Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 1: Dark Kingdom.
Episode 10: Change of plans.

By Razor Knight
Last update: May 9, 2010
Last edited" May 24, 2017

Beryl wasn't entirely pleased with her troops' performance. While their energy reserves were increasing, it wasn't fast enough. Jadeite was the biggest offender there, and that's why she was putting Nephrite in charge of the Japan front. That didn't mean Jadeite was resting, no, she could still use his skills elsewhere. There were two ways for the youma to win this war, and both involved awakening their goddess before the Senshi found their Princess. Gathering energy had seemed like the fastest road at first, but it had turned into the backup plan.

Let the Senshi think they were stopping the youma from invading, let them keep their eyes set on the energy draining. They would never notice there was something else going on. They would never know the youma were already chasing after the Ginzuishou, the crystal which, legends said, could only be used by the Princess. If the youma got to it first, then the Princess would be powerless, and Beryl would find a way to use it to awaken her goddess. Jadeite was also out there now, searching for the crystal. With three Generals actively looking for it, she was certain it wouldn't be long before it was found.

The man walked in and looked at the students. "Good morning, students. I'll be your substitute teacher for history class. As you might have heard, miss Harai was hospitalized last night."

"I heard she was attacked by one of those monsters," one of the students said.

The man nodded at that. "I've heard the rumors, yes. But I don't think you should believe that kind of urban legends. In any case, my name is Furita, and I hope you will find my classes interesting enough as to not fall asleep during them."

A few students laughed at that, but Naru wasn't laughing. She was staring at the man in shock. 'It can't be him. I hoped I wouldn't have to fight him.'

Usagi looked at her, worried about her friend's sudden seriousness. "Hey Naru, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Huh? Oh, it's nothing," Naru lied. A ghost, yes. A ghost from her past. She noticed Furita was looking back at her. Had he recognized her? Did he even remember at all?

'That girl's energy is at its peak right now. She'll be my first target.' After all, that weak human woman he had drained the night before was not enough to send to his Queen. Fortunately, he had noticed she was a teacher, and thus his plan had been born. Being able to roam in a place full of humans would make it easier for him to find his targets.

Later that day, Usagi was walking home. It would have been far more accurate to say she was stomping home, actually.

"Hey, Rabbit, what's wrong?"

She looked back and saw Terry following her. "Hmph, it's this stupid test. I don't know why I even bother anymore."

Terry knew what she was talking about, she was quite upset about the test's results. "Maybe you could try, you know, studying?"

"I try, but I wasn't born to study." She looked at the test again and made a ball with the paper sheet, tossing it away. "Stupid thing."

"Ow. Who the heck..."

Terry turned back and saw a tall guy walking to them. The test had apparently landed on him, and he was looking at Usagi amusedly.

Usagi scowled at him. "You again?"

"You should listen to your boyfriend, Odango," the man said as he handed her the test paper and started walking away.

"What do you care?" Usagi snapped at the retreating man, then blushed furiously as his words sank. "And he's not my boyfriend!"

Terry watched the man walk away, ignoring Usagi's shouts, and sighed. "He's a bit of a jerk, but you know, you really should study."

"I know that, I just... I'm not good at all when it comes to books."

"Why don't you ask Ami for help?"

"She's busy with her own classes, and..."

"I don't think she'll mind," Terry said, "I've seen her study, and she seems to enjoy it."

Usagi let out a long sigh. "I'll try asking her."

"You know, that new teacher is kind of... I don't know, he kept on looking at the students in a strange way."

"Really? I didn't notice. He's kind of cute, though."

Terry blinked at that. "If you say so."

Nephrite couldn't really complain, the building Jadeite had bought was dark enough for those used to the sun-less sky of the Dark Kingdom. And since there was nobody else but him inside, he could plan his attacks better from there. "This girl is your target," he said to the youma standing besides him, as he showed him a photo of Naru, "do not fail, Kapuri."

"I will not fail, Master Nephrite," the youma said before vanishing.

Nephrite looked up at the roof, in which an image of the stars in that side of the Earth was shown. "Capricorn's stars shine the brightest right now. I'm sure Kapuri won't fail."

"Naru, run!"

Usagi's eyes widened. "That was Umino."

"Go help them, I'll catch up with you."

"Where are you going?"

"I gotta get my suit. Did you think I had it under my clothes just in case I had to fight?"

"As a matter of fact..." Usagi noted.

Terry sighed. "Just go help them."

When Moon reached her friends, she saw things were looking bad. Umino was unconscious on the ground, and the youma (who looked like a humanoid goat, or a ram,) was clutching Naru by the neck, pinning her against a wall as she drained her. "Hey you, leave that girl alone!"

The youma turned to her. "I'll be with you in a minute," she said dismissively.

"Why you..." Moon glared at the youma. Sure, she wasn't too thrilled about fighting this creature, but Naru was the target (again,) so she would just have to manage. She run to the monster, as fast as she could, and jumped when she was meters away from it. "Moon Kick!"

Naru was barely conscious, but still heard the shout, and realized the monster had released her. She shook her head to try and fully recover her senses, and noticed what had happened. Sailor Moon was there, and she had kicked the youma with enough force to send it staggering back.

"Are you okay?"

Naru cringed. It was not the first time she was saved by Sailor Moon, but this time was different. This time, she could've beaten that creature herself. She should've known why Nephrite was looking at her at school. He didn't recognize her, he was just looking at his prey. "Yes, I'm... Just a bit tired."

"You stupid brat!"

Moon realized the youma wasn't quite down yet, and leapt back, barely dodging a charge from it. It had charged at her head-first, something very fitting considering what she looked like. The monster charged again, and Moon once again managed to leap out of the way. "Okay, enough of this. Moon Tiara Action!"

Jadeite's youma usually just stood there staring until the tiara hit them, but this one wasn't one of them. The goat-like woman simply charged forwards once again, sending the tiara flying away with her horns. With no tiara, she was sure this dumb Senshi would be easy to kill. Yes, she wouldn't only have the target's energy today, but would also kill one of those Senshi. Surely Lord Nephrite would...

"Fire Soul!"

Moon stared at the spot where the youma had been standing as the fire column vanished, and turned to see Mars and Mercury had arrived. "Good timing."

Naru stood up shakily. "Thanks for saving me again, Senshi."

"No need to thank us," Moon said as she looked for her tiara, "it's our job." Though it did feel good to be thanked for it.

"Let's go," Mars said, noticing Moon had found her lost weapon, "hopefully they won't attack for a while."

As Moon followed the others, she realized something. "Hey, how did you know the youma were attacking?"

"Terry went to the temple and told me what was going on," Rei said, "and I called Ami."

"That's the fun of being a sidekick, the heroes can take care of stuff without us."

Moon looked up to see Zero standing on top of a truck. "I was fighting those alone for a while, so yes, I think I can handle a fight now and then."

Mars smiled. "It's good to see you can actually be a heroine when it matters."

Moon nodded at that. "I realized I can't just keep running away. Not when my friends are getting hurt by those things. Even if fighting those monsters scares me to the bone."

Zero leapt down from the truck and smiled at her. "If you weren't scared of fighting monsters like those, then you would be either stupid or insane."

Moon suddenly shook her head. "You know, since we're all still in 'uniform,' shouldn't we go see what the army people wanted?"

Mercury nodded. "I'm done studying, so I have no problem with that."

Mars smiled. "You're just looking for an excuse from studying, aren't you?"

"Can it, Rei," Moon muttered.

Nephrite couldn't help but smile. Kapuri had been killed by the Senshi, true, but she didn't fail. Unlike Jadeite, he didn't wait to send the energy to the Dark Kingdom. No, his youma had been instructed to send all the energy they collected straight to him, and he had sent it to his world as soon as he had it. So far, his methods seemed to work a lot better than Jadeite's. Maybe if Beryl had chosen him from the start, their goddess would already be back from her slumber.

The two guards in front of the bunker's door were rather shocked as the four teenagers (and a small cat) approached the door. "Hold it right there," the younger of the two guards said.

"Hey, that's my line," Moon noted.

Mars ignored her. "We're here to see Lieutenant Rakurai."

"Of course," the older guard said, "she told us you would be here sooner or later. Please wait here." The Senshi waited while the older guard spoke through a small comm on the wall. As he returned, he smiled at them. "You may pass."

As the Senshi walked in, the younger guard shook his head. "I suppose you won that bet, old man. I didn't think they really existed."

"Heard about the cruise ship incident? My daughter was there with her husband. Those kids are heroes to me."

The guard nodded at that. "Yeah, I had heard a lot of people praise them, but you know the saying, 'see to believe.'"

"How do you know these aren't fakes?" the older guard countered.

"It's quite simple... Can you remember what their faces looked like?"

"No, I can't," the older guard admitted, "so they must be the real deal."

Saiko Rakurai saw the Senshi walking in and sighed. "Took you guys long enough."

"We've been busy. We're just done frying another youma," Mars noted. She was quite literal with the whole 'frying' thing, too.

"I'm not complaining, it's not like I could force you girls to come here. Follow me."

Zero looked around as they walked. "This place's bigger on the inside."

"Most of it is underground," Saiko explained, "it's easier to hide a branch of the JDF that's been investigating aliens and legends for years, if the civilians don't even know we're here."

"So you're Japan's Area 51," Zero said.

"I've been researching since we last met," Rakurai admitted, "and I'm curious. Why are you in Japan?"

Zero frowned at that. "How much do you know?"

"You and a girl known as Nova were usually seen stopping criminals back in New York. There were two incidents where a group of civilians was drained in the same fashion as youma do here in Tokyo. You were seen at both places."

"You've done your homework," Zero admitted.

"And a few weeks ago, right after one of those incidents, both you and Nova stopped showing up. Rumors say you were both killed by whatever attacked the civilians."

Zero looked down. "Rumors are quite right about Nova, then."

Saiko nodded at that. "Don't worry, then, I can figure it out on my own." There was silence for a minute, until they reached a rather large door. "Here we are."

As they walked through the door, the Senshi saw two men inside. One was wearing a suit much like Rakurai's, and the other wore a labcoat. "General Kino, Doctor Tomoe, these are the Senshi."

The General nodded. "It's good to finally meet you, Senshi."

"Why is that kitty here?" Tomoe asked.

"Name's Luna," Luna said, amused by the faces of both men. "I'm Sailor Moon's guardian, and I'm no ordinary cat, as you might have guessed already."

"Interesting, an alien feline," Tomoe said.

"A Mooncat," Luna corrected.

Tomoe looked at the cat in a quite creepy way. "Hmmm..."

"I hope you're not thinking about scientific tests right now," Luna warned.

"As a matter of fact..."

General Kino cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "Senshi, we need to know what we're facing. We only have rumors to go with right now."

"The enemy are youma," Luna explained, "they are invaders from another dimension, and their power is beyond that of a human. I'm not even sure human weapons can harm them."

"We haven't tried yet," Kino noted. "What exactly are these monsters?"

"I'm not sure. The youma first appeared on Earth a hundred thousand years ago. The Senshi stopped them from invading the Moon..."

"There were humans on the Moon back then?" Kino was quite shocked at that.

"And all the other planets. That's where the names come from, Sailors Moon, Mercury, Mars... There should be one for each planet, but we've yet to find the others. Thing is, I wasn't supposed to 'sleep' for so many years, so it affected my memory of that time."

"A hundred thousand years old feline from the moon. Amazing," Tomoe commented.

"Youma are magic beings, they were originally created through necromancy. They managed to invade all of the Earth, but their leader was defeated when they tried to invade the Moon. They were banished to another dimension by the strongest Senshi."

"Is that Sailor V?"

"All I remember is that she was a Princess. Moon Princess."

Tomoe took out a strange box and looked at it. "Hmm..."

Moon looked at it curiously. "What is that?"

"An energy scanner. I can't get a reading."

"Trust me, they've got a lot of energy," Zero said, "magic, as Luna calls it. Thing is, they can shoot it at their enemies with just a thought."

"Youma use magic too," Luna said, "they're trying to gather life energy to bring their true leader back. If they manage to do that, well..."

"We're screwed," Zero said.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Saiko asked.

"As I said, I don't know if conventional weapons will harm youma."

Kino looked at Luna. "So you're their leader?"

"I'm just a mentor, so to speak. I can't really fight. The Princess is the true leader, but until we find her, I'm doing my best."

"We can't just stand here with our arms crossed," Saiko said, "I bet bullets can kill those things as easily as they kill humans."

Zero snorted. "You're welcome to try, but we don't have time to babysit you and your soldiers."

"What... Who are you, anyway?" Saiko said, her temper rising.

"Zero, stop it," Moon said, then turned to Rakurai. "Zero is our ally, and our friend. I don't agree with the way he's saying it, but he's right." She looked at the General. "This isn't about us wanting to take all the credit, I would love to have more help fighting those monsters... But youma won't hesitate to kill anyone who attacks them."

Luna was surprised by those words. Usagi could sometimes be a brat, but there were times like this, where she showed she really knew what they were facing. She knew she could die fighting the youma.

Kino's face was unreadable as he looked at Moon. "I see. We will stay out of the way for now, but I have no control over the police. And we'll start researching these creatures, to build weapons that can destroy them."

"That would be good," Luna admitted, "if the youma get enough energy, we may be facing a full-scale invasion."

"Huntress Mira, there is something I want to know about your report..."

Mira looked at the magic projection of Prime Huntress Aries. "If it's about our attempt at breaking through..."

"No, " Aries said, "your orders were clear, observe the Senshi without being detected. That much you accomplished, even if you bent the rules a little."

"We failed, Nemesis knows about us."

"From your report, I'm sure she's not with the other Senshi yet. Your main worry right now is not being detected by youma. The three of you are far from ready to face such a force yet."

Circe walked in right then, noticing Ares' image and nodding at her. "The Senshi fought another youma minutes ago. The youma's behavior was different, though... It focused in draining one single human, rather than a crowd."

"Interesting," Aries said, "keep an eye on the city, as usual, and see if you can figure out what their change of tactics means."

Mira looked at Circe as Aries' projection vanished. "Where is Calisto?"

"Scouting the city. She said she was sure the youma had a base in Tokyo, and she wanted to find it."

"Hope she's careful, we can't afford to be found just yet."

"I wonder why the leaders insist on us not contacting the Senshi. It seems to be working fine for Orion and Sigma."

"Those two are in a different league than us, Circe. Given time, either of them could be stronger than the Primes."

"Not surprising," Circe noted, "since they're their offsprings."

"This is annoying, Shade. First time a new General attacks, and he targets me of all people," Naru said, her tone showing she was quite upset.

"A strange coincidence, but don't worry. Next time they attack, we'll be ready for them."

Naru looked at the small cat. "So, I'm joining their team soon, then."

Shade nodded, "yes, we can't act as a separate force. To defeat Nephrite, we must..."

"If he shows up, I'll try talking to him."

"Naru, don't. He's not the same you remember."

"How do you know?" Naru countered, "he will remember me, I'll make him join us."

Shade shook her head. "Fine, try it, but don't forget what your mission is. You may have to kill him to stop the youma invasion. Are you okay with that?"

"If he's really gone for good, I will," Naru said, more to convince herself than her guardian.

A/N: Hopefully I'll get the next chapter out fast. I'm out of new games to waste time with, anyhow.

Fun little fact: I didn't have a title for this one until I finished it. Why is it strange? Because it's the first time I write a whole chapter without giving it a title at some point (most of the time I have the title before I start writing a chapter.)

X0001: No, she wasn't around before last chapter, but I wanted to give her a slightly earlier intro than she had in Cyber Moon Chronicles.