Author's Note: Not my Intellectual Property, Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi, insert standard disclaimer here. The cosmology as presented is inspired heavily by Hosmer and Biles, go read their stuff – especially Sailor Moon Z. The magic system is some weird cross of anything and everything, but it's mostly the Crest system that I've never expounded upon before.
This has been sitting in my brain for a while and with the upcoming Crystal reseries I figured now was a good time to share my take on a new reseries. This is probably a oneshot.
The Overseers gathered together for their final preliminary meeting.
For years, their plans had been in the initial stages, stages in which they alone had access to the results, stages in which their experiments had been completely contained. The time had finally come for their plans to be put into motion. But before they could, they needed to do some field testing.
The Head Overseer stood. "We have found our first test subject." He raised his hand and the image on the wall changed to show the slumbering form of a blonde teenage girl. "This is one Tsukino Usagi. She is the perfect test subject for Experiment Twelve. We will proceed accordingly, and if any viable test subjects appear in her vicinity we will provide for them likewise."
The Secondary Overseer raised his arm. "I object to using Tsukino, on the grounds that we cannot easily predict how our work will interact with her future power as Sailor Moon. We need Sailor Moon's power to be available more than we need the results of our experiments, with Beryl having found a way to Earth."
The Tertiary Overseer waved off the Secondary. "You worry too much. Her power is, at its core, similar enough to Experiment Twelve that the two should be able to work in great harmony. Besides, is not the point of our experimentation to see how her power and our Experiment interact?"
Placated, the Secondary Overseer lowered his arm. "Then I will see to it that Experiment Twelve is initiated on Tsukino."
The Overseers nodded.
Luna, who over twenty five thousand years ago served under Queen Serenity of the Moon Kingdom, was having a very rough day. Some punk kids had stuck a band-aid over her Crest, dulling her receptivity to magic and restricting her tongue to the language of her current form, that of a cat. She was stuck wandering around until some kind soul removed the band-aid. Of course, with her luck she might have walked past the one she was searching for and not even realized it.
She wandered into a vacant lot and settled in for a quick nap. There really wasn't anything she could do until her Crest was exposed to the open air again. She closed her eyes, meaning to only sleep for a little while. When she awoke, it was to the poking and prodding of three young boys who wanted to see her tongue. She struggled for a bit, then was rescued by a teenage girl with blonde hair done up in pigtails. Very familiar looking pigtails, too.
Tsukino Usagi. A fourteen year old girl attending Juuban Middle. Birthdate, June 30th. Blood type O. She picked Luna up and held her up. "I can't stand it when people are mean to animals like that. You'll be okay now, though, kitty... I'll bet you don't even need that band-aid, either." Yes! Salvation from the dulling of her senses! Now she'd be able to...
As soon as the band-aid was removed, Luna felt the overwhelming potential that Usagi had. If she was not the one for whom Luna was seeking, then she at least could help in the search. Before Luna could say anything to Usagi, however, the blonde girl had panicked and run off, leaving Luna with little more than a plan.
Usagi had not had a pleasant day, at least as far as her days go. She started out by waking up late, which between that and rescuing that stray cat led to her being late for class, which in turn led to her having to stand out in the hall. When she'd gotten back the results of her last test, it was only a 30%, which meant that once her mother got around to asking about it, the whips would be cracking. To make matters worse, she'd spent all her allowance money at the arcade yesterday, which meant that she wouldn't be getting any new jewelry until her grades improved.
Though all that didn't matter as her mother was currently talking with some old guy who claimed to be a long-lost uncle. There was no chance of escape to her room (she'd already tried twice and was considering gnawing off her leg in order to flee), and there was no hope of getting out of showing the bad test grade.
"Oh right; I have something for Usagi, now that I think about it." he said suddenly, reaching into his bag. He pulled out a small bracelet with a moon motif. "A friend of mine saw this and thought of you immediately. It's said to bring good luck."
Usagi's doubts about this previously unknown uncle vanished in an instant when she put on the gift. Somehow, it felt right, like it was supposed to be hers. "Thank you, uncle!" He smiled, and started to talk with Ikuko about stuff Usagi didn't care about – she took this chance to get out of this mess and reach the safe haven of her bedroom. When she arrived, she immediately laid down and took a nap, only to find herself dreaming of an ancient kingdom on the moon...
Uncle smiled. "She's got a hard road ahead of her, Ikuko. But it will help her, in the long run. And now it's time for me to move. It would not do for Luna to go into this blindly." When Ikuko wasn't looking, the Secondary Overseer pulled his hood over his face and melted away.
Ikuko frowned as she turned back towards Uncle. "Who are you, again? I'm pretty sure I don't have any uncles named..." She blinked. "Huh? Where did he..."
Luna crept into the room. She was taking a major gamble here – if she guessed wrong, then she was empowering someone who had no connection to the Moon Kingdom. She hesitated for a moment, wondering if she shouldn't have empowered that brown-haired girl with the blue ribbon in her hair, the one who lived at the jewelry store. At least Luna remembered someone like that in the Silver Millenium. With this Tsukino girl, however, the only resemblance here was that the hairstyle was done up like that of the princess, and everybody from everywhere had done that hairstyle at some point.
Luna closed her eyes, to prepare herself to do the deed, when she felt a presence in the room beyond her own and Tsukino's. She looked around and saw a man in a black-hooded robe. An Atlantean? Luna wondered, then her instincts took over. Atlantis had fallen into darkness with the rise of Queen Beryl, and had become the Dark Kingdom.
"Calm down, Luna. I am not of the Dark Kingdom; my associates and I left for Venus long before Strathmore became king. I come with aid for this one, for her actions will assist not only you and the reborn of the Moon Kingdom, but also my association."
"What sort of aid, Atlantean?" Luna growled. Even before Strathmore had married Beryl, the Atlanteans were feared for their use of the darkness in the fight against the darkness. "The blessing of Metallia, perhaps, and a slow corruption? Or will you simply steal her now and be done with it?"
The Secondary Overseer laughed humorlessly. "The former, though hopefully without the corruption part. We need Tsukino to become Sailor Moon just as much as you do, for through her actions the Five Icons will shine brightly against the darkness once again. The Silver Crystal, the Sword of Endymion, the Star Orb, the Hammer of Vulcan, and the Shield of Metallia... all five will be needed in this one's lifetime." It was a lie, of course, for this way the gift he had given Tsukino before would be overlooked, assumed to be the blessing of Metallia rather than a new kind of magic.
Tsukino stirred, wondering what was going on and... "Who are you!?" she practically screamed in a half-panic. On her bed was a black cat who was talking with a black-robed man in a black hood. For a brief moment, both invaders panicked, wondering how to handle this new development, and that moment's hesitation was long enough for Ikuko to barge into the room protectively.
"Who are you, really? You are not my daughter's uncle!" Ikuko cried, rolling pin in hand, ready to defend her daughter from this strange man.
"Calm down, all of you. Luna, if you would please give Usagi the Prism Locket now, that would be much appreciated. Ikuko, this cat is an emissary from the long-forgotten Moon Kingdom, and I am a remnant of the Kingdom of Atlantis, both from the era of the Silver Millenium. Your daughter has great potential."
Ikuko swung the rolling pin at the Secondary Overseer, who dodged. "I don't care if she's the reincarnation of Amaterasu! You lied to me in order to get to my daughter!"
While all this was going on, Luna presented Usagi with the Prism Locket, and instructed her on how to become Sailor Moon. The Secondary Overseer smiled, and remembered what else was going on a little too late as the rolling pin struck him on the side of the face, briefly knocking him out.
Ikuko panted as the Secondary Overseer fell to the ground. She had not missed what Luna was doing with her daughter, but decided to wait and see what happened as she watched her daughter transform into the Sailor-Suited Soldier of Justice, Sailor Moon. In that instant, Ikuko could feel the power that had been bestowed upon her daughter... and then it happened.
A shield materialized in front of Sailor Moon, one that looked like a larger version of the Prism Locket. The Secondary Overseer recovered from his short date with senselessness quickly enough to see it. "So that is how Experiment Twelve manifests for her." he said, awestruck. "He was right, the powers are harmonious."
Usagi, now Sailor Moon, frowned as she held up the shield. "Naru's in danger. I have to go help her." With that, she leaped out the window towards Osa-P. The Secondary Overseer followed after.
Luna and Ikuko both stood there in shock. Luna was the first to recover. "That wasn't supposed to happen."
Naru's scream tore through the air, shattering the peace of the night. Usagi followed it, as the Secondary Overseer followed her. No words were said, as both knew that there was a lot at stake. Usagi knew her friend's life was in danger, and the Secondary Overseer knew that the fate of the Galaxy hung in the balance. Were the powers truly harmonious, or had the Overseers doomed the world to fail?
Sailor Moon burst through the door to Osa-P, shield raised, to find a creature holding Naru by the neck. "Let her go!" she shouted.
The creature slowly lowered Naru to the floor. "Who are you to stop me? Some Sailor V wannabe?" It laughed and raised its arms, causing a number of people to stand. "I am Morga, a Youma knight of the Dark Kingdom! These are my soldiers! GET HER!"
The Secondary Overseer held his breath as he watched Sailor Moon slowly back into a wall as she explained who she was, all while the thralls of the youma advanced on her. This was the moment of truth, the single moment that would determine if the experiment had-
ROSE
A single red rose struck the arm of one of the closer 'soldiers', causing it to flinch back. All eyes turned to where the rose came from. Up on a high windowsill, there stood a man in a black top hat, a black cape, a black tuxedo, and a sharp white domino mask. Everyone held their breath for a moment as they waited for the newcomer to make his monologue.
He opened his mouth, and spoke in a language that nobody there could understand. The Secondary Overseer found it vaguely familiar, as though something from an age that he had long ago forgot. Sailor Moon, on the other hand, seemed to understand what the masked tuxedo man had said – not that it did any good, since she just fell to her butt and started to cry.
The Secondary Overseer turned and started to walk away, fully prepared to write this off as a failure when he heard an unearthly wail. It was a sound so confounding that it knocked him to his knees, and he found himself unable to do anything but plug his ears to block out that dreadful sound. What he didn't see was that the wail caused the youma to lose her power over the people who had been enchanted as she too tried to block the sound – and that gave Sailor Moon the chance she needed to defeat the youma.
What the Secondary Overseer saw, he did not expect. Without Luna to instruct her, Sailor Moon knew nothing about the Moon Tiara's magic, and instead resorted to what was available and made sense. Usagi's experience with gaijin comics came to the fore as she flung the Prism Shield as hard as she could edgewise towards Morga. It flew like a deadly frisbee, and it did not miss. With a clang and a flash of pale light, the youma was obliterated. The shield clattered to the ground, waiting for Sailor Moon to retrieve it.
Usagi returned home, to be debriefed by her mother and apparently newly adopted cat. After a mildly exaggerated retelling of the night's events, eventually it came down to a discussion of how things came to be how they were now.
"So this magic is based around...?" Usagi asked around a mouthful of doughnut.
"Love, harmony, friendship..." Luna did a weird feline equivalent of a shrug. "Take your pick, it's all agape in the end anyway."
"I see... and what was the deal with the wailing?" Ikuko asked. "It's too convenient and probably saved her life, but if it was a one-time thing we need to know now so that we don't expect it to be there next time if it's not going to be there."
"I'm not sure. I think it might actually be some previously unknown part of the power of the Moon, or even of the Silver Crystal itself."
"And this Silver Crystal, it's..."
"It's the royal icon of the Moon Kingdom. In a nutshell, it allows the Queen of the Moon Kingdom to forge a link between a person and one of the planets of this star system."
"And I'm linked to the moon? That's not even a planet!" Usagi cried out, spraying a few crumbs in the process.
"I know, which is why I'm confused. I'm supposed to be finding the reborn Moon Princess so that I can train her to... do something that I can't even remember what or why anymore."
Ikuko frowned. "So where does this shield come in? And the bracelet for that matter."
"Usagi is probably a chosen of Metallia now, thanks to that Atlantean that came by." Luna began to gesture with her paws. "Anciently, before Atlantis became the Dark Kingdom, they were known for having the staunchest defenders, though the Senshi of the Moon Kingdom were the most powerful."
"So, what, I'm some sort of hybrid chimaera of Senshi and... what were the Atlantean Defenders called?"
"I don't remember."
"Some sort of hybrid chimaera of Senshi and Idontrememberite!"
Ikuko laughed quietly, while Luna gave her a withering glare.
"Well, I thought it was funny..."
"Yes, well, be that as it may, that's basically what happened here."
Usagi bit into another doughnut. "It's all fascinating, but I have enough trouble understanding what they're trying to teach me at school. I don't need all this stuff wedged in my head too!"
"This is just a summary and you're already giving up? I'm glad you're a front-line defender and not a back-line researcher." Ikuko groused. "Plus it'll be good for you to have a hobby that isn't reading comic books or playing video games."
Luna just gaped at Ikuko. "A... a hobby? This isn't something that she can just do in her spare time or tailor to when it's convenient to her schedule! This monster attack... Central Control has been monitoring stuff like this for months, across the globe! We've already had to awaken another senshi ahead of schedule, and there's still no sign of the one person that can put a definitive stop to the attacks! Without Usagi defending the people, the Dark Kingdom will be able to find the Silver Crystal before we know it and put it to use!"
Usagi patted Luna on the head. "Stop fretting, Luna. It's not going to do you any good if you give yourself a kitty aneurism."
Luna huffed but acknowledged the point. "In any case, Usagi needs to be prepared to become Sailor Moon at any time in case there's another attack."
"I understand that." Ikuko said. "But it's not going to do anybody any good if she's left on her own in the heat of combat with no knowledge, skills, or practice. As I said before, the wailing thing was too convenient and we can't rely on that sort of good luck in the future. She needs to learn how to control her powers. That is what I was referring to with the hobby remark." With that, she turned to her daughter. "And you will be taking this – and your studies – seriously or I will find new and inventive ways to ground you. I can't in good conscience confine you to your room now that I know this but I will find ways to make you miserable if you goof off. Is that clear?"
Usagi nodded glumly. "Crystal."