Written by Sean Wright

Edited by SeleneStarr

Chapter Seventeen

I

How long had it been since she had seen the sun from Terran soil? After eons of being trapped in the endless night for her astral prison and then hiding in darkness of deep space, Nephrenia could now see the sun in the familiar brilliant blue sky of Terra over her head.

A sad, fragile smile graced her lips as she smelled the clean winds of her home world. No alien perfume would ever match the sweetness of the rich earthy scent of Terra in the spring. She closed her eyes for a moment and absorbed the air and sunlight, drinking it as one would consume a favored drink. She allowed herself a moment of true peace before returning to the demands of the ensuing battle of this battle for Terra's soul.

But this battle had not gone as she had planned. From the moment her forces appeared over the sun bright dome of the Golden Palace, they had met nothing but resistance. The brilliant lighting attacks of the Terran forces pierced the gloom and darkness that had camouflaged Nephrenia's army of warriors and phalanges, dissolving their shadows and leaving her open with almost no defense against the might of Queen Serenity's fearsome Senshi.

It had been too long, she reckoned. Far too long and she regretted that.

Nephrenia had believed that she would walk victoriously into the Golden Palace with the beautiful sun at her back, a fitting mantle as she forced the arrogant son of divine Helios from Terra's throne. Alas, it was not meant to be. She could see that now. Endymion was strong and ruthless. No doubt that resentment he carried from his death and the lost of his family in both his lifetimes were responsible for the cruelty that rest in his heart.

Around her, Nephrenia's once proud soldiers fell like helpless sheep from the ceaseless onslaught of the Silver Queen's warriors.



It was supposed to have been an easy victory for her. Terra was supposed to be without support and should have collapsed before the Senshi arrived from Silver Millennium. And the Senshi themselves were supposed to have been distraught and confused by the lost of their princess, Why was this not so? Why had the Terrans warriors repulsed her attack and how could the Senshi still fight?

What should have been a simple two-pronged attack, one that would have routed Silver Millennium and cut Terra off from her allies, had turned into a macabre nightmare as Nephrenia's army was massacred by the vengeful Senshi of Silver Millennium.

Ananke had quickly accomplished her mission and the Princess of Silver Millennium was in their hands. Nephrenia had been charged with the seemingly simple task to take three of the Asteroid Senshi to Atlantis, capture the young Prince from the future, and assassinate Endymion.

It was so simple.

It had seemed so very easy.

This should have been her moment of victory. Today, Nephrenia was to rewrite Terran history as she claimed Gaia's throne.

Gaia was dead, by the Gods, she was dead! Terra's heart been pierced; therefore, this world should have crumbled at Nephrenia's feet, yet was Nephrenia's army that buckled and broke under the wrath of the Warriors of Silver Millennium.

They had appeared in the skies, beautiful winged angels emblazed by the colours of a rainbow. They descended with light dancing on their weapons. A queer hush that fell over the battleground as every soldier there turned their eyes to the Heavens.

Nephrenia could only watch as the first Senshi attacked. The earth shook to its very core as a beautiful young man with brilliant white hair slammed his closed fist against the ground, creating a crater in the mist of her reserved battalion. Nephrenia gasped in fright when the youth raised his face. She took a step back as those fearsome lighting white eyes settled on her. She wanted to scream, to flee. He was the demon that had haunted her sleep. White hair, eyes that drew in the light and that cold, emotionless mask on the face of the man she had once called her friend.



Balder never forgave Nephrenia for her betrayal of Scathach. It was her ambition that caused her to destroy the reputation of her closest companion. Instead, ambition had cost her dearest friend the love of her life and Nana her husband. Her lust for power destroyed the lives of three people she cared for most in the world. Her greed had killed the man who could have saved her from this awful hell she had plunged herself into for a throne that she had just begun to realize would never be hers.

Ah, but this was a cruel bit of irony that fate had wrought about Nephrenia. And she had only herself to blame for the position she currently found herself in. Honestly, what in the name of Holy Erda made her believe that she was different than the others? What madness had made her believe that she, poorer than most of the people in her village and nobility in name only, could stand as equal to the gods? How could she have forgotten the fate that befell her own daughter?

Knowing these were her last moments alive, Nephrenia did not try to banish the thoughts of her sad daughter from her mind. She embraced what Ananke had allowed her to see of her ill-fated daughter and prayed that her daughter would forgive her.

Her poor daughter. Nephrenia had never wanted her, but because of the child in her womb, Gaia had spared Nephrenia's life. She felt no remorse for allowing Ananke to plant that demon in her newborn child. Never in all her years of imprisonment did Nephrenia felt a moment's regret for what she had done to her daughter because was attempting to do so again.

Young Hebe did not know that she was Nephrenia lost daughter reborn. The girl never knew of the pain and horrors that had been her previous torment as the vessel of the Sin Vanity. The girl knew her place in this life as the only daughter of the Queen of Jupiter. She was adored and cherished by her family, loved and respected by her friends, and admired by her peers. She was one of the Asteroid Senshi and Guardian of the Princess of Terra and Silver Millennium.

Hebe knew her place in the universe. And most importantly, the girl knew that she would not be sacrificed. Nephrenia had seen her daughter's life played out in one of Ananke's portals. She had seen the corruption done to ruin the girl's then how Metallia twisted Beryl's frail human body with her poisonous 

magic. Both Beryl and Metallia fell at the hands of Silver Millennium's champions and its heir. Nephrenia had gloated that she would be wiser and not suffer the same fate as her child.

What ever made her believe that she was the exception?

Neither had Ananke and Atalanta of Uranus could defeat the Senshi in battle. The pair should have carried the field that day; they had clearly had the advantage over the other Senshi by managing to reach the first stairs of the exalted Alpha Warrior status. Yet instead them walking away as the victors, both Ananke and Atalanta had fallen, both losing their lives to the six weaker warriors.

The ground before her began to shake violently. The last of the Dark Moon warriors, the

Four Sisters of Deception, moved back as the phalanges before them stood their ground as death approached on silvered and black wings.

Nephrenia could not watch them die. She took her eyes away from the carnage only to have them settled upon a more disturbing sight. There was another force among the Senshi, an entity whose presence frighten Nephrenia more than the presences of the newly arrived Senshi. This beingwas older than time, or it was a hallucination or a myth. However, the ice running through her veins and the tremors racing down her spine said otherwise. The strange deity stood in midst of the chaos of battle, completely unconcerned by death and destruction as it played out around him.

Nephrenia had tried to avoid looking at this being since he appeared outside the Golden Palace. It frightened her. It reminded her of Helios, but not in looks or posture. Nephrenia had no cause for this irrational fear, but then Helios did not seem to be dangerous when someone first looked at him either.

When the Senshi arrived, the entity did not leave his place near the palace. It was indifferent to the threat around him, for he did not care to notice when the small band of warriors arrived at his back. It just appeared to be waiting. For what, she prayed that she did not live long enough to see.

From the heavens, a voice angrily yelled out, "Coconut Cyclone!" The skies darkened and quaked as Nike summoned a lightening laced hurricane to destroy the remains of Nephrenia's forces.

"Crescent Beam," a delicate feminine voice called out in a desperate attempt to counter the attack. Nephrenia quickly jerked her gaze to the sky, and she watched helplessly as a young warrior 

dressed in a yellow battle dress went tumbling from the sky. Yet the girl, quick and agile as feather on a breeze, caught herself mid-fall, using the chain whip in her hands as a spring board. Ces-Ces vaulted back into the air to face the returned Alpha warrior although she was completely out classed in every way. The girl was a fool if she thought she was going to defeat a god. She was going to die.

They all were going to die.

The air was sucked out of Nephrenia at this revelation. The intensity of her sudden fear was so powerful that it almost sent her knees in a trembling mess.

Oh, Great Goddess, how could they have been so foolish? She screamed in silence. How could they been so wrong?

Nephrenia wanted to flee from this place. She wanted to leave so badly that tears started to fill her greenish-black eyes. The backlash of distant magical attack sent Nephrenia sprawling in the dirt.

She raised a hand to her temple, where she felt something warm and wet. She was seeing double, and there was an annoying ring in her ears. She closed her eyes as she shook her head to stop the ringing. When she opened her eyes again, Nephrenia saw the Four Sisters of Deception courageously facing a warrior who seemed to be made of sunlight.

Long, dark golden hair danced wildly about the brilliant warrior. The small blue Senshi who been toying with the Sisters moved back as far as she dared when the light around her sister intensified until the other woman became a small blazing sun.

She did not call out an attack, she didn't have to. Even from the distance where she lay, it hurt Nephrenia to look upon the bright light. The warrior was a supernova, drawing in all the light from the heavens and the sun.

This warrior, the Venusian, released all that power in a single, earth-shattering yell. A chill of pure terror raced down Nephrenia's spine as the world around her went black. Screams came from where the Sisters had stood. A whimper of fear escaped Nephrenia as reality came crashing in about her.

The light returned and with it, the grim truth.



Panicked and afraid, Nephrenia pushed her body off the ground before turning her eyes to the sky in hope for rescue by one of the little Asteroid warriors. Unfortunately, each of the young warriors was engaged in a battle for her life against one of the mighty Senshi. There would be no help from pretty little warriors or from the phalanges. The phalanges had all been destroyed by the Terran forces. The remaining Senshi, led by that Venusian terror, had decimated nearly all of Nephrenia's forces.

There would be no escape for her. She could not retreat. Where could she go that death could not possibly follow? She was alone. Her army was gone, and she had no magic, not even magic to unitize for her own protection. Nor did Nephrenia expect mercy from Gaia's son. She was a war criminal who had sided with the enemy, Terra's enemies. Even if Gaia De Danaan had forgiven her once for her sins, Nephrenia doubted that if her gentle Queen still lived she would show her such compassion this time.

She now realized that this had been arrogant of them. How could they have ever hoped to defeat the gods?

And if to answer her prayers, a familiar face appeared before her terror filled eyes. Relief quickly vanished Nephrenia's horror.

She stumbled forward with desperate arms open to embrace her friend, her savior.

For a long moment, Dirae just stood there, allowing Nephrenia to cling to her as she cried. It had been so long since tears had worked their way pass Nephrenia's cold gaze, but they were a warm and welcome gift for the former lady who had been lost for so very long. The shadows and darkness had finally fallen from her mind and heart, leaving the girl Dirae had once known in the shape of the pretender.

The darkness was gone. If it was a gift from Ananke in Nephrenia's last moments, Nephrenia would never know, but she was thankful none the less. She could not stop flow of the tears running unhampered from her bright green eyes no more than she could quell the violent trembles that racked her thin frame with every breath as she tried not to scream in outright fear of what she had done.

And at the same time she jubilant; Nephrenia knew why Scathach had come and she was glad for it. Her soul could rest easy if she was here sent to Valhalla by her friend.



Once upon a time two girls had been friends. As they grew, they were dearest companions as well as sisters-in-arms.

Once upon a time these two girls were inseparable. They were as close as kin, and they loved each other dearly.

Scathach raised up the crystal Time Key staff, slipping it into the holster on her back. For her friend, her sister, she would honour Nephrenia with a proper death befitting a Terran noble.

Nephrenia knew the sword at Scathach's waist. She had been there when the Gaia had formally presented the sword to Scathach in a ceremony that named one the four Archangels of Terra. Scathach was gone, she was forever to be Malachite, high commander of the Queen's personal army and the Champion of the Queen while Nephrenia was just a lowly courtier.

The Great Sword of Terra had been a loathsome thing to Nephrenia. She had hated it for all that it represented. It destroyed the last remnants of their relationship. The barrier between Scathach and herself, the instrument of her demise, the thing that stole her dearest companion away. It was nothing more than steel object. It could not think, it could not feel, it was not alive, this inanimate object that represented so much pain for Nephrenia.

However she was glad that Scathach, no, Dirae had chosen it. This sword, like Nephrenia, Balder, their Queen, and their home were important to Dirae.

The Great Sword of Terra that rested lightly in Dirae's dark hands, more than this war, showed the one time close friends how different their lives had become since those joyous days at Valhalla.

Dirae raised the sword high. Calmly, the shadow queen lowered her hands to her sides as she raised her head high. Victory would not be hers, but she could control her fate. She had sold her soul and betrayed her Queen to become a queen.

Gaia De Danaan did not beg for her life, nor did she shed a tear that day Nephrenia went to kill her. Nephrenia summoned up in her last moments her Queen's face. Gaia's eyes only showed heartbroken understanding and wisdom, but not fear as she faced down Nephrenia.



Dirae brought her blade down quick, the aim true. Dark blue eyes with steel in them stared fearlessly at Nephrenia as she recklessly charged the helpless pregnant Queen.

Gaia did not fight back—she never fought back. Yet Scathach stood at the Queen's side with her sword ready to end Nephrenia's life. For an over a thousand years that sight haunted Nephrenia, but death never came for Gaia because she stayed her Champion's hand.

Yet this was no dream. Gaia was gone and only she and Scathach remained.

Nephrenia's last image of this world was the steel blade slicing through the Terran Queen's eyes as the sword came for her neck.

II

A girl in gauzy red pants was thrown viciously to the ground as Apollo dashed after the one in the yellow battle dress. "Meteor Strike!" the terrified child shrieked as she blindly threw the attack over her shoulder at the man in the dark blue frock coat.

Apollo slapped aside the attack and easily countered with his World Shaking. His attack ripped through the night sky, causing the three girls to scatter. Another attack kept them from regrouping.

On the ground, the girl in red had pulled herself out of her crater was now trying to launch an attack against the Apollo in hopes of diverting him. "Fireballs, strike," she shouted, only to have her attack neutralized almost instantaneously. She looked up in horror at the woman with flame red hair, dressed in a flame red yakata that came to her knees and knee high black boots that were covered in bronze armor from ankle to knee. Bella lowered her flaming bow as she faced the girl. Bella did not wait for the child to attack; she just wanted this to end now.

"Snake Fire!" Bella threw out one of her basic attacks at the exhausted girl. Cassandra was too weak to put up any defense so the attack hit her dead on.

"Cassie!" Gigi shrill scream reached Bella's ears. She turned around to see Endy pulling the girl back inside the palace. Although he was reluctant to admit it, the Senshi had everything under control and Gigi would only be interfering.



Darien clung to Queen Serenity's gown, his face buried in her skirts as if he could hide himself from the battle out side the palace. He was scared. Something out there was not right and it frightened him.

"Why aren't you doing something?" Caroline demanded of Artemis and Terran. "We are being attacked."

"The Senshi and my Generals are handling it," Endy snapped at her. The last thing he needed was Caroline's bitching. Elios was still out, and it was bugging the hell out of him. The boy had yet to move to either attack the enemy or defend himself, but then those girls could not muster an attack that was strong enough to move the boy. But that did anything for Endy's peace of mind.

Elios liked to pretend that he was an easygoing, laid back smart mouth punk. Everyone seemed to have bought into that crap, but Endy knew better. Elios wasn't fooling him one bit with the bored, sleepy brained act. That kid was sharp. Nothing seemed to get past him, and he was handy with a sword and his fists. Endy was sure Diamond could testify to that. Even so, Elios was still Endy's kid; therefore, Endy worried.

As if he could sense his father's thoughts, Darien's older self laid a reassuring hand on Endy's shoulder and said, "I know Hal doesn't look like much, but he stronger than he appears, Father. You just have to trust him."

Endy nodded. "I know Elios can take care of himself. I've seen the kid in action. But he is my kid, and I can't stop worrying about him." He looked at his eldest son and was again thrown for a loop; it was still disconcerting for him to look Darien and to see himself. It was like seeing a different version of himself. His gaze drifted over to where Emmanuel stood with Gigi, and he swallowed hard. Make that three versions, and one was a female.

These were his children, the future, and hope of his Kingdom.

It had been almost two months since the day Patricia had brought Darien from the future and forever changed his life. Having Darien around meant that one day Endy would claim his Princess. It also meant more than having Serena as his wife. As the days went on, Endy had come to realize the magnitude 

of his own destiny, how his life was forever tied to protect Elysium and this Star System. It was this understanding that gave him the will to deny his own heart's desire to keep Serena out of this war and bless her with strength she would need to defeat Elysium's enemy.

"I'm going to be concerned for all of you and your mother," Endy told him.

His son nodded. "I know. That's why you are a good father and king."

Together they turned their attention back outside and to the beating of the Asteroid Senshi. It couldn't even be called a battle anymore; the Alphas were now just trying to wear the younger set down.

Elios watched the skirmish with bored interest. The Senshi and the Terran Guard had everything under control, which left him free to await Ananke.

Dully, Elios noticed the youngest princess of Mars unconscious form falling from the sky. Upon impact, Cassandra's body created a small crater just inches from where Elios stood, gazing up at the sky. He was somewhat surprised that his white blond bangs were dancing across his brow and eyes before he reached up to brush them back.

"VesVes." a sweet-faced, blue-haired youth tried to rush to her ally only run into wall of ice.

"PallaPalla." Their leader cried out in frustration as her last teammate was brought down and captured by their enemies. A magical cage of ice had wrapped around PallaPalla. The girl's screams stopped and she and VesVes were captured.

In the sky, high above the ruined palace, stood the last of Nephrenia's hope for victory. Grimly, she looked about at her fallen comrades. This was supposed that have been simple. They just had to grab the little boy, yet some how they had been lured into battle with nine warriors and had in turn been defeated by them.

Her team had been defeated and was in the hands of their enemies. She was last one. CesCes removed the golden chain from around her hips as she prepared for her last stand. The enemy must be defeated, no matter the cost. CesCes drew her arm back and called on the magic that she knew was there.

"Chain wink sword." Her desperate cry echoed through the sky.

It was only then did Elios strike. "Moon Healing Escalation!" he roared in a fit of rage.



The young Venusian's attack could not withstand the overwhelming strength of the attack. Wild energy absorbed everything in the ruined garden. It drove out the shadows that been present in the girls' minds, healing them and restoring their memories and power.

By the time the light had died down, Gigi had managed to get free of Emmanuel and had run out onto the terrace. "Aine," the Terran Princess cried as she skidded to a halt before Kris, who had the yellow robed girl in his arms.

"Sis," Elios called to her as he dropped his transformation. "They are okay."

She understood immediately and with a happy cry, she raced off the patio to throw herself into his arms.

"Thank you, Elios," she whispered, tears making her voice thick with emotion. "Thank you for saving them."

There was no time for celebration for Elios. Over his sister's head, Elios' watched his prey fly past Uranus before escaping his limitless sight. Ananke had sent Aine and the others here, but she had kept Joy.

On top of that Ananke had managed to take Cosmos prisoner.

III

Ananke stepped through the corridor of time and into the shadowed room where the Solar Systems' greatest threat sulked in a darkened corner.

Ananke looked away from Chaos to the tall, auburn young woman was chained to an opposite wall and forced to sit on the hard, cold floor. Princess Hebe, Sailor Juno's, forest green eyes watched Ananke's every move. A sneer of contempt was on the young warrior's face that became feral as Ananke came closer to her.

The woman looked at the girl for a moment before she knelt beside her and placed her burden on the floor next to Hebe.

"Silver Millennium has been defeated," Ananke said loudly, making sure her voice reached the ears of the demon, but her eyes never left Hebe's. She drew back the cloak that covered the Princess, and 

Hebe's large eyes went round with horror. "And I have brought you your greatest enemy, Sailor Cosmos."