So without much further ado, Part 2.

Disclaimers as usual.

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“Live” Part Two

by Greta

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Silence was everything there was to keep her company, and it had been that way since time existed. Her magenta eyes narrowed at the fog slowly drifting around her, leaving her surroundings cool and damp. Raising the elegantly crafted staff clasped in her gloved hand, she brought it down swiftly to the hard ground beneath her. The sound echoed strangely around her, seemingly carrying into all of eternity.

“Who comes to tread upon the holy grounds time rests upon?” she spoke clearly, never once leaving the small stirring in the fog out of her eyes. “Answer!”

“Pluto … The loneliest of all. Trapped to guard the gate of time for all of eternity, not once knowing what it is, to live a normal live. Don’t you wish … Don’t you wish it could be another way?” The voice of a woman spoke not only clearly, but mockingly. Footsteps could be heard, moving closer to the senshi.

Pluto snarled. “I will ask you only once. What do you want?”

“Oh dear, dear Pluto. Tut tut. I thought you’d greet guests more warmly. There can’t be many of them. All your little senshi friends seem to have better things to do, don’t they? Living their lives for instance.”

“Time is my life,” Pluto said, unmoved.

“Isn’t it sad? I’d even say pathetic.”

Raising the tall staff with the ornate orb atop of it, she swung it as gracefully in her hands as a sword fighter, bringing it down upon the ground with a deafening sound. Time seemed to crackle around her, vibrating and threatening.

“Pathetic, yes?” the tall senshi whispered, her fuku whipping around her.

“Yes.”

Time grumbled, growled, and did not need a mouthed word from Pluto to attack the intruder.

But it was too late. All that had been left to attack was a mocking laugh, and the tiniest of golden crystals on the ground.

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A knock on the door made the Queen look up from her desk.

“Enter, enter.”

Armina entered, looking troubled.

The Queen sighed at the sight of her. “Please, please do tell me something pleasurable. That the rose gardens have suddenly burst into bloom again. That one of the Princesses is in love. That the Princess has gotten the sudden urge to show manners and grow up. Something. Just no more bad news. I can’t take it.”

Armina let out a shaky breath, feeling as responsible as if every bad thing happening was her own fault. Oh, how she would like to tell Serenity something nice. How she would like to burst into her Queen’s office, telling her something thrilling, something funny, something exciting, the way she used to do when she younger. Oh, it seemed so long ago. A lifetime even.

“I’m so sorry, Serenity,” she whispered, before raising her eyes to look at her Queen.

“It’s alright, Armina. Forgive me. I’m not acting like the ruler of a kingdom.” Smiling ever so slightly, she urged Armina to go on.

“Pluto has come. She would like to talk to you.”

“Pluto? But, …” The Queen sat down in her seat abruptly again. Pluto. The Guardian of Time and Space. The Lonely Senshi. Was it this bad already? “Is she here already? Or should I go to see her?”

“No, Queen, she sent note that she would be here shortly. She said you should not attempt to go through the door of time under any circumstances,” Armina replied, feeling that this was the most un-pleasurable news she could bring.

And she was quite right. Resting her forehead on her hands, Serenity leaned forwards on her desk, signalling for Armina to leave.

The advisor bit her lip while curtsying, even though her Queen’s mind was obviously elsewhere and had never cared for such formalities, before she left the large room which dealt as her Queen’s office, letting the Lunarian Guards close the tall white doors behind her.

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On the other side of the palace, a young princess was still sleeping ever so deeply, dreaming strange dreams. Even though the sun was already shining brightly into her room, it did not help in waking the silver-haired Serenity at all. Curled up tightly in a mass of pillows and blankets, her hair tussled, she looked not so much like a princess, but more like a normal girl.

Gasping suddenly, her eyes shot open while she sat up starkly, feeling sheer terror creep through every vein in her body, making her breath shorten and the tears almost come to her eyes.

Realizing she was in her own bed, in her own room, and not still trapped in her gruesome dreams, the horror started ebbing from her body, though it was still hard for her to bite back the urge to just scream. Feebly untangling herself, she wiped her sweaty hands on her sheets, before slowly moving her legs over the edge of the bed.

“God … What a dream, …” she whispered out to herself. Putting on her slippers and silk dressing-gown, she started combing her hair with her fingers while walking around her room.

It had been a gruesome dream. War had raged on her beloved moon. A war much too brutal. And with blood, so much blood.

She clenched her eyes shut, gnawing at her lips. She could still smell the gruesome smell of death. Cold and stale, shutting out every happy feeling there had ever been in her life.

“Good morning, dearie,” her plump chambermaid called out cheerily, ripping Serenity from her thoughts.

“Good morning, Magda,” Serenity greeted her, worry still thick in her voice.

“You still look tired, darling! Why, couldn’t you get to sleep last night?” The small woman patted her arm, smiling up at her, before attacking her bed, tutting about its messiness.

“Something like that,” Serenity mumbled under her breath, thinking of her little ‘evening-walk’ with Rei the evening before.

“Don’t you worry, dearie! While you go and freshen yourself up, I’ll get you a good breakfast, alright?”

“It’s already so late, I guess?” Serenity smiled sheepishly.

Magda winked at her, smiling back. “Well, they had their breakfast downstairs two hours ago, yes.”

Serenity laughed, before making her way to her bathroom, the thoughts of a hot cup of tea and a large breakfast, pushing the last horror in her body to the back of her mind.

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“Queen,” Pluto addressed her Queen respectfully, before curtsying in front of her.

The Queen nodded at the senshi, indicating her to stand up. “Pluto, I’m glad to see you,” Serenity said, smiling warmly at her, trying to hide her worry.

“Queen, I am afraid I don’t have any good news.”

The Queen nodded, sighing. “I thought so. Please sit down, and tell me what there is to say.”

Pluto moved forward, her staff still clasped tightly in her hand. Seating herself opposite the Queen, she slowly edged closer to the Queen’s magnificent desk made out of the palest wood imaginable.

Letting her arm hover shortly above her staff, it shrank away until nothing but the brilliant red orb was left, which hovered silently in the air. Moving her now free arm across the table towards the Queen, she slowly made her hand into a fist, closing her eyes, before opening her fingers once again and letting golden dust trickle unto the desk.

The Queen raised her eyebrows in wonder, before letting her hand graze through the strange dust.

“What … ?”

“Someone intruded the Grounds of Time today. The person came and left without me being able to trace where from and to.” Pluto leant closer to the Queen. “Serenity, barely anyone is able to do that. And not only that, she was fast. I can’t say if time even scratched her when I attacked.” There was not only worry, but definite anxiousness in her voice. “This,” she indicated at the golden dust “was all that was left behind of her. Nothing more but these tiny golden crystals. Even though they’re so tiny, they are some of the most exquisite I have ever seen.”

The Queen nodded slowly, before asking the one question on her mind. “She?”

Pluto let out a rattling sigh, before nodding. “I believe it might be her.”

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Moving about a small stand which sold various goods, a young woman was carrying heavy crates forth and fro, her deep red hair getting in her way once more. Angrily stopping to pull it back, she sighed. It was such a hot day, and she felt horribly uncomfortable. Her woollen dress made every part of her body it touched scratch. Her back ached from a hard days work, and sweat was trickling down her smooth neck. Her hands, hardened from her daily work, brushed angrily at her hair. And she had barely sold anything that day. Again.

Either it was the horrible heat that had been plaguing their village for the past few weeks, or her customers had just all wandered off to other stands. Or, they just didn’t have enough money, just like her.

So, they lived on Earth. Oh, the lovely blue planet. With its lovely kingdom, who always said to be proud of its people and their lovely planet.

“My ass,” the young woman muttered angrily under her breath, roughly pulling one crate atop of the other.

As if her King and Queen gave a damn about her. Did they help her, when she didn’t know how to live through the following day? Did they save her from her father’s beating, when she didn’t bring home enough money by the end of the day? Instead of caring for the people they always talked so much and highly about, the royalties were just sitting in their grand palace in the far capital of the kingdom, barely any normal person had every been to, having a glorious life without any trouble at all.

Animated by her negative thoughts, she brought her hand harshly down on a wooden crate, promptly cutting her hand on the rough wood and nails. Blood started trickling down her hand almost immediately.

“Ouch,” she hissed under her breath, glaring at no one in particular. Oh, what she would give for another life.

Suddenly a cloaked figure caught her eye, which was making its way to her stand. Straightening up, she ignored the stabbing pain in her right hand.

“Can I help you?” she asked politely, trying to keep all of her felt anger and frustration out of her voice.

The cloaked person did not reply, but instead moved about the small stand, fingering the baskets, and edible goods like grain and fruit with delicate hands. The young woman eyed those hands carefully; they were pale hands, with long fingers and golden fingernails. So it was a woman. A woman who did not fit here at all, if her whole person was as her hand was. Foreign, cultivated, and worst of all, rich.

Her eyes narrowed slightly at the cloaked woman. Why on earth was she wearing a cloak? It was horribly hot, especially at this time of the day, when the sun was at its highest. This woman irritated her. Maybe because she seemed to be something better. Maybe because she envied her.

“Can I help you?” she repeated once more, this time impatiently and aggressive.

“Now, now … Why so angry, dear Beryl?” the woman lowered the large woollen hood of her cloak, which had hidden her face until now completely. Her face was so pale and beautiful; it seemed to be carved out of marble. But the two deep red eyes looking out of that beautiful face at her held such hatred, such cruelty that it took her breath away.

“How do you know my name?” Beryl gasped, backing away. She did not know why terror was flooding her veins, and why her pulse was rising so fast, as the strange woman was not doing anything except staring at her, a small smile growing on her lips.

“Oh, Beryl, Beryl … I know so much more about you than you could ever guess.” Slowly, ever so slowly, she moved behind the stand to where Beryl stood. “Dear Beryl,” she whispered. She wasn’t much taller than Beryl was, but still she emanated such power, such awful power it made Beryl feel smaller with every step the odd woman made in her direction.

“What the hell do you want?” she asked in between clenched teeth.

The woman smiled mirthfully, before raising her hand to graze Beryl’s neck with her long fingernails. “Oh, haven’t you guessed yet?” And with unbelievable strength, she tightened her hand around the younger woman’s neck, making her gasp out, trying to shout, scream, anything. Her face cold and her eyes ablaze, she whispered one word.

“You.”

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Oh, you know how to please me! Leave a note, say what you think, and continue reading. ;-)

Greta