Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Pretty Soldiers ❯ Act 22 - suizon kyousou : Last Man Standing ( Chapter 22 )

       This was a prison of sorts he was not used to.
       Unlike the dark, dead planet he had called his home and his purgatory for several years, this was a bright, warm place. Featureless and smooth, merely four walls to surround him and contain him, it was also mightily small. Without an exit or entrance, nor trapdoor, he fell to staring for hours - days? Quite possibly. Though time did not work the same way as it did on the outside - at who was surely a fool in those silvery panels.
       Perhaps it was telling that here, he was not the aloof prince, but the coltish teenager, head in a book and mind racing. No longer the child who had lived in a happier time before the cold and ice, when information was freely available, food plentiful, people vibrant and free. He had become a curious, awkward youth, toiling alongside his father to reclaim the land after Neo Queen Serenity revived them, the owners of once-teeming rice paddies. Working like serfs in the terrible weather, his father cursed the shining queen who had opened their eyes simply to make them slaves. He had been rich, feeding the entire island with his crop. When had he ever truly worked a day in his life?
       But wealth meant nothing to the queen. She had woken them for their skills, her soldiers told them, so they could prepare the city for the new generation. This meant growing greens and breeding livestock, digging wells, melting the ice and snow. Hard labor for many whom had never done anything so strenuous in their lives.
       And this was the world he had truly grown up in, an alien planet for which concepts like telephones and television and automobiles was recent history. So much had been destroyed by the ice that it was senseless to fix them, only to leave the re-building of once-vital mechanics and electronics until after the major reclamation. By the time he had left on his self-imposed exile, the telegraph had been re-invented.
       His father lost his mind, to be kindly, when his mother died after lingering for years, weak ultimately from the freeze, a condition many suffered. When the queen offered her subjects the chance for long life, many that had been in such a condition died soon after anyway; the crystal could not heal such internal cold. Or perhaps, as his father had ranted many a time, the queen had never even tried to make them well in the first place. Humans were meant to live normally, falling prey to sickness and disease, as was nature. Virus, bacteria; these were the predators of humankind, and they were subverted by medicine and good intentions.
       "She wouldn't have died in such a manner, my sons, if that bitch hadn't interfered," his father said one night, not long after the burial. In the light of the fire, his face resembled an ancient carving of malice, twisted into sharp lines. "Saving us from such catastrophe…I would be with her in heaven now, if only Serenity had not taken it upon herself to play God."
       Not long after that, his father had publicly denounced the queen, disemboweling himself at the entrance to the palace. It had surely made a statement.
       There was many more who believed then, finding the son and listening to his ideas. It wasn't enough that the queen had exercised her amazing power on them against their will, but that she had offered them long life in blasphemy of God. Any god, it didn't matter - his family happened to be Christians, and so he used their words and images in his speeches - humanity simply was not meant to live such lives. Were not the first humans cast out of Paradise so they would not eat from the Tree of Life and become immortal?
       But words…they meant nothing against a woman who wielded the Ginzuishou.
       (To defeat my enemy, I must become my enemy.)
       Wiseman had offered them that chance to dismantle Serenity's unholy kingdom. "On Nemesis, my young traitors, there is power," he said to them all on that last night on Earth. "Seek the Jakokusuishou, and you will be unstoppable."
       And now, after gaining that power, after sacrificing his people and, if he admitted it, his friends…after his matchbook kingdom had burned down around him, after he found himself to be following a creature with the wrong intentions…
       Had he been wrong?
        Demand was unsure.
       Though he realized now that what he had taken to be perhaps malicious or thoughtless actions on the part of the queen were not quite so; in his youth, so easily malleable, he had seen her as the worst kind of dictator, uncaring of her people and their plight. But in hindsight, he could recognize her attempting to make the best of their new world, a woman barely become an adult and unsure of herself. She knew how to inspire people, to bring out the best in their hearts, and perhaps his father and he had simply been too stubborn to allow it.
       But she had claimed a kingdom that was not hers, deftly subduing it with her power. Who would argue with a woman who had saved them en masse, who commanded a quartet of powerful sailor soldiers? They had in fact saved the planet multiple times, answering a lot of questions as to the calamities and strange events that seemed to overtake the Earth every year. (Sometimes twice.) And who could resist a life span to rival that of Methuselah?
       "Yes," he sighed finally, propping his chin in his hands. "I would have done it all over again."

      The second monolith was, strangely, devoid of life.
       This perplexed the soldiers, for more than one reason. Namely, that they had walked all the way up to the damn thing with explicit intent to beat some heads.
       Seeing no enemy when they had gambled quite heavily on at least one was disappointing, to say the least. "Does anyone else find this to be strange?" Venus finally remarked, after circling the black crystal three times, well away from touching its surface.
       Beneath their feet the ground throbbed like a close-up of the human body and its thick veins, only this was rendered in dirt brown and grey snow and lava red. Strangely, for all of its size and obvious power, they couldn't feel the negative energy as they should have, like a thick wall of air. It seemed to just be sitting there.
       "Well, I do have to remark on the Black Moon's obvious penis obsession," the Crystal Guardian said, scratching her chin. "But what do you suppose these things are actually doing? The air should be lousy with enough negative energy to kill an elephant, but…"
       "Maybe it's their way of travelling from Nemesis to Earth?" Jupiter frowned, tugging at her ponytail. "But that's ridiculous. Why would they need two?"
        Mars, sitting on a chunk of dry dirt, had taken a high heel off and was massaging her heel. High heels did not travel well over this kind of terrain, she was finding out. "Surely whatever army they could possibly have was destroyed with the palace," she suggested thoughtfully, flexing her foot. "Remember, Jupiter? The palace was crumbling into disaster before we escaped. And what enemy has time to save their minions when their own hide is in danger?"
       It was a good point, but it didn't, however, answer the question. Staring out at the city, Moon remarked, "I wish Mamo-chan was here."
       Behind them, the blue-haired genius began her own careful trek around the monolith, turning on her goggles. The blue-tinted screen began to immediately analyze the composite of the ground at her feet, the pollution and ozone levels in the air; a picture of the molecular make-up of the crystal appeared, with markings denoting its density and structure. The very tip was dense enough to balance a spacecraft on - give or take a Daitokuji - and it was radiating what her visor simply labeled "Negative space." It outlined the path of the negative energy up and down through the crystal, deep into the ground and high into the atmosphere.
       She needed more information, and at the very thought a whole new plethora of numbers appeared, tabulating the effect the energy seemed to be having on the planet as a whole. And this was no hypothesis; already, noticeable changes had occurred. She mentally directed it to estimate the next hour and what it would bring, as always amazed at how the thin flexible screen worked. Like a pair of designer sunglasses - though she called them her goggles because she had always equated eye protection with the strange English word - they were so light she always forgot they were on, and was invariably shocked to see the real world after removing them.
       All it took was a thought, a mental directive, and the eyepieces would be flooded with the information. How she had ached that first night to take them apart and find out what made them work; but it would have been senseless. A 21st century mind was not capable of understanding such technology. Queen Serenity's mocking answers had told her as much later on. It had been merely comforting to know that science did have a place in this strange new world she had been thrown into, meek but terrified.
       The calculations before her eyes now sent a cold shiver throughout her veins. She half-turned to see the opposing monolith past Venus and Moon, and her goggles thoughtfully outlined the sharp black crystal with a red aura. Like the one she stood next to, it too was radiating its negative energy up and down; into earth and sky.
       Then a man appeared right in front of her, and she gave a little shout as she hopped back, turning her goggles off. "Endymion-sama!"
       Or at least, it looked like him. Except for the shifting, shaking static that looked like bad TV reception. Early 80's cable bad. He kept changing colours like a chameleon, none of them in the outer perimeter of good taste. And when he opened his mouth to speak, it was some sort of alien language that bore only the slightest resemblance to Japanese. "Palace bzzzzt lady come," he garbled, lips moving in no relation to the words. Apparently, he'd been replaced by a dubbed kung fu movie. "We cannot zzzrance to the chamber frzzzztzzz! Bzzzzzt quickly!"
       And Mercury wasn't alone in seeing him. Her allies were staring at him in a mix of surprise, horror, and puzzlement as he turned chartreuse and blue. "The enemy has infiltrated the palace?" Mars finally deduced slowly, hopping on one foot as she jammed her other foot into her shoe. Time and tide wait not for fashion.
        "But how is it possible? With the shield, no one could get in without the mark of the Silver Millennium on them," Jupiter said, echoing their earlier conversation.
       Endymion was waving his hands at them, lips moving in speech. The only problem being that sound had apparently been turned off on his end, because they heard nothing; and it was most likely important by his expression. Mercury rather subtly touched her throat, and he seemed to realize they couldn't hear his words. That's when he changed his form to compensate, and immediately said, clearly, "You don't understand what's happened!"
       They all stared down…and down…and, well, down…at the king.
       "What?"
       'Super deformed' just didn't seem dignified enough to refer to his new, squat, insanely cute little illusion. It obviously took less power to give him form and shape, because he had stopped switching colours and languages, but it looked completely ridiculous. He didn't even come up to Mercury's knee. "What don't we understand?" the tall red-head finally asked, crouching down to talk to him.
       He shook his head. "How the enemy has infiltrated the palace. You have to return, quickly!"
       "It may not matter soon, if we cannot remove the monoliths."
       "What do you mean, Mercury?"
       The blue-haired genius re-activated her goggles, scanning their screens. "In twenty-four hours, the crystals will have succeeded in dissipating and destroying the atmosphere. The magnetic field of the planet will be almost gone, most assuredly disrupting the rotation of the planet, not to mention cooking us with radiation. In short," she concluded, turning them off, "they will have succeeded in ruining this world for habitation."
       "Didn't I see this plot once before?" the Guardian muttered.
       Chibi Endymion seemed to turn pale - he looked to be having an easier time changing his image to show emotion this time around - as he looked from one monolith to the other. "But that one monolith has been here since the beginning," he said. "Has it taken so long to do this damage?"
       "Iie," Mercury answered. "The monoliths have just begun this rapid acceleration. From my calculations, they began to work in this manner when the second one was placed here."
       The sky was growing darker again, despite it being the middle of the afternoon, and dreary with fog and clouds. Against this new backdrop of utter black the two crystals seemed to glow, and the stifling air that signaled the suffusion of power was suddenly thick. On instinct Venus and Jupiter tackled Mercury, all three of them rolling out of the way as the crystal exploded outwards with a very visible blast of power, aiming for the Crystal Palace.
       Everyone was rocked off their feet - save for Chibi Endy, who vanished - as the power collided with the palace shields, holding strong despite the beating from either side. Just like before, it shrugged off the energy, though considerably stronger, like a gentle summer's breeze. The soldiers lay half-stunned on the ground, watching as the power came recoiling back over their heads, absorbed into the crystal like a snail retracting its head from danger.
       With it came the blast of wind, ripping them off the ground like leaves, flinging them around and around to land in the snow and ice in a tumble. The impact was not in the least bit gentle, leaving them even more stunned and half-frozen, and several meters away from the monolith. "That was no ordinary wind," the tall brunette grumbled, holding her tender ribs as she struggled up.
       "Of course it was not, silly sailor soldiers!" someone laughed. "But I never expected you to anticipate my attacks; you're not very bright, after all."
       "See?" Venus said from somewhere behind Mercury. "I was right; the enemy was luring us into a trap!"
       "That isn't what she meant, Venus!" Mars snapped.
       The pink-haired lady had a peculiar smile on her face as she stood watching them, just at the very edge of the snow line. It was that amused, haughty smile that only the arrogant would use, as though they were the adult telling the children they had been mistaken. Nevermind that she looked quite ridiculous in her slitted gown and flimsy wrap in steadily dropping temperatures, possibly even sillier than the soldiers standing up in their skirts and bodices. "Yare yare, so slow," she sighed, tapping a slender finger against her chin. "How is it that you've survived your enemies? Surely they must have been weak as the summer breeze to fall beneath your pitiful powers."
       "Or maybe they were just overconfident loudmouths," the tall red-head countered, tapping snow off her shirt calmly. "But your parents raised you better than that, didn't they?"
       Pink eyes slitted in sudden anger as she stared at the Crystal Guardian, who eyed her sharply in return. The staring contest went on for a good minute before the tall red-head suddenly stepped to the side like a toreador avoiding the bull, and the pink-haired lady found herself staring at a pointed forefinger, glowing gold. "Crescent Beam."
       She screamed as the beam hit her squarely between the breasts, knocking her back against the monolith. Fire sparked in her vision as Mars called her attack, and she lifted her arms to protect herself as the heat impacted mere centimeters from her face; this time, she was prepared. But she was sorely pissed off, and as the fire died down, she screamed, "You impudent little bitch!"
       The five sailor soldiers had assumed defensive postures, encircling their princess who, without her weapon, was almost powerless. The Crystal Guardian stood at their head, at ease as the pink-haired woman straightened up, touching the burning wound on her chest. It had been a deliberately weak attack, meant to warn her instead of badly injure, which meant she had perhaps a second degree burn. But the fact that they had tricked her in such a manner, she, the Black Lady….! She balled her fists. "You dare attack me in this manner? As the queen of Nemesis, I have the authority to destroy you all, and yet you stand against me!"
       "Prince Demand never mentioned having a queen," the odango-haired blonde remarked softly, touching her brooch.
       "Prince Demand was kind enough to relinquish his sovereignty to me," she purred, thinking derisively of the dumb drooling puppet she had left in her master's castle. "Besides, it was only fitting that I, a forgotten princess, would inherit his house of cards. I have led it to ruin, and soon I will do the same to this planet."
       They were all staring at her wide-eyed now, as she frowned, suddenly uncomfortable under their scrutiny. It made her angry, this emotion, and as she raised a hand to swat them all into oblivion, Sailor Moon pushed through her friends to hold out her hands. "Kami-sama…Chibi-Usa-chan? Is it really you?"

      Pluto couldn't stand this. The waiting was always the worst part, hands down; she was too bound by rules to simply look ahead and predict the outcome, and thrice bound to even lend her aid. It drove her utterly bugfuck to sit around and wait, though it took no more than a few seconds as far as her mind calculated it. She had done this countless times, for so many generations of soldiers and queens she didn't care to numerically recall.
       Yet none of them involved a little princess she had quite simply come to love.
       And she knew Chibi-Usa was in trouble, it was impossible to theorize anything else. She had disappeared so abruptly into time-space, dropping her key, which she knew she needed to find her way back safely. That sweet, sugar-pink child who always seemed to be as lonely as the solitary soldier herself, despite her world. That was what had so endeared her to Pluto, where her mother or even her grandmother had not.
       Oh, Serenity ad infinitum had been sweet and innocent too in their youth, merry with their freedom. But perhaps it was the fact that their world had not been rescued from collapse, that the royal house was not so utterly involved in solving problems over raising a child. Small Lady had grown up these past years, even slower in maturity than her mother, in a bleak world that required the full attention of all its people to run smoothly, if at all. The child had no proper friends, not when most of the boys and girls her age were either still frozen or raised to be envious of her. And with her lack of power, no mark upon her brow to proclaim her a princess, almost all of them thought her a fake.
       …so many rules bound her, if only she had been able to walk into time and prove them wrong. Once more she felt the anger that seized her when she thought of it, though it was not truly anyone's fault that she had been born into this imprisonment.
       How long ago had that been? As humans reckon time, perhaps millions of years. Her home had been a barely habitable chunk of ice, only just drifted into an orbit that could define it as a planet. The first settlers of their breed, making an outpost to watch the fringes of this new galaxy as the rest of their kind moved onward to settle more planets. She never understood how a newborn planet decided to choose an avatar, or even when it had accumulated the power and strength to do so. It simply did, and in the sixth generation of the colony, she had been born into the house of their leader, a normal little child.
       But of being an avatar she knew nothing, having never shown such a mark on her body. It wasn't until the soldier of Pluto suddenly appeared in their home, bending over her to wake her up, that she knew such people existed. Needless to say, it was a shock.
       Sailor Pluto then was a short, curvy blond with hair to her ankles, her skin a pale bloodless white, her eyes very green. She was also the very first Sailor Pluto to exist, and regularly played with time and dimension to fix what she perceived as 'problems.' In fact, it was the reason she had appeared to the child so suddenly; she had seen her death, and knew the young, ruby-eyed girl would take her place. Not all replacement soldiers were born immediately into their status, after all.
       She was given the lavender skeleton keys - for 'safekeeping' - and told, in short, of her duties. Then she left just as suddenly as she had appeared; presumably going off to her own current duties before she got herself killed. The young girl had been so shaken she had assumed it to be a dream, hiding the keys in a safe place where they remained for years. She in fact even forgot it had even occurred as the years passed, and she grew into near adulthood safely.
        Then of course, Pluto finally died, and the Garnet Rod appeared rather suddenly for her to receive in the middle of a ceremony. A ceremony naming her a fiancé, no less. She had taken the staff and felt herself become Sailor Pluto, and just like that, her life was ruined. And she knew she couldn't have ignored it; it would have simply forced the change on her. There were no choices.
        So she hugged her parents, retrieved the keys, and confined herself into space-time.
       And she sat there for what seemed to be a minute before she was summoned to open the door, and found herself looking into the young face of the new queen of the Moon, and by rote, the planet of Pluto. The Silver Millennium was in its infancy, but this woman nonetheless held sovereignty over the young soldier, and it was this queen who told her she was to guard space-time from intruders, killing invaders without hesitation, for time travel was evil.
       Sure thing, my lady. No problem whatsoever, your highness. Of course, the blonde Pluto had told her three very strict rules - rules she herself had merrily tap-danced on - and said she needed to follow them precisely. "If I had done the same, I wouldn't be in this mess," she had sighed that one night, "I would be Pluto for possibly forever. But it's not in the cards; I've committed suicide by disobeying; and you shouldn't have to be so cursed." And she never did say what would kill her for breaking those rules. But the fact her death had even occurred was enough to keep her on the straight path.
       Never to cross time.
       Never to leave the door unguarded.
       And never…
       Her head whipped up at the familiar sound of a brewing storm. She stared out across space-time, her expression growing slowly horrified at the sight of not the singular storm she was used to; oh, no. What she saw now was a family of maelstroms, twisting and whipping through what she knew of her world, wreaking havoc in ways they were not - by the rules - supposed to be doing.
       And yet, she watched dumbly as an entire dimension vanished into their guts.
       Something was so terribly wrong that it affected even time-space. Surely this was intentional, this chaos, much like the storm that had swallowed Small Lady. The universe was much more orderly than this, more than people realized.
       Wind blasted her body in a way she was unfamiliar with, a stinging whip of air. With dread, she realized she was going to have to wade in and attempt to stop the storms; even though she knew it was nearly impossible. Holding her rod tightly, she walked into the wind, closing her eyes as they began to tear.

      Artemis pounded clumsily at the console, cursing his lack of opposable thumbs. On the giant screen above his furred head, the lavender-clad king was frozen into a posture of surprise, ocean blue eyes wide with the impending disaster. The white feline hit the wrong button again, frantic as the image of the king began to scramble like a Rubix cube.
       It had been a move of desperation for Endymion to insert his subconscious into the computer, giving him the power to create an illusionary body to move around again. His physical body was simply too weak and sick; if he had not done it, he would have been completely comatose, unable to help. It was in this form that he had seen his daughter laugh at him, so utterly changed and defiant he couldn't recognize his sweet child in her. Desperation had him leaving the stunned felines alone with Black Lady, sending out his image to warn the sailor soldiers. So far from the palace, the signal distorted by the shield and the negative energy in the air, he had been defenseless from the sudden attack.
       The computer had cut off the signal, locking him within the system itself.
       And since Luna had her paws full consoling Diana - again! - it fell to Artemis to try everything he could think of to free the king's subconscious from the computer, though all of his ideas so far had only intensified his ire for hardware. "Luna, I could use some help up here!" he finally yowled, exasperated, as the thing told him his command was not in proper Japanese.
        He heard the scampering of tiny paws on the floor behind him, and he craned his head around to see Diana's tail disappear out the door. Luna leapt up onto the ledge next to him, saying, "I don't know what to tell her, Artemis. She won't accept that Chibi-Usa-chan is that…that woman."
       "I'm not entirely sure I can accept it either," the white feline replied quietly, sitting back on his haunches and relinquishing the controls to her. "For the princess of the Silver Millennium to be so easily manufactured into that…thing….!"
       Luna tapped at the buttons with a surer touch than he, still clumsy but smoothing it out beautifully. "What bothers me is that the princess couldn't fight back. Has Serenity not taught her daughter how to wield her power, to use the Ginzuishou? She's more than old enough for her training to begin." She waved a paw in the air, using the motion sensor to switch into another section of the computer. "She wore it around her neck. More worrisome than her change is that she had it with her when she disappeared, and now it is in the hands of the enemy."
       The screen flickered, and the king disappeared to be replaced by a view of the second monolith. Artemis flew up onto his feet. "Luna, what did you do?"
       "I released him to his body, finally," she responded wearily, licking her paw and cleaning her brow. "But surely now he's too weak to show us his form again; when I made the connection, he was unresponsive. We may be on our own from now on." Shaking out her fur, she looked up at the screen and the little coloured dots past the black crystal spire. "If only we could hear what was going on…Usagi-chan…!"
       Artemis opened his mouth to suggest, Try connecting with Minako's pen, then shut it, remembering that she had sacrificed the old pen, her Sailor V pen, in the Arctic. It had had a two-way communicator built into it, so they could keep in touch; a function her new pen lacked, as they all had wristwatches for the simple task. And he knew the girls had left theirs at Alex's condo, thinking them useless without the complete group of five. Shit. "Does the computer have a travelling microphone? It has a travelling camera, obviously, to take all those pictures. Maybe we can use that."
       Luna stared at him for a long moment without blinking. "Why didn't I think of that?" she finally muttered, turning to enter more commands into the system.
       "I'm just the brains of this outfit," he sighed, buffing his claws on his chest.
       On the screen, the image began to grow larger as the camera came in closer, hovering just far enough away for them to see everything, though the picture had gone fuzzy. Sound came out of the walls with the same sort of interfering static, words punctuated with sharp hissing. Disturbed and helpless, the two felines sat and watched, and listened.

       "How dare you call me that name?" The offered hands were slapped away by stinging blows, and Sailor Moon was driven back into the safety of her friends. "I will never again answer to that title! I am the Black Lady, queen of Nemesis, and I bow to no one."
       "Chibi-Usa-chan," the odango-haired blonde persisted, "is it really you?"
       Black Lady was furious, rigid with emotion. As a child, she had never known such pure anger, such a blinding hatred, but her new body wore it well. Fingers curved into claws as she screamed, once, diving forward for the protected soldier. "Urusai! I'll quiet you forever!"
       Sailor Moon fell back, crossing her arms over her chest instinctively, watching as her friends blocked the pink-haired woman from view. Jupiter and Venus shoved forward, thrusting their shoulders into Black Lady and slamming her away over the earth. Her ankle twisted in its high heel, and she dropped to her knees. "I hate you all, I hate you!" she shrieked, beating her fists into the dirt. "When I have the Ginzuishou of the past, all of you will fall to ruin along with your planet!"
       "So you would steal the crystal of the past as you stole the crystal of the future, out of your mother's safekeeping?" the tall red-head asked icily, ignoring the shocked stares she received. "And could you wield it, in this new body? Or is it as useless as your old?"
       "You dare speak these things to me!"
       "What drove you to take it in that manner? To leave your kingdom defenseless? All this time, you wore the holy stone around your neck, and never told us why you carried it, why you never sought to use it yourself. Is this all your pride?"
       "Sensei, what are you saying?" Venus hissed softly, sounding confused.
       Black Lady was trembling, hugging her body as though she were cold. "I had a right to that crystal, even though mama was ashamed of my weakness. It wasn't my fault that the reaction happened, that mama was hurt!" She stared at them with fierce eyes, gathering power to her hand. "And now I come to demand my birthright, and you deny me as always, the mistake, the weakling, the fake princess!" she shouted, blasting them with her power.
       The tall red-head lifted her arms, but the protection didn't come. Her look turned to astonishment, then fear, in the split second before impact sent them all flying once more. Another blast lifted them, slammed them straight down into the snow, repeated the process and ground them cruelly. "Chibi-Usa, stop!" Mercury cried.
       Lightning sparked, exploding across the snow towards Black Lady. She saw it coming this time and pivoted, allowing it to impact harmlessly with the monolith, but it stopped her relentless attack. Even so, the soldiers were slow to stand, and she watched them coldly out of the corner of her eye. Her hand lifted, twisting in a summons.
       "We've got company," the Crystal Guardian warned them, as the crunch of shoes on snow sounded. Behind them, two figures were walking through the fog, sharp angled bodies that moved with a strange hesitancy.
       Demand appeared first, his dandy white clothes now crumpled and gray with wear, his eyes glazed with the emptiness of no one being home. Saphir, stumbling slightly, was in a similar disheveled state, though he had never been the clothes nut his brother was. As well, he had that same glazed look in his eyes, though his hands were glowing amoebae, shifting within the vague shape of five digits with the ease of water. They didn't look in the least bit human. Black Lady laughed, "Saphir, Demand, show the sailor soldiers your new powers, given to you for loyal service to my master!"
       Venus didn't wait, stepping forward immediately. "Rolling Heart Vibration!"
       "Flower Hurricane!"
       A golden heart spun out at the two brothers, surrounded in a cloud of deceptively weak-looking flower petals. But when it hit, all that was destroyed was a mound of snow, melted to water and soaking the ground. Demand and Saphir were in the air, leaping over the attacks like acrobats - though they wouldn't have been able to do such a thing normally - to land on either side of Black Lady like loyal dogs. Those amoebic hands reached out, stretching like putty across the air to snap tight around Mars' and the Crystal Guardian's throats, squeezing. "Sensei!" Venus cried.
       "Sailor Mars!" Moon echoed, frantic.
       As they struggled, Demand stepped forward. "The power of evil vision resides in me now, sailor soldiers. Look at me, and know weakness!" The sigil on his forehead glowed, the inverted black crescent replaced by the oval that Sailor Moon had been captured with.
       "Don't look at him, sailor soldiers!" the tall red-head gasped, clawing at the hand at her throat. Both she and Mars were on their knees, steadily weakening as Saphir tightened his grip. But looking at him was apparently not a requirement; Jupiter and Venus cried out as the light blasted them, knocking them down.
       Mercury raised her hand, yelling, "Shine Snow Illusion!" releasing the power towards Saphir. It slammed fully into the blue-haired scientist, cutting his arms off at the elbow as he fell backward. Unattached, the hands dissolved around Mars' and the Crystal Guardian's throats, and they gulped in air gratefully as they lay on the snow.
       Four were now weakened, and the battle had hardly begun. Black Lady laughed, motioning her two men to stand down as Mercury and Moon moved into defensive positions, though the odango-haired blonde had nothing more than her tiara as a weapon. Venus, Jupiter, and Mars, always stubborn, were attempting to get to their feet, and failing rather fantastically. Demand's power had sucked the vitality out of Venus and Jupiter, and Saphir's hands, as they had cut off the air supply, had done the same to Mars and the Crystal Guardian. But the tall red-head managed to roll onto her knees, and there she stayed.
       "Wiseman, look at our triumph! The powerful sailor soldiers of the 21st century, defeated by the given powers of our puppet princes!" the pink-haired woman mocked, touching a hand to the sleeves of the two brothers. "When they will be brought to ruin with their planet, it will be a mercy for them."
       (Demand kicked at the walls of his prison, shouting obscenities.)
       "Why are you doing this? This is your home, Chibi-Usa-chan!" Sailor Moon pleaded, her mouth opening into an 'O' of surprise as the robed seer appeared out of the fog behind her warped child.
       All of the soldiers stared at the Wiseman, though they had all seen him before. It was simply a shock again to see the eerie figure, with his hands so unearthly and his feet - if he had them - never touching the ground. "Quit with that old name, Sailor Moon," he rasped. "She is my lovely Black Lady now; the rabbit is no more. And she will lead this, her home planet, to ruin, in the name of the Phantom."
       "Hai," Black Lady agreed, tossing her head. "Already the black crystal monoliths are achieving their purpose, to slowly bring about ruin. Everything on the surface will be destroyed by negative space, warped into uselessness."
       "And the atmosphere will atrophy," Mercury said, interrupting fiercely, "and the electromagnetic field will be collapsed. The planet will no longer spin on its axis, the air will be unbreathable, the solar radiation will cook everything living."
       The pink-haired woman stroked a hand against the smooth surface of the crystal, smiling smugly. "Do you truly care so much for this corrupt world? It doesn't matter. Humanity is a foul creation, ignoring its destructive ways. In revenge for the Phantom, we will sentence it properly to ruin and decay."
       "Then what do you want the second Ginzuishou for, if all you want is for the earth to go to hell?" the tall red-head queried in annoyance, her breath rasping in her throat.
       Wiseman said, "To combine the power of the two holy stones, with that of our primal stone of ruin, the Jakokusuishou. With that power, nothing will stop us."
       "Stupid question."
       "And you, the Crystal Guardian; have you no means to attack us? You of such power, the legendary protector of the royal family?" Wiseman sneered, quite obvious from his tone. "Are the stories merely fiction?"
       The tall red-head merely stared at him, kneeling as she was on the ground.
       Black Lady turned away, motioning with her arms outstretched. "My prince, come to my arms. Prove to the soldiers that their mission is futile. Endymion!"
       Mercury caught her princess as she staggered, unsure if she had heard correctly. But as the dark-haired prince stepped out of the fog, his ocean blue eyes that frighteningly familiar solid black without the usual domino, she let out a little cry. He didn't even look towards her, ignored her completely as he allowed Black Lady to wrap her arms around him, curling up against his chest like a contented kitten. Loose in his hand at his side, half-hidden by the folds of his cape, was the shining gleam of Sailor Moon's rod.
       "Tuxedo Kamen-sama!" Venus said.
       "My Endymion," Black Lady corrected her primly, stroking her fingers against his cheek. "He's all mine now, the last keepsake of this planet. With him in my arms, nothing else matters but ruining this world for you."
       "Iie! Mamo-chan loves me!" the odango-haired blonde cried, utter despair on her face. Hadn't she just gone through this possessive-villain dance already once before? Was she just cursed to be in love with such a prime piece of real estate?
       "You've got to be kidding me." The Crystal Guardian was attempting to stand up, leaning on her broadsword. "He's your father for gods' sakes."
       There was a long silence.
       Obviously, this hadn't occurred to the pink-haired woman, not in such blank terminology. Of course she knew Endymion was her father, but he was an older man in a lavender tuxedo; this Endymion was younger, in dignified black, and it was quite easy to simply not make the connection. Especially when Wiseman had not intended her to do so, playing on her hero worship of Tuxedo Kamen to create an incestuous desire. But, quite frankly, it was just a bit too disturbing. "Ano," Jupiter finally said, "she's right."
       Black Lady looked up at Endymion, who stared straight ahead like a good automaton. Then, she just shrugged. "I don't care. He's still mine. This body is not his daughter's anymore. This body belongs to the Phantom."
       She turned completely away from them to smooth out the lapels of his tuxedo jacket, smiling at his chest. Behind him she could see the Wiseman, shaping the air around his crystal in what looked to be meaningless gestures, as he always did. "He belongs to me now, my prince. And as my prince, he will do as I say, faithfully." Partially turning to see Sailor Moon's stricken face, she stroked Endymion's chin as she said, "Strike her down. Make her bleed."
       Mercury stepped impulsively in front of her princess, the only one able. The tall red-head was upright, but only with the aid of her weapon; and Endymion was simply too quick. He darted forward, bringing his elbow around to smash it into Mercury's temple as she brought her hands forward to call her attack, knocking her into the snow. "Sailor Mercury!" Moon cried, scrambling back instinctively as her prince continued towards her. "Mamo-chan, don't do this; you can banish the evil! Mamo-chan!"
       Venus grabbed for his leg. Jupiter clung to his cape. He kicked and shook them away roughly, bringing his only weapon up to strike the odango-haired blonde; her own rod. "Mamo-chan," she whispered, tears in her eyes.
       "Stop!"
       Endymion's hand jerked in mid-air, halting the downward swing inches from her face.
       Behind him, the Crystal Guardian held out her hand, her face twisted into a grimace of concentration. Endymion's arm slowly came down to rest at his side, in jerky movements as he unconsciously fought. Black Lady stomped her foot. "No! You can't do that! You can't interfere in such a manner!"
       "Watch me," the tall red-head growled. Her hand moved, and the dark-haired prince seemed to fly backwards over the ground, upright, pushed back to Black Lady's side by no means anyone could see. As he came to a stop, the Crystal Guardian collapsed to the ground, gripping her forehead tightly.
       "Guardian!" Sailor Moon ran to her side, though it was a useless motion; she seemed to be the only soldier left unhurt. Even Mercury now was wounded, barely conscious in the snow from the blow to her temple. Mars, Venus, and Jupiter lay where they had landed, staring weakly into the sky. The odango-haired blonde was alone, and she looked up slowly to see her enemy.
       "Give up, Sailor Moon," Wiseman said. "The Ginzuishou belongs to the victor."
       "Never." She stood straight, glaring at them angrily. "I have a duty to defend this planet. I won't give up, no matter what! Even though my friends have been hurt, and I'm alone, I'll die to protect them all!"
       Her hand went to her tiara, pulling it from her brow.
       She didn't think. She didn't even stop to aim. She simply pulled her arm back, flinging the tiara towards the robed seer as she shouted, "Moon Frisbee!"
       It soared through the air, so close to Black Lady's ear that she flinched, though making no attempt to stop what she considered a silly action. And it flew past her to impact with the robes that so uniformly covered Wiseman, exploding with light and energy as it cut right through the cloth, all the way through his body, and came arcing back for her to catch. But Sailor Moon was almost so stunned she didn't catch it properly, letting it fall at her feet as Wiseman's robes dropped to the ground, empty save for a skeleton. "M-masaka," she moaned. "His true form was of a skeleton?"
       (Demand stared in momentary disbelief at the hole in his prison.)
       "It was his former form," Black Lady demurred, tilting her head back.
       Following her gaze, Sailor Moon looked up into the sky.

       Diana had never realized that running the length of the palace took so long. From one spire to the next, little paws rapid over the marble floor, she panted with the effort to make it to the door. What she didn't know is what she would say when she got there.
       And this was a crazy plan to begin with. To ask the Guardian of Time to leave her post and immerse herself in battle? It was blasphemy. The queen had made it known already that Pluto was forbidden from leaving the doorway unguarded, unless special dispensation was given by herself, the Queen of the Silver Millennium. She alone had the authority to call Pluto into the flow of time; and to accept the responsibility if Pluto died in battle to find the new avatar. What Diana planned to do was simply against the rules.
       But she didn't care. Her princess was in trouble, Small Lady had been turned into a wicked echo of her mother, and their king couldn't even come to their aid anymore. She had no doubt in her mind that Sailor Moon, though powerful, was still too young to be victorious on her own without any help; and from the glimpses of the sky she caught as she ran, the sailor soldiers were in no shape to help her. Things were becoming bad, very bad.
       And she wanted Small Lady safe, no matter what the cost.
       The door was closed, which presented a problem. Diana slid to a stop, thinking of what she could do; the knob was several meters above her head. So she began to kick at the door as hard as she could, crying, "Pluto-sama! Pluto-o-sama!" at the top of her little lungs.
       Pluto, fighting desperately to disperse the last storm wreaking havoc in space-time, didn't even hear her. It was taking all of her powers to scatter the storm, an ability she didn't even truly have, and was forced to create off the top of her head. Sharp pieces of Reality and Dimension had sliced her tender skin in several places, and she was trying to ignore the thought that she would have to beg release into time to heal the wounds. She had never been hurt in such a manner in space-time, but she knew the cuts would continue to bleed no matter what she did to staunch them.
       With a cry of anger she slammed her rod down, releasing enough power to bake a whale in its skin, and the storm finally got the hint. It dissolved into a heap of random pieces of dimensional detritus, and she slumped onto her knees to sigh. How she loathed her job now. How she loathed so suddenly being locked into time-space, without the freedom to simply walk away.
       That was when she heard the tapping.
       Puzzled, she bade the door to open a crack, peering into time to see a frantic little kitten staring in at her. "Pluto-sama! Oh, Pluto-sama, you have to help them!"
       "Help who?"
       "Everyone! Endymion-sama is too weak to appear anymore, and Small Lady is now Black Lady, and she's queen of Nemesis, and Sailor Moon is not strong enough to fight, I know it! Pluto-sama, you have to fight with them!"
       "Black Lady….?" Pluto stared blankly at the decorative crystal wall. "Queen of Nemesis? Oh, Small Lady, what have they done to you…"
       Diana squeezed into space-time, frantically dancing around the black-haired soldier. If it weren't for such a dire situation, her motions would have been cute, if not downright adorable. "Pluto-sama, do something! You must!"
       Pluto looked down at her, frowning now. Slumped still onto her knees, she still towered over the tiny kitten, and Diana slowly came to a halt. "Diana, you know I'm not allowed to leave the doorway undefended," she said slowly. "Even though I want dearly to fight, it isn't allowed. Only Serenity-sama may grant me release."
       "I speak for the queen!"
       "…ne?"
       "I speak for the queen!" Diana repeated, bouncing on her hindquarters. "I know this is what she would say! And if something isn't done, the queen won't be alive to ever grant you release, because the Black Moon could destroy everything!"
       Despite herself, Pluto had to smile at the kitten's audacity. "Nevertheless, I cannot leave the gate undefended."
       The lavender feline straightened her shoulders, assuming what Pluto figured was meant to be a proud pose. "I'll stand guard! Small as I am, maybe even powerless, at least someone will be here in your place."
       "Diana, I…" But what could she say?
       Pluto stared out into time. And here, she had been thinking about asking for such a release, if only to heal her bleeding limbs. Now she was being shoved out into a situation that could possibly kill her; how cruel, irony. But Diana was most likely correct, and if Serenity's line were obliterated, no one would have the authority to allow her freedom.
       She picked up her rod from where it had fallen, stroking a hand against Diana's fur. "Arigatou, Diana-chan," she whispered, standing up. "If another Pluto should take my place, don't argue with her."
       "No one else will be Sailor Pluto," Diana replied, a bit angrily. "Only you! And I'll wait for you to return!"
       If only she had that optimism.
       The time guardian steadied herself as she looked into the palace hallway, firmly gripping her weapon. Her step into time was more a fall, forcing her body out of time-space and into the constraints of minutes, hours, seconds, a change that knocked the breath from her lungs. She wobbled, her body wracked with the weight of the aging process, of the pain process, of the hunger process, of so many different processes she couldn't keep up. The soldiers had experienced the reverse when being thrown into time-space, but they had exited rather quickly. She, on the other hand, had been living in the same second for millennia.
       She reached back finally to pull the door closed, hobbling forward towards the front gates of the Crystal Palace. Surely they were this way.

       At the same time, Sailor Moon was staring up into a nightmare.
       The sky had begun shaping down into a twisting funnel, directly over the Crystal Palace, like the giant of all tornadoes. "What is that?" she asked, wincing as the wind began to whip around them violently.
       Her friends stared up as best they could, watching the funnel open wide, wider, spinning into a globe shape. And it kept growing, engulfing the sky over their heads, like a gigantic meteor falling from a passing shower, big enough to kill life on earth. "Kami-sama, it's a planet," Mars moaned, craning her head weakly to see the growth.
       "A planet? That's impossible, Mars!" Jupiter replied, leaning against the long-haired blonde as she did the same in turn to remain upright.
       "Iie, Jupiter. Not if it's a planet perhaps a fraction of Earth's size," Mercury said softly, holding her head as she looked up into the sky. "Nemesis is no bigger than Pluto, often thought to be perhaps a misplaced asteroid from the Kuiper Belt."
       Black Lady laughed, folding her arms through Endymion's left arm. "Hai, little soldier. Behold, Wiseman's true form!"
       Against the black orb, Wiseman's unique, frightening eyes appeared, giving the planet the look of a bald head. It would have been funny in any other circumstance. "Greetings, sailor soldiers. Behold the rotting corpse of my body, weak and insufficient for my purposes. And behold me now, as Nemesis and Wiseman, one and all!" his voice boomed, rumbling like thunder in their ears.
       "And here we go with the God complex," the Crystal Guardian remarked from the ground. "If he quotes Massad Ayoob, I am going to be upset."
       That was apparently the least of their problems. As Nemesis settled into its orbit, partially submerged in the failing atmosphere, the city began to twist and warp, shattering into pieces that flew up into the planet like a vacuum. It was as if they were in a sink full of water and the plug had been pulled; everything was swirling into oblivion. Only the Crystal Palace remained unchanged, though its shining light was beginning to fade. "The planet is going to be ruined at twice the rate with Nemesis in orbit!" Mercury yelled above the noise - sucking up civilization into a vortex was loud work - activating her goggles. The numbers scrolling now were frantic, red in the universal signal of DANGER, and getting worse; already it was getting hard to breathe, the air feeling warmer as the sun's radiation crept through the clouds.
       Black Lady turned to watch the city being torn apart, rubbing her cheek against Endymion's cape. "Isn't it wonderful? Soon, Earth will be as a ruined corpse, decayed into a planet of death. Assimilated by Nemesis, the force will be unstoppable in the galaxy."
       "IIE! I won't allow it!"
       Turning, the pink-haired woman looked to see Sailor Moon staring resolutely at the Crystal Palace, fists balled at her sides. "You say that so often. Perhaps your basis of reality is no longer acceptable."
       Without answering her, the odango-haired blonde held up her arms.
       No one stopped her as she summoned the power of the Ginzuishou, eyes closing as she reached out with her mind towards the other she knew was still actively listening; as they touched, she began to glow with power. In unison, they could see the Crystal Palace glowing as well, like two similar stars in the galaxy answering each other's light. "Sailor Moon, you can't hold off Nemesis by yourself!" the Crystal Guardian yelled, reaching towards her.
       "We can help you, Sailor Moon!" Mercury echoed, doing the same.
       Jupiter held out her hands, saying, "Don't do this alone!"
       Mars and Venus said nothing, reaching a hand each for their princess.
       The glowing soldier dropped her hands, feeling her friends grip her wrists, her arm, and it was a looped circuit now, power flowing through them all into her. All of them were connected, sharing their energy. It was amazing, and the odango-haired blonde gasped at the sight of the Crystal Palace growing bright, brighter.
       Black Lady gestured sharply, looking at Endymion.
       He stepped forward, advancing again on the princess and her allies; all of them lost in the surge of power that made them strong again. None of them noticed him walking right up to them, but they felt when he ripped away the brooch and its holy stone, the connection violently severed. The feedback was sensational, almost as spectacular a light show as the connection itself, dropping the soldiers where they knelt, screaming once. In their midst dropped Usagi, limp as a doll, no longer Sailor Moon.
       Endymion retreated, confused. Was this supposed to happen?
       In one hand was the brooch; in the other, the rod. He felt Usagi hovering at his shoulder like a pesky spirit, laughing in his ear: "Mamo-chan!"
       But then Black Lady pressed in against his side, plucking the brooch from his hand casually. And all was well again in his mind, and he watched her mutely as she popped open the lid, tossing the brooch aside like junk as she retrieved the past Ginzuishou. "Finally: the past and future Maboroshi no Ginzuishou," she crooned, holding the two up in her hands. One was still strung on its golden chain, wrapping around her fingers; the other was plain, long removed from the setting. "Wiseman, we've triumphed!"
       "You intend to ruin my world. That wasn't part of the plan, Rabbit," Demand said coldly behind her. She turned, startled, to see the white-haired prince staring at her in fierce anger, quite obviously not imprisoned within his mind anymore. "All of us lived in close quarters with Wiseman, trusting his word, that he was loyal to our vision. But it was a lie, was it not? A calculated lie to make us his slaves."
       "You were useless pawns," she sneered, cradling the crystals to her cheek. "Silly people with worthless dreams. All that was required of you was to begin the process." She looked towards his brother, still motionless. "We have no more need of you. Shall I dispose of you now, or allow you to fall to ruin with your precious planet?"
       Demand took an aggressive step forward.
       Black Lady gestured, and energy ripped Saphir apart where he stood.
       But the white-haired prince never stopped.
       He grabbed her wrist, flinging her around and into the black crystal monolith. Caught off-guard, ankles twisting yet again, she slammed into the hard crystal. Grabbing her wrists in one hand, he backhanded her once, twice, saying with deceptive calm, "That was for my brother." Again; two more times. "For Esmeraud and Rubeus, and for the collective spirit of our group, sacrificed on your altar!" He plucked the two crystals from her hand, breaking the golden chain, as she sagged against the monolith, blood trickling from her lip. Endymion, with no one commanding him, simply stood and watched.
       Wiseman howled above his head, but he laughed despite the fetid air stealing his breath, never feeling more alive. "You can keep the Jakokusuishou, Wiseman!" he yelled into the sky, triumphant, holding a crystal in each hand. "I have the Ginzuishou of the past, and of the future! Imagine what I can accomplish now!"
       Two crystals…
       Ah, but if he could combine them into one…! Laughing at his own sly thoughts, he brought the two crystals together.