Richforce: I'm sorry for the delay, hope this chapter was well worth the wait as mysteries abound in this one. All characters belong to their respective owners.

Chapter Four: Shake Down

Serena sat on top of the roof of Angel Wing high; she was eating her lunch and flipping through an album. She turned a page and started laughing. "What's so funny?" asked Amy. She came up with Raye, Lita and Mina.

"Oh." said Serena. "I was looking through this album Rini brought back with her from the future."

"Are you sure you should be doing that?" asked Raye.

"It's not like it's anything we don't already know."

"Are you sure?" said Lita.

"Rini said it was alright."

"You still didn't say what was so funny." said Mina.

"This." Serena showed them the page she was looking at.

"How could you laugh at this?!" said Raye.

"These are our wedding pictures!" said Lita.

"This is very important!" said Mina. "Why would you laugh at this?!"

"You have a lot of gall!" said Amy.

"Sorry I just saw Amara in a wedding dress and couldn't help myself." She turned her attention to her own wedding picture. "Dreams really do come true." The others nodded their heads in agreement. "That's odd."

"What?"

"This one here it's nothing but a big blur."

"Maybe it's a bad photo that we couldn't throw away for some reason." said Mina.

Serena turned the page and they were all stunned; Amy was the first one to speak. "That's..."

"Us." said Raye.

"All of us." said Lita.

"And we're all..." said Mina.

"Pregnant." said Serena. "Very pregnant."

Sure enough there was a picture of them all older standing next to their husbands with very large bellies. "That's weird." said Lita.

"I'd say we all just entered the ninth month." said Amy.

"It's strange to see us all smiling like that." said Serena. "We all have stomachs the size of beach balls."

"Well strange as that is what's even weirder, as far as I'm concerned, is what's going to get us there." said Raye. "This means that all of us and the knights are going to have sex with each other."

"Well we're going to be married to them when we do so it's not that shocking." said Mina. "And now that I think about it we look pretty good pregnant, even Luna." She then pointed to the cat whose stomach expanded sideways and made her look like a squash.

"The only bad part is this blur next to me and Darien." said Serena as she pointed to the blur. "I don't know who that's supposed to be but there must have been sun in the camera or something."

"Wonder who it is?" said Amy.

Serena turned the page. "Awww. You guys have got to take a look at this! It's the girls as babies and they are so CUTE!"

They took a look at the pictures on the two pages; there were ten pictures nine of which were labeled with names. "Ohhh. They're precious!"

"Rini is so cute!" said Serena pointing to one picture. "Now I know why they call her small lady, she's so tiny."

"She is cute." said Raye. "But Annika here is a lot cuter."

"I disagree." said Mina. "Gloria may be a prankster now but here she is the cutest carrot top you've ever seen."

"Daisy is cuter then any of them." said Lita.

"Isn't it a little odd for us to argue over who has the cutest baby when they haven't been born yet." said Amy. "And besides Ariel makes it no contest. Though Madelyn is mentionable second."

"Maggie is also very cute." said Lita.

"I can't tell Hope and Faith apart without the labels." said Mina.

"Yes you can." said Raye. "Hope has that birthmark but not Faith."

"That's not a birthmark." said Serena. "That's a smudge on the photo."

"Look." said Amy. "Here's another picture but that's nothing but a big blur and there's no name. Wonder who keeps saving these?" she then turned the page.

"Hey look at this one." said Lita. She pointed at one picture that had what appeared to be five little balls of fur curled up next to each other.

"The kittens, they look so adorable!" said Serena. "They must have just been born; their eyes and ears haven't opened yet."

"Makes me fell sorry for all of them." said Mina. "Now they're all orphans."

"Not for long if we have anything to say about it!" said Raye.

The guys came up to the roof. "What are you all doing up here?" asked Greg.

"You've got to see this!" said Amy as they showed them the album.

Earlier that day at Sparrow Hill elementary Victor Harp's class sat down in homeroom. "We have a new student today everyone. Please give her your full attention."

A little girl with green eyes and short brown hair stepped up in front of the class. Rini noticed that she had a small olive colored locket that had a heart with cross inside on it. "That almost looks like one of our transformation lockets. Looks like that we may have a fan in this time."

"Hi!" said the girl in a voice that had pep all over it. "My name is Kaede!" (Pronounced kai-a-day) "And I'm going to join this class!"

"I think I just said that." said Victor.

"Oops." Kaede said with a giggle.

The class laughed at her as she took her seat. {There's something unusual about that girl.} Vega thought.

At lunch Rini sat down with the other Mini-Scouts. "I'm so glad that we're all back together! I can't imagine what my life would be like without you now." Daisy, Faith, Hope and Maggie had to go to different class from Rini and the others but after what had happened to them lately it wasn't that big of deal to them.

"I know that if we work together we can save our future!" said Annika. "And when we do I'm going to give Mama the biggest hug ever!"

"First thing I'm going to do when I get home is to apologize to my mom and dad and then listen to my music." said Gloria.

"I'm going to do a jigsaw puzzle." said Madelyn. "A hard one so Mom, Dad and me can do it together."

"I'm going to sit down with Mama in her rocking chair and we can read together." said Ariel.

"Well I'm going to help my mom to cook a real big dinner!" said Daisy.

"I'll wrestle with my dad!" said Faith.

"I want to go to one of Mom's concerts and one of Dad's plays!" said Hope.

"What about you Maggie?" said Daisy. "What the first thing you want to do when you get home?"

"Well I..." said Maggie but was interrupted before she could finish.

"Hi guys!" it was Kaede. "Mind if I sit here?"

"Oh great, it's the bubblehead." said Gloria.

"Gloria!" said Rini. "Don't mind her we'd like to have you."

"Thanks!" she sat down right next to Rini. "So what were you talking about?"

"We were talking about what we going to do when we got home from school." said Maggie. "I'm going to finish a sowing project Mom and I have been working on for a long time."

"Well I just want to be with my mom and dad." said Rini. "I don't care what we do."

"I'd like to help Mama in our garden." said Kaede.

"You grow flowers?" asked Daisy.

"And vegetables, though not since I came here."

"So where did you move from?" asked Rini. But before she could get an answer the whole lunchroom shook.

"Everyone, get under the tables!" shouted Victor.

Back on the rooftop Serena and the others were shook around and then fell to the floor. The quake ended a couple of minutes after it started. "Is everyone ok?" asked Amy.

"Yeah were fine over here." said Ken.

"Don't worry." said Serena. "My fall was broken by my butt, as usual."

Just then their Communicators went off. "Trista here, did you guys feel that earthquake?"

"Who didn't?" said Mina.

"Hotaru called from her father's class and she's fine, so are Amara and Michelle though it interrupted a race for Amara."

"Doesn't look like anyone was hurt." said Serena.

"Still we should check in on the girls, something about that quake wasn't natural."

Deep underground Prim and Axel coughed after being covered in soot. "My makeup, it's ruined!"

"Whoa, let's do that again!" said Axel.

"Do what again?" asked Aquila as she appeared. "I thought you were digging for the vault." Altair then screeched.

"We were." said Axel. "But then we ran into this wall the ingots couldn't get through. So I decided to use a plasma bomb to blow through the rock."

"Plasma bombs are used for combat against larger starships, not blasting through rock!"

"What's the big deal?"

"Pay close attention, this city is close to a fault line. Stress along these lines has been known to cause quakes. Do you know how much stress a plasma bomb this close to the fault can cause!?"

"Like, ok." said Prim. "But it's going to take a while for us to find it."

"Scorpio is already getting a nightmare that Merlor said would be a great digger. The vault is as good as ours now."

At a construction site Rebecca, or Becky as the guys on the jobsite called her, had just started her lunch break. "Nothin' like a burger after workin' on the high steel." She said to herself. "Good thing no one was hurt durin' the quake." She had no idea that Scorpio was nearby.

"NIGHTMARE GO!"

Rebecca became a woman that wore a hardhat and had construction equipment for parts of her body. "Heavytools at your service!" she said.

"Excellent." said Scorpio. Suddenly he felt a strange jolt. "You go ahead and find the vault; I have something to investigate."

Toward the end of the day everyone had started to relax after the earthquake. As Serena stepped out she heard Molly call her name. "Serena!"

"Oh, hey Molly how have you've been?"

"Worried. I couldn't find you at lunch during that quake."

"I wasn't in the lunch room, I was on the roof."

"Doing what?"

"Just hanging out with my friends."

"I'm worried about you. You spend time with friends I hardly know, you have these strange meetings about something you don't want anyone else to know about and you disappear without explanation; it's like I hardly know you anymore."

"I'm not doing drugs if that's what you think!"

"No, but lately I only see you at homeroom or gym class. Did I do something to make you angry?"

"I'm not angry with you it's just..."

"Molly?" it was Melvin who actually started to look normal after getting contact lens for his green eyes. "Don't we have a study date?"

"I'll be right there!" said Molly who then turned to Serena. "We'll talk about this later. Melvin wait up!"" She then left.

Serena felt worried. "Molly you're still important to me. I'm so sorry that my scout duties have taken a lot more of my time than I would have wanted, but we'll always be friends no matter what." She said as she looked at her little finger.

[Flashback]

Serena and Molly were in kindergarten. They were sitting on top of a jungle gym. "Molly you're my best friend."

"And you're my best friend too."

"Pinkie swear?"

"Sure."

They curled their little fingers around the others. "We'll always be friends no matter what!"

[End flashback]

As Serena reminisced Scorpio looked after the whole scene played out. "Maybe I could do something to prevent this threat I sensed. This should prove to be amusing!"

That night a bigger quake woke Serena up when it shook her out of the bed. "Ow!"

Serena then heard a muffled voice. "Get off of me!"

Serena got up and saw the crushed looking cat that was underneath her. "Sorry Luna." Her communicator then went off.

"It's Amy; I can safely assume that you were waked up by the aftershock."

"Yes you can." said Luna.

"That seemed bigger than the last quake." said Serena.

"Which leads me to believe that it isn't natural." said Amy. "I've located the epicenter, we'll meet you there."

"On my way!"

"MOON INFINITY POWER!"

[Dream sequence]

Molly was in her pajamas in a savannah at night. She quickly found herself surrounded by wild animals when a lion stepped up to her. She was bracing herself to be eaten when the Lion spoke to her. "The dark one will soon be found. Both you and your love must be ready to sound the call to defend this world."

"What, I don't understand."

"We wild things will lend you our power when you both truly awaken."

[End dream sequence]

Molly woke up. "That's it, no more hot fudge and marshmallow sundaes before bedtime."

In an abandoned warehouse (I know its cliché but you can't go wrong with the classics.) Ingots guarded the tunnel to the vault. Suddenly the door was knocked down and the whole team was behind it. "How dare you endanger innocent people with earthquakes!? I am Sailor Moon and on behalf of the moon I will punish you!"

Surprisingly one of the ingots spoke. "This is an excavation for the Blackstar Empire. Noncompliant intruders will be eliminated." It said in a robotic voice.

"They're brimming with personality." said Sailor Jupiter.

"Get ready!" said Pluto Knight.

"Cause here we go!" said Mini-Venus.

Down in the tunnel Aquila heard sounds of a battle overhead. "Heavytools come with me, you two keep digging! We're so close to the vault I can smell it!"

"Hard not to with that nose." said Prim.

"I heard that!"

The last Ingot was destroyed and everyone was exhausted. "Well, I say we redecorated this place nicely," said Sailor Mars as she stepped on the shattered remains of an Ingot. "All we need now is a few throw rugs some curtains and we have a new hangout.

"You're the ones who are going to be hung, out to dry!" said Aquila as she came out with Heavytools.

"Its demolition time!" said Heavytools.

"Outers take care of the Nightmare, We'll handle Aquila!"

As the fight began, Heavytools attacked with a drill from her arm. "Hope I don't bore you!" She then changed it into a wreaking ball. "Cause we're having a ball!" then it became a blowtorch. "I'm just getting warmed up!"

"I don't know what's worse." said Uranus Knight. "Her attacks or her puns."

"Let's try bringing it together." said Sailor Pluto.

"URANUS TECTONIC UPHEAVAL!"

"URANUS STONE HAMMER!"

"URANUS MUD SLIDE!"

"NEPTUNE OCEANIC MAELSTROM!"

"NEPTUNE HYDRO JAVELIN!"

"NEPTUNE PIERCING RAIN!"

"PLUTO FURIOUS CYCLONE!"

"PLUTO TYPHOON BOOMERANG!"

"PLUTO GUSTY BREEZE!"

"SATURN SHADOW STRIKE!"

"SATURN DARK CHAIN!"

"SATURN NIGHTSHADE ENVELOP!"

Heavytools was separated from Becky and was shattered.

Meanwhile the fight with Aquila wasn't going so smoothly.

"LIGHTSPEED BATTALION! AIR SLICE!"

"There's no way we're going to win if she keeps this up!" said Sailor Venus.

"Then we have to keep her from doing It." said Sailor Mercury. She went to a damaged part of the warehouse. "Over here!"

"You have a death wish I see!" Aquila said with her usual haughty laugh. She narrowly missed Sailor Mercury and tried to go after her when she noticed her foot was caught in some rubble. "What?!"

"Just as I planned."

"Who's laughing now?" said Sailor Moon as they all got ready.

"MOON POWER!"

"MERCURY POWER!"

"MARS POWER!"

"JUPITER POWER!"

"VENUS POWER!"

"SAILOR PLANET ATTACK!"

Aquila struggled to get free but couldn't. Before the attack hit, Altair flew into it stopping from hitting Aquila. "ALTAIR!"

The Eagle screeched at it was disintegrating. What Aquila didn't notice was that at the same time Sailor Moon and Moon Knight were mysteriously weakened. "Ugh!" although the attack destroyed Altair it did little more than knock Aquila loose.

"What happened?" asked Mini-Jupiter.

"I don't know." said Sailor Moon. "I just felt weak all of the sudden."

"You!" said Aquila. "I'll never forgive for this! Altair, my soul mate..."

"After all the people you hurt you care more about that stupid bird!" yelled Sailor Mars.

"I don't care if you destroy me now, but you will pay!"

Down in the tunnel Prim and Axel dug faster. "Almost there..." said Prim.

Axel's shovel hit something and a dark glow came from the wall. "I think we hit the honey pot!" said Axel.

Another quake hit as the Scouts and Knights were preparing another attack. "Not again!" said Neptune Knight.

Then Prim and Axel levitated up from the tunnel with a massive stone disk with bizarre carvings on it. In the center was a carving of a sinister female face. "We found it Aquila!" said Prim.

"Yeah, let's take the vault and boogie on out of here!" said Axel.

"What is that?" said Mini-Moon.

"The beginning of the end." said Aquila. "Your end!" Then the three vanished.

"I don't know what this is about but it can only be bad." said Sailor Moon.

Back at the Blackstar Fortress the vault was placed in Vega's throne room. "I don't believe it." said Merlor. "You actually did something right. At long last I can see the Vault of Astra with my own eyes!"

"Let's party!" said Prim and Axel.

But Vega chose that moment to arrive. "Merlor I told you that unauthorized excursions would not be tolerated."

"A thousand apologies, but we found it!"

"The Vault?" said Vega as he came closer to it. "At long last my dream will soon be realized!" as he touched it he felt a flash of dark energy in his mind and an image of Astra appeared for a split second.

"My lord; are you alright?"

"I have to lie down. I think you better keep it in your lab until we can open it." Vega then went to his room.

"Aquila, we must now prepare to search for the eight keys. I'll conduct research and see what you and Scorpio can find out."

After Merlor left with Prim, Axel and the vault, Scorpio went up to Aquila. "You seem distracted."

"They will pay for what they have done to Altair."

"Keep your mind on the task at hand."

"What about you? You seem preoccupied with something yourself."

"I sensed a disturbance around a girl. She could still pose a threat to us but I'm taking measures to make sure that she doesn't."

Richforce: Will Merlor find the keys? What was happening to Sailor Moon and Moon Knight? And what does Scorpio want with Molly? The answers to these and more questions will only be answered if you keep reading.