Prelude to Adventure


FORWARD:

	Often when I think about Sailor Moon as a continuum, I'm plagued by
the fact that my interpretation of the events of the Silver Millenium
and Crystal Tokyo are not common and possible wrong.  When I write a
piece of fiction, those same ideas and interpretations also influence
me, so in most respects, I never reach my target audience with my
writing.  I could begin ever story I write from now on with a big,
thick explanation about how I view how things happened, or I could
create my own continuum.

	The latter is what I'm trying to do here.  While this piece of work
will not affect the timelines and stories that I've written so far
(save The Heroes We Love, which is in essence the precursor to this
story), it will affect all the stories I write from now on.  That is
to say, this will be my reference point for my works of fiction now.

	As I have said, I'm creating a NEW continuum, and I have taken
several liberties with the characters.  In my experience, the
character of Queen Serenity is severely underdeveloped; this story
will change all that.  As well as some ideas of the origins of all
the madness we seem to face ever time we watch Sailor Moon. 
Hopefully, this story wont become as contorted as my other stories
have become after sitting in my HD for about a month.

	If anything seems awkward or unknown to you, it will be explained
later in the story.  At first I'll be using several terms that have
not been used in the series, but as my main two characters in this
series are expanded and developed, they will learn about these things
as you do.

	In order for all this to work however, you'll have to keep an open
mind about this, and most definitely, about the Sailor Moon
continuum.  You'll have to know a few things coming into this series,
most notably, you'll have to know about Serena/Usagi, for you can't
understand Serenity until you understand how her daughter turned out.
 While I will be, for the most part, be skipping over the entire
Sailor Moon and the Sailor Scouts part (This is problem as you'll
see, that in Heroes I called them Scouts, and in this work, I'm
calling them Senshi. Oh well… the perils of writing.), you should
know a bit about them.

	There are many, many, many references to Greek Mythology and a
little bit of Roman.  I'm not sure if any Hinduism Mythology slipped
in, but who knows.  You need not be well versed in Mythology to
understand anything in this story, but you'll miss a few puns.  The
one that comes to mind is Queen Serenity's first name, Phoebe, which
means 'moon' in Greek.

	Finally, this story is presented by me to you, and is very
reflective of my mood and current educational status.  As so much as
to say that, as each day passes, and I learn something new, it goes
into my fanfic.  One problem I've found with my opinion of the
universe is that it is truly a Heretic's point of view.  I am not a
religious man, and I will be stepping on the toes of practically
every person before me.  While the previous may be true, it is
important that this story be seen as exactly that. A story, not a
statement against any religious faction, not a political statement or
metaphysical, it is merely a means of telling a story.

	By the way, this is a narrative text, in that there is a person
telling a story here.  His/Her opinions and/or thoughts will be put
into the story as if it was being told to you by him/her.  Keep
reading and looking for new parts to this story, for I'll give you
one hint: The story isn't over until you know who the Narrator is.

	Oh well, I've wasted enough of you time, now onto the story.


PROLOGUE:

	Contrary to popular belief, the gods had no names to themselves. 
They, being gods, merely knew who each other were, and had no real
reason to speak unless they were face to face with the person they
were speaking with.  That is also to say they looked like us, for
they do not.  They were soft in places we are rigid, curved in places
we are smooth, suffice to say, they were almost our opposites.

	May I speak of them in the past tense, it is to say that they were
once among us, and will be among us again.  For some believe, they
are already among us, we just cannot see them as well as we used to
be able to.  For the gods spoke only to two types of people, the
Greeks, and the Lunarians.

	Now, from what I could find out by talking with people from both
races, the gods were at war the fateful day the god we know as Hera
placed her secret weapon in the dwelling of a young woman, some who
say, the first on earth.  Her beauty was unsurpassed, given to her by
the gods, and she possessed sight beyond that of a human's eyes.

	Hera entered the young woman's house, by some means I'm sure we are
meant to find impossible, and posed before her.  The young woman
looked upon the gift in Hera's arms, one of many gifts that had been
bestowed upon her great beauty and elegance.  "What is it, my goddess
Hera?"

	"A gift from Zeus," the goddess replied, in whatever means she could
find to speak with humans.  Hera had always found it the hardest to
deal with humans, she never could understand their purpose in being
created.  The humans were so drastically different from her kin.

	When the woman went to open the box, a mans voice shouted, "stand
away from that gift."  The woman turned to look at her husband,
Epimetheus.  He strode the length between himself and the woman,
"Prometheus has warned me never to accept a gift from Zeus.  We
cannot accept this present."

	Hera would turn to look at Epimetheus, then place the box on the
ground, and leave.  The woman turns to face her husband, "why must we
not accept any gift from Zeus?" she says.

	"I do not know," Epimetheus said.  "But my brother has told me in
the greatest of urgency, and I believe we should listen." He came to
the box, picked it up and placed it on a table.  "Do not open this
box, for if my brother is to be believed, our world would be better
without it."

	"I understand," the woman would say, but she did not.  For many days
and weeks the box laid on the table, unmoving, collecting find
particles of dust.  Until many a week had passed, and the woman's
curiosity overtook her judgement.

	She slowly walked to the box, and peeked into the lid…

	As soon as Pandora saw what was inside, she tried to close the box
as soon as she could, but the lid had been opened, and the
innumerable plagues for the body and sorrows for the mind flew from
it.  The demons and tyrants and evils of all human kind infected the
many a man they could.  She screamed a dead scream as Epimetheus
walked to her side and spoke.  "I told you should not have opened the
box," he said.

	Long after the box had emptied, and the screaming evils had gone,
there came a faint scratching from the box.  Epimetheus opened the
box wide, deciding that one more evil in the world could not hurt as
much as the innumerable ones that had just left, and out came a shard
of light.  A single ray of sun that moved in a nebulous form, holding
no shape.  It was their only combat to the evils, their only tool to
use to fight.

	The Greeks called that ray of sun, Hope.  To the Lunarians it was
called Magick.  To Pandora, she called it Parthex.  The light would
grow, as each person believed in it, as each person dedicated
themselves to the fight against the evils.  The gods had provided a
tool, and if Hera could smile, she would.  This was the day she
evened the odds between the gods and the humans.  It had meant to be
punishment for stealing fire, and instead they learned Parthex.

	What happened next, is unknown to the Greeks, so it could or could
not have actually happened.  From what evidence I could gather, many
of the Greeks did not understand the stories they told their young,
and each other. They had no chance of predicting what was to come. 
However, the Lunarians knew some of it, most from their Demi-Goddess
that served them, but some from the actual gods themselves.

	Pandora helped the humans to use the ray of sunlight she called
Parthex, establishing a culture that would live independently of
their godly creators.  She taught each of the humans how to use
Parthex to do certain menial tasks, and some she even taught to
fight.  Each human, in turn, learned to find strength in each
weakness, to find hope in despair.

	Together, Pandora, Parthex, and the rest of the humans, created
habitats on each of Sol's 9 planets and their moons, with the
exception of Pluto.  Pluto was different, it was special to the
people, it was a boundary.  It marked the edge of their territory,
where their system ended and the rest of the universe began.

	Each of the planets developed a culture, and a system of government.
 They had a system of classes, and a so called 'native' population. 
And for a time, the gods seemed insignificant.  But the gods did not
like being pushed aside, and one day they made their more powerful
magic work again.

	At about seven thousand BC, the hierarchy of the Parthex left the
face of the Earth for places unknown.  They did not go to any other
planet that could be followed, and most likely went beyond the
boundary of Pluto.  Those that could use the Parthex left with them,
those that could not use it, stayed.  With them, they took all traces
of the Parthex, the power was still there, but there was no one left
to teach how to use it.

So world was left alone, for a great many years.  People learned from
others, traders flourished, and people began to forget.  They forgot
when they were close enough to the gods to touch them, they forgot
when they had the power of eternity in the palm of their hands, they
forgot their gods, and they forgot Pandora.

	By the time the ancient Queen Tranquility uncovered the lost art of
Parthex, and renamed it Magick, they world was ready for a change. 
When she released Parthex back into the world, it spread it tentacles
way out into the Sol system, touching each planet and moon,
vitalizing its inhabitants.  And it chose one person, among the
billions of others on each planet, to be special. Those who were
chosen, were later named, Senshi.

	And thus, our story begins.





	Lennox Vedas was a man of subtlety, he never rose his voice above
others, he never rose a fist to strike a man.  He was happy as he
was, a man who tended his crops in the east pasture of Adamant, a
large plantation on Phobos, one of Mars' moons.  On Mars, there was
no real upper class, aside from the Despot, but Lennox Vedas had
enough possessions to ensure his life, his wife's, and of course, his
only son Richard.

	Lennox was on his way to the only marketplace within fuel's reach of
the plantation, he needed some things and he had some crops to sell. 
As always before going out he kissed his wife and son, supplied his
land speeder with enough fuel to make it to the marketplace, put on
his dusting cap, and sped off.  It would be within four to six hours
before he would make it to the very edge of the marketplace, and
probably another hour before he could even unload his crops.

	Such large expenditures of time were one thing that did bother
Lennox.  He had been with his wife for only six years, and his son
was only 2.  He would rather be with his family than thinking about
them on an endless ride to the market.  But his trips were necessary
to get the important things that kept them alive.  He would sell his
crop for the week, and use the barter to get some foods, materials,
sometimes for the equipment, sometimes for his family, and things of
medicinal purposes.

	This trip, however, would be cut short by a few hours, for it was
the darkness day, and in 10 hours the third planet from Sol would
block the light to Phobos. The planet would have to rely on the light
provided by the reflection from their mother planet, Mars, as well as
some from Deimos.  It wasn't a horrible thing at all; Mars was big
enough to cast enough light for life to go on. However, the crops
would not grow unless they were in the light of Sol.

	As the minutes stretched into hours, Lennox continued to drive his
land speeder through the rough terrain, pitching and banking to fit
the uneven ground.  Eventually the landscape smoothed out as he
neared the marketplace, the low hum of the engine and wind blowing
across his ears was replaced with hundred of voices all talking at
once.

	As he approached the main gate, smells of all kinds hit him, many
were sweet, and some were strong.  He stopped about thirty feet from
the gate into the marketplace and waited for the porter to open the
gate.  As he sat on his speeder and waited, the winds began to pick
up, a few clouds of dust flew past Lennox.  He looked into the sky
and saw the sun beginning to approach the large third planet, it
wouldn't be long before the darkness would come.

	Finally the gates creaked opened and Lennox drove his speeder into
the marketplace, passing a few people standing by the gates begging
for barter.  He came to a place where he felt he could leave his
speeder without it being taken and stopped.  The speeder slowly
settled into the ground and Lennox placed his card of ownership on
the seat.  Most thieves were honorable about cards of ownership, it
was a way of maintaining some degree of security.  However, a
desperate man wouldn't let some card or threat of death stop him.

	Lennox picked up his crop and carried it off into the marketplace. 
If he was lucky, he could find a place to offer barter that was close
to the middle of the marketplace.  That way most people would pass it
even if they never made it all the way through the marketplace.  He
was not so lucky this day, he was forced to set up his crop pretty
close to the eastern gate.  He was still able to sell off his crops
for barter with which he would proceed to buy cloth, and medicine.

	He was not finished with his task until it was two thirds past the
rotation.  In three hours he would be stuck outside on his speeder
during the darkness. When he finally bought the last of his medicine,
he hurried off to his speeder, once again overjoyed to see that it
still remained where it was.  He activated the speeder as it rose
itself from the ground and made his way to the gate where the porter
was swift in allowing him to leave.

	Once out in the vast deserts between his home and the marketplace,
Lennox began to feel the constraint of time on him.  He looked up to
the Sol to see that it had already begun to be covered by the third
planet.  

In the second hour of his trip from the marketplace to his house, the
sol was halfway gone, and the winds were really beginning to get
harsh.  It was common knowledge that the position of the Sol was
directly related to the amount of winds, and if the Sol was to hide
behind the earth while he was still out on his speeder, the winds
would almost certainly engulf him.

	As he drove his speeder, a loud noise began to come from astern, he
turned just in time to see a Vorta class land cruiser soar over his
head.  It almost made the speeder topple end over end, he had to
struggle with it just to keep it level.  When the tail wind of the
cruiser finally died down, Lennox stopped the speeder and waited for
a second.  He quickly surveyed the land to see if he could spot other
cruisers, which he was glad he could not.  After a final look around,
he continued towards his house.

	By a stroke of luck, or perhaps fate, Lennox arrived at his house
just as the darkness began.  As he set the speeder into the ground,
the land became pitch black and then began to get lighter as his eyes
adjusted to the new light from Mars and Deimos.  He entered his home,
holding his barter in his hand, and looked for his wife.

	It was his greatest surprise to find that she was not alone. 
Sitting in one of his olden, beaten up chairs, was a tall woman.  She
had gray, sliver like hair, that was kept in two tight bundles on the
sides of her head, much like Lennox had heard that children do, only
some of the hair had been cut from the bundles to stream down her
back.  She had pale skin, and was wearing a long, silver gown with
gold crescent moons accenting her outfit, including one on her
forehead.

	She stood the moment Lennox entered the room, she looked him over
for just a second, then made a short curtsy.  Lennox returned the bow
and followed it with a question, "Who are you?"  He didn't say it
rudely, but with a firm enough voice to show he was unsure of how to
proceed.

	The woman kept a straight face throughout, "I am Phoebe Serenity,"
she said. "Queen of the Lunarian Kingdom, and I'm pleased to meet
you, Lennox Vedas."  Lennox was surprised, but he did not show it. 
He stared into her face, as if trying to see through the lie, but he
could not.  Her vibrant blue eyes shined back innocence, purity, and
courage.

	"As am I, Queen Serenity," he replied.  "May I ask why you have come
to my household?  Surely there are more important things on Phobos
for you attention.  We are the only affiliate of Mars that recognizes
the Lunarian Kingdom."

	Lennox gestured for Serenity to sit down.  "You are the only reason
why I am on Phobos," she bluntly spoke.  "I came with a matter of
secrecy, which is why I had to travel under the eclipse." She stood
again and motioned Lennox to follow her to the window.  She peered
out into the stars as she spoke, "Now is also the perfect time to
show you."

	She turned to Lennox, "are you familiar with the Partex?"

	"Most people know at least a bit about them," he replied.  "They
were the founding people of the Sol system, some say they spoke to
the gods.  I think they also created the magick of which your kind is
famous for using."  He turned to look out the window, "but every one
of them left the Sol system a long time ago."

	"That's right," Serenity said.  "We named a system in the next
galaxy after them." She pointed out the window, "that's the Parthex
system.  It was named after them because it's the farthest system we
can see, and it's where we think they might have gone."  She abruptly
turned and sat back down.  Lennox slowly followed.

	"Every 300 years, 2 months, and thirteen days of the third planet,
all the planets in the Parthex system line up and point towards this
system.  Our researchers in the Crystal Palace have been studying the
day that it happens ever since--" she trailed off.  She quickly
straightened herself and continued, "well, for a long time.  From
what we can figure, there is some correlation between that day and
Magick."

	Lennox adjusted himself in the chair, suddenly feeling very anxious.
 "I have been very patient with you, Queen Serenity, but I'm afraid
you'll have to get to the point."

	"I'm also afraid that you may misunderstand me if I don't explain
myself properly.  But in the matter of time, I'll try to cut any
unnecessary details.  The first time we noticed the planets align, a
woman named Metallia was born on Jupiter.  We found out about her
because the local public had become aware of the fact that she was
born with extraordinary skill in Magick.  We were asked to come and
contain her for the time being."

	"While being in our custody, we performed tests on her.  She was the
most powerful person we had ever discovered, that's when we became
scared.  She started asking questions and we didn't know how much we
should have told her.  Now--now I wish we had told her everything."
She paused for a bit.  Lennox could see the anguish in her face.

	"She rebelled against us.  We tried to contain her but she was too
powerful, and was had to call on the eight Senshi to defeat her.  She
was way too powerful, so we decided to find out about people like
this in advance, and educate them to the best of our abilities.  We
hope that an educated mind would know the difference between right
and wrong.  We would stop another Metallia from happening."

	Lennox shifted again in his chair, he was starting to get impatient.
 Serenity continued, "this project is what detected the alignment of
the planets of the Parthex system, abet they were two years late. 
Which is why I'm here, Lennox Vedas."

	Lennox looked strangely at Serenity as the pieces of the story
clicked into place for him.  The time span, the sudden visit to his
house, the long and informative story.  "My…son--" his voice
whispered, with a hint of longing. 

	Serenity stood up again and moved next to Lennox.  "Your son was
born at the exact time of the third arrangement of the stars in the
Parthex system.  If he turns out like Metallia, the whole Sol system
could be in danger."

	"What would you have me do?" Lennox harshly replied to Serenity. 
"Give up my son?  Allow you to take him to a moon that's millions of
miles from his home?  Why kind of a person you think I am?"

	"You must understand what we're facing here.  The kingdom can't fend
off another attack by some Magick using super god.  We need to try to
control your son before he gets too powerful."

	"Control?  Did you learn anything from that witch Metallia?  If you
try to control someone they will fight against you, you have to
befriend them."  Lennox walked over to the window, noticing that the
sun was beginning to come out from behind the third planet.  He
abruptly turned around and confronted Serenity.  "I will not let you
control my son.  Even if I was even partial to the idea of giving up
my son, which I'm not, I wouldn't let you order him around."

	"I'm sorry, but I can't let you risk the safety of the entire
system, even for your son."

	Lennox closed the distance between himself and Serenity to stand
within a hair's width of her face.  "Are giving me a threat?  What
will you do if I decline?"

	Serenity looked long and hard into Lennox' eyes, "Are you
declining?"

	An ages long battle was fought and won within a second after she
asked that question.  Ever moral and ethical statement was put into
question and his mind burned in a fire like no other.  When the
battle was done, he had made up his mind.  "No, I am not."

	"What then?" Serenity pressed him.

	Lennox sighed and slumped back.  "I can't be responsible for the
destruction of a system just for my own stubbornness.  I just can't
stand the thought of having my only son taken away from me."

	"You could live in the Palace," Serenity said.  "I'm sure I could
arrange for you to be supported for on the moon.  You wouldn't see
your son all the time, but you could see him."

	"No," Lennox said flatly.  "I don't think I could fit in on the
moon.  We're not a people of high class, and my crops need to be
tended for.  Just--come back in a day, alright? We have no where to
go, just let me spend one last time with him."

	"If that is your wish, then I gladly grant it.  I'll return in a
day."  Serenity turned away from Lennox and headed for the door. 
When she was long gone from earshot, he began to cry.





	When Serenity entered her land cruiser, the first face she saw was
that of her herald, Pluto.  She was sitting inside the cruiser, with
her legs crossed, long purplish hair streaming down her back, her
dark green eyes staring out the window, with her staff lying across
the seat.  She did not wear the same formal gown that Queen Serenity
wore, in the cruiser her brown cloak covered her, but Serenity knew
that beneath that was her Senshi suit.  A purple tunic with a tight
fitting gown like outfit, draped over her whole body stopping a foot
or so before the ground.

	When Serenity entered the cruiser, she only nodded, not saying a
word.  It was not until the cruiser had already taken off and was on
its way to the moon again, did Pluto begin to speak.  "What would
have done if he had disagreed with you?"

	Serenity turned to Pluto and spoke with a disinterested voice, "What
difference does it make? He agreed with me, abet reluctantly."

	Pluto frowned at Serenity, and stared into her face, "That's not an
answer, it's an excuse.  What would you have done?"

	"Don't ask me that, I know what your thinking so you tell me what I
would have done."

	Pluto stared into her eyes, as if looking beyond them, into some
cosmic portal to another world and back again.  She began speaking to
her while still staring into her eyes.  "You would have tried to kill
him and his wife to get to his son.  You would miss him and get his
wife, he would feel insecure and give you his son anyway."  Pluto
blinked a few times and refocused on Serenity's whole face.

	"You claim to be a goodhearted Queen of all trades, but when you are
scared you can be more ruthless than our enemies."  Serenity turned
away from Pluto and looked out one of the windows in the cruiser. 
Pluto stayed where she was.

	"You know," Serenity began.  "I believe the term is a Jack of all
trades, but I still get worried from time to time.  The People… they
put so much trust in me, and we're supposed to be the moral and
ethical leaders.  I just wish I could have held onto the innocence I
had in my youth, I was as harmless as a fly."

	"You were also unknowledgeable, unwise, and irresponsible," Pluto
calmly returned.  "People don't become leaders because of birthright,
you earned your place in the Palace.  Even if your mother hadn't
died, eventually she would have asked you to rule, and you would have
been just a silly little apprentice girl."

	"Maybe I was better that way," Serenity said solemnly.  She quickly
spun around to look at Pluto, "But it's in the past now, or perhaps
the probable future.  What's most important now is that Lennox is
going to let us take Seether.  I want you to go ahead and prepare a
team for Seether's arrival, remember, education is the end to hate."

	"As you wish, my Queen," said Pluto.  As she turned away from
Serenity, she began to blur as her clothing blended into one and
eventually she faded away.  Serenity looked back out the window, her
eyes darting from one constellation to another.

	The large cruiser barreled around the terminator of the moon and for
a moment headed straight into the sun.  The light shining through,
lighting up everything within the cabin of the cruiser, and casting a
miniscule shadow on countless planets.





	Five days later, four after Seether was taken, a catastrophic global
plate shift caused the Adamant plantation to erupt with fire, spewing
forth scalding hot magma and dust.  Of the thirty-eight people who
worked the Adamant plantation, none survived.  The event caused all
traces of the families and people working to be erased, buried
beneath 20 thousand tons of stone and dust.

	No explanation was ever found for this apparently natural event.
While information I have uncovered has left me to believe that
several people within one of the planetary governments are suspects,
these beliefs are merely speculation.

	Much later, an investigation was conducted to find the remains of
certain individuals who were determined to have been sufficiently far
from the eruption. Of the sixteen bodies found, Lennox and Lady
Lennox were not among them.
End Prologue


	All items within this story are not owned by me, they are however
owned by many respectful people and I would hate to have them loose
money just because you want to sell this wonderful art
	This work is Copyright © 1997 by Adam Christopher Leigh, All rights
reserved.

Omicron@sprynet.com