Prologue

"Come on, Usagi," Makoto said, "we cannot hold them off any longer."

"I can't give up," Usagi said. "Tokyo depends on me."

"The Doom Phantom is too strong," Michiru told her.

There was an explosion at the palace gate.

"What fools," laughed Duke Nightwind. "They think they can hold out against my forces. The Doom Phantom is just the welcome wagon!"

"Father, the Sailor Senshi are retreating into the palace keep," said a young man with dark violet hair and smouldering blue-gray eyes.

"Very good Eclipse," the Duke said. Everything is working out as planned.

"Usagi, what are you doing down here?" Mamoru said, holding a screaming pink-haired infant.

"The Doom Phantom?s forces have broken through our defenses," Rei said as she, Ami, Makoto, Minako, Michiru, and Haruka followed Usagi into the keep. Setsuna and Hotaru stood by Mamoru, helping him with the internal defenses.

"Any word from Seiya?" Luna asked from her seat on a computer console.

"None," Usagi said in a disappointed tone. "I think the Imperium Golden Crystal was just a myth."

"It couldn?t have been," Artemis said. "I mean, it was in the history files."

"And was probably planted there by one of the Doom Phantom?s spies," Ami interrupted.

"Which would make us send the Lights away on a wild goose chase," Minako added.

"Leaving us three powerful Senshi short," Haruka concluded.

"It is time," Setsuna announced, "for our destinies to be fulfilled."

"Stardust," Duke Nightwind ordered, "instruct the Doom Phantom to infiltrate the keep."

"Yes father," the young woman with glittering white hair and liquid brown eyes said. "Doom Phantom, the Queen and her Sailor Senshi are in the keep. Infiltrate and destroy them," she said into the microphone.

"I need more troops, your Excellency," came the Doom Phantom?s voice through the speaker. "The palace may be weakened, but their defenses have razed most of my best men."

"You disappoint me, Doom Phantom," the Duke said into the microphone, having heard the report. "If you cannot fulfill your mission down there, I will send General Onyx to be your sucessor."

"But..." the Doom Phantom protested.

"That is all," Duke Nightwind said, turning off the communication device. "I am going to sleep now, this takeover is becoming tiring."

"Yes father," his three children said. Nightshadow, the oldest, and therefore named closely to his father, followed. Not only was Nightshadow named like Nightwind, he also had the same dull, lifeless blue-gray hair and steel gray eyes as his father. He was the perfect prodigal son, and he constantly let Stardust and Eclipse know it.

The door closed and Stardust immediately said, "this takeover is becoming tiring," in a voice mocking her father?s. She and Eclipse both laughed.

"What a doddering old fool," Eclipse said. "We?ve only been at Earth a week and he?s already bored."

"Not only that," Stardust added, "we wouldn?t be so close to winning if you and I didn?t secretly help the Doom Phantom when father wasn?t around."

"Who shall we send him?" Eclipse asked.

"Why don?t we each give him a small force out of out own troops?" Stardust suggested.

"I?ve got it," Eclipse said. "I?ll send him Prince Diamond and his family. Those four zombies will do whatever he tells them to, and their powers are great."

"I guess I could part with the four sisters for a while. Their bickering is driving me nuts. They need to get out and fight something besides each other for a while," Stardust said. She turned the communications equipment back on. "Doom Phantom, are you there?"

"Yes, your Excellency," the voice said.

"Eclipse and I are sending you some back up. Remember the rules," Stardust said.

"Yes, your Excellency. The Duke will not hear about your assistance. I thank both your Excellencies."

There was a commotion outside the keep.

"They?ve come," Usagi said. "You know what to do."

All of them transformed into their Senshi forms and stood in their usual power circle with one small difference - Sailor Mercury was in the center. They all began to glow with their planetary auras. Even Luna, Artemis, and Mamoru were providing their energies to Sailor Mercury, who was sweating under the intense power she was holding. Within Mamoru?s arms, the infant began to glow pink, adding her own energy, while at the same time reducing the stress on the central focus.

The door to the keep exploded inward and the Doom Phantom?s forces poured in. Catzi, Avary, Prizma, and Birdie stood in a row on the left side of the doorway, while Diamond, Rubeus, Sapphire, and Emerald stood on the right. The Doom Phantom floated into the keep through the aisle formed by his honor guard.

"This war is over," he said. "Our forces have won. Surrender and you will be killed painlessly."

"Buy some skin, jerk!" Sailor Mercury yelled.

"I see you will fight," the Doom Phantom said. "Good. Go, my minions, and destroy them all."

He was too late.

"Mercury Flash Freeze," Sailor Mercury said in a faraway voice. Her body became instantly encrusted with ice, which spread out to the rest of the Senshi and filled the keep. The Doom Phantom was frozen in the sudden glacier before he could even think about running.

"What just happened?" Eclipse asked, looking mindlessly into the viewscreen. He was standing next to Stardust and neither of them could move; both were transfixed by the sight before them.

The planet looked like it had been hit by a planet-sized snowball. The ice had grown out of the palace and wrapped around the Earth in a matter of seconds.

"I think we just lost," Stardust said.

"What did you two do," Duke Nightwind said from the doorway to the control room.

"Nothing, I swear, father," pleaded Eclipse.

"They froze themselves and took their planet with them," Stardust, slightly calmer than her brother, informed the Duke.

"Humans are such fools," Nightshadow said, stepping in behind his father. With those four words, he had immediately moved the Duke?s anger from Eclipse and Stardust to the planet before him.

"Come, my children," Duke Nightwind said. "There is nothing left here for us."

Stardust looked at a monitor and saw that there was a large area of land around the Mediterranian Sea which wasn?t covered by the ice. The weather had changed to blizzards, but life was still going on in the area.

"I will return," she said to herself, "and all the glory for taking over the illustrious Earth will be mine alone."

She turned off the monitors and followed her family out of the control room.