Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Ascension Trilogy, Book 2: Judgment Day ❯ Ascension ( Chapter 8 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

JUDGMENT DAY,
Chapter 8: "Ascension"

By Bill K.

The date was June 30, 2015. For nearly two years, the Earth lay
silent, frozen and dormant in an icy grip. Nothing moved and no one
breathed. Those people and animals who were strong enough and lucky
enough slept in cryogenic hibernation, unaware of the passage of time
and of the world around them. Those who weren't died and remained
perfectly preserved corpses.

Above them stood the frost giants. Like gigantic sentinels they
towered over the crumbled buildings and frozen landscape, unmoving.
They waited for signs of life to snuff out and, failing that, for their
recall to Knorr. For nearly two years they waited, unmoving, as the
world revolved around the sun and resisted its warming glow.

To any that might venture to look from space or from other
dimensions, Earth was a dead world. Its flora and fauna, its people and
their defenders, were frozen and inanimate. Nothing moved, nothing
grew, nothing progressed. This race had seemingly proven inadequate to
the judgment passed down upon it and was obliterated.

But there was one thing that still pulsed amid the cryogenic
silence of this dormant world. It was a source of great energy when
focused. It was a thing of great power when wielded. It was the stuff
of miracles when commanded. It was the Silver Crystal.

When the dire circumstances first came about and Sailor Moon was
frozen with Tuxedo Mask and the rest of the senshi, the crystal pulsed,
asking its mistress what she wanted it to do. In response, a tired and
wan little voice asked it to help, to give her the power to restore
everyone and save her world. Her desire, stronger than the cryogenic
prison that held her and so slowed her life force that weeks passed
between two words of a thought, fanned the flame of the Silver Crystal
and it in turn fed her strength and desire. The pair began to
strengthen each other, feed each other and grow strong from each other.
As they did, Sailor Moon began to press her growing power against the
ice that held her, dimly aware of this in her sleep. The ice held and
held, but so strong was Sailor Moon's desire to free her friends and
restore the lives and success they had that her strength began to grow
and multiply to the task. Fueled by the Silver Crystal and her
single-minded desire, a change began to take place within the chrysalis
of ice. Yet it was more than a change, more than just a new name or a
new form - - it was ascension.

And on June 30, 2015, ironically the thirty-sixth birthday of
Usagi Tsukino, came the birth of something more.

The sentinel frost giant turned its head for the first time in
nearly two years upon its notice of a steam cloud rising up. Part of
the ice that so choked the former city of Tokyo was melting. The
towering thing of ice lumbered toward the phenomenon, its mission to
snuff out all signs of life and heat still prominent in its mind. As it
approached, the area began to glow brightly. The steam itself seemed to
vaporize into nothing. The glow grew in intensity until it was a
brilliant white light that flared brightly, then died away spent.

Standing amid the ice was a beautiful woman. She wore a gown of
the purest snow white. It fell off the shoulders, revealing an elegant
neckline, and its skirt seemed to billow around the ground. The gown
tied in the back and the bow seemed to sprout like the wings of an
angelic butterfly. The woman herself had a gentle, fragile porcelain
beauty, as gentle as a whisper and as fragile as silence. Hair of spun
gold adorned her head and was gathered in twin balls at either side,
with ribbon-like trails falling down her back. Her small hands were
clasp to her breast and she looked down, eyes closed, as if she communed
with those of a higher plane - - or with the very forces of life itself.

Once she had been Usagi Tsukino, a clumsy crybaby with a gentle
soul. Once she had been Sailor Moon, a reluctant heroine and champion
of love and justice. Now she was all that and more.

Now she was Serenity. Before she had wielded the Silver Crystal,
barely controlling energies that dwarfed imagination itself. Now she
manipulated it, as casually as she manipulated the fingers on her hand.
Before she dimly sensed the life energy of everyone; now she knew it was
all around her, a force that she could touch and feel. Before she was
human; now she was something more.

The frost giant numbly did its duty. Extending a monstrous hand
at Serenity, the giant loosened a blast of cold that froze the very air
around her into crystal pellets of nitrogen and oxygen. It did so
without malice or contempt. It was a frost giant and that's what it
did.

Serenity looked up from her prayer with sad, soulful blue eyes.

"Please," she said in a humble, supplicant voice. "There must be
some way for us to coexist. I wish you no harm. You have life, just as
we all do, and I wish no harm to come to that life. Can we not be
friends?"

Unmoved, for it was incapable of it, the frost giant let loose
another blast of numbing cold. As before, Serenity deflected it with
ease. Her head bent slightly in sorrow, Serenity reached a decision.
Her chest heaved in dismay. She lifted her hands to the sky. Whereas
before they would be cupped around the Silver Crystal, now they were
empty. For the crystal was now as much a part of her as was her spirit
of charity or her desire for candy. A silver glow surrounded her. The
glow became more and more brilliant. The frost giant looked on dumbly.

Suddenly energy lanced out from Serenity. It sliced through the
frigid air and struck the frost giant squarely in the chest. The giant
staggered back several paces, its foot landing on what had been a shop
in the business district. Serenity winced in sorrow as the giant
righted itself. Attacked, the giant responded as it only knew how.
Another blast of cold came from it and was cleaved by another blast of
energy from Serenity. The giant again staggered back.

"Please!" cried Serenity. "I sense the life within you! Is there
no part of you I can touch? Is there nothing I can reach to get you to
stop this? I do not wish to hurt you!"

Another blast of cold came and was deflected. Another beam of
energy came forth and staggered the frost giant. Before it could attack
again, another struck it and sent it tumbling backward. Serenity's eyes
closed and she rose effortlessly into the air. Another beam lashed out
and forced the giant back even more.

Hovering in midair, Serenity gathered herself. Her expression was
calm, though melancholy. The giant attacked again with its cold blast
and it was as useless as the last ones were. The air seemed to crackle
around her, alive with energy from her. It gathered around her, feeding
on itself and growing, then burst forth. The frost giant was struck
chest high, right where the heart would be on a human. It exploded into
millions of shards of jagged ice, the fragments launching away from
where the giant had stood. They traveled far distances, some as much as
a mile and a half before gravity forced them down. There was nothing
left of the frost giant save for the impact holes of the ice shards
driven into the ice he stood on.

As Serenity landed, she looked down in despair. A tear trickled
down her cheek for the frost giant that lived no more. Her delicate,
slippered feet touched down on the ice-covered ground of Earth. A sigh
of exhaustion escaped from her. Usagi would have collapsed, either from
sadness or fatigue. But she was no longer just Usagi and there were
other things that needed to be done. Levitating inches from the ground,
Serenity traveled to the one spot to where her heart would always lead
her. Inside the block of ice was a dark, shadowy figure.

"Mamoru," she said, nearly whimpering. All she had to do was
touch the ice and it melted away to water vapor. As the ice withered
away, Tuxedo Mask was revealed. His rigid frame bent forward as life
returned to it. Shivering from the cold, he clasped his arms around his
torso. Serenity reached out to touch him, to comfort him in his time of
need.

Upon contact with her hand, though, a burst of light exploded from
Tuxedo Mask. Startled, Serenity drew back. The light died away
immediately and Serenity found Tuxedo Mask changed. He wore the same
clothes, but they were colored a ghostly pastel gray now, rather than
the inky midnight black of before. Invigorated, Tuxedo Mask rose up to
his full height.

"Tuxedo Mask?" she asked, fearful that some new calamity had
befallen them all.

In response, her love looked to her and smiled. With strong, sure
hands, he gathered up hers and brought them to his lips.

"No longer, my dear," Endymion said. "Your presence has triggered
the ascension in me, as I sense has happened in you. I am now Endymion,
champion of Earth and wielder of the Golden Crystal."

Serenity looked at him and her expression seemed to stray toward
confusion. Things were happening too fast. Her mind was still
struggling to catch up. A voice screamed that it was too much too soon.
She didn't want to be Serenity. She didn't want him to be Endymion.
She just wanted everything to be like it was before.

"The others," Serenity whispered, pulling away from him. "We have
to help the others."

It pained her to pull away like that, to scurry off like a
frightened fawn. As much as she wanted to help her friends, she also
wanted to escape the tableau before her and the consequences it might
mean to her. Her slippers crunched the ice below them. Serenity
noticed for the first time that she was walking rather than hovering.
She noticed for the first time the biting cold of the air. Her arms
went around her torso for warmth reflexively; then she remembered she
could form a barrier around her to keep the cold out. Mentally flailing
herself, she did so.

There were shadowy forms frozen in huge cocoons of ice all over
the landscape. Serenity looked around, trying to remember where the
others were, where they had fallen, where they had been entombed. Her
thoughts seemed to careen through her mind at breakneck speed. They
became an indecipherable jumble and she felt panic welling.

"Just relax," she heard Tuxedo Mask - - or was it Endymion - -
say. His hands gently gripped her upper arms and she could sense his
cape enveloping her and that familiar sense of security flooded back
through her. She took a deep, grateful breath, feeling the cutting cold
of the air assault her lungs. "Reach out to them with your heart. Your
bond with them will lead you to them."

"How do you know?" Serenity asked. "How do you know so much about
what I can do when I don't even know?"

Endymion cupped his index finger under her chin. "Faith, I
guess," he smiled, his eyes twinkling through the mask. "This is all
pretty new to me, too. But the one thing I am sure of is that you can
do it, because you always have."

Serenity gave him a timid smile. "That makes one of us," she
whispered as she reached out with her mind.

At once she felt the Silver Crystal acting with her, its power no
longer intimidating. Once wielding the crystal was like wrestling with
a thrashing snake; now it was like opening a faucet and letting the
power flow out of her. How she had changed.

How it terrified her.

"There," she said softly, pointing to a mound of ice.

Serenity was five paces toward the ice before she realized her
feet weren't touching the ground. Disregarding it in favor of her
concern for her friends, Serenity reached the mound in moments. Her
arms extended. She closed her eyes and focused on melting the ice and,
more importantly, reviving the people trapped within. Unasked, their
identity flashed into her mind as she let her power flow.

"Don't overtax yourself," Serenity heard Endymion say.

"Don't worry, M . . . um, Endymion," she said. "Right now I've
got more power than I know what to do with."

She exhaled a cleansing breath. Using her power to renew life
seemed to invigorate her. She wanted to giggle, but suppressed it as
not adult. When her eyes opened, she saw Sailor Uranus and Sailor
Neptune. Neptune was bent over, shivering. Uranus was clearly cold as
well, but she was groping around in a daze.

"Neptune?" Uranus gasped out.

"I'm here," Neptune wheezed. "So cold."

Serenity only had to desire them to recover and the crystal acted.
Healing energy emanated from her. Neptune stopped shivering. Uranus
seemed to focus. Impulsively she reached out and seized Neptune.
Pulling the woman to her, Uranus bent her lover back and jammed her
mouth to Neptune's. Startled at first, Neptune at last surrendered to
the kiss and returned it with all the passion she felt. When they
finally parted, Uranus could only stare.

"I thought you were dead!" Uranus gasped, blubbering like a baby.
"I thought I'd lost you forever!"

"I know," Neptune whispered, caressing Uranus' cheek.

Uranus responded by crushing Neptune to her tall frame. Neptune
accepted gratefully, for she had also thought she'd never feel this
again. Finally they both sensed the presence of others and released one
another. Uranus turned. She looked at Serenity, stared, then shook her
head and put her hand to her temple.

"Am I still in shock?" wondered Uranus. "Sailor Moon, is that
you?"

"Yes," Serenity smiled. "It's me, Haruka. Although I guess
Serenity would be more accurate now."

"You ascended?" Neptune gasped. "How?"

"I don't know," Serenity confessed. "I don't understand it
myself, but this seems to be permanent."

"You even repaired my mirror," Neptune said in soft awe, for the
Deep Aqua Mirror was in fact whole again.

"The Frost Giant? Where'd it go?" Uranus asked.

"It's dead," said Serenity, reluctantly. "I had to kill it. I
didn't want to."

"It probably left you with no choice," Neptune said charitably.
There seemed to be a new respect in her eyes for Serenity that Sailor
Moon never was able to inspire.

"Gods, look at all of this," said Uranus, surveying all of the
destruction and ice. "You suppose the whole world is like this? Are we
the only ones left?"

"Yes, the entire world is like this," Endymion said, walking up.
He endured the awestruck stares of Uranus and Neptune. "No, we are not
the only survivors."

"Clearly you've ascended, too," Neptune replied. "How do you know
this?"

"My bond with the Earth and all that dwell here," Endymion told
her. "I can feel the life energy of the people, the animals, the
plants, all at low ebb, all dormant and sleeping. There are dead, but
they are not all dead. Sadly, I can't wake them."

Neptune was about to ask who could, but immediately knew the
answer.

"There's more!" Serenity said, gliding off.

"How does she do that?" gaped Uranus.

"Clearly ascending gives her a power boost," Neptune murmured.
Any concerns were left unspoken in the presence of Endymion. "Come on.
She may still need our help."

At a discreet distance the trio followed Serenity. She gravitated
up to another slab of ice jutting up out of what had once been a busy
intersection in the business district. As she approached, Serenity
clearly looked stricken. For a moment, Uranus and Neptune feared the
worst.

Serenity spread her arms and again a blinding glow radiated out
from her. The glare off the ice forced Uranus and Neptune to look away.
Uranus growled in frustration at being momentarily blind again, while
Neptune accepted it as a consequence of life. When the glow died away,
they looked back and saw Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter huddled and
shivering.

"Don't worry," Serenity said softly, enveloping them in her arms.
"You'll be all right now." The pair calmed at her touch and life seemed
to flow back into them.

"Sailor Moon, is that you?" Jupiter began, her voice returning
with the warmth of Serenity's embrace. "What happened? How long have
we . . .?" Jupiter's voice trailed off when she got a good look at
Serenity. The woman simply stared in shock.

"Um, what's with the Serenity gig?" Venus asked, startled and put
off balance, but keeping her wits.

"It's how I escaped the ice," Serenity replied. She couldn't help
notice Jupiter's stares and how uncomfortable it made her.

"Must be really hard to maintain," Venus posed.

"It's," Serenity admitted reluctantly, "permanent. Come, we have
to find the others." Serenity glided off toward the park, partly to
escape Jupiter's stares.

"Neptune," Uranus whispered. "Just how powerful is she?"

"Fully ascended - - who knows?"

"Will that be a problem? You know the old saying about power
corrupting? Could we stop her if we have to?"

"Right now my only worry is defeating the Frost Giants," Neptune
replied as they followed along in the rear. "She's our best chance of
doing that - - possibly our only chance. If her power becomes a problem
later, we'll deal with it then. Right now, I want her on our side."

As the procession crossed toward the lake, everyone took time to
survey the damage. The trees were all snapped under the weight of the
ice. The grass was buried under a thick layer of ice and snow. The
lake itself was frozen solid. Above the lake, the temporal portal
continued to suck out any warmth generated by the sun's rays, resembling
a gaping wound in the blue-gray sky.

"Venus," Jupiter whispered. "Is this the end? Is there still
time to make everything right?"

"Better be," commented Venus. "This isn't exactly a world I want
to live in. Course if anybody can do it, she can."

"Yeah," Jupiter mumbled. Venus could sense there was more left
unspoken in the towering woman.

And near the lake was a huge lump of jagged ice amid broken trees
and gleaming snows. Serenity landed near it. Again a tremendous glow
forced everyone to look away. When it died, they looked back.

"Pluto!" gasped Neptune.

Sailor Pluto stood huddled for warmth. On the ground were Luna
and Artemis. Off by a surviving tree was Sailor Mercury. Serenity let
her head roll back and projected her healing power once more. As the
energy washed over them, the quartet began to recover. Pluto brought
her head up and forced her eyes opened. She focused on the radiant
blonde in white standing before her.

Then she sank to her knee.

"My Queen!" Pluto gasped almost joyously.

"Stop that!" Serenity wailed furiously. "Get up! Don't do that!
I'm no different than before!"

"Usagi?" Mercury gasped, staring at her with concern. The concern
came because of her outburst, but perhaps from more.

"I'm sorry," Serenity whispered. She looked away in humiliation.

"I meant no offense, my Queen," Pluto offered apologetically.
Serenity nodded, but couldn't look at her.

"Serenity?" she heard Luna gasp. Turning to the cat, Serenity saw
something different than in the others. Where the others were awestruck
and perhaps just a bit intimidated by her new self, the little black cat
who had been with her since the very start was of a different mind.
Luna beamed with triumphant joy and proud accomplishment. "Did it
finally happen, Serenity? Oh, thank the stars!"

Luna leaped up into Serenity's arms. Bending to catch the cat,
Serenity fell to her knees in the snow. Overcome with emotion, she
hugged the cat gratefully to her breast. Luna pressed to Serenity's
chin.

"After all my work and tutelage, you've finally ascended!" cried
Luna. "You've finally taken the final step! Oh, Serenity, I feared you
were never going to make it!"

"Thanks a lot, Luna," Serenity muttered, though she was pleased
deep down by Luna's joy.

"Don't you take that attitude with me, Missy!" Luna half-giggled
and half-cried. "I've endured more from you than any four cats should
have! I'm just so very, very glad that it was all worth it!" She
rubbed her forehead against Serenity's chin as tears trickled down both
smooth cheeks and matted black fur.

Unnoticed Artemis padded over to Sailor Venus. Venus knelt down
and gathered the still soggy cat in her arms.

"How you doing, champ?" Venus whispered, tickling behind his ear.

"A lot better than I was," Artemis told her. "I can barely
remember being frozen, but I remember wondering if this really was our
last battle." He shifted slightly in her arms. "But with her ascended
and you thawed, at least we have a fighting chance now." Venus stroked
his flank.

"Usagi?" Mercury ventured timidly, "or should I say Serenity now?"

"Whatever you like, Mercury," Serenity said. She kept her eyes
down, focused on Luna.

"Perhaps we should think about closing the temporal portal now,"
Mercury suggested, "while we have a chance. It would stop the loss of
heat energy and at least impede any further . . ."

Serenity nodded silently. She let Luna slide to the ground, then
stood up. Her movement toward the portal, though, was interrupted when
she felt Endymion's hands on her arms again. She turned to him.

"I'm with you," he told her, as if sensing her mood.

Gratefully she patted his hand, then moved away. The portal
loomed like an open sore above her as she levitated and glided out over
the lake directly beneath it.

"Caution, My Queen!" Pluto warned as the others stared at her
display of ability.

Serenity barely acknowledged Pluto. Focusing on the portal, she
pointed with her index finger. She drew her hand across as if she was
closing a zipper and the portal closed with the motion of her hand. All
that could be seen was a barely noticeable line across the sky.

"Astounding," Mercury said softly.

"Bravo, Serenity!" cheered Luna. "Well done indeed!"

Serenity landed and the others gathered near her.

"Is it closed?" she asked. Mercury tapped her visor on.

"Energy transference is at zero," Mercury replied. "Do you feel
tired at all?" Serenity shook her head. "Remarkable!"

"We still have to find Rei," Serenity said, turning away
uncomfortably. Mercury stared at her, realizing she'd unintentionally
upset her.

Serenity reached out with her mind, searching the city for Rei.
The others watched her, helpless to aid someone now so far above them.
The inners in particular seemed uncertain about how this ascension would
affect their relationship with their dear friend.

"Mamo-chan!" Serenity cried out frantically, forgetting herself.
"I can't find Rei! I can't sense her at all!"

continued in Chapter 9