"This isn’t good," Eris said as she and her three followers watched, unseen by all the others.

"I thought we weren’t supposed to take sides," Yao asked.

"They’re breaking up into factions against each other," Eris said. "They don’t know what they’re going to be up against soon."

"Sailormoon, as she is now, will destroy the galaxy!" Gaia exclaimed. "That flower she wears on her chest has last for over two weeks! It is nothing other than the Kisenian Flower."

"You lie!" Shizuki shot back. "You want nothing more than to take my crystal and usurp my position. Which of you are on my side?"

Everyone in the room tried to look to someone else for an answer.

"I side with Rhea," Liu spoke up.

"What side is that?" Shizuki asked.

"My on side," Rhea said. "I side with neither of you."

"Sounds like the coward side," Shizuki said.

"I side with Sailormoon," Hitomi said.

"Then we side with Gaia," Samhain said.

Beltaine nodded. "We know Hitomi. And you’re gonna pay."

Eris snatched up the two pieces of crystal. Shizuki didn’t care. She had her crystal, they must have been someone else’s.

"Who are you working for?" Shizuki asked.

"I’m not working for anyone," Eris answered. "I am merely the herald, the bringer."

"Of what?"

"When the three treasures are combined, the golden key is created. When once adds to that the golden crystal of earth, the Metallica Arachne is created."

"What’s that?" Pluto asked, now standing up and out of the rubble. She helped Saturn up. "Did I miss something?"

Eris shook her head. "The Metallica Arachne is noted in legend to change fate, but the last one to use it silenced all knowledge of what it does. The old soldiers fight the new… or at least those who challenge them for power. For each planet, two fight, and one wins. Within one is a piece of one of the treasures. Within the other, is one of the talismans. I merely collect the spoils of war after the battles. It would not be a fair fight otherwise. They will all be returned to you in due time… to whoever survives."

"Survive this!" Mercury yelled, blasting Eris out of the air and onto the floor with a blast of ice. "You!" she shouted, continuing to throw ice at Eris and refusing to stop. "You’re supposed to be dead! You and Gunhilda! Where is she! Wo ist mein Gunhilda?" (Where is my Gunhilda?)

The next time Eris shielded and stood up. "She is safe," Eris said, holding out her hand o the side, as if offering something.

Next to Eris, Nephthys materialized, her blank eyes seeing nothing, never noticing her lover’s tears.

"Gunhilda…" Mercury cried, falling to her knees.

Gunhilda’s skin was pallid and had lost it’s coloring. Her hair was the coloring of old dingy cloth, tortured by age, with a blue tint to it. Those once beautiful eyes were blank and milky. They were beautiful. She was beautiful. She was more beautiful than she had ever been. Utako had drawn sketches, experimented with colors, never quite capturing the frozen death close enough. The corpse and the beauty had never mingled quite right in her fantasies. Not like now. She’d dreamed of this. She’d fantasized about it. She’d seen every lover she’d ever had this way, reaching climax to dream of the life having left them days ago.

She reached out her hand, the beautiful visage before her blurred from the tears in her eyes. It wasn’t fair. Gunhilda wasn’t supposed to die. She was never supposed to die without Utako. Utako had vowed she’d die someday for Gunhilda. It was another dream she’d had. It was her love, it was a promised she had vowed never to break, and now it lay shattered before her.

"No… Sie ist meine." (She is mine). Mercury whimpered. Her dreams lay there, in front of her, flaunted and ridiculed. "Gunhilda…"

Shizuki scoffed as the others held back, not sure how to react to the situation..

"Why do you want a zombie?" Pluto asked

"She is no zombie," Eris said. "She is not dead, either. I found her. She will serve my purposes. If you survive to the end, I will have no need of her. She will be returned."

"What is the end?"

"All the talismans are gathered, and all the pieces of the three treasures are collected. Your muses is defeated. I have come for your talisman."

"No," Mercury said. "No. Not yet. I promise you can have it, but not yet."

"What more do you need it for?" Eris asked. "Your fight is done."

Mercury stood and walked over to Nephthys. "Gunhilda?" she asked.

"She is Nephthys," Eris said. "And she holds no memories. They to will return in the end, but for now I keep her safe. She is not to make a choice. Any choice. She is merely balance, alongside my chaos."

Mercury reached a hand up and held it next to Nephthys’s cheek, as if afraid she’d smash the dream like fragile glass. Tentatively, one finger at a time, she placed her hand upon Nephthys’s cheek and drew close.

She pressed her lips to cold damp flesh. She pressed her lips to those of a corpse and traced her tongue along chilly teeth. She pushed her way in to a frozen, unmoving mouth, and traced along a dead tongue.

She squeezed her legs tight, no doubt defiling a sacred warrior’s outfit with her moist fit, hoping the others either would not know or would have the dignity to ignore her.

She carefully and slowly pulled away. "Remember that part," she said, then turned to Eris. "I swear… You will have this," she held up the sensu. "Upon either my death or receiving the last of the pieces. Should I die… tell her it was for her."

Eris nodded and Mercury strode away.

"Get back here!" Shizuki yelled.

Mercury stopped, but did not turn around. "We are soldiers. Our duty is for love. We follow our hearts. I gave mine to Gunhilda a long time ago, not to you." She continued walking, Shizuki’s rage having no effect on her whatsoever, which only made Shizuki madder.

"There was something else I was after…" Eris said. "But it will wait. Either way, I’ll take it back."

With that, she faded away.

The three stood in silence. One ally had been lost. Such insolence! Shizuki thought. She… she… she left me! Me, Sailormoon. She was my soldier! Now she’s my enemy. And enemies are stopped, no matter what guise they take.

"Three treasures?" Pluto asked. "Then this means Solana’s somewhere. She must be behind all this. She—" Pluto was interrupted as Shizuki struck her across the face.

"She is dead. DEAD! You hear me! She died! She was killed and she is not coming back. However that piece of junk was lost in the battle, no doubt it's been found now. There is no Solana. Not anymore!"

Pluto rubbed her cheek and meekly nodded.

"Come on. I’m not going to let traitors and curses trap me in a crumbling palace. And Pluto… Try not to suck so much this time. It’s just wrong to have a soldier of time who’s too damn slow to remember to slow down time."

…………………….

"Uhhh…" Uranus muttered as she saw Neptune’s transformation. She really had no idea what to say.

It was bad enough when Liu had changed. Charon was in a pale pink and green-black fuku very similar to the original Pluto. Desdemona had made the mistake of calling him ‘Ginger’ on a joke and was lectured about Liu’s gender preference.

After she and Aaron transformed, she was expecting something like Liu. Or maybe something with pants.

She was right on both guesses… except she hadn’t expected a mix of the two. Or this.

Aaron’s outfit consisted of a green double-breasted jacket with blue buttons and edging, green slacks and high-heeled boots under elegant green slacks.

The only thing strange was that it wasn’t his outfit. It was hers.

"You make a damn hot chick, there mate." Uranus almost felt like checking herself to make sure her gender was the same.

"…I feel fine…" Neptune said.

"I mean… other than confused."

"You’re confused?" Uranus asked. "I never thought I’d be turned on by a broad."

Had any of them known-even seen the reflection in the mirror and understood it—they would have burst into a fit of laughter strong enough to knock them off their feet.

There, in the still and unmoving glass of the talisman Aaron had dropped in surprise, were two women, long ago thought dead, and whose love was known through out the galaxy… as well as others.

Sailor Shadow Star, despite the mixed blood running through her and all that had happened, felt downright normal.

Venus just watched. Watched and waited. Something was coming.

Three women seemed to be coming closer. They more floated than walked, like the eerie women from the original Dracula. Their hair floated about their heads like snakes on gorgons. As they came closer, the others noticed as well.

Emblems glowed on their foreheads. Venus noticed they weren’t signs of planets or moons. She also noticed they looked like their mothers… including her own.

"Mom?" Aaron asked.

"No way!" Uranus yelled, jumping in front of him. "Hate to get between you and yer mum, but it looks like there's no other choice."

"Who are you?" Venus asked

"I am Clio," said the one that looked like Aiko… no. No, it WAS Aiko. It was just… not.

"What do you want?" Venus asked, backing away. This wasn’t right.

But she had no idea what exactly it was. She didn’t know the whole of it, and she couldn’t act on vagueness.

"We want your powers," the one that looked like Ami said, glaring at Neptune.

"By taking your lives!" the one that was formerly Yoake yelled. "Thalia righteousness!" A gold a black blast from her hand flew at the two outer senshi.

"No!" Uranus yelled as she jumped in front of Neptune.

"Nerys Divinity!" Neptune shouted, throwing a wall up in front of them, but the blast smashed through.

"Curse of Persephone!"

The black and gold cleared away and there stood Charon over hi injured companions.

"This fight has nothing to do with you!" Thalia said.

"Stand down and you’ll live through this," Ami said.

"This magic has chosen me for this duty, and I shall not deny destiny that which it demands!" Charon said. "My power is my fate. My duty is my life. I hold the magic of the ways of the world, the endless, ceaseless change. That which dies and kills, that which is creates and begets it are one and the same. I am the watcher and the soldier. I am death and life and the destiny forged by the fight."

"I don’ get it," Uranus muttered, picking up Neptune.

"You’re the one!" Thalia yelled. "you’re the one who stole my child’s power! I guess I’ll kill you after all!"

"NOOO!" someone screamed, and barreled right into Charon, not only knocking him down, but also sending them both tumbling across the grass.

Venus took the oppurtuniy to run. Whatever was going on, it seemed to be her battle, and no one else’s. She wanted to keep it that way.