[FFML] [FanFic][SM][NETTG] Terra in Tokyo Ch. 18 (of 27) "But History Refused to Change..."

[Benjamin A. Oliver]

Another mega-chapter!  Wraps up this particular story arc.

Those of you who are still here, all the way up to Chapter 18, thanks
for reading! ^_^

What has gone before...  Terra Incognita, designated Black Hole Mary
Sue of the story, had joined the Sailor Senshi, didn't do a great job
of it, but then saved everyone's lives a couple times.  Then she got
sent back in time Quantum-Leap style to set right what once went
wrong, or somesuch jargon.  She got the Jedi telekinesis and mecha
piloting down just fine but the rest of it left something to be
desired.  A fleet of allied ships came in to save them all at the last
second, but not before a bunch of important people either died or
became mortally wounded.  Meanwhile Terra was off taking a snooze
after burning herself out from excessive Super Sailor magic.

However, the Dark Kingdom attack on the Moon Kingdom was mostly from
conventional sources.  Demon Goddess Metallia was nowhere to be seen.
Perhaps she was just a myth?  Or perhaps not.  That remains to be
seen.


Disclaimer:
This story is based loosely on Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon by Naoko
Takeuchi. This is a non-profit fan work created as a tribute, and no
infringement is intended. All rights to the characters, settings, and
situations of Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon belong to Naoko Takeuchi,
Koudansha, TV Asahi, and Toei Douga, and DIC. ArbyFish belong to
Daniel Oliver and are used with permission.  Gotta have ArbyFish. Who
would grow mushrooms across the intercontinental plates and make 'em
sprout up once doomsday came?  The four mushrooms of the apocalypse
they'd be y'see.

Anyway, onwards!


Nuke 'Em 'Till They Glow!!
Terra in Tokyo
Final Mix

---Chapter 18:  But History Refused to Change...

	Terra Incognita awoke to shouts and cheers in the distance.  She
slowly opened her eyes to see that she was in her familiar old
room--not hers, she corrected herself--Princess Terra's room.  Beside
her, Angel and Dewdrop greeted her, quite overtly happy that she had
awoken.

	The girl from Ireland coughed slightly when she attempted to take a
breath.  She felt odd and still numb in places.  Perhaps, she thought,
her overuse of the Crisis powers would take more than just a short nap
to recover from.

	Nevertheless, she stood, ignoring the other girls' insistence that
she remain in bed and rest.  As she got up, Terra noticed that she was
still dressed as a Sailor Soldier.  Glancing upward and checking a
spiky ponytail, then checking a mirror, she saw that she appeared to
be perfectly well organized and put together.  Being Sailor Moon
apparently kept her fresh and prevented things like bed hair on top of
the crazy telekinetic powers.  She felt relieved that the power was so
easy to maintain once she had gotten the hang of it.  She didn't
realize she could keep it on for so long, even when conked out.

	"What happened?" she whispered after a while.

	"Well--" began Angel.

	"No, don't," Terra interrupted.  "I want to go see for myself."  She
paused and reconsidered.  "Will I be walking into the middle of a
battle?"

	Dewdrop shook her head.  "No."

	"Okay, good."

	"Not unless you go into the dining hall.  Those Terran soldiers are STARVING!"

	"Fine, fair enough."  Sailor Moon paused.  "Wait, did you say Terran?"

	"Yes!" the two girls said at once.

	"As in, from Earth?"

	"Yes."

	"Have we been conquered?"

	"No!"

	"Huh."

	Angel observed Terra's perplexed expression and said, "Are you sure
you don't want us to explain?"

	"No!  I'm done with explanations!  I want action."  She coughed,
groaned and rubbed her aching temples.  "Actually, I think my brain is
broken.  I just want to go see it for myself.  When I'm done guessing,
you can spill the beans for me."

	"Why would we want to waste food?  Things are rationed as it is!"

	"It's a figure of speech!"

	Terra walked through the hallways.  Some parts had collapsed, but the
palace was overall intact.  Servants and others worked to keep the
place tidy and provide food for all of the many refugees.  Some bowed
slightly to her as she passed.  Occasionally she would see a man or
woman dressed in the black armor of the Earth army that she remembered
seeing outside before she passed out.  No one seemed to be in fear of
them.  Rather, they seemed to be welcomed gratefully into the area.

	The girl made it outside to the courtyard.  In the sky, many ships of
various shapes, colors and materials hovered protectively above them.
On the ground, many rows of simple beds had been set up to tend to the
wounded.  On the other side of the courtyard, lines of shapes about
the size of people, each covered with a canvas, indicated that not all
that came for help had survived.  People who apparently acted as
doctors or nurses fought to save the most badly injured.  She saw one
large gathering around one particular bed.

	"Please!" exclaimed a taller man with strange eyes.  "Do whatever it
takes to save our king!"

	"I'm sorry!" said one of the female doctors.  "We've done everything
we can.  It's too much for him.  All his magic is doing now is
delaying the end!"

	"If you don't save him, our alliance is done!  Finished!"

	"Stop arguing, Rusty," said a weak voice.  "They're our only friends left."

	Sailor Moon recognized the voice came near and saw a familiar face
over the many shoulders.  "Endymion?!"

	The injured prince, now apparently a king, had heard her shout.
"Terra?" he whispered.

	The medical staff parted enough for the redhead to get close to him.
She knelt by him and took him by his remaining good hand. "What
happened?!" she asked, looking into his eyes.

	"We... won," replied Endymion, who drew a harsh breath, looked
briefly at her, gave a crooked smile, and passed away.

	Terra felt numb.  She slowly withdrew her hand and placed his on his
chest, then stood up.  It was sad, what had happened.  Endymion had
been this handsome prince that suddenly came into her life, helped her
along in a short adventure, and now he was gone.  It was a bummer, but
in many ways it was like watching a dream unfold.  She felt that
everyone around her were good people, but she barely knew them, even
if some of them looked like people she knew from back home.

	Nevertheless, she reached up to her face and felt wetness out of her
left eye.  Some part of her was really bummed about what had happened.
 "Guess that's it, then," she whispered without any particular grief
or inflection.  She couldn't get too attached to anyone around here,
she decided.  She had to focus on what it took to get back home.

	The man named Rusty and the adopted princess's two attendants took
Terra aside and filled her in on what had happened after she passed
out.  Rusty was a sergeant from the Earth military that had
unwillingly joined the rebellion.  Millions had been mind-controlled
and pressed into service by Beryl and turned into monsters.  Then
Thomas, with the help of Queen and Princess Serenity, had performed a
ritual involving a song to free most of Earth's army from enslavement.
 During the battle, hundreds of thousands had been mortally wounded or
killed, including Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion.

	Endymion had lived long enough to be declared king over the remaining
free Terrans.  He knew his time was limited, so he declared that the
free Earth Kingdom and the Moon Kingdom were to be joined together, in
honor of what would have happened had the younger Serenity and
Endymion been able to marry.  All from Earth had seen the passion with
which Endymion had fought to avenge his fallen bride-to-be, and so no
one had disputed the unification.

	"That explains all the people from Earth hanging around," noted Terra
with a nod.

	Angel and Dewdrop told Terra about how Endymion's efforts and the
arrival of their allies from outside the solar system had driven Beryl
into retreat.

	Upon this explanation, the lass from Ireland observed the fleet in
the sky and counted the ships.  There were only about twenty, but each
of them looked larger and sturdier than even Earth's command ship.
She saw long silver ones, a few curved, frail-looking ones that had
the sheen of polished wood, and several sleek organic ones that
reminded her of squid and other kinds of sea life.

	"So Beryl escaped with an army?" Terra asked.

	"Yeah," said Rusty, "but what's she going to do?  We've got air
superiority now, she's got no fleet, less than a quarter of the troops
than she started with, and the King messed her up something fierce.
We beat her and we beat her bad."

	Terra nodded, but part of her mind kept cynically telling her that
the Moon still was not safe by a longshot.  "Are the allied ships
tracking them down on Earth to box them in to make sure they can't try
anything?"

	Rusty sighed.  "That's the problem now.  Turns out that even with all
their fancy guns and scanner mumbo jumbo, they can't seem to find out
where she went.  Best I hear, they're tracking something strange they
found at the north pole."

	"So we're safe for the next couple minutes, at least?"

	"Yeah, probably," Rusty agreed.  "I bet after a fiasco like that,
that Beryl girl ain't going to be wanting to have a repeat anytime
soon."

	Terra looked at Angel and Dewdrop and remembered something.  "So what
was it you were telling me about Demon Goddess Metallia that we'd have
to deal with after Beryl got beaten?"

	Angel shrugged.

	"I guess we were wrong," said Dewdrop.  "If Earth had such a being in
reserve, they would have used her to avoid losing so badly, right?"

	Terra nodded again.  "That makes sense."  The logic seemed fair.
Rumors about Earth having a demon goddess behind them could have just
been to spread fear.  "I want to talk to the Queen."

	"You mean your mom?" said Angel.

	Terra paused.  "Yeah," she said after a while.

---

	Rusty departed and Angel and Dewdrop escorted Terra to a walled
garden area away from the courtyard.  Queen Serenity stood with her
back turned, facing a glass coffin in which a blonde girl in white lay
still.  Terra glanced over her shoulder to see the two attendants not
follow her in.  Apparently they decided this had to be a private
conversation.

	The redhead walked in.  "Queen Serenity?"

	"Thank you for not calling me 'Mother,'" replied the Queen wearily.
Her voice was filled with pain and sadness.  She caught herself and
tried to regain her composure.  She turned her head around.  Her eyes
were red from crying.  "I'm sorry, Princess.  I... I am afraid I do
not feel like talking right now."

	"Please?" insisted Terra.  "I just want a couple of minutes."

	"I'm very angry with you right now.  Please, give me time to think
through all of this."

	Terra frowned and shook her head.  She realized that the tall woman
was grieving for a lost child, but after getting blown off a few times
before, she felt she needed to speak up or she would forever be
delaying.  "No.  I'm not going this time.  And you're not upset at me.
 You're upset at the one who caused this whole mess."

	"Oh?  Who caused this?"

	"Here's what I've pieced together.  Aside from whatever Beryl did,
Princess Terra was at the center of the whole thing.  She
mind-controlled Earth's supreme commander, killed the Sailor Soldiers,
and I'm thinking she planned to escape the Moon and hide away with
Thomas, acting like his slave or pet until this whole thing blew
over."

	"You are Princess Terra."

	"I'm no more Princess Terra than you are my real mom," Terra replied
with exasperation.  "I'm some kid from somewhere else in time and
space, and I've been fighting very hard over the last day to atone for
something that was never my fault!  I'm confused, I'm upset, and I'm
scared!  I want to get back to the people who care about me and don't
think I'm a monster!  Look, it's been fun and all but I want to go
home now!"

	Queen Serenity looked down, apparently considering something--perhaps
she was thinking over what had happened the last few days.  Terra
noticed that while her face and body looked like she couldn't even be
in her thirties, her mannerisms reminded the teen of elderly women
that she had seen.  There were no physical shakes or sign of age, but
there was a high degree of maturity and weariness in her, top to
bottom.  Terra decided that either, being a queen, she was very
refined and had been through a lot pain recently, or perhaps on top of
all that she was a lot older than she looked.

	"It is true," Serenity admitted, "that your actions have been very
different than what I am accustomed to seeing from... my adopted
child."

	"How can I prove it to you?" Terra asked.  "I mean, to show you that
I'm a stranger asking for your help and not some wicked person trying
to trick you?"

	Serenity walked over to her and placed her hands on her shoulders,
looking deeply into her eyes.  Terra somehow felt at ease.  The curve
of the woman's face and her eyes reminded her a lot of her own mother.

	For a second, Terra witnessed a flash of something in her mind.  She
saw this woman, wounded with her dress torn, and looking defiant while
holding a wand with a shining crystal atop it.  In this momentary
image, Serenity crouched on a blasted landscape and appeared to be
just a few inches tall, surrounded by broken doll-sized buildings.
The woman struck in a flash of brightness, and Terra felt pain--but it
was a familiar pain, like what she had felt when Usagi had used the
Ginzuishou Crystal in a moment of desperation atop the Starlight
Tower.

	That was it, she realized--the exact same feeling!

	A moment later she found herself again in front of Serenity.  Her
body stung and she could feel that some of the black power building up
had retreated deep within.  "Yeeouch!"

	"How are you feeling?" asked the Queen.

	"That hurt," Terra said, rubbing her shoulder where the woman was
touching her.  "What did you do?"

	"I was testing something, to see how you reacted to my power."

	"And that power uses the Ginzuishou Crystal?"

	"Yes."

	Terra thought about that.  It felt like she was getting a lot of
pieces to a big puzzle but the picture was still too large for her to
make any sense of it yet.  "You know, when you were doing that, I saw
something."

	"What did you see?"

	Terra told her.

	Serenity nodded.  "The event you are describing happened about ten
years ago.  It was when Princess Terra and I first met.  You saw one
of her memories."

	"I'm not her," said Terra.  "How could I be seeing one of her memories?"

	"The Princess and I have been at odds ever since she arrived," said
Serenity, "but I know so much about her.  What you are claiming has
happened, you replacing her mind in her body, should be impossible for
one such as her.  You remember things that only she could know, and
can use magic only one as skilled as she could, but yet..."  She
trailed off and gave a slight shrug.  "You are not her."

	Terra breathed a sigh of relief.  "You believe me!  Finally."

	"I am willing to make a leap of faith, despite all of the other
evidence to the contrary.  Assuming what you told me were true, that
begs the question: where is she?"

	"That I don't know.  Maybe switched places with me back home?"

	"Troubling."

	"Yeah, I don't even want to think about what she'd do there."

	"In any case, Miss... what is your real name?"

	"I'm Terra Incognita."

	"And you share her given name.  Very well, Miss Terra Incognita.  If
I were to start fresh and treat you as if you and I had just met a
couple of days ago, you are not a murderer, but rather something of a
war hero now.  I will treat you as such and help you in what ways I
can.  But first," she pointed at the glass coffin behind her, "I have
some arrangements to make.  I'm sure you can understand."

	Terra looked at Princess Serenity's body.  It was sad to see someone
laid out like that, especially someone that looked so very much like
her friend Usagi.  "Of course.  I'll talk with you later."

	"Thank you."

---

	Queen Serenity watched the girl go.  She did not walk like Princess
Terra, either.  She wondered to herself whether or not she believed
the story she told.  Serenity accepted the possibility that it might
be true.  After all, a few hours ago the situation was hopeless, and
regardless of the casualties, they had achieved victory.  What other
impossible things might happen?

	Looking back at her slain daughter, she found that the only new
impossible thing she wanted to happen was for her to live again,
somehow.  But she knew such a thing could not be--except perhaps
reincarnation, but in that case things would not be the same
anyway--so she knew that she had to find a way to move on.

---

	Once Terra left the walled garden, she was surprised to see
Ex-Supreme Commander Thomas, instead of the princess's two attendants,
whom she spied off in a corner hiding behind a marble bench in a way
that they thought they were well-concealed.  The redhead faced the six
and a half foot tall knight and greeted, "Heya, Tommy the Tank Engine!
 So, what did I miss?"

	"You missed me purging the last bits of Metallia's taint from some of
the Terran troops.  A few of them slipped back into mind-control mode
and I stopped them.  Was loads of fun."

	"Oh?  How did you manage that?"

	"Ever hear of the Nibelung Valesti?"

	Terra shook her head.

	"It's for purifying really WEIRD souls."

	"Hoo-kay.  I bet that's supposed to mean something to me, but it
doesn't, so," she glanced at her wrist, and did not quite understand
why, as she never wore a wristwatch, so she looked back at Thomas and
said, "So.  How 'bout those youma, eh?"

	Thomas folded his arms and grinned.  "Yeah, how 'bout em?"  He
glanced about, then leaned down and whispered, "So.  How 'bout the
link?  All the voices are just about out of control and have been
driving me insane.  You stopped talking to me quiet-like after
'Mommy-Dearest' beat the everliving crap out of you.  And you've been
acting funky.  Did she give you brain damage or something?"

	Terra looked at him and debated whether or not to tell the truth.
Would he freak out and start killing people if he found out that he
was following orders from the wrong girl?

	"What would you say if I told you that I wasn't your Terra--that I'd
accidentally replaced her while she slept and I have no idea where she
is?"

	"I'd say, 'Ha ha, very funny.  You elder gods crack me up.'"  He
pointed at his very unsmiling mouth.  "See how funny that was?  It was
that funny.  I think I'm going to burst a gut here.  Can't you tell?"

	Terra frowned, not quite knowing how to respond.

	"What's wrong?  Did your great old synapses forget how to interpret
sarcasm again?"

	Terra sighed.  "You can stop it now."

	Thomas grinned.  "That's the beauty of it, isn't it?  It looks like I
don't have to.  You've been weakened, haven't you?"  He pushed her
shoulder back, almost causing her to stumble.

	"Hey!" said Terra.  "Quit it."

	"There it is again.  It's like, I really want to obey you, but I
basically don't have to if I don't want to."

	The girl started to feel very uneasy at the way he was looking at
her.  He flicked her in the forehead.  Even through her Sailor powers,
it stung.  "Hey!  Stop!"

	The minor strike to her cranium awakened in her mind some sense of an
energy flow.  It was very faint and it used the tiniest thread of
black energy to maintain.  Like a very small multi-channel cable, it
linked her mind to the man in front of her.  Bits of it were coming
untied like a poorly-kept knot.

	"How can that be possible?" Terra whispered.  "I didn't control your
mind!  The princess did!"

	"Like I said, you're hilarious, babe!"

	Maybe it was because she was using the princess's body, she thought.
That had to be it.  She could also see an odd sort of thick, organic
black energy cord that traced its path from Thomas's back all the way
up in the sky to the northern polar area of the Earth.

	She remembered that it was about there where Rusty said the allied
ships had detected something having to do with Beryl's whereabouts.

	Before Sailor Moon could say, "oh crap," she took a hard kick to the
chest, which hit her with such force that she skidded back a couple of
meters before falling to the ground with the wind knocked out of her.
Her powers protected her from anything else, but it really stung.

	"You--!"  Terra coughed on the ground.  "You're under Beryl's control
too!  How--"

	"Deep conditioning, baby!" said the armored man with a manic gleam to
his eyes, which glowed red.  "I made a pact, and now that you're
vulnerable, it's giving me just enough strength to break your hold--"
His large horned helmet appeared in his hands, and he placed it atop
his head, upon which his voice became much more deep and resonant.
"--AND FIGHT AGAINST YOU!"

	Thomas flexed his muscles and pulsed with the same burning black
energy that Beryl's soldiers had.

	By this time, a crowd in the distance had taken notice.  There were
whispers and commotion.

	"I don't want to fight against you!" protested Terra.  "Why can't we
just be friends?!"

	"WHY CAN'T WE JUST BE FRIENDS??" demanded Thomas.  "SEVEN HUNDRED
MILLION YEARS A SLAVE AND YOU WONDER WHY WE CAN'T JUST BE FRIENDS?!!"
His filtered breathing was very loud within his helmet.  "Do you see
what you just said?  That.  That's why we can't be friends."

	Terra rolled aside when he whipped out his gun and took a few shots.
His hands were shaking from anger and so he missed.  Good for her, she
thought, since she had seen what he had done to Zoicite when his aim
was spot on.  She wasn't so sure her own powers could deflect a
headshot like that.  She didn't want to test it anyway.

	"Mweh heh heh," laughed Thomas.  "Ah yes, as the link weakens, so
does your control over my mind!"

	"You're still being mind-controlled!" Terra shouted at him.  "You're
trading one kind of slavery for another!"

	"Is it truly slavery if it gets you everything you want?!"

	As she worked her way into a crouch, some of the man's words filtered
into Terra's mind.  "Wait, seven hundred million years?!"

	"Don't tell me you've lost count already!!"

	Whoa, thought the girl.  This was quickly evolving into something
beyond her comprehension if she was to take his assertion literally.
He was probably exaggerating.  "Yikes, man, what did she DO to you?!"

	"Because of you, Terrifying, I have seen HELL!  You will SUFFER for
everything that you did!!"

	"Tom!  HEY!"  Sailor Moon got to her feet and held up her hands
defensively.  "CHILL!!  I'm not this 'Princess Terrifying' chick!"

	"Uh huh.  Who are you then?!"

	"Terra Incognita."

	"Okay, then, 'Terra Incognita.'"  Thomas put away his gun and drew
his sword, an evil-looking spiky blade.  "Hello," he said.  "My name
is the Star Light Knight.  You killed my daughter.  Prepare to die."

	"You saw that movie too, huh?"

	"Shut up."

	Sailor Moon figured out by this point that she wasn't going to be
able to talk him down from this, especially not with Beryl's influence
making him all brainwashed and crazy.  She was going to have to defend
herself, perhaps even to the point of having to kill Thomas, the one
who had helped her and Endymion defeat Earth's assault.

	Actually, that really kind of sucked, she reflected after a moment's
consideration.  "Let's get this over with," she sighed.

	"No!" retorted Thomas.  "I'm gonna take my time."

	"Fine."  Sailor Moon raised her left hand and focused her telekinetic
powers on the man, but before she could, a huge bullet slapped her
hand away.  It stung badly, but a barrier kept her bones from getting
smashed.  In the next instant, Thomas was behind her.  He drew back
and kicked her hard in the rear--so hard, in fact, that she found
herself lifted several feet off the ground.

	"You will SUFFER for everything that you MADE ME do!!"

	The Star Light Knight twisted around and kicked her with tremendous
force in the chest--it hurt--knocking her to the ground.

	"How do you like THIS?!"

	She didn't see what happened, but she took a bullet to the leg, a
sword to the neck, and a huge hammer to the chest.  Each time, she
felt it but her powers protected her from the worst of it, whether
through a barrier or directly through her outfit.

	"HOW DOES IT FEEL, TERRIFYING?  DOES IT HURT??"

	"Ow," moaned Terra half-heartedly.  She was hurting, but it really
wasn't all that bad.  Her brooch was starting to get pretty warm,
however, from the power flowing through it to block the incoming
strikes.  "Yeah, kinda hurts."

	He slammed his guitar into her head.  It was extremely painful and
the unharmed instrument let out a sharp discord.

	"YEEEOOOWWW!!" Terra cried out, rolling away.  Briefly cradling her
face with her hands, she got to her feet and scrambled as far away
from the knight as her legs would carry her.

	"Just... getting... STARTED!"  Thomas's mannerisms stiffened and his
aura burned as if fueled by an unquenchable rage.  He dashed at her at
a speed that a man his size with armor that heavy should not have been
able to achieve.  "ATOMIC SUCKER PUNCH!!"

	Something inside Terra--her black power--roared feebly in response.
Time seemed to slow down a little--just a notch.  It took much more
effort to breathe and move, but she could see Thomas coming.  She
sidestepped his fist but could feel the wind and heat from it.

	Thomas caught himself and stopped, then rotated his helmet towards
her.  His leg swung at her in a wide roundhouse kick, but she was able
to duck under it and move a few steps away.

	He rushed at her with a flurry of fists and a clear intent to do
heavy damage.  Pulling on her dark energy, she was able to compress
time sufficiently well to avoid one fist after another.  Soon, she got
into a position underneath his attempted blows that her leg was in a
position to do a kick.  Forcing as much might as her
magically-enhanced muscles could take into her attack, she let loose
at the back of the armored man's left knee cap.

	The aura around him had created a clear barrier, but Sailor Moon
pushed past it, tripping him up and causing him to stumble into a pile
of empty ceramic jars, which crushed into dusty shards.

	Terra could hear a low chuckle as the man quickly stood back up.  His
manner seemed to indicate that he was enjoying this.  Again, he lunged
at her, attempting to strike with his fists.  She dodged repeatedly
and found herself in a good position to catch his arm around the elbow
on one of his stiffer blows.  She pulled, again compressing her
strength into as short a time period as she could manage.

	Her efforts managed to get enough leverage to pull him down sideways
and toss him into a large pillar nearby.  Her move had enough force
behind it to crack the pillar and inbed his helmet into the structure.

	"Can we stop this now?!" Terra shouted at him.

	Thomas pulled his head out of the pillar and let forth another long,
evil chuckle.  He pulled out a small flat device, threw it at her with
a huge amount of force, and simultaneously leapt at her.

	Terra recognized the device as being similar to one of the shaped
charges that had destroyed the shield around the Lunar capital.  Using
her Moon powers, she quickly crushed the object beyond recognition in
hopes that would render it useless.  It didn't explode, so that must
have worked.

	"This is for when you forced me to betray my wife!!"

	In the next instant, Thomas was nearly at her with another charged
fist.  There wasn't enough time to move out of the way, but her left
fist was in the right position to block it.  Moving her hand and
trying to put as much compressed force around it as possible, she
intercepted the strike.

	The two fighters hit each other very hard, charged knuckles clashing
against each other, powers struggling for a moment to determine which
was stronger.  In the end, they cancelled each other out and sent them
both flying apart.

	Terra was able to regain her footing quickly, as was Thomas.  He
again came at her with his fists, obviously making some kind of
twisted game of this.  That, or maybe he really, really wanted to do
this hand to hand.  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a rack of
swords near a group of soldiers.  The weapons had a slight blue glow
to them--perhaps they were magic.

	A lot of people were watching, she also noticed.  Most of them kept
backing away, not quite knowing what to make of the struggle.  Even
the soldiers seemed uncertain as to whether they should try to
intervene.

	Part of Terra's brain thought it would be a good idea to go and pick
up one of the swords to perhaps pierce one of the sections between the
plates of Thomas's armor.  Another part of her reminded her about the
tiara trick.  Terra used her telekinesis to push Thomas's foot out of
the way to put him off balance, then grabbed her tiara, took it off,
and started to charge it.

	The Star Light Knight rallied and made a huge gatling weapon appear
that he gripped with both hands.  Chuckling, he flipped a switch and
the barrels started to spin up.

	With her tiara's energy disc now being about six feet across, she
threw it towards her attacker.

	Thomas opened fire at full auto, sending a hail of heavy metal slugs
at the girl.  The tiara disc moved to intercept the shots.  It
disintegrated the bullets but started to get pushed back from the
tremendous force.  Focusing her will, Sailor Moon sent the disc flying
towards him at an angle.  In the process, she took a few bullets to
her body.  While able to move much more quickly than she otherwise
would have been able to, she could not quite dodge the bullets.  She
got some bruises on her legs and torso from sharp impacts.  Her brooch
glowed red hot and her barrier seemed to be getting significantly
weaker with each hit.

	The tiara arced at Thomas.  He tried to sidestep, but it was too wide
and his weapon too massive for him to effectively dodge.  It sliced
into the large gun, destroying the rotary mechanism and magazine.

	Thomas quickly discarded his weapon and leapt towards her in a flash,
his hand on the hilt of a long sheathed blade at his side.  Notably,
his first step was on his left foot.  Terra wasn't quite sure why her
mind thought that was significant.

	"THIS is for when you killed... THAT ONE KID THAT I CAN'T REMEMBER!!
AAAARRGGHHH!!!"

	Based on the velocity, Terra knew she was going to be unable to move
out of the way.  She reflexively lifted her left arm to block.
"CRISIS MAKE--"

	Her vision went red, then white with pain.  When her view cleared,
she found herself flying through the air upside-down with a sharp
burning at an angle across her chest.  She saw a white-gloved arm flop
limply to the ground beneath her before she landed head-first into a
stone walkway.

	After a loud crack, things went dark until she felt the rest of her
stinging body smack downwards.  As if disgusted with her, her black
power retreated within her once again and time went back to its normal
flow.  As that happened, her ability to process pain bit by bit
vanished and she was forced to endure the full brunt of it.

	It felt kind of like she was dreaming.  Her mouth opened and must
have let out a long, loud cry because it soon felt very sore, adding
to the remaining agony.  She lay there writhing for a while, unable to
escape her torment.

	Then, it was as if her nerves gave up trying to process the
information.  That, or endorphins kicked in to deaden the pain.  She
lay still while she took several breaths.  Then she tried to raise
herself up on her hands, but as she did so she ended up quite
lop-sided.  Glancing up and to her left, she saw why.  "Oh," she
muttered as she waved her bloody stump.  "Oops."  She wasn't quite
sure about her choice of words.  "I mean, OW!" she added, and finally
her body agreed with her statement.  "Note to self: Do not try to
block swords with your arm!  AOOOWWWW!!"

	Another loud chuckle drew her attention.  She looked up to see Thomas
standing over her with his arms folded, gloating.  It suddenly
occurred to the girl that this wasn't going to be as easy as, say,
ripping a giant dreadnought out of the sky with her brain, or even
taking out an entire armada with a single fighter.

	Her powers didn't really protect her as he stepped on her, knocking
the wind out of her, ground his heel into her stump, then kicked her
around a few times.  He reached down and grabbed her by the neck,
shook her, then threw her hard into the pavement.  Terra could feel
stuff break, and she let out a lout yelp each time she did.

	"I WILL CARVE MY INITIALS ONTO YOUR VERY SOUL!!" declared Thomas as
his aura flared up.  He kicked her a ways into the air and she stuck
there, levitated by his power.  He held out his right hand and three
large energy javelins appeared at various angles around the girl.

	"This is so totally gonna suck," Terra realized with dread.

	"DIVINE ASSAULT!!"  One javelin impaled her near the heart, and she
could feel flesh and bone rending.  The other similarly missed her
heart, but caught some other vital organs in its path.  She knew it
did because she could feel it burn.  The final descended from above
and stuck her through the shoulder and came out her lower back.

	Thomas leapt high into the air, black crackling energy wings
appearing at the back of his armor.  He floated there and lifted his
arms high while he called forth his power into a dense shining rocket
with nuclear symbols painted on the side.  He rotated the weapon
towards her and jumped onto its shaft as if it were a saddle.  A
transparent cowboy hat appeared in his right hand, and he waved it
while commanding the nuclear weapon to move.  The rocket descended
toward Terra when its engine fired.

	"NIBELUNG VALESTI!!!" declared the flying armored man.

	Terra watched someone else's life pass before her eyes.  She saw
Queen Serenity carrying a small bedraggled child from a
heavily-cratered battlefield.  The scene gave way to herself, much
younger and wearing a puffy white dress during a ceremony while she
faced a crowd.  Someone behind her placed a golden crescent moon
emblem on a chain around her forehead while the audience cheered, then
she felt a light kiss on her cheek.  She saw a pair of children, one
of them looking like Usagi and the other looking quite a lot like
herself, playing and getting themselves into mischief.

	She then saw blood on her hands while Queen Serenity screamed at her
to stop, a scene of carnage and death all over what once would have
been a large, well-decorated meeting hall.

	"PURIFY HER!!!" yelled Thomas.

	The magical missile's explosion broke the flood of foreign images.
It didn't hurt nearly as much as it should have.  She felt a strong
wind as the energy javelins faded, leaving holes in her outfit but not
in her skin, and she dropped into a sobbing broken mess on the ground.
 The last coherent part of her mind suggested that her powers must
have protected her somewhat, or whatever attack got used burned the
wounds shut, since she hadn't bled to death yet.

	"How does it feel to be powerless?!" she could her assailant shout at
her from above.  "HOW DOES IT FEEL, TERRIFYING?  HOW DOES IT FEEL,
JEEDEE???  DOESN'T IT HURT??  DOESN'T IT???"  She heard a pause.  "Oh
hey, who invited you two in?"

	When the light faded, Terra looked up to see Angel and Dewdrop in
front of her, their hands raised and a very thick barrier in front of
them.  She realized that they must have blocked the attack.  On the
one hand, she was thankful for the save, but on the other, she
wondered, HOW IN THE HECK DID THEY DO THAT?!!?

	"Girls!" hissed Terra.  "Get out of here!  I'm done for.  Save yourselves!"

	"She's right," said Thomas in his deep, imposing voice.  "Stand aside
or I'll kill you too."  The power around him flared, pushing his limbs
to move, but he resisted.  "No."  The flare died down.

	"I don't think so, you genocidal maniac," said the two girls in unison.

	The demonic energy again flared, attempting to make Thomas move in a
way unnatural to him.  "Kill them!" he whispered to himself.  "No!" he
replied sharply.  "Just... Terrifying!"  Out of the other side of his
mouth he added, "Obey me!!"

	Thomas repeatedly banged his handgun onto the side of his helmet.
"Shut up... Shut up... EVERYONE JUST SHUT UP!!!"  Shaking himself out
of his own debate, he again faced Huggyn and Kissyn.  "So, what,
you're going to sacrifice your lives fighting me for your dear
mistress's misbegotten life?"

	"No," replied the girls.  Their eyes narrowed and they locked arms.
"We're going to get revenge... for what you did to our homes and
families!"  They started to glow with their own inner purplish light.
"Do you remember us, Supreme Commander?  Do you remember what you did?
 YOU KILLED THEM ALL!"

	"It's possible," admitted Thomas.  "I kill a lot of people."

	"Dum-da-dum-dahm!" intoned Dewdrop as she struck a sideways pose.

	"Dum-da-dum-dahm!" echoed Angel as she took up a position mirroring
her sister's.

	"Circus midgets?"  The man's helmet tilted slightly to the side.
"Oh, right, you're a couple of those leftover Asteroid children I
didn't slaughter."

	"Not just any circus midget asteroid children!  Circus midget
asteroid PRINCESS children!"

	"Hmph."

	"We've been waiting years for this," Huggyn and Kyssin said in unison
at their enemy, "Supreme Commander!"  They were grinning like cute
little maniacs who knew they had the upper hand.  Huggyn and Kyssin
put a clip-on earring on their right and left ears, respectively, and
each took out half a heart-shaped medallion.

	"Super-Duper Twin Asteroid Fusion Power," they chanted in unison
while shifting their pose towards each other in exact synchonization,
and jammed their medallions together to complete the full heart,
exclaiming, "MAKE UP!!!"

	The girls were engulfed in a bright light, and inside that
brightness, two became one.  The single glowing form became clothed as
a Sailor Soldier with extra-large ribbons, a multilayered billowy
skirt, and really long, puffy hair that was slightly darker than
either of the twins' had been.

	When the transformation sequence finished, this new figure stood
confidently in front of her foes with a wide grin and her arms folded.
 "Hi.  I'm Sailor Twin Asteroid.  But since that's a dopey name, and I
combine Huggyn and Kyssin, you can call me Sailor Good Sweet Lovin'!
In revenge for what you did to our kingdom--the only thing separating
us from justice is the two minutes it's going to take to kick your
asteroids!!!"

	"You've gotta be kidding me," muttered Terra from the ground.

	"I know this transformation," Thomas said, obviously not impressed in
the slightest.  "It's very strong, but it only lasts a few minutes,
and then you're powerless for months.  Years, even."

	"I heard that!" Sailor G.S.L. hollered.  Her voice had an odd vibrato
to it that suggested multiple people were speaking at once.  "Yeah, it
only lasts a little while, but believe me, that's all I need."

	"I'm up for some fun," said Thomas.  "Show me what you've got, kids!"
 He glanced at Sailor Moon.  "And then, old Jeedee... you will die!"

	"Take your time," mumbled the mangled teen.

	Good Sweet Lovin' held her hands together in a triangle.  A blue
vortex appeared in front of her.  "Deep Impact!"

	Out of the vortex flew a ten-inch-diameter meteor at a non-trivial
fraction of the speed of light.  As soon as it made contact with the
air, it generated a huge fireball that swept forward and smashed into
Thomas.

	The flames washed over him without taking any effect, although
residues from the strike obliterated a large chunk of terrain around
him.

	Sailor G.S.L. dove in close with a kick that glanced off his chest
armor.  She followed up with a long set of fury-driven jackhammer
punches to the same spot.

	Without making any other movements, S.L.K. lifted his fist and
brought it down on the fused girl's head, driving her a couple of feet
into the ground.

	Sailor G.S.L. was dazed for a second, but she shook her head to clear
it and glared up at him.

	"What?" asked Thomas.  "You're taking revenge for everything you said
and that's all you can do?"

	The diminutive Sailor leapt out of the ground, high above S.L.K., and
stuck out her hands in front of her, calling out, "Micrometeor
Impact!"

	Dozens of tiny shards appeared around Thomas and pelted him nonstop
for several seconds.  His armor didn't even get a scratch.

	"One last shot," said Thomas.  "That's all I'm giving you, and then
I'm taking you out."

	"Oh yeah?!"  Sailor G.S.L. drew a glowing circle in the air, then
spread her arms wide.  Several other circles appeared around S.L.K.
and they grew larger.  Black singularities appeared in the center,
then the fused girl called out, "Multi-Vector Planetary Crash!!"

	Focused energy beams hammered into the Star Light Knight.  "Three," he said.

	Visibly upset that the latest attack didn't work, Sailor G.S.L.
clenched her teeth and charged at him.  Her left leg glowed with
power.  "Circus Double Kick!!"

	"Two."  Thomas caught her feet and threw her hard into the ground.

	Sailor G.S.L. got back up and began whispering a chant.  Mystic
circles appeared in the air around her.

	"One, zero."  Thomas drew his sword, impaled her in the stomach, and
flicked the blade upwards, completely bisecting her all the way
through the head.

	Sailor G.S.L. let out a loud cry, and her form glowed white and split
into two.  A second later, Angel and Dewdrop fell to the ground beside
Terra, unharmed but quite obviously winded and beaten.

	"Sorry, Princess," whispered Angel to Terra, trying but failing to
raise herself up.

	"Sorry, Mom and Dad," whispered Dewdrop into the air.  "We tried!"
She slipped into unconsciousness.

	"Well, crap."  Terra looked up to see Thomas standing over her menacingly.

	"You should have gone before we left."  Thomas changed the magazine
on his firearm.  The new one had white angelic symbols painted on it.
He aimed down at her.  "We're not stopping!"

	Terra closed her eyes and waited.

	After a while, she opened them to see the man standing in the same
spot with his finger on the trigger.  "Well?" she asked.  "You've got
me."

	"Have I?" wondered Thomas.  "Across the aeons, the only things you
ever did was for your own survival or pleasure, and now you're just
giving up and letting me kill you?"

	"No," replied Terra.  "I'm just... well, I'm kind of reduced to a
quivering lump of pain here, and nothing anyone did could even scratch
you!  What's the point?"

	"It's that kind of talk that makes me nervous."

	"No, really, I'm beaten and suffering.  What do you want to do with
me now?  You want to kill her, right?  Isn't that what you've been
saying?  Isn't that what you want?"

	"More than almost anything else."  Thomas sighed angrily.  "Who are
you and what did you do with Princess Terrifying?"

	"You believe me now, huh?"

	"Unfortunately."  Thomas nodded.  "Yeah.  The one I know would never
go down so easy, even when weakened.  Even on her death bed she'd
still find a way to stick it to me.  What kind of... thing are you?
How did you manage to do this?  Replace her, I mean?  Are you some
kind of tenth-dimensional goddess from the great beyond?"

	Sailor Moon shook her head.  "Just an ordinary girl from a big city."

	"Well, nuts.  And now this is where it all falls apart."

	Thomas's wording confused the girl.  "What do you mean?  I figured
things had fallen apart pretty well already!"

	"You see, without my lust for revenge to fuel my willpower, I've got
nothing to stop Metallia's mind control."

	"You were fighting against--?"

	"Yup.  Not anymore though.  Been nice beating you--I mean, meeting
you, kid.  You're not a priority target.  My new boss wants me to
shoot you once and then move on to fry some bigger fish.  And I have
to obey."  His voice grew upset.  "Sheesh, why couldn't you have just
been Terrifying--I could've killed you and we'd have been done with
this!"

	Terra felt a sting in her abdomen and her black energy retreated
within her.  Based on the smoking gun, she deduced that Thomas really
had shot her, not that she could feel it between all the other pain.

	Terra watched Thomas turn around, walk passed the stunned crowds and
calmly enter the garden area where she had left Queen Serenity.

	A few soldiers in all-concealing armor and helmets also watched him
go.  Terra could hear them speak.

	"He's headed for the Queen!  We should stop him!"

	"Are you insane!?  Did you not just see what he did to Sailor Moon?!
What do you think he'd do to us?!"

	"Okay, fine, then let's at least WARN the Queen!"

	"Right!"

	The group rushed ahead of the marching man and out of sight.

	"Ho hum," muttered Terra as she painfully checked to see if any of
her smashed joints would fit back into place.  They wouldn't.
"Owwwww...."

	Some men and women dressed as medical staff rushed toward her.  They
carried what must have been magical healing equipment.  Someone must
have let them know that the Moon Kingdom's last remaining princess had
been injured.  On the other hand, she couldn't tell; some of the
instruments looked like they could have come out of an episode of Star
Trek.

	She reflected that it would have been nice if she were in some kind
of condition to help out Queen Serenity.  She just hoped that the
woman was strong enough to stop the Star Light Knight after he'd been
hopped up on all the evil sauce he'd been chugging.  She wished she
had some way to keep fighting.

	Her brain reminded her about the psychic projection technique she had
previously used on Jadeite and others.

	"Oh!  Let me see if I can get that one right this time."

	While the doctors got to work on her, she withdrew into her mind and
tried to remember the right energy pattern.  She soon found one
coherent enough to could use.  It was frayed and bits of it needed
some rework, but she was pretty sure she could make it happen.

---

	Shouts of warning broke Queen Serenity out of her reverie.  For a few
minutes she had heard a loud commotion in the distance and her uplink
to the allied fleet started paging her.

	"Your Majesty," said Skuld politely through the uplink, "we are
detecting a significant anomaly building up at Earth's northern polar
region."

	"Proceed as you see fit," Serenity replied.  "I give you and our
allies' vessels permission to do anything in the solar system you
believe is necessary.  Keep Ryu on standby.  I think I may need him."

	She then turned to face her new visitor.  "The Star Light Knight.  I
am sad to see you have once more succumbed to such a corrupting
influence."

	The Star Light Knight's eyes glowed red inside his helmet.

	Serenity eyed the man cooly and her posture remained relaxed.  "Why
haven't you attacked?  You have come to kill me, have you not?"

	The armored man nodded.

	She beckoned him closer.  "Then come claim your prize, if you believe
yourself worthy."

	S.L.K. drew his handgun, and took aim.  He pulled the trigger three
times.  Each shot bounced harmlessly off of a barrier around the
woman.  He stared at her afterwards.

	"You thought me defenseless?" inquired Serenity.

	S.L.K. changed the magazine of his sidearm to something with glowing
red demonic symbols.

	"There is a reason I am still the Queen, you know.  Would you like me
to show you?"

	"Show me," boomed S.L.K.'s weary voice.

	"Very well."  Serenity's eyes narrowed and she grasped the handle of
her wand.  An instant later, she had moved behind S.L.K. and knocked
the weapon out of his hand.  It spun off into the distance.

	He drew his sword and slashed at her.  She effortlessly caught the
blade on the crescent of her wand.  She spun around and fired a small
blast into his chest, staggering him and making him growl.

	She raised her hand towards him.  An unseen force lifted him into the
air above her.  "Ryuujin-hou," she whispered.  "Fire."

	One of the smaller organic craft aimed its guns downward and sent a
bombardment into the Star Light Knight.  The shots hammered into a
large spherical shield around him, leaving the Queen unaffected below
him.  When the volley stopped, she brought her hands downward and
smacked him into the ground hard enough to form a crater.

	When the debris in the air cleared, he knelt unharmed in the center
of the indentation.  "Not bad."  He stood.  "But is that the extent of
your power?"

	Serenity did not respond.  Rather, she calmly awaited his next move
with her arms crossed and wand held at an angle as if it were a blade.
 She whispered, "Moon Healing Escalation."

	Bright rays came from her wand and bathed S.L.K. in its glow as if it
were the sunshine of dawn coming over the morning horizon.

	"Heh," S.L.K. laughed.  "You'll need more strength behind it than
that to break Metallia's hold over me.  Say, you really did burn off a
whole lot of power trying to stop my old boss, didn't you?  Now look
at you.  Barely stronger than a little Sailor Scout."

	"I apologize," said Serenity.  "I will be unable to save your life.
I wish I could have, after what you did for my kingdom."

	"Your kingdom's lost anyway.  It always was."

	"Oh?"

	"Everything we did--that whole battle in space and on the ground?  It
was just for fun.  I encouraged Beryl to do it without Metallia's help
for her own enjoyment."  S.L.K. took a step closer.  "It was so she
could gloat over you and make you beg for your life!  IT WAS JUST A
GAME!"

	The woman's expression began to show some doubt.  "You lie!"

	Above them, the Earth glowed with darkness.  Black crackling energy
spouted from the northern pole and started to form a gigantic cloud in
space.

	"Do I?"  S.L.K. pointed upward.  "It was always hopeless.  Even now,
Metallia just let you think you won so she could take it all away from
you again!!  EVERYTHING WAS JUST A GAME--A LION TOYING WITH A SMALL
MOUSE!!!"  His body flared with Metallia's destructive power.  He
roared and leapt at her furiously.

	Serenity tried to block, but the force knocked her backward.  She
flew almost horizontally until she smashed into the marble wall of a
nearby building.  The rocks fell and buried her.

	A second later the debris exploded outward and the Queen stood,
having freed herself with a flick of her wand.

	Gesturing with her hands, she lifted the giant masonry blocks into
the air and flung them at her opponent.

	S.L.K. easily hopped out of the way of the projectiles and pressed
his attack, sending a bolt of energy at her, which she deflected away.
 He followed up with several shots from a new gun that appeared in his
hand.  Those smacked into Serenity's thin barrier, weakening it.

	She charged an attack that manifested as a sphere of energy atop her
wand and moved closer to use it.

	The armored man drew his blade and slashed her across the chest,
penetrating her barrier and putting a tear in the bodice of her dress
and biting into her skin.  She staggered back from the strength of the
attack.  She cradled her wound with one hand and glanced at the blood.
 Her expression showed that she was starting to get worried.

	Above them and far away, the black cloud continued to grow.
Serenity's personal communications uplink with the flotilla paged her.
 She clicked it on.

	"I am Heimdall," said a voice, "captain of the Bifrost.  Our
investigation of Earth is detecting a toxic buildup in Omega--"

	A huge beam shot out from the black cloud towards one of the larger
vessels that had come the closest to Earth.  The strike ripped through
the vessel's thick shields and hull.  The ship exploded in a brilliant
display that lit up the sky for several seconds.

	It happened again when another beam from the cloud destroyed a second
ship in a similarly dramatic fashion.

	Skuld's voice immediately came on the channel and said, "We have
identified the threat and must retreat."

	"No!" cried Serenity.  "Don't leave us!"

	"We cannot damage an entity of that scale with our current forces and
our cruisers cannot repel firepower of that magnitude.  We deeply
regret this but we can do no more good here."

	Serenity gazed on in horror as a third ship was destroyed before the
vessels could depart, one by one, into hyperspace.

	"You're alone now, Serenity," said S.L.K. in a tired voice.  "No one
is coming this time to help you fight."

	The Queen trembled when she saw the shadow in the sky begin to
approach.  She could see hundreds of thousands of spots riding upon
it.  Even at this distance, she could tell that it was bringing an
army of youma.  She switched on the public announcement system.
"Everyone who can hear me," she said, her voice cracking with fear,
"prepare for another attack!  Prepare to fight with everything you
have!"

	"It will do no good," said S.L.K.  "Your friends that could have
helped are dead.  The fleet has fled.  Your daughter is DEAD.  You
have no reason to fight.  There's no purpose in it.  Metallia is
coming here now, shortly."  He took a step towards her.  "No number of
human soldiers can win this."

	Serenity's voice turned dejected.  "No...!"

	Seven shadowy beings split off from the cloud and descended like
bolts of lightning to strategic places around and inside the citadel.

	"The Seven Great Shadow Youma," explained S.L.K. as he gestured
towards the circumference of the city.  "The will tear apart your army
from the inside and turn whoever will succumb into youma!"

	Tears appeared in Serenity's eyes.  "How could this have happened?!"

	"The question you should be asking is: Why am I talking and not
fighting?  I'll tell you why.  She likes your fear.  She's gloating
now, seeing this through my eyes.  She thinks it's fun."  S.L.K.
paused.  "But she wants me to kill you now."  He shrugged.  "Boring,
but it's a living, I guess."  He lifted his arms and began to charge a
large energy sphere above his head.  "Pseudo-Stellar Quantum-Phase
Nano-Molecular Disintegration--"

	Then a wavy sphere of purple light flew in from the direction of the
garden entrance and nailed S.L.K. in the head, disrupting his spell
and sending him cartwheeling into a wall.  The rubble collapsed and
halfway buried him.  A black presence lifted off of him, connected to
him by an energy cord.

	Serenity turned and saw who had hurled the attack.  It was a young
woman dressed in semi-revealing lavender and black feminine ninja
attire.  She had black hair in a ponytail.

	Serenity's expression lit up with recognition.  "You!"

	"Knight-Zero?!" said S.L.K. in surprise as he climbed out of the
rubble.  "Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes!  And here I thought
you were gone forever.  It's what our old boss said, anyway."

	"So that was your name," whispered the Queen.  "Today are you friend
or are you foe?"

	In response, Knight-Zero threw a handful of energy shurikens at
S.L.K., which knocked him back a step and stuck in his barrier before
drawing a thinly bladed sword and taking up a defensive position in
front of the Queen.  "Friend," she whispered.  She pulled the Queen to
her feet.  "Look, are we going to win this or what?"

	"We can't win," explained the Queen.  "No one is left who can
successfully wield the Ginzuishou--"

	The black presence, like a formless winged demon, latched onto
S.L.K.'s back, causing his eyes to flare up red again.  He drew his
sword and charged at the pair.

	Knight-Zero parried the attack and delivered a cut to his neck
between his helmet and other armor.

	The black presence struck towards Serenity with some unknown goal.
The ninja blasted it and grabbed on to it in an effort to pull it
away.  It lashed at her with burning claws.

	Serenity strengthened her barrier to block several handgun shots from
S.L.K. while Knight-Zero clashed with the presence that was connected
with her opponent.

	Apparently alerted to the Queen's continued resistance, seven shadowy
figures appeared at the edge of the garden and rushed at the two
women.  Within their dark power, Serenity could see various
shapes--one in a labcoat was probably a transformed Mercurian
scientist, and there were a couple of others such as a hunched, horned
red demon and what looked like a winged angel.

	"Too many of them," whispered Serenity as they drew close.

	The ninja drew a pair of large spiked chakrams that looked far too
large to have been concealed anywhere on her person.  She threw one at
the nearest youma, and the other at another.  Each metal ring
staggered its target and returned to her like a boomerang.  She threw
a spear at one, swung a bladed whip at another, and blasted another
with a projectile energy spell.

	Meanwhile, Serenity dueled with the Star Light Knight.  She blocked
sword strikes, deflected weapons, and delivered strong energy blows to
his armor.  Her attacks, however, did not even seem to be slowing him
down.

	"Fun but ultimately pointless!"  A pillar of darkness appeared above him.

	Serenity swung her wand, blasting the pillar to sparkly pieces and
leaving him unbalanced and open to attack.  She took advantage of this
and blasted him again.

	With the seven youma stunned or otherwise distracted, Knight-Zero
refocused on attacking the presence connected to S.L.K. On the ground
and vulnerable, she chanted an incantation.  Circles and mystic
symbols appeared on the ground beneath her.

	Two of the youma recovered and fired strange sticky attacks at
Knight-Zero, binding her in the spot.  Her voice slowed and slurred as
she tried to finish her incantation.

	Serenity took a strong fist to the cheek from the knight which
knocked her down and would probably have beheaded her if her barrier
had been any weaker.  She had no barrier left after that.

	She pulled out a small multifaceted crystal.  "Dead either way."  She
placed it atop her wand, lifted it up and cried, "MOON HEALING--"

	Each of the youma instantly responded by throwing a beam of energy at
Serenity, binding her arms and attempting to knock the wand and
crystal out of her grasp, but she held fast.  "--Escalation," she
said.  The crystal pulsed but did not immediately cause anything to
happen.  Then it pulsed and broke the hold of the seven youma.  An
instant later, her eyes went wide and she went to the ground, holding
her chest as if experiencing the pain of a powerful heart attack.

	Knight-Zero was freed to continue her incantation.  She spoke in a
strange language that did not sound like it could be made by human
vocal cords.  The magic resulted in a huge explosion that tore into
the black presence connected to S.L.K.'s body.  He held his head and
writhed as if afflicted by either an alien parasite or a really bad
headache.

	Serenity took a gasping breath, then took the opportunity to reach up
and blast him with her power, using the Crystal as an aid.  The black
presence faded bit by bit, and finally dispersed completely when
Knight-Zero hit him with a second burst.

	"AAaaarrghhh...!"  The Star Light Knight fell to one knee.  His
helmet fell off and bounced away.  He took a breath before collapsing
to the ground.

	When the seven youma approached, Serenity sent out one more pulse
with her wand and crystal, knocking their remaining enemies down.  She
nearly choked from the effort of using her magic at the current level.
 She made moves to stand but obviously did not have the strength.  Her
wand slipped out of her hands and made a plinking sound when it hit
the ground.

	"Serenity!" shouted Knight-Zero, who broke out of her casting circles
to come to her.  She knelt down and picked her up in her arms.

	"I knew it," coughed the drained woman.  "It would not have worked...."

	"But it did work!" said Knight-Zero hurriedly.  "We stopped them!"

	"The youma are getting back up," said Serenity, pointing to one of
the seven that had been staggered by her attack.  "Metallia will be
here in moments.  Our allies have fled.  It's hopeless."  A thread of
red went down her mouth.  Her overuse of the magic had apparently
damaged her body more deeply than it first appeared.

	"We can still do this!"

	"How?"

	"Call them back!  We beat impossible odds before!  We can do it again!"

	"You..."  Serenity looked at Knight-Zero's face and pulled down the
mask over her mouth.  "You're not HER, are you?  You're... Miss Terra
Incognita?  You are using... an avatar?"

	"Yeah," agreed the psychic projection.  "It's me.  C'mon, what I've
learned over the past couple days is I can do anything I put my mind
to.  Stay with me now.  Imagine I COULD do anything.  Anything at
all."  She shook the queen.  "Don't pass out!  What would you want me
to do?"

	"Anything?" Serenity looked up at the doom coming towards them.  "If
you can manage it... please do not let it end like this."  She touched
her earring, activating the public announcement system.  "People of
the Moon... I must leave you now.  The kingdom passes to my adopted
child, the only remaining successor.  Live on, my subjects... my
friends!"

	The woman's eyes closed and she went limp.  The ninja checked her
pulse and found none.  She held the body, while a loud murmur erupted
across the citadel.  The mourning had already begun.

	"Dang it," whispered the avatar, and faded away.

---

	"The Queen is dead," said a man bitterly.  "Long live the Queen."

	Terra felt that a lot of the pain in her body had left, but she still
couldn't feel her left arm.  She opened her physical eyes and saw that
it was still missing, but it had been bandaged.  She saw that the
doctors had stopped working on her.  She figured they had finished
patching her up about as best they could.

	"Apologies, My Queen," said a very sheepish man in medical attire.
"We were unable to reattach your arm.  Perhaps if we could put you
under and had a few hours...."  He trailed off and looked up at the
sky.  "I'm not sure we have that long."

	"Can I play the piano?"

	"Probably--"

	"That's funny, I couldn't before."

	"My Queen," pleaded the man.  "What do we do?"

	"Ow, ow oww!"  Terra struggled to her feet, despite the protests of
other nearby medical personnel.  Everything hurt and there were still
some things that felt awkward and out of place, but she felt able to
walk.  "Yarg."

	A blond man dressed in lunar soldier attire came near.  "My Queen,"
he said, bowing hesitantly.  It was clear he was unhappy about the
situation.  Terra recognized him as the captain of the Lunar High
Guard, with whom she had an altercation earlier.

	"Captain," greeted Terra.  "I guess... I'm in charge now?"

	"I wish, with every fiber of my soul, that this was not the case,"
replied the captain.  "But in times like this, even a bad queen is far
superior to having NO queen."  He ran a hand through his hair.  "I
have spoken with that fellow from Earth--Rusty--and we have concluded
that our soldiers will fight as one.  What is your command?  Where
will we make our last stand?"

	Terra thought about all that had happened and asked herself what the
best option was.  How could they turn this into a victory?  She went
over the facts.  Their enemy still had hundreds of thousands of
empowered soldiers and the Moon had lost everyone capable of doing the
same to theirs.  Herself as Sailor Moon could not even stand up to a
single brainwashed person with any kind of real power.  Earth had at
least four others besides Thomas.

	On top of all that, she added to herself, Earth had a monster that
could blow up huge starships with barely an afterthought.  What kind
of troop movement would be the most effective here?

	No troop movement, that's what.  They had to get out of here.

	"Prepare an evacuation," commanded Terra as Queen of the Moon.

	Captain Laios blinked.  "What?"

	"We need to get everyone out of here!"

	"You are asking us to abandon our homes, our kingdom--everything we
have fought and suffered for?"

	"Yes!"

	"Where would we go?!"

	"Somewhere NOT being attacked by A FREAKING HUGE SHADOW-MONSTER!"

	"Most of our ships were destroyed!  We would never be able to get
everyone away in the refugee vessels that are still intact!"

	"Then we call for help.  Where are all of those ships that were just here?"

	"They fled in terror of that monster in the sky!  How do you intend
to call them back?!  My Queen, I appreciate the sentiment of trying to
save our lives, but you ask the impossible!"

	The Irish redhead glanced at the monster and chewed her lower lip and
then ground her teeth together while thinking of a better solution.
"Prepare the evacuation," she insisted.  "Get our best speaker or
diplomat or advisor on the horn and find some way to convince our
allies to get back here and help.  I'll figure out the rest."

	"Luna and Artemis," whispered the High Guard Captain.  "They might
make it work.  They could talk a child into fighting an army by
themselves.  I wager they could get those ships back here ready to do
a suicide mission if they had to."

	As he turned around to carry out her orders, Terra wondered if she
had done the right thing.  It was really rotten that the Queen had
died despite her best efforts.  Come to think of it, she really had no
idea what she was doing and was going with the flow and using whatever
ideas came to her the most quickly.  On the one hand, bad orders were
probably better than no orders, right?  She was better off trying to
give instructions through rule of monarchy--even false
monarchy--rather than leaving it up to other people who maybe knew the
area and timeframe better, right?

	Right?

	"How ARE we going to get out of this one?" Terra whispered to
herself.  "How do we kill a thousand-mile-wide monster?"

	"With MAGIC!" exclaimed a cheerful voice behind her.

	Terra turned to see the Star Light Knight, without his helmet or
glowing red eyes, limping towards her.  "Hey there, stumpy!  You sure
had me fooled," he continued.  "There's no way anyone but Princess
Terrifying would know how to do what you did.  You got me and you got
me good.  Looks like you're my boss again, for now."

	Terra felt uneasy in his presence.  She glanced at others who seemed
to be accepting but wary of him.  She supposed they must have thought
he had been temporarily mind-controlled but had been freed, like what
had happened to other soldiers from Earth.  "You're not going to turn
on me again, are you?"

	"Not anytime soon, I'm afraid," lamented the man.  "Took me months to
build up that alternate connection and you just blew it to heck."  He
handed over an earring that Terra recognized as a communication
device, as well as the wand with the Ginzuishou Crystal on it.  "Here,
I took these off your mom's corpse."

	Although the way he said it really grated on the girl, Terra took the
objects.  She figured they would be useful.  She clipped on the
earring device.  Fortunately it stuck on since she just had the use of
one hand and so she didn't have to fiddle with it.  She started being
able to hear some frightened, urgent communications chatter in the
background.

	"Oh," added Thomas, "and those Seven Great Shadow Youma?  They took
off, probably to spread chaos and destruction."  He shrugged.  "Or
maybe they're just regrouping to come back and try to kill you later
since you're now THE priority target."  He gave a sloppy, almost
vulgar salute.  "Perks of the job now, 'queeny!'"

	Terra shook her head.  "You really hate me now, don't you?"

	The Star Light Knight leaned down and whispered into her ear, "Yeah.
I WILL hurt you for this.  I don't know how yet, but give me time. A
day will come when you think yourself safe and happy, and suddenly
your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth, you will suffer pain, and
you'll know the debt is paid."

	The girl stared at him.  "Yikes."

	"No matter where you go, no matter what you become, no matter how
long it takes, I will make you remember and feel guilt for everything
you did."  He dusted off his gloves.  "So, what do you want to do now,
boss?"

	"I want to save as many people as we can," replied the new queen.
She heard some discussion over the communication line that indicated
the fleet was going to return.  She looked at the wand in her hand.
"This is supposed to be powerful, right?  Something that makes a
full-blown Sailor Soldier pale in comparison?"

	"Yup.  You of all beings should know that."

	"But it kills whoever uses it?"

	"Only if you go overboard with it.  Assuming they survived using it
in the first place, full power would take a strong human mage a year
or two to recover from.  Maybe less, depening."

	"I think this is probably my best solution, if I can figure out how to use it."

	S.L.K. laughed.  "You're hilarious, kid."

	Terra frowned.  "What?"

	"Even holding that thing's a bad idea for someone like you."

	"You think I shouldn't?"

	"Oh, I want you to.  I want you to badly.  Just saying it's probably
a bad idea."

	"You think I couldn't get it to work?"

	"I'm sure you could.  In fact, I'd do my best to help you get it
activated.  It'd be my pleasure."

	The girl's brain connected the dots.  "I can get it to work, but it
will definitely kill me in the process.  Some other people might
survive using it to its fullest, but it will kill me.  Is that it?"

	S.L.K. touched the point of her nose.  "Bingo!"

	The shadow finally landed.  After a few seconds, Terra could hear the
loud crash from the impact.  Through the shadows, Terra could see what
looked like a skull with spiky teeth and one huge eye.  There were
other features like tentacles with hook-knives at the end, some arms
and spines.  It didn't frighten Terra nearly as much as she thought it
might, even if it was hundreds of miles tall.  She was probably
exaggerating the height estimate, but as far as she was concerned it
may as well have been thousands of miles tall.

	"Whew!" commented S.L.K. with a whistle.  "Now that's a target
that'll be really hard to miss!"  He took out his guitar and ran off.

	"Where are you going?!" Terra called after him.

	"I'm gonna go play in a band!  Be right back!"

	"Huh."

	Distant mad cackling drew the girl's attention back toward the
battlefield.  Hundreds of thousands of youma leapt to the ground.
Some had wings and flew towards the citadel.

	"Huh!"

	Terra touched her earring, turning on the public announcement system.
 "We're going to have incoming," she said.  "I know this looks bad.
But don't panic.  We'll get out of this one too."

	As if for its own amusement, Queen Metallia pointed a shadowy finger
at the edges of the citadel and shot out a hundred-meter-wide beam
that carved a deep entrance trench through to the Moon Palace
courtyard.  Terra cringed from the noise of the energy and the
landscape tearing up, interspersed by the screams of people being
vaporized.  It was horrific.

	"Somehow," Terra added. She turned away as the pulverized debris from
the strike began to land, making rhythmic thudding sounds on the
ground like a very heavy rain.

	"Your instructions, m'lady?" asked a very nervous soldier nearby.
His armor seemed fancier than most.  It was possible he was part of
the Queen's personal guard or something similar to that.

	"We fight," declared Terra to the soldier, pointing at the youma
rushing through the trench.  "Get up close and delay them as long as
you can."

	"We're no match for all of these youma!" he protested.

	"You'll last longer against them than against Metallia!" insisted
Terra.  "You might make enough of a difference to save some of the
ones who can't fight.  Let's just hope Metallia doesn't strike when
its own forces are in the way."  The girl truly hoped that was the
case or it was going to be the shortest defensive maneuver she'd ever
heard of.

	The soldier stopped, then bowed deeply and hurried off to convey the
message to a group of similarly-dressed men.

	The girl scoured her brain for a solution to the problem.  She had to
come up with something to make the whole thing work or this was going
to be the shortest-lived reign in all of history.  Becoming Super
Sailor Moon might work if she could do it for a prolonged period of
time.  But so far her efforts had yielded mere seconds, not even
minutes.  She supposed that a full evacuation could at least take
hours and she had no idea how they were going to hold out that long.

	She knew using the Ginzuishou Crystal was going to be fatal for her
but she had no idea in what way that meant.  She knew that she needed
more information than she had available, but the problem was she had
no time to research it!

	Arby the ArbyFish fluttered out of nowhere in particular and hopped
atop her shoulder.  "'Ail tew the Monarch!" he said with a flippery
salute.  "Moie Mushroom, 'Tis of Fleas, Sweet Badge of Fungus~shroom,
tew ye Oye fling!"

	He tossed a mushroom at Terra's face.  It bounced off.  She didn't even blink.

	"Arby," Terra breathed.  Given that his forte had always seemed to be
insane answers to insane questions, she decided to follow up with,
"Got anything in that moldy green fur of yours to hold off a
miles-high eldritch monster demon goddess queen for a few minutes?"

	"Oye moight," admitted the creature thoughtfully.  "'Ow much is ya
willing tew pay?"

	Terra shrugged.  "I'll let you run crazy emotional and genetic
experiments on me, strip me practically naked and make me run through
the streets chased by insane rodents."  At Arby's grin, she placed a
finger on his nose.  "But not right now.  Thousands and thousands of
years hence!  Sound like fun to you?!"

	"Oye s'pose we could dew that."  Arby hopped atop her head and looked
into her face.  "Oye could collect with Interest then, y'see."

	"Deal?"

	"In-deed!"  Arby reached down and clicked on Terra's queenly intercom
earring.  "Ready!" he exclaimed.

	A roar perked up at the edges of the horizon.

	"AIM!"

	The roar came closer.

	"PORRIDGE!!!"

	Terra's eyes went wide when twelve gigantic mushrooms, each a quarter
of the height of the shadowy Queen Metallia, sprung up from the
ground, breaking up huge chunks of terrain and tossing around large
sections of the youma army as their caps rose upward.  Massive
maw-like orifices in their stems opened and spewed forth a stream of
chunky fluid at the titanic demon goddess.

	Arby hopped up and down.  "C'mon, put ya backs into it, lads, now, PORRIDGE!!"

	The fluid issuing forth from the mouths of the mushrooms turned a
sickly bright green, bathing the ground troops of the enemy and many
of the airborne youma in steaming bile.  Screams rose from the
battlefield as the enemy was slowly digested alive, melting into
viscous puddles.

	Crawling, clawing, and clamoring for escape from the acid as the
flesh dripped off of their dissolving skeletons, the hopeless blind
wretches writhed in desperate agony.

	Then the mushrooms began to feed.

	Squelching and sucking, the mass began to flow back into the
mushrooms. Hidden teeth somewhere within the bowels of the humongous
myoconids worked to break down what was left, making crushing and
crunching noises that echoed across the landscape.

	The wind shifted direction, carrying the smell towards the citadel.
The smell of death was obvious, but there was more. Chemical, rotted,
acrid, vile, and toxic, the wind blew sweltering scents nauseatingly
across the observers' faces.

	Terra swung around and violently threw up into one of the courtyard's
ornate fountains.

	Arby inhaled deeply, quite pleased at the results.  "Roight good
Caustic Chum-Crunchin' Cannibalistic mushrooms, they is!"

	The girl took a breath and wiped her mouth with the edge of her glove
before asking, "Cannibalistic?"

	A deep squelching noise drew her attention.  The massive mushrooms,
engorged from their feast, were now oozing a brown muck, the byproduct
of their ghastly metabolism.  Even with the tens of thousands they had
devoured, they were not yet satiated.  Slipping and rolling in their
own filth, they grappled with one another until one could hook its
teeth into another's back and then begin to feed, tearing off huge
chunks of each other and swallowing them whole.

	As they consumed one another, the victors grew in size until only one
was left.  This one was half again as tall as Queen Metallia.  Bathed
in shadows, the black monster seemed to slowly look up at the other
creature in confusion.

	The mushroom roared down at its opponent.  Metallia lifted a finger
and shot a beam at it, which seared a chunk off of its flank.
Growling in pain, the mega-myoconid opened its maw and dove onto the
demon entity in an effort to swallow it whole.

	As it did so, Metallia's huge skeletal fanged mouth, clothed in
shadows, opened wide and glowed brightly.

	Moments into the clash, the mushroom exploded so violently and loudly
that it made a crater and rocked the landscape.  Ancient
magically-reinforced buildings shook and threatened to tumble down.
Although badly cracked, most stood and protected the ones hiding
within.

	The black shadow creature named Metallia was driven downward by a
tremendous ocean of sticky, acidic mush.  The titanic entity screeched
deeply into the night as it fought against its bonds.  Burning from
the heat of Metallia's enraged body, the fluid became a steam that
rose off of the battlefield into the sky.

	Soon, it began to rain a staining, unpleasant precipitation.

	Terra could feel the liquid against her skin.  It didn't sting, but
it smelled bad and was starting to dye everything that it touched
green.  If she were to guess, she would bet that the land would not be
habitable for centuries, if ever again.

	"There ya go!" Arby exclaimed as he hovered in front of the new
queen's face, upon which he gave her a peck on the nose and flew off.

	Terra didn't bother to watch where he went.  Instead, she gazed after
the bound creature in the distance.  Then her earring beeped.  She
touched it.

	A small image of Laios, Captain of the Lunar High Guard, appeared on
a transparent display that formed in the air to Terra's left.
"Truly," he said, "you have unnatural and unholy powers at your
disposal, your highness."

	"Actually, that was just Arby," Terra corrected him.

	"Was it?  How very disturbing.  In any case, your majesty, Luna and
Artemis managed to make a spirited argument.  Our allies are
returning, expecting to mount a lightning evacuation."

	As if on cue, a dozen starships dropped out of hyperspace above them
and began to maneuver in closely to the planet.  More vessels appeared
in the distance.

	"That's great news, Cap'n!" Terra said.  "Let's get everyone ready
and let's go!"

	"Although it looks like our enemy is off balance, we will not have
much time."  Laios's expression was serious.  "I suggest an
alternative.  The monster, Queen Metallia, is now defenseless.  May I
request that our allies focus their weapons on destroying the beast
instead?"

	The girl thought about that option.  It made sense to take advantage
of the enemy's weakness.  On the other hand, Metallia had just minutes
ago made a complete joke out of their biggest ships.  The beast
strained against its bonds, shaking the world to its very foundation
as it did so, and it seemed to be making progress.  If it got free
before people escaped, they'd be toast in no time flat.  "No," she
decided aloud.  She doubted their weapons would be able to even
scratch the monster.

	"We have perhaps minutes.  An evacuation of millions of people will
take much longer than that!" he protested.

	"Get everyone the heck out of here," Terra insisted.  "Now!"

	"As you wish, your royal highness."  Laios breathed a long,
aggravated sigh and his image vanished.

	The girl from Ireland turned queen saw some of the tree-like ships
land at various points in the citadel.  The metallic ones ran shining
cones of light over the ground, making people caught in them disappear
as they passed.

	"Ooh," she said to herself.  "Some of them have transporters!  Beam
them up, Scotty!  That should hurry this along."

	The royal earring chimed again.  Terra touched it and saw the Star
Light Knight's image appear.  It looked like he had found the drummer
from previously.

	"Tommy the Tank Engine," Terra greeted.  "What'cha got for me now?"

	"Civilization's pretty much shot," S.L.K. replied.  Behind him, there
was a screaming, unruly throng of people desperately trying to clamber
over him.  "They're about ready to trample each other trying to get
away.  We've gotta keep people calm while the rescue goes on.  Music's
pretty good for that sort of thing, so I hacked into the PA system.
Got any requests?"

	Terra shrugged.  "I have no freaking clue.  Got any songs that can
help me figure out how to use the Ginzuishou crystal while helping
people stay calm?"

	S.L.K. nodded.  "Yeah, I think I got one or two."  He grinned.  "So
you're really gonna do it, huh?"

	"Yeah, I think I'm going to have to."

	"Sweet!  I'd kiss you if you weren't so danged evil.  And ugly, can't
forget ugly."

	Terra ignored his comment, thinking of the rather pretty face she had
seen herself wearing in the mirror earlier.  "How do I activate it?"

	"The Crystal?  Pfft!  Like you even need an explanation."

	"Humor me!"

	"It's all about feelings and desires," explained the man.  "You need
to feel in your heart exactly what 'mommy-dearest' felt when she used
it on you both times.  Twice should be more than enough for you to
have figured out the pattern."

	The girl bobbed her head around a little and asked, "What feelings
were those?"

	S.L.K. stared at her.

	"HUMOR ME!" pleaded Terra with exasperation.

	"It's a combination of things.  The language doesn't have a good word
to nail the feeling.  It's part fear, part confidence, with a strong
desire to protect, and as much love as you can muster.  You have to
really care about who or what you're doing this for.  And little
things won't do it.  If you don't dump your whole heart and soul into
it, it'll fizzle out."

	Terra thought about it.  She closed her eyes and, like little ribbons
in her chest, she could make out some of those emotions.  "I think I
can take a stab at it."

	"I repeat: Show some real emotion, if you're capable of it.  That's
probably what's going to be hardest for you.  You're gonna get, like,
one shot at this, if even that."  S.L.K. paused.  "You know what?
Listen to my song and then, if you can't figure it out, you're out of
luck.  Ka'plah!  It's a good day to die!"

	His image disappeared.  In the distance, she could see Metallia get
an appendage out.  That appendage started to shoot off tiny beams at
the substance on the monster.  It would probably free itself before
too long.  She had to figure this out before it got loose.  She could
see the armies of youma approaching.  The Lunar and freed Terran
soldiers rushed into battle to meet them.

	The girl sighed and held out the wand.  The tingling ends of her
severed limb distracted her thoughts.  At first, she made no progress
in calling out the magic, but soon she closed her eyes and imagined
both hands gripping it.  That helped her a little bit.

	Then she attempted to call out the power contained in the crystal.
She could feel it at the edge of her fingertips, an interesting but
painful and blinding white inside a multifaceted prison; however, the
power remained stuck inside the gem.  She thought of her parents and
her friends back home.  The magic swirled slightly in response, but it
didn't leave its shell.  Her feelings for them at the moment, while
real, were not that strong.  She suspected it was because she didn't
feel they were in danger or would be affected by anything she did
here.

	Terra remembered Prince Endymion's face, so much like Tuxedo Kamen.
She recalled the tingling rush from when they kissed and the
exhilaration from when he guided her in her use of magic.  She
recalled the sadness when he died.  Those feelings worked better, but
the Ginzuishou Crystal refused to part with its strength.

	"Come on," she whispered, "why wasn't that enough?"

	"Let us help," said a chipper pair of voices nearby.  Terra glanced
to either side and saw Angel and Dewdrop approach and each place their
hands upon hers.

	"Heya," Terra greeted them.

	"Hi!" said Angel.

	"We've seen old recordings of the Crystal getting used," said
Dewdrop.  "It helps if you have Sailor Soldiers with you."

	Terra raised an eyebrow.  "Explain how."

	"No time," said Angel, who took out the same small objects she had
used to transform into a Sailor Soldier before.  Her sister did the
same.

	"Jares Planet Power!" one incanted.

	"Akis Planet Power!" the other intoned.

	The girls' transformation objects glowed and Terra could feel the
power flow up her hand and into the wand.  The Crystal glowed; she
could sense that the power was somewhat more free to flow.

	"Thanks," she whispered to the pair.  "I think I can do this now."
She started being able to tease out some power.  Tiny tendrils of
light stung her fingertips.  She had to focus her willpower to avoid
dropping the wand.

	Finally, there was a small whooshing sound and a sphere of light
suffused them.  The children made delighted sighs when the energy came
out, but for Terra it was like getting smashed in the head by a cinder
block.  She choked and staggered.  After the initial hit, she found
herself in a daze, like when she had bad fevers when she was younger.
Her black power bubbled and burned off.  What remained retreated
further within her like a sea creature sucking back into its shell.

	The girl refocused on her task.  She could do this, she told herself.
 The Star Light Knight's image appeared in the sky and he started to
sing a song.  The public announcement system must have been damaged in
Metallia's last strike, though.  She could only hear the music if she
strained to hear it.  It was something about nuclear explosions.  She
decided to ignore it.

	Suddenly, the Seven Great Shadow Youma struck.  Terra didn't notice
at first.  A spray of acid glanced off of the white aura surrounding
the trio, but next came a spiked hammer that pushed through and a
winged youma came in close and pounded on their defenses.

	Terra's focus quickly waned.  The power of the Silver Ginzuishou
Crystal grew more chaotic and difficult to control.  The energy
finally failed to protect them.  A blow threw the acting queen from
her feet, leaving her companions defenseless when a tall, catlike
creature leapt forward and began to savage the children with its claws
and teeth.

	The girls screamed at the assault.  Terra's eyes went wide when she
heard a sickening crunching noise from where the girls now lay.  She
felt sick when she heard their cries for help and saw the catlike
monster rise again and prepare for a final downward strike.

	The blackness inside her reared up and she found herself standing
with her now bleeding arm blocking the claws and the wand stuck at the
attacking creature's chest.  The white of the Crystal strained and
wobbled against the black power coming from within her body.  The
combination created a violent antipode that exploded in their faces.

	The cat monster cartwheeled backward while Terra skidded to a halt on
her feet and one knee.  She noticed a small crack appear in the gem's
surface.  Another youma struck from behind.  Terra moved to block,
again sending her conflicting powers into strong a burst.  The red and
blue demon thing that had attacked went down.

	The remaining five chanted a spell and raised their hands toward her.
 Beams of purple-edged blackness shot towards her, focused at the tip
of her wand.  Terra found herself fighting against the pull.  They
seemed to be trying to neutralize the wand's effects.  Cracks appeared
on the gem's every facet.

	Terra focused on the memory of seeing Angel and Dewdrop, two helpless
children, fallen and attacked by these vile monsters.  She let the
rage take her and felt the blackness lance out of her, violently and
forcefully breaking down the barriers that held the Crystal's power
trapped.  The whiteness came out in a sudden, brief burst.

	The seven youma howled when the light hit them.  Angered, they
refocused their assault.  The two that had been felled moments ago
joined in as well.

	The acting queen found herself letting out a shriek as she fought
back.  Pulsing waves of blackness radiated from her body.

	The Crystal shattered into dust, leaving behind a crackling ball of
white in front of Terra's face.  Within each of the beams, the
fragments coalesced into a random swirl colors, finally merging into
less complicated gems, each a different shade from the spectrum.

	As if they were shells fired from a cannon, the gems propelled
themselves into the hearts of the youma.

	The residual white energy hung around in the air for a few seconds,
and then pulsed into Terra's body.  Her body shook violently and fell
to the ground as if she had been hit by lightning.

	The youma moaned and slowly collapsed.  The shadows burned off of
them, at first leaving strangely dressed blue-hued youma, some with
wings, others with spikes.  Then this too faded and left behind normal
human shapes--two women, four men, and one small feline.  Each
remaining being did not move.  Whatever happened must have killed
them.

	Terra frowned when she saw the broken, empty top of the wand, but
then she saw movement from the ground.  She realized that the girls,
Angel and Dewdrop, were still alive!

	She crawled over to them to check them.  There was a lot of blood and
some bad injuries.  "Crap!"

	"Queen... Terra," said Dewdrop.  She was forcing a half-smile, but
her body was shaking and her breathing labored.  Her sister's face was
slashed.  She was barely breathing and her eyes fluttered while her
mouth indicated she was trying to speak but unable to do so.

	"CRAP!!"

	More movement in the distance attracted her attention.  A large group
of ground youma had made it past the Lunar guards' defenses.  They
would be on them soon.

	"DANG IT!!"  Terra hit her earring and frantically shouted, "HELP!
Allies?  Anyone?  Can anyone hear me?  I need help!"  She felt dazed
from the white power bouncing within her.  "Two to beam up!  Or
however it is you say it when you want to teleport people away!
HELP!"

	"We tried," whispered Angel.  "We're so... sorry...."

	Dewdrop's eyes nearly closed.  "Thanks... for... for...."	

	Terra shook the girls slightly in an effort to keep them awake.  She
remembered something from a television show that she was supposed to
keep people injured like that awake.  "Crap... Come on, stay--stay
with me, you two!"  She hit her earring again and made her desperate
request once more.

	The girl finally heard some static that she could only make out a few
words from, "---MUCH--INTERFERENCE--!  TAKING HEAVY LOSSES--"

	The signal faded out.  Terra wondered why the system would cut out
now when the messages had been crystal clear up until now.  She looked
up to see stray shots from Metallia's flailing limbs blasting into
some of the allied ships.  Several of them had been destroyed but most
of the larger ones' shields seemed to be holding, if only barely.

	She heard the loud roar of strange engines nearby.  She looked over
to see a small craft, with delicate wooden spines and frames,
approach.  In the center it had a blue disc.  The wind blew as the
relatively tiny craft came near.  Shots fired from its weapon systems
to drive off the bulk of the youma pressing forward.  When it came
close, a gantry extended downward from the center section.

	Four soldiers descended the gantry at a sprint.  They wore tied-cloth
headbands and were dressed in what looked like blue and white kimonos
and carrying what looked like silver rifles.  They fired precise
headshots at any youma that came nearby.  Even so, some youma took
multiple hits before they would fall.

	From the craft descended two large wooden cylinders with glass discs
near the top that looked like eyes, and they had four diagonal pegs
attached to a ring at the bottom.  One cylinder had red writing on it
while the other had blue.  The objects levitated towards Angel and
Dewdrop, each taking up a position over the injured girls.  Each
extended a sphere of energy around the fallen children, picking them
up gently and starting to levitate them towards the craft.

	The bubbles seemed to have a soothing effect on the girls.  Terra
sincerely hoped it had some kind of medical property to it.  Inside
her bubble, Dewdrop raised a hand, reaching out towards the Irish
girl, but then went out of sight, along with her sister, as they were
taken inside.

	One of the soldiers beckoned Terra over and said, "Your Highness,
please come with us aboard the Ryuujin-hou.  He is the fastest ship in
the armada."

	Terra glanced back at at Metallia for a moment.  The titanic monster
had almost gotten free of its bonds and was standing back up.  She
shook her head.  "No," she said, "nobody will get away unless I can
distract that monster for long enough."  She looked at her wand.
"That's probably all I'm going to be able to do at this rate."

	"A creature of that scale--" one man started to argue.

	Terra remembered the words of a recently departed friend.  "I'm a
Sailor Soldier," she said with feigned, forced confidence.  "That kind
of size means nothing to me.  Get my friends to safety."

	Terra turned and began to walk towards the path that led to Metallia.
 She glanced back to shout to the men, "GO!"

	The group seemed to decide together not to argue the point any
further.  They ascended into the ship and the gantry withdrew within.
The ship's engine roared and it started to ascend.

	Terra saw Metallia take aim at the craft near her.

	"Moon Crisis," Terra said, "Make Up!"

	Between the various kinds of power coursing through her, Terra barely
felt the change in her outfit.  She focused her will on Metallia's
massive hand.  Even with her second-stage transformation, trying to
move it felt like trying to bend steel bars without any magical
powers.  One small shot barely missed the Ryuujin-hou.  The ship's
thrusters fired suddenly, allowing it to dodge out of the way of a
second blast.

	"What kind of monster IS that thing?!" cried Terra as she strained
with all her might to disrupt the beast's aim.  It didn't seem to
matter that her own left arm was missing.  Her powers functioned at
the same strength regardless if she imagined that she still had it.
With her phantom appendage, she reached out to a large tower that had
not yet fallen in the battle.  The tower glowed brightly as it charged
with the Moon's magic.

	"MOON... TOWER... ACTION!!!"

	Terra growled and veins on her forehead puffed as she sent it like a
missile into Metallia's head.  The gem on her chest went from red to
white hot very quickly this time.  Metallia's head snapped backward
from the blow and the ground shook and split as the titanic beast took
a heavy step backward when the projectile exploded violently against
its body.

	Then a low, deep, and loud howl split the air.  Terra could feel it
in her bones.  Seconds later, Metallia's skull came back down.  The
ground and air seemed to heat up when the one giant eye turned to
focus on her.

	"Finally got your attention, huh?" Terra muttered.  She started to
walk towards the monster.  "Yeah, that's it.  I can hurt you, can't I?
 Look at me, not the ships.  Stay on me now."  She had no idea how
long her transformation would last this time, but she intended to make
the most of it.

	She heard some chatter from her earring.  "The first full transport
is away!"  A cheer erupted from the city in the distance.  There was a
bright flash as another large craft sped into the sky.

	"Heh," Terra panted.  "Heh.  Terra one, Metallia zero.  Heh."  She
heard a low roar eminating from within Metallia's massive form.  It
wasn't just sound rippling through the air; it seemed to have a
psychic component to it.  She could feel a hint of annoyance.  As if
out of spite, Metallia hurled two large energy projectiles at more of
the fleeing craft.  "Crap!"

	Terra reached out with her powers and tried to get a hold of the
crackling black bursts.  She succeeded, gripping one with each phantom
hand, and found that they were much easier to try to manipulate than
any part of the demon goddess herself.  She managed to slow them and
finally push them back towards their sender.

	When the blasts impacted on Metallia's body, they exploded with such
force that Terra could feel a strong wind, even as far back as she
was.  Combined, they knocked the monster back a pace.  The beast
screamed in annoyance.

	The two saved craft--each of which looked large enough to potentially
hold more than a hundred thousand people--escaped into the sky and
disappeared into hyperspace.

	"Terra THREE," the girl panted, "Metallia zero!"  She glanced back
and saw that there were still many ships on or near the ground,
loading or transporting large groups of people at once.  "Crap."  She
knew was going to have to keep this up for a lot longer than her
transformation was going to last.  "Crap!"  She focused her will and
tried to clear her head to keep it active.  From her brooch's extreme
heat and oncoming exhaustion, she could already feel it wanting to
stop.  "C'mon... C'MON!!"

	Her mind blurred as she fought to protect the ships and keep Metallia
focused on her.  There were more projectile strikes and more attempts
at breaking her defenses.  She was not completely successful.  Some
vessels got hit and went down, while others exploded instantly, but
she was able to either block the minor beams or turn away the energy
balls.  Each time, Metallia would make things harder on her.  Each
time, it felt like the next spell would be her last.  Her skin burned
as her brooch grew ever hotter and her frame quaked with the effort of
forcing every little bit extra from it.

	A fifty-meter-wide beam smashed into the ground in front of Terra,
starting to rip into the ground and pelt her with debris.  A large
rock smashed into her shin and almost knocked her off her feet.  The
girl steadied herself and ran to the side out of the blast's path.
Her transformation powers had increased her speed sufficiently well
that she managed to dodge it, but only barely.  Metallia fired a
second beam, twice as large.  The girl ran at an angle and was able to
move past it.  She felt the heat and some of her bandages caught on
fire that she had to pat out as she hurried onward.  Whatever passive
protection she possessed had obviously stopped working.

	When the second beam faded out, she focused her powers on the ground
underneath Metallia while she had an opening, feeling for sure that
this was the last attack she was going to be able to perform before
she would be tapped out.  She nevertheless hoped she could go just
that much further after that.  A huge circle of terrain beneath the
gigantic entity glowed golden.

	With a mighty thrust of her fist upward, she made a decently-sized
chunk of the moon itself into a weapon.  It exploded against
Metallia's underside, shaking the beast around.  It cried out in rage
and had to levitate upwards to avoid falling over.  It resettled
uneasily into the ground beneath it, then opened its gaping maw wide.

	"Ugh!  Guess playtime's over, huh?" she coughed when she felt the
oppressive darkness heighten.  She nearly collapsed when the pain
caught up with her.  She noticed her innards were very much not liking
what she was stressing her body to do.  Stuff was breaking down and
internal liquids were leaking into the wrong organs.  Even so, she
somehow managed to force her second-stage transformation to remain
active.  "Not... yet!  Not... yet!"

	Lightning cascaded from the sky, tearing into what remained of the
citadel.  Ships shook as they struggled to escape the atmosphere.  A
gigantic projectile blast, one quarter mile in diameter, shot towards
Terra.

	She focused her powers into a thick kinetic barrier.  For a moment
when the blast impacted against it, she saw the blast slow.  She hoped
this would work as well.  Terra breathed raggedly while her face
burned from the heat of the oncoming strike.  She could hear the
engines of many large ships behind her firing up.  She knew that every
second she held Metallia back could mean someone else survived.

	Breathing became nearly impossible when her Sailor powers finally
reached their limit.  Her brooch cracked.  "No!  Not... not ready!!"
The focus of her powers then shattered from the strain.  Her Sailor
powers instantly faded.  The blast slid past the fading barrier and
hit her directly.

	She felt a strong wind when the explosion happened.  Everything went
white with pain.  Then it became darkness.

---

	It was like she was dreaming.  She saw only flashes of light and
could make out words that felt more like they were being beamed into
her head rather than coming from her ears.

	"The entity is too powerful!  All remaining ships pull back!!"

	"They can't.  It's decimated our entire force!"

	"And the other refugees--?"

	"The citadel is now just a crater.  The Moon and everyone on it are
lost.  The atmosphere has been completely blown off.  It's been left a
hellish landscape crawling with monsters."

	"What about the Queen?"

	"Scanners detect no human life signs remaining."

---

	What was left of the girl awoke slowly.  She felt numb all over but
could tell she was lying on her back, as limp as a boned fish and as
broken as a cheap porcelain doll after being shipped across the
country in an unpadded cardboard box under two large sumo wrestlers
that had been practicing their stomping moves throughout the whole
trip.  She sensed the roar of departing engines, distant explosions,
and then silence.

	After a while--she couldn't tell how long--she detected the crunching
of approaching footsteps.  It wasn't sound.  It was like the distant
memory of sound.   Darkness permeated her being, interrupted by
agonizing waves of light that swept across her, looking for an escape.

	She couldn't think very clearly.  "What's happening?" she wondered
without being able to speak.  She checked and noticed that her red
power was completely gone, as was the golden of the Sailor powers.
Was she dead?  The white power felt exactly like what the Ginzuishou
Crystal had given off before it was destroyed.  Could its strength
still be with her?  Was that keeping her conscious?  Or was it her
black power?  That energy stood at a low ebb, as if watching her to
see what she would do.  It kept far away from the white inside her.

	"So," said the haughty voice of an imperious woman, "this is the
little brat that dared think she could face our Great Leader in
battle."

	"I wouldn't dismiss her completely," said a masculine voice.  "She
was very spirited.  In fact, she would make a valuable addition to us,
once... shown the proper way."

	"I agree."

	Terra could feel something entering into her frame.  It was similar
to her black power, but sickly, unfamiliar and disgusting.  It wasn't
like being healed--it was more like having stuff dumped into her body
to glue things together and take over for whatever wasn't working.

	Her eyes opened and her throat made a low gurgling noise.  Two men
dragged her to her feet.  Her balance was shaky but she was able to
stand on her own.

	"Ah, Princess Terra.  She exceeded her reputation.  But it wasn't
enough, was it?  And now she is our slave.  Come, slave, dance for us!

	Something about their tone upset Terra.  She recognized the voices as
Beryl and her entourage.  Her brain felt very cloudy but she felt no
urge to do anything she was asked.  The white power in her pulsed,
driving back the foreign and native black powers inside of her.  She
wondered what kind of effect the white power would have on the beast
itself.

	She looked and saw that Metallia stood very close.  The few
functioning muscles in her mouth curved upward into what must have
been a very creepy, insane smile.  She realized it would just take a
short walk to get to the base of the creature.  Why the heck not give
it a shot?  Like she had anything else to lose at this point.

	Limping, she shambled towards the monster, which looked at her from
high above with its huge eye.  She could sense deep amusement.

	Each step hurt badly.  Her torn shoes were little protection against
the hot glassed earth and jagged rocks in the terrain.  Sometimes her
feet would catch on the tattered remnants of her dress and cause her
to stumble.  Still, she moved onward, limping, stepping, shuffling,
and finally falling and crawling forward, dragging herself along with
whatever bits of her would still function.

	"How long shall we keep her like this before transforming her fully?"
asked a man.

	"For as long as she continues to amuse me," laughed the woman.

	"What is she doing?" asked another man.

	Terra made it to Metallia's body and placed her charred hand--barely
even a bony claw now--against the creature's frame.  Her body seemed
to relax as whiteness bloomed outwards from the touch when the
Crystal's residual power escaped.

	"WHAT?!" shrieked Beryl.  "GET HER AWAY FROM OUR GREAT LEADER!!"

	Metallia howled in pain and snatched Terra from the ground with
hooked chains.  The monster attempted to hurl her away, but she got
tangled up in the chains and could not be so easily banished.

	The damage was already done by then.  As if infected by a fast-acting
flesh-eating pathogen, the white crept across Metallia's body and
burned it badly, starting lower and swiftly moving its way up.  White
conflicted with black and began to give off multicolored waves that
swept across the landscape.  Pink bubbles erupted from the surface of
Metallia's body and blasted across the landscape, tearing into Beryl
and the youma army.

	Beryl and her four Heaven's Kings recoiled and reeled from the waves
of power.  Their forms seemed to melt away or disappear gradually.

	"HOW CAN THIS BE POSSIBLE?!!  QUEEN METALLIA WAS--WE HAD WON!  WE...
HAD... WON--!!"

	The youma army experienced the same effect.  Millions of them
screeched at the onslaught.

	Writhing, Metallia raised a shadowy hand to tear open a hole in time
and space.  It walked inside.  Burning embers of Beryl and the others
flowed in black and pink swirls into the portal.

	As the monster and the others faded into the portal, Terra was pulled
along with it.  She found herself whooshing through a swiftly-moving
tunnel, just a few meters above Metallia.  The entity seemed to be
falling backwards while squirming in pain from the energy it had been
infected with.

	With what few muscles she had left in working order, Terra struggled
to get free of the hook-chains, but it was of no use.  Metallia seemed
to grow weaker and weaker, and the tunnel grew ever darker.  As
Metallia struggled, the chains grew tighter and finally crushed the
girl's ribcage.  Everything went completely numb.

	At that moment, it seemed as though she was suddenly caught by a taut
rope.  She was free of the chains, but suspended in space.  Her vision
went warped and monochromatic.  She looked downward to see Metallia
fall away and out of sight.  Within its grasp was a broken, swooned
body of a girl she had recently seen in the mirror.

	Now, she knew, she was definitely dead.

	It felt like she was getting tugged upward by a cord at the base of
her neck.  Eventually she came out on the surface of the Moon and the
portal closed just as she exited.

	She floated in the air, an ethereal presence.  She tried to look at
herself but could only see shadowy, unidentifiable tendrils radiating
off of where her arms and chest would have been.  She rotated to see
the Star Light Knight, his armor badly tarnished with a few cracks,
holding onto a glowing set of threads that seemed to be what he had
used to pull her out of the portal.

	"Thought you could get away from me that easy, did you?" he said
without his lips moving.  "I told you that you couldn't escape me."

	Terra could see that the Moon was a big mess.  The landscape, once
darkened, was illuminated by the pinkish-white light that had come
from the Ginzuishou Crystal's influence.  There were barely any
recognizable signs of civilization.  Mostly, there were just grey
craters and a tall armored man who looked ready to exact vengeance.

	"Are you going to destroy me?" wondered Terra at the man.

	"Yeah," he replied, taking out his handgun and putting in a shining
white magazine.  "And you're finally weak enough for me to do it."  He
grinned.  "Told you that you shouldn't have been messing with that
crystal."

	"It's about your daughter?  I mean, the reason why you want me dead?"

	"My daughter, my wife, my civilization, my life, my will, my
freedom?"  He shrugged.  "I could name a few more things.  Let's just
say you and I have issues."

	"If I could bring your daughter back, I would," said Terra with
resignation.  "But I can't bring back the dead.  I tried to save as
many as I could.  I wish we could have all of them back--the ones who
died, I mean."

	"Heh.  Well, if wishes were fishes, we'd all be having sushi tonight,
wouldn't we?  Time to pay the piper."  He took aim and cocked the
weapon back.  "Or is that 'tip the waiter?'  I can never remember.
Either way, you lose."

	Sparkly dust descended from the sky and the pinkish light gradually
vanished.  As the dust touched the ground, it illuminated shapes.
Even at a distance, Terra could tell that they were the clothed,
sleeping shapes of people.  She even recognized a few faces.  Each
shape quickly became encased inside a golden sphere.

	"What's going on?" Terra asked.

	"Huh?"  Thomas glanced around.  "Whoa now!"  He took a few steps away
from her, then whipped around to point an accusing finger at her.
"You lied to me!"

	"What...?"

	"You just said you can't bring back the dead.  What the heck do you
call this?!  You made a wish and the magic is doing its thing!  All
these people are gonna get reborn!"

	"What?!  Reborn?  Like, right now?"

	"No, not right now.  I mean, someday in the future!"

	"Reincarnation is real?"

	S.L.K. raised his hands in confusion.  "No--yes--no--kinda--sorta--maybe?"

	The girl's spirit watched the golden globes rise into the sky and
swiftly float off towards the Earth.  Reborn? she wondered.  That
would make a crazy kind of sense.  In the bubbles lifting out of the
dust, Terra saw Endymion, Princess Serenity, Queen Serenity--all the
others she knew had died, some she had met, and others she did not
recognize.  If they were really all of her friends back home, but
reborn later, that would explain the resemblance.  In fact, it would
explain a lot of things, including how Usagi had turned into Princess
Serenity when she started using the Ginzuishou Crystal.

	"How did you do that?!" S.L.K. asked.

	"It wasn't me!" Terra said after a moment's consideration.

	"Yeah, yeah, I know.  But this is Ginzuishou Crystal energy.  I'm
surprised it hasn't dissolved you yet.  That's another mystery there."

	The shining spirit of a young girl approached, waving happily.  She
had orange-red hair and, even as a ghost, wore a fairly stylish dress.
 "Daddy!" she greeted.

	"Lynne," Terra whispered.

	S.L.K.'s eyes lit up with recognition.  "KID!"  He hurried over and
held her ethereal hands in his.

	"Do you know what that means?!" the child said as a sphere started to
encase her as well.

	"YEAH, BABY!!"  Thomas slapped his leg for joy.  "Guess I get to see
you alive again!"

	"Someday," said Lynne. "It might be a long time, but I swear I'm
gonna make you proud of me!  If I can remember, I'll write to you
every day!  Every week at least!  I love you, Daddy!  Goodbye!"

	The golden sphere sealed her up.  She fell asleep smiling and flew
off with the other spirits.

	S.L.K. watched her go.  Once she had gone out of sight, he turned
around towards Terra's ghost.  "Okay.  You and I have had our
differences.  But today, just this once, I'm gonna let you live."

	Terra glanced at her shadowy self.  "Live?"

	"Rest in peace?  Not get blown away by a spirit bullet?"  He put away
his weapon.

	Terra would have smiled if she could figure out how to do so without
any physical lips.  "Thanks."

	"Don't thank me yet.  This is twice I spared you.  The third time I
get a chance, I'm gonna take it."

	"But you said just this once."

	"Argue with me if you want.  I dare you.  Make my day.  Until that
bubble closes around you, I can still shoot you."

	The spirit noticed that a golden sphere was beginning to surround her
as well.  The energy vaguely stung, though.  It kind of felt like the
pulse of energy back when Usagi--or Princess Serenity?--used the
Ginzuishou Crystal on that one tower.  It closed around her and
started to levitate upwards.

	"Remember, though!" he shouted after her.  "I will find you!  And
when I do, I'll make you remember what you did!  Then you're gonna
pay, okay?"

	"Fine!"

	"But first I gotta figure out what to do with these two cats and this
ArbyFish that I met down in the palace bunker.  Maybe I can use some
of my cryo-stasis pods to keep 'em fresh for later.  Cat stew's
great--at least, that's what the Jovians say!"

	Cats?  Terra wondered.  If the familiar faces that she had seen so
far were any indication, perhaps that included Luna.

	"How about instead," Terra replied, "you take them to Earth and wake
them up when everyone's reborn?  Maybe help us learn how to use our
powers and fight evil?"

	"Oh, you'd LIKE that, wouldn't you?!"

	"Yes!"

	"Oh yeah?  Well just because you said that... I'M GONNA DO IT ANYWAY!"

	"Thanks!"

	"Gonna be hard to do this without your freaky monster power keeping
me alive, though," added S.L.K. thoughtfully.  "I'll probably have to
rig up something with machinery and a reactor to keep me going.
Long-term, that's gonna have rotten memory effects...."  He pulled out
a metal rod that looked like an arm bone and started working on it
with what appeared to be a screwdriver.

	As Terra's spirit approached Earth in its golden sphere, she slipped
into a long, fitful rest.  Almost immediately, she recalled the energy
that had brought her to the era.  This time, she did not have to cling
to her black power.  Rather, it folded itself up inside of her like a
cat huddling inside a warm box on a cold night, away from the stinging
of the Ginzuishou's residual power.  She could feel bits of herself
closing around the black power, encapsulating it tightly in a
protective layer.  That layer perhaps grew too thick after a while.

	She determined from the imagery she saw and the feelings that came to
her that she had almost certainly been in the past the whole time.
The mental calendar she saw started to progress forward, tearing off
sheet after sheet in an accelerating manner.  She saw wise sayings and
trite phrases flash past too quickly for her to make out.

	This time, when she saw hallucinations, she saw bickering redheaded
china doll sisters, one of them with a knife and fork.  Bunny rabbits
hopped through the jungle, chased by a creature with leopard-pattern
fur that carried an electric razor.  A little blonde girl sneered at
her, shouting, "BOO!  BOO!  BOOOOO!!!"

	Next, all of this vanished and a spectrum of light and dark strobed
across her consciousness, and she flew upwards for what seemed like
ten thousand years.  Actually, this last part wasn't so bad, except
for the sudden stop at the end.

	Her birthday popped up on the calendar.  There was a bright light and
somebody hit her.

---

	And then she woke up.  She could feel that she was flat on her back,
and in plenty of pain.  But pain was good.  Pain meant she was alive,
right?  Still, it felt a lot like she had her spine torn out and stuck
back on with a hot glue gun and bobby pins.

	"Ughh, what a nightmare!"  She sensed someone nearby.  "Mom?" she
asked.  "Mom, I had the weirdest dream.  I dreamt that I was in an
ancient kingdom on the Moon, based on the principles of magic and
love.  Then space ships came, my arm got chopped off, I fought a big
shadow monster and everybody died!"

	"Well, you're safe now, I guess," said a weary voice, "up here on top
of the Starlight Tower."

	Terra sat up immediately.  "Starlight Tower!?"  Her vision faded back
in.  "Mom?" she asked when her sight settled on a tall female with
brown hair.  "You're so... young-looking."

	"Thanks, I guess, Red," said a tallish girl with brown hair in a
ponytail.  Her sailor outfit had pink and green highlights.  Terra
finally remembered who she was looking at.  It felt like ages since
she had last talked to Sailor Jupiter.  In addition to her sailor
garb, the tall girl wore an especially large scowl at the moment.  The
other Sailor Soldiers were gathered around seemed pretty upset.
Tuxedo Kamen was on the ground, unconscious but breathing, and Usagi
was tending to him with her wand and the Ginzuishou Crystal.  The Star
Light Knight struggled to fix the connectors on his robotic neck to
get his head to stay on.

	The Irish girl checked her words, then rubbed her temples and closed
her eyes to check her brain.  She recalled that the Starlight Tower
was where they had all united, met Sailor Venus, defeated two of the
Dark Kingdom's Heaven's Kings--or was that Generals?--and obtained the
Magical Ginzuishou Crystal.  Her limbs--it felt SO good to have two
arms again--were fine, but something about herself generally felt off.
 She looked over at Sailor Jupiter.  "What was your name again...?
Lita.  Or Makoto.  Yeah, that's the ticket.  Did I just say something
mean?  Why are you looking at me like that?"

	"I just remembered how I died," replied Jupiter.  Her arms were
folded and her expression seemed to indicate that her previous
sentence explained everything.

	"Yeah, that must have been a nasty experience," Terra said with a
nod.  "Were you reincarnated?"

	Jupiter nodded.

	"Cool!  Then it worked.  How did you die?"

	"You killed me."

	"Oh."  Terra frowned.  Then she remembered what Princess Terra had
done to all of the Sailor Soldiers, and that must have included Sailor
Jupiter and the others.  "Oh!  Oh my.  Oh my goodness."

	Terra struggled to her feet.  She noticed that she was dressed in her
pink-highlighted Chibimoon outfit.  There was some of the Moon's
golden power, but it was a trickle in comparison to the rivers of
energy she had dealt with in the past.  As she stood, she noticed that
her back wasn't quite right, and she saw tendrils from the cursed
mushroom mark all over her right arm and thigh.  She imagined that she
must have looked quite awful--like a real beast--worse, in fact, than
a lot of the youma they'd fought.

	"You killed us all," Mars said angrily.  "Yes, we know.  We remember
now, and shame on you."

	Sailor Venus looked similarly upset, but she also looked conflicted
about the subject.  "Yeah," she said, "I remember that."

	"Tore us apart like you were butchering animals..."

	Crap, Terra thought as her eyes went wide with the realization.  All
of them really were reincarnated people from the Moon Kingdom, so now
they think I'm Princess Terra and now they think I did it!

	"I did no such thing," denied the redhead vehemently.  "That was the
mean adopted child, Princess 'Terrifying.'  And I am NOT her."

	"If you are not Princess Terra reborn," said Sailor Mercury, "then
how could you possibly know about her nickname or the details of her
life?"

	"Because I time traveled back to the last days of the Silver
Millennium!" Terra replied.  "I saw everything that happened, I fought
in the last battle, and I did not kill ANY of you."

	"You are SUCH a liar," Usagi said--no, it was Princess Serenity now;
she still wore her white dress and her expression was altogether too
"royal" for Usagi's usual demeanor.  She glared at her.  "You ARE
Princess Terra."  She seemed even more upset than the other girls.
"The Sailor Soldiers told me exactly what happened while you were
unconscious.  And you know what?  It makes all too much sense.  I
understand everything now.  After I've healed my beloved," she pointed
at Tuxedo Kamen, "I will hold a trial for your crimes against us and
against humanity!"

	The Star Light Knight chuckled, seemingly at everyone.

	"A trial?" asked Terra.  "Have you gone nuts?"

	"You dare accuse our Princess of insanity?" asked Sailor Mars.

	"Well SOMEONE's gone crazy here," Terra said.  "And it's either me or
her!"  She pointed at Serenity.

	"You're either mad or a liar," the pony-tailed blonde said simply.

	"Usagi!" Terra shouted.  "For as long as you've known me, do you
seriously think I could ever become ANYTHING like what you're accusing
me of?"

	"According to all our memories," said Mercury, "you did everything
they said and more.  And I can't say I feel much like forgiving you
either for that.  You killed us and you killed our parents!  Really,
what kind of monster are you?"

	"Ami!" Terra said, grabbing her by the shoulders.  "Your mom is fine!
 She works hard every day for you as a doctor!  She's at home, waiting
for you to come back!"

	"Get your hands off of me," Sailor Mercury said with disgust.

	Terra withdrew.  This whole situation, she felt, was really starting to suck.

	"Go home, Terra," Princess Serenity said to her when she apparently
finished fixing up Tuxedo Kamen.  "And think about what you've done.
We will need time to present a proper punishment.

	"I am going to smack you guys around until you make sense," shot back
Terra.  "Do you have ANY idea what I've just been through?!"

	"Go!" all the other girls shouted at her.  Beneath them, the two
cats, Luna and Artemis, took steps forward, both looking quite
concerned.

	"Luna!" Terra said to the grey cat.  "Tell them.  You were there up
until the end.  You know what happened."

	"I... remember that the Queen gave an evacuation order, and... the
Star Light Knight was there, but... did the Queen die?  To be honest,
the details are very fuzzy in my mind."  Luna couldn't think of
anything to say for a minute, but finally finished with, "You know,
from what I remember of Princess Terra... they may be right.  You
should go."  The white cat beside her nodded halfheartedly.

	Terra Incognita looked around at the unwelcoming faces, opened her
mouth to protest further, but it was quite apparent that she wouldn't
find any support here this night.  "Dang it."

	"May you someday be forgiven," Serenity whispered, "murderer."

	Terra Incognita let out a sad sigh, then turned around and began the
journey out of the badly damaged building.  None of them saw her tears
as they fell.

---End of Chapter 18

And now it's time for... MIND YOUR MANNERS!!! with Sailor Nuke.

(Terra walks out from her friends, dejected)

Sailor Nuke:  Today, we learned that if you're gonna do the time, you
should at least enjoy doing the crime!

(Princess Terrifying murders everyone messily, cackling like mad.)

Sailor Kawaii(dismayed): A-hem!

Sailor Nuke:  Oh, that's next episode.

Sailor Kawaii(waving her arms, upset):  No, it's not!

Sailor Nuke:  It's not?  Well, that's a bummer.  How about let's put
on the song we didn't get to hear?  An adapted cover of Fire Bomber's
"Dynamite Explosion", performed by the Atomic Starlight Knight!
(pushes a button on a remote control)

	"Once I start singing the beat rocks my thoughts.
	 Misplaced by time, some place, for some reason;
	 Here I say goodbye to mediocre everydays!
	 And now no one can stop my hot-blooded thoughts!"

	"Nuclear! Nuclear!
	 Nuclear explosion--now again!
	 Nuclear! Nuclear!"

	"Nuclear explosion--now again!
	 Nuclear! Nuclear--
	 Everyday, everynight, everywhere!"

	"It's an endless journey; I wanna feel each moment,
	 While looking forward to a stronger, fiercer heart
	 If the reason to keep fighting is not in this world,
	 Yes--Let's fly even to the ends of faraway galaxies!"

	"Nuclear! Nuclear!
	 Nuclear explosion--now again!"

	"Nuclear! Nuclear!
	 Nuclear explosion--now again!"

	 Nuclear!  Nuclear!
	 Everyday everynight everywhere!"

	"If you believe,
	 you can shoot it--Oh!"

	"Once I start firing the dream is no longer a vision,
	 I want to make sure of it, some time, some place
	 I don't care what's there in the place we're headed
	 Yes--Now is the moment of your journey!"

	"Nuclear! Nuclear!
	 Nuclear explosion--now again!
	 Nuclear! Nuclear!
	 Nuclear explosion--now again!
	 Nuclear!  Nuclear!
	 Nuclear explosion--now again!
	 Nuclear!  Nuclear!
	 Nuclear!  Nuclear!
	 Everyday, everynight, EVERYWHERE!!!"

Sailors Kawaii and Nuke(each blow a kazoo): Happy Story Arc
Conclusion, everyone!



And next time... I get to deal with the fallout that the plotline
direction has gone in!

Thanks for reading!


-- 
Benjamin A Oliver
benjamin.a.oliver at gmail.com

Technical Writer / Translator
M3 Engineering & Technology

Master of Science in Management Information Systems
Eller College of Management
University of Arizona

Writings: Fan Fiction
http://boliver.florestica.com/

Webcomic: Nuke 'Em 'Till They Glow!! The Early Years
http://nettg.com