Different World of a Different Time
by Moonlight Eternal

- -

Chapitre 4

"MAMA!" a child's scream pierced the dense fog.

"That's Rini-" Endymion snapped into action. He'd come here for Rini's sake, there was Rini's voice, time to go. He made the movement to run but was stopped by Helios's solid, firm, restraining grip on his shoulder. Apparently it was only he who could not touch Helios, but Helios could touch him. He wondered absently if this was something that had to be learnt or if it was just a gift he didn't have.

"This is a dream, Endymion. We can't be seen," he informed the prince severely.

"But-"

"She wouldn't recognize us anyway. This is before she came to us. If we're seen, she won't automatically assume us allies and will most likely run from us. Not that she even considers us allies now." Helios said in a low whisper that still managed to cut through the foggy air and slight grogginess it seemed to bring Endymion at least.

"Why would a child think on the terms of ally or enemy?" Endymion asked slowly. That wouldn't make any sense; he knew for a fact Eternal and Destiny thought on the level of 'friend', 'best friend', and 'meanie.'

"A normal child wouldn't," Helios conceded. "A child who has just watched her family murdered might consider such terms." He shook his head sadly. He didn't know where that statement had come from, but once he'd said it he realised that it felt right and the pieces slotted into place. He desperately hoped that Rini wasn't Endymion's daughter, otherwise his friend's years might just be numbered…

"Murdered?!" Endymion gazed into the thinning mist. "That means I have to stop-"

"This has already happened, Endy," Helios said gently, staring off into the distance. Endymion wondered if Helios saw something he did not. "We can't do a thing. We're here to observe, not to interfere, even if we physically could." Endymion heard the faint sense of longing in Helios's voice, a longing to change this. "Plus, that was only speculation," Helios added in an attempt to reassure Endymion.

"But something like that happened?" Endymion pursued.

"Most likely...I wouldn't have said it if that wasn't what my intuition led to."

"We CAN do something, then-comfort her!" With those words, Endymion grabbed Helios's cold hand and yanked him through the mist and towards the scream. Running blindly through the diminishing fog, time seemed to stop. Endymion couldn't help but wonder, humorously, what kind of picture he, wearing an after dinner robe over his drawstring pyjama bottoms and no shirt, and Helios, adorned in his white priest's garb, made.

After a moment, Helios had conserved enough breath to choke out, "E-en-Endy-

ENDYMION!" In response, the prince slowed to a mere jog, releasing the priest's hand.

"We could," Helios gulped in air, panting, "run like this forever! Conserve your energy! We don't know where she is, and running around in circles is just going to get us lost. I don't even know why I let you come."

"You didn't let me," Endymion said snidely. "I came on my own-" Helios's jaw dropped. Endymion waved a hand over his face. "You needn't be so surprised, you're easy to convince-" Helios swatted Endymion, then pointed directly in front of him.

Endymion, as he turned his head, realized numbly that any fog had disappeared. As his head became parallel to Helios's, he froze in shock. The mist had only been veiling something much worse than the unknown. Endymion found himself recognizing the horror before him as the same place he'd seen from the aShlin, from Rini. Was this dream taking place before or after what had happened to Rini's mother, assumedly the Queen? Endymion could hardly fathom that this was really how a kingdom was supposed to look... It was midnight, and deadly quiet. Endymion quickly glanced around after his eyes had made the drastic change. He and Helios stood on an overhanging cliff. Below them, the wasteland of crystallized buildings expanded, absorbing the faint light like graves. Endymion felt the horror seep into him as he wondered if that wasn't what the city had become: a huge gravesite. Even the moonlight could not catch a glimmer in the dark glass buildings. Towards the center of the gleamless city was the largest building of all, if you could even refer to it as a building. The palace was a gigantic crystal itself, thought it seemed the darkest of all.

There was no movement below and even for night that was odd. There was ALWAYS someone on the prowl. "Helios..." Endymion glanced over at his best friend. Although Helios too looked shook up, he was not nearly as horrified as Endymion. At least that's what his face said. He could be just swallowing what was around him, like Endymion normally managed to do. Or, and Endymion had a sneaking suspicion that this was the actual reason, he had expected this and had an inkling in advance of what was going to be seen.

"Come one," the priest said after a moment. "We have to actually find Rini before we can learn anything."

"Except that she comes from a horrible place..." Endymion couldn't help but mutter as he followed Helios down the cliff.

"Don't judge," Helios chided shortly. He raised a hand to his eyes and looked out over the city. "I could imagine this being quite beautiful."

Minutes later, the two men were attempting to stay inconspicuous while remaining the only moving people in the entire city. Endymion had almost felt his dinner come up at the faces of frozen fear staring back at them. At first, Endymion had thought the city abandoned. On the contrary, it was inhabited-by crystal statues of people. It was almost as if a freeze had stopped everyone in their tracks. Something frightening had done this. The frantic looks on parents' faces 

that carried sobbing children testified to this.

Endymion and Helios walked through the streets of statues in hushed silence, as if the very breath they'd take might break the people and have to watch them shatter as they hit the ground.

"This is horrible..." Endymion finally managed to voice in a whisper when the spanning silence became too much.

"That, my dear Prince, is an understatement."

"What do you think...?" Endymion glanced over at the only living, breathing human life walking beside him out of desperation.

"Endymion, this is the future. Who knows what advances the people here have made? Magic could be non-existent. We don't even know how far ahead in the future we are."

"What great faith you have oh High Priest," Endymion managed sarcasm. He couldn't believe that magic would ever die. Okay, maybe it wasn't as wide spread and prolific as it had once been, but there were still hundreds on Earth who had the gift, and that was one planet alone.

Helios shook his head sadly, then turned to Endymion. "Do you think I want it that way, Endy? That I pray for the death of such a wondrous art? That's like assuming I wish for the demise of everyone who follows a different set of beliefs than I." His expression was far-off. "This is what the future holds."

"How can you be so sure magic is dead?" Endymion asked hesitantly "This," he indicated the city with a sweep of his hand, "is the future."

Helios looked at him with dead eyes. "Look at the moon." He whispered.

Endymion obeyed and felt sadness wash over him at the sight of it. On Earth, his Earth he reminded himself, the Moon always glowed with an inner radiance, much like Serenity did. But the moon that hung in the sky now was huge, grey, and barren, not even a glimmer of life coming from it.

"Helios," the prince said uneasily looking back at the ground, "I'm spooked enough. I don't need your help. And besides, this is a dream world. It COULD be an exaggeration."

"This is a memory turned dream," Helios informed him, shaking his head. "No imagination responsible here."

"You are being utterly POSITIVE on this glorious night," Endymion stomped ahead of the despondent priest. This was no time to get depressed about a future he'd never see except in a child's head. His goal was to find Rini and keep her safe. He told himself he was just trying to protect her from herself.

He knew he was lying.

As they approached the large crystal in the center of the city, the prince and priest finally heard an ounce of sound ahead. The fact that the sound was so soft was astonishing, if you considered the almost deafeningly loud silence of the city otherwise. Endymion glanced over at the priest, who was already striding silently forward towards the sound.

"Why the stealth?" Endymion whispered, following Helios's lead. It was almost laughable. Almost.

"We can't be seen," Helios stated again.

"Understood." Endymion affirmed. But still, he wondered. If Rini was in trouble, would he stick to that rule?

- -

"Zoisite, quit wimping out and help us carry them!" Malachite shouted. The Captain of the Garren and Master at Arms was lagging behind the rest of the group dragging Endymion's dead weight alone.

"I'm the brain, you're supposed to be the brawn..." Zoisite grumbled, but all the same he took Endymion's legs and hoisted them off the ground.

"What in the name of Deimos is going on?!" Jadeite asked again, straining a bit under Helios's weight and trying to look behind him at the same time.

Why had he had to be the one to walk backwards? He was only glad he didn't have to carry Endymion. Next to him, Helios was a fairy. It wasn't that Endy was overweight or anything, it was just that muscle weighed a lot more than fat and Endy was a lot of muscle.

"Apparently-" Nephrite began to speak, but stopped as he'd dropped Helios's legs to begin his usual hand gestures.

"Agh!" Jadeite yelped as he tripped and sent himself and the unconscious Helios flying. "WHY," Jadeite asked shortly as he got up, "aren't we having someone help us?" Nephrite ran to help gather up the High Priest.

"Because we don't want to cause an uproar, that's why," Zoisite answered, back to his usual calm and collected self. Jadeite found himself gawking at this. Zoisite was always a little more emotionally detached than the other three, although they could all manage to be quite unemotional if the time called for it, but his Prince and Priest had just collapsed. Was the man made of ice or something?! Jadeite felt the least comfortable with the lean, discomfortingly fair and well-chiselled Zoi. Zoisite didn't really invite socializing; he seemed to find solace enough for whatever ailed him through literature, most of which Jadeite could hardly comprehend. He appreciated a good read now and then, but his passions lay elsewhere.

"Maybe we need to!" Jadeite, despite some hesitation, had no real trouble countering Zoisite. "Why aren't you guys worrying?!" Jed couldn't help feeling that he was missing something, something the others were either choosing not to tell him or something they didn't even realize he was unaware of. Probably a combination...

"We worry," the other three said at once, none looking to the other afterwards. They had the practical bond of time together, as well as similar knowledge on most subjects related to their major line of work as Garren of Crown Prince Endymion, but it still disturbed them when they all reacted the same. It meant that something was definitely wrong.

"But for different reasons," Malachite added after a moment's thought, glancing around to look closely at Jadeite's reaction.

"Pretend, again, I have not a clue in respect to what you guys are hinting at..." Jadeite grumbled, almost glaring at the captain but maintaining only a look of meagre animosity as he stared past Nephrite into the other's eyes. After all, you didn't just glare at Malachite. Well, unless you were Endymion. Or Helios. Or Rose…but they were separate cases all together.

Malachite cheerfully dropped Endymion and rounded to Jadeite's side of Helios, where he proceeded to pat Jed on the back, as if paying attention to the youngest and least experienced garren might take his own mind off what Endymion and Helios were doing... "Don't worry! You'll get a hang of this eventually! Sure, there's lots to remember..."

"And you might lose your sanity in the midst of it all," Zoisite interrupted, wincing as he unsteadily attempted to keep Endymion's head from hitting the marble floor without Malachite lending any sort of assistance. This was rather difficult as he was holding the lower half of Endymion's body, not the upper.

"I would say that only comes later, when they start telling you what they've been up to without so much as a guilty look on their faces." Nephrite glanced back to look at Zoisite, who nodded in affirmation.

Of all the Garren, Zoisite seemed to share the closest bond with Nephrite. Jadeite wasn't yet sure what exactly it was that the two had in common; Zoisite had been born into a highly noble family with connections to both the planet Mercury, of which his mother had been cousins with the Pillar's Chosen One, and Earth; his grandfather, who had raised Zoisite himself, had even once served on the High Council of Terra, the second part of the Earth government beside the reigning monarchs. Nephrite's connections to the planet Earth were nonexistent, and it had been through sheer luck (much like for Jadeite himself) he'd even been recognized as a candidate for the Garren. Nephrite's family was based on Saturn, and Neph had been raised to become a Priest of the darker planet; it took someone of great power to even be considered for that role, which was one of the main reasons Jed held Nephrite in such high esteem. There didn't seem to be much Zoisite and Nephrite could bond on besides the fact they both were Garren. Yet Jadeite could tell, though not from anything on the surface, that the two were close. "Again, why aren't you all worried? Your High Priest and Crown Prince just dropped like a Martian-"

"No metaphor needed. And they're your High Priest and Crown Prince now too, remember that," Malachite said, taking hold of Endymion again at Zoisite's rather pointed glare.

Jadeite had also taken notice that while Malachite was perhaps the Captain, in most situations he seemed to fall victim to manipulation through the others, especially Helios. But then, Helios didn't really fall into any sort of category in Jadeite's mind. He, the unconscious High Priest, and Endymion were the most enigmatic of all. Both were genuinely kind human beings, but their natural and self-built barriers against others were almost obvious. Malachite, too, had erected similar walls. Between the three Jadeite knew there were things that even the other two Garren didn't know. And he was far from these truths as well.

"Basically," Zoisite began offhandedly, apparently in a giving mood, "we have an idea what's up. Helios decided to go somewhere within a different dimension using those priestly powers of his-"

"And Endymion," everyone noticed the growl in Malachite's voice, "up and followed him. Probably to finish the argument. Hopefully he'll chew him out about scaring us at the same time. Course, we get to shout at Endymion for doing the same thing when he gets back."

"We're taking them to the temple," Nephrite supplied before Jadeite could utter a syllable, "because they're closer to power there."

"That I could have guessed for myself in most part." Jadeite wasn't very familiar with the idea of dimensional travel, as the others seemed to be, but he was aware of the fact that the most powerful place of a planet was the temple the High Priest worked in. "If you guys have known all along, why'd you freak out so much?" Jadeite asked impatiently. "You had me freaking out even more! I thought I was missing something else really important!"

The other three glanced at one another nervously. "Well, we've never actually SEEN Helios travel out of one world...usually he goes of his own free will when we're not there."

"Of his own free will? Does that mean this time he was forced?" Jadeite asked, curious about the phrasing of Zoisite's sentence. The others chose to ignore his query.

"That's mostly because he knows it scares the rest of us, including Endymion, out of our minds when he tells us about it...if he ever told us prior to departing, we'd only try to stop him," Nephrite said thoughtfully.

Jadeite had about given up.

"It looks like the two of them are just sleeping, but really they're travelling between different parallel worlds. They could be in many different ones. We worry because they could get lost or be tricked by themselves to never return or-"

"Trust me, you don't want to know them all," Malachite wearily interrupted Zoisite. HE 

didn't want to be reminded about any that he might have forgotten.

"But Helios is High Priest. He should be able to-" Jadeite began.

"Even he can lose his way," Nephrite interrupted knowledgably. Jadeite faintly remembered that Nephrite came from a long line of strong priests, which only added to the fact he'd also trained to be one. It was only natural he'd known some of the more internal details. Jadeite himself had been training to be an acolyte under the coming-of-age High Priest of Earth, or in other words Helios, but he didn't know half of what the others knew on this subject. He had been identified as a garren member before he'd really got anywhere with his training.

"There are secrets about Endymion and Helios," Malachite began, "that you won't be told for years, Jed. If even then. You have a lot to learn after induction as well. But let's put it to this for now- there's more than one string of fate when it comes to the two of them."

The group continued in silence. It was a long was to the Hall of Prayer, as the area of the temple was known. Additionally the group would probably have to take the back door to avoid anyone...

"So...why did Helios just collapse like that?" Jadeite couldn't help but break in and ask.

"Ask him when he gets out." Zoisite was finished answering questions.

"But what about Endymion-"

"Just ask them later," Nephrite repeated.

"Fine..." Jadeite conceded dejectedly. His respect for Nephrite kept him silent as the group shuffled onward toward the temple, traversing the Day Paths to keep out of sight of any late night wanderers. That would have been an awkward situation to try and explain. Avoiding an uproar was the easiest way to help the High Priest and Crown Prince at that point in time. And meeting someone wandering the Night Paths was bound to happen to them, even if the last hour glass they'd passed had read close to 23 turns of the glass. The next day was only one turn away, yet all the Garren agreed this didn't stop people from wandering the paths in the dark silence when most should have been asleep. Trekking the more treacherous Day Paths was their best bet at not being sighted carrying the unconscious Crown Prince and High Priest, though whether this was best for the twosome's bodies was another issue.

"Ow," Malachite muttered as he once again dropped Endymion and tripped over a stray root in the dark yet starlit gardens.

- -

"Ow!" Endymion jumped, then rubbed one of his shoulders.

"What?" Helios asked, looking back curiously at the prince. He'd been admiring the 

Prince's handiwork-he hadn't been quite sure HOW they'd scale that wall. But apparently Endymion had some experience with escaping into a palace...which only made Helios suspect he knew how to get out of one. The priest didn't really have to think too long about how or why the prince knew this, nor in whose silver-haired company Endymion had initially learned the stunt. He certainly wasn't going to dwell on a certain threesome of a Lunar Princess, Prince of Earth, and Captain of the Garren who upon numerous occasions had obviously used the same method as Endymion had just showed him. He would not allow his thoughts to wander in the direction of what exactly Serenity, Malachite, and Endymion did as children which would have put all their parents into graves at the thought. Helios's only light was the HOPE that the three had outgrown such antics and Endymion was just drawing on childhood years of experience...and not anything more recent than that...but at the same time he also knew that in all likely hood, there was no point even hoping…

"I think someone just dropped me," Endymion said, oblivious to Helios's brave act of indifference and oblivion.

Swallowing, Helios switched his thoughts to something else and Endymion continued to mutter about incompetent guards. "I suppose I should have assumed you guys adult enough to warn you..." Helios murmured, thinking back.

Endymion turned around, agape. "It only dawns on you NOW?! Think of all the bruises I'm getting out there!"

"Although I suppose I do have to take into account your being hateful towards me, as well as your less-than-mature reaction to my earlier endeavours to figure Rini's dreams," Helios continued matter-of-factly, moving past his prince. By "jumping" the 20 foot wall, the two had left behind the realm of frigid statuettes and now found themselves in a courtyard of frozen plants. Everything had returned to chilled silence of a dead night, but neither Endymion nor Helios were willing to return to that same silence themselves.

"I wasn't...well, I concede, I was being...I was unhappy about your very rash, and possibly harmful decision to have a child relay a nightmarish memory. You can be strangely insensitive sometimes, Helios," Endymion said the last part, a hint of surprise in his tones. He followed after the priest diligently and tried not to grimace at the stone coldness resonating from all the life around him. Sure, it was a dream but...the lack of warmth to the Earth, his Earth, was frightening him more than anything he'd seen so far. It made him long to run his fingers through the soil and feel it's life giving power, but the world around him was sucked so dry that he was too scared to even attempt it. He didn't want to know that the Earth was dying, even though he could see it around him. To find the power of his star gone would be the final clinching truth in a reality he didn't want to accept.

"This plan was fool proof," Helios said after a moment. He tried to find a decent path out of the dense icicle land; the courtyard was some ways out of the dense vegetation they'd descended the wall into. "Except that Rini began dreaming MUCH earlier in the cycle than I expected. That's why I collapsed in front of you guys. Had it been my choice, I'd be doing this alone and you'd still be unknowing and angry with me."

"See, aren't you glad I-wait a grain of a turn, you kept me in the dark on PURPOSE."

"I did it FOR a purpose, to keep you safe," the priest murmured pointedly, his eyes still ahead of him.

Endymion considered Helios his most trusted friend. They'd known each other since they were very small, for as long as Endymion had known Malachite. And Helios was aware of many things involving subjects Malachite wouldn't touch on. But then, Malachite knew nitty gritty details that would turn Helios pale at the mere mention. So although it was unfair to say that Helios was closer to Endymion than Malachite was, Helios still found himself at the top of Endymion's list of friends. It was impossible for Endymion not to agree he'd...overreacted a tad to Helios's decision, although why the prince was unsure. Normally this procedure would bother him solely for the danger to the priest, not more so for the danger to a girl who might faintly remind him of his little sister but other than that he had no connections to beside aShlin and he'd only known for most of the day. "And to keep me in the dark..." he still muttered sulkily, determined to be difficult for the sake of being difficult. He was in that kind of mood...

"Well...maybe," Helios turned about to face Endymion who he could just feel seething behind him. "But just a bit," he hurriedly added. "After all, whatever I found out I was going to have to tell you about. You wouldn't have been in the dark too long...though personally," Helios glanced around and shivered, "I prefer any sort of darkness to this."

"We agree there..." Endymion stepped out of the bushes, and both of them found themselves at the edge of an expansive garden. The palace was still at least a mile away. "This didn't look so big from up there..."

Helios knew Endymion was referring to the wall and personally, he agreed.

"Great...this just PROVES we're in a dream," Endymion threw his arms up in exasperation after examining the garden for an entrance. "A maze?! We have to walk through a hellishly placed HEDGE MAZE?!"

"Calm down, Endymion," Malachite shushed.

"What the-" Endymion and Helios both whirled around to find Malachite standing behind them with a wicked grin. The look on Rose-Quartz's face behind him was wicked, yes, but not with any inclination towards trouble, where as Malachite was sparkling with mischievous energy.

"Hang on a minute..." Endymion glanced over at Helios, who silently shrugged. By that point in time, unexpected guests had become commonplace. As long as they kept quiet and he was able to accomplish the original purpose, they could follow him all they wanted. He went on to study the frozen hedge twice his height before him, ignoring the tingle of shear terror Endymion was letting off. Then again, had Rose's anger been directed at him, he would have been letting off more than a tingle of terror. But Rose was safely distracted by her brother, so he 

didn't have to worry about her wrath descending on him anytime soon.

"What-but-how-" Endymion continued, backing closer towards Helios.

"Guess who WE found at the temple after dragging you and Helios ALL the way there?" The enthusiasm in Malachite's voice registered on the Endymion scale as frighteningly high.

"He'd be dead already if it weren't the fact that YOU are at the top of my assassination list," Rose growled. The fact that Rose hadn't killed Malachite on their journey to find the prince and priest gave Endymion a worse gut feeling. Helios even started to seem mildly worried for his own safety.

"Why are you-" Endymion halted at his elder sister's glare. He backed further into the unrelentingly cold bush behind him. Crystal leaves shattered and fell to the ground as he pushed his way through them in a useless attempt to avoid some of his sister's anger.

"Rose I can see, as a priestess, but... Malachite, how did you get here?" Helios asked, leaving Endymion to deal with his sibling. He loved her to death but she was not in the mood to leash her temper, and he was not one for suicide. Since Endymion was the reason it had gotten away from her in the first place, he deserved a little justice.

Malachite looked indifferent, although Helios could almost SEE the adrenaline, as well as a little fear, swimming in his iced eyes. "I was sort of...forced into it, shall we say. The others were a little too reluctant to be of much use."

"I have a new respect for you, Mal," Helios said, taking into account that Malachite knew almost every danger associated with this sort of travel, as well as the fact that the Captain had had to travel with a certain sister who was threatening her little brother vast amounts of bodily harm and whom technically Mal should be stopping before she did too much damage to the very person he was supposed to be protecting. Helios would not have willingly walked into a situation that would have involved him being planted straight in the path of Rose in a Rage.

"Why thank you," exhaustion crept into Malachite's voice.

"How did..." Helios eyed Rose somewhat nervously. High Priest he might be, but Endymion's sister was well on her way to becoming the High Priestess. He'd have to wrestle with her anger enough at that point, best leave any bits directed at others TO others for the time being.

"She happened to be doing the midnight ceremony..." Malachite trailed off, watching with amusement as the Crown Prince shrank in fear at his sister.

"Ah, yes, full moon...I'd forgotten." Helios said, setting foot into the maze. They really didn't have the time to stand around and chat about the weather and Endymion's upcoming death.

"Funny. You're our most powerful priest-"



"Not true, I'm just High Priest through strategic politics," Helios interrupted. Which wasn't altogether true, he was powerful to his own right. But there was ALWAYS someone more powerful. At least, that was Helios's philosophy.

"Think what you like. Anyway, you're our High Priest and yet you still forget your duties..." Malachite laughed a bit. "What will the rest of us do when we die?"

"I'm sure Ceres would forgive, Malachite, and send the word onto the God of the Underworld." Malachite snorted. "Who's the priest here? Besides, there are shrine maidens and other priests and priestesses for you who, need I remind, need the practice. I have other duties, to the crown." Helios raised an eyebrow at his friend's lack of faith.

"Truly a dedicated man." Whether he meant it sarcastically or not, Helios ignored the garren.

"Malachite, be quiet," Helios added offhandedly over his shoulder, making his way slowly through the labyrinth. It was going to be interesting trying to find his way through a maze he'd never seen before, in a strange city, at night, in someone's dream and he didn't need the interruptions.

"YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO LEAVE THIS STUFF TO ME!!" Rose shouted from ten feet behind as she continued to strangle Endymion savagely. The princess didn't even seem to notice her shrill voice was echoing through the entire kingdom.

"Quartz, don't kill our future king just yet, we might need him later," Malachite called as he followed after Helios, not noticing the priest's wince at the added noise. Rose let go of her brother long enough to launch a rose towards the annoying blonde guy. Malachite dodged it and winced as Helios jumped, the rose just missing him and shearing off a few strands of his silver hair.

"Uh… sorry?" Malachite cringed. Even Rose seemed to freeze in panic, waiting for Helios's response.

"Just. Leave. Me. Be." Helios growled menacingly.

"Would you guys PLEASE quiet down?" Endymion asked in a harsh whisper, rubbing his neck then proceeding to follow after Helios before his sister came at him. Rose glared at him for a couple of seconds, sobered, then hurriedly became the rear of the party. Only then did she notice the heavy silence that was everywhere but the maze they wandered. It hung tensely over everyone's shoulders.

Endymion had struggled through many High Council of Terra congregations over the years. He could remember the never ending ramblings of the 13 Council Members on such small subjects as crop failures, magic deficiencies, small insurgences from the foreigners of Luna... By Terran law, Endymion as Crown Prince was required to attend each meeting since the age of five. 30 meetings later, he would have thought he knew the epitome of the words Boredom and 

Silence, boredom applying to the drawling voices and silence to those odd periods of time, while everyone stared off. He'd wondered when he was younger (in fact, he still wondered) whether the members all found what they did for a living interesting, or if some of them found the duty about as tedious as he did. Yet strolling on tiptoe and still feeling as though his footfalls were deafening, Endymion decided that there was something beyond the cold quiet the High Council would sometimes slip back into. This was perhaps the true meaning of silence (he'd left boredom back in his true body). The dead world around him was painful to the ears, and although some of the minesstro and minesstresas' voices did qualify as deafeningly, viciously painful, Endymion had never heard something quite like this. Wandering around a frozen maze, without a living-

"You did that on purpose!" Rose hissed as she tripped into a frigid bush, the slight jingling of the iced leaves pounding in Endymion's head along with his sister's harsh whisper. He glanced behind him.

"I did not..." Malachite said, obviously trying to keep the smile to himself. Still, he managed to share his glee in dislodging a rock enough for the princess to trip on, with Endymion before returning to a stony face. It was quite odd, Endymion found his mind musing, that Malachite could be so childish on these occasions and yet still manage to leave an impression on most people of being frigid and rigidly cold. Helios, some 15 feet ahead, didn't take notice of any of the occurrences. Endymion wondered if he even noticed them, as deep in concentration as Helios was.

Malachite glanced ahead to the High Priest, as if he wondered whether Helios would make a slight, even underhanded, comment about his maturity. Most would have thought that, as the foursome were really just projections of the mind, being lost in thought would've been a difficult feat. Apparently, Helios did not listen to those little voices that told and assured Malachite of the impossible versus the possible. Because Helios was most definitely lost somewhere far beyond what Malachite felt he wanted to comprehend. Perhaps-

With a sigh, the Captain of the Garren side-stepped for the pink rose to make its way through, unaware of its slight glaze of his arm. Not that it mattered much to him anyway. "Quartz, really, a little more mature behavior on your part-"

"LOOK WHO'S TALKING ABOUT MATURE BEHAVIOR!!"

"Look who's supposed to be the princess," Malachite pointed out. Internally he winced at his own stupidity as he watched the woman behind him swell up indignantly with fury. He'd always thought himself intelligent, but clearly he'd been mistaken.

"YOU-"

"Sh," the harsh hush from Helios averted everyone's eyes to his figure. He'd turned around to face the approaching group, a finger to his lips signifying silence. Before Endymion could even mentally ask what was up, as the priest was obviously hushing them for more than the reason his sister and captain were allowing their voices to rise to dangerous magnitudes, the sharp cry met his ears.

"MAMA! BRING HER BACK! BRING HER BACK!"

Endymion, as well as the rest of the entourage, hurried towards the end of the last, long stretch the hedge maze presented them. Endymion took the lead, passing up Helios in his urgency to see what sort of tragedy could bring such a tone to the voice of a small child. As he remembered to halt at the last second before he skidded into broad sight of whoever was just beyond the labyrinth, he felt Helios's firm grasp stop him completely. At any other time, Endymion would've shot an accusing glare at the other for his obvious lack of faith in the prince's memory. The shouts beyond the bushes forced him to think only beyond the last wall of leaves and into what was sure to be a clearing. Rose and Malachite having caught up glanced around the opposite wall at the same time as Helios and Endymion. They gently pushed aside some of the crystal leaves to allow them viewing without being seen. The tinkling of them hitting each other as they broke off their branches and fell was temporarily the only sound that could be heard.

There was, indeed, a clearing towards the center. The maze's end was an entrance to a circular courtyard surrounded by the same frozen foliage. Endymion thought he recognized an assortment of familiar flora, especially the roses. He felt his stomach twist at the sight of the dead, or dying, flowers. It struck him just as hard as the sight of dying people for it signified a dying Earth.

"Small Lady, stop-" a tall, blonde woman wearing a strangely revealing white, orange, and blue-accented outfit held back a familiar small child at the center of the courtyard. Rini was clawing savagely at what the group could only assume was her mother. Though the back of the woman was turned to them, it was painstakingly obvious, at least to Helios and Endymion, that Rini's mother suffered a similar fate as the inhabitants of the city outside the palace walls. An odd crystalline substance surrounded her body, and Endymion wondered if the jagged edges of the crystal from the outside were just as sharp inside. The woman's frozen stance, at least from the back, suggested she'd been attempting to shield herself from a blast with her bare hands.

While the other three focused on crystal woman, Endymion allowed his own eyes to wander to the obviously living person surrounding the child and her mother. The woman who was holding Rini back had an oddly familiar face, though he'd never be able to place a finger on where he'd seen it. She had hair the shade of sunrays, if there even was a sun anymore he thought. The hair that might have been beautiful was caked with dirt, grime, and blood. Even from the distance he was at, the woman looked wounded both physically and emotionally. Tears fell down her face to match those Rini shed, though he could see her trying to stop their flow by will power alone.

"MAMA!! MAMA!!" Rini was still screaming, as if the louder she called the more likely her mother would be safe. Endymion felt something inside of him crumble at her helpless look.

Another woman ran into view, wearing a similar outfit to the lady with Rini, though hers 

was in various shades of blue. Her cropped blue hair gave Endymion an even more blatant feeling that he should recognize these women...

"Endymion," Rose whispered harshly, bringing him out of his thoughts, "those women... they're Sailor Senshi!" Endymion couldn't help but notice Malachite's look of shock, and wondered absently if his own face had the same expression. He couldn't see Helios's reaction, but he was sure it wasn't anywhere near as shocked as the Captain of the Garren's and was more likely to be hopeful. After all, if the Sailor Scouts still existed, so must magic.

How Rose could be sure that was what those oddly-dressed women were, he hadn't a clue. His sister knew the same stories as he from when they were small children getting ready for bed: the stories of soldiers who protected their planets outwardly while each planet's crystal protected inwardly. Rose herself, Endymion remembered fondly, had been the one to first explain to Endymion their existence. He did faintly remember she'd been infatuated with the thought of them... Few had ever met these mythical beings, just as few had met the heavenly Goddesses who protected the system's civilizations. Sailors were more of legend than reality to most of Terra, as well as to the rest of the Silver Millennium's system of planets. And this was a distant future to be sure, so how...?

"Small Lady, please, hush, we don't want them to return and find us. Your mother will be fine, your mother is-" Endymion watched as the blonde pulled the sobbing young princess, who still cried relentlessly for her mother, into her breast, rocking the child as she too bit her lip in the obvious effort to hold back a sob. Endymion had to bite his own lip in order to keep his temper and movements in check. He wanted so much to add comfort to the breaking heart before him. Meanwhile, the woman in blue was using some handheld object to scan Rini's mother up and down, and seemed to be in a completely other realm. Endymion thought distractedly of the resemblance between her cold countenance and the same chilled similarities a few of his garren possessed when they were focused on a task and trying not to think of what was going on around them.

After a moment, the woman with Rini looked up and over towards the woman in blue, as well as the woman within the quartz. Her eyes clearly evaded any contact with Rini's mother, however. "Mercury...the King...?" she questioned the other softly. Mercury's head whipped around, and shook silently, swiftly, before turning back. Rose, Endymion, Malachite, and Helios could see a tear of her own finally roll down the blue soldier's cheek as she attempted to focus on Rini's mother, assumedly the Queen.

"Papa...Mama..." Rini's despairing cry echoed in her dry throat. The first woman continued to rock her, holding her still within stronger, older arms. Rini unconsciously hugged the arms to her more and Endymion realized the trust there was strong, strong from years and years of being held and reassured by those same arms. He wondered what the connection was between those legendary soldiers and the young princess.

"The Queen is fine, Small Lady, just fine. She was doing her duty...hush now, she'll be fine, you'll see..." the woman in orange trailed off.

"Venus," Mercury addressed the other softly, in a voice that probably held a gentle quality most of the time but had become rough either from hard use within the last hours or from sobs she'd withheld...or both, "it should be safe to take her out, but I can't-" Mercury broke off, but Venus, as well as the others watching seemed to get the general gist of what she meant. She couldn't accomplish that alone...

Venus stood up, cradling Rini for a moment, then setting her down on the ground. Endymion longed to hurry over to the child's side and continue to hold her trembling body. Her fearful, glazed eyes frightened him for her sake.

Venus and Mercury took opposite sides of the blonde Queen encased in quartz, then held their hands out to the enclosure. The bright light both emitted was too painful to stare straight at; Endymion and the others turned to face away. When the spots quit appearing in their vision, they turned back in time to watch the woman fall into the sturdy grasp of the orange sailor, as well as Rini run into her weak, beckoning arms and Mercury once again scan her. Venus took the woman's hand protectively. Again Endymion got the impression of deep trust, friendship, and caring between the Sailor and the Queen. Obviously they knew each other well.

"Venus...Mercury..." Endymion had expected the voice to be feeble but found it to be almost soothingly strong, its regal yet gentle tone giving him hope for her even without seeing her too well. There was something about its soft quality he also found familiar. "Where are the others?"

"Searching for the King," Venus said quickly. Endymion noticed the quick glance between one sailor and the other. Rini sobbed in her mother's arms, barely visible amongst the white gown the queen wore. Looking her over, Endymion couldn't, from behind, see or sense any physical wounds. Whatever the soldiers worried ailed their queen was either internal or...

"We have to find him...have to..." the strong voice faltered, and everyone felt their hope flicker dangerously. The young queen began an attempt to stand even so.

"Majesty!" Venus began frantically. But there was no need; the queen couldn't move more than the bit she'd already attempted. She slumped back down, though she made an effort to support herself as much as possible. Rini looked up at her mother strangely, the fear of what was going unsaid reflected in her juvenile eyes. Endymion involuntarily moved forward slightly, wanting to help her, but Helios laid a restraining grip on his arm, sensing Endymion's inner turmoil.

"Venus," the queen began, her voice strong yet slightly altered, slightly quieter, as if she were reserving her strength... "as leader you must promise me you'll do as I ask. Promise me." The teary-eyed Venus nodded an affirmative, obviously unable to trust her voice. "Take Small Lady inside...keep her guarded at all times...I couldn't bare it if she fell into their hands. You have to find the King...he can use the Golden Crystal to create the barrier around Crystal Tokyo..." The queen's body began to tremble as her muscles tightened involuntarily. Endymion watched the petite woman in horror, wondering how she didn't snap in two. Helios's grip on his arm was painful.

"What?" He whispered abruptly.

Helios looked at him with wide eyes. "A crystal! They mentioned a crystal!"

"So what?" Malachite whispered from the opposite side. Rose still watched the women in the courtyard with wide-eyed intensity.

Helios looked back. "Perhaps Rini's looking for a specific crystal!" Endymion opened his mouth to ask for a further explanation, but the women in front of them began to speak again.

"Your Highness-" Mercury began.

"Resting won't change a thing, Ami..." the queen seemed to fall out of usual courtesy, and addressed the soldier with her given name. "If I rest anymore, I'll fade away entirely before I'm through talking..."

"No," Venus shook her head furiously. "No no no no NO! You will NOT give up, Queen! We can put you back! Please, let us put you back into the-"

"Mina, Mina..." the queen shook her head slowly, and Endymion noted that it seemed to take a lot more effort than she had assumed it would. "You know as well as I that without the crystal, I can't come back. I'll be forced into an eternal sleep...I don't wish for that, to linger between life and death for eternity..."

"We'll find the crystal for you, we'll-" Venus cried desperately. Rini clung to her mother's hand, tears streaming down her cherubim face. Mercury couldn't hold back her own tears, and Venus had long since given up on trying to. The dirt ran down her cheeks with the water and created clear streaks on all of their cheeks where the grime and muck of what had obviously been some sort of battle was washed away by their sorrow.

"That's an order!" The unmistakable voice of a queen echoed the courtyard over the sobs of all three of the others.

"Mama!" Rini's desperate cry was answered by her mother's gentle stroke of her cheek. "Serenity...my Small Lady...I love you..." the queen's voice caressed her daughter's heart as her hand touched the pale cheek a last time, before it fell to her side, and the queen lay back on the cold stone.

"I don't CARE about your orders, Serena," Venus shouted, jumping up and startling both Mercury and Rini away from the queen. "You are NOT dying!" With her words, as crystal tears running down her pallid face, Venus stretched out her arms, hands, and finally fingers. The light that followed resembled that of when the queen had first been brought out of the odd protective casing. When Endymion and the others all looked back, the Queen was once again wrapped in a layer of quartz, Venus was wiping the tears from her face with her gloved arm, Mercury and Rini clung to one another, and two other sailors were running into the picture as the fog once again swirled around Endymion and, he assumed, the others. He heard a final piercing cry of "MAMA" before he felt himself slammed back into his body.

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