Author's Note: (Disclaimer applies to all chapters.) This is an original work of fiction, inspired by the Manga and Anime series Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon. The Author lays no claim to the Manga or the Anime. That would be stupid.

The story below? Mine, mine, all mine. Thank you.

Rating: Mostly T, some M for violence

After the End

Chapter 0 : The End of the End

3992

Crystal Tokyo

The smoke was still rising.

How could a city made of stone smolder on so long?

The crystal spires were broken. The crystal palace lay in ruins. The crystal itself had vanished. The invaders had succeeded beyond imagining.

There was no longer anything resembling a city in the city. There were only a few citizens still breathing free. Most of the survivors had been rounded up into the strange, tall ships and taken away. Only a few ships remained, their soldiers chasing down the few free folk.

The Queen saw it all from the hill outside of town. She lay in the tall grass on the top, covered in a grey cloak, knowing she should run as well, but unable to stop watching her beloved city, unable to save them. She had cried at first, but now her tears would not come. Her wide blue eyes were dry and calm. She was waiting.

Finally, the last of the soldiers returned to his ship. The ships flew away into the bleak black sky. The fires began to die, slowly receding and leaving only the shattered spires under the cold moonlight.

The Queen rose, wrapping the dark cape around her slim shoulders, and began the long trek back to her ruined home. The wintry night wrapped her in its chilly arms as she traversed the broad white road that led to the embers of the great city. Her pale golden hair whipped around her, weaving into the fraying edges of the charcoal cape like night fading into day.

The palace was dead. The walls were mostly gone, upper floors sliding loose into lower, everything balanced on slivers of silver, ready to fall at a breath. The clear crystal refracted the firelight through now-deadly spikes and crags. The rich furnishings of the palace had been heaped into bonfires; some of these were also pyres.

The Queen walked cautiously through her unfamiliar home. The great audience chamber she stood in had held petitioners and petty nobles only a few days ago. Her friends and advisors had spoken to her only that morning.

She tried not to look too closely at the burning heaps. She knew who she would find. Her four, her faithful four, were all gone now. Since the first hostility that took her own dear Ami, to this last, she had lost everyone.

She reached the throne at last. It was strangely intact. There were two things here that she needed. She slipped a hand gently under the throne, feeling for- ah! There. She removed a slim gold case and opened it carefully. Everything she needed.

The Queen stepped down the slick crystal stairs into the darkness. A black stain slid down the stairs, dried blood or something worse, and the still-moist edges of it soiled the already grass-stained hem of her court gown. It had been white once.

She followed the dim glow of the flames filtering through the crystals. She knew what she needed, but it had been so long since she'd been there for even a visit. It had to be here. They wouldn't have been able to destroy it, right?

There.

A tall, arching doorway, set into the grey stone of the underground room. Invisible to most eyes, but not to hers. The Queen stepped forwards, tracing her long fingers over the runes in the door. She opened the gold case she held and withdrew a tiny key, formed of gold and topped by a crystal orb that glimmered with a faint inner light.

The key slid into the lock.

The door opened.

The Soldier of time was waiting. She stood beside the door to the past with her deadly key in hand and her expression, as always, was unreadable.

"Your majesty." Her eyes were a deep, dangerous, wine-red.

"Setsuna." The Queen met that unsettling gaze without flinching. "You know why I am here."

The Soldier inclined her head.

"Will you let me pass?"

The Soldier shook her head slowly. "I cannot."

The Queen was incredulous. "I don't understand," she said, "when you must know what's happened-!" The Queen's calm demeanor was rapidly melting.

"I know what has happened, what will happen, and what must happen." The Soldier turned her head aside. "I also know what must happen. This is not permitted."

The Queen stood in silence for a long moment. A whispering wind blew softly through the empty plane of Time, stirring her unbound hair.

"Setsuna, this is all wrong. The line must be unbroken." The Queen spoke truth and she knew it. "The prophecy- you know it better than I do. The line cannot break, or the world will end."

"Do not- do not quote prophecy to me. I was bred out of prophecy." The Soldier drew a ragged breath. She turned back to face the Queen, and her eyes were shining. Unshed tears strove to break free. She would not let them. "This must not happen- but I cannot let you pass."

"Small Lady is-" The Queen could not finish.

"I know it." The Soldier said. "The Prophecy is broken. But I cannot send you alive through the gate." She straightened. "You will have to kill me."

The Queen stepped backward to catch herself. "What?" She squeaked, "have you gone mad? Everyone else I love is dead, and I must slay you as well?"

"I will be alive again, if you succeed." The Soldier allowed herself a sad smile. "Let that motivate you. If I let you pass while I draw breath, I will be punished far more severely than you can imagine."

The Queen considered this. Then she opened the slim golden case once more. Reaching into it, she withdrew a pink and gold wand, topped by a rosy crystal. She said nothing for moment more. Finally, she sighed and nodded. The wand in her hand shifted and became a golden sword.

The Soldier did not move.

The sword slid smoothly forwards, a single deft stroke.

The Soldier fell.

The door to the past fell to with a boom.

Unnoticed beside the fallen Soldier, a small crystal-topped key lay, spattered with blood.