Another crossover of sorts for your reading pleasure. In an attempt to fit the Sailor Moon universe in with the Magical Dimension, I came up with this.
I don't own anything in this chapter; everything is the property of Naoko Takeuchi and Rainbow/Nickelodeon. No profit is made from this work of fanfiction unless staving off my own personal boredom counts for something.
The Senshi Fairy Chronicles
1. Falling from Grace-Setsuna's Tale
Once Upon a Time…
There was a very powerful kingdom, one that spanned the entirety of the solar system inhabited by the planet Earth. All nine planets and most of their moons were inhabited by magical beings and plain humans alike, with life supporting spells and machinery protecting their cities from their harsh environments. The reigning High Queen (for there was never a king strong enough to lead the planets, at that time) lived in her grand palace on Earth's moon, while most of the other kingdoms were ruled by powerful Fairies who banded together to defend their kingdom from threats—both without and within. These brave, strong women were given the designation of Senshi by their counterparts in other realms, and the title and crown of each planet was passed from mother to daughter (or in some rare occasions to a niece or cousin). Earth operated a little differently. While they had the power to produce Senshi, their greatest warriors were usually male.
Everything in the great kingdom had been going well, up until a mysterious dark energy began to take over their world. For years, the Senshi Queens tried to fight it, but even their best efforts weren't going to be enough and they knew it.
"We have no alternative." A tall woman easily in her twenties spoke gravely. She had hair so dark green that it was nearly black, darkly tanned skin, and deep red eyes. She was Setsuna, Queen of Pluto and Guardian of the Time Gate. She was dressed in one of her finest black gowns, a garnet choker glimmering from its resting place on her neck. "The only way to stay our opponent's progress is for Saturn to use her Death Reborn Revolution attack."
"But what of our people?" A voluptuous blue-eyed blonde woman asked. Her gown was an orangey-gold color and an amber necklace rested just above her breasts. She was Minako, Senshi of Love and Beauty as well as the Queen of Venus. "We will all be wiped out if Saturn raises her scythe."
"If the rest of us combine our powers, we can save one planet." A blue-haired woman with eyes the same color as her hair said, her gaze fixed on the data pad in front of her. Like all Mercurian Senshi, Ami was a genius and an avid scholar. Her pale blue gown was much simpler than that of her fellow queens, and a sapphire pendant on a chain draped around her neck. "Since this being seems to have no interest in Earth and the young Moon Princess is engaged to their Prince, it is the most logical choice. We can each transport the children of the royal lines to Earth while we fight."
"All of us can't." The soft yet powerful voice of a small woman with chin-length black hair and alabaster skin stated. Her amethyst eyes never left Setsuna's garnet ones. Hotaru, Senshi of Saturn, was the most powerful of the Senshi, but she also happened to be the youngest. Her violet gown was a fair bit more child-like than those the other Senshi wore. A star-shaped amethyst stone was attached to the silver collar necklace she wore. "Setsuna and I do not have any children or siblings. I have cousins I can send, but Setsuna is the last of her line."
"Hotaru, you haven't ever been in battle." Queen Rei of Mars remarked, flicking a strand of long raven hair over her pale shoulders. Her hair contrasted her blood red gown and ruby choker beautifully. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't feel comfortable fighting alongside an untried Senshi." Mars, like Jupiter and Uranus, was a Warrior Planet. To become Queen, the next in line for the throne need to defeat the reigning monarch in battle. The idea of fighting beside a young and untested warrior did not sit well with the dark-haired Martian.
"By the end of this battle, she will be more tried and tested than she ever should have been." Haruka of Uranus pointed out, emerald eyes determined and focused. Her sandy blonde hair was cut short, like a man's, and she wore a suit instead of the traditional dresses her fellow Senshi chose for this meeting. Still, a golden gem with deep blue impurities glimmered from its spot on her chest, where it acted as a broach. "Ami, what will this power combination cost us?"
Ami's deep blue eyes fell to the screen of her data pad. "Our lives. It will cost almost all of us our lives." Her usually calm voice was exceptionally distressed. "With Setsuna wielding the Garnet Staff for a boost and Queen Serenity using the Ginzhuishou, we can send our souls into the future to be reborn in new bodies, but it would be many generations from now. The only reason Setsuna will still be here at the end of it all is because there is no one else who can be trained as a Plutonian Senshi. As Hotaru said, she is the last of her line and is therefore the only one who can guard the time gate."
"And in the meantime, we would all die and our planets rendered uninhabitable until our souls are reborn." Minako was clearly not thrilled with this news. "And how will we find each other? There's no way all of us will be reborn in the same area!"
"Mina, you're worrying too much." A tall, sturdily-built woman with chestnut hair and forest green eyes remarked to the blonde Senshi of Love and Beauty. She was Makoto, Queen of Jupiter. Her gown was forest green with pink trim, and a simple emerald necklace adorned her upper body. "As a Venusian, you should know that soul mates prefer to be reborn in close proximity to each other. We will find our lovers first and then locate the other Senshi." It was a well-guarded secret that all of the Sol system Senshi only married males to perpetuate the royal bloodlines. The soul mate of a planetary Senshi was always another woman. Although Saturn usually didn't live long enough to find hers, the other Senshi typically met their soul mates by the time they reached adulthood.
"It can't be avoided, Minako." A woman with wavy teal hair and sapphire eyes soothed. Her multi-toned blue gown looked like ocean waves, and an aquamarine necklace sparkled in the light. She was Queen Michiru of Neptune, Senshi of the Seas and Haruka's wife. The two Outer Senshi flew in the face of social convention and had a private wedding on Earth. "For there to be any hope of someday reviving our kingdoms, we have to make this sacrifice."
"It is made in vain!" The blonde Venusian spat. "Without at least one surviving Senshi, there is no hope for reviving our worlds!"
"It will not be in vain." Michiru hissed, deep eyes swirling like miniature whirlpools. "I saw someone in the Deep Aqua Mirror—a princess of the Lunarian royal line in the distant future. She will help free Earth's magic from a darkness I cannot discern. Whenever this princess comes into her powers, the young women bearing our souls will begin to awaken, and Setsuna will be there to train them."
"Don't count on us having the same names in our next lives." Rei remarked. "Our souls' previous incarnations had different names and appearances than us. We will probably look slightly different than we currently do."
"Somehow, I don't think that will stop us." Hotaru offered a small smile. "We will see each other again, no matter how long it takes."
Hot tears of desperation rolled down Setsuna's dark cheeks. It had never bothered her before, but the thought of being forced to guard the Time Gate for the rest of her years weighed heavily upon her as she watched their final battle unfold. She would never again get to visit the worlds outside the solar system. She would not watch High Princess Serenity's marriage to Prince Endymion or see their children.
She would never know her soul mate. Sure, she had maintained a crush on Queen Serenity for the better part of the last ten years, but she knew that the silver-haired Moon Queen wasn't her soul mate. No, the woman of her dreams was somewhere out there, living her life in blissful ignorance on some other planet.
A giant orb of multicolored energy appeared on the horizon. With a trembling hand, Setsuna raised the Garnet Staff and called upon all the power she could spare, sending it to that giant collection of Senshi energy. It drained her of her energy reserves, but that mattered little to her. It wasn't as if she would need that much of it to watch the Time Gate. Nobody wanted to visit there. Ever.
As the large orb exploded, sending a shockwave through the solar system destined to destroy all magic on the other planets, the large garnet gem on the top of the staff enveloped the Queen in a flash of light and sent her directly to the Time Gate. Despite the handful of royal servants previously transported to help interpret the large amounts of data the gate sent out, the green-haired fairy felt completely isolated.
"Do not feel so discouraged, my dark Queen." Setsuna gasped, turning around to see the (most entirely unexpected) blue form of Arcadia—the very first fairy.
"Arcadia!" she quickly bowed her head in submission. The great ruler of the Golden Kingdom was always to be treated with the highest respect. She felt so unworthy for not only failing to recognize the great Fairy's presence, but for the tears still in her red eyes. "Why…?"
"My child, do not be so frightened." The elder fairy soothed, wiping away a tear with one of her hands. "All hope is not yet lost."
"How is it not lost?" Setsuna looked away. "The Senshi are dead. Their talismans were destroyed with them. The Silver Millennium lays in ruins…the royal princes and princesses will never see their planets again. Tell me how there is hope to be found in this situation!"
"Setsuna."Arcadia voiced a soft command, compelling the queen of Pluto to look her in the eyes. "Do not doubt Michiru's vision. The Senshi will return someday, and you must be ready to help train them and their princess to fight."
"But…Princess Serenity is grown and soon to marry." The dark-haired fairy frowned, guilt and despair clouding her thoughts. "She can only heal, not fight."
A knowing smile crossed Arcadia's lips. The blue-skinned Ethereal pointed to a brilliant pink thread running through the tapestry of the Time Stream. "Do you see that thread?"
"Yes, I see it." Though she wasn't sure what it had to do with anything…
"Look into it." And she did just that, calling the thread out from the flow of time and examining it. The image of a pink-haired fairy in a green outfit flitted through her mind.
"Who…who is that?" She frowned. "Is that the girl Michiru saw?"
"Yes, and when the time comes, you will know her by name." Arcadia explained. "She is the Princess you are looking for: a child of Lunarian and Earthling blood capable of fighting alongside her Senshi. When she awakens, so will her guardians."
"I will not stop looking for her." The Senshi of Time and the Afterlife bowed her head solemnly. "No matter how long it takes, I will find her."
"It will take many years, but you will succeed. Oh, and one more thing." Arcadia halted. "In two hundred years, you are to attend the festival of the Twin Full Moons on Solaria. Wear something nice." And with that mysterious message, the First Fairy disappeared in a flash of golden light, leaving behind a slightly less confused—though by no means any less sad—Time guardian.
In the span of two centuries, Setsuna found that she didn't spend all of her time at the Time Gate, though it still occupied most of her energy. Since whatever resided in the time stream did not age, she could leave her servants to observe the gateway to both past and future for a few hours while she engaged in important social calls. She attended Princess Serenity's wedding to Prince Endymion, and visited the last of the Lunarian royals approximately once every five years. As a result, some of the information pertaining to the Senshi's eventual rebirth made its way into the Queen's personal annals and eventually the Royal Library.
Eventually, as all mortals do, Serenity died and her descendants reigned in her place. Five generations had cycled through the thrones of Earth in their home base of Tir Na nOg by the time that all-important Twin Full Moons Festival came around, and all of the queens and kings looked more or less identical. Serenity was the last fair-haired person in the lineage; all of her heirs favored her ebony-haired, stormy-eyed husband. Although, Morgana—the newest to the throne—had married a blond merchant's son named Klaus and was now expecting a child. Setsuna selfishly hoped that this one would provide a much-needed break in the monotony of its ancestors and have Serenity's golden hair.
She shouldn't have even gone to Solaria. Not with so many fairies disappearing for reasons unknown. Queen Morgana and her sister Nebula wanted all the warriors they could spare to patrol the kingdom. Now was not the time to be mingling with commoners on another planet. But, Arcadia pretty much ordered her to go to this festival, and one did not disobey the Ancient One…
Solaria was a Mercury-sized world with the power of Sun and Moon as its heart—the energy that kept the planet's magical essences in the proper order. It never rained here, so days and nights were perfectly clear. During the decades before the Silver Millennium's fall, several members of high-ranking noble Lunarian families immigrated to Solaria and married into its upper class, accounting for the unusually high number of people with blue-to-pink eyes and white-or-silver hair on this world formerly dominated by shades of gold and red.
It made the planet-less Queen incredibly homesick. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she slammed into another person. "Oh, by Serenity! I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed, looking down to see who she had nearly run over. A pair of embarrassed lavender eyes looked back into her garnet ones through a pair of wire-rimmed glasses. "Are you injured?"
"No, I am quite fine. And it's my fault for not watching where I was going." A very cultured voice responded from the young woman with the intriguing eyes. She had long silvery hair restrained by a lavender scarf and pale skin. She wore a loose lavender peasant blouse, a long dark green skirt, and a pair of simple sandals. Obviously this person came from a noble family and had Lunarian blood in her veins. "Although I'm glad I almost ran you over. These things are lonely affairs when you have no one to talk to."
"I quite agree." Setsuna sighed. She hadn't realized that the Twin Full Moons Festival was a sort of fertility ritual until she was already on Solaria. "It is difficult for an outsider to understand all that is going on here. But I am getting ahead of myself." She took a minute to calm her suddenly racing thoughts. Why did such a young lady have her so discombobulated? "My name is Setsuna Meioh; my apologies for nearly knocking you on your hind end."
"Iris DuFour and I don't mind." The silver-haired young woman smiled. "If it means that I got to meet such an interesting tourist, it was worth it. I imagine you have quite the story."
The last Senshi of Time quirked a dark green eyebrow. "Most people don't care about other people's tales of woe."
"True, but I'm the Fairy of Storytelling; I'm not like most people here." Iris smiled. "If I am not being too forward, perhaps we could speak in a more private setting? I know a place down the street from here that serves excellent wine…"
She wasn't sure what it was, but there was something in Iris's lavender eyes that compelled the dark-haired woman to accept. Perhaps it was a reflection of her loneliness. Perhaps it was the sight of someone who so closely resembled the Queen Serenity who sacrificed herself to save a future she could not see. Whatever the reason, Setsuna nodded. "That sounds lovely. Would you show me the way?"
It didn't take Setsuna very long to realize why the willowy Troubadour Fairy had such a hold on her mind and body. After so many years of waiting in isolation, the Senshi of Time had finally found her soul-mate. In no less than six months, she had fallen head over heels for the young woman she met on Solaria.
But as her love life finally seemed to be coming together, a terrible threat seized the magical population of Earth. A group of wizards—driven by greed and lust—began a campaign to seal away all the fairies on the planet and rip off their wings to gain the power of the fairies for themselves. The last stand of Earth's magical population was to take place in two weeks' time.
Enough time for Setsuna to say goodbye to Iris before returning to the Time Gate. The foolish Wizards might be just stupid enough to attempt to cross through her world and into the future, and she could no longer afford to be away from it.
She knew it was for the best, but that didn't make the choice any less painful.
"I wish there were another way." She murmured, tears in her eyes as she held Iris close to her body.
"Why not ask for help?" Iris inquired, tears threatening to spill from her own lavender eyes.
"These Wizards…they think Earth is the only planet capable of supporting life." Garnet eyes squeezed shut. "If we fail, they will think they have won and the rest of the magical dimension will be safe from their power. They're strong enough with Diana and Aurora's wings; what do you think they would do if they managed to snatch the wings away from the one bearing the Dragon's Flame the Dominoans prize so highly?"
"I'll never see you again." The silver-haired woman whispered, her voice cracking with the pain of losing the one person she had ever truly cared for.
"I know." And that thought tore Setsuna apart. "But I will leave you something to remember me by." She pulled away from the smaller fairy briefly, summoning a small wooden box out of thin air. It was old and made from the peculiar black wood of a tree native to the moon Charon. She handed the box to her lover, who opened it with trembling hands.
"Oh, Setsuna…" Iris murmured, carefully lifting a pendant on a silver chain out of the box. A large black opal set amidst a perimeter of tiny garnets glistened in the low light of Iris's quarters.
"That pendant has been in my family for generations." Setsuna explained, gently taking the necklace from the quivering Fairy of Stories and draping it around her lover's neck. "I want you to keep it."
"I won't ever take it off." Iris breathed, taking off her glasses and wiping them on the hem of her skirt. "Can you stay the night?" She would prefer a much more…passionate goodbye, if at all possible.
A small smirk crossed Setsuna's dark lips. "I believe I can manage that."
Being forced to stand back and watch a battle she knew would end in tragedy brought a sense of déjà vu to the guardian of the Time Gate. It felt like the end of the Silver Millennium all over again, and she wasn't sure she could handle the loneliness this time around.
"Queen Setsuna, we have visitors in sector 3." One of her servants informed her. "A fairy and a human male."
"I will see to them. Keep watch here." The dark queen told the female servant before using the power of her staff to teleport her to the site of her visitor's arrival. She was surprised to find Morgana and Klaus standing before her, a small cloth-wrapped bundle in the Earth Queen's arms.
"Please, we haven't time to spare." Morgana pleaded with the older fairy, tears in her dark eyes.
"Morgana, what is it?" Setsuna inquired. "Why have you and Klaus come here? You should be with your warriors."
"My warriors are buying us time." Klaus spoke. "If the Wizards learn of Roxana's magical potential, all hope is lost."
"Roxana." Setsuna breathed as the bundle in Morgana's arms began to whimper. The onyx-haired Fairy of Thought tenderly peeled away a section of cloth, revealing the face of a pink-haired infant. That hair…this child would become the fairy Arcadia showed her in the time stream! But how could they save her? "Taking her into the past is far too dangerous." The lonely Senshi muttered to herself, but then looked at the King and Queen. "The only way this will work is to transport you three into the future." Garnet eyes met Morgana's stormy blue ones. For this plan to work, Klaus's memories would have to be wiped clean and new ones implanted, something only Morgana was capable of doing.
"Whatever it takes." Klaus insisted, not quite knowing what this act would cost him.
"Very well." Setsuna nodded. She knew that this wasn't the only way to travel across time and that the Wizards were wily enough to utilize another one once Morgana's plans came to light, but it was the best chance for the princess to grow to maturity. "Follow me closely; the Time Stream can be a dangerous place."