Finding Home
Denouement
Disclaimer. Yup. Disclaimers are good, I recken'.
Author's new notes: And there it is. The peril's of finding a place to call home, and the joy's that lay there once it is found. Good night, and sleep well readers.
Author's note: A denouement is the closing action of a piece of work.
The bar grows quiet for a second as I enter. The swinging doors open and clothes themselves behind me, slowly settling back into a quiet and unmoving resting position. The current customers at the bar give me a quick once over, and then for the most part turn back to the drinks. Others give me a more lingering look, but I ignore them. Mostly women, the barmaid's, but a couple of men eye me suggestively.
I ignore them. They're really not that important. I sit on an empty stool, and wait for the bartender, a super-buff looking woman with a neck bigger than her arms (an impressive feet, considering how big her arms were), to come by.
Two hundred years.
That's how long I've been wondering the galaxy.
After the battle at the cauldron, after my dissolution, I had woken up on a strange planet with... interesting... vegetation (bloody twelve foot tall man-eating plants). I had spent a couple of days meandering about, finding out where I am, and then I had begun my journey.
If I am to protect Chaos, I must first find him. After he was dissolved, he too was reborn, but he had been reborn as a star seed. It will take many, many years for him to rebuild himself, to gather enough energy to make himself as powerful as he once was. And I will make sure that no-one harms him until then.
Only problem is I have no idea where he had been reborn.
I can make a few guesses. One thing I know about Chaos, is that it hates to pull the same trick twice. Last time he had been in the cauldron, the center of the galaxy. This time, well I'm willing to bet he's at the rim. The end of the galaxy. Problem is, that's a lot of ground to cover.
Oh, well. I got time.
Which explains why I am where I am. I've been traveling the star systems of the galaxy for two hundred years now, hopping from one planet to another as I work my way around the rim of the galaxy. I've nearly covered one twentieth of the total planets that round the rim. Each time I land on a planet, I go around it, speedily circling it once or twice, trying to feel my star. I'll know when I'm close to it. I just have to get in the general vicinity of the thing.
No luck there yet.
The bartender finally works her way over to where I'm waiting patiently. "Wha'da wan'?" she asked. She gives me one of those looks that I've grown so used to. Truth be told though, a suggestive look from a woman built like that is scary.
"Just something good. Surprise me," I tell her. She snorts and goes about getting my drink prepared.
"Don't get much visitors 'round 'ere," she informs me as drinks and alcohols mix together. "Where ya from?"
"Earth," I tell her. She nearly drops a bottle. A couple of bar patrons cough when they hear my words. I'm suddenly conscious of all the people in the bar giving me covert glances.
"Really?" she asks eagerly, reminding me of a puppy. "Have ya seen tha Queenie? Whatsherface. Serenity?"
"We've met," I tell her with a wry grin. She looks impressed.
" 'eard good thin's 'bout tha'on," she nods. "Wha'da think 'bout 'er?"
"Well," I answer. "I'm going to hate having to kill her." The room goes dead quiet with my words, as all the people who have been pretending not to listen stop talking to glare at me. Well now that I have their attention, might as well make use of it. "So. Can anyone tell me the place where stars are born?"
Alright. Maybe I have an extra reason to search the rim first. Maybe I'm hoping I'll run into her someday. Maybe the galaxy is a big place, but that doesn't mean that I can't hope. A couple of the people glaring daggers at me get puzzled expressions on their faces, but the rest all just keep looking like they want to kill me.
" 'lright, buddy," the barkeeper says behind me, sounding angry. "I think ya better jus move on." She puts a beefy hand on my shoulder, clenching hard in an effort to put some pain on me.
Of course I don't feel a thing through the chain mail poncho. (Did I forget to mention that I travel the galaxy transformed? Perhaps I should have. The only reason that scouts can transform and de-transform like that is incase they want to lead civilian lives. Since I have no home planet, or purpose beside that of protecting Chaos, I guess I really don't care who knows that what I am. Of course, nobody yet knows that what I'm wearing marks me as Sailor Chaos, but they will someday).
"Hmm," I hum. "Oh well. I guess I don't need my drink after all." I stand up and head towards the door. While I'm pushing it open, somebody behind me speaks. I freeze halfway through my exit.
"I know where stars are born."
Without turning around I say, "I doubt that."
"Zero Star of Sagittarius."
That does it. Very slowly, I turn around. There, in a booth by the door, hidden in shadows and behind a hood, the speaker. I half smile, and began to move very slowly towards the figure, as though I'm in a dream. I ignore the rest of the bar. They're unimportant. Trash.
I reach the cloaked figure, and push back the hood, revealing a bowed head.
Underneath it I'm greeted by a shock of honey blond hair, held back by an exotic looking gold head piece.
"How do you know that?" I whisper to her. The head lifts up, a serious expression on her face as it turns towards me.
"I don't know," she answers.
"Then what do you know?" I ask as I take a seat across from her in the booth.
And then she smiles. "I know my name is Galaxia." I smile back without saying anything as she continues. "And I'm sorry about this."
And with that she knocks the little table that the booth wraps around, despite the fact that its bolted to the ground, grabs the front of my poncho, and pulls me in close to her.
We kiss each other, desperately, like moths plunging themselves into candles.
I know I must protect Chaos. It's my purpose. But I don't have to do that alone. Until then, I've found another light to be drawn to.
I've found a home.
END