Tetis looked upon the four girls from the future and handed each a dark orb.
"A gift from Nehelenia, use these wisely. She calls these the children of Zirconia, quaint eh?" she laughed, knowing that the spirit of a former minion by that name was now undifferentiated energy to be manipulated by the Dark Mirror Queen to serve her agenda. "With these you can draw enough power from the dream mirror to summon the dead. Nehelenia wishes to make you her necromancers, interested?"
"Eep! You mean dead people? Pallas does not understand, she isn't prone to dealing with the disembodied…," the pale-faced senshi squeaked.
"What, you scared or something, warrior girl?"
"Um, not really, Pallas is just surprised is all."
Crystal Tokyo
The last thing I remembered was daydreaming in class. Diana mewed and dropped a crystal pod into my lap, the new Odyssey manga; I had been waiting its release forever. Mother hadn't intended to get me this until my seventeenth birthday, months away yet.
Yeah, I was chuffed and kissed Diana's cheek in gratitude.
"Glad you like it, Usagi. Vesta arranged everything and I took care of the delivery side of things, and all the way from New Kobe in fact. Setsuna isn't letting on either, but she had stressed that season two was rare and that it would be a better way to start the series, you know how persuasive she can be with seeing the future and all, right? So, Sere will get you that for your birthday; how's those rice balls, eh?"
I laughed and hugged her. "Diana, I am really happy, and I have some snacks for later to celebrate… Oh, you hear that?" I asked, the strange circus music coming from somewhere behind us.
When I turned, my eyes fell upon it. I noticed the wall was a huge mirror; it was weird.
I saw the girl with black odango her hands extended, a pleading look on her face. Who was she?
I blinked and walked towards the woman in the most outrageous dress, ancient, daring. The irony was it suited her. Her dress was black, the neckline of the bodice so low-cut her breasts almost jumped out of it.
Much to my amazement, this woman looked a lot like mom, but for the hair color.
"Princess Serenity, the second, or is that… third?" the lady prompted, and offered a cat-like grin.
"Who are you and what do you want!" I growled, with no time for pleasantries; this was definitely not on. First abducting me, the crown princess of the Crystal Kingdom no less, but why my guardians?
"Oh so impatient, young lady, you should recognize your Aunt Nehelenia; shame on you child. I live here, in the mirror, and when my waking self sleeps, I am in control."
"Keep away from me," I warned, striking a pose. "Moon Cosmic Power, Transform!"
‘Eesh, Absolutely no sense of style at all!'
I cringed, but I had to admit, she would probably turn many heads if she rocked up to Crystal Tokyo High in that Goth get-up, so vintage.
"Usagi, careful, I'm with you as are the girls: Vesta, Ceres, Pallas and Juno, form a ring around Sailor Moon!" Diana said, summoning her own senshi powers.
"Thanks guys, but she might be family. I want to hear her side. I don't think she means to hurt us… do you?" I asked the smiling Nehelenia.
"You have nothing to fear young lady, and your friends; I have jobs for you all. I need your help my dear, sweet niece; won't you help your Aunt Nehelenia?"
I didn't trust her, not on your life. For now, I'd go along with all this, there was a lot going down here. Diana and the girls knew this too, I could always tell but we held our cards close to our chests as Juno winked as had the others. Though this woman was tainted by the darkness, she wasn't entirely evil incarnate, but she was formidable, of that I had no doubt.
"That depends; you just don't kidnap me and my guardians like that and expect me to be happy about it. Mother has never spoken of you, so why do you insist you are my Aunt?"
"Palace politics my dear child, the White Moon and the Dark Moon have not exactly seen eye to eye for millennia now. I need your help to mend the rift and to take out the trash, the one named, Metalia, remember her from your history pods?"
I winced at the sound of her name. Metalia, she was the one controlling the Dark Queen and the Shitennou before their redemption in the 21st century.
Oh hell, this is complicated and I'm up to my neck in trouble again, that's all I need after last time. Going on a joy ride on a space pirate ship, with a good-looking Orion was something I didn't mind defending, as he was the perfect gentlemen, aside from that kiss before I disembarked smack-bang in the middle of New Juuban Memorial Park.
Don't ask; a whole new episode that got me grounded for two lunar cycles. No, they hadn't accused me of impropriety, but getting caught in several dogfights over the old moon city ruins, as I took him on a tour of the old capital had certainly gotten me into hot water. Dad flipped out and mom wouldn't speak to me after that for a week, but eventually forgave me after I swore never to do that again.
"All right, I will hear you out and it better be good." I folded my arms over my chest and tapped my boot on the stone floor.
As if the Ginzuishou knew I needed a leg-up, I had begun to undergo a new transformation.
‘Cool!'
My fuku had changed, white and gold with pink crescents lining the hem of my skirt and a new wand: longer, and more streamlined, a silver double helix with a pink crystal rose at its apex, pretty. My senshi had evolved as well.
"Excellent. Now ladies, I want you to meet my council of war, behold!"
Japan 21st century
I woke with a start, and peered through my bedroom window. I couldn't sleep. I had a late morning shift at the arcade the next day, so I could afford to sleep in late. I didn't expect to see anything quite like this, a giant mirror floating past my window and wondered if I were still asleep.
The huge black faced object was drifting across the night sky over the rooftops of Juuban Prefecture. Stars were swirling around it. I realized that these were skies taken from another reality. How could this be happening, I mean, the oval shaped mirror looked like something out of an antique shop, but it was as big as a three-story apartment block.
"Furuhata Unazuki, they're never going to believe this," I told myself, jumping out of bed and slipping on my brunch coat.
I had to get a better look. Creeping down stairs, putting on my sneakers, I slipped past the antique grandfather clock in the hallway and outside.
I moved to the gray granite stone fence, hoisting myself up on the shoulders of a stone nymph and soon found myself upon the wall taking in the strange sight before me.
With my iPhone in hand, I started filming, sending the live feed to my on-line server for posterity, and then something else as equally weird and pretty caught my eye in the street below.
I could see a girl, her body in silhouette. She looked like she was carved from silvery-black stone, much like a faery figurine polished to a mirror-sheen.
Of course, she was connected to the mirror in the sky in some way.
I remembered all my encounters with the senshi fighting monsters in Azabu Park recently, and wasn't as shocked as I might otherwise have been without the experience for seeing youma in the district whilst hiding behind a dumpster or tree. Like everyone else, I'd seen these on television, and in the local newspapers.
People at college were also talking about this stuff, it was the subject of much debate amid the campus hierarchy, and they would organize educational sessions on how to "live" with these daily dangers. There were security guards to escort us around the more dangerous parts of the district where some students lived to ensure they got home in one piece. No students ever encountered the gangsters or monsters as the fighting often took place well after dark and that suited me fine. Of course, keeping a relatively safe distance between the monsters, the underworld hoods and myself, I caught sight of a few skirmishes that were less bloody but still freaky.
Most of my peers would use the laneways, bike tracks or ride home via a different route, avoiding the park, or Juuban's abandoned warehouses and industrial estates where the more disturbing accounts of bloody executions and ritual slayings were reported to have taken place.
On impulse, ignoring any possible risk to my person, I called out to the strange girl.
"Hey there!" I shouted, but the girl kept walking. Three houses away, this somnambulist was walking like an Egyptian. Forgive my musical puns. "You lost, need any help?"
As she drew closer, I noticed that her body shone in the moonlight, reminding me of hundreds of tiny mirrors seamlessly fitting together, these contoured to her petite frame.
'Was she real?'
Motoki would kill me if he knew I was out this late, on the fence, an eight-foot drop before me. I could easily fall and break my neck, but I had to find out what was going on in my prefecture didn't I?
The adolescent enigma had not heard me. She continued on, as if I weren't there.
I began to wonder if I were dreaming the whole thing. You know a state of deeper sleep, maybe I was sleepwalking, who knows, but I knew different. I'd probably take flight any minute over the city if this were indeed a dream. I so love flying dreams you know.
I felt the chill of the breeze on my skin. Yes, I was definitely wide-awake. I shook myself as I stared at this strange and pretty girl made of black gemstone. She looked vacant, her body glittering; even her skirt and top, all black crystal, so weird, her eyes huge and empty stared into the distance. As she breathed, blue mist came out of her mouth, her knee-length tresses disturbed by the wind shimmered as she moved. I decided I wasn't hallucinating, but she hadn't seen me, thank the kamis.
I then saw several others floating down from the hovering mirror. They were like soldiers, pretty soldiers. Five new senshi, one looking like a princess with a tiara; this girl's fuku was very different to those worn by the senshi I had seen before. More revealing, less decorative, and her hair fell loose in a curtain of gorgeous amethyst pink to her hips. Yet, I wondered, why these five humans were hanging out with these pretty doll-like girls, I guess that meant these were good guys, even if a little weird.
The odd thing was, there was this older woman who floated in mid-air, she‘d not seen me, or if she had she chose to ignore me.
What could I do anyway? I had a feeling she was controlling the crystal girls, and the senshi were tied into all this weirdness somehow. I had to get back to the house.
The girls all looked the same, moving like zombies. I had a feeling this wasn't the last I'd see of them or the new senshi and that floating woman in a Gothic costume dress.
Sakura Jinja
I looked out the window of the guestroom at the shrine. How could I broach the subject with Rei, concerning the encounter at the cemetery with the youma? It was horrible, the fact Mamoru had saved my life, and I hadn't known he had it in him. Yet, he had saved me, and in a way that made no sense. Don't get me wrong, I was truly grateful, but all this mystical stuff had my mind spinning like a top. I also thought - Rei had too much to deal with after the death of her grandfather to listen to me right now. With this tragedy, the reports of the murders at the sanctuary would get her attention eventually. Right now, she needed to grieve.
---
I was surprised to find Rei standing in the doorway to my room, composed and calm, and I began to worry.
"Rei?" I said, as she sat on my bed, took my hand in hers, and squeezed it.
"I need to talk to you. I know of the events you had to deal with in the sanctuary. I had seen these in the flame of prophecy. I want to bring you up to speed."
"You sure you're up to this right now, Rei?" I said, but she waved off my concerns.
"You are what is known as a senshi, a magical being with gifts no other people have. I have these too. I met Ami a while ago after strange things started happening at the shrine and my…"
"Hey, it's okay," I hugged her as she broke down, her hot tears soaking my shoulder as sobs wracked her body.
Rei had suffered more than any of us had. I just wanted to be there for her for a change as she had done so much for all of us.
I was glad to see Mamoru enter the room. He patted Rei's shoulder. She hiccupped and giggled despite herself.
"Hey Rei, we're all here for you, seems we all have more reasons to be a team," Mamoru said and Rei nodded. "I am beginning to remember things, about a time we were all a part of a great and powerful alliance, long ago and it was in a time called The Silver Millennium."
"I've seen images in the fires of prophecy. Mamoru, I too am remembering. Usagi, how about you?"
I nodded and shared my visions with both Mamoru and Rei, and he then told us of his memories. It was odd that he and I were lovers, betrothed in the Silver Millennium. I blushed and looked away. I turned my attention back to Rei who began to cry silent tears, got up off the bed, and stared out the window. She saw something, but it was gone.
"What is it Rei?" I asked, joining her at the window and putting my arm around her waist and kissing her forehead as we stared into the night, Mamoru now beside me, a worried look on his face as he too sensed something in the inky blackness beyond.
"They're here, more of them. I will make them pay. First Nehelenia, then Metalia and anyone else involved," she hissed, clenching her hands into fists.
Fire burned literally in her eyes, her hands were encircled by blue flames, and we stepped back as she rushed from the shrine into the night alone.
I sighed, and yawned, and sat on the bed.
"Rei will be okay. You look out of it still Usagi. Get some sleep. Ami and I will wait up for Rei to get back.
"Thanks Mamo-chan, I need it," I said, he grinned at me, and I tilted my head. "I say something?"
"It's what you didn't say, Odango Atama, you didn't call me a Baka!"
"Okay mister, baka, there… now please, let me get some sleep."
He kissed my cheek, hugging me; I snuggled up against him, and wound my arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips and pulled back before he took me, as I knew he would. My body wanted him but it was too soon for that. I was a little aroused, but was it because I remembered his touch, my cries of want of him, my lust and passion? I had to hold back.
He nodded and blew me a kiss from the doorway.
"Thanks Mamoru for understanding," I said, grinning back.
He bowed, sliding the door closed on his way out of my room, whispering another goodnight.
I soon let myself melt into a deep sleep and the dream or vision washed over me, and it was beautiful and felt so real, was it?
---
I jumped at the sound of a clattering metallic object somewhere in the darkness. The contents of the basket attached to the pushbike's handlebars filled with expectant newspapers for the morning round had fallen to the ground like mummified pigeons, the crests of the daily publication, their Cartouche visible now.
The dissatisfied and most annoyed cats scurried away, hissing and snarling at the disturbance as these felines vanished into a nearby alley, bright green eyes visible in the darkness on the shaded threshold staring at me.
Again, I found myself in the middle of the street in my sundress, barelegged and hugging myself against the cold.
I noticed it then, the huge black mirror, the swirling frame made up of silvery-grey light. Umino would no doubt compare it to some kind of weird quantum paradox. Yeah, it was real all right.
My reflection looked pensive, my eyes bloodshot from crying, that wasn't surprising. Yet, despite my bedraggled state, I was okay.
I then caught sight of something amazing. She was pretty, like a living faery tale come to life. She was a mermaid no less.
‘Was I bringing a fantasy children's mermaid story into my visions now, dream or whatever this was?'
She was like a sea nymph, the serpentine motion of her silvery-teal tail; fins shimmering in the surreal light had that siren-like look about her. She was unlike any mermaids I'd read about, and what struck me most about her was the kitty-cat ears. She was gorgeous. What a cute combination I mused, unsure if she was a figment of my unconscious or no.
"Hello, I am Usagi," I said, keeping my voice even and cheerful, as she leaned forward revealing a little more of herself. She was blinking, her long glittering blue lashes fluttering as if the sun were in her eyes, her gorgeous long tail flipping in and out of the mirror. Despite the fact that it was nighttime - that was strange.
I coughed and held out my hand, she took it. The girl was just like a storybook princess of the sea, all shy and stuff.
She began to emerge from the giant rectangular mirror; the huge frame must have been twice the height and breadth of a house.
Blinking and blushing, she smiled at me.
"Olaeowahee?" she said, eyes wide at her surroundings.
"Gomen, I don't understand."
"I am happy to meet you, Usagi, forgive my inability to understand your native tongue properly. I am Sunedra; I was brought here by a dreamer."
"A dreamer?"
I looked at the girl more closely then. She was showing off a lot of skin, her lacy top seemed made of pale green seaweed, her complexion a peppermint color, hair sumptuous and as long as mine. Sunedra's tail had transmogrified into a pair of enviable shapely long legs that any woman would want and any man would die for, including Mamoru I had no doubt. She was now clad in a soft green dress that fell to mid-thigh, and it was semi-see-through, and spangled with tiny crystals cut into tiny sea creatures like starfish, shells and other sea life; quite pretty.
I smiled back at her as she drifted this way and that, her pail blue tresses floating like luminous seaweed behind her. She was a twilit manifestation I thought, part terrestrial and yet, so much more.
"Sunedra, that is such a pretty name," I replied. She beamed and embraced me.
I just loved those wide golden eyes of hers. She was like a faery queen, a little younger than I was, around seventeen. I looked again, her eyes were devoid of irises, and she was truly unique. I wondered then if she were a feline shape shifter, like Luna and Artemis and chuckled at the contradiction of feline and mermaid when it came to food, but I was sure she managed not to hunt herself down or her sisterhood. I won a curious look as Sunedra tried to figure out my expression and I looked up at the strange moon in the sky, nothing like that of our terrestrial world, it was amethyst and far larger than my beloved silver sphere.
I asked about her people.
"Our world is different to yours in so many ways; the sea we live in is one of dreams where stories are abounding. You live in the world of solid matter. We are comfortable in the world you visit when you set your head upon your pillows at night. I have guided you many times, as I have your friends, Usagi. You are part of my cluster, or conch set, Usagi Tsukino, Moon Princess and future ruler of the Crystal Kingdom."
"Future wha- hey, that is too much amazing information girl," all this flew over my head, and I thought she was just being sweet. "I have always wanted a sister, and Sunedra, so long as you don't mind would you come meet my friends and talk to them?"
"Yes, in time, Bunny, but we must hurry!"
It didn't bother me that she could read my thoughts and knew so much about me, why, it seemed the most comfortable thing in the world to me, a link between us, perhaps her entire species would relate to me in this way.
I sensed a change in atmosphere, and Sunedra had too. The winds did not move her, but something lurking close by, something terrible that didn't belong here had. She hugged me tighter, looking back at the hovering mirror, much like the one I had seen over the hospital.
I began to shake as well. We were a fine pair, and all I wanted to do was protect this girl from whatever evil, and yes, it was evil, lurked in that etheric mirror.
---
It was unseasonably cold in the city that night. An inky black mist was hugging the surface of the road. We watched as it crept towards the trees, winding its way around the hedgerows.
The mirror swelled to twice its size and began to drift a little, we moved adroitly away from it.
Sunedra wrung her hands, eyes darting back and forth as the strange fog continued to move towards us. Sunedra and I had placed plenty of distance between the otherworldly mass oozing up from a large crack in the road, and ourselves, the awful substance sliding over the surface of the quiet street like a hideous oil slick.
Several growling shapes began to form a line of menace.
I stared, not able to understand what these were; they looked dead, they were dead, they were… zombies!
