Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon or the Arthurian Legends. I do, however, own Akebono and the creation of Avalon as a world in itself.

This is dedicated to Miki Chen, my best and truest friend. May we one day meet again.

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Chapter 13:

Porcelain

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She lay with the stillness of one in a deep sleep, lashes resting against her pale cheeks like a porcelain doll, fragile and delicate. Her mouth was slightly parted, paling lips giving the semblance of breath.

He was rocking her now, swaying back and forth in imitation of a mother and her child-or a child and her imitation infant, a parody of a life trapped within china skin and dainty hands, a child's doll-and the gentle rocking gave her body the appearance of movement, a sick parody of life and motility in her still features devoid of all pain and love, only a dried trail of salt remained on her pale cheeks. The heat of the room gave her skin a mocking glow, all the more painful for its artificialness. Her head was thrown back, pale throat exposed as he buried his face within the softness of her shoulder and the crook of her neck, and his indistinct mumbles were muffled by both the soft skin he gently nuzzled and the nearly transparent silver mist.

Sailor Moon watched in horror from her position on the floor, eyes surprisingly dry as she tried to process the image in front of her. The once silver dragon had her friend's body cradled protectively in his arms, grip firm but gentle. She looked too fragile trapped among the strong arms of the dragon, skin pale and sickly in pallor-a fake flush of color along her cheeks from the heat of the room-as compared to the dusted silver glow of Akebono's fair skin. Her thin, elegant hands lay motionless on the ground, a dark crimson stain dying the pale flesh with color and caking around her nails. Small furrows were carved in the coagulating liquid where her hands had been prodded and pulled with the rhythmic rocking motion of Akebono's lullaby. Blood, the same color as the crimson that painted her hands in a bright blush, coated his elongated canines, as well, the taste bitter-sweet in his mouth.

Like molten silver, the mist began to coalesce around the two, Makoto's skin taking on the same glittering glow as Akebono's, painfully unreal as the torchlight dissolved patches of mist around her; lips blue, cheeks warm with golden fire light, and cold hands dragging through the congealing blood, her blood. And still the mist was flooding the room, expanding and growing until it became so thick that one could not see the nose at the end of their face. Akebono continued rocking, stirring the silver mist into whirling currents.

The cool moisture of the mist had snuffed the last remnants of flames within the room, and the senshi sat huddled together, grasping and groping for one another in the silver darkness as the mist clung to the faces like tears.

The anxious pawing of the dragons could be heard along the outer edges, taloned claws scraping along stone ground. An occasional flash of blue within the silver gave away their nervous pacing. The red queen was moving effortlessly through the mist, smoke curling from the flames sprouting from her mouth as she stepped towards Akebono and his precious burden. She stood above them then, the angry heat radiating from her body vaporizing the mist in a circle around mother and son.

"Put that filthy creature down, Akebono, and look around you. They are conquered, these humans, and you still mourn for an animal." Akebono stiffened at her words, rocking stilled as his hands clenched spasmodically within Makoto's hair and dress, caressing her icy skin with care.

"How dare you," he began, voice little more than a whisper, yet head still bowed and eyes staring sightlessly. "She is my soulmate... my other half... She did not deserve this, nor your scorn. I was blinded, and she payed the price. Do not *dare* tell me how I must feel for my mate, mother, when you have spent every last waking moment since father's death mourning him. There is no difference." Akebono bowed his head further, burrowing his nose into the soft mane of her hair as he rubbed his cheek against hers. "I want her back," voice quiet and muffled with pain. Then, Akebono's head snapped up suddenly.

"I will have her back. She is *mine*! And no one will take her from me. Not you sister, nor senshi, nor even you mother." He stood now, a half demented, crazed look in his eyes, complementing the same emptiness that pervaded his mother's eyes with a deadly look. Nothing left to lose, and everything left to gain. Makoto was still clutched tightly in his arms, blood running in rivulets down his arms as beads of the crimson liquid dropped to make tiny ripples in the thick pool on the floor. Her mouth was slightly parted, and Akebono bent down to kiss her cold lips, his pale skin looking vibrant next to the dull blue.

"... mine..." A pained whisper that further kindled the crazed fire in his eyes. "Mine!" The cry escalated, "Mine, and I *will* have her back. Give. Her. Back. Now!" His eyes were swirling with the same turbulent emotions as in his voice, and the mist picked up the passion. A low, keening lament rose among the mountain, filling and gliding the stone corridors as the mist did now. A ring of louder, fuller sound surrounded them, the noise coming from the continuous cry of the blue dragons as they responded to their prince's plea. The sound cloaked the entire mountain.

And the mist danced, reacting to both the sorrowful cry and torrid emotions swirling in Akebono's depths - dead, dull eyes dancing with fluid pain. The mist began to take on that quality, a broiling, seething mass of swirling, dancing, and cavorting silver mist, a weightless liquid.

First it cloaked Akebono's mother, and the startled cry she gave was choked off before it fully escaped. The senshi were devoured next, the liquid air wrapping around the bodies with the same fluid dance, barely touching but cooling with the same icy touch as Makoto's skin. Chouka was swallowed with the elf, Leysheynir, and the gandharva, Apsara, as the liquid caressed along their skin, delving into every crevice and gap, filling each with its wet cold.

A swirling funnel began to form, a whirlpool of the silver mist, as it spun faster and freer around the two left standing in the center. Akebono's eyes were no longer open, head bowed as though in prayer above the still form of the brunette in his arms, while Makoto's dull, jaded eyes stared straight and sightless upwards as the funnel condensed further around the middle. The dragon prince and his Jovian princess stood obscured and hidden among the storm's eye. Only the blue dragons remained unaffected by the swirling mist, oblivious to all but their cry, the reverberating howls that trapped the silver mist within the room. The keening cries that blossomed within the mountain rose in a crescendo, merging and transforming into a single, stricken wail.

The storm was silent outside the stone.

***

She found herself swimming, floating in a gray void. The waters were thick and heavy like blood, but had a fluidity to them resembling quicksilver but with none of its opaqueness. A transparent silver fog that danced like mercury. There was no air, no life, only the liquid gray nothingness. No bubbles escaped her mouth when she opened it; she was not breathing.

The mercurial waters swirled around her, spinning her body in their currents until her green dress twirled unnaturally around her. The fabric dipped and paused as though snagging on unseen obstacles in a macabre dance that Makoto was forced to follow, her own movements reflecting the disjointedness.

From the quicksilver liquid, a distant shape began to form. Indistinct at first, the translucent gray obscured its form, allowing her to see the approaching figure, but not to discern who or what it was. The gray liquid felt almost like the mist against her skin; it had a airy quality, an oppressive thickness that clung to her body, but a translucent sheen as well, suspended light in a fogged gray world.

The figure moved with the slow, graceful rising and dipping of a bird in flight, the waters swirling around her in response to the movement. The shape continued to grow in her vision until, suspend before her, was a creature of great size, not nearly as large as the dragons she had encountered, but not as small as a human either. Only one of its indistinct wing was as long as she was tall.

The clear, gray mercury stilled in the silence as the two figures stared at one another. Never before had Makoto seen anything like it. Its figure was indistinct, always changing and shifting but still retaining a vague outline. With its movements and fluid shape, Makoto was left with the impression of a bird. The wings at its sides continually changed, first spread wide as though in flight before coalescing into stockier limbs, then folding and disappearing altogether along the side of its body. Tails and spikes and claws and fur rearranged and reformed themselves countless ways along the contorting body. Sometimes serpentine and sometimes feline, the figure still somehow always gave off the faint feeling of being bird-like, capable of flight in any of its numerous definitions. Makoto decided that it was because of the mist.

The creature's very essence was air, although cold and clammy, the ever changing shape was eerily reminiscent of air, an ineffable, indefinable quality to it that could only be described as aerial. And its very body was made of the same mist that coated Avalon, silver and reflective and oddly at home in the gray, mercurial ocean.

Then a noise like that of a whispering wind brushed past Makoto's ear, but the water did not stir. And suddenly, Makoto understood. She knew what had been said to her despite the fact that the words were more of nature and air rather than an actual language.

This was Enmu. This *was* the mist. This was a god.

The mist began to move forward then, its shape shifting one last time before it began to solidify. Bat-like wings stretched outward as its neck elongated. Still the mist moved with the quiet grace of a bird, although decidedly more predatory and raptor-like now. The silver of the mist reflected brightest from its eyes, and Makoto found she could not look away. Soon all she knew was mist, and all she could taste was the moist air as the silver mist dragon dove inside of her.

She gasped once, loudly, and inhaled.

***

He was still rocking, sliding back and forth with the singular intensity of the insane. His arms were still cradled, now clutching desperately at his own body as the lifeless china doll he had been rocking before was gone from his embrace. The senshi were floating around him, staring in horror at the shifting, thick gray waters that encompassed them, their expressions resembling anguished pain more closely than fear.

The red queen had shrunk from her draconic form, body molding into a distorted parody of a human. Ruby colored scales still dotted her leathery skin, and her limbs appeared more reptilian in fashion than in the normal human form dragons could take. Her hind legs bent at unnatural angles where they met in joints while her hair appeared coarse and scaly atop her head, more like spines rather than soft hair. Her body looked vicious and virulent and with the lurid mix of human and dragon shapes in a mismatched array, there was no subtle seduction or temptation in her deadliness.

Akebono looked much the same as his mother now, gray water turning his silver scales into a shining beacon of fear, crazed and demonic in his appearance, and no longer the beautiful elf-like creature. The senshi stood back horrified, looking like angels next to the fallen. They wore dresses made of their elements, fire wreathed Eos while moonlight turned Serenity into a glowing shard amidst the gray, and Endymion was cloaked in the scent of roses and earth as well as a golden, growing warmth. Chouka floated in the gray world peacefully, an inner light shining from her now old face, wrinkles marring the skin but making her no less appealing. Leysheynir shone with the quiet elegance and natural beauty of the forest, while Apsara's appearance took the same drastic, combining change of the dragons. Now he was neither hideous nor beautiful, he was a mixture with plain, but kind features, mottled gray wings and clicking talons on his feet, face strong, but not un-handsome. Setsuna, appearing ageless within the obscurity of the swirling darkness that surrounded her, stood resolutely by his side. The tears falling down Serenity's cheeks formed crystal shards that burst into fine dust when they fell from her face. The gray water sparkled with her sadness.

The steady, keening wail of countless dragons still arose from the depths of the quicksilver liquid, but an answering whisper had spread throughout the waters. A sad, trembling note that began to stir that waters within Akebono's empty arms.

At first, it was only a small pinpoint of light, but as the windy whisper grew into a whistling gale, it became brighter. Separating into two burning embers of silver, a mist began to swirl away from the light, expanding into an indefinite shape within the cradle of Akebono's arms. The wind was roaring now, creating a tempest amidst the gray. Then the mist began to wail, the painful, anguished sound of a tormented soul, and still Akebono continued rocking.

Light began to diffuse from the two glowing silver orbs, stretching along the interior of the shapeless mist, clear and colorless at first until it began to shift and seethe, a roiling mass of turbulent light. The edges softened first, paling into a soft jade, but slowly it all began to brighten, the light increasing in intensity as the inner fire burned emerald, coloring the silver of the mist with green light. The wail changed pitches, becoming more of a keening, wavering note of longing and need, sad and beautiful in its soft call. The emerald color flashed in all of their eyes, blinding them with its intensity.

As the light faded, Akebono stilled his rocking. A weight rested comfortably in his arms, and Makoto blinked open impossibly bright emerald eyes.

The wind whispered un-words to them once again, and they found their eyes drawn to a figure floating indefinable above them. The shifting, amorphous mist, silver shining from its depths. But now, shifting with its shape, were colors, alternately reflected from its skin. The shapeless form appeared almost metallic, its outermost mist reflecting red, blue, green, a deep rich brown, a dark, pitch black, and a burning gold. Silver shone from beneath the shifting colors of the dragons, pulsing at the heart of the mist, and within its eyes burned a deep, radiating green emerald, twin embers of flashing gems. The shape solidified one last time, becoming serpentine with spines trailing down its back and wisps of mist trailing from its square jaw. Mist arced along its sides and around its head, resembling a halo of leaping, silver lightning bolts.

"... Arashi," Makoto whispered longing, staring at the Chinese dragon with emerald eyes before she once again slumped into Akebono's arms. The silver mist of the dragon dispersed into the thick liquid as Makoto's emerald eyes slid shut. Silver stars, the shimmering dust of the spreading mist, hung suspended around the group in the gray waters. Two stars began to glow brighter than their companions, now burning like twin emeralds, shining from the center of the group of senshi and bathing the gray world in green light as the wail of the blue dragons faded into oblivion. The quicksilver world fell away, dissolving into a blinding flash of emerald light..

***

"Beautiful, isn't it." And she could not help but agree with the softly spoken statement. The sky was amazingly clear, stars dotting the backdrop of black in an endless blanket of twinkling light. Millions upon millions of lights decorated the sky in an unrecognizable pattern, creating foreign pictures in their constellations and nearly lighting the ground with their weak light multiplied countless times by sheer numbers. The great expanse of the trees stretched out before her, singing in perfect harmony a low lullaby for the slumbering forest as night serenaded her from below. And without the harsh artificial, neon glow of city lights, the world seemed eternal. The sky stretched straight to the horizon, never stopping, with lights glowing as far as the eye could see, sinking below a dim outline of towering oaks. Vast and unbounded and looking as though the heavens were no longer merely a window, no longer a barrier, but an inky blackness that stretched forever in all directions. Black trees merging with a black night while stars hung suspended within reach, as though if she were to sprout wings, she could cup the light in her hands.

"It's cold though. Come on, why don't you come inside." Yes, very cold, a cold impersonal beauty. Because no matter how far she stretched out her hand, she could never catch one of the diamond stars, and she would certainly never grow wings of her own. The moon hung lonely surrounded by winking stars, seeming abnormal and oddly alone where it hung. Vast compared to a single star, but small and insignificant when their multitude blinked at the white satellite from their endless canopy of pitch.

"Mako-chan..." The tone was plaintive and pitying, and Makoto found she hated that voice now more than anything else. She just wanted to be left with the moon. No one else seemed to want him or want to keep him company. She understood that.

"Mako-chan, you can't stay out here another night," and then as though it pained the voice to say the next words, she plunged in breathlessly. "He's not... he won't... you have to accept... oh Mako-chan!" And the voice transmuted into a chorus of broken sobs, its pain drawn from Makoto's own, and Makoto watched the sky impassively, only her eyes clouding with emotion until they swirled a darkened forest green, appearing nearly black in the twilight. It seemed as though the moon could not find the energy to pierce the cloaking darkness with its white glow.

The patter of footsteps running up the stairs caused Makoto to twitch lightly, but she gave no other indication she had heard the sound, even when the figure made its presence known.

"Oh, Usagi... stop you blubbering. And Makoto... stop this nonsense. It's too cold for you to stay up here. At least if your going to keep staring into nothing, you can do it on the ground where the wind isn't so harsh as it is on the battlements." Haruka's tone appeared admonishing, but the color of worry tainted her words. More footsteps sounded on the tower's stairs and soon the narrow walkway along the battlements was filled with senshi.

"Mako-chan," one voice implored softly, "Why don't you come inside. We've got a nice fire going in the room."

"You're wasting away, Mako-chan..."

"She's had her heart broken, and by her soul mate nonetheless... she's allowed a little wasting."

"Well she can't just stay out here. She'll catch her death."

"No she won't." Stated calmly, factually.

"Oh, so now you decide to speak O Great Mistress of Time... hmm? Where were you earlier when we were trying to figure out-"

"Stop fighting! No more fighting! ... I'm so tired of fighting."

"Oh don't you start again, Odango Atama. As if we don't have enough problems on our hands."

"No, Rei... like Usagi said: 'No more fighting.' We've other... situations we need to deal with at the moment."

"Situations? Deal with? You can't just suddenly make love go away. Like they say: 'Love is deaf.' So it doesn't listen to commands."

"... enough."

"That's not even the right quote," followed by a frustrated yell.

"Now, now. No need to be acting so childish."

"What is it with you and calling everyone you meet 'childish'?"

"Enough."

"I don't call everyone I meet 'childish,' only those that really deserve it."

A delicate snort and then a voice laden with sarcasm. "Yes, and that word certainly applies to me, the ageless guardian of time."

"Well, if-"

"Would you two stop it. We've got more important things to do right now."

"Yes, she's right. Like heal a broken heart. It'll take a little work and a lot of time, but as long as we're supportive and-"

"ENOUGH! I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself, thank you. And I am standing right in front of you by the way. No need to talk as if I deaf, and Minako... 'Love is blind' by the way." A noise of protest was silenced as Makoto turned her stormy green eyes onto her friends. An emerald light pulsed steadily from within her clenched fist.

"Yes, Usagi-chan, I realize that Ake probably isn't going to come. And yes, it is cold out here. But right now I could care less. From up here I could see a dragon approaching on the horizon for miles, especially a silver one in the darkness." Makoto seemed to deflate suddenly, her anger ballooning and then collapsing in on itself, and she was left sounding very weary and very alone.

"Just please, leave me alone for one more night. Go back inside and sleep. We're leaving tomorrow anyway. It's just one more night... I want to be here just in case... I know he's probably not coming. Not after all that's happened. All that we've heard... but... just let me hope a little more... a little longer... just one more night."

"One more night will make it all the harder to leave tomorrow morning, Mako-chan," Setsuna informed her gently.

"Is he not coming then?" Makoto asked the Guardian of Time, vision clouded and hollow. Setsuna pressed her lips into a firm line, lines of age momentarily marring her timeless face.

When the silence stretched for several minutes, Makoto once again turned her face to the sky. "Just one more night," she pleaded, her voice barely a whisper, and sounding small and broken in the clear night air. "That's all I want... one more night..." And Setsuna was not so sure that she was only talking about waiting on the battlements, "I promise I'll return with you in the morning... no matter what happens in the night."

Several of her friends looked ready to protest, mouths opening as their eyes narrowed, but Usagi beat them all to it.

"Alright, Mako-chan. We'll give you the night here. And then tomorrow morning... we go home."

"Thank you" was the quiet reply, and the senshi descended quietly following their princess into the castle.

Makoto stood on the edge of the parapet, a green crystal lying bare on the stone was glowing a soft green hue, and her hands were clutched around the edges of the battlements. The stars continued to twinkle benignly from around the silent moon, their whispers trailing in the night.

The trees were quiet other than the occasional slumbering murmur, and a nightingale sang from somewhere within their lofty branches. All around her, the night blossomed like a slowly unfurling bud, revealing the secrets treasured inside.

Makoto, however, paid it no mind as she watched the stars slowly dim and fade and the moon sink lower and lower in the lightening sky until only stars remained to keep Makoto company. Soon, they too began to dim and a faint blush spread along the treetops at the horizon. The sun was rising in a wash of gray light, but there was surprisingly no fog decorating the trees. The mist had fled the forest long before night began.

Makoto turned away before the sun crested the trees, but even in her mind, she could still see the vibrant pale blue shining before her. Haunting and teasing her as her mind morphed the color into swimming pools of molten sapphire flame, kind and loving and gone as was the moon, disappearing without so much as a whisper.

And the blue sun rose still higher, heralding a new day, and an end to the eternal night with its diamond stars. The trees stirred in a breeze, waking and singing a good morning to their neighbors.

But Makoto heard none of it. She sat hunched, her side along the wall and her knees drawn to her face while her arms loosely encircled her legs, trying desperately to block out the pale blue color of the sun. Makoto longed for a storm and the dreary cover of gray clouds it would bring. The blue was too painful, too real, and too unreachable; it reminded her too much of a pair of hauntingly, achingly familiar eyes, a swirling pool of brilliant blue lined in silver.

***

A pair of men wearing dark blue robes stood by, idly chatting and looking for all the world like two men on a coffee break, or at least they would have, thought Makoto, except for the finely woven silk they wore with lines of silver thread running down the robes like strands of mercury.

They both turned as one with the sound of the senshi and their companions approaching, and upon seeing them, quickly dropped down to one knee. Usagi sighed tiredly beside her, already weary of telling the people they had run across since their mysterious return yesterday to "stand up" that "there's no reason to kneel."

Chouka stepped forward quickly, pulling the men to their feet and barking orders at them to consecrate the ground and prepare themselves for the Gate Summoning. Makoto stared listlessly at the spot they had quickly begun to chant over, remembering the feel of the grass as she had lain there and the moans that had woken her. They were summoning the Gates between Avalon and Earth directly on the place where the senshi had woken up the two days ago, disoriented and confused, wondering if the battle in the mountain and the mist's resurrection of Makoto had only been a dream. The phantom pains that still throbbed in her body where her soulmate's teeth had shorn her muscles and flesh told Makoto otherwise.

Their mismatched group was standing silent a good distance from the magi who were still chanting and now waving their arms in intricate circles. Leysheynir and Apsara were standing in the midst of the group, wrapped heavily in scarfs and trench coats that Minako had pulled from her dimensional pocket, promising them that if they wanted to enter Tokyo incognito, this was the way to do it. Haruka had snickered, but hadn't bother to correct her. The rest of the senshi were dressed in a spare change of clothes that they kept in their own interdimensional pockets, and were now arranged somberly in a loose group. Most kept sending wary glances towards Makoto as though they were afraid a single word were cause her collapse.

Kochi's King and Queen were both looking very uncomfortable as they alternately took turns looking at Makoto and the rest of the senshi. Toshinokou stood just to the right of the queen, fidgeting nervously with his garments. Delicately clearing her throat and showing a timidity that she hadn't when she had been arguing with her full-grown dragon brother, Chouka took a single step forward.

Makoto found herself hating the way her friends were walking on eggshells around her, the pity that shone with every muted gesture or word.

"My Beautiful Friends, oh I cannot begin to thank you enough for all you have done for my Kingdom, for all of Avalon. The mist has not been seen since our return yesterday from the mountain. And with its return deeper into Avalon, the dragons too have retreated, following their dragon prince. You have truly saved my people... our people.

"It's the least we could do to send you home... I wish there was more we could do, something you would allow us to do in return for all that you have done for us-"

"I didn't do it with you in mind." Everyone froze as soon as Makoto had begun to speak, and the silence pressed in around them as they turned their heads slowly towards her with the sluggish gestures of someone moving through water. Makoto had her head turned away, watching the distant horizon while she was speaking. "I didn't protect Usagi from Ake to save Kochi's royalty. I didn't give my life for Avalon." Now she turned and looked at the odd gaggle of people gathered around her. "I serve only one princess, only one kingdom. I have only one duty that I follow above all else... above even love.

"Oh no, Chouka-sama. I did not do this for you or even for the innocent people in this kingdom. Had it not been for my duty to my princess and my friends... No. I did not lose my soulmate for you. Know that, and remember it because you will never see me again."

Chouka's mouth worked loosely for several seconds, and the senshi that were used to the way Makoto spoke her mind without thought to the consequences looked less shocked than just pained. Kochi's queen looked as though she'd finally reclaimed her speech, and her anger as well, when a shadow fell across the castle. A frown crossed her face at the second interruption, but quickly disappeared as everyone turned to the source of the shade.

Flooding the sky and blocking all but a dim outline was a cloud of silver mist that stretched from one side of the horizon clear to the opposite. Makoto's breath caught in her throat.

The air hung cold and clear around them as the mist descended from the sky until it coated the entire forest and the castle with its heady weight. Makoto shivered, but not from the cool mist that clung like a comforting blanket to her skin.

Above, shouts and cries of panic were heard along the battlements, and then a sound Makoto did not think she would ever hear again echoed discordantly in the mist. The steady thrum of leathery wings was slowly descending through the gray. She could hear arrows whistling through the air and watched as one was swallowed, shaft, feather, sound, and all by a swirling column of mist that accompanied the great silver body slowly floating downward. He landed with a soft thump that was muffled by the thick fog. Cries went up all around the castle, but Enmu seemed to prevent anyone from moving, from doing anything more than yelling in a crazed panic. Makoto stood motionless, although she was sure that she alone was allowed free movement. The senshi around her were struggling with invisible bonds, both those of Enmu and those that made them wonder whether Akebono, Makoto's soulmate, was her enemy or not. He had hurt her, but because of him, Enmu had also resurrected her.

Silence hung within the mist like a wreath, a fragrant and fragile bell of blossoms. But then Akebono took another step forward, and Makoto took a reflexive, unconscious step backwards. Akebono, watching her instinctive retreat, slumped forward, his massive body losing all its strength and power in the single action.

"Oh, Mako... Enmu, what have I done? Oh my dear, dear Mako... I'm sorry... I'm so very, very sorry." His voice sounded brokenly in the courtyard, being swallowed by Enmu before it had the chance to echo mockingly around him.

"Sorry can't be enough this time, Ake," Makoto said softly, although everyone heard her words, words that she had not meant to say, but that had escaped before the thousand other things she wanted to yell, whisper, laugh, and cry.

Akebono sank further into himself at her words. "I know, but for now... it's all I have to give."

"Then it's a start." There was no hope in her voice, merely the pained allowance that love often forces.

"No, it's a new beginning. The yuugiri clan is no more. The oldest clan, the Clan of the Evening Mist, is gone. Mother never left Enmu after... after he saved you. She rejoined him as all dragons do when they tire of life. It truly was long past her time. She lived centuries more than most dragons do after losing their mate... I am the new clan's King now, Asamoya's King, leader to the Clan of the Morning Mist. We're beginning again. And we've retreated now. Gone far into Avalon where only the most ancient, the most powerful dwell. Enmu follows me, and so too will all dragons. Soon only one clan will exist among all of us, all dragons will belong to one clan, Asamoya, and one clan alone, and soon, I will rule them all, every single dragon."

"Why are you telling me this, Ake. Why are you telling me that you're going to be trapped forever in Avalon while I must return alone to Earth." Akebono's eyes swirled with the same depth and breadth of emotions that forced Makoto's voice to crack and break.

"You'll live a long, nearly immortal life as a Senshi, Mako. And I... I will live as long as I choose. I could rule this clan as long as I choose... but... I would not live long without my soulmate... I came here Mako to ask you to stay, to be my Queen. No, don't say anything. You don't have to because I realize now how stupid that was of me. You gave your life for your princess... and I took it. That is not a duty taken lightly... nor is the debt I owe you. That is why, Mako, my dear beautiful Mako, that I have a proposition for you now. I have no right to you any longer... but I wish to... one day. So, I give you this chance, to decide on it as you will.

"I will rule over the single clan of Dragon Brethren, and as their King we shall come into an era where Dragons and Humans live maybe not as friends, and certainly not as enemies, but as allies. Beginning with the humans in the Kingdom of Kochi, if they are willing, and... my sister... my human sister. I will bring Dragons and Humans together as allies in my time as ruler, and my successor will see them brought together as friends. When this is done (and most likely it will not be accomplished for many more centuries since dragons are long-lived and do not forget so easily), when humans and dragons can coexist, then Makoto, I ask you to allow me... to allow us... to try to be together once again."

"Ake..." Makoto breathed out, her voice both awed and pained. Akebono quickly began to speak again before she had the chance to continue.

"It won't be for many, many long years Mako. And when it is eventually done, when that day finally comes that we see each other again... you can always turn me away... just, just give me this chance at redemption. Let me attempt to atone for all the wrongs I've done to you. I... I'd vowed long ago that I would never betray a soulmate... please, let me just do this to allow my soul to rest in peace. Eternity is a long time, Mako. Longer still when you have to wait nearly an eternity for that final, eternal slumber to begin."

Makoto breathed in deeply and closed her eyes, as though trying to memorize the moment and all its sights and smells while she thought. "How long? How long do I have to forget?"

Akebono's expression was an odd mixture of relief, anguish, and joy as he answered. "At least a millennia, most likely far more. You'll have a long time to forget, but together... if you'll have me... we'll have even longer to remember."

"Bring peace to Avalon, Ake... and then we'll see." She turned and looked at the still motionless Chouka, although it was obvious from the tense position of her limbs that she could move now if she wished. "Tell them to open the Gate, Chouka-sama. I think it's time we go."

Chouka jerked suddenly, as only just waking from a deep slumber, and sluggishly blinked as though sleep still clouded her eyes.

"No need to waste your magi's power, Chouka-sama... sister, Enmu will open the Gates himself." Chouka's jaw worked soundlessly for the second time.

And suddenly there was a hum as though the very air was charging itself with energy, and then a large crack that rent earth and air. The ground rumbled and loose pebbles fell from the tall, gray stone walls of Kochi. Then, with a surge of the ground beneath their feet and a fountain of rock and dirt that sent a spray of earth into the air until it disappeared within the very heights of Enmu, a gate wrought of gold with creeping vines of jade trailing up the thin metal bars rose from the geysers of earth, drawing itself upward with the same calm solidarity in the face of chaos that it appeared to be an eye in the midst of a storm. The Gate itself was shaped into an arch, a doorway that stretched nearly two stories tall and stood wide enough for a dragon to walk comfortably between with relaxed, folded wings. The solid silver crest now shone more brightly in the light reflecting from the mist, and the Gate, now highlighted in the dim light of Avalon's sun, did not appear to have the same frightening, hellish facade it had carried under Earth's harsh sunlight. Even the entwined dragons, frozen in carved relief during the middle of their great battle, appeared less grotesque with the soft light setting a gentle glow on their intricately carven figures and scales.

Makoto began to walk towards them immediately, knowing if she turned and saw Akebono's luminous, pale blue eyes, she might never leave.

"Wait! One last gift... one last remembrance, Mako." And Makoto prayed to all the gods she could remember that he would not ask for a kiss. Because it would become a kiss that she would never end. Suddenly, Makoto wondered where the teasing of her friends was at this opportune time, but as she turned and looked at their silent, solemn faces, she found only concern and love. Both solely for her, and so Makoto straightened and drew strength from them. Not only remembering her duty to her princess as she faced Akebono, but also her love for Usagi, for her friend.

He quickly took her hand in his as he approached her, looking deep into her eyes, and their vision locked until emotions flashed between them like molten energy. Makoto felt her eyes finally tear from his, fluttering closed as she waited from the soft touch of his lips to hers.

She was oddly disappointed and cold as he backed away with a feather light caress to her cheek. She opened her eyes and did not even register as she touched her one empty hand to her cold lips forlornly. She took a step backwards and plunged into icy waters before she had a chance to think, because she knew, with the same intensity and instinct that allowed her to transform, that if she had taken a step forward, her duty would have been damned.

Makoto stumbled backwards, landing harshly on the green ground and hearing the now foreign plants picking up a musical, curious chatter at hers and the Gate's sudden appearance. Slowly she curled her legs beneath her just as she noticed her clenched fist.

Senshi began to tumble from the Gate haphazardly and silently, still watching their friend uncertainly. With Haruka's first step on the grass of the now seemingly restored park, the great Gates of Avalon swung shut with the roar of a rushing wind. As the twin dragons clicked back into place and begun again their timeless battle, a gentle clang echoed like the claxon of the final bell through the forest, and the trees fell silent.

In the silence, Makoto opened her palm. Nestled within was a shifting dollop of silver mist that, once free of its confines, begin to swirl upwards in a miniature tornado. Forming first into a thin stem, thorns sprouting outwards like curved swords, the airy silver then began to swell outwards until the rough outline of a rose bud could be seen. Color began to bulge from beneath, joining the swirling patterns and mixing with the gray until the entire flower was awash with the rainbow. Then the swirling colors began to drift, draining up into the cusp of the bud at the very tip until it formed a bright point of white light, the rest of the bud and stem left stained in gray.

Suddenly, a single petal unfurled, its edges lined in white light, then as though that were the signal, another petal followed, edged in light as well. And suddenly a cascade had begun, petals falling like rain to the ground or swirling around her body now with the cool, watery breeze of misty air, the loose petals glowing as bright as Earth's sun and seeming to multiply from one another as the flower itself continued to unfurl into a large sunny blossom. A drop of radiant nectar began to glow as it slid slowly down the white lined petals until, with all the careful progress of a recently reborn butterfly spreading and drying its wings, the drop hit the rose's center. White light burst from the rose and Makoto felt Akebono's phantom caress on her cheek.

As the light receded, Makoto left her eyes closed, ignoring gasps from her friends and the two newly acquired companions. She could feel the rose in her hands and knew from its velvety softness and unnatural warmth that it was no longer the cool, impersonal gray. But with her eyes closed, Makoto could almost believe she was back in the cave, that the rain was falling around her once again and Akebono's pale blue eyes were staring back at her with such intensity, such longing, such passion. Her eyes snapped open abruptly, losing the vision and blinking rapidly to try and forget the own emotions that memory stirred within her.

Then the rose caught her eye. The stem was a brilliant emerald hue, sparkling and burning with the same fiery passion that Makoto often saw in the mirror, her own dangerous beauty that Akebono had described to her trapped within the smooth stem and large leaf of the flower. And in the blossom itself, Makoto found molten passion, a color so deep and rich and full bodied that the petals appeared to sink in on themselves until they swirled around a black hole that disappeared into eternity, a never ending depth with a swimming pool surrounding it in an ever widening swirl of petals of a familiar, beautiful pale blue color.

Makoto's breath caught in her throat, and, almost mirroring Akebono's actions from the cave, Makoto unconsciously brought the velvet petal to her lips, feeling the brush of it across the sensitive tissue and reliving a memory.

Akebono's voice whispered in her ear as she clutched the rose tighter, until it glowed with the green of her power, keeping it eternally young and alive, at least until Akebono came to reclaim the rose and replace the gift he had given her.

The wind danced lightly, carrying the sweet fragrance of winter blossoms with it through the park, but Makoto had ears only for the whispered words the pale blue blossom allowed her and only her to hear. A promise and a plea.

"I dreamed once of a storm trapped in a human shell.

It was a dangerous beauty that sang a siren's death knell.

And in this dream, this beautiful storm-child of might,

Was searching for her lost wings, to once again spread in flight..

"And so it was, in this dream, that I happened by,

And this storm I loved and thus released into the sky.

But now I must watch, trapped on the ground below.

Always waiting, always hoping, for a chance to follow.

"But in this dream of mine, what hope have I,

Of catching this angel soaring in star-crossed sky.

"Then suddenly I woke from my troubled sleep,

Realizing how lost I am in these sorrows I reap

For I have no hope, no chance now of flying,

Not with the wounds I've caused you, your sad eyes crying,

"I lost that which I held dear,

And laid you out on mist soaked bier,

Death I gave to you in Waking,

Life I gave to you in Forsaking,

"In my dreams I let you fly,

And you were happy while I stood by,

So now I wait and watch and slave

Until one day when I may brave

This dream that I once had and lost

So that perhaps, after I've paid the cost

Of these wrongs I have done to you,

Perhaps then we'll start anew.

"For I know, only then will my angel I'll find,

Not lost, nor trapped, nor alone... But mine."

And Makoto smiled.

And thus I dreamed of a misty realm,

And in my slumber, deep I fell,

Until at dawn I did awake

To find the err of my dream state,

For it was not in waking that I lost my dream,

But in my dreaming where I'd lost myself.

Wake up now,

The Dream is done,

The Mist has fled,

So thus ends now,

My lie in this flowered bed.

~Juno

Author's Notes:

Yes, it's a bitter-sweet ending, but I wouldn't have ended it any other way. If I get enough requests (*cough* *cough* death threats *cough*), I may consider posting an epilogue. But I'd really been planning on kind of leaving the ending open so that you can draw your own happy endings. Because there's no guarantee that an epilogue would be any happier (although if I were to be honest with you, it would most likely involve a happy beginning - because I'm not going to provide an ending for this couple).

Tell me what you think, but one thing's for sure, now that this is over, you definitely haven't seen the last of me. I'm not sure where future interests will lie as college is swiftly approaching, but for now, I'll soon be posting two stories simultaneously. I don't know how well that's going to work, but maybe you'll see faster updates (*snort* yeah right), but hey! you never know.

Until our next meeting my faithful readers and reviewers, enjoy!

Hope you enjoyed the ride. It's truly been a blast!

Oh, and be sure to E-mail or im me, I'd be happy to talk with someone. I have msn instant messenger now, and I'd love to get to know some of you guys better. It's been so much fun, it's almost a shame to see it end. I love you all! You truly don't realize how much you mean to me. This story and its reviewers were sometimes the only thing that kept me going on some days. I'll never be able to thank all of you enough for what you've done for me.

Love always and much thanks for all your support through my trying times,

Juno