This story is very dark. No, more than dark...dismal would be a better word. But nevertheless, I hope you enjoy it. Be warned, there are a few scenes ahead that are not recommended for younger audiences (in terms of intensity, not sexual content), so please proceed with caution. There will be a few more notes at the end. Disclaimer: Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon and all related characters and products are the property of Naoko Takeuchi, TOEI, Kodansha, and DiC (if I’ve forgotten any other company, they are implicitly included). The story itself is mine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Comes the Revolution By: Gramarye ---------------------------------------------------------------------- “Prisoner at the bar, the jury, after a careful and patient hearing, have found you guilty....The sentence of the court upon you is that you be taken from hence to the place from which you came, and thence to a place of execution, and there your head be cut off and your body buried in the precincts of the prison in which you shall last have been confined, and may the Lord have mercy upon your soul.” -- Verdict and sentence of the accused, as delivered by the presiding justice “...it is quite within the bounds of possibility for a man to recognize the relative evil of his nature, but it is a rare and shattering experience for him to gaze into the face of absolute evil.” --Karl Jung ---------------------------------------------------------------------- It was the crowd that attracted the attention of Princess Serenity in the first place. Many people were gathered around a hastily erected wooden platform, milling about aimlessly but never straying too far from the center of the action. Young children ran and played in the dust of the square, calling out with their shrill voices to slower playmates and being heartily scolded by their mothers. Old kerchief-headed gossips clucked their tongues and continued their conversations. Groups of men discussed the dismal weather, and crop prices, and the need for a new village well. It had the appearance of a holiday, but there was no festive spirit in the air. Rather, there was a different feeling, one that was not altogether pleasant. The young princess had not seen such a large throng of people before, not even during the festivals and balls held at the palace. She had also never been this close to a group of common people, and was curious to see exactly how they lived. Turning to her four companions, she smiled brightly and said: “Minna, let’s go and see what the commotion is.” “Serenity, I don’t think that’s wise. Her Majesty told us not to spend too much time outside the palace walls—it is dangerous, and we have no escort.” Ami, the ever-careful Princess of Mercury, did not wish to take any chances. “Ami-chan, no one will recognize us. Not with these clothes on,” she stated, indicating the long dark cloaks and plain gowns that they wore. “I doubt if even Endymion-sama would know who I was.” “I think your hair would be a dead giveaway,” teased the Princess of Mars. “No one else wears her hair in those odango. No one would want to, in any case.” “Hmph! Well, Rei-chan, I suppose I’ll take them down, if they are so obvious.” A moment’s fiddling with her hair loosed the long gold tresses from their traditional style. “And if I pull the hood up, like so! There, I’m a normal girl who happens to be out for a walk with her friends. Or at least *three* of her friends,” she added, provoking a scowl from Rei. “Let’s go, before the crowd gets too thick,” said Makoto, Princess of Jupiter. “Hai. Besides, we have to be back in an hour,” added Minako, Princess of Venus. The five girls walked to the edge of the crowd, which seemed to be attracting more people by the minute. Scattered conversations swelled and ebbed like ocean waves, and every so often a voice or a sentence became audible above the general murmur. “Did you hear what she said during the trial? It’s a wonder they didn’t kill her on the spot.” “...vicious creature....” “...tried to kill them both, I heard....” “...shameful, that’s what it is....” “...hanging’s too good for the likes of her....” “...When is this going to start? Ruins a fellow’s appetite, standing around like this....” Suddenly, there was a rumble of drums, and the crowd was instantly silent, as if an invisible switch had been flipped to shut them off. A young soldier mounted the platform and raised his hands for silence, a redundant gesture, but it evidently made him feel more in control. “Attention, citizens! The ceremony shall begin in a few moments.” With that proclamation made, he turned on his heel and departed. The crowd mumbled impatiently. “What in Serenity’s name is going on?” asked Makoto. “Why, miss, haven’t you heard?” The five girls started, and it took a moment or two for them to realize that an old woman in a faded and ill-fitting gray dress was looking at them strangely. “There be a young woman what tried to kill their Majesties a month ago, and today be the day they kill ‘er!” The woman spoke with a grim relish that made Serenity shudder. “‘Kill her’?” repeated Minako in horrified disbelief. “Aye.” The old woman smiled. “‘Tis a strange thing, though. There be no gallows for ‘er, nor no stake, nor no chopping block for ‘er ‘ead.” With a slight shrug, the woman pressed forward, eager for a better view. “Serenity, we can’t stay here.” Ami’s face was pale and drawn. “Ami-chan—” Serenity began, but her words were cut off by the crash of another drum roll. All heads turned toward a small procession that was approaching the platform. A figure robed entirely in black, with a black hood covering its face, led the procession. It carried a large, sharp sword in its hands, and marched with a measured pace that made it as inexorable as Death, the stuff that nightmares are made of. After the executioner marched a guard of soldiers, half- carrying, half-dragging a woman in filthy prison garments. The woman’s head was devoid of hair, her naked scalp almost obscene in its gleaming whiteness. Her face was streaked with dirt and grime. The heavy manacles on her hands clinked and rattled as she moved, and every so often her feet would become entangled in the chain, causing her to stumble. The guard would haul her to her feet with a barrage of curses, and the painful march would proceed. “Prison lice, I bet,” a man was heard to say. “Shaved it clean off.” Another man spoke. “I hear she had long red hair...must have been quite a bit of snatch in her time.” A roar of laughter went up from the man’s companions. The prisoner was roughly pushed onto the platform. A spark of rebellion seemed to kindle in her, and she lashed out and spat at the guards who handled her. The crowd gasped in shock, then cheered as the furious escort threw her down. The woman’s head was wrenched back at a painful-looking angle, and her arms were pinioned behind her back by the sour-faced guards. The people quieted in a hurry as the executioner took a step forward. The young, well-dressed soldier who had made the original proclamation turned to address the people. “Citizens, before you is the traitor and murderous witch who attempted to take the lives of our gracious King and Queen. She has been duly tried and sentenced to death. Today, the judgment of the court shall be carried out.” The man removed a piece of paper from a hidden place in his clothing, unfolded it, and began to read. “The death sentence for high treason is decapitation. However, the accused had previously been banished from the kingdom for witchcraft and conspiracy, and as such the penalty has been altered. The sentence shall be performed by sword, and not by ax as custom dictates.” Here the executioner lifted the immense sword ominously. “Thus shall the divine sword of justice strike down this traitor to the Crown.” “Kill the witch!” shrieked a woman, voice rising to the shrill pitch of hysteria. “Death to traitors!” cried a man. “Kill her! Kill her!” The crowd picked up the chant, crying for blood. Serenity cowered in terror, as the Senshi instinctively took up defensive positions around her. “DAMN YOU ALL!” The mob was instantly quiet. The condemned woman raised her head, and slowly turned to face the mass of people. “Oh, you fools. You wretched vermin, scum that floats on this festering mire that you call the planet Earth. Do you not see?” Her dull eyes lit up with a light that could only be described as unholy. “Are you so blind? Lift your faces out of the slime of your pathetic, miserable, useless lives, and what do you see? A pair of bloated parasites who fawn and lick the shoes of the *real* ruler of this planet, and of all the planets...Serenity, the all-high Queen of the Moon! “You toil, you suffer, you die. And yet Serenity and her minions could live for a thousand years, long after you turn to dust. Your sweat feeds them; the rich play while the poor slave in misery and filth. But I have seen the *true* path, the only way to be free. Her power is stronger than stronger. Her name shall freeze the blood of her enemies, and mine, and I shall not be forsaken!” She threw her head back and screamed, bloody froth foaming at the corners of her mouth: “THE EARTH AND MOON SHALL TREMBLE BEFORE THE MAJESTY OF THE HIGH QUEEN METALLIA! FOR ONCE HER MIGHT IS UNLEASHED, THERE WILL BE NOTHING TO STOP ME, NONE TO STAND IN MY WAY! DEATH TO SERENITY! METALLIA SHALL REIGN FOR ALL TIME!” The people were spellbound; eyes glazed and jaws slack. The Senshi surrounded their Princess; muscles tensed to defend her to the death. Young Princess Serenity pressed her hands to her mouth to stifle a horrified scream, and emitted a strangled squeak instead. Instantly, the woman’s head snapped to the crowd. Blind eyes tried to focus on the blur of faces, attempted to seek their target. A croaking and bewildered whisper escaped from parched, cracked lips.... “*Where...?*” Without warning, Ami threw back her hood. Her eyes were filled with fear, but the warrior’s training steeled her will. “Citizens!” she cried. “Would you listen to this witch, this harlot of the darkness? She is a murderous, vile creature, who rightly deserves the death sentence she received. Let her die, I say! *Let her die!*” “Kill the witch!” cried Makoto, her voice rising above everything. Rei and Minako added their voices to the cry. “Murderer! Witch! Kill her!” The crowd needed no further words to galvanize them into action. A howl of fear, mingled with bloodlust and uncontrollable panic, escaped from the collective throat. They charged the platform, and would have torn the prisoner to shreds if the executioner had not swung the sword at the prisoner’s neck with all his might. Several women screamed, and more than one highly sensitive person fainted. Serenity swayed, and would have fallen if Makoto hadn’t grabbed her by the arms, thrown the paralyzed girl over her shoulder, and ran. * * * A few blocks away, four frightened Senshi were trying their hardest to “Serenity? Serenity?” “She’s in shock!” “Step aside, Mercury.” Sailor Mars dealt the princess a sound blow, her palm thudding hollowly on deathly white flesh. Serenity blinked, shook her head, gazed at her friends, and burst into tears. Sailor Venus gathered the sobbing girl into her arms, trying to quiet her. Sailor Mars stroked the tangled golden hair, humming softly and reassuringly. After a brief moment of silence, Sailor Jupiter turned to a shaking Sailor Mercury. “What possessed you back there? I’ve never seen you like that before?” “Mako-chan, I don’t know,” whispered Mercury brokenly, breaking their unspoken rule to never use civilian names in Senshi forms. “I...I...don’t think I want to know.” “Neither do I.” They shivered as a chill wind whistled past them...a wind that in their heightened imaginations faintly sounded like mocking, derisive laughter. --------------------------------------------------------------------- There isn’t much left to be said, is there? The manner of execution was modeled after the death of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife. She was granted permission to be executed by having her head cut off with a sword instead of an ax, presumably to increase the odds that one stroke would be enough to finish the ordeal. This is *my* version of the beginning of the end of the Silver Millennium. An execution seemed to fit rather nicely, and it also explains Beryl’s wrath...and Princess Serenity’s fear. I promise to have my other stories out as soon as humanly possible—this is just to keep you satisfied in the meantime. Gramarye gramarye@rochester.rr.com November 15, 1999