Chaotic Waters Act 1, Chapter 7:Past Pleasures and Remnant Goodbyes.
Holding out her hand she called out to the water she had summoned with her mind, forming it into her preferred weapon of choice when she needed to fight in close combat, a trident. She gave the traitor a frigid glare, savoring his groans of pain. Right here, right now, she would avenge her students. Without a word she thrust her weapon at his heart, intending to carve it out of the traitor and end him.
Her weapon sped towards Endymion's heart, intent on ending his wretched life. She would have succeeded too, if it weren't for a golden chain wrapping around her arm and stopping her weapon's movement a mere centimeter from piercing the Terran's skin."This is?!"
"So I was right after all."
More of that strange language. She turned her head, looking behind her with annoyance that shifted into shock instantly. Aglaia, the Guardian of Venus stood behind her, her chain holding her back from ending the traitor's life. Only...she looked different than the last time she had seen her. Granted it had been a long time since she had been summoned to the pocket dimension that contained the Gate, but something was...off.
"Well? Not going to say anything?" What was she saying? Why was she stopping her from ending the traitor? Why? Why!?WHY?!"You four abandoned us and the Silver Millennium fell because of it!"
{"Laia?"} She whispered, her arm falling to her side in surprise. {"You're alive?"} Shakily, she turned around, the chain around her arm magically staying taught as she faced the Venusian Princess. She reached out her unbound hand to the other girl, tears forming in her eyes. Did one of her students survive?
"Don't call me that!" Her student snapped, her tone shocking Nerida. "I haven't beenAglaiain a long time." The princess of Venus' words made no sense to the Neptunian, save her name which her student said with such derision it might as well have been a curse.
{"What...?"} This didn't make sense, why was her student acting like this? Surely she hadn't been gone so long as for the Venusian to changethismuch...had she? {"Aglaia-"} She started, freezing in place as her student summoned a golden crescent in her hand. That attack had split a Martian mountain in training one time after the girl's awakening, and she had no desire to see if she could survive such an attack.
{"Call me that one more time-"} The Venusian hissed in Solarin, glaring at Nerida coldly when the Neptunian seemed to perk up at the familiar language. {"-and Iwillattack you. Now step away from him."}
{"But he...did you not see what his people did, to the others?! Kapheira, Andronika, Galyna, all of them are dead!"}
"Venus!" A voice shouted from Nerida's left in that strange language, a voice that should have been impossible to hear.
Slowly the Neptunian turned her head to the newcomer, her eyes widening in disbelief as fresh tears formed in her eyes. This couldn't be, it was impossible, but it was right before her. Her other students, all three of them safe and sound giving the Venusian looks of confusion as they looked back and forth between her and Nerida. {"You...you're all alive?"} She whispered, a lone tear sliding down her cheek.
"Tuxedo Mask!" Another new voice shouted as Eirene, the Lunar princess came into view, running towards the Terran prince in alarm, wearing...was that a Guardian's garb?
Sure enough the girl was wearing the garb of a Guardian, even if it was that of an Initiate, a lower rank than those worn by her and her students...no, her students also had the Garb of Guardian Initiates. What was...? With a numbing shock throughout her body she understood, falling to her knees as her fragile hope was washed away by a surge of grief. These weren't her students, they were the next generation and her students, her friends were gone, forever. A scream of grief and pain tore from her lips, surprising the other girls as she released her hold on her weapon, the water falling to the ground in a splash that couldn't be heard past her scream. Gone. Her students, her precious students were gone and they were never coming back.
She was alone.
"You're not going to go comfort her?"
"...that would only hurt her more."
"...I suppose you're right, though I suspect she would find comfort in your presence regardless."
"You should go help her through this, thatisyour job after all."
"Only a small part of it."
"Your point?"
"...fine, but you know they're going to ask questions, questions I don't want to answer sober."
"Then don't be sober."
"...not exactly the best first impression."
"If they can't see past something like that, then they aren't ready."
"...No, I couldn't do that to her."
"I would think less of you if you could."
"...they've only been active for three months you know. It's not fair to hold them to the same standards."
"Venus has been active for over a year. Yet instead of actually preparing the others, she just lets them wing it. It's going to get them killed, again."
"...it's still not right and you know it. They're only kids."
"So was I before you woke up my memories. I didn't take it seriously then either, and look what it cost me."
"I did offer to wake her up sooner."
"...you know why I asked you not to. If...if we have to go back, I wanted to spare her from that."
"I know, just like I know that this was unavoidable, her old memories were always going to resurface."
"..."
"Fine, I'll go along with your plan, for now."
"Thank you."
"Should we do something?" Sailor Jupiter whispered to her fellow Senshi, looking at this woman who was clearly a new Senshi. "I mean, she started crying when she saw us and now she's just kind of...staring blankly."
It was true, the Guardian of Neptune was just sitting there, looking out at the world without seeing anything in a thousand yard stare, an empty look in her eyes.
"Serves her right." The Sailor Venus muttered, glaring at the woman.
"Now, now Venus. That isn't very nice of you to say." Someone new said from behind Sailor Moon, laughing as the young girl shrieked and jumped away, her hand on her heart. It was another woman dressed as a Senshi, with dark skin, emerald green hair, and red eyes. Her Senshi uniform looked much the same as the blankly staring woman, just with black replacing the sea-green coloring. "Really, being so disrespectful to your teacher." The woman said, shaking her head in amusement.
"You." Venus hissed glaring at the dark Senshi. "Of course you're here, I suppose the other Outers are as well?"
"Outers?" Mercury whispered, looking between Venus and this...other new Senshi. How many more were there? Was there a Senshi for each planet? Actually...that would make a lot of sense now that she thought about it.
"Can we please figure out who they are later?! Tuxedo Mask is hurt, bad!" Sailor Moon asked, desperation leaking into her voice.
"Hmmm?" The dark Senshi seemed surprised, looking over the Terran prince with an indifferent eye. "Oh, right. Him." Rolling her eyes, the woman snapped her fingers, causing the hurt man to glow with a dark purple light, the injuries on his body slowly reverting back to unblemished skin, much to the surprise of the others there. "Really, all this fuss over a little light sparring."
"Light?! She nearly killed him!" Venus screeched, pointing at the woman on the ground, still staring blankly.
"Really?" The new Senshi looked surprised, squinting at Tuxedo mask as he slowly sat up with a groan. "Huh. I suppose heisweaker than he should be." She finally said after a moment, shrugging lightly. "Either way, this isn't the right place to have this discussion, I doubt the police will stay away for much longer." With barely a gesture, she summoned a staff with a heart shaped head and a red jewel at the top. She tapped the bottom of the staff on the ground twice, ripples spreading out at the point of contact and changing the landscape around them all. In a matter of moments, they were no longer in the middle of the Juban streets, but in a place the Sailor Senshi knew quite well, the command center underneath the Sailor V video game in the Game Center Crown much to the surprise of Luna and Artemis, the Senshi's feline advisors.
"Right, now where to begin..." The second new Senshi mused, ignoring Venus' attempt to turn her into molten slag with the force of her glare. "I suppose I should deal with Neptune first." She said after a moment, sighing and walking over to the empty shell of the woman who had beaten the current incarnation of Prince Endymion like a drum, kneeling in front of her slowly. "I'm not sure if I should be impressed you lasted this long before breaking down, or disgusted this was all it took." She muttered, lifting the other woman's chin with her index and ring finger. "...I suppose this is probably the other reason she didn't want to come, even ifsheisn'tthemshe'd still have a hard time seeing you like this." She stayed there looking into the blank eyes of one of her oldest friends for what seemed like hours before pulling her hand away. Then, quick as a whip she brought it back in a sharp slap, the sound echoing loudly throughout the room.
Slowly, the other woman reached her hand up to where she had been slapped, the empty look fading just the slightest bit. {"...'Noe?}
The very moment the tips of her fingers touched the spot where the Senshi of Pluto had slapped her, another crack reverberated throughout the room, the dark Senshi having struck the other cheek coldly. {"By all of the old gods, snap out of it Nerida. This is neither the time nor the place for such a shameful display."}
{"...they're gone."}
{"Really?" I hadn't noticed that over the past two and a halfmillionyears."} The Guardian of Pluto snapped, glaring at the other woman. {"Spend a third of that time mourning them and thenmaybeyou can bitch about it to me. Until then, pull yourself together and act like the Guardian you are."}
{"...old hag."}
{"Nerida. I have to explain to sixteenagersabout the colossal fuck-up that was the old days as well as explain why you acted like Kapheira's uncle and nearly murdered an innocent over a misunderstanding. Do. Not. Push. Me."}
{"...you didn't have to compare me to Herakles you know."}
{"I will compare you to whoever and whatever I have to to get the sheerstupidityof what you did through your thick skull."}
"...anyone have any idea what they're saying?" Makoto whispered to the other Senshi, giving Minako a hopeful look.
"Don't look at me, I can barely understand every tenth word. I only understand the language in my dreams." She muttered in response, not taking her eyes off of the older women while scowling.
"Right, introductions." The taller of the older women said, leaning against one of the pillars that surrounded the command room with her arms crossed. "My name is Melinoe, and I'm what you would call the "Senshi" of Pluto." She rolled her eyes, making air quotes at the title, seeming to take some offense at the word. "This is Nerida, she was the Senshi of Neptune back then, though we called ourselves the Guardians in the days of the old monarchies." She explained introducing the other woman with a small wave of her hand.
"Monarchies? Plural?" The Senshi of Mercury asked quickly, giving the newly introduced Senshi of Pluto a sharp look as a feeling of unease built in her stomach. "How many exactly?"
"...I forgot how quick you were." the older woman mused, looking at the Senshi of Ice fondly, like she was seeing an old friend after many years apart, not that that wasn't true in a sense. "There were ten monarchies, each one located on one of the planets in our system, as well as the one on Earth's moon." She glanced at the young man in a tuxedo, and waved her hand when the last of his injuries faded away, dismissing the purple light. It wouldn't do to regress the man back to infanthood after all. Using time magic to "heal" was tricky like that. "Each of them had their own names, but for the most part they were always called "the Venusian Queendom" or the "Lunar Kingdom" outside of formal settings."
"Queendom? Don't you mean kingdom?" The current incarnation of the Lunar Princess asked, much to Pluto's annoyance, she hated being interrupted.
"Sailor Moon, a queendom is a state or territory ruled by a queen while a kingdom is a state or territory ruled by a king." Mercury explained, annoying Pluto further, where they really going to keep referring to each other as "sailors" instead of their actual names?
"..Wouldn't that have made the Silver Millennium a queendom then? I was pretty sure they called Sailor Moon's old home a kingdom." The Jovian Princess wondered, putting her hand on her green skirt clad hips.
Apparently they were.
"Anyway." Pluto said, cutting them all off. "I'm not going to go into the details of each of the Planetary Realms, you all will learn that information yourselves over the course of the next few years from your old memories resurfacing as well as the fact that it's too much to go over in a year, let alone one afternoon." Absently the tall woman started tapping her arm in an old rhythm. "To simplify it all, there were ten monarchies, one for each planet and Earth's moon of which each of you-" She paused looking each of the Inners in the eye before continuing. "-were princesses of your respective celestial body." She finished much to the shock of the younger girls, save Venus, if their widening eyes were anything to go off of.
"We were all princesses...?" Mars murmured, her eyes flicking over to the Lunar Princess for less than a second.
"I see some things haven't changed despite being reincarnated."Pluto nodded, looking at each of them. "Yes, though not all of you were Guardians." She said gesturing to Sailor Moon. "There was no Lunar Guardian back then, how you stand there as a Guardian Initiate is a mystery to me."
The odango haired girl blinked and nodded slowly her expression thoughtful. "That...actually makes sense, I was wondering why I never wore the same thing as the others in the old days." The Lunar Princess seemed almost...calm at the revelation, like it was something she had expected, much to the surprise of the other Inners who were all looking at her like they were expecting her to start freaking out.
"Usa-Sailor Moon, are you okay?" Mars asked, looking at the other girl worryingly. "Normally you would have started crying over hearing something like that."
"Called it."The Plutonian thought in amusement before her eyes narrowed."Wait...she got over her lover being hurt way too quick. I know I took care of his injuries and I'm explaining things but she shouldn't be over it THIS quick."
"Hmm? I'm fine Mars, just thinking." The reincarnated Lunarian muttered as her Guardian's Garb faded away to be replaced by her dress she wore as a princess, a golden crescent forming on her forehead.
{"Melinoe! The Resonance Effect!"} The Neptunian snapped, giving the Guardian of Pluto a sharp look.
"Shit!" Pluto slammed the butt of her staff on the ground hard enough to crack the floor, sending a wave of light purple power crashing into everyone there, reverting the Lunar Princess to her Guardian's Garb with a sharp inhale of air."Maybe I am getting too old for this shit, can't believe I forgot something so basic."Muttering darkly to herself she pulled her staff from the ground and drew a small circle above her head with it. The moment the circle was finished, it expanded to surround the entire Command Center, various lines of ancient script forming along the edges while a giant " " symbol rested in the center. "There, that should do it." She muttered, rolling her eyes when the Neptunian started looking over her work with a practiced eye.
"Not bad, using the power in your blood as a base to throw the magic out of sync via temporal displacement to prevent it from resonating across the fourth and fifth dimensions...oooh and you threw in a translation matrix without a time delay, very nice." The Neptunian nodded, she always did appreciate a well-made glyph, they weren't her specialty, but she knew enough about them to use them like Pluto had just done.
"You know, it irks me that you can dissect a glyph that fast, you don't even use them."
"Water manipulation is more about power than technique, I've told you this many times."
"And yet you consistently use technique over sheer power every time you fight."
"Of course, it's more efficient that way."
"Can you two shut up for one gods damned second andact like the adults you are?! What the hell was all that about and why the fuck can we understand her now?!" Venus snapped, glaring at the two women.
"...I think I preferred Aglaia, she wasn't as rude." The Neptunian said bluntly infuriating the Venusian to the point the other Inner Senshi had to hold her back from throttling the woman.
"To put it in simple terms without having to explain the greater mechanics of multidimensional magical resonance and time manipulation across plains of existence, all of us being here is making "Sailor Moon's" power resonate, bringing her old personality to the surface." Pluto explained after the Inners had managed to mostly calm down enough for them all to sit down with the hot tea Pluto had prepared in front of them. "As for how you can understand Nerida now...translation spell."
"...that was the simple explanation?" Said Lunar Senshi asked, her eyes spinning.
"Yes. Normally there are safeguards to prevent this sort of thing from happening, but seeing as you are the first and only Guardian Initiate of Luna, that isn't the case here." Nerida said looking over the girls there curiously. "I admit it is odd to see you all so young, the last time I saw you all we had just celebrated Kapheira's two hundredth year, though we all looked to be in our early twenties."
"Two hundredth? Seriously?!" Jupiter asked with wide eyes subconsciously knowing it was her the Neptunian was talking about.
"Mmm, it was a lovely party." She said with a tiny smirk she kept hidden behind her tea cup as she waited for Andronika's reincarnation to take a drink. "Of course the orgy we hadafterthe party was far more memorable." Mused the Neptunian with an innocent smile. "I never knew the Princess of Mars had suchexquisitetaste in handcuffs and rope until that night."
The resulting spit take by the reincarnated Martian Princess was a sight to behold. To this day the other Inner Senshi would swear up and down that a rainbow formed above the flying tea before it sprayed Melinoe in the face. "...Really?" The now wet woman asked, giving the innocently smiling woman a deadpan stare.
"Handkerchief?" The Neptunian offered, holding out a square piece of cloth to the Plutonian woman with a smile, Melinoe snatching it with mutterings of revenge.
"I'm sorry...but did you say orgy?" The Lunar Princess' reincarnation asked, her face turning red as a tomato.
"When was the last time I saw her turn that particular shade...oh right it was the morning after when her mother found us all together, I swear we nearly gave that woman a heart attack."Pluto mused after wiping her face dry. "Such things were common back then, monogamous relationships were the rarity."
"But...what about Endymion?"
"Oh he had his own fun with the Shitennou from time to time on Earth which was, again, very common back then." Now the Terran Prince's face was imitating a tomato, she'd forgotten how fun teasing them all was.
"That still doesn't explain where you all were when the Silver Millennium fell." Venus growled, glaring at the green haired woman. "We were told you were out "protecting the system from outside threats" but you didn't even lift a finger when people were dying!"
"Ahh...that." Melinoe sighed, looking into her full tea cup. "What you were told was true...but you were misled when it came to the context."
"If you're trying to tell us that Queen Serenity lied..." Venus began, fury forming on her face.
"She didn't lie, she just didn't give you all the information." Nerida softly said, her voice heavy with despair. "Wewereprotecting the system from outside threats, but we weren't doing so fromwithinthe system. Each one of the Outer Guardians, Ziaza, Renata, Melinoe, and myself were all summoned to one of the Four Gates."
"The Four Gates?" Luna wondered as an old memory of her walking to a room in the Moon Palace with four large ornate doors spread out in each corner of the room flashed through her mind.
"Yes, the Gate of Life, the Gate of Death, The Gate of Space, and the Gate of Time. Each one residing in it's own dimension with only one exit that opened from the outside and only if opened by those of Royal Blood". Pluto explained, wincing as Nerida's eyes grew dull at the memory of their tortuous time at the Gates. "We couldn't leave, our own powers kept us healthy and sane during our time there. We were completely cut off from the outside world and any living thing...we didn't even know the kingdom was under attack until we were summoned there after each of you had already been killed."
"Mhm, the first thing I saw when I arrived was the bodies of Lunar and Terran soldiers impaled on each other's weapons." The Guardian of Neptune muttered, shivering as the next thing she had seen passed through her mind. "The next thing I saw was your bodies. It...wasn't a pleasant sight." She said evasively. "When I saw Endymion's reincarnation I was a little...annoyed that he was alive and well while my students weren't."
"That's right, I forgot that you and Uranus had been teaching the girls how to use their powers before you all disappeared." Artemis mused.
"...So you didn't abandon us?" Venus whispered. "All this time...I thought..."
"Of course not! Every one of us would have rather died than see any of you hurt, especially Renata."
"Renata? The Guardian of Saturn?" Artemis asked, tilting his head. "Why her in particular?"
The two Outer Guardians seemed to have a silent conversation between the two for a moment before grimacing. "Renata was...different from the rest of us." Melinoe said after a moment, scratching the back of her head. "A wonderful woman to be sure and the kindest person I've ever known in two and a half million years but her powers were..." She trailed off waving her hand through the air, not sure how to complete her description of her old friend.
"Her powers were more...deadly than ours." Nerida finished for the Guardian of Pluto. "Out of all of us, Renata was by far the best. She excelled in anything she put her mind to, magic, combat, everything really. With one attack she completely obliterated an invading fleet from another system, and it was one of her weaker attacks too." She explained softly, sending chills down the spines of the Inner Senshi. "But for all her power and skill in using that power she was...fragile in a way. People avoided her, even us at first, and it affected her deeply."
"You said at first...what changed things?" Jupiter asked.
The Two older women looked at each other before cackling in response, smiling at the reincarnated Jovian and giving her a fond look. "You did." Melinoe answered, much to the other girl's surprise. "One day you just walked up to her, picked her up like a sack of potatoes and carried her over to one of our get togethers, she was so shocked she didn't do anything to fight back, not even when you set her in your lap and wouldn't let her leave."
"Oh by the gods of old was she embarrassed." Snickered the Neptunian. "You even shushed her like a child when she tried to complain about it. The look on her face was priceless!"
"After that you never would have known Renata had practically been a pariah. Ziaza, the Guardian of Uranus, never let her live it down." The Plutonian said, her shoulders shaking in mirth.
"Zee always did love to fluster others..." Nerida said lovingly, running her finger over the edge of her tea cup. "...are we going to talk about it 'Noe?" She asked after a few minutes of silence.
The Guardian of Pluto stiffened and stubbornly refused to look at her old friend, gripping her staff so tightly her knuckles took on a slightly lighter shade. "Talk about what?"
"...I'm a remnant, aren't I?"
"A remnant?" The Inner Senshi looked at each other in confusion as the atmosphere in the room became heavy. "What's that?" Sailor Moon asked.
"It's nothing." Melinoe snapped, her lips pressed into a thin line.
"It's similar to what was happening to you earlier. When a person's magic resonates with something that has the same or a similar magical signature, it can cause not only their past lives memories to resurface, but the personality and soul as well, especially if said soul has unfinished business."
"Unfinished business? You mean like a ghost?" Jupiter asked, making the Senshi of Mars and Luna's faces go pale.
"That's not quite right...but it's not wrong either. Either way, I don't belong among the living anymore."
"...How did you figure it out?" Melinoe asked, her throat tight with emotion.
"It wasn't hard, every one of them is a reincarnation of the people we knew-" The teal haired woman began gesturing to the Inners and the boy she had attacked. "-yet you alone have been alive for two and a half million years by your own admission, while I can't remember what happened after Zee and I left to meet up with you."
"..."
"You know what will happen if I stay, I won't put my current incarnation through that... it wouldn't be right to do that to her. You have to let me go."
"..." The Guardian of Pluto said nothing, she just lowered her head until her hair formed a curtain between her face and the gaze of her old friend.
Scowling, the Guardian of Neptune set her tea cup on the floor and stood, looking down on the taller woman. "Melinoe. Who are you?!" She asked sharply.
"I..." The green haired woman stiffened before she slumped, her shoulders shaking with a deep sadness. With tear filled eyes she looked up at Nerida, swallowing the lump in her throat. "I am Melinoe of Tartarus, daughter of the Divine Kronos and Queen Rhea, Guardian of Pluto and..." She hesitated.
"Finish it." Nerida coaxed gently, wrapping her arms around her old friend for the last time.
"...Defender of Time and the Underworld." She choked out, tears streaming down her cheeks as she buried her face in her friends hair and held her tight enough to shatter diamonds and crush bones into powder.
The Guardian of Neptune gave no indication of strain as she weathered her friend's grip easily, gently running her hand through Melinoe's long emerald colored hair. "Come now 'Noe, you're embarrassing me." She teased lightly.
"Tough shit." Came the muffled reply much to Nerida's amusement. "The others can stare all they want. I'm old, I'm allowed to be emotional when I want damnit."
It was true, Everyone else was staring, they couldn't take their eyes off of the scene in front of them, nor could they say a single word. Not one single eye was dry as they watched the two Guardians say their goodbyes in a way that needed no words. The two loved each other, not as one would with a lover or even family, but something deeper and more ancient than any words could describe.
The two of them stayed entwined for what seemed like days, unmoving save for Nerida running her hand through Melinoe's hair until the Guardian of Pluto finally stood, wiping her eyes dry and clearing her throat. "Are...are you ready?" She asked, pain and loss clear to anyone who heard her.
The Guardian of Neptune shook her head and gave her friend a gentle smile. "No...but who is ever actually ready to die twice?"
"...I suppose you're right." The green haired woman said, taking a few steps back from her old friend and gesturing for the others to stand behind her. "Is...is there anything you'd like me to say to the other two?"
"Yes." Nerida said, closing her eyes before giving everyone there a blinding smile, filled with joy, sadness, pain, and so much love it hurt to look at. "I Love you." The words caught in her throat as tears streamed down her face but her smile didn't waver, not even for a second.
The Guardian of Pluto looked away in pain before straightening and pulling herself together with a practiced ease that screamed of royalty. Slowly she began to speak, enunciating each word clearly without stumbling over a single syllable.
"Oh Death, open wide for me the doors of the Underworld. I summon thee by thy true name, the almighty guide of the dead, Thanatos! Send a guide for this weary soul-" She began, opening her eyelids to reveal two pitch black orbs where her eyes had been. "-and deliver them unto their final resting place." She finished kneeling as she slid her had down her staff at a snail's pace.
Like a ship coming out of the mist a set of grey doors appeared behind Nerida opening slowly with a creaking sound that sent chills down the spine of all those there, a bright light shining from within. The Guardian of Neptune's body fell forward slowly, her eyes growing dull as her spirit stayed standing, ethereal and beautiful in a way that was indescribable. "Goodbye." She whispered, her voice sending both chills and warmth surging through all those who watched. Slowly she walked forward through the doors until she was just past the entryway. At this point, the Guardian of Pluto's hand had reached the halfway point of her staff, the doors closing behind Nerida as Melinoe's hand continued down, shutting tightly when her hand reached the bottom.
Until the day they died, everyone who was there would swear they heard a young girl's voice speak just before the doors finally closed.
"Welcome home, Crybaby."