42: Sailor Galaxia
There are some things that are known for certain. Many things that
I know are from looking back, for, as you humans say, hindsight is
twenty-twenty. It means that looking back on the past gives one total
clarity on a situation.
Looking back, my recooperation, therefore, is in most ways
unimportant to what happened, at least in the final weaving of the
complex web which binds me to Sailor Moon. I spent several days in an
Asgerd hospital, and I had a bump and cut on my forehead, the bump
causing a nagging ache that never truly went away afterwards. The
other soldiers were also injured as well, with cuts and bruises
(though one broke an arm), and all were out of the hospital in a
week. That is really all that needs to be known of our hospital stay.
Though we all managed to recover with few serious injuries, we
were not at all completely satisfied. For, with all that had
happened, justice had been evaded one last time. Sailor Bora, who was
known as Galaxia, and before that Sailor Melkweg, had still somehow
managed to escape, just as she had promised. Not without her injuries
- she was reported as being bloody, badly cut, seriously injured by
the groups who saw her disappear right in front of their eyes. But
still, she had lived, and she had gotten away.
The true scale of Galaxia's dealings became very clear after this.
Galaxia was no mere renegade sailor desperate to cover her tracks;
she was, indeed, a very, very powerful sailor soldier whom
practically ran an underworld empire, the Shadow Galactica. It
conspired to take over the known universe, and it was an organization
that had such a sheer size and influence that few could rival them.
Its only true competition was the Seemarin, which she desired to
supplant.
Though it was accepted that she was almost definitely the soldier
of Melkweg at one time, the cursed planet which Dyka had fought
Galaxia on, extensive research never yielded Galaxia's true origins.
Just where had she come from? It turned out that she was no
Melkwegian by birth. Was Galaxia her true given name as a civilian,
or simply a new name she had egotistically bestowed upon herself? No
one was sure.
All she had ever said to me was that she had come from a planet of
trash; she never said where, in what galaxy or system. Survivors from
several decimated planets immediately claimed her as their famous but
destructive citizen’ these claims were immediately proven
false. There was, of course, no doubt that Galaxia had probably
destroyed her planet of birth, considering it below her concerns;
most likely, with her resources, she also conveniently erased all
traces of that planet from everyone’s knowledge.
There were some things we knew, particularly after she ascended to
being Melkweg‘s guardian - when she supposedly destroyed real
Astramort, along with the planet, while fighting Chaos - and when she
was banished from the Seemarin. She had begun wandering, amassing
some power - people and otherwise - to her will, for her ultimate
goal: to make the universe her own. To do it, she felt that she had
to amass an army great and powerful enough to challenge the one great
entity that supposedly stood in her way. The Seemarin, which she
blamed for being closed-minded and elitist to one with such power
such as she, was to be destroyed, and after that nothing would stop
her. The best place to find warriors: the Vika galaxies, neglected by
the Seemarin as being hopelessly lost to Chaos, the malicious spirit
whose pale shadows, thought defeated, roamed the desolate worlds for
reasons no one yet knew.
A surprising revelation (well, to many others, but not to me) that
also came out was the fact that she may have been a senator of the
Seemarin, many, many years before. She was obviously not known as
Galaxia back then, but several older soldiers faintly remembered her
red eyes, her hair as gold as the shine of a sailor crystal, her
tall, lithe figure. A young, wild upstart whose known name just
escaped their mind. She was one whom was banished from the sight of
the three judges, a rare feat since one had to truly offend the
Seemarin to warrant such a punishment.
Also, briefly, Galaxia aligned with Chaos during her long period
of acquisition; her world-shattering power was, for a time, bound to
the creature's will and partially made its own. Her strong mind was
not completely restrained, however, and so she continued her quest in
the Vika galaxies as she had done before - destroying planets that
were not suitable for her throne of power, killing all those who
resisted, and enslaving anyone with a hint of sympathy to her. Many
people she tempted with Chaos' power, but many she had no need to.
Sailors, sailor pirate fighters, and ordinary mortals by the
thousands, tired of the Seemarin's neglect, or of the constant wars
and strife on their worlds, joined Galaxia, believing a lot under her
was far better than what they had before.
As a result, Galaxia ran a giant, albeit secret, multi-galaxy
empire, filled with sailor soldiers, drones, generals, armies and
spies. From her throne at the edge of the Galaxy Cauldron - a place
forbidden to all, it seemed, but her and the best of her people -
Galaxia reigned supreme for years. For decades, centuries, millennia
even, thousands of people were dispatched to a variety of quests,
from spying on other Seemarin to instigating interplanetary wars to
assassinating the unfaithful. Those who were successful in their
missions were given power and the wealth of plunder; those who failed
were killed without a second thought. Slowly, Galaxia was changing
the structure of the universe, and a great darkness began to spread
throughout her lands. Chaos was winning in the barren worlds she had
conquered. She was destroying everything, and nothing could stop her.
And she did it fully knowing that the three judges were always
watching her.
Why? I would ask myself this many times. Why?
I realize that there is no justification for it, nor can I find an
good explanation. Had the three, in their seeming knowledge of all
they could sense, simply turn a blind eye because they could find no
better alternative for the Vika? Or was there more to it? Did they
decide that Galaxia was really no threat, so long as she kept her
little revolution outside of civilized galaxies?
For, naturally, being a despot of such a large empire was very
soon not enough for Galaxia's ambitions, if she was to defeat the
Seemarin. Nor was her seemingly watertight pact what Chaos or her
great sailor power enough to ensure that her stronghold over the Vika
galaxies - or that of any domination of the entire universe - would
last forever. For she learned of a potentially dangerous rival.
-
I simply look at Usagi as she sits down in her chair inside the
courtroom. She is in her human form, and she looks solemn and silent.
I try not to stare too long, of course, because even though she is no
longer some foreign beast to me, many reasons for being impolite are
very different. Before, she had been a very small, almost pitiful
thing, but now her midsection almost takes up the whole seat, which,
in her defense, is not sized for someone of her current size anyways.
The truth is that this date was originally much later, but Usagi's
soldiers managed to get it today; they want to be back on the earth
for good so that Usagi's child can have a chance to be born on its
home world with the father present. Getting back there once would be
hard enough, and more preferable, rather than shuffling back and
forth several times with numberless obstacles in the way. I also
pushed for it, so to speak, for Dyka could not be in attendance.
Speaking of pushing, one of the soldiers made a joke that I didn't
get about that - that Usagi had actually not pushed for the court
change because she would soon have enough pushing to do without that.
As a result, I have decided that I hate jokes from your world.
But I digress.
-Are you all right?
-Yes.
She gives a nod, and says nothing more. Though she looks extremely
uncomfortable with her body, she is actually more tired than
uncomfortable, because her eyes are starting to close. My own insides
are tied in knots, for today, the verdict and sentence for the
Universal Seemarin vs. Tsukinousagi/Sailor Moon will be pronounced.
I close my eyes, and think. Sailor Moon had never asked to be
dragged into such a thing, yet she was. She had been a mere pawn in a
power struggled that perhaps was still beyond her understanding. It
is still beyond mine.
Chaos had sensed Sailor Moon's incredible powers from one of the
last Vika galaxies yet to be conquered, and for several years had
sent weaker copies of itself to confront what it feared could be a
grave danger to its own agenda - to cover the universe with its black
wings. And, as Chaos feared, she was a fabled sailor soldier - one
whose sailor crystal had enough power to challenge and vanquish it.
And so it implored Galaxia to destroy her, and to destroy
everything in her path to fulfill that one duty it asked of her in
return for her empire. Throw all the soldiers of that galaxy into the
Cauldron, and when Sailor Moon saw her friends die, her power would
explode, bathing Galaxia with so much energy that no sailor soldier
would ever be able to touch her again. And then, Galaxia would rule
the universe from the Galaxy Cauldron, shaped to her liking.
And, with some hidden agendas of her own, Galaxia obeyed with
pleasure, with devastating results. Eighty to ninety percent of that
one galaxy's population was killed. Thousands of sailor soldiers
disappeared. Untold destruction of planets caused irreversible damage
to many astrosystems, the galaxy's economy, and the very existence of
the galaxy itself was almost erased permanently.
Of course, Galaxia's blood thirst for the strongest soldier's
power and the Cauldron's power proved to be her undoing with Chaos.
For, in her pride, she decided to double cross it. So when Sailor
Moon, her friends killed by Galaxia, was finally brought to Galaxy
Cauldron to face her match, Chaos cruelly struck Galaxia down.
In those death throes, Galaxia understood that she was betrayed by
Chaos, and silently wished she had not been saved by Sailor Moon,
even as she professed that she admired Sailor Moon's courage. For the
embers of hate and desire do not burn out easily; indeed, Galaxia, in
that first death, merely feigned reformation and repentance. She knew
she would be back, and if Chaos could not be dealt with next time,
she was well aware of her next target for revenge. She crumbled into
dust reaching for Sailor Moon at the edge of the Galaxy Cauldron, as
if she tried in vain to get her before the first chance slipped from
her.
But she did come back, of course. Sailor Moon's victory against
Chaos restored all of the soldiers who had died, including Galaxia.
And Galaxia's empire, though not as strong without Chaos, was by no
means weak. In fact, from initial response from Galaxia's captured
servants, Shadow Galactica actually became more united under their
queen's new cause: the destruction of Sailor Moon, and the revenge
against the Seemarin that she had so longed for.
I can almost imagine it: The twenty sailors, letting themselves be
captured by sailor pirates under Galaxia's pay. Then, through fake
torture and nonexistent interrogation, they pretend to give Sailor
Moon up to the Seemarin, and to the scandal-hungry people of the
civilized galaxies. And in a grand gesture, in a mockery of real
justice, Sailor Moon is brought to the dark, dank prison in Veldanis,
far from friends and family, and tortured endlessly. Though
uneducated to what the Seemarin is, she instinctively refuses to give
them what they want - any sign which indicates her violations of
protocol. But that is no problem; once her crimes were learned, she
would be guilty, with or without a confession.
Meanwhile, the three judges - Allecto, Phainon, Savitri - they who
now sit down before us did nothing to stop the abuse. They allowed a
mockery of a trial to come to Asgerd, and allowed Galaxia, under the
guise of Sailor Bora, to nearly destroy whatever she could during the
trial. Anyone who agreed with Sailor Moon was snuffed out discreetly.
Information that shed light on the truth was suppressed or altered,
and if neither could be done, then better that the evidence never
existed.
Fortunately, one of the turns of events which had ultimately aided
us - one I did not learn of until this morning - was that Dyka had
been ready to submit something that Galaxia herself had dropped when
we inadvertently chased her away the night before Galaxia was
unveiled. It was most definitely not an intentional thing on her
part, but Bora's notebook, left the night before Dyka began her
surprising counteroffensive against the prosecution, was left in the
hedges of our rental. Dyka, realizing whose it was, and sensing the
real connection, silently picked it up and read through it.
For someone who had taken so much care to destroy evidence,
perhaps it was Galaxia's arrogant pride in seeing her rival being
destroyed that ultimately caused her to keep the notebook and all of
the nasty things she said. Many things were in there, many
implicative things. Names of people, and the dates of the entries
corresponding the days they died. One - Kastalle - even had a picture
with her head impaled - dated one week before her actual death. It
was also how Dyka learned of Poenagorde, from whom the GCS security
videos were stolen from. Poena was then called a fat little fag with
fangs by Bora - which sounds very nasty.
Poena wasn't the only one, either. There were some rude jabs about
me and Dyka - me, about my the usage of my tentacles, and Dyka, and
how her name sounded like dyke, an Earth word that Usagi seemed quite
insulted to see. She even had an image of the two of us in very
terrible positions.
And Usagi......Usagi was badly written of. Many things Galaxia
called her, I couldn't even think of writing down, even for the sake
of you vulgar-happy humans. It was all out of spite, some of those
things. There were graphic images Galaxia drew of Usagi that made her
drawings of myself and Dyka look respectable in comparison. And the
images still roil my blood, especially now since someone still
unknown to us stole a copy of the notebook, published it and sent me
an autographed copy. I have no doubt who it may have been.
-
I look over at the other sailor soldiers who accompany Sailor
Moon. They were those she had fought with, her closest comrades, the
nine sailor soldiers of her system. They are each giving each other
looks - some of them whispering to one another. Indeed, though, they
are not the only Vika in the audience - almost half of the attending
sailors are from the Vika galaxies.
It was a blessing that they had come when they did, that they had
arrived with such a force of strength. The difference in outcome if
they had not come in loyalty – something we seemed to really
lack in civilization – was not discussed by many people. Most
considered it an insult that barbarians, led by those disguised as
Blood Thirsters - had been the ones to save the day as opposed to
their glorious selves. But surely, I always wondered what would have
happened. There is always no doubt in my mind that we stood a good
chance of losing all that we had held dear without the Vika.
At this moment, there is no doubt, either, what the verdict will
be today as a result of everything. But all we can do right now is
wait, wait for the Three to speak.
