Three Eyed Turtle: Truths Best Left Be

Ginzai

 

Summary

 

            Dinner in the Crystal Palace was not going well.  The tension in the room was obvious to everyone, the large chamber full with the seven members of the senshi, the Royal Couple, as well as the ambassador's from the tenth planet, Nemesis.

            Serenity presided over the affair like the Queen that she was.  She remained as hard as the crystal that gave her city it's name, speaking warmly only to a selected few.            Rubeus stormed out in the middle of it.

            Cooan hurried after him, an apologetic look on her face. Serenity smiled at her, ignored the looks that the other three sisters and those that the three remaining members of the High Family sent her.

            Three of the looks were of confusion.  Why should the woman who had barely refrained from snubbing them the entire night suddenly change her ways to actually smile, and smile sympathetically at that!  At a member of their Family?  Such a thing was unheard of, an utterly ludicrous proposition.

            One of the looks was of relief.  If she had deemed to smile at one of them, then perhaps the ice was breaking, and perhaps..  Perhaps the war that had been discussed, in private of course, and never on this planet, perhaps it could be avoided.

            One of the looks was of hope and wistful hidden affection.  While he didn't know why there was the animosity against him and his, perhaps this was the change point.. Perhaps there was still a chance..

            One of the looks was of hatred.  Carefully concealed away beneath a maroon fan, locked away behind a careless, crying laugh.  The second's look had not been so clearly pushed back after all.  She knew what the little tart's *real* game was. She just had to prove it.

            Dinner was not going well.  It was a short affair, no read small talk to mention as there was when the ambassadors from the other planets,  came to visit and discuss manners of state.  Talk was to the  point and diplomatic.  The answers were curt and quick.  Nemesis was *not* going to be recognized.  It's people were *still* outlaws.   To plea for mercy was a decision that was up to them, the Cleansing was always an option.

            The leader of the Family stood and spoke with eloquent voice, stating fully researched facts about the Silver Age.

 When Earth had wished to be recognized there was no Cleansing. It was only the betrayal of Green World, the Only Home that  had caused them to be cast out.  Why was Nemesis any different to the Child of the Silver Age, the Light of Hope, and the Daughter of the Phoenix? 

            The Queen had no answer.  She did not respond and from then on dinner went downhill faster.

 

            Dinner was not going well at all, at all, at all.

 

            One of the members of the High Family glowered silently behind her fan, wishing that she could defy her Prince and toss

 the glass of specially chosen white wine into the face of the Queen.

            One of the members of the High Family sighed silently behind his mask of detached disinterest, calculating just how

 damaging this was to be to his people and to the chances of there not being war.

            One of the members of the High Family withered unnoticeably behind his diplomat's face, wondering just what he had done to make the Neo-Queene look at him with such vengeful eyes.

            On the other side of the room the seven Sailor Senshi sat.  Four of them watched with an righteous air, none too well hidden, sitting in indigent silence, fuming wordlessly over why they even had to sit through such as thing as pointless and insulting as this.

            Two watched impassively, regarding it with the same detachment that one of the members of the High Family was watching it with, one of them wishing that the whole affair would be over, one of them wondering about the actions of the others and what the Nemesis High Family was actually thinking.

            One of the Senshi watched with carefully masked eyes, trying to discern just why such things had to be, and why war

 was in advent if there was no true necessity for it.

 

***

 

            Dinner ended on a less then cordial note.  The Prince stood, thanked the Queen for her time, bowed slightly, asking

 her once more to reconsider.  There was more at stake here then she realized. 

            The Queen nodded, a superior acknowledging an inferior.

            Esmeraude bristled.

            The Queen ignored her. 

            Esmeraude whipped out her fan once more and began to plot different and rather painful deaths for the Child of the

 Silver Age.

            Serenity spoke simply, an edge of subtle contempt in her voice, and said that her decision was final.  Sheknew everything that was at stake.  The Prince watched her with eyes that showed nothing of what he was actually feeling.  Esmeraude watched her with eyes that showered loathing.  Saphirr watched her with resigned eyes that saw everything except for the truth.

            The remaining three Akayshi Sisters watched in wonder as the Queen smiled at them, all three of them, -a second smile!- and wished them, though only them, good luck and goodbye.

            The High Members of the Family left, each in their own fashion.

            The carelessly placed masks over the faces of the Senshi, their Queen, and their King fell.  The Queen shuddered a touch, looked at her husband.  Told him that she was going to bathe.

            The King smiled at her, rested a hand gently her shoulder and asked if he might join her.  She shook her head, she didn't mind.

            Four of the Senshi smiled indulgently at their Leaders. Bowed courteously as they left, talked amiably among themselves for a moment about the High Family and then gave their farewells to the remaining three.

            Two of the Senshi nodded to their Lord and Lady silently, glanced at their counterparts with a hint of resignation as the four left the room and gave a warm farewell to the remaining Senshi.  They left as well, likely off to their own amusements and better, redder, wine.

            The last of the Senshi brushed midnight hair out of violet eyes and watched as her six sister warriors, sister angels left her alone.  She sighed audibly, and left as well. 

            She met with her Queen in the hallway beyond the wing of the Palace that housed the royal family less then an hour later.  Serenity brushed still wet hair out of her face and gave another of the reserved warm smiles.  She spoke first, as always.

             "You wished to see me, Hotaru?"

            Tomeo Hotaru, Angel of Destruction, Senshi of Death and Rebirth hesitated.  "..Hai, Serenity-sama.  I did."

            "What about, Hoto-chan?"  Again Hotaru hesitated.

            "Milady, I did not fight with you against the Nemesis Family, so I can not tell the emotions that you must be feeling now."  She paused again, searching desperately for a diplomatic way of saying something that could never be diplomatic.  "I did however, note the emotions of the High Family during dinner.  Things did not go well, milady."

            Serenity shrugged, waved a hand vaguely.  "That can not be helped.  They are our enemies, Hoto-chan.  We mustn't forget that, no matter when they appear to us, or how."

            Hotaru shook herself, wishing for her Glaive for support.  "My Queen, they are not our enemies yet."

            Serenity leveled a hard stare on her.  "They will be.  Are you denying that?"

            Hotaru bent her head under that steady azure gaze.  "They would be our enemies, milady, only if they were never to hear a kind word from you."

            Serenity seemed taken aback.  Hotaru pressed her advantage.  "Milady, please listen to me, and remember to listen to yourself.  It has been centuries since we fought the

 Black Family, centuries since we battled at all.  Think you of the way that you spoke to them, to all of them.  To the Akayshi

 Sisters you were kind, benevolent even.  To Saphirr-san you were neutral, not kind or uncouth, either one.  To Esmeraude you gave contempt as though she was not worth any more emotion then that.  To Rubeus-san you gave gloating triumph, rubbing his face in the fact that he was not your equal here, that he was inferior to you, goading his temper until he left, and you crowed at your victory over him even then.  To Demando-sama you threw his name back in his face, staring at him with cold diamond abhorrence, showing him in little ways that you did not care for him or his people.  Think you lady of that!"

            Serenity had recovered by this point and took over the conversation once more.  "Senshi of Saturn, think you to criticize your Queen?  To tell her right from wrong?"

            Hotaru did not meet those unflinching eyes.  "Iya, Serenity-sama."

            Serenity's voice softened.  "Then what were you attempting to do, Hoto-chan?  What did you wish to have me see?

 They were our enemies in the Past as well as our Future, they shall show their true colors soon enough.  Just wait and you will see."

            Hotaru's voice was low.  "Milady, have you wondered why?  Why of all of the Family only the Sisters accepted the

 Cleansing?  The others refused, looked at you and all the Senshi with contempt and hatred.  Milady.. You looked at the

 Sisters with kindness and they asked your Past form for a port in the storm.  They accepted the Cleansing.  You looked at

 Saphirr with eyes that showed him nothing except regret, and if he did not accept the Cleansing for the love of his brother, then he at least rejected the ideals of his clan, of his Family.  You looked at Rubeus with savage superiority, here was one place where he could not harm you, could not harm your child.  He not only rejected the Cleansing, he was driven insane by the quest of vengeance and revenge.  Lady!  You looked at Esmeraude-san with no emotion whatsoever, but your voice reflected your weariness, your bored state of mind when she spoke.  You belittled her and insulted her Prince, and she rejected the Cleansing and was humiliated by you and your Past self, destroyed by treachery and deceit.  And the last of them, milady, the last whom you hate most of all, whom you showed the most of your emotions to, in an attempt to do what, my Queen?  Drive him away?  Demando-sama was ever known for his persistence, if not for that quality then he would not have been able to unify the clans behind him.  Lady, you snubbed him and his people, rejecting ideas of a treaty beneficial to both parties and one that you would have accepted had it not been for the person offering it!  Serenity-sama, *onegai* think of what you have done!"

            The Neo-Queene's voice was hard once more.  "Senshi of Saturn, Avatar of Death, Angel of Destruction, I have heard your say.  If you mean to imply that by my actions tonight that I have doomed our people to a war which we know will be of terrible cost then you are sadly mistaken.  We were doomed to this, as they were doomed to their deaths when they choose the path that they did before, in the Past, when they choose to attack a helpless child.  This war is on their heads not mine. I would advise you to stay away from the Palace for a few days, Senshi.  You are dismissed."

            Serenity left, pale in her gossamer gown.  Hotaru watched her leave, wondering just how they had come to this.

 "Such ideals the Messiah held…  Such hopes of love and light that were hers.  I wonder what ever happened to them?"  She whispered, watching the retreating figure as it vanished into one of the myriad doors on the south side of the hall.

            Tsukino Usagi, Messiah of Mercy, of Light, of Love, and of Hope and Forgiveness, had lived a long, long time ago.

 Hotaru watched as the door closed, hiding away the woman whom the Messiah had become.  The second Messiah, Messiah of Dark, of Destruction, of Hope and Rebirth turned and walked down the hall, heels clicking on the crystalline floor, small bell-like sounds being made with each step.

            She left, watched as the young Small Lady darted out the door behind her, crying silently and running in her white gown modeled after her mother's, fleeing towards the door to the outside gardens.  Hotaru let the Neo-Princess go, events had been set into motion.  She went to her quarters and drew a small key out of the hidden dresser in her east wall.  She raised it, closed her eyes and wished.  Opened them to look at the Time Gate and the Time Gate's solitary guardian.

            Sailorpluto, Senshi of Money, of Knowledge, of Wisdom, Angel of Time, and Guardian of the Gate looked at her, startled.

            "Konnichiwa, Setsuna-mama."  Hotaru whispered, voice low once more, but for a differing reason. 

            Setsuna gave the ebony haired woman a one armed hug, juggling the Garnet Rod with practiced ease in her free hand.

 "What brings you here, Hoto-chan?"

            Somehow the nickname did not seem quite so vile as it had on the lips of the Neo-Queene.

            "Setsuna-mama…  Was it all…was it all necessary?"

            Setsuna sighed, passing an ancient hand over an ancient face before looking back to the woman whom she had raised as a daughter.  "No.  No it was not."

            Hotaru nodded, closed her eyes to keep the tears from coming.  "Then why, Setsuna?  Why did it have to happen?  Why

 did there have to be war?"   

Setsuna knelt in the blue green sand around the Gate.  Hotaru sat next to her, tucking her legs aside. 

"There was war, Hoto-chan, because the Angel of Hope could not forget, and the Messiah of Mercy could not forgive."

            "Did she have to change, Setsuna-mama?  Why did she have to change?"

            "She had to change, Hoto-chan, because that is what Queens do.  She had to become the leader of her people, and a thousand years will change anyone.  Not even Serenity could have avoided it.  Towards the end I don't think that she would have wanted to."

            Hotaru blinked, wiped away a tear that had escaped.  "Tsukino Usagi would not have changed."

            "No.  Tsukino Usagi, the True Messiah would not have changed.  But this is not Tsukino Usagi.  We live by the creed

 of the Neo-Queene, and it is the Neo-Queene who sentenced me to the Gate, and it is the Neo-Queene who damned a whole people."

            The tears were coming faster now, too fast for Hotaru to wipe away.  She stopped trying, folding her hands in her lap and

 letting them fall onto her dress, turning gray fabric black.  "Then why, Setsuna-mama, do we have the Neo-Queene and not the

 True Messiah?"

            "Because the True Messiah, Senshi of the Cosmos, Angel of Mystery would not have been able to handle the death and destruction that the Silence wrought.  The title of the True Messiah has been passed down, and will be again until Sailorcosmos is required once more to right that which has gone wrong."

            "But she is needed now-"

            Setsuna shook her head.  "No.  She will be someday.  And it will be then that Tsukino Usagi will rise once more and begin everything anew.  For Tsukino Usagi will right everything, even Time itself, when Time Falls."

            Hotaru looked at her surrogate mother with shining violet velvet eyes.  "She will rise again?"

            "She is like the phoenix, our Rabbit is.  She will rise again, but only in our darkest hour.  And then the Angel of

 Mystery will weep, and Time and Space and all that exists within their borders, will vanish into the void, only to begin anew."

            Hotaru nodded, gathering herself together as she felt a pull on her soul, a reminder of an event that she knew was coming.  She stood and brushed the sand off of her dress before hugging Setsuna, who also had made her way to her feet, leaning on the Garnet Rod for support. 

            "Come back soon, Hoto-chan.  It gets lonely here."

            Hotaru smiled, promised that she would, and returned to her quarters.  She tucked the key back into its private drawer and left her rooms. 

She made her way to the garden, where the Neo-Queene Serenity stood in a crystalline case, made of diamond and quartz,

 an ironic symbol of her people and the people that she had snubbed.

            The White Prince, Shiro no Ouji, Leader of the High Family and all of the clans of Nemesis stood in front of the encasing crystal, a wistful look upon his face, one that vanished as soon as he Felt Hotaru's approach.

            He turned to her, a pair of black-jeweled earrings that he had not worn during dinner now apparent on his lobes, sparkling with Dark energy.  "Senshi of Saturn."  His voice was without emotion, the same as Hotaru's visage.

            "Demando-oujisama."  Hotaru let her voice show no emotion either. 

            He spoke again, and those eyes that had raised his people, had moved her own to war, an event not seen by any since the

 Banishing nearly six centuries past, those eyes, those heliotrope eyes were shadowed for a moment with, with what?  Regret perhaps?   That could be it.  She hoped for the best and decided that she had identified that fleeting emotion correctly.  "Senshi of Saturn, tell the Senshi of Mars that her post is required again.  There will be war."

            Hotaru nodded, what more could she do?  He turned, twilight and midnight cape flickering in the slight breeze that was always

 in the gardens.  Somewhere she could hear Small Lady crying.  Hotaru stepped forward, raised her left hand in supplication.

            "Matte.  Onegai, Matte, Shiro no Ouji."

            He paused, turned back to face her once more.  "Hai, Senshi no Hakai?"

            "She wasn't always like this.  You must believe me on that, Demando-sama."

            He laughed, a surprisingly bitter sound.  "Then tell me, Tomeo-san, is she always so abrupt with a-" And here he paused once more, his face tightening for an instant as the diamond mask that he had worn since the moment that she had seen him crumbled into dust.  He met her eyes, his gaze the same shade as her own, the same intensity, the same desperation evident in it. "A would-be suitor, I suppose I should say, or is it me?"

            "It is you, milord."  He sighed and the mask went back up.  Hotaru continued to speak.  "It is you for reasons that I cannot possibly explain, but that you will understand by the time this is through."

            "One would almost think that you have lived this before."

            "One might," She agreed.  "But I haven't." 

Not this one at any rate.  But the thought was kept hidden under the tightest of Shields, and not even the White Prince, the strongest telepath born of the Golden Age, could read it without her knowing.  To his credit, he did not try, even though she was sure that he knew that she was not telling him the whole of the truth.

            "Gomen ne, Senshi.  For I fear that things have been set into motion that will not be changed, for good or ill."  He nodded, smiled sadly, a smile that she returned.  He moved away once more and vanished, cape going last.

            Hotaru watched the Queen, wondering vaguely why Chibi-usa so long ago in the Past had said that the Queen had been frozen in her crystalline prison by the Senshi instead of by the Prince.  But then the Small Lady was very fragile just now, easily confused.  And she did not know the naive and oh-so-*young*  Neo-Princess.  Hotaru had not seen her very often since her birth, lest that the knowledge of the Future would change the course of the Past.

            She envied her prior form the carefree times that she would spend with the Neo-Rabbit of the Moon. 

            Hotaru left the gardens, left her Queen in her crystal and went instead to a small, hidden room deep within the Royal Family's wing.  She ignored the other senshi running past her, towards the gardens, away from the King's private chamber where he had been discovered in a deep coma, a result of a psychic attack, as well as spinal damage that no one truly knew how he had received.

            She instead went to the small chamber and drew up a file, set the silent monitor to play.  It lit up, the security camera from the gardens playing for her, from three different views.  She watched as the Small Lady ran into the rose garden, hid beneath a bower and began to sob.  She watched as the Neo-Queene came out after her, looking for the girl, mouth moving though no sounds emerged from the speakers next to her save for the slight hum of machinery.

            Hotaru watched as the Shiro no Ouji stepped into the garden from the other entrance, watched Serenity's face fall into revulsion, watched that revulsion turn to delight as the White Prince's visage shattered at her words.  He was pleading with her, begging her for something.  Clemency for his people perhaps, a reason why there was this obvious hatred towards him maybe.  It didn't matter.

            Serenity said something else, spoke for a long moment, her pale face twisting as she carefully pronounced each syllable.

 Serenity turned away from the Prince, held one hand up to the light and studied it for a moment before turning back and adding

 a final phrase to what she had said before.  Hotaru wondered what her Queen had said and then was glad that she didn't know.

            Whatever it had been, it was the final straw.  Demando looked blankly at the Queen, a look in his eyes that Hotaru would never forget, and he raised his hand.  The Neo-Queene's eyes widened and she stepped back away from him, one arm going out in a vain attempt to protect herself.

            The energy wrapped around her, silver and violet and pink, the colors of his aura, the colors of hers, molding together before forming an unstratchable surface.  He lowered his hand and stood silently, unmoving, watching the result of what he had done.

            Hotaru stopped the picture at the point where she herself had entered.  She had no need to see that.  She knew what happened from there.  She felt suddenly as old as Setsuna, and wished vaguely that she were Small Lady, leaving for the Past to give herself a new identity and a chance to heal, and to forget the harsh words that had been spoken. 

            Why hadn't the Small Lady spoke of this event or the other?   She had made her mother out to be a martyr, almost a saint who had been sabotaged and taken by surprise while she had been innocently out looking for her musume..  Perhaps to the seven-year-old that was what had happened.            It didn't really matter, Hotaru decided, looking at the stilled picture of the frozen Queen, the crying child, the wistful Prince, and the just entering Senshi.

            It didn't matter at all, really.  None of it did.  She stood, took the small file, copied it onto a disk and deleted it from the main frame of the computer, hacking a touch to make certain that no one would be able to revive it later.  Hotaru took the disk and left the small chamber, making certain that it was as it had been before she had entered, that no changes had been made. 

            The cycle had been set into motion again.  Things would continue as they had for only the kami-sama knew how long.

 Hotaru returned to her rooms, slipped the disk into the small drawer where she kept the Time Key.  She lay down on the bed as the first of the bombardments of the Nemesis war ships began.  She felt the strange flickering in Space-Time as the Small Lady fled her home with the Ginzuishou, felt as the four Inner Senshi linked hands and the Shield fell into place over the Palace and the surrounding lands.

            She felt as the Citadel was erected and wondered if the Shiro no Ouji had felt the same regret that she had, or if

 Tsukino Usagi would have, had she ever known the true story behind the Nemesis affair.

            The Messiah of Dark, of Death, of Destruction was a Messiah of Hope as well.  She decided that the Angel of Mystery would have felt regret. 

She took that thought with her into slumber.

 

 

 

finis.

 

 

 

 

Author's Notes

 

            Ano..I wrote this story over two years ago, but remain rather proud of it.  It was written back when I was still using my previous pseudonym of dremdancer, instead of the one I go by now.  It was previously posted on Moonromance.net, the Sailor Moon Romance site, which might explain some of the confusion of it, if anyone saw it there and then here under two different names.  The fic remains mostly unchanged from that point, spelling checked and grammer -hopefully- improved, and a word here and there replaced.  The spirit of the story has been left behind, however.  Just as it was intended to be.

 

            Please let me know what you think!  I crave feedback.  ^_^

 

Ginzai

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