Rei Hino sighed as she swept the steps to the shrine and considered her ‘gift’. Her lessons in magic with the Kinos had revealed that she had a real knack for spirit summoning. While she normally would have been overjoyed with this, the fact that she seemed to have the most success with dead spirits overrode any enjoyment she would normally have gotten from such a natural talent. She had never heard of anything even remotely like a good necromancer and it greatly disturbed her that she had a gift for it.
She had considered talking to the Kinos about her concerns, but they weren’t Shintoists and she didn’t think they would quite understand where she was coming from. Add to the fact that they had their own problems right now and she just couldn’t bring herself to ask them. She also thought about talking to her grandfather, but she was terrified of the thought that he might reject her should he learn about her talent. He was the only family that she had any real contact with any more and she didn’t want to risk losing him.
“Boo.”
Rei jumped three feet up and a good five feet forward before spinning around and dropping into a defensive stance. Holding her broom like a spear she looked for the source of the voice.
“Jumpy?” Her grandfather queried with a silly smile on his face.
“GRANDPA!”
The old priest glanced around and saw that no one else was around. “That’s me, I guess.”
“Don’t sneak up on me like that!”
“Now, Rei-chan, what is weighing so heavily on your mind that you didn’t hear me dancing behind you?”
Rei blinked. “Dancing?”
Her grandfather nodded. “I called your name a few times. When that didn’t work, I tried dancing. You didn’t notice that either. Strange how the word ‘boo’ got a reaction. Are you feeling haunted, Rei-chan? Or have you found a skeleton in a closet that’s occupying your thoughts?”
Rei’s eyes boggled and her breath caught in her throat. “Wh-wh-wh…That’s not something to joke about!”
The old priest shook his head. “You’re right. So, now that I’m not joking, care to talk?”
Rei started to respond sarcastically, but her worries and fears weighed far too heavily on her. “Grandfather, is there such a thing as a good necromancer?”
“No,” he answered succinctly and in a tone that left no room for doubt.
“I thought so,” Rei responded. Her eyes lowered to the ground and she felt more depressed than ever now.
“But that’s like asking if there’s such a thing as a good atrocity.”
Rei blinked again as she lifted her gaze to meet his. “What?”
The old man sighed as he sat down and patted the stairs next to him. “Rei-chan, necromancy is a scare word, like boogeyman or monster. A long time ago, those who could speak with the spirits didn’t care if the ones they talked to were dead, alive, or none of the above. They were called shamans, spiritualists, and many other names, and they were held in great respect. They never tried to force the spirits to do anything for them, mostly out of fear of reprisals, and because of that the spirits were quite willing to work with them. For a price, typically, but usually nothing outrageous.”
The priest fell silent for a moment as his gaze drifted to the sky. “Then some of the ‘spirit talkers’, another name they were known by, found that they COULD force the spirits of the once living to do their bidding far more easily and with much less chance of retaliation than other kinds of spirits. And any time an easier path is found, corruption follows shortly after. When the ‘normal’ people started finding their dead relatives and, in some cases, victims coming back to haunt them, they started to shun the spiritualists. You can probably guess how things got worse and worse until whole armies were marching on rotting feet. The coming holocaust and the results are best saved for another day, but the important thing is that in order to allow the good spiritualists to at least be tolerated in their communities they had to find a way to separate themselves from their evil brethren. In the end, they labeled the outcasts ‘necromancers’ and, at least in public, gave up all contact with the formerly living, even the helpful ones. It was necessary for their survival.”
He turned back to Rei. “So you see, there is no such thing as a good necromancer. However, there are good shamans, spiritualists, spirit talkers, and mikos (priestesses). The one thing that someone with that skill must remember is to never force spirits of any kind to do as they wish. Ask, bribe, cajole, beg, whatever. But never force it. Not just with the dead, but with any kind. Then again, that holds for the living, too. It’s always best to have friends and allies instead of slaves and enemies.”
Patting Rei on the knee, the old man stood up and headed back into the shrine. Before he could get too far, Rei came to a decision. “Grandfather… can you help me?”
“With what, Rei-chan?” He asked innocently.
Rei couldn’t tell if he was being silly or honest. “With… what we were talking about just now… I thought you… knew…”
“Knew what, Rei-chan?” As Rei wrestled on the verge of a facefault, the priest finally lost his innocent expression. “Of course. Come on in.”
Rei had to exert every ounce of her willpower to NOT pound her grandfather over the head repeatedly with her broom. Counting from one to ten and back again, she finally got her temper back under control. “So… how did you know?”
Grandpa Hino looked up at his granddaughter and put on a hurt look. “Don’t you think this old man can figure out what his beloved granddaughter is worrying herself sick over?” The look she gave him answered that question. “Ranma told me. He asked me for permission before agreeing to help you with your magical studies.”
Rei blinked some more. “HE TOLD YOU?!?” She paused for a moment. “And you believed him?”
The priest let loose a bellowing laugh. “Rei-chan, the stories I could tell you about that boy… Ranma has trusted me for over twenty years.” He leaned in conspiratorially, “Though he only remembers the past twelve.”
Rei blinked in confusion. “Huh?”
Grandpa Hino waved his hand dismissively as he held the shrine door open. “Do you want a history lesson or do you want to train? This old man only has enough energy to do one at a time.”
Rei smiled fondly at her grandfather. “What do we do first, Sensei?”
Part way across town, the Kinos were all staring at several plates filled with a substance that could be vaguely identified as curry. They had gone on their family picnic the day before and, when they came back, Usagi had begged them to let her cook a special ‘Come Back Soon’ lunch for them. Never having experienced her culinary talents before, they agreed. As they watched the steam rise from the ‘food’, they began to wonder just whether that would be their last mistake or not.
“Dig in!” Usagi said with a bright smile.
The Kinos all hesitated for a moment before, as if on a signal, everyone simultaneously took a bite. Usagi groaned to herself as she sampled her own cooking. Makoto and Ukyou froze as their experienced taste buds immediately announced their intent to sue. Siofra barely suppressed a whimper as her hypersensitive senses of taste and smell were assaulted by the strange concoction. However, all four were distracted from their own pains by a completely unexpected sound. Their heads slowly turned to track the noise to its source.
They could only stare as Ranma dug into his plate enthusiastically. In only a few seconds there wasn’t a scrap of food to be seen in front of the Kino patriarch. Without a second thought, Ranma heaped a second helping onto his plate and dug in. He was on his third helping when he finally noticed everyone staring at him.
“What?”
Usagi spoke, saving the others from the embarrassment of insulting her cooking. “How can you eat that?! I put way too much spice, not to mention other stuff in! Even I can’t stand it!”
Ranma grinned a bit sheepishly. “Uhm, sorry? It’s just, this reminded me of Ak-…. Someone I… she… well, it reminded me of some good times I used to have when I was a teenager. I had a…. really good friend who cooked food a little bit worse than this.”
“WORSE?” Only Ukyou was not surprised by that comment. A sad look crossed her face as she considered just whom Ranma was talking about. Looking towards her plate, she found that she had to agree with him. Feeling a touch nostalgic herself, she slowly began to eat.
The next day, Ranma and Ukyou left for Jade amongst many tearful goodbyes and well wishes. A few days later, Makoto, Usagi, Rei, Ami, Luna, and Siofra sat around the Kino residence watching TV and engaging in idle chatter.
Suddenly the door flew open and Minako came charging in with Artemis right behind her. “We found it. The entrance to the Dark Kingdom!”
Everyone stared at her in shock. “Are you sure?”
“Positive. It’s at La Crepe, behind one of the shelves.”
Luna cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention. “It’s time, girls. We must attack them immediately.”
Holding up a hand, Makoto interrupted her. “Or we could wait for my parents to get back and then really cream them.”
Artemis started to argue, but thought better of it a moment later. “Actually, that’s a good point.”
A growl brought everyone’s attention back to Luna. “Girls, YOU are the defenders of the Earth, not Mako-chan’s parents! You’ve got to do this yourselves!”
Rei and Minako nodded slowly. “I guess that makes sense.”
Makoto also began to nod. She really would rather have her parents with her when they launched their attack, but at the same time she wanted to show that she could take care of herself.
Ami sighed. “Tactically, it would make more sense to wait for backup than it would to charge recklessly into battle.”
The debate was cut short as an emergency news report came on TV. The anchor reported that unexplained seismic activity, as well as sunspots and other natural disasters, were occurring all over the globe. Gasps escaped Luna and Artemis as they listened.
“This is just what happened in the Silver Millennium, right before Beryl’s attack!”
Usagi stood up in a dramatic pose. “Then that’s it. We have to go right now.” Luna took a moment to admire her princess. Much as she may have been upset with the Kino family over the way they threw all of her plans into chaos, she did have to thank them for helping Usagi to understand her role as a reincarnated ruler.
The five girls and two cats all stood up to join their leader. “All right!”
“I’m coming too!”
Everyone turned to look at the redheaded girl. “Siofra! You can’t go.” Makoto would prefer having her teeth yanked out with a pair of rusty tweezers than risk putting her sister in harm’s way.
Siofra crossed her arms. “Mother and father gave up trying to keep me at home when they went on adventures, what makes you think you’ll do any better?”
“Shi-chan, you’re not a Senshi!”
“Neither are Luna and Artemis, but they’re going.”
“That’s different!”
“No it isn’t! I’ve helped you plenty of times, not to mention the fact that I probably have more experience than any of you in dealing with things like this.”
Makoto was a bit taken aback by the amount of backbone that her sister was displaying. While she never thought of her adopted sibling as spineless, she had always been non-confrontational. “Shi-chan, what’s gotten into you?”
Crossing her arms, the redheaded girl frowned. “I just don’t want to sit at home, wondering if I’ll ever get to see my sister or friends again. And if you didn’t come home, I’d always wonder if my being with you might have changed that.” Tears were forming in the girl’s eyes and Makoto felt her resolve vanish like dust in the wind.
“All right… but stay behind us.”
It took a little while for the girls to get ready, including coming up with a rudimentary disguise that mostly resembled a ninja mask for Siofra, and get to the restaurant. By that time night had fallen. Jupiter shocked her companions when she expertly picked the lock on the door.
“Uhm… my Uncle’s a ninja and he used to teach me stuff…”
Moon and the others just looked at her funny for a bit longer before following a blushing Jupiter into the building. Inside they found the tunnel in the floor that Venus had told them about. Venus jumped in first, followed by the others. As soon as everyone was down, the cats took off, leading the way.
The group had run down the dark and creepy tunnel for quite a while when suddenly a strange tendril of magic flowed through the passage and past them. Before any of them could react, everything went dark. Strangely enough, they could still see each other, just not the walls or anything else. A moment later, Kunzite stepped into view, appearing out of the darkness.
“I’d like to show you the way to the Dark Kingdom, but we’re not ready for you yet. If you don’t mind, I’ll send you someplace more enjoyable.” The fact that he was sneering the whole time betrayed Kunzite’s pleasant tone of voice. “Sailor Moon, hand over the Silver Crystal and I’ll spare your lives.”
Sailor Moon tapped her chin a few times. “Oh, what did Ranma tell me to say to someone like you? Uhm… Oh yeah! Sit on it and rotate!” The Senshi merely stared at their leader while Siofra just slapped her forehead. Even Kunzite was a bit shocked at that. Moon turned towards Jupiter and asked in complete sincerity. “What does that mean, anyway?”
Kunzite and the Senshi finally found something they could agree on as everyone but Moon facefaulted. As the princess looked at her friends, she wondered out loud, “Maybe I should have said ‘Suck it’, but I don’t know what ‘It’ is, or why sucking it would be a bad thing.”
Jupiter made a mental note to beat the living daylights out of her father the next time she saw him.
Recovering from planting his face in the ground, Kunzite stood and growled, “Enough of your impertinence! I will throw you into the Multi-dimensional World of Chaos! You might end up during the age of the dinosaurs, or in the middle of World War Two. Personally, I hope that whenever it is, it’s very painful.” With a snarl, the Dark General made a strange set of motions with his hand and the Senshi cried out in pain and fear as his spell blasted into them.
Siofra, Luna, and Artemis were unaffected by Kunzite’s attack, but none of them could think of what to do. Strange circles of dark energy flew from Kunzite’s hands to impact the Senshi. Slowly, the lovely warriors’ bodies began to fade out. Moments before they completely vanished, Moon lost her grip on the Moon Stick. Smirking evilly, Kunzite dove to grab it, but to his surprise it rose into the air instead of falling. With a bright flash, both the Senshi and the Moon Stick vanished, leaving two moon cats, a wererat, and a startled Dark General behind.
Jupiter felt like she was falling down an infinitely deep well. Glancing around, she could make out the forms of her comrades but not her sister or the cats. Panic gripped her for a moment until the complete surreality of the space she was falling through grabbed her attention. At first it was just empty space, but then it seemed like she was falling past thousands of windows. Jupiter couldn’t tear her eyes away from them as some came much closer than others.
One in particular grabbed her attention and wouldn’t let go. As the window came into view, she saw what appeared to be nine Senshi standing together. She was startled by this, since Artemis and Luna had only ever informed them of the five. Just before the window slipped from view, she caught sight of a tenth girl dressed in a dark Senshi outfit standing behind the others. Her eyes seemed to be watching everywhere at once and she wore a cloak that looked to be made from pure night.
She was startled as a hand grabbed onto her shoulder. Spinning around, she saw that somehow the others had managed to grab a hold of each other and pull together.
“What’s going on?” Venus yelled.
“I don’t know,” cried out Mercury.
“What the #@!! Is that?!?” Jupiter blurted, pointing at another window that approached. In it there were again nine Senshi. This time, though, she couldn’t see the tenth one. What she could see were her parents as well as her uncle and aunt all standing behind them. The creepy thing was the fact that there were several other people all standing there, obviously as couples. If she didn’t know better, she’d have sworn that each couple was standing with their kid, but that didn’t make sense. Her father was standing with some other lady behind a rather short Senshi while her mother was standing next to some much older lady behind a rather tall Senshi. All of the girls just stared in absolute confusion at the display until it slipped away.
There were other surprises, including one were her father was standing next to some raven-haired girl. The frightening thing was the aura of evil he was putting out. Another showed her father standing next to his cursed form.
Finally, the Senshi could sense that their journey was coming to an end. There was no real reason for the feeling, but something just seemed to tell them that. A few moments before a bright flash ended their journey, Jupiter saw one of the windows detach itself from the stream that flowed past them. Almost as if unseen hands guided it, the display came barreling towards her and only her. Jupiter threw up an arm to shield herself, but it stopped just before impact.
On the screen, Jupiter saw herself and the others in a cold, frozen wasteland. Suddenly Jupiter saw herself caught in the grasp of several bee-like youma. Before her horrified eyes, she watched the other Jupiter call down her Supreme Thunder, killing herself and two of the youma. Flashes of the other Senshi all dying in suicide strikes against the youma followed quickly. Before she could consider the impact of that, the journey ended in darkness.
A dull, throbbing headache was the first sensation that Jupiter felt as the darkness slowly receded. Looking around as she picked herself off of the ground, she noticed that she and the other Senshi were lying among the ruins of a Greek-looking building. When she glanced upwards she was startled to see the Earth. “Where are we?”
“The kingdom of a god which was at its zenith of glory a long time ago… these are the ruins of the Silver Millennium.” Five heads whipped around to see a woman the size of a fairy and with wings to match descending in a column of light.
“Silver Millennium?”
As the strange figure drew closer, Jupiter noticed that it had a double-tailed hairstyle like Moon’s.
“Who are you?” Usagi asked in quiet awe.
“I bring a message from the distant past. I am the incarnation of the Moon Godddess, Serene. I was the queen of the Silver Millennium, Queen Serenity. I am your mother.” All five of the girls could hear the love and gentle sorrow in her voice.
“You’re my mother? What do you mean?”
“It was I who awakened Luna and Artemis from cold sleep, contacted them, and have been watching over all of you.” There was a bright flash of light and suddenly the ruins they were standing amidst vanished. Replacing the debris was a large, elegant palace. “We are a race of immortal beings who were born on the Moon, protecting the legendary Silver Crystal, the Holy Stone which has been passed down for generations. We watched over the Earth and helped it to evolve into a better planet. Remember, Serenity, the days when you lived there as the Moon Princess.”
Jupiter and the others watched as their leader’s eyes glazed over and she lost herself in ancient memories. The Senshi also began to see the past, with vague memories about a ballroom and a masquerade as their contact with the world around them slipped away..
Meanwhile back on Earth, Luna, Artemis, and Siofra found themselves back in the tunnel with no sign of Kunzite or the Senshi.
The distraught black cat cried out, “What happened?”
Siofra slipped her goggles on and glanced around. “I think that Kunzite either wasn’t here, but merely projecting his image, or else he created a pocket dimension and pulled us into it. When he did whatever he did to the Senshi, it disrupted his control and we were dumped back into the real world.”
“What are we going to do?!”
Siofra sighed softly. “The only thing we can. We find where the tunnel leads and then hope that the Senshi can come back from where ever they’ve been sent.” ‘Please!’ she prayed quietly, ‘Please come back safely!’
Nodding in agreement, the cats bolted down the tunnel. After a short distance, Artemis couldn’t resist wondering aloud, “What happened to the girls?”
“From what I could see on my goggles, I think that the Silver Crystal took control of Kunzites spell, or at the least disrupted it.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that I think the Silver Crystal protected them somehow, but I don’t know for sure.”
The three fell silent as they came to the end of the tunnel. Luna and Artemis were surprised to find snow on the other side, but Siofra was downright stunned. “We’re in the Arctic?!”
Back in the past, the Senshi were remembering how they were cut down easily by Metallia’s power. As everything faded to black, they saw Serenity using the Silver Crystal to send everyone’s soul to the future at the cost of her own life. Suddenly Jupiter heard Serene’s voice in her mind.
“Jupiter, you must listen to me… the path I foresaw when I used the Crystal was flawed. Beryl wasn’t ready for her attack. It was mutually assured annihilation, even with Metallia’s power.” The voice was slowly growing weaker. “Someone else was controlling things behind the scenes. I can see now that your family is in great danger and they are a key part of the future. Beware of the shadows and the puppeteer that hides in them…” Jupiter can tell that Serene wanted to say more, but her voice had faded to nothing.
Back in the tunnel, Siofra was running madly while carrying both moon cats. A blast of magic shattered the rock near her shoulder, causing her to stumble and fall. Rolling as best she could to avoid crushing the cats, she saw Kunzite slowly stalking towards her. A few moments after they had found the exit, the Dark General had appeared before them.
As the menacing agent of destruction advanced slowly, he held up his hand to deliver a killing attack. Suddenly the tunnel was lit by a glaring flash of light. The sound of five bodies hitting the ground startled everyone, but Kunzite had the presence of mind to finish off the minor nuisance of the girl and two cats before the newly returned Senshi could stop him.
Jupiter shook her head as she tried to clear her thoughts. Off to the side she heard Mars mumbling, “We were traveling through the past. Now I understand. We actually are the Sailor Senshi of the past.” Suddenly the sound of a girl yelling for help grabbed everyone’s attention. A short distance down the tunnel they could see Siofra, Luna, and Artemis on the ground and Kunzite firing off a magical blast towards the moon cats. Before anyone could react, Siofra rolled over so that her body shielded the two felines from the attack.
Jupiter stared in horror as Siofra’s agonized scream pounded her ears and tore through her soul. With a primal scream of rage, she launched herself across the distance separating her from Kunzite in less than the blink of an eye. The Dark General had no time to prepare as Jupiter ripped into him with a devastating series of punches and kicks that pounded on Kunzite’s defenses. In only a few moments, it became obvious to the evil man that he had no hope of matching the enraged Senshi in hand-to-hand. However, he also didn’t have enough time to create a pocket dimension so that he could simply ignore her attacks. His break came, both figuratively and literally, when a particularly nasty palm strike shattered part of his jaw and threw him a good distance away.
Fighting through the pain, Kunzite created a pair of glowing, purple boomerangs. With an expert flick of his wrist he sent both hurtling towards Jupiter, intercepting her charge and forcing her on the defensive for the moment. Creating two more boomerangs, he threw these as well, just as the other two were making their return trip. Her training with her parents let her easily dodge the second set of boomerangs and she prepared to avoid the others.
Kunzite’s control, however, wasn’t as absolute as it used to be, thanks to the intense pain he was suffering from. One of the boomerangs was arching way over her head while the other was coming in too low. Jupiter froze for a critical moment when she saw that the lower weapon was on a direct course for Luna’s back. The Dark General would have smirked if his jaw didn’t hurt so much as he too saw what was going to happen.
Luna, however, didn’t see that. All she could see was the face of the girl who she had berated, insulted, and tried to hurt. The same girl who had just taken a potentially lethal shot. For her. Her mind awhirl with confused thoughts, she didn’t sense the incoming attack until it was far too late to dodge. All she could do was cringe as the deadly looking boomerang headed straight for her. And then all she could see was darkness.
Jupiter screamed again and forgot about Kunzite as she threw herself to the ground next to her sister. Wrapping her arms around the redhead, she began to cry as she held her close.
Luna opened her eyes slowly as the darkness receded. To her amazement she saw that Siofra had rolled her arm over to cover the moon cat. The boomerang was still sticking halfway out of her shoulder. In that moment, Luna felt something that she hadn’t ever felt before, even when the Dark Kingdom had attacked the Moon Kingdom during the Silver Millenium: Cold rage. Her eyes narrowed as she glared for a moment at the half-smirking Kunzite. A whistling sound in the air announced the return flight of the second set of boomerangs and a plan formed in Luna’s mind.
Kunzite mentally shrugged. He still hadn’t managed to kill the moon cats or the Senshi, but at least their little friend was either dead or dying. It was a small victory, but with the number of setbacks that the Dark Kingdom had suffered, it was a victory none-the-less. When Luna suddenly jumped up and latched onto one of his weapons with her teeth as it returned to him, he almost laughed. “You’re making this too easy!” As the boomerang neared, he held up one hand to catch it while the other readied to grab the foolish moon cat.
Kunzite was surprised as Luna brought up her legs at the last moment and springboarded off his hand. Before he could react, she twisted her head around drove end of the weapon into the side of his neck. Suddenly all of the pain vanished from Kunzite’s awareness as the world began to fade around him. He could almost swear that he saw a familiar figure approaching through the darkness. “Zoisite…” he gurgled a moment before his body vanishes, replaced by strange bubbles that vanish shortly after.
Luna scampered back to where Jupiter was cradling her sister in her arms, whispering her name over and over. As the rest of the Senshi gathered around, Siofra’s eyes slowly opened.
“D-don’t… worry. I’ll be… fine. Heal fast, remember?”
Jupiter wiped the tears from her eyes as she hugged her tighter. “But you said magic was harder.”
“It is. But, like father… would say, harder doesn’t… mean it can’t… be done. I just need to… rest…”
Sailor Moon rested a hand on Jupiter’s shoulder. “Come on, we’ll take her back to your house and then go teach those evil people the meaning of punishment.”
Jupiter smiled up at her leader, grateful for the support. She was startled, as were they all, when Siofra shook her head. “No. Kunzite… said that they weren’t ready yet. If you take me back… and then come back, they might… be ready then. Go now.”
“We can’t just leave you!” Venus stated before Jupiter, earning some gratitude from the Senshi of Thunder.
“I’ll carry her out of here.” Everyone turned in stunned shock towards Luna. The moon cat rolled her eyes. “I trust her now, okay? She saved my life and I finally realized what a… pain I was.” Looking towards the redhead, she continued. “If you can change into your rat form, I’ll carry you out of here so that the girls can keep going. Artemis can help.”
The white cat raised an eyebrow at being ‘volunteered’, but he didn’t argue. He owed the little girl as well.
Luna suddenly found herself in a crushing hug as Jupiter picked her up and expressed her gratitude. “Thank you!”
Slowly, much more so than when she had first demonstrated her ability, Siofra shifted into her rat form. Gingerly, like she was picking up a newborn kitten, Luna picked up Siofra and, with Artemis’ help, placed her on her back. “Be careful, girls,” she called over her shoulder as the two moon cats left with their ward. “And come back safely.”
The Senshi took one last moment to wave to the departing felines before turning back towards the end of the tunnel that led to the Dark Kingdom’s base on Earth. “We’ll make her pay,” Sailor Moon said firmly. “For Siofra and all the other people of Earth, we will make the Dark Kingdom pay.”