Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Fragility of Time ❯ "A Spider in the Web" ( Chapter 27 )

The Fragility of Time
BOOK TWO: "Falling Towards Apotheosis"
Chapter 26 "A Spider in the Web"
Author: etj4Eagle
Email: etj4Eagle@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/etj4eagle
Lasted Edited: 9/27/02

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 27: "A Spider in the Web"

Dieing fires lit the landscape of rubble. Ash and smoke hung heavy in the air and in reflecting the light of the fire, cast a red glow over everything. The ground seemed to be a lunar landscape of craters everywhere, running into each other, and even smaller craters dotting the bigger ones. No structure more than a few feet high remained standing, instead all that remained of them was burning rubble. Hotaru could only vaguely recognize that the building in front of her was once her school. A light breeze blew through the school grounds, carrying the stench of death.

While it was close by, the sound of fighting seemed distant to her. Movement catching her eyes, she turned to watch as a teacher led the remains of her class in an attempted run for safety. However, they had gone but a few meters when a stray shot hit the group. Not waiting for the smoke to clear, Hotaru carefully picked her way towards them. When she got there, she did not need to check for a pulse to see if they were still alive, it was obvious that they weren't. Some of them lay on the ground with their bodies contorted at odd angles, others were missing limbs, and still others had their skin blackened from third degree energy burns.

"Magnificent isn't it?" came a voice from behind. Turning, Hotaru looked up at the school. There above what remained of the main entrance, sitting with legs hanging over the edge she found the owner of the voice. Through the smoke and haze, she could not make out more than a silhouette of what appeared to be a young woman.

Seeing that Hotaru had not answered, the figure continued. "It is quite magnificent, the end of a chapter. I always find times like this very invigorating. Its just a shame that it sometimes takes so long for the end to come."

"Who are you?" Hotaru asked, trepidation in her voice.

"Why you of course." Replied the mysterious figure as she jumped down to ground level. "Embrace me and we can remodel this world into a magnificent place. Just think of the fun we will have with all the toys humanity has built for us."

"IIE!!!" cried Hotaru as she hastily backed away from this doppelganger. "I am not a murder, I am a healer."

"Who said anything about murdering? This was all done by others, I just came to watch and enjoy the show." The doppelganger replied as she walked towards Hotaru, holding out her hand.

Seeing this figure advance on her, Hotaru tried to back away. But she found that she could not break away from the eyes of this other her. She could feel the cold "evil" that consumed this other being and did not want any part of it. However, she felt her will breaking, as the other slowly closed the gap.

The doppelganger now only inches away, Hotaru could feel the two of them beginning to become one with the other in control. But then a weak cry of pain broke her free from the trance. Turning and running away from the doppelganger, she headed towards where she thought the cry had come from. There she found a teacher that she recognized from one of the younger grades. Kneeling down, she placed her hands over the teacher and began to channel her healing energy.

If Hotaru had hoped that breaking out of the trance might have phased the doppelganger, it didn't. The other Hotaru just walked over to where she was treating the teacher, still at the same slow pace.

"You know it won't make any difference, you can't heal them all. Anyways you'll tire yourself out before you heal more than three of them. Face it they are part of the end of this chapter. Let them go."

"Iie, I will not. I will heal them, till I can no longer, and then I will save some more." Hotaru called out as she attempted to control the spasms that were starting to rack her body.

"Silly child. And what would you do, in a case like this?" the other asked, as suddenly the schoolyard became a devastated city.

Standing back up on her feet, the teacher gone, Hotaru looked around, for as far as the eye could see, buildings lay in rumble. The sound of battle drew her attention and she investigated. Turning a corner, she quickly pulled back as two soldiers were riddled with bullets.

Calming her racing heart, she stepped back around that corner to continue her investigation, somehow knowing that nothing could hurt her, that this was all just a vision of some sort. This time she came upon a group of huddling civilians. She could see the fear in their eyes, and the wounds that they tried to nurse. The room that she was in suddenly shook violently, sending many of them to the ground. And then with a large explosion, the door was blown open and soldiers poured in. What happened next, turned her heart cold and if she could, she would have turned away and lost her dinner. But something prevented her from doing that, and instead forced her to watch as these soldiers butchered the unarmed civilians.

A short time later, she found herself wandering the streets of the city again. She wondered where she was, as she only vaguely found the uniforms of the defenders familiar, and did not find those of the attackers familiar at all. Looking up into the sky, she saw a blue and green planet hanging in the air and realized that she was on the moon. <The Moon?> she thought, but another battle prevented her from pondering this anymore.

This time she found the Sailor Senshi themselves facing some kind of demon and loosing badly. Within moments of coming upon the battle, the blue-haired warrior was blown into a column, with a gaping hole in her chest. Hotaru then saw the orange-outfitted warrior loose part of her arm in a close in attack. <What evil is this, killing with ease the Sailor Senshi and butchering civilians?>

"So do you think you can save all the people this time little Firefly? Millions will die today. The demon you see before you will slaughter every living being on dozens of different worlds. Tell me what do you feel?"

Hotaru did not want to answer the question for as the other asked the question; she suddenly realized that she felt something that she did not want to feel. Some part of her soul felt jubilation at this utter destruction and what's more even anticipation. And she could feel a growing desire to do something, to destroy everything. To destroy both good and bad, for why only settle for destroying half?

"I thought so." The other replied. "You may try to hide your desires by pretty words, to pretend you are not who you are. But you are the bringer of destruction, the manifestation of the Silence. Tell me, is what you want to do this?"

The final question was asked as suddenly a wave of energy blasted through the area, erasing everything that it touched. Nothing but the dead surface of the moon was left in its wake.

"IIE!!!" Hotaru cried out in horror. But it was only her conscious mind that was revolted, for her soul was reveling in the passing of the Silence.

"Hotaru! Wake up! Hotaru! Wake up! Its only a dream!" Eudial urgently tried to command the child in a voice that was just barely below a yell. She had lost track of how many of these nightmares Hotaru had had this night. But it seemed that whenever the child fell back asleep, she would fall victim to another nightmare. After the second nightmare, she had decided to spend the night here beside the child, so that her father could get some sleep.

What she saw disturbed her greatly, as Hotaru would only get a few minutes of calm sleep before she would begin to toss and turn again. She tried to wake Hotaru up from the nightmares, but rarely was she able to get the child to awake before she awoke herself fifteen minutes after the nightmare started. Which meant that even in those cases where she had been able to awaken Hotaru, the nightmare had pretty much run its full course and Hotaru still awoke deathly frightened.

Eudial seeing Hotaru awake with wild eyes pulled the child into a hug waiting for the young girl to recover and return to her senses. As Hotaru's breathing slowed, the child said, "I'm okay now Eudial-san. Arigatoo for being here. It is the same dream as every other time."

"Here have some water." Eudial said as she handed the other girl a water bottle. A bottle, which Hotaru greedily accepted, drenched as she was in her own sweat. Then excusing herself, Hotaru got up from her bed to use the bathroom. As she returned, her eyes caught sight of a torn stuffed bunny sitting on her desk.

Walking over, she picked up one half of the pink bunny rabbit while whispering "ChibiUsa", a small tear forming in her eye for what she had done to a gift from her best friend. A few days ago at the arcade, ChibiUsa had managed to win a pair of stuffed bunnies in one of the games. Keeping one of the bunnies for herself, she had given the other to Hotaru as a gift. Hotaru had felt so happy when she had gotten the gift, but now she had ruined it. Since the day she brought home the bunny, she had slept with it every night. And tonight had been no different, unfortunately when she awoke from her first nightmare, she awoke to find that she held one half of the bunny in each of her hands. Without realizing it, she had destroyed a symbol of her friendship with ChibiUsa, which had given Eudial and her father another issue to deal with when they comforted her the first time.

Eudial had promised to sew it back together for her in the morning. But in looking at it, Hotaru decided that she could not wait. Turning on some of her many lamps, she began rummaging through her desk drawers. Finding some string, she tied a set of bandages around the bunny to hold the two sides together. It did not matter that it looked awful, or that it probably would not hold through the night. She just needed it to semi-hold as she fell back asleep this time. Something told her this time she would not face any more nightmares

Returning to her bed, Hotaru let Eudial tuck her in again. Eudial looked at the child a bit odd, when she saw that Hotaru was bringing the damaged rabbit back to bed with her. <Well I guess she needs every bit of comfort to escape these nightmares. However, I just hope that she doesn't have anymore, as I know what she is capable of when the need to destroy consumes her. And from what Hotaru managed to remember from her dream, it would seem that her tendency to blackout and wreck things is joining with today's real nightmare to haunt her. It's a good thing that Kaolinite is not here tonight.>

That final thought caused Eudial to shudder knowing how Kaolinite regarded the child with barely more respect than a lab rat. Eudial for some reason just had a bad feeling that tonight would have been the breaking point for Hotaru if that witch had been here. And Witches 5 would be down one member before they even began any of their missions.

Sitting on the bed beside the child, Eudial watched as Hotaru this time finally was able to fall off into a dreamless slumber. Hotaru's body remained still, with the gentle rise and fall of her chest being the only movement. As the first anxious minutes finally became an hour, it became apparent that the night terrors were finally over for now. Getting up, Eudial left to head off to sleep herself, even though she was only going to be getting but a few hours of sleep.

Another set of eyes had been watching Hotaru this evening. Unfortunately, the second set could not come in to provide the comfort that was needed. Instead, Diana had waited outside on the windowsill, wanting to go in and help her charge's friend every time one of those night terrors hit. Now with the child finally resting peacefully, she sent a silent prayer of thanks to the spirit of Queen Serenity for listening to her plea to help Hotaru.

Seeing that the other lady had finally left, and wanting something more comfortable to sleep on than this windowsill, Diana slipped into the room. Moving quickly to the bed, she climbed up on top. Then finding an opening in Hotaru's embrace of the bunny, she snaked her way in there as well and fell asleep. The sleeping child altered her embraced to hold the kitten more comfortably and fell into an even more peaceful sleep.

As the night marched along, a lone figure could be seen walking the streets. Of those who had to be out at this hour, only those who had a place to go were normally out. The handful of nighttime wanders that left were those who had a mind to clear and looked for their answers in the solitude of night.

Pluto fit both descriptions; she did have something to attend to. But she was also looking for answers, something that she was not used to doing. Yes, she never knew exactly the outcomes of her actions and she lost her complete knowledge of time whenever she entered linear time. But never was she so fundamentally unsure of what to do and lost to the eventual outcome of her actions. So tonight, she tried once again to search out those answers while taking a slow roundabout route to her destination.

However, before she could find her answers she had arrived at her destination, the site of the day's battle. Like every other battle that the Senshi engaged in, Pluto always visited the site afterwards looking for clues to the flow of time's river. Walking into the center of the devastation, Pluto let her staff disappear and closed her eyes. Opening herself up to the residual magics, she concentrated.

<Strange, I cannot detect any of the Moon's energies here. No wait there it is very faint. Hmm…even more strange, it is tangled up with another energy.> Focusing in on that energy, Pluto was finally able to see it for itself. <Wait that is not Serenity's energy, but that of Small Lady?> The shock of realizing that Small Lady appeared to have been the only Senshi here caused Pluto to drop out of her trance.

<What happened here? Small Lady does not have the power to stop an attack by any of the enemies. But something stopped the battle, something caused Rubeus and the two aliens to retreat.> Insight striking, Pluto decided to look for the one Senshi energy that is by its very nature hidden.

While normally residue from the use of magic is very easy to see and one can readily identify the types of magic used, this is not the case with the energy of Saturn. As it is also the energy of the Silence, it is masked to all but the most careful examinations. Looking specifically for the elusive energy of that final planet, Pluto could now see that it had saturated everything here and that even ChibiMoon's energy had been intertwined with it, having absorbed and then redirected the energy of Saturn.

One urgent question immediately rose to mined, did this mean that the Soldier of Silence had awakened? The unfinished state of the battlefield indicated that she hadn't, as if she had there would be nothing but an empty crater here. However, that did not mean that Saturn was not on the verge of awakening and that troubled and scared Pluto. Soon, Saturn's awakening would not be a problem, but as of now, Hotaru would be unable to withstand the siren call of her alter ego. And should Saturn awake before it was time, the soldier that resulted would not be Hotaru with the powers of Saturn, but a cold soldier who traced her birth back to the initial awakening of the Sol System Soldiers and was nothing but the embodiment of the Silence.

With Hotaru erased, Pluto doubted that her Princess would have any choice but to banish Saturn back to dormancy. Saturn would sleep there until summoned by the Guardians of the Outer Planets or the death of the Moon line awoke her. As Sailor Moon was already in her final form, the banishment of Saturn would not pose a problem when Galaxia arrived. But with Saturn asleep, Serenity would never be able to awake to her final destiny and instead the universe itself would die and time would come unraveled.

Seeing everything that there was to see at the battle scene, Pluto turned and walked away, happy to get away from that scene. She had hoped to find comfort in her walk tonight, but instead had only found things to trouble her mind even more. She knew that time had gotten screwed up when she saw the initial results of the temporal explosion. However, she had not fathomed that the results could be so severe that they threatened to destroy the universe itself.

Seeing a passerby who had a tad too much to drink this night, Pluto considered for one of the few times in her immortal life getting drunk. Worrying about the existence of the very universe itself is quite a heavy burden to carry and Pluto did remember back from her previous mortal life how nice it could be to hide in a bottle for a while. Though of course you always had to face the issues later and normally with a nasty headache.

Knowing that that wasn't a viable option, Pluto did the only other thing that she could do to run away from what she did not want to fathom. Gathering her energy together, Pluto teleported home.

Feet crunching in the frozen gases that covered the surface of Pluto, the Spacetime Guardian smiled. She had not been home for a long time and being here at the source of her power was reassuring. Bringing her staff up into the ready position, Pluto began the processing of pushing away her worries by engaging in an endless series of drills.

Hearing footsteps, Usagi straightened her back and made sure that no one could accuse her of leaning against the wall. Thankfully, the teacher whose footsteps she heard decided not to come down this hall. She was not slouching and she was clearly holding the two pails of water, but with her distracted mind she did not want to risk getting into more trouble should a teacher come by. She had already gotten into trouble once this morning for not paying attention, which was why she was out her till the end of the lesson holding these buckets of water. She did not see how holding these heavy pales would cause her to pay attention next time, especially since what she was thinking about was far more important than today's lesson.

Unfortunately, Haruna-sensei was not in and this substitute did not understand that she probably had a very good secret excuse nor did today's teacher have Haruna's remarkable tolerance. Thinking about how quickly she had gotten kicked out, Usagi realized that she needed to thank Haruna-sensei for putting up with her all these months, especially before learning her secret.

ChibiUsa had held her attention all morning, specifically worrying about her daughter's current well being. And so, it was that her thoughts fell back in on themselves and she began thinking about this morning again. Like any of the other times that ChibiUsa had gotten hurt in battle, Usagi had not wanted to let go of that child this morning.

Unfortunately, school called. She could always have brought ChibiUsa with her to the Junior High, like she had done in the past. However, this time it was not just her wishes that mattered. Hotaru had also been involved in the day's incident and to Usagi it was much more important to take care of that girl than her own desires. Consequently, ChibiUsa was not with her today, but instead going over to visit the dark haired girl. Classes at the elementary school had been canceled for the next few days while they cleaned up the school.

Arriving at the front door of the mansion that Hotaru lived in, ChibiUsa went to ring the bell. While to her older "cousin" this house was humongous and impressive, ChibiUsa did not notice, after all back in the future she lived in the Crystal Palace. In her case, the general parent statement of how they had less and had to do more when they were a child was true. Like most kids, she had not believed her parents. It was not till after her previous trip to the past that she accepted that her mom had indeed grown up in a small house without any privileges of royalty.

Unfortunately ringing the bell proved to be a slight problem, as she was too short. Even jumping did not work, as her fingers fell just inches too short. Now if she still had the Luna Ball, she could have used that, but that childhood security blanket had not survived this screwed up trip into the past. Giving up on her attempts to jump, ChibiUsa slouched back against the wall and tried to think of what else to try. Unfortunately, the well-manicured lawn did not have any sticks that she might have used. And any rock sufficiently large enough to be useful would have been too heavy for her to carry.

Now if Diana was here like she was supposed to be, she could have placed the kitten on her head and had her ring the bell. Which did beg the question of where that gray cat was anyways, however, ChibiUsa did not concern herself with that right now.

"That's what I'll do." ChibiUsa said as she finally realized a solution to her problem. Of course, she had better not let Luna or Mars find out what she was about to do or she would get a nice talking to. After checking around to make sure that there was nobody in the area, she pulled out her Moon Wand. Even with its extra reach, she was still too short when standing on the ground. However, by jumping, she was able to get sufficient height and after only a half dozen or so tries she finally managed to ring the doorbell.

Putting the wand back away, she walked away from the door a bit and turned to face it. <Just hope someone now comes, I don't want to have to that all over again.> ChibiUsa thought with a slightly rapid breath from all the jumping.

"May I help you?" asked the stern looking woman who opened the door.

Looking up, ChibiUsa instantly did not like the woman who was there at the door and shivered slightly. Finding that she actually had to gather a little courage to speak, ChibiUsa asked "Is Hotaru here?"

Kaolinite looked down on the child with even more contempt now that it appeared that she was a friend of Hotaru's. "Hotaru is not feeling well. She will not see any visitors, now go on." Kaolinite said as she closed the door.

Saddened by the rejection, ChibiUsa's features dropped and she turned around and began to walk away. Turning her head briefly, as she walked down the steps to look towards Hotaru's room she whispered, "Feel better Hotaru-chan."

Inside the house, Professor Tomoe walked into the front hallway just as Kaolinite finished closing the door. "Who was that?" he asked.

"Just some girl looking for Hotaru, I sent her on her way."

"Did she perhaps have pink hair?" Tomoe asked, remembering that good friend of his daughter. Seeing the affirmative body language, Tomoe walked pass Kaolinite to open the door and called out, "ChibiUsa-chan."

Hearing her name, ChibiUsa turned "Hai?"

"Sorry about that. Hotaru did not sleep well last night due to having many nightmares. However, I think she would enjoy seeing you this morning." He said as he held the door open to her.

"Arigatoo!" ChibiUsa happily replied as she bounced her way back up to the house.

"Would you care for some blueberry pancakes?" Tomoe asked.

Of course, the answer to that for a Usagi is simple, yes, even if they have already had a nice sized breakfast. So, it was no surprise that ChibiUsa happily nodded while thanking him for the offer.

"Why don't you go on up and wake up Hotaru? Her room is the third one on the left. Give me twenty minutes to get breakfast ready."

"Hai." Replied ChibiUsa as she hurried across the front hall to the staircase.

Tomoe for his part could only chuckle at ChibiUsa's behavior, a nice lighthearted chuckle. For the first time in a long time, he finally felt truly happy and content. It was amazing how this new friend of Hotaru made things so much better.

Heading up to the second floor, ChibiUsa walked down the hallway. Opening the door, she found Hotaru there sleeping in the bed. <Hmm… now how to wake her?> ChibiUsa wondered, as her only experiences with waking a sleeping person were with Shingo and Usagi and she did not want to use any of those methods on her friend. Standing just inside the doorway, ChibiUsa tried to think of what to do when something that Hotaru was clutching in her sleep caught her eye.

"Diana!?!" exclaimed ChibiUsa as she realized what Hotaru was holding.

"Huh?" a groggy Hotaru mumbled in response as she slowly open her eyes and sat up. Then noticing her visitor, sleep fled the child as she questioned "ChibiUsa-chan? What are you doing here?"

A sleeping Diana had also been awakened by the voice. As her eyes opened and she remembered that she was not in ChibiUsa's room, she realized that she was probably in a bit of trouble. Getting up on her feet she walked over to brush by Hotaru-chan and purr before bounding over to her charge.

"I'm here to see you silly." ChibiUsa replied. And then reaching down to pick up the kitten, "And to fetch my kitten as well. I was wondering where you had gotten off to Diana."

Diana gave an apologetic meow in response.

<Well I had told her to watch of Hotaru-chan last night and I guess this was one way of doing it.> ChibiUsa thought as she petted Diana before putting the kitten up on her head. Then she flung herself onto Hotaru's bed so that the two of them could chat and plan their day's activities. Diana somehow managed to survive that sudden motion and stay on ChibiUsa's head, but only barely.

With the ringing of the afternoon bell, Usagi happily gathered up her stuff counting herself lucky that the substitute teacher had no desire to hold her over for detention. With her stuff together, she joined Makoto in the hallway and the two left the school together.

"I see you managed to not get kicked out of the classroom this afternoon." Makoto said

"Hai, Luna's visit during lunch calmed my anxiety over ChibiUsa sufficiently. I'm glad that she is spending the day over at Hotaru's and that Hotaru-chan is okay as well after yesterday. Of course that spore won't be going anywhere but my arms tonight."

Makoto nodded her agreement as the two of them continued out of the school and into the street. <Well it does seem that Usagi truly is less anxious, otherwise she wouldn't have used the "spore" nickname for ChibiUsa. Though even still I am surprised that she isn't making a beeline over to Hotaru's house right now.>

Usagi promptly answered what Makoto was wondering about by asking a question of her own. "Mako-chan do you have any cookies that I can borrow? Seijuurou-san and Natsumi-san were out sick today, and I thought that bringing them some cookies might make them feel better. However, I know better than to try to make them myself."

Turning her head to look at her silver-haired friend while the two of them continued walking, Makoto chuckled agreeing with Usagi's assessment of any cookies that she might try to make herself. "Of course I have some cookies that you can bring to them, just make sure that they get the cookies."

"Hey!" the silver haired girl replied with mock indignation.

Makoto just smiled at her friend, telling her that she had just been joking and the two friends continued walking.

A little while later, Usagi was giving Makoto her thanks for the cookies as she left the brunette's apartment. "Arigatoo for the cookies Mako-chan. I'm sure that Seijuurou and Natsumi will be back to normal once they have some."

"No problem Usagi, oh and make sure to give Seijuurou-san a get well message from me."

"Sure thing." Usagi said before turning to walk down the hallway to the elevator.

Not long after that, Usagi found herself in front of apartment that the two siblings lived in. On her trip over from Makoto's, Luna had caught up with her from wherever she had been spending the afternoon. With Luna riding in her usual position on her shoulder, Usagi checked the address she had for the two siblings.

"Well this is the place." Usagi said.

"Are you sure you want to go ahead with this?" Luna asked. "Something does not feel right."

"Luna what are you worried about?" asked a confused Usagi.

"I'm just get bad vibes and all." Replied the cat

Pausing for a moment, Usagi looked around, trying to figure out what might be upsetting her guardian. "Well let's see that grocery store down the street is where Rubeus had one of his operations setup and I believe that we also chased one of Beryl's youmas across the roof here as well. Or did that one turn out to be a droid? But either way its just memories you are feeling Luna. Now come on lets go in."

"Hai, I guess so." Luna reluctantly agreed. <It just feels like something more than those echoes.>

As they entered the building and began riding up in the elevator, Luna felt her fur go even more on edge. However, a look at Usagi told her that the other girl was not interested in hearing about anymore of her feelings or vibes. Resigning herself to needing to just be alert and to run to get help at a moments notice she kept quiet.

"So where did you say these two were from." Luna asked trying to ignore her worries.

"America." Usagi replied

"And it is just the two of them brother and sister?"

"Hai. But there is nothing that strange about that, you have Makoto living on her own as well."

Luna wanted to comment further, but they had arrived at the door. So instead Luna thought to herself, <Yeah, but Makoto is a rather unique case. And anyways these two who are on their own just moved across the ocean. That is a bit strange.>

In response to Usagi's knocking, Natsumi opened the door. "What do you want?" the other girl asked in a not entirely friendly manner.

"I came to see how you and Seijuurou-san were doing today. And I brought you some of Mako-chan's cookies."

Natsumi wanted to shut the door on Usagi, but the silver-haired girl did not give her the chance. Instead, from one moment to the next she was inside the apartment with Natsumi now holding the tin of cookies.

"Go ahead try one." Usagi insisted.

Strangely feeling compelled to do what this mere human was requesting; Natsumi opened the box and removed one of the cookies. Biting into it, her eyes lip up at its wonderful taste and she could even feel her energy levels perking up a bit. <Well I guess it would be rude to throw her out after bringing us these cookies.> Natsumi thought as she decided that she would tolerate the presence of Tsukino Usagi for little while more. Anyways if Usagi got annoying, she could always use the silver-haired girl as a snack.

"Why don't you go sit down in the living room, while I get us some tea to go with these cookies." Natsumi said, now suddenly glad that her brother had insisted on outfitting their apartment with all the staples of a standard human one.

Later with the tea ready, Natsumi brought it and some of the cookies into the living room. Sitting down with Usagi, the two girls talked about school and other subjects. Usagi learned that Seijuurou had come down with a nasty flue bug, which had him confined to bed. As a result, Natsumi needed to stay home from school to take care of her brother. That then prompted Usagi to remember what Ami had given her when she had learned that Usagi was going to be visiting the two siblings. Ami had gone to all the teachers of Natsumi and Seijuurou and had gotten homework and other material for the next week, so that way at least Natsumi could keep up with her studies.

Sailor Uranus and Neptune stood a top a warehouse looking out over a light industrial district. They were not hunting Droids or Cardians this afternoon, instead their target was an unassuming mechanic working in one of the warehouses that lay before them.

Turning to her partner, Uranus asked, "You're sure this is place?"

"Hai, this is where the seas tell me we will find the pure heart crystal."

"Well then since that mechanic appears to be the only one here, lets get this over with." And then after looking at her aqua haired friend, she added, "And yes I will remember to be subtle."

Inside the shop, Usaki worked on the engine of an old clunker, trying to bring it back to life for a final fifty thousand miles. The engine was far past its prime, with burnt engine valves and other problems. He had already removed the valves so that he could regrind them, but right now, he was checking to see what parts of the idle control system appeared to be salvageable.

Sensing more than hearing a noise, he looked up from his work. His crew had already left for the day and the shop was closed, however, something told him he was not alone.

"Who's there?" he called out but got no response.

Giving the garage a looking over he was unable to see anybody. Resigning himself to having had his imagination act up on him, he turned back around to face the car. And it was during that turning that he found himself facing down a yellow ball of energy. So shocked was he, that he failed to see the other attack that came flying offset 30 degrees from the first one.

Feeling a terrible burning pain, the two balls of energy hit him. He could vaguely feel his body being lifted up off the ground before a pain almost like being pulled into two caused him to black out. Unconscious, he fell to the ground a dozen feet from where he had been hit.

Jumping down from atop of some crates, Uranus walked over and picked up the pure heart crystal, which had remained at the impact site. Examining the delicate artifact, she was amazed at its beauty. But upon peering deep into it, she was unable to find any indication that it held a talisman.

Gently tossing it over to Neptune who had stopped to check on their victim, she said, "No good this one does not have a talisman."

Catching the crystal, Neptune examined it as well. "You're right, the waves were only partially correct. This is a Pure Heart Crystal, however the sensation that a talisman existed in this area was falsely placed."

"We can only give a silent prayer of remorse for what we had to do here and hope that next time we will find one of the talismans."

Returning the crystal to the unconscious mechanic, the two soldiers watched as his body reabsorbed its energy. Almost immediately, his breathing became easier and his pulse became stronger, while color returned to his body. Seeing that he was going to recover, the two warriors leapt to a window and out into the afternoon.

On the ground Usaki slowly opened his eyes. As he did so, he turned his head slightly to one side and was just able to make out a pair of silhouettes disappearing out of sight, a set of silhouettes that he recognized as belonging to Sailor Senshi. <Well I guess that explains why I am on the ground and why I seem to think that I was hit by some kind of magic attack. Thank the Kami that the Sailor Senshi were here to protect me and defeat whatever evil creature did this.> Picking himself up, Usaki looked over at the clock and decided that tonight he would head home early, he could use a nice break.

As the afternoon wore on and started to become evening, Usagi realized that she should be heading on home. She still needed to go pick up ChibiUsa before making it home in time for dinner and she did not want to be late for that. Standing up she started to say her thanks to Natsumi for having her over and give her well wishes for Seijuurou-san's fast recovery.

Natsumi stood up as well. However, as she did so, she realized something. During these past few hours with Usagi, she suddenly felt very refreshed as if the tree was blooming again. Yet she knew that was not the case. Looking at her "friend" now with a predator's eye, she realized that Usagi was the source of all this refreshing energy. <Should have realized that her bubbly personality would have made her an ideal subject for feeding our tree. She is just radiating energy everywhere. Hmm… I wonder. I might just be able to get rid of the threat that she poses to my Seijuurou, get that cute Chiba-san and save the tree all in one move.>

"Usagi-chan, before you leave there is something that I would like you to see. I am not sure if you know it or not, but Seijuurou is fascinated by plants especially exotic ones. I thought you might like to take a look at his pride and joy."

"Hai, sure." Replied an eager Usagi <He sounds a lot like Mako-chan in that regard, will have to arrange for them to exchange notes.>

Usagi followed Natsumi as she led her into one of the other rooms of the apartment. Both Luna and Usagi were a bit taken back by the sickly appearance of the tree that the room contained.

"I know it doesn't look like much now, but before it was a magnificent tree. It has come down with some kind of disease, which is slowly killing it."

"That's terrible." replied Usagi as she entered the room, feeling sorry for Seijuurou to have his pride and joy dying like this.

Luna instead stayed back in the main room, with fur up on end and back arched. The vibes she had been feeling had become orders of magnitude worse when Natsumi had opened that door. Especially since that was no ordinary room, but some kind of magical construct allowing a full sized tree to fit inside of a regular apartment. Something was very wrong here. And unfortunately, she was down on the ground and not up on Usagi's shoulder to tell that girl her concerns. She tried meowing, but the other girl had been too fascinated by the tree.

Instead, Luna remained outside watching helplessly as Usagi proceeded to walk up to the tree. Now with Natsumi between Usagi and the door, the alien smiled and dropped her disguise.

"I hope you don't take this the wrong way. But your sacrifice will allow my love to live."

Usagi's blood froze as she heard the now different voice, a voice that she recognized as belonging to those aliens who seemed to target children. Turning around to face Ann, she had only made it halfway when a stun spell hit her. Falling to the ground, Usagi managed to avoid blacking out or loosing her glamour spell, but only barely.

Looking up at Ann who was now standing in front of her she forced out one word, "Why?"

"Because we need the life energy of you humans to sustain our tree, without which we will die. Because Ail is on his death bed only barely alive and the strain to heal him is killing the tree even faster. Because killing you will solve everything. Now die Usagi."

The energy that Ann had just drained from Usagi in stunning her, Ann gave to the tree giving it a little strength back. She could have drained Usagi herself, but that would have been slow and inefficient, instead she choose to have the tree do it itself. The roots nearest Usagi suddenly began to move and grow, rapidly extending in length and looking very much like vines. These "vines" as they grew curled around the silver haired girl holding her tight and lifted her up into the air.

Usagi tried to free herself from her bindings, but the roots held her too tight. As she felt herself being lifted up into the air, she tried to think of something to do. Realizing that her only option was to fight as Sailor Moon, Usagi prepared to henshin to her warrior form. However, before she got the chance, pain shot through her body as the tree began draining her life force causing her to cry out. Recovering from that initial shock of pain, she tried once again to call upon her powers. But found to her horror, that the energy drain was preventing the concentration required for casting any spell.

As soon as Ann had revealed herself, Luna had turned tail and made a mad dash to escape from the apartment, knowing that she had to get help fast. She was unable to open the apartment's door, so she instead headed towards the window. As soon as she rounded the corner out of earshot of Ann, she activated the communicator that was part of her new collar to call for help.

"Minna-san, Ginga Seijuurou-san and Ginga Natsumi-san are the aliens and they have Usagi and are draining all of her energy. Hurry."

As she approached the window, she slowed down not sure of what to do now. However, the explosion of the walls of the building solved that. Being thrust out into the open air above the street, Luna saw her life flash before her eyes. Thankfully, as she was flying out she saw one of the tree's roots beside her and twisted her body so that she could clamp onto it with her claws. Saved, she was now able to climb down the side of the apartment on the various roots of the tree.

As she reached the bottom of the building, Sailor Venus with Artemis in tow arrived. Not long after that, Jupiter and Mars also arrived. "Anyone got some weed killer Venus remarked when she saw what had happened to the building."

"Where are the others?" asked Luna.

"I don't know, though I guess Ami-chan is trying to find a polite way to get out of her cram class." Jupiter replied.

"I say we start roasting this weed." Suggested an impatient Mars.

The rest of the group was equally ancy about waiting any longer. They knew they would be strongest if they went in as full team, but this was their princess's life they were talking about. All eyes turned towards Venus, awaiting her decision.

"Luna which apartment is Usagi in?" asked Venus.

That one on the seventh floor, Luna said as she pointed one of them out. Following Luna's paw, Venus looked up and began to formulate a plan. "We can't afford to wait around for the others as they are already draining Usagi's life. Since we don't have Mercury here to guide us through the jungle that has now become this building, we are going to climb up the outside. Luna will lead the way."

"Hai!" the others all agreed as they took off for the building, each one leaping up to grab a hold of the tree somewhere around the fourth floor. Luna and Artemis both hitched a ride on Venus. Once the blonde leader had secured herself to the tree, the two of them climbed up off of her and onto the tree. Venus cringed a bit as their claws dug into her skin as they were climbing across her.

Inside the apartment, Ann watched in fascination as energy visibly pulsed from Usagi down into the Tree. The result of the feeding was nearly instantaneous as the Tree suddenly started growing; rapidly increasing from its miniature size to one that took over the entire building. The top of the tree remained contained by the magic of the room, but its roots broke through the floor and walls encased the building.

Then things got even better as Usagi began shimmering. When the shimmering finished a golden crescent moon was clearly visible on the other girl's forehead and wings had burst out the back of her school uniform. She might not have been wearing her traditional battle fuku, but Ann instantly recognized the thorn in all their plans.

Walking up to the Moon Warrior who was still somehow conscious she said, "How fitting that it is your life Sailor Moon that will save us. You have hindered our efforts to survive here on this planet from the day we arrived, but no more."

Hearing a noise from behind her, Ann turned to see that a now recovered Ail was up. "What is going on here?" he asked.

"Why nothing more than the solution to all our problems. Sailor Moon is graciously giving us her life. It looks like that energy has already succeeded in healing you from the poisonous effects of that Rubeus fellow's attacks last night. And now she is giving the rest of her energy to the Tree."

Taking to the air to get a closer look at Sailor Moon, he roughly grabbed a hold of her chin. Smiling, he said, "Yes love, I think you have found the solution to our problems."

A sudden fireball caused him to quickly release Usagi's chin and fly backwards to avoid being incinerated. Turning he and Ann regarded the intruders.

"So nice of you to show up Sailor Senshi. You get front row seats for the death of Sailor Moon." Ann said as she silently instructed the tree to turn Sailor Moon so that the other girls could get a full view of her.

"Sailor Moon!" "Usagi!" "You bastard!" the Senshi and cats screamed out.

Rage consuming her, Mars could think of nothing other than freeing her best friend and with a fireball in her right hand she charged forward towards Ail.

Unfortunately for her, she did not get more than a few feet before Ann blasted her in her chest. Landing back in front of Venus and Jupiter, she picked herself up, ignoring the hurt.

"Now lets try this again, but as a team this time." Venus said. "Oh and please try to avoid hitting Usagi. I have no idea what the reaction would be, but after that tunnel incident I have no inclination to find out." The others nodded their heads in agreement, not wanting to have another repeat of that situation.

"Dead Scream" called out a soft voice and a violet ball of energy slammed into Ail knocking him out of the air. "I am the Soldier of Revolution, I am Sailor Pluto." Pluto announced as she stepped out of the shadows. "And for this attack on our princess, I will punish you." She said while staring at the two aliens coldly.

From elsewhere on the sidelines three roses flew out aiming for the vines that bound Usagi. "Friendship is not something to be taken advantage of. And for that I will face you as well." Tuxedo-Kamen said.

If Tuxedo-Kamen and the Senshi had expected the roses to have their normal effect and release Usagi, they were sorely disappointed this time. Instead of damaging the vine-like tree roots, they instead crumpled to dust.

"Well so much for the easy way." Jupiter remarked, before smacking her hands together. Retaking her fighting stance, she released a Sparkling Wide Pressure at their foes. Knowing that this would not be an easy battle, she immediately jumped to a new location to prepare a follow up attack.

Venus and Mars proceeded likewise unleashing their own attacks before moving to secure better ground. Pluto eyed the beginning battle carefully as she used her staff to deflect an attack. As the Time Guardian, Pluto knew how this battle was supposed to resolve itself in the correct timeline. Unfortunately, that knowledge did not comfort her; instead, it worried her quite a bit. The only satisfactory end for the battle would come when the Tree in front of them awoke. Unfortunately, that required practically killing Usagi and killing the alien Ail. The razor of margin was so thin, that this time around, her princess could be killed for real and the two aliens remain unsaved.

As Pluto jumped out of the way of an attack, Jupiter moved in close on Ail who was currently being distracted by Mars. Deciding for the simple satisfaction inherent in a basic punch, Jupiter's fist connected with Ail's stomach. Moving quickly to take advantage of the situation, she then proceeded to give him a high kick in the head. Unfortunately she had not taken stock of the situation with Ann before committing herself to the kick, so as she straightened her body out her eyes widened in horror as a blast of energy was flung her way. Unable to dodge, Jupiter was knocked over and collapsed in pain.

Ann walked over to blast the downed Jupiter with another attack. However, thankfully for Jupiter she was forced to teleport out of the way when Pluto unleashed another one of her attacks, giving Jupiter the time that she needed to return to her feet. Retaking stock of the scene, the brunette realized that Ail appeared to be back at full strength and was now in combat with Venus. Mars lay on the ground unconscious with Tuxedo-Kamen checking on her. <Not good, not good.> Jupiter thought to herself as she realized that they were going to loose this battle unless something happened. And she unfortunately did not feel that the arrival of the rest of the team was sufficient.

Ail was also coming to the same conclusion and decided to brag about it to the warriors arrayed before him. "You do realize this fight of yours in useless? Your power is no match for ours, especially now that Sailor Moon is supporting us." The last bit he said as he gestured towards where Sailor Moon was held. As the Senshi looked at their leader they realized that while the aliens may have been no worse for wear, Usagi looked like hell. "Now be good Senshi and die."

The present warriors all braced themselves for the attack that followed his final words. Even still, the power of it overwhelmed them and they were flung backwards like rags dolls. Hitting the ground hard, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus collapsed, unable to stand back up. While Pluto was able to return to her feet, she found that she needed to use her staff to help stabilize her footing.

She could still attempt an attack and desperately wanted to continue fighting. But with the instability of the time flow she knew that she could not take the risk that she would not still be at the gate should she die. It was the reason why she was having Q watch the gate in the first place. She had to instead be prepared to return there herself at a moments notice to slam shut the Gates of Time, which would then give her the time she needed to awake Saturn with the power of the Grail to end everything. So instead of standing, Pluto let herself appear to be too weak and collapsed back down to her knees, staff on the ground and lowered her head. And just prayed with all her heart that her princess would be okay.

Of the group, only Tuxedo-Kamen had managed to avoid getting hit by Ail's attack, having been able to leap out of the way in time. He had found a safe spot for the moment on top of the tree. Taking advantage of the few moments before the enemy realized that he was not unconscious on the ground he surveyed the scene and he too came to the realization that these aliens were proving to be too powerful for them. From his connection with Usagi, he also knew that they did not have much time left, maybe only minutes. They needed Mercury here and fast so that they could find a weakness to exploit.

"Shabon Spray!" a voice called out answering his thoughts as the room was plunged into foggy obscurity.

"Sorry we're late" came the somewhat cheerful voice of the blonde haired member of the Calvary. However, when her eyes caught site of Usagi her mood turned black. Not even wasting time forming her expletives into coherent words, she unleashed a World Shaking and headed off towards the nearest alien.

His mood uplifted by the arrival of the others, Tuxedo-Kamen dropped to the ground. Removing his cane from his cape, he headed for Ail. His plan was simple, keep Ail busy long enough for Mercury to find the solution to their problem while Uranus kept the other one busy.

Joining in the battle as well, Neptune decided to assist her partner in pummeling Ann. Of the first four Senshi on the scene, only Pluto was able to quickly return to her feet and rejoin the battle, having decided that with reinforcements having arrived that she would risk fighting for a little while longer. She ignored the shooting pain in her right ankle and moved to help Tuxedo-Kamen. Mars, Venus and Jupiter returned to their feet as well, though a bit more slowly and with aching bodies. Back up on their feet they moved to spread out so that they could assist the others.

From where she had first unleashed her Shabon Spray at the entrance to the room, Mercury stood with her visor deployed and computer out scanning the tree, the room, the aliens, and Usagi. Thankfully, the others were able to maintain the full attention of the two aliens, as she was oblivious to her surroundings, utterly focused as she was on her readings. Though, Luna and Artemis sitting on each of her shoulders kept their eyes on what was happening for her. The data she was recording and the conclusions that she was drawing caused Mercury to frown more and more with each passing moment.

Her concentration was suddenly broken when both Luna and Artemis suddenly began screaming her name. Looking up from her readings, her eyes went wide as she saw a massive attack begin to radiate out in all directions from Ail. Dropping her palm sized computer, Mercury reached up to pick the two cats of her shoulders and to cradle them in her arms as she spun around and prepared to jump out of the way. Unfortunately, she only managed to spin before she was sent flying.

Landing on top of a knocked over couch in the living room, Mercury felt her world spinning. Shaking her head to clear the stars that had taken up residence there after her body had punched a hole through the wall between this room and the previous one, Mercury looked down and saw that the two cats were thankfully okay. Releasing them, she stood back up on her feet and tried to remember what it was that she had just realized before being turned into a human dart.

Looking back into the room with the Tree, she saw that only Uranus and Neptune had managed to return to their feet. She watched as those two warriors who were now really pissed off at the aliens unleash another set of attacks. Watching the energy spheres fly towards Ail and Ann, Mercury suddenly remember what it was that she had concluded.

Even though it was too late, Mercury still called out, "Wait! Don't attack them!"

Confused Uranus and Neptune stared questionably at Mercury as if she had taken one too many bumps from her flight through the wall. Hoping to convince them that she was not insane, Mercury explained, "Their life forces are connected to Sailor Moon's. We aren't hurting them, only Sailor Moon."

That pronouncement caused all the Senshi to gasp in horror over what they had been doing to their princess and Neptune and Uranus to grimace as both of their attacks found their targets. Spheres of energy slamming into them, Ail and Ann were thrown to the ground. And, like all the previous times they quickly returned to their feet fully recovered.

However, this time something was different. This time as Ail and Ann drew energy from the tree to heal their wounds, Usagi screamed out in shear pain. A scream that ended with her body giving up the final gasp of energy that it had to give. Her head fell to her chest and rolled slightly to one side as her eyes became vacant and all her muscles stilled and relaxed.

For the Tree, drinking the life force of Usagi had been an intoxicating experience. Not only was her energy so sweat and wonderful, it now suddenly had an abundant source of energy after centuries of barely being alive. Those two factors had joined together to ensure that the effect of absorbing Usagi's life force had been like a strong narcotic. Of course, the energy frenzy that was this battle between its children and the Sailor Senshi made the intoxicating effects even more pronounced.

Consequently, when the draw from its food source suddenly dwindled to nothing, the withdrawal drove it insane. It wanted, it needed another source of such sweat energy to drain completely and it needed it now. Observing its surroundings it located the closest life form and then struck out with one of its roots.

Tuxedo-kamen had collapsed to the ground when he felt the life force of Usagi vanish. He did not scream, only softly muttered "No!" as his spirit fled and he fell to his knees. The others upon seeing this instantly realized what this meant as well. Only Pluto knew that Usagi was not yet dead. But the next minute would tell if the princess would be saved or if everything had failed.

The apparent death of Usagi had even drawn the attention of Ail and Ann as they suddenly felt the energy they were drawing on drop off. Ail was in mid-turn to look at their victim when something suddenly shot towards him. Doubling over and flying backwards, his eyes opened in shock and pain as he realized that a root of the Tree now protruded through his stomach. He did not have time to even question why, before darkness consumed him.

"IIEEEEEEEEEE!" screamed Ann as she saw her love killed. Moving to be able to hold him, thoughts of defeating the Senshi fled her mind. Her world was now composed entirely of the dead body of her love and trying to understand why the Tree had done it.

Even the Senshi stared in shock at what had happened. And then to their astonished eyes it appeared that the tree was in shock as well, for it had suddenly released their leader and the root skewering Ail had dropped down to the ground.

From where she had pulled herself back up to her feet, Pluto smiled; things were going to work out. The battle was more violent than it should have been. But the aliens were going to be saved. Now without the dread of failing her one mission, Pluto was able to relax. Unfortunately that meant she was now able to notice that her ankle was completely busted. With the smile still on her face, Pluto let shock consume her and passed out.

The Senshi had been right in their assessment of the tree being in shock for to their startled ears it began to speak, telling them of its history and that of its children. The Senshi learned that Ail and Ann were wartime orphans desperately looking for the energy they needed to survive, never realizing that all they needed to keep their Life Tree healthy was sunlight, water, and their love. But now that Usagi's sacrifice had awakened it, it could watch over them as a parent should. Miraculously as the tree removed its root from Ail's chest the wound healed and life returned to his eyes. However, it expressed its sorrow that it could not do the same the girl that it had held in its clutches.

Having retrieved her computer, Mercury walked over to where Usagi now lay in Tuxedo-kamen's arms. Only Neptune and Uranus were in sufficiently good shape to crowd around, the rest lay were they had fallen. Scanning Usagi, Mercury's spirits rose as she detected a slight hint of life force left in their leader.

"She's alive!" Mercury happily called out. "I don't know how, she should have been fully drained. But it is there, a faint trace."

That news perked everyone up, now the only question came to be how to revive her and to keep that faint trace from fading. The answer came from the Tree.

"Endymion." Called out the Tree. Turning, Tuxedo-Kamen looked at the sentient tree. "I know of your connection to this planet. In taking Serenity's energy, her memories became mine as well." The Tree explained. "I can feel that you have an unawakened healing power, place one of your hands on my root and the other on Serenity and I may be able to help you."

Not exactly sure what this Tree was getting to, Tuxedo-Kamen followed along anyways. Placing his left hand on the large root that had just grown over to where he sat he placed his other hand on Usagi's chest and waited.

"Now open yourself to the energy of your planet."

Not sure exactly of what to do, Tuxedo-Kamen still never the less tried to do as instructed. Calming his breathing, he tuned out his normal senses and strained to feel something. At first, he did not feel anything, but then there was a slight warmth under his left hand. The warmth grew and he realized that he knew that a tree should always feel like that. Focusing on that energy, he let it flow into his body, up one arm and then down the other into Usagi. There he was able to find her life force and direct this new energy at it, strengthening it. Feeling Usagi begin to recover, he was confused when the energy source suddenly stopped. Opening his eyes, he looked towards the tree confused.

"Yes, Serenity still needs much more of my energy to recover. However, you are too much of a novice at this and are not using the energy I am giving you efficiently. You were able though to give her enough to awaken."

As the Tree said this, Usagi's eyes opened. Looking up into Tuxedo-Kamen's eyes, she whispered "Mamo-chan" and smiled contently.

"Serenity, do you know who I am?" the Tree asked.

Turning her head slightly Usagi looked at the tree and nodded, having absorbed the Tree's memories as well during their joining.

"Then I have one request to ask of you. I have been tainted by endless dark energy from the wars that consumed my children. It has left me weak and old before my time. Could you use your power to cleanse me of the darkness?"

"Hai," replied Usagi as Tuxedo-Kamen helped her to her feet. Unable to stand on her own, she relied on his support as she revealed her crystal. She ignored the gasps and worried concerns expressed by the others as she prepared to use it. She knew that she was barely alive and that energy required in using the crystal was probably more than she had left, but that did not worry her. Saving these three was far more important than her own life.

Letting the limited energy build, Usagi mentally called the crystal to life as she began to feed it her energy. Then with a final smile to her friends she cast her healing spell. Energy radiated out from the crystal embracing both the tree and the aliens healing them of any darkness. With the darkness gone, she felt her control over the crystal begin to falter as it became progressively harder to keep her eyes open, but then suddenly she felt a backwash of energy. Strength returned to her body as energy flowed out of the Tree and into the crystal. From there some of it was flowing into her body revitalizing her while the rest bubbled out to embrace everything else that had felt that afternoon's destruction.

When the blinding light of the crystal finally died down and everyone was able to see again, Usagi was left standing. However, instead of her ripped school uniform she now wore her princess dress with her wings majestically spread out behind her body. Pulling her wings in, she looked around and noticed that everyone else looked in far better shape.

"Umm where did the tree go?" Venus asked.

"Good going Odango-Atama, you were supposed to heal it, not kill it." Mars said as she realized as well that the Tree was no longer there.

"Actually it is still here." Ann said as she walked forward and picked up a small sapling. "Usagi has given us a chance to start over."

"Now that we know how to correctly feed our Tree of Life we don't need any of the energy that we have stolen. And instead, it was returned to you and more. And the healing spell of Usagi removed all the decayed and dead wood leaving us with all that we need, a sapling and a chance to start again. Thank you Usagi" continued Ail.

"Yes thank you." Ann said as well.

"Now we must leave and rebuild our race. There is another evil growing on this planet and we cannot risk our Tree's Life now that we have finally saved it." Announced Ail as the two aliens began to rise up in the room while a sphere began forming around them and the sapling.

"We understand." Replied Usagi. "May the light of the Moon always show you the true path." she said before they vanished.

Turning she went to look at the others. As it turned out even though she had been on death's door a few minutes earlier, she was now the healthiest of the Senshi. Pluto had regained consciousness and her ankle injury had been partially healed by the wash of healing energy, though it was still broken. Mars, Venus, and Jupiter while managing not to have anything broken, still had plenty of cracked bones and were in plenty of pain. But they could move around, though a bit slowly. Uranus, Neptune, and Tuxedo-Kamen managed to survive with just some very nice bruises and energy burns, being not much worse off than Usagi. Finding out the status of Mercury would unfortunately have to wait till everyone else was treated, for their "medic" wouldn't take the time to diagnose her own injuries.

Usagi was contemplating ordering Mercury to sit still for a moment so that she could check the blue haired warrior out. However, the sound of emergency vehicles arriving told them that it was time to leave. Changing to her Sailor Moon form, Usagi watched as Uranus picked up the Guardian of Spacetime who would be unable to do any roof hopping of her own for a while. See that the others were all ready and checking that both Luna and Artemis had a good hold on her uniform, Usagi walked out the gaping hole in the exterior wall of the apartment and took to the skies heading for a nearby roof. Midway there she turned around and floated making sure that even with their injuries everyone was still able to make the jump.

Now jumping from roof to roof while Sailor Moon flew beside them, the group headed off into the night. Knowing that at minimum Pluto sported an injury that needed to be treated by something more than simple first aid, Mercury led them to her mother's apartment. Along the way, Mercury sent off a page to her mom

Considering the circumstances under which she had learned about her daughter's secret. Mizuno-san had setup with Ami a set of paging codes for whenever there was anything beyond minor injuries after a battle. This settled at least some of her mother's worries, since at least this way her mother would know right away how badly they had been hurt. The cracked bones that many of them sported qualified this as a low-level injury notification, though the broken ankle of Pluto and Usagi's near death made that a qualified low-level page.

Dr. Mizuno was just finishing her rounds when she felt her beeper go off. Glancing down to read the display as she walked back to her office, she saw that it was her daughter sending the page. The page was encoded to indicate that they were returning from a battle, but that they were okay with only minor injuries. Mizuno-san sighed a sigh of relief when she saw that part. She had no idea when she would be comfortable enough with her daughter going into battle that her heart wouldn't skip a beat when these codes came in. Part of her hoped that time would never come.

Even though Ami and her friends had apparently not suffered any significant injuries, Mizuno-san still desired to head straight home and to see for herself. Reaching her office, she put the papers she was carrying down on her desk. Quickly ruffling through the messages that had been left for her, she looked to see if there was anything that had to be dealt with before she left. Seeing none, she picked up a stack of reports and folders that she needed to go over tonight and put them in her bag. All set she turned and left.

Since learning her daughter's secret and the resulting visit from Usagi, she had realized the need to reprioritize her life. Till now she had focused way too much time on her work and not enough time on her daughter. She had been very happy when shortly after Ami started in the regular public school system Ami had made friends with Usagi, glad that her daughter was finding a better school-life balance, something that she had never been able to find for herself. But even with seeing her daughter find a better balance and being happy for her, she herself had been unable to break away from her own over emphasis to spend time with her daughter. In some ways Ami making friends with Usagi made that seem less urgent to Mizuno-san.

But then everything changed that night when Sailor Venus was admitted to the hospital. That night and the following morning she learned that her daughter fought in battles that could and that had on two previous occasions claimed her life. And that it was only a miracle that Ami was alive now that her daughter should be dead up there in the artic with her being non the wiser.

The shock of learning of Ami's recent death had finally forced Mizuno-san to reexamine her priorities, to realize that she needed to devote time to spend with her daughter. Even as she headed to sleep that night, she was already thinking of how to lighten her load and the possibility of bringing work home at night, so that she could at least be with her daughter when she looked over the reports. Usagi's visit the next morning had served to underscore her need to spend time with her daughter even more. Not only did she need her daughter, but also her daughter very much needed her, even though she was now a super soldier.

Work that afternoon was the first day of a new Dr. Mizuno. No longer would she remain at the hospital all hours, instead she made sure to spend plenty of time at home, to be there for her daughter. She had been a bit surprised by how readily the others at the hospital had agreed to her sudden lightening of her load. But she should not have been. When she had finally pressed one of her good colleagues, he had admitted that they had all been concerned for a long time by how hard she had been working herself. But had not said anything since everything seemed to be okay, but were much happier now that she was acting a bit more "human." She had chuckled at that and had admitted to the resulting question that she had woken up one morning and realized how her daughter was growing up and she was missing all of it.

Reaching Ami's house, the Sailor Senshi found an out of the way alleyway to land in and revert back to their civilian forms. Unfortunately getting Setsuna across the street was posing a problem, since she could not walk on her own. And carrying her would raise too many questions. So, Ami had to henshin back to her Senshi form and deploy a mist in the area. Then under the cover of the fog, the warriors walked to Ami's house with Makoto and Haruka carrying Setsuna.

After carefully depositing Setsuna in a chair, Makoto and Haruka joined the other in collapsing to the ground. "That was a less than fun adventure." Makoto said

"You can say that again." Agreed Venus as she wondered if her Senshi nature would allow her to take some extra painkillers with no ill effect.

"Well at least we managed to resolve the situation with Ail and Ann." Luna commented. "Now there is only one enemy to keep us occupied."

"True." Rei agreed. "Now maybe we will get the time to rest between attacks." Then looking up to accept a steaming mug of tea that Usagi was handing her, she said. "Arigatoo."

Usagi smiled at Rei and then proceeded to go around the room handing out the rest of the mugs. Finished with that task it was now time for one other task before she helped Ami with bandaging everyone. "Ami-chan, why don't you take a moment and scan yourself."

Ami who was bringing in a box of hospital supplies that her mom had acquired for them looked over to tell Usagi that that could wait, however upon seeing the expression on her princess's face, Ami realized that there was no getting out of this scan. Putting down the box she was carrying down on the table, she took out her computer, activated the diagnostic functions, and then handed it to Usagi to hold for a moment. After letting it scan herself for a minute, she reached out to take back the computer and scanned the results.

"I have some energy burns, some nice bruises and my left wrist seems to be injured. Not broken, but it should be bandaged." Ami said.

"Well then lets get you taken care of." Usagi replied as she pulled Ami down and began rummaging through the supplies.

"Odango-atama do you know what you're doing?" asked Rei.

"Nope." Usagi honestly replied. "Ami can tell me what to do."

That response seemed to satisfy Rei and anyways the priestess was just as interested in making sure Ami got herself treated as well. It took Usagi a little time, but she managed to correctly follow Ami's directions and before long, the blue haired girl was all taken care of and was checking on the others. The first of the group she checked on was Setsuna, as she needed to set her ankle before her accelerated Senshi healing began to knit the bones where they currently lay.

Ami had just finished applying the cast to Setsuna's ankle when the she heard the front door open. Whipping off her hands with a paper towel, she looked up as her mom walked in. "Hi Mom." She said greeted her mother.

"Hi Ami." her mother returned. "How is everyone doing?" she asked.

"Not too bad, Mizuno-san." Minako replied from where she was sitting. "Except for Setsuna-san we are mainly in just a fair bit of hurt from today's battle."

"What's wrong with Meiou-san?" Ami's mother asked.

"She has a broken ankle." Ami replied. "Unfortunately it looks like you'll have to wear this cast for the next five days." Ami said this time to Setsuna after running a quick simulation on her computer.

With a doctor now to help with the bandaging, the rest were bandaged up very quickly. Ami's mother then suggested that they all spend the night here in a sleepover, feeling that they were too sore to be heading home on their own (well except for Usagi that was). Usagi had to decline since she knew her parents would want to see her tonight after the battle. Spending the night here at Ami's would just make them worry over her.

"You're not going to walk out like that?" Mizuno-san said as Usagi was getting ready to leave.

"Huh?" replied the silver-haired girl.

"The back of your shirt is all ripped."

"Oh that." Usagi replied as she laughed, having forgotten all about her wings being released during her time wrapped up in those tree roots.

"Usagi-chan, I think I have a jacket that would fit you." Ami replied as she led Usagi back to her room. Rummaging through her closest she pulled out the jacket and gave it to Usagi. "By the way, why don't you just use a spell to hide the rips?"

"I could, but for some reason I just don't like using spells when I am supposed to just be Usagi. I know I kind of use ones for the hiding of who I am to be Usagi. But that is more a lowering of my energy levels causing the crescent moon to vanish. And for my wings, well those are actually as you know now pulled into to my body and not just hidden. Which is why I like leaving them out when I can. If my jumbled explanation makes any sense."

"Hai it does." Ami replied. <I guess in some ways she is even more hidden now than before the Artic Battle. But using any spell would instantly highlight her as being able to use magic to anyone who can detect magic.>

Putting on the jacket that Ami had given her, Usagi said her thanks and left to fetch ChibiUsa.

Checking the address on the piece of paper that ChibiUsa had given her this morning, Usagi turned to go through the gate to the Tomoe household. Looking up and seeing that house for the first time, Usagi was amazed. Luna saw Usagi's reaction and dropped her head as she knew that her charge was about to go all gaga over the huge house that Hotaru lived in. But then, Usagi clamped down on her enthusiasm surprising Luna. However, it was not really that surprising at all, Ikuko was going to start serving dinner in 30 minutes and that did not give Usagi any time to waste in retrieving ChibiUsa and then heading home.

Reaching the front door, Usagi rang the doorbell and patiently waited for it to be answered. The door opened to reveal Eudial whom Usagi recognized as the lady who often took Hotaru to the park.

Remembering the other woman's name, Usagi spoke "Good afternoon Eudial-san."

"Good afternoon to you to Usagi-san. I take it that you are here to pick up ChibiUsa-san." Eudial replied.

"Hai."

"Why don't you come in then? I believe they are out back playing." Eudial said to Usagi as she let the girl into the house. Then as they walked past a closed door, Eudial opened it and stuck her head in. "Mimete could you go get Hotaru and her friend. Usagi-san is here to pick up her cousin."

After sending Mimete off to fetch the two girls, Eudial led Usagi into the kitchen. "Knowing kids it might take a few minutes for them to arrive, so why don't we have some tea while we wait."

"Arigatoo" replied Usagi.

Sitting down with Eudial at a small eating table in the kitchen, she picked up one of the biscuits and began nibbling on it a bit before asking, "How is Hotaru-chan doing after yesterday?"

"If you had asked me this morning, I would have said very bad. Terrible dreams plagued her for the most of the night. From what she was able to remember it sounded like she was reliving that battle over and over every fifteen minutes."

"How terrible." Usagi replied wondering if it was because ChibiUsa had slept with her last night that her daughter had not had similar nightmares. "And you are such a wonderful person for staying up with all night, being there for her every time she awoke."

"How did you know?" Eudial began to ask.

"I can see the lack of sleep in your eyes, but I also know from the way I have seen you watch out for her in the past. You are taking good care of her."

"Thank you." replied Eudial. Then pausing, she had some of her biscuit and another sip of tea, before continuing. "However, as of now I think she may be fully recovered. ChibiUsa's visit seems to have fully livened her up. I don't think I have seen her this happy for a very long time. Though the real test will come tonight when she dreams again."

"Hai," agreed Usagi.

"So how are you doing?" Eudial asked

"I am managing. It hit me very hard yesterday when I learned about what had happened at her school, especially when I got a chance to see the damage that was done to her school. What was worse is that this is not the first time that ChibiUsa has been caught in the middle of an attack like this. And the last time, I watched as one of those villains prepared to kill her."

Eudial had know that Usagi and her cousin were very close and now as she saw the anguish in Usagi's face as she recounted the emotions that she had felt after the incident yesterday Eudial understood why. Usagi had come close multiple times to loosing her cousin, including apparently being there once, that was enough to cut through the "sibling" rivalry that she had expected to see between Usagi and ChibiUsa and to cause Usagi to have a much more motherly attitude.

"But she is safe and that is all that matters." Usagi quickly concluded deciding not to go down that unpleasant path again. "And I cannot think of a better place for her to be today than here with her best friend where both of them can heal their terrors together. And further more I don't think this area is a prime candidate for any demon attack, considering that they seem to prefer areas with lots of people."

Mimete sat watching one of her favorite soap operas when Eudial interrupted, telling to go fetch Hotaru and ChibiUsa. Getting up and walking out of the room, she grumbled under her breath a bit about having to be Eudial's errand girl. However, the grumbling was short lived, as on any other day she would be down in the lab now. It was because she was to be Eudial's errand girl today that she had the day off, allowing her to watch her favorite soap operas.

Considering that because of watching over Hotaru, Eudial had only gotten two and a half hours of sleep last night, the professor had given her the day off. And with Hotaru spending the day at the house, the professor had wanted someone to be here and that left Mimete to have the task of lounging around the house. A task that got even easier when Eudial awoke late in the morning and refused to completely take the day off (something that Mimete was all too willing to agree to).

Reaching the back door of the house, Mimete opened it and walked out into the backyard. Looking around she found the two girls and walked towards them.

"ChibiUsa-chan your cousin is here to pick you up." Mimete called out when she had gotten close enough.

From where she currently lay on the ground with Hotaru standing above her, ChibiUsa tried to decide if she wanted to try extending this play date any further or be a good girl and promptly follow this lady in. Remembering the sinking feeling that she had had a little earlier with regard to her mother, ChibiUsa decided that today at least she would be a good girl. Looking up apologetically at Hotaru, ChibiUsa picked herself up off the ground.

"Well I guess I have to go." ChibiUsa said as she was getting up.

"Hai. Arigatoo for coming though." Hotaru replied.

The two girls then walked side beside back to the house with Diana following on the ground. None of the three noticed that something had fallen off ChibiUsa into the grass. Mimete had noticed it however, and bent down to retrieve it. Picking up the golden key, she looked at it and shrugged her shoulders and began walking back to the house as well. She had no idea what it was for, but figured that it had to belong to either Hotaru or her friend. However, as she walked back she began to realize that there was something not right about this key. Taking it out back out, she looked at it again. There straining her senses she realized that it was pulsing ever so slightly with magical power. <Hmm… this might prove to be interesting at some point. I think I will hold on to it for the time being.>

"ChibiUsa-chan" Usagi said as she saw Mimete walk into the kitchen with two children in tow. "And Konnichiwa Hotaru-chan. I hope you are doing good today."

"Hai, it was a fun day." Hotaru replied. And then turning to address ChibiUsa, "Thank you for visiting me today ChibiUsa-chan. Since it will be another day before school is open again, call me tomorrow morning."

"Hai!" replied a happy ChibiUsa.

Usagi who was now standing turned and thanked Eudial for the tea and to pass along her appreciation to Tomoe-san for allowing ChibiUsa to visit for the day. Then with all the goodbyes Usagi and ChibiUsa left and began walking home.

They had not gone far before ChibiUsa decided to ask Usagi about the jacket she was wearing. "Usagi when did you get that jacket?"

"Oh, this is Ami-chan's. I am just borrowing it, as my school uniform is a bit ripped."

"Something happened today didn't it?" ChibiUsa replied her voice becoming downcast, knowing that the feeling she had felt earlier today had been real.

"Yes it did, I'll tell you about it more when we got home. However, the short story is that we were able to heal the two aliens who had arrived in that fake meteor. Unfortunately before that happened they captured me and tried to drain my life energy." Seeing the worried look that was coming over ChibiUsa, Usagi kneeled down in front of ChibiUsa while saying, "But don't worry I'm all fine now." Standing back up she continued her explanation, "Anyways as a result of that, I lost control of my ability to be Usagi and not Serenity. And when my wings decided to show themselves, they kind of ripped holes in my shirt." <Thankfully they sliced out and just ripped my shirt instead of bursting the whole back off. Would have thought that would have been the result.>

"Ah…" ChibiUsa said as she realized how that could have caused a problem. She knew that there was far more to this story than what Usagi had told her so far. But was content for the moment to accept her mother's reassurances and to just walk holding her mom's hand.

End Notes:Well after only five months or so, this chapter has finally gone out. Though I did have some excuse for the extended delay. I spent this summer working at a scout camp as the Assistant Rifle Range Directory (no knowledge of rifles before hand) and so was completely without access to my computer for 2 months (especially since the camp is in RI and I live in NC). Then there were various trips, to see my parents, attend my girlfriend's commencement, and to interview for a job. Sadly though I am still looking for my next chemical engineering job. Well this wraps up the Ail and Ann arc so we can get fully into the Rubeus and Tomoe arc, the Sailor Senshi won't be having it easy for long. I know some are not going to like Uranus and Neptune's actions earlier in the chapter in hunting for pure heart crystals. However, I am assuming that they were not just relying on the enemy to hunt out the Talismans (not a very good strategic move I would think). Next chapter time to see what happens when Rubeus and Tomoe join their efforts together in creating a monster.