Disclaimer: Sailor Moon and all related characters belong to those who created them.

'Himeko': little Princess
'Minna': everyone
'fuku': uniform
'Kinzuishou': Mamoru's Golden Crystal

Maenads: Priestresses of Elysion. Kinda like the female versions of Helios, although nowhere near as important.

(that finishes this impromptu Japanese lesson)

Oh, one more thing: 'ley lines' are invisible lines of magic that run through Earth like roads. When a juncture of ley lines occurs, said place is intrinsically magical. For example, the Crystal Palace was built upon a juncture of ley lines.

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"Run, and don't look back!"

Haruka's voice echoed in her ears and she was running and running, her legs moving so fast they hurt--- one hand typed furiously in the computer she held with the other, a nasty crack running up and down the digital screen.

Her visor was over her eyes, but the blood running down her forehead still made it hard to see.

Someone was crying beside her and as she looked sideways, her right foot lodged into a rock and she stumbled a few steps before recovering her balance. Her heart thundered in her ears and she felt something wet mingling with her blood--- it took her a second or two to realize they were tears.

She blinked them away, trying to make some sense of the wasteland that lay before them as she plunged deep into the chaos, her hands still clicking away at the keyboard.

"Damn it, Ami, look out!"

The warning came from her left, and with a battle instinct she did not know she possessed, she ducked with no questions asked. The blast swerved past her quickly, zinging the spot where her shoulder had been just a few seconds before.

As she rolled through the dirt, she caught sight of her friends. Mako-chan was looking at her through half lidded eyes, Senshi uniform broken and torn as if she had just escaped from a bloody battle. As Ami picked herself up and took a look at herself, she realized she wasn't in any better shape.

She nodded at Makoto once, telling her without words that she was fine. But she was nowhere near fine--- Zoisite was dead, Usagi was dead--- Crystal Tokyo was gone and they were running down Elysion, trying helplessly to lose an enemy that just kept coming.

As they resumed their mad dash through what had once been the peaceful, beautiful Land of Dreams, Ami forced the despair back and made herself focus on the task ahead. They had to get Small Lady to safety--- with Usagi and Mamoru gone, the pink-haired little girl was their last hope at somehow stopping this...

As Minako clutched the limp girl into her arms and jumped a falling column with ease, Ami couldn't help but wonder if the small Princess (Queen, she told herself. Chibi-Usa was Queen now, and no longer Chibi, with Usagi gone...) would be of any help. Witnessing the death of her own mother in the hands of what had once been the Dream Silver Crystal was shock enough to send anyone into catatonia...

"Just a hundred more feet, minna!"

Her voice barely made it above the ruckus of crashing thunder and lightning, as the skies of the ever-green Land of Hope became black as night and eternal winter fell on them with a vengeance.

The ominous darkness that crawled through the skies seemed to reach out for them with sticky tendrils, and Ami swallowed the lump of fear that formed in the back of her throat as she watched the Maenads try and buy them some time.

The Altar, they had to make it to the Altar!

Ami bit her lips as her visor crackled in response to the massive amounts of energy gathering behind them.

{Don't look back, whatever you do, just don't look back!} The frantic string of words ran up and down her head a million times a second, Haruka's last words ringing in her ears like a shrill warning.

Through the corner of her eye, she saw Rei stumbling over her high heels for the third time, and cursed whoever superior entity had designed their fukus. Slowing down just a fraction of a second, she made a move to turn back and help her dark-haired friend--- the miko priestess looked at her in the eye, the fire burning in them rivaling that of her strongest attack and shook her head almost imperceptibly.

'Don't,' they said, without voice and yet screaming their warning.

Ami turned her eyes forward just in time to avoid the raised roots of an ancient oak. To get tangled in them would mean death, because she knew the darkness was looming closer--- she could hear it in the screams behind her, in the claps of lightning and explosions of power as minute by minute, the last standing Bastion of Earth was brought a little bit closer to its end.

In the distance, the Altar greeted their tired eyes, and a glimmer of hope made it into their hearts. If only they could get there in time--- Helios would help them for sure. The sweet spoken Priest had been defending Elysion until then, and with his help and Chibi-Usa's power they could rein back the unstoppable force of the Ginzuishou, as the Crystal unleashed its power without an owner to keep it controlled.

Something behind them growled and Ami did not want to know what it was. Her right hand clicked the visor away and she barely had a second to adjust to the change of view before they flew into the Temple, breaths haggard, bodies exhausted.

As she tended to Chibi-Usa's wounds, Rei and Makoto bolted the doors behind them, keeping the darkness outside. An ear-splitting howl echoed around them, and she knew it wouldn't last long. They needed to find Helios *now*!

"We have to keep moving. Deeper, into the heart of the Temple."

Minako took off quickly, knowing her Senshi would follow her. Makoto was carrying Chibi-Usa this time, the taller, stronger woman in better shape than their leader. Ami thought she heard the chestnut haired woman whisper comforting words into the young girl's ear, but she could not tell for sure...

As their heels click-clacked on the marble floors, they heard hollow thumping through the corridors they had just exited, as the darkness tried to get in. Without the Maenads to keep Evil away (Ami was sure they had to be dead by now; no one fought against the Ginzuishou and won), it run rampant through the heavenly land of Elysion--- but not for long if they could do anything about it.

Ami all but ran into Minako as the Venus Senshi stopped dead in her tracks.

"What is it?" she asked, her voice sounding empty and weary to her own ears. She had screamed her throat raw when she had found her husband dead...

"Something's wrong."

Before them stood the Gold Doors of Elysion, and behind them, Helios waited... but as Minako's eyes became lost in the intricate design of the threshold, Ami felt it too. There was no sound coming from inside the Sacred Chamber, whereas Helios incessant chanting should've resounded around them from miles away.

She knew what her scan would show her even before she asked her computer for it. But that did not make it any easier to deal with.

As Rei pushed open the gold door with trembling hands, Ami prayed, oh God she prayed that her computer was wrong, that Helios was not dead, that the Sacred Flame was not out--- but with Usagi gone, miracles just didn't happen anymore.

Chibi-Usa made a strange sound when her ruby-red eyes captured the sight in front of her. It was something in between a sob and a whimper, but Ami was too dismayed to care. She felt her mini computer sliding through her fingers and she only realized she had dropped it when the sharp, sickening crack of the screen breaking completely reverberated around her.

{No}

Helios lay on the floor, the otherwise healthy glow of the Kinzuishou settled upon his forehead dull and dead. With the Prince of Earth gone, so had died the light of their only hope.

They had hoped that with the Kinzuishou in their hands, they could've somehow controlled the magic of the Ginzuishou. With Chibi-Usa linked to both Crystals, maybe they could've done something--- it seemed the Golden Crystal only recognized Mamoru Chiba as its true owner, and with him gone, all hope was lost.

The Gold Doors shook with an unseen blow, and they watched with wide eyes as the darkness began eating through the magical doorway with ease. Ami looked into Minako's eyes, trying to get some hope back into her own heart.

She found none.

"What now, minna?"

The impossibly dark tendrils of magic flowed through the doors and headed out towards them slowly, as if enjoying watching them squirm.

None of them made any move to attack or defend themselves--- the mighty Outer Senshi had given their lives to try and buy them time to get away and wasted all their energy in the process. In the end, they had only delayed the inevitable...

Makoto simply clutched the whimpering Chibi-Usa to her breast, in a way that Ami knew Usagi had once done.

"It'll be all right, himeko, it will be all right."

The brunette's words sounded empty to Ami's ears, but she thanked to anyone who was listening (if there was anyone at all) that Chibi-Usa had someone to cling to--- she was just a child, a small orphaned child... they were grown women and had suffered the horrors of battle before. But there really was no way of preparing for death, now was there?

Ami never knew when the cirri touched her. One moment, she was staring deep into Rei's eyes, and the next, everything was cold and dark and dead and she couldn't breathe and she tried grasping at something (anything!) but there was nothing there, just the endless, vast darkness of the void inside the Ginzuishou...

There was no noise afterwards.
*

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*
She bolted upright in bed, her hands clawing at the empty air and her lungs aching with the lack of oxygen. Her sharp, sudden scream echoed around the stone room like a single bolt of thunder, and it came back to her amplified a thousand times.

"NO!"

She gasped, trying in vain to collect her thoughts and calm the beating of her thundering heart.

{Nightmare, it was just a nightmare, Ami...} she tried telling herself over and over again, but somehow, she knew it was not. As a Senshi, she had had her share of prophetic dreams--- they came with the Sailor fuku and the power over certain elements. But still, they had never been her forte. Rei, Usagi, even Michiru--- they were the ones to whom the Powers spoke through dreams. She, on the other hand, dismissed most of her dreams as what they were to her: reflections of her metabolism while she slept. And that was that.

But then again, sometimes they weren't... she could still remember the cold, overpowering feeling of the Silence as it crawled through the streets of Tokyo eating everything on its path. The same unnerving hum was coursing through her veins right now, that sixth sense some called intuition, blaring in her ears that this dream was not the result of late night snacking.

This was something else all together.

Kicking the covers back, she ignored the sudden cold of the palace's marble floors under her naked feet, and all but flew through the corridors of the seemingly empty palace. The Library, she needed to get to the library!

As she entered, the door closed behind her and the bolt clicked into place. She barely acknowledged it, and a distant part of her brain realized she had never touched it--- she didn't care.

Her eyes fixed on the last row of shelves, she leaned back against the closed door and took a deep breath. Whatever it was that remained hidden behind the shelves, was calling her. She could feel it now, could feel the pull reeling her in, whispering her name in the back of her mind as it enveloped her completely.

How come she hadn't heard it the first time?

The memory of the dream fresh in her mind, she took a few steps forward and the library creaked around her as if coming to life. She forced her quickening heartbeat down, forced herself to not run away and kept on walking. Her pace was slow, but she couldn't move any quicker.

'It'll be all right, himeko.' Like a butterfly in the spring, Mako-chan's voice came to haunt her from the recesses of her mind. The fear, the terror of death still lingered within her, and Ami shivered as the image of the otherwise brave warrior clutching a whimpering girl to her bosom.

No. She would not let that happen. No matter what it took, her dear Mako-chan would never fear death like she had in her dream--- be it heaven or hell, Ami was going to make things better.

With newfound resolution, she strode forward purposefully, her bare feet barely making noise against the rocky floor. Her nightgown fluttered around her and became sticky against her legs, as if somehow trying to keep her away. She ignored it, and faced the last row of shelves with a critical eye.

As if in cue with her stare, a distant rumble echoed around her, and the shelf began moving on its own accord, the moan of gears centuries old resounding in her ears. Surprised, she took a step back, allowing the impossibly heavy furniture to slide effortlessly across the floor, unveiling a long, narrow corridor behind it.

Swallowing her doubts and fears, she entered the darkness. As if knowing someone was inside it, a thousand torches burst into life--- magically empowered, she thought to herself, as she felt the disturbance in the ley lines running deep into the heart of Mercury.

For what seemed an eternity, she walked down the hallway, the light of the torches casting her shadow across the marble floor--- her soft breathing breaking the silence, her wide eyes darting back and forth as if searching for something. What, even she did not know.

She reached a door, and it seemed so ominous just standing there, in the middle of nowhere that she seriously considered turning back and forgetting about the whole thing. The memory of Chibi-Usa's haunted eyes and her own mind-numbing fear kept her rooted on the spot.

"Get a grip, Ami," she told herself through clenched teeth, almost jumping in surprise as the endless walls around her acted like amplifiers and magnified her voice a thousand times.

As the echo of her words died out, the floor rumbled once again and she braced herself, not knowing what to expect. In the end, the golden surface of the door rippled and changed, disappearing from sight. In its place, a long mirror appeared, covering the entrance from top to bottom.

Curious, she leaned forward to take a look.

She did not see herself.

Or rather, she did not see herself as she was now, leaning into the mirror to take a look--- instead, she saw herself reading a book. A large, obviously ancient, obviously powerful book. Her own trembling fingers were passing the pages slowly and she was shocked to realize she was wearing the same nightgown she was sporting right now.

Did this mean she was seeing the future?

Her other self came to a stop at a certain page and Ami watched helplessly as her eyes widened and she bit back a scream. Whatever it was her self from the other side of the mirror had seen had horrified her---

Was that the Book of Truth? Was she reading the pages of the Forbidden Book? The memory of her computer incident just a few hours back came with a vengeance, and she remembered reading that whoever dared to flip the pages of the Book of Truth suffered an untimely death...

"Oblivion."

The word came to her from across the traslucid surface and neither she nor the other Ami had spoken it. But they both heard it because as one, their heads snapped up and looked at each other.

Deeply into each other's eyes, Ami lost herself among her own cerulean depths, seeing the bottomless abyss of her own soul.

"Destruction."

The ethereal voice came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, and both Ami's listened in silence, never once looking away from each other. Ami could see herself reflected in the mirror, could see the similarities in between them: the same hair cut, the same small scar next to her right ear. The same sapphire necklace around her neck, the same nightgown covering her body.

But she could also see the differences.

The other Ami was pregnant.

Almost six months pregnant, said the doctor in her, recognizing the obvious swelling of her tummy and turgid breasts. The nightgown curved and flowed around her in intricate patterns from a window that did not exist, but it did nothing to hide the beautiful arch of the life growing inside of her.

Amazed, Ami placed a hand against the mirror.

She had been trying for so long... she and Zoisite had tried everything, and nothing had worked. The rest of the Senshi all had children and even grandchildren but she had remained barren as her friends abdomens expanded. She had brought all those wonderful children to the world, but she had none to call her own.

And she wanted to-- for the first time in centuries, she wanted to.

And she couldn't.

As a doctor, she knew the impossibility of becoming pregnant after performing the tests in order. She knew no life would ever grown inside of her, no baby would ever kick... a genetic trait that had prevented her mother from giving her the brothers and sisters she had always wanted had been passed on to her, and as a result, her eternal body did not have what it took to conceive.

But here she was, staring into the face of impossibility, watching it shatter into a million and one pieces...

"How?" she asked her reflection, tears welling in her eyes. The other Ami approached the mirror carefully, and seemed as curious as she was as to why were they able to see each other.

"A miracle," the reflection said in the end, her face softening as she recognized her kindred soul in the strange reflection that seemed to have a life of its own.

For a semi-eternal span of time, they looked at each other. And then the other Ami raised her hand and placed it against her own. Through the unyielding glass surface, Ami could feel the faint warmth of her hand. She knew it wasn't possible, but she also knew that magic didn't not follow the rules of physics and time...

"But it came too late," continued the other Ami, her eyes watering to mirror Ami's. Her hand lowered to her lap and cupped her protruding belly in a tender embrace. "The Crystal is here."

Behind her, the book she had been reading slammed shut and the other Ami jumped. The terror that flew across her eyes was fleeting, but Ami saw it nonetheless.

"Let me help!" she heard herself say and her hands strained to reach the other one across the time gap that separated them. But the mirror kept them separated, barely an inch away and yet centuries apart.

"You cannot. I do not exist yet, Ami, and you know it."

The other Ami's words were lacking of any feeling whatsoever and it was clear she had abandoned all hope. Ami's fists banged against the vitreous barrier between them and she watched with wide eyes as something, she couldn't say what, began appearing behind her other self.

That Ami turned and took a deep breath as she saw the gathering mass of darkness that began taking shape. As she turned back to Ami, her hands protected her belly in a hopeless attempt to defend the small life that would never see the light of day.

"She never stood a chance, Ami. None of us did. But now you know... prevent it! You can, I know you can... don't let it happen again. For us, for the future--- for little Athena, who will never live to see what a wonderful place this Earth is!"

"No!" screamed Ami, her lithe fingers trying in vain to penetrate the granite surface.

But there was nothing she could do.

In the end, she watched helplessly as the darkness mounted and exploded in a sudden discharge of shadow. As the other Ami was consumed by the blast, one last word echoed around Ami: 'Please!'

And then the mirror shattered, countless shards of glass flying around, flaying her skin and chafing her hands.

She did not feel it.

She just lay there, eyes wide and unseen, the shards of mirror laying around her like millions of glistening tears, as if making up for her lack of reaction. A soft rivulet of blood made its way down her face and she only realized she was bleeding when a lone crimson droplet landed on her exposed hand.

As she looked at the scarlet stain, she was reminded of something she had read once before: 'Out damn spot! Out I say!'

The caustic words seemed oddly fitting as they came to her mind and she brushed her hand against the whiteness of her nightgown, uncaring of the offensive ruby smear that bruised the otherwise pristine clothing.

She had had what she so wanted. She had a child--- and it had all been taken away from her in an instant, as the Ginzuishou came to life and in doing so, drained it from everything else around it.

Was Fate hell-bent on keeping her miserable?

Forcing her jumbled thoughts to a stop, she took a deep breath and rose. Her wavering eyes narrowed at the sight of the gaping maw in front of her, where once a mirror had stood. It called her, beckoned her to enter... and she was going to. She was going to prevent all this from happening, even if it was the last thing she ever did.

As she walked through the darkness and into the deeper corners of the castle, a lone certainty settled on her heart.

It probably would be the last thing she ever did.