The Return of the Crystal Senshi

A Thousand Years of Sleeping

Savagekitty

In the beginning there was a bright Light. With the Light, came Darkness. Darkness was unsure of what it was supposed to do until life started appearing with in the universe. It paid close attention to a place where nine planets and its sun swirled constantly. This place was very entertaining. On a place called Earth, there was killing and Darkness liked that. Darkness felt it could work with killing. When Man appeared within this solar system, Darkness found more things it liked. Malice, hatefulness, jealousy, and evil. Darkness liked evil, but Darkness's sister, Light said to leave Man alone. Nothing good could come from Man's ideas. But Darkness couldn't leave Man alone. Darkness liked to play with Man and suggested bad things for Man to do. Finally, Light had to step in, restrain Darkness and lock Darkness away. Light created senshi to watch over Man. Light had found many other life forms on many other planets throughout the universe. She was happy that life was thriving so wonderfully, but she saw that before Darkness was locked away, he had spread his sticky fingers through the hearts of Man on all planets and with that, he had spread many bad feelings and thoughts that scared Light. Light's solution of the senshi was a good one, she thought. And Light tucked herself away, peeking at the universe every now and then, making sure everything was ok. And it was… until Darkness found a hole in his prison.

"Kane! For the love of God, KANE!" Caty marched through the house with a small dog under her arm as she looked for her husband, who she found in the back bedroom, putting up wall paper. She stood in the doorway to the small bedroom, her 6'4" tall husband looking down at her from a step ladder, "Yes, Queen of my Heart?"

Caty scowled at him and then held the small Yorkshire terrier out, "He pissed in the living room."

Kane stepped off the ladder and crossed the room, taking the dog into his hands, "If he peed in the living room, you should have taken him out."

"I did take him out, Kane. He pissed in the living room after I brought him inside. He doesn't like me, Kane."

"That's a terrible thing to say. You like her, don't you Rocky? Don't you?" He pressed his nose to the puppy's, making the puppy lick him and bark excitedly, which came out like little yap yap yap noises. Caty grit her teeth, "Some birthday present. I think we should crate train him, Kane. We did it for my mom's dog, Maggie, when we first got her."

Kane cuddled the puppy in his arms, walking from the room. He came back a few minutes later, "I put him out to frolic. Now, crate? That's a little extreme isn't it?"

Caty crossed her arms. She stood 6'1". In another life, she had been six feet exactly. She knew, because she remembered. Kane remembered too. They had been married for two years, seeing each other for five. During their first year together, they had started remembering a past life. Caty had been a sailor senshi on a moon kingdom; Kane, a guardian for an Earth prince, before he had turned evil. Now they had started over in a new life with a clean slate. They had two other people that had shared their past. Those two lived in Japan. Caty and Kane lived in America. Middle America, actually. The silver headed man stood out in the small Missouri town, but they got along.

Kane opened his mouth to say something when the phone rang. Caty glared at him and went to answer it. She sat on the stool below the wall phone, picking it up, "Knight Residence." She listened; Kane came into the kitchen, opening the fridge to look for a soda. Caty dropped the phone and Kane looked at her from over the fridge door. Her face was white as a sheet, someone talking on the receiver. Kane shut the door and picked up the phone.

"Hello? Usagi? What… Ami? And Makoto? What about… no… ok… no we haven't. No. Alright. Thank you." He hung up the phone. Caty was looking down at her lap, her hands fisted. Her light brown hair making a little curtain in front of her plump face. He took her by the shoulder, kneeling in front of her, "Baby?"

She gasped and flung herself into his arms, "No they can't. Not so soon. No, Kane, no." She sobbed into his shoulder. This startled him. He hadn't seen her like this since that night they had recovered their memories. She held her, petting her hair, letting her cry herself out. She never cried. Not even on their wedding day. Not even when her father died.

She was gasping now, trying to breath. He sat her on the stool, putting her head between her knees. She had to stay that way to calm down. It took a few minutes, but she finally sat up slowly, resting her head against the wall. She looked at him with even green eyes, "Mercury and Jupiter, Kane."

"I know." He said quietly. "Usagi told me. Have you tried transforming since you…remembered?"

"No. No, I was afraid to. It's been so long, Kane. Why now?" She closed her eyes again.

"I don't know, love. I don't. But we can find out. I'll send emails out to the girls and then buy us tickets to Japan, ok?"

Caty opened her eyes and shook her head, "NO! No, Kane no!" She leaned forward, hugging her arms across her middle, "No, we cant. I don't want them to know yet. They have to have normal lives. After what happened before… It was too horrible."

"They'll have to know sometime. Lauren is getting married in two months. Bonnie is in England, Caty. This is going to hit them hard and fast and they won't know what to do. If they are going to awaken at the same time, they need to know where to go and who else they can contact."

Caty shook, nodding. Kane always did have the cool head, "Alright. I have Erin's number in my cell phone. She's moving to New York this week. God I hope she doesn't get hit while she's moving." She stood, leaving the kitchen. Kane followed her, "What are you doing?"

"I need to know it works." She walked into their bedroom, walking around the dark oak four poster bed to her dresser/vanity. The small Depression glass dresser set glowed in the small light she turned on. She opened the green glass dish, setting the lid to the side and removed the velvet she had the necklace wrapped in. The actual chain it hung on was about ten inches. It was short on her; she had told herself that's why she never wore it. At the end was a quarter size gold disk with an emerald star in the middle the size of her thumb nail. She stared at it sadly. She turned, seeing Kane in the doorway, "I'm scared, Kane."

Her husband crossed the room to hug her. She sighed, "I know this has to happen. When I actually remembered, I was amazed. My friends from a past life found me and we were friends. Our souls are all intertwined. Looped together, in any lifetime." She held out the necklace and handed it to him, "Put it on me?"

He nodded and opened the clasp. She turned away from him and he put it around her neck and clasped it. She had moved her hair and let the shoulder length light brown hair settle back. The necklace felt cold, even through her t-shirt. She sighed and turned to him, "I better do this in a lot of space."

She moved to the living room, which was empty of furniture. They had been painting it and she saw it as the perfect spot. Kane stood in the doorway, watching as she stopped in the middle of the room. She looked back at him, standing tall, "I'm 27 years old, Kane. In my last life, sailor senshi were seen as figures of fiction. A bad cartoon. Comic book heroes." She sighed, "Sailor senshi don't exist now." She shook her head and then closed her eyes, "And now, they will. Crystal Crisis Make-up."

Kane shielded his eyes from the explosion that resulted. The house shook and the dog outside yipped, running around, wanting inside. The windows in the living room were cracked. Kane opened his eyes. She was gone. He called out to her, searching from room to room. He went back into the living room. Where she had stood was a blackened spot in the hardwood. Kane looked at it then went to the phone. He dialed Japan quickly. Mamoru picked up. Kane explained what had happened and Mamoru called out for Usagi. He asked Kane to hold on and went to go find his wife. When he came back to the phone a few moments later, Mamoru said, "She's gone too."

Caty opened her eyes, expecting to see Kane and her living room. Instead, she was looking out a large picture window looking at Earth. Earth was cresting over the rise, the glowing blue marble of beauty. Caty gasped and backed up, backing into someone. The someone squeaked and Caty turned, seeing Usagi. No, Sailor Moon. She looked the same, and different. Usagi was 25 years old now, small creases at her mouth from smiling, her eyes twinkling with life. And she was pregnant. Caty blinked at a pregnant Sailor Moon who wore the uniform of a super senshi. Her skirt was white with a blue and yellow stripe at the bottom. Little pearl fans sat in her hair just below the buns she wore in her hair. The bow in the back was large and pink in a soft opaque kind of material Caty couldn't place. The tails of the bow flowed down to her knees. The rolls at her shoulders were gone, now the same material that was her bow, lay in three short layers on her shoulders. At her chest in the middle of the bow sat a heart shaped locket with the Silver Crystal in the middle.

Caty hugged her friend, careful of the bulge in her middle and smiled, "It's good to see you, even if it's in this place. Do you know where we are?"

Sailor Moon nodded, "We're on the Moon." She walked to the window, looking over miles of garden and restored palace. "This place was rebuilt after that final battle. The Crystal did it. It used the power of your sacrifice and Kunzites to restore what used to be." She turned to say something else, but the words fell away when she saw the person standing behind Caty, "Mother."

Startled, Caty turned to see who Sailor Moon was looking at. A tall, older woman with silver hair done up in the style that Usagi wore hers, walked into the room. Her eyes were the same bright blue of Usagi's, but with laugh lines and wrinkles at her mouth from smiling. Her dress was a white iridescent floor length gown, leaving her shoulders bare. Caty gasped and fell to one knee, bowing her head, "Majesty."

The Queen waved a hand, "Stand, Catherine. I am only here in spirit. My daughter, Serenity the Loving," she smiled at her daughter, "is the new Queen."

Sailor Moon bowed her head, "But, I refused the throne."

"My daughter, you refused it in that life. This one is new, brand new. You must take the throne because the Golden Age for our planets must come to pass. To protect them, we must be united. There is a darkness awakening, Serenity. It will threaten this planet and all others, making it impossible to ever be able to live life on them again."

Caty stood, "This is why we were awakened after so long. Our memories returned because we have to stop this thing before Serenity can ascend to the throne? We will have to die because of this?" Caty sounded a little bitter, but she felt bitter. She remembered what had happened in her last life, and all her friends dying before the evil was stopped. And Kunzite. She remembered the haunting dead gaze as he lay on the ground, the Silver Crystal floating above him. She deserved her break.

"Catherine, being senshi requires sacrifices, even if it means your family." The Queen fixed her with a stare that wasn't cold, but close to it. Caty lowered her eyes, "I'm sorry. I forgot myself, Majesty." When she cast her eyes down, she noticed she wasn't in uniform. She wore what she had on Earth. Why was she dressed in her civilian clothing?

She got her answer, part way, as people started appearing in the room. Like something out of the movies, they weren't there and then they were with little pops in the air. Makoto, Ami, Rei, Lauren, Bonnie, Minako, Erin. The girls looked around, confused. Caty turned to them. They all stared, first at Caty then at the pregnant Sailor Moon, and finally the Queen. The girls, remembering who this silver headed woman was, kneeled. Artemis and Luna walked into the room, dressed in garb from the old days of the Moon. Artemis, in white breeches and a soft white jacket with silver curls threaded around the front., He held the staff he used as the Guardian of the Memory Gate. His hair was white, straight and cropped to his shoulders. His gray blue eyes looking over his friends with a sad smile in them.

Luna wore her hair in dark curls, with two buns in the shape of hearts at the back of her head. Her dress had thin yellow straps, the dress was also yellow silk and flowed around to her thighs where a gauzy black material, it was cut so the front of the black material came to her knees, being longer in the back to her ankles. She, like Artemis, was barefoot. They each bore the mark of the Moon, a golden crescent moon on its side on their foreheads. Luna and Artemis smiled at the girls, standing on either side of the Queen. Luna carried a golden harp under one arm.

Caty went and stood by her friends and fellow senshi. Sailor Moon stood in front of them all, looking from the Queen to Luna and Artemis. She bowed, the best she could, "What shall we do, Highness?"

The Queen held out her hand, palm up to Sailor Moon and the Silver Crystal appeared. It floated as the little ball of many faceted crystal and she smiled. As she did, Sailor Moon repeated the motion, holding out her hand and her crystal appeared in her palm. The women, almost identical to each other, smiled warmly and as they did, the crystals bloomed into a many pedaled flower, rose like and lovely. A great warm light pulsed from them each and washed over the girls. Caty gasped, as did the others. Someone giggled, Caty suspected Minako or Erin, and then someone cried out in alarm.

The Light cleared and only one crystal remained. It floated in front of Sailor Moon. Her eyes were closed and her arms out stretched, her head up. She was dressed now in her princess garb. A long gauzy gown that was set just off the shoulder. Gold lace was sewn into the front of the gown in a three inch wide strip across the top of the gown, going under her arms, and dipping to her lower back and flowing into two long tails into a train. Small crystals were sewn into the bodice of the gown, stopping in the back at the dip. The mark of the moon flared on her forehead. The pearl wings she wore in her hair as Sailor Moon were still there. As the light of the crystal pulsed softly, Serenity's hair, starting from the roots, softened in color then lightened. It was slow, like paint dripping. Her hair turned from golden yellow to startling silver. Two great wings flowed from her back, pristine white and soft. She opened her eyes, rolling her head to look at the Queen. Where the pearl wings had sat, a silver tiara had taken their place. It was a simple silver circlet, save for three pinkish pearls at the center.

The small group of woman were senshi now. In the peacefulness of the atmosphere, Caty glanced at her friends. The planetary senshi were what the old manga called super senshi. Her girls had also changed and so had she. She remembered this outfit. It was what she wore after Emerald took over her body, but the skirt was a regular fuku shirt, white, with a dark green strip around the bottom. That was the only color, besides her now crimson colored hair. Her girls wore a variation of the uniform, but in black. It was a harsh color against all the white of the other uniforms. The only color to their fuku was their personal color around the tops of their now wrist length gloves, a thin strip around the bottom of their skirts, the gold lockets that sat with the stones of their name sakes in the shapes of teardrops, the bows on their chest and in the back, and their boots, which came to their ankles and were laced. Caty wore white, the bow in the front was gone and two wings, like outstretched white dove wings, sat. In the middle was her locket of gold and the emerald teardrop and three pearls sitting at the bottom of it. Each pearl had the faint hue of red, blue, and purple. Her girls, so they would be with her always.

The Queen smiled at them, "Our work begins. We must put this world to rest. To sleep. For one thousand years. In that time, this solar system will have time to heal itself and once again, we shall be united. Every planet together." She reached out for her daughter, but couldn't touch her. She was only a spirit and her time was growing short. She was starting to fade. She smiled happily at her daughter, tears in her eyes and whispered goodbye. She had seen to the start of the new world. Now she was gone. Serenity sniffled and nodded, "Good bye…Mother." She turned gracefully to the others, "Come, stand around me and clasp hands."

Luna and Artemis stood by, watching as the girls formed a circle around the new queen and laced fingers. Somehow, they knew what to do as they started to glow with power. Serenity stood in the middle, her hands held above her head, the crystal floating between her palms. The circle of senshi glowed brighter and lifted slightly off the ground, their hair flowing around them as if under water. The crystal gathered their energy and in a burst of light, it shot from the room, out the window and circled the Earth. Its glittering power encasing the Earth in a warm glow. Everyone, everywhere, had the urge to sleep. And they did. They drifted off to bed, snuggling with loved ones. Those without beds were welcomed into homes of strangers and given warm beds to sleep in. The world seemed at peace as it fell to sleep. The crystal returned, finding each senshi encased in a glassy coffin. Each coffin the hue of its owner's aura. In the middle, stood a great crystal coffin that stood on its side. Inside, Serenity slept. Luna and Artemis, holding hands, left the room to prepare for the future.

On Earth, Kane wondered from room to room in the Missouri twilight. He was frantic. He stopped in the bedroom he shared with his wife, looking at their bed. Where was she, he thought again. And then, his eye felt heavy. He sat on the bed and lay across it. Rocky came, curling up beside him and they slept.

A Thousand Years of Sleeping

Prolog to Return of the Crystal Senshi