Third Time Around
Chapter 1
6/27/2030
5:35 PM
Regional Gymnastics Competition
Each step, flip, and leap was executed with perfect precision, the gymnast landed neatly in the corner of the mat, then did a series of back handsprings and ended in the center of the mat, knees tight, hands upraised.
`I hope the judges were impressed.' She thought, as she bowed to the judges and waved at the audience, with a self assured smile. She sighed as she left the mat.
"You were really good, Sarah!" A red haired girl exclaimed.
"Thanks, Ruth!" Sarah said, running her fingers through her short blonde hair. "You up next?"
"No, I'm after Gwen." Ruth played with the end of one of her braids nervously.
"I'm sure you'll do fine, Ruth." Sarah said, sitting down on the bench beside her best friend. She sighed. "I wish I'd brought a snack, I'm starved!"
"We can get ice cream after the competition." Ruth said.
"Great!" Sarah exclaimed, then her face fell. "Oh, no. I have to meet Amanda and Jennifer at the mall, Jenny's brother's giving us a ride home."
"Why don't you stay the night at my house?" Ruth asked.
"I can't, my Mom's taking me and Amanda and Krista shopping in the morning." Sarah explained. "Besides, that temple of yours really gives me the creeps."
"Why?" Ruth asked. "It's a nice place."
"I just always have a really creepy feeling that I've been there before." Sarah said. "I mean, other than the times that I've actually been there."
"That's weird!" Ruth agreed.
"Sarah, Ruth, you need to quiet down!"
"Sorry, Coach." Sarah and Ruth said in unison.
6:00 PM
The Granger's Apartment
Ann sighed. She typed on the keyboard, adding lines of code to the program she was writing. This was one of the most complex programs that she had ever worked on; Luna's specifications were very demanding. It was extremely difficult to translate the Silver Millennium's programming language into one that was compatible with twenty-first century computers. She'd been working on this for three years, and there were still loads of bugs in it, but at least it was finally usable.
Ann and Alan had been understandably surprised when Luna and Artemis had informed them that the Sailor Soldiers had been reincarnated. Then Luna asked them to help train Sailor Moon and Sailor V.
So now Ann was in the process of working on training scenarios, while Alan was setting up training grounds. Ann had had a difficult time keeping Teya and Nal from noticing that she and Alan were up to something; Ann and Alan's daughters were notorious gossips.
6:50 PM
Crossroads Mall
"Hey! Sorry I'm late!" Sarah ran up to two girls waiting outside a mall.
"Oh, it's okay." The blonde one said. "Zeke's not here yet."
"He called and said that he got caught in traffic." The girl with long, dark bluish hair said, indicating the small, blue cell phone attached to her belt. Cell Phones were very common now, Sarah and Amanda each had one; they'd gotten them for their thirteenth birthday, eight months ago, they had to pay the charges themselves though. "But you should try to be more punctual, Sarah."
"I said I was sorry, Jenny." Sarah said. "The Competition went over the estimated time; one of the girls fell off the beam and landed badly, they had to take her to the ER to get her leg x-rayed."
"How did you do?" Amanda asked.
"Ruth got first place, and I got second!" Sarah exclaimed, excitedly. "Can you believe it? We're both going to the Nationals!"
"That's great!" Amanda enthused. "It must have been all that practicing you two did last week. I'd probably be right there with you, but I just didn't have your determination to be a gymnast, I guess."
Sarah and Amanda were twins, but not identical twins, Amanda was several inches taller than Sarah, her hair was lighter, and her eyes were a paler shade of blue. Plus Amanda wore her hair long; past her butt, while Sarah kept hers very short.
Jennifer had long blue-black hair, which she usually braided or tied back, she was only a bit taller then Sarah. She was one of the most popular girls in school, as well as one of the smartest. Sarah was jealous, because Jenny got perfect grades, and still had the time to have a social life, while she had to struggle to maintain a C+ average.
Just then, Ezekiel pulled up and they all piled into his car.
Ezekiel was twenty-three years old, he had long, white hair and ice blue eyes. Zeke watched Jenny whenever her parents went out of town for a few days.
Sarah's cell phone made a meowing sound.
"Answer. Hello?" Sarah said into the receiver. "Oh, hi Ruth!" She listened. "I don't know, I'll ask my mom, but I have a feeling it'll be based on my study habits. `Kay, End."
"Your phone meows?" Jenny asked.
"Yeah! Isn't it cute?"
"I think so too." Amanda said.
"You also have yours play the Sailor V theme song." Jenny pointed out.
"What's wrong with Sailor V?" Amanda asked. "You haven't even watched the movies or played the game!"
"Who wants to play an old 2-D video game? VR is much better!"
"Don't knock it `til you've tried it." Amanda said. "I bet that you can't get a higher score than me!" Jenny got the most peculiar look on her face, one that both Amanda and Sarah knew very well.
"You're on!"
If there was one thing that Jenny loved, it was a challenge.
6/28/2030
4:35 PM
Crown Game Center
"This has got to be an antique!" Jenny exclaimed.
"It's over thirty years old." Amanda said.
"And it still works? Amazing."
Jenny played very well, and beat all but two of Amanda's scores.
"Where's your sister, anyway? Doesn't she usually hang out here when she's done studying?"
"Oh, Sarah went to the Cherry Hill Temple, to hang out with Ruth." Amanda said.
4:55 PM
Cherry Hill Temple
Ruth was outside sweeping the walkway, she looked up happily when she saw a young woman with long blonde hair and green eyes coming up the stairs.
"Hi, Zoë!" She called.
"Hey, sis," The woman smiled warmly. "Are mom and dad here?"
"No they're out at the moment." Then something caught Ruth's eye. "Oh! Zoë!" She rushed over and grabbed Zoë's left hand, examining the engagement ring on her sister's ring finger. "Ezekiel proposed?" Zoë nodded. "You're getting married!?!" Zoë laughed.
"Don't act so surprised, Ruth, we've all been expecting it for a long time now." Zoë said. "Have you seen Jason lately? I can't wait to show him!"
"He said he'd be back next week; but you know how he is, Twisted Jade will probably get another gig somewhere and it'll be a month before we hear from him again."
"Hey! Ruth!" A very familiar voice called. "You here!?!" Sarah charged up the stairs, and came to a stop at the top of them, panting. "Jeez, why do there have to be so many steps?" She grumbled.
"Hi, Sarah!" Ruth called. "Guess what! My sister's getting married!"
"No kidding!?!" Sarah exclaimed, running across the walkway. "That is so cool!" Sarah went inside with her friend.
8/25/2030
6:45 PM
Tsukino Residence
Luna climbed through the open window into a girls room with two beds; one had several large stuffed animals on it. Sarah was lying on the bed without the stuffed animals, reading something on her laptop; from the diagrams it looked like it might be biology. `I'm so glad that she has better study habits than Serena did, I hope this is a good sign.'
Sarah shut off her laptop and sat up, massaging her temples. "I hate this." She put the computer on her desk. "Studying wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't so much of it!" Sarah flopped back onto her bed, and stared at the ceiling. Luna jumped onto the bed from the windowsill. Sarah sat up and looked at the cat. "Oh, hi Luna." She lightly scratched the top of Luna's head.
"How is your homework coming?" Luna asked.
"I'm done for the night." Sarah said.
"We need to talk, Sarah." Luna said.
"What is it, Luna?" Sarah asked. "You look serious. Oh!" It suddenly occurred to Sarah what this was about. "Today?"
"Yes, Sarah." Luna said. "It's time for you to accept your birthright and become this generation's Sailor Moon."
Sarah and Amanda had grown up knowing that they would one day become Sailor Moon and Sailor V; and it seemed that that day was now. Even though Sarah had trained and prepared for this day, she was still surprised and nervous. She didn't know that her Aunt Serena had been the last Sailor Moon, and Luna knew that she had to tell her.
Luna and Artemis had been detecting strong Negative Energy for about a year now, and just a few days ago it had suddenly started getting stronger. They had decided that it would be best for them to Activate Sailor Moon and Sailor V right away, so that they'd have time to learn a little about their powers.
Luna did a double backflip, which impressed Sarah, and gold broach appeared.
"Now, put it on and say: Moon Prism Power, Make-up." Luna instructed.
"Okay." Sarah picked up the broach and pinned it to the front of her school uniform. "Moon Prism Power, MAKE-UP!" Sarah felt a dizzying and exciting sensation, as she was surrounded by light and transformed into Sailor Moon. When the light dissipated she was wearing the Sailor Moon uniform. "Wow! This is so cool!"
"This isn't a game, Sarah." Luna said, solemnly. "There are things you need to know." Sarah looked at Luna curiously. "I told you that there was a Sailor Moon before you." Luna said. "But I never told you who she was, or what happened to her and the other Sailor Soldiers."
"What?"
"Your Aunt, Serena, was Sailor Moon." Sarah's eyes grew wide when all of the implications of this bit of information sank in.
"Then, she died because--"
"She and the other Sailor Soldiers died fighting Jadeite." Luna sighed. "We all got cocky; we thought that we had indisputable proof that the Sailor Soldiers couldn't die for at least another thousand years or so. We should have listened to what Amy said about alternate timelines. It all happened so quickly, we didn't have time to regroup. Only two of them were left in the end, and we have no idea what became of them.
"So don't you dare think that this is just a game!" Luna said firmly. "The danger is deadly real, but I have the utmost faith in you; you have the training that Artemis and I didn't have time to give to your Aunt, you're smarter, stronger, more athletic, and less of a wimp; plus you had the advantage of growing up knowing your destiny. It's going to be rough going, Sarah, but I know you can do this."
"Did Grandma and Grandpa know about Serena?" Sarah asked.
"No." Luna said. "You aren't allowed to tell anyone about this, it's too dangerous."
7:30
Amanda came into the room with a sort of dazed and excited expression on her face.
"You too, huh?" Sarah said, looking at her sister from behind the VR headset connected to her computer. She tapped a few keys and looked at the results. "Did he tell you about Serena?" Amanda frowned and nodded sadly. Sarah tapped a few more keys and the computer beeped, signaling the successful completion of the scenario.
"What's that?" Amanda asked.
"Luna gave me this disk; it has a program on it, a game really, that's supposed to train me to lead the Sailor Soldiers."
"Wired!" Amanda said, enthusiastically. "Can I play?"
"It isn't a toy Amanda." Luna said.
~*~
At the edge of the solar system, far beyond Pluto, an ice crystal floated in the void, cracks covering its surface. Suddenly, the front of the ice crystal smashed open, and the being that had been trapped inside of it flew out at an incredible speed, heading straight for Earth's moon.
Notes:
Okay, Sarah is starting out with the same equipment that Serena had in the beginning, because my theory is that each successive transformation/attack/tool that the Sailor Soldiers get is not only stronger than the last, but also uses up more energy; therefore, since Sarah is starting from the beginning, she isn't strong enough for the more advanced equipment. It's been years since I've seen Sailor Moon, so my knowledge may be a little off; be nice. Also I'm indiscriminately mixing the English, Japanese, and Manga versions of the story.
One more thing, if anyone has info about Sailor V (transformation/attacks/tools), please E-mail me; I want to be as accurate as possible.
Chapter 1
6/27/2030
5:35 PM
Regional Gymnastics Competition
Each step, flip, and leap was executed with perfect precision, the gymnast landed neatly in the corner of the mat, then did a series of back handsprings and ended in the center of the mat, knees tight, hands upraised.
`I hope the judges were impressed.' She thought, as she bowed to the judges and waved at the audience, with a self assured smile. She sighed as she left the mat.
"You were really good, Sarah!" A red haired girl exclaimed.
"Thanks, Ruth!" Sarah said, running her fingers through her short blonde hair. "You up next?"
"No, I'm after Gwen." Ruth played with the end of one of her braids nervously.
"I'm sure you'll do fine, Ruth." Sarah said, sitting down on the bench beside her best friend. She sighed. "I wish I'd brought a snack, I'm starved!"
"We can get ice cream after the competition." Ruth said.
"Great!" Sarah exclaimed, then her face fell. "Oh, no. I have to meet Amanda and Jennifer at the mall, Jenny's brother's giving us a ride home."
"Why don't you stay the night at my house?" Ruth asked.
"I can't, my Mom's taking me and Amanda and Krista shopping in the morning." Sarah explained. "Besides, that temple of yours really gives me the creeps."
"Why?" Ruth asked. "It's a nice place."
"I just always have a really creepy feeling that I've been there before." Sarah said. "I mean, other than the times that I've actually been there."
"That's weird!" Ruth agreed.
"Sarah, Ruth, you need to quiet down!"
"Sorry, Coach." Sarah and Ruth said in unison.
6:00 PM
The Granger's Apartment
Ann sighed. She typed on the keyboard, adding lines of code to the program she was writing. This was one of the most complex programs that she had ever worked on; Luna's specifications were very demanding. It was extremely difficult to translate the Silver Millennium's programming language into one that was compatible with twenty-first century computers. She'd been working on this for three years, and there were still loads of bugs in it, but at least it was finally usable.
Ann and Alan had been understandably surprised when Luna and Artemis had informed them that the Sailor Soldiers had been reincarnated. Then Luna asked them to help train Sailor Moon and Sailor V.
So now Ann was in the process of working on training scenarios, while Alan was setting up training grounds. Ann had had a difficult time keeping Teya and Nal from noticing that she and Alan were up to something; Ann and Alan's daughters were notorious gossips.
6:50 PM
Crossroads Mall
"Hey! Sorry I'm late!" Sarah ran up to two girls waiting outside a mall.
"Oh, it's okay." The blonde one said. "Zeke's not here yet."
"He called and said that he got caught in traffic." The girl with long, dark bluish hair said, indicating the small, blue cell phone attached to her belt. Cell Phones were very common now, Sarah and Amanda each had one; they'd gotten them for their thirteenth birthday, eight months ago, they had to pay the charges themselves though. "But you should try to be more punctual, Sarah."
"I said I was sorry, Jenny." Sarah said. "The Competition went over the estimated time; one of the girls fell off the beam and landed badly, they had to take her to the ER to get her leg x-rayed."
"How did you do?" Amanda asked.
"Ruth got first place, and I got second!" Sarah exclaimed, excitedly. "Can you believe it? We're both going to the Nationals!"
"That's great!" Amanda enthused. "It must have been all that practicing you two did last week. I'd probably be right there with you, but I just didn't have your determination to be a gymnast, I guess."
Sarah and Amanda were twins, but not identical twins, Amanda was several inches taller than Sarah, her hair was lighter, and her eyes were a paler shade of blue. Plus Amanda wore her hair long; past her butt, while Sarah kept hers very short.
Jennifer had long blue-black hair, which she usually braided or tied back, she was only a bit taller then Sarah. She was one of the most popular girls in school, as well as one of the smartest. Sarah was jealous, because Jenny got perfect grades, and still had the time to have a social life, while she had to struggle to maintain a C+ average.
Just then, Ezekiel pulled up and they all piled into his car.
Ezekiel was twenty-three years old, he had long, white hair and ice blue eyes. Zeke watched Jenny whenever her parents went out of town for a few days.
Sarah's cell phone made a meowing sound.
"Answer. Hello?" Sarah said into the receiver. "Oh, hi Ruth!" She listened. "I don't know, I'll ask my mom, but I have a feeling it'll be based on my study habits. `Kay, End."
"Your phone meows?" Jenny asked.
"Yeah! Isn't it cute?"
"I think so too." Amanda said.
"You also have yours play the Sailor V theme song." Jenny pointed out.
"What's wrong with Sailor V?" Amanda asked. "You haven't even watched the movies or played the game!"
"Who wants to play an old 2-D video game? VR is much better!"
"Don't knock it `til you've tried it." Amanda said. "I bet that you can't get a higher score than me!" Jenny got the most peculiar look on her face, one that both Amanda and Sarah knew very well.
"You're on!"
If there was one thing that Jenny loved, it was a challenge.
6/28/2030
4:35 PM
Crown Game Center
"This has got to be an antique!" Jenny exclaimed.
"It's over thirty years old." Amanda said.
"And it still works? Amazing."
Jenny played very well, and beat all but two of Amanda's scores.
"Where's your sister, anyway? Doesn't she usually hang out here when she's done studying?"
"Oh, Sarah went to the Cherry Hill Temple, to hang out with Ruth." Amanda said.
4:55 PM
Cherry Hill Temple
Ruth was outside sweeping the walkway, she looked up happily when she saw a young woman with long blonde hair and green eyes coming up the stairs.
"Hi, Zoë!" She called.
"Hey, sis," The woman smiled warmly. "Are mom and dad here?"
"No they're out at the moment." Then something caught Ruth's eye. "Oh! Zoë!" She rushed over and grabbed Zoë's left hand, examining the engagement ring on her sister's ring finger. "Ezekiel proposed?" Zoë nodded. "You're getting married!?!" Zoë laughed.
"Don't act so surprised, Ruth, we've all been expecting it for a long time now." Zoë said. "Have you seen Jason lately? I can't wait to show him!"
"He said he'd be back next week; but you know how he is, Twisted Jade will probably get another gig somewhere and it'll be a month before we hear from him again."
"Hey! Ruth!" A very familiar voice called. "You here!?!" Sarah charged up the stairs, and came to a stop at the top of them, panting. "Jeez, why do there have to be so many steps?" She grumbled.
"Hi, Sarah!" Ruth called. "Guess what! My sister's getting married!"
"No kidding!?!" Sarah exclaimed, running across the walkway. "That is so cool!" Sarah went inside with her friend.
8/25/2030
6:45 PM
Tsukino Residence
Luna climbed through the open window into a girls room with two beds; one had several large stuffed animals on it. Sarah was lying on the bed without the stuffed animals, reading something on her laptop; from the diagrams it looked like it might be biology. `I'm so glad that she has better study habits than Serena did, I hope this is a good sign.'
Sarah shut off her laptop and sat up, massaging her temples. "I hate this." She put the computer on her desk. "Studying wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't so much of it!" Sarah flopped back onto her bed, and stared at the ceiling. Luna jumped onto the bed from the windowsill. Sarah sat up and looked at the cat. "Oh, hi Luna." She lightly scratched the top of Luna's head.
"How is your homework coming?" Luna asked.
"I'm done for the night." Sarah said.
"We need to talk, Sarah." Luna said.
"What is it, Luna?" Sarah asked. "You look serious. Oh!" It suddenly occurred to Sarah what this was about. "Today?"
"Yes, Sarah." Luna said. "It's time for you to accept your birthright and become this generation's Sailor Moon."
Sarah and Amanda had grown up knowing that they would one day become Sailor Moon and Sailor V; and it seemed that that day was now. Even though Sarah had trained and prepared for this day, she was still surprised and nervous. She didn't know that her Aunt Serena had been the last Sailor Moon, and Luna knew that she had to tell her.
Luna and Artemis had been detecting strong Negative Energy for about a year now, and just a few days ago it had suddenly started getting stronger. They had decided that it would be best for them to Activate Sailor Moon and Sailor V right away, so that they'd have time to learn a little about their powers.
Luna did a double backflip, which impressed Sarah, and gold broach appeared.
"Now, put it on and say: Moon Prism Power, Make-up." Luna instructed.
"Okay." Sarah picked up the broach and pinned it to the front of her school uniform. "Moon Prism Power, MAKE-UP!" Sarah felt a dizzying and exciting sensation, as she was surrounded by light and transformed into Sailor Moon. When the light dissipated she was wearing the Sailor Moon uniform. "Wow! This is so cool!"
"This isn't a game, Sarah." Luna said, solemnly. "There are things you need to know." Sarah looked at Luna curiously. "I told you that there was a Sailor Moon before you." Luna said. "But I never told you who she was, or what happened to her and the other Sailor Soldiers."
"What?"
"Your Aunt, Serena, was Sailor Moon." Sarah's eyes grew wide when all of the implications of this bit of information sank in.
"Then, she died because--"
"She and the other Sailor Soldiers died fighting Jadeite." Luna sighed. "We all got cocky; we thought that we had indisputable proof that the Sailor Soldiers couldn't die for at least another thousand years or so. We should have listened to what Amy said about alternate timelines. It all happened so quickly, we didn't have time to regroup. Only two of them were left in the end, and we have no idea what became of them.
"So don't you dare think that this is just a game!" Luna said firmly. "The danger is deadly real, but I have the utmost faith in you; you have the training that Artemis and I didn't have time to give to your Aunt, you're smarter, stronger, more athletic, and less of a wimp; plus you had the advantage of growing up knowing your destiny. It's going to be rough going, Sarah, but I know you can do this."
"Did Grandma and Grandpa know about Serena?" Sarah asked.
"No." Luna said. "You aren't allowed to tell anyone about this, it's too dangerous."
7:30
Amanda came into the room with a sort of dazed and excited expression on her face.
"You too, huh?" Sarah said, looking at her sister from behind the VR headset connected to her computer. She tapped a few keys and looked at the results. "Did he tell you about Serena?" Amanda frowned and nodded sadly. Sarah tapped a few more keys and the computer beeped, signaling the successful completion of the scenario.
"What's that?" Amanda asked.
"Luna gave me this disk; it has a program on it, a game really, that's supposed to train me to lead the Sailor Soldiers."
"Wired!" Amanda said, enthusiastically. "Can I play?"
"It isn't a toy Amanda." Luna said.
~*~
At the edge of the solar system, far beyond Pluto, an ice crystal floated in the void, cracks covering its surface. Suddenly, the front of the ice crystal smashed open, and the being that had been trapped inside of it flew out at an incredible speed, heading straight for Earth's moon.
Notes:
Okay, Sarah is starting out with the same equipment that Serena had in the beginning, because my theory is that each successive transformation/attack/tool that the Sailor Soldiers get is not only stronger than the last, but also uses up more energy; therefore, since Sarah is starting from the beginning, she isn't strong enough for the more advanced equipment. It's been years since I've seen Sailor Moon, so my knowledge may be a little off; be nice. Also I'm indiscriminately mixing the English, Japanese, and Manga versions of the story.
One more thing, if anyone has info about Sailor V (transformation/attacks/tools), please E-mail me; I want to be as accurate as possible.