starlight's destiny | HIMEKO

act twenty-five | to what may come and may be

What faced the group had no semblance to the world they lived in. Instead of flying cars, imaginable materials making anything, and flying sea animals, the travelers were greeted with darkness. The sky overhead was littered with dark clouds, the earth they walked on was so dead it felt mushy and nearly caved in at times. It scared Sailor Venus to even breathe in the place they were in case something dangerous would fly into her mouth or something else.

"Is this really the 30th Century?" Venus hesitantly asked, almost scared to speak.

Already in the dumps of returning home, Chibiusa kept her head up and turned to Tetsue. She was mostly surprised to see him too looking strong in the face of destruction and death. The remnants of a smile spread on his face, yet his shoulders were tense and hands balled to fight anything that would come their way.

"This is our home, Sailor Guardians. This is 30th Century Neo-Tōkyō."

In the shade of darkness, Tuxedo Mask held onto Sailor Starlight's hand even tighter as the group took slow steps forward. From where she stood, the Guardian could hear her heart beat in her chest with the silence and could barely see anything behind her. But when she looked ahead of any sign of life, her eyes shone with brilliance at a sight.

"Is that a castle?"

Elevated on higher ground stood the only source of light in all the land. A palace made entirely of crystal stood among the remains of the once magnificent future, eerily quiet yet hauntingly beautiful. Sight of the castle brought a genuine smile to Tetsue's face. His shoulders lessened its tense feel.

"That's Crystal Palace, our home. We'll be safe in there."

"Which means we have to hurry up," Luna finally spoke up. "We don't know what lurks in the shadows."

And with the warning the group took off in a run. No one had to repeat twice the statement to run. The air they walked through brushed everyone's hair and fur the wrong way. As her boots carried her through the mix of dirt, mud, and mush, Starlight's eyes caught the glint of something dark on her far left. She just simply turned her head to see the dark shadow of a black monolith sticking out from the ground. Her body shivered from head to toe just looking it. The feeling reminded her of the Spectre Sisters.

Yet something in the monolith shone at her, both scaring and attracting her. In her state Starlight couldn't focus on what she looked at, but if she could, she would have been prepared for what attacked them. In a flash, two figures rush to the group,

Without warning, the Boule Brothers stopped themselves ahead of the Sailor Guardians with matching smiles. Their appearances both surprised and scared the travelers. The fact they encountered others in the dead future was bright, but when their bangs moved to reveal their black moon-crescent birthmarks, that joy soon fell to despair. And not a second later was the group trapped in a thicket of crystal.

From the shadows, a woman's voice laughed followed by slow claps. Esmeraude applauded her subordinates at trapping the group as she walked to see their handiwork.

"My-my, when I said make a trap for them, I didn't think you two would have done such so perfectly!" Esmeraude's green hair remained ornately styled as she looked as the display before her.

At the front of the group and the first in her sights was Tetsue, his hands extended both in front and behind him. The necklace he carried, Esmeraude assumed to be the Silver Crystal, dangled around his neck. Behind the boy was Sailor Starlight, frozen in a reach for Tetsue's hand. Her eyes were wide as they looked ahead, almost like she knew something was coming. On the other side of the crystal, Esmeraude took her time with Starlight. Her eyes narrowed and widened when she looked through different angles.