Title: "Goodbye" Author: Charles Drake E-mail: Fire_Drake@rocketmail.com Rating: PG. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cold winds slapped the tall figure as she walked through the old graveyard. Somehow, even through the quakes and floods that had ravaged Tokyo, this graveyard had survived intact. The last bit of green in a city barren of life held that city's long dead. The tall willow, which stood at the graveyard's center, was older than most of the buildings in Tokyo... that is, most of the buildings that remained standing. Death and destruction had fallen once again, crushing Tokyo under foot, and leaving the way for progress, modernization, and the expulsion of green life. This city was for mankind alone, it seemed. The young woman held her jacket closer to her, shielding away from what wind she could. The winter frosts had striped bare what little life this place of death contained, leaving only the dead leaves on the willow's branches. The woman stopped a moment, listening. A faint hissing, like of a rattle snake ready to strike, emanated from the half-frozen leaves as the wind rustled them. The woman regarded the tree, older than the city but younger than herself, then turned back to her business. She stooped next to one of the ancient graves, pushing the hood back off of her hair. Twin buns stuck from the sides of her head, each with a long pony-tail that slipped away into the folds of her jacket. A few blond strands hung free, having somehow escaped the tiny clips that were concealed under the "odangos". The wind caught these whisps. A few of them blew into her eyes, and stuck there. Brushing away the loose hair and half-cried tears with her left hand, she put her right out on the worn stone. "Did you ever know my secret, I wonder..." the woman murmured, caressing the tired marble. "The way you talked to me... in both forms... I have to. Sometimes... I wish I had told you. My family too. But they would have worried... couldn't have understood what was at stake. I had to be able to operate freely..." The woman sat back on her haunches, her head shaking curtly. "No, that is too rational. I never thought of things like that... she never did. She was taken with being a super-hero, with the secret identity. That poor innocent child..." The woman looked up at the grave stone again, smiling sadly. "I wonder if she is with you, beyond? We killed her, after all. That innocent child died a slow, painful death. Little by little, she was bleached from my soul, leaving only the Princess. Poor Serena..." The woman looked to the gravestone once again. "I should have come here earlier, I know, but there is always so much work to be done. The excuses almost won, but I finally came to see you. To say good bye, one last time..." She leaned forward and brushed the stone marker with her lips. It had long since lost all engravement, the weather smoothing the marker into little more than a round lump. Only its location identified it as the correct place. The woman stood after a moment longer, turning her gaze skyward. She fancied that she could almost see a dark hand falling over the city... "Goodbye, Molly." she whispered, turning away. The woman walked away slowly, unconcerned, holding a crescent shaped wand in her hand. She didn't even blink when a light brighter than the sun flashed behind her. She couldn't bare to look, in fact, as Tokyo burned for the last time. The wash from the nuclear bombs seemed to curve around her as it blew past. The shields that surounded her kept even the faintest hint of warmth out. As she walked through the nuclear flames, Princess Serena could feel the cold breeze again. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1998 to Charles Drake.