Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 9: Fantastic Voyage.
Episode 129: But wait, it gets worse!
By Razor Knight
Last update: March 3, 2017
Last edited: June 16, 2017
Mercury leapt back, barely dodging her foe's fire-wrapped fist. Unlike them, these evil Senshi had no ranged magic. And from what little she had seen when she risked looking away from 'Rei' she knew the two Youma didn't, either.
The Dragon was, meanwhile, having more fun than he probably should. But there was something strange, too, a feeling in the back of his head. His ego aside, he was quite sure he should be ovwrpowering his foe, not barely keeping up with her. "Ami, are they weakening us?"
Mercury kicked Rei away and sighed. "I don't think it's them. When I attacked that giant worm... Even though I didn't hold back, the attack was at Star level. Right now we're as weak as Twilight Senshi."
"So the multiverse keeps things fair," he mused right before dodging a kick from Mako, "I can live with that."
"Stupid clones, don't underestimate the Senshi."
Mercury looked at Minako. "Likewise. Senshi in our reality are defenders, protectors. A few have turned evil but they're the exception. And if there's one thing evil Senshi always do, is underestimating their foes."
"Shut up already!"
Jadeite and Luminite had been busy fighting Naru, but saw Mercury dodge Minako's light kick with ease. "So you girls are scared. Your three friends are focusing on the newcomers, leaving you to face us alone. I guess since Siren is gone, you're the new cannon fodder, Shadow."
"Queen Moonshine trust me enough to know I can handle two of you."
"What about six of us?"
"Oh great, the rest of the weakling crew," Minako muttered as she sawn the four other 'Generals' had arrived.
"Wisp, Thunder, go help Shadow," Rei said.
"Nag off, Phoenix, I'm having fun here," Mako, whose villain name in this reality was apparently 'Thunder,' said.
"Want me to tell Moonshine you went rogue? Remember what happened to Breeze and Ocean."
Mercury saw two of their foes run past them. Rei aka Phoenix stood there, glaring at them. "Now who's underestimating who?"
Phoenix smirked. "I know I could lose if I fight you both, but fortunately I have a trick under my sleeve."
"What sleeve?" Dragon Mercury asked.
Phoenix shrugged. "Jokes won't save you." Suddenly, flames engulfed her, and she looked like her body was made of nothing but fire. "Get ready to die."
The Dragon was already rushing to her. "You first!" He saw his foe smirk and rise her hand, and a column of flames rose up from underneath him.
"Foolish weakling, play with fire and you shall bu-" She suddenly looked down. No, it wasn't her imagination, two sword tips were coming out of her belly. "This... Usagi, I-"
The Dragon sighed as he saw his foe fall to the ground, unmoving. "I know it's not our Rei but... This feels wrong."
Mercury sighed. For a split second she thought Terry had been caught by the flame column, but he had teleported right behind Phoenix. "Still, they can use ranged attacks in that form. And their power also goes up."
"Let's go help the Generals," the Dragon said then sighed. "Damn, that also feels..."
"I know. Maybe we should leave? We probably messed up this reality enough by killing Rei."
"Aww, leaving so soon? Why don't you stay and enjoy a nice cup of bone-chilling terror?"
Mercury turned to the voice and she gasped in shock. Usagi was there, wearing a black, regal gown. But there was something unsettling about the way she was looking at them. It wasn't like when their Usagi was turned by Chaos. And that expression, of cold, unrestrained hatred, was one she never thought she would see Usagi using. "You... You must be Moonshine."
"Queen Moonshine of Dark Tokyo, at your service," the woman said with fake politeness. She looked at Phoenix's corpse and Ami thought she saw sadness in her eyes for a second. "You two are an unknown. Interlopers. You made one of my best warriors look like a rookie, and for that, I will destroy you."
Dragon Mercury was hiding his shock as best as he could. It wasn't just what this Usagi was saying, but the way she said it. Camlmy, evenly, with not a hint of rage or sadness. This was what one of his best friends could be if she decided to stop caring, to shut her emotions down. "You have the face and the voice of my leader... My friend. But you're evil, you treat others as tools, and spit on their loyalty to you. Maybe you're right, maybe we shouldn't be here, but I can't leave before we defeat you. It just won't feel right."
Mercury nodded. "Here's some help."
The Dragon felt the rush of power and smiled. He knew Ami could be fighting alongside him but... Yeah, she was fighting, in her own way. "Die, Moonshine!"
Mercury was quite worried. Moonshine was keeping up with Terry? No, it was worse than that. She was holding back, mocking him. "Damn it..." For a split second, she considered attacking, but she wouldn't be able to keep her buffs going. No, she needed to-
"That's enough, bitch! Stop underestimating us! Saturn Guardian Power!"
Moonshine chuckled as the Dragon charged at her. "Good, no point in killing you if you aren't trying your best."
Mercury froze in shock and horror. She hadn't been fast enough, she had seen Moonshine clutch the Dragon's throat and then... That sound, the bones snapping, it kept playing again and again in her mind. "You... Monster. I..."
"Don't worry, you'll join him soon."
It was the first time Ami felt like that. Grief, rage, regret, they were all trying to take over her mind. She suddenly sensed something, a familiar energy, and turned to the side. The Saturn Dragon sword was floating there, and for some reason she felt her dark emotions weaken as she looked at the sword. She had read about this. It was rare, but had happened several times during mankind's first and second era. Some Senshi of the past had been able to use the power of a different element, borrow it for a while. It was always the death of another Senshi that triggered it, always someone close to the user. A friend, a relative, a lover.
She was aware than in all but two of the cases, the user had died shortly after defeating their foes. That was the one thing stopping her from using the sword. If they both died there, her friends would never know-
'There's nothing wrong with following your heart once in a while, mom. You would have never met dad if you never did.'
Aiko. Despite her quirks, she could be wise when it counted. Ami's mind told her to just jump, take Terry along, find her own reality, or one where someone could revive him. Her heart told her the sword would help her, and to trust her own skill, her own will.
Ami decided to follow her heart. She grabbed the sword, and it briefly shone with a purple light. She had no words to tell her foe, she would let her attacks do the talking. She felt a rush of power and looked dowm at her own suit. All the white had been replaced by blue, and the rest of it was purple. Strange, but expected.
Queen Moonshine was trying hard to hide her fear, and failing. "How... What are you?"
"A Senshi," Mercury said. "Ice Tomb."
Shadow, Thunder and Wisp all leapt away from the youma brats and stared at Mercury in shock. They had sensed it, their Queen was no more, all that was left was a corpse trapped in a solid block of purple ice. "Damn you, we will-"
"You will leave, I still have enough power to deal with three more evil bitches."
"Senshi, that's enough. Retreat."
Mercury looked at the face in the sky. It gave her a bit of a deja-vu, in more than one sense. The woman glaring at her looked like Black Lady. "If they don't fight me, I will let them leave. I am just a traveler looking for a way back home."
"Only reason I'm not there trying to avenge my mother is that I can sense your power. I know she would not want any of us to die a worthless death. Just leave, intruder."
"Deal."
Luminite walked to Mercury as the evil Senshi all vanished. She stopped, however, as her newfound ally sank to her knees and started crying. For a second, she stood there, unsure of what to say, but then she realized something. "Uh, sorry about-"
"Go away."
"Right, I will, but first let me ask something. That power you now have, is it Wraith's?"
Mercury nodded. Her body was protesting the strain already, she would have to turn back to normal soon or... No, that was it, that's what Luminite was trying to tell her. "Thanks."
"So I was right."
Mercury frowned. She had seen Hotaru and Terry resurrect people several times, but she- No, there it was, in the back of her head. She knew what to do, and she also knew she could die, even if she failed. But she had to try.
The rest of the Generals walked to Luminite. "They have their faces, but they're so different to the ones we killed..."
Dragon Mercury staggered up and looked at Mercury. He knew he had died, and her suit made it easy to guess what had happened. "Thanks."
"Guess this time it was my turn to be... Foolish."
The Dragon caught Ami as her transformation faded and she fell forwards. "Ami!"
"Will she be okay?"
The Dragon was trying to heal Ami, but still nodded. "She just used a lot of energy and some if her life force. She's exhausted, but I can heal her."
A few moments later, Ami opened her eyes. Before the Dragon could say anything, she pulled him into a deep kiss. As they broke the kiss, she smiled sadly. "I... I didn't know if I could bring you back, but I had to try. I'm... I killed that bad copy of Usagi, and I... It's the first time I don't feel bad for killing. I would do it again. It's... Unsettling."
"Now you know how I felt when I killed-" he stopped and sighed. "Well, you know who."
"Think I broke any unspoken rule by killing two major evil characters in this reality?"
"Reality isn't being destroyed around us, so I guess not. I think... We were meant to be here, and in all other realities."
Jadeite looked at them. "We still don't get what that strange power you use is, but you helped us. Thank you."
"You're welcome. We hadn't planned on staying in this reality for too long, so we'll be leaving now," Ami said. "Don't want to have to fight ChibiUsa too."
"ChibiUsa?"
"That's what we call the Princess in our reality. She's kind, cares about her friends, and even tough she's a bit short-fused at times, she can forgive those who hurt her if they show her they want to make up for it."
"Sounds nothing like Princess Eclipse. Anyhow, good luck."
"Likewise."
Ami was scanning the tunnel they appeared in with both curiosity and dread. It was a metallic tunnel, with countless thick metal wires and tubes hugging its walls. But the wires looked disorganized, randomly swirling around each other, and so did the tubes.
"They look almost like veins and nerves, right?" Terry said, somehow guessing what she was thinking. "I'm almost sure I know where we are. I hope I'm wrong."
Ami knew what he meant, and she also hoped he was wrong. "Maybe we should just leave this real-"
Terry noticed the reason Ami had trailed off almost immediately. That universe's versions of all the Senshi were now blocking their path, and while their suits were mostly right, the wires and metallic patches on their skins weren't. "I hate to be right."
The one who looked like Usagi took a step forwards and spoke in a monotone, emotionless voice. "We are Senshi. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated."
Ami didn't bother saying anything before pressing the button to activate yet another jump.
"So, I suppose we should expect anything, after that last one."
Ami sighed. "Our friends as Borg lookalikes? Whoever runs this multiverse is either evil, bored enough to create something like that, or both."
"I don't know if anyone's running this. Let's ask Pluto about it when we get back."
"Sure, I'll ask her after I'm done shouting at her for not warning us about this mess."
Terry smiled and looked around. They were on a tall mountain, and they could see several villages and towns around, a couple of them fortified. One such fort was being attacked by a large red dragon. "For some reason, this also looks familiar."
Ami frowned. "I did just saw a woman shout that dragon out of the sky. Hyena?"
"Oh, I know this game. If you see a very old-looking scroll emanating a ton of magic power, don't open it."
"...Uh, right. Another game. Yay."
"Let's just keep on jumping. We might get lucky."
"I... I'm growing tired of this. What if we never find our own world? What if we find something that we can't fight, and we can't jump away in time?"
"I won't lie to you, I'm not peachy either. I died to a second-hand copy of Usagi. But focusing on the what ifs, or on what happened, won't get us out of this mess any faster."
"Sorry."
"It's okay."
Ami saw a dragon flying their way. A large, white one. "Not in the mood," she said right before the creature turned blue, and fell to the ground, shattering into countless shards.
"... So much for this game. Let's go."
"What the hell is this?"
Terry could understand Ami's outburst. The teleporter told him they were on Earth, but there was nothing there. No, his powers told him there was still something there. Millions of souls, all around them. "Fuck. We need to leave before whoever did this comes back."
Ami could tell he was scared. "Is this..."
"The Earth should be here. Something blew it up, and the Moon.
Ami used her visor to scan for something, and paled. "Shit. Something's coming. Stronger than anything I ever scanned, even Galaxia or Sailor Sun."
"Just a few more seconds to go before we can jump."
Just as Terry said that, someone appeared near them. It was Sailor ChibiMoon, but her suit was strange. She had six pairs of golden wings in her back, and her tiara wasn't there. Ami could guess what this was, but was she friendly? "Sailor Cosmos?"
ChibiMoon looked at them curiously. "How the fuck are you two alive? She got you both, I'm sure of that. No wait, I know. You're not from this reality. Poor, little, lost Mercury."
"What happened here?"
"Mom happened. I was ready to leave when Galaxia showed up, and I decided to stay and help. Maybe I wasn't meant to-"
"In our reality, you left months before Galaxia appeared. But Moon... She destroyed Chaos, how-"
"In your reality, she did. In mine, Cosmos let rage take over and killed Galaxia. Chaos consumed her just like it had consumed Galaxia before. I had to watch her kill my friends... I couldn't kill her, she was my mother, there had to be a way. That's what I was thinking back then. How stupid, how naive. There was no other way. After watching Puu and Hotaru die, I just couldn't hold back anymore. I killed her. Chaos thought I would be its next host, but I did something stupid, a gamble that paid off."
"What did you..." Ami stopped as her visor gave her the answer. "That has to be wrong."
"Is your scanner telling you I have two Ginzuoshou in me? That's why I could win. I became stronger than anything before me. Stronger than Cosmos, and not even Chaos could win against me."
"That's-"
"How did the saying go? Nothing is impossible for us Senshi?"
"You could revive everyone, right?"
"Why would I? They were all weak, that's why they died. That battle taught me the truth I was never told. Friendship, love, justice? Bullshit. The only way to protect this damn galaxy is to be the strongest being around. Having you weaklings back would weaken me.
Ami flinched. This girl sounded so different to their ChibiMoon. A reality like this, she was glad her own reality had not ended like that. "The solar system, did you-"
"A weak alien race saw the neighbourhood was unoccupied so they tried to move in. I wasn't in my best mood so I simply made sure no other assholes had a reason to come here and annoy me."
"You..."
"Are you going to tell me I'm evil? I don't give a damn, dear Ami. I hope you realize I could destroy you both in an instant, but... I'll let you go be someone else's problem. Go ahead, leave."
The two Mercuries could not find any good reason not to humor that request.
A/N: I didn't intend this particular arc to be long, but it will be shorter than some old readers might expect. A reason for this is I was once a fan of crossovers, but I find them mostly pointless nowadays. Still, this arc has a purpose, one old readers should know, and new readers will figure out soon. It is by no means a 'filler arc.'
So, fasten your seatbelts, because things are about to get as crazy as usual.