The great spike of Black Crystal that Black Lady had raised continued to grow at a steady rate. It soon towered over the downtown area of Azabu Juuban like a mountain of black glass. A swirling mass of black and purple clouds circled over the crystal growth as a huge influx of dark power continued to gather there.
A couple of news and police helicopters continued to circle the giant structure warily, almost as if it would attack them with the slightest provocation. Meanwhile, on the ground, the influence of the dark power the black spire emitted slowly began to seep into everything that surrounded it. Every hour that passed, the influence continued to spread, meter by meter, out into the surrounding area.
However, the panic and fear brought on by the ominous presence spread infinitely faster.
“This is Tokyo News. This mysterious object, which has appeared suddenly in the heart of Tokyo, has disrupted traffic and has left the city at a standstill. Those who live in the vicinity are advised not to go near it. Until we know what it is, it is considered dangerous.”
Luna frowned after the news anchorwoman finished her report. “Things are starting to get out of hand,” she remarked from her seat between Makoto and Ami. She and the others had all gathered at Usagi’s house the next day after the battle with Black Lady. They were now watching events unfold from her living room.
Makoto glanced down at the black cat. “Isn’t there anything we can do?”
“We have to collect more information on how powerful that Black Crystal is before we can do anything,” Ami told her.
“All we can do is wait for Mamoru-san, Ryo-kun and Artemis to come back with their findings,” Minako added from her end of the other couch.
Beside her, Rei glanced back at the television again as more images of the Black Crystal were displayed. “They should almost be finished observing the Black Crystal, right?” she asked.
At the far end of the couch, Usagi continued to brood over the battle that had taken place last night. The look on Black Lady’s face as she glared at them…. The venom and hurt in her voice as she said that they never loved her…. What happened to that little girl that had grown to tolerate… and love?
“Chibiusa….”
“Isn’t that thing so creepy?” Ikuko said as she carried a tray of tea and several cups into the room and set them down on the table. “Maybe we should move to someplace safer.”
Usagi’s eyes widened as they fell onto a familiar cup. “Mama… that’s….”
“Eh?” she said as she paused. “What? This?” she asked as she held up a small pink cup and saucer with a picture of a bunny and the word “Chibi” printed on it. “Huh? One, two, three…,” she said, counting while pointing to each girl in turn. Hmm…. Why did I bring an extra one?” She stood up, putting a finger to the side of her face as she pondered her slip. “Strange…. When all of you were around, I thought I needed an extra cup.”
The five girls could almost hear Chibiusa’s gleeful shout of “Let’s eat!” as they all stared at her cup.
“Oh, I know! It’s probably because I’m so used to making six cups because of that other friend of yours who isn’t here right now,” Ikuko concluded as she turned to leave the room. “Strange, I don’t know why I would’ve chosen this cup to serve him his tea. Oh, the poor boy would probably be so embarrassed to be drinking tea from such a cup!” She then left the room, a hand to her mouth as she softly giggled to herself.
“With the Luna Sphere gone, Chibiusa should’ve been erased from her memory,” Luna said after Ikuko had left.
“But, part of Chibiusa is still in her mind,” Makoto said.
“Luna… am I selfish?” Usagi asked suddenly. Everyone turned to look at her, concerned by her question and the gloomy tone of her voice.
“When Chibiusa was here, I was unhappy just because she was a little bit like me. I thought I that I would feel much better when she left. With Chibiusa gone, everything should be back to normal, but… this house seems so empty.”
“Usagi-chan…,” Luna said, concerned.
Rei placed a consoling hand on Usagi’s leg. “Cheer up, Usagi.”
“Rei-chan….”
She then put an arm around her back and drew her into a half-hug, touching her forehead to Usagi’s. Usagi’s eyes widened in surprise, amazed to see Rei acting so concerned for her. She was used to hearing the sharp side of her tongue, but this was a whole other side of Rei that she wasn’t used to seeing.
“Don’t worry,” Rei said, shaking her head slightly. “If we all put our powers together, we can get Chibiusa back.”
“You’re right,” Usagi said as she smiled back at her friend. “Thank you.”
“Nothingness and silence, follow me. Pledge your oath of loyalty to the Death Phantom. It will not be the day-dreaming Diamond that rules the universe, but the omnipotent Death Phantom.
“The feeble Prince Diamond unknowingly helped us to reach our goal, bringing to the Supreme Ruler of this universe the divine power he deserves. We will such things as life from this universe.”
Behind Wiseman, Saffire stared at the cloaked figure dubiously, his eyes narrowing into thin slits.
“Who’s there?” Wiseman said as he glanced over his shoulder.
No one was there.
He let out a small, smug laugh as his eyes glowed menacingly.
Saffire strode down the hallway as fast as he could go without running. He didn’t want to arouse Wiseman’s suspicions by letting himself be seen running for no apparent reason. But still, he felt gripped by a sense of urgency and he walked with all the swiftness he could muster.
I was right after all.… He was only using my brother!
Damn you, Wiseman!
Upon reaching the doors to the control chamber of the Black Crystal core, he stepped forward and flung both doors wide open. As soon as the doors were opened, he felt a rush of dark energy surge past him like hot air escaping an oven.
“This tremendous flow of energy, is this his doing, too?” he growled, his eyes narrowing angrily. Yet, as he watched, the core was pulsing with a dangerous excess of dark power. Its dark, maleficent glow was becoming more and more threatening. “At this rate….”
He strode forward until he reached a point equidistant between the core and the door. A small square outline lit up on the floor, and an inverted pyramid rose up from within it. As soon as it was level with his waist, he raised his arms and placed his hands over the pyramid. At once, the pyramid separated, revealing a transparent, glowing card inside, which rose and hovered above while the pyramid reassembled. Saffire deftly snatched the card from out of the air, causing the core to dim as its power waned. Soon, its power was gone and it lay dormant.
“This is it,” he stated as he stared at the card. “We shouldn’t let the crystal grow out of control any further.”
“Saffire.”
He stiffened then spun around. Wiseman was hovering right at the door.
“Wiseman!”
“Put that back immediately,” Wiseman ordered.
“I see no reason to take orders from you!” he retorted. “I will talk to my brother first, and decide your fate after that.”
“He who gives the orders is the ruler of this universe, the Death Phantom,” Wiseman stated, his eyes glowing. “He who rebels against the Death Phantom shall face death!”
“What is this Death Phantom that you’ve been babbling on about?” Saffire demanded.
“He is the true God who will return this universe into a beautiful, silent world of nothingness. He will eliminate all filthy life forms from the universe.”
Saffire stared in utter disbelief. “What are you?” he gasped out.
Wiseman raised his hands in front of him. “It is not yet the time to talk about that,” he said as he fired a huge blast of dark power at him. Saffire quickly threw up a shield around him, but the blast was quickly starting to overpower him.
“Wiseman…. Damn you!” he grunted with the strain of holding off Wiseman’s attack.
“You shall die knowing nothing!” Wiseman affirmed as he pressed his attack.
Before he could become completely overwhelmed, Saffire quickly teleported away, allowing the dark power blast to roar past where he once stood. Wiseman cut off his attack as soon as he realized that his target was gone.
“He got away!” he growled irritably. However, his vexation did not last long. “That’s all right,” he said smugly. “I know where he will run to.”
Back in the present, Diamond and Black Lady observed the steady growth of the Black Crystal from the observing room of his floating crystal base.
“The Black Gate seems to be right on schedule,” Black Lady said, sitting on the armrest of Diamond’s throne.
“In a short time, the energy of the main Crystal shall reach its peak,” he added. “If we can feed that to Earth….”
“…this world will disappear and the future will have changed dramatically,” she finished with a small, eager laugh.
Everywhere, traffic was slowed to a crawl as cars packed to full capacity were preparing to leave the area for what could become an indefinite period of time. Here and there, police patrolmen stood at the busiest corners, directing traffic to the best of their abilities. Still, there were more cars that they could handle efficiently.
Catsy turned from watching the gridlock, back toward her sisters. “It has really started to grow,” she said, worriedly.
“Perhaps we should also seek shelter somewhere,” Avery recommended.
Prisma’s attention, however, wasn’t on the gridlock, but on the dark spire looming in the distance. “You’re right,” she finally said, turning back toward the others.
A figure limping into an alley across the street caught her attention. The blue shirt, the white slacks, the short black hair…. “That’s….”
“Sister?” Avery said questioningly.
Prisma said nothing as she began to make her way after the limping figure, leaving the other three sisters to follow her.
Saffire staggered through a small park, coming to lean against one of the trees while he tried to regain his strength.
“Brother!” he gasped painfully. “Brother, it’s no good…. At this rate, Wiseman will….” His strength finally failing, he slumped over and fell to the grass-covered ground.
He couldn’t help but stare at the blades of grass. “The sweet scent… of grass…. The memories… it brings….”
“Brother, look! A flower!”
The young prince of Nemesis bent down to take a closer look at what his younger brother found. “Yeah, it’s beautiful.”
“It’s been so long.”
Diamond stood up and stared down at the flower. “That’s right. And here on Nemesis, we only get small flowers. One day, we’ll go back to the Earth that rejected us, and we’ll get a field of flowers!”
The young Saffire grinned widely. “Yeah! I know that you can do it for certain!”
“Now, let us go, young prince,” a dark, foreboding voice called out to them.
“Wiseman! Damn you!” he shouted at the cloaked figure, but froze as he saw his older brother, now in his present age, standing next to Wiseman.
“Brother!” Saffire called out, now his own current age as well. “Don’t go! Don’t go with him!
“Brother! Brother!!!”
Saffire sat up suddenly, lost his balance, and plopped right back down on the bed. Once his initial reaction to his nightmare had ended, he remained lying down on the bed as he took in his surroundings.
The room was unfamiliar, as was the bed he was lying on. His shirt was gone, and he was covered in bandages. Obviously, someone had tended to the wounds he had received at the hands of Wiseman.
“Where am I?” he asked aloud. The opening of a door followed by the subsequent closing of the door, caught his attention. Someone had just entered the room. He turned his head to see who had entered the room.
Prisma startled at seeing Saffire recover so quickly. “You’ve managed to come to your senses, Saffire-sama,” she said as the platter and utensils clattered together somewhat noisily upon the tray she carried in her hands.
“Prisma? Is that you, Prisma?”
“Yes,” she replied faintly as she approached the bed.
“Where am I?”
“This is my room,” she told him as she placed the tray down on the nightstand beside the bed.
“That’s right!” he said, remembering. “You all betrayed the clan and remained here on Earth.”
She turned away, placing a hand on her chest and her expression crestfallen. “I know what I must face,” she stated fatalistically. “However, will you forgive my younger sisters? If you are here to punish us, let it be only me.”
He gave a small sigh. “Don’t worry; I’m not here for that.”
Prisma stared at him, surprise evident in her eyes. Behind her, Catsy and Bertie watched them through the cracked-open doorway. After watching for a bit longer, they closed the door.
“I thought she didn’t like men,” Catsy said.
“Don’t we have to get away?” Bertie asked. “Isn’t he going to punish us?”
“I think it’ll be okay,” Avery said calmly.
Both sisters turned to regard the third sister. “Eh?”
“Leave them be for a while.”
“What do you mean?” Bertie asked her.
“Our sister was in love with Saffire-sama long ago,” she told them sadly.
“What?!?”
“Saffire removed the energy panel from the Crystal, stopping its energy production,” Wiseman reported. “He has fled to Earth, that traitor Saffire. Destroy him and recover that energy panel!”
“Impossible!” Diamond insisted. “Saffire wouldn’t do such a thing!”
“Do you plan on jeopardizing our mission?”
Diamond bristled in anger.
“It’ll be okay,” Black Lady said easily. “I’ll take care of it.” With that, she hopped into the air and vanished with Wiseman following closely behind.
Diamond stood by himself in the base’s throne room, still shocked at hearing the impossible. “Saffire… betrayed me?”
One of the first things he noticed, as Prisma knelt down before the tray she had placed on the nightstand beside his bed, was that she had hung up his jacket on a hanger on hook next to her closet. It was the only article of clothing hanging up on the wall, as if it had some special significance.
“Here you go,” she said as she handed him the platter with a bowl on it. A spoon stuck out of one side, ready for him to use.
“Thanks,” he said gratefully as he accepted it. “You’ve changed,” he realized as he glanced back at her. “I can’t explain, but being here with you, I feel a certain calm and peace.”
“I…,” Prisma began as she bowed her head reservedly. “We’ve learned about love and trust from Sailor Moon and her friends.”
“Sailor Moon?” he repeated curiously.
“There are things that are very inconvenient about this Earth as compared to Nemesis,” she continued earnestly, “but we really are happy here, and we feel that we have been saved from a life of darkness. It’s a wonderful thing to love and trust one another as sisters should,” she added with a soft, content smile.
Saffire’s eyes narrowed as images from their long battle with Crystal Tokyo replayed in his mind. All of the destruction, scene by scene flashed by one after another. Before, it seemed to be the only choice that they had; the only choice their enemies had left them. But….
Is what we’re trying to do really right? Is it right for us to try to change the future?
To think that we were only being lead blindly by Wiseman.…
All the anger at Wiseman’s deception and confusion over his feelings began to come to a boil in his mind. He leaned forward slightly, putting a hand to his head as he struggled to clear his mind.
“Saffire-sama…,” she said as she watched him with deep concern.
“I must go,” he stated as he sat up straight. “Now.” He tried to get out of bed, but the pain from his injuries overwhelmed him.
“Saffire-sama!” Prisma exclaimed anxiously as she jumped up from her seat and rushed to his side.
“My brother…,” he hissed painfully as he continued to struggle just to sit up. “I have to… see my brother… at once!”
Prisma sighed and shook her head in vexation. “You’ve changed very little. Prince Diamond-sama was always first in your mind.”
“Prisma, my jacket…,” he requested as he swung his legs onto the floor.
“No! Your condition isn’t….”
He stood up, partially leaning against Prisma in order to keep from falling forward. “I have to tell him about Wiseman’s true intentions at once!”
“No!” she cried as she flung her arms around him and embraced him tightly.
“Prisma….”
“I have a feeling I know who did this to you,” she said quietly as she held onto him. “If you go to Prince Diamond-sama in this shape, you will….” She cut off as she began to cry.
Saffire gazed down at the eldest Ayakashi sister concernedly. Prisma.…
“If anything happens to you…,” she said as tears slid down her cheeks and dropped onto the carpet.
“I have to go,” he told her as he lifted his head. “If you saw your sisters heading down the wrong path, or if they were in danger, you’d feel the same way, wouldn’t you?
“Prince Diamond is my only brother.”
“But….”
“Don’t worry. I’m only going to talk to him.”
She wanted to say no. She didn’t want him to leave when she knew that there was a very good chance that he wouldn’t come back.
But he was right. If it were any one of her sisters, she wouldn’t hesitate, either.
He must’ve seen her decision in her eyes, since he suddenly smiled the moment she realized that she was going to let him go. She turned toward her closet and reached for his jacket, but stopped as he put a hand on her arm. When she looked back, he shook his head while still smiling at her. She nodded, then went through her closet and gave him a lavender shirt, which he quickly put on.
“When that’s done, I’ll come back again,” he told her after he finished dressing.
“Saffire-sama…,” she murmured as she tried to stifle her tears.
“I’ll get my jacket then,” he added as he glanced at the jacket still hanging on the hook by her closet. Then, with one last glance at Prisma, he left to go find his brother.
After he left, she took down his jacket from the hook it hung on, removed the hanger, and held it in her arms as she stood outside on the balcony and cried into the jacket.
“Why did she let him go alone?” Catsy asked as she and the other two sisters watched Prisma. They had all come in after Saffire left, seeing the sober, yet determined look on his face as he passed them in the hallway outside the door, but none of them wanted to disturb the eldest sister, especially when it looked like she wanted to be left alone. “And with those injuries….”
“Can’t we go with him?” Bertie suggested.
“What can we do now?” Avery replied. “We don’t have our powers any longer. We’ll just get in his way.
“All we can do is wait….”
The phone rang.
“Yes, Tsukino residence,” Usagi answered after picking up the phone. “Oh! Catsy!”
“Usagi-chan! Please help!”
Usagi’s expression grew serious as she listened to her request. “Don’t worry, Catsy. We’ll take care of it.”
Although he had rested at the Ayakashi sisters’ residence, he still felt very weak. At least he could still walk; the bandages weren’t hindering him at all.
As he stepped out to the end of the alley he was currently in, he could see the mountainous spire of Black Crystal in the distance. There were no more helicopters to be seen circling around it in the air, anywhere. Above the crystalline growth, the dark, swirling cloud continued to grow.
The sound of a woman’s smug laughter from above caught his attention. “Since you came on your own, I didn’t have to go look for you,” Black Lady said, smirking as she appeared hovering in the air above him.
“Out of the way, Black Lady!” he demanded. “I need to see my brother!”
Black Lady tossed her head indifferently. “Oh, is that so? Well, you’re not going to make it to him.” With that, she brought out her Luna Sphere and drew back as she prepared to fling it at him. Saffire moved to defend himself while looking for a way to get past her without injuring himself further.
“Wait!”
Saffire whirled toward the voice, both surprised and somewhat grateful for the interruption. In the distance, six figures stood, framed by the setting sun. “Sailor Moon!”
“So, you showed up, too?” Black Lady scoffed.
“Stop this, Chibiusa!” Sailor Moon called out to her. “You can’t hurt him!”
Saffire’s eyes widened. She was on his side?
“You’re being tricked!” she continued pleadingly. “Why don’t you understand?”
“You must be mistaken,” Black Lady replied firmly. “I’m acting on my own will!”
“Please! Come to your senses!”
“Annoying shrew!” she growled as she flung the Luna Sphere down to the street. “Luna Sphere, change!” she yelled as the ball bounced back toward her. In a puff of smoke, the ball changed into a hand mirror with the symbol of the Black Moon in the center. She then snatched the mirror and thrust it in front of her, causing a surge of dark power to amass into it.
“Chibiusa!” Sailor Moon cried out again, but Black Lady had already fired a blast from her mirror. The other four Scouts leapt away while Sailor Knight grabbed her around the waist and pulled her away from the incoming attack while diving to the ground.
“Crescent beam!” Venus shouted, aiming for the mirror.
“It’s not that easy!” Black Lady countered as she fired again, her blast colliding with the Crescent Beam in midair. The resulting explosion of light temporarily blinded Venus as she winced painfully while turning away, shielding her eyes with her hands.
“Shabon spray!” Mercury shouted, bringing up a fog to reduce Black Lady’s vision.
“What are you…?” Saffire began as Jupiter, Mars and Knight took up defensive positions between him and Black Lady.
“Now, Saffire!” Mars shouted without looking back. “Go to Diamond!”
“Why are you protecting me?”
“We don’t know really,” Jupiter admitted as she scratched her head, “but Catsy called Usagi and asked us to help.”
“I guess you can say that we’re doing a favor for a friend,” Knight added with a shrug.
“Fools!” Saffire shouted. “This could be a trap, you know!”
Mars glanced back at him over her shoulder. “Could be, but just like a certain somebody, we all become a little stupid with love.”
“Even if it’s an enemy, we like to give them a chance. Sailor Moon stresses that,” she added with a wink.
Saffire stood staring at the three Sailor Scouts, bewildered by their willingness to help their own enemy.
“Are you going to just stand there?” Knight asked, still without looking back. “We’re giving you the chance you need. Don’t worry about who is your enemy. Just go and do what you must.”
“You think these bubbles can keep me back?” Black Lady declared as she changed her mirror into a huge folding fan. She then snapped the fan open and swung it straight down, causing a huge gust of wind to blow away Mercury’s fog, revealing Sailor Moon, Mercury and Venus standing below her.
“Chibiusa, go back to your old self!” Sailor Moon pleaded again once the concealing fog had dispersed. “Moon crystal power!”
“I’m not falling for the same trick again!” she said as she changed her fan into an umbrella, which she used as a shield to hide behind. Sailor Moon’s attack struck the umbrella with no effect.
“Now, take this!” she said as she changed her umbrella into a badminton racket with shuttlecock. With a shout, she struck the shuttlecock with as much force as she could put behind the racket, sending the object hurtling toward the three Scouts below.
Venus quickly began the motions to fire off an attack to counter the incoming projectile. “Venus love-me…,” she began, but trailed off as the shuttlecock suddenly halted in midair above them. “Eh?”
The shuttlecock’s feathers flattened out to form a ring around the center. From this, a dome of dark energy quickly closed over the Scouts, trapping them inside. Once the dome closed, numerous bolts of dark power began to strike them from all directions, causing them to scream out in pain.
“Everyone!” Mars, Jupiter and Knight shouted worriedly.
“Don’t worry about me,” Saffire told them. “Help them.”
“But…,” Mars began.
“Don’t worry about me,” he reassured her. “I’ve found who I’m looking for.”
The Scouts looked toward the direction that he was now staring at and saw that Prince Diamond had now appeared, hovering in the air with his arms folded and an expressionless look on his face. His gaze was aimed directly at Saffire.
“Now go,” he told them.
“Very well,” Knight said as he nodded. “Good luck.” With that, the three Scouts left to aid their teammates.
“Saffire…,” Diamond murmured under his breath as he watched his brother stagger into the street toward him. “Saffire,” he called out loud, “why did you betray me?”
“I haven’t betrayed you!” Saffire explained. “Brother, we’ve been tricked by Wiseman.”
“Take this!” Black Lady shouted as she launched a second attack at the other three Scouts, which quickly enveloped them as well.
“What stupidity!” Diamond retorted. “Saffire, anyone who gets in the way of this plan, even you, will–“
“Brother!” Saffire shouted vehemently. “The plan itself could be a mistake, too! This was not what we originally wanted to do! We’re just being used!!! Brother!!!”
Diamond’s expression turned from resolute to one of disbelief. Was it true? Wiseman… was using them? Impossible….
During the brothers’ exchange, Black Lady had come down to street level and was now standing before the Sailor Scouts with a satisfied smirk on her face. “What an annoying man,” she said as she turned toward Saffire and raised a third, larger shuttlecock. “You’ll have to die.”
Black Lady winced as something suddenly snapped the shuttlecock out of her hand. Two more objects quickly shot the shuttlecocks out from over the two groups of Scouts, making the pair of black domes disperse. She quickly followed the path of the first object with her eyes and scowled once she found the offending object pinning her shuttlecock to the trunk of a tree.
A red rose.
“That rose!” she exclaimed upon recognition, then turned her eyes toward the source of that rose.
“Stop it, Chibiusa!” Tuxedo Kamen told her as he lowered his arm. “Diamond, listen to Saffire,” he said as he turned toward the prince. “Listen well to what your brother has seen in the future.”
Diamond turned toward his brother, concern now evident on his face. “Saffire, what becomes of our world in the future?”
Saffire smiled, relieved that his brother was finally going to listen to him. “Brother….”
Diamond’s expression turned to one of confusion as he saw Saffire’s look of relief quickly turn into one of alarm. Understanding came when a huge bolt of dark energy rushed past him from behind and slammed into his brother, who barely managed to throw up his arms over his face in defense. The blast caused a circular indentation in the street around Saffire.
“Damn!” Tuxedo Kamen gasped as Saffire slumped to his knees.
“Saffire!” Diamond shouted incredulously, then turned around to glare at the one who attacked his brother. “Wiseman!”
“There is no need for the Prince to waste his time on the execution of this traitor,” Wiseman stated.
“Brother…,” Saffire called out weakly.
The prince turned to look at his brother, concern and confusion battling in his mind for dominance.
“Wiseman is trying to destroy the future…,” Saffire gasped out urgently, knowing that he had to tell his brother before it was too late. “His goal is–”
“Die!” Wiseman shouted as he gathered energy and prepared to fire again.
“Wait! Wiseman!” Diamond exclaimed, but he was too late. Wiseman fired again. Saffire didn’t have the strength to defend against another blast and was struck full force by the attack.
“Saffire!” Sailor Moon called out apprehensively, but there was nothing she could do to help him.
“Brother…,” Saffire gasped, then collapsed.
“Saffire!!!” Diamond screamed in utter disbelief.
A small card-like object began to float from Saffire’s prone body up toward Wiseman, who easily reached out and plucked it out of the air.
“Foolish Saffire,” Wiseman said derisively. “He was tricked by the Sailor Soldiers and said some ridiculous things.
“Black Lady and Diamond, let us fight those girls another time,” he said faded away, leaving Diamond glaring at the space he used to occupy.
“Understood,” Black Lady acknowledged as she teleported away.
After a few moments of staring at empty space, Diamond finally turned to look over his shoulder at his brother, his expression full of pain and anguish. Tuxedo Kamen had already rushed to Saffire’s side and was now kneeling down next to him, and Sailor Moon was slowly approaching the fallen brother.
“Saffire…,” she said as she knelt down next to him while Tuxedo Kamen helped him to sit up at an angle.
“I’m sorry,” Tuxedo Kamen said apologetically. “I couldn’t save him.”
“Prisma…,” he whispered faintly. “I’m sorry….”
At that moment, Prisma felt a sharp twinge in her heart. Behind her, the hook that held up Saffire’s jacket came loose from its hold in the wall and fell.
As soon as she saw the jacket hit the floor, she knew.
It took a great deal of her strength not to scream in heart-rending anguish, but the temptation was still there. She picked up the jacket and sat on her bed, hugging it, not wanting to believe what had happened had happened.
Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen watched as the bandage that was wrapped around Saffire’s forehead slid down his face passing over his eyes. However, when the bandage passed over his eyes completely, they saw that his eyes were now closed as if the bandages acted like a pair of fingers closing the eyes of the dead.
“Saffire! Don’t die!” Sailor Moon begged. However, her cries could not reach the dead. “What about Prisma? What is she going to do? Saffire!!!”
Sailor Knight calmly put a hand on Sailor Moon’s shoulder. “He can’t hear you anymore, Sailor Moon,” he said quietly. “There is nothing more we can do.”
Sailor Moon glanced behind her at Knight, who had a completely blank look on his face, then over to the others, who wore expressions of frustration and sympathy in varying degrees. When she noticed his expression harden, she turned in the direction he was staring and saw Diamond approaching.
“Diamond…,” she said as she stood up, taking a defensive position beside Knight in case he was going to try to capture her again. However, when she got a better look at his face, she relaxed her defensive stance, seeing that the only thing he had on his mind was the death of his brother.
Diamond knelt down and picked up his brother in his arms. As soon as he had a hold of Saffire, Tuxedo Kamen moved away and stood up as well.
“Saffire…,” Diamond said quietly as he quivered in despair. The three present watched as his quivering and expression suddenly became the furious type. “Wiseman…,” he said in a dangerously quiet whisper, then turned and walked away, fading away after the first step. Sailor Moon reached out to him, but dropped her hand after he disappeared.
“Now comes the hardest part,” Knight said quietly. “If you don’t mind, maybe I should be the one to break the news to Prisma. After all, I know what it’s like to lose a loved one.”
Sailor Moon shook her head. “No. I… I think we should all go. We should all be there for her.”
Prisma held onto his jacket for as long as she could, until it faded away in her arms. Once it was gone, she quietly started to sob again.
The door opened, allowing the other three sisters to enter the room. Catsy and Bertie stayed near the door while Avery walked up to their eldest sister. “Prisma?” she said with deep concern.
“Don’t worry,” she said, stifling her tears and standing up. “I knew this would happen when he left.”
She quietly walked over toward the door leading out toward the balcony and stared outside, toward the looming spire of Black Crystal while her sisters watched her with looks of sympathy.
Saffire-sama will always live inside me…, she thought as she closed her eyes and pictured the smile he gave her.
…with the last smile he gave me.…
To Chapter 86: Fall of the Prince