"Work in Progress"--Kaioh Michiru Oh, child. A princess, it's true, the bearer of great power, but you're a child still, Usagi. You're not yet Serenity, although you have your moments. Those moments make me pause. We were born in the same year, Usagi-child. How did I become so much older than you? We are not totally different. We both have love, so strong that thinking of it makes me weak. But you love everyone, Usako, and I've poured myself into one person. We watch you, Haruka and I, and sometimes we despair of you. We watch you eat (and eat, and eat!), fail tests with admirable consistency, shop, sleep, and arrive late for everything. We stand apart because we must. Someone has to be strong, and we've been chosen. Circle of darkness to protect the light within. Oh, princess. I've seen you weep with equal passion for strangers and for the sisters of your heart. The girl who cries at the least discomfort is the same one who would endure any suffering for those she loves. I have seen you _beg_ to sacrifice your life and power to save those around you. It frightens me to realize you would do so for me. Usagi-chan. Serenity-sama. It is my responsibility to die for you if necessary. Hard to fulfill my duty if you try to protect _me_. You've worked your magic on me, cast the web that entangles everyone whose life you touch. You've made us love you, you foolish child. I hope it's not the death of you. Or the death of us. I am prepared to die, but not as willing as Haruka is. Daughter of shrieking, deadly winds, reckless, is my love. You are more fortunate than you know, Usako, to have seen her gentler moments. She lives every moment in eager anticipation of death. Oh my princess, save her if you can! Our souls are so entwined that I would follow in a heartbeat. I have no desire to die, Serenity, but less to be in this world without her. It feels as if I've fallen so very far, to plead with a child, even silently, for help. ******************************************************************************** "New Miracles"--Meioh Setsuna How long is too long? To live, I mean. Imagine immortality, and like most you will long for it, and your desire will grow stronger and stronger the more you think about it. Are you lucky? One day you will be what I am now, all of you, you children of a lost kingdom-- you too will feel ageless, after a thousand years, youthful still, but unspeakably ancient. You will look around you, and feel that everything has been done; all your dreams fulfilled and forgotten. Your heart will break within you as you realize that you must go on, however unwillingly, however much you want to sleep. You will be needed, and though you know that nothing can ever surprise you again-- the past and future secure in your hands-- you will carry on. Will you be lucky? I came to this time, weary, certain of every outcome. Because I had known you, because I would know you, because you seemed so familiar to me, I underestimated you. All of you. I took two to my heart, and loved them, taught them, but it seemed to me that you others would not offer anything of interest. Not for a long time. I underestimated you. Children all, with no knowledge of the world. Terribly innocent, so full of dreams and passion. I underestimated you. I, who have seen kingdoms rise and fall, who have stood aside and watched, or fought alongside my people, I thought I was immune. No awe would ever pierce my hardened soul again. Wonder would never lighten my burden. To know that I was wrong . . . to be gladdened by it . . . is a miracle, bright and shining. I never dared to dream of it. And while life goes on, forever, you will all be with me now-- new miracles, never hoped for, but so precious that even my ancient eyes fill with tears. ******************************************************************************** "Duality: Hands and Hearts"--Tenoh Haruka My heart . . . pure? Can it be? Can I believe her? Lying now would gain the witch nothing, but . . . Pure? This locked, dark heart? I have been willing--trying, desperate-- to tear the hearts of innocents from them. Some nameless three. I would have sacrificed them, and more. But can I sacrifice you, Neptune? As she plans to? How long do I have to decide . . ? Not nearly long enough, as I find you, see you pinned to an altar meant for holier things, battered unconscious by a blow meant for me. And I wonder, would the deaths we'd cause be any less horrible for not profaning sacred places? I have two hearts. One wants to save the world with the blood of others. One wants only to protect us both. The heart of the male, the heart of the female, both pound inside my woman's body. Both hate her, witch who would take the hearts she calls pure . . . should I hate myself then, for wanting the same? Only you know how much I do. Only you have felt my heart racing, in passion and in dreams of self-loathing. Only you have held me through those moments. To see you held so . . . it blinds me. This hatred is pure. I would die willingly now, to kill her. But you take the choice from me. I see you tear the unnatural bonds that hold you down . . . see you start to run to me, when you should run away-- You said we have to ignore each other's danger! I didn't listen to you, but why don't you listen to yourself?! I see you driven to the ground . . . beautiful, familiar body broken . . . see you stand again, trembling, nearly immobilized with pain . . . and I want only to catch you, hold you until you are whole again. Instead, I hear your voice, in agony: "I will not let you die!" And my heart knows, somehow, that you will not live to see me die. You run, and fall, and stumble to your feet, and fall . . . I know I will never hold you again; never feel your heart beating in rhythm with mine; never hear your breathing as you sleep beside me, the pulse that lets me know that _something_ can still be right in my world; never make music with you again, the harmony that brings the world to its feet for wonder as they listen. Never . . . Against every odd, you reach us . . . and the gun goes off. MICHIRU!!! You are so still . . . your heart is as beautiful as I'd dreamed, as I've always known it to be. Can mine be so? My hands are so tarnished, how can it be? You would know, but I can no longer ask. The music will end, now. The duet is over. Only one path is left, only one choice . . . I will never know if I could have sacrificed you . . . that decision was yours alone. But I can sacrifice myself, so easily; without you, what am I? I am giving up nothing. And then . . . the witch is gone, replaced by the foolish child, who offers me one trembling hope. For one moment . . . but it is not enough, Michiru love. It is not fair! You have left before, gone into your own world, where I could not follow, but you have always come back to me, even when I cried out for you in silence. I am reaching . . . You said you loved my hands, Michiru. See, they will bring us back together! The sea and the sky, one forever . . . Forever, do you see? My hands? The gun? The sword freed from my body, to be reflected in your mirror? The darkness comes too slowly. I can only pray it came more quickly for you. But I see the end of the Silence in it, and in the light of my own heart, as it circles with yours. It is pure. The duality is resolved. I can hear your voice, the music of the violin, calling to me. Waiting for me. Michiru . . ! It is pure. ******************************************************************************** "Scars"--Tomoe Hotaru Alone in the darkness again just how I like it. No one here to see me, to mock my weakness, to run from my healing touch. No one to wonder at the darkness of my clothes, or why I wear them so. Scars everywhere, covered by fabric. Lines traced all over, from where I was reassembled brought back from death. I should have died. But why do I think I should never have lived? Whose voices echo in my mind, not me at all? Dark laughter, a feeling of evil, there since my father gave me a second life, putting me back together with his own hands. Why do I think, "with his own soul"? Metal in my body, shadow in my mind; the legacy of this life he gave me. Deeper inside, she sleeps. Me, but not me. She is not evil, but I can feel what will happen if I wake her. Her name is Destruction, the Bane of the world. I can't let her wake up . . . she can heal my scars as I heal others, but I am more afraid of her than they are of me. Everyone would run, if they only knew what sleeps inside me. Here, I am friendless-- "Professor Tomoe's daughter", alive with the promise of his brilliance and the face of my mother. Nothing more. The firefly in the darkness, my light is fading. Consumed by the powers intent on taking my life. I can't let them wake up. One Evil, one Destruction. Either will destroy everything. But I am so weak . . . and they speak to me of Silence and the peace it would give me if I only set them free. ------- Legalities: The characters in these poems were created by Naoko Takeuchi, and are used without permission. 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