Chapter 3...I don't know if Sailor Pluto is out of character, remember, she is really stressed at this point (i'll explain more in later chapters (probably the next))

Sapphire was sitting at his computer when the door opened and Diamond walked in, followed by Sailor Moon. Who more resembled a zombie than an actual person. Her eyes were glazed and her face slack. He felt disgusted, but hid it behind his customary frown. He had never liked the hypnosis/mind control that Wise Man had gifted his brother with. Hell, he didn't like most of what was going on since Wise Man had shown up.

"No trouble?" Sapphire asked throwing off his moment of weakness.

Diamond smirked, "None whatsoever."

"Tuxedo Kamen?"

"Didn't show up. But, we need to put her under. The sooner the better."

Sapphire nodded, "I've recalibrated the machine so it will form a wall as we discussed. It should take about twenty minutes to solidify in her mind."

"Excellent."

The two men walked into the machine room, taking it for granted that Sailor Moon would follow. The room was now empty except for the machine. Diamond gave his brother a questioning look. Sapphire shrugged, "The machine was in here first, and I assume when you had it built it was the only one in here. I can't predict the affects of other machines and felt it was better that we not test it when we are trying to use it on Sailor Moon."

Diamond nodded, and turned to the girl standing silently behind them. That was when Sapphire saw something in his brother's gaze that disturbed him. A certain perverted lasciviousness that shook Sapphire to the core. 'My brother's insane.' the thought floated through his consciousness. And he realized that it was at least partially true. Ever since Wise Man had come, his brother had been changing. He was no longer content with rejoining the Earth's population, he wanted to rule it, and lately, it seemed that he wanted to decimate it. Suddenly, Sapphire didn't doubt that his brother would hurt Sailor Moon. It seemed inevitable now that he had seen that look. It wasn't love. Unless your idea of love was possession followed closely by or simultaneous with destruction. His brother no longer desired Sailor Moon, no, Serenity for forever. No, he wanted to break her, to be the only one to, for lack of a better term, use her. Worse, Diamond probably didn't even realize that that was what he wanted to do. Was going to do if he got the chance. But, looking into Sailor Moon's face, Sapphire realized that he would protect at all costs the innocence and good cheer that radiated from her even as a mindless drone. Even if it meant betraying his brother.

'No.' he corrected himself, 'To betray my brother, he would still have to be it. My brother would never act like this.'

He couldn't possibly betray his brother if his brother wasn't himself. If the brother he once knew and loved seemed to no longer exist.

'This is all Wise Man's fault.' he thought irrationally, 'I don't care if we are stuck on the Black Moon forever, I just want my real brother back.'

Diamond didn't notice the look of horror that flashed across Sapphire's face, he was too focused on the goddess in front of him. He ran a finger down her cheek before saying in a ludicrously cajoling tone, "Lay down on the bed."

It was the voice that demanded unthinking obedience, and who was she to deny it? She walked gracefully over to the contraption's bed and laid down. Diamond was there in an instant, caressing her wrists and ankles as he secured her in place. Stepping back, he pressed a button on the bed's side, it glowed purple for a moment before a chrysalis seemed to form over Sailor Moon. A beam of dark light went straight into Sailor Moon's head.

Neither man was prepared for the scream that erupted from Sailor Moon's lips. High and keening, it seemed to go on and on. Sapphire made a move to release her from the machine, but Diamond grabbed his wrist harshly.

"What did you do?" Diamond was practically spitting in rage.

"I don't know! I mean, I tested it on one of our youma and they didn't have any problem with it!"

"Well, well, well." A rasping voice dripped through the room, and as the two men turned towards the door, an old man stepped from the shadows. There was a robe covering his face, but little else to distinguish a human form.

Sapphire froze, but Diamond drew back, a sickly smile on his face, "Wiseman, impeccable timing, as always."

Wiseman didn't deign to answer, instead floated over to the machine that held the screaming girl. In a tone that said he didn't really care, Wiseman remarked, "If she keeps going like that, she is going to shred her throat."

"Wiseman, do you know why the machine is affecting her like this?"

"I warned you, did I not? That the machine would kill Serenity?"

"Yes, but we modified the plan. That isn't Serenity, at least not yet." Diamond said gesturing, "And we toned it down so that it just forms a wall in her mind."

"Toned it down, hmm?" Wiseman asked bored, "If that's the case, you might just have to deal with a lack of voice and brain damage." Diamond opened his mouth to speak, but Wiseman continued as though he didn't see it, "That's if you're lucky."

"What?"

At the horrified tone, Wiseman's head seemed to snap up, "You fool, even if she is younger, she still has her innate power. A power that is the antithesis of ours. Did you really think that it would allow you to...corrupt her in such a way?"

The two brothers were silent for a moment, before Diamond shook his head, "Could I just...order her not to fight it?"

"You could try, but I doubt that it would help."

"Sailor Moon. I order you to let the dark magic in. It will not hurt you. Let it in."

She continued to scream, and Sapphire grew sick of the tortured sound. Before either his brother or Wiseman could move, he banged the button that held the chrysalis, releasing it, and swiftly brought the hilt of his sword down on Sailor Moon's head, knocking her out.

The sudden silence was ringing and both Diamond and Sapphire winced at the uncomfortable feeling. Unaccountably, Wiseman began to laugh. Not loud or long, but harsh enough that it raised the hairs on the back of Sapphire's neck.

"Just what is so funny?" he snapped.

Wiseman didn't answer and Sapphire sighed. It was obvious that he had no power over Wiseman, and he was beginning to suspect that his brother didn't either. Add on that Wiseman was underhanded and seemed to have his own plans. Well. This had about as much danger as a dozen kegs of gun powder in a burning building.

No one in the front room noticed a pink pigtail sticking from the doorway in between it and the dinning room. Chibi-Usa had heard everything. And while she felt bad for the Senshi and Mamo-chan, she had her own problems. Her eyes threatened to overflow with tears and the hopelessness of her situation bore down on her. She sank to the floor wrapping her arms around her knees.

Who was going to save her mamma and papa now? She had thought that the invincible Sailor Moon would be able to solve all her problems. That's what papa always told her, there was nothing Sailor Moon couldn't do. But, she was gone now! It wasn't fair! She had tried so hard, but she couldn't fix this! Mamma would never wake up because she was a bad girl. She hadn't even gotten the Ginzuishou back.

Tears were streaming down her face when she looked up thinking, 'No. I'll be brave like Mamma and Sailor Moon. I can do this!'

Standing, she suddenly saw her Luna-P ball hovering next to her. "Pu'u." she whispered and the ball's eyes lit up.

"What's wrong, Small Lady?" a distorted voice came from the toy.

"Oh, Pu'u!" Chibi-Usa cried, flinging her arms around the ball. "Everything's gone all wrong!"

"What happened?" the voice asked soothingly.

"Sailor Moon's gone!"

"Come again?" it said sounding uncharacteristically startled.

"Sailor Moon is gone. The Senshi and Mamo-chan don't know where she is."

The ball let out a string of words in a language that Chibi-Usa couldn't understand but could identify as ancient Plutian. Whatever it was, it didn't sound complimentary. She stared at Luna-P in askance, she had never heard Pu'u sound so...flustered.

"Small Lady? Small Lady, honey, are you still there?"

"Yes." she answered cautiously. There was something wrong with Pu'u.

"Small Lady, this is very important. Where are you right now?"

"Mamo-chan's..."

"That's good, that's very good." Pu'u said distractedly. "I am going to open a portal, and I need you to bring Mamoru and the Senshi through it. Can you do that for me, Small Lady?"

Chibi-Usa nodded, forgetting for a moment that Puu probably couldn't see her.

"Small Lady?"

"You can count on me, Puu."

Sidling into the front room, Chibi-Usa took a deep breath. She grabbed Minako's sleeve and tugged it. "Minna, I need you to come with me."

"Not now, Chibi-Usa." Artemis snapped, "We are in the middle of a crisis."

Luna hit him upside the head, then licked her paw, "Be nice. What is it, Chibi-Usa?"

"I know someone who can help."

Everyone stared at her. They had known that there was something different about her. How many nine year olds were so independent? Then there was the fact that she had brain washed Usagi's family into believing that she was a long loved cousin.

"What are you talking about?" Ami asked gently.

Chibi-Usa took another deep breath, "I'mnotfromhere." she said really quickly, and at their confused looks, repeated herself slowly, "I'm not from here."

Rei snorted, "Hate to break it to you kid, but that is kind of obvious."

Chibi-Usa gave her a glare worthy of Usagi before continuing, "I'm going to sound so cliche, but, I'm from the future."

To say that the Senshi were shocked would be an understatement. The truth of what she said was revealed in both the nonchalant way that she said it and the odd occurrences that had come along with her visit. Not withstanding the strange ball she had, there was the fact that she had brought enemies with her.

Minako was the first to speak, grabbing Chibi-Usa's hand in both her own, she said quite seriously, "Tell me quickly, I become an amazing international pop star, right? Am I right?"

"Minako," Makoto said tentatively, "I really don't think that that is important right now."

Minako pouted but conceded the point. She'd ask again later.

"Who is this friend?" Luna asked suspiciously.

Chibi-Usa giggled, "You'll know her when you see her, but for now you must come with me."

"Where?" Mamoru asked, his hope filling him at the thought of help from the future. If anyone knew what was going to happen or where Usagi was, it had to be people from the future.

She twirled a small curl of hair around her finger, "Um. Well, I don't exactly know where, it is not on this earth. But to get there, we go into your kitchen."

"You formed a wormhole in my kitchen?"

She gave him a confused look, "What's a wormhole?"

"It's a theoretical principle where two planes are connected through a curvature in space-time. In other words, its a portal that connects two places that normally don't touch each other." Ami said as though reading from a text book.

"Yep!" Chibi-Usa exclaimed cheerfully, glad that they both believed her and got what was going on, but then, they weren't the Senshi for nothing. Glancing at Rei, Minako, and Makoto, she revised that Ami and Mamoru weren't Senshi for nothing. Except Mamoru wasn't Senshi. Giggling at the vision of Mamo-chan in a sailor fuku, Chibi-Usa led the way into the kitchen.

When Ami caught sight of the shimmering black hole in the kitchen, she whipped out her computer. This was just to fascinating a chance from a research perspective. But, before she could get a reading on it, Chibi-Usa jumped through it. The others exchanged glances before jumping through it one after another.

Fog. That's all they could see. Dense, gray, swirling, massing fog. There was no distinction between up and down, or any direction. Mamoru murmured in sotto voce, "And there, the mist, the realm between realms. Neither water nor air, but something in between. A place where Elvin creatures come to work their magic, and man's time is left behind." He had read it somewhere, and had never really understood it, until now. There was something haunting about this mist, and he half expected to hear a low, sad melody cutting through the emptiness.

Instead it was a voice that said in a cold voice, one that wouldn't hesitate to kill trespassers, "Who dares to break the taboo on time?"

Everyone but Chibi-Usa dropped into defensive positions. The nine year old on the other hand, ran straight at the shadow that seemed to have spoken.

"Pu'u !" she cried, running her arms wide open. The fog parted and a woman with long dark hair and mournful eyes dropped to her knees to receive the hug. "Oh, Pu'u." the girl child sobbed. Pu'u ran her fingers through the girls pigtail, trying to soothe her. After a moment, the girl calmed and Pu'u straightened.

It was then that they noticed her sailor fuku. The woman gave them a wane smile, "As you might have guessed, I'm a Senshi. Sailor Pluto, protector of time. And, to be frank, we should not be meeting right now. But, desperate times call for desperate measures, and the way that the timeline has been screwed up...kami."

She ran her hand over her face, not noticing the stunned looks on the Senshi's face. Finally, Ami asked tentatively, "How is the timeline...out of order?"

Minako hid a smile behind her hand, how like Ami to change a euphemism for a swear word to something even nicer.

Pluto's gaze sharpened, but she sighed, "The way things are, I guess it doesn't do any harm to tell you. But first, let's get moving, we have to collect an old friend of mine." the title was said so dead-pan that it was difficult to tell if she was being ironic or not.

She turned and walked into the mists, the others following behind her. "In the normal run of things, you aren't supposed to come here until much, much later. Sailor Moon was never meant to be stolen in your time. And Mamoru was never supposed to lose that connection with her. If I had had the ability to pay attention as I should..." She shrugged, "It doesn't matter now. What does matter is that we are in for a major clean up effort. We need to get the timeline back on track as soon as remotely possible." She paused and gave the Senshi a hard look before adding:

"By the way, I think I'm going to have to kill your husbands."

As a preview to next chapter I bequeath you these Heart lyrics:

"Wild man's world is cryin' in pain
What you gonna do when everybody's insane
So afraid of one who's so afraid of you
What you gonna do...ohhh..."