Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 10: Space Invaders.
Episode 133: Unfriendly skies.

By Razor Knight
Last update: March 10, 2017
Last edited: June 17, 2017

"It's good to have you with us, Minako. But you should come visit more often."

Minako smiled. "I know. Sorry Amber, it's just that my 'job' keeps me quite busy."

"I've heard about some unique skills your group has. I wouldn't think it true if the source wasn't the three youngest primes. Could I see your power at work?"

"Of course," the blonde said and 'vanished,' reappearing a hundred meters away, a split second later. She then did the same to return to her original spot. "I can run fast, Ami can understand any language just by hearing a few words in it, Mako could probably use tanks as projectiles, Rei has a nearly unbreakable shield, and Naru can enter shadows and use them to attack their owner."

"Your powers all sound quite useful."

"Usagi can use all elements, but techniques she creates with them will always be weaker than those she can do with raw magic."

"And I heard she can use all elements at once."

"She can't use Senshi magic for a long time after doing that, so she's keeping it as a last resort move."

Amber sighed. "I also heard some worrying news, about the future."

Brad had been just listening to them, but decided to speak his mind. "That future won't happen. We'll make sure of that. It's an indirect request from Queen Serenity of Crystal Tokyo, after all."

A red-haired girl appeared next to them, and Minako took a moment to recognize her. Last time she had seen her, the girl had been twelve, and Minako had to admit she had grown into a quite attractive young woman. "Tia?"

The girl smiled. "Long time no see, Minako." She then turned serious. "Mother, the evacuation is on hold."

"What?"

"The mayor says he needs to wait for approval from above before he can give the order to evacuate."

"That old, stubborn fool. Many could get hurt due to his love for bureaucracy."

"I told him we would help the citizens and, if panic grew, that we would move people out of the city, with or without his approval."

"Was he okay with that?"

"Not quite. Not that I bothered to stay and listen to his veiled threats for too long."

"Wow, we're lucky Rei's dad is not that dense," Minako said.

A continent away, another group was getting ready for the upcoming threat. "The city looks quite impressive."

Hotaru smiled at that. "It would look a lot nicer without the huge spaceship up there, or civilians down there panicking around."

"Wish we could help with the evacuation but we need to focus on that hive up there."

"Speaking of focusing..."

"You can tell? I'm just worried, I never heard about this Kh'Sun fleet coming to the Earth, don't remember seeing it in history books."

"So? Isn't history changing a good thing for us?"

"I don't know. I hate not knowing what's going to happen next."

"I see. I can't tell you everything will be okay, because I also can't see the future. But don't be afraid to tell me about those kinds of things."

"Thanks."

Haruka appeared next to them. "Good news, the army will be around to help us fight this enemy. They also asked about the rumors that we can take shots from any conventional weapon without flinching."

"And you girls told them it was no rumor."

"Yeah."

"Where's Michiru?"

Haruka shrugged. "She wanted to check on our old... Base."

"That brings back memories," Hotaru said.

"Hana and Shingo are taking their time," ChibiUsa commented.

"She hasn't seen her parents much since she was revived. We're here to fight those aliens, but I'm sure Usagi wouldn't forbid Hana from spending time with her family."

"You're right," ChibiUsa said, "I should trust her."

Hotaru looked up and sighed. "The party's already starting."

Hana and Shingo appeared near them. "Let's show those aliens what we can do."

Moon was worried. New types of ships had come from the cruisers, one had shields, and the other had homing missiles. While she knew individually these ships were weak, there were thousands of them around. And even with youma helping, her allies were heavily outnumbered. She dove to the side as one of the shield ships shot at her, but didn't see the missile ship coming at her from above. Fortunately, someone else saw it and destroyed it before it could attack.

"Thanks," Moon said, then noticed who it was. A youma which had scaly skin, and reptilian eyes, but looked quite human otherwise.

"It's an honor to help the Senshi Queen."

Moon smirked. "No need to be so formal, Kiara."

The youma - who usually run a bakery Usagi went to regularly - didn't try to hide her surprise. "You knew I was a youma?"

"I hope your race will soon understand that I mean what I said back then. We don't mind youma amongst us as long as they don't hurt humans."

Kiara smiled. "Good. I got used to being around humans. I like it here. If only I could drop the disguise..."

"Just like your people isn't quite ready, as a whole, to the idea of peace, humans as a whole are used to 'monsters' being evil. I will make them see beyond your looks, one day. Just be patient."

The female youma nodded. "Excuse me if I'm rude, but I find the fact that you've kept on blasting ships out while talking to me a bit... Intimidating."

"It's something I'm not proud of, to be able to put my warrior side on auto pilot, but I learnt years ago that I will have to do things I don't like, for the sake of my home planet." She sensed something and summoned her comm as Kiara flew away to look for more targets. "Setsuna?"

"It may not look like it but we may lose this battle. My group is tiring down, and your daughter's group is also slowly being overwhelmed."

Usagi could sense her friends were tired. She was still fine, but she was aware she wouldn't be able to beat the enemy's fleet on her own. "I can tell you have a plan."

"I do, but I wanted to tell you so you can tell your friends what I did."

"Wait, you're not planning on doing anything suicidal, right?"

"Not quite, but thanks for worrying. Here's what..."

Warwitch was quite shocked. During the previous battle, she had little time to rest, so she hadn't paid much attention to the others. But in this battle, enemy ships had been mostly focusing on Pluto, and the Time Senshi was making them regret it. Pluto wasn't even directly destroying the ships, Yukiko knew those were time displacement blasts.

The thing about time travel was that, unlike in movies, the universe kept on moving. The 'Time Maze' beyond the gates Pluto guarded was not just a time traveling device, it also allowed one to move through space, hence being able to 'connect' The Earth from many eras.

But Pluto's attacks sent the ships she hit forwards in time. How much, Warwitch couldn't tell. It didn't matter. With the speed the Earth moved through space, those ships could be reappearing inside solid ground, or inside the Earth's core, or within the Sun. Not a fun way to go.

Of course, even with the aliens focusing on Pluto, there were still plenty of ships to fight for the others. She saw Aiko near her, but she knew her girlfriend was quite literally all around the battlefield. Venus was using her speed to destroy ships by the dozens, and her guy used his book to cast a seemingly unlimited number of weak magic blasts. Warwitch had to admit she felt a bit out of place.

"You look worried."

She almost gasped in surprise. Aiko had appeared right next to her, staring at her curiously. "I'm fine."

"I've known you long enough to know a certain face you make when you're worried. And I would be a lousy girlfriend if I could just ignore that."

"We need to focus on this battle-"

"Stop that. I won't be able to focus until I know what has you so upset."

"I... Feel weak."

"Weak?" Aiko sighed. "You may not realize this but I can say this without doubt. You are the most powerful non-Senshi human mage alive."

"Still, compared to Pluto..."

"Of course you'll look weak compared to her. She's been around for thousands of years. She may well be out of our reach."

"But..."

The battlefield lit up, and the two looked south to see the fleet was gone. All of it.

"What the actual fuck-"

Aiko saw Pluto slowly floating to the ground near them, and then she slumped to the ground. "Was she the one doing that?"

Warwitch took out her comm. "Usagi?"

"Everyone, the battle is over, for now. Pluto did something I didn't know she could do, she moved all the carriers forwards in time. She may be out of action for a few days, but maybe the Kh'Sun will take the hint and leave."

Warwitch put her comm away and sighed. "You're right, I should not try to compare myself with-" Something Aiko said finally hit her. "Wait, you said I'm the strongest non-Senshi mage? What about the Huntresses?"

"... I could show you numbers, but I wish you could trust me on this. Those three can throw more mana than you in one single shot, but your reserves and recovery speed are much higher."

"I trust you, I just-"

"I know. You have a knack for underestimating yourself."

"Shush."

Venus 'appeared' near them. "Okay, we're going back to Tokyo."

"Without Pluto to take us there, it will take a while."

"ChibiUsa will pick us up," Venus said.

"But won't Pluto scold her for using her key-"

"She said it's Pluto's fault for falling asleep on her job."

"Sir, all the carriers were destroyed."

The Nh'Prowr was not happy with those news. "Send a Former down there."

"To Tokyo?"

"Yes. I'm still waiting for Ky'ma's report. If she finds nothing in the next three Z'lars, we'll teach those humans not to opose our Empire."

Usagi was glad for the short break, but also upset. Pluto had not told her how long the carriers would be out, but she was sure those aliens wouldn't give up. They were meeting at the shrine, for a change, and Usagi had to admit the city looked different with no people around.

"Guys, I just thought of something," Minako said. "If Pluto is out of action, who is keeping an eye on the Time Gates?"

Usagi noticed ChibiUsa's grimace. "You know something."

ChibiUsa sighed. "It's one of those things I can't tell you about. If Setsuna wants to tell you, she will."

"... Right."

Minako frowned. "That makes me even more curious, but... I guess I'll find out later on."

Aiko looked up and flinched. "Another large spaceship is coming."

"More carriers?"

"No, this one is slightly smaller, and its shape is- Let me show you." As she said that last bit, a 'screen' appeared in mid-air, showing a large ship flying past the Moon, and the others could see Aiko was right. It looked like a giant wheel, an outer ring with several 'tubes' connected to a small - comparatively speaking - sphere in the exact center of the ship. "I'm still not sure what-"

The sky darkened, and the Senshi all looked up. "These creeps love their big ships."

Aiko nodded but then produced her communicator as she sensed something.

"Hi." That was Ami's voice.

"Mom, dad, I'm glad you're back. As you can guess, we've been a bit busy while you were gone."

"Welcome back!" Usagi said, smiling as she heard Ami chuckle. She had really missed those two.

"We'll be right there," Terry said.

"Good. I... Let's talk when you get here," Aiko said before ending the 'call.'

Usagi saw Aiko was, again, crying. But she knew those were happy tears.

A/N: Back when I started this 'Book' of Sailor Moon Aeons, I said I was going to split the 'present' era in two, so after Galaxia's arc I would start a third book. However, later on I felt it wouldn't look right since the first 'Book' covered a far longer period of time than this one, even though the pacing was faster. So this part of the Aeons saga will continue on until-

Oops, almost spoiled this Book's ending.