Prologue: In Medias Res
"Have to trust someone to be betrayed." Captain Price, Modern Warfare 2.
Serena woke up from her ever so brief catnap. It had been a spectacularly bad day, full of running and fighting and destroying the youma that had ravaged the landscape around them. She didn't know how long she could hold them back. For hours, they had fought on. No support, no contact with the outside world, battling against ever-increasing odds. The worst part of it all, they had been abandoned.
Jupiter and Mars were hurt, but could still keep on fighting. Venus and Mercury ran from position to position, trying to help SAILOR Moon keep the seemingly unending waves of youma.
"Have you been able to contact anyone? Anyone at all?" SAILOR Moon asked Mercury.
"I haven't been able to talk to the fleet out there," she replied. "I'm sorry."
"Goddammit," Serena cursed. "We're stuck here, trapped and running low on food and water, not to mention everything else we need."
"And we were so naive," Venus said, scanning the horizon for the enemy. "I can't believe that we were so blind."
"We all were," Mercury said. "I just wish…I just wish none of this happened." Amy sighed at the predicament they had found themselves in. She was so angry at what had happened. Why them?
"Don't mention it." Mars had limped over from her position near a pond and brought over a canteen of brackish water. "It's our last full canteen. If we don't get support or something, we're going to…"
"I know, I know," Serena said. "Amy, did you try to get into contact with the fleet? Anybody friendly?"
"The youma have sealed off the entire area," she replied. "Nothing is getting in or out of this place."
"We have to keep moving, this position is not safe," Jupiter said. Her arm was in bad shape and she would be down to one good arm if she didn't get back to base soon. "We have to reach the sea, that's our only chance if we can contact someone…"
"Serena, they're coming," Venus reported. "At our twelve. I'm counting maybe three hundred. Maybe more." The huge dust trails from their movements clouded the horizon, an ominous signal of things to come.
"Okay, Amy, Venus, start packing up the stuff and get into the buggy over there," Serena ordered. "Raye and Lita will get into the…"
"More contacts!" Lita yelled out. "They're on the left."
"Oh Christ," Raye muttered. She crossed herself before realizing what she was doing. "All that Catholic schooling…"
"They're to our right!" Amy yelled.
There were now over one-thousand youma, readying themselves for an attack on five scared, young, and completely outclassed SAILOR scouts. Their survival prospects were very low at this point.
"What do you want us to do?" SAILOR Jupiter asked. "We can still make a break for it. Amy could signal those guys out at sea, and they could help…"
Serena looked out the barren landscape. Twenty kilometers to the sea. But it had taken them at least a good part of the day to cross twenty…and in their condition, they were in no shape to fight their way to the coast.
"We are so screwed."
"Oh, you're just now coming to that conclusion?" Raye snapped. "Thanks for pointing out the obvious. I came to that realization when were inside there."
"Can it, Raye," Mina said. "What do you want us to do, Serena? We'll follow you."
Serena looked at the huge dust trails that were kicked up by youma as they approached.
"I'm not going to die running," she said. "But at least some of us can make it. Mina, Amy, make a dash for the sea. Don't take the buggy, it'll make you a bigger target. Plus, it's not in good working order, after that last beating."
Mina and Amy stared at her in disbelief. "Serena, I'm not going to leave you," Mina said.
"Neither am I," Amy said as well.
"If we all die here, our story doesn't get told," Serena replied stoically. "You and Amy know the entire details of what went on here. Go. That's my final decision. Raye, Lita and I will hold as long as possible."
Without further protest, Mina and Amy started running toward the ocean as fast as they could.
SAILOR Moon, Mars and Jupiter turned and prepared to fight one last battle.
Author's foreword:
As of course, I do not own Sailor Moon, etc, etc.
I started work on this project in February of 2012, and finished it in July of 2012. I decided to start writing this simply because I wanted to (like anyone else in fan fiction!). Well, that and I had just finished watching Sailor Moon Abridged, and was brought back to memories of my childhood where Sailor Moon, like many other people, was the first taste of anime they had. I admit, I've been away from anime and manga for awhile now, and have only recently started to foray back into this; I feel this has been a good way for me to get back onto the scene.
As you can probably tell, the story is already complete, clocking in at about 325,000 words, so be prepared for a very long read. Only now I have decided to start posting due to reviewing, changing some things up, etc. I will be posting new chapters every day, so not to flood the readers with too much material. Also, some of the chapter names are truncated or shortened due to their length. The full chapter names are found in the story.
There are also alot of characters in the story, and to help keep track of all of them, they're posted on my profile.
Please enjoy this story, please leave reviews if you wish, and thanks!