--THE FINAL BATTLE--


"Mama?" The little girl received no response so she echoed the
call in her head. //Mama?//

Serena lay unmoving beneath the down comforter, her breathing
shallow, her hands icy.

"Little One?" A tall figure moved into the room and laid a hand on
the child’s shoulder. "Why don’t you come with me. You need to
get some sleep."

"No. I’m going to stay with Mama," and to show her resolve, she
crawled up on the bed and snuggled under the blankets, curling
herself around the still-cold silver-haired woman.

"Let her stay, Mal," came Luna’s weary voice. "It may very well
remind Sorcha that there’s a world outside of her mind."

"Luna, I think you need some sleep, as well."

"Probably," the cat agreed. "But not until Sorcha shows some
signs of coming out of it."

"You know..."

"Don’t say it, Mal. Don’t say a word. She’ll come out of it, if only
for duty." Luna spat the last word with a vehemence only a cat
could manage.

The general sighed.

"Are the rest of them still downstairs?"

"They are..."

"Then bring them up here," came a new voice. Mal turned,
surprised, as Luna hissed.

"Puu!" Chibi-Usa cried softly.

"Hello, Small Lady. Luna, you can hiss and yelp and curse all you
want, but LATER." The senshi of time stepped from the wall into
the small bedroom. "Right now, her majesty is in danger."

~~~

"WHAT?"

The green-haired Pluto closed her eyes for a brief moment. "As I
said, the Time Stream has stopped."

"That poses all manner of interesting physical dilemmas," Ami’s
voice was thoughtful.

"Metaphysical, as well," Z agreed absently.

"Why?" Mal demanded.

"How?" Minako added.

"And what does it have to do with us?" Makoto chimed in.

Pluto sighed. "The Time Stream is not immutable, it can be
tampered with, even changed with enough power and/or patience.
Right now, it is balanced between two completely equal futures.
The choice will be made there." She gestured at Sorcha’s still
form.

"In her soul," breathed Darien.

"Precisely, your majesty."

"Stop that."

Pluto ignored him. "The fate of every man, woman, and child on
earth depends upon what’s going through her head beneath all
those formidable mind shields."

"Jaysus, we’re doomed."

"Shut UP, Jed!"

"I never said you were doomed. The future depends on what she
DECIDES. She has yet to make the choice."

Neph looked hopeful. "She does have the most over-developed
sense of duty since..." he trailed off. "She’ll choose correctly."

"It can’t be that simple," Luna shook her head. "If it were, SHE
wouldn’t be here."

Mal agreed. "Banphrionsa will perform what she thinks is her duty.
We don’t know if that will lead to the right future, especially with the
way she’s been thinking."

"So? We have to get into her head--through the best mind shields
on earth--convince her to choose something we’re not sure is
correct in a decision we know nothing about." Minako sounded
exasperated. "Luna, when you’re done with Pluto, it’s my turn."

"She must make the choice freely, without being told that the future
rides on her decision," Pluto added. "Otherwise, she’ll choose for
the wrong reasons and quite possibly destroy herself."

"We have to get into her mind before we can worry about that," Mal
countered.

"No." Darien was staring at the still form on the bed. "Not her
mind. Her soul."

Seven pairs of eyes centered on Rei, who blinked in alarm. //I’m
half-trained at best. She has every reason to hate me. I’ve never
attempted something this big.//

She sighed wearily. "Someone build me a fire."

~~~

The common room was echoingly empty. The furniture around one
fireplace had been pushed unceremoniously away to make room
for the thick mattress. Mars knelt before the blazing fire, chanting
quietly, preparing to fling herself and Darien into the realm of
Serena’s soul.

Darien sat on a floor cushion, next to the mattress holding Serena
and her daughter--//our daughter//--who had refused to relinquish
her place beside her "Mama." Behind him gathered the senshi, the
Generals, and the two cats, with Sailor Pluto keeping her distance.

He gazed down at Serena’s still face, reaching over to tenderly
brush a few strands of silver hair from her face before yanking
his hand back as if burned. //I shouldn’t be doing this. I don’t
even know how I feel about her. I don’t KNOW her...//

//I’m supposed to love her. And that disturbs me. Even knowing
WHY, or because I know why, she acted like an aloof, sarcastic
bitch--not that I wasn’t a callous bastard, myself--I just want to
shake her. She sees so much with those silver eyes. She blazed
right through my ‘defensive sarcasm’ and confused the hell out of
me. I’ve spent enough time confused and groping. I just want to
be sure of something.//

He watched Chibi-Usa gazing anxiously into her mother’s face. //At
times, I want to have her smile at me with that tender look she
gives Chibi-Usa. I want to get to know the silent, sad woman, to
see if I can find the laughing child.//

//I want to be able to hold a conversation with myself that doesn’t
end in "bite me."//

He sighed quietly.

//It was so much easier when she was the princess of my dreams.
She wanted crystals, I found her crystals. She asked me to protect
the senshi, I protected the senshi. What will she ask of me now?
And can I give it?//

"Darien?" He looked up to see Sailor Mars kneeling before him
across the mattress. She was doing this as the senshi of the soul.
"Ready?"

With a nod, he took Mars’ hand as she grasped Serena’s free
hand. He slipped into a trance, following the senshi’s lead, feeling
his body slump slightly before his awareness moved totally into the
realm of the mind. This much he remembered from his life as
Prince Endymion. He’d been trained in the talents of the mind in
this fashion.

He reached for Mars and caught her mental "hand" in a warrior’s
grip; she wordlessly touched the faint line that led away from his
soul, sending mental and physical shivers through his being. //This
is why you came,// he scolded himself. //You’ve the direct link--or
what’s left of it--to her soul...//

With a twist of her mind, Mars dove, pulling Darien along the link
with her. Suddenly he felt another presence. //What the--Chibi-
Usa?// But it was over.

They’d entered a battleground.

~~~

Darien stood on firm ground, surrounded by a thick veil of mist. All
was still, but he could faintly hear the haunting melody of a harp
weaving through the fog. He looked down and saw--//a body?//

"Yes, Darien. A body, a construct." Mars’ voice reached his ears
as she entered his sight. "We’re in Serena’s soul. We have to
have some manner of representing ourselves. Oh, and thoughts
and words are one in the same here."

"What about Chibi-Usa?" he demanded. "I FELT her as we
dropped onto this plane. She’s here somewhere."

//Daddy? Mama?//

"Chibi-Usa!" Darien strode towards his daughter’s voice and was
immediately swallowed up by the mist. He heard Mars cursing
somewhere behind as she tried to follow but was too relieved to
heed her when he felt a small and surprisingly solid shape blunder
into his arms.

"I’ve got you, Chibi-Usa."

"Daddy? Where are we? Where’s Mama?"

"We’re in Mama’s head, in a way, kid-o," Mars told her as she
approached. "You know how she talks in your head sometimes?"
The child nodded. "This is something like that."

Darien turned to Mars. "We start walking?"

She shrugged. "It doesn’t really matter. This," she waved her
hand around, "is all just a construct. Stay, walk, in the end, it’s all
the same."

"So how do we find her?"

"She knows we’re here." Darien just quirked an eyebrow at the
senshi. "Look, Darien, we just did the equivalent of a bellyflop into
her soul and you think she’s not going to notice?"

Chibi-Usa--—realizing Mars was as uncertain of the situation as she
was--took matters into her own small, but capable, hands. Diving
from Darien’s arms, she ran off in the direction her heart sent her.

"Chibi-Usa!" She felt more than heard them gaining on her when
she burst out of the wall of mist, and stopped dead.

"Oh my." Mars was the only one capable of vocalizing her awe at
the moment. To their right was a training ground that would make
Jupiter fall over with glee. Every conceivable weapon was
arranged neatly on proper racks; the floor was covered in arcane
markings that, with a thought, resolved themselves into boundaries
for various types of tournaments and single combat. An endless
number of practice dummies were arranged in nearly every attack
formation imaginable. It was a warrior’s paradise, and in the
middle, training for all she was worth, was Sailor Moon. Her staff--
minus the crystal--lay on the ground beside her as she attacked
automated dummies with kicks and punches.

Mars approached her cautiously. Finishing off the last dummy,
Sailor Moon turned to the other senshi, wiping damp blonde hair
from her brow. "Hello Sailor Mars. Care to join me?" she asked in
Japanese. Her body was tense, ready to defend herself at any
moment. Her deep blue eyes--which never stopped searching for
another opponent--were the eyes of a fighter: deadened,
remorseless, empty.

"No, thank you, Sailor Moon. I must journey on." Mars backed
away slightly.

The senshi of the Moon tilted her head slightly, studying Mars with
those calculating eyes, seeming to weigh whether to allow her
passage or challenge her. Finally, she shrugged and turned back
to her training.

They turned uneasily and crossed the path Chibi-Usa had
unwittingly followed out of the mist. Before them stood a small rose
garden.

It was easily the most majestic, most scenic garden Darien--and
he’d seen quite a few--had ever beheld. To one side flowed a
gently babbling stream that fell from some unknown height onto a
bed of white, rounded stones, before forming a tiny, shallow pool.
The small clearing was covered in short, soft, deep green grass,
the kind that looked like it would feel like soft carpet on bare feet.
And the roses...Darien could only catch his breath in wonder.
Every color imaginable--and some that weren’t--formed a
background to the largest bushes of deep red and almost
translucent white blossoms. And on the small marble bench, her
dainty slippers cast on the grass before her, her legs drawn up
beneath her white satin skirt, giggling softly, sat...

//Princess Serena.// Darien felt his knees weaken, and he was
suddenly glad he was no longer supporting Chibi-Usa’s slight
weight.

"Darien..." He blinked, and it took him a moment to realize that,
though she had turned to face him, she was not speaking to him.
Nevertheless, he drank in the site of her long, silky, silvery-golden
hair, falling gently down her back from the two buns, and her deep
blue eyes, so open and loving, truly a window into her soul--a soul
that was just begging to be rejoined with his.

He shook his head. //This isn’t right.// Wordlessly, he turned,
drawing Chibi-Usa--who also seemed to be on the verge of
running to the princess with open arms--and Mars back to the path
and striding down it purposefully. He’d begun to reach a few
conclusions.

Mist descended on either side of them, but the path stretched
before them clearly. They walked, feeling no need to stop and rest,
experiencing no particular sense of urgency. Time had no meaning
in the misty landscape of the soul...it too was but a construct.

As suddenly as it had begun, the wall of fog stopped, leaving them
at the end of the path. They gazed at stony, dark gray cliffs that
overhung a pounding gray ocean. The sky seemed no more than
an extension of the mist they’d just left, and despite the furious
waves below, there was not the slightest breeze. Once more,
Darien could hear the harp music, he could feel it winding around
his "body," he could almost see it wrapping around his companions
and hugging the cliff before returning to its mistress.

She stood some ways off, at the edge of the cliff, next to a large
oak tree. She stood silently, with arms crossed over her stomach
as if to ward herself against an imaginary chill in the air. Her long
silver hair streamed to the ground, her petite body remained
completely still. Her silver eyes stared intently out across the
ocean at an imaginary horizon. Darien, Mars and Chibi-Usa
approached her slowly.

"Sorcha?" It was the first time any of the senshi had used her true
name, and it fell from Mars’ lips surprisingly easily. //What do I say
now?//

"What do you wish to know, Mars?" Her voice was quiet, with the
same lilt it held when she sang. Darien suddenly realized that she
was speaking in Gaelic, though he could understand her.

"I don’t know," the senshi answered honestly. "I don’t know what to
tell you or what to ask you."

"Then why have you come?" She didn’t sound upset or angry at
the intrusion. She didn’t even sound particularly curious.

Mars pondered for a moment, watching the motionless figure
before her. "I would like to consider myself your friend."

Sorcha made no sign that she’d heard the senshi. She continued
to stare at the sea before her.

Darien decided it was his turn to try. "What exactly are you doing?"
He winced as the words came out in a much too sarcastic tone.

"Waiting. Gathering my courage."

Darien swept his gaze over the jagged cliffs, the pounding sea, and
realization dawned. He blanched and stepped forward, reaching
for her arm instinctively before stopping himself. "You can’t!"

"Why not?"

He looked at her somewhat helplessly. "The world needs you," he
attempted.

She shook her head slightly. "The world needs them." He followed
the slight motion of her head with his eyes, turning to see that the
impenetrable wall of mist had thinned to naught but the tiniest film,
revealing the training ground and the rose garden, side by side.
"Sailor Moon will protect it, and Princess Serena will lead it."

"What about you, Sorcha?" Mars demanded.

"What about me?"

"What about your role in the world?"

"This is my role. The world is better off without "Sorcha."

"No." Mars shook her head vehemently. "You, Sorcha, are
needed as much as--if not more than--Sailor Moon and the
princess ever will be."

She finally turned her head, looking at Mars with blank silver eyes.
"Mars, the last thing the world needs is a stupid klutz with no sense
of time." There was no malice, no contempt in her voice, no
sadness.

"You’re not..."

"Please, Mars," she said, returning her gaze to the waves before
her. "Don’t."

Mars was getting frustrated and the "air" around her illusory body
was beginning to shimmer with her efforts to keep her emotions in
check. "So you’d leave us to follow a warrior with no humanity and
a creampuff princess?"

"Sailor Moon is..."

"The REAL Sailor Moon is a great warrior for peace, hope, love
and justice. The Sailor Moon that’s playing with her toys back
there is a monster. She has no compassion--she’s no more than a
killing machine." Mars crossed her arms. "She would have killed
Malachite and the rest before even thinking about healing them.
She would have saved her energy to use on Rubeus rather than
shielding Venus and I."

"Sailor Moon fights. The Princess heals."

Mars snorted with derision. "That ‘Princess’ is an airy nothing--she
probably thinks in poetry. Take her out of that rose garden and
she’d die. She couldn’t last a day in the real world, let alone lead
it."

"She led the Moon Kingdom well enough during the Silver
Millennium."

Mars paused. "No, Sorcha. YOU led the Moon Kingdom well."

Once again, she turned to face the senshi. "Having not been born
yet, I’m sure that was quite a feat."

Mars shook her head angrily, her "body" beginning to fade in and
out. The strength of her emotions was overcoming her control.
"You don’t get it, do you? These divisions you’ve created aren’t
real. YOU are Sailor Moon, YOU are the princess, YOU are
Sorcha. You are the soul that gives them meaning." Mars blinked
out completely before reappearing one last time, visibly straining to
keep from snapping out of her trance. "Sorcha, we need you, not
the warrior, not the princess, YOU." And she was gone.

Silence reigned once more, and Darien suddenly realized how
strange it was that the soft harp music drowned out the ocean
below. He looked down at the child beside him, wondering how
much she understood. Chibi-Usa gazed at Sorcha with solemn
eyes.

"Mama?"

Silver hair rustled as Sorcha looked down at the child, smiling ever
so slightly. "No, Little One. I’m sorry. I’m not your Mama." She
looked beyond the child’s head. "You’re Mama’s in her rose
garden."

Chibi-Usa dropped Darien’s hand and gazed back through the mist.
At that moment, Princess Serena raised her head and smiled
winsomely, innocently, invitingly. Darien’s heart leapt and Chibi-
Usa took a step away from the cliff.

But the child stopped and shook her head. Turning back to
Sorcha, who once more was gazing off to sea, she firmly stated,
"that’s not my Mama. My mama has silver hair and silver eyes,
and I’ve NEVER seen Mama sit by herself in a rose garden." She
walked tentatively towards Sorcha, reaching up and grasping one
of the older girl’s hands. "You look like my Mama, you sound like
my Mama. You tell me the same things Mama tells me."

"I’m sorry, Little One, I can’t be your Mama."

"But you even call me what Mama calls me!"

Sorcha didn’t respond, as the child’s form began to flicker, even as
Mars’ had. A tear ran down her face and she scrubbed at it.
Suddenly launching herself upwards, Chibi-Usa grasped at
Sorcha’s neck, forcing the silver-haired woman to cradle the child
to her body. Red eyes stared into silver.

"Mama, I’m going to tell you something and I want you to listen well
and believe me." Her childish voice rang with authority, and for
some reason, Sorcha began to tremble imperceptibly. "Bad things
happen to the best people in the world. You’re GOOD, Mama, and
we love you." Chibi-Usa’s eyes streamed tears. "Don’t leave me
Mama, you’re GOOD, I know! I love you!" And like Mars before
her, she was gone, leaving Sorcha cradling nothing but air.

She dropped her arms limply to her sides, forcing her gaze back
out to the ocean, which raged harder against the cliff. Darien could
see she was troubled. "She’s right you know."

She refused to look at him and didn’t dare trust her voice.

"Sorcha," he reveled in the way the name rolled from his tongue, so
foreign, so right. "Do you know how Mars brought us here? We
followed the last bit of a soul bond."

She closed her eyes, shutting out the gray world around her and
shutting in the whirling madness of her thoughts. "Prince Darien
soul bonded with Princess Serena."

"That’s true. And I’d be lying if I told you I passed that rose garden
without feeling the need to fall to my knees, drag her from the
bench and kiss her senseless. Of course, the part of my soul that
came from wants to wear armor," he added with a grin.

She didn’t move. He paused, and realized how exhausted he was
becoming.

"I’m not offering the immediate, timeless, perfect love that everyone
seems to think we shared during the Silver Millennium." He
reached out slowly and--cursing inwardly when she jumped--took
her hand, drawing it and her gaze towards him. "But I would like to
consider myself your friend, at least."

She didn’t react, but he plunged ahead anyway, feeling
lightheaded, realizing he was about to lose his connection with her
soul. "Mars and Chibi-Usa were right, you know. You, Sorcha, are
or will be, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a lover, a mother. They
may protect and lead," he gestured vaguely behind him, "but YOU
love..."

As she looked at him, troubled, and opened her mouth to reply, he
too, finally lost his grip on the trance and was thrown back into
reality, catching a brief glimpse of tired, worried faces before falling
into unconsciousness.

~~~

She gazed out over the once again calmed sea. The waves
pounded rhythmically against the base of the cliff, the harp played
softly, keeping time to the waves, her breathing and heartbeat. At
one time, she might have been amused that they’d mistaken her
intentions so drastically. Granted, sending her soul construct
leaping to a watery grave might have been dramatic, and certainly
reflected some of her thoughts since the murder of her family, but it
would have served no purpose.

//Although whatever the method, they recognized the end result
well enough.// She once again tried to start the process of sealing
over the gray sea of emotion below her.

//I’m tired.// She began the by-now familiar chant, as she raised
her hands in preparation. The physical motion wasn’t necessary,
but it helped her focus. //I’m dangerous to my friends, to my family.
I’m not needed...//

~~Sorcha, we need you, not the warrior, not the princess, YOU.

You’re GOOD, Mama, and we love you.~~

She stopped. Her hands fell once more to her side. //Maybe... No.
I’m no longer that happy, loving Sorcha. I’m no longer the one who
could save the world and then lead it with a kind and generous
heart--if I ever was. That little blond child is the one Mars and
Chibi-Usa need, and I’ve already killed her.//

An image of herself, still blond and deep blue eyed flashed before
her. The first time she’d stood here, tears streaming down her
face, hair whipped around by a raging wind, she’d spent three days
attempting to separate that which had led to her family’s death: the
thoughtlessness, frivolousness, and irresponsibility. She had
ruthlessly torn it all away and cast it into the sea before her, only to
find, when she’d finished, that she’d cast away with it the good: the
gaiety, freedom, and innocence.

She looked down at her pale hands, which shook almost
imperceptibly. //That’s when I began to die--when I killed all that
made my soul colorful.//

Her hands came up, poised to begin the weaving motion that would
create the seal over the now raging ocean before her.

//You haven’t killed it.//

The partially woven seal unraveled and fell away.

//It’s all still here.//

She looked down at the seething mass of gray water. It no longer
pounded rhythmically; it no longer obeyed the harp. It leapt up
against the cliff in illogical surges, only to fall back down to form
gaping whirlpools. Waves chased and drowned each other in
mounds of violent froth.

Her control was slipping.

//Your friends can see it. You just need to come find it.//

"No...I have to seal it." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "There's
too much...I can't control...I'll hurt someone else..."

//You're afraid.//

"WHO ARE YOU?" Her control was truly slipping, now.

//Who am I, Sorcha? Who indeed. Do you feel any other strangers
blundering about your soul? Anyone else who doesn't belong?
Who am I, Sorcha?//

"I.."

//Precisely.//

"I can't..."

//So you can seal off your feelings, your humanity, but you can't
look at it first? You can't find out whether there's anything for which
to live? You can't ask if it's enough, if it's good?//

Sorcha's eyes closed under the soft onslaught of questions. Her
hands trembled at her sides, her hair whipped about her head by
the sudden wind. Behind her, the practice ground and rose garden
had disappeared--or had been obscured by mist. The uncertain
mist swelled and surged around her, the clearing encompassing
only her, the tree, a tiny length of cliff face, and by a strange trick of
perception, the entirety of the vast sea below. The voice echoed
around her.

//It's all still there...//

//You're afraid...//

//You can't find out if it's enough?//

//You just need to come find it.//

//You're afraid...//

//You're afraid...//

"Yes, I am."

She dove from the cliff, plummeting headfirst towards the gray
morass below her. //It's much farther than it seems,// she noted,
rather clinically, just before she plunged through the illusory
surface.

~~~

She didn't swim, she didn't float, she didn't move. She existed,
bombarded on all sides by colors and emotions. Fractured
spectrums, as if she stood in the midst of a room with curtains of
crystal prisms. Oily smears of blue and green, flowing around
flames of red and orange and yellow. Black and white and purple
mists intertwined with flashes of colors that didn't exist outside the
soul.

Laughter danced with hysterical sobs and sarcastic sneers. Grief-
stricken tears welled up from some unfathomable source beneath
her as joy and pain intertwined in an intricate braid that wrapped
around her body endlessly. Tendrils of black self-hatred reached
for her, grasping with persuasive fingers.

But something overshadowed even that slimy grip: invisible yet
seen, intangible yet felt. A series of images: an old leather-bound
book given by a brother, a warm bowl of soup and loving hands
cleaning a scratch, a tall silver-haired man offering a waltzing
lesson, a thornless deep red roses. The love of a daughter, a
sister, a friend, a lover, a mother.

//Is it enough?//

She closed her eyes. The images, the colors, the feelings
remained. //Is it enough?// she repeated to herself.

An endless, silent moment passed.

She chose.

The gray mist shattered silently.

~~~

The moon was just beginning to rise again, when she opened her
eyes. The rest of the senshi--except Pluto who’d silently returned
to the Time Gate when the timeline had stabilized--and the
Generals were sprawled around the common room in chairs and on
couches. Chibi-Usa was curled up against Sorcha’s warm body
and Luna and Artemis slept at the foot of the mattress. Darien lay
on the floor next to the mattress, breathing evenly. Only Mal was
awake, watching the moon, sipping a mug of coffee.

His overly active senses detected a slight change in someone’s
breathing, and he turned, dampening his hope. He’d been
disappointed too many times in the last two hours by the sound of
one of his brothers or one of the girls turning in their sleep.

It came flooding forth, however, when he saw open silver eyes
gazing at him. Leaving the mug on the windowsill, he knelt at the
head of the mattress, stroking her bangs away from her forehead.
She gazed at him, her silver eyes holding a hint of blue and a world
of anguish.

"Banphrionsa?" he whispered, frightened as she closed her eyes
and turned her head away once more. "Please, banphrionsa..."

Too tired to speak, too drained to reply mentally, she simply
allowed her tears to fall onto his hand resting on her cheek.

Suddenly, the hand moved to her shoulder. Mal gently
disentangled Chibi-Usa, and drew Sorcha's limp, exhausted body
up from the mattress, cradling her in his lap as she'd held her
daughter so often in the past weeks. She leaned her head against
his shoulder and wept, as he stroked her hair calmingly. His
relieved smile belied the tears in his own eyes.

//Welcome home, banphrionsa. Go ahead and cry, mo ghrá...I'm
here...WE'RE here...//