Chapter 15: Hades Impact

February 13, 8983

"Are you okay?"

Setsuna slowly opened her eyes, pushing herself into a sitting position as Serenity leaned back to give her space. Sitting on the floor beside her, completely quiescent once more, the Garnet Orb whispered meaningless sounds into her mind. "I was unconscious?"

Her queen nodded. "There was a flash of golden light from your orb, then you collapsed. You've been out for almost ten minutes."

"Thank you for watching over me."

"Always," Serenity smiled, helping Sailor Pluto to her feet. The dark queen pulled her talisman into her hands again, but the moment of the vision had passed and the planets were all peacefully slumbering once more. "I don't know what that was, but it seemed familiar somehow."

"Do you think it has anything to do with Michiru's vision?"

Setsuna shrugged as she let her transformation fade. "I have no idea. I need to return to my palace and see if I can determine the source of that golden light." She tightened her fingers on her staff, garnet eyes distant as she stared into a future only she could hope to see. "I'll stop this destruction, Ser. I may not be allowed to have you, but I refuse to lose you." With a flash of garnet light, the Queen of Pluto vanished, leaving Serenity alone in her communications room once more.

Setsuna placed her staff on its stand against her throne, sighing as stared at her silent orb. What had she almost seen? Who were those shadowy figures, and what was that golden light that obscured her sight? "Yana, bring me newest data from the Time Stream." She didn't look at the young servant girl hovering at the base of her throne, accustomed to her presence after two years of loyal service. Setsuna knew that the other queens had always thought of her as lonely, but in reality she could never be alone. The stress of her duties forced her to keep servants nearby at all times, and the nobles of her court lived to help her guard the time gate. She was never alone, no matter how much her heart screamed at that illusion.

"At once, Majesty. Do you require something from the kitchens?"

Setsuna nodded absently, turning around and settling into her throne. It was actually quite comfortable, despite its onyx exterior, and she let herself relax into the plush dark cushions. "I suppose I am feeling a bit drained. Bring me some fruit and a cup of that Arrahi Bark Tea we imported from Uranus last month."

"At once, Majesty." Yana dashed away to the kitchens, never much for the formality of backing away from a monarch that was so prevalent in the other courts. Setsuna never demanded much from her servants or nobles, just basic respect and obedience. The endless ceremonies and traditions just bored her. Yana stopped by the computer beside the main entrance to the throne room, whispering something to the technician on duty before slipping through the small door in the shadows beside him. The tech extracted a data crystal from his computer and stood from his desk, walking across the room to Setsuna's throne and bowing briefly before walking up and handing it to her. Silently, he returned to his post, no expression on his face.

Setsuna inserted the data crystal into the arm of her throne, frowning as the time knot appeared in the air above her. "This image has a time stamp of two hours ago. Has there not been any new data since then?" Her words were calm, but her closest advisors and assistants recognized the anger coloring the edges of her tone.

One of her duchesses, Koshu's niece, shook her head as she looked up from her own computer screen. "We've been requesting new data from the Time Stream ever since, but there was this strange golden light not long ago that shut down every computer in the palace and locked the stream. We restored everything from the last backup two hours ago, but we cannot access anything live from the Time Gate now." Ayano's words were calm, almost emotionless as was proper for a Plutonian noble, but Setsuna could see the worry in her dark green eyes.

Setsuna stood from her throne and grabbed her staff, pointing the garnet orb at the Time Gate and focusing her powers. A thin stream of garnet energy reached from her to the tall gold-tinted silver doors in the center of the circle of computers and monitoring stations, slowly building in strength as the Time Gate remained stubbornly unresponsive. Frowning slightly, Setsuna used more power than she normally needed to control the streams of time, feeling the gate slowly begin to respond to her authority. With a loud scream of displeasure and a flash of garnet light, the time gate shed its gold coloring and returned to the simple silver it had always been. Shaking slightly from the exertion, Setsuna returned to her seat.

Ayano tapped a few commands on her keyboard, nodding as new numbers filled her screen. "Your computer should be receiving the new results, Majesty."

"Yes, I see them. Thank you." Setsuna watched the time knot appear before her again, many of the smaller, seemingly insignificant threads slowly splitting into two groups, on opposite sides of the tiny silver-gold dot that represented Helios. One group, led by the pink of the cupids, was joined by the dark thread that Setsuna had not been able to identify, while the other group gravitated toward the golden thread she was sure represented Haruka. "What is this?"

"Judging from their origin points earlier in the knot and from your hypothesis that the gold thread represents the Princess Haruka, we think that the colored threads near her are the other senshi. The blue one is most likely Princess Ami, the green one Princess Makoto, the red one Princess Rei, and the orange one Princess Minako. The aqua one is almost the same age as Princess Haruka's thread, but we can't identify it."

"And that's the one that seems to be the closest," Setsuna murmured. As she watched, threads from the cupid group reached out to grab the senshi, tightening the knot as the two groups began to struggle. "I don't understand what's going on now. Why would the cupids have any kind of conflict with the senshi?"

"It's nice enough, I suppose."

"Haruka."

"I said it was nice!" The blonde crossed her arms defensively over her chest, knowing that Michiru was scolding her for her tone and not her words. Rei chuckled as she led her lover into the palace, admiring the bamboo that had been used in the place of stone and wood in the architecture.

"This place is nice. I could get used to these paper walls and bamboo floors."

Endymion nodded. "Every building here is like this, Rei. I've read about your planets' architecture and art, and I'm pretty sure you don't have anything like this. Ok, here we are. This is my communications room." He nodded at a pair of guards and slipped into the large room, seven princesses on his heels.

Ami stopped in the center of the room, an odd joy in her sapphire eyes as she spun in a circle with her arms held out. One wall of the room was covered in computers similar to the ones that had been used on the Moon hundreds of years earlier, while the other side of the room hosted a series of low tables covered in books, scrolls, and stone tablets. "How wonderful! I haven't been able to touch physical books in so many years!"

Minako settled onto a cushion in front of the main computer screen, tapping at the keys for a moment as she activated the link to the Moon Archives. "This system is functional but old. How long has it been here?"

"A few generations. We used to keep in contact with the Moon even though we are considered a nature sanctuary and not part of the kingdom, but eventually our ties with the Silver Millennium were severed. By us."

"Why?"

"We feared you," Endymion admitted truthfully, watching as the other princesses settled around the room, Ami and Michiru rifling through the books scattered on the table while Rei helped Minako scan through the computer system. Makoto and Haruka each chose a strategic position with an unobstructed view of the door, the warriors clearly on guard and uninterested in research. Serenity joined Endymion by the back wall, whispering some secret in his ear.

"Oh, interesting. Where are these tomes from?"

Endymion glanced at the book Ami held, craning his head to read the cover. "Those we discovered in an ancient vault some ten years ago. When the research team found them, we quickly realized that the language it's written in is one of yours. That was the main reason I began to learn your languages, and the one it most resembled was Lunarian."

"I see that you realized it isn't Lunarian," Ami commented, narrowing her eyes at the tiny print, letters far more complicated than the script used in the present day. "This is . . . this language is at least ten thousand years old. This certainly predates even the ancient languages of the Silver Millennium."

"Can you read it?"

Michiru leaned over Ami's shoulder, the two geniuses sighing in tandem. "Perhaps," Michiru murmured, running one fingernail gently across the page.

"Probably," Ami clarified. "This script is very similar to Ancient Lunarian, but very few people ever bother to study it. Nothing important was ever written in Ancient Lunarian. As a Scholar of Ancient Texts, I can read it, so perhaps I can muddle through this. I don't know if it's worth the effort, however."

Michiru twisted her wrist in that odd gesture that Haruka had seen her use before to summon her mirror. The talisman appeared in her palm and she turned it to face the book, blue eyes glowing with her power. "Submarine Reflection," she whispered, watching as the ancient runes reorganized themselves on the page, glowing with a brilliant white light. An image formed over the runes, the image of a grail, and just as swiftly vanished as the power from Michiru's mirror faded. "The runes have changed."

Ami nodded, touching the black lettering. "Yes, they have. Now they are all simple Ancient Lunarian, and I can read that. Why would they have changed?"

"Someone encoded it," Haruka offered from her position at the edge of the room. She was still pouting, arms crossed over her chest petulantly. Michiru glanced at her wife and raised one eyebrow, watching the blonde relax her stiff posture.

"Why would they do that?"

"Because it's something worth knowing," Makoto replied casually. "And possibly to hide the age of the book. You thought that the book was over ten thousand years old based on an unreadable language, but if it's written in Ancient Lunarian it could be only seven or eight thousand years old. I would say that information like that could help point us to the author."

Ami's eyes widened and she leaned over the book, Michiru's head beside hers. Pulling out her computer, Ami began to translate the text, sharing her thoughts with her fellow water senshi. Minako and Rei ignored the pair reading through physical books, glancing through thousands of years of records in the digital archives, searching for instances of the planets misbehaving like Uranus and Neptune had earlier. An eerie silence descended on the room, Haruka boring of it first. With a competitive light in her emerald eyes, she scooted forward to a low table and placed her elbow on the wood, her hand in the air as she silently challenged Makoto. Smiling, the thunder senshi scooted forward to sit on the cushion opposite Haruka, taking the blonde's hand in hers, confident that she could beat the Uranian in arm wrestling. Grunting, she pushed against Haruka's hand, using all of her Jovian strength to defeat the blonde, but the Uranian was stronger than Makoto had expected. Several long, tense minutes passed as the warriors vied for supremacy.

Ami gasped in shock at the same moment that Makoto slammed Haruka's hand onto the surface of the table, the Jovian leaping to her feet in joy at the victory she had won. The look on her lover's face froze her celebration, everyone turning to Ami as she pushed herself to her feet. "I know why they encoded this book."

"Why?"

"These are prophecies from the beginning of the Silver Millennium, first spoken almost ten thousand years ago, though the book itself is not nearly that old. I recognize some of these names from my history lessons, and most of these were only spoken once. It was thought that they had never been written, but here they all are. This is the Prophecy of Serenity's Rise, the Prophecy of the Messiah of Light, the Prophecy of the Silence, the Prophecy of the Shattered Star, and . . . and this one is the original Prophecy of the Fall of the Silver Millennium."

"What!?"

"It's right here," Michiru whispered, her hands shaking slightly as she held the book out for everyone to see. "The Ancient Law is part of this prophecy, but it's not all of it. Here, let me read the translation to you. The Moon will Rise over a great kingdom, shining in the sky for thousands of years, until the day that the Sun turns in its sleep. It will Call but no one will be able to answer. On that day, the Sun will cry as dark blood soaks the ground and loneliness grips the Dark One. The galaxy will be consumed by the Scream of Time and the Silver Moon will fall to the Earth in a harvest of desperate ruin when the lights of two star seeds combine. The capricious Tear will shatter its last and only the Golden Light of dreams can preserve the hopes of the future."

"That's . . . not the same as the Ancient Plutonian translation."

"It's the original," Ami replied, staring at her screen. "This bit, star seed, refers to the power a senshi carries that gives her power over her planet. The seed is inside us, in our hearts, and the more powerful a person the stronger their star seed. We have pure ones, perfect ones, when our planets are at full power, and that word is usually translated into jahjku in Ancient Plutonian."

"What does it mean when it says they will combine?"

Ami shrugged. "It's not like the prophecies have footnotes. I don't think it means for the senshi to physically combine, but something more abstract and something that involves the planets. What I want to know is what it means when the Sun Calls."

"It could mean when it calls for a senshi," Minako replied, pointing at an image on her screen. "I used the codes you gave me to hack into certain sealed files, and it seems that this solar system had a Star Senshi in the past, at least twice and possibly three times. She was called Sailor Sol, and she was the leader of the Star Senshi Council before it was shattered. This image is the first Sailor Sol, the one who united the Star Senshi Council originally almost ten thousand years ago. She had a twin sister who became the first Queen Serenity."

"Does that mean another Sailor Sol is coming soon?"

"I think it means the opposite," Michiru whispered ominously. "It means that Sailor Sol can't be called, that something is preventing it. There hasn't been one since Sailor Pluto had the other senshi remove their keystones, so perhaps the planets are needed to create a star senshi. Perhaps the Golden Light means Sailor Sol, and if we can help our sun create a senshi the Silver Millennium will not fall."

"What does the rest of it mean? Who is the Dark One, what is the Scream of Time, and what is the capricious Tear?"

Endymion's question silenced the room, Haruka offering the first answer after many tense minutes. "The Dark One is Sailor Pluto. She's always been referred to like that. And she is lonely, but I don't think the prophecy refers to her normal level of loneliness. The Scream of Time probably refers to her, as well, since that is her power. The Tear . . . I don't know about that."

"I think it means the ginzuishou," Serenity whispered, blue eyes clouded. "Mother once told me a fable about the ginzuishou. She said the first Queen Serenity struggled to unite the nine kingdoms but no one would recognize her power. On the day her twin sister died, she cried a single silver tear, and it called forth the power of the planets, binding them together within itself. That tear became the ginzuishou, and it has the power to unite everyone's hearts in a crisis because it was born from a woman's love for her sister. But its power isn't easy to wield, and it has the ability to destroy everything. I guess capricious would be a good word to describe it."

"So what do we do? Having the information and a partial understanding of the prophecy does not help us in the least. We need to understand the whole thing," Minako pointed out. "Tell us the other prophecies."

"Ok. In the darkest hour, when all hope is lost, a Messiah of Light will rise. She will have power without end, love without reserve, and strength beyond measure. When the Three Talismans gather, they will light the way to her birth. I'm not sure if this Messiah will be able to help us, since this is pretty vague. The word for talisman here is kjhairt, which is different than the standard word for talisman, kihairt. I think that it refers to the Trio imbued with greater powers than the others."

"The Sword, the Mirror, and the Orb," Haruka murmured, watching Ami and Michiru nod in agreement. "But those three talismans have certainly gathered a lot recently, and nothing has happened."

"Well, I think that prophecy is linked to this one. It has a poetic meter to it.

Scattered to the harsh Winds of Time

Bound by a desperate thought;

She will seek rebirth when all hope is gone

And all love at last is lost.

The Sword will scream, the Mirror break,

And the Orb will mourn them all;

Three talismans crossed will summon the Grail

And release her tortured soul.

This one is called the Prophecy of Serenity's Rise, and I believe that it refers to the goddess twin of Tranquility, leader of the Cupids."

Haruka slipped her sword from its scabbard, staring at the reflective surface silently. "I know what that part means, about the shattered sword. I read an article by one of the foremost Plutonian experts on Ancient Texts referencing certain very old books that had been lost to time. It said that a common phrase kept appearing over and over again in the translations of the lost text, something about a broken sword, a shattered mirror, and a crying orb. She hypothesized that it referred to the three Talismans of the Outer Senshi, and that it meant two of them would die."

"Die? Talismans can't die, just be passed on to the next wielder."

"In general, I would agree with you, Minako, but what if there was no one else? What if the owner of a talisman died with no heir?"

Ami glanced at Michiru, the Neptunian's eyes sad. "If it happened," Michiru whispered, "the talismans have the ability to join with the planet crystal and wait for the senshi's rebirth. If that is the case . . . this prophecy says that the senshi of Uranus and Neptune would have to die for Serenity to be reborn."

"Are we going to die?" Haruka's whispered question revealed her confusion and dread. She knew better than the other senshi how dangerous and reckless her union to Michiru could be, despite her brave words to the contrary. Saturn was stirring and her planet was flexing its powers, but did those signs mean that the Silver Millennium was destined to fall? Or were their actions the only things that could prevent it?

Michiru handed her book to Ami and walked over to her wife, pulling the blonde to her feet. "Of course we are," she whispered gently, "but not today."

While the Outer Senshi held each other silently, Ami translated another page, walking over to the computer and showing the book to Minako and Rei. "This one refers to Sailor Sol, I believe. The Silver One cannot return until the Moonlight shines in the Darkness and the Wind and the Sea give birth to the Sun. On that day, her soul will awaken from its host and herald the destruction of the Earth and the dawn of a new crystal. I'm sorry about this last part, but there is a word here that is not part of any language. It says 'Crystal something' but I have no idea what the word is."

Rei pushed herself away from the computer, amethyst eyes wide in shock. "This isn't the first time the planets have tried to combine their powers."

Minako leaned over her lover's shoulder in order to better see the screen, shaking her head in disbelief. "I hate to break it to you, Haruka, but you are not the first senshi married to her lover do that lightshow with the planetary powers."

Haruka released Michiru, taking her hand and joining the fire and love senshi by the computer screen. "Oh, last time it was Mars and Venus, huh? What happened?"

"Well, this was before the keystones were removed. It seems like the planets tried to combine their powers when the senshi were many decades older than us, but Sailor Pluto was able to subdue them. They went off to Antares to quell the Uprising after that and then . . . oh. Pluto had them remove their keystones because the planets were getting too powerful. It says here that the planets were moving on their own, flexing their own powers, and even Pluto was worried. Saturn's power has always been held in check by the edicts imposed on it by the gods, and Pluto is in a very similar situation, but the other planets are described as wild, unfettered children of their patron gods."

"Are the henshin sticks to control the planets, then?"

"I think so," Rei murmured, scanning the screen. "This stuff is highly encrypted and what isn't hidden behind a hundred passwords is too complicated to understand. Also, it looks a little sanitized, if you know what I mean. I think someone altered and simplified these history files some years after the events. From what I can see here, I think that the keystones were actually created . . . from the blood or maybe tears of the patron gods of each planet. They exist . . . well, it seems that they actually are keys of a sort but they are completely separate from the crystals, and they have something to do with keeping the henshin sticks active even though the planets slumber. Together, they control the way we senshi link to our planets and they are able to subdue that bond enough to prevent us from unlocking our full powers."

"I thought the keystones were part of the planet crystals originally? Everything we've read says they were removed, implying that they were part of the crystals."

Ami leaned over Rei's shoulder as the fire senshi searched for the answer to Makoto's question. Ami tapped a few keys with her free hand, the other still holding the book of prophecies awkwardly to one side, smiling as another screen appeared to replace the one Rei had been frowning at. "That should help. These are the Royal Pluto Records."

"How did you hack into that? Pluto guards those files even more viciously than she guards the Time Gate!"

"Yes, Serenity, but five years ago she upgraded her computer file storage system to the new Mercurian Standard and I was assigned to the project as a recently graduated Scholar in Computer Technology. I may have put a backdoor password into the system so that I could read some of the more fascinating sagas that were sealed by a previous Queen of Pluto . . ." She looked up at her friends' shocked expressions, blushing as she backed away from the computer. "I guess that's not something you would have expected."

"The curiosity, yes," Makoto replied, wrapping one strong arm around Ami's waist. "As for the sneakiness . . . I like that there are things about you that surprise me."

Rei cleared her throat as she scanned through the new documents. "It seems that Pluto used the keystones and henshin sticks as locks to seal away the planet crystals, thus denying the planets their full power. She told the queens that the keystones were part of their crystals so that they would never go looking for the planet crystals. There's a list here, six coordinates, each with a different planetary signature. Mercury: Daire Basin, Venus: Sunrise Bay, Mars: Deimos's Kirash Crater, Jupiter: Metis's Tosha Plains, Uranus: Miranda's Chime Cliffs, and Neptune: Larissa's Coral Sea."

"Are those where the planet crystals are hidden?"

"Perhaps. If Pluto really did hide the planet crystals thousands of years ago, she would have had to place them either on the planets or in close orbit, otherwise the planets would suffer from the separation. The crystals are part of the planets' life forces, so they cannot be kept far away if the planets are to remain sealed."

Haruka leaned over Rei's shoulder, letting her breast brush the smaller woman's cheek so she could watch a blush spread across her face. "If the princess of Mars from that time period married the princess of Venus, how is it that your two royal lines are still intact? Two women cannot have a child." She kept her register low and focused on the husky tone she used when she wanted to attract a woman, grinning as Rei's blush darkened.

"Do you mind? I can't concentrate with your breasts in my face. This was never a problem when you wore men's clothing."

Haruka felt a gentle hand land on her shoulder and pull her away from the fire senshi, Michiru wrapping her arms possessively around the tall blonde. "Behave," the teal-eyed princess whispered, resting one hand on Haruka's breast. At her wife's sharp intake of breath, Michiru giggled, enjoying the effect she was having on the blonde.

"Well, back to Haruka's question, it seems that both women eventually had children. Queen Mars took one of Venus's brothers as her consort and Queen Venus did the same with Mars's second cousin."

"Consort? Isn't that just a glorified name for the leader of a harem?"

"No, Makoto, it's more prestigious than that. A Consort is a position just below the queen's spouse, reserved for the cases when the official spouse is incapable of breeding an heir. They are usually related to the spouse so that the child is as close as possible to what the couple would have birthed. For the spouse of a reigning queen to be a woman is uncommon, but among the lower nobles it is not. It seems that before the keystones were removed—or created or whatever the story is—it was more common for queens to have wives and consorts instead of husbands."

"So if we find our planet crystals and reawaken them, the queens would have to accept my marriage to Michiru." Ami shrugged and nodded, glancing at the file on Rei's screen before determining that Haruka's hypothesis was correct. "I don't like the idea of some man sleeping with my wife, no matter how he is related to me."

"It's not like you've slept with me yet, yourself," Michiru reminded the blonde, watching in amusement as the other princesses blushed at the mental image her words conjured.

Haruka raised her hand to Michiru's cheek, accepting the teasing tone as she replied in the only way that would satisfy the jealous Uranian warrior within. "Perhaps, but I have seen you naked, and that is an honor that no man will ever know."

Ami cleared her throat nervously as she returned to the book of prophecies, scanning the pages into her computer in case anything happened to the ancient tome. Like any good Mercurian, she used books to hide her embarrassment. "You don't have to worry about a man sleeping with your wife. The animal scientists on my planet have made remarkable progress in the realm of reproductive medicine. They can use the sperm from a donor male to impregnate a female through a process called artificial insemination. By timing the insemination to the correct point in the female's reproductive cycle, the pregnancy rate of this method is phenomenally high. We've implemented the process in livestock species across the solar system and many time for Mercurian couples struggling with infertility issues."

"It sounds very . . . clinical."

"It sounds like a great idea," Minako replied, her eyes focused on her lover. "I'm sure the only reason we have a ban against noble women getting married is because they can't continue their lineages with a wife, but a consort solves the entire problem, and Ami's artificial insemination solution would prevent any problems with our partners' very possessive natures. The last thing I need is a char-broiled body in my bed."

Her words dissipated the last of the tension that had been building since the reading of the first prophecy, and the princesses settled down around the room once more. Having watched and listened silently from his position as the seat cushion of an unusually silent High Princess, Endymion smiled. He was beginning to like these senshi, and he was even beginning to empathize with them concerning their desire to marry the women they loved and be together despite laws that were trying to force them apart. He knew that despite his efforts to forge an alliance with the Moon, nothing would ever be easy for him and Serenity, either, and his people would always resent him for loving a Lunarian. These senshi had more difficult hurdles to overcome than he did, and being with them while they debated the meanings of some of the most obscure prophecies and writings made him feel like they might one day get past it all. Perhaps they could all be happy.

"Princess! Your mother has been looking for you!"

"Oh?" Serenity turned on one heel, her blue eyes narrowed in annoyance at the excitable servant running toward her with no regard for her station or the sanctity of her palace. The young boy blanched at the look in her eyes, falling to his shaking knees in terror.

"P-please f-forgive my rudeness, Your Highness, but Her Majesty the High Queen Serenity r-requests your presence in her chambers as soon as you are ready."

"Very well. My guardians will escort me there now."

"Yes, Your Highness." The servant stumbled to his feet and bowed, backing away until he rounded the corner of the hallway. Serenity giggled as she heard him break into a run as soon as he was out of sight.

"So cruel, princess."

"I know, Haruka, but some of my mother's newer servants lack discipline. That one used to be a novice at the Temple of Serenity but he lacked the requisite faith to become a cupid. Now he is here, forgetting his manners." She turned to her senshi, glancing at each of them for a moment before speaking again. They had spent almost a dozen hours on Earth reading the ancient books that had been hidden there thousands of years earlier, comparing many of the prophecies with information from the Royal Archives as they planned expeditions to each of their planets to search for their crystals. They were all exhausted, a condition that would be apparent to the queen, though they had grabbed a late-night snack from the kitchens on their way to the royal wing. "Do you think you can face her?"

"We don't have to say anything, princess. Only you have to be able to talk. You know that she was privy to at least some of this information, and as a close friend of Setsuna's, she probably knew most of it. She has hidden this, not just from us but from our mothers too when it could have made them happy. Can you keep her from suspecting until after we find our planet crystals?"

"I can, Minako. Alright, let's go."

Serenity led the group to her mother's chambers, two inner senshi on each side and her outers walking behind her. She knew that they were eager to return to their chambers and begin what little honeymoon they could have in a solar system on the brink of destruction, but they still marched behind her because she was their princess and their first duty would always be to her. "I love you guys," she murmured.

"We know," Minako replied instantly, as if the sentiment had been expected.

"We'll be together forever, won't we?"

"Of course we will," Rei whispered, brushing her crimson hair over her shoulder with a grin. "As if you could get rid of us so easily."

Serenity smiled as the group reached Queen Serenity's chamber, raising her hand to knock on the door. "I'm glad."

"Enter."

Serenity pushed the door open, leading her senshi into the main room of her mother's suite, dropping into a curtsy as her senshi followed suit. Behind her, Michiru offered a shallow curtsy since the size of her pale dress would not allow anything deeper, and Haruka bowed. Queen Setsuna, relaxing on her low couch, smiled at her daughter. "So you're home. I was worried when I couldn't find you for lunch or supper."

"I'm sorry, Mother, but we were very busy. Ruka was helping everyone learn power combinations that were unusual, so it took a long time for everyone to get used to them. We went to that old training field on the other side of the Sea of Serenity so that any mistakes would not result in structural damage to the palace."

The queen nodded. "I see. It was good thinking, though I wish you had told me. So you asked Rukaze to go right back to training your senshi even though he's been gone for a while? Do you think that was the right decision?"

"Ruka is an important part of my team," Serenity replied evasively. "I don't think you should be upset that my senshi have a capable teacher."

"I'm not, but I just want to make sure that he is the right choice."

"You don't have to worry about that," the princess replied, smiling softly. "Ruka has decided that my senshi should practice fighting and surviving in other environments. The Moon is too tame and they need to learn various terrain styles so that nothing can ever surprise them. We are leaving in the morning for Mercury."

"We? You're going with them?" The queen leaned forward, lavender eyes narrowed. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"My place is with my senshi. It's not like we'll lack for accommodations nor is there any danger on any of the planets in our kingdom, so I will be just as safe on Mercury or Uranus as I would be here. Besides, Minako tells me that having me nearby gives them a better reason to fight."

"This is the sort of situation where you should ask permission to accompany your senshi instead of telling me after you've already made up your mind. I don't like it when you keep me in the dark about your plans."

Princess Serenity straightened, all of her senshi instantly on alert. The queen watched, impressed with their instinctive reaction to her daughter's sudden change of emotion. "I'm not sure I appreciate being kept in the dark, either, Mother. I may be only fourteen, but I am old enough to understand that our kingdom is in danger and none of the senshi have even identified the threat. When were you planning on telling me about the meeting on Titan and the possibility of Saturn rising?"

The queen froze, shock in her eyes. "How did you know?"

"Does it matter? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to worry you. Pluto said that there have been many instances of a girl showing signs of awakening as Saturn but never transforming because the other senshi neutralized the threat that called her. This time will be no different, I am sure. Pluto and the rest of the senshi can handle this without bothering you."

"The rest of the senshi are young," Haruka replied, shocked to hear herself speaking but unwilling to stop. "They haven't fought back demons on the plains of Pluto or wielded their power for thirty and more years, and they aren't comfortable being partners yet. Pluto has no idea what the threat is, and you are willing to throw a group of teenagers at a great darkness and hope for the best?"

"Rei defeated her mother in single combat, Minako summoned her own transformation to save a life, Makoto won a highly prestigious tournament at the age of thirteen, and Ami is a genius with seven Scholar degrees. They are more powerful as children than their parents are as adults, and the only thing they lack is experience. They can fight this coming darkness and prevent the rise of Saturn."

"Not if you won't let me train them properly. If we do not travel to the other worlds and spend some time in the wildernesses there, these senshi will not be strong enough to win. We only need a few days."

The queen seemed to consider Haruka's speech, her respect for the tall Uranian warrior growing. He wasn't afraid to talk to her as an equal, as if he were a queen, and he was the finest teacher Serenity's senshi could ever ask for. "Fine, go then. But you are all expected on Titan at the end of the week. Serenity, you can travel with them, but I would like to know when you plan to return."

"The senshi have all agreed to attend my birthday party in three weeks," Michiru replied, her elegant voice carrying the perfect mixture of request and demand. "If you allow it, I would like for the princess to attend, as well. All of the royal families will be expected in Triton Castle, and I know that you are busy with affairs of state, so I believe that it would be appropriate for your daughter to visit Neptune as the representative of the Moon."

Queen Serenity nodded slowly. "That will be fine. As long as all of you are with her until then, I have no problem with her traveling. Please bring her back after your party, Neptune Michiru."

"Of course, Your Majesty."

"So, we're all invited?"

Michiru smiled and tilted her head to the side, too ladylike to shrug her shoulders. "I was going to tell you eventually, Rei. Either way, your parents would have told you when they received the invitations tomorrow. Mother wants to make a very public statement by introducing me with a husband."

"Not the husband she had planned," Minako pointed out. "How long do you two think you can keep it from her?"

"Long enough," Haruka replied, slipping one arm around her wife's waist. Her emerald eyes had shed all trace of exhaustion after the impromptu meeting with the queen, and she was staring at Michiru in a way that let the other princesses know it would be a good time to vacate the room. Minako walked Serenity to the door of the suite and sent her to bed, grabbing Rei's hand and retreating to their room, while Makoto scooped Ami into her arms and ran for the other side of the guest chambers. The wind senshi and her partner of the sea never noticed the suddenly empty meeting room as they leaned close enough to kiss once more.

Haruka pushed Michiru toward their room, blindly guiding the aquanette around the couches and table, never losing contact with the smaller woman. Entering the room, she kicked the door closed with one foot, her hands busy removing the pins from Michiru's hair, allowing it to flow like a waterfall over her shoulders once more. Not to be outdone, Michiru grabbed Haruka's jacket and pushed it back, forcing the blonde to slip her arms free and let it drop to the floor. Michiru's dress followed moments later, the Neptunian taking a moment to consider the mess Haruka was making of the room before the blonde captured her attention once more by pushing her onto the bed.

Michiru giggled as Haruka's weight settled on top of her, reaching up to brush away the blonde hair covering her wife's emerald eyes. She let her hands wander lower to the buttons of Haruka's shirt, removing the garment and letting it join the jacket on the floor. "You're beautiful, Haruka," she whispered, eyes sapphire in the dim light. "I'm glad you're mine."

"My, how possessive, my lovely siren." Haruka grinned as she kissed Michiru just above her collarbone, one hand wandering to the smaller woman's breasts. "As a Uranian woman and a queen, I never thought I would say this, but I'm glad I'm yours, too."

Rei groaned and rolled onto her side, covering her ears with one of the extra pillows in a vain attempt to block out the noise. Beside her, buried under the covers, Minako giggled. "It's not funny."

"No, it's romantic," the blonde replied, keeping her voice to a whisper. "And it's not like we were polite last night; they had to sleep through that."

"Clearly, they are making up for that celibacy." Rei pushed herself into a sitting position, head tilted to one side. "What's that noise? It sounds like . . . by Serenity, is that Ami?!"

Minako nodded, blushing slightly. "I think so. It seems like Makoto and Ami are just as desperate to drown out the honeymooners as you are."

"Yeah, but they aren't sharing a wall with that pair." Rei held out one hand, palm up, across the small space that separated her from the blonde. "Give me your chain."

"Why?" Even as she asked the question, Minako summoned her talisman, passing it to the redhead and trying desperately not to blush.

"Because," Rei replied, reaching out to gently wrap the chain around Minako's wrists, "I'd much rather hear you scream than Haruka."

AN: So . . . I think I just realized how different this fic is from the original. Nothing is really the same anymore except the names of the royal family members. Sorry if this chapter was a big history lesson but it has huge relevance, I promise (there's actually some foreshadowing when they are talking about the prophecies if you can catch it). We only have a few days until Titan, so the senshi will be on a quest until then! Also, I wanted to mention something. I took Japanese for years from middle school through college (though I understand a lot more than I can speak) so there are certain words that just don't exist for me in English. When I watch the anime or the musical and I hear the word min'na, I don't translate it in my head to "everyone". I just understand it as it is. There are a lot of words like that, including senshi and henshin, so in my fics those words will probably always be written in Japanese. There was a part of In the Darkest Forest where I was quoting the episode and Usagi said "min'na" and I couldn't bring myself to translate it. Even in this fic it's hard not to throw in ara, mou, and maa when I know Michiru would say it if it were her dialogue in the episode. I just thought you guys should know why there is still so much Japanese in a fic that predates the modern language.

Gwaeren: It is heartbreaking, but then again they get to have a much better life when they are reborn on Earth. They might still have to fight but at least no one tells them they can't be together.

Haru: Yes, I heard, and I am mildly intrigued. I'm glad you get excited when I update; I do too. This version is much more fun to write so I think it's safe to say it's better, and it's certainly longer and more interesting than the original.

Samaka: I was thinking about the betting scene ever since I wrote the bet between Haruka, Rei, and Minako about Makoto and Ami. I always planned for them to get her back. I'm glad you're liking this, and I hope you enjoyed the wedding.

lostinhersong: I'm glad thatI wrote something good enough for you to be inspired to review. I'm glad someone recognized the vows and I like them a lot since I can't help but hear them in the seiyuu's voices.

rsDragon: I'm glad! I like this version too. I probably spend more time reading back through the fic than actually writing =P

Vientecortante: I want to spend a lot of time detailing the differences between the planets because I think it makes everything more believable. It's a huge kingdom with a lot of different people, and the senshi are each a representative of their races.

Keeper Aki: Yes, finally! And don't worry, I'm actually going to finish this fic.

Haruka Tenou: Setsuna has a much bigger part to play in this fic than she did in the last one, so I can't let her know what's going on just yet. Anyway, I only used their wedding as an excuse to get them to research some of the ancient texts because someone needs to know those prophecies (someone that isn't a senshi). Although, it was fun writing a wedding for a race of warriors ruled by women who don't believe very strongly in permanent attachments.

Electra Red: I like Haruka's petulent child side, especially how I can make her whine and complain the entire time they are researching because all she wants is whatever scant honeymoon she will be allowed in a kingdom on the brink of destruction. And I like her masculine side better, too, but she's always struggled to accept her femininity without a mother in her life, so I used Michiru to help bring it out.

Neptune's Lover: Michiru is definitely the one in charge, especially since Haruka's too much of a free spirit to want to be in charge. I definitely wrote the part where the Inners find out about Serenity so that Minako could flex her leader muscles and tell the princess that the Earthling is a bad match. I hope you enjoyed the wedding; it's the first time in any of my fics that I've actually written the entire wedding scene (even though I borrowed the vows from the drama CD).

Meneldur: Yes, I love the betting scene; I've been planning it for chapters. Just because the end is coming doesn't mean they can't enjoy life a bit and have fun. I struggled to decide what questions to use and who would answer correctly so that Rei would eventually win and get Minako's chain. It was the whole point, anyway. I hope you enjoyed the wedding and I'm sure everyone is eager to see what the queens' reactions will be to this turn of events.