"Mommy Galaxia take my Star Seed pls."
- The title of the horrendous Reddit thread that inspired this miserable trainwreck (it's really awful)
"Blame this on the misfortune of your birth."
- Char Aznable
"I came here to laugh at you."
- Quattro Bajeena (who's definitely totally unrelated to that Char Aznable guy)
"Woo! Where's my autograph book?"
- Ivan Ooze
"I don't know who he is, but I know where he is. The other side."
- King Willie
"Good for Nintendo finally releasing their version of Gotzendiener. [dies in terror]"
- A YouTube comment on a Let's Play video for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Sailor Grimlap felt like her heart was being ripped from her body long before Sailor Galaxia got her hands around it. The stranded Sailor could hear her teammates screaming—her teammates brutally dying—in shrill static waves over her headphones. After barely defending their world from four TV seasons worth of evil cyber monarchs and zombie dinosaur clowns, their already weakened planet had finally met its match. Everyone she cared about was falling to the overwhelming new invaders from Shadow Galactica.
She only managed to survive slightly longer than the rest of her team because she was hiding. She tried to offer any tactical advice she could over the team's shared radio channel, but no one had time to react in any beneficial way. The screams were constantly reverberating through her ears, and the brick wall she was cowering under rattled from endless bursts of blinding gold light.
Her eyes darted in a crazed panic as she read through heaps of energy scans and battle statistics. Every number she crunched in her holographic visor translated to one simple, chilling, undeniable message: "You're dead. You're all dead." The golden thing her team was fighting around the corner of that alley wasn't just a fellow Sailor Guardian who had turned against her ranks. It was Death Incarnate.
Sailor Grimlap's anxiety only continued to skyrocket once everything went quiet. She wasn't receiving any communications from the other girls on her team. Her environment scans couldn't find any evidence they ever existed. She was the only one left.
She switched her headset to idle mode and tried to hold her breath to stifle her panic. She tried make herself as quiet as her bleak surroundings. As long as she didn't give herself away, maybe Galaxia would never…
Her torso straightened in agony when she felt five icy armored claws plunge through her back. Sailor Galaxia didn't burst through the towering bricks she was leaning against. Sailor Galaxia didn't leap into the narrow gap in the alley behind her. She materialized from an impossible black void within the wall itself, completely ignoring the physical matter that already occupied the space.
And now Sailor Grimlap's sternum was about to become another empty void. Galaxia had all five nails greedily wrapped around her Star Seed. If her captor moved her thumb another precarious centimeter, all life as she knew it would be over in an instant. Her whole existence would evaporate into nothing.
The two Sailor Guardians were around the same height, but the inevitable aura of doom surrounding Galaxia made her seem a hundred times taller.
"Found you, cutie." Galaxia snickered softly into the back of Grimlap's ear. Her tone was both rewarding and threatening.
Sailor Grimlap remained desperately still with her back pressed to the wall-that-stopped-being-a-wall. Her face was hidden in the shadows of her elaborate battle visor and her cerulean-turquoise-silver hair.
Galaxia's confident smile widened as she snickered.
"What's wrong, little one? You're not wasting your breath trying to fight me like some of your other Sailor Sisters. And you're not begging for mercy like all the rest." Her smile twisted into a sadistic grin. "Are you frozen in awe from my mere presence?"
Sailor Grimlap shyly, but frantically, shook her head.
"Why are you hiding in such a lonely place?" Galaxia pretended to be concerned, just so she could toy with her prey. "You're a Sailor Soldier just like any other. You owe me a precious Sailor Crystal. Do you really think you can flee from my wrath?"
Sailor Grimlap shook her head again, meekly adding: "I didn't want them to know…"
"Know what, dearie?" Galaxia asked with slightly growing impatience. She was determined to squeeze every ounce of truth out of the whimpering captive. It wasn't a particularly difficult task, considering she was holding the poor thing's spiritual beating heart in her hand.
"You didn't want your friends to know how terrified you are to face me?"
Another frantic head shake. And finally, Sailor Grimlap forced herself to admit it.
"I didn't want them to know… I think you should win."
Galaxia's snickering gave way to a bellowing laugh.
"Is that a supposed to be a joke? Trying to bargain with me with some last-minute humor before I rip the puny life out of you? Having a bit of a short-circuit in your logic ribbons?"
Grimlap's head sank with guilt. She was surrendering to her captor, but she never glanced over her shoulder to face her.
"You're the only one who will fight to end our suffering… I mean, really fight, even if you destroy everything to get there." Grimlap struggled to hold back her tears. Every word she spoke aloud made her feel more like one of the alien monster freaks she had vowed her whole life to defeat.
"Serenity's light is too far away to help us. I don't know if it can help anyone. All she does is preach her hopes and dreams for a better future. This is where trying to follow my stupid dreams lead me... and we just keep being reborn into the same war. It will never end as long as the universe revolves around her whole cursed family."
Galaxia's jovial attitude faded. She became more curious, or conniving.
"Hm. So you're the smart one from your team. I've killed more of you Sailor Nobodies than I can keep track of, but I'll always remember the few who understand what I'm doing."
"I'm just trying to follow all the probabilities…" Sailor Grimlap whispered with dread. No amount of optimistic opinions could fight off what the math said were facts.
"And what are the conclusions of your little experiment, dear?" Sailor Galaxia tilted her neck to one side and smirked.
"Everything is hopeless." Sailor Grimlap started weeping as she said it.
Galaxia gently nodded behind her captive's back. It was a plainly obvious observation, but it was nice when her crushed opponents were able to figure it out on their own. It made her job a little more rewarding.
"Hm. I know of couple of Twins who should get along with you just fine. They want the same peaceful future as you. Maybe they'll stop being so miserable if I bring them a new play-thing."
The queen tilted her neck the other way while she considered what she should do with her prize.
"But I'll have to keep you away from Chi and Phi. Those two would love to bully you to no end."
She leaned closer out of the wall-void as she spoke more softly. She was almost purring in Grimlap's ear, an uncharacteristic gesture from the fearsome bringer of destruction.
"Mm. I came to this forsaken rock planning to butcher you. Just another sad and nameless face on a Sailor Team."
Sailor Grimlap felt a tiny wave of relief as the galactic queen's voice started to take a more sympathetic tone.
But then she said…
"I'm still going to butcher you. It's the lesson all of you whelps need to learn." Terror shot up the translucent ribbon on Grimlap's back as Galaxia chuckled again. "But when I take your remains home with me, I think I'll have Heavy Metal Papillon plant you in the graveyard and regrow you into something worthy of serving me."
"But I-" Sailor Grimlap started to squeak with fright.
"Ah!" Her fright turned into a split second of pain.
At that moment, Galaxia twisted her thumb in the fateful direction and drew her wrist backwards, ending her opponent's pathetic existence in one swift and violent motion. Sailor Grimlap turned into a gasping, terrified salt statue in one blink. Her empty, soulless molecules instantly decomposed into a pile of ashes in the next blink.
Galaxia made sure she never had a chance to say her final despairing words. Whether she was trying to say "But I'm too weak to help you," or "But I've already failed all my friends," or "But I don't want to fight other Sailors when we're supposed to be working together," or "But I'm just a worthless ant who doesn't deserve your kindness," none of it mattered. Galaxia had ways for getting around those problems. Ruthless and insidious ways.
The only remaining trace of Sailor Grimlap with any value was a tiny, solitary waterlily bulb hovering over Galaxia's palm. It was made of green cosmic glass that looked ready to shatter with the slightest mishandling. Its coloring and geometric features were fairly attractive, but incredibly delicate.
The queen closed her fist carefully around its polished edges and smiled in victory.
"You're coming with me, precious. It's time to meet your new sisters. And when we finally confront the Guardians of the Earth, I'm sure I'll find some small use for you."
The crystal lily shimmered weakly in Galaxia's hand, not really having much say in the matter.
The crystal disappeared. Galaxia disappeared. The black void disappeared, turning back into an ordinary brick wall. With the invasion complete, the Shadow Galactica army returned to space and sailed toward their next conquest. What they left behind was becoming an all-too-familiar scene throughout the cosmos: Another dead solar system cleaned out of all its Sailor Guardians.
Author's notes:
Do you like my new Sailor OC? I invented her specifically for this story. Her name is a reference to the way Chris Jericho described the Ultimate Warrior's rambling promos in an old WWE documentary. The full passage goes: "When the moon is blood red, and the planets from the Grimlap System align, in the sheets of the wind, then I will survive." But personally, I just like to call her Fail Mercury. She's definitely the Shinn Asuka of the Sailor Sushis. :) It's still a definite no-go for this Izumi Noto. :D Wait why am I smiling about this
I think I also made a passing reference to the Grimlap System years ago in one of my Star Ocean fanfics. It's been a while.
What exactly do "evil cyber monarchs" look like, you ask? I'm picturing them as something like the villains from Valis II. And the "zombie dinosaur clowns" are an evolutionary rival to the Dead Moon Circus that have ancient reptilian DNA. I was trying to make the villains in Grimlap's backstory be weirder, darker parallels to each set of villains Usagi's team faced prior to Galaxia, in case you couldn't tell.
Hey guys did you know I bought a NECA figure of the Alpha Predator a couple days ago? I'm not sure what that has to do with this fanfic. But I just wanted to say I have an Alpha Predator figure hanging out on the shelf beside my 1990 Movie Shredder figure. Now in addition to the classic TMNT conversation piece ("Does anybody have any idea about who or what this is?" "I don't know, but I'll be he never has to look for a can opener!"), I've got another interesting conversation starter ("What's the deal with the dude with the dreadlocks wearing Jean-Claude Van Damme's head?")
Did you know in the original pitch for the Sailor V anime adaptation, Naoko Takeuchi was thinking about making Ami be an android to explain why she's hyper-intelligent, but Toei was like "Naw, man. That's weird. Also, replace the main character and put these prototype designs for Ami, Rei, and Makoto on a completely different team"? And did you know when she started working on the third arc of the Sailor Moon manga, she also wanted Hotaru to be an android, but her editor was like "wtf dude?" (Although Hotaru did end up slightly robotic in the final version, at least in the manga.)
The concept of Sailor Lethe and Sailor Mnemosyne is really compelling to me, because they're the heroines who DON'T have powerful fantasy MacGuffins that bend the universe to make sure they always win. They're an example of what can go wrong for those "other" Sailors far away from the Silver Millennium crew, struggling for any kind of peace and closure in the overlooked fringes of the cosmos. They're not a direct part of this fanfic, but they definitely influenced some of my ideas.
Grimlap is not the "Moon" of her team. She's supposed to be the "Mercury." The nerdy one who's a reliable friend, but her attack power sucks and she's there for background support. But if she was the "Moon" of her team, maybe the team dynamics are shifted around so the "Venus" of the team retains more of her "Sailor V" basis and functions as the actual leader, while Grimlap is more like a political figurehead who's guarded by the other Sailors. (Oh my God I'm writing Erstin Kx again.)
Whoa. Wouldn't it be a huge twist if she was actually the "Naru" of her team? It reminds me of a 4chan thread where some people were saying the second gen Green Ranger in the Boom MMPR comics is like the Power Rangers version of an alternate timeline where Naru became a Sailor Senshi. (I haven't read much of the Boom series, but I have a statue of that dude. It's kinda hard to avoid thinking about him.)
I wanted Grimlap's "But I'm-" line to be a mystery. It's not supposed to mean anything specific. There's a ton of "But I'm-" lines she could say and Galaxia would know how to deal with them. The only possible "But I'm-" that I can think of that would be a problem for Galaxia is if she was trying to say "But I'm pregnant." Which would really be terrible, because it would make Grimlap more tragic than she already is, and Galaxia 100% absolutely can't undo that once she kills Grimlap's physical body. Or... WOULD it be a problem for Galaxia? If that's what Grimlap was trying to say, maybe Galaxia doesn't want to worry about any successor Sailor Grimlaps down the road. Maybe she wants to be sure there's only one Sailor Grimlap, and she's completely bound to Galaxia. Whoa... that would be really dark, if that's what's going on here. Why am I even thinking about this so much? Yeah... I'm just going to assume that's not what Grimlap was trying to say.
Okay. It's been about a week since I wrote this fanfic, and I'm starting to come up with an idea for a continuation. It actually builds on the super miserable Bad End scenario mentioned above, where Grimlap was trying to say "But I'm pregnant." However, I think I've figured out a way to "soften" that idea a bit, while also portraying Galaxia more scheming and maniacal than ever. Let's assume for a minute that Grimlap had a steady boyfriend/fiancé/husband by the time her equivalent to the Dream story arc happened. Grimlap's team has a much tougher time defeating their enemies compared to Moon's official team, since they can't fall back on Silver Crystal magic hijinks to save the day (and reset their deaths in extreme situations). Each of their story arcs is an uphill battle of exhaustion and self-sacrifice. This all culminates in Mr. Boyfriend Fiancé Husband being the last noble sacrifice that allows Grimlap's team to defeat the leader of the Dead Lizard Circus (let's call her Neheavenia as a placeholder name). The Grimlap System lives to see another day, just barely, but at a cost that completely shatters the squeaky nerd chick. And let's assume all this happens right around the same time she finds out she's carrying his child. So the ending to Dead Lizard arc takes on a bittersweet tone where Grimlap's love is lost, but she can sorta-maybe look forward to a tiny part of that love still surviving as her baby... as long as nothing else ruins her future plans.
Then Galaxia shows up a couple weeks later and wrecks everything. This potential backstory would really explain Grimlap's "We've already lost and I have no other reason to fight you" mindset going into this fanfic. Poor thing. Maybe the cries of Grimlap's ultimate despair after she loses Mr. Boyfriend Fiancé Husband was what drew Galaxia to her solar system in the first place. It creates a negative parallel to Galaxia being drawn to Usagi's planet system after Usagi and Mamoru unite their Silver and Gold love-and-happiness Crystals to defeat Nehellenia, sending a beacon of hope through the universe.
Now, here's the idea I had for continuing the story: I'm just gonna outright say Galaxia (with possible assistance from Heavy Metal Papillon) can retrieve the Star Seeds of people who died long before she showed up in their region of space. I don't know if that's one of her canon abilities, but I'm totally going with it for this fanfic. After she kill-captures Grimlap and resurrects her as a bracelet slave, she rewards Grimlap for her loyalty by also resurrecting Mr. Boyfriend Fiancé Husband, as well as their infant daughter. Now Grimlap gets to be like an inverted version Ristarte, where she gets to live with her family in immortality after some terrible Tiana things happened to her. Mr. Boyfriend Fiancé Husband would be a little corrupted, not full-on "I'm coming to kill you Usako, mwahaha" Evil Tuxedo Mask, but a just little evil in a more subtle way, where he's numb to the fact his girlfriend/fiancée/wife is a slave warrior to a space queen who destroys everything. He just wants to live in peace with his beloved family he's only able to have through a deal with the devil, and he'll do anything to not lose them again. Grimlap, likewise, takes on the role as Galaxia's trusted reliable battle advisor, making her queen more overpowered than ever by solving functions on her little portable computer and giving suggestions on how to attack every helpless Senshi who's unlucky enough to wind up in their sights. Grimlap goes on spying missions once in a while, but she spends most of her time at Galaxia's castle base shacking up with her boyfriend-husband. (Oh FFFFFFFFFfu- I'm writing Sailor Proserpina again.)
Grimlap and Husband Dude view their precarious arrangement with Galaxia as a net positive. They're so used to being stressed and heartbroken from being attacked by cosmic horrors on a daily basis. Now they get to be the cosmic horrors for a change.
In this potential sequel, Galaxia has no specific plans for little babby Mini Grimlap. Maybe she'll grow up to be someone useful, but Galaxia's not really concerned about it. Sailor Grimlap's husband and daughter are just bargaining chips that ensure Grimlap's loyalty and emotional commitment to Galaxia's ambitions (God dammit I'm writing a reeeeally screwed up version of Mahya and Akane's dynamics from a dozen of my Mai Otome fanfics.)
Years ago, I came up with a scratchy MS Paint design for a completely OC magical girl named Siren Delta. I wasn't consciously thinking about her while I was writing this story, but when I was reading it back, I started picturing Sailor Grimlap as her. Just toss a sailor scarf on her shoulders and give her neon hair so she's more alien. And make her look like she was designed by Yasuomi Umetsu for some reason.
You might still be asking: What were the higher-tier Shadow Galactica Sailors doing during "Galactic Cooldown"? Gettin' ready to screw around with the Sailor Moon equivalent of Akane Higurashi, that's exactly what they were doing. Oh baby I am SO back. (Seriously, though, that Lethe/Mnemosyne subplot is a real bummer.)
What would U do if you were a Sushi in this situation?