Arc of the Warrior Rose
Paris
1793
The emerald-haired figure stood atop a high rooftop and looked up at the sun, wincing as she tried to see as far across Paris as was possible this time of day when the sun was setting. She could make out the many ornate buildings, and wide streets and those more confined areas. Parisians continued to amble by, lovers, young and old, holding hands, gentlemen and ladies, families listening to the street poets and singers while others played musical instruments, danced or performed tricks for the children and adults alike. There were even painters with easels set up in the nearby park, oblivious to those around them, lost in their colorful tapestries on canvas. Citizens tossed coins into waiting hats and exchanged pleasantries as they passed by.
Then there were the soldiers; at the sight of these men, the people dispersed quickly, but as the sun comes out after the storm is over, she saw the concourse below coming back to life again and again once the revolutionary guard had moved onto another sector. She had to admire these people for all they were facing right now.
Like a bronzed statuesque Goddess, Pluto stood, feet apart, her metallic black fuku, the X-cut and knee-high boots at odds with 17th century Parisian fashion. But she was not fazed, having grown accustomed as they all had to the Affinity fukus; her garnet staff providing a shield allowing her to make her assessment of the situation below unimpeded.
The time was drawing near. However, something had changed; of that, Pluto had no doubt. She knew chaotic events were unfolding in other parts of Paris and not just confined to the bloody revolution. Morok and his minions were trying to stop them saving Usagi after tampering with the timeline and preventing them incarnating in Tokyo in the 21st century. She was determined to correct this. Morok had underestimated the Senshi and Shitennou of the Crystal Kingdom, and for that, he would pay dearly.
“Good day, Monsieur, I am sorry to trouble you this evening, but that shadowy scoundrel, calling himself, the ‘Rose Warrior’ or some such title was seen entering your grounds and possibly has slipped into the house. I must insist we search it thoroughly, for the safety of your good self and your friends, and of course, to rid ourselves of another insurgent. This man is wanted by order of the Revolutionary Guard for sedition and treason and a host of other crimes.”
“By all means, please search colonel,” Endymion said, having only de-transformed, and assuming his casual demeanor. His cover was perfect, seen as an enemy of the crown, he was perceived by his impromptu guests as a loyal supporter of the revolution, this allowing him to save many lives from the blade of the guillotine. The irony was, the device was designed to make death by execution less traumatic and quick, but it had become something else, the crest, or icon of the revolution itself, a symbol of fear, rage and death.
“We shall post a watch over your premises. We fear people significant to the crown who seek to work against us might try and harm you as your sympathies have ostracized you from your peers. Many are already dead, Monsieur. I advise you leave Paris as I cannot guarantee your safety if you choose to remain in the capital.”
“Thank you for your concern, Colonel, it is much appreciated. You will be pleased to know that I had planned to leave by week’s end. I have set things in motion to that end, is that satisfactory, Colonel Guiffrey?” Endymion said, knowing his activities as the Warrior of the Rose would be a little more difficult to carry out. But people were dying and he hadn’t time to quibble about having to lodge at friend’s homes on the outskirts of the city in order to save people from the bloody altar of the guillotine.
“You are a wise young man. Very well, we will escort your party to the outskirts of Paris, and after that, monsieur you’re on your own.”
“That will be sufficient Colonel, thank you.”
“Not at all, monsieur,” he nodded and turned to three of his men who at that moment glided down the stairs of the large house where Endymion, Andrew and a couple more of his friends from the academy were lodging as were three young ladies.
“Colonel, he is nowhere to be found, we have stationed guards at the rear of the house, is there any further orders sir?” the youngest of the group asked.
“At ease men, you have the situation in hand,” he turned to Endymion, “I bid you and your company a good night, and good luck!”
“Thank you Colonel…”
Serenity woke to the news that her parents and all but one of her siblings was dead. She wept and couldn't believe it, only Charlotte survived. She cried for herself and her family and wished she could do something. Then Serenity thought of the Ginzuishou, the secret revealed by circumstance. However, what good was the magical power some called the Rose Cross? The euphemism covered the notion of a powerful symbol and even royal jewelers had created a solid gold cross with a ruby at its apex to carry off the emergent rumors of a legendary talisman. But its true name and power was unknown to all. The Ginzuishou was an incredible enigma and the women of Serenity's lineage had possessed it at various points along the way, but its origins remained obscure.
A day later, revolutionary guards dragged her from her quarters kicking and screaming; realizing the futility of resistance, she calmed herself. Seeing that she was willing to cooperate, they provided her with a gown from her trunk and allowed her to dress and maintain some semblance of dignity. After re-tying the black silk sash around her slender wrists, hands bound behind her back, her beautiful hair hanging limply over her face, she was led to a darkened room.
As her eyes adjusted to the light, she noticed the men, their features guarded and severe, as they looked her over as if she were a tasty morsel, reminding her of hungry vultures. These men were deciding her fate, a trial of sorts. But she wasn't listening and didn't recognize this court. But she knew, whatever she did or said, it would make no difference to her fate.
Serenity soon found herself handed over to an angry multitude like hundreds, or perhaps thousands of others who had trodden these bloody cobblestones before her, punished for the crimes of her father, the king. The irony was, nobody knew she was Marie Antoinette's first born. The crowds seemed determined to have their sacrificial rite uninterrupted and a gathering of odiferous brutish men with menacing faces made Serenity fall back against a small boy and a dark haired woman who refused to flinch in the face of the crowd's merciless verbal assault.
But as they clung together, the girl finally spoke, "I know you're afraid. But don't let them see your fear. Stand tall, for even in death we will be vindicated."
"What is your name?" Serenity ventured, pushing her hair out of her face.
"I am Lady Juniper, a seer and prophetess. I was called a sorceress and beaten and thrown onto the cart like the others." She lifted her cloak, the girl's upper chest and breasts covered in dried blood, and angry indigo bruises, her arms and hands laced with cuts, dried blood beneath her fingernails where she fought off the captain's guard who had tried to rape her. Serenity touched the wounds and the girl winced, but then a soft silvery light flowed from Serenity's fingertips and the young woman’s injuries had vanished. "But how…what did…," the amazed young woman whispered astonished by a power she knew existed but never seen first hand.
"Hush. I have been able to do it since I was a little girl. Do not ask me how or why. If they see…," she allowed her words to trail off, conveying her meaning to the other woman who nodded and lowered her head.
"Lady, can you make the pain go away?" a boy Serenity had not noticed at her side said, as Serenity took in the large lump on the child's bloodied head. "It hurts terribly and I am scared. They took away our mother and I am frightened!"
Serenity looked at the eyes of the boy's sister and knew what had happened as Juniper began to cry in silence.
"What's your name, little one?" she asked.
"Robert, my lady," and without a word, Serenity placed her palm over his scalp, careful to conceal the child between herself and the medium. Again, the familiar silvery light glowed, the glazed eyes of the boy cleared, and he immediately threw himself into her arms and hugged her. "Thank you my lady," he said as his muffled voice drifted to her ears from the folds of her pale blue and white gown.
The crowds hadn't noticed a thing. Serenity had known they wouldn't. Even before, she had used the power of the Ginzuishou on her new friend and her young brother.
Though the sight of the guillotine filled them with terror as insults and laughter spewed forth from the mouths of the men pushing the cart towards the base of the gateway of death, Serenity knew with absolute conviction in that moment that the light of hope enveloping them would guarantee death would not have them yield, not this day. Serenity felt the tug of something warm, strong and loving upon her heart and a small smile graced her lips as a face, Endymion’s face appeared in her mind’s eye. She felt sorry that she hadn’t seen him for so long, but knew she would again, and soon. As well as the link to her one true love, she also was acutely aware of the cobbles beating a rhythmic tattoo beneath their over-crowded cart as it ambled along the causeway. Serenity and Juniper cradled the boy between them as the wheels provided the percussive rhythm to a death march. The fact that women and children as well as the men folk were being led to the slaughter was of no consequence to the gawking crowds that lined the streets watching in voyeuristic delight as death beckoned its next victims with unyielding excitement at the blood fest to come. The cart in which Serenity and the others were held captive, was one of many in a procession of disgrace and contempt, if the reactions of the wild crowds flanking them were any indication.
Cruel contorted faces and taunts were as steely daggers, hurled at the innocent they condemned with relentless abandon. But there were some women under their shawls standing behind the leering hawkers: Women who wept as others screamed their obscenities a young girl or child should never have to hear.
Serenity, for some inexplicable reason in that moment looked up and could hardly believe her eyes. A woman in the shortest dress or tunic stood at the entrance to the courtyard leading to the guillotine. Clad in metallic black and wearing a pair of leather knee-high boots holding a staff, the revolutionary soldiers gasped in awe at the unprecedented sight. They stared, at not only her daring dress, the bared limbs and revealing cut of the garment and her emerald tresses, but the pulsing orb atop her power staff.
"I am Pluto, guardian of time and protector of the Moon Princess, and that my dear, is you!" she said, pointing the Garnet Rod in Serenity’s direction. Sailor Pluto, in an instant, was standing before Serenity's cart. The men who had tormented them had fled in terror.
"What?" Serenity began, unable to believe the evidence of her eyes.
"Serenity!" a male voice cried out and she looked up to the arch overhead and saw the red masked warrior. "Close your eyes and focus on the Ginzuishou, ask it to awaken you, your friends are here to help you as am I. Let us free these people!" He leapt from the precipitous height and landed nimbly like a cat upon the stony road as soldiers pointed their muskets at the caped warrior. A captain shouted an order to fire. Then a golden light enfolded the masked man who rescued people from the dreaded guillotine. The barrage of gunshot evaporated and the glittering golden force field remained in tact as he grinned and took off his hat and bowed to the incensed and frightened soldiers. "It is I, the Warrior of the Rose at your service!"
Serenity, now smiling, knew the identity of her rescuer in an instant. She also felt the power of the Ginzuishou flare to life like an exploding star, bursting forth from within her heart like a supernova. "Moon Cosmic Power Transform!" The words came to her in an instant, she knew, all of it, the silvery-blue feather that flared up within her being had cracked open a crystal eggshell and a crystal girl appeared, winged and completely transparent. “I am Ginzuishou, you are the Neo-Queen and the embodiment of myself becoming, fight for love and for justice young one, I am the Oberisku no Shoujo, I am with you child!” Serenity nodded, and as if time had started up again, she felt the transformation changing her from a French monarch in exile to a powerful cosmic warrior.
Serenity had regained all her memories of the Moon Kingdom. She stood as Sailor Affinity Moon, her legacy laid out before her in a flash of silvery blue light.
Endymion, or ‘The Warrior of the Rose’ as he was called was now wielding a golden sword.
Then she saw them, Luna and Artemis-- and a third Mauan.
‘Was it possible? Sailor Mau…, Aunt Margareta?’
She beamed; there they were, the three of them, with Mauan cat ears and tails-- launching their own attacks and whirling shimmering swords against the revolutionary guard.
The crowds at first advanced upon them, hurling rocks and abuse, but suddenly retreated in the face of overwhelming supernatural power.
"You have to rescue those people guys!” Artemis cried, sending a soldier cartwheeling into the throng. Then she saw them: Makoto, Rei, Minako and Ami; her friends had been her guardians. Like Serenity, they too had shared a legacy that spanned several lifetimes, in the past and far off future. She remembered them all as Mars, Mercury, Venus and Jupiter standing in an arc clearing the way for those rescued from execution to be teleported to safety well beyond French borders.
"Consider it done Sailor Moon!" Mars declared as more soldiers rushed the Senshi. "Mars Celestial Fire Surround!"
Pluto was well aware that youma were already in the city, these controlled by the dark mage. There was no way Pluto could allow this to continue unchallenged. She, Uranus, Neptune and Saturn had no other choice but to carry out their mission, and clean up the mess later. Having rescued Serenity and many civilians she knew history would be altered and it was a matter of healing the breech, but only after Morok was defeated.
The people of Paris continued to watch the somber processions through their windows shrouded by thick dark curtains. Lanterns and candles kept well out of sight as parents hushed their children and hoped for an end to the bloodletting. Then an unearthly scream echoed through the streets of Paris. Panic broke out as people ran in all directions, many the fierce soldiers of the bloody revolution. These were armed men.
"What could have scared those cold-blooded murderers," Celeste Tiramisu asked herself under her breath as she picked her daughter up to breast feed.
This was different. Nothing like the march of death that occurred on a daily basis. No, this was something else. If it were at all possible, it was far more frightening. The loud footfalls shook the city. The death cries of those about to be executed on the guillotine never sounded anything like this, Celeste thought as she fed her baby and after a time she laid her in her crib, opened a draw, and loaded her pistol before slipping it under her cloak in case the house was broken into, by heaven only knew what.
The thing was hideous. It was like a beast, a wild cat, or a bear. But whatever it was, nothing could have prepared her for its pure evil and the terror it generated. It was a monster. The earth shook as people scrambled from the abandoned carts having tilted over. The bound victims were injured, some killed, crushed by the weight of the carts as the purple creature lumbered towards the stampeding crowds. The horses panicked. The soldiers pointed their muskets and fired upon the thing that had no right to exist, covered in spikes and its teeth alone the size of a full-grown man. As for its gargantuan stature, it towered over the houses and some of these it had demolished in its haste to attack the revolutionary guard now in retreat with a swish of its monstrous tale.
Pierre gawked at the creature as it released a strange light from its hands, or claws. He wasn't exactly sure which and if truth were known, he couldn't have cared less in that moment.
‘What magic is this? What an abomination!'
He whimpered like a child, and he was a big man, tall and lean but he was petrified. Such was his fear and need to seek shelter at any cost. But Endymion's fated warning came back to haunt him. In that moment he knew things would get far worse before they got any better and broke into a run.
People were stunned. Some crying, others just standing there unable to move, or speak and do much of anything. Most looking at the titan towering over a three-storey house, smashing windows and doors, its claws reaching inside and pulling out screaming victims.
Two aquamarine flashes in a crowded street had caught the attention of most of the citizens in line of sight, some of these revolutionaries, while others sought refuge in nearby buildings. As the ugly youma came into view, people turned en masse and cried out in fear, and fled. Fires and thick dark smoke shrouded Paris and it looked like a warzone.
"Mademoiselle, who, or what are you?" a frightened girl in rags sputtered, looking at the strangely dressed women warriors.
"Shall you explain, Uranus, or do you want me to try?" Neptune said, shrugging.
"You go, I'll watch your back," Uranus said, as an orb of power built up between her palms.
"We are here to help a friend. She is caught up in all this. We are not from your land, or…" Neptune broke off, surmising the girl was too frightened to speak.
"Trouble, the soldiers are heading this way, those bastards must have alerted them to our impromptu arrival. Must talk to Pluto about the coordinates," Neptune muttered under her breath and spoke to the girl taking her hand, "Get behind us, they can't hurt you and we can take care of ourselves. We want you to be safe," she said.
"Demons! Witches, the spawn of the queen!"
"What is he on, crack or something?" Uranus chuckled, rolling her eyes and braced herself for a fight. "World Shaking!"
"Deep submerge!"
The attacks threw the hundreds of soldiers back and knocked them unconscious and the frightened girl stared at them with wide eyes, "You're angels, or faeries or," she gasped.
"Senshi, we are female warriors and we have come to fight evil in whatever form it takes! I am Sailor Uranus!"
"And I am Sailor Neptune!"
"I am Arlene. I might not have much to give you. I know your power is great, but you must need somewhere to stay?"
"Yes, we'd appreciate that," Neptune said, staring upon the skyline, the nightmare that had become Paris.
Then they heard it in the distance, the yowling of a youma. "I just think our mission got a whole lot more complicated!" Neptune said, pointing a white gloved hand towards the butt-ugly youma in the distance.
"By the Kamis, I think we better get cracking, then we'll talk to you Arlene was it, about accommodation. See that thing back there, it's called a youma and they're pretty mean so please seek shelter, we will meet you here after the danger is passed, do you think you can do that for us?" Uranus asked the shaking girl.
"Yes, I-I think so," she stuttered and rushed towards a large auditorium of some kind.
"Let's deal with this youma and find Serenity!" Neptune cried out as Uranus summoned her Space Sword. "I'll call Saturn, we're going to need back-up."
"Good idea!"
