Note: I have nothing to do with Sailor Moon and its characters except to be a fan who enjoys the series and the movies very much. This story is my extrapolation of the storylines as received in North America. I apologize if this story doesn't quite fit into the Japanese series.
Jedite struggled to bring his formidable powers to bear against the monsters moving against him, but for some reason nothing he did worked. Spells fizzled before he could reinforce them. It was as though something had completely drained him of magical strength, rendering as powerless and as helpless as he'd been before he pledged his allegiance to the Negaverse.
Unable to do anything, he turned and ran. The gargoyles and demons gave chase.
Jedite sought desperately for something, anything to use against them, but the terrain he ran through was dead and barren. There were no plants, no signs of civilization anywhere. There was no place for him to hide.
Pain exploded up his arm as a gargoyle caught hold of his wrist, its icy touch biting through to the bone. He wrenched his arm free, but stumbled in the process, allowing the other fiends to catch up and surround him.
Moments later he writhed as wave after wave of agony racketed through his body. The two gargoyles holding him in place laughed their pitiful, wailing cackles as a large, fiery demon stomped towards them on its huge, cloven hooves. Baring its shark-like teeth in a mad smile, the demon raised s clawed hand and prepared to slash him to ribbons.
Jedite closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable, wondering if he would ever finally find the release of death instead of reliving over and over again the unspeakable torments his mind had unconsciously devised for him.
The blow never came. The pain that had been threatening to overwhelm him vanished. Jedite cautiously opened his eyes.
To his surprise, he stood beneath a magenta smoke-filled sky in what were obviously the ruins of a great civilization. What was even more surprising was that he recognized where he was.
"The Moon Kingdom," he whispered. How had he ended up here?
"Jedite."
He whirled around, looking for the source of the voice. At first he saw no one, but then he noticed a strange light emanating from a jumble of toppled pillars. He started hesitantly towards it, fearful of what he might find but drawn onward by some sort of necessity that he didn't understood. He climbed over broken steps and piles of bricks, ignoring the shattered tile mosaics that crept by beneath his feet.
Jedite finally reached the pile of pillars. His eyes widened. He tried to speak, but the words he sought wouldn't come out. Finally, swallowing repeatedly, he managed to force the words forth.
"Queen Serenity," he croaked.
The queen of the Moon Kingdom looked much as she had in life, but now there was an ethereal quality to her that defied description. Her silver tresses shimmered in the strange light, gleaming alternately light pink to dark purple. Gossamer wings framed her slender form, transforming her from a powerful, beautiful woman into a divine being of inhuman splendor.
"Jedite," the queen called, holding out her hands to him.
Something welled up in him. To his surprise, he felt tears stream down his cheeks. Waves of remorse washed over him, threatening to drown him in guilt and anguish. He threw himself into the queen's arms, sobbing bitterly.
"I'm sorry," he cried. "I'm so sorry!"
The queen stroked his hair gently. "I know you are," she whispered. "Beryl's Negaverse offered many temptations to you, and sometimes it's hard to resist the easy path to power. But now you have a second chance, Jedite."
He drew back and stared into her face. "Another chance?"
"At life," the queen said, smiling. "At overcoming the evil that lurks within all humans. At setting aside the guilt you feel and enjoying a happy, pleasant life. That is why you have been freed from eternal sleep."
"Eternal sleep!" Jedite shook his head. "Who released me? I didn't think anyone could break one of Queen Beryl's spells."
"Beryl is no more," the queen said. "And because she is no more, she has no influence over you unless you wish her to. This is your chance to leave the path of evil behind and begin your journey to redemption and freedom." She sighed and gathered Jedite to her again. "It is not an easy path," she whispered, stroking his hair again. "Many times you will be tempted to succumb, but you have the strength to resist."
Jedite said nothing, instead enjoying the queen's gentle ministrations. Finally, though, a strange ache rose within him. "But I'll be alone," he whispered.
"You will not be alone," the queen said softly. "You need never be alone again if you so choose. There is already one on Earth who wishes to be your friend. He suffered much in the process of freeing you from your prison, forcing himself to accept long-forgotten and long-suppressed memories of his own to recover the knowledge needed to free you. Let him be your friend, Jedite, and you will find yourself on the way to atonement and freedom from your guilt."
Jedite didn't know what to do. Queen Serenity gently pushed away from him. As she continued backwards her image faded until nothing could be seen of her except the brilliant crescent mark upon her forehead.
"Remember, Jedite," the queen called, her voice fading still. "You are not alone."
"Queen Serenity!" he shouted, suddenly feeling sad and betrayed. "Please don't go!"
"You are not alone, Jedite," the queen's faint voice sighed. "Open your heart and let them that care about you enter and you will never be alone. Remember, Jedite!"
Jedite closed his eyes and dashed away the tears that squeezed out. He sighed, then straightened.
"All right," he said to himself. "I am not alone. I am not alone."
* * *
"I am not alone."
The sound of his own voice sounded strange and alien. At first he didn't recognize it at all. Then, he heard something of its old tenor timbre running beneath the dry rasp that reached his ears. His throat felt dry and scratchy, but he was actually talking!
Now he heard other things, too. The rumble of an engine as a passenger jet climbed into the sky somewhere nearby. The rotors of a helicopter as its blades chopped through the air. The honks and revving of ground vehicles. A siren of some sort. And somewhere nearby he heard...
Birds chirping.
He felt his heart catch. None of his nightmares had ever included happy sounds. As he listened, he could hear other things he'd never dreamed of hearing again: birds calling to one another, a woman's voice raised in song, the laughter of children as they played. He felt moisture creep down his cheek and wondered at the change in himself. Suddenly he wanted to see everything. He wanted to see birds soaring through a sapphire sky, children chasing each other around a playground, cars lined up on the streets as their occupants moved through the city. He eagerly opened his eyes...to a field of unbroken whiteness.
For a terrified moment he wondered if he'd been given his hearing back only to lose his vision. Then, as he blinked repeatedly, his eyesight cleared and things came into focus. He still looked at a wall of white, but now he could distinguish variations in its surface that resulted in miniscule but plainly present patches of shadow. As he turned his head to his right, he realized he'd been looking at a ceiling. Now he could see where the ceiling met the wall.
He was in a room, then. And it seemed like a man's room as well. The walls were bare of adornment, and the furnishing of the room seemed spartan and austere, nothing like what he'd expect out of a girl's or woman's room. He saw a door to his left, and next to it sat his boots. His uniform jacket lay draped over a chair nearby.
As he turned his head again, he saw something sitting atop the dresser near his head. He twisted around until he could see it clearly.
He felt a chill creep up his spine.
It was a picture frame, and the people in the picture were terribly familiar to him. One looked especially familiar, but more from the resemblance between her and someone he'd only recently seen, albeit in his dreams.
The girl's hair had been drawn up into two sort of--the word "meatballs" came to mind--then flowed back behind her. If her hair were a different color--say, a white-silver or white-gold--and if she were a little taller and a little older and if she were wearing something considerably more regal, then she would look exactly like Queen Serenity. And if she happened to be wearing some sort of sailor outfit, then she would be...
Sailor Moon.
Now he recognized the girl in the picture. He'd seen her at the airport just before she transformed. Had he been captured by the Sailor Scouts then? But why would they keep him in a man's room?
His eyes moved to the figure next to Sailor Moon. It was a young man, a few years older than the girl. He was smiling and seemed happy enough, but if he imagined him with a stern frown on his face and dressed in something older and darker and more martial--like a suit of dark blue or black armor--then he would be...
Prince Darian? Of Earth?
What was going on? He remembered how Prince Darian had escaped from Earth to warn the Moon Kingdom about Queen Beryl and the Negaverse. He also remembered how the rogue human had stood against the Queen to protect Princess Serenity. How was it that the Prince of Earth and the Princess of the Moon could be together again? And why was he in Prince Darian's room? Because the picture strongly suggested that was exactly where he was.
He had to escape. He was still trapped in a nightmare, and Queen Serenity's soothing message had been a set up to raise his hopes before dashing them and increasing the extent of his torment. He tried to get out of the bed, but he felt weak and helpless. His muscles protested and he fell back with a groan.
The doorknob rattled.
Jedite gazed fearfully at the door, unable to flee. He watched as the door opened.
The man from the picture entered, carrying a tray in his free hand while the other closed the door behind him. The man turned and looked at him, suddenly smiling as he noticed he was being watched.
"Good," the young man said. "You're awake."
His voice, Jedite thought, it sounds so familiar. "Where am I?" he demanded aloud. "What am I doing here?"
The young man stopped. He set the tray down on the dresser. Jedite's stomach rumbled when he saw the steaming bowl and the sandwich that waited there.
"To begin with," the other man said, "you're in my room in my bed. You've been there since I put you in there after bringing you back from the pocket dimension Queen Beryl had sealed you in and releasing you from the crystal you'd been trapped in." He paused. "That was a day and a half ago."
Jedite ignored his rumbling stomach and glared at the man. "What do you want with me?"
The other man sighed. "I wish you'd trust me a little. If I really wanted to hurt you, I'd have done it while you were unconscious. What I want from you is for you to get better." He stopped, then continued, flushing, "And then, well, I was hoping that we could be friends."
Jedite felt a strange feeling wash over him. Part of it was a reaction to how handsome the young man looked, blushing as he was. The other part was the offering of friendship. He hadn't had many friends in his life--none was more like it, he told himself grimly--and he wasn't certain what to do. "Well," he snapped, trying to make himself sound gruff, "how can I trust you when I don't even know who you are?"
The other man smiled slightly, the flush fading. "That's true enough. My name is Darian."
Jedite gasped. "Prince Darian?"
The other man's smile widened. "After a fashion."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"We've met before, Jedite," Darian said, "and it wasn't ages ago in another lifetime. Our paths have crossed several times, though you probably knew me as Tuxedo Mask."
Jedite gasped again. He tried to move, but his useless muscles refused to work. He groaned.
Darian was instantly beside him, helping him to sit up. "Are you all right?" he asked.
Jedite shook his head. "I don't understand. I remember trying to kill you at the airport, yet you're offering to be friends with me?" He breathed a sigh of momentary relief as he sank back against the pillows behind him.
Darian stepped back. "That was another lifetime ago, Jedite," he said. "Since then a lot has happened, not the least of which is that I experienced firsthand what it feels like to serve the Negaverse. A part of me wants to hate you for trying to kill me, but I realize and understand that it wasn't entirely your fault."
Jedite shook his head. "What are you saying? It was me that tried to kill you, not the Negaverse!"
"Jedite," Darian said, "someone once told me that there was good in you. I didn't believe it at first, because I couldn't believe that anything that came from the Negaverse could be good, but events proved me wrong. That's why I agreed to give you another chance at a better life. At a good life."
"I still don't understand."
Darian handed him the bowl. "Here, eat this and I'll bring you up to date. It's only chicken broth, I thought misoshiru might be a little strong."
Jedite took the bowl gratefully and began drinking it. As he drank the warm broth down, he listened to what Darian had to say.
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