Sailor Moon Aeons.
Book 3: Crystal City.
Act 2: Exploration.
Episode 17: Peace, preparations, confrontations.

By Razor Knight
Last update: August 19, 2020


"I'm going to have to agree with my grandmother. This city is so damn boring..."

Serenity looked at Junko. To a casual observer, it would have looked like two women in their early thirties having a chat. But Serenity had been nearing her first century of life when Junko was born, and Junko herself had been around for quite a few centuries now. "I want this city to be an example to the world."

"I know that. Some countries and cities are trying to emulate this. Neo New York, silly name and all, has a crime rate of a single digit, but there is still some issues they have to deal with."

"It wasn't easy to make this city what it is," Serenity said.

Junko sighed. Her grand-grandmother's dream was one she respected, and helped with, but at times it seemed quite impossible. "Maybe you should just take over."

Serenity frowned at that. "No. The world isn't ready to give up borders and-"

"The world will never be ready, Grangran," Junko said, smirking as the Queen grimaced at the nickname, "but it's not my place to tell you what to do. I just hope you will eventually see-"

"Even one planet is too much for a single person to handle. If I were to unite mankind, I would need to spread out to all its planets. Most people will see this as something the countries of the old world would do. I've spent way too much time showing the world infighting and greed are bad. I'm not about to go back on my actions."

"... Right. I don't think we'll ever agree on that, so..."

Serenity smiled. "I know. Are you going to go out hunting soon?"

"No. The Hunters can take care of most of the evil magicians out there, I asked Emi to tell me if there was anything they couldn't. I'm bored sick of fighting weaklings."

Serenity couldn't help but smile. Junko Tsukino had followed on her family's steps, and became a warrior, a Senshi. But Junko was different to most others. She didn't have one single "job" on the side. She had tried many things but never stayed interested in any of them for long. And also... She was the youngest Serenity, despite being several centuries old. "So, met anyone interesting lately?"

The younger woman knew what she was asking. "No, I haven't. And I wish you wouldn't ask that anymore."

"I... Sorry. I was just-"

"I'm simply not interested. And you would know if I was lying about it. I guess I am a bit like Kyma. I never felt attracted to anyone in that way."

"And I respect that. Sorry if I nag you about it once in a while."

"Thanks. Sorry for not helping you become a Grangrangran."

"... I think I can live without that, thanks."


"I would have thought it hard to hide myself from, well, myself, but mankind makes it really easy."

Hotaru smiled at that. Her wife was right, thanks to mankind's fear of immortality, all the two of them had needed to do was to vanish from the public eye for a couple centuries. To non-immortals, the idea of a city of immortals was both exciting and frightening. So to deal with the fear, they all 'knew' that immortality was just a ruse, and the 'facts' were that the Senshi kept having kids who replaced their parents. The mysterious, undocumented disappearance of the heir to the throne and her wife only reinforced this theory - obviously, the current Princess had no kids, and when it was time for the old Queen to retire, she simply became the new Queen, without a heir.

"Wow... Conspiracy theorists can be really dense, there's so many holes in this theory..."

Usagi (once in the now distant past, and the close future, known as ChibiUsa Tsukino,) nodded at her daughter. "But it helps confirm what I 'remember.' As a kid I didn't like school much, even though I wasn't a bad student. I didn't bother much with history, I prefered the stories my parents told me. I did read a bit later on, and the stories of the 'Senshi of ancient times' never spoke of, well, a version of me being around. But I can see now, remembering those books, that there was something I didn't notice, at least in the memories of the 'future' me. Those writing obviously believed this bullshit theory as facts. Mankind forgot about me."

"So Aunt Minako was right, best way to make sure future you doesn't learn about you was to make you be gone for a while."

Usagi sighed. "Back in my youth I would have hated to be out of action for this long. But I guess... There not being any strong foes out there helps. Peace does have its perks."


Queen Serenity of Crystal Tokyo was a legend, and to some casual observers, even before the city's birth, quite overpowered. But her powers had limits. For example, an old, mostly abandoned theory was that she saw it all. In a way, this was true, for senses other than sight. One of her abilities let her sense every person (human or otherwise) who could use magic. However, she was not actively scanning everyone, every waking moment.

Imagine having billions of dots in your mind, at all times. Some of them brighter than others, but all of them bright enough to be seen. It was one warning Gin had given her, and had been backed up by the Codex later on. Such an ability was dangerous, and if used to its full scale, it could drive her insane rather quickly.

Serenity had dealt with enough mentally unstable queens herself. She was not going to become one willingly. She would use that power actively when needed, but last time she had to had been back when they found Alma and Mai.

However, the very act of not actively using that one power was what let a certain person become a threat. Sure, Serenity would eventually sense them - as the "passive" side of that power warned her of unknown, powerful flares of mana - but by then, it could be too late to stop them.

However, this is where casual observers would fail to notice Serenity's real strength. She was friends with many powerful beings, human or otherwise. Her 'inner circle' of friends was composed by the most powerful beings in the Solar System. That's why the threat of that very strong mana user would not go unnoticed for long.

An old legend says Senshi used to have a knack for being at the right place at the right time. That legend however makes it sound like only the Senshi can do that. That is where the legend falls short.


Mai loked up to the sky and smiled. The idea of living this long had been intimidating at first, and for a while it felt like the worst thing ever, but she had learnt to accept both the good and the bad sides of it.

Maki, her daughter, had not inherited her powers, but was still a very strong magician. Was. Non-Senshi mages live a very long time by human standards, but to Mai it looked like a moment. Maki did not want immortality, and even though it hurt Mai, she had accepted that. Maki did marry and have children, but the 'Cycle' apparently had enough with two Jupiters. Mai understood Maki's feelings, a few years before Maki would be four centuries old. To watch your own child die, of old age, and looking at the mirror next morning, and seeing a young face, mocking you...

"Damn it, Mai, not the time."

Her daughter looked at her. "Mom?"

Some would have called her foolish for 'trying again' but she... While Maki's death hurt a lot, all the good memories she had of her were far stronger. She wasn't even doing it to 'try again.' She had wanted another child, and would take the good and the bad that such a choice could bring.

"Just... Thinking about your sister."

"Wish I could have met her. She sounds nice."

Mai smiled at that. Meiko was ten, and without any signs of magic yet. There had been cases of 'late bloomers' like Alma's daughter, Sierra, who had only become a magician in her late teens. Still-

She froze as she sensed it. A very strong mage, very close. "Darn..."

"What's-" her daughter started, but then saw the man walking their way. He was tall, his skin so pale it looked like paper, and his eyes...

Mai transformed in a blink. "I don't know who you are, but-"

"Save it, Senshi wench. I know it won't be long until Serenity notices, but she'll be too late to help you... Or your kid."

Keep him talking, Mai thought. "You think you can take on a Senshi? Not the first one to try."

"Oh, I'm sure of that. But I am... Special. The way I kill people, well, there's no coming back." He saw the woman's eyes widen. "Yes, you got it. I'm like your buddy was, before Serenity turned her into a loser. I can consume your soul, and use it to-"

A blast of fire came from behind the man, and a certain white-haired woman calmly walked to him. "You know what? Yes, I had your power, but I wasn't like you."

The man stood up and smiled. "Oh lucky me, the Soul Harvester is here."

"Nobody has called me that in ages, kid. I can see it in your eyes, and Serenity has already warned me. You aren't like I was. You can"t be saved. Even leaving you powerless as Junko does would be too nice."

"So what, you'll kill me? I am the Soul Eater. I cannot be killed!"

Alma shrugged. "I don't need to kill you to stop you."

"... Just die!" The man rushed forwards, hands glowing with a green aura. Mai had been about to shoot at him, but saw Alma's face. Calm, focused. No, she didn't need to worry about her friend.

Alma chuckled as the man touched her. "Oh, sorry, this is the part where I fall over, dead, right?"

The man looked at her and took a step back, pure fear replacing the madness in his eyes. "How did you... This..." He then fell to his knees, and remained there, motionless.

Mai blinked in shock as she sensed something. "He's... dead?"

Her friend walked to them, smiling at Meiko before turning to look at Mai. "One thing I learnt about my old powers which would have made me stop using them back then? They can be blocked. Quite easily. And a skilled enough magician could even reflect the attack back at its user. I told him I wasn't going to kill him. He killed himself by attacking me."

Meiko looked at the man and shivered. "He was going to-"

"If I didn't show up, your mom would have fried him on the spot. But she was being a mom so she didn't want you to see that..."

Mai sighed at that. "Yeah. Thanks for the help."

"You're welcome. It was a bit cathartic, even. To see what I could have become, back then. It makes me respect the Senshi a bit more. They could have just let me attack them."

"If you had been like him, yeah. But you weren't."

"... Right. I'll see you around, I guess. Back to the boring utopia."

"It's going to stop being boring in a few decades."

"I can't wait to see how that mess plays out. And to be done with it. I asked way too many dumb questions when I was training with them."


"... Wow, this is weirder than I thought."

Serenity looked at her daughter. Usagi Tsukino the second, Princess Serenity of Crystal Tokyo, had been born two days ago, June thirty of the year two thousands and seventy-eight. And the woman currently holding her and staring at her in awe was also Usagi Tsukino the second. In her teenage years, after her short visit to this era and seeing herself, she had thought time travel to be weird. But 'weird' is not a strong enough word for it, at times.

Hotaru was also there, and also shocked. "She's cute." She noticed her wife staring at her. "What? Yes, you're cute too." She then shook her head. "And that sounded weirder than I thought."

"Chibi" put her (way) younger self back in her crib and sighed. "Not to sour the mood, but it's all happening soon. I was five when those bastards showed up. I remember how scary Dimando looked to me then."

"She'll go back in time, and then once more, and then.. "

Usagi saw Serenity looking at her. "The Senshi Hunters." She sighed. "To be honest, I fail to see how you could 'fake' your deaths. Maybe get Kyouko to revive us?"

"But you don't want to take that path."

"I... I've been 'over it' for centuries, but looking at this baby version of me... It reminds me of what I swore back then. What Hotaru shouted at me for. I do not want this version of me to have to feel what I felt. And knowing it would be fake, that we would be sending her back with a lie, makes it much worse."

"But then what- You're telling me we just defeat the Hunters and have her stay?"

"I... I have an idea, one I have to speak to certain people about, and one I've told Gin to not tell anyone about."

Gin appeared right then. "And I can't go against a request from a Serenity, so don't ask me about it. I'm not sure how big a migraine conflicting orders from two Serenities could be, but I don't want to fond out. For all I know, such a thing could break me."

Usagi sighed. "Also, once I've thought about it, I'll tell you."

"But the others..."

"I'm not sure how everyone would act, both to me and 'her,' if they knew what I'm planning. So it's better to surprise them."


It had been a very long time since Serenity last faked a smile. The kind of 'very long time' non-immortals may fail to grasp. Still, she had to pretend to be welcoming. To pretend she didn't know him, or his plans, or the evil puppetmaster behind it all.

Currently standing in front of her throne, surrounded by a small group of his people, was Prince Dimando of the Dark Moon Clan of Nemesis. Serenity only had her advisor, Luna, by her side, along with the one nobody outside her closest friends knew about, Gin, who was not visible, but still there. Being 'alone' was a way to show him she did not consider him a threat.

'I can very literally read your mind, you know, and not because I want to. Stop thinking about how easy it would be for you to just blast him to atoms here and now.'

Gin's words surprised her, although she remained silently listening to Dimando. A part of her did want to blast him through. She was not the avatar of goodness and peace the world had gotten used to seeing her as, she was capable of feeling and showing some dark emotions too. If not for her actions having a high chance to destroy reality itself, she would have- No. Dimando caused her and her friends pain, yes, but the true evil wasn't in the room. Or the planet, she could sense that much. In any case, she could go and kill the Death Phantom, right now. But she wouldn't. It was not what happened back then.

So, Serenity smiled as she waited for Dimando to stop talking (and talk he did, a whole lot.) A warm, welcoming smile. A fake smile, just like his was. This man was one of the reasons her daughter would end scared and alone in an era not her own. This war would cost the lives of many. Some say ignorance is bliss, and for once she could agree, because she hated the knowledge she had of the near future, and how powerless she was to stop it from happening.

No, not powerless. She knew a little about changing the future. She already had. But that had been a bold gamble, one she was not making again. She would play along with the script, become a bystander in a war she could end in a blink. It was a war they would win, at least one version of "them." And while Serenity had grown out of her old 'easily trusting' self, she knew she could trust one Usagi Tsukino, age fourteen, to end this war for her.


A/N: Life's keeping me busy lately, but I haven't abandoned this story. I have a few more twists to add to it, one of them involving a certain, supposedly stable time loop, and the consequences of its resolution.

And yes, this was a short 'Act' as you can guess by that last scene. There will most likely be four acts total, the third dealing with the Dark Moon and the Senshi Hunters, and the fourth... Well, I'll just mention "Sailor Moon: Another Story" and leave it at that.