Blood Pearls - Fall of the Silver Millennium
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi, not me. This piece of fiction is purely for the amusement of the author and/or reader, and has not been created with the intent to make a profit. Me no own, you no sue!
Author's notes: This is the one-shot revolving around my theory of Mercury's death. As stated before, the Inner senshi one-shots involve suggestions of Inner/Shittenou, Inner/Starlight and Inner/Inner pairings. Thanks to the people who reviewed! It's great to know people are actually reading these one-shots. If you like this story, try checking out my other story currently ongoing; Andromeda Prophecies. See y'all next chapter!
Three: Sailor Mercury
"Serenity? Serenity?!"
Sailors Mercury and Venus had searched almost the entirety of the palace trying to find their princess. It was unlikely that she had gone to Earth again after they collected her yesterday - she usually waited a few days so as to put her guardians at ease before trying to sneak off to the blue planet once more.
It never worked. The five of them had grown up together since the four princesses arrived on the moon at the age of eight to start training, so they all knew Serenity's tricks by heart - though the same could be said for her. The Guardian Senshi were the best and perhaps only real friends that she had, naturally their princess knew all four of them almost better than they knew themselves.
"Sere-chan?!" Although the correct thing to say would have been 'princess' as usual, Sailor Venus never had been one for decorum. Without a second thought, Mercury hit the micro-sized button on one of her earrings, which caused her visor to flick into view over her eyes. The supercomputer in her palm clacked as her fingers swept over the keys as if using the small, blue device was second nature to her - and indeed it was. A loud trill came from it as it locked onto Princess Serenity, who was stood at the other end of the hall, staring dreamily at the now closed double doors of the throne room. There was only one explanation for the look on Serenity's face. She could see Venus knew it already; the blonde girl was visibly trying not to giggle as she walked up behind the princess.
"Geez Serenity, don't scare me like that!"
While Venus was happy to stand and gossip with Serenity, completely ignoring their guests, Mercury felt she had best stand in for her comrade's complete lack of decorum amid company, as usual. She stepped forward, her eyes taking in each of the leather-clad Starlights and then Princess Kakyuu, her visor instantly flashing up statistics about the three of them. She turned it off, clearing her throat quietly.
"Greetings. I am Sailor Mercury, one of the four guardians of Princess Serenity." she said, bowing. "This is our captain, Sailor Venus." Upon hearing her name, Venus finally paid them some attention and grinned, making a peace sign before returning animatedly to her conversation. Mercury rolled her eyes at the display. 'This is the White Moon palace! The Captain of the guard should not be so frivolous at a time like this!' she thought to herself.
"Princess Kakyuu. I am acting as an ambassador from my home planet, Kinmoku." Kakyuu said, gesturing to her own guardians. "These are my three guardians, the Sailor Starlights - Star Fighter, Star Healer, and Star Maker." Mercury took a close look at each Starlight, silently assessing their level of threat to her princess before she spoke.
"I presume you are not from our solar system, judging by your uniforms." she said, allowing a smile to grace her face as she addressed the question to Maker - her visor had already informed her that the tallest Starlight was the "intelligent" one. The brunette Starlight smiled as she took in the sight of Mercury, who was calmly staring back.
"Correct. We are from the Tankei system." Maker replied. Mercury's polite smile grew slightly. She had read about their system at a young age.
"Is that so? I've extensively studied your system then." she said.
The two of them almost immediately launched into a conversation on advanced astronomy that left Kakyuu politely puzzled and caused Fighter and Healer to share knowing "they're both nerds" looks.
It was soon, almost too soon for Mercury, time for them to leave.
"Well, it was nice meeting you."
She took a step back, trying to calm her thoughts as she felt her heart drumming inside her chest. For some reason her cheeks had been stained scarlet as she turned and followed her princess. It was all she could do to keep one foot moving in front of the other, and yet she could not help but wonder why she cared - it was likely she would never see them again.
Venus had stopped at the end of the corridor, peeking around the sleek marble at the three Starlights and their princess as they had a short conversation then entered the throne room as Endymion swept out, probably on his way to "bump" into Serenity. Smiling slightly, Mercury saw Serenity slipping off again and tugged Venus along the corridor.
According to her calculations, it had taken little under a week for all the Senshi currently in the service of the Moon Kingdom, including herself (although she was already living in the palace) to gather on the Moon. And not just for Serenity's 16th birthday Masquerade. Sailor Mercury, otherwise known as Mizuno Ami, smiled slightly at the thought of how amazing the party was. She would have spent it with a recent acquaintance of hers; the Shitennou Zoisite, but he hadn't turned up for the party. Something she should have paid more attention to in retrospect. She had a terrible feeling about him, although she knew she loved him - she had just never brought it up and wasn't even entirely sure her feelings were returned. True feminine intuition is rarely wrong - as she was soon to find out.
If the gathering had just been for the Masquerade, she knew Sailor Uranus, for one, would not have shown up. Uranus hated such functions because she actually had to wear a dress for them.
No. This was much worse than a masquerade ball. This was life and death.
She and Sailor Mars, a lifelong friend, were already slightly cut up from clearing the youma that lead to the marble expanse before descending to the beach of the Mare Serenitatis at the back of the palace. Venus and Jupiter could already be seen calling forth their attacks as she moved to join the fray. Surely the demon in the sky would not take more than a basic attack to be rid of.
"Crescent Beam!"
"Bubble Spray!"
"Fire Soul!"
She felt heat rush past her from Mar's attack. Little did she know this would be the last time she would see her raven-haired companion during the Silver Millennium.
"Where is Serenity?" Venus's frantic voice barely registered. Mercury was too busy trying to force her brain into gear as she stared up at the ghastly face of the youma painting the sky. She let out a gasp unheard by the others as she realised too late that they had not done enough to bring down the Youma.
"Protected. Endymion is guarding her." Mar's reply also fell on deaf ears.
The next thing she knew, four variations of pain ripped through her and she screamed as the force of the blow sent her flying backwards and into a marble panelled wall which cracked as she hit it full force. A blinding pain shot up her spine as she saw a flash of blonde hair and thought she heard spine-chilling laughter. 'It must be Venus' she decided. But why would the blonde senshi be laughing at a time like--
"Split up!"
Obeying without thinking, Mercury ran across the shoreline, trying to find Uranus, Neptune and Saturn. Safety in numbers. She knew from experience Pluto would not attend the fight; she had to defend the Time Doors against Beryl. On her own.
Still no sign of any of the outer-planetary senshi and Mercury was running short of breath now. The bleeding gash in her right shoulder and the cut on her left calf had both re-opened. She could feel the blood dripping down her limbs, her face screwing up as she fought the pain.
Then, she heard that same laughter behind her and was on high alert instantly.
Turning as best she could she heard a shifting sound and Zoisite solidified out of the air in a whirl of cherry blossoms. What was he doing here at a time like this?! She forced herself to ignore the way her heartbeat had sped up. She was in the middle of a battle; there wasn't time to ponder her feelings.
"Zoisite? What are you-"
She did not get chance to finish her inquiry as in another flurry of small pink flora Zoisite moved forward, quite literally sweeping her off her feet and out towards the centre of the Sea of Serenity. Her anxious thoughts came to a stop worthy of a head on train collision as his lips met hers.
"Sayonara."
It was a second or two before she realised that she was falling. The icy cold of the water almost made her scream, but she bit it back as she swam back to the surface, hastily treading water as she looked up at where the figure of Zoisite had been. He was gone. Her bleeding wounds and already the weight of her already tired body dragged her under the level of the water and she did not have the strength to claw for the surface again and make it back to the beach. Eventually she breathed out, a stream of bubbles the only thing that announced her presence as they broke onto the surface of the water that was now metres above her. With no air in her lungs there was nothing to stop her sinking further and further into the depths as her eyes slid closed with the finality of death.
((A/N: Mercury gone, Venus next!))