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

Chapter 30 -

 The Silver Crystal shattered.

With the loss of the Crystal, Serenity's control broke. Magic, free from all restraint, spiraled wildly out of control, growing in strength and intensity with each revolution. It swiftly mounted towards epic proportions, became a storm of devastating force as it approached cataclysm. Helpless against such might, the Senshi could only take shelter behind Saturn's Silence Wall, and pray as the palace of the Silver Millennium crashed down around them. And the in the center of that hurricane, Serenity screamed in agony or rage.

Shrieking denials, She was ripped out Terri's body, flung away into the storm of magic, and vanished as if She had never been.

Instantly, the flow of the storm shifted, reversed itself. Power swarmed around Terri, argence pouring into her like water into a vessel. But it was too much: she couldn't control it, let alone contain it. Raw magic tore through her body, and her mind fell away into a place as black as the space between stars.

A tool.

It was what I was, what I was made to be. From the moment of my conception, I had had no soul, no thoughts or ambitions of my own save those that were given to me. Everything I had ever done was simply the end result of another string attached to me, another idea I had considered my own. I had never really been a person at all.

And now I was useless. Serenity was defeated. The Silver Crystal- my Star Seed- gone. The Senshi had won. I was a tool and I was no longer needed and this was the end.

"Have you no hope? None at all?"

"A tool," I said softly, "has no cause for hope. They are used and then they are discarded. Such is their lot in life."

"You are not a tool, Terri. No one can force you to do anything against your will."

I lifted my head to look at her directly. "You said that before." My eyes narrowed. "You lied."

She gazed at me steadily. Then, deliberately, she turned away. One arm lifted as she pointed into the darkness. "Look."

I looked.

The sun rose into a perfect, clear blue sky, shedding bright light down into the vale. Ice and snow caught the light, reflected it, and turned the entire valley into a shimmering lake of silver phosphoresce. Out of that sea a finger of darkness rose straight into the sky, gleaming redly in the dawn, the only spot of color for miles around.

Lying at the base of that spire, on her back in the snow, Kino Makoto gazed up at the Tokyo Tower, body too numb to feel the cold. The sight of the sky, the untrammeled beauty of the scene around, the knowledge of Neo-Queen Serenity's defeat… all of it should have filled her with joy. She should have been leaping about, exultant in victory.

Instead, she lay there and stared at the Tower and wondered about the cost of their victory.

The Silver Crystal destroyed. Terri dead. The Moon Kingdom ruined beyond redemption. And that was just the beginning of the extravagant price the Senshi had paid to correct their mistakes.

Sighing tiredly, she hauled herself to her feet.

For a moment, sunlight dazzled her, and she had to blink rapidly to clear her sight as her eyes filled with tears. When she could see again, she saw Minako standing nearby, a reflection of the exhaustion Makoto felt, but her eyes gleamed with a restless energy that she could barely suppress. She shifted beneath Makoto's stare, but didn't look away.

Finally, Makoto said, "What happens now, Minako?"

"Now?" Minako looked puzzled by the question. "Nothing happens now. We don't do anything."

"What the Hell do you mean by that?" The question came from Rei, who was stalking towards them, anger explicit in every line of her frame. She advanced on Minako as if she meant to attack the other woman. "We're just gonna stand around and do nothing?!"

Minako met Rei's anger calmly. "And what, exactly, do you want us to do, Rei-chan?"

Rei's glared blackly at her, then looked away, chewing curses beneath her breath.

Minako looked at Rei, but her words were directed to both of them. "Yes, I suppose there are things that needed to be taken care of. Our people at the D-point for one. Undoing the Serenity's harm in Crystal Tokyo for another. Somebody needs to take responsibility for all those people, but its not going to me.

"I've done my job. Now it's humanity's turn to do something for a change."

Rei glanced sharply at her, but Minako interrupted her impending argument, saying fiercely, "Don't any of you get it? Three thousand years is enough! We won!" She stared intensely at them all, desperate to convey the source of her intensity. "It's over!"

From behind Makoto came a soft thump and the sound of crying. She turned to see Ami on her knees, sobbing into her hands.

Makoto stared at her, and slowly begin to understand. She looked at Rei, met Rei's stunned gaze. "Over," Rei breathed. Her eyes shone with unshed tears.

Makoto's shoulders twitched and started to shake. Suddenly, she threw her head back and shouted, "It's over!" And started to laugh.

They were free.

"You had all of this planned from the beginning, didn't you?"

"Why do people persist in asking me that question? Nobody ever believes my answer."

"That's because nobody believes you when you say 'no.'"

Setsuna smiled. "If you don't believe me, then why did you ask me the question in the first place?" And she watched irritation flash across Hotaru's reflection.

"God," Hotaru growled, folding her arms, "do you ever give a straight answer to anything?"

"Heaven forbid!" Michiru laughed. She and Haruka stood behind Hotaru and Setsuna, near the elevator. Michiru said, "The day Setsuna directly answers a question is the day that the world ends."

"And that day is obviously not today," Haruka added. She met Setsuna's eyes in the glass and nodded, slightly.

Setsuna smiled again, this time in relief.

Ignorant of the silent exchange, Hotaru pouted and scowled out the window. "Well, at least they're happy." Far below, Setsuna watched the four women hugging in a delirium of delight. She said, "Why shouldn't they be? They've finally fulfilled their vow to our Princess. They can finally live their lives, free of the pressures of obligation and duty. For them, this is not an end. It is a beginning." And I would give much to be that free, she added silently.

For a while they were silent, Michiru and Haruka intent on each other. Setsuna and Hotaru watching the escapades below.

Haruka said suddenly, "We should be leaving."

Hotaru looked back at them in surprise. "Aren't we going to say goodbye?"

"There's no point. They know where to find us."

Hotaru looked like she would argue, but Michiru said, "I, for one, am eager to be home. I could use a hot bath. And a massage."

Glancing at her, Haruka's eyebrow rose.

Hotaru made a gagging noise. "Gross. "

Gazing up at Haruka, Michiru smiled and said, "We really shouldn't blame her for her attitude."

"It's one of the failings of youths these days," Haruka agreed in exactly the same tone. "They just don't believe in love."

"I'm just as old as you are!" Hotaru said, turning towards them. "Older if you count the Silver Millennium!"

Smirking, Michiru hooked Haruka's arm and headed for the elevator.

Hotaru chased after them. "Just because I look like a kid doesn't mean I am one!"

"Some things never change," Setsuna murmured to herself, and heard faint laughter in the back of her mind. Despite the distance, she saw Minako stop suddenly, then turn towards the Tokyo Tower and look up, shielding her eyes from the glare of the dawn. She waved, grinning brightly.

"Then again, some things always change." Smiling to herself, Setsuna transformed into Super Sailor Pluto and returned to the Time Stream.

I said quietly, "Was that supposed to make me feel better?"

She continued to gaze off into the darkness.

I rose, glaring at the stern lines of her back. "I'm dead! Why the hell should I care about the living?"

She met my anger calmly. "You are not dead."

I opened my mouth to tell her how very wrong she was, but she looked at me and her gaze froze the words in my throat. She said coldly, "My counterpart strove to destroy Time. During Her mad attempt, many laws were bent. Several broke, and that destruction allowed impossible things to occur, the least of which were the distortions of time that Minako encountered.

"But, Serenity did not count on one thing. Just as the Senshi were reflections of the Descendants, She was a reflection of me. Her attempt to destroy all that I hold dear was what woke me from my somnolence. The bending of Time allowed me to reach through the centuries and touch the hearts of my friends, waking them to their danger. And it allowed me to pull you here, moments before your certain destruction."

Her expression softened. "And so, you are not dead, Terri Ganabile, although you should be."

I struggled to comprehend what I had been told. "But… if I'm not dead… then what am I?"

"Minako showed you The End, Terri, but, remember: wherever there is an ending, there is also a beginning." Now, finally, she smiled, and watching her was like watching the birth of a star. She spread her arms wide, as if she sought to embrace everything around us.

"This is the beginning, and it is whatever you wish it to be."

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.
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