oo1 ≈ ❝ if we hadn't been sisters... ❞

[memorywaters]

A massive multi-faceted crystal made up of countless others looms over several smaller similar growths. It's a crystalline garden, but somehow the crystals that make it up seem possessed of life, especially two brightly-shining ones that seem newer than the others somehow. They're all like stars

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[drinkandforget]

She gave her hand to Mnemosyne. It was warm. With what little, fast-fading strength she had left, she gave it a heartbeat-flutter of a squeeze. Somehow, from somewhere inside her, Lethe managed to keep her face almost peaceful. It was peaceful, to be lifted from the burden of fear and hate and suspicion and war.

"I was able to fight with you instead of against you in the end," she said softly. "Even if destruction always comes, Galaxia did not win."

[memorywaters]

Mnemosyne returned the squeeze. She was glad not to be alone in these final moments, as she could feel herself getting increasingly more weak. Even as she tears in the corners of her eyes zig-zagged their way off of her cheeks, she looked back up to the sky. "Do you think... we could be reborn again?"

[drinkandforget]

It's the worst question that could be asked right now. She has an urge to lie. (Why is she protecting this girl?) Maybe it doesn't matter if she does lie. They'll both be gone, in just a few moments from now. She can let Mnemosyne die with some small consolation.

"We'll see each other in the next life. Maybe this time, it won't be as enemies."

It's a lie. Without the sailor crystals...

[memorywaters]

And the other girl knew it. She shut her eyes again, imagining what something like that would be like -- and found herself smiling strangely through her tears. "You think so?" It was impossible. She knew the crystal had been ripped away... torn out of her body. But still, she couldn't help entertaining this childish fantasy... "I wouldn't mind... if we could be family," her voice shook, unable to withstand the weight of her words. "Maybe even -- sisters."

[waterfell]

The sound of her footsteps heralds her coming before Mercury herself comes into view. Her face is distant and impassive as she comes closer to the two still forms. She might be intending anything. When she is only a few feet away, she stops. She sees it all at a glance: the tiny rattling breaths that tell her life hasn't fled yet and the ugly death-wounds that mean there's nothing even her skills can do, here

[memorywaters]

Water? Mnemosyne seems to slowly come back into the moment, even if she appears rather disoriented... She would have given anything for a drink right now -- and attempts to lean forward for a sip. As she looks up -- she hadn't been expecting to meet the eyes of a sailor senshi...

"You... shouldn't be here..." she managed.

[drinkandforget]

She's too exhausted to be guarded as the strange senshi appears - to finish them off? She doesn't even have the strength left to defend herself.

She certainly doesn't expect what actually happens. Even now, her face shows the surprise. She takes the offered water, and feels better able to rest. To meet what comes with the resignation it calls for.

But Mnemosyne is right. "Don't go further." The words are too abbreviated, and her face contorts with the effort of speaking them. But going further as a senshi, this one can only meet the same fate they are.

[waterfell]

She's no fool, and despite her very large pride, she knows she has no chance alone against the fabled strongest senshi of the galaxy.

Those two henchmen, however... The sailor crystals are beyond Mercury's reach, but if she overtook them, there was a very real chance of forcing them to return at least these two. The two she's focused on right now.

But her own question, oft-repeated, comes to stop her: How do you decide which are worth saving and which aren't? There are hundreds, perhaps thousands or even millions here. They don't deserve to be forgotten for the sake of two, when she can't end this cycle for real.

She doesn't leave to pursue Sailor Phi and Sailor Chi, but nor does she leave. She helps Mnemosyne drink, calmly, before she finally speaks. "This ambition of Galaxia's... is something I won't allow."

[thatoldthatkind]

The Doctor sees the wounded girls once he turns around. A sense of urgency takes over him and he rushes over to see if they're both alright. Without asking he drops down beside them, looking at the pair. "Come on, come on. None of this. Take deep breathes and you'll be fine."

[drinkandforget]

Someone... was here for them? His voice is kind. Not someone sent by Galaxia, then.

"Those two senshi..." The ones who'd ambushed them. It's hard to speak, hard to make her voice work, hard to get air from her lung that feels like it must be punctured. "Don't go near."

If they can raise their hands against other sailor senshi, they certainly won't balk at hurting this man, she thinks.

[memorywaters]

A voice? A warm energy... Opening her eyes, she attempts the frailest of smiles -- her eyes starting to well up with tears. "Are you... here to lead us to the afterlife...?"

[thatoldthatkind]

"No... I'm not good at that. Sorry. Being a ferryman is absolute rubbish." The Doctor looks back at the other senshi, eyebrows drawn together. "Right. No going near them. What about you two? I'll tell you what! We'll get you both fixed up."

[repudiationist]

[ When she first arrives Ange doesn't even notice the two girls, not just yet - her attention is drawn by the brightly shining crystals, to all the crystals, and especially the bigger one. It's not hard to tell, even for someone unfamiliar with the concept of Sailor Crystals, that all of this is just so full of life, even if they seem like just crystals. As if some sort of energy is still pulsing through all of them, the energy of life. As if there's still some beating heart within them.

Once the shine almost gets too much for her to bear, that's when Ange guides her gaze down instead to notice the two girls. And.. well, Ange is not unfamiliar with fighting, violence and especially not death. Maybe that's why she instantly realises that these two girls are not going to make it, not as they are now. It makes her quiet, but a slightly more awkward quiet than usual, as she stares at them, eyes maybe a little heavy but her pokerface still mostly in place, even now. ]

...

[ The girl takes a deep breath, and for once she doesn't know

[drinkandforget]

[They're only close by the battle they've just shared. Mnemosyne is her enemy. Yet right now, facing down this enemy together, being side by side... feels right. Maybe Mnemosyne was right after all, though she'd never say so: Senshi fighting senshi was wrong.

There's a girl here now. A girl who seems so young, so impossible to survive if even two senshi together can't. Lethe struggles to make herself speak, to make herself heard. Her voice comes out raspy.]

Don't go further.

[Not towards the danger, not towards the direction Phi and Chi just left. If she does only one thing in her last moments, let it be to save at least one life.]

[memorywaters]

( at the sound of lethe's voice addressing another -- mnemosyne attempted to sit up ) Hngh! ( the pain is more than she had imagined -- but there, a girl... ) They... won't hesitate to kill you, either... please...

[repudiationist]

[ They're that hurt, near dying, and.. yet all they're doing is warning her? Ange swallows, feeling the helplessness of the situation only increase, but she doesn't move, not just yet - if not just to fulfill the girls' wishes. ]

It will take a lot more to kill me. [ She says it pretty softly, almsot a mutter - it's true, she's already been killed plenty of times before, it almost doesn't feel ike anything new to her. But that's not what she wants to tell the girls, because.. ]

What about you two-- is there really nothing to be done about it anymore?

[promotedpawn]

[He observes the scene with a mask over his expression. Even as an outsider it's easy to read the telling signs when one knows how to look for them. And the girls slowly bleeding to death aren't something exactly subtle about the scene.

Part of him considers the situation, he doesn't have Bernkastel's magic to create a miracle that will save them, he doesn't have Beatrice's magic that will allow him to revive them once they die either. He can only create a chance to break the destiny they have ahead of themselves, but without Regina to support his power it will be a slim chance that they may not even notice. Is it worth to waste energy on this then?

Well... They are still breathing, albeit barely. He can consider it a bit more and if they don't last... Sometimes people just have to die to allow the world to move on, as cruel as that may sound.]

Any last memorable words to pass on to others?

[drinkandforget]

[It is cruel, but Lethe, who has ushered countless humans into forgetful oblivion before their next life, is not one to quibble about the simple workings of the world, no matter how harsh they may seem. She struggles to think, a vague haze already starting to overtake her consciousness.

Then she struggles to speak.]

This war is also meaningless and should be left behind.

[They're cryptic, but they're the words this war needs to hear.]

But since they won't stop. Guard the sailor crystals.

[No personal words, from the senshi who came from such a remote planet, whose life of battle and war made few friends.]

[memorywaters]

( opening her mouth led to another coughing fit -- the energy leaving her with every laboured breath... she doesn't know who this man is, nor where he came from... but it does not seem as though he is a minion of galaxia, and as such... ) To fight... together. Side by side... everyone... if we all had... then maybe... ( she chokes down a sob, regrets welling up within her )

[promotedpawn]

[The sailor crystals? Primo looks up at them considering it. Guard them they say, that would mean interfering in this world... If it's really a world, something in the back of his mind makes him hesitate more than ever... But then again, when has he really cared about interfering in a world he didn't agree with? He may not be aware of the circumstances but from their words it's not hard to make a guess.

A meaningless war in which people who should have fought together did so separately. Of course that doesn't mean the girls here are on the "good side", but since when has Primo believed in those sides? Well, the girl used one of her last breaths to ask for help, it wouldn't fit him to ignore that plead. His eyes fall on them again.]Wars are always meaningless. And if you all had fought together you most surely would have been saved. But drowning yourself in regrets won't do you any good, you fought for what you believed, even if you failed you should be proud. The decisions other made that lead them to not aid you aren't something you