For the One I Love

Chapter Seventeen: Collision

"What is this place?"

The clacking of heeled shoes echoed off what appeared to be dark marbled floors. The King had led them into one of the buildings connected to the large towers at the center of the city.

"The ruins of our old base." The King replied. "The enemy's power should not be able to reach us here."

"Where's Chibi-Usa?" Sailor Moon asked pleadingly.

"Do not worry. She is safe and protected. First, I want you to listen to what I am going to say now." Endymion rose his staff in hand, casting the entire room into one giant hologram. The Senshi gaped wide eyed as shimmering stars fluttered all around them, as if they were in space. Star Fighter clutched her hands anxiously.

The King began to tell his tale, as the hologram around them narrated his words. "A great calamity befell the Earth that you live on now, and the Earth settled into a cold sleep. It slumbered on for a long, long time. In time, it became the thirtieth century and with the power of the Silver Crystal and Neo Queen Serenity, Earth was awakened. And with Neo Queen Serenity as their queen, Earth began to prosper, centered around the future city, Crystal Tokyo."

"Neo Queen Serenity." Fighter bit her lip as what felt like a thousand needles stabbed at her skin. Now she understood; Usagi's destiny was to become Queen. To bring this system back under the rule of The Silver Millennium... with Mamoru at her side as King. Light of Hope and possessor of the strongest Sailor Crystal, it only made sense for her to regain her royal birth right. Fighter suspected from the moment King Endymion appeared who his wife would be, but he should have known, after all the kid had told her in the present that they were married in the future. Usagi obviously knew too, and her being the most self-less person Fighter ever knew, she knew Usagi would never be able to walk away from protecting this planet. "Still..." Fighter thought bitterly, surely, she didn't need Mamoru at her side to rule again. Fighter glanced over to Sailor Moon, waiting for the same recognition on her face at the name, but she was too deeply entranced by the King and his story.

"- we suppressed those evil beings. However, many of them did not want to be cleansed by the Silver Crystal and they journeyed out into space. After that, Crystal Tokyo prospered more than ever and the people lead peaceful lives, but the planet Nemesis-"

"The planet Nemesis?" Jupiter asked.

"It is the tenth planet of the solar system."

"The tenth planet?" Fighter lowered her eyes suspiciously before looking at an image of what appeared to be a giant green rock being projected over her head.

"The phantom Dark Planet, whose orbit was impossible to calculate and for the longest time, we could not locate its presence. We found that it was discharging an enormous amount of negative energy, and so its existence finally became clear, but..."

"That's where you found the evil beings who left Earth!" Artemis exclaimed.

"Exactly." Endymion nodded. "We did not know then, but the beings living there had changed into a life form that possessed a peculiar supernatural power. They were the Black Moon, the clan of the Dark Moon! Nemesis suddenly emitted a very powerful negative energy and attacked our Crystal Tokyo. Many warriors were killed, and leaving our final stronghold, Crystal Palace, and a deathly silence fell upon the rest of the world. The four guardian deities who protect this city, Sailor Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus, are expending their energy even now, desperately guarding this city."

"Warriors with the same name as us..." Mars gazed almost dreamily at the hologram of four familiar looking women in front of her.

"What does that mean?" Venus gasped taking in the mirrored reflections of themselves.