PRETTY SOLDIER SAILOR MOON: FUTURE

Chapter 68: The Hyena's Laugh

As Zarnik continued to absorb Upala's negative emotions and energies that she derived from Eris, a green aura resembling a savage hyena's head surrounded her body momentarily. Upala clenched her teeth and growled in sheer fury, unable to understand what was happening. Chibi-Moon was equally in awe of Zarnik awakening her power as a Chaotic Descendant, and was afraid of what would happen to her should she absorb too much dark energy. Once she finished gathering Upala's dark energy, Zarnik stood perfectly still for several seconds, brandishing the corrupted Holy Blade. Her calm, glowing green eyes were transfixed on Upala.

They scowled at each other for a long while, waiting for one to make the first move.

Then the two warriors jerked simultaneously and flew high into the sky. To Chibi-Moon's perspective, Upala looked like a streak of beautiful colored pinkish light, while Zarnik resembled a dark green comet that chased her prey. The two completely opposite colors smashed against each other in wild pursuit, leaving sparks of energy behind with each clash. Upala fervently shot dozens of brilliant projectiles from her whip, but Zarnik sliced through each one with little effort.

Then they dove straight for each other and collided, turning the battle from throwing physical attacks into a struggle of wills. The bright pink and dark green auras intensified as each Sailor Soldier fought to overcome the other.

"Give it up, Sailor Zarnik!" Upala demanded. "I am Alkima's queen! A malevolent wretch like you could never hope to defeat me!"

"You're the one who is wretched!" Zarnik retorted. "The more you greedily pine for ultimate power, the more you feed the darkness that strengthens me!"

"UUUUUHH!!" Upala grunted as she realized she was slowly being engulfed by the darkness. "Why is this happening!? Why does a Sailor Soldier wield the power of Chaos!? All Sailor Soldiers represent Cosmos, the greatest force of Order!"

"If you don't get it now, then you're doomed to ponder that question for all of eternity! HYAAAAH!!"

During their struggled, Zarnik continued to feed on Upala's negative emotions, which gave her the strength needed to conquer her enemy. She broke through the holy barrier and struck Upala with her sword. She shot back down to the high-rise building like a giant dark arrow and landed perfectly on her feet, her body appearing darker than before. One of her eyes ominously glowed beneath her thick bangs, and she swung the corrupted Holy Blade to the side seconds before a fantastic explosion of pure darkness clouded the air where Upala was. A powerful gust of wind blew Zarnik and Chibi-Moon's clothes about.

Then Chibi-Moon saw Upala plummet onto the rooftop and land with a sickening plop. The injured woman gasped and trembled, unable to comprehend her defeat as she choked, "This... is... impossible!"

Zarnik stared at the cursed sword in her hand. After a minute of silence, Chibi-Moon tried to approach her. That was when Zarnik threw her head up, and Chibi-Moon gasped from the manic look in her fierce eyes. Then, for the first time since she landed on this world, Zarnik smiled. But it wasn't a smile expressing happiness. It was a smile of sick, demented pleasure one would see in a slasher film. That grin then turned into an angry, uncontrollable laugh.

"AH HAH HAH HAH HAH!! How pathetic! I thought you would be a real challenge, but you're nothing more than a spoiled child flailing her arms! I can't stop laughing! To think that such a weakling could destroy an entire galaxy to refashion it in her own image is just hilarious!"

"Sailor... Zarnik...?" Chibi-Moon whimpered. She didn't know it, but while Zarnik had indeed used Upala's own power against her, the consequence of using Miasma Convert was that it corroded her heart and transformed her personality into something like a mirror of her victim's.

Zarnik began to walk slowly toward the terrified Upala with the sole intent of slaughtering her. Upala gasped, "Ugh... ghhhk...! W-What are you...? What kind of... Sailor Soldier... wields... the power... of Chaos...!?"

"Oh, hello Pot, name's Kettle, have we met? HEE HEE HEE HAH HAH HAH!"

"Damn you... Don't mock me! I am... a Sailor Soldier... of pure light! I won't... lose... to the power... of pure darkness!"

"Hee hee hee hee hee! I'm sorry to say, but you already have! You still don't have any idea who Eris really is, do you!?"

"Who... Lady Eris... is...?"

"She's no Goddess of Victory. She's actually the Goddess of Discord from this galaxy! She only used you to further her own ambitions!"

Zarnik leaned over Upala and glared her straight in the eye. "That's right! The puppet master was really the puppet! Or should I say a puppet ruler!? Oh, never mind! You were only a queen in your own head! KEH HAH HAH HAH!"

"No way..." Upala clenched her teeth and sweated profusely while pressing her hand against her injury. She wanted to scream and yell at Zarnik for being a complete liar, but didn't have the strength to say anything.

"Oh, yes way!" the mad Soldier retorted and stomped her foot on Upala's head. "So you say you won't lose to the power of darkness, and yet the Goddess of Discord has been using you like her personal bitch! I was born from darkness, so I can sense when it is trying to manipulate me! You, on the other hand, are little more than a slave to it, just like I told you! Isn't that ironic!? Don't you just want to scream for mercy!? Well don't worry, because I'm gonna send you to hell for it, and you're gonna scream for ALL~LL~LL of eternity! AH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!!"

Words could not express this scene. Chibi-Moon gaped in absolute terror at Zarnik as she laughed with all of her soul, raising the tainted Holy Blade high above her. The darkness began to reflect her despair as Chibi-Moon could hear several disembodied laughs accompanying Zarnik's, as if a pack of hungry hyenas joined in mocking their dying prey.

Zarnik turned the blade around into a stabbing position, then roared, "DISAPPEAR, VERMIN!!"

"STOP II~IIT!!"

Chibi-Moon shrieked like never before as she dashed in and wrapped her arms around Zarnik's torso, holding on as tightly as she could to stop her from murdering Upala. The Silver Crystal in her brooch resonated with a powerful light that counteracted Upala's darkness which made Zarnik's mind go wild.

"Please stop it... There's no need for this... It's just too sad... Watching Sailor Soldiers kill each other..."

Gradually, the darkness surrendered to the light and retreated back into Zarnik's soul where it belonged. She regained her sanity and dropped the sword. Now that the darkness was gone, the Holy Blade reverted into its original shape and gleamed with the sacred light shining from Chibi-Moon's chest. Zarnik became quiet, and the lack of resistance meant that Chibi-Moon could let her go. All this while, Upala stared at them with mind-numbing shock.

"Chibi-Moon..." Zarnik whispered.

"Are you okay?" the princess asked.

"Yes. I'm sorry that you had to witness such a cruel scene. I allowed Upala's darkness to corrupt my personality with hers. How pathetic of me..."

"Are you back to normal now?"

"I'm all right. Your light guided me back to reality."

"Good," Chibi-Moon smiled, then both girls glared at Upala.

She had made no move to interrupt their little scene, but now that their attention was on her, she sighed, "You're lucky... Small Lady Serenity..."

"I know. I have so many people who care about me, so I do whatever I can to protect them. And yet, I can't help but feel sorry for you."

"What... do you mean...?"

"If only you had someone protecting you, you would know what this feeling is like and wanted to protect them in return. Alkima must have been such a dreadful place, and you felt like you had no choice but to survive. Deep down, you must have wanted to eliminate Alkima's sins from this universe and create a new, more peaceful world like this one. But your inability to trust others made you lose sight of the nobility of that goal and changed you into the bitter woman we fought against."

"Heh... I couldn't put it in words like that... But I was so sick and tired of it all... The in-fighting... The betrayal... The constant need to prove you're better than everyone else... That's why I wanted to destroy it all... Alkima had become a blight within these fair cosmos..."

"You couldn't think about changing it for the better?"

"You're so naïve... There was nothing left to salvage..."

Upala stared at Zarnik and murmured, "I wonder... what it would have been like... to have you... as my most trusted... retainer. To tell me... right from wrong..."

Zarnik brushed her hair aside. "Maybe that's happening in some absurd parallel reality right now. Maybe we're actually equals instead of separated by social hierarchies. But in this world, it would have been impossible from the start."

"W-Why...?"

"Because you don't acknowledge where the Sailor Soldiers' true strength comes from."

"Imposs... ible. We Soldiers... must be powerful..."

"We are. It's just not in the form of hoarding all the power in the universe and thrusting yourself upon an imaginary throne. Your ignorance of the truth – nay, all of Alkima's ignorance - is the very reason why you and your minions could never win against Earth's Soldiers, why Sailor Bijou wanted you in her group knowing fully well that you could backstab her, and why I was content with joining the Toxicum Sailor Soldiers despite their poor reputation."

"What would... that be...?"

"We are powerful as a cohesive team, offering our strengths to help balance the others' weaknesses."

Upala coughed and sneered a bit. "How cliché..."

"The results are anything but."

The fallen queen was startled by Zarnik's steadfast rebuttal. Then she closed her eyes and sighed. She took the Victory Crown off her head and chucked it aside like garbage.

"Sailor Soldiers... working together. How long... has it been... since I last heard... such a thing...?"

Sullen by her defeat, Upala reached into her miniskirt and threw something at Zarnik, who caught it with a well-timed swipe.

"Take that," Upala murmured. "It's a microchip... containing all of Alkima's... data..."

"By giving this to us, Eris will see you as a traitor," Zarnik warned her.

"Feh. If what you said is true... then Lady Eris... No, Eris... betrayed me first. I'm just paying her back... for turning me... into her slave..."

Upala felt utterly pathetic. Here she was, the self-proclaimed queen of an entire galaxy, admitting that she had been a duped vassal all this time. Zarnik couldn't help but relate to her; they both had been deceived by the ones they thought were closest to them.

That was when the baleful inverted pentagram that obliterated the Toxicum Soldiers appeared beneath Upala's body, and it engulfed her in the same searing heat of destruction. However, she didn't seem surprised whatsoever. In fact, she actually gazed at Zarnik with a repentant smile.

"I wonder what would have happened... if you had knocked some sense into me... before Eris could take control of me..."

Zarnik's eyelids felt heavy as she watched Upala die. All she could murmur was, "Who knows?"

With that, Upala's body disintegrated into ashes, and her opalescent Sailor Crystal shone radiantly before shooting into the heavens to return to the Galaxy Cauldron. Zarnik and Chibi-Moon watched it vanish, relieved that the battle was over for now. Yet they couldn't forget that Earth's true enemy lurked deep within the fallen palace jutting out of Tokyo Bay, making the victory seem bittersweet. Zarnik glanced at the discarded Victory Crown and noticed that it had been broken into tiny fragments before vanishing.

In the distance, they heard Sailor Ceres' voice call out, "HEE~EEY!!"

The Sailor Quartet flew towards the duo and landed before them. Vesta ran up to Chibi-Moon and gripped her shoulders, exclaiming, "Is everything okay here!?"

"Don't worry," her leader nodded. "We just defeated Sailor Upala, the commander of the Syndicate's forces."

"Awesome! That's a huge win for us!"

"But we still have Eris to deal with. We should regroup at the castle and plan our next move."

Zarnik approached Ceres and whispered in a tentative tone, "What about the Toxicum?"

The Quartet appeared gloomy, and she could tell the news was not going to be pleasant. Juno shook her head and replied sullenly, "Eris destroyed them."

"I see... So they're dead..."

"I'm sorry, Midori," Pallas cried. "We almost had them on our side. If only Eris wasn't around..."

"It's fine. I had a feeling that was going to happen."

Although she said it was 'fine', Zarnik's heart felt like a sinking stone as the thought of never being able to see her old comrades again crossed her mind. Chibi-Moon gently placed her hands on her friend's shoulders and said, "Let's go back. We all need to rest."

"Of course."