Title: A New Crystal World - Part 2
Author: Sereko          (aka. Princess Serenity, Serenity, Kirei) 
Rating: PG-13


Well, here is Part 2 for you. Like Part 1, this part hasn't been 
edited, yet. Hope you like it, regardless! Ja ne! 

IMPORTANT: For those of you who have read some of my other work, you 
will notice that my name has changed *again*. I realize this is getting
annoying. Heck, I think I’m more annoyed than anyone else. The initial 
problem with my *first* fanfic author name was that someone stupidly 
decided to use the same name *without* checking to see if someone had 
already used it. So, the pen name ‘Princess Serenity’ was then stolen 
from me. To prevent people from getting confused with my stories and 
hers’, I changed my name to Kirei. I wasn’t very happy, however, with 
that name. So I have finally come to the conclusion that ‘Sereko’ will 
be my pen name for my stories when they are posted anywhere *but* on 
my site (on my website, I am and will always be ‘Serenity’). I’m very 
sorry for all of the confusion. 

Please take a look at my site: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Harbor/2366/
My fanfics can be found at: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Harbor/2366/fics.html


All of the SM characters are copyrighted to the wonderful anime
genius who made them up (and thank god for her, ne? ^_^). 




-------------------------------
A New Crystal World - Part 2
-------------------------------

"FireStorm!! FireStorm!!! God damnit! Where are you?!" Uranus had
made her way to the most deserted alleyway in all of Crystal Tokyo. 
No, excuse me. This wasn't even Crystal Tokyo. It was Kyoto. 
FireBird's jealousy made it as such that the past princess could not 
even be buried in the world that she created. Forget that...she 
wasn't even buried. No one had a body to prove her death, most didn't 
even think that she was dead. But the sense of finality in their last 
meeting with her brought on the knowledge that she would never ever 
return to the land of the living.

The senshi had tried to a least get her a plaque at a suitable
graveyard in Kyoto, but FireBird wouldn't allow that either. Finally
it had come to them carrying a short, simple service (without 
FireBird's knowledge) in the darkest alleyway that they could find.
FireBird may not have been at the 'funeral' or known where they all
had gone, but she eventually figured that they laid something down in 
tribute. After many failed attempts to find the place, she had just 
accepted the senshi's rejection of her authority and become even more 
harsh. Therefore, she knew that FireStorm was probably at the mystery 
grave of his forgotten love. 

"Come on, man! I have to get you back in.." Uranus took a peek at her
watch/communicator and continued, "eight minutes! Onegai! I'm not in 
the mood to be burnt to death!" Her ranting stopped when she spotted 
a bulking shadow taking jagged steps towards her. "FireStorm?" The 
figure immediately stopped in place. 

"Iie. That is not my name. I cannot accept it anymore." Uranus took a
step back. What had gotten into the man? He hadn’t acted out against 
his queen’s wishes before. Ok..well, once when the Neo-Queen had 
struck Hotaru, his ‘daughter’, harshly. Other than that, the king had 
fallen into a submissive state. So, why was today special? 

Slowly taking in a deep breath, Haruka prepared herself for using a
name that had not been whispered in over five years. "Endymion...?" 
The figure began to walk again. Uranus sighed. "I’m sorry if your 
having a bad day, but as I said before...I really would not like to 
be burnt to a crisp by yours truly." 

"Gomen, Haru-chan. I should not have gotten you in trouble lik-nani?!" 
The man finally emerged from the shadows and approached Uranus. 
Standing right in front of her, he raised a large gloved hand to the 
side of her face. He studied the wound carefully. "That witch. She 
shouldn't have ripped the piercing...it could get infected." He put 
two fingers on her ear, one behind the lobe and the other in front. 
Slight concentration and *poof*, a whole new ear! ^_^. Not quite, but 
he healed the rip completely. "That should help. I’m sorry for her 
doing this. She doesn't know anything about public relations." He 
laughed a little. Uranus just smiled meekly back. 

He looked at Uranus' pleading face. "Gomen nasai, again. We can go
back now. I have done what I came to do..." Uranus nodded happily. 
"I'll teleport us. I'm sure she managed to block you from that as 
well?" The sandy blonde nodded and he sighed. Disgusting. In a flash 
of red flames, the king and leading senshi returned to the throne room. 


Left behind, hidden in the depths of the dark alleyway, something was
lying on a gold plate. The plate was embedded into the ground and 
stated: 

"Tsukino Usagi, Princess Serenity, and the true Neo-Queen:
	Here is a simple plate a of gold to honor your courageous life. 
You were a woman of beauty, both inside and out. Your heart reached 
out to all, whether it be friend or enemy. Because of this generosity, 
you changed the lives of nine individuals for the better. To reason- 
you gave kinship; to advice- you gave wisdom; to ice- you gave fun; 
to lightning- you gave friendship; to light- you gave acceptance; to 
sky- you gave freedom; to water- you gave innocence; to silence- you 
gave hope; to love- you gave life. Domo arigato gozaimasu. We could 
not understand anything in the world had it not been for you. Our 
sorrow from your departure will never leave and our love for you 
will never die. You will always be our serenity. 
                                       - Your Nine Protectors" 

All around the engraved writing were signatures and two paw prints.
It would have the person's name, then element, then sigil (i.e.
Mercury would have signed her name: Mizuno Ami, Ice and then would
have drawn her symbol next to it [oh yeah, and reason = luna, 
advice = artemis]). Laying upon this simple, yet symbolic, plaque was 
a single flower. A rose, to be exact. It was not a red one, as 
symbolic of the King FireStorm. It was white. 


~
If fate decided to be nice to him, for once in five years, then this
rose would be taken. The thief being a long forgotten angel.
Noticing that the rose had no brilliance to back up its beauty, the
angel would realize something. The essence of ‘the protector’ was 
diminishing, and fast. She would hold up the stone walls around her 
heart, but the pain she could sense would cause a lone tear to drop. 
And that would be it, his mission would have been accomplished. 

If fate decided to be nice, the one that he desired most would be
home soon. 

If only fate were stronger than the bound emotions of a princess. 
~ 


The white rose gently rocked on the gold surface as a cool breeze
swept through the alley. Before it had a chance to move completely 
from its rightful place, a hand grasped its stem. The fingers were 
caring while holding it. So thin and fragile. They seemed to lend the 
flower energy, to make sure it would never die. "White...the symbol 
of innocence and purity in love." The sweet melodic voice echoed from 
the owner of the delicate hand. Her face was placid. It looked upon 
the grave and read the contents of the eulogy. A single tear fell 
down her cheek and landed upon the word 'serenity'. 

A loud thump was heard at the other end of the alley, but the woman
did not budge. She was not scared of this place, as though she had 
been here everyday for an eternity. She did, however, look towards 
the noise. The sight made her voice catch in her throat. "Konban'wa, 
Usagi-chan." There stood Reason (‘reason’ as mentioned in the eulogy). 

"L-Luna-chan..doyatte.." The blaring red eyes of the feline didn't
even flinch. 

"I come here often. Every Saturday, in fact. It is when I unload all
of my emotions and such. How interesting that tonight, you just
so happen to be here." Usagi seemed to sense some anger coming form
the cat and took a step back, further into the shadows. 

"I come here often, too. I would like to thank all of you for what
you did. You are all so kind to me." The odango-headed girl's voice 
went soft at the end of her speech. Luna noticed easily. 

"Usagi-chan...doshite?" When only silence replied back, Luna
continued. "We need you! FireBird is such a horrible queen. She
treats everyone in the same way that Beryl most probably treated her
minions! She even hurts us! US! The senshi that she grew up with! 
DOSHITE? Why did you leave us with this beast??!!" Usagi recoiled 
against the brick wall of the alley. She had known that times had 
been tough, she had overheard some conversations that the senshi had 
when they visited her 'grave'. She did not know how serious matters 
had gotten, though. 

"Gomen nasai, Luna-chan. I can do nothing. I am nothing, not anymore.
She is your queen...I'm so very sorry that things turned out the way 
they did...but...*sigh* gomen nasai, luna-chan..." With that, the 
cloaked figure disappeared into the darkness, taking with her the 
momento from her dearest. 

"NOO! Usagi!!!! Come back!!!!!!" The call went unanswered. The wish
went unfulfilled. 

---------- 

A girl of 5'6" appeared in the middle of an open space. All around
her were streams of light coming from nowhere and going to nowhere. 
The girl removed her black cloak to reveal its red interior. She 
sighed as she sat upon a chair that seemed to appear from thin air. 
"S-Sesu-chan?" The girl's lips quivered as she said the name. 

In an instant, a taller girl with dark green hair materialized in the
open space. "Usa-chan? Daijobu?" The woman walked over to the girl in 
the large plush chair. "What happened?" 

"L-Lun.a....lu.na-chan..." Tears formed in gray eyes at the
remembrance of the incident. 

"Oh dear, Usa-chan. Did you see her?" The blonde nodded, dumbly.
Pluto leaned forward and gave the girl a strong hug. "It's ok, hun. 
Don't worry about anything..." Usagi shook her head. 

"B-But their suffering has worsened. Mars has become like a second
Beryl." Pluto sighed. 

"Gomen, imouto. I know how hard it is. It is up to you if you want to
interfere...you are not bound to stay in the strands of time, unable 
to help in anyway." Usagi looked into Pluto's eyes and smiled sadly. 

"I-I can't...I love them all so much...and I just can't..." Pluto
nodded her understanding and gave Usagi another hug. 

---
(two more years...)
--- 

The world was in pieces. Evil had come and no one could stop it. The
Neo-Queen used her power, combining it with that of her
senshi, and was able to rid the desolate Earth of the intruders.
However, that was not before the world turned black. Crystal
Tokyo was breaking and dimming. No longer would its ethereal glow
emanate to the far reaches of the galaxy. No longer would
the legendary Sailor Senshi be referred to as heroes. To the people,
to the universe..they had failed. They let their planet be
destroyed. No, wait...the Queen let the planet be destroyed. A
flashback still rung fresh in all of their minds 

-----*flashback*----- 

"We’ve got to help them! They’re being slaughtered out there!"
Venus’s plea went unheeded. She was talking to a brick wall. 

"IIE!!! I don’t want to hear it!" The Neo-Queen boomed across the
room. 

"But-onegai...we’re supposed to protect them with our lives!! We can’t
just sit here and do nothing while our planet is terminated!!" The 
queen glared evilly at Saturn. 

"You may not be Mars anymore, but you used to care. You used to have
feelings. Back then you were able to understand the
distress of having power and not being able to use it properly. Now,
you are nothing but a useless coward! I spit upon your
image!" In truth, Jupiter did as she said she would and spat at the
queen’s feet. She was immediately lifted into the air and
slammed against a wall by the invisible telekinetic powers of
FireBird. 

"Silence!" They did not listen this time. 

"Iie! You are not our queen! We don’t have to listen to this!!"
*thud* This time Mercury was shoved against the hard marble. 

FireStorm broke. It was one thing to live seven years denying your
love. It was another to sit and watch as your friends and
confidantes were beaten by their ‘leader’. "STOP!!" FireBird looked
startled and stared at her husband. The senshi closed their mouths 
and silenced their fighting. No one wanted to get on the king’s bad 
side when he had *that* look in his eyes. "ENOUGH OF THIS!" He clenched 
his fists and shook his head towards the ground. "FireBird, majesty, 
we have to act upon this evil. It is what we were born to do. Sailor 
Senshi, it is no use trying to fight. Hold your tongues." All 
listened. 

The battle took place right outside of the Crystal Palace and shook
the building with hearty quakes. Yet, in the end, the enemy was
destroyed. But, it was too late to completely save their planet. All
because a queen was too stubborn to fight early...

-----*end flashback*----- 

Now, all major players in the fight for Earth were standing within
one chamber. Each had emotions easily displayed upon their features. 
It had gone too far. They could not take it anymore and one queen had 
finally lost the power to stop them. 

"DAMN YOU!!! It’s all your fault! You witch!!!" The queen looked
almost amused with Uranus. "Don’t look at me like that! It WAS your 
fault! The world is in shambles because of your cowardice! You 
disgust me!" 

"Shut up, you twit. You cannot stop me. I have more power than all of
you combined-" 

The queen was cut short by the tiny voice of Mercury. "No, majesty.
*She* has more power than all of us combined. Alone, you are nothing 
but one of us." No one had to ask of whom she was talking. It was 
obvious, for everyone was thinking alike at that moment. 

"Hai, Mercury. You are right again. I wonder if your correct answers
will ever bite you back." She shot the blue senshi a hot glare. 
"However, that beast you called a girl is gone. She has been for 
seven years and you all have tried to live with it. I have her power. 
I have become her-" 

Again the queen was cut short. This time, however, by a male voice.
"You *never* became her." The coldness in his voice and the iciness of 
his stare shook the queen. 

"He’s right, ya know. You will never be her. You will never be loved
by him, for all you are is evil. *Endymion* will never be yours."
Venus made sure that she thoroughly rubbed in the dreaded name. The
queen looked to her left, took three steps and raised her hand high. 
Venus prepared herself for a hard and very painful slap...but it 
never came. She peeked open an eye and noticed that the queen was 
frustrated with her arm. It would not move forward. "What the-?" 

"I will not allow you to hit her, anymore." Everyone stopped, their
eyes bugged out of their heads, and their bodies froze in place.
Even their hearts lost their beat as they hoped above all that what
they thought was true. In sync, they all turned towards the single 
entrance to the grand room. There stood an average-height being, 
wearing a deep black velvet cloak. Her eyes and hair were hidden by 
the hood, but a small shimmer of gold caught their eyes. The being 
walked forward in the room, the cloak billowing around her. The 
velvety material seemed to flow with her perfectly and the deep 
crimson of the inside was an ironic match for the situation. The 
other figure with the cloaked maiden stayed by the door, in the 
shadows. Her disposition seemed hopeful and sad at the same time. 

The Neo-Queen broke out of her reverie and snarled, "What do you
want. Who are you?" The senshi almost gasped at the question. How 
could she not notice? The way the figure held herself, the way her 
voice filtered through the room so sweetly, the way that just her 
presence lightened the shadows in the corners. 

Finally, stopping the melodrama, the figure brought her head up and
used her hands to pull back the hood of the cloak. Though it was 
obvious at first, everyone still gasped at the sight of her. 
"U-Usagi?" The blonde smiled wryly at the queen’s shock. 

"Hai. I do believe you have over-stepped your bounds for the last
time, queen." 

"Na-nani?" FireBird shook her head quickly and replaced her shock
with fire. "Nevermind that, commoner. Your presence here does nothing 
to change the situation." FireBird turned to Venus again and slapped 
her hard across the face. Venus was unprepared for the action and 
fell to the floor with a thud. She brought a hand to her face, 
feeling a bit of blood now blotching her cheek. The witch had a ring 
on! 

"You are a fool, FireBird. You should not have done that." 

"Oh? And what are you going to do? Trip on me? Last I remember, you
were still a whining crybaby who...*laughs*...actually gave her power 
and life to one that hated her." Usagi remained calm through the 
speech. She wouldn’t stoop to the queen’s level. She had learned 
more in the past seven years than to let those words hurt her. The 
next ones were more harsh...but she blinked back the tears quickly. 
"That power that helped me in beating your friends. You wouldn’t 
believe how long it took me before they finally gave into my authority. 
Almost killed poor Mercury with my teachings. Ahhh, but obviously that doesn’t matter to you. You
did not come back to them, which led to...ah, yes *laughs happily*..I
do believe you know that your world has perished. You weren’t here to 
stop that, so why have to you come now? To stop a slap that I 
performed anyway? What a foolish child you are...you haven’t changed 
a bit." 

"You’re wrong. I have changed." Usagi tried to hold the quiver from
her voice, but even years in solitude makes you a little wimpy when 
it comes to harsh verbal attacks. 

"Oh? *laughs some more* What are you now? A wimpy crybaby who can
kick me to death? If you’d forgotten, I have your soul. You said that 
yourself. I have your soul, your power, oh...and how could I forget. 
The best part of the whole deal...I have your lover." Usagi finally 
flinched. 

"You are not going to make me fall, queen. I have more pride than
that. I shall never lower myself to bow to you. Your weakness comes 
with your need to hurt me. But now, I do believe you have made 
everyone suffer enough. I hope death is more forgiving that I will 
be." And that was it. Usagi raised a single hand and *poof* (no, no 
new ear this time...hehe), the Neo-Queen had fallen. 

"AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! What are you doing?!?!?!?!?!" The queen continued
to cry out and writhe upon the ground. 

"I am taking what was, is, and will always be rightfully mine. The
past seven years were a joke, all because of you. You disgust me, Mars. 
Something happened to you and you turned. You were not evil before, 
now that is all that I can see within you." Usagi paused to think of 
the old sailor she once knew. How long ago that seemed. She returned 
her attention to the queen. "Say good-bye, SailorMars." 

The only word that managed its way out of FireBird’s mouth was a
name. Simple yet foolishly spoken. "Fi-re..Storm...help me...." Her 
violet eyes looked pleadingly at her husband and he softened under 
her gaze. She had finally reached her judgment. Too bad it was 
against his love, she was ruthless when it came to evil. 

"Gomen, Mars. You have never been anything more than a friend to me
and your treatment of this planet and its people sickens me. I can 
not and will not help you." The queen grew scared. No..no, she didn’t 
want to die! 

"S-Serenity...onegai...just rid me of the evil...onegai..." Usagi 
stared at the girl on the floor. She took a glance into the scared
eyes and saw it. It was barely visible, but it was there. Usagi
sighed happily. Her friend wasn’t lost. Something had happened to
destroy her, but she wasn’t lost completely. Always look to Mars to
fight against evil for seven years on her own. 

"Rei-chan, don’t worry. All will be well." Usagi furrowed her brow as
she continued to remove the silver crystal. Once it had left FireBird, 
she turned back to Mars and Usagi fell to her knees in pain. "Puretan 
Nis!" (‘Purify Now’) The forgotten sigil of the Silver Millennium 
shined brightly once more. With gold and silver energy, Usagi healed 
a possessed Mars. The evil was surprising, for no one really expected 
it to be there. They thought Mars has just soured. This made sense, 
though. The fire senshi was too intent in her priestess-hood to do so 
much evil. 

For now, the possessing evil had formed into a black cloud, hovering
above the comatose Mars. Before anymore observations could be made, 
Usagi was screaming -quite painfully- orders. "Mercury!! FREEZE it!!!" 
There was no hesitation. 

"Mercury Blizzard Obliterate!" The floating cloud was frozen in
place. 

Next order: "Neptune! DROWN it!!" Neptune took one look at Usagi and
nodded. No ifs, ands, or buts about it...their princess had returned. 

"Neptune Rainstorm Splash!" The ice cracked against the pressure and
the evil was no more. It was fitting that water powers had destroyed 
a fire-possessing entity, Usagi had learned much these past years. 
Attention turned back to the two girls on the ground. Usagi was still 
healing Mars as best she could. Getting rid of the pain and exhaustion 
that came with evil occupation was the last thing that needed to be 
done. 

The long-gone-yet-returned blonde remained laying on the ground as
Venus and Jupiter helped the long-evil-yet-healed girl up. Noticing 
their princess’ weak state as she shook on the ground, the senshi 
started to approach her. They wouldn’t make it to her fast enough, 
though. One word had stopped them completely. Something that had not 
been spoken in so long, the warriors almost forgot what it sounded 
like. They never realized that they would actually miss hearing it, 
either. The power that the word held and the raw emotion with which 
it was spoken left everyone reeling. 

"Usako..." 

FireStorm’s clothes melted off of him and was replaced by the
familiar armor of Prince Endymion (gomen, don’t feel like putting
them all in their Crystal Tokyo garb). He made his way to her slowly,
punctuating each step with a click on the marble floor...trying to 
wake himself with the noise if this was all just a cruel dream. When 
he finally knelt to her side, there was a moment of uncertainty. Had 
she changed so much in the past seven years that she- that she had 
fallen out of love with him? 

Shaking his head, to try and rid himself of the painful thought, he
finally let his gaze fall upon her eyes. They were squinted from
her agony, but they shown with only deep love when she glanced up at
him. No more proof was needed, his Usako was home. 

"Ma-Mamo-chan..." Her voice broke him out of his daze quickly. How he
had waited to hear that name! How he waited for those lips to whisper 
it in his ear, so full of love and desire. This had better not be a 
dream, for the world would hold no meaning if he were to wake up and 
be missing his princess once again. He glanced again into her eyes 
before wrapping her in a warm embrace.

"Terranti strogin, oui amora." (‘Terran strength, to my love’) And
that was it. The link had been revived from years of being shattered 
in the depths of empty souls. Endymion fed his Earthen power into her 
and she stopped shaking. Soon thereafter, he could feel warmth coming 
from her body again. He ceased the transfer and she pulled away from 
him, to sit on her knees in front of him. 

His body protested immediately. After long, gruesome years...he 
needed to feel the security of his one-and-only’s body tucked into 
his own. He needed her touch to bring him back to life, to brighten 
his darkened existence. He gazed into her blue eyes (FireStorm and 
Usagi’s eyes turned back to blue from gray when the crystal left Mars). 
"I was afraid that I would lose you before I even had you back." His 
whisper referred to her return and untimely lack of strength after 
using most of her energy to heal Mars. 

She didn’t respond to his concern. She was caught up in her own world
of reverie. No one ever realizes how much they miss all of the finer 
details of things until they are gone. She missed the way his eyes 
would shine down at only her; how a few of his midnight locks fell 
helplessly past his brow; how his mouth would curve just-so when he 
gave her that rueful smile. Oh, man...she had just missed him so much. 

Without warning, her eyes brimmed with happy tears and she flung
herself into his awaiting arms. There were both whole again. Pulling 
away just enough to see his face, Usagi rest a hand gently on his 
cheek. She caressed the broad contours of his face, reveling in the 
remembrance of all that was Chiba Mamoru. Finally, she ended her sweet 
touches by brushing her finger tips over his soft lips. 

Endymion opened his eyes slowly, returning from cloud nine. He looked
at her with hopeful anticipation. She just smiled back, moving her 
hand to the back of his neck. Leaning into him, he knew that he was 
about to do something that he had waited for far too long to do. They 
both sighed, content, when their lips met. It was a gentle kiss, just 
a little reminder of how kissing the other felt. At the same time, 
however, the connection of their bodies released all of their 
pent-up passion and emotion. 

They reluctantly pulled away, only slightly aware that they were
being watched by ten eager viewers. Instantaneously, though, they 
grabbed each other into a fierce hug. Endymion whispered his unspoken 
words of devotion into her ear as her tears fell onto his shoulder. 
"Oh, my Usako. You don’t know how much I have needed...wanted
...waited for this moment." 

She reacted by holding him tighter and running her hand through his
unruly mop of hair. "Shh, Mamo-chan. All that matters is that I’m back 
and I’m never going to leave again." 

He buried his head into her shoulder, letting a single tear mar his
face. "Always and forever, princess, will you be the one who bears my 
heart and soul." 

"Always and forever, prince, will you be the one whose rose brings me
back to where I am needed." In a bright flash, a white rose appeared 
in Usagi’s hand. She glanced at it from over Endymion’s shoulder and 
a small smile crossed her face. She squeezed the king lovingly and 
nuzzled closer to him. "Oh, how I love you, my dearest." 




The End 
---------- 
Comments, suggestions, flames, etc. are all accepted with open arms at:
princess-serenity@rocketmail.com




The End 
---------- 
Comments, suggestions, flames, etc. are all accepted with open arms at:
princess-serenity@rocketmail.com