Discalimer/Author's Notes: I don't own anything mentioned on page 1. Zilch. Zero. Nothing. So there. I'd also like to be president of the United States of Whatever, but I know that ain't gonna happen :(

Chapter XI: Wise Tactics.

Int. Concert Hall 2, South Tokyo University - September 29th 2002, 6:20 pm.

The practice session that evening had gone very well. Raye was feeling satisfied with herself. Her songs had been given the thumbs up and even she was suprised by the power of some of the pieces. All was empty in the hall apart from Raye, Mark and some of Raye's friends putting the instruments back into the storage cupboards.
"Raye, that was awesome! You've got a brilliant line up this year!" Even though Serena was fooling around for most of the session, she had listened to the songs and had thoroughly enjoyed them.
"Hey, thanks." Raye was carrying two of Lita's snare drums which rattled as she jogged down the steps. "I guess I've had a lot to think about over the past year. I've always found it hard to describe my emotions, but it just seems so much easier when I'm writing songs about them."
"You were pretty good as well Mark." Mark emerged from the cupboard after putting away one of the heavy synths to see Mina smiling.
"Hey, thanks." Lita quickly cut in.
"Yeah, but what was the big idea in playing that Bryan Adams song?" A grin appeared on Mark's face as he lifted the other synth from its stand.
"Oh, nothing. It's just something me, Jack and Chad decided to play to impress Jack's girlfriend." Lita seemed unimpressed at the mention of Chad. "Chad told us that it was Raye's favourite song, so we decided to play it when she went out of the room to impress her."

"So it was his idea, then?" Mark almost dropped the synth in shock as Raye's voice bellowed through the room.
"No, not exactly..." This was the first time that Mark had got on the wrong side of Raye and already he was feeling intimidated by the anger in her voice. "Chad said it was your favourite song, so we all came up with the idea to play it. Hope we didn't annoy you." Raye paused, her back to Mark.
"Me? Annoyed? Never!" replied Raye with more than a hint of sarcasm. She began to walk back towards what remained of the drumkit before pausing once more and turning her head to look at Mark who emerged from the storage cupboard once more. "It was awfully sweet of you though."

Raye had the final drums under her arms, so Mark decided to sit down on the bench next to Raye's friends. He noticed that Mina was shuffling in his direction.
"So, what's this business about you being the Mars Knight, then?" The hall fell silent at Mina's question. Raye was expecting Mark to be annoyed at the fact that she told her friends about his true identity, but instead in the typical Mark Davison fashion he simply smiled and took a deep breath.
"Oh, nothing much really. I'm just here to help you out in this new war against the Negaverse, Sailor Venus." Mina froze, staring at Mark with wide eyes.
"How... how did you know I was Sailor Venus? Did Raye tell you?" She scornfully looked over at the firey-tempered singer.
"Nope. I've just done my research, that's all." Mina loked at Mark in total disbelief. "One of my best mates at school had a huge crush on Sailor V when she was in England. He'd never believe me in a billion years if I told him I was sitting next to her right now." Mina had a look on her face that could only be described as a mixture of shock and modesty.
"Woah. I guess I did have a few fans in England."
"A few? You were the biggest thing of 1996! Most of the lads in my form had a huge crush on you while all the girls were jealous of you." Mina turned as red as a beetroot with modesty.

Mark stood up and started to walk past the four other women sitting on the bench.
"Lita Kino." Mark stuck out his hand, which Lita reluctantly shook. "I've heard that Sailor Jupiter is very popular in France and Spain." Shocked at his knowledge, Lita suddenly remembered the Electric District shopping centre attack and how she was saved when the messenger burst into flames.
"Were you at that attack on the electric district? The one where Sailor Mars and Sailor Moon were totally whooped by that messenger?" Raye and Serena looked ready to knock Lita for six.
"Yeah. You should've seen the look on your face. I reckon that messenger could've killed you if I hadn't have sent that firewall in his direction. You shouldn't have left yourself open like that." Lita felt like standing up and hugging the life out of him for saving her, but she knew she had to keep her tough composure.
"Thanks." Lita sounded grateful, but there was still a slight hint of distrust to her voice.

"Oh god. He's coming our way!" Michelle felt extremely uneasy at this prospect. She hadn't seen this guy at all before today, and he knew that Mina, Lita and Raye were Sailor Scouts. She knew that it was her turn next, and her tension was crushing the hand of Amara she was holding.
"Ow! What're you doing?" Michelle let go of Amara's hand after the blonde lept in pain.
"Sorry hun. I'm just nervous." Michelle put her arm around her girlfriend's waist while Amara put her arm around Michelle's shoulders.
"Ah, Michelle Kaiou and Amara Tenoh. Glad to see things are going well between you two. I've heard a lot about the destiny of Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus." Amara shook Mark's hand with great reluctance.

Serena didn't seem particulary nervous. This guy was someone she barely knew. So what if he knew her identity? This guy was a senshi himself and had helped to defend the people of Tokyo three times already. Much to her suprise, when Mark approached her he got down on one knee and bowed.
"Your Majesty. It is truely a great honour to meet you." Serena knew that she was the princess of the moon, but she did not anticipate being greeted like this in her civilian form.
"Thanks. You don't need to get down on one knee though or address me as 'your majesty', I don't want people to get suspicious." Mark immediately rose once more.
"My apologies, princess Serenity." Serena began to blush.
"Please, just call me Serena."

Int. "The War Room", Negaverse command centre - September 29th 2002, 7:00 pm.

It had been nearly thirty-six hours since the Wiseman had requested to see Queen Beryl, and in that time the Queen had managed to bring herself back into the right frame of mind for war with the Sailor Scouts. The reports she had recieved had stated that the Americans were very close to recovering Metallia, but the chance of recovering her was not a hundred percent. The Wiseman was tired of waiting for Beryl to become available, so he simply entered the command center for battle plans. Not much had changed since his defeat. The walls were still black and almost non-existant. The floor was still a shade of dreary, deathly grey and the furniature was black with a violet shine. Beryl seemed very annoyed as the cloked figure sat himself down at the table, sitting directly opposite the evil Queen. Directly behind him stood the crystal white figure of Prince Diamond.

"Excuse me! Who are you? This room is for Negaverse high command personelle only!" The Queen's red hair began to flicker in rage. The white prince took a step forward.
"Allow me to explain. I am Prince Diamond and this is Wiseman. The Dark Moon family was put in charge of defeating the Sailor Scouts after the failure of the Doom Tree." The Queen was not impressed.
"And what, might I ask, was the doom tree?"
"A tree consisting of evil, relying upon the energy of the inhabitants of Earth. Two incompetant aliens going under the names Ann and Alan were placed in charge of collecting the energy by summoning monsters to do their work for them." The Queen continued to stare at the crystal prince scornfully as he paused.
"Go on. What happened after that?"
"The usual story. Every monster was defeated by the scouts and they eventually discovered the location of the tree. They didn't kill the aliens, but instead converted them into loving, caring people." The Queen shuddered at the very thought.

"And your story is?" The Queen seemed less spiteful at the crystal prince and the cloaked shadow man.
"We were -" Diamond was cut off by his master.
"SILENCE!" The small man's booming voice echoed throughout the huge room. The Queen was clearly shocked by how a person of such short stature have such a loud voice. "I shall explain. The last time our family was in control, we were trying to capture the young daughter of the Neo-Queen Serenity, the future self of Sailor Moon, and recover the Silver Crystal she held."
"You mean that brat Sailor Moon had a daughter? I honestly thought a girl of her age would have more common sense."
"Silence!" The Queen was becoming more annoyed by this Wiseman by the second. She had never been ordered around before, and she was not going to start now. "Her daughter travelled from the future Crystal Tokyo to try and capture the Silver Crystal that the present Sailor Moon was carrying. On discovering that there were two Silver Crystals for the taking, we focussed our plans around obtaining both of them." The Wiseman paused before signalling Prince Diamond to continue the story.

"We used the help of four warriors, Catsy, Birdie, Avery and Prisma to help tire out the scouts and distract them from our overall mission, but they turned out to be incompetant fools." A smirk appeared on Queen Beryl's face.
"Catsy? Birdy? What pathetic names for warriors!" she thought to herself as she sat back.
"The final battle itself took place in Crystal Tokyo in the late 30th century. Tokyo then was the capital of business and arts Earth, the place where the Neo-Queen Serenity had healed the Earth after an ecological disaster in the late 20th century caused Earth to freeze over. After several failed attempts to claim Sailor Moon for myself, I was promptly delt with by Wiseman." Again he was cut off by Wiseman.
"I made sure that he would never betray us again. He is only here today because I gave him a second chance. He claims that he has no feelings for Sailor Moon which for his sake I hope he is telling the truth about." The Queen quickly cut in.
"I don't see how anyone could have feelings for Sailor Moon apart from her precious Tuxedo brat." Prince Diamond once again took over.

"We successfully managed to brainwash the little brat and turn her against her mother, father and friends. Emerald, another of our generals who couldn't be here today and can sadly never be revived, was transformed into a dragon using the power of the dark crystal. She put up a very good fight, none of the Scouts' attacks seemed to harm her, but as you can tell she was eventually defeated when Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask targeted the brooch she was wearing. However, our other plan to take over Crystal Tokyo was going splendidly. The dark crystal drawing in negative energy had grown to an extrordinary size and was spreading to the suburbs of the city. However, the small lady was brainwashed back into believing that she belonged with King Endymon and Neo-Queen Serenity." Wiseman's eyes began to glow red as he recalled how close he was to taking Crystal Tokyo.

"Our plan at that stage was almost complete. The dark gate had been opened and was beginning to engulf everything in its sight in dark energy. Sailor Moon turned into the Neo-Queen Serenity and waged battle with me with her Silver Crystal. However, the next thing I did not anticipate whatsoever. A second Silver Crystal appeared in the arms of the small lady. Using the combined power of the two crystals I was defeated. It was a truely crushing experience, but I learn from my mistakes." Another smirk appeared on the face of the evil Queen.
"I know the feeling. I was seconds away from causing that Silver Crystal of Princess Serenity to shatter. Had I held on for those few seconds longer I would have been victorious. True, Sailor Moon did die from the energy of the Silver Crystal, but that same Silver Crystal brought the scouts back to life."
"I admire your power, Queen Beryl. You have the courage and ruthlessness of a great dictator."
"Why thank you." Diamond knew that this conversation was beginning to become off-topic. He had to cut in.
"Excuse me master, but wasn't this meeting going to be about plans on how to defeat the Sailor Scouts?"
"Yes. Thank you for your reminder. I'm starting to recover trust in you, Diamond."

Int. 0733 train District Line westbound, Kensington station - September 30th 2002, 7:35 am.

The morning rush hour on the London underground had just begun. Every weekday morning was the same for Anna and Lucy, the usual rush to claim a good place on the train amongst the hundreds of commuters. That morning the girls had managed to arrive on the platform early, so they managed to claim seats when they made their way onto the train.
"So, have you heard anything from Mark yet?" Lucy took out a chocolate bar from her bag as Anna read a text message she had just received.
"Nope. I spoke to his girlfriend after calling Serena Tsukino's mobile, but she she hadn't seen him. I told her to pass on the message, but I don't trust her. She knows about me though, I think Mark told her." Lucy raised her eyebrow and took a bite of her chocolate as the train began to move.
"That's not too much of a problem. I mean, she should be thankful for us. We found her star seed."
"Yeah, she did thank me for that star seed thing. I -" Anna jumped as the first song of a certain Pop Idol winner played from her mobile.
"Who is it?" Lucy looked over the phone's display.
"Dunno. Looks like a Japanese telephone number."
"What're you waiting for? It might be Mark!" Anna quickly answered the call as Lucy tried to listen in.

"Hello?"
"Anna. I got your message." The voice was unclear because of the poor reception in the tunnel, but Anna was certain that it was Mark's voice.
"Mark!" Lucy grinned as a look of complete joy came over Anna's face. "It's been so long since I last saw you!"
"Hey, it's only been two and a half weeks Anna. Where's your sense of time gone?" chuckled Mark.
"Hey, I've missed you! It's seemed like months!" Tears seemed to be forming in her eyes. "Anyway, what's this I've been hearing about you getting a girlfriend?" A look of anticipation and tension bestowed itself on Lucy's face, trying to listen in on every word that was said.
"Oh, you mean Raye? Yeah, she's a very nice woman. Beautiful too. I mean, she loves me as well, it was her that made all the moves." Anna fell silent as Lucy began to nudge her, urging her to continue. "Hello? Anna?"
"Oh, sorry. I guess my mind just wandered for a bit." She paused once again. "Mark? Would you ever want to come back to England, say, when you've finished your studies?"
"I dunno. It's too early to say. I'll definately be coming back to visit my family in Liverpool and Southampton, but I don't know about long term. I'm actually quite enjoying it in Tokyo." Anna was ready to bring up the topic of the Scouts, but thought it would be inappropriate on a crowded train. The Knights were heralded as national heroes, and the secret of her true identity might have been in jeopardy if she had brought up the topic.
"So, how are things going in general then?" Anna recieved no reply. After waiting in silence for nearly thirty seconds, she looked at her phone and realised that she was out of range. "Damnit!

"What happened?" The smile on Lucy's face faded as Anna put away her mobile frustratingly.
"Out of range. He says it was girlfriend that made the moves for him, sounds like she's a man-eater." Lucy shook her head and giggled at Anna's comment. "I'm serious. I know the type. He says he might even stay to live in Tokyo after he's finished university!"
"Aren't you just acting a little OTT here, Anna? Perhaps he's happy with her. There's nothing you can do about that, and he'll only hate you if you decide to mess with the relationship. Take that advice from a voice of experience." Lucy looked down on the cream floor below her as memories flooded to her head.

"There was once a boy back in year 11 that I loved more that anyone else. He was already going out with someone else at the time and it didn't look like they were going to split anytime soon. I tried to sabotage his relationship with that girl, hoping that I would be able to comfort him and in the end go out with him. As you can guess, I was found out and that lad didn't talk to me at all for the rest of the year." Lucy looked back at Anna painfully. "Just let it go."

"I'll try."

Int. "The War Room", Negaverse command centre - September 30th 2002, 6:00 am.

Queen Beryl and Wiseman had been discussing tactics on their war against the Sailor Scouts for over eleven hours before a basic plan was laid out, and both parties were staring to tire. The two evil rulers had decided against summoning monsters to do their dirty work for them due to their total unreliability of getting the task in hand completed. As Beryl herself had put it, "If you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself." The basic idea was to get all of the scouts together and hit them with all the power the Negaverse had. With careful preparation, the task would be very simple. The question now was what device to use that would emit such a powerful force. The Dark Crystal had come very close to capturing Crystal Tokyo, but that had been permanently shattered. Brainwashing was also out of the question. It had been six years since Queen Beryl launched her first campaign against the Scouts, and the bonds between them would have grown enormously.

Prince Diamond and Malachite had been working together in the library trying to find information about the eight new senshi that had appeared after their deaths, as well as the new Mars Knight that had turned up. The didn't find too much about them in the books since the Negaverse library only contained information about the five inner senshi, their data obtained from battles, but they did find brief descriptions of the outer senshi and starlights on Earth's Internet, some of which they found rather amusing.
"Hey Diamond, see this. Apparantly Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus are role models to lesbians on Earth." Diamond began to laugh at Malachite's comment.
"You mean that two of the Sailor Scouts are lesbian lovers?"
"That's what it says here. Aparantly they got the 'couple of the year' award from a top Earth lesbians' website." Malachite was finding it had to control his laughter.
"What about their Scout powers? Or are they lesbian-related as well?"
"Sadly not." chuckled Malachite. "Sailor Neptune has the power of water. Attacks include Deep Submerge, Submarine Reflection and Submarine Violin Tide."
"So, what do those attacks do?"
"Beats me. This only gives me the names of the attacks. It doesn't say what each attack does. I'm trying to hunt down footage of the Outer Scouts, as they're known as."
"I guess it's not much use asking anything else about them yet then." Malachite turned back towards the screen.
"Nope, I'm still looking. I'm onto the fifty-first page of results for -"

Malachite was interupted by a siren flailing from the computer at the desk. The screen flashed red and black while the Prince tried to figure out what was going on.
"Hey Malachite. What's up with that thing?" The white-haired general glanced at the information on screen.
"It's the regeneration chambers. They've revived the esscence of Queen Metallia! We've got to get down there immediately. I'll inform Beryl. You go straight there." The general and the crystal prince ran out of the library as fast as their legs could take them.

Malachite stormed into the war room just as the Queen and Wiseman were about to leave.
"Excuse me! What do you think you are doing storming in like that?" Malachite was breathing slightly heavier than usual because of his run.
"It's Queen Metallia. Her esscence has been successfully revived. The scientists require your presence immediately." Without saying a word between them, Malachite, Queen Beryl and Wiseman made their way to the first revival chamber. Queen Beryl edged closer and closer towards the glass window of the quartz tank, anxious about how her master would cope without a body. During the final battle between herself and Sailor Moon those six years ago on that Day of Destiny, Queen Metallia had inhabited the body of Beryl after it had seemed like the evil Queen had been defeated. Carefully she rubbed away the condensation which had formed on the glass. Inside the tank lurked a grey spirit, a spirit that looked almost identicle in figure to Queen Beryl herself.

"My... Master..."

Int. Hiwaka shrine - September 30th 2002, 7:45 pm.

Nothing particulary much had happened that day. The day at university was as normal, Chad was still keeping his distance much to her delight and she was starting to get along quite well with Sarah the aussie. However, Mark still seemed pretty distant, and the thought of his destiny was still gnawing away at the back of her mind. She had invited him to the temple that evening, but had not told him why. In the usual Mark Davison fashion he turned up on time and sharply dressed.

"Hey, no need to dress up. I just wanted to discuss something with you." Mark was flattered by Raye's comments. Raye was wearing a red turtleneck pullover with some black trousers.
"You know me, I always like to look sharp in front of a lady." Raye lead Mark into the fire-lit room before the pair at down. A look of seriousness overcame Raye's face as Mark sighed. "I can probably guess what this is about.
"Mark. I need to know your destiny. If I'm involved then I want to know my part and I want to know how I am affected." Raye paused and took a deep breath. "That ball on the night of the silver millenium. Where were you?"
"That information is too sensitive. Now is not the time for that." Raye began to grit her teeth as a large frown apperaed on her face.
"Don't give me that crap. You're a senshi Mark. You're a soldier of the Moon Kingdom! Don't you tell me that your past is too sensitive to share with another senshi! I was there one thousand years ago! Don't tell me you weren't!" Mark shook his head once more, looking down at the teak floor below him.
"I've told you. I can't. The information is too sensitive. For all I know telling you could change everything." Raye was ready to blow. She was fed up of people lying to her and keeping secrets from her over the years, and there was no way her new boyfriend was going to start now.

"No. I'll tell you now. If you don't tell me now, this relationship ends right here right now, you got it? You don't spill the beans, you're dumped." Mark held his head in his hands as he thought over the options.

"I guess I have no choice... Where do I start?"

End of Chapter 11