Title: For the Future
Feedback: If you feel so moved.
Characters: Hotaru/Sailor Saturn
Word Count: 1 794
Rating: PG
Genre: Drama
Summary: “This was not how it was supposed to be, Saturn,” Selenity said softly. “Everyone was supposed to be happy, and at peace.”
Warnings: Dark undertones.
Disclaimer: Naoko Takeuchi owns the characters and scenarios of Sailor Moon. I am a humble fan and thus make no profit from this venture.
She hunched behind the door, both her hands gripping a sword. She wiped one hand across her forehead, smearing blood over her face. She could hear more screaming, and she tightened her grip on the sword, pulled from the corpse of one of the Royal Guards. Blood had dried along the blade, and Hotaru swallowed. The last living member of the Royal Family of Saturn; her bodyguards were dead and the army was falling. No time – or point – in calling for help from her own planet; she can hear the horror-struck screams in her mind, of women and babies, men and children falling to the ground, of the suffering and the betrayal.
She squeezed her eyes shut; she doesn’t want to think about the people of Saturn, being slaughtered and not understanding why it was happening, why their Princess wasn’t trying to save them, why she had left them to such a fate.
Her back pressed against the cracked wall of her quarters, she presses the heel of her hand against her mouth to stop herself from screaming; the body guard lay sprawled on the floor, his throat cut out, his eyes wide open. The blood has soaked into once was the softest lavender rug.
She can hear yelling and screaming and explosions that rock the Palace, and Hotaru wonders what it would be like to have her henshin rod, her birth right. How she could be defending the Alliance, the Queen, her people. It feels wrong to be huddled in a corner waiting to be rescued.
If she is so strong, why is she not allowed to fight?
Another explosion rocks the building and the crystal chandelier rocks ominously before the roof cracks apart and it falls gracelessly to the bed, fragments of glass and crystal flying everywhere. The ceiling gapes open, revealing another room; a heavy stone statue close to the edge of the hole.
The ceiling will come down soon and Hotaru tries to make her legs work, tries to stand and run but her limbs reject her orders and she curls up into a smaller ball.
The ceiling groans and plaster flutters everywhere.
“Saturn!” The voice is familiar and comes so suddenly, her throat feels like it closes up before she sees Uranus leaning over her, the Space Sword in one hand. The older girl’s eyes look haunted, and she bares some ugly looking burns to the right side of her face.
“Uranus,” Hotaru manages, her voice cracking. “I…”
Uranus grabs her arm and pulls her to her feet, pushing her out the door. Less than a hundred meters down the hall, the ceiling shudders and Hotaru can hear the statue fall, the sounds of furniture collapsing, floors cracking. Uranus drags her along so quickly, she is half running to keep up, her bare feet sliding and catching on the debris that litters the once beautiful hallway.
“We need to find the Queen,” Uranus says off-hand, dragging her down marble stairs that have broken in half, leaving an ugly hole and the stairs uneven. She turns her face away from the blood-slick stairs, from the bodies littering their path.
They will mourn these people later, when their bodies are packed into the soft soil and their souls are resting peacefully in Elysian; there will be candles lit and flowers planted and the Silver Alliance will rise from the ashes, older and wiser.
She feels a strange coldness in her mind when she thinks that but that thought is lost when she spies a child of the court disemboweled and left at the bottom of the stairs, her cold, waxy face twisted in agony. Hotaru lets out a sob.
“Where is the Queen, Haruka?” she manages. “Where is the sanctuary?” She grips the older girl’s hand tighter, as if Uranus will slip from her grasp and leave her behind.
“There is no sanctuary, Saturn. All the planets have fallen to this entity,” Uranus’ voice is cold, but her eyes are sad as she looks back. “We have failed.”
The massive doors in the entrance hall have been ripped half off their hinges, swinging haphazardly. Uranus ignores them and they push through to the night air.
And Hotaru drops to her knees, her hands over her mouth, before the Princess’s body - the scarlet stain spreading outwards, marring her white dress, her hand still twisted in Endymion’s grip. Her long ribbons of white-gold hair are twisted lazily out behind her, splattered with someone else’s blood, like a grim flag of surrender.
Uranus looks at the princess and the Earth prince with tired eyes; there is no brutality that can surprise her now. She has seen everything that can be seen by soldier's eyes. She is tired.
The last request of the Queen, her last mission, kneels before the fallen princess, her face twisted in anguish, her shock almost tangible, her hands folded over her face.
“The Queen is not far, Hotaru,” Uranus manages to get Hotaru to her feet and half carries her down the stairs.
“We shall not rise again, from this, shall we?” Hotaru’s voice sounds thin, hollow.
“Something shall rise,” Uranus replies, hurling the thin girl along.
“But our world has fallen and so I shall be given the powers to destroy what I could have helped to save.” Her body goes slack. “I cannot, Uranus. The senshi could not have given up.”
“They didn’t Saturn,” Uranus’s voice has the same hollow quality. “They never gave up.”
Hotaru feels tears on her face and wonders what gruesome way her sisters in arms fell; the absence of Neptune is almost physical it is so obvious, but she can convince herself that Neptune remained with the Queen. Her feet are covered in blood and dirt as she and Uranus make their way across what was once the gardens, before she spies the flickering silver glow of the Moon Queen.
“Selenity!” She tumbles forward, throwing herself to the ground. The Queen lies upon a large, smooth rock of quartz, the Silver Crystal cupped in her hands.
“Hotaru, you survived,” Selenity smiles tiredly. “I worried for your safety.”
Hotaru pulls herself to her feet, blinking at the pale, dying figure of Selenity. “We have fallen,” she whispers. “Are we the only survivors?”
Uranus drops down next to Selenity, propping herself up on the stump of a felled tree. “Luna and Artemis as well as us. And I believe Earth still resists.” Uranus’s eyes drift close, tears trailing clean marks down her dusty cheeks and Neptune’s absence feels worse than the death around her. Hotaru shudders, wrapping her arms around herself.
“This was not how it was supposed to be, Saturn,” Selenity said softly. “Everyone was supposed to be happy, and at peace.” Her eyes closed and there were more tears. “My daughter and Endymion did not deserve such an end.”
“Does anyone?” Uranus murmured, bitterness lacing her words.
“My Queen, we can rise out of the ashes once more,” Hotaru dropped to her knees and grabbed the hem of Selenity’s gown in a mark of desperation. “We cannot yield. It does not matter if there is one man left standing, as long as he stands with belief in his actions. We only fail when we do not stand for what we believe in.”
Selenity smiled at the girl, her violet eyes wide with determination. “You studied hard, Saturn. You were a credit to your family and the Royal House of Saturn. You… would have made a good senshi.” The Queen offered another weak smile. “So many things I am wishing I could undo today! You should have fought for us... but I had to err on the side of caution. I could not have you killed in battle. I needed you for now.”
“No. I won’t do it,” Hotaru turned away her face. “I will not condemn the choices you – the whole Alliance – made by calling up my powers now.”
“You are so loyal, Saturn,” Selenity said gently. “And it is purely out of selfishness that I ask you for this... but I want a world for my daughter where you are all equals, where the bad and the ugly things are locked safely away. I will send them to the future Saturn, but the only way my daughter can reclaim my throne is for you to destroy it.”
Hotaru looked over at Uranus, to see the volatile girl’s opinion of the Queen’s plan. Uranus did not move, her eyes open and staring.
“The attack that killed Neptune grievously injured Uranus,” the Queen’s voice sounded dry, crackly. “I did not expect for her to survive so long. She was a fighter until the end.
“I ask you as a Queen and as a friend, Saturn – let me release your power. You were titled the Soldier of Death and Rebirth. Let the people of the worlds try again for their sake, for Serenity and Endymion’s sake. For your own sake, Hotaru.”
Hotaru could hardly see from the tears falling onto her cheeks but she nodded, climbing to her feet and standing beside the Queen, whose smile lit up her face as she held up the crystal.
“Saturn, awaken.”
The voice seemed to echo for a moment and her eyes flew open. It was as if someone had knocked down a brick wall in her mind, her vision full of purple light as her bloodstained dress dissolved to ribbons and reformed as her senshi fuku, the Silence Glaive a comfortable weight in her hands.
Selenity stared up at Sailor Saturn; the awestruck expression, the understanding lighting her eyes. “Thank you, Sailor Saturn,” she murmured, as she lifted the crystal high and seven streaks of coloured light raced into the crystal before the crystal exploded into fragments, beautiful glass balls that would find a home some time in the future.
And she watched as Selenity closed her eyes and relaxed, the gentle white glow fading slowly. And the Queen of the Moon let death claim her.
Saturn turned her head back to the ruins of the Palace, her Glaive pointing toward the sky, the brightly coloured orbs of the other planets floating in the sky, equally as dead.
“For the future,” Saturn whispered, raising the Glaive above her head, the blade taking on a purple glow as Saturn twisted the pole arm around her torso, her eyes closed, before suddenly twisting the Glaive in a downwards stroke.
The sky exploded.
On Earth, the people looked up - great bursts of violet light ripped across the skyline, a light that was both grieving and hoping at the same time. As Saturn’s attack wiped away existence on the rest of the planets, the people of Earth gaped up at the show of lights and fire.
And in the last moments before Earth too surrendered to the Saturn power, the sky was bright with a kaleidescope of colours.
And then darkness reigned.
