Butterfly Warrior
Paris France 1793
There she was, an escapee, a princess incognito to be offered to the pyre of bloody revolution. She was Princess Serenity of France, a sovereign without a throne; now this otherworldly reprieve. As if in a dream, she had become a powerful warrior of celestial magic.
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Jezebel, remembered the day the queen, Marie Antoinette, after being criticized for her blatant extravagances did an about face. But this was too little, far too late. She had dressed down and shed her affluent demeanor, and that dreadful wig, yet it hadn’t saved the monarchy and Antoinette and her family. France was in turmoil and more blood than wine would flow this year. The revolution was, it seemed, almost inevitable. She could see the cluster of white roses buffeted by the wind that lay beyond the charming bay windows of her bedroom, they seemed almost to be fretting, waving goodbye in a silent refrain. A tear fell to the back of her hand. She mouthed her goodbye to the flowers and her home for the last time, brushing back her waist-length black locks from her face, and swallowed down a sob. In a symbolic sense, the soft white petals of the roses represented herself and her loved ones, the wind, the wind of change. She would miss this place, and especially the garden where she had spent so much of her childhood and youth.
She had earlier that morning, thrown the windows open to listen to the piano from the property adjacent to their own, the piano concerto soothing her restless mind. If one listened hard enough to the delightful music rising from some of the stately homesteads in the city's old district on the outskirts of Paris, one could be forgiven for thinking this a time of peace and repose. But the reality was quite different, the streets were all but deserted; fires raged out of control, a shroud of black smoke cast over the ancient citadel. Only a handful of stubborn people refused to abandon their homes to the ravages of the soldiers and looters; she feared for them, but there was nothing to be done about it. Paris had been a repository of artisanship and innovation that lay in stark contrast to the grassroots of its impoverished population fighting to survive on the streets of the capital and now they were killing each other; much of the country plagued with poverty, disease and now war and hideous monsters tearing France apart. She grimaced; it broke her heart.
“Charles, Bridgette, ready?” she cried out, giving her room one last cursory glance before locking it, for all the good that would do.
She wondered if they could ever return home, they might live through all this, ‘But would France survive this?’
“Yes, I’m ready,” Bridgette called out as she chastised her brother for pulling her pigtails.
“Come, don’t dawdle, we need to hurry before…” She didn’t need to tell them twice.
The young music teacher bit her lip thoughtfully as she folded the last of her dresses and packed these, and fastening the straps of her trunk securely, she was ready. Jezebel’s brother and sister, twins, five years her junior helped her haul the load to the waiting carriage. Within ten minutes, they had everything loaded. Jezebel gazed upon the abandoned street wondering the fates of her friends and those bailed up in their houses with the high stone fences offering little protection from the soldiers and these creatures of nightmare she had been fortunate enough to escape. The Warrior of the Rose had saved them, and his friend and his lover, Molly were offering them safe haven out of Paris, for this, she was grateful. She pondered all that had happened as the sound of explosions and beasts roaring in the distance continued to send chills up her spine as they raced away from her home as the wheels spun beneath the carriage as it thundered towards the French countryside, she wrote in her diary:
‘Flowers no not the rage of conflict, nor do the colorful butterflies flouncing off the petals laden with abundant pollen saturating their floral hosts; these pretty blooms the perfect motif for my home city. Once Paris was like this, but no more, I am sad, but tears only fall on stark stone.’
‘Paris is trying to forget and not remember, seeking those days when times had been more fortunate. I stepped out into the street, gazing upon a world once bewitched by the artists, songsters and storytellers. As for myself, I was a mere student of the arts. I longed so to be an opera singer and yet, my dreams, having fallen upon the sword of the bloody revolution had set most of my plans on the backburner for now. But the day we were rescued and I stood looking upon a strangely dressed blonde girl flanked by strange fighters from who knows where, I knew she was special, that they were all different and sent to us to help the common people find a better way than that offered upon the path of bloodshed for its own sake.’
Jezebel Dauber
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Serenity had transformed into a powerful female warrior. She knew what that meant. She was the Lunarian Princess and its future queen, the circle of power enveloping her in its secure wrapping, elevating her to Goddess status. She was staring at a monster, a reptilian beast with spikes as long as the roman columns that encircled the palace. The creature possessed a roar like a daemon. Until now, she had never conjured up such an image, not even from her most frightening of nightmares had she seen its like. But this thing was real, an affront to Mother Nature.
One moment she was on death's door, fodder for the gleaming blade of the guillotine, the next, rescued by the Warrior of the Rose and his short-skirted friends, no, they were her friends, too. She recognized them all as long forgotten memories that lay far beyond this life that even now continued to sweep over her as a tear crept down her cheek.
‘My cousins: Makoto, Jupiter, Minako, Venus, Ami, Mercury and Rei, the Senshi of Fire, Mars, and The Warrior of the Rose, is Endy… yes!’
Sailor Moon was ready for battle as the power coursed through her body like a thunderbolt and she raised her arms. Sailor Moon was back in business and it was time to kick evil butt.
"Cosmic Moon Power!" she cried, the words, no longer alien and strange upon her lips.
The beast roared, reeled back, fell upon one of the nearby monuments of the Axe historique, and exploded. Fires burst into bloom all around her, the smoke creating an unearthly haze over the besieged city.
Then she saw them, female warriors like herself, fighting by her side. Serenity realized in that moment that she was their leader and Moon Princess. These valiant warriors, her Senshi guardians were launching powerful magical attacks upon other hideous monsters that made the French soldiers run like starving dogs for shelter, muskets forgotten and left lying on the cobbled street behind them in their wake. The revolution had failed.
"A reprieve, But, for how long, that's what worries me," Michiru mused, sitting on the end of the bed and nibbling a croissant.
"Don't get your hopes up, they'll be back. Morok has too much of a history… Shit, I don't believe I just said that," Haruka laughed, shaking her head as she pinched the extra Croissant off Michiru's plate, winning a mock glare and then a smile.
Michiru laughed, "Save some of that for me… But about Morok, he is too damned unpredictable. We could be chasing him across time and space indefinitely. I shudder at the very idea."
"Serenity's pre-incarnation is the key," she said, licking the honey off her fingertips.
"Mars will be here soon with the guys, and Mercury and Jupiter are keeping an eye on the northern and eastern flanks of Paris. Saturn is due off her watch soon. We need to be ready," Michiru added, standing up and checking her appearance in the small wooden framed mirror.
"Let's go downstairs and get breakfast, and if those locals get strange, I think I will use a little Senshi persuasion to quell their steely dispositions."
"I don't think, my dear, that France is quite ready for you," Michiru laughed.
"But you are, and that is all that matters… come on, we better get moving."
With the youma efficiently dispatched by several senshi and Shitennou the night before, the Shitennou having left Crystal Tokyo in the hands of princess Serenity Dawn, formerly Small Lady; now a beautiful young woman, the redeemed Terran Guard was sent to aid their companions via the Time Gate.
Kunzite smirked, "Well, so much for history being preserved. I think it changed the moment we stepped through the portal."
"Unavoidable, but the changes are not devastating, at least, from my reckoning. The future is a little less chaotic for our incursion," Nephrite said, pondering the astrological conjunctions and other stellar data via a hand-held mini-computer loaded with 5000 TB capacity that fit neatly into the palm of his hand. “Still, I would have liked to have met Nostradamus, but when was that guy born again?” The Sky King frowned in concentration and shrugged.
"I'm not a purist either, nor is Setsuna I trust. Jadeite and Zoisite are in position now," he added as his communicator brought up the images of their comrades who offered the Senshi/Shitennou salute before signing off and summoning their respective powers.
"You think we can take Morok before he jumps the space-time continuum?"
Kunzite shrugged, "your guess is as good as mine, but I certainly hope so." The men soon took up their positions and summoned their powers.
After seeing those lifeless things in action, Philippe thought he was going mad. Impossible, it all seemed so impossible, but it was all too real. The bizarre fighters that had two arms, yes, legs of steel or what approximated steel; their bodies shiny like armor heading up the new ragtag army, he was terrified. Now, his former comrades, all proud good fighting men, fought for a new agenda, that of Lord Morok. Paris was leveled. This was not what he had envisioned, none of them did. But these things were moving in a way men could and should not have the ability to do, and possessed weaponry unlike anything known in their experience. Fire and explosive devices and magic, for that's what it looked like, or he imagined magic to be, the weapons of choice for these beings not of their world used against the confused citizens of Paris they were hoping to liberate that now hated and feared them.
Morok had provided Dark Sentinel Drones to lead the beleaguered remnants of the revolution in battle against the Senshi and the people of Paris. The cruel generals of the revolution would not even dare disobey Lord Morok on pain of death. They had seen first hand the price of defiance as Morok had burned his detractors by a stream of black lightning issuing forth from his index finger, something the trembling men standing before the dark mage had never seen before in their lives.
Philippe remembered their first meeting with the new emperor of France, Lord Morok. One of their ranks had challenged this being.
"He is a demon, sorcerer…" one man had whispered to his companion in the back, careful to keep his lips still.
"I… that he is, but we're not in any position to question him, by all that is good and holy, we'd forfeit our lives in the blink of an eye if we crossed him," the other man, the senior in rank of the two replied with equal caution.
All heads had turned to the front of the chamber at the bombastic protests of one of the senior generals, a man even those forced to work with on the battlefield held in contempt had as fate would have it, issued a foolhardy challenge to the dark mage.
"You're nothing but a trickster, a clever illusionist I will grant you, but magic? You take me for a fool! You must have well trained men inside those strange suits of armor, but magic man. I don't think so oriental wizard. You are no more a wizard than am I!" he laughed.
"Oh? I am disappointed in you, sir. Does not the evidence of your eyes convince you?" he chuckled, unperturbed by the intimidating giant of a man towering over him. "My good man, as you can see, I am able to bring your city to its knees and my droids and youma do not convince you of my power?"
"I don't know how you did that, elephants in costume? But magic? I am sorry but I think you are a fool if you expect us to believe that nonsense!"
Without warning, a burst of bright flame enveloped the arrogant man; shortly thereafter, a blackened corpse, barely recognizable as once being that of a living, breathing human being lay shriveled at Morok's feet.
"Clean that up…now!" Morok demanded, kicking the remains to one side and raising his power staff as a troop of metal men appeared behind him, glowing red eyes surveying the ranks of terrified soldiers standing to attention before him as he smiled. "That's better, now, men of France, would-be revolutionaries, you now work for me!"
Humbled, their ranks subdued, they each pledged their allegiance to Morok. He smirked and nodded, raising a hand in dismissal, then summoned his consort; a strange, but beautiful woman with frightened eyes. They wondered about her, she was a living contradiction and seemed almost as frightened as were they all, of the wizard of fire. Pierre Tulane, a corporal in the French Revolutionary Guard, thought she was with this man against her will, much like the rest of them now. The monsters had been the worst though, seeing what these could do, and knowing also how the revolution was put down, so brutally, he didn't doubt this man could destroy them all and all of France if he had a mind to do so.
Morok, some of them believed, had come from, the very bowels of hell itself.
Morok soon made his next move. He had planted a chronophasic device beneath the city, and issued an ultimatum to Sailor Moon and her allies to surrender or he would destroy all of Paris and much of the surrounding countryside.
"He underestimates us. That is our advantage," Pluto said, as the Senshi and Shitennou sat in a ring around Endymion who had brought with him a device that loosely resembled a sundial, forged from a silvery-black crystal. It glowed softly, humming and making the young people and the children feel a sense of euphoria as it continued to calm the city.
"Mamoru… what is it?" Kunzite asked, brushing his silver bangs out of his eyes and blinked at the strange talisman.
"Kunz, come over here and stand before the device," Mercury invited, her visor gleaming with a bright sapphire light as she typed onto a virtual keyboard of cool lemony light now hovering before her.
She waved them all over and in turn, images appeared, these so real it was both awe-inspiring and a little frightening.
"Holograms?" Mars speculated.
Pluto then spoke up, "Not quite, rather, subatomic possibility streams. These are our desire curves, that lye just outside probability and only need a shift in perspective, a random event, thought process or decision to make them real. While others exist on parallel planes outside this space-time continuum, they are no less just as real, and why we have the advantage over our extemporal friend, Morok."
"What do we-?" Venus gasped. "Do with it?"
"We track Morok to his next destination and prepare to take him on, and destroy him. The chances of doing this are slim, but I connected the device to the Time Gate's chronophasic signature and three streams exist. But the trick is, only one path will succeed." Pluto's expression became unreadable as all eyes fell upon hers.
"Okay, I get that this is a narrow window of opportunity, but there's something you're not telling us, Setsuna," Uranus said, her eyes not leaving that of the Senshi of Time.
"I cannot answer you, and I may well-know the answer, but as you can appreciate, I am bound by the laws of Chronos to hold my silence on this matter. For to do otherwise would spell disaster for us all."
As each of them in turn stood near the device, faces, places and events played out, some moving the observer to tears of joy or of dread, and others relief as the probability quotient was flexible and not fixed. But it was all contingent on the true desire of his or her Star Seed's chosen path, and that lay beyond this moment, teasing, enticing and well out of reach, nothing fixed in stone.
The Shitennou, senshi and feline Mau were ready to face off against the ex-revolutionaries, youma and droids. The battle raged for over a week; little of Morok’s armies survived and as the power of two Ginzuishou combined as Serenity of the future stood side-by-side with Sailor Moon of the past, Morok was soon defeated.
“You will rue the day you faced me in battle, all of you. You think you’ve seen the last of me, not a chance. While I congratulate you on your latest party trick Serenity one and two, I will have the last laugh!”
The city fell silent as the remaining youma and drones were gone in a violet flash and the remaining soldiers taken by the crowds.
“Should we save them?” Haruka asked, still holding her Space Sword aloft.
“I have made sure they receive a fair trial, more than they deserve for their crimes. Our work here is done.”
“I agree, Pluto,” Mau, said, as Dark Moon, having come to Paris through the time gate joined her family and friends, Kantaro growling at the ragtag prisoners as they were led off to a makeshift holding facility.
“Those men should be grateful we destroyed the guillotine and its surroundings due to the fight,” Endymion said as he pulled Serenity to him and kissed her gently upon her soft pink lips.
“Yes, that thing makes me shudder and to think-“ He kissed her again.
“A new history, and we’re all still here, and when we return, it will be well despite the massive changes. The Big Freeze and all else has happened with more or less no major hiccups, but there are some changes. These, we can live with, and so shall you all, I love you all, be safe!” Neo Queen Serenity said, the corona of silver flaring around her.
"Oh, and please, come visit us. If you need us, we'll come to your aid," Sere said, her French accent delighting her future counterpart, whom was holding Serenity's hands before letting go and hugged her one last time before stepping through, her retinue in her wake.
END
