Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 3: War games.
Episode 47: Starting over.

By Razor Knight
Last update: May 1, 2013
Last edited: May 31, 2017

The Senshi had decided to stay inside the base after the last battle, and most of them were sure Nova would be back. And indeed, Nova appeared in the center of the room, but they couldn't tell what her intentions were. Was she there to fight? No, she was just staring at Terry, and at Ami, who was sitting close to him.

"I was hoping you would come back."

Nova smiled at him, and then her armor and mask were gone, leaving her in her civilan clothes. "I know it won't be enough, but I want to say I'm sorry for all I did, Terry... No, all of you, Senshi."

Ami stared at her, and then stood up, walking to her. "Then I'll have to apologize for attacking you."

Hana was quite surprised, there was no hostility in any of the teenagers surrounding her. Were they really so eager to forgive and forget?

Moon seemed to know what she was thinking, and smiled at her. "Nova... No, Hana. I was the first one to meet Terry when he came here, and I still remember the way he acted back then, after you died. You mean a lot to him, I knew that whenever he talked about you."

Terry sighed. "I know it must hurt to know that you and I..."

"Even if it hurts, I can understand," Hana said. "After all, I wasn't expecting to come back from the dead, either. It will take me some time to get used to it, but..."

"I hope we can still be friends," Terry said.

"Me too," Ami admitted. "I've heard a lot about you, and while none of us chose to be what we are, I realized someone with your abilities could be a lot of help to us. After seeing what you can do with my own eyes, I know I was right to see that."

Hana shook her head. "This is just too good to be true. After what I did-"

"Not too long ago, one of our friends was taken over by evil, and attacked us several times before we could bring her back to our side," Moon said. "So it's not the first time we had to go through that."

Hana looked at Terry. "How... How did you become one of them?"

"It was the day I finally got Luminite. As Zero, I knew for a while that I couldn't defeat her, and she went as far as trying to hunt us one by one. I was upset at my weakness, and then, one of my swords lit up, and I felt a surge of power. Luna had told me the swords chose their user, apparently this one chose me."

"Luna?"

"One of the Mooncats, they help us fight evil... Though they mostly slack off," Minako said.

As if on cue, Artemis landed on Minako's head, glaring at her. "Who slacks off?"

"Uh..."

Artemis looked at the newcomer. "So this is the mighty Nova."

Hana blinked at him a few times, before shaking her head. "Talking cats. Now I've seen it all."

Terry looked at her. "Hana, are you okay now?"

Hana sighed. "not really, I have a lot of thinking to do, but... Don't worry, I'm not going to attack any of you. Not after I saw the power Mercury has."

Moon smiled. She had been training with Saturn before Hana arrived, and while she didn't like showing off often, it was still fun to do it once in a while. "And she's not the strongest Senshi, either. Moonlight Flash!"

Hana's eyes widened as Moon's energy orb punched through a wall, and kept going for a few meters. "Holy... Crap."

"I take it you can sense our power?" Ami guessed.

Hana nodded slowly. "I can... I could only stop that beam if I, uhm..."

"I told them about it," Terry said, "they wanted to know why I knew you weren't going for the kill."

"I see." She paused and then smiled. "So, each of you controls one element, right?"

"Not quite right," Terry said, "I use ice, and so does Ami."

"So there's a male and female Senshi for each planet?"

"There could be one for each planet, and some of the satellites, in theory," Artemis admitted. "There's Dragon Sun, too, so a Sailor Sun could show up as well."

Minako frowned. "Hey Art, mind getting off my head?"

"Why would I, it's not like you're using it for anything."

Minako summoned her whip, and looked up again. "Three, two, one..." She smiled as Artemis leapt off her. "Good kitty."

Hana scanned the room. "Am I wrong, or you use this place to train?"

"That we do," Terry said, "in fact, Hakko has taught my new friends a lot."

"Oh, so he's back in Tokyo?"

"He's coming here whenever he has some free time," Terry explained, "I try to teach them what I know when he's not around."

"Maybe I could teach them a thing or two, too."

Moon looked at Hana. "Wait, you mean you also trained-"

Hana smiled. "There's times when I needed more than my powers to fight."

"Hey, how about you show them what you know?"

"A friendly fight?" Hana looked at Terry. "Sure, why not."

"Is she good?" Mako asked.

"Instead of telling you how good she is, I'll let her show you," Terry said with a grin.

Rubeus frowned. "So, Nova was a failure."

"Unfortunately, yes. We still have our other soldier, but..."

"You don't like any lose ends," Onara guessed.

"That's right, doctor. This is why I asked you two to work on that little side project."

Onara smiled wickedly. "I see... So we send one failure to take care of another."

"And if the Senshi interfere, they could pay a high price this time around."

"I like your style, lady."

A looked at Rubeus. "We don't need to face the Senshi head-on. And with you both working on those, we could have another batch of them ready quite soon."

Ami was as surprised as the others. Much despite herself, she knew Terry was better at fighting than any of her friends, and yet... He didn't seem to be holding back, and still, Hana didn't seem to have any problem keeping up with him. They had both scored several blows, and were looking pretty tired. "You should stop."

"Sorry, Ami, but it's been a while since I was able to spar with her. I won't be happy until either of us gives up."

Hana smirked. "Likewise." She shot forwards, using a quick flurry of punches and kicks to try and hit him, but Terry blocked all the blows. "Damn..."

"I suppose I'll need to get serious to win this," Terry said.

"He vanished?" Usagi asked. No, there he was, right behind Hana. "Wow, he's faster than usual."

Hana was able to turn and block the first kick, but Terry kept going, hitting her square in the chest with a second kick, then a third kick to the legs, causing her to fall on her back. She just laid there for a few seconds before chuckling. "I was wondering when you would stop holding back. I give up, I can't beat you without my powers when you're like that."

Ami walked up to Terry. "What was that?"

"Huh? I just moved fast."

"You sure you just moved?" Brad asked. "That looked like a short-range phase."

Mako shook her head. "I saw him move. I'm not sure I could block his kicks if he did that, but-"

Rei nodded. "I saw it, too. But why didn't you use that speed while training with us?"

"Because you're not ready for it," Terry said. "If you keep training, and our guesses on Senshi powers are right, then I think you may be able to counter that in a few years."

"But you'll keep powering up as well," Usagi said.

Terry smiled. "Then I guess you'll have to train a lot."

Hana stood up with a jump, and sighed. "Same old Terry."

"You were amazing, too!" Usagi said with a smile.

"Uh... Thanks," Hana stammered, a bit surprised at the blonde's overly friendly attitude.

"Please don't mind Usagi, she trusts everyone easily. Some say it's a birth defect," Rei mused.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you're a weird group."

"Thanks, we try," Hotaru said.

"Alert: Unknown entities detected."

Ami looked at the screen. "One enemy close to Mako's house, and another one... The Tokyo Tower again?"

"Okay, let's split and get them."

"The one at the tower is much stronger," Terry commented.

Hana was blinking at the screen. "You really went full throttle with this base, huh?"

"Guess I did. Want to see us shooting at something other than you?" Terry's smile was a sound effect away from a chuckle.

"Sure, why not. Guess I'll go to the tower." She stopped and looked at the others. "Wait, can you guys get there fast?"

Brad nodded. "Some of us can teleport, so we'll be right there."

"General, you won't believe this..."

Kino saw the woman seemed really shocked. "Another attack?"

"Yes, but this time, there's a huge gorilla clinging to the Tokyo Tower."

"King Kong?" the General mused.

"Some of my men say it looks just like... Donkey Kong."

"Then you were right, I don't believe it. Are the Senshi aware of it?"

"Some of them were seen near your house. The rest must be heading for the tower."

"Good, we could take that monkey down, but I don't want to wreck the city, or the tower."

As soon as they appeared, the Senshi were surprised by an unexpected sight. "Huh? Just two wimps?"

Jupiter frowned. "Wait, aren't those two-"

"Double Dragon," Dragon Mercury said. "If they're anything like in the games, then our best bet is to shoot at them from afar."

"Sure, you could do that," one of the men said, "but you could also do the honorable thing."

"Whatever, let's just fry them," Saturn muttered.

"Wait," Dragon Mercury said, "I'll get them."

"He's insane," Saturn commented as the Dragon rushed straight at the two men. She then blinked in shock, they had somehow knocked him away in a split second. "And they seem to be quite good."

"Is that the best you got?"

Dragon Mercury frowned. "Okay, so I won't be able to handle both of them..."

Jupiter and Earth both charged at their foes, and they were both easily knocked away as well. "They're good, no kidding."

"See, Jimmy, I told you the Senshi would be nothing without their flashy attacks."

"Guess you were right, Billy. So, who's next?"

"Time to stop fooling around," Dragon Mercury said, then charged at the two again. His speed was, however, visibly higher than before, and this time it was the two brothers who got punched away by him.

"Hey wait, how could you move like that?" Billy asked.

"It's an ancient ninja technique. It's called 'kicking your ass.'"

"Eh, whatever... Guys, get them!"

A few dozen figures appeared from the buildings around the area. Dragon Mercury smiled. "I was wondering where the rest of the cast was." And he could see everyone was there, the whip girl, the huge guys... If they were as tough as in the game, then this would be a challenge. "Now this looks interes-"

"Grim Wave."

The Dragon blinked a few times as the wave vaporized all his foes. "Hey, why did you do that?"

"They cheated," Saturn said, "and seriously, we should have just blasted them from a distance from the start."

"You're no fun."

"Let's just go see if the others need help."

Dragon Venus was the first one to comment on the situation as they arrived. "Donkey Kong? Now where's Mario when you need him..."

Moon saw the creature was throwing flaming barrels down from atop the tower, and saw Ail and Ann blasting those barrels to dust with their attacks. "We should get him while he's distracted."

"But if we don't vaporize him on the spot, he'll fall down and wreck the city," Dragon Sun noticed.

"We can't wait for it to notice us, either," Venus said, "remember the saying, the bigger they are, the harder they hit."

Mars shook her head. "The scariest thing about you and your habit is that it sometimes does make sense."

"Huh? What habit?" Venus asked.

Nova had been staring at the creature the whole time. "So, the thing is, if it falls down, it'll wreck something, or someone, right?"

Moon nodded. "Yeah, why do you a-" she turned to their large foe and saw it was slowly floating up, and thoroughly confused. "Whoa, that's awesome."

"Heavy..." Nova muttered, "get him fast, I won't be able to keep that up for long."

"Okay. Moon Twilight Flash!"

The gorilla was blasted to atoms by the attack, and Nova frowned. "That was almost too easy."

"I agree," Mars said, "that Game Master freak is a joke."

"There are videogames which have characters way harder to beat," Mercury lectured. The others stared at her, and she shrugged. "I do play videogames too, you know?"

Nemesis smiled. "I should have tried to get his autograph for Umino."

Luna and Shade were following someone. Someone the Senshi knew, and someone they could tell had a strange kind of energy within. "You think she's one of them?" Shade asked.

"Judging from what we've seen of her, she could be Lilith."

"If that's the case, then we should tell her. Her powers could be dangerous, even for herself."

Luna saw the girl walk out of an arcade with a huge bag of plushies, and nodded. "Yeah, and she already knows the Senshi."

The girl suddenly stopped and looked up. "If you two were trying to surprise me, you failed."

Luna sighed and leapt off the tree they had been hiding in. "So you know who we are."

"Of course, Moon and Nemesis' cats." A thought cross the girl's mind, but she dismissed it as soon as it had appeared. "Why were you spying on me, anyhow?"

"Truth is, Chie, that we have reasons to believe you may have Senshi powers waiting to be awakened."

Chie stared at the two cats for a few seconds, and then did the only sensible thing she could do. She fainted.

"Guess she took the news well," Shade mused.

"So, you're leaving?"

Hana smiled at Terry. "I need to go back home, to tell my parents I'm alive. I may stay there and have Nova make a mysterious comeback."

"We could use your help here," Usagi said.

Hana sighed. "As I said before, I need to think about a lot of things, and... Right now I don't trust myself." She looked at Ami as she said that. "I don't want you to hate me, but I still feel-"

"You don't need to explain that," Ami said, "just let us know when you're coming back."

"If I'm coming back," Hana corrected. "Goodbye."

Ami noticed Terry's face as Hana vanished. "Are you okay?"

"Compared to how she must be feeling-"

"I'm asking about you, not her," Ami said sternly.

He looked at her for a few seconds before nodding. "I was just thinking about the past. Thinking about the 'what ifs', but there's one thing I realized."

"And what is that?" Ami asked.

"That even if I could, I wouldn't change what happened. It hurt a lot back then, but... It made me who I am now. It let me know a lot of new friends, and also a very special girl."

Ami was quite surprised as he kissed her, but didn't reject it. As they broke the kiss, however, she remembered most of her friends were still there, and blushed deep red.

Usagi smiled. "You two look cute together."

"I'm a bit jealous," Mako said.

"Me too," Rei admitted.

"But you have Yuichiro, don't you?"

Rei stared blankly at Usagi for a few seconds before shrugging. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Usagi smiled. "I've seen the way you look at him, and he's obviously interested, too."

"Hmph, as if I would date someone like him."

"Keep telling yourself that, Rei, and you may end up believing it."

"Ehhh... Just shut it."

"Leave her alone, Rabbit," Terry said. "Perhaps she's more interested in one of the girls at her school.

Rei stared at him. "That's funny, because I've been asked out by some of the girls there. It's the 'fun' part of going to an all-girls school."

"I should visit your school, someday," Terry joked.

"Please do, as long as you don't mind having another crowd of fangirls chasing you around the city."

"... Yeah, on second thought, I'll pass."

A/N: Before anyone asks the obvious "will everyone the Senshi meet turn out to be a Senshi?" question, make sure you want to hear the answer.

Just joking. Not every side character will be a Senshi.

... After all, General Kino, Hakko and Doctor Tomoe are too old for that job.