No Tomorrow

A Trigun/Sailor Moon crossover

It's gonna be dark, at least a bit. If you don't like that, don't read it.

I'll say it right now. SPOILER!!!!!!!! There. Now that I've said that, and you can ignore it, or read the story. And don't worry, you don't really need to know Trigun very well to understand it, although some of it will make more sense if you do. Enjoy.

Oh yes, and in case you're wondering, I do not own Sailor Moon, or any characters in the series Sailor Moon, and same goes for Trigun. The most I've got is a cute little Wolfwood keychain, and you can't have it. So in conclusion: not mine, except for any characters I might decide to make up and then stick in here and the situation they're all in.

^_^

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The sun was shining very brightly as Ami Mizuno, better known as Sailor Mercury, stepped outside. Rubbing her sleep-deprived eyes tiredly, she contemplated her be-dangoed sovereign. The weather in Crystal Tokyo had a habit of reflecting it's monarch's mood, so the Neo-Queen was probably bouncing with joy. She wondered vaguely what day it was. She was sure there had to be SOMETHING...

The woman who had served as Senshi of Ice and Intellect for over a thousand years groaned. Today was Small Lady's return. She had been so busy with S.E.E.D.S. lately...

There was probably going to be a big party. Of course there was going to be a big party. This was Usagi she was talking about. Even a millennia couldn't change some things.

She groaned again. She had really wanted to go home and get some sleep. She sighed, and hoped she could dart in quickly to get some cover up or something. Even the infamous 'Odango Atama' would notice those dark circles under her eyes.

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Around the pavilion where Small Lady was set to arrive, several Sailor Senshi, the Neo-Queen and King, and some of the palace help were busy decorating the area, while the Senshi of Jupiter was busy supervising the cooks, who were hard pressed preparing enough food to satisfy two Lunerian royals. Somehow, everything managed to fall into place neatly enough, with Sailor Mercury slipping in without too much notice to help out. One or two of the hired hands noticed that the ice Senshi was distinctly un-peppy today, but none of them were really willing to make anything of it. In any case, everything was set, and the moment arrived.

The first thing that anyone saw was a thin beam of bright pink light. It widened, and the outline of a small form was visible through the glow. The beam dissipated, and a pink haired girl, wearing a sailor fuku with pink ribbons on her chest and the small of her back, a pink collar, and a pink skirt with white and yellow stripes along the bottom, with matching pink boots with white edging and yellow crescent moons on the tip. Ami wondered tiredly if Chibi-Usa ever got sick of pink.

The young Senshi looked over the assembled group and smiled widely. Ami found herself somehow expecting the girl's TEETH to be pink. She massaged her temples. She really did need to get more sleep.

Then she spotted Sailor Pluto. Setsuna's alert crimson eyes met Ami's tired blue ones, and she winced. The Senshi of time looked very slightly nervous, in that tiny way you would never see unless you knew to look. Damn. Why was she spending so much time on stupid things like this? She should have had it finished by now.

***

Blissfully unaware of Ami's plight, Chibi-Usa grinned at the waiting crowd. Being in the past had been a wonderful experience, and she wouldn't have missed it for just about anything, but it felt so good to be home......

And the smallest Sailor Senshi ran into her waiting mother's arms.

Neo-Queen Serenity caught her only daughter, and the two embraced, not untearfully, and the elder Usagi Chiba noticed something she hadn't quite expected. Chibi-Usa had grown. She had been in the past for nearly two years, and the younger Usagi had indeed gained an inch or two. The former Senshi smiled to herself. After nearly nine centuries of watching her baby stay exactly the same, she was finally growing up.

"Mama, I missed you so much. I mean you were there, but...." Chibi-Usa started, and then trailed off.

"I understand. And I missed you too." She replied. Chibi-Usa grinned. "We all missed you."

Endymion chose that moment to envelope both of them in a warm hug. "Makoto's made a lot of food here, and it would be a real shame to waste it." he said with a bit of a grin, hugging the two Lunerians tighter. "Hungry?"

"Am I ever not?" Neo-Queen Serenity answered.

What followed included many joyful hugs, much eating of food, and more than a little joking and laughter. Some of the Senshi had set up a simulator, so that the young princess could give some sort of demonstration of what she learned. She performed beautifully, grinning at each hit, and seeming to run on pure joy more than anything else. And why wouldn't she? She was home. She was among the people who meant the most to her, and she could finally prove her own worth. She made her Mama proud of her.

And, as she contemplated later, after all the festivities were over, there was peace. It was a bit ironic, to her, that she finally gained all these abilities right when she could use it for nothing nobler than target practice. But on the second thought, why was she complaining?

If there was any REAL danger, it probably would have been best for her mother to keep the title and power of Sailor Moon, not 'the late bloomer'. Her mother had beaten the bad guys that destroyed her past life's queendom when she was only 14. And as for her... she didn't look it, nowhere near, but she was nearing 900. What did that make her? She'd never really brought it up to Usagi, that she was her senior by centuries, and all.... She was a lot older than Usagi, but in a way, Usagi was still more mature, not just physically, but EMOTIONALLY, too, and... why did she still call her Usagi? She was her mother. More like a big sister to her, though. A big sister who was perfect in a way she could never match, no matter how hard she'd tried ...

She had to stop thinking like this. She had read somewhere, (she didn't even remember where) that too much self-analysis was almost as destructive to a person's mental health as an abusive childhood. Right now, she should be happy. At home, at last, this was what she'd waited so long for, and now she felt all depressed. That was proof enough. Besides, all these thoughts were probably really immature. It didn't matter at all, and she was dwelling on it like some attention-starved 5-year-old. She sighed, leaning back and submerging her coral-hued hair into the sudsy water, and decided it was probably time to start acting her age. Right after she finished her bubble bath, at least.

***

Out in the hallway, most of the party's attendees were occupied cleaning the mess left by the party. Ami had not endured the whole affair, but had made her escape as soon as politely possible. She had more important matters to attend to. Ami had headed straight to the lab where S.E.E.D.S. was in construction. It was probably space-worthy now, but there were still some minor glitches, a few in particular that worried her, and the crew wouldn't have her there with them to fix it. They might be able to fix it themselves, when (not if) the need arose. Might.

She thought she was worried, thinking about possible malfunctions now, but what really worried her awaited her at the main entrance to the facility.

Setsuna Meioh stood there, half in shadow under the awning, with one hand shielding her left eye from the bright midday glare. Her expression was unreadable, but her body language wasn't. She was nervous. And when the Guardian of the gates of Time looked nervous, there was a very narrow range of things that could mean. The one that took its place at the forefront of Ami's mind was particularly unpleasant.

"Soon?" Ami asked, emerging from the shade of the transport into the bright sunlight.

Setsuna nodded.

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The space here looked like it had never seen the light of day. It was empty and open, with no visible source of light, but a distinct lack of darkness, and seemed, at first glance, to be indoors. But there were no walls or ceiling, only a long floor extending in all directions. The floor wasn't rough, but it wasn't smooth either. The design in the floor was an intricate swirl, and if someone had glanced at it for a split second, it would have been easy to dismiss it as marble. If someone had looked at it for several seconds, it would not have been so easy to dismiss as marble. The constant twisting and stretching and pulling and compression of the designs, while the surface itself was completely stationary, was unlike any known rock.

In this strange space, two things stood. One was a door.

The other was a woman.

The door was nearly eight feet high, and about three and a half feet wide. It had a pale, but readily discernible, glow. It was gray. Then again, it could be unpolished silver. No, actually it took a sort of pale bluish tint. Or, from a different angle, it was more like bluish green. Or maybe it was all sort of green. Or perhaps......

In any case, it was not just a door. It was a Door. With a capital 'D'.

And the woman was REALLY odd.

She was a little taller than most people, although not much. She was a little thinner than most people, but again not much. She had lightish brown hair, straight and with the approximate texture of unspun cotton. It was tied back loosely with a black elastic band, and several thin tendrils escaped the grasp, and were tucked back behind her unpierced ears. Her face had a blotchy, unevenly tanned color, no freckles, and her eyebrows, lips and nose were asymmetrical, with an overall effect of a constant expression of a self-involved sneer. Her arms and shoulders were slightly disproportional, with one forearm a quarter of an inch longer than the other, while the opposite shoulder was a fraction wider than it's counterpart. Her hands were equally innerving, with one pinkie just barely too long and another middle finger looking somehow too short. Her legs, from what could be seen under her clothing, did not depart from the pattern set by her other limbs. She moved with a graceless ease that was disturbing, but the worst part was her eyes.

They were a pale, faded black where they should have been white, and the part that should have been black was an unpleasant off- white. And the irises were clear, with all the color and tint and shading of polished glass.

She stood in front of the Door. She raised one imperfect arm into the air, and nothingness surrounded it. In one inelegant motion, she launched the insubstance into the Door. The glow faded slightly, and another blast, then another and another, made the luminescent portal duller and duller. Finally, the odd woman's attacks robbed it of it's glister altogether. She smiled. It was not a pretty sight.

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Sailor Pluto stood back, eying the ornate gateway on her right and the more ominous Door on her left. She knew what was coming. She knew what was happening. And she knew what she had to do.

The Door opened. The woman stepped through. Sailor Pluto felt an involuntary shiver down her spine.

"I am the Guardian of the Gates of Time." She said, in a carefully controlled voice. She had heard herself say these words a thousand times, but even now, she felt unprepared. "And as long as I still live and breathe, you shall not pass."

The woman sneered. "Then I am going to kill you." She stated, in a voice like fingernails on a chalkboard and a tone like a snotty child with a first-time babysitter.

Sailor Pluto's face was blank. "I won't make it easy."

She laughed. And then She attacked.

Sailor Pluto dodged, faster than she ever had before, but still nowhere near fast enough. The nothingness made contact, and dissolved a good-sized chunk in the middle of her right bicep, neatly dividing the bone. Blood spurted out, bright crimson, a shade not quite matching the depth her ancient eyes. Sailor Pluto clasped a hand protectively over it, out of reflex more than anything else, and found herself slipping her own hand into her bloody flesh. She cursed silently, and retracted it. Pain shouldn't matter now. She closed her eyes and, from memory more than anything else, she moved. She weaved to the right, then ducked, then rolled painfully over her wounded arm, and launched a Dead Scream from a crouch with her whole one. It caught the misshapen woman in the shoulder, resulting in a patch of crisped skin over half the collarbone. The woman's unnatural eyes widened in surprise, and Sailor Pluto remained there, panting with the effort.

"You know how this fight is going to end, don't you, timekeeper?" She said, pronouncing the Plutonian's title as a slur. "I can see it in your eyes. Even knowing my movements before I make them won't save you. You're going to die."

Sailor Pluto growled.

"If you give up now, I will still kill you slowly and painfully, but you would spare yourself the agony of fighting a losing battle," She said.

"And you're . . . so sure . . . . I'm going . . . to lose?" Even as she said it, she knew the answer.

"Yes."

Sailor Pluto righted herself, slowly rising from her crouch. She raised her good arm, launching another attack. And braced herself.

Her opponent dodged, and before Sailor Pluto could move, an uneven and rough hand grasped her bad arm just above the elbow. Her eyes widened, and the arm was cruelly twisted behind her back, snapping the bone in the injured area in half and lodging the forearm against her spine. The pain was indescribable. But she had spent millennia after millennia preparing herself for this.

She leaned forward, and twisted to face her opponent. There was a sickening snap and tear, as the tendons strained to the breaking point and beyond, and the skin and muscles gave way and tore. Blood flowed. She could feel her body and mind start to go into shock. She had to focus on one thing. She didn't have much time. In half an instant, a purplish burst of light and plasma shot from her hands, right towards Her face.

The woman's hand flew to her face reflexively, and then She hissed in annoyance. Sailor Pluto was only delaying the inevitable.

Sailor Pluto stepped back, her remaining arm held back to charge another blast. She swayed slightly, unsteady and off balance from loss of blood and the loss of one arm. She launched her attack again, knocking the woman back half a foot.

The woman's hiss became a low growl. Her glassy eyes fixed on the collapsing form of Sailor Pluto. Said senshi stood up slowly, as the woman leisurely powered up another burst of nothingness. Ignoring her body's screams of protest, she stood up. If she could just . . .

Sailor Pluto leaned to the left, not even bothering to keep her feet under her, as if pre-emptive to an attack. Her opponent saw this, and adjusted her aim accordingly.

The Senshi of time was knocked back, slammed head first, back second into the gate. A loud crack was heard, both from the shattering of back, ribs and cracking of skull and from the creation of a long, thin fracture in the gate itself. She slumped forward, face bleeding profusely. A fist caught her cruelly in the solar plexus, and she slammed back against the ornate doors, the bumps and swirls making this movement all the more painful. She slumped forward again, and gasped for air, only to be rewarded with another punch impacting her already injured jaw. She cursed again, as best as she was able to.

The woman grasped her neck with one hand, hoisting her up by it. Sailor Pluto was motionless, save for a labored, shallow breathing. The woman's grip tightened, and a grunt of pain emitted from Sailor Pluto's throat. The shadows the woman's hands cast deepened, and the weird colorless nothingness swirled around Sailor Pluto's throat, dissolving it slowly. She couldn't even scream, and then slowly, her mind shut itself down, and merciful death overtook her, and her head and body hit the ground.

The woman sneered at what was once Sailor Pluto. Kicking the decapitated body aside, she pulled open the gates.

"Show me the consequences of my undertaking," she said in her grating voice, "Show me what my future holds."

The cracked surface behind the doors flickered, and a cloudy image was shown. Shots of attacks and impacts flickered, like a broken television set someone had been whacking in the hopes that hitting it might solve something. The odd woman considered this, damning Pluto's interference, until she caught sight of what she was looking for. Neo- Queen Serenity lay unconscious on charred ground, hair and clothes in complete disarray and soaked in blood, dulled blue eyes staring unfocused into space. The woman grinned. That was more like it.

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Back in Crystal Tokyo, Neo-Queen Serenity sat in her office, staring at the sheer number of unopened 'important documents'. She was, as usual, way behind on her paperwork. She sighed. Why did there have to be so much of it?

Scanning through the files, she found one particularly unusual. It was from Ami's research facility, and it was dated for yesterday. She opened it, and scanned the contents. Her elegant eyebrows furrowed in confusion. 'Project S.E.E.D.S.' is completed? What the heck is 'Project S.E.E.D.S.'? There were plans for constructing what must have been space ships, and ... some sort of lightbulb? Why would she need plans for lightbulbs? How she paid for all this wasn't hard to figure out. She was the one who managed Crystal Tokyo's budget, after all, but why would she do this without telling her? It didn't make sense.

Deciding the whole thing could use an explanation, she closed the file, making certain not to accidentally delete it, which happened more often than she liked to admit, and stood up. Ami had a lot of explaining to do, and she was going to do it in person.

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Heheheh. More will be explained in the next chapter. Lots of reviews will help me make the next chapter come faster! I want input!