--REVELATIONS--


The Generals, clothed in silver-trimmed, black, close-fitting uniforms
much like they’d worn as Dark Kingdom officers, stood watching
Sailor Moon, who sat on a low protrusion with her legs curled beneath
her, her staff lying on the ground beside her. She stared blankly at
the half-moon, absently stroking Luna’s head. Though she’d rested
throughout the day, the bone-deep weariness had not left her. //Do I
remember what it was like to not be exhausted? Do I want to
remember?//

Before she could pursue that line of thought, the other senshi and
Tuxedo Kamen arrived. Standing slowly, she placed Luna on the
ground and picked up her silver staff. Moving before the four
Generals, she bowed formally to the five warriors of Tokyo. "Allow me
the honor of presenting the four Generals of the Earth Kingdom, the
four Guards of Prince Endymion of the Silver Millennium." Her voice
was soft and once again without expression. "Malachite, Zoicite,
Nephlyte, and Jaedite." At each man’s name, he stepped forward,
and bowed.

"The tale of how they have returned once more to our side of the
battle is a long one." She returned once more to her protrusion.
Mars, Venus, and Mercury found similar outcroppings upon which to
perch, leaving Jupiter, Tuxedo Kamen, and the Generals standing.

"I don’t know how much you remember, nor do I know how much
Artemis has told you. Therefore, I may repeat some information you
already know." She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and
launched into her story. "Luna found and awakened me two weeks
before my fifteenth birthday. Beryl was attacking Tokyo and...the
place in which I lived. Like you, I battled youma night after night,
attempting to regain peace for my home."

"When I faced the first of Beryl’s Generals, I wanted to hate him. He
was, at the time, the primary cause of the suffering of my family and
friends. Yet, something held me back. Something kept me from
despising him completely--to put it bluntly, something kept me from
killing him."

"Luna had awakened me with all of my memories of the Silver
Millennium, knowing that a lone senshi would need her memories as
solace because she lacked understanding companions. As I slowly
began to sort through the memories of my former life, I was startled to
find that the Generals I was fighting had, at one time, been my allies--
my friends. While, I knew they’d existed during the Silver
Millennium--Luna explained the spell that Queen Serenity used to
bring us and the Dark Kingdom forward in time--I’d no idea they had
been warriors for peace. I spent nearly two entire days in a trance,
hunting through my memories, searching for the key to the change.
By the end of the ordeal, I was exhausted, but I’d found my answer."

She fell silent, and Malachite took up the narrative. "During the last
year of the Silver Millennium, we were taken captive through
treachery. Beryl wanted us as tools, knowing the amount of physical
and mental pain we could inflict upon the royalty of both the Moon and
the Earth kingdoms. She flooded our bodies with dark energy,
weakening us until we could no longer resist. Then she locked each
of our true selves away in a tiny, black corner of our own souls,
forcing us to watch as the personalities she implanted used our
bodies to kill the senshi and later, to fight against Sailor Moon."

"But the same measure that served to torment us for a thousand
years also provided the means of our escape. Once Sailor Moon
found the key to releasing us, she healed us with the crystal, allowing
us to reclaim our true forms and powers. We swore to protect her and
the Moon Princess until we could be reunited with Prince Endymion of
Earth."

There was a pause. "Malachite," Venus began. "We battled you only
once, but I was fairly certain that Jaedite was killed by Beryl, and that
Nephlyte was killed by Zoicite."

Zoicite spoke for the first time in a pleasantly light voice. "Beryl never
bothered to destroy our physical bodies, depending on the fact that
she could always implant a new personality to replace the old,
defective one. First Jaedite and later Nephlyte and I were placed in
stasis crystals, but when Sailor Moon regained the Silver Imperium
Crystal, Malachite released us in a last-ditch attempt to gain the
crystal and Beryl’s favor. At that time, a certain Dark Prince was
stealing her attention from the last of the four Generals."

"Malachite’s grand idea was a simultaneous attack," Jaedite took up
the thread of the narrative. "And because anything was better than
the stasis crystal, we agreed. We were planning to draw Sailor Moon
out with a direct attack on a town, at the last minute targeting her with
all the dark energy at our disposal. Needless to say, we failed. That
night, she was able to use the crystal to heal my soul, breaking me
free of my imprisonment. Together we lured the other three to be
healed. The rest, as they say, is history."

Mercury looked around the gathering. "I’m curious about the crystal.
How did you get it, when the seven rainbow crystals were gathered
together in Tokyo, and what exactly were you doing with it last night
that caused such explosive energy levels?"

//Let me handle this one.// "As near as we can tell, Sailor Mercury,
when the seven rainbow crystals were gathered together and you and
the other senshi were in such grave danger, the princess awoke and
called the crystal to her. When you four went to rescue Prince
Endymion and challenge Beryl, she gave the crystal into my keeping,
knowing that ultimately only it could defeat Beryl." Sailor Moon slowly
moved her gaze from a distant point on the horizon and looked at the
senshi before her. "You all have your own memories of that battle,
and I’d be surprised if they did not return soon, now that you’ve begun
to delve into them."

"As for what I did last night with the crystal," she trailed off, gazing at
the sky. "You must understand that the crystal has an awareness. It
has a clear idea of what it wants to do, how it wants to do it, what it
should be used for. However, being a stone, it has no sense of the
limitations we, its keepers, operate under. Its sense of time is almost
unfathomable. It took me nearly a day to explain to it that a long
time--for us--had passed since the Silver Millennium ended." Her
lips quirked slightly upward in an almost smile, then she closed her
eyes and bowed her head slightly.

"But what you experienced last night was an unforgivable error on my
part. You see, the crystal is indeed the most powerful artifact in the
galaxy, and the very reason it was given into the care of the royalty of
the Moon was their ability to befriend and control it as much as to
protect it. Indeed, those two imperatives were one in the same.
Queen Serenity did not worry about Beryl’s ability to use the crystal--
the crystal itself would have destroyed Beryl, Metallia, and the entire
Dark Kingdom the moment the evil woman took it up."

"So why not just hand the crystal to Beryl and let her do herself and
the rest of them in?" Jupiter asked, when Sailor Moon paused. "And
what does this have to do with you?"

"Had the crystal ever fallen into Beryl’s hands, it would have shaken
off all control. No one, not I, not the princess, not even Queen
Serenity, could have stopped it from destroying all of the Dark
Kingdom and probably most of earth along with it."

There was silence. Sailor Moon remained still, her head down, her
eyes close, looking for all the world as if she were attempting to curl
into a fetal position. She continued, almost too softly to be heard.
"Last night, I loosed the power of the crystal with only the thinnest
bonds of my will to control it. I was nearly unable to bring it back
under my control." She finally looked up at the rest of them, senshi,
generals, and Tuxedo Kamen. "Once more I can only offer you my
deepest apologies."

Malachite took a single step towards the senshi of the Moon, seeming
to want to comfort her when a mocking voice stopped him.

"Such a touching story. Why Sailor Moon, you could have been a
bard! Or perhaps with your laughable antics, a jester..."

"What do you want, you bastard?" Nephlyte bit out as he and the rest
of the Generals formed a protective barrier between Sailor Moon and
the redhead.

"Oh, no, this will never do. I was so hoping Sailor Moon could come
play with me a bit. I see I’m going to have to find something to amuse
the watch dogs." He gestured behind him and a subspace portal
opened, loosing eight flying droids.

"Purple pterodactyls? Really Rubeus, could you not be even a little
more creative?" Malachite taunted as the other three Generals
launched themselves towards the circling droids.

"Letting your ‘brothers’ have all the fun, Malachite? How noble! But I
warn you, they won’t find my little pets all that easy to dispose of."

//Mal, let the senshi protect her, we need an extra sword up here.//

With a glare at Rubeus that, with any justice in the world, would have
sent him straight to hell, Malachite addressed the other warriors atop
the roof. "I leave Sailor Moon’s safety in your hands." He too leapt
from the roof, soaring upwards to join the battle.

"And the cat sees the cream unguarded. How utterly foolish of them."
Rubeus moved forward to float beside Sailor Moon, who hadn’t
moved since his arrival. The senshi and Tuxedo Kamen were too
stunned to move to her aid. "You know," he whispered seductively in
her ear, "if you would just come with me, this would all end. You
would become matriarch of the Dark Moon family, and your friends
would be safe. Or do you enjoy watching them die..."

He trailed off abruptly as she slammed the butt of her staff into his
stomach. Suddenly, she was hovering just above and beyond the
edge of the roof, watching the evil general attempt to regain his
breath.

His head snapped up to regard her with evil, mad, hateful, blazing
eyes. "You will pay for that, you little bitch," he hissed through his
teeth. "Demando may have forbade killing you, but you’d be amazed
by what you can survive!" And he launched himself at her.

The battle before the senshi was eerily silent. From above came the
shrieks and screams of wounded and dying droids, Malachite’s
shouted commands, and occasionally Jaedite’s snide remarks. But
neither Sailor Moon nor her opponent spoke a word. His eyes flashed
his utter, mad hatred of the senshi, while hers became, if possible,
more empty, more frighteningly dead.

He blasted away at her with balls and darts of dark energy; she
attempted to angle away from the roof, but the senshi still found
themselves scattering before a few of his misplaced shots. She
returned his attacks with physical blows from her silver staff and
bursts of silver streaked white power from her outstretched hand.

Suddenly, Rubeus threw back his head and laughed madly. Sailor
Moon hovered silently, her dead blue eyes boring into his cackling
figure. "You know, Sailor Moon," he dampened his laughter to a huge
grin and leered at her, "reverse déjà vu is an odd thing. I can see you
in the future, sitting on an onyx throne beside his majesty, with that
infernal crystal in your hand." She didn’t react, and he dropped his
voice to a taunting whisper once more. "And I watch you, as one by
one, ‘your’ senshi and ‘your’ generals are led before you. Do you
know how delightful their confusion and hatred of you is to me?" He
leered once more.

"And I watch you, as you face each one of them, individually, and
raise your hand--gloved in black, I might add--and use that oh so
‘pure,’" his voice danced over the word mockingly, "power to torture
and murder those you swore to protect..."

Once more, Rubeus doubled over in pain, but this time, he showed no
signs of being able to move for some time. Sailor Moon hovered in
place, seeming not to have moved. The crystal atop her staff pulsed
a sullen, blood red, and her eyes flashed with the emotions that had
always seemed missing.

Mars--the only senshi with a particularly susceptible mind--was
driven to her knees under the onslaught of foreign passions
emanating from the senshi of the Moon. They washed over the
priestess in unstoppable waves, overcoming her carefully constructed
mind shields immediately, until they ceased as suddenly and as
inexplicably as they’d begun. Looking up, she realized that Sailor
Moon had cast a mind shield over the roof to protect Mars from her
own emotions. //Oh my dear gods...//

~~Please don’t do that Sailor Mars. It’s rather unpleasant and
potentially dangerous.~~

"More than potentially..." Mars breathed in shocked awe as Venus
and Jupiter hauled her to her feet.

"What?"

"Hush, Jupiter!" Venus jerked her head towards the two figures
before them.

Rubeus had lifted his head, keeping his arm pressed against his
stomach, and begun to grin once more, the feral grin of a dying
animal, intent on getting in once last hit. "You see, my little fighter for
love and justice and peace," he mocked her, "already you are willing
to kill with that pretty little rock." He opened a portal behind him and
blinked in shock as it was destroyed immediately by a blast of white
fire from Sailor Moon’s staff.

For the first time, she spoke. "Not this time, Rubeus." Her low voice
was coldly furious and laced with hate. The senshi took an
involuntary step backwards as they recognized the same tone of voice
she’d used the night she’d healed Mercury. Above them, Malachite
heard her assertion and cursed violently; taking an insane chance that
opened him to a clawed shoulder, he sliced the wing from one of the
droids, sending it spiraling to the earth below. "Hurry it up!"

Rubeus’ shock dissipated. "So you want to play hardball?" and with
an impossible speed, he swooped down on the roof to grab a still
recovering but nonetheless struggling Sailor Mars. "You know," he
remarked conversationally, "I don’t think even a senshi could survive
this kind of fall. Oh," he looked at the young woman in his grasp, "and
don’t YOU get any ideas, either."

The silence descended once more, as mad eyes mocked dead blue
ones.

//Jaedite.// The images that flashed in his mind made his eyes blaze
with fury.

//Don’t you dare, Sailor Moon!//

//Be ready.//

//Shit...Malachite!//

//I saw. We’ve got it covered up here...Go!//

Sailor Moon suddenly darted forward, her staff held in an attack
position, her eyes boring into Rubeus’ face. Startled by her sudden
move, he dropped Mars and readied himself to block the staff already
swinging towards his neck.

Mars wasted no time with a scream. She powered up her attack,
determined to at least injure the idiot who’d sent her plummeting to
the ground. Before she could act, she was jerked from her wild
plunge by a pair of strong arms. "You know, you should really let me
teach you how to do this before you go jumping off the highest
building in Tokyo."

"It’s not exactly my fault, you jackass," she told Jaedite before turning
her attention to the battle above her, determined not to let the Dark
Moon general escape a good singeing. It was, however, too late for
Mars’ intervention.

Sailor Moon, instead of finishing the strike at Rubeus’ throat, flipped
herself over his head, and twisted to face his back. He whirled only to
find the crystal end of her staff plunging once more towards his
midsection. But this time, she did not draw it back, once he doubled
over. At her whispered command, the crystal burst forth, sending
sharp rays of silver and white shooting through the crumpled body of
the general.

He looked up, snarling, into her eyes and saw--nothing. With an
agonized shriek of "Demando!" his body disintegrated, leaving nothing
but a small cloud of black dust and ash, which floated gently away on
the breeze.

Silence reigned high above the city. She turned and looked at the
stunned warriors on the roof. Jaedite still held an astonished Mars in
his arms as he perched on the roof and looked at her with sorrow in
his eyes. Venus, Jupiter and Mercury stared with eyes widened in
horror, and though Tuxedo Kamen’s countenance remained
unreadable behind the mask, his body was stiff. The other three
Generals descended from their now-finished battle, calling her name,
but it was Luna’s horror-stricken features that stabbed Sailor Moon’s
soul.

She closed her eyes, bowed her head, and vanished.

~~~

//Even in death, you served me well.// The silver-haired man
addressed the image of Rubeus in his mind. //Rest, mad one, and
know that you accomplished much.//
//Now, I shall take control, for this requires a delicacy that none of my
other idiot generals possess.// He swirled the brandy glass and
smiled wickedly into the darkness.
//Another battle is mine, princess. One more will win the war.//

~~~

Luna watched her charge with anxious eyes from her place on the
bed. Anyone else would have seen nothing more than a young girl
with long silver hair and tired silver eyes watching the moon set
behind the city--surely not a sight to cause the desperate worry the
cat was feeling.

But Luna had been watching her charge for the past three hours--
since an hour after the battle--and not once, had the girl moved.
Even her breathing was muted as she stared out at the horizon. Her
eyes had not closed, and she’d rarely blinked. She’d ignored Luna’s
calls and the voices and knocks of Mal, Jed, Z, and Neph.

//Not again. I can’t take watching her do this again. Anything but
another three days of agonizing hell...//

//Don’t worry, Luna. I promised I wouldn’t do that again.//

//Sorcha!//

//Go to sleep Luna. Dawn approaches.//

//Sorcha...//

//Sleep Luna, you’re as tired as anyone. Morning will put things
aright.//

The cat watched her with sorrowful eyes for a while longer, before
sleep finally began to claim her. //Good night, Sorcha.// Then, as her
eyes closed, uncertain if she’d be heard or paid heed, //I love you,
banphrionsa.//

Once she felt Luna’s mind settle into the familiar rhythms of sleep,
Serena sank once more into the depths of her own soul. She looked
at the walls that formed her recreated mind shield and added another
layer before turning inward even more.

She stood on an illusory cliff and stared out over an imaginary ocean.
Before her eyes flashed Mercury cradling her bloody, broken ankle,
Jupiter’s angry, cold eyes, Tuxedo Kamen’s snide rejection, Mars
plummeting from atop the Starlight Tower, Luna’s horrified eyes.
Most disturbing of all was the picture of the crystal pulsing red with
anger and hate that appeared behind each scene, an image that
threatened to send her screaming into the darkness her body
demanded.

Instead, she stood her ground, willing her mental self to remain
balanced on the edge of the cliff, staring into the unreal pulsing red
crystal before her.

//He was right. I’ll kill them one day.//

//He was right.//