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CROSSTIME ADVENTURES: the MST
Part the Third
By: Matthew Campbell
Standing on the shoulders of:
Chris Davies
Jeff Hosmer
****
Open onto the MST theater.
Mars is laying on the floor on her back, a sword stuck through her
heart. There is no blood. Serena leans over her, still gripping the hilt of the
sword. In the background, the giant holding Snake shimmers and vanishes.
Snake falls awkwardly to the ground.
MARS: (weakly) Why?
Serena gives her a half-smile and a glow appears around the sword.
Sparks start to appear where the sword enters Mars's body.
SERENA: Please Raye, let me in.
The sparks vanish and the glow moves down to surround Mars like a
colorful aura. Both Mars and Serena close their eyes and screw up their faces
in apparent concentration. Snake brushes himself off and walks over to the
pair, but he does nothing to interfere.
Time passes.
Finally, both open their eyes. Serena pulls the sword out of Mars,
leaving neither wound nor hole in her clothing, and tosses it away. The sword
flips through the air and ends up sticking upright in the theater floor.
MARS: (not angry, but annoyed) I'm going to assume you have a good reason
for sticking me with a sword.
Snake opens his mouth.
MARS: That was _not_ an excuse for a sexual metaphor!
SNAKE: Actually, I was going to say that that (points at the sword) isn't a
sword. Well, first I was going to make a remark about sexual metaphors, and
then I was going to explain it isn't a sword. It's a tool. If it were a sword, I
could have used it against that giant instead of making myself look so silly.
The blade actually exists on more of a spiritual level than a physical one.
What it cuts is actually the idea of the object or person, allowing access to the
object or person's inner nature on a semi-deep level for viewing or alterations.
A good tool for fixing things. (pause, and looks at Serena) Of course, you can
always hit people over the head with the flat, but THAT USE IS NOT
RECOMMENDED!
MARS: (to Serena) That still doesn't explain why you stuck me with that
whatever-you-call-it.
SERENA: I usually call it Snake's sword. I used it on you because I knew it
would confuse you enough to make that monster you were conjuring up
disappear.
MARS: That _I_ was conjuring up?!
SERENA: Come on Raye. First of all, all these monsters and stuff involved
some sort of smoke or fire or heat. That's a give-away right there. Heck, that
bird even looked like a raven! Then, it was always Snake being attacked,
never you or me. I thought something might be up, but you proved it when
that giant appeared. Remember that Snake told us his ward would seal us
away from all outside influences. That's when I knew for sure that one of us
was the cause. I didn't think it was me, and Snake usually has to be depressed
before he tries to hurt himself.
MARS: How?
SNAKE: Nature of this place is that it responds to your thoughts and feelings.
You must have been feeling something pretty powerful to do all that, though.
Takes me five minutes to get a lousy can of beer.
MARS: I....
SERENA: I know. When I used the sword on you, you let me in to see what
was in your heart. The first attack was just after I suggested we go back to the
MST, remember? You tried to destroy the screen so that we couldn't finish.
Only after Snake fixed it did you start attacking him.
MARS: (tears glimmering in her eyes) I didn't want it to end. I can't bear...
not to lose you again. Serena, I love you. I think I always have and now when
I get to see you just one more time and I know you'll never....
SERENA: (touches Mars's cheek) I love you too Raye. You never really
stopped mourning me, did you? That's what I saw in your heart.
MARS: No, never. I love Serenity, and our souls are bound together always,
but.... she's not you. There's nothing there of the girl who was so clumsy I
thought she was a.... of someone I loved because you were so human.
Now both women are crying, silently. They look at each other for a
while.
SERENA: Raye, you have to let go. I'll always be a part of you. (half-grins)
You can't get rid of me. But you're way too wonderful to grieve forever.
Promise me that you'll find someone, somebody who constantly annoys you
and never lets you get away with anything. Somebody you can love because...
because they're so human. Could you do that?
MARS: I'll try. Even if I don't remember this, I think I'll at least remember
that I got to tell you again that I love you. I was never sure you really
understood, and that you could have died not knowing gave me more
nightmares than most people's lifetimes of dreams.
SERENA: I always knew. Gee, I'm not _stupid_ you know!
MARS: (chuckling) I know
SERENA: Are you ready to finish this? And no more monsters this time!
MARS: No more monsters. Now let's get your friend and- Where is he?
The two women look around, then spot Snake on the far side of the
theater. He has retrieved his sword and is holding it in his hands as he
broods, staring off into space.
SERENA: He gave us some privacy. You know, sometimes Snake isn't a total
jerk. Once in a while, he can even be a nice guy. (yelling) Snake! You can
come back now!
Snake makes his way back.
SNAKE: (hesitantly) I can always cover for the two of you some more if-
MARS: No. (looks at Serena) No, that won't be necessary. Let's go back to
Sheila's story.
SERENA: To review. Lina has gone mad-
MARS: That's the charitable interpretation.
SERENA: Let me finish! Lina has gone mad and is jumping from dimension
to dimension, stealing copies of the Silver Crystal and using them to slowly
replace her body. When she finally gets enough, she's going to try to ascend
to godhood, something sure to destroy one or more dimensions.
SNAKE: Chasing her is Sheila, fighting historian and daughter of Uranus and
Neptune, and woman who hold Mars here as her role model.
MARS: Which just shows her wonderful upbringing! Also on the chase is
Athena, the Silver Millennium version of Sailor Mercury in another
dimension.
SERENA: Unfortunately, she never got formally introduced to Lina, which
means she never gets credited for her efforts.
SNAKE: Athena has been a joy, providing many opportunities for me to
exercise my position as hentai reviewer. Unfortunately, she and Sheila are
suffering rather massive guilt for allowing-
MARS: For failing to stop!
SNAKE: For failing to stop Lina from giving a world to a demon to devour.
SERENA: But we don't return to our story with them. No, we begin-
*****
Elsewhen
SERENA: Exactly.
"This situation has officially gone too far," proclaimed Meiou
Setsuna of Earth-HS, the current chair of the Council of Plutos.
"Perse, the council demands that you account for your actions."
MARS: A Council of Plutos!!! A Council of Plutos? A Council of Plutos.
SERENA: Are you all right?
MARS: Too many Plutos.
SNAKE: A plague of Plutos. Ah well, at least she has some accountability.
A full gathering of the Council of Plutos was a rare event, despite
being ridiculously easy to co-ordinate. As it took place inside a
pocket dimension which had been stabilized to be out of temporal synch
with any of the worlds from which the assembled Plutos were drawn from,
a meeting could take effectively zero time. But when Plutos came to
this world, they generally came for rest and recreation, not for
meetings.
SNAKE: Who wants to go on vacations where you associate with nothing but
multiple versions of yourself? I mean, what kind of utter narcissism does that
take?
SERENA: What do they do about versions of Pluto who can't travel to other
dimensions.
MARS: Buy them D-hoppers?
Close to five hundred of the bearers of the Key of Time had
gathered in the cathedral-like structure which had been selected for
this emergency meeting. Others were observing from remote locations
MARS: Still others were home watching Monday Night Football.
within the dimension, or from their own homeworlds. The majority were
tall, with greenish-black hair, cinammon-coloured eyes, and a slightly
darker than average skin tone. Among those gathered were those who did
not match any of those descriptors.
SNAKE: And nobody wanted to look closely enough at the Pluto from the
Lovecraftian dimension to find out what color its eyes were.
The center of attention in the cathedral was a single Pluto -- who
did fit the basic description -- who was standing before a wooden table.
Behind the table sat five Plutos of varying descriptions, on either side
of the Chair-Pluto -- who also fitted the basic description.
SERENA: So do they walk around wearing little numbers to tell each other
apart?
MARS: HI! I'm Pluto number 5473. Did you happen to see a woman fitting
my description -and your description-, come this way?
The woman who had been born Perse, daughter of Rumy, met her
double's eyes calmly, and replied, "I have nothing to say."
SNAKE: Then why did she bother showing up?
SERENA: Those great cocktail weenies that get served at Pluto mixers?
Perse was not entirely sure, but she believed that she was the
eldest of the Plutos gathered in that place, at that time. Her career
had begun when she was fourteen years old, at the very dawn of human
existence on the planet Earth. She had been active for more than three
hundred thousand years.
MARS: Though she continued to stubbornly insist to anyone who asked that
she was 29. She had merely been 29 for approximately 299,971 years.
SNAKE: So how does she manage to keep up with her more highly evolved
friends? It must be hard being a primitive.
MARS: You're just asking for it.
Her seniority was viewed as irrelevant by the Council. That had
always rankled her, but never so much as it did now.
SERENA: She actually wants to have to chair all the committees and hear
every single report?
One of the Plutos seated at the table jumped to her feet as soon as
Perse finished her statement. "Nothing to say?!" the slightly singed
duplicate howled. "Metallia has eaten my world, and you claim that you
have nothing to say?! Do you have any idea how much this has disrupted
the course of --"
MARS: A disruption. Right, that's just what I'd call it.
SNAKE: On the bright side, I suppose history from then on doesn't really
require much watching. Year One: Metallia skulks around a dead world.
Year Two: Metallia skulks around a dead world. Year Three: Metallia skul-
SERENA: We get the point.
"Just as much as Luna choosing Mercury as the first Senshi did,"
Perse replied calmly. "I can only repeat my assurances that we WILL be
able to repair the damage to those timelines --"
SERENA: (as Perse) Luckily, I had the foresight to lay in a large supply of
duct tape. That'll patch anything.
SNAKE: So Perse was just being melodramatic when she said she had
_nothing_ to say.
"Wanna bet?" sneered a punk-looking Pluto who was seated to the
right of the Chair. She leaned back in her seat, setting her Doc
Martins on the table.
MARS: Two thousand yen says history ends up more mangled than Kei and
Yuri's next boyfriend.
"-- which have been affected by Lina Inverse's passage IF and only
if the champions are able to stop her before she ascends."
SNAKE: Well I know that would fill me with confidence!
MARS: Oh, you forget who she's talking to. Is there any one of those Plutos
who _hasn't_ seen an unlikely heroine or two pull off a long-shot victory?
SNAKE: I stand corrected.
"The chances of that happening are getting remote, Perse," the
Pluto seated beside the punk-Pluto pointed out. Her hair was a pale
green, and her name was Rei, although she went by the name Sainte-Juste.
MARS: Whoops. I should have demanded better odds.
SNAKE: Waitaminute. It's the Pluto _beside_ the punk-Pluto who has pale-
green hair?
"I am aware of that, and I am open to offers of assistance or
suggestions."
SERENA: But she doesn't want to actually _do_ anything. What're they going
to offer assistance in, sitting around toasting marshmallows?
THAT got a rise out of them. "You have the NERVE to ask us for
HELP after your --" Pluto-BM shouted over the roar of the crowd.
MARS: After her disgraceful performance in last year's Council of Plutos
fund-raiser? Look, I didn't want any damn cookies! Serenity bought two
boxes and that should have been enough, but noooooo.
SERENA: I'm pretty sure I don't want to hear it.
"I take it then that none will be offered," Perse interrupted.
"Very well, I will take my leave."
SNAKE: Call me crazy, but I think maybe Perse wasn't all that interested in
getting help in the first place.
And she vanished. The debate continued in her absence, but no
course of action could be agreed upon by the assembled Plutos; the small
group that advocated a surgical strike on Lina Inverse's childhood to
deal with the problem permanently were shouted down by the significant
majority opposed to ANY interuniversal contact. Gradually, the crowd
dispersed.
MARS: That's the trouble with arguing with yourself. You can never really
win and never really lose.
An hour later, only three Plutos remained: the early adolescent
Setsuna Pluto of Earth-SG; Amora, the baseline-Setsuna of Earth-BH, and
another baseline-Setsuna who stood out in that she was dressed in
flowing, diaphanous robes instead of a sailor uniform.
SNAKE: The robe doesn't show off her legs nearly as well.
Perse reappeared, frowning. "One of the council is getting
unusually good at tracking me. I had to make a number of turns on my
way here." She spoke softly to avoid causing echoes.
SERENA: Uh, wouldn't it have been easier to just jump ahead an hour? That
way she could have got to the proper spot and time without actually going
anywhere to be tracked.
SNAKE: Don't think about it too much, it'll just make your head hurt.
MARS: So why does Perse care if anyone knows where she's going anyway?
"I think it was, like, the Setsuna from Earth-HG," the robed Pluto
informed them, grinning goofily as she did.
SNAKE: So this is hippie-Pluto.
How someone so much like me developed into THAT is beyond me,
Perse
thought wearily. "Thank you, Perse," she said aloud.
MARS: If the other Perse started out as the same person, doesn't that mean our
Pluto isn't senior to her after all?
Amora frowned as well. "That one is one of the foremost of the no-
crosstime expedition party, Perse. Are you certain that she didn't
follow you?"
SERENA: (as Perse) No way. I hired Bean Bandit as my driver...
Perse gave her counterpart a Look.
"Of course," Amora answered her own question. "How silly of me to
even ask."
MARS: I really hate people who act superior and bully others like th- Why
are you two giggling?!
"So what happens now?" the teenaged Setsuna piped up.
"I believe that the next world that Inverse visits will probably be
yours, Perse," Perse replied, turning to her double. "Have you made
preparations?"
SNAKE: Picnic lunch, check. Band booked, check. I think she's got it under
control.
"Like, fershure. I told them she was coming a few years back."
"Good," Perse replied absently. "Then she'll probably try to --"
"Wait a minute," Setsuna interrupted. "Perse, you knew that an
insane Lina Inverse would be attacking your dimension years ago?"
MARS: They're all time travelers. How meaningless is _that_ question?
"Like, yes," Perse said, nodding rapidly.
"And you just went and TOLD your world's Senshi that --"
"Like, no way! I told someone a little more reliable. She'll know
what to do." Perse frowned. "Like, it's a shame about the timing,
though."
MARS: I for one am plenty reliable!
SERENA: Yeah, she could have told us!
SNAKE: What did she mean about... "timing?"
*****
Azabu-Juuban District, Tokyo
September 13, 2000
SNAKE: Something about that date.... It seems familiar.
Mars and Serena exchange a look.
Lina materialized over the city, ready to hunt down the Crystal.
"NOW!" a clarion call sounded.
And from every direction, nearly a dozen attacks were called at
once.
SERENA: Didn't they just try this in another dimension?
MARS: Uh-huh.
SERENA: It didn't it totally and completely fail?
"MARS FLAME SNIPER!"
MARS: This time they're using the real thing, not a bunch of wannabes.
"MERCURY AQUA RHAPSODY!"
"VENUS HEART VIBRATION!"
"JUPITER OAK EVOLUTION!"
"URANUS MOLTEN TORRENT!"
"NEPTUNE GEYSER BURST!"
"SILENCE GLAIVE SURPRISE!"
"SCARLET THUNDER!"
"SAPPHIRE WATERSPOUT!"
"JADE GALE!"
SNAKE: SERPENT BOOT TO THE HEAD!
Serena kicks him in the shin.
SNAKE: Just trying to get into the spirit of the thing.
MARS: I don't recognize those last three attacks.
Lina felt the enhanced Raywing around her dissolve as it was
buffeted by wind, flames, ice, blinding light, high pressure water,
molten earth, and electrically charged leaves. The backwash of forces
left her in no condition to conjure up a new one, and she stared at the
ground as it came up to greet her.
SERENA: Hi Lina! I'm big and flat and awfully hard.
She lost consciousness for a moment after she hit. But she was
awakened by a sharp pain in her jaw. Lina stared up at a tall woman
with flaming red hair, dressed in a blue gown, holding a staff and
wearing an iron crown. The blunt end of the staff was resting on Lina's
jaw, and the woman was holding it as though it were a pole-arm.
SNAKE: (as Lina) I was just stopping to ask for directions. Honest!
MARS: (to Serena) Does that look a little like...
After a brief moment of confusion, Lina realized that she knew her.
"BERYL?" she asked, aghast. I thought Metallia ate her... how'd she
manage to get the drop --
SERENA: Ahhh! (pause) Actually, I thought she looked like Molly.
MARS: Me too. Beryl was more fangy. I think. And pointy. Sort of.
SNAKE: Your powers of observation are unequaled.
MARS: I was dead at the time, alright? I didn't get the best look.
"Good," Beryl said in a very cold voice. "You know who I am. And
I don't give a shit who you are. Spares us the time to make
introductions -- and time is something we don't have a great deal of
right now." She switched to a different language, then, and began to
chant in low rhythmic tones.
SNAKE: There's that time thing again.
SERENA: Who's leading this team anyway? I'd never let us attack on sight,
no matter what Pluto said.
Lina realized immediately that Beryl was casting a spell, and she
prepared her defenses with practiced ease.
She wasn't expecting a spell that turned the air around her to
crystal, rather than doing anything directly to her. With her last gasp
of air, she tried to gasp a spell to shatter the crystal even as it
formed.
SNAKE: That's my little girl. She did love that crystal spell.
SERENA: I thought only the forces of evil did crystals.
MARS: What do you mean by "little girl"?
But then the crystal formed over her mouth, and the spell went
uncast.
MARS: Also, it stopped her bad breath.
SERENA: I though the words were just kind of an aid to the magic.
SNAKE: They are, but Lina isn't in her home dimension and probably hasn't
had that much practice with crystal-shattering spells. Besides, I bet she
manages to get out anyway.
Beryl yanked her staff out of the crystal statue that she had
fashioned, and regarded her work with something akin to pride in her
workmanship on her face.
SNAKE: Now what rate would the union let her charge for this one?
Then a small voice from behind her ruined it all. "She's not in
any pain, is she?"
MARS: Not unless she's allergic to crystal.
Beryl turned to glower at Sailor Moon. "No," she said slowly.
"She's not in any pain. She's not in any ANYTHING."
SERENA: Don't let her talk to you that way, Sailor Moon!
Sailor Moon flinched, but she didn't step back. The years had
taught her a fair amount when it came to figuring out her former best
friend's moods, and she knew that she still had a ways to go before
Naru-chan was seriously angry with her.
SERENA: So that is Molly. Molly as a reincarnation of Beryl.
MARS: Strangeness.
Of course, for Beryl, "anger" was what some people might describe
as "homicidal frenzy".
SNAKE: Of course, for Sailor Moon, "courage" was what some people might
describe as "suicidal bravery".
Sailor Mars deliberately stepped in between Beryl and her beloved,
and gave Beryl a warning glare. Beryl rolled her eyes and turned to
inspect the crystal again.
SNAKE: (ever so slightly mockingly) Her beloved?
MARS: (turning a little red) Well I suppose, but I don't usually go around
saying-
There was the sound of running feet.
"We got her?" asked Shidou Hikaru, standing with her sisters-in-
arms, Ryuuzaki Umi and Huouji Fuu, a short distance away.
SERENA: Who are they?
Sailor Moon turned and smiled nervously at her timelost daughter.
The quarrel between them over Hikaru's chosen loves was still fairly
MARS: That is not the princess.
SERENA: I guess it's just another example of an alternate universe.
recent in the minds of both women. "We got her... Hikaru-chan," Usagi
said.
"Good," Hikaru said, avoiding meeting her mother's eyes. "Who is
she again, Beryl-chan?"
SERENA: That might have been a question to ask before they started blasting
someone.
MARS: Ours is not to question why-
SNAKE: I think we saw a few dimensions ago where _that_ line of thought
can lead.
It's just the way she talks, Beryl said to herself. I shouldn't let
the UNBELIEVABLY EXCESSIVE FAMILIARITY of it bother me...
Drawing a deep
breath, she spoke aloud. "Just some dimensional traveler that Pluto
warned me about a few years ago... said that she'd show up and try to
take the Crystal on the day that HE arrived."
SNAKE: He? Who he? Is the emperor visiting or something? I have the
oddest feeling in the back of my mind, like some horrendous monster is
ripping away at the core of my sanity, but I have no idea why.
Mars and Serena whistle and look away.
"And you listened to that flake?" Sailor Uranus asked, as she,
Neptune and Saturn arrived on the scene, completing the assembly.
SERENA: I am not a- Oh wait, she was talking about Pluto.
"I didn't exactly have a choice, did I?" Beryl snapped. Trying to
reign in her temper, she turned to look at Neptune. "Have you gotten
any word from your... did you ever figure out how you and Oyuki-san
should consider yourselves to be related?"
SNAKE: (as Neptune) Well after I got Haruka's okay, we all agreed to be
kissing cousins.... but you don't really need me to go into that one.
Neptune laughed shortly. "She agreed to stop calling me 'Honored
Ancestress,' if I'd stop calling her 'Yuki-sama'. Beyond that...
anyway, the K'thulhu are helping to refortify Triton, and she's
supposedly called in all of her favors. He may be able to get in, but
he won't get out again without a serious struggle."
SNAKE: He? Who is HE?!!! It's like to drive me mad.
SERENA: (hesitantly) Snake... maybe you should take a break.
SNAKE: A break?
MARS: Take a walk. We'll cover for you.
SNAKE: Not a chance. I'm going to see how this plays out.
Serena clutches Mars's arm.
Beryl frowned. "I'm not sure I like keeping the K'thulhu in this
system any longer than I have to --"
MARS: Who died and left her in charge?
SERENA: Don't get mad at her just because your counterpart doesn't like her.
"I trust Nagisa-san," Sailor Moon interrupted.
"You would."
SNAKE: Duh.
Beryl wasn't surprised to see Mars glaring at her, but it WAS
something of a surprise to realize that Hikaru had almost the exact same
expression. In a strange sort of way, that felt... good.
MARS: No doubt in the same way that dunking your body into scalding water
gives you that extra clean feeling.
She shook her head to clear it of such cobwebs, and heard Sailor
Saturn ask, "But was it enough? Did we beat her in time? Are we going
to have time to beat him --?"
Two things happened then.
The first, noticed only by Beryl, was that a small piece of the
crystal around Lina broke off.
MARS: It was futile to hope that they could hold Lina, I guess.
The second, noticed by everyone, was that there was a small light
as bright as the sun in the sky, descending slowly towards Tokyo.
SNAKE: That... looks....
No, Beryl thought as her heart filled with sudden anguish. We
don't have any time at all.
SERENA: Should have switched over to daylight savings. (aside) Had to get
one last joke in. I think we'll need it.
Ourranos has come.
Snake turns pale and begins to shake. Then he throws back his head
and yells.
SNAKE: Die, die, die, die, kill, die, kill, die, maim -no wait- kill, die, die, die!
Snake rushes the screen and slams face first into it. He seems to
barely notice the impact, and immediately begins pounding with his fists.
SNAKE: Let me in! Let me in! I can take him. This time it'll be different,
just leave him to me.
Serena and Mars each take him by an arm and forcibly drag him
back.
MARS: It's over. This is just a story. I don't like it any better than you do, but
you can't do anything to change it now.
SERENA: Sit down.
SNAKE: That's my arch-nemesis up there! My mortal enemy.
SERENA: Whom you've never actually met.
SNAKE: That is _not_ the point.
A few minutes later, Beryl realized that the battle, which had
begun poorly, was getting worse.
SNAKE: So the alternating force fields aren't slowing him down at all?
MARS: Force fields?
Ourranos had descended from the sky, and, with studied politeness,
asked where he might find Queen Serenity or a member of her lineage. He
SERENA: How come you're never so polite?
SNAKE: _I_ don't need to maintain a thin veneer of gentility to mask my
sadistic and demonic impulses.
SERENA: Except when you play cards.
SNAKE: Granted.
had already checked the Moon (and indeed, astronomers would discover a
certain irregularity in its orbit tomorrow, from the temper tantrum that
he'd had after he hadn't found her there) and had now come to Earth. If
someone of the appropriate background was not presented to him at once,
he announced, he would start depopulating the planet.
MARS: I'd hate to see what he does when someone cuts him in line.
SNAKE: I- He doesn't believe in waiting in line.
That had been the signal that the assembled Sailor Senshi and
Magical Knights should attack.
SERENA: So these girls are "Magical Knights".
MARS: It lacks something.
And they had. Saturn had started things off right by launching a
full-strength Silence Glaive Surprise at him, which he'd actually felt.
It had sent him staggering back a few paces, which gave the others an
opening. Jupiter, Umi, Fuu, Uranus, and Neptune had launched a combined
attack of frightening power on Ourranos, which had sent him to his
knees. In the sudden flush of success, they had been inspired to move
the conflict to the physical, with Umi and Fuu adding their swords to
Uranus' own blade and Jupiter's fists.
SNAKE: That's it?! Pathetic. They knew he was coming for- well, quite some
time it seems, and this was the best they could do? Where were the
boobytraps? A few antimatter mines hidden on the moon where he was likely
to visit might have taken some of the spring out of his step. Modulating force
fields positioned around the battlefield could have separated out his higher
dimensionality aspect. They aren't taking advantage of home ground. (Lapses
into a long string of technobabble.)
SERENA: (to Mars) I was afraid of this. He's obsessing again.
MARS: Again?
SERENA: Yes. You know how some military buffs like to replay certain
battles over and over again in simulation? Snake keeps trying to figure out
how to "win" this one. From both sides.
MARS: But we did win.
SERENA: Sure, but Snake claims he's figured out ways we could have won by
setting things up and flipping a single switch. Of course, he also claims he
knows how Ourranos could have beaten Serenity _and_ the Crystal. Don't
take it too seriously.
MARS: At least he isn't beating at the screen anymore.
Then Ourranos had stopped playing around.
MARS: (sarcastic) Because it was one big barrel full of fun up till then.
Right now, he was bursting bolts of pure dark energy into Umi and
Fuu, whose defensive magics were just barely holding up under the
pressure. Jupiter was sprawled some distance away, unconscious. Uranus
and Neptune were firing off their attacks into his back, but he didn't
seem to notice. Mercury was furiously trying to bring Jupiter around.
Saturn had been -- apparently -- disintegrated, or possibly teleported
an incredible distance away. Either way, she was out of the fight.
MARS: This is really perverse, but I feel slightly good knowing that somebody
else wouldn't have done any better.
Mars and Venus were holding back, waiting for an opening to use
their Ultimate-level attacks, which were (theoretically, in Venus'
untested case) the equal or superior of the Death Reborn Revolution.
They were also guarding Moon and Beryl, who was firmly holding Hikaru
back from charging to support her friends.
SERENA: It's just like old times. If only pulling out the Cutie moon Rod
would solve everything.
"Listen to me very carefully," Beryl said to the struggling girl.
"You are of the line of Serenity. If he sees you, he WILL stop
attacking your friends -- and START attacking you with intent to kill."
SNAKE: (looking up from a note pad he's scribbling on) I can't help but feel
it would have been better to brief everyone about this stuff _before_ the battle.
She leaned in close to Hikaru's ear. "And what do you think that your
mothers will do then?"
SERENA: Mothers?
MARS: You don't think....
Hikaru froze.
"They will go after him with no regard for their own lives, and he
will kill them. Almost certainly he will kill Rei first, since she
won't LET him kill Usagi, but he WILL kill her when she's dead, are you
quite clear on this?"
SNAKE: (managing to forget what's on screen) Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Oh this is
priceless. Hikaru is both of your kid. Talk about a love child.
Mars and Serena both facefault. They pick themselves up and blush
furiously.
MARS: Well I always sort of wondered.
SERENA: She seems like a really great girl. But... What about Darien?
MARS: Maybe he got hit by a bus.
SERENA: Raye!!!!
MARS: Just kidding! (under her breath) Mostly.
"How can we BEAT him?" Hikaru hissed.
Serena covers Snake's mouth before he can let go with a long, boring
speech.
Beryl opened her mouth to give a safe, comforting answer --
And saw a few more fragments drop off the crystal that enshrouded
Lina Inverse. Her heart sank.
MARS: No wait, this could be a good thing. Free Lina and let her go at it
with Ourranos. I have this feeling they'd hate each other on sight-
SNAKE: Confirmed on one side.
MARS: So whichever wins, he or she is still weakened.
SERENA: It's never that easy.
SNAKE: But still... Beryl is obviously not a master strategist.
And then Beryl, who in this life had been known as Osaka Naru, with
full knowledge of the consequences of her act, made her Choice.
SERENA: Put my groceries in paper. And to hell with the old growth forests!
She turned to Moon. "Usagi, I'll need the Silver Crystal."
Moon blinked, and opened her mouth. Beryl prepared to lie through
her teeth as to why... and then Sailor Moon, born in this life as
Tsukino Usagi, nodded. She clasped her hands to her chest, just over
her heart, and concentrated. The Crystal came out of her easily, and
she didn't even stare at it before she handed it to Beryl.
SNAKE: (smacks hand to head) Now if only I- I mean Ourranos had thought
of that, he could be ruling... he could have everything on his "things to do
before I die" list checked off today. After making up the appropriate sob story
of course. That's the trouble with having so much power. What's the old
saying? When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. I-
He sort of forgot the value of subterfuge and subtlety.
MARS: Thank-you for that look into your psyche. Let's not go there again.
Beryl stared at her, appalled. "Just like that. No explanations?"
"I trust you," Sailor Moon said to the woman who in another world
had been her direst enemy.
SNAKE: No way! I- Ourranos is your direst enemy and don't you forget it!
SERENA: Oh it's Molly. Like I'm _not_ going to trust her.
MARS: You mean like how you told her all about being Sailor Moon in our
reality?
SERENA: .....
She trusts me, Beryl thought weakly. She trusts me. Idiot.
Meatball head. She trusts me. Fool.
Ignoring the tears brimming in her eyes, she turned to look at
Hikaru. "You're going to need this --"
MARS: I sense another "acts without consulting anybody" coming on.
SNAKE: Planning! Planning! Aw, forget it.
"I'M going to use the Silver Crystal to fight him?" Hikaru gasped,
her eyes wide.
MARS: It would be an idea.
"-- where you're going," Beryl finished as she thrust the Crystal
at the younger woman's chest.
It slipped in just as easily as it had come out of Sailor Moon's
chest, resting beneath her heart. The shock of its passage gave Beryl
the opening to complete the process.
SERENA: This just can't end well.
She began to chant a spell that she'd only ever cast once before,
at the sunset of the Silver Millennium. Then, as now, the purpose was
to send a woman forward into the future. But not as far this time.
MARS: This time she just wanted to kick Hikaru into the middle of next week.
A thousand years, instead of twelve thousand.
SERENA: I don't get it. Why so far?
Hikaru vanished with a quiet pop.
"What have you done?!" Sailor Moon demanded.
SNAKE: (Beryl voice) That depends. What did you see? If you thought you
saw me groping Hikaru's breasts when I shoved the crystal in, you're mistaken.
Beryl turned to look at the woman who had foolishly trusted her.
"Ourranos can only be killed by a daughter of his loins. Not by the
daughter of a daughter. But if he were able to get his hands on the
SNAKE: (looking maniac again) I could kill him. Someday I _will_ kill him.
Somewhere, somehow there has to be a version of Ourranos out there that I
can track down and destroy.
MARS: (skeptically) And he wouldn't crush you like a bug because?
SNAKE: Because I learned the one thing he never did.
MARS: Which is?
Snake just smiles.
Silver Crystal, he could undo that curse -- and all his other
limitations that give ANYONE a snowball's chance in hell of killing
him." She took a deep breath. "And only a child of the line of
SERENA: Wrong. He'd always be limited by the fact that he's evil.
MARS: That's not a-
SERENA: You know better.
SNAKE: Also, it's a little known fact that Ourranos was fascinated by
musicals. They could have kept him occupied for hours by having him sing
the complete scores of Gilbert and Sullivan.
SERENA: (to Mars) He's just teasing. I think.
Serenity can take the Silver Crystal within herself. So I have sent her
away, into the infinite future... so that she can live, and so that
Ourranos won't get the Crystal."
SNAKE: Brilliant plan! Astonishing plan. With perhaps just one minor flaw.
One fly in the ointment, if you will. With the Crystal gone, there's nothing to
keep Ourranos from slaughtering them all, turning the planet into his private
amusement park, and settling down for a long winter's nap. One lasting, say,
a thousand years.
"But Naru-chan, I can't fight him without the Crystal!" Usagi
protested.
SERENA: (softly) Can't fight him with the Crystal.
MARS: What?
SERENA: Nothing.
Beryl looked away. "Who says that it's your job?"
"I don't --"
She ignored her, and walked past Venus and Mars -- neither of whom
had heard the pop, nor noticed that Hikaru was gone. Mars suddenly
turned to look back at her mate, but Beryl was focused on Ourranos.
SERENA: Ourranos, meanwhile, was trying to get that annoying Gilligan's
Island theme out of his head.
He looked surprisingly normal as he observed that Fuu and Umi had
passed out beneath his mystical blows. A tall man with short slate grey
hair despite his apparently youthful looks, he wore black robes in the
style of a wizard of the Silver Millennium.
SNAKE: I know what you're thinking. If I hate the guy so much, why not
change the hair? Would you believe this is the only hairstyle that looks
halfway good on me? Any longer and it frizzes something awful.
SERENA: What's a mystical blow?
SNAKE: Either a bolt of pure magic or a slang term we used to use back in
the Silver Millennium to refer to an extremely satisfying- er, the first
definition.
Sailor Uranus had drawn forth her space sword to charge at him once
more, and his palm was glowing with bright energy.
MARS: Too bad he wasn't preparing to pull a scarf out of his sleeve.
I don't think so, Beryl thought. She shaped a telepathic sending
of his true name into a psychic spear, and hurled it at his mind. His
head whipped up, the energy dissipated, and he defended himself against
Uranus with a savage back hand. "Who calls me?" he asked, and his voice
was as cold as interplanetary space.
SNAKE: (in a voice as cold as interplanetary space) This is _my_ parking
spot! (in more normal tones) Ahhhh, still got it.
MARS: What is his true name?
SNAKE: Orville. I think when your true name is Orville, you have a choice of
devoting your life to evil, or messing about with airplanes.
SERENA: You could have just said you didn't remember.
"I do," Beryl replied.
He turned to look at her. He studied her features. "Do I know
you?" he asked.
SERENA: Not in that lifetime...
"You don't see any resemblance?" she asked. "Not even to a certain
girl you KNEW, in an old sense of the world, a few thousand years ago?"
MARS: Waitaminute. Beryl is _also_ his kid. (looks at her companions)
You knew! You already knew! But Ourranos didn't know.
SNAKE: I _am_ capable of learning things he didn't know. You know?
He stared, intrigued. "Well, well... this IS an interesting
development. How did you find out what I actually was?"
SERENA: Somebody posted your biography onto the alt.evil.conquerers
newsgroup.
"A woman named Madeline told me."
He frowned savagely. "Meddling witch. So I suppose that you think
you can fulfill Serenity's prophecy and destroy me?"
SNAKE: (as Beryl) What, no "join with me and we could rule the galaxy as
father and daughter"? You suck, Dad!
MARS: Did he just call someone a "meddling witch"?
SNAKE: (throws up hands) I was evil! I didn't know how stupid I sounded!
No one dared tell me.
"I can only try," she said, and raised her staff.
"No."
SNAKE: Wait in line! _Everybody_ gets a turn at the "get my ass kicked by
Ourranos" booth. There's no need for pushing or shoving.
It was not a loud voice, but it grabbed both of their attentions.
Tsukino Usagi had transformed, as she had a handful of times
before, becoming the image of the Princess of the Moon Kingdom that she
had been in her past life. If there was fear in her heart it did not
appear on her face.
SERENA: (looking unhappy) She transformed into Serenity!
MARS: (puzzled) Isn't that standard procedure in crunch time?
SERENA: (yelling) YES!!!
Serena turns and marches a few paces away from Mars, leaving her
back facing the other two. Snake motions at Mars to let it alone.
"I am Serenity, Daughter of Serenity," she said quietly. "I am the
one for whom you have been seeking."
SNAKE: I actually wanted to name her Lysistrata, but noooooo. My ex-wife
was so unimaginative.
MARS: I can never tell when you're joking about this stuff.
"Stop it!" Beryl shouted. "Don't do this! If this is out of some
vague sense of newly-discovered sisterhood between us, you stupid bitch,
you can just --"
MARS: I have to sort of agree with her.
SERENA AND SNAKE: Huh??!!
MARS: Not about the "stupid bitch" part of course, but Beryl's made her
"Choice" and Serenity ought to let her have a chance at him before marching
in so paternally and pulling the cup away from her. There's a line between
sacrificing yourself for someone and taking away their freedom of choice.
Mars sees the others still look surprised.
MARS: You know, occasionally Serenity and I _do_ disagree.
Serenity, Daughter of Serenity turned to Beryl and said four words
that changed the world forever.
"I have always known."
SERENA: (petulantly) That "changed the world forever"?
MARS: Give the authors license for a little dramatic hyperbole.
And then she turned to meet the cold grey eyes of Ourranos, her
father, which were alight with exaltation. "At last," the Prince of the
Void whispered. "FREEDOM."
MARS: And then the English torturers pulled his guts out like taffy and he
died. Though he was gone, all Scots forever remembered-
SNAKE: 'fraid not.
Pause
SNAKE: Do I really have cold grey eyes?
She shook her head. "Oh no, ancient liar. I will undo you without
giving you your freedom. In the name of the moon... in the name of the
Word within the Heart of Time... I will punish you."
Mackie Stingray suddenly materializes out of thin air.
MACKIE: You can punish me all you want, lady!
Mackie vanishes.
SNAKE: She's my _daughter_. I couldn't use the line.
MARS: If you aren't Ourranos, Serenity is _not_ your daughter.
SNAKE: Oh yeah? Who do you think she'd rather count as her father; me or
Evil-Ourranos?
MARS: Well....
SNAKE: Case closed.
And then they met, and the roar and brightness of their meeting
obliterated Beryl's senses.
SERENA: It sort of sounded like they'd met before then, actually.
*****
Elsewhen
"Um... like, there's a bit of a problem," Perse said.
MARS: If only our Perse would talk like that. She'd be easier to take.
"What?" Amora asked.
SNAKE: (as Perse) I think I'm starting to sober up. The world is a dark and
lonely place.
"Like... the final battle is going down on my world, and, like,
those two haven't shown up yet. So... like, what's happening?"
SNAKE: Athena convinced Sheila to stop off at a love hotel? Well, in a
perfect world...
Amora turned to stare at the other Perse, who shrugged. "Perhaps
the detector is having a hard time locating that particular world. You
did warn them that that might happen, correct, Setsuna-chan?"
SERENA: (as Amora) Absolutely I warned them! That is, if you replace
"absolutely" with "sort of" and "I warned them" with "I spoke in cryptic
riddles."
Setsuna glowered at the name, but only nodded.
"That's probably the explanation, then," Perse continued.
MARS: Or maybe they arrived and got fried by a stray mystical blow.
"Yeah! Like, that or they got killed in the explosion!" the other
Perse said helpfully.
There was a long silence.
"Like, why are you all staring at me like that?"
SNAKE: No doubt because her robe just fell open. H-chaw! Not too cold at
the Time Gate, I guess.
*****
Azabu-Juuban District, Tokyo
Beryl blinked, and stared up the sky. It hadn't been so cloudy
earlier today. Why --
MARS: The battle kicked a lot of dust into the air.
She realized where and when she was, and sat up hurriedly. The
intersection where the final battle had begun was scarred and pitted by
the forces which had been unleashed, but it didn't seem any more battle
damaged than before -- unless one counted the column of free-standing
light in the middle of the intersection as damage.
SERENA: It's light pollution. How is anyone supposed to see the stars?!
Beryl focused her mage sight on it -- and then shrieked and drew
back.
SNAKE: (as Ourranos- which he always sounds like anyway) These aren't my
Playboys! A man has needs! Lousy Peeping Toms with their lousy mage
sight.
Whatever was going on within the column was beyond her
understanding. It was a battle on a scale that she could barely even
glimpse...
MARS: So if this is going to go on for a while, maybe we could catch a movie.
"What's happening?" Mars asked her. The Senshi of Fire had a
tight, drawn expression on her face. She had come up behind Beryl
without her realizing it.
MARS: Oh yes, I am the mistress of stealth.
"I don't know, she... she's doing something that I didn't expect,
and now... I don't know what's going to happen."
SERENA: That clears everything up.
"Can she defeat him? Yes or no?" Rei snapped.
"Yes..."
SNAKE: Not if he gets it together. Come on man, stop letting your lust for
freedom lead you around and use a little strategy to-
Stops dead as he realizes Serena and Mars have extremely displeased
expressions on their faces.
SNAKE: Eh, I mean go Serenity. Sorry, sorry. It's easy to identify a little too
much sometimes.
"All right then --"
"But that's part of the problem. She can destroy his physical
form, with a bit of effort. But that won't put an end to the problem...
it'll only make it worse. He's not really... that body isn't really
HIM. It's just something he uses to walk among us. And unless she can
find some way to destroy or suppress the energy form that IS him --"
MARS: This is the being you plan so casually to kill.
SNAKE: That's different. In a way, I am him. Destroy his physical form and
I could conceivably contest for control of the very plane of his existence and
wrest it away from him.
And then, quite suddenly the column of light vanished. There was a
brief rush of wind... and then silence.
A single bit of light slowly dropped down out of the air and into
Beryl's outstretched hand. It pulsed once... and then faded. She
stared at where it had been... and then the tears, too long denied,
began to flow.
"What?" Rei demanded. "What happened?"
SERENA: They canceled my product line.
"She... she found a way to beat him. But it meant that she'd have
to grapple with him forever, on the plane where he exists... so she took
it." A sobbing breath. "Her last message was, 'I love --'... and that
was all."
SNAKE: (to Serena) Tell me, do you have "born to sacrifice my fool ass
trying to save the world from unimaginable evil" tattooed on your forehead?
SERENA: I technically survived in this one. Technically.
There was a dreadful silence behind her.
"You said that you're Ourranos' daughter. If she hadn't stopped
you... would you have had to do that?"
MARS: And maybe if they could have worked _together_ then nobody would
have had to do that.
"Probably," Beryl agreed.
"If she'd had the Silver Crystal with her... would she have been
all right?"
"Possibly."
MARS: I don't know that "all right" is exactly accurate.
SERENA: Me neither. I mean, as it is they can at least theoretically pull her
out at some later date.
"In other words..." And then the silence, again.
Beryl half-turned to look at Sailor Mars through eyes that were
filled with tears -- and received the punch full-force on her cheek.
She fell to the ground, and looked silently up at her attacker.
MARS: I'm sensing my counterpart is unhappy.
Rei Hino's eyes were filled with hatred. "In one fucking day
you've taken away my only love and our only child. If I ever see you
again, I swear that I'll kill you. I hope you rot in hell, you utter
bitch..." Words failed her, then, and she spun on her heel.
SNAKE: Way harsh. I mean, I can see her point, but you'd think a little
forgiveness would be in order.
SERENA: Poor Raye. Why, in all realities, does this sort of thing always
happen to you?
MARS: Because my spirituality contrasts nicely with a good case of angst?
Beryl stared up at the sky for several moments. Yes, she thought.
That seems most likely.
I will rot in hell.
SNAKE: I have the strangest feeling that in all the excitement, we forgot
something.
And then there was a sound like a crystal exploding. In the
distance, she heard shrieks and exclamations as, one by one, the
survivors of the battle were overcome by the suddenly freed sorceress.
SNAKE: Oh. That was it.
At last, Lina stood over her with the Silence Glaive at her throat.
The sorceress' face gaunt and sweating. "All right! Now the tables
have turned!"
MARS: They certainly have. Before, Beryl had something Lina wanted. The
Crystal. Now Lina has something that Beryl wants. Death.
Beryl didn't deign to answer.
"Where is the crystal?!" Lina demanded slowly.
SERENA: Why did you quit your job? Number One wishes to know.
"Somewhere that you'll never find it," Beryl answered quietly.
If Lina had been a bit more cruel, or a bit more aware at this
point, she would have realized that the worst thing that she could do
would be to let this woman live. But she wasn't that aware.
SNAKE: Speaking from the evil perspective, as I am qualified to do, I would
have at least frisked Beryl first.
MARS: She can sense the Crystal.
SNAKE: Nonetheless.
So she settled for blowing her head off.
SNAKE: Fine turns of phrases like that make me wish I carried a gun.
Even the minor amount of power THAT required drew on reserves that
were being drained rapidly. "Gotta find a crystal," she muttered to
herself. "Gotta find --"
SERENA: ...Waldo. Lina is getting a little confused by now.
Something on her extradimensional radar seized her attention.
"TWO?" she asked. "You've gotta be kidding me! Two in the same -- I'm
THERE!"
And she vanished.
The first snow of the year slowly began to fall on Beryl's corpse.
SNAKE: I think we've all learned a lesson from all this.
SERENA: No.
MARS: Not really.
SNAKE: Perhaps I was wrong. I was thinking something like plans... blah-
blah.... good idea.... Ourranos must die. Oh well.
*****
Ruins of Crystal Tokyo
3035 AD
MARS: Isn't this usually _after_ Lina gets there?
The setting sun glittered across the shattered crystal palace that
had once been home to the most powerful monarch the world had seen since
the Silver Millennium. Surrounding the ruin lay the remains of a once-
SNAKE: Assuming the King of Rock-and-Roll is merely an honorary title.
great city. No building was left standing. Most were flattened, some
had burned. The roads were filled with silt and mud, choking the once
spacious thoroughfares. Here and there someone picked through the
rubble, either a looter looking for something of monetary value or
someone who lost their home, looking for something of personal value.
SERENA: It looks just as I remember it!
MARS: (pulling a picture out of a pocket) _This_ is what Crystal Tokyo
actually looks like, No ruins, see?
SERENA: Well that almost ruins it.
Lina Inverse floated over it all, extremely pissed.
For the nonce, none of the damage was her fault.
SNAKE: And nothing pisses Lina like missing out on that kind of fun.
She knew nothing of the war that Japan had recently fought against
the Allied Powers of the world, or of the desperate, last ditch attack
unleashed by an unknown party. The nuclear bombs implanted in the
Pacific fault lines had set off tsunamis and quakes that had devastated
shorelines on both sides of the Pacific. Crystal Tokyo and all of Japan
had been hit hard by Titan. But Lina cared not at all.
MARS: (writing all this down) Better put some extra guards along the fault
lines.
"Two! I KNOW there are TWO of them here! But do they make it
easy? No! They have to go hide and destroy their city to confuse me!"
She crossed her arms over her chest, one of the few parts of her left
flesh. Arms, stomach, most of her face, and, of course, her eyes, all
SNAKE: It's such a small portion of her body, I'm sure the Crystals just
haven't gotten to it yet.
SERENA: Do you have to keep making fun of her tiny breasts?
SNAKE: Yes, and so do you. It's almost a law.
glittered like the ruins beneath her. Grumpily she observed her body.
"Must be a multiversal conspiracy," she muttered, looking at her
still less than substantial breasts.
MARS: (backing away from her two companions) I'm beginning to think
she's right.
Shaking her head, she returned to her musing. "Where are they?!
Where on earth could that... Moon... Princess... be?" She turned her
glittering eyes to the heavens, where the crescent moon hung.
SNAKE: Lucky guess.
*****
Sailor Centaurus sank back down into the command chair of HMS
Yamato. Another boring day guarding a transport full of people heading
for the Moon. She spent a few moments hoping that the immigration
centers could handle it.
MARS: I wouldn't say this in front of Luna since she seems to like it so much,
but the moon doesn't really seem like a very nice place to live. Earth is better.
Or Mars, Mars is great for colonization.
SNAKE: Stop trying to sell your planet like some cheap huckster and-
Breaks off in mid-word as Mars grabs him by the throat and shakes
him.
MARS: You were saying?
SNAKE: Thanks. I needed that.
"Status?" she asked.
"All systems nominal," replied Augur, the ship's AI. "We are
maintaining station 10,000 kilometers in front of the transport convoy.
Nothing--" Augur paused. "Just a moment. Just a moment."
SERENA: "Just a moment." On the list of things you don't want too hear an
AI say. Right below "Whoopsie" and right above, "Say, have we reviewed
emergency procedures lately?"
"Augur?"
Missile alarms suddenly blared. "Something has left Earth's
atmosphere. It heading on a collision course and approaching rapidly."
"Evasive maneuvers!"
"Too late."
With a burst of light seen on both the Earth and the moon, the
transport convoy suddenly ceased to exist.
SNAKE: Either Lina is extra ticked, or a really bad navigator. In the endless
volume of the void, hitting someone takes _effort_.
*****
"Your Majesty, we must get you to a safe place," Sailor Pluto
insisted.
MARS: Guess she didn't get the "hang your queen out to dry" memo from the
Council of Plutos.
"I appreciate all you've told me, Pu--Sailor Pluto," Serenity II
said quietly. "You should focus on aiding our defense now."
SERENA: Look, it's Reenie!
MARS: All grown up, and not evil-grown up either.
"My Queen--."
"Do you fear her, Pluto?"
"Serenity, she has already taken six Ginzuishous from other
universes. Her power is only matched by her hunger for more."
SNAKE: I'm thinking that's a "yes".
"If she's so powerful, where would you propose taking me that would
be safe?"
SERENA: They could go to the Council of Plutos camp ground and training
area. The others would probably love the chance to chat with a non-Pluto.
Serenity II had the satisfaction for once in her life of seeing
Sailor Pluto looked dismayed.
MARS: She's obviously never seen Pluto trying to sell cookies for a Council
fund-raiser.
SNAKE: Funny the first time, but I know very well there aren't any cookies.
Mars show him something out of sight of the camera.
SNAKE: Color me wrong.
*****
The HMS Tsuki no Usagi lifted off from the Moon's surface. The
largest and most powerful ship in the Fleet, it had been designed from
SERENA: As well as the least modestly named. Did they run out of dead
heroes?
the keel up to serve as a flagship. Before the war with the Allied
Powers, there had been a threat in deep space, the remnants of the Dark
Kingdom led by a mad Queen named Selenite. The threat was gone now,
but
the prospect of an invading fleet had made Crystal Tokyo's shipbuilders
rethink some of their assumptions. While most of the Fleet still
consisted of multi-purpose vessels suited for both exploration,
transport, and battle, a few designs were constructed with a more
battle-oriented philosophy.
MARS: Even Crystal Tokyo can bow to reality.
SNAKE: After being clubbed over the head a lot.
On the Flag Bridge, Sailor Saturn watched a holotank that took up
much of the space (always at a premium on a starship). Her command
chair was elevated over a pit which held her command staff, tactical and
communications officers who helped organize the mass of data that told
her what was going on. As she watched, dozens of silver stars were
leaving the Moon's surface in the holotank, each blip a ship in her
hastily assembled fleet.
SERENA: That's weird.
MARS: What?
SERENA: I could have sworn those ships were built in orbit and never meant
to land on any planetary surface, moon included.
SNAKE: Must be misremembering those stories about Sailor Orion.
"Order the fleet to assume the Cross," she commanded. "Is everyone
launched?"
Her order was relayed and she watched as the ships began to form a
wall of battle. The flagship was the crux of the formation, with ships
stringing in a line "above" and "below" it as well to the "left" and
"right." The formation resembled its name, a large cross, and helped
maximize the fleet's ability to concentrate its fire and maneuver.
SERENA: It also looked wicked cool when displayed on a viewscreen.
"We still have half a squadron on the ground. They're launching
now," replied Captain Carstairs, her Chief of Staff.
"Tell them to expedite."
MARS: Because up till then, they had been taking their time....
*****
On board HMS Seiza, Sailor Orion, a blue-eyed redhead also known as
Jennifer Allison Sakachi, looked over at her first officer and lover,
Sailor America. Both senshi were clad in their Sailor uniforms.
Orion's had a blue bow, a green skirt and green boots. America's had a
red skirt with a white and blue stripe at the hem, a blue bow, a red
choker with golden eagle, gloves with red, white, and blue stripes at
the elbow, and blue high heels. She was also looking faintly nauseous.
MARS: At least _these_ second-stringers got the uniform right.
SERENA: I think they look really good.
"Ready, America?" Orion asked her.
Eileen Pearcy, Sailor America, swallowed, trying to think of
anything but how space travel made her sick to her stomach. "Yeah... I
SNAKE: I'd probably get the same way.... if I hadn't been summoned from the
template of the spirit of the void itself. Rollercoasters still mess me up,
though.
knew we'd have to go into combat sooner or later. I'll be fine."
Orion smiled for America's benefit. Yes, she and her love had
planned to go into combat together... in fact, they already had, when
the Allied forces had attempted to lay a minefield in orbit and choke
off Crystal Tokyo's supply lines. But she had never wanted to do it in
a ship that was nowhere near being ready for combat... well, again, she
meant. The HMS Osaka had not really been ready for flight, let alone
minesweeping.
MARS: Any ship can find at least one mine.
Orion and America had been tapped to command Seiza for months, but
the ship itself had been outside the solar system on a mission for most
of that time. Their assumption of command had been further delayed by
the war, since most of the Senshi in the Fleet had been called down to
defend Japan from the Allies. The Fleet had been of limited usefulness
in the war. The Allies had taken the Fleet into account with its
planning, placing all its major military bases and other such targets
too close to civilian population centers for so-called 'surgical'
strikes from orbit.
SNAKE: And this was a problem because?
Mars raps him on the head.
SNAKE: Oww!
And then more than a quarter of the Senshi had died when the Allies
unleashed their Heartbreakers... and Titan had rendered everything
SERENA: They sure seem to have an awful lot of Senshi.
MARS: Not as many as they used to.
moot... at least as far as Crystal Tokyo was concerned. The resulting
chaos and manpower requirements had left Orion without a full crew. She
would have much rather been able to go back to school and earn her
doctorate, but she had taken an oath to serve wherever her Queen needed
MARS: I don't suppose it was a doctorate in history?
SNAKE: Now what are the odds on that?
her She just wished she had more time to get her crew up to fighting
trim. Still, wherever she went, America would be by her side, no matter
what.
SNAKE: I demand to be taken to the nearest embassy!
Looking at her lover's pale face, she wondered if that was such a
good idea now.
"Hey," she whispered, "don't worry. I'm scared too, always am
before a battle."
SERENA: (as Eileen) I'm not scared, it's just that space travel makes me
sick!
"That's supposed to make me feel better?"
Orion held one hand behind her head. "Um, well--"
MARS: The thought was there.
"Lunar Traffic Control has cleared us to launch, Captain," one of
her temporary bridge crew reported.
Orion reached over and squeezed America's hand briefly, then
returned to the business of commanding her ship. An unidentified object
had destroyed HMS Yamato and its convoy near Earth orbit and headed
toward the Moon. The Fleet's orders were deceptively simple: Stop it.
SNAKE: Didn't we just see this show- except sort of in reverse?
SERENA: At least Lina won't engage in wanton destruction because of some
crazy temper tan- Nevermind.
"Take us out," Orion said.
MARS: No, take the unidentified object out. She's getting her orders reversed.
*****
Like a string of diamonds, the ships of the Fleet arrayed
themselves in lunar orbit. Filled with cutting edge technology and each
commanded by senshi who could, when necessary, direct their attacks
through their ships weapon systems and use a vast amplified form of them
against their enemies. They were perhaps the most powerful navy in the
history of mankind.
MARS: (making more notes) Power amplifier in ships. Manned by
superpowered captains. Gotcha. Boy am I going to have some ideas at the
next meeting.
And they were outmatched.
SNAKE: Their attempt to play on Lina's greed by looking like "a string of
diamonds" having failed.
It wasn't simply a matter of firepower. Senshi attacks based on
fire, ice, lightning, lasers, air, and even more esoteric media made the
space over the moon a killing zone. The main problem was the target was
too small and agile for weapons systems designed to handle so much
power. The antimissile systems could track and hit the target, but
lacked the punch to do more than annoy Lina.
SERENA: Let's hope Lina doesn't start shouting, "Resistance is futile."
"DRAGON SLAVE!"
MARS: Even worse.
HMS Kooun and HMS Spartacus were both claimed by the Dragon Slave
and that barely slowed Lina down.
SNAKE: (as Dragon Slave) I tell you they're mine! I left them on the theater
floor last night.
*****
"Wheel the First and Second Divisions around!" snapped Sailor
Saturn. "I want a crossfire on that target NOW!"
SERENA: But they're already in a cross formation. Technically, isn't it all
crossfire?
The orders flew as fast as the ordnance, and two arms of the giant
Cross swung forward, bringing them perpendicular to the other two arms.
Now the fire of the opposing arms crossed each other, filling the volume
of space occupied by their target with a lethal hail of magic and
missiles.
MARS: And I bet they have to account for every round fired, too.
"It's hard to tell if we're having any effect, sir," Commander
Storr, her tactical officer reported. "It's still attacking us,
however, and I don't read much of a reduction in the strength of its
blasts."
SNAKE: Time for plan B. Sailor Saturn tries to psyche it out with a speech.
Saturn looked over at the arm of her command chair, where the
controls for the Gertie awaited. Designed to augment and project the
attack of a Senshi, she had never liked the idea of having to use one
herself. Her attacks already were too powerful, and too much blood
stained her hands. She did not regret the killing, only that it had
been necessary. She was the Senshi of Death of Destruction. When it
SERENA: The Senshi of Death of Destruction? That doesn't sound so bad.
MARS: Of course she meant the Senshi of Death _and_ Destruction.
was needed, she killed. She didn't like it, but that never stopped her.
It was the one thing that she and her Queen disagreed on and it had lead
to a certain coolness between them at times, something she regretted.
But the days of Chibi-Usa and Tomoe Hotaru were long over with.
SNAKE: Remind me never to get on her bad side!
MARS: It's a little late for that.
Still, this was not the time for a philosophical discussion.
Another of her ships had fallen. Now was the time to strike. Hooking
one of her fingers in the small hole on her command chair's arm, she
summoned her power.
SNAKE: (as Saturn's power) Whadya want?! I was in the shower.
"SILENCE GLAIVE SURPRISE!"
Immediately in front of the ship, a gigantic Silence Glaive
appeared, longer than the ship and glowing with dark energy. It hung
there, perpendicular to the ship, then swung down to point at the
glowing figure that was annihilating the fleet. The burst of energy
that flew from the tip of the Glaive was visible from the Earth. It
flew straight and true at its target.
MARS: That makes even one of our "Final Attacks" look like a schoolyard
scuffle!
And was parried effortlessly by the smaller Glaive held by the
figure.
SERENA: Size _doesn't_ matter.
Saturn, still hooked into the Gertie, could sense the target
turning its attention to the flagship.
MARS: (making another note) Power enhancer increases sensory range.
"Goodbye, Chibi-Usa-chan," she whispered.
SERENA: And she was just saying that those days were long over. Guess you
don't really outgrow a friendship.
SNAKE: Telling her crew to take evasive maneuvers might have been a wee
bit more productive.
*****
Orion watched, her face white as hundreds of lives were claimed in
one attack, time and time again.
"Flag is ordering First and Second divisions to wheel and
concentrate fire on the target, sir," her communications officer
announced.
SNAKE: Ah, the military mind. If at first you don't succeed.... just keep
trying the same unproductive tactics over and over.
"The horse is already out of the barn, but acknowledge the order.
Are our scans giving us anything useful about our target?"
SERENA: ( as C. officer) Just that the target apparently has a rather small
chest area.
SNAKE: Now you're getting the hang of it!
"Negative, sir. The readings keep fluctuating. Sometimes I think
I'm reading a human, the next... its energy reading is off the scale."
MARS: Off the scale? Obviously they bought lowest bidder on those sensors.
Orion hit her comm button. "Engineering, status on the Gertie?"
"She's ready any time you are, captain," came back Chief Engineer
Aono's voice.
SNAKE: Funny, that's the same thing I got told on my last blind date.
"Ready to fire on my mark," Orion responded. She looked over at
America and tried to smile. It came out thin and forced.
"Want me to 'light your fire?'" America asked wanly, trying to keep
a smile on her face even as the viewscreen whited out again from another
ship facing the Dragon Slave.
SNAKE: Ah, witty battlefield banter with subtle sexual undertones.
MARS: Punctuated by flashes from dying ships.
Orion smiled back briefly. Her attack was one of tremendous power,
but hardly useful in most instances, as it caused the formation of a
mini-star. Using it on the surface of a planet, she had long ago
learned to her horror, would destroy any life on the surface. In fact,
it made the planet uninhabitable for millennia... if not longer. She
SERENA: All of a sudden, 'Moon Tiara Magic' seems a little wimpy.
and America had found a way to combine their attacks, using America to
ignite the hydrogen created in the early stages of Orion's attack.
SNAKE: How can hydrogen burn in the vacuum of space by any other means
than nuclear fusion?
MARS: Repeat after me: "It's magic."
Orion nodded her head. "Let's give this all we've got..."
"Sir!" her communications officer called out, "the flagship--"
Another burst of light flashed across the bridge, leaving no
question of the fate of the flagship.
SERENA: Obviously engaging in flash photography. That's a no-no.
No time left, Orion thought. This isn't a battle, it's a massacre.
She placed her right finger into a hole that went at a slant on her
right armrest, then pushed two buttons simultaneously on her left
armrest, "ORION... NEBULA..."
Mars scribbles on her pad, trying to sketch the controls.
*****
Lina laughed as her magic annihilated another of the sleek ships
that thought to challenge her. This was too easy for someone with the
power of SIX Crystals, she thought exultantly.
SERENA: Drinking down the power of a sixpack of crystal and then busting
up dimensions at random. Boy is she going to hate herself in the morning.
MARS: I don't doubt it.
Then a haze filled her vision. Another strange magical attack? she
thought. No, it was just hydrogen, which was to be expected in space.
Must have passed into a concentration of the stuff. Still, it was no
danger to her.
SNAKE: Yet another fool who underestimates the power of hydrogen.
Then one of the ships began to glow.
MARS: And her immediate response _isn't_ to blow it up?
*****
Reaching over her lover's shoulder, America placed her right hand
on Orion's and unleashed her attack.
"American Blazing Eagle!"
SERENA: Pretty.
SNAKE: She sure is! And that attack looks kind of neat as well.
Dodges to keep Serena from grabbing his sword.
*****
A giant sixty-meter wingspan eagle launched itself toward Lina, but
its true target was the hydrogen cloud that surrounded its target. Once
it hit that, the hydrogen would magically ignite, unleashing the force
of several nuclear explosions on the mad would-be-goddess.
MARS: That actually isn't a bad plan.
It never reached its target.
With a wave of her hand, Lina sent a shockwave of pure silver light
outward from her body in a sweeping arc. When it hit the eagle, the
bird of prey exploded in a blast of light that outshone anything the
battle had yet seen, burning out both eye and sensor alike. Then,
lessening as it spread outward, the shockwave raced onward toward Seiza.
SERENA: I hate it when they do that.
MARS: Maybe America should have aimed a little to the side.
*****
Orion's eyes were closed as she focused on her power, but she could
sense what had gone awry... there was only one option left. It might
cause more destruction than whatever that thing was... but she was
inclined to doubt it.
MARS: When you factor in the danger of dimensional destruction, she's got a
point.
"Collapse," was all she said, just before the shockwave hit.
America's eyes widened in shock and she opened her mouth. Whatever she
was going to say was never heard.
On board Seiza, everything went white.
SERENA: Somebody channeled too much power to the lighting systems.
*****
The hydrogen cloud condensed to a single point. Following rules of
physics that never could have either imagined or explained how this
particular hydrogen would reach this state, the gaseous element began to
fuse...
And a new star was born around the Inverted Sorceress.
SNAKE: The ability to create stars. That is just such a cool power. I wish I
could do that. I'd be creating stars right and left. I'd make pictures in the sky!
*****
"Confirmed," a quiet voice said in the Fleet Command Center on the
moon. "That was the Orion Nebula Collapse. The new mini-star's EMP has
disrupted all communications between us, the fleet and Earth. A lot of
our systems went down when the pulse hit, but the shielded backups took
over. Sailor Orion seems to have exerted far more control over her
power than previously recorded... the mini-star should burn itself out
in a matter of days."
MARS: Not unlike certain one hit wonder musical artists.
SNAKE: Bitter much?
Serenity II frowned at the blank status board before her, trying
not to let her emotions show. Her friend may have just given her life
to save her kingdom... and despite the grief she felt, she owed it to
her friend and the lessons she had taught her to show none of it. A
leader must lead in times of crisis. Grief would have to wait. And it
would wait, she knew, until it could pounce on her twice as strong.
SNAKE: Or at least so it said in, "Monarchy in Ten Easy Steps", the idiot's
guide to queening.
"Status of the intruder?" she asked coolly.
SERENA: Still on a mad killing rampage.
"No readings, your majesty. It must have been destroyed. Nothing
could have--" He broke off. "My Queen, the mini-star... it's
shrinking... I don't know how... we have a visual."
All eyes turned to the screen. The small sun that hovered above
the moon shrank with bewildering quickness, turning into a golden,
humanoid figure. A female figure that threw back its head and laughed.
MARS: Is this some sort of setup up for "Solar-Glow Laughing Lina" action
figures?
SNAKE: Sales are gonna go through the roof.
"Your majesty... we're getting a message. It's on all frequencies
and must be from that... thing," a communications officer said.
SERENA: (as officer) No wait, my mistake. It's just one of those annoying
advertising jungles. Something called a "Solar-Glow Laughing Lina" action
figure.
"Let me hear it."
Speakers around the room came to life with a burst of static.
"--I can sense them! Two of them HERE! I want them! Turn over
your Crystals NOW... or I'll start seeing how much damage all this
plasma you've given me can do!" It was a female voice, though with some
sort of odd harmonic.
MARS: "Crystals"? That's a little vague. I mean, there are a lot of crystals
around.
SERENA: I'm not sure I'd know she meant ginzuishou.
Serenity II turned to her advisors, the Planet Senshi. "Status of
our forces?" she asked resignedly.
"Our Fleet..." Sailor Venus began strongly, but her voice trailed
off. Swallowing, she continued. "We don't have a Fleet left.
Everything that wasn't in the battle is out-system or is too far away to
make any difference."
SNAKE: (as Venus) On the bright side, the Quartermaster Corps says those
new uniforms ought to be coming in any year now.
"Your Majesty!" shouted a voice from the 'pit' below.
All eyes turned back to the screen. The golden figure was now
holding her arms above her head, hands outstretched, and a huge ball of
plasma was forming between them. It started red in color, then swiftly
brightened, turning orange, then yellow, and so on up the spectrum until
it became blindingly white. Then, like someone throwing a beach ball,
the figure tossed it at the Earth.
SERENA: "Tossed it"? Is Lina sick too?
SNAKE: Pretty sure they meant she tossed the plasma ball. Not that Lina isn't
acting pretty sick.
"The target," came a subdued voice from the pit, "has just launched
a ball of plasma at the Earth. It's traveling around... .1c?" One
tenth the speed of light. "Estimate it will hit in 4 seconds, target...
Perth, Australia. It has reached the atmosphere... no appreciable loss
of energy..." The unnamed voice turned ugly with grief and helpless
rage. "Perth is gone."
MARS: Talk about your solar terrorism.
"Target is readying another plasma ball!"
"It's fired! Target... Jakarta, Indonesia!"
SERENA: Lina's got a lot better aim than you might think.
"Another--"
"Enough," Serenity II whispered. She held her Ginzuishou in front
of her eyes. Such a small thing, but it had caused her more trouble in
her life, especially as a young child. It was power beyond
comprehension, but there was always a price attached to that power. It
SNAKE: I think I comprehend it pretty well.
was responsibility to use the power wisely. But being a Queen also had
its price in responsibility. And being a human being carried perhaps
the highest price of them all. She looked again at the golden figure
SERENA: This carries a price, that carries a price. I feel like I've gone
shopping.
shining in space and into the silver depths of the Ginzuishou. Then,
closing her eyes, she listened to what her heart was saying.
MARS: It was saying Bthum-bthump-bthump.
Opening her eyes again, she lifted the Ginzuishou above her head.
Everyone held their breath, expecting some terrible attack or fantastic
bit of magic.
Instead, the Ginzuishou floated toward the ceiling. With a flash,
it disappeared.
SNAKE: (smacking his head) So that would have worked too. My idiot
predecessor did everything wrong.
No one said anything.
Serenity II looked at their shocked faces and felt the weight of
their eyes, and the eyes of History, on her. No matter what she said or
did, her actions would be questioned, dissected, and second-guessed
until the end of time. So, she said what was in her heart.
SERENA: Everybody's got the day off!
"It'll be all right. I know."
But the last two words were a lie.
MARS: So were the first four. Nothing is ever "all right". That's part of life.
*****
Lina smiled in satisfaction as a glowing point of light flew toward
her from the Moon. Only seconds later, a second joined it, from a
different area on the Moon's surface... the site of the old Moon
Kingdom, Lina realized. She neither knew nor cared that the old Queen
had unhesitatingly supported her daughter's position. All she cared
about were the two Crystals.
SNAKE: I'm still a little confused by why there were two Crystals in the first
place... but let it pass.
MARS: I'm still trying to pinpoint where Lina's brain got replaced by crystal.
Catching them in her hands, she exulted as their power filled her.
Her legs turned crystal, suffused with the golden light of the plasma
she had absorbed. Over 90% of her body was now crystalline, with only
her chest and red flowing hair untouched by its encroachment. The power
was better than any high she had ever known or heard about.
SERENA: But the trouble with highs is that sooner or later you have to come
down.
"One more," she whispered to the cosmos. "One more and it will all
be MINE!"
SERENA: Well not all of it. Some of it. A little bit of it.
Then the universe blinked and Lina Inverse was headed for her
destiny.
SNAKE: That's cheap. Whatever happens, they'll just say it was destiny.
*****
Crystal Tokyo
September, 2980
MARS: Back to home sweet home.
The evacuation had been completed some hours before. The citizens
of the great city, though confused by the urgency of their Queen's
request, had boarded the transports bound for China's heartland, taking
only their most precious possessions with them.
SNAKE: (to Mars) So how many times a year do you have to evacuate the
city? Two? Three?
The city was empty, save for the handful of people who remained in
the palace at its heart.
SERENA: And everybody who couldn't be moved for medical reasons or
practical ones or who just slept through the whole thing.
MARS: No, we got them all.
Serenity walked briskly through the hallway. She could have moved
much faster if she'd desired to do so, but it would have served no
purpose.
MARS: Besides, the Moon Motorcycle always leaves scuff marks on the floor.
Pluto appeared and fell into step beside her. "Your Majesty," the
green-haired sentinel said quietly. "My colleagues and I have completed
our examination of the timelines, and --"
SNAKE: That was pretty fast.
"You have not found any trace of them," Serenity finished without
turning to look at Pluto.
Pluto nodded all the same. "I fear we must presume the worst --
MARS: --we're incompetent at tracking people.
that Sheila and Athena are dead."
"No."
Pluto swallowed. She had heard that particular "no" from Serenity
in the past. It was not a refusal to believe what she had been told --
it was a refusal to accept even the possibility of it being true. "Your
SNAKE: And has she ever known Serenity to be wrong when using that "no"?
Majesty, the Dragon Slave is a fearsome --"
"Pluto, I am linked to each and every one of the Palladins who have
chosen to accept my leadership. I do not know their thoughts, but I
would most assuredly know if any of them had fallen -- in either sense
of the term." Serenity walked in silence for a moment, then continued.
"I have not felt Sheila's death -- thus I know that she lives.
However... it may be that she, or her companion, are unable to continue
their quest. If so, it falls to me to do what I must do."
MARS: (leaning forward in her seat) And that is?
"And that is?" Pluto asked uneasily.
"I must destroy Lina Inverse."
SNAKE: I hate to say it, but Serenity isn't the first person to say that. And
there Lina's still there.
Pluto shook her head. "Other Serenities have tried to defeat --"
"I will not attempt to DEFEAT Lina Inverse, Pluto. I will
annihilate her. That is within my power."
MARS: That's what one of my fencing instructors used to tell me. Yui, he'd
say, I don't want-
SNAKE: Yui?
MARS: I wasn't using my own name. Anyway, he'd say, "I don't want you to
defeat your opponent. I want you to annihilate her." Intense man.
Pluto stopped dead in the hallway, and stared at the back of
Serenity's head as her Queen continued ahead for a few paces. "What?"
she breathed.
SNAKE: She's obviously getting something I'm not.
Serenity paused, but did not look back. "I will give Lina Inverse
the Silver Crystal -- but as she begins to absorb it into herself, I
will draw on its power to destroy what remains of her soul. Without her
spirit to control the Crystals, they will collapse... and the worlds
shall be saved." Her voice dropped. "And all for the cost of a single
soul. A rational transaction."
SNAKE: .....
MARS: No! There has to be another way.
"Serenity," Pluto whispered in horror.
SNAKE: There's a phrasing I bet you don't hear too often.
"This is NOT what I wish to do," Serenity interrupted, her voice
like a whip. "But we have exhausted our other options. She CANNOT
ascend to divinity. Her actions imperil not only this world, but seven
others." The Queen turned back to look at Pluto. Her eyes were by
turns angry and grieving, but there were no tears there. "Once, when
Serena was younger, she risked the fate of this universe for the soul of
a child. Lina Inverse is NOT a child. She should have been able to
SERENA: (who has been mysteriously silent since Serenity appeared) She
doesn't know anything about what I did.
Mars looks at her, surprised, but doesn't say anything.
resist the temptation of power." She closed her eyes. "She was not.
And so, we must do what we must do in order to save untold lives, and
live with the consequences."
SNAKE: I know how that is. Except for the saving untold lives part.
Serenity turned away. "I have sent the people of the city to
China, so that they will not be imperiled by what follows. The Senshi
SNAKE: And the rest of Japan will just have to take their chances.
MARS: I'll have you know our evacuation plans are designed for maximum
safety.
are there -- and so are my husband and child. I would ask that you
please join them." A long breath. "And if it happens that I fail, send
Small Lady into the past. To somewhere she will be safe."
SNAKE: Won't sending her into the past just make her eventually show up in
the future again?
MARS: Serenity is a little distracted.
"It shall be done," Pluto murmured, bowing before vanishing once
more.
MARS: Better than a genie.
Serenity released a sigh. And if I succeed... well, at the very
least, I shall be able to spend more time with my daughter -- since I
shall no longer be Queen. That is, perhaps, a consolation. She began
to walk again.
SNAKE: Did she say that, or just think it?
MARS: She was going to abdicate?! I didn't know any of this. What would
we do then?
SERENA: We? So you would follow her?
MARS: Of course. Somebody has to make sure she doesn't do anything silly.
SERENA: (looking away) Who cares.
MARS: Serena.... Why are you acting like such a jerk about Serenity?
SERENA: (a little upset) Why? Oh I don't know, I guess there's no reason at
all to be mad at the woman who STOLE MY LIFE!
MARS: What?! She didn't steal you life. (Points at Snake.) _He_ did.
SNAKE: Not me. Leave me out of this!
SERENA: She did so. That was supposed to be my daughter and my friends
and my future and then it was all hers.
Mars almost gets angry, but then seems to bring herself under
control. She opts for the gentle approach, taking Serena by the arm.
MARS: You know it wasn't like that. She is you, or at least all that was left of
you. Serenity never wanted it all to turn out this way. (pause) Do you hate
her?
SERENA: (sniffling) No... No I don't really hate anybody. It's just that
seeing her; it makes me feel so useless. Like I was just some useless weight
dragging her... dragging everybody down. Every time things really got tough,
I ended up turning into Serenity before we could solve anything. It must have
been really great not having me drag things down the rest of the time.
MARS: You never "dragged us down". You brought us together, and Serenity
is no more -and no less- important to the Senshi, to me, than you were. I
know that Serenity is always saying "Serena did this" or "Serena did that" and
it isn't because she can't let go of the past. Whenever Serenity has a tough call
to make, she thinks about what you would have done and why. Maybe she
doesn't always do what you would have done, but she starts from you. I've
seen her do it many times.
SERENA: It's just that I look at her, and she seems so much better than me. I
feel like this silly schoolgirl again, like I never would have been anyone
without her. With Beryl, with Nephrena, even in the end with Ourranos, I it
took Serenity to save the day. When did I ever solve anything on my own?
MARS: Lots of times. Like... you remember those tree people? It was you who
convinced them to reject the tainted tree of doom. You did it without Serenity.
I think you could have done it without being Sailor Moon. It was your heart
and your love for Darien that was able to get through to them.
SERENA: I suppose, but Serenity....
SNAKE: (speaking up suddenly and startling the other two) Serena, you
haven't been a part of Serenity for as long as I've known you. Listen to me
when I say this, for I do not lie. You would have been great even if Serenity
had never existed. No one with a heart like yours could ever be ordinary or
inferior.
SERENA: You really think so?
MARS AND SNAKE: (speaking simultaneously) I know it to be true. (they
look at each other in surprise)
SERENA: Thanks. And Raye, I _am_ glad that you love Serenity. Without
me, she needs someone to help remind her about all the stuff that makes it so
great to be human, good and bad. I'm sure Muffin does his best, but (leaning
close to Mars with a small smile) -he's always such a pushover when it comes
to women.
MARS: I'm glad we got this cleared up. Serena, you get so many weird ideas.
SERENA: (blows Mars a razzberry) Oh no I don't!
Moments later, she arrived at the heart of the palace -- the
resting place of the Silver Crystal, from which it powered the magical
defense grid of the city. Four of the people who remained in the city
were also present -- the delegation from the College of Magic in their
conical hats, who were quietly bickering over an arcane diagram.
SNAKE: Academics. If you told them a meteor was about to hit, they'd spent
their last moments arguing about the force of impact.
Serenity coughed politely.
Dean Takeo Takakura stiffened, and whirled around to face her with
a look of extreme worry written on his face. "Ah! Your Majesty. I
didn't hear you come in."
MARS: I keep telling her to make a little noise when she moves. Sure that
silent gliding is impressive, but it gives people the idea you're sneaking up on
them.
"I hope that you are not experiencing any difficulties with my
request?" Serenity asked mildly.
SERENA: (as Takakura) Well we are a little concerned about how to get the
scent of mint in the- Oh wait, you mean the _other_ request.
"Oh, no, no!" Takakura assured her. "It's just that... well, while
we're sure that the matrix we've constructed can support the defense
network when the Silver Crystal is removed, there is some doubt as to
how long --"
SNAKE: (raises hand) Question.
MARS: Yes?
SNAKE: Why bother with a defense grid when the city has been evacuated?
MARS: We do make _some_ effort to protect property.
"Two hours," one of the graduate students interrupted flatly.
"But that's a conservative estimate!" Takakura shouted, jumping in
front of the student who'd just spoken. "It could be anywhere up to --"
"Two hours and ten minutes, three seconds."
SERENA: That shouldn't be a problem. I don't think this fic can last more
than another half hour or so.
"-- a day, considering that your Majesty will be sure to prevent
ANY damage to the city in the interval -- something that Ms. Nakatomi
has forgotten to take into account." Takakura shot a look meant to be
intimidating over his shoulder at the student, who met it with a look of
aggravation.
MARS: One big soap opera, I'm telling you.
Serenity decided to intervene. "Very well. I thank you for your
efforts. We shall just have to take our chances... please activate the
matrix immediately."
SNAKE: Now if they'd had a little more warning, they could have come up
with a big red "activate matrix" button so Serenity could do it herself.
Whatever Ms. Nakatomi's reservations might have been, she
immediately joined in the circle with the Dean and his assistant, along
with the other student, who hadn't spoken yet. As one, they chanted,
and a pentagram of light appeared around the resting place of the
Crystal. The light flickered oddly, perhaps because of the tremendous
amount of magic that was already concentrated in the room.
SERENA: Or maybe it just looked cooler that way.
"You can remove the Crystal now, your Majesty," Takakura said after
the spell was cast.
Serenity nodded, and reached through the pentagram to grasp the
Crystal. As always, it rested uneasily in her hand.
SERENA: Maybe she ought to try carrying it around in a broach.
MARS: I don't think that's what they meant.
"I thank you, Mr. Takakura, Mr. Aburatsubo, Ms. Nakatomi... and Ms.
Sawanoguchi, was it not?"
SNAKE: Good memory for names. Score one leader point for her.
The other grad student blinked, and stammered out an affirmative.
"You have been a credit to the practice of magic today, and
regardless of the outcome, you have my personal thanks," she assured
them gravely. "But now I urge you to flee this place at once -- while I
will try to protect the city, I cannot in any way guarantee your safety
in what is to come."
SERENA: I wish I could tell her it'll all turn out all right. (pauses) It does
turn out all right, right Raye?
"Right, bye," said Ms. Nakatomi, and headed for the door, with the
Dean and Assistant Dean following close behind her.
Ms. Sawanoguchi hesitated. "Actually... your Majesty, if I could
have a moment?"
MARS: Oh sure, no hurry until Lina actually gets there.
"Sae --" Ms. Nakatomi hissed from the door.
"I have a few moments," Serenity replied. "But I urge you to be
brief."
SNAKE: At least she doesn't have to be Frank. I was Frank for a while, and
he never got any girls.
MARS: Is there a nonsense dial on you I can turn to zero?
"It's about Lina-san... um... what's going to happen to her?"
SERENA: She's going to have her soul ripped apart and be forever erased
from existence, barring intervention by non-temporal aliens. Next question.
Serenity met the innocent eyes of the young woman before her... and
said simply, "It is unlikely that she will survive. Have the two of you
become friends?"
MARS: (as Sawanoguchi) Well she stole my lunch, insulted me, hit me, and
nearly got me killed in some stupid stunt. With Lina, that means we're best
buds.
Sawanoguchi nodded, her face frightened and trembling.
"I am sorry, then, but she has made her choices, and --"
"But she didn't!"
SNAKE: A CLUE!
Serenity was not used to being contradicted -- and she was even
SERENA: Then she ought to consult my memories a little more often.
less used to hearing the same weight of certainty and truth in the voice
of another that others often heard in her voice. "What do you mean?"
Sawanoguchi turned to look at her colleagues, who were anxiously
waiting for her. "This could be a while," the young woman said. "You
should probably get going --"
MARS: Need to get a good seat for Armageddon.
"Right, bye, let's go Takeo-chan," Aburatsubo replied, bodily
dragging the faintly protesting Dean with him.
"Your Majesty -- when we were reconstructing the spell that Lina-
san cast to start this whole thing, we did a retrocognitive vision, and
watched. We saw that Lina-san momentarily lost control of the ritual,
and then --"
SNAKE: Well, see beginning of this section for the plot synopsis.
"And Ms. Ten'kai interrupted the spell, causing it to go out of
control. I am aware of this, and I am aware that Sheila has tried to
rectify her mistake --"
SERENA: That is to say, Sheila has gone insanely overboard trying to solve a
situation that she bears little to no blame for out of a much oversized sense of
responsibility.
MARS: Pot. Kettle. Black.
"But there wasn't any reason for Lina-san to lose control of the
spell even as briefly as she did!" Sawanoguchi interrupted. "I did the
same ritual after we pieced it together, and it worked perfectly, and
Lina-san is a MUCH better magic user than I am, so why should it have
gone bad when she did it but not when I did?"
SNAKE: Magic isn't an exact science. By definition, even!
Serenity opened her mouth to give a quiet, gentle reply that would
soothe the magician's conscience.
Her mouth hung open... and then slowly closed.
SERENA: Wow, just now she looks exactly like me.
SNAKE: She always looks like you.
SERENA: Yeah, but just now she _really_ looked like me, when I realize I've
done something dumb.
After a moment, she murmured a single word.
"Fool."
MARS: Serenity is too hard on herself.
SERENA: How did you know she's talking about herself?
MARS: She doesn't insult people.
SNAKE: I seem to recall her calling me a liar.
MARS: You?
SNAKE: Well, Ourranos.
MARS: So she wasn't just being accurate?
SNAKE: (embarrassed) Skip it.
Sawanoguchi flinched. "I'm sorry, your Majesty, I shouldn't be
bothering you with this stuff --"
SERENA: But _someone_ had to draw the plot threads together.
"Not you, Sae," Serenity said angrily. "-I- am the fool. I am
worse than a fool. Were Lady Mars here, she would not hesitate to slap
me." She drew in a deep breath. "Thank you, Sae. You have given me
MARS: I would not! If I were there, I'd slap her for saying that. (pause)
Uhhhh...
the means and method to save Ms. Inverse's life, if I can only find the
opportunity."
She smiled then, faintly. "Now I urge you to hurry and join your
friends, who have waited for you these minutes. Again, thank you."
SNAKE: Show-off. Just because the rest of us can't sense location...
Sawanoguchi was almost in shock at being addressed so familiarly by
the Queen of the Crystal Realm, so she could probably be excused for
failing to observe etiquette as she ran out of the room.
SERENA: There's an etiquette for leaving a room? Is it a cultural thing?
MARS: Let's say yes.
When the magician was gone, Serenity's face shifted. Everyone in
the world has many faces. The face that Serenity usually wore was one
that tried to put everyone at ease in her presence. The face that she
wore now was one that only a few of her direst enemies had ever seen --
SNAKE: I know that face!
a face that spoke of a calm, stern determination to do whatever it took,
to the last breath of her body, to bring another to safety.
There was a soul in need of saving.
MARS: There always is.
Pray for the one who had placed it in peril.
MARS: I'll light a fire for him. (conjures up a flame on the tip of her finger)
*****
Misa von Fogler fumed as she stood just outside the main gates of
SNAKE: Am I the only one who thinks she sounds like a brand of coffee?
SERENA: That's "Folger."
the Palace. It wasn't that she was impatient with the Queen. It wasn't
that she was scared out of her mind at what she'd been told was
happening. It was being in Priss Asagiri's company that put her on
edge.
MARS: As much as Priss is my friend, she can be rather irritating.
Okay, it was all three, but it was MOSTLY "the ape woman" as Misa
referred to the Knight Saber in her less charitable moments. She didn't
SERENA: Ape woman? Does she like bananas?
SNAKE: No, it's because she has broad shoulders.
MARS: Maybe her hair?
care for Asagiri's attitude at the best of times, and these weren't
them.
It had nothing to do with jealousy, however, or the fact that
Sheila had patched things over with her former lover during the last
decade. She wasn't threatened by the wary friendship between the two of
them.
SNAKE: And if you believe that, I've got some snake oil to sell you.
Okay, maybe she was.
MARS: An honest woman. Nine more to go.
Misa sighed. The irony was, she got on perfectly well with
Asagiri's wife, Sylia, while Sheila's relationship with Ms. Stingray was
extremely tense -- for her, at least, as Sylia was as calmly polite with
Sheila as Sylia was with anyone.
Such fun, this quadrangle, Misa thought bitterly.
SERENA: Oh don't even start. At least she doesn't have to be jealous over her
erstwhile alter ego's relationship with the revived Silver Millennium
incarnation of her husband as well as her best friend/other true love.
Mars sweatdrops and looks apologetic.
For her part, Priss was occupied listening to the rough cuts of her
latest disc, and didn't spare a thought for Misa. She actually rather
liked the woman, but she was just way too tense.
SNAKE: (as Misa) Too tense? Say that again and I'll rip your arm off! Heh-
heh... I mean, why do you say that?
Something strange had happened to Priss over the years since she'd
been brought out of cold sleep. Improbably, she'd become happy.
Perhaps even MELLOW. The periodic flashes of self-destructive rage that
had dominated her teens and twenties were channeled into creativity far
more potently than ever before.
It's the kid, probably, Priss thought, and her expression
MARS: Or maybe its because she switched to de-caff.
SERENA: (poking Snake in the side) So she's started drinking "Misa van
Fogler" brand coffee?
SNAKE: It sounded like coffee to me, okay?
flickered. Joy had its ups and downs. Upside, you had something to
live for. Downside, you weren't as willing to die. She'd only realized
that she might never again see either Sylia or their daughter, Nene, as
they'd walked onto the transport to China. Sylia hadn't wanted to go...
but Priss' 'orders' -- or rather, 'information', since Palladins never
got orders from the Queen -- had stated that only she was required. And
given the choice, she wanted Sylia as far away from this fracas as
possible.
MARS: And I'll bet Nene was the only reason Sylia didn't insist on staying
with her.
SNAKE: You won't take my money.
The gates suddenly clanged shut, and both women looked to see that
Serenity was quietly locking them. Priss yanked her headphones out of
SERENA: When the big boss locks the doors, you know it's trouble.
her ears, and asked with her trademarked impertinence, "So what's the
plan, Your Supreme Enlightenment?"
Misa glared at her, while Serenity smiled faintly. "That is a new
one, I believe," the Queen murmured, then grew serious. "Major Fogler,
your orders are as follows. First, it is my belief that Sheila Ten'kai
WILL arrive in time to play a role in that which will follow -- and you
are to give her any aid or support that she requests."
MARS: Sheila? Who's Sheila? Oh, was she the protagonist of this story?
She's been gone so long, I'd almost forgotten.
"Understood," Misa replied crisply.
"Second, and far more importantly, I am entrusting you with the
keys to the palace," Serenity continued, extending them towards Misa as
she did. "You are not to surrender them to anyone except to the ruler
of the Crystal Realm."
SERENA: (as Serenity- which sounds damn creepy) If you lose them, don't
worry. The groundskeeper has an extra set in his shed.
Misa took them -- and then blinked. "In other words, to you."
"As you say," Serenity evaded. "And now, I suggest you head for
cover. Keep moving -- I cannot predict what will occur."
MARS: Then where exactly would cover be?
Misa flashed a salute, and then headed off.
"Is she going to be okay?" Priss asked.
SNAKE: Her woman is two-timing her and she's due to die in a few years, but
other than that....
"Major Fogler's training includes several tours of duty with the
Rangers," Serenity replied. "I have confidence in her abilities. Now,
then, Priss... the thing that I most needed you to do may no longer be
necessary --"
SERENA: Because now maybe I can yell at Lina all on my own.
"Which was what?"
Serenity hesitated. "I would rather not say unless it BECOMES
necessary..."
MARS: Love Serenity as I do... she never tells us anything! I wish I could
break her of that habit.
Priss glared. "And I want to know the plans you're making so that
I don't wind up getting killed because I didn't know something, thanks."
"Very well," Serenity sighed. "Until a few moments ago, I believed
that it was unfortunately inevitable that I would have to destroy Lina
Inverse's soul in order to defeat her, and should that occur, I would at
once abdicate as Queen of the Crystal Realm."
SNAKE: And probably need a few years of therapy, but that's neither here nor
there.
For a moment, Priss wondered if she'd heard that correctly... and
then she heard herself saying, "Okay... and I was supposed to witness
your abdication, or something."
Serenity shook her head. "No. In light of my daughter's youth,
and her lack of training... I have chosen you as my successor."
Mars, Serena, and Snake facefault. It looks like it hurts a lot.
MARS: No way! I like Priss a lot, she's one of my best friends, but to leave
her as queen....
SERENA: I can almost.... Nope. Can't see it. Why didn't Serenity just leave
you in charge?
MARS: I'm a lousy leader. Besides, I'd follow her wherever she went, not
stick around to be queen. Of course, I can't see Priss as being that great a
leader anyway.
SNAKE: Heck, I could do a better job!
MARS: (sounding doubtful) You?
SNAKE: I have some kinging experience, you know. Or at least, male co-
ruler experience.
SERENA: But that was _evil_ kinging.
SNAKE: Good kinging, evil kinging, it's ninety-five percent the same anyway.
The point is that I have leadership experience.
SERENA: _Evil_ leadership experience.
SNAKE: You're not going to let this go, are you?
MARS: (sighs) I guess Serenity knows something I don't.
SNAKE: You could pretty much always say that and be right.
*****
As was often the case, three beings stood near Serenity's
manifestation on the Kami Plane -- what some among the gods and spirits
viewed as the "true self" of a divinity or infernal, while others argued
it to be merely an alternate form which such an entity could utilize in
this otherworld. What was known was that while she was active within
the mortal plane, her manifestation was only a cold, faceless statue.
SERENA: So let me get this straight. It is "often the case" that three beings
hang around a cold, faceless statue? Don't they have anything better to do?
SNAKE: Didn't you know? Gods have no lives. That's why they're always
messing with humans.
Verdandi, Sovereign Goddess of the Now, (who had once been called
Belldandy before the Reconfiguration), turned to look at Vesta,
MARS: There's probably a story there. Not that anyone ever bothers to tell me
anything.
Sovereign Goddess of the Hearth, (who had been known as Tendou Kasumi
before her Ascension). It was hard for either of them, partners and
allies for nearly a millennium, to even remember the fact that they had
once been mortal enemies, until an unexpected peace had been forged
through the efforts of the young girl whose fate had been tied
inextricably to the slumbering Goddess before them.
SERENA: (crossing her arms) Ahem!
Mars pulls out some pom-poms and does a quick cheer.
SERENA: Thank-you.
"This could destroy her," Verdandi noted.
"It could," Vesta agreed, in exactly the same calm tone.
"Should we perhaps think of ways to prevent that from coming
about?" Verdandi wondered.
SNAKE: (as Vesta) But that might require moving from this spot.
Vesta shook her head once. "No. She would not thank us, nor would
she conceal our interference from the Senior. You know why."
SERENA: But in order to better inform readers, why don't we recap it in the
narration.
And Verdandi did know why -- knew that Serenity had made a wager
with the one who had once been called "Almighty". She would be given
Earth itself as her charge, and no other Power would be permitted to
interfere in its destiny until the vanishing point of the visions of the
Goddess of Time. If at that time she had affected a substantial change
in human nature, Serenity would be accepted as a peer by the Senior
Divinity of Earth, something unheard of for one raised from mortality.
MARS: I have to say, this is all news to me. I'm actually a little hurt. I know
I'm no goddess, but you'd think Serenity could have confided in me a little
more. Bet she told Endymion.
SERENA: (comforting Mars) She probably just didn't want to worry you too
much.
SNAKE: On another note, what might the vanishing point of the visions be?
And does this mean the gods are free to muck about on say, Mars?
MARS: What?
SNAKE: I mean the planet, not you.
MARS: Oh. I don't know about any vanishing point and as to the second....
SERENA: You don't know.
MARS: How did I get so far out of the loop?
SNAKE: And is it really a good thing to change human nature?
MARS: Let's not do _that_ debate.
The ban on interference had been tested many times by the younger
gods and spirits, and openly defied by many of the demon-kindred,
especially in the wake of the Nanoclysm, but the wager still stood.
Serenity would indeed not welcome interference from either of them if it
caused her to lose.
SNAKE: I say kill all the gods and let.... um, I guess there's no real need to
see them sorted out.
So all that was left to them, ultimately, was to wait and observe
the results of this latest crisis as Serenity dealt with it, in the
company of an old, familiar friend to both of them
SHE COMES.
They turned as one to look at the Pale Rider, who did not meet
SERENA: Look Snake, it's Death.
SNAKE: Looking well as always.
MARS: I will not ask. I will not ask.
their gaze. SOMETHING -- some odd, mishapen mass of oozing crystal
and
rotting meat -- had begun to materialize beside the faceless statue of
Serenity. Lina Inverse was slowly, as the gods viewed things, moving
herself into synchronization with the mortal plane.
MARS: And next, she can synchronize herself with the temporal plane.
SERENA: Huh?
MARS: She can set her watch.
"It begins," Vesta murmured. Be careful, my sister.
"It begins," Verdandi agreed. Be careful, my friend.
IT BEGINS, said Death. Any other remarks from him would have been
fatuous at best.
SNAKE: It begins. Be careful, my daughter.
SERENA: It begins. Be careful, my erstwhile alter ego.
MARS: It begins. Be careful, my lovebunny.
Serena and Snake facefault.
MARS: What?
*****
At first, Lina thought that her power had made a mistake, bringing
her to the world wherein she found herself. Her memories of life before
she'd found her first precious -- no, taken -- had grown increasingly
SNAKE: Well, no, found. Lina has enough to answer for without blaming her
for what she didn't do.
foggy and confused, but she was certain that the world where she'd been
marooned, the world where deaddeaddeaddeaddeadSheila was from, and the
MARS: Ah, deaddeaddeaddeaddeadSheila. Any relation to
can'tsleepclownswillgetmecan'tsleepclownswillgetmeCaruthers?
world where she would become a goddess (and she was almost certain that
they were the same world) had held much less magic than she was feeling.
SERENA: The Crystal Tokyo Magic Department seems to do alright.
At once, one of her preciouses provided the answer -- magic on this
world was vastly more chaotic than any mortal being could handle, and so
the vast amount of magical energy which could have been drawn from
within this world was monopolized by gods, demons, and spirits. They
SNAKE: Bastards. Always trying to keep the common man down. But there
will come a day, a day-
Serena knocks him in the head.
SNAKE: Ah, perhaps I say too much.
kept the magic down to manageable levels for mortals of this plane --
which levels were absolutely intolerable for --
What was it again?
-- the greatest magical genius in the universe!
MARS: Waitaminute. Short, red hair, small chest.... Almost reminds me of-
Nah!
How apropos, Lina thought happily, that in becoming a goddess, I
shall at last have the power to do all by myself what I ought to be able
to do anyway --
SERENA: So this hasn't actually increased her ego at all, has it?
As she moved into synch with the world, she saw and heard Queen
Serenity being yelled at by another woman dressed in a suit of dark blue
armor. She eased up on the synchronization in order to get a reading on
her enemy.
SNAKE: Better be careful, or Serenity will hit her with the serious face.
"I do not believe so, but perhaps you should consult with Lady
Mercury as to my psych--" the Queen was saying as Lina listened in.
MARS: Well now she's just being sarcastic. Ami says human psychiatry
doesn't work quite right on Serenity.
SNAKE: Any human that benevolent is obviously insane.
MARS: That wasn't what I said.
"You want ME to be Queen?" the woman in blue shouted. "Look,
ignoring for the moment that I like that sort of shit about as much as
Sylia does, why would I --"
MARS: I though Sylia kind of liked that shit. Well, I don't know her as well
as I could.
"Because you would then have the opportunity to take apart that
element of the government and rebuild it to your liking?" Serenity
replied mildly.
SERENA: Or more likely, the opportunity to get fired in a quickly convened
election.
She held Lina's precious SO loosely. Lina almost ACHED to rush
forth and seize it, but her preciouses urged caution. This was her most
dangerous adversary yet... wait until she is completely unprepared for
the attack.
SNAKE: The master of stealth, Lina is not.
Quite suddenly, Serenity stiffened. "She is here. Priss, stand as
far away --"
MARS: Stand as far away as what? As Priss can get in two seconds? That's
not that far.
NO! Lina raged. How can she have--? But no time remained for
regrets as she pulled herself fully into the dimension and Serenity
swiftly turned those huge blue eyes on her.
SERENA: My eyes are _not_ too big!
SNAKE: You are so oversensitive about that. What did you expect from those
guys? They didn't even _have_ eyes on their head.
And Lina staggered to realize that dominant emotion in those eyes
was pity. Oh, there was anger, too, but the pity overwhelmed it.
SNAKE: (wistfully) I wonder if that's how she'd look at me?
MARS: Ahhhh. (punches him in the arm) Not after you established yourself.
"So you have come," Serenity began. "I will not attempt to
persuade you to abandon this course of action, as I realize that my
words would have no meaning to you in your current state. So be it. If
MARS: We'll just have to speak in another language. So then Serenity takes
out a big club and whacks Lina on the side of the head and-
SERENA: (snaps her fingers) You're going into fantasy mode. Usually that's
my area.
this --" She held up the crystal. "-- is what you truly desire, come
and take it from me."
SNAKE: Talkin' tough and talking trash. I like it. A little more of this, and
she could be a wrestler.
SERENA: Stone Cold Serenity?
It's a trap, Lina thought quietly. It has to be a trap but -- Her
movement towards the crystal had already begun.
Her hands were almost closed around it when she realized that she
couldn't see Serenity's OTHER hand.
MARS: Old age and treachery always beat youth and obsession.
Lina felt a sudden tearing sensation at her chest, and then she
gazed down at Serenity's head and the ground below as the Queen used the
momentum of Lina's charge to throw her. She hit the ground easily, and
rolled to her feet --
MARS: She's been holding back on me. That was a classic Judo move. First
thing when I get back, I'm taking Serenity out to the dojo and have a match.
And then, just as she realized that something was horribly wrong,
her world dissolved in white light and a piercing scream.
SNAKE: What is it with white light? My world generally dissolves in little
twinkly stars.
SERENA: That's because you're Mr. Space.
*****
Months later, Priss would try to reconstruct from her suit's
recording mechanism exactly what Serenity had done, and still not
understand. One moment the Inverse woman had been racing at the Queen
so fast that she had been a blur in Priss' sights, the next she had been
standing behind her, her face blank, and facing towards Serenity's back.
SNAKE: It's like watching an episode of Dragonball.
While Serenity stood, her right hand around the throat of a young
man with purple-black hair in a page-boy cut, who was dressed in vaguely
clerical regalia and whose feet hovered a foot or so off the ground. He
smiled, but there was an element of strain about the smile.
SERENA: Xelloss!
SNAKE: It's my good buddy, Xelloss.
MARS: (incredulous) You know him?
SERENA: A version of him, anyway.
When the Queen spoke next, it was in a tone that Priss had never
heard. It held no mercy, no compassion... only contempt and anger.
"Xelloss of the Mazoku," the Queen said. "Why are you here?"
MARS: So you're actually friends with this guy?
SERENA: He really isn't all that bad. As long as you remember to ask if he's
planning to betray you that day. And he can be really sweet.
SNAKE: All I can say is, he makes me laugh.
MARS: But he's Mazoku. He's evil!
SNAKE: So what evil things have you seen him do?
MARS: Well, uh...
SNAKE: So wait on the old judgement, eh?
"And hello to you too, your Divine and Sweet Natured-ness," the one
called Xelloss replied, with remarkable ease given that he couldn't be
breathing. "Just doing my duty and following orders, really -- Urk."
SNAKE: She's really playing it tough. I think we called that wrestling thing
right on.
SERENA: So this would be the Moon Choke Hold?
Serenity tightened her grip. "Explain. And do not for one moment
imagine that you can escape by saying 'That is a secret' to ME."
MARS: Serenity 3:16.
"Well... it started a few years ago, when my revered mistress
discovered that Lina-chan, there, was capable of casting the Giga-Slave
spell and thus drawing L-sama -- the Lord of Nightmares -- into her
body. When Zellas-Mettalum discovered this, well... let's just say that
it sparked a certain ambition that she'd had for a while."
SERENA: To gain control of the world's largest collection of pet rocks? Or
maybe not.
"An ambition to do what?"
"Hey, we're mazoku." Priss gaped at how easily Xelloss admitted
this. "Ambition comes naturally to us. In this case, though, what the
boss wanted was to make a present of Lina-chan's body to L-sama, since
it seems that L-sama REALLY wants Lina-chan's body. And can you blame
-- URK."
SNAKE: That's right, hentai remarks are my domain here.
"Why would Beastmaster Zellas-Metallum do such a thing?"
Serenity's expression was growing more and more severe.
MARS: I don't often see her this upset.
It seemed that Xelloss had begun to sweat. "Well, you see... Ruby-
Eyed Shaburanigido's been DEAD for a while now, and since Lina-chan's
been nice enough to eliminate two of the boss' rivals, she figures that
if she gives Lina-chan to the Lord of Nightmares, L-sama will be so
happy that she'll reward the boss with enough power to take over the
Demon God's job."
MARS: I see the irony here.
SERENA: Huh?
SNAKE: Lina's gone on this mad quest to become a goddess, spirit of space
knows why. But apparently there's heavy doings going on between her and
the Lord of Nightmares, who is "Almighty" for Lina's world. It seems
possible that if she survives this current mess and continues to deal with the
Lord Of Nightmares, she'll eventually achieve that ambition in one form or
another. At the very least, be a goddess's avatar.
"Are you guys demons or a bunch of yakuza?" Priss asked, amazed.
"Hey, it's the underworld either way," Xelloss replied, shrugging.
"URK!"
SNAKE: Sure, but demons have rules.
"I am NOT amused," Serenity announced. "In order to bring about
something which I suspect you yourself view as unlikely in the extreme--
"
"Hey, I do what I'm -- I'll shut up now."
SERENA: See, he's a pretty smart man.
"-- you attached yourself to Lina Inverse's soul, caused her to be
brought to this world by 'accident', warped her ritual so as to cause
her to be sent on her journey, and have corrupted her spirit to cause
her to commit atrocities!"
MARS: So this is all his fault! And you asked me what-
SNAKE: Wait.
"Yes, yes, yes, and who me?"
Serenity paused and glared at Xelloss, who had somehow materialized
a halo around his head. "Are you claiming that you did not guide her
hands when she --"
"Nope," Xelloss replied, grinning. "By that point I was just along
for the ride. Ask her yourself, now that she's conscious again."
SNAKE: Told you. Manipulation, yes. Taking away free choice, no.
Serenity made a quarter-turn --
And the wave of red-gray energy slammed into her, knocking her off
her feet. Xelloss vanished in a puff of smoke the moment that her
fingers released his neck. Reflexively, Priss whirled to target Inverse
SERENA: He always gets away.
with her gauntlet-gun -- and froze as she saw the sorceress.
Lina stood enshrouded in pure, molten power. It melted the stone
beneath her feet, and the air seemed to boil as it struck the nimbus of
energy around her.
MARS: Are we sure that isn't just leftover solar plasma?
"WHAT. DID. YOU. DO. TO. ME?" she shrieked.
SNAKE: Stone Cold Serenity gave her a Lunar Bodyslam, that's what.
Serenity unsteadily pulled herself to her feet. "I... thought that
I would set you free..." she murmured in a dazed tone.
"IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE ANYMORE! IT ALL MADE SENSE,
AND NOW IT
DOESN'T MAKE SENSE! WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?"
MARS: Gave her a shock to the system that seems to have at least partially
started her thinking again. Or at least, that's how I see it.
With her final word, Lina detonated another burst of power in
Serenity's direction -- and Serenity, still weak from the first bolt,
could only stand and watch it come towards her.
SNAKE: Being attacked while momentarily dazed is the leading cause of
death for godlike beings.
But then, something like quicksilver moving too fast to see bounced
against her and seized Serenity up in a leap that took them both out of
the path of the bolt. Lina howled in frustration and prepared to launch
another --
SERENA: If at first you don't succeed...... more power.
"Hey, BITCH." A familiar voice.
And the sound of knuckles being cracked.
Lina's head slowly turned.
SNAKE: Hah-hah! Lina looked.
SERENA: You can be so juvenile.
She was standing on the edge of a fallen pillar. Her hands were
encased in a pair of gloves that left the fingers exposed, and the
sunlight glinted on her mirror shades as the wind blew her long black
coat and the long pony-tail made of her red hair. The shades lowered,
revealing cold, almost black-brown eyes.
MARS: And after umpteen pages, Sheila makes her reappearance. Apparently
she was just waiting for the proper dramatic moment.
"Let's dance," said Sheila Ten'kai.
SERENA: Waltz or Jitterbug?
Lina threw back her head and howled.
SNAKE: She did that before. What, Lina get bit by a werewolf?
"I KILLED YOU! DEADDEADDEADDEAD! WHAT DOES IT
TAKE TO KILL YOU!?"
MARS: Publish her diary on the net. She'll die of embarrassment.
Sheila didn't answer the insane proto-goddess. Instead she simply
charged. Priss could see that her lips were pulled back in a grin she
remembered all too well. The feral grin of a wolf that is going to take
its enemy down no matter the cost.
SNAKE: I've seen the "feral grin of a wolf" before. My usual response is to
give the "clever grin of a monkey" and use a little human intelligence to kick
lupine butt.
SERENA: Shush.
SNAKE: Well I'm just saying...
She had worn that grin more than once and it hurt to see it on
someone she could have loved.
MARS: Oh now I'm sure Priss does love Sheila. She's not in love with her,
but she does love her.
"Excuse me," said a weak voice with a strange accent she could not
place. "Would either one of you be Neo-Queen Serenity?"
SERENA: Psssss. It's probably the one with the moon tattooed on her
forehead.
Priss and Serenity turned and saw what appeared to be Sailor
Mercury. Serenity saw deeper than the surface appearance, however, and
knew who she faced.
"Athena, Senshi Mercury, I presume?" Serenity asked.
SNAKE: (as Athena) At last! Someone knows my name.
"Yes, your majesty. I suggest thou both take cover. Sheila and I
have prepared a possible cure for our solution... if she can keep yon
sorceress distracted a few moments longer...."
SNAKE: Try flashing her. It would distract me.
The Senshi of Ice held a strange device. From its barrel and stock
it appeared to be a gun, but it looked like it had been mixed with a
blender and a vacuum cleaner. A steadily rising hum emanated from the
conglomeration.
MARS: A quickly cobbled together technological masterpiece. Standard
worldsaving device number one.
Lina screamed wordlessly and unleashed another terrible burst of
energy. It hit Sheila dead on... and both combatants screamed in pain.
SERENA: Though Lina was screaming because she just realized that she left
her favorite sword on that world that got blown up.
"What the fuck?" Priss exclaimed.
"Lina is using a very dangerous mode of attack," Serenity said.
"It not only attacks the target, but all who share the target's
archetype..." She frowned at Priss's uncomprehending look. "It attacks
the very core of the being, which is shared by many different people
across time and space... and it would seem that Lina and Sheila share
that archetype."
SNAKE: I don't see the resemblance.
"It's charged!" Athena cried. "Please, get Sheila-chan clear!"
MARS: Would a decrystalizer actually do any harm to a normal human being?
Both Lina and Sheila were slowly getting to their feet as they
watched. With a curse, Priss launched her hardsuit into the air,
swooping down beside Sheila. As she grabbed one of the redhead's arms,
her proximity sensor when off. Swinging her railgun around, she found
it pointed straight at...
Major Misa von Fogler.
The two stared at each other for a moment, then both of them
dragged Sheila off.
SERENA: That segue was kind of pointless.
Athena sighted very carefully down the top of her weapon. She
still did not know where the D-hopper had dropped her and Sheila. They
had appeared on a cosmic junk pile of some sort. A tinker's dream. It
SNAKE: And before they were always complaining about ending up in alleys.
had taken the D-hopper days to recharge to take them home, but they had
made good use of the time. Energy projectors used specifically tuned
crystals to recreate the green energy that had proved so detrimental to
Lina before. At the center of her weapon lay the Star Crystal she had
taken from the world doomed by Metallia. The thought of that world made
Athena wince. If Sheila's comments on their hasty escape from that
world had been harsh, what she had to say about leaving a city and
comrades to die.... After that, they had not spoken until they returned
here.
MARS: I'd complain, but people often do have stupid arguments. That's life.
Sighting carefully on the crystalline sorceress (for her kludge
might not fire more than once) she pulled the trigger.
The night suddenly turned to day.
SERENA: It was nighttime before this?
SNAKE: I didn't pick up on that either.
In the center of the brightness, Lina Inverse screamed. Had her
throat still been flesh and blood, it would have been flayed bloody by
the screams. Everyone, even Serenity, had to avert their eyes.
Athena's visor protected her somewhat, allowing her to see what she had
hoped.
SNAKE: Yes, the Giants were definitely going to win the pennant this year.
Ooops, light dying down. Time to tune the visor back to Lina.
Slowly, one by one, the Silver Empyrean Crystals or Ginzuishous
began to extrude from Lina's body. One... two... three... Lina's body
began to appear as flesh and blood again. Four... five... six... Athena
gasped as Lina's left arm simply turned to dust. Seven... and finally,
SERENA: The bloody wound in her side didn't open back up. Why didn't her
arm come back?
MARS: Drama.
eight. The Inverted Sorceress, now completely human again, collapsed.
It was over. Athena's gun sparked and fizzled, and she dropped it to
her side. It was useless now, but it had already served its purpose.
MARS: (brushing her hands together) That's done. Good show.
"Did we win?" Priss asked, blinking quickly, trying to make the
greenish blobs go away. She needed to talk to Sylia about the flash
compensators on her hard suit, that was for certain.
SNAKE: (as Sylia) The manufacturer takes no responsibility for mystical light
sources.
"Sheila! Sheila, are you OK?" Misa said, holding her loved one
close.
Athena closed her eyes, but one single tear escaped. Someone laid
a hand on her shoulder. Looking up, she found herself staring into the
compassionate eyes of Serenity.
SNAKE: One word. Threesome.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" screamed Lina suddenly.
SERENA: Yeeeessssss!!!!!! That seems like the right response.
All eyes snapped back to the downed sorceress. She was struggling
to her feet. A fiery nimbus surrounded her, with black lightning
crackling along her form.
MARS: Still got some juice left, it looks like.
"Chaos magic! Watch out!" Athena yelled.
One the day that Lina Inverse had arrived on this Earth, she had
attempted to use her magic and learned, the hard way, that it was
unreliable. It either did not work (the most common occurrence) or it
flared wildly out of control. Because of that, she had refrained from
using her magic, for her own safety.
SNAKE: That must have been a bitter pill for her to swallow.
Now, she didn't care.
"COME, MY PRECIOUSES!" she screamed.
SERENA: Now I like a good speech and dramatic scenes and such as much as
anybody... but didn't anyone grab the Crystals?
"NO!" Serenity cried. She tried to summon the Crystals to her, but
her body was still too weak from the blows Lina had dealt her.
SNAKE: I thought Lina only got her like, once. That must have been one
heck of a blast.
As one, the Crystals shot back inside Lina. The insane sorceress
doubled over, but when she straightened, the crystal was already
replacing her flesh, her lost arm reforming.
"NOW, SHEILA, YOU DIE!" Lina screamed, her voice amplified to the
level of thunder.
MARS: Still with the Sheila obsession.
SERENA: Well Sheila was the one calling her names.
"Over my dead body, bitch!" Misa screamed, raising her firearm.
Her shots ricocheted harmlessly off Lina's body to explode in the rubble
surrounding them.
SERENA: That worked real well.
"BAH! YOU ARE AS DUST, SO FAR BENEATH ME!" Lina cried.
"CARRY
THIS HUMILIATION WITH YOU TO THE GRAVE!" She made a
flicking motion
with her finger, sending a white-hot fireball at the Major.
SNAKE: (brightening) Oh, now I get it.
SERENA: What?
SNAKE: Why Lina is talking like that. This is how she thinks powermad
conquerors are supposed to talk.
For Priss, time seemed to stand still. For a split second, it
wasn't Lina facing them, but Largo. There, she had wished for the power
to defeat him and charged recklessly into battle.
Here, she jumped between the blast and Misa, using one arm to send
the Major clear of the attack. Misa didn't land gently, but she was
alive.
MARS: That's fast reaction time.
The fireball struck.
Priss screamed at the tremendous heat. An unprotected human would
have been so much ash if hit by this. As it was, her hardsuit fused
where it stood, its armor half-melted. Mercifully, Priss lost
consciousness before the pain of her burns reached her.
SERENA: But when Lina does that to bandits, they always just end up flying
into the air, looking really scared.
MARS: She's serious this time.
"SHEILA!" screamed Lina, readying another burst.
SNAKE: I'm going back on record with my earlier theory. Lina had a "thing"
for Sheila, even if she didn't admit it.
Sheila stood shakily on her own two feet. Misa was safe, Priss was
alive (she HAD to be alive), Athena was alive, her Queen was alive.
Maybe the few seconds gained by her death at Lina's hands would give
them time to defeat the power mad sorceress, SOMEHOW. She said
nothing,
merely stared her opponent down.
MARS: Draw.
The magic burst from Lina's fingers.
"SHEILA!" screamed Athena. Then the blast hit...
And Sheila was tumbling head over heels, Athena on top of her.
SNAKE: Observe, Serena. This is the magic of our native universe. No matter
how quick on the draw someone is, or how fast the energy blast moves, there
will _always_ be time for someone to throw themselves in front of the blast to
protect somebody else. No matter what positions they all start from. It's
natural law.
"DAMNNIT!" Sheila screamed. "I told you to LEAVE ME ALONE!"
she
shouted. This was the third time Athena had taken the choice to stay
and fight out of Sheila's hands. The first two times had resulted in
the deaths of billions. Sheila shoved Athena off her...
MARS: Now to be really accurate, the first two times didn't result in the
deaths of billions. They resulted in Sheila _not sharing_ the deaths of
billions. Sheila is a little too wrapped up in her ego to understand that.
And gazed into two sightless blue eyes.
Athena had a hole where her chest used to be.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"
SNAKE: Now grin like a wolf again.
MARS: How can you be so insensitive?
SNAKE: Athena left alive, didn't she?
MARS: Yes.
SNAKE: Then no problem.
Suddenly, she was elsewhere. She clasped Athena's body close,
rocking back and forth. How she longed for the power to take back those
harsh words. Now, the ears that needed to hear her apology were forever
deaf.
SERENA: There are always things left unsaid.
"Sheila..." came a faint whisper.
Looking up, Sheila saw the face of her Queen. Serenity, for the
first time that Sheila could recall, looked tired.
MARS: It's been a long day... and it isn't over yet.
"I am sorry, Sheila," Serenity said. "I was too weak... too slow.
I should have taken the Crystals from Lina as soon as they appeared.
Your friend died because of me." I am too used to being subtle,
Serenity thought to herself. The hubris of the gods, thinking only of
pawns and plans, never acting directly. I thought I was above that. I
was wrong.
MARS: I've never heard her think like that.
SNAKE: Ummmm.
Sheila shook her head. It was HER fault that Athena died. She had
taken the mission to stop Lina. She should have left Athena behind with
that Naga person. She should have never let her come along. Never!
SERENA: Sheila's thinking on terms of what she _let_ or didn't _let_ Athena
do. Guess their relationship still has some way to go.
Serenity slumped against a column. They were in the heart of the
Palace. She had tapped into the defense matrix Dean Takakura and his
students had put in place, using it to move herself and Sheila to its
core. Doing so had sapped the last bit of magic. Crystal Tokyo was
defenseless... but, then again, that was the least of their worries.
SNAKE: And then, out of the blue, ninjas attacked!
Her power was slowly returning. She hoped that she had bought
enough time. If it took Lina long enough to find her and her Crystal,
she might have the power to pull off her first plan. The total
destruction of a human soul.
MARS: Guessing Serenity doesn't love it when a plan comes together.
"Where's Lina?" Sheila croaked.
"Outside the palace," Serenity said weakly. "It should take her
several minutes to find us."
SERENA: Which is just a total guess, of course.
"Misa? Priss?"
"They should be safe. Lina Inverse should have no interest in
them. I have what she seeks."
SNAKE: Have I gone crazy, or did Lina try to kill Misa out of pure spite not
too long ago?
"Good... when she gets here, I'm going to kill her."
Serenity looked up at the woman whom Fate had made the child of no
less than three Senshi (two biologically and one by adoption) and shook
MARS: I like to think that we all raised her. She just lived with Lita.
her head.
"I will face her, Sheila... and I will destroy her. She is beyond
your power..." She hesitated for a moment as a stray thought crossed her
mind.
SERENA: Serenity is kind of being a sieve brain today.
Sheila pounced on it. "What!? You know something, don't you?
Something I can do to take that bitch down!"
MARS: (as Serenity) Actually I just remembered I left some clothes in the
dryer.
"No, Sheila..."
SNAKE: And I thought Serenity never lied.
The Palace shook suddenly.
"She's coming," Sheila said, still holding Athena close. "You're
not strong enough yet to do what you have to do, are you?"
Serenity sighed. Destiny, it seemed, was not to be denied. Still,
there was freedom of choice. Even Serena had had a choice, though she
could not have chosen differently without ceasing to be who she was.
SERENA: It's strange and not really fun to have her making remarks like that
about me. What I really wish I'd chosen to do is plan ahead.
Serenity drew in a long breath. "The ancient Romans said that when
Saturn struck down his father Uranus, blood fell from Uranus' wounds to
the sea -- and gave birth to the Erinyes, messengers of Justice." She
SNAKE: But of course, that's a load of superstitious hooey.
produced a pen with a large ball attached to the end, on which could be
seen the symbols of Uranus and Neptune, linked together. "Do you know
of anyone else who was born of the union of heaven and sea, Sheila?"
MARS: Great mystical power suddenly revealed that hasn't been hinted at
until the very moment it's needed. Standard world saving device number two.
SNAKE: Well it is a bit of a cheat, isn't it? The situation comes up and they
can't win with the resources given, so all of a sudden Serenity pulls this out of
nowhere.
Sheila stared at the pen, and knew what it meant. "You mean... I
was a Sailor Senshi in the --"
"No," Serenity said firmly. "You were not, any more than Saturn
was. But like Saturn... you could have been. Erinyes was the name you
were given in that time and place. And you can take up the burden now,
if that is what you wish. But--"
"Yes!" Sheila interrupted, her eyes burning. "I wish it!"
SERENA: Sheila should at least let her finish. It's more warning than "hold
the broach and say Moon Makeup".
Serenity's face was filled with pain. "Sheila, you will find that
the justice of Sailor Erinyes is not what you expect it to be. There is
a reason that your parents decided to keep this from you. Are you SURE
that this is what you want?"
SNAKE: Someone once said that people don't make free choices. They make
constrained choices. Given her current constraints, there aren't a whole lot of
answers Sheila can give.
"YES! Give it to me! Give me the power to lay that bitch LOW!"
Serenity closed her eyes, and held out the pen. "So be it," she
whispered. "I am sorry, Erica, Michelle."
MARS: With Serenity apologizing and trying to lay the responsibility off on
Sheila, I have a feeling this won't be very pleasant.
The walls of the room began to crack.
Sheila took the pen. She could feel the power humming in it.
The wall shuddered.
SERENA: Aaaahhhhh!
MARS AND SNAKE: WHAT, WHAT!???
SERENA: I spilled my popcorn. Sorry.
"ERINYES POWER, MAKE UP!"
It seemed to Sheila that the sky had opened up in all its fury, but
rather than rain falling from the skies, there came blood -- almost
acidic blood to burn away her clothes and scour her flesh. But then the
sensation changed, and she found herself drowning in the blood instead -
- but rather than trying to pull herself up to the oxygen above her like
a sane person, she opened her mouth and drank the blood in. It surged
through her body, changing her in ways that she couldn't imagine.
SERENA: So no pretty lights and sparkly ribbons, then.
The wall fell, the dust swirling around Lina Inverse as she
entered.
And Sailor Erinyes' eyes opened, and she knew who she was.
MARS: A mild-mannered historian?
Her sailor suit had a dark purple skirt and collar with matching
boots. The bow on her chest was teal in color, and choker of the same
color adorned her neck. A golden tiara glittered on her forehead,
mounted with a deep purple amethyst. Emotionlessly, she turned to face
Lina.
SERENA: Uh-oh. Looks like Sheila is letting the magic boss her around
instead of vice versa. That's a really bad idea.
"I am the soldier of Justice and Retribution," Sailor Erinyes said,
"Sailor Erinyes! In the name of the Furies -- I FIND YOU GUILTY!"
SNAKE: Wait. "In the name of the Furies"? Okay, I have to point this out.
Patricide! Patricide off to your left, Sailor Erinyes. You know, one of the big
deal punishments for the Furies. Lina just got a few billion people killed.
Mythologically speaking, you know where your priorities should be.
MARS: Shut-up.
SNAKE: Look, I'm not saying I'd _want_ her to go after Serenity. It's just that
the Furies didn't go in for all the modern justifications and such. You kill
your dad, you're their meat. Simple as that.
SERENA: Well here you are alive, right?
SNAKE: Yyyyyes.
SERENA: And you claim parental stuff for Serenity.
SNAKE: Yes.
SERENA: Well?
Lina stopped to laugh. "So, the Sailor Wannabe finally gets a
chance at bat. A shame you won't get to enjoy... it..."
Sailor Erinyes said nothing, her eyes boring into the proto-
goddess. Her eyes, usually so bright and lively as Sheila, were utterly
cold and dead. Even for one so sunk into madness as Lina, it was a
chilling sight. They were the eyes of a machine... no, even more
implacable than that. If a force of nature could have eyes, these were
the eyes it would have. There was nothing human in those eyes.
MARS: You know, I've seen and done just about everything. Fought demons
and machines and everything in between.
SERENA: We all have. What are you getting at?
MARS: I'm saying I don't find all this non-human force of nature bit
convincing. Human beings are the scariest things there are.
SNAKE: I don't know. humans you can at least understand.
MARS: That's why they're so scary.
Unnerved, Lina raised her hands to attack.
"Mind Scourge!" shouted Erinyes. Suddenly, a golden cat-o-nine-
tails appeared in her hand and flicked out, catching Lina square in the
face.
MARS: So in the end, it all came down to who got off the first shot?
*****
For Lina, the world froze. She experienced a strange doubling of
perception. She could see Erinyes, standing before her, but AT THE SAME
TIME, she could see herself through Erinyes's eyes. Then the present
faded for the past.
SERENA: I think we're about to get a trip inside Lina's mind.
YOU WILL BE JUDGED, came a soundless voice.
SNAKE: No, Judge Dredd! I swear I didn't litter.
Zephelia swam before her eyes. For a moment, she felt a pang of
homesickness for her long lost home. Not lost because of disaster or
calamity, but because the pain was too great to ever think of returning.
MARS: (fake German accent) Lie back and let uzz get to de root uv your
problem. Soom childhood trauma perhaps?
Pain. Death. Rebirth. Pain. Death. Rebirth. Pain. Death. Rebirth.
"NOOOOO!" she screamed.
SNAKE: (to Serena) Next time I scream "Noooooo!", please hit me over the
head and remind me of the dangers of desensitization.
THE ROOT CAUSE, THE NEED FOR POWER AGAINST THE
DEMONS OF CHILDHOOD.
Flicker.
Her Master now, disappearing screaming as he cast one spell too
many.
SERENA: That wouldn't make me lust for magic. Try the next one?
YOU LEARNED THAT THERE WAS NOT ENOUGH POWER IN
THE SAFE ROUTES.
Flicker.
Adventuring now, with Naga. Mipross Island.
BLACK MAGIC BECAME YOUR PATH TO SAFETY.
MARS: Black magic. Safety. Don't hear that too often.
Flicker.
"Noooo..."
Naga was gone now, in a burst of fire. Gourry, Amelia, Zelgadis,
Xelloss...
SNAKE: Slayers roll call!
YOU TRY TO RATIONALIZE THAT YOU ARE FIGHTING FOR
GOOD, BUT IT
SERENA: She does?
ALWAYS COMES DOWN TO POWER. WHEN HURT, EVEN YOUR
'FRIENDS' ARE NOT
SAFE.
Flicker.
Images coming faster now. Seeing Naga again, the same but not the
same, as if what led to the fire never happened. Hurtpainlossbetrayal.
Gourry gone. Amelia gone. Need more power. More magic. MAKE them
come back.
MARS: I feel kind of uncomfortable rummaging through someone's most
private soul like this.
Pause.
SNAKE: But you can't look away, can you?
MARS: No.
POWER IS YOUR ANSWER TO EVERYTHING.
SERENA: (as Lina) Oh yeah? Well Justice is _your_ answer for everything.
Which of us has more dimensions?
Flicker.
The duality of perception was gone, but Lina still felt she was
seeing everything twice. Only now through her own eyes.
Lost on this world, meeting Serenity. Power gone, power lost.
Must get back home, must regain power. Ritual.
MARS: Yes, we've already covered this material.
YOUR LUST FOR POWER OPENS YOU TO EVIL.
That is a secret. Xelloss. Spell goes wrong. Sheila, Athena,
Naga... laugh, old pain. PRECIOUS!
MARS: That about covers it.
YOU HAD NO NEED TO USE THE CRYSTAL.
SNAKE: So really, really, really wanting something doesn't count as a need?
SERENA: No.
SNAKE: Damn.
Hunger. Desire. Don't let go, never let go. Power is mine.
Mine! Naga as a child. Can't kill, mustn't kill... hurt, take away
what she loves.
SNAKE: So she couldn't bring herself to kill Naga.
Flicker.
Sick, dying. Ifurita. Beryl. Images of worlds that are not her
own.
YOU WERE WARNED AND IGNORED THE WARNING.
SERENA: So what agency was doing the warning?
MARS: You never used to worry about questions like that before.
SERENA: I've changed. Grown. No friends or Serenity for backup means I
had to start thinking.
"SHUT UP!" she screamed. But the words ate into her soul.
Flicker. Flicker. Flicker.
SNAKE: Oddly hypnotic, that.
Another precious. All so clear. Power beyond all. No more
hurting, no more pain, no more death. Make it stop! Make it stop!
HOW MANY HURT?
MARS: This wouldn't work nearly so well, or at all, if Lina didn't actually
have a fairly well-developed conscience. Irony.
Flicker. Flicker. Flicker.
A young girl in a hospital bed, terrified of her. Sailor Moon,
trapped in crystal. The bald nun writhing under her scalpel-like hand.
HOW MANY DEAD?
SERENA: We haven't really gotten to Lina's major screw-ups yet.
Flicker. Flicker. Flicker.
The black shape of Metallia filling the sky. The Dragon Slave
rising over a once proud city. Glittering spaceships dying by the
dozens as they face her. Two cities disappearing in balls of fire
rained down from orbit.
HOW MANY DEAD?!
SNAKE: (as Lina) Tell you what, Erinno, I mean -yes. Why don't you go
back and count while I finish messing about with my Preciouses here?
Athena's eyes staring sightlessly at her, her chest missing.
HOW MANY?!?!
"Nooooo....!" Lina croaked. Her guilt, long beaten down into a mere
whisper, surged forward, joining with Sailor Erinyes and giving her
power over the Inverted Sorceress.
LINA INVERSE, I, SAILOR ERINYES, FIND YOU GUILTY... AND I
SENTENCE
YOU TO LIVE.
SERENA: You and what army?
*****
Serenity watched sadly as Erinyes and Lina stood silently, facing
each other. Then, the crystal sorceress began to shake. Her mouth
opened in silent screams as she stood there, unable to move. Then,
Sailor Erinyes spoke, her voice still calm and emotionless.
"Lina Inverse, I, Sailor Erinyes, find you guilty... and I sentence
you to live."
MARS: What sentencing guidelines does Sailor Erinyes use?
Lina collapsed. There was a bright glow around her and, once
again, the Silver Crystals left her body. Soon, there was nothing but
the naked, one-armed form of an all-too mortal Lina Inverse. Sailor
Erinyes collected the Silver Crystals and marched over to Serenity.
SNAKE: They should rename her Sailor Sensible.
"It is done," she said, handing over the eight Crystals. Then,
with a burst of golden light, Erinyes became Sheila Ten'kai again.
SNAKE: She was Sheila Ten'kai all along.
MARS: She was Sailor Erinyes.
SERENA: She was both. But Erinyes can't exist without Sheila and Sheila
can exist without Erinyes. That's the difference.
"I think... I'm going to be sick," Sheila managed to say before
vomiting.
MARS: I suppose it can't mess up the floor any worse.
*****
She stared up at the sunny sky, giggling slightly at the prank
she'd just pulled. Big sister was going to be soooo mad ...
SERENA: Lina?
SNAKE: Think so.
And then something came between her and the sun.
She turned her head, and met her sister's expressionless gaze. A
chill ran down her spine, and she tried to hold onto her smile. "It...
it was just a joke, sis ..."
"Funny," said Luna Inverse, and raised her hand.
SNAKE: Uh-oh.
MARS: What?
SNAKE: I recognize that expression. I can remember seeing it in the mirror.
After it was done, and the flesh had been flayed from her bones for
the third time, and her voice had finally given out from screaming --
SERENA: Guess Luna holds a grudge.
Sheila awoke into the cold heart of the Crystal Palace, and tried
desperately to shake the memory of Lina's nearly sororicidal childhood
from her mind. It didn't belong to her, she had no right to it; it was
no part of her, she was completely different from Lina --
MARS: But she was wrong. If you paid attention, you notice they share an
archetype.
"Hey," came a voice beside her.
She turned to look at Priss Asagiri's burnt red face. For a
moment, the visage of Naga the Serpent hovered over the Knight Sabre's
features... and the tears couldn't be restrained any more. Sobbing, she
threw herself at Priss, clutching at her chest.
SNAKE: So do Naga and Priss share the same archetype?
MARS: Don't even go there.
After the agony of the contact faded to a dull ache, Priss found
herself wondering what the appropriate response should be. She settled
for closing her eyes, resting a gloved hand on Sheila's head, and lying
her ass off. "It's gonna be okay," she repeated over and over. The
hell of it was that Sheila knew it was bullshit.
SERENA: Next to the world being destroyed, a whole lot of things suddenly
look "okay".
After a few moments, Sheila found the strength to recount the final
act of the drama of Lina Inverse's quest for godhood, and showed Priss
her personal memento of the final battle.
SNAKE: Let me guess. With all those Crystals, she figured no one would
miss just one....
> "Well, that should do for the jerks who keep calling you Sailor
Wannabe, huh?" Priss attempted to joke as she looked at the
transformation pen.
SERENA: Wrong.
Sheila shook her head. "I never want to be HER again. It was
like... like I was WATCHING it on a movie screen, begging her to show a
little mercy --"
MARS: No mercy? Then surely Erinyes was misnamed and is no Senshi of
Justice. Justice can't exist without mercy, for it must ever consider the needs
of the individual against the debt owed to society.
"Say what? Sheila, considering what I'VE heard about this whole
crock you got dragged into, she got off --"
"The only reason that Lina's alive," Sheila interrupted angrily,
"is that Erinyes thought that life with her memories was a more painful
punishment than death would be. It was just like when she was a child -
MARS: So sentencing guidelines were the most painful punishment huh?
Remind me not to go to Sailor Erinyes for justice.
- the only reason her sister let her live was that she wanted Lina to
spend the rest of her life in fear of her. Cruelty saved her, not
compassion." Sheila shook her head. "If I have my way, I'll never be
Sailor Erinyes again."
SERENA: Maybe she could sort of work her way up to getting Erinyes under
control. You know, start by punishing litterbugs and practice till Sheila can
force Erinyes to let them off with a warning.
MARS: No, I'm afraid we'll never see the transformation pen again. Or hear
it mentioned. Or its existence in any way acknowledged. Like it was wiped
out of history. No matter how desperate the situation Sheila finds herself in.
SERENA: How do you know?
MARS: Call it a hunch.
Priss wanted to grab Sheila's shoulders and shake them while
screaming her head off -- ANYTHING to get her once-lover to stop making
the same damn mistakes that Priss had made after losing Sylvie. She
held back. Some lessons could only be learned the hard way.
SERENA: Like actual studying or something.
Guess I'd make a good queen after all, she realized with quiet
annoyance. Go fig.
SNAKE: A good counselor maybe. I'm still not willing to concede her skill at
queening.
"And it was all for nothing, anyway," Sheila said suddenly. "All I
was hoping for was a chance to make Lina hurt after what she did to --"
She broke off, and for a moment Priss thought that Sheila was going to
break down in tears again. "It'll never be enough," she said quietly.
"Nothing that I can do will be enough ... I'm never going to be able to
tell her how sorry I am ... how much I --"
"Really?"
MARS: Yes really.
SERENA: Really?
MARS: Yes really.
SNAKE: Really?
MARS: Most sincerely.
*****
Athena looked out into the warm darkness without much curiosity.
The only thing that she could wonder was how long she was going to be
imprisoned here.
SNAKE: Don't think of it as a prison. Think of it as a waiting room.
Her memories of her death were confused, but she was quite certain
that it had happened, and that it had been quite distressingly
permanent. She found herself oddly relieved by that. Her life was a
burden to so many people that --
MARS: Sort of makes you want to slap her, doesn't it?
Something began to pulse in the darkness. Quite suddenly, a great
glowing materialized before Athena, and she knew with a certainty that
she was being observed.
SNAKE: I remember a time I thought I was being watched all the time.
Eventually I figured out that most of the lights were just streetlamps.
"You Have Caused Me Inconvenience," the Lord of Nightmares stated,
imprinting the knowledge of what she was into the mind of the
immediately terrified ghost. "Only One Other Has Caused Me Such
Inconvenience, And He Was Spared My Wrath Only Because The One
Whom I
Want Asked It. She Has Not Asked Me To Spare You." The Lord of
Nightmares paused to let the implications of that sink in. "I Cannot
Make You Suffer For Eternity, But I Can Make You Suffer For A Very,
Very
Long Time. And I Shall."
SERENA: Well that's on the top ten list of things you don't want to hear when
you're dead. Just below, well not below anything really, but just above "Dibs!"
SNAKE: That Lord of Nightmares is really petty. I can't actually pinpoint
what trouble Athena caused her, either. Caused the one she wants some
trouble, but I don't see how Lina ascending to a Crystalline godhood would
have helped the LoN.
Athena closed her eyes and waited for the pain to begin as the Lord
of Nightmares began to move towards her --
MARS: Rule one is never give up.
TAP. TAP. TAP.
The Lord of Nightmares had no shoulder, so it would be incorrect to
say that she turned to look over her shoulder at the person tapping on
her shoulder. She DID alter the focus of her perceptions, however.
SERENA: Kind of reminds me of a schoolkid that the teacher just caught
passing notes.
MARS: A schoolkid?
SERENA: Alright, me.
I WOULDN'T DO THAT IF I WERE YOU, Death suggested politely,
shifting the scythe easily in his right hand.
"She Has Caused Me Inconvenience."
I BELIEVE THAT I COULD CAUSE YOU MORE, Death replied, and
then used
the name that the Lord of Nightmares had borne when she, the smallest
and least menacing of the Adversary's host, had fled the Defender's
fury when the universe had been young.
SNAKE: Lucy. (English translation).
And the Lord of Nightmares fled again.
The entire interaction had taken place at a rate quite beyond
Athena's senses, and she still had her eyes closed when she heard a
gentle voice inquire, "Are you okay?"
Athena opened her eyes to stare in mild bewilderment at the young
woman standing a few feet away from her. Her hair was a bright red-
auburn, and she wore a white sundress that complimented her generally
unremarkable physique. She smiled quietly at Athena.
SNAKE: I'd make a hentai remark, but you just don't talk that way about
Death's main squeeze.
"No," Athena replied uneasily, "I am not okay. I am dead. Who are
ye?"
MARS: Point for Athena.
"You can call me Patricia," the woman replied, and lifted an
eyebrow. "And I don't think you're dead."
"But I remember dying," Athena protested. "I ... it hurt, but it
ended ... so I must be dead."
SERENA: There's kind of a compelling logic there.
"Oh, I don't doubt that you died," Patricia assured her. "I just
don't think you're going to STAY dead. You're a Sailor Senshi, right?
They have a tendency to come back."
SERENA: Ahem.
Athena blinked. "I have never heard of such a tendency."
MARS: We don't like to brag.
Patricia smiled broadly. "Trust me. I know what I'm talking
about. Magical girls ... people think that they only reflect the stuff
that girls go through during adolescence, but there's something much
more primal about them. They represent the constant possibility of
rediscovering one's youth. We can't turn back the hands of time -- but
we can pretend that they never moved forward. That's part of the
secret, you see?"
MARS: (taking out her notepad again) Keep talking.
When Patricia had begun to speak, Athena had begun to feel tired.
As she heard the question, Athena felt as though she could just barely
keep her eyes open. "Whaa ... seecret?" she asked blearily.
"The secret of being a child," Patricia replied, and her voice
seemed to be coming across a great distance, "is never to know that, one
day, you will die. The secret of being an adult is ..."
SNAKE: Finish the sentence. FINISH THE SENTENCE! Dang, now I'll
never know how to be an adult.
MARS: Try learning on the job like I did.
And Athena slept.
And Athena awoke.
Serenity pulled her hands back from the pale white skin that had
grown over the wound on the Senshi's stomach, and smiled faintly at
Athena's confused expression.
SERENA: At least she's got the advantage over _someone_ that day.
"Did I not die?" asked the senshi from another place and time.
"You did," Serenity replied. "But the soul of a Sailor Senshi is
more robust than a normal person's soul -- and I worked quickly to heal
your injuries. I shall not claim that it was easy, but you are alive."
SNAKE: Looks like I'm going to have to start pumping soul iron.
MARS: I wouldn't worry. What with all the stitches and such, your soul's got
to be pretty tough.
The queen helped the senshi to her feet, and pointed her in the
direction of the door out of the chamber where her body had lain in
state. "Go now," Serenity urged. "Sheila is in the room down the
corridor."
MARS: (sarcasm) Let's just hope she isn't too disappointed. After all, your
life is a "burden" to so many.
Athena started towards the door -- then paused. "But she -- she
MUST hate me, now. Thrice did I fling myself at her to keep her from
danger, and she did tell me that she did not wish it to happen again
after the first time. How can I --"
"Athena of the Royal House of Vulcan," Serenity announced in the
formal language of Mars -- Athena's Mars, not her own -- "thou didst not
SNAKE: Parlor trick.
SERENA: A really neat parlor trick.
see the manner in which Sheila didst weep over your body when she
believed that thou hadst purchased her life with thine own. In truth,
she hates herself much more than she could or would ever hate thyself.
Go unto her, I pray thee, at once!" Into that final word, Serenity
poured all the nuances of command that she had learned over her life.
SERENA: Wonder if I could sound like that if I practice a little. At once. At
once! At once?
Athena bolted.
She is worse than Raye ever was, Serenity thought. I dread to
MARS: Hey!
imagine what HER counterpart must be like. Some people WILL not seize
joy when it is offered to them ... which brings me to the next subject.
She turned to the figure curled up in the corner of the chamber, and did
her best to harden her heart.
SNAKE: If we could but look into the secret hearts of our enemies, surely we
would find there pain and suffering enough to erase all hatred. A general said
that.
"Lina Inverse, you and I must have words."
Meanwhile, Athena sped down the hallway, and came to a sudden stop
at the door. She closed her eyes, drew in a deep breath, and looked in.
SERENA: Doesn't she have to open the door first?
Sheila was seated on the floor, facing away from the door, very
near to another woman with dark brown hair and oddly glowing skin.
Athena felt an unfamiliar, possessive feeling in her heart at the
closeness between them, and wondered if this could be jealousy.
MARS: I guess not. X-ray vision.
"It'll never be enough," Sheila muttered. "Nothing that I can do
will be enough ... I'm never going to be able to tell her how sorry I
am... how much I --" The words seemed to catch in her throat.
"Really?" Athena asked.
MARS: Yes really.
SERENA: Let's not start this again.
For a moment, nothing moved. Then with a slowness that seemed
almost glacial, Sheila turned to look back at her with an expression
that flowed from disbelief to amazement to sheer joy.
And then words came from her lips. "oh thank you goddess," she
whispered.
SERENA: (as Serenity) Well it was nothing really.
MARS: All miracles are unexpected, else they wouldn't be miracles.
And then Athena was caught up in an embrace that made the last time
Sheila had grabbed hold of her seem like a single caress. Great sobbing
heaves moved through the body of the red-haired Senshidottir, and Athena
wasn't greatly surprised to realize that she had begun to cry herself.
SNAKE: I'm moved. Honestly. They really have built something here.
The other woman in the room simply raised an eyebrow at this
display, then shrugged. She came unsteadily to her feet, and tossed off
a quick salute to the pair of them (which was witnessed only by Athena)
before heading out the door.
MARS: Contrary to what you might hear, Priss _does_ know when to quietly
excuse herself.
"I seriously thought you were dead," Sheila babbled after a moment.
"I ... my first thought, after I realized ... 'Goddess, I've probably
screwed up the entire course of some world's history.'"
SERENA: Oh Sheila, you romantic, you.
SNAKE: (snort) As if history had a course to be screwed up.
"Thou didst no such thing, my precious one," Athena contradicted.
"I forged mine own destiny, though with scant thought to how it might
pain thee. I have not acted in a loving manner towards thee, Sheila-
chan. Canst thou forgive me?"
MARS: Hugs all around.
SERENA: Glad to! (hugs Mars)
"Goddess, what a question!" Sheila laughed. "Of course I forgive
you, I l--"
"Ahem," Serenity interrupted.
SNAKE: She really knows how to spoil a mood.
They jerked apart reflexively, as Sheila turned to look towards her
Queen -- and started to realize that Lina was standing just behind
Serenity, with her head bowed and the cape of her usual outfit draped
over the stump of her arm.
MARS: Quite the penitent.
"I regret to inform you both," Serenity began, "that the task which
you have set for yourselves is not yet over."
SERENA: Couldn't they take a couple of days off first? What with all the time
travel, it really should make any difference.
MARS: No shirking duty.
"But ... we caught her, right?" Sheila asked. "
"The Plutos of each particular world art able to repair what damage
was done to the timestream?" Athena echoed.
"Pluto?" Serenity asked.
The Sailor Soldier of Time stepped out from behind Athena and
Sheila. "Unfortunately, Sheila, we cannot. There are two powers that
SNAKE: Don't you hate it how she jumps out of nowhere like that?
are forbidden to the majority of Sailor Plutos across the continuum.
The first is the ability to selectively stop time, and it CAN be used if
the Pluto involved is careful. But the other -- that of completely
reversing the flow of time such that it runs backwards to a point, and
then resumes its normal course -- CANNOT be used by a Pluto."
SERENA: Looks like they had better go find someone with a time machine,
then. I know this nice man with a police call box....
"So who can use ... this ... power?" Sheila asked, slowing down as
stories that her mother had told her caught up to her.
"I gather that you have guessed, Sheila. I am permitted to act in
such a manner on MY world. Serena accomplished it once, and I have done
SERENA: Beryl. Sort of.
it as well ... under circumstances that I do not care to discuss,"
Serenity added quickly to forestall discussion. "The difficulty lies in
the fact that none of my counterparts has ever attempted to thusly
affect a different timeline. Pluto, you stated that you would discuss
the situation with your Council --"
MARS: (as Sheila) Council? What council?
Pluto nodded. "I have. They are appalled and shocked that you
would even think of doing such a thing, and urged me in the strongest
possible terms to stop you."
SNAKE: (as Pluto) I told them I had a cold and probably couldn't manage it.
Serenity lifted an eyebrow. "And were the voices speaking against
it those who have been affected by this tragedy?"
"No, but --"
MARS: --they had a couple of studies backing them up.
"Of course not," Serenity continued in a deceptively mild tone.
"It is always easiest for those who have never experienced a thing to
legislate against steps to deal with it. Very well. I will not be
bound by their decisions. I am bound only by my conscience, and by my
given word. If you attempt to stop me, Pluto --"
SNAKE: Which is why Serenity is such a dangerous, if pleasant and sunny,
creature.
SERENA: I'm bound by handcuffs, rope, and other instruments of restraint
myself. Well, when I'm taken prisoner anyway.
"I shall not, Your Majesty. I cannot aid you, nor even wish you
well, but I will not stand in your way."
MARS: In other words, break a leg.
"Very wise. I shall nonetheless require the Garnet Staff from you,
to facilitate what follows."
Pluto bowed her head in reply as Serenity turned to look at Sheila
and Athena once more. "My plan is exceedingly dangerous, and I cannot
ask for your aid, Sheila -- as I swore never to ask you to endanger
yourself, when you became my Palladin. I am not thusly bound in your
case, Athena, but I will not ask --"
MARS: I almost think Serenity would love to have someone surprise her once
and refuse.
"Save it, your Majesty," Sheila interrupted wearily. "I'm in this
one for the long haul."
SERENA: I guess it would be a shame for them not to see it through to the
end. What could go wrong?
"Wither she goest, I goeth," Athena affirmed.
SNAKE: A vow if I ever heard one.
Serenity smiled faintly. "I really do wonder what it would be like
to hear someone refuse to continue after hearing those words ... in any
MARS: Toldja. And I didn't read ahead.
event," she continued, turning to look over her shoulder at Lina, "Ms.
Inverse has given her consent to the plan, which is fortunate, since we
could not proceed without her."
MARS: When Serenity pulls you off into a private corner to have words, you
often find yourself "consenting".
Serenity reached within a fold of her gown, and produced the
various Silver Crystals one-by-one, setting each to float in the air
before her. "While THESE each contain a part of the pattern of each of
the dimensions we must visit, Ms. Inverse alone has visited all of them
-- and so is the only one who can guide us. She shall escort us through
time and space, and I shall provide the power to do what must be done in
each world."
SERENA: Tour the dimensions on eight Silver Crystals a day.
"And what are we supposed to do?" Athena asked.
"You are to keep an eye on Ms. Inverse, since I do not even
remotely trust her to not make an attempt to seize ahold of the power we
will be using."
SNAKE: Oh, I think Lina learned her lesson. For the next couple of days at
least.
Sheila tried to ignore the faint shudder that ran through Lina's
frame as the Queen said those damning words. "Okay ... well, then we
might as well get started, right?"
Serenity nodded. "Pluto? The Staff?"
SNAKE: (as Pluto) I left it back in my ro- Oh, you mean the Garnet Staff.
Pluto opened her mouth, perhaps to lodge some pro forma protest --
which died as she saw the look in Serenity's eyes. Wordlessly, she
handed her staff to the Queen.
MARS: She's really good at the eyes bit. Funny how I don't usually notice
that.
SNAKE: I'm going to go back and practice my "cold depths of the void" gaze
some more.
Serenity held the staff in silence for a moment, staring at the
nine crystals circling before her. Then she opened her mouth, and began
to speak. "COSMIC ... MOON ..."
"Wait!" Sheila interrupted. "Wait, wait, wait ..."
SERENA: Getting interrupted in the middle like that is _so_ frustrating.
Serenity turned to look at her with a put upon expression. "Yes?"
"Um ... this --" Sheila said, holding up the indigo Rainbow Crystal
she'd seized on the "Nazi" world.
Serenity blinked, then turned to glare at Lina. "Would you care to
produce the OTHER six?"
MARS: Inverse was holding out. Boy, she just has no shame.
SERENA: Let's be kind and assume she just forgot in all the excitement.
For a long moment, Lina did nothing. Then, slowly and grudgingly,
she produced the Silence Glaive -- on which were still mounted the other
six crystals.
"Pluto, would you be so kind as to return that Glaive to its proper
owner?" Serenity asked, not QUITE clenching her teeth. "As to the
Rainbow Crystals ... well ..." She closed her eyes.
MARS: Lina is a rare talent. I've seen few people able to tick Serenity off
quite so thoroughly. Any more and we might get another chance to see the
Lunar Bodyslam.
The six Rainbow Crystals attached to the glaive, and the one in
Sheila's hand, vanished. They reappeared at the center of the circle of
Silver Crystals.
"And we must return the crystal I used in mine weapon," Athena
said.
SNAKE: Quite a pile when you look at it all at once.
"Right," Serenity said, and the Star Crystal appeared as well.
"Now, unless there are any other objections --" There were none.
"COSMIC -- MOON -- POWER!"
And all four vanished.
SERENA: Mission onwards.
*****
Elsewhere.
~So where are we, anyway?~ Sheila heard herself asking before she
realized that she didn't have a voicebox or a throat.
SNAKE: Not my favorite body parts, but I sure would miss them if they were
gone.
/We are in a place where the body cannot go,/ Serenity replied.
/It is a space between all possible worlds, akin to that used by the
Plutos as their vacation spot, yet different. Here there is nothing,
but anywhere can be reached from here. Do you understand?/
Silence.
MARS: No.
SERENA: Not really.
SNAKE: I got a glimmering, but....
^I believe that I do,^ Athena replied.
ALL: Brainiac.
/All right. Then ... let us begin. Ms. Inverse --/
*There,* came the sullen reply. *That one is closest.*
MARS: Kind of hard to tell where she's pointing.
/Yes, it is ... small wonder, since it is a direct divergence from
my own world. COSMIC -- MOON -- POWER!/
SERENA: Or from another point of view, our world is a divergence of that
one.
* * *
September 13, 2000
The first snowfall of the season began to descend around the
headless corpse of Beryl, First Mage of the Kingdom of Earth. Nearby
To the tune of "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner".
SNAKE: Beryl, the headless first mage of earth....
lay the unconscious or beaten forms of her world's Sailor Senshi and
Magic Knights. There was a complete silence, far more weighty than that
of the tomb.
And then the silver curtain swept across the world, and time moved
backwards. Snow fell upwards. Beryl's head appeared from the burst of
plasma that had consumed it, and rested on her shoulders once more --
before she fell jerkily to the ground once again. Throughout, there was
no sign of her attacker.
SERENA: I won't even ask why not. It would just make my head hurt.
SNAKE: Ah, couldn't they pull it back a little further? Long enough to
trounce Ourranos with nine Silver Crystals? I mean, as long as they're
mucking around anyway.
MARS: Doesn't seem to work. I guess this world just isn't built for a happy
ending.
SERENA: Now wait. Here I'm only stuck wrestling with Ourranos for
"forever". But if there's one thing I know, it's that forever is a long time and
nothing really lasts that long. In theory all they have to do is figure out an
alternate way to take Ourranos down, summon him and my counterpart up
from where they are, and blast away. Maybe in a thousand years when they
get their Silver Crystal back.
MARS: You really are the eternal optimist.
SERENA: But it could be!
SNAKE: Many things "could be"..... But you are right about one thing.
Where there's life, there's hope. Take a look.
The silver curtain fell away, and Beryl lay where she had fallen
after Sailor Mars' fist slammed into her face, and the soldier of fire
told her to rot in hell.
Yes, she thought dully, that seems most likely. I will rot in
hell.
MARS: This is hope?
SNAKE: Further down!
Idly, she wondered when the spiderweb of cracks on the crystal
coffin of the Inverse woman would shatter the thing. It was only a
matter of time.
Time passed, and nothing happened but the silent snowfall. Slowly
and unsteadily, Beryl rolled up into a seated position. She noticed as
she did that Ryuuzaki Umi stood nearby, her face a mask.
SERENA: When nobody conveniently walks up and kills you, eventually you
have to roll over and face the pain.
"Are you going to hit me, too?" Beryl asked the Magic Knight,
remembering that of the three of them, Umi had always seemed closest to
Hikaru -- the one that Beryl had --
Umi shook her head once. "She wouldn't want that. NEITHER of them
would have wanted that." From nowhere, Umi produced a coat. "Come on.
Turn back to normal, and let's go home."
MARS: What does she mean, "normal"? Who's to say which state is normal?
Beryl closed her eyes once more --
/Serenity stared at her, and smiled. "It's alright, sister. I
knew, in the end. I loved you. Try to be happy. You have a long, hard
road ahead of you ... but try to be happy./
SERENA: Serena's addendum. And if you can, how about making the
occasional effort to spring your sister. I know I'll be trying for the permanent
pin on dear old dad.
-- the eyes of Osaka Naru snapped open.
"What's wrong?" Umi asked, at once apprehensive. Everything that
could go wrong that day had gone wrong ... or so it seemed. Perhaps
there remained some things which could go wrong.
"You're right," Naru murmured. "She wouldn't want that." She
arose, and let Umi put the coat around her shoulders. "Come on," she
said then, "there is work to be done, and we are the only ones left to
do it."
MARS: (to Snake) Not sure if it's hope, but a new start anyway.
Umi stared at the sorceress for a moment. "You don't mind if we
get some help from those idiots in Tomobiki-cho, do you?"
MARS: As long as you recall that they are idiots.
*****
~Beryl was your SISTER?~
MARS: That's what I said.
^Astonishing ... Beryl, the wife of the Warrior King of Atlantis,
you mean?^
/The same person can fill very different roles in different worlds,
Athena. Now, Ms. Inverse .../
*Uh ... that one, with the ... the guy who turns into a girl. I
took a crystal from there, and --*
SERENA: We get to see Ranma again.
/COSMIC -- MOON -- POWER!
*****
199X
Saotome Ranma had ALMOST recovered from his ... er, HER panic
attack earlier that morning. But no matter how hot the water she used
to douse her body, the expected transformation to his natural male form
failed to materialize.
SNAKE: Luckily, a wave of power from some time traveling meddlers _was_
due to material any second.
Granted, this was not the first time that this had happened, and
granted, this would make it much easier for him to help out the Sailor
Senshi, since he wouldn't have to pause to change before he changed --
except that she couldn't make the transformation to Shin Sailor Moon
without the Silver Crystal, so she was just plain screwed anyway that
she looked at it.
SNAKE: I've had years like that.
And so Ranma crept into her room, shoved her father off the
blankets that he was hogging, and closed her eyes to try to sleep.
/Serenity shook her head in mild amusement. "I should not be
surprised to see you there, Saotome-san. You always manage to weave
your way into my story, when we exist in the same world. In any event,
MARS: Saotome, of course, would say it's the other way around.
here." She extended the Silver Crystal of this world towards the sexual
polymorph. "Hold onto this for me just a little longer ... I am sure
that your struggles will end soon."/
SERENA: Let's see... I got injured... Family put me in hospital.... Ranma's
holding it for me.... Family.... Raye, what happened to my family?
MARS: What?
SERENA: You aren't going to put me off again. What did Serenity tell my
family after I.... ummm, died.
MARS: (looking _very_ nervous) Actually Serenity thought it best to make a
clean break... no further contact or anything.
SERENA: Nothing!?
MARS: There were good reasons-
SERENA: Not a visit, not a phone call, not a letter, not even sending some
flowers, not an e-mail, not faking up any kind of explanation at all? Nothing?
MARS: What was Serenity supposed to say? "Your daughter died so I could
be born"? "The reason that your kid's body was recovered was because I used
it as a cocoon"? How could she-
SERENA: Cocoon?
SNAKE: (breaking in suddenly and loudly) Oh-look-at-that! Is that you
Xelloss? (pointing randomly away)
SERENA: (looking off in the distance) Where?
SNAKE: (leaning to whisper to Mars) Ixnay on the gruesome details. I never
saw fit to tell her _everything_.
SERENA: I don't see anything.
SNAKE: Must have been mistaken.
MARS: (rushing the conversation forward) Anyway, look Serena. We were
all hurting and we didn't want to deal with it and it seemed like the best idea
at the time and there's no going back and changing it now. Okay?
SERENA: I guess. But if I ever get the chance to talk with Serenity, we're
going to have words about that.
Ranma's eyes snapped open. The first thing he noticed was that he
was a guy again. The second thing he realized was that Pop had shoved
him off the blankets. And then he realized that he was holding the
Silver Crystal again.
"YES!" he crowed. "Thank you, Queen Serenity or whoever you were!"
SERENA: (as Serenity) You're quite welcome.
The door slid open, and a bleary eyed Tendou Nabiki successively
threw a sign that read "Make less noise in the morning", a pot of cold
water, and a mallet in Ranma's direction. Ranma returned to the realm
of femininity and unconsciousness.
SNAKE: Definitely one of those days.
*****
/That didn't require much editing, thankfully. Next?/
^Wait -- that world there seems familiar -- isn't that my world?^
/I believe so. It has certain similarities to the world that
Sheila and I are from, though they stem from different beginnings --/
MARS: No Things from the Outer Darkness in our world. At least, not that I
know of.
^I would return the Crystal of that world myself, an it please
thee, Your Majesty. No other changes need be made, so --^
/All right. COSMIC -- MOON -- POWER!/
SERENA: An easy one.
*****
c. 23,000 BCE
Self-doubt is a natural enough emotion. Unfortunately, many people
can ill-afford it. At the moment, the group of such people included the
MARS: But it's still cheaper than abject terror, and a bargain at the price.
Elder Sailor Mercury. It is generally agreed that embarking on a
dangerous plan -- say, one to create a fake Silver Crystal, as Sailor
Mercury was attempting -- was not the moment to begin doubting one's
abilities.
SNAKE: A fake Silver Crystal? I like this woman's style.
Yet she couldn't help herself. Only a few minutes after her junior
counterpart had vanished and Sailor Pluto had made her ominous
pronouncement, Mercury had experienced a tearing pain in her stomach
that left her incapacitated for nearly an hour. When she returned to
SERENA: What's that, an ulcer?
her senses, the doubt had begun even as she realized that she would need
to come up with an interim solution to the problem of the Crystal being
gone.
MARS: Fess up to everything and beg forgiveness?
SNAKE: Unlikely. This isn't Crystal Tokyo, or even our Silver Millennium.
Still, despite the confused emotions she felt, the plan was
proceeding apace. All she really needed to do was pour enough power
into the Crystal Forging Matrix, and keep an eye on it. Very soon it
would yield a flawless crystal of roughly the same size, shape, and
other physical features of the Silver Crystal -- while lacking any of
SERENA: Which used to change shape and size all the time, so I don't know
what's up with that.
its non-physical aspects. The deception would never stand up to careful
scrutiny, but who would look too closely at something like that anyway?
MARS: Who other than Mercury, that is.
Now why, thought Mercury, does the thought of using more power not
give me as much of a thrill as it might? Her brow furrowed, she closed
her eyes.
SNAKE: Guilt. Bane of exploratory science.
^"Please be careful with this, my mentor," Athena said quickly,
holding out the Silver Crystal. "I have seen first hand what can arise
from its unwise usage. I advise thee to return it to its place at
once."^
SERENA: Where it will sit safe and sound until the Silver Millennium get
blown up in a few years.
SNAKE: I realize things have been pretty hectic, but Athena and Sheila did
spend three days on that junkheap. And they weren't talking for the end of it.
But before that, did Sheila get around to giving Athena a little warning about
the possible fate awaiting her home? Is there any possible reason not to warn
her?
MARS: I don't know.
She lifted one eyelid, and stared at the Silver Crystal hovering in
front of her for a second. Then she seized it swiftly, and dashed off
towards the vault where the artifact ought to be stored.
SERENA: With all these vaults and security grids, I'm starting to feel a little
guilty about keeping it in my dresser drawer so many years.
In doing so, of course, she forgot about the Crystal Forging
Matrix, which soon overloaded and exploded, more-or-less ruining that
wing of the palace. But that's another story.
SNAKE: No doubt blowing up labs is part of her standard methodology.
*****
*Huh. She looked like me.*
^Yes; however, she has SOME sense.^
MARS: How many characters in this story could these two sentences be
applied to?
Lina didn't bother to reply.
/Next?/
*Uh ... well, that one with the big city is closest, now ...*
SERENA: They all have big cities.
/MOON ... COSMIC ... POWER!/
SERENA: She likes shouting that, doesn't she? I do to.
* * *
2095 AD
SNAKE: The waning years of the 21st century.
Evening had fallen over the remains of Hyper-Tokyo, as UEF rescue
teams continued to pour through the ruined arcology towers in faint hope
of finding survivors. By this point, however, their primary duty had
become far more grisly -- that of recovering and identifying corpses.
New Youma Citadel had predictably denied any involvement with the
disaster, but the faintly frantic note in the denials had observers
MARS: Sort of a "we didn't do it, but we kind of wish we had" sort of thing?
confused. Opinions were mixed; some argued that it indicated that the
disaster was the result of some Youma superweapon which had worked far
more effectively than expected, while others suggested that the Youma
were terrified that they might be the next victims.
SERENA: Or maybe they're a little lost without opposition to Hyper-Tokyo
defining their existence.
Neo-Queen Serenity knew better, but she also knew that for her to
reveal the true cause of the disaster would only cause her to lose what
little political credibility she had left. A single extradimensional
invader wreaking that much havoc? Impossible.
SNAKE: Better to just tell everyone it was the mole people living beneath the
earth. That they'll buy.
So all that she could do was stand by and watch as the rescue teams
brought out the dead, and quietly weep.
And then she heard a new cry, and looked up to see a silver curtain
descending from the sky. For only a moment, she wondered whether this
might be a new threat --
MARS: To quote: Not a threat. A promise.
And then she heard the sound of wings.
In the moment before the silver curtain swept over her, she found
the breath to whisper "thank you."
SERENA: Let's hope nobody got around to doing anything important in this
timeline.
Kadokawa Misa took a deep breath and tried not to yawn. It was a
slow night at the underground headquarters of the Magical Girl Corps.
For once, the youma seemed to be content to skulk in the shadows, rather
than draining the energy of HyperTokyo's inhabitants and producing huge
amounts of property damage.
Not that the local magical girl team didn't cause its share of the
latter.
SNAKE: Hmmmmm. Maybe Lina could do community service as a magical
girl. What do you think?
Misa paused in her consideration of the problems that the Exquisite
Soldiers were at once solving and causing ... and wondered why she felt
as though someone had just walked over her grave.
She had no way of knowing that the same sensation afflicted almost
every other person in the megacity at that moment.
MARS: I wonder what a fire reading in that universe would show.
*****
~So they'll never even know we were there. Ah well. Small price
to pay.~
SERENA: Maybe not a good idea to attract their attention anyway. They
might decide to visit.
/Next?/
*I ... I didn't ... uhhh ... th-that one.*
~Lina --~
/MOON ... COSMIC ... POWER./
SNAKE: (as Sheila) Lina doesn't seem eager to grab any more power. I'd say
we've been pretty useless so far.
MARS: (as Athena) At least we're getting the powermad maniac's tour of the
dimensions.
* * *
Quite Recently, as Such Things Go.
On the plus side, the Silver Crystal was gone, and whatever weird
disruptions had been afflicting his own powers had ceased as well. But
on the minus side, Sailor Moon was encased in crystal, and the other
Sailor Senshi were glaring at him in a way that gave him to suspect that
they felt he had something to do with it.
SNAKE: This is the one you two skipped.
On the whole, Emerald had known better days.
"Look, I really don't know anything --"
MARS: Plausible deniability.
"Please," interrupted Sailor Mars. "You show up just as things go
bad, and you expect us to think you had nothing to do with it? You're
even carting around a crystal!"
SERENA: (to Mars) Masterful detective work.
MARS: I'm young, okay.
"This doesn't even look like the crystal she's in, now does it?" he
snapped back, annoyed at the faint feeling of deja vu that Rei's words
aroused in him.
SNAKE: Everything gives this guy deja vu.
And then one of the two cats -- the male, he thought -- looked up
at the sky and let out a stunned gasp. Like good little drones, the
Senshi turned to look as well.
Emerald was embarrassed to realize that he did the exact same thing
MARS: Tee-hee.
-- but the sensation fled as he caught sight of the silver curtain
descended towards him, and his own cells began to scream from the
sensation of six Silver Crystals drawing nigh --
/"You really annoy me," Serenity said, and returned to her
objective./
SERENA: She is just in a really rotten mood, isn't she?
SNAKE: Ah, it's only fair. She annoys him even more.
Emerald leaned against the park bench, his eyes closed. His face
was relaxed as he drew power from the elements. The soft wind blowing
through his hair and ruffling his slightly grimy, now off-white shirt.
The electricity from the nearby sputtering streetlights. The steady
heartbeat of the earth beneath him, the gently swirling water of the
large park lake...
MARS: The kinetic energy of the rock some kid threw, about to hit his head...
His face was relaxed from his energy meditation, his body semi-
limp, although still tense enough to spring to a defense if needed. His
senses, the mystical ones that had little to do with sight or touch or
any such mundane workings, reached out, gently touching the auras of
every living thing around him, making him feel like a part of his
surroundings for once, instead of some sort of forever-outsider. A
smile started to twitch at his lips.
SERENA: A meditation high. I always get distracted when I try that.
SNAKE: Maybe if you didn't keep trying it with your video game on pause.
He stiffened. His smile dropped as his eyes shot open, startling a
couple who had been walking by. As the young lovers hurried off,
Emerald turned his head to the left, staring up through the masking set
of tree branches to the outline of a distant building.
"Serenity..." he hissed, his eyes narrowing as he slowly turned his
MARS: I think somebody isn't our friend. But you know what? I'm not going
to be worried or angry or outraged. I'm confident our counterparts can handle
him just fine.
body towards the tower. He stood slowly, never taking his gaze off the
tall building. His fists clenched and unclenched as he stared at the
monolith.
And the beat went on.
SNAKE: Another day in Emerald's world.
MARS: You're _naming_ it after him?
SNAKE: Well calling it Sailor Moon world would hardly distinguish.
*****
~Who was that guy, anyway?~
/No one of consequence. Next, Ms. Inverse./
SERENA: Serenity has mastered the art of the subtle put-down.
MARS: Yeah, but I think it's much cuter how rant and wave your arms and
pitch up your voice.
SERENA: (gooey voice) You do?
*... uh, that one ... NO! I meant, that one, there ...*
/COSMIC ... MOON ... POWER .../
SNAKE: Everything in its time.
*****
Now. When else?
"John, I'm sorry, but I CAN'T give Lina what she deserves, by those
lights! Van Vliet would probably kill me; I pissed him off enough with
those comments I made about -- that's not important!" Chris paused to
listen to his co-producer's comments. "No, I didn't ask my mother.
When I got home she was making comments about how someone should just
kill Saddam off, and like you said, what Lina has done has left behind
every single genocidal maniac in history, so I think what she would have
said is pretty obvious, yes?"
MARS: I'm not sure you can really scale it that way. After all, Lina didn't put
nearly as much _effort_ into seeing people dead in horrible ways as history's
genocidal maniacs. She just did it in passing.
The writer let out a long sigh, and leaned back in his chair. "I
don't KNOW what I'm gonna do ... maybe something'll come to me ...
right. Merry Christmas to you, too ... I'll talk to you on Boxing Day,
maybe. Matte ashita."
SNAKE: Time for a debate. I say Serenity should assign Lina some
community service and maybe a little therapy. Something to channel for lust
for power into more productive avenues.
SERENA: I say just send her and Naga home. In her own dimension, she
won't get into this kind of trouble. Or at least, it won't be a bad thing if she
does.
MARS: I have to agree with Serena.
SERENA: You _do_?
MARS: Assuming they can fix most of the bad effects, just kick her off the
planet. I don't want Lina mucking up my city or my queen anymore.
Chris hung up and resumed staring at the blue screen with green
characters, wondering how in Heaven's name he was supposed to come up
with a solution to this problem before it was time to go to bed for
Christmas. He closed his eyes in exhaustion.
SNAKE: Sleep on it. Not a bad plan.
~"Just make something up, will you?" Sheila demanded as she held
out the Crystal towards him. "Lord knows any REAL writer would be able
to do that ..."~
SNAKE: Being a writer isn't that easy. There's a subtle art to putting off
actually doing anything.
Even my subconscious insults me! Chris thought despairingly. I
might as well name myself Woody and start chasing... adolescent...
Asian... wait a minute.
His eyes slowly opened as he stared at the Silver Crystal. "Oh,"
he said, for lack of anything better to say. "Thanks."
SERENA: That didn't need much effort.
"Now WRITE!" snarled his muse, a tiny winged female with blue hair
and rather large fangs who stood on his shoulder, looking menacingly at
his jugular.
MARS: I don't think your muse is supposed to have fangs and threaten you.
SERENA: Whatever gets the creative juices flowing.
*****
~That was a bit unnerving, yelling at one's creator ...~
/Sheila, be tranquil. That person did not create you./
SNAKE: No, he's more of an author avatar than the man himself.
~Really?~
^Then he did not create me either?^
/No, and neither did his associates. They might think that they
created you ... but I am quite sure that they did not. In any event,
SERENA: She's just guessing.
MARS: Have a little more faith in Serenity!
SERENA: It's weird and if it were anyone else, I would. The strange thing is,
I feel just as free to badmouth her as I would to say unkind things about
myself.
MARS: So you doubt her as much as you doubt yourself.
SERENA: (shrug) I guess.
next, Ms. Inverse? The world you thought to avoid?/
*I ... I don't know if I can --*
/You have no choices anymore, Ms. Inverse. MOON ... CRYSTAL .../
SNAKE: Lina hasn't had choices in quite a while.
~Your Majesty?!~
/... POWER!/
SERENA: And push.
*****
3035 AD
"It will be all right," Queen Serenity II said, praying that the
lie could become the truth.
MARS: That'll work in the sense that if you repeat it long enough, "all right"
becomes redefined to fit what you want.
"Your Majesty!" one of the bridge crew called out. "Surface
observers -- they just relayed a message down ... there's some sort of a
force field englobing the Earth and the Moon, drawing inwards! They --"
Serenity closed her eyes, and wished that she could howl out a cry
of rage and confusion as she had when she was a child. It must be her
SERENA: Ah, let it out Reenie. Nobody's going to remember in a couple of
seconds anyway.
final attack. Even though we've given her the Crystal, she --
/Her mother's face was not her mother's face, and it seemed even
more tired than it had in the days leading up to her abdication.
"Okay," she slurred. "You did okay, Chibi-Usa ... will be all right --
NO!/
MARS: "No!" never seems to presage anything good.
Sailor Saturn blinked.
"Sir!" exclaimed one of the nearest bridge staff. "The ... the
anomaly has vanished from all sensors."
What? Saturn wondered. What kind of bizarre intelligence would
destroy a single ship and then vanish just before engaging with the
entire fleet? Did we scare it off, or something?
SNAKE: Yeah, the cross formation sent Lina running in terror.
"All ships to remain at red alert until further notice," she
ordered. "Dispatch a ship. to rescue any survivors from the Yamato and
the ships she was escorting. Stay alert ... I don't think this is
over."
It was.
MARS: At least, for them it was.
*****
~Your Majesty?!~
/... could not remove all the damage ... cannot ... running low
../
SERENA: Oh no! She wasn't able to fix everything. Must have lost her grip
on time.
SNAKE: Pushing it down from a fleet and two cities to one ship is still doing
great.
^It is as with our Crystal!^ Athena exclaimed. ^Without the
support of others, its use becomes too taxing for her to draw upon --^
/I... can finish it. Only three more ... and then one more to get
home ... easy./
MARS: I'd be a lot more confident if she could speak without breaking up her
sentences.
*What happens if you can't get us ... back?*
There was silence for a moment. /Then most likely you remain on
whatever world you find for yourself, Lina Inverse. You go free, and my
attempt to change Sailor Erinyes' verdict comes to naught. That is what
SNAKE: I'm not quite getting it. Wouldn't attempting to change Erinyes's
verdict involve getting Lina killed?
MARS: More trying to make it so she doesn't live in eternal guilt.
happens. Now. That world. There. COSMIC -- MOON --
POWWWWWER!/
SERENA: Cosmic Moon Kapowie!
For the briefest of instants, the theater is lit by silvery moonlight.
SERENA: Heh. I didn't actually think that would do anything.
* * *
The not so distant future, next Monday A.D.
At that exact moment, Sean Gaffney-Tomoe bitterly repented
everything he'd ever said against utopias. He was honest enough to
admit that if the situation improved in a moment, he would probably go
back to saying such things, but after a suitable duration.
SNAKE: An honest man. Light me a lantern, an honest man.
MARS: Eight to go.
Like, say, a year or so.
SERENA: Six months, tops.
Instead, all he could do was listen to the mob chanting outside the
gates of the palace (bad) while Queen Serenity gaped silently from her
SNAKE: How is it mobs are able to get ahold of pitchforks and torches on
short notice, even if they live in the city?
SERENA: The mob props department.
crystal prison (very bad) and Sean held his pregnant, depowered wife in
his arms (EXTRAORDINARILY bad).
MARS: He'd rather she was somewhere other than in his arms?
Quite abruptly, a pair of women with long green hair and dusky skin
materialized in front of him, but he was sufficiently inured to that by
now that it didn't cause him to start. That one of them was holding
Hotaru's glaive DID give him a jolt. That Setsuna quickly knelt and
pressed the Glaive into Hotaru's arms.
Hotaru drew in a deep breath --
SNAKE: (as Hotaru) Ah, that's the stuff!
-- and Sailor Saturn slowly pushed herself into a standing
position, supported all the way by her husband. Bruises still showed on
her throat from where Lina Inverse had all but strangled her, but the
Senshi of Death and Rebirth stood on her own feet.
SERENA: Glad as I am for Lydia, that last clause is a little unreassuring.
"Like, all is spiffy wonderfulness," said one of the Setsunas,
dressed in flowing robes.
SNAKE: I want to get a date with that woman. Do you think she likes folk
music?
MARS: I'd bet on it.
Everyone edged away from her.
"So what about Serenity?" Sean asked the other newly materialized
Setsuna.
"Unless I underestimate my queen -- a habit I'm trying to kick --
she should be intervening about --"
SERENA: Setsuna deliberately timed it so she could sound cool by saying that
at just the right instant.
/"Here," said Serenity, and pressed the Silver Crystal into her
counterpart's hands. "Do what we do best."/
MARS: A nice, vague instruction.
"-- now", concluded Setsuna.
The crystal block had vanished, and Neo-Queen Serenity stood where
it had rested, holding the Silver Crystal and contemplating it with a
sober expression. As she became aware of the eyes regarding her, she
lifted her head, and spoke. "Take me to my people. I have to talk to
them."
SNAKE: Perhaps the PA system would be the best way to manage that.
"Yes, your Majesty," agreed her own Pluto, who had materialized a
moment before. Together, they walked out of the throne room.
"Okay," Sean said, the exhaustion beginning to catch up to him,
"I'm happy. Everything's going great. There's just one way that things
could go better."
SERENA: (as Sean) And by the way, does anyone know what that was all
about?
A tall, buxom, NAKED woman danced through the throne room, singing
as she did. "I've got BREASTS again! I've got BREASTS again!"
SNAKE: Naga.... naked.... (drool) Well, my day is made. I could get past the
laugh, I really could.
SERENA: No you couldn't.
SNAKE: Well maybe I could deafen myself. It might be worth it.
"Get rid of Naga, would you? PLEASE?"
SNAKE: (disappointed) This is obviously a very married man.
*****
/That ... was the last ... of the Crystals ... at least. Two more
worlds .../
*... please, don't make me --*
MARS: ( a bit nasty) Why Lina, you don't have to do anything but sit back
and watch.
/Moon .../
*I can't! Don't you see, I can't! I didn't KNOW! I ... I'm
SORRY!*
/... Cosmic .../
*You would have done the same! You would! Anyone would --*
SERENA: That wasn't the right argument to make.
A very long silence. /I have borne a Silver Crystal for several
times your lifetime, Lina Inverse ... and I have never given a world to
a demon for the promise of more power,/ came the whispered reply.
/POWER!/
SNAKE: (as Lina) Let me rephrase that. Anyone who was me would have
done the same.
MARS: Can't argue with that.
*****
The not-too-distant past.
Queen Beryl, Master of the Dark Kingdom, stood on the observation
deck of the Tokyo Tower and stared up at HER master. As she did, she
tried to banish the faint feeling of unease in her stomach.
SERENA: Something not quite right.
The idiotic Sailor Senshi had been overwhelmed by the youma legions
which had gated in with her, and were bound and gagged behind her. The
insane demigoddess calling herself Lina Inverse was nowhere in sight.
Everything was in place for her ascension.
So why did she feel such dread?
MARS: The last dying vestiges of common sense?
"Metallia-sama," Beryl spoke aloud. "It is done -- this world is
yours."
<YES. IT IS DONE.>
"You promised me that when this world was yours -- that I would be
first among your subjects."
SERENA: (as Metallia) <DID I SAY FIRST? I MAY HAVE->
MARS: Stop talking like that! It creeps me out.
SERENA: <AM I SCARING YOU RAYE? WOOOO! WOOOOO!>
Mars gives her a quick shaking.
SERENA: All right, I'm stopping already.
And in that moment, the horrible face in the clouds turned on her,
and for an instant, she realized what the source of her unease was.
<YES. YOU SHALL BE FIRST.>
What need did Metallia have for subjects?
SNAKE: Now it hits her. Now matter what reality or incarnation, Beryl
obviously lacks some key skills in planning for the future.
Beryl's head exploded, and the remnants spattered the Senshi.
Sailor Mercury caught most of it. Her stomach rebelled, and it was all
that she could do to keep the vomit down. This can't be the end, she
thought. I refuse to accept that ... that this is how things were meant
to be!
MARS: Do you know this is the second time now I've seen Beryl's head get
blasted off? (pause) I could get to like this.
Then there was a twinkle of light as the Star Crystal appeared over
Senshi Crystal's still form.
/"it is not," Serenity whispered. "do not be afraid."/
SERENA: (as Mercury) Pardon me if I don't follow that advice until the
Demon Queen is gone.
Metallia's image seemed to whirl then, towards the east -- where
the rising sun would be if the sunrise were imminent. But there was no
sun. There was only a great silver curtain.
The demon howled -- and then the curtain struck.
SERENA: <JUST WHEN I FINALLY START TO GET A LITTLE
AHEAD....>
MARS: I said quit it!
Mizuno Ami jerked awake in her bedroom, breathing heavily as her
nightmare became less and less clear in her memories. That's the last
time I watch Fantasia before bedtime...
SNAKE: Fantasia?
MARS: Amy is a little... tamer than Athena.
*****
*--ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgodohgodogod--*
Very quiet. /For you, the worst is over./
SNAKE: I don't find this convincing. Lina seems to be pretty sane and
rational up till now, and seeing Beryl get her head blown off drives her into
catatonia?
SERENA: Call it the straw that broke the camel's back.
~Your Majesty ...~
/When we return ... she will be all but ... catatonic.
Psychotherapists ... can begin to undo ... the damage which we and ...
others have done. In time ... she may become a viable member of
society./ A long pause. /In time./
MARS: Which society? Her own or ours? I guess we can't just kick her out in
this state, but I'd still like to make her the Lord of Nightmare's problem again.
SNAKE: Besides, a Lina who didn't go around blowing things up just
wouldn't be Lina.
~This ... this CAN'T be right. Athena --~
^I ... I am not what thou said would be needed. I am not even
certain what it may be.^
~A counselor. A ... healer for the mind.~
SNAKE: Hey, I never got any mind healer and look at me now!
SERENA: Sure. Twenty suicidal depressions later and you're almost fine.
/And ... as with surgery ... sometimes to heal ... one must first
harm... in a way ... that will not ... kill./
There was a long silence, which in that place might have meant a
cessation of existence.
MARS: (as Sheila) Next time got to remember to bring my Walkman.
/In any event ... there remains ... a world which I ... must heal
.. before we return ... the doing of which ... may make the question
.. academic ... Moon .../
SERENA: I don't suppose they could go home, rest up, and come back later?
MARS: Doesn't work that way. The path takes more power to open with each
trip.
A breath.
/... Cosmic .../
A gasp.
/ ... Power/
SERENA: And a side order of ventilator.
*****
April, 1992
"So ... she's Matrose Mars?" asked Matrose Mond as they sat on the
roof of a building some kilometers from the site of the battle. Thus
far the three of them had evaded discovery, and so there had come a time
to talk.
Luna nodded. "There will be four other Matrosen Amazonen which you
must find to protect the Mondprinzessin. She is one of them, die Feuer-
Amazonen."
MARS: All this German is making me thirsty.
Matrose Mars was apparently very quiet -- she hadn't volunteered
any information. Kani didn't find this too surprising, since the girl
probably knew as much about her situation as Kani herself did.
SNAKE: Which is to say, diddley and squat.
The realization of that commonality sparked something half-
forgotten in Kani's heart, and she almost smiled. "So ... you want to
be friends?" she asked.
SERENA AND MARS: Ahhhhhhhh.
SNAKE: (to himself) Women.
Rachel stared at her. The entire day had been like falling into an
abyss without end ... and now this strange, immodestly clad girl was
offering to be her friend. "I've never had a friend before," she said
without thinking.
Kani blinked. "That's not really an answer, you know?"
SNAKE: (to Serena) You're persistent, I'll give you that.
Rachel laughed faintly. "No, I suppose it isn't ... yes ... yes, I
think that I would like to be your --"
And unnoticed by either of them, the silver curtain descended.
Rachel woke up in the dormitory, at once relieved and faintly
disappointed that the dream had faded so soon. There had been a lot of
terror, but sweetness, too ... the image of that girl, smiling at her
..
MARS: Oh, I have a feeling they'll be seeing each other again. Not to worry.
She snuggled closer into the coarse sheets on her bed. In her mind
the vision of the girl with the short skirt and the strange hair, and
the talking black cat, were replaced with something else; Rachel stood
beside the Kloster wall, her long white robe fluttering in the breeze, a
long rosary hanging from her hands. She could feel the wind streaming
her long black hair behind her as she stared at the wall, covered in
beautiful red roses. She wasn't sure which was the greater miracle, the
roses or her hair, but she knew they could only have come from Him.
SERENA AND MARS: Awwwwwwww.
Snake just shakes his head.
*****
/... never been ... thought of ... like THAT ... Raye always ...
should have hair ... long ... and dark ... like the night ... beautiful
.. oh .../
MARS: And to think I was thinking of trying a short style.
~Your Majesty, hang on! It's done, we just have to get home, now!~
^Sheila-chan ... what if she can't -- yon sorceress is in no
condition to find us a world --^
/... sorry, Sheila ... very ... very ... sorry .../
SNAKE: I have to think that at this point any world would be better than no
world.
~No. No, we did NOT come all this way, over all those worlds, for
nothing, you hear me?! We are going back! Serenity, can you draw from
us to --~
/No ... not ... unless ... you ... were ... Erinyes .../
SERENA: And a bodiless void is no place to be using transformation pens.
~Oh, Goddess, don't pass out on us now --~
^Methinks she has, Sheila-chan ...^
The grinding of teeth. ~Okay. Okay, on at least a few of those
worlds, her counterpart will know what we did, right?~
^On mine, certes.^
MARS: Huh? I thought Athena's Serenity wouldn't even know anything had
ever happened. Crystal back in the vault and all.
~Then you'd think they'd be willing to help us out when WE need it,
right? So we have to call for help!~
^I think I see ...^
~That's great, 'cause I don't know HOW we're going to pull it off,
but we've got to, so --~
SERENA: Well some people advocate trying to pitch your voice. Me, I say
forget that and go for sheer volume.
SNAKE: Quite the connoisseur of distress calls.
^Sheila-chan ... take my hand.^
In the place where they existed, there was no matter. Only
thought, and will ... and Sheila's will was as strong as her body, if
not stronger. And for all of Athena's flirtatious, flighty ways, she
was born to be the Senshi of Mercury, with all the driving intellect
that demands.
SNAKE: Next to all that, I feel pretty weak-willed.
SERENA: Like when you unraveled that black hole?
SNAKE: That was a fluke. Anyway, I guess I can see what they're going for.
When two such strong-willed people start trying to make something happen....
MARS: It still doesn't happen unless they do it the right way.
Part of the link that they shared was the sisterhood of the Sailor
Warriors across the worlds. But there was more.
They took each other's hands, and called for help.
~^Help us. Please. We need your help, Serenity of any world.
Help us to save ourselves.^~
MARS: Sounds good to me.
And the reply came back.
ALL: Yayyyy!
!Huh?!
~^Help us. We need a bit of your strength. Please.^~
There was a long silence.
!Okay, sure ...!
SNAKE: Gee, this Serenity sounds drunk or something.
SERENA: You always say things like that.
It was just a tiny trickle of strength, but they seized it, gave it
to the Queen, and roused her -- and marshalling it and all else that she
had left, they escaped that place, back to their beginning.
MARS: Full circle. Now lets just hope Serenity has the sense to call me first
thing, so I can tuck her into bed for a nice long nap.
*****
December 10, 2014
What a weird dream, Misato thought. Wait a minute ... if I got
tanked as much as I normally do on my birthday ... and I was having
weird dreams ... how come I don't have a hangover?
SNAKE: Hah!
SERENA: Lucky guess.
Too weird.
She stretched and got out of bed. Padding into the kitchen, she
opened the fridge and pulled out another can of Yebisu. Misato cracked
the lid.
And stared at it.
MARS: She's pretty out of it if she doesn't remember what comes next.
After a long moment, she shrugged. Maybe she'd have breakfast
later. Right now ... right now, what she really wanted to do was to go
out, take a walk, see the world around her.
So she did.
SERENA: Luckily picking a day when giant robots weren't rumbling through
the city.
It wasn't a perfect world. Not even close to one. There was no
magic that was going to bring all the people she'd lost back, nor any to
help the survivors cope. But it was her world, and it was her job to
defend it.
Might as well appreciate it while she could, ne?
Snake gives the major a salute. After a moment, Mars and Serena do
too.
*****
Epilogue
SERENA: (nervously) The home stretch.
Serenity awoke in her bed, surrounded by the Sailor Senshi, and her
husband holding their daughter. She smiled, faintly. "I think," she
murmured, "that I shall take a little vacation. Perhaps a month."
"Try a week," Mars snapped.
MARS: I can't let her start slacking. (to Serena) First thing you know, she'll
turn into you.
SERENA: Hah, Serenity will never be able to slack like I can.
SNAKE: All hail the slacking queen!
"Meanie." She closed her eyes and returned to sleep.
SERENA: I'm more mature too.
Tries to figure out why Mars and Snake are laughing so hard.
*****
Lina Inverse floated in a cold-sleep capsule. Naga the Serpent,
SNAKE: I fail to see how this will heal her mind.
once more dressed in her custom-designed "evil seductive sorceress"
garb, slipped into the storage facility and approached the capsule.
She gazed at Lina's still face for a second, before she finally
found the strength to say what was on her mind.
MARS: (as Naga) Steal my breasts again and I'll kick your ass.
"Told you so." And then, quietly whispered, "I'm sorry."
SERENA: So she _can_ be quiet.
"Naga-san? Are you SURE you want to do this?" came the voice of
Sailor Mercury.
"HOHOHOHOHOHO!" laughed Naga, her face swiftly moving from
sadness
to inappropriate glee. "You obviously do not know what trouble Lina can
get into without me!"
MARS: Serenity told us some of it. I think Amy's got a pretty fair idea.
"It's not exactly standard procedure to allow this, but Serenity
did say that--"
"You can have me share what ever dream Lina is in right now, can
you not? Then do so before I show you the true power of Naga the
Serpent! HOHOHOHOHOHO!"
SNAKE: Laugh.... so annoying. But breasts... so large.
Mercury rubbed her temples. That laugh was SO annoying. "Are you
certain you want to stay in there as long as Lina is?" Please say yes,
a small, unprofessional part of her whispered.
SERENA: Which will be how long, anyway?
MARS: Until the dreams make her more amenable to waking therapy.
"Of course! Naga the Serpent is a sorceress of her word... and,"
Naga added, in a quieter voice, "I won't leave her alone and feeling
unloved again." She started as she realized she had said those words
aloud and turned to Mercury. "If you EVER tell anyone I said that..."
SNAKE: She's got a heart after all. Good journey, Naga.
"It's alright, Naga-san... that's what I really needed to hear."
Minutes later, Naga was ensconced in another stasis tube. She
closed her eyes--
And for a moment, all was darkness, the emptiness of a fractured
mind that was hiding from even itself. But Naga refused to allow that
to continue. She called on her own memories of happier times.
MARS: And?
--and opened them to see Lina sitting at an oyster bar on a beach.
"HOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO! So, Lina, you thought you could escape
me, NAGA
THE SERPENT--!"
"Fireball," Lina said nonchalantly.
*WHOOSH*
SERENA: This is Naga's memory of happier times?
SNAKE: I guess a little fire is a small price to pay for companionship.
MARS: I've always felt so.
All was right again in the world. Lina and Naga were home.
MARS: Even after everything that happened... I wish them well.
*****
Outside the Crystal Palace, in a park dedicated to fallen heroes, a
goodbye was being said.
"It's time, Athena," the Pluto from her home universe said.
SERENA: This is so sad. Why can't she stay?
SNAKE: She took vows to defend her other universe. She has to go back to it.
Athena looked up at the Sailor of Time and then over at Sheila.
"Might I have a moment?" she asked quietly.
MARS; A day, and hour, a year. In the end, it makes no difference.
Pluto nodded and walked over to the Pluto from this universe,
giving Sheila and Athena one last moment together.
SERENA: (hesitantly) Raye.... It's almost time for us to say goodbye as well.
MARS: I know, but I think I'm okay with it now. See, no fire giants or
anything.
Serena giggles.
"Athena..." Sheila said. What does one say to someone that you've
fought to save the multiverse with and now would never see again?
SERENA: Never, like forever.....
Athena laid a finger on Sheila's lips. "Hush, now, or what I must
say wouldst go unsaid for I doubt I would find the will to say goodbye
to you more than once."
Sheila nodded, her throat constricting. Strangely, Athena looked
nothing like any of the Sailor Mercuries they had met in their travels.
Something, beyond her flirtatious manner and accent, set her apart now
in Sheila's eyes.
SNAKE: They say love can blind, but it can also see true.
"When I was young," Athena said, throwing off her accent, "I swore
that no matter how many lovers I would take, I would never love. I had
seen in my parents what happens when love leaves a relationship, and I
wanted none of that."
She reached up and gently cupped her hand against Sheila's cheek.
"I broke that oath when I told Zoisite I would marry him... and I have
broken it again, now."
SERENA: She should break it. And break it again and again.
Athena leaned forward and kissed Sheila gently on the lips.
Sheila's eyes flew open. It was unlike the other time Athena had kissed
her. That was a passionate kiss, but it was superficial. This kiss,
while not as fiery, was more serious, deeper. Then Sheila stopped
analyzing and returned the kiss, and the feelings behind it. Their love
was doomed to disappear, and that was probably for the best, but while
they had it, there would be no regrets and no guilt.
Serena snuggles herself against Mars's side and presses her head into
the curve of Mars's neck.
Athena finally drew back. Her eyes were moist and she seemed to be
having trouble speaking. "I swore I would not cry," she said, tears
beginning to run down her cheeks, "but I--"
SNAKE: Sometimes, crying is all you can do.
Sheila hugged her tight, wrapping her arms around her friend, as if
to try and shield them both from the separation to come.
"Athena? We must go now," Pluto said.
MARS: What business is it of Pluto's?! Why should she tell Athena when to
leave and when to go. She isn't Athena's queen, nor did she bring Athena
there.
Serena gives Mars a one-handed hug, still pressed against her side.
Athena sniffled and pulled slowly away from Sheila. "Aurora always
talked to me about duties and destinies, that I was never serious about
either," Athena said, sniffling. "And now, when I sacrifice something
far greater than ever she did, no one will remember it."
"I'll remember you, Athena. I promise."
"Ah, but in a few moments, you wilt be no more than a pleasant
dream to me... and even that will fade soon after waking," Athena said,
SNAKE: Why is that? I mean for metatextual reasons, Athena can't
remember because it might mess up the planned destruction of the Silver
Millennium somehow. But how does Pluto justify that to Athena? Or to
Sheila for that matter? Is Athena just going to be mindwiped, whether she
wants to or not? And since when does Pluto have the power to mess with
minds like that.
MARS: You're presuming too much of an outside agency. Think of it as a
natural effect, one brought about by experiencing too much of what is to come.
SERENA: It still sucks.
MARS: I thought that went without saying.
her accent returning. Her lips trembled. "I don't want to leave you,
but I can't stay..." she whispered.
"And I don't want you to leave... Ask Pluto for more time... a day,
an hour... fifteen minutes even! There's so much I need to say..."
"Nay... twill only make the parting worse... and if I were to do
more than kiss you, dear, dear, Sheila... I would never be able to leave
you..."
SNAKE: "When the voice of duty calls / Silent other voices must fall."
Something flickered in the back of Sheila's encyclopedic memory, a
bit of stray history that might have even pre-dated the Silver
Millennium. "Do you trust me?" she asked.
"In all things, but--?"
Sheila reached into her jacket and pulled out a small pen knife.
It wasn't much, but it would have to do. Before Pluto could stop her,
before Athena could react, she grabbed Athena's hand. Placing the knife
between their palms, Sheila squeezed them together until they bled.
Mars stiffens and looks at the screen for a long moment. Then she
moves and pulls Snake's sword from its sheath. She presses the edge against
her hand.
SNAKE: It... it cut you! It isn't supposed to do that
MARS: When body and spirit are one. Serena, will you...
SERENA: I thought you had already taken it with Serenity.
MARS: And now I wish to take it with you. I have to know that I'll see you
again... someday, somewhere.
Serena smiles and grasps the sword, giving a small gasp as the blade
nicks her skin. Then Mars and Serena press palms together.
SNAKE: I could probably stop this, but I don't see any reason why I should.
Then she recited the words. Athena, shocked at first, was soon saying
the same words in time with Sheila. The words were unknown to her, but
they transcended time, space, and dimension.
"Blood for blood, bone for bone, life for life, until only we two
stride the worlds. My life is in your hands, my blood is in your veins.
Hold me well and I will lend you my strength; break your bond and may we
both perish. Friendship I swear to you, an Oath of clasped hands and
shared hearts."
MARS: Blood for blood,
SERENA: Bone for bone,
MARS: Life for life,
SERENA: Until only we two stride the worlds.
MARS AND SERENA: My life is in your hands, my blood is in your veins.
Hold me well and I will lend you strength; break your bond and may we both
perish. Friendship I swear to you, an Oath of clasped hands and shared
hearts.
They bring their heads together, lips almost touching.
MARS: Tell me I'll see you again.
SERENA: You will. If nowhere else, then we will meet in the place where no
shadows fall.
They kiss, not roughly but tenderly. Mars closes her eyes and doesn't
see as Serena brings a closed hand over their faces and gently lets powder sift
down onto their noses. Mars gradually goes limp and Serena, still kissing her,
lowers her body down to the floor.
SNAKE: You could have waited.
SERENA: There was no point. It's time for you to go home, Raye.
Mars shimmers and gradually fades away, vanishing in a thousand
small points of light. Serena tries desperately to rub the tears out of her eyes.
Finally she turns and collapses onto Snake's chest.
SNAKE: (stroking her hair) That was the bravest thing I've ever seen you do.
SERENA: (sobbing) Not brave. I _will_ see her again. No matter what.
Long minutes pass as Serena composes herself to continue.
Athena's Pluto grabbed her then, pulling her away, as Sheila's did
the same. The knife clattered to the ground, stained with their blood,
but their wounds were already healed by the power of the Old Oath.
"What have you DONE?" hissed Sheila's Pluto.
SERENA: Jerk!
SNAKE: I thought you were defending her.
SERENA: No more. Not today.
"We are leaving NOW, Athena!" Athena's Pluto snapped.
"Sheila!" Athena wailed. But her Pluto was already acting, waving
her Time Staff to transport them home. Athena reached up to her ear and
tore out her earring, the one that summoned her computer visor and
tossed it at Sheila. "Remember--" she began to say.
Serena is having a hard time looking at the screen.
And then she was gone.
Sheila caught the bloody earring and fell to her knees, beginning
to sob.
"That was foolish, Sheila. The Old Oaths are ETERNAL. Not even I
can tell what the final consequences of that rash act will be. You --"
SNAKE: Oh that's it, yell at her. Somebody needs a little sensitivity training.
"Leave her alone!" snapped another voice.
Sheila looked up. "Misa?"
SNAKE: (as Sheila) Honey, I can explain everything!
Misa van Fogler, all 5 feet 11 inches of her, was glaring and
pointing an irate finger at Sailor Pluto. "Look, Miss High-and-Mighty-
But-Still-Can't-Get-a-Date-on-Friday-Night, I don't care who you are,
but Sheila's run through her hoops, done what you wanted, now LEAVE...
HER... BE!"
SERENA: Go Misa!
Pluto glared down at the one who was addressing her, opened her
mouth to rebuke her with her devastatingly quiet voice ... and stopped
dead.
There was something in her eyes. Something Pluto had never seen
before, in the thousands of years of her life. It was the simple and
certain knowledge that, if the simple, completely ordinary woman before
her was forced to fight Pluto ... she would win.
SERENA: Because Pluto knows she would deserve to lose.
It was not a delusion -- Misa held no illusions about her
immortality, and seemed even more reconciled to the inevitability of her
death than most people. But she was certain that this would not be the
day she would die.
SNAKE: I bet even Death would back Misa up on this one.
Pluto stepped back, looking faintly disconcerted. "We will speak
of this again, Sheila," she said, then vanished.
"Biiiiii!" Misa said, pulling down one eyelid and sticking out her
tongue at the place Pluto had been.
Serena and Snake facefault, but they're laughing too.
"Misa," Sheila whispered. She looked down at the earring Athena
had thrown to her and mixed emotions flew through her.
"Come on, Sheila. We're going home. You're getting a nice hot
bath, and then to bed with you..."
SERENA: Just what the doctor ordered.
"Misa... about Athena--"
"I know, Sheila ..." Misa sighed. "I should be upset, I suppose...
BUT, you two DID save the universe, so I MIGHT let you off the hook...
THIS time."
Sheila looked up at her lover... and burst into tears again...
before finally fainting.
SNAKE: That's one way to deal with relationship issues.
"Oh, boy... I should have made Pluto stick around to give me a hand
carrying her... bet THAT'S why she left," Misa muttered, hoisting Sheila
up over shoulder. "Whatta slacker..."
SERENA: (grinning) I thought the military was supposed to be in shape!
Her words slowed, and stopped, as she reached out to touch her
love's face. Six years left, she thought. And then ... you'll be
alone. You're going to have to go on.
SNAKE: Misa seems like a decent sort, but she bows to destiny way too easily.
SERENA: What about fate?
SNAKE: Fate messes with me, and I'll trample all over her loom.
I've had nightmares about that. You kill yourself when I'm dead.
But now ... I don't think you're going to do that, somehow. For the
first time in nearly thirty years ... I think you're going to get
through it.
SERENA: That's a long relationship.
I could have wished for someone ... more like me to be with you
then, but that Athena ... she'll do okay. I hope.
SNAKE: Except that Athena is in another universe. And going to die in less
than six years, probably.
The dedicated soldier carried her love, the reluctant senshi, out
of the park ... and as she did, she felt the first hints of winter in
the air.
Winter, and the promise of ice.
SNAKE: Winter is coming.
SERENA: When did you become a Stark?
SNAKE: Anyway, this was all you could ask for in a story. Adventure,
excitement, romance....
SERENA: It may have paused on a downer, but nothing is ever really over.
THE END
(For Now)
SERENA: Let's just take one last look....
The screen flickers and changes to show Mars, or rather Raye Hino.
She's sleeping in her bed, tossing and turning restlessly.
SERENA AND SNAKE: (simultaneously) Will she remember any of it?
Both look surprised.
SERENA: I thought you knew?
SNAKE: Not for certain. I thought you had a better grasp of this stuff than I.
Both look back at the screen.
SERENA: Not remember exactly, but she might recall. As a dream if nothing
else. I'll never forgive her if she can't at least remember what I told her, about
looking for happiness.
SNAKE: Oh I know she'll keep _that_. (pause) You _did_ remember to snag
that notepad she was writing on, didn't you?
SERENA: Ummmmm.
--------------
Author's Notes
--------------
Chris Davies
------------
... it's done.
SERENA: And boy was it a monster to review.
All I gotta do is just ship it off to Jeff for his last look-over,
and for him to append his author's notes and signature, and it is
really, really done.
SNAKE: He said that. End of the story must be making him a little
delusional.
There have been times -- quite a few of them, in this last year --
that I've been terrified that I was going to die, and leave this story
undone. Yet I survived. (Not unto us, Lord, but unto thy name be the
glory.) And it's done.
I'd considered regaling you with some of the difficulties that
we've encountered, how we had to cut out parts that we were really
looking forward to writing (okay, that's a lie; Jeff wasn't that eager
to give out details of his "Dark Facets" universe before he writes more
of it, and I'm in no hurry to go back to "Serena and Luna: The New
Adventures of Sailor Moon") and the realization that the happy ending
for Lina that we'd considered wasn't going to work. But why bother?
It's done.
SERENA: I'm sensing a theme.
A word about Lina Inverse: We like her. Really. I've seen every
commercially released Slayers story, Jeff has seen stuff I haven't seen
.. I'm a big fan of Stefan Gagne's Slayers trilogy ... and we basically
wound up dragging her through six kinds of hell. (Incidentally, it
wasn't my idea to tie my other Slayers story into this one.) What kills
me is that what makes Lina an interesting character -- her amoral sense
of adventure -- is what led her down into the darkness, this time. In
her world, I guess, there are safety features that keep her and those
like her safe, but taking her outside of those confines and ... well,
like adventure is bloody awful things happening to someone else a
million miles away, comedy is bloody sad things happening to someone
else when you can't or don't empathize. What can I say? It's done.
SERENA: Is that going to punctuate every sentence?
SNAKE: You know, we could snip this stuff f we don't have anything to say.
SERENA: No way! We've left it intact so far. We aren't breaking the streak
now.
There will be a sequel, as the final scene suggests. We're already
brewing ideas. But first I have to finish "The Further Adventures of
Sheila Tenkai" (which will also show more of Lina and Naga) and John
SNAKE: Do they ever get to go home? The Lord of Nightmares is waiting....
Biles has to get up to a certain point in his "Black Moon Rising". So
for right now, the story is finished.
SERENA: And we'll be back when the sequel does come out. Maybe we can
get Sheila in to help review the next one.
SNAKE: DON'T MAKE THOSE KIND OF PROMISES! (to the audience)
Forgive her, she's been under strain. We'll consider doing the sequel if we
have the time.
It's done.
Is it just me or are those the most beautiful words in the English
language?
SNAKE: I'd have to go with, "I was wrong." When someone else says it.
Jeff Hosmer
-----------
It's do--
Wait, Chris already said that. :)
How about this:
What a long, strange trip it's been.
SNAKE: With lots of drugs involved. Don't think I didn't notice.
This story started innocently enough, with a MST of Sailor Moon
Z12. I plan on posting the original emails that started everything on
my web page, just so you all can see how simply this started. And then
it grew, and grew....
At first, we didn't plan a huge role for Lina... heck, we didn't
plan much of anything. The whole point of the story was to get Sheila
and Athena together and see what happened. But then Lina got a hold of
a Silver Crystal and started blasting things. Then Sean Gaffney came on
board with some suggestions. I had a sudden burst of inspiration in
which I saw Lina with Crystals for eyes...
SERENA: Shame on you! Causing all this trouble.
Then we took what we had and put it on the FFML, asking for authors
to volunteer their worlds and to let us rampage across them. The worlds
changed a bit as time went on, and the order in which we planned to
visit them. Writers block plagued both of us, and, as my co-author
says, we had a horrible time when we realized where Lina was heading.
The culprit was Drama. Every time Lina visited a new world, we had
to "top" what happened in the last. Since we were alternating the
writing, there was also a bit of rivalry in that we kept trying to outdo
each other. Friendly rivalry, but it had the side effect of causing
Lina to commit more and worse atrocities in each world. And once she
was on that downward spiral, we couldn't get her off it.
SNAKE: Like eating peanuts.
SERENA: Yes, the destruction of human life is just like a salty snack food.
Sometimes I don't know about you.
Then came the agony of what to do with her. Some of our pre-
readers were howling for her death, claiming that she was worse than any
mass-murderer in history. And when I finished the Sailor Orion segment,
we STILL had no idea how to defeat Lina!
SERENA: I was leaning towards the, "Someone talks her down from the Dark
Side" idea.
Then, Chris and I had a strange burst of synergistic inspiration.
He came up with the idea of Sheila becoming a Senshi (Senshi Duo was his
name, after the first Uranus/Neptune fanfic, I believe) and defeating
Lina, somehow. It was a little cliche'd, but I never let that stop
me... but the name left me cold. So, I dug into a little mythological
research, trying to find something in mythology to call Sheila. A
little rooting around in the myths of Uranus and I found the creation of
the Erinyes... and it was perfect. The Erinyes were an aspect of the
Fates, of course, and charged with seeking justice, especially on those
who killed members of their own family. And what we needed for Lina was
SNAKE: I still say-
SERENA: You're alive, Erinyes must have sensed that, case closed. You'd
think you really wanted her turning on Serenity.
Justice, not punishment. When I suggested the legend of the Erinyes to
Chris, he agreed it was perfect, and we had our means of dealing with
Lina... not with a show of incredible power, but by using Lina's own
guilt against her. Even this did not satisfy some of those howling for
her blood, but I cannot believe that Serenity would have the death
penalty for anything... so, like Ryouga in Together Again, she is put
into a dreamworld in stasis.
SNAKE: But Ryouga got out at the end of that.
Oh, I hasten to add that Chris did NOT want to connect this with
his own Slayers Lime where Lina and Naga had a relationship that ended
SNAKE: I knew I! Hoo-choo-chatoo! I now do my victory dance.
And he does.
badly. I did that, partly to offer hope of Lina's eventual redemption
and partly to answer the last dangling plot thread... namely how Naga
would get Lina 'home' to fulfill the Deveels' contract.
SERENA: Snip the dangling plot threads.
The Council of Chronos, or the Council of Plutos, grew out of both
this story and another collaboration I am doing with Sean Gaffney
entitle "Trials and Errors." It began here, I think, with the idea of
Plutos banding together to face a common threat, namely Lina. Then in
TaE it became a vacation spot for Sailor Plutos, a Club Med like place
in subspace where many different Plutos meet to unwind, while other
Plutos try to make it some sort of official body with power over their
kind... borrowing heavily from the old Marvel Comics concept of the
Council of Kangs. (Kang was a time traveler who traveled so much and
split off into so many different time lines that he kept meeting himself
and, in the end, formed a council composed of all these different
versions of himself. In the end, they were, I believe, manipulated by
another Kang and destroyed.) We give this idea feely out to the net, as
long as you give us credit for coming up with it. (Us being Chris
Davies, Sean Gaffney, John Biles, and myself.)
SNAKE: Course you have to remember.. Kang was evil. All of him
SERENA: Maybe you should start a Council of Ourranoses so you can destroy
them all.
SNAKE: Hmmmm.
SERENA: I was just joking!
We do have something else planned for Athena and Sheila... did you
think that we would leave them so tragically separated? I will admit
that Chris and I suffer from a 'lesbian fetish' (but not as bad as Fred
Herriot! :) but we both agree that these two seem to fit well
together... and poor Sheila deserves, IMHO, a potentially happy ending.
SERENA: Yes she does.
SNAKE: No argument here.
Go read what Chris has of the Further Adventures of Sheila Ten'kai to
see Misa's eventual fate. If you want to know how she learned of it,
you'll have to ask Chris to show you another MST he did where some plot
elements crept into what should have been just C&C. :)
SNAKE: I'm shocked.
SERENA: I have no idea how something like that could ever have happened.
If you ask us nicely, maybe we'll even show a little thing we wrote
showing a day in the life of Athena and Sheila in the future. :)
SNAKE: That's next on our list.
SERENA: I wanna see something cheerful!
So, there will be a sequel to this, sometime, when Chris and I
recover sufficiently from THIS monster. In the meantime, I think I need
another trip to Tougenkyo....
SNAKE: He just wants to bag Nabiki.
29 Jan 1999
Pretty much all of the characters were created by someone else, and
most of them were brought to North America by someone else again. This
story, while incorporating characters held under copyright by others, is
copyright 1998 and 1999 of Chris Davies and Jeff Hosmer. Nobody sue us
okay?
SNAKE: Aaaaaaannnnnnnddddddd! Cut!
SERENA: That's a wrap.
SNAKE: (looking pensive) Serena?
SERENA: What?
SNAKE: All this stuff with alternate realities and timelines and seeing the
writers scripting out lives, it makes me kind of worry.
SERENA: What do you mean?
SNAKE: Well what if we don't count? What if our story on a story here is less
real than that one? What if you never really got the chance to talk to Raye and
I never existed at all?
SERENA: This is silly.
SNAKE: (persisting) But what if you and I don't count?! What if this is
nothing more than an imaginary story?
SERENA: Well aren't they all?
The End
(With apologies to Alan Moore for that last line.)