Prologue - Time and Time Again

"All sailor crystals are created from one, and all senshi are created from the sailor crystals. All life was created from one great crystal, the Cosmos crystal. A pure force of creation within the Universe. But who created the senshi?
"When the Cosmos crystal first splintered, five large pieces remained, and they became conscious, aware of the universe.
"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, for every positive there is a negative, and so as there was a Cosmos Crystal, there was a Chaos Crystal, and from it came the destruction within the Universe.
"The single consciousness within the five crystals of Cosmos saw what must be. Neither Chaos nor Cosmos can truly be called evil, one cannot exist without the other, yet unless in they are balanced they cannot coexist. So the single consciousness became five, four to guard, one to rule, and the one was sent out into the Universe to choose the place that would become the battleground, but without the knowledge of its own past.
"The four became the creators, making each of the smaller fragments of the two great crystals into a life, a small consciousness, most combining a fragment of each great power, but a few pure. The four are remembered in all the places they visited in their search for the one, whether they are thought to be one or many, they are the creator gods of legend; Gaia, Odin, Ra. It is the four who created the senshi, protectors from the pure force of chaos.
"At last they came to the battleground, and they found another like themselves, not the one, but another, more powerful than other seeds and to them as pure as any child of creation. So they took her among them and they created protectors for their ruler, and they made themselves senshi and hid away. Secret protectors for the royal line, for unlike themselves the one proved able to produce a child, and pass on both her powers and her destiny.
"So only the ruler of that system knew of their existence, and though they have never been called to their true duty they have given their lives many times, though they have always been reborn, for daughters of Selene, the line of Serenity."
The woman smiled down at the little girl, at the brink of sleep, and brushed the pink locks away from the child's face.
"Are they still looking after us Hecate?"
The woman smiled slightly sadly, "They always will, till the end of time."

It was the five's fault, the silver and the golden had been created from the two interlocking pieces of the Cosmos crystal, and so were the people of the planet and its moon interlocked. The nobles intermarrying always particularly the royal line of the moon. The five however could not be found and only the present daughter of Selene ever knew of their existence.
Other strange things were noticed among the people of the system, the queens of the ten powers only gave birth to girls, and over time through the generations the powers grew stronger.
It was Serenity XXI who sealed the last princess of the dark planet Saturn, for fear that if that lines power continued to grow it would one day end the universe itself. It was her daughter Serenity XXII who commanded it that every generation a princess of the last planet Pluto should enter the time stream to guard the continuum.
But it was in the reign of Serenity XXXV that the most unusual thing happened; the tradition of time in memorial was broken, when the queen of the planet Terra gave birth to a son. Doom and destruction were predicted and the queen of the Moon Kingdom invoked the five for her daughter's protection.

A wicked smile could be perceived on Hypnos' lips as she approached her fellows in the courtyard of their hidden palace. They wouldn't like this, but orders were orders.
She observed them from the doorway; Aurora laughing gently at some comment made by Morpheus who in turn braided her long blonde hair, Iris painting the scene, shaking her multi-coloured head at the joke, as Solar lay sprawled and bored on one of the benches twiddling wither golden braid. Aurora was impulsive, fun loving and free, she could also be moody, paranoid and sarcastic with the proper provocation, but always soothed by the presence of her counter part, Morpheus. The same was true of Morpheus, although she tended to be more quiet and observing, they were perfect compliments to each other, just as Hypnos and Iris were. Iris was the calmest, peaceable and loving perhaps a tad naïve, contrasting Hypnos' own short temper. Solar, she didn't fit in, no partner, and the ability to rile up even Iris in the right situation. Hypnos made her decision, Aurora and Morpheus could handle this mission, everything would be fine.

The Lady Haruka, Princess Uranus, was 12 when her training as the warrior of the Skies Sailor Uranus began. It was infuriating, she was to be trained with the young Princess Venus, Lady Minako, four years her younger. Didn't her mother know that those born within the protection of the asteroid belt were silly and frivolous? The situation was not helped by the fact that her instructor in swordplay was to be some unknown soldier, and not, as she had expected her mother.
The woman who stood in front of her did not look like the best sword in the solar system; she looked like a silly Lady of the inner court dressed up as a superior Officer of the Moon Queen's army, complete with the elaborate bun on the back of her head.
Of course to the Lady the younger and more earnest of the two princesses before her looked like the better student, the other, Uranus, looked far too arrogant, but it was she who would have to be the better swords woman. The Space Sword had to be wielded by some one with the will, the right and the skill to use it or it would rebel and destroy the one who attempted to grasp its power.
'I,' she thought to herself, 'have been present at the creation of this Universe, the sealing of Saturn's line and the birth of every heir in this system for billions of years,' she sighed to herself, 'and now they give me two untrained, and untested princesses to teach sword fighting to, I'll be lucky if they know how to hold it properly'
"Well are you going to teach us," Haruka said smirking, "or are you a royal Duchess who thinks she's an officer of the royal army."
That did it for the sword mistress, 'She should know how to defend herself by hand,' she thought trying to justify herself, even when she knew the others would reprimand her for this later. Running towards the preteen and dropping the sword she held, the lady performed a roll and slide using her long elegant legs to trip the arrogant princes. Who promptly fell on her rear snarling.
"I am not an officer your royal highness, I am a General at present, and you Princess Uranus are lucky I was told not to kill you no matter how sharp your tongue is. In future you will please transfer that quality to your weapon and make no comment on others, particularly those who can best you. A friend of mine wouldn't have let you keep your tongue after that comment."

Sitting in her chair at counsel the blonde looked around. Solar was missing, 'How unusual,' and so was Morpheus, 'busy training the young Princesses,' still from what the most truthful senshi said they were both coming along fine after the eventful first lesson, as was Aurora's own student in archery, the young Princess of Mars.
"Morpheus has a reason for not being here, as does her majesty, the young princess is missing again," said their leader tiredly, "but where, in the name of every god and goddess ever conceived is Solar."
"Sulking," suggested Iris gently, "you did come down on her rather hard last time Hypnos."
"Solar hardly ever attends," pointed out Aurora, "and I am running late, unless we have orders to find said princess. I know I used to complain it was boring, but does either of you wish we were back to guard duty over our various posts instead of being glorified babysitters. I know we must watch the royal family but are these teaching posts really necessary Hypnos."
"You are right Aurora," the red head admitted, "but as you admitted it was more boring"
"We've got nothing to talk about at present," Iris, as always with composure declared, "why don't we leave it for now"
"Unfortunately we do have to go after said princess, Morpheus and Solar were both sent the message too, they'll probably meet us there."

The princess was younger than the inner senshi, even if the queen had said she would catch up, eventually, and when the five found her it was Solar who confronted the young girl.
"Now Princess you need to get back to your guardians." Solar said sternly. She was glowering at the silver haired princess as though she was the most annoying thing in existents.
"Solar! The Princess is young, she may not have realised people were worried about her." Aurora said angrily, she and Solar never got on. All this while Iris and Hypnos (though she was glowering in Solar's direction) stayed quiet while the two senshi of light fought.
Meanwhile the remaining woman, Morpheus, for once calm with a child, had knelt down and was talking to the petite 12 year-old before her, "Hello Princess, tell me why do you stray from your mother's palace."
"I just wanted to see the earth, I'm sorry." Serenity said quietly. She was puzzled. She knew she had four guardian senshi: Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and their leader Venus. She knew there were three guardian Senshi of the Outer Solar System: Uranus, Neptune and the Senshi of time Pluto. She even knew of the forbidden Senshi of destruction Saturn locked away by her ancestor's magic, but she did not recognise any of the senshi that were now before her. "Who are you?" She asked just as quietly. "You are not any Senshi I know of."
"We are the Senshi that guard the hearts your highness." The women smiled, "We protect the powers you do not see. We are your guardian angels, and we will always be here for you." The little girl giggled the woman did look like the paintings she had seen of angels with those wings. Morpheus picked up the small princess. "I promise." And she pressed a necklace with a silver heart into the princess's hand.

They were aware that the prince would cause trouble, didn't men always, but this, the destruction of everything they had worked for, they had truly thought beyond any man. True it was not he who was physically destroying the kingdom but still it was for his love that the witch Beryl had agreed to sell her soul to Metallia thus freeing her. Now on top of all this, Solar refused her duty, "You, Aurora said we should stand by our posts unless summoned for more 'babysitting' or for any purpose by the Queen, and she has not called us." Solar was smirking grimly. "Personally I don't see the point in even doing that, we have more power than any of them why must we be bound to a life of servitude, teaching little brats how to fight." This last comment stung both Aurora and Morpheus, neither of whom had wanted their teaching posts.
"I don't care." Aurora cried, "Rules are meant to be broken, you cannot justify letting the kingdom perish!" The normally peaceable blonde was now screaming, her opponent backing away.
"Iris, I can understand your reasons, you are the senshi of peace and therefore opposed to fighting, warrior that you are." This time the Morpheus spoke, yes she understood but that didn't mean she had to like that decision, "Solar, your petty jealousies, however, are not worthy of this counsel, your rank, or as a reason to let the Silver Millennium fall."
Hypnos was the last to speak, "I shall be going to fight, my powers may be diminished since the loss of the Obsidian heart, but I will fight till the end." With that all save Solar left.
"Very well, go fools, perish with thy kingdom."

The three stared about the wasteland that had once been the Moon Kingdom; tears filled their eyes as they saw the princess, dead. The cackling of Metallia tore through the air.
The attacks flew at the spirit, but left not even a scratch, and then they fell, all of them, silently into the dust as the demons attack reached their hearts.

That second was an eternity. The Princess was dead as were her guardians and her Prince, the Queen lay dying and the world was ending.
Luna looked at the scene around her one princess, one prince and seven senshi dead. But there were only four. The last two had appeared after the others were dead and had died fighting this evil.
"I'll seal it away, that evil and this moon as well."
Three figures came out of the shadows, Three points of light, a flash, a fourth figure raising a blade then silence.

After the rebirth…

Lucy Thompson was not surprised by the result so far, she was rarely surprised by any turn of events for that matter, but it didn't mean she was going to become over confident because of it.
She was so far, as expected by many, top ranked in the national gymnastics tournament. Even if she failed utterly at the next piece she would come no lower than third place. And the next piece was the asymmetric bars, Lucy's particular speciality. She wasn't going to fail, she wouldn't let herself.
As the girl before her dismounted faltering slightly, she would lose marks for that, Lucy focused her mind. Accepting the fact that she was going to be questioning both her past and destiny while performing this routine, but knowing she wouldn't let it interfere, she stood ready to take her place and begin.
The music pounded through her as she began. The small space necessary for the routine became her whole world, and she new she was born for this, for movement. The world became simpler as she spun and swirled. She was making moves that made most people fear for her, without thinking about them.
At 18 Lucy Thompson was past the middle point in her professional gymnastics career. Give it another few year and she would be competing against girls 10 years her younger, maybe she could be a coach after she reached that point, she wouldn't be the first to take that path.
But at this point it didn't matter, right now Lucy Thompson was in her prime, a prodigy in the gymnastics world. Two years ago she had won a silver medal for her country at the Olympics, and in two years time she would be going for gold. She had already won sponsorship and fame, enough to ensure she would be able to spend the next six months in Japan before the international tournament, if she won the national of course. Training there would be no problem for her career and it would allow her to sort out her life, her past, and her future.
Because Lucy Thompson didn't know who she was, adopted at four, she longed to find her past, not that she didn't love her family, but she needed to know where she came from, did it have anything to do with her dreams. Locked adoption records didn't and wouldn't stop her, nothing did. But right now all she knew were two facts. Firstly that she was by birth Japanese, still a citizen of New Zealand though, legally allowed to compete for her country. And secondly she had a sister, a twin sister.
As the music finished she dismounted perfectly, full marks, she had won, she was going to Japan.

'This,' thought the girl, 'is just not going to be my day'
Verity Hart was moving in a month's time, the show was finishing tonight and the understudy, the actor playing Higgins had developed appendicitis, had just discovered that he didn't want to be an actor. He had stage fright.
From behind her painted on dirt Verity sighed, prepared to declare that "Freddy" had ruined her "Voylets" as she had been for the last ten minutes while the other actors encourage "Higgins" to remain by the pillar he was supposed to be leaning against, she wondered how the understudy hadn't noticed his stage fright on the other two nights he'd been filling in.
Looking surreptitiously at the audience she couldn't see anything unusual that would have put him off. That was normally the reason people suddenly developed stage fright, strange relatives waving frantically from the aisle, loudly proclaiming that they couldn't believe that only a few years ago the young actor was still wetting the bed. Well maybe that wasn't stage fright, maybe it was absolute embarrassment and mortification.
Eventually "Freddy" managed to "blunder" into her and so the production continued.
The wrap party was fun though, unfortunately at the expense of the nervous understudy, but Verity decided to change that.
"Ok, why did you freeze up?" She said gently slipping into the chair next to him. "Unless I'm very much mistaken I didn't see an Aunt Maude or Uncle Charlie waving in the audience."
"Nah, they couldn't make it." He said looking up for the first time since the show finished. "I just couldn't remember anything, I went blank. Bet you never did that, you're like a queen on the stage."
"Well I was trying to act like a flower girl. Besides I have frozen up like that before, only worse."
"You, worse."
"Me, worse, so much worse, I didn't even make it on stage, and I was the understudy, the whole thing had to be cancelled." He was laughing by now, "and I had to be carried way, cause I ended up in a little ball." She neglected to mention she had been five at the time.
"Thanks Miss Hart."
"Since when am I 'Miss Hart', last time I checked my name was Verity."
"But, your dad-"
"Has nothing to do with it. You know I think I'll miss you Matt." Not for the first or last time that night she sighed as she stood. She was going to miss a lot of things when she moved. She was going to miss England in general.

While things where slightly odd at the moment for certain people in Britain and New Zealand nothing had changed in Juuban, Japan.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH, Luna-chan why didn't you wake me up."
"I did Usagi-chan five times, you're going to be late for the senshi meeting you know."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH, Rei's going to kill me."

Author's notes: I know this is confusing, I know the grammar is probably off in about a million places, but compared to my first draught this is Shakespeare. If it wasn't obvious, the bit at the very beginning was set in the future as a tale being told to Chibi-Usa, the middle was in the past and the end was in the present.

Disclaimer: Don't own Sailor Moon, would like to, but don't. Aurora, Morpheus, Iris, Hypnos, Solar, Lucy and Verity however (even if some of those names have been used before in fics) are ours (SailorMorpehus and SailorAurora), this fic is not meant to be based on anything else but we are sorely sorry if inspiration from other sources has leaked in, its not intentional.

SailorMorpheus