Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 1: Dark Kingdom.
Episode 8: The Love Boat.

By Razor Knight
Last update: March 4, 2010
Last edited: May 23, 2017

Terry saw Usagi run in and shook his head. Apparently, it was harder for her to get to school in time (and to study, from what he had seen thus far,) than to fight monsters. At least today she had made it in time, if only for a minute.

"Hello, Rabbit."

Usagi didn't comment on the nickname, but she did glare shortly at him. "Hi, Terry."

"I need to talk to you," he said.

Usagi was surprised at the sudden seriousness in his voice. "Okay, how about during lunchtime?"

"There will be a crowd there," Terry noted.

"But what exactly do you need to tell me?"

"Something I don't want anyone else to overhear," Terry said, "and that's all I'm telling inside this classroom."

Usagi decided not to press the matter any further, but still wondered. Was it about his girlfriend, or whoever had murdered her? She had no way to guess, so she would just have to wait.

"Had any further trouble with fangirls, Zephyr?" Umino asked.

"No, I hired some hitmen and had them kill whoever came too close to me without my authorization."

Umino looked at him in shock for a few seconds before speaking again. "You're joking, right?"

"Of course I am," Terry said, "I guess the fans just found a shiny new thing they could run after."

Beryl was once again listening to Jadeite's plans. She was rather upset at his constant failures, but still... The other Generals had 'failed' too, but there had been a lot of energy gathered in all three fronts. However, if Jadeite kept on failing like this, he would have to be replaced. After all, the draining in the other two fronts was just a facade to keep the Senshi separated.

"Humans in love seem to have more energy than normal," Jadeite explained, "I'm going to use this to our advantage."

"You better not fail me again, Jadeite."

"Don't worry, I have a way to make sure the Senshi won't interfere. I'm going to use a cruise ship to take a lot of humans away from the city, and drain them once we are in the middle of the ocean."

"It does sound unlikely for the Senshi to stop you," Beryl admitted, "but still, they seem to always be at the right time, at the right place."

"I know, and I'm ready to fight them if they do interfere."

"My patience is almost gone, Jadeite. If you fail, you may be replaced by someone else."

"I shall not fail," Jadeite said with a bow, before vanishing.

"So..."

Terry looked at Usagi and smiled. He was still not sure how she would take what he was about to say, but at least the street they were walking through was empty, so he could say it without worrying about anyone listening. "I know who you are."

"I don't know what you mean by that," Usagi said, not showing any signs of being upset by his words.

Terry smiled. Right, she wouldn't just admit to it, so it was time to drop the bomb. "Okay then, what if I told you I'm Zero?"

That caused Usagi to stop walking and stare at him. He stopped a few steps ahead of her, still smiling. "You? But how..."

"It's a rather long story. I'll just say I have a bone to pick with one of these youma."

Usagi started walking again. "It was a youma, wasn't it? The one who killed your girlfriend?"

He nodded. "Her name's Luminite. There was another one, Aurite, but that bitch just kept me distracted."

"Why did they kill her?"

"She was... Well, she had psychic powers. She could move objects with her mind, she could sense living beings around her, and other things. We had been fighting crime in our city for a while."

"So you were super heroes? Cool."

Terry laughed at that. "I guess you could call her that. As for me, all I have is my swords and some skill at using them. I've always thought of myself as a 'sidekick.'"

"I can guess what happened, then," Usagi said. "You two tried to stop the youma from draining civilians."

"We got there, both times, after they were done," Terry said, "but the second time, they were ready for us, and..."

Usagi waited for him to continue, but realized he was done. "Why did you help me?"

"I know I could say I came here only for my revenge, but that would be a lie. I want to know why these monsters are showing up, and where their boss is, so I can go kick him, her or it until I feel like stopping. So, I suppose your group's the one I should talk to."

"I guess I'll have to call Luna."

"Don't bother, I'm here."

Terry looked up at the cat, not really surprised she was speaking. "And who may you be?"

"My name's Luna, and I'm Sailor Moon's guardian. I've been following you two long enough to know your goals aren't quite the same as ours."

"Maybe if you let me know exactly what youma are after, I'll know why they did what they did."

"They want to take over the world. They already tried once, in the past, but were stopped by the Senshi."

"In the past... There is no record in history of such a thing, as far as I know."

Luna nodded. "That's because we're talking about at least a hundred thousand years ago."

"A prehistoric civilization, then?"

"You could call it that," Luna said, "except mankind had spread to all of the solar system, and were, in some ways, far more advanced than the humans of this era."

"Space-travelling cavemen, that's cute," Terry noted.

"Mankind lived in caves eons before that era, and I guess after the war, with their cities destroyed and nobody to lead them, they may have returned to that," Luna said with a shrug.

Usagi was rather lost by now. "But what's important is, we defeated these youma before, right? We can do it again."

"The 'you' who defeated the youma were different. They had years of combat training, and they had the Princess."

"Princess?"

Luna looked at Terry and let out a sigh. "See, the problem is, I wasn't supposed to hybernate for this long. My memory's blurred, so there's a lot of things I don't remember clearly. I don't know how the Princess looked like, only that she was the strongest warrior we had."

"Wait, then how come you guys have been scaring the youma off for months?"

"I don't know why, but youma are far weaker now than they were before. Something else must have happened, but I..."

"So they're weak right now? I don't think I'll want to see them reach their full power, then."

"And they're gathering life energy from humans, in order to regain their true strength.".

"I get it. If these creeps get enough energy, they'll take over the world."

"If we find the Princess before that happens, we'll have a better chance to win," Luna said.

"I'll help you," Terry said, "but if Luminite shows up, I'm taking care of her personally."

"Revenge's not a good..."

"Save the lecture," Terry said, "I've been told that already."

"Hmph. Fine, then," Luna said, and turned to look at the girl. "Usagi, there's a place we need to investigate."

Terry smiled as the cat started walking away. "Is it a travel agency?"

That made Luna stop and turn to look at him. "What... How do you know?"

"Because of this," Terry said pointing at his wrist. The watch he had looked like a normal digital watch. "It's set to detect whatever 'magic' the youma are using, and it was going nuts near that travel agency."

Luna looked at the watch. "For you to be able to detect mana without even knowing what it is... That's pretty impressive."

Terry checked his watch. "Hmm, this must be wrong, unless you're a youma."

"That's not it," Luna muttered, "you're detecting living beings who actively use mana. I don't think that gadget can make a difference between good and evil mana."

"I don't get a word of what you two are saying," Usagi commented, "but if there's youma at that travel agency, we have to take a look."

The mooncat nodded. "Yes, of course. Let's go."

"I'll tag along," Terry said, "maybe I'll get lucky and find Luminite."

As they got to their target, Terry could see a black-haired girl standing nearby, looking straight at the building. He knew that girl was one of Usagi's friend, so that meant she could be one of the Senshi. "If you stare at that place any harder, you'll drill a hole through it."

The girl looked at him and frowned. "Who are you?"

"He's the new student I told you about," Usagi said, then in a low voice, she added, "and he's Zero," then she continued, in her normal tone, "Terry, this is Rei Hino."

Rei nodded at that last bit of information, "nice to meet you. I was passing by when I noticed the evil aura around that place. If Luna's here, this means..."

"Here there be youma," Terry said, looking at his watch. And the strongest youma so far, if the numbers were right.

"Let's go in, then," Rei noted.

"They're giving away free romantic cruise tickets for couples," Usagi noted. "That could be fun!"

"Usagi, they're youma," Luna noted.

Rei looked at the building again. "Whoever it was, it's gone."

Terry nodded. "Still getting a reading from that place, but it's far weaker now."

"Then Usagi's idea may be right," Luna said.

Rei looked at the cat "Why?"

"The one who's in there must be a normal youma, but the one who left was most likely Jadeite."

"And their plan is actually good," Rei admitted, "dragging people away from the city, to the middle of the ocean, then draining them there."

"If we hadn't found this place, we would have no way to stop them," Luna said.

"A romantic cruise, huh?" Terry said with a blank stare. "Wait here."

"What..." Rei started, but Terry was already walking into the building. They saw him talk to the woman at the counter, and he walked out a minute later, with several tickets in his hands. "You bought all those?"

Terry looked at the dozen tickets, then shrugged "they were quite cheap, and I wasn't sure how many Senshi are in your group."

"Only three," Luna said, then rapidly added, "for now."

"And also... I figured the more tickets I buy and not use, the less victims the youma will get."

"So we'll save eight people from..." Usagi started.

"Nine," Terry said.

"What, not coming? What about your promise to help us?" Luna asked.

Terry turned around. "Hey kitty, see what kind of cruise it'll be. I'm sure you're smart enough to figure out why I'm not going."

Usagi flinched as Terry walked away. "A romantic cruise..."

Luna realized what Usagi meant right then. "Damn it. I'll be right back."

Rei had no clue what was going on. "What was all that about?"

"I'll tell you while we go get Ami," Usagi said.

He knew someone was following him, but he wasn't bothering stopping or turning around. "Go away."

"Listen, Zephyr, I'm sorry."

Terry realized who it was, but didn't look at the cat. "It's not your fault."

"But..."

He turned to look at her. "I wish I could help this time around, but I know I won't be able to keep my cool in that place."

"I understand, Zephyr," Luna said.

"Call me Terry, all my friends do."

Luna smiled at that. "Okay. Are you sure..."

"If I change my mind, I'll be there."

Later that night, the three girls and cat were 'enjoying' the cruise.

"I don't know how you two managed to drag me here," Ami said as the three explored the boat.

Rei looked out to the sea. "We're the only ones who are not in a couple here, from what I can see."

"Aww, I was hoping there would be some lonely, handsome guys aboard," Usagi complained.

"What, giving up on Tuxedo Kamen already?" Rei mused.

"Of course not," Usagi said, then looked down at the small cat. "How come people don't notice you?"

Luna looked up at her. "That's a special skill of mine. Only those with magic can see me while I'm using it, but it does require a bit of mana to work."

"So you can't use it indefinitely," Ami said. "Any idea where the youma is?"

"I'm not sure where exactly it is, but it's definitely in the ship," Luna said. She suddenly looked away from the ship and frowned. "The evil energy just got a lot stronger."

"That means Jadeite's here," Ami said, "we should keep our eyes open."

"Attention, passengers, please go to the party hall. We have a special show for you tonight."

"Special show, huh?" Rei noted.

"Most likely our cue," Ami said.

Usagi sighed. "I wonder how many more youma we'll have to fight before this is over?"

"No idea," Rei said, "we'll just have to take them down one at a time."

As they reached the main hall, they could see the ship's captain and a sailor girl were the only members of the crew there. "That's Jadeite," Rei noticed.

Indeed, the 'captain' was none other than Jadeite. He was giving a speech, but soon stepped back. The sailor girl looked around and smiled. "It is time for our main event!" she said as her body turned blue. A water youma?

The three girls leapt behind a table, knowing what would happen next. The crowd was all knocked unconscious, and Jadeite's hand lit up as he collected their energy.

"We have to stop him!" Usagi said. "Moon Prism Power!"

"Mars Planet Power!"

"Mercury Planet Power!"

Jadeite frowned as he saw the three Senshi were there. "How in darkness' name did they figure it out?" He turned to his youma as he kept on gathering life energy. "They have nowhere to run. Destroy them."

"It will be easy," the youma said, looking at the three girls. "Die, Senshi!"

The Senshi leapt out of the way as their enemy shot a barrage of thin water beams at them. However, they noticed the beams could punch through walls... And the room was packed full of civilians. "We can't risk fighting here," Mars noticed.

"But what will we do?" Moon said, looking around. True, she wanted to save all this people, but she had no idea what to do to stop this youma.

"We should drag her out of the room," Mercury suggested.

"What about Jadeite?"

"We'll take care of him later," Mars said.

The youma shrugged as the three girls run out of the room. "Good riddance."

Jadeite growled at her. "Didn't I tell you to kill them? Go!"

"O- Of course, Lord Jadeite!" the youma said, her face pale, before rushing out of the room.

It took the youma a minute before she found the three girls. "Hah! You can run, but you can't hide!"

"Who's running, monster?" Mars snapped. "Fire Soul!"

The youma's body turned into a puddle of water, and the attack passed right above it. "Not going to work!"

Mercury smiled. "Then what about this? Shabon Spray!"

"Oh, nice trick, however," the creature said as her body absorbed the mist, "I'm attuned to water and ice, girl." Her body had, after absorbing the Shabon Spray, grown to about twice its size. "Now, how about you just stand still and let me kill you?" However, she noticed right then that her prey had fled. "Oh, I suppose that's not an option," the creature muttered before she started searching for the trio.

The three Senshi were on the opposite side of the boat, and trying to come up with a plan. "Any idea on how to kill that thing?" Mars asked.

"From the data I have, this monster could dodge even Moon's attack. However, once it 'melts down' it takes a few seconds to reform."

Mars knew what Ami was thinking "I get it."

"I don't," Moon said.

Mars sighed. "It's quite simple, Usagi. Hit her while she's still reforming."

"Found you!" the youma snarled as it rushed around the corner. "Now, as I was saying, it's time for you to..."

"Fire Soul!"

The youma used the same trick as before. "Hah! You girls sure are stubborn."

"Moon Tiara Action!"

Just as Mercury had predicted, the creature couldn't do a thing until it had reformed, so the tiara hit it dead on, and she turned into mist.

"Well done, Moon," Luna said as she rushed in.

"Where were you?"

"I was keeping an eye on Jadeite, but he's gone."

"Damn, he used the youma as a distraction," Mars said.

"What about the victims?" Moon asked.

"They're still alive, but we should contact the coast guards and..."

"Already on it," Mercury noted.

"Good. We also need to find a way to get out without being noticed."

"Maybe we should go for a swim?" Rei joked.

"We could use one of the lifeboats," Mercury suggested.

"Why don't we just stay here?" Moon asked.

"They could blame us for this," Luna said, "I've heard a lot of rumors about us and youma, and not all humans know what side we're on."

Terry watched the news report and smiled. An anonymous call to the coast guards had led them to a cruise ship packed full of people, people who seemed out of stamina. The reporter said the cause of that condition was unknown, but Terry knew what it was. "Good to know the girls managed to stop that one. I'm really curious about what the youma will try next."

"Sir, your father sent you a package."

"Hmm? It's not my birthday yet, right Sam?"

The butler, Samuel, smiled at that. "No, not yet. This is, from what I was told, something to help you in your fight."

Terry looked at the package. His father wasn't around much, even back when he was still in the States, but he had helped him a lot. The swords he used were a gift he got when he started training. And he had a few other things that he hadn't used yet, a few surprises for the youma, all created by the company. "Okay, I guess I'll just open this and see what new toy I got."

The woman walked in and looked at the man behind the desk. "Sir, I was told you wanted to see me."

"Have you heard about the last attack?" the man said, not in the mood for formalities.

"Of course. It's obvious the Senshi were in that ship, but they left before the rescue teams got there."

"I think we need to get in touch with one of these Senshi. Tomoe's daughter is not in the country right now, so we'll have to look for one of the others."

"And how would we go about that, sir?" the woman asked, pretty sure she knew why he had called her.

"I'm leaving that to you, Lieutenant Rakurai."

"General, you want me to go and bring one of those Senshi here?"

"We have no clues on what their civilian identities are, so yes, you'll have to talk to them right after one of their battles."

"That sounds like a challenge. I'll do it."

"Good." He saw the woman turning to leave and sighed. "Be careful out there, Saiko."

"Don't worry, General Kino, I can take care of myself."

The man simply nodded as the woman walked out of the room. Of course he knew how good her combat skills were, but these monsters weren't like anything he had seen before.

Naru woke up with a start. It had been just a nightmare, but it was always the same nightmare lately. It didn't happen everyday, fortunately, but she couldn't really understand what it meant. Also, she remembered more of it each time.

She could, in the dream, see herself wearing a Senshi suit. She saw a castle in the distance, but the castle was aflame, and she knew she was defending it. Fighting youma, monsters like the one who had attacked her the first time she saw Sailor Moon. But something killed her, in the dream, and that was the point where she would always wake up.

Come to think about it, the dreams had started shortly after Sailor V was first seen in Tokyo. Could it be that she was... "No way, what am I thinking? I'm not one of them."

"As a matter of fact, you are."

Naru stared at the gray cat standing in front of her, in her bed. "You... You're like Sailor Moon's cat!"

"My name's Shade, and I'm here to tell you about your mission."

A/N: Just like in the previous version, Rei's "one-time telekinesis" is missing. I never understood why some characters in the show seemed to have some awesome skills for one single episode and then never use them again. That's a waste of a good trait that could be given to someone else, in my opinion.

Terry's "new toy", is an old toy if you've read Cyber Moon, but one that wasn't mentioned yet.

The lack of updates has many sources. Games, real life and, also, I'm editing Cyber Moon to get rid of all the bugs (grammar, missing lines, missing scenes.) I'm not going to upload any edited chapter until I'm done with all of them, though.

wildflower1014: That would need me to rush the plot along. If you go by the anime's episodes, we're up to only the twelveth episode, so there's a long way to go. And about Hotaru and Kage, who knows what could happen with them? I do, but I'm not spoiling the surprise(s).