Now the insanity begins in earnest...here's the first full chapter of
my widdle fic.

Standard disclaimers apply. Sailor Moon belongs to Takeuchi Naoko,
please don't sue. Other stuff belongs to me. Use without permission
and I will pull your lower lip up over your head.

-------------
Sailor Moon Aia

Chapter 1: Topaz Trouble

Rei looked up from her lunch as a shadow crossed over her. The
shadow's owner was a tall girl with white hair pulled up into a flat
little bun on the top of her head; she walked around the schoolyard
with her lunch as if trying to find a spot to light. It was the new
girl that had come into the class that morning, Allie...something or
other. Rei waved her hand in the air. "Hey! You can come sit over
here!"

Allie Something-or-other stopped and looked at Rei for a second.
Seeing no other offers of companionship, she turned back and had a
seat next to Rei. "Thanks. What's with everyone? Nobody's said a word
to me all day."

"Oh, don't pay any attention to them." Rei smiled. "I'm Hino Rei."

Allie smiled as well, and replied "Allie McDaniel," around a mouthful
of egg salad sandwich. She swallowed and continued. "I was born in
America, but my dad is Japanese and after my parents split up, he
decided to come back here and bring me with him."

"That's terrible!"

Allie chuckled. "Not really. I never saw much of Mom. She's an
actress. She goes all over the place doing these little bit parts in
movies and TV shows and stuff. Ever seen -Blood Circle Broken-?"

"Uhm...can't say I have," Rei replied.

"How about this one called -Tales from the Coffin-? It's a bunch of
little stories...Mom played a nuthouse nurse in one of them."

Rei sweatdropped. "Heh...sorry."

Allie shrugged, then burst out laughing. "That's okay. Mom even calls
herself 'Queen of the B's.' She's never had a part with more than
five lines."

Rei laughed too, and then blurted out "Is she really bad or
something?" Then her forehead turned vivid blue as she realized what
she'd just said. -Smooth move, Hino. You blew it.-

Allie looked at her, totally deadpan. "Honestly?" There was a moment
of uncomfortable silence between them, and then Allie roared
laughter. "She's my mom and I love her as a mom...but as an actress
she stinks!"

Both laughed until tears squirted out of their eyes.

*			*			*

"Pathetic," said Queen Onyx. "My sister was always the weak one. 
Never could stand it when things didn't go her way." She sighed, 
and looked at the two broken bodies before her. "Do you suppose 
we can do anything worthwhile with these carcasses?"

Ruby flipped her long blood-red hair out of her face casually. "I 
suppose so. I can pick through the DNA. Take the good stuff. Trash-
can the rest and fill in the gaps with my own, which as you know 
is perfect." She paused and shot a sweet grin at Zircon. "Maybe 
even give them brains that are worth something, although I'd count 
that as a minor miracle if I could pull it off." She looked up at 
Onyx. "I can make clones of them, if you wish."

"Try with that one first," Onyx mused, pointing at the corpse of 
Kunzite. "He was the brains of the outfit...which isn't saying much,
I guess. If you have good results with him, try with that other piece
of flotsam." She scowled. "Don't disappoint me, Ruby."

"I never do, my Queen." Ruby dragged the bodies away. 

Onyx sipped her wine, then looked at her other minion. "And what 
have you to report, Zircon? Have you actually done something
worthwhile, or have you just been wasting perfectly good slaves?"

"First, I'll have you know my DNA is fine." He spat on the floor 
where Ruby had stood. "I've been doing experiments. Things with 
precious stones. Extracting the life-force from them, faint as it 
is, and using it to empower some of the slaves from the prison
planet. The earliest attempts failed miserably."

"I'm so surprised."

Zircon ignored her. "But I have finally produced some interesting
results. I think you'll be pleased with my crystal senshi."

"Sounds interesting." Onyx yawned.

"Care for a demonstration?" Zircon had expected such a reaction 
from the Queen, so he'd come prepared. "Sailor Topaz! Come forth!"

A most unusual creature entered the Queen's chamber. It appeared 
to be a human girl of about sixteen, with white hair that hung in 
a long braid down to the middle of her back. She wore a white 
sailor fuku with an orange collar and skirt, and a large yellow 
bow. And her body appeared to be made of translucent yellow crystal.

"This is my first prototype, Sailor Topaz."

*			*			*

"Oh, man." Usagi sank onto the curb outside her house. "This has 
been the worst day of my LIFE! First I get a surprise math test--" 
Ami and Mako looked at each other and rolled their eyes-- "then I 
get a huge stain on my shirt at lunch and then--THEN I run into 
Mamo-chan looking like I got into a fight with a tuna roll!" She 
burst into tears. Neither Ami nor Mako paid much attention. The day
before that (when Usagi had tripped at the cafe and dumped a slice of
pie a la mode right into Mamoru's lap), the day before that (when she
had unknowingly walked around the school for two hours with the back
of her skirt tucked into the back of her drawers after coming out of
the girls' room) and the day before THAT (when she had hit a muddy
patch in the schoolyard and skidded three feet before landing
face-first in the muck) had also been The Worst Days Of Her Life,
accompanied by similar rantings and waterworks. Ami had much more
important things to worry about (she had scored a measly 96 percent
on her math test, her worst ever). Mako also had more important
things to worry about (chicken curry or beef teriyaki for dinner, or
forget all that and eat out?).   

"Oh, cheer up." Mako patted Usagi's arm. "You think he's not used 
to seeing you spilling stuff, or tripping over your own feet, or 
just being your usual self? Whoa--" She looked up. "Who's Rei got 
with her?"

Usagi turned off the waterworks and looked up. Rei was walking 
towards them with a strange girl. "Hey, guys, this is Allie McDaniel.
She and her father just moved back here from America."

"Hi." Allie was tall, almost as tall as Mako, with pale skin and 
white hair pulled up into a bun. 

"Allie goes to my school! I have her in all my classes! And you 
should see her run!" Rei almost sounded like she'd found a new 
boyfriend. 

"Good to meet you all...I have to go home now. See you, Rei." She 
walked off down the street, rubbing her forehead. 

"That girl is weird." Ami piped up. "Rei, don't tell me you don't 
notice something odd about her."

"Well..." Rei looked down the street in the direction Allie had 
gone. "Now that you mention it...there IS something kinda strange 
about her."

"Oh yeah...we got two weird new girls at our school too, Rei!" 
Usagi exclaimed. "They're exchange students too! One of them is 
pretty nice, I think her name's Shana, and she's really cool, she's
on the fencing team and she lives right over THERE and--"

"The other one's named Janie something." Minako arrived behind 
Rei and sat on the curb as well. "And she's shy. She hardly said a 
word to anyone all day. But I felt it too. They're strange. Not in 
a bad way, I don't think, but weird!"

"I like Janie!" Mako piped up. "She's in my home ec class! I've never
seen anyone chop carrots faster in my life!" She grinned evilly at
Minako. "Without cutting their fingers off, I mean."

"Well, SHE'S the one that said there was a finger on the board in the
first place!" Minako huffed, pointing at Usagi. "I met Shana at the
arcade today. She had this cat with her...gray, long-haired, really
seemed to like me at first, but I guess she smelled Artemis on me or
something because she was looking at me funny."

"When's the last time you gave Artemis a bath, anyway?" Usagi shot.
"I think he must have gotten into the trash or something! LUNA won't
even come near him lately!"

"Cat bathing is a martial art." Minako laughed nervously. "The last
time I tried it, I almost lost a few fingers for real! I wish he
could be more like Luna. She's so well-behaved!"

"Actually," Ami added softly, "you shouldn't bathe cats at all. It
washes away the natural oils that protect their skin." Minako gave
her some kind of look.

"What about the UNNATURAL oils he gets from rolling around in the
driveway? Yuck!"

"I've got an idea!" Usagi jumped up. "Why don't we invite them all 
over tomorrow after school? We can let Luna get a good look at them 
and see what SHE thinks."

"Actually, Allie has already invited me over to HER house tomorrow. 
She said she knows those other two so you can all meet us there. 
Bring Luna and Artemis too, if you want."  Rei stood up. "I have to
get going. I promised Grandpa I'd help clean up the temple today, and
I'm late."

*			*			*

"So..." Shana flopped on her bed; a long-haired gray cat followed 
her up and bumped heads with her. "Janie, what do you think of this 
school of ours?"

"Ugh." Janie shook her head. "First day there they hit us with 
this monster test! Can you believe some of the stuff they threw at 
us? Imaginary numbers, indeed! If they're imaginary, why should we 
have to have tests on them!?"

"I didn't think it was so hard!" Shana rubbed the cat's tummy.

"Oh, sure, YOU would ace it. You were always two grades ahead!" 
she laughed. "However...can anyone ever forget that disaster in 
home ec our freshman year? Somebody thought if you put twice as 
much yeast in the bread dough it'd be ready to bake twice as fast? 
Can we forget the great and terrible Dough Beast oozing its way out 
of the bowl and onto the counter?" Janie laughed. Shana was not
amused.

"Fine, fine...you've made your point." Shana resumed petting her 
purring cat. 

"I think you made a few pretty good points in gym today!" Janie
laughed, pointing at Shana's fencing foil. Shana had beaten the pants
off the best fencer on the team that afternoon and just plain
humiliated the rest. "Sensei thinks you should take up kendo."

"No way." Shana shook her head. "That little white suit gets hot
enough. I'd bake in all that leather armor crap! Besides, do you know
how much that stuff COSTS? Why don't YOU take karate or something?"

"Me?" Janie laughed. "Look at me. I'm five feet nothing. I weigh
exactly one hundred pounds soaking wet with a sweater, jeans, and
boots on. Besides, I know one way of really hurting someone with
nothing but my trusty skateboard."

"Do tell."

"Okay...stand up."

Shana looked at Janie suspiciously, but stood. Janie parked her board
about three feet away from Shana's foot.

"Now...when someone is picking on me, all I do is throw all my weight
onto the foot on the board and..." Janie demonstrated...

The skateboard jetted right into Shana's ankle, causing her to yowl
in pain and hop around on one foot for a few minutes and generating
hearty laughter from the tiny girl. "And while they're hopping around
like that, I get on the board and book it!"

Shana was not amused. "You BETTER book it, because when I get the
feeling back in this foot you are CATFOOD!" At the mention of the
C-word, Aradia's ears perked up. Janie just laughed harder. "You hit
a nerve or something!"

"Yeah, that's the point. There's like a minor funnybone in there
somewhere. Hit it just right and that foot is useless for a few
minutes. Cool, huh?"

"Why...WHY do I always play along with your infantile little pranks!?
First it was the Hertz Donut. Then it was the Wet Willie. And how you
tricked me into that swirley I'll never know! And on top of that, you
have a really creepy ability to tell when I'm not paying attention to
stuff and saying 'Here, hold this!' and handing me gross stuff like
frogs and earthworms!" 

Janie just laughed harder. Eventually, Shana cracked a smile. They
had been friends since the third grade, which was when Janie had
offered Shana a Hertz Donut, stomped on her foot, and said "Hurts,
don't it?" while Shana hopped around bawling. Janie had always snuck
the grossest Garbage Pail Kids stickers she could find into Shana's
lunch box, to be found just as the latter was about to chow down on
her sandwiches. Janie was known as the grossest kid in the whole
elementary school. She could turn her eyelids inside out, stick
needles through the top layer of skin on her fingertips and walk
around like a zombie for the viweing pleasure of the entire school.
While Shana dressed and posed her Jem dolls, Janie was in the kitchen
experimenting with packets of Jello and food coloring and mayonnaise,
trying to make the grossest possible glop to fill water balloons with
and drop on the heads of annoying kids at school. And then one day,
Janie created entirely by accident a delicious concoction of
chocolate pudding, whipped cream, and strawberry syrup. One thing led
to another, and before long she was churning out delicious treats in
abundance. Of course, some of her creations were bedecked with gummy
worms and beheaded animal crackers, but they were tasty all the same.
Mr. and Mrs. Edwards, seeing this, decided to steer their lovely,
smart, and stomach-turning child towards the culinary arts at a young
age. By the time she and Shana entered junior high, she was out of
her gross phase for good.

But not, unfortunately for Shana (who now sat on the bed massaging
her tingling foot), her practical joke phase. Mr. and Mrs. Edwards
also saw THIS, and nudged ther daughter towards a more polite method
of messing with peoples' minds: magic tricks. For her thirteenth
birthday, they presented her with the most expensive magic set they
could find. Within a week, Janie was wowing her classmates with
amazing feats of trickery. She had become particularly adept at card
tricks, and her favorite used only three cards, marked with black and
red diamonds. She would corner some unsuspecting victim and tell him
or her that she would do his or her homework for a year if he or she
could pick the red diamond. No matter how obviously and dramatically
she placed the red diamond in the middle, it would always turn up
black when the victim picked it up.

Then she found the special cards. She had gone to the flea market
with her father, who was a full-blooded Cherokee and made peace pipes
and dream catchers and such to sell, and while her father was in his
booth peddling them, Janie roamed the grounds looking for something
interesting to buy. There were too many booth hawking cheap
knock-offs of whatever superhero happened to be popular at the
time--it was Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that year.
Janie passed them by in favor of the true flea market booths: the
ones that sold odd trinkets and musty old books, Pong machines with
no paddles, bits of stained glass windows from demolished buildings,
that sort of thing. In one of these booths, she found herself drawn
to a plain wooden box in the back of the store. Opening it, she found
a strange deck of cards. The backs of the cards were emblazoned with
a drawing of a key, and the faces were covered with marvelous
designs...The Magician...The Empress...Justice...these and others
captivated her. She knew she had to have these cards. Timidly, she
approached the old hag that ran the booth and asked how much she
wanted. Janie was a bit scared of the woman; she spent most of her
time reading a blue-bound book with an odd symbol (a triangle with an
eye in the center) on the cover and threatening to sell unruly
children to the gypsies. The hag looked over the cards and the box,
and then gave Janie a thorough looking-over, and demanded one dollar.
Janie handed over four quarters, the hag stowed them in a rusty metal
box, and Janie was the proud owner of a set of particularly unusual
tarot cards.

Janie was at the moment playing a hand of solitaire with said cards,
waiting for Shana to stop grumbling about her foot. "Did it really
hurt that bad?"

Shana glared at her.

"Jeez, sorry...I tried to hold back."

"Like I say, you should take up karate...for the SELF-CONTROL part!"
Suddenly, the cat stood up, looking towards the street and hissing.
"Aradia? What is it?" Shana reached out to touch her cat. Janie
jumped up as well. 

"There's something bad out there."

*			*			*

Usagi and Minako sat on the curb, still passing time idly, chattering
away about mostly nothing. The others had gone their separate ways:
Ami home, still brooding about her abysmal test score; Mako to the
grocery store to find something fit to eat; Rei to the temple to
do...well, temple stuff. The "To bathe or not to bathe Artemis"
debate continued, with well-voiced arguments both for and against.
Point in opposition, voiced by Minako: Artemis had claws and teeth
and knew how to use them. Point in favor, voiced strongly by Usagi:
Artemis stank. He had indeed gotten into the trash the day before.
Not only that, he had found a cool spot on the driveway to nap
in--right under Mrs. Aino's car, which had a slow oil leak. Artemis
came in that night with mostly brown-stained fur and an unpleasant
aroma; he spent the night outside and would continue to do so until
a) the smell wore off on its own or b) Minako gritted her teeth and
gave him a bath. When Minako had asked him why on earth he had done
such a thing, he had replied simply that it seemed like a good idea
at the time. Just as Minako finally opened her mouth to declare that
Artemis would be receiving a bath that night, a flash of yellow light
streaked out of the sky and landed on the street about half a block
down.

Usagi spun around and gasped. "Did you see that!?" She grabbed
Minako's arm. 

"I saw it."

"What was it? A meteor? It looked like a big yellow fireball that 
hit the--"

"What IS that!?" Minako stood up and gasped as she saw a girl step
forward from where the flash had landed. She was about Minako's
height, with white hair pulled back into a braid, wearing...a sailor
fuku? "What do you want?" she yelled at the figure.

There was no answer forthcoming from the girl; she merely raised one 
hand to the sky and cried out "Topaz...Flare...WALL!"

The world around Usagi and Minako was suddenly on fire. They were 
trapped in a whirling storm of yellow flames which threatened to
singe their hair, as well as other more important body parts. "We
have to transform, now!" Usagi yelled. 

"Moon Crisis Power, make up!"

"Venus Crystal Power, make up!"

Nothing happened. 

"What!?" Usagi stared at Minako in disbelief. "It didn't work!"

"How can that be?" Minako looked around her. "This fire must be
keeping us from transforming!"

"She's going to cook us!" wailed Usagi.

Shana and Janie watched through their window as a weird crystalline 
creature mounted a surprise attack on two helpless girls sitting 
on the curb. "I can't stand here and watch this!" Shana screamed 
and started for the door.

"Wait!!"

Shana turned and looked at Janie. "Did you..."

"No..."

Both girls looked at Aradia. The cat's mouth moved, and they heard a
voice say: "It is time. Time to remember."

Luna heard the commotion going on outside and bounded out of the
shrubbery. "Oh no!" She took a good look at the creature that was
attacking Usagi and Minako. "What in the world is that?" She analyzed
the situation. First, it would probably be suicide for her to go up
against that--THING by herself. Second, if the Flare Wall prevented
Usagi and Minako from transforming, it would most likely render their
communicators useless as well. Third, by the time she was able to
track down Artemis or the other senshi, it would probably be too
late. The wall was shrinking. Still, any action was better than
standing around here doing nothing. She took off down the street
towards Rei's temple.

"Remember?" Janie looked at Aradia. Then all at once memories flooded
back to her...standing in a kitchen, cooking up roast fowl and fresh
bread for her Queen...

Her Queen...Ila.

Shana remembered checking her shining blue armor in her mirror, 
strapping on her sword, and riding forth as Captain of the Queen's 
Guard...

Janie remembered the monster bursting into the kitchen, remembered 
her anger at the foul creature that had invaded her space, and 
remembered killing it with a roasting fork...

Shana remembered seeing the wall crash down in the Queen's Chamber. 
She remembered the Aia Star.

Janie remembered the man who had come into the chamber just before 
Solathei fell. She remembered a staff of pure crystal thrust into 
her hands. She remembered feeling something taken from her just as
Queen Ila sent her to this place, and that angered her.

Shana looked up. "My name is Sianna Illudin, Captain of the Queen's
Guard. I hold the Aia Star."

"My name is Jaana Eleias, a humble cook who risked her life for 
her Queen. I hold the Crystal Staff."

Aradia leapt into the air and flipped. Where she had jumped, two 
wands appeared. One was silver and tipped with a blue crystal. The 
other was gold and tipped with a green crystal. "Take these wands 
and transform, quickly! Your friends don't have much time left!"

Shana--Sianna--grasped the silver wand and held it high.

"Solathei Vengeance Power, make up!"

Janie--Jaana--took the gold wand and held it up.

"Loquathei Vengeance Power, make up!"

There were two lights; pure white for Sianna and pale green for 
Jaana. The white light surrounded Sianna and shaped itself around 
her body, solidifying into a white bodysuit. The green light
spiralled around Jaana's body, encircling her and coalescing into a
similar white suit. A warm wind blew around Sianna's neck and hips,
and where it passed there appeared a skirt and collar of deep violet,
and a deep red bow on her chest. Something like fireworks exploded
from the green light around Jaana; the sparks spun themselves into
thread and wove themselves into the green fabric of her skirt and
collar, with a yellow bow. 

Transformations complete, the two Aia senshi looked to Aradia. 
"Go quickly! Those girls don't have much time!"

Minako shrieked as the fiery wall reduced most of the red bow in 
her hair to cinders. "This is hopeless! We can't transform, the 
other senshi can't hear us, we can't do anything to stop it!"

And then she heard it. A familiar voice calling out.

"My world was destroyed by the evil you serve. I am Sailor Loquathei,
servant of Queen Ila!"

And another...

"I will protect this world as I protected my own! I am Sailor
Solathei, champion of the Silver World!" 

Topaz looked at the two interlopers and blinked. Her rudimentary
brain registered them as minor threats, but she kept the Flare Wall
up.

"Let them go! Phantom Fog!" Sailor Loquathei seemed to shimmer, and
then a fog comprised of vague humanoid forms began to circle around
the bewildered crystal creature. 

Topaz grunted in confusion, but decided that the fog was harmless.
The Flare Wall grew smaller yet. It disturbed her that she couldn't
see the two girls she didn't trap, but the thought passed quickly.

"Looks like I'll have to handle this!" Sailor Solathei rose into the
air and began to spin slowly at first, then picked up momentum and
cried out "Silver...Wind...SLASH!" Something that looked like a
silver boomerang shot out of her hand and sliced across the crystal
hand of Sailor Topaz. The crystal senshi cried out in pain and
dropped her wall of fire. Usagi and Minako dropped to 
their knees, not sure what was going on. 

Usagi noticed quite suddenly that she was no longer being fried.
"Minako! We're free! We can transform!"

"But who are THEY?" Minako looked at the two Aia senshi. 

"We'll ask them later!" Usagi geared up to transform...but before 
she could call out the words of power, the strange creature was 
gone in a yellow flash just like the one that had deposited it there.
"Huh?" 

"Are you girls okay? That thing could have baked you!" Sailor
Solathei crouched down next to Minako and Usagi. 

"But it just LEFT!" Sailor Loquathei stomped on the pavement. "And 
I didn't even get to blast it!" she wailed. She sounded a lot like 
Usagi at that point. 

"Hush, you! You get lucky one time with a fork and a pot lid and a 
few knives and you think you're Queen's Guard material." She clapped 
Loquathei on the back. "Seriously...I don't think that thing left 
because it was afraid of us. It could have fried us too, probably."

"Agreed. What WAS that, anyway?"

"I don't know. Looks like the Dark Kingdom has come up with some new 
toys while we were normal folks."

Usagi fell over. "You know about the Da--" Minako jabbed an elbow
into 
her ribs. "Hey!"

"Shh!" Minako glared at her and whispered, "They don't know who we 
are. I think it's best we keep it like that." She looked up. "Where'd
they go?"

Usagi looked around. She and Minako were alone on the street.

*			*			*

Allie McDaniel felt pretty bad about running off on Rei like she 
had, but the truth was that she had a splitting headache and decided 
to go to bed early. In her dreams, she wore a black silk robe with a 
hood over her head. Was she some kind of nun? It felt like she
was...she was living in a stone building with other women, some
wearing white robes and stumbling around magically blinded as part of
their initiation, some wearing blue and walking quietly against the
walls, and some wearing black like herself. There was something on
her back. A bag? It didn't feel like a bag. It felt like a permanent
fixture.

She reached her room and threw back her hood to look in her mirror. 

The person--the THING--looking back wasn't human. It had her white 
hair, pulled up in the same bun, but her skin was dark blue, her 
eyes solid white with no iris or pupil...and the thing on her back 
wasn't a bag. It was wings. Deep blue wings like a bat's. She spun 
around and there on her bed was a long-haired gray cat.

"Remember," it said.

She remembered sitting at her Queen's feet, gazing into the crystal 
orb, watching her home world die, cursing the arrogance of her
people. She remembered the Shadow Scythe. 

Satisfied that Allie had regained her memories of her past life, the
cat leapt into the air and turned a flip. A black wand tipped with a
red crystal fell into Allie's hand.

"The time has come," said the cat.

Allie awoke in the middle of the night with a strange weight in her 
hand. She flipped on the lamp to look, but she already knew what 
this artifact was and what it did. She crept out of bed and gazed 
into her mirror. Her familiar human face looked back at her, but 
now she knew it was nothing more than a mask.

"I am Lieutenant Aylia N'Dani, a Narah officer. I am the last 
Kyrthasti. I am Sailor Kyrthei." 
----------

As usual, C&C/MST welcome, flames not.

--Sailor Solathei, black belt cat bather