Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 1: The Senshi of dawn.
Act 4: Silver Dusk.
Episode 21: Shadow of evil.
By Razor Knight
Last update: January 27, 2012
Last edited: May 21, 2017
The throne room was much like others the Senshi had seen before. Each of them were princesses of their worlds, so they were used to royal displays as the one being shown in that particular room. Suits of armor, old tapestries, golden candelabra, the usual things to find in a throne room.
What wasn't usual was the fact there was only one throne. Apparently Queen Beryl had not bothered searching for a King to rule by her side, and the fact only one throne was in the room made it clear she was still not interested.
"Welcome, Senshi. I am honored by your visit, even if the cause of it is a most disturbing one."
Sailor Earth looked at the woman. "I apologize if you find it rude for me to skip formalities, but I didn't come here to socialize."
"That's perfectly understandable given the circumstances, Princess," Beryl said. "I know the pain of losing a mother, although not to a... Monster."
"Do you have any idea of who could have been behind the attack?"
"I do not," Beryl said, "however, I will grant your group freedom to search through my country. Perhaps the legendary magic abilities of the Senshi will be able to find what my court mages couldn't."
"She doesn't seem to be lying to us," Sailor Mercury noted.
Earth noticed the tone in which Mercury said this, and nodded. "I suppose... We will take your offer, and will search this country thoroughly. Worry not, for we won't harm any civilians, unless we've got clear proof of their connection with the incident."
"Those are acceptable terms," Beryl admitted. "I wish you good luck."
As the Senshi left the room, a smile crept into Beryl's face. The young idiot. She was just like her brother, Endymion. They weren't fit to rule the whole planet, if they would take someone's words at face value as she just had.
'You're a very good actress, Beryl. I must admit even I thought you were being honestly helpful to them.'
Beryl chuckled as she 'heard' Metallias words. "Are you ready to go along with my plan?"
'Of course. I will give them a nice show, make it tough for them... Maybe I'll kill another one of them before I'm defeated by them.'
Beryl nodded silently. Yes, it was all going as planned. These Senshi kids had no idea what was waiting for them, out there.
As they walked away from the castle, Gea finally spoke her mind. "She was lying to us."
Kione nodded. "Of course. Which means she knows something about what happened, but isn't telling us. The question here would be, is she hiding it because of personal interests, or is there something else we're not seeing?"
The others looked at her quizzically. "What else could there be?" Mazu asked.
"Mind control or posession. But you didn't detect any of that, right Moment?"
Pluto appeared right besides her, not surprised Kione knew she had been watching them from her post. "I didn't. But that may just mean the being we're dealing with is stronger than I thought, at least in one of those areas."
"She's not possessed, I would know if she had another soul within," Kisin, the Saturn Senshi, said. Kione was pretty sure it was the first time she had heard her speak ever since she arrived to the Moon base.
Pluto nodded at that. "You're more attuned to sensing souls than I could ever hope to be, just like your mother. So that only leaves two choices, she's either lying, or controlled by someone else."
Gea looked down for a few seconds, then turned to Pluto. "We'll go to the place where it happened. Maybe we will find a clue there."
"Or maybe the killer is still around," Kione noted.
"I hope that's the case," Gea said.
The Princess looked up to the sky and sighed. The Earth looked as peaceful as ever, but she knew there was something there, and she wished she could help the other princesses with that. But no, she wasn't an official Senshi yet, so she would have to wait.
Her mind returned to the past as she thought of someone else. Her first memories of him weren't too fond, to be honest, as the young Prince Endymion of the Earth Kingdom of Camelot (that was a mouthful, wasn't it?) had been quite eager to try and burn her pigtails, as he had found them ugly.
Their parents decided they would marry when they were old enough, and to the young Nanna, Endymion was quite unlikeable.
"Why do I have to marry such a rude boy?" the Princess muttered.
"It's not suitable for a lady to be muttering like that in public. Or pouting."
The Princess looked at her guardian Mooncat, Luna. "Can't help it. He'll be here any minute, that brat..."
"That brat will be your husband someday, Princess Serenity."
The Princess saw her mother walking to her and sighed. "I don't like being told what to do..."
"We have noticed," Luna interrupted.
"... Moreso when it's about who I'm supposed to be with for my whole life."
The Queen shook her head. "You haven't seen him in four years, Nanna. People can change a lot, specially young ones, even in such a short time. Could you give the Prince another chance?"
The Princess looked out the window and saw a spaceship closing in to the lunar port. The Excalibur, one of the largest ships in the system, and Camelot's main spaceship. That meant the Prince was back. "I... I guess I'll try again, hope you're right about what you said, mother."
The Queen had been right. Prince Endymion had been kind and polite, not at all like the brat she remembered. They had spent quite a lot of time together during that particular visit, and she had started considering him a friend soon afterwards. And Nana had decided, a couple years ago, that she didn't hate the idea of marrying him anymore.
She didn't hate it, at all.
But the princess wasn't in a good mood right now. Sure, she understood why he had to leave...
"So, your sister is going to take care of that?"
The man nodded. "I wish I could help, but I'm no Senshi."
"I can't say I know how you must be feeling right now, because my father died when I was too young to remember him. But..."
"Don't worry, Serenity. I just need some time to think, and to mourn."
"I understand," Princess Serenity said, "but please, don't be so formal when nobody's around."
"I keep on forgetting that, right Nanna?"
The princess smiled. "That you do, Endymion. Now go home, I will be okay."
...But she didn't have to like it. She had decided to focus on training. To the outside world, even to most of the other Princesses, Nanna, usually addressed as Princess Serenity by the rest of the system, was not yet a Senshi.
"Moon... Prism Barrage!"
"You seem to be in a pretty bad mood today, Princess."
Nanna looked at the catlike creature, then at the practice targets. Or, rather, to the large holes in the ground where practice targets had once been standing. "I... Suppose I am."
"It's about the Prince, right?"
The Princess sighed and looked at the Mooncat. "No use in hiding that, you know me too well. I have a lot of things in my head right now. I don't want to be far away from him, but I also want to support him... And I feel angry at whoever did that, whoever dared killing someone close to my mother, to kill one of the strongest Senshi in this era. It needs to pay for that."
"You're a few levels too weak to help Gea."
"I know. It makes me feel useless."
"Just continue your training. You will eventually..."
"What if it's too late by then?"
"I'll have to speak with Moment about it."
"Thanks, Luna."
Kione walked to the others, scowling. "Nothing thus far. It's almost as if what attacked Rhea had vanished."
"Maybe... Who or what did it was killed by Rhea," Agni said.
"That's a possibility I've been considering," Gea admitted, "maybe there's nothing to take vengeance upon."
Kione shook her head. "Moment's not one to waste her own time, or others'. If she knew there was nothing here, she would not have brought us here to investigate."
"Where should we go next, though?"
"There's another village close to the area where the incident happened," Bisha, the Senshi of Lilith, noted. "Maybe we should try our luck there?"
"As good a place to visit as any," Gea noted. In fact, she had been surprised by this small country's people. She had seen no beggars in the streets, no shady businesses, nothing that could be found in other, larger countries, or the other planets. Almost as if, somehow, Beryl had found a way to keep crime at an absolute zero percent, or something quite close to it. It was yet another thing about Arcadia that didn't quite seem fitting.
But perhaps she was reading too much into it. She hadn't been out of Camelot much before she became a Senshi, so maybe some other places were like this, too.
"So, why are we here?" Princess Serenity asked, then looked around, at the walls which kept on changing their color constantly. This place had many names, and many rumors, but she had never been there before. "This place looks strange."
"It is as strange as I would expect a place like this to be."
"Was it hard to get permission from Moment?" Moment had agreed to this idea rather quickly, it was a bit strange for her.
"You're not the first Senshi to use this place to train without being a Pluto Senshi. And if I were to guess, Moment has a reason to agree with this idea, but she didn't tell me what it was."
"What's the difference, though? Training here won't help me that much."
"I think your mother never told you about one of the traits of this place. Time does not pass like it does in the outer world. Technically, while we're here, we're outside the normal flow of time, and can return to it at any given moment."
Nanna thought about it for a few seconds. "So we could go back home a second after we left?"
Luna smiled. "Or a day before. But that wouldn't be wise, the risks of altering the timelines would be... But nevermind that, I think you now know the reason I brought you here."
"Training on my own will take too long."
"I know that, so you will be fighting me."
The Princess stood there, looking at the cat. "Fight you? Even with my current power I could..."
Luna smiled. "There's things you don't know about the Senshi. They're kept a secret from almost everyone. But I suppose this is a good time as any to reveal one of the best kept secrets of the Mooncats..."
The cat's body started glowing, and soon Nanna couldn't see a thing as a blinding light surrounded the creature. As the light dimmed, she could see Luna was not there, and there was a woman with blue hair, wearing a gold suit which was close to a Senshi's suit. "What... Who are you?"
"Princess, I'm hurt. You don't recognize your guardian just because I changed my form?"
"Luna?"
"Of course. This skill is only to be used in special situations, emergencies and such. Thanks to a certain friend of mine, though, I'll be able to use it in here for as long as I need."
"Well, I don't really see the difference, your power is just like..."
"Oh, that. I think you already know about power cloaking, after all, you and your mother use it all the time, albeit for different reasons."
And then Nanna could sense it, the woman's power being unleashed. It was... "No way, you're quite close to mom's level!"
Luna smiled at that. "I know. And when we're done here, you'll be as strong, if not stronger, than me."
The Princess changed into her Senshi Suit in an instant, but then frowned. "Wait, what's the catch?"
"Other than this kind of training being potentially deadly, for both of us? No catch at all."
"Fair enough, I suppose. Let's start."
Nanna was a warrior at heart, just like her mother, and Luna had known this for quite some time. But now it was time to see if the Princess was really up to the challenge.
Kisin had sensed something strange as they approached the village, but she could now feel it clearly. "Be careful, everyone. I can sense death all around us."
"Sounds promising," Gea said calmly.
Yet as the village came into view, there was nothing visibly wrong with it. Civilians doing normal, everyday's activities, and a few soldiers standing guard right outside the area. Same as every other village they had visited.
"Nothing seems out of place here," Bisha commented.
Kione was using her visor. "No, Kisin's right. There's some strange energy all around the area."
The villagers suddenly stopped, as if frozen by something. "That doesn't look normal," Mazu noted.
Agni frowned. "I can sense it. It's north of here."
"That's in the direction of..." Gea started. "But we already checked the place of the attack."
"Uh, girls..." Mazu said, "I don't think we're welcome here."
The villagers were now slowly crawling towards them. "They're possessed by something," Kione said.
"No, it's not just that," Kisin explained, "there's nothing left of the villagers' souls."
"But they were normal a moment ago, weren't they?"
The Saturn Senshi nodded. "Either this force acts fast, or my senses aren't good enough to detect it."
"What should we do?"
Kisin saw one of the villagers was quite close to Gea, but the girl wasn't moving to defend herself. The villager never got to attack, however, as Kisin's glaive cut him in half at waist height.
"Wait!" Agni shouted.
Sailor Saturn shook her head. "You didn't hear me the first time around, so I'll repeat it. There's nothing left of the villagers' souls. They cannot be saved anymore."
"That is..."
"Bisha, you don't need to kill them if you don't want to. Same goes for anyone," Kisin noted. "I'll take care of this myself if I have to." Even before she was done saying that, the villagers were all encased in stone. The group all looked at Gea.
"They're still in there, but they won't be moving anymore," Gea noted.
Laughter could be heard near them. "That was quite a nice trick, dear Princess."
Gea looked to the side, and saw a strange, black mist floating there. "What is..."
"You don't need to know, because you're all going to die. This country will be mine, and then the whole planet will follow."
"We won't let you do that!"
"Amusing, a bunch of weak Senshi trying to fight me?" The shadow slowly morphed, turning into a humanoid creature. It was quite close to a human, in fact, if not for the scaly, light blue skin and red hair. Its green, reptilian eyes only made her figure stranger to those looking at her. "Oh my... It seems possessing so many humans had its toll on me. I'm becoming too much like one for my liking."
"What are you, monster?"
Metallia saw no use in hiding her identity. "The Senshi of the past knew me as Metallia, so you may call me that for the short time you'll live, Senshi."
Kione took a step back. "Metallia... No, that can't be!"
Agni was sure it was the first time she saw the Mercury Senshi scared. "Kione, what's wrong?"
Kisin was looking at Metallia coldly. "Metallia, the ancient leader of the Kh'sun, a very strong necromancer, and the cause for Lilith's destruction."
"I see some of your kin still remembers me. That's good. Maybe I'll let one of you live, just so you can tell others how strong I really am."
Kione's face had changed as Metallia spoke. She had calmed down enough to get a reading on the woman's power, and it was lower than she imagined. Much lower. "Gea, she's obviously bluffing, or can't get through your power cloaking. If you wanted a chance to destroy the monster who killed your mother, then she's all yours."
Metallia smiled at that. Foolish humans, she was also cloaking her power, because she had to act the weak demon. Besides, none of them was strong enough to... Wait, what was that? "No... Such a young human with that much power? Impossible!"
"Nothing is impossible for us Senshi," Gea said.
Kione frowned. "Girls, let's give her room to act."
Gea smiled as the others teleported away. "Any last words, monster?"
"This... This isn't over!"
"Oh, but it is," Gea growled, just as a barrage of large stone spears shot from underneath the evil woman. The spears did enough damage, but weren't the main attraction. As the first of the spears fell to the ground, a blast of energy shot from it to the woman, and each spear did the same as they fell.
Metallia was surprised. Yes, this girl's power wasn't enough to kill her, but just like her mother... No, she couldn't fight her, not after letting her take the first shot. But she would not make that mistake again. In any case, it was time for the 'final' act, and it wasn't too difficult to feign deadly pain when one was quite close to it. "Damn... I cannot... Be defeated by a Senshi again... Not..."
Gea sighed as the woman fell down to the ground, and then vanished. She looked around as the others phased back to where she was. "It's done." She banished the stones trapping the villagers, and cringed as the bodies all fell down. "Damn."
Kisin checked on some of the corpses. "It's no use. There's still no soul in them, that monster must have used it to become stronger."
"Something's strange," Kione noted as they walked away from the now deserted village, "Metallia was a powerful being in the past, said to hold her ground against a Holy Senshi. Against a Serenity, even. This creature..."
"Maybe she was weakened, since she was dead for countless centuries," Fujin noted.
"Or the creature was just using that name to try and scare us away," Mazu added.
"It could be that... But I have my doubts," Kione said. "In any case, let's inform Beryl about what happened here, and tell her her country's safe now."
"Think she knew something about it?"
"I'm sure of it, but let's see how far she's willing to take that lie."
A/N: I've been running out of inspiration a lot lately, but this fic's not dead yet. This particular book's entering its final arc, and once that's done I'll go back to the second book and the Senshi we all care about (well, these are their past lives, but not quite the same persons in my eyes.)