Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 11: Tales of another world.
Episode 137: The day the Senshi lost.

By Razor Knight
Last update: March 15, 2017
Last edited: June 18, 2017

Usagi had to admit things had gone better than expected. True, some people was still upset that they had been left homeless for months, but it wasn't like the Senshi hadn't lost their own houses too.

Still, their short 'world tour' had removed their urban legend status from the rest of the world. And everyone knew where their base was now, thanks to a 'slight' modification Terry had done to its plans.

"Awesome view from up here, right? The cityscape is different, but it's still good."

Usagi turned to her daughter. "Been a while."

ChibiUsa smiled. She and Hotaru had decided to go on a short trip while their city was rebuilt. "Heh, yeah. I could finally go see the rest of Japan."

They were now on the roof of the tall, white tower built on the same spot their underground base used to be. It still had an underground area, but it was mainly used for the base's systems. The original plans for the tower had it colored black, but after Umino said it was one giant flaming eye away from a villain's lair, Terry changed his mind.

"So this is the mighty 'S Tower.' They built it faster than I thought possible."

Usagi cringed at the nickname fans had came up with to call their base. Four months had passed since the Kh'Sun were defeated, and things had been relatively peaceful, not counting a couple instances of mantis-like aliens. Usagi was not so sure anymore if Terry's description of those creatures, 'running gag,' was too far from the truth.

"Years ago I would have denied it, but I miss fighting."

ChibiUsa smiled at that. "Me too."

Usagi's mind returned to the Kh'Sun's fall. A few days after the last battle, the carriers had reappeared, but they hadn't returned to the Earth. Apparently, the slaves realized the R'Pah was gone and turned against their masters, then left, most likely to look for a planet they could live in.

"Uh, a heli is heading this way. Most likely a fan, or a reporter."

"Let's go in, not in the mood for either right now."

Inside the tower, Ami and Aiko were talking to Ky'ma. The red-furred catgirl had 'disguised' herself as a red-haired woman, and had adapted to life on Earth quite quickly. While she was no warrior, she had learnt a lot about computers and robotics while working with the Kh'Sun, and had been offered a job at Zephyr Robotics. Terry had not been against it, since he was the one who gave his father the idea of hiring her.

"I have to admit that you look rather good for a three thousand years old woman," Aiko said.

"Thanks for the compliment but I can look as old or as young as I want, so..."

Ami sighed. "I have to ask... Is the 'cat' your real form?"

Ky'ma - or 'Kim' as she had chosen for her human name - smiled as her form changed. She was still humanoid, but there were no features in her grey, crystalline body other than round, purple eyes. "As I told you before, I'm the last of the Aetehris. Those lizard bastards knew my race was dangerous and decided to destroy rather than assimilate. I'm only alive because they needed a test subject, to see if they could weaponize our skills. They failed, but I proved myself the perfect spy..."

"Why choose that 'catgirl' form?"

"A Mehuran. That's a race which no longer exists, as far as I know. One of the few friends I had in that damn ship was a Mehuran. She was a pilot, and was killed on the invasion of one of many worlds. My race is neither male nor female, but for some reason... I started using that form as a way of mourning a lost race, but I got used to it. It started feeling more 'me' than my real form."

There was something else that made Kim stand out. She didn't require sleep, and didn't eat. Apparently her 'heart' was a mana generator. Strange, but the Senshi were used to strange.

Rei appeared next to them, her mood visibly bad. "We may have a new threat to take care of."

"Seen something?"

Rei nodded. "The sacred fires showed me an image. I was standing on top of a pile of debris, and I could only see wrecked buildings around me. Tokyo, in ruins."

"The whole city?"

"Yes."

The two Usagi had teleported in just in time to hear the potentially bad news. "Well, that's what I get for saying I missed fighting."

Rei sighed. "I trust those visons but they are showing me what could happen. We can avoid-"

Aiko frowned. "The computer is detecting... Something near the school."

"Something?"

"It doesn't seem to be able to identify it. When I try to focus it just gives me error messages."

"Try getting a visual on whatever it is."

"No cameras nearby."

Ami frowned. "We'll have to do this the fun way, then."

Usagi looked at Aiko. "Warn everyone else, we'll call them if we need them."

What they found when they teleported close to their target wasn't what they expected, by far. Mercury had already been in that situation before, but it was still strange looking at herself. And a second Mars was also there. They both looked younger - fifteen at most - and even though their suit was an Eternal Senshi suit, it was dirty, and the two looked thin. "Guess our Ami wasn't the only tourist around."

The other Mars snorted at that. "Tourists? Is that what you were doing in our reality, just sightseeing?"

"Not really, we were accidentally sent jumping around the multiverse," Mercury said.

"Your accident might be the only bit of good luck we had in years," the other Mercury noted.

Mercury frowned. The other Mercury kept glaring at her and not bothering to cover it up. She decided to ignore that and focus on the reason they were there. "You are from... That reality with the destroyed Tokyo."

Mars gasped at that. "So the one from my vision wasn't me, but her..."

"We will tell you why we're here, but first... Gather all your allies. I can tell things went different in your world already, and I want to know where it went wrong for us."

"They should all be in our base," Moon said.

"Base. You have a base," the other Mars muttered.

"If I had to guess I would say it's that white tower," the other Mercury said.

"Yeah. We'll teleport you there."

"No need for that," the other Mars said.

The Senshi and their allies were surprised by the 'visitors.' Moon had, in her mind, started to think of them as Mercury-beta and Mars-Beta, to stop herself from being too confused. "I'm seeing double," Brad joked.

"There's a lot more Senshi, and some others we don't know about," Mercury-beta noted, "but we'll worry about that later. I take it you guys killed Beryl?"

"Yes," Moon said. "We defeated her and Metallia, and have fought many wars after that one."

"So you beat the Generals and Onara?" Mars-beta asked.

"... Onara never worked with the Dark Kingdom."

"Maybe that's what went wrong. In our version of that war, Aurite met a human scientist who was interested in magic and wanted to try creating artificial soldiers who could use magic. Beryl saw the potential in that project and decided to give him the means to mass-produce his Omega."

"So Onara started sending the Omega during the Dark Kingdom wars?" Terry frowned. "I can see how that would have been a very bad thing."

"It was. We were losing the war, the Youma had gathered all but one of the shards of the Ginzuishou and plenty of life energy. But then the Mooncats remembered Usagi was the Moon Princess. She wasn't sure she could do it, but we told her to believe in herself. Not really helped us a lot in the end."

Mars-beta sighed. "Beryl wanted to get rid of us, and ordered the Generals to attack us, along with many of the Omega..."

Mercury was worried. Fighting Aurite and two of the Omega was hard, even with Dragon Mercury's help. Luminite's death had not weakened the Generals as a whole, and she... "I have a bad feeling about this battle."

"Don't give up, we can win this."

The Omega were waiting. They seemed to be sure of their victory. Aurite smiled. "Just wait a little while, kids. Once we get the shard your group has, I promise you'll die too quick to feel any pain."

Mercury frowned. "How nice of you." She had her visor up, to try and find any weaknesses in the Omega, but suddenly flinched. "I detect a power spike north of here. It's Venus!"

Mira appeared near the two Mercuries. "Guys, Moon needs help."

"We have to beat Aurite first and-"

"Listen, Zoicite figured out Moon was the one with the shard. He's helping Jadeite. But the Generals are all using shards too. We need to regroup."

Aurite smirked. "I was left fighting the weakest Senshi. Go be with your friends, cling to your pointless hope. You will all die in the end."

Mercury frowned at that, but was quite aware staying would be pointless. If Usagi got more shards, she could destroy the Omega and beat the Generals. And if she gathered them all... " Let's go, our friends need us."

First thing she noticed when she reached her goal was that there was a new Senshi - Saturn, she had seen pictures of her in the web - and that her suit was different. But also... Her friends were all trying to fight their foes, but Venus was fighting the hardest. She had a suit similar to Saturn's one. Twilight Senshi? She could guess why, since Dragon Venus was not around. "This looks bad."

Moon was seemingly just standing there as her allies fought, but Mercury knew her friend wouldn't just stay out of a battle, much despite herself. But what was she doing?

"Let's go kick some General rears," Dragon Mercury said.

Moon smiled. "I'll take care of them."

The Generals all felt it, their power going down abruptly. For Kunzite and Zoicite, who had beem fighting Venus, that was a very bad thing. "What in Darkness... The Moon Princess!"

Kunzite tried to move to attack Moon, who now had all seven crystal shards in her hands, but that proved itself a tactical error. His last one.

Venus looked at Kunzite's corpse as it vanished. She had used the Venus Dragon sword to stab through his heart, and added a generous dose of light magic to make sure he was dead. "That one's for Brad, asshole."

Zoicite thought Venus was distracted and tried to attack, but Venus was quite aware of him. "Twilight V-Laser!"

Mercury sighed. They could win this, once Usagi fixed the Ginzuishou- Her mind registered a new threat even before her visor told her about it. She remembered this woman, from her past life. Beryl. But there was something else there. "No..."

Moon saw Beryl was there, and also Metallia. Could she hope to defeat them both? No, she couldn't give up before even trying. She looked at the crystal shards and smiled. "I will not let you win!"

Mercury smiled as the shards gathered and shone, forming a small crystal which floated right above Moon's hand. The Ginzuishou. Her smile vanished, however, as Beryl laughed.

"It is sad that you finally gather that crystal when you're about to die."

Moon smiled coldly. "You can't defeat me, Beryl." Light surrounded her for a second, her suit changing into a royal, white gown.

"On my own, I can't, but fortunately I am not alone. Generals!"

The Senshi would have helped their Princess, but Beryl had all bases covered. There were two Omega for each Senshi, and even Venus and Saturn were having troubles fighting them.

The Princess wasn't worried. Even the Generals seemed to know they were on the losing side. The three remaining Generals tried to overwhelm her by going melee, but she had no trouble at all keeping up.

"Beryl, stop fooling around and kill her."

Beryl looked at the dark cloud behind her. "I will defeat them all, with your help."

"I cannot fight like this, my energy is still too unstable."

Beryl smiled coldly. "You are quite right, and that's why I'm going to do as you asked and kill that petty Princess."

The Princess sighed. All three Generals were down, heavily wounded, but refused to give up. She no murderer but she had to help her friends, her time was running out. She could not waste time with- she felt the sharp pain in her chest and looked down to see a scaly appendage - a tail - coming out of her chest. "I... This can't be..."

"Usagi!"

Mercury was shocked. Looking around the battlefield, she saw that it wasn't just Usagi. Naru, Mako and Terry were also- "No... We lost."

Mars walked to her. "Ami, don't give up! We have to-"

"What's the point-" Her visor warned her of something. A massive surge of energy. "That is... Pluto?"

Beryl walked to the Princess as she fell, taking the crystal and nodding at the massive creature that had solved her main problem. "See, Princess, I told you you were about to die." She walked to Metallia and sighed. "Even though I have the Ginzuishou, I still have one thing to take care of."

"Yes... Kill them! Kill the Senshi!"

"I will, but I want to make sure none of them can even hope to defeat me. And that's where you will help me."

"I told you already, I can't fight, you-"

"Oh, I know, but now that I finally got this crystal in my hands, I can see the legends were right. I don't need you, Metallia. I need your energy."

Metallia finally understood what Beryl wanted, but it was too late to do something about it. If Beryl had awakened her later, she could have probably taken over Beryl's body, but... That's why Beryl had awakened early, she realized. "Such a cruel fate, to be destroyed by a mere human."

"Thanks to you I'm no longer human, but I'm much more than a youma. And once your energy is mine, I will become a goddess."

It happened too fast, Metallia didn't have time to scream or say anything as she was absorbed by the crystal. Metallia's soul was destroyed in the process, but Beryl didn't need that, just her energy. "And now..."

"And now I will stop your madness."

Beryl turned to the voice and smiled. "Oh, the coward. Where is your speech of destiny now?"

"Your destiny is to die, Beryl, even if you managed to defeat some of us."

"Fool! Are you so focused on your own words that you cannot see the truth?"

"Killing me won't change your fate."

"Shut up!"

Pluto blocked the energy blast with her staff, but it knocked her back. "I know I can't hold back so... Garnet Ender." The blast was almost invisible, but it had enough power in it to destroy a planet. Pluto had overcharged it, using most of her life force along with all of her mana. If it failed, she would die either way.

Beryl smiled coldly as she held the Ginzuishou in front of her. It was no longer silvery, as Metallia's energy had flooded it. A black crystal, a mockery of the tool the Senshi had placed all their hopes in. It was fitting, Beryl thought, that she used such a tool to break Pluto's will. As the attack was absorbed, she laughed. "Did you really think you could fight a goddess?"

Pluto, however, was not showing any signs of despair. "It is you who is blind. Your fate is still to be defeated by Senshi."

Beryl looked at Pluto's corpse for a moment before turning to leave. "A fool to the very end."

Four more Senshi appeared. Two had been fighting the Omega - and Beryl noticed the robots were gone - but the other two had been keeping an eye on a potential, future threat, but had decided to take care of the much more direct threat Beryl had become.

"Uranus, Neptune, Saturn and Venus." Beryl said with a mocking reverence. "So you are all Twilight Senshi now? Tell me, what do weaklings like you hope to accomplish that even a Holy Senshi like Pluto couldn't do?"

"Make you eat your own heart, for starters," Venus said as a strange sword appeared in her hands. "Venus Cosmic Power!"

Mercury-beta looked around the room. "We saw them fall too. We were the last two left, if only because we were both too scared to help."

"So how did you win?"

"We didn't win, we lost everything we had," Mars-beta said. "If you mean how we managed to stay alive... We cheated."

"What does-"

"Usagi, just let us finish our story and you'll know."

"Right, go ahead." Moon frowned. She had a very good idea of why these two were there, and she hoped she was wrong.

A/N: I know, I know, Beryl growing a brain is too out of character. Oops, my bad.

This will be another 'short' arc chapter-wise but it may be longer, as far as word count goes, than its previous version.