Chapter Twenty Crystal Tokyo

            Everyone had rushed to Annika. No even Raye could calm her down. Tears were spilling down her eyes and she kept screaming,

            "NO! GLORIA!"

            That was enough for Mina.

            "Annika said she was on the moon! The youma-Look!"

            She pointed. The senshi followed her gaze. The youma who had been knocked down but not yet destroyed vanished. Not a trace was left.

            "That means…"

            "Lady Phobia must have been defeated!" Eternal Cosmic Moon sounded exhausted. Sweat had gathered on her forehead. Neo-Queen Serenity ran to her daughter, who collapsed against her, folding her wings around her mother to ease the strength it took to lift them. In a flash of light, Rini reverted back to her normal form, not even to just her Cosmic Moon form, she became a citizen again.

            "Princess!"

            The Chibi Senshi ran to their leader. She had collapsed against her mother, not even strong enough to stand on her own anymore. King Endymion scooped her up into his arms. She had lost consciousness.

            Amy swiftly began to scan her.

            "She's very low on energy. I have to check her into the hospital."

            Mina's face had turned white. She followed her queen as did the adults but said with a tremor in her voice,

            "Gloria…"

            She knew Amy had to save Rini but they need her to teleport…

            The Chibi senshi looked around and for the first time noted little Annika's absence. But in actuality they weren't surprised. She was most likely with her mother. The girls followed their parents up into the hospital.

            In reality, Annika was far from the hospital. She stood outside, gazing at the moon. Staring down at the time key in her hand, she lifted it high and called out,

            "To the moon! Take me to Gloria!"

            in a flash of pink light she was gone.

            When Annika opened her eyes, she was among the ruins again. As if the memories of what lady Phobia had done to her were not enough, she saw a still form in the distance,

            "no…Kami-sama, no. Gloria!"

            The form did not stir. Annika ran as swiftly as her feet allowed in their condition and in their new heels. She tripped over a fallen pillar and scrambled over it.

            Gloria was lying on the ground, the remains of her henshin wand by her side. Her outfit was her regular clothes. These clothes she must had received; they looked Egyptian in origin.

            But her face was white, and there was no life in her cheeks.

            Tears spilled down Annika's face as she grabbed Gloria's shoulders and began to shake with all her might. The time key, the same key Gloria had sent her home with, fell from her hands. Her heart was burning, slamming against her ribs.

            Gloria made no reply. Her body fell limp in Annika's arms.

            "Gloria! NO! Don't leave me! Please!"

            The wind blew Gloria's orange tresses a bit.

            "NO!"

            But no matter how loud she screamed, she knew it was true.

            Her friend would never answer her again.

            Tears stained Gloria's shirt from her best friend. Annika had flung herself on her best friend's body and wept and wept. She should have run out of tears but the tears still came. Her throat began to clog.

            "Neo-Princess Scarlet…"

            The girl glanced up and saw an Odango haired woman. She was transparent and looked about the size of a butterfly.

            "Who-"

            "I am the incarnation of the Goddess of the Moon, Selene, Queen of the Lost Silver Millennium, I am Queen Serenity."

            "Please, Queen Serenity-sama, save my friend, please."

            "Only you can do that my dear. If your love is strong enough."

            "Me…please.. how-"

            The queen faded away.

            "Please, queen!"

            No reply. Annika turned to her dead friend. Scooping her up into her arms, she laid her friend's head against her chest.

            "Gloria, please, I need you. I love you! I love you! Gloria…please."

            Gloria didn't stir. Her breaths didn't come.

            Annika scooped up the fragments of her friend's wand. Her tears began to fall again. Annika removed her own wand. It shimmered in the light. Red glow spread over Annika's face. She touched her lips to her wand and then held it next to Gloria's.

            Please…

            The remaining pieces of Gloria's wand began to hum a faint golden. Tears fell down onto the two wands. Annika's purple eyes narrowed.

            "Come back to me!"

            As she watched the two wands both shattered into a mist and then joined, becoming a single wand. In a moment, the two split. Gloria's was formed.

            But they were changed.

            Each one had a heart shaped top. Annika's was purple but what she noted was that her planet's sign was marked in purple but overlapping it in dark navy was the mark of Venus. She glanced to Gloria's wand. It was navy blue. A lighter blue symbol of Venus was in the heart but overlapping it in violet was the symbol of Mars.

            Annika glanced down at herself. She was transformed. Her uniform was still purple but her red bows were gone, replaced by the dark navy blue of Venus'. Her glove bands were patterned, the first purple, the next navy blue. Her broach was now a heart with the same overlapping symbols in the center as were present on her wand.

            Gloria was transformed as well. Her uniform's dark navy blue remained the same but the orange bows had turned purple. The purple of mars' uniform Her glove bands began navy and the next was purple, the opposite of her pattern.. In her broach were the same overlapping symbols as on her henshin wand.

            Both their tiaras were gone, replaced not by their symbols but their symbols overlapping. Chibi Mars had her symbol of the bottom with the mark of Venus on top while Chibi Venus' was reversed order.

            Annika put her fingers against Gloria's symbols on the forehead and placed Gloria's against hers. Praying for her best friend, she said silently,

            "please….come back to me!"

            She felt an agonizing pain over whelm her and Gloria's body twitched with pain.

            She felt Gloria's Venus Beautiful Shockwave attack leave the girl and travel up her fingers, entering her soul. At the same moment, her Mars Firestorm left her.

            Two powers had been swapped and were being converted from one planet to another.

            A flash made Annika stare at Gloria.

            The girl gasped for air.

            Sitting up, Gloria stared at herself before raising her eyes to Annika.

            "Gloria…"

            "Annika."

            For a moment, neither said anything. Each one had desired to be with the other so that they surrendered their most powerful attack. Venus had Mars' Firestorm. Mars had Venus' shockwave. They were a mixture of two planets. Chibi Mars was now Sailor Celestial Mars, Senshi of Fire and beauty. Chibi Venus was now Sailor Celestial Venus, Senshi of Love and Passion.

            They had lost their powers, their strongest powers…

            Both girls, even Gloria burst into tears and hugged one another so tightly that the other could scarcely breathe. They had only their weak powers now unless others were received.

            But they had each other.

            And that was more than enough.

The End