Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Tainted Crystal ❯ The End of a Future ( Prologue )

The Tainted Crystal

 

Disclaimer: Sailor Moon does not, in any way, belong to me, and I am making no profit from this.

 

Prologue: The End of a Future

 

The Ginzuishou was possibly the most powerful magical instrument in existence. It was created, not only to focus and channel insane amounts of power, but to amplify the magic channeled through it or even produce more magic of it's own to achieve it's wielder's goal. It was capable of purging evil from men's hearts, reincarnating or even resurrecting the dead, and manipulating time and space. Even a non-magical person wielding it could accomplish mind-boggling feats.

 

However, as powerful as it was, it had three things it could not do. First, it could not verify the spiritual state of its own wielder. If it fell into evil, twisted, vile, or tainted hands, it would not care. It was no more than a tool, after all, no matter how insanely powerful. As such, concepts of good and evil meant nothing to it. There was only the will of the wielder.

 

Secondly, it could not detect any fault in its logic or taint in its own core. Picking up the exact levels of taint on a human soul caused by evil deeds would be a simple feat. Calculating how high the average taint was world-wide would be done in an instant. If, however, any evil infected the Ginzuishou, it would not detect it at all. This was due to the fact that Queen Serenity, when creating it, assumed that she was creating it to be pure, it would be untaintable. Ironically, it was this arrogance that made it possible to taint.

 

Finally, and most dangerously, it was created to be too powerful. Magics performed by the Ginzuishou could not be undone by anything. This, unfortunately, included the Ginzuishou itself. If it created something, it could destroy it, but it would be incapable of making it to have never been. Had Usagi remembered these all-important details from her past-life, she would most certainly have been more careful when using the crystal.

 

Usagi jumped back, narrowly avoiding having her head split down the middle, and quickly put a little more distance between herself and the corrupted form of her past-life's lover, Endymion. As she drew in shaking breaths before engaging him once more, she felt her innocent heart get shredded more with each exchange. Slowly, she was beginning to feel the emotional detachment that only occurs when one goes into shock or is too emotionally drained to feel anymore.

 

As her mind began to grow fuzzy, she had what would likely be the most regrettable thought of her whole existence. Feeling the imminent destruction of her ability to love, her mind sent out a desperate plea to the void. `I don't care how it does; I just want it all to end.' Unfortunately, the Ginzuishou picked this thought up.

 

Had it been a computed process, it would likely have appeared as follows:

Analyzing plea… Plea contains two specifications

Part one: “I don't care how it does”; Interpretation- Morality is not an issue. Disengage morality filters.

Part two: “I just want it all to end.” Error… Unspecified term it. Computing possible antecedents.

Computation complete…

Possibility one: Everything in existence. Possibility of being the correct meaning: Highly unlikely.

Possibility two: Subject Tsukino Usagi's life. Possibility of being the correct meaning: Unlikely.

Possibility Three: Trouble with Subject Endymion. Possibility of being the correct meaning: Highly likely.

In absence of better probabilities, possibility three will be acted on.

Searching for possible solutions for troubles with Endymion.

Option one: Teleport Endymion to a distant location. Negative. Such an action would be a temporary fix only.

Option two: End Endymion's existence. Possible. Searching for separate options.

Option three: Cleanse Endymion of taint. Negative. Too high a probability exists that Endymion would be recorrupted soon after. Engaging option two.

 

This all happened in the space of time somewhere in between a jiffy and a twinkle of the eye, and as Endymion attacked again, the Ginzuishou acted. Endymion rushed forward, his sword held diagonally, behind and down. As he drew close enough to be fully committed to his action, a lance of silvery energy with black veins running through it shot from the Ginzuishou and pierced his chest, flinging him across the room. In an instant, the energy had consumed his magic and began to consume his life energy. The process was slowed due to the crystal exerting extra effort to ensure his passing was painless, the crystal feeling no need to be needlessly cruel to a defeated foe. Endymion collapsed to the ground, returning to the form of Chiba Mamoru.

 

Chiba Mamoru looked up at Sailor Moon from where he lay, and gave a weak chuckle before he started to speak. “Hey, Oodango-mata, good job winning. Also, thank you for giving me one last chance to see you with my eyes untainted. You know, it's funny. I seem to remember dying being a lot more painful than this.”

 

Sailor Moon fell to her knees beside him and grabbed his hand, giving him a weak smile. “What do you mean you're dying? The fight's over now, so you should be fine, right?”

“Gomen, Tsukino-hime. I'm dead; my body just hasn't figured it out quite yet. I only have a couple minutes at the most.”

 

“But you're not dead yet, right? I can just make the Ginzuishou heal you, and everything will be all right, right?”

 

“Ah, that's right; you don't have your full memory. The Ginzuishou is a powerful magical artifact, and has very few limitations. However, one of those few things is that it can not undo anything it does. Once it acts, its actions are set in stone. It's straight to the afterlife for me. No reincarnation and no revival. I'm glad I got to meet you, in both lives, and that I was deemed worthy of your love. Now, my love, I beg you, live, love, and send that vile bitch Beryl screaming into Hell. Sayonara.” Once he said this, Chiba Mamoru; also called Tuxedo Kamen, Endymion, and Prince of Earth; stilled, never to move again.

 

Usagi collapsed to the ground, reverting to her civilian identity as she did so. She lay, covering the slowly cooling body of Mamoru with her own, tears pouring down her face as she wept. Slowly, she curled in on herself as she shrieked her agony out into the night. “NOOOOOO!!!! Mamo-chan!!! It hurts! My chest hurts! Please, give me back Mamo-chan! It hurts too much! I DON'T WANT TO FEEL THIS PAIN ANYMORE!!!!!!!!”

 

And the Ginzuishou took that as its cue to start acting again.

Analyzing source of pain…

Source found-Pain is a result of an extreme negative reaction to causing death combined with the death of romantic interest.

Initial solution… Reduce reaction to causing death. Change reaction to “Death is regrettable, but necessary.” Lethal force no longer not an option.

 

The Ginzuishou then began to scan through every past conversation it had been present for to find a solution to the secondary, and less immediately but more potentially dangerous, issue. It finally found a promising conversation that took place between the Mistress and her mother.

 

It had been after the Princess had found an old photo of her mother with a man that was not the Prince Consort. Usagi was, of course, curious as to whom this man was. Queen Serenity had given her a bittersweet smile before answering. “That, Usa-hime, is my first love. He was my innocent love. We were so young, so naïve. But we would have weathered anything to be together. Unfortunately, it was not to be. He was a healer, and he traveled to any place that had a sign of plague manifesting. In the end, he ended the Mercurial heart eating plague, but he was also its final victim.”

 

“Did the pain go away, Kaasan?”

 

“Oh Sweetie, the pain never truly goes away, but it is much less now than it once was. I can never again have the innocent love he and I once shared, but now I have a greater and better love. And slowly, over time, my new love is easing the pain of the lost love.”

 

Having analyzed the conversation, the Ginzuishou settled on its next course of action. It would find a new love to spark in Sailor Moon's heart. True, it couldn't make her love someone, but if it could find a viable subject to create interest in, perhaps the Princess's heart would do the rest. Now it just needed to know how to identify a viable replacement interest. Surprisingly, at least to anything that was not either a magical artifact or a feat of insanely advanced technology, the answer was found in the same conversation.

 

Usagi, being the young girl she was at the time, found herself interested in the romantic story of how her kaasan and tousan had fallen in love. Serenity's smile became much happier at this point, no longer lost in the nostalgia that had before been present. “You know, it's a little funny when I think about it. I actually knew your father long before I met my first love. We grew up as close as Neptunian twin serpents. We did everything together. I never noticed that somewhere along the way he had fallen for me. Then, I fell in love, and he did everything he could to make sure I was happy. When my heart was shattered, he picked up the pieces, and held me as I wept. When I began to try to blame something, and planned to use my magic to get revenge, he made me focus my anger on him. He was there for me for every second of the grieving process, and slowly my friend became more to me. I've since realized that a close friend makes the best love. The loss of my first love may have hurt, but I would not undo it if I could, because it led to a greater love that my first love could never have been.”

 

With its course of action decided, and a person chosen to focus her affection on, the Ginzuishou began to manipulate the brain patterns of Tsukino Usagi. It first eased the pain of taking a human life, altering Sailor Moon's basic moral compass, then began to shift her attraction to its new target. It knew it would have to make the shift very slowly, so as to not arouse suspicion from her and her companions, but that posed little problem for it, since a rapid change of that nature could have damaging effects on her mind.

 

In a place removed from time and space, a figure stood staring at a screen in shock as the image made a complete shift. A cool, feminine voice came from the screen. “Crystal Tokyo future is no longer viable. Chance of it occurring…0%. Scanning time-streams for acceptable alternate futures in which less than 70% the population ceases to exist. Ten possibilities found. Best option has been designated Celestial Eternity. Population of Earth suffers no true calamities within foreseeable future, and the Moon Monarchy is reestablished with all planets in the solar system returning to and exceeding their former glories. Plotting paths that lead to Celestial Eternity.”

 

The figure collapsed to her knees in shock. A world where Nemesis could be averted? She didn't know how this came to be, but she certainly wouldn't look this gift horse in the mouth. Pluto shook her green haired head, and then focused on the Time Gates. She couldn't afford to screw this up. Not if she could now save everyone.

 

 

A/N: So, here's the first chapter of a story like nothing I've ever written before. Please, tell me if you think that this is worth me continuing, because if it's not, I have other things to work on.