"Serenity." The calm, demure voice belongs to a fairy-like creature of pale hair and a slight figure, garbed in a long white gown marked by a crescent moon at its front, just like on the woman herself. She takes in the camp, and the rough surroundings.
"You have faced many challenges," she observes, and her eyes sadden. "I should have liked to see you in happier circumstances."
Usagi doesn't answer at first, she doesn't even turn. Oh no, the nexus just didn't do that.
"I should have liked to never see you again;" is the cold reply the woman gets. She should be grateful, Usagi is really not in the mood to kill tonight. Yet.
Selene's eyes widen in startled surprise. Of all the reactions she could anticipate from her daughter, that one is completely unexpected.
There must be a reason for it, she tells herself, and she tries to make that inner voice of reassurance loud enough to drown out the pain of rejection from her own child, her precious child.
All she can think is that Usagi must be facing difficult times in this reincarnation, that Usagi is blaming her for the new life they were all sent to. She tries to explain it.
"No mother could forsake her daughter," she says. This is a fundamental truth of her world. "When you took your life, it was as if mine ended. I could not allow our enemy to take away the future of you all. I did not know the enemy would also arise again."
She bites down the cold and hysteric laugh that almost came out as soon as the woman started to talk. It's an alternate, she reminds herself. Even if she doubts the demon this woman was would change that much, it helps the fact that she's basically saying the same first words the queen Selene of this world said to her in this new life
( ... )
Usagi, who worries that the people in the nexus expect the princess they know and refuse to acknowledge her as different, must some day acknowledge the alternates of others she meets as different.
Selene, for her part, is baffled.
"When you died, I used the ginzuishou to send you, and the senshi, to be reborn together on Earth along with the prince," she says. "But using the ginzuishou's power like that was the end of my own life, too." She says it without regret. She had died to give her daughter life; a mother knows how to make that sort of sacrifice.
"I am no longer alive," she explains. "What you see are images projected through the memories stored in the auxiliary computer of the Moon Castle."
How should she answer? She loves her daughter; there can be no doubt of that. But part of being a mother is correcting their child, too.
"Serenity," Selene says quietly, "You have suffered. But do not let it make you unjust. You will become what you seek to put right. I do not know what has happened in this world, but you must keep your pure heart."
This intolerant girl reminds her of their enemies through the long centuries and millennia, who nursed their hurts and let those hurts turn them towards evil. It does not remind her of the loving heart she instilled in her daughter.
Silence. A long one and then... "It's too late for that. Nothing in me is pure anymore, since the moment I choose to fight for the mother I knew instead of for the senshi that were my friends."
If she were anyone else, those words would make her soften. But being Selene, she already feels Usagi's pain as her own. (And yet... and yet... she can almost hear Serenity refuse to make to choice, look for a different way, find a path where no one would have to be sacrificed.)
"Even that decision was motivated by your love for that mother," she points out. "You are not impure because of a choice you made from love. Even if the choice is a regret."
She didn't want to make a choice. She tried to reach her mother, make her realize that she didn't care if they had privileges or not. That she was friends with the other senshi, even Sailor Earth. That Elysea wouldn't let the Moon to be treated badly or would try to conquer it
( ... )
Selene is that person Usagi has been searching for, who will allow her to be herself and who will not judge. Saddest of all, for Selene, is that Usagi has lost her faith. She has lost her faith in herself.
"Terrible things have happened," she agrees, because that much is true, no matter the details. "But the tumult in your heart is what prevents healing from taking place. Even the power of the ginzuishou is helpless if your heart wavers."
"I know that. I know the ginzuishou's power depends on my heart and that it can grant salvation or destruction based in that. That's why I handed it to Elysea, even if it's powerless it's more safe in her hands than in mine."
It's true that the ginzuishou broke when the queen tried to use it to destroy the Earth. But did it broke because of her intentions or because of the evil in her heart? Saturn said Usagi could destroy the world if she wished with the power of the ginzuishou, so it couldn't be because of her intentions. She doesn't want the ginzuishou to react to one of her emotions and cause another disaster.
It's the princess' rash heart that let the ginzuishou cause destruction in so many of the worlds where it did. There's a Mercury who, in her better moments, hopes for a chance to plead with the Queen not to let the princess have it in her hands until much, much later - when she is mature enough for it and there is no chance of that unintentional panic
( ... )
Selene does good in not condemning Usagi's decision about the ginzuishou, it's probably the only decision she still doesn't reject and in which she has complete faith. Still, she doesn't like that 'when the time is right', neither the bit about the 'brightest light', no light should be brighter than Elysea's, similar or less but not more
( ... )
The Black Moon would highly approve of letting a world develop without dependence on the ginzuishou.
As for Selene, she also nods. She has used the ginzuishou without hesitation, for the sake of the Moon Kingdom and Earth and her world, but she understands that in the reincarnated world, it carries a heavier burden.
"You will know when that time is," she promises Usagi.
She hopes it will never come. She sees the ginzuishou as a tool that provides miracles, but miracles should be rare. Dependency on it won't bring any good except a repeat of mistakes of the past. It was the ginzuishou's power that made Sailor Moon so important, that made the senshi system shift to her as its center while Sailor Earth was missing.
It's something she wishes she could destroy at times, something she prays will never be destroyed. But it shouldn't matter, she doesn't plan on having children, there won't be any more moon children to use it. Sooner or later it will become nothing but a crystal without power. And she's sure the world will keep going on with it on it and be fine.
Usagi doesn't reply, she doesn't want to think more about the ginzuishou. She's not there for it. "I have more important things to worry about than when I'll use the ginzuishou if I ever will."
"You have faced many challenges," she observes, and her eyes sadden. "I should have liked to see you in happier circumstances."
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"I should have liked to never see you again;" is the cold reply the woman gets. She should be grateful, Usagi is really not in the mood to kill tonight. Yet.
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There must be a reason for it, she tells herself, and she tries to make that inner voice of reassurance loud enough to drown out the pain of rejection from her own child, her precious child.
All she can think is that Usagi must be facing difficult times in this reincarnation, that Usagi is blaming her for the new life they were all sent to. She tries to explain it.
"No mother could forsake her daughter," she says. This is a fundamental truth of her world. "When you took your life, it was as if mine ended. I could not allow our enemy to take away the future of you all. I did not know the enemy would also arise again."
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Selene, for her part, is baffled.
"When you died, I used the ginzuishou to send you, and the senshi, to be reborn together on Earth along with the prince," she says. "But using the ginzuishou's power like that was the end of my own life, too." She says it without regret. She had died to give her daughter life; a mother knows how to make that sort of sacrifice.
"I am no longer alive," she explains. "What you see are images projected through the memories stored in the auxiliary computer of the Moon Castle."
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"Serenity," Selene says quietly, "You have suffered. But do not let it make you unjust. You will become what you seek to put right. I do not know what has happened in this world, but you must keep your pure heart."
This intolerant girl reminds her of their enemies through the long centuries and millennia, who nursed their hurts and let those hurts turn them towards evil. It does not remind her of the loving heart she instilled in her daughter.
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"Even that decision was motivated by your love for that mother," she points out. "You are not impure because of a choice you made from love. Even if the choice is a regret."
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"Terrible things have happened," she agrees, because that much is true, no matter the details. "But the tumult in your heart is what prevents healing from taking place. Even the power of the ginzuishou is helpless if your heart wavers."
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It's true that the ginzuishou broke when the queen tried to use it to destroy the Earth. But did it broke because of her intentions or because of the evil in her heart? Saturn said Usagi could destroy the world if she wished with the power of the ginzuishou, so it couldn't be because of her intentions. She doesn't want the ginzuishou to react to one of her emotions and cause another disaster.
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As for Selene, she also nods. She has used the ginzuishou without hesitation, for the sake of the Moon Kingdom and Earth and her world, but she understands that in the reincarnated world, it carries a heavier burden.
"You will know when that time is," she promises Usagi.
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It's something she wishes she could destroy at times, something she prays will never be destroyed. But it shouldn't matter, she doesn't plan on having children, there won't be any more moon children to use it. Sooner or later it will become nothing but a crystal without power. And she's sure the world will keep going on with it on it and be fine.
Usagi doesn't reply, she doesn't want to think more about the ginzuishou. She's not there for it. "I have more important things to worry about than when I'll use the ginzuishou if I ever will."
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