Sirius stepped closer, the glow from her eyes lighting up a sheen on a dark puddle covering most of his white frilly shirt.
Thankfully the light was dull and most of the damage was hidden in the dark.
He slowly reached up to touch the tears in his wife’s eyes, but his hand fell back and he seemed to put a lot of effort to keep it on her cheek. "Stella…" he whispered.
"No…" she said. "No, you’re going to live. Please…"
He seemed to smile. "I wouldn’t fault you… even if you had never given me another thought."
"No!" Stella yelled, as his hand fell from her cheek. "No, please. You can’t…" It was no use fight now. His spirit was gone.
"Mommy?" Shadow Star asked.
"I’m sorry," Stella said. "I should never have brought your father out—"
"What did he mean by that?" Shadow Star interrupted, tears in her eyes.
"I loved your father, Sirius. Please understand…" Stella said, not looking at her daughter.
"I know," Sirius said. "I don’t understand why you’d say that.
Neptune whispered, and gently flashed hi mirror at Stella.
Everyone turned from the corpse to the sky, as the story unfolded.
"Maybe I can help," Venus said, putting a hand on Stella’s shoulder. "My father was from Star. He left because he thought the events could turn into a war.
In the sky stood a great regal figure, all black like Satet. He wore layers and layers of flowing robes that shone with gold and silver when the light struck it at the right angle.
Suddenly a bright red flash shone in his chest, the gleam in a bloody knife. The figure stood motionless for half a minute, then fell silently.
"The king of the Tau Ceti was murdered, and he left behind nine children," Venus said.
Instead of an image of children, there were only confusing imaged of violence and bloodshed. As the images went by, fewer and fewer victims seemed to have ever been armed or ever had any intent to fight.
"One of them was murdered, and factions arose to fight each other over the throne. Over time, more factions arose, and the violence spread to every corner of Tau Ceti. Entire cities of innocent people were slaughtered."
For most watching, none had ever considered a Tau Ceti innocent. Then again, none had thought someone of royal blood would marry one—let alone be saved by his sacrifice.
"The Tau Ceti in Hotaru and Seishi weren’t Tau Ceti."
"Then what the hell were they?" Desdemona asked. "Pissy ghosts?"
"Exactly," Venus said.
"Huh?" Desdemona asked.
"When a Tau Ceti dies outside of their own world, they try to take over a body. They can only do this with strong magic. They try and help the individual succeed in whatever they desire. Seishi and Hotaru were extremely depressed."
"So they wanted to destroy the world," Mercury said. "That kinda makes sense in a bitchy sorta way."
"What about Usa?" Aya asked.
"She was hurt deeply by the deaths about her, but at the same time she wanted to save everyone. She was torn."
"This on the History Channel, or what?" Mercury asked. "How would you know?"
"Because I know how Tau Ceti work," Venus said. "Because Star was the closest galaxy to Tau Ceti, and anyone accused of treason under the past government was exiled form the Galaxy."
"So you’re dad was afraid of ghosts?" Pluto asked.
"And so are you," Venus said.
"Sorry," Pluto mumbled.
"That why we keep getting the bitchy ones?" Mercury asked.
"Yes," Minako said. "And that’s why the Tau Ceti were suffering from silences all over. Those who escaped the carnage didn’t escape the silence."
"What’s a silence?" asked Deimos.
"When a Tau Ceti host tries to destroy the world, it creates a small black hole. The ones at the center of our galaxy have been confirmed as Tau Ceti activity."
"But not everyone does this, right?" Saturn asked. "Just the fucked up ones."
"Those who don’t’ try to destroy the world go on to do something else, often something beneficial. The ghost dies to spread Tau Ceti genes to the offspring of the host. IF they have children."
"The silences were because everyone was so scared, weren’t they?" Jupiter asked. "Everyone was afraid, so anyone who became a host tried to cause a silence, right."
"As far as anyone knows," Venus said. "Half the galaxy was practically imploding in on itself and the whole place had turned to bloody anarchy."
"Sounds fun," Mercury said sarcastically.
"That’s when I found him… sort of," Stella said.
An image of Statet—his clothes thread bare, his hair disheveled, and for a being entirely of black, he seemed starved, lonely and lost—struck by an attack of ice that sent him tumbling. He didn’t’ fight back as the four star senshi approached him and roughly struck him unconscious before picking him up and dragging him away.
"We were practically at war," Stella said, crying again. Maybe she’d never stopped. "I…" Words failed her. She let the images explain.
Satet sat in a dungeon. Since Usagi’s time, the moon princesses had prided themselves on humane dungeons. But it was still a prison, and he was still a fugitive suspected of causing the destruction of the galaxy.
No one had to speak up, not even Pluto or Deimos, who seemed completely outside of the goings-on about politics and pasts, spoke up. There was no need. Everyone watching, even the condenmed’s child, knew that he was sentenced to death.
The image showed Stella approaching, but keeping her distance. The Star Senshi were with her.
Stella in the present refused to watch.
"I hold myself as a just queen," the image in the sky said. "You know why you’re here, and why this must happen."
Satet nodded.
"It won’t hurt, I promise," she said. "Do you have any last words."
Satet looked up. He had the calmest expression anyone watching had ever seen, even with his dark coloring, it was plainly obvious he could already feel salvation either way. "I was hoping you would save my people."
The image faded.
"He… He told me everything. All I had to do was stop the factions. It was easy; they had become so disorganized by then. When I became queen, the prism merged with their crystal, making it whole again. I stopped the silences… I… I never knew it would be so easy, that there was nothing to fear… I didn’t know."
The was a long moment where no one spoke. The quiet was soon overwhelmed by the chirping and croaking of the creatures around them.
Minako, with all her words and plans and strategies had nothing now.
Shadow Star put her hand on her mother’s shoulder. "You loved him… in the end, right?"
"I loved him your whole life," Stella said. "And years before that."
"You made him happy," Shadow Star said. "And me."