"My baby died… How dare you take her power? How dare you defile her spirit!" Erato yelled.

"If you only knew!" Eris yelled at her. "This is what she died for!" Eris pointed at Desdemona and Aaron.

"Keep me outta al this," Uranus said, leaning on Charon. "Nice legs boy."

"Your child killed my best friend. She lost her powers and her memory," Thalia said, striding over to Erato. "Usa took my memory of her death. I lost everything that day!"

"My child lost her mind!"

"She killed my friend. Her partner!"

"Don’t you DARE—"

Thalia lunged at Erato, who was no more skilled at wrestling than she was at running. She was determined, though. So was Thalia.

"Thalia Righteousness!"

"Erato Righteousness!"

In a blast of blue and black, the two disappeared, leaving no trace.

"…Kay," Uranus muttered.

"…That’s never happened before," Eris conceded.

Gaia suddenly let out a noise like a short backward scream; there was an arrow in her chest.

She fell to the ground in a rather immediate, though sloppy and ungraceful manner.

"Run!" Mars yelled. She tripped and fell right into Charon Dan Uranus.

Deimos came running up behind her, flinging arrows at her. Her aim, though, was nothing like her determination. One arrow struck the tree Aaron had crashed into. He had thought the ground was safer and was now sure of it. Several struck the ground. One went through Rhea’s hair.

"Nerys Divinity!" Neptune yelled. He couldn’t stand, but he wasn’t going to let Uranus become a target if he could help it.

"Pain!" Deimos yelled and the wall smashed. She looked at her hand.

"Bugger it, I’m starting to agree with the damn punks about being a senshi," Uranus said.

Eris looked up at Nephthys. In Nepthys’s hand were eight pieces of Rhea’s crystal and the complete Iridescent Jewel. The talismans would have to wait until spells weren’t flying everywhere.

"Eight?" Eris muttered. It made sense for Nephthys to have retrieved several during the deaths that resembled stray fireworks display. But shouldn’t there be one more?

"Mom?" Mars asked, helping Charon and Uranus up. Rhea helped Neptune up. He was the best—probably only—defense they had.

"What planet do you wish to take back?" Eris asked.

"All of them," the woman asked. "The universe will bow to Melpomene!"

"Somehow I don’t think that’s the right answer," Charon said. "Curse of Persephone!"

"Titanic overture!"

"Nerys Divinity!"

"Are Fire Javelin!"

"Cerberus’s Fangs!"

Each attack faded away, seemingly swatted attack with the end of a few strands of hair.

"We are in deep Barney," Uranus said. No one felt it was the right time to ask what she’d just meant.

"I am the last heir to Saturn. I’m going to take my rightful place and then I will take yours. First… Melpomene—"

"Shit!" Mars managed. She’d always thought they’d be her last words.

"Pain!"

The arrow struck Melpomene in the back. It didn’t divert the attack. The ball of glowing purple shot right smashed Charon’s staff and sent Uranus and Charon flying and skidding on the ground.

Mars managed to duck.

"Nerys—"

"NOO!
Uranus shrieked and used all her strength to launch herself at Neptune.

She knocked him out of the way, the blast taking out part of her skirt and shoe and it grazed her.

As she saw Uranus start to lunge, Stella grabbed Sirius, only to have Satet throw them both out of the way.

"Pain!" Deimos yelled.

"You little brat!" Melpomene spun around to strike at Deimos.

"Don’t you hurt my cousin!" Mars yelled, and lunged at her.

"Stop it!" Rhea yelled, tugging on Eris’s arm as Melpomene recovered and grabbed Mars’s throat.

Eris seemed as distant as her assistant did.

‘This isn’t how it’s supposed to be!’ her mind cried, again reeling through the generations. Sides had cheated, seduced, murdered, fought, and bound their opponents. Some committed suicide instead of killing their opponents. The cosmos was stained with blood. Selestia had murdered her ally and the father of her first child. She’d been the cause of the death all those who had fathered progeny with her. She’d killed her sister. She’d killed her queen.

So many lost their lives in the rebellion of the planets. So many didn’t’ want to fight.

Even then, there were rules. The rules had gone wrong. Everything had gone wrong. This wasn’t’ supposed to be like this!

They weren’t supposed to be killing like this!

But she was Eris. All she did was speed up the battles. She wasn’t’ meant to care.

But—

Eris shrieked at the top of her lungs, trying to drive away the images of bloodshed.

Eris grabbed the feather from the scales, which turned black in her hands.

"Tiresias!" she yelled, throwing the feather to the ground.

Melpomene gasped and dropped Mars. Mars rubbed her throat and coughed. Deimos hit Melpomene with another arrow, but nothing happened.

"No!" Melpomene yelled at Rhea.

Rhea felt something warm in her chest. She felt something filling within her where there was only hollowness. She felt it so solidly, and there was no emotion to it. She closed her eyes and felt…

She looked at her sister, lying with an arrow in her still. Gaia didn’t seem to be moving at all.

The Golden Crystal had a new owner now. She’d make her choice honorable. She’d make her love honorable. She’d make her sister’s death honorable.

As she strode towards Melpomene, power flowed from her hands. Unseen, she calmed Eris’s mind, who slumped to the ground and gave a soft moan as the bloody past let her be.

Shards lifted from Charons’ arms. Scrapes and scars and impact wounds drifted away like vanishing mist from Neptune and Uranus, who could do nothing but stare into each other’s eyes as words drifted through their heads.

They saw another illusion. A woman, just like Aaron, her hair a bit shorter, dying in her lover’s arms.

Another woman, like Desdemona, her hair a bit longer and more even, stabbing herself to kill an enemy, so she can join her dead lover.

As the illusion ended, Uranus attacked Neptune’s lips. They’d lost one life together. If they must lose them again, they’d go acting on passions, not hate.

"Seishi, no! Seishi, I’m sorry!" Melpomene screamed. "Don’t hurt me! Seishi!"

Rhea stopped.

"Who is Seishi?" she asked.

"Please I—"

"Veritas Golden Age!"

Melpomene stood frozen. To curving blades stuck out of her chest, dripping with blood and flesh.

Blood dripped from her lips.

No one moved.

"Sei…shi… be… Messiah …of light…"

Almost calmly, purple flames surrounded her, growing higher and brighter until her figure disappeared in the pyre. Just as calmly and quietly, they died away.

The Silence Glaive fell to the ground with a clatter.

Nephthys closed her fist. She brought her closed fist to Eris and opened it. The silver Crystal and the Iridescent Jewel. In front of them lay the talismans.

Nephthys pointed and Eris followed her finger.

What wasn’t obvious in the silence was obvious when Venus caught up with the battle. She was panting and out of breath. She’d gotten lost in the dark twice, the hard way, form the look of her fuku.

She gasped and heads turned to her. "NO!" she screamed and fell to her knees. No, as the echoes of her cry died in the night air, everyone began to notice.

Stella was crying.

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