Age of Aquarius (Arc 62)

by TheElephantInThePrideParade

SEQUEL to Age of Aquarius (Act 61). The senshi successfully defeated a sunspot army, but their enemy still lies in wait. To survive, more of the senshi will need to unlock their past lives & full powers. But tensions are running high in public & private, & the silver millennium's skeletons are falling out of the closet - the senshi may have more than they can handle. MANY PAIRINGS

3. The Sailorless World

AN: So… *chuckles nervously* I am very sorry that I've been a very slow writer. Those of you following my Tumblr know I've been… stressed is a bit over simplified. I have some excellent news: I got accepted to graduate school! (Which means I can leave this job that drives me so nuts). It may mean grad school conflicts with writing… but I will be in a better mental place. So YOU will continue to get chapters no matter how much work I get in the next two years.

And I am very committed to finishing this and Sailor Moon H. So if you're patient with me, I promise I will get everything out of my head and onto the internet eventually.

Also: Thank you to the four people who beta'd Chapter 7 and 8 of this story. Your comments were encouraging and VERY helpful.

Disclaimer: Yada yada yada yada. Just look at Chapter one.

Last Time on Age of Aquarius: The Senshi confirmed their problem with the press is turning into additional energy the sunspots can use to get stronger, and are starting to see how their continued presence within the Earth affects the planet. They're preparing for renewed fighting from their foes, whatever form that may take.

All's not so dire thought. After all, Mamoru's home for the summer…

The Sailorless World

Usagi sighed as Mamoru closed the door to Chibiusa's room, the two of them having just tucked her in. She'd stayed up with the two of them and the Tsukinos for only a half hour before her head had begun to fall into her hot cocoa. She'd asked them to tuck her in, which Usagi knew was only because Mamoru was home; Chibiusa had not asked her to tuck her in in a while. But she was long past the days it would have made her jealous.

"I can't believe this!" Usagi whispered as she grabbed Mamoru's hand and led him down the attic stairs, and down the hallway to her room. "I teleported over to see you two weeks. And I didn't know."

"Well I wanted it to be a surprise," Mamoru teased.

"And my mother knew?"

"And your friends," Mamoru grinned when Usagi gasped. "Ami was the one who found us the flight discount. And Rei's putting up the guys at the shrine."

"Oh those sneaks," Usagi said as she dragged Mamoru into her room. "I knew Rei was up to some…thing…"

Mamoru was coughing, holding his sleeve over his mouth. "Sorry," he gasped, and coughed again. The fit worsened as he leaned back against the door, his shoulders shaking.

He felt Usagi squeeze his hand. Silver light filled the room as refreshing, cool magic rushed into him. Immediately his coughing eased and faded, the irritation in his chest and throat vanished. Mamoru sighed, staring at the silver light emanating from the locket around Usagi's neck. She stepped closer as the light faded and leaned her head on his chest.

"You use it so easily," Mamoru murmured, wrapping his arms around her. "Did that tire you?"

Usagi shook her head. "You're worse," she whispered.

Mamoru sighed. His cough had been prevalent before the senshi's huge battle with the sunspots. Since then, there'd been days it left him confined to the couch and Zoisite sitting in on his classes to take notes for him. "The sunspot activity in the Earth is worse now, according to Helios," Mamoru told her. "Zoisite and Jadeite are working on something to see why."

"Ami's been working on it too, I bet together they could finish something." Usagi listened to him breathe for a few minutes – even with the fresh healing from the crystal's power she could hear a faint rattling in his lungs.

"I'm alright," Mamoru whispered. And Usagi pulled away, putting her hand over his heart and stretched up on her toes to kiss him.

When they broke apart Mamoru cupped her face in his hands, and smoothed his thumb across her cheek to catch the tear that fell there. "I've been keeping up with the news," Mamoru said, sliding his hands down to her shoulders. "You've been dealing with a lot here, haven't you? "

Usagi nodded, looking over at her desk, which (Mamoru saw) was filled end to end with paper and books whose colors he couldn't discern in the dark room.

"Saturn found out that everyone being angry is increasing all the sunspots power," Usagi whispered. A chill ran up Mamoru's spine. "Which is, apparently, making the people even angrier."

She grasped his hand and turned, leading him towards her bed. She stopped at her desk, brushing her hands over one of the papers there.

Parchment, Mamoru noticed. These must be the old records they brought back from the Moon.

"I didn't think I'd miss high school," Usagi confessed. "But now I think everyday how I'd rather go back to it."

"Because the press didn't know anything about you then?"

"That," Usagi said. "And because we were all together." She turned and looked up at him. "Every time I see them, they say they're fine, but I miss seeing them everyday and knowing for sure." She shook her head, putting her hand over her heart. "Now it feels like we're all so far apart. And everyone's dealing with so much… I feel like all I can do is worry."

Mamoru squeezed her hand. "Well you have me now," he said. "I can help you look after them."

"But I want you to look after you." Usagi insisted. Her eyes sparkled as she gazed up at him. "You're sick…"

"Only because of the enemy," Mamoru said, hugging her close. "We can fix that, Usako,"

"We don't know how yet," Usagi murmured. She fisted her hand in his shirt. "I hate it… I have all these memories and still none of the answers." He watched her hand gesture towards the desk. "And I feel like she already knew the answers and none of us can read them."

"Queen Serenity's journals?" Mamoru asked.

"Some of them, yeah," Usagi said. "And all that old paper from Earth."

Mamoru's eyes refocused on the curling, yellow parchment. His brow furrowed as his eyes scanned from the right to the left across the ancient handwriting.

Usagi felt him stiffen. "Mamo-chan?"

"I'll bring them to Helios," Mamoru said, stepping away from Usagi. "Maybe he'll have some answers." He pulled her down onto the bed and sighed, kicking off his slippers. "It's nice to –" He was cut off as he began to cough again, lifting his sleeve up to his mouth.

The room filled with silver light, and Usagi pressed her hand to his chest. Again, his coughing eased. He stared at her as her brow furrowed. She bit her lip, pushing more of the Silver Crystal's power into him.

Mamoru covered her hand with his and jumped a little as a golden light appeared between them, the golden crystal materialized and filled with light equal to Usagi's crystal.

"Usako," he whispered when he heard her breath hitch. The lights from her crystal and then his faded, and he pulled her hand from his chest, twining their fingers together. "It's alright," he squeezed her hand. "Don't waste your power on me."

"It's not a waste," Usagi said. And she cupped his face with her other hand. "You're everything to me." she whispered, the two of them leaning towards each other. Usagi slid her hand down to the collar of his shirt. "I love you," she whispered. She kissed him.

They fell together onto the pillows, hands grasping for each other, popping buttons and slipping under clothes, each trying to get as close together as possible.

"Mamo-chan."

"Usako…"

~AgeofAquarius~

They were growing strong again, at last. It had taken long enough. It had thought such a small, inactive world, no matter how many lights gathered to its defense, would still generate its soldiers at a fast pace given the turmoil across its surface. Perhaps it had overestimated how many soldiers the pathetic core could quickly produce.

But the first were nearly ready once more. It had been a good move to direct more of its lights to split and gather power in the Guardians' world this time around. It would be the planet's undoing. And soon it could make these stars' irritating, blue world the first to fall.

It was still irked that it could not move more quickly through Sol's worlds, but too many lost would mean fewer of its lights to fight these Guardians, who'd proved more resilient than many of their kind.

And there were nine. It still could not fathom how that had become so. Only one mortal could bond with every star. It despised the ordered realm in many ways, but at least it could be counted on for such patterns and consistency.

It refocused on the progress of those captured lights gathering power within the blue world's core. It hissed, if only they could move more quickly.

~AgeofAquarius~

Sirius… Sirius.

Mina stirred, brows furrowing. She stretched her hand out above her, reaching for the orange starlight.

Sirius! Rei called again in her head, triumphant.

Mina closed her fingers around the light. But frowned, her hand was empty. Mina blinked her eyes open.

Rei's dreaming, she realized, turning her head, Rei was facing her, a small smile on her sleeping face. Mina grinned, reaching out and covering Rei's hand with hers. She closed her eyes, concentrating on thinking about nothing. It was harder than Rei said it was, but she was getting the hang of it.

She couldn't see what Rei could see, but she could hear them speaking...

"You are Sol?" Sirius was asking. "But there is Silver Sol? And Orange Sol? How do you have so many faces?"

"There's nine of us," Rei told her.

Mina heard Sirius gasp. "It split you too?"

"No! No," Rei rushed to say. "No we're different – we're whole."

Mina could feel Rei venturing deeper into whatever place she dreamed of. She squeezed her hand tightly.

"How many of you are here?" Rei asked the star she'd found.

"I don't know," Sirius said. They gasped. "There's so many here... I cannot usually see them"

Mina frowned, reaching towards Rei's dream. She could just see, if she strained, a vision of thousands of tiny lights sparking in a dark vacuum.

"Why?" Rei asked.

"Perhaps it is because you are here – you can see, so I can."

"Did you know any of them?"

Mina felt Rei's disappointment in herself as Sirius replied. "I didn't know anyone else."

So Sirius can't tell us any of the others names, Mina concluded.

"Then I'll have to meet them all," Rei told Sirius, stretching her consciousness further. "Come on!"

Mina strained to follow her. She stretched her hand out for the thicker blanket as Rei searched for other stars. Was it cold out? Had she left the window open?

Concentrate, Mina reminded herself. Thinking of nothing was so hard!

She felt Rei's triumph and saw, briefly, a yellow light appear in her mind, the clear image of a crystal.

"Sol," a new voice spoke to Rei, and Mina chuckled at her annoyance.

"Fine, yes, I'm Sol," Rei snapped impatiently at whatever star she'd found.

"And… you're Sirius," the new, yellow star declared.

How is it they can guess Sirius name right but not ours? Mina pondered as Rei asked the new star their name.

"You're Aldebaran!" Sirius said.

Aldebaran, Rei repeated to Mina, and she got the impression of a stout, curvy figure with three pigtails that swirled round them, and a yellow symbol, triangular, on their forehead.

"I was once," the yellow senshi whispered in a voice that made Mina shiver. "Am I still?"

"Come on!" Rei told the two stars, "I need to meet more of you."

Mina smiled, listening in to the names that Rei relayed back to her as she dreamed: a blue symbol, a star with a tumbler's build and a soprano's voice – Capella; a bright white star with a simple cross on their bare head – Polaris; a red star, an old woman, whose gnarled hand was curled as if it should hold a cane – Methuselah; a green symbol like a hook approaching her in the dark.

"WAIT!" the voices of the stars startled Mina awake just as two serpentine, pupil-less eyes, snapped open below the glowing green symbol. A jolt of terror snapped Rei and Mina's connection as a far more terrible voice rattled through their heads.

"SOL!"

The snake! Mina thought, straining to reach Rei again, but she'd slipped too far into her dream. Mina leaned over her, shaking her shoulder. "Rei!"

But Rei didn't wake. She tossed her head to the side, biting her lip. Her skin had turned clammy.

"Rei!" Mina tried again, reaching for her mentally as well. She shivered again. So did Rei. Why was it so damn cold?

It's not my room; it's her dream! Mina realized. "Rei come on!" Mina begged, shaking her again. Her head ached as she tried to reach Rei's consciousness.

Rei felt panicked and quite cold. Sirius, she thought to Mina. Sirius. Aldebaran. Capella. Polaris. Methuselah…

I remember their names, you noble idiot, she thought, Get out of there!

Mina shook her again. But Rei didn't respond, tossing her head from side to side. She felt cooler and cooler to the touch. Her sailor symbol flared to life on her forehead.

Sirius… Aldebaran… Capella… Polaris… Methuselah…

"REI!" Mina snapped, hauling her upright. Rei's thoughts were getting fainter.

Her heart leapt into her throat as Rei's sailor sigil flickered, for a moment turning from black to red and back.

How did Sailor Moon do this at the shrine? Mina fretted. She didn't have a Silver Crystal and Usagi would be asleep. And Rei was stuck in her nightmare.

Rei's sailor sigil flickered black again. Mina panicked.

She slapped Rei across the cheek.

Rei's eyes snapped open. She launched forwards, pushing Mina so hard she fell over the side of the bed.

"Mina!" Rei gasped, trying to catch her breath.

Mina jumped up from the floor. "Here!" she said, clapping her hands. The lights in the bedroom lit up, illuminating the cool lavender and grey walls and the cluttered desk in the corner, and Artemis – snoring through the drama on the pillow he'd stolen and placed atop one of the book shelves.

Rei clutched her hand over her heart, hearing in racing in her chest. Her other hand was choked the blue bed sheets in a vice grip.

"Rei," Mina said. The mattress bounced as she climbed back into bed and crawled up to Rei, kneeling next to her. She kissed her reddening cheek. "I'm sorry," she whispered, as Rei leaned her forehead against Mina's. "I got scared you wouldn't wake up."

Was I really that far away? Rei thought, lacing her fingers with Mina's. Mina was so warm! Whereas Rei still felt like she was tumbling through that endless, icy darkness.

Mina was rambling, but Rei was only half listening. She caught her breath, closing her eyes for a minute and opening them again. Dark blue eyes stared right back at her.

Mina was still there. And Rei could feel her fire within her as strong as ever, a sharp contrast to how it had felt, barely a candle's size, when the snake had caught her in her dream.

"I went back," Rei explained. "I tried to find other senshi. I met some – Aldebaran."

"And Capella, and Polaris, and Methuselah," Mina finished.

"Yes," Rei said. And a terrible thought struck her. I didn't bring you there with me, did I?

No, Mina assured her, running her hand up and down Rei's arm. It was covered in goosebumps. No I just heard you speaking to them.

Good, Rei thought, finally feeling some semblance of normal. She shifted to the side, leaning into Mina, who wrapped her in a tight hug.

"It attacked you," Mina whispered. "You can't keep reaching out for them if that can happen."

Rei sighed. But their names…

Aren't worth it if it can hurt you! Mina was adamant. "Promise you won't try it again," she begged, squeezing Rei tightly. "It's too dangerous."

Rei shook her head. "We need to know their names," Rei insisted. "It's the only way to reach them when they're all split up."

"We'll find another way," Mina said firmly. "I'll order you to stop if I have to."

Rei scowled and pulled away. She began trying to muster up the energy for an argument, when something beeped on Mina's bedside table – her orange communicator.

"Mina," Usagi's voice came through. "Mina, are you awake?"

Mina sighed and reached over to grab it. "You, have to stop," she insisted to Rei and held the communicator up to her face. "I'm here, Usagi."

"We should have a meeting tomorrow," Usagi said. "Mamo and I… we thought of something."

Mina raised her eyebrows and traded a concerned look with Rei. Usagi didn't sound excited. "About the sunspots in the Earth?" she guessed.

"Yes," Usagi answered. "There used to be someone who could wake it."

Mina frowned. "Used to be?"

"Yes."

"Does she mean there isn't anyone now?" Rei worried, putting her hand on Mina's shoulder. The prospect of arguing with her suddenly much less important when they needed to worry about so much more.

Mina sighed. "Alright," she told Usagi. "Get back to Prince Charming. I'll set something up." She lowered the communicator and rubbed her hand over her face.

"Ami's out of class at five," Rei told her.

"And Makoto closes up at four-thirty." Mina tapped the star button on the side of her communicator. "Send message to all units at nine A.M. Record: Dinner meeting at command at five-thirty."

~AgeofAquarius~

She ducked as another lash of radiation snapped towards her and dug her fingers into the crumbling rock to keep herself from slipping. If it blasted her out into the vacuum…

Behind her she knew the armies were drifting, helpless from a pulse of radiation that had sapped the magic from their fleets and even shorted out the light in the strange, Plutonian and Mercurian weapons.

Ahead, another asteroid exploded, the icy chunks spraying towards her, imbued with dark energy. She deflected them with a flurry of rose petals and glared past the debris, at the blood-red form of the dark planet, its poisonous power flowing all across the dead surface.

In her ear the communicator sizzled with static, the magic in it dead.

It'll kill the rest of our magic if I can't do something! She grimaced as another wave of radiation slammed into her asteroid, and punched her fist into the ice to make a larger handhold.

She'd pushed this malicious planet back as far as the outer ring now, blast after blast of her power against the dark planet's forcing it away from the outer worlds, and from Neptune's colonies.

And the effort was taking its toll. She could feel it in the heaviness in her limbs, and the way the cold was finally seeping into her despite her transformation.

She could see her fatigue too: in each diminished blast. The dark planet would be gaining ground again soon.

If it gets back into the main system, she thought, scrambling to hold her position as a whip of poisoned radiation knocked her asteroid back a few hundred yards. If it gets back in and starts leeching off the planets' magic again…

I can't let that happen.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and countered the next blast of radiation. A lucky shot: her attack breached the planet's radiation shields and slammed into the surface, knocking it back towards deep space. With her brief respite, she took stock of her position. Nothing out here was a planet, nor dwarf world, nor colony... Nothing out here could grant her more power. All that lingered so far from Sol were the ever-frozen chunks of Kuiper ice…

Ice crystals!

She got to her feet and leapt off of her crumbling asteroid as the next blast hit, grabbing hold of an ice chunk to her left and barely holding on.

Crystals worked with her people's magic. Mineral would have been better…

Ice will have to do. She closed her eyes, concentrated on her golden power, and stretched out her hand.

"Kuiper," she shouted, "I call upon your ice to take my magic, hold on to it. Make a shield wide enough to keep this evil back." She snapped her eyes open. "EARTH CRYSTAL POWER!"

Her golden magic exploded out of her white-gloved fingers, jumping ahead to the chunks of ice hovering meters away. Her magic filled them, shattering the Kuiper ice into millions of pieces… brightly shining clouds of ice crystals…

She gritted her teeth, pushing those pieces farther out, stretching her magic into asteroids farther and farther to the right. Ice as far as she could see glowed golden and shattered. She willed it to form into a ring, and then a wall of bright, blazing light.

A flare of the dark planet's radiation lashed out towards her magic and was reflected back.

She grinned, golden hair whipping around her as she glanced to the left. Another arm of radiation was racing towards her unprotected side.

She released her hold on her asteroid, her only anchor, and whipped her left arm out. Her magic rocketed out of her fingertips and into the ice.

Her feet lost purchase the asteroid's surface as she drifted away from it, into the vacuum of space.

But her golden magic now raced out of both hands, stretching out in both directions instead of one, creating a wall of ice taller than the dark planet and brighter than Sol's light had ever been so far out from its worlds…

"More," she demanded, gritting her teeth as a wave of dizziness swamped her. The imposing form of the dark planet grew hazy. Just a little more… she thought. She needed to keep going.

Her gold power stretched from asteroid to asteroid, filling the ice crystals all around her star system until each branch of her power met again on the far side of her star. It chimed as the ice formed a golden ring of power, brightening into a shield that would hold, long after she was gone, to keep the dark planet at bay.

As she faded, she smiled, thinking of her Martian tutor. How's that for Earthling magic…

Usagi and Mamoru woke at the same time, both throwing off their covers as they gasped, right and left hands darting to their chests.

Usagi closed her hand around the Silver Crystal's locket and looked at Mamoru, who was staring at the Golden Crystal, glowing faintly, clutched in his hand.

He looked at her. "Did you have," he began, panting.

"That dream…" Usagi finished. She squeezed his hand. "That was… That was real."

Mamoru nodded and sighed. He squeezed the Golden Crystal more tightly and began to cough, pressing his fist against his chest.

"Mamo-chan!" Usagi exclaimed, turning towards him.

But he shook his head; his coughing eased. "I'm fine," he rasped.

Usagi sighed, and then groaned, releasing the Silver Crystal and rubbing her hand over her eyes.

She hadn't recognized the uniform of the sailor in their dream,

Mamoru squeezed her hand, drawing her attention to his frown, and how his dark eyes stared at the Golden Crystal. "That senshi," he murmured. "They were from Earth." He looked at her. "They used Earth's power."

Usagi nodded, and her eyes widened as she recalled something her mother had told her, a conversation from a lifetime ago.

"Sailor Earth's a legend like Pluto, you could say. Just not a living one."

"Do you think there's a Sailor out there who can awaken the Earth?" Mamoru said. "Why… why is it I have the Golden Crystal and not them?"

"I don't know," Usagi groused. "But she did." She released his hand and pointed to the desk beside him, with the piles of parchment and journals that no one could read. Usagi glared at them.

Mamoru frowned at the journals on the desk, picking up one from an unsorted stack. "She… your mother?"

"Fat load of good it does us," Usagi grumbled, crossing her arms and burying her face in them as tears gathered in her eyes. She felt Mamoru's hand on her back and sighed. "I wish I could read those," Usagi cried. "Any of them… so I could know what she knew."

Mamoru rubbed her back, examining the journal he'd picked up.

It fell open to a page book-marked by folded parchment. Mamoru frowned; there was soot around the charred edges. Mamoru held the Golden Crystal up to the parchment. There was a picture on it, half burnt away. His eyes scanned right to left across the characters visible in the Golden Crystal's light.

Usagi sighed, and Mamoru closed the book as she looked up. "If Earth had a Sailor, than we can awaken it," she said. "There's got to be a way." She leaned over, reaching for the communicator on the nightstand and accidentally knocked it on the floor in the dark. She groaned and leaned over to fish the communicator out from under the bed. While she did, Mamoru closed the journal, leaned over and slipped it into the bag he'd left on the floor.

"Got it!" Usagi declared. And Mamoru turned quickly and smiled at her as she spoke into the communicator. "Mina, are you awake?"

~AgeofAquarius~

Due to the timing of their meeting, they ordered pizza to the arcade. It seemed Matoki'd gotten over his worries about whether they were aliens since confronting them the month before, because Luna put the pizza in his name, and he didn't think twice about buzzing the intercom button hidden on the Sailor V game when the stack of 14 pizza boxes arrived.

Usagi and Makoto went to get them, and it occurred to Usagi as she went back down carrying six of the pizzas that there'd never been an occasion before where all of them, including the Shittenou were in the command center together. Someday, Usagi thought, I'll be able to count the times we've been together – without an enemy threat – on more than one hand.

Dinner was well received. Michiru slid between Makoto and Usagi when they'd barely reached the bottom of the stairs and plucked the smaller box off the top of Makoto's stack. The others crowded around, pushing several cushions into the center of the room so that Mako and Usagi could set the boxes down. Some, like Ami, hadn't eaten since early morning, and they'd cleared out three of the boxes before Makoto'd even gotten the paper plates out. (Usagi made sure Ami had a pizza box to herself).

There were not enough seats for all of them now, and so Usagi made the choice of leaning against the Lunar computer rather than have any of her friends offering her their seats. She leaned on Mamoru as she ate a bite of her pizza.

"Alright," Mina said once she'd piled four slices onto her plate and plopped down on the couch between Ami and Rei. "First things first," she took a bite of her first slice. "How's the news today?"

"Mixed over all," Artemis said, pressing a button on the computer with his tail. Articles, videos, photos, and all sorts of data sprung up on the five computer monitors.

"Sailor Accountability Initiative," Luna began. "Thinks some EMP was let off by a senshi sympathizer at their event yesterday. Hino and the Kaiohs are calling for an investigation."

"And the full text of the speech Hino planned to give is online," Artemis said. "In a way that's good – more details of what he wants a legislative approach to his Initiative entail."

"You mean more bullshit," Haruka muttered.

"And a move to charge you with destruction of property was thrown out of court," Luna continued. "It was for the TV tower, though I have a feeling they have more in mind… particularly if the owners of the supermarket seek damages from the crystal point we put there."

"What about Bob Floy's and the Chess Tower?" Mina asked through a large bite of Pizza.

"Chess Tower is public land," Ami said. "I suppose if the court's thrown out the case for the TV tower, that would be next on the list."

"Bob Floy, we don't have to worry about," Artemis said. "The man who owns it has a Venus sigil on his wrist… Luna and I have reached out to him."

"And offered him a sizeable amount of compensation for the damages," Luna said.

Mamoru's mind was spinning. He was only a little glad to see Jadeite, Zoisite, and Kunzite looking similarly lost. "The owner has a Venus sigil?" he asked.

"Yeah," Usagi said, "There's a lot of people showing up with mine or Venus' symbol on their wrists… we think they're reincarnated from the Moon Kingdom.

"I wonder how they're faring given the current atmosphere?" Michiru wondered, looking down at her mirror.

"Those we've found are keeping quiet," Luna said. "There've been no reports of hostile encounters with the Initiative supporters yet."

"Just wait for more to start popping up," Makoto muttered. "They'll happen."

They continued discussing the news, and catching Mamoru and Shittenou up on what had happened throughout the spring, while they finished dinner.

"Last four!" Haruka called out as she lifted up the last pizza box. Makoto jumped up to grab one of the remaining slices, and Haruka offered the others to Hotaru and Chibiusa, taking the last.

"Right," she said as she discarded the box. "What else is going on?"

Mamoru and Usagi glanced at each other and Mamoru clasped her hand.

"We had a dream," Usagi began, "about the past – a really strange one."

Mamoru let Usagi do most of the talking, much of his attention taken up by other things – first and foremost, stifling the occasional coughing fit, and then by Lunar Command's five monitors. Luna and Artemis had noticed something on the left hand screen and were fiddling with the keyboard. A flashing red window expanded: opening up several maps, radar data, and other measurements that both advisors set to analysing. Mamoru's eyes zeroed in on one map, which was covered by lines varying from yellow to an attention grabbing red. The brightest red lines hugged the Japanese coast and travelled up through the Pacific into the Arctic Ocean. The Ring of Fire… he shivered. More angry red lines traced the map across northern India, and the west coast of America. Yellow lines traced down through the Andes, an orange line, turning red, cut across East Africa.

The fault lines… Mamoru thought, watching Luna and Artemis whisper back and forth at the controls. He didn't like the way their fur stood on end.

"So," Mina was said loudly, drawing him back to the discussion. "So wait, hang on." She looked around the room. "We're… missing a senshi?"

"We can't be," Hotaru said. "There's no other sailors but us – I'd know." She looked up at Setsuna, sitting beside her on the couch. "Wouldn't I?"

Setsuna nodded. "Hotaru is right – there was no Sailor Earth born during the Silver Millennium, and there isn't one now." She looked to Mamoru. "As the person who wields the Golden Crystal, Mamoru is the closest to playing that role."

"But unfortunately far from the same," Luna said, stepping away from the monitor she and Artemis had been looking at. "As I recall," she glanced back at Artemis. "The Golden Crystal could only be wielded by those of the bloodline of Earth's rulers."

Artemis nodded. "We theorized once that there could be a Sailor of Earth if a girl with a Sailor Crystal were ever born into that family – but while there were plenty of girls, none had one, nor the ability to transform."

Luna nodded. "Mamoru, we believe, must have a Sailor Crystal, as he has a lot more control over that Golden Crystal than many of his ancestors did – and he has gained a transformation in this life, but..."

"I'm still not a Sailor," Mamoru concluded, taking out the Golden Crystal and staring at it for a moment before closing his fist around it. "I doubt I could awaken the Earth like we need."

Usagi frowned. "Maybe not alone…" she said and pulled the Silver Crystal's locket out from under her shirt. She opened it. The Silver Crystal and Golden Crystal shone brightly under the glare of the command center's florescent lights. "But… but together maybe we could…" Usagi looked at their advisors, and then at Setsuna. "We had our dream because we were together, and our crystals glowed together." She smiled at Mamoru. "Maybe we can kick the sunspots out of the Earth if we combine our powers."

While Setsuna stared up to the left, clearly considering it, Luna and Artemis were both frowning, having some sort of disagreement it seemed from the shaking of their heads and twitching of their ears.

Finally, Artemis sighed. "It would be… worth a shot," he said.

"Great!" Usagi knocked her plate (and nearly her pizza) on the floor as she jumped up. "Where's the Earth's magical-point-thingy?"

"Would it be in paradise?" Mina asked. "Cause… It's probably under a parking lot," she joked. Rei elbowed her in the ribs.

"Actually," Artemis smirked. "Minako is not far off… for once."

And he leapt across the command center's console and tapped a key on the right hand side of the keyboard. A picture popped up on the central monitor: a Golden obelisk of nearly the same proportions as the silver one on the Moon. Columns supporting a covered walkway, and a garden in full-bloom surrounded the crystal structure.

The Shittenou and Mamoru's eyes lit up. "That's Elysion!" Kunzite said.

The two cats nodded. "Or part of it," Artemis said. "The original Elysion – Usagi and Mina, you may recall – was a sprawling city. Earth's magical point was its central hub. There was a large temple built around it quite long ago," Artemis carried on. "Possibly since the magical point's first appearance if the old records of the structure's age are to be believed."

"Only the building sunk below ground when Metalia attacked," Luna said. "A good thing now, too – it's unlikely that the sunspots will have found such a small structure. And hopefully they won't be able to find it beneath the ground if they sense us trying to activate it."

"Then we should teleport there as soon… aaaas everyone's finished," Mina said. She, Usagi, and Ami still had pizza left.

Luna hopped up onto Usagi's shoulders as the others lapsed into conversation, and Usagi held a slice of pepperoni up to her advisor.

"Wait, Luna," Chibiusa said, leaning around Mamoru. "Does that mean I'm Sailor Earth?" Her eyes widened. "Did I get me name wrong?"

Luna chuckled shook her head, finishing the pepperoni before replying. "If that were the case, I doubt you could have been transforming this many years." She head-butted Usagi so that she would give her more pepperoni. "That said, you can use the Golden Crystal, so it is possible you have Sailor Earth's powers, if not her name." Luna glanced up and smirked when she saw Michiru and the other outer senshi look away, pretending not to be listening. "There's never been a case where a Sailor has inherited powers from more than one planet," Luna said a little louder for their benefit. "So its hard for me to say."

Mamoru furrowed his eyebrows.

"Something wrong, Mamo-chan?" Usagi asked.

"Nothing," he said, though he was still frowning. "Do you remember what the Sailor Earth in our dream looked like?"

"Err…" Usagi made a face. For most of the dream she had been the Sailor. And only just before waking had she caught a look at her face. "Blonde? Oh! And she had red eyes!" She winked down at Chibiusa. "Glad to have that explained – I bet they run in your family, Mamo-chan."

"Maybe," Mamoru murmured, still thinking.

He'd seen the Sailor's face too. But, as he recalled, she'd looked much more like Usagi than him.

~AgeofAquarius~

They teleported down to Elysion all together a half hour later, Sailor Moon's positivity having put them all in a practically jovial mood by the time they left the command center.

They appeared in the wide, Elysion garden – a central temple cloister according to Ami – whose ancient roses had grown up over the columns, walls, and roof tiles of the surrounding temple. The Senshi and Shittenou separated gracefully, taking up positions in a circle around the cloister. It lent an atmosphere to the ancient space not dissimilar to a palace court: Jupiter and Nephrite stood together at the darkened doorway to the temple, with Mars and Jadeite opposite them. Kunzite and Venus stood to either side of Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask. And Mercury, Zoisite, and the Outer Senshi all fanned out around the covered walkway, completing the circle around the golden obelisk that gleamed under the magical space's false sunlight.

The only member of their party who forgot her decorum was Chibi Moon, who broke from the group and ran at Helios as soon as they'd materialized. The priest, who'd been kneeling before the obelisk, rose just in time to catch her as she barrelled into him.

"Helios!" Chibi Moon cheered, nearly knocking the breath out of him.

Helios wheezed and grinned as he spun her and then set her down on the flagstones. He gave her a proper bow, the sort that was considered quite old and traditional by Crystal Tokyo's standards. And then he followed this by kneeling so he could look her in the face. He had to look up at her now. "Little Maiden," he beamed. "You've grown taller."

"And more powerful too!" Chibi Moon said, pointing her thumb proudly at herself. "I can attack all on my own now."

Helios laughed and looked past her. He rose to his feet so that he could bow just as deeply to Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon as they approached. "Your Majesties," he addressed them.

Chibi Moon giggled as this made both her future parents turn red. "We've thought of a way to awaken the Earth!" she exclaimed while the still-blushing Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon tried to find their words. "Mama and Papa are going to do it together!"

Helios raised his eyebrows and smiled even wider. "Truly?"

"Yes," Sailor Moon declared, walking forwards, hand in hand with Tuxedo Mask, whose smile, while smaller, was no less genuine. "The Moon's power and the Earth's power together," Usagi said. "No sunspot will stand up to that."

Helios nodded and stepped aside, waving the two of them towards the Golden Obelisk.

The senshi and the Shittenou held their breath as Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Moon stepped up to the obelisk. They each held their crystal in one hand. And when Tuxedo Mask put his spare hand flat against the face of the obelisk, Sailor Moon covered it with her own.

Both their crystals began to glow, and shortly after, to small delighted gasps all around the cloister, the obelisk began to fill with its own golden glow.

But as the minutes ticked past, the glow did not intensify. Not even while the Gold and Silver Crystals shone with blinding light.

"But…" Chibiusa sputtered as her parents' shoulders slumped, and their hands fell away from the dimming obelisk. "But…"

Helios put his hands on her shoulders. "It is alright, Little Maiden," he said. "It was a long shot at best." And as he spoke, Tuxedo Mask de-transformed and tucked the Golden Crystal away into the neck of his shirt. "Your Majesty," Helios said to him. "Do not feel discouraged – while you have… a uniquely strong bond with that crystal, you were not able to awaken the Earth in your past life either."

Mamoru looked up at him. "I've tried before?"

Helios nodded, turning his head as he did to address all the discouraged Senshi and Shittenou. "You and I tried several times as Metalia rose – hoping an awakened Earth could grant its people more protection against the daimon, or that it would choose a new girl to be its Guardian."

"But I don't understand," Mamoru said. "Why did we lose our Sailor at all?"

Helios looked down, his eyes finding the lines of mortar between the flagstones. He heard a jingle and his gaze found Luna and Artemis as they approached.

"Helios," Mamoru prompted him again.

"During Earth's second war with Metalia," Helios began in a measured tone. "The Golden Crystal was separated from its Sailor and in order to maintain some protection over the Earth, control of it was given to your ancestors and their descendants."

"The Sailor Earth of the time was lost," Luna picked up quickly. And several of those gathered – like Michiru, Rei, and Mamoru – frowned at the odd staring contest that seemed to be going on between the two Lunar advisors. "And it was thought at the time that there would not be another sailor after her – and indeed there wasn't for about 800 years… until the nine of you."

"Did she die?" Chibi Moon asked.

"No," Luna said. "But her powers vanished when she and the Golden Crystal were separated.

Helios hummed. "There didn't seem to be consequences at first," he said. "Earth's royal family, your family," he said to Mamoru, "could use the Golden Crystal, each individual to varying extents… and you were the most adept of any of them at using it, My King," Helios looked right at Mamoru. "It developed a very strong connection to you."

Mamoru looked away, and Helios sighed, continuing: "The Earth has been asleep for far longer than any of your worlds… and it is why the magic here slowly began to wane, those capable of performing it to dwindle." He lifted his hand and gestured to the Shittenou. "By the end of the Silver Millennium, only four individuals remained who displayed the capacity to be trained in Earth's magical traditions."

The four Shittenou looked at each other and then at the gemstones that fastened each of their capes.

"But," Sailor Moon said. "But don't the Earth's and the Moon's powers want to be together?" she looked at Mamoru. "You had that feeling in the past… Why can't my powers and yours be enough?"

"It was a good theory," Helios consoled them. "But I think it will take more than two separate planet powers to do the job. The Earth needs its own Sailor again… someone in my King's family capable of becoming such a senshi." He shook his head. "Until then a fully powered Earth may simply be lost to us."

Chibi Moon pursed her lips, stepping away from the priest and looking from him, to her parents, and to her friends and family around the cloister. Pluto caught her eye and began shaking her head. Saturn joined her. But Chibi Moon turned away from them, turning her gaze on the golden obelisk.

I don't care if I shouldn't interfere, Chibi Moon thought. They need me. Earth needs me. "I activated the crystal points," Chibi Moon said. "I bet I can activate this then."

"Small Lady," Pluto warned, stepping away from the perimeter of the cloister. "I wouldn't."

"Why?" Chibi Moon demanded. "We need the sunspots out of the Earth somehow, don't we?" She closed her hand into a fist. "We can't get to my future at all if they stay there – right?"

Pluto hesitated, stopping beside Helios a few feet from Chibi Moon. "That is true… however,"

"And I am a Sailor of the Earth," Chibi Moon pressed on. "So I can wake it up – can't I?" she asked of Helios.

The priest thought for a moment, and traded a glance with Pluto, whose mouth was a thin line. Helios looked away from her and shook his head. "I don't see what harm it could do," he said. "In fact I have… long thought that the Earth yearned to have a Sailor who could use her crystal once more – and I've also long thought Chibi Moon is that Sailor," he waved at the obelisk. "True… tis not her Earth, not yet. But perhaps, she's meant to be here, to make it so… to create her future herself."

Privately, Pluto thought this to be a moron's understanding of the inherent consequences of a grandfather paradox. But that did not change the effect Helios theory would have on their current problem.

Perhaps we already are in such a paradox, Pluto considered, and perhaps only allowing Chibiusa to meddle will get us back to her timeline.

She made the mistake of looking at Chibi Moon: who had trained wide, pleading red eyes on her and clasped both her hands together.

Pluto clutched the Garnet Rod tighter as she bowed her head. "Fine."

Chibi Moon's face lit up. She ran to hug Pluto. "Don't worry, Puu!" she stood on her toes to squeeze Pluto around the waist. "I can do it, I know it."

She stepped away, rushing right up to the obelisk and slapping her hand against the crystal. I can save the future! "Earth!" Chibi Moon grinned. "It's time for your powers to wake up – and kick out the sunspots that are hurting you." She closed her eyes as her crescent mark and her brooch began to glow. "Golden Crystal POWER!"

Everyone in the cloister held their breath as pink and then golden light engulfed Chibi Moon. It began to stream into the obelisk, until her power coated the whole crystal – blinding in its intensity!

"She's going to do it," Sailor Moon breathed. A few steps from her, Helios had his hands pressed together over his face. He was grinning from ear to ear.

But, as the bright light continued to intensify, more and more of it filling Earth's magical point, Mamoru frowned.

His own Golden Crystal, from their present time, was not reacting.

Pluto and Mamoru noticed at the same time when the pebbles and plants around them began to tremble.

And suddenly, all the energy filling the obelisk rushed together, concentrating into a blindingly bright beam.

The crystal began to hum.

Pluto shot forwards. The Garnet Rod fell to the ground in her wake. "Small Lady!" she shouted, sprinting at Chibi Moon and jerking her away from the obelisk.

The power in it exploded.

"Silence Wall!"

Black and purple lightning sprang up in an arc between most of their gathering and the violent explosion of golden magic that rushed out of the obelisk. It slammed into Saturn's shield with an ear-splitting shriek and knocked the young senshi back nearly a foot. She would have tripped over her feet had Neptune moved close enough to steady her.

"Pluto!"

"Sailor Moon!"

"My King!" Shouts rang up as the golden power blinded their view of everything beyond the Silence Wall, which Pluto, Chibi Moon, Mamoru, and Sailor Moon had been trapped outside of.

All of them save for Saturn and Neptune ran up to the boundary of the wall, squinting as they tried to see through the explosion that continued to rage outside.

And then all at once, the Golden Crystal's power vanished, leaving spots in their eyes and the echo of its shrieking clash with the Silence Wall in their ears.

Mars, Helios, and Kunzite were the first to rush forwards when an exhausted Saturn vanished the wall. All of them blinked rapidly to clear their vision.

"There!" Mars shouted, pointing to the far left corner of the cloister.

Sailor Moon was standing in front of the others, surrounded by burnt-white flagstones and ash-filled flowerbeds. Her legs were braced apart and her arms were crossed in front of her.

Protected behind her, was Mamoru, who seemed to have been knocked off his feet, and behind him Pluto, who had rolled all the way into the far wall with Chibi Moon and had covered the small senshi's body with her own.

As the rest of the Senshi and the Shittenou sprinted to them, Sailor Moon lowered her arms and turned around.

Pluto pushed herself up, helping a de-transformed Chibiusa to her feet. "Small Lady," she checked, brushing back Chibiusa's hair and clutching her shoulders.

The girl glanced around, blinking, brows furrowed in confusion.

"Chibiusa?" Sailor Moon asked as she and Mamoru huddled close to them.

"It… didn't work?" Chibiusa looked down at her brooch. "But… but why?"

"As I suspected," Pluto told her hurriedly. "It is no fault of yours, Small Lady, but your being from the future was bound to have complicated effects – this is –"

"But I can use Papa's Golden Crystal just fine!" Chibiusa argued.

"Because… I suppose because it is your father's," Pluto said, "You have a… far more direct connection to it than this planet, in this present time."

"But she can use the Moon's power," Sailor Moon pointed out. "How is Earth different?"

They all looked to Pluto, who was frowning, and then to Mamoru, who was shaking his head.

Helios cleared his throat. "Before perhaps it would not have been any different," Helios began. "But now I fear… if Chibiusa can not awaken it, then that confirms a theory my family and I have hoped for a millennia was not true." He turned to the obelisk. "When Earth's lifespans began to wane, when the numbers of its Magae began to dwindle, we suspected that these things were related to the loss of our Sailor. And not simply because the Earth was upset, rather…" he looked at Mamoru's Golden Crystal, "That her crystal was the physical form of Earth's soul, and the senshi its link to the planet… by separating them, we feared, the planet had also been separated from her power. Thus Earth's magic and her ability to produce strong star seeds began to weaken."

He looked to the obelisk. "So while this may once have been a magical connection between the Earth's surface and her heart, now it is a physical link only. Perhaps Chibiusa's effort has failed not because she is unfit, but because there is nothing magical within Earth's heart for her power to awaken."

"Like a closed circuit," Mercury said. "She overloaded the obelisk with power and it had no where to go."

Helios nodded.

And Chibiusa drew everyone's attention when she sniffed. "So we can't get the sunspots out." She said, her lip trembling. "We can't do anything."

"Don't think that," Sailor Moon and Pluto said at the same time.

"Chibiusa," Sailor Moon added, looking determinedly at her daughter, and then at all those gathered. "We will figure something out." She grabbed Mamoru's hand hastily as he started to cough while she spoke. "I promise," she added.

All her Senshi, the Shittenou and Helios nodded. And Mamoru did as well, though his heart was not really in it. He squeezed the Golden Crystal tightly as he and Sailor Moon got to their feet, and all of them prepared to teleport home.

"How was our Sailor separated from the Golden Crystal?" Mamoru asked as they gathered in a circle.

"That's," Artemis began to say.

"A very good question," Luna interrupted. "Unfortunately, its an answer we lost a long time ago."

Mamoru frowned. "That's a shame," he said, looking past them, and outside the circle, at Helios. "It could have helped us now."

~AgeofAquarius~

Helios stared at the images of the two Lunar advisors in the face of Elysion's obelisk. Both look as conflicted as he felt. "I could sense those crystals resonating," Helios said to the two cats as their images wavered on the obelisk's face. "With Serenity awakened, in control of the Silver crystal, and the connection they already have…"

"We knew it was only a matter of time," Luna said. "But they're dreaming of Earth's Sailors."

"Hence, why we need to tell them now," Artemis insisted. His face appeared stern. "Before it catches them by surprise."

"But..." Luna protested. "But that isn't something they should be distracted by now, not when we need them to be working together."

"But they knew a bit of this in their past lives as well," Helios pointed out. "It did not stop them from loving each other."

"They knew the bare bones of this… nothing like what they'll figure out if they dream of her and the others."

"Exactly!" Artemis said. "So we should tell them – or do you want to wait and see how long it takes them to dream of the Queen... every record says that those who receive visions always dream of their predecessors pivotal battles first. It's only a matter of time."

"But they might not dream of The Queen at all," Helios said. "After all..."

All of them looked down.

"My King is already quite discouraged," Helios continued. "Let us wait," he petitioned Artemis. "At least until he believes in his own abilities a little more. The truth would only do him harm now."

"And what will you do if he asks?" Artemis said. "Mamoru Chiba is not a man to contently sit on a mystery. And," he looked at Luna. "You know Usagi will only accept the truth from you. She'll know if you attempt to keep her in the dark. She won't like it."

Luna sighed, looking between the two of them. "I don't want to hurt them. This will."

Helios nodded. "I find that I agree." He sighed, standing. "Let us answer their questions," he said. "But as shortly as we can. If we must pretend to forget or not know certain details that will hardly seem suspicious." He saw Luna nodding at him, and Artemis still looking away. He pressed on. "They needn't bear the burden of the whole truth now."

"After this enemy is gone," Luna said.

"And if they dream of what happened?" Artemis demanded. "If those crystals see fit to show them the answers to their questions?"

"You still assume it is even possible for them to see the final Sailor of Earth," Helios said. "And I don't believe that's so. Her connection to the Golden Crystal was destroyed long ago. Endymion dreamed of the others in his past life. He never mentioned her."Helios tapped his hand against the obelisk.

"But the Silver Crystal's involved now. We don't know how that changes things," Artemis said. "If you're wrong..."

"If I'm wrong, then we must all remember a planet never gave a Sailor a vision they weren't ready for." Helios bowed his head. "And I, and those who follow my path have learnt the hard way several times that a planet always makes the right choice, if not the convenient one."

~AgeofAquarius~

Mamoru meditated into Elysion to speak with Helios later on that day.

"Your Majesty," the High Priest of Elysion bowed his head as the King of Earth appeared before him.

The King, sighed, becoming more corporeal with each second. He'd improved quite a bit since the first time he'd contacted Helios for counsel. Still, he maintained a few reliable quirks.

"Is it even too much to call me Chiba-san, Helios?" Mamoru asked, stepping forwards as his body materialized in Elysion's courtyard.

Helios smiled as he rose to his feet. "Titles are not such bad things, Your Majesty," Helios maintained. "In fact I found that though they can go to some people's heads, for many they can be reminders of their responsibilities, and the standards they must hold themselves to." He nodded to Mamoru. "And for me, it is an acknowledgement of my respect for you. Rest assured, I promised you millennia ago never to give you respect you hadn't earned."

And he bowed low to the King of the Earth,

As he did, Helios felt the warm magic of the Golden Crystal watch over the cloister. Green sprouts began to peek up in the ash-filled flowerbeds to either side of the flagstone walkway. And when Helios rose, some of the flowers were in full bloom.

The King regarded them thoughtfully.

"Why can I do that," Mamoru asked. He looked up at Helios. "But not awaken my own planet?"

Helios sighed. And beckoned Mamoru over to the steps that led up onto the covered walk around the cloister. "You can do many things with that crystal that we deemed extraordinary," Helios said. "Things that, by the Silver Millennium, we had written off as legend." Mamoru sat heavily beside him, eyes on the crystal that floated above his palm. Helios wrung his hands together. "It chose you, when you were very young, stopped working for every other member of your family in fact. It made a wise choice."

Mamoru looked away.

"You doubt that, Your Majesty?"

"I wish you wouldn't call me that," Mamoru confided. "I hardly feel like a leader, Helios. I..." He scuffed his feet on the flagstones. "How can I be a King, chosen or not, if I cannot protect this world?"

Helios looked away. "It has been hard for the Earth, without her Sailor," he whispered. "But the Golden Crystal has been a staunch Ally of the monarchs since the second Sailor of the Earth created it."

Mamoru raised his eyebrows. "So that's who wrote these." And Helios jumped as he opened his hand between them, producing the black journal he had taken from Usagi's room. Mamoru flipped it open to a page book-marked with parchment. Helios gasped as he scanned right-to-left across the ancient characters. "Where did you find them," he demanded, reaching out to touch the burnt parchment and forgetting for a moment that it, like Mamoru, were not truly there. Helios fingers passed right through the journal.

"You know what these are then," Mamoru confirmed his guess. "A Sailor wrote them."

"Serenity Tana," yes, Helios said before he could catch himself.

"Serenity?"

Helios might have slapped his hand over his face except he did not want to be the advisor to give away that they were hiding something. He nodded. "An old title we used to give to distinguished individuals on Earth. It was always given to one deemed a Steward of Peace. Twas not awarded lightly. Serenity Tana was one of a few Senshi to earn the title." He leaned close to the parchment with her writing, curiosity getting the better of him. They had wondered where these were for so long!

"She was a great Senshi, then?" Mamoru asked.

"Arguably the greatest," Helios said. "If only for the great age she lived to and for how many battles she waged and won. Many sailors, our own and not were awarded it by the Earth, amongst other distinguished sorts." He cleared his throat. "As Serenity was also the Moon Queen's given name, we'd begun to call her Lady Tana, by your time."

Mamoru furrowed his brows, but shook his head, flipping through the journal to show Helios the rest of the four pieces of parchment, all burnt to some degree, pressed between the pages. "Usagi found these on the Moon," he said. "They were hoping you could read them… But I found I could read the writing too.

"I'm not surprised," Helios chuckled. "This was still the capital's language by your time. My father taught you to read off of other books Tana wrote – and she wrote many. Which, given how long she lived, was hardly surprising." He sighed. "They really found them… all those books…"

Books? Mamoru shook his head. "The ones I could read, it was only a stack of parchment.

Helios frowned. "Why it ought to be a lot more then that. My family's searched for those prophecies for millennia. There were surely whole books of them." He looked at Mamoru, "What ages are the prophecies you found written for?"

Mamoru raised an eyebrow. "Ages?"

"Yes. It was how we used to keep track of dates that stretched beyond a two thousand years. Astrological Ages." Helios waved at the parchment in the journal between them. "That journal's from Pisces. The parchment was written in Taurus or Aries depending how old Tana was when she wrote it. We're on the Aquarian Cusp now."

"We are!" Mamoru's eyes widened. "That must be why these were in here," he flipped through the journal. "These pieces of parchment… all mention the cusp. Queen Serenity would have hidden them in here." He sighed. "I can't read much, the burns have eaten away a lot of the writing."

"What is legible?" Helios hedged, squinting once more at the blurry projection of the journal.

"She talks a lot about how she wants to create the Golden Crystal," Mamoru said. He flipped to the third piece of parchment. Like this one. He read from right to left: "The Selens are the appropriate stewards. They maintain the integrity of my predecessor and will surely be the family of my successor as well. In their hands, I believe I can put us on a path that may affect the Aquarian Cusp positively, rather than negatively." He snapped the journal shut. "Her predecessor and successor. She's talking about the other Earth senshi then?"

"Y-yes," Helios said.

"That's interesting because I saw her predecessor in my dream the other night… and she looked a whole lot more like Usagi than me." He turned to Helios. "Which I believe means… my family are not the Selens," he looked down at the Golden Crystal. "So then why do I have this?"

You were always too sharp for your own good, Helios thought, gnawing on his lower lip. Perhaps they ought to have taken Artemis suggestion, because he surely could have used the Lunar advisors' long years of experience explaining things…

"Helios?" Mamoru prompted him.

"Well prophecies cannot account for all of a planet's politics," Helios said to Mamoru. "As well, she oversimplifies what the crystal ended up able to do. Anyone worthy could use it – and you have in this life and your last more than proved you are."

But Mamoru furrowed his brows. And Helios immediately knew he'd put his foot in his mouth. "If anyone worthy could use it," Mamoru said. "Why was it kept in my family? Where it couldn't do as much good? Or why did these," he waved the journal. "Selens not have it anymore. Surely they were all worthy if a senshi gave them the crystal?"

Helios sighed, looking up towards Elysion's false sky. "Forgive me," he said and turned to face Mamoru. "Twas not simply kept in your family, My King. The Golden Crystal was bound to your bloodline magically the day Sailor Earth was lost. And without the connection to Earth or to a strong star seed, they could not use it to its fullest potential – but you could." He insisted. "I know you could, My King," Helios grabbed his arm. "You were the beginning of Earth's solution. I am sure."

"How?"

"I… I don't know," Helios turned his gaze upwards. "I am only sure. You must trust me when I say that crystal and you are bound by more than that daft curse,"

"Curse?"

Damnit. Helios clenched his fists. "That didn't have the same connotation it does these days…" Helios tried.

"I think you're lying," Mamoru said gravely. "Helios: Why was Earth's crystal cursed into my family? Why did our Sailor lose it?"

Helios hung his head. "Just before the Silver Millennium," he whispered. "There was a coup on Earth. Influenced by Metalia. Your ancestors upset the throne and took control from the previous monarchs."

"The Selens?" Mamoru asked.

"Yes," Helios confirmed. And a shiver ran up Mamoru's spine as the priest pressed his hands together in front of his face.

"But… how did the Sailor lose the crystal."

"I am getting to it," Helios said. He took a deep breath as he tried to find the best way to phrase it.

"Helios," Mamoru demanded.

"The Sailor of the time," Helios finally carried on, "Was the heir of the previous royals. And… fearing how she might take back the throne, the Monarch of the time captured her when she had defeated Metalia, and used magic to separate her from her power – the Golden Crystal." He gulped. "No one considered that they harmed the Earth herself until the decline in lifespan, and magic, and the Golden Crystal's power became evident. By that time, the original Queen who stole the crystal was dead. And the Moon Kingdom became a conveniently located enemy on whom Earth's people could blame their ills."

He watched Mamoru closely. He was staring at the Golden Crystal, which he had taken from around his neck. It rolled in his open palm.

"So… so my family are murderers, then?"

"No!" Helios protested. "Well… not your parents, My King. Ten generations at least separate you from the events of that time. You must remember that."

Mamoru stood, "But then how am I meant to wield this," he shook the Golden Crystal. "If it was stolen for me."

"It was stolen in a time of fear and darkness," Helios said. "You had at least eight other cousins in your line as well as your mother who all tried to make that crystal work for them. And it would have taken them at least a decade of practice," he gestured to the flowers Mamoru had made sprout all over the garden. "To do anything as great as that. The Golden Crystal chose you," Helios repeated. "You must not let history weigh on you. You've got to see you were this planet's choice."

Mamoru looked away, towards the obelisk, then the false sky. He frowned. It looked liked the ground above was trembling.

Or perhaps that was something he felt, in his physical body, a shaking beneath his feet.

Mamoru shook his head. "The last Sailor of Earth," he began to ask, eyes going to the false sky over Elysion through which, though bright, the rock above was visible. He narrowed his eyes, cracks were fissuring through it. "What was her…"

His voice trailed off as the flagstones under his feet began to tremble. The cracks in the Earth above them widened. Elysion's whole bubble rocked, pitching Helios off his feet and causing Mamoru's projection to waver. The Earth all around them was shaking.

"The Sunspots!" Mamoru realized, coughing violently as he did. His projection wavered more, his spirit struggling to remain away from where his physical body meditated on the surface.

"They may be finished incubating in the core!" Helios said. He rushed to the obelisk, the small gem on his forehead shining. "I shall protect this place," he said as he put his hands on the Obelisk. The shield around Elysion glowed and the shaking of the temple around them ceased.

But Mamoru was still wavering, feeling an even more intense shaking around his body on the surface.

"Go!" Helios shouted; eyes closed as he poured his magic into Elysion's protections.

Mamoru nodded, turning his head as he heard a screech. He hovered into the air, staring outside Elysion's bubble as a group of shadows raced past, upwards…

The sunspots. Mamoru followed them up, gasping as he returned to his body. He opened his eyes.

The Earth beneath him was rumbling, the grassy ground he'd been meditating on now a liquefied, muddy mess. He stood, bumping his head on the branch of the cherry tree behind him (which had sunk several inches into the ground).

The Earth beneath him buckled, and he grabbed the trunk of the cherry tree to keep standing.

"My King!" Kunzite grabbed his elbow to help steady him. He was already transformed, and his broadsword trembled in his hand in time with the shaking of the ground.

"This is more than an earthquake!" Mamoru shouted. He scanned across the park and pointed out the Chess Tower, where a beam of white light was streaming out of the Crystal point inside. "It's the sunspots."

"They might try to damage the Crystal Points!" Zoisite pointed out. "To weaken the shield."

"Then lets get beyond it so we can defend this one!" Mamoru ordered.

"Right!" Jadeite raced ahead of them, conjuring his jade-green fire to his hand. His cape whipped behind him.

"Hothead," Zoisite muttered, falling into step with Kunzite and Mamoru as they too ran across the park, Mamoru transforming mid-stride into Tuxedo Mask.

They reached the edge of the senshi's shield just before the protective bubble had completely formed, and stood in a line along the exposed side of the chess tower. Kunzite had time to spin his sword once before the screeches Mamoru had heard in Elysion rang through the air overhead. They looked northward.

The group of sunspots had emerged from the Earth and were hovering on the opposite side of the shield, all gathering together into one, giant shadow.

"Nephrite's said not to let these hit you," Kunzite warned.

"They can kick his ass," Zoisite added.

"We could kill it all together!" Jadeite insisted.

"I doubt it," Mamoru said. "Work together to keep them back if they get over here." He already had his communicator out. "If they can give the senshi trouble, I'm not sure how our powers will do."

On the other side of Juuban's shield, the giant mass of sunspots had begun generating an attack. Mamoru squinted to see what it was. He shivered

It was a swirling ball of black flower petals.

Rose petals…

~AgeofAquarius~

All across Juuban, the Senshi were alerted to the incoming attack via their communicators about ten seconds after the first tremor shook the ground.

Michiru was having lunch with several of her friends in the orchestra.

"Earthquake!" one of them gasped as the table of four got to their feet. Michiru fumbled for her mirror, pulling it from her bag and smoothing her hand across the opaque surface, willing away the spot of white light that had been flickering within it throughout the week. She concentrated on seeing the source of the quake.

Her communicator went off as she did. First with a warning and then with Mercury's voice.

"Sunspots incoming," Mercury announced. "Two minutes."

Faster than they moved the last time, Michiru thought as she dashed away from her friends at the table.

"Is this one of those enemies?" One of her friends called. She ignored them, dashing into an alley and transforming before leaping up onto the roof of the restaurant they'd been eating at, and then leaping to the taller building behind it. That roof was flat. She stood right on the edge of it.

"It looks like a group of ten," Mercury said.

"Only ten!" Jupiter chuckled. "Piece of cake after last time."

"Don't assume," Neptune cautioned her teammates as she scanned her mirror. It focused on the neighbourhood just north of Juuban. "Considering the negative energy they've been feeding on, they could be more powerful."

"30 seconds," Mercury said. "Shield's active."

Michiru glanced at the Aqua Mirror, training it on the five Crystal Points. She watched as each 7 ft. silver obelisk glowed with cool, white light, which filled them and then shot upwards, five beams of energy she could see as she turned towards each corner of Juuban. They arced overhead, meeting in the center of the neighbourhood. From that point, a rainbow of light spread outwards, creating the protective, iridescent dome over Juuban.

"Breaching ground at 25 degrees," Mercury said.

"Look towards Hikawa," Venus clarified.

Michiru turned her gaze northeastward, narrowing her eyes as 10 sunspots shot up into the air outside the shield. They hovered close together just beyond it.

All around Juuban, the senshi watched as nine of the sunspots drew together – into a massive shadow, the crystal shards within invisible in the noon-time sunlight. The tenth sunspot shot backwards, hovering next to the larger one, which had begun to generate an attack.

With the Aqua Mirror, Michiru could clearly see the scale of the rose attack that was signature to all Earth's sunspots. It was at least twice the size of all the sunspots joined together: thousands of black flower petals swirling together quickly enough that a cyclone of wind gathered around them.

"Not a fan of that," Uranus voice crackled through the communicators.

"Don't worry," Sailor Moon said. "It'll hold."

When the rose-attack was three times as big as the multi-sunspot (and casting a large shadow over the city behind it) the group of their enemies screeched, and their attack shot forwards.

The giant attack rushed their barrier, wind and dark rose petals pummelling the shield. Around the attack point, the iridescent light was flickering.

Michiru tightened her grip on the mirror.

The tenth sunspot then raced forwards, slamming into the shield at the point where the attack hit.

It shrieked as it hit the barrier.

"HA!" Venus cheered over the communicator, as the shield incinerated the shadow and sapped the remaining energy out of the rose attack.

Under the light from the sun and the shield, something gleamed as it fell through the barrier where the sunspot had hit.

The crystal shard, Neptune's heart panged. She leapt across the street to the next roof, aiming for the part of Juuban the shard was falling towards.

"Got it!" Sailor Moon shouted. And Neptune saw her soaring in from the direction of Makoto's bakery, reaching the shard hundreds of feet before it would have hit the ground.

"They're moving," Uranus voice warned. Overhead, the multi sunspot was splitting up, the nine that had comprised it darting off in five directions, towards all five of the crystal points. Three bore down on Hikawa, two towards the bakery, and two towards the destroyed supermarket. One each rushed towards the Southwest and West to Bob Floy's and the chess tower.

"We've got the bakery covered," Venus said.

"I might need a little help," Mars shouted.

"You've got it!" Sailor Moon called. And from her spot on the roof, Neptune saw the airborne senshi teleport away. Seconds later her silver magic was lighting up the top of Hikawa's hill.

There's only one at the Chess tower and Bob Floys, Michiru thought. So we'll need to head for the supermarket. She waited on the roof, turning towards those points. Pluto was usually quicker about picking she and Uranus up with the Time Doors.

What's going on? She asked Pluto, glancing at her mirror.

Sorry, Pluto thought back to her.

"Don't worry Neptune," Uranus said through the communicator. "We've got it covered."

In the mirror she could see both of them in front of the ruined supermarket, a World Shaking and a Dead Scream slamming into the sunspot and reducing its mass by half.

They're leaving me behind. Neptune stared. Twitching her fingers on the handle of the mirror as she watched the sunspot counter Uranus and Pluto's next attack and send a powerful rain of thorns down on both of them. "You need back up!" she fumed into the communicator. "I'll be there in five."

Over the communicator, she heard Uranus shout her next attack, and the sunspot screech in pain.

"Love, remember when we said we could fight about this later," Uranus hedged.

Neptune glared down at her communicator as she ran along the roofs. "You. Are. Not."

"This is later," Pluto confirmed.

Neptune was close enough now to see the still standing sign of the supermarket. Bright garnet and yellow attacks exploded together to the left of it. She checked her mirror. There was Uranus plucking a tiny shard of pink crystal off the ground as Pluto summoned the doors. A few moments later, she saw their attacks flashing in the Southwest, over Bob Floy's.

She turned. The bakery was calm. Hikawa was calm. And even though she could see activity near the Chess Tower, it was surely going to be moments before Sailor Moon or Venus teleported in and dealt with it handily.

Neptune lowered her mirror as a cold wind whipped past, staring across Juuban. She'd never be able to run all the way to the Chess Tower in time. Even then, what wasn't to say she wouldn't be trapped under the shield like all the plain, magic-less people it was designed the shelter?

They did it without me.

~AgeofAquarius~

The sunspots seemed aware of their disadvantage from the start, far more evasive than they had been before the battle in April. They dodged and defended more than they blocked.

Only two managed to hit the crystal points, the second by slamming Zoisite through the side of the chess tower. And even this barely made the silver obelisk flicker.

But the enemy realized quickly which point was vulnerable. One each from Hikawa, the bakery, and the supermarket disappeared before the senshi on scene could hit them.

They reappeared at the same time right over the Shittenou, and Kunzite, Zoisite, and Mamoru paled as soon as they saw them.

Jadeite meanwhile turned red, charging forwards and throwing ball after ball of green flame at the line of advancing enemies. They absorbed the head-sized balls of fire like they were little more than sparks and send back barrages of thorns and rose petals that burnt and tore through the Shittenou and Tuxedo Mask's capes until Kunzite, with a powerful slash of his sword, beat the four enemies back.

"We can't even get a dent in them!" Jadeite fumed.

"A combined attack works for the scouts," Tuxedo Mask said. "I've got one we can try."

The three Shittenou nodded and ran behind him, putting one hand each on his shoulders.

"Tuxedo Smoking Bomber!" He shouted, drawing on all of their power as well. The Golden Crystal, now housed on a chain that hung just below the collar of his shirt, burned as the attack blasted from his hands. He trained his attack on the sunspot they had been fighting the longest. It tore through the enemy's half-conjured counter attack.

And reduced it by a third.

Kunzite swore.

"We don't have enough power to do that to each of these," Zoisite warned.

"Incoming!" Jadeite shouted, Jerking Tuxedo Mask back. His short sword and Kunzite's broad sword crossed in front of their King, and an epic shriek rebounded off the crossed blades as the attack slammed into them. Both Shittenou's knees shook as they dug their heals into the loose ground under their feet.

Tuxedo Mask clenched his fists.

"Hang on!" Usagi's voice rang through Tuxedo Mask's communicator. "We're coming."

A moment later, Venus, Nephrite, and Jupiter appeared a few meters behind the sunspots, who scattered as they heard Jupiter's lightning sizzle.

"Oh no you don't!" Sailor Moon shouted as she appeared to their left with Mars.

Nephrite raised both hands. "Stellar Guardians!" He called, small balls of starlight appearing and spinning above his hands. "Surround."

Rather than hit the four sunspots, Tuxedo Mask saw, his knight who had been fighting with the senshi simply sent his attack racing ahead of them, corralling the sunspots back together.

Close enough for Sailor Moon's Therapy Kiss to hit three of the four at once.

A Dead Scream and World Shaking from a nearby tree took out the last sunspot, which had dove around Nephrite's defense.

"You guys alright?" Venus called as the senshi approached them, most now grinning.

"I am suddenly reassessing why past me would have agreed to let Metalia give me power," Zoisite muttered.

"We're fine," Tuxedo Mask said, stepping around his knights and detransforming. One of the crystal shards had fallen at his feet. He bent to pick it up: light blue. It was so small, the edge jagged where it had been forcibly split from the rest of its Sailor Crystal. Mamoru shuddered.

Sailor Moon appeared at his side, covering the shard with her hand. "I can take it," she said.

"Is there any way to heal them?" Mamoru asked.

But all the scouts present shook their heads.

Many, he could see, were holding other shards, none of the same color.

"But we can bring them to Hikawa," Rei announced. "I want to try to learn their names – it's the only way we can reach them."

"Just be careful," Venus muttered. She was looking around the group of them, checking each member of her team for injury. She paused on Uranus and Pluto. "Hey," she furrowed her brows. "Where's Neptune?"

Both of them blushed, a wave of guilt swamped her from Pluto.

Venus realized what they'd done. "Oh you two are in trouble…" She sighed and looked at Rei. "Can I stay at yours tonight?" she asked. "Paparazzi won't be near as bad as the baby drama."

Venus seemed to be right, for Michiru was waiting at Hikawa when they arrived, having tea on the porch with Rei's grandfather. She didn't even look when the whole group of them, in a flash, appeared in Hikawa's yard.

"Love?" Haruka hesitated, boldly stepping ahead of the others.

Michiru snapped her head towards her, looking and feeling decidedly irate. The other senshi stepped back several paces from Haruka and Setsuna, looking for an escape.

Michiru glared at her partners as the others slunk away towards the fire room. Haruka had her hands stuffed in her pockets and her head tilted down, looking at Michiru with wide eyes beneath her dark lashes and her fringe.

Oh do not thing that face is going to get you out of this! Michiru fumed. She flicked her glare towards Setsuna, who had hung back behind Haruka and was hiding behind her Garnet Rod. She chanced a glance at Michiru and looked away.

"It's a good thing I came here ahead of time isn't it?" Michiru whispered, forgetting it seemed about Grandpa Hino calmly sipping his tea behind her. "Were you going to leave me out of this too?"

"Of course not," Haruka blurted out. "We would have come and got you."

"It's just... you'd already made your way here," Setsuna whispered.

Michiru's nostrils flared. "My powers are working just fine!" she carried on. "You don't get to decide to shut me out while I can still be useful!"

"We didn't!" Setsuna protested. "We just..." Her shoulders slumped. "I decided we could handle things without you, so we did."

"Oh don't try to pin it on yourself," Haruka said, pulling her hands from her pockets. "I felt the same." She looked hesitantly up at Michiru's red face. "Michi there were just ten of them... We didn't have to risk you, and I didn't want to."

"And we agreed," Michiru carried on. "That I would fight as long as I could, if I agreed to stand behind you." She clenched her fists. "Being left too far from the fight to actually help is not the same thing."

Haruka looked away. Setsuna tightened her hands on the Garnet Rod.

"Now," Michiru said. "Do I get to find out what I missed? Or am I too fragile to be at meetings too?"

"We don't think you're fragile," Setsuna spoke up. "But the last time we fought these things you passed out."

"After five hours!"

"And before that," Haruka said. "You transformation failed when they slammed you into a building."

"Accidents happen!"

"We get scared," Setsuna pressed on. "Especially when you think about yourself last in any given situation." She braved looking Michiru in the eyes. "If something happened... you'd pin that on yourself too," she said.

Haruka nodded. "We're scared for you."

Michiru's glare did not waver. Though she was left struggling to find a retort.

Given her anger had been enough to send the other senshi scattering, it surprised all of them when Rei's stout, defense-less grandfather clapped Michiru on the shoulder.

"It is funny how love tends to have each other's best interest in mind," he said, "And that that is the thing love clashes over most often." He looked between the three of them, smirking ever so slightly at their stunned expressions. "In this case, perhaps admitting one's particular fragility would be a good starting point for compromise," He raised his eyebrows at Michiru. "After all, one must recognize that while defending others is noble, throwing one self needlessly at danger is quite a foolish tactic, indeed. I'm sure the guardian of an element so adaptable as the sea will be wise enough to recognize that." And he slipped away, seemingly unaware of the murderous glare being trained on his back. He meandered through the open door of the shrine residence and slid it shut. The clack of the door against the frame echoed across the still grounds.

Michiru huffed. "You still don't get to make my choices for me!" she snapped, striding along the porch towards the fire room.

The group of Senshi and Shittenou parted from the fire as they slipped into the room. The flames stretched two meters high towards the ceiling: illuminating the nine shards of crystal carefully placed along the side, and throwing off purple highlights from Rei's hair.

The priestess knelt dead center before the flames, with Usagi and Minako to either side of her. She reached out and touched her hand to the pink crystal shard in the center. "This is Procyon," she whispered.

"They're all different colors," Michiru commented.

"Then it's learned from what happened last time," Haruka said, reaching for her hand.

Michiru stepped away, towards the flames. She was not done being mad at them.

"Means we're on to something though, doesn't it?" Makoto said, arms crossed as she stood off to Mina's side. "Put them back together, and it starts losing control."

The Shittenou nodded like they agreed. And Mamoru tilted his head as he considered the shards.

"How many more are there in the Earth?" he asked. "Is it just the rest of these ten?"

"It's hard to say," Setsuna whispered.

"There's at least thirty within Mars," Rei said.

They all frowned at her.

"How can you tell?" Usagi asked.

Rei didn't answer.

Mina's mouth pressed into a thin line as she squeezed Rei's shoulder. "Same way she knows how to talk to these," she whispered.

Rei had reached out towards a second crystal, the light blue one, "Pollux," she said after a moment, and moved her hand to hover over the dark blue one beside it. A few minutes later she sighed. "This one doesn't remember."

She moved to the next one in the line, a bright yellow that looked nearly-alive by the warm light of the flames. She meditated over it for a few minutes.

They jumped when she gasped. The Holy Fire flickered. Mina jerked Rei back and reached across her to cover Usagi as well. Despite her anger, Michiru scrambled back into Haruka and Setsuna.

Black shadows had formed behind each small shard of crystal, stretching out and filling their cores. Sailor Moon reached to grab the clear one closest to her before the shadow could fill it, and was stopped only by the combined effort of Mina and Mamoru keeping her back.

"We can't do anything," Rei whispered, fists clenched as she watched the shards of crystal vanish one after the other.

As the last winked away, Mamoru coughed, shoulders shaking from the force of his fit. Kunzite reached out to steady him by the arm.

"Think it's just sent them back into the Earth?" Haruka said, arm around Michiru's waist. "To recharge and hit us again?"

Mina nodded, frowning. She put a hand to her temple as she concentrated.

The emotions in the room had been making her head pound, but a fresh one seemed quite out of place.

Guilt. It was thick and palpable, and different from the same feeling she could feel simmering in Setsuna and Haruka. This guilt dug much deeper.

She scanned around the room, assessing her friends, finally settling her gaze on Mamoru. Her frown deepened.

It isn't even your fault, she thought.

"We'll keep an eye out for more of them," she promised him. "See if we can find a way to keep them from getting recaptured."

Mamoru shook his head. "It'll just send more of them into the Earth," he said. "And do more damage."

They sat in silence a few minutes, brooding over their circumstances, until the senshi's communicators chimed.

"I've got some details about that earthquake," Ami announced.

"Let me guess," Mina said. "It wasn't natural."

There was a pause.

"It's easier if you come to Command," Ami said. "It's something you need to see."

~AgeofAquarius~

The storm that whirled over the planet's pole looked almost serene so high above, and nothing like a normal storm: racing beneath the white surface of the clouds were ephemeral swirls in every color that appeared and vanished in the blink of an eye.

"An enemy?" Mamoru murmured, stepping closer to the storm to get a better look, the tip of his bare foot cresting the edge of the black tile platform he was standing on.

"No," Usagi replied, one of her feet mirroring his as she leaned over the edge too. "It's… I don't think it is." She tilted her head to the side. "It's kind of beautiful."

The look of it still made Mamoru shiver. He grasped her hand. "That's not Earth," he determined. The planet below them looked too big, and was covered, beyond the far-reaching arms of this strange, polar storm, in swathes of mustard coloured clouds.

"We're dreaming again," Usagi realized, squeezing Mamoru's hand.

They must have been – he looked away from the strange storm and the strange planet at the black tiles under his feet – part of some observation platform, of an equally black building. The whole structure gleamed like obsidian – reflecting the many stars Mamoru could see as he turned away from the planet.

"I'd advice staying back from the edge," someone said (a man whose voice was peculiarly soft). "The Silence Cyclone's less docile than it appears."

As he spoke, a beam of light shot without warning up into space. They scrambled back, along with several others who'd been standing close to the edge of the black tiles.

"Do not fear it," A rougher, wizened voice called from behind them, they turned.

All around them the people gathered on the tile observation platform knelt, curtseyed, or bowed. One man in red offered up his sword to the three people approaching.

Or perhaps only one of them – for the diminutive woman who walked in the middle certainly stood out in her blue and white dress – a cool contrast to the gold habits of both tall figures on either side of her.

Another beam of energy split through the planet's atmosphere and grazed the side of the tile observation deck before fading to wisps of glitter. The entire spectacle did not make a single sound, but did corrode away several of the tiles. Mamoru and Usagi shivered, as did several of the people with them on the platform.

But the old woman in blue and white did not seem at all perturbed. In fact, a faint smile decorated her wrinkled, brown face. "Rest assured, it would never snatch undeserving victims with nary an omen or explanation." She walked ahead of the two habit-clad figures (who both bowed to her) and approached the open platform, nodding to each of the eight people around them.

Her vivid green eyes stopped on Mamoru and Usagi, seeming to stare right through them. They shivered. "It is calling for me alone."

"Serenity Tana," a woman directly on their left startled them as she rose from her bow. They had not seen her before. Her shoulder passed right through Usagi's when she stood and Usagi stepped back, bumping into Mamoru. So the old woman had not been staring at them at all, but this other person: With a small nose and blond hair gathered up in a single, long braid and wrapped around a golden crown. Usagi and Mamoru both stared. She looked like the Sailor in their dream.

And also looked very much like Usagi, right down to the petulant frown on her face.

"Your Majesty," Tana smiled and walked up to her, bowing her head. "You decided to be here after all?"

The blond Queen looked away. "Why do you have to do this?" she asked. "You've done so much for this star system – you deserve to live out your remaining days in peace like any other."

Tana's shook her head and looked kindly on the young Queen. "I've lived longer than anyone you've ever known, and all of my predecessors besides – a few years more or less hardly matter to me." She looked past the Queen as another beam of energy slammed into the edge of the observation deck, arcing slightly towards those gathered there. "And as I explained before – it is my duty to ensure our worlds are protected while the next Guardian grows up – I gave up the ability to shield our worlds at will, with Earth's powers, when I created that," and she waved towards the lavender staff in the Queen's hand – with the golden crystal nestled atop it. "This planet, thankfully, can use the power I have within me, to make a shield just as strong as Earth's crystal can."

"Then take it back!" the Queen said, holding her staff out in her open palms. "Live the rest of your life, however much of it there is."

Tana sighed. "Lena," she lectured. "Are you not the same young girl who once declared me the greatest seer there'd ever been?"

The Queen, Lena looked away. "Even seers can do foolish things."

An elderly pale man four people to their right huffed. "So can upstart young Queens," he muttered.

Lena glared at him, fuming: "I hardly think the ruler of a planet who's purportedly never had a Guardian can tell my how to treat my own." She looked with wide, pleading eyes back at Tana. "You earned us the peace we enjoy now thousands of times over. You should be allowed enjoy it as long as you can." She pushed the Golden Crystal's staff towards Tana. "Take it back."

Tana covered Lena's hands with hers, and shook her head, curling the queen's fingers around the staff. "It is meant for you and your family to wield. It can keep Earth and all the worlds strong if there is ever a time when the Guardian can't… and it is necessary for the future that I want to come to pass." She levelled a sterner look at Lena. "When any one thing could tip the far future from the light to dark, there is no room for human concerns to create unnecessary risks."

Lena looked away, and her shoulders slumped as she lowered her arms and returned the Golden Crystal's staff to her side. "It's not fair."

And Tana chuckled, the warm sound echoing across the observation deck. "Lena, people have called my destiny many things – fair has never been one of them." She put her hand on the Queen's shoulder and squeezed it. "Keep my crystal," she said.

And her eyes flicked away from Lena, startling Mamoru and Usagi again as she stared right at them, even giving them a kind smile. "Good things will come out of having it."

And she moved away, walking right past Mamoru and Usagi as she approached the platform's edge. Another beam of energy arched overhead blazing for several seconds before fading.

"Impatient," Tana tutted, white heels grazing the Platform's perimeter as she looked down at the polar storm. "I know what needs to be done, there's no need for dramatics."

In response, the storm produced another energy beam, one that struck the toes of Tana's shoes, which began to glitter as the light faded away. Mamoru and Usagi gasped. So did many of those around them. Tana's feet, where the light had struck them, and then the bottom of her dress were turning translucent, twinkling with golden sparks that appeared as her form began to fade.

Tana appeared unconcerned, stretching her arms over her head and looking up at the many stars. She sighed and closed her eyes. The golden crescent under her white fringe began to glow. "Earth Crystal Power."

Mamoru felt the Golden Crystal grow hot against his chest, just as Queen Lena's Golden Crystal blazed brightly.

In a flash, Tana's long dress had become a sailor fuku: with a blue skirt, trimmed in gold, a blue collar with a single golden stripe, and dark green bows.

The specks of golden light had begun to twinkle through her arms and legs, the opacity fading steadily from them. It reached the hems of her skirt as they watched. The tiara on her head, with its gold gem, glowed as brightly as the polar storm far below them.

The Sailor turned and looked back at the people gathered at the edges of the platform: the two priests in their golden habits and the nine people lined up along the platform. All of them were kneeling once more. She signed something to the priests with her hands and then surveyed the rest of the people around her. "Take care of them," she said, and stepped off the observation platform's edge. Queen Lena let out the same small gasp as Usagi as the Sailor dove down towards the storm, the Silence Cyclone. Its clouds had begun to spin noticeably faster, more and more wisps of light racing through them.

When the Sailor was halfway between the observation deck and the pole, another beam of energy shot out of the storm. It wrapped around her as she spun, and slowly, the mostly white beam of energy filled with the same golden light from the Sailor's tiara. When the gold color had begun to stream into the storm clouds below, the energy beam rushed back into the pole.

All was silent for a moment.

Then, with a great chime, the planet below them glowed gold, and among the stars overhead, eight other golden lights appeared, some small and some large.

Mamoru and Usagi stared as these then turned to a rainbow of colors: from blue, to burnt orange, to a pale lavender light that filled the planet below them. This light grew too bright to look at as the two of them, and all those watching turned away from the great planet

Towards the other lights, and the space beyond them, where a shield just like the one they'd created in Juuban was filling the sky, a bright barrier between the perils of space and the solar system protected within it…

~AgeofAquarius~

Tuxedo Mask's feet slapped against the concrete roof of the tower he leapt onto, and he ran right off the edge, falling and landing on the building across the street with ease. This had a brick wall along the rooftop and the brick he landed on was particularly scuffed and dirty: a testament to how many times over six years he had run this very route. There were roofs, close to his college apartment, where the stone and brick had been eroded to a curve by how often his feet had scrapped across the edges.

The air was humid tonight: it clung to his skin in a way that recalled the thicker, hotter air coming in the summer, and certainly spoke to the rain that would be falling in the next twelve hours, accompanied, he could tell, by a smattering of lightning and thunder.

Usagi had once asked if this were power of his: teasing that perhaps his joints ached like an old man's when it was going to rain.

No, not magic as far as he could tell. He'd just always paid close enough attention to his home's habits to know.

Tuxedo Mask ran all the way to his high school apartment in the next district, were dreams of Serenity had first driven him up to the rooftops and into the locked store rooms of Tokyo's jewelry stores. He lingered on that roof for an indeterminately long time, gazing up at the half-moon.

Eventually he sighed. Unlike years gone, his wanderings failed to settle the restlessness his dreams left with him, and investigating random crimes and jewellery stores was not going to satisfy the questions that plagued him.

A coughing fit beset him as he finally stood, and Tuxedo Mask stumbled on the roof of the apartment building. The concrete and steel under his hands shook as a tremor echoed up through the ground.

It continued a full five minutes, knocking over two of the building's satellite dishes. And aftershocks rattled the windows and doors of the buildings he jogged across for a half hour after he moved on from the roof.

I wonder how far reaching that one was, he thought. How bad could they get? The last few tremors, Ami had said at the meeting today, had affected in some way or another, everything within twenty-two kilometres of a fault-line. They were barely noticeable, in most cases.

But they're becoming more frequent, she'd said. And stretching farther afield each time. And she'd suggested, too, that some infrared scans were picking up new fault lines fissuring open out of some of the world's trenches.

"They're contained to the lithosphere," she'd assured them. "For now."

That wasn't all either: indicators across the globe were picking up on a pattern of anomalous weather signs, ones that tracked in one way or the other, back to the beginning of March, confirming the senshi's guess, at least in Ami's mind, that this was when the sunspots had first entered the Earth.

"It's possible we're seeing all this now because they're trying to increase their power," Ami'd speculated. "Or because the negative emotions we're seeing in the general population are feeding into other negative effects."

And what happens if this keeps going too long? Tuxedo Mask thought as his feet ran back towards central Juuban, rerouting several times around buildings damaged in the sunspots last major offensive.

Setsuna had asked Ami to simulate just that. And that risk analysis was being generated by the Lunar computer even now, a few kilometers south of where Tuxedo Mask was currently running along the roofs.

"We need to be prepared for worst-case scenarios," Mina had said.

But none of them could (or perhaps would) tell him what they thought the worst-case scenario was.

He wheezed as he ran, slowing to a jog to account for his weakened lungs.

If this is how the Earth feels, Mamoru thought, And only ten of them have re-emerged so far…

His speculations trailed off as he reached the center of Juuban, and he stopped on the edge of a department store roof, staring at what remained of his old favorite perch.

The peak of the TV tower was gone now, and the damaged bottom still rooted in the ground was a shocking sight. He'd seen it in the daylight. But now, with all the lights in the tower gone out and only the lower street lamps encircling it, it resembled a ghastly metal carcass. A center piece of further destruction: all along the street, windows were still boarded up after April's attack; trees had been removed, damaged beyond repair; and the top of the TV tower was now the warped and twisted metal frame that formed the scaffold around its first floor. The second on up had been blasted away.

Tuxedo Mask sighed, sitting down on the roof's edge and slumping his shoulders

No wonder so much anger had turned against the senshi.

People are afraid, he thought, fists clenching.

Absently, his hand went to his left pocket, where the four pages he'd slipped out of Queen Serenity's journal had been carefully sealed in plastic and folded. The plastic, like the journal the Moon Queen had hidden them in, kept anymore of the burnt sides from crumbling away.

Tuxedo Mask held the parchment under the Golden Crystal's light, going over the scraps of writing again, as he had every day since finding them. He'd nearly memorized them by now.

The first was only a date and picture (all else had crumbled away) and he knew exactly why it had been hidden in the journal: for it depicted Princess Serenity's suicide, detailed enough that he could distinguish the exact blade with which she'd ended her life.

Usagi had told him of her childhood disappointment when her mother had not bequeathed her the ancient sword. Mamoru knew, looking at this, why Queen Serenity must have resisted such.

So she had known the end was coming. And she had perhaps tried to take precautions against it.

The second page detailed how the picture on the other page was a necessary event. He stared at the writing, a neat, narrow script:

This shall be one of my successors' ends, it read. I feel for certain. It is curious. This is surely my direct successor, so very clear to me. And yet... it is not. Then again, I have seen her end in so many ways, I am unsure if this is a permanent one. I shall go to Pluto. Perhaps the sands will lend this event further clarity. It must happen, that's a certainty, to have any chance of the Aquarian Cusp ending without disa...

Disaster must have been the next word. But that was where the page had been burnt away, a full half of it gone.

The next page spoke of the Aquarian Cusp, their present time, again. The date Mamoru could see in the un-burnt corner was much earlier than the other:

We can't let it into the Solar system, the old sailor, Tana had written in a far more hasty scrawl than the deliberate writing on the other page. Whomsoever's time it is, Mars perhaps, or Jupiter by then… steps must be taken to provide a system-wide defense, regardless of how old or how powerful the Cusp's Guardian is.

Necessary steps, Mamoru thought back with a shiver to his dream. He knew what that must refer to now: Tana had ended her life and used it to shield the entire Solar System.

Did she mean this enemy? he thought. Did we fail to keep it back?

The middle of the page was too blackened and cracked to read. The bottom though...

I must find a way to make my planet more powerful if this evil does breach our worlds. What if it should enter our realms when the Guardian of the day is barely on her own two feet? Or what if, as my dream suggests, the system wide protection fails? They must have a ready way to access their full extent of their powers.

The Golden Crystal then, Mamoru regarded it, a solution to their ills, now in his hands.

And I can hardly use the full extent of its powers...

The third page spoke of the Golden Crystal, and it was this one that he had looked at most the past few days.

The Selens' are the appropriate stewards, Tana had written. They maintain the integrity of my predecessor and will surely be the family of my successor as well. In their hands, I believe I can put us on a path that may affect the Aquarian Cusp positively, rather than negatively.

I feel certain that this crystal is the right course. Mars' warnings are shortsighted.

It will lead to a stronger Guardian than me. Earth, I suppose. I wish I could see more clearly. Everything gets so vague past 5,000 years on. In last night's dream, for instance, the Guardian looked...

Mamoru strained as he had several times to see the writing under the char marks, holding the Golden Crystal beneath the paper until his eyes watered – to no avail. He could see no more of the writing.

He turned to the fourth and final page he had found in the journal.

This is not an ideal circumstance at all. I do not like how likely the sands suggest it is that we will be so largely unprotected, perilously close to the Aquarian Cusp. I don't know if this is a path I should be starting us down, as I surely am, by creating this crystal. Oughtn't I take a less risky route…

No. I may not have the connection to the sands that the Guardians of Pluto have, but I know this is the right course. It's hard to explain my own intuition. Even to my fellow Earthlings.

I just feel that creating this Crystal is the right course. It surely leads to a stronger Earth, and a stronger Guardian than me... how the planet shines in my dreams… Tis a vision I wish I could see in my life.

And maybe that Guardian is the solution to the danger at the Cusp that I fear so much.

The precautions laid out herein are the best that I and Sol's other scholars can think of to bar the evil approaching on the Aquarian Cusp. And they should be taken long before Pisces draws to a close.

Mamoru sighed. Whatever had come after was missing. Perhaps burnt long ago. Even sifting through the entire stack of parchment at Usagi's had not got him anything that matching these burnt pages.

And it was the last of the pages Serenity had hidden in her journal.

A breeze ruffled his hair and cape and he sighed, coughing as the humidity tickled his sensitive lungs.

Beneath him the building rumbled and he clenched his fist around the Golden Crystal.

If there was meant to be a stronger Sailor Earth by the Cusp, then Tana's visions must not have been so reliable, he thought.

But then, why had it seemed that Queen Serenity (whom he felt sure had been wise) put such faith in them?

The answers would not come to him no matter how long he stared at the burnt pages, or up at the half moon.

Eventually, he jogged back to the Tsukinos, walking along the tops of the garden walls of Usagi's neighbors.

He stopped across the street from her home. There was someone else out tonight, huddled on the Tsukinos' roof. Her knees, in her turquoise pajamas, were curled up near her chest and her pink hair was washed in silver by the moonlight.

Chibiusa smiled and waved when she saw him walk into the yard, and made space on the roof beside her. Tuxedo Mask leapt up, ruffling her pink hair as he knelt next to her.

"Shouldn't you be asleep?" he nagged Chibiusa.

"I was," she whined, sticking out her tongue. "Shouldn't you?"

He laughed. "I don't have school in the morning," he chided. But he made no further attempt to order her back to bed. Rather, he sat down on the roof and let her lean against him, putting his arm around her as they watched the Moon together.

"Why are awake?" he asked Chibiusa.

She was quiet.

"Bad dream?" he guessed.

She nodded. "Bad vision," she whispered. "I get those now."

He closed his eyes, hearing her describe the nightmare of destruction that had plagued him, with increased frequency, since March: of the ground dying and splitting apart, the sky turning red, the sea freezing over...

She might have looked and acted very much like Usagi. But clearly in ability at least, she'd inherited more from him than he'd have liked.

Or she really does have Earth's powers, he thought, considering whether visions were a common power of his world, for it seemed the second Sailor of Earth had had years worth of them.

"How long have you gotten visions?" Tuxedo Mask asked Chibiusa.

"A couple times," she said. "When Galaxia hurt you... I had one. And now..." she shivered. "This one won't happen, right?"

Mamoru bit his lip, wishing he had the ability to lie and promise yes, it would be alright.

She'd know as well as you do you were lying, he thought. And she'd hate being lied to.

"I don't know, Chibiusa," he confessed. "I think... we'll have to learn more about our enemy and then we'll know how to stop that."

He trailed off as the tiles on the roof began to tremble: another small quake rolling through.

It was the sunspots for sure. How soon would the rest of them wake up? How powerful would they be?

As another small tremor followed the first, and quickly subsided, Chibiusa shuddered next to him.

"It'll be..." fine, he was about to say, and trailed off, staring at Chibiusa's feet.

They were flickering: her toes became little more than golden sparks as her form turned translucent, flickering between corporeal and non. Her hands after a few moments, took on the same appearance.

Mamoru reached for her fading left hand and grabbed hold of it, sighing in relieve when his hand did not pass through hers. He clasped it as he had when the Death Busters had nearly killed her, willing some of his energy into her.

At last, her hands and feet returned to normal, Mamoru sighed, kissing the top of her head.

"Are you alright, Chibiusa?" he asked.

"Yep," she said quickly, tucking her hands under her arms. "J-just fine."

Mamoru did not believe her one bit, but did notice she appeared quite calm, as opposed to he, whose heart beat like a drum in his throat. "That's happened before hasn't it?" he asked. (For why else would she be so calm?)

His daughter shrugged.

"Chibiusa," he warned.

"Yes," she confessed. "But... but it's not that bad..." she insisted. "I-it only happens sometimes."

"Sometimes is concerning enough... it looked like you were disappearing." He paused. "Were you?"

"Sort of," Chibiusa squeaked, curling her feet beneath her and stuffing her hands further under her arms.

"Why?" he asked. "Have you been in the past too long?"

She shook her head, looking down into the garden.

Mamoru moved, shuffling to a lower spot on the roof so he could look at her face. She was biting her lip.

"Chibiusa," Mamoru said.

She raised her eyes to look at him crouched patiently on the roof, with the same face her father gave her when he knew that things were not okay and wanted her to know she could trust him.

Her father who was a thousand years away from her…

Chibiusa hiccupped. Her eyes watered. "Don't tell Mama," she cried. "I don't want her to worry."

"I won't," Mamoru promised, holding out his pinky finger.

Her lower lip trembled. And she leaned towards him, pressing her face into his suit collar.

"I can't go home," she confessed. "My Time Key stopped working." She sniffed. "And I don't know why I'm disappearing... I just want all this to stop."

Mamoru sat stunned, holding her close and tucking his chin atop her head. "It's okay," he stammered out as she cried into his shirt. "We'll fix this, Chibiusa."

His daughter nodded, pulling away and staring at her hands, flexing them. They were truly solid once more. "Don't tell Mama," she repeated. "Or Puu." She stared at him. "Please don't tell Puu," she bit her lip. "She'll think it's her fault... but I bet it's mine."

"No," Mamoru assured her, pulling her close. "It's not your fault." he stared up at the Moon, frowning.

The Golden Crystal will lead to a stronger Guardian than me, the long-ago Sailor of his world had said. Had she thought that sailor could help them now?

But my family stole the Crystal, Mamoru thought with a pang. So what happened to the future she envisioned?

Chibiusa hiccupped against him.

"It isn't your fault," he told her again. He sighed. "There's a lot more going on than that..."

~AgeofAquarius~

Mamoru watched from the edge of the trees as Chibiusa raced past, laughing as she stretched her hand out to tag Hotaru.

"You're it! Rini!" She dashed off. And Hotaru turned round, spotting Kara and Shingo crouched by the jungle gym and darting towards them.

Farther off, standing where Mamoru was out of her sightline was Hikari Aino, observing her daughter and her friends with a shrewd eye. She surely didn't like that they'd found Chibiusa and Shingo at the park. Mamoru could only wonder what she's do if she learned "Rini Meioh" from the Initiative meeting was really Hotaru Tomoe.

He heard the whisper of soft footsteps walking through the grass, and another person emerged at the edge of his vision, leaning against the opposite tree as she too watched the children play.

"Hikari's seen you," Setsuna said. "I've told her you're Shingo and Chibiusa's cousin, and that you're not too comfortable with the Sailor Senshi."

He chuckled.

"She might be more keen to let the four of them play together if you went and introduced yourself," Setsuna suggested.

"As Mamoru Tsukino?" he asked and immediately felt his face get hot.

"Well you could also have claimed to be Ikuko's nephew, but if you like the sound of that alias," Setsuna shook her head, smirking. "Never mind."

"Is Kara Aino important to the future then?"

Setsuna sighed. "Not everything I do has to be about the future, you know."

"I never meant it like that," Mamoru said earnestly. "And it wouldn't be a bad thing if it were true either. I really value how you can be here to guide us, Setsuna."

Setsuna smiled brightly and looked back at the children. "I want her to be important," she confessed. "Whether as Hotaru's friend or as the family Mina can hold on to in the end." She made a face. "And besides that, I dislike when parents pressure their children to think and act a certain way, and don't let them decide what they think." She nodded towards Hikari across the park. "Kara wants to be friends with Hotaru, Chibiusa, and Shingo for herself. I'm going to make sure Mrs. Aino doesn't see a need to stop that."

Mamoru smiled. "I'll head over and speak to her in a minute." Then he sighed, looking down at his hands crossed over his arms. "Chibiusa says her time key is not working." He turned to Setsuna who was staring staunchly away. "What does that mean?"

Setsuna bit her lip. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I tried to send her back... It was too late."

But Mamoru shook his head. "That's not your fault at all." he looked towards the children, ducking and weaving around the playground. "I just want to know how concerned we need to be."

Setsuna glanced at him and looked away. He looked too much like his older-self. And five hundred years as King Endymion's advisor and confidante made her feel quite guilty letting any version him down.

"Setsuna," he prompted her.

She really did not deserve the softness and concern in his voice. Not with the explanation she had for him. "At the start of all this," Setsuna began. "The path to Crystal Tokyo was lost." She curled her arms tightly around herself as she heard him turn away from the tree he leaned on. She focused her eyes on the ground. She had kept this under wraps for most of the past few months. Not even Uranus and Neptune were aware how uncertain the future was. "As the Time Key can only travel to pasts and futures that are solidly linked, it means Chibiusa, for now, is stuck in our time. But Your Majesty –"

He jumped to hear her address him so. And the way she bowed her head to him was even more distressing.

"I swear," Setsuna said, "I can get us back to Chibiusa's future." She bowed her head lower. "I will not fail you."

It's hardly you who's at fault, Mamoru thought.

He startled her when he put his hands on her shoulders. "Don't," he said, shaking his head as Setsuna looked up. "Don't put that weight on your shoulders. Y-you're too hard on yourself Setsuna." he chuckled nervously. "And stop bowing to me; you're by far the wisest of the lot of us."

She smiled a little (as slightly as he was) and they both turned when they heard Shingo and Kara laugh. Hotaru had tackled Chibiusa into the mud.

"Has the future already changed then?" Mamoru hedged.

"Hard to say," Setsuna furrowed her brows, for she had been pondering this for quite a while already. "Small alterations to Chibiusa's timeline have been made in the past." she clenched her fists. "One of them by me," she confessed.

"Then it must have been for the best of reasons," Mamoru told her. "You never do anything that isn't for the best."

Setsuna nodded. "I thought so at the time too." she looked at him. "And normally one alteration is hardly enough to shift a greater course of events..."

Under their feet, they both stiffened, a tremor raced past. They prepared to transform.

But their communicators remained silent, and none of the children, nor anyone else at the park appeared to feel the tremor.

"The quakes," Mamoru whispered.

"And the strange weather patterns, the public outcry..." Setsuna added "I can't recall if that's part of her original timeline or not."

"Are the sunspots?"

Setsuna shook her head. "I don't know." She looked up. "But I must conclude that something was meaningfully different from her timeline, and perhaps allowed our current enemy to appear here or else… Why would it have vanished?"

Mamoru bit his lip. "How does it work?" he asked. "When something changes, do you sense it right away or,"

"No," Setsuna answered. "It's very rare to catch a change as it happens, even a large one, but I'll notice the effects later. Like... ripples, or shifts in the balance of the universe. I can, given time, trace them to their source event." She shook her head. "But an event that alters a timeline is far less noticeable than the result. And the result may not appear for years or decades,"

"Even millennia."

"Precisely." Setsuna sighed. "This enemy being beyond my sight, however it manages such, complicates that further." She shook her head. "For now... I won't be worried until Chibiusa is worried." She turned to him and put her hand over her heart. "And I promise, I will ensure Chibiusa's future happens, Your... Mamoru," she amended.

Mamoru looked at her solemn expression and turned towards Chibiusa, still laughing on the playground.

Don't tell Puu.

Mamoru swallowed the lump in his throat and said to Setsuna: "I will as well."

~AgeofAquarius~

What if a change happened a long time ago, Mamoru thought that night as he sat on the Tsukino's couch, Chibiusa sleeping against his side. He covered her head with one hand. In the other, he held a piece of the burnt parchment, brooding over the prophecy there, of a stronger Sailor Earth, which had clearly not come to pass.

What if my family changed the future when they stole the Golden Crystal? he shivered.

I never saw my future-self use it, Mamoru recalled. Did he have it by then? Had he ever?

Chibiusa shivered against him, her arms cinched tighter around him. Perhaps having a vision. Mamoru combed his fingers through her hair.

People in her time live so long... is there magic in her Crystal Tokyo too, the kind Helios says Earth doesn't have anymore?

He sighed, replacing the piece of parchment in his chest pocket and taking out another.

The precautions laid out herein are the best that I and Sol's other scholars can think of to bar the evil approaching on the Aquarian Cusp. And they should be taken long before Pisces draws to a close.

She meant this, Mamoru knew. She wanted us to prevent this... and now the danger is here and we have no stronger Earth senshi like she wanted. And besides… will we be powerful enough to defeat this without all nine worlds?

"Mamo-chan?"

He stuffed the parchment into his sleeve and turned round. Usagi was leaning in the doorway in her pink robe, with a pink towel around her hair.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said, lifting Chibiusa as he stood from the couch.

It was an easy task tucking her in tonight. She didn't even stir. And Mamoru used the excuse of getting ready for bed to carefully hide the parchment he'd taken in the inner pocket of his jacket. He padded in slippers back to Usagi's room.

She was leaning over her desk when he returned, staring at the unreadable, encoded pages of one of her mother's black journals. There was no more burnt parchment tucked into this one, Mamoru saw disappointed as he drew near. He'd been hoping there were other pages concealed away from the rest that might assuage some of his concerns.

Usagi was staring intently at the pages of one journal, as if she might understand it if she could only look hard enough. Mamoru set down his clothes and came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and tucking her head under his chin.

"What do you want to find in there?" he asked her.

Usagi sighed. "Everything." she leaned against him, curling her hands around his arm. "Who she was on Earth... whether she knew how to beat this..." Usagi chuckled. "Who she loved... because she must have. I remember it was the only thing I ever said that made her cry."

Mamoru squeezed her. "Your father?" he asked, kissing her hair. She smelled like strawberries... like happiness.

She shook her head. "I didn't have one," she said. "I think I believe her about that." She brushed her fingers over the open journal, flipping back to a different page. She'd folded the corner of it, Mamoru saw. And from the tearstains on the right side he realized she must have looked at this particular page quite a lot.

It was no wonder why. Though he couldn't read it, the same pattern of characters was repeated all over the page, scrawled in different styles and encircled by hand-drawn hearts.

He squeezed her tighter when a fresh tear splashed onto the page.

"I used to think I was made like Aphrodite," Usagi confessed. "But when I found this... I just couldn't stop wondering." She sniffed. "Did my mother have someone I don't remember... She only ever said I didn't have a dad, but maybe she was like Haruka-chan and Michiru... maybe I had another mom..."

"Maybe," Mamoru murmured.

"And it's silly." Usagi sniffed again. "With everything else we're worried about for me to get hung up on this too."

"But this is important," Mamoru said. "Even if it's just to you." he leaned down and kissed her temple. "I'm sure you'll find out given time." Then he frowned, realizing there was something she's mentioned he didn't understand. "How was Aphrodite made?"

Usagi giggled, turning in his arms. "Well that's the question of the millennium." he saw the tears on her face and held her to his chest so she could dry her face on his nightshirt.

"No one was ever sure about Aphrodite," Usagi said. "Apparently her Mom wished on Venus' magical point for months... and then one day saw a comet crash into the sea... and Aphrodite washed up on the shore with Venus sigil," she said. "Good thing she had it too cause she had weird hair and eyes for Venus. They'd never have believed she was a senshi otherwise."

"Really," Mamoru began to chuckle, but his laugh died quickly, "Weird eyes and hair," he mused pensively.

"Mhmm," Usagi confirmed, resting her head over his heart. "And the wings... no one on Venus had heard or seen anything like her before."

Chibiusa has strange eyes and hair, Mamoru mused. Did she appear from the planet too?

"Mamo-chan?" Usagi asked. He felt tense.

"Just tired," he said, leaning down and kissing her before she could ask about it. "Come on," he told her. "Let's go to bed."

~AgeofAquarius~

They gasped at the size of the sun outside the wide windows. It covered nearly all of the space they could see. And they were close enough to see bright solar flares rolling across the surface.

"Are you sure about this?" A woman's low voice said. Their voice. So they were seeing through someone's eyes this time, just like the first dream...

The last Sailor Earth? Usagi and Mamoru wondered together.

"I am."

They gasped at the sound of the familiar voice to their right. The person whose vision they shared turned, and they confirmed the identity of the person beside them.

Queen Serenity: Far younger than they'd ever seen her. But she was unmistakable. Blond-haired as she was in this memory, she might have been Usagi's twin, save for her eyes.

They were red. Usagi found that puzzling. She recalled her mothers eyes being light blue.

She was not dressed in her royal regalia either. Rather, she wore the same golden habit as the priests in their previous dream.

"But, Serenity," the woman with her said.

They watched the Queen reach out, linking her arm with her companion. She stared towards the sun through shaded glasses. "They need the Guardian's powers," Serenity said. "And I lost them."

"You never did," her companion scoffed. "In fact – let's go back. Why, I'll go down to Earth myself. I'll get your Crystal back. Then you won't have to..."

Queen Serenity had pressed her finger over their lips. She was shaking her head. "Don't even think of it – Portia's too dangerous."

"Puh-lease. I can take her," The woman insisted.

"I'm sure… but the Golden Crystal won't work for me anymore besides."

She turned, putting her hand on the metal console in front of her (a space ship's controls). Mamoru and Usagi noticed, for the first time, the red warning lights flashing all over it, and how the metal looked vivid orange so close to the sun.

"I can do this," Queen Serenity said. "If we have any hope of saving everyone, then I have to make things right."

They heard her companion sigh. She scanned her eyes over the flashing monitors along the console. "Might as well get on with it," she said in a thicker voice. "Ship can't get much closer."

Queen Serenity nodded and turned, leading her companion by the hand down a narrow metal staircase and into the hull of the small spacecraft, where a chariot and two grey unicorns waited, already prepared for a journey. They pranced nervously as red lights flashed all around the small room.

Soon the two were opening the wide bay doors at the back of the ship, sailing out into space towards the blazing star so close that they squinted behind their protective glasses. Watching this memory, Mamoru and Usagi could not tell if it were their heart thundering too fast in their chest, or the person whose eyes they saw Serenity through.

Whoever they were flew the chariot steadily, into such a close orbit with the sun that they could see nothing except its blazing, blinding surface. against it, Serenity was little more than a silhouette. Everything was cast in a harsh contrast of blinding white and lightless shadow.

But they could easily see as Serenity obstructed the sunlight, climbing up onto the thin side of the craft.

Her companion launched forwards. "Wait!"

Queen Serenity turned, only the side of her face visible in the harsh sunlight.

Her companion grabbed her hand.

"On Jupiter," she said. "We have… Many customs."

Above them, Serenity nodded.

"And specifically, regarding war…you know we don't like to promise things… not when we're unsure whether we'll live to carry them out." Serenity's companion stepped closer to her perch on the Chariot's edge. "There's also some things… we do not say during war, not for the first time especially. There is a sense that with death looming so close, sentiments mean less… To that point, there's something I've wanted to say to you, but could not when the battles around us were so constant. So please come back to me, because there's something I'm very impatient to say to you." And the woman lifted Queen Serenity's hand to her lips, kissing it. "Do you understand?"

Serenity's wide grin was evident even in the slim crescent of light that lit her face. She squeezed the woman's hand. "I understand. When this is over… there's something I should probably say to you in return."

And then she stepped back, slipping over the edge of the chariot. They darted forwards, straining over the side as they watched her fall towards the sun's fires. It lit the edges of her golden robe aflame and then her shoulder length blond hair.

And then it swallowed her, leaving no trace of her silhouette against the unforgiving light of the star.

"Serenity!"

Usagi and Mamoru screamed as they woke from this dream.

Mamoru clutched his head.

Usagi covered her mouth."Mommy," she whimpered, curling into a tight ball under the covers.

That drew Mamoru's attention away from his own dark thoughts, and he shuffled close to her, wrapping both arms around Usagi's shaking frame.

"She lived through that," he reminded her. "So clearly she succeeded at whatever it was brought her there."

"But what was that?" Usagi cried. "Wh-when was that? Who was that? How did we even see that?" She sniffed. "Was my mother Sailor Earth?" she rubbed her eyes and looked at Mamoru. "That's what this means, isn't it?"

He could only nod; he could think of no other reason (especially as this dream had made the Golden Crystal burn against his chest just like the others).

Usagi curled closer to him, hiding her face in his shoulder. "Who was with her Mamo-chan?" She asked after she'd run out of tears.

He sighed and shook his head. "I don't know." he stared up at the ceiling of her room, and the glow in the dark stars that made spirals over her bed. "Maybe we'll dream of them again."

Usagi sighed, and he pulled the two of them back onto the pillows, rubbing her back until she fell back to sleep.

He kept staring at the stars on the ceiling, without the distraction of comforting her, his own thoughts came back to plague him.

Serenity lost the Golden Crystal... Mamoru thought. So then, then I stole this from your mother… from you.

Tana's prophecies had speculated about a stronger Sailor Earth. Usagi was without a doubt the most fitting candidate.

If you'd had the Gold and Silver crystals how different would the world be right now? He wondered. Would Metalia have destroyed anything at all?

Perhaps she would have. Usagi's only been fifteen at the time.

But we definitely could have awakened the Earth now, Mamoru thought. Instead all we've got is me…

Eventually fatigue closed his eyes for him, and as he fell back to sleep, the Golden Crystal seemed to burn in his mind.

What would the Sailors of Earth have done with it now?

I have to make things right.

~AgeofAquarius~

"Oh!" Usagi squealed, eyes riveted on the clasped hands of the two combatants trying to pin each other's arm to the counter. "She's going to win…!"

Makoto grinned, flashing all her teeth at Nephrite as his arm slipped a bit more towards the counter. "Should we change it to best three out of five?" She taunted."

Nephrite chuckled, his teeth gritted, and pushed back against her hand until his arm was safely away from the counter top. "Nuh-uh. I can still do… two out of three…"

"I dunno, Nephrite," Minako said, eyes widening as he managed to gain the advantage. "In high school, she beat the whole wrestling team."

"I am not… going to lose," Nephrite repeated, and Makoto's grin faltered when he did indeed, push her arm perilously close to the counter. Both their arms were shaking.

Minako looked over at the door of the shop as someone appeared in the window, but looked back to the arm wrestling match when they passed the front door. Nephrite still had the upper hand. "Hmm… Mako you're going to make me change my bet."

"There was a bet!" Usagi gasped. "No wait, I want to bet on someone!"

Minako smirked. "Well I did have 1,000 ¥ on Mako, buuuuut…"

"Then I'll put 1,000 on Nephrite!" Usagi said. And then looked at Makoto, whose grin had turned to a slight grimace. "But I'll bet on you next time, Mako-chan."

Makoto's eyebrow twitched, but she didn't reply, too busy glaring at Nephrite while she tried to get her arm back into an upright position.

Nephrite's eyes looked bright as he grinned at their clasped hands. "You know Mako," he said, "You can always say you let me win."

Makoto's nostrils flared. "I. Am. Not. Out. Yet!" and she pushed his hand back with what looked from the trembling of her arm to be a herculean effort, and with the advantage of gravity, began to inch Nephrite's arm back down towards the counter top.

The advantage swung back and forth for five more minutes, and both Mina and Usagi had begun to sweat. Nephrite had the advantage back when the bell above the front door chimed.

"Mamo-chan!"

Nephrite happened to be facing the door. "Your Majesty!" he said, and lost his grip.

"HA!" Makoto shouted, forcing his arm back and slamming it into the counter. It made the pastry trays in the case rattle. "Take that!" She stood up and put her hands on her hips, before realizing someone had come in the door. "Oh!" she whirled around. "Hi, Mamoru."

"Hi," he said, and smiled apologetically at Nephrite, as he wrapped one arm around Usagi. "Sorry if I lost you that match."

Nephrite waved his hand. "I have lost many times before," he said. "One more match is nothing."

"But for me it's 1000 ¥!" Mina cheered, and stepped close to Mako, clapping her on the shoulder. "Thanks for helping me trick Usagi," Mina said solemnly. "I knew you couldn't lose a match."

"No, p-problem." Mako grinned putting her arms behind her to hide the fact that her right one was shaking. "Was totally winning the whole time."

Mina grinned and stuck her hand out to Usagi. "Cough it up!"

"We can still go again!" Nephrite said, turning to Makoto. "It's still best two out of three. Left arm?"

"You'll have to pick it up later," Mamoru interrupted, and it was then that Nephrite noticed the other Shittenou waiting outside the windows of the shop.

Nephrite and the senshi straightened up. "A mission," Nephrite said, transforming on the spot.

"What can we do?" Usagi asked Mamoru.

"Nothing for now," he said, smiling at her as she stepped back. "I thought of a plan that might help us with the sunspots, but I need to travel to Elysion to do it," he nodded to Nephrite. "And I need all of you to teleport… and help me."

"Absolutely," Nephrite said. He straightened and whipped out his arm so his blue cape would snap behind him. Makoto eyed him with a smirk.

"The sunspots may notice," Mamoru told the senshi. "Be prepared for them to come up to the surface."

Usagi's eyes widened. "You found a way to awaken the Earth," she breathed.

And Mamoru grinned. "I might have." And he leaned down and kissed her. "At least I hope so." He held her shoulders as his face turned serious. "I'm going to do everything I can."

Usagi smiled. "I know." She stood on her tiptoes to kiss him again. "I believe in you, Mamo-chan."

Nephrite blew a kiss to Mako as he approached Kunzite, who was waving them all out of the shop.

"So we're going to Elysion?" Nephrite asked when Tuxedo Mask emerged from the bakery.

Tuxedo Mask nodded and held his hand out between the four of them. Kunzite immediately covered it with his own.

Mamoru looked to the other three Shittenou. "Guarding Elysion while I try this will be your job," he said. "Can I count on you?"

"Absolutely," Zoisite said, and Jadeite and Nephrite nodded. They put their hands over Kunzite's.

In a flash, they were down in Elysion, a few feet from the golden obelisk.

"My King?" Helios called, running out of the temple and bowing as the Shittenou separated.

"I have an idea," Tuxedo Mask told him. He nodded to his Shittenou. "I need each of you up on one of the roofs," he said. "This might draw the sunspots attention to Elysion's location... if it does."

"You can count on us your majesty," Kunzite said, nodding to his team. "Lets go."

They leapt up, Nephrite onto the roof behind Mamoru and Helios. "Nephrite Power," he whispered, spreading his hands to pass his power along to Zoisite and Jadeite. Their power formed a dome within Elysion's bubble, protecting Tuxedo Mask, Helios, and the obelisk in the cloister below.

As soon as Tuxedo Mask saw that the four of them were too caught up in their magic to interfere quickly, he turned and strode up to the obelisk, putting his palm against the cool crystal. "This goes all the way to the core?" he confirmed with Helios.

"Y-your majesty," Helios sputtered.

"Well?"

"Yes, only the magic was cut off... but you'll only exhaust yourself if you try again."

"I'm not trying to fill it with magic," Mamoru said.

"Then what?"

"I just needed to know it was a good route down." He took a breath and a wind whipped up around the cloister. The Golden Crystal under his collar began to glow.

"Wait - My King." Helios reached out and grabbed his arm tightly as his form began to glow. "You absolutely cannot!"

"I'm going to Earth's core," Tuxedo Mask said, closing his eyes. "I'm giving it back."

"The core will kill you!"

"Then that's the price for my family stealing it," he said to Helios, who held fast to his arm. "We hurt the Earth... we changed what should have been. And they'll never get this enemy if I keep this crystal."

"But... but Chibiusa."

"If she's meant to exist, I'm sure the Earth will find some way to make it so," he said.

"My K-Mamoru," Helios said, trying to tug him back.

Tuxedo Mask smiled and opened his eyes, dark and solemn blue.

"Please Helios. I have to do what a Senshi would do," he declared. "I have to make things right."

Helios stared at him, but released his arm.

"Mamoru!" They heard Kunzite call.

"This'll work," Tuxedo Mask promised. He closed his eyes. The obelisk filled with blinding golden light, just as he did, and the wind whipped faster around Elysion.

For a moment, Helios smelled roses on the air.

Then the gold power faded, leaving only a faint glow within the obelisk.

And only a few rose petals drifted down to the spot where the King had stood.

Helios closed his eyes as the Shittenou above shouted and dropped their shield. He knelt beside the obelisk and put his forehead to the crystal.

And he began to pray.

~AgeofAquarius~

Makoto, Mina, and Usagi were transferring the latest batch of croissants into the display case (after taste testing 10 in the name of a quality check) when the bell above the shop door chimed

They looked up. Instead of a person, three balls of starlight had sailed into the shop, each a faintly blue hue. They sailed around Makoto as she frowned and lifted her hand.

The three lights hovered right over her palm."Mako!" Nephrite's voice rang out of them. "It's Mamoru."

Usagi gasped.

"He's gone down to Earth's core."

"What's he thinking?" Makoto exploded, looking at the other two.

Mina already had her communicator out.

"There's an emergency in Elysion," she said. "Jupiter, Moon and I are going down,"

"The sunspots still might come to the surface," Nephrite's voice warned

"Everyone else on standby," Mina ordered. "Might be seeing a bit of a light show." She snapped her communicator shut and transformed.

"Let's go!" Sailor held out her hand. Jupiter and Venus placed their own a top hers.

"Sailor Teleport!"

The second they touched down in Elysion, Sailor Moon broke away, sprinting to the obelisk by which Helios knelt.

She put her hands on it. "Mamo-chan!"

"He used that to travel down," Helios rasped. "He's trying to give the Golden Crystal back."

Sailor Moon gasped, hands curling against the face of the softly glowing obelisk. "But then he won't have any power!" She bit her lip. "It'll burn him up."

"He still felt it was wrong for him to keep it."

Sailor Moon wrinkled her nose. "Oh no." She directed her glare at the obelisk. "Listen you, I have planned too much of this wedding for you to take Mamo-chan away." She closed her eyes. "You're gonna take me to him right now." she could just feel his energy if she stretched far enough. Directly below... deep, down below.

I'm coming, Mamo-chan, she thought. "Sailor Teleport!"

"Usagi!" Venus darted forwards, hand slamming into the obelisk as Sailor Moon turned to a wisp of white light and rushed into it. Venus banged her fist on it.

Below her feet, the ground rumbled.

Jupiter clapped her shoulder. "Give them a few minutes," she said. "They've done the impossible before now."

"I know," Venus sighed, thudding her forehead against the obelisk. "They're getting too cocky about it."

Deep down below Elysion, hundreds of miles below the mantle, Sailor Moon emerged from the base of the obelisk into a world of golden light nearly as blinding as the sun in her dream. "Mamo-chan!" She screamed when she saw him meters ahead and stretched out her magic, surrounding him and herself in a bubble of the silver crystal's power.

He rounded on her. "Usako."

"I can't let you do this," she sniffed. "What if it kills you?"

"That doesn't matter," he whispered, reaching out when she began to cry. She threw herself at him, cinching her arms around his waist.

"I can't worry whether I'll live or die when the situation now is so dire," Tuxedo Mask said, hugging her tightly. He waved his hand towards Earth's core. "Look at it."

She did, and gasped. Where she would have thought Earth's iron core would look red, before her was a barely spinning, grey sphere, the shadows of the sunspots swirling in bands beneath its surface. Sailor Moon tightened her grip on Tuxedo Mask.

"You've given yourself up for the Earth so many times," he said, staring towards the cool, damaged core of their world. He turned and smiled at her. "Surely you can see this is what I have to do."

"But... but Chibiusa,"

"You'll have her. I promise. You'll find a way." He smiled. "And you don't know that I'll die,"

"You could."

"So I should let the sunspots wreak havoc and keep this crystal when I have no right to it?" He cupped her face.

"But Helios said it chose you."

"I know... and I know why now," he looked towards the searing core outside. "The Crystal knew I'd be the one to give it back." He looked back at her when she still did not let go. "Usako, I feel that this is right," he stressed. "You have to trust me."

She bit her lip, and stood up on her toes, pulling him into a hard, bruising kiss that left them gasping when they pulled apart.

"This will work," he told her, walking to the edge of her protective bubble of magic. He put his hand on it. "Trust me."

She stared past him at the grey core and the shadows swirling within it who had yet to wake, or yet to notice them.

They had to get the sunspots out…

Sailor Moon closed her eyes, nodded, and let her protection fall away. She flew close to Tuxedo Mask as he walked, coated in gold magic over the top of the core. His eyes looked gold as he plucked the Golden Crystal on its chain from around his neck. "I'm sorry you've been hurt so long," he whispered. He let the crystal fall, its chain melting away moments before it merged with the Earth.

Sailor Moon darted in quickly, snatching Tuxedo Mask under the shoulders and flying him up away from the core. She gasped as Tuxedo Mask's uniform faded into his blue tee shirt and jeans, and threw up another protective sphere around the two of them.

"My power's gone," he said as Usagi released him. "Something's happening in there."

The grey core in front of them was humming. As a golden glow spread through it, it began to spin faster and faster, pulsing and turning from gold to golden-white.

They flinched as a pulse of fire exploded out from it – expelling the shadows of the sunspots who raced from the flares of molten fire and up into the mantle. Mamoru and Sailor Moon shielded their eyes as the bright, white light swallowed their bubble of magic whole.

Sailor Moon gripped his arm tightly as the core's power swirled around her shield, bright light – molten metal and rock – flowing over it. The both of them stared as it pulled back, gathering into the molten-gold form of a person – a curvy woman whose feet melded back into the molten material around her. She pressed her palms against the shield, eyes – blazing points of light – gazing meaningfully through the barrier.

Mamoru stepped forwards, eyes transfixed by the figure outside.

"Mamo, wait!" Sailor Moon said. "You'll get burnt up!"

"It's alright…" he said, tugging away from her.

But she held fast to his arm. Her mouth was a thin, stubborn line. "You don't know what it wants." She said. "It could eat you."

"It won't…" he whispered, tugging away from her again. He was close enough to lift his hand and place it on the face of the shield, palm-to-palm with the being outside. "She wants to see me."

"Mamo…"

He turned and looked down at her. "Trust me, Usako."

She bit her lip, but let her fingers slip from the sleeve of his coat as he tugged his arm away. She stepped back, and summoned her sceptre, clenching it in both hands. She let the shield of magic crumbled away around them.

It was hot beyond it – hotter than before, but the core did not burn them. Nor did the bright, molten skin of the figure who loomed over Mamoru. Sailor Moon jumped as the figure's hand reached for his face.

But she still did not burn him. Nor did his clothes seem bothered by the heat around them. In fact, Usagi's eyes widened, an aura of gold magic was reforming around him.

The expressionless figure sank lower, opening the palm of her free hand where the brightest light blazed, the outline of a crystal inside.

"As you have before, as you will again, you have earned my faith, my son." The figure's blazing light eyes crinkled as her mouth twitched upwards. "My faith… and my power's regency."

She pressed the blazing Golden Crystal into Mamoru's hands, and moved her other hand so that she cupped his face. Usagi stared as the being leaned in and kissed Mamoru's forehead. The golden aura around him exploded outwards, as he and the molten figure merged together. The Earth's magic warping around him, reforming his suit and cape, bleaching the fabric, When the power had faded, his uniform had turned a pale lilac hue. The cufflinks on his suit had transformed to gold crescents, and his hair, Usagi stared, had taken on a darker purple color.

Mamoru turned, his eyes glowing with the Earth's magic as he stared at the golden crystal between his palms. Something materialized underneath it: a light purple staff with a white setting on the top, into which the Golden Crystal settled comfortably.

The light faded from his eyes as his hands closed around the staff. And he looked up at her.

"Serenity."

She flew forwards, noticing something still glowing beneath his fringe. She swept his hair back from his forehead and gasped.

An unmistakable golden crescent had appeared in the center of his forehead. This is new, she realized as she leaned into him.

"Endymion."

~Á Suivre~