Born of Tokimi, the Silence was an engine of ultimate destruction.
Tokimi had intended to use it to enhance her own power, but in this she was denied. Much to her displeasure, the Silence proved to have a will of its own. Far from being an obedient servant, it constantly rebelled against Tokimi’s orders, pushing her control to the limits. For years she attempted to bring her unruly creation under her firm control, to no avail.
Finally, Tokimi had had enough. She raised her hand to cut the Silence off from her power forever… and dropped it back down in sudden shock. There was no connection to sever! Unlike her other servants, the Silence wasn’t connected to her power, it was one with her power. For the first time, she realized that the Silence wasn’t just another construct. The way it embodied her power was a mirror image of the way she herself embodied it! True, it could, as yet, only draw on a fraction of that power, but even this nascent connection gave it enormous power. More importantly, it made the Silence difficult to destroy. The Silence would draw on her own power to protect itself from death, and if she couldn’t cut its link then the only way she could kill it would be to drain its power source. Since she was that source, this meant that to kill it she would have to kill herself (or at least make herself powerless). That was not an option.
Fine. If she couldn’t kill it, she would imprison in a place where it would be out of her way. But using her own power to imprison it wouldn’t work, since the Silence would constantly attempt to seize control over its prison through its link and try to free itself. Casting about for inspiration, she scanned the realities and soon developed a plan.
--------------------------------------------
The Moon Kingdom didn’t know where the invader had come from, but the destruction it left in its wake made it easy to track. Dubbed “the Silence” (for obvious reasons), it destroyed the Kingdom’s outer defenses with contemptuous ease. Desperately, the Senshi fought to destroy it, or at least slow it down. All throughout the system, people desperately sought a way to counter this threat.
On a moon of Saturn, an answer was found. The researcher who came up with the answer wasn’t clear on how he discovered it (for some reason he didn’t want to mention the strangely beautiful woman of his dreams), but the matter was urgent enough that no one bothered to press the subject. Saturn was the first planet in the Silence’s path, and its people needed to stop it now.
A weapon was forged. A prison that would bind the power of the invader.
They had barely finished forging it when the Silence arrived. In an epic battle, Sailor Saturn used the weapon to defeat the Silence and imprison it at the cost of her life.
The Silence Glaive.
Created as a prison, it was eventually discovered that Sailor Saturn could use it to wield the power of the Silence herself. Much to the Moon Kingdom’s dismay, it was discovered that this had severe drawbacks. A bond had been formed, siphoning the power needed to maintain the prison against the Silence’s attempts to break free directly from the Senshi of Saturn. This bond formed a tentative link between the Senshi and the Silence, and bond the Silence exploited to fight its captor. It was soon learned that this dramatically affected an awakened Senshi of Saturn, leading to health problems and a shortened life span. Moreover, actually wielding the Silence only hastened this deterioration.
Rather than see Senshi after Senshi suffer this fate, it was decreed that Sailor Saturn would only be awakened if there was a need for her power. Since the other Senshi could handle anything that didn’t require the use of the Silence, rumors started, naming Sailor Saturn the Senshi of Death and Destruction. Soon people forget the real reasons she wasn’t normally awakened and instead feared the coming of Sailor Saturn as a herald of the end of all. The few times a Sailor Saturn was awakened, she found herself feared and shunned.
--------------------------------------------
When Hotaru was born, the Silence again began pursuing its usual fight against its prison, confident that it would eventually break free. Hotaru’s possession by Mistress Nine had marked the end of this age-old routine. Suddenly the Silence had found itself in danger of being completely enslaved to one from whom it could never hope to break free. When it finally realized this, it stopped fighting Hotaru and instead used their bond to meld its power with Sailor Saturn’s, hoping that it would be enough to break Hotaru free of Mistress Nine’s control. Their combined might had been barely enough, but they succeeded. With the help of Sailor Moon, they banished Mistress Nine and Pharaoh 90. However, the backlash of the forces unleashed to accomplish this had a profound effect on Hotaru and resulted in her (at least temporary) being reduced in age to that of a newborn.
In the normal course of events, the Silence would have resumed its fight against its captor as soon as the danger was passed. This would result in Hotaru suffering the weakness and health problems expected of one who wielded the Silence.
This time was different. For all that Mihoshi was a ditz; the thing that made her truly scary was that her actions often achieved things most people would have said was impossible. (Now, whether those results were desirable or not…) This time, Mihoshi’s power influenced the results of the fight in a subtle, but profound, way.
When the Silence threw it’s might into Hotaru’s struggle against Mistress Nine, it found itself joining her in a struggle for control of their very existence… and they were losing. The Silence couldn’t countenance that. Focusing intensely, it interwove its power with that of Sailor Saturn, achieving a blend of Power and Will never seen before. When the fight ended, the Silence was unable to separate itself for Sailor Saturn in time to avoid the backlash of power. In the endless instant that followed, Hotaru and the Silence became one.
For the first time ever, Sailor Saturn became the true Messiah of Silence, wielding by right the power that her predecessors had paid dearly to only barely control. No longer would little Hotaru be plagued by health problems. Indeed, her Senshi heritage would ensure a healthy life, now that it was no longer being drained to maintain the Silence’s prison. After millennia of use, the prison that was the Silence Glaive stood empty. From now on it would merely be a tool used by Sailor Saturn to focus her attacks, and not a necessary tool either.
The Silence was also profoundly affected by this melding. When it joined with Hotaru, it learned to perceive the world in a different light. For the first time it understood the concepts of kindness, and caring, and love. Created as an engine of destruction, it now learned that there was more to existence than death and destruction and hate. It learned that it need not be alone in the face of a dark and hostile universe. From Hotaru, the Silence learned to heal.
Hotaru didn’t stay an infant for long. With the power of the Silence actively helping, rather than hindering, her growth, she was soon restored to (approximately) her rightful age. Thirteen-year-old Hotaru was a valued member of the Senshi and with them found kindness and acceptance and love. But there was something missing. Some piece of her heart yearned for something that she couldn’t place. Half-remembered dreams brought fleeting memories of blue eyes and black hair, or was that pink eyes and blue hair? She couldn’t remember. And yet she knew that somewhere out there, she would find the answer.
And that part of her that was the Silence vowed that when the answers came, nothing would stand in her way.
(Posted Wed, 09 Apr 2003 09:03)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.