Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 2: Dark Moon Rising.
Episode 42: Dark crystals.

By Razor Knight
Last update: April 25, 2013
Last edited: May 31, 2017

Karin had given the idea a lot of thought, and she couldn't really find a reason not to do it. She had known Chie for her whole life, so keeping a secret... No, two secrets from her felt wrong. "Hey, Chie, I have something to tell you..."

"Go ahead."

Karin knew the look Chie was giving her. It was her way of saying 'I know you're worried about something but won't ask until you're ready to tell me,' but she was ready now. "You're my best friend, and you know I care about you, but... I've been keeping some secrets from you. I feel bad for not telling you this before, but-"

"I promise I won't be mad," Chie said, "so just tell me."

Let's go for the easier one first, Karin thought. "Remember back when the Senshi first showed up, how I thought they were fake?"

"Yeah... See to believe, that's how you are, right?" Chie mused. But what did that have to do with whichever secret Karin was- No, it couldn't be that. Could it?

Karin sighed. "Well, truth is..." she was glad they were at Chie's house, since her parents were not around this early, and thus she could just show instead of telling. "Earth Twilight Power!"

Chie stared at her friend in shock after the transformation ended. "You... Are a Senshi."

"Only found out about it last week."

"My best friend's one of the Senshi. Wow..."

"I thought you would be mad at me for not telling you-"

"If it's anything like manga, then you're supposed to keep your identity a secret. Heck, there's some magical girl who keep it a secret from their boyfriends..."

Earth winced at that. "The other thing I've kept a secret from you is..."

Chie waited for a minute, then sighed. She could guess what the 'secret' was, if only because she had, also, kept the same secret from her friend. "I'm pretty sure I know what you're trying to tell me. And that's because I've also been keeping a secret from you."

"A secret..."

"And even if what you're trying to tell me isn't what I think, I-" she paused and stared at her friend, feeling her cheeks heating up. "I thought it could hurt our friendship, but I can't keep it hidden anymore. You're my best friend, I've known you since forever, but lately I realized that... I had fallen in love with you."

Earth stared at Chie. "You did?"

Chie nodded. "Weird, isn't it, I always chased after boys, but the one I like the most is a-"

"I wasn't sure about telling you my other secret, because I thought you would... Just like you said, I feared it would hurt our friendship. You know, Chie, I may be the strongest in looks, but you were always the bravest. I think we're already more than friends, but... I've fallen for you, too."

They stood there, staring at each other for what seemed like hours, but then Chie grinned slyly. "I must admit you look hot in that suit."

"Ami said they were purposefully built like this. They can be distracting in battle."

"Ami? You mean Mizuno is one of the Senshi?"

"And believe it or not, so is Usagi. And Terry. In fact, I think you know most of them. I was supposed to go to the base today, so, want to tag along?"

"You have a base? Is that where you keep your giant robots?"

Karin chuckled at that. "Yeah, we get that a lot."

Hotaru saw Karin walk in, along with someone else, and sighed. "We keep this up, and everyone in Tokyo will know about our base."

Usagi noticed Chie was leaning on Karin and smiled. "Heh, I knew it."

"Knew what?" Ami asked, then noticed the same Usagi did. "Oh."

Karin smiled. "I didn't just tell her I was a Senshi, I also told her something else."

"And she told you she felt the same way," Usagi guessed.

"How did you-" Chie started.

"That's a kind of superpower she has," Terry joked. "She can read people easily."

Hakko was looking at Chie. "Interesting. This one has a lot of potential."

"I'm no Senshi," Chie said. "Wait, are you one? You look too old to be one."

Hakko laughed. "I'm simply helping them improve their weaknesses. Mostly the fact most of them had zero training in close range combat before I started beating them up."

"We've improved a bit," Ami said.

Chie was looking around the room. "This base's huge. Must have cost a lot of money to build it."

"Define a lot of money?" Terry joked.

Rei and Minako were, right now, training in a rather strange way. Rei was using her bow to shoot arrows at Minako, and the blonde used her whip to deflect them.

"Minako's improved a lot in the last hour," Hotaru noted as Chie watched them. "I haven't healed her in about ten minutes now."

Chie turned to look at Terry. "Uhm..."

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure I should ask this, but..."

"It's weird to see the one who used to chase me around the city be so shy."

Chie sighed. "Yeah, sorry about that. What I wanted to ask is, did you ever catch the one-"

"Yeah, I did. With a bit of help from Ami and Mako."

Ami noticed Chie's confused stare. "The woman who killed his girlfriend was a youma. We... Eventually managed to defeat her."

"But that's in the past," Terry said, "I won't forget Hana, but I won't let what happened control me, either."

Chie blinked at that. "You know, at school you're always quite a..."

"Buffoon," Karin said. "He's different when he's taking things seriously, but don't let his apparent wisdom fool you, he can still be a pervert at times."

"You know, you showed up a bit late today, so as punishment, you'll fight me."

Karin smiled. "Let's do this."

"Here," Terry said and tossed a small, black cube at her.

Karin caught it and nodded. "That was fast, I guess." The cube vanished as a pair of metal claws appeared.

"Guess you're ready for claws combat."

Chie winced at Terry's pun. "That was lame."

"Actually, that was one of the best puns I heard him make," Hotaru admitted.

"You and Usagi don't look like warriors, no offense."

"None taken," Hotaru said, "I've been told I'm actually good at melee, but my endurance is low."

Chie turned to watch the fight she was interested in, and noticed Terry was now dodging Karin's claw swipes. "Isn't that dangerous?"

"I can heal them," Hotaru said, "and I don't think Karin's wild swipes will-" she stopped as Terry finally got tired of dodging, ducking under Karin's attack and delivering a rather strong punch to her stomach. Karin was sent crashing down to the ground. "- work against him."

"You just rush forwards and try to hit your target," Terry noted as he helped Karin up. "That might work against someone like the Ayakashi, but there may be enemies out there who know how to dodge."

"So, how do I improve?" Karin asked. she had to admit the guy did seem to know what he was talking about when it came to fighting.

Hakko had been watching them, and decided to answer that himself. "Consider your surroundings, try to measure your foe's weak and strong points, and adapt your battle plan to them."

Terry nodded. "You can win against most foes if you're one step ahead of them. I wasn't just dodging your attacks, I was analyzing their angle, the time it took for you to swipe again after you missed, and the speed of your attacks. I saw you left both your stomach and face unprotected, so I decided to go for one of them."

"Why not the face?" Karin asked. Not that she would have liked to be hit there instead.

"Even though it was a good choice, I'd rather not ruin a pretty girl's face, unless my life depends on it."

"Good thing I'm apparently pretty, then."

Terry was surprised by that. "Apparently?"

"She's always had a complex about her height," Chie noted, "she's too tall so people will find her scary, not cute, that's what she thinks."

"Well, she's not bad to the eye at all," Terry said.

Chie frowned as Terry stared at Karin. "Uh... Stop that."

"Don't worry, he'll look but not touch," Ami said.

Karin smiled at that. "Ami's got him on a leash."

"I wonder how she does it," Hotaru pondered, then stared at Kage.

"I should start running now, right?" Kage asked.

"That would be most wise, yes," Terry joked.

"Alert, enemies detected."

Ami looked at the screen. "The Ayakashi and Black Lady. They're attacking two more points... Crap."

"What's wrong?"

"Black Lady's above us. Literally. And the Ayakashi are at the shrine."

Crown, the school, the shrine, and their base. Terry stared at the screen and frowned. Perhaps there was a connection between all these targets, but what was it?

"The Ayakashi are a joke," Karin noted.

"They will be ready for you, they'll keep you out of melee range," Terry said. "At least, that's what I would do."

Usagi frowned. "About Black Lady... Guys, we need to get her back to normal."

"But we can't hurt her."

Usagi looked at Minako. "I won't let that Wiseman bastard use her for his plans. Just try not to hurt her much."

Rei sighed. "Wish I could help you with that, Usagi, but..."

"I understand, Rei. Don't let those women wreck your house."

Chie sighed as the Senshi left, some by getting into the elevator, others by teleporting away. "I wish I could help Karin, but..."

"Those monsters can't be beaten by normal humans. And the last thing they need is another target for the enemy."

She looked at Hakko. "I know all that. Still..."

"I said you had potential, but if you're not a Senshi, or even a magician, then you're better off staying away from their battles."

"I would like to be able to keep one of those monsters busy, at least, if they do come after me again."

"I could help you with that, but your girlfriend may not agree."

"I know, and I'll take the risk."

Hakko nodded as Chie grabbed a couple daggers. "Show me what you can do, then I'll know what you need to learn."

Black Lady was rather surprised to see the Senshi walk out of the very building she had targeted. "You kids again?"

"ChibiUsa, snap out of it already."

"I already told you I don't know who that is," Black Lady snapped. "Are you going to talk, or are you going to fight?"

"Twilight Beam!"

Black Lady summoned the Luna-P, and it turned into an umbrella, which she used to stop the attack. "I was told you were the strongest Senshi. If that's true, then I don't even need to fight you."

There was a noise of shattering crystal, and Jupiter walked right by Black Lady, holding her hammer. "And we don't need to fight you either, you don't seem to care about that crystal at all."

"Damn you!" Black Lady shouted and rushed at Jupiter, too fast for anyone to react. A knee to the stomach knocked all the air out of Jupiter's lungs, and the evil woman followed it with a hook which sent her flying up. She smiled as the Luna-P turned into a minigun, and aimed it at Jupiter.

"No!"

Black Lady stared down in shock as her gun was split in half. "How dare you-"

"Twilight Beam!"

The evil woman staggered up, glaring furiously at Moon. "You won't defeat me, I'm Wiseman's strongest soldier, and I won't let anyone-"

"Shut up!" Moon snapped, interrupting her foe's gloating. "You're none of that. You're a kind, small girl who wouldn't stand watching her friends get hurt. I know you can still remember that, ChibiUsa."

Black Lady was glaring at her, but suddenly her face changed. "U- Usagi?"

"ChibiUsa, fight against it."

"I... I can't. But I don't want to hurt any of you. Usagi, please..."

Wiseman appeared right behind Black Lady. "I'm sorry, Serenity, but I cannot lose this soldier yet."

"I suppose that was Wiseman," Earth noted as he and Black Lady vanished.

Moon punched the ground in frustration. "Damn it!"

"Wiseman's control isn't flawless," Dragon Earth said. "Usagi, don't worry, next time I'm sure you'll get her back."

Moon smiled sadly at him. "Yeah..."

Mercury was staring at the spot where Wiseman had been, and her Dragon noticed that. "Ami?"

"This has to be wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"Wiseman wasn't weak but Black Lady was much stronger than him."

"He's called 'Wiseman' but created a warrior stronger than him?"

"I don't care how strong she is in that form, I can't abandon her," Moon said.

"Right, we'll just need to defeat Wiseman."

Dragon Sun saw Mira appear close to them, and frowned. She looked quite beaten up. "Emi, what the heck-"

"The Ayakashi are much stronger than before, we need help."

Moon nodded. "Okay, let's go."

The Ayakashi's weak point was close range combat, but they had learnt from their mistake. This time around, they didn't let the Senshi get too close, and after only five minutes, most of their foes were out cold, or too tired to fight. One of the useless mages had apparently run away, but they weren't worried about that. "Sisters, I think it's time to stop playing with them."

Petz nodded. "You're right, Cooan, these weak kids can't defeat us with just magic."

Dragon Venus looked at Venus, who was trying to stand up despite having a line of blood running down her leg. "Weak... We're not weak!"

Dragon Sun noticed Saturn trying to heal herself, and was about to say something, when he noticed Dragon Venus' body was shining. "Heh, I guess he's tired of being run over by those witches... I'm sick of it too."

"Kage, let me heal-"

"No need to, just heal yourself so you can get the others back to fighting shape."

Saturn was about to protest, but saw that his body was also shining. "Right, kick those witches around for us."

Beruche laughed. "Even if you power up... A couple Senshi won't be enough."

"Venus Twilight Power!"

"Sun Twilight Power!"

Dragon Venus nodded at the other Dragon as their transformation finished, then glared at the four evil women. "There's a difference between us and the other Senshi. We're not just Senshi, we were Demon Hunters before."

"Huh? I don't know what you're babbling about, kid," Beruche snapped.

"Okay then, let me show you," Dragon Venus said as his sword lit up.

Dragon Sun grinned. "Oh, you know how to do that, too?"

"Yeah... Perhaps if we fuse them we can pull the bigger one."

Calisto had, along with Circe and Mira, tried to help the Senshi, but the three of them had been knocked around way too fast. Still, she was watching the battle, and cringed as she heard that. "Guys, I hope you're not talking about the Demon Sword."

Venus heard that and cringed. "Brad, don't do it, last time you-"

"Last time I was much weaker. Don't worry."

Saturn was confused. "What are you-"

"Why tell you, when you're about to see it for yourself..."

Karaberas saw both Dragons' swords light up with a red flame. "Eh, that can't be good."

"I doubt they'll be able to beat us," Beruche said. "Let's humor them."

Dragon Venus chuckled. "Bad choice. Demon Sword!"

"Demon Sword!"

As the two dragons run to the Ayakashi, the sisters started shooting attacks at them, but the two used their swords to deflect them. "Time's up, girls," Dragon Sun snapped.

And then they both brought their swords down, as the flames around them turned black. "Spell Fusion, Demon Sword, Chaos Edge!"

Petz wasn't sure what had happened, but looking around the area, she realized the explosion was rather large. Her sisters were all out cold, and she felt like taking a nap, too. "Damn it... How can these brats be... That strong..."

As the women vanished, Venus picked herself up from the ground and limped to where Dragon Venus was. The guy was kneeling on the ground, visibly exhausted. "Damn it, Brad, good thing we chased them away from Rei's shrine."

"Sorry," the Dragon said. "I had only seen this attack once, didn't remember the blast range."

Saturn was checking on Dragon Sun, who was apparently out cold. "Damn it..." She put a hand on his chest, and it lit up for a second, but then the light vanished. "No..."

Right then, Moon's group appeared near them. They immediately noticed the wrecked buildings, and their friends didn't look a lot better than the buildings around them. "What the heck happened here?"

"A bit of that's the Ayakashi's fault," Mars explained, "but the two Dragons pulled something amazing to defeat them."

Saturn was still trying to heal Dragon Sun, and cried out in frustration. "Running out of energy, at a time like this..."

Circe staggered up. "We can't heal him, eiter, but maybe we can-"

Dragon Venus stood up. "A mana link. I'll do it."

"Trying that after the Demon Sword-" Circe warned.

"I know, but it's my fault, I thought about it first."

Venus flinched. "Brad, no, you're exhausted, you-."

"We'll do it," Mira said, "the three of us can handle it."

"I'm not-"

"We're not asking for your permission," Calisto noted.

"You have nothing to prove, Sigma, you already beat down four foes much stronger than you."

Dragon Venus smiled. "Been a while since someone called me that... Okay, go for it."

Saturn frowned. "Whatever you're going to do, do it fast. He won't last much longer."

Mira closed her eyes, along with Circe and Calisto. "Mana Link."

Mercury looked around as the area around them started shining. "This is... They're draining mana from all around them, even us," she realized she didn't need to say this, as even Moon was aware of the energy being drained.

Mira put a hand on Saturn's shoulder and smiled. "Try again."

Saturn nodded and her hand lit up. "Amazing."

Dragon Sun's eyes opened, and he smiled at Saturn. "You always end up healing me... Sorry."

"Don't say sorry, I'm impressed. You two really gave those girls a beating."

Mira sighed. "Sorry for leaving the battle, but I... Thought I could bring help."

"Leaving to bring reinforcements? That's nothing to be ashamed of, Emi," Dragon Sun said. "Even if reinforcements weren't needed."

"Weren't needed?" Venus sighed. "If you had just waited for five minutes, you wouldn't have wrecked Rei's area, and yourselves."

"Let them be, boys need to show off," Jupiter said.

Moon sighed. "It's good that everyone's okay... Still..."

Venus looked at Moon. "No luck getting her back?"

"Wiseman showed up before we could bring her back."

"Crap, did he fight you?"

"No. He was weaker than Black Lady. Perhaps weaker than the Ayakashi fighting together," Mercury explained.

"... How can he create something stronger than him?"

Mira shrugged. "Our healing isn't as strong as Saturn's, by far, and yet you saw how we just helped her."

Dragon Venus yawned. "Okay guys, I'm tired, so I'm going home." He looked at Venus. "Want a ride?"

"Sure!"

As the two vanished, Earth looked around. "This battle was a mess. And we didn't even get to use our new weapons."

"Don't bring a sword to an energy beam fight," Dragon Earth said.

Dragon Sun smiled at that. "You sure? I did, and I won."

"That doesn't count, you tag-teamed them," Saturn pointed.

Moon rose an eyebrow. "Wonder if we could..."

"What?"

"No, nothing," Moon said. She wasn't sure about telling the others, but the idea was still floating around her mind. Perhaps Senshi could combine their attacks like the Demon Hunters did? No, it was a silly idea... Or was it?

A/N: That first scene was the one which took the most to write for this chapter. I just know I suck at romance. At least I suck a lot less than I did when I started writing.

As for the two Dragons, I know they don't use the skills from their 'other job' a lot, but that doesn't mean they can't pull stunts like the ones they pulled in this chapter.

Moon's hinting at combined Senshi attacks means absolutely nothing, I swear. /Blatant lies.