July 2, 2000 Author's Notes: First off, let me apologize to anyone who has been following this story since '96. I am sorry I haven't posted anything in over a year, almost two, I think. I was writing mostly based on thoughts I conjured in High School, and when I left, I ran out of the need to send my thoughts into a fantasy world. I wrote some freshman year of college, and then I just stopped. I re-read everything about a few months ago (If you'll note, there are a lot of version 1.2's of the previous episodes) and made a few changes, mostly in grammar and spelling. Then I rummaged around and found all of my old papers and story notes. I am currently re-writing a lot of things, but I hope to have everything finished in the next few months. I mean, the whole story will be finished and posted definitely by the end of September, at the latest. I hope to get it done by the end of July, but we'll see how school and job permit. I apologize to everyone, I know the story lost many followers from my lack of attention and my lapse. I hope you all enjoy how it all ends up. I actually wrote the basic outline of how I wanted it to end long before I even came up with the beginning. It has just taken me a dreadfully long time to get all the way there. Thank you all for coming back and reading again and again. And thanks to everyone who has emailed me or has written in my Guestbook about my stories. I would have never gone back to read any of it or to work on it if not for some of your emails and entries. I would especially like to thank a certain Demosthenes (nice reference name, too, btw, and I read your Guestbook entry long before you emailed me) who left me a little note that really helped me change my mind and decide that this was something I really needed to do (and it made my day, too). So I hope you all have enjoyed up to this point, and continue to like the story through its end. I've loved having you all read my work. Thank you. SailorsPathfinder : Love and Without By : Erin Flynn - fanfic@mjade.com Episode 14 : Serenity's Mistake Risa gaped. She couldn't really do anything else. A few moments ago her mind had almost ceased to function. In one moment, she was laying near a fallen Tuxedo Mask, Sailor Moon crying over him. The next it seemed as if she were half the field away as Queen Serenity knelt behind Princess Serenity... who was crying over a fallen Endymion. She gazed around. All of the senshi stood the same distance away as well. They all made up a rather large circle. And in the center-- There she was, Princess Serenity, the Princess she and thousands of others had sworn to protect so very long ago. The Princess... and... her mother. The light of the Universe, the one who's hand once held onto galaxies. The ruler of the Silver Millennium... and her own savior as well. But, what had happened? A blinding flash of light and then they were all here, on the moon, the battle and Sabi forgotten, everyone staring at the specter of their royal highnesses. And lying lifeless before the Princess... Risa tried to push herself to her feet, then failed with a moan. Her body had still not recovered fully from the first of Sailor Moon's scepter blasts, let alone the fight and beating the girl had then given her. She desperately kept her eyes open and forced herself to think and to try and ignore the pain. It was all she could do to just try to stay conscious, and watch... * * * "Mother?" Princess Serenity stared up in surprise. Then she looked around her. "The moon. I'm on the moon again..." The thought snapped back into the front of her mind as she again looked down to the unmoving body she tightly held in her arms. She choked out a sob, "Oh, what have I done!" She felt her mother's hand grip her shoulder tighter. "Darling, would you bid your Guardians to revive him?" The Princess looked again at the elder Serenity, "Heal him?" She looked back down at her love, "Yes! Yes, whatever can help him, please!! Anything!" Queen Serenity nodded, then stood, and swept her gaze across the area, speaking in a quiet voice that shouted in certain minds. "GUARDIANS, I BID THEE HEAL YOUR PROTECTORATE, THE ROYAL PRINCE OF EARTH, ENDYMION, WHO NOW LAYS HERE BEFORE YOU." * * * Leeota's mind swam. Images and things that were happening around her meant nothing. She, as well as the rest of the senshi around her, had entered a trance-like state. Induced by Serenity, it controlled and blocked all but four of the minds on the field. She would most assuredly never remember this time. When the tall white haired woman looked up next, a powerful golden wave of command flowed over Leeota. She must follow it, she had to. She began to walk towards the woman, to the center. * * * Pluto watched with great interest as the guardian senshi separated from the rest of the group and walked to form a circle around the Princess and Endymion. She spoke to the Sage, "Wonderful! So many have survived! In all accounts of my memory, only five other such rituals by Guardian senshi have ever been performed. I have never been able to observe one myself, thought I have been tempted many times to bend time slightly to go see one, isn't it so intriguing..." She glanced at the girl beside her. The other senshi was staring mindlessly towards the Queen. Pluto sighed. "Oh well." The thought occurred to her to look around for others who may still be aware. She couldn't see anyone but the Princess, the Queen... and then her eyes fell on Risa and widened. "Sailor Sabi is still very much aware." She thought for a time, "I wonder if Serenity wanted this, or if her spell was somehow incomplete." * * * Risa watched as Leeota and several identically dressed others walked down to form a large circle around Mamoru (Or Endymion? But he was Mamoru either way to her) and the Princess. From where she was, she had heard every exchange so far between the Queen and her daughter. After the circle was complete, the Guardians suddenly began chanting, not in any intelligible tongue, but in monosyllabic song rhythms, up and down the scale. Risa had almost fallen into the rhythm, enchanted, when suddenly every girl in the circle began to glow. As she watched, the glow condensed, flowing out of their arms and legs as their costumes became luminous. Then small spheres formed in front of each girl, their intensity building with each second. The brilliance almost burned itself into Risa's eyes, when suddenly each girl screamed. The glow burst from them and pelted into Mamoru's body. Risa cried as she watched him bounce around, as if someone were punching him rapidly. Then he was still. All of the Guardians seemed to melt. They fell to their knees, released hands, and then fainted. Many fell gently to the ground. One slammed into it. "LEEOTA!" She forced herself to her knees, nearly passing out, and weakly began crawling towards her friend. * * * Tears continued to flow from the eyes of the Princess. Although she suspected the senshi surrounding her were trying to heal him, the wild thrashing of Endymion's body had terrified her. "LEEOTA!" She turned as she heard a cry. The red suited senshi whom Tuxedo Mask had been protecting was struggling towards them slowly. She felt her mother kneel back down beside her. "You should heal her, she has been protecting this planet, as well as your love for the past weeks." "But... how can I?" "You have the power, you are powerful enough to do that." And as she spoke, the Princess knew exactly what to do. She nodded, then clutched the crystal on her chest as she pointed her other hand at the girl. "Moon Crystal Power," she whispered. Energy flew toward the other girl from her outstretched hand. "NO!!" The other girl screamed in terror... and then the energy washed over her. * * * Risa saw the Princess shoot some sort of energy beam at her. She screamed and tried to fling her hands up to block it, but they wouldn't respond. She closed her eyes, and then it hit her. She was awash in sudden life. She felt wounds closing on her body, felt the tiredness fleeing and her alertness returning to her. Then it was over and she realized she had been healed. Risa breathed in slowly. Then, she tried to get up. She found it suddenly easy, when moments ago her muscles had screamed in pain. She stared at her hands for a moment, then her head cleared as she raised her eyes back up. She hurriedly made her way to her friend’s fallen body. “Leeota?” Rolling her friends body over, she found her skin cool. She quickly checked for a pulse... and found it, but weak, it was so very weak. “Why?!?” she asked as she accusingly looked up at Queen Serenity. “Why did you make her do it, she’s so weak, she could die!” The Queen’s eyes saddened, and then, she bit her bottom lip. If Risa hadn’t been so worried, so unsure, she might have smiled, it made the dignified Queen look very, very young. For someone so... ancient... “I didn’t know, and I am sorry. But her power was needed, and Guardians do have special reserves for such a job.” Her voice suddenly assumed a detached quality, “It is their duty, to guard the royal family, and to give their lives, if need be. It has been done time and time again—“ “Damn it, I don’t care.” Risa angrily interrupted. Something in her was alarmed, was yelling at ?!?! But she went on, “She’s my friend, and she is important to me, and it should be voluntary anyway.” She waved her hand and gestured at the others, “They all look like they’ve been drugged. I understand it is important to save Mam-- Endymion, but not like this, you forced it, they would have done it. The Silver Millennium doesn’t even exist anymore and I—-“ A tear suddenly escaped the Queen’s eye, and Risa halted mid-sentence. “I- I’m sorry, I was just angry, I- I care about Leeota and it just—-“ “No, it’s alright, it’s just that, it seems I’ve made another mistake.” She wiped her face and then sighed. “But, it is important that none of them remember this, I want their lives to be less confusing, and I plan on restoring everything as best I can as my last move in this game.” She looked at Risa, then turned to her daughter, “Serenity, do you feel up to healing her friend as well?” Risa turned to the Princess. The girl had been silently watching them. She nodded. “I can tend to the others, too.” She carefully moved out from under Endymion, who appeared to be sleeping now, peacefully. She leaned over Leeota and whispered some words. The color seemed to come back to Leeota’s face somewhat. Then the Princess moved on to the next girl. Risa turned back to the Queen. “Is that it, then, is that why you are here, to save Endymion?” The Queen sighed, and then, in a very un-lady-like fashion, hiked up her dress and then sat on the ground opposite Risa, who still held Leeota in her arms. “No, that was just something that happened, I had no real idea that was going to occur. I actually came here to repay a debt.” Risa frowned, “A debt?” “Yes, one that I owe you and the rest of these girls standing together here. From long long ago.” Risa frowned more, if such a thing was possible and repeated, “A debt?” Serenity sighed, “Because of a mistake.” * * * “You remember, long ago, the fight against the darkness? How all of the senshi of the galaxy were called in to help the fight. You, and the others that were on this planet were about to take off in the space ship to bring you to the Moon’s system. The others, the ones you see here now from other planets, plus countless thousands more, were either near the battle, or preparing to travel to it. “Then, the Princess was killed before my eyes, along with Endymion, and my mind came up with only one solution. Save everything, save them all, and send them to the future. “I cried... but then I did it. And they were all sealed, Luna and Artemis could go find the Princess when her soul awakened again, and could guide her should evil ever befall her again. “And then... and then... “Well, and then I did something that occurred to me to be the right thing to do... at the time... “I sealed you all as well. With the power of my wand gone, I used the scepter. I thought to save all of you for the future. You would all be born again, a few years or so before or after the time Serenity’s soul was released, and I thought that you could all bring the galaxies back together, that you could bring harmony back again. “In the centuries that have passed since then, I have never regretted anything more than that single act. “I stole you away from a galaxy that needed you. Your planets were left defenseless from the remnants of the Dark Army and without your powers, they were quickly taken over. Empires fell, cultures deteriorated, your races became slaves. “All because of a single selfish act, from a vain Queen who pretended to be a guardian. I basically left the universe defenseless. “I have mourned this act, for eternity, and have awaited for a time to arrive that I could somehow, in some small way, repay back to you, somehow, something worthwhile.” * * * Risa didn’t know what to make of anything right at the moment. All she could think about was the fact that the Queen, the one person she had deemed infallible, in all of the memories she could recollect, had made a mistake. But... Serenity’s eyes shone with unshed tears. Risa looked down and then looked back up at her. “You couldn’t have thought of everything in a single instant. But, it still was wrong to think only of the future. In life, if you don’t think about where you are, what you are doing and what is going on, you won’t have a future to get to. What if the DarkNites had destroyed the Earth, then even the Princess would not be here.” Serenity sighed, “You aren’t telling me anything I haven’t thought ten thousand times in the hundreds of years that have passed. Repaying this debt has been one of the things that has caused me to linger here as long as I have. And I do not have that much longer.” She stood, all graceless manners gone, as she resumed the eerie Queen stance of Risa’s dreams, the elegance of something so old, so timeless. “And so I must begin. First, your strength.” She leaned down and touched Risa’s forehead. Risa gasped at how cold the touch felt, and then she felt shields forming in her body, and a strength, as if she could now hold something, contain something powerful... “Then, Pluto?” The Queen turned. Risa blinked, and then looked to where the Queen was facing. Sailor Pluto stood, momentary shock passing her features, then she regained her silent control, as she walked towards the Queen, “Yes, your Highness?” “I trust you will be recording all this so that you may tell the Neo-Queen as she will forget all of this until that time.” “Yes, your highness.” “And Pluto, I thought you were supposed to be in the time Gates at all times, that is where you were, even during the attack on the moon.” “Ah, yes your Highness...” Risa thought she heard her mumble something about ‘stepping out for some coffee’ before she looked back up at the Queen. “It will not happen again.” The Queen looked at her and smiled slightly, “Oh, I’m sure it will, but try not to do it too often, important events shall happen...” The Princess had found her way back to them. “Moth—- Serenity, I have healed as many as I could find injured. What should I do now?” The Queen smiled at her, “You and Sailor Sabi must now save this world. I have given her the power to use the power of others. You already have this gift and have utilized it, have you not?” The Princess nodded. “Then together, you two must save Sabi. Then I will take care of the rest. Well, most of it.” Risa slid Leeota off her lap carefully and then stood up. “What does that mean? And just what am I supposed to do with other people’s power, I mean, what am I supposed to do.” “First the Princess must free their minds, then, you must all fight, together, and then... then we will see.” “See?!?!” Risa said, anger rising in her voice, “What the hell does THAT mean?? I mean-“ The Queen smiled. The they were back on the plains of Sabi, and the battle raged around them once more. End Ep. 14