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Prologue
He comes from far away…
From the depths of the darkness, he continues to wander. Soon, the void
of the darkness is interrupted by something. The light shines upon the dark;
the light covers the darkness, and the darkness is no more. Then the light
and the darkness are one. The light makes light, and the dark makes darkness.
I seek the darkness, and before long, he and I will become one.
[30th Century – Crystal Tokyo]
“Today in the news, astronomers have discovered a significant celestial object approaching Earth. Research indicates that the object is a meteor of enormous size…”
On the streets of Crystal Tokyo, men, women, and children alike swallow their unvoiced fears as they listen to the stoic news reports continue, all of them saying the same thing: this mysterious meteor is on a collision course with Earth. And while all of this is happening, an epidemic has begun to spread among the people of the city.
“In other news today, several youth have banded together to form what many report is a vicious gang…”
Deep within the confines of the Crystal Palace, the Queen of Earth, Neo-Queen Serenity, swallows her own fears -remnants of her time as “Usagi Tsukino,” just a simple Tokyo girl with a complicated past. She doesn’t like what she is hearing on the news these days, about comets and darkness and gangs, so she retreats into one of the few rooms in her crystal palace that gives her solace: the room that only she or her guardians may enter, the room containing the Mystical Silver Crystal.
She stares at it, watching it glisten and glitter as if in response to her presence. Then she drops to her knees, heedless of any dust that might cling to her fine silk gown, the one that has become the signature statement of elegance and royalty. Usagi Tsukino was never either of those things, but Neo-Queen Serenity is, and must be, especially in a world so constantly plagued with turmoil and unrest.
And she prays.
She doesn’t know how much time has passed between her first entering the room and Endymion laying his hand on her shoulder, but the gesture is enough to startle her prayers. She glances up at the Crystal and is astonished to see it vibrating wildly. Fear surges through Serenity’s veins, connected as she is to the Mystical Silver Crystal. It seems to be shaking so violently, so rapidly, that it very well might break from the strain…
“There’s an evil presence…” Endymion whispers under his breath. He whispers not out of fear that anyone will hear him, but out of the very idea of ‘evil’ returning to this time, this place. They have been through so much, died so many times to protect the peace of this century, but for what? To have it shattered so easily?
“It must be powerful,” Luna pipes up from Serenity’s side. Luna does this every now and then: appearing unexpectedly beside her former charge.
It used to scare Serenity powerfully, but she’s gotten used to it now. Besides, she’s already frightened by the intense vibrations of the Crystal; even if Luna popped up beside her in a cloud of pink smoke and cookie crumbles, it wouldn’t scare her. Nothing could scare her more than the return of evil to Crystal Tokyo…
“The Death Phantom has dealt a powerful blow,” Serenity murmurs, without really thinking about her words. Confusion washes through her the moment she meets Endymion’s gaze. He too, looks bewildered.
“This ‘Death Phantom’ is a new… enemy?”
Serenity sighs. “The era of the Great Peace is finally over. It was bound to happen sooner or later.” She wishes she didn’t sound halfway relieved about it, because she knows that while it will mean an end to her boredom, trapped in the palace like some fragile doll, it will also mean more fear, more bad news, and more risks that she will wish she didn’t have to take.
“This is a very serious matter,” she admits, unwilling to say why: because she cannot deal with it alone, because she can no longer become ‘Sailor Moon,’ champion of love and justice. She is a Queen, and a powerful one, but she is no Sailor Soldier. “We must call upon the Sailor Soldiers!”
“Oh!” Luna’s sudden cry startles the Queen and Endymion, and they turn to glance in the feline’s direction when they notice it: the Silver Crystal has stopped its mad vibrations, and now sits deathly still, not even glistening as it did before.
“Strange…” Serenity murmurs, nearing the Crystal. “My visions of the impending disasters have all stopped.” That is the price she pays for being so closely connected to the Crystal as Queen: she sees things before they happen, but she has no control over the when or the where. She has learned that the future is a slippery, dark thing, impossible to see or firmly grasp, and always changing shape right in front of you.
‘The ominous tremblings… what do they mean? Surely this is somehow related to that comet…’
“Do you really think so?” Endymion asks; their connection is so deep (or perhaps it is more that Serenity’s fears are not well-hidden) that he has heard her thoughts without her having voiced them.
“Yes, yes…” Serenity swallows convulsively as she turns away. “It must be so!” She is unwilling to think that evil could stem from within her own city, the city that she has given her life to protect time and again.
“We must protect the Great Peace of the Universe using the powers of the Silver Crystal. The New Silver Millennium must remain!”
[20th Century – Tsukino household]
Usagi and Chibiusa finally manage to make it out of the house, after a series of mishaps, mistakes, and arguments.
“Let’s go!” The two of them race out of the house, each eager to beat the other down the street. As they laugh and yell at one another, they fail to notice a pair of figures materialize on the roof of their house, one of them hovering in the air just above the shingles.
The smaller of the two figures, a young boy with a shock of green hair, stares out at the two girls vanishing into the distance and speaks.
“Older sister, are these the two girls we’re looking for?” He doesn’t really need to ask; he already knows, but he asks for the sake of asking, not for want of knowing the answer.
The other figure, a slender girl with her thick blonde hair tied into two long ponytails, lands gracefully on the roof and laughs derisively.
“Hehe. Certainly, this is what we were sent here for. This must be where they live.” She looks down at the house and frowns; it is distasteful and ugly, but she lets her expression say what her lips will not.
“Do you want me to spy on them?” the boy asks, turning to his sister.
“It is our Destiny,” the blonde responds before walking to the edge of the roof, staring out at the rest of the street. “Yes… we must try to make Apsu-sama’s wish come true. It is Destiny…” And with that, the blonde vanishes the same way she came, leaving her younger brother to stare out at the street. The two girls are still just barely visible, but then, they
would stand out even in the thickest crowds at Ginza, with their hairstyles.
It is the one with the pink hair tied up in two almost cone-shaped buns that the boy stares after, and a whisper escapes his lips: “Princess… I, like my sister, vow to make our Destiny come true.” And with that, he vanishes as well.
Usagi and Chibiusa are very nearly at their destination when Chibiusa abruptly stops in her tracks. Usagi doesn’t even realize it at first, but when she no longer hears Chibiusa’s incessant pitter-pattering footsteps, she turns back.
“Chibiusa, what is it?”
“I… just had a vision from the future,” Chibiusa manages, looking pale.
Usagi grins, puts her hands on her hips and laughs. “Yay! So what’s it about? Was your boyfriend in it?” Usagi chortles and nudges Chibiusa in the ribs. She knows her “future daughter” (though that concept is still somewhat foreign to Usagi, who is still only 15) has a sweet spot for her own father– her future father, that is, and Usagi’s boyfriend, Mamoru Chiba.
“It was about Mamo-chan, right?”
“Idiot!” Chibiusa hisses angrily. “It was more important than that!”
Usagi is startled by the ferocity of Chibiusa’s words; very little has ever seemed ‘more important’ than Mamo-chan, but Chibiusa would never say anything like that unless she had good reason.
Chibiusa stomps her foot angrily as she searches for the right words; her body is still trembling after seeing the vision, because it was frightening, and she knows in her gut that something is very, very wrong.
“It was about a new enemy. Some kind of aliens.” Chibiusa starts to pace up and down the sidewalk, irritating Usagi. But Chibiusa has never cared about irritating Usagi before, and she refuses to acknowledge it now. “We’re all going to have to work together. We have to defeat them!”
Much to Chibiusa’s surprise, Usagi starts laughing again. “That’s pretty weird, Chibiusa!”
Chibiusa is about to shout, but then she notices Usagi’s expression has changed. It’s no longer amused, but serious: an odd expression to see on Usagi’s face. It reminds Chibiusa far too much of her mother, and Chibiusa knows Usagi has a long way to go before she’ll become the Neo-Queen.
“But the peace must remain uninterrupted. Even if evil aliens invade Earth. After all,” Usagi strikes a pose and cracks a grin. “I am Sailor Moon, and on behalf of the moon, I’ll punish you!”
Usagi curls up deep into her blankets, feeling warm, safe, and secure. She likes her bed. She likes sleeping. Her warm bed, in her safe room, in her own house means there are no enemies to fight, no reasons to cry, none of that. She snuggles in deeper, hoping to relish this feeling for as long as she can.
She is completely unaware of Luna jumping through the window and padding across the carpeted floor to her bed. She remains blissfully unaware even as Luna jumps right up onto her bed, intentionally walking on Usagi’s blanketed legs.
“Usagi-chan… Usagi-chan, wake up!” Luna pounces on Usagi, but the only response from the sleeping girl is a mumbled “Num, num…”
Luna is about to scratch Usagi if that’ll mean getting her awake and alert like she should be, but Usagi surprises her by speaking in a low voice. “What is it, Luna?”
“Usagi, there’s something peculiar about the town. I don’t know what it is exactly, but there’s something funny going on.”
Usagi turns in her bed, trying to ignore the daylight piercing through her curtains, permeating her room, and disrupting her beauty sleep.
“Are you sure it isn’t in your imagination, Luna?”
“No, there’s something about the people as well,” Luna responds, still feeling perplexed. She doesn’t like it when she knows something, but she can’t understand it, can’t explain it. It makes her feel useless.
“Hmm, ok. Be careful out there. G’night,” Usagi mumbles, and pulls the blankets over her head further.
“W-Wait a second!” Luna realizes Usagi has no intention of getting up and helping her investigate the mysterious goings-on, and her irritation quickly grows. “Get up and go check it out!”
Usagi realizes that Luna won’t leave her alone unless she finds out what’s going on, and reluctantly sighs, pulling the blanket away from her face.
“Okay, okay, I guess I’ll get going now.” She doesn’t move for another minute or so, and Luna thinks that maybe Usagi’s fallen asleep again- but her blue eyes are wide-open. The look is very disconcerting, so Luna paws her in an effort to get her moving faster. Usagi gets up and straightens out her school uniform -which she fell asleep in again– and heads for the door.
End of Prologue. Continue to Chapter 1?