Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon. I do own all the OC's.

(This follows on from my story 'Silver Millennium, Rui's Story' so this will only make sense if you read that first).

By Silver Sailor Ganymede

She was dead. Selene Rui Tsukiah, then Rui Solarisah, the bastardised princess of the once glorious White Moon Kingdom was dead. Dead, just like her kingdom… dead, just like her soul had been. That day would have been Rui's twenty-fifth birthday, and that's why Amaterasu was crying…

Crowned Princess Amaterasu refused to believe that her cousin was dead. Yes, Rui had been her cousin, her friend and her leader… but now she was gone. Amaterasu shook her head, trying to tell herself that she was simply dreaming and that Rui was really still alive… and yet she just couldn't. She had seen the mangled body with her own eyes.

Ameterasu's parents and sister had grieved for a month or so, but even then, exactly a year after Rui's death, Amaterasu let the tears fall freely from her deep golden eyes. Why, she couldn't have stopped them even if she had wanted to; what she had seen had driven her into hysterics and was slowly driving her insane. And yet still she tried to convince herself that it wasn't real, but she couldn't. She had the letter Rui had written them clutched in her hand: the letter, to Amaterasu, seemed to be the only thing that was real anymore…

Amaterasu shook her head as the memories of that day began to resurface. She tried to block out those heinous memories, but alas, she tried in vein, and they came back to her as clear and as painful as they had been even an hour or so after she had found the bloodied corpse. Yes, she remembered it so well; she could even feel the heat of the lands even as it was being plunged into darkness that evening. Amaterasu felt yet more tears snake their way down her face as she remembered…

She had been running through the deserts that surrounded the Solaris'ah Castle for as far as the eye could have seen. She had ran up and over a sand dune with great ease while she was heading for a place where she thought Rui might be, for she wasn't in the castle, and her birthday celebrations would begin in a less than an hour, just after the light went out…

She was just on the edge of the oasis where she knew Rui would be, when she saw it… when she saw the light that had spelt her cousin's death. It all happened so quickly. Rui's body was wrapped in an orb of blood coloured light as she used a knife to tear her power crystal from her chest. The orb crackled for a split second, then she landed on the floor of the desert, naked, battered and bleeding from the wounds that she had so cruelly inflicted upon herself. Her once flawless white skin was now marred to such an extent that not one inch of her body was without scarring. Her once long, beautifully coloured hair was now burnt away. Her eyes were dead, her symbol was disappearing and she was covered in her own, wine-like blood… and yet still she breathed.

"Iie! Rui-chan!" Amaterasu remembered screaming as she ran to her dying friend and fell to her knees at her side. Amaterasu remembered trying to cast a healing spell but, even in this dying form, Rui had had the strength to cast Amaterasu's hand aside and say, "Iie, Amaterasu-chan. Leave me. I want…" here she had coughed and more blood had come from her chest. She wiped her mouth and continued, "I want… to d… d… die… Amate…tera…rasu-chan, grant me… this last… wish." She had closed her eyes and pressed a letter into Amaterasu's hand.

"Iie, Rui-chan… Aishiteru! Aishiteru Rui… Iie… you cannot die… you…" Amaterasu said, trying to push the letter back into her cousin's hand. "You're not dyi…"

"Take… it" Rui wheezed struggling to breathe and yet still able to muster the strength to force the letter into the broken girl's hand. "O…open th… the lett…ter in a yh… yh… year, ex…xactly a yh… year.

"Rem…remem… remember m… me, Am… Am… Amaterasu-chan. Li… live for me… I l…"

But with that her symbol faded away… she was gone. Yes, Solaris'ah Rui was dead, and, for the first time ever, a true smile had graced her lips.

Amaterasu blinked, she heard herself sobbing and distraught once more. She remembered her friend's last words and knew that the time had finally come; she was to open the seal on the letter and read it.

With shaking hands that seemed not to be her own, Amaterasu opened the letter. It was crumpled and stained from being with her for so long, but nevertheless, Rui's ornate handwriting was still visible and, even at first glance, Amaterasu knew that it was written in Rui's own blood.

My family, my friends,

I know that if you are reading this, a year must have passed since my suicide. I must be gone, finally, yes, and I have finally found peace, or, as it may be, more trials and suffering. I will be punished in Hell for my crimes, I know, and yet only in penance will I find true release. I know that I deserve pain and suffering for what I have done, and it will help me to free my conscience and my soul of all the guilt with which I have been burdened since I destroyed my birth kingdom.

I know that you will all be suffering from my death, and yet I implore you to forgive me for I simply had to go. Yes, now that I am gone, and you cry a sea of tears for me which I never could cry, I ask you to forgive me for all the pain that I have caused.

But grieve no more, for soon I shall see you. Soon, I shall see you again.

I am sorry,

Solarisah Rui

"Yes, I am sorry, Amaterasu-chan."

Amaterasu looked up and nearly screamed when she saw the spectral form of her cousin in the room. Rui's hair spilt over her shoulders, past her knees and waist, past her ankles and down to the floor. Her symbol was back on her forehead and glowing, and she appeared naked but for a pair of torn black wings that stretched out of her shoulder blades like the wings of a fallen angel; and that's exactly what Rui was… a fallen maiden… a fallen senshi… a fallen angel.

"Rui-chan", Amaterasu screamed, jumping up and wrapping her arms around Rui's spectral form.

"Hai" Rui replied. She looked at Amaterasu, her normally stone-cold eyes swimming with tears and whispered, "Thank you, Amaterasu-chan. Thank you for living for me. I love you… I love you all."

Rui truly smiled one final time… and with that, she was gone.