Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 6: Queen of Darkness.
Episode 95: Clash of Princesses.

By Razor Knight
Last update: May 20, 2015
Last edited: June 12, 2017

Minako walked in and saw things weren't as bad as she expected. "Wow, guess Haruna is scarier than I thought."

Mako smiled. "Yeah. At least the 'crowd' died down to a manageable level."

Chie and Karin were talking to the students from other classes who had came to see the 'famous' students, and Minako noticed her friends were mostly having a quiet morning... And Usagi had even managed to fall asleep on her desk. "That brings back memories..."

"She said she hadn't slept a lot last night," Mako commented. "That's all she said, though."

"Was she fighting youma?"

Mako shrugged. "I don't know, and frankly, it's none of our business."

Minako flinched at the way Mako was looking at her. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Uh, nothing."

"Boy problems?" Minako asked. "Or, uh, girl problems?" she added quickly.

"Eh, sort of. At times I feel down for not having anyone, but then I start feeling like I don't need anyone..."

"Maybe you do, maybe you don't. I'm no expert in romance, but don't fear falling in love, it can be fun."

"Or it can be a mess and make you very cranky," Hotaru said from behind them.

"... Well, that could happen too," Minako admitted.

Usagi looked up from her desk, still half-asleep. "Is school over yet?"

"Really brings back memories," Minako said. Mako giggled at that.

Rei was on her way back home from school, surprised that no fans were chasing her. It had only been a few days since they revealed their true faces to the world, but still, the initial craze was already dying down.

"Yo, Sailor Mars!"

Rei looked back and saw a guy standing there. He was seemingly in his late twenties, and was holding what looked like a flamethrower. Guess there were some crazy fans out there, after all. "You shouldn't play with fire, you might get burnt."

"I loved you, Mars, but now I know you already have someone. How could you do that to me?"

Rei sighed. It was one of those fans. "Listen, I'm sorry you were disappointed, but I'm-"

"Shut up!" the guy shouted and shot a stream of flames at Rei. He gasped in shock, however, as Rei just stood there, the flames circling her without touching her. "... How..."

Rei chuckled, more amused than angry at the guy's attempt to hurt her. "Did you really think using fire against the Senshi of Fire was a smart idea?"

"I..."

"Oh, don't look at me like that. I won't hurt you." She smiled as the fire all gathered in her open palm, taking the shape of a flower, before vanishing. "I'm sure you'll find someone who'll like you, too."

"You're just saying that..."

Rei smiled. "See, there's things the fans don't know about me. I can be quite mean and get angry easily, and I still found a guy who loves me for who I am, not what I am. A word of advice, though... I would drop the flamethrower, if I were you, they aren't really attractive."

The guy sighed and left his weapon on the ground. "Can you do me a favor? Get rid of this thing. And... Sorry for attacking you."

"No harm done," Rei said as the man's weapon vanished. She then looked south and sighed. "I have to go now, good luck."

The guy saw Rei fly away on an air board and sighed. "She's cooler than I thought. Pun very intended."

"I can't detect anything in her."

Ami nodded to Aiko. "Me neither."

Yukiko let out a sigh. She had hoped these two girls would be able to figure out what had happened a few days earlier. "Perhaps it was just my mind playing tricks on me?"

Ami thought about it for a few seconds, then nodded. "Let's ask for a third opinion." She summoned her communicator and looked at its screen. "Nova, you there?"

"Hi, Ami."

"Can you come to the base for a few minutes? I have something I need your help with."

"Sure, I'll be right there."

Yukiko looked at Ami. "You gave her a communicator?"

Ami nodded, "I did, thought it would be good to be able to contact her in case-" she stopped and looked at Yukiko, smiling sheepishly. "I can feel quite dumb at times, really. We never gave you one of those. Here."

Yukiko caught the small, purple artifact and smiled. "Thanks."

Hana appeared near them. "Okay, I'm here."

Ami explained her what Yukiko had told her, then sighed. "I want to make sure we're not missing anything. Could you-"

Hana walked to Yukiko, her face unreadable. "I see... It's not the first time I saw this, it's like there's two minds there, one of them seems to be dormant, inactive. A lot like with Helios and ChibiUsa, except Helios was also active so he was easier to detect."

"You mean I have someone hiding here?" Yukiko said, pointing at her own head. "Damn... But those things I heard-"

Ami smiled. "Whatever you have in there, it will make itself known sooner or later, and we will deal with it. Trust us."

"Damn it, it wasn't just my imagination."

Yukiko saw Usagi was standing there, staring at her. "Usagi?"

"I have to keep on reminding you guys about my powers," Usagi mused, then looked at Yukiko sadly. "You don't remember this, but back when we were fighting the Death Busters..."

"Those guys who were looking for your Talismans?" Yukiko asked.

"Yeah, when you got yours taken out, something took over your body. I thought I had destroyed it back then, but... I guess I was wrong."

"You never told me about that," Yukiko said, looking around the room.

"I told them not to. But I noticed something wrong with you a few days ago, and even though I didn't see it again at school the next morning, I knew it, that I had screwed up back then... There's something in you, something that's hiding from us. It's aware we could destroy it if we knew about it, I'm sure I came close to doing it last time."

"Can you-"

"It's too faint to see clearly right now," Usagi explained, "I could try, but I don't want to. I may end up killing you - and the way my crystal works, there may not be a return from being dead."

"So what, I have to just sit around like a bomb waiting to explode?"

"We'll take care of it. You know we can, you've seen us deal with several of those-"

"You don't even know if it's like with ChibiUsa or Umino. You may not be able to heal me at all."

"I don't-"

"Just promise me one thing, Usagi. If there's no way to bring me back, kill me."

Usagi paled. "Yuki, I can't- We'll find a way!"

"You know better than that, Usagi. Sometimes sacrifices can't be helped."

Aiko flinched. "If it comes to that, I'll do it, Yuki."

Ami looked at Aiko. "But-"

"Mother, I can understand you and Usagi being against killing, and... I would also like to think things can be solved without killing. But if I knew there was no way to bring her back, I would not let some demon, alien, or whatever it is use her body to kill innocents."

Usagi flinched. "I... I won't let you do that."

"With all due respect, you can't order me not to-"

Usagi shook her head. "Aiko, I'm not telling you that. I just don't want to have you be the one- If it comes to that, I promise I'll do it. I just... I'll find a way, Yuki."

"Do we even know it's evil?"

Usagi looked at Hana and let out a long sigh. "It is. My power lets me see that much, its intent is not a good one."

"Great, just great," Yukiko muttered.

"Mom, can you watch over the city for a while?" Aiko asked.

"Sure."

Aiko smiled at Ami, then turned to Yukiko. "Let's go have some fun."

"How can I-"

Aiko cut Yukiko's complaint with a kiss. "There's things you can't change, Yuki. I know you know that. And I also know that focusing on them is only going to harm you in the long run."

"Things I can't change..." Yukiko looked at Usagi, whose face told her she had also sensed something else. She turned back to look at Aiko "I think I know what you mean. I am glad I met you, Aiko."

Aiko smiled and walked to the elevator, with Yukiko following her. As they were about to walk into it, however, she decided to drop a 'bomb.' "I know you still have a crush on Usagi."

Yukiko flinched. "You... Do?"

"I don't mind, as long as you don't do anything dumb," Aiko admitted.

"... I'm really lucky to have you," Yukiko said.

Aiko blushed slightly as the doors started closing. "Yes, you are."

Ami looked at Usagi. "You knew about that." It wasn't a question, since she knew her friend was quite skilled at reading people.

"Yes. What can I do, though? Forbid her from liking me?"

Hana smiled. "She's moved on, but that doesn't mean she won't feel a thing for anyone else."

Ami looked at her questioningly, then sighed. "Love can be a mess. I should have focused on studying instead."

"You're joking, right?"

The blue-haired girl laughed. "Of course. I don't regret meeting him at all."

Hotaru looked at the building and grimaced. "A toy store. Those monsters..."

Kage nodded. "They won't even respect children. Even if the energy they drained was small as it was before, it would still be wrong."

"Let's just chop them up," Hotaru said summoning her glaive. She then looked at Kage. "There's something on your mind."

"It won't distract me."

"It may distract me, depending on what it is," Hotaru said.

"Oh, you think that I- No, it's not about you."

"So, what is it?"

"I've caught a girl looking at me in a strange way, and I'm not sure what it means."

"Have you asked her about it?"

"Whenever I try, I get nervous and can't quite tell her a thing."

"So, just like back then."

"Yeah," Kage said.

Hotaru looked at the store again. "Okay, those freaks are alone now. Go!"

Kage saw a few wraiths appear around Hotaru and fly straight into the store. A few seconds later, screams could be heard inside, and when it stopped, the wraiths came back, shining white. "Whoa..."

"My powers keep getting weirder, huh?"

"You look cool," Kage said. "But you should have let me help."

"Sorry. As a way to apologize, I'll help you talk to that girl."

"You just want to know who she is."

"... I won't be able to help if I don't know that."

"Guess you're right. It's... Mako."

Hotaru blinked at that. "I should have guessed that. She may like you, but what about you?"

Kage looked north as light shone there. "I think we should go see what that's about."

"Don't think you'll get out of answering that so easily," Hotaru muttered, "but yeah, let's go see what's happening."

Minutes earlier, Usagi had reached yet another youma draining point, and was observing the shop from a rooftop across the street. A bakery. They really were using every cover possible for their plans.

She was surprised no youma had tried to attack them yet - perhaps they knew it was useless, or perhaps they didn't pay attention to human media. In any case, she smiled and prepared for another fight.

"If you just stand there daydreaming, an enemy could sneak up on you."

Usagi didn't need to turn to know who that was. "I knew you were near, Goshenite. I suppose the man besides you is the other leader?"

Goshenite tried her best to hide her surprise. This Moon girl could detect them even while cloaking? "If we wanted to sneak up on you, I wouldn't have spoken."

Morganite glared at Usagi. "At least turn to face us, Moon bitch."

Usagi turned to them, her face unreadable. "There's no need for insults. I was hoping we could find a way to-"

"To what?" Goshenite snapped. "Live in peace? You killed our mother!"

"I didn't," Usagi said, "Metallia destroyed her and used her body to try and kill me and my friends."

"That's a lie."

"If you want to believe I'm the one who killed your mother, then... I killed your mother, you killed mine. Can't we just call it even and stop this dumb war?"

"Dumb?" Morganite laughed. "Do you even know what's at stake here?"

"I've saved this planet more times than I care counting," Usagi snapped back, "I know what you want. You won't get it. But I don't want more pointless deaths."

"Fool, we have thousands of youma on our side. We'll win."

"They only fight us because you force them to," Usagi said. "So I guess... You'll get the fight you wanted. Moon Cosmic Power!"

Aiko looked to the east and sighed. "Usagi is fighting two quite powerful youma."

Yukiko smiled. "Should we go help?"

"I'm already calling everyone," Aiko said, then chuckled at Yukiko's surprised look. "I guess you forgot what I am."

"I just hope I'm not distracting you from-"

"Not at all, I only need a small part of my mind occupied with scanning the city and running the base's systems."

"Oh, I didn't know that. So, should we go help?"

Aiko's body was covered by her blue zero suit, and she smiled. "Can you Phase us there?"

Yukiko, or rather Warwitch, shook her head at that. "That was silly. Teleport!"

When Saturn and Dragon Sun reached the fight, they saw Moon was having trouble fighting the two youma. "Those look like final bosses."

Saturn shrugged and leapt down from her board, charging at the male youma. "Hi there, youma."

"More humans to kill, that's nice."

"Oh, we're just in time for the party."

Goshenite looked around and saw most of the Senshi were there, along with several other heroes. "Damn it, you guys don't play fair, do you?"

"Says the one who was sneaking around stealing energy from our people," Mars snapped.

Goshenite glared at her, then smiled. "Play time is over, then." Before anyone could react, she shot an energy blast at the bakery, where a lot of civilians - along with a trio of youma - were watching the fight.

"Flooding Tornado!"

Twin blasts of wind and water hit Goshenite's attack, knocking it off target and making it hit the ground near the store. "Damn it, who-"

"Water Serpent."

"Wind Slasher."

A large snake-like water construct hit Goshenite, while blades made of condensed air hit Morganite. The two youma fell to one knee, and glared at the two Senshi. "Damn it, you cheap-"

Moon kicked Morganite to the ground, stopping him from saying anything else. "Leave now or die, youma." She looked at the building, and saw the three lesser youma in there were staring at her, scared to the bone. "Same goes for the youma in the building. If you don't leave, you'll wish it was your weak leaders punishing you instead of me."

As the youma vanished from the area, Mars smiled. "Usagi, that was awesome."

Moon smiled back, but then fell to one knee. "I can be intimidating if I have to." She turned to look at Uranus and Neptune. "Thanks for the help, but you should help more often, you know?"

Neptune sighed. "We've been helping, in our own way. While you took care of their draining points, we've located the portal these youma are coming from."

"Isn't it in the North Pole?"

Uranus shook her head. "That one's closed, Pluto checked on it already. They've opened a new portal, in this city, and are using strange devices to stop any energy from leaking out of the building it's in."

Aiko frowned at that. "Damn it, they're a lot smarter than the old youma."

Moon looked up to the sky, then shook her head. "Those two... I don't like killing, but I've sensed something in each and every point I've attacked. The other youma, I felt the fear in them, I felt the fear they have for their leaders, but I... Not once did I feel any conviction in them. None of the youma I killed were doing it because they felt it was the right thing. Perhaps even back then-"

"That's in the past," Mars noted, "you didn't have that power back then, so we may never know. But what do we do about the youma?"

"We go to their world, bring the fight to them, and show them we're much stronger than their leaders. We may not have to kill those two ourselves."

Dragon Mercury smiled. "That's... You're saying you'd be okay with turning youma against their rulers?"

"It's not that I don't want to kill them. I just feel it would be better if the youma saw the truth."

"Those youma would still need mana, though," Aiko said.

"What for?" Warwitch asked.

"I've researched a lot on the data mom had from before I was created. Youma don't need the energy to live, but it gives them an extra boost. I think it's like... With Senshi powers. Without mana, they're just normal creatures."

"Can't they get it from their own world?"

Aiko shook her head. "I've also been researching mom's computer archives - thought saying they're in that computer would be wrong, but that's a tale for another time. Anyhow, the old Queen Serenity did not randomly open a portal to a random dimension. The place the youma are in, the Dark Kingdom, is a place nearly devoid of mana. That's why it took them millennia to return - they had to gather enough energy to open a portal and keep it stable, and they needed a lot of said energy."

"So, it's a mana desert," Warwitch noted.

"A fun fact, and the reason why it's so easy for the youma to set up stores, buy entire companies, and so on - their world has entire deserts made of gold, and even mountains made mostly of gold."

Dragon Mercury smiled at that. "I would love to go visit that place, then. Maybe take back a few thousand souvenirs."

"So, should we go to that place now?" Jupiter asked.

Warwitch suddenly screamed in pain, and fell to the ground, holding her head with both hands. "No! Get out of my head!"

"Yuki?"

Warwitch stood up after a few seconds of struggling, and her eyes were pitch black. Her voice, as she spoke, was also different, with an echo, as if two different people spoke at the same time. "I'm sorry, Senshi, but I cannot let you go to my world."

"Your world?" Moon asked.

"Foolish little Moon Princess. You thought I was gone? Metallia ripped my very soul out of my body, yes, but she did not destroy me."

Moon stared at Warwitch in shock before realizing just who the creature controlling her body right now was. It sounded impossible, but she had seen her fair share of impossibles to know better than being skeptical. "Beryl?"

"That's right, Usagi. I'm back, and this time, I will not fail. This time, this planet will be mine."

A/N: This is one of those times when the words "oh crap" fits the situation best.