Author notes for prologue and chapter 1:
The science in the prologue is me making it up. It is most likely innaccurate.
Disclaimer: Sailor Moon is not mine.
He was not supposed to figure it out, not for a long time to come. It was inadvertent, really. Diamond was staring at his image of Serenity as he had a tendency to do, when his brother burst in, carrying a report from Rubeus.
"Brother, Little Rabbit has escaped again, thanks to that meddlesome Sailor Moon." Sapphire hissed.
Diamond grunted and flicked his wrist. "What does this worthy adversary look like, hmm? Is she a warrior? Does she look incomplete without the sword of battle in her hand?" Diamond's hand waved absently over the stone that supported the statuette of the neo queen. "Or, is she a little, whiny girl and not a warrior at all?" He snapped his finger without looking down, and next to Neo-Queen Serenity's image, the likeness of Sailor Moon appeared.
"Brother!" Sapphire gasped after staring at the two statuettes in a stunned silence.
"What?" Diamond snapped, his patience raveling at the seams.
Sapphire pointed at the twin images with a shaking finger. Why had he never noticed before? He had seen both Neo-Queen and Sailor Moon up close and on multiple occasions. Multiple, humiliating occasions. Why had he never put two and two together to realize that they were the same person? The first clue, if you could give such a glaringly obvious hint that title, was the hair. How many people had he ever seen with that style hair? Only Serenity, Sailor Moon, and Little Rabbit. That is not really a large pool of people.
Glancing at his stone, Diamond's eyes widened before his loud, sinister laugh reverberated through the room. After a moment, he plucked up the statue of Sailor Moon, turning it over and over in his hands, examining it.
"Of course," he muttered to himself, staring intently into Sailor Moon's blue, glass eyes. Without removing his gaze from the statuette, he said. "Well done, Sapphire. Go have a servant prepare. We will have a guest soon."
Sapphire started, "What about Endymion and Tuxedo Kamen? They can sense when she is in danger."
Diamond's flashing glare raised to meet Sapphire's eyes. "Don't bother me with thoughts of those fools. Or that fool, I should say."
"Yes, while it is clear they are one and the same, the point still remains..."
Diamond made a gesture of dismissal. "Come with me, Sapphire. I have something to show you."
Wrapping his arm around Sapphire's shoulders, he led him out of his bedroom. As the door closed, all light disappeared in the room, except for the stone's low, blue glow. A glow that formed shadows that made it seem as though the two statues were silently crying.
It was one of the worst days of Tsukino Usagi's life. Worse than her first battle as Sailor Moon, worse than being locked out of the house for yet another failed test, worse than when Mamoru didn't remember they were soul mates. No, this was way worse, a close second to when they had all died. Mamo-chan, her soul mate, had told her that he didn't love her.
She had honestly thought that they would love each other forever. They had died for each other, the last time around. Wasn't that proof of how strong their love was? They had overcome both the Dark Kingdom and Alan and Ann with it. Yet, he claimed to have never loved her in this life. That he had pretended for the sake of their past.
Her pink walls had never seemed so dark.
"As you know, when our campaign first began, I was hoping to obtain Queen Serenity first, thereby weakening our enemies." Diamond began leading Sapphire through the silent halls. Sapphire, and what ever other listening ears there might be, quite shrewdly decided to not point out that that was not Diamond's real reason for wanting Serenity. Or, at least not his main one. "This would hopefully have been done before any of our...more direct assaults, shall we say. This, of course, would mean Endymion," he sneered the name, "would still be alive, and presumably able to find his wife through their so-called bond. Bondage is more like it." he muttered to himself before clearing his throat and continuing. "Which is why Wise Man and I put our heads together to come up with a solution."
Sapphire frowned, why had he not been told any of this? He supposed that the overt reason was he was busy preparing the troops, but still, as his brother's second in command, he should have been kept informed.
They walked into the large workshop were there were assembly lines of weapons being made. Tables where prototypes were tested, bugs solved, and broken equipment fixed. In the far corner, there was a strange bed-like machine that nobody had ever paid any attention to, at least for as long as he could remember. It was towards this machine that Diamond steered them.
"This beauty, brother, was what we came up with."
"What is it?"
"As of yet, it has no name. But names pale in comparison to purpose. And its purpose is to sever the bond between Endymion and Serenity." Diamond paused for a moment as though thinking. "Or anyone else, really."
Sapphire's mouth worked for a moment before he could ask, "How?"
"I'm not really sure. Wise Man said something about pumping enough dark energy into one of them, until the bond just crumbled." Seeing Sapphire's horrified look, Diamond hastened to add, "We'd take the energy back out, of course, it will have served its purpose in straining the bond into breaking."
"So, why didn't we follow this plan?"
Diamond shrugged, a sheepish look on his face, "It would seem that doing so would kill one, if not both, of them because the bond is so strong. It would be, after all, after a couple thousand years of connection. Now, it wouldn't be a problem if it just killed Endymion, but as Serenity would be the one in direct contact, it seemed more likely that she would die. And that, I just couldn't have."
"Okay, but if it would kill them..."
"You weren't listening. It would kill Endymion and Serenity because of how long they have been tied. But, Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask haven't had nearly as long. They've been around what? A year?"
"About that, yes. But, I don't think that's how it works..."
"What? You think they are soul mates?" Diamond snorted, "I assure you they are not. This "bond" I have been talking of, is no more than Endymion's magic. He tied her because he needed her as a base of power. Not because of love."
Sapphire bowed his head, "Of course, brother. But, what if the spell was strong from the beginning?"
Diamond seemed to stop and think about that for a moment. "That's possible..." he started slowly, "But how could we tell?"
"Is there a way to...block the bond? Somehow?"
A grin spread across Diamond's face, "That's a great idea, and it is easily done! We just change a couple of the settings on this beauty, and we'll be able to form a shield of darkness in her mind, not filling her, but blocking the bond." He said patting the machine lovingly.
"Brilliant, brother." Sapphire said trying to keep the sarcasm from his voice. For being such a good tactician, some of the finer details seemed to escape his brother when it did not come to battle. "What about Tuxedo Mask? I doubt he will just let you steal Sailor Moon without even trying to get her back. Besides, then it would be obvious who had her and make it almost impossible to keep him away."
"Then we'll just have to find out who Sailor Moon really is in this time." Sharpening his gaze on Sapphire, he commanded, "I want you on that Sapphire."
"Yes, sire."
It was a relatively simple matter to "figure out" who was Sailor Moon, all Sapphire ended up having to do was follow her from the battle. He blended easily and he had practiced looking unthreatening as well as intimidating. But, he could have laughed when he realized what the girl looked like. All this was not necessary, all they needed to have done was look for a girl with that hairstyle. 'Did she ever live without it?' he wondered, but it was no matter, because it made his job that much easier.
It was another sleepless night for Usagi. She had not thought that anything could put her off her sleep. She was wrong. It was evidence she would rather not have found out, but she couldn't help it. She found herself staring up at the moon every night without fail, even if it was covered. It was almost as if she was trying to find answers on its pristine surface.
Where had she gone wrong? Was this what the "real world" was? Disappointed dreams?
Before she could figure out the answer or, more likely, get really depressed, her communicator disrupted the peaceful silence. Springing to her feet, Usagi ran to pick it up. A youma fight was just what she needed to get rid of some of this excess emotion. She had always known she had felt things more strongly than most people, and finally she was learning the negative side of this gift.
"Moon, here."
"Get your ass to the park! A youma has been on rampage for the past fifteen minutes."
"Be there in a few, Moon out."
Transforming quickly, Sailor Moon slid her window open, wincing slightly when it creaked in protest. Pausing to listen, she was satisfied when she heard her dad's snores from the next room. If anyone had heard the window over that, they would think that it was the wind. It was a nice run to the park, even if she was trying to get there in time to stop an attack.
Then it hit her. What the hell was a youma doing in the park at this time of night? Most people had already gone home and to bed. While it seemed that these ones were not after energy, it still was an oddity that made her suspicious. She slowed as she got nearer the park. There was no point in rushing to spring what was probably a nasty trap. But, when she heard the sound of one of her Senshi hitting the ground, probably very painfully, she couldn't wait any longer.
Bursting through the clearing she shouted, "For disturbing people's sleep and hurting my friends, I, Sailor Moon in the name of the moon will punish you."
The youma turned to give her a strange look, as they all did, which was why she persisted in the stupid speeches, before throwing a...not very lethal looking cake, to be honest. Sailor Moon stared at it, as though she had never seen a cake flying in her direction before. Though, when knives sprang out of its filling, making it a very deadly albeit bizarre throwing star, she was quick to move out of the way.
"Moon! Now is not the time to be making speeches!" Sailor Mars panted as she dodged a cookie. A cookie with a poisonous goo on it, but a cookie nonetheless. Seeing this, Moon started giggling, and then to laugh.
"What's so funny?" Jupiter asked as she kicked a brownie so hard her foot got stuck in its sticky center. "Ow. Ow. Ow." She added, hopping on one foot trying to keep up with the flying confectionary.
Venus and Mercury were standing off to the side, Venus using her Love-me chain wrapped tightly around a bladed pie to ward off any other armed baked goods. And the youma too. While Mercury was busily scanning the youma to find its weak spot. Up until this point, Moon had been distracted by the unidentified flying sweets to get a good look at the youma.
The youma was female, as they all seemed to be. 'I wonder why that is?' Moon wondered vaguely, as she noted that it looked like it was wearing an oven like a hobo wears a barrel. She was unable to take anything else in, as the youma opened her oven door and pulled out her next weapon. Moon stared at this, surprised even though it made some sort of twisted sense.
That's why, she was so distracted that she didn't notice when the armed food stuffs flew in her direction. All she knew was that one moment she was staring at the vaguely crude display, and the next she was being yanked back into a pair of familiar arms. But, instead of holding her for a moment as he used to, Tuxedo Kamen let go immediately, causing Moon to stumble from the suddenness of it all. She was only able to shoot him a hurt look before Mercury shouted, "Moon, aim for its center when the oven door is open."
Moon's jaw dropped, "You've got to be kidding me! Look at it," She said gesturing, "It keeps that open for maybe thirty seconds, max."
"Sorry, Moon, I just call them as the computer sees them. Maybe I can freeze it for a couple of seconds?"
"You better be able to, otherwise this whole endeavor is going to be impossible!"
Sailor Mercury nodded and snapped her computer shut, putting it into her sub-space pocket before clapping her hands together and calling, "Shine Aqua Illusion". Unfortunately for her, she managed to freeze the youma with its door shut.
Seeing her embarrassed look, Venus put her hand on her shoulder, "It's alright Mercury, Mars'll just melt it and you can have another shot. Right Mars?"
"Way ahead of you. Fire Bird Soul!" Mars shouted pointing at the iced youma.
It melted and before it could say anything, Mercury started her chant, waiting until the youma reached a hand towards its door to finish it, so that this time, the timing was just about perfect, freezing the door halfway open.
"Is it human?" Moon asked and at Mercury's head shake, she pulled off her tiara with a flourish, crying, "Moon Tiara Action."
The youma, of course, shattered on contact and turned to dust.
"Anyone else find that battle a step backward?" Jupiter wondered aloud. "I mean, I thought we were done with the ridiculous youma and on to the scarier ones."
"Don't complain." Mars said irritably, "I for one am glad we could actually destroy this one instead of changing it back to human. It was really, really annoying."
"You just didn't like it because it questioned your housewife abilities when you burnt its bread to a crisp." Venus pointed out giggling.
"No. It was just annoying."
"Right, we believe you." Their blond leader said, winking at Moon conspiratorially.
But, Sailor Moon wasn't paying attention. She was more aware that Tuxedo Kamen wasn't there anymore. Did he even stay for the whole battle?
She shook her head for thinking such disloyal thoughts, whatever he felt about her, he really did care about the city. And that meant he had to protect her, the city's protector. But, it really was so much nicer when he wanted to protect her because she meant something to him.
Sighing, she waved a small goodbye to her senshi, before beginning the long, okay, not so long, trek home.
Transforming on the corner of her block as per her usual, Usagi walked the rest of the distance slowly, almost mournfully. Too bad for her she wouldn't make it to her doorstep.
In the shadows, A man with white hair stood, his eyes enraptured by the vision of the past version of Serenity. Stepping from his spot he walked up to the girl. She gave a small squeak of surprise when she realized that she was no longer alone.
"I am so sorry, sir." she said gasping, trying to get her heart back to its proper rhythm. "You startled me."
He gave her a winning smile and she grinned back, unable to stop herself. Drowning in his maroon eyes. She was feeling so sleepy. When he said "Come.", she went happily.
The two figures disappeared into the night. No one noticed the interaction, not even a cat wandered down the street. The wind blew through the leaves in the trees, but all was silent. Not even the sound of footsteps broke the seeming peace. The tranquility that had hidden a crime completely and effectively. Nobody expects it to happen in the cleaner suburbs. No one expects it to happen to them. And as the moon made its way through the sky, no one missed the girl. Her parents and brother were asleep. Her friends thought she was safely home. Her cat was out hunting. She had slid out of their lives easily, and only the night air was there to bear witness.