An ending

[waterfell]

This world is ending. Mercury is here as observer. The light is incredible as it envelops the stars and planets in its path, one after the other, all washed away in a searing white. The silence is deafening

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[white_polaris]

She watched the light, the white light of destruction. It was always one or the other a bright shining burning light or a suffocating enveloping darkness. With so many that could die, she could stand idly by on this. Dressed in her fuku, Serenity's wings spread wide open as she held up her staff. She felt the light encompass her and suddenly her own light started to glow. With her staff held high her light emanated out of her. Her light was warm and just as bright. Her grip tightened as she suddenly felt the light sense her attempt to set things to right and she merely shut her eyes

[waterfell]

"What are you doing?" Mercury's sword was pointed directly at Cosmos until she received an explanation. Then the sight unfolded in front of her: a gradual unwinding of the death of at least this world.

Heh. A sop. A temporary measure. Yet more than she had expected, from the princess. Her sword lowered, though her face remained guarded.

[white_polaris]

No, not temporary, not if she has any say. Buildings, people, animals, even the very planets themselves start to heal, rebuild, regrow. Damage done by the light is undone. Lives lost are restored, returned. Serenity is practically glowing as she continues to wield the crystal, in fact she is. She glows as she had made the moon glow, the earth shine. When she had been younger, the light emitting from her and Endymion had pierced the very universe and gone out in all directions to so many planets. She had saved worlds before and she would save these two.

Her light wraps around her and the planets, cocooning them in the safety she so desperately wished to give them.

[waterfell]

Satisfied, Mercury turns to watch the far more beautiful sight unfold. It burns within her: She knows the limitless power of the ginzuishou, but that salvation and destruction should always be at the whim of a girl she couldn't trust...

And yet right now it was salvation. And as the world spirals around them, she lends her voice to its song. A blue aura flared around her as the light of the ginzuishou revealed her in the flowing gown of Mercury's princess.

"Dark Mercury Crystal Power." The voice is deeper, lower, firmer; echoing and wholly calm. She is experienced by now in this, her own power, as she sends it to Sailor Moon in the form of Cosmos, for the first time in several years.

[white_polaris]

As soon as Cosmos felt the power of Mercury, even though she was from a different universe, even though Mercury didn't call her friend or ally or fellow senshi, they still fought together to save worlds. And when Mercury sent her power to the ginzuishou, to her, it was like welcoming an old friend home. Like a familiar pulse beating in tandem with hers. It filled her and warmed her and made her all the stronger. She felt the power and with practice and ease she used it to help. She kept her gaze on her staff, she could feel the ginzuishou materialize in front of her winged-broach. She could feel it glow brightly with her power and now, with Mercury's help she raised her other hand up into the air.

'Ginzuishou' she willed it, 'save these worlds. Save these people!' She poured herself into the crystal, she poured the power Mercury gave her into the crystal. And the light, already so bright and strong suddenly became brighter and warmer. It wrapped around everything, it wrapped around her and Mercury, around the planets and

[waterfell]

How? How could the same power that destroyed so carelessly be the same power to revive?

It made no sense. It never had. Perhaps that was why it had been so easy to accept the princess as only destroyer once Mercury learned she was the destroyer.

This does not make that objection disappear. This does not make the objection disappear, because she has always known the capability was present. The painful light had seared her more than once. This situation forces her only to accept that Sailor Cosmos might make that choice to save instead of ruin.

She felt tired, admittedly; a large expenditure of power could do that to any senshi. But she felt... accomplished. This was a world that would not end, not at this time.

[white_polaris]

Once the light had dimmed, leaving only the warm memory of it's comfort and protection to all those it had touched, the ginzuishou faded, returning to where it always properly belonged, next to Serenity's heart. Slowly she returned to the ground, showing no sign of strain or the usual harangued look Usagi donned after a powerful battle. She had poured herself into the crystal and could still fly with ease back to the ground.

But truly, if Mercury felt tired, Cosmos felt exhausted though outwardly she showed no sign. When her heels touched the ground, her dress flowed around her, the hem lightly scrapping against the dirt. Her staff of Cosmos was replaced by the royal scepter. However, it seemed that standing was more than she could manage in her condition. As soon as her feet touched the ground her knees gave out from under her. The scepter clattering beside her.

[waterfell]

She's said it many times: She is no longer a senshi who protects the princess. She has forsaken those vows, no matter how dishonored that may make her.

So Mercury does not rush to catch the princess, does not brush the hair away from her forehead, does not worry or fret. But neither does she ignore the person she just went through this ordeal with. The practiced eye of a medic roves over Sailor Cosmos while Mercury keeps her face impassive, her pursed lips the only sign of the irritation that these moments of compassionate impulse produce in her.

[white_polaris]

The wounds at first are not nearly so apparent, her dress after all is pristine and white and her skin glows pale like the moon. But the eye of a medic will notice the slightly singed edges at those long tendrils. There are some scrapes and a burn along her arms and probably her legs where the destructive light had hit her before she had called upon her own inner light. Her exhaustion was the most evident. Serenity slowly sat up, not asking for help from Mercury. It wasn't out of pride nor was it out of fear Mercury would ignore her. She was just so tired she didn't think to call out for help.

[waterfell]

Burns. Scrapes. Nothing serious. She should just leave it; there's no harm in walking away. It's not even cruel. The princess will heal.

And yet she finds herself huffily eyeing the injuries, and then saying, "Give me your arm."

[white_polaris]

Serenity blinks for a moment, the command taking longer to process. She holds out her arm, unworried and without fear that Ami might do something. She doesn't even such a thought cross her mind as she forces herself up to hold out both arms. After all, Ami hadn't said which one, but that was alright. Cosmos trusted her regardless.

[waterfell]

She tells people the princess burned and broke her in the nexus. This is true. What she does not tell them, because the Darkness is never good at keeping or relating whole and pure memories, is that Usagi healed it very soon afterward when she came back to herself.

Maybe this is repayment for that.

Mercury cups her hand to hold nothing. She pulls water from the air to form a small ball. It glows, and she hovers her hand above the injured parts. As the glow sinks into the wounds, the cuts and scrapes are soothed away in the waterbending healing techniques she was taught once in Econtra.

[white_polaris]

Serenity watches the water bending, amazed by some of the powers Mercury has mastered. But at the same time, she is not surprised. Ami was that sort of girl, after all. She felt the wounds sooth and she smiled brightly at Mercury.

"Thank you, Mercury, for this and for giving me your power. I do not know if I could have done it without you and survived."

[waterfell]

It's not just bragging when she says she's become more powerful. She's applied herself to it with that methodical, driven force typical of a fired-up Ami. Perhaps the greater surprise lies in the simple fact that she still took an interest in healing magic.

A doctor after all, perhaps.

Or perhaps the surprise of the day was that simple thank-you from the sailor-suited woman beside her.

"This time, we both did this," is the only explanation she offers, which must refer to their working together, and the words come out almost like some kind of insult or accusation in their awkwardness.

[white_polaris]

Still tired but happy and content, warm even, Cosmos sits up and with Mercury still close she placed a gentle kiss on Mercury's brow. Her smiled was warm as she closed her eyes. She knew that this Mercury was not fond of touch, so the kiss had been brief but her love behind it was just as strong, just as powerful as her light had been. She was eternally warm from the light of the ginzuishou. Her skin was warm and the wounds were healed.

"You are wonderful, Mercury."

[waterfell]

It was a kiss to break a spell, alright; but the spell it broke was the one of the peacefulness.

"I don't need you to say it!" Mercury shot back immediately, even as she took a step to put more distance between herself and Sailor Cosmos. Her hands came to her hips.