32: "Morte"
Kotono Sarashina shrieked as another section of the city fell close to the shelter, but her reporter's curiosity far outweighed her sense of self-preservation. She and her crew had been escorted to this sanctuary by the awe-inspiring creature who addressed himself as Marduk, but she fought the decision in spite of the danger. As the only civilians left in Tokyo, and members of a television broadcast station, it was their duty to report on what was happening, and if they should endanger their lives every so often, well...that was part of the job. Lately, though, she wondered if anyone out there would believe her story, even though there was plenty of evidence on film, and quite a catalog of precedents. Supposing they did, though: what would be made of all this? Would Japan's citizens be constantly kept bound in anxiety, every waking moment spent dreading further attacks—and would the Senshi be regarded as paragons or menaces, the cause of or the solution to these and any future perils?
"I just want this to go on record," she spoke to her cameraman: "This city was not ruined by the Sailor Senshi, nor would they seek allegiance with any force capable of such devastation. Ever since rumors of their appearance began, they have served only one purpose: to protect our lives and keep us safe from these indescribable monsters. I believe they will continue to do the same regardless of what is to come, whether we need them or not—whether we cry out in love, hatred, or desperation." She glanced over at Marduk, measuring his reaction to the situation, overpowered by the sheer number of questions she could pose.
"Sir," she called, not sure what else to address him as, "what do you have to say about all this?" Marduk, still feeling the weakening effects of splitting his powers up, could only sit against the wall, awake but not alert, responsive but rarely lucid. He stretched his hand out, commanding a small stone to his palm, but it fell short in mid-air. A grunt of frustration, followed by a second, more successful attempt.
"There were eight of them," he murmured, vaguely focused on the stone in his hand. "But why eight? Was I wrong? Was the other in hiding? Could there still be more than this number? Could they even be what we believed they were? Just what are they, if they're not?"
"Are you talking about the Senshi?" Sarashina replied. "Pal, I don't know what sort of rock you've been living under, but if you've never heard of the Sailor Senshi..." She cut herself off, reconsidering those words. She forgot that the majority of people on Earth, or even Japan, were just as ignorant as this man was, and only the slimmest fraction of a minority could claim the kind of acquaintance with them that she knew. She sighed at his opaque expression, muttering, "I guess you really don't know them, then. But they are good, and they've always been here for us when we needed them."
"But how could we be so mistaken?" he whispered, staring up at the ceiling. Sarashina could only shake her head. She was given a startle as Marduk jumped out of his reprieve, as if abruptly stung, and scrambled around, trying to keep focused on an invisible entity. "I...I can feel another! But how? Why...?"
"Another what?" one of her crew said. Sarashina lit up as she guessed it:
"Another Senshi, you mean?" Marduk whirled around, facing the general direction of the battle.
"Over there," he murmured. The great creature locked up in a bracing position, and was surrounded by a strange glow that lit up the entire shelter. His body rapidly faded out of sight until there was nothing left of him but a small scorched blot where he had been standing. Sarashina jerked back, stunned by this spontaneous action. Her cameraman put his tool down, equally mystified.
"Umm... Did he just teleport?"
Marduk reappeared close to where he had felt the familiar surge of power, but not so close that he would be easily spotted, either by Sage, Senshi, or Serpent. He quickly counted all eight of the warrior-women he recognized, and sure enough, a ninth awaited them next to the statue of a dog, her arm stretched out, cradling a Phoenix. Being familiar with the bird, he instantly made the connection between it and its master, and could only hold his breath as he wondered what sort of power this one would possess.
"Nine!" he hissed. He, possibly the most powerful out of all his kin, became filled with dreadful anxiety.
The Senshi, who knew Sailor Saturn far better than he, were no less calm.
"Hotaru," Sailor Moon called, louder this time. If Saturn had heard, she gave no indication. Instead, she raised her glaive, twirling it majestically, performing a death-dance all of them were unfortunately familiar with. The heaviest burdens of doom hovered ominously, kept in check by the infinitesimal possibility that perhaps all of this was for show. Sailor Moon, at least, held out hope.
"She wouldn't..."
Raising her glaive to its apex, the Senshi of Death and Rebirth concluded her dance by stabbing it downward, so that the curved blade pointed at her feet. Every soul there knew exactly what this portended.
"Death," she whispered, her eyes steely and foreboding. Sailor Jupiter swallowed.
"She would."
"RUUUUUUUNNNNNN!" Mars flew back in a berserk fright, driven insane, hopeless, desperate. Sleipnir was not accustomed to retreating from a fight, but even the bloodthirsty steed of the All-Father knew when it was doomed, and a fate equally as terrible as all of Ragnarok now nipped at its heels. Jupiter had been to Gandarewa's hell and Airavata had carried Indra into wars where mortals and gods clashed, yet both abandoned the field recklessly, heedless of what stood before them. Uranus and Neptune tried to keep their lunches down as disgust overwhelmed them; cold memories of the dark days of their youth sprang out of the depths of their consciousness. Sailor Pluto, who had stared into the endless void of time, tarried away with her eyes shut, unable to bear witness to this future doom. Mercury and Venus, their love inseparable, their spirits linked, were blinded by the rush of retreat, forgetting all else save their own existence. As for Sailor Moon...
"Hotaru, don't do it! You could destroy the entire world! Think about this! Together we can... Whu-huooooaaaah! Hey, put me down! Ack, what's happening?!" Marduk swept in and contained her in a magical shield, using up the last drops of his power to spirit her to safety. One by one, he intercepted the other Senshi, absorbing them into his sphere, soaring away from ground zero with the speed of the gods. He did not know from what the Senshi were running from—why they would ever retreat from one of their own—but the energy he was feeling, and the general consensus of pandemonium, were indication enough of what was to come.
This wasn't merely a power that eclipsed that of the Apkallu, or even that of Azhi Dahaka. This was a power beyond that of the gods themselves. Fleeing the area, regardless of the speed or distance, would be pointless, for where could they hide? The Moon-Sailor was right: this power could easily envelope the whole world, perhaps several worlds, and no force they knew of, save for the Absolutes of Good and Evil, and the all-embodying Infinite Time, could withstand it or guard against it.
Then it came to the point where even this foolish hope, that one could "outrun" the attack, was vanquished, for just as Marduk and the Senshi began putting a respectable distance between themselves and the Senshi of Life and Death, all of time, matter, space, and energy froze instantaneously, a breath held deeply in anticipation of the second part of the fatal incantation.
Sailor Saturn uttered, "Reborn," and All was still.
…...
All was still.
Marduk, the greatest of all the gods, was stilled. He could not move, could not speak, could not know, could not guess, could not fight, could not go, could not do. He merely existed, a petrified outline etched forever on the broad canvas of Earth, neither dead nor alive: merely awaiting the inevitable.
Sailor Moon was stilled. Sailor Mercury was stilled. Sailor Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, Neptune, were all stilled. Even Sailor Pluto, who resided over Time itself, the one force in the universe potentially more powerful than life and death, the only one that could conceivably match Saturn, the immortal Senshi: even she was stilled. They all froze in place as the world around them became silent.
Still stranded in the shelter, but slowly digging their way out, Kotono Sarashina and her crew were frozen, silenced, drained. A hundred thousand lifetimes could have passed and went and none of them would have known.
The citizens of Tokyo that had abandoned their city each stood still in their place, and did not move.
Kenji, Ikuko, and Shingo Tsukino did not move. Saeko Mizuno did not move. Takashi Hino and Kaidou did not move. Kinsei Aino did not move. Motoki, Naoko, and Shinozaki Kino did not move. Naru Osaka and Gurio Umino did not move.
Silent.
Lifeless.
Husks.
Further out still. Prime Minister Abe. Haruna Sakurada. Reika Nishimura. Unazuki Furuhata. Ryo Urawa. Ittou Asanuma. Hayate Hayashida. Harisvatta Utnapishtim. Javier Toha. Soji Asagiri. Yumiko, Kuri. Petz, Calaveras, Berthier, and Koan Ayakashi. Even Mamoru Chiba. And more, and more, and more. Soon all of Japan. Then eastern Asia. The Middle East. Western Asia. Europe. Australia. Africa. North America. South America. Antarctica. The International Space Station. The gods. The Druj. Azhi Dahaka.
Stilled.
Every living being in the sea. Every living being in the air. Every living being underground. Every living being on the land. Every living being surrounded by the deathly silence of outer space.
The entire planet stopped, and became quiet. The third and final act of this Danse Macabre was coming.
And when the entire planet is deathly still, deathly silent, even the tiniest whisper can be deafening.
"Revolution."
The attack which brings ruin to the world. Death, silence, stillness, antimatter. Deeper than the void of time. Darker than the furthest reaches of space. All-engulfing and all-inspiring. A trillion shrieks of torture, skeletal hands clawing out of their graves, contorted faces moaning with agony, festering corpses, rot, oblivion. The indescribable and irresistible force, the inevitable, slowly stretching its pale grasp outward, seeking, hungering. Its prey was captivated, utterly helpless, cursed to watch as its doom approached. Beautiful in its horror, horrible in its beauty, the transcendent vortex permeated the silence and embraced the dragon with all the patience of a lover, all the finality of the everlasting unknown. Everything and nothing collapsing into a singularity, compressing and exploding simultaneously, death death death death death death death. Light and darkness were swallowed, time became nonsense, existence itself shuddered.
One final scream pierced the endless soundless purity, a dragon's scream, and then God returned to His heaven; all's right with the world. Planet Earth found its breath and its heartbeat; the silence abated; the sleep ended; the souls caught in the Death Goddess's snare were freed. Shaking loose from the spell, they soon realized none of them had been caught in the attack, their beloved world had been spared, and all that remained of their enemy was a smoldering black husk, stooped lifeless in the middle of the ruins. Sailor Saturn had focused all of her astonishing power to a single point, unleashing it so that only her intended target should receive her wrath. She, of course, being Hotaru Tomoe, collapsed under the strain, and Sailor Moon, of course, being Usagi Tsukino, rushed to her side.
"Hotaru!"
Oh, but it felt good to move and to hear and to speak again. The younger woman gradually opened her eyes under such tender care, and smiled softly as she had always done.
"It...used to be less intense than that, or so I remember..."
"Hotaru," she called again, hugging the young woman—and Hotaru certainly was a young woman, nearing the end of her college years, fully grown and mature and wise, or at least as much as a Senshi can become. She was still too weak to stand when the others surrounded her, every one overflowing with relief.
"You surprised us, Firefly," Pluto announced. "We thought you were still..."
"I...was," she strained, resting against Hachiko. "Please forgive me, everyone. I knew I had my obligations, but I felt it would be better if I didn't get involved. Due to the considerable amount of time that has passed, I had no idea what I would be capable of, so...I decided not to take that chance."
"But you changed your mind," Neptune said delicately. Saturn nodded.
"When the Prime Minister asked his people to leave their city, I just knew that...something terrible was about to happen. I was worried that whatever this might be, my friends and family might not be able to withstand it on their own. I sincerely hope I have made the right decision."
"Are you kidding?!" Venus laughed. "Just look at what you did! All eight of us couldn't kill that thing even after we got these cool new powers, but one gesture from your glaive and we've got roasted dragon kebabs for everyone!" Saturn laughed softly, but descended into coughs and convulsions. Sailor Moon called out to her, but she simply smiled again.
"I'm all right. I guess transforming so suddenly and unleashing that attack took its toll. I'll...be able to stand soon."
"Please, Firefly, just rest for now," Uranus said, kneeling down and touching her shoulder. "You've earned it a hundred times over. We all have. I'm proud of what we were able to accomplish."
"It's not just destroying that dragon and saving the rest of the country from being flattened," Mars said. "We all came together to stand up to this threat, and all the others that came before it. Ten years went by but we've never lost that touch."
"I really think you should speak for yourself," Neptune muttered airily. "Sedentary lifestyles and Senshi obligations just don't seem to mix—and when you put that up next to a certain speed demon who can't seem to remember where she put her talisman..."
"For crying out loud, Michiru," Uranus grumbled, covering her face. Her partner chuckled, then burst out laughing, then was joined by everyone else, even Sailor Saturn. Only Sailor Moon refrained; she was far too happy to feel anything else. At long last, all of the Sailor Senshi had reunited.
But then, now that this ultimate evil had been crushed, what else kept them together?
"So now what?" Jupiter said, voicing her concerns. Saturn, being the latecomer, didn't know what she meant, so she had to be brought up to speed. The others were similarly concerned: would more monsters follow, or with the defeat of their strongest, would they crawl back into their pits and cower forever? What of the so-called gods who preceded them? What were their plans now? Marduk had promised they would rebuild the city, but those who had been active the longest—Moon, Mars, and Venus—didn't believe they would end it at that. Much grander machinations had been hinted at, and now that their greatest enemy had been removed, would they see to their completion?
"Now?" Mercury spoke up. "I really need to go home and take a hot bath!"
Everyone else muttered their assent.
"If our homes are still there," Venus added. "Say, speaking of which, where's that Marduk fellow? Didn't he promise he'd help put all this together? Darn it, I don't wanna have nothing to go home to but rubble! I need my bed and bath!"
"You mean my bed and my bath," Sailor Moon muttered. Venus lit up.
"Oh yeah! Or maybe Ami can let me borrow hers! Or better yet, we can share! Right?!" She drew Mercury in for a playful hug, spreading laughter everywhere. Marduk, who had been most shell-shocked by the attack, was slowly recovering during this time, and fully came to his senses right when they were all discussing their futures. He smiled warmly at their camaraderie, perhaps even enviously, and joined them with a humble nod. Even now, with the bulk of his powers distributed across nine souls, his was a presence of grandeur and majesty.
"Sages, I am beset with gratitude. The wisdom of Ea himself could not express what I feel, or record what thou hast performed. Restoring thy city to its original glory cannot approach the shadow of debt we owe you, nor equate even a sliver of thy deeds. Please, forgive my inadequacy. What you have done for us shall reside evermore in the memories of gods and servants, a hundred-thousand lifetimes hence."
The Senshi smiled bashfully at each other.
"Don't sweat it," Jupiter said. "We're used to this sort of thing. It's kind of what we do."
"Nevertheless, restoration must take effect. My own skill would be insufficient, for great was the damage performed by our foe. I must summon my kin and let them know what has happened. No doubt they will all feel the same joy that I..." He trailed off, quickly turning pale, gawking first in bliss then in gloom. An immense dread overcame him, and he clutched his chest, shivering. Not even Sailor Mars could guess what had beset him, but an inner fear began to nibble at her thoughts, and she slowly turned round to confront it.
The dragon was stirring.
It burst with animation before anyone could react, mammoth arms snapping free of its confines, flesh pumping with life anew, legs stomping with fresh hate, necks writhing, jaws snapping. The smoldering wreckage that had once consumed it peeled away; the beast stretched, roaring, consumed by an inconceivable amount of fury. It was said that every ear in the entire country could hear its trembling cry of vengeance.
Death itself had failed. Sailor Mars was understandably upset.
"NO FUCKING WAY!" The Senshi stood paralyzed as their enemy towered over them once more. It had survived decapitation, mutilation, incineration, electrocution, strangulation, crushing, drowning, organ loss, the strength of the gods, even the icy clutches of death and silence. The full gravity of the situation had at last squashed all hope: this beast would simply not die. The Senshi were outmatched, backed into a corner, helpless to stop this vile juggernaut. They had, at last, failed.
"We have lost," Marduk whispered. Sailor Moon steeled herself and approached the dragon.
"No... Not yet we haven't."
"Usagi?" Mars called out to her, but the princess rebuked her, walking the path to her doom alone.
"I'll be fine, Rei. Just stand back." Mars felt bewildered, wretched with concern and weakness. What in the world was her friend planning? What could Sailor Moon possibly do, by herself, that all nine of the Senshi, aided by the gods, could not?
Her eyes widened and she gasped sharply as it came to her.
To be continued...