Cyber Moon: Crystal.

Act 1: Crystal City.

Episode 6: The darkest soul.

By Razor Knight

Last update: December 10, 2008

Hotaru looked at the newcomer. The outfit was the same as Pluto's suit, but she looked younger. At least, her eyes looked younger, compared to Pluto's eyes. "... Who are you?"

The woman smiled. "Saki Meiou, but you can call me Younger Pluto."

"Wait, what..." Hotaru looked at ChibiUsa and frowned. "You knew about this."

"I knew she existed, but this is the first time I see her."

Hotaru had added everything up quite fast, and knew who this was, no matter how impossible it seemed. "So you're Setsuna's daughter?"

"Yes and no," Saki said.

"Ugh, you definitely are, you ove speaking in riddles."

Saki laughed. "See, I'm Sailor Pluto's daughter, but not of the Sailor Pluto you know. I come from a reality where the Senshi were defeated. In that reality, Pluto fell in love with a civilian, and she... Well, she had to leave her post for a while when she got pregnant."

"Puu told me about that. An enemy came from another era and killed most of the Senshi before they could even realize what had hit them. That world's Pluto died, too, but that was when our Setsuna got there. She had sensed a strange energy in that universe."

"She sensed the power of Pluto, but in a different soul," Saki continued. "She found me barely alive, and attacked the enemy. They weren't expecting another Pluto to be there, and specially not one a hundred times stronger than any Senshi they'd faced before."

ChibiUsa nodded. "And afterwards, she knew she couldn't abandon the little girl there, so she took her back here... Saki is, after all, her daughter."

"... That's quite a story," Saturn noted. "But what exactly do you do here?"

"I watch over the time gate while mother isn't around."

"Bet you've always wondered how Pluto was able to be a history teacher back when we were teens," ChibiUsa mused.

"Wait until Haruka and Michiru hear they have a sister..." Hotaru mused.

"That won't happen," Saki said. Her tone was neutral, but the warning was quite clear. "They must not know about me, for several more centuries at least."

"Gotcha," Hotaru said. "I suppose even I wasn't meant to know about you."

"You were, because we will meet again in the future," Saki said, "but now I must return to my post, so goodbye."

Hotaru looked at the spot where the young Pluto had been standing seconds before. "Considering whose daughter she is, she's quite normal."

One could probably call the six years that passed dull, and would be quite right. The Earth was seemingly becoming a quieter world, since wars were stopped by Crystal Tokyo's army, or by the few Senshi that weren't residing in the city. There was practically no human being that didn't know how the Senshi looked like, at least in their battle outfits.

But things had became a bit more active in the area surrounding Crystal Tokyo in the past few years, too. There were always explosions and light shows that were visible from the city itself, and most citizens knew what that was about. Princess Serenity was training the new generation of Senshi, and had been doing quite a good job, too.

Queen Serenity herself had decided to watch today's training, after being invited by her daughter many times. She had been living an extremely quiet life herself, not counting the political meetings and parties she had to attend now and then. True, at first she had let Endymion take care of all the political issues, but that was decades ago, and she had slowly learnt to handle those issues herself.

Her mind returned to the issue at hand as an explosion rocked the area. "They quite good, I'm glad I decided to come watch them today. "

"That's true," Younger Mars said. She was wearing a Holy Senshi uniform, just like the others. It had taken some extreme, life-threatening training to get their powers to that point, but Serenity knew her daughter wasn't doing this on a whim. The more, the merrier, as the saying went, and they would surely need as many extra Senshi as they could gather in the future.

Younger Lilith phased out of the field and stood right besides Serenity, a line of blood running down her arm. "Guess I'm out of luck."

Saturn, who had been silently watching, started healing her. "You were quite right, Serenity, Takamaru is almost as strong as me or Chibi now."

"Almost?" Serenity frowned at that. With a dual power like his, she would've guessed he would be stronger than Saturn, at least.

"Don't give me that look. I have to admit I didn't quite understand why Chibi trained at first, but training with her has really helped me beyond what I would have expected in the past."

ChibiMoon and Younger Dragon Saturn were now sparring with plain physical strength. Even then, the impact of their blows shook the air around them. Serenity recalled the times when Ami told them their physical strength would increase to unknown levels with time and training. Her friend sure had a lot of foresight. "If you don't mind, I would want a little demonstration on what you can do," the Queen noted.

Saturn smiled. "Right." She turned to the two that were sparring. "Hey Chibi, can I borrow your weapon?"

"Go right ahead," ChibiMoon noted right before blocking a spinning kick from the Dragon. "Sometimes, I think I taught you too well."

Dragon Saturn smiled as he leapt away. "Hey, what's Hotaru going to do now?"

ChibiMoon smiled back. "Want to watch? It will be interesting." True, they hadn't really showed off the results of their own training to the others yet. A training that had her, right now, be only one year younger than her mother, thanks to the time spent in the time tunnel.

Saturn had, meanwhile, summoned the Moonshine. A thin white aura had surrounded her as soon as she did that, and she sighed. "It's the first time I'm going to use this on anyone other than Chibi. But if it doesn't work on her, it won't work on you, either."

"Go ahead," Serenity said. She was curious about this, she didn't know Saturn could use ChibiUsa's talisman to attack.

"Hey wait, are you going to shoot the Queen?" Lilith asked.

Saturn frowned. "If I hit you, Tsuki, or any other of the Younger, you would be out cold for a few days."

Mars was staring at Saturn silently, so Venus chuckled. "Hey, thought you didn't like..."

Mars snickered. "It's not that, but her power is amazing."

"Yeah, guess we still need to train."

Saturn pointed 'her' sword at the Queen and nodded. "Here I go. Lunar Funeral!"

Serenity suddenly found herself surrounded by wraiths, all of which had Hotaru's face. Before she could move away, all the wraiths shoot at her at the same time, causing a small explosion. The beams they shot were lunar magic, Serenity realized as she was momentarily blinded by the blast.

"Damn, that attack was too much," Venus said.

The Queen, however, was still standing there when the attack ended. Other than her hair being a bit ruffled, there was no damage from the attack. "That's one amazing attack, Hotaru."

"And one I don't expect to use in a real battle anytime soon."

Dragon Saturn flinched. Saturn's attack had been stronger than anything he could shoot, and the Queen hadn't even flinched. He still had to train more, to become stronger, in order to be up to par with them.

Meanwhile, back inside the city, Ami Mizuno was talking to the two other top scientists of Crystal Tokyo. "... And they've asked me to help with that."

"So they can't seem to find a way to give the Moon or Mars a life-supporting atmosphere..." Tomoe frowned. "If I'm not mistaken, I heard the Princess had intended to do something like that with Mars, but the Queen was against the idea."

"I know that. Terry?"

"Scientists are, even nowadays, still skeptical to magic. I suppose we could have the Princess go to the Moon herself and restore its atmosphere."

"But that alone won't do. We'll need to transport plants and animals there in order to stabilize its ecosystem."

"We will have to discuss this with the Queen," Terry said. "Tell our 'friends' in Europe we will consider their request."

ChibiUsa looked around. This was a rare event, for her mother to call her to her private quarters. She could still go there anytime she wanted, it wasn't like the Queen forbade anyone from visiting her there.

What was even more rare, was to see the Queen in civilian clothing. ChibiUsa smirked at that, she had almost forgotten how she looked without her gown.

"So, mom, was there anything you wanted from me?"

"I've been thinking about the Younger," Usagi said, using the term they had all agreed on to designate the second generation of Senshi. ChibiUsa herself was one of them, too, which was one reason why she had eagerly become their trainer. "While their level is already Holy, they lack any real combat experience."

"I'm quite aware of that. While I've put them in some apparently life-threatening situations, I was never going all out against them. A real enemy wouldn't have such handicap."

"So, I was thinking they should go out and get some real experience. "

ChibiUsa nodded. "Even if they lack experience, there shouldn't be anything out there which would pose a threat to anyone at our level. "

"Keep your guard up, just in case."

"I will tell Hotaru about this." Suddenly, ChibiUsa realized something. "Oh, now I know why you're dressed like that... It was today, right?"

Usagi smiled sadly. "Yes, it's been one year now since she..."

ChibiUsa saw a single tear running down Usagi's cheek. One year ago, she now remembered, Usagi had also been in civilian clothing, but that time she had been crying unconsolably. It was hard to believe Ikuko had been gone for two year now. "So Kenji's coming to visit?"

"No, I'm going there myself."

"I'll tag along, then," ChibiUsa said. Not only because she wanted to see the old man again before he also passed away, but because she wanted to be by her mother's side today, to help her out of her gloom.

Ami smiled as she looked at the data from her scanner. "Hmm, seems like your guess was correct, Naru."

"You mean, I'm..."

Ami nodded. "You're pregnant."

"So, that means we'll have a little Nemesis running around," Naru said with a grin.

"Either that, or a boy in a Rockman suit," Ami commented. They were both at Naru's house, and Ami had to admit the house was quite a show. Naru had, years before the foundation, become a jewel collector, and the house nowadays had several display cases with her most valuable pieces.

It wasn't as if crime was an issue, after all, inside the city. Last theft report had been seven years ago, and the Crystal Tokyo internal security office, led by Rei, was nowadays more focused in helping citizens with their everyday problems, while keeping an eye for the unlikely case someone did commit a crime.

Naru's words took Ami out of her brooding. "These are really good news, I can't wait to tell Umino about it."

Just then, Umino walked into the house. "Tell me about what?"

"Ami just confirmed it, I'm pregnant," Naru said. Umino promptly fainted. "He took it rather well," Naru muttered.

Serenity looked at the four Senshi standing in front of her. "As you heard from your leader, we've decided to send you out of the city for one year. You may head to any country you want, but remember, you're not going there as tourists, but to fight evil."

"Are you sure it's safe?"

The Queen looked at Tsuki. She was the one Younger Senshi that spoke the less, and even though she had trained as much as the others, Serenity knew this girl was much like herself, and hated the idea of fighting. "It's completely safe. You four are at the same level as the Elders, so there shouldn't be anything out there that could really hurt you. However, all the training you have won't be worth anything unless you get some training experience."

"Maybe we can go to the past?" Hisako joked.

Serenity giggled. "No, that was the exception to the rule." She then realized something. "Wait, how do you..."

"Usagi already told us everything about that," Takamaru noted, "I would be skeptical about it all, if I didn't know there is a time tunnel out there."

Serenity frowned at that. ChibiUsa, or Usagi as the Youngers called her (which was, after all, her name,) had told them about her true origins? She would have to talk to that girl later on. "In any case, if you find yourself in a dangerous situation, you may use these to communicate with each other, or with one of the Elders."

Elders was, Serenity knew, a term some of her friends didn't quite like. But if these five Senshi were the Younger Senshi, then Serenity and the others were the Elder Senshi. Though if these Senshi were going to live for a long time as well, then Serenity had guessed they would have to search for a better naming form, as there could be three generations of active Senshi around in the near (or distant,) future.

Hisako looked at the round object floating in front of her. There was one for each of them, matching their suits' colors, and they were palm-sized. "A communicator?"

"Yes, this way we can keep in touch."

"Hmph, wouldn't you just be able to know where we are?"

"I can only do that inside the city, and a few miles around the barrier. I know what you must have heard out there, but I'm no goddess, my powers do have a limit."

"It's just so high we can't really see it," Hikaru joked.

"Oh, that's quite correct," Serenity mused. "In any case, your families already know of your trip, you will be leaving three days from now."

"Will she be okay out there?"

Kage smiled. "Don't worry, she's as good with her luck and her melee skills as you are."

"Were," Chie corrected. "Really, I haven't quite used my powers in decades. Shouldn't we be training too, just in case anything happens?"

"Yeah, that's something to consider, now that we don't have to take care of a little girl anymore. Either that, or trying for a Sailor Sun next."

Chie chuckled. "I'll pass, at least for the time being."

The trip had been quite boring to him. Despite his element being water, he wasn't quite excited by the hours of staring at nothing but water as the plane flew over the pacific ocean. But now that he had arrived his destination, he knew fun would be starting soon. He had chosen South America as his first training area, as he had heard the place was packed full of evil, from drug lords to necromancers, and of course, the customary Lesser Senshi bullying the civilians.

With language being one of his favorite hobbies, he had an easy time finding a place to stay, and also getting a few leads on a small group of Lesser Senshi who had been using the city as their playground. So, he already knew what his first target would be.

He had a lot of terrain to cover, however. Rumors indicated the 'Galaxy Senshi' were hiding somewhere in the suburban area around the country's capital, but that was quite a vague pointer. He snorted as he thought about their name. Galaxy Senshi, such an ego-boosting name, he wondered what the idiots looked like.

It was on the fifth day in this country that he found them. They were in a small village called Shangrila. Maybe he would find the fountain of eternal youth here too? All joking aside, the village was near the ocean, which gave him one hell of a power advantage.

"Who are you, and why are you entering Galaxy's territory without permission?"

He looked at the girl standing in front of him. She was obviously in her late teens, and was wearing a blue suit which slightly resembled that of Sailor Mercury. That most likely meant she was a water Senshi. "I am here to put an end to your terrorizing of civilians," he announced, "as for who I am, you'll hear it on the news after I capture you all."

"Hmph, you're delusional, boy," the girl said, "there's no need to call Galaxy for this, Sailor Acuario will be enough. Tidal Wave!"

Takamaru let the attack hit and laughed. He hadn't bothered transforming, and it helped the shock this girl felt right now. "You call that a water attack? Let me show you how it's done... Thousand Jets!"

Acuario saw countless water drops appear around her and gasped. "What is this..." Before she could react, the drops all turned into jets of water which hit her from all sides. The water then solidified, effectively binding her. "Who are... You?"

Takamaru frowned and turned into his Senshi form. "Dragon Saturn, the son of Sailor Mercury. You're not that weak, girl, but if the others are like you, then I'm going to be very bored."

"Oh, nothing like that. Galaxy is far stronger than me. She will stop you."

Dragon Saturn walked away, laughing. He would come back later on after he had captured that Galaxy girl, and pick this one up. It was a pity he had to hold back against this woman, though, because his full powers would've killed her on the spot. Yes, it was a real pity, to have all that power and not use it correctly...

Minutes later, he found himself surrounded by pseudo-Senshi. Three girls and two guys, all too weak to be a challenge. "Hmph, I guess you're the rest of the Galaxy Senshi."

"You guessed right, intruder. We will not tolerate the likes of you here."

He looked at the woman who spoke. Her suit was black, as was her hair, but her hairstyle was... "Oh, cute, you've got Sailor Moon's hairdo. Too bad your power doesn't match hers."

"What the... Die! Galaxy Stream!"

"Fire Bomber!"

"Lightning Torrent!"

"Wind Reaper!"

"Sand Punch!"

Dragon Saturn chuckled. "Oh, wait, I was supposed to be hurt by those, right?" He had to admit, though, that Galaxy had almost surprised him. The little bitch was up to a Guardian Senshi's level, which was still not enough to hurt him.

He prepared to attack, but then flinched. He couldn't overdo it, or he would end killing these idiots. Then again, why hold back? This group had murdered many innocents since they had appeared. They deserved no mercy from him.

But the Queen told them not to kill any criminal unless it was completely unavoidable. 'Then again, where's the Queen? Still sitting in her pretty throne back home, while monsters like these kill for fun.' Yeah, he didn't need to hold back, he would make them feel what their victims felt.

A punch to the face took him out of his brooding. That Galaxy idiot had closed in while he was spacing out and took a cheap shot at him. Fortunately, the only thing he got from it was even more anger to fuel his power up. "Okay bitch, time's up for you. Soul Snatcher."

The other four Lesser Senshi heard their leader's scream as the Dragon clutched her arm with vise-like strength... Then they saw him pull a ghost-like figure from out of her body with his free hand, and their leader fell to the ground in a heap. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Soul Eraser." As Dragon Saturn said that, the ghastly figure (which had Galaxy's face) let out a high-pitched scream, then vanished. "Oh yeah, this is what I call power..."

"What the fuck..." The fire-shooting guy muttered, then charged at him. The other three followed his lead, not even aware that their leader was gone. "Die!"

"No, you die. Soul Snatcher!"

"Three days ago, a group of Lesser Senshi known as the Galaxy Senshi were found in an abandoned warehouse. They were all dead, even though no physical damage was detected in them."

The Queen was quite shocked. "What area was that in..."

"Southern South America," Ami said calmly, "the area where Takamaru was going to start his training." Serenity knew the face she was putting up now all too well. The calm and calculating appearance hid something else, and she could see Ami was quite angry.

"Ami, maybe we should call Takamaru back and ask him about..."

"I've tried that already, Rei. His communicator is offline."

"How can that be?"

"He's my son, after all," Ami noted, "and I figured out a way to disable the communicators decades ago. Never found an use to it, though, but... I guess Taka did."

Rei frowned. "Without the comm, we have no way to know where he is right now."

"But why did he do that, we told him there was no need to..."

"I'm going there myself," Ami said.

"Ami, don't act rashly."

Ami gave her a dry chuckle. "Usagi, I'm not. I need to know just how he killed them without... Heck, even his death magic would leave physical damage behind."

"That's quite a mystery, I agree," Rei admitted. "We should know how he does that, just to be on the safe side."

"Be careful out there, Ami," Serenity said.

"Don't worry about me," Ami noted, "I'll drag him back here even if I have to knock him out to do it."

It took Mercury two more days to get permission from the local authorities to check on the bodies. While she had to agree that there was no physical damage done to these mages, she had only needed a few seconds to scan them all and know what was missing. "There are no traces of a soul in any of them," she commented.

"Soul?" Serenity asked.

Mercury nodded at the image in her visor. "Years ago, Hotaru told me that she could sense traces of the soul of a person, even if they had been dead for a couple weeks. These corpses have no trace of a soul at all. If I were to make a theory about this, I would say that... Their souls were ripped right out of their bodies."

Not that such a thing was impossible, in fact the Senshi had faced enemies who had magic that could make 'fragments' of a person's soul come out of their bodies. And necromancers used the souls of the recently deceased as fuel for their spells. But she was quite aware of what it all meant to her.

"Serenity, as far as I can tell, Younger Dragon Saturn isn't in this country anymore. I want to..."

"We're already tracking him down, we've warned the other Younger Senshi about his strange behavior just in case," Serenity said, "we'll do everything we can to get him back to Crystal Tokyo."

"I want you to pass this message to the Younger then... If they can't just knock him out or somehow disable him, they should go for the kill."

Serenity was shocked at that. "But Ami..."

"If what I'm guessing is true, then he's lost himself to the darkness in him. We can take no risks, Serenity."

"I understand. What will you do now, Ami?"

"... He's my son, even if he's evil. I don't think I will be able to fight him, so I'm going back to the city now."

The Dragon was, actually, not in South America anymore. He knew it now, those weaklings from Crystal Tokyo wouldn't agree to his actions. That's why he had destroyed his communicator. Back before he became one of the 'Younger Senshi' his intention had been to be the strongest Senshi. And thanks to his last battle, he now had the means for that goal. He could probably not become stronger than Serenity without years of training, but he could, however, just kill her on the spot. But first, he had to eliminate all those around her.

And he had decided to start by those who stupidly called him their friend. England was the closest stop for him, and that's where he was right now, following Younger Venus' track. He finally found her, and was right now watching her fight from the shadows, keeping his power down to near zero to avoid being sensed by her.

"Blink Bolt!" A small ball of light shot from Younger Venus' hand, knocking her opponent down. The magician was out cold now, all she had to do was to bring him to the local authorities and then she would look for other criminals.

"Thanks," one of the other women in the room said as she saw their captor was down.

"You girls just get out of here, I'll take care of..." Venus felt a hand on her back, and felt the surge of power from whoever it was that was behind her now. However, she didn't have time to turn back to see who this newcomer was before he attacked.

"Soul Eraser."

Hisako was furious. The news of what had happened to her friend reached her faster than the rest of the Senshi, and while she still respected the Queen, what she was saying right now was something she would not agree with. "I'm very sorry, Serenity, but I won't do that. "

"Hisako, let the Elders take care of..."

"I said I won't already," Hisako snapped. Right now, she didn't care if this was the Queen she was speaking to. "I'm already in London, and I know where that asshole is hiding."

"Hisako, I'm ordering you to come back here right now."

"This time around, aunt Usagi, I can't leave things as they are."

"If you go, you'll get killed too!"

"From what the women who were there said, he took Hikaru off-guard. That won't happen with me."

Before the Queen could insist, Hisako put the comm away. She was already in her Senshi form, and about to rush in and hit the bastard with all she had. It wasn't just that he had killed Hikaru, but the way he had done it... From what she had heard, not even Saturn could revive Hikaru now, since her soul was gone... Maybe the bastard had her soul, however, and all she had to do was to punch him until he gave it back.

"My, my, Hisako, if you're planning to surprise me, don't go around flaring that much power freely."

Mars phased out of the way before the man could hit her. She looked at him and couldn't help but gasp. He was pale, extremely pale, and his eyes were pitch black. "What the heck..."

"It's the eyes, isn't it?" Dragon Saturn mused. "This is what power looks like, Hisako. Remember it well for the few seconds you're going to live."

Mars growled. He was too gone to be brought back now, but she didn't care. "You monster, I'm going to kill you!"

Dragon Saturn was almost knocked back by the burst of fire that followed. Mars' power had skyrocketed in a blink, he could feel the heat even from a distance. He had to get her before she could shoot at him, or he was fried, literally. "Soul Eraser!"

Mars saw a black beam shoot from the Dragon's hands and growled. "Die!"

The fire blast that shot from her body looked like a large firebird. It didn't cancel the Dragon's attack, but reflected it, and he was punched through the wall by the sheer force of the hit.

Mars walked to the fallen Dragon and sighed. "Looks dead enough to me..."

"Fuck, we're late."

Mars turned to see chibiMoon and Saturn standing there, looking at her. "Yes, you are." She fell to her knees and groaned. "Damn it, I overdid it..."

Saturn checked the Dragon and shook her head. "No soul... But how did..."

"He used that thing on me, called it Soul Eraser... But my own berserker attack knocked it right back at him."

"Shit, I don't know how Ami will take this..."

Hisako sighed. "I'll tell her myself. At least now Hikaru's death is..."

"Uhm, about that..." Saturn said, "we need you to come with us first. "

"Come where?" Mars said, then the three vanished.

She recognized the place where they were as soon as they appeared. However, there was someone else there, and she wondered for a second if her mind was playing tricks on her. "Hikaru?"

Younger Venus smiled. "Hisako..."

Mars hugged her friend and then looked at the other two. "But how... You said that..."

Saturn nodded. "That soul erasure isn't something I can fix. Even Serenity couldn't do it. If Dragon Saturn had managed to do it, then yes, Hikaru would have been gone forever."

Hisako made the connection quite fast. "So Pluto saved her?"

"Pluto sent Hikaru's soul out of its time a split second before the attack hit. That way, she only had to tell Serenity about it and get Hikaru's soul back where it belongs."

"But then... Was Serenity acting?"

"No, Serenity found out about this after you started fighting him. "

ChibiMoon knew what Saturn was saying was mostly the truth, but there was one thing they had to keep a secret. Hikaru was, from what Pluto told her, meant to die, as was Takamaru. But Saki had, for once, broken the rules, and had saved Hikaru. The end result was mostly the same, but they didn't know how Hikaru's presence would affect the timelines in the future.

Pluto wasn't heartless enough to correct the timelines, though, so instead she was giving her daughter an earful for her mistake.

Though seeing how happy Hisako was right now, ChibiMoon didn't really know if it had been a mistake at all. "Now we'll send you both back to Crystal Tokyo," ChibiMoon said.

"Right. I still have to tell Ami about..."

"What happened?" Hikaru asked, noticing her friend's mood swing.

"I... I killed Takamaru," Hisako said, "I was too enraged to stop myself, but..."

"I can't blame you for that," Hikaru said. "Come on, let's go back home, I want to give mom the good news."

Hisako was lost for words now. Having to tell his parents what had happened was hard enough, but seeing Ami like this... "Ami, I..."

"Don't apologize," Ami said, wiping his tears off with her hands, "he was my son, yes, but... He was also evil."

"I don't think he was evil, just..."

"Evil isn't something you're born as," Terry noted. He looked pretty shocked about the news he had just received, too, but was trying his best not to let it get to him, "and he wasn't like other Senshi who went evil in the past. He wasn't taken over by evil, he chose to be evil."

"But during all these years, while he trained with us, he..."

Ami shook her head. "We supposed he just wanted to be stronger, and we allowed him to do so, in hopes he would realize why he had been given those powers for. We were wrong, I suppose..."

"I can't not blame myself, though... Even if he hadn't shot that thing at me, my own attack would have killed him."

"But if that was the case, he could have been brought back," Ami said, "there was a time when I thought my best melee attack was frightening, but... Destroying souls like he did? I can't understand how he could even think up that kind of attack."

Terry sighed. "Hisako, don't blame yourself. Fighting evil is something we must do, and we are, despite what rumors might say, human. Yes, acting recklessly and without waiting for reinforcements was wrong, but I know I would have done the same thing."

Hisako sighed. "I'll have to live with my own mistake, then."

Ami nodded. "Don't let it control you. We're not blaming you for what happened, so don't blame yourself."

Hisako looked down. Mistake or not, there was no turning back now, but at least her friend was still alive. Hikaru was... That made her realize something else. "I must go now, I need to talk to someone else," she said before vanishing.

Ami looked at the spot where Hisako had been standing and smiled. "She's not going to let the matter drop."

"She's stubborn, like her mother," Terry admitted, then looked at Ami. "Are you really all right?"

"I'm not, I don't think I'll be okay for a long time. But... He was evil."

"No matter how many times you say that, I know you," Terry noted, "even if he was evil, heartless, even if he fooled us for years... I know you still can't hate him."

"Can you?"

"He was our son, Ami. I can't bring myself to hate him for what he did, but... I can see why others might do so."

"I'm going to visit Aiko," Ami said, "I'm sure she heard the news by now."

Terry smiled. Right now, and despite her origins, Aiko was the only child they still had. "I'll tag along, been a while since I saw her. "

As Hisako walked through the city, she was getting closer to figuring out what she was going to do. There were mistakes she could still fix, and she was going to fix one of them right away.

However, when she reached her destination, she froze. The words she had been repeating in her mind were just not there anymore. She stood there, staring at the house she had been about to enter, and realized she hadn't felt so nervous since... Heck, since never.

"Hisa?" And there she was. Hikaru had appeared near her, and was staring at her, curious as to what she was standing around for. "Is something wrong?"

Hisako smiled. Words weren't needed in this case, they both knew each other well enough to not need them in times like these. She simply walked to her friend, leaning forwards and kissing her before she could react.

Hikaru didn't look like she wasn't welcoming the kiss, however. "Hisa, why..."

"Didn't I tell you, back then, that I would give it some thought?" Hisako said. "I almost lost you, Hikaru, but the rage I felt wasn't just because of your death. Now I know, it was because I thought you were gone before I could tell you I do feel the same way you do."

Hikaru blushed at that, then giggled. "Took you long enough."

Hisako looked at the house again. "Think your parents will..."

"Mom will be happy, but dad might be chanting a few high level spells right now," Hikaru joked. "But enough talking." And with that, she kissed her friend again, a deep, long kiss.

A few blocks away from them, someone was watching the scene. "I was wondering when they would finally get together."

"A princess eavesdropping, such a shameful event..."

ChibiUsa turned to Hotaru and smiled. "I suppose it's time to tell them about what we're planning."

"You sure it's going to work?"

"I know how things were in the future, but I don't know how long it took. Are you still willing to..."

Hotaru frowned. "It sounds like fun, and it's not like I have anything to do around here anyway. But you think those two..."

"I'll tell Tsuki, too. We Younger Senshi need to act like a team."

"Hmph, I'm not a Younger."

"But you're the prettiest of the Elders," ChibiUsa teased.

Hotaru smiled at that. "So, going to tell them about it now?"

ChibiUsa looked back at the couple that was now walking back into the Diamond mansion. "No, we can wait. It looks like they're going to be busy for a while."

A/N: In case anyone's wondering, Saki's name comes from Sakisaki, literally "distant future." As for the country Takamaru was in, I know it well, because that's where I live. And yep, we do have a town/village called Shangrila here. No fountain of eternal youth, though.

What's ChibiUsa up to now? If I said it here, I wouldn't need to write next episode.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the one-episode-a-week updating I'm doing for this one isn't intentional. Work and games are getting in the way of my writing a lot more than usual lately.