Chapter 30: A Bitter Past & An Innocent Heart
"The princess herself." Horkos whispered in Sailor Moon's ear.
"Perhaps she blames herself that her guardians have fallen so easily; but of course they were here to protect you…the appetizer before the main dish." Algae teased.
"What did you do with them?" She tilted her head away from their invasion of her space; she was already pinned with vines with little time to protect herself after being torn from Darien.
"Simply let them feel the bitter pain of the ugly truth coming from the shallow lies they told themselves! Their own faults; they were far from innocent of lying to themselves, lying to others, and succumbing to that pain…all to put on the sailor act…"
"But what do you wish to mull over?" Horkos looked at her, her white yellow eyes flashing red for a moment as if to display its ability to see into the self. "You're sad because there was nothing you could do to protect them…"
"A lie." Algae's vines tightened.
"No… I couldn-t-"
"Find them? Hah, years ago you set them on this path, its been a millennia..."
"I didn't-I wouldn't have-" She stuttered over her words as she felt the pain of the vines zap through her. It reminded her of the shock of getting seeded, except it seeped through the skin; a burn, a vulnerability of herself that leaked into the soul.
"You still can't admit your own fault? She is by far the most innocent, and the most sheltered of them all…a fault in itself…but even that she can't see…" Horkos hissed.
"Then we cannot proceed." Algae however continued to cause her suffering, although her words to Horkos suggested otherwise.
"Aggghh…" Sailor Moon's persistent moans from the pain seemed but background noise to their inwards conversation.
"Pseudia is needed. We are all needed united. I feel a call to return…"
Suddenly Sailor Moon felt gravity pull her down, back to the ground, her skin charred with marks and burns from the vine's power. She groaned as she looked around, raising her head, her body still aching. What did they mean that they couldn't proceed? How could she have set her friends on this path? Where were they? She needed to find them and Luna and Artemis still…
"So you lost… Or rather…actually this could be considered winning. Your naivety is by far the most powerful…so I do suspect that you ability to withstand could be considered victory. But, only because I suspect that you in fact wouldn't succumb to their powers. Ironic that Lethe was the only one who could seed you… forgetting is your forte. You forgot everything so easily." Ixion appeared again.
"If I – won, give Luna and Artemis back." She tried to prop herself up by her elbows to get a better look at him.
He raised a brow considering it. She noticed that the others were now behind him. "You want them? Your first question is about them? Not what in fact you forgot from your past?" He looked irritated. "Here they are; them and all your friends…"
She looked to the side and now saw, what was almost a tower of vines tangled upwards, all of her friends, Tuxedo Mask and her two cat friends included, wrapped up amongst them, unconscious, if not barely there.
"Let them go."
"They aren't confined in that egg anymore. They're here, with us, just …resting. They just succumbed to their own battles, not the one you were fighting for." Orcus spoke bluntly.
"I don't understand... and where is Pluto?!" She tried to prop herself up higher.
"Ooh, this one's really spunky huh? Should have known the little Princess would still believe her hands to be innocent, clean of blood!" Sedna smiled, teasing her ignorance, her heels clacking as she approached.
"She believes so much in her own innocence it seems even Horkos can't pry that truth out of her." Varune looked down, his eyes cold and disapproving.
"Let them go…if I'm the one at fault…" She persisted, her voice slowly regaining its stature.
"Far from it. You all are at fault. Who you were in the past…perhaps you did not always choose ignorance over knowing, but you never questioned it. We're going to show you the shadow on the wall you chose to believe when really there was a world…so much more that was happening." Ixion's eyes seemed to light up in a passionate flame. His words just a tip of an iceberg, submerged in the dark and vague waters of the past.
"Sailor Moon…"
She looked over and noticed her friends. A few of them were coming to.
"We did succumb to our own lies…but it's because we want to hold onto our dreams…" Venus groaned as her hung head moved to the side.
"But that doesn't mean we don't want to protect you or believe in you." Jupiter muffled out.
"We don't- blame you." Mercury's head lifted.
"If anything we blame ourselves…" Mars added with a grunt.
"Oh how noble! You blame yourselves? Good, because when you hear our stories of your beautiful Silver Milennium you're going to!" Sedna said, her words bitter.
Sailor Moon considered trying to purify her friends from their confines…even if she was weak. She went to move when suddenly she found her arms held back in vines. Did the Demon's not say they had been summoned to return somewhere?
"Don't move a muscle." Orcus' voice bellowed. "My ancestor was considered an ally of death; next time my powers of immense pressure I used to forge all those weapons can be used to crush you! If you wish to fight us, then you are only proving what we already saw in the past true." His words strong and powerful; a threat he seemed eager follow through on.
"Dear Princess, let us tell our stories, and then you can decide how innocent you truly are…let's not forget, your friends are quite compromised at the moment…" Ixion stepped closer, his voice not demanding so much as persuasive. She had little choice; there was four of them and only her…what was more was whoever this Eris was … well she was present too…and if she did move, her friends were still captured… if they suffered much more she feared for them.
"Long ago we too were just considered Planetary Senshi…we still are…but we were never fully acknowledged for who we were. Removed from that space, kike some of Galaxia's followers, from the chance to become full fledged Sailor Scouts… " Sedna paced.
"As Minor Planets we had a long looming curse to our names, or rather a rumor filled the minds of everyone: we were seen as less powerful, and because our planets, like our ancestors, were born farthest away from the light, it was understood that our powers could only bring the same darkness they were born from." Varune continued.
"Some of us are even distantly related to the inner senshi… it was said my ancestor was cousin to Pluto's ancestor. Our Lady Eris' famed to be distantly related to the Warrior Senshi Ares, of planet Mars. But none of that mattered. Long in the past world was a history of our people no louder than background noise." Orcus added.
"But you see, it all went rather sour as the years went on… soon our planets, more and more rumored as outlaws became seen as only outlaws. When we made a boo-boo, it seems the universe saw it as a catastrophe; should any other Guardian make a mistake, well it was overlooked or lightly punished. Soon, although us of all rulers of our planets, when it came to the recognition we deserved; no Inner Planet saw us as royalty. None of the citizens, and few of our own people retained our respect. We were not Princes or Princesses of our planets, but mere Senshi, with cursed powers and gifts that were best used to aid at often the same level as the average person… we had no cavalry, no power, as even our own people began to doubt our recognitions." Ixion's eyes looked dark; his recollection of these days awakening something in him, his voice however mocking and light, as if this story was a point of bitterness that only his cynicism could illuminate.
"Varune and I…our ancestors, were rejected simply because two other scouts had taken over the domain of the seas. I of the Deep corners of the water, and him of the Ocean's creatures, two things perhaps belittled by the famed Neptune and Mercury, the ruler of oceans and the all-round ruler whose powers were matched in wit. Instead I was to be made equivalent, in the eyes of most, to some sea-animal tamer so our universe could better use their skills for whatever idle task they needed. Varune's own unique ally was killed because some of the Moon people decided that his planet's "strange" wildlife was amusing, when he'd told them only to take care of it, and so he wear's his fallen ally's bones as protection, so he would always be by his side. His anger caused his rejection from the Moon and so I soon followed after, because I too knew those who did not keep their word and who had belittled us and our abilities, and our allies for mere playthings, had wronged us deeply. When he denied warriors the backs of his planet's sea-monsters after his own was killed, and I denied the taming of water's wildest because I was sick of being unrespected it wasn't hard for us to deny our place in any war fighting for those who rejected us…" Sedna's fist's bunched, as Varune put his hand on her shoulder; his boned staff, that snakelike skull head and eyes glowed, as if to reflect the anguished power he too restrained in this recollection.
"You know well, I already revealed I was reduced to some blacksmith man when I was asked to aid in your petty war… the powers of my planet, Orcus, like Pluto were linked to quick and painless deaths. Powers that only one Scout could remain with on the terms she became a Time Guardian…but for I no such chance. My ability, my powers, what my people long called as the Angel of Death, as the rightful ability to cause suffering to anyone who was deemed worthy to die; the betrayers and liars…wasn't seen as a tool of justice, it was feared. Of course this meant my weapons could destroy many, but it also meant others saw me as some monstrous killer… they thought if they used my power in segmented pieces in weapons… I was useful?! What Dead Scream was to Pluto, my powers were a Punishment of Near Silence! I could kill without destroying planets at my best, a brink between Eris, Pluto and Saturn's powers…and instead I played the standby worker… until now." Orcus' anger seemed clear; he had hated being on the sidelines. If Saturn had been so chained by her powers because of their power and might, clearly, he was feared for his powers as well.
"So I suppose… next would be me." Ixion's arms were crossed snidely. His smirk appeared on his face.
"It's not a theatre show." Sedna hissed.
"On the contrary, isn't it? I really must bask in the glory that is the isolation of Sailor Moon without her tag along Prince." Ixion looked to her, standing over, as her eyes moved from his shoes at her place near the ground to his face. Her eyes now conflicted. So the truth was perhaps becoming a bit more real for them now was it?
There was a grunt from where Tuxedo Mask was. "Don't get any closer-"
"Oh, so he's finally coming to? Get closer to who? Sailor Moon? Or what? What could you possibly do?" Ixion asked taking a step forward. " I really hope your all listening… Now you see, along with your dearly departed Prince Diamond, I too visited the Moon, and as a reject found a brief glimpse of the splendor of that place in the past only to be rejected from it then and now. I, and my ancestors, was not accepted because a certain Fire Warrior planet was seen as stronger. Personally all I saw was a larger planet named Mars. Like Orcus, even the tiny factor that our ancestral heritage might prove that my family was actually somewhat related to the first born of Mars, Ares, I never adhered to that excuse. Who's to say the first is always best? But you see, my story started when everyone decided they wanted another Fire Senshi on the soldier's team…Fire was a warrior's light and power. They wanted to recruit me as a soldier. A step closer to undoing my planet's ancestral shame…that is that my ancestor killed someone important on the Moon Kingdom…blah blah. That being said, when I arrived on the Moon, you see, I happened to find a beautiful garden, only to find out that it was in fact a Castle Garden… and that's when I saw you. You see Sailor Moon, from a far I became infatuated, and with no shame I admit now I see that perhaps you had no clue of how men like me suffered. I don't doubt you scouts had infatuated men who were too small for you to see, but still suffered for your cause…"
He looked to the scouts who now seemed a bit more apparent. He looked down to the blue eyes that seemed wide, listening intently, unmoving, scared, and unsure. "When I inquired about you I was faced with laughs. I was a Prince of my Planet, and you a Princess of yours, but unlike your Prince of the Earth to whom you broke our universe for, but I was not treated like one! None of us were royalty to you and your people! In fact, I was seen as less likely that a common Selenian to find myself courting you! So don't blame me when I tell you that we all sat back and watched your world burn because we refused to fight for a kingdom who denied our respect…and perhaps some of us suffered too watching people we had once cared for die! Now…perhaps you can see… how far you are from being innocent…however ignorant you were to us…however blissful you were….you cannot deny … you lead everyone down a dark path, and this is what has become of it."
Author Note:
Okay so I'm really sorry for not updating but I have done this stupid thing where I write too many fanfics…more than I can handle and jump between them while in school…and I've had so many ideas for this fic...but between School and the release of Sailor Moon Crystal which turned me right off SM until i rewatched the 90s version i was at a stand still SO...
Anyway if you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to review. Will try to update asap… xox