|
|
“I didn’t know there was going to be an eclipse today,” she said, looking at the apparition.
“Wait a minute,” she quickly began to run home.
“Usagi!” she cried as she opened the window and it closed with a crash.
“Wh-what!” Usagi asked, rubbing her eyes sleepily.
“There is something wrong, come on, we have to see what it is?” Luna said.
“How can there be something wrong when you don’t even know what it is?” Usagi asked grumpily as she raced down the park toward where Luna led her.
“Usagi, look at the moon,” Luna commanded her.
Usagi looked up and saw the shadow coming over the moon and laughed.
“It’s called an eclipse, Luna, even I know that,” Usagi said.
“Yeah, but it wasn’t scheduled.”
“You saw it too?” Artemis asked suddenly from behind them.
Usagi and Luna turned to see a sleepy Minako being supported by a tiring Artemis.
“She wouldn’t get up, so I had to drag her over here to show her that there was something wrong,” Artemis said.
“Even I’m not that bad!” Usagi laughed.
“You’d be surprised,” Luna muttered.
“I heard that!” Usagi said, turning on her cat.
“Usagi, there is something really wrong about this. Quick, we need Sailor Moon,” Luna said.
Usagi sighed as she raised her brooch in the air.
“Moon Crystal Power! Make-up!” she cried.
As she was transforming, Artemis was trying to wake Minako up.
“Wake up!” Artemis screamed into her ear.
“Luna, this isn’t right,” Artemis said. “She would have at least groaned or something.”
Luna skipped over and felt her pulse.
“Quick, find the other Senshi, I have a really bad feeling about this,” Artemis said as Luna nodded.
Luna returned in half an hour, out of breath and frightened. “All the others won’t wake up either. Rei, by the looks of it, collapsed while she was doing a fire reading. Artemis, there is really something wrong. Everyone in the city is sleeping except us!”
“Ohhh!” Minako groaned as she suddenly sat up.
“Mina!” Artemis cried. “What happened?” Minako asked. “I was about to get up, and now I’m here! Artemis!”
Minako scolded him.
“Something happened to you, Mina-chan, we couldn’t wake you up,” Sailor Moon said from behind the cats.
“There’s something really wrong, contact the other Senshi, we have to check this one out,” Luna added as Minako nodded.
“Venus Star Power! Make Up!” Minako cried as she raised her hand in the air. Her nails sparkled a bright orange color, then began to glow. Her henshin wand appeared, spinning in the middle of her palm until she caught it. A band of stars came spiraling down with her in the center, then suddenly exploded into stars all around her. Venus appeared instantly, tossing her long, blonde hair back, then doing a quick pose. The other senshi soon caught up with them.
“What’s going on?” Sailor Mercury asked.
“This’d better be good,” Sailor Mars said with her arms crossed.
“None of you could wake up,” Artemis said crossly.
“I guess that’d be what we’d call ordinary in Usagi’s case,” Sailor Mars smirked.
“For your information, Mars, I was the only one awake, along with Luna and Artemis,” Sailor Moon said.
Suddenly, the blocking of the moon was complete and a sudden beam of black came down in the very center of Tokyo. Before the girls knew it, a large explosion threw them into oblivion.
“Welcome senshi, to my world,” a voice said as the girls began to gain consciousness.
“Oohhh,” the girls moaned as they each got up.
“Huh?” Makoto said as she saw that each of them had returned to their ordinary selves.
“What happened?” Rei asked, looking around.
“And who are you?” Usagi added as she hugged Chibi-usa who whimpered in fright.
“Why, I am quite surprised that you do not know me. I suppose that Beryl never did talk about me much,” a man in a large black cape said, sitting on a throne that looked exactly like Queen Beryl's.
“You may remember this place. It was my sister’s. Too bad she did not make use of it,” the man laughed. “You may call me King Orion. Oh, and by the way, I believe your mother lost something,” he added as he took out the black crystal.
“The Dark Crystal!” Luna cried.
“Oh, it’s good to know that you recognize this, little Luna. I know you should have, but it’s quite refreshing to know that at least one of us understands it’s power. I see that little Artemis has finally gotten it into his head” he said, looking at the white cat whose blue eyes grew wide with recognition. “The Dark Crystal, my dear girls, came long before any of you ever became Sailor Senshi for it was during the time of your mother,” he addressed Usagi, “Who was at that time a Sailor Senshi herself. The beautiful Imperial Princess Serenity, as I remember her, was a rather feisty thing and rather clumsy too, yet she had a charm that no other girl had at her time. She had other friends, the princesses of the other planets and they too held the power of a Sailor Senshi. Of course, rare was the person who knew that the sailor suited senshi were actually the princesses. I had the honor of knowing that through spies. Of course, at that time, Sailor Moon was protecting the Moon and only the moon.” Orion paused here for effect.
When a large threat came upon the Moon, The Imperial Queen Serenity created the Ginzuishou from the very depth of the Moon. You see, the Moon itself had a large energy force within it’s very center and the queen extracted it from the Moon, just to vanquish this threat, so great was its power. She trapped the threat within the crystal, yet the threat corrupted the good power of the crystal and so, the queen had to split the crystal into two and destroyed the dark one, or at least she thought she did. When she died, Imperial Princess Serenity became Queen Serenity and married my greatest enemy. I was the one who found the dark crystal and it is a good thing too, for when I found out about the marriage, I vowed revenge to destroy whatever was dear to her. I must say, it is rather odd to see both her child, and her child’s child,” Orion said, his eyes bored. “I knew this Sailor business would one day destroy her and I was right. Well, when I heard about my sister’s folly, I decided to watch her. I learned from her mistakes, so don’t think I would leave everything to a stupid general. I always did say that if you wanted to do a job right, you would have to do it yourself. I found a way to release the threat that was inside the crystal and it gave me power beyond measure. What’s more is that I was allowed to create my own little troupe of Sailor Senshi, but I like to call them the Sailor Zodiac. They help me in conquering other planets and stealing many resources,” Orion smiled wickedly. Twelve girls, dressed in super sailor outfits appeared suddenly in a sudden burst of smoke.
“We are the Sailor Zodiac Senshi! Protectresses of Gorgon and subjects to Orion. In the name of Gorgon, we will vanquish you!” The girls recited.
“The thing is, I don’t hold anything back,” Orion smiled as the girls raised their hands in the air.
“Zodiac! Universal! Catastrophe!” the senshi shouted.
Beams of twelve different colored lights came from each of them and joined in the air to form a spiraling form of energy. At the last word, the spiraling energy fell to the ground heavily, creating a shock wave, so strong, that the eight girls and two cats were thrown eight feet into the air at which the spiral energy rose and dashed straight for them.
“Ahhhhh!” the girls screamed in pain as the large burst of energy engulfed them.
“You won’t get away with this!” Ami cried weakly as she raised her hand in the air.
“Mercury! Star! Pow-huh?” Ami looked at her hand. “My wand!”
“You really don’t think I’d be that stupid, would you?” Orion said. Take a look.”
He showed them the crystal. Deep inside, even though the crystal was dark, they saw their Henshin wands embedded inside.
“Leave these girls alone, Orion, your fight is with me,” a voice suddenly said from the shadows.
“Oh, Sailor Eternity! Are you planning to fight all twelve of my soldiers with your pathetic powers! Don’t forget what happened the last time you alone went against me,” Orion laughed.
From the shadows came a figure dressed in a sailor fuku with violet hair that fell down nearly to her ankles, star odangoes on each side of her head. Her skirt was the color of the midnight blue of the galaxy, while her ribbons were the color of royal purple. In the middle of her ribbon, however was a star instead of just a circle. Her tiara was only a thin gold chain with a purple gem shaped like a star in it’s center. Her earrings were crescent moons with a star sitting halfway inside the moon. A fierce expression sat on her face as Orion smirked.
“Orion, it is the strength of one’s heart that makes her the powerful senshi. In the name of the Eternal Cosmos, leave these girls alone, they do not owe you anything, but I do,” Eternity cried, raising her hand to the air.
“Crystalline Violent Starburst!” she cried as a large crystal appeared in her hand which she threw and exploded into tinier crystal shards which in turn exploded even greater than the large one had.
“Oohhh!” the Sailor Zodiacs moaned as they tried to dodge the shards in vain.
“Naughty naughty,” Orion said, smiling as he raised the Black Crystal in the air.
Eternity stood in front of Orion and between the eight girls.
“Run!” she whispered fiercely to the girls. “What about you?” Chibi-usa asked.
“I’ll be alright, just run.”
“Moon Crystal Dark Power!” he laughed. “I call upon the power of the cosmos, from every corner of the universe, give me strength!” Eternity whispered with her eyes closed as she stood between the fleeing eight ordinary girls and cats and Orion and the twelve Zodiac senshi.
“Eternal Super!” she cried as she opened her eyes. In an instant, Eternity disappeared into a twinkling little point of light. “Nova!” an echoing voice that filled the room screamed.
“The thing is, I don’t hold anything back,” the lingering voice of Sailor Eternity said fiercely as the tiny point of light exploded with such great force that everything in the room was incinerated.
Usagi and the others suddenly found themselves back in the park, covered with sparkling violet dust.
“You don’t think she-,” Mako began.
“No, she couldn’t have!” Rei said, quietly.
“She saved us,” Usagi said, cradling Chibi-usa who was still whimpering in pain.
“And sacrificed her own life,” Mina added.
“Do you think she had any connection with Queen Serenity?” Usagi asked.
“She probably did, but I guess we’ll never know,” Artemis sighed.
“I don’t believe so, but she probably knew something. I do not remember a Eternity ever existing in the court, but I do know that she saved us from that man. However, who was she and what happened between her and Orion?” Luna said thoughtfully.
“What’s this?” Chibi-usa cried, jumping from Usagi’s arms and picking up a small star locket on a thin gold chain which opened to reveal a shape of a star deeply carved inside.
“Do you think?”
She looked in the back and saw one word and knew that Sailor Eternity would live on. Chibi-usa accidentally let the chain slide through her fingers. Luna picked the locket up and looked at the back:
Meanwhile…
Hiroshi suddenly woke up to find a woman dressed in a long violet gown standing over her, bathed in a brilliant violet light that followed her when she moved.
“Hiroshi,” the woman said, smiling at her.
“Who are you?” Hiroshi asked, clutching her blanket.
“It is time, little one. Hold out your hand,” the woman said.
Hiroshi, feeling a sense of tranquility suddenly fall upon her soul like a blanket held out her hand obediently. The woman closed her eyes and became a brilliant violet gem in the shape of a star.