The world is beautiful. 

That was the first thought that appeared once the heavy lids opened for the first time and adjusted to the light.   

The world is painfully, gloriously, beautiful. 

It becomes even more beautiful when the eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight; when the sounds become bearable and not a screeching mess of indiscernible noises fighting for attention. 

The world is beautiful music. 

That thought came second, as the dawning realizing came that these sounds were pleasant. There was a pleasant ring to them that made one want to hum along with it.   It was then learned that the sounds could be understood.  Words that shouldn't have been known, yet were there all along as if it was second nature.

"Good."  The master has a look to their face that wasn't a pleasant one.  "Bring this to me."

A complusion- need- must do as the master says.  Eyes drifted over to the image that floated before them.  A crystal of some sort. The question is on the tip of the tongue as to why but it's never uttered.  Compliance is the only answer, a short bow and then- 

The world is beautiful but cruel. 

The Facade goes well, but in the twenty-four hours of being deployed to look for that thing, humanity shows its' face in a variety of ways.  It's uncertain if this is the truth of human nature or not.  The causal cruelty of remarks by one caused the other to wince but laugh nervously as if it was a joke.  Next there would be another that would say something similar but the reaction is different.  It's a strange thing they were.  Complicated and simple at the same time.  The facets of kindness seems more like a subconscious agreement to survive this world. 

That's not the mission.  The mission was to collect that crystal. Find it by any means necessary. 


This beautiful world is oh so very cruel. 

Pain. That's all that could be felt.  Not sure how they found out, but they did and had little mercy to show. Defending one's self was the only option.  There was no way to even find that crystal and yet, it appeared there in the hands of the girl with pigtails.  

There's no way to get it.  It was protected too well by others like the girl. All attempts failed spectacularly one after another. 

This world will be left behind in all it's beauty as a bright light is all that is seen. 

Ironic, almost.  

Born to bright light, noises that didn't make sense, and an eye full of the beauty of the world- only for it to go in reverse with only the world fading first into light, sounds became indiscernible noises that two faded as the light was the last to go before darkness dragged the rest away. 

Even as the body became ashes, the last thought was still:

This world is beautiful.

Confusion, that's what she felt. Rather, her emotions were a jumble of things when she laid eyes on the small silent child that stood a few feet from her. Solemn lavender eyes that seemed to stare at nothing in particular, were turned up to her as if she were nothing more than a vaguely interesting statue.  The child's hair, the color of darken raspberries that wanted to be purple but couldn't, was styled as a long ponytail with two loops underneath it.  Her skintone, a dark brown similar to the color of an aged cedar wood chest. Lips seemed to be in a permanent frown, at least, she thought the child didn't look like a smile had ever graced such a small, slightly chubby face. 
 She wore a medium cyan colored dress with the familiar Kinmoku puffed sleeves the royalty often had there and the flare of the back of the dress was a similar motif of petals like the top of the bodice. There was a line of black ribbon that separated the light pink of the front skirt from the back.  Another black colored bow with medium length tails adorned the back. One more ribbon, much like all of Kinmoku's royal families also seemed to wear, was tied around her neck with the bow looking much like a flower.

She was a lovely little girl, but the queen of Crystal Tokyo had no idea what to do with her.  Married for the past thirty years and with no heir of her own,  Queen Lady Serenity had done an impulsive thing months earlier when her ally and friend, the Queen of Kinmoku, had asked her to adopt a royal child of her homeworld.

"She has no one else." The Queen had said via the holoscreen, "None of the royal houses wish to have her and I cannot keep her here as...well.. things are delicate."   

Queen Lady Serenity had known it meant that the other was currently pregnant. Her fifth try for an heir. The drawback of living for so long that no one had thought to tell anyone was the low birthrates as well as an increase in stillborn births.  No one knew quite why that occurred and there was no saving them all. Secertly, Lady Serenity had theorized it could be the doing of the silver- now pink- moon crystal itself. After all, nothing is ever gained without some sort of consequence.  Still, she wondered what was wrong with the child that no one on Kinmoku wanted to have her.

So, she asked. 

The other queen had sighed deeply, her courtly mask faded as her dark blue eyes seemed to settle on the Silver Millennium queen. 

 "To be frank, Usagi,"  she began, her posture shifted to a familiar slouch that Queen Lady Serenity known all too well, "I need her somewhere safe and away from Kinmoku. Her existence here threatens too many established lineages and everyone's getting paranoid about whether her supporters will stage a coup to dethrone me because of her claim to the throne is only slightly stronger than mine.  If it wasn't for the accident of birth order and Queen Kakyuu's own decree that I should be her heir, she would've been sitting here having this discussion with you."   She rubbed her temple, " I can't allow it and I'm unwilling to keep her prisoner or kill her because people want to use her. So, fostering her would be the best option as she can live and keep the prestige of her lineage so everyone would be somewhat happy."

Lady Serenity clicked her tongue, her pale pink brow had rose with a wry smile tilted her lips. "So you're pushing her on me to save your throne and to be bloodless. Lovely, Kyuusei, lovely."

The woman on the screen rolled her eyes, "Come on, Usagi! It's just- I don't have any other choice and I know you'll be great with her. Please?"  

Oh no.  She's doing the puppy dog eyes.   Sometimes, Lady Serenity cursed herself for ever teaching her that move. It was incredibly effective- especially given she was six months along.  With a deep and heavy sigh, she agreed. 

"Ok, Ok, as long as you don't do that again!"

"Thank you so much, Usagi!" She started crying.  Lady Serenity was pretty certain it was rude to hang up on her then. "I'll never forget this!"

Which, was what brought her to this moment.  A young princess whose very existence caused strife on Kinmoku, is now her daughter. Sure, legally speaking, it would take a few more months to finalize on Earth, but that was it.  And for the life of her, Queen Lady Serenity wasn't sure how to approach this child. She wasn't like anyone she'd ever met.  She was far too still, too quiet, and showed little to no emotion on her face as she stared up at her. 

It was times like this that she wished her father or mother were still around.  Two decades ago, they had vanished along with their court. The only ones that were left were Sailor Pluto and Sailor Saturn.  Pluto had returned to the Time Gate, for whatever reason even though she was no longer bound to that station and Saturn had returned to her mother star going into a deep sleep until she was needed.   Lady Serenity hadn't even time to plead with her old friends when they decided to do this.  Eventually, she had consoled herself with the notion she could still visit either one and that she still had the Amazoness Quartet and her husband Helios at her side.  

But it would never be the same. 

And they would know how to approach this girl.  She thought to herself before finally approaching the small child.  She stooped to her level, noticing now that the girl was actually paying close attention to her.  It was interesting, in a way.  Perhaps she was curious?

"Hello," She offered a smile, "What's your name?"

A long silence stretched between them. Long enough that Lady Serenity wondered if the child was mute as well. Until finally, the girl folded her arms across her chest and knelt down on both knees, bowing her head. 

"It is an honor to make your acquaintance."  Her voice high and too childish for the very courteous greeting, "I am the second princess and second in line for the throne of Kinmoku, Princess Steorra. It is a pleasure to meet you, Queen Lady Serenity of the Silver Millennium."

The words sounded foreign to Lady Serenity's ears coming from her. It could also be the girl seemed to have trouble saying 'millennium' as well. That was fine.   Lady Serenity continued her smile and offered her hand, "Come now, you don't need to stay like that.  This place will be your new home, Princess Steorra and I hope you will consider it so, too."

Steorra said nothing to that, her head rose to meet the woman's gaze. It seemed like the child was evaluating her, which was rather odd but whatever Steorra decided must've been good because she took her hand. 

"Now then," Lady Serenity said briskly, "why don't we find something delicious to snack on while we wait for dinner?  I heard that Vesta made snacks earlier."

"Vesta?"

"Yes, she's one of the sailor soldiers here and my friend."  Lady Serenity lead the girl away and down the crystal halls.  Even if she wasn't so certain about her abilities to raise a child, she figured that if her mother could do it than so could she.