2
She raised her boot onto the nearest Victorian chair and pulled the length up her calf, white with violet trimming; the distant morning sun reflecting violet from her star-shaped broach, splashing purple against the white of her fuku, against the dark maroon of her centre bow, against her left breast where her heart beat uncertainly. Calm, cool and ever the silence that was her strength, she drew her gloves, white with violet accents, over her elbow and up her arm, and touched the violet sheer bubble sleeve at her shoulder.
"Your majesty," her Minister of Trade addressed humbly.
The slight sway of her hair was the only evidence he received that she was listening, her back to him and her face to the window. It was to be a lovely day from what they could gather of the morning, all bright blue skies and fluffy white clouds, birds and flowers, butterflies and bees. It really was too bad that she wouldn't be present for most of the day.
"The space pirates had struck again last night," the minister informed most regrettably.
Her lips, a subtle transparent gloss, frowned delicately.
"Your majesty," her Minister of Security spoke. "May I suggest increasing the number of military ships along the space trade routes?"
From the window, she could feel her Minister of Finance nod worrisomely.
"If these pirates continue to commandeer our trading ships," the Minister of Finance said, "then we are to lose much from our treasury. We have already lost much! We may even have to…"
She traced the violet ribbon lining her waist, tapping at the star just below her belly button, and pulled the ends of the ribbon at the back absentmindedly. There were many problems yet to be resolved in Titan Castle, but – she looked out to the sun again – they would have to wait.
"You may substitute the losses from the palace's treasury," she said.
Her ministers simultaneously blanched, appalled at her suggestion, but dared not go against her word. Out of both fear and respect, they bowed at their waists, confirming her wish as their own. As much as they believed she deserved her private funds, as much as all Saturnians gladly paid their taxes for their queen, their queen would never hesitate to throw it all away for the betterment of the ringed planet. Their queen, just as they were, was frugal, opting for a simple existence instead of the opulence of the Inner Courts.
"Perhaps, your majesty," her Minister of Public Safety advised, "we should reduce the exports to the Inner Courts at the moment. With the threat of the space pirates, it is better to be too careful than to be too careless."
She lowered her foot from the chair and straightened her layered skirt, solid violet with a sheer violet tulle underneath. Patting down her hair, she finally turned to face her impromptu parliament in her private bedchambers, and they all unconsciously held their breaths at her bright light, like that of the fading violet twilight, or the purple dawn of a new, better day.
"I do not think the Inner Courts would be happy with such a decision," her Minister of Foreign Affairs finally found her voice.
"I do not think the Inner Courts would ever be happy without their baubles," her Minister of Natural Resources scoffed.
She frowned at this and knew it to be true. As much as she loved the Inner Courts, was indebted to the Silver and Golden Crystals, there was a strict divide between the Inner Planets and that of the Outer. The Inner Planets, skilled in the trades and crafts, were lacking in resources for their flawless silks, marble columns and caviar delicacies. As for the Outer Planets, they were abundant with natural resources – Uranus with her vast jungles and quality timber, Neptune with her endless oceans and exotic seafood, Pluto with her golden fields and everlasting breadbasket, and Saturn with her nutrient-enriched ring and bottomless mines – her great stones, priceless gems and faultless metals self-replicated at such a rate that it was almost a danger to not mine them.
She lowered her gaze to the stars on her boots.
The Inner Courts were extravagant, entitled themselves to the glamorous and the lavish, but for the Outer Courts, they could do without all those luxuries – would actually prefer to not have them at all. As the first line of defence, Saturnians, Uranians, Neptunians and Plutonians had learnt long ago to forego all that glitz and gold for a sword and shield. The Inner Courts were consumers, but for the Outer Courts, they were producers. For the Outer Courts, a simple life of a home, a family and good friends was enough. For the Inner Courts, they needed all those chocolate fountains, diamond rings and crystal shoes.
Indeed, they would not be happy at all if Saturn was to curtail their supply of priceless jewels – the worshiped rose diamonds, the coveted white gold, the soft rubies, emeralds, sapphires, opals, topazes, peridots, endless, endless and ever endless. Her head started to ache just thinking about the implications of slowing the trade, but as much as her duty was with the Silver and Gold, the Violet of her beloved mother planet was just as heavy. She must side with the Violet, for today she was about to sacrifice a lot for the Silver and Gold already.
"Yes," she finally decided. "I believe it would be most rewarding to reduce exports to the Inner Planets. Our trade with the Outer Courts must remain as they are."
Her ministers nodded, understanding. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto needed the Saturn's steel for weapons and defences. Similarly, Saturn needed Uranus's timber for fortifications, Neptune's water for supplies and Pluto's grains for food. All must be in stock for an unforeseen battle if needed. As much as a Golden Age this Third Millennium was, there would always be a threat. She was about to find out, today, just how much of a threat there was.
She straightened, taller in her heeled boots, and dismissed her ministers. "That will be all for this morning. You will relay all that was said in parliament today. I will not be returning until later this day. If not," her ministers tensed at the implication, "you must wait a full seven days before you are to inform the Outer Queens of my absence."
"Yes, your majesty," her ministers obliged with a bow.
Glancing at the mirror, she eyed the violet choker around her neck and the much-recognized five-pointed star on both her choker and on the centre of her tiara. Her earrings, delicate replicas of her mother planet, dangled against the fragile curve of her neck, glittering alongside her violet eyes.
She met one of her ladies-in-waiting in the eye and the maid came forward with the Silence Glaive. One of the sixty-two maids, each from a noble family coming from one of the sixty-two Saturnian moons, she was just as delicate, frail and pale as the other sixty-two dressed in simple purple silk. But just as the other sixty-two of her ladies-in-waiting, she was just capable of wielding a glaive like any other seasoned warrior.
From the corner of her eye, she could see one of her Saturnian Sentinels hesitate, wanting to take the revered Silence Glaive, if only to detain her departure even farther. None of her elite bodyguards, one for each of the planets including the Silver Moon, wanted her to leave without them, but this was a mission she must face herself.
Resolute, she took the Silence Glaive into her hands and the room fell to their knees in veneration. There she was, Eternal Sailor Saturn, a violet light so bright that the ministers, maids and guards could not help but fall over themselves in the face of her, too afraid, too loving, to look her in the eye. She was beyond them, and they had not faced her for a long while now – she had not been needed for a long while now – that now when she had finally appeared before them, they forgot to breathe, forgot to think. There was only their beloved queen, beautiful, constant, and very fragile.
A butterfly in the sun and a moth in the moon; a deeper, darker, quiet power.
"You will tell my father that I have left," Sailor Saturn told her maids.
They lowered they foreheads to the floor, one of the maids speaking, "The Dowager King shall be informed, my queen."
With one firm, benevolent nod – with one murmured "Sailor Teleport" – Sailor Saturn vanished in a flicker of purple light, in an ethereal blur that left them breathless and fearful. A moment later, unbeknownst to them, their queen touched the dusty ruins of what had once been known in the Twentieth Century as Romania.
She bit her lips together and scanned the area, covered in a cloud of fallen buildings and a supernatural fog. Even without pinpointing the source, Sailor Saturn knew, unconsciously, that there was something sinister in the deadened city, something dark in the silence, something familiar she had once found within and without herself. Her blood pressure spiked at the thought of Him, of the possibility of seeing Him. Setsuna may be right about this possible new enemy.
Saturn gripped the glaive tight and cautiously jumped down from the roof of a decrepit building onto the dusty, uneven cobbled street beneath. Her boots hit the cracked stone with a resounding clang, dull but unnervingly loud. This hollowed city had been unlived in for a while now. How it had avoided the rebirth of the Silver Crystal was not known to Saturn. The chill, however, slithering across her exposed thighs could only come from something ominous.
She made forward into the skeletal labyrinth of the city, her heels clicking along the upended streets as she went. According to the time, it was supposed to be in the late afternoon, but the dust and fog was so thick that the city appeared dim and ghostly, like a rainy day with no chance of sunshine. Her plan had been to face this darkness in the light, but whatever powers they had, had rendered her campaign useless. She should have known that whatever was here, in this rising fog, was beyond her expectations. To have already nested a mere half-planet from Crystal Tokyo should have told her enough. But no, Saturn just had to be reckless.
Scuffling feet and she poised in defence immediately, the Silence Glaive steady and unbending in her hands, held up to protect her upper torso. It had not been a rat, she could tell. The nose, the echoing impact of the feet, was heavier than a rat… but softer than a human? Eerie and alert, Saturn pivoted on one foot to search her surroundings, her sharp eyes tracing over the distorted walls of fences and shadowed windows of collapsed buildings.
Something – someone – was out there… she could feel their eyes on the back of her neck.
She spun just in time to deflect the bullet aimed at her spine and then quickly back-flipped up onto the only upright streetlight to be seen. Blood pounding, senses heightened, her straightened and peered into the fog, into the direction where the bullet had come from. Slowly, very slowly, whether the dust was lifting or the culprit was walking forward, she saw a single pulsing orange light prick through the fog, and then slowly, very slowly, she saw that it was a burning cigarette.
Her eyes narrowed when the single cigarette slid forward to show sharp incisors, attached to a maniacal grin, forming into a sharp chin, flawless jaw, even cheekbones, perfect nose and eyes hidden behind wine-coloured glasses. And when he stepped out from the dust, she was taken aback by his clothes. He donned a white shirt, black vest and pants, red trench coat with a matching red hat and a red ribbon at his collar. Most startling was his hair, black and long, a monstrous living thing of its own, twisting without a wind. The silver gun in his hand, still smoking, was all the evidence she needed to hold him as the perpetrator who had fired upon her.
"State your name and business," her voice rang clear, steady and undeniably powerful in the dead city.
The man chuckled, deep and forebode, no longer opting for stealth as he casually strode forward, his heavy black boots crunching rock, branch and insect beneath him. All she could do was stand very still, bowled over by his very presence, not only dark, but otherworldly and demanding, something she had never faced before. He was more than her, she realized.
More shockingly, he was Him and yet not Him.
He was other.
She swallowed hard and felt his eyes, like a sharp accurate knife, trace over her, taking in her liquid black hair falling to her chin, pale and bruise-inviting skin and her supernatural – goddess-like – violet eyes. His gaze sliced across the neckline of her fuku, dipping over her breast bone, and then slithered in-between her breasts to the intimate star just below her stomach, slid down her naked thighs and then down, down, down her long legs to the sharp heels of her white boots. And just as soon as he met the ground, his eyes, masked by his glasses, flickered to her earrings and then rested, finally, on her tiara – on the violet star gleaming an almost godly light.
"Your majesty," he addressed with a mocking bow.
His voice was just like wine, deep and promising destruction in large consumption. Saturn hadn't realized how tall he was until he bowed, his limbs long and muscular under all that overbearing coat and sleek vest. His very body, size and height, demanded alpha status. And he was alpha status.
She fought the urge to flee when he sauntered over, coat moving like a flag at his pace. His cigarette throbbing with each breath he took; his grin never faltering – growing for he knew she was wary of him.
"Who are you?" The steadiness of her voice effectively hid her anxiety.
Haruka had taught her well.
He knew she was bluffing. She knew that he knew she was bluffing. He knew that she knew he knew she was bluffing.
He had caught her, she knew.
That was why he didn't answer her.
But she would not flee, never flee. She may be prey and he may be predator, but Saturn had come out victorious in stickier situations. She had won many times before. She was not about to lose this one.
In a flash she was off the streetlight, bringing the glaive down upon his head, but just as quick, he grabbed the handle of the glaive and threw her off the side. When she landed, graceful and unharmed and ever firm, all he could do was chuckle in deep baritone. She had not even skid from the force of his throw.
The air fluctuated and Saturn ducked, avoiding three simultaneous bullets skidding over her. A second later and she brought her glaive up to block another, and then rolled to avoid his hand making a grasp for her arm. A swift kick from her kick-ass boots and he stumbled back, her heels bringing blood on his once-flawless chin. He only chuckled again.
"Interesting," he mused, his tongue, long and snake-like, flickered out and wiped the blood from his chin.
Saturn withheld a shudder for he came at her again, this time with two guns firing at regulated intervals. The power behind the bullets was enough to take chunks of old concrete, brick and stone from the surrounding city, kicking up dust and debris, whispering like deadly, deadly death.
"Silence Wall!" she screamed, catching twenty bullets at once.
The man made a satisfied groan at the back of his throat that nearly caused Saturn to falter her Silence Wall, but she held damn steady.
"Who are you?" she shouted, hurriedly tossing her hair back from her face.
He laughed, a dark rumble that shook the city walls and caused her bones to tremble, but she stood strong. She was the Queen of Saturn, Matriarch of Titan Castle and the Sailor Senshi of Death, Destruction and Rebirth – she could take him!
She dashed forward, glaive poised downwards, and then brought the blade up once she close, piercing him deep into the solar plexus, hitting bone and spine. She hesitated when she saw that he had not dodged her attack – a measly one at that, but dashed the thought aside as she sliced through his ribs to free the Silence Glaive, taking blood and bone with her, a chilling gurgling as the life-liquid sloshed onto the barren city streets.
She jumped back, glaive gleaming red in the fog, and eyed him carefully. He still stood, despite the fatal wound she had inflicted upon him, but instead of crying out in pain… he was laughing madly, an echoing insanity that curdled her blood. Narrowing her eyes, she didn't understand him. He should be on his knees taking his last breath…
She gasped when he turned black and melted to the ground like dark ooze. The hair raising on her thighs, bumps on her arms, Saturn was suddenly left alone when the black ooze evaporated… but she knew, somehow, that he was still present, still watching – waiting.
Alert, she made her way slowly over to the spot where he had once been, where the black puddle had once been, but saw that there was nothing left of him, no evidence of him. Eyes snapping to the horizon, she scanned the city once more, only to be upended when a length of black ooze shot up from the ground and hit straight across her face.
Heaving a breath, she slid gracefully back onto her feet and shivered when the black ooze expanded towards her, running for her legs like long, sickly fingers. She jumped over the ooze, but once she landed, there was more black ooze around her. She watched, horrified, as the blackness sprang into the sky like large, thick columns and then exploded like a pen bursting over a white sheet of paper, enveloping the sky, the city, surrounding her!
"Death Reborn Revolution!" she screamed, bring the Silence Glaive down.
A hollow, silent explosion resounded in the city, bursting through the blackness like too much air in a balloon. The ooze splattered thickly over the crumbled ramparts of the city walls, quivering as a separate life form, before crawling desperately back together in hopes of forming another large puddle, but the pieces didn't get very far when the outermost reach of Saturn's explosions warped inwards, the aftermath of her attack caving in and coming back as a second, less destructive implosion that dissolved the ooze once and for all.
Saturn placed the butt of her glaive onto the ground and leaned into her weapon to catch a breath. She was not so much as tired as afraid, her body too shocked by the enemy. She had been required to use one of her deadliest attacks to win. Usually Saturn never needed anything, but a Silence Wall. Her skill and dexterity with the glaive itself was enough to defeat an enemy. Her supernatural attacks, some of the deadliest attacks within the Sailor Senshi, were too dangerous to use most of the time.
This man, this monster, had been different.
Satisfied by her victory, she straightened her fuku and forced her heart to calm before turning-
She jumped, her face hitting against a very broad, very strong chest rumbling with laughter.
"Hello again," the man greeted nonchalantly and very much together and not in pieces. "That was an interesting attack. Very powerful, I have to admit."
Alarmed, Saturn stepped back, raising her glaive once more. She didn't understand how it was possible for the man to stand before her, unharmed, cigarette still smoking in his mouth! She hadn't even been able to get the thing out of his mouth! Haruka-papa would be disappointed!
"What are you?" she demanded.
His expression grew dark, his grin more sinister, and her stomach lurched. "Your grim reaper."
She didn't why, but she made to run. A part her knew that she could not possibly defeat him, and if she were to drop her Silence Glaive on him, she would unintentionally take all of Earth with them as well. If she were to drop her glaive, the scythe of the Goddess of Death, then she would do it elsewhere, somewhere secluded in space, then and only then would she feel it right to take him with her unto death. Then and only then would she feel that she must end him, both of them for the sake of the Cosmos.
She didn't know how powerful he was, but when he was that darkness, she had felt Him in him.
She pushed off the ground, knowing she must flee, but before she could take a step, hundreds of black hands came up from behind her and took hold of her wrists, arms, waist, legs – a deep, dark laughter echoing in the empty city. She struggled, her grip on the glaive solid and sure, and she spun to meet the man in the eye… eyes.
Suddenly she was plunged into darkness, surrounded by black, with thousands of red eyes of varying sizes blinking before her, taking her in almost lecherously. She felt the cold hands slide along her naked thighs and arms, revelling in her shudders and drowning gasps, and she fought to break free, fought to get one last attack in!
"Silence Glaive Surprise!" she called out, the glaive in her right hand, somewhere in the mass of black, sprang forth mist and violet ribbons to snake through the darkness.
Almost immediately, Saturn could feel the darkness recede, feel the hands falter and the eyes step back when the ribbons twisted around the wrists of the black hands, weaved through the eyes and digging deep, root-like, into the darkness.
"I'm afraid, your majesty," the man's voice laughed out from somewhere in the darkness, "that won't work."
With a darkness of her own creeping into her blood, seeping out from the soul that was her mother planet, she closed her eyes and tugged at the ribbons. At once, they responded, glowing an eerie purple as they leeched the energy from the darkness and transferred the unholy mass unto Saturn. Feeling her heartbeat rise, the pulse in her veins heavy and sure, Saturn took all that was his and wound it within her body, taking him into herself, even when it numbered more than her, even when it threatened to burst from her skin – she would take away all of what he was!
With one last, climatic pull, final lurch, demand, the darkness was gone, the hands vanished and dropped her onto the dusty grounds of the city once more, the eyes disappearing in a blink. Shuddering, she pushed herself up onto her feet with the glaive and gritted her teeth when she was faced with the man once more – unharmed and still grinning… but this time the cigarette was gone, smothered under one of his heavy, black boots.
She scowled and wanted, so badly, to throw his own darkness back at him, to use him against himself, but her vision blurred even as she was strategizing just that. His power, a potent darkness, darker than any she had ever encountered, threatened to take her body for itself from within her. She staggered and dry heaved, bent over the cobbled street, desperately clinging to her glaive as the darkness inside of her struggled to equalize with the light from her Star Seed.
"Wh-What the h-hell are you?" she screeched, dropping onto her knees, the glaive falling harmlessly to the ground.
He chuckled, coming close. "I am what you fear the most."
He was HIM!
She slapped his hand away when he reached for her, but she was tired, out-of-breath, blood cold and heart failing. It was over, she realized in terror. He had won. Her vision was thinning even as he drew her feeble body into his arms, his laughter reverberating through her thin bones. He was to be the end of her.
She pushed against his chest as he leaned in close, her arms shaking weakly, eyes searching desperately for her glaive. And just when she thought it was over, he opened his mouth and dug himself into her neck, two sharp pinpricks that made her throat catch, her body stiffen and her heart suddenly reversing from near death to ever life.
What she next thought would be oblivion, was the exact opposite.
For what happened afterwards, was everything.
the point