The last refugees of an erased reality seek to awake their Emerald Mother and pass their legacy. Meanwhile, the Neverborn last Dusk Caste arrives seeking a final end for the suffering of the Engine of Extinction, and an old fool in his last mission search for the ones deserving of the Incarna's heritage. Their arrival confuse Chaos itself, throw the Galaxy in disarray, and reunites the only love comparable to the one shared by Gaia and Luna.
Author note: After letting this languish in my hard drive, and thinking that it was not really very interesting, I decided to simply post it to gather some opinions and criticism. The fandoms are not exactly popular, but I hope that someone likes it.
Chapter one, The Trial of Tutelage
"Find the Silver Crystal", said the sad voice of a beloved woman. For the six-year-old boy, that was the only comprehensible thing in his mind. He wasn't sure of who or even what he was, but that phrase, spoken in a language that he shouldn't understand, gave him his only anchor in a sea of insecurities.
"The Silver Crystal? What could that be?" Another feminine voice suddenly asked in yet another tongue that he couldn't possibly know. The beloved presence anchoring him dissipated like a soft echo, leaving the little boy alone with a fierce predator. An incredibly cute and fluffy predator with bright silver tattoos glowing even through her abundant silky fur, and a crescent moon shining in its forehead.
"Who are you?" The kid with empty memories asked the white cat.
"Me? Oh, I'm the Last Courtier, Seneschal of the Silver Chair of Night, Anja Silverclaws. Just call me Anja, it's a good name, I think. And who are you, dreaming Prince?" The cat regally sat in front of the boy, her silver crescent glowing with just enough light to bring a semblance of shape into the kid formless dream.
"I... I do not know. I think I lost my name somewhere." The small kid said in a whisper.
"Ah, I don't think so, you are too sane for that. Perhaps you misplaced your memories instead?" The cat said, mesmerizing the boy with the swishing of her tail.
"I... I think that I gave them away, maybe. Do you know where the Silver Crystal is? They should be there." The boy knelled in front of the cat, for the first time realizing that he actually had a body. Absently, he started to pet Anja's head.
"Hey, hands to yourself!" The boy smiled and simply started to scratch the cat between her ears.
"Tell me! If I get the Crystal I might remember who I am!" A traitorous purring left Anja's throat.
"Purr... I really have no idea what is the Silver Crystal. But, lets make a deal. I help you find this jewel and your memories. I even teach you how to harness your abilities. In exchange, I ask that you use that power to help me find and wake up the Emerald Mother." Anja's serious tone was betrayed by the shameless way in which she rubbed her head in the Prince's hand.
"Power? Ability? I really have something like that? And who is the Emerald Mother?" The boy boldly extended his ministrations on the fluffy mane-like fur of Anja. In response, she grabbed his wandering hand with her frontal paws.
"Who do you think called my attention in the middle of this Ocean of Dreams? I may not know you yet Sheepherder, but I can tell that right now you are a Beacon for lost souls in the middle of this formless sea. And the Emerald Mother is one of the titles of Gaia, who lost herself in her own nightmares after the dead of her beloved, full of pain and regret, waiting for a Shinning Answer that she doesn't really expect anymore."
Somewhere between her words, the cat grabbing his right hand between her paws had taken the form of a beautiful woman in a silver dress (not his Princess Silver) holding his hand in an intimate supplication. A dull pain settled in the kid's heart. Her platinum hair (not Her Silver) made the ache worse, evoking the frame of a smiling face on his occluded memories. More confusing was the persistent shine of the crescent moon of her forehead (NOT Her Silver), and it was with great relief that the Prince noticed that her hair was kept long and straight, instead on any particular meatball-shaped hairdo.
"Gaia..." The name was more than just a simple denomination. It was a declaration of identity, an absolute definition of a Primordial Concept: Motherhood, Change, Overcoming, Living, Life Itself surviving and unfolding in the flow of time.
"Yes. Help me find her, Sheepherder Under the Stars." Anja knelled to face the boy, looking directly at his eyes.
The boy then understood what was asked of him. Even without his memories, the kid now was sure of who he was, and standing with the grace of a Prince of Old, he answered.
"You call me Sheepherder? I can't remember if that is right, but I know that I am Endymion. Please, help me find what I lost, and I will help you find the one you seek." The boy without memories, now clad in the panoply of another era, saw the smiling face of Anja Silverclaws, and slowly started to wake up.
Endymion woke up in a world that he did not recognize. The people that took care of him said that his name was Chiba Mamoru, a child that miraculously survived the horrible accident that killed his parents. He had no direct family, they said, and the boy could feel the pity and awkwardness in the people talking to him. They talked to him in Japanese, a language that he knew perfectly, but even so he sometimes answered them in a tongue that they didn't knew, but could understand at least in their underlying emotions and meanings.
The strange behavior of the Prince did not gain him any friends. He noticed the attitude of her doctors toward him change from professional concern to cold obligation, and he unconsciously understood that they considered him an anomaly, an alien thing in the otherwise orderly structure of this 'Hospital' organization. The were counting the days for him to be someone's else problem.
More important than his skills to read the atmosphere of the place, were his abilities to see the emotional changes of the surrounding people with as much clarity as he saw their faces. Even in this ambient of cold tolerance, there were thousands of facets in the emotions of every person, from miss janitor, who understood his pain and would dearly like to adopt him but couldn't due to her almost destitute state, to the skeptical lady doctor that once dearly wanted to believe in the supernatural and now hated the idea and him by subconscious association.
With the understanding of the people, came a slow understanding of the land. The city itself stood as a scab in surface of the main island of Japan, and at the same time the island stood as a bright contrast to the dark currents of the Pacific Ocean, where its abyssal deeps dissolved into a diffuse amalgam of life and death, emotional and lethargic at the same time. Without friends for Mamoru to share his emotions in the world of the awake, Endymion sunk deep in his dreams, a place where he could search Her presence and talk with a white cat.
The nurses of the hospital called him the "Sleeping Boy". That was fine by him, since he knew that sleep helped him recover, and also, by sleeping he could hear Her voice once more. She always spoke short phrases, either pleas or fleeting emotions, but he liked hearing Her for some reason. Then, after that private moments, Anja would finally sense his melancholy and would enter his dreams and the small Prince would practice with her his post-cognitive powers, his emphatic senses and his rule over dreaming.
As the weeks passed, Endymion confidence and expertise grew. His stay at the hospital was a bit longer than expected as a precaution to monitor his sleeping habits, but as Endymion gained experience, Mamoru's sleeping cycle started to return to normal. After all, for the small boy what was "real" and what was "dream" became more and more akin to a mental suggestion, obviating the need to actually be asleep to enter his dreams.
Endymion, on his last training session before leaving the hospital, stood contemplating the substance where dreams were crafted, an inchoate formless foam of underlying potential molded by those actually capable of dreaming. It was the closest thing to Chaos, he thought, since the creative potential of the imagination of all life was present without the definition of a form to give it shape, a sea of possibilities not taken, a formless gestalt of emotions that would resist any shaping, violently fighting against any attempt at fixing it into something permanent, wishing always to return to its lack of definition. So, he must learn to gently cajole, convincingly debate and forcibly blackmail it until the dream-stuff quasi-Chaos started to flow in tune with his vision.
First, Prince Endymion manifested his desire and launched it into the Sea of Dreams, to resonate with anyone sleeping and dreaming and also willing to share their own desires. Unknown to him, his ability to empathize and synchronize with the emotions of the people of Earth was such that all the ones sleeping on the planet heard his call. Across the world, a miasma of love and melancholy spread between the sleeping, evoking images of shared good times, voices of beloved people lost and lovers sharing their respective feelings. None dared to reject the Prince's plead. The overwhelming response of humankind dropped the small boy to his metaphorical knees, the emotions of more than a billion dreamers weighing him down. Slowly, he gathered support from tiny formless emotional treads that resonated in tune with him, like just undying love, profound longing and shared sadness.
As Anja taught him, Endymion emptied his Cup. Egoism, the expression of his desires, manifested in an ethereal chalice, only to be filled with his Empathy manifesting through the shared emotions and memory sent by all the dreamers. Then, he opened his Ring and self-doubt, the limits of his identity, bounded the shared dream to contrast it from the Sea of Dreams. Once his vision was confined to a pseudo-reality, Endymion sculpted his Staff and loneliness, the awareness of others, guided the shared dream into a common pattern. Finally, he unsheathed his Sword and the Prince's aggression, his valor in the face of adversity, cut the pattern into a true shape, pruning the contradictions of countless conflicting desires.
Endymion looked at his dream-body, and instead of the hospital gown that he wore before, he saw as a formal attire of a forgotten era weaved itself. A sky-blue linothorax with blue trousers, framed with a dark blue cape. He raised his eye and saw around him an open hall under the stars. Marble pillars formed an enormous artificial forest, each engraved with scenes of past loves from around the world, and a full moon on its zenith gave enough light to see everything around him. Billions of people, indistinct shadows of the dreamers, mingled around, crying, laughing, embracing each other, and dancing without care to the tune of their hearts.
A tiny figure, no much taller than half the height of the small boy, approached him. As the figure came close, her shape grew, until the silver silhouette of a young woman with her hair stilled in twin buns stood in front of him. The figure wasn't clear, but somehow Endymion sensed her fidgeting almost in panic. He knew the person that created this dream-figment, and Her presence provoked some adventurous tears to run across his checks. Wordlessly, he kissed the hand of the silhouette, his form growing to match her actual shape. The pair shared music now lost to history, and then they danced without a single care, soothing a little the void in their hearts.
"Wow, you are a good dancer! I think. At least, for someone so young, if I remember correctly. It has been a long time since I have seen a kid, sorry." The womanly figure of Anja Silverclaws strutted in the middle of the elegant dance floor, dodging without noticing the almost lifelike figments dancing around her. The Prince disengaged the phantasmagorical Silver figure dancing with him, in order to look miffed at the silver annoyance strutting towards him.
"Teacher, good to see you at last." The tall dancer clad in ceremonial armor became a six-year-old kid in front of his mentor. The ghostly Princess pouted behind him and promptly got distracted by the fine dishes suddenly being served by the undefined staff of their uncertain dance hall.
"Is this some kind of memory?" Asked the Anja curiously. Around her the party continued without pause, unaffected by the conversation.
"No, I made this with the figments of my feelings and the feelings of the people here. I collected them in my Cup, shaped them with my Ring, molded them with my Staff and used my Sword to will them into this." Endymion was incredible pleased with himself. His smugness came from the fact that when they began, Anja told him that learning to mold the substance of dream like this could take years or even decades, but the Prince only needed the short weeks of his hospital stay to go from emotional figments to shaped reality. Everything in the ceiling-less hall, from the music to the decorations, was recognizable as a strong underlying emotion of love from the millions of people present, even in their vagueness.
"Impressive. You should be ready to open your Way for me then. Once I'm physically with you, we will train while asleep, and search for your Princess when awake." Anja smiled with joy, openly showing her pride for her disciple's success.
"Ah, but I'm going to an orphanage, where would you stay?" Asked a worried Endymion.
"Don't worry about that, this lady cat can arrange her own housing." Anja winked, and then transformed into the big fluffy white cat that he first saw.
While the pair talked in their dreams, around the world the melancholy for old loves manifested through the subconscious of the sleeping. Among them, a young married couple in Azabu-Juuban, awoken by their tiny kid, was desperately desperately to comfort their inconsolable daughter in the middle of the night. The tears of the three-year-old toddler were not from pain or a desire for attention, but of a profound sadness. The novice parents were as distraught as her child, since they were unable to understand what was causing her pain.
"Little Usagi, what is wrong? Please, we are here." A young adult asked her baby, drying her tears with a tissue while ignoring his own.
"Papa, he's dancin' alone." The girl mumbled between tears.
"Who?" Asked her mother, a bit brusquely in her desire to understand her daughter pain. The little girl didn't know how to explain the emotions sent to her, or the person capable of doing such a thing, so she simply looked between them and copied the word that her mother used to call her father.
"My dear, mama. Is alone." The girl cried a bit more before falling asleep again, exhausted. The parents, Ikuko and Kenji Tsukino, weren't that lucky.
Usagi at two years old was a little terror. Like all other children, she started discovering how to communicate with her close social circle, and wondering how the world worked. Toddlers, in general, quickly learn that the adults in their life tend to prioritize them when they cry, make them start experimenting with a new and fun way to get adult attention: The Tantrum. Caring parents would then equally quickly develop the skills to understand their children's ways of crying, and their reason to do so.
Tsukino Ikuko and Tsukino Kenji were definitively caring parents. At almost four, their little treasured daughter was already a crybaby veteran, nothing extreme, she was just used to shed small tears to communicate her displeasure. In consequence, the Tsukino parents had become masters of tear language, evaluating everything from volume, rhythm, pitch, inflection and body posture to guess if she was crying for something serious, or she was simply being a bit histrionic. Imagine their surprise and fear when they discovered that Usagi could also cry in silence, solemn and composed, without trying to get their attention. Imagine their sadness when they realized that her daughter was crying out of sorrow.
Usagi tried to explain her sadness, but at her age she simply didn't have the language skills to do so. How do you tell your parents that a boy that you loved very much, like they loved each other, but not like a couple, since you still don't even understand that kind of attraction, is hurting and calling in the night for you, without even knowing your name or face? At age three? At first the married couple believed that their child was talking about an imaginary friend, and gently tried to convince her that he couldn't possible be lonely since he was in her dreams. Then, reality decided to have a mid-life crisis and turns towards the surreal.
It started as a persistent rumor. At first, families talked about it in the privacy of their homes, then friends and coworkers in their free time, finally entire neighborhoods would openly speculate about the phenomena. Around Azabu-Juuban, the people talked about how every dream they had started with a personal invitation, and if they accepted it, they entered a dreaned realm with uncountable people, where they celebrated their shared and old loves. Every dream was personal, but all of them shared a common theme. From stargazing to dances, picnics to adventures, they were filled with manifestation of human relationships, from torrid romances to amicable companionship. After a while, the people noticed something else, those who reciprocated their love either in a romantic, filial or friendly way could synchronize their experiences if they wanted to, and if they were sleeping. That was how a few weeks after the phenomenon started, Ikuko and Kenji actually saw in a shared dream the silhouette of her tiny daughter smiling arm in arm with a boy of regal visage, both of them wearing delicate gossamer clothing. In contrast, Ikuko and Kenji were clad in space suits and entered the shared dream descending a stair from Columbia into the Sea of Tranquility, feeling as out of place there as tourist in a foreign national festival. Meanwhile, the happy kids shared a picnic over the dusty silver floor and the vaguely defined people around them mingled under a black sky, playing sports, drinking, or admiring the tiny blue planet visible in the sky.
Ikuko and Kenji Tsukino woke up at the same time after that synchronized dream. It was the day of Usagi's fourth birthday, June 30th of 1981. Since it was a Tuesday, they followed their usual routine, Ikuko preparing a breakfast for them while Kenji hurriedly dressed himself to get in time to his work. They didn't realize that they were awake far earlier than normal until the incessant beeping of their alarm clock interrupted their shared meal. With an awkward smile, Kenji went to their room on the second floor to stop the alarm, and after stealing a glance of their beloved kid, went back to their table. There, a nice cup of freshly brewed green tea awaited his return.
"She is munching her bed sheet, still asleep." Said the proud father, smiling lovingly.
"Like when she eats mochi?" Ikuko answer was surprised, since that was exactly what her daughter was eating in her dreams. Kenji looked at her, feeling that new facet of reality that he tried very hard to ignore creeping upon him.
"What... what should we do?" Asked the man, looking absentminded at his cup of tea.
"We celebrate her birthday, and ask her how to help?"
Ikuko smiled at her husband. In the end, it was simple. They will support and protect their daughter, and her future sibling too. Kenji relaxed a bit feeling the reassurance of his beautiful wife.
"Ugh, help her find her 'dear'? No, she is too little. I think that we should make a gilded room on the top of Tokyo Tower, and raise her there. We can even put another room for her future sister or brother besides hers."
Ikuko just giggled at her husband antics, taking his hands in hers.
"I'm sure little Shingo is going to be a boy, dear."
The huntress followed the trail of her elusive prey. The taste of her innocent heart was unique, but it was also masked by the tainted emotions of the millions inhabiting this city. But she will prevail, the beautiful emotional outbursts of her naive prey guiding her path like a lighthouse piercing the ocean's mist. After careful recognizance, she discovered the lair of her target inside a house in Azabu-Juuban, were a married couple recently move to raise their new family in ignorance of the being that shared their lives.
It was close to midday at the end of June, and the eminent killer-of-small-things was lamenting the necessity of being out in this hot and humid summer day. She would dearly prefer to be chilling on lake Fujigoko with a soft drink on her paws, but alas, this was simply the best opportunity to ambush the little girl with minimal collateral damage. The sound of a kid slurping on a juice box reached her twitching ears, and the serial slayer tensed, her killing-attuned body reading itself for action.
From the corner of the block were the hunter watched, a mother carrying a cake and other birthday implements appeared. Holding her left hand, her cute and tiny daughter walked besides her, drinking cold juice to fight the inclement sun. The beast in fluffy fur saw the opportunity to strike, and with a grace unique to her species shifted from almost lethargic to combat-ready in an instant, jumping with a single motion to intercept the path of the mother-daughter pair.
"Hello, can I ask you for a minute of your time?" a cat almost the size of Usagi asked them both.
"Ep!" Answered eloquently Tsukino Ikuko, fighting for her balance and the future of her daughter's birthday cake.
"Mau?" Tsukino Usagi asked cutely, with a confused frown.
"What? No! I'm big and strong, and my hair is long and silky. If anything, I'm more like a Maine Coon!" Was the amused response of Anja Silverclaws.
"Coon? I'm Usagi!" The little kid was delighted, and without care for her juice promptly glomped the fluffy cat.
"Nice to meet you little Bunny, I'm the Last Courtier, Seneschal of the Silver Chair of Night, Anja Silverclaws. I come here bearing a message from Chiba Mamoru, once known as Prince Endymion." The fluffy white cat answered with aplomb, treating Usagi with all the solemnity that a cat in the hands of a tyke could muster.
Usagi looked at Anja with hope and wonder. Meanwhile, Ikuko won her battle for stability, and with a racing heart looked at the strange creature sharing a hug with her daughter. The cat was truly big, her head was almost level with Usagi's with her hind paws still touching the ground!
"We should really speak inside, miss Silverclaws." Ikuko said softly, searching one-handed for her keys.
After waiting for Ikuko to open the door, the trio entered the Tsukino family nice home, the mother storing her purchases while the daughter went to a couch with the intention of questioning the cat. Sitting royally on the cushions, Usagi stared imperiously at Anja before starting her interrogatory.
"Where is he?" Her little girl voice was firm, almost petulant, as if expecting Anja to have a Prince hiding on her fluffy fur.
"Alas, he is a prisoner in one of those building for lonely children. When he tried to leave for our search, the prison guards sent him to his room without dessert." Anja answered in a sad voice, sitting with lowered ears. Usagi sudden gasp of alarm alerted Ikuko, who was just entering the room.
"We need to help!" Cried the child with watering eyes.
"Little Usagi, calm down dear. And Miss Silverclaws, stop misleading my daughter!" Ikuko said, trying to hide her amusement. Something wasn't completely right, she thought, why wasn't she more worried? Everything seemed just perfect for relaxation, from the soft aroma to the temperature, from the fluffy feline to her daughters antics. Even a soft melody came through the window, probably from some neighbor's Hi-Fi system. It really was a nice day for talking with cats.
"Sorry, Usagi. Mamoru doesn't have permission to search for you, since little kids can't go out alone, so I'm helping him instead. You see, he is searching for a Silver Princess, a Silver Crystal, and his memories, also probably tinted in Silver. He found the Princess in her dreams, and asked me to go find her when she awoke. And I did!" In the cat's forehead, just above her eyes, a silver glow erupted from the mark of a crescent moon. Strange silver glyphs lit with the same light, their soft glow dancing and squirming under her fur, casting shadows that formed a ghostly cat engulfing Anja's form. In an instant, an incredible beautiful woman stood in the room, clad in black and silver silks.
"Mother of the Mysterious Silver Princess, Little Usagi, I humbly ask you two to hear my request." Anja knelled regally facing the floor, with her head bowed between the mother and daughter pair. Ikuko fell backwards in shock, standing against the wall, her face frozen in fear and wonder.
"Mom..." Ikuko glanced at the concerned voice of her daughter, and the vision of her little child trying to comfort her gave the mother the strength necessary to gather herself again. Usagi turned towards Anja, glowing gently with an upward facing crescent moon of her own forehead.
"Tell us your tale." Said the Silver Princess in the body of a four years old girl. Her own light seemed to tame Anja's chaotic glow, her face radiating compassion. For the first time, the cat seemed unsure, a genuine look of surprise reflected in her posture. After gathering herself, the Seneschal of the Silver Chair told her own tale and the plight of Prince Endymion.
Somewhere and some-when in the Milky Way spiral arms, a toddler with bubblegum hair choose that moment to exist. She was from another some-when, and didn't existed in that particular one until that precise instant. Well, she didn't exist in that form, it was complicated. The little kid was falling from a great height, looking around from her high point deeply confused, since she didn't really know where she was. She wasn't really lost, since she was there following the invitation of someone deep inside this empty place, her confusion coming from the fact that this was something truly new, something that she didn't thing was actually possible at this point in time.
"Chibi-Chibi is cold..." Mumbled the little girl, using a colorful umbrella to slow down her fall into the dark nothingness below her. As if sensing her discomfort, small red lights started to form around her, one of them even under her umbrella, trying to give some warm in the absolute zero temperature of the place. The lights were like funeral candles, and their warm was more or less an illusion, but the little girl smiled in gratitude to her host, appreciating the gesture.
She finally touched something solid after some time, daintily standing on a patch of dirt over a swampy area entirely devoid of life. She wasn't wet, but a strange sensation of humidity in her feet made her frown. The light under her umbrella moved in front of her, trying to get her attention while starting to move forward. The girl calling herself Little Runt, or perhaps Endurant One, followed her guide with small jumps, marching with a seriousness hidden by her cuteness. After a short walk, the dark nothingness parted, revealing a small burial mound with a table made of brittle iron on top. Climbing the mound, the toddler saw the body of a small prepubescent girl clad in a white mortuary robe on top of the table, her still form preserved for eternity.
"Hello. I'm Chibi-Chibi. Who are you?" The little girl asked innocently, making a great effort to use proper intonation and modulation in her speech.
The dead girl open her eyes and slowly sat, shaking the lethargy of millennia from her body. Her dark hair, long and wild, contrasted with her pale skin, marred with hundreds of tiny scars only visible under close inspection. In her forehead, the symbol of a radiant star carved itself in her skin, creating a small drop of blood that dropped towards her eyebrows.
"Hello, Endurant One. I'm called Shoat of the Mire, and I thank you for coming. Please, would you honor me with your company, and listen to my tale?" Chibi-Chibi looked at the girl in front of her, and saw an incarnation of suffering. She also saw the will of the ones who persist against the evils of reality, and maybe, just maybe, someone that could understand her own burdens. So, she nodded, seating herself in a comfy earthly chair that the terrain manifested for their convenience.
"Thank you. Let me tell you of the four fundamental truths of Creation, and my quest to end the Suffering of its inhabitants. Of the unhinged arrogance of the Incarna, and the eternal agony of the Engine of Extinction. Finally, of the last anchor that perpetuates that suffering, and my mission to end it in the Void of Oblivion." As the girl talked, the strange place slowly started to show a mockery of life. Ghostly facades of once living creatures could be seen at a distance, and the curves on the horizon now traced some sort of valley.
Chibi-Chibi glanced solemnly at her host, abandoning for a moment her own mask. She saw someone who has witnessed and endured the worst of life and yet, someone who freely sacrificed her own peace to end other people's pains. In the head of the Shoat of the Mire, a crown of yellowed laurels appeared as a symbol of her Compassion towards the suffering of all sentient beings. Hanging from a strap on her neck, an old looking horn stood heralding the absolute Conviction driving her forward. In her left hand, a blackened reflective hoplon-like shield Tempered her impulses and guarded her from deviating from her cause. Finally, in her right hand a spear with an obsidian-colored tip stood as a proof of unfaltering Valor, as a declaration of war upon those who willingly bring suffering to other people.
Chibi-Chibi also called her own regalia, standing as an equal in front of her host. The Guardian of Cosmos gave a soft smile of understanding, waiting patiently for the girl to end her tale.
The Court of Shadow Galactica gathered in full at Galaxia Palace, presided by the most powerful Empress of the Milky Way Galaxy, the one known as Sailor Galaxia. It was a show of Galactic power, and thus all the Empress' vassals were attending, including the false guardians Sailor Animamates. The Empress Herself sat in her throne before their humble guest, who was giving a deep bow with his eyes never leaving the floor. He was an old man in poor clothes, a janitor that worked on a dusty planet circling one of the many white-blue stars orbiting Sagittarius A*. Dressed in rags, humble, quiet, powerless, he bowed in front of the most powerful being in the Galaxy.
"So, janitor, explain to me how were you able to make the Wise Man flee, armed only with an old broom." The Queen clad in Gold demanded imperiously, crossing her legs while giving the man in front of her an arrogant look. The old janitor coughed, his throat closed by the enormous presence of Galaxia's focused attention.
"It is the duty of a good janitor to deal with vermin, Your Grace. For that Chaotic vermin in particular, the only thing that I truly needed was the certainty of my own existence, and the experience of a true reality. A simple cretin that views his own self as a burden to be undone cannot hope to endure against that." The man answered, forcing his voice to remain calm.
"Oh, and I suppose that only one such as you have the kind of power to withstand Chaos, old Janitor?" Galaxia was unreadable in her stance, her cold countenance showing neither fury nor sympathy.
"No, Your Grace. Power is meaningless here, it doesn't matter if you are the brightest star or a humble mote of dust. The only thing that matters is reaffirming your own existence in a true reality." Galaxia looked at the man. He was not lying, but he was definitively being creative with the truth. It didn't matter, she would learn his secrets, she must, since now at last she saw a chance to deal with her worst enemies armed with her own will instead of simply usurping more of their power or setting them against each other.
"Then you will show me how to do that." She ordered, and thus it was as good as done. Around her, the court babbled agitated, what could this Janitor teach them? What would that mean for their future plans of conquest? After all, while wanting everlasting peace, Shadow Galactica was in the middle of a total war.
"Of course." The old man said obediently. He could do nothing else, after all. Nevertheless, he was pleased. In his new position he would be far better suited to fulfill his last mission before finally being allowed to join the rest of Creation in the Void Oblivion. As a side benefit, he also was just in the right place to give her support to the Golden Tyrant, who will in time learn why the Maiden of Endings herself called him "The One Who Oversaw the Endings of Eras". Yes, Chejop Kejak was very pleased with this development.
"Raise, old man, from now on you will be one of my personal attendants. Eat, bathe and rest, I want to see you in pristine state before you assume your new role." With a gesture, Sailor Galaxia dismissed Kejak, and the old man retreated with dignity. In the hall were the Galaxy brightest stars gathered, the last Sidereal glowed with a soft green light, a dim and controlled candle in the middle of the most violent among the Celestial Objects.
Copied from Space Battles, since its useful information.
Ok, this dramatis personae is getting a bit too long but is really a great help to organize my thoughts. So, for now, fundamental list of Exalted Character in play:
The Incarna (relevant, but not appearing in this fic)
The Incarna were the seven most powerful divinities in Creation, the world of Exalted. They were pillars of their world, divinities with global portfolios.
The Unconquered Sun: The God of Virtue, the Sun, the Leader. He was the ultimate warrior of Creation and the being that defined what the concept of "virtue" actually is. He was also the Daystar itself, or something similar. Is complicated.
Luna, the Argent Madonna: The Goddess, sometimes God of the Moon. The closest being in power to the sun, her role was as the Guardian, the Watchman, the Protector. She regularly infiltrated the Courts of Chaos, subverting their purposes, derailing their plans and destroying their resources. She also was the Silver Chair of the Night, and was known for her ability to adapt her thoughts and form in her hunt of Creation's enemies.
The Five Maidens: They were the Goddesses of Fate. Each one supervised an aspect of destiny, making sure that it worked as it should. They were:
Mercury, Maiden of Journeys, who guarded that everything arrived in its proper time.
Venus, Maiden of Serenity, custodian of any form of love born between living beings.
Mars, Maiden of Battles, in charge of the proper development and resolution of conflicts.
Jupiter, Maiden of Secrets, who made sure that any Knowledge was revealed only in its proper time.
Saturn, Maiden of Endings, who watched that all things ended at their designated moment.
Any simile with other works of fictions is completely intentional. The authors of Exalted had a list of inspirational work somewhere in the Core Rulebook, at least of the first two editions.
The Primordials.
They are the Fundamentals Beings that Created Creation. Each one of them is a pocket universe on its own, with their own rules of reality, and thus antithesis of the Original Undefined Chaos. Together, they forged the world of Creation, defining reality in spite of Chaos. If is not clear yet, Chaos was not amused. For this fanfiction, only Gaia, the Emerald Mother is relevant, and her character is somewhat vital for the first arc. So, read it there.
The Neverborn.
When the Exalted empowered by the divinities rebelled, they managed to do the impossible: to kill a fundamental part of reality. A number of the original Primordials died and the rest, except for Gaia and another one, surrendered. But since Primordials were practically pocket universes, foundations of reality itself, they couldn't truly die, and instead of simply vanishing their Essence was trapped, their undying existence anchored by their own Creation in an unending agony. Long time before the start of the story, they corrupted some of the Solar Exalted in order to free themselves from their misery (via destroying Creation), and they were successful. But one of them, the Engine of Extinction, had an origin a little different from the others, and is still trapped in eternal torture. The last Abyssal Exalted is trying to destroy the last anchors that ties the Engine of Extinction to his suffering.
The Exalted
Originally, the Exalted were humans of Creation empowered via an addition to their very souls created by the Incarna, Gaia and another Primordial, called an Exaltation. Their original role was to serve as the army that toppled the Primordials. Sometime down the line, a group of Solar Exaltations, the ones empowered by the Unconquered Sun, was corrupted by the Neverborn in order to destroy the anchor that perpetuated their suffering. Which they did.
There is a small active population of Gaian Exalted (the Dragonblooded) still in existence. Due to the nature of their Exaltation, the only one inheritable, they managed to survive the apocalypse.
There are three, and only three other Exalted:
Anja Silverclaws, Seneschal of the Silver Chair, last of the Lunar Exalted. After the last battle for Creation, she guided the remnants of Luna's Court to Gaia, becoming the de facto leader. She also rescued the remains of Luna from the Neverborn, directed the failed attempt to save the surviving Primordials of Malfeas from the Engine of Extinction, and lead the posterior flight of the catatonic Gaia.
As a Lunar Exalted she can assume the form of multiple creatures and even hybrids of them, enter and manipulate others dreams and in general adapt to any situation. Her preferred forms are her original body at 25 (a beautiful noble woman with clear skin and long Platinum Hair), an elegant white female Maine Coon cat, and a hybrid of both forms that she uses for battle.
The Shoat of the Mire, Prophet of Oblivion, the last Abyssal Exalted. Groomed from childhood to be one of the monsters that would destroy Creation to free they Neverborn masters, the Shoat of the Mire only has the memory of the suffering inflicted upon her and others, without any light to contrast her grim darkness. Along the way she embraced her particular form of Compassion: she would shoulder all the suffering in the Universe, with the sole purpose to personally drag it to the Mouth of Oblivion and destroying it irrevocably. Since for her reality itself is the cause of suffering, that is not necessarily a good thing.
As an Abyssal Exalted she wield the power of the Void, the ability to destroy existence. She is not of Chaos, since Chaos purpose is to turn everything as it was in its formless beginning, but something different, the negation of being. She was bestowed with her power at age 11, and since then her body has remained in that form, incapable of developing as a normal living person. When the Abyssals won the last war of Creation, their recompense was to join the Neverborn in Oblivion to end their tortured existence, but the Shoat of the Mire was able to see the final destiny of the Engine of Extinction, and in a last act of compassion delayed her own recompense in favor of ending its suffering.
Chejop Kejak, Tired Old Man, Chosen of Jupiter, the last Sidereal Exalted. Before the last war of Creation, Chejop Kejak was the most powerful Exalt in Creation. He has a hand in the destiny of two whole ages of his World, and the Maiden of Endings herself named him "one who ends eras". His greatest achievement was to direct the Salvation of Creation when the Solar Exalted of old fell to madness, and his wort mistake was to fall himself to hubris at the end of Creation. In his mind, he feels at least responsible for the slow reaction of Creation's defenders when facing the hordes of the Abyss, Chaos and Malfeas, and he is probably right.
Before he could enter the last Battle to face his ultimate demise, the Five Maidens expelled him from reality, giving him a token of each Incarna, and the mission to find those worthy of their legacy. Now awake in a Universe that he doesn't know, with rules that doesn't make sense, his mission and final dead are his only purposes. May or may not have learned Déjà Fu.
Since Sailor Moon is a really famous work with clearly established main character, this section is going to be a small one to clarify details or mention obscure things.
First, the most important detail: The base characterization and lore is drawn from the original Manga.
Now, for the one familiar with the fandom, the second most important detail:
Sailor Pluto, aka Setsuna Meiou is not omniscient. She also does not play chess with David Xanathos, exchange correspondence with Professor Mortiary, eat potato chips with Light Yagami, go on dates with The Doctor or do Mad Science with doc Emmett Brown. Also, she does not suffer any kind of fourth-dimensional voyeurism. Sailor Pluto is the Keeper of the Door of Space Time and the daughter of Chronos (Χρόνος, "time", not the titan Κρόνος, "Cronus"). That last part give her some power over the flow of time, but not time travel. That's it. She is the official security guard of the Door of Space Time. A glorified mall ninja. That is all.
Now, for the one less familiar with the series, some basics concepts:
Star Seed: Life crystal and materialized soul. All planets, stars and asteroids have their own star seed, and all living beings have them too. They seem to be pretty standard in the case of normal human, and with personalized colors and designs in the case of celestial objects. This weird composition of the soul made the Exaltation (form Exalted) absolutely incompatible with the people living in the Sailor Moon universe. The ones from creation have souls, but not Star Seeds. All Star Seeds are born in a place called the Galaxy Cauldron.
Sailor Crystal: Special kind of Star Seeds linked to Celestial Object. The individuals who have a Sailor Crystal instead of a Star Seed as a soul have a special link to the Celestial Object. If they are female, they also can become the Celestial Object Sailor Guardian. Endymion is the only known male bearer of a Sailor Crystal in canon Sailor Moon. If the bearer of a Sailor Crystal dies but the crystal itself can return to the Galaxy Cauldron, the bearer can reincarnate in the future.
Sailor Guardian (Sailor Senshi): Female bearers (or incarnations?) of a Sailor Crystal. Capable of entering a transformed estate where they can wield the Magic associated with their planetary object, apart from other abilities like enhanced bodies, casual dismissal of gravity, and something between teleportation/FTL speed.
* Note for the fans of Sailor Moon: If someone knows how the clusterf***k of how the moon has Queen Serenity and her daughter as bearer of the Silver Crystal at the same time, and what the heck is the Pink Moon Crystal of Chibi-Usa (does the Moon have two of them?), please share the details.
Characters in the fic to this point:
Chiba Mamoru, aka Prince Endymion: The bearer of the Golden Crystal, the Sailor Crystal of Earth. A little orphan boy that lost his last family in an accident, along with his memories. Prince Endymion was his previous incarnation a long time ago, and his accident coupled with a fortuitous encounter with Anja Silverclaws allowed him to start learning to harness the power of his crystal.
Usagi Tsukino, aka Princess Serenity: The bearer of the Silver Crystal, the Sailor Crystal of the Moon. A happy little tyke that got her short life derailed by an insistent crybaby lover of a past life. Mamoru's pleas to the people of Earth in the search of his past-life memories led to the little girl awakening her own, which in turn gave Anja the chance to track her.
Ikuko and Kenji Tsukino: The parents of little Usagi. Kenji is a recently ascended photographer being exploited by his bosses, and Ikuko is a nice house wife.
I may add some Sailor Moon pictures later, but seriously, unlike the Exalted ones you can find them with a quick picture search in your favorite search engine. All art is official.
After things related to my country, life and self-esteem I abandoned this as a lost cause, leaving a lot of things half-done after a lot of time sunk-in. A tiny part of my problem was "who the hell still care for these fandoms, anyway", but… Drakensis excellent "Reincarnation: May Come with Teething Problems" happened and my unfinished ideas stop pestering me to at lest give them closure.
So, I decided to man up, review what I already had, finish the second chapter and put it here just to say that I finished it. Will I continue? Well, I have the entire outline up to the start of Sailor Moon canon, so perhaps. Covid at least has given me a lot of free, unpaid time.
Now, the chapter:
Chapter two, the Trial of the Journey
Tsukino Kenji awoke that Sunday morning in a wonderful mood. It was August 3, 1986, the day of Mamoru's twelfth birthday. Kenji has grown to really appreciate the young boy in the last six or so years, liking him even more now that his dastardly plan was bearing fruits, even if it was a bit too soon to know for sure. When he first meet the cat that called herself Anja Silverclaws he was skeptic. Well, not true, he was terrified and in shock, but after a couple of days he could say that he was skeptic. Not of the cat supernatural power or status as some sort of minor deity or spirit (or maybe demon?), but about her claims that her little daughter, the most precious girl in the world, was remembering a past life. But then little Usagi started talking in her babbling four-year old way about things that she couldn't possibly know or understand and his incredulity wavered. He was still terrible uncomfortable with the implications of past-lives and destined loves, but the words of Anja helped him to devise a plan of action.
"The thing is, a past life is not some kind of contract, obligation or prophecy. They are just memories, experiences from the past that can help or hinder your daughters grow. She may be influenced to walk the same path as before, or she may learn from them and do different things. Stop worrying about the obligations towards non-existent kingdoms and illicit love-encounters under the full moon, they are both little kids that cannot even conceive sexual attraction yet." Kenji took her words to heart. Instead of worrying about past indiscretions and risk hurting or alienating her precious daughter, he would look for ways to help her face her future positively.
Curiously, Kenji's ingenious malevolence found its roots on his own workplace. Photography and graphic designs were oblique in its demand in any published media, from manga magazines to newspapers, or more crucially in his case, from high-society tabloids to anthropology journals. When a colleague from another magazine asked for a bit of help organizing the graphics of an article on the old Chinese "tóngyǎngxí" practice of arranged marriages between children, he found an interesting tidbit of information hidden there: they apparently had a very high rate of failure, attributed to something called the "Westermarck effect". A few question to his acquaintance and a couple of recommended books later, and he found the perfect way to everyone happiness. It was even thematic! Wasn't there an old belief about fated lovers and siblings? Well, that was with twins, but still!
To convince his wife and both children was easy. After all, Mamoru was well liked by all of them, even little baby Shingo, so why not give the poor orphan a caring family? It took him the better part of a year to navigate all the adoption-related bureaucracy, but in the end Chiba Mamoru was officially recognized as Tsukino Mamoru, and just in time for little Usagi fifth birthday. Now, the fated lovers with a tragic past could again find solace in each other... As brother and sister. Yes, life was good for Tsukino Kenji. A beautiful family, an enjoyable and profitable job, and bright children to spoil. What else could a man ask? Feeling his wife stirring besides him, he decided to get ready for the day. After all, his dear son was now 12 years old, and the party wouldn't prepare itself.
A bit after the father had his moment of smug satisfaction, the thunderous feet of a nine-year-old girl stomping in the second floor distracted him. It was too early for Usagi to be so energetic, she must have put an alarm the night before for this.
"Mamo-chan! Happy Birthday!" The sound of a door crashing open was followed by the manly screeching that only a male tween could put off.
"Usako!"
"Hey, hey, are you ready? We need to prepare! Tomorrow we go search for Gaia!" And just like that, Kenji happiness vanished. Anja Silverclaws was... Not bad, she helped Usagi and Mamoru with their strange abilities, and taught all of them about this supernatural stuff, but she asked compensation. It was like a quest in one of those fantasy tales or one of those new text adventure games, but here in the real world the idea of two of his kids traveling a such a young age without him or Ikuko supervising them was hitting him hard. At least, Anja promised to protect them, and their only role should be of guides while she did all the heavy work. Damn, he wished to be good enough in this dreaming things to accompany them, but his limited training showed that neither him nor anyone in the planet could possibly keep up with the three of them.
"Dear, I worry too. But miss Silverclaws is going to keep them safe. It will be just like a summer vacation. Everything will be alright." Ikuko smiled at Kenji reassuringly, even as her hand painfully gripped his shoulder, showing her own apprehension. He smiled back, and kissed her forehead. Yes, everything will be alright, like Anja promised.
Tsukino Mamoru was gifted. After the tragic event that robed him of his family, he managed to discover his powers, his past love, and a wonderful new family. While he tried to be a dutiful son and genuinely mourned his old parents, he couldn't even remember them. It was sad, that he had memories of people from Elysium, and not from the ones who birthed him in this era.
"Brother?" The voice of little Shingo reached Mamoru's ears. Turning his gaze away from the Evening Star still visible from his room window, he smiled at his four-year-old brother. Behind him, his Usako frowned playfully.
"Mamo-chan, stop brooding! Why are you making eyes to Venus, anyway?, it's boring, too full of burning clouds!" Mamoru smiled sweetly, how could he let a line like that pass without retaliation?
"Unlike the moon, which is full of mochi. Isn't that right, dango-hair?" Mamoru's smirk was a work of art, surpassed only by Usagi's pout.
"Why are you being mean? Your guest already left, and we need to help our parents! Tomorrow we go traveling, come oooonnn!" The annoyed girl dragged the older boy towards the living room, where their parents finished fixing the last piece of chaos left after Mamoru's birthday party. Walking down the stairs, the sound of the radio tuned to that awful, awful gossiping talk-show that the boy hated. Because it was a bad show and not because of any kind of shame that he most certainly didn't feel.
"Ooh, is that show 'Dream Stages'! Mamo-chan, they are talking about what the stage is going to be tonight, didn't you tell them that you are not going to do that for a while?" Mamoru's blush was visible in his neck. His initial enthusiastic dreamed parties used to find his Princess made him an incredible famous anonymous figure. They even started calling him with dream-related mythological names, like Baku or Morpheus. After reuniting with his Princess new incarnation in this life, he no longer needed to hold those gatherings, but since both of them enjoyed their illusory parties were the people dreams and emotions were freely shared, Mamoru ended hosting one of such parties every other Sunday.
"I did try to tell them that I was going to be busy, but it's not easy, you know, with only emotions and projections." Usagi frowned, confused for a moment.
"But I always understand you." Mamoru smiled, taking the nine-year-old girl's hand.
"I know." Usagi smiled back, her previous annoyance forgotten. Little Shingo, tired of being ignored, broke their hand holding only to put himself in the middle, grabbing their hands with his tiny ones.
The kids entered the living room to help their parents in cleaning the place, except for tiny Shingo that went directly for the well-loved famicom connected to their television. Usagi and Mamoru busied themselves helping their parents, and just after nightfall their expected visitor arrived. The white cat jumped inside from an open window, but it was the womanly form of Anja Silverclaws the one to hit the floor, wearing her now trademark nineteen-eighty chic-girl clothing. In the past years she falsified and blackmailed her way into a Japanese nationality as a half-blood, started an independent music firm and became a pop star. When asked why by the Tsukino's, she simply answered that it was the easiest and less time-consuming way to gather some local resources.
"Hello, hello! Happy birthday, Prince Endymion! I have the best present for you!" Anja said with the well practiced cheerfulness of a stock idol. The boy's eyed twitched when he saw the figurine in Anja's hand, the sleeping form of a tall indistinct man wearing a blue armor in Greek style, his head resting in the lap of a beautiful nondescript woman in silver with her hair in twins buns. The man was just a faceless black-haired representation, but the armor was exquisite, a detailed copy of the one he liked to wear when dreaming. The woman was also faceless, but her long flowing dress was also of incredible quality. The figurine had a round base, with the text "Endymion and Serenity" engraved in both Cretan Hieroglyphs and Linear inscriptions.
"What... WHAT IS THAT!" Exclaimed the boy, experiencing one of those moments of teenage existential despair. He wished for the Earth to swallow his shame, but when the Earth curiously prodded him for confirmation he squashed that thought.
"That's not true! That's not the Queen!" Usagi whined, almost in tears. She had the bad idea of asking her parents for moon-related tales, and she really didn't like the Greek interpretation of the tale of Endymion and Selene.
"Um... That's supposed to be you a bit more grown-up, little princess. I guess that your past mother also looked like this?" Anja asked smugly, a cheeky smile showing her amusement.
"Mentor Anja, I... Well, it's a bit embarrassing, but really well done. What metal it is?" Mamoru distracted himself appreciating the incredible detail of his birthday present. In his hand, the metal seemed to slowly flow.
"Moonsilver, of course. I crafted this as a guide for the conceptual art of my future album, so I went all out doing it. So long as your mutual love rings true, that figurine will also stay true, and their features will evolve and gain definition the more that you two learn about each other."
"It's beautiful..." Usagi changed her opinion on the artwork. She and Mamoru were now entranced by their gift, until a small part of what Anja said snapped both of them to attention.
"What Album!"
"Concept of what!" The Princess and the Prince asked without decorum.
"That... Is a secret. It's also a way to announce to anyone from your past that someone remembers. Quicker than a blind search for allies and an excellent way to bait possible enemies into a trap." Anja, in contrast, answered with all the primness of proper royalty. Both children knew that it was on purpose, and were subsequently annoyed. Shingo simply continued with his quest to rescue Princess Peach and free the Mushroom Kingdom from Bowser's tyranny.
The next day after a hearty breakfast, the two children and the part-time cat stood in the Tsukino's garden just to the left to the main entrance. With a slow sigh, Tsukino Mamoru closed his eyes, concentrating only in dressing himself with the Panoply of Prince Endymion. His clothes dissipated, replaces with a soft tunic covered by a fine blue linothorax. Then, the treasures forged from his own virtue took their place: In his waist a thin belt of interlaced olive branches, weaved from his Compassion; in his left hand a medium round shield in brown with green borders and a green cross, sculpted from his Temperance; hanging from the belt was an elegantly curved sky blue Kopis, forged from his Valor, and in his head a copper-tinted Attic helmet displaying the Cornucopia, hammered from his Conviction. His last item was striking in its simplicity, a simply rolled hemp ladder at his feet, serving as a portal to his true last treasure.
Tsukino Usagi nodded to herself, and called her own birthright. Due to Anja's focus en getting Endymion ready for Gaia's search, Serenity wasn't as prepared yet as his partner (friend, brother, once lover…). The young girl was clad in her own white body-hugging linothorax, with a red bow in the front and blue flaps reminiscent of a sailor suit in her shoulders. Long white gauntlets protected her hands, and long red boots in her shins. Over her waist a short blue skirt fluttered, and a golden tiara with a red gem in the front marked her royal status. Her first and for now only Anja-made treasure was a simple crystal lens hanging from her red choker, so perfectly transparent that it was practically invisible.
Anja, clad in a diaphanous silver mail and no other apparent attire, gestured towards the Prince. Endymion smiled towards his family and pushed the rope ladder a bit, letting it unroll towards the sky.
"Mom, it's going up!" little Shingo exclaimed, distracted by the casual affront to gravity.
"Nice, right?" Answered Serenity, with an open and affable smile. Her parents, unable to contains their emotions anymore, hugged her and Endymion, mumbling again their best wishes for them both. Neither stopped to question why they were letting a child and a tween go on a quest, both of them trusting Anja Silverclaws explictly after years of seeing her prowess and enduring her charisma.
Letting the exited adults go, Endymion climbed the hemp ladder into nothingness, his upper torso gradually disappearing on the top of his Treasure. Serenity followed him, and finally Anja climbed behind them, leaving reality to enter the dream's fantasy.
At the end of the rope ladder, the children found themselves on the Bridge of Endymion last true treasure: a Catamaran floating in the Sea of Dreams. Around them, a handful of colorful workers hurriedly finished the preparations for the ship baptism. The ship itself was made of an almost translucent vapor-like substance with wood grain patterns, a strange modern design without propellers or even sails, but with two rows of ten oars per side, giving it an air of new and old at the same time. Outside the dream-boat, fish-like workers were also busy with the last details.
"Whoa! The modern look with oars look nice but is really strange…" Endymion said, bemused, while looking around. Serenity nodded, entranced in turn not by the ship, but by the strange people in front of them.
The ship didn't have an open deck, since it was designed to navigate not only dreams but also the horrific tempests of pure Chaos, where having an exposed deck would be very bad for the travelers. The sailors inside the boat were of vaguely humanoid shape and every color of the spectrum, with varied appearances that went from plant-like elflings to rotund people of ice or strange reptile-like humanoids to dutiful insect-like workers. Outside, a few merfolks jumped and slithered around the ship checking the hull and carving its colors. Serenity noted with a pang of melancholy that some of them had a heraldic symbol in the form of a crescent moon on a starry field, displayed proudly in their body. It was, however, not her crescent moon but one of another Lady, the pointy end facing towards the side instead of upwards.
"It's an honor, Prince, Princess, Seneschal. The heart-ignition ceremony is ready to start, we just need your lead!" One of the strange sailors talked to them as soon as Anja poked her head from the rope ladder behind the kids, startling the distracted children.
"Princess Serenity, Prince Endymion, this overeager fellow is the Aimless Navigator, the one who will ignite the Hearth of your new ship." Anja introduced the strange being, and the eyes of the two heirs grew in amazement. Aimless was a six-foot-high albatross with the torso of a human, his white plumage lightly covered in a blue and black sailor uniform that left his webbed feet bare.
"Um, you are going to be fine after we finish, right?" Asked Serenity, just before Endymion could ask the same question.
"Of course! I will have the privilege of joining the Greatest Ship that ever shipped! And when all is said and done, you just need to extinguish the Hearth and I will be back as you see me now! Well, may be not, to be exactly the same would be a bit dull, but you understand what I mean." The flamboyant bird answered, gesticulating with his enormous twenty-feet wings. The rest of the sailors flinched and dodged the flying limbs of their over-enthusiastic colleague.
"That is a relief. Thank you for doing this, we should be ready to start?" Endymion smiled softly, also uncomfortable with was going to happen but willing to trust Aimless. When Anja explained the immolation ceremony… Well, she at least said that it was voluntary. The part-time cat smugly smiled towards the concerned duo.
"Then let's begin", the Last Seneschal said, guiding the group towards the comfortable bridge. There, The Prince walked forward, ready to start the ceremony.
"I am Endymion, the Origin and Owner of the Way used to craft this ship. By my authority, I name it the Forty Sturdy Oars. With this last immolation, I now take it in my possession." The Prince stood rigid, hiding his insecurity behind stoicism.
Endymion's voice was heard strong and firm across the entire structure, magnified by the vessel itself. The ship had enough space for a dozen people to live comfortably, including sleeping quarters, play room, navigation room and baths. In the middle of the navigation room an anachronistic steering wheel stood, with a glass sphere in its center, already prepared to hold the ignited flame of the Ship's Hearth.
Silently, Aimless Navigator let his wings spread, comically shadowing the room with at his maximum span, only to glow himself with a soft orange fire. As he turned slowly to ash, he raised in offering his own sense of self, his Heart, his Grace, the Crystallization of its own being. His soft orange light started to beat like a heart inside the multi-faceted crystalline polyhedron that was his Heart Grace, refracting rhythmically inside the bridge of the ship. Suddenly, the crystallized soul of Aimless disappeared, only to appear again inside the glass sphere of the steering wheel, breathing dreamed life into the Forty Sturdy Oars.
At the same moment that the ship came to life, the other forty dream spirits working on it also dispersed, possessing one oar each. The Essence-filled oars gave the Catamaran the ability to sail from Dreams to Chaos, with a speed and agility equivalent to the will and whims of their sailors. Anja, Endymion and Serenity stood now alone in a ship a bit too big for three people, but the presence of the others spirits could still be felt around them, waiting for their directions.
"Here, break it as an offering in the wheel, is tradition." Anja said, handing a bottle of champagne to little Serenity.
"Umm… A tradition from where?" the Princess mumbled, confused. She still lifted the bottle and shattered it on top of the wheel, pouring its contents on it. The wheel in turn started to greedily drink the beverage offered, greatly pleased judging by its slurping sounds. Finally, the Silver Princess clapped her hands once to offer a small prayer, and reaching for a bit of her soul, she blessed the ship. Immediately a Silver visage enveloped the whole catamaran, after which the smiling Princess Serenity took the Crystal Lens crafted from her own Perception and locked it in a special compass embedded in the front of the bridge, labeled "Home". With that, the instrument will always point towards what she considered her Home, in this particular moment her bedroom in Azabu-Juuban
"Yes, now we are ready! Let's go forward, towards the Dreams of Gaia!" With that last enthusiastic words, Endymion ordered all the spirits in the ship to set sail, then with bright eyes and straight posture he took the wheel, ready to face his first great adventure.
With Endymion steering it, the Forty Sturdy Oars quickly left behind the Dreams of Earth. It was impossible for them to awake sleeping Gaia from their side of Reality, their only option was to find her dreams and hopefully shake her awake from there. The two Royals felt in their very Essence when they left the Sea of Dreams formed by people of Planet Earth, entering the open Ocean formed by non-real flux of pure Chaos. There the ship was confronted by figments of possibilities, images of things that were never birthed and thus could never die, threads of what could be and never was, some curious, some jealous, some revolted by the truth of the traveler's existence.
The Prince guided the Ship with a firm hand, using it as a knife to cut through the Chaotic currents of nonexistent maybes. The Princess shielded the Vessel, her Silver Aura deflecting the irate spite of raw Chaos. And The Seneschal destroyed. When anything looked to close at the children, the Anima of Anja Silverclaws, raising like a raging cat, ripped the offender to shreds in an instant, her Anima's phantasmagorical claws weaving a veritable comet tail for the ship made of the thin gossamer that was once the tapestry of the unrealized dreams of Chaos.
And then, after enough time to tire the kids has passed, they entered the boundaries of the dreams from another world, full of life. Finally, the two Royals could relax their guard, feeling from the ship the tides of alien life thriving in a new world, from oceans, mountains, jungles and icecaps. At the distance the flames of six distinctive lighthouses could be seen, and Anja, conscious of the sleepy visage of the children in her care, took a photo with a shiny new Kodak camera for later blackmail before pointing Mamoru towards the closest light.
"That is the Fire-Jade Atelier, we should go there to let you rest a bit."
"Why is that lighthouse there? Shouldn't new dreams wash it away?" Asked a curious Usagi.
"No, we built those lighthouses and the surrounding town to be a permanent structure, to help us watch against Chaos incursion in our dreams." Anja explained the kids, as the three watched the strange town made entirely from orange Jadeite surrounding their destiny. Normally in the Land of Dreams, all the things around, even the people, where just figments of the real persons sleeping a world away, but here for the reddish-orange jade buildings created a fixed spot marring the flow of imagination with their permanence.
As the ship approached the lighthouse, a strange vertical dock affixed in a spiral pattern to the circular tower could be seen. Dozens of vehicles of every type moved around, waiting for their turn to approach. Boats shared space with chariots and blimps, the only commonality between them all was the stark reality wounding the ethereal sea of dreams.
"The people on those vehicles… Are not dreaming?" Mamoru asked as he stopped the ship. Outside, a young adult woman cheerfully tied their catamaran to a pier, her full armor made of red jade giving her a strange aura of chivalry for a dockworker. Her waist-length hair looked like the flame of a candle, starting almost white at the base only finish in an intense orange at the end.
"Ah, I don't recognize her. She must be a new arrival. And yes, Mamoru, those people are awake. Let's go now, I explain you two in the way, but you need a solid night of rest before you collapse on your feet."
Usagi watched, fascinated, her prone body sleeping soundly besides her dear brother (partner?). It was a surreal sensation, watching herself sleep clinging with her Mamo-chan and clad in bunny pajamas, all from the perspective of her dream avatar clad in her Princess Regalia. Mamoru looked a bit more composed, holding her hand reassuringly.
"This is so strange! And cool!" Usagi said with a sunny smile.
"Do you think that we can do something like this back on Earth? A place where anyone awake can just walk into a place of dreams?" The Prince asked his partner.
"Do we need to? We can just hold your parties, they are fun!" Usagi-in-pajamas mumbled something in her sleep, the enthusiasm of her dreamed counterpart bleeding into her real body.
"Oh, but they craft things from dream-stuff here, right? I think that should be a great thing to have back on Earth, Usako." The Prince argued in turn, too serious for the Princess taste.
"That is a nice aspiration, little Prince, but the six citadels that we build here are a wonder that cost us a lot of time, resources and even blood. They are Wonders crafted from Gaia to Gaia, in order to protect our dreams and try to give her a light to return to us. Maybe you can do something similar on Earth, but be prepared to work for centuries." Anja Silverclaws walked in the form that she liked best in her domains, a human woman with heavy feline features.
"Teacher, aren't you going to rest?" Mamoru changed the topic, worried about the only one of their group still awake.
"I already did, my cute apprentices. I just took a quick catnap to refresh myself. You did eat all of your food before going to sleep, right?"
"Um! At first, it looked really strange, but it was delicious!" At the mention of food, it was the boy's sleeping body that mumbled this time, embarrassing Mamoru.
"Good, good. Now, dear Sheepherder, can you tell us were to go?" The cat-lady asked, looking at Mamoru directly.
"Ah, it's really strange, I get the feeling as if this… Planet? This whole world is dreaming something, but we can't go from here, if we were to try we would get lost in the dreams of the all People sleeping on it!" Mamoru answered, concentrating deeply in the currents of dreams around him.
Usagi just held his hand, giving him her silent support, while Anja just waited, confident in the boy's innate power.
"I think… I can't. Not from here. I can feel Gaia, but she is evading me… No, she is evading the dreams of Her children. I need to go outside, to the world of the awoken, in order to try and reach her from another route."
"Very well, then, let's have some fun where your bodies rest. We have waited for an entire age for this, we can wait a bit longer." Anja winked, smiling softly. To the kids, she seemed somewhat melancholic.
"Hello. I apologize for arriving too late. Regrettably, I'm only aware of those suffering terrible fates just before they find eternal peace. Once more, I can only offer a bit of solace."
Sailor Mau should be dead. Betrayed by one of the people that she was sworn to protect in exchange for usurped power, only to gift the planet and herself as a commodity for the Golden Tyrant. But at the last instant, when she was exhaling her final breath, the world stopped, the smug smile of her bloodied killer frozen as some kind of demented painting.
Slowly turning her head from her prone position to face the voice that spoke to her, she saw a preteen girl that strangely looked old like a star. She was clad in funerary robes, and in her whole aura she could feel an immeasurable will facing an equally unending suffering. She was the Senshi of Mau, the holder of Mau Planetary Crystal, the very soul of a Celestial Body… And for a second she felt almost insignificant, facing this girl at the end of her life. No doubt it was the pain that Mau endured that brought this being attention towards the Senshi.
"Do not worry about those left behind, I promise that I will fight and finish this horror. The pain will end, now you are free to rest in eternal peace." The girl knelt to kiss the Senshi's brow, and her pain vanished. She understood, at that moment, that she was going to cease, to perish beyond death, to reach peace in Oblivion. From the lap of the girl, she saw another person, a woman in white with ribbons in the color of rainbows, that carried the weight of the Cosmos, her tired heart still beating hard shouldering the struggles of all life.
"Not yet… We need to… Help everyone, to stop their lives of pain. Let me… help." Saior Mau knew that she was in the instant before dead, and that she could not hope to survive. But, if she just could reach with the last of her strength to help the two women in front of her, to perhaps lessen their burden just a tiny bit…
"You could help, yes. But if you do, you are going to see the worst sins, the evilest of depravities that people can suffer and inflict. You don't need to choose this path, you can end your pain and finally reach true peace. Are you sure that you want to change that to help us?" There was no reproach in the question. The girl was sincere in her worry, and gently patted the woman's hair, waiting for her answer.
"Yes. YES! Even if it's just a little, let me help with your burden!" With her declaration, Sailor Mau was no more. She felt her Sailor Crystal shatter, only to be reforged, repurposed by the fragment of a soul of another being, an Eldritch Thing of Primordial Agony. Her soul, now remade and infused with a piece of the Engine of Extinction, soared once more.
"We are coming towards you. Please survive. What you were before your death has also died, as it was fated, so now you will need a new identity to move forward. You will be known only as The Cat that Beckons Oblivion." The girl bowed, slowly starting to fade from the eyes of The Cat that Beckons Oblivion, along with her white Cosmic companion.
"Wait, who are you!"
"I am called The Shoat of the Mire." And with that last words, the image of the pair of women dissipated, letting time resume its curse. Then, with feline grace, Maneki-Neko stood and turned towards her murderer.
"What! I killed you! Die already!" Her killer screamed, attacking with her bare claws, the weapon loaned to her by the Tyrant already expended.
Maneki-Neko didn't even bother to dodge. Her Planetary Crystal was the soul of a world, and thus the infusion of the Neverborn known as Engine of Extinction affected the whole planet. Thus, it was the earth of Mau itself that rose in defense of its avatar, creating an impenetrable wall around the traitor.
"Wretch, I need you to send a message to the Tyrant Galaxia." Still on top of where her blood was spilled, Maneki-Neko spoke as if talking to an unruly kid.
Around them the world cracked, and the restless dead, the ones that loved her Senshi and died with her in the treacherous attack, rose to battle once again. Fierce cats the size of panthers joined the earthly extremities impeding the would-be assassin. The sky and seas then joined the fray, finally caging the ragging cat-woman in elemental manacles.
"Wha… What do you want me to say to her… Just, let me go, and I will tell Galaxia anything you want!" How unsightly, it seemed that the predator became prey. Maneki-Neko was disgusted, even if the woman was a filthy traitor, her mission was to end suffering, not to create it.
"I apologize, I didn't mean to ask you to be my messenger. I want you to be my message, the paper and the ink of my missive. Please, be at peace."
The eyes of the murderous traitor widened just a fragment, before her life ended with a sudden entombment into the same Planet that she wished to usurp.
Chejop Kejak had wasted a significant amount of time serving the whims of Sailor Galaxia. The Golden Tyrant was everything that the old man despised, the embodiment of the same things that moved him to defy the Mandate of Heaven, the same things that made him accept his ultimate death when he saw what he himself had become. In a way, this last mission of the Maiden of Endings was also a punishment, one that denied him his reunion with his beloved Creation until he passed on the Maidens last legacy.
When everyone in his world was fighting for everything that he stood for in a last battle for their right to exist, he was instead put to sleep only to awaken in a Creation not like his own, one of an immensity that his own only had before the Primordial war, when uncountable stars littered the Celestial Realm. Surely in a place so enormous, he could find five worthy Maidens to pass the Mantles of Fate. In fact, it would be more difficult to define what said "worthiness" meant, since for some reason the Maiden of Endings also fated him to pass that last judgment.
In front of him, the arrogant self-proclaimed Empress of the Galaxy finally finished her kata, flawlessly entering the Form of the Fading Sun. It took Chejop Kejak a lot of effort to even get the arrogant woman to treat him like her Sifu and then even more to actually find something to teach her. The fact that she was even capable of learning a Celestial Martial Arts was a miracle in itself, and for now she was the only one among her warriors capable of learning even one charm of such arts.
"This… I can feel it! No power should be capable of corrupting my mind or body in this stance!" The woman was jubilant. The first charm of the Arms of the Unconquered Sun Style taught her how to stop the flows of an opponent impetus, forcibly halting their attacks. The second taught her how to concentrate her might to land a single unstoppable strike at the cost of leaving her own defenses vulnerable for a counterattack if her opponent survived. Both were powerful Charms rooted on the virtues of the Unconquered Sun, but for a woman of her power, they were just parlor tricks. This third Charm was, instead, her first true reward for her efforts, the first time that she saw something that could genuinely stand against the corruption of Chaos.
"Hahahaha! Hey, Ancient Sifu! Come here, face me! Attack me with something that can test this! What about that martial strike that you used to transform Titanium Kerokko into a frog?" Galaxia's happiness felt like a warm and comfortable bath in the center of the Sun, burning (in pain) and blinding (in rage).
Chejop Kejak was trying very hard to avoid the dangerous traps of hypocrisy, and he was aware that it was due to his initiative that this Martial Art went almost extinct in his past save for a few scrolls saved for Heaven's library. Even so, he felt that it was disrespectful to teach a legacy of the Unconquered Sun to a woman like Galaxia. He was definitively going to accelerate his plans to find worthy Maidens, just so they could avenge this affront.
"Come on! This isn't even the pinnacle of this style, right? I can feel it, this path… I might have found a way to resist Chaos, but now I can feel that there is more to this art. Sifu, you are going to reveal me the summit of this Martial Art, right?" This was the first time that Kejak saw Galaxia so… Chirpy. He wondered if in whatever passes as her heart something rekindled, or this was just her natural joy at finding a new weapon to use against others.
"I would not presume to overreach, imposing my insolent regimen upon Her Majesty for more time than was accorded. My Lady, you were clear when you said that you would only tolerate my impertinent instructions for as long as it took you to learn a reliable way to resist Chaos." Kejak let himself smile fondly. He had to sell the candid image now, just to expand a bit the harsh limits that the Tyrant imposed on their interactions.
"Don't give me that, old man. Come and fight me, show me the end of this path! I'm mature enough to understand when a disciple has to follow!" Galaxia returned his smile with her own sardonic half-smile. Kejak decided to be more careful, Galaxia may be a tyrant, but she was an experienced one.
As Chejop Kejak prepared himself to strike a single strike that on an unprotected victim would alter their patterns of reality in such a way that the universe itself would be convinced that the target was actually a duck, he allowed a fragment of doubt to enter his heart. For a long time, he hardened his compassion in order to safeguard Creation, so much that in the end he became one of the same people that threatened its inhabitants in the first place. But Galaxia was quickly learning an Art based on the virtues of the Sun, one that never before graced this Reality. Maybe, just maybe, she might deserve the chance to prove that she could be more than the Butcher of whole worlds. He was still going to set the Maidens against her power-hungry empire, but maybe, just maybe, the woman herself could be saved at the end, instead of simply destroyed.
First, no Abyssal Exaltation was handed here, and none could, for metaphysical reasons. Maneki-Neko is something more similar to a Deadlord than an Abyssal.
Second, Chejop Kejak is not in a good state of mind, keep that in consideration when reading him.
Third, Anja Silverclaws is freaking powerful, and is teaching a young impressionable child the charms of the Rakshasa that she herself learned while fighting for Gaia after abandoning creation. She is, for all purposes, an elder Lunar Exalted.
Usagi is just wearing her Sailor Moon clothes when she transformed, and her dream avatar usually wears her Princess Dress.
Endymion is getting her canonical powers of empathy and post-cognition greatly enhanced by the teaching of Anja Silverclaws. He is still limited by canon Manga constraint for his station.
The rest of the cast is starting to get angsty, since they have been feeling the proverbial couple doing couple things every other Sunday. In fact, the whole world is getting weirded out, but in a far more happy way that the poor guardians of the Princess.
