Work Text:
Dust to Dust
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Demande never thought this was the way things would turn out. Never in his long life. He should have never followed the Queen in, but she stood there so openly with her child clutching her skirts. Their prime targets frightened, poised by an entrance to the Crystal Palace. They beckoned him like a moth to a flame. And foolishly he charged after them with his team, down, down crystals halls. He did not think it odd at the time that there was a lack of guards, or even the Senshi. His rebellion was proving quite formidable, till… they fell onto their knees with a sudden crack sinking into the crystal floor until darkness took over.
When he woke Demande found his hands bound beneath a cold dimly lit crystal floor while his knees prostrated painfully against it. It was then Demande realised he had led and fell into the Queens trap and could do nothing more than lift his head to stare at a dark lustrous throne.
Steady breaths of his companions, his closest team of his rebellion were behind him, the only sound the resounded in the dull incandescent circular room. What would happen to them? he wondered. Surely his people were still fighting for their freedom against their imposing rulers. But with the room so quiet save for their breaths he was no longer sure.
Then a slow set of clicks echoed from behind.
Click. Click.
A soft mild heat rose beneath him, the room slowly taking a brighter glow, both rising with each step closer. His brows farrowed at this new rising sensation. ‘She's coming!’ whimpered Kaon’s voice.
Click. Click.
Yes. Yes, she was. What would she look like, this monster the King had wed? A gorgon? A succubus? A shapeshifter with so many faces, with so many names. A woman who never showered her face, who never left the protection of the palace. The Pale Lady. The White Witch-Queen. The Crystal Queen.
Click. Click.
He had heard tales of the Queen; of a time when the grass wilted, trees burning and mountains crumbling wherever this woman set foot. That before the Crystal Palace she burned the world she walked upon. The Queen was in other words an unworldly monster. Her thirst for power, the extended lives she kept to maintain her power. She needed to be snuffed out. Wiseman will see to it.
Click. Click.
He could feel it now. This blistering power of the people of Earth. Oh, how he could it! The floor now luminous white and blistering hot for his trapped hands. His knees scorched as sweat coated his body and dripped in front of him. Every gulp of breath burned.
Click. Click.
A swish of a heavy gown strolled past him, steps evenly paced slowed till suddenly, the burning disappeared, with nothing but the dissipating heat and the pool of his sweat.
“I apologise, there is little I can do to for those who possess lesser starseeds.” spoke a gentle voice. Light; peaceful. This was not her, was it? No evil cackle, no gleeful monologue. This could not be the Queen? His brows dragged together drawing his head up to the voice.
Sitting on the lonely crystal throne was— his breath was taken away.
“Hello Demande.” the woman said softly. “Long time no see, I had wondered when we would finally meet again.” Demande frowned at her words; have they met? He would have remember meeting such a beautiful woman.
Pale white skin, lustrous white hair, eyes clear as crystal. He could not help his eyes as the roved along her seated frame, kindled brightly as the solid white throne she sat on.
“Y-you can’t be the Queen!” stuttered his brother behind him.
She hummed in response, her slender fingers hiding her smile. “I know.” She tittered. “What were you expecting as Queen?”
Not her... he was not expecting her.
“Do want you want with us! The people will never give up.” His brother continued.
“Saffir!” Demande hissed. The Queen laughed out loud, light and lilting –Demande found himself unable to resist, turning his traitorous gaze back to her. No, a goddess. A beautiful goddess. The King of Earth had wedded a God. He could no longer blame his monarch hiding this creature. If he had a chance to, he would too as well.
“I’ve seen the horror, the deaths, the total destruction of this war from my younger years. I would be a fool had I not learned nothing from my youth.” She tutted nonchalantly, her lips bowing to a smile as her gaze wandered to their prostrated forms. “But there was one thing I had not been able to discover. Tell me, what crime have I done to deserve the people’s ire?”
Saffir struggled with his words, huffing and grunting, before he finally spilled his words “Wiseman told us of your evil! You keep us alive to keep your youth, your power! Enthral us and brainwashed us with delusions!”
“Ah...Wiseman.” there was no indication she unfamiliar with name.
“Yes! Wiseman! He promised us power and freedom—”
“Saffir be silent.” He growled as he watched the Queen frown.
“Do you know who your Wiseman was.” The Queen cut in. “A man who died trying to become a true Star.” With a flick of her wrist Wiseman’s crystal ball perched on her fingers. Impossible... she could not have defeated him. Demande gaped in disbelief as she let the ball roll off her fingers casually, it landed with a dense thud before it rolled slowly towards them.
“Your Wiseman was nothing more than a lich, a star that refused to die, a phantom.” The crystal ball, dense and black, stopped heavily against his knee, the weight of the Wiseman’s crystal ball was so much more than it seemed. “Have you ever seen a Starseed Prince Demande? Everyone possesses one. Brighter the Starseed the stronger the Power. And vice versa.” She said as an afterthought. “But nothing lasts forever, eventually we must all succumb to darkness in return for light. This Universe obeys all antithesis, an unending pull...” finishing slowly.
“So tell me—” Her voice echoed within the chamber, rippling with her power. “—what should I do with you? Millions of lives, both human and alike, have been lost by so very few who were enthralled by a dead man’s words to suck this very being to extend his life.”
The ripple of power dampened. “I apologise for your extended lives.” The Queen spoke sadly. “I had no idea that the by-product of my Power has brought such dismay and suffering to the people of my King. Had I known…” the Queen whispered before turning back to them, her eyes thick with fury. She stood from her pale throne, the room dimmed back to twilight, the throne dark as night once again, and re-enactment of the burning the pain rolled over them. Hands blistered, bodies ablaze. Demande cried out with his companions, wails pitched and moaned as the Queen gracefully approached their withering forms. “Stars that are gluttonous for power always burn out quickly. Wiseman has defied the Laws of Order for Chaos and has paid for his crimes; I saw to it before history could repeat itself fully. If you all loathe your extended lives, then death I will grant you all.”
If Demande thought he was already bathed in hellfire then the agony that punctured his midback was centre of hell itself. Something emerged from his being, something vital.
“But fear not - I’ve become to the decision that the most appropriate punishment ought to be to return what you all have stolen. A lenient punishment for lesser starseed holders.”
Starseed? Demande felt himself lifted, floating and bodiless - the pain turning to nothing. Nothing, he felt nothing. Not the screams of his companions; not even his heaving chest gasping for breaths, not even the beats of his frantic heart.
Light trickled off his hands, turning transparent, Demande’s hands slipped through the crystal floor. Weakness washed over him, increasing sharply by the second, away, in the direction of the Queen. With one last strength he threw his gaze at the Queen, her hand outstretched for several dully lit crystals. But in her centre, where her heart was, shone a light pure white. Brighter the Starseed the stronger the Power. So, this is what Wiseman was after?
Demande then realised they were all dust compared to the Queens bright light, her burning star. By what right did he ever think they could win against such power. He was certain that there was no other star brighter than the Queens. There was none that could compare. If this was his fate, to perish under such beauty then he would depart with peace.
Soon he forgot his name. He forgot his life. And in her light she broke him apart one piece at a time; one atom at a time.
To return what they had stolen... the very thing that made Earth home.
To return what was stolen...
He was star too, albeit was dimly lit one, nothing of consequence; of value. It was he and his companions that would rebuild their once beautiful home, to return to what it once was before their foolish rebellion. Afterall, stars are the building blocks of life.
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