad you're safe, Small Lady."
"Mama… Oh, Mama…" Chibi-Moon sniffled. Once the rush of battle had ended, she suddenly felt dismal and fatigued enough to pass out. "Midori's friends…"
"I know. We saw it on the monitor."
Endymion stood over the dejected Zarnik and asked, "Are you all right?"
She flat out dodged the question and grumbled unenthusiastically, "We got this from Upala."
She placed the microchip in his hand, then stood back and stared at nothing in a detached daze. Zarnik was overwhelmingly melancholic from the news of the Toxicum Soldiers' deaths to focus on what the others were talking about. To Endymion, she looked physically and emotionally drained, which greatly worried him. Chibi-Moon hugged her mother and bawled uncontrollably for Zarnik's sake. Serenity wanted to cry too, but she needed to stay strong for her daughter's sake, so she swallowed her tears and held her close.
"Endymion?" she asked her husband. "Shall we return? They're both exhausted."
"Yes. In the meanwhile, let's have everyone reconvene in the upper chambers so we can discuss how to counter Eris."
Serenity walked with Chibi-Moon while Endymion guided Zarnik through Crystal Palace. During the walk, Zarnik asked the king in a despondent tone, "How do you plan on fighting Eris? She's got dozens of Sailor Soldiers under her control. Can this world's warriors really fight their own without a guilty conscience?"
"We'll find a way. Upala's microchip might give us some clues," he told her. "Somehow, we will prevail over Eris."
"'Somehow'… Such empty words of false hope…"
"We won't give up. Most importantly, you will have no further role in this battle. You will be kept under surveillance until Eris has been eliminated."
"I can't do that. For my Toxicum Soldier friends… For everyone in Alkima who perished… And for everyone on Earth… I have to be the one to kill her… I have nothing but that now…"
"Sailor Zarnik," Serenity leaned in and touched the sorrowful girl's shoulder. "It's all right. You've done more than you need to. Please leave the rest to us."
Zarnik stared within the queen's crystal clear blue eyes, feeling her eyelids get heavier. This was the woman that she had been destined to meet as part of her mission. But it turned out to be a total mockery 1000 years in the making. Zarnik was never meant to ask Serenity to save Alkima; that was just a ploy to get her to leave her home world. She finally met the fabled queen of the Moon, and it was all pointless. The grim reality of this deception wallowed her into such despair that she slipped into a deep sleep that she didn't want to wake up from. For now, she would gladly take a bad dream over the nightmare she was living in.
"Midori!?" Chibi-Moon uttered as Zarnik collapsed face-first on the marble flooring, losing her transformation and reverting back to her civilian clothes.
Eris smiled.
Although the Animus Syndicate had lost this round, it didn't seem to bother her in the slightest. She would accept a loss if it meant being able to harvest more discord from the exhausted warriors and frightened civilians who had escaped from Tokyo. She was reaping plenty of it now, which made the apple tree she was sealed in grow ever larger in size. Numerous leaves fluttered about in the malevolent winds, and the Apples of Discord dangling from the twisted dark branches shuddered.
Soon… Very, very soon… My roots of evil will sink into this planet and turn it into a world of perpetual shadow, where hatred and sorrow shall flourish for all eternity.
The goddess' ultimate goal was to plant the roots of her own prison straight into Earth's crust, firmly tying her to the planet's life force. The roots would snake their way to the other continents and grow into miniature apple trees that bloomed more Apples of Discord. Even if one tree was destroyed, another would easily take its place like an infestation. No one would be able to stop the invasion…
That was, other than Neo Queen Serenity, her hated enemy Selene's daughter. Serenity would have to use the Silver Crystal to cleanse the planet of Eris' influence, but the amount of power needed to perform such a wide scale miracle would undoubtedly kill her.
Either total domination, or the death of Selene's progeny. Eris would be satisfied with either outcome.
Not to mention that Eris still had Sailor Zarnik's capture on the back of her mind. She had witnessed her battle against Upala and was thrilled to witness Arsen's forbidden power Miasma Convert being used. Even though Eris had a similar capability with absorbing discord, she still wanted to be free of the apple tree that imprisoned her. To that end, she needed someone who was attuned with darkness to serve as her new vessel, and Zarnik was the one she had chosen to fulfill that purpose. By inhabiting Zarnik's body while controlling the apple tree to infect Earth, Eris essentially had the perfect plan for both conquering this world and ruining everything that Selene loved.
But first, Eris wanted to capture Zarnik. That was why she used her dark powers to eradicate the Toxicum Sailor Soldiers. Not only did it prevent them from spilling any crucial information to the enemy, but it also sent Zarnik into a downward spiral of depression. Eris could feel Zarnik's anguish from afar, and it gave her great joy to know that her ploy worked wonderfully.
All Eris needed to do was to be patient now. In due time, Zarnik would come to her with vengeance in mind. It wouldn't be long before they met each other in person for the first time, at which point everything would be decided.
Eris' thoughts were interrupted when she heard the footsteps of her newest victims approach the orchard where she was imprisoned. About 30 or so Sailor Soldiers that Upala had enslaved gazed at Eris with sinister smiles, and some of them laughed with acrimonious joy.
"Upala's dead," one of them said. "The Victory Crown that she wore no longer exists."
"We've waited so long for this," another girl chuckled. "It's too bad we couldn't turn the tables against her with a coup d'etat upon her 'glorious' return."
"I would've loved to have stomped on her for days on end."
"Me too."
"A little round of torture or two would have been great."
Eris replied, "Now, now, my children. You will have your turn with bringing Crystal Tokyo's guardians to their knees. Tell me; how many does Serenity have in her ranks?"
"We analyzed the results of that battle and determined around 15 Sailor Soldiers, not to mention the queen, king, their generals, and army of guards."
"So our numbers are about equal. Worry not, though. Once my plan to consume Earth begins, we will have all the numbers we need to swarm them into submission."
A young woman asked, "Will we be receiving the power of your Victory Crown as you promised?"
"Ah, but of course. Of course, I don't have enough power to make crowns for all of you, so you will have to suffice with a necklace."
The falling leaves of Eris' apple tree transformed into deep green gemstones that were encased in golden pendants. Each Sailor Soldier grabbed a piece of jewelry and draped them around their necks, connecting their powers to Eris'. With those necklaces, Eris could directly influence their light-infused Sailor Crystals and further pervert their minds with thoughts of greed and dominance. However, since they were warriors who were supposed to represent Cosmos, she couldn't actually take control of their bodies. She needed someone under Chaos' dominion, like how Sailor Zarnik was.
"Now, my children," Eris commanded, "go into the city and surround Crystal Tokyo. Trap them inside their own castle so they have no escape."
The laughing Sailor Soldiers departed on her order and began to swarm like grey locusts toward the desolate city.
Everyone had spent the following evening resting from the battle. The guards were on high alert, and all of the Royal Family and Earth's guardians had holed themselves up in Crystal Palace, which was the most sacred place in the world that the diabolical Eris could not enter. However, Endymion and Ami were dedicated to seeing the contents of Upala's unknown microchip, with Luna and Artemis even pitching in to integrate the complex component into the palace's mainframe. It took the majority of the night to download everything though, since Alkima's programming was somewhat foreign to them. Ami had been worried about a virus sneaking into the computer, so she ran several tests beforehand and determined that it would be safe to use.
The next morning, everyone except Midori gathered around the main computer while Endymion searched through the files. Midori had been so worn out from using Miasma Convert that she was still sleeping. No one could possibly rouse her out of her deep slumber, so they left her be for now.
"This is it," Endymion said and brought up a display of the Animus Syndicate's top-secret files. "If there's any information about Eris' weaknesses, we should be able to find it in here."
"Now that you mention it, Papa," Small Lady Serenity murmured, "Zarnik was talking about those huge tree roots surrounding Upala Acropolis. She thought that if we could send purifying power through them, we could weaken her enough before facing her directly."
"That could work," Luna agreed. "We analyzed them before and noticed that the negative emotions coming from Earth's frightened citizens are being sucked through those roots."
The king brought up a list of the Syndicate's members and their capabilities, followed by diagrams of the acropolis. There was one particular file that he had not perused yet, so Makoto pointed at it and asked, "What is this one supposed to be?"
Her life partner Masato leaned in and said, "It looks like a video file."
"I didn't get a chance to really look at it, but it seems to be really old footage of something," Ami said. "It's fairly long, and if it's from hundreds of years ago, there probably won't be anything of value."
"Might as well see it anyway. It could provide us with some clues," Shougo tousled his curly hair.
Endymion brought up the video, and everyone stepped back to watch silently. The film was rather grainy and out of focus at first, but it eventually cleared and showed an impressive view of Alkima Galaxy. A huge number of stars and planets formed to create the image of a round-bottom flask.
"So that's where Midori's from," Minako murmured.
The view remained the same for several minutes. Then something glinted in the very center.
"What was that?" Haruka wondered.
The small speck of light gradually began to get larger, swallowing whole stars in its relentless path of destruction. The light changed into an orb that undulated with many pale colors, like an opal. Planets exploded into dust, and solar satellites were extinguished almost instantly.
"It can't be!" Setsuna gasped. "This is when the Opal of Culling decimated Alkima!"
Everyone let out simultaneous short cries of disbelief. Indeed, they were witnessing another world's Armageddon at the hands of Eris and Sailor Upala. The cataclysmic opal kept evolving at a rapid pace for a long while. Eventually it started to lose intensity and fade into darkness. In the wake of its destruction, all that remained was a completely black vacuum of space where Alkima once was. It was like a child had taken a picture of the stars, cut a circular hole of the galaxy out, then glued the rest of the picture back onto black paper.
Small Lady's eyes overflowed with tears without her realizing it. Of all the enemies the Sailor Soldiers had ever faced in the past, none had caused as much devastation as this. It was almost too much for her pure heart to handle.
"This is… too cruel…" Ami whispered. She almost felt faint, but Shougo held her shoulder to support her.
As the stunned group stared at the Opal of Culling's devastating powers, they heard the distinct creak of the double doors. They looked back to find Midori partially hiding herself while gazing upon the screen with an empty look in her eyes.
"No!" Endymion cried out and switched off the monitor, but it was too late.
"Midori!" Small Lady ran to her friend and gripped her arms. "H-How much of that did you see!?"
At first, the stunned girl didn't react. Then she tried to say, "All of it," but for some reason, her throat tightened up so badly that only her lips moved. She attempted it again, only getting the same result. She kept trying over and over again, with the strain increasing every time as tears streamed down her cheeks.
"Midori? Midori, what's the matter?"
The stricken girl finally gave up and covered her face with her hands while shaking, as if resigning to the condition her overwhelming depression caused. Small Lady panicked and shouted with tears in her eyes, "Ami! Hotaru! Something's wrong with her!"
The trained doctor and nurse guided the pair out of the computer room to a spare guest's quarters, lying Midori on the bed while checking her vitals. Ami checked her throat and upper chest to see if anything was physically wrong, but found nothing. Hotaru tried to ask Midori some questions, only receiving silence in return. All Small Lady could do was stand off to the side and clutch her hands nervously while waiting for a diagnosis.
"This is quite serious," Ami reported with a grim expression. "She doesn't have any physical ailments, but the stress of everything that's happened must have caused her to become mute."
"But she was fine before! Why now!?" the princess implored.
"It must have been from witnessing her home world's violent demise."
Hotaru added, "With all of these disastrous revelations happening at once, it's no wonder this would happen."
"Is there anything either of you can do?" Small Lady begged.
Ami shook her head. "This is all due to mental shock. No form of pharmaceutical medicine can cure her, but I believe this is only a temporary condition. All we can do now is keep Midori's heart at peace and not expose her to any further trauma."
"How long will it be before she can talk again?"
Hotaru replied, "There's no way to know. However long it may be, we mustn't force her to speak if she doesn't wish it. To that end, I believe it's best that she no longer participate in this battle as Sailor Zarnik."
Midori widened her eyes and suddenly sat up, trying to object however she could. Ami forced her back down and exclaimed, "Don't get up! You need to lie down!"
The mute girl sighed and gave in to the doctor's order. Ami gave her some sedatives just to be sure, and they waited for her to fall asleep before quietly leaving the room. Serenity, Endymion, and everyone else had been waiting for the trio outside to hear what was going on. Ami and Hotaru reported their findings and their assertion of not allowing Midori to fight against Eris.
"Yes, I believe that's best for her," Endymion agreed. "We must focus on defeating the remnants of the Animus Syndicate as soon as possible."