Disclaimer: They are the property of Takeuchi Naoko, except when they aren't, and then they're mine. But I assure everyone and anyone who gives a damn that I ain't making any money on this…

A/N: Okay, this is kind of a recap chapter, to be honest, but the Senshi are going to come up with some answers, too. Thanks this time go out to Aphrodite's Kiss (I was afraid there was almost too much going on, that's why I decided to break that scene, glad you didn't find there were too many Ancients) isis aurora tomoe (I was thinking of those myths, but I have Mars happily married, which throws a twist into it, and there are more secrets) Bin82501 (again, the interplay of Mars and Venus was deliberate, but consider it the beginning of the myth that got changed over the centuries) snoopykid2991 (I am going for more, thank you) Lalaitha Yamainu (ah, the Flame will be explained, and it isn't precisely Chaos Venus is worried about) PrincessQuint (yes, but so many new characters, I thought you guys could use a break, and the Queen of the Moon's answer will make sense in a bit) goldnheart (the Ancients have more complex relationships than their descendants, and Neptune and Mars are...close, no, not physically) Lysia Croft (the Flame will be explained, watch close in this chapter, and so will Saturn, and Myrina could kick Venus's ass if necessary) Sin Katt (I'm just glad your here now, honey) Sunwritten (I think for me the Ancients are the most exciting part, so I love that everyone is so interested in them!) Artemis-chan of Redwing (in one of the pictures in the artbooks, Saturn is depicted with the Quartet and Chibiusa, so that's kind of the way I went, plus Chibiusa and Hotaru have to be together in a fic, I love them)

Ami looked up from her computer and shook her head.

"I don't know, Mamoru. A star-shaped jewel? And you said her eyes were silver?"

"Hai. Her hair was silver, too."

"Well, that was her natural hair color in the Silver Millennium," Minako reminded them all. "What else?"

"We were in the Prayer Chamber of the Moon Palace," Mamoru said slowly. "We were dancing. She said the music was the music of the stars."

"Inanna sang," Michiru murmured, "and so did Amaterasu. That all makes sense. But a different crown, with a star in it? That doesn't make sense."

"And someone else was dancing with you? Someone who talked to her?" Makoto asked.

"Someone who did not like Earth," Mamoru clarified. "Someone who wants to keep Usako away from me. It was the same voice I heard when my phone exploded."

They had been sitting around their park table for several hours, going over and over all that Mamoru could remember of what little Usagi had said on the phone, and what he had seen and heard in his dream the night before. Most sat upright as they racked their brains, but Minako slumped forward as though her head hurt, and Haruka shot wary looks around the park at any who came too close to the table.

Ami scratched at her forehead and wrinkled her nose. Standing behind her with his hands on her shoulders, it took all of Zoisite's self-control not to lean down and kiss that little nose, especially when she tipped her face up to his. She raised her eyebrows at him, and he pushed away his other thoughts to focus on the problem at hand.

"We know that Earth was forbidden to the people of the Moon Kingdom," Zoisite said, looking away from Ami to the others. "We know that Usagi is exihibiting powers we've never seen before, not even Pluto, who has seen her future as Neo-Queen Serenity. So this is a twist in the Time Line that began when Inanna pushed her way out of the Abyss. We're all agreed with that, right?"

"It must have been a powerful twist to the Time Line, to bring the four of you back from the dead," Haruka added. "I never quite understood how that happened."

"The physics of a black hole can manipulate time and space," Ami told them. "Though why it was just the four of you...that is weird."

"I'm not complaining," Makoto muttered. She sat on the edge of the picnic table, leaning back into Nephrite, who stood with his arms looped loosely around her waist.

"Well, none of us are complaining, except sometimes Haruka," Rei said, "and whatever Inanna did to the Time Line is irrelevant to our problem right now. She came out of the Abyss, but she did not create it."

Mamoru suddenly sat up a little straighter. "Something followed her out of the Abyss."

"We know that, Mamoru. Those whispers, and that wave of darkness...though that technically followed Minako," Ami added.

"Well, I...I didn't blow up my own house!" Minako growled defensively. "Or lock Kunzite into the basement!"

"She barricaded me into the basement," Zoisite corrected her. "She actually nailed the door shut."

"Oh, that's much better," Rei said, smirking.

"Not Inanna," Mamoru broke in angrily. "Usagi! She said something followed her out of the Abyss. This thing, this person, this woman, she came out of the Abyss!"

"How?" Minako asked.

"What, like another star?" Jadeite spoke almost over her.

"Iie. Not a star...the Moon."

"The...Moon...came out of the Abyss?" Ami murmured, eyeing Mamrou uncertainly. "Ano...how?"

"Not the Moon, as in the satellite," Mamoru said, gesturing vaguelly over their heads. "This woman, she kept saying that Usagi belonged to her, kept talking about blood, and when Usagi mentioned Queen Serenity, her mother, that voice...that voice said, 'My baby'."

The others all looked to one another, and Zoisite could almost hear the thoughts tumbling over each other in their heads. Looking into Ami's brilliant blue eyes, Zoisite could see the problems lining themselves up, and he nodded to her, because he could follow those thoughts without a word.

"Zoisite and Ami look like they're about to say something wise," Jadeite said. "Which is good, because I'm still at a loss for what's going on."

"Maybe if you'd gotten a little more sleep last night, your brain would be moving a little faster," Kunzite muttered under his breath.

"Jealous," Jadeite shot back as Rei just smiled.

"When Usagi talked about the creation of the Abyss," Ami cut in, "she said that our ancestors, the forerunners of the Silver Millennium, were the ones who built this prison. She also said that when it went...wrong, the ten Ancestors disappeared."

"But," Zoisite took over, "even Queen Serenity admitted that she didn't know what happened to them. She thought they died, she felt her mother torn away from her, but she didn't know if they were dead."

"Are you saying that...that Queen Serenity's mother...that all the Ancestors were pulled into the Abyss?" Haruka whispered in shock. "If they were, they would most certainly be dead! Remember the things that Inanna said, about what it was like in the Abyss? And she was a star! These people, they...they would be shredded! The wouldn't stand a chance!"

"But, Haruka," Ami said earnestly, "they weren't human! They were powerful, at least as powerful as Sailor Senshi. Maybe more so. And the royal bloodline of the Moon has always been the most powerful of all. If anyone could survive in there, it would be Queen Serenity's mother."

Minako sat with her head down, chewing her lower lip. Then she raised her head, and those blue eyes looked grave. "That would explain why she was violent towards Mamoru, too. Amaterasu said that..." She winced apologetically at Mamoru. "She said that the Earth was the one who let go. So this Queen of the Moon might blame you, or at least your ancestor. She might think she's protecting Usagi."

"She can go to hell!" Mamoru burst out, pushing himself up from the table. He walked several feet away, then stopped, his shoulders bunched with rage. "If she is talking to Usako, how can she believe that I would ever harm her? I can't hurt her! She's...she's...she's everything to me. She's the mother of my child! She's going to be my wife!"

Nephrite shook his head, his chin brushing over Makoto's hair. "This Queen doesn't know that-"

"She does! I said it! I screamed it! She just said that I couldn't be trusted, and that...that the blood of Earth would never be allowed to leave this soil."

There was silence, and Zoisite cursed a brilliant mind that could only tell him bad news. He tried, but he could think of nothing that would help his Prince. From the looks of the others' faces, he was not alone in this dilemna.

"What about the other woman?" Nephrite spoke up suddenly. "You said there was a strange woman who appeared to have had her eyes ripped out of her head?"

"Ew!" the younger Senshi chorused, and even Haruka and Michiru made horrified faces.

"Hai, she was different from the Queen of the Moon. Her voice was gentle, and she called me her son. We were on Earth, in the rose garden. She said..." Mamoru reached up a hand to touch his head. "She said she was to me what the other one was to Usagi. She was my past. She offered me power, but I said I only wanted Usagi back. Then she was talking about life, and the power of Earth, and whoever she was, I heard it in her voice, the way you could hear it in Beryl's voice, or in Professor Tomoe's, or even Galaxia's. The madness that comes with the power. She turned around, and that's when I saw she had no eyes."

Zoisite's hands clenched on Ami's shoulders. He could hear her breathing coming faster, could see her fingers trembling over the keys of the computer. He dared not look down, because he knew his fears would be reflected in her eyes. But he could hear those voices, the voices of the Abyss, buffeting all of them in their rage during that desperate battle to leave the darkness.

"TREACHEROUS BRAT OF A TRAITOR LINE!"

"Oh, blessed Sol," Michiru whispered from Zoisite's other side. "Oh, please, tell me this isn't what Usagi's been hiding from us."

"Nani?" Haruka asked. "Love, you're so pale! What is it?"

"What did she say about the Queen of the Moon, Mamoru?" Ami demanded. "Did she...did she call her anything?"

"She talked about the Moon. The Silver Moon, the Silver Millennium...something about how they were always the chosen ones. Why?"

"What else?" Zoisite asked. "What else did she say?"

"She said...I think she was saying she loved the Queen of the Moon, but I can't be certain. She wasn't very clear. I told you, she was mad."

"What are you thinking?" Minako interrupted. "What do you think that Usagi has been hiding? Somebody, say something!"

"When we were inside the Abyss," Ami said slowly, "for a time we were unconscious, but Usagi and Inanna were not. I think Usagi spoke to the Abyss. I think it told her something."

"It told her what?!?" Haruka nearly shouted. Several people sitting at a nearby bench looked their way in surprise. "What does any of this have to do with some eyeless bitch?"

The people on the bench hurriedly rose and began to walk away.

"Haruka, please!" Michiru hissed. "At the very least, keep your voice down! And don't you remember what the Abyss said to Usagi as we were fighting our way out?"

"It was saying lots of things, but Usagi said not to listen," Makoto reminded them. "So...we didn't. We were just trying so hard to get out of there."

"And that's the reason we did get out of there," Kunzite added, "because we believed in our Princess, and we trusted her."

"She won't be our Princess for long," Minako whispered. "Setsuna says when she turns eighteen she will officially become Queen of the Silver Millennium. Of course, the better part of the Silver Millennium is sitting at this table, but that's beside the point. Her power in the Abyss was something only the Queen of the Silver Millennium can use. That's why Setsuna says Queen Serenity is gone for good."

"The Abyss said, 'Her Kingdom is built on lies!'" Michiru recalled. "It also said, 'They are our children!' That was when the Princess told us not to listen to them. We thought it was because they were saying things to distract us, but perhaps Usagi was trying to protect us from the truth she had already learned."

"What truth?" Minako asked. "Are you saying...iie, Michiru. They can't be! That doesn't make sense!"

"The Abyss came about because our Ancestors were trying to get rid of evil," Rei added harshly. "So how can you suggest...I don't believe it!"

"It does make sense," Ami whispered, and Zoisite's heart nearly broke as he saw the tears standing on the ends of her lashes. "Queen Serenity could not have told her daughter the truth, because she didn't know what had become of her mother, of all of them. But it's true. They were drawn into the darkness, and it overcame them."

Mamoru finally turned around, his eyes wide. "They became the Abyss. They are the voices attacking Usagi, not because she broke free, not because she is pure or Sailor Moon, but because she is the heir to the Moon Kingdom. This is some kind of...revenge on her grandmother!"

"Why?" Minako wailed. "If they were all drawn into the Abyss, why do they hate her so much?"

"Something must have happened, something that made the Queen of the Moon able to resist where the others couldn't," Zoisite said. "Somehow, the Queen of the Moon was able to get out, to get to Usagi. All this power she's using, this power she can't control, it came to her after the Abyss, right?"

"Right," ten people chorused, nodding their heads.

"Okay...okay. So, then, this woman, the Queen of the Moon, she brought this power out with her, and gave it to Usagi."

"Hold up," Makoto said, raising her hand for their attention. "If she gave it to Usagi, why is she being such a pain? Why not give it to Usagi and just, you know, leave her alone?"

"She's almost obsessed with her," Mamoru said as he slowly returned to them. "She wouldn't let her go, and she kept saying, 'She is mine'. Over and over."

Ami rubbed her temples and shook her head. "Well, think about it. All of our Ancestors are the Abyss, hai? They called the Queen of the Moon and Usagi...all sorts of things."

"They called her a traitor, and a liar, and implied her line was not the true rulers of our system," Michiru clarified.

Minako looked at her with raised eyebrows. "How do you remember everything thing they said?"

"I remember pretty much everything I hear. It's part of being a musician."

"If the Queen of the Moon was the only one not overcome by the darkness," Ami continued as though the other two had not spoken, "then for however many centuries, or rather millennia, they've all been trapped in there, they've been warring against each other. She doesn't trust Earth, but I bet she doesn't trust us, either. Our blood, in her eyes, must be as untrustworthy as Mamoru's."

"That would explain why she blasted us across the room," Makoto agreed unhappily.

"She didn't mean to do that," Nephrite said. "Galaxia-sama said she thought she was in battle, and was lashing out at the enemy, only the enemy wasn't there. So Usagi has never attacked us, which means she isn't letting her grandmother control her."

"Great," Haruka groaned, stretching until her back popped. "Usagi is under attack not only from the Abyss, who has an annoying tendency to pop up in her dreams, which manifest as very real attacks, but also from her own grandmother from the Silver Millennium, who has gone wacky. And we still don't know where she is. Oh, this is good news."

"I'm going to find her," Mamoru said. "I'm...I'm so worried. For a second, I was willing to take whatever...that woman was willing to offer me, if it would get me Usagi back."

"Was that before or after you saw she had no eyes?" Jadeite asked.

"Before. After that I was less inclined to hear what she had to say."

Michiru rose from the bench suddenly, and glanced at her watch. "Look, let's just go back to our house, before Haruka manages to alienate the rest of Tokyo. Besides, I could use some shade, and Ami will be more comfortable in a chair if she has to be stuck on that computer for the rest of the day. Come on."

No one argued as they rose stiffly from the benches where they had been seated for too long. Jadeite walked with his arm around Rei's waist, Nephrite with his arm draped over Makoto's shoulders, Kunzite with Minako's arm tucked in his, and Zoisite took Ami's hand. After several steps, he saw his Prince's eyes staring straight at their interwoven fingers, and his face was etched with a sadness Zoisite had never seen there before.

Ami glanced at Mamoru, then averted her eyes as though she had seen him naked. Zoisite shook his head; Mamoru was bare before them in a way he had never been, not even to his trusted Shitennou. He knew only Usagi had ever seen this side of Mamoru, and it hurt that she was not here to take that pain away.

Or has she? He is obsessed, too, obsessed with protecting her, to the exclusion of even what he wants. He loves her, but he is so worried about her as his Princess that he has blinded himself to her as a woman. For once, Jadeite actually knew what he was talking about.

The day dragged on in the house of the Outer Senshi. Ami sat typing querries to her computer, any form of their questions they could imagine, with very little in the way of results. Zoisite perched on the arm of her chair and read over her shoulder, aware that the others were moving around them, speaking, cooking, sighing and shaking their heads. Someone gave him a drink, but he barely looked away from the computer screen, and could not later have said what he drank.

Of all the information on Ami's computer, what had survived the fall of the Silver Millennium and the rise and fall of Saturn's Glaive had been tucked away for her access. Unfortunately, there was not much left.

Just after midnight, Zoisite blinked at the information scrolling across the screen, and nudged her shoulder.

"Go back. What was that?"

Ami, half-asleep, jerked her head up and nearly smacked him in the nose. He moved out of her way, and she hit the button to go back.

"What did you see?" she murmured. For the first time in hours, Zoisite looked up at the room, and found it was strangely empty. Haruka lay on the loveseat, her cheek pillowed in her hand. Makoto and Nephrite were curled up together on the couch, also asleep. Other than that, they were alone.

"Where did everyone go?"

Ami raised her head and looked around as well. "I don't know." Then she looked back at the computer screen, and gasped.

"Blessed Helios!" Zoisite whispered. "What is that?"

"Hang on." Ami's fingers flew over the keys, and a small box of text appeared at the bottom of the screen. Zoisite leaned closer to read the tiny words, then turned his head towards Ami.

"That's nice. What is it?"

She turned in surprise, then smiled a little. "Oh, it's my shampoo. Cherry blossom. Do you like it?"

"Hmm. Let me think about it." He buried his nose in her hair, and took a long, deep breath. "Hai, it's very nice."

Ami giggled a little. "Arigatou. I have matching body lotion."

"Body lotion? Really?"

He could feel her giggling as his chest was pressed to her shoulder, and he trailed his nose down her neck to nuzzle just behind her ear. "Also very nice. Do you have matching lip balm?"

"Iie. That's vanilla flavored."

"Really?"

"What are you doing?"

Zoisite sat up quickly to see Mamoru and Michiru standing just behind them, Mamoru looking startled, Michiru trying, and failing, to hide a grin.

"Nothing," Zoisite said quickly. "I'm just, uh, haha, look! We found something!"

"And it's in Ami-chan's hair?" Michiru said on a giggle.

Ami, face burning red, shook her head. "It's in the computer. Look at this!"

Mamoru edged around Zoisite, again giving him an uncertain look. Michiru moved to kneel beside Ami's knees and craned her head to look at the screen. Her eyes widened, but it was Mamoru who drew in his breath quickly.

"That is the thing Usagi was wearing on her forehead!" Mamoru said, tapping the screen. "What is this?"

"It says, 'A tattered tapestry that survived the Sailor Wars, from Queen Serenity's personal collection in the Moon Castle. A wedding gift.'" Ami stared at the little box of text, then looked up and shrugged. "That's it."

Zoisite looked from the useless words to the image on the screen. Tattered was not the proper word for the image of the piece of cloth. It was singed, torn, and little more than a handful of strings clinging desperately together. But there in the woven strands was most assuredly a six-pointed gold star.

The very center of the tapestry had been burned out in such a perfect circle he found it hard to believe it was not deliberate.

"Is this from before or after the fall of the Silver Millennium?" Mamoru asked. "This is what the tapestry looked like after the war, right?"

"Iie. What little information I have on this was from the last little bit of power in the computers in the ruins of the Moon Palace," Ami explained, frowning slightly. "After Beryl took you, when we went to the Moon, there wasn't much power left, but there was enough for Queen Serenity to project a...a memory in the form of a hologram. We took what we could, but after the war, and after thousands of years, there just wasn't much left."

"So this is the tapestry as it was given to Queen Serenity," Michiru whispered. "Why in the cosmos would someone give her a tapestry that, if it did survive the Sailor Wars, barely did so?"

"It seems like a lousy wedding gift," Zoisite agreed. "Who was Queen Serenity's husband, anyway? I only remember the Queen, no King."

"He died," Ami said slowly, "before Princess Serenity was born. I...I don't remember his name. I don't remember where he came from. It was as if, when he died, everyone just forgot about him, or didn't talk about him. Serenity rarely did. I don't remember the Queen even mentioning him."

"Well, look him up in the computer," Michiru urged her. "That has to have been saved."

Ami typed in the words, "King of the Moon."

Immediately, the computer came back with, "No matches found."

"Ano...okay, how about this?"

"Princess Serenity, Father."

"No matches found."

"Queen Serenity, Husband."

"No matches found."

"Apparently there were no men on the Moon," Zoisite said. "The women of the Moon just get pregnant and produce heirs. Turns out you aren't needed, my liege."

"Arigatou, Zoisite. Shut up."

"Gomen."

Ami tapped her fingers lightly against the keys and thought. "There was a father. I don't remember a name, but Serenity saw her mother sitting on the edge of the fountain once, and she looked like she was about to cry. Serenity said, 'She's thinking about father again.' That was it, the only time I heard her say anything about him, but he existed. It must be some of the information that was lost."

"I wonder," Michiru whispered. As the other three looked at her, she gave a little twirl of her hand, and her mirror appeared. She raised it to her face, and looked hard into the glass. It shimmered, and their dead Queen appeared, perhaps a little younger than they remembered her. She was laughing, her eyes shining with joy, wearing her simple white gown and spinning as though dancing. She put out her hand, and another hand took hers. The hand was strong, the wrist wide and the fingers broad. A small scar lanced across the back in a diagonal. Then Queen Serenity pulled on that hand. For a moment they caught a glimpse of powerful shoulders, dark hair, and silver armor flashing in the moonlight.

Something cut across the image, something that flashed with a violet light, and the mirror went dark.

"What happened?" Zoisite asked in surprise. "That was him, right? That was Queen Serenity's husband?

"It must have been. I don't know what happened!" Michiru admitted. "My mirror has never done that before!"

"That looked almost like-"

A knock sounded from the front door.

Ami fell silent, and looked at the tiny clock on her computer. Her eyes widened in horror. "It's twelve-thirty! I have school tomorrow! I mean, today! I can't skip, my mother's going to kill me!"

"Why is someone knocking on our door after midnight?" Michiru asked, rising from her knees with an uncertain face. "Who would come by at this time?"

"My mother, to kill me!" Ami hissed, slapping her computer shut. "No wonder everyone else is gone! How could you not tell me what time it is?"

"This is kind of important, Ami-chan," Zoisite reminded her. He also rose, and slipped his dagger from the waistband of his pants, in case it were someone other than Ami's mother.

"I know, I know this is important, gomen, Mamoru, I'll stay if you want, I can miss a day of school, but how can I explain this to my mother?"

"Ami-chan, it's alright!" Michiru said. "We know you have to go to school. We tried to tell you it was getting late, but you ignored us."

The knock came again, and Haruka lifted her head to grumble, "What the hell? What time is it?"

"I'll answer it, Michiru, Haruka," Zoisite said as he crossed the living room, heading for the door.

Behind him, he heard Haruka mutter, "Oh, good, the big strong man will get it. I feel so safe."

"Shut up, Haruka!" Ami hissed.

Zoisite kept his knife hand behind his back as he rose up on his toes to look through the window of the front door. Five people stared back, and his eyebrows went up. Slowly, he opened the door, and tried for a friendly smiled.

"Konichiwa. Can I, uh, help you?"

"Oh!" cried the woman in the lead. Her long red hair was caught in an intricate knot on top of her head and held in place by long pins decorated with little flowers. She wore a very simple red skirt, and a black blouse. "I...I am so sorry. I don't think this is the right house!"

"A man answered the door. I doubt this is the right house," a voice behind her said.

Zoisite leaned a little to one side to see the other four. The one who had spoken wore a dark suit with a white shirt, very masculine, but Zoisite knew breasts when he saw them, even under a man's jacket. A long black ponytail hung down her back, identical in length and style as the white and brown hair of the other two women. They were dressed the same as their companion, though one was in pale blue, and the other in maroon. Directly behind the woman in the skirt stood a tall figure that could never be mistaken for a woman, his white hair striking against his black shirt.

"Well, um," Zoisite looked away from the other man's eyes, as cold as Kunzite in a very bad mood, and returned to the kinder eyes of the lead woman, "what house are you looking for? Can I help?"

"Iie, that's alright," the woman with the black ponytail said with a smirk. "Come on, I find it hard to believe that we can't get one night in a hotel. The famous Three Lights?"

"NANI?!?"

"Haruka! Haruka, get back here! Get back here right now!" Michiru shouted from the living room

"What's going on?" Makoto asked sleepily. "Are we under attack? Ow, Nephrite, that's my hair!"

Haruka appeared around the corner, her fingers automatically combing her hair back into something like order. She nearly pushed Zoisite aside, and stared for one long moment at the five people in her doorway.

The dark one smiled pleasantly at her. "Konichiwa, Haruka-san. I hear we're going to war?"

"Oh, Setsuna, I'm going to kill you."

A/N again: Yeah, took a little liberty with Ami's computer, made it a little more like modern computers, and I just threw a little information from the Silver Millennium on there, because if there was enough power for Queen Serenity to capture a hologram of herself in the computers, then why wouldn't they be able to get at least some info? Just go with it, folks.