-- Decoded: quoted-printable

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this piece of fanfiction, no matter how much I wish I did. Naoko Takeuchi, Toei Animation, and Kodansha do. Kudoos to them.

--------------------

Usagi's voice: "School is over, finally. We met Shin-Sailor Moon, and are going to find out the answers to all of our questions. If we don't find out what is going on, in the name of the moon, I will punish you!"

[Opening Song: Moonlight Densetsu
[Usagi and Mamoru walk up a red carpet, in their wedding outfits. The ground breaks and Usagi seems to float away as Sailor Moon appears and puts everything as it was before, then she disappears.
[Usagi and Mamoru are in their own private room having a tender moment, when Chibi-Usa and Diana pop in. The three walk out.
[Night at Hikawa Shrine. Rei, Ami, Makoto, and Minako stand untransformed, with Luna and Artemis looking grim. Lightning flashes to reveal four Super Inner Senshi. They all stare up to the sky. After the screen scrolls up, it scrolls back to see Setsuna, Hotaru, Michiru, and Haruka staring out the window. Lightning flashes again, and they are Super Outer Senshi.
[In a very dark room, eight strange figures pace, and their eyes glow red.
[Super Chibi-Moon and Tuxedo Kamen stand watch, as two Eternal Sailor Moons glare at each other. Unnoticed by any of them, the silver moon in the background begins to turn black.
[There is an explosion, and Tuxedo Kamen with nine Senshi leap out. After the smoke clears, Eternal Sailor Moon looks to be very beaten. She has tears falling down her face, and is carrying the other Eternal Sailor Moon, who looks deathly pale.
[After another explosion, the screen pulls out from two golden crescent moons, and two Eternal Sailor Moons appear, back to back. Tuxedo Kamen and Super Chibi-Moon, with Diana on her head, scroll on screen, behind them. On the left side the four Inner Senshi scroll in with Luna, and the Outer Senshi scroll in on the right with Artemis.
[End Opening Song]

"What is it?" Haruka asked as Setsuna hung up the phone, a satisfied look in her rosy eyes.

"Good news, everyone," she answered, "Michiru, go wake Hotaru up, she will want to here this."

"Hai," Michiru said, as she stood up from her easal. She was almost done in what she hoped would be her next masterpiece. "It was inspired in a dream," she had said when she had laid out the sketches a week before. The canvas she was working on had the entire background completed. It was a partially cloudy night, and through one of the holes in the clouds, the moon shined. It's light illuminated a grandfather clock, showing 12 o'clock. On the right side of the clock was a clear, pure crystal shard. On the left was a clouded, dark crystal shard. Still needing to be colored was a circle of eight angels in the nude facing away from the clock, all holding a rose above their heads, which glowed with energy, as an energy beam connected each rose to the clock.

A few minutes later, Michiru reappeared with a groggy Hotaru. "What's going on, Setstuna?" Hotaru inquired.

With a triumphant smile, Sestuna replied, "Tomorrow, at Hikawa Shrine, our questions will all be answered."

[Title catch
[Two golden crescent moons spiral in and meet up with each other in the middle of the screen, as the Moon Kingdom fades in as the background. A hurricane of feathers blows over the screen and white letters with black outlines appear. Usagi's voice reads them:
["A tale of another world! The truth about Shin-Sailor Moon."
[End title catch]

"Usagi!" Mamoru called from his kitchen. He had finished his late morning breakfast, as he had gotten a late start, and looked at his watch. It was 11:23. Only 33minutes to get to Rei's. He walked into the bedroom to find his bride, still asleep. "Usagi," he whispered in her ear, "Wake up."

"Mamo-chan, I love you," Usagi said, and Mamoru smiled. Unfortunately, Usagi rolled over to reveal that she was truly sleep talking, and Mamoru began to sweat.

"Let me try," Luna said as she walked into the room, "I do have experience in this sort of thing." She jumped onto the bed, and yelled as loud as her small cat lungs would allow, "Usagi, wake up!"

Usagi responded by rolling again and flattening Luna.

Mamoru scratched his chin, thinking of what was up. The night before, Usagi and he had been watching a Disney remake of a romantic fairy tale, named Sleeping Beauty. He bent down, as if to kiss his princess, but stopped, smiled, and said, "There's no way I'm kissing you, Usagi no baka."

Usagi held up a sign saying, "Kiss this slumbering princess to break the spell."

Mamoru groaned, then left the room. He was halfway out the door when he yelled back, "I'm getting the car ready, Usagi, be down in five minutes or you're walking."

Usagi sat up after the door slammed shut, moaning, "Mamo-chan is strangely strict today."

She got up and dressed, with Luna pushing her forward so she wouldn't be late, and ate her routine breakfast during her exercise of speeding down to Mamoru's car.


Rei looked at her watch. It was 12:15. "Where was Usagi?" she asked herself rheatorically, not expecting an answer. She didn't get one. Everyone else had arrived on time, but the entire Royal Family was missing. She turned as Ami closed her computer.

"Sorry, everyone, but I can't find anything on this Epoch Shard that Lady Poseidon was talking about."

"You should have called us for help, if you were in as much trouble as you say you were," Haruka complained.

"Lady Poseidon?" Neptune asked, "If I remember correctly, Poseidon was the Greek deity of the seas and earth. In Roman mythology, that's Neptune. Could there be a connection?"

"It would make sense because of my water-ice based attacks not working, but we can't be certain," Mercury replied. "We should hold all of these things for when Shin-Sailor Moon comes.

"Sorry we're late," Usagi shouted as she ran up the last few steps of the Shrine, "But Chibi-Usa wouldn't get out of bed."

"Look who's talking, Mrs. "Kiss the Sleeping Princess to Break the Spell"," Luna nagged.

Everyone laughed at this, especially after Luna told them that Mamoru saw through it and left Usagi to sleep and walk or get up and drive.

"It's romantic," Usagi reprimanded her friends.

"Well, at least you got here before Shin-Usagi did. Also, we know she has your characteristics by not showing up on time," Rei pointed out.

"What was that?" Usagi asked as she got next to Rei, and stuck out her tongue.

"I said you can't ever get to a meeting on time," Rei retorted, as she again mimiced Usagi, and the Tongue War began anew.

"Stop that," Artemis commanded. "What if she does come and she sees you two like that? Not a great impression."

Usagi and Rei stopped, but glared at each other, then uncontrollably laughed, simultaneously, with the rest of the group laughing just to be polite.

Setsuna looked up and ominously stated, "She'll be here in 5 minutes."

5 minutes came and went, as the Senshi gathered their thoughts, and formulated the questions they were going to ask. They didn't want it to take all day if it wasn't necessary. At the end of the waiting period, footsteps could be heard running up the stairs to the shrine.

"Good afternoon, everyone," Shin-Usagi said once she came into view, as she eyed her watch, "Sorry I'm late." Without looking where she was going, Shin-Usagi tripped over the last step, causeing her to wail out in pain and to release a flood of salt water upon the immediate area.

"Same old Usagi," everyone thought as the chuckled, except Usagi, who was in shock of her counterpart's foolishness.

"That's alright," Rei said, then thought to herself, "Kami-sama, she really must be Usagi, to be so late to a meeting labeled as important."

"Let's go somewhere more private," Ami suggested, "We don't want anyone else to listen in."

Everyone nodded, and decided that the inner sanctum of the shrine would be the best place, and no one would bother them there. Once the twelve had gotten themselves comfortable, the questions and answers round started.

"I'll go first," Usagi said, thinking that she had the most important question.

"If she asks what Shin-Usagi's favorite food is, I'm going to gag," Rei mused.

"Why do you look like me?" Usagi asked, surprising everyone with the magnitude of her question, and annoying them all because that was their first question.

Shin-Usagi sighed, "The answer, Usagi, is because I am you." 

Everyone frowned at Shin-Usagi, waiting for her to continue. "There's got to be more than that," Chibi-Usa said.

"Well, yes, I was just getting to that," Shin-Usagi said as she scratched her head, and giggled, while the other eleven inhabitents of the room groaned. "The long answer, well, this is going to take a while to explain, so don't get distracted. I won't bore you all by starting at the end of the Moon Kingdom, as I'm certain you've all heard the story, and you've all participated in the Five Wars, against the Dark Kingdom, Nemesis, the Death Busters, the Dead Moon Circus, and Galaxia. I, too took part in these wars, but in an alternate reality, I think is the best way to explain it. I was the Moon Princess, and I had eight Senshi, my future husband Endymion, and knew my future daughter, Small Lady."

"But, why are you on this planet if everything in your world is as it is here?" Pluto asked.

"I'm getting there! Be patient. Everything was peaceful after the battle with Galaxia, I married Mamoru, and Chibi-Usa had come back, just like she has in your reality. It was like this until a new enemy appeared."

"Like the one we encountered yesterday," Minako said.

"Yes, like Lady Poseidon. They were seven warriors, known to us as the Golden Court, and their leader and princess, Diana. Their goal was to reawaken their ally, Chronos, who possessed godly powers, by which they could not only rule our world, but all of time-space, in all realities."

"This Chronos couldn't be that powerful, could he?" Hotaru asked, but was waved off by Pluto to let Shin-Sailor Moon continue.

"They themselves were incredibly powerful, even more so than Galaxia's Animamates. They said that they had a long running grudge against the Silver Millenium, and were happy to find some of its survivors so that they could personally torture them."

"Wait, don't go on," Minako said, "The one from yesterday called herself Lady Poseidon, and Michiru speculated that she was the only one who could stand against her, because of mythology. Is that true?"

"It would be," Shin-Usagi said, "But only if their powers were closer in level. As it was, and as it is for you, there is no chance of defeating the Court. Michiru is correct, Lady Poseidon is her opposite, and all of you have opposites which you are yet to meet."

"But who are they, and were did they come from?" Haruka demanded.

"We asked ourselves the same question, and even Mercury's computer couldn't help us. Then, out of the nowhere, my mother, Queen Serenity, appeared before us, and told us about the history of the Silver Millenium. What she said was that before the Silver Millenium began, there had been another council of the planets. It was called the Golden Millenium. If was very similar to our reign, but they influenced the rise of Greek culture on Earth, whereas we influenced the Roman era."

"So then, their names are simply the Greek deities?" Mamoru asked.

"Not just in name. They were the Greek deities."

"Which means our past lives were the Roman deities," Ami deduced.

"Correct," Shin-Usagi said. "To finish up, Queen Serenity descibed how the Moon Kingdom cam to be. There had been a war, and Queen Thea, the present Moon Queen, and her daughter, Diana, fought long and hard to protect themselves, with the aid of the planets. Basically, the Silver Millenium was originally a rebellion, which won over the previous rulers. Serenity added, before fading, that they had thought that the Golden Millenium was dead, but they were apparently wrong."

"That's amazing," Usagi said, "We never heard the origin of the Silver Millenium before."

"Once we knew about the past we asked Lady Ares who they really were, since she was the next of the Court we faced. She said that they were who we thought they were, unnoticed survivors. But, they had received a boost in power from a source she wouldn't relinquish for the sole purpose of destroying the remnants of the Silver Millenium."

"So what is does an Epoch Shard, whatever that is, have to do with it? And Chronos?" Makoto piped in.

"From what we were able to determine, the Epoch Shard was a way to call Chronos to them. Chronos is the original God of Time, and so the time stream must have something to do with their agenda," Shin-Usagi said.

Pluto stiffened. Anything that threatened her precious time stream was a serious problem. But what could she do against the original God himself?

"One day, all seven of them came together. After searching for a long time, the still had not found this Epoch Shard on Earth. They fought us, and," Shin-Usagi paused, and started sniffing, as if holding back tears, "Tuxedo Kamen was killed."

Mamoru shot a glance toward Usagi, then to Chibi-Usa.

"So that's why you were crying yesterday after the battle," Rei observed. Shin-Usagi nodded.

"And Chibi-Usa?" Mamoru asked, already knowing the answer.

"She faded away forever, as the future world could never exsist without the King and Queen," Shin-Usagi said, beginning to lose control over her emotions, and Chibi-Usa started to shake her head in disbelief.

"No," Usagi said, as she clutched Mamoru close to her. "We never would have allowed that to happen. What went wrong?"

"They were simply too powerful. As you would expect, I was devastated, and I've never truly gotten over it. I began to lose my edge in our battles against the enemy, and one by one, each of you were captured, by the Lady that held your type of powers," Shin-Usagi said as she pointed to everyone except Setsuna. "Except Pluto, who had no partner in their society. They still hadn't found the Epoch Shard, and were getting impatient. They couldn't locate Pluto and I, as they hadn't discovered our identities, so they blew up most of Juuban, killing our friends and family, just so they could find us."

"How awful," Rei gasped, as she pictured Lady Poseidon killing Grandpa and Yuuichiro.

"Pluto and I had no choice, so we came out of hiding. The Court came to us with their leader, Princess Diana, who we had never met before. She offered us our friends back, so we accepted. To our chagrin, we receive seven dead Sailor Senshi back. The Ginzuishou flared, and I transformed into Princess Serenity."

"Princess Serenity?" Usagi asked, "But wouldn't you become Neo-Queen Serenity? After all, you did marry."

"Well, I can't explain that except by saying it didn't happen," Shin-Usagi continued. "But, my powers weren't great enough without the boost the crystal gets from the Senshi, so I lost to the artifact of Diana. I never found out it's name. We were asked if that was our best shot, because if it was, the Earth would be destroyed, just like it had been before. Pluto took my hand, wished me good luck, then uttered the words "Chronos Typhoon". She was momentarily surrounded by a storm of energy, then she took the Garnet Orb out of the time staff. It cracked, and its red turned purple shards expanded, surrounding me. The next thing I saw was your world."

"That was a long answer," Usagi grumbled.

"Well, most of my questions were answered," Haruka said. "But, it is a very hard concept to comprehend."

Makoto spoke up, "We all died, you're saying? None of us had the power to stop our foes?"

"None of you," Shin-Usagi lamented, as she flashbacked again and narrated, "Ami had been frozen to death, by Hermes. Rei was burned by Ares. You, Makoto, were electrocuted by Zeus. Minako was charmed into suicide, or so Aphrodite told Pluto and I. Haruka, you were held under extreme gravity until your bones cracked from the pressure, by, well Uranus. Neptune was drowned by Poseidon. Finally, Hotaru was banished from this plane of exisistance by Hades."

"Nice to know how I'm going to die," Hotaru quiped.

[Commercial eye-catch
[Usagi is on screen in her high school uniform. She raises her brooch above her head, and Eternal Sailor Moon is in her place. The camera rotates to the right and reveals another Eternal Sailor Moon standing back to back with her. The camera rests so that the original's right side can be seen and the new Eternal Sailor Moon's left side can be seen. Both raise their Eternal Tiers and two flashes of light spread to cover the screen as the words Bishojo Senshi Sailor Moon Densetsu appear on the screen.
[End commercial eye-catch]

"Which brings up the question of why you were sent here," Ami said. "Could it be that Pluto was trying to change history? That seems out of character."

"I can field that one," Setsuna said. "I generally try not to change what is to come, but I have done it. This Court appeared out of nowhere in this reality, so they are an anomaly. It seems that the Pluto of your world noticed this when she was told that Earth would be destroyed, like it had been before. This means that the enemy didn't originate in either of our universes, so changing history would be the only way to fix the strange presence. The set back of doing this is that we must sacrifice the Talisman to do so, severely dampering the power Sailor Pluto has, not to mention the high risk of failure. To fail has the same effect as the Death Reborn Revolution, but much slower and more painful. This is why you wouldn't catch me using my Talisman's power. However, if history does repeat itself, I will do the same thing as my other self."

"What I think is that with the Ginzuisho not working, and the protectors of our world mostly gone, or soon to be gone, Pluto took the risk, trying to perpetuate the timeline," Shin-Usagi said. "And so I'm here to help, and to warn you of what might happen."

"The anomaly thing would explain why the Great Fire couldn't tell me about a dream I had with two Usagi's," Rei said. "The dream Shin-Usagi also warned me of a coming battle."

"Wait," Makoto said, "If we were all so much weaker than them how did we even survive yesterday's bout?"

"I must have left that out. When they fought alone, we as a group could defeat them, but when they were together, we stood no chance. Also, Leviathan is one of the weaker monsters."

"Weaker?" All of the participants of the battle with Leviathan asked.

"I see," Mamoru said. "I'm almost afraid to ask, but how do I die?"

"No, I can't," Shin-Usagi whimpered, "It's too painful."

"I understand," Usagi said, as she left Mamoru's side and put her hand on Shin-Usagi's shoulder for support and comfort, as tears rolled down her checks.

"How could you?" Shin-Usagi asked, not thinking and in a fit of anger, "You've never lost him, or your friends!"

"We both know that's not true, so snap out of it!" Usagi said, standing Shin-Usagi up and slapping her into the present reality.

"Thank you. I guess I'm just jealous that you have him. Also, we all have a lot to think about, so I'll leave now," Shin-Usagi said, and walked out the door.

After she left the premise, Haruka began, "I still am not sure if we can trust her."

"You say that about everyone, Haruka, and they all wind up being allies," Usagi complained.

"At least we have some information on our enemy," Ami said optimistically, "Maybe we can escape the fate of Shin-Sailor Moon's reality."

"I wouldn't bet on it," Rei said, "They're so much more powerful than us. How can we win?"

"The real question is how can we stand by, knowing our fate if nothing changes, and watch while innocents are tortured, and Chronos is possibly summoned?" Minako pointed out.

"We can't," Michiru sighed, "But I think we do have a chance. Sailor Moon has a new, more powerful attack that Shin-Sailor Moon didn't have. We've already changed history, and we have knowledge of our opponents."

"But still," Chibi-Usa said, "Knowledge won't give us any advantage in the power department. We need to find a way to boost our own powers, so that we don't hinder the Sailor Moons, and eventually get ourselves killed."

Everyone sat in thought, not knowing what could possibly help themselves to achieve such an increase in power.

Mamoru looks at Usagi. His thought process fades out to when he was controlled by Neherina, and Usagi first became Eternal Sailor Moon. "Maybe," he narrated the during flashback, while speaking, "We can channel our powers together again, and change everyone into Eternal Soldiers."

"It's worth a shot," Haruka said. She continued in her normal, pessemistic fashion, "But it can't be that simple. I betting on it not working."

"Wrong," Hotaru said. Everyone stared at her.

"How so?" Michiru asked.

"Back then, we all poured our powers into Super Sailor Moon's Illusion Silver Crystal," Diana continued for Hotaru. "So, wouldn't it make sense that the same thing could be done to the Illusion Silver Crystal of Super Sailor Chibi-Moon, if not everyone?"

"She has a point," Ami said, as she pulled out the Mercury Computer. "My computer gathered energy readings when we performed the power up. Let me check what it has to say."

She began to type very quickly, and the computer bleeped repeatedly. Finally, she looked up, and smiled. "My computer seems to agree with Hotaru's hypothesis. It says our energies synthesized and directly influenced the energy output of the Illusion Silver Crystal, even for a short period of time."

Everone except Usagi, Minako, and Chibi-Usa nodded, while the aforementioned sweatdropped. "In Japanese," they pleaded.

"Our energies combined with the Illusion Silver Crystal to make it more powerful," Ami restated.

"I see," Usagi said, while berating her future daughter for her ignorance. The two got into a face stretching duel, and were separated by Makoto, with bright, pink, swollen areas on their cheeks.

"That's enough," she said, "We need to test this before anything else happens."


The group went outside, and Rei made sure that her grandfather and Yuuichiro were nowhere to be seen. A flash of light later, 9 Sailor Senshi were present.

"Usagi!" Rei demanded, "You're a part of this too!"

Usagi just shook her head. "I don't think so, Rei. When I became Eternal Sailor Moon for the first time, Chibi-Usa didn't aid in the power up."

"So," Mercury said, "You think that we need to test the power up exactly as it happened. The eight of us giving power to the Silver Crystal."

Usagi nodded.

"Also," Pluto finished, "There could be a great disturbance in the Time Stream if one Silver Crystal gave energy to another in order to enhance the power."

Rei relented, and took her position with Sailors Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus.

"We have to this exactly as it happened, okay, everyone," Mercury directed. "Hotaru, you go first, then Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, then us four."

The other seven Senshi nodded, and closed their eyes. A purple aura enveloped Sailor Saturn, then the other Outer Senshi's auras emerged. The Inner Senshi were last.

"Aim for the inner part of the crystal!" Usagi shouted. "The energy coalesces there!"

"Sailor," Luna began, hoping that she could have some fun bossing around her friends.

"Power," Diana continued, following her mother's lead.

"Up!" Artemis, last as usual, concluded.

The eight Senshi's aura leaped up, and into the daylight.


Down on the street surrounding Hikawa Shrine, bystanders look up, startled. "It's happening again," one man remarked.

"Never knew what they did up there," a woman said. "Don't want to know now."


The eight beams of light dove down at Super Sailor Chibi-Moon, engulfing her. Chibi-Moon floated up in the air, embracing the power around her. "I can feel it," she thought, "It's working." The Chibi Crisis Compact opened, and each on the Senshi's power was accepted. After all eight energy sources had been given, the pink Henshin Brooch turned gold, with a pink crescent moon on the bottom and pink wings near the top of the heart. She lifted her new item above her head, and shouted, "Moon Future, Make Up!" The Mirai Moon Article opened to reveal a crescent moon shaped, ruby red crystal, which produced a pink light. Chibi-Moon placed the article in it's appropriate place, and the light stopped coming out.

The Super transformation melted away, ribbon by ribbon, leaving her stark naked, then covered by her normal street clothes, and lying on the ground, panting. The Mirai Moon Article did not return to it's previous form, but laid on the ground, open, and shot the energy it had just receive back to the bodies of the Senshi. Having their power shot back at them was not the most comfortable of things for the Inner and Outer Senshi, and all fell unconscious. Seeing their friends and family in pain, Usagi and Mamoru ran forward to do what they could with physical injuries, as did the Cat Trio.

Upon regaining consciousness, Chibi-Usa's eyes moved to her transformation item. She saw that it was still in the new, useless state, and started to cry, as well as whine in that high pitched voice she hadn't used since being chased by the Nemesis Family. Mamoru, Usagi, the cats, and the untransformed Senshi all looked down at her sympathetically.

"Why didn't it work?" Usagi asked Ami, hoping to find an answer.

Ami looked nonplussed, and couldn't answer.

Setsuna looked up ominously, and said, "The only explanation I could imagine is that Small Lady's crystal needs power from the future Senshi, as it is from the future."

"Then why would it change at all?" Rei asked.

"Now Chibi-Usa can't even become Super Sailor Chibi-Moon," Makoto complained.

"This can't be a good thing," Minako remarked. A wind blew by, raising everyone's hair.

Mamoru was first to recover. "Let's stop talking about this. Chibi-Usa can't feel too pleased right now."

"No," Chibi-Usa finally spoke, "The only way to find a solution is for you to talk about it. If we don't, there is no chance of finding a possible solution."


They wouldn't get the chance, as screams were heard nearby. The eleven humans and two cats ran down to find a Pegasus flying overhead.

Chibi-Usa looked up, and asked, "Helios?"


A room was pitch black, then a light was turned on, and a cat's form could be seen. With every step the cat took, a bell rang. As the cat stepped into the dim light, its purple-gray fur could be seen, and a golden crescent mark on it's forehead. Nothing else about the cat was distinguishable. One of its paws touched a button on an item that looked like the communicators first used by the Inner Senshi, when they were fighting the Dark Kingdom.

An image of a woman's face flashed onto the communicator. The face was gentle and refined, accented with jewels of all types, and a crown. The lady's hair was golden, and parted in the center. "Progress report, servant."

The cat spoke with a sweet voice. "Good and bad news, Princess Diana. The bad is that the Sailor Moon from the last dimension is here. You remember the one that was engulfed by the remnants of Sailor Pluto's Talisman?"

The woman nodded. "Continue."

"Everything else is going to plan. The future princess can no longer transform, thanks to my suggestions. She'll be done for once her old friend Helios comes in contact with her. Then impales her with it's horn."

"Excellent," the princess said, and her image flashed out.

TO BE CONTINUED... 

--------------------

Got C&C? Please e-mail me at drgdevil@aol.com

http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Spa/3125/