Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 12: Eternal night.
Episode 144: Hell's rage.

By Razor Knight
Last update: April 21, 2017
Last edited: June 20, 2017

Aiko looked at the screen on the tower's wall. It showed the Earth, though it would have been hard to recognize it, as it was wrapped in black and only a small spot remained untouched. "Tokyo is the only place in the world still free of the darkness."

"This sucks," Mako said. "Most of the world will resent being left in the dark."

"Or they can grow a brain and realiize us losing this war would be much worse for them in the long run."

Usagi looked at Rei. "Maybe they're right. We aren't strong enough to beat these enemies easily." She saw Rei about to complain and smiled. "But you're also right, they're lucky we are around."

"I didn't think the aliens would take their time," Ami said.

"It's only been one day since we got back here," Minako noticed.

"Yes, but their reason to take over is to feed. The longer they wait, the more likely it is for them to have less to feed on."

Karin winced. "Right, animals and plants need sunlight."

"And humans need it too. I think we should get ready. They will attack soon."

Rei sighed. "I'm going to the shrine. I want to check on Hisa and Yuu."

Aiko nodded. "We'll give you a call if, or rather when, those assholes attack again."

Prime Huntress Mira had not been out of action for the last seven years. Demon Hunters took care of minor threats, and there was always some stray monster or smalll group of aliens to deal with. True, as a Prime she was supposed to rely on her subordinates, but she liked Usagi's way of doing things better than "the Demon Hunter ways." She couldn't be everywhere at once, but she and her two friends were known for being in the front line rather than sitting around and letting others fight. Some Hunters were against that, but a surprisingly high number of them liked their way of leading.

Still, the current war made her remember why the Senshi were the first line of defense. Most Hunters were rendered nearly helpless by the magical darkness - they needed some strong spells to be able to 'see' in it, and those sapped their mana fast - and even for the strongest Primes, the time they could be actively fighting before needing to rest was appalingly short.

They couldn't beat this foe. Neither could youma, even though they seemed to not care about the darkness much - their world was unusually dark to begin with.

Still, they weren't giving up. Their mission was to protect the Earth, and if they had not shrunk against something as strong as Chaos, they would most certainly not surrender their world to some weak aliens.

"Maybe if we nuke them?"

Aiko smiled at Mako's words. "If you give me a few hours, I could shoot every single nuclear weapon at them and see how they like it. They're in deep space so it wouldn't affect any planet."

Chie looked at Aiko in shock. "Wait a damn second... You mean you know how to-"

"I'd rather not tell the world I can get past the security measures of places like the Pentagon in a matter of minutes. I won't use them against humans, but not everyone will be okay with me having that choice."

"Using them without telling them it's you would be worse. They would start pointing fingers and wars could spark off that easily."

Terry nodded at Ami's words. "Or they find out it's Aiko, take it the wrong way and try to nuke us."

Aiko looked up and muttered some unladylike words. "Speaking of fools attacking, I detect a Dark Core coming. If my estimates are right, it will land close to Rei's place."

Dark Core was the name media had given the pods used by their foes to spread darkness. Still... "Only one Core?"

Aiko nodded to Usagi. "It's twice as large as the ones we've seen so far. That may mean there's many more aliens in it."

Usagi frowned. "Maybe it's their boss, or maybe just some 'General' type. Let's just go there and find out."

Aiko sighed as the others vanished, except for Ami. Of course, Aiko had sent a 'copy' along, but she was still - not at all surprising - very good at multitasking. She looked at the screen on the wall and its image changed. "Hello, General."

General Kino was not quite happy with the current war, but even Tomoe's rushed attempts at finding a way for their troops to help had been quite unsuccessful. "Another attack?"

Ami nodded. "Yes. A large Dark Core is coming. If we're lucky it will be their boss."

"Your definition of luck worries me."

Rei looked at Hisako and smiled. "Nice, you're learning fast."

Hisako looked at the flame hovering over her hand and it vanished. "I wanna be a Senshi like you, when I grow up."

"It's not really fun and you would need to train a lot, just like we did," Rei said, "but being a Senshi is not something you can decide. I'm sure you'll be a Sailor Mars in a few years." It was a pity her grandfather would not know his guess had been right. She found it hard to believe, but 'grandpa' Masato Hino had been gone for three years. His funeral had also been the first time she had seen her father cry.

Yuu walked out of the shrine just as most of the Senshi teleported in. "Crap. Trouble?"

"A pod is heading this way, and it's bigger than usual."

Rei looked up. There, she could see it. "Hisa, go inside."

"But mommy..."

"Just go!"

Yuu took Hisako's hand. "I'll go with you."

The pod 'landed' right then - as usual, their landing involved punching into the ground a few inches - and five aliens came out of it. They were slightly taller than other 'Darklings' - the name media had given these aliens - and wore what looked like metal armor, as black as their bodies. They wasted no time, shooting the Senshi, as darkness started spreading, faster than usual.

Rei, or rather Mars, started dodging and fighting back. Surprisingly, these aliens didn't go down in one shot, which meant they didn't just look stronger than other Darklings, they were magnitudes tougher.

One of the creatures went down after five fully powered blasts from Moon, and Mars risked checking on her daughter. Yuu was still trying to drag her into the temple, that girl could be as stubborn as she was - her train of thoughts was interrupted as she felt something. One of the creatures had shot at her while she was distracted, but her flame shield had deflected the shot. However, it was heading straight for... "Hisako!"

Moon had heard Mars shout and had risked looking in the direction of the temple. She saw Hisako was okay, but Yuichiro was kneeling right on front of her. As he slumped to the ground, Moon realized what had happened. No, it couldn't be happening, maybe they could still-

Mars let out a scream. Rage, regret, grief, anger, all her darker feelings boiled like never before. She knew it, he couldn't be brought back again. These assholes... She could feel something in her mind, something that would have scared her normally, but right now, she couldn't care less. They would pay for what they did.

Moon saw a dome of fire appear around Hisako and Yuu. "Why..." She stopped as she felt something else. "No. Rei, don't!"

"What are-" Aiko started, then paled. "Fuck. We need to get away from the shrine, now!"

"But-"

Aiko growled. "Guys, you can't sense how much power Rei is gathering. She could give Cosmos a hard time. We need to go, we'll deal with everything else once she's done."

Mars had sensed her friends leave, but she didn't mind. She would take care of these bastards, and then go blow their damn ship out of the sky.

Her foes had been futilely trying to stop her. They had shot more than twenty dark blasts at her, but she was not dodging, nor using her shield. The insanely high levels of mana in her body made her quite literally immune to their blasts. Suddenly, her whole body was covered by flames and they heard the last word they would ever hear.

"Die."

The others were a few blocks away when it happened. A dome of fire spread out of Mars' body, burning down the shrine, the aliens and their pod in seconds, but the fire was still growing.

Aiko frowned. "This is bad. We need to stop her."

Moon nodded. "I know. I'll try to."

"Should we run in case you can't do it?"

Moon looked at Shingo in a way that made it clear she was dead serious. "There's no point. If I don't stop her, there won't be anywhere to run."

Mars' mind was mostly busy keeping up the attack, but a part of it was amazed at how much power she was using. Still, she could notice something... Someone else was there, in her mind.

"Rei, you have to stop this."

"Go away, Usagi. Not really in the mood for one of your worthless pep talks."

Usagi knew it was just the grief speaking there. "I don't need to talk. Let me just show you what will happen, what you're about to do."

Images appeared in her mind, and Rei could not look away fron them. She saw the dome expanding, slowly but steadily destroying buildings around them. She saw her friends trying to escape, but then the dome -or rather sphere - of fire reached the mana wells deep under Tokyo, causing them to explode, and starting a chain reaction that destroyed the Earth. She also saw the alien ship simply flying away, looking for the next planet to drain.

She knew Usagi wasn't just lying to scare her out of her rage. No, she could see it now. Her outburst would not mean a thing to their foes, but it would destroy the world she was born to protect. It would kill everyone she cared about. Even Hisa.

That thought did it, Mars felt her power going back to normal fast, and she fell to her knees in shock. She had lost her grandfather, she had lost Yuu, she couldn't lose Hisa as well.

The Senshi and their allies had phased in the moment the large bubble of flames vanished, but none of them said a thing as Mars sobbed. Saturn saw Hisako walk to Mars, and looked at Dragon Saturn. This had been something that had been haunting them, they had always wondered how it would feel to know you couldn't bring someone back. She didn't need him to tell her, it was clear he was feeling as bad as she was about it.

"Go away."

Moon cringed. There was something wrong with the calm, emotionless tone Rei had. "Rei, we..."

"I said go away, you stupid airhead!"

Moon ignored her insult. "We won't. We're your friends. We'll be here for you-"

"I'm an idiot," Mars said. "This stupid skill of mine... I should have let that blast hit. Maybe I would have died, but I could be brought back. Because of me, Yuu is-"

"Rei, stop that. If you want to blame someone, blame those Darklings. Use your rage on them."

Mars looked at Moon, then at Hisako - who had gone to try and 'wake' Yuu up, but was now crying as she realized he was... She stood up. and walked to her, picking her up and letting her cry on her shoulder. "I... I can't. When I try to trigger that again, something in my mind is... I just can't. I guess... You'll be missing another soldier."

"You're no soldier to me, Rei. You're my need to be there for Hisako. Don't worry, we will defeat those creeps for you."

Mars smiled sadly. She was lucky to have friends like them.

"The Zealots lost."

The creature looked at his subordinate. "How coild they?" Were these Senshi stronger than his best warriors? That sounded unlikely.

"They managed to kill one of the mages, but another one used a sort of area blast which killed the Zealots instantly."

The creature frowned. "If that same trick can be used by them again, it will complicate things. Send as many Zealots as you can, along with Priests. maybe we can overwhelm them through sheer numbers.

If that failed... He would have to go to Earth personally, and get rif of those mages, those 'Senshi.' Nothing could stop the Nightfall.

A/N: I'm sure a few old readers were expecting me to change the outcome of that particular battle.

Insert evil writer's laughter here.

Joking aside, this episode was hard to write last time, and this time it wasn't any easier. Yuu is, after all, my favorite canon Sailor Moon male character. Not a hard title to obtain, though, as most male characters are either cardboard cut villains, rapists, five minutes crushes, or Victims Of The Day.