FREEDOM

      Updated: JANUARY 28, 2001

   Written by: IRUKA-CHAN

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I DO NOT OWN THESE CHARACTERS.  I’M SORRY!  BUT IT IS JUST TO BAD.  YOU CAN’T SUE ME!!!!  WELL, YOU CAN… BUT OH WELL.  ON WITH THE STORY!

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FROM THE CHRONICALS OF THE SENSHI

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There was a darkness emanating from the enigmatic cave outside Crystal Tokyo that Venus did not like in the slightest.  Then again, who in their right mind liked evil?  Certainly not Venus, who had known evil for as long as she could remember. 

The force oozing from the cave was evil, but more evil then she had ever encountered.  Even Galaxia had not been as evil as the blackness that originated inside the dark cave.  Fear lodged itself in a lump inside her throat, but Venus stood her ground.  She would fear no evil.  She would conquer all evil. She was the Sailor Senshi of Venus, the warrior of love, and nothing could overcome love.

At least, that’s what Venus told herself.  The future was no longer certain: all the Dark Moon events had been settled and even Pluto did not know what would come next.  Tomorrow might be the end of the universe: Venus just didn’t know.  It was scary to have the assurance that you would beat your foe and then have that ripped away.  Her psychological edge was no more, and she wasn’t getting younger. 

Venus shrugged off her worries and held up her wrist. “Mercury, I’ve found the cave.” She whispered into the communicator, reassured by the hologram of Mercury that rose gracefully out of the circuitry and plastic of what could have been mistaken for a watch. 

Mercury looked up at her and smiled peacefully.  Her mind had not been on the job since she had married, but at least she was still donning the fuku. Mars and Jupiter were to busy with their families to help out, and the Outers were busy keeping peace in the outer factions of the Solar System, leaving the two of them to guard Crystal Tokyo.

      “You beat me to it Venus.  I guess computers and science still can not beat hunches, huh?” Mercury’s smile grew.  Once she would have been upset that Venus had beaten her to the ‘kill’, back in the first hundred years of Crystal Tokyo. 

      But things always had a way of calming down, and Mercury certainly had.  She even had a baby daughter now.

      Venus grimaced.  She had the eldest child, a beautiful girl named Aiji, but she hadn’t seen her baby girl, or her beloved husband, for two years.  It wasn’t that Venus was avoiding them; it was just that work had kept her from her beloveds.  Mercury seemed to notice what she was thinking and shook her head.

      Softly she spoke, as if the evil in the cave didn’t matter as much as Venus’ feelings. “You will be with your Aiji soon Venus.  This is the last evil we shall face for a long time.”

      Venus shook her head. “How can we be sure?  The prophets have been wrong before.”

      Mercury smiled wryly. “Not when Rei was the one who put down the prophesy.”

      “Her edge could have worn down with her kid.”

      “Yours hasn’t.” Mercury replied, and then her grin slacked off. “We will sacrifice everything, Venus, but today is not that day.  Just think: this last evil to fight, and then freedom.”  There was an odd touch to Mercury’s voice, wistful and longing.

      “Freedom?  We are not slaves.” Even as Venus spoke she knew her words to be false.  The Senshi had been slaves to Destiny since the first prophesy back in the Silver Millennium. Ages had past, and still they had been forced to put aside their own lives for the greater good of the world, or even the universe itself.  That alone certainly put a crimp in making homelifes for themselves.

       Mercury just shook her head. “I’ll be there in a minute.  Just hold on before you go in.”

      Venus smiled. “You think I can’t handle this evil?”

      Mercury looked solemn.  “Yes, I think you can’t handle it alone.”

      I never can. Venus thought to herself, shutting down the communicator.  She returned to studying the cave.  It was usual: a black opening in a slate-gray mountainside. But what was inside certainly wasn’t.  Venus figured that it would be a relic creature, but she knew she shouldn’t make assumptions.

      Assumptions could cost her her life. A closed mind cannot grasp all the details necessary to make a wise decision, no matter how strong a sense one had at survival. 

Especially if one was a Senshi.

      Mercury arrived then, breathing just a little harder than normal. “I’m getting out of shape.” Mercury said wryly, more to herself, then smiled at Venus. “You first?”

      “No. Together.”

      “Fine.”

      “Venus Love Globe!” A yellow-orange globe of light appeared hovering over the gloved hand of Venus, vanquishing the dark shadows of the cave that certainly had not seen such light for thousands, if not millions, of years.  It had a dried must smell combined with the pungent odor of decayed animal flesh.

      Not exactly the best place to call home. Venus thought to herself, nearly tripping on a rabbit’s skull. She shivered, thoughts of Serenity frozen flooding her mind.  It had been hard with the Sovereign frozen during those battles.  The Senshi had come to depend on her far to much, and without her… it was just pure luck that they managed to defend Crystal Tokyo.

      In the back of the cave, a black shadow crouched, oozing an evil that spiritually was so sick it made the two of them cringe.  The shadow was mumbling nonsense, sounding more like a mad child then an evil force.

      The light of the Love Globe shined deep into the shadow, casting the first glimpse of the sick being, the final enemy before their freedom. 

Mercury gasped.

It was a forlorn looking child, with hair of ivory and eyes so black they made a black hole look like an O spectral type star.  Her facial features were the same as Hotaru, but faintly different.  The sign of Saturn, however, burned brightly on her forehead, only it burned black instead of violet.

The girl gazed at Venus, a sad smile on her face.  Instead of casting a bright look on her pale face, it made her look sinister and evil.  Venus cringed, making the girl’s smile even sadder. “Finally, someone has come to destroy the destroyer. Please, my time has been long and I wish it to end. Strike firm and fast.  I can bare my pain no more.”

“Who are you?” mercury asked, her voice shaking with fear.

The girl’s smile deepened, but her eyes glazed over. “I am the destroyer. Once, thousands of years ago, I destroyed that which should not be destroyed.  I ended the kingdom that created me.  I am the destroyer.”

“She destroyed the moon kingdom.  This is Hotaru’s Moon kingdom sister.” Venus did not know how she knew it: she just did.

The glazed look faded from the girl’s eyes for a moment as reason entered her mind, probably for the first time since the destruction of the moon kingdom. “How?”

“Hotaru never had any memory of destroying the moon kingdom, even though it said that Sailorsaturn destroyed it. Hotaru never regained her moon kingdom memories, but the rest of us did.”

“Hotaru was never Sailorsaturn.  She was too weak, I was too strong.  The power… it killed me, but kept me alive.” The girl’s voice drifted off.

“It was necessary to destroy the moon kingdom.  If you didn’t Pluto would have had to have Hotaru do it.”

“That would have brought the apocalypse.  Hotaru could never have become Sailorsaturn during the moon kingdom.  It was written...” the girl closed her eyes, and black tears began to gush forth.

“You saved time.” Mercury blurted out.

“I destroyed myself.  There only one release for me… death.” The girl’s eyes glowed when she opened them.

“You are not mad, nor are you evil.” Mercury said pointedly.

“No, I am Saturn.  The true Saturn, not Hotaru’s weak version.  I am the final true Saturn.  May the true Saturn, destroyer of the destroyers, die with me.”

“But you aren’t evil! I can’t kill-“

“You, Mercury, Princess Sui, have become weak.  You are weak as well.” The true Saturn turned to me with a smile. “You are weaker as well my friend Kin, the gold one.  Tell me, how is your daughter?  Does she know she is the messiah?”

Venus felt her eyes bulge. “Aiji? A messiah?”

Saturn’s smile was dark. “I am a prophet for all my madness. I have seen the future, and I am not in it.  At least, not in this body.” She spread her arms out and looked at the wasted body she inhabited with curiosity and scorn.

“You called Venus your friend.” Mercury accused.

“She was.  Tell me friend, do you remember your best friends name?  Or has millennia destroyed you?”

“Kochou.” Pain and regret flooded Venus’s voice as she spoke the name time had withheld from her.  Memories rushed to her, far to many for her to pluck and savior. “Butterfly.”

“I can not live here.  You, my old friend, must kill the destroyer.  It is the only way to save the future.”

“I know.” Grief raged through Venus like a forest fire, burning its way through out her body. “But it doesn’t make this easy.  I only just found you, in every sense of the word!”

“Venus, you can’t! She’s not evil!” horror and fear entered a frantic pitch in Mercury’s voice.

“I will miss you.” Venus said.

“You will not know me again.” Saturn said with steel in her voice, her black eyes burning with peace and yet the deepest torment.  No being, however great their resolve, goes into death completely willing.

“I will see you.  In the eyes of Aiji.” Venus smiled, then softly whispered: “VENUS REINCARNAION.”

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      Hotaru gazed upon the quiet face of her new daughter with joy.  Memories that Venus (now returning to her former identity of Minako) had unblocked for her.  Her twin sister, reborn, at least in a soul sense.  The features were far different, more like her father’s, but this little one has the spirit of her beloved Kochou. 

      But there were tears in Hotaru’s face.  Just last week, only a year after the birth of her last child, Minako had been killed.  Kochou had spoken truly: she would never know the reincarnated Kochou.  There was irony there of course: the destroyer had been killed by love.

      But at least Minako had known freedom, if only for a brief time.  That was more then what Hotaru had known…

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Well, did you like it?  It’s short, but I wanted to get something out.  It was fun to write and really mess with Sailormoon history.  However, it does play a part in one of my Sailormoon fanfics.  More to come!

Iruka_chan.

E-mail me at Chibi_Iruka@yahoo.com!