Sorry that
it’s been taking me so long to put this up. It just wasn’t until it started
pouring rain today that I finally felt like writing once more; I just keep
having the feeling that no one enjoys this story at all. Hm.
---
„Live“ Part Six
by Greta
---
Empty eyes stared at her, waiting for the
command of her voice.
Grinning maliciously, Galaxia
stared at Beryl, her deep-red eyes thoughtful. This young woman had proved
herself to be worthier than she had ever anticipated her to be. Most people dared
not even respond to a simple question the golden Queen asked, dared not even
move their bodies out of sheer terror that crept through them. But this
red-haired damsel had not only talked back fearlessly; she had also kept up
fighting her power even once her body was broken and crumbled.
“But no one … No one can live without their
light, can they, Beryl?” she whispered into the haunting stillness of the vast
room they were still in. Her low whisper of a voice resounded around them,
making her light voice seem menacing.
“No one, Queen Galaxia,
no one,” the obedient Beryl answered, her eyes lowered to the addressed
person’s feet.
Yes, no one. Galaxia
had robbed this human of her light, leaving her as an empty shell, just as she had
wanted her to be. She had crushed the woman’s essence between her very fingers,
leaving her gasping at her feet, ready to follow the golden queen without
another thought. For there were no more thoughts within her,
no more emotions, no more self-consciousness. Nothing of her former life
remained. She was as good as dead.
Brushing her long strands of hair behind her
shoulder, Galaxia slowly got up from the throne-like
seat she had been sitting in, taking drawlingly slow steps towards her newest
servant. The low clicking of her shoes echoed around them sharply with every
step she took, stopping only when she stood ever so closely in front of her
little puppet.
“You were strong, Beryl. Admirably
strong. Your mind and soul tried to resist me for such a long time,” she
spoke softly, tracing one finger down Beryl’s jaw line. She traced the soft
cheekbone, softly touching the wound with which she had marred the pretty face
of the young woman. But no sound of pain left the young woman, no beating away
of the hand which had inflicted the pain followed. Lifting one finger to tilt
her chin upwards, Galaxia gazed into Beryl’s eyes,
which remained just as empty. “But no one resists me.”
---
Luna was, to say the least,
surprised.
It began with the fact, that it was
just far too early for something like this. It continued with her Princess
being almost naked except for her nightgown, the Senshi of Venus looking like
she had just mud-wrestled, and that two of the three boys she had never seen
before, were fighting with the two young woman mentioned earlier.
Placing her hands on her hips, she
tried to look fierce and intimidating, much like her
mother did in situations like these.
“What
by the Gods is going on down
here?”
Ten startled eyes were raised to
look at the young woman standing across from them. Bright blue eyes scrunched
up, her black hair billowing around her, Luna somehow
failed miserably in doing what she had attempted to do though. Upon seeing only
her young advisor, the silver-haired Princess returned to angrily hissing at
one of the young man, and upon seeing her do so, the other ones failed to be
intimidated by Luna as well.
Hmm. She would have to work on that.
But knowing she still had an ace up her sleeve,
she moved over to them with heavy stomps, breaking into their middle easily.
“One: Princess, get dressed, now.
Two: Venus, have a bath, now. Three:
Young men, follow me to the Grand Hall, as your Princess is already sick with
worry, now.” Her arms crossed across
her chest, Luna eyed them squarely, making it clear that she was in earnest
with what she had said and was not about to back down.
“But, Luna! This, this – young man, as you called him, has been-“
“Serenity, stop it, now. You are
inappropriately dressed, Venus looks indecent, and they are your guests! And if you won’t listen to me, maybe you will
listen to Armina?”
Gulping, the fair Princess bit her lip. Luna’s
mother Armina was worse by far. Her eyebrows raised
unbelievably high, her aura crackling with electricity,
her mother’s advisor could be quite scary at times. Stomping heavily on the
floor with her right foot once, she stuck out her tongue at no one in
particular. “This is unfair!”
Gripping the young woman by the upper-arm,
Venus hissed at her to be quiet, before pulling her along down the corridor to
their rooms. She was just not in the mood to face Armina
right now, as the woman could easily rival a dragon at times.
Watching them disappear down the corridor, Luna
smiled in satisfaction. Hah. She could do it after all. Turning to face the three
boys, she smiled warmly. “You know, she won’t listen unless you force her to. I
am Luna, advisor of the young Princess Serenity. And now let’s get you to your
own Princess, shall we?”
---
Breath rattling from the icy cold
that surrounded him, he tried in vain to warm his stiff hands with breathing on
them as he pulled his shabby coat around his shivering body tightly. Pace
quick, his eyes narrowed as he passed dark alleyways, the looming shadows in
the shabby cobblestone corridors daring anyone to come
closer still, hungry eyes and dirty hands waiting to pull whoever passed by too
closely to them. Clenching his teeth, his fingers now curled into tight fists,
his pale lips in a grimace. Oh, this planet definitely presented what it stood
for in great variety. Cold and unpredictable, it never once allowed its
millions of inhabitants to live a normal life; misery and poverty abided, and
everyone, everyone from the smallest of children to the oldest that had lived most
of their lives in their memories of better times, were constantly hungry,
hungry not only for food but also for the warmth of a normal life, a life filled
with happiness and hope they had never experienced. The glorious Silver
Millennium, was it now? Greatest kingdom of the universe,
greatest monarchy of all; all powerful, all good. Hah! HAH! What a joke! What a miserable
trick! For who would ever doubt the words that silver Queen so far, far away on
the White Moon said about her kingdom? That Queen that knew nothing about their
desperate misery in the end, and that did nothing, nothing to help at all? For,
after all, how convenient it was to have a planet of death, a planet where one
could shove all unwanted people of the galaxy to. How convenient it was, to
have a place where one could put all that were said to be deceiving and
cheating, to be thieves and tricksters, to be the very worst of what human
nature could be. How convenient for the rich and powerful.
Feeling a cry of rage build up
inside of him, he clenched his eyes shut tightly in anger as he breathed in the
ice-cold air deeply, trying hard to control his anger. The air stung inside his
body like countless ice-crystals, pricking his lungs sharply; but he breathed
in deeper still, pushing the oxygen down into his body as far as he could,
savouring the painful sting, the pain that brought his mind back from wandering
in desperate thoughts that would get him nowhere for the time being. Not until
he had at last reached his destination …
His quick steps thudded heavily on
the ice-covered ground beneath his feet, the little snow that covered the thick
crusts of frozen water crunching quietly. Trying to quicken his pace all the
while, he bit into his lips that were already stiff from the pitiless cold, as his
eyes and ears strained to find what they sought for.
“ … For, what has that
oh-so-wonderful kingdom, that beautiful and gracious Queen ever done for us? …”
a voice dripping with sarcasm screeched with all its might in the far distance,
bringing a small smile of satisfaction to his face. Breaking into a slow jog
now, he forgot to care about slipping on the icy ground, desperate for the
company of others that not only felt as he did but also voiced their thoughts.
“What, I ask you? Nothing! Nothing! I say, this Queen, this rich
damsel that has no sense of reality doesn’t give a single damn about us! She
doesn’t know that we exist, she doesn’t know anything of our lives, and why,
even if she did she wouldn’t care!” Standing on a provisory stage of wooden
crates, a young man who was wrapped in a tattered coat was shouting out loudly
the words that seemed to burst from his mouth, a strange fire burning in his
eyes that were fixed on the crowd surrounding him. The crowd was cheering for
him and repeating his cries, their fists thrown into the air, their faces full
of angered agreement.
“We were never a part of this Silver
Millennium, of this kingdom that is supposed to be so grand and rich; we were
always kept on the outside! Monarchy never touched this planet, as magic never
did, never allowing us to be equal to the other planets of this galaxy! We were
always the under-dogs! Always!”
Now he too had reached the thriving
crowd that was pulsating with energy, pulsating with the fire of these people’s
souls. Pushing himself to the front of the crowd, he felt his heartbeat quicken
in rhythm with the deafening cheers that spoke his very own thoughts. Already
he could feel the cold withdraw from his body, the heat of the moment spreading
to his fingertips instead.
“But, I ask you now, why have we
been putting up with this for such a long time? Why, why? I will tell you why; because we did not use to believe in
ourselves. Without any faith there is no path. But, when we finally did find
that faith, we were robbed of that chance to rise at last! Robbed by the warriors of that kingdom we are supposed to be a part of!”
The young man clenched his eyes shut in blind rage, as he punched the air in
anger with his tightly clenched fists. He paused his
speech for a moment now, but the crowd never minded, as his words had now
kindled a fire deep inside their souls, making them shout and cry in
indignation. Scanning the crowd with his ice-blue eyes, he suddenly found a
face he recognized. Standing there at the front of the crowd, a man, not much
older than himself and just as shabbily dressed as he was, was staring up at
him, a smile playing on his lips. Nodding at him, he returned the smile, before
turning his face to look at the crowd once more.
“But no, we have learned from our
mistakes. We have not lost faith, have we?” Loud cries of denial reached his
ears, making his smile spread wider. “No, we have not! We are the people, and
we will overcome all obstacles in our way! Saturn’s people will rise once more,
and this time, we will not let ourselves be pushed back by anyone, and may it
be the Queen herself! We will rise once more! Rise!” His cries were carried to every
one of the people surrounding him, and every one of these people knew, felt it
with their heart, that he spoke the truth, their
truth. Their time was about to come – the people of Saturn would rise once
more.
---
“Seiya, Yaten, Taiki. I’m so glad to
see that you are safe.” Her hands clasped in front of her chest, the red-haired
damsel smiled a smile of pure warmth as she watched the three young men she had
so anticipated seeing enter the Grand Hall of the
“We are horribly sorry if we worried
you, Kakyuu-sama. We arrived quite well, just a bit, erm, off-course,” the auburn-haired young man said, as he
dropped to his knee just as his two companions. “We are glad to see you are
safe as well,” he added warmly. “We already missed your presence, Princess.”
Her red eyes rested upon his lilac
stare that was so endlessly sincere, as she reached out her hands first to him
and then to the three young men at large, motioning for them to get up. A warm
glow of golden light was reflecting on her pale fingers, making the rings and
bracelets she wore sparkle and shine as she stretched her graceful digits out
towards them, the sun now having risen high enough to enter through the vast
windows behind her back. Her dress of red and golden silk clung to her small
body softly, making her appearance that of a sunbathed, blood-red angel.
Drawing in his breath slowly, Seiya
took in her beautiful appearance with marvelling eyes. She looked so much like
a beautiful glowing light in that moment, that he felt he would never be able
to take his eyes from his Princess. It was only when Taiki had uttered the
words that he had suddenly realized just how true they were. They had been
separated for mere hours, but there already had been something missing; her
warmth was of the most pure he knew, and her presence held an energy that was
hardly describable. Rising slowly from the cool marble, he smiled at her as
well.
“Princess …” he said quietly under
his breath, as her red eyes met his.
“I am very honoured to meet you,
young men,” a voice suddenly cut through the high hall, high-heeled shoes
clacking as they slowly made their way. Eyes snapping up, they saw a woman
approach them slowly from the far end of the room. Her light-lilac eyes moved
slowly from one attentive face to the other as she drew closer, the white gown
that hugged her figure trailing unto the ground behind her. Silver hair spilled
down her back, reflecting the light just as the red hair of their princess was
doing; but her shine was entirely different. There was a
warmth as well, but it was more mature and less innocent, and heavy with
power at the same time. It was without a doubt the Queen of the Silver
Millennium.
“I hope you arrived safely, and that
your journey was somewhat comfortable. Trans-galaxy travel can be exhausting.”
Coming to a halt close to their Princess, she nodded graciously at them while
smiling.
Fascinated up to then with this
strange power that hovered about her, Seiya never remembered his manners until
he saw his two companions drop to their knees once more. Mirroring their action
hastily, he could feel the heat cross his cheeks as his eyes fixed on the
marble beneath his feet once more. How stupid he felt, but by far not only from
forgetting to show his respect. He rather felt that the few words she had
spoken to them did much more to make the colour rise in his face. Trans-galaxy
travel could be exhausting, yes, but especially if you had no magical powers
that were normally needed for it to work. His fingers tightened slowly into
fists, not sure if he should accept what had been said as the gracious and not at
all ill-intended comment it had obviously been meant to be. But he knew he
could barely do that; he knew his pride was by far too over-sensitive for that.
“Please rise.” She was still smiling
at them, her eyes now studying their separate faces. “I welcome you humbly to
the Solar System. Please do refrain from being overly formal with me.” Her
smile widened for a short moment, before she motioned for Luna to come closer,
who had been keeping back by the open doors until now.
“You have arrived at such an early
time that half of my Palace is not yet awake and about yet. I therefore deeply
apologize that there is no bigger welcoming at the moment as I had
intentionally planned for you to receive.”
“Serenity-sama,
please do not say such a thing. We are very sorry to have arrived earlier than
intentionally planned,” Kakyuu said, bowing slightly
in the older woman’s direction. “My mother must have gotten the time mixed up, as she insisted it was the right time to leave when we
did.”
It did not go unnoticed that the
Queen closed her eyes for the merest moment too long upon hearing the Princess
speak to the silver-haired youth. Narrowing his olive eyes at the woman that
was still so beautiful for an age that could not be too young anymore, he felt
the emotions rise in her like a storm, suddenly and out of nowhere, and with a
surprising power. Cocking his head, his face thoughtful, he tried to reach for
those emotions, grasp unto them as they spread in the Queen’s body.
Anticipation, fearful anticipation, soiled with dark visions and sinister
thoughts, spread before his inner eye, and fear, a horrible fear … Gasping, he
suddenly felt himself being pushed away without warning from those thoughts and
feelings that were not his own, leaving him to feel as if he had been thrown
off-balance. The silver-haired woman was now staring deeply into his eyes that
were now rapidly blinking after they’d been left open for too long, her eyes
slightly narrowed. What had he just experienced for that small moment? Legends
of the great Silver Millennium existed all over the universe, stories and songs
of the wonderful power and light of the beautiful Solar System. But that – that
vision, spoke nothing of those legends. Holding the stare that was being
bestowed upon him, his eyebrows knotted heavily as the Queen shook her head
once so slightly that he was very sure that no one else had seen it.
“You are too kind, Princess. I will
let Luna show you to your rooms in the West Wing of the Palace. After that you
can come and attend breakfast with the Princesses and get acquainted, if you
wish to. My door is always open for you, so please do not hesitate to come and
talk with me if you should need to,” the Queen now spoke once more, no trace of
her thoughts in her steady voice.
“You are too gracious, Queen. I
thank you for accepting us so kindly,” Kakyuu
answered as she bowed slightly once more, the warmth still radiating strongly
from her, as she looked into the taller woman’s lilac eyes that were so very
different from the only other Queen’s she knew. Her mother, Queen Kakyoko of the by far much, much smaller
“It is my pleasure,” the Queen
replied softly, a small, but strangely sad smile playing on her lips. A pleasure? Maybe she was not being quite honest with that.
It would have been a pleasure, had times been careless, and frankly normal. Her
eyes rested on these young people standing before her, their separate shines
strong and clear, their bodies full of youth and the curiosity for life it
brought along. How she despised not being able to offer them what she wished
them – a time that held no worry. And so she smiled at them, swearing to herself that she would not spoil the last of normality that
was still there for them to enjoy, until it was unavoidable at last.
---
Running, running as fast as her feet could
carry her, the cold wind whipping at her bare legs, breath short in gasps. Eyes
closed, she let her instinct carry her along for a moment, her body becoming
one with the wind blowing around her and that was playing with her tousled hair
and heavy cloak.
“Haruka!”
a voice close behind her called out, similarly out of breath.
The addressed woman glanced over her
shoulder at the young woman hot on her trail, aqua hair billowing around her.
Slowing her pace slightly, she let her step fall into the same rhythm as her
companion’s while reaching for her gloved hand. A small smile spread on her
lips, and blue eyes met blue for a short second.
But both snapped their eyes back to
the icy path they were running on suddenly as their ears recognized a loud and
threatening sound that was not being made by the stormy winds or the sinister
woods surrounding them.
“Are they …?”
Tugging at her companion’s arm
heavily, Michiru broke their mad pace on the slippery
ground beneath their high-heeled feet suddenly, pulling her roughly against a
tree that framed the uneven path. Raising her forefinger to her cold lips, she
motioned for Haruka to push up against the rough bark
of the spindly tree just as she did. Doing what she was being silently told
without question, Haruka narrowed her stormy blue
eyes at the rough stone building they had been running towards seconds earlier.
It was a low building made out of roughly hewn black stones, its age obvious
not only from the crumbling stone but also from the dead vines ranking about it
in heavy tangles and knots. But even so, old and falling apart, it still held a
strange aura. The wind’s howl seemed to grow silent as it passed over the dark
stones that were carved with ancient runes, the silence about it strangely eerie.
But a mob of people was closing in
on the old building, drawing closer with each second as cries of rage left
their bodies, cries that came from their very souls. Was she now only imagining
things because of her lack of sleep and exhaustion, or was the energy that
hovered about the old crypt now crackling with indignation over being disturbed
in its unearthly silence?
“They are mad …” Michiru
whispered in a low voice, as she shook her head slowly and with disbelief as
she saw them moving closer still, raising not only their fists into the air but
now also heavy stones and wooden crates with which they seemed ready to attack
anything and everything that got into their way.
“But what shall we do?”
“We don’t have to worry about the
crypt … It is sealed so heavily that I highly doubt our combined powers would
be able to grant us access.”
Nodding at her partner’s words, she
never let her eyes leave the mob that had now stopped in front of the entrance
to the old stone crypt that was being held up by pillars of times long gone.
Closing her eyes tightly for a moment, she clenched her teeth, feeling the
anger rise in her chest. Her fingers curling into her palms, she let out a
breath of anger in frustration, before her eyes rose to look back at the crowd,
where a tall, silver-haired man had now gotten up on a large rock that lay in
front of the crypt and had started talking animatedly with the people
surrounding him. How had this happened, how?
It reminded her so heavily of the
events of five years ago, of those horrible events, that she felt like laughing
and crying at the same time. Five years ago … what an incredible long time it
seemed to be. It was now five years ago, that events very similar to what she
was witnessing right now had started arising all over the cold planet of Saturn.
They had started meeting like this, had started shouting out harsh words of
what was only partly the truth, and had started organizing themselves. And they
had rebelled. They had risked the little they had to stand up to what was the
enemy for them, the Silver Millennium itself. How well she remembered those
days now, how the images of those days were still branded in her mind. How
helpless they’d been! They Queen had not allowed them to attack the rebels and
their followers, instead trying to plead to their senses, trying to plead that
the blood-spill and pain a rebellion brought along with it would not make
anybody’s situation easier. But they had laughed, laughed and sneered as they
had burned down every building that had ever been built under the Queen’s name
on their planet and as they sought after the few rich and wealthy that lived
among them. It seemed that they didn’t mind blood-spill and pain in the
slightest.
But they had made one mistake, one
heavy mistake that finally brought the Queen’s wrath down on them. They
threatened her; they threatened to rip down the walls of the ancient tomb of
Saturn, and they threatened to come as far as the White Moon that was the heart
of the kingdom they so despised, and kill the follower to that throne, the
Princess Serenity.
Flames of fury had burned in the
Queen’s eyes as she had finally given the order to do what had to be done to
keep the rebellions under control. No matter what the cost … The words still
echoed in Haruka’s ears, as the Queen had repeated
them over and over again in a voice so cold and heartless that it had startled
her right to the very core. And so they had acted. The army of the Silver
Millennium and the two senshi of Uranus and Neptune
had fought for weeks; no, it must have been months and months that it had taken
to finally bring back order to the planet of death and destruction. And so they
had succeeded, but at what cost she still refused to think about. But nothing
had now happened for three years –
“Three years!” she hissed angrily to
no one in particular, her thoughts having made their way to her mouth.
“I don’t think we could have
expected them to remain quiet for any longer …” Michiru
whispered, her eyes glazed over and fixed on a spot somewhere in the distance,
while her delicate hand reached for her partner’s once more. Gently squeezing
the ice-cold hand that sought hers, Haruka sighed.
“Maybe …”
“But what do we do now?”
“Pray and hope?”
Michiru
turned her head back swiftly to her companion, her eyes narrowed. “That is not
the soldier of Uranus I know that is speaking right now …” Raising her hand to
brush over the smooth cheek of her lover, she pressed her body against Haruka’s taller one softly. “I love you; you know that,
don’t you?”
Burying her face in the soft locks
beneath her chin for a second, the blonde woman hugged her smaller companion to
her tightly for a moment. Feeling the fingers on her back curl into her cloak
tightly as if holding on to her, she leant down and kissed the beautiful woman
that was her very life, the one thing that made her whole. “We’ll never be
apart, be it in life or death.” Pale fingers that felt cold like ice
intertwined with her own tightly, before the weight of the other body was
lifted from her own.
“Let’s do what we have to do.”
---
Purple eyes shot open suddenly, as her mind started screaming at her out of
absolutely nowhere; it was screaming and shouting while sending jumbled images
through her mind, confusing her deeply. Gasping in pain, she felt her knees
buckle beneath her feet while her hands remained at the side of her pounding
head, grasping her skull tightly. Breathing in deeply, she tried to
concentrate, tried to see the pictures clearly that had come so out of nowhere
upon her. She knew what she was experiencing; but she had not envisioned
anything for the longest of time, never once since she had left her home-planet
to live at the side of her Princess.
“Visions
are powerful things, Mars-sama. Never let yourself
drown in them. Never allow yourself to be controlled by what you are seeing. It
is a great and seldom gift of the Gods that has been bestowed upon you,
especially as you are a Princess. Never forget, that you must remain in
control. It is your body, and your mind.”
Eyes snapping open, she breathed in
deeply once more, as she remembered the words she had been taught when she had
still been a small child. Clasping her fingers in front of her chest, she
forced her breath to slow down, while she repeated what she had learned with
such a fascination all those years ago. As her eyes relaxed slowly, she drew
her upper body up straight, as she bit into her lip harshly. Control … My body, my mind … Control is
what I need … Mouthing
the words along, she forced them to seep into her panicked mind, forced the
words to spread inside of her and break through the painful images still vivid
in her head.
And then she saw. Saw the blood
spill as screams of pain echoed inside of her, bodies of energy slamming into
all that stood in their way. She felt a cold and dread that was not her own
spread through her body right to her fingertips that she still held tightly to
her heaving chest, making it feel as if ice was running through her veins. But
her mind only grazed those images, while it travelled on relentlessly, making
its way through crumbling stones of old, leaving the shouts to be replaced with
a silence that was by far more unsettling.
My mind, my body … My mind, my body
… She never ceased repeating those words to herself, her eyes shut as tightly
as she could. But she couldn’t control the fast beating of her heart and its
pace that seemed to quicken only more and more with each shaking breath she
took. For she knew the thud that was now echoing slowly in her mind was not of
her own body – it was not her own heartbeat she was listening to. The slow thud
grew in noise as her mind led her through a darkness that was so thick she
could not make out a thing but that horrible noise that was rapidly growing;
down dusty steps she was led, down, down, to seemingly nowhere, endlessly
downwards.
Thud … Thud … Thud …
My mind, my body, my mind, my body,
my mind, my body … She forced herself to say to herself as she felt the noise
slowly consume her, slowly spread to her every fibre, and make her whole being
fall into its rhythm.
She stopped. Stopped the words she
had been grasping unto, stopped the strange journey she was being lead through.
Her eyes shot open as she gasped for breath noisily,
her hands now pressed painfully to her chest.
For she had finally seen what her
mind had intended her to see; a tomb, carved into a wall of black stone, a tomb
that was covered in runes of the old Lunarian
language of Selene, a tomb that held something
captive. No, not something, someone. And that someone was slowly awakening.
---
Right, tell
me what you think if you have the time.
Greta