Chapter 33: Wrath of Neptune
March 6, 8983 – Mach 7, 8983
Setsuna screamed and fell to the ground, her planet crystal appearing on the floor between her hands, pulsing an angry dark red. Panting, she stared into the striated stone, realizing that its anger was changing into joy and that it had begun to call. "What have they done?" The other queens stared at her in confusion, worried at the horror in the dark queen's voice. They had never heard her so distraught, so helpless and enraged. She shot to her feet and grabbed her crystal, storming forward to face the four Inner Queens. "What have you allowed to happen? I should have known! They traveled between the worlds, training . . . the storm in Sunrise Bay! Minami's Heart Shock Crystal was hidden there, under the care of an ancient tree. The only way for it to be released would be for Makoto to speak with the tree and I thought she would be far too young to do so."
"Setsuna . . ."
"You knew," she hissed, narrowing her eyes at Asakaze, clenching her free fist in an expression of anger so unexpected that the other queens backed away. "Why would you let them go through with it?"
"They found the crystals without our help or permission. By the time we found out, they simply told us that they will do as they want and marry whomever they wish."
"Marry?" Setsuna spun to face Shousha, the only queen confused by the exchange, shock in her crimson eyes. "This man that your daughter married, this Rukaze, what relation is he to the royal line of Uranus?"
"He is the youngest son of Fourth War Queen Ono Hikari," Shousha replied uncertainly, unable to follow Setsuna's frenzied exchange with the other queens.
Setsuna's head fell as she collapsed onto the nearest couch. "Hikari's youngest son's name is Shichiro," she whispered, defeated and utterly at a loss for what to do next; "and he is happily married to one of my duchesses. Your mysterious new prince, Michiru's new husband, is Kazeko's daughter."
"That's not possible," Shousha whispered, fury warring with shock and disbelief in her voice. The other queens' silence confirmed Setsuna's words, and the Queen of Neptune let her anger take control. "The marriage certificate is valid! A Priest of the Silent Wind Temple cannot lie; they take an oath to Uranus at initiation. The marriage license was signed and valid, even including the bloodied ceremonial knife and ribbon."
"Did you read the certificate?" Setsuna's voice was still sharp, demanding, but the furor in her words was slowly fading as she realized the truth of their situation.
Shousha raised her hands in defeat. "You know as well as I that those certificates are written in the ancient language of Umbriel and no one not born on Uranus can read it. The priest assured me that the two of them were legally bound. Marriage between two women of high noble birth is not legal anywhere in the Silver Millennium!"
"There is one place," Setsuna whispered, silently cursing herself for a fool. She had found Tranquility on Earth, on the one world where the rules of the Silver Millennium held no sway, a world whose prince was in contract negotiations for a marriage into the Lunar Royal Line. A prince who could not possibly have met with his princess and not met all of her overprotective senshi, too. "Your daughter married Haruka on Earth. That day . . . when I was with Serenity and I blacked out. The planets stirred because the two of them wed. And now they have awakened the Planet Crystals."
"They did it," Meika whispered, awe in her pale green eyes. "Makoto said that they would, but I never believed . . ."
"You knew?!" Setsuna flew to her feet and rounded on the tall Jovian, fury in her stance. Meika was much taller than Setsuna and a finely trained warrior, but she still shrunk back from the dark queen. "You all know the prophecy! You all know what will happen!"
"Then we will stop it," Shousha hissed, heading for the door and storming into the hall. Shocked at her sudden decision, Setsuna followed, Yuriko and the Inner Queens trailing in her wake. The precession, flanked by four pairs of guards and two confused Chamber servants, entered Michiru's wing of the palace, stopping at her suite just long enough for her personal servants to open the doors and admit the flock of queens.
"Where is she?"
"Forgive us, Majesty, but we do not know. Her Royal Highness High Princess Neptune Michiru has not been here for many hours but we were not included in her plans."
Shousha glared at the young woman, silently cursing the fact that her daughter refused to keep a huge contingent of servants and only trusted a few closed-mouthed women to attend her. "Do you know a list of her favorite places to go when she wants to be alone?"
The young lady shook her head, somehow avoiding her queen's eyes. "She never leaves her wing when she is in the palace."
Shousha silently led the other queens out of the suite, a thoughtful expression on her face. Without a word, she turned down the hallway and marched deeper into the princess's wing, remembering her own tumultuous youth and a Uranian princess she was quite fond of. They reached a darkened corridor with a single room at the end, the door opening to reveal a simple transporter pad. "They went to Larissa."
The queens moved through the main room of the castle on Larissa, Shousha and Setsuna at the head of the group while the other five followed in silence. The Neptunian led her fellow queens unerringly toward a large bedroom on the second floor, presumably the same one she had used when Kazeko met her for their trysts when they were young. Shousha grabbed the handles of the two doors, flinging them open as the other queens crowded the doorway, hoping to get a glimpse of the reawakened Planet Crystals.
The light fell on the huge curtained bed sitting against the wall, its occupants tangled in the seafoam-colored silken sheets and clearly unconscious. Michiru, her aqua hair spread across her chest in messy waves, barely stirred at the sudden intrusion, but the blonde stretched across her managed to reach consciousness almost instantly, a trait certainly linked to her Uranian warrior heritage. As Shousha and Setsuna stared in shock, the blonde pushed herself off her wife and pulled the blanket to cover the slender princess, more concerned with hiding the Neptunian's nakedness than her own. Without even the pretense of modesty, not that Uranians were known to have any, Haruka slipped out of the bed and stood before the queens, her nipples hardening in the unexpectedly chill air entering the room and her emerald eyes full of power and joy.
Shousha stared at the princess, shock robbing her of both her faculties and the righteous anger that had sustained her since her throne room. Haruka was beautiful, easily a match for her deceased mother, though her breasts were smaller and her entire body more toned. A sound from behind the Uranian broke the Neptunian queen's intense gaze, Michiru waking at last and handing her wife a robe. "When you're quite done ogling my wife," she admonished, a hint of steel in the words. Neptunians were known to be jealous, often with an intensity to rival their Uranian neighbors, and Michiru would not permit even her own mother to see her new wife's body.
Haruka tied the robe as her wife joined her in the light, Michiru having already found something to wear. All of the women turned slightly as pounding echoed from the stairway leading from the main floor to the upper levels, sounds that resolved themselves into four more princesses, all of them suitably dressed and none of them in the least bit repentant. The queens took a moment to examine their daughters, each of them secretly proud of the power in their stance, the unashamed love in their eyes, and the glowing crystals they held. Setsuna looked at them, truly saw them for the first time, and realized that she was no longer looking just at Rei, Minako, Ami, and Makoto, but also at their powerful and beloved former selves. She saw Reiko the Fierce in Rei's sharply intense amethyst eyes, Minami the Gentle shining through Minako's amused but steely half-smile, Mariya the Just in Makoto's battle-ready stance, and Chieko the Strategist in the curious tilt of Ami's head. Turning back to the bedroom, she looked at Michiru and saw Yuuka, her dear friend who had died tragically so many centuries ago, finally letting her eyes meet Haruka's. Staring into those emerald orbs, for the first time she saw an older Uranian Queen staring back at her, one whose mind and body had been scarred in service to the Silver Millennium.
"Nao," she whispered, crimson eyes glowing in the semi-darkness of the blue palace's hallway. Haruka smiled and nodded, waving her hand to call her Planet Crystal to her palm. The senshi exchanged pleased glances as their crystals began to glow, the planets overjoyed to be awake at last. "Do you remember?"
"Yes," Haruka whispered. "I remember. It was my choice—her choice—to seal the planets and you took the blame. Setsuna, it was the right decision at the time and this is the right decision now. You have to trust us to protect this solar system."
Setsuna smiled as she lowered her staff, letting her talisman vanish at last. "I do, Nao. Haruka. I do trust you."
"What is happening here, Setsuna? My daughter has married a Uranian woman, the child who killed my Kazeko, and you are okay with it?!"
"Ruka didn't kill anyone, Mother," Michiru replied, stepping forward to stand in front of her wife. Smiling ruefully, Haruka gently pulled her partner back, silently chiding her for intimating that she needed protection. "Kazeko died in childbirth. It's hardly Haruka's fault. She knew, she always knew, that she would die before meeting her daughter, but that was her part to play. Your love for her would never have been enough to protect Kazeko from her fate."
Haruka stepped forward, her eyes kind as the Space Sword glowed from the table near the bed. She didn't shy away from the fury in Shousha's eyes, instead reaching out to touch the older woman's arm. Her eyes shifted from emerald to blue to gray, returning to emerald as the shorter queen slowly relaxed. "Shousha, my mother loved you more than any Uranian would ever be able to admit. If I lost Michiru, even after sharing my soul with her for such a short time, I do not know how I would survive. You have a strength I admire, but you cannot let your anger rule your life. Shousha, I am Michiru's soul mate, even as you were Kazeko's, and I will never leave her, no matter how much you do not want to accept me."
Minako stepped forward as Shousha stared at Haruka in shock, catching the Neptunian Queen's attention. She stared at the older and taller woman, her ice-blue eyes colder than her friends had ever seen them. "Haruka will not say it, but she is the rightful queen of Uranus and the leader of the Outer Senshi." She paused for a moment, letting the truth of her statement sink in. Uranus always led the Outer Senshi and, in most matters, the Inner Senshi as well. Even Pluto, with her great powers and her goddess soul, would never dare to disobey Sailor Uranus. "Michiru is also Sailor Neptune, and the senshi's voice always overrides her queen's in the odd instances where they are not the same person. Venus accepts and blesses Uranus Haruka's union with Neptune Michiru."
"Mars accepts and blesses this union," Rei murmured, eyes glowing with the strength of her newfound power tempered by the strength she had both inherited and honed through her service as a Commander of the Royal Guard. Rikuriko took a half-step away from her daughter as the memory of their battle for the henshin stick echoed in her mind, instincts warning her to fear this young senshi who had finally grown into a woman.
Shousha turned back to her daughter and the woman Michiru had chosen to marry, seeing Haruka for the first time as the daughter of Kazeko and the rightful Queen of Uranus, seeing her as the leader of the Outer Senshi and the woman who could save the Silver Millennium from the coming darkness. She remembered her daughter, lying near death in her bed, so deep in a vision-induced coma that only her henshin stick could break her out of it, a furious blonde accusing Shousha of being utterly responsible for Michiru's condition. She could see that angry warrior standing before her, now dressed as a woman instead of as a man, so in love with her only daughter that she was willing to risk starting an interstellar war so that they could be together.
Shousha glanced at Setsuna, tearing her eyes from those burning emeralds so close to her, and found a smiling dark goddess whose soft garnet eyes urged her to relent. Shousha had never seen the Plutonian so relaxed, so trusting, and she couldn't stop herself from asking. "Setsuna, what about our laws? Two women cannot be married."
"Three thousand years ago they married each other," Setsuna replied confidently, smiling at her companion queens. "Three thousand years ago they had children and ruled their kingdoms just as well as you do now. The ban on marriage was implemented because we thought that the senshi could not grow strong enough fast enough to resist the darkness that I saw in my vision millennia ago. But looking at them now, seeing their power, I know that they will save us, Shousha." Setsuna waved her hand at Haruka's hand resting on Shousha's arm, desperate to make the Neptunian queen see the truth of her words. "Can't you see it? They are Nao, Yuuka, Minami, Reiko, Mariya, and Chieko from our last great age. They carry souls bred by the gods to lead us in every fearsome war and ensure our great periods of peace. They remember their past lives, something that their predecessors were never able to do without my aid. They have power that I had not dared hope to see again."
Shousha turned back to face Haruka again, dark blue eyes softening somewhat. "When Michiru was dying, giving her the henshin stick was not enough, was it? She was too weak, too far gone to access the power of the planet. You used your henshin stick to force hers to release its full power. You saved my daughter's life by calling me back, by shaming me into giving up the henshin stick and the mirror, and by using your power to help her through her first transformation. Haruka, knowing what my daughter means to you and what you mean to her, how can I refuse to accept you now?"
The queens and princesses visibly relaxed at the words, having known that Shousha's surrender would be the hardest to obtain. Before Haruka and Michiru could step forward to embrace the Neptunian, the glow that had been growing around the Space Sword sitting so peacefully on the table exploded into a shower of golden light. The queens instinctively stepped back from this new threat, gasping in shock as the light faded to reveal their deceased Uranian friend, Kazeko's spirit form more substantial than it had been the night she revealed herself to Haruka. Her hair, as long as it had been when Shousha first met her, danced down her back in loose waves, the symbol of her planet visible on her forehead. The queens and princesses stared at her in shock, even Michiru shaken by the spirit's appearance, though all of them knew, to some extent, that Kazeko had bound herself to the talisman when she died. Only Haruka was calm, having expected her mother to reveal herself at some point after the awakening of Uranus, the Space Sword no longer needing its carrier's life-force to maintain the ghost. A ghost that was significantly more substantial than she had been on the Moon.
"Hello, my beloved."
"Kazeko," Shousha breathed, reaching for the spirit with shaking hands. Kazeko let her fingers twine with Shousha's, rubbing her cheek against the back of her lover's hand. "How are you here?"
"Haruka awoke her Planet Crystal and gave me the strength to take a more solid form. I had to come back to see you, my love." Kazeko's emerald eyes glowed in the dim light of the hallway as she stepped closer to the Neptunian queen. "I have missed you."
Shousha wrapped her arms around the blonde spirit, tears on her cheeks, falling to her knees as every emotion she had held back for the past two decades streamed down her cheeks. Kazeko held her, smiling gently at the Neptunian sobbing into her dress, the other queens and princesses moving away from the pair. Haruka and Michiru gathered their clothes from their room and followed the others down the stairs and back into the main chamber of the palace. Setsuna, smiling secretly to herself, led the group of silent queens and whispering princesses back to the transporter and back to Triton. Haruka, having only loosely pinned her tunic with very little attempt to hide her femininity, touched her hip where her sword normally hung, having left it behind on Larissa to maintain Kazeko's spirit. "Let's go to bed," Haruka murmured, catching Setsuna's eyes as the queens and princesses dispersed to their rooms. The queens returned to their kings, but for the princesses there could be no more hiding. Minako led Rei to her chamber, the golden links of her chain glowing around her waist, and Makoto lifted a weary Ami into her arms, all of them vanishing down the barely-lit hallway toward the royal wing.
Haruka and Michiru stood beside Setsuna until the others had left, the blonde running her long fingers through her hair before speaking. "Do you know how we woke the crystals, Setsuna? Do you know how Nao sealed them?"
The dark queen stared at the pair for a long moment before nodding. "The power of a god's emotions can overwhelm the bond between the planets and the senshi. Once the perfect avatars are born, they will be so closely linked to their patron planets that nothing can break the bond between them. Nao had to force a very strong emotion to accomplish what she did three thousand years ago."
"A strong negative emotion," Haruka replied, tilting her head. "She knew at the time that what she did had to be reversible. She knew that an equally strong emotion would be needed to unlock the chains on the planets, but a strong positive emotion."
"I see that you decided on ecstasy."
Haruka grinned at the wry tone of Setsuna's voice. "Nao knew how to force one emotion upon her god, and that was lust. She learned it by chance and used it to punish Uranus when she slept with someone Nao did not approve of."
"Nao hated when Aphrodite was with Uranus," Setsuna replied. "The bond the senshi shared was very strong, and Minami would tell Nao instantly when her goddess was with anyone other than Ares. Eventually, the constant attacks by her senshi forced her to pick a new lover. Uranus decided to go for the most distant woman in the entire pantheon."
"Nao realized then that she had to be careful which emotions she projected on her god, so she only used their bond sparingly. When she decided that the senshi had to break the bonds with their planets, she knew that she could force a very dark and desperate emotion on Uranus, one that would be powerful enough to lock the planets. And she knew that only Aphrodite's power could unlock those bonds. I connected with her memories on the cliff where I found my crystal, and she told me everything I needed to know."
"You did a very good job, Haruka. The prophecy . . . well, every prophecy is shrouded in mystery, and what I see in the gates is very hard to put into words. For the first time in thousands of years, I have hope that someone can save us from that dark future."
Haruka glanced at her wife, green eyes sparkling. "I'm glad it worked. This power in the back of my mind is so strong and so new that it will take time to master. I think my wife and I will retire for now and see you in the morning."
"Goodnight, Queen Haruka."
Haruka shot out of bed and raised her hands in a fighting stance before she realized what she was reacting to. A tall golden god with narrowed emerald eyes watched the warrior react in silence, arms crossed over her chest. Haruka lowered her arms, glancing at her sleeping wife before grabbing a robe and nodding toward the outer chamber.
Once they were alone in the meeting chamber of Michiru's quarters, Haruka took a seat on the long couch as her god opted for one of the recliners, staring at each other in hopes that someone would break the silence. Uranus relented first, sighing at her senshi. "I am very proud of you, my child, but I wish you could have found a better way."
"What way would you have preferred?"
Uranus chuckled and ran her fingers through her feathery blonde hair, having freed it from the braids so it would hang mid-way down her back. "I enjoyed the results of your power explosion, but I do not enjoy being controlled."
Haruka shrugged, glancing away from her goddess. "You and I know both know that I am not strong enough to force you into copulation, though what Minako managed with Aphrodite and, through her the rest of the Pantheon, was rather impressive."
Uranus chuckled and leaned back against the couch, enjoying the luxury of the Neptunian princess's suite. "Honestly, it doesn't really take that much to set Aphrodite off, but for a mortal to manage it shows great power and control. I am rather impressed with your senshi sisters after last night's display, I must admit. I am also happy that you made your decision."
"I made the right one," Haruka replied, confidence strengthening her voice. "I have never felt so powerful before. Even my past life . . . Nao never had this much strength at her disposal. It feels like the planets are coming back with a vengeance after being asleep for so long and they will never let us break the planet crystals again. What we did tonight was permanent."
Uranus nodded, running her fingers across the silky material of her dress and changing it from gold to navy. "I was afraid of that. I'm only the patron god of your planet, so I cannot feel it as strongly as you can, but I cannot think of a reason to bind your powers again. I can hear you more loudly than I could ever hear Nao, and I hope that this new link between us does not affect me while I am on Olympus."
"I will endeavor to control myself," Haruka replied dryly, tightening the sash of her navy robe. "How is Artemis?"
"About as tired out as Poseidon's avatar," Uranus returned, flipping her hair dismissively as Michiru had done hundreds of times.
Haruka chuckled at the imitation, running her long fingers through her own tangled locks. "Uranus, what's going to happen now? We still don't know what the darkness is or how to fight it. We barely know enough about our powers to control them when the planets were asleep and I doubt we can manage them any better now."
The goddess rose to her feet, eyes sparkling in the light of Neptune streaming in the window. "Haruka . . . I am so proud of you. I know you can learn to control your powers no matter how great they become. I'll leave you to your prize."
"My prize?"
Uranus chuckled and waved her hand toward the bedroom door. "Your wife, my dearest child. You fought for her against Se's ancient prophecy, against the power of the gods sealing the planets, and against the fears and anger of the Queens themselves. You have won Michiru on every front, and I will leave you to her."
Haruka smiled wryly as her god vanished in a swirl of golden light and a breath of wind, loosening her robe and returning to her wife's bedroom.
Shousha stirred from the deepest sleep she had enjoyed in two decades, opening her teal eyes to find her lover's glowing spirit resting beside her. Kazeko smiled and ran her fingers across Shousha's cheek, the ghostly touch light but still just as gentle as the Uranian had ever been. "I need to leave now, my beloved. Haruka is waking and should have full access to the power of her talisman and planet."
Shousha pushed herself into a sitting position and realized she was in one of the smaller bedrooms on the second floor of the Larissa palace. She and Kazeko must have ended up there last night while they were talking. "It's good to see you again, my love."
"We will be together again," Kazeko promised as she faded back into the Space Sword, her emerald eyes the last to go. Shousha smiled into the empty room, her soul at peace for the first time in decades, and she knew that Kazeko would be with her in Elysian and the next life beyond. Their love might have ended abruptly with the Uranian's death, but they were soul mates and they would meet again. She kept that thought firmly in her mind as she straightened her dress and headed for the main bed chamber where the Space Sword waited patiently for her to collect it for return to its carrier.
She walked through the empty palace in silence, returning to the transporter and her own palace. Michiru's wing of the palace was nearly empty that early in the morning, and she managed to get down four corridors before reaching a guard. He did not react to her presence, knowing better than to interfere with the queen, but the various servants running between Michiru's chambers and the ones that had been assigned to the other senshi did glance at her curiously when they passed. Shousha ignored them all, returning to her own rooms where she had entertained the other queens the night before, glad to see that her servants had cleaned the mess and returned her meeting chamber to its normal pristine condition. She placed the Uranian talisman carefully on her table, reaching for the straps of her dress.
A pair of olive-skinned hands met hers there, the other woman releasing the straps of the expensive dress and letting it fall to the floor. Three servants appeared by the queen's side and gathered the dress silently, rushing into her bedroom to select an appropriate outfit for their monarch to wear to breakfast. Shousha turned to face Setsuna, smiling at the tall Plutonian. "You were right all along. I never should have blamed the child."
Setsuna grinned and took a seat on Shousha's couch, watching the trio of servants flutter around the queen and prepare her for the day. The dark queen had been reborn over a dozen times, and in that time she had become annoyed with the retinue of servants that seemed to be a requisite part of royalty. She only had one maid to help her dress, and in general the girl only helped her tie her dresses and style her hair. "You were coming to terms with Kazeko's death the only way you knew how. Mortals tend toward blame."
Shousha snorted in amusement, a sound she would never make in polite company. "You act like you have never had mortal emotions. I think you are prone to the same anger we are, with the right trigger."
Setsuna nodded, her crimson eyes nearly black as her power swirled around her. "I do think that you are right," she whispered, her voice as close to a god's as Shousha had ever heard. "I think that if I truly lost my temper I could destroy the Silver Millennium." She paused, tilting her head to the side as she watched the Neptunian queen. "I fear my own power, and it is one reason I am born into mortal form rather than simply assuming this form as most gods would. My anger would destroy the solar system."
Shousha waited until she was fully dressed and her hair was arranged before answering. "I think that you are mortal enough not to let yourself lose your temper to that degree. I know that you love us enough to never destroy what we spent so many generations creating, no matter what happens. And I trust the senshi to protect us from the coming darkness so that you never have a reason to go that far."
"I hope so."
Haruka took Michiru's arm, emerald eyes apprehensive as she stared at the doors before them. The other four senshi waited behind them, all of them nearly as restless as the Uranian, despite the fact that they had a lot less to reveal at the breakfast that morning. Shousha had to be back, and despite her acceptance the night before, none of the senshi truly believed that she would welcome a daughter-in-law with open arms.
"Ruka, we cannot stand here forever," Michiru chided, tightening her grip on her wife's arm. "Let's go."
The guards standing on either side of the door reached out and pulled them open, not making eye contact with each other or the senshi who strolled past them. The herald who had announced every royal so perfectly at Michiru's birthday celebration stood just inside the double doors, waiting patiently to perform his duty again. He stood straighter as the senshi entered the spacious royal dining room, having already announced the queens and the High Princess of the Moon, and his motion caught the attention of every member of each of the royal courts gathered for Michiru's party.
Silence fell across the room as the herald began to speak. "Allow me to announce Their Highnesses the High Princess Minako of Venus, the High Princess Rei of Mars, the High Princess Makoto of Jupiter, and the High Princess Ami of Mercury. Allow me to also announce High Princess Michiru of Neptune and her wife Queen Haruka of Uranus."
With the exception of the queens, Haruka's true identity was a shock to the room. The silence devolved into whispers and unsettled rumbling until Shousha herself rose to her feet. She had to have been the one to tell the herald Haruka's true identity, though with the Uranian dressed in a feminine-cut corset that secret was pretty much dead anyway. Shousha raised her hand to quiet the last of the noise in the hall, everyone turning to look up toward the dais where she sat with the other queens. "Please join me in welcoming my daughter and her wife to our table. Come, and be welcome."
"Come, and be welcome," the hall echoed, using Neptunian as the queen herself had. It was an old traditional welcome that had not been used that frequently in Shousha's court, but clearly the royals from the various planets had been well-schooled in the correct response.
Haruka smiled and led the princesses to the queen's table, everyone taking a seat near their mothers while Haruka took the empty seat between Michiru and Setsuna, only mildly surprised to find the Space Sword waiting for her. She took her talisman and returned it to her hip, smiling as a pair of servants filled the bowl in front of her with a mild fish soup that was a popular breakfast on Neptune, one she had grown fond of during her time with Michiru. "I see that my mother's spirit had a positive influence on you, Shousha." The other senshi glanced at Haruka in surprise at her familiarity, but the blonde was rightfully the Queen of Uranus and Shousha's equal.
"I'll admit, she did soften my heart a bit," the queen replied, turning back to her own soup. The upper table only held the queens and their heirs, their husbands and other children eating at the middle level above the lower nobles. It would be inappropriate for a man to be seated at the highest table, even the King of Neptune himself, and Haruka herself was only allowed there because her true identity had at last been revealed. It was a holdover from the time of Nao and Yuuka, when they did not have husbands, only Consorts, and when men were rarely involved in any of the upper politics of the Silver Millennium. The upper table was surrounded by a low-level privacy field, so nothing they said would be heard at the tables below unless they raised their voices to override the field. "I cannot say that I truly understand what you are doing or what you plan to do, but I cannot stand in your way any longer. And if my daughter must be married, I cannot think of a better match than a Queen of the Silver Millennium."
"I'm not sure Queen Serenity will accept your reasoning."
"Leave the queen to me," Setsuna returned, grinning slightly as she sipped her soup. "I think I can make her see reason."
The gathered queens chuckled, having some idea how Setsuna planned to go about convincing Queen Serenity. As the conversation turned toward more mundane topics, Haruka accepted that the crisis was over. For the first time in her life, she was part of the royal circle and she was accepted both by her fellow senshi and her fellow queens. She was no longer alone.
Serenity glared at Setsuna from her dais, the two women alone in her silent throne room. "How did this happen?"
"Pretty much the same way we happened," Setsuna replied smartly, her eyes sparkling with amusement. "They met."
"Setsuna, queens have been meeting their soulmates for three thousand years and nothing like this has ever happened. They may have had a relationship, but none of them ever got married. I thought that was the point of us stressing that prophecy of yours in our royal education programs."
"In an odd turn of events, the six most highly educated senshi of the past three millennia decided to find the true source of that law and challenge it in a most spectacular display of raw power." Setsuna's tone never wavered, her hands folded demurely in front of her gown as she waited for her lover's response.
Serenity rose from her throne, clearly intent on arguing the dark Plutonian's point, but something stopped her. She stared at the dark queen for a long moment, eyes narrowing in confusion. "Se, you're oddly chipper today. I don't think I've ever seen you in this kind of mood. What's changed?"
"Haruka," Setsuna replied, having no better answer. "What she has done, what she has encouraged the others to do, has made me happy. This kind of deep contentment without the weight of the future bowing my shoulders, is a very strange sensation. She figured out how to control the link that she shares with her god, and taught the others how to do the same thing. She fixed what Nao destroyed so long ago, and I can sense that we are standing on the edge of a precipice where one wrong move can plunge us deeper into the darkness that has plagued this kingdom for three millennia or we can rise into the light that your ancestor the first Queen Serenity brought to her people. I have never truly trusted any of the other senshi, but I trust her and I know that she will find the right path to save our people. I loved Nao and her sisters but I never truly saw them as equals. Last night, seeing Haruka standing there defying us, I saw the godling that Uranus knew her daughter would one day become. And I trust her."
Serenity smiled and stepped down to join Setsuna, taking the older queen's hands in her own. "If you think that Haruka and Michiru made the right decision, then I can hardly argue with you. Is she the answer to your time knot?"
"She has to be. She and these young, rebellious senshi will destroy the darkness and ensure a peaceful future for the Silver Millennium. You will never be shattered by the ginzuishou and your daughter will live to marry that Earth prince and take her place as queen one day."
Serenity slipped her arms around Setsuna's waist and rested her head on the taller woman's chest. "And once the threat is gone, we can be together."
"Yes." For the first time since that long-ago ball on one of the moons of Jupiter, Setsuna could see a future with her beloved queen, and Haruka was the key to that future. That rebellious blonde would lead her sister senshi into battle against this mysterious darkness when it finally attacked, and they would win. The dark queen knew that they would.
AN: Oh hey. I'm still alive. I still intend to finish this since I want to get started on the rewrite of Kazeko this year. Thank you for all of the reviews and I'm glad that the reawakening of the planet crystals scene worked so well. Next up, Haruka's coronation! Also, believe it or not, one of the most important snippets of this chapter is Setsuna telling Shousha that she is afraid of what she could do if she were truly angry. I'll have an answer for that in a few chapters. Also, the planet crystals are a little smaller than a tennis ball, small enough that a senshi's thumb and forefinger can easily touch when she is holding it.