Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 2: Dark Moon Rising.
Episode 38: Out of time.

By Razor Knight
Last update: April 16, 2013
Last edited: May 30, 2017

"You gotta be kidding me."

Circe nodded. "That thing again..."

Warwitch came running to them. "Hey, what's that?"

"The Omega."

Warwitch cringed. "You mean, the cyborg that copies the Senshi's powers?"

Mira smirked. "As expected of the Senshi's number one fan."

"What is it waiting for, though?"

"The Senshi, most likely," Calisto noted.

"Too bad, they're gone for a trip to futureland," Warwitch noted.

"They what?" Circe shouted.

Luna sighed. "Girls, there's no time to explain right now, you have to defeat this creature."

"But it's just standing there, doing nothing."

"If its creator realizes the Senshi aren't coming, it just might order it to start burning things down in order to call them out," Artemis said.

Shade came rushing to them. "Okay, that was pointless."

"Where are the twins?"

Shade shook her head. "They said they need time to recover their mana."

"I see, it's just us four against a dumb robot," Circe said. "Sounds like fun."

"I want to see how strong that thing's defense is," Warwitch noted. "So here goes nothing. Monsoon!"

A strong gust of wind hit the creature, knocking it back several meters. It stared at the four, as if it only noticed them after the attack. "You are not Senshi. Leave or I will kill you all."

"I don't think you'll be able to, robbie," Mira snapped. "Neptune's Wake."

A column of water rose from underneath the creature, knocking it up in the air. However, it stopped its flight as small jets of flames came out of its feet. "Commencing elimination of secondary targets."

"Hey, that thing thinks he's Ironman," Calisto joked, then saw something appear in the robot's arms. Tonfa? "Those are just like Mercury's-"

"Ice Geiser."

Mira cringed as Calisto was sent flying up by the attack. "It has their Twilight level attacks as well?"

Circe caught Calisto before she hit the ground, and saw she wasn't in a good shape. "Girls, take care of that thing for me. Heal Wave."

Warwitch frowned. "Twilight level attacks are too strong for us."

Mira frowned. "I'm not giving up, and neither should you. What would Usagi think?"

Warwitch smiled. "I was just stating the facts. So, what's the plan?"

"The plan is... Screw planning." Mira reached her hand out, and a blade appeared, but it was made entirely of fire. She charged at the cyborg, which had just landed, and smiled coldly at it. "No tin can will hurt my friends and live to tell the tale. Demon Sword!"

Warwitch stood up after the explosion. Fortunately, civilians had left the surrounding buildings, because the blast had wrecked at least one of them. Mira was out cold near the place where she had called upon her magic, and the creature was- "No way, still alive?"

"Damage levels critical. Returning to base for repairs."

Warwitch glared at the creature. "Oh no, you won't. Fire Storm!"

Circe was almost done healing Calisto, but she almost forgot what she was doing as Warwitch attacked. At first only a small flame appeared right underneath the cyborg, but the flame grew until it blurred it completely. As the large flame shrunk, Circe saw there were only a few small, charred bits of armor left of the creature. "Wow..."

"She's got quite a lot of power."

Circe looked down at Calisto, and saw she was awake. "Maria..."

Mira woke up and saw Warwitch standing close to her. She then noticed the small crater close to her, and, as she looked to the side, she smiled. "Good, she's okay."

Warwitch followed Mira's line of sight, and saw Circe and Calisto were locked in a kiss. "Heh. I'm kind of jealous."

Circe noticed them and broke the kiss. "I was just trying to revive her," she joked.

Mira shook her head at that, then looked back at the place where the cyborg had been. "Uh, did I do that?"

"You did a lot of the damage, but Warwitch here... She used a fire attack which was just as strong as the Demon Sword."

Mira's eyes widened, and she smiled at Warwitch. "Impressive. You would be a good Demon Hunter, Hokuge."

"I'll stay a free agent for the time being," Warwitch said, "and call me Yuki, all my friends do."

"That was most entertaining."

Circe looked at the man standing on top of a car's roof. "You could have helped."

"I could," Hakko said, "but I wanted to see what Aries' daughter and her friends could do. And I must admit the fangirl isn't bad."

"Hey, who are you calling a fangirl?" Warwitch snapped.

"Do not pick a fight with someone you cannot defeat," Hakko warned.

"Likewise. Fire blast."

Hakko looked at the fire attack dismissively, then sidestepped, swinging his arms around and sending the fire ball back to Warwitch, who was too surprised to dodge. The man, however didn't mock her or taunt her. "Your magic is impressive, but you shouldn't underestimate your enemy."

"Hey, come back here, old man!" Warwitch shouted as the man started walking away.

"Sorry, I don't like fighting against those I know I will easily defeat. You could come and train with the Senshi, perhaps that way you will someday be an actual warrior."

"What a jerk," Warwitch muttered as the man left.

Mira shook her head. "I know Hakko. He wouldn't waste a second telling you all that unless he saw potential in you."

"Potential?"

"He's a bit random at times, so you'll have to go ask him about it."

"Yeah, I'll do that next time I see him."

"Are we there yet?"

Mercury sighed. "You asked that ten minutes ago, Usagi. Besides, you should probably ask if we're 'then' yet."

Moon looked at her surroundings. The 'time tunnel' as Saturn had called it was an actual tunnel, but its walls changed color constantly. "Well, sorry for asking, but this place's making me feel dizzy."

"You get used to it after a millenia," Pluto mused. "In any case, here we are."

Dragon Mercury looked at the large, stone doors they were walking to. "A time gate? I thought it would be a portal."

"What we're in is an area outside of time, but to get to where you're going, you need to go through this door and pick the right path through the threads of time."

"Abandon all hope those who walk through this door," Dragon Mercury said, causing a few of her friends to stare at him in confusion. Mercury and Dragon Venus, however, both chuckled at the reference.

Pluto wasn't quite amused. "Trust me, that phrase could be applied to this, if you went through without knowing your way around the area beyond."

"You almost sound like you're not coming with us," Saturn noted.

"I'm not, I must guard the gates, make sure no Dark Moon soldier can get through while you're not in your era. But you already have a very good guide with you. She knows where to go."

Moon stared at Pluto for a minute, then looked at ChibiUsa. "You don't mean..."

"Yes, she knows the way. If you follow her, you will be there before you know it."

The door opened, and everyone could see the tunnel continued seemingly for miles beyond it. "Okay, here goes nothing," Moon said.

ChibiUsa walked past her. "Follow me."

"A final warning," Pluto said as the gate started to close, "don't lag behind, and don't think about exploring on your own. If you don't know your way out of there, you could be lost in there for a very long time."

"Good to know," Mars said as the door closed. She then saw ChibiUsa was looking at a section of the wall. "Hey, why did you stop?"

"Because we have to go through here," ChibiUsa said, and walked right into the wall.

Moon blinked in shock. "Hey, what-"

ChibiUsa's head popped out of the wall and she stared at the others. "Puu told you to follow me, didn't she?"

Moon tried to touch the wall, and saw her arm go through it. "Strange."

Saturn nodded. "I had never been in this side of the gate before, but Pluto warned me about it. The path is actually a maze, leading to many different eras, but it's too easy to get lost in here."

As they walked through the 'wall' they saw they were, somehow, in a corridor of their school. "Wait, what the heck?"

ChibiUsa smiled at Jupiter's reaction. "Pluto said there's places from all over the timelines in this maze. Makes it harder to know where to go."

Mercury nodded as they started walking. "I know what you mean... It's just the same piece of corridor repeating itself for miles."

"And the doors are fake," Dragon venus added after trying to open one.

Dragon Earth looked at ChibiUsa. "If you're our daughter, and we've lived for a thousand years, then... How old are you, really?"

"I'm six. I was born on june thirty of the year two thousands, nine hundred and seventy eight."

"Exactly one thousand years after Usagi's birthday," Mercury commented. "Strange."

"So, are we far from our goal?"

ChibiUsa smiled. "No, just a few more miles," she said, then walked through a door, without bothering to open it, and vanished.

Again, the Senshi followed her, and saw they were now in the Hikawa Shrine, but the temple to their right seemed to extend for miles to both sides. "This is weird," Mars commented.

"And I can't get a reading on our surroundings," Mercury said, "If I were to trust my visor, I would say what we're seeing simply doesn't exist."

"Maybe because your visor wasn't built to sense whatever the area around us is made of," Dragon Mercury guessed.

Yukiko had decided to walk home, but she noticed a woman was following her after just a few minutes of walking, and tried to lose her by heading for a crowded area. The woman wasn't easy to fool, however, so Yukiko found a deserted street and waited.

The woman wasn't too surprised to see her 'prey' waiting for her. "I guessed you knew you were being followed, Hokuge."

"Who exactly are you?"

"Name's Saiko Rakurai, I work for general Kino-"

"Oh, I see. And why would you be following a completely normal and harmless civilian?" Yukiko asked.

"Good one, Hokuge. Or may I call you Warwitch?"

"Guilty as charged," Yukiko said.

"As for why I was following you, I was close to your battle, and managed to catch most of it from a safe distance. My boss wants to know exactly what you are, since you're obviously not a Senshi."

"Wish I knew," Yukiko said. "I'm not one of those Demon Hunters, nor a youma, just a human girl who can use magic and wants to use it to protect the innocent."

"I suppose if I could shoot elementals around, I would use them for the same thing," Saiko admitted.

"If that's all you wanted to know..."

"As a matter of fact, yes. Kino just doesn't like unknowns roaming around the city."

"I can understand that. Anyhow, I was heading home, so I guess I'll see you around. Phase."

Rakurai blinked as Warwitch vanished. "She can teleport, Tomoe's guess was right."

Mercury was quite impressed by the scenery. They had gone through a street of Tokyo, then their base (but just like with the fake shrine, it appeared to be infinitely large,) and they were, right now, walking on the Moon, with the full Earth up in the sky.

"A small step for a Senshi..." Dragon Sun commented.

"Amazing, we bear witness to the first clown on the Moon," Saturn said in her usual monotone.

"So deadly honest, that's why I like you."

Moon was walking ahead of the others, right besides ChibiUsa. "Did you know who we were from the start?"

The small girl shook her head. "I knew you were Sailor Moon, and I knew who the rest of the Senshi were, but I didn't know you were my mom's past self at first."

"Any older siblings?" Dragon Mercury asked.

"No."

Venus frowned. "Wait, you mean Usagi and Mamoru waited for a thousand years to have a child? Why would they?"

"Maybe because they knew their first child was born a thousand years after our era," Mercury guessed.

Dragon Mercury chuckled. "Nice time loop."

"What do you mean?" Moon asked.

"I used to read sci-fi in my free time, when I was a kid," the Dragon explained, "and things like time loops were rather common in those stories. A sort of circle's created in the timelines, making it impossible to know where, or when, it begins. In fact it may seem like it never quite begun."

"The egg and the chicken," Dragon Venus mused.

"I think I get it," Moon said, "but I'd rather not think about it, it's giving me a headache."

"Yeah, that's the usual result," Dragon Mercury joked.

Mercury suddenly looked forwards. "My visor's sensing something ahead. It's heading this way."

Said 'something' only took a few seconds to reach them, and they saw it was Esmeraude. "It's not easy to find you, pests. Good thing Pluto's back to hiding."

"Not easy to find us? Even a small girl would know her way around this place."

Esmeraude glared at Dragon Mercury. "It doesn't matter, because I'm going to kill you all!" The woman shot a wide energy wave with her fan, but then spun around, shooting a second one, then a third. By the fourth wave, only Moon and Dragon Earth were left standing.

"And that's why I hate fan girls," Dragon Mercury said.

Moon looked down at ChibiUsa. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, but... You-"

"I'm fine, I won't let her hurt you."

"Moon, wait!"

"ChibiUsa, I'll protect you. I wouldn't forgive myself if I didn't."

Esmeraude laughed at her. "You can't protect anyone, brat."

"Twilight... Beam!"

Esmeraude used her fan to deflect the blast. "Pitiful, is this the stongest Senshi? Hard to believe you're Serenity's past self."

"Enough!"

Moon looked at Dragon Earth, and saw his sword was shining. Did that mean he was going to...

"Earth Twilight Power!"

Esmeraude shrugged as the Dragon was surrounded by a rocky wall. "Big deal, one Twilight Senshi, or a thousand of them, I'll still-"

"Stop bluffing," Mercury snapped. "Your energy isn't infinite, you used a lot of it to deflect Moon's attack."

"Then I'll just have to kill the Rabbit before he's done."

This time, Esmeraude's attack was a focused blast, and it shot straight to Moon, who was still protecting ChibiUsa. However, someone else took the hit, and Moon gasped as she saw Saturn kneeling on the ground.

"Hotaru, why-"

"I heal faster than any of you," Saturn said, "and I didn't have enough energy left to attack her, so... I won't let her hurt either of you."

Dragon Earth was, by now, done upgrading. His suit looked mostly the same as before, but it now had shoulder and knee pads. "Begone, freak. Earth..." He reached his sword up, and then sliced the air with it in one swift motion. "Stone..." Several small stones appeared floating where the sword had 'cut' the air, and they swiftly broke apart, forming a swarm of tiny, sharp-looking rock shards. "... Stab!" As he completed his attack, the shards all flew at Esmeraude, who managed to block a few with her fan, but was sent staggering back.

The evil woman, however, saw the Dragon kneel down, and laughed. "Useless, you kids cannot win this without Pluto. Now stand still while I-"

"Leave them alone!"

Mercury's mind raced to make sense of what she had just seen. ChibiUsa had run forwards, leaping at Esmeraude head-first, and knocked her right into a wall. The small girl leapt back before the woman could recover, and glared at her. True, a small girl shouldn't be that strong, but Mercury could see ChibiUsa had, for a moment, become just as strong as a first level Senshi, or even higher than that. "Amazing..."

Esmeraude staggered up. "You damn brat, I should have killed you while-"

Moon had heard enough of that woman by now. "You'll kill none of my friends. Moon Double Flight!"

Dragon Sun's eyes widened as Esmeraude was sent flying back by the twin discs, and vanished while in mid-flight. "Did she kill her?"

Mercury shook her head. "No, but she put all of her remaining mana into those discs. That made them stronger than her Twilight level attack. I suppose Esmeraude realized she should not stay and see if Moon could do it again."

"What I don't understand is, how did Chibi knock Esmeraude away?"

"She has a bit of latent, raw magic power," Mercury noted, "something I couldn't explain before, but now I know it's because she could, someday, become a Senshi. As for how she did that... I'm not sure, but her power increased greatly."

Dragon Mercury smiled. "She may be small, but she's got the potential to be a great warrior, just like her mother."

ChibiUsa walked up to a wall and smiled. "Okay, we're almost there. One more place to visit, and we'll be in Crystal Tokyo."

"Why 'Crystal'?" Venus asked.

"Why tell you, when you'll see it for yourself in a few minutes?" ChibiUsa said.

A/N: Yeah, I had the sidekicks win a fight on their own. Always a first time for everything.

As in Cyber Moon, the 'time tunnel' was based on the maze-like one from the old Sailor Moon: Another Story RPG.