Author's Note: Sailor Moon and fellow characters are NOT mine. They are the creation of another brilliant mind, whom I just happen to be stealing ideas from.

Anhthy - Prince Endymion is another name for Mamoru/Darien/Tuxedo Mask/the many other names that he has. As for their age….Makoto is in her late teens (17 or 18 maybe!) with Nephrite being about 5-10 years older (this is just in my head—there is no specifics in the storyline…at least, not yet). Naoko Takeuchi had the idea at one point to match up each of the Sailor Scouts (except for Sailor Moon) with a Dark Kingdom general. She later dropped it, but the idea was that before everyone was reborn on Earth, they we in love with each general. I hope that helps!

A Crumbling Castle

Makoto was humming to herself, helping the pastry chef decorate the last cake when she felt the ground shake.

"Woah!" Grabbing ahold of the table she braced herself. This feels like an earthquake….but this is the Moon! There aren't earthquakes on the moon' Feeling the shudders start to subside she headed for the exit to the ballroom to see what the heck was going on.

Pandemonium is what greeted her. Guests were running for the exits, clinging to each other to keep from falling. Makoto watched as Prince Endymion and his soldiers rushed outside to figure out what was causing the commotion. Scanning the crowd quickly, she spotted Princess Usagi with the rest of the girls and ran over to them.

"Princess, this isn't exactly the most secure spot for you to be right now." Gone was the romance of the ball. All four princesses surrounded Usagi, remembering their purpose.

"You guys, what is going on?" Usagi creaked. She looked torn between whether she should cry or scream.

"Let's get a move on. If this place keeps shaking it's going to come down on top of us!" Rei lead the team out of the ballroom and headed for the reflecting pool. "At least here it's wide open so we don't have to worry about a roof falling on our heads!"

All of a sudden a booming voice rumbled through the castle. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

"What the hell?" Makoto was trying to figure out the origin of the voice, just like everyone else.

Queen Serenity ran up to the group. "Quickly, get Usagi out of here!"

"Mom, what's going on!" Now Usagi really looked like she was ready to have a breakdown.

"Not now Usagi! Run!"

Makoto didn't wait for another warning. Grabbing Usagi's hand, she dragged her back into the castle, heading for downstairs apartments. "At least if the roof falls on our heads we'll be somewhat safe here." But waiting was almost worse. For several minutes all they heard was constant screaming and yelling, loud crumbling and crashing noises like the Palace was being torn apart at the seams, and Usagi's sniffling as she imagined the worst things happening in her mind. And then, just like it had started, it suddenly stopped. Everything became deadly quiet.

"Damnit! We should have seen that coming!" Endymion was pacing in front of the reflecting pool. "We knew that there was starting to be trouble. And this ball couldn't have been more publicized—of course they would choose to attack now!"

"It's not like we had lax security," Jadeite tried to point out. "What do you want, for all of the guests to get patted down before they can enjoy the ballroom?"

"That's not funny Jadeite. This is serious, damnit. They actually got closer than they should have—and we were all supposed to be on high alert! We're lucky there was nothing more than some cracked walls and ceilings!"

The rest of the group was silent, not knowing what to say. They all considered themselves lucky that no one was seriously hurt.

"There's no choice. We're moving up the timetable—you're each on your respective assignment effective immediately." The whole group just nodded.

"Well how do you like that? We're freaking out in the basement and the guys are up here having a pow-wow!" Makoto fumed.

"Come on Makoto, be fair. This has shaken everyone up just a little bit," Ami admonished her friend.

"Screw that! Those guys know something that they aren't telling us. Why else would Prince Endymion bring his generals to the ball? I want answers!" Makoto stormed off to where Prince Endymion stood.

"Oh goodie, here comes the cavalry," Nephrite said under his breath. He was actually a little surprised—the little spitfire making her way toward the group looked more pissed off than scared.

"Someone want to tell me what's going on? Because I'm sick of being in the dark. And the ground shaking is NOT helping my temper!" She glared at the men.

"I think it's time we had a meeting," Queen Serenity stepped forward. "Princess Makoto, would you be kind enough to gather the girls and have them meet in my chambers? Prince Endymion, generals, would you gentlemen be kind enough to check and make sure that everyone is okay? Please come and give me a full report when you are ready."

Bowing, everyone left to follow Queen Serenity's orders.

Oh dear, how am I going to tell them?... With a sad look at what was left of her kingdom, Queen Serenity headed up the stairs.

And now my shout outs:

Jupiterhime - Thank you for the review! It's always nice to know that someone actually reads my stories.

Lady-Dragonguardian - Thank you for your review as well! And please, no apologies. I haven't finished reading everyone's stories (and submitting reviews) either. Give me another….4 years and I should be caught up! (And who knows, my next story could have Nephrite as 007 lolio!)

Athena Kyle - I will get back to the humor soon (this was the hardest chapter to write—again, not too much humor so I suck at this). As for yours….I'm still thinking you could pull off the soap opera sooooo easily! Just kidding!