Sailor Moon Silver Legacy

Act X: Lunar Eclipse (Part 3)

When Ami awoke, she sprung up off the cot in her office, feeling energized. Today was the day. A return to the life she once knew was imminent. Ensuring that her office door was indeed locked, she entered her secret laboratory to check on her patients.

After administering Rei's morning sedative, she monitored Minako's condition. The girl didn't show much sign of improvement other than her flushed skin beginning to peel. Ami planned to try a new treatment using a device she had created but testing it would have to wait for now. Her priority was ensuring everything was ready for tonight.

Strolling over to her computer station and its massive screen, she pulled up the planetary diagram that would tell her when the time was right. In the bottom-left corner, a countdown clock ticked down the seconds until seven o'clock, when the Earth and its moon would line up perfectly with Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus.

Uranus wasn't important, of course. Technically, neither were Venus or Jupiter for that matter, but the alignment of the moon with the planets represented by all four inner soldiers did have symbolic meaning. The only celestial objects essential to Ami's plan were Mercury, Mars, and the Moon, but alignments like this didn't occur every day. Especially not ones that coincided with a lunar eclipse, just like the one that had occurred the night Usagi was taken from them.

It would be a very long time until she got another opportunity as serendipitous as tonight's, so Ami had to get it right. She spent the morning double and triple checking that her equipment was in good order, that Rei was in good health, and that Usagi's cryogenic chamber was running smoothly.

The last thing on her list, more out of anxiety than necessity, was a wall safe hidden behind a landscape her father had once painted for her. After entering a code—Usagi's birthday—she pulled open its heavy door and confirmed that the Silver Crystal was safely residing inside.

Once she seemed satisfied, Ami closed the safe and finally sat down at her desk with a sigh. Feeling restless but certain she had accounted for everything; she turned her attention to the countdown display. Nothing was going to go wrong. She wouldn't let it.

Unfortunately for Ami, fate had other ideas.

***

King Tanzan stormed across the old castle that housed the Blood Moon Alliance, his white cloak flowing behind him. "Are our people ready?" he asked as he entered the medical laboratory, seeing that several new treatment tables had been added.

"Yes, My Lord, our people are prepared to receive the wounded," Alexandri replied.

"What about Vardas and Desperre's men?"

"They're preparing to depart now."

"Good," said the king with an approving nod. "What's your assessment of them?"

Alexandri adopted a pensive expression. "There are ten Raptilian warriors including sub-commander Corg. They seem eager to fight, and if they are anything like Zarg, they will be capable enough in battle. Then there are the eight Umbris Clan Malanorians. One among them is Desperre's second man but with their matching hoods, who knows which is which, or how they're feeling about the attack. What I do know, is that they're hungry."

"Energy seems to be all they think about."

"Indeed. I don't know what Morgan did with our energy reserves, but they've been wiped out along with her Youma. The only thing left in her rooms is the collection of high-energy humans, and harvesting more from them will take time. That's time the Umbris don't have, so you could say that they're incentivized to fight."

The king pulled his best warrior to one side, and said in an undertone, "I want you to go too, Alexandri. Don't engage. Just observe."

The gray-haired man hesitated before stating, "Our allies weren't pleased when I accompanied Zarg without his knowledge, My Lord."