A young woman with long black hair and vibrant violet eyes, wearing a long black gown to emphasize her pale skin, stepped out of nowhere. You are still in your dream, Hitomi-chan. This is the only way I can speak to you and be sure we are not overheard.

I am Shino Seishi, Neo Sailorsaturn.

Do you know of Tau Ceti?

They have come back, and they want Earth. I have a plan to stop them. Listen.

When Hitomi woke up, the dream was gone.

* * * * *

"Hitomi-chan?" Karei opened the door to her daughter’s bedroom. Inside, the black-haired, violet-eyed teenager lounged on her bed, listening to a CD. The CD in question was evidently the soundtrack for the Neo Star Team anime, as Hitomi was singing along to "Thunder Born", the image song for Neo Star Jupiter. "Hitomi-chan?" Karei repeated, louder.

"—fabric of life torn asunder…" Hitomi continued singing, oblivious to Karei’s presence.

"Hitomi-chan!" Karei said again, almost shouting.

"—Lightning strike! Roll of thunder…"

"HITOMI-CHAN!"

"—Thunder born…What do you want?" Hitomi hit the pause button on the CD player and removed the headphones.

"You know about the Neo Senshi, don’t you?"

"Of course I do! Who doesn’t?"

Karei held out a red wand, topped by a diamond-shaped ruby. "I was Neo Sailormars, Hitomi-chan." She sighed, opened her mouth to say something, and decided against it.

Hitomi stood up and took the wand, her fingers trembling. She knew what Karei was asking her to do.

The only problem was, Hitomi somehow knew she was not the destined Sailormars.

Hitomi smiled. "Don’t worry, Mom, I won’t let myself get killed, because you’d kill me if I did."

Karei had to smile in return. She dug two slips of paper out of the pocket of her skirt and handed them to Hitomi. "Your flight to Tokyo leaves tonight at eight from here, stopover in Los Angeles. Talk to the Princess, she’ll fill you in on everything I don’t know yet about what you need to do."

"I won’t disappoint you, Mom," Hitomi said quietly, knowing that that would calm most of Karei’s worries and fears about trusting her only child with this responsibility. Karei smiled weakly, tears beginning to silently flow, and quickly turned and left before she could allow herself to burst into tears.

"No," Hitomi murmured, "I won’t disappoint you, but I can’t be Sailormars." She walked to her closet and pulled out her suitcase. It was already mostly packed, since Hitomi traveled alone frequently. She added the wand to the suitcase, then dumped her CD player, various CDs, and other small necessities on top of it.

As she was closing the latches that kept the suitcase closed, Hitomi felt a sudden shiver creep down the back of her neck. She turned to see a young woman with black hair, violet eyes, and pale skin, much like Hitomi’s own. "Who are you?" Hitomi asked.

"My name is Shino Seishi, Hitomi-chan. You may know me better as Neo Sailorsaturn."

"Aren’t you dead?"

She nodded.

"Why are you here?"

"Because I have to give you this." Seishi held out her right hand. A scar, shaped like a hexacle, glowed violet on her palm. A fainter violet glow surrounded her. Hitomi took Seishi’s hand.

A brilliant violet glow enveloped the joined hands. Hitomi stifled a scream. It felt as if something sharp was carving through the flesh of her palm. The violet glow around Seishi faded, only to spring up around Hitomi.

Seishi released Hitomi’s hand. Where the hexacle had glowed on Seishi’s palm moments before, now there was only white skin. Hitomi’s right hand, instead, bore a bleeding wound in the shape of a hexacle. Violet light burst from the hexacle. The bleeding slowed, then stopped, as the wound closed. Within seconds, only the hexacle, traced in thin violet lines, remained. The glow became bright again, and a violet wand topped by a clear crystal sphere materialized in Hitomi’s hand. The sign of Saturn was engraved in silver on one side of the sphere, a silver hexacle on the other, and an amethyst rested on the top.

"I’m so sorry, Hitomi-chan," Seishi whispered. "But you’re the only heir left for the line of Dosei."

After a few moments’ silence, Hitomi said, "Mom just told me she was Neo Sailormars. How could I be from the royal line of Saturn?"

Seishi sighed, then replied, "The woman you know as your mother was indeed Neo Sailormars."

"The woman I know as my mother…" Hitomi repeated slowly. "Does that mean…"

"I am your mother, Hitomi-chan." Seishi paused to let that sink in, then continued, "You were born right before that last battle with Solana. Right before I died, I gave you to Karei, so she could raise you as her daughter."

"So I’m Sailorsaturn…" Hitomi murmured, tracing the hexacle on her right palm with one finger. She looked up. "Do I have any other relatives?"

"Three half-sisters, Morino Tomoe, Aya, and Utako, and two cousins, Hisakino Arashi and Seira."

"Arashi and Seira? They’re Mom’s, sorry, Karei’s brother’s kids, aren’t they?"

"Yes, their mother Yoseiko is—was your father’s sister. He was Jupiter Kamen, but he…he was killed yesterday…by Tau Ceti." Seishi was quiet for a minute, making sure she would have complete control of her voice when she spoke again. "Karei hasn’t been told yet. She’s sending you to Japan because Neo Sailorvenus was killed by Tau Ceti three days ago, and so you can give the wand she just gave you to Arashi." Seishi began to fade out. "I’ll see you again, Hitomi-chan. I love you." She was gone.

Hitomi quickly finished packing, watched by two invisible spirits. Once Hitomi had left to catch her flight, one whispered to the other, I hate having to lie to her. I wish there were another way to save Tomoe.

You’re doing the right thing, Seishi love, replied the second spirit. We’ll all get through this. At least we’ll be able to tell everyone the truth once we’re finished with Baron 9.

I know I’m doing the right thing, Ryuu, the first one said. Still, the best I can do from here is hope everything works out the way I planned.

* * * * *

"You don’t understand! I have to speak to Princess Shizuki, it’s a matter of life and death!"

"I understand quite well, Miss Tamashiino. However important your problem may be to you, it cannot be of importance to her Highness."

Hitomi bit her lip to keep from screaming at the officious young man who guarded the main gate of the Crystal Palace. She had been arguing with him for at least an hour, or at least it seemed like it had been an hour. He really didn’t understand why she had to talk to the Princess. (Neither did she, really, though Hitomi was ignoring that fact for now.)

"What seems to be the problem?" asked a crisp voice from somewhere behind and to the right of the guard.

The guard turned, then almost fell over in surprise. He caught himself quickly, though, and bowed deeply. "Your Highness, this…person…was just leaving," he said, his tone of voice indicating his disappointment in himself for being unable to shoo Hitomi off sooner.

"No, Your Highness, I need to speak to you about a matter of grave importance," Hitomi said, snapping the first word at the guard and directing the rest respectfully to the young woman with long red-gold hair tied in star odango.

Hitomi slipped one hand into her purse and held up the violet wand Seishi had given her, as evidence that the topic of discussion was indeed important. Even if the Princess was not Sailormoon, though her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother had been, she would certainly know about the Sailor Senshi and therefore recognize the wand.

"Kawamura, whenever someone says they need to speak to me, allow me to decide whether it’s important or not," the Princess said coolly to the guard, then directed her attention to Hitomi. "Why don’t we talk inside the palace, Miss Tamashiino?" She walked away along the path she had come from. Hitomi followed.

Once they were sure the guard was out of earshot, the Princess said, "So you’re Celestial Sailorsaturn?"

"Yes, Your Highness," Hitomi replied.

"Call me Shizuki, please," the Princess said. "We’re supposed to be teammates, which won’t work if we don’t drop the formalities."

"Yes, Y—Shizuki."

"How much do you already know about what we’re facing?" Shizuki asked.

"Next to nothing," Hitomi admitted. They had reached a small side door connecting the gardens and the palace. "I know Jupiter Kamen and Neo Sailorvenus were killed by Tau Ceti in the past few days, and I’m pretty sure that Tau Ceti’s going to come after me because I’m Neo Sailorsaturn’s daughter, but that’s about it."

Shizuki reached to open the door. The doorknob didn’t turn. She jiggled it, which didn’t help. "They’re supposed to leave this door unlocked," she muttered under her breath. "They know they’re supposed to leave this door unlocked." She reached up and pulled a hairpin out of one of her odango and began to pick the lock with it. Without the hairpin, the two lower points of the star lost their shape. "I haven’t much to add to that," Shizuki admitted, turning the doorknob again. "So far there’s four senshi, not counting you." The door opened.

"You can pick locks?" Hitomi asked, amazed.

Shizuki shrugged. "It’s easier than calling one of the servants who might have a key." She closed the door behind them, then began to reassemble her odango as she walked.

"Wow."

"Basically." Shizuki started up a narrow staircase. "Anyway, we’ve got Moon, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, and you. Seijitsu Minako, she’s Neo Venus’s daughter, Morino Tomoe and Morino Utako, Jupiter Kamen’s and Neo Mercury’s oldest and youngest daughters, you, and me. In no particular order. Neo Pluto has two kids, but we don’t know which she’ll send. Neo Mars has one daughter, who we ought to be seeing anytime soon."

"Correction: Neo Mars has no children, but everyone thinks she has a daughter, because Neo Saturn asked Neo Mars to raise Neo Saturn’s illegitimate child."

"Say that again, more slowly, please," Shizuki said, turning right at the top of the staircase. Hitomi obligingly repeated it. "You mean, you?" Hitomi nodded. "Wonderful." Shizuki opened the first door she came to. "So now we have to go searching for three Senshi, not two Senshi. Just what I needed to hear." Shizuki sank onto the pale blue sofa inside the room.

Hitomi sat down on the pale yellow sofa on the opposite side of the glass coffee table. "Karei has four younger siblings. Three of them have children, and the youngest hasn’t aged past sixteen. So that’s seven choices for the next Sailormars, so it’s not like we’ll be searching the world. You said we had to find three Senshi. What about the other two?"

"Neo Uranus doesn’t remember being Neo Uranus, and she has no children. Neo Neptune, also childless, is dead. Probably killed by Baron 9, but we aren’t sure yet." Shizuki paused. "Would you like to meet your teammates?"

"They’re here?" Hitomi asked.

"They’re staying in the palace for a while, yes. All three of them have one parent dead and one parent in the hospital. Minako’s father had a heart attack when he heard Aiko was dead, and Tomoe and Utako’s mother reacted poorly to whatever was in the trank darts they were hit with." Shizuki stood and walked to the door, then flipped a switch next to an opaque blue glass panel set into the wall next to the door. The panel swung out from the wall. Shizuki pressed a sequence of the buttons that the panel had hidden, then said, "Send Seijitsu Minako, Morino Tomoe, and Morino Utako to her Highness’s private chambers, please." She then closed the panel, flipped the switch back, and returned to the pale blue sofa.

A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. "Come in," Shizuki called.

The door opened. Two girls, the taller with waist-length black hair and violet eyes and the shorter with mid-back-length green hair and dark blue eyes, walked in. "Who’s this?" the taller one asked.

"Hitomi, meet Morino Tomoe, Celestial Sailorjupiter," Shizuki pointed at the taller one, "and Morino Utako, Celestial Sailormercury. Tomoe, Utako, this is Hitomi Tamashiino, Celestial Sailorsaturn." The three exchanged ‘hi’s and handshakes, and Tomoe and Utako sat down on the pale pink sofa to Shizuki’s left and Hitomi’s right.

"Grand old party, isn’t it?" asked a girl with pale gold hair and blue eyes from the doorway. She closed the door and sat down on the pale green sofa that rounded out the circle. "Who’s the new girl, Shizu-chan?"

"Minako, meet Hitomi Tamashiino, Celestial Sailorsaturn. Hitomi, this is Seijitsu Minako, Celestial Sailormoon."

"Remind me to get my hearing checked, Shizuki," Hitomi replied. "I could have sworn you just said she was Sailormoon."

"She did," everyone else chorused.

"She’s Sailormoon, I’m Sailorvenus, and we haven’t a clue how it happened," Shizuki said.

The door burst open. "Hime-sama, his energy signature’s been spotted in Sapporo," said the brown-haired girl wearing the blue and white of a palace servant.

"Thank you, Hanae," Shizuki replied calmly. "Thank whoever spotted that for me, please." The girl curtsied and left. "Well, ladies, we have a mission. Baron 9’s going after Neo Uranus." She stood, pulled a golden yellow wand out of her jeans pocket, and held it up. "Venus Celestial Power!"

"Jupiter Celestial Power!"

"Mercury Celestial Power!"

"Moon Celestial Power!"

Hitomi lifted her own violet wand to the sky, took a deep breath, and said, "Saturn Celestial Power!"

Purple nail polish appeared on Hitomi’s fingernails. Ribbons of light, alternating black and violet, burst from the wand and circled around her. (Like the circles of fire in ori. Mars’s transformation.) All of the ribbons but the black one nearest the ground and the violet one above her head widened and shrank inwards till they overlapped against her skin, covering her completely. The ribbons shifted around, the colors blending, till they shaped her complete fuku. The two remaining ribbon circles moved together, then merged at about waist height. The single dark violet circle snapped, and the ribbon reshaped itself into shadowy butterfly wings. With a flash of violet light, the wings vanished, leaving her fully transformed. Celestial Sailorsaturn posed holding the Silence Glaive in her right hand, resting it on the ground and tilting the blade away from herself, and with the small black book labeled "Shinohon" in her left hand.

The five Senshi formed a circle, holding hands. They glanced at each other for a long moment, then said in unison, "Moon…" "Venus…" "Mercury…" "Jupiter…" "Saturn…" "Teleport!" Each shimmered with her own color, then vanished.