Cyber Moon: Crystal.

Act 1: Crystal City.

Episode 7: Silver revival.

By Razor Knight

Last update: December 18, 2008

"There's a full Earth tonight."

Saturn looked up and chuckled. It was the first time she was there, at least in this lifetime. Also, at first it had been quite unsetting, but now she was used to breathing this dim tmosphere. In fact, the Senshi could survive even in deep space, where there was no atmosphere at all. "Hard to believe we're here, right?"

Younger Moon was, meanwhile, looking around. "This... We're standing right on it, the place where Silver Millenium was."

Saturn looked down, using her visor. "There's at least ten man-made underground structures around us."

"We need to search until we find what we're looking for."

"And what exactly are we looking for?"

"We will know when we find it."

"... For something you've been planning for years, it sure sounds like you have no idea what you're doing."

Moon nodded. "Yeah, well, all Ami could find about this was that the artifacts keeping the planets stable were called World Seeds, and that they run on mana. Only planet that didn't need one was the Earth itself, apparently."

"Then we only have to get the mana flowing again..."

"No, first I want to make sure those things are in working condition. Otherwise, all we would get would be a dead world with lots of mana flowing freely."

"Right. Let's go, the sooner we get this done, the sooner we'll be breathing fresh air again."

"Think those two will be okay up there?"

Hikaru looked up to the Moon and smiled. "As if there was anything out there that could threaten them."

Hisako nodded. "There may be something, though."

"It's just too weird, you know... The Moon has always been like that, ever since I was born... Heck, no history book ever tells of the Moon looking any different. To think there was a civilization there, as well as in all other planets, it looks quite impossible. "

"Someone summoning a sword made of pure light is also 'impossible,' you know?"

"Good point. But can you really imagine the Moon being all blue and green instead of the silver we're used to?"

"Now that isn't something my mind's ready for, I'll tell you that much."

Hikaru smiled. One year had passed since her brush with death, and it had also been one year they had spent together. She had been almost resigned to have Hisako as nothing but a friend, but now she knew the wait was more than worth it. "Hope Usagi comes back soon, there isn't a lot to do around here anyway."

"If this works, I want to go to Mars," Hisako noted.

"Hmph, it looks quite lame to me, a planet of nothing but red sands and rocks."

"Says the one whose planet's an oven," Hisako joked.

"Oh, shut up."

"Make me," Hisako teased.

"Okay," Hikaru said and kissed her.

Moon scanned the room with her eyes and smiled. "What were you saying about fresh air?"

Saturn was as surprised as she was. The underground structure they were in right now had a stable atmosphere of its own, and was lit up by several small lamps around them. "It's almost as if they had wanted to keep a part of the Moon alive."

"And its got magical shielding, too," Moon said, "which makes no technological device able to detect this place."

There were signs on the walls, but they were written in characters that were alien to them. "Guess this is the ancient language, huh?" Saturn mused as she summoned her communicator. "Ami, are you there?"

"Yes, what's the matter?"

"We've found underground bases here, they're all working and have a breathable atmosphere, but we found some writings here that we can't..." Saturn stopped as she noticed Mercury was now standing right besides her. "Are you going out of the city without Rei's authorization?"

"She'll understand," Mercury said, "and even if she doesn't, it's not like I will care." She focused in reading the signs, using the power that had been quite useful to her many times in the past. "I see... We're now apparently in a training area. Past this door and to the left, there's the infirmary, and to the right, there's... " She stopped. "Hmm, a laboratory?"

"There's got to be a computer there," Saturn guessed.

"Yes, but it's offline," Mercury noted, "but I think I can bring it back to life with my own computer."

Serenity smiled at the little human crawling around the room. "Looks like little Anya is quite lively today."

"She's always like that," Naru admitted. "And Ami already checked her, there's darkness magic in her."

Serenity noticed her friend's worried look and sighed. "Naru, I'm sure what happened with Ami's son won't..."

"You can't be completely sure. Hell, you thought it was okay to train that..."

"That monster?" Serenity asked, guessing the word Naru hadn't said. "If you're that worried about Anya, then you need to make sure she will know the difference between good and evil, and help her choose the right path."

"Guess you're right."

"Only time will tell," Serenity said, "and I would be a lousy Queen if I let the same thing happen twice."

"I don't really think anyone could accuse you of that."

"You say that because you're my friend," Serenity noted.

"No, I mean it. I can hardly believe you're the same Usagi I met in kinder... The crybaby girl who loved to sleep and eat."

Serenity giggled. "I still love that, you know..."

"Some things never change, then."

"Where's Umino?"

"Oh, he's on a press conference about that book. Hope he gets it knocked off the shelves."

Serenity shrugged. "I already told him what I think of the book. I'm sure he'll follow my advice on this."

"What's Crystal Tokyo's opinion on this book?"

Umino scanned the room. He was quite used to this, to the press vultures looking for anything they could take out of context in order to raise their income selling lies. But he and the other two persons in the room weren't about to give them that. "It's a quite entertaining fantasy work."

"Fantasy? It says it's a hundred percent real facts."

Minako chuckled. "So, if I told you I can throw fire beams through my eyes and I'm twenty feet tall, and that's all real facts, you'd believe it?"

"You're denying it all, then."

"Actually, we aren't going to do a thing about that book," Umino said, "freedom of speech and thought, after all, is something we do respect."

"Despite us being evil brainwashing masterminds from hell," Minako noted, using a term the book in question had used to define them.

"So, in short, we are not going to ban this book from our city, we're not going to do a thing against it or its author."

"Nobody knows who the author really is," one of the reporters noted.

Minako laughed at that. "Some things in that book are true. And one of them is, actually, the little bit about us Utopians having eyes and ears everywhere."

"Besides, she almost made a better job at retelling our lives than the Queen herself did in her writer days."

"Bottom line is, if people wants to believe what's on that book, then they will believe it. But I think the help other countries have received from us in the last thirty years should be all the proof we need to prove what's our real face."

"But what about the Death Dragon?"

Minako winced. That hit a nerve, really. Death Dragon was the nickname press had given to Ami's son, and it was something that was used once and again to try and tick them off. "What about him? He killed one of our Senshi, and one of our Senshi dealt with him. He also got rid of a group of pseudo-Senshi that were terrorizing a whole country. I don't really think you can find anything there to use against us."

"Wasn't he like that pink-haired woman, the one who apparently destroyed Tokyo?"

"Apparently?" Umino smiled. "Everyone must've seen the images taken by the satellites, that woman wasn't one of us."

"Wasn't she cloned from one of you?"

"That isn't a hundred percent accurate. Black Lady was a clone, yes, but the monster that created her purposefully made every negative aspect of our Princess be dominant in her."

"But we're straying off the subject of this meeting," Minako noted, "as far as this book goes, we're not going to take any action against it, and that's all you need to know."

Mercury smiled. "Okay, this computer's as good as new now... Let me see if I can find anything useful for our mission."

"It's our mission, you're just butting in," Saturn teased.

"You're welcome," Mercury said with a grin. "Oh, now this is..."

The others saw Mercury walk to the door and frowned. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing at all, I've found what you're looking for. It's a few miles to the west, in a different underground base."

"Can we make it work again?" Moon asked.

"No 'we' there, only Moon herself could do that," Mercury noted, "I'll be going back to Earth now, if you don't mind."

As Mercury left, Saturn frowned. "Are you sure it's safe?"

"Not quite, and that's why you're here," Moon said. "Let's just hope I'm just being paranoid."

After a few minutes of teleporting and walking, the two finally found their goal. "And this is called a World Seed because...?"

Moon had to agree with Saturn, it didn't look quite like a seed. It was a rather large, featureless machine, and its shape was like that of a pyramid. "Why would they build these things with a shape like that of the pyramids?"

"I think you've got that backwards, the pyramids were most likely base on this thing."

Moon nodded, her eyes not leaving the 'seed.' "I'll try to awaken it now."

"Good luck."

Moon closed her eyes and focused. She could feel the machine's latent magic, and it didn't take her more than a minute to find the way to make it work again. It was apparently something instictive for her, maybe it was the same for all the Moon Senshi.

"Chibi?"

Moon opened her eyes and blinked. The machine was now glowing white, and she could feel the mana flowing into it. However, it was feeding through her, not directly off the Moon itself. "Now I know it works, I only have to..." she looked around and smiled. "There."

Saturn pondered what she meant for a second, but then felt it. It was like a silent explosion of power, she could now feel the magic energy flowing all around them, and it was quite a contrast to the 'dead' planetoid the Moon had been minutes ago. "Amazing..."

"And tiresome," Moon said as she fell to her knees. "But we can't do this with the other planets, at least not on our own."

"I don't follow."

"Those World Seeds are set to only react to their world's Senshi. I could uncap the mana wells on all the other planets myself, but I won't be able to activate the Seeds."

"It just couldn't be too easy, or could it?" Saturn noted. "In any case, let's go back home."

"Yeah, I need to give the others the good news."

Serenity had noticed the change almost instantly. For someone of her level, it was quite strange to feel her own power rising like that. She looked up at the Moon and smiled. "She did it."

"I don't quite get how she could..." Endymion noticed. "The old Queen Serenity died after capping those wells, didn't she?"

"Takes a lot more energy to seal them than to unseal them," Serenity said. She knew that herself, she had done it when she built Crystal Tokyo. "But mother was... She had used a lot of power to send the youma into the Dark Kingdom, and also, she broke the Ginzuishou into pieces, something that also requires an incredible quantity of mana. "

"So, you think the change will be welcome?"

"I hope so, we're giving mankind another planet to live in. And if I know my daughter as well as I think I do, then she won't be happy with just the Moon."

There was only one city in the Moon, if it could even be called a city at all. Mankind's first space colonization project, a joint effort of many nations, which had taken an incredible sum of money to build. And inside said city, only a couple hours after the two Senshi had left the satellite, someone was staring out in awe and disbelief. "What is happening out there?"

A woman walked to the man staring out the window, not really bothering to stare at the ever-boring scenery herself. "Sir, we've received a message from Crystal Tokyo. Apparently, the Senshi found a way to reactivate the Moon's ecosystem. I don't know what they mean by that, but..."

"Jones, just take a look outside."

She did as told and gasped. The sky outside was... Like that of the Earth. Sure, the rocky ground of the Moon was unchanged, but the atmosphere was... "Mayor, what do you think that means?"

"I want some scans of the area outside our city," the mayor said, "if things outside are really as our eyes suggest, then we may be able to go take a walk outside."

Two months later, Ami was looking at some data in her computer, while Serenity and Usagi waited. "If magic wasn't involved here, I would use the word 'impossible,'" the scientist noted, "but as for right now, the Moon's surface is completely restored to its former status."

Usagi smiled. "I've been up there, I was asked to explain just how I had managed to do it. I don't really think they understood it, though."

Serenity looked up at the Moon. they were standing on top of the tallest tower of the Crystal Palace, and she could thus get an unobstructed look at the silvery disc. "It doesn't quite look like it changed at all."

Usagi nodded. "The native vegetation, which is starting to grow back all around the Moon, is composed mostly of white or silvery plants. I have never seen any of those species on Earth, either. Scientists up there in Selene City are happily studying and classifying them right now."

"What about wild life?"

"There's some nasty new bugs around too... And some other animals. I was really surprised to see they had already studied many of those. In fact, they served something called 'grilled Hursk' at dinner, and I took a chance to eat something new."

"Hursk?"

"It's the name of the scientist that first saw one. The creature's a big, crocodile-looking mammal, and it's not quite friendly, from what I heard."

"How did it taste?" Serenity asked. After all, one of her hobbies was trying new food from all around the world, and she was already thinking about taking a bite at all the new dishes the Moon would offer in a near future.

"It tasted like... A Hursk."

"So, this is what you've been keeping yourself busy with lately."

Terry turned to see Ami walk into the room. "Yes, it's just a prototype, but..."

Ami took a step back and smiled. "Terry, should I remind you what happened last time we tested a prototype?"

"Oh, but this isn't a teleporter... Check this." He reached his hand out, and a ghastly sword appeared in it. Seconds later, it turned solid.

Ami was looking at the sword and frowned. "A zero construct..."

"Yes, but... Computer, turn it into a glass of water."

Ami observed as the sword turned into a crystal glass, then gasped as Terry drank it. "Uhm, is that smart?"

"Nothing will happen," Terry said. "See, right now I'm only playing with zero, but I intend to have this device be able to create real water."

Ami reached her hand out, a bubble of water hovering over it. "You mean, like this?"

Terry nodded. "It'll be a challenge, even for us two."

"It'll keep us busy the next few hundred years, that's for sure," Ami mused. "However, I'm going to be away for a day or two."

"Hmm?"

"Usagi, and that is, the younger one, asked me to tag along on their trip to Mercury."

"Eeh... Can we even survive up there?"

"It would be fine for a couple hours, at least," Ami said, "so we'll just have to hurry and find the World Seed."

"World Seed sounds like such a dumb name..."

"Well, it was called something else in the language of Silver Millenium's era, and there were references to its first name, the name supposedly given by the creators of those artifacts. However, I suppose World Seed is a lot nicer to the ear than Si'jh'draug'hul. "

"That sounds like something I wouldn't like to find in a dark alley, " Terry joked.

Senshi had a major advantage when it came to interplanetary journeys. It only took them a split second to go from one planet to the next, and Mercury's computer had pinpointed areas of the planet where they could teleport to safely.

Still, Moon realized Ami's warning had been correct, the heat was incredible. A normal human here would have possibly died in a matter of seconds, even with a space suit. Not counting the lack of oxygen or air pressure, that was.

"Now explain me this, how come the Senshi of Ice came from a planet like this?"

"This planet was colder than the Earth back in the ancient era," Mercury explained, "you'll see that once we reactivate its Seed."

"So, where to?"

"Thirty kilometers to the west," Mercury said, "Follow my lead."

The three vanished, reappearing inside a familiar room. "Looks like the Moon's underground bases," Saturn commented.

"Not surprising," Mercury said. "Hmm, so this is the Si..." she caught herself and switched to Japanese. "... Seed."

Moon nodded and looked around. "I'm done here, it's your turn."

Mercury could feel her energy raising. "This is quite an amazing thing."

Saturn smiled. "Yeah, we can be even stronger than we thought."

Mercury looked at the pyramid and nodded. "Okay, then... Done."

"Shouldn't this thing have a security system of some sort, though... What if someone broke it?"

Mercury gave her a grin then aimed her hand at it. "Endless Winter!"

Saturn choked a gasp as she saw the pyramid was unaffected by the blast. "What the fuck..."

"If the word 'indestructible' could really be used to describe anything, these Seeds would be the most fitting targets."

The three teleported outside again, and noticed the change around them. "Hmm... Getting cooler, aren't we?"

Mercury smiled as an image from the distant past crossed her mind. "Then just wait for a week or so, and you'll see why."

And so they did. One week after their first trip to Mercury, the three were once again standing on the planet. Actually, standing wasn't the right term, as everything around them was covered by water, a large, single sea covered the 'Sun side' of Mercury, while the darker side was completely covered by ice.

"This is insane," Saturn said, "the temperature outside the atmosphere is still as high as it was before."

"Yes, but this is what the planet looked like before," Mercury commented. "Mana shielding doesn't let most of the temperature get through, it reflects even the solar winds, and also..." she took a look around and smiled, "... it keeps the outer face of Mercury as cold as the Earth's poles."

"I give up trying to make sense out of magic," Saturn muttered.

"You're quite stubborn, then," Moon joked. "I stopped that decades ago."

"Can it, Chibi," Saturn muttered. "So, what do you think Earth's scientist will say about this one?"

Moon smiled. "Three words, 'what the fuck?'"

Mercury laughed. "That's what Terry said, actually."

Haruka looked at the newspaper and smiled. "Guess the Princess is doing a good job out there."

"Think we'll get our planets 'fixed' as well?"

"No, I don't think so... They're too close to Nemesis, and we don't want to risk giving the Dark Moon something to worry about."

Michiru looked out the window and decided to change the topic. "There are no challenges out there anymore, are there?"

"Nothing the Younger can't solve," Haruka agreed. "Maybe it's time we go back to Tokyo and settle down."

"That'll be quite a shock for them, I'm sure."

"So which one will be next?"

"I'm trying to decide," Usagi said. "Venus looks like a far bigger challenge."

"Average temperature inside the atmosphere of nearly five hundred degrees, and the air pressure there is also quite high, not to mention the atmosphere's filled with poisonous elements," Ami explained.

"Save us the lecture," Hotaru said, "you think we will survive there?"

"At most half an hour," Ami noted, "so we can't go sightseeing."

Hikaru flinched. "And I have to go there, right?"

"Don't worry, if anything bad happens, we'll get out of there in a second."

"I'll go, too," Hisako said.

"There's no need to..."

"Usagi, I'm not asking for your permission."

"Hmph, do as you like."

Ami looked at Usagi, then at Hisako, and smiled. "You two almost look like the Elder Mars and Moon back when we were teens..."

"Not my fault she's so stubborn," Usagi muttered.

"Can it, Rabbit."

Hotaru summoned her glaive and glared at the two. "You both chill or I'll have to use this."

"We were just joking," Hisako said.

Usagi smiled. "I'm not afraid of that glaive."

"You sure? You know I've actually stabbed you with it a couple times in the past."

"Yeah, and you stab like a girl."

"I am one."

"They look cute when they bitch at one another," Hikaru noted.

Ami chuckled. "The princess and her knight in a shiny armor."

"Shiny?" Hotaru muttered. "I'd rather have a black one." She noticed Usagi staring at her and smiled. "What?"

"Trying to imagine you in a suit of armor..."

"Hmph, our Senshi suits are able to withstand a nuke's blast. I don't think any armor can beat that."

"Okay, in any case, I've decided. We'll go to Mars, then to Venus."

"What about Lilith?"

Ami looked at Hotaru. "I hadn't thought about that one, but..."

"You think there's a World Seed there?"

"It's probably attached to one of the million shards of the planet."

Usagi was now staring at Ami. "No way... You mean not even a planet's explosion can..."

"If what I read on those artifacts is correct, then yes. There's supposedly one inside the Sun itself."

"Hah, hope we don't have to reactivate that one."

"Oh, don't worry," Mercury said, "that one wasn't affected by Serenity's magic."

"Good, because we'd be literally fried if we..."

"In theory, a Senshi would be able to last for one minute on the Sun before the combination of gravity, heat and mana overload killed them."

"That's a theory I'm not bothering to test," Hotaru noted.

Mars looked around and smiled. "The red planet, no kidding."

"Compared to our last trip, the weather here is quite good," Saturn commented.

"Wonder how it will look once its Seed is working?" Mercury pondered.

"What, you don't know?"

"Never been to Mars, even in my previous life."

"So anyhow, where to?"

"Maybe we can have a picnic once we're done."

"Can you think about nothing but food, Hikaru?"

Venus looked at Mars. "Of course I can, but food's the only thing we can do in public."

"Love's in the air. No matter it's unbreathable."

Moon laughed. "Oh come on, Hotaru. It's not like we're not the same way ourselves."

"Good point."

"If you're done with the idle chatter," Mercury noted, "I've located this world's Seed."

"Good, let's go," Mars said.

Again, the group appeared in a familiar room. The large pyramid-like artifact was resting there, waiting for its Senshi to come back, and the wait was over now.

"Anytime you want, Hisa," Moon said. She was used to this now, and knew she would have no trouble uncapping the mana from all planets. However, she could only do it from the planet itself, and that was something that really bothered her. Was the old Queen Serenity so strong she could have capped them all, from the Moon, and after depleting most of her energy?

She realized that was a question she would most likely not find an answer to.

Mars looked at the artifact and smiled. "Gotcha." After a few seconds, she chuckled. "It's done, so how long will it take for the change?"

"I think it depends on the planet. Took only a few hours for the Moon, but a week for Mercury."

"Oh. I still want to come back here and see how it looks after the change."

"You will, I'm not just happy to fix these planets, I want to see how they all look."

"Remember, we can't do that with the outer worlds yet, the risks would be too high."

Moon nodded at Mercury. "I know, so there's only one more to go. How about doing it now?"

Saturn looked at Moon worriedly. "But you just used your power in this world, isn't that dangerous?"

"I know my own limits," Moon said, "and I want to see how that rock looks under the clouds."

Venus smiled. "I can't wait to be there."

Minutes later, they were all staring at the landscape of Venus. "The volcanic activity's quite interesting here."

"Let's sightsee later, Ami," Moon said. She could feel her body protesting the atmosphere already.

Mercury nodded. "Yes, in this environment, we can only last for half an hour, at most. The Seed's close, but there's a forcefield around it."

"A forcefield? But why would there be..."

"I also detect several living beings down there," Mercury noted.

"Yes, I can feel them," Saturn noted.

"Let's go ask them, then," Venus said.

They appeared inside a rocky tunnel, quite a change from the even, metallic corridors of the bases they had been to in other planets. "This may be man-made, but its roughly finished," Mercury commented.

"Incoming," Saturn noted.

A group of women rushed in, clad in golden armors and wielding golden whips, and they all looked quite unfriendly at first, until they realized who the intruders were. "You are... After eons of waiting, the day has finally arrived!"

Moon frowned. "What are they saying?"

"Let me ask them a few more things," Mercury said, then started talking to the women in their language. After a minute of this, she smiled. "They're survivors from the ancient Venusians. They've lived in the underground for thousands of years, digging up tunnels to expand their territory when they needed to, and waiting."

"Waiting for what?" Venus asked.

"For your mother, apparently," Mercury noted, "but you're a Venus Senshi too."

"Is there a way for us to speak to them directly?" Moon asked.

Mercury summoned a small, square artifact. "There we go."

"What is that, oh mighty Ice Senshi?"

Moon stared at the gold-clad woman. They could understand them now? "Oh, I get it, a translation device."

"Yes, that's what it is," Mercury said. "Shila, you must know why we're here, so we need to get to the Seed now."

The woman nodded. "It's what we've been waiting for, for a Venus Senshi to return and lead us back to the surface."

"It won't happen overnight," Moon warned, "it may take months until the planet's surface can support life again."

"We have waited for thousands of years," Shila admitted, "waiting for a bit more won't be hard."

"Hmm, why are you using whips?" Mars asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I thought warriors would go for swords, spears or..."

"The whip was Sailor Venus' legendary weapon."

"Makes sense," Venus said, "mom's main weapon was a whip, sort of."

The woman smiled. "Come now, we'll take you to the Seed."

Usagi looked up to the sky. The Moon, once a deserted wasteland, now had five cities on it, and a bit over twenty million humans lived in them. She thought about the other planets too. Five years had passed since they activated the last of the 'inner' planets, and both Mars and Mercury had colonies in them. Venus itself, well, had its own humans, millions of them, so Serenity had decided to leave that planet to them.

"Future's looking bright, isn't it?"

Hotaru smiled. "Yes, it is. Even though the far future will be, if things stay as they should, rough for us."

"As long as you're by my side, I don't care about what the future may bring."

Hotaru blushed, but the chuckled. "So, how does it feel to be seventy?"

"You tell me," Usagi mused. "It's quite amusing, though, to hear the theories civilians have about us. Even some of those here in Crystal Tokyo..."

"Yes, some say we're not the same Senshi who were fighting back in the twentieth century, but their children."

"Truth in my case, somehow," Usagi noted, "but it's still amusing how they won't believe the truth."

"Let them be," Hotaru said, "I can understand their point of view, there's all these legends about immortal beings in literature, but actually knowing they are around and they're watching, I guess mankind isn't still ready for that."

Usagi wasn't quite ready to settle down, but she didn't really know if anything major would happen in the few centuries left until the arrival of the Nemesians. However, she was ready to spend those centuries with the one she loved, and with her friends, both old and new.

A/N: Yep, ChibiUsa's being called 'Usagi' now, and got the Chibi dropped out of her Senshi name as well. All things considered, she's around her sixties right now, so "Chibi" just doesn't fit her anymore. That won't stop Hotaru from using that as a nickname.

About Naru's daughter... Even though "Anya" may sound like a name from another language, it does mean "dark night" in Japanese... Same is the case with, for example, Hana.

If the last lines of this episode sound like an arc's ending, well... It may be because they are.