Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 2: Dark Moon Rising.
Episode 41: Black Lady.

By Razor Knight
Last update: April 23, 2013
Last edited: May 30, 2017

Luna was walking with no destination in mind, as she was lost in thought. Usagi had told her what she had gone through, and it had surprised her. True, the old Senshi from Silver Millenium had lived for long, but only the Senshi of legend had lived for as long (or longer) than what Usagi would apparently live.

Was it, perhaps, that Usagi was one of them? Months ago, if asked the same question, Luna would have laughed it off, but she had seen enough of Usagi to know she had the potential to be stronger than her past self's mother. Stronger than any Senshi Luna had seen. Possibly stronger than the First Serenity, or even Galaxia.

Usagi would never cease to amaze her, Luna thought. And as she walked by a familiar building, she once again realized how true that phrase was. "Usagi, what are you doing here?"

The girl smiled at her, then looked at the building she had been staring at. Her school. "Strange for me to be here, when I usually hate the place, right?"

"Uh, not what I meant."

"I'm searching for those Dark Moon freaks."

"Wouldn't it be easier to scan the city-"

"Ami's already doing that, but I can't just sit around while she is..."

Luna nodded as the blonde fell silent. "When I first met you, I didn't think highly of you, Usagi, but you're always eager to protect those you care about. It's natural that you would want to protect your daughter as well."

"And yet I couldn't protect her when it counted."

"She's alive, you'll get her back."

"I want to believe that, but-"

Luna flinched and turned to stare at the building. "I don't know how you did it, Usagi, but they're here."

"Good. Whoever it is, I'll beat them around until they tell me where she is."

"Usagi, wait for the ohers."

"I can handle this, Luna. I knocked their boss out, and I killed two of them."

Luna leapt on Usagi's shoulder and stared at her. "I know you're worried, but you're also being overconfident. Please, you could hurt yourself, or worse."

"I'll be fine," Usagi said dismissively.

"Are you stupid?" Luna asked, losing her temper for a second. "Listen, you know any of us can die. You were there when Emi died. You saw Mamoru die. Did neither of those events affect you?"

Usagi glared at the cat for a second, but then shook her head. She could hear Naru's words again, and Naru had been right back then. "Damn it... Sorry, Luna, I know you're right. I was trying to solve this alone, to stop anyone else from being hurt, but... I'm not that strong."

"Admitting that you need help isn't weakness," Luna noted.

Usagi smiled at that, then summoned her communicator. Mercury's face appeared in it. "Ami?"

"Usagi, I'm sure you know it by now, but there's an unknown enemy at the school. I'm sending most of the team there-"

"Most of them?"

"This is worse than we thought," Mercury said, "the four Ayakashi are at Crown right now, and their combined power is slightly above that of Esmeraude. But... The one close to you, that creature's power is even higher."

"Maybe it's Dimando," Usagi said. "Ami, send half the team to each place."

"But-"

"Just make sure you guys beat the Ayakashi, so you can come help us if we need it."

"... Are you okay?"

"Not really," Usagi admitted, "but we'll get her back, together. Right?"

Mercury smiled. "Right. Help will be there in a minute. Literally."

Usagi used that minute to get ready. By the time the others arrived, she was already in her Senshi form, and had summoned both her board and weapons. "Guess they won't let us rest."

Jupiter nodded. "Let's just punch whoever it is around until they-"

Mira looked around. "What's that... There's some sort of energy spreading around us."

Luna had felt the energy. "Whatever it is, it's evil."

"You guys hear that?" Warwitch asked.

The Senshi looked to the side, and could see people arguing, throwing things at each other, and smashing cars and anything else they found lying around. "What's up with them?" Moon asked. True, they needed to take care of the enemy, but civilians were behaving quite strangely.

Mira closed her eyes for a second and flinched. "Damn... It's the energy we sensed. It's causing people's dark emotions to become stronger. Hatred, rage, envy-"

Warwitch frowned. "Why aren't we affected?"

"Maybe it can't affect magicians, or maybe it takes time to. We shouldn't risk it, let's take care of our enemy, they must surely be behind this."

Moon nodded. "Let's go."

The rest of the Senshi and their allies were near Crown, and were seeing a similar scene. "Crap, this is just bad. There's people in there, what if they attack us?"

Earth shrugged at Mars. "We defend ourselves."

"But we could kill them accidentally," Saturn noted. "There must be a way to drag those women out without-"

Calisto smiled. "We don't need to, we just need to make sure civilians won't disturb us." She looked at Circe. "I guess it's time to run out of power before the fight even starts, again."

Circe sighed. "Right. Morpheus' Cloud."

Mercury was scanning the building, and was quite surprised at what she sensed as a thick fog started coming out of it. "She just put all civilians inside to sleep."

"And now," Calisto said, "Wisp Blink."

"Spell fusion, Wisp Portal."

Mercury looked at the other Senshi. "... And they teleported all civilians elsewhere."

"They're safe," Calisto said, "we left them right outside the closest hospital."

"You girls learn fast," Dragon Sun admitted, then saw them kneeling on the ground. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Circe said, "just out of juice."

"You helped a lot," Mercury noted, "so we'll take care of the rest."

The four Ayakashi came walking out of Crown and glared at the group. "You brats again?"

"I was about to ask the same thing to you," Saturn admitted.

"We're much stronger than last time, and we'll make you pay for Rubeus and Esmeraude's deaths!"

"We gave both of them a chance to leave, but they didn't take it."

Beruche glared at Mercury. "You think you can use ice magic, Mercury, but let me show you how it's done. Dark Winter!"

A barrage of snow and ice shot from all directions, hitting the Senshi. "Damn it, they keep upgrading," Mars muttered.

"And if you thought that's bad, wait until you feel the heat," Cooan said. "Dark Inferno!"

This time, a thick column of fire rose from the ground, catching most of the Senshi within. The two Dragons were knocked out, and Saturn, Earth and Mercury were cringing in pain as the attack passed. "We have to attack before-"

"Dark Voltage."

"Dark Horror."

A wave of electricity came next, along with many blasts of darkness from Petz' whip. When it all passed, only Earth and Mercury were standing. "I won't lose, I promised Usagi I would help her," Mercury said. "Snow Spr-" She staggered back and flinched. "No..."

Earth frowned. These women were strong, yes, but if she could get close... No, with her power, one more blast would knock her out. She looked at Mercury, struggling to stand up, and sighed. "I haven't helped as much as I should since I became a Senshi, but I can correct that."

Beruche laughed. "You? What can a weakling like you do? That pathetic dust attack of yours won't help."

"I know. But what about... Earth Twilight Power!"

"Big deal!" Cooan snapped. "Dark Flare!"

Earth started running as soon as her transformation ended. She leapt to the side to dodged Cooan's blast, and then pounced on her, delivering several blows to her chest before sending her flying back with a kick. She then noticed the other three were about to attack, and smiled.

"Dark Ice!"

"Dark Lightning!"

Again, she dodged, noticing the two were standing close to each other. She rushed in before they could try anything else, her arms stretched out to the sides, and grabbed them both by the neck, tossing them at Petz. The end result were three very confused Ayakashi, but Earth wasn't done yet. "Earth..." She rose her leg, energy gathering around it. "Stone..." as she brought her leg down, it seemingly turned into stone. "... Shatter!"

The kick was meant for Petz, but it was strong enough to create a small crater, and the shockwave knocked the other two Ayakashi away. Petz tried to stand up but could only cough blood. "Damn you... We're stronger than you, how-"

"Your magic attacks are strong, but you have no skill when it comes to close combat," Earth noted. "Now leave before-"

"No, we must protect the dark crystal..."

Mercury had done much more than just staring at Earth's fight. She had scanned the building, and found a small, black crystal inside. After scanning it, she knew exactly what it was, and how it worked. Still, she heard Petz's words as she walked out of Crown, and walked to her with a smile. "You mean this thing?" She crushed the crystal with her hand, her smile turning into a glare. "Last chance to leave."

"... We'll kill you all for this," Petz said before the four Ayakashi vanished.

Earth looked at Mercury. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. By the way, that was quite impressive."

"Just as I told them, it's just because they have no melee skills at all."

Mercury looked around. Circe and Calisto were still recovering, and the others were starting to wake up. "We need to go help Usagi, if we had this much trouble with the Ayakashi..."

Earth suddenly reached her hand out, her communicator appearing in it. As it lit up, Moon's face could be seen. "Hey, you guys okay?"

"We've managed to drive the enemy away," Moon said, "but now I really want to find their bosses."

"Why? Who was that enemy?"

Moon sighed. "Come to the base."

Minutes earlier, the other group had found their enemy. Unlike the Ayakashi, this enemy didn't wait for the Senshi to come looking for it, or rather, her.

Moon looked at the woman. Her hair was pink, and her hairdo was just like... "No, it can't be..."

Venus saw Moon's shocked face and frowned. "What's wrong, Usagi?"

Dragon Earth was also staring at the woman in shock. "Those bastards, they are really heartless."

Venus was, admittedly, not as smart as Ami, but she could still figure out who this was. It seemed impossible, but she had seen her share of impossibles happen. "You mean that woman is... ChibiUsa?"

"ChibiUsa, what did they do to you?"

The woman stared blankly at Moon. "Who is ChibiUsa? I am Black Lady, Wiseman's strongest soldier."

"Come on, kid, get out of the way," Dragon Venus said. "We don't want to hurt you."

"Fortunately, I don't have such handicap," Black Lady said, shooting a wave of dark energy at them. The Senshi dodged, but she still smiled. "That was just a test."

"Damn it, I don't want to fight her, but..."

Mira nodded. "We may have to fight her to stop the dark energy."

Warwitch looked around. "Hmm... Interesting. Guys, keep her busy for a minute. Phase."

"What's she up to?"

Black Lady laughed. "It doesn't matter. You will never defeat me, Senshi."

"We can try," Jupiter said and rushed forwards. "Electric Tackle!"

Her foe didn't move, taking the hit and the electricity, and used Jupiter's own momentum to send her flying through a wall. "Fool, you should think with your brain, not your fist."

"Mako!" Moon glared at Black Lady. "I don't want to fight you, but... I can't watch you hurt my friends, either." She tossed both her weapons at the woman, who caught them, but that had been Moon's plan. "Twilight Beam!"

Dragon Earth saw Black Lady take the hit, only staggering back slightly. "She's strong."

Black Lady was about to return the favor, but then looked back and cursed. "The dark crystal... Damn you, Senshi!"

Moon got ready for whatever Black Lady would do next, but then gasped as she simply vanished. "Huh? why did she leave?"

Warwitch appeared right next to her. "Because I broke her little toy." She showed the others several crystal shards. "I have no idea what this was, but breaking it stopped the flow of dark energy. We should ask Mercury about it."

Moon nodded and summoned her communicator. She had to tell the others about the crystal, and about Black Lady.

"Brother, did you want to see me?"

Saffir nodded. "It's about Wiseman."

"I'm listening."

"Brother, I've had a bad feeling about this war, lately. Wiseman's plans... Are you sure he's loyal to us?"

"He's helped us rise to power, he let us unify Nemesis, and he says he's doing it all for the glory of Nemesis. I've never been given a reason to doubt his words."

Saffir knew the look Dimando was giving him. It meant his brother wasn't completely sure of his own words. "Still... That Black Lady woman, she's dangerous. Haven't you sensed her power?"

Dimando nodded. "I have. She's stronger than Wiseman himself. Stronger than me. And her loyalty lies with him. She may be the key to understanding Wiseman's true intentions."

"I hope it's not too late," Saffir said, "If Wiseman has been using us all along..."

"I will make him regret it. For us, for Esmeraude and for Rubeus."

Hotaru looked at Usagi. Much despite herself, she had grown to like the other Senshi, and Usagi felt, to her, like a close friend. To see her like this was... It made it hard to keep her usual neutral face. "So they're using that girl to fight their battles now? Cowards."

Ami nodded. "I agree. We need to find a way to turn her back to normal, however, if the Wiseman did it, we may have to defeat him to bring her back."

"And he must be stronger than her."

"That's not the main issue," Ami said, looking at Rei, "he will surely use her as a shield."

"I don't want to hurt her, but..." Usagi sighed. "Damn it, I don't know what to do. I don't want her to harm any of you, guys, but she's..."

"We know," Terry said. "We could really use Pluto's help right now."

Hotaru nodded. "Yes, but she's a guardian, not a warrior. She will only fight when she must."

"Then I'm sorry, Hotaru, but I don't think we need her at all."

Hotaru looked at Minako. "She keeps invaders from other times and places at bay. Think of her like the Demon Hunters. Do you think we would be here if they hadn't kept the Earth in one piece since the days of Silver Millenium?"

"Uhm, guess you're right," Minako said. "Wait, you said 'other places?'"

"Threats from other dimensions," Hotaru noted, "and I'm already saying too much."

Ami looked at the screen, where an image of one of the crystals was shown. "About those artifacts, they seem to work as a battery and a generator."

"I hope that doesn't mean what I think it means," Terry noted.

"I guess it does," Ami admitted, "they generate a small quantity of dark mana, which corrupts the feelings of any living being around it, turning them hostile. It then feeds on these feelings, generating a larger wave of dark mana, which in turn corrupts more beings..."

"A domino effect," Mamoru said. "So if those crystals were left unchecked, what would happen?"

"A single crystal would be able to corrupt the whole city, eventually."

"So why did they have two of them?"

"They could be trying to keep one intact, knowing we would split to fight them... Or there could be something else."

"Here's the plan," Rei said, "next time the Ayakashi show up, we beat them until they tell us what their plan is."

"Sounds fun," Karin admitted. "They're hopeless when it comes to melee combat, so we should just run them over."

"And speaking of combat," Terry said, several small, black cubes appearing in his hands. "Here. Got some more of these done. These are for Rei, Mako, Minako and Naru."

"Hey, what about me?"

He looked at Karin. "Sorry, the rest will be finished soon."

Rei had seen Usagi's weapons, like the others, so she knew what these were. "So I just think about what shape I want and-" she stopped as the cube turned into a red bow. "Nice."

Mako was holding a metal maul. "This is going to be fun."

Terry was, however, looking at Minako. "... A whip?"

"I like whips," Minako said, then rapidly added. "As weapons."

Naru's weapon of choice was a black spear, Terry noticed. "These weapons are for those who have no weapon, so obviously, me, Mamoru, Hotaru, Brad..."

"Usagi technically has two weapons," Hotaru mused, "so why can't we?"

"You know, I didn't think you had a sense of humor, back when I first met you," Terry admitted.

"And I didn't think you had a brain. Guess we could call it even."

Terry laughed at that, then walked to the center of the room. "Okay, I know Rei can use a bow, but I'm not sure the rest of you should just go out without some basic knowledge of your weapons and how to use them."

"Is that a challenge?" Mako asked.

"Hakko told me he would be back to train us tomorrow, so I'll make sure you know which end of that thing you should hit your foes with by the time he gets here."

Mako swung her maul at him without warning, but Terry managed to roll under her, hitting her back with his elbow as he rose, and sending her crashing to the ground. "Damn, you're fast," Mako muttered.

"So... red, huh?"

Usagi saw Mako was blushing, and frowned. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"I'll start wearing pants for training," Karin commented.

"You pervert, I'm going to have to punish you for that!" Minako said striking a pose.

"... So I'm the pervert, and yet you're the one talking about punishment while holding a whip."

Ami stared at him as Minako blushed. "That's enough teasing."

"Uh, okay," Terry said with a sheepish smile. "Anyhow, Mako, round two?"

"Sure," she said, then looked at Hotaru. "Hey, can you fix broken bones?"

"It takes quite a bit of energy, but yeah," Hotaru said. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason at all, just wanted to be sure of how much I can damage him if he pulls the same trick again."

Terry sighed. "Fine, I know when I'm beaten, and I don't want a pretty girl to be mad at me."

Mako blushed slightly. "Just shut up and fight."

A/N: Finally, my favorite Sailor Moon villain shows up. The Senshi are doomed, mwhahaha- Oh right, they're the good guys. Crap.

Earth's attack will, in this version, be a lot less flowery, and a lot more smash your face in with rocks-y.