Somewhere in the darkness, beneath the soot filled sky and above the inferno, a male voice reverberated – a combination of quiet mourning, heartbreak, and absolute rage as it sang coldly.

"I send the pestilence and plague

Into your house, into your bed

Into your streams, into your streets

Into your breath, into your bread

Upon your cattle, on your sheep

Upon your oxen, in your field

Into your dreams, into your sleep

Until you break, until you yield!"

Crystal Tokyo was a shadow of its former glory. Smoke and fire rose from the buildings in the outer rim of the city, the massive walls that had once provided such a powerful obstacle now smashed through and crumbling as a youma army poured inside. The outer energy shield that had surrounded the city like a dome was gone; overloaded from the massive bombardment that had been unleashed upon it. The generators had overloaded, and the Senshi had not had enough time to put their own energy into the outer shielding before its control units were destroyed.

The walls were breached, the shield was down and never coming back, and the Senshi were doing all that they could to cover the evacuation. Crystal Tokyo was about to fall, and they all knew it. The civilians were being relocated off world, to the other planets, as they had been returned to their true states as habitable worlds since the defeat of Chaos and the rise of Crystal Tokyo. The transportation gates were working overtime to let the fleeing masses through, and even still it was slow going as thousands of people tried to push and shove their way to the front of the line.

Like the unfortunate passengers on the Titanic, all sense of an orderly evacuation had fled. They were panicked, and they were trying to survive. Unlike the other enemies that the Senshi had dealt with, this army wasn't intent on gathering energy. It wasn't intent on conquering and taking control. It didn't want some silly crystal or to have a queen love it or any of that foolishness. It didn't even carry the same ideas of their most recent enemies. Even the Sins had intended to take control in some manner. This army of youma cared nothing for that.

No, this army of youma was hell-bent on revenge – and had been waiting since ancient times, growing larger over thousands of years and more experienced with every decade. They did not fear their master as most youma did. They respected him, and adored him – for not only did he create them, but he gave them free will, taught them, trained them and cared for them like a father would care for his children. In some sense, the youma were as close to children as Greed had ever come. Now, they were laying down destruction, unleashing their fury – knowing the heartache that their Dark Father was experiencing.

"I send the swarm,

I send the horde,

Thus saith the Lord!"

Youma of every shape and size, from those that were born with wings, to those that had multiple legs and armored bodies, ran rampant through the crumbling city, pushing the Senshi back further and further. The Outer Senshi held the line near the evacuation points – acting almost like a brick wall as the youma came again and again in seemingly unending waves. Most of them were those of low power level, the cannon fodder, the ones that were expendable, and had not been given the gift of free will or self-awareness. Like robots programmed to charge instead of think, they were a fitting distraction.

The sheer numbers involved were what kept the Outer Senshi in a constant fight. Huge swaths of the youma were cut down, but more seemed to come from every direction. Because of this, five Wyverns managed to slip past and reach one of the evacuation sites. Three remained airborne as both a warning and a distraction, while two crashed through the roof of the building and down to where the active evacuation portal was located. One landed near the building's entrance/exit, and the other landed in in front of the portal. Both began to spew flames that consumed everyone they touched.

The screams rose up, but quickly died as the victims burned. Then the one before the portal turned, and sent a jet of flame through the portal, to consume those on the other side that had seemingly escaped. Once done, it turned its body, using the momentum to swing its clubbed tail and smash the portal into pieces. As they left, they bathed the interior of the building in flame, and flew out through the roof again as the building collapsed. One of the six portals was shut for good, and the others would be soon to follow at this rate. Even the Outer Senshi, though loath to admit it, could see the inevitability of it.

All the while, that male voice continued to sing.

"I send the thunder from the sky,

I send the fire raining down!"

Up atop a crystalline steeple coated with soot and licked by flames, Greed stood – moving like the conductor of an orchestra. As he moved his hands and body, the black trench coat that he wore flapped in the heated winds, his blonde hair blowing about, this way and that, sweat upon his brow as the battle reached its crescendo; a fever pitch that all involved could feel. For the youma it was a surge of energy and a sense of approaching victory. For the Senshi it was the approach of an enemy unlike any other. Even Chaos had not caused this level of carnage and destruction.

But then, Chaos had also not loved and lost because of its enemies. The Senshi had never taken anyone away that Chaos cared about – for Chaos had never cared for anyone. Greed was a different story. The only two women he had ever truly loved had been cut down by the Senshi, and the other four members of his foolish so-called family had been vanquished already. Envy and Lust had been the only two he ever truly cared that much about. Gluttony, Sloth, Wrath, and Pride had meant little to him. And Pride was the one that he blamed for losing Envy and Lust. Pride was, after all, the leader.

Greed was a close second behind Pride, though nobody seemed to listen to him for very long. He could thrash any of them in one on one combat, and whip them easily in terms of tactics, but his would-be brothers looked to the charismatic Pride to lead them. Perhaps there was method to the madness; Pride had, after all, been leading fighting men for a long, long time. Greed had once been called a pirate king, but that was not as impressive to his brothers as Pride's ancient generalship. But where was Pride now? Dead, along with the rest of his 'family'.

As Greed continued to move, his pirate-like clothing clinging to him from the perspiration that was soaking him in some places, massive balls of flame seemed to fall from the sky – impacting in the places that he designated. The reality was that large groups of his most powerful fire youma were generating the attacks and releasing them – and he only had to use a minimal amount of his own power to direct them right into the targets he intended. However, there was another weapon in his arsenal that was his and his alone to create and command.

As the smoke rose and swirled above the city, mixing with the clouds, static electricity began to charge in them. He could feel it, and when it was ready... he 'plucked' it. Lightning bolts came down from the sky, bringing about destruction of a grand scale. Between the massive balls of fire, burning city, and the falling lightning bolts, the scene was practically apocalyptic. In mere moments the remaining evacuation points were destroyed, much in the same way as the first, and the Outer Senshi began to herd what of the masses they could toward the palace and its own shield.

Meanwhile, miles above the Earth, the finishing move was being prepared as an old military satellite was moved into position. Before the ice age that allowed Crystal Tokyo to come about, back when Greed's company had created the orbital particle cannon, it was considered a superweapon with enough power to flatten a city. Considering the strength of the shield over the Crystal Palace, he estimated that it would have barely enough power, even combined with a full bombardment on the ground, to bust the shield over the palace. Yet... barely enough, was still enough.

"I send my scourge,

I send my sword,

Thus saith the Lord!"

All around the city the army of youma aimed toward the Crystal Palace, its shield standing defiantly and allowing only those who were pure of heart to pass through to safety. An emergency evacuation station was in a lower level of the palace with portals that connected to the palaces on Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. Saturn was decidedly a secondary evacuation point, and Pluto was tertiary. The thought was that it would be best to keep people away from the two planets that needed the most security for various reasons.

As what remained of Crystal Tokyo's citizens flooded into the palace and down into the lower levels, Neo Queen Serenity once again lay in that crystal coffin. Her raw power was being fed into the shield – and that was why the bombardment and the satellite would both be needed. The bombardment was to wear on the shield; intended to make it put its all into defending the palace – and then when it was at its strongest, the particle cannon would be fired as the knock out blow. As it charged and the bombardment continued, Greed though that the Senshi must finally be beginning to relax, seeing such a massive attack being repelled by the shield with seeming ease.

If only they knew.

The bombardment continued for some few minutes, and then the signal came. The orbiting particle cannon was finally ready! Coordinates were locked on the Crystal Palace, and the order to fire was given. A cyan colored beam of energy and sub-atomic particles shot down from the heavens, piercing the cloud and smoke choked sky, and driving into the shield over the capital of the Earth. In Greed's command and control center the reading showed that the satellite was overcharging itself to try and knock out its target.

One hundred percent. One fifty. Two hundred. Three hundred. Four... Five! Maxed out at five hundred percent power output, the shield was holding, but barely. The information was sent to Greed, and he gave the order to override the safety protocols. As soon as that was done, the power output jumped to absolute maximum – one thousand percent; ten times what it was ever truly meant to do. The beam of particles and energy suddenly doubled in side and slammed into the shield.

The result was that the shield's emitters overloaded and exploded around the outer rim of the palace walls. At the same time, the old satellite's own systems overloaded and an energy surge hit its power core – detonating it. The shield and satellite were knocked out at roughly the same time. Meanwhile, the energy that had being going to the shield surge back to its source: the Queen herself. The crystal coffin cracked, then shattered, and burst into thousands of tiny pieces. The backlash of energy gave the Queen something that had been centuries in the making – a heart attack.

All the battles, all the fighting, the worrying, birthing two children, and everything else that she had been through – even simply the strains of being a monarch, had taken their toll. Her heart was not as strong as it had once been, and now... overworked... it failed. The shield failed, the coffin shattered, and the Queen lay curled on her side amidst thousands of pieces of crystal. She was not alone, her personal Senshi and her husband were with her, gathered around her.

Endymion pulled her into his arms, and the Inner Senshi gathered around them both. As he held her in his arms, her crystal appeared, hovering over her, shining brightly – and then suddenly faded. The glow went out, and it dropped to the floor. The crystal was only a representation of her own spirit, her own willpower. She was gone, and so was that magic gem that so many had come to Earth to try and steal – never realizing that if they killed her, they lost it too. Some wept. Others felt rage wash over them. All knew that the fight for Earth was lost.

All they could do now was cover the civilians as they retreated, and then follow them back to their home worlds. The palace shook harder than ever then, as the spires that had reached so high into the sky began to fall, toppling easily. Sailor Mars told Endymion to take his late wife, their Queen – their friend, to Mars for now. The Senshi would hold off the attack as long as they could before falling back, and Sailor Mercury would have the portals self-destruct after everyone was through. Endymion nodded slowly, reaching for her crystal, intent not to leave it here – but the moment he touched it it turned to dust.

He clenched his eyes shut for a moment, then stood, carrying his late wife in his arms as he moved toward the portal that was the next level up – and the Inner Senshi moved to join the Outers. It was up to them now. The shield was lost, but they could still fight, even if it meant falling back inside the palace to fight in hallways. As the fight continued, that's exactly what happened, and continued to happen. Further and further the Senshi fell back, until they were outside the portal chamber. Eventually they fell back inside and sealed it off while Sailor Mercury prepared the self destruct.

The civilians had finished, and it was finally their turn as the youma blasted the door time and again. It began to crack as the remaining Senshi stepped through their respective portals. Just as the chamber was broken into, the six portals exploded into shrapnel. Crystal Tokyo was nearly demolished. The Crystal Palace was a ruin. The Earth had been taken – and if the Earth could be ripped from the grasp of the Senshi, who among them could stand against Greed?

The Sin smirked as he looked over the destruction that he had wrought upon the city, but after a moment the victory lost all meaning to him. He leaned against a wall, looking out over it all, and a bitter laugh came from him. Even this was meaningless without those that he had loved to share it with. Tears fell from his eyes and he shook his head, tilting it back to look skyward. It meant nothing. It couldn't bring them back. Because of Pride's War, they were dead, and they were never going to walk the Earth again.

Just as that thought came to him, what felt like a wall of air rushed past him, and there was a bright cyan light. Looking toward the palace, it once more stood tall and proud. The particle cannon was firing... and the shield was still up. The massive pulse came down once more, smashing the shield, to the same effects as before. The entire scene was replying before him. Looking at the wrist-mounted unit that he wore, he brought up a communications screen.

"What the hell is going on?"

"We're not entirely sure sir." A human-looking youma on the other end said. She looked something like a cat-girl in a navy uniform. "It looks like some kind of temporal anomaly. Tracing it now." She said, and the screen cut to black briefly, then came up with a display. Her voice came back as the display continued. "What you're seeing is a cross-section of the time stream, as best as we can structure one. The anomaly seems to have originated a few years in the past. About the time that Pride called the Sins to action."

"Any idea what the source is?" Greed asked.

"Not sure, but the evidence points to tampering with the time stream. Very slight in this case. The battle should be ending in another fifteen to twenty minutes." The image of the cat-girl reappeared. "Whoever it is or whatever they've done, hasn't changed much. They've succeeded in offsetting the battle by about half an hour. Readings also indicate a higher number of losses on our side, and fewer civilian losses, but little else. Victory is still ours."

"For now..." Greed said as he glanced to the side. "But that was only the first wave. Each successive wave will build upon those before it. If enough changes happen, this victory may not be so assured as it seems to be." he paused for a moment, the looked back to the screen. "I'm coming to the Tower. It's time to put our little project into action." Cutting the link, he took another look over the city as the battle moved into the palace. He watched for a moment, and then vanished.

He reappeared in his control center, beneath the Krieg Incorporated Tower, in what remained of New York City after the ice age that brought about Crystal Tokyo. Little was left. Almost nothing. Most of the city was decaying ruin, but the Krieg Inc Tower stood tall and proud – just like its identical siblings across the globe – a black obelisk-shaped skyscraper that stood over one hundred twenty stories tall. Beneath each was a command bunker, much like the one he now stood in – with one minor difference. In this one was Greed's Temporal Calculation & Displacement Device. His time machine.

It wasn't finished, but it was good enough for a one way trip into the past, and it was already powering up. It took half an hour for it to get ready. As soon as it was, however, another temporal shockwave came through – this one stronger than the last. The battle was once again reset, this time to just before the particle cannon even fired. Yet, the results were the same. The civilian casualty rate was lower still, and the youma casualties were higher, but victory was still theirs. This wave, however, had come from a different time period. A time over a thousand years into the past.

Sensing opportunity, Greed set the time machine for a few months before the source of he second wave. And then he took his one way trip – one way because as soon as the machine was used, every circuit was burned out. The machine fried itself with a single use – but he reached his destination.

And he had a plan...

...just not the sort that one might expect.


Well then this was a wonderful chapter sorry it took so long to get to you wonderful readers let us know how you think we are doing.

Ja Ne till next chapter

Eclipsian Maiden && Blitz von Krieg