AN: It's 4am again, my normal posting time. Reviews next chapter. A lot of stuff happens in this chapter and there are a lot of hints about the future and about how the senshi will release the power of their planet crystals. It ends rather abruptly, but it was already getting very long and the next part of the meeting on Titan has to be split a little to let the timeline continue as I planned it out.

Chapter 22: Council of Titans

February 20, 8983

Oberon was a desert world, and such a dry, harsh environment tended to breed harsh women with little patience for weakness. Ono Hikari pondered that truth as she stared across the courtyard of her palace, watching the wind play with the purple blossoms of the miki rose that she had named her youngest daughter after, wondering why they were blooming nearly a month early. Her gardens, crowded with succulent plants that loved the dry desert days, were meticulously kept and some of the most exquisite among the War Queens' palaces. Staring at the greenery calmed her soul, something she needed desperately with the War Queen Council scheduled later that morning. She heard a slight movement behind her, but her warrior senses did not alert her to any danger from her visitor, so the golden-eyed woman assumed that one of her many children had entered the chamber. "I'm not in the mood to talk."

"You just have to be in the mood to listen," a husky voice replied, the faintest touch of amusement in her tone. Hikari spun on one heel, staring at the woman behind her in shock, taking in the navy and gold senshi uniform and brilliant emerald eyes before falling to her knees.

"Princess."

Haruka rolled her eyes and stepped forward, pulling Hikari to her feet. "Don't bow to me. I came here for advice."

"Again?" Hikari led Haruka to a low table, offering her a cup of tea as they both took a seat. She waited for her princess to drop her transformation before summoning a servant to bring snacks. "You have your wife; what more could I help you with?"

"I heard that the War Queen Council is voting to depose him. Is it true?"

Hikari sighed and nodded. "Yes. When Taichen Laira came back from Mercury and gave us your message, the Council was divided. Half of us wanted to sit back and wait for your return, and the other half wanted to go to war. If Koshu had chosen a side, we would probably have followed him, despite the tension between us over the years. But he denounced Laira's message, claiming that she could never have seen you and that you were never going to return to Uranus. It was the worst thing he could have said."

"I'm sorry," Haruka whispered, staring out the window. "I wanted her message to keep the other queens from voting for war; I knew that your coalition couldn't keep them grounded forever."

"No, you did the right thing. Sanae, Ado, and I were losing the other queens, and with Sixth Yasuda Mari so sick, we didn't have enough of a vote to prevent a war. Your actions and Koshu's response did accomplish one thing: we are now united against the king. We vote today to depose him."

"The vote will pass," Haruka noted absently. "He has never been popular. What should I do? I didn't think I was ready to return yet, but if I have to . . ."

"You have a choice to make, Haruka. You can appear before the War Queen Council and announce your intention to take the throne the next time the four other moons appear in the sky, or you can let us depose him and hope that the Council remains locked in debate until you are truly ready to return."

"There are things I still have to do, Hikari. I can't come home yet. I still have a meeting on Titan sometime after their dawn, a visit to Miranda and Larissa, and my presentation at Michiru's birthday in two weeks. If I take the crown now, I can't do any of that and the Silver Millennium might fall."

"If you don't come home to control your people, it certainly will," Hikari countered, standing from her chair and walking to the computer console nestled against the wall. She tapped a command, pulling up the orbital patterns of the Moons of Uranus, sighing thoughtfully as a date appeared at the bottom of the screen. "I received an invitation to Michiru's birthday party, as your supposed mother, and it looks like the four moons will be in the sky two days after that celebration. Can you finish everything on your list in time to be crowned then?"

Haruka sighed and nodded, running her fingers through her blonde hair. "Probably. I just . . . I don't think that I'm ready to be queen, Hikari." There was a vulnerability in Haruka's voice that her war queen had only heard once before, when Kazeko admitted that she knew she was going to die. Haruka was so young . . . she had been queen since the day she was born, but that didn't mean she wasn't allowed to have her doubts.

The tall War Queen returned to Haruka's side, running her long fingers through the younger woman's hair before resting a gentle hand on her cheek. Hikari had seven sons and six daughters; she knew that Kazeko's daughter needed some motherly support now, of all times. Those intense emerald eyes filled with tears and Hikari smiled. "Sometimes I forget how young you are. Haruka, no one is ever ready to be queen, but this is your destiny. You are the queen Kazeko promised us, and we are beyond ready to follow you. You are the Avatar of Uranus, the oldest living god, the most powerful entity in this solar system, and she would never have chosen you to be the senshi of this world if you were not ready to also be its queen. The meeting of the War Council is in two hours; take some time to visit the temple to your patron goddess and ask her if you are ready."

Haruka nodded slowly, glancing down at her suit before smiling wryly at the older woman. "I need a dress."

The High Temple of Uranus on Titania received hundreds of thousands of visitors a week as the largest and most prestigious place to worship the patron goddess, so the arrival of a tall woman wrapped in a navy cloak went unnoticed by the gold-garbed priests. The woman, her face in shadow, walked across the huge hall, the tall heels of her shoes leaving soft impressions in the plush carpet, coming to a stop before the statue of Uranus and the altar before it. She turned to the High Priest standing on the dais above her, letting the light hit her face. "Leave."

The priest scoffed at her, not recognizing the tall woman or her husky voice, but when she tore her cloak off and dropped it to the ground, he fell to his knees. Her silky navy dress was simple and unremarkable though clearly very expensive, the gold embroidery along the hem and the golden gem hanging from a chain around her neck contrasting nicely with the dark color. The lithe woman had a simple golden sash around her hips, accenting her slender waist and hips. The priest stuttered something incoherent as he supplicated himself at her feet, noting the blonde hair restrained by a gem-encrusted circlet and the intense emerald eyes that looked through him and reduced him to this quivering mass. Her power and lineage were evident in her stance, the strength in her arms, and the power glowing from her gold-tinted emerald eyes. "I am y-your humble s-servant," he finally managed, finding his voice as those green eyes narrowed in anger.

"I know you are. Leave. Everyone. Clear the temple."

"Y-yes of course!" The man stood and ran to the nearest cluster of priests, issuing a series of orders as he pointed at the tall blonde, desperate not to incur her wrath. The priests scattered, gathering clouds of acolytes and using them to help clear hundreds of supplicants from the temple, unable to explain why they had to leave.

Haruka grew impatient with their methods, eager to be rid of the priests and worshippers alike, so she raised her hand to the ceiling. Wind wrapped around her lithe form and rushed through the room, physically removing the last of the stragglers and slamming the huge double doors closed behind them. Satisfied that she was finally alone, Haruka took the ceremonial knife resting on the altar before her and touched it to her unblemished left palm, watching as a few drops of blood stained the stone before her. "Uranus, Goddess of the Winds, patron of my planet, I summon you."

A gust of wind exploded from the tall marble statue dominating the back of the dais, pushing Haruka back and forcing her to drop the knife. Growling something rude in Uranian, she summoned the Space Sword and held it before her, pushing back with her own power. A chuckle filled the great hall as the wind ceased, a tall woman appearing on the dais above the princess. "So arrogant."

Haruka sheathed her sword and raised one eyebrow, taking a moment to examine the goddess before speaking. Uranus was taller than her and just as slender, a simple golden dress hanging from her shoulders and hugging her hips before falling to the floor. The goddess's hair was the same shade as Haruka's, though she was currently wearing it a little longer and braided with tiny diamonds. She appeared feminine enough, but Haruka could see the sajink in her deep emerald eyes, could feel the power pulsing off of the goddess and threatening to drown her. "What did you expect from your lineage?"

Uranus snorted and nodded, stepping down from the dais and toning down her presence. "Why did you call me here, Uranus Haruka? I have been expecting your blood on my altar for more than a decade; why now?"

Haruka sighed and walked away, glancing at the ornamental benches and statues to the goddess scattered throughout the great hall. "I'm not sure, really. I was talking to Ono Hikari and she told me that I should bring my doubts to you."

"Doubts about what?"

"Everyone has these expectations of me. I'm told that my mother sacrificed herself for me, to make me strong enough, but no one seems to know what I am supposed to be strong enough for. They tell me that the world is falling apart, that only me taking my place as queen can save it, but how am I supposed to know if I am ready to be queen?"

Uranus walked around the room, touching several of the statues and nibbling on some of the offerings. Her voice, which had been light and teasing, had dropped to a lower octave as she thought back to the beginning of the Silver Millennium. "A long time ago, nearly ten thousand years ago, the Trio decided that they wanted to create civilizations among the various planets. The people they created were wild, and the leaders were without direction despite their great powers. Over the generations, perhaps three thousand years later, the people grew weak and the Trio looked to their parents for answers. They were children, godlings, but they wanted to be remembered for something. Zeus told them that the senshi they had given so much power to needed direction and wisdom. They needed patron gods. Saturn could never have a patron, due to the direction her power takes, and Pluto is in a category by herself, but the other five patron gods were willing to breed into the royal lineages of their planets and solidify the hold they had on their worlds.

"The Trio hunted me down in my solitude and begged me to return, to create a race of warriors on Uranus fashioned in my own image. After so many millennia of solitude, I was tempted, but after Cronos's rebellion I wasn't comfortable being seen by the other gods. Se took me to Zeus and asked him to grant me a female form. He turned me into the infant child of the reigning Uranian Queen, and I grew to love my people. I trained them, giving them all of the knowledge of sajink and saliis so that they could be the perfect warriors. And, one day, I gave birth to a daughter of my own to wield my power and continue my mission so that I could return to my family on Olympus." Uranus stopped her restless pacing, standing in front of Haruka as she reached up and brushed a lock of blonde hair away from the senshi's face. "My daughter . . . you carry her soul, Haruka. That soul has only been reborn five times before now, and every time you walk through this world you carry the burden of the galaxy on your shoulders. This lifetime is going to be no different. There are things I can see as a primordial, pre-Titan god that no one else would understand."

"Like what?"

"There is a choice coming, Haruka. A choice only you can make. Your decision will either save the Silver Millennium or destroy it. Either way, no matter what happens, you must understand that you are my last senshi."

Haruka stared at the goddess in shock, emerald eyes paling to grey as she struggled to absorb Uranus's words. "Your . . . last senshi? Then the Silver Millennium will fall no matter what I do."

The goddess shook her head, unfocused stormy blue eyes staring at the stained-glass windows of her temple. "That's not necessarily true. You have two paths, Haruka. One path will lead to the destruction of everything you know, the loss of everyone you love, and the shattering of the crystals that hold the souls of the planets. The other path will lead to a glorious future where your children will shine as brilliant golden lights of hope in the darkness."

"Lights?"

Uranus turned back to her senshi, reaching out to rest a hand on her cheek as her ancient, intense eyes stared through the senshi. Her voice, when she finally spoke again, was softly contemplative, as if she herself did not fully understand the vision she saw before her. "Two lights, two golden lights. One will guard the dreams of the past and the other will guard the souls of the future."

"You're saying that I will have children, but just a moment ago you said that I am your last senshi. How can that be? A senshi's first daughter is always her heir."

The goddess smiled and shook her head. "No. Your first daughter will not be the heir to your senshi power, but the heir to a destiny larger than you can understand, assuming you survive the coming darkness. If you choose correctly, if you can save them all, then you will be my last senshi because you are the strongest one I have ever had. I will never need another one after you." Pride shone from her blue-green eyes as she smiled at the senshi, amazed at how perfect a woman Kazeko's daughter had grown into.

"I don't understand how I can be your ultimate senshi. I don't feel that strong, Uranus, and I don't feel ready to have the fate of the Silver Millennium resting on my shoulders. Honestly, I just feel lost."

"I know you do, my child. There was a book you found on Earth, an ancient book of prophecies. As the legend goes, Se looked into the Time Gate one day and screamed at what she found. She saw the death of her beloved Serenity, the death of her soul mate, the destruction of the Silver Millennium, and the shattering of the talismans carried by the children of the lineages she founded. However, she did see other things. There is a prophecy simply called Rebirth that she could never fully understand, but I am telling you now that you must read it. It concerns you and your fellow senshi. Souls tend to travel through time together, and the six of you have been doing that for thousands of years. Do you know who your last incarnation was?"

Haruka slowly nodded, running her fingers through her hair in an effort to calm herself. Uranus was telling her things that she had never expected to hear and certainly did not want to know, but it was information that she would need in order to defeat the coming darkness. "I was the one who fought in the Antares Uprising, wasn't I? I was Queen Nao the Conqueror who led our forces to victory throughout multiple solar systems and returned here in triumph only to die mysteriously a week later."

"Yes. When you returned here, Se told you that she had to seal all of your planet crystals because Reiko and Minami had almost broken an ancient taboo that prevented the planets from combining their power. Their actions, all unknowing, endangered this solar system, something she could not allow amid the chaos at the end of the Sailor Wars. The others all said that they would not let her weaken them, but the decision was yours, in the end. You ordered them to obey, because you were the only senshi who could truly understand the danger that Se feared. Reiko told her fellow Inner Senshi that the only way to seal the powers of the planets would be to die in the presence of their patron gods, but you were the one who gave her that information. If you had refused, the planets would never have been sealed and the crystals would never have been hidden."

"It's my choice again, isn't it? I will be the one to discover how to break the power of the keystones and return the full power of my planet to my crystal." Uranus nodded. "Should I unlock them? Is that the right path? Or will the planets combine and destroy us all like the prophecy says?"

"I can't answer that. I wouldn't even if I could. Haruka, my beloved daughter, my perfect avatar, it is your choice. No one can help you, not even your Michiru."

Haruka jerked back in shock, eyes wide at her wife's name. "How do you know?"

Uranus chuckled and looked away, the faintest blush coloring her cheeks. "When an emotion is powerful enough, a god can sense her avatar's thoughts and feelings. Your love for Poseidon's avatar is strong, and your lust is stronger. I've had to take a lover again just to deal with everything you're sending me."

The urge to apologize for the effect she was having on her god warred with pride in the blonde's eyes, a wry smile finally appearing on her face. "Who?"

"You would ask that! Pervert. Before you claimed your henshin stick, I tended to end up in Aphrodite's bed, but she's been busy keeping Se and Ares company recently, so I have convinced Artemis to return to me."

"The virgin goddess of the hunt? Well done."

"The virgin part is open to interpretation," Uranus replied, echoing her avatar's grin. "It just means that she has never taken a male lover. You should have seen that time that she challenged Athena to a drinking contest and both of them ended up in my bed."

Haruka laughed, walking across the floor and shaking her head in disbelief. "I suppose you really are my patron goddess. My mother knew all of this, didn't she? I mean, you told her that I would be her daughter."

"Yes. I told her to make you strong, because you will have to be. Your choice is going to be hard, Haruka. And, in the end, when the darkness is before you at last, you must decide what you truly want. If you can, everyone will be saved."

"All of this . . . everything you've told me . . . it makes my concern about taking the throne seem trivial. I need to be queen to protect the princess, don't I? It was never really a choice."

"No. But there are other, very important things that you must do before taking your crown. You must find your crystal, you must activate your crystal, and you must be in that small castle on Larissa on the night of Michiru's birthday."

Haruka tilted her head to one side, emerald eyes curious. "Michi's retreat? Why? I've only been there once, and it doesn't seem like the kind of place to spend the night. I only saw the main room, with the piano; I don't know if she even has a bed there."

Uranus smiled, turning away to hide the blush darkening her cheeks again. "There is most certainly a bed there. I don't know why you have to spend the night in that castle, but I promise that you must be there."

Haruka nodded slowly, turning away from the goddess and running her fingers over the colorful jewels on the hilt of the ceremonial knife she had picked up again a moment earlier. Uranus glanced at her senshi and her eyes widened as she realized how beautiful the child was in her silky navy dress, every curve visible in the warm golden light of her temple. "I will be there," the blonde whispered, her voice softer and more feminine than it had ever been before.

"You're beautiful," Uranus breathed, her voice low and nearly as husky as Haruka's was normally. The senshi turned, concerned at the sudden deep timbre of her goddess's voice, grunting in shock as the tall immortal pinned her against the golden altar, claiming her lips in a passionate kiss. Haruka pushed the goddess away, shocked emerald eyes noting the lust in Uranus's golden orbs.

"What are you doing? I'm married!"

Uranus shrugged and touched her lips, letting her eyes rake over Haruka's body once more. "So was Aphrodite when I first enticed her to my bed."

Haruka narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest, tapping her foot on the floor. "That's no excuse. Michiru is a jealous one; she'll tear you apart." Uranus shrugged, running her long fingers through her hair in an echo of Haruka's own nervous habit. "What was that?"

"I just felt the urge. You've slept with hundreds of women, so you can't judge me."

"Well, you better not do it again. Michiru might actually be capable of killing you."

Uranus smirked and nodded, walking back to her altar as her eyes darkened back to emerald. "I won't. Remember what I told you today, Haruka, and tell your fellow senshi. Setsuna will not be pleased that I can see things she can't, but these are things that you must know in order to save the Silver Millennium."

Haruka nodded and summoned her sword once more, pausing as the golden energy of her planet swirled around her in preparation for her teleport. "Is it something I can control? When you feel me while I'm with Michiru; can I prevent it?"

"I don't think so. None of my other avatars have ever been able to. Nao used to be able to force the bond between us when she was in a particularly irritable mood, and she could overwhelm me. She only did it when I was courting a goddess she wasn't fond of, and eventually I gave in to her demands and seduced Artemis."

Haruka raised one eyebrow as the seed of an idea sprouted in her mind. "She could make you feel more than usual? How did she do it?"

Uranus crossed her arms over her chest. "If I knew how, I would have stopped her. Do you know how irritating it is to be overwhelmingly horny with no permanent lover to take the edge off?"

Haruka chuckled and nodded, raising her sword to the sky. "Of course I know. But then I found Michiru." She vanished in a burst of wind, the blonde goddess raising one hand and silencing her element in the emptiness left behind.

"Just like Nao; always determined to get the last word," Uranus grumbled, staring around her temple thoughtfully. On the floor behind the altar, taking up most of the raised dais at the feet of her statue, a golden cloth covered a long, wide table holding piles of rolled scrolls, each one a desperate prayer to her. She picked one at random and opened it, smiling as she recognized Haruka's tiny, compressed hand. Let me find her. She read the four small words again, running her finger over the princess's seal at the bottom of the paper, noting that the request was dated nearly two months ago. "Be happy, my child," she whispered, turning the scroll into a shower of golden dust and watching it fall to the floor at her feet. In the silence of her temple, the memory of Haruka's lips taunted her, and Uranus looked up as she called out a name, her eyes gold once more. "Artemis."

A slender woman dressed in silver and white armor appeared beside Uranus on the dais, a golden bow poking out of the ornate quiver on her back and her long, silvery blonde hair tied in braids and wrapped around her head. She was one of the few Olympian goddesses who could almost look Uranus in the eye, nearly as tall as the blonde, and she invariably wore boots with heels to keep their height the same. She had been out hunting in the forests of Olympus, probably with her Amazons, and the flash of irritation in her silvery blue eyes let the older goddess know that she was in no mood for games. "This had better be important." Her voice was cold, sharp, and usually enough to deter anyone from getting close to her. Uranus, however, knew that a loving and passionate woman existed beneath the virgin huntress exterior, and she had spent too many years carefully seducing the woman to be bothered by her harsh words.

"I need you," Uranus purred, slipping the quiver off Artemis's back with practiced ease, brushing the huge pile of scrolls to the floor with one arm while she grabbed the huntress with the other. Artemis squealed indignantly as Uranus tossed her onto the table, the blonde dropping her dress to the floor before climbing on top of her. She grinned as Artemis surrendered to her ministrations, the younger goddess finally noticing the color of her partner's eyes as Uranus leaned down to claim her lips.

"What is that?"

"It's a time knot," Setsuna replied, glancing at Venus as the senshi leaned forward, her blue eyes dancing over the tangled mess in an effort to sort it out. She glanced at her fellow senshi and waved her hand, letting her transformation fade as the meeting began in earnest. The other four women followed suit, each of them dressed in the colors of their planets and wearing little jewelry other than their keystones. Setsuna reached up to touch the image floating above the table, marking the time periods at either end and certain key strands that she had identified in the middle. "This is what it looked like when I first saw it. You can see how compressed the time period is and how many entities were originally involved in this tangled mess. As the last few weeks have passed, certain parts of the knot have unraveled or vanished, and I have also been able to identify key players in the inevitable outcome." She added more data crystals into the computer console, loading seven different time knots, letting them float above the table as she highlighted the most recent one. "These colored strands here are the senshi, all of you, and the pink and gold strands here represent Tranquility and his Cupids. I don't know what this dark strand here is, but it's very large and it worries me."

"What's that?" Michiru leaned forward and pointed at a silver/gold spot in the center of the knot, the part that was not quite a thread but more of a cloud that protected the other strands.

"That's someone I met in the past," Setsuna replied, trying to decide how much she could reveal about Helios. "I traveled nine hundred years into the past and found a man with the power to guard dreams watching over the Golden Crystal of Earth. He says that he is part of the time disturbance but that I won't understand until the end. He also says that the Cupids are stirring, and it seemed to bother him."

"It should bother him," Minako returned, wrapping her hand around the image of the latest time knot and pulling it to her side of the table. "I've never trusted those Cult of the Broken Wing fanatics. Hmm, it looks like two of the senshi strands are separate from the rest of us, possibly Haruka and Michiru since they're the Outer Senshi. And here, what is this one?"

Setsuna banished the older versions of the time knot, tapping a command into her console to summon a copy of the image before each queen and princess. She stared at the knot, crimson eyes widening as she noticed a new strand, a dark purple one that began just before the end, wrapping around the senshi strands, the silver/white one that represented Queen Serenity, the silver/white/gold one that represented Princess Serenity, and the dark garnet one that represented herself. "That's . . . that's Sailor Saturn. How did I never see that before?"

"Sailor Saturn is going to rise?"

"Yes," Yumemi whispered, closing her eyes in pain. "Hotaru . . . she already has the mark. Whatever darkness you see in that time knot is bad enough to call forth the senshi of destruction."

"Which is worse? The darkness we can't identify or the rise of the senshi who can and will destroy everything?"

"I don't know, Minako. That's the point of the meeting. We have to determine what this darkness is, and we have to decide what to do about Sailor Saturn."

"What do you mean, what to do about her?" Serenity's voice was cautious, her blue eyes watching Setsuna intently. "You mean that you might have to kill her, don't you?"

"If she rises, everything will be destroyed."

"Saturn has risen before, and the Silver Millennium still exists. She won't destroy us, just the coming darkness."

"And whatever planet she's on," Setsuna countered, dark crimson eyes holding Serenity's gaze for only a second before she looked away. "The last Sailor Saturn destroyed one of the largest rocky worlds in the Antares System because there was no other way to end the Sailor Wars. It's just an asteroid belt now. Would you have that happen here? Do you want her to destroy Mars or Venus to stop the darkness? Would you prefer if Earth were turned into an asteroid belt and the Moon with it?"

"No," Serenity whispered, backing down as tears filled her eyes. "But you can't kill an innocent child because of something she might do against her will! Hasn't there ever been a case of the senshi of Saturn fighting alongside the others instead of just swinging her scythe and destroying everything? Her power may be different than theirs, but she must have other abilities besides her dreaded Death Reborn Revolution."

"She does," Setsuna admitted, remembering the day her daughter Hibana had accepted the scythe, becoming the first Sailor Saturn. "The first few queens of Saturn were senshi, like all of you, and they had full control of their power. Over time, all of the royal lines lost their divinity, becoming weak until they could no longer become senshi. At that point, the Trio asked the patron gods of the planets to offer their powers to keep the royal lines strong. Zeus, Poseidon, Hermes, and Ares fathered the next generation of senshi on their planets and Aphrodite was born as the daughter of the queen of Venus. The Trio found Uranus and convinced her to return to the Pantheon and be born as the child of the Queen of her world, but there is no patron god of Saturn. In an attempt to rejuvenate the Saturn Royal Line, the gods ground Cronos's bones to powder and used the magic in them to infuse the newborn princess of this world with the powers of ruin and rebirth."

"The problem with that method," Yumemi continued, raising her head from her hands, "is that there is no god to control our powers. Without a patron god to control the power of Sailor Saturn, she can only destroy."

"That doesn't mean you can kill her," Serenity whispered. "Setsuna, we can find another way to save this kingdom." Her blue eyes met Setsuna's garnet orbs across the long table, and the dark queen paused as she stared at the blonde. Her eyes . . . they were so much like her mother's, despite the color, and Setsuna had never been able to say no to her beloved queen. She felt her resolve waver as she noted the beginning of tears in those blue orbs, and she shook her head before she looked away.

"Fine," Setsuna whispered, "killing her is no longer an option." She sensed Yumemi relax beside her, grateful for the decision, and the dark queen sighed. "But what else can we do? How do we stop the coming destruction?"

"Settle down; the meeting will begin soon." Yasuda Mari leaned forward across the council table, coughing as the movement aggravated her disease. Her skin was pale as she sipped her glass of water, grimacing at the taste of the medicine her doctor had slipped into the liquid. The other War Queens watched her silently, respecting her for being the eldest while they worried about her sickness. "Is he here yet?"

"We sent some guards to fetch him," Ado replied, typing on her computer as she nibbled on a honey cake contemplatively. "He refused the summons."

"He hates our princess, ignores our traditions, and flaunts our laws," Sanae grumbled, brushing her strawberry-blonde hair out of her face. "I really should get my hair cut."

"You should," Hikari agreed, sipping her tea. "I've always said that shorter hair works better with your cheekbones. Why did you ever grow it out?"

Sanae turned to her left, glaring at the Third War Queen. Tahara Hiroko chuckled and took Sanae's hand, kissing it gently. "You looked so lovely on my arm at the ball three months ago. It was worth it."

"I'm still cutting it off. Your hair is long enough for the both of us." Hiroko brushed her black hair over her shoulder and shrugged, returning to the report she had been reading before Mari tried to call the meeting to order.

A scuffling sound at the door to the council chamber caught her attention, all of the War Queens leaning forward expectantly. The Lesser War Queens, those who were in-system and could attend, stood from their tables and watched in silence as a contingent of guards entered the room, Kazemaru Ono Miki in the lead with her strong fingers wrapped around Koshu's right arm. Lesser War Queen Taichen Laira held on to his other arm, her green eyes hard as she shoved him toward the podium below the lower table. The ten women at the upper table watched in silence as Miki and Laira took up positions on either side of the podium, daring the king to move as the rest of the guards spread out through the room. Mari nodded sagely and gestured for the Lesser War Queens to sit, tapping her fingers on the table.

"Ado, call the meeting to order."

The First War Queen nodded and stood, leaning across the table and glaring at her king, her gold-flecked green eyes furious. She had pulled her reddish-brown hair into a high ponytail, a sure sign to her fellow queens that she was in a foul mood. "You refused our summons, Koshu of Pluto."

"I'm your king. I don't have to answer to you."

"Yes, you do," Ado replied, taking her seat again. "The only person who rules over the War Queen Council is the Queen of Uranus. The position of king has no translation in our tongue; it's an honorary word we use to please the other kingdoms, but in this room we all know the truth. You're just Kazeko's consort. With Haruka gone, you have no power at all. We're here to vote on whether to keep you as king."

Koshu crossed his arms over his chest. "You can't depose me."

"We could behead you instead," Seventh War Queen Takeda Keiko offered, her gold eyes glowing maliciously from behind her curtain of purple-tinted black hair. "We wouldn't even have to rewrite the interplanetary notices."

"Keiko," Katayama Sayuri hissed, the youngest and lowest ranked War Queen the only one willing to reprimand the bloodthirsty daughter of a Saturnian Duke and the previous Seventh War Queen. She narrowed her turquoise eyes at the older woman, the four braids in her blue hair hanging in front of her face.

Keiko sighed and crossed her arms, relenting as Fifth War Queen Nishina Yuri stood from her chair. Her dark red hair hung over her shoulders in gentle waves, the tall woman one of the most feminine of the War Queens despite the steel in her greenish hazel eyes. "Lesser War Queen Taichen Laira, please repeat the message you received from Princess Haruka before you returned from Mercury."

"I said that I would return when I was ready!"

All eyes turned to the door as shocked silence spread through the room. Haruka stood just inside the doorway, her elegant navy dress embroidered in gold and a simple circlet restraining her wild blonde hair. Her emerald eyes passed over everyone in the room, pausing for a moment on Hikari, Miki, and Laira before she turned her fury on her father. "I told you not to go to war. I told you to wait for me," she hissed, the faintest golden glow surrounding her form. For the first time in her life, she had intentionally dressed like a woman as her father requested, but it was clear that her choice had nothing to do with him. The dress couldn't hide the strength of her warrior stance or the power flowing through her, and all of the women in the room bowed their heads in recognition of their queen, accepting her without question or reservation.

"You left! You ran away from home and stole your mother's sword and henshin stick."

"My sword," Haruka corrected coldly, stepping closer to her father and the conflict that had been brewing between them for twenty-one years. "My henshin stick. I am Sailor Uranus, the avatar of our goddess, and I am the rightful queen of this world."

"Not until I pass on the crown," Koshu retorted, surprised to find that he had to look up into Haruka's furious emerald eyes. Her heels were only a couple of inches at most, but she towered over him, taller by far than Kazeko ever was.

Haruka grinned, waving her hand to summon her Space Sword, casually pointing it at her father's throat. The king's eyes widened in shock as he realized that his child could actually kill him if she wanted to, and none of the women in the room would lift a finger to help him. They were her War Queens, her people, and it was her world. "There will be no vote," Haruka announced, not even bothering to look at the War Queens as she uttered her first decree as the ruler of her world. "Koshu is stepping down from the throne voluntarily; he no longer rules this world. As Kazeko's daughter I claim the throne of Uranus, and I will take my crown the next time all four moons are in the sky, as is traditional." Her narrowed eyes dared Koshu to object, to move, but the fight was gone from his eyes. He knew that he could never challenge her for the planet, and he closed his hazel eyes in surrender.

"All hail Queen Haruka!" Laira started the cheer as she sank to her knees in obeisance, Miki following her lead. The Lesser War Queens and War Queens called Haruka's name from their table, overjoyed that their beloved princess was home at last, grateful to no longer have to worry about the fate of their world.

"They were always your people," Koshu whispered, Haruka letting her sword vanish as he opened his eyes. "Honestly, I don't know why they obeyed me for so long."

"Because Kazeko told them to, and they loved her. She needed you to make me strong, and you have succeeded. I am the most powerful Sailor Uranus of all time, and there is a darkness coming that I must defeat no matter the cost." She turned to the War Queens and stepped forward, emerald eyes meeting each of them in turn. "There is a great war coming and we must be ready. How much of the fleet is here?"

Murata Ayumi, the slender Ninth War Queen in charge of troop deployments, glanced at her computer as the rest of the War Queens returned to their seats. "Twenty percent of our fleet is here for the vote, but seventeen of the Lesser War Queens are on maneuvers throughout the rest of the system. The Lower Chiefs have ten percent of their fleets in the Asteroid Belt and twenty percent in the Kuiper Belt."

Haruka nodded. "Alright. Yasuda Mari and Endou Ado will stay here with the First Fleet and their own capital ships, Katayama Sayuri will take her flagship and three capital ships to Mercury, Murata Ayumi will take her flagship and seven battleships to Venus, Kimura Sanae will take her flagship and six capital ships to Mars, Nishina Yuri will take her flagship and the Third Fleet to Jupiter, Takeda Keiko will take her flagship and meet her father's three fleets among the Moons of Saturn, Inami Tomoko will take her flagship and her six daughters' fleets to Neptune, and Tahara Hiroko will take her flagship and the Second and Seventh Fleets to Pluto. Send all of the Lower Chiefs into the Kuiper Belt with the Fourth and Fifth Fleets and all of the Lesser War Queens into orbit around the Sun. I have a bad feeling about the sunspot activity reports coming from the Mercury Observatory. Taichen Laira, stop by Mercury and apprise the Royal Family of the situation and see if they can increase their surveillance of the Sun and send the reports back here. Ono Hikari, take your flagship, all of your children's capital ships, and the Sixth Fleet to the Moon. I want everyone to stay in contact with Ado and Mari at all times so that we can fight the darkness whenever I and the other senshi find it."

The War Queens nodded and started typing commands in their computers, sending messages to the ships they needed and rerouting other capital ships throughout the system. Uranus had the largest fleet by far of the three warrior planets, and although most of the other worlds would not welcome Uranian ships in their skies, the War Queens trusted that their princess would make sure that their people were accepted on the other worlds. Hikari looked up from her computer, waving her daughter to her side and handing her a handful of data crystals to distribute to the other ranked warriors who would command her ships. "What about your party on Neptune, Haruka?"

Mari gasped at Hikari's familiarity with the princess, reaching over to scold the younger warrior until Haruka's sly smile stopped her. "Ah, yes, my debut. You've already been invited, haven't you, Hikari? Good. I expect every War Queen to be on Neptune in two weeks' time for the Princess Michiru's birthday party. It's going to be quite the event."

Hikari chuckled and nodded. "We'll be there. Should we send out an announcement concerning your decision to take the crown in two weeks?"

Haruka chuckled and shook her head. "It'll be more interesting if you don't. Get the troops deployed and start planning for my Crowning."

"Setsuna, I think that your time knot might be related to my vision."

"I heard about that," the Plutonian replied. "You showed it to Queen Serenity and she called me in tears."

Michiru pulled her mirror out and placed it on the table before her, darkened teal eyes watching Setsuna across the table before flitting to her mother. "Would you like to see the vision that almost killed me? The vision that I showed our queen was not the same one that put me into a coma; it seems that every time I look into the mirror the vision is clearer than before."

"Show us," Setsuna whispered, garnet eyes intent on the reflective surface of Neptune's talisman. She had looked into it thousands of times over her lives, but no vision had worried her as much as this one did.

Asakaze looked over her shoulder at Shinrai, smiling sadly at her husband. "I think it's best if only we see this," she suggested gently. "If it truly is our end, I don't want you to be burdened by that knowledge without the power to do anything about it."

Shinrai nodded, understanding his wife's fear. As former senshi, the queens still had skills and abilities beyond anything their mortal husbands could ever possess, and she wanted to save him from seeing what would be his wife and daughter's death in a battle he could never fight. "We'll wait for you in the antechamber," he whispered, gesturing for the other kings to follow him. As soon as the doors closed once more, all of the women turned back to the mirror as Michiru ran her fingers gently across the silvery surface, every princess and queen dreading what they would see.

Shadows crept through the ruined palace on the Moon, the wan light of the sun unable to pierce the darkness. Bodies were spread across the ground in haphazard piles, servants and commoners dead where the shadows had met them, without the chance to defend themselves. Two bodies lie crumpled on the stairs to the palace, blood flowing all the way down to the marble of the courtyard proper. One body was slender and young, dressed in white with two blonde pigtails, impaled on a long, two-handed sword. Her petite form partially covered a masculine body dressed in black and silver armor, his sightless blue eyes staring into the sky.

The roof of the palace had collapsed in places, a gaping hole in the center revealing the large ballroom and the bodies entombed within. Hundreds of dead were hidden there, most of them torn apart by whatever had attacked, but one intact, lifeless form was still recognizable. Shousha's body was crumpled against a wall, blood covering the floor beneath her and a sword resting inches from her pale hand. Her eyes were staring into space but there was an oddly happy smile on her face, as if she had seen something wonderful in the moments before she died. Behind the palace, thousands upon thousands of dark shapes littered the ground, killed both by conventional weapons and the full fury of the senshi's powers. Most of the ground on one side of the palace was scorched, the dark bodies full of arrow holes and torn apart as if by a chain. The other side of the battlefield was covered in tiny dark circles where lightning had struck, many of the bodies frozen or entwined by thorny vines. In the center, tornadoes had thrown the dark beings into walls, the ground, and each other, alternately crushing them and tearing them apart. The ground was soaked and the grass wilted from the sea water that had been used to drown many of the enemies, though some of them had been gutted by a sword. The bodies of the senshi who had sacrificed themselves in a fruitless attempt to hold back the horde were crumpled among the carnage, broken and bloodstained from their last desperate battle.

Further away from the palace, lying on a broken pillar, Queen Serenity breathed her last, her lavender eyes turned toward the lone survivor with love and trust. She smiled as she died, her advisors gone and the scepter that held the ginzuishou nowhere to be found. The watcher, Setsuna, screamed in fury and grief as she pulled the limp form into her arms, crying into Serenity's silver hair. Overhead, the Earth seemed to glow with a fierce golden light as a young, dark-haired girl appeared behind Sailor Pluto. "It's time," the girl whispered, the uniform of Sailor Saturn marking her petite form as she raised a glaive longer than she was tall. She swung it down, and everything vanished.

Setsuna jerked back from the mirror, grabbing her Time Key and vanishing in an instant. Shousha, the only queen who had seen her own body, covered her mouth with her hand in horror and jumped up from her chair, running out of the room toward the nearest bathing chamber. Princess Serenity leaned back into her chair, tears in her eyes as Minako stood to try and comfort her, everyone knowing without a shadow of a doubt that she had been the dead girl on the stairs. The senshi were less concerned by the vision of their own deaths, especially in battle, but their princess had not been prepared for such a bleak vision of the future.

Michiru reached out and pulled her mirror back to her in silence, wishing that her premonitions were not so strong or vivid, hoping that she and her fellow senshi could save the Silver Millennium from that fate. Unable to contain her own fear about the future, she brought the vision to the forefront of her mind and sent it to Haruka along their bond, hoping that her wife had found something on Uranus to prevent such a gruesome end to their kingdom.

A swirl of wind filled the silence as a tall blonde appeared behind Michiru's chair, her gold-embroidered navy dress swirling as the wind vanished. "Michiru?"

The sea senshi stood and let Haruka embrace her, accepting the blonde's comfort as shock replaced the horror in the silence of the room. The rest of the women stood, staring at Haruka with wide eyes, Meika walking around the table with her head tilted to one side. "Haruka?"

Haruka looked up from her wife's aqua hair, emerald eyes widening as she realized that she had appeared in the center of a council chamber, and every queen and princess was staring at her. Oddly, Setsuna and Shousha seemed to be absent, but she had never planned on appearing before the queens as herself. "Um, yeah," she murmured, her husky voice still the same despite her feminine appearance.

"You really are a woman," Rei breathed, reaching forward to touch the blonde's silky dress. "I'm amazed."

"I'm glad I could impress you," the blonde replied dryly, glaring at the redhead when she reached for her breasts. "They're real," she growled, glancing over at the table as Amami gasped in shock.

"You're . . . Haruka, you were Rukaze? Michiru's husband?!"

The blonde nodded slowly as Serenity and the senshi gathered around her, facing the four queens standing beside the table. "Ono Hikari doesn't have a son named Rukaze," the Uranian admitted. "And yes, I'm legally married to Michiru." This was not how she planned on revealing her identity, especially not before finding her planet crystal. From the look on the queens' faces, it was clear that any chance Haruka had of preserving her disguise were fast fading, and with it her chance to save the Silver Millennium. If they told Shousha and Setsuna the truth now, there was no chance of returning the planet crystals to full power and stopping the vision that Michiru had sent to her so clearly. Worse than that, Setsuna was going to kill her.

AN2: I know that the confrontation between Haruka and Koshu was neither violent nor bloody, but when faced with a room full of dozens of women who would support his daughter, I think any sane man would back down. Also, every War Queen is named after an actress from the musicals and some of them with a named planetary ancestry portrayed the senshi from that planet. Now you guys get to guess where Setsuna vanished off to in such a hurry and how I'm going to get Shousha away from the meeting without seeing and recognizing Haruka before Michiru's birthday party.

Here is the full list of where names came from. In the event that the name in the fic is not the same as the actor who inspired it, the fic character's name is noted. All mention to length of time and number of stages is in reference to the first run of the musicals from 1993-2005, not the recent reboot

Endou Ado – longest-running SeraMyu actress by far with 739 stages, later becoming the sole choreographer; she played mostly background roles almost all of whom were villains

Kimura Sanae – first Sailor Uranus, second longest Uranus, eighth longest overall

Tahara Hiroko – fourth Sailor Neptune, second longest Neptune overall

Ono Hikari – first Sailor Star Fighter, fourth longest running SeraMyu actress, portrayed men and women pretty equally and she looked amazing when she played Vampiru (that's the image I used for her); she's one of my favorite Myu actresses which is why she is so close to Haruka here

Nishina Yuri – first Queen Beryl

Yasuda Mari – played Sailor Chi in some of the Stars-based musicals, and later Mandra-ko in Chou Wakusei Death Vulcan no Fuuin

Kawasaki (Ono) Miki – third longest overall performer, notable roles include Esmaurade, Kaorinite, and Kunzite

Takeda Keiko – first and longest running Saturn

Inami Tomoko – third longest Neptune, also portrayed Mistress 9

Murata Ayumi – second longest running Sailor Venus and my personal favorite

Katayama Sayuri – first Sailor Star Fighter and my favorite; loved her I miss you with Anza

Mochizuki "Mochi" Yuuta (Ono Mochi who appears later) – second longest overall performer and longest Tuxedo Kamen; he also played King Endymion exclusively in a few musicals, Kunzite in one, and Count Dracul for the vampire musicals

Inayoshi (Ono) Takako & Ooyama (Ono) Chiho (both of whom appear later) – two Jupiter actresses whose first names I liked; in general I was underwhelmed by almost all of the Jupiters' singing ability

Takagi Nao (Nao the Conqueror) – second & longest-running Sailor Uranus, seventh longest SeraMyu actress (counting Ooyama Anza and Morino Ayako as tied for fifth), was paired with Yuuka for all but 2 of her musicals; she and Yuuka were such a good pair that the writers wrote a song just for them that no other UraNep pair was allowed to sing (Destined Couple from Mugen Gakuen)

Asami Yuuka (Yuuka the Magnificent) – longest-running Sailor Neptune, ninth longest overall (only 1 stage less than Sanae), was paired with Nao the entire time she portrayed Neptune

Kawabe Chieko (Chieko the Strategist) – third longest running Sailor Mercury and my personal favorite; I love her version of Tabidachi with Miyuki