Summer greetings to all and thank you for choosing to read my latest story! There is a lot of talk these days
about "values" and the lack of them. The theory being punted about by an increasingly inane media is that
if everyone would just "do the right thing" the world would be a better place. The biggest stumbling block
to that quick-fix solution is that if doing the right thing was easy, then everyone would all ready be doing it.
People are beginning to learn a harsh lesson that some of us have known all our lives. Anything worth
having is never easy to obtain. The follow tale relates just how "costly" the building of a paradise might be.
Thanks to M-Chan the other writer of the "Circles of Time" series for all their patience with my endless
questions. Another lousy saying is that "there are no stupid questions". Sure there are, I ask them all the
time and not one of these nice people has told me to buzz off. You can read all the other stories in the
"Circles Of Time" series by going to the following location: http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/9897/ct.htm.
Totally Irrelevant Aside: Nikki-Chan, Masked Maiden, and other of electronic "kids" – keep writing! You all
ready have the magic in your souls . Sharing the gift will make it grow. And J-Chan, if the healing aspect of
the Crescent Wrench Moon Wand doesn’t work – use it to whack the %#$@*@%! machine. If nothing
else, it’ll make you feel sooo much better.
STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I’m only going to say it once, so pay attention. There will be a quiz on this
later. Ahem… I do not now, nor have I ever owned the rights to Sailor Moon and the attendant characters.
They are used here with no intent of any monetary gain what so ever. And also with the fervent hope that
the monolithic corporate entity that does own the rights to them will consider me too small to bother about.
I also take comfort in the fact no one seems to know exactly where Rhode Island is anyway. The only time
anyone ever mentions the place is to use it as a size comparison for some disaster. IE – There was a crater
the size of Rhode Island.
"Circles of Time: The Price of Crystal Tokyo"
She was vaguely aware of being alone within herself again, and she resented it. It had been so pleasant to
drift in total harmony with he who was the other half of her soul. There had been such peace, such a sense
of utter and complete fulfillment. Like a child in the womb, she wanted nothing more than to remain as she
was. And, as when she was birthed, she howled aloud her unhappiness at the radical change of
circumstances thrust upon her. With a jar, she came fully awake and into her body once more.
Tsukino Usagi, also known as Sailor Moon, Serenity of the Moon Kingdom and about a dozen other names,
shouted her displeasure to the unhearing world around her. It took a moment for her to realize that she was
indeed, screeching out loud. With effort she cut off the sound and tried to put her mind in order.
Where was she? Well, that was easily enough answered by a glance. Usagi was on the floor of Ami’s
apartment. Mamoru – sudden concern for her beloved filled her. She sighed in relief to find him beside her.
How handsome he was, she thought for the millionth time, as she took a moment to look at him as he slept.
How dignified in repose, even on the cheap carpeting of the living room floor, he still looked like the prince
he was.
Usagi reluctantly rolled over and prepared to stand. Never a morning person, this particular rising was all
the more difficult. She stumbled upright on shaky legs that threatened to give out if she didn’t go slowly.
With great care, Usagi made her way to where Rei, Mina and Makoto lay on the floor. They were all still
sleeping peacefully. Even Luna and Artemis were still curled up around each. Their black and white coats
intertwined like a yin and yang symbol. To her immense relief she could see their chests rising and falling
softly. She turned to find Ami still on the couch where they’d put her with…..
Sharp fear tinged with panic exploded in her mind as she realized that the baby was gone! Where was little
Setsuna? She was sure they’d put her next to Ami before settling in for the great sleep. Usagi stumbled
about the small apartment. She went from room to room, searching everywhere she could think of for the
child. It was no use, Setsuna was not with them. Further examination revealed that Hotaru was also
missing. What was going on?!
Weaving unsteadily, Usagi made her way to the nearest window. She snapped up the shade and fumbled
with the curtains. Brilliant sunlight flooded the room and she squinted, not used to daylight. It took a
moment for the spots to stop dancing in front of her eyes. Looking out at the landscape, her heart fell.
There was nothing but frozen desolation as far was she could see. No life moved, no sound came to her
ears as the moon princess carefully pried the window open a crack. The world was stark, cold and utterly
dead . Slowly sliding down to the floor, she put her hands to her face in shock. This was not what they had
been promised. This was not, could not be Crystal Tokyo! All the suffering, all the pain and loss for this?
"Hello Usagi. It’s been a long time." The soon to be Queen of the world jerked her head up to see who had
spoken. Even as she did so, a name came into her mind . Sure enough, the enigmatic Sailor Pluto,
Guardian of the Gate of Time was before her. The woman didn’t move to assist Usagi to her feet. She
merely stood there, Usagi noted with growing annoyance. On her face was the implacable half smile she
seemed to perpetually wear. Something about her outfit nagged at Usagi’s memory unpleasantly. The pearl
gray fuku and the charcoal bow with the opal at its center, even the timestaff didn’t seem quite right.
Tsukino Usagi rose to her feet, and began to search for her shoes. She barley looked at Pluto. "About a
thousand years or so I imagine, give or take a decade." Finding her sneakers, she fumbled at the laces with
stiff fingers. Pluto stood quietly aloof. Usagi gave a heated sigh and came to her feet. "I’m no mood to
play word games with you, Guardian. If you have something to say just get to it. Unlike you, I don’t have
all the time in the world to waste."
If the Mistress of Time heard the bitterness in the voice of her Queen, she ignored it. "You are destined to
make a decision in the next few hours, that will effect the fate everyone on this planet."
"Geez, again? Sailor Moon has to save the world from..what this time? The nega-verse, the black moon
family, from bug eyed aliens that want to mount frozen humanity on a stick and have them for dessert? It’s
nice to know some things never change." Usagi turned to lash out at Setsuna. "Take a look around you
Pluto – this isn’t exactly the paradise we were led to expect. To hell with destiny! I want to know if my
family is okay, if Naru survived! For once I want to take care of what I need first!"
Pluto ignored her outburst as she would a child’s. "You can’t go out like this. You need protection and a
guide."
Usagi gave a short bark of laughter and turned to open a closet door to search for a jacket. "Thank you, no.
I’m quite capable of taking care of myself. Besides the world and everyone in it but me is still sleeping.
What would I need protection from?"
"Yourself".
This brought the last heiress to the Moon Kingdom up short. When she turned to question Setsuna, the
enigmatic woman was gone. came Pluto’s voice in
her mind. Pulling on the borrowed jacket, Usagi bit back the timely retort that it would be a cold day in hell
before that happened. It certainly seemed it all ready was. She took a last look at her sleeping friends and
her beloved. Unpleasant questions floated in her mind. Why weren’t they encased in ice? Why was she
the only one awake? What was she supposed to do? Needing answers, she moved out to find what was left
of her world.
She had briefly considered making her way on foot to her parents house, but rejected it out of necessity.
Usagi knew that the main thoroughfares were likely to be jammed with every kind of frozen debris possible.
She wasn’t entirely sure she could deal with exactly what the "debris" was made of right now. The quickest
and safest way to get about was as a Senshi. With a sigh, and a hope that she’d be warm enough in her
fuku, she shed the jacket and called out her henshin phrase.
The familiarity of the transformation was comforting in a world gone mad . Warm and gentle power caressed
her as she became Eternal Sailor Moon. The warmth lingered even as she stood in the frigid air a moment
before launching herself skyward. The silver crystal seemed more sensitive to her than it had been before
her long sleep. Every time she’d start to feel the icy bite of the wind, the crystal generated a warming pulse
that covered her body. She lost herself in this wonder. It was easier than concentrating on the devastation
below her.
Instinct more than any rational thought guided her to the place she called home. Landing shortly before the
small driveway, she let her transformation go and prepared to in as simply Usagi. Like a child from school,
she ran the short distance to the front door. It was unlocked. Not a good sign she allowed herself to think
as she went inside.
The sight of the inside of the house was surreal. The furniture, the windows, even the magazines her mother
loved to read were incased in a layer of ice so fine it was nearly invisible. Oddly, enough, what Usagi found
the strangest of all was that carpet didn’t gently give way under her feet as it should. It was like walking on
a hard wood floor. She resisted the impulse to call out for her family as she moved up the stairs to the
bedrooms. Usagi paused at the door to her room. It was exactly the way she’d left it the day of the great
sleep. The curtains and futon quilt with the little bunnies and even her old name plaque on the door were all
the same. Her eyes were drawn to one of the stuffed rabbits that Mamoru had won for her at a carnival.
Sitting in the center of the futon it, like everything else, was incased in crystalline ice. It was uncomfortably
like visiting an exhibit in a museum. One that preserved dead cultures for future generations to gape at.
She moved on.
She found her parents in their bedroom. They lay in each others arms on the double bed with a sad smile on
their faces. There was an empty pill bottle in her fathers lap and two half empty glasses of what may have
been saki on the night stand. Looking at them closely, Usagi knew that they were dead long before the ice
had come. A note on her fathers night stand was addressed to her. She picked it up and opened it.
"Dear Usagi-chan,
Thank God you are not home now. It is hard enough to write these words. I don’t think I could
have faced you with all of this. Shingo is dead. He went quietly compared to some, but he went
before us. This is not right. Children should bury their parents not the other way around. Your
mother and I were with him at the end. She has the sickness now and I know I do too. I can hear
my shoes yelling at the front to door to be let in. We know that it will only get worse as time goes
on so we have decided to end it now before the madness totally claims us. Please forgive us, my
darling child. We wished only to end our lives as we had lived them – together. I pray that we will
be with your brother again in what waits for us after this life. Remember us, my precious girl, and
tell your children about us. Our greatest hope is that you and Mamoru live through all of this and
find happiness together. Your mother reminds me to apologize to Chiba-San. That you love him so
much must mean that he is a good man.
Please pray for your mother, Shingo and I.
Your loving father."
A frightening calm, as cold as the world around her, flowed over Usagi. She folded the note with
exaggerated care before placing it in her pants pocket. She could not grieve, not now. The temptation to
give in was so strong that it threatened to overtake her. But she had her duty and, for now, that must come
first. The world waited for her.
It was as Eternal Sailor Moon that she left her childhood home for the last time. Soaring into the pastel blue
sky she turned her attention to the world below her with an iron will she’d not know she possessed.
Nothing could have prepared her for the sights that assaulted her.
Once, when they were first dating, Mamoru had taken Usagi to a gallery of modern art. Mamo-chan loved
the style and she had gone along with his desire to spend an entire afternoon there. She recalled a print of a
painting by a man named "Dali". It had a watch that oozed down a table like melted butter. Other everyday
objects defied the laws of sanity by bending and twisting into shapes out of a madman’s dream. Usagi
thought that the tableau she surveyed could have been painted by the same delusional mind. The bizarre
had become the common place.
Trees in full leaf were frozen with the birds still on the branches. A naked woman sat on a bench, covered
only by ice and the newspaper on her thighs. A man held two small children close as if he was hugging
them at the moment of frigid suspension. An elderly woman wearing a faded kimono was on her front steps.
In her hands she cradled a chipped porcelain bowl of what looked like tuna. Arrayed at her feet like statues
were a dozen or more cats in various poses.
It was a day tour of her very own private hell where the damned froze instead of burned. Bodies, both living
but suspended, and those dead, lay everywhere. The high school and junior high school were no more
than piles of chaotic rubble in the Juban district. Usagi could barely recognize the Crowne arcade so good a
job had the vandals done of ransacking it. The Osa-P jewelry store was gone too. Someone had burned it
and the family living quarters above it to the ground. Eternal Sailor Moon didn’t stop to look at the ghastly
sight of bodies charred then frozen.
Unable to go any further, Usagi made a rough landing in a nearby park. That part of her that was the moon
princess rose in her soul. It allowed Usagi to ruthlessly push aside her own feelings and wishes. Others
needed her right now and she could not afford the luxury of hysteria.
"The rest of the world.." she started slowly. The silence was intolerable. She needed to hear a voice, even if
it was her own. "Oh, please God, don’t let everyone else be dead!" She needed to find out if her tiny island
nation was all that left of humanity. An inner wisdom, perhaps memories from the Silver Millenium, told her
that she had the power to do just that within her. Eternal Sailor Moon gathered her courage and rose on
outstretched wings. She hovered as she summoned the power that was her birthright.
"Great power of the Moon Kingdom!" she intoned, "Hear me as I call upon you. Show me this world and
her people!"
The silver crystal appeared in front of her angelic form and slowly spun. As the rays of an ineffectual sun
danced within its facets, it exploded with a burst of silver light. Usagi guided the power that flooded her as
she opened her mind to the images that came.
She could see…..
China, once a land of billions of people, was now a land of uncounted ghosts. In Tibet the chants that had
gone on for centuries were stilled. In Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam.. the knowledge of a thousand years
was lost with the death of those charged with preserving it.
The battle for Kashmir between India and Pakistan was stopped by a foe more implacable than even nuclear
bombs. Muslim and Hindu, Brahmin and Untouchable sickened and died side by side. In Iraq and Iran, in
Turkey and Syria death drew no distinction between Sunni and Shiite. There was finally peace for Israel and
her neighbors - the final peace of the grave. The river of life, the Nile, flowed no more. Her children, great
Egypt, could not, in the end, outlive the monuments they had made to the dead.
Africa, birthplace of man saw the death of most of the humanity there. From Libya to South Africa, from
Somalia to Cameroon, it was the same every where. Death was the true king in the veldt and the jungle alike.
Mother Russia would have to mourn more children than she could count. In Yugoslavia, the great plague
had been a more effective ethnic cleanser than any mad man dared dreamed of. In Poland, the Black
Madonna, Our Lady of Jasna Gora, wept for her fallen sons and daughters with tears even the great freeze
could not stop. In Germany, France, Italy and Spain the sickness wiped clean civilizations that had taken
almost two millenium to build.
Being an island nation was not enough to isolate the people from the plague that ravaged mankind. The
English, Welsh and Scots fell to an unstoppable foe. Tiny Ireland was reunited, a nation once again in
devastation.
The only winner in South America was the forest. Nature watched, unmoved, as city dweller and small
villagers alike fell to death’s pitiless scythe. The descendants of the ancient Mayans and Toltecs
disappeared as had their ancestors almost a thousand years ago.
North America, the United States, for all her riches and technology could not find a way to save her people.
Most of the citizens of the city that never sleeps would never awaken. Size was no guarantee of protection.
Monolithic Texas lost more of her folk than tiny Rhode Island. Wealth provided no safety either. Death
was an equal opportunity destroyer. Mighty Canada’s renown self reliance could not save her people as
they suffered and died as did her brethren around the world.
It was the same everywhere her mind went. What humanity in the madness of the plague had not
destroyed, the ice had crushed. Some people who’d survived the sickness were too weak to endure the
great sleep. They died in the uncounted millions. Less than an eighth of the world’s pre-sickness
population would awaken to life. It was a disaster on a scale never considered by arrogant mankind. It was
Armageddon. It was raganroak. It was, quite simply, the end of the world.
And only Usagi was there to mourn.
The magnitude of the horror that had visited humanity came crashing down on her small shoulders. Eternal
Sailor Moon dropped to the frigid ground. Her wings cupped her slender body as she gave voice to a
keening grief that threatened her sanity. She wept for her parents and brother, for childhood friends. She
grieved for all those who were lost. She mourned for survivors who would have another yet another
challenge to overcome -life without their loved ones. She screamed and cried until her throat was raw from
the abuse. She fell to her knees, pounding her fists on the unyielding ground until they bled. Usagi
shouted her angry accusations to any deity that would hear her.
Why should the world wake to this, she wondered? Mankind was dead. It was time to accept that. A
righteous judgement had been enacted upon them. The lure of death with its promise of no pain beckoned
her. The wounds were too deep to heal this time, Usagi told herself. For a long moment she considered that
perhaps, it would be best for all to just go quietly into eternity.
As Eternal Sailor Moon considered letting an entire race die, Pluto’s words came back to her. "Who would I
need protection from?" she had asked. The reply burned itself in her mind. "Yourself."
Usagi looked at her bleeding hands. "What am I thinking?" she whispered to herself. "Death is never the
answer." She looked into her own heart and knew the most basic of truths. "Who am I to decide who lives
and who will die? I will not have the blood of mankind on my hands! There has to be another way."
"Indeed there is a way, if you have the courage." The voice came from the air around Sailor Moon. A
moment later Pluto faded into existence.
Usagi stood up and faced Pluto. Eternal Sailor Moon saw no warmth in the Senshi’s eyes, no humanity.
What had happened to change Sailor Pluto so much that she no longer seemed human? This woman before
her was stranger. "Explain yourself" commanded Usagi.
At this Pluto gave the barest hint of a smile. "It’s really very simple. People cannot mourn what they
cannot remember. As you heal and awaken what is left of the this world, I will remove those things most
troublesome from peoples minds."
Eternal Sailor Moon was shocked. "Our power doesn’t make us gods, Pluto. We don’t have the right to
make that kind of judgement." Usagi shook her head. "No, I won’t allow you to rob people of their
memories. It’s all they have left."
Pluto shrugged her shoulders. "It is the easiest way."
Usagi was angry now. "To hell with the easiest way. We’ll do what’s right or we’ll do nothing at all!"
"And what do you consider ‘right’ Usagi?"
Why did the time guardian’s voice sound so odd to her, Usagi wondered. "You more than anyone should
know that time is the greatest healer of all. That’s exactly what I propose to do. They may not have been
aware of it, but the better part of a thousand years has passed. This will soften people’s recollections, put
distance between them and the pain of such loss. It will make it easier to bear."
"It’s a half measure." Sniffed Pluto disdainfully, "but if that’s what you wish, then so be it. Would you like
me to take you back to the Mizuno apartment?"
Eternal Sailor Moon faded and Usagi stood tall and proud. All doubts melted away. This was the reason
she had been reborn here and now. It was the moment she’d been preparing for her whole life. Usagi knew
what to do and she wasn’t afraid anymore. She called the silver crystal to her once again. "That won’t be
necessary. I’m not alone Setsuna. I never really was. My beloved and my friends are always with me."
Cupping her hands around the stone, she began to gather power to herself. "They lend me their strength
and love."
A pulsing silver glow rose from the gem in front of her. It danced about her form, transforming her. Her
white dress, the clothes of the last princess of the moon kingdom caressed her. It too shifted and melted
about her. "I am Tsukino, Usagi." she called to the world. "I am Eternal Sailor Moon." The silver mist
around her settled into the familiar gown wore by the monarch of Crystal Tokyo. "I am Serenity, Queen of
Earth! Come to me my Beloved, my promised Husband, Mamoru! Stand by my side as Endymion, rightful
King of this realm!"
From the heart of the pulsing stone came a cool, golden light. It settled beside her and took the form of her
one true love. Mamoru awakened to the sight that gave his heart joy, his Usako. With a smile he held out
his hands to her. "Is it time then, my love?"
She took them gladly. "Yes, my Mamo-chan. It’s finally time." They gazed deeply into each other eyes as
their combined powers swirled around them. It lifted them a few feet above the ground. Mamoru took his
only love in his arms and kissed her passionately.
"I give myself to you." He said "My heart and power are yours to command."
As they came to earth once more Usagi raised her voice. "Come to me my dearest friends, my sworn
defenders and partners!" From the heart of the silver crystal four ribbons of color appeared. They arced like
lightening in dazzling colors of blue, green, red and orange. The bright rainbow coalesced before her. The
Sailor Senshi looked at each other for a moment.
"Woo Hoo!" shouted Makoto, speaking for them all, "We did it! We’re awake! We survived!"
As they turned to gaze at Usagi, one by one, they fell to one knee. Usagi blushed a bright red, but knew
that this had to be done.
"As leader of the Senshi that guard the Princess, I Venus, give you my pledge and my power. Use them to
awaken and heal the world, my Queen. We are with you!" called out Minako.
"I swear to serve you! We are yours to command!" came the voice of Ami with unexpected fervor. She
paused for a moment then added in her normal tone, "But we must hurry, the virus will become active again
in a matter of hours."
Mako smiled broadly at first Ami then Usagi. "You’ve got to know we’re with you!"
"Lead us my Queen!" shouted Mars, then as an aside spoke in a softer tone. "Looks like you’ve finally
grown up Usagi-chan." She winked at the regal figure "And about time too!"
The familiar smile of Chiba Usagi decorated the face of Neo-Queen Serenity. Mamoru took her hand and
kissed it once. ""Let’s do it." He simply said.
The Senshi gathered around the royal couple in a circle and joined hands. Closing their eyes in
concentration, they called poured their energies at the Queen. With an almost causal ease she took the
immense pool of power and fed it into the silver crystal. Mamoru opened his gift into her also. Through him
she saw how the earth beneath them moved and breathed with a life of it’s own. The It was time for the
healing to begin.
The power of water washed the world clean of the rubble from the time of madness. It wore down the
shattered buildings, the rusted and useless machines man was so fond of. The air was purified, fresh
oxygen added in unimaginable amounts. Scrap metal and other organic refuse was reduced to its basic
elements under the power of Mercury. She husbanded all the energy this produced and, gathering it,
released it to the Queen.
The fury of the storm unleashed itself upon a fallen world. Lightening vaporized pollutants and wind
scoured the earth clean of man’s misuse. Compounds that had never before degraded, broke down to
simpler, cleaner, components. Jupiter corralled into one area everything that could not be eroded by her vast
power. The energy released was enormous and she let flow into the Queen.
Purifying fire swept over the earth. The bodies that contained no life were given to the gigantic pyre. They
became ash that would nourish the planet, thus giving the final gift of life to those left behind. Intense fire,
hotter than any scientist would have thought possible, made quick work of those relics that nature could
not deal with. The amount of energy produced was staggering and Mars collected it all. She released it to
the Queen.
The greatest power of all, the power of love bathed the great sleep’s survivors in comfort. They were not
alone. Those who had gone before them bequeathed those left behind the certainty that while life ends,
love does not. The power of the love that Usagi, Mamoru, Rei, Mako, Ami and Lita bore for each other
bonded them together in way that could never be broken. The storm of positive power rained down upon
the Empress of Earth.
Mamoru called with his gift to the planet. He showed his beloved how and where to heal a world injured by
the people it had succored. As it had while they slept, his soul sang in harmony with his beloved and
Queen. He gave all the earth had to offer to her as a gift of love.
The bond the group shared danced and shifted as each of them took in what the others had done. Even as
power was raised, knowledge was shared. Through each Senshi’s gift the pieces of the puzzle began to
come together. Ami’s knowledge of the plague filled the Queen’s mind. Usagi and the others sensed the
guilt Ami carried in her soul. Love and reassurance flowed through the great circle, enfolding Ami in its
warmth. The petite Senshi of Mercury had at discovered why the illness would not respond to any
conventional treatments, but too late. Ami had fallen prey to it even as she realized just how to stop it. The
virus’s arcane nature had allowed it to hide within the very bodies it was destroying. The human immune
systems simply could not recognize it They now understood that the sickness that had nearly claimed
mankind was more than science could handle alone.
Neo-Queen Serenity took all that was given her and called out to her own source of strength. The sacred
light of the silver crystal flowed through her. She knew what had to be done to put an end to the plague
once and for all. Magic and science combined to strengthen the immune systems in all it touched.
Antibodies were formed and the virus died no matter where in the body it attempted to hide. The searing
purity of the great crystal burned the last of the sickness from anyone infected as it raced across a waiting
world.
The earth itself was healed and renewed in the glistening , silver tide. Forests sprang anew in areas clean
cut. Rivers and lakes ran clean to the sea. Mineral deposits regenerated and geothermal energy rose into
previously barren sights, ready for use. The natural world was in balance once more. It waited for man to
awaken and complete the circle of the living. The ice that had gripped humanity for a millennium shattered
to dust releasing its captives. The people felt the gentle call of this new world’s Queen in their hearts. Not
all accepted the spiritual healing offered. But for those who did the pain of the past gently faded. In its
place was sorrow, but not a crippling grief, for all that was lost. They looked to sky and saw she who had
brought them to this paradise. The image of Neo-Queen Serenity lingered briefly in the hearts and minds of
a grateful populace. As one they raised their voices to acclaim the new Queen and her King.
In her pearl gray fuku with the charcoal bow and opal, Ethereal Pluto watched the birth of a new age for man.
With the pride of a parent for a child, she saw Usagi become what she had been destined to be since before
the sun burned hot. The new Neo-Queen had, as promised, "softened" the memories of the living. The
traumatic events of the past were now just that – in the past. Her people would remember, but be able to go
on. They had a world to rebuild and a civilization to raise. It would be more than challenge enough to keep
them focused on the future.
But for Ethereal Pluto, that was not acceptable. No memories of certain events could be left intact. There
must be no danger that the timeline could be altered. Usagi would have to be saved from herself and her
misplaced compassion. The Mistress of time raised her staff even as Neo-Queen Serenity and King
Endymion, the Senshi by their side, accepted the grateful thanks of an entire race. With the merest touch of
her power, the events of man’s last two years were put beyond the vivid recall any human. They would
remember that a daughter was to be born, and that she made trips into the past, but never the particulars.
Details about the black moon family and the circumstances of the Earth’s war with them were removed with
the finality of an amputation. She knew that Ami could not be allowed to remember her, but still the same,
hesitated for a fraction of second before doing it.
As Ethereal Pluto faded into the winds of time that were now her home, she paused. The part of her that
was still human needed to make some kind of reparation for the loss she had caused. She picked an
appropriate gift and left it where it would do the most good.
Drained, but happy, Usagi, Mamoru and the Senshi rested for a moment. Because of the link they had
shared, all knew that a huge throng of people was making their way toward them. It would be time to
officially proclaim Usagi and Mamoru as Neo-Queen and King. But where to do it? Mina, as leader, rose to
begin the search for the best sight. She had just turned around when a gasp escaped her and caused the
rest to clamber to their feet. They immediately recognized the building before them.
It was the palace, the heart of Crystal Tokyo.
The palace was set like the jewel it was in the center of the city. Usagi noted that it seemed eerily familiar,
but was unable to figure out why for a long moment. The answer came to her in a rush . The castle with its
lush gardens, green lawns and surrounding small forest called to something deep within her. She knew she
was, at long last, home. Her eyes were drawn to the huge crystal spire that was in the building’s center.
"The prayer tower" whispered Usagi, "It’s like the prayer tower from the Silver Millennium. Wait until Luna
and Atremis sees this!"
It seemed right that Usagi and Mamoru and the Senshi accept the acclimation of the crowd from the largest
balcony of their new home. The same feeling of rightness followed through the rest of the day as people
around the world settled into the empty houses that were waiting for them. There was food and power
enough to last a year or better. In that time a new technology, clean and safe would take over. By then the
agrarian culture would thrive once more.
Usagi moved through the bed chamber that she and Mamoru had claimed. She found to her amusement,
that she could remember one very much like it belonging to her mother in the Silver Millennium. Large
French doors led to a small patio that abutted a private garden. She opened the doors, letting the clean,
fresh air wash over her. Everything was falling so neatly into place. This immense palace filled a need in her
she hadn’t even known about until today. It was, indeed, like coming home. She felt safe here, and was
more comfortable than she could ever remember being. The Senshi had just as easily found suites to their
liking. Even Luna and Atremis had rooms that suited them perfectly. It was as if this magnificent building
had been constructed expressly for them. Things were familiar, yet new at the same time.
She sighed as Mamoru puts his arms around her and she leaned into him. "It’s so strange, I know my way
around this palace, though just how I know I have no clue. I can clearly remember Queen Serenity of the
Moon Kingdom, but I can’t remember how my family, the Tsukino’s, died. I know that terrible things
happened, but why can’t I recall any of the details?"
Mamoru grunted in agreement with her frustrations. "I spoke to Ami about this and we both agree. The
freezing we all underwent, it most likely damaged our short term recall. No matter how quickly we were put
into suspension, certain cells ruptured from the cold. It just happened to be our short term memories. It’s a
planet wide phenomenon as far as we can tell."
"But I can remember the day you asked me to marry you." She protested, "And I have flashes of other times,
but no specifics."
Mamoru headed for the large bed. "It’s the price we had to pay for surviving. With cold intense enough to
put a virus or bacilli into total suspension, we’re lucky our short term memories are all that’s effected. All
things considered, we were very lucky."
Usagi stared out at the stars on this clear, moonlit night. A chill ran down her spine as something she
couldn’t quite grasp danced at the edge of her memory. "I’m not so sure about that Mamo-chan." She said
then added sadly.
" I think the price may have been higher than we’ll ever know."
"I will be your guide, if you’ll let me Princess." Pluto was suddenly beside Eternal Sailor Moon.
Rising to her feet, the keeper of the crystal looked the Mistress of Time square in the face. All the
bitterness, all of the anger was drained out of her. It was time to accept whatever help came her way.
"How?"
Pluto pointed her timestaff at the broach on the bow of Eternal Sailor Moon’s fuku. "The power is there and
in those you love. Gather the strength of your Senshi to find the answers you need to make your choice."
For once, she understood immediately. The other Senshi commanded the powers of this world’s nature.
She had at her disposal the very elements themselves – fire, water, and the fury of the storm. And the
strongest of them all, the power of love. It took only a thought for the silver crystal to appear in her cupped
hands. Slowly, she opened to the immeasurable power that was her birthright and her true heritage.
Princess Serenity, complete with flowing white dress, now stood in the spot Eternal Sailor Moon had
occupied only a second before. Her past and present melded seamlessly she noted. In the past, whenever
the portion of her soul that was the moon princess took control, Usagi seemed to fade into the background.
Not any longer. She was Usagi. She was Serenity. She was Sailor Moon. She was all of them now and a
new power blossomed inside her.
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