Title: "Redemption" Author: Clea Saal E-mail: cleasaal@usa.net Homepage: http://members.xoom.com/cleasaal/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- Based on the characters from "Sailor Moon" by Naoko Takeuchi... done for fun and without permission... sorry about that. Redemption by Clea Saal She was struggling, trying to hide her tears as she lowered the Garnet Orb, hiding her tears even though she knew it was pointless, in a matter of seconds all that surrounded her would cease to exist, everything would be gone, people, things, animals... none of them would ever be... none of them should have ever been. It had all been her fault, she knew it, and she would never be able to forget. The simple fact remained that she had betrayed her duty, but things are never so simple: how could she allow everyone she cared for, everyone she loved, to die when she had the power to prevent it? She knew she couldn't allow it to happen, not even on the line of duty, and she hadn't. What she did was unthinkable, not only did she stop the natural flow of time, but she even dared to reverse it... a sin she knew she should have paid for with her life... her life for theirs, a fair trade off... but it wasn't meant to be, somehow she was forgiven, and allowed to live... At first she had felt so happy, she had been given a new life with her friends, and for a while everything seemed to be perfect. In time she came to justify her own actions, after all, she had been placed in an untenable position, on one hand she was the guardian of time, on the other she was a Sailor Senshi, one of the guardians of the Silver Millenium, and as such she couldn't just watch as everything she was sworn to protect was destroyed before her eyes. She remebered her joy as she attended the princess' wedding, it had been such a magnificent ceremony. Everyone was so happy, and why shouldn't they, after all they were alive, they were together... they couldn't know they should have all been dead. She had felt so grateful for the opportunity to see that wedding, for having a moment longer of not being alone as she had been for most of eternity... as she would continue to be for all eternity. Life was perfect, time passed, it went on until the name of the Silver Millenium became a misnomener, but as time went on she began to notice some minor details, things that weren't quite what they should have been. At first she dismissed them as unimportant, after all, she knew her actions had altered the future. Kings and queens came and went, the names and the faces of the senshi changed, as they died and were replaced. Then the Silver Millenium splitted, with one kingdom becoming increasingly isolated on the moon, as new civilizations flourished on the face of the Earth, and the new incarnation of the ancient Earth Kingdom, becoming independent once again and taking its place among Earth's civilizations. It was a hard time as the senshi were forced to choose sides, but they remained true to their duty, and in spite of the pain of loosing old friends they remained on the moon... all of them, that is, except for Sailor Earth, who was thus banished from their ranks. Even then she failed to notice how bad things really were, she believed that the Moon Kingdom could survive on its own... she was wrong. What followed was a nightmare, but fortunatelly it didn't last long. In order to mantain the moon's atmosphere the Ginzuishou used to draw a small amount of energy from each of the inhabitants, and when they found themselves reduced to a couple of hundred people it attempted to draw more energy from each one of them than they could aford to give. The weakest began dying slow agonizing deaths that only increased the strain on the survivers as their number was reduced even more. Nothing could be done to prevent it, the Ginzuishou was killing them to mantain an atmosphere they couldn't live without. In a desperate attempt to survive they tried using most of the energy of the royal family and the senshi, and for a while it seemed to work, but as they grew weaker and began dying they realized it had been futile, for once the last member of the royal family died, there would be no one left to channel the energy of the remaining survivers to the Crystal, and so their fate would be sealed. Somehow she resisted the temptation of reversing the flow of time once again, immortal as she was, she was condemned to watch them suffer and die. And then her private hell began. She became a silent witness to the events that unfolded on Earth, a senshi without a kingdom to protect, and a guardian of time who had failed in her duty. After millenia of peace under the rule of the Silver Millenium she saw starvation, famine and disease, she saw new kingdoms rise and fall in what seemed to be the blink of an eye, she saw mankind turning against itself as wars raged in a quick succession, she saw greed, hatred and pain as she had never seen them before, she saw children murdering their parents, parents murdering their children as greed overcame everything, she saw nameless thousands die to build monuments so that one could be remembered... and she could do nothing but watch. In spite of everything sometimes they still managed to surpise her, to create things of beauty, but even the most magnificent monuments that they created had a dark side. The most beautiful poems told of death and destruction, the most beautiful temples depicted war scenes... war was everywhere. Everyone sought to conquer and they did so until they were conquered themselves... and the cycle began anew, all for no reason other than a quest for power and greed that would go on forever, leaving nothing but a trail of meaningless devastation behind. They had been fighting for so long that they could no longer imagine doing anything else. Sometimes she wondered if her old life in the Silver Millenium had been nothing but a dream, it seemed so distant, so far removed from everything that surrounded her now. The world had been so thoroughly transformed. Luckily most of the magic seemed to have been forgotten, only the rituals remained, and that gave her hope,... it meant that their ability to do harm was limited to whatever they could do with their own hands, but she knew it was only a matter of time before they found some way to replace their lost knowledge. She saw what happened, what they did, she watched them for thousands of years. She saw massacres in the names of kings, of gods or for no other reason than greed itself, she was a witness to slavery and hatred. In time she almost managed to forget that they were the descendants of the Silver Millenium. They had been killing each other for every concievable excuse for so long that it hardly horrified her any more, but, no matter how trivial, there had always been an excuse... their faith, their country, their future... they had always sought some sort of an explanation for their actions... until now. She could not belive the insanity that surrounded her, a world in which murder was considered entertainment, where all that separated life and death was the move of a finger. They didn't even try to disguise it as a public execution anymore where they could comfort themselves with the notion that the penalty was supposed to fit the crime... just as she now realized her punishment had fitted hers. It was the only thing she could do, and so, as she fought her tears, she lowered the Garnet Orb... she reversed time in order to allow Queen Metallia's forces to ravage the Silver Millenium as they should have done so long ago. THE END Please e-mail me at: cleasaal@usa.net Home page: http://member.xoom.com/cleasaal/