Sailor Moon : Legends of the Fall

by Mark Latus 

(This is based on the events surrounding the destruction of the original 
moon kingdom Silver Millennium.  Hopefully I'm not about to make 
incredible glaring errors regarding Sailor Moon history.)

Based on characters and situations created by Naoko Takeuchi.


1. Banbou's story - End of the line

    We have crushed the greatest warriors of the moon kingdom and stand 
among the rubble of Silver Millennium.  I knew we would, I have always
known.  Around me my six comrades rejoice at our victory, the triumph
of the Seven Great Demons.  It is our last victory but only I know
that.  Around us lie the remains of the Sailor Warriors, the Queen's
champions.  They fought well but there were four of them and seven of us.
     Still our victory was not without cost.  One of Vena's wings is
broken and her legs are crushed.  She will never walk or fly again. She 
could regenerate given enough time, however our time is running out.
Jiji is covered with burns that will pain him the rest of his life.  As
this is a period of under an hour he will not suffer for long.  I doubt
informing him of this will cheer him up.  In any event he seems content
to play ventriloquist with the remains of Mars.  It's not a good act,
I can see his lips move.
     Felinus licks the blood from his claws.  He purrs as Rikoukeida 
strokes his back.  His strike saved her life so she must feel she owes him
something.  It won't last, she hates to be in another's debt.  There is a
scab forming on the side of her head where the beam scraped her.  A little
to the right and we'd be a sextet.  The bloody rag that used to be Venus
lies crumpled at her feet.  Boxer scrapes the brown hairs from his 
gauntlets and salutes his fallen foe.  "She fought well."  The ultimate
compilment from him.
     Gesen breaks the last of Mercury's ice from his armour.  "Tougher
than I thought", he mutters.  To me he says, "You were right again
Banbou, they did manage to separate us."  He says it ruefully, he has
been waiting years to see my precognition fail.  I nod and look skyward
It is still covered with the beautiful black shroud of Metallia, for a 
little while longer at least.  Gesen is doomed to disappointment, I am 
never wrong.  The last day continues to tick away.
     We launched our attack in our composite form, the seven of us united
into a single demon.  The others felt that we would overwhelm the Sailor  
Warriors in a few minutes.  Only Vena listened when I told them we would
finish the battle as individuals.  She has always listened to me, she 
alone realizes my prophecies are infallible.  After all she has the power
to see the past.  Her postcognition is as accurate as my precognition.
With a similar power it was easiest for her to accept my infallibility.
She does not yet realize this does not always indicate victory for us.
     Felinus purrs and looks hungrily at our adversaries.  His feline 
nature makes him able to see them as just meat.  Despite everything
the rest of us remain a little squemish about that concept.  Boxer shouts
that we should join the troops in the slaughter of the inhabitants.  He's
too late, almost all the natives are dead.  I study the sky.  Our glorious
victory is about to come to an abrupt end.
     Suddenly the light floods everything.  Though we close our eyes the 
light floods through.  From above comes the howl of Metallia as its 
energies are overriden and bound.  Around us Beryl's troops scream as
their bodies dissolve.  Within seconds the Dark Kingdom and Beryl's
dreams of power are gone.  The sky is clear again and Earth becomes
visible once more.
     Rikoukeida is the first of us to recover.  It is her nature to 
analyse but this phenomena is beyond her.  Above us the air is filled 
with small lights heading for the Earth.  In frustration (for she does 
not like to rely on any other) she demands of me, "What in all the hells 
just happened?  And what are those damned lights?"
     As I have seen myself answer her a thousand times before I recite,  
"Queen Serenity used the power of the Silver Crystal to seal away 
Metallia and all the inhabitants of the Dark Kingdom.  We are all that
remains."  Around me the inhuman faces of my compatriats show shock and
disbelief.  I finish answering the question.  "The lights you see are the
souls of this kingdom's fallen.  The crystal is sending them to be
reincarnated on Earth."
     "Lots of lights."  Boxer is thinking out loud.  "Can't be many people
left."
     Rikoukeida is the first to ask, "Why reincarnate on Earth?"
     "Almost everything here is dead.  Apart from us only Queen Serenity 
and her pets survive."
     "Then there is still hope."  As I knew he would Gesen decides to take 
the lead.  "If that is true then nothing remains between us and the Silver
Crystal."  Nothing except Queen Serenity fool.  "We can take the crystal
and release the Dark Kingdom."
     I don't read minds but I'm sure that around me six minds are thinking
"If I held the crystal then I need not take orders from Beryl or even
Metallia.  The Dark Kingdom will be mine to rule!  Earth and Moon will
belong to me!"
     "Banbou, old friend ..."  Amazing how fast Gesen decided to accept my
words as fact.  "...Do you know where the queen is?"
     I raise my left claw and point the pincer to the east.  "There." 
The ruins that a few hours ago were the royal palace.  Where else did he
think she'd be?  Fool, he will suffer the fate he deserves.  
     Unfortunately so will I.
     The others glance casually at one another, for a moment there is
stillness.  Then Boxer unfolds his wings and launches himself into the air.
Felinus bounds across the rubble with unbelievable speed.  Rikoukeida
levitates above the rubble and flies in the direction I indicated.  Gesen
runs across the wreckage cursing the fliers.  Jiji is the last of the
five to race away, the pain from his burns has slowed his mind.
     Only Vena and I remain.  Her injuries keep her rooted to this spot.
My carapace makes me near invunerable but incapable of speed.  After a
moment I ask, "Need a lift?"  She nods and I sweep her into the crook of
my right arm.  She winces as the broken wing brushes my shoulder.  She
doesn't feel anything from her legs.  Does that mean spinal damage?  I've
pulled out a few backbones but I never studied them in any great detail.
She throws her arms around my neck as I pound along the path to the palace.
While I'm far from the fastest my weight makes it advisable to get out of
my way.  Beneath my feet corpses squelch.
     Despite her injuries Vena is smiling.  This is the day we trained for,
the conquest of Silver Millennium.  "We march to victory."
     It's strange, despite all the times I witnessed this day, I never 
really listened to what Vena said before.  So it's new to me as I answer
"We march to our death and defeat."
     "WHAT!"
     It is safe to say I have her complete attention.  "The crystal chose
to spare us for its own purpose.  That is the only reason we did not 
disappear with the rest of the Dark Kingdom." 
     "What purpose?"
     "The crystal will kill us and fragment.  The fragments will bind 
themselves to our souls.  Through all our future incarnations we will be 
the keepers of the crystals against the day it is needed again."
     "All right."  She ignores the pains caused by her bouncing from my 
stride.  "How do we stop it from happening that way?"
     No one ever understands.  "We don't."
     "WHAT?"
     "That's what will happen.  I have seen it, it will be."
     "But if we change it ..."
     "We can't.  It always happens that way.  The future is predetermined.
As fixed as the past."
     "How do you know that?"
     "I know."  
     Vena studies me.  After a short pause she asks.  "How long have you
known it would end this way?"
     "Always."
     "Always?"
     Almost at the palace.  Over the pounding of my lumbering charge I 
hear the noises of battle.  Just enough time to answer Vena.  "As long 
as I can remember I have seen my future.  A line stretching ahead of me, 
as unchangeable as the past."  She just looks at me so I add, "Past,
Present, Future are all the same to me.  From whatever point the present
was I could see both beginning and end with equal clarity."
     "You saw I would die today?  The first time we met you already knew 
how I would die?"
     "Yes."  I decide to clarify my answer slightly.  "I didn't see your
life, I saw mine.  You die shortly before I do, that's how I knew.  No one
ever understood.  I don't see the future, I see my life.  And my life is
almost completed.   Think of a flat road.  From any position on it you 
see both the start and the finish.  But you can only go forward.  That is
the only way time flows"
     "You saw your whole life before you'd begun living it?"  Her tone is
almost compassionate.  Why?  I need no pity I have been the most fortunate
being alive.  I always knew what would happen.  I have never had any
uncertainty my entire life.  As I begin explaining this her face darkens.
"I SEE!"  she snarls.  "The bottom line is that you are a coward!"
     This puzzles me.  "A coward?"
     "You never even tried to change what you'd seen, did you?  It was 
safer just to be a puppet to your own visions.  Even now when you've
seen yourself dying you aren't trying to change anything.  Because that
would mean opening yourself up to uncertainty.  And you can't bear that
can you?"  
     Her anger startles me.  Everything happens the way I've forseen it.
It can't be changed!
     Can it?
     Admittedly I never tried to change anything but still ... No.  The 
future is as immutable as the past.  It cannot be changed.  If I had
tried to change anything I would have failed.  
     I'm sure of that.  
     Besides who would chose to live in constant uncertainty?  Everyone 
values security.  What is more secure than always knowing everything 
that will happen?  I would not change anything if I could.  And I can't!
     Can I?
     Of course not.
     And yet ... to live past this day is strangely seductive.
     But it's impossible.
     It must be.
     So why do Vena's words keep echoing inside my head?
     I shake off the introspection and return to the outside world.  The
battle I forsaw has begun.  Although to call it a battle is deceptive.
Our five comrades are throwing everything they have at the queen.  She
lies against a shattered pillar, the silver crystal hovering before her.
Energies and weapons cascade towards her but nothing reaches her.  She
sits untouched within an invisible sphere attended by a white and a black
cat.  Their presence does not deter Felinus.  He strikes repeatedly at the
queen, howling in anger as his claws bounce off the unseen shield.
     Vena looks away from the battle and toward me.  I count to ten then 
proclaim, "Now!"
     Before us the crystal breaks into seven pieces.  Each becomes a 
crystal of equal size though different color.  Two orbit around the Queen.
The other five streak forward, each strikes a different demon.  Felinus,
Gesen, Boxer, Rikoukeida and Jiji scream in pain and collapse.  A different
light emerges from each bodies and rises towards the Earth.  The crystals
merged to their souls they fly to their next incarnation.  Despite myself
I wonder when and where they will be reborn.  
     I dismiss the topic.  I hate speculation, I prefer certainty.
     "So this is it?" 
     I nod.  Vena pushes against my chest, launching herself to the ground.
"I'm going out fighting!"  She digs her hands into the ground, dragging 
herself along the rubble.  Her useless legs bounce behind her.  Driven by
hate and anger she crawls toward Serenity.  Halfway there the sixth crystal
flies forward and punches into her forehead.  She gurgles once and slumps.
     Just one crystal left.  Mine.  Blue death orbits around the queen.
     This is not quite the end.  We will talk briefly first.
     I bow to her, "Your Majesty."  The queen is weak, my death will not
precede hers by much.  The cats look at the Queen in confusion.  They 
cannot understand why she has not destroyed me as she did the others.   
I remember that I have always been fond of cats.  Particularly with
mushroom gravy.  Alas my gourmet days are over.
     She says something to the cats I don't overhear.  Then there is a 
flash and they are sealed inside transparent tubes.  While I knew that
would happen I still don't know why she did that.  I'll never learn.
     "You are Bunbou, the seer demon."  It is not a question.
     "I am.  What did you do to my comrades?"
     "You don't know?"
     "I do know but the information must be heard by my past selves."
She studies me so I tell her, "You killed their bodies and bound their
souls with the rainbow crystals.  They will be reborn as humans, carrying
the crystal from one incarnation to the next."  Now I have said that my
past selves will know what they are witnessing.  Because I heard myself
say that the first time I foresaw this day I knew how to explain what I
just witnessed.  
     Interesting things time circles.
     Which came first the chicken or the egg?
     This establishes my prophecy credentials with Queen Serenity.  She
demands, "What of all those who died here today?  Do they go to a better
incarnation?  Will the far future truly be peaceful?"
     "I don't know.  My precognition is limited to the events of this
life.  I don't see anything of my subsequent reincarnations.  And if I
did would you trust the words of a demon?"
     She nods.  Her hope was for assurance that she did the right thing. 
Everyone wants foreknowledge.  I have lived the life everyone would envy.
     And yet if Vena was right and the future is changeable ... I can 
still escape!  Teleporting back to Earth would drain my strength but I'd
recover in time.  With no Dark Kingdom or other Great Demons upon the
planet I'd be the most powerful creature around.  I could carve out my own
empire.  Who could stand against me?
     No one!
     But break the future and there is no certainty.  To live as everyone
else does, never knowing what will come next ...  
     I can't bear that.
     Better to end it here.
     I remember my line and raise my claw.  "Now it ends, the only way it
could end!"  I lumber forward and the blue crystal shoots toward my chest.
     TERRIBLE BURNING COLD! PAIN GREATER THAN ANYTHING BEFORE!  METALLIA
SAVE ME IT HURTS!  SAW THIS A THOUSAND TIMES BUT NEVER FELT IT!  CHANGED
MY MIND!  TOO LATE!  DARKNESS RUSHING IN.  FUTURE SELF HEAR ME, I WAS 
WRONG!  TAKE CHANCES, SURVIVE!  PAINPAINPAINPAIN .... gone.  No pain ...
darkness everywhere ... can't feel my body ... so cold ... I ............
...........................................................


     Ryo Urawa woke up as the alarm went off.  Downstairs his mother was
cooking breakfast.  That had been a vivid dream.  He'd woken up knowing
it was vital to heed it.  But what had caused it?
     Something to do with his power no doubt.  As long as he could remember
he'd seen bits of his own future.  Which was how he knew in a month Dad
would get transferred and he'd be moved to another school.  A shame really,
he'd got to like it around here.  Ah well, no point letting on he knew.
Especially since Dad didn't yet.
     While very young he'd learned his visions upset his parents by being 
so accurate.  So he'd just stopped talking about them.  He didn't stop
having them.  He couldn't, they just happened.
     Lately the visions were becoming more frequent.  He saw more and more
of his immediate future.  Perhaps someday he'd see everything before it  
happened.  That'd be cool, no nasty surprises.  It'd help with playing
lotteries as well.
     The dream was fading.  Strange, it had been so firm when he woke up.
Now he was starting to forget.  Better write it down while he remembered
some of it.  He got up and went to his desk.  Where had he put that 
notepad?
     "Ryo, get up.  Time for breakfast."  His mother's voice cut in on his
thoughts.
     "Be right there."  The last pieces of the dream whirled away.  He 
remembered a few fragments, cats and ... the moon?  Nothing else and even
those parts were unclear.  He sighed and went out to breakfast.  A busy
day at school today.  Two surprise tests, good thing he'd studied last
night.
     Funny he couldn't remember the dream anymore.  While he'd been 
sleeping everything was so clear.
     Oh well, it was just a dream after all.
     What did it really matter?

End.


Afterword:  Just a weird story concept that came to me after recently
            seeing the seven rainbow crystal storyline again along with
            the wipeout of the moon kingdom episode.
            I may continue chronicling what was happening during the
            formative years of the Dark Kingdom or what happened on Earth
            after its disappearance.  Time will tell.  So what did you think?
            
            Mark Latus       
            Mark.Latus@MSVU.CA

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