Full Moon

written by: Gina Biggs (aka bunny aka haruka)
site: http://secondlight.animehunters.com/
contact: secondlight@animehunters.com
date completed: Nov. 2001
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Episode 08 - Weakening forces? The soldiers' tiring battle.

 The moon princess sat on the bed in her old room of the palace. The sheets were the color 
rose quartz and the comforter filled with goose down. Even within all this familiar comfort 
the princess felt alone and shaken by the events of their last battle. In her mind, over and 
over, raced the thoughts "all those lives.... all those lives...."

 She curled herself further into the bed trying to take in some of the comfort. Then there 
was a soft rapping on the doors to the room. She called the visitor to enter, not caring to 
ask who it was who might be coming through. A man with a young face and white hair slipped 
into the room. The princess did not look up at him as he approached her nor did she react 
when he sat next to her. His golden colored eyes searched for hers, but as the minutes went 
by she did not face him. Awkwardly he tried to touch her and take her into his arms, but 
found himself fumbling, pulling back. He wanted to comfort her but he still did not know 
how. He turned his head from her in frustration of his own inexperience. Without warning 
she spoke, "How... how could anyone with any sort of soul do such a horrible thing."

 "Maiden, I..." he trailed off.

 Biting his lip he pushed himself forward without another word. Serenity suddenly found 
herself being cradled in Helios' warm, reassuring embrace. She took hold of the folds of 
his shirt sleeve and tried to calm herself. She wanted to find her strength once more and 
in his arms she felt herself finding the way.

******************

 The darkness embraced a tall, pale woman. Her long, lavender-white hair appeared almost a 
plum shade in the lack of lighting. The woman barely raised her hand and the wall seems to 
vanish, leaving her to look at the full of space. The manner of the woman changed slightly 
as she stared at the endless swarm of stars. It was if she had been taken in by a nostalgic 
memory, yet she dared not speak of it out loud. Suddenly, the door to her chambers creaked 
open. The wall in front of her reappeared, as if it had never been gone and suddenly Opalite 
was herself once again.

 The three Kuroihono'o Senshi entered the room and bowed before their empress. The woman's 
heavy eyes rested on each of her soldiers as she awaited the news that they brought her.

 "Empress Opalite-sama," Calcite began in a eager, pleased voice, "we have been successful 
in collecting more lights from the people of the Milky Way."

 The orange haired woman raised her arms in front of her and she stretched her fingers wide. 
Tiny sparks of light shot from her palms and attracted to the empress' body. For a moment, 
they circled the woman, then as suddenly as they had materialized, they had been swallowed 
up by the darkness of a black hole. "Very good," Opalite commended, "but you must move 
quickly... finish off this planet!"

 The soldiers bowed once again, then left the empress' throne room. Once again, the woman 
stood in the darkness. She spoke to herself in such a low voice one would wonder if she had 
spoken at all. "They are taking too long. I am tired of waiting... and of this world."

******************

 Tektites did not waste any time leaving his master's throne room. He found that he could 
not hold himself back, his urge to be with her again before this mission was too strong. 
Soon he found himself in his quarters with the orange-haired commander. Calcite smiled 
though her eyes were worn from the battle she had faced. His black bangs tickling her 
nose as he leaned close to her and kissed her. "Oh," he said breathing heavily, "how can 
you love such a weak man like me?"

 Feeling his hot breath on her skin made her tingle and she giggled softly. "You're stronger 
than you know, Tektites," she said as she kissed him back.

 They continued to kiss and feed off each other's energy as they neared the bed. He spoke 
to her once again, "You are magnificent."

 She only smiled. He continued to speak to her between kisses. "You are so beautiful... you 
even rival the beauty of those born with Sailor Crystals."

 Calcite's body suddenly tensed in her lover's embrace. Her eyes, once filled with passionate 
light became dull and cold. "Don't ever speak to me of such things... I am nothing but a 
disgrace," she muttered as she wiggled herself free of Tektites hold.

 "What is it?" he asked in a confused tone.

 As he approached her once again she gently pushed him away. His eyebrows furrowed as he 
searched for her eyes, hoping to make contact, hoping to find some answer. When he could 
not he spoke, "What's wrong?"

 "Everything!" she shot at him in a trembling voice.

 She turned her herself from him and began to run away feeling more cowardly that she had 
ever felt in her life. She did not slow down as she neared the door that would allow her 
to escape, but instead disappeared before she ever reached it. Tektites, for the first 
time, stood without the woman he loved so dearly. He wrapped his arms across his chest and 
clenched his shoulders with his shaking hands.

******************

 "It was that woman," Tyr said, almost in an embarrassed voice.

 Serenity blinked in surprise. She looked to Helios for a moment, then back to the dark 
skinned soldier. "You can't mean--"

 "Yes," Ran cut her off. "The Empress Opalite's commander, Calcite, was one of us. It was 
she who betrayed us and our world."

 "I can't believe that there would be a Sailor Soldier who would betray her own people."

 "I never thought it would be possible either, princess, but it happened. Our planets and 
our queen were destroyed because of this wretched woman. We might have defeated Opalite's 
forces if not for her, but she murdered Eos-sama to save her own life," Tyr spat in disgust.

 "Eos?" the princess questioned.

 "Eos-sama is the daughter of the dawn," Ran answered. "She is the one who guards the light 
of the universe with her power. With her destroyed and her Sailor Crystal missing, light can 
be overtaken by the dark. The balance will be out of order... more than that, the light all 
our worlds will end. Opalite will see to that."

 An all too familiar alarm sounded throughout the room. The young women looked up with tired 
eyes. Soon, the queen's sailor soldiers had joined them. Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus... 
they were all there staring at the screen with almost blank expressions. Mars lowered her 
head, her voice battle-weary, "They don't show any mercy do they?"

 "It seems that they've targeted two major points in the city," Mercury said almost too softly 
for words. She swallowed hard, trying to wet her dry throat. She was realizing that she hadn't 
eaten or slept in over 36 hours now. The enemy just wasn't backing off.

 "We're not going to be able to put up much of a fight in this state," Venus announced. She 
knew she was only stating the obvious but she felt she needed to mentally prepare herself 
and the others for what could be their last battle.

 "We don't have much of a choice. If we don't go out there they'll kill everyone, if we do 
go then we might at least...." Jupiter's words trailed off but she was reassured by Venus' 
gentle nod of understanding.

 Sailor Venus turned to Serenity and their eyes met for a moment. "Serenity, please take your 
group to the second attack point, the one in the park. We'll go to the first attack point."

 "Right," Serenity agreed as she turned to her friends.

******************

 All was quiet when the soldiers arrived at the park. The wind had even become non-existant. 
Nothing moved except the seven sailor suited women who had begun to inadvertantly huddle 
closer while they searched the area. As they did they found comfort in the eerie cracklings 
of dead leaves against their shoes. When no threat was found among the trees they began 
moving toward the dock. Trouble finally found them. Charons were attacking from all 
directions and the civilians were screaming silent screams. Short brilliant flashes of 
light were ripped from their chest. The girls wasted no time in transforming and attacking 
the creatures even though they were tired and weak. Calcite appeared before them, laughing 
viciously at their sorry state. "Sailor Crystals never shine as brightly as they do when 
they've become dirtied with the pain of war. Hahahaaa!"

 Not giving them a chance to think, Calcite took hold of her sword and sent forth a wave of 
power, crying out "Rind Piece" as she did.

 Sailor Moon and her Sailor Quartetto tried to find strength to stand against the heavy 
attack, but found their legs were trembling beneath them. They didn't stand a chance in 
their fatigued condition. Two figured stepped from the shadows and called out in hateful 
voices, "Traitor!"

 The commander was almost amused by the sound of the voices. When she looked to the source 
she found Sailor Ran and Sailor Tyr, their faces full of rage. A twisted little smile found 
it's way to Calcite's lips. She stifled a laugh. "My, I never noticed how funny you two look 
when you try to be serious," she mocked.

 She reached out her hand. Each of the charon  reached toward the air in unison, to where 
she was, as if they were all one body moving together. The sylphs flew toward her and 
hovered above her hand. They did not disappear and she looked down at the soldiers once 
again as if she were taunting them. A satisfied smile shone on her face.

 Before she could react she found herself knocked off guard by an energy blast. The sylphs, 
no longer captive by the commander, flew from her hand. She reached out hoping to catch them 
but it was in vain as they returned to the fallen people. She clenched her teeth and grinded 
them hard at her defeat. Without any more words or glances exchanged she vanished as did all 
of the charons that had been with her.

 Juno, Vesta, Pallas, Ceres, and Moon all shared a smile of relief. They imagined that the 
charon the others had been fighting had also retreated. They stood to their feet and brushed 
themselves off as they thanked their alien comrades.

******************

 High-heeled boots clanged against the floor as Calcite made her way through the darkness of 
Opalite's large domain. She was red with embarrassment from her defeat and wanted only to 
shrivel up in the darkness, never to be found. A small light burned her eyes making her 
realize that wish was not possible. She would have to suffer.

 The light grew as she neared her room. She finally arrived at it's source and found that it 
was the dull glow of a lantern orb --the brightest light Opalite would allow in her domain. 
In that small light she could see the handsome young face of her lover. He reached his hand 
out to touch her but she jerked away from him not wanting to be touched. Tektites' face 
crumpled at the reaction. The woman held herself together, ignoring him as she entered her 
room alone.

 Once inside she walked to the blank wall across from where she had entered and fell to her 
knees. She cried quietly, but no tears fell from her eyes. "Tektites, I wonder if you will 
ever forgive me for this," she thought. 

 Calcite looked up at the wall and rested her arm against it. "I want to be with you more 
than anything, but I will only end up hurting you more that way."

 Turning to the door to her room she continued on to herself, "It is not you who is weak, 
but me. I am a coward who betrays everyone I love. Please forget me quickly so that you may 
not be betrayed by me as well."

 The wall soon became transparent and she turned to view the deepness of space. In the 
distance she could see the Earth hanging in it's orbit and the sun starting to show on 
the horizon. "It's so warm on that planet, like that long lost planet. I miss the sunrise 
and her gentle glow."


End Episode 08.


Episode Notes:
At first I thought that the scene between Tektites and Calcite was a bit too racy for 
this story. I pondered over it for a couple days, but in the end I thought it was 
completely necessary to show just how passionate their relationship really is. I think 
that Calcite is my favorite character in this story (as if no one has noticed how much 
attention she gets by now). Heheh... I hope you all like her too or if you don't you do 
later on.