It wasn't that she didn't want to sleep; she tried, honestly. She told herself it was time to buck up, it was time to stop being silly and worry-iy and start acting like a true leader, a true Princess. Not like a fool that would always quietly bob her head in the corner and then speak up and say silly things that were basically rewording what others had said and stop being so paranoid and panicky and...
Breathe. Serenade told herself, shutting her eyes once again, and tossing in her bed, going from lying on her back to on her side, staring at the figure in the other bed that was Elke. There was another sigh as she opened an eye and then turned on her other side.
Serenade had always wondered why people never knew when exactly was the point when they stopped being awake and when they started falling asleep. It was hard to tell, hard to tell when your eyes actually closed, and you couldn't even see darkness anymore...
*****
And then there was darkness again. It was not fully darkness, yet there was a sort of emptiness to it, she thought, gazing out to the vast space of scenery that lay before her. At least there were stars, bright twinkling ones that sparkled in the distance, there were shadows of planets, although so tiny they could be marbles. It was so strange to be seeing this, yet it was so awkwardly familiar as well. Almost as if she had seen this so long, seen this ever since she was a babe, and had grown up in...
Something clicked and somebody chuckled behind her. "Welcome home, Princess."
Her eyes were torn away from the scenery she had been staring at as she turned, long green hair rippling with the movement as she did. There was a gasp caught in her throat as she registered the tall figure who had spoken and she instinctively moved, ran really, her bare feet padding across the floor with those soft thump thump thump as she made her way to him, the long train of her dress trailing behind her and the pink butterflies fluttering after her. "You're here." She said, once she was buried in his embrace, in the embrace of the man she had always loved.
"I miss you too." Prince Eon said calmly, in the cavalier attire she had always remembered him in. That golden ring upon his forehead, and that earring on his left ear, the tiny green drop of a jewel, and his light green cloak that was almost the color of her hair, just almost.
"Do you hate me." She said, although the way she asked it of him was phrased in the form of a statement than a question. It was like, she knew he probably resented her, but didn't know how to ask for the answer, didn't know exactly how to say it. Didn't know if she wanted to hear it. "I lost it. I lost the Opal..."
"Hush." Eon said, now holding her at arm's length. "Hush, Princess."
It startled her, because she realized that he never really called her Princess to her face. He had always affectionately called her Ser, even Sera, but perhaps when she had been only Princess Chronos, he had? She couldn't remember properly, her mind was muddled up. Minds were always muddled up in dreams.
It was probably also why, when she blinked up at him, his dark blue eyes glowed at her, like glowsticks, a little voice in her mind told her and she jumped, and blinked a few times before looking back at him.
They were gone, normal eyes sparkling at her like normal eyes should.
"I'm sorry I'm not a good Princess." She told him with a feeble smile on her face. She could almost imagine herself being the ruin of her Court, ash at her feet, this place crumbling down because they couldn't stop anymore Chaos Monster, because their Princess was such a dumb figurehead...
"You're a Princess." And Eon's eyes glowed at her again. Again, Chronos jumped, stepped backwards in shock, even attempted to rub her eyes with her hands, but he forced them away and held them by the wrists. "Look at me, Princess." His eyes were still glowing, and no amount of blinking to take that away, and when Chronos tried to yank herself away, he held her tight.
Ally had never been so forceful before.
"You're the only Princess." Eon leaned forward to whisper into her ear, as if there were others around, as if it was some sort of secret. "The only Princess right now, alive and doing well."
"There's Nehelen..." Chronos started, stammering, and Eon snorted. He also laughed, not in the way he usually did; chuckling brightly with a lilt in his laugh that always made people smile (made her smile, at least), but it was a deeper sort of laugh that chilled her to the bone.
"Nothing compared to the Princess of the Zodiac." He said after he was done with that scary laugh of his, and Chronos wished she could wrap her arms around herself, because she was shivering from the cold he had struck in her heart, and it was nothing compared to Season Escalation, when she could make it Winter, when Flora and Neso always never did look too happy...
"They took your power because it's powerful." He said, still not letting her go, and Chronos turned her head, mouth drawn into a grimace, and then realized, with a start, the butterflies fluttering around her seemed to droop, and one landed feebly on Eon's shoulder. He freed a hand to brush it away with a look of disdain on his face, letting it fall to the ground, and as she looked on in horror, wanting to protest but found she could not, he seized her wrist which had been momentarily left free during that period of time. "Because you're powerful. Like how they isolated us out here all these years ago. Made us fight Chaos Monsters. Made us protect everyone while they partied and laughed and did nothing. Made us be the Warriors, the Soldiers that held the line."
"It has always been like that." Chronos squirmed in his grasp, trying to break free so she could scoop the fallen butterflies into her palm and make sure they were okay. The pink glow around them was flickering, and it was unnerving.
"It doesn't need to be." Eon continued, grip tightening. "We could take over the Moon Court any day. What does Princess Serenity do? Nothing. You've been fighting. What does Captain Venus know about War? She hasn't led her team to slay one Chaos Monster after another, not like how Aries has. They have never fought like we have."
"They are now." Chronos argued, although her voice sounded weak to herself, pitiful. Like there was no reason to her point of view, and Eon was making all the sense.
"You could be a better Princess, a better ruler." He told her, and everything around her seemed to darken, and made his eyes glow brighter. "Make them all Soldiers. And when Princess Serenity finally awakens, she will realize it is you who has the power. You. Not the Princess who idles around and flees to Earth every now and then to sigh at the Prince of the Earth. You're much better than that."
"I'm not." Chronos faltered, not looking at him, but he released one of her wrists and used that free hand to tilt her chin towards him, to make her look at him.
"Don't tell me you never resented your cousin for being the carefree one when you were the one doing all the hard work. You were the Princess that fought, that actually did something instead of frolic around with the Prince..."
"E-enough." Chronos said shakily, finally finding the strength within her to tear herself away from him, feet stumbling backwards. "I never, I never..."
"So what if the Opal Crystal is gone?" He asked her, taking one stride after another towards her. "You can get it back. He wanted it because it was powerful. Because you are a much more worthy Princess than Serenity will ever be, look at that ridiculous thing by his side that calls herself Serenity..."
"Enough!" Chronos yelled, her voice reverberating around the halls. This wasn't the Eon she knew, the Ally she knew, and she hadn't even realized that her cheeks were wet with tear tracks running down her face. "Stop it stop it stop it!"
He had stopped in his tracks and smirked at her. "If you say so Princess." And then, to her horror...
The butterflies had risen up, but now they had gone dark glowstick blue, fluttering besides Eon, and there were more than there usually were, their sound of their wing flapping in unison frightening her. "Don't regret your decision." Eon whispered, and his flesh slowly fell off, and there was dark red blood dripping on the floor, his bones showing, and then he was only left with a skeleton wearing his clothes.
The blue butterflies headed towards her, surrounding her, but she could swear she could still the skeleton grinning at her, and then dropping to the floor in a pile of bones, crumbling do the floor. The butterflies were on her skin now, her hair, her face, her dress, even on her feet, and instead of it being a comforting touch, it felt like they were burning her, and they were going to make her like how Eon had just died right in front of her.
"If you say so, Princess."
