Sailor Moon Z: #9 - One Life Lost, One Life Won By: Janelle Jimenez (pandora@indy.net) Official WebPage: http://www.indy.net/~pandora/sailormoon/zodiac/intro3.html "USAGI!!!" Rei screamed, she shook her friends shoulders roughly, "PLEASE! Wake up!" she begged, shouting through her tears. "Rei-chan, please..its been hours.." Ami said, putting her arm gently on Rei's shoulders to calm her. It had been hours since the Silver Crystal had shattered, and all Senshi were now in their natural forms, Mamoru was holding Usagi in his arms, whispering to her as he rocked her gently. Usagi's eyes remained blank, and she stood still and life-less. The remnants of the Silver Crystal still in her brooch and on the ground, shining like large diamonds. Suddenly someone let out a small shriek to pierce the silence, "Whats happening?!" Chibi-Usa screamed, as she frantically looked around her, her legs had totally disappeared, and her body was fading away, Setsuna jumped from Mamoru's side and rushed to Chibi-Usa, shoving Michiru out of the way. "SMALL LADY!" she screamed as she made her way through the stunned Senshi. "PUU! Whats happening!? Help me! HELP!" Chibi-Usa begged, her small body had disappeared all and nothing was left but her upper torso and face, Setsuna screamed for Chibi-Usa again leapt to grab her into her arms, but before she could Chibi-usa faded out still screaming. Mamoru's eyes widened and he held out is arm, as if to touch the air that Chibi-Usa has disappeared in, "Chibi..Usagi.." he murmured and looked dazed. "Chibi-Usa-chan!" Rei screamed and ran towards the spot Chibi-Usa had been standing, "What happened?!" Minako exclaimed looking dazed. Ami shakedly took out her computer and busily began tapping on the keyboard, Setsuna sunk to her knees, her head bowed. She shook her head and brought her hands to her face, Ami looked on her computer. "Its seems that.." she began, "Something happened to Neo-Queen Serenity or King Endymion.." Setsuna said interrupting Ami, "Small Lady..she faded from existence.." Setsuna explained in a hoarse frightened voice. Ami stopped typing on her computer in shock, Rei began to shake. "She..she..faded...from existence?" Rei repeated, choking on her words. "Setsuna-san..what can we do?" Michiru asked softly, "We can't do anything..we must change the past to affect the future..Small Lady was never born, so she cannot exist in the past." Setsuna tried to explain, but emotions had taken over. "Never..born..?" Mamoru repeated, still holding on to Usagi, but his eyes were staring right through her, and not at her. "Small Lady could have never been born if Usagi-chan is..is.." Ami began trying to explain herself and was too overwhelmed with tears. "So, Usagi-chan is never waking up?" Mako asked biting her lower lip, Haruka's eyes narrowed. "You know who's fault this is, don't you..?" Haruka demanded, her eyes looking over all the Senshi. "Please, Haruka-san..don't blame this on Saturn, or anyone else here." Minako said, wiping her eyes with her hankerchief. "I wasn't blaming this on Hotaru-chan, Minako." Haruka snapped, Minako glanced her eyes to the side, "This is the fault of those Zodiac Senshi.." she said with a murderous look in her eyes. "We knew we should have killed them when we had the chance.." Haruka said looking at Michiru. Mamoru looked up suddenly, with an saddened look in his eyes, he held Usagi more tightly in his arms, protectivly and lovingly. "I've lost my whole family.." he said, as his eyes looked over each of the Senshi, they saw the anguish in his eyes, "again.." he whispered. * * * * "You have no idea what guilt I feel." Veronic said angrily. Janie stared at the beautiful pink and green wand that lay on a white cloth resting beside the garnet orb. "You don't know how EVIL I feel!" Veronica shouted. She was a normally mild-mannered girl, who always did what Jessica told her. Jessica shrugged and turn away from her. The Zodiac Senshi had all returned to Jessica's home to stay the night. "Look, what does it matter?" Jessica asked. "JESSICA! Look what we did! Look who we took away from them!" Janie exclaimed. "You are all fools. That's exactly the point, we took away the leader of the Sailor Senshi, as well as a piece of a star." Jessica replied coldly, "It'll be a hell of alot easier getting the rest." she added. Alana narrowed her eyes at Jessica, she was normally the most peaceful of them. "You are the most SELFISH INCONSIDERATE woman I've ever met, you DISGUST me." she spat. "YOU ARE ALL IDIOTS!" Jessica screamed knocking her chair over, Janie and Alana jumped uncomfortably at the unbelievable volume and anger that filled her voice. "WHY SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT THE ENEMY!? We are one step closer to having unlimited power in the universe, don't you care about that?" she demanded glaring at every one of them. Joanna jumped up, she was the only one who usually defied Jessica, but not to a large extent. Joanna grabbed Jupiter's Transformation wand, an item no one else but Jessica dared to even touch. "This is how much I care about this 'unlimited power'!" she shouted and threw the wand to the hard wood floor of Jessica's room. The top of the wand, which had a green globe on it with a golden wreath inscribed on it shattered into pieces. "IDIOT!" Jessica screamed and leapt towards Joanna, the shattered green globe suddenly let out a blast of green energy that sent the girls flying against Jessica's walls. "Whats going on?!" Janie shouted, covering her eyes. The energy wasn't giving off a burning energy like the last time, but a bright, blowing one..and then it stopped. The room was incredibly silent. Jessica opened her eyes and looked at the transformation wand, which had reformed back into its original shape. Jessica picked it up carefully, "Amazing.." she said in awe and had a strange glazed look come over her eyes. "You just made me think of something.." she said glancing coldly at Janie. "While the Sailor Senshi leader is oh..dead, we can get the rest of these beautiful items.." she smiled, looking at her reflection in the globe. "You're crazy.." Alana whispered with a look of pure fright in her eyes. "I bet they might still be there.." Jessica said ignoring Alana's comments, "I mean, its only been about three hours..maybe less.." she replied looking at her watch, she got up and walked out the door. "Where is she going?" Janie whispered, Joanna shrugged. "I don't know, but we have to go..we're her trained monkeys." she said with a look of pain in her eyes. Veronica silently stood up and walked out the door to follow Jessica, and one by one the rest did as well. * * * * Rei looked up suddenly, "Someone's coming." she predicted, she took out a ward and held it carefully in between her fingers. "Its the Zodiac Senshi!" she exclaimed and almost dropped the ward. "Well, they won't know that hit them then." Haruka said and raised her henshin stick. Michiru and Setsuna nodded did the same and they quickly transformed. This time, no one argued to their wishes to destroy the Zodiac Senshi. Mamoru picked up Usagi and took her with him far from when the battle would take place, Mako, not being able to transform also followed Mamoru. "There they are.." Sailor Mercury whispered looking into her computer, sure enough they saw the familiar bubble the Zodiac Senshi transported around in. "Someone pop that thing.." Sailor Uranus ordered looking angry. "Its not possible to pop it.." Sailor Mercury said looking up from her computer, Sailor Uranus threw her a look, and she blushed and looked down. "I'll do it.." Sailor Mars said narrowing her eyes, as the bubble sped closer. "MARS!" she said and created a small arrow of fire in the palm of her hand, "FLAME!!" she exclaimed creating a bow made of flame, "SNIPER!!" she shouted and shot the arrow at the bubble, the arrow flew through the air towards the bubble..... .....Sailor Leo looked up, "Ohmigod.." she said and ducked as an arrow of flames pierced the bubble and shot through it. The rest of the Zoadiac Senshi frantically adjusted themselves as to not be hit, however Sailor Leo could not maintain her concentration to keeping the bubble up, and they slowly descended towards the ground. "It worked Mars!" Sailor Venus exclaimed as they watched the bubble descend, Sailor Uranus narrowed her eyes and looked towards Neptune and Pluto. They waited till the Zoadiac Senshi could be seen. "Now." Uranus ordered, "World...SHAKING!" Sailor Uranus shouted and collected golden energy from the sky into her hands which she threw down as a ball that struck the ground and began to gain momentum towards the Zoadiac Senshi. "Deep..SUBMERGE!" Sailor Neptune shouted and collected the powers of the deep water into a ball of ringed blue energy which flew side by side with Uranus'. "Dead Scream.." Sailor Pluto whispered and gathered energy from the winds into her Time Staff and shot a powerful purple ball of energy that flew with Neptune and Uranus' towards the Senshi. The Zodiac Senshi were climbing another hill, not aware that they were about to be victims of an ambush, when suddenly Sailor Aquarius was blasted away by a ball of blue energy. She screamed in pain and fell to the ground. Sailor Capricorn hurriedly ran to her as she did she got into the way of a golden ringed ball of energy. "What the..?" Sailor Sagittarius began and moved over to the side where the Sailor Capricorn and Aquarius had been hit. Sailor Leo's eyes narrowed as the air was silent, suddenly from behind them a very powerful glowing purple ball of energy struck her, Sailor Taurus, and Sailor Sagittarius. Sailor Leo fell to the ground and looked up, she saw three figures standing in the shadows. They stepped forward, Sailor Leo gasped, "Outer Senshi.." she whispered, Sailor Mars, Mercury, and Venus came up behind the Outer Senshi and stood beside them. "You took away everything that was important to us, give me one reason why I shouldn't end your lives?" Sailor Mars demanded, Sailor Aquarius began to cry. "Because, I won't let you...yet." said a voice. Sailor Neptune narrowed her eyes and looked right at where the voice came from. Sailor Venus heard it as well. "Venus LoveMe Chain!" she shouted and created a chain of golden hearts which she threw towards the voice, she pulled hard and from the trees fell Scorpio. "Good, now we can kill them all." Sailor Uranus said taking out her space sword. "That was an opening, I rather I did not make.." Scorpio said coolly and stood up, brushing off her black uniform. She looked at the Zodiac Senshi who were still on the ground in pain. "How exactly did this happen, my equals? Are you not stronger than the Sailor Senshi?" Scorpio asked. "Only when they hit first." Sailor Neptune answered. "Like this?" Scorpio smiled, "Red Hallucination!" she said and threw the red ball of mist at Sailor Neptune, but before it could hit her, something stopped the red ball all together. "Saturn?" Mars asked looking around, feeling a strangely familiar prescence. The night sky however, turned golden, and a small gold bubble landed in front of them, it was reminiscent of when the Inner Senshi returned to the Moon Kingdom and met Queen Serenity. Inside the bubble appeared to be a tiny woman, but she grew, until the figure was much taller than all of them. She was dressed in beautiful golden robes and had Odango (meatballs) like Queen Serenity, Usagi, and Chibi-usa, but her hair was a beautiful rich black color. She looked very much like Queen Serenity, in fact, except for the fact that she didn't have a moon upon her forehead. "Serenity!" Sailor Mercury gasped, the woman smiled gently. "Serenity? No, my dear..I am Queen Selestia of the Golden Millenium.." she smiled. Sailor Pluto looked at her critically, "Golden Millenium.." Sailor Venus repeated. "The Golden Key.." Sailor Leo whispered, Queen Selestia looked at her oddly, "Yes, that is where the Golden Key originated, and that's what destroyed it." Selestia nodded. "So you're dead?" Sailor Mars asked. "No, I am alive in the past, and talking to you from there." Selestia smiled, "I came here, to help you.." she said. "Help US or THEM?" Uranus asked. "To help you both, you both are striving to collect the Seven Stars to make sure the Golden Key is not used to destroy the Golden Millenium." Selestia replied. Sailor Venus raised an eyebrow, "We are?" she whispered to Sailor Mars, who elbowed her gently to be quiet. "Zodiac Senshi, you are a disgrace to what you stood for..back in the Golden Millenium you were such wonderful Senshi, but now..disgraceful.." Selestia said sadly and shook her head. Sailor Uranus smirked, and shifted her weight to her other foot. "And you..Sailor Scorpio.." Selestia said shaking her head even more, "You were such a wonderful wonderful Senshi, a brilliant fighter..why did you have to be drawn to such evil?" she scolded. "SAILOR SCORPIO!?" Sailor Venus exclaimed, the Zodiac Senshi looked just as shocked, as did Scorpio. "Did you say..Sailor..?" Sailor Taurus repeated. "Oh course not, I would never fight along side you." Scorpio said glaring harshly at the Zodiac Senshi. "So can we kill them yet?" Sailor Uranus asked impatiently. "Of course you cannot kill them, strange girl you are, so violent.." Selestia said shaking her head in disbelief, "I will heal Sailor Scorpio from the evil that has taken over her.." Selestia explained. "But can you heal Sailor Moon?" Sailor Mercury asked, "To fix all the wrongs they have done.." she added. "I'm sorry, I cannot do this, for this is your own problem. I came merely to set things straight, so that the Golden Millenium doesn't collapse as it will.." she replied, she raised her arms to the sky and beams of light in a certain patch, the constellation of Scorpio came down towards the ground. Scorpio backed away, "Your wrong..I'm not one of these..beings.." Scorpio murmured. "But you are, Sailor Scorpio, you where lured away by the Black Star Army when they saw your skills, and since we humans have some bit of evil in them, you were a perfect target." Selestia sighed, she raised her arms to the sky and several points of light came down on Scorpio and met at her forehead, a small sign appeared and her body filled with light. "STOP IT! YOUR WRONG! DON'T TOUCH ME!!! LEADAN SAVE ME!!" Scorpio screamed calling out an unfamiliar name, then collapsed. Selestia looked at her wearily, "That drained more power from me than I thought.." Selestia sighed and began to fade out, "She was actually EMBRACING the darkness, and wanting it..Can you believe it?" Selestia asked, as she started to ascend. "This isn't over yet.." Sailor Uranus said and raised her hand up to the sky, "WORLD.." she began, Selestia threw Sailor Uranus a glance, "What a chaotic girl you are!" she exclaimed and closed her eyes, then disappeared. Sailor Uranus looked at her hand and saw the energy had disappeared..as did the Zodiac Senshi, and so had Scorpio. "DAMN!" Uranus said frustrated. "We've got bigger problems than this now, Uranus-kun.." Sailor Mercury said. "Being, what?" Sailor Uranus asked and detransformed into her normal guise. Sailor Mercury looked up nervously and replied, "Scorpio is one of the Zodiac Senshi.."