Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Fragility of Time ❯ Chapter 34: The Past Present, and Future ( Chapter 34 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

The Fragility of Time BOOK TWO: "Falling Towards Apotheosis"
Chapter 34: The Past, Present, and Future
Author: etj4Eagle
Email: etj4Eagle@yahoo.com
Lasted Edited: 12/6/04

Disclaimer: A reminder I own none of the characters of
this story, all rights are owned by others. However, the
unique circumstances of the story are mine. If you
distribute the story, do only so freely and inform me of
where you post it.
_______________________________________



In a distant part of the Milky Way Galaxy, a planet orbited one star of a binary
system in a rare stable orbit that lay within the habitable zone. Most planets in binary
systems that managed to have stable orbits lay so far distant from either of their the stars
that the two stars would be no more than bright stars in the night sky or were so close to
one star that they were scorched by its heat. However, Erion did have a stable orbit at the
perfect distance for life to thrive without the assistance of technology or magic. Initially,
Erion was no different from any other planet that developed in close to their parent star,
having an unstable orbit that would have eventually ejected it from the system. But a
combination of magic and technology had stabilized Erion's orbit, or actually had once
stabilized the orbit. Now that technology had been destroyed and the last of the magical
links was on the verge of death.
"So Sailor Erion are you ready to surrender?" a woman decked out in gold armor
asked.
Sailor Erion knew that the battle was hopeless and that her planet was going to die
today. Roughly 60% the population was already dead and a good portion of the 40%
which wasn't already fully dead had been turned into demons when their souls had been
stolen. The military was in shambles and the palace was the only building semi-standing
in the capital. Behind her, half the ruling council was dead and the prime minister was
barely hanging onto his life. And, she herself was not that much better off either. Her left
arm had been blown off by one of the demons and she now walked with a severe limp.
However, giving in was not an option. The planet might be lost, but she had to stop this
deranged Sailor Senshi before the whole galaxy fell.
"I won't ever give in Galaxia. I will not join your side, I would rather die first."
Sailor Erion stated.
Laughing, Galaxia regarded her opponent. "Oh, I am sure you don't want to join
me. Rarely does your kind want to, but they have no choice. You see before this day is
over you will be executing the rest the council here and then I think I'll have you kill
your own child. After all, I am sure that he is still alive here somewhere and who better to
be able to find him than his own mother." Galaxia replied with a wicked smile.
"Meteor blast" Erion called out sending a rain of deadly rock towards her
opponent, a barrage that was vaporized by a simple hand swipe of Galaxia.
"As amusing as this battle has been, it is time to bring it to a close." Galaxia said
before unleashing dozens of her soul stealing spheres.
Leaping out of the way, Erion dodged the first of them, but she was not able to
dodge them all. With a shriek of pain, her soul was forced from her body. Falling down to
the ground, she saw it coalesce into a crystal pulsing with energy. She tried to move to
grab it but, she could only move a little bit as her body was wracked in terrible pain and
began to dissolve into motes of light. <Well at least I won't be one of her slaves.> Erion
consoled herself with.
However, even as she thought that she felt a weight suddenly form on her wrists.
Looking down she saw that she was now wearing the bracers of Galaxia's lackeys. And
with that understanding of what Galaxia meant came to her. With Galaxia controlling her
soul, her body now became just an empty vessel that Galaxia could manipulate and keep
alive by the use of these bands. As soon as her Star Seed was in Galaxia's hands, her free
will would cease to exist.
For her part, Galaxia looked on triumphantly as another Star Seed was added to
her collection. Soon she would have them all and with them the power to remake the
Galaxy to her desire. In a deep part of her mind another soul had a very different plan, but
for now it was content with just manipulating Galaxia.
This attack, however, was not destined to be normal for as the Star Seed passed
the halfway point to Galaxia it suddenly glowed brightly before vanishing. For the first
few moments, Galaxia couldn't believe what she had just seen. The clanking of bracers
hitting the ground brought her back to reality. Looking over to them she saw them lying
empty on the ground, Erion's body having finished evaporating. Rage coursing through
her body at the thought of someone interfering with her plans, Galaxia began killing
everyone and destroying everything in sight. In the depths where she lay in wait, Sailor
Chaos perked up. There was something very unsettling about the energy she had felt
reach out and steal that Star Seed.

* * * * * * * * *

It was lunch time and that meant that the lab was deserted for the next few hours.
Mimete did not expect the professor back for awhile as he typically liked to have a
leisurely lunch with a cup of coffee, or twenty. The rest of the lab assistants would stay
away from the basement till mid-afternoon as today Mimete was scheduled to give the
Daimon incubator its weekly cleaning. The glop that was cleaned out each week was
quite foul and no one, if they could help it, would be caught in the general area of the lab
while it was being cleaned out. Normally, Mimete cursed the days when she had to clean
the incubator; however, today was not one of those days.
Today she wanted the privacy that cleaning out the incubator brought. And
anyways with her plans, she didn't have the time to do her chore, but she was sure that the
professor wouldn't mind once she had succeeded in killing the Sailor Senshi. Opening the
door to the lab, she pushed a cart loaded with her supplies into the lab. Coming to a halt
beside the incubator, she opened the access hatch to the machine and began the task of
unpacking the various items she had collected. Opening the case containing the sniper
rifle, she looked over the directions for a few minutes before assembling the high
powered rifle. But then as she attempted to place it into the incubator, she ran into a slight
problem, it was too long.
<Now that isn't good. How am I supposed to give my creation sniper abilities if I
can't get the rifle into the processing bay? Hmm... Well it shouldn't really matter if I put it
in disassembled, the Daimon should be able to just reassemble it.> Mimete decided. And
so, Mimete began the process of dissembling the rifle and placing the various
components into the incubator. Turning back to the cart, she noticed the instruction
booklet she had used in the rifle's assembly. <Better give it the instructions as well, so it
will know how to put its weapon back together.> Mimete thought before tossing the
manual and then the copy Sun Tzu's Art of War into to the incubator.
Fifteen minutes later she removed the last item from her cart, a sheet of titanium
and placed it into the incubator. Then turning back to the cart, she gave it a final check to
make sure she had not missed any of the items. Seeing nothing, she turned back to look at
the very full processing bay of the incubator and tried to think of anything she might have
missed. "Well let's see. There is the laser, roller blades, black belt, martial arts videos,
rifle, explosives, titanium, comic books, military strategy books, and of course the
Daimon egg crystal. Nope I think that is all." Mimete concluded. Satisfied that every
thing was ready, she closed the door to the processing bay. Though, as she was about to
latch it shut, she thought of one final item that she had wanted to include - the strange
key. "Almost forgot about you." she said as she pulled the chain that held the key out
from under her blouse. "I have no idea what you really are, but something tells me that
you are special, which means that it can't hurt that I am placing you in with everything
else."
And so, Mimete added the final item and then closed and latched the hatch shut.
Thankfully there wasn't anything else she wanted to place inside of it, as there was maybe
enough room for a thin crust pizza, but that was it. Walking over to the control panel,
Mimete pulled out the instruction manual, which was titled "So you want to make a life
energy stealing monster?" Following the steps in the binder, she took the necessary steps
to prep the machine and then once all the gauges and dials were showing the incubator to
be ready, she pressed the large go button and stepped back to watch her genius at work.
At first the incubator appeared to be processing Mimete's Daimon no differently
than the others; however, after a half a minute, she noticed that some of the gauges were
beginning to climb into the danger zones. Unable to do anything, Mimete watched as one
gauge after the other was redlined. Then as the needles began to peg, Mimete's attention
was drawn by the rumbling sound that was coming from the incubator. Looking at it, she
saw that it was visibly shaking and that even some of the bolts looked like they were
being strained to the breaking point. Taking some steps backward, Mimete put the control
console between herself and the incubator. With a rapidly deepening sense of doom,
Mimete noticed that the incubator was now billowing smoke.
But then with from one moment to the next, the rumbling and smoking stopped,
as a dinner bell sounded. Cautiously looking at the incubator, Mimete sighed in relief that
she was not going to be killed by it exploding. Though as Mimete sighed, the incubator
also appeared to give a sigh of its own, a sigh that was quickly followed by loud crash as
the machine just collapsed to the ground in a pile of parts while kicking up a large cloud
of dust.
Coughing and waving her arms in front of her face in order to clear up the air so
that she could see, a now once again very nervous Mimete walked forward to inspect the
rubble. She just hoped that her Daimon had survived; because if it did, then the loss of
the incubator was a minor price to pay. Shifting through the rubble, she noticed that the
machine appeared to have come apart at the connectors, which made the task of moving
through the rubble much easier. After many minutes of searching, she finally came across
her goal - a metal briefcase with a black stare emblazed on its sides. All set now to kill
the Sailor Senshi, Mimete left the lab.

* * * * * * * * *

A few hours after Mimete had finished destroying the Daimon incubator found
Usagi, Naru, Ami, Minako, and Makoto on their way do some shopping. Given that they
had all taken a history test earlier in the day, they were on their way to reward themselves
for their hard work in studying. Turning a corner, the group came to a collective stop as
they spotted Setsuna who was sitting on top of a low wall that ran along the sidewalk
eating an ice-cream cone.
"Setsuna you're eating an ice-cream cone?" Minako blurted out, verbalizing the
thought that was running through the minds of the rest of the group. Being the mysterious
warrior that she was, none of the others had really ever conceived that she might have a
normal life. It was much the same way that students are often surprised when they come
across their teachers outside of school.
Of course the rest managed to avoid speaking out loud that question and Minako
was rewarded for the bluntness of her question by having Makoto grabbing her hair and
yanking it backwards while she placed a hand over the blonde's mouth while hissing
"baka."
For her part, Setsuna just chuckled at the antics of the group, once again realizing
why she liked being in this part of the timeline so much. "No offense taken Minna-san.
And yes Minako-chan, I do at times have the time to enjoy the roses. I am not all work"
Then after a moment's pause, she added "at least when I am in the time-stream. And
normally during this time I have a fair bit of time to myself. It's just with the damage to
the time-stream this time around that is keeping me unusually busy."
"Well then you definitely deserve that ice cream cone." replied Usagi.
Grabbing a hold of one of Minako's arms, Makoto told her "Come along, we're
going to get cones for the rest of us." before yanking the blond along with her.
"Why me?" Minako protested as she was pulled along.
Makoto's replied first with a look of "you know why" and then added verbally
"and you're paying for them as well." Returning a few minutes later with the cones,
Makoto handed the extra cone that she was holding to Naru, while Minako gave one to
Ami and Usagi.
"Arigato Minako-chan." Ami said as she received her cone, how much do I owe
you for this?"
"Nothing they're on me." The blond replied.
"Arigatoo, Arigatoo" the silver haired Usagi replied, always ecstatic about the
opportunity for free food.

* * * * * * * * *

A squadron of what some might term to be the ugliest planes ever designed,
began their final approach to the Zima airfield. While they might not look pretty, they
looked even uglier to enemy ground troops, for they were designed for close in air-
support. Unlike the sleek high flying jets, these planes nicknamed the Warthog stayed
close to the ground and flew slow. Their wings were normally loaded down with all kinds
of weaponry while their nose was outfitted with a large armor piercing cannon. All in all,
an A-10 Warthog was the worst nightmare of a tank and the brass hoped the worst night
nightmare of a demon as well. This squadron was the first batch of a recent arms
purchase with the United States and had until recently been assigned to a National Guard
unit.
"This is Zima tower, you are cleared for landing on runways 27 left and 27 right."
On the ground many of the base's personnel had come out to watch the arrival of
the new aircraft. The gunship crews of course put on a front of being annoyed that the
brass apparently did not feel that they had what was needed to defend their country and
that they now had to accept help from fixed wing pilots. But internally they all were
thankful for whatever help they could get. When going up against demons that could take
multiple rockets it was worth swallowing your pride. After all, once you get shown up by
a group of school girls in short skirts, your ego can't really go any lower.

* * * * * * * * *

Not long after Setsuna had gotten the company of Usagi, Naru, Ami, Makoto and
Minako, Rei had joined the group. Thankfully, they were not far from where Rei was to
meet up with them, so she had found them without too much effort after realizing that
they weren't showing at the meeting place. Otherwise Usagi might have gotten an ear
full. Instead, Rei had forgone any complaining to instead get a cone of her own.
Feeling something ripple against her spirit, Rei dropped out of the conversation
that she was having with the others. Scanning the area, she tried to identify what it was
she had just felt or at least get an idea of what direction it had come from. But her senses
couldn't pick up anything else out of the ordinary. <That's strange, that was a strong
enough ripple that I should be able to sense some kind of residue. Well I can't do
anything about it now, I'll have to ask grandpa tonight if he had sensed anything.> Rei
thought before turning back to the group to rejoin the conversation. However, when she
saw Setsuna's face, she realized that the green haired woman had also felt the ripple and
apparently still was given the grimace on her face.
"Setsuna-san are you feeling all right?" Rei asked concern in her voice.
"I... I don't know." Setsuna replied in a hesitant voice. And, then before she or
Rei could say anything more, Rei saw Setsuna's eyes roll up into the back of her head.
Moving on instinct, Rei was able to move into position to catch hold of Setsuna as she
collapsed and thereby kept the older woman from fallowing off the wall.
Dropping their cones, the others all quickly huddled around, while Rei with
Makoto's help lowered Setsuna to the ground. Setsuna's eyes opened moments after she
was lowered to the ground and she looked up into a group of worried girls. Moving to
rise, a gentle but firm push from Ami kept her down. "Wait a few minutes before you try
to sit-up." Ami instructed.
"I'm fine now; you don't have to worry about me passing out again." Setsuna
said, trying to be allowed to get up.
"Uh huh," Ami mumbled not really believing Setsuna. Holding up her hand she
asked, "Setsuna-san how many fingers am I holding up?"
Directing her attention at Ami's hand, Setsuna counted three fingers. But even as
she counted the three fingers, she also counted two fingers and then five, as well as four,
one, and zero. She closed her eyes as she felt her grip on reality going again as well as a
building pain in her soul. The pain she felt was a sympathetic pain resulting from time
itself being ripped apart and all Setsuna wanted to do was curl up on herself. But then
suddenly the pain was all gone; it was as if someone had flipped a switch turning it off.
The sudden disappearance of her pain worried Setsuna even more than the pain itself.
"Minna-san you don't have to worry anymore, I am no longer being affected."
Setsuna said now that she was free of the pain. However, Ami did not appear to believe
her and so Setsuna elaborated. "What I was suffering from are sympathetic pains caused
by damage to the time-stream. As its Guardian, I can feel in my soul when spacetime is
damaged. Now I need to be allowed to return to my feet so that I can check something."
Usagi could tell from one look at Ami's face, that the doctor to be was not about
to relent with just Setsuna's say-so that she was all better. "Ami, I think we need to let
Setsuna get up. If something has happened, the only way we are going to be able to help
her is if she can investigate it."
"Hai, I guess your right. But if she gets another one of these attacks, she lays right
back down." Ami stated.
"Agreed." Usagi and Setsuna said.
Getting some help from Naru, Setsuna returned to her feet and summoned her
staff. The others all gasped as they saw the Garnet Orb atop of the staff pulsing widely as
storm waged inside of it. Placing a hand on the orb, Setsuna was once again able to feel
the ripping of the fabric of spacetime. <What has that fool Rubeus done now? I knew I
should have killed him when I first saw him.> Pluto tried to tell herself, even though she
knew that if she had she would be facing a crisis in the future which she could not fight,
Sailor Moon destroying the cosmos. No, at least she could still try to head off the pending
temporal collapse. Setsuna's thoughts now turned to why she now needed the Garnet Orb
to sense the flow of time. Instantly finding the cause, Pluto thought to herself, <Either
this is a battle of a scale far worse than Galaxia or I am about to become the butt of a
cosmic joke.>
"Setsuna-san what's happening?" Usagi asked with a slight bit of fear in her
voice, knowing in her soul that something was very wrong. And the storm in the Garnet
Orb was doing nothing to quell those fears.
While, she heard Usagi' question, Setsuna did not respond; instead, there was
another task that she needed to do first, one which required all of her attention. Focusing
in on the Garnet Orb, she linked her mind to the Talisman and instructed it to disconnect
from the staff and to come to rest in her hand. Then pulling the orb in close she instructed
it to change shape, to shrink in on itself and to form into a pendent. With the
transformation of the talisman complete, she affixed it around her neck and slipped it
inside of her blouse.
Setsuna then proceeded to take a few moments to verify her renewed connection
to time and to confirm that her stopgap measure would work. Satisfied, she opened her
eyes and looked at the concerned group of friends. "Minna-san, I am afraid that we face a
very serious threat. Rubeus has unleashed powers that he does not comprehend and if we
don't stop what he has started, the cosmos will collapse in on itself and cease to exist."
The others just stood stunned at that pronouncement. Finally it was Makoto who
spoke "You're sure about that?"
"Hai I am. As the Guardian of Spacetime, I am aware of any substantial
disruption to the natural flows of time. Just now I felt a major ripping of time, as if time
itself was being destroyed. As we speak the concepts of the past, future and present are
becoming meaningless. Because of my connection to time, I am affected by this damage.
However, I am now shielded from the effects." Setsuna explained. However, she decided
to keep secret about loosing the majority of her powers. They did not need to concern
themselves with that, and anyways her full powers would be a handicap in this fight.
"So how are we supposed to go about finding what is messing with time?"
Makoto asked.
"How about we ask those soldiers?" Minako suggested.
"And why would the JDF know anything about this?" Rei replied with a bitter
tone. However she did follow Minako's arm and upon seeing the soldiers she answered
her own question with an "Oh." The soldiers Minako was pointing out were not those of
the JDF, but instead an army unit from the Warring States Era.
"Tell me that they are just actors preparing to stage a mock ancient battle."
Makoto pleaded.
"Unfortunately not," Setsuna said. "Look at the confusion and fear on their faces.
To them they have suddenly walked into a nightmare as their world was transformed into
this one of concrete, steel and glass.
No words needed to be said after that, the girls all just looked at each other while
summoning their transformation wands and then in a brilliant flash of light they were
ready to face whatever was doing this.
"Minna-san, I suggest we split up and look for what is causing this." Mercury
suggested. "Something has to be generating the temporal disturbance that is disrupting
time's arrow."
"Hai," the others agreed, even though they did not quite understand exactly what
Mercury had just said.
Jumping onto a nearby building, Ami heard the ringing of something removed to
a different plane of existence. Stopping on the roof she tried to figure out what was
causing this ringing sound she was hearing. Though she quickly decided hearing was not
really the right word, as there was no sound. Instead, she was only sensing that she was
hearing something ringing. <So how can I be hearing something, but not be hearing it?
It's as if I am connected to where it this ringing is coming from and that connection is
allowing the ringing to come through. Wait I wonder.> Ami thought before concentrating
to access a part of her outfit before her transformation. The first two times she tried she
failed, but on the third trial she was able to hold her focus long enough to grab a hold of
her cell phone and to bring it forth. A smile instantly crossed her face as the phone gave
another ring.
"Moshi, moshi." Mercury said as she resumed her jog across the roof-tops.
"Ami-chan, something screwy is going on. I don't know what, but I am being
bombarded by constant visions. However, some of these are ones I have had before." a
male voice, which Ami instantly identified as Ryo's, said.
"Hai, we know. Setsuna is being similarly affected. We haven't found the cause
yet, just tried to hold on." Mercury said before running smack in the middle of a wall.
"Owe where did that come from?" a dazed Mercury said to no one, as she picked herself
back up off the ground. Realizing that she was no longer holding her cell phone, she
looked around trying to find it, but did not see it. Getting to her feet, she walked over to
the edge of the building, and looked down. "Mom is not going to be happy." She
grumbled to herself as she recognized the smashed remains of her cell some stories below
her on the ground. <Now what the heck did I run into?> she wondered as she turned back
around and did not see anything that she could have run into.

* * * * * * * * *

A portal opened on the roof of the Juuban Junior High School, allowing a winged
Sailor Senshi to step into the time stream. <Oh, how I miss being here.> she thought to
herself. Though after taking note of exactly where she had opened the portal, she added
<though, maybe not this exact place. Boy wouldn't Haruna-sensei be surprised to learn
what I have made of my life.>
Jumping off the roof, Cosmos began walking down the street. However, she didn't
get too far before she realized she was drawing quite a many puzzled looks. While the
people of Tokyo had seen the Sailor Senshi on TV many times now, it was still
something to see one walking down the street. And many took that to be a bad omen, and
then there was the fact that none knew who she was either. <Oops, guess being back in
the past is making me an Odango-atama.> she thought to herself before chanting a
simple spell that caused people to ignore her. <Ah, much better. Now where is the best
seat going to be for the show?>
"Ahh... What the... hell...?" Cosmos cried out in pain as she was suddenly hit with
a head wrenching headache which was followed moments later by the feeling of her flesh
being pulled away from her bones. Dropping to the ground panting, Cosmos tried to run
through some mental exercises to get control of her faculties. Breathing hard, she was
able to after much effort focus her thoughts onto a point. Holding the meditation she
began a spell:
"Time which is mine to command
"Flow around that which gives you life and guides you.
"For all that is young must learn to grow.
"Strike out of the cradle. Become yourself.
"I'll catch you should you fall, but for now I'll watch."
Each word was a struggle to say and Cosmos knew she could not let the rhythm of
the spell falter nor the tone in which the words were song. But finally she finished the
spell and a great wave of violet energy radiated out from her body. As it passed, tendrils
of energy flowing into her body became visible; but then as the spell worked its magic,
they began to flow around instead of through her body. Once the last of them was
diverted to flow around her body, the pain vanished and Cosmos collapsed to the ground.
The crisis was over so she could wallow in the pain she had suffered for a
moment while she gathered the strength to cast a healing spell. Once she had flushed the
last traces of the ordeal from her body she rolled onto her back and noticed that people
were again gawking at her. <Of course my spell would have dropped when the temporal
wave hit me. Though, why the wave didn't hit me when I first stepped into the timeline I
don't know. Maybe Q-chan has an idea. Well time to stop pretending to be road kill and
time to go find my seat. Though maybe I'll stop by the arcade first for old time's sake.>
Cosmos thought to herself while developing a large grin from her last thought.

* * * * * * * * *

Some blocks away, Jupiter suddenly rediscovered gravity as the building whose
roof she was running along suddenly vanished and was replaced by an animal pen. With a
yelp of surprise, she plummeted to the ground and landed on a chicken. Shaking her head,
she picked herself up off the ground onto her knees and found herself looking into they
eyes of a hog.
"Oink"
"Okay... Now where did this farm come from and where did that office building
go?" Jupiter asked out loud. Looking around she realized that it wasn't just the office
building that was missing, but the rest of Tokyo. Standing up, the Senshi of Jupiter tried
to get most of the mud off her uniform. Sloshing out of the pigpen, she walked onto a dirt
path and was almost got run over by a truck. Jumping back at the last minute, she landed
in a stand of fresh vegetables. As she lay on the ground her only thought was, <I hope the
others are having better luck.> and with that thought a watermelon bonked her on the
head.

* * * * * * * * *

Venus while not having run into or fallen off any buildings was not, however,
having any easier of a time in locating the source of the disturbance. For her, the
hindrance in her search came in the form of four foot snow drifts and an advancing
glacier. Yeah, she had kind of dazed off during science class while they were discussing
the geological epochs and the extremes that the Earth's climate went through, but did not
see that as a valid reason why she needed to first hand experience an ice age and the
advance of glaciers. Normally outrunning the glacier would not have been a problem, but
the height of the snow made moving any faster than a snails pace difficult and she was
not about to try jumping up to a roof with the fierce blizzard she currently was in. Earlier
on she had tried using her Meteor Shower attack on the glacier, but all that ended up
doing was resulting in her being showered by the ice chunks that were blown off.
About the only thing going for her right now was that all of the civilians had
gotten off the streets and into safe harbor. Most likely they had decided to split this
particular part of the city when the heavy snow began to fall and snow drifts suddenly
appeared. Hitting an exposed sheet of ice, Venus skidded across an intersection that was
for once free of snow and then promptly was tossed forward and down on to her face
when her sandal hit dry pavement.
Picking herself up, Venus looked around and could see a very clear line where the
ice age ended and reality reasserted itself. Very happy to be out of the winter wonderland,
Venus continued on her journey. Running down one street and then the next, she began to
note that she was feeling fairly warm, but put it aside figuring that it was just an after
effect of having been in the freezer. But to her dismay it was not, for the buildings were
soon replaced by a jungle and it began to rain and rain hard. <Guess the weathermen
must be looking at nice places to retire after today's weather.> a very wet and not too
happy Venus thought to herself.

* * * * * * * * *

Elsewhere in the Juuban ward of Tokyo, a brown-haired woman slowly regained
consciousness. Feeling a massive headache which suggested that she should just return to
the bliss of oblivion, she tried to remember what had happened. Coming up with nothing,
she decided to open her eyes. Blinking against the brightness of the sun, the headache
increased in intensity before it began to recede. <Well at least that's better.> she though
to herself as the headache began to vanish. Still lying there on the ground staring up into
the sky, she began to feel the rest of her senses return. After about ten minutes, she
decided that she was ready to chance sitting up.
Now in a seated position she took in her surroundings. To her left was a long low
building, while in front of her stood a massive tree. For some reason, she thought there
should be some indentations and cracked concrete in the side of the building. Letting the
memories come back at there own pace she put that thought to the side and returned to
looking at the tree. There was something about the tree, she realized. And as she
continued to stare at it, the memories from before began to return. She could now
remember the feeling of triumph that she had felt when her prey Tsukino Usagi had
surrendered. How she was going to be able to return in victory to Galaxia-sama,
completing the work of her rival, Tin Crow. The others had of course tried to stop her,
but her trump card had forced Sailor Moon to surrender peacefully. She remembered
watching with wonder as her energy spheres sliced into the young girl's chest, enveloping
her in the black energy that proceeded to painfully rip the girl's soul from her body. She
remembered her amazement at the brightness and purity of that star seed, a shine that just
seemed to get brighter with each passing moment. Then her thoughts turned dark as she
remembered with horror the shattering of the containment vessel which restrained the
mini-black hole and the voice of the one whose greed had ruined everything.
But if that black hole had been released why then was this planet, much less this
schoolyard still here? Even more so why was she still here; the last thing she remembered
was the pain of her body being ripped apart by the gravity of that black hole. The only
possible explanation was that Sailor Moon was responsible. The shine of that girl's seed
was far brighter than even her own and one would probably need to gather a large
fraction of Galaxia-sama's collection together to match the shine of that particular star.
Though even with her realization that Sailor Moon was the one who had saved her life,
Sailor Lead Crow was not deterred from her mission, a mission that would leave Sailor
Moon nothing more than motes of light after she had taken the girl's soul and given it to
her master. No, all Sailor Moon's actions meant was that she was going to get one final
chance to please Galaxia-sama. Now getting to her feet, Sailor Lead Crow let her combat
attire fade and be replaced instead by her disguise.

* * * * * * * * *

The air traffic controller stared at the monitor displaying the radar return as
suddenly 50 radar contacts appeared on it. <You've got to be kidding me. Where the hell
did those come from?> he thought to himself, before activating his mike. "This is Tokyo
tower to unidentified crafts at approaching on vector 138 to Tokyo please respond. We
are not receiving your transponder signals." Silence was his only reply and so he tried to
contact them a second time. When that failed, he turned and waved at his supervisor.
<Guess there must be a problem with the equipment.> Yosho thought to himself
as he got up to see what the matter was. Arriving at the desk of the controller, he blinked
his eyes hoping that he was just imaging what he saw. But they were still there. "Is there
any planned activity by the JDF?" he asked the operator.
"Iie, I checked the log book and the only thing they have scheduled for today was
an arrival of a squadron. However, they have already arrived and there are for too many
contacts in this collection anyways."
"Damn." Yosho replied. "The only thing left is a demon attack. But so many
contacts?" Returning to his desk, Yosho picked up his phone and dialed a number that all
of the shift supervisors had memorized.
Over at the Zima military base Col Himura answered the ringing phone. Listening
to what the party on the other end was relaying, he felt his legs go week. "How many
contacts did you say you had?" he asked. "No, we don't have any flight operations under
way that could be responsible." Then taking a deep breath, Himora began his orders. "Sir,
under the authority given to be by the Diet, I am here by ordering the airspace around
Tokyo closed. All traffic is to immediately exit the airspace or if that is not possible land
at the closest airfield. Any craft still airborne in fifteen minutes will be considered to be
hostile and maybe attacked without warning."
The other soldiers in the control tower turned and anxiously looked at their CO.
Hanging up the phone; the CO walked quickly to the wall and pressed the alarm button.

* * * * * * * * *

Standing outside one of the hangers, Keffer and other base personal watched the
newly arrived A-10 Warthogs taxi off the runway. They had all come out to take a look at
these new craft that had been purchased, glad to see that higher ups were finally getting
some common sense with regard to the threat. The planes were just making the final turn
towards the hangers when the klaxons began to blare.
Receiving new orders from the tower, the recently arrived jets made a sharp turn
from the hanger they were heading towards, instead now taxing towards a spot on the
apron closest to the bunkers. All around the base, activity suddenly came out of the wood
works as hanger doors were opened and the ground crews went about getting all the
available craft ready for launching.

* * * * * * * * *

Elsewhere in the city, ChibiUsa was enjoying an afternoon at Hotaru's, or at least
she would be as soon as they finished with their homework. Right now they were busy
working their way through their language drills. While ChibiUsa did not have much
trouble with the math and science, given her 30th century education, language and history
did give her a fair bit of trouble. For history there was the obvious cause of there being an
additional millennium of history in what she learned so the emphasis on the various
elements was of course different. With respect to language, Japanese like any language
had evolved a fair bit over the thousand years and so for ChibiUsa it was almost like
learning a new language. And even though she had once spoken the 20th century version
of it, that was a thousand years ago.
"Hotaru could you give me a hand here, I am not quite sure about the correct
conjugation to use." ChibiUsa asked.
Looking over at ChibiUsa's paper, Hotaru began to explain what needed to be
done. However, the sound of large dull noise outside caused both girls to halt in what
they were doing. Looking at each other with a fair bit of fear in their faces, the two
moved slowly towards the window. They heard three more of those sounds as they
walked to the window and each of those three also rattled the entire room as well and
caused the two of them to freeze each time. Finally arriving at the window, they poked
their heads over the window sill, looked out, and froze.
"ChibiUsa is that what I think it is?" Hotaru asked her voice quivering.
"If you mean a Tyrannosaurus Rex, then Hai." ChibiUsa replied not believing
what she was seeing.
"Eak!" the two girls cried as the dinosaur turned and looked straight at them.
Jumping back, the girls dodged away from the window just before a snort from the
hungry predator blew it in. Feeling the hot breath of the creature now on their skin, the
two of them tried to scramble backwards, however in their fear they headed to the corner
of the room that did not have the door.
Coming up short with the wall, the two of them stopped and turned around to look
at the dinosaur. Both of the girls were hoping that it would ignore them; unfortunately,
the creature had been just about to take a bite of its dinner when its dinner suddenly
vanished, which did not make it that happy. Upset with loosing its dinner, it now looked
to take some of the bite off its hunger by snacking on ChibiUsa and Hotaru before
hunting for larger fare. And so it forced its snout in through the opening, ripping it open
wider, and getting halfway to the two very scared girls.
Screaming at the top of their lungs, the two girls grabbed a hold of each other.
"Momma help me!" ChibiUsa cried while she hung onto her best friend not wanting to
die. For her part, Hotaru spoke a prayer that her soul had never spoke before, "Cosmos by
your grace save us."
Out of the corner of their eyes, the two of them saw the T-Rex moving in for a
second attempt and this time it would not get stopped only halfway, as a large junk of the
window frame was now missing. Screaming ever louder they grasped a hold of each
other even tighter. Unknown to each other, their planetary symbols began to blaze on
their foreheads, followed soon by their auras. Lost to their fears, neither girl was
conscious to the changes happening around them. However, when Hotaru's eyes turned
violet the other half of her soul looked out. Not knowing what was going on, she could
tell from the state of her body and that of her human half's friend that something was
about to happen that was very bad. And she also could feel in her own part of her soul
that something was very wrong with the fabric of reality.
Coming to a quick decision, Saturn erected her Silence Wall around the two of
them. While her Silence Wall would normally not be that powerful without the Silence
Glaive that her human half held, she was able to draw upon the power of the moon that
ChibiUsa was emitting. Using the moon power she created a shield that would protect
them not just from the jaws of the creature that wanted to make them a snack, but would
also lock the two of them off from the flow of time. With the stasis field active, the power
of Saturn went dormant again till the disturbance was either gone or had approached the
point at which the Silence was needed.
Outside of the stasis field, the dinosaur bit into the dome that suddenly encased its
prey. However, to its annoyance it found that it could not take a hold of the snack. It was
as if it had tried to chomp down on a boulder. Trying again, the creature bashed through
even more of the wall and got a better bite on the dome, but it still could not get a grip on
it. Enraged it swung its head and knocked the dome out through a wall and into the yard
before stomping off to find a new snack to eat.

* * * * * * * * *

Following the sensation of the most wrong, Pluto slowly walked through the
streets looking for the source of the problem. It was hard going as the temporal
distortions that were being spawned proved to muddle the lower level sense of wrong
from the ultimate source of the problem. By the way of what little connection she still
had to time, she was able to avoid the more egregious problems of walking into buildings
that suddenly appeared that the others had and by staying on the ground she avoided the
problem of having a building vanish. Of course she still had to pause to let the column of
World War II soldiers pass. Thankfully she was just about to leave an alleyway when
they appeared, so she did not draw their attention.
"Solar Flare" came the cry of a girl's voice.
Acting on instinct, Pluto jumped back just in time to avoid being caught up in the sudden
wave of fire that enveloped the area in front of her. Letting the raging fire die down after
a minute, she cautiously walked out onto the still soft pavement and saw some kind of
giant creature that was now cooked to a crisp lying on the ground.
"Pluto, I'm glad you're here. The Godzilla's are one thing, but what is it with all
these youma?" a red haired girl wearing a Sailor Fuku asked while gesturing to a raging
army of youma that was trashing the city a block down.
<Another Sailor Senshi? Are the walls of possibility falling> Pluto wondered as
she tried to figure out who this red head was, while at the same time knowing that she
seemed familiar for some reason.
"Did Mars develop a new power?" Sailor Moon asked as she landed beside Pluto,
having been drawn by the tower of flame.
"Hey guys come join in the fun, these youma are pushovers." The red head
declared from where she was now in the midst of a large group of youma fighting them
all.
"Umm... who is the read head and why does she seem so happy?" Uranus, who
had arrived just moments after Sailor Moon, asked.
Finally making the connection, Pluto barely was able to contain her gasp of
surprise. "That is Sailor Sun; she is from an alternate timeline. While she is a very loyal
and powerful Senshi, she is an unbalanced embodiment of chaos and the timeline never
remained stable when she existed. The timelines would quickly degrade from Crystal
Tokyo to Usagi being a sadistic killer who tortured and killed Luna upon learning her
power and then hunted down each of the Sailor Senshi in turn."
"Me?" Sailor Moon asked in confusion.
"I can't conceive of her highness being able to do anything like that." Uranus
added.
"Hai and in the majority of the timelines she doesn't. Just for some reason
Ranma's presence disrupted the natural balance."
"You didn't... ?" Sailor Moon asked, thinking of only one possible reason for
there not being a Sailor Sun.
"Not in the way you think. I gave Ranma a better childhood. By allowing him to
grow up at home with both his mom and dad instead of being taken on a 10 year training
journey by an abusive father, the power of Sailor Sun never awoke. And all it took was
giving the baka father a limp." <And something similar was done back in the Silver
Millennium.>
A youma landing unconscious between the three of them broke up their little
discussion and Sailor Moon and Uranus moved in to give Sun some help. Pluto, however,
after taking a few calming breaths returned to her search of the source of the problem.
The arrival of Sailor Sun indicated that the threat was far worse than she had initially
thought, as now any and everything could pretty much pop into existence here in Tokyo.
The threat of the power of Saturn awakening was becoming very real now. Besides acting
to ensure the awakening of Cosmos, Saturn's powers were also created to protect the
other realities which lay along the fifth dimension. Should slippage begin to occur along
the fifth dimension, Saturn would be sure to awaken and then everything would be
destroyed. <We probably have three hours tops, before the damage gets bad enough to
awaken Saturn.> Pluto thought to herself.

* * * * * * * * *

"This is Falcon 3; I have a visual on the bogies." came the voice over the radio, as
a group of interceptors approached the unknown radar contacts. "Kami-sama. There are
dozens of them, but they look like regular planes. I am moving in to get a visual ID."
"Roger that Falcon 3." Zima radioed back.
As the lead interceptor moved in closer to the flight of bogies; the other two craft
of the flight held back with their missiles still armed, ready to launch on an instant should
the targets prove to be demons. "What the hell? These look like they are World War II
vintage craft." The surprised pilot of Falcon 3 reported. Then in a more collected voice,
he radioed the tower, "Zima Falcon 3, I am confirming that the craft have old style US
markings on them. I repeat these are World War II era US bombers."
"Understood, Falcon flight pullback and do not engage the craft. I repeat do not
engage the craft." Zima instructed.
"Zima, what is the deal here?" Falcon 4 asked.
"We have been receiving multiple reports from the city of time displaced
elements and have been instructed by the Sailor Senshi to avoid attacking them so as to
avoid changing the past." came the response
"Then that means that those are a real flight of World War II bombers on a
mission?" Falcon 5 stated.
"Hai, and we now get to just watch them go on their mission." Falcon 3 replied.
And so the three fighter pilots along the rest of their squadron shadowed above
and behind the attacking Americans. All too soon the group arrived at the heart of the
city. Then seeing specks begin to fall away from the belly of the planes, Falcon 3 yelled
into his radio, "Oh hell. They are bombing the city. I repeat, Zima the craft are bombing
Tokyo. Request authorization to engage."
"Understood. Falcon flight you are now cleared to engage and destroy the hostile
craft."
And so the 3 lead craft and the other 9 craft that made up the interdiction group
broke from their shadowing position. Seconds later they all had target locks and were
launching their missiles. As soon as the first missile was fired, the pilots were already
selecting a new target, trying to drop the bombers as fast as possible. But then as the first
fire bombs began to hit the ground and the first wave of missiles were halfway to their
target, the bombers winked out of the present and back to where they belonged in the
past.
Watching on now with horror, the pilots saw their missiles slam into the
downtown office buildings. While the fire bombs did damage themselves, setting some
buildings on fire, the damage done by the missiles was far worse. Whole sides were
blown out of buildings as the missiles easily passed through the glass outer skins of the
buildings and then detonated inside.
"Kami-sama no." cried many of the pilots and more than one pilot found the need
to relieve themselves of their lunch.
"Falcon flight, return to base." Falcon 3 ordered and the various jets slowly turned
and began a depressing flight back to their base.

* * * * * * * * *

Thirty minutes after she had left Sailor Sun, Pluto felt that she was very close to
the source of the temporal disturbance as the sense of wrongness was reaching a
crescendo. Turning a corner, she was barely saved from having her heart pierced by a
bullet as her senses suddenly screamed at her to jump. Hitting the ground, she dodged
again as her senses again screamed at her and another bullet just missed hitting her.
Looking around, she noticed what she guessed to be a demon two blocks down before
being forced to dodge again, this time finding some momentarily shelter behind a parked
car.
<Figures, it wouldn't do for them to just have some beacon causing the damage.
No it would have to be a demon and one with a sniper rifle at that.> Pluto thought to
herself. Then opening her communicator she contacted the others, "Minna-san, I have
found the demon that is causing the problems. I am half a mile east of the hospital that
Mercury's mother works at. And be careful, Rubeus appears to have been serious when
he was putting this one together." Pluto said as she activated her communicator.
Then with the others summoned, she broke from her cover and began racing a
dodging pattern down the street, closing the distance to the demon. Getting in close to the
demon she fired off one of her Dead Screams; but unfortunately to her consternation, this
particular demon also appeared to have some smarts. She had waited till she had gotten
so close to the demon that it wouldn't be able to dodge her attack, but unlike other
demons this one had fallen into a crouch that minimized the effect of the blast.
And as soon as the blast had passed, it too was on the move and taking pop shots
at Pluto with its rifle. It was only by her constant dodging that Pluto was able to avoid
being hit by any of those shots. And as focused as she was on dodging, Pluto was unable
to spare the moments required for launching any follow up attacks on the demon, which
was staying on the move.
"Venus Crescent Beam" announced Venus, bringing relief to the tiring Senshi of
Time. From the top of the roof she had arrived on, Venus smiled and gave Pluto a V sign
as the attack hit the demon dead on its chest. However, her smile quickly vanished as she
realized that her attack hadn't even phased the demon one bit. Standing in shock over her
attack having no effect, she was only barely saved from getting blasted by the fortunate
arrival of Jupiter who had tackled her off the roof just before the area where she had been
standing exploded.
Unfortunately, Jupiter had barely enough time to realize that Venus was just about
to be toasted and constantly her plan to save the blond was nothing more than rush and
grab her. Therefore, as the two hit the street in lots of pain, she wondered if Venus might
have been better off had she left the blond on the roof to take the blast. Standing up with
some effort, she looked up from the ground just in time to see the demon's knee strike her
in the gut sending her up into the air. This was then followed by hundreds of punches that
propelled her back into an alley where she landed in a dumpster. <Yes, getting blasted up
on the roof would have been less painful.> was her last thought before she passed out.
"Dead Scream" Pluto whispered out and this time the attack took the demon by
surprise. Unfortunately, the cost for getting this one good hit in was the pounding that
Jupiter had received.
Calls of "World Shaking" and "Deep Submerge" announced the arrival of the two
other guardians of the solar system. Their attacks slammed into the demon which had just
pulled itself up from the wall that it had been slammed against. The attacks decimated
that side of the building, leaving just rubble. However the demon was quickly back on its
feet and moving very quickly towards the two new arrivals. And then in a blink of an eye
it had passed by the two and away from the group.
"Huh, why did it not attack us?" Uranus asked in confusion as she and Neptune
looked at each other.
The answer to that question was the unnoticed present that the demon had left
them, a present which chose this moment to detonate. Flung skywards like rag dolls, the
two barely were able to hang on to consciousness as they fell back to the ground. Slowly
returning to her feet, Neptune felt a sudden blinding pain in her chest as the strength left
her body and she feel back to the ground.
"Wha... Wha..." she tried to choke out as struggled to remain conscious while
coughing up some blood.
"MICHIRU!" Uranus screamed out at the top of her lungs as she saw her lover
dropped by the demon. Summing all her energy and funneling it to her legs, she found
her full strength and more return as she made a mad dash across the street.
Even with the winds giving her strength, she never would have made to give
comfort to her love if it was not for the momentarily forgotten Venus. Having returned to
her feet, she summoned her chain and used it to wrap up the demon's rifle. Giving a yank
she pulled the rifle loose and with a flick of her wrist sent it clattering to the ground in the
direction of Pluto.
"Thanks Venus," Pluto said to her comrade before glancing at the rifle and
whispering "Dead Scream." Now turning to the demon, a slight smile graced her lips as
she began running towards it. Pulling away at the last minute, she unleashed another
attack; but unfortunately, the demon had read her move and she found the creature still in
front of her. Using her staff to parry the creature's attacks, she was forced back on the
defensive. She was therefore quite relieved when moments later ice and fire battered the
demon.
Jumping down to the street level, Mercury took a good look at the demon with her
visor and computer. Not liking what she was seeing, she decided against the Shabon
Spray. "Minna-san, the Shabon Spray is not going to work on this demon. It appears to be
outfitted with some kind of night vision equipment and I am afraid that the cold mist of
my spray would just make us even easier to see." She informed the others. Then seeing
Neptune lying on the ground with a distraught Uranus beside her, Mercury knew where
she had to go.
"Uranus, I will look after Neptune. Don't worry about anything. The best thing
you could do right now is to destroy that demon." Mercury told Uranus as she arrived
beside her.
"Hai." A reluctant Uranus replied, not really wanting to leave her love's side.
Then, perking up a bit she spoke to the unconscious Neptune. "Don't worry love; I will
make that demon pay for what it has done to you."
Stepping away from the injured Neptune, she began to walk towards the demon,
her eyes aglow with anger. Knowing that her Earth Shaking wasn't going to cut it, she
tried to reach down into her soul to pull out even more power. Gathering the energy into
her hand, which quickly grew to many times its normal size, she tossed it with a cry of
"Saber Wind Charge." As the energy rushed from her hand, it began to take the form of
an ethereal cat of prey racing along as if it was the wind. If the size of the cat and its
speed was not intimidating enough, the large razor sharp saber teeth in its mouth made
sure to convey that it was not a house cat.
Sensing the approaching energy, the demon turned in time to see the cat charging
at it. Moving quickly it noticed that the cat was adjusting its approach and was still
gaining. Knowing that it was not going to be able to escape it decide on the second best
option and charged back at the energy attack. Startled by the apparent suicidal run of the
demon, the Senshi were caught unaware as it made a useless dash to the side, at least in
regard to dodging the blast. But one that brought it in close to where Sailor Moon had just
arrived. Grabbing a hold of her, the demon would have smiled if Mimete had given it
those emotions as the anger fueled blast of Sailor Uranus reached its mark.
Sailor Moon had only felt a similar pain before a few times in her life as the
energy ripped into her body and shredded her fuku. With her strength gone and her hair
and wings burnt in places, she fell to the ground barely conscious.
Seeing the demon proceed to pick Sailor Moon up by a harsh grip on her neck, the
others all dropped their hands to their sides as they conceded that the demon now had the
upper hand. Deciding to make his entrance, Tuxedo Kamen threw a rose at the hand
holding Sailor Moon. His aim proved to be as true as always and the love he held for
Sailor Moon again was sufficient to cause the demon to release its prisoner. Swooping
down he picked her up and jumped up away and promptly proceeded to drop her. He
could only stare on in shock as she made a sickening thudding sound as she hit the
ground before he slammed into the lamppost which he had been aiming for. It was not till
he slid down to the ground that he realized that he had some problems, namely that he
was now swimming in his clothing. And then the 4 year old mind caught up with the
Chibified Tuxedo-Kamen and he began to cry.
"Okay, this ain't good." Sailor Jupiter said from where she had returned to the
fight. "Not only can this demon kick our asses real good on its own, it also can turn as
into little children."
"Well then, I guess we will just need to keep it too busy to think about playing
with time." A final arrival said.
Turning to regard the new arrival, most of the Senshi looked on in shock while
Pluto just groaned, knowing that more Sailor Sun became involved in things and the
longer she stayed here the higher the chance that she would remain even after the demon
was destroyed. Though, she did have to concede that their chances for actually killing the
demon were substantially higher with Sailor Sun present.
"Aiimikun Plasma Bolt style." Sun called as she started firing off one plasma
blast after the other. All of the still conscious Sailor Senshi watched in awe as her hands
appeared to become nothing more than a blur.
"Kami-san, it's like a plasma cannon in that Doom game." Jupiter said
"Thank goodness she's on our side." Mars mumbled. Then turning to Pluto she
asked, "She is on our side right?"
"Hai she is, though she is not from this reality and should vanish once the demon
is defeated."
While they were talking, Sun just moved in on the demon, her blasts keeping it
pretty well pinned in place as it tried to deflect the majority of their damage. Once she got
in close enough to use her hands, she dropped her magic attack and moved to engage the
demon in hand to hand combat. With a smile on her face as the demon defended itself,
Sun realized that this demon actually appeared to know some martial arts and soon
became lost in her match.
"Who is she? Is she even human? I didn't think it was possible to be that good
even with our Senshi magic." Venus commented as she watched Sun go toe to toe with
the demon and not give any ground.
"I'm the best martial artist in the world" a very confident Sailor Sun answered as
she continued fighting.

* * * * * * * * *

From the sideline of the battle, Mercury tended to Neptune while keeping one eye
on her visor in case the battle appeared to be coming back her way. She did not like what
she saw in front of her one bit. The small bloody hole in the left breast of Neptune's fuku
could have only been caused by only one thing - a bullet. Doing a quick scan of the area
she located where the bullet had embedded itself after exiting Neptune's back.
Doing her best to bandage the entry and exit wounds, she was very glad of the
incredible constitution that their Senshi nature gave them. Anyone else would have been
killed by that shot. As it was, she was not sure if Neptune would survive if she got hit
with by anything else. All of the girl's powers were going into keeping her alive while
her body healed the wound. And then to accentuate that statement, Neptune's fuku
flickered for a moment and then vanished.
There was only one option to do in this situation. As much as she would have
liked to have waited for paramedics and a stretcher, she needed to get Michiru to a safe
location. Hefting the larger girl up into a fireman carry she slowly began withdrawing
from the area. Making it around a corner without attracting the attention of the demon,
she released a sigh of relief. Now no longer needing to remain inconspicuous, she began
to run. As she ran down the streets, she found the need to call upon her Shabon Spray
more than once to keep those who had been time-displaced from giving her trouble. She
decided against going up to the roof tops for two reasons. One was that she had learned
her lesson about roof hoping when time was not stable from before and secondly she was
not sure she would be able to manage it while carrying Michiru.
Arriving at the hospital where her mother worked, Mercury dashed through the
emergency room entrance. Thankfully, the automatic door opened fast enough to let
Mercury through, as she did not slow down her approach one bit and had even angled her
body so that Michiru would not be hit by the broken glass if she had passed through the
door itself.

* * * * * * * * *

The black belt that Mimete had included in the design matrix of the demon along
with the military strategy books gave it a respect for a competent opponent and allowed it
to enjoy a good spar. However, after sparing with Sailor Sun for fifteen minutes, it had
had enough. Giving the signal for a break, it and Sun broke apart. Bowing to its sparing
partner, the demon then approached Sun with one of its hands held out. Shaking Sun's
hand, it suddenly dashed backwards.
Confused, Sun realized a moment later that there was something attached to her
hand. Looking down, she had just enough time to see a white block with something
sticking out of it before her world became white and she felt nothing put pain. Not
knowing how her body was orientated or if she was even on the ground, she whispered
"Akane" as she closed her eyes.
"That was uncalled for." Sailor Moon said as she returned to her feet. The moon
Senshi looked very much the worse for wear with her battered body and a fuku that was
nearly all shredded or burnt, but there was a fire in her eyes. Picking up a hubcap that had
been knocked loose and lay beside her, she charged it with her power and set it flying at
the demon. Hit by the super charged "tiara", the demon was knocked backwards and
through a parked truck. Standing up amongst a pile of ramen it was barely in time to see
attacks from Mars, Pluto, Uranus, and Jupiter coming from all directions. Deciding the
only direction to go was up, the demon attempted to jump but fell quickly back to the
ground. It was then that it noticed Venus who had a Cheshire cat smile on her face and
realized that a chain was holding it to the truck. And then the attacks hit.
Staggering up from the devastation, the creature was definitely showing that it
was worse for wear. However, the only Sailor Senshi that was able to quickly follow up
was Sailor Moon; and so, she had thrown a second, though slightly less powerful "tiara"
at the creature. Getting hit a second time, the demon decided it was time to bring out its
unused weapon.
Catching the hubcap in preparation for a third throw, Sailor Moon felt a warm
sensation on her wrist before suddenly it burst into pain. Dropping to her knees, she cried
out and curled up into a ball while covering herself with her wings. With her wings
shielding herself, the pain stopped increasing, though even at its current level it was
unbearable. Whimpering to herself, she brought her hand in close and turned her arm so
that she could look at the top of her wrist. She could see a quarter sized hole rimmed with
charred fabric in her glove. The skin under it was very red, raw and was oozing fluids.
Knowing that that was not good, she made use of what first aid that Ami had taught her
in the past few weeks. Ripping off the ribbon on the front of her chest, she began to wrap
it around the wound. The adrenaline surge used up, Sailor Moon collapsed to the ground
barely remaining conscious.
Outside of her cocoon, the others had been motivated into even greater fury by
her collapse. Calling on whatever energy they could, they began throwing their attacks
left and right without any pauses. As it parried the attacks, the demon realized too late a
lesson hard learned by all the Senshi enemies, the rage of seeing a friend cut down drives
the Sailor Senshi to whole new levels of fighting abilities. And in this case, they suddenly
were now able to keep it on the defensive, preventing it from using its laser again.
Though at the same time, it took them all to maintain this situation and it knew they
would soon tire again.
However, it had forgotten about Sailor Sun who while knocked out very badly
had now returned to her feet. While this pounding was definitely the worst she had taken,
she had been hardened enough from only slightly less severe attacks to not let this keep
her down. Seeing Sailor Moon curled up on the ground, obviously having been the latest
target of this demon, Sun's soul became consumed with anger.
With flames visibly dancing in her eyes, she began slowly walking towards the
demon, leaving flaming foot prints with each step. Easily avoiding the attacks of the other
Sailor Senshi, she stopped in front of the demon and quietly said, "Time for you to go
down. Solar Flare."
A ring of fire quickly leapt up from around Sailor Sun, encompassing the demon.
The fire continued on up past the roofs of the tallest building in the area, however the ring
of fire remained only a meter wide. The other Senshi could only watch on in amazement
at the power that Sun displayed as the inferno continued to burn.
Walking towards her princess, Pluto knelt down to check on her. "Your highness,
are you okay?"
Looking up into the worried eyes of Pluto, Sailor Moon straightened her thoughts
and slowly remembered what was happening. Then looking down at her hand, she
clenched it for a moment before looking back at Pluto. "Hai, I am okay." She said with
the confidence that always filled her when she knew she had to protect her friends.
Accepting a helping hand from Sailor Pluto, she returned to her feet.
Given that she was only a couple meters away from the demon, she could easily
feel the heat of Sailor Sun's attack. While part of her wanted to believe that nothing could
survive that, she knew better. The attack was powerful, but this demon was even more so,
it would survive and only be slightly injured. There was nothing that they could throw at
it by themselves that they could even hope to injure it with. The only thing that might
work would be her Eternal Tier, but she could not control its power.
Looking at her exhausted friends, she could see the hope in their eyes that this
would be the end of the demon. She could not fail them. There was really no option about
what she had to do, it might cost her her life, but if that was the price to save everyone
else than so be it. She would use her Eternal Tier one last time, even if it took every
ounce of her energy to control the spell.
Mars, Jupiter, Venus, and Uranus all turned to look at Pluto when they heard her
gasp. Then following her gaze they saw that Sailor Moon or actually Usagi as she was
again in her civilian clothes was holding her Eternal Tier.
"Odango-atama no baka, what do you think you are doing. You know that you
can't use that tier anymore." Mars scolded.
"Hai, but it is the only option." Usagi replied. Then before they had a chance to
object, she waved them off and explained. "Sailor Sun's attack won't be sufficient to
destroy the demon. Only the Eternal Tier might be able to do that. There is still some
energy that I haven't used before that I can use to make sure that the spell holds."
"What do you mean by... Iie! Usagi-chan you are not thinking of throwing your
life away!" Jupiter said
"Iie, you are not going to do that." Mars said
"I'm afraid my friends that this is the only way." Usagi said in a tone that
brokered no objections.
"Then we will lend you our powers." Venus stated.
"Hai that's right." Mars concurred and her concurrence was followed moments
later by the concurrence of the rest of the Senshi.
Bringing her tier up into a ready position, the others all new it was time and they
began to channel their powers. Feeling her soul come alive from the energy of the planets
racing into the Ginzuishou, Usagi smiled even as the wall of flame vanished and Sailor
Sun collapsed to the ground asleep. Some blocks away, Mercury felt the flow of energy
and fell into a trance as she added her own power. Outside of a dinosaur damaged
mansion, the soul of Saturn lowered the stasis field that was protecting its body and the
one that its human half wanted to protect beyond anything else. Slowly becoming aware
again, Hotaru noted that ChibiUsa was still clinging to her, before slipped into another
trance as the symbol of Saturn once again glowed brightly on her forehead.
Forming the energy donated by her dear friends, Usagi began to sculpt the magic
of the spell. Drawing on the power of the Moon, the power of the Ginzuishou, and the
power of Tokyo, she knew that she would not have a problem casting the spell this time.
And with a final flare, she unleashed the gathered energy at what was a probably
smirking demon. The demon was not able to smirk for long though, as very quickly its
essence was shredded into moon dust and then nothingness.
Falling to the ground on her face, Usagi was at least rewarded in seeing the
eclectic collection of junk that made up the demon fall harmlessly to the ground, or at
least mostly harmlessly as the remaining explosives choose that time to go off. For Sailor
Sun, she was protected by the blast by no longer existing. Sailor Moon was close enough
that she would have been seriously hurt by the explosion if it wasn't for Pluto's time
sense causing her to drop down on top of her princess to protect her from the blast.
When everyone had cleared the ringing out from their heads and had returned to
their feet, Pluto informed them that Sailor Moon was okay, before walking up to the pile
of demon parts. They were all quite surprised by the number of items that had been
tossed into make this demon and really hoped that Rubeus did not plan on making this a
habit. Finding what she was looking for, Pluto knelt down and picked up a golden object.
"What is it Pluto-san?" Jupiter asked.
"It is one of my Crystal Time Keys." Pluto replied.
"You mean the thing that allowed ChibiUsa to come here to the past?" Venus
asked.
"Hai, and I think I am going to need to have a talk with Small Lady."

* * * * * * * * *

In the basement of Mugen, Rubeus was not pleased. The device that matured the
daimon eggs had been reduced to nothing more than rubble. With it destroyed, the ability
to produce their demons had been severely reduced. The only way to finish maturing the
eggs now was for the professor to carry out a delicate laboratory procedure. But that
would take him away from his efforts to finish building the gateway that would release
the Wiseman. Leaving the laboratory, he walked briskly to Eudial's office and threw
open the door.
Hearing the clattering of her door being abused, Eudial looked up from the reports
she was reviewing. "Rubeus-sama what can I do for you?" She asked in a nice but
slightly ticked voice.
"Eudial-san, the Daimon machine has been destroyed."
"Are you sure? The professor might be making a modification to it? You know he
is kind of haphazard in how he works."
"Hai, I am sure. The machine has been reduced to nothing more than rubble on
the ground. This is no modification work by Tomoe."
"In that case, let's go check the security cameras for that laboratory." Eudial
suggested, now getting a very bad feeling. If the machine was really destroyed, Rubeus's
anger was not going to be settled till someone paid with their life. She just hoped that she
would be able to find something on the security tapes that might direct his anger to
somebody else; otherwise her life would likely be the one to settle his anger.
Getting up from her desk, Eudial led Rubeus to a back corner of her office. Given
the sensitivity of the "experiments" that were being conducted in certain labs, the security
cameras from those labs were run to her office instead of the school's security office.
Finding the right machine, she popped out the duplicate tape and took it over to a VCR
which she could review it in. Putting the tape in, she began to scan back through the tape
looking for the last moment the machine was still in one piece. Before too long she found
Mimete leaving the laboratory with a Daimon case in hand. Rewinding a bit farther, the
two of them watched as Mimete overstressed the machine, destroying it by adding too
many items into the incubator.
"Mimete." was all Rubeus said before he teleported.
With a sigh of relief from Rubeus's disappearance, Eudial went about duplicating
the appropriate section of the tape. Taking a quick glance at the professor's calendar, she
noted that he would be in lectures all afternoon. That would give her a few hours to
prepare a preliminary report and Mimete's death certificate. She did not look forward to
breaking the news to him, but breaking the news to him would be nowhere as bad as it
was having had Rubeus in here. Plus she understood where his anger would came from,
for she too was very upset that the cure to little Hotaru's sickliness would be delayed,
possibly for a very long time.

* * * * * * * * *

A bit annoyed that her demon had been defeated by the Sailor Senshi, Mimete
walked down the street back to Mugen. While she had not succeeded, she had on her first
attempt done far better than Kaolinite had ever done. And she had done that without any
of the powers that Rubeus had gifted Kaolinite. If she had had those same powers, she
was sure the battle would have ended differently. There were quite a few times when one
or more of the Sailor Senshi were out cold and vulnerable to an attack from another
player. She figured there were be three more dead Sailor Senshi in addition to just
Neptune. Well next time would be different and they wouldn't be so lucky.
Turning a corner she came to a sudden stop as Rubeus appeared in front of her.
<Guess they have already realized my greatness and have come to congratulate me on
my mission.> she thought to herself, missing the expression of murder on Rubeus's face.
"Mimete. You're failure is unforgivable." Rubeus stated.
"What you mean, failure? I know it wasn't a complete success, but I..." Mimete
began in her defense. However, she did not get a chance to finish. Instead, her eyes went
wide as black spheres of deadly energy shot through her stomach.
Letting the dead witch fall to the ground, Rubeus turned on his feet and began
walking through the city. From his short search for Mimete he had noted that the city
showed signs of some significant damage and he figured that he might as well see exactly
how much damage she had caused. If it was substantial enough, he might feel slightly
better how about how much trouble she had caused his efforts.

* * * * * * * * *

Once Mercury had determined that the doctors understood the nature of Michiru's
wounds and that they would be able to take care of her, she had left the hospital. With
Michiru in her civilian form, she had decided it best to let the doctors handle the situation
themselves, so as not to give them any reason to think that Michiru was one of the Sailor
Senshi. Later once Michiru was out of surgery and visitors were allowed she could return
in her civilian form to check on her.
Shortly after she had left Michiru to the doctors, she had received a
communication from the others that the demon had been defeated and the disturbance
removed. Now no longer needing to meet up with the others, Ami walked aimlessly down
the streets, her thoughts reviewing the battle. The whole afternoon had been quite strange
with all the temporal problems, she was sure that she had even spotted Nephrite in his
disguise and one of Jadeite's demons during the search, but there was something about
the final battle that was bothering her subconscious. Trying to figure it out, she logically
went through each of the participants in the battle trying to determine if they were the
cause. For all of its uniqueness, the demon wasn't the one bothering her and neither was
Pluto or Usagi. When she reached Uranus, she knew she had found the source. Thinking
about what Uranus had done, she realized that it was the girl's new attack that her
subconscious was bothered by.
Analyzing the attack in her mind, from what little she had seen of it, she
remembered that it took the form of a cat, which in of itself was not too surprising. After
all, Jupiter had her dragon and Mars had her phoenix. However, this attack seemed to
almost have a will of its own, adjusting the path it took to the demon. While she supposed
that the spell might have had a tracking component that possibility just seemed too
complicated for a spell created on the spur of the moment by Uranus's emotions. And
then there was the issue of how Mars and Jupiter's attack had recently reacted while they
were taking out that trap of Rubeus's. Both Mars and Jupiter had reported that their
attacks had taken on a life of their own.
Taking a momentarily notice of her surroundings, Ami realized that she had
arrived at the entrance to the chapel of that priest Usagi had healed. <Well Usagi did say
that she has found answers to troubling questions when she had come here to think.
Maybe I can receive some of that enlightenment.> Ami thought before entering. Walking
slowly into the sanctuary, she tried to let her body relax as Rei had been instructing her
recently so that she could find the most opportune place to meditate.
"May I help you miss?" a man asked, startling Ami out of her thoughts. Spinning
on her heals she reflectively dropped into a slight defensive posture as she turned to face
her questioner. "Gomen-nasai warrior angel. I did not realize who you were at first. You
looked like a tourist in need of a guide." The man, whom Ami now saw was a priest
quickly added with much bowing when he got a good look at her.
"What do you mean by warrior angel?" Ami asked, hoping that he had not figured
out that she was a Sailor Senshi and if he had, wondering how he had done it.
"I can tell by your aura that you are one of the warriors who serve the Messiah."
Father Morgan explained answering the unspoken question as well.
Quickly reviewing in her mind what Usagi and Luna had told them of Father
Morgan, Ami confirmed her initial fear that he was calling her a Sailor Senshi. As for
someone being able to sense who they were just by their aura that was something she was
going to need to talk to Luna and Rei about. This could pose a big problem if they ever
had an enemy who was strong in the spiritual arts, though she wondered why Nephrite
never had detected them. While his powers did not seem exactly spiritual, she would have
thought them to be close enough, another question for her to ask Rei.
"I understand." Ami replied. "Don't worry about having disrupted me. I came
here to try to figure out something that has been bothering me. And I have found tough
problems are always easier when you have someone to talk to about them." Ami added
with a smile.
Quite a many multitude of minutes later, Ami thanked the priest for his time.
While he had been unable to shed any better light on the subject, after all Christianity
tended to have a very negative attitude towards any magic and so even the priests knew
very little, he had told her that the Vatican might be able to help. The upper levels of the
Church, while forbidding any learning of magic by their flocks, did collect any and all
records on the subject. After all, being ignorant of your opponent only made them that
much worse. And so he had offered to send a request for information on to them and had
assured her that the Vatican would be willing to provide their assistance.
Watching the blue haired girl leave, a shadow slipped out from its hiding place in
the chapel. Cautiously and with all of its senses alert, it stepped outside the boundaries of
the chapel. Pausing for a moment, it tried to detect anything that might be hunting it, but
after multiple scans of the area it could find nothing. Satisfied that none of its enemies
were in the area, it found its target once again and began stalking her.
Every now and then on her walk home, Ami would get the sense that she was
being followed, but whenever she turned there was nothing behind her. A couple of times
she had even retraced her steps a fair distance trying to find some hint of whatever was
spooking her, but she could not. Finally deciding that it was just her nerves from the
day's battle she continued on her way home.

* * * * * * * * *

Stirring a bit, ChibiUsa and Hotaru opened their eyes. At first neither wanted to
move out of the embrace they were in, not wanting to give up the comfort that they were
drawing from each other. But eventually, they turned their gaze from each others faces
and looked around.
Taking in the destruction and the fact that they were now outside, ChibiUsa said,
"I guess it was not all a bad dream."
"Hai." Hotaru said.
Releasing each other, the two girls stood up and looked around, checking to see if
they could find any signs of the dinosaur. Seeing nothing, they heaved a heavy sigh of
relief before heading back to the house.
"Guess I should go see if any of the rest of the house was damaged." Hotaru said
as they entered.
And with that, the two of them began inspecting the various rooms. All of the
bedrooms had nice gaping holes by one of their windows where the dinosaur obviously
had poked its head in looking for a snack, though none of them as bad as Hotaru's room.
The downstairs did not appear to show any dinosaur damage, but that was not to say it
was undamaged. Walking into the kitchen, they found it trashed. It almost looked as if
someone had taken a club to all of the appliances.
"Hotaru-chan, what time is your dad coming home?" ChibiUsa asked.
"Late, he and Eudial were going to be working late tonight." Hotaru replied,
suddenly realizing that she was going to be the only one in this devastated house for quite
a while tonight.
"Then why don't you leave your father a note and come spend the night at my
house. I am sure that he'll understand why you didn't ask permission first and will be
much happier having you with us than here." ChibiUsa offered.
"Hai, Arigatoo ChibiUsa-chan." A much happier Hotaru replied.
And with that, the two of them hurried up to her room and began to pack some
stuff for the sleepover. Though as Hotaru got out her bags, the two of them realized that it
probably would make sense for Hotaru to pack a few days worth of clothing; after all it
was going to take a while to make the house livable again. Putting the last article of
clothing into her bag and closing it, a second thought crossed Hotaru's mind and she went
back to the hall closet to get another bag.
"What's that one for?" ChibiUsa asked
Hotaru did not reply, instead she began gathering some of her more treasured
lights and a couple of other treasured items from around her room and placed them into
the bag. Seeing what her friend was doing, ChibiUsa gave an "Oh" of understanding.
Finally packed, the two girls then proceeded to make their way down the stairs
and out of the house. Locking the door behind her, Hotaru took one last look at her home
before following ChibiUsa down the walk. Very quickly the two were very glad that
Tomoe had purchased suitcases with wheels. It would have been impossible for the two
of them to manage all of Hotaru's bags otherwise back to ChibiUsa's house.
After they had been walking for a while, ChibiUsa noticed that Hotaru was
beginning to fall behind. Stopping she turned and asked, "Hotaru-chan are you okay
there?"
"Hai I'm okay, just getting a bit tired."
"In that case then let us rest a moment." ChibiUsa offered as she sat down on top
of the suitcase that was dragging. Arriving beside her friend, Hotaru followed suite,
though in her case also leaning up against the side of the building that they were beside.
The two of them rested there for a while, until a voice called out to them.
"Hey ChibiUsa-chan, where are the two of you going?" Haruka asked. She had
been racing down the streets at breakneck speed heading to the hospital when she had
spotted the pink hair of the munchkin out of the corner of her eye as she passed a side
road. Making a quick U-turn, she had doubled back to check on the girl. While she
wanted more than anything to be on her way to Michiru's side, she also was not going to
forsake either of her princesses to do that.
"Hotaru's house and her neighborhood was trashed by something that looked like
a Tyrannosaurus Rex. As a result, I offered to let her stay with me until her house gets
fixed."
"That's nice of you ChibiUsa-chan. But why are you walking? Why didn't you
call Tsukino-san to come get you?"
"Hotaru's phone's dead." ChibiUsa explained.
"Ah, I guess that would do it. Well then you two should hop in, I'll give you a
lift." Haruka said as she popped her trunk and leapt out of the car to take care of the bags
the two girls had been dragging. Then with the luggage loaded and a quick check to make
sure the girls had their seatbelts fasten, she put the car in gear and raced off.
"Um, Haruka-san why are you driving so fast?" ChibiUsa asked.
"Michiru was badly injured by the demon." Haruka said, barely remembering that
there was a non Senshi in the car.
"Oh" the two younger girls said.
Not long after that they arrived at the hospital. Parking the car, Haruka jumped
out and raced into the hospital not waiting for the other two. Getting out of the car at
more normal speeds, ChibiUsa and Hotaru headed into the hospital themselves. After
finding out from the front desk where Michiru was recovering, the two of them headed to
the older girl's room.
It was not till they arrived outside of the room, that ChibiUsa realized that if
Michiru had been injured severely in battle that she might still be in her Fuku, in which
case it was a big problem that Hotaru was here with her. But she could think of no way to
bail on their visit to Michiru now. Hoping for the best, ChibiUsa opened the door and was
immediately yanked up off the ground and into a bone crushing hug.
"ChibiUsa you're okay. I was so worried about you and Hotaru when Haruka said
Hotaru's house had been damaged in the demon attack." Usagi said. Then releasing her
daughter, she knelt down by Hotaru. "Hotaru-chan feel free to stay with us as long as you
need." Then standing up, she moved out of the way so that the two of them could enter
the room.
"How is she?" ChibiUsa asked.
"Not good, but she is at least stable." Mamoru said from where he was sitting off
to one side of the room.
After Usagi had released her, Hotaru had taken a good look at her friend's cousin
and was surprised to see the girl's black hair slightly blackened and looking all around
the worse for wear. Then looking towards the bed that this Michiru lay in, Hotaru walked
over. The other girls and Mamoru did not notice Hotaru's movement as they were busy
discussing Michiru's condition in more detail. Looking at the older girl laying in the
hospital bed, she saw where she had been injured. Not knowing what kind of injury it
was, she placed her hand over Michiru's injury. Opening herself to her power, she began
to probe the severity of the injury. Not liking what she felt, Hotaru began to direct her
healing energy into the injury.
"Hotaru-chan what are you doing? You're too weak for that." Usagi asked in
concern as she realized that Hotaru was over at the bed and trying to heal Michiru. Not
getting a response, she rushed up beside the other girl, but stopped short of shaking her as
she realized that Hotaru was in some kind of trance.
"What's happening?" Haruka asked.
Mamoru shrugged his shoulders, not having been told by Usagi about Hotaru's
gift. However, ChibiUsa did know and she said, "Hotaru has the ability to heal others, but
she is not strong. She tires easily and healing is even more so."
"Wha..." Michiru tried to croak out as she came to.
"Hold on a moment love, let me get a nurse first." Haruka said
Off to the side of Michiru, Usagi caught Hotaru as the young girl passed out. As
she carried the younger girl over to one of the chair, she did note with relief that Hotaru's
breathing appeared to be steady and even, which she took as a good sign. She had just
finished sitting in the chair, cradling Hotaru in her lap when the nurse came in.
Seeing the incredulous look on the nurse that the patient was conscious already,
Usagi decided to explain. "This girl here has the gift of healing and was able to use it on
Michiru. I don't know how much she was able to do before she passed out, but you may
want to reassess Michiru's condition again."
Nodding her understanding, but not believing it, the nurse went to take a look at
Michiru's bandages. And sure enough the bullet wound had fully closed up. The only
sign that something had happened was that the skin was pink in the area.

* * * * * * * * *

Lying down on her bed for a quick power nap before starting her studies, Ami
drifted off to sleep. Sleep came very quickly, partially due to the exhaustion from the
day's events and partially from having just heard that Michiru had been fully healed by
ChibiUsa's friend. As her thoughts faded into dreamland, she was making a mental list of
the various questions she wanted to ask Hotaru and what kind of scans she should do.
Very quickly after Ami's eyes had closed, her mind entered the dreamscape. She
found herself standing beside what appeared to be a mountain spring in a coniferous
forest. Looking up she saw that the night sky was not blemished by a single cloud and
was clearer than anything she could remember having seen. <I wonder if this is how the
night sky looked before the onset of the industrial age.> she thought to herself. Breathing
in the clean mountain air, she turned to take in the rest of the area. Up near the forest she
notice that there was a silver haired fox sitting on a large stone. While the hair was quite
unusual, the two tails of the fox were even more so and for some reason she thought his
eyes appeared to indicate intelligence.
"Yes little one, I am more than just a regular fox." The creature said in a delicate
and light masculine voice.
"You're a kitsune?" Ami asked remembering one of her dad's paintings that she
had really liked when she was little.
"Iie, not quite. Unlike a kitsune I am not constricted to upholding the spirit of my
promises, only the letter."
"He's a not a spirit Ami, but a demon." A second voice, which sounded just like
her own, said.
Turning to look at this new speaker, Ami saw a barely visible person that
appeared to be her Mercury form. Confused, she tried to summon her transformation
wand, but without success. Seeing her other half try to henshin, Mercury chuckled before
explaining things. "Ami I am the Sailor Mercury part of your soul, while you are the
human part. Here in your mind, the two of us manifest as distinct beings."
Understanding, Ami nodded her head in acknowledgement. "Then who is that?"
she asked.
"An invader." was Mercury's reply.
"Very true spirit, your little one left her mind quite open for me and was such an
inviting target. I would have to hazard that she has begun some training into the spiritual
arts, but is neglecting the defensive elements to have left herself as open as she has." The
fox said. Then turning to Ami, he addressed her. "Well little one I am going to give you a
choice. I am quite weak right now and have many enemies out looking for me. Until
recently I had taken refuge in the body of a little boy. Unfortunately, a couple of days ago
he was killed when he chased a ball out into the street and got run over. And then in the
moments of confusion after being forced out of his body, I was attack by other demons. I
managed to escape and took refuge the past few days in that holy place while waiting to
recoup enough energy before venturing out to find a new body to hide in."
"Why do you need a body to hide in? And how were you able to enter the chapel,
I thought the holy protections would have kept you out." Ami asked.
The fox laughed in response to the later question. "Yes the wards, would have
kept out most other demons and those that it did not keep out would have likely destroyed
the place in breaking the wards. However, I am a master thief and finding the holes in the
wards was but a simple task for me. As for why I want a human host, the injuries I have
sustained were inflicted with a spirit poison that makes them very slow to heal, many of
your years. And while being in a human body slows down the healing process even more,
it does provide one major benefit, as long as I am asleep in my host, other demons can't
detect my presence.
"Now as for that choice I was offering you. I can either kill you right now by
consuming your human soul. The strength of your human soul is sufficient that it will
heal the majority of my wounds by itself. The other option is for you to accept me into
your mind and let me stay here while I recover."
"Ami, don't accept any of his offers." Mercury demanded. "If you accept him, not
even the princess would be able to exorcise him."
"Yes but her only other option is to die now." The fox replied.
"What assurances do I have that you won't try to take control of me once you
recover?" Ami asked.
"None, and in fact once I recover I will try to finish the possession.
"Why are you telling me this?" Ami asked.
"Because I am a fox. It would be no fun if I did not have the challenge of
matching wits against you for the prize of you soul. I expect you to train and prepare
yourself for when I am ready to fight you."
"If you win will you gain control of my Sailor powers?"
"Iie, your protector over there is the only one who can control them. I would only
be able to use them if she decided to help me." <Though there are many control spells
out there and I am sure with some research I will be able to find one to bind Mercury to
my will, but she doesn't need to know that.>
"Why are you even giving her this option? Why not take her soul now and heal
your body? The challenge of the fight can't be all it. I am sure there are other things you
want to do than spend years asleep in the back of her mind?" Mercury asked.
"Simple, she looks to be a good adversary and I haven't had one of those in
centuries. Just by what I was able to see in the chapel, the little one here is quite
intelligent and now that I am in here I can see a cunningness that she has had in the past."
the fox replied before thinking to himself, <And even if I had been in a new body to hide
in, I would have jumped into this one. I could not let such a prize of a being remain as
vulnerable as she was. It was only a matter of time before she was attacked by another
demon. Now with me here, I can protect the little one until she has learned the defensive
wards.>
"I'll accept you into my mind on one condition, that you tell me your true name."
"Ami, Iie! I told you not to accept his offer." Mercury shouted.
"I know, but as he said this was really the only option. At least for a short while
more I will still be able to protect Usagi. And there is always the chance that I might be
able to hold him off when he awakes."
"You do know that it won't be just one attack. The demon will try to take control
of your mind every day for the rest of your life until you get strong enough to drive him
away or he succeeds." Mercury explained. While eventually she would have the power to
help Ami drive away this demon, she knew it would take decades if not longer for her to
have the strength to manifest as something more than just a spirit form here in Ami's
mindscape.
"Hai I know." Ami said softly. Then she turned to the fox demon, her body
posture showing her acceptance.
"In that case, the deal is sealed." The fox demon said. "As for my name, I am the
demon Youko." With that said, the demon dropped down from the upright perch it had
held the entire time on the stone, to just laying on the stone as it curled up and prepared to
drift off to sleep. "Oh one thing little one, please try to not get yourself killed." And with
that Youko closed his eyes and fell asleep. Soon after that, the dreamscape faded away as
Ami fell into a dreamless slumber.

* * * * * * * * *

While Ami was getting some rest in before starting her studies, Usagi, Haruka,
Michiru, ChibiUsa, Pluto, Hotaru (Mamoru having had to head home to study after they
left the hospital) were currently enjoying ice-cream Sundays at the crown fruit parlor.
While, Haruka would have preferred Michiru to be at home resting some more, even
though ChibiUsa's friend had supposedly fully healed her, she didn't want to take any
chances, she shared Michiru's desire to repay this young girl. It had been hard to get
Hotaru to accept any form of gratitude. The solution had only appeared when ChibiUsa
had suggested that Haruka and Michiru treat the two of them to ice-cream. Hotaru
seemed to be okay with accepting a food reward and even more so when she was not the
only one getting it. If the hospital had been a bit faster in releasing Michiru; they had a
hard time believing that Hotaru could heal people by touch, you would think that might
be more open minded given that Michiru was brought in by a Sailor Senshi; Haruka and
Michiru would have treated the two girls to dinner at a good restaurant. As it was, dinner
was purchased in the hospital cafeteria while tests were being run on Michiru.
"So Hotaru-chan what do you want to do when you grow up?" Haruka asked.
When she saw that the little girl appeared to be embarrassed, she added, "Don't worry
about saying what your dream is. There is no foolish dream if it is something that you
really want to do."
"Hai," Hotaru mumbled, "I want to run a marathon."
"That's no dream to be a shamed of." Michiru replied.
"But I will never be healthy enough."
"Of course you will. You just have to put your mind to it. And I definitely
approve of your dream." Haruka said.
Elsewhere in the parlor, a figure smiled as she spied her target. Aluminum Siren
really had done her homework in shadowing all of Sailor Moon's movements before
making her play. Smiling to herself, she approached the table. Noticing five other girls at
it she figured that at least three and maybe four of them were also Sailor Senshi. That
would complicate things a bit, but she figured the surprise of them finding out that she
was still alive would tip the scales enough in her favor. Plus they were seated at a booth,
much harder to get up from. Noticing the arrival of someone at the end of their table, the
group looked up not recognizing her. Lead Crow smiled to this, so much the better that
they didn't yet know her civilian identity.
"Well unfortunately that idiot Sailor Tin Nyanko had to ruin my perfect trap for
you Sailor Moon; but don't worry, I am still going to take your star seed." Sailor Lead
Crow announced as she discarded her disguise.
Usagi's eyes and those of the other Senshi became wide when the stranger
addressed Usagi as Sailor Moon. Pluto's heart almost skipped a beat as the stranger
revealed herself to be one of Galaxia's animates. <None of them are ready for this. How
could Galaxia already be here?> Pluto thought quickly to herself. <Wait she is implying
she already tried something and that Tin Nyanko ruined it. The black hole that has to be
it.> Not that that realization did anything to take make the immediate problem better, but
it did mean that she didn't have to worry about the rest of Galaxia's attack yet.
While Pluto was trying to figure out how Sailor Lead Crow could be here, and the
others were getting over the shock of having Usagi addressed as Sailor Moon and by an
enemy no less, Sailor Lead Crow attacked. Golden spheres of energy shot out of her arm
bands at Usagi. Moving quickly to protect her princess, Haruka kicked the table up and
into the line of fire, deflecting the soul stealing orbs away.
Not knowing what was going on, but realizing that her best friend's cousin was in
trouble; Hotaru grabbed a hold of Usagi and pulled her down and out of the way of a
second attack by Lead Crow. By this time, Pluto, Uranus, and Neptune had all henshin
and were moving in to attack Lead Crow. Seeing them come, she hit them with one of her
own attacks, throwing the first two back into another booth. Pluto for her part had
managed to dodge out of the way of the attack, but found she was not in a position to
counter attack.
By this time Usagi had regained her senses. Standing up, she grabbed a hold of
both her daughter and Hotaru. Letting go of her glamour she unfurled her still singed
wings. Jumping over the seat she had been on, she raced towards the exit. Seeing her
target trying to escape, Lead Crow moved to intercept and unleashed a couple more of
Galaxia's soul spheres. Seeing four more of the glowing orbs coming her way, Usagi
changed course and dived over the counter and into the serving area of the fruit parlor.
She did not know why, but something inside of her told her that just letting one of those
sphere hit her would be a very bad thing.
The leap was not the most elegant and she ended up rebounding off the back wall
to land at the base of the counter with a thud. She had enough forward momentum that
when she hit the counter a stack of cones were knocked loose and after wobbling back
and forth for a few minutes, they fell down on top of her and the two girls. Unlike other
falls, she did not feel the least bit winded from the beating she had taken, which was
especially surprising considering she was still recovering from the beating earlier in the
afternoon. Looking down she realized why, Hotaru was using her healing powers.
"Arigatoo, Hotaru-chan. Between the two of us, we'll let get out of here." Hotaru
replied with a smile.
<Well if the door won't work there is always the second option.> Usagi thought
to herself. However, she first needed a distraction. Looking around she found one.
Letting go of the two girls for a moment, she reached out and grabbed one of the serving
trays. Then standing up, she quickly located the enemy and with a call of "Moon Tiara
Action." She sent the improvised discuss flying.
"And what good do you think a tray is going to do, Sailor Moon?" Lead Crow
chastised. However, when she tried to bat the tray away it exploded into a shower of
moon dust.
Smiling that her planned had worked, Usagi quickly grabbed a hold of the two
children again and then leapt back over the counter. Running as fast as she could, she
stole a quick glance behind and saw that Lead Crow had recovered from the momentary
distraction. Thankfully, Lead Crow did not appear to realize Usagi's plan as indicated by
the smile that Lead Crow had, obviously believing that she had her prey cornered.
Looking up to where Usagi was now carrying them, Hotaru realized that they
were fast approaching a window and furthermore that Usagi was not slowing down.
Instead, she appeared to be trying to run faster with each step. Letting out a scream of
fear, she covered her face with her hands just before Usagi jumped and did a summersault
so that the group passed through the window with Usagi's back breaking the glass. The
spin continued until Usagi was once again facing the direction of fall and it was at this
point that she straightened her wings. However instead of putting them out to provide lift,
she kept them in close to her back as she let them fall faster and faster. Finally as Hotaru
was deciding that she was going to die for real today, Usagi unfurled wings and caught
the air. Lofted up, the three of them sped away from the Crown Arcade. Unsure of where
would be safe, Usagi just headed off in a random direction into the night.

* * * * * * * * *

Having finished his tour of the city, Rubeus was just passing by the Crown
Arcade and Fruit Parlor when he heard a window above him shatter. Looking up he was
surprised to see Neo-Queen Serenity carrying the rabbit and that child of the Tomoe jump
out of the just shattered window. Realizing that something must be happening upstairs
and also knowing for sure that it could not be one of his demons, he decide to go take a
look. First he just teleported outside of the windows and saw Pluto, Uranus and Neptune
facing off against some other warrior and from the looks of it it looked like they were
loosing.
Inside Pluto thought to herself, <This is not good, Lead Crow is just too powerful
for the three of us to defeat. Without their talismans, Uranus and Neptune are no match
for her. And if we don't kill her, she can just attack the princess again at any time. There
is only one option left. Figures that time would find away to keep me away from this final
battle yet again.> as she came to a decision.
Stopping, Pluto tapped her staff into the ground holding it perfectly vertical in
front of her body. Noticing the change in action of their partner, Uranus and Neptune
paused in their attacks. "Ah, I see that you have finally decided to give in." Sailor Lead
Crow gloated.
"Hai, you are too powerful for us to out right defeat, but there is another option."
Pluto replied. "By the power of the talismans, we can summon the Holy Grail." As Pluto
continued, Uranus and Neptune found themselves suddenly pulled to form the other two
points in an equilateral triangle. And then as lines of energy connected the three of them,
a glow came from within their chest as their pure heart crystals were extracted. The two
of them looked on in surprise as they recognized that they contained the talismans that
they had been searching for. Both of them then turned to look at Pluto confused as to why
she had sent them on this search for the talismans if she had know that they had carried
them all this time. "And by the power of the Holy Grail, the Soldier of Death and Rebirth
can be summoned from her eternal sleep." As she said this the talismans exited the pure
heart crystals, which then proceeded to return to their owners bodies while the Garnet
Orb lifted off Pluto's staff. The talismans then proceeded to be connected by their own
lines of power, lines which also extended up to form the peak of a triangle where the
Holy Grail formed.
Walking forward, Pluto took a hold of the Grail, feeling its power course through
her blood. Reaching out her staff, the Garnet Orb reattached itself. Then releasing the
grail she walked closer to Lead Crow. "The Holy Grail is sought by those hungry for
power as its power is the ability to amplify magic." Pluto said continuing her explanation.
Then smiling, she raised her staff high in the air and said one word "Stasis!"
With the word spoken, the Garnet Orb unleashed a bright flash of light, blinding
all in the room. When they could see again, Pluto and Sailor Lead Crow were frozen in
place. Walking forward, Uranus cautiously tapped Sailor Lead Crow.
"Weird she now feels like stone, I wandered what Pluto did?" Uranus asked.
Bringing the mirror she was now holding up so that she could look at the two of
them, Neptune examined what the mirror was showing her. She was not quite sure what
this mirror did, but some memory from the Silver Millennium told her that it could shed
the light on the answers. "I think Pluto has frozen time for the two of them, placed them
into a stasis field. As long as they are like that we can't do anything to them, but neither
can this Sailor Lead Crow do anything else." She explained.
"Well it looks like the day wasn't a total waste." A gloating voice said from
behind the two.
Spinning the two Senshi exclaimed, "Rubeus!" Both of them suddenly having
their stomachs drop through their feet. Somehow they had missed his arrival and as a
consequence he was now holding the Holy Grail, the object that they had been trying to
keep him from getting.
"I have to thank the four of you for providing me with such a nice present. As a
token of my gratitude let me give you something as well." And with that he snapped his
fingers.
"I don't think so Rubeus we already found those hidden energy collectors of
yours." Uranus smirked.
"Oh you have did you?" Rubeus replied with a surprisingly confident tone. "Now
did you find all of them or just half of them, I wonder?" And with that he vanished.
Sailor Uranus and Neptune both exchanged knowing looks that they had been
had.

* * * * * * * * *

Flying across the city, Usagi suddenly felt a pain in her chest. Loosing her
strength, her wings could no longer support her and gave away. Plummeting to the
ground, she held tight to the two girls as she silently prayed that they wouldn't be killed
by the fall.
"Momma!" ChibiUsa cried knowing something was wrong with Usagi. If she
could have, she would have pivoted around so that she could hug her mother, but she
couldn't.
Realizing also that something had happened to Usagi, Hotaru grabbed a hold of
the arm holding her. There was no fear in her body as she summoned all of her energy
and began channeling it as fast as she could into the older girl.
Feeling a little strength return to her body, Usagi was able to catch a little bit of
the air. Not enough to keep them airborne, but it was enough to deflect their rate of
decent slightly so that they were now angling towards a tree. Smashing into one tree and
then another and then quite a few more the three finally came to rest on the ground.
Once again, Usagi had managed to rotate her body so that she had hit the ground
back first protecting the two girls. As the group came to a stop, ChibiUsa was the only
one who was able to move around a few minutes later. Opening her eyes, she first rolled
over to check on her mother and was relieved to feel Usagi's chest rising and falling.
Then looking over at her friend she saw Hotaru was lying beside Usagi, but could not tell
if the other girl was okay.
Crawling over Usagi, she inched closer to Hotaru. Getting close enough she laid a
hand on the other girl's chest and released a sigh of relief when she was able to feel the
steady rise and fall. Then looking up to black haired girl's face, her mouth widened into a
smile as she saw that Hotaru's eyes were now open.
"Hotaru-chan are you okay?" ChibiUsa asked
"Hai, I think so. Just tired. So Usagi's your mom." Hotaru replied in a tired voice.
Deciding not to lie to her friend, ChibiUsa said, "Hai, she is."
"You must be really proud of her." And with that Hotaru slipped back asleep.
"I am." ChibiUsa said. Then adjusting her position so that she was lying
comfortably on her mother, she reached over and pulled Hotaru up into her arms and
gave in to the desire for sleep as well.

-End Chapter

-Those of you who are Yu Yu Hakusho fans will have caught the reference with
the name of the fox demon being Youko (Kurama). The personality of the fox
demon will share some elements in similarity to Youko, but it won't be Youko.

-The appearance of Sailor Sun is a homage to Fire, BugerBill and KHammel for
their Sailor Ranko stories. In particular it is "Sailor Rank: The harder they fall"
from which Sun got yanked. Thankfully for Ranma, the yanking recharged her
energy reserves. :)

-For those who may be wondering why Ryo's vision of when Rubeus was going
to spring his trap differed, well there was the slight issues of having a demon
mucking up time and of course the magnet of Chaos Ranma Satome present. Plus
things had already been changed with them finding half of the energy collectors.
Of course the real reason is that in writing the chapter, I decided this work better.

-Well here is Christmas / Chanukah gift to those readers who wrote asking that I
get this chapter out sometime this millennium. For the most part the chapter just
flowed, giving me a fair number of late nights when I couldn't pull myself away
from the keyboard. Though, it doesn't quite have the comedy elements that I had
wanted, but oh well. But I did get to drop in Ranma there for a little while, so all
is good.

-And while this book is coming to a close soon (just a few more chapters), I have
now written myself into definitely doing the third book. I wonder how many
people caught the scene which is the cause for the third book. Its not a major
scene and nor is the element brought forth in that scene going to be really
significant in book 3, its just that I won't be able to explore that topic till the third
book. And no, Sailor Lead Crow is not the source of book 3, she has been fated to
appear here for quite a while.

-For those who are wondering about the movies, I may be integrating them into
the third book. This book is quickly reaching its climax point, so my ability to
drift is severely restrained.