A/N: THIS is Act 25! This is by FAR the longest story I have wrote to date so far and it is one of the most enjoyable I have had the pleasure of writing. If you have favorited, reviewed or put this on your alert I thank you and even if you just happened by and started reading this and still enjoyed it I thank you all just the same.

Good day and God Bless

Joshua Curtis a.k.a. ShootingStar147

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon R

Act 25

Saeko returned from getting her headache meds when she saw a very stylish jewelry box sitting at her station. When she looked at it and then saw that there was a note attached to it she immediately looked at the note and when she read it she immediately stuck it in her pocket and then took care of her business by closing up early while putting on her newest piece of jewelry and RAN out the front door to her car damn near breaking every speed limit you could but she knew one thing: Her daughter was in danger!

Back at the fight the Senshi were doing everything that they possibly could to fight off the droids that were coming and there seemed no end in sight. Cloud was keeping tabs on the casualty count and mercifully no one was seriously hurt save Mercury nearly had a sprain to her right ankle. Everything was looking like they were FINALLY going to be defeated and THEN Cloud heard a phrase that was more shocking in a good way than bad:

"ICE...

STAFF...

CRUSH!"

When everyone looked up the droids that were frozen solid and when they looked around NO ONE was around! Moon didn't look a gift horse in the mouth though and performed the Twilight Flash to polish off the rest of the enemies. Cloud replayed the phrase that he heard along with everyone else and even went in the direction of where the voice came from and didn't find anyone. What he did find was an ice crystal in the shape of a snowflake as a sign that the person was there. Who was it and what were they doing there? This was going to require some investigation!

The investigation started the following day after school when Joshua and Natsumi went and talked to Makoto about what happened and if she saw anything. Makoto said she had her back turned and didn't see anyone coming from her direction when the blast came out. She DID hear the voice and it was a definitive female voice but it wasn't her or any Senshi that were there. Joshua asked Natsumi if it was her but her attacks are all energy based and NOT Ice based like Ami's. Josh had started wondering if what he saw was an aberration but the crystal that he had in his possession told him otherwise. SOMEONE made that crystal and helped the Senshi out but WHO?

The mystery only got deeper over the next two go-rounds and this time the temperature DROPPED 30 DEGREES! This wouldn't have been a problem except when fight ended you'd have sworn it was SUPPOSED to snow and it WASN'T! When Cloud went looking for the person again he ,along with Mercury found 2 ice crystals in the location they swore they heard the voice come from. The funny part about all of this was the fact that when they showed the crystals to everyone the immediate assumption was Ami learned how to make them. Plausible except when you looked at the evidence that they had that she DIDN'T do it it became all that more intriguing.

The next day when Joshua got home from work he saw Saeko was in the kitchen with Makoto preparing a dinner for the four of them as Ami was going to do her best to get home early to have a nice dinner. Josh was happy to hear this and even happier that Makoto stopped by for a visit. If only Josh knew that it wasn't a pleasure visit AND he hadn't spotted the bracelet on his mother's arm!

She couldn't be...could she?

This train of thought was going to have to wait at the station as Ami came home and dinner was just about ready at about 5 PM. The feast that Makoto ended up helping Saeko make was one that made the co-workers jealous when both Saeko and Joshua had their lunches for the next day. Dr. Mizuno joked that Makoto should move in with them but was politely declined as Mako informed the doc that she had a nice apartment next to where her son had briefly been staying. Saeko nodded and told her that if she ever reconsidered that they had a spare room for her.

That night when the girls were out doing their "Senshi Business" Joshua decided to pop in for a visit on Zoisite and see if he could shed some light on the mystery as to what the [BLEEP] had been going on lately. Zoi wasn't talking about it but was greatly worried that Josh looked like crap. Josh responded in kind and asked his friend if he had been eating right. It was a known fact that in the Moon Kingdom there were stretches of DAYS where Zoi didn't eat and it always worried Joshua. Zoi was a good friend and he just didn't like to see him do this to himself.

As Joshua braved going further into the "Den" he saw the rest of the gang sitting around not worried about too much and this told Joshua that something was amidst but he didn't dare ask about it in case one of them was in a testy mood. Kunzite was usually the kind of person that if you asked him the wrong question at the wrong time you were fixing to get your ass whipped and he didn't think kindly of it. Josh DID get a congrats o the single that he and Minako released and on his album. Apparently the Shitennou were big fans of music and they couldn't stand the ear raping that Mio's songs were giving them...at least that's what Zoisite said!

When Josh asked Nephrite if he knew anything about if there was anyone that he knew could make ice crystals he told him Ami but when Josh told him the person that was making these they couldn't see but they could hear Jadeite spoke up. "Are you sure you aren't hearing things Curtis-san?" The blonde asked and Josh shook his head. There was something they weren't telling him and he knew that he was going to have to go pay a visit to the one man that always shot straight with him...

"Sorry Curtis-san" Zoisite began "I know about as much as you do. What I DO know is that Nephrite paged Luna to come here not that long ago and help him with something. He and Jadeite were working on a project and needed Luna's help with it. After I heard they needed Luna's help I stopped asking questions because we generally don't get mixed up with the Senshi just in case and we both know that right?" Zoi asked and Josh nodded. The Shitennou asked Luna for help on a project? What could it have been?

This question would have to be put on hold because as soon as Josh got back to Ami's he got a call on the phone from Mercury to come to the Juuban High. A droid attacked there again and this one was nasty! If you wanna know just HOW nasty well let's say that when Mars made the comment during the fight that "You could hit this thing with a Sherman Tank and it will still live" that tells you its time to pack a lunch(or one of Jupiter's Bentou Boxes) and get ready to dig in. During this fight the Senshi were able to drive the monster through a window where on the other side Ail and En were waiting to pick the thing off in the courtyard but again it didn't exactly work out the way they hoped and the droid got away. When everyone(including Tuxedo Kamen) caught up to the droid it was frozen in a ice block and all eyes pointed to Ami but not even she had THAT kind of power...right?

"Okay this is getting stranger and stranger but we don't have time to argue about this...Sailor Moon NOW!" Cloud exclaimed and Moon complied as Cloud noticed a trail of three ice crystals in the shape of snowflakes leading to a tree in the courtyard. Stuck on that tree was a note that he read to himself and then showed it to the rest of the girls before they parted company for the night. Cloud picked up the crystals and took them with him as he knew that something big was gonna go down but the question was a simple one: When?

Ask and ye shall receive...

The next day Joshua headed for the CROWN with his basket of ice crystals that he had been picking up after the fights. The crystals were beautiful looking snowflakes that were made by either a something or a someONE and that was the question that Josh was hoping to answer in his room while he waited for the rest of the girls in the base. "Alright whomever you are...let's get to matching!" Joshua exclaimed as he tried to run the crystals through his computer. Sadly the computer programs Luna installed didn't have anything for analyzing ice crystals and that annoyed Joshua greatly. How was he supposed to help the Senshi uncover this mystery without the program?

His annoyed state didn't last long when he heard Ami come into the base and he came out to see her. He was always happy to see his sis no matter if they were fighting enemies or just lounging around. It was one of those things that made their bond special and he outright knew it.

"What's good sis?" Josh asked and Ami just looked over at her older brother and smiled before speaking. "Not much bro. I went to the hospital to see if Mom was there and they said that she called out sick today. That's unlike her because she almost never gets ill and even if she does she always had me help her. Today she ordered me to come here! Odd...don't ya think?" Ami asked and Josh nodded. Something wasn't adding up with the way Saeko was acting and the crystals he was getting. THIS required further investigation.

That night Josh purposely stayed overnight at the CROWN as did Ami. They decided that they were going to try and monitor the situation from there and see if they could pick up any kind of abnormalities with a battle. The interesting thing was that there were no battles in the areas they were monitoring but at about 1 AM Josh got a call from Luna that she was bringing a special guest to the HQ. Josh told Ami to go out in the meeting area to greet this individual and she complied as they waited for the guest...

An hour later...

"So this is the place Luna?" Saeko asked and Luna nodded as they entered the facility unabated and looked around at the emptiness of the Karaoke. Luna thought to herself that when she called Joshua he'd have had been waiting for her at the entrance but then thought that maybe he was busy working on something and that's why he didn't come out.

When the duo got to where the HQ was located Luna opened the door and told Saeko to wait there and she complied. When Luna came down the stairs and saw Ami reading she smiled before speaking. "Being as studious as always right Ami?" Luna asked as she bounded down the stairs of the HQ. "Very much so Luna. I heard about the phone call you made to my brother and he asked me to stay with him for when our visitor showed up. Could you tell me about this person?" Ami asked and Luna just smiled before telling Saeko to come in and when she said that Ami's eyes grew to be as big as golf balls! What in the world just happened?

"Ami I'm sure you recognize this woman am I right?" Luna asked and Ami just nodded. What was her mother doing there? This was going to take some explaining she was sure but first Saeko had one more person to visit...

Luna rang the buzzer to Joshua's room and when he looked up he just saw Luna in the picture and waved her in. He had NO Earthly idea whom was hidden from the shot yet! "What can I do for you Luna?" Josh asked as Luna took her usual seat by his desk. "Oh not much Curtis-san. I just wanted to see how my favorite nocturnal Warrior was doing is all." She explained and Josh nodded as he accepted her answer. When Luna saw the crystals by his computer she knew what he was doing and he didn't see her wave in Saeko...matter of fact he had no idea she was even IN THE BASE! As Joshua was busy typing on his computer he felt a hand on his right shoulder. Whom it was he hadn't a clue!

"Working hard Joshua?" The woman asked and Josh just nodded. Since he hadn't bothered to look at his mirror he didn't know who was behind him. "Yeah sis but these properties are a pain in the neck. Whoever made these crystals made them in a way that can't be read by a normal program." He said and the woman just smiled as he really didn't know who it was yet!

"Ami's in the other room Joshua...wanna try again?" Saeko said as she was having fun playing this game with her son. "Hmm okay so if its not Ami then...[snaps fingers] REI-CHAN!" Josh exclaimed before looking at Luna and seeing her giggle in response before telling him to turn around. When Josh did he had to bite his tongue to fight back the urge to curse and decided to ask Luna the following question:

"What's going on?"

Luna instructed him to go out into the meeting room with Ami and all would be explained. Joshua did as told and took his seat next to his sister as Luna explained the situation. When she was finished explaining Josh went for the Coke and downed three glasses before speaking again. "So you're telling me that our mother is..."

"Going to be helping us? Yes that's the way it seems bro. What do you think about this?" Ami asked and Josh just took his seat again before speaking. "It'll be an honour to fight alongside my sister and my mother but Mom...are you okay with this?" Josh asked and Saeko nodded. "I will do whatever I can to help you and the rest of your friends from this day forward against any of the evils that we face. My goal is to help serve Serenity the best way that I can and to support you all. Let's do our best against the enemy and make them pay for all that they've done to us!" Saeko exclaimed and this caused the two Mercurian siblings to look at each other ,then Saeko and then back to each other before uttering the following:

"That's our mom!"

End of Act 25

NEXT TIME...

Minako: Mio's causing problems again

Joshua: So what else is new?

Minako: She's trying to get her supporters back for her by the truckload

Joshua: Aww hell!

Minako: What do we do about it?

Joshua: I have a solution but I don't know how much you'll end up liking it!

Next time on Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon R: Death of an Idol