Sailor Moon Crystal Generation

by nerds-of-a-feather

When a pair of thieves steal Endymion's crystal, Chibiusa is forced to step up as the next Sailor Moon. Joined by the Sailor Quartet and the mysterious Pegasus Kamen, she fights for Crystal Tokyo's future. But what sort of future will that be? (Under revision)

12. Heart of a Soldier

Heart of a Soldier

Saturn held her glaive parallel to the floor, bracing herself as the next wave of enemies materialized around her. They came at her from all sides, a mass of eyeless faces and grasping hands.

With savage precision, she hooked the curved blade of her weapon under one attacker's ribcage and ripped his chest open. She flung the corpse over her head into another enemy behind her, then stabbed the butt of her glaive through both of them. A sweeping slash drove the rest of the group back, buying her a few more seconds, which was all the time she needed.

Her glaive hissed through the air as she thrust the blade skyward. Purple sparks swirled around the tip, condensing into a ball of white-hot light. A howling wind filled the room, rushing in to join the expanding energy orb. With a searing flash, it passed the critical point and light collapsed into darkness. Saturn swung down her glaive, smashing the tiny magical black hole she'd created into the floor.

"Silence Glaive Surprise!"

A devastating blast leveled everything and everyone in the room. For a few seconds, everything was drowned in darkness. Gradually the shadows receded, revealing Saturn in the center of a ring of corpses. They were scattered around her in a radial pattern, like the petals of a grotesque flower. With grim precision, the Soldier of Ruin spun to face the front wall and waited.

A buzzer blared from a speaker on the ceiling. The dead bodies blinked out of existence, and the reflective walls of the holo-arena turned transparent as the outer lights came back up to full intensity. "Simulation Level 9 clear at three minutes and forty-seven seconds," Venus announced from the observation room. "Excellent as usual, Saturn."

The younger soldier wore a look of somber satisfaction. She did not like this aspect of her job, but she liked to do it well. She made a formal salute and bow, which Venus returned.

"Dismissed."

The light in the observation room clicked off, and Saturn was alone once more. Sudden weariness overtook her, and she leaned against the wall.

It was one thing to fight nameless holographs, when she knew they weren't people with lives and memories and dreams. But the Moirae were so human, and their hatred of the sailor soldiers was pure and absolute. So far, it seemed they could not be reasoned with. She recalled the look of loathing Pyrolusite had given them. It was not the face of a madman who enjoyed suffering for its own sake. He had been arrogant and derisive at every turn, but she had sensed a deep, wholehearted conviction driving him. He was not struggling to justify his actions. It was as though he had already come to terms with the necessity of killing her, because she was the monster who could not be reasoned with.

The soldier in her wondered if she would be able to plunge her blade into his chest without flinching. The human in her hoped that she could not.

The sound of gloved hands clapping made her glance up to a window on the far wall. When she recognized the man perched on the windowsill, her whole body tensed by reflex.

Pegasus Kamen flashed her a dazzling smile. "That was a good show."

"How did you get in here?" she demanded.

"I have my ways," he replied, his smile never wavering. He slid down to the floor with unnatural grace.

She sized him up as he strode toward her. "What do you want?"

"I came to warn you. More android replicas of the sailor soldiers have appeared in the city. In fact, I fought one of you not too long ago."

Saturn's eyes widened when she noticed a red stain spreading across his sleeve. He's wounded.

Her nurse's instincts took over. "Hold still," she instructed. She found a first-aid kit mounted on the arena wall and took out some antiseptic. "Let's get that cleaned up."

"I'm fine," he insisted, jerking his arm away.

"No, you're not. Let me see."

He shook his head stubbornly. She chased him around the room until she had him backed against a wall. She let out an impatient sigh.

"If you hold still, I'll give you a lollipop," she offered sarcastically.

He sprang up like a puppy expecting a treat. "Really?"

She gave him an exasperated look. He blinked a few times, then suddenly forced a laugh. "Ah, you were joking, weren't you? I'm sorry. It's just… that stuff really stings," he said, pointing at the bottle in her hand.

"It'll keep that cut from getting infected."

"Rather take my chances," he muttered.

Saturn found herself fighting the urge to smile. "I promise to be quick about it."

With great reluctance, he rolled up his sleeve and allowed her to inspect his injury. At a glance, she recognized the handiwork of the Silence Glaive. The familiarity of it made her shudder.

She was halfway through tending the wound before she remembered to be suspicious of him. Then she kicked herself for letting her guard down so easily. His vulnerability had lured her in. Was that part of his plan? She kept a wary eye on him as she applied the medicine. He was chewing on his lower lip, making a valiant effort not to whimper. She wondered if this was really the same dashing rescuer who had stepped in front of Carnelian's flamethrower without batting an eye. You're not nearly as cool as you look, she thought.

"So I do manage to look cool, sometimes?" he replied, and she realized she had spoken aloud. He grinned. "I'll take what I can get."

She allowed herself a tiny smile.

"Do you know how to tell the difference between a real sailor soldier and a fake?" Pegasus said out of the blue. "I just figured it out. They can copy your magic and your pretty faces, but they can't copy your shine."

"You mean our Sailor Crystals? It's unfortunate, but they are able to mimic the aura quite effectively…"

"I mean your hearts."

She fell silent as she finished treating him. Though she hated herself for it, she was starting to see why Usagi wanted to trust him. He possessed a rare combination of charm and sincerity—or at least, the illusion of sincerity. With compliments like that, he knew just how to make a sensitive girl like Usagi feel special.

On the other hand, here was Saturn, coldly telling her princess that life was not fair. If she were in Usagi's place, which voice would she rather listen to?

She could feel his eyes on her, and avoided meeting them. Instead she watched his hands, waiting for the slightest aggressive motion, any sign of ill intent.

"Tell me, Sailor Saturn. Why don't you trust me?" Pegasus asked.

"I can tell you're no android," she conceded, "but I wonder if you're our friend."

"Have I been your friend?"

"You helped us out once, but that's hardly enough to make me certain of your motives."

"I'd rather not interfere when I'm not needed."

"In other words, you'd rather not place yourself in harm's way if you can avoid it?"

"You don't understand," he said, a hint of frustration in his voice. He looked like he meant to say more, but then changed his mind. "I don't have to help you at all, you know."

"That's right. You don't. So why do you?" Saturn challenged.

"I… can't bear to see cute girls get hurt?"

She did not look convinced.

He sighed. "All right. I can see why you're skeptical. But if I'm for real, you'll see my shine."

Saturn gave him a hard, scrutinizing look. After a long pause, she nodded slowly, and he remembered to breathe.

"How long did it take you to figure out that fake senshi wasn't me?" she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.

"Well, when I was still alive after three minutes and forty-seven seconds…" He chuckled, his easy grin returning. "One thing's for sure, that robot couldn't fight half as well as you."

Saturn removed her gloves. Then, to his astonishment, she cradled his injured arm between her hands. Her fingers were soft and slender, her touch remarkably gentle. He found it hard to believe those same hands had been slaughtering a horde of youma just minutes earlier.

Midnight-purple eyes locked with his, and he was overcome with a sense of solemn wonder. It was the sort of feeling a person might get when gazing at ancient ruins—majestic beauty touched with a hint of tragic mystery. Drawn into her darkness, his senses were enveloped in silence, a silence that filled rather than emptied them. It was the silence of a hummingbird resting its wings, of a forest in winter, of the infinite night just before the birth of the universe.

"There are other things a fake senshi can't do."

A tingling sensation rushed up his arm, hot and cold, painful and soothing all at once. Before he could comprehend it, it was over, and she pulled her hands away. With a fingertip he traced the barest remnant of a scar, all that remained of his wound. He looked up at her, his face bright with admiration.

"Hey… thanks."

A beam of sunlight flooded through the window above, and for a moment all Saturn could see was shimmering golden light. When it faded, he was gone.

---

An oppressive silence hung over Petalite's office, broken only by the click-click of her nails scrolling through the battle plans on Ripidolite's tablet PC. When she had reviewed the last screen, she laid it on the desk and regarded the young soldier sitting across from her. Ripidolite returned the stare without a hint of uncertainty—or deference. Petalite bristled inwardly at the girl's insubordination, but her porcelain features remained smooth and expressionless.

"So," she said in a voice that revealed nothing. "This is what you came up with."

"It's a sound strategy."

"That is mine to decide," Petalite replied crisply.

Their eyes did battle. Ripidolite sniffed in frustration.

"If you have objections, I would love to hear them."

"For one, it places the royal family in unreasonable danger."

Ripidolite spread her hands in a gesture of agreement. "What better way to lure Sailor Moon out?"

"You cannot rely on Sailor Moon to be predictable," Petalite admonished. "She is an astral vision, a lucid dream. You may think you can control her, but the moment you dare to believe you understand her, she will do the unexpected. Even I know very little about her."

Ripidolite planted her hands on the desk and leaned forward, putting her face inches from the older woman's. "You know more than you're telling," she snarled.

"Sit. Down," Petalite commanded.

The green-haired woman eased back into her chair, scowling all the while.

Petalite folded her hands and frowned her disapproval, but nonetheless acquiesced. "If it will satisfy your curiosity… Sailor Moon is a powerful warrior, one of the royal family's personal bodyguards. She is the favorite of the queen, and is entrusted with the protection of the Illusion Silver Crystal. But our great Queen Moros has seen the truth: that she is fated to betray the royalty and hand over the crystal to their enemies, who will use it to destroy the entire galaxy. Before that happens, we have to take it from her. The people of this world will not understand now, but in the end they will see that everything we did was to save them." Her voice took on an aggravated tone as she added, "And it would be much easier if you would simply follow my orders."

Ripidolite's face hardened. "What would you do," she asked, "if everything we were fighting for was a lie?"

"Queen Moros would never lie to us," Petalite insisted. There was something subservient and automatic in her reply that Ripidolite found infuriating. Without waiting to be dismissed, she grabbed her tablet and left. Petalite's indignant shouts followed her out the door.

As she stalked away from the office, she nearly tripped over a cloaked form. When she saw who it was, she had to hold back a shiver.

"Aether?"

He said nothing, did not even look at her as he brushed past, but she felt him press something into her palm. A scrap of paper. On it was written, in tiny, bold pen strokes: The Glass Hour, 8-5-4 Ginza, Chuo-Ku. 18:30 tonight. She looked from the paper to Aether's retreating figure, utterly bewildered.

"Hey! Wait!" she called, but he had melted into the shadows and disappeared.

---

The five senior members of the Crystal Juuban Junior Herald's editorial staff gathered in an anxious huddle next to Souga Miruki's table. Their editor-in-chief had only been back for a few days, but she had slipped into her old role with ease. Already she was acting as though she'd never been gone, and clearly expected everyone else to act that way too.

This would have been all well and good with Uehara Kai, Miruki's right-hand woman who had taken over in her absence. Kai had secretly enjoyed her brief "promotion," though not without some guilt, considering the circumstances. But there had been no question in her mind that she would step aside when Miruki returned. Miruki was the sort of person who held a group together. She knew when to push them and when to back off, when to be flexible and when to stand firm. Under her leadership, they got things done, and she was far more popular than Kai would ever be. Kai could accept that.

What she could not accept was this piece of badly mangled fan-fiction that their beloved editor was trying to pass off as a news story.

Sensing that some sort of discontent was brewing, Miruki turned away from her laptop to face the gathered group. "What's up, you guys?"

Glancing at the others for moral support, Kai cleared her throat. "Miruki-chan… I can't let you embarrass yourself by printing this."

Miruki's wounded expression stung her. She searched for a way to soften the blow, but before she could say anything, fashion and technology editor Noda Misato spoke up.

"Mysterious new Sailor Soldiers, including the legendary Sailor Moon, fighting a cyborg with a flamethrower? A magical flying Pegasus boy? And to top it off, you think you were abducted by aliens? Please tell me you're not serious about this crap."

Miruki's chin jutted in a stubborn pout. "You don't believe me?" Her eyes darted around the group and settled on Kai, who cringed under her look of betrayal. "Not even you, Kai-chan?" she whispered, her voice trembling on the edge of tears.

Masato, Misato's twin and the paper's advice columnist, looked mortified at his sister's lack of tact, and tried to make amends. "We know you went through quite an ordeal. Perhaps you haven't fully recovered yet? It would be fine if you want to take another week or two off."

Miruki sprang out of her chair, arms crossed indignantly over her chest. "I'm not crazy!" she shouted, startling them all. "You weren't there! I know exactly what I saw!"

Kai held up her hands, gesturing for everyone to remain calm. "Listen to yourself," she said, her voice gentle but firm. "You know we can't print this kind of tabloid sensationalism in a respectable newspaper. You know as well as I do that there is no such person as Sailor Moon."

"I never would have believed it myself, but I saw her!" Miruki exclaimed.

Ogawa Akiko, their sports columnist, tried in vain to reason with her. "Let's be logical about this. Everyone knows that Sailor Soldiers come from special starseeds that have a bond with a particular planet."

Yang Zhi Peng, the head current-events writer, chimed in with a sagacious nod. "In other words, one must have a bona fide planet to be a Sailor Soldier. That's how we know that there is no Sailor Pluto."

"And the moon is not a planet, you see," added Masato.

Miruki's lips moved, trying to form a counterpoint, but her mind refused to cooperate. For a brief instant, she doubted herself. But no. She had seen it. If only she'd had her camera…

"Please, Miruki-chan," Kai pleaded. "Personally, I believe you. I really do. But—"

"But not enough to stand up for me," Miruki said bitterly.

Kai bowed her head. "I'm sorry."

Miruki sat down in a huff, refusing to look at them. She felt very much like Galileo before the Pope.

Kai took her silence as surrender. Leaving Miruki to brood, she turned back to the rest of the team. "All right, everyone. We need a new feature story."

As the rest of the group deliberated on whether to write about the mock trial team's recent victory or the latest trends in cell phone accessories, Miruki made a silent vow.

I'll prove it. I'll show the world that Sailor Moon is real!

---

Hotaru stepped out of the shower room, a damp towel slung over her shoulders. In truth, she hadn't needed to bathe—she barely broke a sweat during these simulated battles—but it made her feel cleaner nonetheless.

She found Sailor Venus waiting for her.

"Just so you know, I won't be around for the rest of the month," the blond senshi told her as the two of them strolled across the aerial bridge that connected the holo-training facility to the palace proper. "I'm traveling to Crystal Ankara on a… diplomatic excursion."

Hotaru read between the lines. The queen was probably sending her to investigate suspected Moriae activity in the Middle East. A visit from a high-profile figure like Venus would undoubtedly attract attention. Diplomacy was an excuse, part of their continued cover-up of the threat. All this deception from the normally honest monarchy was making Hotaru begin to doubt the queen's decision. Venus's face said that she felt the same way, but she would never defy Serenity.

"Other than your incident in Hachioji, things have been pretty quiet this week," Venus went on. "Mars and the others should be able to cover for me, but if they detect a serious threat, we may need to call you up."

Hotaru nodded. This was not a terribly uncommon occurrence. Though she was officially assigned to the princess's team, Saturn's long history with the queen's guardians made her a de facto "alternate" whenever they were absent—which seemed more often than not, these days.

It was strange how the peace of the new Silver Millennium stretched them thin, in a way the wars of the past never had. Back in the twentieth century, their chief concern was usually balancing their senshi duties with their social lives. Now they were soldiers, ambassadors, and queens, and they barely even had time to speak to one another anymore. Before the enemies came to Tokyo, seeking them out. Now they had to remain vigilant for evil that lurked in crevices and hid behind closed doors… or diplomatic immunity. Before the nine of them had one princess to protect. Now planets across the galaxy asked for (and expected) their aid. There were images to maintain, standards to set, political fictions to preserve. As they faced a threat on par with the Black Moon, the senshi were sure to feel the absence of their leader more than ever.

Venus stopped and clasped Hotaru's shoulder. "I want you to be ready on a moment's notice. Have Ceres and Pallas take over your bodyguard duties this week."

"Ma'am? Why not just put Ceres on standby as well?" Hotaru suggested.

Venus gave her an incredulous look. "Seresu Garnier? Are you joking? She can't even keep track of the princess, let alone handle a fourth of the palace's defense systems."

Hotaru chewed on her lower lip. Who had gotten herself locked in a closet by the very same princess during the Moirae's first attack?

But when she tried to picture Ceres manning Venus's battle station, she had to admit the older senshi had a point. Ceres would either freeze or panic. Then Jupiter or Mars would yell at her, and she would probably cry, and one of them would be forced to babysit her while Mercury had a panic attack of her own from being forced to pick up the slack. In short, things would end badly.

Venus shook her head. "Her heart's in the right place, but that girl's got a long way to go before I hand her the keys to the Crystal Palace. And for the last time, don't call me 'ma'am.' It makes me feel old."

Hotaru knew not to press the issue. "Understood."

They reached the end of the bridge and boarded an elevator. Venus swiped her crystal card to authorize them and punched the button for the second floor, where Hotaru's quarters were located. (As part of her cover identity, Hotaru officially lived in a studio apartment in Akasaka, but she spent most of her free time in her much more luxurious suite at the palace.) For a little while the two stood in silence, watching the light travel down the long row of buttons.

"Any word on Juno yet?" Venus asked.

"She's still unconscious. Her injuries were severe, but she's stable. Mercury is keeping her sedated for now. The nature of her wounds was… bizarre, to say the least. No traces of foreign material, when by all accounts there should have been. It's as if they were inflicted by some sort of… imaginary weapon."

"I saw a movie about something like that once," Venus mused. "The entire Earth was actually a virtual-reality program, and if you got injured in there, your body reflected it in the real world, and the lead actor was so hot—"

Hotaru was giving her a blank stare. Venus coughed and motioned for her to continue.

"We ran her identity, and found out that she was recently treated at Hiroo Hospital for lacerations and a minor head injury. From the looks of it, she's probably been in another scuffle or two since then."

Venus clucked her tongue sympathetically. "Poor girl. That's a rough way to start your sailor senshi career. Did you learn anything else about her?"

Saturn gave her all the information they were allowed to acquire. The girl's name was Osaki Junko. She was originally from the west coast of North America, in the region that had once been the United States (or perhaps Canada—it had been so long that Hotaru had forgotten exactly where the border used to be.) Osaki currently resided in Tokyo with her grandmother, who the senshi had not yet managed to contact. The law barred them from accessing the rest of her records without her consent. Hotaru promised that she and Mercury would continue overseeing the injured soldier's treatment until she awakened.

"Well, keep me posted," said Venus.

They stopped, and the doors opened to a long hall of blue-tinged crystal with floors of polished maple. Spiraling pilasters of pale, pink-veined Rosa Aurora marble lined both walls, each topped with a silver capital in the shape of a Pegasus. With the afternoon sunlight shining through the crystal ceiling, the whole corridor glowed like a magical fantasy forest with boughs and branches of finest quartz. At the far end were two massive golden doors leading to Princess Lady Serenity's rooms. Just before them was another, smaller set of doors carved of fluorite and amethyst, which were inscribed with the symbol of Saturn.

Hotaru stepped off the elevator and dipped her head in farewell to Venus. Only when the doors had closed and she was alone once more did she allow herself an exhausted sigh. Between guarding Usagi, caring for Junko, and investigating the Moirae, she had found little time to sleep for the past few days. Now she was faced with the prospect of shouldering Venus's responsibilities in an emergency, and to ice the cake, her teachers had chosen this week to assign obscene amounts of homework. (Cover identity or not, Neptune had an eye on her grades, and accepted no excuses. She had found the time to save the world on multiple occasions, be a famous musician and artist, raise a child, and still graduate at the top of her class, and she expected no less from her daughter.)

But there would be time to worry about it all later in the evening. Yawning, Hotaru made her way to her room for some much-needed rest.

---

"Hey Seresu-chan," Atena said as the two of them were walking Usagi home, "can I tell my mom that I'm a senshi now? 'Cause it seems like the Moirae already know where I live."

"No," Seresu replied without hesitation. "Once she knows, she can never go back to not knowing. That might cause all kinds of problems in the future, even if we defeat the Moirae."

"When we defeat the Moirae," Usagi corrected.

"But Mom thinks the senshi are doing bad things!" Atena cried. "She doesn't know they're fakes!"

"It pains me to say it, but that might be for the best right now," Seresu said gently. "She'll be less vulnerable if she doesn't automatically trust every sailor soldier she meets."

The blue-haired girl puffed out her cheeks and pouted. "It's not fair. Atena is so… frustrated."

Usagi patted her back. "We know who we are. That's what matters."

"But they know who we are too," Seresu sighed, "and that's the problem."

Atena stopped suddenly. Her eyes crossed slightly and her lip poked out, the way it always did when she was thinking. "Now that you mention it, why haven't they used any fake Atenas, or Usagi-chans, or Seresu-chans?" she wondered out loud.

Seresu frowned. "That is an excellent question."

---

The Glass Hour's decor was hardly enough to impress Ripidolite, but at least the dining room was nice and quiet. She made her way between tables, one hand holding her green velvet cloche hat in place while the other clutched the front of her matching trenchcoat. She did not notice Aether until he beckoned to her from a booth in the back corner of the restaurant. He was dressed in a highly forgettable brown suit jacket, and his distinctive golden eyes were hidden behind a pair of equally boring rimless shades. For a brief instant, she wished she had not come.

Ironically, most of the reasons she had to be wary of him—that he seemed to operate independently of the other Moirae, that he and Petalite were often at odds, that Moros showed open disdain for him—were now credits to him in her mind. Even so, there was something about him that just felt wrong. His face was perpetually calm, but she sensed a conscious effort to keep maintain the façade. He seemed uncomfortable in his own skin.

She slid into the seat opposite him, eyeing him with calculated nonchalance. He held up two fingers in a prayer-like gesture and whispered a few words in a strange language. A strange, silvery distortion rippled through the air along the end of their table, and Aether smiled.

"I've created a wall of illusion," he explained. "It deflects the mind's eye. I guarantee that no one will notice us."

The idea that Aether had her alone in a tiny, enclosed space where no one could see them did nothing to alleviate Ripidolite's anxiety.

He removed and pocketed the sunglasses, then folded his hands on the tabletop. The mannerism was quite like Petalite's, which irritated her. But unlike the elder Moira, Aether's smile held no condescension.

"Have you told anyone else what you discovered?" he asked.

Ripidolite's eyes narrowed. There was only one discovery to which he could be referring: Sailor Moon's true identity. The fact that he seemed to have already known made her inclined to distrust him. But she was already too far down the rabbithole to walk away.

"No," she replied. "Not yet."

"That's good. Had you told Moros, you probably would have been killed."

He let that statement hang in the air as a waiter appeared with a pair of glasses. The man poured their drinks, and Ripidolite witnessed Aether's illusion wall in action. The waiter seemed unable to focus his attention on the occupants of the booth. Every time he tried to look at them, his eyes would glaze over, or he would be suddenly distracted by something on the other side of the room. He did not even notice that the liquid had overflowed Ripidolite's glass and was spilling into her lap, and continued to pour until Aether reached out and lifted the bottle away. Aether thanked him, and he wandered off in a daze. Grumbling softly, Ripidolite mopped up the spilled beverage.

"Moros has been lying to you," Aether went on. "Sailor Moon, who you now know to be the princess, will not betray the royal family of her own free will. But this much is true: the world is in danger as long as she has the Ginzuishou."

Ripidolite took a long, slow sip from her glass, her eyes never leaving his. She leaned across the table, rested her chin on her knuckles, and parted her lips in a venomous smile. "Let's pretend I believe you. That still doesn't explain why Moros wants Sailor Moon dead."

"I don't know," Aether admitted, "but I doubt she has the royal family's best interests in mind. And the truth is…" Licking his lips, he bent forward and lowered his voice to a whisper, in spite of his earlier confidence that no one would hear them. "Hypnos and I suspect that Moros isn't really the one in control here. We don't know who's pulling her strings, but we intend to find out."

"I always knew you two were up to something," said Ripidolite with a nasty leer. "You realize I'm in a position to get you in a lot of trouble."

"With whom?"

Her ugly parody of a smile faded; she knew as well as he did that she had no friends among her allies. Her eyes drifted across the restaurant, to the glass doors and the sunlit streets beyond. Suddenly, the world seemed very large and empty.

She drained her drink and stood. "We're finished here."

"Very well," Aether sighed, dispelling the illusionary wall with a wave of his hand. "Goodbye, Ripidolite."

Already walking away, she didn't hear his words or notice the hint of sorrow in his voice.

Mounting rage quickened her footsteps as she shoved her way out the door.

"Forget Moros," she muttered. "From here on out, I'm on my own."

---

Sunset began as a golden glimmer at the tips of the crystal skyscrapers and washed down the cityscape in deepening shades of orange and mauve. A low hum filled the air as thousands of flower-shaped photovoltaic cells folded up and retracted into the rooftops for the night. Disturbed by the motion, flocks of birds rose up all around the city in a flurry of wings and song. They circled briefly, tiny white specks against a glowing sky speckled with thin purple clouds, before returning once more to their hidden roosts. Below, the waters of Tokyo Bay were a moving tapestry of liquid light and glassy shadow. Usagi and Hotaru sat on the balcony outside the princess's room, gazing at the tranquil scene.

"So beautiful," Hotaru murmured. "You almost wouldn't know…"

Usagi leaned against the balcony railing and rested her head on her arms. "I'm tired of fighting," she sighed. "Tired of the worrying, the jitters, the waiting for something to happen. Especially the waiting." She pushed herself up on her hands and glared at the horizon. "If they're going to attack, I wish they'd go ahead and do it!" she burst out.

"You shouldn't say things like that," Hotaru admonished, grabbing the large bow on the back of her dress—just in case she happened to slip.

Usagi turned away from the sunset and sat down hard on the floor. Her dress billowed around her in a cloud of pink frills.

"I didn't mean it," she sighed, playing with the end of one of her pigtails. "Is it wrong, to wish you could quit being a sailor soldier? I wonder if Mama ever felt this way…"

Hotaru wanted to hug her and tell her that it was okay, that she was only human, that even the seasoned veterans of the Sailor Team felt overwhelmed at times. Instead she said, "We can't quit. It's our destiny."

Moments later, the screams began.

---

Pyrolusite stepped through the doors of his lab with a determined look on his face. Calomel recognized the sound of his boots and sprang up to greet him, trying to pretend she hadn't been playing with the robot parts scattered on his workbench.

"Hey, onii-kun. Are we going to do more training? This time I want to fight Ceres."

"Not today."

He brushed past her, headed for the back of the room, where the imitation sailor senshi were lined up in neat formation. Rows of lifeless faces stared straight ahead, waiting for his orders to awaken. Behind them, in the corner, he had put together a crude command center, mostly assembled from parts he'd found in the trash. He took his seat in a red leather captain's chair behind the bank of refurbished control panels. From here, he could remotely direct his robot army, monitoring their situation on a set of screens mounted on the wall. Today, he only needed one.

"Calomel! Fire up the 920M."

She looked surprised. "You're sending out your baby?"

The CR-920M was the second revision of Pyrolusite's Sailor Moon replica android. (Calomel had "accidentally" destroyed the first one during combat testing, after the AI had made a crack about her fashion sense.) This particular unit sported several modifications: improved mobility, a short-range phase shifter teleportation drive, and advanced speech synthesis protocols that allowed him to speak directly through the robot. Of all his creations, she was his favorite. Calomel suspected it was because her brain was reconstructed from Carnelian's salvaged CPU.

She skipped down the row of androids, to a large, cylindrical glass case on a raised platform. Fat wires sprouted from the top of the chamber like a tangle of serpents, trailing off into the obscure darkness of the ceiling above. The robot stood within, locked into place by a metal support attached to her back. Red neon lights in the floor cast a soft glow over her face. Her eyes were closed as if in sleep. Her head drooped slightly forward, allowing her soft pink hair to hang down over her shoulders, but as Calomel approached, she straightened. The doors of the chamber peeled back with a mechanical whine.

"Password, please," the android requested. Her voice was serene, but her fingertips twitched dangerously. One wrong syllable, and they would snap the intruder's neck.

"Same as Carnelian's was," said Pyrolusite when his sister hesitated.

Calomel grinned and leaned forward to whisper in the robot girl's ear: "Hazelnut."

The red lights in the floor flashed to green, and a high-pitched whirring sound filled the room. The robot snapped to attention. "Combat-type Replica model CR-920M 'Sailor Moon,' at your service."

"Prepare to track and intercept," Pyrolusite ordered. He pressed a key on his console. "Sending you the data on the target now."

The robot bowed and sprinted out of the lab without another word.

Calomel slid into her seat at the command center, a chair similar to Pyrolusite's, but slightly smaller and blue. "Who are we stalking today?" she asked.

Pyrolusite didn't answer.

---

A blue signal blazed from the top of the Crystal Palace, alerting the sailor soldiers that the palace grounds were under attack. Alarm sirens rose up all over Chiyoda ward, mingling with the cries of panicked citizens.

Sailor Moon burst from the palace entrance, charging down the road to the city. Breathlessly she shouted into her communicator, alerting Ceres and Pallas to the danger, as if it could have escaped their notice.

Ahead of her, something green and ugly was creeping over the buildings. As she drew closer, she realized it was a twining mass of briars. Windows shattered, walls buckled. Thick, sinewy vines burst from the pavement, overturning cars and uprooting trees. A wave of screaming people hurried just ahead of the carnage like seafoam before a roaring wave. In their terror, they jostled one another and trampled over anyone unfortunate enough to fall. Sailor Moon cringed at the sound of two vehicles colliding in the distance, followed by more screams and the tinkling of shattered glass.

A small dog ran down the sidewalk, crying for his master, who had lost him in the chaos. Panting laboriously, he struggled to outrun the vines, but his stubby legs could only carry him so far. Soon the briars ensnared him, bringing him down and dragging him into the ever-growing thicket. His cries became frantic wails, and then… silence.

Standing on a rooftop above it all, Ripidolite threw back her head and laughed. It was glorious, this newfound sense of freedom. No more fear. No more cryptic orders or nonsensical objectives. No more of those pesky exhortations against harming innocent people. She despised them all, and she would destroy them, just to prove that she could.

She spread her arms wide, and sparkling green waves of energy crackled down the vines. Purple blossoms sprouted from every surface, releasing a thick cloud of poison gas into the streets.

"Stop right there!"

Ripidolite whirled and glared at the interloper who seemed to have materialized out of thin air behind her. Long pink hair whipped around in the wind. The setting sun glinted off of pearl hairpins and a golden crescent moon.

"Well, well. Just who I was hoping to see."

She flicked her wrist, and two thick vines coiled around Sailor Moon's ankles. To her surprise, the slender girl took a step forward, effortlessly tearing the plants apart. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"You've really outdone yourself this time, Ripidolite," Sailor Moon purred, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

After a few seconds of puzzled silence, a smirk spread over the taller woman's face. "Nice try, Pyrolusite."

"Ah, so you do have a brain in that fat head of yours." The words and sour facial expressions that were obviously her brother's were all the more grating when translated onto the pretty, feminine face of her arch-nemesis.

Without warning, the android lunged forward and grabbed Ripidolite by the throat. Choking, she seized the false Sailor Moon's wrist. Wriggling vines sprouted from the spot she had touched, wrapping around the android's fingers. The android let out a yelp and released Ripidolite as the vines bent her wrist backwards, tearing open the plastic skin, and began to creep into the joints of her arm. The twin pearl hairpins detached themselves from her head, revealing two small rockets, which launched themselves at the invading plants. When the smoke cleared, the hand hung uselessly, a mess of metal and wire.

"Why are you getting in my way?" Ripidolite growled, rubbing her neck.

"I don't know," said Pyrolusite-Moon. "Why did you rat on us?"

The android's other arm unfolded into what looked like a cross between a mini-gun and a giant taser. Ripidolite's eyes widened a fraction of an inch. She leaped out of the way a split second before a hundred electrified darts hammered into the concrete wall behind her. The android whirled, preparing to fire again, but Ripidolite twisted in midair and called down a storm of magical leaves, razor-sharp and hard as steel. Before the android could react, they had sliced off her other arm.

"Oh, you mean your and Calomel's little unauthorized training sessions? Petalite made it very clear that Calomel isn't ready to return to battle. I have to protect my dear baby sister," Ripidolite said sweetly. A dark stain was spreading on her side, and static crackled around the wound—a couple of the darts had found their mark. Not fatal, but distracting.

"Calomel's every bit as capable as you are, and you know it," Pyrolusite-Moon spat, lunging at her again. From a hidden compartment on her thigh, she fired a trio of homing missiles at Ripidolite. "I'm more capable than you are. You just don't want us to kill the senshi before you get the chance. But I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I hear you're pretty good at betraying people."

Ripidolite somersaulted forward, closing the distance between them and causing two of the missiles to crash into each other with a violent explosion. The third she blocked by summoning a wall of brambles. Green light arced around her fists as she called on her magic to boost her strength. She had developed this spell for her golems, and she knew it shouldn't be used on a human body. Pain seared her muscles, but she ignored it. This was her chance to finally put Pyrolusite and his toys in their place. She blocked the punch the android swung at her, and threw it to the ground. A feral roar tore from her throat as she smashed her fists into her opponent's exposed back. With satisfaction, she felt its metal ribs snapping.

"Unfortunately for you," she sneered, "you're only half right."

A twisted spike of briars as thick as telephone pole surged up from below, skewering the 920M. Smaller vines peeled off the main one and crept into the hole in the android's chest, ripping it apart from the inside. Bits of metal and circuitry rained down all around as Ripidolite watched with a smug expression. She left the mangled torso hanging there, high above the rooftop, a monument to her superiority.

She summoned a clump of branches to form a staircase, and descended to street level. The citizens who hadn't escaped lay in the streets, victims of the poison gas attack. Raising her arms, she summoned another wave of plants and continued her march toward the palace.

---

"Fire at will! Fire at will!" Sailor Mars shouted over the roar of the ion cannons and the low rumble of distant destruction.

Seated behind a console in the Ginzuishou chamber, at the heart of the palace's defense network, Saturn focused her weapon systems on an especially thick clump of vines. Her hands moved smoothly over the twin glass hemispheres that served as the targeting interface. Electromagnetic impulses from her brain were relayed through her fingertips into the computer; with a thought she gave the command to fire. From atop one of the crystal towers, a focused beam of energy streaked down to vaporize the invading plants. But within seconds, the hole she had made was covered over with fresh growth.

Beside her, Mercury's fingers flew over her keyboard as data flooded her screen, and every few seconds she would attempt to translate it into something the rest of them could understand. In between, her eyes kept darting to a line of monitors on the far wall that displayed streaming video from the surveillance network—in particular, the one of Sailor Jupiter leading the defense forces at the north gate. Said forces consisted mostly of local police and a handful of recruits from the SDF, none of whom had ever fought a battle like this before. Jupiter was devoting as much effort to keeping them from getting themselves killed as she was to driving back the enchanted briars.

Above on the giant main monitor was an overhead view of the district, where the vines (represented by menacing red lines) were closing in on the palace in a two-pronged attack. One thing was perfectly clear: they were spreading faster than the city's defenders could cut them down.

The senshi were losing.

Neo Queen Serenity paced the marble floor, monitoring their situation with rising anxiety. She clutched the Ginzuishou to her chest, occasionally fingering it as if she intended to single-handedly drive back the enemy. She might have been able to do it, back in her days as Eternal Sailor Moon, but as she aged her power had changed. She could perform miraculous deeds of healing and restoration, but defense was not her forte.

She paused behind Saturn's chair. "Did you leave Usagi-chan in her quarters?" she asked. There was a slight edge in her voice that made Saturn suspect something was wrong.

"I instructed her to fall back to the inner sanctum and prepare to defend the palace. This is too dangerous for her."

"Then why do I see her at the southern gate?"

Saturn jerked around to look at the video feed, and swore under her breath. Sure enough, an unmistakable pair of pink pigtails was streaking down the road into the city. A quick check on her comlink GPS confirmed it. (At least the princess hadn't tried to turn it off this time.)

"We can't leave her alone out there," Mercury said through gritted teeth. "Jupiter, can you spare anyone down there?"

"Negative," Jupiter responded grimly. "Even if I could, she'd more than likely end up having to save them. Where the hell are Ceres and Pallas?"

Saturn frowned. "I've lost their signals, or they haven't transformed yet. I hope they're not…" She broke off, her gaze drifting to the wall of green that was slowly closing in on the palace, and then back to the receding image of Sailor Moon, headed right into the carnage.

"Go," said Mars. "We've got this covered."

Saturn knew that was a lie. But she rose and hurried from the room anyway. It was a great honor to be asked to fill the empty chair Venus had left, but she was the princess's guardian first. She was Usagi's friend first.

A few seconds passed. Suddenly, the queen froze mid-stride, a furrow sprouting on her creamy brow. "Where is my husband?"

---

Perched on a windowsill high on one of the crystal towers, a small gray cat watched the chaos unfolding below, and tortured herself by reliving the very bad decision she'd made ten minutes ago.

"I have to go out there, Diana!"

"Princess, I must object. Saturn gave you strict orders not to—"

"Saturn's not my nursemaid!"

"She is a soldier with ten times as much experience as you have, and I have a feeling your mother would concur with her decision."

"Sailor Moon. That name once belonged to the strongest soldier in the galaxy. They'll let me bear the title, but the moment there's any sign of real trouble, they coop me up inside. It's disgraceful. They don't believe in me… but you believe in me, don't you, Diana?"

"Well, I…"

"They need me. I need to be there. If I'm going to be a sailor soldier, I have to be one when it counts, not just when my mother thinks it's safe. This is a war! Don't make me stand by and watch, powerless, while my friends risk their lives."

And Diana had let her go. Now she sat with her nose pressed to the glass, tail swinging back and forth like a pendulum ticking away the anxious seconds. Skin crawling, she watched a thick tendril of green snaking toward the southern gate, and her mistress charging out alone to meet it. The princess had no idea, she thought, what it meant to feel powerless.

---

Junko drifted on the glimmering edge of consciousness, dimly aware of her body but not yet free of her dreams. Snatches memory drifted past her, all out of order and blurring into one another. Pancakes sizzling on a griddle. Cool winds blowing in from the ocean. A couple's voices raised in anger. The smell of engine grease and her father's aftershave. Then, close behind her, a great fluttering of wings. When she turned to see what it was, she met a blaring wall of light. She could just make out the silhouette of a man, his hand extended toward her.

Her first thought was to wonder if she was dead. But little by little the light receded, sharpening into a tall rectangle. Other shapes came into focus: curtains, and pale blue walls, and a bedside table. She realized belatedly that her eyes were open. Her more recent memories finally caught up to her and told her that she must be in a hospital somewhere, though how she had gotten there she couldn't say. The last thing she could recall was losing to the fake Ceres. It had been a fake, hadn't it? She wasn't quite sure anymore. Maybe she was back at Hiroo, and the whole incident had been her imagination…

The man on the windowsill, however, was not.

Blinking hard, she sat up, and was surprised at how good she felt. There was no pain, only a little stiffness. She flexed her arms and let out a satisfied (and not so ladylike) grunt.

"Welcome back," said the stranger. "You were pretty deep inside that dream. It took me a while to find you."

"Who are you?" Junko asked, eyeing his white tuxedo and gold-lined cape. She was no fashionista, but even she knew that normal people did not go out in the daytime dressed like that. Not to mention that normal people generally used the door.

"You can call me Pegasus Kamen. There's no time to explain, but the princess is in trouble. She needs Sailor Juno. Will you trust me?" He reached out to her again.

Junko hesitated for only a split second. Even if he wasn't trying to trick her, she wasn't sure if she was in any shape to fight. But the mere possibility that the princess needed her overruled all else. Mind over matter, she told herself.

With a slow but deliberate nod, she clasped Pegasus Kamen's hand. An invigorating warmth flooded her body, and she felt the last traces of tiredness vanish, like fog burning away in sunlight. She slid out of bed and stood up, her henshin orb materializing in her hands the moment her feet hit the floor.

"Ready?"

She nodded. "Right behind you."

---

Ripidolite had nearly reached the outer wall when at last she was interrupted.

"Moon Luminous Exaltation!"

Swirling rays of light sheared off the tips of her vines as a soldier in a pink fuku charged toward her. Ripidolite bared her teeth in a vicious grin. This one was the real thing.

She made a sweeping gesture with both arms, and the remaining briars elongated in a wide arc, closing in behind Sailor Moon. The princess realized what was happening too late and turned to see the cruel green mass surging toward her. She tried to jump over them, but one grabbed her by the ankle and slammed her into the asphalt. As she lay stunned, a fat vine wrapped around her, pinning her down. The other vines dried and hardened into a dozen sharp wooden spears. They rushed forward to impale her.

At the last second, a blurred shadow flashed across the street, and the spears fell in splinters. Grinding her teeth, Ripidolite turned to face the newcomer.

Sailor Saturn brandished her weapon with somber pride. Her steely eyes assessed the plant-wielding sorceress. The woman was dressed in a skin-tight, forest green jumpsuit that covered every inch of her body from its v-neck collar down to her toes. A faint leaf pattern wrapped around her shoulders and the left side of her chest; Saturn speculated that it was some kind of light armor. Her dark green hair, just a shade lighter than Pluto's, was half tied up in a warrior's knot, with the remainder hanging down in a ponytail that brushed her shoulder blades. She wore black leather boots that reached her thighs, and her hands were covered by wrist-length gloves of the same material. The fingers beneath those gloves twitched in anticipation. The woman was waiting, Saturn realized. Her fighting style probably relied on counterattacks.

"I am the messenger from beyond the depths of death," she declared. The speech was somewhat a part of senshi protocol, but here it served the double purpose of testing her opponent's patience. Maybe she could lure her into making the first move. "Protected by the planet of silence, the Soldier of Ruin and Birth, Sailor Saturn! In the name of the queen of Crystal Tokyo, surrender or be destroyed."

"Ripidolite," the woman introduced herself in turn. A cold smile touched her lips. "Messenger to none, protected by none, loyal to none but myself. And you can go to Hell, Sailor Saturn."

Still neither one moved. Tension mounted; the air felt heavier with each passing second. Ripidolite's fingers jerked in painful spasms, but she waited.

Saturn could have kept up the staring contest all night, but for a pained whimper from Sailor Moon, who was still bound by the vines. They had lifted her into the air and were beginning to tighten, slowly crushing her. There was no time to stall. Hoping to catch Ripidolite off guard, Saturn aimed a sliding kick at her ankles.

Ripidolite had quick reflexes. She sprang into the air, turning a forward flip over Saturn's head. She spun and landed, hoping to catch Saturn off balance, but the soldier was already back on her feet and running at her. The Silence Glaive whirled through the air like a deadly helicopter blade.

They met in the center of the broad courtyard in front of the palace gates. There they circled one another in a deadly dance, dodging and weaving over smooth white flagstones inlaid with swirling patterns of pure gold. All along the gleaming crystal colonnade that lined the open space, their distorted reflections mocked them. They seemed evenly matched, but little by little, Saturn found herself being pushed back toward the palace.

Ripidolite ducked under a slightly overextended slash and came up to grab Saturn's wrists. Undaunted, the soldier lifted both feet and kicked her in the chest. Ripidolite grunted and staggered back, letting go of Saturn. She barely dodged a jab from the blunt end of the glaive, and countered by shooting a spray of acid from her hands. Saturn jumped to avoid the attack, turned a backflip, kicked off one of the towering crystal colums, and came down slashing at her enemy. Ripidolite dove out of the way in time to avoid losing her head, but Saturn sliced off one heel of her boot. She stumbled as she tried to get up, and Saturn took the chance to summon her magic. As she held out her glaive, blade glinting in the dying sunlight, an ominous rush of wind surged toward her.

"Silence Glaive Objurgation."

An invisible explosion sent Ripidolite tumbling through the air like a leaf in a hurricane. A deafening roar echoed up and down the city streets, shattering windows. The sorceress smacked face-first into the outer wall surrounding the palace grounds and hung there, upside down, plastered to the stone by the force of the attack. She tried to scream, but the intense pressure forced the air out of her lungs in a painful cough. The onslaught continued for what seemed like hours, smashing her face into the wall until her head swam, bruising every limb. She couldn't struggle, couldn't see, couldn't breathe.

At last, the crushing force abated, and gravity took over. Ripidolite's limp form peeled from the wall and dropped to the street.

Saturn took a few cautious steps forward. She was not foolish enough to assume that her opponent was defeated, though the power she'd just unleashed was enough to kill any ordinary person.

In spite of everything, a sort of admiration stirred in her when Ripidolite struggled to her knees, gasping. The woman had will and tenacity to match the sailor senshi. If only she had not been indoctrinated to hate everything they stood for. If only she had been born in a different place, chosen a different path somewhere down the line.

She might have been a good person, if only she were someone else.

A trickle of blood ran from Ripidolite's nose; she was fairly sure it was broken. A savage growl rose in her throat. Energy crackled around her arms again, and she slammed a fist into the ground. A ring of glowing magical runes lit up around her. She pointed at Saturn with a wordless cry of hatred. A human cry.

And Saturn hesitated.

Before she knew what was happening, her feet were fouled with leaves. Strands of ivy wrapped around her legs, biting into her flesh. She tried to tear them off, but these were nothing like the vines she'd sliced through before. The thinnest one was like a steel cable. The green-haired woman lifted a hand and they rose into the air, as high as the rooftops, dangling Saturn upside-down. Her glaive slipped from her fingers and clattered to the pavement far below. More runners wound themselves around her, slowly squeezing the breath out of her. She heard Sailor Moon scream, and flailed helplessly. Even if she could somehow escape, the fall would most likely knock her unconscious, and then the sorceress would have no trouble finishing her off.

Just when all seemed lost, she heard a muffled grunt from below. Someone had tackled Ripidolite. Saturn caught a flash of lavender fabric, and her eyes went wide.

"King?" she choked out. Of all the people in the world who should not be here, he was at the top of the list.

In the realm of theory, Endymion's skills were still as sharp as they had been back in the old Silver Millennium, when he had trained daily with the Four Heavenly Kings in the dirt arena of his castle. But though his heart remembered, his body had forsaken him. He was not Tuxedo Kamen anymore.

Ripidolite kicked him off of her, and he backed up, wheezing. Her vines squeezed Sailor Moon tighter in retribution. Her cry of pain spurred the king forward. His royal scepter shimmered, morphing into a heavy black cane topped with a silver skull. "You will not hurt my daughter," he said darkly. A low hiss punctuated his threat, the cane slicing through the air in a bone-crushing blow.

Ripidolite sidestepped him easily. She laughed and kicked him in the back, knocking him down. He lay motionless, too weak to get up. "So this is what remains of the fabled monarch of the Earth. You're no match for me without your crystal." She bent down to whisper in his ear. "Pathetic."

He turned his head, and she was surprised to see a sly grin on his face. "First rule of battle," he whispered back. "Always pay attention to your surroundings."

Her eyebrows stitched together in confusion. A crackling sound behind her made her turn, and she saw a soldier in red standing a few paces away, pointing a burning arrow at her face.

"Mars Flame Sniper!"

Ripidolite screamed and dove aside as the arrow streaked past her head. An unfortunate tree in a street-side garden took the hit instead, and the arrow exploded with a burst of flame that rivaled the setting sun.

"Mars!" Saturn cried in alarm. If she was here, that left Mercury alone in the control room and Jupiter as good as alone on the streets. Two senshi to protect the queen and fend off a city-wide assault. They could not spare Mars, and the grimace on her face said that she knew it. But they had no choice, because the princess and now the king were in danger. Because Saturn had failed in her most important duty.

A plume of fire three stories high engulfed the tree, reducing it to a charred stump in a matter of seconds. It left everything around it (including Ripidolite) covered in a fine layer of soot. The green-haired woman sprang to her feet, propelled by adrenaline, pain, and the humiliation of being caught off guard. She crooked a finger, and twin vines burst from the ground. One grabbed Endymion by the waist; the other wrapped around his neck and pulled him taut. Ripidolite dangled him in front of Mars.

"One move and I tear him in half."

Mars froze. The bow in her hands dissipated in a puff of smoke.

"Idiot," she murmured. There was no malice in her voice, only trepidation. Leave it to Endymion to charge into battle in defiance of all reason—without his crystal, no less—when one of the women he loved was in danger. He should have known this would happen, but for a man of his intellect, he could be remarkably rash. Protect first, think later.

It was what she admired most about him.

"I knew you could be reasonable," said Ripidolite, her voice dripping with condescension. Cruel laughter rose in her throat. "It's a shame I'm not."

She beckoned, and the vines pulled harder. Endymion choked and kicked at the air, all the while shouting for Mars to save Sailor Moon. His face turned purple. Mars lunged at Ripidolite with a fireball igniting in her hands, but it was too late…

Then two things happened at once. A bright, clear sound rang through the air, like the chiming of a bell, and a streak of golden light slashed through the briars holding the king. At the same time, a sparkling bolt of electricity knocked Ripidolite off her feet. Endymion landed with surprising grace for a man who had nearly been ripped apart. Mars, seeing that Ripidolite was taken care of for the moment, turned her power on the plants that held Saturn and Moon. Her magical flames ate away at the vines, lowering the girls to the ground. Endymion caught his daughter, and Saturn landed on… something soft.

Endymion set Sailor Moon gently on her feet. "Are you all right?"

"Papa…" she whimpered. It was an effort to make herself let go of the edge of his cloak. She drew a shaking breath. "I'm fine."

"Ugh," a familiar voice groaned from under Saturn.

She jumped up as if she'd been bitten, and scrambled off of the man in the white cloak who had inadvertently become her cushion. Pegasus Kamen stood, brushing dirt off his knees with one hand. The other held a broadsword with a blade of shimmering golden stone. Saturn's eyes were fixed on the weapon—and so were Ripidolite's.

"Impossible…" the former Moira breathed, her face a mask of disbelief. A tiny seed of speculation had taken root in her mind, and suddenly all the facts lined up around it. Now she saw the wisps of white hair poking from beneath his silk hat. His height was right, too, and his voice… she couldn't believe she hadn't noticed it before. "You!"

Pegasus Kamen did not smile, but there was something vaguely self-satisfied in his demeanor as he held up the sword. "I don't suppose Moros has been looking for this?"

Ripidolite's eyes smoldered with rage.

"So you cowards finally decided to show your faces," another voice cut into the volatile silence. Saturn turned to find its source, and this time she smiled. It was Sailor Juno, looking almost as good as new. Almost.

Ripidolite stopped glaring daggers at Pegasus long enough to shoot her a scowl. "You sailor soldiers are the cowards. You're the ones who hide among your own people."

"You know where to find us. Tell your friends to come out and fight!"

"They're not my friends," Ripidolite snorted. "And if I knew where to find you, I'd kill you in your sleep. You're lucky that all I've had to go on is a few meager scraps of intelligence from a good-for-nothing informant." Here she cast a meaningful glance at Pegasus Kamen.

"She's lying!" he sputtered. He dared to glance at Saturn, and met an icy stare devoid of sympathy. Wincing, he appealed to the princess. "If that were true, why would she betray me?"

Ripidolite cupped her hands, and a small, round lump of darkness formed over her palms. It swelled and burst open, releasing hundreds of tiny black sprouts that shimmered like polished onyx. They knit themselves together, hardening and sprouting thorns as they grew, until they had formed a curved blade nearly as long as Ripidolite was tall. The outer edge of the weapon was razor-sharp; the back side was a saw-like mess of thorns. In one motion, her hands closed around the green leather-wrapped hilt and she slashed at Pegasus. Glossy black met radiant gold as their weapons collided. Energy crackled around her arms again, and her muscles bulged, sending waves of agony through her whole body. She had misused the magic, and now she was losing control of it.

She threw her weight forward, pushing him back onto his heels, and hissed through clenched teeth, "You betrayed me first."

"I was never on your side," he retorted.

Sailor Mars, holding another arrow nocked, watched the exchange with a dangerously placid look on her face. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but it seemed like a personal dispute. She concentrated on placing herself between the combatants and the king. Sailor Moon's eyes flickered between her and Pegasus Kamen, growing more apprehensive the longer the priestess watched the white-cloaked man. She tried to step forward to help him, but Saturn and Mars's arms whipped out in unison, barring her path. Juno sensed that there was some sort of intrigue unfolding in front of her, but she understood none of it, so she shifted from foot to foot and waited for Ripidolite to remember they were there.

Pegasus backed off and parried another swipe from Ripidolite's sword. The golden blade wobbled in his hands—he was clearly not very experienced with it. He made a clumsy stab at Ripidolite, but she avoided it, laughing at his ineptitude, and caught his sword in the teeth of hers. She attempted to snap it with a rough twist. Finding this impossible, she settled for kicking him in the face. He tumbled backwards, head over heels, and came to a rest in a bruised heap. Squirming, he tried to untangle himself from his own cape.

With him out of the way, Ripidolite turned back to the senshi. Saturn was closest. She charged at her with a downward slash. Saturn blocked with the handle of her glaive, but found the sorceress much stronger than she had been a few minutes ago. Ripidolite shoved her aside, knocking down Moon and Juno in the process. Spinning around, she jabbed at Endymion, catching him across the shoulder with the saw blade. He grunted in pain and dropped his cane.

"Endymion!" Mars screamed. She threw herself between him and the crazed sorceress, knowing she would never have time to raise her bow and fire.

Pegasus Kamen saved them, sweeping in to grab Ripidolite from behind. Her magic flared up again, and this time as her muscles bulged her skin took on a putrid green hue. She was starting to resemble one of her golems. Sailor Moon, Juno and Saturn joined in to hold her back; it took all of their strength to restrain her.

"Don't worry about me," the king said to Mars. "You can have all the I-told-you-sos you want when this is over."

She nodded with a gentle smile. It made a sharp contrast with the deadly glare she cast at Ripidolite moments later. For a brief instant, the atmosphere flashed crimson. The other senshi felt a rush of heat pass over their skin. A ripple of ruby light surged through the crystal buildings and converged on Sailor Mars as she held out her hands in the nine mudra of the kuji-in.

"Rin, pyou, tou, sha, kai, jin, retsu, zai, zen."

Up and down the city block, on every tendril and thorn, thousands of tiny fires sprang up. As Mars chanted, paper ofuda formed unfolded from the flames, as if they were burning in reverse. Soon the tangled green mess was plastered over with scrolls. One final piece of paper flew out from Mars's hands and attached itself to Ripidolite's forehead.

Unimpressed by the display, Ripidolite tried to laugh at her—only to discover that her throat didn't work. She realized with horror that every muscle in her body was paralyzed. But Mars wasn't finished.

"Evil Spirit, Begone!"

As the last syllable left her lips, the scrolls ignited. A magnificent inferno scorched every surface Mars had marked for destruction. When the fireball receded into a mushroom-shaped plume of smoke, the only trace that remained of the plants were the holes they had left in the walls. This time, they didn't grow back. Ripidolite was sprawled out on the stone road, motionless except for the shallow, uneven rise of her chest as she fought to breathe.

The Pink Moon Stick materialized in Sailor Moon's hand. With grave and sorrowful dignity, she pointed it at the fallen sorceress, and spoke the phrase that sealed her fate.

"In the name of the moon, I will punish you."

In the twentieth century, it had been the battle cry of a teenage vigilante. In Crystal Tokyo, it was a formal death sentence.

A wordless communication passed between Sailor Moon and Saturn, and they reached for one another's hands. A soft white glow spread from their interlaced fingers to envelop their bodies. The light gradually intensified, lifting them off the ground in a glowing orb. A warm, gentle breeze emanated from the ball of light.

"Crystal Oblivion Phase!" they shouted.

Thin slivers of shadow crept across the surface of the orb, forming rings that rippled along its surface. With a crack, the wind inverted, twisting back toward them in a violent rush that churned light and darkness into a flickering mass. Moon touched her wand to Saturn's glaive. Their combined power converged at the point where they crossed, then surged forward in a pulsing beam of pure energy that skewered Ripidolite.

Saturn's face was smooth and cold as a marble statue, but her hand gripped Moon's so tightly it trembled. Moon squeezed her eyes shut, wishing the deafening explosion would drown out the condemned woman's screams.

Her mind swimming with pain, Ripidolite reached out for a portal—any portal, no matter how dangerous. It could launch her into a black hole, for all she cared, as long as it took her away from here. After what seemed like hours (though in truth it had been a few seconds) she found one. As the glowing circle opened around her, she managed to form a cloudy, half-formed image of her destination, and realized after the fact that she had chosen the Moirae fortress. So be it. She slipped gratefully into the dark embrace of sub-space.

A few more seconds passed before the light dissipated. Sailor Moon, exhausted in more ways than one, stumbled and nearly collapsed before Saturn caught her.

"Are you all right?" Pegasus Kamen asked with what seemed to be genuine concern. Saturn clutched her friend tighter and subtly shifted to block his path.

The princess's eyes fluttered open, and a rosy flush colored her cheeks. "I'm fine, thank you," she breathed.

"That's good." He stepped back, not quite looking at Saturn. "Keep on shining," he said, just loud enough for the two of them to hear. Aloud, he called, "Adieu!" and turned to depart.

King Endymion's voice stopped him in his tracks. "Pegasus Kamen!"

He turned, snapping to attention. "Your Majesty?"

Endymion inclined his head in a stately gesture of gratitude. "Thank you for protecting my daughter."

Pegasus Kamen gawked for a split second, then dropped to one knee, his right arm crossed over his chest. "To serve her is my honor," he replied.

When the king nodded to him, he rose once more, slipped into an alley and disappeared.

Moon looked at Saturn. "You can't still think he's a bad person after all that," she said, with a frustrated gesture in the direction Pegasus had gone.

Saturn folded her arms. "I've never called him a bad person. But that Moira woman just said he was her informant."

"She's an enemy! Who cares what she says?" Juno snorted. "That's just the sort of lie they'd make up to plant doubt in our minds."

"If he meant to hurt us, don't you think he would have done it by now?" Moon reasoned.

Saturn's eyes, cold and hard, drifted to the horizon. "That's what I used to tell myself about my father and Kaolinite. But that didn't stop the awful prickling feeling I got whenever they looked at me. Now I'm getting the same feeling around him."

"Well, I'm sorry that you have daddy issues," Moon burst out, "but you don't have to take it out on a guy who's trying to help us!"

In the silence that followed, the other senshi gaped at their princess, unable to believe their ears. Saturn was a brittle shell, her soul crumbling behind her hollow purple eyes. Over the years, she had come to terms with her horrible first childhood. But the fact that Sailor Moon would use that as leverage… At times they had their disagreements, but she was never so callous. Not to her best friend.

"'Daddy issues'?" she repeated, her voice a cracked whisper. "My father is dead, Sailor Moon. Do you have any idea what that's like?"

"Enough," Mars said firmly. A sideways glance at Moon suggested she would have liked to say more, but protocol demanded that a guardian respect her princess. It was her job as a superior officer to remind Saturn of that. It was Endymion's as a father to say something to Sailor Moon. He didn't, and that bothered Mars. She would have to have a word with Serenity later.

Saturn bit her tongue. Though Usagi treated her as an equal because of their friendship, the reality was that they were of different stations in life. The unity of Crystal Tokyo—of this fractured jewel they called planet Earth—was not secured by military might or clever diplomacy. Those things alone were not enough to keep so many cultures, beliefs, and desires in equilibrium. It was their reverence for the royal family that bound them together. That was why Venus kept her thoughts to herself when she believed the queen was wrong. That was why Mars put the safety of the king and princess ahead of the rest of the city without a second thought. That was why Saturn now bowed and stepped back—out of respect for those who were the keystone of the new Silver Millennium.

And because no matter what, she still loved Usagi.

Mars cleared her throat loudly. "This attack proves that our enemy will stop at nothing. They are not reasonable people," she declared. She looked at each of the three younger senshi in turn. "We need to find their base as soon as possible, and eliminate this threat."

"Actually…" Sailor Moon began in a tiny voice. The others turned to stare at her, and she gulped. "I may sort of already know where it is."

In the stunned silence that followed, she felt two inches tall. She forced herself to keep her head up. It was not ladylike to stare at one's feet.

"Where, and how?" Mars asked in ominously smooth tones.

The game was up. They dragged the story out of her bit by bit: Pegasus Kamen landing on her balcony in the form of a winged horse, her midnight ride over the city, and the strange shadow of a tower she had seen against the night sky, rising out of an abandoned industrial zone.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Juno asked. The honest confusion in her voice made Sailor Moon feel even worse than any accusation could have.

"I knew you'd point to that as proof that Pegasus Kamen is involved with the Moirae." She shot an injured glance at Saturn, as if this were somehow her fault.

For a long time, no one said anything. Juno's expression shifted from puzzled to cross, Mars wore a stern frown, and Saturn looked outright disgusted. But worst of all was her father. On his face she saw only hurt and disappointment. Her parents and the older senshi had finally begun to trust her, and she had let them down in every way imaginable.

She knew she was wrong. But she refused to apologize, for fear they might forgive her.

A clamor of footsteps interrupted the awkward moment, and a familiar brunette head emerged from around the corner of the palace wall.

"King! Princess! Thank goodness you're all right," Jupiter exclaimed. She ran up to them, clasping their hands as if to assure herself that they were alive. Following close behind her were Pallas and Ceres. Both girls' eyes were roughly the size of saucers.

"That. Was. So awesome," Pallas gushed, with an adoring gaze at Jupiter. "She's so strong. And fast. Did you see when she did that- that thing with the lightning?" She jabbed her fingers at the air and made a buzzing sound for effect.

Ceres nodded vigorously. "I've never seen anything quite like it!"

Saturn breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the pair. "I'm glad you guys are all right."

"All right? Are you kidding?" babbled Pallas. "We were trapped against the northern wall when those weird plant things started eating the city. And we thought we were goners, you know? But all of a sudden, Jupiter-sama came flying out of nowhere and toasted 'em!" She made more sound effects while miming the action.

"We couldn't get to you, so we stayed there to help her defend the city," Ceres explained. "The way she fights… it's spectacular."

Jupiter shook her head. "Thirty-six dead, and counting. Hundreds more injured. Damage in the billions, not that you can put a price on peace of mind. I appreciate your enthusiasm, but 'spectacular' is not the word I'd choose."

The pair sobered. In the midst of their hero worship, they had forgotten that people had lost their lives in the attack.

"Save what you can," said Mars. "Protect what you can. Destroy only what you must. When you see wrong, right it, and regret only that you could not do more." She bent down to take Ceres by the shoulders and stand her up straight. "All of us wish we could have prevented those deaths. You will never live a life completely without regrets, but you must not mourn the past at the expense of the future."

Both girls nodded slowly.

Mars gave them one of her rare smiles. "Now, I imagine you want to say hello to your sister."

Juno stepped out from behind Mars and Saturn with a casual wave. "Hey there. It's been a while."

"Juno! You're okay!" Pallas squeaked.

"Never better," Juno laughed, and the three girls collided in a group hug. Saturn joined in the happy reunion, while the older senshi looked on with soft smiles. At least one good thing had happened today.

Only Sailor Moon hung back, watching her friends with a half-hearted smile. She knew she should be glad to see Juno, but a heavy lump of guilt had congealed in her chest, crushing every other emotion. Her eyes followed Saturn. The dark-haired senshi was, in that moment, joyous and carefree, embracing the others and laughing at a joke Pallas had made. Sailor Moon felt a stinging pressure building up behind her eyes. She needed to get away from here. She needed to scream. She wasn't sure what she needed. All she knew was that this was unfair. Crossing her arms, she turned away from her friends.

After a few minutes of celebration, Mars cleared her throat. There was still plenty of work to do. "Sailor Saturn. Take your team back to the Palace, and brief Juno," she instructed. "At 9:00 tomorrow the five of you will meet me in Conference Room Alpha of the Ruby Wing to discuss our strategy in light of this… new information."

"Six, ma'am!" Juno interjected. Mars gave her a quizzical look, and the green-haired senshi grinned. "I know where Vesta is."

---

The unstable portal opened in a room of the fortress Ripidolite didn't recognize, and ejected its passenger onto the cold stone floor. The chamber was small and perfectly round, with walls made of the same dark stone as the floor. It was poorly lit by a single lantern that dangled on iron chains from the high, domed ceiling. Silk banners in a multitude of colors were draped from the top of the dome and fastened to hang down the walls: pink with golden brocade, deep violet with a rust-red stripe, pale blue, fiery orange, pearl gray, forest green… there were too many to count. Oddly enough, the room appeared to have no windows or doors.

As she lay there, stupefied with pain, her hands a bubbling, jellied mass of mutated flesh clutching at a hole in her abdomen, Ripidolite was still shocked at the discovery of her own mortality. It was one thing to know, logically, that death existed, but quite another to think it would come for her. She had always felt she had a destiny, a grand future ahead of her. Even after Aether's revelation had shattered everything else she had ever put faith in, she had still believed she would always have time. Now her life was flowing out in a steady stream between her fingers, counting down with every heartbeat. It gradually dawned on her that the world would go on after she was dead. Fate was a towering, ancient oak, and she a single leaf, neither noticed while living nor missed when gone. The seasons turned and cut off her existence. Had it amounted to anything, in the end?

Desperately, she reached out across the Cyber-Psionic Network. She had one thing to leave behind, and in that moment she knew there was only one person to whom she could entrust it. The last person in the world she ever thought she would choose. Calomel!

Ripidolite? Calomel's mental voice squeaked. The vague impressions of pain and primal terror that accompanied her sister's thought told her that something was very wrong.

Listen! The demand flashed across the network, sharp and urgent. Something you need to know. Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon is—augh!

…Ripidolite?

A tall, pale-skinned woman in a long black coat stood over Ripidolite. She gripped a jeweled dagger, which she had just thrust into the base of the other woman's skull. The sorceress's body twitched once, twice, and then fell still.

"Sorry about that, honey," she murmured to the corpse. "You got too close."

Behind her, the green silk banner gradually darkened, turning black. She used it to wipe the blade of the dagger. Satisfied, she tucked her weapon into her boot. She snapped her fingers, and the shadows engulfed her.

---

Moros's library could more accurately be described as a maze built of books. There was no organization to speak of, and most of the volumes on the shelves were unmarked. The aisles twisted and interlocked in complex knots, making it far easier to lose oneself than to find information. Few of the queen's followers ever ventured in, which made it one of Petalite's favorite spots to seclude herself when she felt like brooding.

But today she was on a mission. Her dark eyes scanned the frustrating walls, searching for some apologetic to put her mind at ease. Unlike most modern libraries, which were basically giant server rooms housing their collections in ready-to-download digital form, Moros kept all her records in good old-fashioned paper and ink. Petalite had always liked that. Data could be corrupted in an instant. A single power failure, a single virus, a single keystroke, and years of history could be erased… or rewritten. The printed word was not so mutable. She could touch it, feel its weight, and know that she held a piece of someone's past. A book was, if not the truth, at least a lie in its original form.

She sniffed in frustration as yet another lead proved futile. In the middle of the book was a fringe of blackened paper, the remnant of pages burned away.

Before, she would have dismissed it as an accident. Libraries caught fire now and then. But now she noticed how cleanly the edges of each page had been sheared off, as if they had been cut rather than burned, how neatly certain sections were trimmed out—and always on the same subject. Sailor Moon. The name gnawed at her, a sickening, fuzzy ache behind her eyes. All because Ripidolite had planted that tiny question in her mind.

It was not that she doubted Moros. She was only seeking to justify her faith.

Petalite set the book atop her growing stack of disappointments. When she turned back to the shelves, she found herself face to face with Aether. She jumped back with a cry of surprise, and the teetering pile of books came crashing down around her. As usual, Aether didn't even flinch.

"You won't find what you're looking for here," he said. "I've already checked."

Muttering epithets, Petalite picked her way out of the mess of paper. "What do you want from me, Aether?"

"Ripidolite has betrayed us," he informed her.

Petalite looked away. "I knew something was wrong," she muttered. "I sensed a great disturbance in her psychic energy."

"She has launched a full-scale assault on Crystal Tokyo. Pyrolusite sent an android to apprehend her at my request."

Petalite's eyes narrowed. Since when did her son take orders from Aether? That he had made the same decision she would have made was immaterial. Surely Moros had not given him that much authority.

"What will you do?" Aether asked.

"When Pyrolusite brings her in, I will hand her over to our queen for questioning," she replied, as if it were the simplest decision in the world. To question that was tantamount to questioning her allegiance. Aether had some nerve, she thought. She was not the one with a habit of violating the chain of command.

"Why do you follow Queen Moros?" Aether asked, with a gentleness that caught her off guard. He stooped and started collecting the fallen books. She stared, dumbfounded, for a few seconds before bending down to help.

"Pardon my curiosity," he said. "I just realized that I don't know anything about you. I only entered the queen's service after she arrived here in Crystal Tokyo. But you've been with her for much longer than that, haven't you?"

Petalite paused, lost in memory. The book she was holding slipped from her fingers.

"I was a master weaver," she recalled with a touch of pride. "I lived with my three children, dedicating my life to preserving the traditional craft." Her voice turned cold. "One day, we were attacked without warning by a sorcerer in white robes. He destroyed the entire city. I lost everything. But our great Queen Moros rose up out of the ashes, bringing us the message of hope. She is going to change our fate, restore us to our former glory and found a new city. All she asks of us is to help her get the two magical crystals held by those of the Silver Millennium."

Aether listened intently to her story, a thoughtful crease forming in his brow. "I wonder," he said, "how many fates will be destroyed to save ours."

A hint of a smirk tugged at Petalite's lips. "Are you suddenly developing scruples, Aether? People strive for their own happiness. That's the way of the world."

"Do you think fate could be changed so that everyone was happy? Does such a future exist?" he pondered.

Suddenly, Petalite sank to her knees, clutching at her temples. An agonized convulsion shook her body and spilled from her lips in a shuddering moan. Aether knelt beside her, eyes wide with concern.

"What's wrong?"

"R-Ripidolite…"

---

Hotaru stepped into the crowded lobby of Crystal Hiroo Hospital. She wove between anxious families and made her way toward the reception area, the three Sailor Quartet members in tow. As much as Usagi wanted to meet their new teammate, she had elected to wait back at the palace. With fires still burning in the streets and the death toll still rising, it was far too early for her to make a public appearance. At any rate, for her to show special interest in one girl would draw unwanted attention, possibly compromising Vesta's identity. The government had yet to acknowledge the Sailor Quartet's existence—it was too closely tied to the Moirae threat they were trying to hide. But after today's attack, the girls had a feeling that was about to change, whether the queen liked it or not.

The thought weighed on their minds, and the girls were silent as they waited through the long line at the front desk. The area's public internet service, which most people relied on for communication, was down, probably damaged during the attack. The cell network was jammed, unprepared for the flood of calls following the disaster—it had been so long since they'd had one. That left the area's million-odd residents to find their friends and family members the old-fashioned way, and all of them were on edge.

At last they reached the front of the line, and asked about their friend. Relief washed over the receptionist's face when he found her on the first search—the poor man had been the subject of much undeserved ire these past few hours.

"Room 1807," he said, pointing them down a nearby hallway.

Seresu thanked him with her brightest smile, hoping to somehow make up for all the frustration he'd endured. She took the lead as they approached the room. They opened the door… and came face to face with a battle-ready Sailor Vesta, gripping her burning whip and eyeing them with apprehension. Hotaru had the presence of mind to shove them all through the door and shut it behind them, before anyone had a chance to catch a glimpse of the undocumented (and at the moment, none too friendly looking) sailor soldier.

"Ceres," Vesta said, her honey-sweet voice clashing with her frigid tone. "You know, a few minutes ago I saw someone who looked just like you. I almost got confused." She gestured toward a pile of ashes in the corner.

Junko swallowed hard. "A golem… Vesta, I am so sorry I left you alone this long."

"I hope you mean that."

Vesta snapped her wrist, and her whip evaporated into a swirling cloud of fire. With graceful, rhythmic movements she guided it into a ring before her. Twirling, she lifted it over her head, where it hovered for a few seconds, rotating slowly above her fingertips.

"Sacred Flame Rising!" she chanted, flinging the fire-ring to the floor. With a roar of light and heat, a cylindrical shield of flames shot up around her.

"Attack me," she invited, beckoning them with a crook of her fingers.

"Say what?" Atena choked, at the same time as Seresu gasped, "I beg your pardon?"

"Those golems only have illusionary power. They aren't strong enough to break my shield. No one but a sailor senshi could. So please, prove to me that you're the real thing."

"Golems don't mimic our normal forms. They always appear in sailor fuku," Atena pointed out.

"Oh? You seem to know an awful lot about them."

The veiled accusation went right over Atena's head, but Seresu rose to her defense anyway. "Who's to say you're not the imposter?"

"Maybe I am. Why don't you attack me and find out?"

Seresu hesitated. Atena and Junko waited for her cue. Hotaru had stepped back, a silent observer from the doorway, and for once, Seresu wished she would take charge.

She looked at Vesta, separated from her by a wall of flame and suspicion. Then at Junko, who she had attacked by mistake because she had judged too quickly. Then at Atena, who she so often wrote off as naïve because her honest heart barely understood deception. Then at Hotaru, who she had berated for offering a fallen enemy forgiveness, forgetting that the same forgiveness had once been extended to her. Always, always, she was so slow to trust, yet so quick to assume the worst.

Not this time.

"We will do no such thing," she declared. "It wouldn't be right to risk hurting a friend just to protect ourselves."

A radiant smile warmed Vesta's face. "So it is you."

The shield dissolved, as did her transformation, and she ran to them. They wrapped around her, a blanket of tears and laughter. The Sailor Quartet was complete at last.

"You were testing us, weren't you?" Saturn realized.

Their new companion nodded. "I'm sorry for tricking you. But if there's one way to tell a real sailor soldier from a fake, it's by the way she treats her teammates."

"By her shine," Saturn murmured. Her eyes drifted to the window across the room, half-expecting to glimpse a fluttering white cape.

"Let's go back to the palace," Seresu suggested. "Usagi and the others are waiting to meet you."

---

That evening, on a hilltop overlooking the city, the air began to twist and shimmer. Energy gathered in a swirling vortex as the clouds above churned. There was a sound like a thunderclap, and for a fraction of a second, a column of light connected earth and sky. When it faded, it left behind four shadowed figures standing in a tight cluster.

"We made it," said the tallest, sounding surprised.

"I doubt our arrival will go unnoticed," the shortest murmured.

"Now remember, we want to attract as little attention as possible," the third told her companions. "Maintain your cover, and don't do anything stupid."

Next to her, the fourth snorted. "I still think we should tell her the truth."

"No. The less she knows right now, the better. We lay low."

"I don't recall you being the leader," the tall one cut in icily.

"Perhaps you'll recall me being right."

"Okay, we agree to disagree," said number four. "Let's just find a place to stay for the night, and we'll play it by ear from there. Deal?"

Nodding in agreement, the four of them started down the grassy slope toward the glittering streets below.