In the catacomb depths of the dark planet lay a young woman, suspended in sleep. Next to her were two others, also unconscious. At first glance you would think that they were merely poised at the edge of a dreamless sleep, knocked out cold. A more observant onlooker would notice the details; how accelerated their breathing was, how their hair stuck to the sheen of their sweat on their foreheads.

Makoto was clenching her fists at some intervals, along with some other muscles along her body, her legs, her shoulders. Rei was whispering softly in her sleep, words that sounded like chants when strung together. For the most part her body was still except her head would sometimes jerk violently as though she were trying to run from something. Lastly, Ami’s face was coated in sweat from her struggles and her own tears. Her mouth was set in a grim line, her forehead wrinkled in determination. These girls were fighting though the didn’t understand what.

The mind is a delicate thing; imagine for a moment a complicated set of spider webs, intricately connected and placed. One need only tug on one string and whatever strings that are attached to it will vibrate and hum. Keener minds can pick-up the subtle differences between hums, like pitch or distance, and find the exact location of a memory or skill they need without getting distracted by other hums and pathways. Each young woman was well disciplined in their own ways; Ami because of her exceptional study habits, Rei because of her regimented training as a Shinto priestess, and Makoto because of the state of Zen she easily achieved while practicing martial arts.

So when the presence of a dark and unstable psyche entered their minds, each girl was already on an upper playing field to fight it off without the help of their physical bodies. This annoyed the invading psyche, especially when Rei almost surrounded it with her own powers and traced it back to its origins. She was thrown backwards into her own thoughts and had to fall back to repair the damage quickly before it found where it had thrown her, where she was hiding.

And then they heard the calling.

A tendril of bright light formed a string in their thoughts, connecting to the web they were closest to and leading up and out, a place they couldn’t get to on their own in their state, especially with the invasion. The light flared, burning out the invasion in a brief instant. Rei could feel it on the outside of her mind, recovering to set of another try. Without hesitation, she grabbed the shining tendril, recognizing it as a guide from her princess, and climbed back to consciousness.

“Rei-chan!” Makoto cried.

“Mako-chan! Ami-chan!” Rei answered. “Where are we?”

Groggily, they sat up and noticed they were unmorphed.

“I heard Sailor Moon calling me,” Ami said.

“I heard her too,” Makoto replied.

“We have to find her,” Rei said, “Come on, let’s go.”