Usagi and her friends had decided to stop by the Bob-Floy Ice Cream Shoppe on their way home from school, with Rei, Luna and Artemis joining them along the way. The cats found their usual spots on Usagi and Minako's shoulders before the girls went up to order. With ice cream in hand the girls started to make their way to the Hikawa Shrine for another study session.

"You'd better have that finished before we get there, Usagi." Rei said, "I don't need a repeat of what happened the last time you brought ice cream into my room."

"Hey, that's not fair!" The bun-headed girl said in response, "Mina made a mess too!"

"Yeah, but I'm Rei's favorite, so I get a pass." Minako said, slinging her arm around her raven-haired friend's shoulders.

"You wish." Rei responded with a light blush, but without making an effort to remove her friend's arm.

Ami and Makoto walked behind them, holding their ice cream in one hand and their partner's hand in the other. Even after they had been together for almost three months, every time Usagi saw the two of them do normal couple things it filled her with joy. She had watched Ami pine after Mako for as long as she could remember, and had begun to worry that Ami would never tell her how she felt. Especially when she thought she lost them during the Galaxia incident. After they came back Usagi strongly considered just locking them in a room together until it was resolved, but ultimately decided against it. She figured it would be best to give them some time to process what had happened to them before forcing something like that. But she swore that if it went on much longer she would've been forced to take action.

Although now there seemed to be something going on between Rei and Mina, which was a whole other thing. Originally Usagi just assumed that Mina flirting with Rei was no different than her flirting with… well, everyone. But now she could see why Rei had felt the need to ask her about it. There was definitely something different with how the two of them were acting.

"Oh, by the way, how did your audition go?" Rei asked, referring to the audition Minako had attended to perform at a local club.

"About as well as I expected." The Guardian of Beauty said, shrugging her shoulders, "They said they'd call me but… I dunno, I really don't wanna get my hopes up."

"Aw, c'mon, give yourself some credit. I'm sure you'll get it." Rei said with a smile.

"Rei's right! In fact, I bet we could already celebrate you getting it by going to see a movie before we go to the shrine!" Usagi said, clearly attempting to get out of work.

"No way, Usagi!" Ami rebuked, "We've been taking it way too easy lately. I only got a ninety-one on my last English test!"

"Babe, you know that's not bad right?" Makoto said before taking another bite of her ice cream.

"I mean… It's not great." Ami replied.

"Ami, do you have any idea what I would give to get a ninety-one on a test?" Usagi shot back.

"You wouldn't have to give anything if you would just study." Luna said snarkily.

"Exactly!" Ami agreed, "Which is why we can see a movie later!"

"Ugh, fine!" Usagi finally caved.

Suddenly, the Guardians felt a shift in the atmosphere, and watched as the sky above them went dark, covered in an inky, black shadow.

"What the-" Usagi began to ask before she was cut off by a large object falling from the sky and impacting down the street from the girls.

When the dust settled the team was shocked by what they saw. It was seemingly the Makai tree but… wrong. It was roughly the same size as they remembered, but its bark was jet black, with red leaves coming out of its branches. Branches that were currently flailing around and destroying the city, as it moved around on its roots, which seemed to function almost like tentacles.

Floating in front of the Makai Tree were two figures who Usagi immediately recognized: Ail and An. The team quickly ducked into a nearby alley to transform unseen.

"Well, it's been a minute, ready girls?" Minako asked, to which the others simply nodded in reply.

"Venus Crystal Power!"

"Jupiter Crystal Power!"

"Mars Crystal Power!"

"Mercury Crystal Power!"

"Moon Eternal!"

"MAKE UP!" The five girls shouted in unison, the alley filling with light and energy as they transformed. When it died down, however, it was clear that there was a problem.

Usagi hadn't transformed.

"What?!" She asked, looking down at herself, "I said, Moon Eternal MAKE UP!"

Nothing.

"I don't understand." Usagi said, ripping the Eternal Moon Article off of her uniform and looking down at it. Nothing seemed wrong with it. So why wasn't it working?

"You hang back with Luna and Artemis and try to figure that out." Venus instructed, "The rest of you, let's move!"

Usagi watched helplessly as her friends ran off to fight. She decided it would be best to get to higher ground, so she began quickly making her way up the fire escape in the alley.

"Usagi, what are you doing?" Artemis asked.

"I don't know!" Usagi blurted out.

She made it to the roof and looked out to see her friends fighting. They were holding their own, but it was clear they were outclassed. She looked down again at the Article.

"C'mon, I need you to work!"

"Jupiter Oak Evolution!" Jupiter shouted as she attempted to attack the raging Makai Tree. Unfortunately, her attack failed to leave so much as a mark on the tree's body, "Damn, this thing's tough."

Meanwhile Sailor Mars and Sailor Venus had engaged Ail and An, but were struggling to get close to them due to their telekinetic powers.

"So what gives? I thought you guys turned good?" Venus questioned while dodging an attack from Ail.

"Good, bad, does it really matter?" An said, launching an energy attack at Mars, which the Guardian of Fire barely managed to avoid.

"Uh, yeah, I would say it does!" Mars said, "Fire Soul Bird!" She shouted as a large bird made of fire erupted from her body and towards An, who effortlessly repelled it with a psychic shield.

Mercury had hung back and was using her computer to analyze their opponents, "This doesn't make any sense! They're significantly stronger than last time! And this energy they're giving off… it couldn't be…"

"Mercury look out!" She heard Jupiter cry from across the battlefield, prompting her to just barely avoid being crushed by one of the tree's roots.

"Uh, guys, not to be a spoil sport but I don't think we're winning here!" Jupiter said sarcastically while launching another bolt of lightning towards the Makai Tree, which once again had no effect.

"Yeah thanks Jupiter I got that!" Venus said as another of her attacks bounced off of Ail's psychic shield.

"C'mon, work dammit!" Usagi shouted as she shook the Article in her hands, "This is a really bad time for… whatever this is!"

Suddenly, cracks started to form in the Article, and it all but exploded in Usagi's hands before the newly freed Silver Crystal floated up in front of her face.

"What…?" Was all she could manage to say.

The crystal started flashing different colors in front of her.

Blue.

Red.

Green.

Orange.

Navy.

Sea Green.

Garnet.

Purple.

Pink.

The color sequence repeated, faster and faster each time.

Blue, Red, Green, Orange, Navy, Sea Green, Garnet, Purple, Pink.

Blue, Red, Green, Orange, Navy, Sea Green, Garnet, Purple, Pink.

Blue, Red, Green, Orange, Navy, Sea Green, Garnet, Purple, Pink.

Until finally, a new object formed around the crystal. Floating in the air in front of Usagi was a silver compact, with a large pink crystal in the center, with eight smaller, different colored crystals surrounding it.

"Usagi, that-"

"I know, Luna." She said, grabbing the compact out of the air in front of her and affixing it to the bow on her school uniform, "Alright, let's do this." She said with a small smirk before raising her hand into the air.

"Moon Spectrum Power! MAKE UP!"

With that, Usagi exploded into a series of multicolored lights, before ultimately emerging as another new incarnation of Sailor Moon.

Her skirt was white with a pattern on the front which included nine different colored lines. Both her gloves and boots were now white, the shoulder frills which she had on her fuku as Super Sailor Moon had returned, along with her tiara. The tiara was no longer gold, however, but instead silver.

From her transformation four beams of light shot out and impacted her friends, altering their appearances as well. Their skirts were now multi-layered, as hers had been when she was Eternal Sailor Moon, each layer having a different shade of their respective color. They also gained bubbles on their shoulders, as well as knee-high, white boots.

The Sailor team looked up to see Usagi floating above them, utilizing a pair of butterfly wings which appeared to be made of some kind of rainbow energy.

"Sailor Guardians! You guys take Ail and An!" She instructed from above, "Leave this overgrown weed to me." She finished, tightening her gloves.


So, I have a couple things I should say here:

First, yes Mako bites her ice cream (aka eats it the right way) deal with it.

Second, I don't have a lot of experience writing fight scenes, so if they come off as a little weak, that's probably why.

Third, this is probably one of the more self-indulgent aspects of this fic as I... HATE Sailor Moon's Eternal form. I always wished they had done more to incorporate some of the design elements of Sailor Cosmos as opposed to... whatever they were going for with Eternal, and thus I tried to do that with "Spectrum" Sailor Moon (Having more white on the costume, using Cosmos's skirt design, etc.)
I do like the Eternal Forms of the other guardians though and the 90s anime cheated us out of seeing those, so I decided to incorporate them as well.
Like I said, this element of the story was very self-indulgent.

NEXT TIME:
Sailor Moon discovers the new abilities which come with her new transformation!
The Inner Guardians vs Ail and An!
And our mysterious masked villain finally makes the scene!

Until then, let me know what you all think! Reviews are very much appreciated!

And come back next time for Chapter 5: Enter Reign.