A/N: Chapter last edited: 27/7/23

The New Princess

The Early Years - Part 3 - Chapter 4

The Rebirth

Previously:

Could it be possible? Was there really a way for her to do this? To sacrifice herself for her daughter's safety and bring about the downfall of the dark lord? If she got it wrong, not only would it cost her own life but also her daughter's and end any hope of defeating the dark lord as well. Then again, if she did nothing, they would all die anyway. So what did she have to lose, besides that which she would lose anyway if she did nothing? No matter how difficult or risky things were, it was the only way. With a heavy heart, Lily continued into the night.

Unnoticed by Lily, however, she had just made a mistake. A small one but a crucial mistake nonetheless. A single rune had faded enough that a small part of it had disappeared completely making it into a different rune. While very similar in looks to the first, it had a different meaning entirely. A change that would have drastic and very long-lasting effects on the overall effect of the ritual Lily was translating and hoping to use against the dark lord.

And so, a rune which should have been 'to shield or protect' suddenly became 'to guardian' instead.

Had Lily not been under so much time pressure to find a ritual to protect her family she would have double and even triple-checked her translation and corrected her error. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, depending on who you asked, time was not on her side and so she did not.

The change would never be discovered and as such never corrected.

It would however change everything and with it, history itself, what could have been... would now be forever altered!

And now the continuation:

A few days later, Halloween 1981, The Potter cottage, Godrics Hollow.

Lily Potter sat beside her daughter's crib in their cottage in Godric's Hollow. Her heart ached and tears streamed down her face as she tried to drown out the sounds of yelling and fighting coming from the living room below.

Only moments ago, her worst nightmare had come true: the house's protections had fallen, indicating that Lord Voldemort, the greatest dark lord in living memory, had found them. The fierce clashing sounds coming from downstairs were her husband, James, struggling for his life against Voldemort himself - a battle he stood no real chance of winning. Yet he fought anyway, in a last desperate attempt to keep the dark lord away from his goal: their little child, sleeping innocently in her crib just a meter away.

From the sounds of the struggle, it was clear that James was giving his all. From advanced conjuring to Auror-level battle spells, right up to the near-silent whistles of the kitchen knives and the clang of using the kitchen sink itself. Everything was used, nothing was left out, and no quarter was asked for or given. The grunts of exertion from both sides mixed with transfigured animal growls and roars, alongside the clanging of pans and pots that barely missed their mark. All this and more as they battled in a deadly dance of destruction.

Sadly, Lily knew that no matter how hard James tried, it was only a matter of time before the inevitable. Despite James's position as an Auror captain in the magical police force and his stellar record, Voldemort was still the most powerful dark lord in history—a step above all else.

Silently, with tears running down her face, Lily waited for the sounds of battle to cease—a sound that she knew would herald her husband's death. She turned to face her precious daughter, her nearly one-year-old baby girl, the main focus of the dark lord's visit. She had one last thing left to do before the end.

It was the final part of the ritual, the final act which could only be completed at the precise hour of one's death: the sacrifice which would fuel the ritual and give it the necessary power to succeed.

With shaking hands and emotions running high at what she knew she was about to do, Lily gave her sleeping daughter one last loving smile before picking up an athame, a ceremonial blade from the bedside table nearby.

"Mommy loves you very much, never forget that," she said through her tears, breathing quickly and deeply in fear. Her hands trembled as she held the blade up over her arm with one hand while tucking a piece of leather into her mouth with the other. She was glad that she had placed Aryanna under a sleeping spell to ensure she would not wake up when she screamed.

Biting down hard with a pained, leather-muffled scream, she stabbed into her arm. Tears fell in pained rivulets to join and mingle with her blood. She then proceeded to cut down her arm, whimpering to herself through clenched teeth as she widened the cut even more.

Then, slowly, doing her utmost to keep her voice steady and ignore the biting, stinging pain in her arm, she started to chant:

"O Guardian of the night, protector of the light. Hear my plea, and heed my call. I freely give thee my blood and my life, let it be payment to shield and protect against all who may dare harm this child."

She turns towards Aryanna and smears some of her blood over her head.

"Aeternum custodians mei amoris. All things shall pass and so shall I, but my love will last within thee. Protege eam a terrore et periculo, ut ego semper adjuvare eam."

She then proceeds to draw a symbol she had seen in an ancient book on Aryanna's forehead. It's an ancient symbol of the moon.

"My blood, my sacrifice, by the power of the ancient moon, I offer my everlasting love and life to protect this innocent and pure of heart.

My life for yours, my death shall protect thee."

She then looks into a mirror and proceeds to draw another symbol over her forehead.

"Responde mihi nunc et praeter meam, offero me libere, ad custodiendam hanc animam innocentem in tempore necessitatis contra vires tenebrarum, hic et ultra tempus ipsum…"

She continued to chant for the next few minutes, her voice echoing around her as she felt the power of her words starting to take hold in the room. A powerful magical feeling seemed to build up, focused around herself and her child—a shield, or so she hoped, which would protect her daughter from any harm that may come her way.

The air around her and her child seemed to thicken with energy as she spoke a few final words. The words took on a near physical form as their power surged through her body into her arm, where it then mixed with her blood to create a powerful force held in place by her will alone. A force that seemed to connect her to her daughter.

Then, as soon as the last word left her mouth, she quickly motioned towards the crib, flicking her wrist in a circular motion so that some of her blood splashed across its front and sides. She hoped to create an invisible barrier between her daughter and whatever might try to get past it.

Finally, with one last deep breath out of exhaustion, Lily fell back onto a nearby bed behind her. Just in time for an unearthly roar to echo through the house as the wards of the manor suddenly sprang and settled onto her, signaling to her as the eldest Potter yet alive that James had just perished at Voldemort's hands.

Sighing deeply in sorrow, another tear rolling down her face at her husband's death, she knew she was next. She only hoped it would all not be in vain.

At that same moment, 380,368 km away, on the surface of the moon. The ruins of the silver palace of the Moon Kingdom.

Thousands of years had passed since the collapse of the lunar kingdom. In all that time, the old palace, once the capital building and governmental center of a galactic kingdom, had remained undisturbed and forgotten. It had been left alone by all but the ravages of time.

Pluto herself had only been on the moon once since its destruction, unable to bear looking at what had once been any more than necessary. She had removed the former queen's body to give it a proper farewell, thinking that the crystal had been destroyed alongside its final holder, in the fight along with everything else. Too far in her grief, she had never bothered to look for it, and it remained hidden away, collecting dust.

No other living being had set foot inside the abandoned palace since then. It had gone unnoticed by even the many space probes and moon landings attempted by the Americans and Soviets a few years earlier.

But something was stirring within these ancient lunar ruins. Awoken by Lily's ritual, the legendary silver crystal, covered and hidden beneath several layers of moon dust, was waking up from its millennia-long slumber.

Startled awake by a sudden powerful psychic pulse from Earth, caused by the ongoing ritual, the primitive yet immensely powerful symbiotic crystal powered up slightly. It was just enough for a few quick, tentative searches for nearby entities. The crystal had not forgotten the dark queen and wanted to make sure it was safe before doing anything else.

Sensing no enemy lifeforms in its immediate location, the crystal proceeded to power up a small bit more, again just enough to widen its search to the nearest planets and even a little beyond. But even with this increased range, it still found no sign of danger and so it finally relaxed. All in all, this whole act took only a few mere seconds.

Having completed its scan for any danger, the crystal now moved on to determine why it had been awoken. It also felt drained and hungry, having been without a host for far too long. It now needed sustenance, but to get that it would first need to find a suitable host. That, it decided, would now be its priority.

The crystal had waited and hoped for a friendly face to appear after the enemy was gone, someone like another 'caretaker' or one of the guardians that had safeguarded it for so long. But no one had come. Everyone seemed to have forgotten about it, or perhaps they had all gone on to the great beyond. It was possible. Either way, the crystal would now need to find a new host if it wanted to stay alive.

If it was lucky, whatever had awoken the crystal might be a potential new host. The crystal would learn and adapt, but for now, without a host, it was weak. This was unacceptable. The weak perished and the strong survived; it was the ancient rule of the galaxy. All living beings obeyed this one simple rule.

The crystal could not allow itself to perish. It would become strong again, and then together 'they' would become even stronger. That was the plan. Survival was paramount. Seeing as the ancient enemy was no longer nearby, the crystal decided to finish powering up and intensify its search even more.

In just a few short seconds, the once-dull crystal began to shimmer and regain its original color, shifting from a dull, dusty dark grey to a glossy shine. Slowly the moon began to tremble. Then, with a burst of power that could have been felt all over the moon in a miniature earthquake, if anyone had been there to feel it, the crystal sprang to life. It exploded into an exuberant display of colors, fully shaking off the layers of grime and dust that had engulfed it through its millennia-long rest.

The whiteness turned into a shiny glow, and with it came the old pulses of energy it had once had so many millennia ago. But the crystal knew it wouldn't be able to keep this up for long, not without a new host. So it began to search.

The call seemed to have originated from the nearby planet 'Earth', if the crystal remembered correctly. So much time had passed that it may have a new name by now. Not that it mattered; names had no real meaning to the crystal. Only its host was important. A new host was all it needed, all it desired. But the name had been important to its last host, so the crystal had remembered.

Wait! The crystal had felt something. Could it be?

Yes! It felt like the source of the call. It was close. But who? What?

There! There it was again. The crystal could clearly sense 'them' now.

Two individuals…two…humans?

Acceptable! Humans made okay hosts. A human would do.

But wait, upon further sensing, the crystal realized that one of them was not quite a host, but perhaps a guardian. One born to protect its host? Yes, it was the Matrix (Mother) of its host. The crystal could sense the bond between them. She too would need to be protected in time, but first, the crystal needed to find its host.

According to the signals, the potential host was nearby, maybe the younger lifeform? Yes, there it was, its next host. A seed? (a baby aka a 'star seed'). Why a seed? A seed would be far too young to act as a true host and far too weak. It would need time to grow and adapt before it could act as a true host. Still, it would do. It would have to. There was no time to find another. The seed would grow and in time it would become a spark (child) that would then one day ignite into a worthy Prism (adult).

But wait, what's this?

Suddenly, the crystal became alarmed. It sensed that the new host was in trouble! Another entity, another human, was attacking the Matrix. This would not do! Then, the crystal became even more alarmed. The new host's Matrix was dying! She would be unable to protect the host. The new host was in danger. The host was just a seed, weak, too weak to defend itself. It too would perish.

That could not be allowed to happen. The new host needed protection. It must survive. Failure was not an option. Its own survival depended upon it.

The crystal may have been a primitive organism, limited to instinctual thoughts and emotions, but even so, it was still sentient in its own way, knowing enough to survive and live by a few set guidelines. The baby it had just chosen as its new host was young and weak, but the crystal knew that together they would be strong. After all, the weak perish, but the strong survive.

Alone both would die, but together they would be strong. Together they would survive. And together as one, the enemy entity would be eliminated.

Knowing what it had to do to survive, for both to survive, the crystal acted completely on impulse and instinct. It changed itself into pure light and shot off into space through the hole in the ceiling, the same hole which Sailor Saturn had once descended through so many millennia ago. On a direct path to the nearby planet, flying at speeds so fast that it only took a few split seconds to travel the whole distance from the moon to Earth. Appearing briefly as a trail of fire in the sky as it entered the planet's atmosphere, it took a direct path to the ground.

To anybody watching, it would have looked like a shooting star. But to the Potter family, it was their potential salvation.

At that very moment, The Potter Cottage, Godrics Hollow.

Back in Godric Hollow, Lily Potter was feeling dizzy from the blood loss caused by her ritual, but she didn't care. She knew she wouldn't need to stay awake for much longer. If everything went according to plan, she would soon not be alive anyway, so a little too much blood loss was the least of her worries.

Already, she could hear the footsteps of the dark lord as he leisurely walked up the stairs. It was clear he thought he had won and that there was nothing that could stop him anymore. In a way, he was right, but also very wrong. He was right that there was nobody strong enough to stop him in a fight, but he was wrong, very wrong, if he believed she would just roll over and allow him to win and kill her child. She had one last ace left to play.

Quickly, Lily raised her wand and healed her wound as best as she could. For her plan to work, the dark lord had to be taken by surprise, and that wouldn't happen if she was bleeding all over herself.

By now Voldemort would be walking down the corridor, only a few more steps and he would be there. With her wound healed, Lily acted quickly to clean the area. She cast some more spells to make sure that all traces of her blood and the ritual were gone. Now, all that was left to do was to wait for her fate.

Her hands trembling as she stared towards the door, she never noticed as a small ball of light entered the room through the open window and transformed back into a crystal, suddenly merging with her daughter as she peacefully slept in her crib.

Lily kept her gaze trained on the door, unwavering and her anticipation growing by the second until it reached a crescendo, as she expected the Dark Lord to come through it at any second now. She never noticed as her baby was suddenly illuminated by a brilliant white light, nor the crescent moon symbol which suddenly appeared, branding itself onto her forehead and glowing briefly before fading away a few seconds later as the ancient symbiont fully melded with its new host.

Lily never even noticed a smaller ball of light suddenly leave her daughter and head towards her, where it then merged with herself a second later. Nor did she notice a second strange symbol ('h' with a 'T' superimposed over it) appearing on her own forehead, only for it too to fade mere seconds later.

No, Lily was far too focused on the door, fear clutching her heart ever tighter as she gripped her wand. The dark lord was due to appear any second now, and then… the door opened.

"James?" she asked, dumbfounded, her wand going limp in her hands and nearly slipping from her fingers, her mouth open in utmost surprise.

The person who had just walked in was not the dark lord at all; it was her husband. But how could that be? She had felt his death—the wards had shifted to her when he passed away.

That was all it took. At that moment, Lily was so shocked that she did not see the evil smile spread across her 'husband's' face until it was too late. The dark lord had tricked her brilliantly. Disguised as her deceased spouse, he wasted no time. A quick cast of Avada Kedavra and a gasp of surprise later and it was all over.

Voldemort changed back to his normal form and laughed as he saw Lily Potter, the mother of the child prophesized to one day defeat him, fall to the ground dead. His 'surprise' had worked perfectly. He had promised to give her to Snape, one of his servants, as a reward for telling him about the prophecy, but Snape was not there to witness his broken promise. No one needed to know. If Snape didn't like it, well, he could always join her in death.

Seeing Lily's surprised expression was worth it. It was always worth it. He hadn't been able to resist. Her face, the expression of surprise just before the end, had been so amusing - so delightful! The expression of shock…exquisite. Plus, as a bonus, he could now take care of the other matter in the room without being disrupted.

The woman had died briefly believing her husband had survived…and he got to walk by without a fight. Everybody wins and everybody's happy.

Giving one last smirk at Lily's body as he stepped over her, Voldemort looked towards the nearby crib and leisurely made his way over to it, sparing no further thought for the body of the mother.

With a sneer, he looked down at the sleeping baby he had come to kill. Hard to believe that this baby would one day rise to become a threat to him. And yet, if the prophecy was to be believed, this child would one day be the one to vanquish him. Him! The greatest dark lord of all time? Preposterous!

Hah! As if that would ever happen. No! He, Lord Voldemort, formerly Tom Riddle, would never allow that to happen. He would defy prophecy. It would end here, tonight… Right now!

This baby would never be allowed to grow up and grow powerful enough to become a threat. He wouldn't let it.

Slowly he raised his wand, savoring the moment, and pointed it toward the child. Slowly he started to cast the spell, relishing every moment of the incantation that would end the child's life. AVA-DA-KAD…

Only to stop surprised halfway through the chant when…

"Step away from my child, you bastard!"

"WHAT?"

This time it was Voldemort's turn to be surprised. He was so surprised he nearly fumbled his wand as he diverted mid-chant and spun around, in a near-perfect imitation of a western standoff between two master duellists, to fire the spell towards the voice who had spoken. Only for the spell to narrowly miss the newcomer, who had dodged to the side at the very last second.

It almost seemed like a blur, it all had happened so fast. An incredible feat as both combatants were so close, there should not have been enough time to dodge at all.

"Impossible," he whispered to himself, his eyes wide in surprise. For in front of him was the very same mother he had killed just moments ago, only she was alive and well.

The Avada Kedavra, the unblockable and always fatal spell had never been unsuccessful before, he was certain he'd seen it hit the mud-blood woman a mere minute before.

He yelled a single word: "How?" 'An illusion perhaps,' he wondered as he quickly searched for a second body of the woman, for any trace of an illusion, but found none.

Lily stared at the man who had tried to take her life mere moments ago. "Surprised?" she uttered, a smile on her face, her gaze seething with a newfound strength. She didn't expect an answer, nor did she receive one either.

As it was, she too had no idea how she had survived the unforgivable curse as it had indeed hit true and for a brief moment she had indeed felt her life slip away to join her husband's in the next great adventure. Only for it to have somehow returned a few brief seconds later.

Lily believed that her survival had something to do with her ritual. It was the only explanation she could think of. Either way, she wasn't going to question her good fortune any time soon.

However, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was forgetting something important. Something about a staff she was missing? And what were these new thoughts about a princess she had to protect at all costs? What princess?

To make matters even more unusual, for some reason, she was now dressed in a purple sailor costume complete with a golden tiara on her forehead, like one of those new superheroes you could sometimes see on TV. She had no idea what was happening, but for some reason, she now felt stronger and much more powerful than ever before… and she was loving every second of it.

No matter, she would worry about that later. For now, she had more pressing concerns. She was angry and the reason for her anger was standing right in front of her.

For now, she had a daughter to protect and a dark lord's ass to kick.

With a quick gesture towards the dark lord, not bothering to say another word, she made a grabbing motion with her hand, casting a wandless summoning spell to summon the dark Lord to her. Somehow, even though she had never managed it before, she knew she would be able to do it now.

She would have cast a more destructive spell, but the chance of hitting her child was just too great. At that moment her goal was just to get Voldemort away from her child and then blast him out the nearest window.

At least that was the plan. However, the dark lord, while shocked, was still ready for her. Expecting an attack, but not knowing what she had cast or what she was attempting to do, he quickly rolled out of the way in pure instinct gained from years of fighting. This allowed the spell to summon a nearby vase instead, and he quickly cast another spell of his own in mid-roll… another Avada Kedavra. He watched with satisfaction as the witch fell over once more as the spell hit her for a second time that day - only for the witch to blink, roll over and get up again a few seconds later.

Shaking his head incredulously in denial, not wanting to believe what he was seeing, betrayed once again by his favorite curse, Voldemort snarled and quickly cast another spell at the still-recovering mother. This time it was an Expulso curse, a battle spell that causes anything it hits to explode with great force. It also had the added effect of setting anything it didn't blow up on fire.

However this time Lily was ready for him. She had felt the first spell strike her and just like before she had felt her soul try to leave her body as it collapsed, only for it to return to her body a fraction of a second later. Somehow, something, she had no idea what or how, was protecting her soul from the spell. It was as if it was now tethered to something else. But how? She had no idea. No matter, she would worry about that later.

With reflexes she never knew she had, Lily quickly cast a Protego and jumped aside in case it didn't work. She didn't want to push her luck any further in case there was a limit to her new ability. The spell missed her, but the aftershock blew up the wall behind her with a deafening boom that could be heard for miles. Unfortunately, debris and shrapnel also rained down upon her, turning the tide back in the Dark Lord's favor.

Unfamiliar with her new powers and not as skilled a combatant as her husband, least of all the dark lord she was dueling, Lily was distracted by the destruction surrounding her. It was enough to distract her long enough for Voldemort to cast a second spell at her - a Reducto - a spell which is usually used to reduce solid objects to dust. On a living target, however, it could even cause the body to disintegrate into liquid and shatter apart.

Once more, Lily felt the force of one of Voldemort's spells hit her and then, before she knew it, she was in pain. She felt a bone in her left arm shatter before she was suddenly propelled out of the new hole that had just been blasted into the wall.

Releasing a scream of agony as pain shot through her body from the shattered bone, she realized that her plan had just been reversed, resulting in the wrong person being blasted out of the house. The next thing she knew, she was plummeting into freefall, before smashing painfully onto the ground below.

A few minutes before Lily performs the ritual, the outer reaches of the galaxy, The gates of time, Planet Pluto

Sailor Pluto was lying in her bed in her palace on Pluto, taking a much-needed break from her busy schedule - meaning a well-earned nap in her palace, when she was suddenly rudely torn away from dreamland by a sudden chime coming from the gates of time.

Groaning to herself as her brain recognized what was happening, Pluto realized that another vision had reached the gates of time to ruin her sleep and call her back to the gates once more.

It always happened this way.

First, the gates would start to shimmer, signaling that an incoming shift to the timeline was about to commence. Then a vision would appear and become more vivid and defined until she could observe the event.

Sometimes it would be images of an event that had already happened, those were harmless and most common. Other times it could show visions of something which had not yet come to pass; literal visions of the future. Those were more interesting and sometimes required her to act to find out more.

In those cases, especially in the case of a future threat, like a potential catastrophe or an imminent invasion, she could then use the gates and her powers over time and space to fast forward and rewind visions to take a closer look and, if necessary, could then find a way to thwart or stop the event before it could happen.

And then there were the more unusual cases, events that took place in real-time. Those were the most informative and could even be the most fun- if they were more benign. However, they could also be the most problematic with the most potential to become really bad if left unattended.

Luckily, on those rare occasions, the gates would darken and strong gusts of wind would come blowing out from them. Ancient magic, forgotten by many, signaling a 'major' disruption to the timeline or events that required urgent attention. Changes that could have devastating consequences for the very fabric of all space and time if ignored.

That was why it had always been the primary role of the guardian of time and space to guard the gates and the reason why Pluto had always been spared the fate of the rest of the galaxy and not expected to join a fight whenever a conflict happened.

For one must always be present at the gates, for dreadful things could happen and indeed would happen if the gates were left unmanned for too long.

Pluto briefly entertained the idea of dozing off again for five more minutes and checking out a replay of the vision later when she was more awake. However, a sudden gust of wind suddenly began to blow through the room, sweeping away all thoughts of sleep. Suddenly wide awake, Pluto shot up from her sleeping spot and rushed towards the gates to find out what was happening.

For a while now, Pluto had been expecting to receive a 'gusty vision' associated with the arrival of her new princess. She had high hopes that the sudden temporal winds were not something of a more sinister nature. So far, she, the Mau, and their allies had been unsuccessful in finding her. But Pluto was sure that the moment of her rebirth was close at hand - very close indeed.

Pluto had spent centuries searching for the princess, and according to her most recent visions, any technology shown around her seemed to be fairly recent. As such, she had been anticipating a major change to occur any day now. She was sure that the rebirth of the princess would cause such a shift in the timeline - a shift that would trigger the 'gusts of changing time effect'. In fact, she was counting on it.

It had become clear to her over the last few hundred years that this would be the only way to find out when and where the princess would be reborn. Eager to see the newest visions, Pluto reached her destination and peered through the gates. For once, it seemed that the gates were ready to grant her wishes. The vision became clearer and clearer until she could finally make out two people in a small room. Her heart skipped a beat.

Pluto gasped as she saw a baby sleeping peacefully in a cot. Could it be her? Could this baby be the one? The other two people in the vision were fighting. Why were they fighting? What was happening? Pluto needed to know more, and fast.

'Wait a second! That can't be right!' 'Was that Saturn?' she thought to herself, taking a closer look at the two fighting individuals. It seems her eyes didn't deceive her. She could see Sailor Saturn in the vision. Or at least it was someone who looked like her. Her hair and face were different, but her outfit was unmistakably Sailor Saturn.

But with no royal family to protect or avenge, Saturn should have no reason to exist and be reborn anymore. Pluto wondered what her sister guardian was doing. It didn't make sense - unless…

Pluto's thoughts stopped mid-thought as her eyes snapped back to the small baby in the nearby crib. Her eyes widened in surprise, hope, excitement, alarm, and then finally horror as she fully realized what was happening. This was the final proof she needed - the final proverbial nail in the coffin.

Pluto was certain that the baby was the new princess she had been searching for. It was happening again - there was no other reason why Sailor Saturn, or at least someone who looked like her, would be there defending the child personally otherwise. Somehow, this new woman had become a new Saturn to protect the child in her time of great need. There was no other explanation - the baby had to be the new princess.

Pluto realized that the princess must have been born in the magical world, which explained why they had been unable to find her all this time. If she was born to magical people and was therefore a witch, it would make sense that nobody thought it strange when strange things happened around her. After all, in the magical world, strange things happened all the time.

Even if someone had, with the current civil war happening, it was often too dangerous to get close enough to check if a child was their princess or not. Anyone could be a potential enemy.

Anxiously, Pluto watched the ongoing battle, unable to help or interfere from her current position. She knew that by the time she arrived, the fight would be long over. All she could do was watch and hope that the new Sailor in Saturn's colors was up to the task as she valiantly defended the new princess from the wizard.

Unfortunately, the new Saturn didn't seem to have the skills or powers of the old sailor guardian. Then, suddenly, Pluto gasped in horror as the new Saturn was blasted out of the house by a spell from the wizard. She watched helplessly as the new guardian fell out of the vision's limits.

"No!" Pluto cried out, one hand coming up to her face while the other tightly grasped at half of the gates of time as if trying to ward away the images she was seeing. This couldn't be allowed to happen - not again. The princess couldn't be allowed to die, not now, not when they were so close to being reunited.

Pluto watched in slow motion, her horror growing with every step, as the wizard walked back towards the baby, like a predator about to catch its prey. She began to panic as she saw him raise his wand and point it toward the child. Slowly the wizard's wand began to glow.

Pluto was just about to break one of her golden rules and use her powers to temporarily stop time so that she could teleport to Earth and stop the wizard - an act that would result in her certain death later on when time resumed - when a ribbon of purple light suddenly entered through the open wall and wrapped itself around the surprised wizard. Mesmerized, Pluto watched as a green spell left the wizard's wand, only to be absorbed by a sudden purple shield surrounding the baby.

"Death Ribbon Revolution and Silent Wall," Pluto whispered to herself, recognizing two of Saturn's most powerful abilities. Two of Sailor Saturn's most powerful abilities. While nowhere as powerful as Saturn's most powerful attack the 'Death Reborn Revolution'. 'Death Ribbon Revolution' was an attack that could cut through nearly anything, while the other, 'Silent Wall', was a shield that could stop even the strongest of attacks.

The wizard had only a brief moment to scream in agony before his body was torn apart by the purple ribbon of light, leaving behind a dark shadowy shade. The shade then turned and gave one last hateful look towards the Sailor Saturn lookalike before dispersing into the winds, leaving the sailor guardian alone in the room with the child.

Releasing a gasp of breath she had been holding, Pluto sighed in relief and collapsed to the floor. "That was way too close," she mumbled silently. "One split second more and…" She didn't even want to think about it. To have come this far and finally find the princess, only to fail at the last second, was inconceivable.

Suddenly realizing that her clothes were drenched with nervous sweat, Pluto glanced back at the gates and nodded. Now assured that the danger had passed, she silently thanked the new Saturn for the last-second save and allowed herself to fully relax once more.

Tomorrow, she would redouble her efforts to find the child. But for now, she needed to update the Mau on what had happened, and then… then she desperately needed a drink. "Damn it! If this continues, I'm going to turn into an alcoholic," she thought dismally as she forced her breathing and frazzled nerves back under control and turned away from the gates. "I'm getting too old for this crap."

Back at the Potter cottage, Godrics Hollow, moments after Voldemort's defeat.

Tears of joy rolled down Lily Potter's face as she looked at her child, sleeping peacefully in her little crib. She could hardly believe that it was over - her baby had survived. Only mere moments ago, Lily had accomplished the impossible: she had defeated the dark lord Voldemort in single combat, saving her daughter's life and ending a decade-long war. Her child was alive, with only a new lightning bolt scar on her forehead to show that she had been in extreme danger just moments before.

Lily had no idea how the scar had come to be on her child's forehead, but she guessed it had something to do with Voldemort's final spell. A spell she had somehow stopped with a shield she had never seen or used before. It had been pure instinct, brought on by extreme desperation. Whatever it was, it had saved her child's life, and for that, she would be forever grateful.

As for the scar, Lily thought it was a small price to pay for surviving a killing curse from Voldemort himself. "Ha, more like 'qui n'a pas devancé la mort' if you ask me," she thought with a snort. She didn't understand what had happened during the fight, but at that moment, all she cared about was that her child was still alive and would remain so, even once she was gone.

Because, for some reason, Lily knew that she could not stay. Now that the danger had passed, something inside her was telling her it was time for her to move on. At least until some time in the future when she would be needed again. It was as if she was a temporary uninvited guest whose time was now up. She didn't understand it, but she knew she had no choice. Even now, she could feel herself growing weaker as her newfound powers left her. Once her powers were gone, so too would she be gone.

Slowly and hesitantly, as if it was no longer her duty, Lily reached out to touch her baby's face one last time.

"Mommy loves you very much, my little Arya. I must leave you now, but no matter where I am, I'll always watch over you. Never forget that," Lily said one last time, then with one last kiss on her baby's forehead, her body became transparent and broke up into particles of light. The light slowly faded away, leaving behind a newly orphaned baby girl in her crib.

Lily Potter's body would never be found and would remain a mystery for a long time. That night, people all over the magical world would raise their glasses and praise her baby's name. They would call her 'The-Girl-Who-Lived'. The vanquisher of Voldemort. The only one to ever survive the killing curse. They would never know the true saviour of their world.

As for little Aryanna. She would know nothing of this. Under the effects of her late mother's sleeping spell, Aryanna would sleep on throughout the night and into the next day, never knowing of the fight that had happened or the powers she had received. She would not know that she had survived a dance with death or that she was now a celebrity.

Yes, that night, people would raise their glasses and praise her name, but little Aryanna would know nothing of this. Instead, during the next few days, she would be hand-delivered to her muggle relatives - relatives who didn't want her and indeed hated her, but who would be forced to take her in by a well-meaning old man. There, she would remain for the next 8 years of her life, unwanted and unloved by those meant to take care of her. But she would survive, not knowing of the powerful entity that now slept inside her, waiting patiently for her to grow stronger.