Chapter 5

	The next morning, Serenity was awakened by somebody gently shaking 
her by the shoulder. Her eyes fluttered open, and the first thing she saw was 
Helios’ sleeping face, so peaceful and child-like. She smiled at the sight 
until she became aware of the soft beats coming from his heart monitor. 
Remembering where she was, she turned to her other side to face the person 
who had awakened her.

	“Eos-chan?” Her voice was dry and hoarse due to having spent most of 
the night in tears. “What are you doing here? I thought you went back to 
Elysion.”

	The Maenad, who was dressed in unfamiliar modern clothes instead of 
her usual Grecian-style gown, bowed her head as Serenity fully sat up. “Good 
morning, Your Highness,” she said, handing Serenity a cup of coffee. “It’s 
not very good, but I thought you could use some caffeine.”

	“Thanks.” Serenity took a hesitant sip and immediately made a face. 
“Not very good” was an understatement, but she was thirsty, so she drank some 
more. “What time is it?”

	“Almost ten.”

	Unlike her mother, who notoriously liked to sleep in whenever she had 
the chance, Serenity was an early riser like her father. She rarely slept 
past eight. At least it was a Sunday, so she didn’t have to worry about 
school -- not that she would have gone anyway even if it had been a school 
day.

	“I brought you a change of clothes,” Eos continued when Serenity 
didn’t say anything, holding up a bag. “It must have been uncomfortable 
sleeping in that fancy dress.”

	Until Eos mentioned it, Serenity had forgotten she was still wearing 
her ballgown. She reached up, running her fingers through her tangled hair, 
and groaned. “I must look a fright.”

	“There’s a shower in there.” Eos nodded toward the door that didn’t 
lead out into the hall and handed Serenity the bag. “You’ll feel better after 
cleaning up some. I also packed some toiletries.”

	“Thanks.” A shower did sound nice. Finally sliding out of bed, she 
turned around and held her messy, half-undone hair out of the way. “Will you 
help me out of this thing?”

	“Of course.” Eos came up behind her and unzipped the back of the 
dress. “It’s a shame that Helios-sama never got the chance to see you in 
this,” she said. “You really did look beautiful.”

	Serenity didn’t say anything, struggling to hold back another round 
of tears that threatened to come forth at the sound of Helios’ name. She let 
the dress fall down to her ankles, leaving her in just her undergarments, and 
headed to the Western-style bathroom, where she finished undressing and 
stepped underneath a stream of scalding-hot water.

	It was only then that she released the tears she had been holding 
back, falling to her knees as the water pelted down on her. She had thought 
she had cried every last tear possible the night before, but evidently, she 
hadn’t. Heaving sobs tore through her body as she rocked herself back and 
forth.

	Helios, why won’t you wake up? she wondered. Why didn’t my crystal 
work this time?  

	Those two questions had weighed heavily on her mind ever since her 
failed attempt to awaken Helios from his coma. It didn’t make sense. Her 
crystal was stronger than it had been in the past. It should have worked. 
What had she done wrong?

	Again, no answer came to her. Standing back up, Serenity calmed 
herself back down and finished taking her shower. She then got dressed in the 
jeans and tank top Eos had brought for her, wiping away the last remnants of 
tears before heading back to Helios’ room.

	“You look better,” Eos commented as Serenity closed the door behind 
her. The Maenad had taken her spot on Helios’ bed, grasping one of his hands, 
which she released when she saw Serenity. “I’m sorry,” she apologized, 
faintly blushing. “I took your seat. I’ll --”

	Serenity held up a hand. “It’s fine, Eos-chan,” she said, walking to 
the foot of the bed. “You care about him, too. I shouldn’t be selfish.”

	Eos had started to get up, but settled back down on the bed. “Mer-- I 
mean, Mizuno-sensei came by while you were in the shower. There‘s been no 
change since last night.”

	“Oh.” A part of her had hoped that even if her crystal had failed to 
completely wake him up, it might have at least improved his condition. 
Apparently, that had not been the case. “I asked you earlier,” Serenity said, 
returning to the question she had asked when she first woke up, “but why are 
you here, Eos-chan? I though Aurora-chan had stayed, and you had gone back to 
Elysion to check on Hyperion-sama.” It felt strange referring to the young 
boy in such a reverential manner, but as he was now the new priest of 
Elysion, it seemed appropriate.

	“Aurora and I are bound by the same limitation as Helios-sama is -- I 
mean, was,” Eos corrected herself. “We cannot stay in the human realm for 
long periods of time, so we decided to take turns staying with him. I just 
arrived an hour ago to relieve her. By the way, we are posing as Helios-
sama’s sisters, if anybody asks.”

	That made sense and explained the strange clothes. “And the others? 
Where are Diana and Ceres?”

	“Diana went out to buy us some breakfast. She should be back soon. As 
for Ceres, Pallas came back with me and managed to convince her to go home 
and get some rest. From what Diana’s told us, Ceres had been standing guard 
over you almost the entire night.”

	“I see. I didn’t realize…” That meant that Ceres had most likely 
heard her crying last night.

	“Endymion-sama is here, too,” Eos informed her. “Mizuno-sensei told 
me when she came by earlier. He’s trying to help the doctors with Helios-
sama’s case.”

	“Papa?”

	Eos sighed. “I think the king feels guilty for what happened, like 
it’s his fault that something went wrong with the ceremony. Endymion-sama 
briefly returned to Elysion to check on Hyperion-sama last night, and, while 
he was there, he took a stack of books from our library, saying that he would 
find a way to bring Helios-sama back, even if it was the last thing he did. 
He seemed…angry at himself.”

	“He shouldn’t blame himself!” Serenity exclaimed. “It’s not his 
fault. It was just an accident, a horrible, terrible accident…”

	Craning her neck around, Eos gave her a small, sad smile. “Does that 
mean you’ve stopped blaming yourself as well?” she asked. “I’m sorry. I 
overheard you talking to Ceres last night in the waiting room.”

	“That’s…different.” Serenity tightened her grip on the footboard of 
the bed. “Helios did this for me. If I hadn’t been so selfish, wanting him to 
always be by my side…”

	Eos slid off the bed, coming up behind Serenity and placing her hands 
on her trembling shoulders. “You are one of the most selfless people I know, 
Your Highness,” she said. “It’s one of the things Helios-sama loves most 
about you. You never asked him to give his priesthood; it was his decision to 
do so, made of his own free will.”

	“B-But --”

	“You may say he did it for you, but, to be honest, I think he 
ultimately did it for himself. Helios-sama wanted to be with you, Serenity-
sama, no matter what it took.”

	Her words did little to lessen Serenity‘s feelings of guilt, though 
she appreciated Eos trying to make her feel better. Turning around, she gave 
the Maenad a small half-smile just as there was a knock on the door. Eos 
walked over to the door and opened it, letting in Pallas and Diana, whose 
hands were full with several boxes of donuts and pastries from Serenity’s 
favorite bakery and cups of coffee from a well-known coffee shop.

	“I didn’t know what everybody wanted, so I got a little of 
everything,” Diana said as Eos unburdened her of some of the packages and set 
them on a small table in the corner of the room. “I hope everyone is hungry.”

	In light of everything that had happened, food had been the last 
thing on Serenity’s mind, but the smell of freshly-baked goods and gourmet 
coffee reminded her that she hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before. She 
never even got the chance to enjoy her second birthday cake. Her stomach 
growled ferociously in hunger, causing the three other girls to hide their 
amused chuckles behind their hands, and even a blushing Serenity had to smile 
a little as she took a chocolate-frosted donut from the box Diana offered to 
her.

	“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’.”

*****

	The world was dark and cold again.

	The effects of the Pink Moon Crystal’s power had not lasted long, 
disappearing shortly after its owner had given up upon failing to awaken him 
from his coma. However, Helios soon became accustomed to the nothingness, the 
cold barely registering in his mind. His discomfort was nothing compared to 
the pain his maiden must be going through.

	He had listened to her cry through (what he assume was) the night, 
hating that he had no control over his physical body. He had wanted nothing 
more than to be able to wrap his arms around her and comfort her, to tell her 
that everything would alright, even if it currently seemed impossible. 

	He had to keep believing that.

	But the outlook was certainly looking grim.

	Shortly after Serenity’s failed attempt to revive him, Helios tried 
to astral project himself out of his body, but found himself unable to. 
Without his priestly powers, he was nothing more than a mortal man again. On 
that count, the spell had succeeded exactly as planned.

	What he didn’t understand, though, was how he had ended up trapped in 
the darkness. Helios replayed the ceremony over and over in his mind, trying 
to discover what had gone wrong, but he found nothing. The king, the Maenads, 
Hyperion, and himself… They had all followed the protocol to the letter; he 
didn’t recall a single mistake on their parts.

	“Was this why it was called a forbidden spell?” Helios wondered 
aloud, thinking back to when he first found the spell in an ancient tome.

	It was shortly after Serenity and her guardian senshi had left for 
their training on the Moon. The new year had been approaching, so he and the 
Maenads had decided to undertake a massive cleaning of the shrine, borrowing 
from the Japanese custom. Helios had been put in charge of reorganizing the 
library, which had fallen into disorder over the years.

	Helios considered himself a well-read man, intimately acquainted with 
the library’s selection, but even he had never seen the book before, hidden 
inside a chest filled with other ancient spell books Helios was unfamiliar 
with. The brass nametag on the chest indicated it had belonged to the very 
first king of the Golden Kingdom, the current King Endymion’s namesake. 
Though the book had an ominous look to it, curiosity had gotten the best of 
Helios. He had read the tome cover-to-cover, almost as if possessed by it.

	The book contained spells relating specifically to using the Golden 
Crystal. Helios had been familiar with most of them and realized that it was 
an earlier version of the Golden Book, a book passed down through the royal 
line that taught the crystal’s carrier how to use the Golden Crystal’s power. 
However, the Black Book -- as Helios took to calling it, in reference of its 
black leather binding with gold lettering -- contained an extra chapter 
called “Forbidden Spells”.

	The “forbidden spells” in question ranged from one that turned 
everything the user touched into gold -- most likely the inspiration behind 
the King Midas story from Greek mythology -- to one that could destroy the 
entire planet. Helios could see why the first King Endymion decided to leave 
those spells out of the final version of the book. Just reading them sent 
shivers up Helios’ spine.

	If the Black Book fell into the wrong hands…

	But it was the last spell in the book that interested him most, as it 
didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the forbidden dark spells. In fact, King 
Endymion I himself noted that the spell could be used in extreme emergencies, 
although he didn’t elaborate on what those emergencies might be. It was a 
spell allowing the transfer of the priest of Elysion’s powers to another 
candidate.

	Helios had never heard of such a spell before. There had been other 
priests before him, but they had all died from either depleting their powers 
or from a natural death when the reigning monarch died, as the priest of 
Elysion‘s lifeline was fully dependent on the royal he was bound to. (The 
fact that he had not died when Prince Endymion was killed during the war with 
the Dark Kingdom was a unique case, as Helios had only been an acolyte at the 
time, under training from the previous priest bound to Endymion’s father. 
Since he had not yet taken permanent vows, he continued to live and took over 
the priesthood when the king and his master fell as well.) To his knowledge, 
never had a new priest of Elysion been named while the old one still lived, 
as the priesthood was considered a lifelong duty.

	Though Helios knew he should have forgotten about the spell -- and 
probably destroyed the Black Book as well -- he found himself hiding the book 
in his quarters, taking it out every night to look over the last couple of 
pages. He had not come to his decision easily. It was, without doubt, the 
hardest thing he had ever done. As much as he loved Serenity, a large part of 
his heart would always belong to Elysion, and he could not simply walk away 
from his duty as priest as if it were nothing.

	Yet the more he thought about it, the more tempting the spell became 
to him, despite the possible risks. King Endymion I had written a warning, as 
he had done with the rest of the forbidden spells in the book, but the 
writing had faded with time, leaving behind only a handful of legible words. 
From what Helios could make of it, though, it would cause no harm to Elysion 
or Earth, which had been his main concern. The risk was only to the priest of 
Elysion, himself.

	When Helios finally made his decision, he had gone to the current 
King Endymion to discuss it with him. Helios had known the king would never 
agree to go through with the ceremony if he thought it was dangerous, so he 
had presented it as a long forgotten spell, hating having to lie to the man 
he loved and respected above all others. It was not in his nature to deceive, 
but since King Endymion could no longer read the Terran language, he had 
accepted Helios’ explanation without question and agreed to perform the 
ceremony. Soon afterwards, Helios had found a successor in the orphan 
Hyperion and began training the boy to take his place as priest of Elysion.

	“Is this my punishment?” he shouted into the darkness, his hands 
clenched into fists at his side. “Is this the price I must pay for deceiving 
the king and breaking my vow? Is that the sin I must atone for in this 
Purgatory?”

	As usual, there was no reply.

*****

	After finishing her breakfast, Serenity asked the others if they knew 
where her father was and offered to bring him a cup of coffee and some 
leftover donuts. She was somewhat reluctant to leave Helios’ side on the off
-chance he might awaken while she was gone, but she needed to talk to her 
father about what really had happened during the ceremony and to ask if he 
knew why her crystal had failed to bring Helios out of his coma. The others 
promised to contact her immediately if anything changed in his condition.

	She found her father in doctors’ lounge. Through the window in the 
door, she saw that he was talking to Mercury, the both of them studying some 
brain scans that Serenity assumed belonged to Helios. Since they were the 
only ones in the room, she opened the door without knocking, knowing they 
wouldn’t mind. Her father was the first to notice her presence.

	“Usagi, what are you doing here?” he asked, handing the scan to 
Mercury and walking over to greet her. “Is something wrong?”

	She shook her head, holding up the box of donuts and coffee she had 
brought. “Diana went out and bought us some breakfast, so I thought you might 
want some. I’m afraid the coffee may be a little cool by now, though.”

	“Thank you.” He took the box and set it on the coffee table in the 
center of the room, then accepted one of the remaining two cups of coffee 
left in the carton, handing the other to Mercury, who had put away Helios’ 
files and came over to join them. “We appreciate it. I came here so early, I 
didn’t even bother with breakfast this morning.”

	“Were you and Mercury-sama discussing Helios’ case?” she asked, 
nodding toward the manila envelope Mercury had set down beside the donuts. 
“Have you discovered the reason why he’s in a coma?” 

	Before either could answer, a beeping noise came from Mercury’s lab 
coat pocket. She pulled out her pager and frowned. “I need to go,” she 
announced. 

	“Is it Helios?” Serenity asked, trying to remain calm.

	To her immense relief, however, Mercury shook her head. “Another one 
of my patients. I’m sorry, Serenity-chan, but I can’t answer any of your 
questions right now. We‘ll have to talk later.”

	“No, it’s fine. I understand. Go ahead.”

	“Your father is up-to-date on Helios-sama’s current condition,” the 
doctor said as she was leaving the room. “If you have any urgent questions, 
I’m sure he can answer them.”

	Once Mercury left, her father motioned for Serenity to take a seat on 
the couch and sat down next to her, throwing an arm around her shoulder and 
pulling her close to him. “How are you holding up so far, sweetheart?” he 
asked, the concern evident in his voice. 

	Though she was no longer a little girl anymore, Serenity found 
herself curling up next to him and wishing she was still small enough to sit 
on her father’s lap. She often felt she had to be strong in front of others, 
but the one person she almost always felt able to open up to was her father. 
She was a daddy’s girl through and through.

	“Papa, I’m scared,” she admitted, her voice soft. “I’ve never felt so 
scared in my entire life.”

	“Not even when the Black Moon attacked and you went to the 20th 
century all by yourself?”

	“At least I was able to do something back then. I was afraid, but I 
was able to channel my fear into doing something productive, so I felt I was 
at least a little in control. But now…” She hugged her father even tighter, 
burying her face in his chest. “The Pink Moon Crystal doesn’t work,” she 
confessed, her words muffled. “I tried to use it last night to awaken Helios 
from his coma, but nothing happened. He’s still asleep, and there‘s nothing I 
can do to wake him up.”

	Her father sighed. “I see. I was afraid that might be the case.”

	“What do you mean?” Serenity sat back up and saw the frown on her 
father’s lips. “Do you know why my crystal wasn’t able to work? Even though 
it was able to revive Helios back when we were fighting Queen Nehelenia and 
the Dead Moon Circus?”

	“It’s only a theory, but…”

	“But?” she prodded.

	“I’m not certain, but I believe the power of the Pink Moon Crystal 
was repelled by the Golden Crystal’s power.”

	“The Golden Crystal’s power?”

	“You most likely cannot see it, as you do not possess the Golden 
Crystal’s power, but Helios is currently surrounded by a golden light,” he 
explained, leaning forward so that his elbows rested on his knees and his 
chin on his folded hands. “That light is most likely acting like a shield -- 
or perhaps ’barrier’ might be a better word for it -- against your powers.”

	“Is there anyway for me to bypass the barrier?”

	There was a long pause before he responded. “I do not know,” her 
father finally said. “As the Golden Crystal is fairly equal in power to your 
and your mother’s Silver Crystals, they cancel each other out. I doubt it is 
possible for the Silver Crystal to break through the Golden Crystal‘s 
barrier, even if both you and your mother were to use your crystals at the 
same time. As long as the powers are distinctly separate, even working 
together, the Golden Crystal would most likely repel both powers. Only a 
stronger crystal might be able to pass through.”

	“If that is the case, then maybe the Golden Crystal --”

	He shook his head before she finished the sentence, knowing exactly 
what she was going to suggest. “I already tried,” he admitted, his shoulders 
slumping forward. “When Mercury and I first arrived at the hospital with 
Helios, I used the Golden Crystal’s powers to help stabilize him, though I 
wasn’t able heal him fully. I had already used an enormous amount of power 
during the ceremony, so I could only do so much. The doctors had to do the 
rest. I can bypass the barrier, but the Golden Crystal can only heal the 
physical body. Only the Silver Crystal has the power to heal the soul; the 
Golden Crystal holds no such power.”

	“Wait, if you can bypass the barrier, then you should be able to 
break it, right?” Serenity asked, kneeling in front of him. For the first 
time since her attempt failed, she felt a true sliver of hope. “If you can 
break the barrier, then I can use my crystal to heal Helios.”

	“I’m not sure if I can, Usagi.”

	“Maybe you couldn’t last night, but you‘ve regained some of your 
energy. You’re stronger now. If you tried it again, I’m sure you could do 
it!” Standing back up, she grabbed her father’s wrist and pulled his arm. 
“Come on, we can try it now!”

	Her father, however, remained seated, his arm going limp in her hand. 
The man who she once thought was the strongest, most powerful man in the 
world looked utterly defeated.

	“Papa?”

	“It’s too risky,” he said in a voice so low, Serenity could barely 
make out the words. “The truth is, that barrier is a complete mystery to me. 
I did not knowingly place it on him. It could be that the barrier is the only 
thing still keeping him alive. If I were to break it…”

	“What are you saying?” Again dropping to her knees, Serenity grasped 
her father’s hands, surprised that they were shaking. “Papa? Papa, what does 
that mean? Does that mean --?”

	Her father released his hands from hers and slid from the couch to 
the floor. He pulled Serenity against his chest, hugging her tightly as the 
reality of what he said set in and the tears began to fall.

	“I’m sorry, Usagi,” he said into her hair. “There’s nothing we can do 
to help him. The only thing we can do is pray that Helios will awaken on his 
own.”


DISCLAIMER: Sailor Moon is the property of Naoko Takeuchi.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Any comments or criticisms can be sent to me at 
ElysionDream@aol.com. Special thanks to my editor Starsea.