Cyber Moon: Genesis.

Episode 6: Meth'Lya.

By Razor Knight

Last update: October 26, 2005

When Aejin appeared in Lilith, she saw the situation was worse than she'd expected. Attuned as she was to life and death, she could feel the lost souls of thousands of living beings, trapped inside their mutated bodies...

Fear, confusion, anger... Aejin looked around. She'd teleported into a somewhat deserted area of one of the capital cities of Lilith. From her perch atop one of the highest buildings, she could see hundreds of ex-humans crawling, walking, and searching.

Searching... Aejin reached out once again with her senses. Only thing she could feel was death. She was the only living being in Lilith now. What could've caused this? Who could be twisted enough to create this abomination, a virus that destroyed the life of a planet in a matter of hours?

And speaking of the virus, the Senshi of Saturn was right now staring straight at it. A purplish fog, floating a few hundred meters away from where she was. Mana was gone. And in a minute, so would she. She couldn't risk going back now; she could be infected without knowing it. There was only one thing she could do now.

She concentrated, and felt the energy from her own world, Saturn, rushing into her body. What she was about to do, would kill her, there was no doubt about that. But it would also destroy all of the virus. She wasn't doing it for those that had died in Lilith. She wasn't doing it for anyone else in the solar system. Except for two persons, the only two that mattered to her above everything else, even her life. Her husband and her daughter.

Looking around, she could see the purple fog was all around her now. Her body was way better at resisting any virus or infection than any other, mostly because of her attuning to life energy. She could also see some of the walking corpses had reached the top of the building, and were crawling all around her.

It was her last chance to do it. And the last time she'd use her powers. As she prepared to unleash her ultimate attack, she also had time for a last sarcastic remark. "I never liked Lilith anyways."

Then, she unleashed her attack. She could feel the energy... The magic energy of a whole planet, rushing through her body, burning her from the inside. As she tried to control it, she uttered the three words that triggered it. "Death..."

For several minutes, a second sun could be seen from all the other planets and moons of the solar system.

"So that's what happened to Lilith... The asteroid belt is what remains of it?" Hope pondered, mostly to herself, as she walked through the corridor. She stopped in front of the massive sapphire-colored doors that lead to the throne room. The guards, clad in a bluish metal armor, bowed at her and opened the doors.

"High Librarian Hope, welcome," one of the Queen's advisors said as Hope walked in. Hope was used to the formal way everyone used to address her, but she didn't really like it. The throne room was as large as every other throne room she'd ever seen. And considering how close the rulers of each planet (most of them former, or active, Senshi) were, she'd seen quite a few of them.

"You wanted to see me, mother?"

The Queen nodded. "Moment was here today. She said something strange is going on in one of Earth's kingdoms."

"I see," Hope said, still not understanding what it had to do with her.

"A few of the Senshi will go. Moment wanted to..."

"I wanted to know if you'd be interesting in that mission. After all, you've never been out in official Senshi business yet."

Hope looked at the green-haired woman standing next to the Queen. Tall, red-eyed and with a slightly tanned skin, she wore the uniform of the Senshi of Pluto, and held a long staff with her right hand. The design of the staff's top was like that of a heart, with a purple orb at the base.

"Well?"

The blue-haired girl frowned. Moment of Pluto was not a woman to bother with chitchatting. From the books she'd read, that applied to all the former Sailor Pluto as well. Might have something to do with the 'Time Gate.' "I would like to know what our mission is first," she said.

Moment nodded. "There have been reports of necromancy in Arcana. We're going there to investigate."

Necromancers... Hope didn't like them at all. Sure, the Saturn Senshi used life energy to fight, but it wasn't for personal reasons. Necromancers often wanted fortune, glory and power, and used the life energy of others to obtain them. Even going as far as to reanimate soul-less corpses to do their dirty work.

And Necromancers were, most of the time, too strong for groups like the Demon Hunters or the Guardians to handle. Hope could guess this was one of those times.

"Count me in. I can't sit around reading books all of my life, no matter how fun it is," Hope said with a smile.

Moment nodded. "Good. Now come with me, I'll introduce you to the rest of our group."

"Serenity, Lilith no longer exists," Cognisance said sadly.

"So many lives lost there. Was that the only way?" Serenity asked, trying to keep her own sadness in check.

"No known magic would be able to revert such mutation," Cognisance said.

Claude walked into the room, her face pale. "Serenity... There's something else you should know."

"What is it?"

"Our radars detected a small spaceship leaving Lilith minutes before the explosion. It was heading to the Earth. And..."

"And?" Serenity asked.

"The ship's a Kh'Sun Revenant."

Revenants, the smaller combat ships of the Kh'Sun. But... "That can't be... We eliminated all of them," Serenity said.

"I would say we didn't," Cognisance commented, noticing the trace of bitterness in Serenity's voice.

"If we let whoever's piloting that ship go, we could face a similar infection on Earth in a few hours," Claude stated.

"Then we can only do one thing... Gather the others and pinpoint the exact landing place of that Kh'Sun ship. We're going to stop that infection before it happens."

The creature hadn't bothered to hide; she was standing near her ship when the Senshi appeared. She was taller than the average Kh'Sun, and wearing black rags that had, months before, been a high commander's outfit. She didn't seem too shocked or worried about the Senshi being there.

"So, here you are, murderers. I knew you'd come, just like your stupid friend in Lilith."

The Senshi noticed her hands were glowing a sickly purple color. "Stop whatever you're doing, now," Serenity commanded.

"Sorry, but no. You killed my whole race, and I'm going to return the favor. And you better go back to your precious Moon if you want to live through the next hour."

"She's using the same kind of magic Saturn used. She's creating a viral code out of thin air," Cognisance said as she scanned the Kh'Sun.

"What's your name, monster?" Pyrie asked, resisting the urge to just blast her apart.

"If you may know, it's Meth'Lya," the Kh'Sun said.

"Metallia? Such a silly name for someone that caused the destruction of a planet," Serenity mused.

"Says the one whose name is related to peace and calm... The same woman that lead others to kill my whole race," Meth'Lya snapped back.

"I didn't kill your whole race. You're still alive."

"Came to fix that up?"

"That depends on what you plan to do from this point."

"I'm going to infect this whole useless planet, then move on to the next, until no hoomahns remain. And you, Senshi, will be my first target."

"Then, I'm going to stop you," Serenity said.

"Just try, little Queen," Meth'Lya snapped.

"Moonlight Screen!"

Meth'Lya raised her left hand, and Serenity's energy blast got deflected, turning a patch of the forest surrounding them to ashes.

"What the fuck?" Pyrie exclaimed.

"Hah. Your problem, little girls, is that you've never faced anyone that had the same powers you have. Ever since the day I heard of Serenity's escape from the mine, I did what no other Kh'Sun thought of... I studied your 'power' and learnt how to control magic. It wasn't an easy task, but as you could see, I'm as powerful as your leader, Senshi. Or even stronger."

"A Kh'Sun using magic. Now I've seen it all," Lumina muttered.

"And one more thing, kids. My virus has a cure. That's how I could keep it from infecting me. But of course, you Senshi were always trigger-happy. You just had to blow the planet to dust, instead of trying to find out a cure for the disease."

"That's a lie."

"It is? Keep thinking that, it'll make it easier for you when I release my virus!" she said and smirked as a purplish fog started surrounding her. "And it won't be long before that happens."

Serenity frowned. She wasn't eager to do it, but it was the only way she could see out of this. Her crystal appeared, once again, floating in front of her. She grabbed it and focused all the power she could into it. "Moon Redemption Wave!"

Meth'Lya raised her hand again to stop the attack, but a part of it pierced her shield, and hit the fog surrounding her. It's color changed from purple to black, and changed to a liquid-like state. "What is this?" the Kh'Sun muttered. The liquid surrounded her, pinning her arms to her sides and slowly crushing her. "No... This can't be... What've you done to it?" she snarled at Serenity, shock turning into anger.

Serenity returned the glare and then shrugged. "You did it to yourself, witch."

"No... I won't end like this. DIE!" Meth'Lya tried to unleash her energy, but the liquid around her absorbed it, glowing and throbbing for a few seconds. It then exploded, sending the Senshi crashing to the ground, and all that was left of the Kh'Sun magician was a column of smoke rising up from the spot she'd been standing on.

"Well, that solves this problem," Pyrie said.

Serenity nodded. "But the damage she's done, it can't be repaired. "

"What are you reading?"

Hope looked up at Moment, interrupting her reading. "It's a novel about the first Senshi. This Meth'Lya woman..."

Moment nodded. "She was the first necromancer. I can fill you into the details better than that book, because I've seen what happened. "

"So is it true?"

"That the Senshi of Pluto can see through time? We can see the past, and we can see several possible futures our actions could lead us to. "

"Amazing."

"It is."

The two of them were now walking through one of the many corridors in Mercury's palace, heading to the room where the others were waiting for them. Hope was as curious about the mission as she was about the past. But one thing at a time... "So... What about Serenity's crystal. Was it's mystery ever solved?"

Moment frowned. "No. The Ginzuishou is an enigma on itself. Some have even suggested it's got a mind of it's own."

"What do you think?"

"I'm no scientist. I don't dissect magic, I simply use it."

Hope chuckled at that. Moment wasn't as much of a gloomy, serious woman as others had told her she was, after all. She couldn't wait to meet the others.

A/N:

In case you didn't figure it out, italics were used in this episode for events of the "past" as opposed to Hope's meeting with Moment, which happens in the "present."

Also, this is the last episode starring the First Senshi. From now on, I'm going to focus in the events that lead to Silver Millenium's fall.

Disclaimer: Sailor Moon is a creation of Naoko Takeuchi, and I thank her for creating such wonderful universe.