"I still don't understand why the generals went after those poor girls in the first place," Jakku sighed. He sat next to Morii and near to Luna and Artemis outside of the Hikawa Temple. Ami and Hezaa had been going over practical ways of using Sailor Keeper Mercury's ice. Sukotto and Rei spent their time keeping well away from each other. Makoto was trying to talk about the latest news in hot guys with Arissa and Usagi, but Arissa showed no interest and Usagi kept repeating how Mamoru was better than any of them. Now that Jakku had spoken, all of them turned to him. "You're positive that these girls are pure of heart, right Usagi?" Jakku asked.
"Well, we think so," Usagi said, scratching the back of her head.
"Zirconia took their powers, we saw it with our own eyes," Makoto said. "I have no idea what this General Zeusu is saying; those girls had no power."
"They lost their powers when they went against the orders of Zirconia, the leader of the Dead Moon Circus," Rei explained. "After Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon defeated the Dead Moon Circus, the girls probably survived and began living normal lives, just like the Dead Moon Sisters."
"Who are these Dead Moon Sisters?" Morii asked, "General Zeusu mentioned them, too."
"They were of the Black Moon Family," Ami said. "They were our enemies but when they were each betrayed and abandoned by their leader, Rubeus, they realized the error of their ways. Each of them were healed by Sailor Moon."
"Rei, aren't they running their own cosmetics store?" Makoto asked Rei.
Rei nodded. "They have their own line," she said. "They are so happy now. We can't let the Black Sun Dynasty ruin their happiness!"
"We should find these sisters and keep an eye on them," Arissa said. Sukotto and Hezaa nodded. "Hezaa, keep working with Ami on locating a way into the Black Sun Dynasty kingdom. I'll watch over the Amazon Quartet."
"Hey!" Sukotto cried, jumping up. "Does that mean I have to watch over the cosmetics sisters?"
"Sorry, Suko-chan," Arissa said apologetically. "I can't go into cosmetics stores, remember? I'm allergic to that kind of stuff." Sukotto hung his head.
"I forgot," Sukotto said. He looked up at Rei and Ami. "Where is their store?" he asked.
"I'll need to know where the Amazon Quartet live or something," Arissa said, looking at them, too.
"I'll have addresses in a matter of minutes," Ami said, pulling out her mini-computer.
"Ugh, a cosmetics store," Sukotto said, somewhat disgustedly. "Well, my reputation is poor enough as it is; going in there shouldn't hurt it any." Swallowing his pride, Sukotto crossed the street to the store. In large letters above the silver door a sign hung. In black letters, it said, "Cosmic Sisters Cosmetics." At the front of it was a silver crescent moon. It was on its side, like the one Usagi had on her brooch. At the end of the name, however, was a black crescent moon that was upside down from the one at the beginning.
As he approached the store, a lady stood outside with a bottle of perfume. She had blue hair that was held in a single braid. It was hanging over her shoulder. She turned her blue eyes to Sukotto and smiled. "Hello!" she said cheerfully. "Are you interested in our latest perfume? It has been specially formulated for those allergic to perfumes and it comes in five different scents!" She held out the bottle for a second before pulling it back. "Silly me," she said, blushing. "I keep forgetting that boys don't like to sample the perfumes." Sukotto blushed, too, as he nodded. "So, are you interested in perfumes, lotions, or make-ups?" she asked as Sukotto opened the door.
"Actually, I'm not the one interested," Sukotto said.
"Well of course you're not!" said a femininely-rough voice from inside the store. "Boys come here to find the perfect present for their girlfriend or for the girl that they admire!" Sukotto turned to see a woman with really long, deep purple hair. Her hair was really wavy and at the top sides of her head, her hair seemed to be molded into two cones. Sukotto took a step back as the woman approached.
"Beruche, stop being such an air-head," the woman said. She turned her purple eyes to Sukotto and took his hand. "So, what kind of girl are you buying something for?" the woman said as she pulled Sukotto in. Inside were two other women. One had brown hair that was pulled up into a tight bun. The other had hair that was dark green and cut short.
"Cooan, stop dragging poor, innocent people into the store," the brown-haired woman said. "It isn't good business."
"He opened the door!" the woman named Cooan said cheerfully. "He was meaning to come in anyway! I was saving him from Beruche."
"Another poor victim of Beruche's air-headed comments," the green haired woman said as she sighed.
"So!" Cooan said. "Who are you interested in buying for today?"
"Really, we don't need a babysitter," Juno said stubbornly to Vesta as she fidgeted with her long green braid. "We are capable of taking care of ourselves."
"We didn't show it last week," Vesta said as she fixed some tea. The two were in the kitchen making tea as Ceres and Pallas entertained their guest in their dining room. "We haven't the powers we had those years ago, no matter what that General Zeusu says," Vesta continued as she put the water on the stove to boil. "Zirconia made sure of that." She centered her bun and smoothed out her long red hair out of her nervous habit.
"Then why is this happening to us?" Juno asked furiously. "If we haven't any kind of powers, then why is this happening to us?"
"I never said that we didn't have any powers at all," Vesta said patiently. "We might have some sort of power, but we don't know what it may be and it might not be powerful enough for us to defend ourselves. You saw how powerful that enemy was last week," Vesta said. Juno nodded in defeat. "We need someone to protect us, at least for the moment."
"Vesta," Juno said in a hushed voice, "Do you think that we still have that asteroid power? You know, that power we supposedly had before we went into Zirconia's service?"
Vesta looked seriously at Juno. "I don't know," she said. "Until we know, we depend on the sailor senshi."
"So after the Dead Moon Circus was destroyed, you went to school?" Arissa asked.
"Yes we did!" Pallas said excitedly. "It was hard. We had to change our appearance to these." Pallas pointed to her short blue pigtails. Ceres nodded, motioning to her own pink ponytail.
"We had to look as normal as possible," Ceres said, picking up a cracker from the silver tray on the dining room table. "We didn't want to attract any unnecessary attention from anyone."
"Meaning," Pallas explained, "The senshi, our peers, and any enemies that came in the near future."
"We only went back to our original hairstyles when we began preforming," Juno said as she entered the room. "We figured that since we were performers, it wouldn't matter. Lots of performers nowadays had odd hairstyles."
"Either we were wrong," Vesta said, walking into the room with a silver tray and a tea pot, "Or these generals of the Black Sun Dynasty have some way of finding us other than by our appearance."
"They used Pallas and Juno against Sailor Mercury and myself," Arissa said. "All of us are certain that you have something in you, whether it is a power or something different all together. If you didn't, then what was their purpose in using you against us?" All of the girls nodded in agreement. As Vesta and Juno were about to sit, the whole apartment building began to shake.
"What is this!" Pallas shrieked. She, Ceres, and Arissa shot out of their chairs.
"It's the enemy!" Arissa shouted as the room was suddenly filled with light.
"Vesta," said a soft voice. "Wake up..."
Vesta lifted her head and opened her eyes. She was standing in a world of complete darkness. Nothing shown. "What is this?" she said, looking at her hands. She could see them. "It's so dark, yet why can I see myself?"
"You have an inner fire that radiates though the darkness," said the soft voice. "You hold a piece of the fire of Mars, as you are the senshi of the asteroid you were named after."
"Vesta..." Vesta whispered. "I'm the senshi of the Asteroid Vesta. Does that mean that the power of the asteroids exists?"
"It always has and it always will," said the voice. "Fellow asteroid senshi, you must awaken! Awaken the others! Only then will your destiny be re-established!"
"Fellow Senshi? Others? Destiny? What is all of this?" Vesta asked demandingly.
"I am your protector, the one meant to protect you. I've wavered in my duties before, but now you must awaken so that I will; you, Ceres, Pallas, and Juno must awaken. Your destiny is to protect youe princess, Neo Princess Serenity!"
"Sailor Chibi Moon!"
"Yes, you were all meant to sleep until your time to be awakened to protect you princess. However, Zirconia found out about you and I failed to protect you."
"But if we awaken now, we can't protect our princess. She is in the future."
"If you do not awaken, Sailor Keeper Jupiter will fall. You four will be put under the service of the Black Sun Dynasty and your princess will never exist! Sailor Vesta, awaken!"
"Let them be!" Arissa shouted as Zeusu. All five girls were trapped in his vines that attached themselves to the back of the dining room. Vesta and Pallas were unconscious; Ceres and Juno were injured badly. "Release them!"
"How I've longed to hear you beg, Sailor Keeper Jupiter," Zeusu said.
"Sailor Keeper Jupiter?" Arissa asked questioningly.
"Yes, your true name," Zeusu said. "It suits you more than Sailor Jupiter alone."
Arissa scoffed. "Why do you care?" she asked.
Zeusu smiled wickedly. "Wouldn't you like to know," he said in an unquestioning manner. Arissa looked at him, incredibly confused, when the sounds of Vesta and Pallas awakening caught their attention.
"What happened?" Pallas asked absently.
"Hold tight, girls," Vesta said. Much to the surprise of Zeusu, Vesta yelled out, "Pallas, Ceres, Juno!" The vines that held her disappeared as she began to glow in a red light. "Follow my lead! Vesta Asteroid Power, Make-Up!"
Juno nodded and yelled, "Juno Asteroid Power, Make-Up!"She was then surrounded in her own green glow.
"Ceres Asteroid Power, Make-Up!" Ceres cried. She was surrounded by a pink glow.
"What!" Pallas cried as she looked around in confusion. Pallas and Arissa watched as Juno and Ceres fell free of their bindings. They looked on in surprise as Juno, Vesta, and Ceres disappeared into lightning, fire, and light, respectively. When they reappeared, the three amazons were transformed into sailor uniforms.
Vesta's hair was back into the hairstyle it had been in when they were attacked in the park. Her collar was red without stripes. Her brooch was a red, five-point star that was attached to a black bow. Her skirt was red and she had a pale red bow behind her. Her gloves were white and went past her elbows, ending in three red bands. She wore white boots that pointed down and were toped with a thin red stripe. At the front point of the top strip was a gold star.
Everything red on Vesta was pink on Ceres, whose hair was also back into her performance style. Ceres' front bow was a dark purple and her back bow was pale pink.
As with Ceres, everything on Juno was green instead of pink or red. Juno's hair was also back to her previous hairdo and she had a brown bow in front. Her back bow was a very pale shade of green; it was so pale it looked almost white. She also wore green circle earrings with brown trim. Each girl wore a gold tiara with a five-point star in their respected color.
Pallas looked on in shock before something clicked. "Of course!" she said. "I remember what Zirconia told us! Pallas Asteroid-" A vine interrupted Pallas as it wrapped around her mouth. The vines holding her suddenly detached from the group holding Arissa. The vines lifted Pallas into the arms of the now-present General Ahurodite.
"Don't try anything hasty!" she sneered as the three girls took fighting stances. "I won't hesitate to kill her."
"Then why don't you?" Juno asked, much to Pallas' horror.
"Because you are more valuable alive," Zeusu said as he commanded his vines to bring Arissa into his arms.
"We won't become your minions," Vesta said. "I know that's what you want. You also was to use us to absorb the powers of the senshi."
"And how, exactly, do you know that?" Zeusu asked furiously.
"I have my sources," Vesta said, mocking how he had said it to Juno a week ago in the park.
"I'll make you a deal," Ahurodite said as she and Zeusu began to lift away from the hole in the apartment wall. "You come to the park tonight. In the center, over the lake, will be a portal leading to my realm. If you want to save Pallas and Jupiter, then you'll come." Zeusu nodded. The two of them disappeared in a furry of flower petals and lightning.