Chapter Text
In a time mortal man can no longer remember, the realm of Midgard was full of life. Not merely upon Earth, then called Terra, but on other planets and moons. The realm was ruled by the Silver Kingdom whose seat was upon the moon of the third planet.
The Silver Kingdom’s rulers were Queens, and always sought to rule their people with kindness when they could. It was not a perfect realm, but it knew more peace than others.
Then the Jotun invaded. Unprepared for such a powerful force, Queen Selene asked Odin, the king of Asgard and husband of her dear friend, Frigga to intervene. Two noble daughters from outer planets were chosen by the Norns to join in repelling the invasion, these were two of the first of the Guardian Senshi. Warriors of the Silver Kingdom who would be trained and granted powers above and beyond others. They would be able to fight against outside forces seeking to bring chaos to the realm.
Other, younger noblewomen from each planet were chosen and trained, even after the Frost Giants were repelled by the All-Father. They trained not only in Midgard, but alongside the next generation of Asgardian warriors to learn to fight the fiercest of enemies and beasts among the realms.
Year 1000 of Queen Selene's Reign
Frigga and Odin sat with Queen Selene on the dais, overlooking the anniversary ball. Her dear husband was doing his best to internalize the differences in Midgard and Asgard culture as a way to stave off boredom. Even with so many people in the room, tonight's celebration seemed so subdued compared to an average Asgardian feast. People danced below and chatted in smaller, relatively quieter groups rather than the raucous room wide story-telling and cheers.
"If you had shown up yesterday," Frigga said with a touch of teasing, "You would have seen our sons participate in several contests."
"I cannot leave the throne for long," Odin insisted.
"While I know it is no time at all, the realms have been at peace for nearly three decades," Frigga chastised, "You can leave your post for a few extra days. Heimdall has runners stationed with him to send news should anything require your direct action."
The All-father sighed and took a drink of wine, "You are right as always, my queen. I shall endeavor to enjoy myself until we leave in two days. How have my son's fared in their time here?"
Selene took the opportunity to cut in, with much amusement on her face, "It seems during their stay here that your son has garnered some looks from quiet a few of the ladies in my castle."
"That is hardly new," Odin chuffed with a bit of pride. "Thor has always been popular."
"Hmm? Yes him too… but I was speaking of Loki."
Snowy brows furrowed in slight confusion, "Loki?"
Frigga laughed, she had noticed the same.
The Silver Queen smiled, "You forget, we of Midgard are not so battle hungry as your people." She said it with no malice or derision, she as well as anyone knew that warriors were a very necessary part of keeping the peace. "While Thor certainly has his share of admirers in the palace. I believe Loki and Fandral each have a larger following."
Frigga leaned forward to look around her husband to her friend, "Even if there is no love sparked here, it seems that all of our entourage have found someone to bond with in the last week. One of your warriors has even given young Sif a training sword and some lessons. She has been relentless in practice when not performing her duties," she smirked, "Her mother will not be pleased with me when we return."
Odin chuckled at his wife's observation, Sif's mother was an exceedingly traditional woman, but he felt it would take little coaxing from his wife for her to allow the girl her indulgences.
"That would be Hippolyta of Jupiter and Atalanta of Mars. Both are Guardian Senshi. Hippolyta is one of the strongest in hand-to-hand, and Atalanta is close behind her in skill and better with athe sword."
"Which one is that talking to Hogun?" Odin asked.
"Thalia of Venus, she is the leader of the Princesses' Guardians, and has the best chance of being named the commander of the Senshi. Is Hogun much for gossip?"
Odin chuckled, "Certainly not"
"Then they must be talking tactics," Selene informed, "The only thing that one takes more seriously than her duties is matchmaking."
"And who is with my son there?" Frigga asked, "Are those the ladies of Uranus and Neptune?"
Selene looked to where she was gesturing. Thor was next to a woman with green hair and another tall blonde, this one female and with shorter hair than his. They seemed to be having an in-depth, but serious, conversation. "Oh I am glad Meliae and Alcyone made it. Meliae of Uranus is the only one who can regularly beat Hippolyta in unarmed combat without resorting to magic, though Atalanta and Thalia have managed a quite few as well."
Frigga had met the two outer senshi during the war with the Jotun but they never came to Asgard after the victory. They had skipped the festivities, intent on making sure that not a single Jotun was still on Terra or hiding elsewhere in Midgard. Frigga seemed a bit disappointed that Thor was obviously talking about fighting, perhaps she would have to talk to the Venusian about seeing which of the ladies in attendance were interested in him. Then again, her sons were still young and Thor had no shortage of admirers back on Asgard. Loki on the other hand…
She scanned the crowd and located her other son as he cordially walked with a woman in a green dress. "It seems Loki has a friend as well," she gestured, hiding the hope in her heart that all mothers have for their sons. The two seemed friendly, but she saw no overt signs of romantic interest from either of them at this distance. Loki led the woman out into the crowd at an elegant arm's length. He was one of very few Asgardians to engage in the dancing, Thor had not bothered to learn the steps.
"That would be Hippolyta," Selene said proudly, "the one who gave your Sif the sword."
"Is it now?" Odin mused, "I would have imagined a strong fighter like her would be talking with Thor."
"She has had her chance. She, Atalanta and Thalia join your men in their daily sparring," Selene said. "But I have never seen a woman so well balanced between a warrior and lady. You simply must try the tarts she made at the dessert table." She gestured to a nearby handmaiden to bring them some.
"Isn't cooking beneath one of her position?" Odin asked curiously. Of course all Asgardian warriors knew how to hunt and prepare meals in the wild, but cooking while home was not a typical task for those of higher rank.
"She enjoys it, and her father always let her indulge that as long as all is in balance with her duties."
Frigga smiled as she watched her son dance, he seemed much more at ease here. This Silver Midgard where magic was valued as highly as combat prowess, if not more so. She would have to see about bringing him with her the next time she visited her old friend. If only to give her dark haired son some perspective.
"That reminds me, Odin, have you given any thought to my request?" Selene asked.
Odin nodded, "I think having your Guardians train with us has merit. In addition to strengthening you as an ally, it will also strengthen the alliance for the next generation."
That's right, Frigga had almost forgotten in her thoughts of the future. She need not wait until she had time to visit Selene again. The Guardian Senshi would be coming to Asgard to join her sons and their peers in training on rotation. Midgard was a lovely realm, but it lacked a certain amount of ferocity if one was seeking to train warriors to defend it from the likes of Jotun. "Will Serenity become a Guardian?" Frigga asked.
Selene shook her head, "I will train her as a sorceress and a ruler first, perhaps in the future she will have Senshi training if she has the temperament."
"If her desire to protect is as strong as her mother's," Odin said with an encouraging smile, "then she will."
Lady Hippolyta and Prince Loki moved out onto the floor, a large group dance was forming and they set up across from each other, "This one starts with a swing through, yes?" he verified and she nodded. They moved in line with around fifty other people, stepping to the beat of the music and weaving in and out of formation.
"Don't look now," Hippolyta said as they began a promenade around the outside of the other dancers, her arms crossed in front of her, and his hands holding hers with him walking just behind her right shoulder. "But it looks like Thor is getting ideas from Meliae and Alcyone."
Loki looked over her shoulder and spotted his brother with the women in question. "Ah yes, I can't wait to deal with the half-baked tactic he will get from that conversation."
"What do you mean?"
"He's certainly listening to them," Loki stated with an amused smile, "But he will not remember all the proper details, focusing solely on force until I teach him of the openings."
"And how will you do that?"
"Likely with a dagger," he said casually.
Her steps faltered, "I'm sorry?"
"A dagger" Loki clarified innocently, "It's a short blade, barely as long as my thumb, after it gets through his armor it hardly takes two days to heal." He grinned at her, "It's my fun dagger."
Her brows furrowed in bewilderment and reluctant humor, "And this is… encouraged in Asgard?"
"How will he learn to think if he never suffers any consequences?" Loki said, feigning seriousness and not directly answering her question.
She let out a short laugh of disbelief as they came back around in the formation, "Dip and dive next," she muttered to indicate the next part of the dance. They began alternating between passing under arches made by other pairs, and making the arches themselves, "Sometimes I forget how much our cultures differ."
"Quite," he replied with another friendly grin, "I cannot imagine such coordination on Asgard with this many people for something like a dance."
"You learned it quickly," she praised.
"Unlike my brother, I enjoy learning many things," he replied smugly, "You and Lady Thalia taught me all the maneuvers, now it's just a matter of the order." They made one last arch and he asked, "Swing next?"
"Swing through and set, then swing." They interweaved with another couple and moved through the last few steps of the dance. Ending facing their partners, the song came to a close and the dancers applauded the musicians and each other.
Loki took her hand and raised it above her shoulder then pulled it slightly ahead of them, to indicate that he wished to lead her off of the dance floor. "Where to next, Lady Jupiter?"
She smirked and walked with him to a particular part of the room as other people milled about before the next song. "I have a bit of a game for you," she smirked.
"A game?" He asked, intrigued.
"A simple one I think," she said as they approached the dessert table, "Go ahead, pick one."
At this he was slightly confused, "For what purpose?"
"Which dessert do you think is mine?" she asked.
Loki raised a brow at her, "Is your aim to make me as robust as Volstag?"
"What? I simply enjoy feeding my friends good food."
"I may be able to tell just by smell," he said, looking over the spread.
"How so?" she replied with suspicion.
He gave her a reproachful gaze, "As your test subject all week, I can say without a doubt that your dessert has rose water in it."
She was about to protest, then huffed instead.
Given that the spread was quiet large, it took him a few minutes to make a choice. They spoke casually about the other cultural differences they'd noticed over the last week while he did so. Some dishes he immediately breezed over, knowing that they were not her style. He had three different items on a plate before he spotted the tarts. He procured one and immediately declared it her work before popping it in his mouth.
"I thought you might actually guess wrong," she said, feigning disappointment while he chewed the treat.
He held up a hand, to indicate that he would speak in just a moment. Then, after swallowing he said with a satisfied smirk, "Then you should not have made miniature versions of the recipe you made me try three versions of two days ago."
She blinked, then giggled, "With all the experimenting I had forgotten." Ah well, she hadn't necessarily meant it to be a difficult, just something else to occupy them. They were barely halfway through the evening and she knew balls could drag on. She suspected her Asgardian friend would get bored if left alone for too long. As he procured another tart, Loki noticed the Jovian woman smirking at something across the room. "How much longer do you think they will last?" she asked.
He followed her gaze to the dais, where the Moon Queen was sitting with her most honored guests. On the opposite side as his own parents were two young royals, bored and grumpy in their thrones. Princess Serenity, barely a decade old, and Prince Endymion of Terra only a few scant years older than her. "I fear their doom is at hand," he sighed dramatically, "I imagine sleep will take them within the hour."
"Then I had best get in a dance and chat with his guard before they have to leave."
"Should I go with you?" Loki asked. Gold-green light raced over his form and he was now female. "We can split them up, two each," she concluded with a smile.
Hippolyta laughed, "No need, I plan to ask some advice. I hope they will have some useful tips for guarding a pre-teen royal I could use."
Loki gave her a disapproving look as he changed back into his natural form, "Is this not a celebration? Why would you wish to work?"
She tilted her head and shrugged, "One must strike when the iron is hot, as the smiths say. Perhaps we'll talk again later, my friend." She unwound her arm from his, and gave a polite half-curtsey for the sake of form, to which he bowed back. The Lady of Jupiter then glided off towards the aforementioned guards. Three were at the stairs below the platform and only the one with long blonde hair was standing by the prince speaking quietly with Sailor Mercury who was by the princess.
Loki would not speak with her again that night. Hippolyta danced with two of the prince's guard, several times in a row with the man with long brown hair. Busy with his own socializing, his other new friends kept him occupied with conversation, he didn't notice when any of them had left.
Mere decades after the Jotun were forced back, an insidious rot infected the hearts of mortal men, a dark entity known as Metalia. This parasite reached in and twisted the hearts of the weak and envious. Such mortals could no longer see the beauty and the peace that their rulers afforded them, instead they grew to resent their long lives and magical prowess. They chose to revolt against the Queen of the Silver Kingdom of Midgard.
Too concerned with looking outward, Selene did not see the threat from within until it was far too late. With the aid of the Terran rulers she tried to stem the tide of resentment, but to no avail. In a single, powerful surprise assault, the corrupted forces broke the castle walls of the Silver Moon Palace. With their magic draining abilities and fierce attacks rhey killed all of the Guardian Senshi and the queen’s own young daughter. In her grief, Selene had only one method to save her people. With the magic of the Silver Crystal and her own life force, she sealed away every being on the battlefield, friend and foe, living and dead alike. She sent them forward to an uncertain future. With her dying breath she hid the mystical kingdom from all remaining mortals in the realm until the time when her daughter would return…
Boots hit the pale stone as two young men raced over the road, the only sound in this barren place was the noise they and their men made as they ran from where the Bifrost landed them. They burst through the open gates of the Silver Palace and stopped in shock.
They couldn't believe what they saw, toppled columns, fallen stones, decimated walls. Not a single structure was intact, blood stains and scorch marks littered every surface. "Fan out," the blonde prince said after a moment, "Search for survivors!" Without waiting another moment, the brothers had left their escort behind, they didn't need it in this empty graveyard. Their expressions were haunted. The taller brother, a hammer in hand, had a countenance riddled with worry, his blonde head whipping around in all directions. The dark haired, paler one had already come to a conclusion and he looked about with dawning horror and sorrow as every moment gave more proof that he was correct. They had been here not more than three moons ago and it was teaming with life, people bustling around, happy and joyous at the Festivities of their Princess' 20th birthday. Moreso than that, it had been nary a day since some of their Guardian Senshi had left Asgard to answer the call to battle, cutting their usual training visit short.
Now it was a whole other place, a ghost town that appeared to have been abandoned. Not a single corpse was present. A strange sense of dread filled the brothers as their footsteps echoed through the empty halls. They shouted the names of their comrades and friends. Thor ran around the outside, the courtyards, the stables, the training field, the garden. Loki weaved within the castle, entering by the royal quarters, then to the library, the kitchen, the ballroom.
All of it was empty.
There had to be someone, somewhere. Otherwise who had taken care of the dead? And judging by the number of scorch marks, blood stains and energy shadows there had been many.
They had to be hiding. Where could they be? Surely at least the Princess would be safe, protected by one of her Guardians or the Terran Prince who had gone to moon to seek asylum.
Finally, they came upon a single, solitary form, one so strong with magic that it had blinded the Gatekeeper with its brilliance and then in the shadow of its absence. The queen of the moon lay still on a toppled column just inside what was once the castle's chapel.
"Queen Selene!" they called, running to her side it did not take long for them to realize that the still form no longer lived.
The dark haired son of Asgard ran out of the chapel and shouted at the stars, "Heimdall! Tell the king and queen that Selene has fallen!" By some miracle, or simply due to the surreal nature of the moment, he was able to keep the emotion from cracking his voice.
It was not long before Odin and Frigga stood before their sons in the chapel. Frigga, wife of Odin and Queen of Asgard rushed to the side of her fallen friend. "Oh Selene, what have you done?"
"What I had to…" The whisper startled the Asgardians. The ghostly form of the queen, barely an outline, stood behind her body.. "I sent them ahead… "
"What? Where have they gone?"
Her voice was weak, but she had to speak, had to ask. "I sealed the evil and sent all of our people ahead. I left those still on Terra and made it as if the Silver Kingdom never existed."
"Why?" Freya asked, tears forming in her eyes. To have done all that, far more than must have been necessary. If she had not re-written things then she may not have died. Heimdall said that everything in the realm that was not in Terra was now empty. She had pulled magic from every other planet and bottled up all of those souls.
"They were all fallen," the shadow flickered, "Endymion of Terra, all of my Senshi, and… my sweet Serenity."
Loki's eyes widened as his suspicions became truth.
"Surely not-" Thor whispered in disbelief.
Odin put out a hand to silence his son, not to scold him, but to spare what time the ghost had left.
"All-Father," Serenity asked, “Please, in my place, protect Midgard, and the Terrans who remain there, in the same way you helped us before…”
"It shall be done," he replied without hesitation, "in the name of my father, and my father's father, I shall protect Midgard from outside attackers."
The shadow of light bowed it's head in sorrow and turned to Frigga. "My dear friend, if I may ask something of you."
"Anything," Frigga breathed.
"Help me hide this place from the eyes of Terrans and all, one day my daughter and her court shall return. I wish for it to be here, undisturbed. I wish for a part of me to be here. But I no longer have the power to create a vessel. Please stabilize the spell and help me so that I may speak with Serenity at least once when she returns."
Rising to her feet, standing tall and proud, the Asgardian Queen would save her tears for later. "Of course my dear friend, save your strength, I will have it done in little time."
"Frigga-"
In a similar fashion she held a hand out to silence her husband, "Fear not beloved, it will not put my life in danger. The hardest work is done, and…" She held a hand out to the dark haired young man, "I will have the help of our son." She looked upon him with a sad smile "Loki."
"But, mother I-"
"You are more than capable of assisting me, my son. Just follow my lead."
He nodded, he was shocked by the loss of their friends and allies as well. But he was a prince of Asgard, he would not cry for those lost in battle. He would help fulfill this final wish of the Silver Queen of Midgard, and later they would morn with drink while celebrating with stories of their friends who fell in glorious battle.
He had to believe it was glorious battle and not slaughter. He had to trick himself into believing it, at least until the feast was over.
Together, mother and son used their magic to repair the crystal altar to house Serenity's spirit, then hid the building by walking outward, step by step, ring by ring, they hid the ruins of the city of the moon. A spell whose foundations would grow stronger with each cycle of the moon. The Silver Kingdom would move 'a step to the left' into an adjacent space where mortal eyes could not see and mortal feet would not walk. It was deceptively easy, all simple things he had learned layered together into a complex web of magic.
At the end of it all, they joined the other Asgardians at the location originally set aside for transportation via the Bifrost. As he stepped into the circle Loki looked bitterly upon Terra. The planet that spawned the evil that destroyed this kingdom, a place that, in decades to come, he would imagine felt more welcome than his own home.
A place that he would rather strike from his memory than remember what was lost.