Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Fragility of Time ❯ The Soul of the Cosmos ( Chapter 36 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

The Fragility of Time BOOK TWO: "Falling Towards Apotheosis"
Chapter 36: The Soul of the Cosmos
Author: etj4Eagle
Email: etj4Eagle@fanfiction.net
Email: etj4Eagle@yahoo.com
Posted 4/17/05 (sorry for the delay, its been done for a month)

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.
_______________________________________

Chapter 36: The Soul of the Cosmos


Straining against the silence being
unleashed by Hotaru, Serenity had called upon all
of her reserves to put forth the full power of
the moon into her defense and attempt to free
Hotaru from the Death Phantom’s possession.
Beside her, Endymion had used his link to the
Earth to lend his love his support and Small Lady
had added what she could as well. But even when
combined together that power had been
insufficient to stand against the Grail enhanced
Silence. And so, Serenity’s defense was slowly
pushed backwards with the clash of powers
eventually occurring at the Ginzuishou itself.
However, when that the clash of powers reached
the center of the Ginzuishou something happened
that no one other than Pluto could have
anticipated – the power of the Cosmos awoke.

This was only the second time since creation
that the power of the Cosmos had awoken. The
first was back during the founding of the colony
that would one day become the Silver Millennium
when General Serenity had woven from the powers
of the Sol system the half soul of the cosmos – a
crystal that would become known as the
Ginzuishou. The ritual that had created the
Ginzuishou had bounded it to Serenity’s soul, but
the power found General Serenity’s soul lacking
and so the power had gone to sleep. And through
the ages, the power of the Ginzuishou slowly
changed Serenity with the birth of each of her
“daughters” until the final princess of the Moon
Kingdom was born.

Tsukino Usagi, age 14, the warrior known as
Sailor Moon, and the last princess of the Moon
was not lacking and so the power of the Cosmos
hatched from its crystalline egg. Instantly drawn
to Usagi, the power of the Cosmos dove into the
silver haired girl; healing her wounds as it
restored a dead body to life. Now with a whole
soul, Usagi opened her eyes. No longer was she
Serenity or the warrior known as Sailor Moon,
instead she was Sailor Cosmos herself.

And as the avatar of the Cosmos opened her
eyes, she called upon her power, power that had
been stored in the souls of eight of the planets
of the Sol system. However, she was not able to
maintain the full magnitude of her call for but a
brief moment. For the soul of the Cosmos was born
prematurely. The soul was supposed to mature for
over another millennia before it was to be born
during the downfall of Crystal Tokyo and
following the return of the High Kings of the
Earth.

Even without the full power of the planets
at her disposal, Cosmos was still able to make
use of their powers during her battle with
Hotaru. But for the brief moment when she did
posses the full power of the planets, the
respective Senshi were powerless. For Mars,
Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune the
flicker of their power went unnoticed, battered
as they were. For Hotaru the effect was noted and
discarded as an aftereffect of the attack which
she had just used to kill Sailor Moon. But for
Pluto, who was currently using her power to
maintain a stasis field, the flicker was very
noticeable.

The momentary interruption in the flow of
temporal energy that was sustaining the stasis
field was all that was needed to allow it to
collapse, releasing its two prisoners back into
the time stream. Given that the field was a
temporal stasis field, it had not cost Pluto any
energy to maintain the field, with the cost
instead having to be paid entirely upon the
dropping of the field. And so released back into
the time stream, Pluto fell to her knees, her
energy levels depleted. And as exhausted as she
was, she remained upright on those knees for but
a passing moment before releasing her staff and
bending over so that her elbows were on the
ground. Then taking some deep breaths, Pluto
closed her eyes while she waited for the world to
stop spinning. It took a few minutes for her to
feel comfortable that she wasn’t going to pass
out, at which time she raised her body so that
she was now sitting on her knees. Then picking up
her staff she closed her eyes once again, this
time so that she could begin to survey the river
of time.

Her first task was to determine how much
time had elapsed during her self imposed
imprisonment. She already knew that worrying
about Sailor Lead Crow was irrelevant that her
foe was long gone from here, must likely having
hightailed it out as soon as she was released.
Unlike Pluto, Lead Crow would not have been
adversely affected by having been cut off from
the flow of time nor would she be feeling drained
from having maintained the stasis field. And
consequently Lead Crow would have at most been
slightly nauseous upon being released. In probing
time’s river, Pluto realized to her dismay that
not even a day had passed since she had created
the stasis field <How can that be? At least a
year should have passed since I created the
stasis field. It was supposed to release when
ChibiChibi entered the timeline>. Then realizing
that maybe for some reason Cosmos’s child-self
was here in the past, Pluto got to her feet as
she began to use the Garnet Orb to mentally probe
the timestream. And instantly she realized that
it was not ChibiChibi which had disrupted her
plans but something far worse for she had
detected the unmistakable presence of Sailor
Cosmos’s awakening, something that caused her
face to instantly go white. For one of the few
times in her life as a Sailor Senshi, Pluto felt
true fear for she knew how close things now were
to going totally wrong. Now not wasting anytime,
Pluto ran out of the Crown Fruit Parlor and into
the streets. Finding Usagi was not going to be a
problem for she could easily sense the clash of
powers that were Cosmos and her opponent.

* * * * * * *

Having escaped from Sailor Pluto and her
cursed time traps, Sailor Lead Crow took to the
roofs of Tokyo as she tried to get a handle on
the situation. In retrospect she realized that it
had been foolish of her to give away her disguise
like that. But she hadn’t counted on Sailor Moon
getting smart and abandoning her friends there in
that restaurant. Of course she now realized that
she was a fool to not think that Sailor Moon
wouldn’t eventually learn to think about her own
safety. And then of course there was that little
time trap of Sailor Pluto. Time mages and Sailor
Soldiers with temporal powers were always an
annoyance, and of course this system would have
to have a Sailor Senshi who specialized in
nothing but temporal magic.

Once she had figured that she had placed
enough distance between herself and where she
hoped Sailor Pluto was still lying on the ground,
Lead Crow was just about to drop back down to the
street level and reapply her disguise when a
brilliant flash of light grabbed her attention.
Following just moments behind that flash of light
was a wave of immense energy, which swept past
her body even before she had even begun to turn
to find the source of the flash. By the time the
thunder rumbled by her a few seconds later, Lead
Crow’s curiosity was peaked. So instead of making
a move to hide in the crowds, Lead Crow began to
cautiously approach the source of what she could
tell was a massive magic battle.

Some minutes later, Sailor Lead Crow finally
arrived on the grounds of the Mugen Academy. Now
moving very cautiously, she approached one of the
many holes that pop marked the grounds around the
main laboratory building. Not wanting to get
fried by the power that had cut out these holes,
she paused beside one of the holes for a few
moments while she felt the ebb and flow of the
magic being thrown about below ground. Once she
was satisfied that the hole was strictly the
result of a stray shot and that it was safe to
enter, she began to creep down through it and
then into the basement laboratory. Finding a
stack of computer equipment near where she had
arrived, Lead Crow took cover behind them as she
began to take stock of the battle that was being
fought in front of her.

At first she did not recognize the Sailor
Senshi that was fighting the black haired girl
with the bladed pole arm, for it was the blast
that had killed Sailor Moon that had drawn her
initial attention. But after watching the two
fight for a bit, she quickly realized that the
unknown Sailor Senshi had the same shine as
Sailor Moon. <Guess that girl has learned how to
tap into her power to a higher degree. Galaxia-
sama will be pleased.> The last thought being of
course the result of knowing that Galaxia only
wanted to receive mature stars, for only the true
owner of the star could bring it to full
maturity.

As the messiahs of light and dark fought
their battle, Lead Crow was planning her own
course of action. She realized that this would be
the perfect time to steal Sailor Moon’s star.
From what she could tell from her hiding place,
the other Sailor Senshi were out of commission
and would not be a threat and with the exit
behind her she would be able to quickly exit once
the time came. All she needed was a good
distraction that would allow her to get a nice
clean shot on Sailor Moon, a distraction that the
Death Phantom provide when he took the strawberry
blond girl as a captive. Moving quickly to take
advantage of the moment, Lead Crow crept out of
her hiding place and then just as Hotaru overcame
the Death Phantom’s hold with the words of
“Saturn Planet Power Make-up,” Lead Crow
unleashed her attack. Unnoticed by all present,
the golden spheres raced across the floor of the
laboratory and straight into the back of Sailor
Cosmos.

The scream of utter pain from Cosmos as her
soul was violently ripped from its moorings in
her body instantly drew the attention of the all
present in the room. As the Sailor Senshi looked
on at Cosmos with visions blurred by blood and
swelling they felt their stomachs drop through
the floor as they saw her back straight and stiff
as a board while the glow of her body began to
concentrate in a single point in her chest before
moving out of her body and crystallizing into a
brilliant crystal. A crystal that was unlike the
simple shape of any other star seed, but was a
true multi pointed star looking in many ways like
the destroyed Ginzuishou.

And as much as each of the fallen Sailor
Senshi wanted to scream out in rage and kill this
mystery warrior for what she had done, none of
them could. Instead, with their spirit utterly
crushed beyond hope, each one instead fell to the
ground in despair wondering if there was any
reason for them to keep on living now that they
had failed Usagi. And it wasn’t just that Usagi
who was dead, but her daughter, ChibiUsa, was as
good as dead as well. The young child now lay at
the feet of the Death Phantom ready to be
possessed by that vile creature. The thought that
at least they would be able to join her in the
afterlife shortly was their only conciliation.

Catching a hold of the stolen star, Sailor
Lead Crow turned and made her departure; however
as she got halfway up the tunnel, she paused. For
some reason she no longer had the desire to
escape from this disaster area and to return to
her mistress in triumph. Instead she felt some
need to stay and observe the battle for a while
longer. After all there was this Sailor Saturn
who had provide to be quite a match for Sailor
Moon, Galaxia-sama would probably like to here
about her. And Lead Crow figured that this girl
probably also held a star. And getting intel on a
future target was always a good idea. So with her
desire to remain rationalized, Lead Crow crept
back down into the laboratory.

* * * * * * *

For a moment there, the Death Phantom was
afraid that his carefully worked out plan was
about to come undone. But then that stranger had
shown up and cut down Serenity with a single
blow. That was a power that he wanted, but that
was a matter for the future. For now he needed to
take possession of the rabbit’s body and then he
would deal with his troublesome tool. Maybe he
could make that girl believe that he had failed
in his possession of the rabbit long enough for
him to bring her back fully under his spell. She
had so much potential as quite evidenced by her
battle with Serenity that it would be a real
shame to throw it all away by killing her. But he
would do what he had to, his only goal here was
the rabbit, anything else was a bonus – such as
the death of Serenity.

Floating over to where the rabbit lay, he
picked her up by her neck and held her at his eye
level. Her body was now fully defenseless against
the pending assimilation. Her meek mental
defenses and the protective magic of the moon had
all been shattered by his previous efforts. And
with her now unconscious there was no way that
she would be able to mount any kind of
resistance. And so with an evil grin he began
chanting the words of the spell that would
condemn her soul to oblivion and give him her
fresh, young, powerful body.

* * * * * * *

Sailor Saturn could only watch in stunned
silence as Usagi was suddenly cut down where she
stood. The body of her best friend's mother going
stiff had caught her eye, riveting her attention
on Usagi. And so like the rest of the Senshi, she
watched in awe as Usagi's chest glowed with a
residual golden light from the impact of the
attack for a moment before a bright silver glow
began rising from Usagi's chest. The glow seemed
to rise until it was near the girl's head before
what could have been described as a flower
unfolded and a blindingly bright crystal was
released to hover over the girl's head. As the
crystal shimmered it took on a jagged appearance
of a many pointed silver crystal before the magic
of the attack pulled it back to Sailor Lead
Crow's waiting hand. As soon as Lead Crow's hands
curled around the crystal it was as if a life
line was cut and Cosmos fell to the ground in a
heap.

Watching all of this, Hotaru could only feel
that it was her fault that Usagi was like this.
If she hadn't allowed this Death Phantom to use
her as his pawn, Sailor Moon and the rest of the
Senshi would have been able to defeat him and
ChibiUsa's mom would not be dead. <ChibiUsa!>
Hotaru exclaimed in her mind following her
thoughts of Sailor Moon. Now turning back to
where the Death Phantom held ChibiUsa, she saw
him trying to do something to the girl.
Remembering something about him wanting to
possess her, a will to fight suddenly came to
her. No longer afraid of the deadly pole arm that
she wielded or the power that she commanded at
her finger tips, Sailor Saturn returned to her
feet. Only one thought, saving ChibiUsa, was on
her mind as she rushed the Death Phantom and
sliced her glaive down through one of his arms -
cutting the demon's robe in two. Quickly grabbing
ChibiUsa as he dropped her, Saturn continued
running and so did not see the formless haze that
was the Death Phantom's body.

Once she had run a few paces away from the
demon, she spun on her toes and turned to face
the creature again. Still holding ChibiUsa in her
arms her eyes widened in alarm when she saw the
creature unleash a blast of energy at her in
anger. Her mind unable to come up with any better
options, Saturn raised her right arm while
turning her body in an attempt to shield
ChibiUsa. Screaming in pain as the blast hit her
body and tried to eat away at her soul, she
withered the blast so as to protect ChibiUsa. And
then when it was over, she placed her friend down
on the ground before turning back to fight this
creature of evil, her desire to protect her
friend not wavering.

"So you think you'll be able to face off
against me little firefly? You forget that I am
the one who gifted you with all that power you
were using against Serenity before. Now that you
have turned against me you are just a weak little
human girl who can't hope to stop me." The Death
Phantom declared as he prepared to blast Hotaru
again. "There is still time for you to swear your
loyalty to me. I know you care for the rabbit.
Just think by joining with me you will be able to
fight beside her for all of eternity."

"But if she did that she would not be
standing beside the one that she care so much
about." came a woman's voice from the shadows.
Then taking a few steps into the light the
speaker continued. "I don't know how you managed
to awaken her Majesty's true form today, but know
this foul demon between myself and Saturn you
will be sent back to Hades." Then raising her
staff into an attack position she whispered "Dead
Scream."

Unprepared for the blast from his rear, the
Death Phantom was knocked off his feet. However,
he quickly recovered and unleashed a wave of dark
energy at Sailor Pluto, causing the time Senshi
focus all of her concentration on weathering the
storm. Taking advantage of the momentary
distraction that this Senshi was providing her,
Hotaru took a few moments to make sure that
ChibiUsa would be okay on the ground before
returning to her feet to face the demon.

Seeing Saturn return to her feet, Pluto
allowed a smile to cross the grimace of her face
before the wave of dark energy from the Death
Phantom swept her up into a wall. Hitting the
wall hard, she flopped to the ground, but quickly
returned to her feet just in time to see Hotaru
unleash a vacuum blade from the tip of her
Silence Glaive. While the attack was easily
deflected by the Death Phantom that did not
matter for it gave Pluto the time she needed to
unleash another one of her attacks. And unlike
last time, she remained quick on her feet so that
she could avoid the demon’s counter attack.

* * * * * * *

Sailor Lead Crow hidden in her hiding place
and now feeling quite secure with the power that
Sailor Moon’s star radiated, watched the battle
unfold between the Death Phantom and the two last
standing Sailor Senshi of this star system. It
was quite an amazing feeling, the power contained
in this crystal; she had to remark to herself as
she toyed with the star seed in her hand. Holding
this crystal, she no longer felt any fear of what
Galaxia might do to her. Absently she wondered if
this crystal might be more powerful than all the
other crystals in the galaxy combined – not that
she was considering trying to usurp Galaxia’s
power. For some reason that objective was
rejected ever more out of hand by her mind than
any other time it might have crossed it.

Seeing Sailor Saturn take an energy blast
from that demon in her stomach, Lead Crow had to
wince. While they weren’t allies, she could still
sympathize over the beating that the two of them
were now taking. The battle between the two
Sailor Senshi and the demon had started out with
the two side appearing to be nearly equally
matched, but it was not long before it became
apparent to her that those two were just not
powerful enough to overcome the power of that
creature, partially due to Saturn’s obvious
inexperience. About the only thing they had going
for them was that they had managed to keep him
from possessing that little girl. While she did
not know exactly how possessing that girl’s body
would have helped him, she did know that at
minimum a nice young body would have allowed that
creature to command even more power and if that
girl had some kind of special magic connection as
she suspected, well the creature would have
become unstoppable.

And so, Lead Crow continued to watch the
battle, all the while rolling the crystal in her
fingers. And with each trade of blows, she found
herself drawn more and more towards the battle,
with any thoughts of returning to Galaxia fading
quickly away. And then to her surprise she even
found herself beginning to root for the two
Sailors, especially the younger one. <Hmm… I
wonder if I can absorb this crystal?> Lead Crow
thought to herself after Pluto and Saturn took a
very nasty beating from the demon. Now standing
upright and no longer leaning on the wall of the
tunnel, Lead Crow brought the crystal up to her
eye level for a moment to gaze into to its
infinite complexity. Then wrapping her fingers
fully around it, she brought it back down to her
chest level and held it against her heart. Almost
immediately she began to feel it slipping into to
her chest and its power radiating through her
body.

As soon as the last point of the crystal
slipped into her chest, a fountain of energy
erupted around her feet as she felt the crystal
burning her body away from the inside. <What is
happening to me?> she wondered as her vision was
engulfed in the pillar of energy. But then as
quickly as it had appeared it was gone. Looking
down at her body to make sure it was still in one
piece, she noticed that her Fuku was still intact
– though a bit charred in some places and
streaked with silver in others. Her gauntlets
hadn’t fared quite so well, they were still there
– but there were now hairline cracks all over
them. <Better hope that no one realizes that
those are my Achilles heel, otherwise I am in big
trouble.> Lead Crow thought to herself. But other
than that, she felt perfectly fine and she was
quite amazed at the level of power she now knew
she had at her finger tips. And so deciding that
it was time to stop hiding in the shadows, she
left to join the fight.

* * * * * * *

Saturn was still trying to shake the cobwebs
out of her head from the last blow she had taken
when she looked up and saw the Death Phantom
floating above her prone form and he was already
forming a second blast with his crystal ball.
Looking over to her left she saw that her Glaive
lay a few meters off to the side – useless.
Moving was out of the question – she had been
knocked into a corner and her mind was still not
clear enough to try to summon that protective
barrier again. <I’m sorry ChibiUsa-chan, I have
failed you. Gomen-nasai.> she said in her mind as
she moved her lips to the words. Then closing her
eyes, she awaited for the final blow – a blow
that never came.

Instead she heard the words, “Galactic
Tsunami.” and could feel a large mass of energy
pass close by her body. When a minute passed
without a killing blow coming, she opened her
eyes and was shocked to see that woman who had
cut down Usagi fighting the Death Phantom.
Confused as to why she was helping them; Saturn,
however, did not let that confusion slow her
down. Quickly returning to her feet and she
rushed over to her side to retrieve the Glaive
and unleashed a blast of energy from the weapon
before moving to join their new “ally” in
fighting the Death Phantom.

* * * * * * *

From where Pluto had gotten thrown by the
Death Phantom when he had taken her and Saturn
down, she had felt horror at what she saw when
she managed to return to her feet with that
creature hovering over Saturn. Knowing that she
was too late to save Hotaru, Pluto let her rage
and sorrow fuel a Dead Scream more powerful than
any she had cast before – hoping to avenge the
death of her foster daughter even if she could
not save the girl. Of course she wasn’t yet the
foster mother for Hotaru, but that didn’t mean
that she wasn’t still feeling the love and
remembering the memories from all of the other
timelines. Normally during the activities of the
Death Busters that part of the timeline was
hidden from her – so that she could do her duty.
Of course that always made learning the truth
about Hotaru after her death in the helicopter
even worse for the time guardian. But this time
around, she had retained all of her memories of
the future – the only way to allow her to
properly fix the damage to the river of time. And
so even though it wasn’t the case and appeared
that it might never be the case, to Pluto Hotaru
was her daughter.

But then to her unbridled relief an
unexpected blast hit the Death Phantom. Looking
over to its owner, though already knowing who it
was from based on the name of the attack; Pluto
was still surprised to see Sailor Lead Crow
there. She had thought that the Animate had
returned to her master Sailor Galaxia after
securing Usagi’s star seed. She might not have
been present for the theft, but she had clearly
felt its repercussions in the river of time as
she had been running towards this place. Of
course, Sailor Lead Crow was probably just trying
to play the two sides off of each other until
both were too tired to fight anymore and then she
could take all of their star seeds and kill this
creature as well. Getting a good look at Lead
Crow’s uniform as she adjusted her aim, Pluto
thought to herself <I don’t seem to recall her
uniform having those streaks of silver.> before
she unleashed her Dead Scream, which nailed the
Death Phantom.

* * * * * * *

Noticing that Saturn, <Hotaru> her mind told
her, had returned to her feet, Lead Crow released
a little sigh of relief before grinning quite
maliciously at the Death Phantom. “You know I
have to thank you quite a lot for presenting me
with the perfect opportunity to take Sailor
Moon’s star. You have no idea how much power was
in that child’s body. I guess I can count myself
lucky that she hadn’t learned how to control any
of it yet, otherwise in my previous encounters I
probably would have been vaporized. However, I
don’t think I will be quite so generous with
you.” Lead Crow said and then reaching her left
arm out straight while standing sideways, she
reached forward with her right and hand and
pulled back as if using a bow and a bow and arrow
composed of crackling blue flame appeared.
“Flame-lightning Sniper.” were the words that
Lead Crow said before unleashing that deadly blue
flame into and through what might have once been
the heart of that creature.

Reacting in pain from the attack, the Death
Phantom unleashed an unfocused attack, knocking
his three attackers to the ground, though doing
nothing more to them. However, the attack wasn’t
meant to hurt, but buy himself some time to
recover. Knowing that the tide of battle had
turned against him now that this powerful unknown
third party had decided to join the battle, the
Death Phantom began to look for a way to regain
the upper hand. Forced to quickly move out of the
way to avoid a pair of attacks from Pluto and
Saturn, his eyes spied the unconscious body of
the professor. <Hmm… That pathetic human is the
father of my former pawn Sailor Saturn. While I
had suppressed her feelings of him, I am sure
they are fully returned now and he does already
have a demon inhabiting his body.> And with those
thoughts, the Death Phantom decided that he had
need of this pawn yet again and so it was time to
bring him back from the slumber he had commanded
the human into. But as he awoke Tomoe, he also
awoke the demon in his soul and with a blast of
energy into the crystal shard, severed the ties
of the demon to its master and reforged them to
himself.

Of the three Sailors, Saturn was the first
to take notice of the transformations that her
father was undergoing, having instantly
recognized his screams. “Father.” she whispered
as she saw his body racked by seizures. Taking a
step over towards him, she only barely noticed an
attack barreling her way. Quickly jumping out of
the way, she was almost in time to avoid it, but
the attack still managed to clip her feet and she
fell to the ground with a thud. But her attention
was so focused on her father that she barely
noticed. Lying there on the ground, she saw his
body begin to bulge in various places as suddenly
the eye patch he had worn since the accident
shattered.

Screaming in pain, Tome clamped a hand over
his eye as he sank to his knees. But with the
warding barrier broken, the demonic aura from
within his body began to shine out into the
daylight, escaping through the cracks in his
fingers. Bringing his other hand to clamp down on
top of the first in a futile attempt to seal in
the demon, Tomoe was too late. Already the skin
around his eyes was beginning to flake away,
while the demonic light began to burst through
other points along his body.

From where each of the Sailors stood they
could only watch in horror as Tomoe was consumed
by the demon that he had been harboring all of
these years. At first the release of the demon
was simply the flaking away of skin around the
various points on his body where the demonic aura
began to shine through. But before long, his left
arm exploded in a bloody mess to reveal the arm
of a demon, a process that was soon repeated
across the rest of his body.

Suddenly sick to her stomach, Saturn
relieved herself of her lunch. With tears
streaming down her face, she was stunned
motionless while that creature that had moments
ago been her father walked over to where she lay
on her arms and knees.

“What’s wrong muzume? You feeling a little
sick to your stomach? Here let me help.” the
creature said before giving Saturn a hard kick in
the gut. The kick was delivered so as to knock
her straight up into the air where he then
proceeded to give her a second punch, this time
to her face, crushing her nose.

“Bastard, you sick bastard. World Shaking.”
Uranus called out from where she was barely
standing on her feet. The cruelty of what the
Death Phantom had just done to Hotaru
overwhelming her with rage, making her forget
that just a few moments ago Hotaru had been an
enemy.

Not expecting an attack from that direction,
the demon had been caught off guard; however,
Uranus’s attack barely had any strength in it.
But, deciding not to take any chances, the
creature ran over to where Uranus had now fallen
back to her knees. Seeing that new demon coming
their way, the fallen Sailors began trying to
call on what little energy they could in an
attempt to protect Uranus. Though the effort
ended up for vain, for as the creature closed in
on them it ripped of its left arm and with a
throw it tossed it at them. Startled by its
action, they were completely caught unaware by
its subsequent detonation – an explosion that
knocked each of them hard back to the ground
while reversing their Sailor transformations.

<Ewe, what kind of creature is this?> Lead
Crow thought to herself as she watched the demon
casually rip off one of its arms so that it could
use it as an explosive against a group of
essentially helpless girls. <Though at least it
now has only one arm.> she added, when she
realized that this demon did not appear to have
any kind of regenerative powers.

Saturn was just returning to her feet when
she saw the thing that was once her father turn
back towards the three of them after having taken
care of the others. Trying to focus her mind so
that she wouldn’t think about how this creature
had once been her father, she couldn’t help but
notice the demonic blood that flowed from the
stump of its left arm. <Why is this all happening
to me? Is it because I was not content with
living with my illness and wanting to be health?>
Hotaru wondered, trying to make sense of
everything that had happened and again wrestling
with whether she could truly take up the mantel
and be a Sailor Soldier.

“How dare you defile the love of a daughter
for her father. In the name of the Moon I will
punish you.” Sailor Lead Crow said before forming
a golden discuss of ice and throwing it at the
Death Phantom. <Now where did that come from.>
Sailor Lead Crow thought to herself as she earned
herself surprised looks from both Saturn and
Pluto. <I hope this doesn’t mean that I am going
to drop to the level of stupidity of Sailor
Moon.> Lead Crow thought to herself with a
shudder as she realized one possible reason why
she had just made a Sailor Moon style speech.
Unfortunately as focused as she was on that fear,
she didn’t notice how she was walking and with a
yelp promptly fell flat on her face as she
proceeded to trip herself.

Unable to avoid giggling at Lead Crow,
Saturn felt her worries begin to fade away. And
then hearing some more giggling she looked off to
the side where she had placed ChibiUsa and was
rewarded by a smile from her best friend. “I
believe in you Hotaru-chan.” ChibiUsa said when
her and Hotaru’s eyes locked.

“Arigatoo ChibiUsa-chan.” Saturn said softly
and she adjusted her grip on her glaive so that
she held it now in a ready position. This time
charging the blade with as much healing energy as
she could muster, she dropped her body into a
crouch and focused in on the creature that was
once her father. Not even realizing it, her
vision slipped out of the normal spectrum and
into one of life energy – allowing her to locate
the “heart” of this demon.

“So it looks like little Hotaru-chan has
decided that she wants to play for real. I guess
I must have hurt her feelings when I hurt her
friends.” the demon said with a laugh. Confident
as it was in its ability to handle this child
warrior, it did not notice how Saturn’s eyes
began to glow violet as her vision changed.
Though, both Pluto and Lead Crow did notice and
the two of them let out a gasp up surprise. For
Pluto the gasp was one of surprise over the child
using one of her more advanced powers and for
Lead Crow it was over wondering what this change
meant, but knowing that it couldn’t be good for
that demon.

And then, the coiled energy in Saturn’s legs
released and she was dashing towards the demon.
Easily dodging the lump of flesh that it had
ripped out from its side, Saturn moved her glaive
out to her left side with the blade pointed
towards the demon and angled just slightly
upwards. And then with a slight rise in her step
as she passed her demon, she cut into and through
the demon in an upwards arc. Though, before the
blade had even left the body violet energy
exploded outwards from the cut.

Screaming in pain, the demon fell to its
knees. Looking up at Saturn who was now standing
beside it, it now saw that her eyes were aglow
with violet light. “How could you do this to your
own father?” the creature asked “You know you are
a murder know?”

“You are not my father.” was all that Saturn
said before she raised her glaive above her head.
“I’m sorry father for not being able to save you,
but at least your soul will be able to rest in
peace.” Saturn whispered to herself before
slammed the tip of the glaive down into the demon
with the word “Purification.” And as the glowing
blade of the glaive pieced through the demon and
into the floor below, the creature was blown
apart into fading dust in an explosion of violet
light.

Stunned that this girl had been able to kill
the creature that had been her father only
moments ago, the Death Phantom took his attention
off of Sailor Lead Crow. Moving quickly to
capitalize on the Death Phantom’s mistakes, Lead
Crow brought her arms together and then bringing
them down, she unleashed a half dozen of the soul
stealing spheres. Sensing the attack, the Death
Phantom turned just in time to watch all six of
the spheres slam into his body. Lifted off the
ground by the attack, the Death Phantom remained
suspended there as energy began to flow out of
his body and circle around the crystal sphere
that he was always working in his hands. And then
when the energy that made the creature had been
fully extracted from his body, the crystal ball
fell to the ground to lay a top of what were now
empty robes.

“Saturn.” Pluto called out to get the young
girl’s attention, knowing that she was the only
one of the three of them that could deliver the
final killing blow to the Death Phantom.

Hearing her name, Saturn looked up from the
where her glaive now stood alone in the ground.
Seeing the crystal ball and robes that Pluto’s
body language was indicating, she pulled her
glaive out of the ground. Walking towards the
remains of the Death Phantom, she this time let
all of the rage she felt for what had happened
today flood through her body – the attempted
possession of ChibiUsa, the death of her father
and Eudial, the death of Usagi. Her body now
incased in black energy from her rage, the other
two were forced to draw back to avoid being hurt
by her aura, a very real concern giving the
sizzling of the concrete where she had taken her
last few steps.

“Death Reborn Revolution.” Saturn said in a
cold voice, causing Pluto’s blood to run cold as
the girl swung her glaive up and over her head.
With her arms fully extended and the pole arm
reaching high above them, Pluto could plainly see
the deadly ribbons of destruction gathering along
the length of the blade of the Silence Glaive.
Saturn seemed to pause in that position for an
eternity before she slowly at first, but more
quickly with each moment swung her glaive down
and cleanly sliced into the crystal ball.
Reacting instantly upon meeting the crystal ball,
the ribbons exploded outwards – consuming the
entirety of the ball along with the robes. But
that was the extent of the Silence.

Dropping her glaive, Saturn fell to the
ground as unconsciousness overtook her body.
Releasing a sigh of relief Pluto turned to regard
Sailor Lead Crow, not sure of what was going to
happen now.

First looking down at her cracked gauntlets
for a moment and then looking up at Pluto, Lead
Crow spoke: “Sailor Senshi of the Silver
Millennium you do not need to fear me. I am no
longer an adversary. In calling up the power of
this star …” at which point the star seed exited
from her chest to rest back in her hand, “my mind
was freed of the control that Sailor Galaxia had
placed over it. I am sorry for what I have done,
I only wish there was a way to bring this pure
hearted warrior back.”

Not exactly sure how to react, after all it
was her princess who was the one always forgiving
their enemies, Pluto tried her best. “As much as
I and the others might want to be angry at you, I
know that our princess has already forgiven you
and would want us to do the same. There is a way
to reanimate a star seed; unfortunately it is a
technique that is only known by Sailor Moon and
Sailor Galaxia.” Pluto said, regret in her voice
at the end. <Unfortunately for what you have
done, all creation must cease to exist unless we
can figure out a way to reanimate that star
seed.> Unsure of how to continue in any
conversation, the two tired warriors, stood
silently regarding each other, each lost in her
own thoughts.

But they did not remain in those thoughts
for too long as a cry of “Momma” drew their
attention. Turning to look at ChibiUsa, they were
surprised to see her sobbing over her mother’s
body. <Nani-ka!> both of them yelled in their
mind as they realized that Usagi was still there
on the ground. Yeah, her body was less
substantial than a ghost at the moment, though
somehow it was supporting ChibiUsa and rested
partially in Endymion’s lap, and motes of light
swirled around it, but it was still there –
something that should not be possible.

Pluto and Lead Crow turned their heads to
look at each other and saw a matching expression
of confusion on the other warrior’s face. “How is
that possible?” Lead Crow asked.

“I have no idea; there is no way her body
should still be around now that you have her star
seed.” Pluto said as the two of them began
walking towards mother and daughter.

“It’s the Grail.” Endymion said in a soft
voice while indicating the cup that was clutched
in one of her hands. “I can feel it sustaining
her life.” Then looking up to stare at Lead Crow
with a cold stare he asked Pluto, “What is she
still doing here.”

“It is what her Majesty would have wanted.
Sailor Lead Crow is no longer under the control
of Galaxia.”

Endymion looked on at Lead Crow for a few
more minutes, his expression not softening until
he finally let some of his anger go, knowing that
Pluto had spoken the truth – Usako would have
been the first to forgive Lead Crow here even if
it had cost her her life. Giving a sigh, he
turned his attention back to the barely alive
body of his love. He knew that part of the anger
he was directing at Lead Crow was over his own
uselessness in the battle. Of all the warriors he
was probably in best shape and he had wanted to
have joined in that final battle against that
demon, but with only roses and a partially
mastered sword as his weapons he had been
completely outmatched. And he had known that he
would have been in just the way if had had fought
along side them; instead he had taken to watching
over his love’s fading body.

Seeing Endymion accept her, Lead Crow spoke
to him, “While what I did was unforgivable, I now
at least have an opportunity to make amends.”

“How?” Endymion asked.

Instead of answering him, Lead Crow dropped
to kneel beside Sailor Cosmos, while carefully
reaching her hands out, with the star seed
cradled in her palms. Then lowering the
crystallized soul to the young girl’s chest she
was rewarded by its glow increasing as her hands
slipped inside of the currently ethereal body of
her former adversary. For a moment she was
worried when her hands slipped inside of Cosmos’s
body as well, but that fear was quickly
vanquished when Cosmos’s body began to glow more
strongly and the motes of light began to be drawn
back to the silver haired girl’s body. Now
smiling, Cosmos released the star seed from her
hands and began to bring her hands back up and
within moments of extracting them from the body
of Sailor Cosmos, the girl’s body became solid
again and her eyes opened.

Opening her mouth to apologize, she was
instead cut off by Cosmos. “I forgive you.”

“Why?” Lead Crow asked.

“Because I can,” Cosmos said with a smile as
she reached an arm up and around her daughter to
pull the now sobbing girl in for a much needed
hug. “However there is one favor that I would
like to ask of you.” She asked while Endymion
slowly lowered he body to rest fully and more
comfortably now that she was holding Small Lady
on the ground.

“Anything, my life is yours to command.”
Lead Crow said as she knelt before her new liege.

Not having the energy to deal with someone
else wanting to be her servant, Cosmos decided to
let it be for the moment and instead said, “If
you could bring the black haired little girl
here.”

“Of course.” And with that, Lead Crow
quickly made her way over to where Saturn lay on
the ground and collected both her and her Glaive.
Then returning with the child she lay her down on
the left side of Cosmos’s chest so that Cosmos
could wrap her free arm around the girl.

“Arigatoo.” Cosmos said as she looked down
at the two girls with a smile.

Coming up beside Lead Crow, Pluto looked
down at her princess and the two children. She
stood there just watching the three of them rest
for a few minutes, while a couple of tears formed
in her eyes before speaking, “It never ceases to
amaze me how her trust and forgiveness always
prove right in the end. No matter how bleak the
situation looks even to my time sense she always
chooses the path to the brightest future.” Pluto
said, more to herself than for Lead Crows
benefit.

“I think I know what you mean. Just from
seeing her star seed and then even more from
holding it and especially from calling upon its
power, I can tell that there is something special
about that child. A more pure soul has never
existed and the universe favors her so.” Lead
Crow replied after a few moments. And then a
couple of minutes later she said, “I hate to
mention this given how peaceful everything seems
to be at the moment, but we should think about
getting out of here soon. With the battle over, I
am sure the authorities will soon build up enough
resolve to begin to investigate this place.

“Hai you’re right.” Pluto replied. Then
kneeling down on one knee she began to lightly
shake Cosmos until the girl’s eyes opened again.
“We need to be going.” Pluto told Cosmos once the
unspoken question had formed in the girl’s eyes.

“Hai.” Cosmos said as she began sitting up,
which is not the easiest task to do when you have
a pair of sleeping girls laying on you. However,
after much effort she was eventually able to get
herself into a sitting position. Of course she
had not considered the idea of rousing the two
girl’s first, instead having planned on carrying
the two of them out. Though in the processing of
sitting up she had managed to wake both of them
up.

“Momma, you’re okay.” ChibiUsa exclaimed
before latching onto Usagi with a bone crushing
glomp. A glomp that was quickly mirrored by the
now awake Saturn as well.

“Ack… Can’t… Breath…” Usagi managed to
wheeze out with the remaining air reserves in her
lungs.

“Oops.” The two girls chorused with a
quickly smile.

“Its okay, this just means that I get to
give you two one as well.” Usagi said before she
suddenly squeezed the two girls in a tight hug.
As Cosmos wrapped the two girls up with both her
arms and her wings, Pluto, Lead Crow, and
Endymion couldn’t help but smirk when they heard
the air being forcibly ejected from the lungs of
the two girls. The three of them stayed in that
tight embrace for a few moments, before Usagi
partially released the hug, relaxing her arms so
that they just embraced each of the two girls
while also pulling her wings back behind her back
and leaning back against Endymion who was now
sitting partially behind her with a loose arm
around her waist.

Neither ChibiUsa nor Saturn made any move to
away from where they were holding onto Usagi’s
chest as both of them needed the love and comfort
that Usagi radiated. For ChibiUsa, she tightened
her hand holds on Usagi’s shirt as she buried her
face against her mother’s chest to hide the tears
that were slowly falling down her face.

“Its okay muzume, I am here now and nothing
is going to take me away from you.” Usagi said as
she gave ChibiUsa a comforting squeeze with her
arm while also placing a light kiss on the girl’s
forehead.

As for Saturn, she was not in any better
condition. Now with the adrenaline beginning to
drain from her system, the darker memories of the
battle began to come to her, chief amongst those
being the death of her father. While the trained
warrior portion of her soul knew that there was
nothing that she could have done for her father
that did not make it any easier for her to accept
that she had killed just killed her own father.
And while some thought that she was a freak
before, now it was undeniably the case, no one
would want anything to do with her. Her soul
plunging into deep sorrow, she latched onto the
only source of comfort that she had for the
moment and let her fears ride out as a river of
tears.

Both Usagi and ChibiUsa realized at the same
time the change in Hotaru’s deposition. And while
ChibiUsa wanted to still bask in her mother’s
embrace she knew that her friend needed Usagi’s
comfort even more and so without being told moved
off of Usagi’s lap and to Endymion’s. Even as
ChibiUsa was doing that, Usagi was focusing all
of her attention on the distraught child that she
held. And now with both of her arms available she
reached the other arm around Hotaru and adjusted
the other girl’s position so that Usagi was now
cradling her against her chest while once again
using her wings to wrap up Hotaru again. Then
with Hotaru in the new position, Usagi rocked her
back and forth as she let the girl cry while
making soft soothing noises.

Once Hotaru’s tears began to dry up and the
girl was left with the occasional sob, Usagi
placed a gentle kiss on the girl’s forehead
before saying, “Don’t worry Hotaru-chan, while
today is a day of sorrow, you still have a bright
future in front of you.”

Hotaru did not look back at Usagi as she
replied, “No it isn’t. I killed my father. I
really am freak.” Then having said that, she
tried to pull away from Usagi, not feeling that
she deserved any of the girl’s comfort.

“Iie, you are wrong Hotaru-chan.” Usagi
replied as she prevented Hotaru from trying to
pull away. And then using a hand to lift the
younger girl’s chin so that she could look into
her eyes, Usagi continued, “That demon was the
one who killed your father, all you did was allow
his soul to rest in peace. You are not a freak. I
am not going to forbid ChibiUsa from being
friends with you after today.”

“Demo…”

“No buts Hotaru. You are still my daughter’s
best friend and I am not going to let anyone call
you a freak.” Finally with those words, Usagi
began to get through to the younger girl, as
evidenced by the slight spark of hope that began
to be reflected in Hotaru’s eyes. “And do you
know how I know that you want be called a freak
anymore?”

<What, you mean that you really are going to
keep others from calling me a freak?> Hotaru
thought to herself as she now looked at Usagi
with surprise and anticipation on her face.

“Because no one is allowed to call my
daughter a freak. Not unless they want to face
the wrath of Tsukino Usagi.” Usagi said as she
straightened her body to look all tough and
strong while a wide grin was planted on her face.

Hotaru of course couldn’t help but giggle at
Usagi’s silly pose and smile. But then her mind
caught up with the first part of Usagi’s
statement. “Demo, how does that help me?”

“Because as of right now I am adopting you
as my daughter, muzume.” Usagi said as she laid a
kiss on Hotaru’s forehead, a kiss which left a
faint starburst mark before she pulled the
stunned girl in for a hug, a hug that after a few
seconds Hotaru began to return in full force, a
hug that was also quickly joined in by an
exuberant ChibiUsa and then by Endymion as well.

“You mean it?” ChibiUsa asked as she began
to hug her mother and new sister.

“Hai, I do.” Usagi replied before giving
each of the girls a kiss on their foreheads.

For the next several minutes, the three
girls lost themselves in their mother-daughters
hug while Endymion, from the side, proudly
watched Usagi. Lead Crow looked on at awe at the
scene in front of her, once again being reminded
of how bright Sailor Moon’s shine was. As for
Pluto, she watched both happy and proud of her
queen and stunned as well, stunned because Usagi
had just prevented her from having Hotaru as her
own daughter. Of course if she thought about it
at all she would not have been that surprised,
after all the only reason why she, Haruka, and
Michiru normally ended up raising Hotaru as their
own was because Usagi was shell shocked after
returning from the battle with Pharaoh 90,
allowing the other two to grab the infant Hotaru
with no fuss. Otherwise, it would have been Usagi
not the three of them raising Hotaru.

It was some time later when Usagi and her
two daughters broke away from their own little
world. And, after letting Hotaru and ChibiUsa
climb off of her lap, Usagi returned to her feet
to face Lead Crow and Pluto. Walking up towards
Cosmos, Lead Crow greeted her former adversary
with a very low bow before saying, “Sailor Moon
thank you again for saving me from Galaxia. There
is one final thing that I most humbly ask of you.
You see these golden bracers that I wear; they
are what allow Galaxia to control me. Your star
seed broke her hold on me, but I am afraid that
once she gets close she will easily be able to
reassert her control again. So I beg of you to
use your healing power to free my humble body of
this entrapment.”

Looking at the bracers that Sailor Lead Crow
was indicating, Cosmos summoned her staff. Then
raising her head to look at Lead Crow, she was
about to say that it was no problem when she
realized something else – something that Lead
Crow had failed to mention. “You don’t have a
soul anymore do you?”

“Hai, that is correct. I lost mine long ago
to Galaxia when she attacked my planet. Under her
power she has forced me to commit many
atrocities, including sadistically butchering my
own son.” Lead Crow explained and her example
resulted in gasps of surprise from Cosmos,
Endymion and the two girls. “However, I much
prefer death than to be her puppet again.”

Thinking of her own daughter, Cosmos knew
that she would feel the same way if the situation
was reversed. She just wished there was a way to
not kill Lead Crow. <Maybe the Grail has the
power, Pluto did say that it was a very powerful
artifact and it gave Hotaru quite a power boost.>
“Hotaru-chan could you go get the grail for me?”
Cosmos asked.

“Hai,” Saturn happily replied before
hurrying over to where the grail was laying
forgotten on the floor. Then returning with the
Grail she handed it over to Cosmos.

<I wonder, Hotaru has the gift of healing
and she is a Sailor Senshi now. Maybe she might
be able to help me.> “Hotaru, I think you might
be able to help me here. I want you to also hold
on the Grail and follow my lead.” Cosmos said.

“Hai.” Saturn replied as she grasped a hold
of the grail with one hand and began to feel not
only her own energy, but that of the Grail and
Usagi’s power. As the two let their power build
and mingle in the cup of the Grail, the two
become of one mind. Working as one, the yin and
yang of the Messiah opened her eyes. With white
energy pooling into the left hand of Cosmos and
black energy pooling into the right hand of
Saturn, the two girls spoke in perfect unison
with matching pitch and tone to their voices –
though a pitch and tone completely different from
the voice of either of the two. “Child of the
star, you have proven yourself worthy to reclaim
your shine, no longer shall you serve a failed
star. Instead reclaim your true name of Sailor
Erion.” Then pausing for a moment, the eerie two-
but-one voice called upon the power of the
messiah with the words, “Shadow Moon Healing
Escalation.”

And with those words, the balls of energy
that Cosmos and Saturn held in their hands began
rising up and around the two of them in a
spiraling helix. And when the leading edge of the
energy streams would reach the ground or a foot
above Cosmos’s head they would reverse their
vertical direction while also speeding up in
their rate of spiraling. Before too long the two
girls were completely obscured by the energy that
was still streaming out from their outstretched
palms and then with a final blinding flash of
light that blinded everyone present the column
vanish.

When they could see again; Sailor Cosmos and
Sailor Saturn lay in a crumpled heap on the
ground with the Grail visible nowhere. For Sailor
Erion the golden bracers of bondage were no more
and she could feel the power of her star once
again radiating from her chest. Shaking her head
in a futile attempt to clear the spots that still
remained in her vision, Erion realized that her
memories of her servitude under Galaxia were
beginning to become fuzzy.

Confusion clearly visible on Erion’s face,
Pluto quickly realized what the problem was;
after all she had felt the spatial rip that had
just occurred along with the creation of yet
another temporal paradox. “The fading of your
memories is time bringing you in line. What you
remember as the past is still over a year away
from happening. As far as your star seed is
concerned, your world only fell a few days ago.
Sailor Cosmos, she took your star seed not from
the time you come from but from the moment when
Galaxia stole it. Consequently, you actions under
Galaxia never occurred and those memories will
fade. In the end all you will remember of your
time under Galaxia are fragments of this battle.”

“How… Why…” were words of unformalized
questions that Erion whispered, as she wondered
why Sailor Moon wasn’t going to make her at least
live with the memories of what she had done.

“Owe my head.” The not quite so chip voice
of Minako said as she returned to her feet. The
healing blast that Saturn and Cosmos had
unleashed had not been restricted to just Erion,
it had also covered the rest of the occupants of
the chamber, healing them of their worst injuries
and revitalizing their bodies. And slowly one by
one the group returned to their feet. While not
quite sure as to what exactly was the situation,
they were content to realize that at least it
looked like they had won; they could wait for the
details at a later point in time.

From where she had slumped to the ground,
Cosmos also returned to her feet. However unlike
the previous time, this time she was feeling very
unsteady and was having to use her staff to help
support her weight. But making a concerted effort
to not let the others realize how bad she was
off, she began walking over to where her friends
were recovering.

“Minna-san are you okay?” she asked.

“Hai.” The various voices replied. “A little
banged up and I think we will be feeling this
battle for some time to come.” Makoto replied.

Unnoticed by the others, Ryo had gotten up
and had walked over behind Usagi while she was
confirming with her own eyes that they were okay.
And so he was in the right position when her eyes
suddenly rolled up into her head as her legs gave
out. Catching the girl in his arms, he lowered
her to the ground while the others cried out
“Sailor Moon!” a cry that quickly changed to
gasps of horror as Cosmos’s fuku vanished.

The first of the girl’s to react was Rei,
who was beside Ryo within seconds. Quickly
checking for a pulse she was distressed when she
was barely able to find a very faint one. Then
looking for Usagi’s breathing, she noticed that
it too was not good.

“Ami-chan what’s wrong with Usagi?” Rei
asked as Ami came up beside the three of them.

“I’m not sure, all her vital signs are
plummeting and her energy appears to be
destabilizing.” She replied as she tried to make
sense of what her scans were showing her.

Hurrying over to where Usagi now lay on the
ground, Pluto hoped that whatever was affecting
Usagi was something that Hotaru might be able to
heal. However, her fear was that this was some
how related to the awakening of Cosmos, since as
far as she knew Cosmos required both Saturn and
the full awakening of the Earth to awaken. And
while, she guessed the battle with the power of
Saturn might have qualified for the first part,
the Earth’s power was definitely not yet awake.
But what that meant for the current situation she
had no idea.

Pluto had barely even reached Usagi when
Mercury’s computer began emitting a constant
unending beep, a warning whose meaning she knew
all to well. Quickly searching her memory she
realized that Haruka, who along with everyone
else was now crowded around Usagi, knew CPR. And
so reaching out an arm, she grabbed Haruka and
pulled her down to the prone figure of Usagi.
“Usagi’s heart has stopped, you take care of the
breaths, I will do the compressions.”

“Nani-ka!” cried out Rei upon hearing that.

“Hai, Pluto’s right.” Ami was forced to
admit.

“But we won, we defeated the enemy, healed
the brainwashed warriors.” Minako complained.

“But the Ginzuishou was destroyed. When it
merged with Usagi it gave her a massive power
boost, but at a cost.” Ami quietly said.

“You don’t mean?” Makoto asked.

“Hai, Usagi was only living on borrowed
time.”

From where Haruka and Pluto were
administering CPR to the dieing princess, Haruka
yelled to Usagi, “Come one Usagi-hime wake up.”
in between breaths. Unfortunately, yelling was no
more effective than the CPR they were
administering.

“Her blood oxygen level is dropping
dangerously low; I just hope the paramedics I
called get here soon.” Ami said as she monitored
Usagi’s deteriorating condition.

“And my healing magic can’t find anything to
work on.” Saturn said as she broke off her
attempt to heal Usagi.

“What the?” Makoto asked in sudden
confusion.

“Huh?” the others except for Haruka and
Pluto responded as they turned and looked at
Makoto and then at Hotaru. And it was Hotaru they
were looking at, for her fuku had mostly faded
away.

“What’s going on, your fuku are dissolving
away?” Erion asked referring to Saturn and Pluto.
But before any of them had a chance to respond
Michiru and Rei collapsed to the ground.

“What now?” Makoto asked. Then turning to
Ami, she asked, “Ami what’s going on here? Is
this some kind of trap left by Rubeus to kill us
even if we win?”

Scanning everybody, Ami was not pleased one
bit with what she saw. “I am not sure what the
cause is, but our life forces are starting to
fluctuate as well. The only one not affected is
her.” Ami said indicating Sailor Erion

<Her powers must be still trying to awaken.>
Pluto thought as she compressed Usagi’s chest.
<But with her soul fading, that only acts to
drain the life from the others. Without the final
element of the ritual there is no way for her to
fully awaken. There is only one option left.>
“Minna-san, Usagi’s soul is dieing. A powerful
ritual was initiated during the battle, but a key
component was missing and as a result she will
die. Unfortunately, there is no way for us to get
that missing component as it is years and maybe
even decades if not more away from being ready.”

“But, but…” Rei stuttered from where she had
pulled herself up into a sitting position.

“Can we put her in a stasis crystal like was
done when momma was hurt by the Prince Diamond’s
initial attack?” ChibiUsa asked, remembering how
her mother had been frozen in that crystal to
save her life, the event which had driven her to
swipe the conveniently available time key to
return to the past.

“Yes, Small Lady we can. And that is our
only option. For if we don’t all of us will die
as well. Because of the ritual, our souls are now
linked to hers and if hers dies ours will be
pulled into oblivion as well.” <The planets and
all life on them will die as well, but they don’t
need to worry about that right now.> Pluto added
to herself.

“How do we do this?” Makoto asked as she
helped Rei onto her feet.

“Basically we will do a Planet Attack, but
direct it at Sailor Moon. When our energy hits
her, it will react to form the stasis crystal
automatically. So henshin yo.” And so with a
series of henshin, the group formed a ring around
their princess, some members getting help to
stand from others. Erion watched the proceeding
from the side, not knowing if adding her energy
into the mix would be beneficial or would hurt
Sailor Moon. And so she watched as the group
summoned all the power they could, completely
draining away their fuku and glamour magic. Then
with a final cry they threw that energy at their
leader, each of them passing out as they gave all
they could. But, when the light of the blast
subsided she could tell that they were
successful, for a crystal remained.

Setsuna was the first to recover. She was
soon followed by Makoto and Ami. Dragging herself
over to the crystal, Ami began running some scans
to make sure that Usagi was stable inside of it.
Satisfied she closed her computer.

“Small Lady!” Setsuna suddenly exclaimed,
awaking the rest of the group. Turning they all
saw ChibiUsa fading away herself.

“Pu what’s happening to me?” a very fearful
ChibiUsa asked.

Silently cursing the fates, Setsuna
responded with one word “Causality.” Summoning
her powers again and striding quickly up to the
little girl she ripped the Garnet Orb off her
staff and dropping the for the moment useless
staff to the ground. Grabbing a hold of the orb
with both hands she raised it above her head and
began a spell:

“By the authority you have given me,
“I pledge my soul again to you.
“Unlock the gates of causality and bring
forth the path to let me walk beside you.
“Strike down those who stand before us
“Temporal Disruption!”

With the completion of the spell, the Orb
appeared to shatter into a blinding ball of
temporal energy, which hovered for a moment in
front of Pluto before she grabbed a hold of it
and slammed it forcibly into the vanishing
ChibiUsa. Slamming into the smaller girl,
ChibiUsa screamed out in intense pain. Every cell
of her body felt like it was being pulled in five
directions at once. Then with a flash of energy,
the crystal time key around her neck began
glowing as well. Feeling yet another even greater
wave of pain, ChibiUsa was forced down to the
ground. Running up beside her friend, Hotaru
pulled the withering girl into her arms. Given
that ChibiUsa’s body was still glowing from what
ever Pluto had done to her, Hotaru did not want
to try using her healing magic and was left to
just to try to calm the young girl with words and
her hands.

“Pluto what did you do to ChibiUsa!” Rei
demanded.

“The only thing I could do and now I will
pay the price, goodbye my friends.” Pluto replied
as her own temporal energy suddenly exploded
outwards from her body, shooting in every which
direction. The energy traveled but a few feet
before it vanished leaving only the base of
Pluto’s staff as evidence that Sailor Pluto had
ever been there.

With blank looks, everyone tuned to look at
Ami hoping that she might have some answers.
“Minna-san, I am not really sure what happened
here either.” Ami admitted.

“I think I might know.” Sailor Erion said.
Her answer was of course met with hostile gaze
from some members of the group, blaming her for
what had happened. “When that girl there began to
vanish, Sailor Pluto spoke one word –
‘causality’. Can any of you tell me if there is
something special about that girl?”

“Ah, I understand now.” Ami replied, seeing
where Erion was leading. “ChibiUsa is from the
future, she is the future daughter of Sailor Moon
and Tuxedo Kamen. But the probability of her
never being born is now quite substantial. Sailor
Moon could be trapped between life and death in
that crystal for all of eternity. And even if we
can eventually free her from it, there is the end
result of the ritual which she initiated.”

“So I will never be born now?” ChibiUsa
asked in a small voice.

“Hai, the future you knew is now completely
gone and you were in the process of vanishing
with it as well. But that spell Pluto cast must
have shielded you from the effects of time
allowing you to exist even though your past won’t
ever exist.” Ami said. And with that they all
realized what had happened to Sailor Pluto, she
must have paid the price for using a forbidden
power.

“One question, are our powers stable now?”
Minako asked.

Scanning each of them, Ami said, “Our life
forces look stable, but the only why to know for
sure will be to try to henshin.”

“In that case, Minna-san henshin yo!” Minako
commended.

Seven flashes of light later everyone was in
the Sailor form except for ChibiUsa. “Moon prism
power make-up!” ChibiUsa cried a third time. “Why
isn’t it working?” she asked as she began to cry.
Sailor Saturn who was beside her, pulled her into
a hug, as she looked over at Mercury.

“Of course, I should have realized it
before. Gomen-nasai ChibiUsa-chan. But there is
no way for you to henshin anymore. The power for
your henshin was the shadow Ginzuishou in your
broach, which drew its power from the real
Ginzuishou. But…” Ami did not need to finish her
explanation as they didn’t need to be reminded
about Usagi’s condition.

“But what about Usagi’s ability to henshin
before we got the Ginzuishou, didn’t she say she
was a mage and her henshin was just a spell she
was remembering from her past life.” Jupiter
asked.

“Hai you’re right. However, I don’t think
she ever taught ChibiUsa that spell. I think the
broach was just enchanted with the spell.”
Mercury said, which was confirmed by a sullen nod
from ChibiUsa. “In time, ChibiUsa might be able
to figure out the spell, or maybe Luna or Artemis
will know something, or maybe I can find
something in my computer. However, ChibiUsa I
wouldn’t get your hopes up. Also your powers
would be severely limited with the power of the
now Moon locked away.”

ChibiUsa nodded her understanding, before
hiding her face completely in Saturn’s chest.
Knowing that ChibiUsa was not going to have the
energy to stand for much longer, Hotaru directed
ChibiUsa down to the ground and into her lap.
While it might seem a bit wrong for her to be
glad to have the need to comfort ChibiUsa, she
had a very good reason for wanting it, as it
allowed her to forget for the moment about what
she had done when her body was controlled by just
the power of Saturn. Sleepless nights in the
future lay ahead for her. But for now she could
forget for the moment what she did by focusing on
helping ChibiUsa in her time of need.

It was during this time that an ambulance
along with dozens of military vehicles pulled up
beside the destroyed remains of the Mugen
Academy. Hearing their arrival, Venus and Mercury
left the others to go meet the new arrivals.
While Venus went up to the officer who appeared
to be in charge of the military forces, Mercury
headed to where the EMTs were grabbing equipment
out of the ambulance.

“Arigatoo for getting here so soon.” Mercury
said. “Unfortunately, the injury Sailor Moon is
suffering from is beyond what medicine can do. We
have placed her into a stasis crystal, so that we
might be able to save her at some future point.
However, there are still injured civilians around
the school grounds.”

Walking up to Sailor Mercury, the paramedic
said, “I’m sorry for your loss. I wish there was
something that we could do for her. We’ll just
have to hold onto the hope that the future can
discover a cure for her injury.”

“Arigatoo.” Mercury replied and with that
the EMTs were heading off into the remains of the
school. They were soon joined by military medics
along with a couple of soldiers for escort.
Meeting back up with Venus who had finished
briefing the top officers of the rapid response
force, the two of them headed back into to where
the group was.

Hearing the return of Venus, the others
looked up at the two. All around the expressions
were the vacant ones of a hollow victory. “It is
time for us to go. Jupiter and Uranus can the two
of you manage Sailor Moon by yourselves?” seeing
the nods, Venus began leading the group out into
the fading light of the afternoon. Walking beside
Jupiter and Uranus who were carrying Usagi’s
crystal, Endymion carried his daughter vowing to
himself that he would raise ChibiUsa and Hotaru
in a way that would have made Usagi proud.

* * * * * * *

Guarding the gate of Spacetime, Q could only
watch on in horror as Cosmos fell to the ground,
her soul dieing. Silently grieving, with a pair
of tears forming, Q waved his left hand, shutting
the gates, while he turned his back to those
doors which now only held sorrow for him. Now
taking a step away, his thoughts turned to how he
could have prevented the death of his comrade in
mischief and one true friend. But as his powers
were useless in the bane that Cosmos inhabited,
he intellectually knew that there was nothing he
could have done. And yet this “enlightened and
advanced” being, which was a member of the
continuum found himself feeling very human
emotions over Cosmos’s death. And with those
human emotions of sorrow and second guessing came
one more – vengeance. It was Janeway who had set
this disaster into motion and so, <Janeway your
crew is going to pay penance for this.> Q
thought. No longer was the stumbling and playing
with technology far beyond their level of
understanding that certain Federation captains
were known for amusing. <By the time I am done
with you and your crew, Janeway you are going to
wish that I had decided to visit a plague of
Tribbles upon the Federation. Cosmos’s death will
be avenged!>

As wrapped up as Q was in his sorrow and
planning of vengeance on the crew of the starship
Voyager, he did not notice the arrival of a
second being to the megaverse’s singularity of
creation. And so he jumped up into the air when a
child spoke the words, “Chibi-Chibi” from right
behind him.

With a racing heart (or what goes for one in
a Q), Q quickly spun on his heals once he landed.
And as he spun, his soul was buoyed by
anticipation of what he hoped he would find,
which to his delight proved to be true for there
in front of him now stood the child form of
Cosmos. “How?” was the only word he voiced before
he threw himself at the child and pulled her up
into a hug.

“Chibi-Chibi” was all that ChibiChibi said
before snuggling into Q’s embrace, an embrace
that Q would never let any other being ever see.

“Cosmos why are you in your child-form?” Q
asked after he finally let go of ChibiChibi.

“Child form?” ChibiChibi repeated before
giving a smirk.

At bit annoyed at ChibiChibi’s habit of
repeating words instead of giving answers, Q was
about to demand the child return to her adult-
form when he noticed that the little girl’s smile
looked a bit mischievous. Suddenly getting a very
bad feeling about the situation, Q quickly spun
around to regard the gate as he snapped his
finger to force the doors open again. And he was
just in time to see Pluto’s body explode in a
cascade of temporal energy.

Now turning back to ChibiChibi, Q asked,
“But if Pluto is now dead, then who is the time
guardian.” But Q already knew the answer; the
mischievous smile on ChibiChibi was all the
confirmation he needed. <But there has to be
something more than me just being the new Time
Guardian for ChibiChibi to look like the
proverbial cat which has eaten the canary.> Q
thought to himself. He did not have a long wait
for his answer, for as soon as he had formulated
the question in his mind a massive column of
temporal energy erupted from the gate and zeroed
in on his body, enveloping it. When the energy
finally died down, Q’s first words were “Wonder
if I get any new powers to play with….” But that
thought did not continue for any longer than the
time that it took him to realize that ChibiChibi
was now standing beside a very expensive looking
full length mirror – a mirror that reflected a
female Q outfitted in a very pink and frilly
Sailor Fuku with hearts and unicorns decorating
the skirt. Instead Q yelled “Curse you Cosmos!”
as he lunged for ChibiChibi.

Now Q should have easily been able to tackle
the little child, since she was too busy lying on
the ground laughing her head off. But some how Q
missed and when he picked himself back up he
realized that ChibiChibi was somehow off to his
left. Not pausing to wonder how that could be he
tried again and this time found ChibiChibi off to
his right and so he tried again. This continued
for another half dozen lunges before Q had calmed
down sufficiently that his superior intellect
that he always bragged to Picard about finally
reasserted itself and he realized that Cosmos was
obviously playing with the spatial structure of
this realm.

“So do you have anything to say for yourself
Cosmos?”

“Chibi-Chibi?” was her only reply.

“You know it would be easier to hold a
conversation if you returned to your adult form.”
Q suggested, knowing that the instant Cosmos took
her true form he would be back to normal. After
all she was the true guardian and he was
obviously just a fill in until Cosmos took her
place as the Guardian.

ChibiChibi however just shook her head and
then with the words, “Ba bye Q-chan,” she took a
step backwards and into the Gate of Spacetime
which was now directly behind her.

Seeing ChibiChibi take that step back into
the suddenly present portal, Q made one final
lunge. Unfortunately for Q, ChibiChibi also side
stepped to the side of the portal and so she did
not enter the timestream, but Q did.

Hitting the ground hard, she suddenly found
her mind clouded as she experienced the loss of
omniscience that is associated with the Time
Guardian entering the time stream. However,
dealing with the muddled head and trying to
figure out how to get back to the singularity was
quickly moved to the back burner as she began to
pay attention to the cat calls and whistles that
were being directed her way. Now kneeling on her
legs, Q took in her surroundings and was forced
to gulp as she realized that she was surrounded
by a group of very unsavory men for she had
landed in a federal penitentiary exercise yard.

“My my, I must have been a very good boy
lately for such a delectable broad to have come
pay me a visit.” The nearest convict said.

Snapping her fingers to turn them all into
bugs, Q felt her stomach fall away as she
realized that her continuum powers were still
useless here in this bane. All she had were her
powers as the Time Guardian, powers which she
knew nothing about. Gulping in fear and her eyes
desperately searching for a way out, Q yelled
“Curse you Cosmos!”

-End Chapter

* The version of ChibiChibi that I am using in
my story is partially based off of the Manga
ChibiChibi in which she is Sailor Cosmos.
But unlike the manga version where
ChibiChibi is the result of Cosmos running
away from her fight with Sailor Chaos
because she doesn’t have the power that she
once had as Sailor Moon, this ChibiChibi is
just a form that Cosmos can take at will – a
form that is the innocence of Usagi
distilled. As ChibiChibi she is exempt from
some of the requirements of time such as not
spending too much time with a future or past
version of yourself and as ChibiChibi she
isn’t the Time Guardian. Though as
ChibiChibi her mind and form are that of a
child.

* Hopefully with the above explanation of
ChibiChibi and that final scene at the Gate
of Spacetime some you will hold off nuking
me for what happened to Usagi (or at least
long enough for me to get a few more
chapters out :)).

* In case you forgot from the beginning of the
story a bane is the scientific name for a
plane of existence or dimension in sci-
fi/fantasy. And the megaverse is the same as
the multi-verse.

* And yes that final bit of the scene with Q
and ChibiChibi is Ranma ½ motivated. Q’s
“Curse you Cosmos” will soon expand to
include Ryouga’s favorite line as Q is
forced to deal with the perverts. And when
he/she? reflects on the first time he met
Cosmos, those words will have even more
meaning. Well hopefully Q will remember the
excellent jumping ability of the Sailor
Senshi before he gets into too much trouble.

* The next chapter will be a combination
epilogue/prologue for the next book and
Youko will make a return appearance along
with more of Q’s fate. Unfortunately I don’t
have the next chapter already and since it
has been quite a delay in getting this one
out I am not going to wait for the next one.
Anyways, the final scene did not originally
exist when I was thinking about holding off
on releasing this chapter till the epilogue
was ready. But that scene should away your
concerns.

* There are no new stories recommendations for
your reading, as I have gotten myself a nice
little backlog of stories to read. Though if
you want a good anime series to watch, give
“Witch Hunter Robin” a try.