Act 51 - Stars 9

Originally appeared in Nakayoshi, February 1997.
Translated by Kurozuki (manga@kurozuki.com). Version 1.02, 4.97.

Do not link directly to this page. Do not redistribute this translation in any form, such as by posting it on another web site.

"Silver Moon Crystal Power Therapy Kiss!"

"Galactica Inflation!!"

Power surrounds them both as they charge toward each other.

Chibi-Usa and Chibi-Chibi run into the palace.

Chibi-Chibi holds up her glowing heart scepter.

"Sailor Moon!!" thinks Chibi-Usa. "Galaxia!!"

She looks at Chibi-Chibi.

"Chibi-Chibi, you know about this battle, don't you. If you really are my little sister, then our future must exist. We win this battle, and save everyone, don't we!? So that's why you told me to believe in Sailor Moon, right!? Chibi-Chibi, who are you really?"

The small girl looks into her eyes.

Galaxia knocks Usagi to the ground, holding her down.

"I was born alone as trash, on a planet of trash," she says. "I could do nothing but wander in solitude, living my days like I was in hell. But I have power as a sailor soldier. One day, it suddenly awakened. I was a chosen one. But being a mere sailor soldier would be the same as being trash. I had to have the strongest planet, carrying the strongest power! I came searching for a planet of my own, suitable for me! And then I found it. A magnificent planet. And to get that planet, I need the galaxy's ultimate power!"

Usagi throws her off, into the air.

"The power of the sailor soldiers is for justice and peace in the galaxy! For the ones we love and our friends!"

"Love? Friends?" says Galaxia. "Massing in groups is evidence of being trash. The only thing we can trust is our own power. Only the source of power, the sailor crystals. That is everything. The destroyed sailor soldiers, too, as long as they have sailor crystals, can be reincarnated in flesh with ease. And again, they will be items to be easily broken. Heh heh."

Usagi gasps.

"You should know that too," says Galaxia. "What you believe is only an empty illusion. Do you still say you believe in that?"

She stands beneath the large crystal holding the sailor crystals, next to Tuxedo Kamen.

"Things like love and friends! The peace of trash! Coexistence! The future!"

"You, the soldier of destruction, will not understand!" says Usagi. "The hands, the bodies, the words of our friends and those we love carry all kinds of power! My coming here, my living to this point, my ability to fight as a sailor soldier, is because I have my friends and the ones I love! That is a sailor soldier!!"

Galaxia stares at her.

Tuxedo Kamen and the Garden Crystal overhead vanish.

"They disappeared!?" Usagi thinks.

Galaxia turns and runs away into the palace. Usagi follows her.

"Carrier of the galaxy's strongest sailor crystal!" Galaxia thinks. "Why is it Sailor Moon! That girl of trash who doesn't do a thing! But whatever it takes, I have to get her power! So I can defeat Chaos and make the entire galaxy mine! I must have that power!"

She stops and turns, facing Usagi.

They stand on a cliff, overlooking a gigantic open cylinder of energy that shines with light.

Usagi looks down at it.

"This...!"

"This is the holy land of the stars," says Galaxia. "The Galaxy Cauldron. Strong stars and weak stars. Trash and sailor soldiers. This is the place where all the stars throughout the galaxy are born."

"The place where stars are born..." thinks Usagi. "It's so pretty... In all the galaxy, the sacred place most filled with possibility."

The Cauldron bubbles, steam rising into the air.

"This place," says Galaxia, "is the ultimate stage, where I will have the final chosen one. Everything is here. Here everything will be gone."

Tuxedo Kamen stands next to her as the Garden Crystal appears in the air.

She raises the giant crystal over the ledge.

"Galaxia!?" Usagi shouts. "What are you...!"

The crystal sinks into the Cauldron, and fades away.

"Everyone's sailor crystals...!?"

"Now there is nothing left of the galaxy's sailor crystals in the mother sea," says Galaxia. "It's so exhilarating. This Cauldron is the universe's strongest, completely unmatched star!"

Chibi-Usa and Chibi-Chibi reach the cliff.

Usagi stares into the Cauldron.

"All their sailor crystals are gone?" she thinks. "Gone!? I always believed... that with the sailor crystals... if I could return everyone back to normal... I would bring them back... That final hope... Their sailor crystals..."

She grasps her scepter.

"I won't let you," she says. "I won't let you do this, Galaxia!!"

"Yes, more, more," says Galaxia. "Fuel the flames of rage and the storms of hatred."

She raises her arm toward Tuxedo Kamen.

"Be alone, Sailor Moon," she says. "That feeling will awaken the bottomless power inside you."

"Mamo-chan!!"

Galaxia flicks her wrist, and Tuxedo Kamen falls back over the ledge.

"Then, when you've heard all the truth from Chaos, your power will explode recklessly, and along with Chaos, you'll be no more."

"Mamo-chan!!" Usagi cries.

Chibi-Usa and Chibi-Chibi gasp.

"At that time, I, Galaxia, will become the true ruler of the Cauldron!!"

Tuxedo Kamen falls into the light of the Cauldron, and is gone.

"Nooooo!!" Usagi cries, tears in her eyes.

Chibi-Usa gasps.

She reaches toward Usagi.

"Sailor M--"

"Chibi-Moon!?"

Chibi-Usa fades out of existence.

"Chibi-Moon!! Nooo!!"

"Ohhhh..." says Chaos.

"Have you drawn out your power!" says Galaxia. "You, too, will be the victim of Chaos, Sailor Moon! Inside this Cauldron, the zenith of power will explode, and you will be blown away along with Chaos! Galactica Super String!!"

She attacks Usagi.

Chibi-Chibi blocks her.

"She repelled it!?" thinks Galaxia. "Damn her! This sailor soldier!?"

"Ohhh..."

"Chaos-sama!" Galaxia says. "Now I give you the galaxy's strongest soldier, Sailor Moon! The time has come at last! I will have power, the galaxy, the whole universe! I give you Sailor Moon, boiling with the highest power!!"

A blast shoots up from the Cauldron.

Galaxia is knocked from the cliff.

"Galaxia!?" Usagi calls.

She reaches out and grabs her hand, pulling her back up.

A giant mass of energy forms before them.

Power blasts at Usagi. She holds Chibi-Chibi. Galaxia lies unconscious.

Light glows around Usagi.

"Ohhh! Such power!" says the energy. "That white brilliance! The power of the strongest light in the galaxy! So it has finally made it here to me. I am Chaos. The one who missed becoming a star. And the ruler of this Cauldron's stars of darkness."

"Chaos!?" says Usagi.

"Successor to the power of the light of this beautiful Cauldron. Your siblings, born from this same sea. The stars of evil darkness. Defeated by your hand. Adding brilliance to yourself. So your name has become known throughout all the galaxy. Heh heh heh."

"Siblings!?" says Usagi. "Stars of evil darkness!?"

"Seeking the power of light, roaming the galaxy. The incarnations of evil darkness. The kin you have wiped out. They were all alter selves of me. They all departed from here, crossing time and space. You are siblings."

"The enemies I've been fighting..." thinks Usagi.

Queen Metallia.

Death Phantom.

Pharaoh 90.

Nehalennia.

"All siblings, born here, in the same place...!?"

"Your coming here was destiny," says Chaos. "Where there is light, there is darkness. The darkness calls to the light, and the light calls again to the darkness. Our destiny matches. As before, when everything was one here, the time has now come again for light and darkness to join hands! Soldier of the galaxy's strongest light, Sailor Moon! Give me your power now! At last, my long-awaited wish has come, for me to rule all the universe instead of this Cauldron!"

Galaxia wakes up. She looks at Usagi.

"Why did you save me?"

"Galaxia!" says Usagi.

"Finish me off! Chaos paid me no mind from the start. I can't win over such a huge existence after all. My planet wasn't here, either."

"I gave you my hand because inside you, I saw the loneliness of myself. I don't want to lose any more friends."

"I am an enemy!" says Galaxia. "This is war!"

"I can't fight anymore," says Usagi. "Everyone is gone. All this time, it wasn't for peace and justice. I only fought for the ones I love, and my friends. But now they're all gone. If I don't have my most precious ones... For who, for what should I fight?"

"Heh..." says Galaxia. "Both you and I can't fight. If the last sailor soldier is no more... Will now be the end of war?"

"The end of war..."

"Ohh..." says Chaos as power surrounds them.

"The thing I've been praying for," thinks Usagi. "In this form..."

"No," says Chibi-Chibi. "The wars will not end. They will always continue. But you can end this war, the one now. To save the galaxy's future. Sailor Moon, with your last power, eliminate the source of all the enemies, Chaos and the Cauldron, and end the war!"

"Chaos, and the Cauldron!? Chibi-Chibi?"

"Chaos is now completely one with the Cauldron. To completely eliminate Chaos, there is no choice but to destroy the Cauldron."

"But if the Cauldron is gone, no more stars can be born! Someday the galaxy's future will be no more!"

"But if you don't do that," Chibi-Chibi says, "this war and the history of suffering will continue forever! It will all be on your shoulders, Sailor Moon. You will regret this, Sailor Moon!"

"Chibi-Chibi...?"

Usagi looks at her.

"As long as stars can continue to be born, war will not end," Usagi says. "The darkness calls to the light, and the light calls again to the darkness. Is this the will of the galaxy? Saying I will end the war... Will that be the end of everything? And that glaive of death, this time must I be the one to bring it down?"

"But you have no choice," says Chibi-Chibi. "There is no alternative. To bring peace to the galaxy, there is nothing else..."

"But even if this galaxy is destroyed," says Galaxia, "somewhere a new Cauldron will surely be born again. Somewhere a new future will begin, and light and darkness may be born again. The end of war will not come so easily. A new future... Amazing, that those words are still inside me."

"Yes," says Usagi. "Yes. New futures will always continue to be created. And there, light and darkness, war and hope, life and death, joy and pain, will all exist again. Everything, that is this universe."

"Sailor Moon...!" thinks Galaxia. "You believe in such a distant future for this universe? Sailor Moon, are you the soldier that draws in everything? Sailor Moon... I've finally found it. My planet..."

She reaches out toward Usagi.

The bracelets on her wrists crack.

She drops to her knees.

"Too big... Too radiant... My arms don't reach..."

"Galaxia!?"

"But that planet will continue to shine in this universe eternally..."

The bracelets shatter.

Galaxia is no more.

"Galaxia!?" Usagi cries.

All that remains is the golden brooch she wore.

Usagi holds it in her hands as tears fall from her eyes.

"Chibi-Chibi," she says. "I won't give up. Everyone always told me... At the end of war there is hope and future. I will make our future. So don't you abandon hope and the future, either. Believe. Our star of hope will never disappear. As long as it keeps shining, we will be all right. We won't be defeated."

"Right," says Chibi-Chibi.

Light glows around her.

She transforms, becoming older. She floats up in her glowing adult body, and kisses Usagi.

A spark of light shines on her forehead.

"Chibi-Chibi?"

Their hands touch.

"I see..." Usagi thinks. "We won't lose. Because we are sailor soldiers."

Energy storms around them.

"Sailor Moon!" calls Chaos. "The mother Cauldron is your grave! This is the birth of the universe's strongest star, Chaos!"

Usagi leaps into the air.

"Chaos. Queen Metallia. Death Phantom. Pharaoh 90. Nephrenia. And Galaxia. I know now, why you were seeking my power. It is the same as the feeling that I seek for the ones I love, and my friends. We are all stars alone. We meet our desire, wanting to be as one. As one. That is how we begin. And now, I, too, will seek you. I will envelop you. Inside this Cauldron, to save everything."

"Ohhhh!!"

Usagi descends into the Cauldron.

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