"Between the Darkness and the Light" Written by: DQBunny Edited by: Meara All Standard Disclaimers apply. I can't afford to claim anything except Kuro :-) Chapter 6 "Sakana?" A man with long sky blue hair tied into a braid straightened from his perch over the fire. He stretched to ease his aching muscles. He looked at the man with pink hair stuck in a spiky hair-do. "Is he finally awake, Taka?" Taka nodded. "Tora is standing watch over him. Have you finished the potion?" "Give me a moment, I'm not Merlin or that Martha Stewart lady, you know." Sakana grabbed a bowl off a shelf mounted over the fireplace. He ladled some of the brew he had been making into the bowl and followed Taka into the other room where Tora, a man with bright orange hair held back by a bandanna, stood watch over Elios. Tora helped Elios into a sitting position while Sakana offered him the bowl. The priest took it with shaking hands and sipped from it. He grimaced before handing it back to the young man. "This is horrible," Elios managed with a weak smile. "Can't believe I taught it to you." "It was the only thing that would revive you after the final battles with Nephelenia," Sakana pointed out. "That and your Small Lady," Tora smirked. Taka elbowed him in the ribs, causing the taller man to turn on him. "What'cha do that for?" "All you think about is women," Taka muttered. "Well, so do you!" "At least I don't have nude movie star pictures pasted up all over my room!" "At least I can get somewhere with a woman!" "In your dreams!" "Enough, you two!" Sakana yelled. "You would think the two of you would had gained an ounce of maturity by now!" Taka and Tora turned on him. "Who asked you?" they shouted. The three siblings started bickering. Elios reclined against the stacked up pillows one of them had placed on the bed at smiled at them. Once known as Tiger's Eye, Hawk's Eye, and Fish Eye, he had taken their revived dream mirrors and used them to resurrect them as normal humans. The three had taken on the Japanese names for Fish, Hawk, and Tiger - Sakana, Taka, and Tora - as a reminder to them of their past life. Through his spirit, Elios had managed to teach the men how to care for Elysion in his absence, hoping that their souls would be able to help keep Nephelenia's presence at bay. Although the men had not explored much of the land, which was now their home, the priest could tell they loved it immensely. Still, they had some interesting characteristics left over from their time as Granny Zirconia's henchmen, the best of them being the willingness to stick together and call each other brother no matter what. The fighting...well, take that as part of being brothers. The brothers had literally turned Elios's life upside down. What had once been a neat, solitary existence had been brightened. For the first time since the destruction of the Golden Kingdom more than a thousand years before, Elios had something he had never realized he missed - friends. He turned his thoughts from the brothers to the Sailor Senshi. Despite all of their help in rescuing him from Nephelenia, he could not drop everything to help them kill his brother. After all, blood was blood, and Elios had never been a fan of death, especially when it came to family. Despite having very minimal contact with Kuro for hundreds of years, he still could not willingly want him to die. Every family had their black sheep, and Kuro was obviously it. Still, he was all Elios had. Although that wasn't true anymore. He had his Small Lady. Elios smiled. Deep in his bones, he felt his future included her. In what way, he wasn't sure. Only God and Sailor Pluto could answer that, and neither of them were talking. The memory of her crying out, trying to rush after him the day before pained him. He thought of her throwing herself at him to save his life from Kuro, then Haruka being kidnapped because of it. Dang it, he owed the Senshi his life on more than one occasion. The Senshi, who had risked their lives to save his own, versus his brother, who was trying to destroy everything. It was obvious by the direct attack on Elysion that morning through Mamoru. The best way for Kuro to enter Elysion would had been through either his dreams or Chibi-Usa's. Apparently, Kuro had decided to use Mamoru to wipe both him and Elios out in one swoop. The priest sighed. For all of the advice he had given Chibi-Usa over the past year, why couldn't he come up with the perfect solution to his own problems? Sakana looked up from the bickering to see Elios deep in thought. "What's wrong, Elios-san?" he asked. Taka and Tora immediately stopped fighting. They glanced over at Elios as well, their cheeks, their cheeks flushed with embarrassment. Sakana approached the pallet Elios laid on. "The Senshi are leaving for Pandora this morning," Elios said. "Then why aren't you with them?" Sakana asked. "Baka, because he's just been attacked!" Tora muttered. Sakana shot him a murderous look. "It's not that, Tora," Elios sighed, not sure how to voice his feelings. He wasn't used to confiding in someone. He would rather that people confided in him instead. Taka approached the pallet as well. "It's quite obvious you need to go with them," he said. "I know the guy's your brother, but he's out to destroy everything we've ever known. What's the life of one person compared to saving billions of people on this Earth, not to mention however many more there is in the galaxy." Tora crossed his arms over his chest. "You act like Elios-san helping to kill Kuro is the obvious thing." "Well, isn't it?" "What if someone walked in here and asked you to kill me, regardless of my past deeds?" Sakana asked Taka. "Would you do it?" "Trust me, I could had serious thought about it when we were controlled by Granny Zirconia..." "But, you didn't." "Still..." "You didn't," Sakana replied, calmly by firmly. "You had the chance. In order to take all of the glory, you could had killed me and Tora. But, you didn't. Why? Because we're brothers." "Blood doesn't make a family," Tora spoke up, joining them at the pallet. "The three of us is proof of that. Just because Kuro's related to Elios-san by blood doesn't mean he's part of his family." Elios threw back the blanket one of the men had draped over him and got to his feet. He wobbled slightly before grabbing his staff. The brothers stopped talking and stared at him. "Elios-san?" Sakana questioned. Elios started toward the temple entrance, then stopped and looked over his shoulder at the brothers. He gave them a small smile. "Tora is right," he said. "Blood doesn't create a family. Why is it that the obvious choices are the ones you never think about?" With that, he turned and walked out of the temple. ***** The Senshi gathered outside the temple. Luna approached the group, trying to hide her sadness over Artemis being taken by Kuro. She smiled with wicked pleasure as she imagined the chance of sinking her claws into a certain sensitive area of the evil priest's body. She pushed her personal feelings for her partner into a remote corner of her heart. Now, she had to concentrate on the mission. Setsuna stood before the group. "I'll have to take you through the Time Gate," she said. "Not only are we traveling a great distance, but it involves going through time as well. Projections we see from the further edges of the solar system are thousands, even millions of years old. We're pretty much going back to the beginning of time." "Is that how Kuro is managing to swallow so many galaxies within the black hole?" Ami asked. Setsuna nodded. "Somehow, he's accelerating time. I can sense the disturbance within the time stream. It had been gradual, but something I overlooked with the problems with the Black Moon and the Deathbusters. Right before Michiru was kidnapped, it began to speed up." "So, the kingdom is pretty much near the event horizon? Nothing could survive being drawn into the singularity," Mamoru spoke up. Usagi and the others simply looked confused. "That's right. Picture the black hole as being a harbor with a whirlpool at the end," Setsuna said. "Pandora is the dock with guides on it directing ships, or in this case galaxies. These galaxies are being sucked toward the whirlpool. Once they reach the whirlpool, there's no hope of rescue." "So, if we send Pandora into the whirlpool, or singularity, we can stop the black hole from advancing?" Rei asked. "Yes, but we need to get the other Senshi out first," Setsuna said. "Once we dispose of the link to keeping Pandora near the event horizon, which is Kuro's power, we'll have a very limited amount of time to get out before we're drawn into the singularity. Once you hit that, you have a good eight seconds to live. That's being optimistic. Then again, although it would be a few seconds in normal time, you are actually slowly being pulled apart by the black hole over hundreds, or even thousands of years." Everyone stood in silence for a moment. Setsuna had given them the one chance to turn back. But, there was no turning back now. With the disappearance of four Senshi, it would not be long before one of them was the next target. One by one, the Senshi stared at Usagi. She nodded firmly and stepped toward Setsuna. "Let's go," she said. Setsuna raised her staff and with one swift motion, teleported the group to the Time Gate. She approached the double doors of the gate. "Chronos!" she yelled. "Allow us passage to the beginning of time! Take us to the kingdom suspended in the darkest of dreams!" Chibi-Usa stared off into the distance. She wished with all of her heart that Elios was there. Foolish, she thought. He wouldn't kill his own brother. She bit her lip to keep from saying anything. Her duty now was to be a Senshi and fight to rescue Makoto, Minako, Artemis, Haruka, and Michiru. She couldn't be a child now. Still, she could not stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks. A larger, warm hand slid into one of hers. She figured it was Mamoru. He had an uncanny sense of knowing when something was wrong with her. Probably because he is my future father, she thought. Chibi-Usa managed a smile through her tears and turned to look at him. "Thank you, Mamo..." her voice died away when she saw it wasn't Mamoru standing next to her. It was Elios. The tears stop and her eyes began to sparkle. Elios smiled at the young Senshi, then gazed at the remaining Senshi, who could not keep the smiles off their faces. He stepped toward the now open gate and stopped next to Setsuna, Chibi-Usa beside him. They nodded to each other, then Elios looked back at the Senshi. "We must hurry," he said. Everyone nodded and started off. Usagi stopped and looked over her shoulder to see Mamoru hadn't moved from his spot. He had an odd look in his midnight blue eyes. "Mamo-chan? What's wrong?" she asked. Mamoru frowned. "She's too young for that." Usagi looked at Elios and Chibi-Usa. "Holding hands with a boy?" she asked. She bounced over to Mamoru and took his arm. "What's wrong with that?" "Do you realize what holding hands leads to?" he cried. "Do you realize she is only 11 years old?" Usagi asked him. "But...but..." Usagi stood on her toes and kissed Mamoru's cheek. "Mamo-chan, you're going to make a good father." "Maybe I should ask your father where he gets his shotguns," Mamoru muttered under his breath. Usagi rolled her eyes and pulled him toward the gate.