Cyber Moon: Crystal.

Act 3: Aeons.

Episode 13: Chronicles of the last days.

By Razor Knight

Last update: March 2, 2009

"Reaper's Dance." Saturn smiled to herself. She knew her foe could dodge this attack, but she was using it only to set a trap. She guessed the direction of her foe's jump right, and took a step to the left, tossing her glaive like a spear. "Death Lance."

Her foe, however, had already guessed her intentions, and caught the glaive's blade before it could hit. As she landed, she tossed the weapon aside and grinned. "I think we've been around each other for too long."

Younger Venus, who was looking at them from the side, nodded at the Princess' comment. "It's been fifteen minutes now, and neither of you took a single hit yet."

"Those attacks look scary."

Younger Moon smiled at the youngest (by far) person in the room. "They are dangerous, Kyouko, but we both know we can take a hit from them without much harm done."

Saturn walked to Moon's side and sighed. "Not that it matters, if we can't even hit to begin with."

"Being able to do that kind of things must be cool."

"It's really not that great if you have nothing to fight against," Venus muttered.

"But I want to be a Senshi."

"Be patient, you're still too young," Moon explained.

"But grandma said you became a Senshi when you were as old as me."

"I'll have to talk to your grandmother about saying more than she should, then," Moon mused. "That was an exception, I had to help Serenity defeat a powerful enemy."

Saturn laughed as Kyouko pouted at her 'father.' The girl was as normal as the spawn of any Senshi could be, and despite their choice of a name, she wasn't a problem child. However, unlike previous Senshi children, she wasn't showing any signs of being attuned to an element, and that was something that confused even Ami.

Usagi (the elder) had said Kyouko could just be slower than the rest developing her powers, and Hotaru hoped that was really the case. She knew Kyouko would be really disappointed if she ended up being just a normal girl.

But Kyouko's age was also a sort of beacon for them. In three years, they would be facing the Hunters. After that, she didn't know what else would happen, but she didn't even know if she was going to... No, she couldn't let that knowledge eat at her, she hadn't done it for a thousand years, why start now?

Maybe because the event was closer and closer to her with every passing moment.

"And speaking of the kids, how's the little genius?"

"Hisame's as smart as one could expect, but she's also too young," Moon said. That girl was Ami's daughter, it was a surprise for everyone that she and Terry had decided to give it another go, but it was also a good thing to see they had healed from the damage Takamaru had caused.

After a millenia of watching over the Earth, of making sure evil was punished everywhere, and of stopping wars, the two had, at last, accomplished their goal. The damage the Black Moon Wars left behind was big, but the planet was recovering. Moreso, thanks to the war, most nations had realized something the Senshi had been trying to teach them for centuries: Fighting over who has the biggest piece of land in your homeworld is worthless, and distracts you from the greater dangers that lurk out there in the Universe.

But that left them with almost nothing to do. The token Lesser Senshi or necromancer would show up every now and then, but it seemed like the centuries of either reforming or atomizing both groups had finally made it clear that any evil human would be stopped.

So, Sailor Uranus and Neptune had finally settled down, living in Crystal Tokyo and becoming utterly bored of it after only a few years.

"Maybe we should try it."

That took Michiru off her brooding. "Try what?"

"What the Princess and Hotaru did."

"Hmm, I wonder if Serenity would lend us her crystal only for that," Michiru mused.

"So, you're okay with the idea?"

"It had crossed my mind a few times," she admitted, "but I would like to wait a few years. We can't be sure we're going to be there after those bastards come to play."

"I doubt the Princess would be raising a child without having a plan for that battle."

"Maybe that's true, but I don't know... I've got a feeling she's still not sure on how to solve this mess."

"If you'll forgive my language, it's fucking cold in here."

Younger Pluto chuckled at that. "I have to agree on that, so let's make this fast. Follow me."

Moon took a quick glance around the planet and followed Pluto's teleport to a mountain a few miles to the north of the place they had first landed. The Seed was there, although it was buried under a dense layer of ice. "I don't think we'll last too much," she noted, then concentrated. "There, mana's flowing again."

"I can sense that," Younger Pluto said, "now it's my turn."

Moon observed as Pluto concentrated. As soon as she heard the familiar energy of the Seed, she smiled. "Alright, your planet's nice and all, but I think we should leave now and come back once that thing's done with the terraforming."

"Indeed," Pluto said, "but it's good to finally be able to see what this world looked like in the past."

"And this is the last one, too," Moon said. Finally, the mission she had started almost one thousand years ago was complete. And with one year of time to spare before that day.

"It must be rather hard for you."

Hotaru looked up from the book she was holding. She hadn't been reading it, really, and she hated how Usagi could tell that. "What do you mean?"

"Juggling your time between Kyouko and me and... Well, me. My younger self."

Hotaru smiled. "It's not difficult at all. At first I thought it would be, but..." She looked at her. "I thought you would be... Jealous."

Usagi gave a soft laugh at that. "I would be rather dumb if I was jealous of myself. Besides, I can remember what we were doing during this era, you pervert, and I don't really mind."

"Color me guilty," Hotaru said. "But that's not what I'm worried about, I'm..."

"I know," Usagi admitted. "I'm worried myself, because I can't see the solution to that."

"If anything goes wrong..."

"Nothing will."

"So you say, and I trust you, but we know better than that, don't we? Just take care of Kyouko for me."

Usagi nodded. "You don't have to tell me that." Deep inside, however, she knew she wouldn't fail. She couldn't fail. The solution to what was going to happen was there, she just needed to find it.

Later that day, Usagi found herself back in the base. They kept on moving from place to place, and nowadays, their base was deep within Pluto. Mankind, while surely getting ready to colonize even this world, wasn't so sure about it being a place they could tame.

While the other worlds had changed, becoming far more friendly to human life, Pluto hadn't changed much. Temperature had risen, of course, but it was still low enough to freeze most life forms in a matter of seconds. Deep under the surface, however, things weren't that bad, thanks to the remnants of an ancient city.

Pluto (the Senshi) had known all along, of course, but she hadn't told them about it. Pluto's former inhabitants had never been surface dwellers. No, the planet was effectively a dead world, where only the most resilent, microscopical creatures could dare living. But the cities, the underground cities, were kept warm and isolated from the outside by the Seed's magic. And most of these cities were relatively intact, allowing for colonization.

Though, for the time being, the Younger Senshi were happy to have a world all for themselves. Being in their position did definitely have some good things.

"Hey, mom, look."

Usagi turned to see Kyouko standing there, which wasn't strange at all, but then she noticed what was standing besides her. "That's nice."

Kyouko looked at the wraith and smiled. "I can do this, too," she said, and the wraith started moving.

Usagi frowned as the wraith passed too close to her face. "Be careful with them, you know what they're meant for, right?"

The young girl blinked in confusion, and the wraith vanished. "Nope."

"Well, these creatures are meant to drain other creatures off their vital energy. You have to be very careful with them, until you learn to control them."

"So they're dangerous?"

"If you're not trained to use them, they could be," Usagi admitted, "but that's what you have your moms for, right."

Kyouko smiled. "Thanks."

"I'm wondering, though, can't you use other kind of magic?"

Kyouko shook her head. "I can heal myself, and now these things..."

"Wraiths," Usagi noted.

"Wraiths? Weird name."

"It is, isn't it? I know Hotaru will be surprised when she sees you doing that."

"But couldn't I hurt her with that..."

"She can summon a hundred of them at once," Usagi explained, "trust me, you couldn't really hurt us with that magic, but... Normal humans could be hurt."

"So, am I a Senshi now?"

Usagi chucked at that. "Not just yet, Kyouko, but trust me, you will be Younger Saturn someday."

Serenity stared out at the city from the topmost spire. It was a place she enjoyed spending time in, specially in calm nights like this one.

Not that there were many stormy nights, or days at that, thanks to one of Ami's most recent experiments. Inside the limits of Crystal Tokyo, weather was controlled by computers, fed with data on crops and other things Serenity herself didn't quite understand. The end result was, if it came down to it, they could make it so it only rained in the farms north-east of the city. But man was a creature of habit, too used to rain and snow, no matter how much they would complain about it when it came. So the computers would make it rain when they saw it fit, and would replace rain for snow when winter came.

But, unlike the centuries before, there was no randomness about it. When the day was going to be rainy, every newspaper in the city, ever radio and TV station, warned the citizens about it in advance. It took away part of the 'magic' of weather, but Serenity herself didn't see it as a bad thing. And once it was sufficiently tested within the city, it could be presented to the world. Other nations might or might not accept their gifts, but that was not a thing she worried about.

One year, that's what the Princess had said. One year left before that day, and then they would no longer know what the future had in stock for them. She would welcome that, she truly would. And she knew a few of her friends saw it the same way.

"I'm leaving," Hotaru said, her face emotionless.

Usagi looked at her, trying to hide her feelings as well as she could, and knowing it was helpless at the same time. "Then I guess I'll see you later."

The year had passed like a flash to her. It was bad, really, that there was nothing out there to fight anymore. Well, there had been that one gang of magicians in Mercury, but they were dealt with swiftly, almost too swiftly.

A part of her wondered about what Rex had said. It was strange, she hadn't given it a lot of thought in the last thousand years, so why think about it now? It was easy to guess, the Hunters were coming back, and so were the memories of that epoque. But also, it was a fact: The Senshi had nothing to fight against. Their life was dull and repetitive, and had been like that for years now.

No, she couldn't think like that. She knew her friends, she had been with them for too long not to know they didn't have it in them. No matter what, there was no way they would do something like that. They were, fortunately or unfortunately, too old now to change their views on life.

"Where's mom?"

Usagi turned to the girl. She could understand what the others had told her about kids now, they grew up way too fast. Kyouko was almost ten years old, and was now in full control of life magic. Weak life magic, not even close to the level of a newbie Senshi, but she had no doubt Kyouko would be Younger Saturn soon. Or Younger Younger Moon. Maybe ChibiChibiMoon? No, that sounded too dumb for a battle name, even to the one who had a similar name in the past. But she knew the girl was staring at her curiously. "Hotaru is visiting a friend, she will be back later."

"Oh... Mom, there's something I wanted to ask you."

"What about?" Usagi was glad to have something to take her mind out of the problem she would be facing in a few hours.

"I've seen the Princess, you know. The Princess who looks a lot like you. She's... She's not your sister, right?"

"What makes you say that?"

"Because she's been a Senshi for long, but she's not much older than me," Kyouko said simply.

"... And I've told you I was the exception to the rule," Usagi said, mostly to herself.

"It doesn't make sense, unless she is..."

"She is me," Usagi admitted, "I was going to tell you about it eventually, because you would be curious as to where she had gone."

"Where she..." Kyouko looked at her mother, her confusion growing.

"Today's the day, so I see no harm in telling you this now. That young Princess is me, I was born in this era, but I was forced to go back to the past and stay there thanks to something that will happen today. Something I intend to fix today."

"What will happen?" Kyouko asked. She was just curious, Usagi knew that, but damn her curiousity for showing up right now.

"I can't tell you that yet," Usagi said, "not until I do what I'm meant to do today." If she found out what she was meant to do today, a voice in her mind said. She promptly told it to shut up.

"I think I understand," Kyouko said. "Is mom going to be okay?"

"Yes, don't worry, I won't let anything happen to her." Usagi knew Kyouko was too smart for her age, but she was proud of that fact. "But now, let's go, your friend Hisame is here too."

"She's here at the base?" Kyouko asked. "Maybe this day won't be as boring as I thought, after all."

Yes, indeed, Usagi thought, this day would be anything but boring.

Moon was, hours later, staring at a large screen floating in mid-air. The rest of the Younger Senshi group was there, she had requested them to be there, actually, but most of them would have been there even if she hadn't told them. None of them could be on Earth right now. None of them was a hundred percent sure they would not try to stop what was about to happen if they remained on Earth today.

And all of them were looking at that same screen, which showed things they had only heard about. To Moon herself, however, this was like watching a fragment of her own life pass in front of her eyes. A memory being shown to her in a way she hadn't seen it before. A painful memory, but one that she dared not stop from happening.

Knowledge of the future, some humans said, would be a wonderful tool to have, a bliss. How little did they know about it, and how much she hated the universe right now for giving her that knowledge.

"Here they come!"

That was Elder Mars, and her shout only signaled the beginning of a battle she didn't want to replay, but she could not force her eyes off the screen right now. If she did, she knew she would go there and do something stupid.

"Girls, whatever you see in there, don't do anything about it."

"We know," Younger Mars said, "don't you trust us?"

"Venus Light Comet!" the screen shouted at them.

"This isn't about trust," Moon said, "this is about knowing what people can do in this kind of situations, and I've seen my fair share of that."

But then, it happened. If she hadn't been looking at the screen, she would have still felt it. It was very hard to explain, but when someone close to them died, the Senshi could feel their death. in their minds. That was the one thing she had been half-hoping, despite how unlikely it was, that they had been all faking their deaths, and that she, being as young and inexperienced as she was, had not known. But no, there was no mistake. Hotaru was gone. Hotaru!

Younger Venus noticed something and paled as the whole room started rocking. "Usagi, get a hold of yourself!"

Moon knew it, for a moment she had lost control of her own power, and several tendrils of energy had shot, in all directions. Had the base not been magically reinforced as it was, then there wouldn't only be cracks on the wall. Any normal building would, after her outburst, be literally ashes. "I... Sorry about that."

"Nothing to be sorry about, we understand," Younger Nemesis said, "but you can fix it, right?"

"Of course," Moon lied. No, it wasn't a complete lie. She had a way to fix this, but... Even now, even watching Saturn die, she couldn't figure it out. And she felt all the worse because of that.

"Shit... They're starting to fall," Younger Lilith commented.

Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, Neptune, she was now seeing it, seeing it from the outside, what she had seen before, when she was young. There was something wrong with the way they were fighting, something she, in her younger form, hadn't been able to realize. "They are... They're letting the Hunters kill them."

"You didn't know they would do that?"

Moon fell to her knees. This... Why give up without a fight? To save the future? Still, she knew there was no way, no way at all, that they would have lost if they had fought all out. But then, that meant...

"There goes your younger self," Younger Mars said as the young ChibiMoon disappeared from the screen.

Moon looked up. Endymion, Serenity and Pluto were good actors, and they really made it look like they were struggling to keep on. Rex himself was the one to kill all three, and that, for some reason, made her killing him in the past somehow fitting. But there they were, they were gone now...

"Can we go kill them?" Nemesis asked, obviously struggling not to do just that.

"No, let them leave," Moon said. Vulture was examining Pluto's corpse now, and he could see him smile and run to tell Rex about his discovery. "Only a minute more, I think."

"So, after they're gone, you're going to go revive them, right?"

Moon sighed. She couldn't lie to them, not now. "I will go and try. I'm not sure how I will do it."

"What you mean you don't know?" Venus asked, her voice turning into a snarl with the last few words, and her body lighting up.

"Hikaru, calm the heck up," Hisako snapped. "I'm quite upset too, but..."

"No, she's right, I'm as upset at myself as she is, because I don't know how to bring them back yet." She looked at the screen. The Hunters were gone, gone to the past. It was over.

No, it wasn't over, not until she fixed this. She had promised herself, a thousand years ago, that she would find a way to fix this. And, much more important, she had promised her daughter that Hotaru would be okay, and she couldn't break that promise. She wouldn't break it.

"But how can you not know... You are... You are Sailor Moon too!" Younger Lilith said, her face showing she was as shocked at the others, even though her voice seemed calm.

"I am..." Moon looked at her and her eyes widened. "Of course, how didn't I see it before..."

"Well, isn't it obvious?"

"No, not that. I'm not only Sailor Moon. I'm Serenity. And Serenity revived everyone after..." She looked at the others and smiled. "I know what to do."

As Moon vanished, the others stared at the point where she had been. "Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and hope she's right," Venus said.

"Like hell I'll wait," Nemesis said, "let's go."

Moon appeared in the battlefield, and for a moment she felt quite sick as she took a look around. But no, she couldn't afford to lose control now. She had to focus into what she knew, she had to see if her guess was right. If she was wrong, however, then... No! She couldn't be wrong, not this time. She closed her eyes and summoned her crystal, 'talking' to it in a way only she and her mother knew, and 'hearing' its response in her mind. "Only once... But it's okay, I only need you to do it once."

She was aware of the others, the rest of the Younger Senshi, were there with her. Even Younger Pluto, who had been in the Time Gates, and who, now she could see, was the one who had temporarily sealed off the time tunnels connecting to this era. But she didn't care, they too needed to be here.

"So, boss, what are you going to do now?"

"Simple, I'm going to bring them back," Moon said, a second before her body, and the area just around her, lit up with a blinding white light. It only lasted a few seconds, and as the light dimmed, Moon fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Damn, did she fail?"

"She did what she had to do."

The Youngers all looked up, and they were all shocked. Happily shocked, though, and many of them run to hug their parents. Saturn looked at Younger Pluto and smiled. "I take it you were the one blocking us, in the past."

"Yes, that's a very good guess," Saki said.

Saturn looked at Moon and smiled. "She really did it, huh? I must admit I had my doubts, but she didn't fail us."

"Think she knows it worked?" Younger Venus asked.

Saturn looked at Moon, who was smiling in her sleep, and nodded. "Yes, she knows."

Boring, extremely boring. These creatures had, at first, been a constant source of entertainment for him, but in this era... How could they be so... So damn unamusing? It seemed like it was time for him to finally meddle in their matters. He would show them what a power like his could do. The bird's cage was too quiet, and he knew just what kind of snake to throw in to make things interesting.

Why do something like that, why be cruel to these creatures who had done nothing to anger him? Well, it wasn't that he was angry at them, no. They were too primitive for him to bother wasting things like anger on them. No, the truth was, he was bored. He had always been bored. And if, to amuse himself, he had to destroy a planet or two, then that was a fair exchange.

Now, then, where had he last seen that one being? Oh, there she was. Perfect. He just had to wait for them to settle, to adjust to their boring life, and then... Then things would become interesting.

A/N: I had this episode planned for a long time (before I started this version of Cyber Moon, even,) but for some reason, it was a difficult one to write even then. It came out shorter than I expected, too, but it does what it was meant to do.

As for the new brats in town, Kyou stands for 'wicked' though with a different kanji it could also mean disaster. As for Hisame, it's literally 'cold rain' or 'hail.'

And yes, that final scene's just the tip of the massive trouble the Senshi will be in very soon.