The Bloody Eclipse
“My sleep is at an end, there is little time my sister! I know why you were sent, Mau, Saturn, all of you, to the White Moon,” Princess Serenity said, crying.
“You do, princess?” Sailor Mau arched an eyebrow.
(Could the truth be so easily accessed by Serenity’s partial Mauan insight? If so, there might be hope for them all yet)
Plunged into darkness
Serenity felt the sensual touch of icy evil at the nape of her neck, its deathly cold and unwanted touch creeping over her face, shoulders, breasts and her stomach before consuming her body entirely. She shivered with the disgusting violation and then it was gone.
She could feel the onset of darkness tearing at her resistance as the shadows returned with full force. She was running out of time and she had to move fast. She lifted her swollen eyes to the night that lay like a shroud over the Lunarian landscape where Terra hung suspended in the inky blackness beyond her balcony.
She sighed, only all too aware of the beating wings of giant bat youma high above the palace, the sounds of these creatures as they fought and defecated upon the palace ramparts and its proud shimmering towers made her ill with the thought of this vile desecration of her home and her people, and ultimately, herself.
Occasionally, one of the flying horrors would cry out as it was struck by crystal arrows launched by the palace guard or a Senshi attack and the youma would fall to the ground with a heavy thud, shaking the entire palace. Some youma survived only to be devoured by its fellows, the chilling sound of death she found frightening to say the least.
She knew that soon nobody would stay behind to defend the palace, and by high Terra, the following night, the palace would belong to Ravensong and her darker self. She tried unsuccessfully to fill her thoughts with more pleasant things, but found this near impossible as the banshee-like shrieks and chatter and the leathery flapping of youma wings sent ripples of fear through her trembling body.
~*~
She paced the floor of her bedchamber, unable to sleep or do much of anything. Then it came to her, she would write to her friends and family and do so while she still could. With this decided, she slipped on a night robe over her chemise and sat at her desk, lit a candle and began to write.
Mother, Endy and all my dearest friends and family,
I grow ever more restless, I am two people, a dark insistent voice booms through my head and rebounds off the boundaries of my soul, and I am being slowly torn apart.
I must end this!
Luna, my dearest sister, while I still have this last shred of independence left to me, I beg you all to leave the moon at speed, for I know you seek to free me, please forget this noble quest, for I am forfeited to the fates. I will only destroy you and all those I love.
Please tell Endymion if he gets out of the palace alive that I had truly loved him, but if he finds solace in the arms of another, I understand and I know my darker side hates him and wishes to do him harm, so I can only hope this reaches you in time before it is too late.
Know this, all of you: my Senshi, I love and shall miss you all, and mother, I am so ashamed of my actions under the influence of Ravensong. Please find it in your heart to forgive me, mother. Ravensong is the go-between for my darker nature and linked to the dark lord, Chaos. She is as much a victim as am I, for she was once pure of heart long ago, this I learned from the priestesses of Hecate who came to visit me only recently, but I digress.
We must fight for the right to rule the fallen Moon Kingdom to the death.
Always remember me as I once was, and remember the beauty of our glorious Moon Kingdom all of you, wherever you venture, remember its love and the tranquility we once knew and shared. I must go now.
Good-bye, my friends and family mine, I love you all!
Sere
She hung her head and cried, the quill falling to the parchment, as she summoned her personal attendant, Lydia. She waited, sobbing and growing evermore despondent.
Lifting tear stained eyes to meet the dark features of her reflection in her crystal mirror, a surge of anger, so overwhelming and searing hot, its emotional power smashing through her defenses – it was all too much to bear. She sucked in a deep breath and before she could stop herself, she struck out at her reflection with her tiny fist, shattering the mirror and severely lacerating the flesh of her hand, the blood streaming down her forearm. She sat there staring at it with morbid fascination and disbelief. She was becoming hysterical and laughing at herself.
“Lady!” Lydia gasped and lifted the trembling monarch to her feet and took her to the washbasin and cleaned up the wound. “Oh my queen, what have you done to yourself, let me see… I know, it stings, trust me, I am Mercury’s med tech, now come on, relax and let me put some lotion on it, and grip my hand as tightly as you need to, its fine.”
“I-I am so sorry, Lydia, it hurts so much!”
“The pain will soon leave, the herbs are beginning to numb the pain; can you feel it working now?” Lydia asked, brushing the hair out of the trembling princess’s eyes and wiping her tears away.
“I feel better now, the pain is leaving me! Thank you for putting up with me, Lydia.” She said with a contrite heart.
Lydia smiled, and hugged her princess, well aware Serenity would soon return to her darker self, yet she reveled in this rare and perhaps final moment of closeness to her royal mistress.
She called for Yume to bring dressings and soon the two girls had cleaned and bandaged the cut. “The wound is sealed, but you must rest now, princess.”
Serenity sat on her bed and sighed, running her fingers over the soft comforter and staring out the window into the eerie night. “Lydia, thank you, but you must know… You have served me a long time, and when I grow darker, please know it is the yami within me and not really me. I love you and all my courtiers, go from here if you can. Endymion is in the palace, go to him and get to the ship in the central courtyard, escape from this place!” she warned, her words coming in gasps, these interspersed with heartrending sobs.
“Yes my queen, I will do as you ask and I will get the children out also,” she said, tears forming in her own eyes.
Serenity took the girl’s hands, kissed each, and looked up as she stroked the smooth skin of the younger woman’s forearms and Lydia’s bountiful lavender locks. She saw the pain, loss and the love in those faithful eyes and sobbed anew for the girl, and all her people. She felt the soft warm embrace of her attendant as her head rested against the girl’s chest and gradually, she regained her composure and looked up with grateful tear stained eyes and spoke, “Be safe, my friend and from this moment, call me Sere, you’ve earned that from me. But please, only use it if I am ever freed of this!” She gestured to her revealing black dress laid out for her on the end of her bed and the darkened decor of the room.
Meanwhile, Yume and Ashalia cleaned up the broken fragments of her dress mirror as palace staff arranged for another to replace the damaged item. The floor was swept clean and soon the room fell quiet once more.
Lydia hugged Serenity and stroked her long dark tresses, it would be the last time she would do this she knew as she held her fast. Serenity sobbed into the girl’s dress, her head now pressed to Lydia’s stomach as she soothed her princess as best she might with kind and soothing words.
After a time, Serenity sat up, leaving the welcome warmth of Lydia’s comforting lap, remembering how her mother did that for her when she was a little girl. She hugged the young woman once again, drew back and retrieved the scroll, returning to the bed. Serenity placed the parchment on her knee and began to write, “Take this to Setsuna.” She scribbled quickly with her uninjured hand.
My dear Setsuna,
Love him well, take care of my Endy, you have my blessing, not that of course of my darker half.
Oh, I wish things were different, I cannot be the woman he loves, darkness claims me now, and so I place his heart in your gentle hands, my friend. Now, no argument, I order you to do this one last thing for me, as he deserves to be loved well. Sadly, though I wish it were not so, this I can no longer do.
Be careful and may the Kamis protect you both!
Sere
Lydia, knowing how hard it was for her mistress to write this, was all too aware of what had happened in the throne room and as always, Serenity’s selflessness came to the fore in defiance of the darker side of herself and her heart went out to the other woman as she hugged her one last time and stepped back. Serenity turned away and began to cry, the sight breaking Lydia’s heart to see her mistress suffering this way.
“Go now, and quickly, the dark energy is fighting to possess me once again!”
“Yes Sere, we all love you! I will always hold a place for you in my heart as shall all your subjects, I love you my friend!”
“And I you and Yume and everyone, now, please Lydia, go and may the Kamis protect you!”
~*~
As the weeping girl left the room, she could hear the whirring sounds from those hellish voids sprouting around the palace grounds as fiery beasts on the wing slipped out of nightmare and landed en masse upon the squat marble wall of her balcony, these drawn by the smell of her Lunarian blood.
She screamed despite herself. These unwanted visitors disgusted her. Some were tearing at the remains of Lunarian citizens with razor-sharp fangs and steely talons and she had to force back the bile as she through a vase at one of the protesting harbingers of the Dark Lord. Then, with a sickly thud, the leg, arm, or whatever it was fell to the flowerbeds below only to be swooped upon by a flurry of rapacious flying monsters and devoured, the youma scratching and biting one another as they fought for their gruesome prize.
But the largest of their hideous assembly remained on the balcony, its pterosaur-like wings folded, the hammer-like spikes serving as natural headdress staring at her with fiery orbs that seemed to ask something of her, but what exactly she couldn't be sure. These frightening emissaries, or whatever they were supposed to be, weren’t creatures she wanted so close to her private space, even if she were becoming their monarch.
She huffed, raised her scepter, and swung it at the disgruntled red-eyed creature that looked more like a gargoyle than a bird as it screeched, lifting itself into the air and circled ominously then returned to its original place upon the balcony wall. The creature continued to scream its protestations and indignation as Serenity covered her ears demanding it shut up as the awful sound pounded into her brain. The youma hissed its displeasure at Dark Serenity as she held up the scepter and prepared to banish the thing back to whence it had come. Then, she thought better of it, as she had no idea what she was dealing with and relented, lowering the scepter.
She walked back into her bedchamber, returning a short time later unarmed and nodded at the creature that she could almost swear was arching an eyebrow at her.
(That is, if such creatures had eyebrows in the first place!) Serenity thought, regarding the massive creature that was easily three times the size of a man.
She detected a hint of amusement in those coal-black eyes that suddenly flared bright red once again, making her jump back.
“My queen, you are displeased with us? But we are your servants, your friends. We feast on your enemies and ensure the people of the moon city obey your every word. Allow us to become your swift, firm hand. Majesty of night, be not put off by our appearance for we shall feed upon those who would stand in your way and hang their sorry carcasses upside down in the town square and drain them all of their life-blood, you only need to ask, and it is done my queen!” it croaked.
She gasped in spite of herself, and rushed back into the bedchamber, heart pumping -- the dark and light side of her nature in conflict.
“I must rest, now please go! Who, or whatever you are!”
The creature settled upon a nearby gnarled tree, squawked, and bared its blood stained teeth.
“By your leave, dark lady, I am Kraken, your guardian, call upon my services any time. But for now I shall take my leave of you, great lady!”
Serenity hugged herself, frightened and yet, a sense of satisfaction was beginning to fill her breast at the excitement of wielding such power. Then a malevolent smile crept over her lips as she thought of Ravensong.
(Perhaps my nasty little youma friends, you may serve a useful purpose yet!)
