Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 12: Eternal night.
Episode 146: Goddess of fire.

By Razor Knight
Last update: April 29, 2017
Last edited: June 20, 2017

Moon wasn't one to despair or lose hope, but things rather hopeless right now. Most of her friends were down, although their foe had not killed them. She and ChibiMoon were the only two with any energy left, and they couldn't even hurt him. He had been fooling around, he could have just ignored their attacks from the start. If that was meant to break their will, it wouldn't work.

"Why do you still fight? Is it not obvious to you? You can't win, you can't stop the Nightfall."

"You know, I wish you would kindly shut the hell up already," ChibiMoon said. She run at the creature and tried to slash him in half again, but her foe blocked her slash with him arm. She had to hurry, she had been using her dual form almost from the start and it had sapped her energy. She couldn't fail, she wouldn't watch all her friends die again. "Die!"

The man caught one of her blades with his arm and looked at her. "You first."

Moon saw the bolts of dark energy running through ChibiMoon's sword and into her body. The girl screamed in pain for a few seconds, then fell to the ground in a heap. "You monster..."

"Don't worry, I didn't kill her. Food tastes better when fresh."

"I won't let you win."

"Go ahead, Senshi. Try, fail, despair."

Rei watched Hisako play with some dolls, a smile forming for a second. Of course Usagi would have rabbit dolls in her house. But still, she sighed. Hisako was trying hard to act normal, but Rei knew the young girl was still in pain. It was normal. But they both would need to learn to live on without him. Rei would also need to find a new home, the temple was gone and... She had thought about leaving the place for a while, ever since her grandfather passed away. And now... Seeing that place rebuilt would remind her - them - of him.

Her train of thoughts was derailed as she saw Ami appear. "Hi."

Ami smiled at her. "Hi. I... Fear this isn't a social visit."

"What's wrong?"

"We are losing, that's what's wrong."

"Ami, I can't fight, I just-"

"Rei, that bastard may not kill us now, but if we lose, the Earth is done for. You won't be able to protect Hisako by staying here."

"What difference can I make?"

Ami sighed. "Usagi told me she sensed... Your anger isn't gone, you're keeping it bottled up inside you. You have a chance to use it. We're facing their 'boss' right now, but not even Usagi can beat him."

Rei's mind clawed at those words. The boss. The one responsible for this invasion, for Yuu's death. She wanted to go, to destroy that asshole, unleash her full power on him. And yet... "I can't. I don't want to use... That again. Maybe Usagi won't be able to stop it this time around."

"Rei, I remember something a wise girl said, years ago, to someone who doubted her own power. Stop underestimating yourself."

Rei smiled sadly at that. "I guess... But if you're wrong, then-"

"Mankind is screwed if we lose. Usagi may have affected me a lot in many areas, but I still know when to stop trusting my heart and start trusting my mind. I'll hate myself for it later, but right now, we all need you to let your rage free, Rei. Unleash it on the true enemy."

Rei closed her eyes for a second, then opened them again, and Ami could notice something change. This wasn't an outburst of power, like before. Rei was in control. And Ami didn't need her visor to know her friend's power was far beyond Eternal right now. "Rei, I-"

Rei's clothes morphed into her Senshi suit and she looked at her daughter for a moment before turning to Ami. "Take care of Hisa for me."

Ami stared at the point where Mars had been standing in shock. The way Rei had said that- She couldn't really mean it, could she?

"Mommy looked like an angel."

The blue-haired woman smiled at that. The reddish aura around Mars, the three pairs of wings on her back, and the power she had sensed with her computer... Mars was no mere angel, she was the goddess of fire.

And goddesses couldn't die, right?

Moon tried to stand up, but found it hard to even do that. Everyone else was down, either unconscious or injured. But she couldn't give up. She wouldn't give up. "You bastard..."

"Such courage, such strong will. You and your friends will be a fine meal."

Moon put her arms in front of her face as the creature shot, but felt no impact. She could see a small disc of fire right in front of her. At that very moment, she felt a surge of power, and turned to see Sailor Mars there. The wings on her back were made of flame, instead of the usual angel-like wings, and her gloves and high-heeled shoes were equally flame-like.

For a moment, Moon feared her friend would rampage again, but her power let her see that was not the case. It was not pure rage fueling Mars' powers now. It was a calm, calculating fury. And as impossible as it might have seemed to her - if she hadn't beem used to 'impossibles' - her friend's power was several magnitudes stronger than what she had used back at the shrine.

"Oh, another human who-"

"Shut up, scum." Mars snapped, her tone unusually cold and calm.

"One single human won't make a difference, Nightfall will-"

Mars closed the distance between them in a blink, punching him into a wall. "I told you to shut up."

The man looked at her, seemingly realizing just how powerful she was. "Oh, that's amusing. Killing me won't stop the nightfall. Another will take my place and continue fighting you until you give up."

Mars' calm face turned into a smile. Moon almost flinched, the smile was cold and humorless, and yet the meaning of it was clear even as Mars pointed her arms up. "Rei..."

"If you're going to tell me to stop..."

"You will die if you keep that form up much longer."

Mars was a bit surprised, but at the same time, it waa what she expected from Usagi. "I already told Ami to take care of Hisa for me," she said as a wide beam of flames shot up to the sky.

Moon couldn't see it with her eyes, but her powers let her sense it. The beam had been right on target, piercing right through the Darkling mothership before any of its passengers could even realize what was happenning. Moon saw the face the creature had. The horror at what Mars had just done. Years ago she would have been shocked, terrified even at what Mars had done, but she knew better. Those aliens couldn't be saved.

"Monster!"

Mars stared at the creature dismissively. "Says the one who devastated countless worlds."

The man let out a roar and rushed at Mars. It was a reverse of his fight with all the other Senshi. He kept on hitting Mars, but she didn't seem to notice. She let him try for a minute before tackling him down to the ground, her whole body bursting into flames as she did. "You... What are you?"

Mars stared down at the man as she willed all the mana she had been gathering to rush into him. "What am I? A Senshi."

Moon had to stop herself from smiling as the creature screamed in shock and pain, unable to escape Mars' grasp as she burnt him to ashes with incredible quantities of fire mana. Finally, the war was over.

Mars stood up slowly, looking at the patch of molten concrete that was left after her attack ended. The Darklings were no more. But now that the fight was over, the consequences of using so much mana finally caught up with her. She took two steps to the others (who had started to stir and stagger up) and looked at Moon. "I-"

Moon didn't need to use her power to see it. Mars was scared. And she knew exactly why. "Rei..."

"Usako, tell Hisa I'm sorry."

Saturn flinched as Mars fell face-first to the ground, and the pavement under her started bubbling. "Shit, she-"

"Hotaru, please bring her back."

ChibiMoon looked at her mother. "Maybe she didn't want to be brought back."

Moon looked at ChibiMoon. "You of all peole should know why I want her back."

The pink-haired girl cringed. "Right, Hisako has already lost her dad." She still remembered how it felt, to know both her parents were gone.

Moon nodded. "If Rei disagrees, I'll let her shout at me for as long as she needs to."

Right then, Mars staggered up, giving Saturn a smile before turning to look at Moon. "I was an idiot, I knew I would die if I kept on fighting and yet... I realized as I felt myself dying that I would leave Hisa alone."

Ami appeared right then, along with Hisako, who was sobbing. The girl saw Mars and ran to hug her. "What I learnt today was that we Senshi apparently can feel when someone dies, even at a young age."

"Crap, that's..." Venus sighed. She couldn't imagine how that would feel.

'The war is over now," Earth said, "hopefully we can go back to pretending to be normal for a few weeks."

Right as Earth finished saying that, a mantis-like creature appeared near them. All the Senshi sighed in disbelief. Another one of those? "My plan worked! You are all tired from your war, so you will all be defeated by me! Fear the might of-" The creature felt someone tapping its shoulder and turned around to see Jupiter had phased right behind him. "Uh..."

"Hi. Bye." Jupiter said right before delivering an uppercut which caused the creature's head to fly up, reaching escape velocity in seconds and becoming another man-made satellite for the Earth.

Earth sighed. "Very funny, universe."

Moon walked to Mars. "Are you okay?"

Mars shook her head. "Terry was right, revenge is worthless."

"Well, you did save the world..."

"Guess I did."

Ami looked at Moon. "You may have noticed, but everyone else should understand that... That wasn't quite like before."

"Huh? She threw a lot of mana at them, what's the difference?"

Moon smiled at Dragon Moon. "That day, at the shrine, Rei simply gathered as much mana as she could. It looked like a lot, in fact it was beyond Eternal, even a dual Senshi would not have been a match for her then."

"So...?"

"Minutes ago, what Rei did... She was in control. She didn't just use 'a lot of mana.' She shot almost half the mana reserves of Mars - that is, the planet - at the Darkling spaceship, and the used the rest to make sure their leader was no more. Even the power I had as Cosmos would be dwarfed by that."

"Holy shit," Jupiter said. "I didn't think that was possible."

Mars sighed. "I hope none of you ever use such a thing. The trigger for it is just... I don't want anyone else to die."

"I think we can all agree to that."

"And Usagi... Thanks for letting us stay in your house, but I'll start look for a new home tomorrow."

Ami smiled. "You can have my appartment. I'm not living there anymore and neither is mom, so..."

"I can't accept it just like that."

"You told me to take care of Hisako, didn't you? Then that place will be my gift to her."

"... Okay, I... Thanks."

Phase appeared near them. "You guys won't believe the mess the internet is right now."

Ami smiled as she used her glove and visor to check. "There's a few who are angry at us for not beating this enemy faster, but... Let's just say the world's cheering for us."

Moon smiled. She wasn't looking for the fame she had as a heroine, but she had grown to accept its consequences. Still... "What about the youma?"

Phase shrugged. "A lot of people is scared but they've seen youma destroying the Dark Cores. A lot of them wonder how youma are still around, but most agree they helped a lot. As a sidenote, Demon Hunters are no longer a urban legend."

"It may be time to tell them the truth about our former enemies, then."

"Zeon TV again?"

Moon looked at Dragon Saturn. "Yeah. Give me a few days to think about how exactly I'll say it."

"Maybe you can get Cuprite to help?"

Moon nodded. "That could work."

She hoped there would be peace for a while. She had missed the fighting, but this last war had cost them a friend. They needed time to recover. Hopefully, the universe would play nice.

A/N: Well, now that another war is over, the Senshi can finally take a break and just wait for Crystal Tokyo to happen. 'The end.'

Joking aside, next arc will not be a short one. Or play out the way readers of the previous version may remember. The usual thing for this story.