"And for the final entertainment…" Morino Utako said with a flourish. She dove around the corner into the kitchen, then came out juggling bowls, spoons, and cartons of ice cream. Without dropping anything, she tossed a bowl to each of the six people seated around the table, then set the last at her own place. A spoon clattered into each bowl. The cartons of Breyer’s landed in a reasonably neat stack. Everyone applauded, though Aya commented sourly under her breath that Utako shouldn’t be providing the entertainment when she was theoretically the guest of honor. (Not that Utako’s birthday celebrations had ever been anything but opportunities for Utako to do hilarious things that Aya couldn’t understand. And if Aya, who was quite probably the smartest person on Earth, couldn’t understand it, no one could.)

Utako brushed a loose strand of green hair out of her eyes, then opened the top carton of ice cream, which happened to be cookies and cream. She flipped three scoops of it across the table, two landing neatly in Kasumi’s bowl and one in Aya’s, then asked if anyone else wanted that flavor. No one did, so Utako closed the carton, put it next to the stack, and opened the carton of chocolate. She sent six scoops of this one flying, three to Ryuu, one each to herself and Tomoe, and one to her grandmother Makoto by request.

The third carton contained chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. One scoop landed in Aya’s bowl and one in Utako’s. Tomoe got the only scoop taken from the carton of strawberry. Makoto asked for the second scoop of mint chocolate chip after Aya got the first. Finally, Ami asked for one scoop of vanilla.

Utako brought the ice cream cartons back to the kitchen, and came out holding precariously balanced stacks of ice cream toppings. One stack was in each hand, and a carton of Oreos topped the stack on her nose.

The doorbell rang. Startled, Utako lost control of the stack on her nose, which hit the floor. Oreos and rainbow sprinkles flew everywhere.

"I’ll get it," Kasumi said, standing up. "Try not to drop the rest of it, Utako." Ignoring Utako’s hurt cry of "Oh, Mama," she walked out of the room.

Dessert was eaten in silence, except for Utako’s running commentary on her latest basketball game, which was interrupted by Kasumi’s call from the front door. "Ryuu, you’re not going to believe this…"

Wondering what was going on, Ryuu walked out of the dining room, turned left twice, and froze. The black-haired woman standing next to Kasumi…but it couldn’t be…

"Seishi?"

She nodded, then said quietly, "It’s time. The next generation of Sailor Senshi need to be awakened."

"Who are we fighting?" asked Ryuu.

Seishi glanced down, then spat out the words "Tau Ceti." Calmer, she added, "This entity is going to be harder to beat than the other ones who’ve come after Earth. He’s learned from its predecessors’ mistakes."

"Which means…"

"Tau Ceti has been defeated by the Sailor Senshi twice. Baron 9 doesn’t want that to happen a third time."

Ryuu still didn’t understand.

"Megami’s dead. The doctors don’t know why, because all they found was a nonlethal dose of tranquilizer, but it was because she lost her heart crystal. With Neo Sailorneptune dead, the next Sailorneptune should have awakened—and hasn’t."

Seishi paused a few seconds to let her words sink in. Then Kasumi said, "So Tau Ceti has the power of Neptune. Shit."

"My sentiments precisely." After another pause, Seishi continued, "Baron 9 is going to want Tomoe. So you need to awaken Mercury and Jupiter for two reasons: one to protect Tomoe, two to go after Baron 9 with Moon and Venus. We also need to keep Baron 9 from knowing about Tomoe if at all possible."

Kasumi nodded in agreement. Then a thought struck her. "Would we be better off if Sailorsaturn is somebody else entirely?"

"Perhaps. The problem there would be, who?"

"True."

After an pause, Seishi said, "I’ll see you again." She began to fade out.

Ryuu began, "Seishi, I—" She had vanished. Kasumi glared at Ryuu, who shrugged. Both turned to walk back to the dining room.

At some point when Kasumi and Ryuu were talking to Seishi, the others had finished their dessert and moved to the living room. Utako hadn’t wanted to wait for her parents to return before she began opening her birthday presents. Consequently, there were only two left to open.

A black smoky figure with flashing red eyes stood, invisible, in one corner of the room. In the opposite corner materialized the spirit, also invisible, of a young woman. Neither could see the other. Both were watching.

Utako ripped off the green paper covering the smaller package, then with her thumb, flipped off the top of the small dark blue box. Inside, on dark blue velvet, rested a pair of pink rose earrings. "Wow, these are pretty," Utako whispered. She glanced at the card that had accompanied the gift, then jumped up to enthusiastically hug her grandmother.

"Those are a family heirloom of sorts," Makoto told them. "My mother gave them to me, and her mother to her. Take good care of them."

"Don’t worry," said Utako, smiling as she removed the small gold hoops she had been wearing to put the rose earrings on. Aya rolled her eyes up to the ceiling, clearly not believing her younger sister.

The final package was long and thin. Utako quickly read the card, then neatly tore off the paper covering one end of the box. The rest of the wrapping paper slid off in one piece. Utako flicked the catch on the wooden box, then brushed a renegade lock of green hair back behind her ear where it belonged before opening the box. A long sword, silver with a white hilt inset with a large blue gem, sitting on red satin, was inside. "I thought you might like a fancy fencing sword," said Ami, smiling.

Utako picked up the sword, which was light for its size, and examined it. It was about sixty centimeters long, eighty counting the hilt. The center line of the blade was thickest, half a centimeter, and it tapered into two sharp edges. Beginning about ten centimeters from the tip, the width of the blade decreased from two centimeters to the very sharp point. The single deep blue gem was large enough that turning the blade over exposed the other side of the same stone. The hilt fit Utako’s hand well enough that it might have been made just for her.

Utako began an exhibition routine, dueling with the empty air. She did perfectly every move she tried, even the ones she’d never been able to do successfully before. "It’s perfect, Grandma!" she exclaimed, picking up the sheath and belt that had accompanied the sword. Utako sheathed the sword before tackling Ami with a hug. "But, uh, couldn’t you have picked a green one?"

"It picked itself, Uta-chan," Ami replied, smiling.

"Excuse me a moment," Makoto said, standing. Something in her voice alerted first the watching spirit, then Tomoe and Utako, who each saw in turn the odd red gleam in her eyes.

Makoto walked quickly but quietly upstairs to the linen closet. Stored on the top shelf, Baron 9 knew, was a tranquilizer gun. (Kasumi had wanted something that could be used to defend themselves with, that did not involve transforming into Senshi, and didn’t run the risk of killing the attackers before they could face justice.) He had stolen the gun once before, when Ami was his host, and returned it the same night. It had been effective against Neo Neptune, and would be effective against not only Neo Mercury and Jupiter Kamen but everyone else present, especially as he didn’t have access to the substance he’d used to knock out Neo Moon and Neo Venus.

Once the tranquilizer gun was in hand, Baron 9/Makoto returned downstairs. With one swift movement, he fired a dart at each person. Kasumi, Ryuu, Ami, and Aya were hit immediately and dropped like stones, all but Aya ending up sprawled on the floor. Utako ducked sideways, but not quickly enough to avoid being grazed by the dart, which stuck in the fabric of the sofa. She, too, collapsed, but as she’d gotten a much smaller dose of the contents of the dart she would wake up much sooner. Tomoe flung herself to the floor. The dart that had been aimed at her glanced off the wall and landed about a decimeter away from her outstretched hand.

Baron 9 glanced around the room. Having assured himself that everyone but his host was unconscious, he knelt next to Ryuu’s still form. Tomoe bit down a scream as an unearthly arm rooted in Makoto’s chest reached into Ryuu and ripped out his heart crystal. Tomoe turned her head, as quickly as she dared without attracting attention, and spotted the dart lying on the floor. Miraculously, it was both intact and full. She began cautiously inching her arm closer to it.

A black chain, holding another heart crystal that seemed to have been drawn with glowing aqua lines, materialized around Makoto’s neck. Baron 9 raised the crystal he held to touch the chain, then lowered it, leaving a similar green crystal secured to the chain. The plain crystal shattered in his hand.

Behind Baron 9, Utako’s eyelids fluttered, then opened. Everything was blurry, and she couldn’t move anything but her eyes. Slowly, the living room began to refocus. Utako could only watch, and that not very well, as Baron 9 walked over to Kasumi, tore out her heart crystal, and attached its glowing blue echo to the chain.

A few feet away, Tomoe’s hand closed over the dart. Whispering words she’d never heard before, Tomoe with lightning speed stood and lunged, the tip of the dart sinking into Makoto’s shoulder. Makoto collapsed, eyes open and staring. A black smoky figure rose out of her body.

Or tried to. Try as he might, Baron 9 could not quite free himself from Makoto. Faint violet rings encircled Makoto’s wrists and ankles, keeping Baron 9’s ethereal hands and feet from loosing themselves from Makoto’s.

"I don’t know who you are," Tomoe said, controlling the quiver that tried to force its way into her voice. "And I don’t care who you are. But you had better start explaining what you did to my parents." Tomoe took the heart crystal from Makoto’s limp hands, then set it on Kasumi’s unconscious body.

"I need explain nothing. All you need to know is Jupiter Kamen is now dead and Neo Sailormercury nearly so. Certainly there will be no new Senshi with powers from Suisei, Mokusei, or Kaiousei."

Tomoe’s eyes widened. She’d known that Morino Ryuu had a strange resemblance to Jupiter Kamen, as did Morino Kasumi to Neo Sailormercury. From what this…person…had said, though, her parents didn’t just look like the Neo Senshi, they were the Neo Senshi. Then the crystals on that chain must be whatever had made them Senshi. Blue for Suisei, green for Mokusei, and the aqua one must be Kaiousei…which made Tomoe wonder if there was a connection between Neo Sailorneptune and Kasumi’s sister Megami. Not just wonder, because she’d puzzled over the uncanny similarity between those two, as well, and the family had learned the day before that Megami had died in a peculiar accident.

"Otou…san…no…" Utako’s voice was barely audible.

"Whoever you are, you are one dead man, you know that?" Tomoe’s voice surprised her. She hadn’t known she could sound so menacing.

"He’s mine, Tomoe." Utako sounded much stronger after only a few seconds. When Tomoe turned to look, Utako was standing, though not very steadily, supporting herself on her sheathed sword.

"We’ll both settle him." Tomoe reached down and plucked the green crystal off the chain.

A green aura, a shade lighter than the crystal itself, sprang up around the crystal. After a brief battle with something around Tomoe that she could neither see nor feel, the aura emanated from Tomoe herself. Tomoe stared, amazed, at her hands, which tingled where they touched the crystal, and had green sparkly nail polish when she hadn’t been wearing any.

Utako, who had made the same connections Tomoe had, bent, wobbling, and yanked the blue crystal off the chain with her free hand. Blue sparkly nail polish appeared on her fingernails when the blue aura around the crystal jumped to encompass Utako and her sword.

Simultaneously, the crystals vanished from the girls’ hands, to be replaced by wands. Tomoe’s was forest green, the crystal sphere topped by an emerald, with a silver lightning bolt on one side and the sign of Jupiter in silver on the other. Utako’s was light blue, a sapphire atop its sphere, with a stylized sword engraved in silver on one side and the silver sign of Mercury on the other.

In unison, the two raised the wands to the sky and shouted, "Jupiter…" "Mercury…" "Celestial Power!"

Green-tinted lightning shot from the clear blue sky, unimpeded by the roof, and struck Tomoe, enveloping her. The lightning on her legs, arms, and face faded as the rest shaped itself into her complete fuku, with butterfly wings on her back. A flash of green light caused the wings to vanish and the lightning to become her fuku. Celestial Jupiter posed with the heel of her right boot touching the toe of her left, her arms crossed, one hand holding the Ryuunome, as she glared.

Blue ribbons that suspiciously resembled water flowed from Utako’s wand. The ribbons spiraled around her, wrapping tightly around an invisible column that contained her. The ribbons froze into a solid shell of pale blue ice, from top to bottom. The shell began to melt into blue energy, top to bottom, almost before it was completely frozen. Each bit of energy swirled inwards as soon as it was liquefied, forming her complete fuku and icy butterfly wings. The wings vanished in a flash of blue light that also changed the blue energy to her fuku. Celestial Mercury posed with her feet slightly apart, the Kourinosensu in her left hand hanging at her side, and her right hand holding her unsheathed sword in the air. The sword had been changed just a little, though. The blade was now pale blue ice, not silvery metal.

Jupiter and Mercury wore almost identical outfits. They both had white bodysuits, gloves, and chokers, no tiara, and round gems on their forehead. Their skirts, shoes, brooches, tiara gems, and scarves (with two stripes each), the stripes on their gloves, and the top half of their otherwise white belts were all the same color, though the skirt shimmered a bit. Jupiter’s skirt was forest green, her bows were sugar pink, her earrings were little silver stars, and she wore knee boots that looked exactly like the original Sailorsaturn’s but green. Mercury’s skirt was sky blue, her bows were bright blue, she wore the rose earrings she had just been given, and her shoes looked a lot like sneakers. Jupiter’s hair, which had been black with red-violet highlights and braided, was now loose with green highlights. Her eyes had become bright green, to match her brooch with small emeralds inset in the shape of the sign of Jupiter. Mercury’s hair, formerly loose, straight, and bright green, was now tinted blue and tied into a ponytail with big bouncy curls. Her eyes were a lighter shade of blue than before, matching her brooch, with tiny sapphires arranged to form the Mercury sign.

"All right, mister, tell us who you are and why you’re here, then give us one good reason we shouldn’t kill you right now," Mercury said, pointing her sword right at Makoto’s heart. The black smoky figure had returned to full possession of her, being unable to free himself from the fading violet bands around Makoto’s wrists and ankles.

"You do realize that you can harm my host, but you can do nothing to me, do you not?" asked Makoto as she got to her feet, her eyes flashing red. The next instant, her eyes were a terrified green as she whispered frantically, "Kill me…if he can’t escape in time, he’s dead too…" Then her eyes flashed red again.

"We’ll take that risk," said Jupiter angrily. Mercury said the same thing a breath later, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears.

"I am Baron 9 of Tau Ceti," he said, coldly. He started to say more, but Jupiter interrupted him.

"You do realize we will never let you Silence our planet, nor will we let you wrap Earth up and tie it like a present for Pharaoh 90, do you not?" she asked, her tone exactly mimicing the one Baron 9 had used a minute before.

He looked at her with disdain. "Why do you think I have been stealing the Senshi powers of the Neo Senshi?"

"You mean you killed Otou-san and Oba-san and nearly killed Okaa-san just to further your lost cause?" Mercury was furious. Tears flowed steadily down her cheeks.

"Uta-chan, no—" Jupiter cried, but too late. Mercury had lunged forward, thrusting her sword to the hilt through Makoto’s heart.

The all-but-invisible violet rings around Makoto’s wrists and ankles snapped. The black smoky figure of Baron 9 stepped forward triumphantly, out of Makoto’s dying body. "You can never defeat me!" He was gone.

Mercury sank to her knees, gazing alternately at Makoto and her bloody sword, sobbing. "What have I done…" A blue spark fell from her tiara gem to the floor, becoming a wave of blue energy that washed over her, leaving behind her ordinary clothes. The blue energy became the blue wand, which Utako caught without thinking about it in the hand that had held her now-vanished sword. Jupiter sat, her legs suddenly unable to support her. She detransformed with a spark of green light, which became green energy that formed a shell that briefly hid her before the energy rose above her head and collapsed into the green wand, which fell into Tomoe’s hand.

"I’m…sor…ry…U…ta…chan…" whispered Makoto, struggling for enough breath for each syllable. "…not…your…fault…love…you…" Her eyes closed.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Tomoe felt later that there had been enough volume to Utako’s scream for most of the known universe to have heard it.

The invisible spirit in the room smiled. Though she regretted the necessity of Ryuu’s death and the fact of Makoto’s, as she regretted Aiko’s and Megami’s, something good had happened that she hadn’t dared hope for. Another element of her trap was in place.