Episode Four: The Beginning

Mare Serenitatis was deserted. There was no one there as far as Kalon Venus could see. "So this is what a war looks like, huh?" she asked, still trying to find the Andromeda senshi. The movies had always shown it as non-stop action, but those were the movies. This was yucky old reality.

"Aren't they supposed to be attacking us?" Jupiter asked loudly.

"Quiet, we don't want to give away our position," Mercury snapped.

"We know where you are." Sailorveive stepped out from behind a tall rock, smirking slightly. The other Andromedan senshi followed her. "We really don't want to fight right now. What we do want to know is where that brother of mine is."

Mercury started opening her mouth, probably to give helpful directions to the palace, but Kalon Moon shouted before she could. "You can't have him! He doesn't want to be with you!"

"I don't give a crap what he wants," Veive said, shrugging dismissively as she crossed her arms. "It's his duty to marry Uni. I don't think it's been pounded into your pathetic little mind that we need him so our way of life can continue."

"Are you absolutely sure she's only naive?" Mercury hissed to Venus.

"I'm not absolutely sure about anything," Venus whispered back.

"Please just let them have him," Mars pleaded to Moon. "You don't know what keeping him here means! You must return him now! This is the only chance we have!"

"He has a right to do as he wants and he wants to stay here," Moon said rather patronizingly to Mars, patting her arm gently. She turned away to look at Veive. "He's not going back, he doesn't want to."

"We'd all hoped it wouldn't come to this," Veive said as she paced languidly in front of her soldiers. She wanted the war to happen, Venus knew it. Veive hadn't come to really negotiate, she only wanted to make overtures at doing it. "Trust me Princess, you will regret this."

"I will not." Venus wanted to turn around and walk away right then. This wasn't a noble cause at all. It was utter stupidity. On the other hand, Aiko had drilled it into her that it was her duty and she was a part of the team. She wasn't supposed to abandon her princess because it was wrong. She was supposed to defend her to the death even if she was acting like an idiot over some cute guy. The worst part was that Venus knew her mother was right. She was going to stay even if she wanted to drag Atunis out of the palace and back to the Andromeda Kingdom.

"So be it." Veive smiled as she pointed towards Moon. "Vengeance Blasting!"

****

Tomoe kept her ear to the door of her parents' bedroom. They'd been talking so secretively ever since Utako and Aya had left so quietly last night. It was early in the morning, and they probably thought she was still asleep. "They're going to be outnumbered," Kasumi said. "They have no chance and I'm supposed to let them go out there like that?"

"I don't like it either," Ryuu said. Tomoe leaned in closer. They knew where Aya and Utako were and they didn't like where they were. Interesting. "But I'm sure they'll be fine. We managed to survive."

"Seishi didn't!" Who was Seishi? "I'm not going to rest on the idea that because we survived and our mother's survived doesn't mean that we will survive. This isn't like how it was before. They aren't trying to destroy us because we're interrupting their plans to take over the world. They want us destroyed because that little brat of a princess wronged them. Do you want me to stand idly by while my daughters are out there paying the price?"

"They're my daughters too." Tomoe really wanted to know what they were talking about. "How are we going to tell Tomoe?"

"With any luck we shouldn't have to. Fuyumi should be talking to Stella and the others right now."

Tomoe crept away to her room. Stella? That meant Queen Stella. Tomoe grabbed her history book of the Crystal Millennium and looked in the index. Shino Seishi was listed there. That must've been the Seishi Ryuu was talking about. Tomoe flipped through to find the section on her. Tomoe's eyes nearly popped out of her head as she saw what was written.

"Neo Sailorsaturn?" she whispered to herself. It clicked together for her. Aya and Utako were gone to fight in the war. Utako was too young to be fighting. Tomoe was certain of it, and there was nothing she could do. She hadn't been chosen. Aya and Utako had. "Why did they pass me over? I should be out there!" Tomoe tossed the book gently on to the bed, making sure to be quiet. She really couldn't run to her parents right now and demand to know why she hadn't been picked as their replacements. She was the eldest, it was her duty. Utako should not have been chosen, Tomoe was certain of that.

"Do you want to help them?" Tomoe looked up and saw a tall woman with long black hair and violet eyes like her own. A black star glowed on her forehead as she smiled down. "You can."

"Who are you?" Tomoe asked. "How did you get in?"

"Your parents never told you who you truly are," the woman said. "You are the heir to my power, the power of Malekah 9. It is far more powerful than the pitiful powers your sisters possess. You will be able to win the war with them." Malekah 9 reached out and touched Tomoe's forehead. "I will give you a year to consider my offer. The war will last at least until then."

Malekah smiled one last time before she disappeared. Tomoe shivered, wondering exactly what Malekah meant.

****

"Storm Cloud Shield!" Jupiter shouted. She raised her hands up as a dark cloud rose from the ground, lightning cracking in it. The blast of Veive's attack was blocked, but Jupiter was disappointed. She wanted to attack the Andromeda senshi. They were going to hurt her, she wanted to hurt them back!

"Good job," Mercury muttered as the cloud started to dissipate. "Everyone, split up!"

Jupiter harrumphed and stood her ground. Who had died and put Mercury in charge anyways? The cloud disappeared and a girl came up running to her dressed in black and magenta. "You look lonely!" she said, her magenta eyes staring at Jupiter. "Do you want to play? My name's Alpan!"

"We're not supposed to be playing," Jupiter said. She looked around. Everyone had gone away, leaving her alone and defenceless. "We're supposed to be fighting."

"But that's playing," the girl whined. She giggled as she held up a black ball of energy. "Kiss of Death!"

****

Rafe yawned as he walked home. Most of Edinburgh was still protesting on the Royal Mile, but he needed to get home. His parents had let him go with the promise of being home by eleven. He brushed his dark burgundy hair out of his violet eyes as he tried to remember whether his homework was done.

"Leaving so soon?" Rafe smiled as his friend Iain started walking beside him. "It's turning into a real party."

"It's a school night, I promised my parents." Rafe smiled apologetically at Iain. Rafe took school far more seriously than he did. It wasn't that he need to put effort into it, but having good grades meant a lot to him. "Besides, will it actually make any difference?"

"Who knows?"

Rafe smiled and looked up at the sky towards the Moon. That's where the fighting would be taking place right then. But instead his eyes turned further away to a maroon streak in the sky. "Are there supposed to be fireworks?"

"No." Something about that streak made Rafe stop and stare at it while Iain continued walking. It grew brighter as it flew towards them. "Didn't you say it was a school night?"

"It's coming right for us!" Rafe shouted. He started to run but there was no escaping destiny. He screamed as the maroon light struck him.

****

Pluto Kamen stuck his head up above the rock he'd hidden behind. The senshi in green and brown was still there, waiting for him to come out. He'd dove behind it for cover. They were absolutely vicious. "Are you done hiding like a man?" the woman asked, looking a little bored.

"We really should introduce ourselves before we keep fighting," Pluto Kamen said. Hiding like a man? That sounded insulting. Of course it was probably meant that way. Apparently the Andromeda senshi didn't have a high opinion of men. Given Atunis, it was probably justified in their eyes. "All guys aren't like Atunis you know."

"I'll have to wait and see. If it will get you out of hiding, I am Horta."

"And I'm Pluto Kamen." Pluto Kamen stood up and held the Garnet Rod in front of him. It began to glow with mauve energy. "Winds of Tartarus!" he shouted, sending the energy to rush at Horta. It hit her, knocking her back through the air quite a bit. "Am I still a weak male?"

"I'll have to test that," Horta said as she stood up. "Harvest Reap!" Dark green energy flew at him, but didn't strike him. Instead it obliterated the rock in front of him. Pluto Kamen gulped as he tightened his grip on the Garnet Rod. He was probably in over his head.

****

George looked at her watch impatiently as she waited outside the subway station. It was late afternoon and Chloe was late. Chloe was always late and George had other stuff she needed to be doing. For once she would like it if she could have a friend who was punctual all the time.

"George!" Chloe came rushing up out of the entrance, looking almost breathless. She handed a roll of paper over to George before she reached up to fix the pastel green ribbon in her pale pink hair. "Sorry I'm late, class ran over again and I forgot the sign at home. Have you been waiting long?"

"No," George lied as she pushed a white curl out of her eyes. In truth she'd been half an hour early, but she wasn't going to let Chloe know that. They started walking south of the university towards the large crowds protesting. "The attack has begun on the Moon."

"Really? That just sucks. Princess Shizuki really should've been able to find a peaceful solution. Why are they attacking us again?"

"Something about her running off with the husband of their queen."

"I bet her people will put some romantic spin on it, like how it's all about the true love so we can feel good about the fact that she got us into this war in the first place." George nodded in agreement with Chloe. "I can see it now. They'll come on as soon as the fighting stops for a while and try to send us the message that we're supposed to accept it. Hey, do you think Essie will be there?"

"She's at some Australian protests." Chloe was a huge fan of Essie Adon, the Australian model who acted and sang. Or was it the actress who sang and modelled? George was never sure, but she didn't like Essie that much. George stopped as something caught her eye up in the sky. Two streaks of light were coming down from it, pink and light blue. "They can't reach here, can they?"

"Why would they want to destroy Toronto?" Chloe laughed. "Come on George, we're going to be late."

"I don't think we're going to have to worry about that," George said right before the blue beam of light struck her.

****

"Shining Caress!" Kalon Venus shouted as she sent her attack at Sethlans. Mars watched as the golden energy hit Sethlans. She knew she should be attacking, but she didn't want to. It wasn't out of cowardice, but more the knowledge that if she attacked, she would only be making the war worse. Every attack built up the impossibility of peace. "Come on, it's your turn," Venus said to Mars. "We should work together."

"I thought you saw what this would bring?" Mars asked Venus while Sethlans recovered. "You should know out of everyone, you keep claiming that. The longer this war goes on, the harder it will be to achieve peace!"

"Didn't you get it drilled into your head that we're supposed to protect the Princess?" Venus replied, rolling her eyes as if Mars should understand exactly what she meant. Mars did. "We're supposed to follow her to the ninth circle of Hell and back, I guess I'll have to do that or face the wrath of my mother."

"You should listen to your friend," Sethlans said. "Desert your princess and you can live. Dishonourable as it is, your princess has no honour at all."

"Sorry, no deal!" Mars cringed. She did not want to be there, but she had to be. Someone had to try to convince Shizuki to give up Atunis. Someone had to see reason or the Neo Millennium would be destroyed.

"Raging Fires!" Sethlans shouted.

Fire flew towards them, and Mars reacted out of instinct as she raised her arms up. She may not have wanted to fight, but she would not stand there and be killed. Fire swirled up around her in a helix. "Cremating Illusion," she said as she lowered her arms. More fire flew to meet the fire of Sethlans and Mars cringed some more as she realized what she was doing.

The war was only going to be longer if she continued to fight.

****

Essie stretched out as she woke up. "Good morning," she said as she turned her head to look at Hiruya. He smiled lazily as he opened his eyes. She'd seen him last night at one of those anti-war protests and one thing had led to another until it eventually led to Essie's hotel suite.

"Do you know how beautiful you are?" he asked as he ran a hand through her bright reddish-orange hair. "You really are."

"Oh, thank you." Essie suddenly realized she wasn't wearing any make up. She hated anyone seeing her without her face perfectly made up. There were paparazzi around, all of them dying for a chance to snap her picture at any moment. Essie quickly went over to the bathroom. Time to begin her morning routine. It took her at least three hours to be presentable to the public, and there was plenty of public appearances to make today.

She quickly turned on the tap for the shower and looked out into the hotel room. Essie frowned as she saw a orange streak of light in the sky. "What the hell?" she asked herself. She didn't like the looks of it, especially since it was heading towards her. Were the paparazzi trying to find new ways of getting naked pictures of her?

Essie found out the truth a second later.

****

Mercury scowled as she jumped down into a crevice. "Aqua Blitz!" she shouted, sending an array of small blue balls towards Tinia. It looked as though she was the strongest of all the Kalon senshi and she was having enough trouble with Tinia as it was. She didn't even know how the others were doing. Mercury supposed Kasumi would expect her to make sure Jupiter was alive.

"Heavenly Cascade!" Tinia shouted back, sending golden energy straight at Mercury. Mercury dropped to the ground and rolled away from the attack. She quickly got back up as the attack hit one of the sides of the crevice.

"Aya, you don't have to worry. The war is over." Mercury turned to face Kalon Venus standing in front of her, smiling. "You don't have to keep fighting."

"What do you mean it's over? We just started fighting." Mercury scowled. There was something very wrong about this. She couldn't quite put a finger on it, but still there was something wrong about it. "Did that idiot give back Atunis?"

"Yes." That grin she had on her face was weird. "She made peace. Come on, we can go home now."

"You're absolutely sure that there's peace?" Mercury felt a little uneasy, but Venus wouldn't lie to her. She was the one she trusted the most.

"She's sure, Aya," Pluto Kamen said, smiling at her. "Really, we can go home. You don't have to be around Utako any longer."

"Autumn Life Decay!" Pluto Kamen shattered into pieces while Venus collapsed to her knees, panting as she changed into Menrva. Mercury looked behind her to see Tinia had collapsed in the same way. A boy about her age jumped down to stand beside her, dressed in a maroon and dark green outfit with silver armour. He quickly pushed his dark burgundy hair out of his eyes as he turned to her. "Hello!" he said in English, grinning at her.

"Hi," Mercury said in English. It was a good thing that she'd learned it. "Who are you?"

"Autumnstar Kamen. I just found out a few minutes ago." He was still grinning like a maniac, like the sudden rush of power was getting to his head. His violet eyes were dancing as they looked at her. "I don't know why I'm here, but I'm glad I am."

"That's nice. Come on." Mercury jumped back out of the crevice and began to search for the others.

****

Neo Springstar stared around, half confused by the light that had hit her and George. Now she was dressed in a ridiculous pink and green get-up while George was in an identical outfit in pale blue and silver. "What the hell is going on?" she asked.

"I think we're supposed to be senshi now. The Neo Star senshi. I think I'm Winterstar." Neo Winterstar looked worried, which was bad. She wasn't the emotional type.

"I guess this means we're supposed to fight." Neo Springstar concentrated briefly and she teleported along with Neo Winterstar to the Moon. Neo Springstar surveyed the dead moon quickly before spotting two senshi locked in battle. One was in pink and green, the other was in black and magenta. "There! Come on George!"

"Ooh, new friends!" the girl in black and magenta exclaimed. She bounced around excitedly. "My name's Alpan! Will you be my friend?"

"Like Hell! Spring Life Renewal!" Neo Springstar concentrated as pink vines grew out of the ground to hold Alpan down. Alpan whimpered as she began to cry, but Neo Springstar ignored it. She went over to the other senshi. "Are you okay?" The girl replied rather loudly in Japanese, which ended up sounding like gibberish to Neo Springstar's ears. "Do you speak English?" The girl continued going on and Neo Springstar sighed.

"They really should have picked people who could speak Japanese," Neo Winterstar said. Neo Springstar rolled her eyes at her friend. "I know, I'm saying the obvious."

"Do you both know what's going on?" They both turned in unison, ignoring the girl shouting Japanese at them. A tall dark woman was standing in front of them, dressed in the same outfit as them in orange and yellow. Neo Springstar's eyes widened as she recognized her. "I was in my hotel a minute ago and then..."

"You're Essie?" Neo Winterstar asked. Neo Summerstar nodded in acknowledgement.

"Well then come on, we've got to fight," Neo Springstar said. They ran off, ignoring the girl. Hopefully one of them would be able to speak both English and Japanese. Fighting a war was hard enough, they didn't need language barriers complicating matters more.

"Who are you people?" Neo Springstar stopped dead in her tracks as she saw another senshi. Obviously she could speak English, probably because she was the Princess of the Moon. "Did Stella send you?"

"Stella didn't send us, we came out of our own free will!" Neo Springstar said as she stepped forward. "We're here to help your senshi live, don't you think for one second that we're going to save your sorry little behind. You're going to reap what you sow, Princess." Neo Springstar turned back to the others. "Come on, we've got work to do."

"Don't you think you were a little bit harsh?" Neo Summerstar asked. Neo Winterstar nodded in agreement. "She could probably have you killed for treason or something bad like that."

"George, to what kingdom are the Star senshi loyal to?" Neo Springstar asked as they began to walk towards another battle.

"The Star Millennium," Neo Winterstar replied. "They're supposed to protect the descendants of the Golden Millennium."

"Exactly." Neo Springstar turned back to look at Sailormoon and pure hatred stirred up inside of her. She wasn't going to let that silly twit destroy everything. That was what their duty was and Neo Springstar was determined to make sure it was fulfilled.

Sometimes the worst enemies were the ones that were supposed to be friends.