Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Alone ❯ Chapter 16: King Endymion Returns ( Chapter 16 )

Alone
By Selenity Jade

Chapter 16: King Endymion Returns

Rated: PG13

 

Disclaimer: I'm broke... ^_^; So I don't own SM.

x

The holographic King crouched beside the sobbing girl, his heart hurting to see the younger version of his wife crying on the cold marble street, unable to offer any comfort but the emptiness of words. "Usagi, you are not alone. I will help. For my wife and for you."

Usagi looked up, her blue eyes shimmering with tears. "How? You're injured, remember? You're...just a hologram now."

He nodded. "Perhaps, but...if you use the Silver Crystal, it could heal me, without endangering yourself. You have the power. You're strong, Usagi. Stronger than anyone else I know. Or will know. Heal me and I'll help you get your friends and Mamoru back. We'll save everyone, Chibi-Usa, my wife, the Senshi... Everyone."

She nodded. "Okay," she said, instantly trusting the man her love would turn out to be. He would never betray her. Not for anything. She knew this, it screamed inside her heart. Nothing would tear them apart, not even the time stream itself. Nothing would make him hurt her. Nothing.

He smiled tenderly. "Follow me, Usagi."

She stood up, and after a moment, he led the way deep into the abandoned city. She didn't know where he was leading her and she didn't care. She had a version of her prince with her and it helped... a little. He hadn't disappeared with Tuxedo Kamen's capture, so he had to be saved or come back, she hoped.

She blinked as the King stopped in front of what appeared to be a tomb. She glanced over the small building nervously as King Endymion opened the door with a small whispered command that she didn't catch.

She couldn't help the gasp of surprise when she entered behind him. A very injured King was lying on a pallet in the middle of the room, surrounded by several people on various other cots. She didn't recognize any of them, and they appeared to be dead.

"King Endymion, I can't bring back the dead... I wouldn't know how..."

He smiled sympathetically at her. "You do not have to bring back the dead for we are not dead. We are in a state of suspended animation so that we do not die. We did this willingly until our Queen can awaken and save us. I would not leave her alone, not willingly. I would not die, so I came up with a way to suspend our deaths."

"Who are these people?" Usagi asked quietly.

He nodded to the beds. "Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, and Sailor Saturn are over there," he said as he pointed out the short, blonde Senshi next to the marine-haired woman next to her, as well as the small woman dressed in a dark sailor fuku. "Sailor Star Fighter, Sailor Star Healer, and Sailor Star Maker with their princess, Kakyuu."

Usagi's eyes widened. "There are more Sailor Senshi?"

He nodded. "You should meet them shortly in your future."

She frowned at his phrasing. "Should meet them?"

He sighed, and motioned her to come closer. "Your time... and my time aren't in the same line."

"What does that mean?"

"It means, Usagi, that this is not your future. By traveling back in time, Diamond created an alternative universe. Meaning this future that you see will probably not come to pass in your future now. Diamond and his men might show up at approximately the same time as he did in this future, but because of your knowledge of the future, you will have changed it, maybe prepared for it or something all together different. I do not have memories of Diamond or fighting any of the Dark Moon family from when I was young and named Mamoru."

She watched him worriedly. "Meaning the future can be changed."

He nodded. "Yes, of course. My world will not disappear, but instead, live on, in another dimension if you will. Your future may well be very different because of this significant change in your life. You're growing, you're having experiences my Serenity never had. I do not know what your future holds. Only Pluto does."

Usagi looked around at the Senshi surrounding her. "Meaning Chibi-Usa might not be born in my time. I might never meet the other Senshi..."

He sighed. "Yes."

"Things are always more complicated then they seem," she murmured as she grasped her locket.

Nodding, he watched her. "Yes, they are. Will you heal me?"

She bobbed her head, and opened her locket, the one that held the Silver Crystal, over her head. "I will heal you all."

"Usagi, don't, you'll-"

But he was too late, the gentle, pure glow from the Crystal started, and his words were lost as he gazed upon the beautiful form of the woman who would become his wife. Her forehead glowed, and within moments, a crescent moon appeared. And then, he found his holographic self slammed out of existence, and his eyes opened for the first time in months.

Usagi had always been something.

He glanced around the room to find the Senshi that had been injured awaking as he had, only more confused. Looking towards the girl who had healed them all, he found her slumped to the floor, exhausted.

Pulling himself out of bed stiffly, he went to her, crouching beside her. "Thank you, Usagi. You may rest now."

She nodded wearily and promptly fainted. She fell limply against him, and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her securely. He hadn't wanted her to heal everyone at once. It could have killed her.

He had underestimated her, just as he had done in the past.

"Good job, Princess," the King murmured as he watched Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune approach him. Their eyes were on the tiny form in his arms. Luckily, their first question was easy to answer.

"What happened, Your Highness?"

x

King Endymion gently set Usagi in the large guest room down from his own. He watched her breathe silently for a few long moments before he left the room, intent on researching more about the Dark Moon family, if he could find anything in the database about them.

He was confused and slightly disoriented by the feelings he had now. Before, he felt, but it was a remote feeling. His hologram had been his consciousness, yet it hadn't been connected to him that well. Now, not only was he feeling his body's exhaustion and the urgency of having to use the facilities, he was feeling more and more for the tiny version of his wife. Not sexually, of course, she was still a teenager, and he had never been one to go after women half his age or even glance at them with anything dishonorable in mind.

But he found himself feeling more than concern for the tiny girl. She intruded on his mind more than necessary. He missed his wife, Serenity, more and more each moment. The pain of their separation had been dimmed before too. Now... he couldn't sleep and he wasn't hungry, despite the fact he hadn't eaten in a very long time.

He nearly collided with Sailor Saturn as he turned the corner and he smiled. "I'm sorry."

She shook her head slightly, looking up at him with her characteristic somberness. "It is alright, Your Highness. I wished to speak with you."

He nodded, motioning her to come with him. "What do you want to talk to me about?"

"The young Serenity, Your Highness."

"My daughter?"

"No, the past version of our Queen."

He blinked, looking at her curiously. "Why?"

She didn't respond for a moment. "She is injured, Your Highness. In her heart. It is not darkness that is there, but it is similar. I saw it when I first woke up. She needs to heal before she can fight. The Dark Moon uses negativity within a person to destroy them or turn them. She must not have that injury to exploit."

"How do you propose we heal something like that, Saturn? She's hurting because her Tuxedo Kamen has been captured, her fellow Senshi are gone, and my daughter as well! How can you heal that when only getting them back will heal it?"

She shook her head. "That is not what I mean. She needs to... believe in herself, believe in the power she has with her friends, the love she shares with them, and her prince. She will have to fight each of them, when she goes back to the past. She will have to awaken each of them to rid them of the Dark Moon's control."

He nodded. "You have a point, as always. But I am unsure how to give her that confidence. She is young still..."

"Two things must be done."

He arched an eyebrow. "And those would be?"

"She should venture to the Moon. Her mother's spirit still lingers there."

"And the other?"

"You must go with her."

x

AN: I have no idea where this is going... well, I do, but I don't...

Lovies!