Author's note: Summer school has busied me to the point where I have so much to do – but I have so many story ideas. Like I said before and I'm going to continue to say – this story really took a turn in a direction that I didn't see myself going in at first. Maybe sometime later in the summer I might re-write it or something. It seems to not be up to par with my usual standards, but let me know if you like it – that way I won't really change it much or anything. Then again this was my first fan fic in a while, so I guess I have to give myself credit for at least coming up with the idea and all. Anyway, no matter what though – I'm determined to finish this story, because I have a feeling that some of you might actually like it – and I would not want to disappoint anyone by just leaving you hanging. With that…I think that there are probably 3 more chapters maximum left in this story – that's including this one, so only two more chapters after this one. Just giving you a heads up….


Chapter Seven: Round One

"So who's ready to take a shot at me? Any of you lovely ladies want to use your pathetic powers in an attempt to knock me off of my feet?" Faunus asked sarcastically.

Pluto – I know that you are the only one who remembered our special attack out of the senshi. I have a feeling that Faunus doesn't remember it either. Want to give it a go? Sailor Myriad asked Sailor Pluto through her mind.

I say that we do our best – so yes princess, I'm with you. Pluto thought to herself, and Sailor Myriad gave her a small smirk.

"I'll do more than sweep you off your feet asshole – I'll burry you six feet under if that's what's going to keep you out of my hair." Myriad said to Faunus.

"Ooh! Cheeky little bitch aren't you?" Little did Faunus realize, Myriad was powering up the whole entire time while she was distracting him.

"Cheeky? I tend to think of myself as a woman with a lot of sass." Sailor Myriad replied, "but calling me a bitch – wow, obviously someone couldn't be a bit more creative with his badmouthing." I'm ready, now Pluto! Sailor Myriad said to Pluto psychically as she was talking to Faunus.

"Time staff" Pluto said as she let go of her time staff, which floated from the ground and pointed at Faunus all by itself.

"What the hell are you two going to do with that little stick? Beat me to death?" Faunus sneered at the two sailor senshi, Pluto and Myriad, who had now stepped up to him. Sailors Neptune, Uranus, and Saturn could only stare at them – wondering what exactly they were up to, and decided to be on call for backup in case this plan of attack didn't work.

Sailor Myriad sneered back at him, "believe me – after you experience this, you're going to wish that all we had done was beat you with Pluto's so-called 'little stick.'"

"Garnet…."Pluto continued, concentrating – staring directly at the staff. It was obvious to the rest of the senshi that Pluto was doing this to her staff, but it didn't make sense since to them she doesn't have psychic powers.

"Psychic shock!" Sailor Myriad finished the attack as Faunus just stood there, laughing. He put up a shield as an intensely bright red light emitted from the time staff. He was about to start taunting them again, to make them feel dumb, when he realized that he couldn't move. Faunus was stuck in place, and suddenly all he saw was the time staff, the sailor senshi were gone – he was surrounded in a world that was filled with red light. That's when he noticed that the time staff was moving - and coming at him at full speed. Faunus wanted to move, to duck, but he couldn't do it, he could not even blink. The time staff proceeded to beat him mercilessly, and he could not do anything about it – he could not even do so much as let out yelps of pain as the time staff ripped into his skin with its newly sharpened bottom. As quickly as it had attacked, the time staff disappeared, and it was replaced with a few, very familiar-looking ninja stars, powered with psychic energy floating around him. Once again, though he tried, Faunus could not move at all, and the ninja stars cut deeply into his skin, slashing him – his blood dripping all over the sharp four points. Then a few managed to get stuck in his skin – Faunus wanted to scream, but couldn't and just tried to endure the pain. In a few seconds, all of the ninja stars were stuck in his skin, and the time staff re-appeared. Faunus started to hear a strange humming noise coming from every direction – which worried him the most. Shit! Was the only thing that he could think of as the ninja stars exploded from their various points on his arms, legs, and torso. The time staff had also been charging and now sent out a huge ball of light that hit Faunus hard in the stomach. After a few seconds, while he was on the ground, Faunus realized that he could move again.

"Enjoy your thirty seconds of hell Faunus?" Sailor Myriad asked him aloud, displaying a long row of ninja stars in her hands.

"That was only thirty seconds? It doesn't matter – I'm getting the fuck out of here." Faunus said as he used what little power he had to float his body up into the air and face his enemies.

"I told you that it wasn't something to laugh about."

"I guess that I forgot about that attack, I didn't think that you would remember it either Myriad – but apparently an old hag like yourself still has a great memory. That doesn't matter though, all of you sailor bitches – will pay for this. Once I get you – I'm going to make sure that you both pay for this dearly, and don't think that I haven't forgotten about the rest of you either." Faunus said as the rest of the sailor team appeared next to Neptune, Uranus, and Saturn. "I will get what I want – what I came here for, and from here on out, expect that whole powering up deal with your friends and cousin to be unavailable Myriad." With that Faunus disappeared, probably to lick his wounds and re-group.

The sailor senshi de-transform, except for Sailor Myriad – who stays in her transformation mode – staring at the place where Faunus had stood.

"Sailor Myriad." Myriad spun around to see Usagi standing directly behind her under the watchful eye of her senshi. "Or maybe I should refer to you as Zoe – my cousin from the Silver Millennium."

Sailor Myriad de-transformed into Zoe. "I knew it! Chloe was way too close to Zoe!" Rei commented out loud, the other senshi just stared at her, thinking to themselves it was a pretty obvious clue Rei.

"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you earlier everyone. I just wanted to spend some time with you, because I missed you all so much. Especially you Usagi-chan." Zoe said, smiling affectionately at Usagi. "But at the same time I knew that if I stayed here too long, Faunus would show up – and sure enough he did. I'm just lucky that Setsuna-chan had remembered our attack."

"I would never forget, Zoe-san." Setsuna said to Zoe – who by her mere presence was now the eldest sailor senshi, since she had been born half of a year before Setsuna.

"No need for honorifics, Setsuna-chan. Just Zoe is fine by me. I just wanted to keep all of you safe, and get Faunus away from here. But I can tell that I can't do it alone – we need to work as a team once again."

"Agreed!" Came two voices from down the stairs, the senshi looked to see that Luna and Artemis had arrived with Mamoru.

"We got your call Usagi-chan; we came here as quickly as we could from the new palace. It's almost finished." Artemis said to Usagi and the rest of the senshi.

"That's wonderful." Usagi said happily as the two cats looked at one another – deciding that it was time to discuss the matter.

"It is – but there are more important matters to discuss right now. I think that all of you need more training and Sailor Myriad is just the person to help. Who knows, she might be able to teach you some psychic abilities. I can see that Setsuna already knows about some of hers. But I would expect that from the keeper of time." Luna said, giving Setsuna a wink.

The senshi agreed that they would need more training, and Mamoru wanted to participate as well. "I think that it will be a great way to improve my skills." He said to Zoe.

"Then it's settled, I will help re-train all of you, we will all make our powers stronger to deal with this new evil. Faunus has many tricks and he hasn't even used half of them yet. So we all have to be constantly on our toes. You never know what's going to be ahead. We'll begin the training nice and early tomorrow – so I hope that you're all going to be ready. Don't be late – Usagi chan." Zoe said – giving her cousin a wink, Usagi glared at Zoe.

"Hey I'm a responsible adult now!"

"Well I haven't seen you since you were a teenager in the Silver Millennium. But from what I can surmise from watching over you guys for a long time, you've barely changed at all Usagi-chan. You're still the sweetest and most loving person that I know."

"Thanks Zoe."

"You're welcome. One more thing though before I go – there's safety in numbers when it comes to Faunus. Don't let him get you alone or anything, because it will be harder to fight that way. I think that it would be best if all of you stayed at Rei and Minako's temple tonight. I would like it a lot better if you all stayed safe." Zoe said while looking directly at Setsuna.

"But what about you?" Usagi asked Zoe.

"I will be fine, I have a nice hiding place where Faunus won't find me. Don't worry about me Usagi-chan." Zoe said with a smile.

"All right."

"I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you better tomorrow. Until then, see you lovely ladies later." With that Zoe was gone in the blink of an eye.

Wow she's good was the collective thoughts of the senshi and Mamoru after Zoe made her exit. Everyone went back to Rei's house for some tea and snacks – made by Makoto. The inner senshi were really excited about training some more tomorrow, while the outer senshi were thankful that they could hone in on their skills more. A bit later on in the night Usagi pulled Setsuna away for a second to talk to her about Zoe.

"Setsuna-san. I feel so weird around Zoe. I mean I know that she's my cousin and all from the Silver Millennium, but you two seem to share such fond memories of one another. I want to be like the two of you – I want to re-get to know my cousin again, and have that same kind of connection that the two of you have."

Setsuna looked at Usagi momentarily and said, "well Usagi-chan, I think that you can easily re-establish the connection that the two of you had when you were in the Silver Millennium. Zoe's very nice and it's not like she'll bite or anything. I can tell that she's been looking forward to getting re-acquainted with you. But trust me when I say that you don't want to have the same kind of connection that Zoe and I have with one another."

"What do you mean by that?" Usagi asked Setsuna with a puzzled look on her face.

Setsuna looked at Usagi for a second, and decided that she could trust Usagi with this information. "I suppose that I can trust you with this information Usagi-chan, but you have to promise not to tell the others."

"As your queen, I promise!" Usagi replied, waiting to hear any potential juicy gossip – before anyone else did, or maybe they would never know.

Well back in the Silver Millennium – Zoe and I were a couple. We shared this special bond that no one else had. Before Zoe left, I didn't have the duty of looking over the gates of time. We were especially close, never leaving one another's side. This closeness of ours lead to us developing a lot of joint-powers, such as the one that we did this evening. Zoe could combine powers with everyone, but ours were so special since they were made from love – just like the ones that you and Mamoru-san have together. Once she left to fight in another galaxy it was too much for me. Since I had spent most of my time with Zoe, I didn't really know what to do. I wanted to go with her so badly once she left – but I stayed because I knew that it was my duty to protect the Silver Millenium against chaos. My heart was completely broken though, I had really wanted to go and fight with Zoe. She was actually part of the reason why I volunteered to stand at the gates of time by myself. You see, I can control the gates without being there – but I was so heartbroken that I just wanted to be alone. Zoe had left without saying goodbye to me, and ever since then I haven't heard from her – not once. I guess that you could say, seeing Zoe again brings back fond memories, yet at the same time it hurts." Setsuna said with a bit of a sob, tears were coming down her face lightly.

Usagi couldn't believe it – Setsuna, whom she considered to be the most un-open in terms of sharing her feelings of the senshi was crying in front of her.

"Setsuna-san. I know what it's like to loose a loved one. I've lost Mamo-chan so much over the years, and it hurts every time. In my heart though, I know that my cousin still loved you when she left. Maybe it was just too hard to say goodbye that first time for her, and she didn't want to see you cry. When Mamo-chan went on that plane to go to Harvard, I was so close to tears – but he told me no tears, and despite how hurt inside I was – I didn't cry. I think that Zoe still loves you now though Setsuna-san, why don't you ask her? Tell her how you feel and all? Pull her aside tomorrow and talk to her, I'm sure that she'll understand." Usagi said to Setsuna, re-assuringly.

"Thank you, Usagi-chan. I'm sorry to cry in front of you."

"Don't worry about it – everyone cries; everyone has feelings, it's fine to express them every now and then Setsuna-san." Usagi replied with a huge smile on her face. Setsuna smiled back at Usagi.

"All right – first thing tomorrow then." Setsuna said, "good night Usagi-chan."

"Goodnight Setsuna-san."


Author's endnote: Sorry again for another short chapter – but the next two should be longer. Until next time.