A/N
Well, as promised, here's part two in about two weeks! It wasn't supposed to be two chapters, but it got so long as I was writing that I couldn't imagine putting all 9,000 words into one single chapter.
Thank you again for your comments, and I hope that you enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 12
As You Wish - Part 2
The movie that played out before the three also grew bright before suddenly dissipating into smoke. Without the brilliant, warm light of the past to illuminate their faces, they were left with the cold, dark nothingness of destruction that Ananke had brought with her. The roar of the galaxy cauldron beyond them became like the static of a TV that no longer received signal.
Eternal Sailor Moon sat on the ground, unmoving. She tried to pull her eyes away from the spot where the memory had played in front of them, but she was still trying to piece everything together. Instead of addressing Ananke who floated above them with a devilish smirk on her face, she turned instead to look back at Sailor Star Fighter.
Fighter's face was pale. Her lips quivered under Sailor Moon's stare. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, but she did not say a word. They remained silent for a long time until finally, Sailor Moon's voice broken the quiet. Her voice wavered slightly as the words left her lips, "Seiya, did you know?"
Star Fighter's gaze dropped briefly to the ground. The silence between the question and her response was stifling. The sound of her breath as she breathed in to respond seemed so loud in Sailor Moon's ears that it could have filled the entire universe. She already knew in from the aching in her stomach what the answer was, but she had to hear it to cement it.
"Yes."
Fighter stood motionless, waiting for a response. Sailor Moon's eyes were wide and brimming with tears. She swallowed hard, wiping a tear from her cheekbone. "How long?" Her voice was barely heard above the churning of the galaxy cauldron behind them.
"I–I've always felt a little off, but I didn't know for sure until the day after the concert."
In the mind numbing realization of what had happened, Eternal Sailor Moon was thankful that she was so close to the ground. Her vision swirled with a thousand memories that now seemed fabricated. She tried to sort out what had been real and what had been the aftermath of Sailor Star Fighter's wish, but no matter what, the past year had been taken from her. A sudden anger grew in the pit of her stomach. She thought that knowing might make the memories disappear. Wasn't it all a lie? Shouldn't it all have gone away now that things had been set straight? But, no. Now, instead of knowing that Mamoru was the only one for her, that everything between herself and Seiya was fake, she could still clearly see it all—from the moment she first saw a glimpse of him while she walked Mamoru to his flight, to Seiya lying with her in the dark, holding her and making her forget that she was just a normal girl...a time when she had no reason to believe anything besides the fact that she was lucky that superstar Seiya Kou had picked her of all the girls in Tokyo.
The anger rolled and bubbled over. "Seiya, you lied to me! This whole time. How could you wake up every day after that and tell me that you love me when you knew what you had done–the kinds of changes you made to my life?" Sailor Moon stood suddenly, holding her head between her gloved palms.
Fighter tried to scramble to her knees and stop Sailor Moon. "I didn't know the repercussions! It wasn't all so clear at the time–I didn't realize that it would all come true somehow. By the time I knew what was happening, we were already so far down." Her voice softened, and she reached out to take Sailor Moon's hands into her own. Her blue eyes stared quizzically at Fighter, dumbfounded that she would touch her after the information that had been shared. "But, Usagi, regardless of how it all happened, you loved me. We loved each other for all of this time. It doesn't change how we felt."
Sailor Moon jerked away. "But, Seiya, I didn't choose you! Don't you understand? I didn't ask for this! And because of what you've done, Mamoru is gone. All of my friends are gone. Everything I actually ever was is gone now!"
As Sailor Moon paced and sobbed, Ananke slowly clapped. "Well done! Bravo! A lovely display of what happens when you try to alter destiny. Now, Sailor Moon, I'm sure you're hoping to fix things. Would you like to know how to make this all go away?"
For a moment, Sailor Moon made eye contact with Seiya. Her eyes shined bright with the fire of betrayal, and she blinked out the hot tears that hung over her puffy eyelids. "Whatever it takes. I just want things to be back to normal."
"Fantastic," Ananke hissed. "Kill her," she pointed one slender finger toward Sailor Star Figher, "and then kill yourself. Rid us of the light that attracts all things of the dark."
Sailor Moon stared at Star Fighter for a long time. A lump had formed in her throat. She clenched her fists at her side and breathed. The tears that had consumed her no longer fell, but an emptiness had taken over the space in her heart. Fighter's blue eyes stared right back into her own, a new fear reflected back at her. Sailor Moon could feel herself changing—was she really the light that could bring an end to the fighting? She felt corrupted, like a bit of herself no longer belonged to her but had made itself home in Sailor Star Fighter.
Then, with a single wave of her palm and a flash of light, Sailor Star Fighter undid her transformation. Before Sailor Moon now stood the pristinely dressed, hair perfectly in place, super star Seiya Kou. More than anything else, Sailor Moon could see it now—how out of place he was here in this solar system, but especially on Earth. His aura burned red beneath his disguise. The familiar scent of his cologne—roses and spice—it was otherworldly. She finally realized that it wasn't something they had on Earth; almost like osmanthus. Almost like Mamoru, but not quite. He lacked the deep scent of the earth and the wind and the wood that kept them safe, but he had been everything to her once. Now she could not turn back.
"Seiya," Sailor Moon breathed, a disappointed frown dancing across her lips, "you can't be here anymore."
He smirked in his typical fashion, as if nothing abnormal was happening. "I know," his voice cracked slightly as the fear flowed through him, "but it can't be helped. You have to do it now, Sailor Moon. I'm just a man now." He took a solemn step toward her, his arms outstretched.
Ananke from somewhere above them snapped her fingers and between Sailor Moon and Seiya, the sword of the silver crystal appeared before them, buried half way into the stone path. "End it as it began, Sailor Moon—with the sword that took your own life so long ago," Ananke commanded.
Eternal Sailor Moon stepped forward and grasped the grey hilt of the sword and pulled it from the rocky path in one smooth movement. The steel sparkled in the darkness despite the lack of true light around them. Sailor Moon rolled the blade in her hands, her reflection flashing back at her in the blade. Her eyes were dark. There was a tiredness that she had not seen in herself before. It was eating at her—it had been since this had all begun. She had lost not only those that she loved, but herself as well. In a way it would be poetic—to use the sword she had taken her own life with to destroy what little was left of her life now. Seiya was the only bit that remained before she could try to salvage what she could of herself.
She took another step toward Seiya. He stood before her, his chin and gaze high. "Seiya," she choked out, her voice haggard and hoarse. His eyes looked down to her as she turned to him, and lifted the sword above her head. His wide eyes were just like a nebula—blue and bright and shining. A single tear rolled down his cheek. "Goodbye."
Sailor Moon closed her eyes and in a swift motion, she forced the sword downward. Her arm stopped, a force preventing her from going any further. She swallowed, sure that the aftermath of what she had done would be gruesome. Could she ever forgive herself? Would she ever forget what she had done here in another life? Could she ever be sure? Her breaths had become shallow as she pictured the bloody scene beneath her. With shaking fingers, she released the sword and it clattered to the ground. A wave of nausea hit her, deep in her stomach, and with trembling breaths she forced herself to look at the scene before.
To her surprise, there was no blood. What she saw first was the silver imperium crystal floating in front of her eyes. As her vision focused beyond the crystal, she was met with Seiya's gaze. His hand was outstretched, holding Sailor Moon's arm away from them above where the sword had fallen. He had stopped her swing with one hand, protected from injury by the silver imperium crystal.
"Usagi, she's trying to confuse you. Don't let them. I know this isn't you." Seiya's voice was soft and his hand reached out to hold her face. "You don't have to do it her way if you don't want to." Tears hung at his eyelashes, but he was not angry or disappointed. Despite everything that had happened, despite her blinded fit of anger, despite her nearly killing him, Seiya still believed in her.
Sailor Moon's jaw dropped. She took an uneven step backward and the brooch at her breast shattered causing her fuku to burst into a plume of feathers that had held her transformation together. She grasped at her chest as the clothing she had been wearing from before they left reappeared on her body. As she fell to her knees, her power suddenly being drained from her body, Ananke's screams filled the air above them.
"You fool!" she shrieked, pulling her arm back, a whirring ball of black energy forming in her palm. "By saving him, you're destroying everything. This timeline cannot continue with your existence." Her arm snapped forward, releasing the energy toward Usagi. Usagi had no time to react. She turned away, waiting for the blow, when another bright flash was emitted from the silver imperium crystal.
The flash seemed to happen in an instant, but Usagi watched it as it grew like a bubble being breathed to life. It surrounded her and Seiya before growing so large that it made contact with Ananke's outstretched fingers, and as it did, she cried out a long, howling moan of pain. The tips of her fingers began to disintegrate into sand as the light of the crystal washed over them. She attempted to pull herself away, but found that she couldn't. The light grew larger and larger, taking more and more of her body with it, until just one side of her torso and head remained.
As the light continued to consume Anake up to her neck, she made one final, strangled remark, "Sailor Moon, you must end it, or we all will return to sand, as Fate demands!" The final bit of her head, the long, crimson locks of hair like blood against the backdrop of the sparkling universe, spilled against the ground like sand, except for a single strand that turned into string as it fell to the ground. It grew bright, splitting the earth beneath it and from the cracked dirt grew a small hourglass. Iridescent, ruby-red sand began falling from the top chamber to the bottom and began to collect into a small pile.
Usagi and Seiya stared at hourglass for a moment until the entire universe seemed to tremble. The cauldron, which had become eerily silent, roared back to life, ejecting light and sparkling starseeds into the air. The starseeds flew across the sky like a shooting star and then, one by one, popped and exploded like a firework of grey sand.
"They're dying," Usagi whispered, "And it's my fault. I couldn't end it. Not then and not now."
Another long pause went by. Usagi watched another few dozen starseeds cease to exist. She turned to Seiya with tears in her eyes, but said nothing. She just stared, a shell of her former self.
"I'm sorry, Usagi," Seiya said, simply, sincerely. "I didn't apologize before, but I want—"
Usagi cut him off suddenly, "No. Thank you, Seiya. I didn't want to do that. I couldn't have lived with myself if I had…killed you." Her eyes were still dark, distant with a fatigue that neither of them had felt or could possibly feel again. She was responsible for the universe, but had no power. She raised her hands in front of her face—they seemed small compared to the vast darkness of the universe. Her eyes scanned around what was left. The sand in the upper half of the hourglass was dwindling. They had so little time when they had once had it all.
"I'm tired…you know?" she smiled, sadly. "I've had too many lifetimes already. I can do it right this time."
Usagi reached out toward the silver imperium crystal that still hovered above Seiya's chest. Instead of reacting to her, it stayed still before him. The sand in the hourglass continued to fall. More starseeds ceased to exist.
"Seiya, let me have it," Usagi whispered, slowly, pleadingly. She stepped forward, her fingertips nearly grazed the crystal, but a small force stopped her. She pulled her hand back, confused, her eyes wide. "What're you doing?" Suddenly, the voice of the monster who had attacked her, and Mamoru echoed through her ears, her brain pulling up the sound like a record, "Eternal Sailor Moon is weak. It's clear she no longer possesses the silver crystal." Her blood ran cold as she watched Seiya's confused expression.
Seiya raised his hands up, as if in defeat. "I'm not stopping it, Usagi. I have no control over it, It's yours. You just have to—" he stopped for a moment realizing what his words would mean. He continued, softer. "You just have to take it."
There was silence. Usagi's eyes darted from Seiya to the hourglass, at the star seeds ending their lives, and then back to him. If Usagi could have cried, she would have, but there was nothing left in her. She had no tears, no energy, no life left to give. She took a few steps toward the cauldron and fell to her knees, bewildered. From the edge she lifted her head and watched the end of each life, ones they had known and many they did not.
"The crystal…it's part of you now. Just like I am part of you, and you are me." Usagi took a breath and exhaled, a sudden peace coming over her. She patted the ground next to her and Seiya slowly kneeled beside her, his expression sullen as she caught his gaze through her unfocused peripherals that tried to watch everything in their final moments. "I don't want you to end, Seiya. Is it selfish? If you end here, we will not exist again, you know." Usagi breathed again, full of fatigue. "Maybe this is the only way to right what has been done—by ending it all forever…. But you know…no matter what, I'm glad we had this time together."
For some reason, Usagi could not fight. She could no longer feel the anger in her heart that had begun to grow from Seiya's omission of the truth. Back then, he had been just as alone as she felt now. Could she blame him for making a wish when he held the most powerful force in the universe?
Her hands reached up to his face, and she held his jaw and cheeks between her palms, staring deep into the blue eyes she had known for years now. They were the eyes that had watched her fall apart, that had brought her back together, that had seen her as she became one with him again and again. If she closed her eyes, she was sure she would never forget the pattern of his irises, or the way his warm hands felt against her back beneath her shirt when she slept. There was hesitation for a moment. Knowing that now, she had the power to make a decision that could alter destiny once more. This did not have to be an end to them, but an end to this time. She could make it happen.
In the glow of the cauldron, Seiya could see everything about Usagi. Her hair was disheveled,the locks falling out from her buns. Her cheeks were pink and smudged with dirt, and her eyes seemed almost as content as the morning they had woken together before everything had changed. Here they were, alone at the end of the universe, at the end of time itself, and yet everything was calm. Despite everything, she was still the brightest star in the universe.
"You don't have to do it this time, Usagi," Seiya stated. In the hum of the chaos and the dwindling of the sand, there was nothing left for him to do but this. He leaned down, placing one of his hands against the side of her face. Her eyes were wide, a little like the first time he had kissed her, before he knew who Mamoru was. She had been so innocent then. He couldn't help but laugh. "I love you, Usagi." His heart was overwhelmed now, and Usagi could feel it, too. Seiya closed the now short distance between their lips and kissed her. It would never be enough, nor long enough, but the sand in the hourglass would not stop for them.
The ground began to start crumbling at the edge of the path to the cauldron, and Seiya broke the kiss, standing up and making his way to the unstable ground. He looked back for a moment. "I'm sorry, Usagi. I should have told you everything when I knew. I just wanted to hold onto this feeling as long as I could." He held out his hand which now held a glittering silver imperium crystal. "I may have known what I did then, but I didn't know how much it would alter this world. I was desperate. I was alone at the end of the universe with just the memory of you and your smile. I know now that I was never meant to make such a wish."
He grew silent for a moment, looking away from Usagi's cerulean eyes, still as wide as saucers. He raised the silver imperium crystal from his chest and upward above his head. "Now I want to make that wish, but only you can. Usagi, promise me you'll make this wish for me when I am gone." He stepped backward toward the cauldron, toward the crumbling path. "I wish that things had ended as they were meant to end. I wish you a long life with your friends and the man who is hopelessly devoted to you. I wish you peace. But mostly, I wish you happiness. Please wish that for me, dumpling."
Tears were falling down Seiya's cheeks as he took another step backward toward the caldron where ground no longer existed. Usagi cried out, lunging forward, toppling over the hourglass as she tried to grab Seiya's hand. She watched him as he fell, his arms outstretched toward her. If she had looked the right way in the universe, perhaps he was not falling but flying, but her tears were too heavy for her to think. As his body melted into the cauldron, the light of the silver imperium crystal did as well.
The universe shook violently, and then a silence that filled the entire universe fell upon Usagi's ears. "Seiya, no," her voice was hoarse. It somehow echoed in the vacuum of space even though it was barely a whisper. Then, as quickly as the silence had come, just like Usagi had watched happen to Star Fighter before, the cauldron expelled every starseed—those that had been and those that had yet to be—and a blinding white light took over everything. She clamped her eyes shut, shielding her face with her hands.
When Usagi opened her eyes again, she was floating in a sea of sparkling white, wrapped up by the wings that had reappeared at her back. They opened with a flourish, leaving feathers floating in the air around her. She caught one in her palm, and it popped like a bubble. Another floated downward slowly, and then another, until so many were falling that it was snowing feathers. She reached out in front of her toward a warm light that floated in the middle of the flurries, and when she touched it, the small, now familiar shape of Guardian Cosmos appeared in its place.
"Welcome to the center of the galaxy cauldron, Sailor Moon. As you know by now, Sailor Star Fighter's sacrifice, alongside the power from you that was still contained within the silver imperium crystal that had tied itself to her soul, has allowed the universe to, once again, start anew. I am here to see through with whatever comes next." With a small tilt of her head, Guardian Cosmos smiled softly, knowingly. "This time, you can right the fates if you wish, Sailor Moon. What do you wish for? Do you wish to return to the way things were, or would you like to begin a new life?
Usagi smiled back at the small guardian before her. In her chest, she could feel the warmth not just of the silver imperium crystal, but that of her friends as well. She knew the decision she would have to make. She breathed deep and nodded. "I would like to return to the way things were."
Cosmos nodded, raising her scepter.
"And one more thing," Usagi quickly interjected. A small look of shock appeared on Guardian Cosmos's face, and she lowered the scepter. "I just wanted to make sure…" Usagi leaned her face close to the small sprite and whispered in her ear. The guardian's face was concerned, and she whispered back to her. Usagi shook her head and whispered back a final time.
"Are you sure?" The guardian asked aloud, her eyes wide, "it cannot be changed."
"Yes," Usagi said, a soft sadness in her eyes. "I wouldn't want it to be lost."
Guardian Cosmos nodded, her expression suddenly a little clouded. She lifted the scepter once more and a light blinded Usagi once again. Through the light, the guardian's voice rang out clear, "As you wish."
A/N
The pressure is on to complete the epilogue in a timely fashion now! I've got so many little things to wrap up, but I think you all will enjoy it.
This chapter was such a weird one for me - at times I hated writing it. It didn't feel right. It felt rushed and weird and without reason, but then I realized, that's what's happening, so I think it ended up the right way. I hope you enjoyed it regardless.
I'll see you soon for the epilogue!