Here it is! The FIRST CHAPTER!! (dun-dun-dun) *Gasp Gasp* I am shocked at my own brilliance! J/K, J/K...I cannot even pretend to be cocky with myself...and ego trip does not suit me that much, I would much rather go on vacation first! (Drum cue and follow through! Laughter from listening audiances) Naw, seriously folks, I'm here Mondays and Tuesdays! Try the chicken! ( I know I know...all laugh at my lame attempts at a drawn laugh...oh well...::Heaves large sigh::) Ok, standard disclaimers apply (Insert standard SM disclaimer here--) On with the story!

~*~Love and live, and in loving, find a meaning for life~*~

~Erienne F. Sky~

:~*Chapter One*~: The Guardians Of All

Serena was sitting in her math class and, as usual, was daydreaming about her next visit with Darian. She got a letter from him saying that he wanted her to meet him at the park so they could talk. Although she was really confused about this (as she was about almost everything I might add) she thought it was very cute of him to make such a romantic gesture. She couldn't wait to tell Rei all about their "romantic rendezvous" when they were done "talking" (for no one knows yet what Darian wants with Serena).

"Serena?" she was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of her instructors' voice.

"What? Oh, sorry." she said in a very dreamy voice.

"Now that I have your attention, Serena, what is the name of the vertical axis on the graph?" Serena scratched her head and looked over at Molly for a little bit of help. She received none."Uhh... Seven?"

"Maybe if I had asked what two plus two was you would have been closer. Now pay attention Serena. If the Y axis goes along this straight path, then the X axis--"

Her teachers voice was lost again as she grew quickly bored and looked out the window towards the lawn. All she wanted was for school to be over, and then she could see Darian. She spent the rest of the class dreaming of Darian or sleeping, while dreaming of Darian. When the bell finally rang she caught up with Rei and the others. She told them about the letter and they all said that she was so lucky that she had a boyfriend like Darian who was so cute and kind as well (all of them except Ami, who casually brought up the fact that a letter such as that did not sound like something that Darian would do, unless there was something quite important he had to discus with Serena). Serena was convinced that it was a quiet romantic evening with just her and Darian, alone, in the park.

****

Darien was very apprehensive about his arranged meeting with Serena. He recalled his dream, the one that had kept him restless for two straight days. It always started the same. He was standing at the edge of his bed, watching himself sleep. The the sliding door that led from his room to a small balcony would open and a strange, purple fog would drift in. At the head of the fog would be Setsunna's Time Staff, the small heart shaped jewel pulsating as it drifted closer to him. Setsunna's voice would come to him, and he would listen in perplexed silence as she talked, her body no where to be seen. "Darien," she started, her voice strong, full, "I have been led by the Fates to inform you of a hardship to come. One that will not be easily overtaken. You have taken on many battles with Princess Selenity, most at the risk of your own life, but none will compare with what is to come. So please, take hold of my staff and prepare yourself for answers to questions you did not know to ask." He would then move forward, in a way that made him believe he had no control over his actions, but was more or less sitting on a ride and watching what was going on around him, not asking questions or following his mind, but getting answers and being led around. Usually he would forget what had happened next when he woke up, but last night he had remembered everything clearly when he woke up. He had reached out for the staff and held it in his shaking hand. He had then been pulled away from his room, but all that was happening seemed to only be watched by him, not as if it was happening to him. He saw himself floating away from his building, far into the sky, clutching the staff, not able to let go even if he wanted to. The staff brought him to a stop somewhere far away from the Earth's atmosphere, watching the swiftly tilting planet from afar. There was a peacefulness about it that rested him, yet an expectation that caught him offguard. He turned to look behind him and saw, perched in the sky as a glowing orb of radiant beauty, the moon, solemn and peaceful. He sighed, turning back to the Earth. But the Earth was not where he had last saw it; It was gone. He looked around almost wildly for the planet, seeing no sight of it anywhere. Rather, he watched himself do all of this. "You will not find what you seek here," Setsunna's voice came to him from everywhere and nowhere, "I am showing you one of two possible futures. This is one of them. Here, you see what may happen if certain choices are made. Look," somehow, even without her near him to direct him, she knew where she wanted him to look, "The Earth's gravitational force on the moon has been released, and the moon will now move on to smash into Jupiter, causing a sonic boom that will destroy this universe as we know it. Now, come," The staff again pulled him off, and in the distance he saw the moon drifting away from him...

He was sitting at a table, Setsunna across from him. He recognized the place he was in as his own apartment. He looked through the kitchen into the living and saw himself sitting on the couch, Serena cradled in his arms, her face red from tears that were still coursing down her cheeks. He heard the voices of the other Senshi coming from different rooms, a mixture of several male and female voices he didn't recognize among them. He looked over at Setsunna, his expression askance. "They cannot see or hear us," she said, not mentioning the voices that slightly unnerved him, "This is the next of the two possible futures. The outcomes you have seen here are what may happen after this next trial that you and the others shall face. Be wary in face of these trials, Darien. At some point you will need the knowledge I have given you now, and at that point you will realize the value of what I have shown you. Take this and learn from it, for at the right time you will know where all this comes in..." she looked at him pointedly, and he nodded his consent to her words, "I leave you with this, Endymion. (Setsunna had a nasty habit of calling him by his past name...She couldn't forget the past as easily as the others.) 'To seek Earth's Death, with punishable price, will call upon the Life, who will pay for the strife; Yet, call upon the Life, for everlasting joy, domlish the Death, for which love isn't meant; Or, Defeat with love the eternal Death, and cherish the Life, 'or a lifetime and hence.' It will all come to you with time, Endymion; It will all come with time..." And then she was gone, and he was no longer sitting at his table in another time, but in his bed in the present. He needed to talk to someone about this... That thought in mind, he picked up a piece of paper and a pen from his nighttable and jotted a quick note to Serena. He would have Lita give it to her at another time. She was trustworthy. He laid back down in bed, his mind and heart troubled by what the future held...

****

"Bright Shadow..." a young girl, looking approximately 18 years old, held her hands above her head, palms toward the sky, as she twirled in a circle, and a black ball of energy formed at her fingertips, "MIST!"

With the last cry, the ball sprang to life, and moved forward, as her hands came down, and directed it at the woman who stood about 100 yards from her. The energy sent off many tendrils of smaller balls, and then formed into a cloud of blackness, which moved rapidly towards the other woman.

"Spring Waterfall.." this time, the woman, who looked about 28, held one hand above her head, gathering water from out of no where, and then, with her other hand, gathered an orb of pale blue energy, "KISS!" she cried as she brought the orb to her lips, let it go, and merged it with the large glowing ball of water. With both her hands together at the small of her palms, she threw out a large wave of energy and crystallizing water at her daughters attack. The wave tore through the black mist, leaving only three tendrils of black energy left, before they dissapated into thin air.

The young girl stood up straight, and walked slowly towards her mother. There was a grin spread over her perfect lips, her blue/green hair moving softly over her shoulders, down to the small of her back. Her dark purple eyes shone brightly, her silver crescent moon sigil, turned so it looked like a U, pulsed slightly.

Her mother walked towards her, her gold crescent moon sigil, also shaped like a U, was pulsing brightly. Her silver hair was slightly longer than her daughter's, but flowed in gentle waves, unlike her daughters straight hair. Her eyes were set apart perfectly, and their unusual color, green/blue/gray, only added to the beauty her face possessed. Her daughter looked exactly like her, the only differences being the colors that varied.

"That was a very good display, Juno," the older one said, "I actually had to stress myself to kill that attack, as I am sure you can see," She pointed to her pulsing sigil as she said this.

"Of course," Juno said, "Why else would I be grinning like a Cheshire cat?"

"True," her mother chuckled softly.

"Should we try it again with different attacks? I want to try out my 'Death Inner Reflection' again. I had problems with it before, I can't remember what it is supposed to do."

"It is supposed to paralyze the person whom you are attacking. It lets them see the wrongs they are doing and, occasionally, sets them back on track. It's a very good attack to know."

"Yes it is," came a deep, male voice from behind them. Both woman jumped at this intrusion.

"Zere, you must stop doing that!" his wife chided gently.

"I know, but it is so much fun to make you two jump out of your skin!" the man now identified as Zere said.

"Dad, you should really stop that," Sailor Juno said, "One day we will end up killing you if you don't, especially when we are in training!"

"Sure Kiara, whatever you say," Zere wrapped his arms around his daughters waist, lifted her body effortlessly, and through her up into the air, then caught her.

"I hate it when you do that," Juno said, "I'm not five-hundred years old anymore Dad, I really don't like it. Now, put me down so I can go change." Her father complied with the order, and Kiara (a.k.a. Juno) left the training room to change.

Her mother held up her transformation key, a small rod which had a ball of pale blue energy at the tip, surrounded by three rings, one red, one blue, and one green. At the other end, there was a small golden crescent moon, which sat in the middle of two feathered wings, which were also pale blue. The rod itself was a pale purple. On the rod was imprinted a silver key. Ribbons of pale blue and dark purple energy swarmed down from the pen and engulfed Sailor Ceres as she transformed back into her natural form, Milan De'ponde Eart. She turned and faced her husband, who appeared to be around 29, but was truthfully 1,920 years old. His face was pure beauty, his eyes a pale purple, his mouth poised and perfect. His hair was as long as his wife's, though set in a dark blue color that did not take away from his masculinity. He had a strong build, but was abnormally strong no matter what he looked like. On his forehead was a blue crescent moon sigil, also shaped like a U.

"So, Zere," she said softly, "When shall we descend out of this roach hotel and feast upon the beauties of this new planet? And besides tourism, we must find the Guardian of Life, and the Princess. Not to mention the other Senshi and the Prince."

"We shall leave later today, when the sun is setting. But, Milan, I must warn you. Finding the Princess and her court shall be easy. But when the time comes to intervene and tell them about us, they will be wary and suspicious. I mean, its not everyday a group of people discover that their long lost cousins have come back from the dead to help them in the future."

****

Yaten Kou, a rather short man compared to his companions, was, yet again, feeling very irritable. He had not wanted to become a man, yet as his duties came before pleasure, he did what he was told. As of the moment, him and his friends, Seiya Kou and Taiki Kou, were traveling from downtown Tokyo to the Chiba apartment, where they had been told to go when they were done travelling through space and time.

"I still don't know why we are doing this," Yaten said, a grumble in his voice.

"It's very simple Yaten," Taiki said, his head blocked by the book he was reading, "We were told to come here by Princess Kakyuu, so we came. We are supposed to help the Sailor Senshi, whoever they are, get through what is supposed to be their hardest mission yet. And if we survive the battles, we are supposed to take a vacation, since Atria has found a bunch of Sailor Stars to cover for us. And in their hands, the Princess should be quite safe."

"Right," said Seiya, who had found that he liked the windows of this bus better than the windows of the old bus, for they weren't tinted, and allowed him to see much more of the outside world. He looked in awe as a group of girls passed by, all wearing shorts that could only pass as underwear in his home. They wore shirts that looked like small pathetic cloths that had been pieced together by small, almost un-noticeable rubberbands. He was watching as they walked down the street as he drove by, straining his neck to see their perfect rears, when he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Taiki, who had apparently left his book on his seat.

"Down boy," he said softly, "We have more important fish to catch."

"I know," Seiya said, stubbornly, yet with a note of shame to his voice now, "But its hard to concentrate in these surroundings. It's much easier when the only thing to pay attention to is the Princess and the enemy. Here there are too many distractions. I can't take this kind of pressure."

"Okay," Taiki said slowly, thinking his friend a little too distracted, "Just keep your head out of the clouds and we'll all be fine. Look at Yaten," he said, gesturing to the pale-white haired boy with a wave of his hand, "He amuses himself the best way he can. And you should try it too."

"You mean you want me to start beating the PlayStation console to death because of no apparent reason?"

Taiki gave him a hard look, "No, I want you to find something constructive to do. Good-luck."

"Thanks," Seiya mumbled. He sat back in his seat, only thinking about what to do that would be time consuming and constructive for approximately ten seconds, after which he resumed the tedious task of finding a way to look at all the wonderful bodies passing him by without doing any permanent damage to his neck.

****

The rift between space and time rippled outward, contorting into a sphere of black energy that moved from a single epicenter. The first limbs of a dark figure could be seen as another ripple spread through the black portal. Once

the figure was through, all the ripples sent out through the sphere were retracted and the blackness fell in on itself to form a small sphere of blue energy. The figure reached out its hand and gently plucked the circle

from its position in time and absorbed it into its palm.

The darkness that placed a shroud over the area around the shadowy figure caused a chill to run through its veins. She looked around her, recognizing the area only through the many times she had peeked in on it, but never before having been here in the physical form. The downtown Tokyo district she was in was mainly comprised of the richer social class. She needed to get to the small apartment housing building that was set up just outside of the Crossroads.

She pulled from her robe a glass file, which looked just like a normal test tube, plugged with a cork, and sealed with candle wax. In it was a blue energy cloud. She sighed quietly to herself when she remembered the trouble she had to go through to get the file enchanted with a spell of endurance.

Her thoughts drifted back to her purpose and the sudden happiness she had felt drifted far away from any of her immediate thoughts. Back to task, she checked her surroundings to see where she was. I will only have to travel a little ways to get to their house, she thought. Carefully placing the file back into her robe, she began to walk towards the Crossroads, wishing she was back in the Underworld.

*~*End Chapter1*~*