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Setsuna had gotten up before anyone else in the apartment and got the morning paper. She opened it up and saw a headline "Pluto demoted: IAU has reclassified the former ninth planet". She sweatdropped, looking at it. "Oh man, you have got to be kidding me" she said, dreading what was going to happen as she did her morning ritual or cleaning herself up. She had gotten into the shower as thinking a long soak would make her feel a little better. By the time she got out the room was filled with steam. As she was drying off she noticed something wasn't quite right in the chest area, after wiping off the mirror to check she screamed waking the others up.
Michiru woke up and rubbed her eyes, walking into the other room. "What's going on?" she asked, yawning and stretching. "You alright Setsu?"
Haruka looked into the room. "Oh my God! What happened to you?!" Setsuna now looked like she was about nine or ten years old.
"Look at what those Pinheads did to me!"
"My word!" Michiru said, walking over to her and kneeling down, examining her. "Why would they do something like this?" she asked, as Haruka, walked over and lifted up the paper.
"I think I have an idea..."
They read the article and Michiru shook her head. "Just because some astronomers say that Pluto is no longer a planet, Setsuna shouldn't just have gotten younger than this."
Haruka shook her head. "I don't know weirder things have happened to us.
"Well then, I wonder when this will all end" she said, now looking around the age of six.
"Probably has something to do with how the planet is now labeled. Michiru, what are they calling Pluto now?" she asked, looking through boxes of Hotaru's old clothing.
"A dwarf planet, but I still don't see how a bunch of astronomers changing a name could do something like this." said Michiru. "Maybe we should call the others, Luna and Artemis may have some idea on what's going on.
"Yeah, go ahead and get them Mich, I am going to redress her" she said, lifting up Setsuna and putting her on the bed. "Hope you don't mind" she said to the tiny girl.
Setsuna's fore head started looking blue. "Um, Haruka does your head go over the top of that self on the wall?" Haruka look confused "Yes why?" "Because now it's level." Haruka temple began to pulse. "What ever you have had better not be catching!"
Michiru looked nervous. "Um... Do you think it will affect me?" she asked, looking at the now infantile Pluto and the youthening Uranus
"Just in case maybe you should drive us to the shrine, at this rate I may not reach the pedals not to mention what would happen if a cop pulled us over. You get Hotaru, I'll take Setsuna."
"Alright" she said, running into the other room and picking up the younger girl, who was still peacefully asleep. "Ready to go?" she asked, putting jackets on both of them.
A short drive later they arrived at the shrine, Michiru was affected slightly on the way as she had to readjust the seat twice to drive, Haruka now looked like a twelve year old, Setsuna was silently sobbing and the still sleeping Hotaru was starting to be affected, though only slightly at this point.
Michiru got out, picking up the two smallest girls. "We're very lucky we got here this fast. I think I just went to the point before driving school" she said nervously.
"At least you can still reach the pedal" came Setsuna's little voice, tears still streaming from her eyes as she sniffled.
They went up the steps to the shrine and went into the meeting room, The Inner Senshi were also showing signs of regression, looking like they belonged in grade school, however the cats seemed normal. "Well I bet you know why we're all here." Michiru said with a half-hearted laugh.
Rei grumbled, looking up at them. "Well, I guess we aren't the only ones that are effected" Ami said, scribbling down notes.
"Why ya think this is happening?" Usagi asked.
"This seemed to start when I found out that my world was demoted to a dwarf planet." Setsuna squeaked. "But I don't know how it's affecting all of you."
Luna spoke up. "Well your powers although separate are still connected, so whatever is affecting Pluto is affecting all of you through your connection."
"So, you're basically saying that the entire universe is being demoted just because she is!" yelled Minako, looking at Luna.
"Well, it's more complicated than that. You see..." Artemis started.
"I don't care!" said Haruka.
"Yeah, how do we fix it!?" Usagi yelled standing and pointing.
"Heh. Seems the blondes are freaking again" Rei whispered to Makoto, with a grin.
"Well, I guess we just have to get the IAU to reverse their decision." said Minako.
"I don't think they'll change something like that just because we tell them to." said the now Toddler Hotaru.
"Well, the real question is, what are we gonna do? I mean, we can't fight crime like this." Ami said, now looking like a kindergartener.
"By the way, where is Chibi-usa?" Makoto asked.
"Back in the future." said Setsuna. "Although I have no idea right now how this is affecting her, if she still even exists."
"Well Setsuna, don't you still have your powers at least? Or did they take them?" Ami asked, looking over her spiral notebook.
"I can try." she said. "PLUTO PLANET POWER! MAKE UP!" The transformation worked but instead of her skirt a black colored diaper covered everything from between her legs to just below the bow on her chest. "DEAD SCREAM!" the orb was smaller and hit Usagi by accident, but all it caused her to do was giggle. "Hey that tickles!"
"Um... Interesting..." Ami said, scribbling down some more, now squeezing the pencil in her fist because she was too small now to hold in normally. "What are the ages now?" she asked, looking around at everyone.
"Setsuna and Hotaru are infants." said Artemis. "Haruka and Michiru are kindergartners and the rest of you are toddlers."
"Maybe you should all transform." said Luna. "At least this way we don't have to worry about clothes for you, let's just pray that a Youma doesn't choose now to attack us."
They all nodded, and a minute later, they were all in uniform, with the same embarrassing change as Setsuna. "Um... These feel weird" Usagi said, pulling at the diaper.
"We may be in these for a while so get used to them." said Michiru looking like, at least for the moment, she didn't need them. "I'm more worried about how we explain this to our friends and family."
"I suggest we keep it secret, maybe say that we are on a school trip" Ami said, Standing and toddling back and forth, thinking. "Then we find a way to investigate. For now, it seems that we still have our minds, which we should be thankful for" she said grimly, "But, from the way things are progressing, I think our minds will develop to match our bodies, though at an extremely slow pace..."
"Alright then we can't stay here." said Rei. "Does anyone know where we can stay while this is happening?" Makoto raised her hand. "I know where there's an old nursery school, they moved to another building but some of the stuff is still there so in case our bodies need anything like that we can hold out for a little while."
"Alright, but the problem is... How are we going to get there? It would look strange for a group of babies to walk down the street" Makoto said.
"We could try the Sailor Teleport." said Hotaru. "But we may have to do it more than once to get there,"
"Hm... Well, let's all try it together, so we could get farther and have to use less teleports" Ami said, getting on the table. "Alright, let's get in a circle, and gather what energy we have" she said.
"SAILOR TELEPORT!" It took them three tries but they got to nursery school's play area in the back. "This place looks like it's been empty for over a year." said Ami. "Well we better try to clean this place up as best we can."
"Easier said then done" Haruka said sarcastically, walking into the building. "Hm... A basic, empty nursery from the look of it" She said, wiping dust away.
Luna and Artemis then came in from another door. "Where have you two been?" asked Setsuna.
"You pant left us behind at the last pant stop." said Luna. "Just pant let us pant catch our breath and pant we can try to help."
"Alright" Ami said, before her eyes widened. "Wait!" she said, toddling up to the two cats. "You two can turn into human beings, correct?"
"Yes, but it doesn't always work." said Artemis.
"Well then, could you both pose as babysitters for the time being?" she asked, looking at them both.
"Of course. I hope this works." said Luna. The two closed their eyes and a few moments later they became human.
"Ok we're in business." said Artemis. "So after we clean this place up is there anything you need?"
"We need to find a way to look into the Silver Millennium, to see how it is effected" Setsuna said, after being set down and now trying to stand.
"Ok, I'll try to set up something." said Luna writing down something a notepad she found. "Artemis you better go and get the items on this list I made." Artemis read the list. "Formula, baby food, diapers, pacifiers. Are you sure we need these?" "They may not have shown it yet but they may have the physical needs of babies now and I'd rather be prepared."
"Yes, but pacifiers? Why pacifiers?" Haruka asked, sounding a bit offended.
"Calm down, these are just precautions" Luna said, starting to clean.
After a few hours the nursery school was looking clean. The place would be bright a cheery if the power wasn't out. "Guess we'll have to figure out how to get electricity and water, fortunately I can fake identities for me and Artemis while we try to figure out what's going on in the timeline and how to reverse this. Artemis came in with bags of baby supplies and a black eye. "What happened to you?
"We need to find a way to get money." he said. "Oh and if a guy named Bruno comes, tell him I'm not here.
"Did... Did you steal those?" Minako asked, looking up at one of the only two adults here.
"Let's just say that this eye is down payment on a loan."
On the other side of the place, Usagi was looking at the play area then picked up a block. "Well, since we don't have any other way to spend our time we might as well play."
"You are really getting into this role, huh Usagi?" Said Rei, thumping her on the back of the head as she walked by, going over to the crib area to look around." Kinda feels like a zoo with all the bars. I wonder if we could get used to sleeping here."
In the snack room Makoto and Michiru looked up at the high chairs. "Looks like my all be eating in these pretty soon." said Makoto.
"At least we've stopped getting younger." said Michiru. "But since were now about nine months old we may not be able to stand or walk pretty soon."
"My legs feel week already" Makoto said, getting a small step ladder and putting it to the table. "Wanna get a snack?"
"Sure, what do you have in mind?" said Michiru.
"Well, I was going to see what Artemis brought back" she said, climbing up to the cabinets. "Looks like he got jarred baby food and some of those cookies that teething babies suck on. I think we could use a cookie right now, especially Setsuna, she must be feeling real low because of what happened to her planet."
"Yeah" she said, passing down the box before slowly going back down. On the last step, she slipped and fell hard on her bottom.
"Are you ok?" asked Michiru. "Fine, my diaper cushioned the fall." said Makoto. "You know something I've been wondering about. If these diapers are part of our senshi uniforms how do they get changed?"
"I hope we don't have to find out."
In the other room, Usagi was working on making a sloppy tower out of blocks, when she looked to the side and saw Setsuna, alone and depressed. She toddled over and looked at her. "You ok Pluto?" she asked, plopping down next to her.
"Not really." she said. "At first when I read about what happened to my planet, I felt like somehow I did something to make my world less important. Now that this has happened, I feel like crawling into a hole and hide for a couple of years."
"Ah, don't be so down. These are just something these dummy scientists said. You are still very important" she said, crawling over and hugging her. "I'm sure that they'll change their minds and even if they don't I can change it back when I become queen."
Setsuna sniffled. "Thank You."
Meanwhile Ami and Haruka looked into a bathroom that surprisingly had a tub in it. "I wonder why they had a tub?" said Haruka.
"My guess is that it was used if someone got really dirty outside."
Minako and Hotaru came in around then. "Luna and Artemis want to talk to all of us." Hotaru said.
"Oh? Why is that?" Ami asked, looking back at the two while hanging from the side of the tub.
"They say they want to go over how we should go over how we are going search for a solution and how things may go on around here.
"Oh, alright. Coming Haruka?" she asked, getting down and toddling behind the two others.
"Sure, whatever" she said boredly, following as well
They all gathered in the nursery area. "We managed to get up a type of search computer." said Luna hopefully we find an answer before you are regressed mentally as well."
Usagi then gasped. "I just remembered! Mamoru gets his power from the Earth, what if has affected him too?"
"Well, we don't exactly know the full extent of the effect, or even if it is the higher powers doing this. For all we know, it may be a dark force" Artemis replied, looking over to Luna.
"We'll go check on him shortly." Luna said reassuringly. "From what the computer readouts have told us you all will lose the ability to walk or stand very soon so you will have to crawl. I wouldn't be surprised if you lose control of your body functions or be unable to speak in anything other than baby talk."
"Approximately how soon should we lose some of those functions?" Ami asked, now worried, as she had trouble even forming that first word.
"Our best guess is that walking will go first." said Artemis. "And you'll all lose that within the hour. You would unable use complex words by tomorrow morning and then bowel and balder control soon after that."
"Alright... And how long before... total regression?" Makoto asked, gulping.
"We still don't know." said Luna. "About a month, but you will steadily regress mentally until then. On the upside even then it might still be reversible, we hope."
"Alright... But can you search for Chibiusa on that computer?" Usagi asked, looking at Luna hopefully.
"We're doing that now." said Luna. "We'll let you know the moment we find anything."
"In the meantime Luna and I have been thinking about what to do for money and we thought that the best thing to do right now is to reopen this place and take care of other children for a couple of hours a day, that is if you all don't mind being around real babies in your state."
"Alright..." they all agreed, though a bit reluctantly. "You think that other people might be affected, and maybe it could have nothing to do with Pluto?" Ami asked Luna, as the others left to investigate.
"That is possible, for right now it's starting to get late. We'll start to get a meal ready for you. Until then you all should try to take it easy, you've had a rough day.
"Yeah..." she walked away, yawning, as she went to find a library to read in, since by tomorrow, she probably won't be able to anymore...
Haruka and Michiru had toddled over to Hotaru who was looking at a cute lamp near a changing table. "You don't seem that upset over what happened." Haruka said.
"Well this happened to me before." Hotaru said. "Last time this happened all at once but looking back it sort of felt like a vacation, since I have to take another one I figure I might as well enjoy it."
"Yes, but in the other one, you progressed back quickly. For this one, we might grow back slower or even never" Michiru said, afraid at her own words.
"Yeah that does worry me. Still if we do change back this will become another good memory."
"Hotaru... Do you like being like this?" Haruka asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Well if I had a choice, I would have rather have not been turned into a baby again. But if since I have been I might as well enjoy it, and this time I hope maybe all of you can enjoy it with me."
"Hmpf... I rather just destroy whoever did this to us" Haruka said, plopping down onto her bottom, which made Michiru giggle. But one evil eye from the blonde girl made her instantly go quiet.
Minako was looking over herself and the changes made in her uniform. "You know guys I've been thinking; the way our uniforms changed I think we wore them like this before."
"When?" asked Rei.
"Back in the Silver Millennium, from the way Setsuna's attack only tickled Usagi at this age our powers are only really good as playthings so we could get better at using them before we could actually fight."
"Hm... so all of our attacks could not really harm us" Rei replied, getting up and toddling over.
"Yeah, maybe we should all try it out." said Makoto. "But we may want to have Luna here in case you're wrong."
"Alright. Usagi, could you go get her?" Rei asked, looking at the meatball headed girl.
"Why do I have to get her?" She snapped back.
"Because you are the most useless out of all of us!" Rei yelled, sticking her tounge out.
"Just for that I'm going to test my powers on you first!" as toddled to the kitchen area she fell on her bottom three times, so she started crawling just so she wouldn't fall down again. When she got there she couldn't find Artemis. "Luna where's Artemis?" "Oh, we went over to get Mamoru, whether or not he's affected we could use him over here." Usagi cringed at the tought of her boyfriend seeing her this way. "Well we could use you right now, we were going to try out our powers to see if they all have weakend." "That's a good idea, I'll just get a first aid kit and then we can start."
The minute Usagi walked back into the room, the yell of "Mars Fire Ignite!" was heard form the other side of the room, as Mars launched her attack.
Usagi started giggling as soon as the attack hit her, only feeling slightly warm as well as being tickled. "Ok you asked for it! Moon Tiara Action!"
Rei started giggling as well, falling on her back and kicking her legs as the thing bumped her. "Hm... Interesting..." Makoto said, looking at the two.
After a short while it turned out all of thier powers had been affected the same way and Luna was looking at nine baby girls giggling on the floor. "Well now that you have enojyed your new 'toys' it's just about time you had dinner you must all be hungry by now." "Well you better make room for more." said Artemis as he carried in a infantized Mamoru and four other boys came in.
"The Shitennou?!" gasped Luna.
"Who hasn't been affected by this?!?" Rei yelled out, getting up.
Mamoru started to speak. "Don't worry about them, these are the real Shitennou. I found these four stones yesterday and it turned out that they were trapped in them by Beryl. I was going to tell you today but as you can see..."
"Well at any rate we can discuss this over dinner." said Luna. "You can choose what you want tonight, just keep in mind it will still be baby food."
They all agreed and walked into the kitchen, where they were helped into feeding chairs by the adults. "I think the standard meal will be fine" Ami said, looking aorund at the rest.
"I remember them." said Setsuna. "They were Endymion's bodyguards that and..." she was looking at the inner senshi. "What?" asked Minako seeing the boys were blushing. "Nothing, at least nothing to tell you right now." Setsuna said as Artemis tied a bib around her neck.
The inner girls looked at her for a moment, before being distracted as plates were set in front of them. One by one, they started eating. All together, it seemed that everything was alright, with only a few mistakes here and there.
"I guess we also have to drink from a bottle." Zoicite said. Haruka then shrugged. "Well it's better than being thirsty."
"Well, it will definatley be a new experiance for you all" Luna said as she filled bottles and handed them to Artemis to pass out.
It took a short while for them to figure it out after that they sucked the bottles contents and were looking sleepy. "Guess we better put them to bed." said Artemis.
"Yes... How bout I round up the girls and put them in their own nursery why you take the boys" Luna said, already starting to lift Usagi, who was full out asleep by now.
"You know." Artemis said. we may have to change them in the morning. They may have control of thier bodies, but that may only be while they are awake.
"Yes, I know that all too well" she said, gesturing to Usagi, where a wet spot was already forming on the diaper. "Let us put them to bed and check the computer before going to sleep ourselves" she said, picking up a few more.
"Well by morning they may all need a change. While we're at it we better use the computer to set up our 'business'."
She nodded. A few minutes later, she them all in cribs and was at the computer, wiating for Artemis as she brought up the program to search for people.
Artemis walked in, looking around. "So, any luck?"
"It seems that Chibi-Usa is at the Time Gate, but I can't tell if this has affected her. From what I can find it seems to be affecting Senshi and those with similar powers."
"Hm... Is there any way to get to the door?"
"Setsuna might still be able to allow us passage. I'll ask as soon as she wakes up."
"Alright. Have you picked up on any effects in the Dark Kingdom?"
"No, whatever this is it seems to be originating in somewhere in the Kuiper Belt." (FYI, the Kuiper Belt is a series of planet sized objects that Pluto is a part of. Other bodies include Sedna and Eris informally nicknamed Xena until recently)
"Hm... All small planets...How much power is emanating from it?"
"Doesn't seem to be that much compared to what we faced before, seems the problem is in the wavelength of the energy."
"Well, how big is that?" he asked, sitting next to her and looking at the screen
"My guess is about the same as the Senshi's are, er used to be. But I can't even tell if this thing is even alive."
"Well, we need to find a way to cut off the energy prematurely, so we can get whatever it is to notice and come down here" he said
I may find a way but it will take a little time for the computer to give us a detailed scan.
"Alright, but the most important thing right now is to both start up this business, and find who all this has effected. Who knows? Maybe all teens are like this..."
"Or at least those who have Senshi like powers, but if this thing gets stronger it may affect everyone, including us. What name do you think we should give this place?"
"Hm... Galaxy Nursery?" he said, shrugging
"Sounds good." Now we just forge the needed paperwork and we should be in business by tomorrow."
"Alright, I'll take care of that" he said, printing out several sheets
"Ok, by tomorrow it should be set up. We should try to get some sleep before then.
"Alright" he said, looking over to her and smiling. "See you in bed" he said, winking as he turned back and filled out the papers
"We're not married let, you get the couch tonight."
"Oh, meOW" he said, chuckling
The next morning Galaxy Nursery was open. "I wonder who will come first?" wondered Setsuna/
Luna came into the nursery. "Everyone awake?" she asked, clicking on the light
"Um. I think so but we all have work for you two." said Ami. "And you my want a nose pin."
"Yeah" Ami said sadly, as she sat down, the rest of the group now getting up from their slumber
After everyone was ready Artemis looked out the front door. "Wonder who our first customer will be?"
"I have no idea. But I have a strange feeling that is might not be very surprising" Luna said, walking over to the front desk and sitting
Setsuna crawled up in a black one-piece outfit with snaps at the bottom. "Thanks again for finding these for us. It would be odd to try to explain little senshi out fits to visiting parents." "No problem, just make sure everyone acts the part."
Artemis was in the changing room, nose pin on his nose, changing both Usagi and Minako at the same time. "Jeez guys, you shouldn't have eaten so much" he said, wiping them
Around then the bell at the door rang. "Welcome to Galaxy Nursery Mrs.?" Luna said. "Osaka. And this here is little Naru. Mrs. Tsukino recommended this place to me after she said that her daughter plays here."
Artemis walked out, now holding the blondes. "Who's here?" he asked Luna, looking at the new customer
"Artemis may I have a word with you?" Luna drug him out of earshot. "That's the mother of one of Usagi's friends from school, and that baby is that friend. The odd thing is that she said that Usagi's mother told her about this place. It looks like those who know those who are regressed have their memories altered."
"Hm... then there is a possibility that this power might be more then we could take. If we don't do something soon... Then we might forget that they are Sailor Scouts" he said, thinking deeply
"It might also have something to with the fact that we aren't from this planet. Naru seems to be a baby in mind and body so those with powers might be able to fight this off longer."
"Alright, but we probably only have a month, like the girls" he said, looking at Usagi, who in turn was looking at Naru. "Well, I guess our guess was correct" he said, sighing
"And if this is the case I guess we can expect the relatives any of them have to come and pick them up at the end of the day." A couple of hours later parents had brought more babies, a number of them familiar to the senshi. At that point they heard Rei crying. "Don't know why I did that." she said. "Looks like the instincts of your body are making you act in certain ways even though you have the mind of an adult." said Artemis.
"So... Whenever I feel uncomfortable, I am going to whine?" she asked, looking up at the white haired man. He nodded. "That blows" she said, sniffling
"It's not just that." motioning to Kunzite and Minako who were giggling while playing a game. "You'll all also be more playful."
She huffed, turning away from the two. "I refuse to act like that" she said, very defiantly
"You may not feel that way for long." said Luna. "Although I would expect you and Haruka to throw a temper tantrum first." she whispered to herself.
"Hey, I heard that!" she yelled up to the tall woman, pointing at her, a vein pulsing in her forehead
"It's just about nap time. We'll research more then and try to reverse this."
"Yeah, and we might want to stay on our toes. I can sense a strange energy around..." Artemis said, carrying several of the new girls
Meanwhile a shadowy figure picked from behind a tree. "Don't worry you'll all see why I'm doing this, that is after I take over for your new playmates."
Artemis twitched, setting them all in their respective cribs. "There it is again. Luna, don't you feel it?"
"I felt a wave of dizziness, but there is definitely some kind of presence nearby."
"Think we should check it out?" he said, tucking them in and putting on a night light
"Wait, now it's gone. Whatever was here has left. We should run a scan of the area though just to be safe."
"Alright, I'm on it" he said, walking over to their special hidden computer system, typing in some information
"Nothing, whatever it was it was careful to not to leave any tracks behind. That indicates it's intelligent."
"From the power we felt, they were temporarily in the area. What do you make of it?"
"It doesn't seem to be evil in and of itself. But it could be a neutral power someone is using against us. Maybe we should examine the Kuiper Belt again."
He nodded and typed information in, zooming in on that specific area
"That's weird; the strength of the energy was grown. Not by much but it's giving out some interference."
"Hm... Think they are preparing for another attack?" Artemis asked, leaning back
"No, more like they just finished one. Perhaps every person that's affected either by regression or memory rewrite seems to make whatever it is stronger."
"Well then, we have to find a hole in the power and start draining it" Artemis said. "Then we get at least some power to fight back"
"It's hard with all the interference, whoa just felt dizzy again." "Same here. You think they're attacking us?"
"Do you think we should go check it out?" Luna asked, standing and looking at he companion
"Of course. Still we can't be sure if they are regressing us or trying to rewrite our memories."
"Alright, let's test. Artemis, who is Minako?" she asked quickly
"My charge and Sailor Venus. Ok now your turn when we came in here the top of the cribs was level to our thighs where does it stop now?"
"Should still be the top of our thighs" se said, walking into the crib room again
"Hello there." said an odd looking woman standing in front of the cribs. "I know you want find out what's going on but that's going to have wait until after your nap." she then raised a dart gun and then every thing went black for the two human felines.
Usagi's eyes slowly opened as she saw a strange looking man staring down at her. "Hello there."
"Who are you? Where are Luna and Artemis?"
"They're taking nap in one of the other cribs, we had to accelerate their regression to match yours, but trust me they are safe and we don't mean you humans any harm."
Minako woke up in the next crib, rubbing her eyes and looking over. "Well, that still doesn't explain who you two are. Who are you?" she asked, sleepily
"We are, shall we say, guardians of transition. The era of ice that will precede Crystal Tokyo is about to arrive. However there are those from beyond this world that would take advantage of this time to attack you. We determined that the best way to protect your world was to first regress the population and hide them in a shelter where you will all remain in infancy for the thousand years between now and when The Avatar would awaken.
"What?!?" Usagi yelled, getting up on her tiny legs, "You can't do that! We can't live like babies for a thousand years!" she shrieked, not believing a word of what this person just said
A strange Woman came in. "I'm afraid that you will like the alternative even less. But for what it's worth it will seem completely natural when your minds match your bodies."
Setsuna then spoke. "So this has nothing to do with my planet getting demoted?"
"No, but still we're sorry for what the coincidence of the two events must have put you through."
Ami stood up, having heard the entire thing. "I hope I am not bothering you, but what, exactly, was the alternative?" she asked, looking up at the taller woman.
"Yeah, what was it?" Usagi asked, turning back to the adults.
"During the coming time there will be a very powerful evil force. It will exhaust it self like a powerful storm but if it sensed developed intelligence on this planet, even in stasis, it would be compelled to wipe it out. This was the only way we could save everyone on the planet."
"But couldn't it simply track us down and destroy us?" Ami retorted. Everyone immediately turned their heads, wondering what the response would be.
"The key word is 'developed intelligence'. This way your minds would be too immature for it to pick up. The regression of your bodies is mostly a measure to reinforce your minds into thinking you are infants."
"So... what do we do? I don't want to sit here and be completely useless!" Rei yelled, tearing up slightly and stomping her foot.
The woman turned to her. "You still have access to your powers, by the time you get out of it your control from around a thousand years of 'Play' with them will bring you to new levels that will help you deal with threats that you otherwise would not be able to handle. The man turned to one of the other cribs. "Looks like the 'kittens' are starting to wake up."
Artemis and Luna slowly sat up, rubbing their eyes. "What's going on?" Artemis asked, standing up and grabbing the bars, almost falling over.
Luna had something of a grimace on her face after hearing the explanation. "I don't suppose changing back to our feline forms would make us adult cats instead of kittens."
"I'm afraid not." said the man.
"Well I don't suppose you would be so kind as to give us your names."
The male looked towards his female partner. "Do you suppose it's too much to do that?" he asked
"I guess not. He is Castor and I am Pollux, we come from a star in the constellation you call Gemini.
Setsuna looked up at them. "Gemini? I was not familiar that creatures as powerful as yourselves came from, that area" she said.
"Well, we try to keep a low profile." said Castor. "I guess we should get you all ready for when your parents arrive." Makoto then squeaked. "But my parents are dead." Pollux turned to Castor and whispered. "Why don't we keep that a surprise for now?"
He nodded. "Well then, all of you go ahead and get ready" he said, starting to let them onto the floor. When they were loose, Usagi crawled over to Setsuna. "What do you know about these people?"
"I have heard of a species that are always born as male and female pairs of twins form that area. Each pair always acts as one but they were never hostile. I don't know where they got their powers but I have feeling we can trust them.
"Yes, but a thousand years as babies?!? And what is this threat that they talked about?" Minako asked, getting next to Usagi.
"I heard stories, rumors really, about a negative energy that acts like a storm. It seems to form naturally every few thousand years and is attracted to worlds with developed intelligent life. After about a thousand years it dissipates and dies out. Most worlds with senshi could deflect it, but it would require a level of power we haven't reached yet. As for why babies, I suppose it would have also worked if they regressed our world to the stone age but it carried the risk of us going past it on our own. This way we would not develop until it was safe to do so."
"Well, how exactly do they have us plan to live?" Ami asked.
"And what about the parents? What will happen to them?" Makoto asked.
Setsuna pulled her diaper up. "Well regressing the whole population of the planet would still take some time. My guess is that they will be regressed once everyone in the younger generation becomes babies. As for how we'll live they probably have some city sized nursery areas constructed when everyone's regression is complete, that is to say everyone is a baby in body and mind."
They all were silent, looking at each other. "But... They can't do this" Usagi said, thinking.
Michiru shrugged. "It seems like they are acting on someone else's orders, most likely the Guardian of the Galaxy Cauldron. As embarrassing as it seems all of this seems to be in our best interest. We may have no choice as Hotaru put it 'Take a vacation from adulthood' even though it's going to be a very long one."
"But couldn't we fight it? I mean, they seem powerful enough to regress the entire planet... Why not lend us powers to fight this force?" Rei said
"It doesn't work like that." said Setsuna. "It has to work by expanding our powers by use. We could all train but there doesn't seem to be enough time. The other advantage to this is that we'll have about a thousand years worth of experience from using our powers like toys."
"But... but..." Usagi looked down, trying to think of an argument.
Makoto sighed. "How long before we become full babies?" she asked, looking at her.
"From the way they're picking things up, two days." said Setsuna.
Haruka pouted. "It stinks but it seems like there's nothing we can do for now. Might as well hang out with the other rugrats."
Usagi grumbled, but followed the rest as they gathered into the playroom
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MAJOR Big Thanks to Richforce and Black Samurai for Doing the First Chapter For Me
R/R Y'all