PRETTY SOLDIER SAILOR MOON: FUTURE
Chapter 75: Revival For Tomorrow
Chibi-Moon cried nonstop for what felt like forever. She didn't want to think that her friend was dead, but the memories they had together made the grief even more palpable. Perhaps Midori was not around as long as most of her friends, but it was a unique connection that Chibi-Moon couldn't share with anyone else. To suddenly lose that connection was tremendous for her, and she knew it would be impossible to replace it.
I was too late to stop her! If only I was a little faster… If only I had gotten here sooner…!
That was when she felt an unusual presence nearby. She was so wrought up in sorrow to really notice however. A soothing woman's urged in an angelic tone, "Do not burden yourself so, fair princess of Earth."
Chibi-Moon jolted to a stop. She looked up and noticed four glowing Sailor Crystals surrounding Zarnik's ruined gemstone, surrounding a large orb of pure light. The four gems produced hologram-like spirits of the deceased Toxicum Soldiers – Sailors Kanos, Mangar, Nabar and Kadmas.
A figure materialized inside the white orb, her body radiating a soft light that died down until Chibi-Moon could look at her properly. This lady was tall and had long white hair tied into a pair of buns with long pigtails flowing from them. If it weren't for her hair color and slightly different white dress, Chibi-Moon would have mistaken her for her mother Neo Queen Serenity. Everyone could sense a tremendous amount of sadness emanating from the woman's blue eyes as she gazed upon the young girl.
"Who are you?" Chibi-Moon asked, although she had an instinctive idea of who this woman was.
"This is the first time we meet, Small Lady Serenity. I am Queen Serenity, also known as the goddess Selene, ruler of the lost Silver Millennium, and your mother's mother."
"Mama's mama… So you really are my grandmother…"
"I am the one who initiated the events leading to this travesty. Because of my weakness, an entire galaxy perished at Eris' hand, Earth was endangered once again, and an innocent young woman sacrificed everything she was to fix my mistake."
Sailor Nabar clenched her clawed hands and glowered furiously, "This is exactly what we wanted to prevent all this time! Because of you, Sailor Zarnik has been reduced to… to nothing! If she returns to the Galaxy Cauldron like this, she'll become part of Chaos again! She will never be able to be reborn as a Sailor Soldier!"
"Nabar is correct," Mangar clasped her hands. "This is the outcome we Toxicum Soldiers so desperately wished to not see happen, even so much as sending her to an entirely different galaxy to safeguard her. We thought we could fend Eris ourselves, but it was not to be. Our galaxy is no more, and Alkima's final and worst possible solution had to be used to prevent Earth's destruction. I certainly hope the citizens of Earth will give Zarnik all the gratitude it can conjure for her services, even if she was a descendant of Chaos."
"If you had destroyed Eris all those years ago, none of this would have happened," Kadmas stated plainly to the regretful queen. "Why didn't you do something as simple as that? What possessed you to simply banish her to our world?"
Queen Serenity's heart felt like it was being torn into pieces. "I was naïve. By banishing my enemies from the Silver Millennium, I had hoped for them to learn from their past mistakes and redeem themselves. In the end, my weakness allowed them to fester more evil in their hearts. I made many enemies because of it. I had little concept of 'justice', which my daughter would go on to embody as Sailor Moon, a warrior who courageously punished evil when I could not. In a way, you could say that my methods only served to promote said evil. Having said it like that, perhaps it was inevitable that my kingdom would perish at Queen Metallia's hand, and my daughter and her lover would be killed before my very eyes..."
"And now you can add Eris' tyranny to your record too!" Nabar shouted.
"That's enough, Nabar," Kanos commanded. "Selene is acknowledging her mistake before us. We should not continue this debate any further, for all involved parties are dead now."
"Kanos…"
"The only thing I wish for is that Sailor Zarnik's soul be saved from returning to Chaos. If that is to happen, her Sailor Crystal will never be re-forged and sent to protect a planet. Even though she helped protect Earth, she will fall into eternal obscurity, not to be remembered ever again. It's just not fair…"
Queen Serenity then became determined. "That won't happen."
"What do you mean?"
"As we speak, Zarnik's spirit has reached the abyss. However, while she will not be reborn as a planetary guardian, she has been bestowed a task much different than ours."
"A task much different than ours…?" Chibi-Moon murmured.
"We are all denizens of the light, and therefore must protect this world. She, on the other hand, represents darkness. She will gladly protect the sanctity of the light from evil, but her ultimate role is to safeguard the Galaxy Cauldron from being destroyed by nefarious forces who would seek its destruction. Such entities exist out there, and it is her duty to silence them until the time is right."
Nabar raised an eyebrow and demanded, "And when would this 'right time' be?"
"I do not know," Queen Serenity shook her head. "I am only telling you what Guardian Cosmos told me when I was in the Cauldron. She gave me and these four guardians a limited time to come here and help you create a new vessel for Sailor Zarnik."
"You're going to do that for her!?"
"I have volunteered to give up what strength I have regained during my long sleep to do this for her. As I do not wield the Silver Crystal any longer, I will need the help of Small Lady, Crystal Tokyo's guardians, and you four, Alkima's final protectors, to make this miracle possible."
"Then you want me to use the Silver Crystal to support the rebirth process!?" Chibi-Moon asked with great hope in her voice.
"Yes. Reunite the two halves of the Silver Crystal and pray to me. The Crystal will recognize my power and transform my essence into Lambda Energy, the power of creation. All of the Sailor Soldiers can lend their power to strengthen your prayer and guarantee a successful reincarnation."
With a dazzle of light from the empowered Silver Crystal, Chibi-Moon transformed into Small Lady Serenity, allowing her to use the sacred gem's full power. The Toxicum Soldiers were amazed by its aura overwhelming their own, although it was a soft, gentle power that made no effort to dominate them.
"This is incredible," Kanos beamed joyously. "Sailor Zarnik will be saved in no time. I hope this will be recompose for us dragging her into a life of sabotage and misery."
"What do you mean?" Small Lady asked.
"Alkima Galaxy was populated with numerous Sailor Soldiers – far more than there are in this galaxy - but few were concerned with fighting evil as they were with expanding their influence. There was no such thing as a 'leader' or 'the most powerful Soldier' in Alkima, so Eris took advantage of this to pit them against each other. Many Sailor Soldiers fought each other in territorial wars to determine who would be considered Alkima's 'queen', so to speak.
"We Toxicum Soldiers belonged to planets that were never fought for due to them being dying, decrepit worlds that no one desired. Even so, our people still needed us. To that end, we became mercenary Sailor Soldiers, selling our services to the highest bidder and doing their dirty work in exchange for much-needed resources on our worlds. We were allies to a faction one day, and then betraying them the next for someone else. It was truly infuriating to live in such discord, but we had no choice if we wanted our planets to remain alive.
"Zarnik was the last known planet discovered in Alkima, and even then the factions deemed it worthless. We four traveled there and found it in a dying state just like our homes. We convinced Sailor Zarnik to join us as the fifth and final Toxicum Soldier, and she told us about her lineage as a Chaotic Descendant, eager to use the power of darkness for the benefit of good. We decided to keep this power a secret from everyone or else she would have been under the constant threat of kidnapping."
"You five truly looked out for each other in such a terrible world," Queen Serenity commented.
"I suppose…" Sailor Nabar sighed despondently. "Some of us enjoyed fighting, but some of us had a hard time tolerating constant betrayals and having to flee from much stronger Sailor Soldiers all the time. Around the time Eris had corrupted Sailor Upala and began her conquest, we began to notice how tired Zarnik was. She admitted that she had a goal; to somehow stop the infighting and unite Alkima's Sailor Soldiers against Eris and other evils like her. She wanted to remind everyone of what their duty was."
"But the fighting had gone on for too long by then," Sailor Mangar shook her head. "Too many cried out for vengeance. Individual hatred turned into widespread tension across the galaxy. On top of that, Sailor Upala was preparing to start a galactic holocaust. Alkima was irrevocably on its way to anarchy and chaos. Once we four had figured out Eris' involvement in Upala's conquest and the discord across the galaxy, we were certain that Zarnik would want to use her power to destroy Eris. We feared she would use her death as propaganda to remind every Sailor Soldier of their sworn duty."
"How awful…" Serenity whispered. Small Lady practically looked ready to sob at this point, heartbroken that Midori had endured so much pain and yet kept it all secret from her and the Sailor Quartet. She kept her composure and listened to the Toxicum Soldiers' final story.
Sailor Kadmas somberly clutched her arm. "We didn't want her to do that. We wanted to find a way to destroy Eris, but we also wanted to keep Sailor Zarnik away from the war. So I invented a time capsule, and we told her that we needed the help of Sailor Moon, the one who defeated Shadow Galactica. We entrusted Zarnik with the mission of using the time capsule to reach Earth and find Sailor Moon."
Small Lady was stunned. "She didn't know it would take a thousand years to reach here?"
Kadmas let out a pained smile. "She's serious and loyal to a fault. When she's given a mission, she doesn't ask too many questions. It wasn't hard to convince her to get into the time capsule and travel to Earth, even if she didn't know how long or dangerous the trip would be. It was our way of protecting her from the impending war."
"We also had another hope for her once she reached here," Kanos added. "We had done all that we could to protect Zarnik. From there, we hoped that Sailor Moon would…"
She paused sadly, unable to say the words herself. Queen Serenity understood what it meant:
"You wanted my daughter to protect her in your stead."
"Yes. Once we sent her off, we knew we would never see her again. We figured that by sending her to Earth, she would be under the care of someone who was strong enough to defeat Shadow Galactica, yet loving enough to nurture for everyone she knows. At least, those were the stories we heard of the legendary queen Serenity, the physical embodiment of the goddess Selene and the antithesis of Chaos. We believed in those legends and sent Zarnik here, hoping she would live a happy life. And if Eris ever threatened Earth, we knew that she wouldn't be alone in fighting against the goddess."
Small Lady was happy to hear how much Zarnik's friends cared for her.
"Alkima will return someday," Sailor Mangar reminded them. "The Galaxy Cauldron will revive us and our planets in the distant future. Our final request to you, Small Lady Serenity, is to stay by Zarnik's side as she adjusts to life on your world."
"I will!" Small Lady promised.
Kanos clasped her hands together with relief. "I'm glad to hear it."
Slowly but surely, Sailor Zarnik's new body materialized. Since it didn't have her soul in it yet, she nearly collapsed to the ground like a rag doll. Small Lady ran to her and cradled her head in her arm. The spirits of Queen Serenity and the dead Toxicum Soldiers started to vanish as their power ran out.
"It's done. We should leave for the Cauldron now," Sailor Kadmas said as her yellow Sailor Crystal shot into the sky.
"I'm getting knackered here. I could use a nice long nap," Sailor Nabar stretched a little. Her red gem followed Kadmas'.
"Let us leave our friend in the capable hands of Selene's progeny," Sailor Mangar replied. Her purple crystal pursued Nabar's.
Sailor Kanos gazed upon Small Lady cradling Sailor Zarnik, her eyes both joyful and regretful. "I'm sorry for everything we've done to you and Zarnik."
"Don't worry about it…" the princess' eyes welled with tears.
"I know. You're not the type to hate us for it. Well, I suppose there's no point in wallowing over regrets any longer. Please take care of her for us."
With her farewells said, Sailor Kanos' ultramarine Sailor Crystal rose higher before shooting into the sky. The four colored stars glittered together one last time in the depths of space as they headed for the Galaxy Cauldron.
Queen Serenity watched them leave, then faced her granddaughter and said, "I must go as well."
"Why must you leave? Couldn't you go see Mama one more time?" Small Lady wondered.
"This is no longer my time. The moment I died, I entrusted the future to my daughter and her progeny. I only returned this one time to answer for my past sins which plagued the future I gave to my children. Sailor Zarnik abolished the evil I caused, but it would have been unjust for her efforts to be abolished in the sands of time. Small Lady, my granddaughter, please tell your mother not to worry about me. Continue living as you have, appreciating the peace that you earned, and defending it from future evil."
The deceased queen's figure faded in and out as she lost her strength, completely depleted of her magic from recreating Zarnik's body. She eventually shimmered out of existence, leaving Small Lady alone with the lifeless body slumped over her. Once it was all over, the princess remained there for a long while as she felt a rush of emotions overwhelm her chest. She didn't need to cry out of grief any longer, but she still felt the urge to sob. She hugged Zarnik tightly and bawled uncontrollably.
She heard several footsteps running toward her in the distance, then Sailor Ceres' voice as she shouted, "There she is!"
The Sailor Quartet found their leader and kneeled around her. Juno shook Small Lady's shoulder and urged, "Are you okay!? What happened here!?"
"Midori is… Midori is-!"
"Don't push her too hard," Ceres said. "She must be exhausted."
"What about Zarnik? Why isn't she awake?" Vesta wondered.
The princess was too tired to explain, exhausted from both coping with her rampant emotions as well as using the Silver Crystal's power. All she could do was hiccup and lean her head against Pallas' shoulder. The Soldier murmured, "I dunno what's going on, but let's go back to the castle. We have to tell the queen that the bad guys have been defeated."
"You're right."