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Beryl ran up the grassy hill. Her feet were soaked from the early morning dew that coated each blade of grass. The bitingly, delicious air gave strength to her laughter and her cries of delight. Her bright red hair flew around her as she turned back and looked over her shoulder at her friend.
“Come on, slowpoke,” Beryl yelled. She almost fell forward as her foot hit a small dip, but she caught herself and kept on running.
“You’re going too fast,” the other girl yelled, “I’m still sick!”
Beryl stopped running at the top of the hill. She was panting and sweat was sticking to her skin and soaking her pretty dress that her mother had made for her. Beryl sat on the grass with her legs out in front of her. The other girl sat down beside her.
“The moon is so pretty,” Beryl said.
The sun had not yet risen and the moon could still be seen near the horizon. It looked larger than it normally did. It was sometimes hard to believe that there were people living on it. Beryl’s mother had explained to them that people lived on the moon, but Beryl found it hard to believe sometimes that people could live there and not on the sun. Mother said living on the sun was completely ridiculous.
“Auntie is going to be mad at you for getting your dress dirty.”
Beryl groaned and lied down completely, “why do you always have to be so obedient, Garnet? Sometimes it is okay to bend the rules a little.” She wiggled in the grass for extra emphasis. Maybe, she’d get a huge grass stain on the back. Wouldn’t that make Mom angry?
“Bending the rules is one thing. You break them like Spinel breaks chicken necks.” Garnet started fiddling with one of her dark green, almost black, braids.
The moon began to glow bright silver. The point that was brightest was the heart of the Moon Kingdom, where Queen Serenity was definitely praying. The sun decided to make its appearance, mixing its own radiance with the moon’s. Then the moon was gone, hidden behind the horizon and the sun had taken its rightful dominance over the day.
“I wish we could have seen the whole thing. I heard at the height of the ceremony the moon looks just like the Silver Crystal,” Beryl said.
“The beginning was pretty,” Garnet admitted. “Thank you for making me come and see it.”
“That’s what best friends are for.”
Garnet moved closer to Beryl and lied down next to her. Beryl turned to look at Garnet and smiled. Garnet returned it with one of her softer, but no less sincere, ones.
~
“And where have you two been?” Turquoise asked when Garnet and Beryl opened the door and stepped into the house. Turquoise’s voice wasn’t loud, but it wasn’t happy either. “I wake up to find the two of you gone and the sun hadn’t even risen yet.”
“We just wanted to see the start of the Lunar Prayer Ceremony,” Garnet said.
“It was my idea. I made Garnet come with me.”
Turquoise raised one calloused hand for silence. “What hurts is that the two of you didn’t ask or even leave a note telling me where you had gone. I was about to get Spinel to help me look for the two of you.”
“But if we asked you might have said ‘no,’” Beryl said.
Turquoise gave an old, familiar sigh. It was one that the girls heard at least on a weekly basis. They probably wouldn’t hear it nearly so much if they weren’t always wandering off together, getting in some type of trouble or causing mischief. Her blue-green eyes were filled with love and a hint of worry for the two girls. “Both of you are going to have extra chores for a week.”
“Fiiiine.”
“Alright, Auntie.”
“Now, both of you get along to school.”
“But what about our dresses?” Beryl whined as she held out her grass-stained skirt.
“They were clean when I laid them out for you. That they are dirty now is your problem, not mine.”
~
All the children of the village sat together in a one room building. There were some benches and chairs, but far from enough for everyone. Most of the children sat on the floor. Each of them had a small bag that contained a small chalkboard, chalk and a worn, old book. It wasn’t much but the teacher did their best to teach with what was available in such a poor village.
“Now, who can tell me something about Pluto?” the teacher asked.
One boy raised his hand.
“Yes?” The teacher’s voice was cautious but optimistic.
“The king has like a million bastards all over the Silver Millennium,” the boy said. Giggles erupted from all corners of the room.
“Well, um, that wasn’t exactly the type of answer I was hoping for, but yes, the king has been caught once or twice with people that aren’t his wife. However, can someone tell me something other than that? Beryl, how about you?”
“Pluto is the planet of the underworld?” Beryl crossed her fingers behind her back for luck. She always got Saturn and Pluto mixed up.
“Yes, that is correct and I didn’t see Garnet give you the answer either. I’m glad to see you are studying.”
Garnet smiled and gave Beryl a thumb up.
~
Garnet walked alone. She picked her way around epithets of stone. There was no one else here except for the plants and the birds, well no one except for the dead. She stopped at an old grave, as old as Garnet herself. There was no name, just a date and the words “a loving mother.” Garnet sat on the ground, and leant against the headstone.
“Hi mom,” Garnet talked softly, “I’m doing alright. Auntie is taking care of me still. Beryl got us in trouble again, but it’s okay, I like getting in trouble with her. We’re doing well at school. We’ve almost finished learning everything. I don’t know what trade I want to learn. Auntie said she’d do her best to find someone to apprentice us to if we didn’t want to become weavers like her.
“I think I’m going to learn whatever trade Beryl picks.” Garnet curled up against the headstone. “I don’t want to be all alone and without her. Sometimes I think I can feel something at the edge of my mind. It is dark and eternal. I don’t know what it is, but it is scary. I don’t like it. But, when I’m with Beryl she is so bright that it all just kind of melts away like shadows.”
~
“Girls, it’s time for dinner,” Turquoise called from the front door of the house.
“Coming,” echoed the girls’ voices. It wasn’t long until Turquoise saw the two running together, each struggling to get and maintain the lead. Garnet had almost entirely gotten over her cold and was putting up a good challenge. No one was really sure who got to the door first, but both girls would claim that she was the winner if asked.
Turquoise looked both up and down. They were both covered from head to toe in dirt, leaves caught in hair and grass stains on their feet.
“First, you two go around back and wash up.”
The two only protested a little bit before heading around back to the well behind the house. Turquoise turned back inside the house. She took on of the wooden bowls and ladled some stew for herself up out of the large pot over the fire. A few minutes later Beryl and Garnet came in with the worst of the dirt washed off of their faces and hands. Turquoise gave a nod of approval. Both girls got their food and joined Turquoise at the table.
“Mom, you said we could learn any trade we wanted to, right?”
“I did.”
“I want to become a sorceress.”
Turquoise set her bowl and spoon down. She looked Beryl in the eyes. Beryl’s eyes almost glowed with determination. Her set jaw was just waiting to argue against her mother’s objections.
“M-me too,” Garnet added.
“Alright.”
“And we aren’t taking- wait, what?” Beryl wasn’t expecting her mother to agree with her.
“However, you have to understand that not everyone has the capability of using magic. If you are both able to use magic and I can find someone willing to take the two of you on as apprentices then you both have my blessing to become sorceress.”
“Thanks, Mom!” Beryl almost knocked the table over as she hugged her mother.
~
The laws governing contact between the Earth and the Mood were complicated and numerous. Everything from military protection to what types of cheese were appropriate to serve at the Decadia Ball were covered by such laws. One such law was that the Queen of the Moon must never set foot on the Earth without the express permission of the Queen of the Earth. However, there was no law about Sailor Moon being on Earth.
So it was that Queen Serenity took up a minor, and often forgotten, treasure of the Moon Kingdom. It looked like a slightly ornate, but not particularly rare, brooch. The magic of it would allow a member of the royal family to take on a Sailor Guardian form just like the many protectors of the kingdom could. It also had a magical field the cloaked the identity of the user in a phantom haze.
Sailor Moon walked the old path to a home far more humble than any she was accustomed to. Around her were the Soldiers of the Moon in their full armor. They held swords and shields in hand. Sailor Moon held no visible weapons, not even her wand.
They stopped outside the door. The captain of the soldiers looked at Sailor Moon. She nodded once and then a soldier kicked in the front door. The three occupants, a woman and two girls, screamed. The woman grabbed the two girls and pulled them close to her.
“Get the children,” Sailor Moon ordered. Her voice was low and soft.
The men in armor pulled the two children away as they slammed the woman back. She fell backwards, her head colliding with the edge of the table on the way down to the ground. The girls tried to grab hold of each other but their strength was nothing compared to the soldiers’, even with the stronger Earth gravity.
As the two struggled a symbol glowed on the forehead of one. It was the girl with the dark green here. The symbol was a blend of a P and an L, unmistakably the mark of Pluto.
“She will come back with us.”
“No! I won’t let you take Garnet!” the red-haired girl screamed.
“I’m sorry,” Sailor Moon said, “but you should just forget about your friend having ever existed.” Sailor Moon turned away. It hurt to look into those accusing, hateful eyes. “We're leaving this planet. We have what we were looking for. Let’s return home.”
“As you command, Sailor Moon. What about the other girl?”
“Use a sleeping spell on her.”
Sailor Moon stepped out the door and into the warmth of daylight. Her men had bound the green haired girl, though she still struggled. The red head had called her a name, but it would be better not to learn it. That name would soon be replaced and the girl would be sent to the most desolate and lonely of posts. If it were up to her, Sailor Moon would have gotten rid of the Gates of Space-Time completely, but it wasn’t.
~
When Beryl awoke from the sleeping spell her best and closest friend was gone. She had been told to forget about Garnet. She never did. It was her first act of rebellion against the Moon Kingdom.
Beryl would study magic with a passion born of hate and love. Throughout the years, throughout the battles she fought, there were two things she could never forgive. One was Princess Serenity taking away the only man that Beryl would grow to love. The other was the Sailor Guardian that took away Garnet.
Even as she was reborn in a new era she never forgot that uniform. She never forgot that brooch. Beryl knew who she wanted to kill, who she wanted to make hurt the way she had been hurt.
She was the one called Sailor Moon.