Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 5: Labyrinth of Mirrors.
Episode 86: Four of a kind.

By Razor Knight
Last update: December 26, 2014
Last edited: June 11, 2017

"I'll miss school when I go back home."

"But didn't you go to school there too?"

ChibiUsa smiled at that. She and her mother were walking home from school, something that hadn't happened often since she and Hotaru became more than friends. "I did, but... I think you can see how being the Princess would make school more annoying than it should be."

"Thought you liked the spotlight?"

"It's nice, but not when you want to be liked for who you are, not for your title."

Usagi cringed at that. "Who we are, huh..."

"Usagi, I can tell you're worried about something."

"I'm that easy to read, huh?"

ChibiUsa chuckled. "No, but I have a bit of your 'people reading skills' too."

"Oh, I didn't know that. Well, I've been feeling something lately... These last few enemies, they all knew who we are. What's the point in keeping a secret identity if the enemy will know?"

"I see..."

"Ugh, you're making that face again."

"What face?"

"The face you make when there's something you wish you could tell me but can't."

ChibiUsa let out a long sigh. "Yeah. Sorry."

"You don't have to apologize, I understand."

"What I can tell you is, you shouldn't keep that to yourself. Talk to the others about it."

"The problem is, I can't find a good reason to not have a secret identity, either," Usagi admitted. She looked at ChibiUsa and smiled humorlessly. Yes, there was that face, yet again. "I'll follow your advice, though."

Terry looked at the three girls. "Had enough?"

Maria tried to stand up, but failed. "Really, I thought all three of us fighting you together would be enough to beat you."

"I'll admit I don't know all there is to know about magic," Terry said, "but as far as melee combat goes, I do know what I'm doing."

Minako had been watching the fight and was as surprised as the three Huntresses. Still... "Terry, your ego is going to get you in troubles one of these days."

"Heh, I know."

"How about fighting something you can't defeat?" Minako noted. A second later, she was standing right behind Terry. "Unless you're too tired to try, that is."

The guy smiled. "Good thing your guy isn't here, he would get mad if I hurt that pretty face of yours."

Ami shook her head. "You know you can't win against her speed, Terry."

"Yeah, but I want to see if something I've noticed is true. So, lightgirl, do your thing."

"Lightgirl?" Minako muttered before 'vanishing.' She kicked Terry's side and then leapt back, rushing forwards to punch him in the gut, then she finished with an elbow to the chest which sent him down. "Had enough?" she asked, mocking his own taunt.

"Wow, that speed of hers is too much to handle even for Zephyr?" Aki asked.

"Seems like that," Maria noted, "but he seems to have a plan."

Terry stood up and smiled. "I knew it. Care attacking me again?"

"You can't hit her," Ami said, "I know you think you're-"

Terry shrugged. "Ami, I'm not trying to inflate my ego, I'm trying to teach her something."

Minako smiled. "Really? I thought it was just me kicking your rear."

"How about doing it again, then?" Terry teased. Minako vanished, and he smiled. "There!"

Ami was as suprised as the others. Terry had managed to grab Minako's leg as she kicked him, and made her lose balance, then punched out, stopping milimeters away from her face. "What was that?"

Minako looked at Terry as he helped her up. "I'm wondering the same thing."

"You may not have noticed it, but you have an attack pattern. I couldn't really hope to counter each of your blows. I can barely see you move, but my body can't react in time. However, since there's a pattern to your attacks, it wasn't a matter of moving faster, but to move at the right time."

Minako stared at him in awe. "Wow, that's cool." She then flinched. "But I get what you mean, even if the enemy can't match my speed, if one of them sees I have a pattern, I could be hurt, or worse."

"That's right, so you should improvise to keep your enemy from knowing what you'll do next."

Hotaru had been walking to a certain place, a place she didn't visit often, but right now she had questions she wanted to ask to a certain person. However, as she reached her destination, she saw there was someone else already there. "Kage?"

Kage smiled at her. "Hi. Guess you also thought about asking Setsuna a few things?"

Hotaru nodded slowly, but then sighed. "Kage, you've been avoiding me lately."

"I just didn't want to get between you and the Princess."

"I don't think she'll mind you talking to me. She doesn't mind Terry talking to me and that guy's like a can of flirting waiting to explode."

Kage laughed at that. "Eh, I guess you're right."

She noticed his body language changing. "There's something else, right?"

"I still feel the same way I did about you. I can't change that. And seeing you with her, I'm- I'm not ready to move on yet. I thought avoiding any contact with you outside school or the base would help, but I'm not so sure anymore."

"You were the first real friend I ever had," Hotaru noted, "I don't want to lose that friendship."

"Me neither, but this is complicated. I hate feeling like this, I'm both happy that you're happy but upset because you're not with me. It's-"

"Perhaps you just need to find someone else."

Kage thought about that for a few seconds before nodding. "You may be right." He noticed Hotaru's face had turned more pale than usual. "What's wrong?"

Hotaru looked at him. "It's ChibiUsa, they're attacking her again."

"Wait, how can you-"

"I heard Ami mentioning a sort of 'link' Senshi can form with their loved ones. That link gives you the ability to sense their location when they're dying, or dead."

Kage saw Hotaru summoning her glaive. "I take it she's still not dead? I'll help you."

"But why would you-"

Kage couldn't help but give Hotaru a short glare. "She's part of the team, and I respect her for who she is. Heck, I would have no problem with taking orders from her, even though she seems to be a lot like her mother when it comes to that. And also, if she dies, you will be... I don't want to see you cry, Hotaru."

Hotaru smiled at that. "Sorry, and thanks. Anyhow, time to get shouted at by Pluto again."

"Sometimes I wish I could tell mom about some things."

ChibiUsa and her guardian were a block away from the Tsukino house, as the young girl had decided to go for a walk to clear her mind, and Diana had tagged along. "You mustn't tell her."

"I know that, but it's not easy."

"I don't have it easy either. I wish I could tell my parents about the next war, but the risk of changing, or even erasing our reality, is just..."

"Still, I'm glad I came back here a second time."

Diana smiled at that. "I think the Hotaru from our era feels the same way. Or the Hotaru in this era."

"Yeah, that-" ChibiUsa suddenly tensed and looked around. "Damn it, them again."

Diana saw four girls walking to them. Their outfits and their quite strange hairdos could only mean they were new enemies. "They're not bothering with stealth."

"You knew we were coming to get you, so why bother?" VesVes noted.

"Hmph, no need for socializing with our prey," JunJun said before vanishing.

ChibiUsa was expecting that, and ducked as JunJun appeared behind her, kicking back and knocking the girl off her feet. "I'm nobody's prey."

CereCere laughed. "Dumb girl, what can you do? We outnumber you."

ChibiUsa sighed. "Moon Star Power!" After transforming, she chuckled. "You make pink look bad."

CereCere growled at her. "Die!"

ChibiMoon saw the large pink sphere shooting at her and dodged. She sensed something and leapt aside just as another ball, this time green, shot by. 'They're not doing the whole one two three thing?'

'They only have to hit your with those artifacts to get your mirror out. Be careful.'

VesVes saw the girl leap on a roof and giggled. "You can't run away from us."

"Wasn't planning to," ChibiMoon snapped and leapt off the roof leg-first. "Moon Kick!"

CereCere saw her sister being knocked back and hitting a wall hard. VesVes didn't stand up, perhaps... "Damn you!"

"Wait, Cere, we-"

"I'm gonna rip that dumb horse out of her with my bare hands!"

ChibiMoon smiled. "You're welcome to try."

CereCere rushed forwards, swiping with her leg at her target's face. ChibiMoon blocked that with her arms, but the other two had already moved. JunJun hit the girl from behind with an elbow slam, which sent her staggering forwards, and right to PallaPalla, who kicked her down to the ground. Before she could recover, the four started raining punches on her. "You dumb bitch, we won't kill you but that doesn't mean we can't beat you up!"

"Cosmic Tiara!"

JunJun was knocked back by a tiara to the face, and the trio noticed Moon was there, and glaring at them. "Oh, mama bear comes to save her cub. Go away, Moon, you won't beat us in melee."

Moon looked at her daughter. She was quite beaten up, and bleeding. She had to take care of these girls, but how? She suddenly felt her arm warm up, and looked down to see it was on fire. "Mars?" No, her friend wasn't there. What was going on?

"Hmph, if you're not going to attack, we'll just rip that horse out of your kid. It will surely kill her if we do it when she's this weak, but it's not like we care."

PallaPalla suddenly took a step back. "What-"

Several wraiths surrounded the three. "You damn monsters, I'm not going to forgive you!"

Dragon Sun had appeared in the scene along with Saturn, but he realized his help would not be needed. "Get them, Hotaru."

Saturn saw her gloves changing, turning as purple as her skirt, but with her planet's symbol drawn on their back, in gold. "This is..." She smiled as she looked at her foes. "Saturn Cosmic Power!"

"Why should we care if your magic is stronger? You still can't hit us with it!" PallaPalla snapped and rushed at Saturn. Saturn, however, took the punch and kicked her away. "Ow... What the hell?"

Saturn glared at her. "Not only our magic is improved by powering up. Now..."

"Save your energy to heal her."

Moon looked at the newcomer and gasped. "What... Who are you?"

A girl was there, wearing a purple suit similar to that of the Senshi, her hair matched her outfit, and was tied up in buns much like Moon's. She looked younger than ChibiMoon but there was something strangely familiar about her. "I'm Diana," the girl said. "There's no time to explain, I'll take care of these idiots first."

VesVes had recovered and looked at the new Senshi. "Huh, another toddler who thinks she's a fighter?"

"Give me your best shot," Diana snapped.

"Get her!" CereCere ordered, and the four evil girls shot their artifacts at Diana... Who simply punched them all away. "What the Darkness..."

"My turn. Lunar Swipe." She rushed forwards, moving too fast for her targets to dodge, and using her clawed gloves to slash at them. She looked back as she stopped, and noticed her enemies weren't still down. "Damn it, I..." She turned back to her normal, catlike form and looked back to ChibiMoon, who was still being healed by Saturn. "I thought I would be enough to protect her."

Moon had been trying to figure out something. Ice. Lightning. Fire. Darnkess. As she thought of those elements, her arm was shrouded by them, in turns. "This is incredible."

Saturn looked up at Moon, noticing her friend's arm was wrapped in ice. "I agree, but that's not going to help us much."

Moon focused, then smiled. "I guess we'll have to cheat to win this time around."

"What do you-"

"Moon Dream Wave!"

Saturn watched in shock as their enemies - who were as shocked as she was - were punched through a wall. Only CereCere stood up, and glared at them before they all teleported away. "Hey, how did you do that? Did Helios...?"

"No, I copied ChibiUsa's power."

ChibiMoon stirred and smiled as she saw Saturn and her mother. From the look in their faces, and the fact her mother had fire around her fingers, she could guess some of the things she wasn't supposed to tell them had already happened. "Ugh, what did I miss?"

"Some blood," Saturn noted.

"If I wasn't still sore from that beating, I would punch you for that."

Moon looked at her. "You knew about my other power?"

ChibiMoon saw Moon's arm was covered in light and smiled again. "Yeah. And I'm sure you know the limits."

Moon nodded. "I can't seem to use more than one element at a time, and I can't summon as much energy with them as I do with my own attacks."

"Yeah, you're one level below. Guess the universe wants to keep things fair."

"And what about Diana?" Saturn asked.

Diana leapt on ChibiUsa's shoulder as she stood up. "I... Used my power."

ChibiUsa's eyes widened. "You did? But-"

"I was keeping a secret from you too," Diana admitted. "They told me I would have to use this form in this era, and that I would know exactly when. Since Pluto isn't here shouting at me, I think I guessed right."

Moon wasn't the smartest of her group, and she wasn't afraid to admit it, but she still could figure something else out. "Wait, that means the other Mooncats-"

"My parents and Shade can do that as well. But we can only use that for a short time, as it really drains us." She looked at ChibiMoon. "It's a way for us to help you in battle as well, when the odds are really bad."

Moon looked at Saturn. "You didn't get to use any new attack."

Saturn smiled at that. "I don't mind, unlike Chibi here, I don't like showing off."

ChibiMoon noticed Dragon Sun looking at them. "What's wrong?"

The Dragon shrugged. "It's nothing. I just realized something Hotaru told me minutes ago is true."

"I think we have a few more things to tell the others now, huh?" Moon noted.

Saturn saw Moon's arm was wrapped in flames and let out a long sigh. "Like mother, like daughter, you two like showing off."

Moon smiled. "Been around Terry too long, I guess?"

"I've known you long enough to know it's not all Terry's fault," Saturn muttered.

A/N: Only a handful of chapters left for this arc, and then there's going to be some surprises. Moreso than usual, even.