Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 2: Rebirth.
Act 13: The Return.
Episode 148: Ancient Artifacts.

By Razor Knight
Last update: July 27, 2017

"Cygale," Ami repeated. "So they're trying to bring that thing back?"

Younger Pluto nodded. "Yes. We would stop them if we knew where they are, but something is blocking our powers. Mom is trying to figure out who or what is doing it."

"To stop a Pluto from... You think future Serenity is doing it?"

The Time Senshi turned to Usagi. "I don't think your future self is involved. Which means either our foe, or foes, grew strong enough to do it, or something else doesn't want us to find out."

"We'll just have to beat that Cygale thing," Chie said.

Ami had been using her Talisman to check for data on Cygale. "It's not going to be easy at all. If the legends are true, and I'd be inclined to believe so, then this Cygale creature... It took the first Serenity, the only true Sailor Cosmos known, along with her daughter, who was at least a Holy Senshi, to defeat it."

"So, guess we should stop them from summoning it."

"Cygale will be weak, relatively speaking, after being dead for possibly a million years," Ami said, "but even weakened it could give Holy Senshi a beating."

"So, back to waiting and trusting our luck, I guess."

Ami nodded. "That's right, Usagi, so we- Wait, I found what they're looking for."

Younger Pluto smiled. "I knew you would figure it out."

"Here's what the legends say. The First Serenity managed to defeat Cygale, but wasn't strong enough to fully erase it. With her daughter's help, she trapped Cygale in several pieces of an unknown artifact, and sent the pieces flying away to several parts of the world."

"So we know what, but not where."

"For starters, they will be buried deep underground. I'm searching for news on strange artifacts found lately on archeological-" Ami stopped and smiled. "Why trust luck when you can research?"

The group saw a hologram appear in the center of the room. A small, irregular stone with strange carvings in it. "A rock. Wow. Never seen one of those," Rei noted.

"Yes, but there's been several other stones like that, unearthed in several countries, and their current owners have reported most of them stolen. All the thieves seemed to leave no traces, open no doors, and trigger no alarms."

"Sounds like a mage's work."

"Exactly. The thefts happened during the last decade, and all but eight fragments known were reported as stolen."

Aiko had been doing her own kind of research, and her artificial mind allowed her to do certain things several times faster than her mother. "From the photos I found, I was able to make a virtual 'model' of it. The artifact seems to be a sphere, and... There's two fragments missing."

"If we can scan one of those, I'm sure I could locate the missing fragments," Ami said.

Terry smiled. "I think we can do this the easy way. I'm pretty sure I can buy at least one of those fragments. All eight if I work fast enough."

Usagi nodded. "I like that plan. Our enemies will have to come fight us if they want those fragments."

"And the day is saved, once again, thanks to Filthy Rich Man," Kage joked.

Rei groaned. "I admit I miss a lot of things from back when we used our base almost daily. Bad jokes aren't in that list."

"Seems the Senshi know what we're up to."

Black Lady looked at Onara. "Took them long enough. I'll make an educated guess and say either Time Bitch told them."

"But you said not even they would be able to-"

"I think not being able to see your enemies is a very good reason to try and figure out what they're up to." Onara was right, however, without their other discovery, the Senshi could have figured out where they were.

"Right. In any case, a certain multi-national company has suddenly developed an interest in old rocks. They bought the fragments we tracked down last, plus a few more."

"They want us to attack them," Black Lady guessed.

Aurite had been listening to it all. "So they are willing to call out an unknown number of foes of unknown power? Foolish."

"Perhaps they think I'm working alone."

Aurite looked at Onara. "The two Mercuries, at least, are smarter than that. You were very broke when I found you, doctor."

"... Right. Even if they don't know how many of us are there, we should be careful. Senshi seem to often have luck to fall back on when their powers fail to solve their problems."

"I've researched long enough to know it's a consequence of the Ginzuishou. They have two of those, so despite luck not always working, they've only lost one member in fifteen years."

Black Lady looked at Aurite. "Good thing we found something to lessen their effect, then. Still, we should not think we already won- we've seen enough failures... Been part of failures ourselves, caused by our 'bosses' taking victory for granted."

Two days after first learning of their enemies' plans, the Senshi were all getting ready for battle. While most were training to make sure the 'rust' from years of relative peace was gone, the two Mercuries and Aiko were working on a way to find the last two pieces of Cygale's 'prison.' The group was now gathering, as Ami had told the others they had managed to scan the stones.

Ami looked at the small stones. Its only features were lines etched into it, but she couldn't tell if it was a language or just random drawings, as the pieces were too small. "The latent power in each of these fragments is close to an Eternal Senshi's own power, which means Cygale's potential power may be up to par with an Aeon Senshi, just as legends said. We'll have to hope it takes a while to get used to being alive."

Aiko spoke next. "I adapted the tower's sensors to scan for them, and have, uh, 'borrowed' a few dozens of satellites to get a worldwide scan network."

Rei looked at the large screen. "So, we just wait?"

"It shouldn't take long," Aiko said, then looked at the screen as two red dots appeared in it. "No damn way."

Usagi stared at the screen in shock. "There's one right underneath us?"

"Six hundred meters below our tower's basement."

"Scary thought here, but I think any of us could get to it in one blast," Minako noted.

"It's not scary, we're just awesome," Mako joked.

"So that's another reason for our enemies to come fight us."

Ami nodded. "But if they knew already, they could have tried to get it through stealth."

"So let's go get it and... Wait, the other one is in the Zephyr mansion?"

Aiko smiled at Karin's words. "Not anymore." Before the others could ask, two more Aikos appeared, each holding one stone. "Being an expert multitasker has its advantages."

"At least we won't get Terry's place wrecked again," Naru commented.

Aiko looked at the stones as her 'clones' vanished. "Ten out of fifty pieces."

"So, what will we do with those after we beat our enemies?"

Ami looked at Chie. "Find a way to destroy them for good. Cygale is pure evil. Its only purpose was to destroy worlds. If there really is some higher power looking over the universe, I can't think of any reason to create such creatures, other than boredom and childlike, destructive curiosity. And a childlike, godlike being is not something I would want to have ruling my universe. But destroying Cygale for good will be a start."

"A Serenity created that 'prison,'" Hotaru said, "so I bet a Serenity could destroy it."

Usagi heard that and had a 'talk' with her crystal, which in reality only took a split second, as no words were needed. "I can't do it in my current level. An Aeon-level Serenity did it, so it needs a lot more mana than I could gather."

"We'll figure out what to do with it once we gather all the pieces."

Usagi nodded at Mamoru's words. "Right. We still have Onara to worry about, and whoever his ally, or allies, are."

Rei smiled. "We'll win this. Gotta keep the world in one piece until the Younger Senshi can take over."

ChibiUsa smirked at that. "If things go as they did in the future I came from, you won't just let the newbies take over."

"Never said I would," Rei admitted. "But Hisako is almost ready. Her magic blasts are almost as strong as my Fire Soul was back in our first war."

"Next time a 'Gale' shows up, maybe we can let Hisako and Hikaru fight it. May get them to transform."

Rei looked at Minako. "Not sure if I'm horrified you would consider having your daughter fight one of those, or impressed at how effective that way of teaching magic sounds."

"Hey, at least they learnt how to use magic before someone threw them head-first at a monster and told them to fight it."

Usagi chuckled at Ami's words. "I think I'll mention that to Luna. Been a while since I nagged her over her mentoring methods."

ChibiUsa Tsukino (whose nickname had stuck, even though she was well past the age to be called 'chibi' anymore,) had to admit she missed fighting. Tokyo had become mostly the same "boring" city as Crystal Tokyo had been- would be. Still, there had been some fun periods for her, even in peaceful times. She had let the truth about her origins known -leaving only a few details out - but the world, after alien invasions, being blown up and remade, and going through a week of complete, unnatural darkness, was a lot more eager to believe impossibles could happen. So the world - even those who didn't believe her - knew who she was and where she came from.

Another interesting task had been the process of getting humans to accept youma would be living amongst them. Only a few serious incidents happened, and fortunately there was no long-term harm caused by them. Youma were still using passive mana draining, and the few youma who stayed in Tokyo permanently were those who enjoyed interacting with humans, or had developed a profession as a hobby (like Minako's current co-star, or one of the cooks in Mako's main restaurant.) Mankind was slowly getting used to the idea not all monsters were evil.

"If you're gonna be staring at your food for the next hour, we might as well go home."

She looked at Hotaru, sitting across the restaurant's table, and smiled apologetically. "Sorry. I was just thinking of how much life's changed."

"But you weren't just thinking about the past."

The pink-haired woman nodded. "Yeah, there's something I didn't even tell mom about, and which makes me worry about this next fight. Crystal Tokyo... It should already be here."

"So you think Usagi will turn into Serenity soon?"

"It's what I'm guessing, but... The only data on Crystal Tokyo's creation I found was that it happened after a war against a powerful evil."

"But didn't our future selves-"

"No, mom made it clear they didn't want to speak about that. Not even your future self told me anything."

"We'll just have to see it for ourselves, when it happens."

"If it happens. I just want Onara's goons to hurry up. The sooner they're dead, the sooner those questions will be answered."

"We're ready to strike."

Black Lady looked at Aurite. "Hopefully the Dark One will save us for last, when we awaken it."

"It should be able to kill a few Senshi."

"With us around, it will have it easier," Boa said. The wait had been almost painful for her and Lynx. Killing the Senshi wouldn't bring Rex and the others back, but it was a start.

A/N: I must admit the idea of a Magical Girl/Guy squad using money and technology to save the day for a change (or at least to skip a certain filler-flavored arc I used in Cyber Moon) is one I've wanted to use for a while.