Dark Light Emerges. Friends or Enemies?
Nine stars of light floated gently to Earth, in deep slumber. They were free from an eternal prison of darkness in the Negaverse. They landed on Earth and the light around each of them ceased as they opened their eyes and saw the sky for the first time since the Golden Millennium. They stared at the stars, distant suns. On thought shot through their minds: protect the princess. They stood and sought to find each other.
Ami had invited Rei, Makoto, Mina, and Usagi over to her apartment to watch the meteor shower of slowly falling balls of light. There had been another show of lights in the sky recently when Nepherina's mirror shards fell to the earth. Usagi spent most of her time staring through the narrow lens in Ami's telescope.
"Usagi!" Rei said impatiently, "Isn't it about time you let someone else look through that thing?"
"Okay," she said in a cheerful yet disappointed voice and moved away from the telescope to look off the balcony into the night sky at the gently falling stars.
Minako immediately seized the vacant telescope before Rei could get to it and gleefully stared out at the stars. "Minako!" Rei exclaimed.
"You didn't say you wanted it next," Minako said and giggled.
"Oh you guys," Makoto sighed calmly, "It's just as pretty when you can see the whole sky."
"Yes," Ami agreed, "Makoto is right. You can probably see a lot more without the telescope."
"That doesn't mean I still don't want to see it!" Rei argued.
Usagi giggled with her blue eyes upturned at the sky. "So we can stay the night, right Ami?" she asked.
"Yes, Mother said that would be alright," she said, also still gazing up at the stars, "She works the night shift tonight so we have to fix our own breakfast in the morning. She will be very tired."
"I'm fine with that," Minako said, finally looking up from the telescope and stepping back to look at Ami. Rei took her opening and snatched the end of the telescope, pivoting it to face her. "Hey!" the blond said accusingly.
"You snooze, you loose!" Rei answered, sticking her tongue out, though still staring through the telescope.
"You mean you would be fine with that as long as Makoto cooks for us," Usagi corrected playfully, taking her eyes off the sky for a moment to grin at Minako.
"Of course!" she laughed.
"Oh!" Makoto said thoughtfully, "Then I'll have to think up something to make for tomorrow. Would you mind if I go look through your refrigerator and pantry Ami?"
Ami giggled, "Oh go right ahead! You can use whatever you want. Mother won't mind."
"Okay, thanks!" Makoto took one last glance at the stars and headed back into the apartment and into the well-stocked kitchen to plan breakfast.
"Ooh!" Usagi cooed after a particularly beautiful shooting star.
"Oh!" Ami gasped as well.
Suddenly, Rei straightened up and glanced anxiously around at Minako, Ami, and Usagi. "I feel something wrong here," she said slowly. "Do you guys notice anything strange about those meteors?"
Ami squinted into the dark sky, her eyes darting around. She gasped. "Instead of dissolving in the atmosphere like they should, the meteors are falling slowly and gently to earth," she said with a sudden realization. "I can't believe I didn't notice that earlier! I guess I'm used to strange falling stars by now."
"What is it Rei?" Usagi asked, looking confused.
"There's something evil very near by," she answered, her eyes unfocused as she gazed fixed into space. "Those aren't meteors. They're definitely something else. It feels so familiar..."
Suddenly Minako, who's wandering eyes had fallen down to the ground, gasped and snatched the now unused telescope. Pointing it towards the street she gasped once again. "It's a Negaverse youma! And it's attacking a little girl!"
Usagi hurried over to the railing, grabbing it, then bending herself over so that she could see below. She squinted into the dark streets and could make out two figures. She faintly heard a screech of pain from below. Rei and Ami moved to the railing to look down as well. "We have to help her!" she exclaimed.
Just then, Luna and Artimis hurried out the door onto the balcony. Artimis started at Minako, who was still looking at the street through the telescope. "Mina-chan," he asked, "What is it? What's going on?"
"Artimis and I sense something," Luna said.
"There's a girl down there being attacked by a Negaverse youma," She answered, "It's going to kill her; completely drain her energy!"
"You're sure that's what is it?" Luna asked skeptically. "The Negaverse was defeated over four years ago."
"We're sure Luna," Rei answered, looking up from the street and at Luna, but not before scanning the sky full of falling stars. "Those aren't normal meteors," She said, "I think they're all youma."
Artimis gasped.
Makoto hurried out the door to where her friends were. "Did I miss something?" she asked cheerfully, "Hey, what are all you guys looking at?"
Usagi looked up at Makoto then pointed down towards the street, "That."
The tall brunette hurried over to the railing and looked down, straining her eyes to see through the darkness after being in the lighted kitchen.
Seeing her perplexed look, Ami said, "It's a Negaverse youma and it's attacking a girl that just appeared there."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Makoto asked enthusiastically, "It isn't our job just to sit around and watch things like this happen. We're the Sailor Senshi right?"
"Yea!" Minako, Ami, and Usagi cheered together. Rei was still staring meditatively out at the sky.
"We've got a lot to deal with now," she muttered quietly so that no one else heard her.
"Henshin everyone!" Artimis cried.
Four of the girls instantly pulled out their henshin wands that were given to them by Helios and Usagi put one hand on her compact.
"Mercury Crystal Power!"
"Mars Crystal Power!"
"Jupiter Crystal Power!"
"Venus Crystal Power!"
"Moon Eternal Power!"
They finished together, "Makeup!"
When they finally reached the ground floor, the five sailors sprinted out the main door onto the street in front of the building. The young girl had already been blasted by the youma several times and was nearly unconscious.
"How dare you attack an innocent girl without reason? I'm Sailor Moon, and in the name of the moon, I shall punish you!" Sailor Moon assumed her customary position.
"And in the name of our planets, we will punish you as well," Sailor Mars continued.
The youma blasted the girl again and turned to face it's enemies. It sent a burst of dark energy at the senshi who scattered in all directions.
Sailor Moon glanced over at her team of senshi. "Mercury, Venus, Mars..." she panted as she signaled to them as what to do. The tree of them nodded and set to work.
"Venus Love and Beauty Shock!"
"Mars Flame Sniper!"
"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody"
The three attacks combined into a shimmering ellipse of blue, red, and yellow. It struck the youma hard on the chest and sent it flying across the street, disappearing instantly with their attacks.
Sailor Jupiter had already rescued the girl and was cradling her limp form in her arms. She headed over to a streetlight where she could see the girl better. The other sailors followed. Sailor Moon and was still rejoicing over their victory.
When she got into the light, Jupiter gasped. The girl was in sailor fuku. On her outfit, what should have been white was black. Her skirt was a rainbow of extremely dull colors, and her bows and such were all a dull, dark yellow. Her hair was pale yellow and done up in buns like Chibiusa's. Her pigtails, however, were twisted loops of hair hanging down from the buns. She had dull yellow bow in her hair with a heart shaped crystal nested in it. The crystal, like her broach were black and both sported a dark silver up-side-down crescent moon symbols. She looked a few years older than Chibiusa and was thin and frail. Her skin was sickly pale and covered in injuries from her attack by the youma monster. Her condition reminded everyone of how Hotaru had once been.
"Sailor Moon, get over here," Sailor Mars called.
She jogged over. Upon arriving, Sailor Moon exclaimed, "She's really hurt, we have to do something for her!"
Sailor Mercury pondered, "lets get her inside. We can un-transform on the elevator and then I can wake my mom up and maybe she can take her to the hospital."
"All right, let's," Jupiter stood up and the five sailors headed off towards the apartment front doors.
Just as Sailor Venus reached for the doors to pull them open a blast of red energy followed by some green energy hit her from behind. They sent her flying into the air as she screamed in pain.
"Sailor Venus!" All of the senshi exclaimed in horror and surprise.
Jupiter gently set the girl down on the ground in front of the apartment building and whirled around. "Alight, who did that?" She vengefully began forming a ball of lightning in her hands. A line of eight Sailor clad girls stood to face her, not twenty feet away. One of them, wearing only different shades of pink besides the black of her bodice and gloves, stepped forward. Her hair was an intense pink color and it was done up in two round buns like Usagi's.
"Funny you ask that," The pink sailor retorted. "You're the one's doing wrong here. Return our princess Sunlight at once!"
"Tell us who you are, and we might consider!" Sailor Mars yelled.
"I'm Sailor Pink Sun of the Sun Color Senshi, and my companions are the Sun Spectrum Senshi," She sneered. "Don't even try to fight us, you don't stand a chance!"
"Wanna bet?" Sailor Mars was fed up with the pink sailor's arrogance. "Mars Flame Sniper!" She aimed her arrow strait at the pink sailor.
"Not so fast!" An indigo and black clad scout came to Pink Sun's rescue. "Indigo Invisible Beams Beat Down!" She sent a shimmer through the air that collided with Mars's flaming arrow and swallowed it in a blast of indigo colored light.
The Sailor Senshi were horrified to find that they couldn't harm them. "What should we do?" Sailor Moon asked nervously. "Maybe we should just give them what they want?"
"Not without a fight or an explanation," Jupiter answered furiously.
"Explanation?! You are the one's who owe us an explanation! You are the ones who captured our princess!" A green and black soldier accused.
"Captured! We did nothing of the sort! We just..." Sailor Mercury began, but was cut off by a red and black soldier.
"I have heard enough! Give us back Princess Chibisun now or you'll be really sorry!" The red spectrum scout started to gather some red light in her black-gloved hands. "Red Solar Heat Wave!" She slammed her red light energy towards the planet senshi. It squarely hit Venus and Mars, knocked them off their feet, and sent them flying backwards. With a sickening crash, the glass front doors of the apartment building shattered as the two senshi flew into them. Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus skidded to a stop amongst the broken glass in the entryway of the building.
Both Mars and Venus's fuku was ripped, they were covered in scratches, and each sported several bruises and gashes. They both struggled to stand, but were in too much pain to do so.
"You'll pay for that!" Jupiter yelled. "Jupiter Oak Evolution!" Her leaves of light spiraled towards a scout dresses in blue and black. She leaped agilely out of the way and the attack struck a yellow and black senshi in stead. She yelped in pain and crumpled to the ground.
"Yellow Sun!" The red soldier yelled in dismay and rushed over to her.
Suddenly Sailor Moon yelled, "Jupiter watch out! Behind you!"
Sailor Jupiter whirled around just in time to get a blue boot in her face. The blue spectrum senshi threw a few punches. Jupiter dodged them and returned some of her own. She struck the blue sailor on the shoulder just once before she was hit in the back by another assault.
"Green Flares Aurora Dance!"
Jupiter fell flat on the ground just as the blue sun sailor scooped up the girl, which the sun senshi had claimed to be their princess, into her arms and leaped powerfully back to her companions.
"Come back here!" Mercury shouted, "Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!" She aimed this attack at no one in particular. It missed all of the sun senshi as they scattered.
"We've got her, let's go!" Sailor Pink Sun commanded. The group of sun sailors started sprinting off. Three small cat-like shadows followed them.
One, who was clad in orange and black paused and turned around. "Oh... I need to give you something before I leave," she sneered. "Orange Solar Flare!" Hot orange light shot towards Sailor Mercury and engulfed her. She screamed painfully. "That's for capturing our princess!" she declared defiantly, "Orange Solar Flare!" This time the orange light targeted Sailor Moon, the only senshi left standing, who was also engulfed in it screaming in pain. "That was for hurting her," she declared defiantly again. Now Sailor Moon was just barely able to stand. "Orange Solar Flare!" The final blaze knocked Sailor Moon down, who wailed in pain. "... And that was for hurting Sailor Yellow Sun." She laughed evilly at the five senshi sprawled injured all over the ground in front of and inside the apartment building, then she bounded off after her companions.
After quite a bit of encouragement and taunting, Luna and Artimis managed to get the Sailor Senshi to stand up and hobble to the elevator, untransform there, and have a meeting immediately after they returned to Ami's apartment.
"It perplexes me..." Luna pondered, "Why would those new Sailor Senshi appear at the same time as that youma did? And why now... why would the youma appear now? The Negaverse was defeated several years ago."
"None of those seem to make sense to me either," Ami's sweet voice piped in. "Did you notice that they were all wearing black where we have white on our fuku? That is a sign of evil... isn't it?"
"Black doesn't necessarily mean evil," Luna replied, "Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Pluto wear black..."
"True, but I know they can't be on our side," Usagi stated as she yawned. "They were attacking us."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Hey you guys, I think figured out something important," Minako exclaimed. "There was that pink one, she seemed to be the leader, she said she was called Sailor Pink Sun and that she was from the Sun Color Senshi. She also said that the others were the Sun Spectrum Senshi. It sounds like she is from a different group. Higher up in the rankings, I'd guess, by the way she was ordering them around."
"Which means there's more of them, from the Sun Color Senshi," Rei said anxiously.
"Yes," Artimis agreed.
"Wait, wait... I also think I figured out what all of their names are," Minako continued, "The pink one said that she was Sailor Pink Sun, and the orange one called the yellow one Sailor Yellow sun, so they probably all have names that are like Sailor a color Sun."
"That sounds right," Ami agreed.
"So there's Sailor Pink Sun, Sailor Red Sun, Sailor Orange Sun, Sailor Yellow Sun, Sailor Green Sun, Sailor Blue Sun, Sailor Indigo Sun, and Sailor Purple or Violet Sun. What about that girl the youma was attacking?" Usagi asked.
"Well, they kept calling her 'Sunlight', so maybe she's Sailor Sunlight," Artimis suggested.
"But they also called her 'Chibisun'," Makoto Argued, "She could be Sailor Chibisun just as easily, like Sailor Chibimoon. That means there also might be a Sailor Sun too."
Ami nodded, "That makes sense. I mean they are all from the sun but there was not a Sailor Sun in their group, I think. All of the planets have senshi, so the Sun naturally should too."
"Luna, Artimis," Rei asked, "Do you know anything about senshi on the Sun?"
Both of the cats thought for a moment. Finally Artimis spoke, "You know, I vaguely remember something about it. I had heard that the queen there, whatever her name was, was building up an army of senshi for some reason. I don't remember where I heard that though."
As Artimis paused to think, Luna started in, "Yes, I do remember about the Golden Millennium. They were not completely friendly with the Silver Millennium, so I know very little about them. I don't know how you know so much Artimis. They were a secretive and isolate kingdom. But I do know that a Sailor Sun has existed in the past. Whether there is one now, I couldn't tell you."
"I met someone a very long time ago, before I knew you guys," Minako started, "That said she was the senshi of the Sun, but she wasn't called Sailor Sun—"
"Sailor O," Artimis said quietly, remembering for the first time the girl from China that he and Minako met long ago in Minako's Sailor V days.
"Yea," Minako nodded, "We met her in Shanghai when I was still Sailor V. She's not 'Sailor S' or anything, so I really doubt that she is Sailor Sun."
"Aren't we going off topic a little?" Ami asked, "We are going to have to notify Setsuna, Haruka, Michiru, and Hotaru about this. They have to know."
Makoto yawned. "I don't know about you guys, but I need some sleep after this. We can figure out the rest later..." With that, she slipped into her sleeping bag, not bothering to change into her pajamas.