The senshi had only just begun debating when a tall man had slowly slid the door open, his green eyes examining the room. The girls fell deathly silent, rendered immobile as they gazed at the gold crescent moon that marked his forehead.
"Can we help you?" Mamoru managed to slowly ask, and the man smiled at him.
"Yes, actually. I am new to this city, and I am a bit lost. I am looking for the sailor senshi." His eyes slowly raked over the room, and came to rest on Serafim, warily hiding behind Ami. "I have to warn them of what is coming."
"Uh, what's coming?" Mamoru stammered, trying to buy the girls time to recover.
"Who are you!" Usagi managed to exclaim. "Are you from the Moon Kingdom?"
The white haired man smiled kindly. "You must be Sailor Moon. You are exactly in the image of our former princess." He bowed slightly, his hand held over his heart. "I am Alkaios, the late Queen Serenity's general and the current defender of the glorious Moon Kingdom."
"You…you rule the Moon Kingdom?" Usagi ventured cautiously, and the man nodded.
"I am the de facto ruler, yes. Our queen and our princess are dead, and it took us nearly a thousand years to rebuild." His face darkened, jaw clenching tightly. "The Dark Kingdom nearly destroyed everything. They killed the senshi and our queen, and the Silver Crystal that had blessed our land since the beginning of time was lost to us. He sighed, a pained expression on his face, and the senshi looked at him intently, waiting on baited breath for him to continue. "Our battle with the Dark Kingdom ended three years ago when the Silver Crystal resurfaced, but the war was far from over."
"With Chaos?" the young Moon Princess asked. "We fought the Doom Phantom and Pharaoh 90 and Nehellenia and Galaxia in the past few years too. Did you fight them too?"
The green eyed man smiled sympathetically. "No, we were spared those battles, because we have neither the Silver Crystal, nor any senshi, though Nehellenia may have been our doing. Our campaign to drive the darkness from our home may have made her seek out the power of the Golden Crystal to fight back against us." He bowed again. "For that, we are deeply sorry. We could not forsee the consequences of our actions."
"You don't have to be sorry for that!" Usagi sympathetically declared. "It's alright, we beat her. You were just doing what you needed to do!"
"Yes, to keep the Moon Kingdom safe," he sighed, his bright green eyes focused on the reincarnated Moon Princess. "Just as I am doing now." The tone of voice made Serafim shrink back, instinctively grasping Ami's arm for security. "The Dark Kingdom crippled us, and in our moment of weakness, the rebels of Nemesis attacked us and attempted to take our kingdom as their own."
"The Black Moon Clan?" Raye asked, stepping forward and trying to make sense of this. "But they're not supposed to exist yet, not until the rise of Crystal Tokyo."
Alkaios smiled. "You speak of the future of our kingdom. Have you had contact with them?"
"Yes. The Black Moon Clan attacked the future too," Makoto said, crossing her arms. "The Moon Princess from that time came here to us to seek help, and they followed."
"But we were told they came to be when the Serenity of the future exiled rebels from Earth," Minako added, and the other girls muttered in agreement.
"You were deceived," Alkaios said softly, green eyes boring into Serafim's red ones for just a second before returning to the senshi. "The Black Moon Clan, the humans of Nemesis, came to be hundreds of thousands of years ago when the people of the Moon first united the other planets into one kingdom, with Serenity at its head." He lifted his head proudly, a grand display of arrogance and superiority. "Before the Grand Unification, there was no strength in our system. All we were was a string of independent nations it was Serenity VIII who shaped and molded us into a great and powerful empire. With the power of the Silver Crystal, Serenity drove the darkness from the land and united us all under a banner of light."
"Wow…" Usagi gasped, awed at the history of her family. "The Silver Crystal's extremely powerful."
"And more so, yes," Alkaios purred proudly. "It was in this time that those who rejected the light of the Moon were exiled to the dark planet of Nemesis, and these renegades became the Black Moon Clan." His face darkened, and the Moon Kingdom general fixed his gaze on the blond man once again. "The joined forces with the natives of Nemesis, a race of demons, and they gained access to the Dark Crystal. Since then, we have been in nearly constant conflict with those savages. However," he said slyly, looking at Serafim as a predator gazes at its prey, "we now have an advantage, and our strategy has changed. They have lost possession of the Dark Crystal."
"So they are powerless now?" Raye asked, and the general shook his head.
"No. They have spent so long in the dark and exposed to that crystal that they can no longer be called human. They are difficult bastards to kill, especially without the Silver Crystal." He grinned sinisterly, a sentiment that was lost on the rapt senshi, but not lost to the injured Serafim. "Now that they have lost the Dark Crystal, they are panicking. This is our chance to strike. We cannot allow them to regain the crystal, so our objective now is to find the crystal and destroy it. It will cripple their force permanently and end this senseless conflict."
The senshi all slowly looked toward Serafim, who only shrank further behind the blue haired girl, feeling like a mouse in a room of snakes. "It is my understanding," Alkaios said softly, "that your boy there is in possession of the Dark Crystal."
"That's what he said," Minako said breathlessly, and Ami inhaled sharply, listening intently to what happened next.
"In that case," the man said softly, "we have a few options. First, we take him and lock him away where the Nemian bastards can't reach him. Secondly, we can simply extract the crystal from him." He glared at the uncomfortable man hiding behind the wary Ami, and he quietly said, "Or we kill him, and within him, the crystal dies."
The senshi gasped, and Ami reflexively laid her hand over Serafim's, her chest dully pulsating with the power that she felt lay within her. "No, we can't just kill him!" Usagi cried, and Alkaios looked at her critically.
"Well, would you rather the Solar System be thrust into darkness? Is it better that everyone suffers?" The senshi fell silent, and the green eyes roved over the girls. "You have a choice to make. Kill one man to save the lives of an untold number, to secure the future!" His eyes narrowed as he watched them, a faint smile on his lips as he watched fear and doubts mark their features. "Do this, and the future will be safe from attack, safe for your children." This seemed to strike a chord in their fearless leader and Alkaios smiled, cruel eyes focused on a trembling Serafim. "What's one man in the face of billions?" He shrugged. "So, Sailor Moon, what shall you do?"