The Fragility of Time
BOOK TWO: "Falling Towards Apotheosis"
The Fragility of Time BOOK TWO: "Falling Towards Apotheosis"
Chapter 36: The Soul of the Cosmos
Author: etj4Eagle
Email: http: Published: 3/26/05

Disclaimer: A reminder I own none of the characters of this story, all rights are owned by others. However, the unique circumstances of the story are mine. If you distribute the story, do only so freely and inform me of where you post it.

Straining against the silence being unleashed by Hotaru, Serenity had called upon all of her reserves to put forth the full power of the moon into her defense and attempt to free Hotaru from the Death Phantom's possession. Beside her, Endymion had used his link to the Earth to lend his love his support and Small Lady had added what she could as well. But even when combined together that power had been insufficient to stand against the Grail enhanced Silence. And so, Serenity's defense was slowly pushed backwards with the clash of powers eventually occurring at the Ginzuishou itself. However, when that the clash of powers reached the center of the Ginzuishou something happened that no one other than Pluto could have anticipated – the power of the Cosmos awoke.

This was only the second time since creation that the power of the Cosmos had awoken. The first was back during the founding of the colony that would one day become the Silver Millennium when General Serenity had woven from the powers of the Sol system the half soul of the cosmos – a crystal that would become known as the Ginzuishou. The ritual that had created the Ginzuishou had bounded it to Serenity's soul, but the power found General Serenity's soul lacking and so the power had gone to sleep. And through the ages, the power of the Ginzuishou slowly changed Serenity with the birth of each of her "daughters" until the final princess of the Moon Kingdom was born.

Tsukino Usagi, age 14, the warrior known as Sailor Moon, and the last princess of the Moon was not lacking and so the power of the Cosmos hatched from its crystalline egg. Instantly drawn to Usagi, the power of the Cosmos dove into the silver haired girl; healing her wounds as it restored a dead body to life. Now with a whole soul, Usagi opened her eyes. No longer was she Serenity or the warrior known as Sailor Moon, instead she was Sailor Cosmos herself.

And as the avatar of the Cosmos opened her eyes, she called upon her power, power that had been stored in the souls of eight of the planets of the Sol system. However, she was not able to maintain the full magnitude of her call for but a brief moment. For the soul of the Cosmos was born prematurely. The soul was supposed to mature for over another millennia before it was to be born during the downfall of Crystal Tokyo and following the return of the High Kings of the Earth.

Even without the full power of the planets at her disposal, Cosmos was still able to make use of their powers during her battle with Hotaru. But for the brief moment when she did posses the full power of the planets, the respective Senshi were powerless. For Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune the flicker of their power went unnoticed, battered as they were. For Hotaru the effect was noted and discarded as an aftereffect of the attack which she had just used to kill Sailor Moon. But for Pluto, who was currently using her power to maintain a stasis field, the flicker was very noticeable.

The momentary interruption in the flow of temporal energy that was sustaining the stasis field was all that was needed to allow it to collapse, releasing its two prisoners back into the time stream. Given that the field was a temporal stasis field, it had not cost Pluto any energy to maintain the field, with the cost instead having to be paid entirely upon the dropping of the field. And so released back into the time stream, Pluto fell to her knees, her energy levels depleted. And as exhausted as she was, she remained upright on those knees for but a passing moment before releasing her staff and bending over so that her elbows were on the ground. Then taking some deep breaths, Pluto closed her eyes while she waited for the world to stop spinning. It took a few minutes for her to feel comfortable that she wasn't going to pass out, at which time she raised her body so that she was now sitting on her knees. Then picking up her staff she closed her eyes once again, this time so that she could begin to survey the river of time.

Her first task was to determine how much time had elapsed during her self imposed imprisonment. She already knew that worrying about Sailor Lead Crow was irrelevant that her foe was long gone from here, must likely having hightailed it out as soon as she was released. Unlike Pluto, Lead Crow would not have been adversely affected by having been cut off from the flow of time nor would she be feeling drained from having maintained the stasis field. And consequently Lead Crow would have at most been slightly nauseous upon being released. In probing time's river, Pluto realized to her dismay that not even a day had passed since she had created the stasis field How can that be? At least a year should have passed since I created the stasis field. It was supposed to release when ChibiChibi entered the timeline . Then realizing that maybe for some reason Cosmos's child-self was here in the past, Pluto got to her feet as she began to use the Garnet Orb to mentally probe the timestream. And instantly she realized that it was not ChibiChibi which had disrupted her plans but something far worse for she had detected the unmistakable presence of Sailor Cosmos's awakening, something that caused her face to instantly go white. For one of the few times in her life as a Sailor Senshi, Pluto felt true fear for she knew how close things now were to going totally wrong. Now not wasting anytime, Pluto ran out of the Crown Fruit Parlor and into the streets. Finding Usagi was not going to be a problem for she could easily sense the clash of powers that were Cosmos and her opponent.


Having escaped from Sailor Pluto and her cursed time traps, Sailor Lead Crow took to the roofs of Tokyo as she tried to get a handle on the situation. In retrospect she realized that it had been foolish of her to give away her disguise like that. But she hadn't counted on Sailor Moon getting smart and abandoning her friends there in that restaurant. Of course she now realized that she was a fool to not think that Sailor Moon wouldn't eventually learn to think about her own safety.And then of course there was that little time trap of Sailor Pluto. Time mages and Sailor Soldiers with temporal powers were always an annoyance, and of course this system would have to have a Sailor Senshi who specialized in nothing but temporal magic.

Once she had figured that she had placed enough distance between herself and where she hoped Sailor Pluto was still lying on the ground, Lead Crow was just about to drop back down to the street level and reapply her disguise when a brilliant flash of light grabbed her attention. Following just moments behind that flash of light was a wave of immense energy, which swept past her body even before she had even begun to turn to find the source of the flash. By the time the thunder rumbled by her a few seconds later, Lead Crow's curiosity was peaked. So instead of making a move to hide in the crowds, Lead Crow began to cautiously approach the source of what she could tell was a massive magic battle.

Some minutes later, Sailor Lead Crow finally arrived on the grounds of the MugenAcademy. Now moving very cautiously, she approached one of the many holes that pop marked the grounds around the main laboratory building. Not wanting to get fried by the power that had cut out these holes, she paused beside one of the holes for a few moments while she felt the ebb and flow of the magic being thrown about below ground. Once she was satisfied that the hole was strictly the result of a stray shot and that it was safe to enter, she began to creep down through it and then into the basement laboratory. Finding a stack of computer equipment near where she had arrived, Lead Crow took cover behind them as she began to take stock of the battle that was being fought in front of her.

At first she did not recognize the Sailor Senshi that was fighting the black haired girl with the bladed pole arm, for it was the blast that had killed Sailor Moon that had drawn her initial attention. But after watching the two fight for a bit, she quickly realized that the unknown Sailor Senshi had the same shine as Sailor Moon. Guess that girl has learned how to tap into her power to a higher degree. Galaxia-sama will be pleased. The last thought being of course the result of knowing that Galaxia only wanted to receive mature stars, for only the true owner of the star could bring it to full maturity.

As the messiahs of light and dark fought their battle, Lead Crow was planning her own course of action. She realized that this would be the perfect time to steal Sailor Moon's star. From what she could tell from her hiding place, the other Sailor Senshi were out of commission and would not be a threat and with the exit behind her she would be able to quickly exit once the time came. All she needed was a good distraction that would allow her to get a nice clean shot on Sailor Moon, a distraction that the Death Phantom provide when he took the strawberry blond girl as a captive. Moving quickly to take advantage of the moment, Lead Crow crept out of her hiding place and then just as Hotaru overcame the Death Phantom's hold with the words of "Saturn Planet Power Make-up," Lead Crow unleashed her attack. Unnoticed by all present, the golden spheres raced across the floor of the laboratory and straight into the back of Sailor Cosmos.

The scream of utter pain from Cosmos as her soul was violently ripped from its moorings in her body instantly drew the attention of the all present in the room. As the Sailor Senshi looked on at Cosmos with visions blurred by blood and swelling they felt their stomachs drop through the floor as they saw her back straight and stiff as a board while the glow of her body began to concentrate in a single point in her chest before moving out of her body and crystallizing into a brilliant crystal. A crystal that was unlike the simple shape of any other star seed, but was a true multi pointed star looking in many ways like the destroyed Ginzuishou.

And as much as each of the fallen Sailor Senshi wanted to scream out in rage and kill this mystery warrior for what she had done, none of them could. Instead, with their spirit utterly crushed beyond hope, each one instead fell to the ground in despair wondering if there was any reason for them to keep on living now that they had failed Usagi. And it wasn't just that Usagi who was dead, but her daughter, ChibiUsa, was as good as dead as well. The young child now lay at the feet of the Death Phantom ready to be possessed by that vile creature. The thought that at least they would be able to join her in the afterlife shortly was their only conciliation.

Catching a hold of the stolen star, Sailor Lead Crow turned and made her departure; however as she got halfway up the tunnel, she paused. For some reason she no longer had the desire to escape from this disaster area and to return to her mistress in triumph. Instead she felt some need to stay and observe the battle for a while longer. After all there was this Sailor Saturn who had provide to be quite a match for Sailor Moon, Galaxia-sama would probably like to here about her. And Lead Crow figured that this girl probably also held a star. And getting intel on a future target was always a good idea. So with her desire to remain rationalized, Lead Crow crept back down into the laboratory.


For a moment there, the Death Phantom was afraid that his carefully worked out plan was about to come undone. But then that stranger had shown up and cut down Serenity with a single blow. That was a power that he wanted, but that was a matter for the future. For now he needed to take possession of the rabbit's body and then he would deal with his troublesome tool. Maybe he could make that girl believe that he had failed in his possession of the rabbit long enough for him to bring her back fully under his spell. She had so much potential as quite evidenced by her battle with Serenity that it would be a real shame to throw it all away by killing her. But he would do what he had to, his only goal here was the rabbit, anything else was a bonus – such as the death of Serenity.

Floating over to where the rabbit lay, he picked her up by her neck and held her at his eye level. Her body was now fully defenseless against the pending assimilation. Her meek mental defenses and the protective magic of the moon had all been shattered by his previous efforts. And with her now unconscious there was no way that she would be able to mount any kind of resistance. And so with an evil grin he began chanting the words of the spell that would condemn her soul to oblivion and give him her fresh, young, powerful body.


Sailor Saturn could only watch in stunned silence as Usagi was suddenly cut down where she stood. The body of her best friend's mother going stiff had caught her eye, riveting her attention on Usagi. And so like the rest of the Senshi, she watched in awe as Usagi's chest glowed with a residual golden light from the impact of the attack for a moment before a bright silver glow began rising from Usagi's chest. The glow seemed to rise until it was near the girl's head before what could have been described as a flower unfolded and a blindingly bright crystal was released to hover over the girl's head. As the crystal shimmered it took on a jagged appearance of a many pointed silver crystal before the magic of the attack pulled it back to Sailor Lead Crow's waiting hand. As soon as Lead Crow's hands curled around the crystal it was as if a life line was cut and Cosmos fell to the ground in a heap.

Watching all of this, Hotaru could only feel that it was her fault that Usagi was like this. If she hadn't allowed this Death Phantom to use her as his pawn, Sailor Moon and the rest of the Senshi would have been able to defeat him and ChibiUsa's mom would not be dead. ChibiUsa! Hotaru exclaimed in her mind following her thoughts of Sailor Moon. Now turning back to where the Death Phantom held ChibiUsa, she saw him trying to do something to the girl. Remembering something about him wanting to possess her, a will to fight suddenly came to her. No longer afraid of the deadly pole arm that she wielded or the power that she commanded at her finger tips, Sailor Saturn returned to her feet. Only one thought, saving ChibiUsa, was on her mind as she rushed the Death Phantom and sliced her glaive down through one of his arms - cutting the demon's robe in two. Quickly grabbing ChibiUsa as he dropped her, Saturn continued running and so did not see the formless haze that was the Death Phantom's body.

Once she had run a few paces away from the demon, she spun on her toes and turned to face the creature again. Still holding ChibiUsa in her arms her eyes widened in alarm when she saw the creature unleash a blast of energy at her in anger. Her mind unable to come up with any better options, Saturn raised her right arm while turning her body in an attempt to shield ChibiUsa. Screaming in pain as the blast hit her body and tried to eat away at her soul, she withered the blast so as to protect ChibiUsa. And then when it was over, she placed her friend down on the ground before turning back to fight this creature of evil, her desire to protect her friend not wavering.

"So you think you'll be able to face off against me little firefly? You forget that I am the one who gifted you with all that power you were using against Serenity before. Now that you have turned against me you are just a weak little human girl who can't hope to stop me." The Death Phantom declared as he prepared to blast Hotaru again. "There is still time for you to swear your loyalty to me. I know you care for the rabbit. Just think by joining with me you will be able to fight beside her for all of eternity."

"But if she did that she would not be standing beside the one that she care so much about." came a woman's voice from the shadows. Then taking a few steps into the light the speaker continued. "I don't know how you managed to awaken her Majesty's true form today, but know this foul demon between myself and Saturn you will be sent back to Hades." Then raising her staff into an attack position she whispered "Dead Scream."

Unprepared for the blast from his rear, the Death Phantom was knocked off his feet. However, he quickly recovered and unleashed a wave of dark energy at Sailor Pluto, causing the time Senshi focus all of her concentration on weathering the storm. Taking advantage of the momentary distraction that this Senshi was providing her, Hotaru took a few moments to make sure that ChibiUsa would be okay on the ground before returning to her feet to face the demon.

Seeing Saturn return to her feet, Pluto allowed a smile to cross the grimace of her face before the wave of dark energy from the Death Phantom swept her up into a wall. Hitting the wall hard, she flopped to the ground, but quickly returned to her feet just in time to see Hotaru unleash a vacuum blade from the tip of her Silence Glaive. While the attack was easily deflected by the Death Phantom that did not matter for it gave Pluto the time she needed to unleash another one of her attacks. And unlike last time, she remained quick on her feet so that she could avoid the demon's counter attack.


Sailor Lead Crow hidden in her hiding place and now feeling quite secure with the power that Sailor Moon's star radiated, watched the battle unfold between the Death Phantom and the two last standing Sailor Senshi of this star system. It was quite an amazing feeling, the power contained in this crystal; she had to remark to herself as she toyed with the star seed in her hand. Holding this crystal, she no longer felt any fear of what Galaxia might do to her. Absently she wondered if this crystal might be more powerful than all the other crystals in the galaxy combined – not that she was considering trying to usurp Galaxia's power. For some reason that objective was rejected ever more out of hand by her mind than any other time it might have crossed it.

Seeing Sailor Saturn take an energy blast from that demon in her stomach, Lead Crow had to wince. While they weren't allies, she could still sympathize over the beating that the two of them were now taking. The battle between the two Sailor Senshi and the demon had started out with the two side appearing to be nearly equally matched, but it was not long before it became apparent to her that those two were just not powerful enough to overcome the power of that creature, partially due to Saturn's obvious inexperience. About the only thing they had going for them was that they had managed to keep him from possessing that little girl. While she did not know exactly how possessing that girl's body would have helped him, she did know that at minimum a nice young body would have allowed that creature to command even more power and if that girl had some kind of special magic connection as she suspected, well the creature would have become unstoppable.

And so, Lead Crow continued to watch the battle, all the while rolling the crystal in her fingers. And with each trade of blows, she found herself drawn more and more towards the battle, with any thoughts of returning to Galaxia fading quickly away. And then to her surprise she even found herself beginning to root for the two Sailors, especially the younger one. Hmm… I wonder if I can absorb this crystal? Lead Crow thought to herself after Pluto and Saturn took a very nasty beating from the demon. Now standing upright and no longer leaning on the wall of the tunnel, Lead Crow brought the crystal up to her eye level for a moment to gaze into to its infinite complexity. Then wrapping her fingers fully around it, she brought it back down to her chest level and held it against her heart. Almost immediately she began to feel it slipping into to her chest and its power radiating through her body.

As soon as the last point of the crystal slipped into her chest, a fountain of energy erupted around her feet as she felt the crystal burning her body away from the inside. What is happening to me? she wondered as her vision was engulfed in the pillar of energy. But then as quickly as it had appeared it was gone. Looking down at her body to make sure it was still in one piece, she noticed that her Fuku was still intact – though a bit charred in some places and streaked with silver in others. Her gauntlets hadn't fared quite so well, they were still there – but there were now hairline cracks all over them. Better hope that no one realizes that those are my Achilles heel, otherwise I am in big trouble. Lead Crow thought to herself. But other than that, she felt perfectly fine and she was quite amazed at the level of power she now knew she had at her finger tips. And so deciding that it was time to stop hiding in the shadows, she left to join the fight.


Saturn was still trying to shake the cobwebs out of her head from the last blow she had taken when she looked up and saw the Death Phantom floating above her prone form and he was already forming a second blast with his crystal ball. Looking over to her left she saw that her Glaive lay a few meters off to the side – useless. Moving was out of the question – she had been knocked into a corner and her mind was still not clear enough to try to summon that protective barrier again. I'm sorry ChibiUsa-chan, I have failed you. Gomen-nasai. she said in her mind as she moved her lips to the words. Then closing her eyes, she awaited for the final blow – a blow that never came.

Instead she heard the words, "Galactic Tsunami." and could feel a large mass of energy pass close by her body. When a minute passed without a killing blow coming, she opened her eyes and was shocked to see that woman who had cut down Usagi fighting the Death Phantom. Confused as to why she was helping them; Saturn, however, did not let that confusion slow her down. Quickly returning to her feet and she rushed over to her side to retrieve the Glaive and unleashed a blast of energy from the weapon before moving to join their new "ally" in fighting the Death Phantom.


From where Pluto had gotten thrown by the Death Phantom when he had taken her and Saturn down, she had felt horror at what she saw when she managed to return to her feet with that creature hovering over Saturn. Knowing that she was too late to save Hotaru, Pluto let her rage and sorrow fuel a Dead Scream more powerful than any she had cast before – hoping to avenge the death of her foster daughter even if she could not save the girl. Of course she wasn't yet the foster mother for Hotaru, but that didn't mean that she wasn't still feeling the love and remembering the memories from all of the other timelines. Normally during the activities of the Death Busters that part of the timeline was hidden from her – so that she could do her duty. Of course that always made learning the truth about Hotaru after her death in the helicopter even worse for the time guardian. But this time around, she had retained all of her memories of the future – the only way to allow her to properly fix the damage to the river of time. And so even though it wasn't the case and appeared that it might never be the case, to Pluto Hotaru was her daughter.

But then to her unbridled relief an unexpected blast hit the Death Phantom. Looking over to its owner, though already knowing who it was from based on the name of the attack; Pluto was still surprised to see Sailor Lead Crow there. She had thought that the Animate had returned to her master Sailor Galaxia after securing Usagi's star seed. She might not have been present for the theft, but she had clearly felt its repercussions in the river of time as she had been running towards this place. Of course, Sailor Lead Crow was probably just trying to play the two sides off of each other until both were too tired to fight anymore and then she could take all of their star seeds and kill this creature as well. Getting a good look at Lead Crow's uniform as she adjusted her aim, Pluto thought to herself I don't seem to recall her uniform having those streaks of silver. before she unleashed her Dead Scream, which nailed the Death Phantom.


Noticing that Saturn, Hotaru her mind told her, had returned to her feet, Lead Crow released a little sigh of relief before grinning quite maliciously at the Death Phantom. "You know I have to thank you quite a lot for presenting me with the perfect opportunity to take Sailor Moon's star. You have no idea how much power was in that child's body. I guess I can count myself lucky that she hadn't learned how to control any of it yet, otherwise in my previous encounters I probably would have been vaporized. However, I don't think I will be quite so generous with you." Lead Crow said and then reaching her left arm out straight while standing sideways, she reached forward with her right and hand and pulled back as if using a bow and a bow and arrow composed of crackling blue flame appeared. "Flame-lightning Sniper." were the words that Lead Crow said before unleashing that deadly blue flame into and through what might have once been the heart of that creature.

Reacting in pain from the attack, the Death Phantom unleashed an unfocused attack, knocking his three attackers to the ground, though doing nothing more to them. However, the attack wasn't meant to hurt, but buy himself some time to recover. Knowing that the tide of battle had turned against him now that this powerful unknown third party had decided to join the battle, the Death Phantom began to look for a way to regain the upper hand. Forced to quickly move out of the way to avoid a pair of attacks from Pluto and Saturn, his eyes spied the unconscious body of the professor. Hmm… That pathetic human is the father of my former pawn Sailor Saturn. While I had suppressed her feelings of him, I am sure they are fully returned now and he does already have a demon inhabiting his body. And with those thoughts, the Death Phantom decided that he had need of this pawn yet again and so it was time to bring him back from the slumber he had commanded the human into. But as he awoke Tomoe, he also awoke the demon in his soul and with a blast of energy into the crystal shard, severed the ties of the demon to its master and reforged them to himself.

Of the three Sailors, Saturn was the first to take notice of the transformations that her father was undergoing, having instantly recognized his screams. "Father." she whispered as she saw his body racked by seizures. Taking a step over towards him, she only barely noticed an attack barreling her way. Quickly jumping out of the way, she was almost in time to avoid it, but the attack still managed to clip her feet and she fell to the ground with a thud. But her attention was so focused on her father that she barely noticed. Lying there on the ground, she saw his body begin to bulge in various places as suddenly the eye patch he had worn since the accident shattered.

Screaming in pain, Tome clamped a hand over his eye as he sank to his knees. But with the warding barrier broken, the demonic aura from within his body began to shine out into the daylight, escaping through the cracks in his fingers. Bringing his other hand to clamp down on top of the first in a futile attempt to seal in the demon, Tomoe was too late. Already the skin around his eyes was beginning to flake away, while the demonic light began to burst through other points along his body.

From where each of the Sailors stood they could only watch in horror as Tomoe was consumed by the demon that he had been harboring all of these years. At first the release of the demon was simply the flaking away of skin around the various points on his body where the demonic aura began to shine through. But before long, his left arm exploded in a bloody mess to reveal the arm of a demon, a process that was soon repeated across the rest of his body.

Suddenly sick to her stomach, Saturn relieved herself of her lunch. With tears streaming down her face, she was stunned motionless while that creature that had moments ago been her father walked over to where she lay on her arms and knees.

"What's wrong muzume? You feeling a little sick to your stomach? Here let me help." the creature said before giving Saturn a hard kick in the gut. The kick was delivered so as to knock her straight up into the air where he then proceeded to give her a second punch, this time to her face, crushing her nose.

"Bastard, you sick bastard. World Shaking." Uranus called out from where she was barely standing on her feet. The cruelty of what the Death Phantom had just done to Hotaru overwhelming her with rage, making her forget that just a few moments ago Hotaru had been an enemy.

Not expecting an attack from that direction, the demon had been caught off guard; however, Uranus's attack barely had any strength in it. But, deciding not to take any chances, the creature ran over to where Uranus had now fallen back to her knees. Seeing that new demon coming their way, the fallen Sailors began trying to call on what little energy they could in an attempt to protect Uranus. Though the effort ended up for vain, for as the creature closed in on them it ripped of its left arm and with a throw it tossed it at them. Startled by its action, they were completely caught unaware by its subsequent detonation – an explosion that knocked each of them hard back to the ground while reversing their Sailor transformations.

Ewe, what kind of creature is this? Lead Crow thought to herself as she watched the demon casually rip off one of its arms so that it could use it as an explosive against a group of essentially helpless girls. Though at least it now has only one arm. she added, when she realized that this demon did not appear to have any kind of regenerative powers.

Saturn was just returning to her feet when she saw the thing that was once her father turn back towards the three of them after having taken care of the others. Trying to focus her mind so that she wouldn't think about how this creature had once been her father, she couldn't help but notice the demonic blood that flowed from the stump of its left arm. Why is this all happening to me? Is it because I was not content with living with my illness and wanting to be health? Hotaru wondered, trying to make sense of everything that had happened and again wrestling with whether she could truly take up the mantel and be a Sailor Soldier.

"How dare you defile the love of a daughter for her father. In the name of the Moon I will punish you." Sailor Lead Crow said before forming a golden discuss of ice and throwing it at the Death Phantom. Now where did that come from. Sailor Lead Crow thought to herself as she earned herself surprised looks from both Saturn and Pluto. I hope this doesn't mean that I am going to drop to the level of stupidity of Sailor Moon. Lead Crow thought to herself with a shudder as she realized one possible reason why she had just made a Sailor Moon style speech. Unfortunately as focused as she was on that fear, she didn't notice how she was walking and with a yelp promptly fell flat on her face as she proceeded to trip herself.

Unable to avoid giggling at Lead Crow, Saturn felt her worries begin to fade away. And then hearing some more giggling she looked off to the side where she had placed ChibiUsa and was rewarded by a smile from her best friend. "I believe in you Hotaru-chan." ChibiUsa said when her and Hotaru's eyes locked.

"Arigatoo ChibiUsa-chan." Saturn said softly and she adjusted her grip on her glaive so that she held it now in a ready position. This time charging the blade with as much healing energy as she could muster, she dropped her body into a crouch and focused in on the creature that was once her father. Not even realizing it, her vision slipped out of the normal spectrum and into one of life energy – allowing her to locate the "heart" of this demon.

"So it looks like little Hotaru-chan has decided that she wants to play for real. I guess I must have hurt her feelings when I hurt her friends." the demon said with a laugh. Confident as it was in its ability to handle this child warrior, it did not notice how Saturn's eyes began to glow violet as her vision changed. Though, both Pluto and Lead Crow did notice and the two of them let out a gasp up surprise. For Pluto the gasp was one of surprise over the child using one of her more advanced powers and for Lead Crow it was over wondering what this change meant, but knowing that it couldn't be good for that demon.

And then, the coiled energy in Saturn's legs released and she was dashing towards the demon. Easily dodging the lump of flesh that it had ripped out from its side, Saturn moved her glaive out to her left side with the blade pointed towards the demon and angled just slightly upwards. And then with a slight rise in her step as she passed her demon, she cut into and through the demon in an upwards arc. Though, before the blade had even left the body violet energy exploded outwards from the cut.

Screaming in pain, the demon fell to its knees. Looking up at Saturn who was now standing beside it, it now saw that her eyes were aglow with violet light. "How could you do this to your own father?" the creature asked "You know you are a murder know?"

"You are not my father." was all that Saturn said before she raised her glaive above her head. "I'm sorry father for not being able to save you, but at least your soul will be able to rest in peace." Saturn whispered to herself before slammed the tip of the glaive down into the demon with the word "Purification." And as the glowing blade of the glaive pieced through the demon and into the floor below, the creature was blown apart into fading dust in an explosion of violet light.

Stunned that this girl had been able to kill the creature that had been her father only moments ago, the Death Phantom took his attention off of Sailor Lead Crow. Moving quickly to capitalize on the Death Phantom's mistakes, Lead Crow brought her arms together and then bringing them down, she unleashed a half dozen of the soul stealing spheres. Sensing the attack, the Death Phantom turned just in time to watch all six of the spheres slam into his body. Lifted off the ground by the attack, the Death Phantom remained suspended there as energy began to flow out of his body and circle around the crystal sphere that he was always working in his hands. And then when the energy that made the creature had been fully extracted from his body, the crystal ball fell to the ground to lay a top of what were now empty robes.

"Saturn." Pluto called out to get the young girl's attention, knowing that she was the only one of the three of them that could deliver the final killing blow to the Death Phantom.

Hearing her name, Saturn looked up from the where her glaive now stood alone in the ground. Seeing the crystal ball and robes that Pluto's body language was indicating, she pulled her glaive out of the ground. Walking towards the remains of the Death Phantom, she this time let all of the rage she felt for what had happened today flood through her body – the attempted possession of ChibiUsa, the death of her father and Eudial, the death of Usagi. Her body now incased in black energy from her rage, the other two were forced to draw back to avoid being hurt by her aura, a very real concern giving the sizzling of the concrete where she had taken her last few steps.

"Death Reborn Revolution." Saturn said in a cold voice, causing Pluto's blood to run cold as the girl swung her glaive up and over her head. With her arms fully extended and the pole arm reaching high above them, Pluto could plainly see the deadly ribbons of destruction gathering along the length of the blade of the Silence Glaive. Saturn seemed to pause in that position for an eternity before she slowly at first, but more quickly with each moment swung her glaive down and cleanly sliced into the crystal ball. Reacting instantly upon meeting the crystal ball, the ribbons exploded outwards – consuming the entirety of the ball along with the robes. But that was the extent of the Silence.

Dropping her glaive, Saturn fell to the ground as unconsciousness overtook her body. Releasing a sigh of relief Pluto turned to regard Sailor Lead Crow, not sure of what was going to happen now.

First looking down at her cracked gauntlets for a moment and then looking up at Pluto, Lead Crow spoke: "Sailor Senshi of the Silver Millennium you do not need to fear me. I am no longer an adversary. In calling up the power of this star …" at which point the star seed exited from her chest to rest back in her hand, "my mind was freed of the control that Sailor Galaxia had placed over it. I am sorry for what I have done, I only wish there was a way to bring this pure hearted warrior back."

Not exactly sure how to react, after all it was her princess who was the one always forgiving their enemies, Pluto tried her best. "As much as I and the others might want to be angry at you, I know that our princess has already forgiven you and would want us to do the same. There is a way to reanimate a star seed; unfortunately it is a technique that is only known by Sailor Moon and Sailor Galaxia." Pluto said, regret in her voice at the end. Unfortunately for what you have done, all creation must cease to exist unless we can figure out a way to reanimate that star seed. Unsure of how to continue in any conversation, the two tired warriors, stood silently regarding each other, each lost in her own thoughts.

But they did not remain in those thoughts for too long as a cry of "Momma" drew their attention. Turning to look at ChibiUsa, they were surprised to see her sobbing over her mother's body. Nani-ka! both of them yelled in their mind as they realized that Usagi was still there on the ground. Yeah, her body was less substantial than a ghost at the moment, though somehow it was supporting ChibiUsa and rested partially in Endymion's lap, and motes of light swirled around it, but it was still there – something that should not be possible.

Pluto and Lead Crow turned their heads to look at each other and saw a matching expression of confusion on the other warrior's face. "How is that possible?" Lead Crow asked.

"I have no idea; there is no way her body should still be around now that you have her star seed." Pluto said as the two of them began walking towards mother and daughter.

"It's the Grail." Endymion said in a soft voice while indicating the cup that was clutched in one of her hands. "I can feel it sustaining her life." Then looking up to stare at Lead Crow with a cold stare he asked Pluto, "What is she still doing here."

"It is what her Majesty would have wanted. Sailor Lead Crow is no longer under the control of Galaxia."

Endymion looked on at Lead Crow for a few more minutes, his expression not softening until he finally let some of his anger go, knowing that Pluto had spoken the truth – Usako would have been the first to forgive Lead Crow here even if it had cost her her life. Giving a sigh, he turned his attention back to the barely alive body of his love. He knew that part of the anger he was directing at Lead Crow was over his own uselessness in the battle. Of all the warriors he was probably in best shape and he had wanted to have joined in that final battle against that demon, but with only roses and a partially mastered sword as his weapons he had been completely outmatched. And he had known that he would have been in just the way if had had fought along side them; instead he had taken to watching over his love's fading body.

Seeing Endymion accept her, Lead Crow spoke to him, "While what I did was unforgivable, I now at least have an opportunity to make amends."

"How?" Endymion asked.

Instead of answering him, Lead Crow dropped to kneel beside Sailor Cosmos, while carefully reaching her hands out, with the star seed cradled in her palms. Then lowering the crystallized soul to the young girl's chest she was rewarded by its glow increasing as her hands slipped inside of the currently ethereal body of her former adversary. For a moment she was worried when her hands slipped inside of Cosmos's body as well, but that fear was quickly vanquished when Cosmos's body began to glow more strongly and the motes of light began to be drawn back to the silver haired girl's body. Now smiling, Cosmos released the star seed from her hands and began to bring her hands back up and within moments of extracting them from the body of Sailor Cosmos, the girl's body became solid again and her eyes opened.

Opening her mouth to apologize, she was instead cut off by Cosmos. "I forgive you."

"Why?" Lead Crow asked.

"Because I can," Cosmos said with a smile as she reached an arm up and around her daughter to pull the now sobbing girl in for a much needed hug. "However there is one favor that I would like to ask of you." She asked while Endymion slowly lowered he body to rest fully and more comfortably now that she was holding Small Lady on the ground.

"Anything, my life is yours to command." Lead Crow said as she knelt before her new liege.

Not having the energy to deal with someone else wanting to be her servant, Cosmos decided to let it be for the moment and instead said, "If you could bring the black haired little girl here."

"Of course." And with that, Lead Crow quickly made her way over to where Saturn lay on the ground and collected both her and her Glaive. Then returning with the child she lay her down on the left side of Cosmos's chest so that Cosmos could wrap her free arm around the girl.

"Arigatoo." Cosmos said as she looked down at the two girls with a smile.

Coming up beside Lead Crow, Pluto looked down at her princess and the two children. She stood there just watching the three of them rest for a few minutes, while a couple of tears formed in her eyes before speaking, "It never ceases to amaze me how her trust and forgiveness always prove right in the end. No matter how bleak the situation looks even to my time sense she always chooses the path to the brightest future." Pluto said, more to herself than for Lead Crows benefit.

"I think I know what you mean. Just from seeing her star seed and then even more from holding it and especially from calling upon its power, I can tell that there is something special about that child. A more pure soul has never existed and the universe favors her so." Lead Crow replied after a few moments. And then a couple of minutes later she said, "I hate to mention this given how peaceful everything seems to be at the moment, but we should think about getting out of here soon. With the battle over, I am sure the authorities will soon build up enough resolve to begin to investigate this place.

"Hai you're right." Pluto replied. Then kneeling down on one knee she began to lightly shake Cosmos until the girl's eyes opened again. "We need to be going." Pluto told Cosmos once the unspoken question had formed in the girl's eyes.

"Hai." Cosmos said as she began sitting up, which is not the easiest task to do when you have a pair of sleeping girls laying on you. However, after much effort she was eventually able to get herself into a sitting position. Of course she had not considered the idea of rousing the two girl's first, instead having planned on carrying the two of them out. Though in the processing of sitting up she had managed to wake both of them up.

"Momma, you're okay." ChibiUsa exclaimed before latching onto Usagi with a bone crushing glomp. A glomp that was quickly mirrored by the now awake Saturn as well.

"Ack… Can't… Breath…" Usagi managed to wheeze out with the remaining air reserves in her lungs.

"Oops." The two girls chorused with a quickly smile.

"Its okay, this just means that I get to give you two one as well." Usagi said before she suddenly squeezed the two girls in a tight hug. As Cosmos wrapped the two girls up with both her arms and her wings, Pluto, Lead Crow, and Endymion couldn't help but smirk when they heard the air being forcibly ejected from the lungs of the two girls. The three of them stayed in that tight embrace for a few moments, before Usagi partially released the hug, relaxing her arms so that they just embraced each of the two girls while also pulling her wings back behind her back and leaning back against Endymion who was now sitting partially behind her with a loose arm around her waist.

Neither ChibiUsa nor Saturn made any move to away from where they were holding onto Usagi's chest as both of them needed the love and comfort that Usagi radiated. For ChibiUsa, she tightened her hand holds on Usagi's shirt as she buried her face against her mother's chest to hide the tears that were slowly falling down her face.

"Its okay muzume, I am here now and nothing is going to take me away from you." Usagi said as she gave ChibiUsa a comforting squeeze with her arm while also placing a light kiss on the girl's forehead.

As for Saturn, she was not in any better condition. Now with the adrenaline beginning to drain from her system, the darker memories of the battle began to come to her, chief amongst those being the death of her father. While the trained warrior portion of her soul knew that there was nothing that she could have done for her father that did not make it any easier for her to accept that she had killed just killed her own father. And while some thought that she was a freak before, now it was undeniably the case, no one would want anything to do with her. Her soul plunging into deep sorrow, she latched onto the only source of comfort that she had for the moment and let her fears ride out as a river of tears.

Both Usagi and ChibiUsa realized at the same time the change in Hotaru's deposition. And while ChibiUsa wanted to still bask in her mother's embrace she knew that her friend needed Usagi's comfort even more and so without being told moved off of Usagi's lap and to Endymion's. Even as ChibiUsa was doing that, Usagi was focusing all of her attention on the distraught child that she held. And now with both of her arms available she reached the other arm around Hotaru and adjusted the other girl's position so that Usagi was now cradling her against her chest while once again using her wings to wrap up Hotaru again. Then with Hotaru in the new position, Usagi rocked her back and forth as she let the girl cry while making soft soothing noises.

Once Hotaru's tears began to dry up and the girl was left with the occasional sob, Usagi placed a gentle kiss on the girl's forehead before saying, "Don't worry Hotaru-chan, while today is a day of sorrow, you still have a bright future in front of you."

Hotaru did not look back at Usagi as she replied, "No it isn't. I killed my father. I really am freak." Then having said that, she tried to pull away from Usagi, not feeling that she deserved any of the girl's comfort.

"Iie, you are wrong Hotaru-chan." Usagi replied as she prevented Hotaru from trying to pull away. And then using a hand to lift the younger girl's chin so that she could look into her eyes, Usagi continued, "That demon was the one who killed your father, all you did was allow his soul to rest in peace. You are not a freak. I am not going to forbid ChibiUsa from being friends with you after today."

"Demo…"

"No buts Hotaru. You are still my daughter's best friend and I am not going to let anyone call you a freak." Finally with those words, Usagi began to get through to the younger girl, as evidenced by the slight spark of hope that began to be reflected in Hotaru's eyes. "And do you know how I know that you want be called a freak anymore?"

What, you mean that you really are going to keep others from calling me a freak? Hotaru thought to herself as she now looked at Usagi with surprise and anticipation on her face.

"Because no one is allowed to call my daughter a freak. Not unless they want to face the wrath of Tsukino Usagi." Usagi said as she straightened her body to look all tough and strong while a wide grin was planted on her face.

Hotaru of course couldn't help but giggle at Usagi's silly pose and smile. But then her mind caught up with the first part of Usagi's statement. "Demo, how does that help me?"

"Because as of right now I am adopting you as my daughter, muzume." Usagi said as she laid a kiss on Hotaru's forehead, a kiss which left a faint starburst mark before she pulled the stunned girl in for a hug, a hug that after a few seconds Hotaru began to return in full force, a hug that was also quickly joined in by an exuberant ChibiUsa and then by Endymion as well.

"You mean it?" ChibiUsa asked as she began to hug her mother and new sister.

"Hai, I do." Usagi replied before giving each of the girls a kiss on their foreheads.

For the next several minutes, the three girls lost themselves in their mother-daughters hug while Endymion, from the side, proudly watched Usagi. Lead Crow looked on at awe at the scene in front of her, once again being reminded of how bright Sailor Moon's shine was. As for Pluto, she watched both happy and proud of her queen and stunned as well, stunned because Usagi had just prevented her from having Hotaru as her own daughter. Of course if she thought about it at all she would not have been that surprised, after all the only reason why she, Haruka, and Michiru normally ended up raising Hotaru as their own was because Usagi was shell shocked after returning from the battle with Pharaoh 90, allowing the other two to grab the infant Hotaru with no fuss. Otherwise, it would have been Usagi not the three of them raising Hotaru.

It was some time later when Usagi and her two daughters broke away from their own little world. And, after letting Hotaru and ChibiUsa climb off of her lap, Usagi returned to her feet to face Lead Crow and Pluto. Walking up towards Cosmos, Lead Crow greeted her former adversary with a very low bow before saying, "Sailor Moon thank you again for saving me from Galaxia. There is one final thing that I most humbly ask of you. You see these golden bracers that I wear; they are what allow Galaxia to control me. Your star seed broke her hold on me, but I am afraid that once she gets close she will easily be able to reassert her control again. So I beg of you to use your healing power to free my humble body of this entrapment."

Looking at the bracers that Sailor Lead Crow was indicating, Cosmos summoned her staff. Then raising her head to look at Lead Crow, she was about to say that it was no problem when she realized something else – something that Lead Crow had failed to mention. "You don't have a soul anymore do you?"

"Hai, that is correct. I lost mine long ago to Galaxia when she attacked my planet. Under her power she has forced me to commit many atrocities, including sadistically butchering my own son." Lead Crow explained and her example resulted in gasps of surprise from Cosmos, Endymion and the two girls. "However, I much prefer death than to be her puppet again."

Thinking of her own daughter, Cosmos knew that she would feel the same way if the situation was reversed. She just wished there was a way to not kill Lead Crow. Maybe the Grail has the power, Pluto did say that it was a very powerful artifact and it gave Hotaru quite a power boost. "Hotaru-chan could you go get the grail for me?" Cosmos asked.

"Hai," Saturn happily replied before hurrying over to where the grail was laying forgotten on the floor. Then returning with the Grail she handed it over to Cosmos.

I wonder, Hotaru has the gift of healing and she is a Sailor Senshi now. Maybe she might be able to help me. "Hotaru, I think you might be able to help me here. I want you to also hold on the Grail and follow my lead." Cosmos said.

"Hai." Saturn replied as she grasped a hold of the grail with one hand and began to feel not only her own energy, but that of the Grail and Usagi's power. As the two let their power build and mingle in the cup of the Grail, the two become of one mind. Working as one, the yin and yang of the Messiah opened her eyes. With white energy pooling into the left hand of Cosmos and black energy pooling into the right hand of Saturn, the two girls spoke in perfect unison with matching pitch and tone to their voices – though a pitch and tone completely different from the voice of either of the two. "Child of the star, you have proven yourself worthy to reclaim your shine, no longer shall you serve a failed star. Instead reclaim your true name of Sailor Erion." Then pausing for a moment, the eerie two-but-one voice called upon the power of the messiah with the words, "Shadow Moon Healing Escalation."

And with those words, the balls of energy that Cosmos and Saturn held in their hands began rising up and around the two of them in a spiraling helix. And when the leading edge of the energy streams would reach the ground or a foot above Cosmos's head they would reverse their vertical direction while also speeding up in their rate of spiraling. Before too long the two girls were completely obscured by the energy that was still streaming out from their outstretched palms and then with a final blinding flash of light that blinded everyone present the column vanish.

When they could see again; Sailor Cosmos and Sailor Saturn lay in a crumpled heap on the ground with the Grail visible nowhere. For Sailor Erion the golden bracers of bondage were no more and she could feel the power of her star once again radiating from her chest. Shaking her head in a futile attempt to clear the spots that still remained in her vision, Erion realized that her memories of her servitude under Galaxia were beginning to become fuzzy.

Confusion clearly visible on Erion's face, Pluto quickly realized what the problem was; after all she had felt the spatial rip that had just occurred along with the creation of yet another temporal paradox. "The fading of your memories is time bringing you in line. What you remember as the past is still over a year away from happening. As far as your star seed is concerned, your world only fell a few days ago. Sailor Cosmos, she took your star seed not from the time you come from but from the moment when Galaxia stole it. Consequently, you actions under Galaxia never occurred and those memories will fade. In the end all you will remember of your time under Galaxia are fragments of this battle."

"How… Why…" were words of unformalized questions that Erion whispered, as she wondered why Sailor Moon wasn't going to make her at least live with the memories of what she had done.

"Owe my head." The not quite so chip voice of Minako said as she returned to her feet. The healing blast that Saturn and Cosmos had unleashed had not been restricted to just Erion, it had also covered the rest of the occupants of the chamber, healing them of their worst injuries and revitalizing their bodies. And slowly one by one the group returned to their feet. While not quite sure as to what exactly was the situation, they were content to realize that at least it looked like they had won; they could wait for the details at a later point in time.

From where she had slumped to the ground, Cosmos also returned to her feet. However unlike the previous time, this time she was feeling very unsteady and was having to use her staff to help support her weight. But making a concerted effort to not let the others realize how bad she was off, she began walking over to where her friends were recovering.

"Minna-san are you okay?" she asked.

"Hai." The various voices replied. "A little banged up and I think we will be feeling this battle for some time to come." Makoto replied.

Unnoticed by the others, Ryo had gotten up and had walked over behind Usagi while she was confirming with her own eyes that they were okay. And so he was in the right position when her eyes suddenly rolled up into her head as her legs gave out. Catching the girl in his arms, he lowered her to the ground while the others cried out "Sailor Moon!" a cry that quickly changed to gasps of horror as Cosmos's fuku vanished.

The first of the girl's to react was Rei, who was beside Ryo within seconds. Quickly checking for a pulse she was distressed when she was barely able to find a very faint one. Then looking for Usagi's breathing, she noticed that it too was not good.

"Ami-chan what's wrong with Usagi?" Rei asked as Ami came up beside the three of them.

"I'm not sure, all her vital signs are plummeting and her energy appears to be destabilizing." She replied as she tried to make sense of what her scans were showing her.

Hurrying over to where Usagi now lay on the ground, Pluto hoped that whatever was affecting Usagi was something that Hotaru might be able to heal. However, her fear was that this was some how related to the awakening of Cosmos, since as far as she knew Cosmos required both Saturn and the full awakening of the Earth to awaken. And while, she guessed the battle with the power of Saturn might have qualified for the first part, the Earth's power was definitely not yet awake. But what that meant for the current situation she had no idea.

Pluto had barely even reached Usagi when Mercury's computer began emitting a constant unending beep, a warning whose meaning she knew all to well. Quickly searching her memory she realized that Haruka, who along with everyone else was now crowded around Usagi, knew CPR. And so reaching out an arm, she grabbed Haruka and pulled her down to the prone figure of Usagi. "Usagi's heart has stopped, you take care of the breaths, I will do the compressions."

"Nani-ka!" cried out Rei upon hearing that.

"Hai, Pluto's right." Ami was forced to admit.

"But we won, we defeated the enemy, healed the brainwashed warriors." Minako complained.

"But the Ginzuishou was destroyed. When it merged with Usagi it gave her a massive power boost, but at a cost." Ami quietly said.

"You don't mean?" Makoto asked.

"Hai, Usagi was only living on borrowed time."

From where Haruka and Pluto were administering CPR to the dieing princess, Haruka yelled to Usagi, "Come one Usagi-hime wake up." in between breaths. Unfortunately, yelling was no more effective than the CPR they were administering.

"Her blood oxygen level is dropping dangerously low; I just hope the paramedics I called get here soon." Ami said as she monitored Usagi's deteriorating condition.

"And my healing magic can't find anything to work on." Saturn said as she broke off her attempt to heal Usagi.

"What the?" Makoto asked in sudden confusion.

"Huh?" the others except for Haruka and Pluto responded as they turned and looked at Makoto and then at Hotaru. And it was Hotaru they were looking at, for her fuku had mostly faded away.

"What's going on, your fuku are dissolving away?" Erion asked referring to Saturn and Pluto. But before any of them had a chance to respond Michiru and Rei collapsed to the ground.

"What now?" Makoto asked. Then turning to Ami, she asked, "Ami what's going on here? Is this some kind of trap left by Rubeus to kill us even if we win?"

Scanning everybody, Ami was not pleased one bit with what she saw. "I am not sure what the cause is, but our life forces are starting to fluctuate as well. The only one not affected is her." Ami said indicating Sailor Erion

Her powers must be still trying to awaken. Pluto thought as she compressed Usagi's chest. But with her soul fading, that only acts to drain the life from the others. Without the final element of the ritual there is no way for her to fully awaken. There is only one option left. "Minna-san, Usagi's soul is dieing. A powerful ritual was initiated during the battle, but a key component was missing and as a result she will die. Unfortunately, there is no way for us to get that missing component as it is years and maybe even decades if not more away from being ready."

"But, but…" Rei stuttered from where she had pulled herself up into a sitting position.

"Can we put her in a stasis crystal like was done when momma was hurt by the Prince Diamond's initial attack?" ChibiUsa asked, remembering how her mother had been frozen in that crystal to save her life, the event which had driven her to swipe the conveniently available time key to return to the past.

"Yes, Small Lady we can. And that is our only option. For if we don't all of us will die as well. Because of the ritual, our souls are now linked to hers and if hers dies ours will be pulled into oblivion as well." The planets and all life on them will die as well, but they don't need to worry about that right now. Pluto added to herself.

"How do we do this?" Makoto asked as she helped Rei onto her feet.

"Basically we will do a Planet Attack, but direct it at Sailor Moon. When our energy hits her, it will react to form the stasis crystal automatically. So henshin yo." And so with a series of henshin, the group formed a ring around their princess, some members getting help to stand from others. Erion watched the proceeding from the side, not knowing if adding her energy into the mix would be beneficial or would hurt Sailor Moon. And so she watched as the group summoned all the power they could, completely draining away their fuku and glamour magic. Then with a final cry they threw that energy at their leader, each of them passing out as they gave all they could. But, when the light of the blast subsided she could tell that they were successful, for a crystal remained.

Setsuna was the first to recover. She was soon followed by Makoto and Ami. Dragging herself over to the crystal, Ami began running some scans to make sure that Usagi was stable inside of it. Satisfied she closed her computer.

"Small Lady!" Setsuna suddenly exclaimed, awaking the rest of the group. Turning they all saw ChibiUsa fading away herself.

"Pu what's happening to me?" a very fearful ChibiUsa asked.

Silently cursing the fates, Setsuna responded with one word "Causality." Summoning her powers again and striding quickly up to the little girl she ripped the Garnet Orb off her staff and dropping the for the moment useless staff to the ground. Grabbing a hold of the orb with both hands she raised it above her head and began a spell:

"By the authority you have given me,

"I pledge my soul again to you.

"Unlock the gates of causality and bring forth the path to let me walk beside you.

"Strike down those who stand before us

"Temporal Disruption!"

With the completion of the spell, the Orb appeared to shatter into a blinding ball of temporal energy, which hovered for a moment in front of Pluto before she grabbed a hold of it and slammed it forcibly into the vanishing ChibiUsa. Slamming into the smaller girl, ChibiUsa screamed out in intense pain. Every cell of her body felt like it was being pulled in five directions at once. Then with a flash of energy, the crystal time key around her neck began glowing as well. Feeling yet another even greater wave of pain, ChibiUsa was forced down to the ground. Running up beside her friend, Hotaru pulled the withering girl into her arms. Given that ChibiUsa's body was still glowing from what ever Pluto had done to her, Hotaru did not want to try using her healing magic and was left to just to try to calm the young girl with words and her hands.

"Pluto what did you do to ChibiUsa!" Rei demanded.

"The only thing I could do and now I will pay the price, goodbye my friends." Pluto replied as her own temporal energy suddenly exploded outwards from her body, shooting in every which direction. The energy traveled but a few feet before it vanished leaving only the base of Pluto's staff as evidence that Sailor Pluto had ever been there.

With blank looks, everyone tuned to look at Ami hoping that she might have some answers. "Minna-san, I am not really sure what happened here either." Ami admitted.

"I think I might know." Sailor Erion said. Her answer was of course met with hostile gaze from some members of the group, blaming her for what had happened. "When that girl there began to vanish, Sailor Pluto spoke one word – 'causality'. Can any of you tell me if there is something special about that girl?"

"Ah, I understand now." Ami replied, seeing where Erion was leading. "ChibiUsa is from the future, she is the future daughter of Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen. But the probability of her never being born is now quite substantial. Sailor Moon could be trapped between life and death in that crystal for all of eternity. And even if we can eventually free her from it, there is the end result of the ritual which she initiated."

"So I will never be born now?" ChibiUsa asked in a small voice.

"Hai, the future you knew is now completely gone and you were in the process of vanishing with it as well. But that spell Pluto cast must have shielded you from the effects of time allowing you to exist even though your past won't ever exist." Ami said. And with that they all realized what had happened to Sailor Pluto, she must have paid the price for using a forbidden power.

"One question, are our powers stable now?" Minako asked.

Scanning each of them, Ami said, "Our life forces look stable, but the only why to know for sure will be to try to henshin."

"In that case, Minna-san henshin yo!" Minako commended.

Seven flashes of light later everyone was in the Sailor form except for ChibiUsa. "Moon prism power make-up!" ChibiUsa cried a third time. "Why isn't it working?" she asked as she began to cry. Sailor Saturn who was beside her, pulled her into a hug, as she looked over at Mercury.

"Of course, I should have realized it before. Gomen-nasai ChibiUsa-chan. But there is no way for you to henshin anymore. The power for your henshin was the shadow Ginzuishou in your broach, which drew its power from the real Ginzuishou. But…" Ami did not need to finish her explanation as they didn't need to be reminded about Usagi's condition.

"But what about Usagi's ability to henshin before we got the Ginzuishou, didn't she say she was a mage and her henshin was just a spell she was remembering from her past life." Jupiter asked.

"Hai you're right. However, I don't think she ever taught ChibiUsa that spell. I think the broach was just enchanted with the spell." Mercury said, which was confirmed by a sullen nod from ChibiUsa. "In time, ChibiUsa might be able to figure out the spell, or maybe Luna or Artemis will know something, or maybe I can find something in my computer. However, ChibiUsa I wouldn't get your hopes up. Also your powers would be severely limited with the power of the now Moon locked away."

ChibiUsa nodded her understanding, before hiding her face completely in Saturn's chest. Knowing that ChibiUsa was not going to have the energy to stand for much longer, Hotaru directed ChibiUsa down to the ground and into her lap. While it might seem a bit wrong for her to be glad to have the need to comfort ChibiUsa, she had a very good reason for wanting it, as it allowed her to forget for the moment about what she had done when her body was controlled by just the power of Saturn. Sleepless nights in the future lay ahead for her. But for now she could forget for the moment what she did by focusing on helping ChibiUsa in her time of need.

It was during this time that an ambulance along with dozens of military vehicles pulled up beside the destroyed remains of the Mugen Academy. Hearing their arrival, Venus and Mercury left the others to go meet the new arrivals. While Venus went up to the officer who appeared to be in charge of the military forces, Mercury headed to where the EMTs were grabbing equipment out of the ambulance.

"Arigatoo for getting here so soon." Mercury said. "Unfortunately, the injury Sailor Moon is suffering from is beyond what medicine can do. We have placed her into a stasis crystal, so that we might be able to save her at some future point. However, there are still injured civilians around the school grounds."

Walking up to Sailor Mercury, the paramedic said, "I'm sorry for your loss. I wish there was something that we could do for her. We'll just have to hold onto the hope that the future can discover a cure for her injury."

"Arigatoo." Mercury replied and with that the EMTs were heading off into the remains of the school. They were soon joined by military medics along with a couple of soldiers for escort. Meeting back up with Venus who had finished briefing the top officers of the rapid response force, the two of them headed back into to where the group was.

Hearing the return of Venus, the others looked up at the two. All around the expressions were the vacant ones of a hollow victory. "It is time for us to go. Jupiter and Uranus can the two of you manage Sailor Moon by yourselves?" seeing the nods, Venus began leading the group out into the fading light of the afternoon. Walking beside Jupiter and Uranus who were carrying Usagi's crystal, Endymion carried his daughter vowing to himself that he would raise ChibiUsa and Hotaru in a way that would have made Usagi proud.


Guarding the gate of Spacetime, Q could only watch on in horror as Cosmos fell to the ground, her soul dieing. Silently grieving, with a pair of tears forming, Q waved his left hand, shutting the gates, while he turned his back to those doors which now only held sorrow for him. Now taking a step away, his thoughts turned to how he could have prevented the death of his comrade in mischief and one true friend. But as his powers were useless in the bane that Cosmos inhabited, he intellectually knew that there was nothing he could have done. And yet this "enlightened and advanced" being, which was a member of the continuum found himself feeling very human emotions over Cosmos's death. And with those human emotions of sorrow and second guessing came one more – vengeance. It was Janeway who had set this disaster into motion and so, Janeway your crew is going to pay penance for this. Q thought. No longer was the stumbling and playing with technology far beyond their level of understanding that certain Federation captains were known for amusing. By the time I am done with you and your crew, Janeway you are going to wish that I had decided to visit a plague of Tribbles upon the Federation. Cosmos's death will be avenged!

As wrapped up as Q was in his sorrow and planning of vengeance on the crew of the starship Voyager, he did not notice the arrival of a second being to the megaverse's singularity of creation. And so he jumped up into the air when a child spoke the words, "Chibi-Chibi" from right behind him.

With a racing heart (or what goes for one in a Q), Q quickly spun on his heals once he landed. And as he spun, his soul was buoyed by anticipation of what he hoped he would find, which to his delight proved to be true for there in front of him now stood the child form of Cosmos. "How?" was the only word he voiced before he threw himself at the child and pulled her up into a hug.

"Chibi-Chibi" was all that ChibiChibi said before snuggling into Q's embrace, an embrace that Q would never let any other being ever see.

"Cosmos why are you in your child-form?" Q asked after he finally let go of ChibiChibi.

"Child form?" ChibiChibi repeated before giving a smirk.

At bit annoyed at ChibiChibi's habit of repeating words instead of giving answers, Q was about to demand the child return to her adult-form when he noticed that the little girl's smile looked a bit mischievous. Suddenly getting a very bad feeling about the situation, Q quickly spun around to regard the gate as he snapped his finger to force the doors open again. And he was just in time to see Pluto's body explode in a cascade of temporal energy.

Now turning back to ChibiChibi, Q asked, "But if Pluto is now dead, then who is the time guardian." But Q already knew the answer; the mischievous smile on ChibiChibi was all the confirmation he needed. But there has to be something more than me just being the new Time Guardian for ChibiChibi to look like the proverbial cat which has eaten the canary. Q thought to himself. He did not have a long wait for his answer, for as soon as he had formulated the question in his mind a massive column of temporal energy erupted from the gate and zeroed in on his body, enveloping it. When the energy finally died down, Q's first words were "Wonder if I get any new powers to play with…." But that thought did not continue for any longer than the time that it took him to realize that ChibiChibi was now standing beside a very expensive looking full length mirror – a mirror that reflected a female Q outfitted in a very pink and frilly Sailor Fuku with hearts and unicorns decorating the skirt. Instead Q yelled "Curse you Cosmos!" as he lunged for ChibiChibi.

Now Q should have easily been able to tackle the little child, since she was too busy lying on the ground laughing her head off. But some how Q missed and when he picked himself back up he realized that ChibiChibi was somehow off to his left. Not pausing to wonder how that could be he tried again and this time found ChibiChibi off to his right and so he tried again. This continued for another half dozen lunges before Q had calmed down sufficiently that his superior intellect that he always bragged to Picard about finally reasserted itself and he realized that Cosmos was obviously playing with the spatial structure of this realm.

"So do you have anything to say for yourself Cosmos?"

"Chibi-Chibi?" was her only reply.

"You know it would be easier to hold a conversation if you returned to your adult form." Q suggested, knowing that the instant Cosmos took her true form he would be back to normal. After all she was the true guardian and he was obviously just a fill in until Cosmos took her place as the Guardian.

ChibiChibi however just shook her head and then with the words, "Ba bye Q-chan," she took a step backwards and into the Gate of Spacetime which was now directly behind her.

Seeing ChibiChibi take that step back into the suddenly present portal, Q made one final lunge. Unfortunately for Q, ChibiChibi also side stepped to the side of the portal and so she did not enter the timestream, but Q did.

Hitting the ground hard, she suddenly found her mind clouded as she experienced the loss of omniscience that is associated with the Time Guardian entering the time stream. However, dealing with the muddled head and trying to figure out how to get back to the singularity was quickly moved to the back burner as she began to pay attention to the cat calls and whistles that were being directed her way. Now kneeling on her legs, Q took in her surroundings and was forced to gulp as she realized that she was surrounded by a group of very unsavory men for she had landed in a federal penitentiary exercise yard.

"My my, I must have been a very good boy lately for such a delectable broad to have come pay me a visit." The nearest convict said.

Snapping her fingers to turn them all into bugs, Q felt her stomach fall away as she realized that her continuum powers were still useless here in this bane. All she had were her powers as the Time Guardian, powers which she knew nothing about. Gulping in fear and her eyes desperately searching for a way out, Q yelled "Curse you Cosmos!"

End Chapter


The version of ChibiChibi that I am using in my story is partially based off of the Manga ChibiChibi in which she is Sailor Cosmos. But unlike the manga version where ChibiChibi is the result of Cosmos running away from her fight with Sailor Chaos because she doesn't have the power that she once had as Sailor Moon, this ChibiChibi is just a form that Cosmos can take at will – a form that is the innocence of Usagi distilled. As ChibiChibi she is exempt from some of the requirements of time such as not spending too much time with a future or past version of yourself and as ChibiChibi she isn't the Time Guardian. Though as ChibiChibi her mind and form are that of a child.

Hopefully with the above explanation of ChibiChibi and that final scene at the Gate of Spacetime some you will hold off nuking me for what happened to Usagi (or at least long enough for me to get a few more chapters out:) ).

In case you forgot from the beginning of the story a bane is the scientific name for a plane of existence or dimension in sci-fi/fantasy. And the megaverse is the same as the multi-verse.

And yes that final bit of the scene with Q and ChibiChibi is Ranma ½ motivated. Q's "Curse you Cosmos" will soon expand to include Ryouga's favorite line as Q is forced to deal with the perverts. And when he/she? reflects on the first time he met Cosmos, those words will have even more meaning. Well hopefully Q will remember the excellent jumping ability of the Sailor Senshi before he gets into too much trouble.

The next chapter will be a combination epilogue/prologue for the next book and Youko will make a return appearance along with more of Q's fate. Unfortunately I don't have the next chapter already and since it has been quite a delay in getting this one out I am not going to wait for the next one. Anyways, the final scene did not originally exist when I was thinking about holding off on releasing this chapter till the epilogue was ready. But that scene should away your concerns.

There are no new stories recommendations for your reading, as I have gotten myself a nice little backlog of stories to read. Though if you want a good anime series to watch, give "Witch Hunter Robin" a try.