Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon
Underground #22 - The Love of a Future Child (Last Part)
By Chiara Fazzi and Silvia
Ghelarducci
Official URL: https://members.tripod.com/SM_Endless/Underground/
Official E-mail: the_crystal_kingdom@hotmail.com
Note: In episode 17, we referred to King Emeron (father of Usagi), as to a shoulder-lenght blue haired man. We modified his aspect: Emeron has short golden hair and dark green eyes ^^ Gomen ne!
** Tokyo, Year 200X
**
"Atashi
wa Kuroi Tenpi, Chino Hoshi to Chikano Okami (I am the Black sun, Star of Earth
and Mistress of the Underground)" the woman in blood-red replied and, bowed
back the head, she bursted into a baleful laughter. Usagi felt like bashed by
that presence, for it emanated a force that she couldn't bear. Usagi couldn't
talk, couldn't move and she remained prostrated in front of the woman. And to
Kuroi Tenpi, it didn't displease at all to have the Princess of the Moon at
her feet, that way. Her white features - those features, which had never been
kissed by the sunlight - played a triumphant expression. "I lived in this
planet for millenniums," the woman restarted, "I lived in its blazing
core and in its incandescent matter, before your parents, the King and the Queen
of the Moon, to arrive there from the Heart of the Galaxy. Before the Silver
Millennium, before the Golden Kingdom, before everything. I lived here, since
the beginning of Times. This planet is mine". Usagi shook,
"No..."
she murmured back, "Actaeon is..."
A second laughter chopped those words off Usagi's mouth,
"Actaeon"
the Black Sun haughtly
answered, "has been for long time, a beautiful pawn in my hands" and
the eyelids, framed by transparent eyelash, lowered over those white-off irises.
Usagi wrinkled her forehead: what was she meaning? That Actaeon had been a servant
of her?
"He...
He would have never..." the blonde stammered.
Kuroi Tenpi smiled
cruelly at Usagi laying on the ground,
"Oh,
but it is" she spelled, "He had always acted according to my wishes,
in order to reach a sole aim: you", she retook her place on the throne,
tasting the show of Usagi's heart going to pieces.
No! Actaeon wasn't evil!
His sad eyes, his sincere visage, his lips, his words, his kisses, his hands,
his embraces...
He wasn't evil! He wasn't like THAT WOMAN!!
"It's
not TRUE!" Usagi finally yelled, with a defiant look on her face.
Kuroi Tenpi's features hardened,
"Little
insolent, don't provocate me!" she treathened with fearful voice, "Actaeon
has always being indulgent with you, spoiling and complying with you, but know
that your life is worthless to me. If I only wish to, I could destroy you now
and there...", the
woman seamed to succeed in regaining her composure. After some seconds of silence,
she reprised, "But
I won't do it. Not now, at least, also if I have to amdit that I'm very tempted
to". Usagi stood Kuroi Tenpi's look. ".. You are always surrounded
by a powerful aura... Tha same power of your mother and your father" the
woman in red, added under her breath.
"My
father and my mother...?" Usagi panted.
"Your
father and your mother," Kuroi Tenpi repeated, "owned a power that
couldnt' be defeated. An invincible strenght, that soon brought them to expand
their domain over the whole solar system. A strenght that forced me, to leave
my place to the new born Golden Kingdom..." the hands of the woman curled
into fists, "For this reason, I've always wished the distruction of both
kingdoms and of all their descendence. Now I want this power, for having back
everything that has always been mine and you are the key to all this."
Usagi felt again fear submerging her, "I have enough of waiting. What I've
always wished, I'll take it by force!".
"Let
me GO!" Usagi screamed all of a sudden, "Let me go to Actaeon!"
Kuroi Tenpi swallowed a small laughter,
"You'll
see him in a few" she ensured with ferocity, "You'll se him in a few..."
*
The half-darkness of Haruka's
apartement, went broken when the golden-haired woman opened the rolling shutter
for glancing outside.
"This
dark sky gimme the creeps..."
the woman murmured, darting her eyes on the city - totally visible from the
top of the sky scraper in which she had choosen as residence and which, maybe
by chance, had a name such similar to hers: Tenouzu.
"Yes,
to me too" a second feminine voice said from behind Haruka, and a dark-green
cascade of hair flew over the masculine woman's shoulder. Haruka smiled gently
to Michiru's face, resting so close to hers,
"I
find it pretty strange, on this season..." Haruka paused a moment. Actually,
there it was even more than that... "I don't know why" she dismally
murmured, "but... it's like I'm feeling something... Something like...",
"A
recall" Michiru completed the speech. Haruka turned totally to face Michiru.
The beautiful genial violin player's visage reflected the same tension felt
by the famous test driver. All of a sudden, the golden-haired woman moved away
from the green-haired one and, picking up, from a small table in the entrance,
her blue ferrari's keys, she hurried towards the house's door.
"Wait!"
Michiru exclaimed, following her, "Where do you have intention to go?",
Haruka stopped death in track,
"I
don't know" she admitted, without turning back, "... There, I guess"
'There': where that desperate appeal, launched to my senses, wanna bring me.
There!
Michiru reached Haruka's figure and, grabbed her by her arm, spoke sententiously
"I
come with you".
The two exchanged a long silent look, then, the golden-haired woman raised her
free hand for caressing Michiru's face,
"No"
"Why?"
the violinist asked.
"You
know, you should go back home to your husband, or he would think you do have
a lover" said Haruka.
She had said it without her usual irony, as she wanted to test the green-haired
woman's reactions.
"He
wouldn't be so wrong" Michiru murmured back, without exitations. After
their encounter in Paris, Michiru had discovered that she could nomore lie to
herself. That she could nomore live in a golden cage, like a rare bird, acting
as everything was going great.
The woman in smoking - Tenou Haruka - was that part of her life, that she had
missed for so long... And she had not intention to let it escape, now.
Haruka's touch grew tender,
"You
mean... that you consider me your lover?". The violinist shook lightly
her head,
"No"
she replied soflty, "I mean that I consider you my love".
Haruka gently pulled Michiru towards her, as for kissing her. But she didn't
do it.
The two kept gazing at each other, with their faces so close to each other's,
that they could feel their respective breathes on their skins.
"Let's...
go now." Haruka managed to say.
*
"Hotaru..." with trembling hand, Souichi closed the eyelids of her daughter and slowly, walked out the room.
Hotaru's soul,
set herself free from the miserable body that had trapped her all her life long.
That body that she had secretly hated.
Floating , between the ground and the ceiling, the soul turned back to watch
at the corpse, once more: it was streacked by scars, imperfections and weaknesses.
But two were the things that struck her more: two shining halos, which were
going to vanish gradually.
The first one, was a large zone around the heart: a kind of scar of the spirit.
The second one, was a sort of rounded seal, in the middle of the forehead: a
black energy, which was covering a purple aura, that despite the seal, was pulsating
with force.
Hotaru, asked herself what those signs on her body could even be.
<They
are two blessings>
two voice replied in chorus.
Hotaru's soul realized that, two entities had formed by her sides: the first
one was totally wrapped in a white cloak, the second one was dressed in the
same fashion, but totally in black.
<Blessings?>
Hotaru asked,
<Yes>
the two voices said at once, again. <The one on your heart, has purified
you, time ago, from the corruption of your essence and from the destruction
of your body>
<The destruction
of my body?> Hotaru's spirit gazed that frale 18 years-old girl in the
bed and <What do you mean?> she asked,
<The possession...>
began White One,
<... of
Mistress 9> ended
Black One.
<Mistress
9?> Hotaru asked
again,
<Mistress
9, the evil Messiah that means the consuption of the soul...> started
White One as first,
<... and
the rottenesses of the body> added Black One.
At those words, the black seal over the corpse's forehead shook, while the purple
light underneath it, had a flash.
<And what
about the second blessing?> Hotaru asked. A strange urgence was seizing
her spirit.
<The second
blessing has been concealed..>
spoke Black One,
<... by
the seal of the enemy> conlcuded White One.
That purple light...
<Who
are you?> Hotaru
asked calmly, at the end.
<The right
question is: who are *you*?> both spirits questioned, <Do you know
your real identity? Your true nature?> they pressed.
<I am...
I was Tomoe Hotaru>
<And you were
me> White One
made her mantle to fall, <Sailor Saturn, the Regeneration, the Rebirth,
the Life>,
<And you
were me> Black
One made the Silence Glaive to rip her mantle, which fell to her feet, <Sailor
Saturn, the Chaos, the Total Distruction, the Death>.
The black seal cracked...
Hotaru's soul gazed her two alter egos,
<You were,
are and will be!> the two Saturns exclaimed, <Wake up! Accomplish
the mission you were born to!>
<DEATH...>
Black One shouted,
<REBORN...>
White One echoed her, and the two melted to Hotaru's soul who added,
<REVOLTUION!>
The seal went broken
and the symbol of Saturn emanated a blinding light, sucking Hotaru's soul back
into her body.
The white sheat
fell on the flour.
A pair of high-heeled, laced up, purple boots ticked, touching the parquet....
*
Sailor Pluto
walked out into a weak sunlight.
"There"
she pondered, gazing at the landscape of the city that had welcomed her arrival.
"Something is calling for me, there".
**Tokyo, year 198X**
"Kinmoku...
FUSION TEMPEST!" Kakyuu's sphere of energy blew Sailor Goldmoon fully.
Sailor Magicmoon gazed with hollow, angry eyes Starfighter, Starhealer and Starmaker
surroudning her.
"Bashing
remorse!" the soldier
in aqua-green shot her destructive attack on te three. Yaten and Seiya skillfully
jumped away, avoliding the sphere right before it could smash on them, but Taiki
was swept away in a colored fluttering.
Sailor Silvermoon brought the small Mamoru out of the scrap car,
"Move
on!" ureged Shinymoon, gettting ready to face Sailor Fireball. Megimi spread
the fingers of her right hand and put it over the boy's face, covering his eyes.
"NO!"
yelled Sailor Fireball. She frantically threw her 'Starlight Royal Straight
Flush' against Hayasi, trying to pass over her and to reach Silvermoon. But
her attack and her same person, went crushed by the double attack of Goldmoon
and Shinymoon, who struck her at the same time, from the front and from the
rear.
Chibi-Usa saw the beautiful coral-red hair of the alien princess, lifting up
in the explosion and then to fall down, untidily over her body.
"No..."
the shocked child shook her head, while pure pain was ripping her body. "No,
please... Don't do it..."
Slowly, very slowly, Chibi-Usa started to move towards Megimi.
"Small
Usagi, NO!" screamed Seiya, dodging one of Nadakai's flying kicks.
"Obscure
Angel..." Sailor Silvermoon began to spell. It was a death condamn that
one. For Chiba Mamoru, Prince Endymion. Sailor Starfigher managed to jump on
Sailor Magicmoon, stricking her face with a punch and sending her down.
Chibi-Usa saw everything like in a distorted dream. Her body had started to
fade off in a golden light.
"...
DESTRUCTIVE CU..." Megimi interrupted herself in the middle of speech.
The it was a vanishing child's hand over hers. A shining, minuscle, forceless
hand, that had equally succeded in stopping her. The green-haired woman raised
her misty look on the ghost of a future child, that was now by her side.
That kid, how could she had approached her? Sailor Silvermoon felt almost fear...
"Small
Usagi..." Kakyuu murmured, from her laying position on th ground. The Moon
Senshi and the Sailor Starlights had quit the fight and they all, were staring
at Megimi, Chibi-Usa and Mamoru.
"Please"
Chibi-Usa whispered, folding over the body of the boy who, in a far - and now
- uncertain future, would have been her father. "Don't make anything bad
to him... Please...". Chibi-Usa's cheeck leaned, weightless, over Mamoru's.
Her pupil-less eyes met Megimi's.
*
**Tokyo, year 200X**
Mamoru's scream
exploded and re-echoed trough his jail...
His hands... His body was transparent...
He tried to seize again the bars of the door, but he passed trought them and,
tormented by ache, he fell into the corridor.
*
**Tokyo, year 198X**
For a moment,
Sailor Silvermoon remained inert.
*You can't
rebel to me! You can't! You can't!*
Megimi's mind seamed to fight and, for instant, her eyes get cleared.
"Don't
hurt him..." Chibi-Usa's eyes spilled tears over Megimi's gloved hand,
over Mamoru's face.
*Kill
him!*
The order re-sounded into Goldmoon, Shinymoon and Magicmoon's brains - but their
bodies kept still.
*Kill
him!*
"Please,
don't do it" Sailor Starhealer said,
"Let
me birth" Chibi-Usa pleaded, her eyelids were almost closed, her voice
was nothing but a whisper, "Please, let us live",
"You
don't want to kill him, isn't it?" Sailor Fireball unexpectedly asked.
The Moon Senshi moved their eyes on the senshi in coral-red, "You would
never do it. You aren't evil".
Megimi shifted her eyes from Kakyuu to Chibi-Usa...
*Kill
him! Kill the Prince of Earth! The one who, together with the princess of the
Moon, had stolen my planet!*
Over the faces of Moon
Senshi it went drawn the identical painful expression,
"They
are suffering..." Sailor Starmaker let out,
"No"
Sailor Starfighter replied, "They are... fighting!" and then, it heard
the desperate scream of Kakyuu,
"Fight!
You can overcome it!".
*Obey
to the Dark Sun of the Earth!*
Megimi shook,
"Prince..."
she stammered while her eyes went filled with tears,
"Princess
Serenity..." Yuki spoke.
*You can't!
You can't rebel!*
"It's...
a despicable thing..." Magicmoon began,
"A Sailor
senshi doesn't kill a child..." Shinymoon echoed her.
"Yes,
fight it!" Sailor Starhealer exclaimed.
*KILL
HIM!*
"No"
Hayasi, Yuki and Nadakai coldy said in chorus, as last, Megimi raised her face
to the sky and yelled out a long heart-breaking
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
in that moment, the key of black stone she wore around the neck, lighted up
and then exploded, setting free only few sparkles.
*
**Tokyo, year 200X**
Mamoru reeled
along the dark corridor, towards the exit of it. the pain his body had felt,
was over, but there it was another kind of ache that was hurting him,
"I
remember nothing" he fell on his knees, while tears were going for the
corners of his eyes, "I remember nothing... Who I am? Why am I there?".
Suddenly, he felt the carress of a small hand on the face. The man looked up,
there it was blond girl before him. She had big, gentle light blue eyes and
her hair was tied up into two pigtails.
"Don't
cry" the child said. Mamoru gazed in disbilied at that small face: it was
so similar to a dear face... To two dear faces... The small girl lifted her
right hand and gave him a flower. Mamoru noticed that it was a rose: a fresh,
red rose. "Don't cry" she softly repeated.
Mamoru's eyes grew wide...
"30/100?!? What a bad score! Study more, Odango Atama!"
"Usagi!" he exclaimed, grabbing the rose, "SERENITY!" Mamoru yelled, standing up. "Serenity, I'm coming!!"
*
Actaeon re-entered
the throne room,
"Serenity!"
he called again, worriedly glancing around: where it was his Serenity?
A figure appeared on one of the threasholds that gave on the hall, "Serenity?"
the blond prince asked.
"No,
it's me." a masculine voice replied and Mamoru walked in, shooting Actaeon
a glance full of hatred, "You bastard! It's time for us to settle accounts!"
Mamoru yelled, flying on Actaeon.
*
"MAIKO!
ARASHI-SAMA!"
Maiko was the first one to rush into the room, where Selene's screams had camen
from.
The girl opened the door and a redoundant noise, made her immediately to put
her hands over her ears.
Selene was going on, flying all around the Last Talisman, which kept standing
by itself, emitting that strange sound. Almost a recall...
"What
the heck is happening?" Arashi asked, appearing beyond Maiko's shoulder.
Selene turned her head back to her, in order to reply that she didn't know,
that she had no idea. But before she could tell a word, the scythe set free
a blinding light...
*
**Tokyo, year 198X**
A golden aura
had wrapped Chibi-Usa's body, still in Sailor Silvermoon's arms. When the aura
faded off and finally died, Megimi's hands lost the grip around the children
and withdrew.
The pink-haired girl slowly rose.
"Arigatou,
Megimi-sama" Chibi-Usa softly murmured and her small mouth, bllomed into
a beautiful smile.
She stood up, at first supporting herself on Megimi's shoulders and then, totally
by herself. Something had changed in her: the girl looked much older now, around
10 years old, and also her expression had changed, her pinkish eyes had taken
a bit more mature expression, somehow. The three remaining Moon Senshi moved
to form an half circle, all around their leader and Chibi-Usa and bowed on their
knees.
"We
had done such awful crimes" Sailor Goldmoon began, lowering the face to
look the ground,
"We
had stained ourself by the fault of treason" Sailor Magicmoon continued
coldly,
"Lady
Serenity" Sailor Shinymoon appealed to Chibi-Usa. The child moved her eyes
on the three guardians around her and then, stopped over Sailor Silvermoon's
face,
"We
are no more worthy of fighting by your side. We deserve no more the name of
Sailor Senshi", a river of tears was pouring down her cheeks, blending
to the blood and falling to stain her gloved hands, that were lovely surrounding
the small sensless Mamoru.
"Forgive
us, if you can" Hayasi sighed.
Yaten helped Kakyuu to stood up,
"Thank
you, Starmaker" the alien princess smiled, returning again with the look
to the six figures in front of her. In that moment, another figure came in Sailor
Fireball's visual field, walking towards the Moon Senshi. "... Starfighter..."
the coral-red haired woman called, in disbilief.
"You
don't really think you can set yourself free from the blame so easily, don't
you?" Seiya's voice rang cold as ice.
"SEIYA!"
Taiki tried to recall her mate to the order, but Starfighter paid her no attention.
Chibi-Usa gave the alien senshi a glance full of incertitude,
"No,
we know" replied Sailor Goldmoon.
"We'll
fight no more" Sailor Shinymoon added under her breath. They had wished
for centuries to be close to their princess and to the Sailor Senshi. To give
up to all that, was the greatest price to pay, for them.
"And
you will run away, like cowards?" Starfighter pressed, taking a step towards
them. Nadaki lifted her angry face on Seiya,
"What
else do you want us to do?!" she yelled back to him. Seiya contracted her
pretty face in an easy-going grin,
"I want
you that way" she replied, lifting her chin, "I want you to fight
with us" the senshi made a small pause, letting her affirmation to sink
a bit, "You'll fight the enemy with us. This is the only way in which you'll
be able to put a remedy to what you had done".
The Moon Senshi
exchanged a mute look,
"Lady
Serenity...?" Megimi asked to Chibi-Usa, at the end. The girl smiled and
nodded,
"Yes!
Fight by our side!" she exclaimed.
One hand stretched in front of Megimi. The green-haired young woman lifted her
face to meet the half-closed and benevolent eyes of Sailor Fireball, who was
now offering her, her friendship and trust. After a moment, Megimi's hand moved
to grab the one which had been offered to her.
*
Just one moment
before entering the beam of light which would have brought them all back to
the future, Sailor Silvermoon turned back to see the body of the small Mamoru,
lying as dead, on the edge of the street.
"What's
up?" Sailor Shinymoon asked her. Megimi pressed her lips together and then
replied,
"Also...
also if we'll succeed in putting a remedy to all the bad we had caused, His
Majesty won't ever have back his family. We had spoiled his life... We had killed
his parents and we can't change it".
"It's
not your fault" Chibi-Usa said. She had taken once more that mature look
she had had in the moment she had thanked Megimi, "It had to happen. It's
the Destiny". The wind blew over the destroyed car, brining away with it,
a cloud of black smoke. It heard the siren of an ambulance approaching. "One
day," Chibi-Usa reprised, "that boy will start to look for the Silver
Crystal in order to have his memory back. It's in this way, that our story had
began". The column of pink light grew, engulfing their bodies.
*
* * *
**Tokyo, year 200X**
"Your friend succeded in rebelling to my will" Kuroi Tenpi spoke to Usagi. She stood up from the throne, drew near to the blonde and, grabbing her by her hair, she forced Usagi to stand up. "But it doesn't matter, it doesn't really matter, your Majesty", in that momet, the ground under their feet started to shake...