Pandora's Hope, a sailor moon fanfic

Sailor Moon: Pandora's Hope

"It's in your soul that the true distortion lies."
-Christine, to the Phantom of the Opera

~~ By Jayde, dreamin@notme.com, DreamCatcher Studios
~~ Disclaimer- Sailor Moon and all of the characters except for Pandora belong to Naoko Takeuchi, DiC, and various other people with bloodthirsty lawyers that could sue me if I left this out.

Sailor Pluto opened the Gateway of Time. Rather than Tokyo of the present or the Crystal Palace of the future, she entered an empty void. Inside a girl looked up in surprise.

She was wearing a dress like the one belonging to Princess Serenity, but where that dress was pure white this was ebony black. Gold edging, bracelet, and earrings had been replaced with silver. Her hair was long and dark red, braided and wrapped around her head. She had light gray eyes that were wide in surprise with the pain that usually filled them pushed away temporarily. When she recognized Sailor Pluto she stood and curtsied. "Guardian."

"Princess. How do you like your ... accommodations?"

The redhead laughed bitterly. "They are what I deserve. If I may ask, why are you here? Has Queen Serenity changed my sentence?"

Pluto took a deep breath. "Things have happened since you entered this moment, princess. The universe has progressed." She hung her head. "The Silver Millennium has ended, murdered by the Negaforce you released, and Queen Serenity sacrificed herself to contain it. After a thousand years it has been destroyed by the Sailor Senshi and Princess Serenity, who were reborn in the present after they died fighting in the past.

Surprise turned to fear turned to pain as Sailor Pluto spoke. By the time she finished the girl's entire body was shaking as she cried. "You should have killed me. Better that then eternity knowing what I've done."

"Your punishment was for the queen to decide, not me. Perhaps the Neo-Queen will change it in another thousand years." Before the redhead had a chance to ask what she meant Pluto continued. "I am here because Metallia was not the only evil that ever existed, and the Sailor Scouts have no defense against Sin."

"Sin." She laughed again. "After a thousand eternities I can still remember every one of them. She had a fondness for those chimeras. Am I supposed to coach the senshi? Train them?"

Pluto threw her a small pocket mirror. "No, princess, you're supposed to fight with them." She gestured with her Time Key and the gateway opened.

When the gateway closed behind her, the redheaded princess took a first look at the mirror Sailor Pluto had given her. It was just smaller than her palm, and the back was decorated in patterns of ebony and ivory beads around smaller shards of mirror. << That's odd; it's chipped. I thought this thing was indestructible. >> She shrugged and set it against her chest. A brief pulse of light changed her gown into a black skirt and blouse.

"Okay. Now I just have to find the Sailor Senshi."

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<>

"Usagi! Do you even know what her name is?"

Usagi jumped. There was a new girl standing next to Miss Haruna, grinning. She was already wearing the school uniform and had red hair braided around her head. While the teacher's back was to her she traced her name on the blackboard. As soon as Usagi had time to read it she rubbed it out.

"Hope." Everyone stifled a laugh as Miss Haruna's jaw dropped. To give herself time to recover she pointed the redhead to sit next to Usagi. They exchanged a wink and giggled as she sat down.

At lunch, Usagi introduced Hope to Ami and Makoto. She bonded with Mako immediately, ignoring the fighting reputation as easily as Usagi had, especially after they found out they were both orphans. Her American father had died several years before in an earthquake and her mother more recently of cancer. She also had the ability to eat almost as much of Mako's cooking as Usagi could. She explained that she had missed breakfast, and felt like she hadn't eaten 'forever.'

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Usagi's watch began to beep. She looked down at the communicator and back up at Hope, who she had been taking to the arcade. "Uh, I have to go. Gomen ne. See you tomorrow." She took off towards the park.

<< That was interesting. I barely know her, but I didn't think anything could get Usagi to move that fast. >> She looked at the arcade. <>

She froze with her hand on the door as a tingling shudder ran down her spine. << Something has to be happening to the Moon Princess... >>

"For love and justice, I am the pretty sailor-suited soldier, Sailor Moon! In the name of the moon, I will punish you!!" She struck a pose.

The chimera dropped the young couple it had just drained of energy and turned to face the senshi. It was basically a woman, seven feet tall if you didn't count the delicate antennae on top of her head. Iridescent blue butterfly wings stretching out behind her made her look more like a fairy than a monster. Sailor Moon had already pulled her scepter out, but she paused.

"Ooh, she's beautiful. Are you sure she's evil?"

The chimera answered that by swinging her wings forward and releasing a spray of razor edged crystal shards. All of the senshi threw themselves to the ground but were unable to dodge all of the fragments. Blue crystal sliced through fabric and skin.

"Hai, Sailor Moon," Sailor Mars hissed. "Nice going. MARS CELESTIAL FIRE SURROUND!" The fire rings glanced off of the wings without doing any damage. "Uh oh."

"You're no beauty!" << Huh? That doesn't sound like Tuxedo Kamen. >> Everyone looked. Standing on the dock was a Sailor Senshi. Her knee high boots and her bows were gold, while the skirt and collar were black. Instead of a regular brooch her chest bow was centered with a design in black and white, with small pieces of mirror. And her red hair was wrapped around her head in a braid.

"You're a beast! I am the defender of truth, and you have no right to show yourself this way. Prepare to face cold reality, because I will punish you!" The butterfly woman turned toward her but wasn't given a chance to throw her crystals. "PANDORA!" The new scout brought her hands down to the brooch. "INNER!" She pulled it off and turned it toward the chimera, reflecting its face. "SOUL!" She threw it down to the ground. "REVELATION!" With the last word a golden mist formed above the mirror.

The mist condensed and took shape. The chimera faced its own soul.

The soul was much less beautiful than the creature it had come from. Ragged wings the color of an old bruise hung off a twisted body, horns instead of antennae topped an even more twisted face. There were no eyes, only empty holes. Immediately the soul roared and attacked the chimera. It was a very uneven fight.

Before the chimera even finished turning into dust the soul had vanished. The scouts still hadn't moved, but now they all turned to the new scout.

She curtsied to Sailor Moon. "Princess. I don't know if it means anything after a thousand years, but I am sorry." Then she put her hand up to her chest- at some point the mirror had returned- and flipped the brooch. A brief flash of light off the mirror, and she vanished as completely as the chimera's soul.

"Okay. Everybody, back to the temple. Meeting. Now."

"But she knew I was the Moon Princess! And she knew it had been a thousand years since the Moon Kingdom was destroyed!" Usagi wasn't crying, yet.

<> Luna sighed. "Usagi, calm down. I'm sure there's an explanation. Perhaps she simply has more of her memories from the Silver Millennium."

Artemis spoke up too. "Are you girls sure that she said Pandora? As in Sailor Pandora?"

"It was Pandora," Mako said. "Do you know who she is?"

Luna and Artemis glanced at each other. Luna spoke. "Well, there was a myth during the Silver Millennium about a princess of Pandora, one of Saturn's moons."

Artemis picked it up. "The Pandoran royal family had the hereditary duty of guarding a box-"

Ami cut him off. "Pandora's box? Like in the Greek mythology?"

"Exactly. Princess Pandora opened the box and released the evils of the universe. Then she disappeared."

"But Pandora would have died long before the Negaverse attacked," Rei pointed out. "She couldn't be reborn without the power of the Ginzuishou, and I can't see that being used for someone who literally let all hell break loose."

"Mina-chan," Ami said suddenly, "can I see your compact?"

"Huh? Sorry, I zoned out there."

"I noticed," Artemis muttered darkly.

Everyone ignored him. "Your Sailor V compact," Ami repeated. "Can I see it?"

"Sure." She pulled it out and handed it over. "Why?"

Ami started scanning the compact with her minicomputer. "Well, Sailor Pandora threw a mirror on the ground for her inner soul attack, and she used it again to vanish after the fight. That sounds sort of like what your compact can do- reflect true forms and disguise you. I'm running a multi-level algorithm to try to track any parallelities between the two."

Everyone sat there for a minute while she continued the scan. "Huh?"

"I'm comparing the compact with Pandora's mirror." She punched a few more buttons. "I thought so."

Mako smiled at her. "Care to enlighten us idiots?"

"They're not just similar, they're identical. Your compact contains part of Pandora's mirror. It's not much, though. I don't think it will have any effect on her."

"And that means what?"

"If she can disguise herself, she could be anyone, and there's no way for us to find her. Other than that, I have no idea." She shrugged.

Sweatdrops.

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"AAAHHH!!! I'M LATE!!" Usagi wailed. She was running full speed towards the school, and didn't see Hope before they collided.

Hope picked herself up, and helped Usagi. "What's the rush?"

"I'm late for school!!" she wailed again. Hope gave her a weird look.

"Uh, Usagi-chan, it's Saturday. There is no school. Do you want to go to the arcade or something?"

This took a moment to grasp. "Saturday?"

Hope nodded. "Saturday. Where did you run off to yesterday, anyway? I didn't think you could move that fast."

Usagi just couldn't think fast enough to get a grip on things. Except that she was going to kill Luna when she found her. "Um, I had something I forgot to do. Kind of an emergency. Gomen for ditching you like that. Did you say something about the arcade?"

"Yeah," Hope laughed. "I have no clue what that Sailor V game you were talking about it."

"You've never heard of Sailor V? Where have you been?!"

Hope laughed again. "You'd be surprised."

Inside the Arcade, Usagi introduced Hope to Motoki. Then she dragged her back to show her the Sailor V game. "See? Sailor V is this way cool crimefighter- not as cool as Sailor Moon, of course, but-"

"I heard that, Odango Atama."

"Uh, Mina-chan, hi." All Hope saw was a lot of blond hair and a red bow hovering over the Sailor V game.

"Odango Atama?"

Usagi sighed. "Don't you dare. I have enough people calling me that when it's just Rei and Mamoru. Don't start." She took advantage of changing the subject. "Minako, this is Hope. She just moved here and she's in my class. Hope, Minako."

Minako muttered something over her shoulder before turning back to Sailor V. She had already died. "Thanks a lot, Usagi. Hi, Hope. Nice to meet you."

"Same. Hey, you did pretty good. You got one of the top scores." She looked again. "You have most of the top scores."

Minako smiled. "I'm pretty good as Sailor V. How 'bout you? Ever played?"

"Iie. I'll leave it to the expert. Usagi- Usagi?"

Usagi was totally oblivious. Mamoru had walked in, and it looked like they were making up for lost time. A lot of lost time.

"That's Mamoru," Mina explained. "Usagi's boyfriend. They just got back together."

They were still kissing. "She's going to be attending his funeral if she doesn't let the poor man breathe." << Why do they feel so familiar?? I know I've never seen them before, unless... No. It can't be. Can it? >> They finally surfaced for air.

"Hope, this is my boyfriend Mamoru."

"Mina pointed him out," she said dryly. "What on Earth could have broken you two up? You look like soulmates."

Mamoru was suddenly uneasy. "Well, it seemed right at the time." He turned to Usagi and smiled at her. "But you're right about soulmates. We're going to be together forever." He kissed her again.

<> It was impossible to mistake the feelings and memories those two were all but glowing with. Especially for one who had not lost memories and abilities through death and rebirth. << She is the Princess Serenity. Mamoru must be reborn from the Silver Millennium too. >> Something else clicked into place. << Usagi is Sailor Moon! >> She burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?"

Hope decided quickly that now was not the time. "You two just reminded me of something. <> "See you Monday, Usagi-chan."

"VENUS LOVE-ME CHAIN ENCIRCLE!" The golden string of hearts held the chimera while the Senshi caught their breath. None of their energy based attacks had affected the thing, which was part man and part peacock. The feathers, while gorgeous, were as sharp as Tuxedo Kamen's roses. They could also block said roses. "Any day now, Sailor Moon!"

Sailor Moon pulled out her scepter. "MOON SCEPTER ELIMINATION!" The chimera took the blast and grunted, but didn't die. Sailor Moon began to wail. "What do I have to dooooooooo???????"

"All of you at once! Finish it!" Pandora was on a fire escape and seemed content to just offer advice.

Without questions, they got into a circle. Before the chimera could recover, "SAILOR PLANET POWER!" had moondusted it.

Tuxedo Kamen couldn't help, so he headed for Sailor Pandora. She shook her head. "Curious, aren't you Mamoru?" She smiled when he froze. "Say hello to the girls for me. Again, I'm sorry." Again, she vanished.

"Senshi? We need to talk."

"She knows who I am."

"What?" "How?"

Mamoru shrugged. "I don't know. But she called me by name, and not as a prince. She knows who I am in this life."

Usagi was staying calm. "Do you think she knows that I'm Sailor Moon?"

"Probably." Mamoru's smile was a little bit rueful. "Our relationship isn't exactly a secret, and everyone knows that Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen are an item." Usagi blushed.

"If she knows who you two are, it's not a very large leap to identify the rest of the senshi," Luna pointed out. "And once she's certain about your identities, the enchantment in your transformations won't prevent her from recognizing you."

Perched in a tree outside the temple, Pandora petted Phobos and Deimos as she listened.

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That Monday, thanks to a delicate application of claws by Luna, Usagi escaped detention. During lunch, before she sat down with Ami and Mako, Hope managed to catch her. "Hey, Usagi-chan. Can I talk to you after school?"

"Uh, I was going to meet some friends of mine." Ami though she might be able to come up with a program to track Pandora, and they were going to compare notes. She was going to try to get a hold of Rei's manga collection.

Hope grinned a little evilly. "If it's Ami, Makoto, Minako, Rei, and Mamoru you can bring them." She handed her a piece of paper. "I'm staying at this address. Luna and Artemis would probably have some things to share as well, once their memories get jogged."

"Do you think we should transform?" They were at the address Hope had given Usagi. "We still aren't sure if she's on our side."

Ami shook her head. "She may not be positive about who we all are yet. We don't want to give ourselves away."

"In order- not yet, I am, I am, and you just did." She was on the fire escape again. "I'm still not sure about you, Mamoru. There were no male senshi in my time and I know nothing like your roses."

"It's a gift. I was the Prince of Earth." Hope nodded. It fit.

Luna spoke up off of Usagi's shoulder. "You know who we are, but who exactly are you? The only Princess of Pandora that we know of died long before the battle with the Negaverse."

She bowed. "Gomen nasai. And you are mistaken- I did not die." She closed her eyes. "Would that I had."

"Are you saying you're *the* Pandora?" Mako was incredulous. "How is that possible?"

More pain crossed her face. "The Queen Serenity sentenced me to imprisonment in an eternal moment regulated by Sailor Pluto. I do not recommend it for vacations. The Guardian released me when one of my evils returned."

Evils were Rei's turf. "What kind of evil? And why did she release you? We'd have worked out using the Sailor Planet Power on our own."

"True. But the chimera will continue to gain strength, and if you are drained from fighting them you will have no chance against Sin."

"Sin?"

"She's the one sending the things. That's another bonus of mine. I can take you to her."

Ami was fascinated. "You know where she is?" The computer was out and scanning.

Hope nodded. "An unfortunate side effect of releasing them. I have some sort of link to them, probably similar to the one shared by you two." She pointed to Usagi and Mamoru. "You do realize that it's not going to get any easier if you wait for her to come to you. Now, if none of you have anything pressing, shall we?"

"What, now?" They were willing to fight any evil, but this was very short notice. Hope seemed to be taking it very casually.

"You have something better to do?"

Everyone exchanged glances, shrugged and shook their heads. Rei mumbled something about being way too optimistic.

"Moon Crystal Power Make-Up!"

"Mars Star Power Make-Up!"

"Mercury Star Power Make-Up!"

"Jupiter Star Power Make-Up!"

"Venus Star Power Make-Up!"

Darien pulled out a rose and transformed into Tuxedo Kamen. For some reason Hope seemed to find that hilarious, especially when he threw his hat.

"Pandora Mirror Power Make-Up!"

For a second, as she held her mirror over her head with one hand, the black skirt and blouse seemed to become something else. Then her body began to shimmer gold as bars of light shot down into something like a cage. The bars pulled in around her, exploding in bursts of white light, and when everyone's eyes cleared Sailor Pandora was posing with her hand punched into the air. The mirror was centered on her bow.

"Just do it like a standard teleport. Follow my lead."

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The teleport dropped them in the middle of nowhere. Literally. There was something solid under their feet, but nothing except black was visible in every direction.

"Homey little place she's got, isn't it?" Pandora observed. The black in her uniform gave her the appearance of a group of floating body parts. "She could use a good interior decorator."

"That's the understatement of the century. Any ideas on which way to go?"

Pandora shook her head. "Don't bother. She's here."

"Spoilsport." The voice came from all directions. "Of course, I should thank you. I owe you so much."

Pandora smiled pleasantly. "Save it. Would you please just be somewhere? I know you can."

The darkness drained into one figure that was more or less human and shifted continually. It didn't walk, it flowed, and made your eyes hurt if you watched too long. Everyone took the chance to look at their surroundings, revealed now that Sin had condensed herself. It was a rough-walled room, or maybe a partially smoothed cave. Either way, Pandora had been right about a decorator.

"Satisfied, liberator?"

"Iie. I think I will be after everyone else has a chance to say something." She gestured to Sailor Moon.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I stand for love and justice, and in the name of the moon, I'm going to punish you! I am Sailor Moon" She posed as everyone sighed.

"I was thinking of something more along the lines of 'Moon Scepter Elimination.'"

Sailor Mars resisted the urge to smack them both. "MARS CELESTIAL FIRE SURROUND!" The streaks of fire passed through Sin without any effect. "Not again."

Sin laughed. "If that's all you have I'm amazed you managed to defeat even two chimera. No matter. They'll have free reign when you die."

Sailor Jupiter stepped up. "Yeah, about that. SPARKLING WIDE PRESSURE!" She threw the ball of lightning that had as little effect as Mars' fire. However, it did annoy Sin.

With the bad lighting in the cave no one had thought the number of shadows unusual. Sin had put herself somewhere.

She never said it was all of herself.

Within seconds the little strips of shadow rose everywhere, even off the silhouette cast by each senshi. In a few more seconds they were all being slowly suffocated by formless darkness. Except for Sailor Pandora.

She looked at the shadow-held senshi. "How amazingly unoriginal. I guess I released plagiarism too. One more thing to lock me away for."

"PANDORA INNER SOUL REVELATION!" The gold mist of the attack was streaked with black before it even finished taking shape. Before it finished it was totally black and had melted back into Sin. She laughed again and held up one amorphous hand. She held Pandora's mirror.

<< Not good. >> A quick movement by Sin snapped the mirror in two and threw it to the ground. Sailor Pandora winced as her fuku dissolved, leaving her in the black and gold princess dress. Around her the senshi and Tuxedo Kamen were beginning to gasp for air.

Princess Pandora knelt and picked up the broken halves of her mirror. She sighed softly. She's been hoping that this wouldn't be necessary, but it was clear that she had only one option.

"Pandora's Box."

Gold light glowed softly from each piece. She looked up for a moment and slammed them together.

Blinding light erupted out from her hands. It was impossible to look directly at the gradually forming gold cube in the center of the radiance. When it faded a golden box floated. Sin pulled back in fear and the shadows constricting the scouts flooded back into her.

The box opened as Sin fell back even further. What emerged was a gentle glow that enveloped the scouts. Each of them took a deep breath and stood.

"Mars Power!"

"Mercury Power!"

"Venus Power!"

"Jupiter Power!"

"Cosmic Moon Power!"

The pure white light of the Ginzuishou flooded out and drove the shadow that was Sin into a solid mass. Then it burned the darkness away.

"Hope!" Sailor Moon ran over to her friend. "Hope, get up!"

Sailor Mars walked over to her. "She's dead, Usagi." She put a hand on her leader's shoulder. "You can't help her."

Sailor Moon was still crying when the Gate of Time opened. Sailor Pluto stepped through and lifted the body.

Serena looked at her accusingly. "You could have done something."

"I could not. She gave you hope. It was all she had left and all she could do." She looked down at the body in her arms. "It was the most she could do." The gate closed behind her.

Sailor Jupiter walked to the gold box that lay on the ground. Enameled in black on the lid were the words,

"Open me, and you shall see
not what is but what could be."

She lifted the box and opened the lid. It dissolved into a shower of gold sand and left her holding the Pandora Mirror.