Life's Lessons
A Sailor Moon fanfic by Kristin Renee Taylor



Chapter 26 –

Carefully, Hotaru stretched Minako out on the floor, doing her best to avoid aggravating her friend’s already serious wounds. Minako was pale; Hotaru could clearly see the veins in Minako’s face. Much of her clothing was a shredded, bleeding mess. Even for someone with supernatural healing, Minako’s wounds were just too severe. If she didn’t get some sort of medical attention soon…

Hotaru cursed herself bitterly. Why do I have to be so weak?

She sighed faintly, and touched two fingers to Minako’s throat, feeling Minako’s pulse and using her health-sense to gauge Minako’s condition. She might not be able to heal Minako, but at least she could figure out where her worst injuries lie and do something to stymie them.

A sudden pricking at the back of her neck alerted her to the other presence. Power washed over Hotaru, power so thick she could barely see straight. She thought, briefly, Why now? And somehow managed to speak. "So, you’ve come, Saturn."

The Senshi was silent and Hotaru didn’t turn around. With her back to Saturn, she knew that all it would take was one swing of the Glaive. A single swipe and no more Hotaru. The thought was not as depressing as it should have been.

However, when the expected blow didn’t fall, Hotaru said softly, "Will you not give me what is mine?"

"It is not mine to give. Only you can fulfill that particular wish." Saturn’s voice, just as soft as Hotaru’s, sharpened slightly. "But, know this: I shall resist with all the power that I possess."

Hotaru watched Minako’s ragged breathing. Eventually, when she spoke, it was in an even fainter voice than before. "For centuries, they grew in power, and all I did was watch from the sidelines. All I’ve ever done was watch from the sidelines. Only twice has anything I’ve ever done been significant and, out of those two times, they tried to kill me the first time, and the second time I was stopped by a girl that only lives in my memories.

"I’m sick of it. I’m sick and tired and disgusted of being ‘Hotaru – the girl that needs to be protected unless the world is in utter danger and then we’ll tell her we need her, but we really don’t.’ All I ever did as Hotaru was live waiting for a death that never actually managed to take place, and all I ever did as Sailor Saturn was kill without actually managing to kill a damn thing."

She stood, then, and glared fiercely into Saturn’s dead eyes. "Resist me? You can’t resist me anymore than I could kill you. We’re dead, Saturn! We’re dead, and we’re alive, and we’re not really either and you know what? I’d kill Serenity Herself, I’d shatter that damned Silver Crystal, and I wouldn’t think twice about destroying the Senshi. I’d kill every single person on this miserable rock if it meant I’d die and stay dead!

"Do Your job!"

An expression flickered in Saturn’s eyes and Her hands, holding the Glaive, tightened. "No."

Hotaru stepped forward, into the range of that deadliest of weapons. "I heard Serenity. You were ordered to kill me and Minako-chan. But, she’s not getting out of the mess she created that easily, so you’ll have to deal with me first. Now, do Your job."

Again came the emotion across Saturn’s face, but this time Hotaru could place it.

Yearning. Desperate yearning.

Hotaru’s voice dropped to an intense whisper. "Life without death is meaningless. Life without hope is worse than meaningless. It’s Hell. Hope died centuries ago, and although she is a shoddy imitation, the woman that calls Herself Serenity is the closest thing to a Princess we have. I’m a threat to Your Princess. Do Your duty. Eliminate the threat."

Saturn jerked back, but not before something flared and died in Her eyes. Her grip on the Glaive changed. "Very well… I shall perform my duty…"

Even expecting it, Hotaru never thought the blow would come so fast. The Silence Glaive plowed through her chest, burst out the other side, and continued through until Saturn’s hands meeting Hotaru’s sternum stopped its travel. With their faces inches apart, Saturn’s eyes burned into Hotaru’s, more alive and more lethal than Hotaru could ever remember seeing them.

They stood, connected, for almost a full minute. And then, in that same single fluid motion, Saturn hauled the Glaive backwards, out of Hotaru’s body, which was quickly followed by a gush of blood and-

Pain! More pain than Hotaru had ever dreamed possible. More pain than anybody could ever deal with. She screamed, barely heard herself scream over the howling roar in her head. She fell, fell to and through the floor into a sea of blackness and her own blood and with Saturn’s voice chasing her down, down, down…

<I will perform My duty, Tomoe Hotaru… but, in return, you must fulfill yours…>

She knew something was wrong before she reached the throne room. The double doors, large and ornate and pure white against the crystalline walls, hung open, teetering dangerously at the cusp of falling. The floor, the walls, even the ceiling high overhead, were pitted and scorched, as if someone had liberally splashed everything with a highly corrosive acid. The air had a vague burnt odor to it, and it hung with the same thick silence that a graveyard contained.

She stood at the end of the hall for several minutes, taking that long to decide the best course of action. Should she charge in with harp playing and water flinging, and hope that she caught whoever had done this off-guard? Or should she be stealthy, using her fog to sneak in and praying that she managed to get off an attack before she was discovered? Or, she could always-

Would it kill me to be spontaneous for once? And she strode through the doors, into the throne room beyond.

She walked in on a scene of chaos, barely managed a glimpse of the sheer destruction, and a weight landed on her, bearing her to the floor. She almost let loose an attack before she realized that the body above her was both injured and far too furry to be anything but a Ku’dath. She scrambled out from beneath him, carefully helped him to roll over. And she gasped. "Stormcatcher?"

She hardly recognized him; there didn’t seem to be a place on his body not caked with blood and matted fur. Half of his tail was gone. One of his arms had been broken in at least two places. His right ear was bloody shreds. The left looked like it had been crushed. One of his eyes was lost beneath a jagged cut across his face. The other gleamed dully as it watched her. It was a miracle he was still alive.

"Stormcatcher," she said again, less surprised than she had been. "What happened?"

He let out a thick grunt. His one eye focused on her face. "You help them?"

"Yes, of course. I’ll do what I can." Stupid! Why didn’t I bring anything with-

Them?

Mercury turned slowly, knowing what she’d see. Funny, how the mind would simply glide over details it didn’t want to acknowledge… Standing, she walked towards them, mind working on automatic as she tallied wounds, calculated time.

Minako… Minako was alive. Barely. The movement of her chest was so subtle that she didn’t appear to be breathing. Only Mercury’s visor detected the faint heartbeat.

Next to Minako, sprawled on her back, Hotaru didn’t appear to be injured, at least not in any way that Mercury could see. But that didn’t change the facts.

Hotaru was dead.

She knelt between them. Hotaru’s eyes were still open. Mercury took a deep breath, lifted a hand towards Hotaru.

Hotaru’s hands closed around her throat. The dead woman grated, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t snap your neck." And Mercury found herself staring into the most enraged, most baleful, most alive pair of eyes that she had ever come across.

Hotaru’s grip was like cold steel. Mercury gasped out, "Hotaru!"

With agonizing slowness, Hotaru’s expression changed from rage to bewilderment. "Ami?" She released her, and Mercury almost collapsed, breathing hard and feeling light-headed and dizzy. Hotaru sat up. "What are you doing here, Ami? When did you get here? How long was I unconscious?"

"Hotaru." Mercury tried to speak, but all that came out of her bruised throat was a croak. She squeezed her eyes shut as the room spun lazily.

"Man, I almost blew the window entirely." Mercury risked a glance to see Hotaru kneeling next to Minako, hands on the other woman’s stomach. A pale glow surrounded Hotaru. Beneath her hands, Minako suddenly took a deep breath as her entire body went rigid.

"Hotaru…" Better this time, but her voice was still rough. Mercury straightened and touched her throat. She winced. A bruise was beginning to form, she could feel it.

Eyes focused intently on Minako, Hotaru said, "You okay, Ami? You don’t look to good."

"Hotaru, what happened? You were dead!"

"Am dead," Hotaru corrected mildly. "Scan me."

"What?"

"Scan me."

Mercury did.

After several minutes of silence, Hotaru said, "Well?"

Mercury said, "That’s impossible." And the tremor in her voice had nothing to do with her throat.

Hotaru met her gaze briefly, and smiled. "Give it a minute. You’ll understand." Minako groaned and Hotaru returned her attention to her.

"You… That’s… It isn’t possible."

"Sure, it’s possible. Saturn killed me, but I can’t be killed because I am Saturn. Or, at least I was at the time I died. See, it’s got something to do with the fact that Death doesn’t die. Or something like that."

"You have no pulse!" Mercury screamed at her.

"Minor technicality." She lifted her hands. "Ah… I think our fearless leader’s coming around."

Minako’s voice was slurred, but clear. She muttered with her eyes closed. "’They were all so beautiful in their pain… and all like angels when they died…’"

A strange look passed over Hotaru’s face, then she shrugged and it passed. She stood. "She’ll be lucid in a minute. I’ll see to ye olde furry one."

Mercury’s mind jump-started itself. "Hotaru, forgive my language, but what the hell happened to you?"

Hotaru paused in the act of turning away. "Sometimes," she said quietly, almost to herself, "Sometimes, the only way to know yourself, to really know yourself, is to become someone else. So, I became someone else. And, now, I know who I am." Her voice trailed off as her eyes lost focus. Then she shook herself and laughed. "Jeez, if I keep this up, I might actually start to make sense." Snickering, she walked over to where Stormcatcher still lay.

Because she didn’t know what else to do, Mercury did the only thing she could do, and turned her attention to the still mumbling Minako.

At least she could deal with Minako’s brand of insanity.

So much to do in so little time.

Serenity examined the tall columns, toppled and ruined by time and other things. This had been the outer gardens, where the public had come. And marveled. And realized that there was no other quite as beautiful, as wonderful, or as merciful as their Queen.

Now they were dust, dust and ash and other debris, subject to whatever wind happened to blow. The acres of roses, so meticulously cared for by a small army of gardeners, was gone. The arches lay in shambles. The pathways, once paved in brilliant white, were shattered and it would be years before they would regain their former splendor.

"This will not do," She murmured. Her words cut the silence but with no effect. As powerful as She was, She simply was not strong enough. Not yet.

She started to turn around, and felt Terri balk. Ever since that moment, that horrible moment when Terri’s body had locked up allowing Minako that one brief attack, there had been the faintest… shadow in the back of Serenity’s mind, like the fluttering movement of butterfly’s wings only just seen. That any part of Terri should still exist at all bothered Serenity, but, for even the split second it had occurred, to lose control…

With a silent snarl, She hurled the presence into the background, buried it beneath so many different layers of control, that escape would be impossible. I will not tolerate such insubordination again. Not from you. Not from anyone. The presence settled itself, and Serenity smiled grimly.

She turned, passing through the inner gardens, leaving the dead gardens behind as she entered the courtyard, and from there into the castle itself.

Now, there were scenes of the battle that had spelled the Kingdom’s ruin. Here, a gouge in the stone walls nearly three meters long, the broken halberd that made the wound on the floor. There, the stone lay burnt in an almost perfect circle, where a magician had fought a desperate battle, and lost. A spear, tinged blue and crystalline, pinned a shirt of grey scale mail to a door that had been broken. The haft of the spear lay in the room beyond, old blood still staining it.

She walked past these things, relics of a two thousand year-old battle, and did not pause to wonder about them. The past, even Her past, meant nothing to Her.

Eventually, Her path brought to the place She sought. To the seat of power, where, once, nobles and peasants alike had stood, waiting, to be judged over. The throne room of Her predecessor, the very dead Queen Serenity of the Moon Kingdom.

How utterly unlike the throne room of the Crystal Palace, She thought. Somehow, I expected it to be bigger. Less than half the size of its counterpart on Earth, it might have been a wonderful display of architecture at some point in time. Now, however, it was simply one room in a growing pile of destruction. At the end of the room, resting upon a dais exactly nine steps from the floor, sat a throne of silver.

Super Sailor Pluto sat on the throne, her staff absent.

Serenity’s eyes narrowed. "What manner of vermin is this?"

"The envenomed kind," Pluto said.

Movement. From opposite sides, two women came into view, lifting swords to Serenity’s neck. "Kaioh Michiru. Tenoh Haruka. Do you so willingly follow the traitor to her death?"

Michiru said, "We do not ‘follow’ Setsuna anywhere. We’ve come of our own free will."

Haruka said, "And whatever your plot is, Serenity, it will not end with our deaths."

"Oh? And has the mighty Pluto foreseen this, then?" Her gaze slid past them, to Pluto. "Have you suddenly become God, Pluto, to know the fates of men?" She sneered. "None of you have even the slightest understanding of what it is I plan to do."

"Nevertheless," Pluto said, rising, "We will not let you do it."

"So calm. So confident." Serenity smiled coldly. "And so utterly stupid." She gathered power. Sensing Her intentions, the two women moved as one, swords slicing the air. Serenity vanished, reappearing in the center of the chamber. A thought vaporized the swords. Another hurled the owners into opposite walls, where they slumped to the floor.

She turned in time to dodge Pluto’s attack. She gestured, and the watched in mild amusement as the staff was ripped from Pluto’s hands and embedded itself into the ceiling. Pluto herself was thrown back into the throne and held there by Serenity’s will. Serenity said, "You never learn, do you?"

Pluto glared balefully.

Serenity chuckled. "No need to look so angry, child. For the time being, you, and you only, are the safest of all." She turned Her back on the fallen Senshi, or whatever she had chosen to become. "Watch carefully, Pluto, for very soon, all of this, your friends, your world, your very reality, will be nothing more than a fading dream. A dream from which I alone have awakened."

Lifting Her hands, she called forth the Crystal, watching in a sort of expectant joy as light gathered, pooled in Her hands, and a miniature star burst into existence. So wonderful… So exquisite… So-

"Flawed," Pluto said, her voice barely audible over the sudden howling wind. "It’s flawed, Serenity, just like you are. Just like you’ll always be!"

Serenity ignored her. Closing Her eyes, She opened Her mind to the Crystal, through the Crystal, to the Earth, and to the minds of those the Crystal had chosen. To Her children.

<COME!>

"WHY?!"

Mars stumbled backwards, covering her ears and not sure of how to respond. One minute they had been fighting, the next Neptune had thrown Her head back and had screamed. The sound, one part rage, one part disbelief, all of it sheer pain, had been the single most terrifying sound Mars had ever heard in her life.

What could make a Senshi scream like that?

Neptune fell to Her knees and pounded the ground, fist shattering pavement. "I will not… I refuse…" Shaking Her head, the Senshi clawed at the ground. "My Queen, why must You do this?"

"Neptune…" Mars was surprised to hear the sound of her voice.

Neptune’s head snapped up and She stared wildly at her. Her gaze was haunted. "’She’ calls." And between one heartbeat and the next, She was gone.

Mars stared at the spot Neptune had been, stunned. "She" calls?

"Rei-chan!" Mars turned and saw Jupiter running towards her. "Mako-chan?"

Jupiter was pale and shaky, a reflection of how Mars felt. "Rei-chan, what’s going on? All of a sudden Uranus went crazy and disappeared. Bellowed something about Serenity and just-"

<COME!>

Jupiter’s eyes glazed over. She looked up at the sky. "She’s calling us."

"I know." Like Jupiter’s, Mars’ voice was flat. "We have to go."

Somewhere, deep inside of her, a part of Mars screamed a warning that went unheeded.

 Legal Stuff:

I don't own any of the Sailor Senshi. Er… the Descendants. Or is it the Avatars..? Whatever. I only own the original characters.

This has been a production of Blueberry Enterprises.
www.geocities.com/sailorfalcon/