After his initial shock had faded, Zephyr found himself visiting the world of Zephyr once more. He wasn’t surprised to see that his world mirrored Flora’s in its absolute destruction. “..Heh.” he found himself with a sardonic smile. What use was a planet that could be so utterly destroyed? How weak.

Picking himself up, Zephyr dusted off his clothes and looked around. He supposed that he should explore or there would be no point to visiting. He stepped through the broken remains, his eyes taking in the sight of the destroyed castle. When he arrived in what he guessed to be a lobby, what caught his eye was dual staircases on his left and right leading up. Zephyr ascended the left set of stairs to a grand hallway where several rooms resided. He stepped through what used to be a door, merely seeing if there was anything that remained here.

On the left of the room laid a vanity desk. The mirror was cracked and broken, the material having decayed. But atop the dresser was a dusty, but intact, snow globe.

Zephyr’s hand brushed away the dust to reveal a parchment beneath the snow globe. The letter was faded and yellow, most likely due to the passage of time. He turned it over to look at the back. From Fleur was written, the letter smelling faintly of flowers. If he could recall correctly, Fleur was Flora’s past life’s name, wasn’t it? He supposed that there was some truth behind Zephyr and Fleur’s connection. How much of a connection was debatable.

Setting aside the intricately crafted snowglobe, he unfolded the already opened letter, his blue eyes settled upon reading the delicate handwriting.

-

Dear Sailor Zephyr,

I am writing this to inform you of

Dear Zephy,

It's horrible to try and write formally. It's horrible to even write at all; my hands are shaking because everything is in chaos around us. And I mean that literally too, there's Chaos monsters at everywhere... we seem to have gotten distress calls from every outpost these few days. We're alright now, I guess, if you can call having so many casualties and injuries on the battlefield alright. Then again, we're mostly alive, but bloody. For now, it's like a calm before the storm; everyone's in jitters because we know there will be more. We're all readying ourselves for this battle to come, and the armor feels heavier. Maybe they've added something, maybe it's the knowledge that it's going to be a tough battle...

Oh god Zephy, I can't hold it back any longer. We all know we're going to die. It's like we can see our impending deaths before us and it is horrible and I'm so scared, Zephy, everywhere I look, there are grim faces, stricken faces who've seen their comrades struck down. The only thing that rouses our morale is the Princess. She's our light. She always has been. She is the best thing ever about this... Zephy, what if she dies? What if she dies and I can't do anything about it because I'm a hopeless wreck of a Handmaiden?? I've always hated being it, you know, because of the responsibilities I'd had to deal with, but the Princess is wonderful. I have to protect her, even though I'm worthless and horrible and stupid; I should have taken this more seriously, I should have trained more, there's no point in saying all this, isn't there?

I'm going to die. I know that. But I'm not letting the Princess die before my eyes. It's my duty to fight to protect her and I am going to do it. Hah. It figures it would take my impending death to finally get myself straightened out, huh? I mean, when I first met my predecessor, she was younger than I am now, and she still seems loads more mature than I ever was. Am I saying I regret running away with you all those times? I don't know. Maybe I could have been a better person, a better Handmaiden, if I didn't?

...I guess I should, I don't know, make my will or something? But my things will probably all go to my successor, and you probably don't want all my flowery stuff, ha. Will I even have a successor? I mean, the Princess hasn't even gotten pregnant yet, so...

No, I have to be optimistic about that. That's the Fleur you know, isn't it? I have to smile and we'll tide this through. Not really, but I mean, at least I know you're safe back there. It's a bit weird to ask you this but maybe, you could take care of my successor when she comes? Tell her not to reject her duties like I did, okay? I think she'll be okay with you. I was, after all. Just treat her like you did to me and everything will be fine.

Also, thanks for being a great friend and, haha, a fiancee. You have no idea how much fun and happiness and thrill you brought me and I appreciate that more than you will ever know. Don't be too sad about me, okay? Maybe when this reaches there (because you know how slow space post is sometimes), I'll already be fighting. I could already have... you know... gone. Tell the rest not to be unhappy either. Having Flora in mourning is horrible for tourism, you know? Tell Aunt Iris that I don't want her to be sad! I know she pretty much dislikes you, but that's because she cared about me. Although she probably will be fine anyway. I've always been told the Zodiacs die young, and so do the Hands. I just never imagined how fast it would all seem...

Oh, and there's Knight Lemon Rind too! Make sure he's still not too uptight!

I'm sending this letter along with my favorite Flowerglobe, you know, the one with my symbol on it. It's technically not really yours, since it'll be passed down to the next Flora, but I just want you to keep it safe for me, please? I can't bear the thought of it getting broken here if Chaos manages to...

Or you can always pass it on to Aunt Iris! I think it'd be much more interesting if you could give it personally to the next Flora though. I know it's a lot to ask for you, but I guess you can say it's my last request? You can't say no to that, can you?

Love,
Fleur


-

Flora, his fiancee? Zephyr had to wonder what was going through his predecessor's head. Although it sounded like the Flora he knew, down to her mannerisms and tone. But it seemed that this Flora, or Fleur, was a bit more of a fool than this current Eve. "Tch." Didn't she have something better to do than write such a letter? If she had time to waste upon a letter, she should have dedicated it to her survival instead of dying.

And as for the past Zephyr.. Zephyr might have thought of him as an idiot, but to be this much of an idiot? What was he doing?

While reading, his head was filled with a sudden sharp pain, causing Zephyr to drop to his knees – the letter fluttering to the ground. “Not another..!” He gritted his teeth, the images pouring into his head all the same.

-----





An image of a grandiose palace flicked inside of his head. Sailor Zephyr didn’t frequent the palace often, despite living there as his official residence, because of his travels. Sailor Zephyr was not one to stay behind in a life of luxury either, often traversing in the city or villages. But even then, he didn’t remain on Zephyr for long periods of time. His presence was only guaranteed at royal or diplomatic affairs that required a senshi’s presence. Despite his absence, there were a few bedrooms set aside for his preferences. In particular, there was a room reserved for guests like Flora.

Zephyr had heard the rumors of her presence long before arriving at the palace.

In a moment, a man enshrouded in a torn cape with a hood covering the entirety of his face appeared on the balcony railings. Pushing aside the curtains with one hand, he stepped into the delicate bedroom of a girl he knew very well. He pulled down his collar, revealing a very familiar lower half, blue tendrils peeking out from beneath the cloth to hint at his identity – and finally spoke,“Are you happy to see me Fleur?”

He pulled back his hood, revealing a very handsome and recognizable, at least to Fleur, face of the Senshi of Zephyr. It looked a bit different.. but the past Zephyr and current Zephyr shared a startling resemblance. It had been several weeks, perhaps a month since he had last seen the handmaiden.

One eye was loosely covered as a sign of recent injury. Zephyr could not yet see out of it but he was told that he would recover his sight in time. Until then.. “I heard that you needed me.” Zephyr had arrived as soon as he could. He smiled gently – bringing his arms to wrap the senshi of spring from behind. One arm wrapped around Flora’s chest , his other hand grasping the top of Flora’s head if she was ready to cry.

“Shall I take you away? Once more?” He couldn’t make Fleur into somebody else. He couldn’t give her freedom, freedom from her fate as a handmaiden. But he could do this much for her.