Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Geo-Moon Chronicles ❯ The Turn of The Millenium ( Chapter 9 )

A formation was called, the next day, in the docking bay of the palace, for the Queen to formally promote me to the rank of Fleet Admiral. In turn, I promoted Jacob to Vice-Admiral, and Rocky, Sid, and Jason to Colonel. After that, it was back to the grinder, we had two weeks to prepare for another assault. Earth had been eliminated from the equation. The Black Ops strike had been a success and the multiple holographic projectors placed around the moon gave anyone with a telescope the impression that the moon was barren and void of life. The other planetary governors involved in the act, quickly apologized and vowed to bar all contact from Earth, equipping similar holographic projectors around their planets as well. All of the equipment was ready, the men were psyched for the battle that we knew was coming. That day, the outer senshi visited me in my new office.

"Congratulations, James, on your new promotion." Trista Callaghan, Sailor Pluto, said as they walked in. Amara Gregory, Michelle Brandeaux, and Hotaru Tamoe were with her as usual.

"Do you still want our help?" Amara asked.

"Do I want it? No." I replied. "Because if I were to use your skills, it would be in the worst case scenario possible, and that's not something I want. However, the Princess's life, and Amy's, are important enough to me to plan for failure."

"James, I've already seen into the future, sad to say, you cannot plan for something you cannot understand." Trista said. I shook my head and lowered my gaze. "Not even with the power of knowledge could you repel the force that she has mustered. Which is why we've decided to help you. Warriors of your caliber are few and far between anymore, and we can't stand seeing one slain so needlessly."

"So it's pretty much carved in stone that my resistance will fail?" I asked. "I can't believe that. " I said lighting a cigarette and shaking my head.

"Why can't you?" Michelle asked.

"It goes against my nature." I replied. "I would die to defend the crown..."

"Would?" Amara said. "Try will." She finished. "What part of futile do you not understand?"

"The whole damn thing, you're sitting here, and telling me flat out, that I am going to fail and I have nothing to say about it." Hotaru shook her head sadly.

"James, we're not doubting your skill, and we're not doubting your methods either, both have proved most effective, what we're saying is that fate cannot be changed, you just cannot do it." She said. "We know that you will fight valiantly, but we also know that you'll die quickly."

"What did you just say?" I asked.

"That you'll die quickly." She said.

"No, before that, about fate."

"You cannot change fate." She replied. "No one has that kind of power."

"I don't believe in fate." I replied simply.

"James, we will be at your command, when you're ready to send them, just give us the word." Trista said. "And I'll leave you with this, James, at the current moment, the flow of time is leading to a dismal ending. And you'll have to make a choice, you can stick to the ranks on your shoulders and follow orders blindly, or you can act on your heart's command. There is a presence that has clouded the view of time, the Lord of Chaos has returned from his eternal sleep. The fate of this kingdom is dependant on the choices that the both of you make. Think of it as a game of tennis, the ball is in your court."

"Then I will Ace him." I replied.

"Time will tell." She replied sadly before they turned and walked out of the office. I waited until they were clear before turning and slamming my elbow through the desk, angrily, snapping it in half.

"Dammit, hey, what's this?" I asked bending down and looking at a small metallic object embedded in the desk's wood. It was a bug, I quickly decided that this was a fortunate twist for me and picked up a pen. "I've been looking for this." I said putting it in my breast pocket and walking out of the room. I used the bug as a weapon against whoever might be listening in on the other side, and scanned the rest of the Admiral's quarters, as well as anywhere else that might have been hit. It was the only one. I held several meetings with the scouts in that room relaying false information to them and then correcting myself in the underground command center where we had held all of our meetings. The days passed by and Trista's words weighed heavily on my mind. I had to make a choice? Follow orders or listen to my heart? Why was everything in my life a riddle? Why couldn't everything just be simplified? Why could nobody give me a straight answer? I disguised my secret feelings pretty well, carrying on my life just as I would have without pondering the question. Then the day of the sixteenth harvest came, and just as planned, Amy and I were going to be married. Darien was in my quarters helping me get ready.

"You see this, Darien, two weeks, that's all it took for us, what is keeping you two?" I said shakily extinguishing the cigarette in a nearby ashtray.

"You sure you want to go through with this? What about that prophecy?"

"Fuck that prophecy." I said. "I'm getting married today, and there's not a damn thing that fate can do to stop me."

"Okay, let's hope you're right." He said. "There, we're finished." He said. I looked in the mirror, the image was the same as it had been before, but something felt different about it this time. I suddenly looked over at Darien's reflection and saw that one of his eyes were red.

"Make...your...choice!" He said. I quickly whipped around and grabbed his shoulder with one hand pressing a pistol to his head with the other.

"Gyah! James! Stop!" He shouted. I looked into his eyes again, they were both blue. I looked back into the mirror and the red eye was gone. I quickly replaced the gun and sighed.

"Sorry, Darien, I...I must be seeing things."

"What did you see?" He asked.

"The intruder, it was you, but one of your eyes was red. And I heard you say make your choice." Darien smiled and held up two different handkerchiefs.

"Yeah, make your choice, blue handkerchief, or black." He said. "I didn't realize that it was so critical." I grabbed the blue one and he put the black one back before fixing the blue one in my breast pocket.

"It's not...I thought you were talking about another choice." I said trailing off. I quickly lit another cigarette. "I haven't been getting much sleep lately."

"James, you're supposed to take your honeymoon the two weeks after your wedding, not before." He said. I smiled appreciatively at the joke.

"No, it's something that Sailor Pluto told me. It's about today's events."

"What? Bad news?" He asked. I nodded. "How bad?"

"Cataclysmic." I replied.

"Serena?" He asked. I shook my head.

"The six of you will be fine, I've already arranged for you to have a back door. It's the rest of us that are in deep shit." I said. "And according to Trista, it all boils down to a choice that I have to make, either follow orders or follow my heart." I said.

"James, whatever happens, I know that you'll do the right thing." He said. "It's your nature, you somehow always manage to do the right thing, it seems to be second nature to you."

"I don't know...she also said something about the Lord of Chaos too."

"Chaos?" He asked. "Sounds kind of stupid to me." I smiled and shook my head.

"Yeah, you're probably right, I should just focus on the day." I replied turning around.

"Of course, James, today is the first day of the rest of your life." He said. It's pretty funny really, neither one of us even had an inkling of an idea about the extremes to which he was right.

A few hours later, I stood in front of Serenity's throne, in my full dress white uniform. Jacob stood directly behind me, along with Darien, Jason, and Rocky. Sid was assigned to watch the sensor arrays for the Gate's opening. When she finally arrived, Amy's appearance took my breath away, her wedding gown was a light shade of blue, time seemed to come to a stand still as she stepped closer to me. Even as Serenity led us through the ceremony, I could not take my eyes off of her, my body went into auto pilot and I just continued gazing into her eyes. Then the ceremony came to a close and I went in for the kiss. It was just as passionate and mind blowing as the first one we had shared in my bedroom on Mars nearly three years earlier. At first it was blissful, that's when I heard a familiar voice enter my head.

"Knock knock." It was the false Darien. I felt the hair on the back of my neck standing on end and suddenly my earpiece sparked to life.

"This is Colonel Steffano, all units code red, we are under attack! They are inside the palace, I repeat we are under attack!" As he said it, I pulled away from Amy and quickly jumped in front of her as the doors exploded open and the monstrosities poured into the throne room. Every marine in attendance quickly drew their side arms and opened fire into the mob. They still kept coming, and before long there was only the bridal party left, and we were getting backed into a wall.

"Trista!!!!" I shouted. The four outer senshi appeared and all of the scouts transformed sending their powerful blasts into the fray, this proved much more effective than my pistol so I tossed it aside and joined them, launching fireballs at them left and right. "Get that portal ready!" I shouted. The portal through time opened behind us. "Sid, evacuate the kingdom, get everyone out, now! Head to the previously discussed location."

"Yes sir." He replied. Suddenly the monsters stopped in their tracks. The wall in front of us was suddenly ripped away and an enormous red headed woman hovered in front of us. I turned to Amy.

"Give me your rings, Amy." I said. She looked at me strangely.

"What?"

"Amy, this is important, please don't make me pull rank." She quickly nodded and pulled the wedding band and engagement ring off handing them to me. I turned to Luna and Artemus and handed the rings to them. "Give these back to her on the flip side." I said. They nodded. "Now then, all of you, go!" Darien grabbed Serena and ran through the portal followed by Mina, Lita, and then Raye. Amy ran towards the portal and then stopped.

"James, I can't leave you!"

"Get the hell out of here, lieutenant!" I shouted back. "I love you, now go defend the princess." She started to reply but was cut off by Jacob jumping and shoving her out of the way and into the portal before one of the monsters could attack her. His sword quickly severed the beast to pieces.

"Well, well, well, they escaped, that's okay, I'll get them later." Queen Beryl's high pitched voice said, smiling. "I'll deal with you first, Serenity!"

"I banished you once, Beryl, I will not allow you to win now." Serenity replied. I started to step forward but Serenity threw a hand out and stopped me. "This is my fight, James, do not interfere, that's an order." She said. I backed away slowly, and then Darien's voice began replaying in my head again.

`Make....your....choice....'

`You will have to make a choice James, follow orders blindly, or follow your heart.' Jacob and the others turned to me.

"Admiral, your orders..." He said not taking his eyes off of Beryl.

"James, you must choose now." Trista said. I finally reached up to my shoulder boards and removed my ranks throwing them to the ground in front of me and stepping forward.

"James! I ordered you to stop!" Serenity shouted.

"I don't work for you anymore." I replied. Beryl stared at me smiling.

"Switching sides? A turncoat? Just like your father." She said. I snarled up at her and my eyes began glowing blue.

"I am nothing like my father, you bitch!" I shouted. My hands started glowing blue, with energy arcing across my skin.

"You want a piece of me?" She asked. I shook my head.

"Hell no, bitch, you cost me my father, my mother, my friends, my wife, and now my job! I don't want a piece of you, I want the whole god damn thing!" I clenched my fists and teeth as I summoned the energy that had been building up inside of me. "GEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOO THEEEEEERMAAAAAAAL BLAST!" I shouted thrusting both of my hands up towards her. Instantly two beams of powerful energy shot forward. Queen Beryl quickly retaliated with a blast of her own energy. "My choice, has been made!" I shouted. "I may die! But my kingdom will live!" I channeled every last ounce of energy I had into the blast as I continued struggling with her. "Get everyone out of here!" I shouted back to Jacob. "You're in charge now, brother, go! And find the Princess when her kingdom is ready for her!" Jacob quickly stepped forward and grabbed the Admiral's ranks off the ground. "Serenity! Use the Crystal!" I shouted. Serenity stepped up beside me.

"Your wife would be proud." She said.

"Just shut up and attack!" I replied. Suddenly my energy was gone, and Beryl's energy struck me, hard, knocking me backwards, straight through the time portal that I had ordered open.