Prey of the Queen -Chiba Setsuna Disclaimer: Sailormoon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi, Toei, DiC, Bandai among others, and no copyright infringement is intended. She is my queen, yet she fell before me, her eyes closed as she emptied the contents of her stomach into the soft spring grass. I knelt beside of her, gently stroking the blond strands of hair covering her head, as her breath came in ragged gasps and perspiration soaked her for head. "I hate it," she spat bitterly, "I can't do this anymore." "You can do this," I said carefully, feeling four pairs of eyes on the back of my neck, wild animals waiting to pounce on this predator if I threatened their leader. They were a pack, the five of them, inseparable because of their understanding of one central element in their lives, yet so different that if one string on the delicate instrument should pop, the rest would fall out of tune, disharmonious. I didn't choose to live for that either; yet there it was, and innate part of my sense of self. A shroud of mystery, shaping me to be the essence of the king that was shoved into a tomb, who's form had rotted away, and I was left with only the bones to reconstruct his life. Back then, when I sat in my throne, she was my princess, the woman to whom I had given my heart, and entrusted the secrets of my soul. She dug her fingers into the grass, the soft wet soil climbing beneath her nails, and I rested a hand lightly on her back. I wish I could have said more, done more, to ease her of the burden she would bare. She was no longer my princess, but my savior, the one whom would bear the weight of the world. A saint, a martyr, I could name her none of these, when I blamed God for assigning her such a burden. "You can do this, because you must. We had no choice, when we were awakened, but because of you, the others will have a choice." Her hot tears dripped on to the back of her hands, and I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her to me. "But did they have a choice?" She whispered, her voice rough with anger, her tone growing shrill as she continued, and buried her face against my thighs, clutching the ends of my cape. "I'm supposed to kill them; they're supposed to be inanimate, but they think, and they _feel_! And I am just supposed to watch when they fade into nothingness, their body's ripped apart by energy..." Behind me, I felt the other's lower their gazes to the blood stained grass, shamefully, because they had not considered it anything other than their duty, nor had I, yet the ease with which she stole another's life made her sick. It was her compassion, that separated us from her, that gave her the right to be our queen, when she was incapable of being an effective leader, and I wondered if this would always be my role, if I was destined by the stars to hold her as she cried for the salvation of the demons that had cursed us from the beginning. Beside of her I was nothing, even though I would be called king. I could give her my love, my devotion, and my support, but in the end, the only thing that would matter would be her love for humanity, though she was only human herself. "Usako..." I said resisting the urge to call her the neo-queen, knowing anything I would say would be inadequate compared to the strength of her emotion, though she would later tell me that my words carried her when she couldn't walk. "We love you."