Princess Astera Yukio (Sailor Astera)
I need to be somewhere around 5 and I don't feel like waiting until the afternoon or evening to post this.
This entry was brought to you by Sakura of Sakura's Senshi Circle.
sailormoonsues did an entry for this as well. But the story has been editted and changed since then.
Title: Return of Astera
Writer: S. R. Hughes AKA Sakura
Canon: Manga
Rating: 1
Name: Princess Astera Yukio AKA Sakura “Sakky-chan” Katakini (Profile)
Senshi Title: Sailor Astera (The “exploding” planet that used to be where the asteroid belt is now.)
Species: Mulier bitchia
Hair: Blonde, long and flowing, black in her senshi form.
Eyes: Deep violet
Unusual Markings/Colorations: None
Senshi Outfit:
Picture by S. R. Hughes "Her outfit was similar to the true identities of the girls below and included colors of black and purple, with her front and back bow shaped in three points and a thick stripe running along the edge of her skirt. Adorning her forehead was a golden crescent moon."
Possessions: A small amethyst crystal called the Adazuishou or Revenge Crystal (Picture by S. R. Hughes) and a disguise pen that belonged to her mother.
Guardians: Demetrius, a chocolate brown cat with a crescent moon on his forehead.
Origin: The planet Astera. She is the daughter of King Yukio and Queen Kiara, Queen Serenity’s long lost sister who lived as a peasant due to the controversy that could have been caused by her crescent moon mark (they thought Queen Serenity was a prophesized savior because of hers). After some rebelling due to the moon marking on Astera’s forehead when she was born and the death of Kiara, the planet left the solar system due to its orbit and didn’t return until 3089 when Neo Queen Serenity was in power. (Their lives were expanded due to a peace offering by Queen Serenity.) King Yukio, peeved by the fact that the daughter of a murderer and fake messiah was in power, attacked Crystal Tokyo and got himself killed by the Silver Crystal and Astera blown up and erased from history. Princess Astera, who was on Nemesis at the time, now wants revenge for the death of her father and, after some training, has traveled back in time to summon her father’s 4 ministers and kill Usagi.
Connections to Canon: As mentioned in the Origin section, she is Princess Serenity’s cousin. She goes to the same school as Usagi and was placed in her class at the beginning of the year because she got into an argument with her teacher. She manages to kill pretty much everybody before she is healed by the Silver Crystal.
Senshi Moves: One nameless attack that involves “a stream of aqua-amethyst light” shooting out of her palms and…
Amethyst Dynamic Burn: A bright purple beam shoots out of the crystal.
Amethyst Spiritual Hallucination: “A flock of tiny violet energy-sucking mirages surrounded Jupiter and she collapsed totally; the demons began draining energy from her body and mind as she slipped into a state of devastation.”
Astera-Nemesis Dagger: A dagger with a silver hilt appears in her hand. Then she does whatever she feels like doing with it.
Other Special Abilities: She can disorient people with her presence.
Annoying Traits: Like a lot of Sailor Moon villains, you just want to smack her after a while.
Comments: The last few chapters need to have another look-through. A couple of errors got away the last time this was revised.
Damnit, everything makes sense in this (and the details actually work, lovely). I still don’t like the name Sakura though. It's used way too much.
Samples:
Sailor Astera crouched on the balcony outside of Mamoru's apartment a few hours after she had left Usagi's. The sky was dark and she watched him toss and turn trying to get some highly needed sleep. He had been busy and he was worried about Toroku, the friend he had gone to see in Kyoto. The injuries he received had been pretty substantial. The accident occurred at night on slick roads and the driver of the car claimed she did not even see Toroku's motorcycle pull out until it was too late. He had been thrown 20 feet and doctors believed his helmet had saved his life. However he was still struggling with a concussion, two shattered femurs, and broken left arm.
When the EMT's arrived Toroku had been unconscious. He came around a little on the way to the hospital but could not remember who he was or what had happened. Shortly after arriving at the hospital he slipped into a coma. The nurse had found Mamoru's name and phone number on a bloodied scrap of paper in Toroku’s jacket pocket so he was the first to be contacted.
Mamoru left Toroku and returned home after he had been upgraded to fair condition and had come out of the coma. Toroku had been healing at an alarming rate and doctors were surprised that he would be able to leave the hospital in another week or two with the use of a wheelchair. They told Mamoru that Toroku would recover full use of his legs, but a lot of physical therapy would be needed to get him walking again. Mamoru was very thankful.
He left instructions at the hospital to call him when Toroku was being released so that he could come pick him up and take care of him. Toroku lived with his grandmother and she was not physically strong enough to help Toroku in the next few months. As one of his closest friends, Mamoru knew he had to step in. Something still irked him from the accident though. The woman that had been driving the car disappeared shortly after being questioned by the authorities at the scene. It was later discovered the car she had been driven was stolen earlier that afternoon from a shopping mall. Authorities only had a vague physical description of the woman: around five feet tall with long blonde hair past her shoulders. Not much to go on, but the officer that talked to her says he felt sick and dizzy in her presence and could not concentrate. He had trouble remembering even the name she had given. Upon review, his notepad was covered in sloppy scribbles.
Astera knew all this. It was she that had taken advantage of the opportunity.
“It was a perfect plan,” she thought. “Now all I have to do it find where that kid is. Who knew he’d end up being a friend of Mamoru.” Sailor Astera thought back to when she was a young Princess living on the planet Astera with her father, the ruler of the planet, King Yukio. He was so powerful back then, so loved by his people. He could move things with his mind and make warriors out of dirt. He had been her best friend and her confidant. Through some power she did not understand, they had lived for so many years together on that drifting planet.
Yukio’s words replayed in her mind: "The rebels of Earth were weak my darling Astera.” Her given name echoed through her memory, her true identity as Princess Astera. Her fathers words seemed lost but she recalled them with effort, “The rebels of Earth were defeated and rightfully sent to Nemesis to suffer in darkness. We are not weak, we will triumph. And you, my beautiful daughter, will be the Queen as you so deserve,” he said, placing a light touch on the golden crescent moon on her forehead. “Neo-Crystal Tokyo and that false Queen will fall under my hands." But he had been terribly mistaken.
Memories of the battle were blurred in her memory. All her father’s stories about the female warriors of Neo-Crystal Tokyo were true in her eyes. These princesses were not worthy of their titles and they would lie, cheat, and even kill to stay in power. "They are cruel and vicious," her father had said, "You can not trust them." They were cruel. They had unmercifully killed her father and destroyed her home in the 30th century. Now she sought the revenge her father had sought. She remembered the night he had come into her room just before the day of the final attack. She sensed the presence of darkness and fear; she assumed it was from Earth and the evil people that lived there.
"Do not cry my child," King Yukio had said, "you are a strong fighter. You can survive." The next day he had sent her and her guardian Demetrius to Nemesis. Two weeks later she received word he was dead and the whole planet of Astera had been obliterated. She waited in horror at what her fate would be alone on this planet full of darkness. She heard rumblings from those that kept guard of her. The tall, dark men with black crescent moons on their forehead spoke of the Death Phantom, and taking back Earth. They undoubtedly saw the young Princess as a threat and she feared them.
Terrible as it was, her father spirit came to her in her dreams every night. Through his power, he taught her in her sleep what he could not continue when he was alive. As she grew older and stronger, he taught her more and more. He showed her through visions what had happened during the final battle on Astera. She saw that he had begged for mercy but the masterful false queen of Crystal Tokyo would not hear him. She violently destroyed all that Astera loved. "Help me Father," she had said to him one night, "help me kill them all. Help me show them that they can not deny me my rightful thrown."
At her plea, a light appeared pulsing from within her and she gasped, terrified. A sinking feeling overcame her and she cried for her father to stop what he whatever he was doing.
"Do you want revenge?" his powerful voice echoed through her head.
"I want revenge," she had cried as the stinging pain filled her whole body.
"Then give me your trust and give me your soul."
She had felt immense pain like no other pain that she had felt before. The absence of her being seemed to envelope her in a dense darkness shattered by the sudden light that was shining from her spirit as it was pulled from her body. It was blinding, both the pain and the light, and it reached to a climactic point where Astera simply wished to die. Then all went dark.
On Mamoru's porch, Astera remembered all this. She reached into her pocket and once again took out the amethyst she carried, the Adazuishou. It was the last thing he father had given her, the seed of a star - her star - that allowed her to transform into Sailor Astera and fight. He came to her less frequently as the time approached for her to begin her new mission.
Astera had sensed her duty from that time on. She fled from Nemesis and returned to the 20th Century Earth to destroy the sailor senshi who would grow up to destroy her life. She came back to kill the woman called Sailor Moon, the future false queen of Crystal Tokyo.
Now all she had to do was awaken her Ministers. These powerful sorcerers would be an invaluable asset in eliminating the powerful guardians that swarmed about her target. To revive them, it seemed, Mamoru would play an important role. Astera watched him with an uneasy feeling as he lie in bed half cover by the thin blue sheet. She could make up the outline of his body and watched the rise and fall of his chest as he rested.
Just then, Mamoru stirred and sat up in his bed. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and caught a chill. It's impossible to sleep this early, he thought.
He decided to get up and forget about getting rest for now; he needed to slow his mind down. Rising, he left the room and moments later Astera heard the gust of the shower. This was her opportunity.
The sliding glass door to the room was locked but this did not pose a problem. Astera pulled a key out of her pocket and slipped it into the keyhole; silly Usagi had bragged about having the key only hours before. As she entered his apartment, the warmth engulfed her and the scent of masculinity was all around her. She tried to remained focused, she needed some information from Mamoru and she hoped to find it in his bedroom.
The unmade bed was a few feet from the door and she ran her eyes over it slowly, searching. She could feel the presence of his powerful spirit that was now only a room away. It was a cozy room and she smiled thinking about how unfortunate it was that such a powerful man was all wrapped up with a false messiah. Astera lifted the pillow from the bed and pressed it to her face, inhaling his scent. She was jolted back into reality with the sound of the shower coming to an abrupt halt.
She jumped up with a start then dove and slid under the bed. Her heart was pounding; getting caught now would prove terribly unfortunate.
Mamoru came out of the bathroom and entered his room again. Beads of water clung to his hair and chest and a light blue towel was snugly wrapped around his waist. He opened the top draw of his dresser and pulled out a new package of razors and then returned to the steam-filled bathroom.
Astera, still shaky, quickly crawled out and stood up. Her eyes fell to his dresser and focused on the various papers on top.
“I must not be so easily distracted,” she thought. She rummaged through the mess as quickly as possible and piled the useless papers together. Then she found what she was looking for, not on the dresser but on the night stand beside the phone. “Toroku Chuki, Kyoto Regional Hospital, Room 210,” she read as she looked at the yellow notepad. She immediately turned to leave, but a framed picture on the dresser top caught her attention. She had not noticed the series of photographs along the dresser when she had surveyed the room earlier. Now, the bright smile of a bubbly blond pulled her eye over.
It was a picture of Mamoru and Usagi holding hands underneath a cherry tree on some sunny summer day. She gingerly picked it up and traced the outline of his face with her finger staring intently into his deep blue eyes. She opened the frame and slid the picture out then put it in her pocket with a playful smile.
As she left his apartment, heading for the train station, she threw the frame on his bedroom floor. The glass plate shattered.
Astera met Demetrius just outside of Mamoru's apartment. "What took so long?" he asked, his brown tail swishing around behind him in aggravation.
She scowled at him, "Oh shut up! I got the room number, that's all that matters." She wondered if her guardian was useful for anything more than holding her back. “That was foolish,” she thought, “I shouldn't have been so sharp. He would not approve of my distraction.”
Demetrius did not go into it anymore. Her smug attitude was something he could deal with as it was a trait he had become accustomed to, but that cold, dark feeling in her eyes often felt like too much for him. The young and happy Princess Astera, when had she become this deceptive? Demetrius shock his head, he knew that time would tell where this road would lead.
Astera took the opportunity of silence to change the subject, "So which way is the fastest way to the train station?"
"Well, I think we can take the road to the gardens then cut through there. It should bring us out right around the station," he replied.
"Sounds good," she said. They proceeded with no further conversation but Astera could not stop toying with the picture in her pocket.
-------------------------------
She got up and pulled her chair over then gently took the heavy book off the case. She blew the dust of the cover and rubbed the caked stuff off with her hand. The gold writing on the cover read. "The Legends of The Silver Millennium: Stories of the Kingdom." She opened the cover and read the inside flap aloud, smiling, "To Ami, for your wonderful resourcefulness and you ability to put up with Usagi. Love always, Luna." It was in Rei's hand writing and marked with a paw print.
Ami remembered the day Luna had given her this. Chibi-Usa had brought it home from the future; It had been published a century after the rise of Crystal Tokyo and contained all the tales of the Moon Kingdom of the past as well as some information on the early history of the Crystal City. It had been her favorite present that holiday, and she still had not read it all. She had obviously stuck it up on the shelf and forgotten about it.
“Till now,” she thought. She flipped through the pages glancing at the beautiful illustrations and skimming the stories. She stopped suddenly, her heart jumping. The title read, "The Story of Astera." Quickly she came out of her dreamy state and sat up right reading, skimming for any information. “Astera was the many planets in the Sol System,” she read, “and it had a rebellious ruling family who wished to overthrow the Moon Kingdom. The history of the rivalry was thought to be only legend from the Ancient Kingdom, but the inhabitants of Crystal Tokyo soon learned of its validity. Thankfully, the last of the rebels were destroyed in the year 3093. I will now relate to you the Legend of Astera.
“A long time ago, many years before the Moon Kingdom was born, the solar system was in great turmoil. The ruling family located on the Moon of Earth was losing power to those on Earth who were unhappy with the status quo. They all clung to the legend of a savior who would be born with the mark of a leader on her forehead. When the youngest daughter of the ruling family became pregnant, the entire Earth and Moon waited eagerly.
A baby girl was born and shortly there after it was revealed that on her forehead she bore the mark of a crescent moon, the mark of guidance. As she grew, she was taught that she was to be the ruler of all she could see and she was made strong by her teachers. When her mother became pregnant for a second time, the baby was born in secrecy. This baby shockingly also had the crescent mark; but Selene, the first child, had already been accepted as the new savior. Advisors pressured the family of the mother to force her to give up the baby. Doctors removed the mark from the baby and she was left at the doorstep of a family home on the outskirts of the kingdom.
Many years later, Selene had grown to be a lady and the ceremony to make her the Queen was planned.
The day of that crowning of the first Queen Serenity, a young lady with shinning blonde hair stood on the balcony of her parents home on the outskirts of town. Its rails were old and weak and as she leaned forward to catch a better glimpse of the procession to the castle the rail snapped. Fortunately for this girl Kiara, a wealthy man was passing though and he saw the accident. Since most of the town had gone to hail the parade, Kiara very well may have suffered alone there for many hours.
The wealthy man’s doctors treated her and he became rather captivated by her. He was Yukio, King of the planet Astera, a planet in orbit between Mars and Jupiter in the Sol System. Soon after the coronation, the two fell in love and were wed. Kiara and her family went to the palace on the planet Astera.
A few months later, Queen Kiara gave birth to a daughter whom she named Astera after the planet that had become her new home. However it was not a normal occurrence of birth. Most astonishing was the fact that the child bore the mark of the golden crescent moon! The people of Astera proclaimed they had the true savior and that Serenity was a fake - a false Queen fabricated by the ruling family to maintain power.
Queen Serenity's advisors insist that she quash this rebellion with force before it became trouble; but Serenity was peace-minded and sent a small group of soldiers to bring a hand written letter to the King and Queen of Astera requesting their presence in her court to discuss the misunderstanding. The irritated people of Astera would not allow the letter to be delivered until they read it, but the orders demanded only the King and Queen should have that right.
Finally, Queen Kiara decided to put a stop to the stalemate and set out to get the letter personally. The King would not let her go alone, and insisted he go with her, but she pleaded him to stay with the child and allow her to handle the diplomacy. He resigned to her will and sent her off with a group of lightly armed warriors as guards. As they approached the camp of the White Moon messengers, darkness settled on the land. A scout from the White Moon camp saw the group approaching and mistook it as a secret attack by the people of Astera. A group of soldiers was sent out with orders to confront and apprehend the approaching group and to use force if necessary.
Fear, bitter anger and distrust resulted in a bloody massacre as the Queen and her guards were mistaken as a thread and slaughtered. The next day, when his wife had not returned, King Yukio went in search of her leaving the child in the care of her paternal grandmother.
He found the Queen’s lifeless body on the side of the road, her silky blonde hair caked in mud and dried blood and her fair skin turned gray with death. He cried out from that spot and claimed he would get revenge for this.
When Queen Serenity heard what had happened she immediately went to Astera to meet with the King. Against the wishes of her advisors, she went into the meeting room alone. As she stepped in Yukio held a sword up to her ivory neck. She sympathized with him and her voice never faltered. Slowly she tried to convince him that it had all been a misunderstanding and that she wished so much to change the misfortunes of the past. Yukio, remained very bitter, but saw the disadvantage of destroying the recognized messiah and having to face retaliation from both the Moon and Earth. He decided he would bide his time.
Astera was slowly leaving the solar system as it followed its awkward orbit which allowed it to travel further out of the main solar system than any other planet. Then one day the wicked Queen Beryl and the turned people of Earth attacked the Moon Kingdom unexpectedly. King Yukio and the planet Astera sent no troops to support the Kingdom. Everyone was caught off guard and all of the royal family were killed except Queen Serenity. With her daughter and only heir dead and no hope for her kingdom, she used the remaining power in her crystal to send all her loved ones to a peaceful future on Earth.
After this battle, the planet Astera had traveled far out of the system and existed in seclusion. By the time the planet reentered the solar system it was the year 3089. King Yukio was pleased to see a desolate Moon, but was shocked to find Neo-Queen Serenity had come to power in the gluttonous splendor that was Crystal Tokyo.
When King Yukio, still alive by his evil sorcery, found this he was furious because it was terribly unjust in his eyes. [The crystal explanation for his long life is only in her profile.] To him, the daughter of a murderer was in power of the entire solar system! He had been teaching his daughter and all his subjects, about the White Moon and how they were cruel, heartless, and greedy. Princess Astera had grown up alone and secluded with only her father’s guidance over her understanding of the universe. He instilled in her and all the people of Astera that the Queen of the White Moon had been the most wicked person in the entire universe. He preached that certainly that cruelty and heartlessness had surely passed on to this descendant. His anger led him to stage and attack against Crystal Tokyo.
As the battle wore on more and more of King Yukio's troops fell until at last it was just him astride his horse. But he would not surrender. As a last attempt to gain the revenge he sought, he threw a dagger directly at the Queen herself. King Endymion was there to protect her and the Queen had no choice but to use some of the power of her Ginzuishou to defeat this man. In the attack, the planet Astera was destroyed. It settled into a regular orbit between Mars and Jupiter however it had been blown to chunks. The power of Neo Queen Serenity's blast was enough to not only destroy Astera in that timeline, but through all of history. She had, in effect, erased it from existence.
King Yukio was most certainly killed and it is believed that his child, the Princess Astera, was also lost in the battle.
----------------------------------
Usagi‘s eyelids slowly lifted. “I feel so light,” she thought dreamily, “it’s very nice to be this way.” Her body felt warm and as she opened her eyes she saw herself surrounded by and floating in a warm endless glow. She looked down at herself, “Where am I?” She was nude; her skin felt smooth and soft and she felt neither exposed or threatened. “What is this place...? Did I use up the last of my life?”
“You did.” A familiar voice echoed through the light. Slowly, the outline of a sailor senshi formed in Usagi’s view: her hair was a long loose waterfall of gold and she wore a very familiar black and purple sailor outfit. In her left hand she carried a tall ornate staff that pulsated with lavender light from a strange curved symbol at the top.
“Sailor Astera?” Usagi asked in surprise, “Your hair! Your clothes!” The colors on Astera’s outfit had been reversed; where previously a crescent moon had adorned her forehead, a golden tiara with a purple gem sparkled in the heavenly light. Sailor Astera came forward to Usagi and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“I have you to thank, Usagi,” she smiled warmly, “for showing me my true path.” Usagi stared wide-eyed at the new soldier before her; tears slowly came to her eyes as she pulled from Astera‘s touch and turned away.
“Usagi?”
Usagi turned to her with a tear filled smile, “I am so happy for you,” she said honestly, “but, the others…” Sailor Astera’s concerned look lifted as she embraced Usagi and wiped a tear from her cheek.
“Release your fears,” she said as she waved her staff across the divine space, “your loved ones are safe.” Through a hazy mirage in the clouds, Usagi could see Mamoru, Rei, and all the others waking up slowly in the ice rink; their wounds were all healed, their bodies returned to life. “It was your selfless power that saved them, Usagi.” Usagi’s tears continued at the sight of her loved ones safe and well. “Thank goodness,” she sighed, then closing her eyes felt a sudden pain in her heart. She wanted so much to be with them.
“Astera, where will you go now?”
Now it was Astera’s turn to bear the emotion, “It’s because of you that I am free. You see, all this time I have been consumed by darkness; the fear and hatred of the past was laid upon me long before I was able to discern anything on my own. My power was not destined for that,” she felt a tug at the thought of all the pain she had caused. “My true mission awaits me, here in the afterlife.”
“I see,” Usagi smiled, “then you will not return to Earth?”
“I was never meant to exist in your world,” she sighed, “but you are.” Usagi looked up expectantly.
“You mean…?”
Astera lifted her staff and the lavender light began to grow, “I will be returning to the birthplace of stars to begin a new star‘s history. You’re friends are waiting for you, Usagi. Please remember me this way! Your brilliant light is always meant to shine in this universe!”
Usagi was blinded by the increasing light and she shaded her eyes. In a flash, she felt as though she was falling, falling so fast - down, down, down….
This entry was brought to you by Sakura of Sakura's Senshi Circle.
sailormoonsues did an entry for this as well. But the story has been editted and changed since then.
Title: Return of Astera
Writer: S. R. Hughes AKA Sakura
Canon: Manga
Rating: 1
Name: Princess Astera Yukio AKA Sakura “Sakky-chan” Katakini (Profile)
Senshi Title: Sailor Astera (The “exploding” planet that used to be where the asteroid belt is now.)
Species: Mulier bitchia
Hair: Blonde, long and flowing, black in her senshi form.
Eyes: Deep violet
Unusual Markings/Colorations: None
Senshi Outfit:
Picture by S. R. Hughes "Her outfit was similar to the true identities of the girls below and included colors of black and purple, with her front and back bow shaped in three points and a thick stripe running along the edge of her skirt. Adorning her forehead was a golden crescent moon."
Possessions: A small amethyst crystal called the Adazuishou or Revenge Crystal (Picture by S. R. Hughes) and a disguise pen that belonged to her mother.
Guardians: Demetrius, a chocolate brown cat with a crescent moon on his forehead.
Origin: The planet Astera. She is the daughter of King Yukio and Queen Kiara, Queen Serenity’s long lost sister who lived as a peasant due to the controversy that could have been caused by her crescent moon mark (they thought Queen Serenity was a prophesized savior because of hers). After some rebelling due to the moon marking on Astera’s forehead when she was born and the death of Kiara, the planet left the solar system due to its orbit and didn’t return until 3089 when Neo Queen Serenity was in power. (Their lives were expanded due to a peace offering by Queen Serenity.) King Yukio, peeved by the fact that the daughter of a murderer and fake messiah was in power, attacked Crystal Tokyo and got himself killed by the Silver Crystal and Astera blown up and erased from history. Princess Astera, who was on Nemesis at the time, now wants revenge for the death of her father and, after some training, has traveled back in time to summon her father’s 4 ministers and kill Usagi.
Connections to Canon: As mentioned in the Origin section, she is Princess Serenity’s cousin. She goes to the same school as Usagi and was placed in her class at the beginning of the year because she got into an argument with her teacher. She manages to kill pretty much everybody before she is healed by the Silver Crystal.
Senshi Moves: One nameless attack that involves “a stream of aqua-amethyst light” shooting out of her palms and…
Amethyst Dynamic Burn: A bright purple beam shoots out of the crystal.
Amethyst Spiritual Hallucination: “A flock of tiny violet energy-sucking mirages surrounded Jupiter and she collapsed totally; the demons began draining energy from her body and mind as she slipped into a state of devastation.”
Astera-Nemesis Dagger: A dagger with a silver hilt appears in her hand. Then she does whatever she feels like doing with it.
Other Special Abilities: She can disorient people with her presence.
Annoying Traits: Like a lot of Sailor Moon villains, you just want to smack her after a while.
Comments: The last few chapters need to have another look-through. A couple of errors got away the last time this was revised.
Damnit, everything makes sense in this (and the details actually work, lovely). I still don’t like the name Sakura though. It's used way too much.
Samples:
Sailor Astera crouched on the balcony outside of Mamoru's apartment a few hours after she had left Usagi's. The sky was dark and she watched him toss and turn trying to get some highly needed sleep. He had been busy and he was worried about Toroku, the friend he had gone to see in Kyoto. The injuries he received had been pretty substantial. The accident occurred at night on slick roads and the driver of the car claimed she did not even see Toroku's motorcycle pull out until it was too late. He had been thrown 20 feet and doctors believed his helmet had saved his life. However he was still struggling with a concussion, two shattered femurs, and broken left arm.
When the EMT's arrived Toroku had been unconscious. He came around a little on the way to the hospital but could not remember who he was or what had happened. Shortly after arriving at the hospital he slipped into a coma. The nurse had found Mamoru's name and phone number on a bloodied scrap of paper in Toroku’s jacket pocket so he was the first to be contacted.
Mamoru left Toroku and returned home after he had been upgraded to fair condition and had come out of the coma. Toroku had been healing at an alarming rate and doctors were surprised that he would be able to leave the hospital in another week or two with the use of a wheelchair. They told Mamoru that Toroku would recover full use of his legs, but a lot of physical therapy would be needed to get him walking again. Mamoru was very thankful.
He left instructions at the hospital to call him when Toroku was being released so that he could come pick him up and take care of him. Toroku lived with his grandmother and she was not physically strong enough to help Toroku in the next few months. As one of his closest friends, Mamoru knew he had to step in. Something still irked him from the accident though. The woman that had been driving the car disappeared shortly after being questioned by the authorities at the scene. It was later discovered the car she had been driven was stolen earlier that afternoon from a shopping mall. Authorities only had a vague physical description of the woman: around five feet tall with long blonde hair past her shoulders. Not much to go on, but the officer that talked to her says he felt sick and dizzy in her presence and could not concentrate. He had trouble remembering even the name she had given. Upon review, his notepad was covered in sloppy scribbles.
Astera knew all this. It was she that had taken advantage of the opportunity.
“It was a perfect plan,” she thought. “Now all I have to do it find where that kid is. Who knew he’d end up being a friend of Mamoru.” Sailor Astera thought back to when she was a young Princess living on the planet Astera with her father, the ruler of the planet, King Yukio. He was so powerful back then, so loved by his people. He could move things with his mind and make warriors out of dirt. He had been her best friend and her confidant. Through some power she did not understand, they had lived for so many years together on that drifting planet.
Yukio’s words replayed in her mind: "The rebels of Earth were weak my darling Astera.” Her given name echoed through her memory, her true identity as Princess Astera. Her fathers words seemed lost but she recalled them with effort, “The rebels of Earth were defeated and rightfully sent to Nemesis to suffer in darkness. We are not weak, we will triumph. And you, my beautiful daughter, will be the Queen as you so deserve,” he said, placing a light touch on the golden crescent moon on her forehead. “Neo-Crystal Tokyo and that false Queen will fall under my hands." But he had been terribly mistaken.
Memories of the battle were blurred in her memory. All her father’s stories about the female warriors of Neo-Crystal Tokyo were true in her eyes. These princesses were not worthy of their titles and they would lie, cheat, and even kill to stay in power. "They are cruel and vicious," her father had said, "You can not trust them." They were cruel. They had unmercifully killed her father and destroyed her home in the 30th century. Now she sought the revenge her father had sought. She remembered the night he had come into her room just before the day of the final attack. She sensed the presence of darkness and fear; she assumed it was from Earth and the evil people that lived there.
"Do not cry my child," King Yukio had said, "you are a strong fighter. You can survive." The next day he had sent her and her guardian Demetrius to Nemesis. Two weeks later she received word he was dead and the whole planet of Astera had been obliterated. She waited in horror at what her fate would be alone on this planet full of darkness. She heard rumblings from those that kept guard of her. The tall, dark men with black crescent moons on their forehead spoke of the Death Phantom, and taking back Earth. They undoubtedly saw the young Princess as a threat and she feared them.
Terrible as it was, her father spirit came to her in her dreams every night. Through his power, he taught her in her sleep what he could not continue when he was alive. As she grew older and stronger, he taught her more and more. He showed her through visions what had happened during the final battle on Astera. She saw that he had begged for mercy but the masterful false queen of Crystal Tokyo would not hear him. She violently destroyed all that Astera loved. "Help me Father," she had said to him one night, "help me kill them all. Help me show them that they can not deny me my rightful thrown."
At her plea, a light appeared pulsing from within her and she gasped, terrified. A sinking feeling overcame her and she cried for her father to stop what he whatever he was doing.
"Do you want revenge?" his powerful voice echoed through her head.
"I want revenge," she had cried as the stinging pain filled her whole body.
"Then give me your trust and give me your soul."
She had felt immense pain like no other pain that she had felt before. The absence of her being seemed to envelope her in a dense darkness shattered by the sudden light that was shining from her spirit as it was pulled from her body. It was blinding, both the pain and the light, and it reached to a climactic point where Astera simply wished to die. Then all went dark.
On Mamoru's porch, Astera remembered all this. She reached into her pocket and once again took out the amethyst she carried, the Adazuishou. It was the last thing he father had given her, the seed of a star - her star - that allowed her to transform into Sailor Astera and fight. He came to her less frequently as the time approached for her to begin her new mission.
Astera had sensed her duty from that time on. She fled from Nemesis and returned to the 20th Century Earth to destroy the sailor senshi who would grow up to destroy her life. She came back to kill the woman called Sailor Moon, the future false queen of Crystal Tokyo.
Now all she had to do was awaken her Ministers. These powerful sorcerers would be an invaluable asset in eliminating the powerful guardians that swarmed about her target. To revive them, it seemed, Mamoru would play an important role. Astera watched him with an uneasy feeling as he lie in bed half cover by the thin blue sheet. She could make up the outline of his body and watched the rise and fall of his chest as he rested.
Just then, Mamoru stirred and sat up in his bed. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and caught a chill. It's impossible to sleep this early, he thought.
He decided to get up and forget about getting rest for now; he needed to slow his mind down. Rising, he left the room and moments later Astera heard the gust of the shower. This was her opportunity.
The sliding glass door to the room was locked but this did not pose a problem. Astera pulled a key out of her pocket and slipped it into the keyhole; silly Usagi had bragged about having the key only hours before. As she entered his apartment, the warmth engulfed her and the scent of masculinity was all around her. She tried to remained focused, she needed some information from Mamoru and she hoped to find it in his bedroom.
The unmade bed was a few feet from the door and she ran her eyes over it slowly, searching. She could feel the presence of his powerful spirit that was now only a room away. It was a cozy room and she smiled thinking about how unfortunate it was that such a powerful man was all wrapped up with a false messiah. Astera lifted the pillow from the bed and pressed it to her face, inhaling his scent. She was jolted back into reality with the sound of the shower coming to an abrupt halt.
She jumped up with a start then dove and slid under the bed. Her heart was pounding; getting caught now would prove terribly unfortunate.
Mamoru came out of the bathroom and entered his room again. Beads of water clung to his hair and chest and a light blue towel was snugly wrapped around his waist. He opened the top draw of his dresser and pulled out a new package of razors and then returned to the steam-filled bathroom.
Astera, still shaky, quickly crawled out and stood up. Her eyes fell to his dresser and focused on the various papers on top.
“I must not be so easily distracted,” she thought. She rummaged through the mess as quickly as possible and piled the useless papers together. Then she found what she was looking for, not on the dresser but on the night stand beside the phone. “Toroku Chuki, Kyoto Regional Hospital, Room 210,” she read as she looked at the yellow notepad. She immediately turned to leave, but a framed picture on the dresser top caught her attention. She had not noticed the series of photographs along the dresser when she had surveyed the room earlier. Now, the bright smile of a bubbly blond pulled her eye over.
It was a picture of Mamoru and Usagi holding hands underneath a cherry tree on some sunny summer day. She gingerly picked it up and traced the outline of his face with her finger staring intently into his deep blue eyes. She opened the frame and slid the picture out then put it in her pocket with a playful smile.
As she left his apartment, heading for the train station, she threw the frame on his bedroom floor. The glass plate shattered.
Astera met Demetrius just outside of Mamoru's apartment. "What took so long?" he asked, his brown tail swishing around behind him in aggravation.
She scowled at him, "Oh shut up! I got the room number, that's all that matters." She wondered if her guardian was useful for anything more than holding her back. “That was foolish,” she thought, “I shouldn't have been so sharp. He would not approve of my distraction.”
Demetrius did not go into it anymore. Her smug attitude was something he could deal with as it was a trait he had become accustomed to, but that cold, dark feeling in her eyes often felt like too much for him. The young and happy Princess Astera, when had she become this deceptive? Demetrius shock his head, he knew that time would tell where this road would lead.
Astera took the opportunity of silence to change the subject, "So which way is the fastest way to the train station?"
"Well, I think we can take the road to the gardens then cut through there. It should bring us out right around the station," he replied.
"Sounds good," she said. They proceeded with no further conversation but Astera could not stop toying with the picture in her pocket.
-------------------------------
She got up and pulled her chair over then gently took the heavy book off the case. She blew the dust of the cover and rubbed the caked stuff off with her hand. The gold writing on the cover read. "The Legends of The Silver Millennium: Stories of the Kingdom." She opened the cover and read the inside flap aloud, smiling, "To Ami, for your wonderful resourcefulness and you ability to put up with Usagi. Love always, Luna." It was in Rei's hand writing and marked with a paw print.
Ami remembered the day Luna had given her this. Chibi-Usa had brought it home from the future; It had been published a century after the rise of Crystal Tokyo and contained all the tales of the Moon Kingdom of the past as well as some information on the early history of the Crystal City. It had been her favorite present that holiday, and she still had not read it all. She had obviously stuck it up on the shelf and forgotten about it.
“Till now,” she thought. She flipped through the pages glancing at the beautiful illustrations and skimming the stories. She stopped suddenly, her heart jumping. The title read, "The Story of Astera." Quickly she came out of her dreamy state and sat up right reading, skimming for any information. “Astera was the many planets in the Sol System,” she read, “and it had a rebellious ruling family who wished to overthrow the Moon Kingdom. The history of the rivalry was thought to be only legend from the Ancient Kingdom, but the inhabitants of Crystal Tokyo soon learned of its validity. Thankfully, the last of the rebels were destroyed in the year 3093. I will now relate to you the Legend of Astera.
“A long time ago, many years before the Moon Kingdom was born, the solar system was in great turmoil. The ruling family located on the Moon of Earth was losing power to those on Earth who were unhappy with the status quo. They all clung to the legend of a savior who would be born with the mark of a leader on her forehead. When the youngest daughter of the ruling family became pregnant, the entire Earth and Moon waited eagerly.
A baby girl was born and shortly there after it was revealed that on her forehead she bore the mark of a crescent moon, the mark of guidance. As she grew, she was taught that she was to be the ruler of all she could see and she was made strong by her teachers. When her mother became pregnant for a second time, the baby was born in secrecy. This baby shockingly also had the crescent mark; but Selene, the first child, had already been accepted as the new savior. Advisors pressured the family of the mother to force her to give up the baby. Doctors removed the mark from the baby and she was left at the doorstep of a family home on the outskirts of the kingdom.
Many years later, Selene had grown to be a lady and the ceremony to make her the Queen was planned.
The day of that crowning of the first Queen Serenity, a young lady with shinning blonde hair stood on the balcony of her parents home on the outskirts of town. Its rails were old and weak and as she leaned forward to catch a better glimpse of the procession to the castle the rail snapped. Fortunately for this girl Kiara, a wealthy man was passing though and he saw the accident. Since most of the town had gone to hail the parade, Kiara very well may have suffered alone there for many hours.
The wealthy man’s doctors treated her and he became rather captivated by her. He was Yukio, King of the planet Astera, a planet in orbit between Mars and Jupiter in the Sol System. Soon after the coronation, the two fell in love and were wed. Kiara and her family went to the palace on the planet Astera.
A few months later, Queen Kiara gave birth to a daughter whom she named Astera after the planet that had become her new home. However it was not a normal occurrence of birth. Most astonishing was the fact that the child bore the mark of the golden crescent moon! The people of Astera proclaimed they had the true savior and that Serenity was a fake - a false Queen fabricated by the ruling family to maintain power.
Queen Serenity's advisors insist that she quash this rebellion with force before it became trouble; but Serenity was peace-minded and sent a small group of soldiers to bring a hand written letter to the King and Queen of Astera requesting their presence in her court to discuss the misunderstanding. The irritated people of Astera would not allow the letter to be delivered until they read it, but the orders demanded only the King and Queen should have that right.
Finally, Queen Kiara decided to put a stop to the stalemate and set out to get the letter personally. The King would not let her go alone, and insisted he go with her, but she pleaded him to stay with the child and allow her to handle the diplomacy. He resigned to her will and sent her off with a group of lightly armed warriors as guards. As they approached the camp of the White Moon messengers, darkness settled on the land. A scout from the White Moon camp saw the group approaching and mistook it as a secret attack by the people of Astera. A group of soldiers was sent out with orders to confront and apprehend the approaching group and to use force if necessary.
Fear, bitter anger and distrust resulted in a bloody massacre as the Queen and her guards were mistaken as a thread and slaughtered. The next day, when his wife had not returned, King Yukio went in search of her leaving the child in the care of her paternal grandmother.
He found the Queen’s lifeless body on the side of the road, her silky blonde hair caked in mud and dried blood and her fair skin turned gray with death. He cried out from that spot and claimed he would get revenge for this.
When Queen Serenity heard what had happened she immediately went to Astera to meet with the King. Against the wishes of her advisors, she went into the meeting room alone. As she stepped in Yukio held a sword up to her ivory neck. She sympathized with him and her voice never faltered. Slowly she tried to convince him that it had all been a misunderstanding and that she wished so much to change the misfortunes of the past. Yukio, remained very bitter, but saw the disadvantage of destroying the recognized messiah and having to face retaliation from both the Moon and Earth. He decided he would bide his time.
Astera was slowly leaving the solar system as it followed its awkward orbit which allowed it to travel further out of the main solar system than any other planet. Then one day the wicked Queen Beryl and the turned people of Earth attacked the Moon Kingdom unexpectedly. King Yukio and the planet Astera sent no troops to support the Kingdom. Everyone was caught off guard and all of the royal family were killed except Queen Serenity. With her daughter and only heir dead and no hope for her kingdom, she used the remaining power in her crystal to send all her loved ones to a peaceful future on Earth.
After this battle, the planet Astera had traveled far out of the system and existed in seclusion. By the time the planet reentered the solar system it was the year 3089. King Yukio was pleased to see a desolate Moon, but was shocked to find Neo-Queen Serenity had come to power in the gluttonous splendor that was Crystal Tokyo.
When King Yukio, still alive by his evil sorcery, found this he was furious because it was terribly unjust in his eyes. [The crystal explanation for his long life is only in her profile.] To him, the daughter of a murderer was in power of the entire solar system! He had been teaching his daughter and all his subjects, about the White Moon and how they were cruel, heartless, and greedy. Princess Astera had grown up alone and secluded with only her father’s guidance over her understanding of the universe. He instilled in her and all the people of Astera that the Queen of the White Moon had been the most wicked person in the entire universe. He preached that certainly that cruelty and heartlessness had surely passed on to this descendant. His anger led him to stage and attack against Crystal Tokyo.
As the battle wore on more and more of King Yukio's troops fell until at last it was just him astride his horse. But he would not surrender. As a last attempt to gain the revenge he sought, he threw a dagger directly at the Queen herself. King Endymion was there to protect her and the Queen had no choice but to use some of the power of her Ginzuishou to defeat this man. In the attack, the planet Astera was destroyed. It settled into a regular orbit between Mars and Jupiter however it had been blown to chunks. The power of Neo Queen Serenity's blast was enough to not only destroy Astera in that timeline, but through all of history. She had, in effect, erased it from existence.
King Yukio was most certainly killed and it is believed that his child, the Princess Astera, was also lost in the battle.
----------------------------------
Usagi‘s eyelids slowly lifted. “I feel so light,” she thought dreamily, “it’s very nice to be this way.” Her body felt warm and as she opened her eyes she saw herself surrounded by and floating in a warm endless glow. She looked down at herself, “Where am I?” She was nude; her skin felt smooth and soft and she felt neither exposed or threatened. “What is this place...? Did I use up the last of my life?”
“You did.” A familiar voice echoed through the light. Slowly, the outline of a sailor senshi formed in Usagi’s view: her hair was a long loose waterfall of gold and she wore a very familiar black and purple sailor outfit. In her left hand she carried a tall ornate staff that pulsated with lavender light from a strange curved symbol at the top.
“Sailor Astera?” Usagi asked in surprise, “Your hair! Your clothes!” The colors on Astera’s outfit had been reversed; where previously a crescent moon had adorned her forehead, a golden tiara with a purple gem sparkled in the heavenly light. Sailor Astera came forward to Usagi and placed a hand on her shoulder.
“I have you to thank, Usagi,” she smiled warmly, “for showing me my true path.” Usagi stared wide-eyed at the new soldier before her; tears slowly came to her eyes as she pulled from Astera‘s touch and turned away.
“Usagi?”
Usagi turned to her with a tear filled smile, “I am so happy for you,” she said honestly, “but, the others…” Sailor Astera’s concerned look lifted as she embraced Usagi and wiped a tear from her cheek.
“Release your fears,” she said as she waved her staff across the divine space, “your loved ones are safe.” Through a hazy mirage in the clouds, Usagi could see Mamoru, Rei, and all the others waking up slowly in the ice rink; their wounds were all healed, their bodies returned to life. “It was your selfless power that saved them, Usagi.” Usagi’s tears continued at the sight of her loved ones safe and well. “Thank goodness,” she sighed, then closing her eyes felt a sudden pain in her heart. She wanted so much to be with them.
“Astera, where will you go now?”
Now it was Astera’s turn to bear the emotion, “It’s because of you that I am free. You see, all this time I have been consumed by darkness; the fear and hatred of the past was laid upon me long before I was able to discern anything on my own. My power was not destined for that,” she felt a tug at the thought of all the pain she had caused. “My true mission awaits me, here in the afterlife.”
“I see,” Usagi smiled, “then you will not return to Earth?”
“I was never meant to exist in your world,” she sighed, “but you are.” Usagi looked up expectantly.
“You mean…?”
Astera lifted her staff and the lavender light began to grow, “I will be returning to the birthplace of stars to begin a new star‘s history. You’re friends are waiting for you, Usagi. Please remember me this way! Your brilliant light is always meant to shine in this universe!”
Usagi was blinded by the increasing light and she shaded her eyes. In a flash, she felt as though she was falling, falling so fast - down, down, down….