Silver Millennium Chapter 4: Experiencing Turbulence, a sailor moon fanfic

Chapter 4: Experiencing Turbulence

Summary: When Queen Serenity's spell goes haywire, the entire population of Earth must watch the chain of events that led to the Moon Kingdom's destruction. Sequel to Lunar Expedition.

Author's Note: hello and welcome to the sequel of Lunar Expedition, the story of Silver Millennium. Like it's predecessor, SM is going to be pretty long so I hope you're ready for a huge story.

I can't believe this story is still being read. It's a project of my heart that I can never quite tuck away but it stuns me how much random readers find it and love it (or return to it after years the way I do). This chapter's for all of you. Thanks for inspiring me and hoping for more, even when I'm swamped with other tasks and I want so badly for this story to be perfect. Thanks!

…

Makoto woke with a start, gasping before she covered her mouth and held herself back against her seat. It wasn't a comfortable seat, or a comfortable space, but that was nothing to the gargantuan pressure she'd felt before waking. It hadn't been a dream she could decipher, no enemy to see or fight or fear, just an overwhelming feeling of crushing pressure. Looking around now, rubbing sweat from her forehead, she was relieved that she hadn't woken anyone else. Somehow, she had fallen asleep once she sat down.

The airplane was nothing like she had expected it to be.

She envisioned a standing room with people holding overhead handles, their luggage at their feet, open windows and the threat of death at any moment. Instead, a kind flight attendant had led her to her seat when she wasn't sure how her boarding pass worked, offered her a plastic cup of water when she'd explained she was terrified of flying, and then told her she would be fine.

The flight was far less crowded than the number of seats implied (there were so many seats, it was incredible…more like a bus than the train) and there were discrete lights so she couldn't get lost, with clear exits (those were scary) and little nooks for the flight attendants to prepare drinks and food. Minako explained it all as she sat beside her, tugging the window shade closed so Makoto could relax. Looking outside somehow made it all worse.

Were they flying yet? No. Nothing was moving. The low roar of the engine was more feeling than sound, vibrating the floor and everything else with it. Her ears popped a little. Because of her abilities as Sailor Jupiter, she was sensitive to pressure changes: they didn't bother her but she always knew when something was different. Why was the pressure changing? If it didn't work properly, would they all die?

For a moment, Makoto desperately wished that she had simply slept through the whole thing. But no, the journey had not yet begun.

"We will be leaving the terminal in the next ten minutes," the overhead voice said after Makoto rechecked that her seat belt was properly on, that her tray was secured, that her luggage was tucked away (it was), and finally, that Mamoru was still in the seat in front of her. He turned his head as if sensing her and grinned, giving her a thumbs up. He looked a little pale but he otherwise seemed calm about flying again.

When the whole thing moved, Minako offered to share one headphone with her and played soothing music, holding her hand. She didn't laugh once and Makoto was grateful for her, grateful that she wasn't alone in all of this. Even though it was so calm, everyone was so kind, all she could think about was being high up in the sky hurtling at breakneck speed with absolutely no way to save herself or the others if something terrible happened. It wasn't like flying using their energy, which was for short distances and where she had complete control: planes with other people meant that she was powerless to do anything but sit there.

"First time flying?" an older gentleman beside them asked.

Makoto didn't dare move but Minako smiled and responded gently, "She's a little scared. We'll be okay."

"It helps to remember that there are almost never any problems with planes," he said. "It's safer than driving in a car! Even with all the craziness in the news, planes have been very safe."

"My parents died in a plane crash," Makoto said through clenched teeth.

The man's smile faded. "Oh. I'm so sorry." He sat back, looking uncomfortable.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Makoto almost panicked when the engine noise got louder. Minako held her hand, turning up the music slightly, and they started their ascent. All the while, Makoto ignored the terrified tears as they streamed down her face, too scared to lift her hands to wipe them away in case letting go of the armrests broke everything. She held on, to the arm of her seat, to Minako, and prayed that she could get through all of this in one piece.

Mulciber woke with a start. His hands were bound behind his back and his armor was cracked all along his chest. He could breathe so wherever he was, he had atmosphere and air, but that didn't stop him from twisting around to find his helmet. It was also cracked and in pieces at his side. Had someone taken it off of him?

He couldn't see anything clearly, only darkness and himself. It wasn't a lack of light that made it difficult to see. There was no color where he was but a faint glow seemed to emanate from everything, making sight possible but not helpful. Crumpled in a heap near him were the Venus princesses Arianna and Lillian. Arianna had a head injury but it seemed to have stopped bleeding. Both were still breathing but unconscious. The Venus Queen, Silvia, was in a far more elaborate state of binding than Mulciber was, her arms outstretched and tied to the wall, her head lolling forward onto her chest.

"Fuck," Mulciber muttered. He tried standing and found he was chained to the floor. "Fuck," he said again, kicking it before he tested how far he could go. He reached the princesses, not the queen, and tried shaking the younger one at an awkward angle with his foot. Lillian groaned but didn't wake up, her fingers twitching. She looked really little even though she was only a little younger than they all were. "Hephaestus, can you hear me?"

Not even static. The comms were down then. So much for scouting ahead for danger.

"You're in remarkable condition for someone who thought storming a palace was a good idea," a voice from the shadows made him jump. The hair rose on the back of his neck as a man came closer. His hair seemed to be on fire, a brilliant red that caught and threw light on the princesses as he approached. Mulciber's breath stuck in his chest as he narrowed his eyes. "What? Surprised to see me?"

"But you're…" Mulciber stopped. "No. You just look like…."

"It seems the dead have risen from their graves recently," the man said. "You're looking well."

Mulciber couldn't seem to form words. Had he hit his head? "Ares?"

"Hi, big brother," Ares said. "It's been a long time. I thought our reunion would come later but I should have known: an opportunity to rescue damsels? I had only to open the gates for you to rush through. It was inevitable, with the new emerged Senshi."

"You're dead," Mulciber said. He couldn't get his head around what he was seeing. Ares in his full armor, hair aflame, perfectly at ease in this place. "You're dead." He took a breath, getting pissed. "We mourned you."

"It's easy to mourn when you hate the person who died," Ares said. "No matter. Can't stay to chat, what with the Senshi baited and coming. Strange that they can still operate under such a shroud of mystery with the rest of you. They've only purified their planet half a dozen times over the past three years, one would think none of you were paying attention to Earth at all."

Had that happened? Mars had detected strange activity coming from Earth but Hepahestus had never bothered. He was still too angry about what had happened with their prince to ever offer aid or attention to that planet. But no, this couldn't be Ares. He had to be trying to confuse him, distract him from whatever this was. Sucking in a sharp breath, Mulciber stared at him. "Ares, if it's really you," he definitely talked like Ares, "what happened? Where have you been?" Mulciber frowned, trying to come closer. He was stopped by the chain holding his feet. He glared at the long chain then back up at him. "Hell, are you out of your mind? I'm going to beat your ass the second I get out of these chains. You have no idea how fucking worried we were."

"Not dead," Ares said, unfazed. "Asleep. The darkness took me. Not that any of you came looking. Now that Queen Serenity is awake, she's waking everything else up. She's not very good at sealing away the darkness, for all her pretty words. If I were you, I'd strongly consider staying out of my way this time."

"You were part of the rebellion on Earth?" Mulciber said, mind racing. His memories of that time were sharp in some places, spotty in others. Details of the rebellion itself were more along the lines of Hephaestus's obsession. "Why did you get involved in that? We had nothing to do with it. Our sister died!"

"If she had stayed back home like I told her to, she would have lived!" Ares roared. The room lit up with fire, heat roiling over Mulciber all at once as Ares got in his face, shoving his hand into Mulciber's chest. He felt the sizzle of the fire and jerked back as the sharp pain spread out over his chest and neck. "You had to get in my way! You always get in my way!"

The fire faded but Ares stayed close, panting as he stared up at him. Still staring up. Still Ares, even under all of this new rage…Mulciber stared at him, ignoring the hand still pressed to his chest where Ares had burnt right through his armor.

"It doesn't matter, she was reborn anyway," Ares said, his voice subdued again. "I've got another chance. Just like the rest of us. I can turn it all back. I just need the Silver Crystal."

"That's never going to happen," Mulciber said. "They're not going to come here."

"On the contrary, dear brother, they're already on their way," Ares said, smiling. "We'll see which ones are coming. Once I have one, I can leverage to get the others. Bait always draws out the Senshi. Especially if that bait is still alive and kicking, like you are. Be grateful I'm not in the mood to sever my ties just yet."

He pinched Mulciber's cheek, laughing when Mulciber lunged at him.

"I'm going to kill you," Mulciber said.

"Sure, you'll try," Ares said. "We'll see each other again. Try to be better behaved next time. My benefactor isn't as lenient as I am."

He was suddenly gone. The light went with him, plunging Mulciber into darkness. He exhaled sharply, feeling over his chest for the damage. Chest armor was melted almost to the skin, right over the power source for his air supply. He'd made sure that even if Mulciber escaped, he would never have enough air to survive in space. "Hell," he muttered again.

A trap. He'd really walked into a trap. To lure the Senshi.

For the first time, it occurred to him that if Ares, who was supposed to be dead, was here…maybe, just maybe, the Senshi really were the real deal. A chill went down his spine. He suddenly wished the Venus princesses would wake up. He didn't want to be alone with his memories.

"This way," Mercury said. Mars felt the slight shift in their course as Mercury redirected them.

"This is creepy," Sailor Moon whispered.

Mars's hair floated around her, tangling with Sailor Moon's long golden tresses as the energy bubble surrounding them kept out the cold and airless nature of space but did nothing for the lack of gravity as they traveled quickly and quietly through endless nothing. Or Mars would have thought it was endless nothing except that invisible debris pinged their energy bubble at unexpected moments with a shower of pebbles like rain on glass. The signal Mercury tracked was still strong, leading them through the wreckage of more than one destroyed ship. Mars tried not to think about the Mars symbol on some of the crafts.

She and Mercury had sent Sailor Moon a message that they were going to intercept the distress call. Sailor Moon showed up in a short enough time that it was clear she hadn't gone to school. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her face gaunt with worry but she hadn't talked about it. They'd transformed and traveled into space, their joined hands thrumming with power as they'd teleported and traveled quietly through space.

They were going to have to talk about skipping school at some point. Luna was preoccupied with coordinating Uranus and Neptune in the Lunar Expedition complex so her usual guidance was lacking. Rei knew Minako was the one who brought up emotional things. Could she do it? She didn't know.

And her grandfather. Now he knew. Now…she would have to go back at some point and explain, talk to him about it. They'd just cut and run before. The past crowded in everywhere, no matter where she turned.

"There," Mercury said, interrupting her thoughts. Straight ahead, as if materializing from her words, a courtyard in the middle of space spread out beneath them. Colorless and devoid of life, it extended out towards an enormous castle. At first, Rei thought she imagined the familiarity of the castle until Sailor Moon gasped.

"It looks like Silver Millennium," she whispered, hovering beside Rei and taking her hand. She was trembling. "That's…"

"Disgusting," Rei muttered.

"It's an exact mirror image of the Silver Millennium kingdom," Mercury said as she typed into her mini computer. "It's an illusion. There's definitely a structure there, and living forms inside of the castle, but it definitely doesn't look like that." She tapped for another moment on her computer before shooting Mars a look.

"Yeah, it's a trap," Mars said. Taking a deep breath, she grunted. "Dammit. We have to be smart about this."

"Can we teleport in?" Sailor Moon asked.

"There's a barrier around the castle," Mercury said, typing quickly as she watched the structure. "No hidden entrances the computer can detect. It looks like the best approach is sneaking around the back and avoiding anyone who might catch us."

Mars stared at the structure for a long moment. Some knowledge, some insight, tickled the back of her head. She'd spent the night sleeping in front of the Great Fire and some of its influence was still in her thoughts. "No," she said. "That's the trap. Hiding that we're here. They already know we're here. We should go in directly through the front."

"Is that wise?" Mercury said, frowning.

"I trust Mars," Sailor Moon said, squeezing her hand. "We have to trust ourselves right now."

A wave of warmth came over Mars. She'd expected Sailor Moon to argue with her but she was smiling when Mars looked at her. Mercury too was typing something into her computer and nodding.

"That's a good point," she said. "Alright. I'll mark our path with a blue line. It looks the most dangerous from the front but that might be an illusion. This whole place is an illusion so be careful."

Mars felt surreal as they landed in the courtyard. She kept her grip on Sailor Moon's hand as she walked first, looking around. Deja vu, but wrong…backwards. She'd had dreams of Silver Millennium last night. Dying. Fighting. Pain and misery. Uncertainty, that had somehow been the worst of it. Not trusting herself or anyone else.

Nothing approached them as they walked along the courtyard. Sailor Moon paused when she saw a fountain, a very familiar marker in her memories, but then they moved on. Mercury continued to type but she looked tense as they went. How much did Mercury remember? They hadn't gotten specific with one another and back then, their relationship had been so contentious. Lying to each other, fighting against one another as often as together…they'd been dysfunctional, to put it nicely. They'd only fought together against a common enemy at the end…when it was already too late.

"The door even sticks," Mercury said, pulling her from her thoughts. Mars snorted and went to help pull the heavy door open, going inside. "The life forms are located in the throne room. Are we still going directly or are we taking another path?"

Mars tilted her head, closing her eyes. She had a really odd feeling…bad, it had been bad since they'd seen the shadow kingdom, but underneath that, odd. More odd for being familiar.

"No," she said at last. Reaching into her uniform, she pulled out a purifying charm. It glowed in the presence of so much negative energy but she didn't activate it. Instead, she wrapped the charm around her fist and closed her eyes, holding it to her forehead. "Give me a minute."

Sailor Mercury and Sailor Moon faded from her thoughts as she focused. She could hear them vaguely, moving together and whispering, but even that faded. Memory surfaced in her mind. The layout of the castle, like a puzzle she'd put together years ago, came slowly to her. The throne room was close to them, only a few hallways away with the grand ballroom between them. She'd stood guard in that ballroom for many years, miserable and envious of everyone free to live their lives without this burdensome responsibility to a bratty princess. But Serenity wasn't a brat, not in the end. Lonely. Kind. Doomed.

She took a breath. Focus.

The grand ballroom alongside the throne room, the servants' passages alongside the grand rooms, the Hall of History where old paintings of past Queens and Sailor Moons hung, the kitchens where Mercury and Jupiter had fought so long ago, the training grounds where Artemis had run them on drills that made them drop from exhaustion. Minako's hurt expression when Rei told her she didn't want her.

Focus. Not memory. What was she sensing?

There were specific paths laid out for members of royal families, a place for each of the planet's royalty to make their way apart from the rest of the court. Mercury's was lined with technology, all the comforts and familiarity of information about their quarters. Venus had the flashiest, studded in gold and fine jewelry, meant only to flatter with its many mirrors and paintings of themselves…and Mars. Spartan, clean, weapons along the path. That was it, that was the path no one had thought to block from them.

"This way," she said, pivoting and going towards one of the hidden entrances behind a painting of a dark-haired woman holding a scepter of Mars.

"Mars," Sailor Moon said in a tone that made her stop. "Look. Look up."

Mars opened her eyes and looked up. The painting of the woman that she had automatically taken to be her long-dead mother wasn't her mother at all.

"It's you," Mercury said, sounding startled. "It's you, as the Princess of Mars."

A cold chill went down Mars's back. "Take readings from it but we can't stop. This is the way in." She tore her gaze away from the mysteriously-smiling version of herself that no longer existed and went to tug the painting back, exposing a doorway. Mercury clicked away, the sound irritating her before she remembered that that was memory, not the present. Mercury didn't annoy her.

"It's okay," Mercury said as she came closer. "I'm fighting it too. Sorry if I'm harsh." She reached for Mars's hand. They squeezed their fingers for a moment and smiled, slowly relaxing.

"We've got this," Sailor Moon said firmly. "We're a team."

"Yes," Mars said. She didn't trust herself to say more and returned her focus to the charm in her fist, letting her intuition guide them down the path. Sailor Moon brought up the rear, lingering by the weapons and some of the paintings.

"The eyes are scratched out in some of these," Sailor Moon said.

"Everything is wrong here," Mars said. "My painting shouldn't be there. And the paintings here shouldn't be damaged."

"A youma who knows you must be the one ruling this place," Mercury said. "I'm picking up traces of Mars energy. Not just the life forms, it's all around us. I don't know who or what it is, but it's familiar." They weren't talking about the obvious direction that was pointing to. Destruction. The end of Silver Millennium. Mars shook herself and pushed ahead, nearly stumbling when the door in front of her opened without any fuss.

Inside, two men and a woman hung from chains against the wall. Two younger women lay curled up on the floor at their feet.

"Hell," Mars muttered, hurrying forward. One of the men lunged at her suddenly and she held up the charm instinctively, the room flooding with fire as she stared into the face of her brother. "Mulciber," she said, the name shooting out of her mouth like she'd talked to him just yesterday. "You're alive."

"Who…what…" Mulciber, her older brother, the one who gave the best bear hugs, the one who had taught her to shoot a bow and arrow, the one who she had been so, so angry with before she died…he was really here. He winced like the sudden light hurt his eyes, his hands bound behind him. And his armor was nearly burnt off. "Persphone?"

"I'm Sailor Mars now," Mars said, her ears ringing from the reminder of that old name.

"We need to get them out of here, fast," Mercury said. She'd gone to the woman tied to the wall and held her computer to the locks, analyzing them. "Mars-built."

"Who are you?" Mulciber growled, lowering his head to stare at her. "We both know Sailor Mars is dead."

"Hi," Sailor Moon said, her cheerful voice startling in that place where memory crashed into reality. "I'm Sailor Moon! This is Mars and Mercury. We're here to get you out of here. Let's talk once we get out of here." She summoned her scepter and went to Mercury. She held the sharp bottom against the chain and crushed the lock, sending the woman tumbling to the ground as Mercury caught her.

"There's no Sailor Moon," Mulciber said as Mars used her charm to burn off his chains. He stood instead of falling, rubbing his wrists. "This is a trap."

"We know," Mercury said, working at the other…oh, Hephaestus. Their oldest brother. Studious, quiet, kind…so hurt by Serenity at the end, but that anger felt so far away now. He was alive, and Mulciber was alive, and somehow Mars could be there to hug them. She threw herself at them both, even as Hephaestus groaned and slowly seemed to wake up.

"You aren't…" Mulciber growled again, but he hugged her anyway, so tight that she couldn't breathe. "But I saw you die." Mars hid her face against his shoulder, squeezing them both as tightly as she could. Tears seemed so pointless in the face of this intense feeling, being wrapped up in her big brothers again, getting to see them when she'd thought they would all be blown away by time and distance.

"We don't have time," Mercury said. "We have to go. I've detected an entity."

"What's happening?" Hephaestus said as he drew back. "The distress signal."

"Where are we?" the woman in Mercury's arms perked up, her eyes wide and wild. "Who are…no. The Senshi."

"We have to go," Sailor Moon said. "Gather everyone in the center of the room. We're blasting our way out if we have to."

Mars let go of Mulciber and ushered both brothers into the center of the room with the unconscious women. Hephaestus stared at Sailor Moon. Did he recognize her? Sailor Moon didn't seem to recognize him, but her memories were so weird from Silver Millennium, remembering some things and not others. No, there wasn't time for that kind of speculation. They had to get out of there.

Sailor Moon took Mars's hand and reached for Mercury's. Mercury held out her hand for Mars's and for a moment, Mars didn't want to give it to her. But then she remembered that this was Ami, not the Mercury princess. What had her name been? Mars had forgotten her own name, until Mulciber said it. Persephone. It felt like seeing her painting in the front entrance had felt like: weird on her tongue, like that was her but an old, embarrassing version of herself she wasn't anymore.

She took Mercury's hand and squeezed it, smiling at her. "Together," she said.

"Together," Mercury agreed, smiling brightly at her.

"Mars power," Mars whispered.

"Mercury power," Mercury said more strongly.

"Moon Eternal power," Sailor Moon said, that sudden lurch of her strength outweighing everything as they formed a protective barrier around them. They rose up, the pressure of the barrier nothing against Sailor Moon's strength as they pierced their way through illusion, through walls of shadowed smoke, through paintings that reformed behind them, out of the false palace of broken memory and back into the more calming silence of space.

It was a shock to see that Sailor Moon's strength had reached a point where it could outstrip unknown barriers. Sailor Moon was more confident now, after fighting Galaxia. Mars didn't want to think about it too hard because her mind already teemed with too many thoughts and feelings. If Sailor Moon's power continued to grow as it always had, if she was strong enough not to far surpass her mother, then that meant that Crystal Tokyo was not so far off on the horizon anymore. How could Crystal Tokyo and Silver Millennium exist in the same place in her mind, like two spots on a map she was traveling across? Yet there it was. She didn't see Princess Serenity anymore when she looked at Usagi. She saw her future queen, and that gave her comfort in the face of so much painful memory.

The lifeless-seeming castle now woke up, shadows darting across the courtyard as a distant booming sound followed them. Sailor Moon turned them towards the Earth and, without looking back, sped them towards home. Mars wanted to look back but Sailor Moon squeezed her hand.

Focus, she thought to herself. Focus on what's important. Forward. Always keep her eyes on the future.