Utako had wandered around the palace. She wasn’t looking for a fight or an enemy, not yet. What she searched for was a friend… and family.
"WHAT?" Aya asked as Utako came within yards of her. She was leaning against he side of the palace, nowhere near where the damage had been done.
It was strange. Usually such a comment came from loudmouth, insolent Utako, never quiet, shy, reserved, and proper Aya. Perhaps it was because Aya finally refused to be proper, hidden behind silence and manners and fear of what it would do to her parents to ask to be herself. She’d never had to ask from her sisters, but her parents were always there. Until now. And she was responsible.
Despite how angry her voice was, she was crying. She didn’t bother wiping away tears as they streamed down her face.
"Why are you crying?" Utako asked.
Aya sniffled and tried to wipe her face in vain. "Why aren’t’ you mad?"
"At you?" Utako asked. "Why would I be?"
"Because I killed mom and dad!"
"Those weren’t mom and dad."
"Well, they’re not fucking coming back!" Aya yelled. She was suddenly different. Or maybe she’d always been like that, outspoken, strong, determined, and capable of being crass. Maybe she’d just hid it deep down and tried to ignore it.
"You’re cute when you swear," Utako said, walking up to her sister. Aya said nothing and Utako wiped the tears from her sister’s eye as she cupped Aya’s cheek. "If you’re looking for bitching about killing them, it’s not here."
"But I… I just wanted them dead. I let them... when it was me. But I couldn’t let them even threaten you guys. Not like that. It… I…"
"You still got your sword with you?"
"…Yeah…"
"If you were a real coldhearted bitch, you’d have run me through before now. Why do you care about them now, anyway? You didn’t for what? Four years?"
"How’d you know?"
"I’m your sister. Just ‘cause I don’t write songs for you to sing doesn’t mean I don’t give a shit about you. Now tell me why you give a damn."
"I thought you’d be scared about how little of a damn I actually gave. I mean, if I had a choice, they’d die some other way, or just disappear or… I never wanted to be the one to kill hem, I just wanted them gone."
"I know. I’m glad it was you."
"Why?"
"A blade’s a thing of love for me," Utako said. "Doing that to them… Freud would have a field day with that one."
"You’re not mad?"
"Fuck no."
"Or scared of me?"
"Same damn answer. Now stop crying, come on."
"What about the others?"
Utako’s eyes narrowed. At first Aya wanted to get away, but she soon realized it wasn’t anger in her sister’s eyes. "Which others? Utako asked.
"I meant the other parents. Or grandparents I thought I saw gramma Makoto."
"Aya?"
"Yeah?"
"I’m going after them. Every single one of them. We get everyone of them and the talismans and I get Gunhilda back. You can come with me if you want."
"What side would we be on?" Aya asked.
"Ours."
"What about Tommy?"
"This is Tommy’s side, stupid," Utako said. "She’s always on our side."
Aya smiled. "Do you think…"
"I think Tommy would say the same thing, only without cussing."
Aya grabbed her sister in a tight hug and refused to let go for several minutes.
Utako slowly reached up, gently holding her sister. It felt strange to her. This was family. This was real family. She wondered if she should feel guilty about not caring about her parents. She wondered if feeling perfectly numb to their fate.
She wasn’t happy about it, but neither did she care in any emotional direction. To her, they could be stars in the sky she never noticed and one day they blinked out, gone forever.
Despite their vow to fight together, they stayed there, holding each other’s arms for a long time.
……………………………….
"Nooo!" Mars finally yelled, clutching Yao to her.
Eris settled on the ground, and quietly walked over to the sobbing girl. Mars looked up at the woman. Everything about her face was emotionless, save for her eyes. Her eyes broke the silence of her face, gave away the secret she’d been hiding. Eris had seen death, and too much of it. "Never before have I seen a death dealt by accident." There was something in that voice, something beautiful. Mars could understand why Shizuki could so easily fall for that voice, and she too almost fell in love with it. There was an unspoken promise in it.
Eris gestured, as if offering something. All there was, was air at first, then Nephthys faded into existence, holding a brass scale. On one side was an upright whit feather.
"What will you trade?" Eris asked.
At first Mars didn’t answer. Nephthys’s deathly beauty frightened her. She swore those blank eyes were looking at her. "What?" she finally said.
"What will you trade for the life of her?"
"I don’t understand," Mars said. "Just tell me what you want. I want my cousin back, but… I don’t wanna die, please."
"You refuse to offer your life? Eris asked.
The others stood and watched, completely silent. This wasn’t’ in any stories of sailor senshi.
"Damn you!" Mars yelled. "I just want her back. If you can do that, do it. "
"I cannot without a sacrifice," Eris said. "I am change and chance. I am no ally, and I am no enemy."
"What do you want?"
"…I?" Eris asked. She seemed to freeze at that.
She was silent for a long time.
Nephthys turned to her.
"…I?" Eris put her hands to her temples and closed her eyes. "No. No. No, that’s not me!" she cried out. She remembered names. Names and places. Some had died for power, other for love, some merely wished to live still. What did she want? She kept probing her mind as imaged flitted in front of her eyes.
Faces, events, bloody corpses were strewn all over was she was thrown through time. Back through the ancients, back through lovers, back through the eyes of a queen that had always watched and feared and become what she despised.
Beyond that… Before Selestia had supplanted the throne… Someone had died, taken her own life to create Eris. The first Eris, not her. Not her.
Why?
Love. For love. She’d died for her lover.
The beginning rocketed her back to the present. That was what she wanted. Love. She wanted Shizuki back. To get Shizuki back…
"I want the shinka."
"I don’t have them."
"Where are they?" Eris asked.
"I gave them to my cousins."
Eris stared at Yao.
"My other cousins. From America."
The scale in Nephthys’s hand tilted away from the feather slightly.
"I can call them back if—"
"No," Eris said calmly, but bluntly. "You’ve infused your magic to them. You can’t take back what you’ve given away."
"I… I didn’t know that," Mars said. "I wouldn’t have done it if I couldn’t do that. They were just supposed to hold the shinka, not…"
"You comply with me. You give up your magic to protect others…" Eris said. The scaled was tilting back and forth, almost equal. Something was throwing it off. "Even if you balanced the scales, she would not be revived. I can grant her life again, but only to return."
"I don’t understand."
"She will be reborn."
"How can I fix the scales?"
"Regret not," Eris said. Her eyes showed they had shed millions of tears in the past, facing the same choice. She reached out and touched arms on the forehead. The three began to fade. "Change sides. Choose fate. Before it is too late…"
"Pity," the watchers heard. They turned to see two people, once loving mothers, now doomed challengers. "She ruined my bit."
"Well," the other said. "No time like the present to take back time."