Chapter Six: Someone Special
Moon Palace
Princess Suite
Moon Kingdom
Darian forced himself to stop holding onto Serena's hand so
tightly.
*She doesn't need bruises where your fingers were when she wakes up.*
*If she wakes up.*
Darian pushed away the grim thought as he looked around the room. It
was evening again - had it been that long since he'd sat next to Serena?
He remembered briefly somebody telling him he had to eat, and ignoring
the same person. There were only three of the Queen's Inner Court in
the room now. Sensei Jupiter, Mars and Uranus were seated in the other
three corners in the room. Saturn and Neptune must have left to guard
Queen Serenity. *When did THEY leave?* he couldn't remember. Only the
terror as he waited the impossible long pauses between each pulse he
felt in Serena's wrist. The pulse of her life continuing for one more
instant.
Darian looked down again at his princess's pale face, and anger
reared up in him.
"Isn't there ANYTHING we can do?" he demanded angrily.
Sensei Mar's head jerked up at his voice. All three Sensei looked
exausted, and they were all half slumped in their positions, though the
athmosphere of alertness around them weren't gone because of that. They
were trained Warriors even half asleep.
"The only thing we can do is hope and pray that Sensei Mercury and
Venus find Sailor Earth in time for her to use the Earth Stone to save
the Sailor Scouts and our Princess." Mars replied sadly.
Darian stared down at Serena's pale body, her chest rising slowly and
sinking again. He could almost hear her pulse. Slow, and unsteady -
she could die at any minute.
The link between the Endymion Family and the Earth Stone was shaky.
Without the Earth Guardian - the True Guardian - holding the Earth
Stone, only the Chosen Guardian of the Earth Stone could use it - and
even then, the power was limited. The Chosen Guardian could use the
link between the Earth and the Stone to see all their planet and
anything the Earth herself wanted. They could use some of the Earth
Stone's powers if the Earth allowed it, and they could link themselves
through the Earth Stone to the Earth. But only that. If they tried to
do any other thing -
*You must NEVER try to take more than the Earth gives us.* The warning
his Father had given him when Darian had been chosen as the Guardian.
*But if I can SAVE Serena. If I can give them enough energy to bring
them back to life? It would be worth dying for wouldn't it?* Darian
thought as he sank back down next to Serena, holding her hand, feeling
the pulse against his fingers.
*When you are ready to die for your people, then you are truly a Prince
of Earth.* his Mother had given him that advice a long time ago, and
Darian had thought he'd felt it in the midst of war when he would have
willingly given his life to see that the Amazon Queen didn't bring her
darkness to life. In the end that hadn't been needed. A stranger had
taken the death-energy blow that Queen Artaria had meant to kill him in
the final battle.
*Maybe that stranger gave his life for me to give it now.* Darian
decided.
Mars jerked upwards through the fog of sleep as she felt the
twinge through the energy field.
"What in -?" Jupiter was already standing up her eyes wary as they
both glared around the room, searching for the source of the
disturbance.
"What is it?" Mars asked.
"Can it be the energy's master?" Uranus asked.
Jupiter's face was free of color, "No. Darian is trying something
forbidden." She whispered.
They all turned and stared. The Prince of Earth was glowing, a symbol
flashing on his forehead - that of a small, miniature Earth. His eyes
were thrown wide and agonized as light flickered around him.
<:Please, Mother-Earth. Let me - I HAVE to save her.:> Darian
pleaded as he forced himself to dive through the streams of energy and
light - he was venturing into a place he had been warned not to enter
before. A place too powerful for him to control. Pain streamed through
him, <:I have to save her.:>
<:Would you die for her to live?:> the loud rushing of the Earth's voice
exploded through his head, <:For that is what you will be if you do what
is forbidden to all but my Guardian.:> anger tinged Her voice and he
shielded from it, but he didn't stop.
<:I must. She is my Princess. I cannot let her die. It is my duty -
my responsibility. She is -:> he shielded from thinking the thought,
<:Please, Mother-Earth. I MUST save her.:> agony trickled through him
as he waited, the pain almost unbearable. He felt the link between him
and his body waver. It would break soon if he wasn't careful. *But if
I can harnass the energy, Serena will be alive. And it will be worth
SOMETHING.* Darian concentrated. It felt like he was standing in the
middle, holding the broken rope together in a tug of war between two
incredibly strong opponents.
<:You cannot use the Earth-Stone. You are doing what cannot be done.
It will destroy you, and that cannot be either.:>
<:Please.:> he pleaded.
<:There is one who can do what you cannot. Someone. . . Someone -
special. Go, child. All will be well.:>
And suddenly, he was blinking in the middle of Serena's room,
staring up at the three Sensei from where he lay on the floor. He
tried to get up, but every muscle in his body screamed in agony even as
Sensei Jupiter pushed him back down.
"Lay still, you fool!" she snapped angrily, "Do you KNOW what you
were doing?" she demanded.
Darian shook his head groggily as he struggled to a sitting position,
"SHE promised that all would be well." He said, his voice hoarse in
pain. "All will be well. SHE promised." He collapsed back onto the
ground, blackness roaring up around him and he couldn't stop himself
from sliding into the blackness. Couldn't help himself, "Someone
special." He murmered before he lost all control.
"Is he still -?"
"Alive, but his energy has been depleted severely." Sailor Uranus
said, "It'll be several days before he'll be able to wake up, let alone
try that again." she said.
"What do you think he meant about 'SHE promising all would be well'?"
Jupiter asked, "And 'someone special'?"
"I don't know. I just know that he was trying to use the Earth Stone
in a way that only the Sailor of Life can." Mars said, shaking her
head, "He KNEW that what he tried was near impossible, and if he DID
manage, he would die." she said.
"Then why try?" Jupiter asked blankly.
"Only one reason why." Uranus said, her lips twisting dryly, "The
thing that logic, science and even magic cannot explain."
Jupiter stared at her two sisters blankly, "What?" she asked, frowning,
"What can't logic, science and magic explain?"
Mars sighed, "I'll tell you one day, Jupiter." She said finally.
"Is it one of those riddles? Like that one from Earth that goes
about: 'what walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the
afternoon and three in the afternoon'?" Jupiter asked.
Both Uranus and Mars sighed, "Forget it Jupiter." Uranus said as she
walked over to Serena.
"Any change?" Mars asked.
"No. Still comatose." Uranus replied, "Goddess - "
Her words went unsaid as they were all thrown backwards as air boomed
and light sparkled around them.
"What in all of the Moon?!" Mars screamed as she rolled and stood
up, "Guards!" she screamed even as a flame began to flicker around her
fists, "MARS FLAME - "
Jupiter rolled into to a fighting crouch, "Look!" she whispered,
pointing.
There was a girl standing there, eyes closed as light supported her.
Her hair short and black, dressed in what looked like a variation of the
Scout uniform, only a high, open collar that brushed the ends of her
hair. There were a streak of dark green curling around one side of the
collor and a light blue around the other side.
Her skirt was short, and a shimmering color that seemed to change
slightly with each flicker of light. It gleamed blue, green, brown and
red. Around her hips, hanging at the very centre of her waist hung a
metal chain with a round amulet with the sign of a flying unicorn
rearing up towards the sky. And hanging around her neck from a chain,
flat between her breasts was a gleaming stone that swirled like the
clouds of Earth.
"The Earth Stone." Jupiter breathed, "Can she be -?"
"Sailor Earth. The Scout of Life." Uranus finished.
"This must be what Darian was speaking of." Mars said in a hushed
whisper, "He must have somehow managed to call the Scout of Life here
from Earth."
The light was growing brighter by the moment and the three Sensei stood
watching in awe. This was the missing Scout. For more than sixteen
years, there had been no Scout of Earth, as there had been no Solar
Scout. But now - there she stood. The mystical Scout of Life. And a
young man barely in his twenties had brought her here.
The light splintered away, and Sailor Earth crumbled to the ground
with a low groan just as Queen Serenity, Sensei Neptune and Sensei
Saturn burst into the room
"Your Majesty, my sisters. Meet Sailor Earth, the Scout of Life."
Jupiter said dryly as Mars rushed to the fallen girl's side and scooped
her up.
"But how?"
"Hope, dreams and a VERY brave young Prince who is very much in love
with our Princess." Jupiter explained, she grinned at Mars and Uranus,
"I'm not as dense about matters of the heart as I seem." She added with
a wink, "Just might seem like it."
They laughed together. The anxiety of the past two days fled. This was
Sailor Earth, and with her, the salvation of Princess Serena and the
Sailor Scouts.
