Our planet found peace through death

[drinkandforget]

The desert is hot, a dry heat begging for relief, at least a drink. The world is turned to sand and dust, broken only by the dim, hazy horizon. Dust even coats the objects carefully uncovered and laid out, almost as quickly as they're brushed off. Even this deep pit, dug too well to be natural, provides scant shelter.

Lethe's scarves and veils keep her from breathing dust, even if they result in the eerie impression of a shroud. She works carefully at one corner of the dig, where she's patiently unearthing a small object. When it's free, she meticulously brushes away the dust and dirt.

"Come closer," she invites, "And see something from a place that was lost."

(ooc: not quite evented, though bad luck may show as things go wrong at the dig. feel free to find artifacts not just from her world, but from the other character's world as well.)

Comments

[one_one_se7en]

The Master Chief does not remove his sights from the head of Lethe. Impervious to the heat and the sands covering them beneath his sealed armor, he does not flinch the least with the sand that blows around them.

The countless worn structures that reminded him of the stone temples of pre-hispanic american civilizations... And of structures he remembers seeing on Delta Halo.

For once, this all does not matter to him.

"Where is Mercury."

[drinkandforget]

If Lethe is surprised by the sudden interruption, it doesn't show. She puts down the object she'd been holding, stands up, and turns to face John.

Even if she were a more tender-hearted person, she'd have no good news to give him. As it is, she is simply matter-of-fact. She has been preparing for the day Galaxia will be challenged by Sailor Moon, and as such, she knows the ones holding out against the force of the shadow galactica. The ones from the solar system that still has many star seeds to take.

"She defies Galaxia-sama. She probably already met the fate reserved for people foolish enough to do that."

[one_one_se7en]

"Worse to serve her."

John was a mortal that had defied madmen and their followers. Even as he knew it was Chaos who controlled Galaxia, the Spartan expected no less from Ami.

As the guide of the death, Lethe may be his only trail to her. He walks closer to her. His crosshairs do not waver.

"Where. Is. Mercury."

[drinkandforget]

"There isn't any choice about that." The words can be heard as a taunt, she's well aware; but it's also the simple truth of her own life. They'd had nowhere else to go and no choice but to follow.

Her eyes drift to the crosshairs and their implied threat. It's enough to make her answer, though she still has nothing he'll want to hear. Telling him becomes her own little form of revenge.

"If she's already been defeated, she doesn't exist any longer. Her star seed will be with Galaxia-sama. It would have been better not to be involved with her and to avoid regretting her loss."

[one_one_se7en]

His body tenses inside his armor. Only by the smallest motions in his arms betray him. His fingers resist the temptation to kill her then and there. He stays silent.

I don't leave my own behind.

There is only one element that still marks her as a target with information, preventing her from being part of the countless other sentients he had killed while in service.

The ruins that look far too much like those he had seen on the rings.

"Then, why are you showing me this?"

[drinkandforget]

"So you'll understand it's hopeless for you," comes the cold answer as Lethe glances away, across the barren landscape and its precious few unearthed relics. She gestures, taking in everything at once. "This is what remains of a planet at war."

"This is probably all that's left of Sailor Mercury by now." Dust to dust, nothing to nothing, even power deserting the empty vessel that once held it.

[one_one_se7en]

"I know what a glassing is like."

He replies coldly against the taunts. He does not succumb to his emotions - to the taunts. Too well had Mendez trained him to only let them reinforce his decisions, but not to give in to them. Some alien enemies have this tried in the past against him.

Just as well, he had heard too many times from a similar entity about hopelessness - just to reveal to it the key to its' end. Similarly, the Spartan and Mercury faced an abomination capable of crossing worlds... And survived.

From behind his HUD, pretending to keep his eyes on her, his sight spots something too familiar. Marked beneath a column as smooth as polished onyx, there is a symbol almost sunken beneath the white sands.

It feels too familiar.

He shakes the tip of his MA5C towards it, prepared to follow her.

"Check it."

He swears he has seen it before.

Somewhere.

[drinkandforget]

What? After their standoff, Lethe is almost surprised when John's attention shifts, and her eyes follow naturally to the object half buried in the desert sand. It has some meaning to him?

How strange, then, that it should be here, amid the ruins of her planet. Their dreams have merged and melded, however either of them may dislike the fact. She steps forward, always conscious in the back of her mind of the weapon still ready - and the unlikelihood of getting off her own attack before it struck.

Begrudgingly, she goes to the object, but pauses before reaching for it, a short distance away still.

"What is it?"

[one_one_se7en]

He pauses. He expected Lethe to know... but seems to know just about as much as him.

"You said this was from a place once lost."

One civilization comes to mind, along with Mercury's tales of her own ancient civilization prior to mankind.

The Spartan steps forward -- when the entire desert around the ruins begins to drain, but refraining itself from even taking the human or the senshi. It all seems to drain around a gleaming, massive sphere at least a hundred meters wide. Around it, several inert figures with seemingly detached limbs await, taller than the Spartan.

He takes a tentative step towards the silvery mass. He expects to sink, but the sand holds his weight. Every further step he takes towards the sunken artifact is held with a supernatural strength, acting as stairs as the silvery sands of every abandoned step get back in place. Not a grain of it clings to his metallic feet.

The area around the massive sphere glows to his eyes, but not as much as Lethe.

Forerunner.

[drinkandforget]

"This is the planet Lethe," she answers. It tells so much more than the simple words: the planet Lethe, Sailor Lethe, her own planet. This is all that remains of her home: a place once lost.

She's interrupted by the reaction of whatever artifact she's uncovered, which even she steps back from. What is it doing? What is he doing? Does he intend to let it draw him in? His fate is no concern of hers, she reminds herself; but does this object have such power?

"This never belonged here," she says, eyeing it now.

[one_one_se7en]

His visor turns to her, locked. If this was her home, but she wouldn't even know of things like this... Ever since these dreams got him in contact with Ami, they had turned stranger.

"There was something like this in Earth." His Earth. "We never knew until now."

But he remembers Mercury. She knew of not only her world, but her planet, and her element. Lethe may know more about it. If there was a link... He would need to know.

"What killed everything here?"

[drinkandforget]

"Here?" Lethe repeats the word as though it should be obvious. It was always fated. She gradually loses her nervousness (not to say fear), and looks back across the dead and buried landscape.

"It was war. And in the end, this was the peace that came of it." And when that came to pass, what else was she to do, but become who she is now?

[one_one_se7en]

Rings killing all sentient life in a galaxy to make peace. The same kind of peace Lethe always seems to cherish for. No war. No life. Only an inhospitable wasteland.

His breathing inside of his armor turns more noticeable."

"Sides?"

[memorials]

Her hands work reluctantly, even though her spirit seems hungry for the knowledge of the things they uncover. Mnemosyne feels more like a tresspasser than anything, despite the grounds they search being a land they once could have called their own.

At her sisters call, she inches closer to the other, sitting on her knees and peering over Lethe's shoulder. "You've... found something?"

[drinkandforget]

"Help me dig it out." Her voice is intent with her focus. She's certain she saw a glimpse of something familiar. "It might be valuable."

She says valuable, and not important. This place was home to them, and she acknowledges that; but it is a place they've left behind. She would be better off not to stay attached to it.

[memorials]

Under Lethe's request, she doesn't hesitate to dig her hands into the earth, trying to get a grip on whatever it is her twin seems to have spotted. Giving it a tug, the object doesn't seem to want to move, causing Mnemosyne to try and get into a better position in order to pull.

"Ugh! It -- it won't budge..." she frowns -- then another idea seems to strike her. "Maybe if we try together. On the count of three. One -- two... -- "

[drinkandforget]

"Three." Lethe finishes the count, and pulls in synch with her sister. The warm sand dribbles over the side of the object and onto her wrist, then to the ground; but she pays it no mind. Finally, the thing comes free, and she is left to stare at it in surprise.

"This was from our house, wasn't it? It was one of a kind..." Not particularly expensive, for they hadn't been wealthy, but it had been... a treasure, she supposes could be said.

[memorials]

Mnemosyne stares at the treasure in Lethe's hands, hovering close, still. "That's..." the memory seems long forgotten by now -- as though it was nothing more than a fleeting dream from the past. Thoughts and feelings even the guardian of memories had long put to rest... "I can't believe... something like that would have survived for so long... out here..."

[drinkandforget]

"Keep it." Mnemosyne would appreciate it the most, Lethe thinks. "Now that it's been dug up, it could be cleaned and used again."

Heh. A future after all, in which there will be time for that sort of salvaging.

[memorials]

"R... really?!" she no longer hides her excitement, her eyes lighting up as she moves to take the object into her palms, turning it over, running her hands along the intricate edges. "... You're sure it's okay?"

[drinkandforget]

"It's alright. I won't take it anyway," Lethe points out. "If you don't, throw it away."

She speaks as though the memento has little hold over her; though to tell the truth, she's as surprised as Mnemosyne to have found it. And she wonders what it might mean, if there's hope in this place yet.

A strange word, hope.

[memorials]

As soon as the words 'throw it away' reach her ears, Mnemosyne shakes her head quickly from side to side, hugging the atrifact close to her as though that will somehow save it from such a cruel fate. "I couldn't!" her voice is strong, one of those rare moments in which she sounds so sure of herself.

"It... it's precious to me. Even if it's from a long forgotten past... when I look at it -- " and she does just that, gazing at it longingly in her hands again, "it's as though... I can almost remember what it felt like... back then..." back -- when she could still say she had a heart.

[drinkandforget]

"Then keep it," Lethe puts a hand over Mnemosyne's, pressing the object into her grip. Keep it for her, too.

"I never thought we'd come back here," she admits once she finally lets go to look around the area once more. "Even though we lived here all that time."

[memorials]

There's a small smile. It's brief; but it's real. Something she probably hasn't been able to muster for some time now. But when her sister speaks again, it washes away just as quickly as it came.

"I don't... regret coming back here. Do you? Lethe?" Memories are important to her; that much is obvious. But for her sister...

[drinkandforget]

"I don't regret it." There is a hint of nostalgia here even for her. She does not see those days with rose-colored glasses, not after so much has happened, but in some ways they were simpler.

Does it mean in some ways she was happier? No, she decides; her happiness comes from being near Mnemosyne.

"Do you regret the time since then?"