Recap:
"Welcome to my domain, Moon Princess." The woman repeated with a slight bow. "I am Sailor Galaxia, Protector of the Galaxian Cauldron."
Chapter Sixteen
LadyPrin
Disclaimer Applies:
Serena didn't know what to say to this, so she just stayed silent, staring at Sailor Galaxia.
Galaxia smiled at her, but only briefly.
Galaxia walked up beside Serena and looked into the cauldron, a sorrowful frown upon her face.
"I'm sorry my Lady, but my friends . . ." Serena started to say.
Galaxia looked up at her and the frown disappeared.
"Don't worry." Galaxia assured her. "Your friends aren't in any danger for the moment. Here within the shrine of the Galaxian Cauldron, time and space no longer exist. When you go back to the battlefield, you'll be right where you were before I brought you here."
Serena let out a relieved sigh.
"May I ask what the Galaxian Cauldron is?" Serena asked politely, now that she knew that she had the time.
"Look inside it." Galaxia told her.
Serena bent over it and looked.
Inside were little balls of moving images, all blurry. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make any images come into focus.
"I can see little balls of light with images moving in them, but I can't make out any of the images." Serena informed Galaxia.
"Bringing the images into focus requires long centuries of practice." Galaxia explained as she reached into the cauldron and pulled out one of the balls.
She held it in her hands and stared at it for a moment.
"Inside each ball are images of the past, present, and future. Images of things happening on Earth or on the other side of the universe, I can see them all. I must guard all these balls from those who might find this place, for with these balls one can control everything that happens in life. Though, it is forbidden to interfere with these events, like I've just done, and are about to do."
She put the ball back into the cauldron, and reached deeper within.
"Stand back." Galaxia ordered Serena.
Serena backed up a few steps, as Galaxia pulled on something bigger than just one of those balls.
Galaxia backed up as Queen Serenity climbed over the side of the cauldron.
Galaxia let go of Queen Serenity's hand as Serenity looked around.
Then Queen Serenity realized where she was.
"Sailor Galaxia." Queen Serenity bowed her.
"You know me already?" Galaxia asked slightly bemused.
"Of course, and it is an honor to be in the presence of the most powerful Sailor Scout of all." Queen Serenity responded.
"Thank you, you're Highness." Galaxia replied. "Now, there are things to be done. Queen Serenity, your daughter. Princess Serenity, your mother."
As Galaxia introduced them, the Queen and Serena looked at each other.
After fourteen years, mother and daughter were finally reunited.
Serena curtsied politely than turned to Galaxia.
"Mother?" She asked. "I don't understand."
"You will in a moment, dear." Serenity answered for her as she walked up to her. "I took thy birthright from thee, but now I give it back."
She quickly touched Serena's forehead as Serena stared in shock at her.
Gold light flared in the shape of a crescent moon on Serena's forehead.
Serenity took her hand away, as Serena doubled over clutching her head in her hands.
Galaxia put a restraining hand on Queen Serenity's shoulder and drew her back before Serenity could touch Serena again.
"You've opened her link to the Impearium Silver Crystal. Good. Now let her do the rest." She told Serenity.
They watched for a moment as Serena stayed doubled over clutching her head.
Serena was now receiving generations of memories and information from all the past Serenity's, but it was all coming at so fast a rate that she felt like her head would explode.
She started screaming.
"What's wrong?" Serenity asked Galaxia worriedly.
"The Crystal's power is coming at her too fast for her to process. She needs to take control and slow it down to a manageable speed. If she can't than her head will explode with the force." Galaxia explained.
Serenity made a move to go to her daughter, but Galaxia still held her back.
"No one, not even you, can help her with this. Too much information has been built up over the years. Only she can make herself take control of it."
"What if she can't?" Serenity asked, oblivious to the fact that Galaxia had just answered that question three sentences ago.
"She can. I know she can. I've been with her through all these years, and I know how strong willed and good-hearted she is. She can do it." Galaxia assured her, for she could see that Queen Serenity needed to be assured by someone.
They watched Serena in silence for a moment until her screaming began to die down.
Serena was now on her knees, and panting heavily.
With a sigh she rose to stand.
She looked at her mother with those sharp blue eyes of hers. Queen Serenity saw that her daughter was now wiser than she had been moments before.
The Moon crest began to glow, and Serena changed into her traditional Moon Princess dress, just like the one Mina had used.
"I'm ready." She stated softly.
Queen Serenity walked up hesitantly to Serena.
"Are you sure?" She asked worriedly, searching her daughter's eyes with her own.
"I guess." Serena responded in a normal tone, shrugging slightly. "I mean, I just got hit with millions of memories all at once, and a power that I've only felt like a few times in small amounts throughout my lifetime. I have a pounding headache, and I'll probably have a bigger one later once I've processed all of the information given me. At the moment though, I'm more interested in kicking Beryl right off the face of the Earth, and saving my friends and people."
Queen Serenity laughed softly.
"You're just as I imagined you to be." She told her with a smile, as she moved some stray strands of blond/silver hair out of her daughter's eyes.
Serena smiled.
"But first thing's first, before saving the universe and all that." She said.
Then she wrapped her arms around Queen Serenity and hugged her tightly as Galaxia looked on with a proud smile on her face.
"I love you mother!" Serena whispered into Queen Serenity's ear.
The Impearium Silver Crystal had given Serena all the information about her mother, and about all that she had done to protect her all these years, and had even given her an idea of all of the love the Queen held for her. Serena couldn't help but love her back.
"If you'd step up to the cauldron I'll get you back on your way, you're Highnesses." Galaxia interrupted gently.
The two Serenity's broke their hug, both wearing smiles, and both nodded at Galaxia.
As they stepped up to the cauldron, Serena turned and addressed Galaxia.
"You said at the beginning that it was forbidden for anyone to interfere with the events of life. The Crystal tells me that not even you are allowed to do that, so what will happen to you after we leave? I mean, giving us time to transfer power and knowledge and then sending us back, isn't that messing with events?" She asked worriedly.
"Yes, it is. Yes, I will be punished. Evil was supposed to win this battle, with killing you off. Then your sacrifice would've given the people the push to rise up and fight, and win the war in which evil would be destroyed for good. I got too, emotionally involved, I guess you could say. I grew too fond of you, Serena. So when this time came for you to die, I couldn't let it happen. Now good will win this battle, but because a mortal hand has shifted the scales of good and evil, there will be an even greater sacrifice demanded from good. It will not happen now, it may not happen for years, but happen it will. I will not be able to interfere that time. As for my punishment, I don't know what will to happen to me. I've been punished many times for previous acts like this; each punishment was different than the last. I've always come back to guard the Galaxian Cauldron." Galaxia finished explaining.
Then she looked to the cauldron and added.
"It seems the powers that control us all can't live without me for very long. That's how and why I've always been the most powerful Sailor Scout. Now off you go."
She pushed them slightly, and the cauldron grew enormously fast and big as they fell into it, hand in hand.
As they disappeared into the cauldron, and it shrank to it's original size, Galaxia looked upward.
"Bring on your harshest punishment yet, Masters." She said loudly and tauntingly.
Then she looked back at the cauldron and it's moving images.
"I have no regrets." She added softly.
"Did you say something Sere—" Lita started to say as she turned around, but she swallowed the rest of her sentence when she saw Serena and Queen Serenity appear out of nowhere beside her.
Lita took in their appearance with a glance.
"I missed something didn't I?" She asked, slightly amused.
Serena and Queen Serenity smiled identical smiles at her that boded mischief of some kind and she shivered.
Then they disappeared once more, only to reappear high above the middle of the battlefield.
Beryl was so intent on focusing her anger and rage onto Prince Alan and Mina that she didn't notice them at first, but it's hard to ignore if someone suddenly shouts: "SAILOR SCOUTS UNITE!" way above your head.
Beryl knew then that she had been deceived, but it was already too late.
All around her the Sailor Scouts were transforming.
"JUPITER STAR POWER!"
"MARS STAR POWER!"
"MERCURY STAR POWER!"
"URANUS STAR POWER!"
"NEPTUNE STAR POWER!"
"PLUTO STAR POWER!"
"SATURN STAR POWER!"
Mina was the last to yell her transformation phrase as she mustered her last bit of strength to stand up.
"VENUS STAR POWER!"
"MAKE UP!" They all yelled in union.
Beryl was temporarily blinding by all the lights of the transforming Sailor Scouts, as was everyone else except Queen Serenity and Serena.
All the Scouts, but Mina most of all, felt new strength flow through their body's as the powers of their planets coursed through their veins.
Serena opened her mind links to all the Sailor Scouts just seconds after they had finished transforming.
"Girls, destroy the monsters. Mother and I will take care of Beryl."
"Yes, Princess Serenity!" They responded together, and then they all moved as one to attack the remaining monsters.
Queen Serenity summoned her Crescent Moon Wand, which held the Impearium Silver Crystal in the lowest curve of the crescent moon, and Serena took hold of the handle with her.
Together they focused all of the Crystal's power in Beryl's direction.
"PURE MOONLIGHT TRASNPORTATION!!!" They cried together.
Silver light shot forth from the Crystal and surrounded Beryl.
Beryl put up a shield of dark power, but the Crystal's light started wearing it thin.
Then it broke all together and without a sound, for Beryl didn't have time to even mutter one, the light engulfed her and she was gone.
"Where did we just send her?" Serena asked her mother quietly as they lowered the wand.
"Back to the Negeverse where she came from and where she belongs." Queen Serenity explained. "Let's hope she never comes forth from there again."
They looked to the battlefield.
The Sailor Scouts, the Generals, Prince Alan, Helios, and Endymion and his soldiers were just finishing off the last of the monsters.
"Everything's okay now. Everyone's fine." Serena whispered through a badly held back yawn.
Then her eyes closed and she went limp.
Queen Serenity managed to grab her before she started falling through ten floors of air.
"Sleep well, Princess Serenity. It's over." Queen Serenity whispered to her as they descended to the ground.