Sandals made their way down a long hallway, eyes wandering over the elaborate paintings and portraits scattered along the walls. The trim was golden, everything ornate. It was always ornate here, it had always been. How she knew, she wasn't sure - she had never been down this hallway before, yet at the same time she felt as though it was a second home, a place so hauntingly familiar that she did know where she was. Her movement was not her own and as she passed by and addressed a stranger who kindly bid her a good day, she realized her words as well were not hers to control. It was as if she were watching a movie, yet at the same time had been cast as the starring role.
She was looking for someone. Her thoughts told her she had already checked the rest of the palace and now had moved on to the east side, investigating further. There was shame in her desire to see him, but an excitement that kept her spirits high, kept her on the pursuit of finding him when she knew deep down inside that she shouldn't. It wasn't right.
Despite the few she inquired, no one seemed to know where he had gone to. Most smiled, knowing why she was asking. It was embarrassing, being so obvious, but today would change everything. Today was going to be the day. It was beginning to seem like a hopeless hunt until she spotted a familiar figure in one of the rooms she passed by. Her heart told her one thing when she saw him, her thoughts another.
"Tempus!"
Her legs carried her into the open doorway, towards the young boy sitting on the floor, a book in his lap as his eyebrows furrowed in frustration. He was trying to read - little Tempus was always trying to be like the others. Yet, as hard as he tried, he was never able to keep up with his fellow Cavaliers, all men of at least twice his age with tasks and duties only grown men could take on. Which left poor little Tempus to his lonesome as he struggled to keep up with his older peers.
But for her, he was helpful. Most of the Cavaliers didn't bother with the hired help, they didn't care to address or speak to her on any sort of personal level. Especially with her, as they knew of her feelings for him. To them, she was hired to work and nothing more, deserving absolutely no attention from the man they protected. But Tempus, little Tempus, he was always so friendly, always so eager to help anyone who asked it of him that it didn't matter who asked it of him. Even her.
Which was exactly what she needed.
Raven curls tumbled down over her shoulders as she crouched to meet him at eye level. She glanced down at the book he was trying to read - keyword trying, as it was obviously too advanced for his young mind to handle. "Do you need any help?"
"No."
His scowl was precious, his bottom lip sticking up indignantly as he raised his head to look back at her. The tone clear: he was going to read this book, just like he had read all the others and he was going to do it by himself. She wasn't going to argue with him, she never did. Nor did she ever say anything on the few occasions he'd wandered over to her and sheepishly inquired as to 'what this word meant'. "I don't need any help."
The opportunity having opened itself, she quickly took advantage of it. "Well I do need your help, if Cavalier Tempus has a minute to spare for a lowly servant girl?"
The book closed within moments, the scowl disappearing even quicker as his face broke into a smile. He liked it when she played this game with him, liked it when she went to him for questions instead of the others. "Yes ma'am?"
Tugging on one of his dark dreadlocks, she shook her head, his infectious smile forcing her own lips up into a grin. "You know you don't have to address me as such, you silly thing. Do you know where the Prince has run off to? I have a message to give him."
She was not a messenger. He knew this as well as she did, but as many times as she had asked it of him, he didn't seem to mind. This time, the young boy seemed to hesitate at first, but eventually the answer came. "He went off into the garden, ma'am. But-"
"Tempus."
Both the young boy's and her own head turned at the sound of the deep voice, the owner of the voice standing in the doorway to the room. Dark indigo and silver decorated his uniform, complimenting his own lavender hair and dark skin.
As she rose from where she crouched, Tempus struggled to do the same, his book still in his hand.
Her eyes met with pale gray ones and she nodded her head. "Mortalitas."
He responded with a nod of his own but nothing more. There was never anything more than simple acknowledgment, as if she wasn't worth the time. She probably wasn't in his eyes, as only three people in the world seemed to generate any sort of emotion out of him, one of those three currently standing beside her.
Tempus seemed oblivious to the older man's coldness, turning to wave at her as he was escorted out of the room and into the hallway alongside the taller Cavalier. She shot the stoic man a look as he walked away, but said nothing more. She'd gotten the answer she wanted and there was no longer a reason for her to linger.
Eager feet took her back through the hallway, out through the gates and into the garden. It was the very same garden where she'd spent pining, wishing and dreaming that one day he would notice her, that he would one day return the feelings she shared for him. It wasn't right - it wasn't appropriate, but she knew that once he learned he loved her in return, everything would be all right.
Except, everything was not all right.
Upon entering the garden, she immediately heard his voice. Her spirits were elated and her sandals walked even faster...today was going to be the day, she just knew it, today was going to be the day when she told him how she truly felt! All at once, a second voice spoke up, forcing her to halt in her tracks. That innocent, soft voice brought a feeling of dread over her. It couldn't be...
"Oh Endymion, do you really mean it?"
Pale hands gently pressed against the pillar of the pavilion, her head moving to peer around it, allowing her access to see the speakers. There he was, handsome as ever, his dark head nearly half a foot taller than her own. There was nothing she didn't love about him, the way he spoke, the way he smiled, the way he laughed. When he would look at her, it was as if he knew he wasn't seeing just a servant girl. He saw her for who she really was, and she loved him for it.
But he wasn't looking at her. He was staring down, entranced by the young girl in his arms who smiled back up at him. The mark on her forehead was evidence enough of her birth - she was of Lunar royalty, taboo on Earth. She'd heard of the Moon Kingdom's court absorbing so many others, now in pursuit of Earth's. Why was the Prince talking with her? Why was the Prince smiling, laughing, speaking with this wretched girl?
"Of course I mean it," He said with a smile that now belonged to the girl standing with him, "The Moon and Earth Kingdoms will unite with our marriage - I'll arrange a meeting with the courts this afternoon."
The hands on the pillar now gripped against the sides, her legs nearly giving way beneath her as her face grew ashen. The despair within was overwhelming, almost suffocating as reality reared its ugly head into her dream of the future. This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be real. Her Prince, her love, the man she was destined to marry... no. It couldn't be true, he couldn't betray her like this.
"No...."
She took a step back, only to find herself running into a wall. A living, breathing wall with a voice nearly as hard as the marble she'd let go of.
"Beryl, what are you doing?"
Her head jerked around, blurry eyes immediately recognizing the form of Captain Kunzite, head of the Cavaliers. He was staring at her through icy blue eyes, blue eyes that no doubt judged her and already knew in fact why she was standing there, spying on the crown Prince.
She said nothing, the truth obvious to them both, and she pushed her way past the tall man, making her way back into the palace as hands raised to wipe away the incriminating tears.
When she opened her eyes, sandals were no longer walking across the marble pathway, but instead heels clicked their way across cold stone, their sound echoing against the walls of the dark cavern.
The young girl on the ground before her was screaming at her in Japanese, a language she'd been forced to learn after her return to Earth. The girl was screaming and sobbing, talking about the corruption, the evilness of the woman who stood before her.
The Queen failed to care, her own eyes blinded by her hatred for this girl, this body that homed the same soul that had taken away her joy, her love in life. This little brat had ruined her, had forced the Negaverse ruler to take her Prince instead of allowing him to come to her willingly. Forced her to feed energy into him, to convince him that she was his lover, that she was the one he was meant for.
One hand outstretched itself in offering towards the dark haired prince that knelt at her side. Her eyes never left the girl on the ground before them.
"Tell me you love me, Endymion."
He took her hand, kissing the back of it. "I have no other love than you, Beryl."
The pitiful blonde was sobbing, shaking her head as she refused to believe his words. The Queen knew what she was feeling. She knew that feeling from that fateful day in the garden - but it was Serenity's turn to suffer.
"Kiss me."
The Prince rose from the ground and took the dark Queen in his arms. His lips were cold as they pressed against hers and there was no passion behind the kiss. But it was a kiss and it was a kiss from the Prince - her desire, her dream.
The sobbing from the senshi had reached the end of her patience and one long finger stretched out to point in her direction. "If you love me, Endymion, you will kill her."
He moved to do so, following the brainwashed command of his new Queen, but the unexpected happened. Somehow, some way, the Moon heiress managed to turn him back against her. Managed to turn him towards the Lunar court and denounce his affections for the Queen who had fought so hard to win him back. Now he was no longer trying to kill Sailor Moon, but had taken his weapon to use against her.
Closing her eyes, she screamed as he struck her, her own dark power piercing through his chest at the same time.
Everything went black.
From the darkness came a voice, a familiar voice she'd heard for years.
"This is everything I have been working towards and everything I've been ******** protecting. Everything. Everything we ever worked towards. Back in the days when there were only four of us, and I wasn't even ******** awake -- "
Mortalitas was here again. He had come to pay his respects, as he had before... or wait, no. Something was different this time. He was not alone.
"This will ******** kill you, Captain, and you'd sell it for a kiss?"
She could sense her presence, but that was the limit. She heard the words her self-promoted General-King said, her curiosity rising. Had he brought her another offering, another body to take control of, for her grand return?
"That's your price? A kiss? You barter away -- ******** -- everything -- for a kiss?"
This conversation hadn't been like the others. The other two had been ordered, both mindless drones who did as they were commanded. This girl was different, she had obviously been given a choice. A choice... and then boldly made a request that had both her own and Mortalitas' heads spinning. Who was she, to ask for such a foolish thing in return? Didn't she know what she was being given the chance to do? And why, of all people, was she asking her request of Charonite?
As the girl entered her chamber, the decision was instant. This was her new vessel, this would be her new body. Charonite had sacrificed the woman who loved him so that his Queen could return. This was a worthy offering, this was a sign of devotion she could reward, that she could respect.
The girl's energy was powerful, but nothing compared to hers, and she embraced her with bony arms as she entered the coffin. She absorbed herself into her, using the last of her reserved strength to assimilate the girl to her, tearing apart her body so that a new one, a better one could form. In that moment they were one, they shared their feelings, their memories, their emotions. The vessel rejected the memories, pushed them aside as she screamed inwardly from her body's destruction, but she devoured the girl's thoughts like a wolf upon a lamb. This girl loved Mortalitas, though she was unaware of who she loved. She was a foolish girl, but she was a devoted girl, and her new body's inhabitant could not suppress the pang of familiarity. Two women, both with unrequited love, both with men willing to let the women who loved them die for their own causes.
The emptiness consumed them both, but only briefly. Unlike Endymion, Mortalitas was still alive. Charonite was still there, kneeling as she emerged from her tomb, a faithful servant with no Moon Princess to corrupt him. The girl was jealous - she could feel it, feel the power throbbing within her as she fought angrily to take her body back. The General-King had never looked at her before like this and now that she was Queen, now that she was the one he'd been working towards, his eyes refused to leave her.
He was no Endymion. He would never be Endymion, the Prince who left a hole in her heart, the man who had left her bitter and cold. This girl, Ursula, she didn't know what it was like. She had it easy - she had a man who was now willing to go to the ends of the world for her, something she had desired of Endymion but failed to receive.
Leaning over, she pulled his face to her own, the voice inside begging her to stop. She didn't love him, why was she doing this? Why was she taking control, taking the affection from a man who meant nothing to her? Lips touched and she held on to him possessively. He was hers, he had always been hers from the moment he swore an oath to her - he could love another but he would always and forever be hers to control.
Stepping back, she laughed, drunk with her own enjoyment, the exhilaration of once again being alive, being in power. Too long had she been waiting, too long had she suffered in silence.
"I think," she purred, her head tilting slightly as she stared over at the General-King, "things are going to be a little different around here from now on, darling."
She smiled as he approached her, her eyes closing as he wrapped her arms around his neck, his own encircling her waist. Lips descended onto hers for a second kiss and the voice inside her head screamed.
As she pulled away and opened her eyes, the gray eyes staring back into hers had turned dark and she recognized the face she was staring into not as Charonite, not as Mortalitas, but as the Prince of Earth himself.
"You're finished, Beryl."
Endymion's arms released from around her and he stood back, his band of Cavaliers now forming a half circle of support around their prince. Kunzite withdrew his sword from its scabbard, taking one step forward to stand protectively in front of his leader.
She waited for the body to respond, waited for the voice of Beryl to take over, to counter the new development. But there was nothing. No voice, no movement. Reality dawned on her that finally, at long last, Ursula herself was in control of her body.
But it wasn't her body that she was controlling.
Everyone was around her. Castor, Virgo, Chronos, all the senshi she had fought in the past, all the Guardians, the Hillworth students. They were staring at her, glaring at her, their faces twisted with hatred.
Finally, she managed to find her voice, and she choked out her plea. "You guys, it's me. It's Ursula. I'm not Beryl, I'm -"
"You are one and the same, the name means nothing at this point." Kunzite interrupted, clearly tiring of the situation. Kunzite, the man who had judged her from the beginning, the Cavalier who had led his troops into the Negaverse to serve under herself and the Prince. Kunzite, the man who was wielding his sword at her now, his eyes as judgmental as ever. "You have attempted to take our Prince, you have attempted to take Earth for yourself. Both unforgivable crimes, both punishable by death."
Hands were raised in her defense, her head shaking wildly as floor-length hair swayed with the movement. "No. No. I love Khalid, I love Charonite. I don't want Endymion. I've never wanted Endymion - it was her."
"Oh. Really. That's why you killed him, right? Because you love him. That makes a lot of ******** sense. Is that why you killed the rest of them too? Because you loved them?"
She felt her blood go cold as the newest voice spoke up. Out from the crowd appeared little Tempus, whose face matched the remaining onlookers. One finger moved to point at her feet and she dreaded the idea of looking down. Dreaded, but looked down all the same and there, littered around the hem of her dress, lay the bodies of her friends, her companions, her lover. Drew had a gaping hole in his chest, his face stuck in a horrified expression as his heart, torn out, lay beside him. Aree was missing both of her arms, her tall form curled up into a ball, drenched in a pool of her own blood. Lina's corpse was sprawled on top of her, a knife imbedded deep into her back. Khaldun - she could barely look at Khaldun - his head smashed up entirely, only recognizable from the few coarse dreadlocks that dangled from the skull with peeling skin. And then there was Khalid, Khalid, who lay perfectly still, hollow gray eyes staring up at her, motionless. Her lover. Her husband. Her General-King. Dead, at her feet.
"I... no, I didn't do this. I couldn't have done this."
"We watched you do it. You let them die. It's all your fault, Ursula, it's your fault - you could have stopped all of this!"
She fell to her knees, fingers desperately grabbing for the man who lay on the ground, her hands moving to hold on to him, to clutch at him. He couldn't be dead. He couldn't be dead. Empty eyes stared up at her, refusing to blink, his expression unchanging as mingled blood on the ground began to soak into her gown.
"You don't understand, no, please - please listen! That wasn't me, no, that wasn't me!"
But no one heard her. No one could hear her, not over the sound of cheering as Heaven's Mandate pierced through her chest, running itself deep - deep enough that she could feel it push its way out her back, the cold blade making a new sheath of her chest.
As she fell, the last thing she saw before the world collapsed into darkness were the pale gray eyes of the one man whom she loved, the one man who had died - apparently by her own hands.
~
She awoke in tears, as she had every morning for the past week. Tears and a nauseated stomach, which forced her to throw the bed covers back and stumble half-awake towards the bathroom. The memories of the nightmare plagued her, the blood, the bodies, the death. And, as she emptied the contents of her stomach into the toilet, she couldn't help but dread what next dream awaited her in her sleep.
