The Dark Princess
Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi holds
the real copyrights to all characters mentioned here except Alexandrite
and Jacinth and the plot of the series/manga was originally written by
her. This is just another person's point of view about the story. ^_^
Alex was regretting sneaking
into the battle before she even saw the Moon Kingdom. After she saw it,
she regretted having to destroy it. It wasn't going to be fun like teasing
Jeddy, tripping Rubius or punching Demando. It would be like killing that
girl who hadn't done anything but enter a forbidden land and tug on Alex's
nerve with that Minako story. The girl didn't deserve to die for that,
but Beryl's rule was to kill any who entered without surrender. It was
a bad rule, after all, they were invading a land they'd been forbidden
to ever come to. The Royal family of the Moon had banished Youmas since
before even Malachite was born. Metallia and her followers had fought a
bloodfeud with the Silver Millenium's subjects ever since.
Alex wasn't sure why or
what stared it, no one, even Beryl knew, but they'd taken the orders and
attacked their enemies mercilessly, killing them or taking them to join
the battle. By the time the entire army was through the portal, the outer
planets were probably lifeless, except for any Senshi that happened to
escape to shelters. Soon the secondary army would take out the inner planets,
the four behind Saturn. Metallia wasn't going to stop there, Beryl wanted
the Moon destroyed, Metallia wanted all of the Galaxy, not just the Sol
system, under her power or wiped out. It made Alex sick, she was going
to find Jace and protect him, then they'd marry and escape the Dark Kingdom
forever.
The guards were easy to
get by, they obviously were expecting peace, from the looks of it, the
palace was having a party, which meant the princesses of all the planets
at least would be there. Good time to catch a glimpse at Minako, alive
or dead and put to rest that stupid Veusian's claim that she could be of
the girl's blood. She was a Terran for three years, then a Youma, not a
foolish, emotional Venusian! And if the claim was true, it would mean one
more nail on Malachite's coffin, Alex steamed inside, using her rage to
kill a few of the Moon's soldiers. He'd pay for betrothing her to the one
man she despised more than the Senshi. She'd only been trained to hate
them, she'd grown up hating him of her own volition, both
of them.
The strongest warriors blasted
at the palace, frightening the people inside. The foolish ones ran straight
into the blades and power of the Youma, but most of them were smart and
kept off to the side until flashes of light changed some of them into warriors.
It figured there were plenty of Senshi at the party. Alex smiled darkly,
did the Venus princess know about the group of Senshi that weren't
there, and why? She'd just have to tell the girl, and then ask her something
before she was killed, which meant getting to her before anyone else. She
kept an eye out for Jacinth while she searched the battle for a glimmer
of gold hair.
The first glimmer she spied
was a girl with an odd hairstyle, she was on a balcony with a dark-haired
Terran. They didn't look too happy at the fight, and the girl looked so
upset, as if she was responsible for every body that was fallen or falling
on the ground.
"Must be the high princess,
the moon brat." Alex snorted and moved on, blasting a person in her way
with her Dark Fire.
She spotted Jacinth before
she saw the Venus princess. But Beryl was nearby and she didn't dare reveal
herself. She just blew him a hidden kiss and wished him protection. Then
she bit her lip and moved on, avoiding a sword just barely and giving the
annoying Terran soldier what he deserved for attacking her. Why did there
have to be so many people here this night? What was going on before they'd
attacked?
There was red everywhere,
and it wasn't just blood, it was Metallia's power. She'd come with them
and was aiding her warriors with her power. Alex frowned, she didn't need
help, she needed answers, and Jace. The battle was getting vicious, and
it just started. Alex's feeling of dread was getting stronger. She didn't
understand why... they were winning. The silly Senshi and the people of
their worlds had no hope. They were either going to die or join their enemies.
Weren't they? Something about that silver-haired woman watching from the
relative safety of the palace and the wand she held gave Alex a bad feeling.
"Alex, you're getting paranoid,"
she sighed. "Find Aino." she shook her head and set a grim face, then went
hunting for the royal Venusian girl that supposedly was her elder twin.
That damned little white
mooncat that was on earth was on the Moon now, and he was running with
a black one to find cover. Cats at a party? Alex thought, What
the heck was going on here? She blasted a small bit of power at them
to make them run faster and dashed off, figuring the Venusian was somewhere
else. That meant time to find Jacinth, if Beryl wasn't hovering near him.
This time she found him
alone, resting away from the main battle. She snuck up behind him and got
a quick over the shoulder throw for it. She shrieked and hit the ground
hard.
"God, Jace! You sneak up
behind your fiancee for a good luck kiss and you get thrown over him..."
she grumbled and laughed when he sputtered about why the hell she was there
and what the hell happened to her. "I wanted to make sure you were going
to make it back."
He smiled and helped her
up, giving her a good long kiss, a few Youma saw it and gave questioning
looks, but the rumors about Zoisite and Malachite shut them up and sent
them on ther way. Alex looked back at the battle behind them.
"This looks so vicious,
at least we're winning. But I still get the feeling this is gonna turn
on us." she sighed, staying close to Jacinth.
"Quit with the bad omens,
you're not psychic." he said and kissed her forehead.
"Yeah, but I get feelings...
I knew Demando was a bad egg the second I saw him."
"So what? So did I. And
I first saw him when I was younger." They laughed and smirked, then decided
they'd better get back to fighting before Beryl got suspicious. They said
goodbye and promised to watch each other until the war was over.
***********************************************************
The beautiful palace was beginning
to look like ruins, and the Lunans and their allies weren't giving up yet.
Alex didn't understand... what was left to fight for? Some part of her
understood: if the Youma won here, Earth and the stars would be next. As
it was, Metallia coming out into the Universe had screwed up the planets,
making the four inner planets ruined before the army could even reach them.
Mercury was melted and turned scorching by the sun, and Venus was coated
in poison gases, Mars looked like a desert version of Earth now, she could
barely see it, but she could sense the end of life on all of them. She
didn't know what happened to Jupiter, but she sensed the storms were getting
worse there and the atmosphere was getting heavier.
Alex sighed and kicked a
pebble. Maybe Beryl and Metallia were wrong, but saying so would get her
killed before she could explain. It was best to shut up and follow orders,
keeping your thoughts to yourself. As she gazed over the death and ruin
that the battle was leaving, she realized why she liked keeping her hair
long and her bangs over her eyes; they hid her emotions. Without her gold
veil to hide behind like she always did, anyone could see that the cold-blooded
Youma had a heart... and Alex could sense someone saw her.
She spun towards the feeling
of life energy nearby and saw a flash of gold. She could almost hear a
heart beating in fear and anger. She reached out with her mind and felt
the person's feelings. She felt anger that her kind was killing her friends
and fury that they'd done it so ruthlessly, wonder that Alex hardly had
any bloodstains on her, curiousity about why Alex had nearly let the tears
fall in pity for the fallen enemy that hadn't been expecting death on such
a happy day, and the finality that chiled Alex to the bone: a slight recognition
of the eyes that looked so sorrowed. The girl had seen those eyes in a
baby that stayed quiet with wonder as she handed it to a man, never to
see the child again. The only thing that the girl felt after that was wonder
about how those eyes belonged to a fifteen year old and not a crawling
toddler.
Alex shut her eyes, infuriated
that her father could have lied, but understanding why. She couldn't let
her mother die. She'd been cursed with knowledge, her own family was on
either side of this war, and she'd have to decide who she'd have more loyalty
to now... she took a deep breath and opened her eyes again, the Venusian
was standing a few yards away, ready to run if Alex attacked, but
refusing to lift a finger or weapon in offense.
Alex frowned and looked
down, "I won't hurt you, Aino Minako."
"You know me?" the girl
stepped back a bit, her hair bow was ripped, but held her hair neat and
out of the wind that was building up in the battle's force.
"Of course," Alex told her
bitterly, "A girl's supposed to know her mother, I've only heard everything
about you except that you were alive. Father kept that from me for some
ungodly reason." she looked right at Minako with glittering tears in her
eyes, "Probably because I'd have to either kill him or betray Beryl if
I knew."
"You can't be her, she's
only four years old, if even." the Venusian kept her expressions stiff,
like a wall had closed over her. Alex frowned and sighed, letting her lashes
drop over her crystalled eyes.
"It's a long story, but
believe me. I'm sorry I have to fight your friends, but I have orders,
and if I don't protect my Love, they'll probably kill him."
"They wouldn't kill him
if he weren't killing them."
"I'm sorry," Alex said,
hating the words as she spoke them again, "but we had orders." She was
beginning to hate orders, maybe following them wasn't such a good idea
after all.
"Maybe you shouldn't listen
to your Queen if your heart says something else." Minako said and started
for the battle again.
"Why are you going back
there? You'll die." Alex said curiously.
"And others will die if
I don't protect them." Minako told her and ran to a group of wounded Lunans.
Alex was confused. What
could she do? Standing against Beryl would only kill her, there was no
way to stop the war, people were going to keep dying until no one was alive.
Alex groaned as she got her "vision" again. No one was going to win this
one, no matter what happened. There was only one thing to do, make sure
Jacinth wasn't one of the dead, and she'd have to protect Minako too, she
just hoped Malachite wouldn't kill her for it. He seemed to forget why
he'd had a child with the Venus princess so many years ago.
Alex thought of many things
as she raced through the battling groups. She knew why Malachite had been
so eager to send her to Nemesis, because she reminded her of her mother
and he didn't want that. Why was she taken and trained with him, anyway?
Why was she needed when Beryl had her own child and obviously looked down
on Alex as nothing more than a brat? And what the hell was was that damn
legend about her wrecking the Dark Kingdom's chance at winning the war?
They were going to lose anyway. The Lunans wouldn't give up until they
were all dead, and they'd take most of the Youmas with them.
Her thoughts stopped the
second she saw Jacinth cutting down a guy who looked like he was from Mars.
She screamed out for him to stop and ran to him.
"Alex? What the hell-- You're
going to get caught!" he snarled, worried for her.
"I don't care, I'm getting
out of here and stopping this!" she told him and gave a quick glance to
make sure the chaos around them didn't hold any ears that would carry her
message to Beryl. "We've got to get to the other Youma, tell them that
we're not going to win. These guys aren't going to give up until we're
dead or they are."
"Then we'll kill them."
"Jace, they'll take most
of us down with them. If we win it will be so costly it won't be worth
it! There won't be a kingdom to run or people for Beryl to rule. Metallia
knows it and now I know it."
"So what do we do? They
won't listen." Jacinth hiked an eyebrow and frowned.
"Yes they will... We'll
make
them listen! Even if I have to resort to Beryl's tricks." Alex said determinedly
and a golden orb of energy gathered in her hands. "We've got to find the
largest group of Youmas, with as few others as possible."
"That'll be a problem, we're
all scattered, and any large group of not fighting warriors will be right
near Beryl."
"Then we'll have to risk
that. I won't watch people die when it's for nothing! Jace, my mother's
out there!"
"Oh, that explains it. So
that kid was telling the truth?"
"Yes," Alex said shortly
and gritted her teeth. "And Malachite is going to hear about it."
**********************************************************
Alex slipped quickly through the battlefield, barely
noticed, and never recognized, even with Jacinth trailing a few feet behind
her. Her face was sternly set with determination. She'd had enough of this
and it was stopping now. She sensed at least one pair of eyes was
keeping watch on her, and some part of her said they weren't Minako. They
were male. Once she saw the Akayashi nearby, she realized who it probably
was. Damn him, he wasn't going to stop her, she hoped he wouldn't even
try. Alex froze for a second and contemplated telling the women to come
with her, but she wasn't going to risk her friends with herself. She sighed
and whispered a goodbye to them and moved on. The same thing that told
her that the war was going to be a total loss told her that her efforts
might be as well, but she had to risk it. She didn't tell Jacinth that
her plan wasn't to get to the warriors, but to Beryl herself... and Beryl
listened to no one but Metallia.
She finally reached where Beryl and the few bands
of warriors that hadn't even started fighting were. Alex took a deep breath
and a step forward, meeting with a spear near her throat.
"Where are you going?" a nameless youma demanded
and forced her a step back.
Alex glared the youma right in the eye. "I want
to see Beryl. Now." her eyes flashed as she said the last word and the
youma dropped his spear and backed off so fast Alex could have sworn someone
had given him a hotfoot. She smirked and moved on through the band, telling
Jacinth to stay there. He protested, as she knew he would. "I don't need
you to help me with this part, I need you to watch my back." she told him
simply and turned away, heading right for Beryl. He called out to her,
but she ignored him.
Alex came up behind Beryl, about two yards away,
and froze. Metallia's power was stronger here, as if it was coming from
the witch. It frightened Alex, but for soem erason she became even more
determined at feeling the foreign power as it sensed her and tried to push
into her. It failed miserably, she didn't even listen to a single word
it said. Alex drew in a breath and lifted her chin to an almost arrogant
level.
"Beryl!" she said it sharply and loudly, carrying
over the sound of battle.
The red-haired woman turned slowly and narrowed
her eyes. Alex knew that she'd been recognized, but she didn't care, it
brought up a curiousity about why, but she didn't ask.
"You. Why are you here, I told your father to be
rid of you!"
"And four years ago you told your servants to take
me with him! Make up your mind, witch! Do you want me or not?"
"Why would I want such an impudent little brat who
refuses to show respect?"
"Give me a reason to respect you and I will. Start
by calling off your war!"
"Never. Either go back or fight, but I warn you,
if you go against me, you will die."
"I've heard that before, and it doesn't scare me.
I'll die for this if I have to, but I won't watch more people die. Not
when it's for nothing! Don't you see? They're not giving up! They have
nothing left but their people and even that's fading to nothing, but they
don't give up!" Alex yelled, even though she didn't have to, "I won't sit
here and see people die for nothing, Beryl! Call this off before I do!"
"And how do you intend to do that, you have no power
until I die."
Alex crossed her arms and frowned, "Then I'll kill
you." every youma withing earshot stood and pointed their weapons at her.
She closed her eyes and released the tension she'd built up for weeks,
all the anger and fear and everything else. Every emotion she'd been forbidden
to show in the dark halls came out in one blast that flattened them down
to their knees or backs. Some of them stayed there, stunned to the point
of paralyzation. The others scrambled back. "I've got more for you, Beryl.
Dare to try me?"
"You think your flimsy strike would be enough to
take me down? To destroy Metallia as well?" Beryl laughed, it chilled Alex
to the bone, but the girl stood taller than ever. "You have a lot to learn,
and you won't live long enough to learn it if you don't go back now."
"No Beryl, you go back. Go back to your cold
throne and your dark goddess, but I'm leaving, I'm not going to follow
a bitch who doesn't care about her subjects. And I'm not letting this war
go on. I'll take the few people who aren't so afraid of you or brainwashed
by that evil force to see the truth, and I'll lend my power to the Moon
Queen. If I die here, I'll die battling evil, instead of serving it!" Alex
said feircely and turned her back on the woman, sensing her growing anger
and impatience.
She knew that she'd made a fatal mistake, and turning
away made it twice as fatal. Now she wouldn't see the blast coming, she
wouldn't even feel it because as she started in the direction of where
she'd seen the high princess hiding she heard Jacinth's voice cry out her
name and turned towards it in time to be knocked to the ground and nearly
knocked out. Her body ached and she felt a weight on her, it was warm,
and something hot was flowing over her and out of her. She touched it with
a weak hand. It was sticky and thick, but liquid.When she brought it up
to her sight level, she saw it was red. Either she or the thing on her
was bleeding. Suddenly she rememebred that Jacinth's voice had called out
close to her when she felt the tackle. She gasped and tried to move, but
she hurt too much and the wieght was too heavy.
"Jace! God, please don't be you!" she cried out
and felt the weight move a bit and heard Jacinth's voice. It was weak.
She sobbed and tears fell from her eyes. The pain was either getting worse
or fading now, she couldn't tell anymore. It seemed like both. It hurt,
but she couldn't feel anything... she was floating and tried to stay conscious...
to stay... alive? God no, she couldn't be dying... she had to live, to
be with Jacinth and to save the people that were going to die soon themselves.
She had to move, she had to speak. But nothing worked anymore, she had
no voice, her mental voice spoke, and she sensed the battle aroudn her,
but she could not see it. All the things around her were dark, nothing
had a form...
A few minutes (or possibly hours, she had no feeling
of time anymore) later, she heard a scream and her mind's eye showed her
a girl that felt sorrow and shock and a broken heart all in one strike
of an instant. She tried to follow the girl's thoughts, to see why she
was so upset, but the girl's mind shut off, like her own had almost immediately
afterwards. She had the instictive feeling that the whole thing was Beryl
again. Beryl's fault and Beryl's actions. A moment or two later, her floating
mind felt odd and saw a silver light and dancing rainbow visions. She felt
a force wrap around her and her body, rejoining them painfully, but it
felt good too, she could feel again. But she slept and she was apart from
Jacinth, possibly forever. She didn't know where or if she'd wake up again,
and she didn't care... She'd failed, the war had had it's disasterous end
as her psychic feeling had predicted, and she didn't want to ever wake
up and remember that it was her fault, or worse, wake up without Jacinth
to tell her it wasn't.
Well the story's over... or is it? Sorry for the sad ending, but
that's the way it pretty much ended for everyone back then... if you're
curious about what happens when Serenity's spell wears off and Alex awakens
(and if she'll have her friends with her again), read the soon to be "published"
story: The Relife. (I know, bad title, but it's all I could come up with
^_^;;)