Setsuna growled with frustration as Ranma dashed off down the street. He hadn't even listened to anything she had said and just ran off. The audacity of the boy grated on her nerves and she felt extreme anger beyond anything she had ever felt before. It was actually Minako who put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Setsuna, I don't think we can do anything."

She turned and looked at the girl, looked at all of them standing there in their regular clothes as if they had just come back from school except for Usagi who was just sitting next to the body of that dead black haired girl with Rei and the others holding onto her as she cried softly. She growled with some anger and said, "Look at this. It is all that is left of our dreams. Crystal Tokyo is gone and so is the new Moon Kingdom. Everything I have ever worked for is gone and you don't think we can do anything."

She practically shouted the last, but Minako seemed unaffected by the shouts and just stood there saying nothing. Setsuna fumed and pulled out her Garnet Rod shouting her transformation phrase with no affect. She shouted it again and tried to will the change to happen, but nothing. She held the rod in her hands and stared into the red crystal. Wondering once again what had gone wrong and how the grail had been created without all of it parts.

The crystal on her rod had been crafted by Neherenia to fool her. It had been made and used by that witch to listen in on conversations and act as an instigator to more irrational behavior. In that capacity it had worked like a charm, but now without its original mistress to guide it, the crystal began to react to Setsuna's will. The green haired girl wanted power to crush her foes and the red crystal had more than enough to give her some. So, when she shouted her transformation phrase one more time she was caught up in a magical field and transformed into a deep black facsimile of her Sailor Suit.

Without a thought the newly transformed Sailor Pluto walked down the street to where Ranma had apparently stopped to converse with some women. The one she knew to be Neptune ran off and the other she knew as Neherenia stayed there and said something to Ranma. That was when she arrived her foot crunching on a piece of gravel.

The Black Haired boy looked at her and she said, "I wasn't finished talking to you Ranma Saotome."

The boy turned towards her and she smiled an evil smile as she shouted, "Dead Scream!" and sent her attack at the boy.


Ranma in her guise as Sailor Angerona stared at the thing called Pharaoh 90 and wondered for just a moment exactly what is was about the hungry massive thing that had called to Neherenia and the others. Why would anyone possibly want this thing on the planet?

She shouted for the others to retreat and realized that no sound escaped her mouth. In fact all around them was complete and utter silence as the creature moved forward and began to send out its tentacles seeking to absorb things into one of its many mouths that would appear just for that purpose.

Cologne in her guise as Pallas dropped next to her and pointed at the other two girls. It took a moment until Ranma got the idea and then moved forward with Cologne towards the other two girls and quickly helped them to retreat from the room. Inside the room Pharaoh 90 slowly moved towards the living creatures that had escaped pulling a few items into its bulk along the way.

Once they had exited the room Mercury was finally able to speak saying, "Vesta and I think there is some weakness on the very bottom of that thing, but we will need some extreme power to do anything to it. We called for Saturn, but she is injured. I'm not sure what else we could use…"

Angerona nodded, looked to Pallas and said, "It doesn't have any hot chi either. Might be that we could fudge it or think of something else…"

The Amazon matriarch thought a moment and then said, "What is underneath us in this building?"

Mercury replied, "Pipes and that sort of thing all modern buildings have them."

A quick nod and then the elder said, "And do you have control over water sources Mercury?"

The light came into the other girl's eyes and she said, "Yes, but I'd need someone to channel enough to the building from the municipal system…"

"Already on it" Vesta said as she worked on her own powers and was typing commands into an item that looked much like the Mercury computer.

Blue haired sailor concentrated on her powers while the yellow clad girl assisted by shunting water toward the building. She said, "Increase in pressure in the room, but not enough. We need something more…more power or something."

Mercury concentrated and Vesta said, "If we could just shunt some steam from the boilers into the water system just under the room, then there would be more than enough pressure."

Angerona looked at Pallas and the two smashed into the floor and went to the basement. There Pallas looked up at the ceiling and saw some of the black mass starting to creep through the floor. "Right there is the best spot I would say."

Angerona then used the power of Nemesis to create a magical junction between the steam pipe and a water pipe. Pallas proceeded to smash both pipes with a quick burst of chi and then the high pressure steam was directed into the now high pressure water pipeline. The pipe failed and the explosion afterwards was tremendous sending gout of water directly up towards Pharaoh 90 propelling it up into the room above.

After being drenched with water both Angerona and Pallas immediately followed up on their attacks and sent powerful blasts into the bottom of the creature sending it up into the next room and then the next, they followed it up and continued their attacks blasting it through the roof and into the air.

By the time it hit the air, both Mercury and Vesta were out of the building and they both sent a blast of power at the creature from the ground. Unfortunately the blast had little effect other than to send the creature onto another building. This one had people in it and so it began to feed.

Angerona stared at the creature in horror as she realized that any damage they might have done to the creature was being nullified as people were taken and fed into the moths of the creature. What made everything worse was the fact that no sound at all could be heard from those who were dying…

Angerona cursed once and then jumped over to the other building where she tried to stop the creature's rampage. Tentacle like psuedopods latched onto her and without a thought she sliced at them with her Nemesis empowered Neko-Ken abilities. Rescuing people she shoved them towards a stairwell and then realized what she had just done.

Previously she hadn't been able to hurt it much with her powers, but the psuedopods were apparently thin enough to be cut by her powers and the thing was bleeding as well. The only question left was exactly what sort of power she would need to cut through its skin when it was not being thinned out by forming a psuedopod.

As she though she ushered a few more people into the emergency stairwell and then went down herself. If previous experience was right this thing would move slowly up there while it quested for food, but still she did not want to take that much time, "This is Angerona here. Who do we have left able to fight this thing and where can we get some bladed weapons?"


Michiru woke on the street and immediately looked for Hotaru. She found the other girl nearby, in her sailor fuku, and under the care of Neherenia. She let out a breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding and Neherenia said, "Neptune, good to see you up and about. We may need your help, but I'm not sure how yet. Angerona and the others just called looking for Saturn, but she is not awake yet. I will call back and tell them that you are available instead."

Neptune agreed that she would be available and then she saw it. A gigantic black blob exploded out of the top of a building and then began to descend to the ground. A massive blast of power slammed into it from the ground sending it into the air and onto the top of another building where it began to feed on the occupants

She gasped in horror and was about to go help when she saw a figure rush into the building. Moments after that her communicator went off as a voice said, "This is Angerona here. Who do we have left able to fight this thing and where can we get some bladed weapons?"

She looked to Sailor Saturn in front of her and then to the sword at her side and said, "Neptune here, I have two bladed weapons and will be right there."

She grabbed the Silence Glaive and started to rush off when a young boy with black hair in a pony tail ran into her. "Ah jeez sorry about that."

She looked at him and said in a tone that brooked no interference, "Saotome. You will need to stay here and keep Saturn and the rest safe. I will help Angerona at the fight location."

"But, what about the people," He protested.

It was Neherenia who said, "You have somehow depleted the sphere of Ceres of its magic entirely. It may or may not come back with time, but without it to protect you that creature will suck your life force away as if it was eating candy. Stay with me and keep the others safe. If you are needed you will be contacted…"

Neptune was already down the block by the time Neherenia was done speaking and Ranma stood there a moment. He looked to all the people unconscious on the street and then back to the girl who was already near the battle and grunted in frustration. He was Ranma Saotome and he could beat anything he just knew that he could and yet Shampoo was laying there and so were the other girls. Then, he heard a crunch on the ground behind him he turned and saw that green haired girl was standing there. She was transformed into a darker black version of her fuku, holding her garnet rod in her hands, and a strange black glow was surrounding her as she said, "I wasn't finished talking to you Ranma Saotome."

He turned and she whispered something and then sent a blast of power at him. He barely avoided it in time and then went on the offensive as he realized that he really would need to stay where he was to help the others out.

His attack slammed into Setsuna, but the black energy dissipated it and she attacked again with another Dead Scream. Undaunted by that he attacked again using his speed to easily get past her guard and slam a number of punches into her, but once again the power was dissipated and she sent out a blast of power that he dodged this time.

Neherenia watched the two fighting and sighed. Her magical reserves were mostly used up and she had little left except for some minor healings which meant there was little way that she could join the combat and yet it seemed like Ranma would need some help to at least get past the strange black barrier that was around the Green Haired woman.

Ranma dodged another blast and gave the girl a cocky grin as she said, "You can't dodge forever boy and your power can't hurt me. So, it is just a matter of time before I make you pay," she looked to the other girls who were unconscious and then added, "make all of you pay for all of the evil that you have done."

Ranma avoided another blast and said, "Look lady I don't know what your problem is and why you want to kill me, but come on give it a rest already. We've got some psycho black blob thing out there sucking people's lives away and you're attacking me? How does that make me evil and you the good guy?"

Something about what he said resonated in Setsuna's inner core and gave her a momentary qualm about what she was doing, but she had been the protector of the Gates of Time for too long. She had been devoted to the cause for what seemed an eternity and she was being powered by a crystal created by one of the most deviant and evil witches to set foot on the earth which basically meant that any qualms she had were quickly disposed of. So, she continued to attack and Ranma continued to dodge.

Then she thought a moment and looked to the unconscious people on the street. She gave the boy a slow and devious smile as she said, "Dodge this one boy, I dare you!"

She aimed her blast directly at one of the girls lying on the sidewalk. Ranma thought it might be the one called Miya, but he wasn't quite sure as the green haired girl began to fire her blast. Even as the thought of which girl was about to be hit was going through his head the pigtailed martial artist was in motion and so he was able to grab the unconscious girl and try to get out of the way, but he wasn't quite fast enough and the blast clipped his shoulder. Then, he was bleeding and the woman looked at him and said, "Oh nice show, but now I know how to win boy. Which one should be next?"

This time she pointed her staff at Shampoo and then Ranma was right on top of her. He hit again and again with Amaguriken speed. Not letting up for a moment, not caring if his attacks were dissipated, because he had to get through; he had to defeat her or she would kill someone.

As Ranma pulled Miya out of the way Neherenia knew that she would have to help him somehow. When the young boy attacked again she dug into her magical reserves and desperately tried to disrupt Setsuna's shield. She poured more and more power into her efforts until finally the energy field surrounding the green haired girl opened just for a moment. It was a microsecond, but that was more than enough for Ranma who saw the opening and slammed more than a hundred punches through it and into Setsuna knocking her down and disrupting the energy even more. That additional disruption gave him even more openings and soon enough the fight was over.

When the green haired girl went down Ranma ripped the rod out of Setsuna's unconscious hands, smashed the gem into the ground, and then he sat on the ground and promptly fainted with exhaustion from his efforts.


Cologne watched the younger martial artist head up the building and followed after her, telling the two other young people to stay at ground level and figure out any other weaknesses that the creature might have. Once she was gone the two looked at each other and began cataloging their options.

The call from Angerona for bladed weapons seemed like a decently good idea and they watched Neptune run past them and into the building, but something about the whole thing seemed wrong. The two girls were pretty sure that the creature would not be killed by those weapons.

Vesta pulled off her visor a moment and sat down a moment trying to think. "That thing is silent right? We were near it and no noise at all was coming from it. Yet, your computer had mentioned that Saturn's powers could hurt it."

Mercury nodded and said, "The only problem with that solution is the simple fact that she's currently more than ten blocks away and unconscious. I saw that Neptune had her weapon, but I'm not sure it will work the same way for her or Angerona."

Vesta nodded and said, "Well what other power sources do we have and what might work?"

"The JSDF has nuclear weapons, but I am absolutely sure that we don't want to try and steal those or destroy the entire city. What is the use of fighting this thing if we destroy the very thing we are trying to save?" Mercury pondered her own question and sat down as well, looking up at the battle that seemed to be entirely one sided above them and their side was not winning.

Vesta looked off and said, "That crystal thing Sailor Moon used sounded pretty powerful, too bad Neherenia mentioned that it was destroyed. There wouldn't happen to be any other artifacts like that somewhere?"

Mercury slammed her palm to her forehead and said, "Of course how could I be so stupid! They were using an artifact to bring the creature here to Earth. The gateway is gone, but the artifact was still in the room."

The two girls looked at each other after that statement and immediately rushed back into the building. Soon enough they were in the room and holding the cup in their hands between them and scanning it with their powers. Mercury sighed a moment and said, "Not enough really. It's just a trickle of energy now."

"But, what are those small lines of light connecting outward from it? There are eight small lines and one bigger one can you see them?"

Mercury nodded and the gasped. "These connect to the Senshi….or at least they were. Look this one," she stepped away and pointed, "is connected to me and there is another connecting to Saturn."

Vesta nodded and then said, "But what about these four here they seem unconnected does that mean the other Senshi are gone?"

Mercury shook her head and then remembered something, something from her memories. "This is a backup. Like a redundancy just in case something great happened and the kingdom needed more power or in this case if something happened to the Senshi. The unconnected lines are like a power line connected to a plant that is giving out no energy."

Vesta looked at her and said, "Could we turn that energy back on somehow? I don't know maybe draw the lines in and see if we can't connect them?"

Mercury thought about it and said, "Yes," the two girls then proceeded to draw the power lines in. As they did so five rods appeared inside the grail. Now, the item was blazing with power and two girls looked at each other with awe saying at the same time, "You are a genius!"

They laughed a moment and then realizing the seriousness of their situation quickly started running to the building where the others were fighting Pharaoh 90.


Neptune had crashed through one of the building's windows and landed next to Ranma and handing her the Silence Glaive. With that action Ranma had thought it would be pretty easy to defeat Pharaoh 90 all they had to do was use the weapons and her enhanced Nekoken to Just cut through its skin and shred the thing into tiny pieces.

It had worked just like that too the only problem was that the pieces didn't die. Most of them absorbed the material of the building and slowly joined together with each other while others attacked the fighters in the room. Without the bulk of being one massive creature these smaller parts were much speedier and one managed to bore a hole entirely through Pallas' hand.

The elderly Amazon seemed okay, but Ranma knew that even with extra powers she was going to be less help now. Then, another creature sliced through Neptune's thigh causing the girl to collapse to the ground and almost be eaten by the larger mass that was reforming. That was when as Angerona and leader she determined that the other two had to go and get medical aid.

Using hand gestures and more she guided the others in a retreat down yet another set of stairs, using the Silence glaive to defend the two. Then as the others continued farther down and slowly left the building she tried to think of some new idea, something that might work against this new creature.

As she thought about it in the silence created by Pharaoh 90's presence she started to feel power and to hear sounds. Then, she saw Nabiki in her guise as Vesta walking up the stairs with some type of chalice in her hands. The thing had five rods in it and was literally humming with power. Vesta handed her the chalice, and she could easily hear the other girl as she whispered, "This is for you and for all the people in this city. Take it and win."

Angerona held the chalice in her hands and saw the other girl moving quickly down the stairs as she began to channel her powers into the cup. The cup responded to her and gave her what she needed. The power rushed through her and linked back to her connection to Nemesis and so she shouted the only thing that seemed appropriate as she directed this new power up and into Pharaoh 90, "DIVINE RETRIBUTION!"

The power came from her in a cacophony of sound and light. It was life and love and so much more. It was the complete antithesis to silence and it utterly destroyed the creature it was aimed at, as well as most of the building Angerona had been standing in.

Far below on the street an entire city watched as Pharaoh 90 was destroyed by the enhanced power of Nemesis. The Black Moon had confronted and destroyed the Silence.

Author's Notes:

I suppose I could add in an epilogue…

Oh added note. It could seem like this should have been a bit more epic of a battle, but in all honsety it's been going on for two chapters. I think that qualifies as epic in my book.

It will come.

In any case for those of you who might be interested the effect I described with water is real and called the Water Hammer. It has been slightly enhanced for story telling purposes. It happens when steam hits a pool of water and then is instantly condensed into liquid form creating a vacuum that the surrounding water rushes into at speeds greater than that of sound.