Disclaimer/Author's Notes: I do not own anything on page 1. I hope you all had a very merry christmas and a happy new year. I hope the cliffhanger from the last chapter didn't worry you too much :D. Anyway, here's chapter 12.

Chapter XII: Silver Memories.

"The start would be a good idea!" Mark began to shake his head in his hands, becoming increasingly tormented by Raye's obnoxiousness. He was starting to see why Chad would leave her out of the blue like he did.
"Just over one thousand years ago, 10th October 996, was the night of the Silver Millenium. Queen Serenity had thrown a ball to celebrate the occasion that night and all the major delagates from the planets and moons were invited. It was a grand occasion, but as you know, disaster soon followed. Everyone died, and Queen Serenity used her Silver Crystal to send the esscences of her subjects to Earth. I-" Raye cut in.
"I've heard that story a million times before! Tell me how you were involved now!" Mark looked extremely pained as Raye's insults began to tear away at his strength.
"I was just coming to that. I was the Prince of Phobos, one of the moons of Mars."

Int. Phobos Royal Palace, Phobos - October 8th 996, 4:00 pm.

That day the King and Queen of Mars had decided to visit our palace accompanied by their daughter Princess Raye. My mother and father, the King and Queen of Phobos were very good friends of theirs. Unsuprisingly the topic of choice was the upcoming Silver Millenium ball being held at the Moon Palace. I wasn't actually in the meeting room at the time, I was on a balcony looking down at the lake yards away. I was contemplating all sorts of stuff, mainly the fact that I was unable to go to that ball that night. It was the turn of the Knights to stand guard at the asteroid belt to shield the inner planets from a possible enemy attack. All I wanted that day was to go to that ball, and that seemed very unlikely.

It was a fine autumn afternoon. There was a light breeze as the huge figure of Mars danced precariously in the ocean blue skies. I was all alone until I heard the voice of an angel sneak up behind me.

"Prince Mark. It is a pleasure to meet you once again." The teenage prince turned his head around to see behind him the glorious princess of Mars, her raven hair swaying in the breeze.
"Princess Raye! What are you doing here?"
"I just came to see you, that's all. You looked lonely." Mark smiled as he looked back down at the water.
"Heh. First time I've known you to care about anyone." A slightly sour look appeared on the princess' face, but she quickly shook it off.
"You believe that stereotypical crap?" Her expression turned to one of slight worry. "I know something's wrong, Mark. What is it?"
"Yeah, it's that whole ball thing." sighed Mark. "The Knights've got belt duty that night. I can't go." All happiness vanished off princess Raye's face as the reality of Mark not going to the Silver Millenium ball sank in.
"You're not going? You're not going?!" The princess was one to easily lose her temper over the slightest of things. "Hell no you're not going! You're coming with me to this."
"I wish it were simpler than that. One of the four divisions had to defend the asteroid belt, and the Knights got the short straw." Princess Raye just shook her head.

"Any news about any planned attacks for that night?" A slight hint of despiration could be heard in the princess' voice.
"None that we know of, but -"
"Well, why not just go anyway? I know for a fact that the princesses of Neptune and Uranus aren't going. They find those sorts of occasions boring. I could ask them to cover for you if you cover two Sailor Scout shifts."
"Nah, they'll probably just want a quiet night in together. They deserve it as well." Princess Raye grabbed the saddened Mark by the collar as her face began to become red with anger.
"You listen to me now. You are coming to that ball and you are coming with me!" The suprised prince instantly nodded with fright before princess Raye let go of him.
"Okay, okay. I'll go." The princess handed prince Mark a small white card before she walked off down towards the rose gardens.
"Meet me at the Mars Palace at 7 pm sharp. I'm not the kind of girl that likes to be kept waiting." Mark looked down at the invitation card in his hand wondering why the princess was acting in such a way.

"What's up with her? It's not like I'm her boyfriend or something." The prince put the small card inside his jacket pocket before walking back towards the conference room.

Even though I was not your boyfriend, you always seemed to act like I was. I was madly in love with you even though I was only one of your guards and I knew I had very little chance of being your lover. I didn't know whether you were just acting friendly or whether it was more than that, but you seemed to act like you knew exactly what I was thinking.

With you putting me in an awkward situation, I had to spend the rest of the day practicing trying to convince Anna Motson, defence secretery to Queen Serenity, why I would be at the ball that night instead of defending the inner planets on the asteroid belt. It was going to take some doing. Anna was already extremely annoyed at the fact that she was going to miss the Silver Millenium ball and to hear that the princess of Mars had pressured me into going was definately not going to make her day whatsoever. All I could hope for was that either the princess of Uranus or the princess of Neptune would agree to take over my shift. You had contacted me later that evening to say that both princess Amara and princess Michelle would be covering my shift. However, that would leave the asteroid barrier weaker than usual since there was not a complete division powering the barrier despite there being an extra person.

"Woah, woah. You're tellin' me that you're asking to go to the ball? This has already been sorted, Mark. We got the short straw, we defend the asteroid belt barrier." The short blonde was clearly not impressed.
"I know that, but that princess of Mars has got the idea into her head that I have to go to the ball with her." Even though Mark was trying his best efforts to talk Anna round, it clearly wasn't working.
"Well, you're just gonna tell her that you can't."
"That's what I tried to tell her, but she wouldn't listen. Anyway, this could be my big chance with her. If things go smoothly, she could be my girlfriend by the end of the ball." Anna gave a sarcastic laugh.
"By the end of the Silver Millenium era more like. You're staying with us and that's that." Mark took a deep breath as Anna sat back in her leather chair and folded her arms.
"Princess Raye says she's already arranged cover. The princesses of Neptune and Uranus have agreed to cover for me on the eve of the Silver Millenium. I'm working two shifts with the Sailor Scouts to make up for it." Anna stared at Mark with great disapproval.

"You know that the asteroid belt defence is weaker when the defending division is incomplete."
"I know that, but we know of no planned attacks." Anna looked down in suprise as Mark got down on both knees. "Anna, I a begging you on this one. I will do whatever to repay you for this."
"Get up, don't make a scene of yourself." Mark stayed put. "Okay then, but you had better start workin' your ass off the next time you're with us." Mark dashed up before kissing Anna on the cheek, much to her suprise.
"Thanks. I'll never forget this." Mark dashed out of the pale yellow room as Anna wiped her cheek.
"Same here. I'll never forget this."

Everything was sorted. It was the night of the Silver Millenium and I had picked you up from the Mars palace. We had made our way to the Moon Palace and were at the ball within an hour. You were dressed in attire similar to what you were wearing a couple of weeks ago when you prepared that meal for us. I was dressed in a simple tuxedo with a red rose emerging from my breast pocket, much like most of the other men at the ball. It seemed like any ordinary night outside, although Earth seemed slightly darker than usual. You had introduced me to the other princesses of the inner planets and all was going well. However, things were not so rosy on the asteroid belt.

"How strong is that shield?" Ganymede, guardian of the Knights called down to the eight Knights and two Sailor Senshi below in the power chamber.
"Ninety percent. I don't think we'd be able to strengthen it any further without Mars." called the Moonlight Knight from the chamber. "We need one fire element to get this up to one hundred percent, and all the fire senshi are at the ball."
"All we can hope for at the moment is that there's no attacks tonight. Any one of our enemies could break down this shield with ease."

Ganymede ran off towards the control panel as a extremely loud, flailing alarm began to sound. The Moonlight Knight and the Mercury Knight raced up the ladder to join Ganmede at the control panel.
"What's up?" The fair-haired man in the black, light blue striped Mercury Knight uniform stepped forward to the flashing red console screen.
"We're under attack! There's some sort of wave of energy that's destroyed all of the Jupiter Palaces! This says that the wavelenghs are negative, so it must be the work of the Dark Kingdom. I think's it's headed for the sun!" With a look of sheer horror, the Moonlight Knight stepped towards the cat.
"Why would anyone want to head for the sun?"
"Dark spots. There's several that're raging tonight. Any one of them could give almost infinate power to anyone who has dark intentions. We've got to stop it before it gets there! If I'm right, they'll attack the Moon Kingdom after they've got their power!" The Moonlight Knight and Mercury Knight immediately dashed back into the power chamber as they contributed as much energy as they could to the shield.

Outside, in the vast vaccum of space, a dark spirit was racing towards that barrier, obliterating everything it saw on the way. A dark spirit with the intention of gaining power from the sun to accomplish its task of oblitterating the Moon Kingdom. All that stood in its path was the weakened asteroid barrier. With its evil might and the dark energy it had captured, the spirit hammered away at the barrier which began to crumble and fade.

"We can't go on like this! If this thing keeps this up we're all gonna die!" screamed the Moonlight Knight from the power chamber. She and her fellow knights as well as the two Sailor Scouts were providing as much energy as they could, but without the Mars Knight to complete the squad the barrier was unable to withstand the sheer strength of the spirit.
"Keep going! We can tire this thing out! I'm going to teleport to the moon to warn Luna and Artemis." With that, the cat hit the red power amplifyer button to send the energy amplifyer up to maximum before rushing away to the teleporter.
"Ganymede! No!" The Moonlight Knight went to rush up the ladder, but was held back by the Jupiter Knight. Tears appeared in her eyes as she glanced at the monitor at her side.
"SHIELD STRENGTH: 3%... 2%... 1%..."
"Why Mars? Why?..." She fell to the floor as she felt the last of her energy drain away from her body.
"SHIELD DEACTIVATED."

The evil spirit saw its chance as it crashed through what remained of the shield. It spotted the command centre at which the Knights and two Sailor Scouts were situated and sent a very large ball of dark energy in its direction. The Knights inside were barely conscious, sprawled out on the fall with defeat. Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune held each other in their arms and kissed, knowing that this would probably be the last few moments before they died.
"Michelle... I love you..." Large tears had formed in the tomboyish blonde's eyes.
"You too... Amara..." In a large flash of white light, the building was engulfed and obliterated by the evil energy of the spirit.

Int. Hiwaka shrine - September 30th 2002, 8:10 pm.

"I presume you know the story after that. The Sailor Scouts of Mercury, Venus and Jupiter as well as yourself die trying to stop the spirit. Prince Endymon dies protecting Princess Serenity, who then commits suicide knowing that she could no longer be with her eternal love in that lifetime. Queen Serenity puts the eight guardians into suspended animation before using the Silver Imperium Crystal to defeat what turned out to be Queen Metallia and send the esscenses of her subjects onto their next lives."

Raye was in tears after Mark had explained the story of his past. She and Mark were responsible for the the tragedy of the Silver Millenium? This was unbelievable. Now she could see why Mark had refused to discuss his past life with her. How could she had been so selfish as to pressure him out of his duties for some ball? Her personal enjoyment had brought death to hundreds of millions of people throughout the solar system. True, those outside the asteroid belt probably would have died anyway, but her actions had nearly brought the entire solar system under Negaverse control.

"No... You're lying Mark..." Mark had a painful 'hate to say I told you so' look on his face. He remained silent as Raye burst out into a torrent of tears.
"Do you really think I would lie about something as serious as that? If there's one thing I'm not, it's a blatent liar." Raye looked close to collapsing in emotional pain. This was one truth too far.
"Mark! Tell me I did not do that!"
"I may have been the one who abandoned my duties and for that I claim the majority of the responsibility, but you were the one that pressured me into it. I loved you back then like I love you now. If I had turned you down I would have lost you forever. I don't think anyone could have seen that attack coming, so at the time it seemed a logical decision. However, even before the attack I felt extremely guilty about not doing my duties. Had you not been such a... grudge-carrying personality, I might have turned you down for that ball and the Silver Millenium would have gone without a hitch."

"There is no way whatsoever I am involved with the downfall of the Silver Millenium! I don't believe you!" Her tears had turned to tears of rage as she began to scream at a typically calm Mark.
"I was not saying that you were responsible, but you were a major deciding factor. You ask Luna or Artemis to see the log of the Moonlight Knight for the days leading up to the Silver Millenium disaster, they will give you the same story I just gave you." All went silent except for Raye's sniffles and sobs. "I'm presuming you want to hear about my future as well." Raye did not want to hear any more. This was making her feel bad enough, she did not want to hear his future just in case it upset her further.
"Go." Another uneasy silence filled the room. "You heard me! Get the hell out of here! I don't want to hear any more of your bullshit!" she screamed as Mark swiftly stood up and walked towards the doorway, turning back at Raye to give one last word.

"I am responsible for my actions, and I've tried to avoid telling this story because I love you and do not want to harm you in any way whatsoever. I've always loved you and I always will. Just keep that in mind. Goodnight."

Int. Kino residence - October 5th 2002, 3:30 pm

"Yum! This is good stuff Lita! Probably some of the best food you've cooked in ages!" Serena was scoffing down some beef and french fries as Lita looked modestly at the ever-hungry woman.

That afternoon Lita had decided to cook a buffet for the girls. Lita was a very good cook and originally had her sights set on becoming a professional chef like the ones on TV. Six months ago she had taken the practical exam to get into Tokyo arts and food college, but failed when her cooking timer stopped working and she overcooked the sponge for a birthday cake. There was not enough time to make another one for her cake, so in the end she did not get many marks for her practical. It was crushing for her, but luckily she had another strong subject to fall back on. She was fairly strong with both Geography and History, so she decided to take Law in University to open up a career as a Lawyer or Politician.

"Thanks. I don't think it was my best, but it's still good in my opinion." The girls, Luna and Artemis were all happily chatting away about all sorts of things that had happened recently. However, Raye was not so happy. She was sitting on the sofa in the corner looking blankly down at the lettuce and slice of cheese and tomato pizza on her plate. She couldn't get over the fact that she was a part of downfall of the Silver Millenium even though it had been nearly a week since Mark told her the story of his past. She had not spoken to him since, she had even been too ashamed to make eye contact with him. She had not felt this low since the time Chad left for Los Angeles over a year ago.

"Raye. What's wrong? You've been looking down all afternoon." Serena sat down beside Raye, who was still concentrating on her food.
"Serena, go away. I don't want to talk about it."
"Raye, we've had this talk before. If you have a problem I can help you solve it. I don't want a repeat of last September." Raye began to deepen her breathing as if she was about to cry.
"I don't want to tell you." She paused as she held her head in her hands. "Oh god. I'm starting to talk like Mark did and you're talking like I did. De ja vous..." Serena put her arm around Raye as a single tear escaped from the raven-haired woman's eyes.
"Look, let's go outside for a moment. You need some fresh air." Raye slowly put her plate on the floor as Serena lead her out to the balcony overlooking the streets below.

"It's Mark, isn't it." Serena couldn't help but feel that this could be another Chad-type situation. Raye was in tears and another suicide attempt was the last thing anyone wanted.
"Yeah. Last week he told me about his past. What happened to him on the night of the Silver Millenium."
"So, what happened?" Raye paused and looked down at the concrete slabs below her as she tried to find her words.

"A couple of days before the ball I went to his palace to invite him to the ball, I wanted him to escort me to the ball even though I wasn't going out with him at the time. He said that the Knights had the job of defending the inner planets at the asteroid belt shield that night and there was hardly any way he could get out of it. I pressured him into going with me and somehow he managed to get permission from the Moonlight Knight, Anna Motson, to take leave from belt duty that night. We went to the ball, but the asteroid belt shield that night was weaker without the Mars Knight there. As you know, that night Metallia attacked. The asteroid belt shield was too weak and all of the Knights except Mars were killed as well as Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune who had covered for him that night." Raye had tears streaming down her face once more as Serena tried to comfort her despite being severely shocked by Raye's story.

"I don't believe it! There's no way you could be even remotely responsible for that!" Raye gave a very pained laugh as she tried to continue her story.
"You know what happened after that. Metallia attacks the Moon Palace, everyone dies, you commit suicide after Endymon dies, Queen Serenity stops Metallia but dies in the process and here we are now..." Raye collapsed in distress as Serena caught her before she fell to the ground.

"Raye... I had no idea..."

Int. "The War Room", Negaverse command centre - October 5th 2002, 4:00 pm.

Plans were beginning to become more detailed between Queen Beryl and Wiseman as the hours went by. The knew that the plans had to be increadibly specific and followed to the letter if they were to have any chance against the Sailor Scouts. The basic plan was to eradicate the Sailor Scouts and destroy their star seeds while taking over Tokyo at the same time. From there they could slowly cover the Earth in darkness and take over the Solar System. They had the might of three great leaders in one place, Queen Beryl, Queen Metallia and Wiseman, but they had no devices by which Tokyo could be captured.

"So, what resources do we have left after our departures?" Queen Beryl knew that it would take more than brute strength to take over Tokyo while killing the Sailor Scouts at the same time.
"Prince Diamond is currently reviewing our inventory, but I am presuming that we have very little left from last time. If we want technology, we're going to have to create it ourselves." Queen Beryl snorted in disgust at Wiseman's comments.
"Make it ourselves? I'm not a scientist! I wouldn't know the first thing about technology!"
"But I am." A man's voice could be heard from the entrance of the War Room. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Professor Tomoe." Queen Beryl shielded her eyes as a white-haired man wearing a blue shirt and some sort of cover over his right eye emerged from a blast of bright white light.

"Don't try to kid me! You don't look anything like a Negaverse general! You're dressed in the clothes of an Earthling!" The Queen stood up to confront the Professor.
"Queen Beryl, such an honour to meet you." He turned towards the cloaked figure of Wiseman. "And Wiseman, how wonderful it is to actually meet my predecessors."
"What business do you have here, exactly?" The Professor smirked.
"The same as yours, to eliminate the Sailor Scouts. Apart from that, to see my darling daughter Hotaru once more. I specialise in technology, and I see your scientists here have done an increadable job here bringing me back to life. I look forward to working with them on my weapons of mass destruction."
"How can you prove that you're on our side? How do we know we can trust you?" Queen Beryl seemed very anxious about a human joining their alliance.
"Check the computer records. They're all there." The Queen looked back towards her only general.
"Malachite! Find me the record of Professor Tomoe." The general quickly flipped open a small palmtop computer he had found in the library and accessed the database. After a few moments he had found what he wanted.

"His story checks out. There's a match for Tomoe here, rank leader. His picture matches as well." The Professor put his hands behind his head and laughed.

"Well, well. Looks like I'm here to assist in your plans to kill the Sailor Scouts."

End of Chapter 12