Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 10: Space Invaders.
Episode 136: The R'Pah.

By Razor Knight
Last update: March 14, 2017
Last edited: June 17, 2017

Mercury had seen the difference in power Moon had with everyone else, but now she could actually feel how much stronger an Eternal Senshi was. She could also tell Dragon Saturn had been slowly healing himself for the last minute or so. But she would most likely not need his help, her foe was now missing an arm and most of its frontal plating.

The Dragon wasn't healing himself to help her, however. It was clear that lizard-shaped trashcan was not designed to fight Eternal Senshi. He was healing because... Well, he needed to do something. To give the alien catgirl - was that even her real form? - a second chance. Not just because she could have informatiom they could use against the invaders, but because he found her death to be quite unfair.

Mercury was just done ripping the robot's head off, when she sensed two more of them. It wasn't her glove or her visor detecting them - she could see the two creatures approaching, in her mind. "Strange, I guess not only Moon gets two 'skills.'"

"What do you mean?"

Mercury saw the two robots walking to them and smirked. "Let me show you." She could see it, their code, in her mind. No, not just see it. "There, this should be enough."

The Dragon was almost fully healed, but he saw the two robots start trying to rip each other to pieces and gasped. "How?"

"I could sense their robotic brains, and I could also rewrite their code from a distance. The language of their code was alien, but-"

The two robots punched each other's heads off right then. The Dragon whistled as he knew what she meant. "Your other skill let you understand that language."

"Yeah." She noticed him staring at Ky'ma's corpse. "You're going to revive her, right?"

"I would if I had any energy left."

"Since I owe her my life, let me help you with that."

The Dragon could feel energy rushing into him as Mercury closed her eyes. He focused on Ky'ma and, after a minute, managed to revive her. "Welcome back."

"What- You revived me?"

"You saved Ami. Let's call it even."

Mercury was looking around. "I can see dozens of those robots out there. My skill doesn't work from far away, though."

"We just need to get closer, then."

Ky'ma blinked at that. She hadn't noticed at first, but Mercury's suit had changed. "Is that an Eternal suit?"

"Yes. In a way, you gave me the push I needed to power up. And I unlocked a new skill, one that allows me to interact with computers from a relatively long ldistance."

"That sounds useful."

Mercury nodded. "I know how to find everyone now."

Phase was quite tired, but at least the fight was over now. The robot had been tough but it was clearly not designed to focus on more than one target.

"This is bad. There could be more of those around and we don't know where the others are."

Phase was about to say something, when she 'heard' someone speak.

'Aiko?'

'Mom? How the heck-'

'No time. Listen, I know where the others are, I'll give you the coordinates. Tell those with you to help one group, I'll go get a different one. You go and tell Usagi where the last group is.'

'Got it.'

Phase could see several sets of coordinates. "Guys, listen. Go to where the school was, a few of our friends are fighting two of those bugs. I'll go get Usagi."

Dragon Sun frowned as Phase vanished. "Guess she got through the interference."

"No time for guessing, let's help our friends."

Phase appeared near Moon and gasped. There were pieces of robots all over the place, and Moon seemed to be quite worn out. "You beat all those alone?"

Moon nodded. "Saturn was knocked out easily, I had to keep them from hurting her."

'Aiko, I just figured something out. Please tell Usagi what I'll tell you.'

"Moon, mom found out how to beat these things. They'll try to target the strongest Senshi first. If everyone gathers in one place..."

Mercury appeared near them. "Usagi, we need to hurry. Can you see where everyone is?"

Moon focused for a moment. "Yeah."

"I know you learnt a spell that can do it, but do you have enough energy left to bring everyone here?"

Moon nodded. She knew what spell she meant. "I think I can do that."

"Good. Do it, and those robots will come here."

"I'm not sure I'll be able to fight after that," Moon commented.

"Getting to Eternal level had some interesting side-effects for me. I'll handle the robots, you do the hard part."

Moon concentrated for almost one minute. "Here goes nothing. Wisp Portal, Regroup!"

The rest of the team -and Ky'ma - appeared around them, most of them still in battle stances. "Hi guys."

"What the heck just..." Dragon Venus saw Moon looked extremely tired. "Usagi, did you just-"

"Sorry, ask Ami. Her idea. So tired..."

Dragon Earth caught Moon as she fell forwards. "I don't know about you, but Karin and I were getting our rears kicked by those things. She kind of saved us."

Saturn woke up and looked around. "Guess I missed the fun."

"You didn't," ChibiMoon said, "mom brought us all here but those robots are still out there."

Mercury looked around. "They're all homing in on us."

"How do you know?" Warwitch asked. Mercury wasn't using her visor or looking at her glove, so how could she tell?

"Let me give you the short version. Ky'ma took a blast meant for me and died. I powered up due to that, and found out I can now interact with computers at a distance."

Phase blinked at that. "So that's how you were speaking into my mind."

"Yes. I fought three of the cyborgs on my own, first one I dealt with with brute force, but the other two..." Mercury saw a dozen robots approaching and smiled. "Well, let me show you."

The others were quite surprised to see the creatures melee each other to pieces until only one of them remained. The last robot bowed to them, then exploded.

Dragon Saturn smiled. "Here's the part where I would make a bad joke, but that was just too awesome for puns."

"Good," Mercury said with a chuckle.

"So, what next?"

Pluto appeared right as Mars asked that. "You've made the alien boss angry and he's about to break an unspoken rule of their race. But now you have the means to get rid of this particular threat for good."

Ky'ma flinched. "He's going to bring the R'pah, the mothership, here."

Pluto nodded. "It won't be an easy battle but-"

"So we go there, overload the ship's core and get out," Mercury said.

"Easier said than done."

Mercury nodded at Lilith. "I can probably disable whichever system is keeping their reactor stable, if we get close enough."

Pluto looked up. "That's quite risky. Maybe you'll find another way to deal with this threat. Your journey may have taught you something."

Mercury frowned as Pluto left. "Our journey..." No, she couldn't tell what that meant. Perhaps she would figure it out later.

Moon woke up just in time to notice the area growing dark. No, it wasn't just the area they were in. The sky had been blocked by another spaceship, and this one made the cruisers look tiny. "I think that's the final boss' ride."

Mercury nodded. "And I think we have a way to destroy it."

"Well, let's go do it," Warwitch said.

"No. You have to stay."

"Damn it Usagi, I told you-"

"The Earth needs someone to watch over it if we fail."

"Don't say that. You're Sailor Moon. You never lose."

"I agree with Yuki on this."

"Aiko, you-"

"Mom, stop it. I know I've technically only been alive for a couple years, but I've seen enough to know if you fail, that's it. I'd rather go up there and help than stay here and be the damsel."

Moon shook her head. "Fine. Do as you please."

Warwitch smiled. "I know you don't want anyone to get hurt, but I've always tried to keep up with you. I am not a weakling, Usagi. It hurts that you think a silly excuse will make me feel fine about not being up there helping you."

"... Sorry, Yuki. And everyone."

"One question though... Where are the Ginga?"

Moon sighed. "They're alive, I can sense their tree."

Jupiter shrugged. "Yeah, but why aren't they helping?"

"I talked to Natsumi a few months ago, she said they're no warriors, and our last few enemies were too powerful for them. They just-"

"They want to pretend they're normal humans," Phase said. "I suppose that explains why their 'superhero' spree lasted only a few months."

Moon looked up. "Anyhow, let's go up there. The sooner that ship is gone, the better.

They had destroyed the Former and the Khr'sed. These Sen'shi were as dangerous as the legends said. But the Kh'Sun never retreated. His ship was older than the pitiful civilization now resisting its might. He had millions of soldiers at his disposal. A handful of lowly creatures had no hope of winning against-

He looked at the monitor as alarms rang through the room. They were inside the ship, heading towards the reactor. Time to show them why infiltrating the R'Pah was the most foolish idea of their worthless lives. "Mobilize our entire army. I want every soldier available guarding the path to the main reactor."

Moon was worried. Even with Mars' shield protecting them, things weren't looking good. She could see hundreds of Kh'Sun soldiers blocking their path - lizardlike four-armed humanoids, just like the robots they had fought earlier. For each creature they killed, another took its place. A constant barrage of energy blasts was hitting the shield, as each soldier carried rifles. Was it laser blasts? Moon couldn't tell. "We need to push forwards."

Mars winced. "We need to do something, period. My shield can handle those blasts, but my energy's going to run out soon."

Mercury had been thinking about Pluto's words for a while. She knew Pluto enough to know her words were the key to getting out of their current predicament. "Something we learnt... Perhaps- I think I got it."

"Have a plan?"

She nodded at Moon. "Terry, you still have the teleporters, right?"

"Yeah, I don't see why that- No, wait. I think I get it."

"Let me see one of them."

"Not gonna go play tourist again, are you?"

Mercury smiled at Earth. "Not quite, but..." She m closed her eyes and the watch glew with a cyan light. "There, that should be enough mana for this."

"Care sharing with the rest of the class?" Jupiter joked.

"Pluto said our journey had taught us something, and I know just what. We learnt that there's some powerful beings in other realities, some of them impossibly strong, and dangeous. However, one such reality will be useful."

"... Still not following."

"Leave the exposition for later," Mars snapped, "I can barely hold my shield up."

"Okay. Usagi, come with me. Everyone else, get ready to teleport out of here. I'll tell Aiko when."

The bridge of the R'Pah was as large as expected. The Kh'Sun inside were shocked to see the two intruders appear inside, but had no time to react as they were all turned into ice statues.

Mercury looked at the console. "Good, I can link it to the teleporter and-"

"I think I know what you're planning. I'm not sure I agree with throwing this particular problem into some other universe and hope they can handle it."

"I'd like to explain this only once, so for now, just keep an eye on that door."

Moon nodded, but still wasn't quite happy with what she guessed Ami was doing. Unless... No, that couldn't be right. Could it?

It only took Mercury a couple minutes to link the ship's mainframe with the teleporter. 'Aiko, it's done. Tell everyone to go where our base was.'

'Got it. See you there.'

Mercury sighed. Okay, it's ready. Let's go back to our base, or rather, the crater it is now."

Most of the Senshi and their allies had not seen what was left of their base yet, and most of them were shocked.

"This place... Gone, just like that."

Lilith smiled sadly at Jupiter. "We can rebuild it, right?"

Mercury and Moon appeared right then. "Okay guys, wave our unfriendly visitors goodbye."

Dragon Mercury saw her place one of the watches on the ground. "Well, at least those things will have a good use."

Mercury concentrated, and as she did, the massive ship over Tokyo vanished, as did the watch on the ground. "It's over."

The Nh'Prowr was furious. The Sen'shi had escaped, but when he tried to contact the bridge, there was no answer. He teleported there along with his most trusted soldiers, but wasn't quite ready for what he saw.

Everyone was frozen, encased in ice. He walked to the nearest console. Perhaps he would be able to find those Sen'shi, send a group to-

'Error: Planet not found.'

He read the message on the screen in shock, and immediately switched to the ship's external view. "What in the name of the Kh'zalk is going on?"

It had to be a trick of some kind. Outside the ship, there was nothing. No planet, no satelite... Not even the yellow dwarf the planet orbited was there. And yet the ship's navigation system said the ship had not moved. He was about to go look for one of the ship's scientists when he saw it. A bright, pink dot of light in the distance, outside. The dot grew into what seemed to be a pink beam of energy, as tall as the R'Pah itself.

And then everything exploded around him.

"So you sent them to that reality where I'm an evil Sailor Chibi-Cosmos?"

Ami smiled at ChibiUsa's description of that particular universe. "Yes. It may sound... Not like me, but I hope they've already been dealt with."

"Good riddance," Ky'ma said.

Usagi was looking around and couldn't help but feel sad. "They deserve it. Thanks to them I had to kill millions of innocents and... Well, a lot of places we all cared about are gone."

Aiko looked down at the hole in the ground which was once their base. "Dad, are we going to rebuild it? People will know where it is."

Terry smiled. "I have something in mind. Let's just say our trip taught us a few things."

A truck stopped near them, and General Kino and Mayor Hino got out of it. "Well, looks like you guys outdid yourselves."

"What does that mean?" Rei asked.

"I'm quite aware that you were trying to stop a worse disaster, but you should be aware there may be hostility to you. Lots of people lost their homes, their jobs, and you're the only target they have."

Terry frowned. "I think I can get some, uh, anonymous non-governmental organization to help with rebuilding this area."

Kino smiled. "The rest of the world, however, is almost one hundred percent agreeing that you are saviors of this planet, and not some Japanese superweapon."

"Well, win some, lose some, I guess," Mako said.

Usagi sighed. "Let's go face the angry mobs, and hope they remember we've saved this world from much worse threats."

A/N: Another 'short' arc. Not having to follow the 'everyone gets attacked' formula makes it easier to skip filler.

What's next? Another mess for the Senshi to dive right in. What else could there be?