Kyouko Tsukino
Steampunker
Those who know me may have seen this coming once this section opened. Anyhow this is my main story, Sailor Moon Aeons, the one I've spent the most time with (five years and counting,) and while it's based on Sailor Moon, knowledge of the show (old and new) or the manga aren't needed - while I do tell events that happened in the anime and manga, I tell my own version of them.
The first book focuses in an ancient era, and its pacing may not be for everyone, as the plot can skip a decade, a century, or a few thousand years at a time. It's a sort of prologue (twenty-five chapters long prologue) to the main part of the story, which focuses on the canon characters.
Anyhow, I'll stop ranting now and leave you to enjoy this thing - I'll post more chapters as time allows it.
Serenity could see the signs of her enemy's presence in the distance. An unnatural darkness seemed to creep slowly towards her, and was turning even the afternoon sky black in its wake. That creature's power, it had always seemed so impossibly high to her, so unreachable, so unsettling... So terrifying.
But not anymore. She now had a power to match that creature in a battle, and she had trained for years on how to use it. Still, for the people in this world, it was only a few minutes ago that she got her powers.
It had been quite a strange event. Those warriors from a distant future had been around for only a few minutes, but without them, she wouldn't have ever become what she was now. On the other hand, they had their powers only because she had obtained them from them in this era.
Some would call it irony, but she was quite aware that wasn't the right word for this. In any case, he was coming, the Dark One, as the Val'harrha called him, the Ender, the Walking Night. Too many names for something that only needed one: Cygale.
It was good her new powers let her see things others, even the Val (as she had nicknamed her mentor's race,) couldn't. She had found that strange sub-dimension, and her powers let her know in seconds what the purpose of that place was. From there, and with her powers, she could transport to any era she wanted, she could see the future, she could see all that would happen to mankind, at least the events linked to her home planet.
And the most important thing: Since she could return to Earth one second after the moment she entered that dimension (or one year before, if she so wished,) then it was as if time had stopped while she was there. She had used that knowledge in her favor, honing and training all of her skills, until she was able to hold her strongest form indefinitely. A form so powerful, she knew she would probably be able to destroy this or any other world in one shot if she wanted to.
The darkness was close, and she could now see the creature generating it. It was his bluff, his way to scare those he was about to destroy, it was almost a physical representation of his ego. He knew not the word 'stealth,' because he had never needed to hide, no, he wanted those he targeted to know he was coming for them.
Zen'ji, her mentor, had told her all his race knew about the Dark One. Someone whose goal was to bring chaos and destruction, a being who existed only to cause pain to others. A pitiful being, from her point of view. The Val had known about the creature, but had never seen a way to stop him. Then they came to this world, finding a race of primitive beings, beings they called 'humans.' She had asked Zen'ji about the meaning of that word once, but he had only said its meaning was unimportant.
Humans had something even the Val'harrha had never seen. An ability to manipulate a planet's very energy (known as Zhi'lesh to them) but only a few humans could master such ability. Most of those who had that skill, lived without knowing what they could do.
The Val had artifacts which let them see what was to come. She hadn't believed it at first, in fact she had never believed it, until that other Serenity appeared. Now she knew it was true, the Val could see the future, and they were fascinated by it. That was the one reason why they had chosen her, Serenity, a normal human woman, living a normal life in a primitive village, to be their warrior.
That was another difference between the Val and the humans. The Val were physically weak, but their minds were incredibly advanced. They weren't a race of warriors, they were a race of creatures who observed the Universe without daring to interfere. But even though it went against their beliefs, they knew Cygale had to be stopped, or he would continue to destroy planet after planet, until there was nothing left.
And that's why they had chosen a human, a member of a race who were rather violent at first sight. However, there was a balance in them, between warrior and creator. That's what made them the best race to choose, of all the races the Val had seen through the centuries they had been traveling around the universe.
Zen'ji looked at the girl in front of him. A part of his mind was cursing destiny, for what he was about to do was crucial for the existence of the line of warriors called Senshi, a race that would not only play a major role in this one system, but in many others throughout the whole galaxy. But at the same time, what he was about to do would seal the fate of the only human he considered a friend. And ultimately, it would leave a scar in this girl's mind, one he knew wasn't easy to heal.
But unless this girl was there, the Dark One could win. It was the curse of the Zen'ji, a curse he knew one line of Senshi would share in the future, to see not only one future, but all possible futures. The further forwards in time they looked, the least likely a dark future was, given all the 'right' choices had been made along the way.
And that was his only regret, that the 'right' choice in this battle would require a sacrifice. He knew Serenity had affected him more than he would like to admit, since he had never before seen the logic behind considering one life to be worth more than millions of lives. None of his kin ever saw the reasoning behind that idea. But now, he knew it wasn't about logic, but about what humans called friendship. Still, Serenity herself knew about the future, she knew what the result of this battle would be. He was sure of that. It wasn't Serenity he was worried about, but the girl in front of him now.
"You say I can have the same kind of power my mother has?"
"Yes, but you will need to train for a long time before you get to the level your mother has, Mana."
"Will I be able to help her?"
"To fight the Dark One? I don't know what help a kid like you could be," Zen'ji admitted. Truth was, he knew she would be of help, not so much for her mother, but for the future. Mana had inherited the one power her mother had since birth, and another one she still didn't know about, and wouldn't know about for the time being.
"Hmph. I can at least watch, right?"
"But don't get close to the fight. You could distract your mother."
"I understand. I'm ready to get that power now."
Zen'ji nodded and materialized a small crystal in front of him. It was an ability the Zen'ji always had, that of turning solid objects into pure magic energy. It couldn't be done with living beings, as far as he knew, at least not by their race.
Mana looked at the small crystal. "You mean this little thing..."
"It's a replica of the crystal used by your mother to gain her new powers. It will work mostly the same in you, and you will gain that level almost instantly, though you will not be able to control it at first, and the process is a painful one."
"So I'm going to be strong enough to help."
"I'm afraid it won't be simple. Your mother's already fighting that creature now, and to get to the level she has, you could spend months, maybe even years."
Mana reached forwards and touched the crystal. The change was both slow and painful, she felt like her body was being burnt from the inside, and she was unable to form any coherent thoughts for a few seconds. When she was able to think straight again, however, she wished she wasn't, since the pain was still there. But as the seconds ticked away, she felt the change, she could feel her own body rapidly adapting to the surge of power. She was no longer wearing her usual robe as she pulled her hand away from the crystal. The suit was similar to what the Val wore, an elastic fabric which covered most of her body, leaving only her head unprotected.
But then, another crystal, identical to the first, appeared right in front of her. She grabbed it, and again felt a surge of power, though it wasn't as painful this time. That, however, wasn't important when she still felt like she was being burnt, shocked and frozen at the same time.
Zen'ji winced as the girl screamed. This wasn't the way things should be. The crystal wasn't supposed to be able to replicate itself like that, so what... He closed his eyes, trying his best to ignore the girl's screams. Reaching out with his skill, he saw the immediate future shifting and changing. The distant future was still showing, relatively, the same paths as before, but it was the 'present' that worried him. Things could go very wrong if...
And there she was. This girl was wearing the same suit as her mother, if not for the slightly darker shade of yellow of her hair, one could hardly tell this was not Serenity. There was no mistake, this girl had reached her ultimate level, just like her mother, but unlike the visions he had, she had a crystal of her own. "Incredible..."
"I thought you had predicted all this," Mana noted.
"No skill is flawless, and our 'time sight' is no exception. There are things about this change I didn't foresee, things you will have to realize on your own."
Mana had fallen to one knee, her breathing ragged and forceful. "I feel like a stampede of Gn'arlok run over me."
"With your new powers, you should see a way to recover easily before aiding your mother. And you could also train there just like she did."
"Won't you come with me?"
"I'm sorry, but my species is not able to go there. Even if you took me there with you, I wouldn't be able to survive in that place for long."
"I... I understand." Mana stood up, looking around, and then smiled. "I guess I will leave now. I'll see you after this battle ends."
"If everything goes as I'm seeing it, then so it shall be," Zen'ji said, after the girl vanished.
The creature stood, apparently unfazed by the sudden obstacle in his path. It was an obstacle he had not detected before it stood in his path, possibly due to the barrier put around the planet's capital city. He could not fathom why a race as advanced (and dangerous) as the Val'harrha would ally with a race as primitive and hopeless as these pseudo-intelligent 'humans.' He did not know what 'human' meant in their own primitive language, and he couldn't care less about the word's meaning.
And yet, the power Cygale could feel in this woman, it was simply inconceivable. If his enemies had this kind of power, why not use it themselves? He knew the answer even before the question had formed. These 'humans' were potentially able to hold as much power inside as he was. Or maybe even more than he could ever dream of gathering. He could admit the woman in front of him was stronger than him. But no matter how much power she had, she couldn't have the centuries of experience he had using said powers.
"Cygale, I know of your intentions, and I will stop you, here and now."
Cygale looked at the woman for one more instant before he did something nobody thought him capable of. He laughed. Sure, he had been amused by things in the past, but the sheer stupidity of this woman was too much for him, he couldn't help but laugh, if only for this one time.
Serenity looked at her foe. The large, insect-like monster was easily thrice her size, and each of his arms ended in thin, sharp blades. His green eyes were big, taking up most of his head, with a small, fang-filled mouth being the only other feature in it.
The aura around him, the dark fog she had seen from a distance, was now gone, and she realized why. Her foe's 'aura' was a part of his power, a part he was letting out to intimidate his victims, but he couldn't afford to keep it up now. She was sure it was the first time this monster had been seen without his aura. It was the first time he faced someone who could defeat him.
"Little girl, aren't you afraid?"
"I would be frightened if I was still a normal human, but I'm not."
"Oh, so you aren't? And what might you be?"
"I am Serenity, the first Senshi."
Senshi? What a stupid name. Still, this woman was amusing him greatly. "That is a word I've never heard before, not that I ever cared about the language of all races I've destroyed."
"It's a title given to some hunters of my race, those trained to defend our cities from the outsiders."
Cygale let out a chuckle. "Then, since you are insane enough to stand in my way, you are the Senshi of your race. The first and last."
"The first, yes, but not the last. There will be others after me. Many others."
"How can you be so sure of that?"
"Because," Serenity said, reaching out her hand, in which a strange, key-shaped staff appeared, "I can look at the many threads of time, and act upon that knowledge to bring about the one I consider the best outcome for those I protect."
"So you learnt that from the..."
"No, my mentors had nothing to do with this. This is a power I've always held inside. A power that will defeat you."
"I think not, little human, you should not have come here to face a god!" Cygale snapped, the last few words came out as a snarl, as a massive wave of energy shot forth. The woman was gone, and, had he been overconfident and foolish, he would have assumed the attack simply tore her to atoms. But he was neither overconfident, nor foolish. He spun around in time to block the downwards swipe of his enemy's staff, then disappeared.
Serenity turned around, summoning a sword as she did, and stopping the enemy's scythes with it. As the two leaped away from each other, she looked around uneasily. "So he was right, she's already coming."
"My, my, are you little human implying that you've called for reinforcements?"
Serenity shot a glare at her foe. "I did not, but even if I had told her not to come here, I know she would still do it."
Cygale sensed something and looked up. For a second, he thought Serenity was trying to fool him, somehow. The human floating meters above (and behind) Serenity looked just like her, if younger, and was wearing an almost identical suit. "What is this? Who are you?"
"I am Mana, daughter of Serenity."
"I saw this, and yet..." Serenity started.
"Your friend said seeing the future isn't a flawless power," Mana explained.
"I am somewhat glad that's the case, then."
Cygale didn't just stand there waiting for them to finish their talk, and instead moved to attack. He went for what was, perhaps, the obvious target, but also the more vulnerable one. Or, at least, that was what Cygale thought, but Mana floated swiftly to the side as he appeared behind her, delivering a sideways kick to his midsection.
"I take it you found that place," Serenity noted with a smile. She didn't need to ask, there was no way her daughter would have learnt to fight so fast unless she had all the time she wanted to do it.
"Of course," Mana said as she floated down to where her mother was. "So, this is the Dark One? He doesn't look so invincible."
Serenity looked at Cygale, who was crawling out of the small crater his body had formed after being kicked down to the ground. "That's because he's playing with us."
"That may be correct, but I am done playing now," Cygale snarled, his body suddenly shining with energy. Before the two Senshi could react, the ground underneath them cracked, as a wave of energy shot from it, washing over them both. He saw no traces of the two humans as the light died out, and for a moment thought he had eliminated them. But then he sensed something, and turned around just in time to see the two women dashing straight at him, but saw no weapons in their hands.
The two women saw their target swing his arms, crossing them as he swung, and leaving a trail of energy behind which formed an 'x' in front of him. He then smiled as the energy shot forth, but the women simply corrected their course, coming from his sides. As he saw that, he pointed his arms to the side, charging as much energy as he could, as fast as he could.
But that wasn't enough. He managed to shoot twin beams of energy, one aimed at each woman, but they once again seemed to be one step ahead, diving forwards as the beams hissed by, barely missing their mark. Cygale realized finally what the two were up to, but the realization came too late, as they had both already fired their own energy beams at melee range.
Serenity fell to one knee after the attack. "Even with all this training, we can't keep this up for much longer."
Mana was still standing, but her breath was heavy. "It's good that we are almost done, then."
Cygale was, meanwhile, trying to stand up, and failing to do so. "This is impossible... Simply impossible! To think such primitive creatures would be able to stop me, when I've toppled entire civilizations!"
"Then it's a pity you didn't find us much earlier," Serenity mused. "I cannot destroy you, and I'll admit that much. However, I can still..."
"We can still seal your powers away," Mana noted.
"Mana, you're almost out of energy, if you help me, you could die."
"Mother," Mana said, her voice sounding far more annoyed than she meant to sound, "I've been to that place, and I share the same powers you have. I know what will happen if you alone seal this bastard."
"But your help wouldn't change a thing. In fact, you could die too."
"Is that what you still see?" Mana asked, noticing Cygale was still trying to stand up. She had to admit he was a lot stronger than she expected, since he had survived their combined power.
Serenity's eyes lost focus as she called upon the power that let her see what was to come. There were three different 'paths' now spawning from what they were about to do. Either of them could die in the next few minutes, or they could both be alive in the end. If one of them had to die, she only hoped it was her. "Right, then. Do you know how to do this?"
Mana smiled and summoned her crystal. "Of course, mother."
Cygale was now kneeling on the ground. He was out of energy, but these two girls were also tired. And while the damage he had sustained was almost enough to end him, he had always known his healing speed was incredibly fast. In the past it had been a moot point, for the 'champions' of other civilizations had been powerless against him, but right now, it was a good thing his healing powers were such. These two humans had only to keep on talking for one more minute, and he would be up and ready to destroy them.
Unfortunately for the Dark One, the two women were not going to wait any longer. They both stood in front of him, pointing their hands at him, as their crystals shone with energy. "It's time..."
"What are you doing, human? You cannot destroy me!"
"I know that," Serenity admitted, "our energy is too low for that. However, we can still seal you away so you can never come back to haunt this universe."
Cygale struggled to stand up, but his body was still not cured enough for that. He managed to glare at the two women as their crystals shone brighter and brighter. "Heed my words, humans. I will come back, I won't be sealed away forever. And once I come back, any 'Senshi' I find will die!"
"It's sad that you chose empty threats as the last words you'll ever say, Dark One," Mana noted. The energy from the crystals washed over her arms and she grimaced. "It's time for you to go. Cosmic Seal!"
"Galactic Seal!" Serenity shouted in unison with her daughter.
The planet's night was briefly bathed by a false daylight, and when the light died out, the two women were still there, looking at a small, black crystal. They fell to their knees, energy depleted. "we've done it," Mana said.
"Not yet, Mana." Serenity looked at the crystal and then picked it up, taking a moment to stare at the Dark One's eternal prison before crushing it, causing the crystal to split into several pieces. She then closed her eyes and the pieces floated away, vanishing in the distance. "That's the end of the Dark One... For now."
"And we are both still here."
Serenity smiled. "Even though I was ready to give up my life if that meant the defeat of Cygale, I can't say I'm upset that I still live."
Mana looked at the horizon, where the planet's only satellite was rising. "I wonder what will happen from now on..."
"You only have to 'look' forwards to know," Serenity said.
"Somehow, I'd rather not."
"I can't say I don't feel the same way. Now come, daughter, let's go back to our city."
As they walked back home, Mana remembered something. "Cygale called us Senshi. Is that his way of calling us?"
"No, I called myself that during the fight, and the name fits us well. We are now the protectors of this world."
The invincible Xilandri, the most powerful empire of the galaxy, could not be defeated by a handful of soldiers from a small, hopeless planet. That simply couldn't be. And yet, the three soldiers stood there, unfazed as countless ships approached their world. The Commander of the 24th Colonization Squad could only wonder what those creatures were thinking. Hundreds of ships against three creatures, three creatures who didn't seem to have any weapon or vehicle?
Still, that wasn't surprising. He had seen planets being defended with sticks and stones before. And they had all been conquered, they had all become a part of the Xilandri Empire. This world would be no different, this world would soon... He noticed a change in the natives. The females were holding two identical crystals, and the male was holding a sword which was apparently made of the same type of crystal. "Status?"
The officer in charge of scanning looked back at him in shock. "There's a massive power reading coming from the creatures, sir!"
"Raise the shields," the Commander said. Several seconds later, the two women shot twin beams from their crystals, beams almost as large as the Commander's ship. He didn't have time to issue any other orders before the beams popped through the ship's shields, obliterating it and any other ship on their path.
"Do you think they will take the hint this time around?"
Serenity looked up to the sky. At least, this time around, they had started retreating as soon as their capital ship was destroyed. "I don't know, they have been attacking us for two months now, Dragon."
The youngest of the warriors nodded. "Maybe we should take the fight to them."
"No," Serenity said, "we fight them when they come. If we took the fight to their home world, we could end up killing countless innocents. We would be no better than them."
"Understood. But mother, how come it was Mana the one who gave me this power, and not you?"
Serenity looked up again, to the now empty sky. "She was born with that skill. I wasn't. It's just that simple." And Dragon's own skill was something Serenity herself lacked, too. He could sense any threat to their world from a distance, as Zen'ji had explained, which was roughly three times the distance from their star to the "black planet," as he called it. It was Dragon who warned them about the first Xilandri attack, two months ago. Both her children had taken on the task of defending their world, in a way that would have made Aether proud.
Aether, Serenity's husband, had been one of the best warriors of the village. Serenity had known Aether for most of her life. They had been friends for as long as she could remember, and he had noticed something 'different' about her, even at such young age.
"But Serenity, why do you like sparring?" he asked her. They were both quite out of breath and taking a break from their usual friendly sparring. It was mostly her knocking him down to the ground, but he wouldn't admit that out loud.
The ten years old girl thought about his question for a minute, then shook her head. "I don't know, it's just... I want to be a Hashar, not just a villager."
"All women stay at the village."
"I know, but why? Some of them are strong enough to be Hashar too. I bet they would beat any warrior they sent against us."
Aether laughed at that. Hashar was the title given to the village's hunters and guards. Attacks from other villages were rare, but not unheard of, and so a Hashar's life was a dangerous one. "I've heard tales of other villages having female Hashar."
"Maybe I could be the first one of our village," Serenity said hopefully.
"I could ask one of the Mentors about it."
"I doubt they..."
He smiled. "My father's the head Mentor. If I can convince him of this, then I don't think the others will mind."
"And how will you convince him?"
"I'll tell him to come watch us fight. I won't hold back, and you know it."
"Won't he think you are holding back?"
"No, he would know if I did, he's been training Hashars for years."
She thought about it for a moment, but she knew it was worth a try. "Okay, I'll beat you up in front of your father, then." She saw Aether giving her a halfhearted glare, and smiled at him. "Thanks, Aether."
"Anything for a friend, Serenity."
"Are you both ready?"
"Yes," the two fighters said in unison.
"This fight will last until either of you is knocked out, or gives up. Now fight!"
The two didn't move for half a minute, waiting for the other to attack first. It was Aether who did that, going for a kick to the girl's chest. The girl was ready for it, and blocked it, following up with a straight to the face, which was blocked by Aether easily.
Sagon grew more and more shocked as the fight progressed. Sure, he had faced female warriors from other villages, but it was the first time he saw one like this Serenity girl in his village. It wasn't the apparent ease with which she was keeping up with Aether's speed and skills that bothered him. It was that she wasn't just keeping up, she was holding back.
Aether seemed to know this. He leaped back after blocking a high kick, and shook his head at her. "Serenity, I'm not here to play. If you don't show father what you can really do, then this will be useless."
Serenity sighed. "I just didn't want to show off."
"Let's fight for real," Aether said bluntly.
Sagon saw the girl's eyes change as she resumed her attack. True, she lacked training, but there was the spark of a true warrior there. Other parents would feel insulted if they saw their son being beaten around by a female, but he knew that was his fault alone. And how would he know? The training he had given Aether, when asked, was one that would let him get the upper hand on unskilled warriors. He hadn't thought his son would face a skilled opponent for years, not until the real training to become a Hashar began.
"Stop."
Serenity leaped back as she heard that, dodging Aether's last blow before turning to look at Sagon. "Huh? But neither of us has given up."
Sagon laughed at that. "I have already seen enough. It does not matter who wins or loses this fight."
"You have seen enough? What do you mean?" Aether asked.
"There has never been any female Hashar in this village, and I know many Mentors wish it to remain that way."
Serenity's eyes turned fierce. "But..."
Sagon held up a hand in a 'stop' motion. "Let me finish. There is a reason for this, and it's that none of the women we tested in the past has ever shown a warrior's spirit. But you are different."
Serenity was shocked. "That means I can become a Hashar?"
"When you're old enough, I will train you myself, Serenity."
Convincing Sagon had been easier than convincing her parents, but that was also done. She became the first female Hashar of her village, and eventually one of the best of her generation. She married Aether soon after they became Hashar, and soon after that, Mana was born, and later on Dragon.
Their lives had been relatively uneventful, and she grew used to it. She was never idle, however, and kept training to improve her skills.
"Mother, today is the day Zen'ji leaves, right?" Dragon asked, taking her out of her brooding.
Serenity nodded, looking out to the forest. "I have to go talk to him before that."
"Is what he says true? Can we teach other Hashar to use this power we have?"
"It's possible, but they won't be able to resist gaining the power we have now directly. They'll have to train for years to get where we are."
"They're lucky. I remember I felt like a volcano had exploded inside me when I became a Senshi."
She had to admit Dragon's description of that event was true for her too. "They'll have to go through years of training which may make our own awakening look mild."
Dragon thought about that for a few seconds then smiled humorlessly "then maybe we're the lucky ones."
Serenity walked away, and felt the tug of memories once again as she approached Zen'ji's home.
Serenity couldn't believe what was happening. Strange creatures had fallen from the sky, and in less than two hours, they had killed most of the Hashar their village had. These monsters had sticks which shot fire not like any fire she had seen before. A green fire which made anything it touched dissolve into a green, liquid substance which glowed in its own. And their stone axes and spears were but toys to the skin of these creatures. Or maybe it wasn't their skin, Serenity realized, since it was a different color than their heads. Clothes that could resist a stone weapon? It was quite shocking.
It was down to five of them now, against a horde of creatures. She looked back at the village and cringed. No, even if this was hopeless, they wouldn't give up. They were Hashar, they would stand their ground and protect their village.
Looking at Aether, she could see it in his eyes, he was thinking the same way. But there was something else there. His was a look of pure hatred, hatred directed to these creatures. She could understand his feelings, though. Sagon was one of the first to fall and Aether had seen his father dissolve right in front of his eyes. "Aether, stand your ground."
"There's no use," Aether said turning to her. The creatures weren't attacking anymore, and he knew why. These monsters were sure of their victory, so they were muttering amongst themselves, and some made noises which he could guess was laughter. "We lost, but... Let's make sure we kill as many of them as possible."
"You have a plan?" Terrak, one of the few elite Hashar left, asked.
"Yes. Aim for their heads," Aether said, and grabbed a sharpened rock, the most simple weapon they had. He then tossed it with all his might, and it caught one of the monsters right between the eyes. Everyone heard the sickly crack as the rock cracked its skull, and the monster fell, orange liquid (blood?) oozing out of its mouth.
The creatures were quite surprised at that, but then they all started shooting as one. The fire was all directed at Aether, but he was the best Serenity had ever seen when it came to dodging. That let the other four unchecked as the aliens tried to take down the only enemy who had managed to kill one of their kin. That was proven a mistake quite soon, as the other four, once aware of the monsters' weak spot, managed to kill dozens of their foes in but a minute.
But even that last desperate attack was useless. Serenity saw Terrak fall and realized the fight was lost. Only her and Aether remained.
One of the monsters snarled at them in his language, probably gloating about their power and telling them to give up. Aether only glared at it and clutched the axe he had used to crack many skulls open that night. "I wanted to be there when Mana became a Hashar. Guess that's not going to happen."
Serenity saw him rush at the one who had 'talked' to them, giving a battle cry as he run. He never reached his target. She looked at what was left of him once the barrage of beams ended, and could feel the tears forming in her eyes. She knew she was surrounded, one against more enemies than she could count up to, and any of their weapons could kill her instantly. "I wanted to be there, too," she said before raising her spear.
Things happened too fast in that moment for her to understand, but afterwards she had played it all in her mind once and again, so she knew what she had seen. She, like Aether, charged at her enemies wildly. And her enemies shot. But the fire never hit her, as something stopped them. No, whatever it was, it didn't just stop them, it made the fire bounce back, taking out many enemies. She stopped dead in her track, as confused as the creatures. Then the creatures looked up to the sky, frozen for many seconds. She looked up and saw it too. A large, floating... Thing.
It wasn't a living thing, she realized, but some sort of floating 'house.' And her foes weren't just confused about the house. They were backing away from it, and she could tell they feared it. The object slowly floated down to the ground, and by the time it landed, a day away from her village, the creatures had already broken into a mad dash away from it. Away from the village.
Before she could recover from the shock, a creature appeared in front of her. It wasn't like the ones that had attacked her, those big, orange-skinned, rat-like monsters. This one was slightly shorter than her, with blue, scaly skin and large insect eyes. And it had four arms, no matter how impossible that would seem to her.
Do not fear, I am not going to hurt you."
There were several things about that phrase that surprised her. She was expecting it to attack her. And if it didn't attack, she expected it to speak to her in a language she wouldn't understand. But this creature was speaking in her own language. How?
"I am Zen'ji, of the Val'harra race. We're here looking for the strongest warrior of your world," the creature said in a monotone, as if this was something he had practiced before.
The woman didn't answer, she had a lot of feelings in her mind, fighting for dominance. She tried to force the worst ones back, but that was another hopeless battle. The creature saw her walk to what had probably been the remains of one of her kin, and kneel in front of it.
Zen'ji saw her reach for the small puddle. "I wouldn't do that. The Garakian guns can dissolve living tissue, and even the residue left after disintegration could damage living tissue greatly."
Serenity looked at it. Was it male or female? She couldn't really tell. "I... I want to be alone. If you're looking for the strongest warrior as you said, you should go talk to him or her instead." But who could it be? All the Hashar were dead. All but...
"I am talking to her right now," Zen'ji said, confirming her guess.
Serenity looked down. "I understand, but I can't talk to you right now."
"I will leave, then," Zen'ji said. He wasn't sure why, but the female seemed quite upset. He was no psychic, but he could still feel she wasn't in the mood to talk. "I will be back after the next sunset."
Serenity didn't look at him (her?) but she knew the creature was gone. She was quite aware people was walking out of the village now. So much for being alone. She had known this day could come, but now that it had happened... She didn't really know what to tell her children, and what to tell Aether's mother. And the rest of the Hashar were gone, too.
"Mom, what happened? Where's dad?"
She looked up at her daughter, who noticed the tears in her mother's face and somewhat knew what was going on. "Mana, I'm sorry, but he..."
Mana fell to her knees and started crying, not needing to hear the rest of what her mother had been about to say.
Serenity's mind returned to the present as she walked into Zen'ji's 'house.' It was actually a very large spaceship, the only one at ground level. She had seen the images of the other ships, many of them, orbiting all the planets of her home system.
Every Val she passed by nodded at her, and some smiled. It was quite a change from the first time she had been on board of the ship. Back then, she was to them just a creature from a primitive race, someone that, in theory, could become the strongest being in the Galaxy. Now, she was... One could say their theories had been right. And even though Zen'ji was the only one who had ever called her a friend, she knew the others had a similar kind of respect for her.
She had to admit she had been scared the first time she visited that ship. It had been three days after that horrible battle, and being alone in a place full of aliens was not an easy thing for her. Still, the Val'harrha were the complete opposite of the Garakian, the beings who had attacked her village. The Val were a race of 'watchers,' they observed and learned what they could from other races. However, they never attacked another race, and she knew why during that battle: They had created a shield that could reflect anything back at the attacker.
Well, almost anything. She knew that was another reason the Val had to respect her.
And thanks to Zen'ji, she also knew that most 'spacer' civilizations (the Val had words for things Serenity had never thought possible) were violent. So it wasn't really strange that the Xilandri were the second race to attack them in the year she had been a Senshi. It was, he had explained, a consequence of races gaining the knowledge to build spaceships while they were still 'young.' The Val'harrha was one of the first races to appear in the Galaxy (and they knew that because they had explored most of it,) and had not reached space in their youth.
It was only possible to find a way out of the incredible gravity of the regions near the Core after centuries of research. And, by then, the Val'harrha's planet was one without borders, without 'villages.' From what Serenity had understood of his stories, his whole planet was a single village, or 'Citadel' as he called it.
But that world was long gone, its star having died out centuries earlier. Most of the Val could escape their planet's fate, thanks to being able to predict the event a thousand years before it happened. They had since been traveling and doing what they liked most: Exploring, discovering, learning. Watching.
And now, finally, she had found Zen'ji. He was checking a row of monitors, but stopped as he saw her approach. "It's good to see you, Serenity."
"I've been preparing myself for this day for a long time," Serenity said with a sad smile, "but it doesn't make it any easier for me."
"It isn't easy for me either, but... I must go wherever my race goes."
"I understand," Serenity looked at the monitors. She knew what most readings meant, and it was unnerving for her to know she could match, or even surpass, most of those energy readings. "Those warriors from the future, they said your race..."
Zen'ji shook his head at that. "Their legends talk of a race long gone, a race humans have not heard of for eons. It's only natural they think we became extinct, but... We just decided to go back to our role as Watchers."
"So, where are you going now?"
"Back to the Core. Contrary to our predictions, the Vacuum is far more densely populated than our home region. We will be observing the Galaxy from the inner regions."
"Will I ever see you again?"
"I don't think that will be possible, Serenity," Zen'ji admitted. He saw Serenity's eyes watering and smiled at her. "You know, I really envy you. It's not possible for me to cry, and I wish I could right now."
Serenity looked down. "I don't want to cry, to make this a sad memory for you."
"It's not sad to know you care about me enough to cry," Zen'ji said.
Another Val walked to them, and said something in their original language. She knew the language, so she understood the message. Everything was ready, they would be leaving in less than one hour.
"So this is goodbye, then," Serenity said in a whisper. "Wish I could go with you."
"You wouldn't adapt to space, and... You will live a very long life. I won't. I would rather have you remember me like your wise mentor, and not as an old, crazy alien."
Serenity couldn't help but laugh at that. "Thank you, Zen'ji, for all you've done for us."
"And I thank you, because our race learnt that we can do more than just watch if we really want to learn all there is to learn. We will continue searching for other World Seeds, now that we know what they are. If we activate all the dormant ones, we could help the Galaxy evolve."
The World Seeds. Serenity had seen one in one of the ship's monitors before, the shape was strange for her and not at all seed-like. However, it was a fitting name, since those artifacts could turn planets like the arid Mars or the impossibly hot Mercury into inhabitable planets. Her race could live in those worlds, once they gained the ability to travel through space (something she and her children had, but she couldn't transport a mass of people around.) The Val had said that gaining such ability at such a young age would be dangerous. Humans (as was the name given to them by the Val) could end up being just like the Garakians who had attacked her village.
"I suppose I'll go now," Serenity said, turning around to hide the tears that were forming once again in her face.
"Tell Mana and Dragon I'll miss them."
"I'm sure they'll miss you too, friend. Goodbye."
"Goodbye, Serenity," Zen'ji said as her friend vanished. He stood there, looking at the spot where she had been, for a minute, but then realized it was really the last time he would see her. "May your race aim for the brightest future."
She wondered about the future. She would find Senshi who could link to each of the planets, and then... What? True, her power allowed her to see all possible ramifications of the timelines, but she could only see what caused each if she focused in that particular one. And she knew a split second of difference in an action could cause a whole new ramification to appear, or one of those already 'waiting' to simply vanish. She was 'seeing' that now. Their quick (some would say 'cold') way of dealing with the Xilandri had scared them. They would not come back to attack Earth. She wasn't quite proud of killing thousands of aliens, but if the other option was to let thousands of her own people die... Yes, there was no other option, not for her.
Dragon looked at the fast-moving 'star' in the sky. It was easy to tell it wasn't a real star, for it was moving too fast... And the Sun was at its highest point in the sky. "The Val'harrha left. What will we do now, mother?"
"We will find the other Senshi."
"Alastra, there are warriors from another village asking to see you."
The old woman looked at the messenger. "To see me? Do they think I am that stupid?"
"They have no weapons," the messenger said, "and they didn't defend against our attacks, either."
"They didn't?"
"Lady Alastra, I was there. Our spears and arrows hit them, but the three just stood there. The weapons didn't hurt them at all! And that's when they asked about you, and the leader told me to..."
"You're talking of the impossible, yet you don't seem to be lying. Your eyes aren't those of an insane person, either, I have seen those before. So the only other thing I can assume is that you're saying the truth, and invincible warriors from another village are here, and they're not here to fight, or would have done so already."
"What will we do?"
"Let them in."
Serenity smiled. "I assume we're free to enter now?"
The guard nodded nervously. "Yes, please go ahead, Lady Alastra is waiting for you."
"Their leader's a woman," Dragon noted in a low voice.
"That may explain why most of those warriors were female," Serenity admitted.
As they walked into the central hut of the village, they saw the leader was old. She seemed older than any of the elders in their own village. "I must admit," the woman said, "I have never heard of warriors approaching another village and not even trying to defend themselves."
"We didn't need to defend ourselves," Serenity said, "and we have not come here to fight, Lady Alastra."
Alastra smiled at that. "I see. If I were to call in all of my warriors and have them fight you, what would you do?"
Mana reached her hand out, and everyone could see a stone knife appear in it. "What will we do?" she asked just as she stabbed her own arm with the knife, which shattered as it hit, small shards falling to the ground. "We will wait until they all tire themselves, and then we'll ask you what we came here to ask. So let's skip the useless fighting and let us ask."
Alastra's face had changed. Before, she was still doubting the 'invincible' warriors. But now, after seeing what a weapon did to them (or rather, that it did nothing,) she saw no point in fighting them. "And what is it that you're here to ask?"
"You have one like us in your village," Serenity said, "a Senshi like us."
"Senshi?" Alastra asked.
"That's the name for our group. In our village it means 'Defender.'"
"Where did you learn to speak our language?" Alastra asked. In fact, this woman was speaking it flawlessly.
"It's one of our abilities," Serenity noted. Actually, it wasn't one of her abilities, but Zen'ji had given her one of the 'translators' his race used to understand other languages. But she didn't need to tell this woman that.
"You say there's one like you in my village. Assuming that's true, what would I gain if I let whoever that is go?"
"It's not what you would gain, but what you could lose. Those like us are normal people until they're awakened. I know how to awaken them, and I could do it without their permission, but... Their bodies would not be used to such power, and they would be scared and confused. They could turn your whole village into dust before I was able to control them."
Alastra couldn't believe this woman's words. Was she really saying a single person of her kind could destroy a whole village? And was she implying she would still awaken that person if she refused? "I now understand why you said you don't need to fight, you seem to have planned this thoroughly. I don't suppose you will tell me who this person is?"
"I will tell you, because I know you won't do anything to that person before I awaken her. I can do that before your order reaches the guard besides you. And, also, I know that person name is... Ashara."
Alastra's face paled and she muttered something Serenity didn't want to translate. "No, it can't be. Not her."
Mana nodded. "Yes, your granddaughter is one of us."
The woman looked at them, and then started pacing back and forth. "I still only see nothing to gain from this."
"We defend no village," Serenity noted, "we defend all of the planet. You would not see your granddaughter as often for a few years, but once Ashara completes her training, she can come back to live in this village if she wants to. I'm willing to let her come visit you if you wish to see her while her training is still not complete, though that may have some risks."
"But what if she never awakens?"
"There are threats out there," Serenity said, pointing up instead of pointing at the door, to make clear what she really meant, "that can't be fought with normal weapons. I think you realized that already. If you were attacked by one of those unknown threats, it could cause Ashara's powers to awaken. If they awaken that way, then I doubt it would be any easier to get to control them. She could end up destroying everything around her."
"You keep talking about your 'power' but I can't see how you could be strong enough to do something like that."
"Then please come outside," Serenity said, "we will show you."
Alastra followed the three outside, and saw many of her villagers were waiting. "Worry not, these strangers have no thoughts of harming us," she said out loud, though she wasn't all too sure about that yet. "They came looking for someone who, they say, is like them, and who has incredible powers."
"Your great leader has asked us to show her those powers, and we have agreed," Serenity said, shooting a glance at Alastra that told her to follow her lead. "We will need all the room we can get, so... Look outside."
Many of the villagers gasped as Serenity and her two children vanished, but one of the villagers understood what they meant, and looked in the direction of the clearing that was close to the village, to the south. And he was only half surprised to see the three were there, waiting. "They're there!"
The villagers all started moving towards the trio, the curiosity of the mass being strong enough to pull even those who didn't believe they would see anything out of the ordinary along. "Don't come any closer," Serenity warned, "we may not want to harm any of you, but while we're doing this little show, we may get a bit wild."
Mana looked at Dragon. "I think you should start."
Dragon nodded at her, and a sword appeared in his hand, a sword made of a strange, white crystal. "Hope you don't mind being a target."
Mana smiled at him. "Same to you."
And the villagers saw something they just weren't prepared to see. The young man muttered something and then jammed his sword into the ground, and a wall of flames shot from it, hitting the woman dead on. What was even more strange was that the woman stood through the attack, no burnt marks or injuries visible in her.
Serenity looked at the ground between the two siblings and shook her head. "What is it with you and fire, son?" She aimed her hand at the flames that were slowly spreading and closed her eyes, calling forth another element. Water.
By now, the villagers were pretty much aware of how... Impossible these warriors were. One of them had started a fire from his sword, and then this woman had created water, out of her bare hands and put the fire out in an instant.
But then, the younger of the two women decided to show what she could do. She rose her hand... And a lightning struck her. However, lightning bolts would only last for an instant, and they could split a tree in two. But this girl was being struck by a lightning bolt that didn't seem to end, and she stood there, smiling calmly. "Here!" She shot the lightning back at her brother, who simply reached his hand out, and a thick column of rock rose from the ground itself, stopping the lightning arc.
And before the crowd could recover, Serenity herself made all the other tricks look tame. She rose both hands, which lit up like the Sun, and everyone could see fire, ice, sand and even leaves circling her for a few moments. Then it was all back to normal, and she smiled as she looked straight at Alastra. "As you can see, our powers are not just for defense."
"And you say this person... Will be able to do all that?"
"Once she trains with us, yes."
Alastra turned to the left. "Ashara, come here."
"What do you need me for?"
Serenity looked at the girl. She was apparently younger than Dragon, but old enough for her body to resist the awakening. "It's good to finally meet you."
The girl took a few steps back as she realized what this meant. "You mean I am... I am like you?"
"I know you must be afraid," Dragon said, "but we aren't going to hurt you. We gave your grandmother our word."
"I don't want this!" the girl said, her voice turning into a snarl. She stopped, however, as she felt her hand warm up. She stared at it as a small flame appeared, hovering over it. "How..."
"Unfortunately, you will still have that power, even if you don't want to use it. And the longer you go without using it, without learning how to control it, the easier it will be for it to run wild."
Ashara looked at her hand. The fire wasn't there anymore, but it wasn't because she had willed it away. She didn't know how to. This woman was doing something that kept her from creating more fire. "What is this 'power'?"
Mana looked around. "I think we should talk about this in private. Lady Alastra can inform the rest of the village about it later."
"I agree," Alastra said. "Ashara, come with us."
The young girl was too confused right now to refuse, so she followed the others into the village's central hut.
Ashara looked at her hand again, at the flame calmly resting on it. She could feel the heat, but it didn't hurt her at all. After two months of training, she could now summon fire at will and keep it in check. "Why is it I can't use other elements?"
"Each Senshi is only meant to use one element," Serenity explained. She was glad things were working for them. In two months they had found the Senshi of Fire, Ice and Wind. She knew there were others to find, but she also needed to make sure those she found were ready to fight any enemies they may find.
Kian, the Senshi of Wind, frowned at that. "Yet you and your children..."
Serenity looked at the man. "I know. It's our curse."
"Curse?" the third Senshi, Tae, walked to her. "Being able to use all those powers... Isn't it more of a blessing?"
"We have to keep them controlled, too. And we only have full control over pure magic, with no elements. I will never be as good at using fire as Ashara could be with enough training. Same goes for wind and ice."
Mana walked in right then. "There's an alien vessel out there, in the fourth planet."
The fourth planet? It was still a cold desert, but Serenity knew humans would live there in a relatively close future. "What are they doing there?"
"Dragon doesn't know. Should we go check?"
Serenity looked at their three 'students.' "Take Ashara with you."
"Understood."
"Wait, why me?" Ashara asked.
"That planet's the one you're linked to. And I think you're ready for a real battle, if there is one."
"Right," Mana agreed, "we are going there as scouts. If they turn out to be hostile, however, we will defend ourselves."
Ashara was sure things wouldn't go as smoothly as her leader thought, but this was a chance to prove she was a warrior.
Going from one planet to another wasn't much different than the way the leaders had reached their village, or how they had brought her to their base. However... The air was different. "This planet stinks."
Mana smiled. "You should see the second planet, then. Once you're strong enough, because that atmosphere's lethal for humans. Don't worry, if you spend a few hours here, your nose will get used to the smell, and you won't notice it anymore."
"Hope you're right. Where are the aliens?" 'Alien' was a strange word. Her own language, Ashara realized, didn't have a word for that term, for something that came from the stars.
"Half an hour to the north, if we fly."
Ashara nodded. "Or if we run."
"Try not to get noticed."
"You'll be the one gliding towards them, so you shouldn't talk," Ashara noted.
"You can be a pest, you know?"
"And you can be quite dumb." Ashara smiled as she said that. Those little 'insult' wars had become a sort of ritual for them, even though they had quickly become friends.
"In any case..." Mana turned and flinched. "Never mind. We won't have to go to where they are. They detected us."
"Shak'le."
"Girl, watch your language."
The aliens had extremely fast vehicles, apparently, as it only took them a couple minutes to reach them. Thanks to the translator, the two women could understand what they said, though the first few words weren't all too kind.
"Where do you come from, intruders?" The alien was tall, looked like an insect, and its face, though strange, was one of someone who was sure of his own superiority. How not to be, when he had a squad of twenty soldiers, and was facing two apparently unarmed women?
"We come from the third planet."
"That's a lie. Where's your ship?"
"Ship?" Ashara asked.
"A vehicle to travel through the stars," Mana explained. To the alien, she said "we need no ship to get here."
The alien took a second to chew on that info and then growled. "You're lying. Fire!"
The soldiers who had walked out of the vehicle along with the one speaking obeyed at once, firing some kind of red beams at the two. "Hmm, this tickles," Ashara noted.
"It's a heat weapon," Mana guessed, noticing the aliens were muttering amongst each other.
"Maybe I should show them..."
"No," Mana looked at her, "sometimes fighting can only complicate things."
The alien who had first spoken to them approached them, and they both could see his body language had changed. "You... Said you come from the third planet?"
Mana nodded. "Yes. This world is empty right now, but we've got plans to expand into it in a near future."
"I understand. If that is so, then I apologize on behalf of our race. We shall continue on to the next system." He turned to leave, then added, "and I also apologize for attacking you."
"No harm done," Mana said. "Farewell."
Half an hour later, the two women were back in their base, and Mana was informing her mother about what had happened.
"... And Dragon told me they're already heading out of the system. I can guess we won't see them again."
Ashara was still confused, and decided to ask what she couldn't understand. "Why did they leave in such a hurry? I don't get it."
"I'll tell you what I think they saw. Two females from the third planet, who could travel through space and take on their weapons without even flinching. They obviously see no hopes of winning against a whole planet full of people like us."
"But most humans aren't like us."
"Of course. But they don't know that."
"You beat them without fighting? How boring," Tae noted.
Serenity shook her head. "We are protectors, Tae, not murderers. If there is a way to protect our world without killing anyone, then that's what we should always aim for."
"And in this case, us fighting them would have been pointless," Ashara admitted, "if those weapons were all they had, they wouldn't harm even me."
Kian let out a sigh. "I hope we have peace for a while."
"What's the point of training if we don't get to fight?" Tae asked.
"The point is to be ready if we do get to fight," Mana noted. "We'll need to find the other Senshi. Maybe you guys can help with that if you're bored."
"Lady Mana, good morning."
"I've told you to drop the title when we're in private, Laos."
The young man smiled. "If I do that, I may start forgetting to add it when we're in public."
Mana let out a sigh of defeat. Things really had changed in the last decade. The team was complete now (more than complete, considering there were two Senshi for some of the planets,) and while rather unstable, alliances had formed, and some villages had grown or 'fused' with others. The Senshi were still keeping their guards up for any external threat, but alien attacks had been growing less and less frequent.
Another thing that changed was that humans, thanks to a network of strange devices built by the Val, had been able to settle into other worlds with relative ease. "There's a report from Venus," Laos said, "they say a whole village's gone."
"A whole village?" Mana looked at the white-haired man in shock. "But Dragon would have detected it!"
"I know. I told Lady Serenity about this minutes ago."
"And what did she say?"
"She's already in Venus."
The landscape was quite strange in this world. No matter how many times she visited this planet, or the gas giants, she would never get used to how things looked from their surface. Thanks to the World Seeds, the planet's deadly atmosphere was mostly clean, the poisonous gases kept miles above ground level. With the thick layer of gases up there, anyone would think the planet was in eternal darkness, or at most in a dim light. But the lowest layer of clouds had a strange brightness, something she found no explanation for. She was sure if the Val were still around she could ask them, but...
Serenity shook her head and focused on the task at hand. She was standing in the center of what had once been a small village. All that was left of it now, was a circle of burnt land and ashes. What kind of weapon could do this? From the few corpses and skeletons she could see, it had caused a large explosion. And if Dragon couldn't sense the attacker, that meant the attack came from the outermost planets, or even from outside their system. She sent a mental message and, a few seconds later, Mana appeared right besides her. "What do you think?"
Mana looked around, then up to the 'sky.' "I think I have a good guess. But we would need to wait for a second attack... If there is one."
Serenity smiled at that. Mana had spent many years reading in the Library, so she had a far better understanding of the Universe than Serenity could ever have. "What do you think happened here?"
"A small planetoid, many times smaller than our Moon or the moons of other planets, may have crashed into the village. The chance for it to happen in a given planet is small, the chance for it to hit right in the middle of a settlement is... Not worth calculating. For it to be large enough to reach the surface and do this..."
"I heard Zen talk about it once," Serenity realized, "he called them 'asteroids' and 'comets.' But I thought they moved around the galaxy naturally?"
"If you wanted to, you could manipulate one of them easily," Mana noted, "and with the proper artifacts, it could be done, without using magic."
"Find whoever did this, and take care of them," Serenity said, "I'm going to bring this village back."
Mana stared at Serenity for a few seconds before nodding. "Don't overdo it."
"I've also been training whenever I could, so I'm stronger than you may think."
Mana looked at the bracelet she always wore. It was one of the things she had found in the Library, one that let her search information from it without having to physically be there.
The Library was actually a large artifact, and one of the reasons the Val had taken a while to abandon their system. There was no way to know who had built it, or why it had been left where it was: Deep underneath the surface of the sun side of the first planet, Mercury. Even that, the names they used for the planets nowadays, were names taken from the Library itself.
It had been a shock for her, to know there might be a race older and wiser than even the Val'harrha, and that such a race would have existed in their system. The World Seeds were mentioned in the Library, and many of their functions explained there, but there was still no explanation for the link between Senshi and planets, or for the Ginzuishou, as Serenity's crystal (and her own) was called in the records, or the crystal swords (which were being called the Dragon Swords nowadays, after her brother.)
She focused in the task at hand. Upon reaching the eleventh planet, Nemesis, Mana had sensed something in the outer limits of the system, past the many small planetoids that the Sun somehow kept around it even at this incredible distance. A spaceship, a single one, which was (she could see it now that she was closing in on it) dragging a large asteroids along.
If she had doubted these aliens' intentions, all doubts would have been cleared as the ship started shooting at her. Energy beams, projectiles, and after the initial barrage failed to knock her down, some manned vehicles shot out of the ship's front. "I suppose they don't like me being here," Mana muttered to herself.
She had started gathering energy as soon as the first barrage hit her, and unleashed an energy wave many times larger than herself. The wave, however, was stopped by something. "They've got shields that strong? Guess I'll have to get serious."
Inside the ship, a group of creatures was looking at the single enemy outside. "What's the readings on that woman?"
"She's no threat to us, sir, not with the power readings we're getting from her."
"Good. However, she seems resistant to our attacks," the ship's captain said. "Use the Slingshot."
"Sir, I don't think wasting energy with the Slingshot to kill a single creature..."
"A single creature who can resist our ship's cannons," the captain noted. "Fire the Slingshot on my mark!"
The creature at the scanner paled. "Sir, there's been a change in the creature's readings..."
"That's unimportant," the captain said.
"But sir, her power's increased a hundred times!"
The captain didn't need to calculate to know what could happen if that creature shot. "Raise shields to maximum power!" Even that, however, was pointless when their enemy shot.
Mana stared at the exploding mess that had been a spaceship minutes earlier. It had been easy, almost too easy. In fact, the only real challenge she had faced since she became a Senshi was Cygale.
Laos appeared right besides her, and took a moment to watch the 'fireworks.' "Tae will be scowling about this for weeks."
"I can almost agree with him. There's nothing challenging out there. I didn't even use half my full power to do this," and she pointed at the now dying explosion near them as she said that last part.
"There's an old saying in my village, 'be careful what you wish for, because you will most certainly get it.'"
"I've heard a similar one once," Mana admitted, "and I know what you mean. But as long as the team is here, I don't think there's anything out there that can defeat us."
Mana smiled as she watched her daughter play. Gala was the first of the third generation of Senshi (no Senshi was older than her, so Serenity was the only first generation Senshi,) and her power was potentially stronger than hers. This came as no surprise for her or her mother, since both could see how things would unfold in the future, and Gala would one day become the strongest Senshi in their universe.
She also knew what else she would have to go through, but knew it couldn't be stopped. Not if they wanted mankind to keep on existing. "It won't be long until her powers awaken."
Laos smiled as he walked into the room. Mana seemed to always know when he was around, and he was sure it wasn't her power letting her do that. "Let's enjoy her normality while it lasts, then."
It had been no surprise for the other Senshi that Mana and Laos had married, they had been living together for many years. He was the Senshi of Death, linked to the planet Saturn, so their daughter... In theory, she would inherit the powers of either of them, or both of them. But for reasons unknown even to her, who had spent countless hours reading the contents of the Library, their daughter's power would be that of the whole galaxy.
But Laos was right, they could enjoy their peace for the time being. What was going to happen in a few decades wouldn't change her love for her daughter.
It wasn't long before some of the other Senshi had children of their own. Mana's brother, Dragon, had two daughters with Hemera. One of them, Kama, was only able to use the power of Light. The other one was a bit like Gala. Mitra, the younger of Dragon's two children, had control over gravity, and nothing else. She was the first Sailor Sun. But, despite the source of her powers, her destiny was darker than anything Mana had seen in her visions.
Mitra's power was abnormally high. Not as high as Gala's, but still amazing. Fighting her wasn't easy, as controlling gravity allowed her to create a 'bubble' around her foes, causing them to fall down, unable to move.
She was right now training with the one who had never before been defeated by her powers. Mana smiled as she watched their battle. Maybe some of the other Senshi felt a bit of jealousy at these two, but she could only be proud of how powerful Gala had become since she turned ten and her powers awakened.
So strong, she could have possibly held her ground against Cygale. With a few more years of training, she would be technically, or even literally, unstoppable. It was good that she was on the side of light, at least for the time being.
"Solar Pull."
One other thing these two (and Kama) had, was the habit of giving their attacks names. A habit that would survive countless generations of Senshi, from what her visions told her.
Gala stood unmoving, but also unaffected by Mitra's gravity attack. "I've told you already it won't do a thing against me," she said, looking at her floating foe. "Philosopher's Rain."
The attack used by Gala was strong, but not strong enough to outright kill Mitra. All the elements combined in her palm, and she slammed it into the ground, causing (contrary to what the attack's name might imply,) an upwards stream of energy to shoot from directly under her foe. Having been at the receiving end of this attack, Mana knew that, while it would not kill Mitra, it would still hurt a lot.
Mitra fell to the ground and groaned. "It's not fair, you cheat."
Hemera walked to her daughter. "Any normal human would tell you that being able to float on your own or cause gravity to rise on a whim is also cheating."
Gala sighed. "I suppose I could use a weaker attack. But we're training to become stronger."
"And it's not her fault you can't dodge," Kama remarked.
Mitra stood up and glared at Kama for a few seconds. "Says the one who can't dodge my attacks."
Several years passed without any real emergency, but things were about to change. Both Mana and Laos had 'heard' the summoning, and had reached the meeting room at almost the same time as the other Senshi. "Mother, what's going on? It's been years since you last called us all this way."
"I called you all here because we are facing a real threat to our system," Serenity said. "An unknown entity's entering our system right now, and approaching Nemesis."
Erebos, the Dragon of Nemesis, nodded at that. "We've sensed it. A dark being is out there."
His sister Nyx looked around the room. "But if you called us all here, then..."
"As I said, it's a real threat. It's going to take all of us to fight this being, if what I'm sensing is true."
Mana reached out with her senses and flinched. "That thing's bigger than Jupiter!"
Gala wasn't the youngest Senshi in the room, but she was the strongest, even though she was one 'level' behind everyone else. "I suppose we should stop it before it reaches Nemesis, then."
Serenity nodded. "This will be the first time Gala, Kama and Mitra join us in a battle. But I'm sure they are more than ready for it."
"Let's not waste another moment," Mana said, "let's go!"
And as suddenly as it had been occupied, the room was empty again.
The creature was something none of them had ever seen, but something Mana had read about. The original name of these beings couldn't be spelled in any of the languages she knew, but the translation to her language was 'World Eater.' A fitting description for what the creature did.
It was, to put it simple, a dark mass of matter, with no visible 'mouth' or any appendage. From what she had read on it, these creatures fed by wrapping themselves around their target, and then dissolving it. She had read of massive weapons being created to fight them, and that most of them had been destroyed by the Ancients (which was the name given to the creators of the World Seed and the Library by humans.) It was probably the last of its species, but that wasn't going to stop the Senshi from eliminating it.
At Serenity's mental command, they all used their strongest attacks against the creature. They didn't damage it, as they all were deflected as soon as they hit the outer limits of the monster. It kept slowly floating towards Nemesis, completely unfazed by the sudden attacks.
Hemera cringed. "It's not possible. A magic shield that resists our strongest attacks?"
Mana looked at the monster. No shield was perfect, it was just a matter of finding its weak points. "Tae, see if you can find any spot in its surface."
"Sure." It took Tae a minute to finally speak up again. "I've found a weak spot, but from my calculations, even our combined power won't breach through it."
Gala thought about it for a few seconds and then smiled. "Maybe if we really combine our powers..."
"What do you mean?" Mana asked.
"A crazy idea I have. I've read about how some beam weapons have a way higher output by having several beams be focused by a catalyst. Maybe our powers could be enhanced that way."
"You mean shooting the attacks right through one of us?"
Gala smiled at Kama. "That's exactly what I mean."
Serenity considered it for a moment. "Whoever the catalyst is, they could be hurt, or worse, in the process."
"I'm willing to take the risk," Gala admitted.
"No, I won't let you do that."
Gala looked at Mana. "Mom, if any of us can be hit by that much power and survive, it's me."
"But still..." Mana looked at the creature, slowly but relentlessly approaching Nemesis. As much as she hated the idea of hurting her daughter, Gala was right. Gala was stronger than Serenity, and in cases like this, raw power meant a lot more than experience. "Fine, we'll follow your plan."
Gala moved towards the creature, then looked back at the others. "I suppose the trick will work much better if all of you hit me at the same time."
"I'll give them the signal," Serenity said, "whenever you're ready."
"Give me your best shot, then."
With Serenity's mental command, all of the Senshi shot their attacks as one, and all the attacks hit Gala at almost the same time. She let out a scream at first, but then fell silent, two large, multicolored energy balls forming in her hands as she smiled. She rose her hands, and the energy washed over her body. "Galactic Storm!"
The attack came from all of Gala's body, and grew as it traveled the distance between her and her foe, until it was many times her height. The beam itself was bright enough, but the creature, once hit, lit up like a second Sun, the explosion that followed was strong enough to send everyone sailing back a good distance.
Mana appeared right next to Gala, who was clutching her chest in pain. "Are you okay?"
"I'll live," Gala said with a small hiss of pain, "but I suppose I underestimated how much power you all have when combined."
"That name, though..."
"What? I also thought about something like 'Planet Attack', but this one didn't sound so silly."
"Your plan went really well, you know. I wonder if the Ancients had a Senshi like you?"
"That would be sad, I've always been proud of being the first Sailor Galaxia."
"Won't say I wasn't expecting you to choose such a name, Gala."
"Hey, it even fits my real name."
The other Senshi had all gathered around them by now. "Think that was the last of those creatures?" Hemera asked.
Mana had already pondered that, and had used her powers to search for an answer. "It will be the only one we'll see," she said.
"Let's return home," Serenity said, "and hope things stay calm for a while."
Things had remained relatively calm for many years after that. But while peace was a good thing for some of the Senshi, it was a bad thing for others. Amongst the strongest Senshi, there were those who had accepted peace and enjoyed it, but others didn't quite seem to feel at ease not having anything to fight against.
Sailor Galaxia and Sailor Sun, the strongest two, had been content with fighting each other when there were no enemies to fight against. Of course, their fights had been never to death, but given the raw power they had, they always fought in the area between planets. It was a bit unsettling to know that some of the Senshi's powers were more than capable of splitting a planet in half. It was even more unsettling to know these two could be hit by that kind of attacks and not suffer much damage from them.
"Solar Vortex!"
Galaxia struggled against the gravitational pull of the attack. She had seen what the attack could do, it had turned a large invasion fleet into a single, impossibly compressed cube of metal, plastic and organic materials. She could possibly resist the gravity at the center of that blast, but she wasn't taking chances.
"Nebula Drain."
It was one of the few defensive techniques Galaxia had, but it was also very effective. A thin, violet 'mist' seeped out of his skin, surrounding her and absorbed the energy of incoming attacks, turning it into raw magic energy. When the mist went back into her body, that energy was added to her own.
"Hmph, again with that," Sun noticed.
"See it as my way of admitting some of your attacks could really hurt me," Galaxia said, "as compared to before we reached this level."
Sun let a frown creep into her face for a few seconds, but she knew her friend was right. Galaxia's power was the highest she had ever seen, and was way out of her league for a long time. But when she reached Aeon level, the strongest level of power for them (as far as she knew,) the difference had been reduced drastically. Actually, most of the Senshi had reached that level in the last few years, through training and combat, and Serenity could defeat Galaxia in a fight.
Galaxia was about to attack, profiting from her friend's daydreaming, when she sensed the mental summon. "Serenity."
Sun nodded. She hadn't sensed it herself, but knew Serenity could call any of them (or all of them) without using any device. It was one of the ways in which Serenity was still superior to them. "Have fun."
"We'll call this a draw," Galaxia noted.
"Heh. Who's counting, anyways?"
Galaxia appeared in the main room of the fortress. It was a large city, built as the main base of the Senshi at first, but soon it had attracted nomads and people from nearby villages. It was nowadays considered the capital city of Earth.
Serenity looked at her. "Were you two trying to kill each other as usual?"
"Yeah," Galaxia said with a smile. It was a joke amongst Senshi, since their powers could be really destructive. In reality, those fights usually stopped at first blood, if not at first hit.
"I've called you here because I know you're not happy just to stay here and fight the odd invasion fleet that shows up every few years."
"That's not..." Gala started, but shook her head. No use in lying to her grandmother. "Yes, but there's nothing I can do about that."
"You know about the colonization project," Serenity said. It wasn't a question, all the Senshi knew about it. "Our objective is to colonize planets outside our system, and we have the means to do that, but the people going on those spaceships are normal humans. Even the ones trained for combat wouldn't be able to face some of the enemies we've seen here... And there might be stronger creatures out there."
Gala guessed what her grandmother was going to say next. "You want me to babysit those colonists, right?"
Serenity paused for a few seconds. "That's... One way to say it. Senshi are protectors, we're meant to protect mankind. You're the strongest of us all, and I have foreseen there will be enemies out there which would overpower most of us."
Gala smiled humorlessly. "It's not something I can give you an answer to just like that."
"I know, the ships aren't leaving for at least another year. I'm not asking you to answer to this request right away."
"I'll think about it, then," Gala said.
"So you're going to leave? For how long?"
"I haven't decided to leave yet," Gala said, "and I don't know how long it would take. Maybe a few years, maybe a few centuries."
"I could go with you."
Gala looked at Mitra and smiled. "I wouldn't mind the company."
"Serenity's right about it being boring around here."
"Maybe we can find another one of those planet-eating things."
"With our current power, I think we could kill one of those in a blink."
"Overconfidence is a flaw, Mitra."
Mitra almost jumped at Serenity's words. It was unnerving, how Serenity could waltz in undetected on anyone. Anyone but Gala's mother, actually.
Serenity smiled seeing Mitra's face. "Yes, I know what you were talking about. I don't know if letting two of the strongest Senshi go is a wise decision, but having you pouting at being left behind would be an even worse one."
Gala laughed as Mitra gave Serenity a halfhearted glare. "I can actually see that happening."
Serenity's smile hid what she was thinking. The dark path these two would be traveling, she had the power to change it, but she would not do it. Some would call it cowardice, to fear what would happen if she altered time, to be afraid of what an archive created by an unknown alien race theorized about time and space, and the consequences of 'breaking' the threads of time.
But changing the future on a whim, knowing what consequences the change may bring, wasn't bravery. There was a thin line between bravery and foolishness, and it was, at times, hard to see. Serenity would not cross it for this particular decision, no matter what.
Gala had, in the end, agreed to help the colonists. She had inherited some of her mother's curiosity, so wanting to see other worlds than the ones she had always been at was natural for her. Mitra's case had a lot more to do with boredom than curiosity, but she was as eager to defend them as Gala was.
And now the two of them were waiting for the last few hours to pass before the ships took off. Gala observed the ships with amusement. Each and every one of them was many times larger than her village. And they had to be, each was meant to take hundreds of humans across the galaxy, at speeds she knew no Senshi could match.
And yet, the closest star was several months away, even at such speeds. "I used to think Garuks were rather fast."
"I doubt Garuks can run faster than light."
Gala looked at Mitra. "We may not see this world again for centuries. Are you really okay with that?"
"Are you?" Mitra asked back.
"Not really. But I feel my place is with these 'colonists', that I will be needed to protect them."
"I've been having the same feeling," Mitra admitted, "maybe that's what Serenity means when she speaks of 'destiny.'"
"We'll see, won't we?"
Mitra shook her head as she walked into the ship's bridge. She had known farewells would be hard, but that had seemed to take forever. In any case, there she was now, aboard one of the ten ships en route to another system, and the ship was starting its final countdown before take-off.
"Everything okay in your side?" Gala asked through the ship's comm. She was in a different ship right now, but they both could 'jump' from ship to ship effortlessly.
"Engines will be starting in a minute," Mitra noted, "this will be the first critical point. If these things manage to take off, we've done half our job."
And the minute ticked away fast. Mitra watched the main screen as the ships left the Earth. Even though she had seen the 'blue planet' from orbit a few times in the past, looking down at it still felt overwhelming. And knowing they were not going to come back for a long time made her feel uneasy.
As she looked at the screen, she noticed something amiss. "Seven, what's your situation?"
"Engines shut down on their own," the ship's captain said, "I'm having my crew figure out the problem."
They were outside the Earth's gravity well now, which was both a good and a bad thing. They wouldn't be crashing down on the planet, but with no engine, they would be drifting through space for a while. "Let me see what I can do to fix it," she finally said after a few seconds.
She phased to the seventh ship and looked around. They were all identical ships, all based in Ancient technology recorded in the Library of Mercury. While she was admiring the scenery, the captain walked to her. "There was an energy leak as soon as we broke out of Earth's atmosphere. The mana cells are almost completely depleted."
Mitra looked at the woman. "Know the cause of the problem?"
"A problem with the cells themselves. From what I gather, we're lucky the ship didn't explode during take-off. The problem's fixed now, but we're still out of power."
"That won't be a problem," Mitra noted, "show me where the energy is stored."
The captain walked to one of the computers, pushing a few buttons until a map of the spaceship was shown in its screen. "There, all the way back, right above the engines."
"Good, I'll fix this in a minute," Mitra said and vanished, leaving a slightly confused captain to wonder what she had in mind.
She appeared right next to the energy cells, and the crew working on them looked at her surprised, but recognized her almost immediately. Mitra put a hand on one of the cells and smiled. They were all connected, which made her plan easier to complete. She concentrated, and those around her could see a thin white aura around her arm, as energy passed from her body to the ship's reserve.
"Amazing," the captain's voice said from a comm device in one of the walls, "energy's up to a hundred percent!"
Mitra appeared right next to the captain, who tried to look like she wasn't surprised (now Mitra could see why Serenity loved doing this.) "I just fed the cells with a bit of my own energy reserves."
"A bit?" the captain asked, "you don't look tired at all."
"I could refill all ten ships without much trouble," Mitra noticed. "I'll go back to Two, if you notice anything wrong during the Jump, let me know."
"Will do, Sailor Sun."
Mitra smiled as she reappeared in the second ship. It was quite amusing, how normal humans were told just how strong the Senshi were, yet they kept on being astounded by such simple things as them being able to recharge a spaceship's energy without breaking a sweat.
"Is Seven okay?" Gala asked through the comm.
"There was an energy leak, it's fixed now, but I warned the captain about keeping an eye on the readings."
"We should have all other ships run tests, just in case."
"Agreed. How long until we can make the jump?"
"A couple hours before we're far enough from Nemesis. After that, we have a couple years of boredom until we reach the nearest star."
"Does it have any inhabitable planets?" Mitra asked.
"We'll know when we get there."
Their journey had been quite uneventful, or to say it in the words of Mitra, boring as khlan. But now they were finally there, making their final approach to Nue, as the closest star to their 'sun' had been labeled. The planet they were going to investigate had been named Nue Terra, the Earth of Nue. If everything went as planned, it would be the first of many worlds.
Both Gala and Mitra knew settling and terraforming the planet would take at least a decade. Serenity hadn't lied to them about that, they would be trading defending one planet for defending another, but in this case, they would be the only Senshi in the planet.
"I guess it wasn't just a trick of the eye."
Gala looked at the monitors, showing a view of the large, orange and blue planet. "I would make a guess either the ground is orange, or most of the local vegetation is responsible for that." The Earth's only satellite, after all, had silvery white trees and flowers, and even most of its animals were white.
"We've scanned the atmosphere," the captain noted, "and there's nothing there that could be harmful to humans. There's a bit more oxygen than there was on Earth, but the numbers vary from planet to planet."
Besides the distance, one deciding factor for choosing Nue Terra as their first colonization target was that the planet's atmosphere appeared to be close to Earth's own. "What about the planet's tint?" Mitra asked after looking at the screen for several seconds.
"Some sort of fungi, it's spread throughout all the planet. And as far as we can see, it's the only native life form."
"What about the oceans?"
"There's fungi in there too, but not enough to paint it orange. It's strange, the planet doesn't look young, but the only life form in it is a primitive one."
"There may be a reason for that," Mitra guessed. "I think it would be wise to scout the surface before we land."
"I'll gather a small group of soldiers and researchers," the captain noted.
"It should be just us two," Gala noted.
"But if something down there is harmful to humans, we will not know about it if it's just you two down there."
Mitra looked at Gala, who shrugged. "I guess you're right. We'll do our best to protect those men."
"That's all I'm asking," the captain admitted.
"This planet looks like a desert."
Galaxia had to agree to the soldier's words. The planet's temperature was slightly higher than that of Earth, if the current weather was any indication. She scanned the area around them with her eyes, and her mind. Her eyes only saw the orange 'sea' of fungi, but her mind was able to 'listen' to what the fungi were 'thinking.' She could see it was like one single organism formed by trillions of 'cells' and if what she was feeling from it could be translated, the only word it's 'mind' would be thinking about right now would be 'kill.'
Sun saw Galaxia's face. It wasn't often that she saw her friend worried, so she knew things were about to turn 'fun' for them. "Gala?"
"This fungus, this creature, isn't friendly," Galaxia explained. "In fact, it sees us as contamination. It wants us--"
"Dead," one of the soldiers said in a monotone. "Intruders. Dead. Leave."
Sun noticed the eyes of the soldier had an orange tint. "What the heck..."
"Planet. Ours," one of the scientists said, also in an emotionless voice.
"Gala, can you heal them?"
Galaxia reached out with her senses. "Yes, but if they stay here..."
"Take them back to One," Sun said.
"Wait, what are you..."
"Something stupid," Sun admitted. "That organism might kill them, but if they stay here, they will die for sure."
"Okay, I'll take them back to the ship then. Good luck."
Sun looked around. She could feel that... Thing, trying to sneak in. She could guess how it did it. Spores floating in the air, all around them, and once they got inside any living being, they would grow fast, taking over. They probably fed off the beings they took over, too, which would explain why there were no animals or trees anywhere.
Magic was protecting her from these spores, but normal humans were, as they had just seen, easily taken over by them. So mankind and this creature couldn't live peacefully in this world. They could leave and look for another suitable planet, but this one was good enough, if only they could get rid of the native, hostile life form.
"I don't know if the others would agree with this," she mused, then closed her eyes, calling forth a part of her powers she seldom used. Being a Senshi of the Sun, her control over gravity was second to none, but it also gave her control over another kind of energy, which had been called 'radiation' by the Ancients, and was one of the things that, in theory, created life. But too much radiation could also destroy life. She knelt down, placing both hands on the ground and opened her eyes, as a thin golden aura surrounded her.
She had no name for this technique, as she never thought she would use it. In a matter of seconds, a wave of radiation washed over the whole planet, which shone with an eerie golden glow.
"Mitra, what are you doing?"
Sun looked up to see Galaxia standing there. "Taking care of the problem."
Galaxia looked around, and went pale. "You killed it... All of it."
Sun stood up, radiation flooding back into her body as her attack ended. "We can live in this world now."
Galaxia shook her head, her face showing she was not happy about what her friend had done. "You say you took care of the problem? We are the problem!"
"We were sent to colonize a new world, weren't we?"
"So we'll just rush in and kill whatever is living in it first? How does that make us different to the invaders we've fought?"
Sun gave Galaxia a short glare, but then looked down. "Damn it all, you're right. I thought a primitive life form like that fungi was just wasting a good planet, but... We are quite primitive compared to some of the races that tried to invade our worlds."
Galaxia let out a long sigh. "What's done is done. It wasn't the right thing to do, and I would have definitely thought of another solution. Besides, you didn't eliminate all of it."
Sun's eyes widened. "What happened to the scout team?"
"They're okay, but since I couldn't kill the parasites without killing them, I simply phased the parasites out of their bodies, and put them in a safe container." Galaxia explained. "The humans seem to be recovering, but we'll only be sure after watching them for a couple days, at least."
"So we just put the fungus back in this planet and move on."
"We could do that. But one of the moons of the thirteenth planet of this system has everything these guys need to grow, and no oxygen."
"You mean they don't feed on living beings?"
"The... Creature, it remembers the last living being in this world dying 'many cycles ago' which I suppose refers to years. And this planet's orbit makes it take several of our years to make a full turn around its star."
"It couldn't have survived for that long, you say, without food?"
"Probably. It seems to feed on minerals and some gases."
"Then let's put it in that moon."
"You do that, I'll tell everyone the planet's safe."
Sun looked at the small, black box. "You want me to go release that thing..."
"Yes."
"What would stop me from also destroying it?"
"Your conscience," Galaxia said, then vanished.
Sun smiled at the spot where Galaxia had been standing. "I hate it when you're right."
The first few weeks were quite active. The group had been busy moving out from the ships, finding the materials to build a settlement, preparing the soil for farming. The two Senshi, meanwhile, had been busy exploring the surrounding worlds.
Nue Terra was the sixth planet as far as distance from Nue went. Galaxia and Sun were right now on the 'sun' side of the innermost planet. The heat was annoying to them, but not deadly. For normal humans, however, this world would be deadly. The ground itself was so hot it would melt their skin and flesh away in seconds.
But this was the last planet they had to check. And their search had been for naught. There were no World Seeds in any planet but Nue Terra. Mana had mentioned one theory to them, that the Seeds were directly linked to life, making it easier for life to form in any planet that had them.
"Quite different from our system, isn't it?"
"It sure is," Galaxia said, looking up at the sky, which was mostly occupied by Nue, "and speaking of our system, I suppose it's time to test something else."
Sun shook her head at that. "I don't know if it's wise, Gala."
"You can stay here, if you're scared."
"I'm not scared, I just said it wasn't wise."
Galaxia smiled and closed her eyes. "Ready?"
Sun closed her eyes as well. "Yes."
"Now!" Galaxia said, and both of them vanished.
Serenity was surprised by the sudden guests. "What are you two doing here?"
"Testing the limits of our teleportation skill. Or, should I say, the lack of limits."
Sun smiled at Galaxia. "You were right."
"Serenity, the colonization project's working as expected. It won't take more than a decade to have a stable colony there. And the planet's far larger than Earth, so we could have millions of humans there eventually."
"What about the wildlife?" Serenity asked.
Galaxia looked at Sun, then at Serenity. "There was none."
Serenity didn't say a thing, but she knew they were hiding something from her. "Stay there and protect the planet. If things work as expected, those born in that world could have a connection with planets of that system."
"You mean new Senshi could be born for Nue Terra?" Sun asked in surprise.
"I admit I forgot to warn you about that," Serenity noticed, "but I don't think anyone other than Mana and me knows about it."
"Any other thing you know that we should know about?"
Serenity looked at Galaxia for a few seconds before shaking her head. "That's all I have to warn you about." Or, rather, that was all she could warn them about.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?"
Galaxia smiled. "Mitra, we've been friends for too many years to count. I know I can trust you with Nue Terra while I'm gone."
Nue Terra was a proper world now. Several cities had been founded by the colonists, and there had been no alien attack in well over a decade. Two generations of children had been born in this new world, and Sun knew of at least five possible Senshi candidates. It was time to look for new worlds to colonize.
But indirect observation wasn't good enough. It had led them to a world populated by a strange organism, and it could lead them to something worse next time. And much despite herself, she knew Galaxia was right, if anyone could face whatever was out there, it would be her. But it still didn't make it easy for her.
"I will stay and keep this world safe until you come back, Gala."
"Good to know. And don't worry, I'll come visit often."
Mankind as a whole was bad at waiting. As soon as Galaxia's first report on the apparent emptiness of the surrounding systems was heard, preparations had started to send more ships out, and there were six more colonies around Terra Nue now.
Mitra watched a spaceship land close to the capital's main building. Trading between colonies had soon started, and it benefited them all. Terra Nue was short in firewood, but had plenty of minerals to trade for it. And this ship from Arcana, the fifth colony, was loaded with firewood, and would leave with the same volume of minerals once negotiations were done.
She sometimes regretted not following Gala, but she had promised to keep this world safe, and she would not break that promise.
"Lady Mitra, what's in your mind?"
She turned to Zaera, one of the newest Senshi, the Senshi of Nue Laren, the outermost planet of the Nue system. The Senshi in this system had a mostly different set of abilities, like control over poison, but Zaera had control over wind and air itself.
"I'm just thinking about how much things have changed."
"I can't even imagine what life would be like in Earth."
"Pretty much the same as here, but with much more water and volcanoes. In any case," she said smiling at the (much) younger woman, "I'm supposed to test your skills, not be daydreaming, so I apologize."
"There's no need to apologize, Lady Mitra."
"You can drop the 'Lady' part when no civilians are around," Mitra said, "after all, you're already one of us."
Zaera blinked at that. "I thought I wouldn't be an official Senshi until after this test?"
"The test is just a formality... Which doesn't mean I won't be fighting for real."
"So you won't hold back?"
Mitra smiled at that. "I haven't used my full power for many years, Zaera. If I fought all out against Sailor Daein, the oldest of this sytem's Senshi, I could defeat her with one single attack. Against someone of your level? I don't need to move."
Zaera's face went paler and paler with each of Mitra's words. She could feel it, the power being gradually released, until feeling it wasn't needed. She could see the magic aura around the elder Senshi. "That much power... It's impossible."
"Nothing's impossible for us Senshi," Mitra said, "but you shouldn't even dream of fighting me at full power unless you reach my level."
"I realize that now. But how can I hope to pass this test against someone so..." Zaera stopped as she felt Mitra's power weakening, and fast. "... That's amazing."
"If I walked around the planet showing off my full power, I'm sure a lot of people would start fearing me," she explained as she 'lowered' her power enough. It was still there, all of it, but she was only using a small fraction of it. A very small fraction. "This will be enough to test you," she added as she motioned the other woman to attack her.
-----
"As the Zles of Nue Terra, I would like to thank you for your many years of service, Lady Mitra."
Mitra nodded at the man. An old man, whom she had seen crawling around as a baby in the past. He was right, many years had passed, and to her they passed too fast. It had been several decades since Galaxia last visited them, but she could wait for her for as long as it took. Besides, she had found new friends in the Nue Senshi, and they all saw her as a mentor, and respected her.
As she walked out of the Zlesar, the central government building for Nue Terra, her senses warned her about something. Something evil, and insanely powerful. As that something landed right in front of her, she couldn't help but let out a gasp.
The being standing in front of her was a Senshi, her suit torn and dirty, her hair a mess, and her eyes lifeless. "Nice world you have here, hope you don't mind me destroying it," she said as she looked at Sailor Sun.
Apparently this being wasn't bothering with stealth, Sun realized as she sensed the other Senshi appearing all around her. "Guys, watch out. This one is above Aeon level."
Sailor Laren nodded. "Looks like a challenge."
The unknown Senshi laughed at that. "A challenge? Only three of you are close to my power, this will hardly be enough for me!"
Sun shook her head. "Close to your power? Damn rookie." She let out her real power, and smiled as the newcomer backed away. "Last warning, get out of this system or I'm going to beat you down, kid."
"Beat me down? That's cute, and I'd love to fight you, but let me take care of the bugs first." There really was no time for them to react. The new Senshi seemed to vanish, and the Nue Senshi all fell to the ground in only a couple seconds. "Hmph, that was hardly amusing," she said as she licked the blood off her hands.
Sun looked around in shock. All her team was down, each of them had a hole where their heart should have been, and was lying in a pool of blood. "Why..."
More laughter from the evil Senshi. "Why? Because I can. Because I enjoy it. Don't tell me you never felt the thrill of ending a life? It must have been a boring life for you."
Sun closed her eyes. No, giving in to rage would only get her killed, this one was close enough to her level to be able to do it. "What is your name, monster?"
"If you must know... I come from one of the innermost colonized planets, a world fittingly named Chaos. I've been destroying Senshi ever since my world was destroyed."
"What? Was your world destroyed by a Senshi?"
The woman's smile was almost mocking. "Of course it was. I did it."
"No... Senshi are warriors of good, they are meant to defend mankind, not destroy it. How could someone like you become one of us?"
"I am Sailor Chaos, but I'm not really human. I wasn't human at first, but I existed in Chaos way before your pitiful race started polluting the galaxy. This girl's power attracted me, and I realized I could use her, I could have fun thanks to her and her power."
"So you took over her body?"
"I did much more than that, little human. This girl's name was Eris, she had a family and friends, and all those things you inferior beings seem to value so much. Using her body and powers to destroy them, one by one, forcing her to watch me do it... It was the most fun I've had in centuries, I admit."
Sun growled at Chaos, who seemed to be sincerely amused by what she was telling her. "You are a monster, I will destroy you for all you've done!"
"Oh, but of course. You will destroy me and avenge your friends. I've heard that plenty of times."
"Don't bluff, creature. I can read your body language, and I know you're not so sure of your victory as you say. I'm not just another Senshi, I'm from the original world. One of the first, one of the strongest, and one of the eldest Senshi alive."
"You're saying those of your world are stronger than any other Senshi?" Chaos asked, in a tone that was almost gleeful. "Can't wait to go there!"
"You'll go nowhere, monster, because I'm going to defeat you here and now."
"See, you've got quite a handicap here, human. I've fought many of you before, and you're all fearful of unleashing your real power, because that could destroy your worlds. I, however, have no such fear."
Sun smiled at that. "You're saying that if I don't destroy you along with this world, you'll destroy it anyways, right?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Good," Sun said, her tone cold. "Solar Armageddon!"
A large wave of energy shot forth, hitting Chaos head-on. But there was no explosion, no devastation, no collateral damage done. Sun was far above any other Senshi, and just like Galaxia, she could focus her whole power in one target, without damaging anything else.
Chaos stood up and laughed, despite the blood pouring out of her mouth. "Yes! This is incredible! I never thought someone could have this much power, and this much control!"
"Don't praise me, monster. You're about to die."
"This body's pretty much done, I know," Chaos agreed, "so I'll just have to look for a new one. And I've found a perfect candidate."
Sun glared at her foe. "You'll never get me, monster!"
Chaos saw Sun preparing to attack again and laughed. "You're gonna finish this so soon? But we're having so much fun!"
"Solar Armageddon!"
Chaos was ready for it this time, and blocked the blast with a shield of her own, causing an explosion which literally vaporized the city around them. "Now, now, if you go all out, you'll start breaking my toys before I can play with them!"
If Sun's glare had been backed by magic, it could have punched a hole through Chaos' head. "You must be destroyed, monster. No matter what."
Chaos let a smirk slip into her face for a few seconds. "Even if you have to become a monster yourself?"
"No matter what," Sun repeated as she prepared another attack.
The enemy in front of her was different to anything she had ever fought. She had clearly underestimated her, this evil Senshi wasn't something she would be able to defeat easily. In a way, she had always believed Senshi to be invincible, but in this case, whether or not that was true was a moot point. "Tell me, monster, how many worlds have you destroyed?"
Chaos saw her opponent was trying to buy some time, but she didn't mind. "I never found any group of Senshi as strong as the ones back home, so I just didn't bother. There's something to be said about a real challenge, no number of easy fights will amuse me as much as a single challenging battle."
"Can't say I don't agree with that," Sun admitted, "but that doesn't mean I will forgive you for what you've done."
Chaos smiled at that. "I know, and I am looking forwards to that. Know what made it easier to control this girl? It's quite simple. She was the weakest Senshi of the system, and she eventually grew to hate all other Senshi for it. Her hatred was like a beacon of darkness for me, I just couldn't ignore it. So hate me, Sailor Sun, hate me for all I've done to you!"
Sun shook her head. "No. My mentors always told me hatred and rage were a warrior's worst enemies in a battle. I will not let them control me."
"Good, I was afraid you would give up before I could have some fun," Chaos said. "Chaotic Ender."
Sun was knocked back by the attack, a large energy wave shooting out from Chaos' body in every direction. She stood up and saw the area around them was a scorched wasteland now. "What have you done to the city?"
"The city?" Chaos let out a chuckle. "Check again, Mitra."
Sun reached out with her senses, and her face went pale. "No. The whole planet is..."
"Returned to its purest form," Chaos said, "a lifeless rock."
"Damn you, monster!"
Chaos smiled mockingly as Sun rushed to her. "There, girl, now you're hating me for real. I was waiting for this."
Sun saw Chaos wasn't moving, and frowned, stopping meters away from her. "What... Are you giving up?"
"Destroy me, Sailor Sun. It is your fate to do so, it is what your heart and mind both desire, it is what I deserve. Destroy me. And then you will become me!"
Sun's movement was too fast for even Chaos to follow, and she was already clutching Chaos' throat, crushing it with her bare hand, before the monster finished her sentence. It only took her a few seconds, and the noise of breaking bones, along with the blood flowing out of Chaos' mouth, signaled Sailor Chaos' death. "I will never be like you, monster."
She turned to walk away, but something made her freeze. 'You will never be like me, you say? That's priceless. I can now see you nearly exterminated a whole species, and never felt any remorse about it.'
"That's not true, I could have finished them off when Gala..."
'You did not, out of fear of Gala. You've always feared what she would think of you if you stopped caring about her stupid rules and morals.'
"No! Get out of my mind, monster!"
'I'm afraid I can't do that. The darkness in you makes Sailor Chaos look like a weakling, I was quite aware from the moment we started fighting that I would lose. Or, rather, that Sailor Chaos would lose.'
"... It was all a trap?"
'Yes, and you fell for it the moment you let your rage take over.'
"Now if you excuse me, I have someone to visit. Someone you know." Sun's voice was different now, colder.
'What? No! I won't let you do this!'
"You will, Mitra. And you will have to watch me do it."
Mana appeared right next to Serenity, who wasn't surprised at all to see her arrive that way. "I suppose you sensed her too," the Queen said. It wasn't a question, as she knew Mana's senses were as keen as hers.
"We will do whatever it takes to defeat her."
"And so will I. But I fear the outcome of this battle is decided already."
"Doesn't mean we should just give up without trying," Mana noted, with a smile.
The Senshi all appeared near them, and they were all looking up at the sky. "The computers detected an entity approaching the system. It's stronger than anything we've ever faced before," Laos commented.
Serenity nodded. "It's Mitra... But it's not her anymore. You will understand when you see her."
And it took their foe only a minute to reach them. Sailor Sun looked around and nodded. "I see there's a few more Senshi around than last time I visited. That's good, maybe you will be a challenge."
Serenity stared at Sun. "You're not Mitra. Mitra's gone, and I will destroy the one who killed her."
"Mitra's gone? What does she mean?" One of the newest Senshi asked.
"That's not Sailor Sun," Laos, who could sense souls, or the lack of one, explained, "I can't see any traces of her left. Whatever this thing is, it's not Mitra."
"Aw, that spoils the fun a bit," Sun said with mock disappointment, "but that's enough yapping from you weaklings, let's get this party started."
Gala stared up to the sky and sighed. How many years had passed since the last time she visited Earth, or even Terra Nue? She wasn't sure. It was easily a decade since last time, maybe even a century. Time passed fast for immortals like her, and she had been alone all along, alone with her thoughts. In her exploration of the galaxy, she had found almost no sentient beings, and the few sentient ones were primitive species, unable to leave their home world, and sometimes unaware there was anything for them to explore beyond the limits of their sky. It would take them too long to reach the stars, and by then, mankind would be everywhere.
She had always thought the Galaxy would be like a valley, full of different civilizations. What she had found, however, was a desert, a desert of stars, and that was both depressing and encouraging. Mankind would have nearly no rivals in the race for the galaxy. Thanks to the Library, mankind had advances no other race had, and they also had Senshi.
She looked southwards. Yes, she still remembered it clearly, she knew where the original worlds were. And so, her next stop (and hopefully final, at least for the time being,) would be Terra Nue.
Sailor Galaxia had seen a lot, and had been surprised by nothing. But upon arriving on Terra Nue, what she found was something she had not expected. The planet was a wasteland, no living creature was anywhere to be found, no traces of any of the tall buildings that had been built through the centuries of human expansion. It was impossible, no space-faring race she had met had this kind of power, and she had explored most of the galaxy.
A thought formed in the back of her mind, but she silenced it quickly. She would have to ask Serenity about it, surely the Earth Senshi knew about this and would know what had happened to Mitra and the colonists. She was aware mankind had begun expanding on its own while she was exploring, so Terra Nue was just one of many worlds. But to her, this world was very important. "Where are you, Mitra?"
Galaxia didn't bother trying to make sense of things. She instead phased directly to Earth, right to where the ancient capital city... Should have been. Galaxia was too shocked to speak by now, too confused to be able to figure out what was going on. The Earth was in nearly the same state as Terra Nue. And reaching out with her senses, she could only detect one life form in the whole planet. A creature of pure evil and hatred.
And as the creature appeared near her, she realized the surprises weren't done yet. And this one was as unpleasant as any surprise she had in the last few minutes. "Mitra?"
"Gala, it sure took you long enough to come back. As you can see, I've been busy redecorating."
Galaxia stared at her friend. Her eyes were devoid of emotions, and her power... It rivaled hers. She could easily guess what had happened to these planets (for she was sensing none of the planets of the Solar System had life in it anymore,) but why would Mitra do it?
"If you had been there when I needed you, Gala, then none of this would have happened," Sun said, guessing her thoughts, "but no, you had to go and leave me behind. Such a friend you were."
"Mitra, I..."
"Shut up!"
Galaxia had grown stronger while exploring, and had kept training herself. But Sun... Sun's power was many times stronger than she remembered. And the gravity wave she was unleashing, it could be strong enough to destroy the Earth. "Damn!"
Sun saw Galaxia vanish and growled. "Running away, are you?" She looked up and smiled. "I won't let that happen."
Galaxia saw her friend appear in front of her and stared at her emotionlessly. She had already figured out what was wrong with Sun. "You're not Mitra."
Sun smiled in amusement. "I'm impressed, you're the second person to ever figure it out before I told them. First one was your grandmother. But I hope you're not as weak as she was."
Galaxia kept her cool. "What happened to Mitra?"
"I took over her body and erased her. Erased her 'soul' as your race calls the core of living beings. She put up quite a fight, though, you should be proud of your friend for that."
"I'm not like any of the others. Defeating me won't be so easy."
"Oh, I'm quite aware of that, dear Gala. I'm like you Senshi in a way, I love to fight enemies stronger than me, just for the challenge."
"A monster like you, who would destroy an entire system just for fun, comparing yourself to us? We will never be like you!"
"Then I'll defeat you, and move on until there's no other Senshi but me. And if I have to devastate half the galaxy to do it, then so be it."
"Your plan sounds good, except for one thing. You won't defeat me."
"That's what Serenity and Mana said, too. I'll make sure you beg for your life in the end, just like they did."
"Why you..."
'Gala, don't! If you let rage control you, Chaos will consume you.'
Galaxia looked around. That was Mitra's voice! "What was..."
"I guess some of that brat's soul still remains. Maybe watching me defeat you will make her give up for good."
"So you go around looking for stronger beings to take over, forever afraid of not being the strongest being ever? I pity you, Chaos. Do you even remember who you really are?"
"All you need to know is that I'm the one who killed everyone you ever cared about. And one way or another, I'll destroy you too, in the end."
"I'm sorry, but I'm not going to let anger control me."
"Is that so? Let's stop talking and start fighting, then."
"About time," Galaxia snapped back.
Sun rose her hand and pointed her open palm at Galaxia. A large ball of plasma shot from it, hitting Galaxia dead on... And causing no damage to her.
Galaxia smiled. "Sun may have trained while I was away, but so did I. Let me show you my real power."
Sun saw Galaxia vanish and frowned. "What, running away again?"
"I didn't teleport," Galaxia said, the voice coming from all around Sun.
"What kind of cheap trick is this?"
"It's no trick. I just move so fast, none of your senses will know where I am."
"That's impossible."
"Nothing's impossible for us. If you really were a Senshi, you would know."
Sun extended her arms to her side, and an explosion of energy shot in all directions. Still, she could feel it, none of it had hit Galaxia. How was that possible?
Before she could figure it out, however, she was knocked back by Galaxia. A split second later, another hit came from behind, and then from the side. In less than ten seconds, she lost count of the times Galaxia had hit her. "So strong, this is wonderful!"
Galaxia appared right in front of her, and started punching with all her force, each blow knocking her foe further back, and closer to the Sun itself. "Shut up, hearing you use her voice makes me sick."
Sun stared at her in shock as she realized her plan. "What are you trying to pull, Gala?"
"Ever been close to a star? I've been near one far smaller than our Sun, and it took me a great deal of effort to get away from it. Killing you for what you did would not be a dire enough punishment. I'll trap you forever inside the Sun instead."
Sun tried desperately to gather energy for a shot, but Galaxia was faster, much faster. It took her several more blows to drag her foe close enough to the star, but once she got to the right place, gravity did the rest... And not even a Senshi with control over gravity could fight against a star's power, apparently.
Galaxia grimaced as she saw her foe vanishing through the star's surface. Finally, Sun could rest in peace. But what would she do now? Everything she cared about was gone, thanks to that Chaos creature. No, she still had a duty to defend mankind, and... She focused and realized a terrible truth. She could detect no Senshi in this part of the galaxy.
'What can I say, Gala... I guess I did a thorough cleaning of that one pest.'
"What? Where are you?"
'I'll just say your mind looks like a nice place to take over, girl.'
"I defeated you, and I kept my anger in check. You should be trapped inside the Sun right now."
'Not showing it doesn't mean that you're not feeling it.'
It couldn't end like this, she wouldn't allow it. But still, while in the physical plane she was the strongest being ever, her mental skills weren't quite as good, and she could already feel Chaos clawing at her mind. "I won't let you harm anyone else," Galaxia snapped and vanished.
She appeared else where, in what she knew was an empty cluster of the galaxy, one closer to the 'edge' of it than the Earth. "There's things I've learnt through my journey, which you wouldn't understand. I won't let you use my power for evil, Chaos."
'There is nothing you can do to stop me. Soon your mind will be mine, and your soul will be gone.'
"You may be right about that last part, but I can do something to stop you." She closed her eyes, concentrating and calling upon an ability she never thought she would use. A risky one for her, but it didn't matter, the end result for Chaos would be bad. "My mission is to protect mankind, and I will do just that, even if I die." And as she said that last word, she vanished once again.
She was confused. One moment earlier she had been somewhere near the Sun, but now... No, she couldn't sense anything familiar about her surroundings. And it seemed her senses had dulled down, somehow. "What did she do?" Sailor Galaxia, or rather Chaos, asked to the emptiness around her.
To the side, she could see a triple star, but the system was one without planets. It didn't matter, it was just a matter of finding out which part of the galaxy she was in, and then see if there was anything out there still capable of stopping her.
As she rushed away from the trio of stars, she realized something else. She couldn't reach the same speed Galaxia had shown her during their fight. No, not even a fraction of that. And after a few minutes of testing, she knew that every aspect of Galaxia's powers had been greatly diminished. "So this is what she meant when she said she could stop me."
The feeling was impossible to describe. Chaos knew Galaxia's powers were, at their fullest, impossible to fight against. But what was left of Galaxia's power now, it was barely enough for her to be considered a Holy Senshi.
It took her a long time to find out where she was, and she didn't like what she saw. Making it far enough from the galaxy to see it's shape must have taken her weeks, and before that, months passed without her knowing exactly where to go. But once she saw it, she knew Galaxia had won in more than one way. This galaxy was a shapeless, if slightly circular, cloud. Chaos knew Galaxia had managed to fly 'out' of the galaxy before, and the shape was that of a helix. Moving to the closest galaxy would take her... No, she didn't dare trying to estimate that. And, she realized, she couldn't see any galaxy around with a shape similar to what 'she' remembered.
Even though Sailor Galaxia wasn't able to defeat Chaos... It would be an eternity before she could go back 'home.' But did she really want to go back there? 'Her' memories showed her no challenges, no beings other than the Senshi were worth fighting against, and the Senshi were gone now. She had to find something else to fight, and become stronger and stronger until she became the strongest being in the universe.
Her purpose had been, at first, to cause pain and suffering, but after she tasted power like that of Sailor Sun, her priorities had changed. Still, if any civilization she found had no worthy opponents for her, she'd have to punish them all... As she had punished countless worlds in the past.
No, Galaxia had not won after all. Chaos was still alive, and would continue doing what she did best, until she found someone who could stop her. "If I ever find someone like that," Chaos said before flying back into the cloudy galaxy.
The small girl looked up to the sky and smiled. Sailor Galaxia was no more, at least not as a single entity. Gala could still sense that monster, out there, but it was too far away to be a threat to mankind. In her current form, despite still being powerful, Gala knew she could not protect mankind from all outside threats. Senshi would be needed in the future. And if Chaos returned, Senshi would need to be really strong, both in body and mind.
She had summoned all the Dragon Swords, artifacts which would, in the future, choose their new Senshi. She had hidden all the swords, sending each of them to its home planet, and only someone with the potential to become a Senshi would be able to find them. But for the time being, the Senshi were gone, and mankind would have to defend itself until a new generation of them appeared.
Gala was tired, very tired, but knew her journey had only started. She started floating away, looking down at the planet she had called home for one last time before she sped up, leaving the Solar System within minutes.
The man walked in and saw something he had seen many times in the last few years. The faces of those around him were prime examples of skepticism. It was amusing to him to know most of these so-called men of science were so eager to discard any ideas that contradicted the recorded words of other so-called men of science, who had lived thousands of year before their time.
One of them rose from his seat and his face became neutral in a split second. "Scout Perdot, we've read your reports and we find some parts of them, to say it lightly, quite disturbing."
"Everything in those reports are things I observed while exploring the galaxy, Mental Ariane."
Another man stood up, visibly upset by the Scout's words. "Your theories have little solid base, as a quick glance through the Ancient Tomes will prove."
"And yet, if someone goes out there and sees things for themselves, then the solid base will present itself to them."
Ariane was an old man, and yet he had never seen such a Scout before. Scouts always respected the Tomes, and checked their observations against them. What this young man was doing by not following the unspoken rule, was to insult the ancestry of all mankind.
But still, Ariane knew the law. A Scout's report had to be analyzed in detail, and if any divergence from the Tomes was found, then other Scouts could be sent there to either confirm or reject the previous Scouting.
"We will do as you say, because that's the standard procedure in a case like this. But be aware that your report contradicts one of mankind's most accepted facts. Should it be found to be a false Scouting, then the consequences..."
"I am well aware of that, Mental Ariane," the Scout admitted, "and I would have kept silent about it if I wasn't truly convinced what I discovered is the truth, and that it will only benefit the Imperium to know about it."
"And if it really is, then it will be inscribed in the Tomes," Ariane said. He wasn't holding his breath for that happening, however. The last known edit of the Tomes had been five thousand years earlier.
Perdot walked through the streets of his home city and could feel something was strange. Maybe he was spending too much time away from it, because it didn't feel like 'home' to him anymore. It wasn't unheard of for Scouts to become detached from their home worlds, but he wasn't even twenty-five solar years old yet, so it wasn't supposed to happen to him yet.
However... He had spent the last three solar years away. His journey was meant to last for the regular two months, but after he found that, he couldn't return without knowing if it was true, or a very good practical joke from one of his fellow Scouts.
"Anris Perdot, is that you?"
He stopped dead and turned to the voice. "Shara?" Yes, it was her, even after all these years, she still looked the same. "How did you know I was back?"
"Because Ariane told me you had arrived," the woman said.
"Ariane... So you're the one assigned to my case."
Shara nodded, a slight frown forming in her face. "Truth is, I was hoping to spend some time with my family."
"I'm sorry," Perdot said sincerely.
"Don't be, it's Ariane's fault for choosing me when there's many other Scouts in Serine."
Perdot smiled. "You're that good, I suppose."
"No, I also don't get along too well with the Mentals."
"Don't they fear you would agree with me out of spite?"
"I suppose they know I won't be too eager to agree with your Scouting, since I'm already walking on thin ice, so to speak."
"Good thing I know you won't let personal issues cloud your judgement."
Shara smiled at that, "well, Anris, I don't know about that. You most likely had planned to run away again without telling your best friend you were home."
Perdot sighed, said "home..." and looked up to the sky.
He couldn't deny he had wondered what kind of Scout he would have to team up with, but now that he knew, a lot of his nervousness had worn off. And as the moment of leaving Serine drew closer, he felt incredibly calm. He knew what he had written in his Scouting reports was the truth, it was just a matter of convincing the Mentals about it.
He knew what the Tomes said, but also what it didn't say, what the common people chose to ignore. Yes, the Golden Imperium, the domains of mankind, had existed for an untold time. And all through its recorded history, there had been men in each and every one of its worlds. It was an accepted 'truth' that mankind was a mix of many all-too-similar species, somehow spread through most of the Galaxy.
"Your Scouting, if true, will change history from its roots," Shara commented.
"Now, miss Leor, I think you should wait until I show you what I've found, until you start discussing it. Such is the way of the Tomes."
Shara shook her head, "forget the Tomes, we're in the middle of nowhere right now, heading for the Borders, and I'm not about to spend several days in complete silence or wasting time in small talk."
"As you wish."
"Listen, you seem confident about what you saw. I want to know what it was."
"It's all there in the report."
"I don't think so. It speaks of archeological ruins and writings of unknown origin, all of which could be proven wrong. What is it that you saw, Anris, that made you so confident?"
"You read the report. You know I keep saying the accepted 'truth' is wrong, and that mankind itself is not a thousand similar races united as one, but one single race which spread through the galaxy and then forgot where it came from."
"Yes, I read the reports. No need to repeat all that."
"You're a smart woman, Shara. Tell me what could I have seen that made me trust these reports a hundred percent?"
Shara thought about it for a minute, as Perdot looked at her and the ship's console in turns. "As crazy as it sounds, I would say you found which one of all our worlds is the first."
"Yes and no. I found the First World, but I didn't see it with my own eyes, and it's also not a part of the Golden Imperium."
"But there's no records of the Imperium ever leaving a planet. How..."
"You will know when we get there. But before that, we need to go to Arkana."
"Arkana? That's supposed to be the outmost world."
"And the world we're looking for is even further outside."
"If it wasn't you, Anris, I would think you're insane. And to tell the truth, I'm starting to question your sanity."
"The once we get to the first stop in our journey, you'll start questioning yours as well," Perdot noted, his smile a sound away from a chuckle.
Arkana. A world of endless icy dunes and extreme cold. Most of its surface was a cold wasteland, and thus mankind had chosen to live underground, in large, artificial caves.
Shara looked around with a hint of disbelief. "This world's always spoken of as a barbaric place, but..."
"It's nothing like that. I suppose there's a reason for the myth of it being a hostile place. It doesn't really keep any diplomatic ties with any other planet, and it's part of the Imperium only because its local government doesn't care enough not to be part of it. While diplomacy isn't something they want to bother with, they still need to trade with other worlds."
"Thanks for the lecture, professor," Shara joked, "but mind telling me where we're heading?"
"To see Shu."
"Shu?"
"Her full name's Sage Shu of the House of Gaians," Perdot explained, "but that's a mouthful."
"Gaians?" Shara asked. It was a strange word for her.
"Patience, you'll know what it means soon. In fact, in a few minutes," he said as he stopped in front of a building. It looked rather antique, but was a single-story building, something strange to see in this area from what Shara had seen thus far. "That's Shu's place."
As they walked to the door, it opened itself. "She saw us coming?"
"I suppose," Perdot admitted, "she's said to have eyes all around this world."
"I'm said to have many things, but rumors about me are often overblown."
Shara turned to see an older woman waiting right besides the entrance. "You must be Sage Shu."
"Just Shu will do, child," the woman said. "Welcome back, Anris. I suppose you didn't visit Gaia yet."
"You suppose well," Perdot said. "I needed to go back to Serine, to inform my people about what I had heard from you. I didn't give any names or even told anyone about Gaia, just that there was supposed to be one single original world."
"Fair enough, Gaia's not a forbidden world because we chose to forbid it. It simply would not raise any interest from anyone if they went there without knowing about its past."
"Gaia?"
Shu looked at Shara. "I suppose she came here to learn about what you know?"
"Again, you suppose right. My leaders won't believe me, but they may trust her word."
"I shall tell her what I know, then. How old are you?"
Shara was surprised by that question. "Twenty-two solar years."
"Do you know what the term 'solar' means?"
And now she was lost. "No."
"Yet you use it without thinking about it. Ignorance is a bliss, some would say. Solar comes from 'Sol', the name of the star Gaia orbits. It's one of many things that are left from the First World, but too many others were lost."
"I'd like to know more about Gaia," Shara admitted.
"Well, then... Gaia was a world like many others, a world that could support life. Legends speak of Gaia as a world of small cities, called 'villages', which only housed a hundred or so humans each." Shu noticed Shara's skeptic looks and smiled. "You react just like Ansir. As I was saying, these first humans lived in incredibly small groups, and had no technology at all. Imagine humans hunting wild animals with but sticks and stones."
"Impossible."
"Not quite. It was one of these hunters, named Seren, who became the first Queen of that world."
"Seren? That sounds like..."
Shu nodded. "The capital of the Golden Imperium was named after her, but the name was deformed through the centuries into what we know as Serine. This Seren was at first the lone user of something called 'Mana' which let her do incredible things, like fly or create fire on a whim." Seeing Shara was silent, she continued. "But soon she taught this to others. One of them was her daughter, who became quite a strong warrior, but then Gaia was born. She was the strongest being in the galaxy, and some say she could have fought all of the Imperium's battleships on her own and won. She and other warriors like her defended their planet for centuries before..."
"Wait, centuries? Does it mean she lived that long?"
"Yes, another quality of this 'Mana' was that it gave its users longevity. With time, Gaia helped mankind expand, but then, something happen. A creature called Chaos started killing every warrior in the galaxy, and managed to kill even Seren herself. But then Gaia, who had been exploring the galaxy, returned and saw what this monster had done. Their battle was one so intense, it turned every planet in that particular solar system into a wasteland."
"So, did Gaia win?"
"Some say she did, and then left to search for any other evil like Chaos. Some say she didn't quite win, but she managed to eliminate Chaos before she died herself. And some say... She took Chaos into herself and went far away before she could harm mankind."
"You don't know which one's the truth?"
"All I know is nobody ever saw her again."
"How old is this legend you speak of?"
"At least five hundred centuries."
Shara frowned. "That's twice as far as the Tomes go. Still, a legend's not enough for our leaders. Where can I find tangible, physical proof of this 'Gaia' ever existing."
"Why, in Gaia, of course."
"Wait, why is the planet named after her?"
Shu smiled sadly. "For all the care our order took in keeping the legends of the First World alive, we were too late to keep it's original name alive."
"Where is Gaia?"
"We don't know, but we know the location of the Second World," Shu admitted, "Terra Mu."
"And what use is that to us?" Shara asked, slightly annoyed.
"Think about it, Shara. A primitive civilization with primitive spaceships... What system would they choose to colonize first?"
Shara only had to think about it for a second before her mood lightened. "The closest system, of course... Let's go to Terra Mu."
"Mental Excel Rokie, I bring an urgent message from one of the border worlds!"
The man was unfazed, as he was used to getting 'urgent' messages at least once a year. In theory, his position as Mental Excel made him the third-most important man in Serin, the third-most important man in the whole galaxy. In reality, without the Mentals, both the Imperium Shield, the army in charge of keeping peace, and the Imperium itself, would fall apart. That made him the most important man in the galaxy to those who mattered.
"Let's hear this important message, then," he said almost dismissively.
"An unknown spaceship was spotted ten days ago near Slishar, it begun attacking with no warning."
"Ten days ago? Why didn't the message get here sooner?" The Excel said, rising from his seat, his mood changing in a split second.
"Because there were no survivors, sir. I come from Xilho, which is being attacked right now, and without the Shield, it's a battle we cannot win."
The Excel frowned. A single spaceship with enough power to overcome a planet's defenses and leave no survivors? It sounded too powerful to be truth. Yet the man in front of him wasn't lying, he could see that. "I shall order the Shield to defend Xilho immediately. We will let whoever is in that spaceship know the Imperium is not an enemy to be taken lightly."
"We will be reaching Terra Mu shortly."
"Do you really think that woman was telling us the truth?"
Perdot looked at Shara. "Yes. I've always wondered about this. It's not just mankind. Every planet in the Imperium has the same wild life, the same animals and plants. There's only one way for that to be the case, no matter how much the Tomes and the Mentals may deny it."
"One single world's ecosystem brought over to other worlds to help colonizing it," Shara noted. "But what happened to the original lifeforms if that's the case?"
"Maybe our world's creatures were stronger, and the others died out. Or maybe mankind 'helped' a bit."
Shara looked at the monitor and smiled. "It's beautiful."
"What is?" He turned to the screen and nodded. "Yes, it is. It's a desert down there, but the temperature's not bad, only a few degrees above Serin's."
"Think we'll find anything there leading us to Gaia?"
"I'm already working on it. But we should scan the planet's surface and see if there's any ruins there we could explore."
"Always the adventurer."
"Many Scouts eventually forget that's the one thing all of us should be."
He was Arthus Larelain, Holder of the Shield, and a man who had seen many battles. But most of those battles were against inferior enemies, like rebels or worlds not affiliated with the Imperium. With its full force of ten thousand battleships, a battle against a single hostile ship should have been an easy win.
And yet, this ship was like nothing he had ever seen, in his many decades of service. It was a ship as large as a small planet, with literal millions of smaller attack ships pouring out of it and attacking anything daring coming too close to it. The ship itself didn't attack, and it also did not seem to stop attacks from the Shield, but this fleet Larelain had always been proud of was doing relatively no damage to it.
"Aurors five, ten and seventeen are gone."
The Holder looked at the screen. "It doesn't matter. We need to get close to their main ship, to search for any weakness it may have. We are the first and last defense line of the Imperium, and we will not fall."
"Fifty percent of the planet's surface scanned, still no signs of anything."
"And Gaia's star?"
"That's even harder a task. The computer has a map of all the explored galaxy, including systems nobody has ever felt like visiting. But both Mu and Gaia's system are outside those maps."
Shara nodded. "I understand. It has to search for a star located in an unknown sector, at an unknown distance and direction from our ship."
"It will take the ship a while to..." Perdot started, then stopped.
"What's wrong?"
He was madly typing commands now. "The computer's detected a single life form down there," he paused, "yes, it's confirmed. And it's human."
"What? That cannot be."
"It might someone from Shu's group," Perdot noted, "but I fail to see the point in stealth then. She would have told us to go speak with this person."
"Or maybe it's something else," Shara said pointing at the screen.
Perdot looked at it and muttered some choice profanities. The 'human' down there was, from the scans' results, a child. But a child who was emanating enough energy to power the ship they were in for a century.
"Somehow, the area of the planet around this creature has an atmosphere," Shara noted. "Should we go find out who it is?"
"Computer won't tell me anything else about it, so I suppose that's the only way we'll know what it is."
In all his years of service, the pilot had seen many so-called wars. But comparing the skirmishes he fought while being one of the Shield's top pilots to what was going on around him would be like comparing a grain of sand to the sandy plains of Elerion.
And the Shield's fleet itself was small compared to the cloud of ships all around them. These ships were small and fast, and while they lacked in shielding and weapons, they more than made up for it with sheer numbers.
"Squadron Eighteen's leader, what's your situation?"
"I've lost a dozen men to them," he said, "and I intend to make them pay for it."
"I have a mission for you."
That was Larelain's voice, no man in the Shield could not know how he sounded. "Let's hear it."
Larelain didn't mind his tone. The two of them had been friends through their youth, and that friendship didn't die out after they both joined the Shield. "We need to find a weakness in their main ship, or at least make them stop sending out the other ships. A small group of pilots will have a lot more chances of doing this than a large group. And the more skilled the pilot is, the higher their chances, too."
"I get it. Me and my men are going to find your big ships a place to shoot at. Just try to stay alive while I get there, Holder."
"Do your best, Eighteen."
Perdot wasn't sure what they would find when they went down. The atmosphere was good, if a bit denser than he was used to (and he was aware atmosphere wasn't quite a standard through all the Imperium worlds,) and temperature was only mildly above what he had expected.
What he had not expected, was to find the 'creature' really looked like a young human girl. She stared at him, as if to study him, and he felt uneasy. There was something about those eyes which made him feel like this 'young' girl had been around for much longer than he would have thought.
"Who are you?"
Perdot almost jumped. He had nearly forgotten Shara was there too.
"I am Gala. I already know who you are, so there's no need for introductions."
"Gala? That sounds close to the legendary Gaia."
Gala looked at Shara. "I know of those legends. They're getting many names wrong, but that's to be expected after so many centuries."
"So you're the same as that woman from the legends?"
"I am. My current body is a consequence of what happened back then. I only have a small fraction of what my power used to be."
"We were looking for that world, Gaia, because..."
"Earth," Gala said, interrupting Perdot.
"Excuse me?"
"The name of that world, the world you all forgot, the world that started it all. The planet's name was Earth, surrounding the Sun, often called Sol by some tribes back then."
"Solar years. Shu was right."
"We need our leaders to know about..."
"No."
Perdot blinked a few times. "Why?"
"Because the Imperium is fated to die."
Those words made the two Serinians feel like a building had fallen on them. And they both stood there, staring at Gala, for almost one minute.
Shara was the first to find her voice. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It's happening as we speak. An alien race known as the Kh'sun is attacking world after world. The Imperium won't be able to stop them, but fighting through it will weaken the Kh'sun greatly."
"What will happen to those worlds?"
"The cities will be destroyed, any survivor will be taken as slaves, and the worlds will be drained until they become lifeless rocks. Recovering from that takes a planet millions of years, if it ever recovers."
"You are the Gala of legends, aren't you?" Perdot asked, angrily. "Why don't you go and stop them?"
"As they are now, my power is not enough. But if the Imperium cripples them, I will be able to put an end to those parasites." She noticed the way the two were looking at her, and smiled. "Don't look at me like that. Yes, I'm ready to sacrifice most of mankind to stop these beings. But mankind's become stagnant, too sure of what they think they know, and too eager to remain as they are now. A civilization like that is going to fall sooner or later, even without any help from the outside."
"And this is your answer? Killing us all off?"
"To know what my answer is, you need to come with me."
"Guys, we're only ten units away from them. Stay focused, I know we can do this." While the enemy was far superior as far as numbers went, their pilots didn't seem to know what team tactics were. Thus, most of them were busy with the larger Auror class ships, the biggest ones in the Shield's forces. Ships like his, a Buckler, was mostly ignored until they attacked one of the aliens. That had been his guess, and it had been proven right so far. "Eight units now."
"They're coming from our right wings!"
He turned and saw it, a dozen alien ships heading their way. "I need five of you guys to take care of those pests."
As one, five of the Bucklers split from the main group. Their coordination was the result of many years and countless battles. They took care of the enemy ships in under one minute, but that seemed to alert other ships, which soon swarmed around them.
"All right, it's time to go help..."
"Stell, don't you dare helping us. Squad Eighteen needs to complete this mission."
The leader, Stell, sighed. "Okay, we'll meet you guys on our way back."
"We'll be waiting."
It had taken Perdot a full minute to realize they weren't in the same planet anymore. They were in a grassy plain, with a dense jungle in the distance, and mountains on the other side. "Where are we?"
Gala giggled. "This is Earth."
"How did you bring us all the way here?"
"My power is not only meant to destroy things," Gala said, "and you wanted to see Earth, didn't you?"
"I still want to know..."
"What my plan is? I've been bringing others like you here. Humans who believe in the legends, who dream of a place untouched by the Imperium. Men and women who don't fear evolving, creating new things. The Imperium is doomed and trust me, if I had a way to stop that from happening, I would. The best I can do now is allowing mankind to start over, and what better place there is to start from zero than the very world that saw us do that once in the past?"
"Are there still ancient cities in this planet?"
"When I returned here, after many thousands of years, I saw the planet had healed slightly. There were no cities at all, no. Chaos was very through in removing any signs that mankind had ever existed in this world."
"No cities, no technology, how will we survive?"
"As the first humans did, use what you can find around you. You can see what those I brought here have done if you head north," Gala said, pointing in that direction for effect.
"Won't you help us?"
"Even weakened, the Kh'sun are strong. I may have to use all of my remaining power to stop them. I may die, or be too weak to come back and help you."
"Why are you willing to sacrifice it all for people who don't remember you, and who may forget you again in a few centuries?"
"Because I was born a Senshi, and I will, if I must, die a Senshi."
"A Senshi?"
"We are... We were warriors, not different to other humans except for the powers we could use. We protected this world and mankind for many centuries, and when mankind started expanding, I took it as my duty to protect them."
"So you've been protecting us since then?"
"I've made mistakes. There was a time when I grew bored. I left others like me protecting mankind, and spent many centuries exploring the Galaxy, and even going out of it to see there's other galaxies out there. But while I was away, the creature known as Chaos attacked. I was too late to save this world, and many others. But not all worlds had Senshi, and Chaos had ignored those, since it wanted only to fight the strongest warriors, to become as strong as them."
"You're saying that if you had been around at the time, you would have stopped it?"
"Yes. As it stands, I could only send it away, to a very distant galaxy, and I sacrificed most of my power to do it. But sorry, we've talked enough. I'm going to go take a look at things. The war between the Imperium and the Kh'sun won't be over soon, if my predictions are right, but I'd rather be safe than sorry."
And without waiting for an answer, Gala vanished. Shara looked around and frowned. "We don't have to stay here."
Perdot let out a dry chuckle. "We have. Our spaceship is still back in that other planet."
"Hmph. Hope you're happy, you've got us both stuck in this place."
"I didn't force you to come with me."
Shara took a deep breath. "No, you didn't. Sorry."
"Don't worry, I'm not too happy about this either, but there isn't really anything we can do about it right now."
"Let's head north, as she said. We need somewhere to sleep, the so-called Sol is already close to the horizon."
Stell cursed loudly as he saw another icon in his screen fade away. He was down to only ten ships, counting his, but they had at least managed to get close to the main enemy ship. "I'm sensing a large energy reading in the exact center of that thing," he said. "That must be their main reactor."
"Why couldn't the guys back there see it?"
"There's a cloaking field around the ship," Stell noticed, "gotta admit these creatures are full of tricks."
"Okay, let's get out of here a--" Whatever the pilot was going to say next, was cut as his ship exploded.
"We have more hostiles coming from all directions," another pilot said, "it's going to be pretty hard to beat them all."
"Lue, try to get away from the cloaking field and tell the Holder where he should be shooting at."
"But..."
"It's an order. Your ship's the fastest of all the squad, and you're pretty good at dodging."
The woman seemed about to complain for a few seconds, but finally agreed. "Right. I'll see you guys out there when this is over."
"Sure thing," Stell said. Just like when he had left his other men behind, he knew it was a promise he would probably not be able to keep.
Lue took a different route out of the area than they had used to go in. Stealth and speed were the only things she could rely on to return to the Holder. So she took a route away from the battle, it would take her longer to get to her target that way, but there were no enemies anywhere around her.
As she looked to the side, she could see the battle was being lost by them. Several of the largest Shield ships were wrecked, and all others were being swarmed by enemy ships. She could have never imagined something like this. The Tomes said mankind was the only sentient species in the Universe, and the Tomes never lied.
But even though their enemies weren't showing themselves, their technology was far superior than theirs. There had been talks of a cloaking field before, but as far as she knew, there was no ship core capable of generating the energy needed for such a thing. Maybe the Tomes didn't lie, but those who had written them didn't know there were other species around. Being ignorant of the truth is not the same as lying.
"Squad Eighteen?"
"Lue reporting, sir. We found a weakness in their main ship."
"Where's the rest of your squad?"
"Still back there, sir. I was ordered to come here by Stell himself, since a single ship had a bigger chance of being ignored by the enemy."
"What's their weakness?"
"Their reactor's in the exact center of their ship. As long as we keep on attacking it from the sides, then they won't go down easily."
The Holder's voice was heard in the background. "Every surviving Auror, change your course to attack the enemy ship from above. Any squad still alive, do the same if you can. We cannot let them win this."
"Eighteen's Lue, you can return to the First Auror if you..."
"I have to decline that offer. I'm going to go shoot those monsters down, for my squad."
Those inside the enemy ship didn't fail to notice the sudden change in their foes' tactics. "Kh'rall, they are moving to hit our core."
"Instruct every Sk'ner to fire at the large ships. We need to resist until the rest of our fleet arrives." Like a large swarm of insects, all the small ships under his command stopped taking care of the enemy's fighters, and took on the larger ships. "Prepare the Prahxy, and locate their commanding ship. Once that's done, focus fire in it until it falls."
He had fought against many alien races in his years as a Kh'rall, but none had been as annoyingly resilient as this one. Still, their technology and tactics were brutish, outdated, and easy to read. There was no hope for such a primitive race, they could not defeat the power of the Kh'Sun.
Lue looked around in confusion. All of the smaller ships were heading for their Aurors, completely ignoring any fighter ship they crossed. It could only mean one thing. "Holder, the enemy saw through our strategy, they're going to attack the Aurors!"
The voice in the radio was calm. "They did not. By focusing in what they think is the real threat, they are forgetting about our best pilots and warriors."
She understood what he meant, but wasn't too happy about it. "Are you telling me you'll sacrifice the Aurors just to give us a chance to attack?"
"The Aurors would not have made it in time, even if only half the enemy ships were attacking us. You wanted a chance to shoot them down for your squad. This is it."
Lue closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. "Understood, Holder. I will not let you down."
"I know you won't," the Holder said. Although she didn't know it at the time, it would be the last time she heard his voice.
"Our attacks are not getting through, Leader."
Lue cursed under her breath. Of course, an Auror's weapons did little damage to the massive enemy ship's hull, so a fighter's weapons were almost useless. Even all the remaining fighters shooting at once did nothing. And yet... They were swarming the center of the ship, and the readings were true. The enemy's core was right in front of them, but an impassable wall protected it. "Be on the lookout for enemy ships, and keep on attacking. Perhaps one of the Aurors will make it through, but until that happens, we have to keep trying."
Their enemy was obviously ignoring them, no ship was attacking them, and if their target had any weapons at all, it wasn't using them against her makeshift squad. Her squad. It had been surprising how fast the other pilots had agreed on that, even though she had considered it herself. Since she was the last living pilot from Squadron Eighteen, she had been given command of what was left of the Hundred Squads, the main attack force of the Imperium. It was an honor, but in a situation like this, it was also a very heavy burden to carry.
She noticed something in her sensors and looked to the side. No, there was no mistake, three pieces of the ship had separated and were floating away from it, heading straight for the few remaining Aurors. And each of these 'smaller' ships was as large as the smallest moons she had seen while flying around the galaxy with her former squad. "They had ships that large and weren't using them?"
"Maybe they didn't feel the threat was enough for them to use them," one of the pilots noted.
"Skarn, you're the best scanner we have. I need to know if any section of the ship's wall is weaker than the rest."
It took the other pilot a minute to get the scanning done, but in the end the results were good. "Leader, there's one spot that's greatly weaker than the rest of the wall, if we focus fire in it, we may just be able to punch through and hit the core. I'm sending the coordinates to everyone right now."
Lue saw it appear on screen and smiled. "Everyone, shoot that area with everything you've got! Let's kick these bastards out of our galaxy!"
The barrage of beams and projectiles that followed was enough to blast a hole through the ship's wall, and Lue, who was relatively close to it, was able to see the shining yellow 'core' of the enemy ship. She could also see several of the ship's crew being sucked out of it. They were definitely not human, with four arms and a blue, scaly skin. They looked close to some reptiles she had seen in several human worlds.
"The core itself was not affected by our attacks," Skarn noted.
"We should just keep on attacking until..."
"No, we'd need to hit it with much more energy at once than our ships can generate."
Lue cursed under her breath. "Damn it, I was starting to think this would be actually possible."
"Think something really big hitting the core would destroy it?" Another pilot commented.
"Why do you ask?" Lue said, then saw what was heading their way. Auror six, one of the largest ships in the Shield, was heading straight for the core, though it was more of a fall than a charge, as the ship was almost completely burning under enemy fire. "Everyone, get away from the target as soon as you can, this is about to get hot!"
Her squad managed to get away before the two ships collided, and as she looked at the scene, she paled. It was quite likely everyone inside had already died before the impact, but it was still frightening to watch one of the Aurors, the pride of the Imperium, go down like that.
The explosion rocked her ship, and blinded her for a moment. And when she was able to see again, she almost cheered. The Auror's explosion had hit the enemy ship's core, and a chain reaction had started, the planet-sized enemy ship was now constantly rocked by explosions. The three smaller ships that had detached themselves only moments before the fatal blow were also hit, two of them were about to explode, and the third was already gone.
They had won, they had defeated this enemy, the Imperium would be safe and the Shield could be proud of this victory. No enemy was too strong for them, no enemy would ever...
It took her mind a few moments to register what her eyes were seeing, what her ship's instruments were confirming. An impossibly large shadow, looming over the exploding ships, advancing to them lazily.
"Leader, what is that?"
Lue looked at her console again and sighed. "Another ship. What we destroyed wasn't their main ship."
"Auror Two speaking," a new voice said through the ship's console. "Retreat is not an option. Let's do as much damage as we can, and hope for the best."
"I can help you with that."
Lue didn't know whose voice it was, but her scanner started beeping. Looking to the side, she could see it: A humanoid figure, floating towards the enemy ship, and it didn't seem to have any kind of protection. Human beings couldn't breathe in deep space without a suit, so what was this creature?
Almost as if the creature had heard her thoughts, it suddenly spoke. "I am Gala, last survivor of the Senshi, a group long forgotten by mankind. It is my duty to save mankind, but the Imperium... It's already doomed. However, if I let the Kh'sun get out of this battle as they are, then the whole galaxy will be destroyed by them."
Lue had scanned the 'creature' now. Her mind kept telling her it was impossible, but the creature was... A small human girl. Whose power couldn't be compared to anything she had seen before.
"I am the last Senshi, but I know there will be others like me, protecting what's left of mankind. I have seen it all. Those of you who want to live, return back to your home planets, and rebuild them as well as you can."
Another pilot's voice could be heard right then. "What the slarg? Running like cowards? What will the Imperator think of us?"
"The Imperator is dead. While your Shield and your Imperium was busy focusing on bringing down one single spaceship, the true enemy, that which you see here, has devastated countless Imperium worlds. But I will end their threat right here, right now."
Lue saw the girl's body shine, and the readings she was getting went up hundredfold. "What is that girl?"
The 'few' surviving Kh'sun fighters all converged on Gala as one, sending an onslaught of energy blasts at her, but the girl stood through it all, unmoving and unfazed. Once the attack was over, she unleashed her own. A thin, bubble-like energy net expanded from her body, catching each and every enemy ship and blowing them to atoms... Without harming any of the human ships.
"How did she do that?"
Lue cringed at the readings she was getting. "Let's get away from here."
"But Leader..."
"This is not an order, the Shield is done for. If you want to stay here, then do so, but that girl's power... It could destroy a planet. A very large one." Most pilots saw what she meant, and the former Shield's ships started flying away from the massive Kh'sun mothership, as fast as they could.
Gala looked at her target. The Kh'sun's technology was amazing, they had built a ship as big as a small star, without using any magic at all. And the ship was charging up to attack. They already knew how much power she had. They were afraid of letting her shoot first. Good, that meant she had a bigger chance of destroying them all than she thought at first.
Yes, she had seen the future, all possible futures, but the one Serenity had considered the 'best' future... Millions of humans dying, planets devastated, mankind enslaved by these Kh'sun monsters. No, she had to fight against that, even now she saw the future Serenity had seen was not too far off. The Imperium was gone, the surviving worlds would be better off on their own, and someday, they would expand again, in a way the Imperium couldn't even dream of.
She shot an energy beam at almost the same time as the ship did. Both beams collided, magic versus technology, the power of a core strong enough to power a whole planet against the power of the galaxy itself. While extremely weakened in this form, Gala was still Sailor Galaxia. She wouldn't lose, she would destroy them all, she...
The visions of the future she had seen suddenly changed. Without the Kh'sun periodically attacking the surviving human worlds, the expansion of mankind would not be stopped... But over the countless years that separated this era and the next, these men would evolve into something different. Human in the outside, but with a control of magic almost as great as a Senshi's. They would expand, and meet the humans of Earth, and exterminate them to claim the planet. That kind of 'mankind' would eventually crumble and die, and then... She saw nothing. An empty galaxy. And looking back, she could also see... No!
Gala's energy beam's power weakened slightly, enough for it to fall into a stalemate with the ship's one. If everything went as she expected, then the enemy would realize they could not win, they would see escape was their only option.
"H'ser, our reactor's overheating. The creature's attack has weakened, but by our estimates, our reactor will run out of energy before our enemy does."
"How many R'pah remain?"
"Three, sir."
"Send everyone you can into them. We'll hold that creature in a stalemate until they have all escaped safely."
"Are you going to board one of the R'pah, sir?"
"No. Escape is not an option for my ship, and I will not abandon it."
"Understood," the other creature said, and stood right besides his leader while shouting orders through his radio.
"I take it you will follow my lead, then?"
"I have never run from a battle, sir. I won't ruin that perfect record by running away now. Besides, our calculations could be wrong."
The H'ser smiled, even though he knew the other man was lying to himself. Their engineers were trained to never make any wrong calculations. It could cost them their lives.
As suddenly as the time ripple had formed, it vanished. Gala used her powers to check on the past and future, and smiled despite the strain her energy beam was putting on her body. "I failed my mother and my home planet, I failed my best friend, and now I almost destroy it all. No matter what happens to me now, it will be a fair price to pay for all those mistakes."
She saw the smaller (but large as planets) ships drift away from the main ship. Well, drifting wasn't the right word, as the ships had almost immediately breached the speed of light. It didn't matter, the Kh'sun had played their part, and would continue to do so for countless centuries. Gala closed her eyes and let herself loose, unleashed all of her power. Her beam blasted through the Kh'sun beam, hitting the large mothership. Instead of drilling through it, the beam split in countless, thin threads that washed all over the structure, making it shine like a small star for several seconds before it exploded, the shockwave sending the few smaller ships in the area sailing away at high speeds.
Gala smiled. It was done, the Kh'sun were weakened and scared, they would not disturb mankind for a long time. But she was also weak now, she had used most of her energy in that attack, and some of her life force as well. She could feel her mind slowly changing, and she knew it was something she could not fix on her own. But still, she would not die. She had to stay alive, to wait for the time when the one who had destroyed all she cared about returned.
But for the time being, she just wanted to sleep, as she drifted out of the system where, right now, a gigantic cloud of dust and smoke marked the place where the greatest enemy of this era's man had been vanquished.
Lue recovered her senses and looked around. The enemy ship was gone, and she was aware its explosion had knocked her out. Her ship's instruments were fried, but fortunately the engine and power core still worked at nearly their best capacity. She had no way to check for survivors right now, and she knew they would all be thinking the same. Auror Two was gone, too, she noticed, so she would have to find a way to reach the capital on her own. She took a look around, at the stars all around her. Even though it was rare to use this skill, pilots still learnt to 'read the stars' to know where they were even without their ship's computer.
"If my bearings are right, Serine should be there," she said out loud, even though there was nobody around to listen. It would be a long trip back there, but she had to see it for herself, to see if what that 'Senshi' had said was true.
And she would also have to go back home, to her own planet. Even if what that girl said was what really happened, some planets should have been left untouched. A part of her mind told her it was useless to go, that it would only cause her grief, but she ignored it. That girl was wrong. She had to be wrong.
"Shara, Anris, we welcome you to the city of Terra."
Perdot smiled at that. A city, they called it. To his eyes, it was just a small group of small houses. But it was still amazing, knowing that they had built them with only their hands and some rudimentary tools. In fact, he was too used to technology, and knew it would take him a while to get used to this new environment.
"What planet are you from?" Shara asked.
"We come from many planets, but we belong to Earth now."
"Don't you miss your old life?"
"The stagnation of the Imperium? No, none of us misses that. And in time, you will learn to love Earth."
"I'm always willing to learn new things," Shara said with a smile.
"Same here," Perdot admitted, "but I'm still a bit shocked by all that's happened to me lately."
"Don't worry, we all were the same as you at first. Give it time."
Perdot nodded at that. He would give it time, and not only because there was nothing else he could do, but because he really wanted to know if mankind could survive without the Imperium's eyes and technology to support it.
He liked challenges, and this would be the toughest challenge he had ever faced.
Lue was... No, there were no words in her language to describe how she was feeling right now. It was pointless. She had been now jumping for days, going from one world to the next, but there was nothing to be found in the inner circle of the Imperium. Her own planet was but a lifeless rock now, and the city she had been born in was a large, empty crater.
She was about to give up, when she saw something in the third 'border' world she visited. She couldn't remember the world's name, but that didn't matter. This world was still mostly untouched, even though there were craters were most major cities would have been. But the rural areas were still there, and she could see people coming out of hiding, looking at her ship curiously.
An elderly man walked to her as she leapt out of her vehicle. "It's strange, you're the first outsider we've seen for almost one week. What news do you bring?"
"Unfortunately, they're not good. Serine was destroyed, its cities ruined and there were no survivors. Every other planet I've been to looked just like that."
"We saw the ship," The man said, "as big as our star."
Lue nodded at that. "I was there when... The ship was destroyed."
"The Shield managed to defeat something that large?"
Lue looked up to the sky. "No, it was something else. Someone... She called herself a 'Senshi' and held her ground against that thing. She destroyed it, but I'm not sure she survived."
The elder smiled at that. "So the legends were true."
"What legends?"
The man laughed. "Tales of the distant past, stories that were still told in many worlds, despite the Imperium's constant struggles to make us all forget." Seeing that Lue was silent, he continued. "Those tales speak of a single world where all mankind originated. And these Senshi were the protectors of such world."
"I never heard about that."
"You were a woman of the Imperium. A warrior, even. We all knew better than speaking of Senshi and Gaia when the Imperium was watching."
"A few weeks ago, I would have considered your legends to be fake, but I've seen a Senshi. I've seen what they can do."
"You're a fortunate person, then. Now come, you look tired. We can give you somewhere to sleep, and food."
"Thanks, but I need to keep searching."
"Searching for what? All of the Imperium's worlds are silent now. Our own radios give us only static. Would you really keep looking for survivors that might not even be there?"
"I found you, didn't I?"
"And we're the only world that's not silent in this sector. How many more worlds do you think survived?"
Lue thought about it. What did she expect to find out there? Was it hope that had kept her searching for this long, or just her stubborn self? She couldn't trust that to keep her going forever, and here... This planet might have been hit hard by those creatures, but they were still alive. She had nowhere to go to now, the Imperium was gone, her own world destroyed. But she could help these people rebuild, and her ship would let her explore surrounding worlds if they ever needed something they couldn't get here.
"I think I will accept your offer," Lue said, "I hope you don't mind having one more mouth to feed."
"Welcome then, child, to our village."
"Lue, the name is Lue."
She observed the planet with a hint of sadness. It had, countless centuries ago, been her home, the first planet mankind ever called 'home.' But the humans now living there didn't remember ever leaving it, something she knew was to be expected after so many generations. She didn't mind, mankind seemed to have a knack for forgetting the past.
She... She had also changed, slowly. Her mind had weakened, and she knew soon she would also forget. But before that happened, there was one last thing to do. She closed her eyes, and several items appeared around her. The Dragon Swords, the weapons of the Senshi of the past. And the Ginzuishou, a crystal not even she had been able to understand fully. With a wave of her hand, the items turned into pure energy, and spread out, each landing in the world their powers were linked to.
She gave the Earth one last look before floating away. This wasn't her home anymore. This place belonged to mankind now, and to the Senshi that would, one day, carry the burden she had once carried herself. But she also knew this wouldn't be the last time she saw Earth. No, if the future happened as she had seen it, then she would have to return, someday.
But that day was not to come for millions of years. Normal humans could not even grasp how much time that was, but to an eternal being like Gala, it was simply a matter of patience.
The first book focuses in an ancient era, and its pacing may not be for everyone, as the plot can skip a decade, a century, or a few thousand years at a time. It's a sort of prologue (twenty-five chapters long prologue) to the main part of the story, which focuses on the canon characters.
Anyhow, I'll stop ranting now and leave you to enjoy this thing - I'll post more chapters as time allows it.
Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 1: The Senshi of dawn.
Act 1: First era.
Episode 1: Origin.
By Razor Knight
Last update: October 8, 2009
Book 1: The Senshi of dawn.
Act 1: First era.
Episode 1: Origin.
By Razor Knight
Last update: October 8, 2009
-----
Serenity could see the signs of her enemy's presence in the distance. An unnatural darkness seemed to creep slowly towards her, and was turning even the afternoon sky black in its wake. That creature's power, it had always seemed so impossibly high to her, so unreachable, so unsettling... So terrifying.
But not anymore. She now had a power to match that creature in a battle, and she had trained for years on how to use it. Still, for the people in this world, it was only a few minutes ago that she got her powers.
It had been quite a strange event. Those warriors from a distant future had been around for only a few minutes, but without them, she wouldn't have ever become what she was now. On the other hand, they had their powers only because she had obtained them from them in this era.
Some would call it irony, but she was quite aware that wasn't the right word for this. In any case, he was coming, the Dark One, as the Val'harrha called him, the Ender, the Walking Night. Too many names for something that only needed one: Cygale.
It was good her new powers let her see things others, even the Val (as she had nicknamed her mentor's race,) couldn't. She had found that strange sub-dimension, and her powers let her know in seconds what the purpose of that place was. From there, and with her powers, she could transport to any era she wanted, she could see the future, she could see all that would happen to mankind, at least the events linked to her home planet.
And the most important thing: Since she could return to Earth one second after the moment she entered that dimension (or one year before, if she so wished,) then it was as if time had stopped while she was there. She had used that knowledge in her favor, honing and training all of her skills, until she was able to hold her strongest form indefinitely. A form so powerful, she knew she would probably be able to destroy this or any other world in one shot if she wanted to.
The darkness was close, and she could now see the creature generating it. It was his bluff, his way to scare those he was about to destroy, it was almost a physical representation of his ego. He knew not the word 'stealth,' because he had never needed to hide, no, he wanted those he targeted to know he was coming for them.
Zen'ji, her mentor, had told her all his race knew about the Dark One. Someone whose goal was to bring chaos and destruction, a being who existed only to cause pain to others. A pitiful being, from her point of view. The Val had known about the creature, but had never seen a way to stop him. Then they came to this world, finding a race of primitive beings, beings they called 'humans.' She had asked Zen'ji about the meaning of that word once, but he had only said its meaning was unimportant.
Humans had something even the Val'harrha had never seen. An ability to manipulate a planet's very energy (known as Zhi'lesh to them) but only a few humans could master such ability. Most of those who had that skill, lived without knowing what they could do.
The Val had artifacts which let them see what was to come. She hadn't believed it at first, in fact she had never believed it, until that other Serenity appeared. Now she knew it was true, the Val could see the future, and they were fascinated by it. That was the one reason why they had chosen her, Serenity, a normal human woman, living a normal life in a primitive village, to be their warrior.
That was another difference between the Val and the humans. The Val were physically weak, but their minds were incredibly advanced. They weren't a race of warriors, they were a race of creatures who observed the Universe without daring to interfere. But even though it went against their beliefs, they knew Cygale had to be stopped, or he would continue to destroy planet after planet, until there was nothing left.
And that's why they had chosen a human, a member of a race who were rather violent at first sight. However, there was a balance in them, between warrior and creator. That's what made them the best race to choose, of all the races the Val had seen through the centuries they had been traveling around the universe.
-----
Zen'ji looked at the girl in front of him. A part of his mind was cursing destiny, for what he was about to do was crucial for the existence of the line of warriors called Senshi, a race that would not only play a major role in this one system, but in many others throughout the whole galaxy. But at the same time, what he was about to do would seal the fate of the only human he considered a friend. And ultimately, it would leave a scar in this girl's mind, one he knew wasn't easy to heal.
But unless this girl was there, the Dark One could win. It was the curse of the Zen'ji, a curse he knew one line of Senshi would share in the future, to see not only one future, but all possible futures. The further forwards in time they looked, the least likely a dark future was, given all the 'right' choices had been made along the way.
And that was his only regret, that the 'right' choice in this battle would require a sacrifice. He knew Serenity had affected him more than he would like to admit, since he had never before seen the logic behind considering one life to be worth more than millions of lives. None of his kin ever saw the reasoning behind that idea. But now, he knew it wasn't about logic, but about what humans called friendship. Still, Serenity herself knew about the future, she knew what the result of this battle would be. He was sure of that. It wasn't Serenity he was worried about, but the girl in front of him now.
"You say I can have the same kind of power my mother has?"
"Yes, but you will need to train for a long time before you get to the level your mother has, Mana."
"Will I be able to help her?"
"To fight the Dark One? I don't know what help a kid like you could be," Zen'ji admitted. Truth was, he knew she would be of help, not so much for her mother, but for the future. Mana had inherited the one power her mother had since birth, and another one she still didn't know about, and wouldn't know about for the time being.
"Hmph. I can at least watch, right?"
"But don't get close to the fight. You could distract your mother."
"I understand. I'm ready to get that power now."
Zen'ji nodded and materialized a small crystal in front of him. It was an ability the Zen'ji always had, that of turning solid objects into pure magic energy. It couldn't be done with living beings, as far as he knew, at least not by their race.
Mana looked at the small crystal. "You mean this little thing..."
"It's a replica of the crystal used by your mother to gain her new powers. It will work mostly the same in you, and you will gain that level almost instantly, though you will not be able to control it at first, and the process is a painful one."
"So I'm going to be strong enough to help."
"I'm afraid it won't be simple. Your mother's already fighting that creature now, and to get to the level she has, you could spend months, maybe even years."
Mana reached forwards and touched the crystal. The change was both slow and painful, she felt like her body was being burnt from the inside, and she was unable to form any coherent thoughts for a few seconds. When she was able to think straight again, however, she wished she wasn't, since the pain was still there. But as the seconds ticked away, she felt the change, she could feel her own body rapidly adapting to the surge of power. She was no longer wearing her usual robe as she pulled her hand away from the crystal. The suit was similar to what the Val wore, an elastic fabric which covered most of her body, leaving only her head unprotected.
But then, another crystal, identical to the first, appeared right in front of her. She grabbed it, and again felt a surge of power, though it wasn't as painful this time. That, however, wasn't important when she still felt like she was being burnt, shocked and frozen at the same time.
Zen'ji winced as the girl screamed. This wasn't the way things should be. The crystal wasn't supposed to be able to replicate itself like that, so what... He closed his eyes, trying his best to ignore the girl's screams. Reaching out with his skill, he saw the immediate future shifting and changing. The distant future was still showing, relatively, the same paths as before, but it was the 'present' that worried him. Things could go very wrong if...
And there she was. This girl was wearing the same suit as her mother, if not for the slightly darker shade of yellow of her hair, one could hardly tell this was not Serenity. There was no mistake, this girl had reached her ultimate level, just like her mother, but unlike the visions he had, she had a crystal of her own. "Incredible..."
"I thought you had predicted all this," Mana noted.
"No skill is flawless, and our 'time sight' is no exception. There are things about this change I didn't foresee, things you will have to realize on your own."
Mana had fallen to one knee, her breathing ragged and forceful. "I feel like a stampede of Gn'arlok run over me."
"With your new powers, you should see a way to recover easily before aiding your mother. And you could also train there just like she did."
"Won't you come with me?"
"I'm sorry, but my species is not able to go there. Even if you took me there with you, I wouldn't be able to survive in that place for long."
"I... I understand." Mana stood up, looking around, and then smiled. "I guess I will leave now. I'll see you after this battle ends."
"If everything goes as I'm seeing it, then so it shall be," Zen'ji said, after the girl vanished.
-----
The creature stood, apparently unfazed by the sudden obstacle in his path. It was an obstacle he had not detected before it stood in his path, possibly due to the barrier put around the planet's capital city. He could not fathom why a race as advanced (and dangerous) as the Val'harrha would ally with a race as primitive and hopeless as these pseudo-intelligent 'humans.' He did not know what 'human' meant in their own primitive language, and he couldn't care less about the word's meaning.
And yet, the power Cygale could feel in this woman, it was simply inconceivable. If his enemies had this kind of power, why not use it themselves? He knew the answer even before the question had formed. These 'humans' were potentially able to hold as much power inside as he was. Or maybe even more than he could ever dream of gathering. He could admit the woman in front of him was stronger than him. But no matter how much power she had, she couldn't have the centuries of experience he had using said powers.
"Cygale, I know of your intentions, and I will stop you, here and now."
Cygale looked at the woman for one more instant before he did something nobody thought him capable of. He laughed. Sure, he had been amused by things in the past, but the sheer stupidity of this woman was too much for him, he couldn't help but laugh, if only for this one time.
Serenity looked at her foe. The large, insect-like monster was easily thrice her size, and each of his arms ended in thin, sharp blades. His green eyes were big, taking up most of his head, with a small, fang-filled mouth being the only other feature in it.
The aura around him, the dark fog she had seen from a distance, was now gone, and she realized why. Her foe's 'aura' was a part of his power, a part he was letting out to intimidate his victims, but he couldn't afford to keep it up now. She was sure it was the first time this monster had been seen without his aura. It was the first time he faced someone who could defeat him.
"Little girl, aren't you afraid?"
"I would be frightened if I was still a normal human, but I'm not."
"Oh, so you aren't? And what might you be?"
"I am Serenity, the first Senshi."
Senshi? What a stupid name. Still, this woman was amusing him greatly. "That is a word I've never heard before, not that I ever cared about the language of all races I've destroyed."
"It's a title given to some hunters of my race, those trained to defend our cities from the outsiders."
Cygale let out a chuckle. "Then, since you are insane enough to stand in my way, you are the Senshi of your race. The first and last."
"The first, yes, but not the last. There will be others after me. Many others."
"How can you be so sure of that?"
"Because," Serenity said, reaching out her hand, in which a strange, key-shaped staff appeared, "I can look at the many threads of time, and act upon that knowledge to bring about the one I consider the best outcome for those I protect."
"So you learnt that from the..."
"No, my mentors had nothing to do with this. This is a power I've always held inside. A power that will defeat you."
"I think not, little human, you should not have come here to face a god!" Cygale snapped, the last few words came out as a snarl, as a massive wave of energy shot forth. The woman was gone, and, had he been overconfident and foolish, he would have assumed the attack simply tore her to atoms. But he was neither overconfident, nor foolish. He spun around in time to block the downwards swipe of his enemy's staff, then disappeared.
Serenity turned around, summoning a sword as she did, and stopping the enemy's scythes with it. As the two leaped away from each other, she looked around uneasily. "So he was right, she's already coming."
"My, my, are you little human implying that you've called for reinforcements?"
Serenity shot a glare at her foe. "I did not, but even if I had told her not to come here, I know she would still do it."
Cygale sensed something and looked up. For a second, he thought Serenity was trying to fool him, somehow. The human floating meters above (and behind) Serenity looked just like her, if younger, and was wearing an almost identical suit. "What is this? Who are you?"
"I am Mana, daughter of Serenity."
"I saw this, and yet..." Serenity started.
"Your friend said seeing the future isn't a flawless power," Mana explained.
"I am somewhat glad that's the case, then."
Cygale didn't just stand there waiting for them to finish their talk, and instead moved to attack. He went for what was, perhaps, the obvious target, but also the more vulnerable one. Or, at least, that was what Cygale thought, but Mana floated swiftly to the side as he appeared behind her, delivering a sideways kick to his midsection.
"I take it you found that place," Serenity noted with a smile. She didn't need to ask, there was no way her daughter would have learnt to fight so fast unless she had all the time she wanted to do it.
"Of course," Mana said as she floated down to where her mother was. "So, this is the Dark One? He doesn't look so invincible."
Serenity looked at Cygale, who was crawling out of the small crater his body had formed after being kicked down to the ground. "That's because he's playing with us."
"That may be correct, but I am done playing now," Cygale snarled, his body suddenly shining with energy. Before the two Senshi could react, the ground underneath them cracked, as a wave of energy shot from it, washing over them both. He saw no traces of the two humans as the light died out, and for a moment thought he had eliminated them. But then he sensed something, and turned around just in time to see the two women dashing straight at him, but saw no weapons in their hands.
The two women saw their target swing his arms, crossing them as he swung, and leaving a trail of energy behind which formed an 'x' in front of him. He then smiled as the energy shot forth, but the women simply corrected their course, coming from his sides. As he saw that, he pointed his arms to the side, charging as much energy as he could, as fast as he could.
But that wasn't enough. He managed to shoot twin beams of energy, one aimed at each woman, but they once again seemed to be one step ahead, diving forwards as the beams hissed by, barely missing their mark. Cygale realized finally what the two were up to, but the realization came too late, as they had both already fired their own energy beams at melee range.
Serenity fell to one knee after the attack. "Even with all this training, we can't keep this up for much longer."
Mana was still standing, but her breath was heavy. "It's good that we are almost done, then."
Cygale was, meanwhile, trying to stand up, and failing to do so. "This is impossible... Simply impossible! To think such primitive creatures would be able to stop me, when I've toppled entire civilizations!"
"Then it's a pity you didn't find us much earlier," Serenity mused. "I cannot destroy you, and I'll admit that much. However, I can still..."
"We can still seal your powers away," Mana noted.
"Mana, you're almost out of energy, if you help me, you could die."
"Mother," Mana said, her voice sounding far more annoyed than she meant to sound, "I've been to that place, and I share the same powers you have. I know what will happen if you alone seal this bastard."
"But your help wouldn't change a thing. In fact, you could die too."
"Is that what you still see?" Mana asked, noticing Cygale was still trying to stand up. She had to admit he was a lot stronger than she expected, since he had survived their combined power.
Serenity's eyes lost focus as she called upon the power that let her see what was to come. There were three different 'paths' now spawning from what they were about to do. Either of them could die in the next few minutes, or they could both be alive in the end. If one of them had to die, she only hoped it was her. "Right, then. Do you know how to do this?"
Mana smiled and summoned her crystal. "Of course, mother."
Cygale was now kneeling on the ground. He was out of energy, but these two girls were also tired. And while the damage he had sustained was almost enough to end him, he had always known his healing speed was incredibly fast. In the past it had been a moot point, for the 'champions' of other civilizations had been powerless against him, but right now, it was a good thing his healing powers were such. These two humans had only to keep on talking for one more minute, and he would be up and ready to destroy them.
Unfortunately for the Dark One, the two women were not going to wait any longer. They both stood in front of him, pointing their hands at him, as their crystals shone with energy. "It's time..."
"What are you doing, human? You cannot destroy me!"
"I know that," Serenity admitted, "our energy is too low for that. However, we can still seal you away so you can never come back to haunt this universe."
Cygale struggled to stand up, but his body was still not cured enough for that. He managed to glare at the two women as their crystals shone brighter and brighter. "Heed my words, humans. I will come back, I won't be sealed away forever. And once I come back, any 'Senshi' I find will die!"
"It's sad that you chose empty threats as the last words you'll ever say, Dark One," Mana noted. The energy from the crystals washed over her arms and she grimaced. "It's time for you to go. Cosmic Seal!"
"Galactic Seal!" Serenity shouted in unison with her daughter.
The planet's night was briefly bathed by a false daylight, and when the light died out, the two women were still there, looking at a small, black crystal. They fell to their knees, energy depleted. "we've done it," Mana said.
"Not yet, Mana." Serenity looked at the crystal and then picked it up, taking a moment to stare at the Dark One's eternal prison before crushing it, causing the crystal to split into several pieces. She then closed her eyes and the pieces floated away, vanishing in the distance. "That's the end of the Dark One... For now."
"And we are both still here."
Serenity smiled. "Even though I was ready to give up my life if that meant the defeat of Cygale, I can't say I'm upset that I still live."
Mana looked at the horizon, where the planet's only satellite was rising. "I wonder what will happen from now on..."
"You only have to 'look' forwards to know," Serenity said.
"Somehow, I'd rather not."
"I can't say I don't feel the same way. Now come, daughter, let's go back to our city."
As they walked back home, Mana remembered something. "Cygale called us Senshi. Is that his way of calling us?"
"No, I called myself that during the fight, and the name fits us well. We are now the protectors of this world."
Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 1: The Senshi of dawn.
Act 1: First era.
Episode 2: Past and present.
By Razor Knight
Last update: August 14, 2010
Book 1: The Senshi of dawn.
Act 1: First era.
Episode 2: Past and present.
By Razor Knight
Last update: August 14, 2010
-----
The invincible Xilandri, the most powerful empire of the galaxy, could not be defeated by a handful of soldiers from a small, hopeless planet. That simply couldn't be. And yet, the three soldiers stood there, unfazed as countless ships approached their world. The Commander of the 24th Colonization Squad could only wonder what those creatures were thinking. Hundreds of ships against three creatures, three creatures who didn't seem to have any weapon or vehicle?
Still, that wasn't surprising. He had seen planets being defended with sticks and stones before. And they had all been conquered, they had all become a part of the Xilandri Empire. This world would be no different, this world would soon... He noticed a change in the natives. The females were holding two identical crystals, and the male was holding a sword which was apparently made of the same type of crystal. "Status?"
The officer in charge of scanning looked back at him in shock. "There's a massive power reading coming from the creatures, sir!"
"Raise the shields," the Commander said. Several seconds later, the two women shot twin beams from their crystals, beams almost as large as the Commander's ship. He didn't have time to issue any other orders before the beams popped through the ship's shields, obliterating it and any other ship on their path.
-----
"Do you think they will take the hint this time around?"
Serenity looked up to the sky. At least, this time around, they had started retreating as soon as their capital ship was destroyed. "I don't know, they have been attacking us for two months now, Dragon."
The youngest of the warriors nodded. "Maybe we should take the fight to them."
"No," Serenity said, "we fight them when they come. If we took the fight to their home world, we could end up killing countless innocents. We would be no better than them."
"Understood. But mother, how come it was Mana the one who gave me this power, and not you?"
Serenity looked up again, to the now empty sky. "She was born with that skill. I wasn't. It's just that simple." And Dragon's own skill was something Serenity herself lacked, too. He could sense any threat to their world from a distance, as Zen'ji had explained, which was roughly three times the distance from their star to the "black planet," as he called it. It was Dragon who warned them about the first Xilandri attack, two months ago. Both her children had taken on the task of defending their world, in a way that would have made Aether proud.
-----
Aether, Serenity's husband, had been one of the best warriors of the village. Serenity had known Aether for most of her life. They had been friends for as long as she could remember, and he had noticed something 'different' about her, even at such young age.
"But Serenity, why do you like sparring?" he asked her. They were both quite out of breath and taking a break from their usual friendly sparring. It was mostly her knocking him down to the ground, but he wouldn't admit that out loud.
The ten years old girl thought about his question for a minute, then shook her head. "I don't know, it's just... I want to be a Hashar, not just a villager."
"All women stay at the village."
"I know, but why? Some of them are strong enough to be Hashar too. I bet they would beat any warrior they sent against us."
Aether laughed at that. Hashar was the title given to the village's hunters and guards. Attacks from other villages were rare, but not unheard of, and so a Hashar's life was a dangerous one. "I've heard tales of other villages having female Hashar."
"Maybe I could be the first one of our village," Serenity said hopefully.
"I could ask one of the Mentors about it."
"I doubt they..."
He smiled. "My father's the head Mentor. If I can convince him of this, then I don't think the others will mind."
"And how will you convince him?"
"I'll tell him to come watch us fight. I won't hold back, and you know it."
"Won't he think you are holding back?"
"No, he would know if I did, he's been training Hashars for years."
She thought about it for a moment, but she knew it was worth a try. "Okay, I'll beat you up in front of your father, then." She saw Aether giving her a halfhearted glare, and smiled at him. "Thanks, Aether."
"Anything for a friend, Serenity."
-----
It took Aether a whole week to convince his father. But the man, Sagon, finally agreed. He didn't mind humoring his son, and after watching the girl get thrashed around by him, he'll tell her that she wasn't fit to be a Hashar. Unfortunately, rumors had spread, and the fight had far more witnesses than he would have expected. There was nothing he could do about that, though."Are you both ready?"
"Yes," the two fighters said in unison.
"This fight will last until either of you is knocked out, or gives up. Now fight!"
The two didn't move for half a minute, waiting for the other to attack first. It was Aether who did that, going for a kick to the girl's chest. The girl was ready for it, and blocked it, following up with a straight to the face, which was blocked by Aether easily.
Sagon grew more and more shocked as the fight progressed. Sure, he had faced female warriors from other villages, but it was the first time he saw one like this Serenity girl in his village. It wasn't the apparent ease with which she was keeping up with Aether's speed and skills that bothered him. It was that she wasn't just keeping up, she was holding back.
Aether seemed to know this. He leaped back after blocking a high kick, and shook his head at her. "Serenity, I'm not here to play. If you don't show father what you can really do, then this will be useless."
Serenity sighed. "I just didn't want to show off."
"Let's fight for real," Aether said bluntly.
Sagon saw the girl's eyes change as she resumed her attack. True, she lacked training, but there was the spark of a true warrior there. Other parents would feel insulted if they saw their son being beaten around by a female, but he knew that was his fault alone. And how would he know? The training he had given Aether, when asked, was one that would let him get the upper hand on unskilled warriors. He hadn't thought his son would face a skilled opponent for years, not until the real training to become a Hashar began.
"Stop."
Serenity leaped back as she heard that, dodging Aether's last blow before turning to look at Sagon. "Huh? But neither of us has given up."
Sagon laughed at that. "I have already seen enough. It does not matter who wins or loses this fight."
"You have seen enough? What do you mean?" Aether asked.
"There has never been any female Hashar in this village, and I know many Mentors wish it to remain that way."
Serenity's eyes turned fierce. "But..."
Sagon held up a hand in a 'stop' motion. "Let me finish. There is a reason for this, and it's that none of the women we tested in the past has ever shown a warrior's spirit. But you are different."
Serenity was shocked. "That means I can become a Hashar?"
"When you're old enough, I will train you myself, Serenity."
-----
Convincing Sagon had been easier than convincing her parents, but that was also done. She became the first female Hashar of her village, and eventually one of the best of her generation. She married Aether soon after they became Hashar, and soon after that, Mana was born, and later on Dragon.
Their lives had been relatively uneventful, and she grew used to it. She was never idle, however, and kept training to improve her skills.
"Mother, today is the day Zen'ji leaves, right?" Dragon asked, taking her out of her brooding.
Serenity nodded, looking out to the forest. "I have to go talk to him before that."
"Is what he says true? Can we teach other Hashar to use this power we have?"
"It's possible, but they won't be able to resist gaining the power we have now directly. They'll have to train for years to get where we are."
"They're lucky. I remember I felt like a volcano had exploded inside me when I became a Senshi."
She had to admit Dragon's description of that event was true for her too. "They'll have to go through years of training which may make our own awakening look mild."
Dragon thought about that for a few seconds then smiled humorlessly "then maybe we're the lucky ones."
Serenity walked away, and felt the tug of memories once again as she approached Zen'ji's home.
-----
Serenity couldn't believe what was happening. Strange creatures had fallen from the sky, and in less than two hours, they had killed most of the Hashar their village had. These monsters had sticks which shot fire not like any fire she had seen before. A green fire which made anything it touched dissolve into a green, liquid substance which glowed in its own. And their stone axes and spears were but toys to the skin of these creatures. Or maybe it wasn't their skin, Serenity realized, since it was a different color than their heads. Clothes that could resist a stone weapon? It was quite shocking.
It was down to five of them now, against a horde of creatures. She looked back at the village and cringed. No, even if this was hopeless, they wouldn't give up. They were Hashar, they would stand their ground and protect their village.
Looking at Aether, she could see it in his eyes, he was thinking the same way. But there was something else there. His was a look of pure hatred, hatred directed to these creatures. She could understand his feelings, though. Sagon was one of the first to fall and Aether had seen his father dissolve right in front of his eyes. "Aether, stand your ground."
"There's no use," Aether said turning to her. The creatures weren't attacking anymore, and he knew why. These monsters were sure of their victory, so they were muttering amongst themselves, and some made noises which he could guess was laughter. "We lost, but... Let's make sure we kill as many of them as possible."
"You have a plan?" Terrak, one of the few elite Hashar left, asked.
"Yes. Aim for their heads," Aether said, and grabbed a sharpened rock, the most simple weapon they had. He then tossed it with all his might, and it caught one of the monsters right between the eyes. Everyone heard the sickly crack as the rock cracked its skull, and the monster fell, orange liquid (blood?) oozing out of its mouth.
The creatures were quite surprised at that, but then they all started shooting as one. The fire was all directed at Aether, but he was the best Serenity had ever seen when it came to dodging. That let the other four unchecked as the aliens tried to take down the only enemy who had managed to kill one of their kin. That was proven a mistake quite soon, as the other four, once aware of the monsters' weak spot, managed to kill dozens of their foes in but a minute.
But even that last desperate attack was useless. Serenity saw Terrak fall and realized the fight was lost. Only her and Aether remained.
One of the monsters snarled at them in his language, probably gloating about their power and telling them to give up. Aether only glared at it and clutched the axe he had used to crack many skulls open that night. "I wanted to be there when Mana became a Hashar. Guess that's not going to happen."
Serenity saw him rush at the one who had 'talked' to them, giving a battle cry as he run. He never reached his target. She looked at what was left of him once the barrage of beams ended, and could feel the tears forming in her eyes. She knew she was surrounded, one against more enemies than she could count up to, and any of their weapons could kill her instantly. "I wanted to be there, too," she said before raising her spear.
Things happened too fast in that moment for her to understand, but afterwards she had played it all in her mind once and again, so she knew what she had seen. She, like Aether, charged at her enemies wildly. And her enemies shot. But the fire never hit her, as something stopped them. No, whatever it was, it didn't just stop them, it made the fire bounce back, taking out many enemies. She stopped dead in her track, as confused as the creatures. Then the creatures looked up to the sky, frozen for many seconds. She looked up and saw it too. A large, floating... Thing.
It wasn't a living thing, she realized, but some sort of floating 'house.' And her foes weren't just confused about the house. They were backing away from it, and she could tell they feared it. The object slowly floated down to the ground, and by the time it landed, a day away from her village, the creatures had already broken into a mad dash away from it. Away from the village.
Before she could recover from the shock, a creature appeared in front of her. It wasn't like the ones that had attacked her, those big, orange-skinned, rat-like monsters. This one was slightly shorter than her, with blue, scaly skin and large insect eyes. And it had four arms, no matter how impossible that would seem to her.
Do not fear, I am not going to hurt you."
There were several things about that phrase that surprised her. She was expecting it to attack her. And if it didn't attack, she expected it to speak to her in a language she wouldn't understand. But this creature was speaking in her own language. How?
"I am Zen'ji, of the Val'harra race. We're here looking for the strongest warrior of your world," the creature said in a monotone, as if this was something he had practiced before.
The woman didn't answer, she had a lot of feelings in her mind, fighting for dominance. She tried to force the worst ones back, but that was another hopeless battle. The creature saw her walk to what had probably been the remains of one of her kin, and kneel in front of it.
Zen'ji saw her reach for the small puddle. "I wouldn't do that. The Garakian guns can dissolve living tissue, and even the residue left after disintegration could damage living tissue greatly."
Serenity looked at it. Was it male or female? She couldn't really tell. "I... I want to be alone. If you're looking for the strongest warrior as you said, you should go talk to him or her instead." But who could it be? All the Hashar were dead. All but...
"I am talking to her right now," Zen'ji said, confirming her guess.
Serenity looked down. "I understand, but I can't talk to you right now."
"I will leave, then," Zen'ji said. He wasn't sure why, but the female seemed quite upset. He was no psychic, but he could still feel she wasn't in the mood to talk. "I will be back after the next sunset."
Serenity didn't look at him (her?) but she knew the creature was gone. She was quite aware people was walking out of the village now. So much for being alone. She had known this day could come, but now that it had happened... She didn't really know what to tell her children, and what to tell Aether's mother. And the rest of the Hashar were gone, too.
"Mom, what happened? Where's dad?"
She looked up at her daughter, who noticed the tears in her mother's face and somewhat knew what was going on. "Mana, I'm sorry, but he..."
Mana fell to her knees and started crying, not needing to hear the rest of what her mother had been about to say.
-----
Serenity's mind returned to the present as she walked into Zen'ji's 'house.' It was actually a very large spaceship, the only one at ground level. She had seen the images of the other ships, many of them, orbiting all the planets of her home system.
Every Val she passed by nodded at her, and some smiled. It was quite a change from the first time she had been on board of the ship. Back then, she was to them just a creature from a primitive race, someone that, in theory, could become the strongest being in the Galaxy. Now, she was... One could say their theories had been right. And even though Zen'ji was the only one who had ever called her a friend, she knew the others had a similar kind of respect for her.
She had to admit she had been scared the first time she visited that ship. It had been three days after that horrible battle, and being alone in a place full of aliens was not an easy thing for her. Still, the Val'harrha were the complete opposite of the Garakian, the beings who had attacked her village. The Val were a race of 'watchers,' they observed and learned what they could from other races. However, they never attacked another race, and she knew why during that battle: They had created a shield that could reflect anything back at the attacker.
Well, almost anything. She knew that was another reason the Val had to respect her.
And thanks to Zen'ji, she also knew that most 'spacer' civilizations (the Val had words for things Serenity had never thought possible) were violent. So it wasn't really strange that the Xilandri were the second race to attack them in the year she had been a Senshi. It was, he had explained, a consequence of races gaining the knowledge to build spaceships while they were still 'young.' The Val'harrha was one of the first races to appear in the Galaxy (and they knew that because they had explored most of it,) and had not reached space in their youth.
It was only possible to find a way out of the incredible gravity of the regions near the Core after centuries of research. And, by then, the Val'harrha's planet was one without borders, without 'villages.' From what Serenity had understood of his stories, his whole planet was a single village, or 'Citadel' as he called it.
But that world was long gone, its star having died out centuries earlier. Most of the Val could escape their planet's fate, thanks to being able to predict the event a thousand years before it happened. They had since been traveling and doing what they liked most: Exploring, discovering, learning. Watching.
And now, finally, she had found Zen'ji. He was checking a row of monitors, but stopped as he saw her approach. "It's good to see you, Serenity."
"I've been preparing myself for this day for a long time," Serenity said with a sad smile, "but it doesn't make it any easier for me."
"It isn't easy for me either, but... I must go wherever my race goes."
"I understand," Serenity looked at the monitors. She knew what most readings meant, and it was unnerving for her to know she could match, or even surpass, most of those energy readings. "Those warriors from the future, they said your race..."
Zen'ji shook his head at that. "Their legends talk of a race long gone, a race humans have not heard of for eons. It's only natural they think we became extinct, but... We just decided to go back to our role as Watchers."
"So, where are you going now?"
"Back to the Core. Contrary to our predictions, the Vacuum is far more densely populated than our home region. We will be observing the Galaxy from the inner regions."
"Will I ever see you again?"
"I don't think that will be possible, Serenity," Zen'ji admitted. He saw Serenity's eyes watering and smiled at her. "You know, I really envy you. It's not possible for me to cry, and I wish I could right now."
Serenity looked down. "I don't want to cry, to make this a sad memory for you."
"It's not sad to know you care about me enough to cry," Zen'ji said.
Another Val walked to them, and said something in their original language. She knew the language, so she understood the message. Everything was ready, they would be leaving in less than one hour.
"So this is goodbye, then," Serenity said in a whisper. "Wish I could go with you."
"You wouldn't adapt to space, and... You will live a very long life. I won't. I would rather have you remember me like your wise mentor, and not as an old, crazy alien."
Serenity couldn't help but laugh at that. "Thank you, Zen'ji, for all you've done for us."
"And I thank you, because our race learnt that we can do more than just watch if we really want to learn all there is to learn. We will continue searching for other World Seeds, now that we know what they are. If we activate all the dormant ones, we could help the Galaxy evolve."
The World Seeds. Serenity had seen one in one of the ship's monitors before, the shape was strange for her and not at all seed-like. However, it was a fitting name, since those artifacts could turn planets like the arid Mars or the impossibly hot Mercury into inhabitable planets. Her race could live in those worlds, once they gained the ability to travel through space (something she and her children had, but she couldn't transport a mass of people around.) The Val had said that gaining such ability at such a young age would be dangerous. Humans (as was the name given to them by the Val) could end up being just like the Garakians who had attacked her village.
"I suppose I'll go now," Serenity said, turning around to hide the tears that were forming once again in her face.
"Tell Mana and Dragon I'll miss them."
"I'm sure they'll miss you too, friend. Goodbye."
"Goodbye, Serenity," Zen'ji said as her friend vanished. He stood there, looking at the spot where she had been, for a minute, but then realized it was really the last time he would see her. "May your race aim for the brightest future."
-----
She wondered about the future. She would find Senshi who could link to each of the planets, and then... What? True, her power allowed her to see all possible ramifications of the timelines, but she could only see what caused each if she focused in that particular one. And she knew a split second of difference in an action could cause a whole new ramification to appear, or one of those already 'waiting' to simply vanish. She was 'seeing' that now. Their quick (some would say 'cold') way of dealing with the Xilandri had scared them. They would not come back to attack Earth. She wasn't quite proud of killing thousands of aliens, but if the other option was to let thousands of her own people die... Yes, there was no other option, not for her.
Dragon looked at the fast-moving 'star' in the sky. It was easy to tell it wasn't a real star, for it was moving too fast... And the Sun was at its highest point in the sky. "The Val'harrha left. What will we do now, mother?"
"We will find the other Senshi."
Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 1: The Senshi of dawn.
Act 1: First era.
Episode 3: And then there were many.
By Razor Knight
Last update: September 9, 2010
Book 1: The Senshi of dawn.
Act 1: First era.
Episode 3: And then there were many.
By Razor Knight
Last update: September 9, 2010
-----
"Alastra, there are warriors from another village asking to see you."
The old woman looked at the messenger. "To see me? Do they think I am that stupid?"
"They have no weapons," the messenger said, "and they didn't defend against our attacks, either."
"They didn't?"
"Lady Alastra, I was there. Our spears and arrows hit them, but the three just stood there. The weapons didn't hurt them at all! And that's when they asked about you, and the leader told me to..."
"You're talking of the impossible, yet you don't seem to be lying. Your eyes aren't those of an insane person, either, I have seen those before. So the only other thing I can assume is that you're saying the truth, and invincible warriors from another village are here, and they're not here to fight, or would have done so already."
"What will we do?"
"Let them in."
-----
Serenity smiled. "I assume we're free to enter now?"
The guard nodded nervously. "Yes, please go ahead, Lady Alastra is waiting for you."
"Their leader's a woman," Dragon noted in a low voice.
"That may explain why most of those warriors were female," Serenity admitted.
As they walked into the central hut of the village, they saw the leader was old. She seemed older than any of the elders in their own village. "I must admit," the woman said, "I have never heard of warriors approaching another village and not even trying to defend themselves."
"We didn't need to defend ourselves," Serenity said, "and we have not come here to fight, Lady Alastra."
Alastra smiled at that. "I see. If I were to call in all of my warriors and have them fight you, what would you do?"
Mana reached her hand out, and everyone could see a stone knife appear in it. "What will we do?" she asked just as she stabbed her own arm with the knife, which shattered as it hit, small shards falling to the ground. "We will wait until they all tire themselves, and then we'll ask you what we came here to ask. So let's skip the useless fighting and let us ask."
Alastra's face had changed. Before, she was still doubting the 'invincible' warriors. But now, after seeing what a weapon did to them (or rather, that it did nothing,) she saw no point in fighting them. "And what is it that you're here to ask?"
"You have one like us in your village," Serenity said, "a Senshi like us."
"Senshi?" Alastra asked.
"That's the name for our group. In our village it means 'Defender.'"
"Where did you learn to speak our language?" Alastra asked. In fact, this woman was speaking it flawlessly.
"It's one of our abilities," Serenity noted. Actually, it wasn't one of her abilities, but Zen'ji had given her one of the 'translators' his race used to understand other languages. But she didn't need to tell this woman that.
"You say there's one like you in my village. Assuming that's true, what would I gain if I let whoever that is go?"
"It's not what you would gain, but what you could lose. Those like us are normal people until they're awakened. I know how to awaken them, and I could do it without their permission, but... Their bodies would not be used to such power, and they would be scared and confused. They could turn your whole village into dust before I was able to control them."
Alastra couldn't believe this woman's words. Was she really saying a single person of her kind could destroy a whole village? And was she implying she would still awaken that person if she refused? "I now understand why you said you don't need to fight, you seem to have planned this thoroughly. I don't suppose you will tell me who this person is?"
"I will tell you, because I know you won't do anything to that person before I awaken her. I can do that before your order reaches the guard besides you. And, also, I know that person name is... Ashara."
Alastra's face paled and she muttered something Serenity didn't want to translate. "No, it can't be. Not her."
Mana nodded. "Yes, your granddaughter is one of us."
The woman looked at them, and then started pacing back and forth. "I still only see nothing to gain from this."
"We defend no village," Serenity noted, "we defend all of the planet. You would not see your granddaughter as often for a few years, but once Ashara completes her training, she can come back to live in this village if she wants to. I'm willing to let her come visit you if you wish to see her while her training is still not complete, though that may have some risks."
"But what if she never awakens?"
"There are threats out there," Serenity said, pointing up instead of pointing at the door, to make clear what she really meant, "that can't be fought with normal weapons. I think you realized that already. If you were attacked by one of those unknown threats, it could cause Ashara's powers to awaken. If they awaken that way, then I doubt it would be any easier to get to control them. She could end up destroying everything around her."
"You keep talking about your 'power' but I can't see how you could be strong enough to do something like that."
"Then please come outside," Serenity said, "we will show you."
-----
Alastra followed the three outside, and saw many of her villagers were waiting. "Worry not, these strangers have no thoughts of harming us," she said out loud, though she wasn't all too sure about that yet. "They came looking for someone who, they say, is like them, and who has incredible powers."
"Your great leader has asked us to show her those powers, and we have agreed," Serenity said, shooting a glance at Alastra that told her to follow her lead. "We will need all the room we can get, so... Look outside."
Many of the villagers gasped as Serenity and her two children vanished, but one of the villagers understood what they meant, and looked in the direction of the clearing that was close to the village, to the south. And he was only half surprised to see the three were there, waiting. "They're there!"
The villagers all started moving towards the trio, the curiosity of the mass being strong enough to pull even those who didn't believe they would see anything out of the ordinary along. "Don't come any closer," Serenity warned, "we may not want to harm any of you, but while we're doing this little show, we may get a bit wild."
Mana looked at Dragon. "I think you should start."
Dragon nodded at her, and a sword appeared in his hand, a sword made of a strange, white crystal. "Hope you don't mind being a target."
Mana smiled at him. "Same to you."
And the villagers saw something they just weren't prepared to see. The young man muttered something and then jammed his sword into the ground, and a wall of flames shot from it, hitting the woman dead on. What was even more strange was that the woman stood through the attack, no burnt marks or injuries visible in her.
Serenity looked at the ground between the two siblings and shook her head. "What is it with you and fire, son?" She aimed her hand at the flames that were slowly spreading and closed her eyes, calling forth another element. Water.
By now, the villagers were pretty much aware of how... Impossible these warriors were. One of them had started a fire from his sword, and then this woman had created water, out of her bare hands and put the fire out in an instant.
But then, the younger of the two women decided to show what she could do. She rose her hand... And a lightning struck her. However, lightning bolts would only last for an instant, and they could split a tree in two. But this girl was being struck by a lightning bolt that didn't seem to end, and she stood there, smiling calmly. "Here!" She shot the lightning back at her brother, who simply reached his hand out, and a thick column of rock rose from the ground itself, stopping the lightning arc.
And before the crowd could recover, Serenity herself made all the other tricks look tame. She rose both hands, which lit up like the Sun, and everyone could see fire, ice, sand and even leaves circling her for a few moments. Then it was all back to normal, and she smiled as she looked straight at Alastra. "As you can see, our powers are not just for defense."
"And you say this person... Will be able to do all that?"
"Once she trains with us, yes."
Alastra turned to the left. "Ashara, come here."
"What do you need me for?"
Serenity looked at the girl. She was apparently younger than Dragon, but old enough for her body to resist the awakening. "It's good to finally meet you."
The girl took a few steps back as she realized what this meant. "You mean I am... I am like you?"
"I know you must be afraid," Dragon said, "but we aren't going to hurt you. We gave your grandmother our word."
"I don't want this!" the girl said, her voice turning into a snarl. She stopped, however, as she felt her hand warm up. She stared at it as a small flame appeared, hovering over it. "How..."
"Unfortunately, you will still have that power, even if you don't want to use it. And the longer you go without using it, without learning how to control it, the easier it will be for it to run wild."
Ashara looked at her hand. The fire wasn't there anymore, but it wasn't because she had willed it away. She didn't know how to. This woman was doing something that kept her from creating more fire. "What is this 'power'?"
Mana looked around. "I think we should talk about this in private. Lady Alastra can inform the rest of the village about it later."
"I agree," Alastra said. "Ashara, come with us."
The young girl was too confused right now to refuse, so she followed the others into the village's central hut.
-----
Ashara looked at her hand again, at the flame calmly resting on it. She could feel the heat, but it didn't hurt her at all. After two months of training, she could now summon fire at will and keep it in check. "Why is it I can't use other elements?"
"Each Senshi is only meant to use one element," Serenity explained. She was glad things were working for them. In two months they had found the Senshi of Fire, Ice and Wind. She knew there were others to find, but she also needed to make sure those she found were ready to fight any enemies they may find.
Kian, the Senshi of Wind, frowned at that. "Yet you and your children..."
Serenity looked at the man. "I know. It's our curse."
"Curse?" the third Senshi, Tae, walked to her. "Being able to use all those powers... Isn't it more of a blessing?"
"We have to keep them controlled, too. And we only have full control over pure magic, with no elements. I will never be as good at using fire as Ashara could be with enough training. Same goes for wind and ice."
Mana walked in right then. "There's an alien vessel out there, in the fourth planet."
The fourth planet? It was still a cold desert, but Serenity knew humans would live there in a relatively close future. "What are they doing there?"
"Dragon doesn't know. Should we go check?"
Serenity looked at their three 'students.' "Take Ashara with you."
"Understood."
"Wait, why me?" Ashara asked.
"That planet's the one you're linked to. And I think you're ready for a real battle, if there is one."
"Right," Mana agreed, "we are going there as scouts. If they turn out to be hostile, however, we will defend ourselves."
Ashara was sure things wouldn't go as smoothly as her leader thought, but this was a chance to prove she was a warrior.
-----
Going from one planet to another wasn't much different than the way the leaders had reached their village, or how they had brought her to their base. However... The air was different. "This planet stinks."
Mana smiled. "You should see the second planet, then. Once you're strong enough, because that atmosphere's lethal for humans. Don't worry, if you spend a few hours here, your nose will get used to the smell, and you won't notice it anymore."
"Hope you're right. Where are the aliens?" 'Alien' was a strange word. Her own language, Ashara realized, didn't have a word for that term, for something that came from the stars.
"Half an hour to the north, if we fly."
Ashara nodded. "Or if we run."
"Try not to get noticed."
"You'll be the one gliding towards them, so you shouldn't talk," Ashara noted.
"You can be a pest, you know?"
"And you can be quite dumb." Ashara smiled as she said that. Those little 'insult' wars had become a sort of ritual for them, even though they had quickly become friends.
"In any case..." Mana turned and flinched. "Never mind. We won't have to go to where they are. They detected us."
"Shak'le."
"Girl, watch your language."
The aliens had extremely fast vehicles, apparently, as it only took them a couple minutes to reach them. Thanks to the translator, the two women could understand what they said, though the first few words weren't all too kind.
"Where do you come from, intruders?" The alien was tall, looked like an insect, and its face, though strange, was one of someone who was sure of his own superiority. How not to be, when he had a squad of twenty soldiers, and was facing two apparently unarmed women?
"We come from the third planet."
"That's a lie. Where's your ship?"
"Ship?" Ashara asked.
"A vehicle to travel through the stars," Mana explained. To the alien, she said "we need no ship to get here."
The alien took a second to chew on that info and then growled. "You're lying. Fire!"
The soldiers who had walked out of the vehicle along with the one speaking obeyed at once, firing some kind of red beams at the two. "Hmm, this tickles," Ashara noted.
"It's a heat weapon," Mana guessed, noticing the aliens were muttering amongst each other.
"Maybe I should show them..."
"No," Mana looked at her, "sometimes fighting can only complicate things."
The alien who had first spoken to them approached them, and they both could see his body language had changed. "You... Said you come from the third planet?"
Mana nodded. "Yes. This world is empty right now, but we've got plans to expand into it in a near future."
"I understand. If that is so, then I apologize on behalf of our race. We shall continue on to the next system." He turned to leave, then added, "and I also apologize for attacking you."
"No harm done," Mana said. "Farewell."
-----
Half an hour later, the two women were back in their base, and Mana was informing her mother about what had happened.
"... And Dragon told me they're already heading out of the system. I can guess we won't see them again."
Ashara was still confused, and decided to ask what she couldn't understand. "Why did they leave in such a hurry? I don't get it."
"I'll tell you what I think they saw. Two females from the third planet, who could travel through space and take on their weapons without even flinching. They obviously see no hopes of winning against a whole planet full of people like us."
"But most humans aren't like us."
"Of course. But they don't know that."
"You beat them without fighting? How boring," Tae noted.
Serenity shook her head. "We are protectors, Tae, not murderers. If there is a way to protect our world without killing anyone, then that's what we should always aim for."
"And in this case, us fighting them would have been pointless," Ashara admitted, "if those weapons were all they had, they wouldn't harm even me."
Kian let out a sigh. "I hope we have peace for a while."
"What's the point of training if we don't get to fight?" Tae asked.
"The point is to be ready if we do get to fight," Mana noted. "We'll need to find the other Senshi. Maybe you guys can help with that if you're bored."
-----
"Lady Mana, good morning."
"I've told you to drop the title when we're in private, Laos."
The young man smiled. "If I do that, I may start forgetting to add it when we're in public."
Mana let out a sigh of defeat. Things really had changed in the last decade. The team was complete now (more than complete, considering there were two Senshi for some of the planets,) and while rather unstable, alliances had formed, and some villages had grown or 'fused' with others. The Senshi were still keeping their guards up for any external threat, but alien attacks had been growing less and less frequent.
Another thing that changed was that humans, thanks to a network of strange devices built by the Val, had been able to settle into other worlds with relative ease. "There's a report from Venus," Laos said, "they say a whole village's gone."
"A whole village?" Mana looked at the white-haired man in shock. "But Dragon would have detected it!"
"I know. I told Lady Serenity about this minutes ago."
"And what did she say?"
"She's already in Venus."
-----
The landscape was quite strange in this world. No matter how many times she visited this planet, or the gas giants, she would never get used to how things looked from their surface. Thanks to the World Seeds, the planet's deadly atmosphere was mostly clean, the poisonous gases kept miles above ground level. With the thick layer of gases up there, anyone would think the planet was in eternal darkness, or at most in a dim light. But the lowest layer of clouds had a strange brightness, something she found no explanation for. She was sure if the Val were still around she could ask them, but...
Serenity shook her head and focused on the task at hand. She was standing in the center of what had once been a small village. All that was left of it now, was a circle of burnt land and ashes. What kind of weapon could do this? From the few corpses and skeletons she could see, it had caused a large explosion. And if Dragon couldn't sense the attacker, that meant the attack came from the outermost planets, or even from outside their system. She sent a mental message and, a few seconds later, Mana appeared right besides her. "What do you think?"
Mana looked around, then up to the 'sky.' "I think I have a good guess. But we would need to wait for a second attack... If there is one."
Serenity smiled at that. Mana had spent many years reading in the Library, so she had a far better understanding of the Universe than Serenity could ever have. "What do you think happened here?"
"A small planetoid, many times smaller than our Moon or the moons of other planets, may have crashed into the village. The chance for it to happen in a given planet is small, the chance for it to hit right in the middle of a settlement is... Not worth calculating. For it to be large enough to reach the surface and do this..."
"I heard Zen talk about it once," Serenity realized, "he called them 'asteroids' and 'comets.' But I thought they moved around the galaxy naturally?"
"If you wanted to, you could manipulate one of them easily," Mana noted, "and with the proper artifacts, it could be done, without using magic."
"Find whoever did this, and take care of them," Serenity said, "I'm going to bring this village back."
Mana stared at Serenity for a few seconds before nodding. "Don't overdo it."
"I've also been training whenever I could, so I'm stronger than you may think."
-----
Mana looked at the bracelet she always wore. It was one of the things she had found in the Library, one that let her search information from it without having to physically be there.
The Library was actually a large artifact, and one of the reasons the Val had taken a while to abandon their system. There was no way to know who had built it, or why it had been left where it was: Deep underneath the surface of the sun side of the first planet, Mercury. Even that, the names they used for the planets nowadays, were names taken from the Library itself.
It had been a shock for her, to know there might be a race older and wiser than even the Val'harrha, and that such a race would have existed in their system. The World Seeds were mentioned in the Library, and many of their functions explained there, but there was still no explanation for the link between Senshi and planets, or for the Ginzuishou, as Serenity's crystal (and her own) was called in the records, or the crystal swords (which were being called the Dragon Swords nowadays, after her brother.)
She focused in the task at hand. Upon reaching the eleventh planet, Nemesis, Mana had sensed something in the outer limits of the system, past the many small planetoids that the Sun somehow kept around it even at this incredible distance. A spaceship, a single one, which was (she could see it now that she was closing in on it) dragging a large asteroids along.
If she had doubted these aliens' intentions, all doubts would have been cleared as the ship started shooting at her. Energy beams, projectiles, and after the initial barrage failed to knock her down, some manned vehicles shot out of the ship's front. "I suppose they don't like me being here," Mana muttered to herself.
She had started gathering energy as soon as the first barrage hit her, and unleashed an energy wave many times larger than herself. The wave, however, was stopped by something. "They've got shields that strong? Guess I'll have to get serious."
-----
Inside the ship, a group of creatures was looking at the single enemy outside. "What's the readings on that woman?"
"She's no threat to us, sir, not with the power readings we're getting from her."
"Good. However, she seems resistant to our attacks," the ship's captain said. "Use the Slingshot."
"Sir, I don't think wasting energy with the Slingshot to kill a single creature..."
"A single creature who can resist our ship's cannons," the captain noted. "Fire the Slingshot on my mark!"
The creature at the scanner paled. "Sir, there's been a change in the creature's readings..."
"That's unimportant," the captain said.
"But sir, her power's increased a hundred times!"
The captain didn't need to calculate to know what could happen if that creature shot. "Raise shields to maximum power!" Even that, however, was pointless when their enemy shot.
-----
Mana stared at the exploding mess that had been a spaceship minutes earlier. It had been easy, almost too easy. In fact, the only real challenge she had faced since she became a Senshi was Cygale.
Laos appeared right besides her, and took a moment to watch the 'fireworks.' "Tae will be scowling about this for weeks."
"I can almost agree with him. There's nothing challenging out there. I didn't even use half my full power to do this," and she pointed at the now dying explosion near them as she said that last part.
"There's an old saying in my village, 'be careful what you wish for, because you will most certainly get it.'"
"I've heard a similar one once," Mana admitted, "and I know what you mean. But as long as the team is here, I don't think there's anything out there that can defeat us."
Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 1: The Senshi of dawn.
Act 1: First era.
Episode 4: Generations.
By Razor Knight
Last update: January 14, 2011
Book 1: The Senshi of dawn.
Act 1: First era.
Episode 4: Generations.
By Razor Knight
Last update: January 14, 2011
-----
Mana smiled as she watched her daughter play. Gala was the first of the third generation of Senshi (no Senshi was older than her, so Serenity was the only first generation Senshi,) and her power was potentially stronger than hers. This came as no surprise for her or her mother, since both could see how things would unfold in the future, and Gala would one day become the strongest Senshi in their universe.
She also knew what else she would have to go through, but knew it couldn't be stopped. Not if they wanted mankind to keep on existing. "It won't be long until her powers awaken."
Laos smiled as he walked into the room. Mana seemed to always know when he was around, and he was sure it wasn't her power letting her do that. "Let's enjoy her normality while it lasts, then."
It had been no surprise for the other Senshi that Mana and Laos had married, they had been living together for many years. He was the Senshi of Death, linked to the planet Saturn, so their daughter... In theory, she would inherit the powers of either of them, or both of them. But for reasons unknown even to her, who had spent countless hours reading the contents of the Library, their daughter's power would be that of the whole galaxy.
But Laos was right, they could enjoy their peace for the time being. What was going to happen in a few decades wouldn't change her love for her daughter.
-----
It wasn't long before some of the other Senshi had children of their own. Mana's brother, Dragon, had two daughters with Hemera. One of them, Kama, was only able to use the power of Light. The other one was a bit like Gala. Mitra, the younger of Dragon's two children, had control over gravity, and nothing else. She was the first Sailor Sun. But, despite the source of her powers, her destiny was darker than anything Mana had seen in her visions.
Mitra's power was abnormally high. Not as high as Gala's, but still amazing. Fighting her wasn't easy, as controlling gravity allowed her to create a 'bubble' around her foes, causing them to fall down, unable to move.
She was right now training with the one who had never before been defeated by her powers. Mana smiled as she watched their battle. Maybe some of the other Senshi felt a bit of jealousy at these two, but she could only be proud of how powerful Gala had become since she turned ten and her powers awakened.
So strong, she could have possibly held her ground against Cygale. With a few more years of training, she would be technically, or even literally, unstoppable. It was good that she was on the side of light, at least for the time being.
"Solar Pull."
One other thing these two (and Kama) had, was the habit of giving their attacks names. A habit that would survive countless generations of Senshi, from what her visions told her.
Gala stood unmoving, but also unaffected by Mitra's gravity attack. "I've told you already it won't do a thing against me," she said, looking at her floating foe. "Philosopher's Rain."
The attack used by Gala was strong, but not strong enough to outright kill Mitra. All the elements combined in her palm, and she slammed it into the ground, causing (contrary to what the attack's name might imply,) an upwards stream of energy to shoot from directly under her foe. Having been at the receiving end of this attack, Mana knew that, while it would not kill Mitra, it would still hurt a lot.
Mitra fell to the ground and groaned. "It's not fair, you cheat."
Hemera walked to her daughter. "Any normal human would tell you that being able to float on your own or cause gravity to rise on a whim is also cheating."
Gala sighed. "I suppose I could use a weaker attack. But we're training to become stronger."
"And it's not her fault you can't dodge," Kama remarked.
Mitra stood up and glared at Kama for a few seconds. "Says the one who can't dodge my attacks."
-----
Several years passed without any real emergency, but things were about to change. Both Mana and Laos had 'heard' the summoning, and had reached the meeting room at almost the same time as the other Senshi. "Mother, what's going on? It's been years since you last called us all this way."
"I called you all here because we are facing a real threat to our system," Serenity said. "An unknown entity's entering our system right now, and approaching Nemesis."
Erebos, the Dragon of Nemesis, nodded at that. "We've sensed it. A dark being is out there."
His sister Nyx looked around the room. "But if you called us all here, then..."
"As I said, it's a real threat. It's going to take all of us to fight this being, if what I'm sensing is true."
Mana reached out with her senses and flinched. "That thing's bigger than Jupiter!"
Gala wasn't the youngest Senshi in the room, but she was the strongest, even though she was one 'level' behind everyone else. "I suppose we should stop it before it reaches Nemesis, then."
Serenity nodded. "This will be the first time Gala, Kama and Mitra join us in a battle. But I'm sure they are more than ready for it."
"Let's not waste another moment," Mana said, "let's go!"
And as suddenly as it had been occupied, the room was empty again.
-----
The creature was something none of them had ever seen, but something Mana had read about. The original name of these beings couldn't be spelled in any of the languages she knew, but the translation to her language was 'World Eater.' A fitting description for what the creature did.
It was, to put it simple, a dark mass of matter, with no visible 'mouth' or any appendage. From what she had read on it, these creatures fed by wrapping themselves around their target, and then dissolving it. She had read of massive weapons being created to fight them, and that most of them had been destroyed by the Ancients (which was the name given to the creators of the World Seed and the Library by humans.) It was probably the last of its species, but that wasn't going to stop the Senshi from eliminating it.
At Serenity's mental command, they all used their strongest attacks against the creature. They didn't damage it, as they all were deflected as soon as they hit the outer limits of the monster. It kept slowly floating towards Nemesis, completely unfazed by the sudden attacks.
Hemera cringed. "It's not possible. A magic shield that resists our strongest attacks?"
Mana looked at the monster. No shield was perfect, it was just a matter of finding its weak points. "Tae, see if you can find any spot in its surface."
"Sure." It took Tae a minute to finally speak up again. "I've found a weak spot, but from my calculations, even our combined power won't breach through it."
Gala thought about it for a few seconds and then smiled. "Maybe if we really combine our powers..."
"What do you mean?" Mana asked.
"A crazy idea I have. I've read about how some beam weapons have a way higher output by having several beams be focused by a catalyst. Maybe our powers could be enhanced that way."
"You mean shooting the attacks right through one of us?"
Gala smiled at Kama. "That's exactly what I mean."
Serenity considered it for a moment. "Whoever the catalyst is, they could be hurt, or worse, in the process."
"I'm willing to take the risk," Gala admitted.
"No, I won't let you do that."
Gala looked at Mana. "Mom, if any of us can be hit by that much power and survive, it's me."
"But still..." Mana looked at the creature, slowly but relentlessly approaching Nemesis. As much as she hated the idea of hurting her daughter, Gala was right. Gala was stronger than Serenity, and in cases like this, raw power meant a lot more than experience. "Fine, we'll follow your plan."
Gala moved towards the creature, then looked back at the others. "I suppose the trick will work much better if all of you hit me at the same time."
"I'll give them the signal," Serenity said, "whenever you're ready."
"Give me your best shot, then."
With Serenity's mental command, all of the Senshi shot their attacks as one, and all the attacks hit Gala at almost the same time. She let out a scream at first, but then fell silent, two large, multicolored energy balls forming in her hands as she smiled. She rose her hands, and the energy washed over her body. "Galactic Storm!"
The attack came from all of Gala's body, and grew as it traveled the distance between her and her foe, until it was many times her height. The beam itself was bright enough, but the creature, once hit, lit up like a second Sun, the explosion that followed was strong enough to send everyone sailing back a good distance.
Mana appeared right next to Gala, who was clutching her chest in pain. "Are you okay?"
"I'll live," Gala said with a small hiss of pain, "but I suppose I underestimated how much power you all have when combined."
"That name, though..."
"What? I also thought about something like 'Planet Attack', but this one didn't sound so silly."
"Your plan went really well, you know. I wonder if the Ancients had a Senshi like you?"
"That would be sad, I've always been proud of being the first Sailor Galaxia."
"Won't say I wasn't expecting you to choose such a name, Gala."
"Hey, it even fits my real name."
The other Senshi had all gathered around them by now. "Think that was the last of those creatures?" Hemera asked.
Mana had already pondered that, and had used her powers to search for an answer. "It will be the only one we'll see," she said.
"Let's return home," Serenity said, "and hope things stay calm for a while."
-----
Things had remained relatively calm for many years after that. But while peace was a good thing for some of the Senshi, it was a bad thing for others. Amongst the strongest Senshi, there were those who had accepted peace and enjoyed it, but others didn't quite seem to feel at ease not having anything to fight against.
Sailor Galaxia and Sailor Sun, the strongest two, had been content with fighting each other when there were no enemies to fight against. Of course, their fights had been never to death, but given the raw power they had, they always fought in the area between planets. It was a bit unsettling to know that some of the Senshi's powers were more than capable of splitting a planet in half. It was even more unsettling to know these two could be hit by that kind of attacks and not suffer much damage from them.
"Solar Vortex!"
Galaxia struggled against the gravitational pull of the attack. She had seen what the attack could do, it had turned a large invasion fleet into a single, impossibly compressed cube of metal, plastic and organic materials. She could possibly resist the gravity at the center of that blast, but she wasn't taking chances.
"Nebula Drain."
It was one of the few defensive techniques Galaxia had, but it was also very effective. A thin, violet 'mist' seeped out of his skin, surrounding her and absorbed the energy of incoming attacks, turning it into raw magic energy. When the mist went back into her body, that energy was added to her own.
"Hmph, again with that," Sun noticed.
"See it as my way of admitting some of your attacks could really hurt me," Galaxia said, "as compared to before we reached this level."
Sun let a frown creep into her face for a few seconds, but she knew her friend was right. Galaxia's power was the highest she had ever seen, and was way out of her league for a long time. But when she reached Aeon level, the strongest level of power for them (as far as she knew,) the difference had been reduced drastically. Actually, most of the Senshi had reached that level in the last few years, through training and combat, and Serenity could defeat Galaxia in a fight.
Galaxia was about to attack, profiting from her friend's daydreaming, when she sensed the mental summon. "Serenity."
Sun nodded. She hadn't sensed it herself, but knew Serenity could call any of them (or all of them) without using any device. It was one of the ways in which Serenity was still superior to them. "Have fun."
"We'll call this a draw," Galaxia noted.
"Heh. Who's counting, anyways?"
-----
Galaxia appeared in the main room of the fortress. It was a large city, built as the main base of the Senshi at first, but soon it had attracted nomads and people from nearby villages. It was nowadays considered the capital city of Earth.
Serenity looked at her. "Were you two trying to kill each other as usual?"
"Yeah," Galaxia said with a smile. It was a joke amongst Senshi, since their powers could be really destructive. In reality, those fights usually stopped at first blood, if not at first hit.
"I've called you here because I know you're not happy just to stay here and fight the odd invasion fleet that shows up every few years."
"That's not..." Gala started, but shook her head. No use in lying to her grandmother. "Yes, but there's nothing I can do about that."
"You know about the colonization project," Serenity said. It wasn't a question, all the Senshi knew about it. "Our objective is to colonize planets outside our system, and we have the means to do that, but the people going on those spaceships are normal humans. Even the ones trained for combat wouldn't be able to face some of the enemies we've seen here... And there might be stronger creatures out there."
Gala guessed what her grandmother was going to say next. "You want me to babysit those colonists, right?"
Serenity paused for a few seconds. "That's... One way to say it. Senshi are protectors, we're meant to protect mankind. You're the strongest of us all, and I have foreseen there will be enemies out there which would overpower most of us."
Gala smiled humorlessly. "It's not something I can give you an answer to just like that."
"I know, the ships aren't leaving for at least another year. I'm not asking you to answer to this request right away."
"I'll think about it, then," Gala said.
-----
"So you're going to leave? For how long?"
"I haven't decided to leave yet," Gala said, "and I don't know how long it would take. Maybe a few years, maybe a few centuries."
"I could go with you."
Gala looked at Mitra and smiled. "I wouldn't mind the company."
"Serenity's right about it being boring around here."
"Maybe we can find another one of those planet-eating things."
"With our current power, I think we could kill one of those in a blink."
"Overconfidence is a flaw, Mitra."
Mitra almost jumped at Serenity's words. It was unnerving, how Serenity could waltz in undetected on anyone. Anyone but Gala's mother, actually.
Serenity smiled seeing Mitra's face. "Yes, I know what you were talking about. I don't know if letting two of the strongest Senshi go is a wise decision, but having you pouting at being left behind would be an even worse one."
Gala laughed as Mitra gave Serenity a halfhearted glare. "I can actually see that happening."
Serenity's smile hid what she was thinking. The dark path these two would be traveling, she had the power to change it, but she would not do it. Some would call it cowardice, to fear what would happen if she altered time, to be afraid of what an archive created by an unknown alien race theorized about time and space, and the consequences of 'breaking' the threads of time.
But changing the future on a whim, knowing what consequences the change may bring, wasn't bravery. There was a thin line between bravery and foolishness, and it was, at times, hard to see. Serenity would not cross it for this particular decision, no matter what.
-----
Gala had, in the end, agreed to help the colonists. She had inherited some of her mother's curiosity, so wanting to see other worlds than the ones she had always been at was natural for her. Mitra's case had a lot more to do with boredom than curiosity, but she was as eager to defend them as Gala was.
And now the two of them were waiting for the last few hours to pass before the ships took off. Gala observed the ships with amusement. Each and every one of them was many times larger than her village. And they had to be, each was meant to take hundreds of humans across the galaxy, at speeds she knew no Senshi could match.
And yet, the closest star was several months away, even at such speeds. "I used to think Garuks were rather fast."
"I doubt Garuks can run faster than light."
Gala looked at Mitra. "We may not see this world again for centuries. Are you really okay with that?"
"Are you?" Mitra asked back.
"Not really. But I feel my place is with these 'colonists', that I will be needed to protect them."
"I've been having the same feeling," Mitra admitted, "maybe that's what Serenity means when she speaks of 'destiny.'"
"We'll see, won't we?"
-----
Mitra shook her head as she walked into the ship's bridge. She had known farewells would be hard, but that had seemed to take forever. In any case, there she was now, aboard one of the ten ships en route to another system, and the ship was starting its final countdown before take-off.
"Everything okay in your side?" Gala asked through the ship's comm. She was in a different ship right now, but they both could 'jump' from ship to ship effortlessly.
"Engines will be starting in a minute," Mitra noted, "this will be the first critical point. If these things manage to take off, we've done half our job."
And the minute ticked away fast. Mitra watched the main screen as the ships left the Earth. Even though she had seen the 'blue planet' from orbit a few times in the past, looking down at it still felt overwhelming. And knowing they were not going to come back for a long time made her feel uneasy.
As she looked at the screen, she noticed something amiss. "Seven, what's your situation?"
"Engines shut down on their own," the ship's captain said, "I'm having my crew figure out the problem."
They were outside the Earth's gravity well now, which was both a good and a bad thing. They wouldn't be crashing down on the planet, but with no engine, they would be drifting through space for a while. "Let me see what I can do to fix it," she finally said after a few seconds.
She phased to the seventh ship and looked around. They were all identical ships, all based in Ancient technology recorded in the Library of Mercury. While she was admiring the scenery, the captain walked to her. "There was an energy leak as soon as we broke out of Earth's atmosphere. The mana cells are almost completely depleted."
Mitra looked at the woman. "Know the cause of the problem?"
"A problem with the cells themselves. From what I gather, we're lucky the ship didn't explode during take-off. The problem's fixed now, but we're still out of power."
"That won't be a problem," Mitra noted, "show me where the energy is stored."
The captain walked to one of the computers, pushing a few buttons until a map of the spaceship was shown in its screen. "There, all the way back, right above the engines."
"Good, I'll fix this in a minute," Mitra said and vanished, leaving a slightly confused captain to wonder what she had in mind.
She appeared right next to the energy cells, and the crew working on them looked at her surprised, but recognized her almost immediately. Mitra put a hand on one of the cells and smiled. They were all connected, which made her plan easier to complete. She concentrated, and those around her could see a thin white aura around her arm, as energy passed from her body to the ship's reserve.
"Amazing," the captain's voice said from a comm device in one of the walls, "energy's up to a hundred percent!"
Mitra appeared right next to the captain, who tried to look like she wasn't surprised (now Mitra could see why Serenity loved doing this.) "I just fed the cells with a bit of my own energy reserves."
"A bit?" the captain asked, "you don't look tired at all."
"I could refill all ten ships without much trouble," Mitra noticed. "I'll go back to Two, if you notice anything wrong during the Jump, let me know."
"Will do, Sailor Sun."
Mitra smiled as she reappeared in the second ship. It was quite amusing, how normal humans were told just how strong the Senshi were, yet they kept on being astounded by such simple things as them being able to recharge a spaceship's energy without breaking a sweat.
"Is Seven okay?" Gala asked through the comm.
"There was an energy leak, it's fixed now, but I warned the captain about keeping an eye on the readings."
"We should have all other ships run tests, just in case."
"Agreed. How long until we can make the jump?"
"A couple hours before we're far enough from Nemesis. After that, we have a couple years of boredom until we reach the nearest star."
"Does it have any inhabitable planets?" Mitra asked.
"We'll know when we get there."
Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 1: The Senshi of dawn.
Act 1: First era.
Episode 5: Senshi of light, Senshi of darkness.
By Razor Knight
Last update: January 29, 2011
Book 1: The Senshi of dawn.
Act 1: First era.
Episode 5: Senshi of light, Senshi of darkness.
By Razor Knight
Last update: January 29, 2011
-----
Their journey had been quite uneventful, or to say it in the words of Mitra, boring as khlan. But now they were finally there, making their final approach to Nue, as the closest star to their 'sun' had been labeled. The planet they were going to investigate had been named Nue Terra, the Earth of Nue. If everything went as planned, it would be the first of many worlds.
Both Gala and Mitra knew settling and terraforming the planet would take at least a decade. Serenity hadn't lied to them about that, they would be trading defending one planet for defending another, but in this case, they would be the only Senshi in the planet.
"I guess it wasn't just a trick of the eye."
Gala looked at the monitors, showing a view of the large, orange and blue planet. "I would make a guess either the ground is orange, or most of the local vegetation is responsible for that." The Earth's only satellite, after all, had silvery white trees and flowers, and even most of its animals were white.
"We've scanned the atmosphere," the captain noted, "and there's nothing there that could be harmful to humans. There's a bit more oxygen than there was on Earth, but the numbers vary from planet to planet."
Besides the distance, one deciding factor for choosing Nue Terra as their first colonization target was that the planet's atmosphere appeared to be close to Earth's own. "What about the planet's tint?" Mitra asked after looking at the screen for several seconds.
"Some sort of fungi, it's spread throughout all the planet. And as far as we can see, it's the only native life form."
"What about the oceans?"
"There's fungi in there too, but not enough to paint it orange. It's strange, the planet doesn't look young, but the only life form in it is a primitive one."
"There may be a reason for that," Mitra guessed. "I think it would be wise to scout the surface before we land."
"I'll gather a small group of soldiers and researchers," the captain noted.
"It should be just us two," Gala noted.
"But if something down there is harmful to humans, we will not know about it if it's just you two down there."
Mitra looked at Gala, who shrugged. "I guess you're right. We'll do our best to protect those men."
"That's all I'm asking," the captain admitted.
-----
"This planet looks like a desert."
Galaxia had to agree to the soldier's words. The planet's temperature was slightly higher than that of Earth, if the current weather was any indication. She scanned the area around them with her eyes, and her mind. Her eyes only saw the orange 'sea' of fungi, but her mind was able to 'listen' to what the fungi were 'thinking.' She could see it was like one single organism formed by trillions of 'cells' and if what she was feeling from it could be translated, the only word it's 'mind' would be thinking about right now would be 'kill.'
Sun saw Galaxia's face. It wasn't often that she saw her friend worried, so she knew things were about to turn 'fun' for them. "Gala?"
"This fungus, this creature, isn't friendly," Galaxia explained. "In fact, it sees us as contamination. It wants us--"
"Dead," one of the soldiers said in a monotone. "Intruders. Dead. Leave."
Sun noticed the eyes of the soldier had an orange tint. "What the heck..."
"Planet. Ours," one of the scientists said, also in an emotionless voice.
"Gala, can you heal them?"
Galaxia reached out with her senses. "Yes, but if they stay here..."
"Take them back to One," Sun said.
"Wait, what are you..."
"Something stupid," Sun admitted. "That organism might kill them, but if they stay here, they will die for sure."
"Okay, I'll take them back to the ship then. Good luck."
Sun looked around. She could feel that... Thing, trying to sneak in. She could guess how it did it. Spores floating in the air, all around them, and once they got inside any living being, they would grow fast, taking over. They probably fed off the beings they took over, too, which would explain why there were no animals or trees anywhere.
Magic was protecting her from these spores, but normal humans were, as they had just seen, easily taken over by them. So mankind and this creature couldn't live peacefully in this world. They could leave and look for another suitable planet, but this one was good enough, if only they could get rid of the native, hostile life form.
"I don't know if the others would agree with this," she mused, then closed her eyes, calling forth a part of her powers she seldom used. Being a Senshi of the Sun, her control over gravity was second to none, but it also gave her control over another kind of energy, which had been called 'radiation' by the Ancients, and was one of the things that, in theory, created life. But too much radiation could also destroy life. She knelt down, placing both hands on the ground and opened her eyes, as a thin golden aura surrounded her.
She had no name for this technique, as she never thought she would use it. In a matter of seconds, a wave of radiation washed over the whole planet, which shone with an eerie golden glow.
"Mitra, what are you doing?"
Sun looked up to see Galaxia standing there. "Taking care of the problem."
Galaxia looked around, and went pale. "You killed it... All of it."
Sun stood up, radiation flooding back into her body as her attack ended. "We can live in this world now."
Galaxia shook her head, her face showing she was not happy about what her friend had done. "You say you took care of the problem? We are the problem!"
"We were sent to colonize a new world, weren't we?"
"So we'll just rush in and kill whatever is living in it first? How does that make us different to the invaders we've fought?"
Sun gave Galaxia a short glare, but then looked down. "Damn it all, you're right. I thought a primitive life form like that fungi was just wasting a good planet, but... We are quite primitive compared to some of the races that tried to invade our worlds."
Galaxia let out a long sigh. "What's done is done. It wasn't the right thing to do, and I would have definitely thought of another solution. Besides, you didn't eliminate all of it."
Sun's eyes widened. "What happened to the scout team?"
"They're okay, but since I couldn't kill the parasites without killing them, I simply phased the parasites out of their bodies, and put them in a safe container." Galaxia explained. "The humans seem to be recovering, but we'll only be sure after watching them for a couple days, at least."
"So we just put the fungus back in this planet and move on."
"We could do that. But one of the moons of the thirteenth planet of this system has everything these guys need to grow, and no oxygen."
"You mean they don't feed on living beings?"
"The... Creature, it remembers the last living being in this world dying 'many cycles ago' which I suppose refers to years. And this planet's orbit makes it take several of our years to make a full turn around its star."
"It couldn't have survived for that long, you say, without food?"
"Probably. It seems to feed on minerals and some gases."
"Then let's put it in that moon."
"You do that, I'll tell everyone the planet's safe."
Sun looked at the small, black box. "You want me to go release that thing..."
"Yes."
"What would stop me from also destroying it?"
"Your conscience," Galaxia said, then vanished.
Sun smiled at the spot where Galaxia had been standing. "I hate it when you're right."
-----
The first few weeks were quite active. The group had been busy moving out from the ships, finding the materials to build a settlement, preparing the soil for farming. The two Senshi, meanwhile, had been busy exploring the surrounding worlds.
Nue Terra was the sixth planet as far as distance from Nue went. Galaxia and Sun were right now on the 'sun' side of the innermost planet. The heat was annoying to them, but not deadly. For normal humans, however, this world would be deadly. The ground itself was so hot it would melt their skin and flesh away in seconds.
But this was the last planet they had to check. And their search had been for naught. There were no World Seeds in any planet but Nue Terra. Mana had mentioned one theory to them, that the Seeds were directly linked to life, making it easier for life to form in any planet that had them.
"Quite different from our system, isn't it?"
"It sure is," Galaxia said, looking up at the sky, which was mostly occupied by Nue, "and speaking of our system, I suppose it's time to test something else."
Sun shook her head at that. "I don't know if it's wise, Gala."
"You can stay here, if you're scared."
"I'm not scared, I just said it wasn't wise."
Galaxia smiled and closed her eyes. "Ready?"
Sun closed her eyes as well. "Yes."
"Now!" Galaxia said, and both of them vanished.
-----
Serenity was surprised by the sudden guests. "What are you two doing here?"
"Testing the limits of our teleportation skill. Or, should I say, the lack of limits."
Sun smiled at Galaxia. "You were right."
"Serenity, the colonization project's working as expected. It won't take more than a decade to have a stable colony there. And the planet's far larger than Earth, so we could have millions of humans there eventually."
"What about the wildlife?" Serenity asked.
Galaxia looked at Sun, then at Serenity. "There was none."
Serenity didn't say a thing, but she knew they were hiding something from her. "Stay there and protect the planet. If things work as expected, those born in that world could have a connection with planets of that system."
"You mean new Senshi could be born for Nue Terra?" Sun asked in surprise.
"I admit I forgot to warn you about that," Serenity noticed, "but I don't think anyone other than Mana and me knows about it."
"Any other thing you know that we should know about?"
Serenity looked at Galaxia for a few seconds before shaking her head. "That's all I have to warn you about." Or, rather, that was all she could warn them about.
-----
"Are you sure this is a good idea?"
Galaxia smiled. "Mitra, we've been friends for too many years to count. I know I can trust you with Nue Terra while I'm gone."
Nue Terra was a proper world now. Several cities had been founded by the colonists, and there had been no alien attack in well over a decade. Two generations of children had been born in this new world, and Sun knew of at least five possible Senshi candidates. It was time to look for new worlds to colonize.
But indirect observation wasn't good enough. It had led them to a world populated by a strange organism, and it could lead them to something worse next time. And much despite herself, she knew Galaxia was right, if anyone could face whatever was out there, it would be her. But it still didn't make it easy for her.
"I will stay and keep this world safe until you come back, Gala."
"Good to know. And don't worry, I'll come visit often."
-----
Mankind as a whole was bad at waiting. As soon as Galaxia's first report on the apparent emptiness of the surrounding systems was heard, preparations had started to send more ships out, and there were six more colonies around Terra Nue now.
Mitra watched a spaceship land close to the capital's main building. Trading between colonies had soon started, and it benefited them all. Terra Nue was short in firewood, but had plenty of minerals to trade for it. And this ship from Arcana, the fifth colony, was loaded with firewood, and would leave with the same volume of minerals once negotiations were done.
She sometimes regretted not following Gala, but she had promised to keep this world safe, and she would not break that promise.
"Lady Mitra, what's in your mind?"
She turned to Zaera, one of the newest Senshi, the Senshi of Nue Laren, the outermost planet of the Nue system. The Senshi in this system had a mostly different set of abilities, like control over poison, but Zaera had control over wind and air itself.
"I'm just thinking about how much things have changed."
"I can't even imagine what life would be like in Earth."
"Pretty much the same as here, but with much more water and volcanoes. In any case," she said smiling at the (much) younger woman, "I'm supposed to test your skills, not be daydreaming, so I apologize."
"There's no need to apologize, Lady Mitra."
"You can drop the 'Lady' part when no civilians are around," Mitra said, "after all, you're already one of us."
Zaera blinked at that. "I thought I wouldn't be an official Senshi until after this test?"
"The test is just a formality... Which doesn't mean I won't be fighting for real."
"So you won't hold back?"
Mitra smiled at that. "I haven't used my full power for many years, Zaera. If I fought all out against Sailor Daein, the oldest of this sytem's Senshi, I could defeat her with one single attack. Against someone of your level? I don't need to move."
Zaera's face went paler and paler with each of Mitra's words. She could feel it, the power being gradually released, until feeling it wasn't needed. She could see the magic aura around the elder Senshi. "That much power... It's impossible."
"Nothing's impossible for us Senshi," Mitra said, "but you shouldn't even dream of fighting me at full power unless you reach my level."
"I realize that now. But how can I hope to pass this test against someone so..." Zaera stopped as she felt Mitra's power weakening, and fast. "... That's amazing."
"If I walked around the planet showing off my full power, I'm sure a lot of people would start fearing me," she explained as she 'lowered' her power enough. It was still there, all of it, but she was only using a small fraction of it. A very small fraction. "This will be enough to test you," she added as she motioned the other woman to attack her.
-----
"As the Zles of Nue Terra, I would like to thank you for your many years of service, Lady Mitra."
Mitra nodded at the man. An old man, whom she had seen crawling around as a baby in the past. He was right, many years had passed, and to her they passed too fast. It had been several decades since Galaxia last visited them, but she could wait for her for as long as it took. Besides, she had found new friends in the Nue Senshi, and they all saw her as a mentor, and respected her.
As she walked out of the Zlesar, the central government building for Nue Terra, her senses warned her about something. Something evil, and insanely powerful. As that something landed right in front of her, she couldn't help but let out a gasp.
The being standing in front of her was a Senshi, her suit torn and dirty, her hair a mess, and her eyes lifeless. "Nice world you have here, hope you don't mind me destroying it," she said as she looked at Sailor Sun.
Apparently this being wasn't bothering with stealth, Sun realized as she sensed the other Senshi appearing all around her. "Guys, watch out. This one is above Aeon level."
Sailor Laren nodded. "Looks like a challenge."
The unknown Senshi laughed at that. "A challenge? Only three of you are close to my power, this will hardly be enough for me!"
Sun shook her head. "Close to your power? Damn rookie." She let out her real power, and smiled as the newcomer backed away. "Last warning, get out of this system or I'm going to beat you down, kid."
"Beat me down? That's cute, and I'd love to fight you, but let me take care of the bugs first." There really was no time for them to react. The new Senshi seemed to vanish, and the Nue Senshi all fell to the ground in only a couple seconds. "Hmph, that was hardly amusing," she said as she licked the blood off her hands.
Sun looked around in shock. All her team was down, each of them had a hole where their heart should have been, and was lying in a pool of blood. "Why..."
More laughter from the evil Senshi. "Why? Because I can. Because I enjoy it. Don't tell me you never felt the thrill of ending a life? It must have been a boring life for you."
Sun closed her eyes. No, giving in to rage would only get her killed, this one was close enough to her level to be able to do it. "What is your name, monster?"
"If you must know... I come from one of the innermost colonized planets, a world fittingly named Chaos. I've been destroying Senshi ever since my world was destroyed."
"What? Was your world destroyed by a Senshi?"
The woman's smile was almost mocking. "Of course it was. I did it."
"No... Senshi are warriors of good, they are meant to defend mankind, not destroy it. How could someone like you become one of us?"
"I am Sailor Chaos, but I'm not really human. I wasn't human at first, but I existed in Chaos way before your pitiful race started polluting the galaxy. This girl's power attracted me, and I realized I could use her, I could have fun thanks to her and her power."
"So you took over her body?"
"I did much more than that, little human. This girl's name was Eris, she had a family and friends, and all those things you inferior beings seem to value so much. Using her body and powers to destroy them, one by one, forcing her to watch me do it... It was the most fun I've had in centuries, I admit."
Sun growled at Chaos, who seemed to be sincerely amused by what she was telling her. "You are a monster, I will destroy you for all you've done!"
"Oh, but of course. You will destroy me and avenge your friends. I've heard that plenty of times."
"Don't bluff, creature. I can read your body language, and I know you're not so sure of your victory as you say. I'm not just another Senshi, I'm from the original world. One of the first, one of the strongest, and one of the eldest Senshi alive."
"You're saying those of your world are stronger than any other Senshi?" Chaos asked, in a tone that was almost gleeful. "Can't wait to go there!"
"You'll go nowhere, monster, because I'm going to defeat you here and now."
"See, you've got quite a handicap here, human. I've fought many of you before, and you're all fearful of unleashing your real power, because that could destroy your worlds. I, however, have no such fear."
Sun smiled at that. "You're saying that if I don't destroy you along with this world, you'll destroy it anyways, right?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Good," Sun said, her tone cold. "Solar Armageddon!"
A large wave of energy shot forth, hitting Chaos head-on. But there was no explosion, no devastation, no collateral damage done. Sun was far above any other Senshi, and just like Galaxia, she could focus her whole power in one target, without damaging anything else.
Chaos stood up and laughed, despite the blood pouring out of her mouth. "Yes! This is incredible! I never thought someone could have this much power, and this much control!"
"Don't praise me, monster. You're about to die."
"This body's pretty much done, I know," Chaos agreed, "so I'll just have to look for a new one. And I've found a perfect candidate."
Sun glared at her foe. "You'll never get me, monster!"
Chaos saw Sun preparing to attack again and laughed. "You're gonna finish this so soon? But we're having so much fun!"
"Solar Armageddon!"
Chaos was ready for it this time, and blocked the blast with a shield of her own, causing an explosion which literally vaporized the city around them. "Now, now, if you go all out, you'll start breaking my toys before I can play with them!"
If Sun's glare had been backed by magic, it could have punched a hole through Chaos' head. "You must be destroyed, monster. No matter what."
Chaos let a smirk slip into her face for a few seconds. "Even if you have to become a monster yourself?"
"No matter what," Sun repeated as she prepared another attack.
Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 1: The Senshi of dawn.
Act 1: First era.
Episode 6: Journey's end.
By Razor Knight
Last update: February 21, 2011
Book 1: The Senshi of dawn.
Act 1: First era.
Episode 6: Journey's end.
By Razor Knight
Last update: February 21, 2011
-----
The enemy in front of her was different to anything she had ever fought. She had clearly underestimated her, this evil Senshi wasn't something she would be able to defeat easily. In a way, she had always believed Senshi to be invincible, but in this case, whether or not that was true was a moot point. "Tell me, monster, how many worlds have you destroyed?"
Chaos saw her opponent was trying to buy some time, but she didn't mind. "I never found any group of Senshi as strong as the ones back home, so I just didn't bother. There's something to be said about a real challenge, no number of easy fights will amuse me as much as a single challenging battle."
"Can't say I don't agree with that," Sun admitted, "but that doesn't mean I will forgive you for what you've done."
Chaos smiled at that. "I know, and I am looking forwards to that. Know what made it easier to control this girl? It's quite simple. She was the weakest Senshi of the system, and she eventually grew to hate all other Senshi for it. Her hatred was like a beacon of darkness for me, I just couldn't ignore it. So hate me, Sailor Sun, hate me for all I've done to you!"
Sun shook her head. "No. My mentors always told me hatred and rage were a warrior's worst enemies in a battle. I will not let them control me."
"Good, I was afraid you would give up before I could have some fun," Chaos said. "Chaotic Ender."
Sun was knocked back by the attack, a large energy wave shooting out from Chaos' body in every direction. She stood up and saw the area around them was a scorched wasteland now. "What have you done to the city?"
"The city?" Chaos let out a chuckle. "Check again, Mitra."
Sun reached out with her senses, and her face went pale. "No. The whole planet is..."
"Returned to its purest form," Chaos said, "a lifeless rock."
"Damn you, monster!"
Chaos smiled mockingly as Sun rushed to her. "There, girl, now you're hating me for real. I was waiting for this."
Sun saw Chaos wasn't moving, and frowned, stopping meters away from her. "What... Are you giving up?"
"Destroy me, Sailor Sun. It is your fate to do so, it is what your heart and mind both desire, it is what I deserve. Destroy me. And then you will become me!"
Sun's movement was too fast for even Chaos to follow, and she was already clutching Chaos' throat, crushing it with her bare hand, before the monster finished her sentence. It only took her a few seconds, and the noise of breaking bones, along with the blood flowing out of Chaos' mouth, signaled Sailor Chaos' death. "I will never be like you, monster."
She turned to walk away, but something made her freeze. 'You will never be like me, you say? That's priceless. I can now see you nearly exterminated a whole species, and never felt any remorse about it.'
"That's not true, I could have finished them off when Gala..."
'You did not, out of fear of Gala. You've always feared what she would think of you if you stopped caring about her stupid rules and morals.'
"No! Get out of my mind, monster!"
'I'm afraid I can't do that. The darkness in you makes Sailor Chaos look like a weakling, I was quite aware from the moment we started fighting that I would lose. Or, rather, that Sailor Chaos would lose.'
"... It was all a trap?"
'Yes, and you fell for it the moment you let your rage take over.'
"Now if you excuse me, I have someone to visit. Someone you know." Sun's voice was different now, colder.
'What? No! I won't let you do this!'
"You will, Mitra. And you will have to watch me do it."
-----
Mana appeared right next to Serenity, who wasn't surprised at all to see her arrive that way. "I suppose you sensed her too," the Queen said. It wasn't a question, as she knew Mana's senses were as keen as hers.
"We will do whatever it takes to defeat her."
"And so will I. But I fear the outcome of this battle is decided already."
"Doesn't mean we should just give up without trying," Mana noted, with a smile.
The Senshi all appeared near them, and they were all looking up at the sky. "The computers detected an entity approaching the system. It's stronger than anything we've ever faced before," Laos commented.
Serenity nodded. "It's Mitra... But it's not her anymore. You will understand when you see her."
And it took their foe only a minute to reach them. Sailor Sun looked around and nodded. "I see there's a few more Senshi around than last time I visited. That's good, maybe you will be a challenge."
Serenity stared at Sun. "You're not Mitra. Mitra's gone, and I will destroy the one who killed her."
"Mitra's gone? What does she mean?" One of the newest Senshi asked.
"That's not Sailor Sun," Laos, who could sense souls, or the lack of one, explained, "I can't see any traces of her left. Whatever this thing is, it's not Mitra."
"Aw, that spoils the fun a bit," Sun said with mock disappointment, "but that's enough yapping from you weaklings, let's get this party started."
-----
Gala stared up to the sky and sighed. How many years had passed since the last time she visited Earth, or even Terra Nue? She wasn't sure. It was easily a decade since last time, maybe even a century. Time passed fast for immortals like her, and she had been alone all along, alone with her thoughts. In her exploration of the galaxy, she had found almost no sentient beings, and the few sentient ones were primitive species, unable to leave their home world, and sometimes unaware there was anything for them to explore beyond the limits of their sky. It would take them too long to reach the stars, and by then, mankind would be everywhere.
She had always thought the Galaxy would be like a valley, full of different civilizations. What she had found, however, was a desert, a desert of stars, and that was both depressing and encouraging. Mankind would have nearly no rivals in the race for the galaxy. Thanks to the Library, mankind had advances no other race had, and they also had Senshi.
She looked southwards. Yes, she still remembered it clearly, she knew where the original worlds were. And so, her next stop (and hopefully final, at least for the time being,) would be Terra Nue.
-----
Sailor Galaxia had seen a lot, and had been surprised by nothing. But upon arriving on Terra Nue, what she found was something she had not expected. The planet was a wasteland, no living creature was anywhere to be found, no traces of any of the tall buildings that had been built through the centuries of human expansion. It was impossible, no space-faring race she had met had this kind of power, and she had explored most of the galaxy.
A thought formed in the back of her mind, but she silenced it quickly. She would have to ask Serenity about it, surely the Earth Senshi knew about this and would know what had happened to Mitra and the colonists. She was aware mankind had begun expanding on its own while she was exploring, so Terra Nue was just one of many worlds. But to her, this world was very important. "Where are you, Mitra?"
Galaxia didn't bother trying to make sense of things. She instead phased directly to Earth, right to where the ancient capital city... Should have been. Galaxia was too shocked to speak by now, too confused to be able to figure out what was going on. The Earth was in nearly the same state as Terra Nue. And reaching out with her senses, she could only detect one life form in the whole planet. A creature of pure evil and hatred.
And as the creature appeared near her, she realized the surprises weren't done yet. And this one was as unpleasant as any surprise she had in the last few minutes. "Mitra?"
"Gala, it sure took you long enough to come back. As you can see, I've been busy redecorating."
Galaxia stared at her friend. Her eyes were devoid of emotions, and her power... It rivaled hers. She could easily guess what had happened to these planets (for she was sensing none of the planets of the Solar System had life in it anymore,) but why would Mitra do it?
"If you had been there when I needed you, Gala, then none of this would have happened," Sun said, guessing her thoughts, "but no, you had to go and leave me behind. Such a friend you were."
"Mitra, I..."
"Shut up!"
Galaxia had grown stronger while exploring, and had kept training herself. But Sun... Sun's power was many times stronger than she remembered. And the gravity wave she was unleashing, it could be strong enough to destroy the Earth. "Damn!"
Sun saw Galaxia vanish and growled. "Running away, are you?" She looked up and smiled. "I won't let that happen."
Galaxia saw her friend appear in front of her and stared at her emotionlessly. She had already figured out what was wrong with Sun. "You're not Mitra."
Sun smiled in amusement. "I'm impressed, you're the second person to ever figure it out before I told them. First one was your grandmother. But I hope you're not as weak as she was."
Galaxia kept her cool. "What happened to Mitra?"
"I took over her body and erased her. Erased her 'soul' as your race calls the core of living beings. She put up quite a fight, though, you should be proud of your friend for that."
"I'm not like any of the others. Defeating me won't be so easy."
"Oh, I'm quite aware of that, dear Gala. I'm like you Senshi in a way, I love to fight enemies stronger than me, just for the challenge."
"A monster like you, who would destroy an entire system just for fun, comparing yourself to us? We will never be like you!"
"Then I'll defeat you, and move on until there's no other Senshi but me. And if I have to devastate half the galaxy to do it, then so be it."
"Your plan sounds good, except for one thing. You won't defeat me."
"That's what Serenity and Mana said, too. I'll make sure you beg for your life in the end, just like they did."
"Why you..."
'Gala, don't! If you let rage control you, Chaos will consume you.'
Galaxia looked around. That was Mitra's voice! "What was..."
"I guess some of that brat's soul still remains. Maybe watching me defeat you will make her give up for good."
"So you go around looking for stronger beings to take over, forever afraid of not being the strongest being ever? I pity you, Chaos. Do you even remember who you really are?"
"All you need to know is that I'm the one who killed everyone you ever cared about. And one way or another, I'll destroy you too, in the end."
"I'm sorry, but I'm not going to let anger control me."
"Is that so? Let's stop talking and start fighting, then."
"About time," Galaxia snapped back.
Sun rose her hand and pointed her open palm at Galaxia. A large ball of plasma shot from it, hitting Galaxia dead on... And causing no damage to her.
Galaxia smiled. "Sun may have trained while I was away, but so did I. Let me show you my real power."
Sun saw Galaxia vanish and frowned. "What, running away again?"
"I didn't teleport," Galaxia said, the voice coming from all around Sun.
"What kind of cheap trick is this?"
"It's no trick. I just move so fast, none of your senses will know where I am."
"That's impossible."
"Nothing's impossible for us. If you really were a Senshi, you would know."
Sun extended her arms to her side, and an explosion of energy shot in all directions. Still, she could feel it, none of it had hit Galaxia. How was that possible?
Before she could figure it out, however, she was knocked back by Galaxia. A split second later, another hit came from behind, and then from the side. In less than ten seconds, she lost count of the times Galaxia had hit her. "So strong, this is wonderful!"
Galaxia appared right in front of her, and started punching with all her force, each blow knocking her foe further back, and closer to the Sun itself. "Shut up, hearing you use her voice makes me sick."
Sun stared at her in shock as she realized her plan. "What are you trying to pull, Gala?"
"Ever been close to a star? I've been near one far smaller than our Sun, and it took me a great deal of effort to get away from it. Killing you for what you did would not be a dire enough punishment. I'll trap you forever inside the Sun instead."
Sun tried desperately to gather energy for a shot, but Galaxia was faster, much faster. It took her several more blows to drag her foe close enough to the star, but once she got to the right place, gravity did the rest... And not even a Senshi with control over gravity could fight against a star's power, apparently.
Galaxia grimaced as she saw her foe vanishing through the star's surface. Finally, Sun could rest in peace. But what would she do now? Everything she cared about was gone, thanks to that Chaos creature. No, she still had a duty to defend mankind, and... She focused and realized a terrible truth. She could detect no Senshi in this part of the galaxy.
'What can I say, Gala... I guess I did a thorough cleaning of that one pest.'
"What? Where are you?"
'I'll just say your mind looks like a nice place to take over, girl.'
"I defeated you, and I kept my anger in check. You should be trapped inside the Sun right now."
'Not showing it doesn't mean that you're not feeling it.'
It couldn't end like this, she wouldn't allow it. But still, while in the physical plane she was the strongest being ever, her mental skills weren't quite as good, and she could already feel Chaos clawing at her mind. "I won't let you harm anyone else," Galaxia snapped and vanished.
She appeared else where, in what she knew was an empty cluster of the galaxy, one closer to the 'edge' of it than the Earth. "There's things I've learnt through my journey, which you wouldn't understand. I won't let you use my power for evil, Chaos."
'There is nothing you can do to stop me. Soon your mind will be mine, and your soul will be gone.'
"You may be right about that last part, but I can do something to stop you." She closed her eyes, concentrating and calling upon an ability she never thought she would use. A risky one for her, but it didn't matter, the end result for Chaos would be bad. "My mission is to protect mankind, and I will do just that, even if I die." And as she said that last word, she vanished once again.
-----
She was confused. One moment earlier she had been somewhere near the Sun, but now... No, she couldn't sense anything familiar about her surroundings. And it seemed her senses had dulled down, somehow. "What did she do?" Sailor Galaxia, or rather Chaos, asked to the emptiness around her.
To the side, she could see a triple star, but the system was one without planets. It didn't matter, it was just a matter of finding out which part of the galaxy she was in, and then see if there was anything out there still capable of stopping her.
As she rushed away from the trio of stars, she realized something else. She couldn't reach the same speed Galaxia had shown her during their fight. No, not even a fraction of that. And after a few minutes of testing, she knew that every aspect of Galaxia's powers had been greatly diminished. "So this is what she meant when she said she could stop me."
The feeling was impossible to describe. Chaos knew Galaxia's powers were, at their fullest, impossible to fight against. But what was left of Galaxia's power now, it was barely enough for her to be considered a Holy Senshi.
It took her a long time to find out where she was, and she didn't like what she saw. Making it far enough from the galaxy to see it's shape must have taken her weeks, and before that, months passed without her knowing exactly where to go. But once she saw it, she knew Galaxia had won in more than one way. This galaxy was a shapeless, if slightly circular, cloud. Chaos knew Galaxia had managed to fly 'out' of the galaxy before, and the shape was that of a helix. Moving to the closest galaxy would take her... No, she didn't dare trying to estimate that. And, she realized, she couldn't see any galaxy around with a shape similar to what 'she' remembered.
Even though Sailor Galaxia wasn't able to defeat Chaos... It would be an eternity before she could go back 'home.' But did she really want to go back there? 'Her' memories showed her no challenges, no beings other than the Senshi were worth fighting against, and the Senshi were gone now. She had to find something else to fight, and become stronger and stronger until she became the strongest being in the universe.
Her purpose had been, at first, to cause pain and suffering, but after she tasted power like that of Sailor Sun, her priorities had changed. Still, if any civilization she found had no worthy opponents for her, she'd have to punish them all... As she had punished countless worlds in the past.
No, Galaxia had not won after all. Chaos was still alive, and would continue doing what she did best, until she found someone who could stop her. "If I ever find someone like that," Chaos said before flying back into the cloudy galaxy.
-----
The small girl looked up to the sky and smiled. Sailor Galaxia was no more, at least not as a single entity. Gala could still sense that monster, out there, but it was too far away to be a threat to mankind. In her current form, despite still being powerful, Gala knew she could not protect mankind from all outside threats. Senshi would be needed in the future. And if Chaos returned, Senshi would need to be really strong, both in body and mind.
She had summoned all the Dragon Swords, artifacts which would, in the future, choose their new Senshi. She had hidden all the swords, sending each of them to its home planet, and only someone with the potential to become a Senshi would be able to find them. But for the time being, the Senshi were gone, and mankind would have to defend itself until a new generation of them appeared.
Gala was tired, very tired, but knew her journey had only started. She started floating away, looking down at the planet she had called home for one last time before she sped up, leaving the Solar System within minutes.
Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 1: The Senshi of dawn.
Act 2: Forgotten worlds.
Episode 7: Golden Imperium.
By Razor Knight
Last update: March 8, 2011
Book 1: The Senshi of dawn.
Act 2: Forgotten worlds.
Episode 7: Golden Imperium.
By Razor Knight
Last update: March 8, 2011
-----
The man walked in and saw something he had seen many times in the last few years. The faces of those around him were prime examples of skepticism. It was amusing to him to know most of these so-called men of science were so eager to discard any ideas that contradicted the recorded words of other so-called men of science, who had lived thousands of year before their time.
One of them rose from his seat and his face became neutral in a split second. "Scout Perdot, we've read your reports and we find some parts of them, to say it lightly, quite disturbing."
"Everything in those reports are things I observed while exploring the galaxy, Mental Ariane."
Another man stood up, visibly upset by the Scout's words. "Your theories have little solid base, as a quick glance through the Ancient Tomes will prove."
"And yet, if someone goes out there and sees things for themselves, then the solid base will present itself to them."
Ariane was an old man, and yet he had never seen such a Scout before. Scouts always respected the Tomes, and checked their observations against them. What this young man was doing by not following the unspoken rule, was to insult the ancestry of all mankind.
But still, Ariane knew the law. A Scout's report had to be analyzed in detail, and if any divergence from the Tomes was found, then other Scouts could be sent there to either confirm or reject the previous Scouting.
"We will do as you say, because that's the standard procedure in a case like this. But be aware that your report contradicts one of mankind's most accepted facts. Should it be found to be a false Scouting, then the consequences..."
"I am well aware of that, Mental Ariane," the Scout admitted, "and I would have kept silent about it if I wasn't truly convinced what I discovered is the truth, and that it will only benefit the Imperium to know about it."
"And if it really is, then it will be inscribed in the Tomes," Ariane said. He wasn't holding his breath for that happening, however. The last known edit of the Tomes had been five thousand years earlier.
-----
Perdot walked through the streets of his home city and could feel something was strange. Maybe he was spending too much time away from it, because it didn't feel like 'home' to him anymore. It wasn't unheard of for Scouts to become detached from their home worlds, but he wasn't even twenty-five solar years old yet, so it wasn't supposed to happen to him yet.
However... He had spent the last three solar years away. His journey was meant to last for the regular two months, but after he found that, he couldn't return without knowing if it was true, or a very good practical joke from one of his fellow Scouts.
"Anris Perdot, is that you?"
He stopped dead and turned to the voice. "Shara?" Yes, it was her, even after all these years, she still looked the same. "How did you know I was back?"
"Because Ariane told me you had arrived," the woman said.
"Ariane... So you're the one assigned to my case."
Shara nodded, a slight frown forming in her face. "Truth is, I was hoping to spend some time with my family."
"I'm sorry," Perdot said sincerely.
"Don't be, it's Ariane's fault for choosing me when there's many other Scouts in Serine."
Perdot smiled. "You're that good, I suppose."
"No, I also don't get along too well with the Mentals."
"Don't they fear you would agree with me out of spite?"
"I suppose they know I won't be too eager to agree with your Scouting, since I'm already walking on thin ice, so to speak."
"Good thing I know you won't let personal issues cloud your judgement."
Shara smiled at that, "well, Anris, I don't know about that. You most likely had planned to run away again without telling your best friend you were home."
Perdot sighed, said "home..." and looked up to the sky.
-----
He couldn't deny he had wondered what kind of Scout he would have to team up with, but now that he knew, a lot of his nervousness had worn off. And as the moment of leaving Serine drew closer, he felt incredibly calm. He knew what he had written in his Scouting reports was the truth, it was just a matter of convincing the Mentals about it.
He knew what the Tomes said, but also what it didn't say, what the common people chose to ignore. Yes, the Golden Imperium, the domains of mankind, had existed for an untold time. And all through its recorded history, there had been men in each and every one of its worlds. It was an accepted 'truth' that mankind was a mix of many all-too-similar species, somehow spread through most of the Galaxy.
"Your Scouting, if true, will change history from its roots," Shara commented.
"Now, miss Leor, I think you should wait until I show you what I've found, until you start discussing it. Such is the way of the Tomes."
Shara shook her head, "forget the Tomes, we're in the middle of nowhere right now, heading for the Borders, and I'm not about to spend several days in complete silence or wasting time in small talk."
"As you wish."
"Listen, you seem confident about what you saw. I want to know what it was."
"It's all there in the report."
"I don't think so. It speaks of archeological ruins and writings of unknown origin, all of which could be proven wrong. What is it that you saw, Anris, that made you so confident?"
"You read the report. You know I keep saying the accepted 'truth' is wrong, and that mankind itself is not a thousand similar races united as one, but one single race which spread through the galaxy and then forgot where it came from."
"Yes, I read the reports. No need to repeat all that."
"You're a smart woman, Shara. Tell me what could I have seen that made me trust these reports a hundred percent?"
Shara thought about it for a minute, as Perdot looked at her and the ship's console in turns. "As crazy as it sounds, I would say you found which one of all our worlds is the first."
"Yes and no. I found the First World, but I didn't see it with my own eyes, and it's also not a part of the Golden Imperium."
"But there's no records of the Imperium ever leaving a planet. How..."
"You will know when we get there. But before that, we need to go to Arkana."
"Arkana? That's supposed to be the outmost world."
"And the world we're looking for is even further outside."
"If it wasn't you, Anris, I would think you're insane. And to tell the truth, I'm starting to question your sanity."
"The once we get to the first stop in our journey, you'll start questioning yours as well," Perdot noted, his smile a sound away from a chuckle.
-----
Arkana. A world of endless icy dunes and extreme cold. Most of its surface was a cold wasteland, and thus mankind had chosen to live underground, in large, artificial caves.
Shara looked around with a hint of disbelief. "This world's always spoken of as a barbaric place, but..."
"It's nothing like that. I suppose there's a reason for the myth of it being a hostile place. It doesn't really keep any diplomatic ties with any other planet, and it's part of the Imperium only because its local government doesn't care enough not to be part of it. While diplomacy isn't something they want to bother with, they still need to trade with other worlds."
"Thanks for the lecture, professor," Shara joked, "but mind telling me where we're heading?"
"To see Shu."
"Shu?"
"Her full name's Sage Shu of the House of Gaians," Perdot explained, "but that's a mouthful."
"Gaians?" Shara asked. It was a strange word for her.
"Patience, you'll know what it means soon. In fact, in a few minutes," he said as he stopped in front of a building. It looked rather antique, but was a single-story building, something strange to see in this area from what Shara had seen thus far. "That's Shu's place."
As they walked to the door, it opened itself. "She saw us coming?"
"I suppose," Perdot admitted, "she's said to have eyes all around this world."
"I'm said to have many things, but rumors about me are often overblown."
Shara turned to see an older woman waiting right besides the entrance. "You must be Sage Shu."
"Just Shu will do, child," the woman said. "Welcome back, Anris. I suppose you didn't visit Gaia yet."
"You suppose well," Perdot said. "I needed to go back to Serine, to inform my people about what I had heard from you. I didn't give any names or even told anyone about Gaia, just that there was supposed to be one single original world."
"Fair enough, Gaia's not a forbidden world because we chose to forbid it. It simply would not raise any interest from anyone if they went there without knowing about its past."
"Gaia?"
Shu looked at Shara. "I suppose she came here to learn about what you know?"
"Again, you suppose right. My leaders won't believe me, but they may trust her word."
"I shall tell her what I know, then. How old are you?"
Shara was surprised by that question. "Twenty-two solar years."
"Do you know what the term 'solar' means?"
And now she was lost. "No."
"Yet you use it without thinking about it. Ignorance is a bliss, some would say. Solar comes from 'Sol', the name of the star Gaia orbits. It's one of many things that are left from the First World, but too many others were lost."
"I'd like to know more about Gaia," Shara admitted.
"Well, then... Gaia was a world like many others, a world that could support life. Legends speak of Gaia as a world of small cities, called 'villages', which only housed a hundred or so humans each." Shu noticed Shara's skeptic looks and smiled. "You react just like Ansir. As I was saying, these first humans lived in incredibly small groups, and had no technology at all. Imagine humans hunting wild animals with but sticks and stones."
"Impossible."
"Not quite. It was one of these hunters, named Seren, who became the first Queen of that world."
"Seren? That sounds like..."
Shu nodded. "The capital of the Golden Imperium was named after her, but the name was deformed through the centuries into what we know as Serine. This Seren was at first the lone user of something called 'Mana' which let her do incredible things, like fly or create fire on a whim." Seeing Shara was silent, she continued. "But soon she taught this to others. One of them was her daughter, who became quite a strong warrior, but then Gaia was born. She was the strongest being in the galaxy, and some say she could have fought all of the Imperium's battleships on her own and won. She and other warriors like her defended their planet for centuries before..."
"Wait, centuries? Does it mean she lived that long?"
"Yes, another quality of this 'Mana' was that it gave its users longevity. With time, Gaia helped mankind expand, but then, something happen. A creature called Chaos started killing every warrior in the galaxy, and managed to kill even Seren herself. But then Gaia, who had been exploring the galaxy, returned and saw what this monster had done. Their battle was one so intense, it turned every planet in that particular solar system into a wasteland."
"So, did Gaia win?"
"Some say she did, and then left to search for any other evil like Chaos. Some say she didn't quite win, but she managed to eliminate Chaos before she died herself. And some say... She took Chaos into herself and went far away before she could harm mankind."
"You don't know which one's the truth?"
"All I know is nobody ever saw her again."
"How old is this legend you speak of?"
"At least five hundred centuries."
Shara frowned. "That's twice as far as the Tomes go. Still, a legend's not enough for our leaders. Where can I find tangible, physical proof of this 'Gaia' ever existing."
"Why, in Gaia, of course."
"Wait, why is the planet named after her?"
Shu smiled sadly. "For all the care our order took in keeping the legends of the First World alive, we were too late to keep it's original name alive."
"Where is Gaia?"
"We don't know, but we know the location of the Second World," Shu admitted, "Terra Mu."
"And what use is that to us?" Shara asked, slightly annoyed.
"Think about it, Shara. A primitive civilization with primitive spaceships... What system would they choose to colonize first?"
Shara only had to think about it for a second before her mood lightened. "The closest system, of course... Let's go to Terra Mu."
-----
"Mental Excel Rokie, I bring an urgent message from one of the border worlds!"
The man was unfazed, as he was used to getting 'urgent' messages at least once a year. In theory, his position as Mental Excel made him the third-most important man in Serin, the third-most important man in the whole galaxy. In reality, without the Mentals, both the Imperium Shield, the army in charge of keeping peace, and the Imperium itself, would fall apart. That made him the most important man in the galaxy to those who mattered.
"Let's hear this important message, then," he said almost dismissively.
"An unknown spaceship was spotted ten days ago near Slishar, it begun attacking with no warning."
"Ten days ago? Why didn't the message get here sooner?" The Excel said, rising from his seat, his mood changing in a split second.
"Because there were no survivors, sir. I come from Xilho, which is being attacked right now, and without the Shield, it's a battle we cannot win."
The Excel frowned. A single spaceship with enough power to overcome a planet's defenses and leave no survivors? It sounded too powerful to be truth. Yet the man in front of him wasn't lying, he could see that. "I shall order the Shield to defend Xilho immediately. We will let whoever is in that spaceship know the Imperium is not an enemy to be taken lightly."
-----
"We will be reaching Terra Mu shortly."
"Do you really think that woman was telling us the truth?"
Perdot looked at Shara. "Yes. I've always wondered about this. It's not just mankind. Every planet in the Imperium has the same wild life, the same animals and plants. There's only one way for that to be the case, no matter how much the Tomes and the Mentals may deny it."
"One single world's ecosystem brought over to other worlds to help colonizing it," Shara noted. "But what happened to the original lifeforms if that's the case?"
"Maybe our world's creatures were stronger, and the others died out. Or maybe mankind 'helped' a bit."
Shara looked at the monitor and smiled. "It's beautiful."
"What is?" He turned to the screen and nodded. "Yes, it is. It's a desert down there, but the temperature's not bad, only a few degrees above Serin's."
"Think we'll find anything there leading us to Gaia?"
"I'm already working on it. But we should scan the planet's surface and see if there's any ruins there we could explore."
"Always the adventurer."
"Many Scouts eventually forget that's the one thing all of us should be."
Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 1: The Senshi of dawn
Act 2: Forgotten worlds.
Episode 8: Gaia.
By Razor Knight
Last update: March 23, 2011
Book 1: The Senshi of dawn
Act 2: Forgotten worlds.
Episode 8: Gaia.
By Razor Knight
Last update: March 23, 2011
-----
He was Arthus Larelain, Holder of the Shield, and a man who had seen many battles. But most of those battles were against inferior enemies, like rebels or worlds not affiliated with the Imperium. With its full force of ten thousand battleships, a battle against a single hostile ship should have been an easy win.
And yet, this ship was like nothing he had ever seen, in his many decades of service. It was a ship as large as a small planet, with literal millions of smaller attack ships pouring out of it and attacking anything daring coming too close to it. The ship itself didn't attack, and it also did not seem to stop attacks from the Shield, but this fleet Larelain had always been proud of was doing relatively no damage to it.
"Aurors five, ten and seventeen are gone."
The Holder looked at the screen. "It doesn't matter. We need to get close to their main ship, to search for any weakness it may have. We are the first and last defense line of the Imperium, and we will not fall."
-----
"Fifty percent of the planet's surface scanned, still no signs of anything."
"And Gaia's star?"
"That's even harder a task. The computer has a map of all the explored galaxy, including systems nobody has ever felt like visiting. But both Mu and Gaia's system are outside those maps."
Shara nodded. "I understand. It has to search for a star located in an unknown sector, at an unknown distance and direction from our ship."
"It will take the ship a while to..." Perdot started, then stopped.
"What's wrong?"
He was madly typing commands now. "The computer's detected a single life form down there," he paused, "yes, it's confirmed. And it's human."
"What? That cannot be."
"It might someone from Shu's group," Perdot noted, "but I fail to see the point in stealth then. She would have told us to go speak with this person."
"Or maybe it's something else," Shara said pointing at the screen.
Perdot looked at it and muttered some choice profanities. The 'human' down there was, from the scans' results, a child. But a child who was emanating enough energy to power the ship they were in for a century.
"Somehow, the area of the planet around this creature has an atmosphere," Shara noted. "Should we go find out who it is?"
"Computer won't tell me anything else about it, so I suppose that's the only way we'll know what it is."
-----
In all his years of service, the pilot had seen many so-called wars. But comparing the skirmishes he fought while being one of the Shield's top pilots to what was going on around him would be like comparing a grain of sand to the sandy plains of Elerion.
And the Shield's fleet itself was small compared to the cloud of ships all around them. These ships were small and fast, and while they lacked in shielding and weapons, they more than made up for it with sheer numbers.
"Squadron Eighteen's leader, what's your situation?"
"I've lost a dozen men to them," he said, "and I intend to make them pay for it."
"I have a mission for you."
That was Larelain's voice, no man in the Shield could not know how he sounded. "Let's hear it."
Larelain didn't mind his tone. The two of them had been friends through their youth, and that friendship didn't die out after they both joined the Shield. "We need to find a weakness in their main ship, or at least make them stop sending out the other ships. A small group of pilots will have a lot more chances of doing this than a large group. And the more skilled the pilot is, the higher their chances, too."
"I get it. Me and my men are going to find your big ships a place to shoot at. Just try to stay alive while I get there, Holder."
"Do your best, Eighteen."
-----
Perdot wasn't sure what they would find when they went down. The atmosphere was good, if a bit denser than he was used to (and he was aware atmosphere wasn't quite a standard through all the Imperium worlds,) and temperature was only mildly above what he had expected.
What he had not expected, was to find the 'creature' really looked like a young human girl. She stared at him, as if to study him, and he felt uneasy. There was something about those eyes which made him feel like this 'young' girl had been around for much longer than he would have thought.
"Who are you?"
Perdot almost jumped. He had nearly forgotten Shara was there too.
"I am Gala. I already know who you are, so there's no need for introductions."
"Gala? That sounds close to the legendary Gaia."
Gala looked at Shara. "I know of those legends. They're getting many names wrong, but that's to be expected after so many centuries."
"So you're the same as that woman from the legends?"
"I am. My current body is a consequence of what happened back then. I only have a small fraction of what my power used to be."
"We were looking for that world, Gaia, because..."
"Earth," Gala said, interrupting Perdot.
"Excuse me?"
"The name of that world, the world you all forgot, the world that started it all. The planet's name was Earth, surrounding the Sun, often called Sol by some tribes back then."
"Solar years. Shu was right."
"We need our leaders to know about..."
"No."
Perdot blinked a few times. "Why?"
"Because the Imperium is fated to die."
Those words made the two Serinians feel like a building had fallen on them. And they both stood there, staring at Gala, for almost one minute.
Shara was the first to find her voice. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"It's happening as we speak. An alien race known as the Kh'sun is attacking world after world. The Imperium won't be able to stop them, but fighting through it will weaken the Kh'sun greatly."
"What will happen to those worlds?"
"The cities will be destroyed, any survivor will be taken as slaves, and the worlds will be drained until they become lifeless rocks. Recovering from that takes a planet millions of years, if it ever recovers."
"You are the Gala of legends, aren't you?" Perdot asked, angrily. "Why don't you go and stop them?"
"As they are now, my power is not enough. But if the Imperium cripples them, I will be able to put an end to those parasites." She noticed the way the two were looking at her, and smiled. "Don't look at me like that. Yes, I'm ready to sacrifice most of mankind to stop these beings. But mankind's become stagnant, too sure of what they think they know, and too eager to remain as they are now. A civilization like that is going to fall sooner or later, even without any help from the outside."
"And this is your answer? Killing us all off?"
"To know what my answer is, you need to come with me."
-----
"Guys, we're only ten units away from them. Stay focused, I know we can do this." While the enemy was far superior as far as numbers went, their pilots didn't seem to know what team tactics were. Thus, most of them were busy with the larger Auror class ships, the biggest ones in the Shield's forces. Ships like his, a Buckler, was mostly ignored until they attacked one of the aliens. That had been his guess, and it had been proven right so far. "Eight units now."
"They're coming from our right wings!"
He turned and saw it, a dozen alien ships heading their way. "I need five of you guys to take care of those pests."
As one, five of the Bucklers split from the main group. Their coordination was the result of many years and countless battles. They took care of the enemy ships in under one minute, but that seemed to alert other ships, which soon swarmed around them.
"All right, it's time to go help..."
"Stell, don't you dare helping us. Squad Eighteen needs to complete this mission."
The leader, Stell, sighed. "Okay, we'll meet you guys on our way back."
"We'll be waiting."
-----
It had taken Perdot a full minute to realize they weren't in the same planet anymore. They were in a grassy plain, with a dense jungle in the distance, and mountains on the other side. "Where are we?"
Gala giggled. "This is Earth."
"How did you bring us all the way here?"
"My power is not only meant to destroy things," Gala said, "and you wanted to see Earth, didn't you?"
"I still want to know..."
"What my plan is? I've been bringing others like you here. Humans who believe in the legends, who dream of a place untouched by the Imperium. Men and women who don't fear evolving, creating new things. The Imperium is doomed and trust me, if I had a way to stop that from happening, I would. The best I can do now is allowing mankind to start over, and what better place there is to start from zero than the very world that saw us do that once in the past?"
"Are there still ancient cities in this planet?"
"When I returned here, after many thousands of years, I saw the planet had healed slightly. There were no cities at all, no. Chaos was very through in removing any signs that mankind had ever existed in this world."
"No cities, no technology, how will we survive?"
"As the first humans did, use what you can find around you. You can see what those I brought here have done if you head north," Gala said, pointing in that direction for effect.
"Won't you help us?"
"Even weakened, the Kh'sun are strong. I may have to use all of my remaining power to stop them. I may die, or be too weak to come back and help you."
"Why are you willing to sacrifice it all for people who don't remember you, and who may forget you again in a few centuries?"
"Because I was born a Senshi, and I will, if I must, die a Senshi."
"A Senshi?"
"We are... We were warriors, not different to other humans except for the powers we could use. We protected this world and mankind for many centuries, and when mankind started expanding, I took it as my duty to protect them."
"So you've been protecting us since then?"
"I've made mistakes. There was a time when I grew bored. I left others like me protecting mankind, and spent many centuries exploring the Galaxy, and even going out of it to see there's other galaxies out there. But while I was away, the creature known as Chaos attacked. I was too late to save this world, and many others. But not all worlds had Senshi, and Chaos had ignored those, since it wanted only to fight the strongest warriors, to become as strong as them."
"You're saying that if you had been around at the time, you would have stopped it?"
"Yes. As it stands, I could only send it away, to a very distant galaxy, and I sacrificed most of my power to do it. But sorry, we've talked enough. I'm going to go take a look at things. The war between the Imperium and the Kh'sun won't be over soon, if my predictions are right, but I'd rather be safe than sorry."
And without waiting for an answer, Gala vanished. Shara looked around and frowned. "We don't have to stay here."
Perdot let out a dry chuckle. "We have. Our spaceship is still back in that other planet."
"Hmph. Hope you're happy, you've got us both stuck in this place."
"I didn't force you to come with me."
Shara took a deep breath. "No, you didn't. Sorry."
"Don't worry, I'm not too happy about this either, but there isn't really anything we can do about it right now."
"Let's head north, as she said. We need somewhere to sleep, the so-called Sol is already close to the horizon."
-----
Stell cursed loudly as he saw another icon in his screen fade away. He was down to only ten ships, counting his, but they had at least managed to get close to the main enemy ship. "I'm sensing a large energy reading in the exact center of that thing," he said. "That must be their main reactor."
"Why couldn't the guys back there see it?"
"There's a cloaking field around the ship," Stell noticed, "gotta admit these creatures are full of tricks."
"Okay, let's get out of here a--" Whatever the pilot was going to say next, was cut as his ship exploded.
"We have more hostiles coming from all directions," another pilot said, "it's going to be pretty hard to beat them all."
"Lue, try to get away from the cloaking field and tell the Holder where he should be shooting at."
"But..."
"It's an order. Your ship's the fastest of all the squad, and you're pretty good at dodging."
The woman seemed about to complain for a few seconds, but finally agreed. "Right. I'll see you guys out there when this is over."
"Sure thing," Stell said. Just like when he had left his other men behind, he knew it was a promise he would probably not be able to keep.
Lue took a different route out of the area than they had used to go in. Stealth and speed were the only things she could rely on to return to the Holder. So she took a route away from the battle, it would take her longer to get to her target that way, but there were no enemies anywhere around her.
As she looked to the side, she could see the battle was being lost by them. Several of the largest Shield ships were wrecked, and all others were being swarmed by enemy ships. She could have never imagined something like this. The Tomes said mankind was the only sentient species in the Universe, and the Tomes never lied.
But even though their enemies weren't showing themselves, their technology was far superior than theirs. There had been talks of a cloaking field before, but as far as she knew, there was no ship core capable of generating the energy needed for such a thing. Maybe the Tomes didn't lie, but those who had written them didn't know there were other species around. Being ignorant of the truth is not the same as lying.
"Squad Eighteen?"
"Lue reporting, sir. We found a weakness in their main ship."
"Where's the rest of your squad?"
"Still back there, sir. I was ordered to come here by Stell himself, since a single ship had a bigger chance of being ignored by the enemy."
"What's their weakness?"
"Their reactor's in the exact center of their ship. As long as we keep on attacking it from the sides, then they won't go down easily."
The Holder's voice was heard in the background. "Every surviving Auror, change your course to attack the enemy ship from above. Any squad still alive, do the same if you can. We cannot let them win this."
"Eighteen's Lue, you can return to the First Auror if you..."
"I have to decline that offer. I'm going to go shoot those monsters down, for my squad."
-----
Those inside the enemy ship didn't fail to notice the sudden change in their foes' tactics. "Kh'rall, they are moving to hit our core."
"Instruct every Sk'ner to fire at the large ships. We need to resist until the rest of our fleet arrives." Like a large swarm of insects, all the small ships under his command stopped taking care of the enemy's fighters, and took on the larger ships. "Prepare the Prahxy, and locate their commanding ship. Once that's done, focus fire in it until it falls."
He had fought against many alien races in his years as a Kh'rall, but none had been as annoyingly resilient as this one. Still, their technology and tactics were brutish, outdated, and easy to read. There was no hope for such a primitive race, they could not defeat the power of the Kh'Sun.
-----
Lue looked around in confusion. All of the smaller ships were heading for their Aurors, completely ignoring any fighter ship they crossed. It could only mean one thing. "Holder, the enemy saw through our strategy, they're going to attack the Aurors!"
The voice in the radio was calm. "They did not. By focusing in what they think is the real threat, they are forgetting about our best pilots and warriors."
She understood what he meant, but wasn't too happy about it. "Are you telling me you'll sacrifice the Aurors just to give us a chance to attack?"
"The Aurors would not have made it in time, even if only half the enemy ships were attacking us. You wanted a chance to shoot them down for your squad. This is it."
Lue closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. "Understood, Holder. I will not let you down."
"I know you won't," the Holder said. Although she didn't know it at the time, it would be the last time she heard his voice.
Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 1: The Senshi of dawn.
Act 2: Forgotten worlds.
Episode 9: Imperium's End.
By Razor Knight
Last update: March 31, 2011
Book 1: The Senshi of dawn.
Act 2: Forgotten worlds.
Episode 9: Imperium's End.
By Razor Knight
Last update: March 31, 2011
-----
"Our attacks are not getting through, Leader."
Lue cursed under her breath. Of course, an Auror's weapons did little damage to the massive enemy ship's hull, so a fighter's weapons were almost useless. Even all the remaining fighters shooting at once did nothing. And yet... They were swarming the center of the ship, and the readings were true. The enemy's core was right in front of them, but an impassable wall protected it. "Be on the lookout for enemy ships, and keep on attacking. Perhaps one of the Aurors will make it through, but until that happens, we have to keep trying."
Their enemy was obviously ignoring them, no ship was attacking them, and if their target had any weapons at all, it wasn't using them against her makeshift squad. Her squad. It had been surprising how fast the other pilots had agreed on that, even though she had considered it herself. Since she was the last living pilot from Squadron Eighteen, she had been given command of what was left of the Hundred Squads, the main attack force of the Imperium. It was an honor, but in a situation like this, it was also a very heavy burden to carry.
She noticed something in her sensors and looked to the side. No, there was no mistake, three pieces of the ship had separated and were floating away from it, heading straight for the few remaining Aurors. And each of these 'smaller' ships was as large as the smallest moons she had seen while flying around the galaxy with her former squad. "They had ships that large and weren't using them?"
"Maybe they didn't feel the threat was enough for them to use them," one of the pilots noted.
"Skarn, you're the best scanner we have. I need to know if any section of the ship's wall is weaker than the rest."
It took the other pilot a minute to get the scanning done, but in the end the results were good. "Leader, there's one spot that's greatly weaker than the rest of the wall, if we focus fire in it, we may just be able to punch through and hit the core. I'm sending the coordinates to everyone right now."
Lue saw it appear on screen and smiled. "Everyone, shoot that area with everything you've got! Let's kick these bastards out of our galaxy!"
The barrage of beams and projectiles that followed was enough to blast a hole through the ship's wall, and Lue, who was relatively close to it, was able to see the shining yellow 'core' of the enemy ship. She could also see several of the ship's crew being sucked out of it. They were definitely not human, with four arms and a blue, scaly skin. They looked close to some reptiles she had seen in several human worlds.
"The core itself was not affected by our attacks," Skarn noted.
"We should just keep on attacking until..."
"No, we'd need to hit it with much more energy at once than our ships can generate."
Lue cursed under her breath. "Damn it, I was starting to think this would be actually possible."
"Think something really big hitting the core would destroy it?" Another pilot commented.
"Why do you ask?" Lue said, then saw what was heading their way. Auror six, one of the largest ships in the Shield, was heading straight for the core, though it was more of a fall than a charge, as the ship was almost completely burning under enemy fire. "Everyone, get away from the target as soon as you can, this is about to get hot!"
Her squad managed to get away before the two ships collided, and as she looked at the scene, she paled. It was quite likely everyone inside had already died before the impact, but it was still frightening to watch one of the Aurors, the pride of the Imperium, go down like that.
The explosion rocked her ship, and blinded her for a moment. And when she was able to see again, she almost cheered. The Auror's explosion had hit the enemy ship's core, and a chain reaction had started, the planet-sized enemy ship was now constantly rocked by explosions. The three smaller ships that had detached themselves only moments before the fatal blow were also hit, two of them were about to explode, and the third was already gone.
They had won, they had defeated this enemy, the Imperium would be safe and the Shield could be proud of this victory. No enemy was too strong for them, no enemy would ever...
It took her mind a few moments to register what her eyes were seeing, what her ship's instruments were confirming. An impossibly large shadow, looming over the exploding ships, advancing to them lazily.
"Leader, what is that?"
Lue looked at her console again and sighed. "Another ship. What we destroyed wasn't their main ship."
"Auror Two speaking," a new voice said through the ship's console. "Retreat is not an option. Let's do as much damage as we can, and hope for the best."
"I can help you with that."
Lue didn't know whose voice it was, but her scanner started beeping. Looking to the side, she could see it: A humanoid figure, floating towards the enemy ship, and it didn't seem to have any kind of protection. Human beings couldn't breathe in deep space without a suit, so what was this creature?
Almost as if the creature had heard her thoughts, it suddenly spoke. "I am Gala, last survivor of the Senshi, a group long forgotten by mankind. It is my duty to save mankind, but the Imperium... It's already doomed. However, if I let the Kh'sun get out of this battle as they are, then the whole galaxy will be destroyed by them."
Lue had scanned the 'creature' now. Her mind kept telling her it was impossible, but the creature was... A small human girl. Whose power couldn't be compared to anything she had seen before.
"I am the last Senshi, but I know there will be others like me, protecting what's left of mankind. I have seen it all. Those of you who want to live, return back to your home planets, and rebuild them as well as you can."
Another pilot's voice could be heard right then. "What the slarg? Running like cowards? What will the Imperator think of us?"
"The Imperator is dead. While your Shield and your Imperium was busy focusing on bringing down one single spaceship, the true enemy, that which you see here, has devastated countless Imperium worlds. But I will end their threat right here, right now."
Lue saw the girl's body shine, and the readings she was getting went up hundredfold. "What is that girl?"
The 'few' surviving Kh'sun fighters all converged on Gala as one, sending an onslaught of energy blasts at her, but the girl stood through it all, unmoving and unfazed. Once the attack was over, she unleashed her own. A thin, bubble-like energy net expanded from her body, catching each and every enemy ship and blowing them to atoms... Without harming any of the human ships.
"How did she do that?"
Lue cringed at the readings she was getting. "Let's get away from here."
"But Leader..."
"This is not an order, the Shield is done for. If you want to stay here, then do so, but that girl's power... It could destroy a planet. A very large one." Most pilots saw what she meant, and the former Shield's ships started flying away from the massive Kh'sun mothership, as fast as they could.
Gala looked at her target. The Kh'sun's technology was amazing, they had built a ship as big as a small star, without using any magic at all. And the ship was charging up to attack. They already knew how much power she had. They were afraid of letting her shoot first. Good, that meant she had a bigger chance of destroying them all than she thought at first.
Yes, she had seen the future, all possible futures, but the one Serenity had considered the 'best' future... Millions of humans dying, planets devastated, mankind enslaved by these Kh'sun monsters. No, she had to fight against that, even now she saw the future Serenity had seen was not too far off. The Imperium was gone, the surviving worlds would be better off on their own, and someday, they would expand again, in a way the Imperium couldn't even dream of.
She shot an energy beam at almost the same time as the ship did. Both beams collided, magic versus technology, the power of a core strong enough to power a whole planet against the power of the galaxy itself. While extremely weakened in this form, Gala was still Sailor Galaxia. She wouldn't lose, she would destroy them all, she...
The visions of the future she had seen suddenly changed. Without the Kh'sun periodically attacking the surviving human worlds, the expansion of mankind would not be stopped... But over the countless years that separated this era and the next, these men would evolve into something different. Human in the outside, but with a control of magic almost as great as a Senshi's. They would expand, and meet the humans of Earth, and exterminate them to claim the planet. That kind of 'mankind' would eventually crumble and die, and then... She saw nothing. An empty galaxy. And looking back, she could also see... No!
Gala's energy beam's power weakened slightly, enough for it to fall into a stalemate with the ship's one. If everything went as she expected, then the enemy would realize they could not win, they would see escape was their only option.
-----
"H'ser, our reactor's overheating. The creature's attack has weakened, but by our estimates, our reactor will run out of energy before our enemy does."
"How many R'pah remain?"
"Three, sir."
"Send everyone you can into them. We'll hold that creature in a stalemate until they have all escaped safely."
"Are you going to board one of the R'pah, sir?"
"No. Escape is not an option for my ship, and I will not abandon it."
"Understood," the other creature said, and stood right besides his leader while shouting orders through his radio.
"I take it you will follow my lead, then?"
"I have never run from a battle, sir. I won't ruin that perfect record by running away now. Besides, our calculations could be wrong."
The H'ser smiled, even though he knew the other man was lying to himself. Their engineers were trained to never make any wrong calculations. It could cost them their lives.
-----
As suddenly as the time ripple had formed, it vanished. Gala used her powers to check on the past and future, and smiled despite the strain her energy beam was putting on her body. "I failed my mother and my home planet, I failed my best friend, and now I almost destroy it all. No matter what happens to me now, it will be a fair price to pay for all those mistakes."
She saw the smaller (but large as planets) ships drift away from the main ship. Well, drifting wasn't the right word, as the ships had almost immediately breached the speed of light. It didn't matter, the Kh'sun had played their part, and would continue to do so for countless centuries. Gala closed her eyes and let herself loose, unleashed all of her power. Her beam blasted through the Kh'sun beam, hitting the large mothership. Instead of drilling through it, the beam split in countless, thin threads that washed all over the structure, making it shine like a small star for several seconds before it exploded, the shockwave sending the few smaller ships in the area sailing away at high speeds.
Gala smiled. It was done, the Kh'sun were weakened and scared, they would not disturb mankind for a long time. But she was also weak now, she had used most of her energy in that attack, and some of her life force as well. She could feel her mind slowly changing, and she knew it was something she could not fix on her own. But still, she would not die. She had to stay alive, to wait for the time when the one who had destroyed all she cared about returned.
But for the time being, she just wanted to sleep, as she drifted out of the system where, right now, a gigantic cloud of dust and smoke marked the place where the greatest enemy of this era's man had been vanquished.
-----
Lue recovered her senses and looked around. The enemy ship was gone, and she was aware its explosion had knocked her out. Her ship's instruments were fried, but fortunately the engine and power core still worked at nearly their best capacity. She had no way to check for survivors right now, and she knew they would all be thinking the same. Auror Two was gone, too, she noticed, so she would have to find a way to reach the capital on her own. She took a look around, at the stars all around her. Even though it was rare to use this skill, pilots still learnt to 'read the stars' to know where they were even without their ship's computer.
"If my bearings are right, Serine should be there," she said out loud, even though there was nobody around to listen. It would be a long trip back there, but she had to see it for herself, to see if what that 'Senshi' had said was true.
And she would also have to go back home, to her own planet. Even if what that girl said was what really happened, some planets should have been left untouched. A part of her mind told her it was useless to go, that it would only cause her grief, but she ignored it. That girl was wrong. She had to be wrong.
-----
"Shara, Anris, we welcome you to the city of Terra."
Perdot smiled at that. A city, they called it. To his eyes, it was just a small group of small houses. But it was still amazing, knowing that they had built them with only their hands and some rudimentary tools. In fact, he was too used to technology, and knew it would take him a while to get used to this new environment.
"What planet are you from?" Shara asked.
"We come from many planets, but we belong to Earth now."
"Don't you miss your old life?"
"The stagnation of the Imperium? No, none of us misses that. And in time, you will learn to love Earth."
"I'm always willing to learn new things," Shara said with a smile.
"Same here," Perdot admitted, "but I'm still a bit shocked by all that's happened to me lately."
"Don't worry, we all were the same as you at first. Give it time."
Perdot nodded at that. He would give it time, and not only because there was nothing else he could do, but because he really wanted to know if mankind could survive without the Imperium's eyes and technology to support it.
He liked challenges, and this would be the toughest challenge he had ever faced.
-----
Lue was... No, there were no words in her language to describe how she was feeling right now. It was pointless. She had been now jumping for days, going from one world to the next, but there was nothing to be found in the inner circle of the Imperium. Her own planet was but a lifeless rock now, and the city she had been born in was a large, empty crater.
She was about to give up, when she saw something in the third 'border' world she visited. She couldn't remember the world's name, but that didn't matter. This world was still mostly untouched, even though there were craters were most major cities would have been. But the rural areas were still there, and she could see people coming out of hiding, looking at her ship curiously.
An elderly man walked to her as she leapt out of her vehicle. "It's strange, you're the first outsider we've seen for almost one week. What news do you bring?"
"Unfortunately, they're not good. Serine was destroyed, its cities ruined and there were no survivors. Every other planet I've been to looked just like that."
"We saw the ship," The man said, "as big as our star."
Lue nodded at that. "I was there when... The ship was destroyed."
"The Shield managed to defeat something that large?"
Lue looked up to the sky. "No, it was something else. Someone... She called herself a 'Senshi' and held her ground against that thing. She destroyed it, but I'm not sure she survived."
The elder smiled at that. "So the legends were true."
"What legends?"
The man laughed. "Tales of the distant past, stories that were still told in many worlds, despite the Imperium's constant struggles to make us all forget." Seeing that Lue was silent, he continued. "Those tales speak of a single world where all mankind originated. And these Senshi were the protectors of such world."
"I never heard about that."
"You were a woman of the Imperium. A warrior, even. We all knew better than speaking of Senshi and Gaia when the Imperium was watching."
"A few weeks ago, I would have considered your legends to be fake, but I've seen a Senshi. I've seen what they can do."
"You're a fortunate person, then. Now come, you look tired. We can give you somewhere to sleep, and food."
"Thanks, but I need to keep searching."
"Searching for what? All of the Imperium's worlds are silent now. Our own radios give us only static. Would you really keep looking for survivors that might not even be there?"
"I found you, didn't I?"
"And we're the only world that's not silent in this sector. How many more worlds do you think survived?"
Lue thought about it. What did she expect to find out there? Was it hope that had kept her searching for this long, or just her stubborn self? She couldn't trust that to keep her going forever, and here... This planet might have been hit hard by those creatures, but they were still alive. She had nowhere to go to now, the Imperium was gone, her own world destroyed. But she could help these people rebuild, and her ship would let her explore surrounding worlds if they ever needed something they couldn't get here.
"I think I will accept your offer," Lue said, "I hope you don't mind having one more mouth to feed."
"Welcome then, child, to our village."
"Lue, the name is Lue."
-----
She observed the planet with a hint of sadness. It had, countless centuries ago, been her home, the first planet mankind ever called 'home.' But the humans now living there didn't remember ever leaving it, something she knew was to be expected after so many generations. She didn't mind, mankind seemed to have a knack for forgetting the past.
She... She had also changed, slowly. Her mind had weakened, and she knew soon she would also forget. But before that happened, there was one last thing to do. She closed her eyes, and several items appeared around her. The Dragon Swords, the weapons of the Senshi of the past. And the Ginzuishou, a crystal not even she had been able to understand fully. With a wave of her hand, the items turned into pure energy, and spread out, each landing in the world their powers were linked to.
She gave the Earth one last look before floating away. This wasn't her home anymore. This place belonged to mankind now, and to the Senshi that would, one day, carry the burden she had once carried herself. But she also knew this wouldn't be the last time she saw Earth. No, if the future happened as she had seen it, then she would have to return, someday.
But that day was not to come for millions of years. Normal humans could not even grasp how much time that was, but to an eternal being like Gala, it was simply a matter of patience.
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