Chapter One: About Twenty Years Too Late
August 20, 2013
Serena swerved her grocery cart out the way of an approaching cart, narrowly avoiding a collision with the other shopper. She sighed and muttered under her breath as the other woman continued to talk on a cell phone, oblivious to her near-crash in the aisle. Serena could not even shake her head, as this had been the third near-miss since she had entered the store. Nobody was paying attention tonight.
She gathered her thoughts enough to pull over her cart and park next to the egg section. As her eyes scanned the cartons, another frustration hit her. She needed six eggs, but the store was only selling twelve-packs in foam containers she couldn't break in half. Serena quickly put the eggs into her cart before she stopped to think about the money she was wasting, then pushed her cart past the aisles and towards the front of the store.
She walked past yet another young man in gym pants and a T-shirt. There were more men tonight in the store than usual, some of them taking more than their fair share of stares at her. Sure, she was a few years past her prime, but she didn't look it. She knew that she had fewer wrinkles than most women half her age, and aside from her widening tummy, her body was the same as it was in high school. Her hair was still styled in meatball - the teasing appelation had stuck with her for years - and her mind wandered to the past. Seized by memory, she was no longer aware of the her shorts and sleeveless top she wore. Instead, she recalled herself in her wedding dress, and the husband who stood beside her in a tuxedo.
She didn't want to even think about him right now, and blinds in her cart were a reminder of why she was there. She had broken the ten-year old blind in a rush to close the front window to their house, as prelude to an argument she had started with her mate. Marriage wasn't supposed to be easy and she was tempted to return to that old fantasy of hers where everything was easy. In that dream she was a superhero, fighting alongside Sailor V and the love of her life - not the mop-headed man she had been charmed by. By now she wouldn't just be a hero, but she would have been queen of the universe, ruling over a city in slumber and encased in crystal. Her daughter would be a spitting image of her, and her husband would rule at her side.
A shopper bumped into Serena and broke her away from her daydream. No, it would be better for her to get back to her shopping at once. The milk in her cart wouldn't last long in these summer temperatures. Unlike the fictional Sailor V, she wasn't destined to fight evil. Unlike her family, she was normal and ordinary.
It was then she heard the crash.
She jumped out of sheer instinct as the cans of baked beans rolled toward her uncontrollably, and the cart rolled away from her. She did not land on the floor but on the metal cylinders she had hoped to avoid. In her youth, she would have been lucky enough to balance her feet momentarily on the cans in rapid succession before crashing to the floor. Her older, present self was not so lucky, and she fell on her butt. Painfully, she tried to get up but her movements were interrupted by a rage-filled scream. The screech was dangerous and inhuman, a horrifying bellow drifting through the aisles and coming closer to her. Serena soon saw the source of the screams and shrieked out of fear.
A woman with wild green hair approached Serena, clad in only a green tutu and a red bikini top. Despite the creature being a hominid, its pointed ears, and the jewel on her forehead were all signs that this was not a normal person.
It was too early for Halloween, and this was not one of her husband's guardians. No, this monster was one of his worst fears come true. A creature from the Negaverse sent to kill her. It charged at her with preternatural speed, and for some reason Serena was unable to lift her rear end from the dirty floor.
All of a sudden, the monster stopped and yelped in pain as a breathing, black bag of fur bounce off the creature's face. The dark lump landed between the monster and Serena. The bag had four legs. Serena shook her head when she saw the quadruped, its golden crescent moon mark glistening on her forehead.
This was her cat from her old town, Crossroads, Luna.
A cat that should have been dead.
"Serena," the cat called.
"Luna?" Serena asked. "You can talk?" Serena swung her head and felt her meatballs rattle. "No, I'm losing my wits. Focus, Serena!"
"Listen to me, Serena. I don't have much time."
Serena pressed her hands over her ears and shut her eyes. A second later she opened them again and Luna was still in front of her and staring at her. The crescent symbol on Luna's forehead brightened and shot a white laser of light at Serena's forehead.
Serena saw her life flash before her eyes.
She was thrown back to her childhood and she recalled her meeting a young boy in the hospital and giving him a rose. Her brother, Sammy, had just been born, and the memory sped forward. The faces of her parents grew older as did the bodies of herself and Sammy. Soon she was fourteen years old, in her junior high school uniform, rolling on the bed on top of her bedspread.
A new memory sprouted, one where Luna had begun to talk to her, and the memory branched into others where she rescued Molly and met other schoolgirls. More memories of another life intertwined with these emerging ones. She saw the faces of two mothers, one with silver hair and another with purple hair. The boy she met in her childhood was now a man wearing black armor in one instant which melted into a tuxedo the next. This was the love from her fantasy, but this was no phantom experience. Every memory was sharp as the prick of a rose, with the heaviness of collapsing bodies, the warmth of the Silver Crystal and the grips of gloved hands all compressing into a shining star of memory. In a snap, her nostrils widened and the inside of her nose opened.
"Luna..." Serena said. "I remember. I remember everything!"
"Good," Luna replied, "then put that memory to use!" Luna leaped into the air and the golden locket from Serena's memory materialized. Serena grabbed the locket and lifted it now that her muscle memory had been restored.
"Moon Prism..." Serena took a deep breath as if she drew in the entire universe into her body. "POWER!"
In a flash, she found herself clad in the familiar trappings of white leotard and gloves, blue collar and skirt, red boots and bows. She was no longer seated on the ground. She was no longer Serena.
She was Sailor Moon.
She looked at her opponent and saw the monster had recovered from Luna's scratches. Luna bounded toward the monster again with her claws extended, but the monster batted the incoming cat aside, causing Luna to fall to the floor.
"Saber!" the humanoid figure cried, and sword appeared in the right hand of the monster on command. "Bye-bye, kitty cat."
"Drop it, Banana Brain," ordered Sailor Moon. She stood on top of the shelf bordering the aisle and began a series of poses. "I am Sailor Moon, the champion of Justice. I will right wrongs and triumph over evil, and that means you."
"So, Sailor Moon returns." The monster drew back like a pitcher on a mound. "Have a shot at my rotten egg bomb."
The monster threw a white, round object toward the heroine. Had she still been a teenager Sailor Moon would have cowered and whimpered before dodging the projectile at the last possible second.
She was older and wiser, and the female assassin s throw left an opening too wide to ignore. Crossing her arms in front of her, Sailor Moon leapt forward in a tackle. She passed the sphere coming her way, and instead knocked into the chin of the monster. Thumps and pops followed the blow, and the sound of gears grinding could be heard over the impact. The monster was knocked to the ground, and Sailor Moon removed her tiara. It began to spin and glow in her palm and turned into a discus of destruction.
"Moon Tiara Magic."
She threw the discus at the monster, hitting the creature squarely in the chest. The monster was covered in cracks from the impact, then swiftly turned into a statue of blue-green sand. The statue dissolved into a pile leaving only a green jewel behind as proof it once existed.
"Good job, Sailor Moon!" Luna congratulated. The Sailor Scout did not answer and instead took a series of steps toward the exit of the store.
"Sailor Moon..."
The woman did not answer the cat and continued to walk away.
In another dimension of darkness, a disc of light glowed in the darkness, and inside it the image of Sailor Moon throwing her tiara looped, showing iterations of the destruction of the brown-skinned minion.
A male, human-like viewer was swallowed in shadow, his female humanoid superior reclined on a love seat, her slender form barely visible in the lightless room.
"The Droid failed in its mission to terminate the target," he stated.
"Good," the female figure replied. She tossed a section of her long hair with a flippant wave. "Sailor Moon is the key to finding the Imperium Silver Crystal. Now that she has been reactivated she'll do our work for us."
Serena pulled her car onto the driveway to her house, then shut off the headlights. She had walked to her car and had somehow driven home, but for all the new memories she regained, she barely remembered anything from the fight. She exited the car with grocery bags in her hand and her purse on her shoulder, then walked to her door. She opened the screen door, but the solid front door remained steady. She needed her other key, and the porch light was off.
"Serena!" came the cry from inside the house.
She was Serena now. She did remember how to change back into the shell of a normal woman she used to be. Now that woman could not even enter her own home. She set the bags on the porch and opened her purse. After a few seconds of fumbling she lifted the metal shards out of it. Before she could put her key in the door, the lock rumbled and the door flung open. She looked at her husband, barely recognizing his blue eyes or the mop of disheveled brown hair.
"Serena," Alan said, and on those words Serena collapsed into his cool embrace.