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"SAILOR MOON ETERNAL"
The 6th Season of the Sailor Moon Saga
Chapter 48
"Walking the Fine Parallel Line"
Death was something this child of destruction was more than familiar with as Eternal Sailor Saturn had transformed upon her arrival in this foreign country. Before leaving her, Terry-papa had secured one more solid reassurance from the young girl that she would only look around and check things out until he returned.
So Saturn continues on her travels, heading straight towards the tunnel her handheld tracker Terry-papa had furnished her with—both that and a warm, insulated coat designed so she could still move about freely, and maintain an absolute body temperature no matter what.
The unending polar night at this time of year in this Arctic circle in which the peninsula of Greenland was a part of was by far not the most inviting vacation spot in these late days in the month of December, even for this daughter of chilly Dutch winters.
Everything appeared normal upon the daytime dark surface of the countryside. It was certainly blustery and snowy in this part of the world's frigid winter at below minus thirty degree temperatures (today was a mild day), but instinctively, Tara felt something different.
Something almost…sickly…about the landscape.
Though there was no flora nor much fauna either due to the winter season, there were a few winter muskrats scurrying about.
Strange to see them. Tara thinks to herself. This is usually their hibernating time.
The thoughtful young lady ponders as she heads towards them—cute little mice of any sort were her favorite creatures. The lonely girl had found many a friend in them during her younger, earlier days when Papa was busy in his lab and there was no one else around.
"Oh!" Tara Tomoe jumps from her remembrance of past days. These rodents, like all others, were not frightened of her gentleness, but instead when they turned their cute little heads at her arrival, a disturbed Tara had to scream out at what she saw.
No longer cute, no longer sweet, these poor, tortured animals' faces were warped, stretched into ferocious looking fanged mouths, growing protrusions of grotesque proportions extending from their beleaguered faces.
Even their bodies, once smallish and fuzzy, plump for winter months, were now enlarged and muscular in strange ways which made them almost disgusting to look at. And even worse than their countenances was that of their vicious attitudes, as unafraid of a human even standing tall and erect before them, the smaller sized muskrats aim to attack Tara.
Fortunately, her body insulated suit was made of a tough, metallic, non-rip material. Her plastic visor similarly protected her covered face and head from the shockingly vicious animals.
Shaking the fear away as she flees from the scene, Tara tries to put the deformed creatures from her mind as she focuses on her mission on following the evil energy beacon to its source, and stopping it before it took further root in this otherwise flawlessly untouched land.
Terry-papa made me promise to only locate it! But…
Curiosity was getting the better of the young girl. Back on route and finding the tunnel again, Eternal Sailor Saturn slowly walks down the sloping shelf.
I'll just go a little ways, just to see if this is the right place.
Down into the rocky cavern below, she is plunged into total darkness, save for that of the continually growing stronger, pulsating light which was blinking on her scanner monitor.
Scanner in one hand leading the way, Silence Glaive clenched tightly in the other, Eternal Sailor Saturn continues her descent. The blinker on her small scanner's viewscreen gleams brightly, instead of blinking it becomes a steady beam so she knew she was getting closer in the tightening cave.
The silence inside of her insulated suit was almost deafening in her ears, as a little frightened, Tara steps into the room where the scanner indicated the most energy had converged. How spooky it was inside the larger cavern room she steps into where eerie sounds echoed throughout.
Where are they coming from? Tara wonders until she spies several cages of all types and sizes of many kinds of wintry creatures—more muskrats, white foxes, Nordic hares and even species she couldn't recognize—at least not any longer. For they were all deformed and disfigured as those above were, mutated into hideous beasts, all with longer snouts and muscular bodies, their mouths filled with rows and rows of sharp fanged teeth, all dripping with saliva.
What was even more grotesque were their eyes—filled with evil, blind rage as each warped created was violently shaking their cages in desire to attack her, screaming and causing a general ruckus, as a 'shushing' Tara attempts to silence them with her gentle calmness.
But even the soft-spoken girl found it beyond their mad senses. These poor, once good animals had been changed beyond hope by some person who was no doubt planning to—
"—Spread my inventions all over the world! It's every scientist's most sought after dream, after all! How do you like my latest creation, Sailor Scout? Excuse me if I don't recognize you in that bulky suit. How unbecoming for a pretty Sailor Soldier!"
A young teenager's voice rings through the cavern and Tara turns with a start to see the boy from her school that she knew now was truly an enemy, standing there, his arms crossed with a smug expression on his all-knowing face.
"Then let me introduce myself, Garnet. Though you don't recognize me, I know you clearly and once considered you a friend. I am the Soldier of Silence and Destruction—Sailor Saturn!" Eternal Sailor Saturn spins in her stance, holding her glaive towards Garnet accusingly.
"Oh, yeah." Garnet seemed unperturbed though "You're that little mousy girl from that sorry school I was forced to attend. Now I remember you—slightly. …Tara…" Garnet had more than a dose of his mother's sarcastic snideness and his father's intelligent ingenuity as well. He smirks at Saturn nastily. "I don't think you'll give me any trouble in my plans for world domination, will you? You're too 'nice.'" He asks with a sneer and a cruel chuckle.
"What kind of demented plans could involve harming all of these poor animals! They've done nothing to you! What have you done to them?!" Tara's warm heart ached for the welfare of the mistreated creatures. They had no means to defend themselves against humankind.
"These animals are just the beginning, Tara! Can't you see the potential in them? I've tested and re-tested, and now I'm just about ready. Just a little more of this…" Garnet's dark red eyes glowed like that of an evil scientist rather than a boy let loose in a lab, as he throws tubes of steaming neon greenish liquids into a huge boiling over cauldron, filled to the brim with putrid smelling ingredients and disgusting unknowns swirling within.
"And in just a few more minutes, it'll be ready to be released into that silly little town just above this place, to be sent into the atmosphere and then, wherever the winds take it to! Ha ha ha!" Like a madness sweeping over him, Garnet appeared to become more insane with each passing word as he snaps a mask over his face to grab a screaming, wriggling, normal-looking snowshoe rabbit in a cage with a syringe needle he had filled with the greenish goo.
The injection instantly turns the cute, white bunny into a hideous large monster rabbit—all warped and fanged like in a horror, space movie.
"Stop! Please! Don't do that!" Eternal Sailor Saturn runs forward in compassion for the vulnerable creature, to stop Garnet. But the boy and the cauldron suddenly disappear. The rabbit in the cage had been cruelly dropped to its death from the high shelf Garnet had been on, though Tara tried to rush to save it. But she was a little too late and the rabbit lay on the hard, rocky ground, dead.
Dead…but no longer deformed.
As it laid there, the creature had become beautiful and snow white again, the pool of red blood still staining its fur, but its sweet face had been caught in a final restful pose, almost smiling.
"Thank you, little one. For you have shown me what I must do." Tara whispers aloud as she lifts the poor rabbit's head once more, stroking the fur and closing its dead eyes lovingly.
Terry-papa, you must forgive me. But, I, too, am a Soldier. This is what I have been chosen to do. This is my path. The good of the many outweighs that of the one.
Tara Tomoe shakes away the guilt of not obeying her guardian's stern warning to keep out of danger. But this Soldier of Sacrifice knew her role all too well.
Eternal Sailor Saturn takes to her heavy booted feet, racing out of the cave to stop the crazed boy's intent to disease the entire world above. And strangely, in an odd twist of fate, as she leaves the dark cavern, the rabbit's clear blue eyes flutter open. His broken bones reassemble and the fur seals itself again, as the normal furry, white bunny hops away out of the cave, as if nothing had happened to him.
As if he had just been…reborn.
The warped sound of demented laughter disturbs the formerly peaceful town directly at the cavern's edge in this quiet Christmas Eve. The North Pole-like atmosphere is interrupted as the town's elders were the first to rush out and then the few people strong enough to brave the bitter cold, all curious as to who could be causing such a noisy ruckus in the usually calm village.
Dogs from their dog sleds nearby howl in pain, then growl and bark viciously as the friendly dogs had never before, tearing themselves from their harnesses and chasing each other and some of the townsfolk as well, to the point of panic.
"Ha ha ha ha! What a laugh! Who's the 'master' now?! Ha ha ha ha!" The cruelty of the cold-hearted boy was boundless, it seemed, as Garnet apparently enjoyed his tormenting of these people. The rabid bite of one dog leads to another genetic deformation mutation when one trapped old man falls to his knees under a vicious canine's attack. He was bitten and scratched until the human, too, was mutated. The weak and frail old man with a cane becomes a fierce wild animal—biting the dog back with newly grown fanged teeth, like a beast, ferally breaking the animal's neck in two.
Soon a riot ensues in the streets, innocents screaming and shrieking in fear as animals become rabid, men become beasts and killing machines as everyone in the village tries to hide from the plague and death overtaking their once serene villages.
It only took a few short minutes to transform the small town into a war zone. Garnet was laughing and cackling at all the chaos and destruction that he had never even imagined his experimentations would cause as the sick boy hovers above, looking down upon it all with wild, soulless eyes, laughing until every last member of the over three hundred inhabitant Saami village lie dead or dying in horrible, violent deaths.
"All right! That takes care of one town! Now move on to the rest of the world!" Cruel Garnet cackles uncontrollably—absolute power corrupting him absolutely now that the young man's idea had worked so well and so quickly.
His Dark force invention had surpassed all the others' attempts. Surely, with a few more successful results, he would become Metallia's greatest warrior now. Maybe he would be made King instead of his uncle and rule over his own father as well—
"SILENCE." A calm voice commands. The purple eyes of Eternal Sailor Saturn were saddened and broken upon her arrival at the 'war torn' village, just too late again.
All of these innocent people dead! No! It's not fair to steal their fragile lives away like this.
Tara's heart screams but her face was a cold, stone silent plate as Eternal Sailor Saturn's anger shows itself to the boy before her in the form of a piercing silent gaze which went straight through him.
The young Sailor Scout's horror and overwhelming panic when she first had surveyed the scene turned into the more mature, deep voice of the planetary guardian who lived inside of this chosen child, lying dormant, until this precise moment when the Soldier of Death was to be awakened.
"Do you know, Garnet," Tara looks the boy directly in the eye, devoid of every emotion, save justice. She suddenly feels a strange pity for him as Garnet floats down to her level. His eyes were puzzled at how this crazy girl dared to question and order him to do anything. "Do you know that the price for taking another's life is that of eternal damnation? You will burn in hell for murdering all these people if you do not repent. If you knew this, would you have done it?" Eternal Sailor Saturn says in all earnesty. Her voice was grave and filled with conviction of these solemn thoughts. Her soulful mind which had pondered these beliefs deeply knew in all absoluteness now through her years of church attendance with her guardians, pushing the point in that she held the heaviness of life and death in her hands.
But through it all, she was aware that she was merely the instrument of He who holds the eternal judgment over all living creatures' souls. So, sadly inside, Tara's compassion heart cries for this boy's lost one as his arrogant, laughing eyes begin to waver in fear under her powerful, sorrowful gaze and soul searching words that maybe, just maybe, made him realize the weight of his experiments in life and death choices.
"I—I—I didn't murder them! They did it to themselves! They did it! Not me!" Garnet's eyes were wide and scared suddenly as he felt an icy cold grip on his heart and the teen stumbles over guilty excuses.
The spoiled child had never before experience guilt of any sort. His wicked mother had never held him accountable for anything, especially not for something of this magnitude. Neither ignorant parent had ever taught him the difference between right and wrong. Neither father nor mother, both too absorbed in themselves and finding power in this world, had ever informed him that his soul would one day be put on trial for the sins he committed in this life. And never would he have thought of it, never would he would have imagined that there was a force greater than himself, but for—that kind look in Tara's eye, of genuine truth shining in them. Garnet couldn't help but be moved, his heart was touched and his soul felt as never before…
And he was frightened.
"Please help me, Tara! Help me! I'm sorry! I didn't know it would go like this. Really, I didn't know it would be like this! I just thought the people would get all sick and deformed like the rats! I didn't think that they would—all kill each other! I'm sorry! Please help me fix this!"
Garnet, once all arrogance and pride, drops to his knees in the snow, grasping at Eternal Sailor Saturn's boots in a pitiful, pleading gesture. His shaken heart truly trembled that he had done something so terrible—and all at once the fear of death and the sheer pain in all those peoples' eyes as they were transformed into monsters at his own stained hands, haunted his young mind where the tiniest spark of a conscience catches in this 'firefly's' small, yet radiant light.
"Help me, Tara." Garnet's voice becomes small and trembling as a little boy again, his eyes pleading with her genuinely.
"I'm not the one to be asking for forgiveness. I'm not the one with the power to give forgiveness for your sins, Garnet. But if it helps, I believe that if you truly wish to change your ways and the Lord said 'not one sparrow goes unnoticed, not one sinner beyond redemption,' if it is my role to try to help rescue one soul, then maybe I can try to undo what you have done." This pure of heart young girl speaks solemnly. Her eyes glazed over the scene of death and battle—young eyes such as hers should never have had to seen. But the old soul in her young body knew what she had to try to do—to take the instrument of death and destruction she was, and use every love energy within her to become what she secretly knew, in her heart of hearts, that Sailor Saturn had the potential to become someday when it was preordained.
"For I am also the Soldier of Rebirth." Eternal Sailor Saturn announces to the wind blown skies. She prayed with every ounce of faith in her heart to be granted the ability to become His instrument of life now, too, for all those people taken by this ignorance, before their time.
Please, Lord, give me the strength. Tara prays as she lifts her Death Glaive to the air as high as she could hold it, knowing herself that this would be the end of her own life as she begins to swing it down, releasing the power of death which would destroy every living creature in its path—and then just as suddenly, Eternal Sailor Saturn spins it sharpened blade in the opposite direction, willing that the reverse of death ensuing, would be life restored instead.
"SATURN REBIRTH RENEWED SILENCING DEATH!"
She calls as loud and with as much conviction as her small lungs would allow. This Sailor of silent sacrifice feels her own recently reborn body being drained as she explodes with unearthly power. Her insulated suit Terry-papa had designed to keep her safe, disintegrates around her form that was emanating light.
The Arctic Circle sky radiates with her dazzling blinding light, it encircles, it ribbons, it cascades around each of the deformed bodies of the townspeople scattered around the stricken little town. Her brilliance sparkles over them until each and every one was returned to their normal, beautifully flawed and fragile, human forms once again, lying peacefully in death now as Saturn calls on every power left within her and given to her, to then reverse the effects of the poison and disease released upon them.
To change it, take it away and then bring them back to life…
"AHHHHHH!" Unable to physically withstand the forces coursing within her and through her, Saturn lets out a painful cry. Her eternally weak body was not able to withstand the pulsating forces of life and death, and good and evil flowing through it. She was about to lose hold of her glaive, unable to hold onto it any longer as it begins to slip from her freezing fingers and with it, the chance to fully finish these people back.
Suddenly, a hand grasps her falling glaive as Garnet's warm appendage holds the deadly power stick up for her, adding his energy to hers as he prays to a God he had never paid any heed to before in his life, begging forgiveness and the chance to make things right again.
"Please! Help Tara!" The son of Lord Opalson and Lady Ruby, had never taught him to believe in the good of anything, but now just one person's belief in him was able to change him to the side of righteousness as Garnet pleads not only for his own tainted soul but for everyone else now, too.
This firefly's little light imitated by the just appearing multicolored hues of the Northern Lights in this far north, frozen Norwegian alpine tundra, Sailor Saturn's utter goodness and sacrifice shines into the maroon haired young lad as well. Everything around them was enveloped in the aurora reflected, blinding light of the moon reflecting in her as a sudden brilliant beam of light rains down from the heavens itself. The silent prayers were answered by the faith of one self-sacrificing little girl and the new hope of one repentant young boy, by the mercy of He was glory beyond all, with a smile down upon the quiet Soldier who never asked anything for herself.
Whooosh!
Like a gentle spring breeze, each restored human face was renewed again with the life which had been sucked out. Once more breathing, eyes flutter open, fingers rustle again, legs sit up and the victimized people of the Nordic village slowly come to, unaware of what had just transpired.
All were oblivious of what the self-sacrificing soldier of Saturn had done, except that each rehabilitated being had a wonderful feeling of being alive again.
Save for one, young holy novice who had escaped the nightmarish mayhem to witness and spread the tale of another little girl's prayer and God's good salvation to renew life down from Heaven itself.
Awash in the wonderful illumination of the surreal aurora borealis' special colorful lightshow on this otherwise dark Polar Night, unfathomable joy fills Garnet's heart as he watched each of the lifeless bodies he had unwittingly destroyed, restored to life once more.
Beneath that aurora borealis rainbow, Garnet swore to himself and to that God of Tara's to never harm another soul again. He never wished to feel such remorse, regret and wickedness, that this girl had led him away from with her compassionate goodness of heart.
"Eternal Sailor Saturn, you—" Young Garnet, his face now made even more handsome and winsome by a simple, true smile, rather than the sarcastic simper he had worn heretofore, looks back towards the special girl with such gratitude. This reformed teenager wanted to see himself reflecting truth in her wide, pretty crystalline purple eyes. But Garnet was shocked to find those same beautiful eyes empty—all life within vanished as Sailor Saturn, the little sparkling sprite known to the world as 'Tara Tomoe' slowly sinks to her knees and gently passes away.
Her ultimate goal had been reached with her dream of not the death that she usually brought about the world—and instead to become a channel of life. Tara, in finality, was proud to have given all of herself freely to be a channel of His peace.
"Thy will be done, Lord…" A barely audible whisper escapes Tara's dying lips. "Princess, Alex-papa, Michelle-mama, Susan-mama, Terry-papa, Papa…"
"…Goodbye…"
She leaves this world and begins her journey into the next, somewhere over the aurora borealis rainbow, where such a soulful creature, beautiful in purity and goodness would surely be welcomed with open Arms at this cold, dusky Christmas Eve sunset.
Previously…
It was only minutes ago that the streets of London, England were normal and bustling with all sorts of traffic and people bundled up in winter suits and coats, dashing in and out of shops for last minute Christmas shopping.
This Eve of Christmas, 1999, had snuck up on many busy Christmasers. It seemed with all the panic and fear spreading around the world, the holiday season had been shortened drastically and nearly forgotten.
That is, until Her royal Majesty the Queen of England had given a stirring speech on this Christmas Eve morn, calling to mind to the hearty citizens of Great Britain the troubles this world had faced in the past—of wars and plagues and natural disasters. She reminded them that even through all of that, Christmas had never been forgotten, never pushed aside. The sacred holiday congregated the entire world and brought everyone together—if only for just one day, to celebrate Christ's glorious Birth. Humanity must thrust aside the visage of impending death and doom on the horizon and look it in the eye with a stiff upper lip forward to a bright new day.
"For there will always be an England."
So they had faced this uncertain new millennia with hope for brighter new days, filled with British pluck and gallantry. But the bright new day that did indeed bloom over England's snowy countryside seemed ill-fated, despite the Queen's rosy picture, even if the morning had begun with promise. Optimistic citizens even took to the shopping, cooking and gift wrapping traditions which were so familiar to Christmas Eve preparations.
But by mid-afternoon these pleasant times had to be foregone, for there was something definitely awry when the daytime sun had suddenly and inexplicably disappeared from the western sky.
In its place, a monstrously huge dark dome had appeared on the edge of the English Channel coastline, stretching all the way along the waterway that was soon covered in pitch black darkness. The entire British Isle seemed to be its target.
Alarm over the sudden veiled shadow overtook them and the mood quickly turned to panic as the mysterious dark sphere began to compress over the land it enveloped. As it shrunk, it crushed everything in its path. Outlying lighthouses were obliterated. Craggly mountain path streets and highways were utterly destroyed in the bleak opal sphere's enclosing dearth.
Even the legendary White Cliffs of Dover come crumbling down as the unforgiving dome slowly begins to close, moving closer into the mainland. Fortunately, pre-warned by radar, innocents had raced to safety against the closing in black ring, though unable to take anything with them, save for their lives.
Unfettered by all physical barriers or defenses, the dark sphere slowly continued to encompass the island, meticulously crushing everything in its deliberate wake.
Immediately assessing the situation he surveys with a keen mind and able body, Eternal Sailor Star Maker races against the clock. His shooting star arrives in the heart of the soon to be endangered city, Terry glances up at the excessively large and famed one ticking down at him known as 'Big Ben,' as the Time Lord travels directly into the London section where his scanner had assured him the evil energy was emanating.
Even though he was a supposedly hardened soldier and composed tactician, Terry Starr had within him a gentle heart of gold which would not—could not—allow innocent people to suffer if he could do anything to help them. So along his accepted mission's hurried path into the mainframe of the city, Eternal Star Maker runs as he had never run before, scooping up frightened children on the same roadway, pausing in his Star powered leaps and bounds to aid an older, disabled woman on her unsteady cane—even saving a pregnant lady's sobbing little sister's big shaggy sheepdog from his leash's entrapment on a broken locked gate.
Oh, how the long haired mother-to-be reminded Terry of his beautiful Susan, and the little girl reminded him of his responsibility to their surrogate 'daughter' they had taken on in Tara. Nonetheless, Eternal Sailor Star Maker moved at what seemed warp speed, rescuing numerous people along the way in the time three soldiers would've taken to manage just one.
Terry was truly in a hurry, this master of time wishing he really had full command of it. Tara could need his help at any moment and he was already regretting leaving her behind. The Star traveler had reluctantly dropped Eternal Sailor Saturn off alone in that Nordic country, despite her reassurances, over and over, that she would stay out of trouble and simply investigate the lay of the land while waiting for him.
Tara, please heed your promise. I will be there shortly, I give you my word.
The wave of escaping refugees streaming in from city's threatened outskirts was also racing against the closing in dome as it decimated the darkened English countryside. Suddenly, the destructive dome begins to move ever quicker and Terry saw he must stop this madness at its source before any more innocents were harmed.
Fast moving Eternal Sailor Star Maker takes to the air in a flash of his wisteria star zips across the urban skyline. The streets of London had been flooded with British denizens, all seeking refuge underground in their largest city which had been designed for nuclear lockdown since World War II.
Heroic Star Maker heads for where his computer scanner had pinpointed the evil energy was stemming from—the place where the dark dome seemed to be zeroing in—a once upon a time revered area which had recently been rocked by discontent and tragedy—Buckingham Palace, where the ruler of the formerly most powerful Empire resided, was about to be shaken to its core once again.
"Tell me, little Queen. How does it feel to be downtrodden at a 'lesser's' heel? But you see, I am not 'lesser' than you, as you will soon discover when I rule over this land which you hold in such high esteem. I will be the one crowned the new king and sit on that throne which you have hoarded for far too long. It will be as it should have, long ago—after your family had so cruelly shunned away my rightful, royal heritage to make room for your lineage." Lord Opalson's haughty voice was full of vengeful spite for this house of royals he had personally invaded. The guardsmen, bodyguards and even the princes had vainly attempted to off him, but had failed miserably under just a whiff of his power.
Her Majesty, the Queen herself had put up much more convincing a fight than the rest of her family, the staff and guards all put together, but it had still quickly ended with the same results. Opalson had easily overpowered the dignified, yet aging monarch, personally tying her up with hands behind her back to prove something and gloat as well, while he left the remainder of the 'menial' court of royals to be bound by his own gem-generated droid 'subjects.'
"I know you not, sir, nor have I, nor anyone in my family, ever shunned you. And I have not the despise for 'lessers' as you call my fellow human beings. I do not hold that prejudice as you believe I have. We are all of the same free will, endowed to us by the one living God. In His name, I am begging you to cease your attack on my country. Let us all enjoy the right to a peaceful world we deserve. Please, sir, I beg of you." The good and just Queen of England had no fear nor pride in begging for the lives of her subjects as she succinctly speaks for them all in her stately manner.
"Maybe it wasn't you who shunned us, but your contemptible ancestors from long ago who had violently stolen my ancestors' true place to hold this crown. I am of royal lineage, Madam. I will not be denied my right of birth succession any longer. This world deserves whatever darkness we herald—and that's all it deserves. For all the past pain caused, I will personally rid this world of every tyrannical leader remaining. Countries, no, continents, will writhe in chaos and riot, once each and every world leader is long departed from their rule of this planet. So now, it begins here and now with you, O Queen. It's your turn to be trampled under my feet as I climb the throne of true power!" Long-winded Lord Opalson was mad with power and was literally about to kick the poor, older woman with an energy charged, killing blast. But he suddenly stops in mid-motion, pausing to gaze down into her diminutive and small, yet fearlessly composed features, which were still unshaken.
"No. First, I desire for you to plead for your miserable life at my feet. I want you to grovel and bow before me and then I may just let you live, old woman." Opalson offers loftily, standing up straight to tower over the septuagenarian Queen, holding tauntingly in his gloved hands a black opal orb which he had used to control the dark dome hovering over the entire country.
"For my own life, sir, I will not grovel. But for that of my people…" The British monarch patriotically bites back her upper-class pride and slowly begins to prostrate bow on the step at Opalson's feet.
"STAR GENTLE UTERUS!"
A deep voice suddenly cries through Buckingham Palace's window and with that sure, melodic tone, a burning mantra of broiling acid blasts away all the droids which were standing guard over the bound royal subjects and servants alike.
The carefully aimed bubbling streams of acid then turn on a forty-five degree angle, even daring to strike at Lord Opalson himself, causing him to growl back in pain at the burns penetrating through his jacket and slacks, right down to his now blemished and blistering skin.
"You should never be forced to grovel to a wanton scoundrel such as this, Your Majesty." Eternal Sailor Star Maker leaps straight up into the high palace window. "Not as long as there are people out there fighting the good fight to hold onto the morals and freedoms which this world enjoys. I am that Atmosphere of Freedom whose Time has come to break through! Sailor Star Maker, stage on!" Maker proudly calls out his solo entrance, rushing to free the Queen first before—
KICK!
Opalson quickly recovers from his acid burned wounds. His long legs batter Star Maker in the head with dark chaos inertia, sending the Sailor Starlight skittering across the room. And then the dark lord vengefully sends England's queen to join Maker in the residue blast of his power.
"Your Majesty!" Maker pulls himself and the poor hurt woman up, to lean on the marble palace step, despite his still reeling temples, as he steadies them both.
"Oh, dear! I have not seen this degree of violence since the War, when another deranged devil dared to rear his frightful head." The grey-haired, yet proud and strong-willed Queen straightens the mussed hair on her woozy head, her posh accented voice shaky. "That opal orb in his hands wields the power he holds over my city. He has explained, in the most disagreeable of terms, that once it is full, that otherworldly orb would mean the end of my nation. Please, my dear fellow, if you truly represent freedom, set my people free once again from this new monster. Ughnnn…" The already weakened older Queen, who was wise in her words as well as in her observant gaze which instinctively trusted this capable newcomer who, despite some female attributes, his new flat heeled wedge boots, high collared, open neck navy metallic leather jacket and orchid tank top, eternal version, exuded a decidedly male aura, as she finally gives in with a faint into Star Maker's strong arms.
Terry gently lowers the brave ruler down to the step as he stands, angrier than ever at the destruction and pain this heinous creature before him was causing the innocent people of this celebrated country.
"How dare you attack such a monumental leader who has always shown great leadership in the face of history, which you are not even a tiny cog in the infinite sweep of Time! You will never play such an important role, you iniquitous malefactor!"
"STAR CHRONOMETER—"
Livid, Eternal Sailor Star Maker begins to venomously call his most vicious, Star Maker merged with Time, countdown of impending doom upon Opalson as he berates the equally matched intellectual evil genius straight in the eye. But, suddenly and without warning, a pair of hands from nowhere wrap around Maker's well-built strapping arms, quickly clasping two black jeweled crystal bands on both of his wrists.
"—STRIKE!"
Pulling away from the assault, strong Eternal Star Maker shakes off the unseen shadow attacker easily and continues his deadly time energy offensive towards Opalson.
But in that one terrible moment, Terry found that his new fatal ticking down countdown clock was not forthcoming.
"STAR THEW PHASE RELAXATION!"
Moving onto his newest Eternal power attack, Maker stubbornly tries again with another aspect of his Starlight endowed power. In his anger, Terry's swift genius brain had not yet conceived how his innate star energy—which he had always relied upon and had never failed him—would abandon him just when he needed it most, as intense pain shoots straight through his body from an unknown source.
The intense agony starts at his wrists as Maker's sharp mind quickly realizes that Time's immovable wristbands which he had taken on for his Susan, that had become intrinsically a part of him now, were somehow being inhibited. Opalson's shadow droid warriors had clamped on some opal jeweled bands over his wrists that now caused his own energies to backfire into him, weakening Maker. His conclusions were reaffirmed with Opalson's loud cackling as Eternal Sailor Star Maker sinks to the ground on his tall booted knees.
"Feeling weak, Star Maker? I had calculated that your incompetent Moon princess and her prince would send you, her most cerebral soldier, after me to vainly attempt to match my intellect and incredible mind power. I knew they would not choose one of those stupidly over-emotional female warriors, and rather, would send the 'academic man' after me. Your disguise now doesn't fool me, Sailor of the Star Maker. I was so certain you would be the one to face me that I studied your past battle records and have crafted exactly how those wrist inhibitors would make you weak and inefficient. I invented these from the purest quality of clarity and luster crystal opals myself, by the way. They've been specially formulated, just for you, to not only cease all the time powers at your disposal but also serve to weaken you further every time you attempt to use them. Painfully ingenious, aren't I?" Opalson laughs sardonically, extolling his own clever machinations.
"STAR GENTLE UTERUS…!"
Maker huffs out, attempting his oldest original Star power which had no relation with Time. The stubborn streak left in the always thinking Terry Starr spurred him on, despite the warning—and the result was abject pain, as he is proved wrong.
For everything pulsing through the Time Lord's veins was now a mixture with Time he had been merged with.
Maker grunts, falling to his palms on the marble floor, fighting just to stay conscious.
"Yes, do keep going, Sailor Soldier! Eventually, you'll do yourself in! Ha ha ha!" Opalson laughs condescendingly as he ascends to the hailed British throne. As he does so, the opal orb in his hand displays dark shadow energies which were swirling within, seeming to be charging up with each power surge his shadows had clearly been leeching from Eternal Sailor Star Maker's latent dysfunctional energies, as well.
"Ah, yes! There is nothing more important in this world than the sweet taste of power! Do you not realize that yet, Maker? Of course you don't. You don't know a thing about power, as you are destined to be repressed, you weakling lackey of this failure Moon Princess! I once believed you to have formidable brainpower and a fellow intellectual, but obviously, you can not possibly appreciate my incredible genius mastermind." Opalson laughs, sitting up high on the throne, looking down on everyone under him.
In such utter physical torment, Eternal Star Maker, by now, could barely grasp Opalson's haughty, condescending speech. Instead, Terry saw visions flash before his mind drifting away of a dark haired child lost out in the snow, whom he needed to hurry to protect; of a brave little Queen's willingness to sacrifice herself, her pride swallowed for the sake of her people; and of a stunning, gentle lady, whose pure beauty and love he had sworn to return, to be with, forever and all time…
And in this terrible moment of his most agonizing physical pain and mental torment that he was powerless, suddenly, he hears a vague whisper in the most intimate place where his heart beat alone for the once lonely woman who Time had held in abeyance for a thousand years or two, for only Terry Starr to someday discover and cherish.
A mysterious force calls beyond Time with Pluto's song of love for her mate when he needed her most, the eternal melody playing in him, for him, through him—now and forevermore. Eternal Sailor Star Maker senses the infinite rhythm, now flowing through Time within this solar system, begin to take shape inside of him.
"Even as I sleep, I think of you…Wish my cherished one safe…"
Across the indefinable distance between where Time and Space held no sway, a singular woman was perched upon her solitary tufted cloud bed made of mists behind the locked Doorway of Time. The bronzed skin, delicate beauty with the endlessly long deep green hair had awakened from a restless sleep in hopeful wait for her love. She had dreamt of her beloved Time Lord, sensing his troubles and saddened she could not go to him in her nearly full to term cycle of pregnancy. So she begins to entreat God, who could intervene for him through their eternal bond of love, hoping against hope she could somehow help him succeed through her fervent prayers for his safety.
Even in her frail condition, alone in the Doorway, being full with child, exhausted in both mind and body, Susan Starr speaks softly aloud her tender plea.
"Please, Lord, let my love hear my song to give him my strength…Please keep Terry safe…" In quiet, womanly whispers on the forgotten mists of Time, the Sailor of Pluto directs her thoughts and energies towards her true love.
Susan, my own…I feel you near…Please, Lord, let her be safe.
On his knees upon England's royal throne room floor, in parallel thoughts for one another, Maker huffs out the name of the eternal lady he had pledged his entire world. His mind was relieved at least to sense his precious one was still in the safety of Time's Doorway, which only they two shared, when he feels her heart reach out to his. Though they were far apart in parallel dimensions, they were yet close together in their abounding love.
"Doesn't matter if it hurts, I'll do everything I can to help you, with no tears."
Through the tender sentiment in the emotions he felt for his wife and from her, too, Maker could profoundly sense his Pluto's tender song echo within his heart, sending all her tender love and devotion with Time's energies which generously flowed through her.
And the Mistress of Time's prayers were answered as a significant segment of her adoring soul, serenading her love, reaches her Time Lord across the unknown distance of Time and Space.
The incredible new power energy shared between the close married lovers starts to flow through Eternal Sailor Star Maker. Beginning from the beginning of his very first core cell, Terry's soul starts to move across each and every star enhanced molecule of Star Maker's exceptional physical being. Every well toned muscle, every finely honed body part, every abundantly formed organ and extraordinary perfect drop of AB blood in his veins—one and all strands of his extraordinary DNA, now will the hands of Time to sweep over him…
"Whispering soft words, lend my strength…
While you're gone, all I can do is send all of my love to you…"
With every soft lyric uttered from his Sailor Pluto's magnificent caring heart, she continues to sing to her true love wherever the winds of Time had taken him, even countless boundaries away.
Piece by piece, each imperceptible Time restraint particle amalgamated to Terry's wrists felt as if it was being unraveled into invisible threads, dexterously untangled by an expert seamstress' deft, transparent hand. And thus, the dark opal crystal coating that had been fused to Eternal Star Maker's wrists, begin to molecularly destabilize, causing that spark of genius to go off in this academically proficient man's head.
Inspired, Sailor Star Maker feels the dark opal restraints which had been blackening the intrinsically glowing Time bands at his wrists, begin to slacken, while the very fabric of Time had begun to transfigure their impeded structure from the inside out...
Only Terry's true genius, Susan's true love, and the one true God's blessing of both could have bestowed this ability to loose the bondages of Time hidden under Star Maker's wisteria spiked armored wrists. Free radical Time now at Terry's genius command then dimensionally shifts these particles to be masterfully rearranged, consequently dispersing the now harmless opal manacles which his enemy's shadow minions had placed there earlier.
Maker's keen scientific brain molecularly anatomizes the darkness, phase shifting the restrictive opal's atoms they had been formed from, to merely dissipate into vapors rather than maintain the solid mass they had been just moments earlier.
Through this impressive example which his singing seamstress Susan's superior sewing skills had showed him, in alliterative layman's terms, the thinking intellectual in Terry Starr seizes on a sagacious, yet daringly audacious scheme, on an even larger scale. And he'd have to accomplish it right now, in order to save this entire island nation of Great Britain he so admired from imminent peril of having its life literally squeezed from it by darkness.
This polymath's erudite mind starts to quickly calculate and compute every representation of the vast geometric domain currently under Lord Opalson's dark, destructive command. Clever Star Maker's newest, capably talented power up was about to be born eternal as the downed Sailor Starlight, more than renewed now, stands to his full height's tall frame in strength by his love's energy, with eyes defiant before the no longer cackling man sitting on the stolen throne.
"STAR PARALLEL DIMENSION MATRIX ATOMIZE!"
His wristband threads of Time, completely freed from darkness and woven back together, radiate light as he lifts them up high in the liberating air. Terry Starr's natural genius of science and mathematics theorem pay off here in dividends with Eternal Sailor Star Maker's latest brilliant attack which his deep, low voice bravely bellows out.
Utilizing the building blocks of creation energy that this innovative soldier of the Star Maker had originally been effectively endowed with by his Creator, Terry merges them with the sacrifice of Time's bond he had made—and would do over again, in a split second—for his timeless lady.
"I'll help carry your burden, so we'll be together again…
I'll keep believing…"
This parallel time matrix formulated by developing mediums between cells, produced in a mathematical array of quantities of time and parallel dimensions, had claimed the molecular structure phased through time. Understanding how these florid light orchid swirling mists yet hovering around his spiked bracers had reduced each dark matter obstruction to atoms, Maker's perceptive brain adeptly discerns what precisely he must do next to stop the rest of the cruel, enormous dark orb of Lord Opalson's from fully crushing the life out of one of the most exceptional countries on earth.
"There will be no more quiet stillness. Just always Time with you…"
Susan's lilting strains echo within Terry's soul, and in the depths of it, he could feel the gathered purple-hued powers within him surge. The responsibility, the protection, the overwhelming love he felt for his glorious lady, impossibly grew even stronger in him; and the need to protect this city, these people and this world, was only outshined by his need to keep his promise to his Susan—to help rectify this world so he could be with his beloved once again.
Before imperiously overconfident Lord Opalson's astonished, arrogant eyes—that had in shock watched his specially formulated Metallia dark crystal wristbands be diffused from Star Maker's freed wrists—he sees the tall Time Lord's wrists now instead pulsate with an intricately patterned, lavender glow of energy the analytical dark lord neither comprehended nor expected of this Sailor Soldier.
The grey-purple threads of Time and Space granted to him through both love and sacrifice, gave Star Maker the ability to first form a dimensional shifting matrix that consisted of enough inversion molecules to subdue his enemy's dark energy absorption.
In the split second before Opalson could even conjecture its intent, Maker's 'atomizing matrix' soared over to where he sat on the throne. The wispy time-mist infused, orchid strands 'stitch' themselves around the black orb in Opalson's hands.
Just in time, too, with mere milliseconds before it was to finish filling up, resulting in Britain's full defeat, to rather compress the magically enhanced stone down to its very core of molecular atoms. Not only had the controlling dark opal in Buckingham Palace been de-molecularized into unstable atoms rearranged to be ineffective in their original state, much to Lord Opalson's disdain, but a tiny fissure crack in the crystal gem had incurred.
Eternal Sailor Star Maker now aims his wide-ranging effect on every negative atom, extending to that which was about to destroy the city of London into darkened rubble. For the entire malignant dark dome terrifyingly hovering over the landscape and closing in, was in the Time Lord's all-encompassing sights now as well.
In doing so, Star Maker's glowing 'Parallel Matrix' orchid energy net starts to phase over the larger target outside, efficiently dousing the dark spread, molecularly reversing it on the same basis as before, through dimension warping the particles, permanently changing their original form. And the wide-scale dark shrinkage which had been ravaging the British island nation in utter demolition for many slow, grueling, frightful hours this Christmas Eve day, had been, in the flash of a millisecond, spatially rearranged, and thusly dissipated.
Star Maker's ingenuity and collaborative Time energy had forced the dark dome to cease its massive crushing force from all the damage and destructive havoc it had been planned to cause.
Yet, the moment that focal dark crystal opal was shattered in Opalson's hand, its evil energy takes on a life of its own. The ravenous Chaos tapped within explodes from the broken jewel vengefully, encircling around a backing away in fright Opalson.
But he couldn't get away in time.
Shrieking in pain and fear within the echoing Palace walls he so coveted, the opal's cracked nucleus takes hold of him, embedding the dark Chaos shadows into the very fiber of the genius scientist's being. Wanting so badly to merge with Opalson and entrap him in its evil snare, the shadows invade until his physical body, writhing in pain, begins to fade into the circling shadows of retreating evil, which suddenly shrink into black nothingness.
That left silence to fill the liberated, yet stunned Palace of the emancipated city that no longer had darkness' evil weight pressing down upon it at this once again un-shrouded Christmas Eve sundown.
Rushing to the window, hopeful Eternal Sailor Star Maker's breath catches in his chest as he scans the somewhat demolished city and razed skyline, beyond which greets his disappointed eyes that wished he could have rectified everything which had transpired upon this besieged nation.
Yes, the dark crushing dome had been stopped. But what was once bustling Merry Ole' England—its beautiful snowcapped countryside, was now nothing but dried up land; houses, streets, buildings all leveled to the ground worse than if a severe tornado had struck; even the White Cliffs of Dover were left nothing but a pile of memories and rubble as the entire landscape of the British Isle appeared to be destroyed beyond repair, to Maker's regretful sorrow. His victory was a fleeting thing that seemed more like a loss in reality as dejected Terry shakes his despondent head.
"I take it that you are called 'Sailor Star Maker?'" The diminutive in size, but a giant in distinguished stature and grace, the Queen of England rises shakily to her feet as she leans on the tall, slender Soldier's arm for support when she walks across the throne room to join his viewing of the exterior city through the window.
"I believe I have heard 'fairy stories' of your friends before." Undaunted by the distressing sight, the experienced older woman immediately seemed to trust this unknown Soldier as she would any of her own. Terry's bravery and triumph in the face of doom had impressed her fighting spirit to no end.
"But, I have failed you, Your Majesty. Your country is—" Maker turns, looking down—down with sad eyes at the petite little queen on his arm.
"My country will stand. We will rebuild. Look!" Her proud head points his shapely chin back outside the Palace window where her eyes were dancing. Star Maker could there glimpse, with peace coming to his broken heart, thousands of people beginning to stream from the ample bomb shelters and evacuation centers underground. On each face was obvious pain at the sight of their land and homes destroyed, but also clearly on each countenance, he could see—just as he viewed in the eyes of the good lady smiling up at him—a joy to be alive, with a fierce drive to go on and start anew. It was a rare ability to conquer adversity which had made Great Britain truly great throughout its numerous centuries of hardships and trials.
"Rest assured, we will survive into the new millennia—thanks to you, kind Soldier, under the grace of God. In my Christmas message this year, your utmost chivalry and modesty in the face of overwhelming personal danger for a foreign nation—perhaps even planet not your own—will be mentioned when I am at St. George's Cathedral in the morning, which, too, has apparently been spared, due to your efforts."
The observant queen motions towards the holy chapel the royalty had attended for over a century as she squeezes Terry's large, distressed hand in her petite one, imparting to him a small degree of her gratitude and hope.
"In the infinite sweep of Time, we are all simply instruments of what His hand ordains." The poet in Terry Starr remarks profoundly as he ponders the implications of this day with a sigh.
"Indeed, well-said. We are each no more, no less. And surely, when all is settled, you will receive a well-deserved knighthood of the realm, sir." The British monarch, impressed with his sentiments, adjusts her large eyeglasses to somehow discern the true identity of the person standing before her. She was obviously no fool, having seen many decades of tragedies and wars, and overcoming them all. She had gathered in her sharp witted mind, even during the deadly battle within her very palace walls, that this tall, imposing 'woman' standing before her was only a façade of his truest self—for the heart of a magnificent man with the soul of a poet was surely beating within.
"Let it be said throughout the ages that you, Sailor Star Maker, will go down in our proud history as the chivalrous man who, with God's help, saved the last Christmas Day of this century for the Kingdom of Great Britain." She announces proudly, her own heart reverberating with the joy of being alive, to simply have a country to love and rule once more. "All made possible due to the tremendous skill and ingenious bravery of a foreign guest who does not even hail from our empire." The grateful British monarch was sincerely anxious to make the royal proclamation of the official announcement to exhort this singular man. She had never before experienced such fear for self and country, but somehow, with this brave Soldier at her side, the Queen of England—and her endangered people—somehow made it through to face another day, another century, another millennia. It was a time for the older queen to reflect on history that was measured in those centuries.
"'Love thy neighbor as thyself' may be the soul's best wealth." The natural poet in him softly expresses his relief to the smiling Queen of England in lyrical verse as Terry smiles disarmingly down at her with the Biblical gospel's perfect phrase. The beyond impressed British monarch could readily apply every deserved title to her newest 'knight,' secretly planned 'poet laureate' and dear, dear new friend whom she intuitively understood was far from being merely an overseas visitor of the realm.
"Ma'am, please. You make too much of m—" Reflective poet and noble lyricist writer, Terry Starr's humble modest response is cut off as his wrists begin to pulsate again. This time with a different kind of pain—and something more—as the first warning stab of hurt strikes his heart.
Cold fear grips Eternal Sailor Star Maker, dizzying him as the second more fierce, more pounding wave of pain and sorrow overwhelms him. Terry realizes as he reels back on his wedge boots at the window what could be causing this agony.
This throbbing torment in his heart could only mean one thing—something he dreaded with all of his soul as he blames himself for letting go of one of his responsibilities, to prevent a tragedy his responsible fatherly core felt. This regretful Time Lord damned the pain and sadness that the failure to have done his duty had caused, during those intense moments of battle, when his mastery of Time's bonds had been severed by his heartless enemy.
He was just a few moments of time too late…
Can't be! Sailor Star Maker agonizes as he feels what had occurred. Instantly, he becomes a speeding streak of orchid across the well-past-sunset British skies, without so much as an uttered word more to the concerned Queen.
The star filled with blame-worthy anxiety and pain reaches at maddening speed across the broken horizon with a burning intensity to rival that of the fading Northern Lights…