FicWad

Chapter 8



It was just after school let out for Rei, and she was making her way back to the shrine as she was passing Juban High. It was then it hit her-strange energy coming from the playing fields. Only a youma could possess that kind of energy. She transformed and immediately hit the signal on her wrist communicator.



On the Rugby pitch, Tom was getting the hang of it, but he had to admit that he like the American game better. Just as they had stopped for water, there was ayell from the baseball diamond, "WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT?"

Tom turned his head in time enough to see the two youma step out of the wood line. Despite the fact that he was now what he was, sights like that were still new and odd-this was not something you saw every day! One was about eight feet tall, red and black splotches covered it, with what looked like lizard ridges going down its back, and a tail. The head was also lizard-like, with about 44 conically shaped and interlocking teeth. It looked mean! The other one was just like it, but about two feet shorter and slightly smaller. The yell was accompanied with the alarm sounding, and Tom said, "I'm going to get some help! I know some people!"

He tore off to find a place to change. Meanwhile, the rest of the team received the signal and all managed to find concealed places to change. However, Mamoru was not going to be left out of the action, and found a place to change.



Back at the diamond, the two creatures were starting to go after the ballplayers, seemingly unhindered. That was before they heard, "FLAMING SNIPER!" which sent the larger of the two-the pure youma-tail over teat and hard into the ground. This was just as the rest of the team approached. The outer scouts took to themselves the smaller of the two along with Ceres, while the inner scouts went after the larger youma now just getting to his feet. Sailor Moon took her spot atop a rock overlooking the action and began to say, "Attacking this precious...hey, wait a minute! I didn't get to do my little saying!"

"No time for that," said Tuxedo Mask as he came up from behind and pulled her down to the fray. The inner scouts were not unleashing the heavy artillery right away, but contented themselves with physical attacks, hoping to weaken the beast. At that, Sailor Moon went for her... She then remembered: it was gone! She really did not have anything but her tiara now, and that was not always a guarantee. She gave it a try, it hurt the beast, but that was all. It also got its attention! It now turned to Sailor Moon and slashed away, with Sailor Moon doing all she could to keep away from the attacks. She finally tripped, and it was about to close in when a rose found it's way into the beast's paw. It stood and screamed in pain as Tuxedo Mask came in with a drop kick, making it stagger. Mercury knew that they odds had to be made even at that point, and let loose with her bubble spray, covering the battle area. This aggravated Ragna, who wanted to jump in if things got that bad out there. Now he could not know where to attack. Jupiter then said, "NOW!" followed up with, "SUPREME THUNDER!" The others then let loose with its harder attacks at that point, all at the same time. Rei then said, "Try it again, Sailor Moon!"

"MOON TIARA ACTION," was called, and off it flew. The creature, now in its much weakened state, was susceptible to the attack, and thus it went. The creature exploded into a million energy pieces, and vanished.



At the exact same moment the bubble spray came out, the outer scouts and Ceres moved in. It dodged the "earth shaking" attack, but not the "deep submerge"attack. That spun him around, and he caught a staff to the chin from Pluto. It started to run, but ran right into Saturn, who let loose with, "SILENT WALL!"

The youma went flying back, and then landed, in a spread eagle. They were closing in when it was just beginning to gain its feet, and Ceres caught it with a pommel strike, and then raised his saber, prepared to make youma-kabobs out of his foe. However, just at the crest of his pullback, Mars showed up and restrained his hand. "NO," she cried, "That's not an ordinary youma!"

Ceres looked at her like she was crazy, but she said, "That is a person! His aura lets me know this!"

"Then what do we do with it?" asked Ceres.

Pluto thought for a moment, and then she said, "I will put it in the time streams, suspended in animation, and then seek a way to bring him back."

Sailor Moon, now caught up with the action, said, "If I only had my scepter, Icould have helped him," and she began to cry. This was not her normal whiny cry, but one of real concern, especially when, just after Pluto declared her plan, Mars announced that he was a classmate. They would then have to find acure, and quickly.



Ragna was livid. Before, these oddly clad people had just proven to be anuisance, just representing to him the best thing that humans had to offer, which he did not consider much. Now, though they still had to work as a team, there were more of them, and put a clog in the game plan. He would have to go back and tell Sark that they may have to contend with this group before they could operate their plans. This was going to be trouble. In the meantime, Pluto opened the portal, and said, "I will not be gone long. I just have to secure him, and then I shall return."

As she vanished, the others found a discreet place to change, and once they had, Mamoru said, "We have to find a place to talk."

"Let's go to the shrine," said Rei, "There is plenty of privacy there."



Once there, Usagi had to know. "So, why did you call us all here?"

"I remember what you told me about the first attack, Usa-chan," said Mamoru,"and this attack was similar, except this time, someone was altered. This means that, whoever did it was either watching, or was on his way out. In either case, these were not random things. There is something afoot."

"But, if...whoever it is...is doing this, what do we look for?" asked Ami.

"What if he does that again to someone?" asked Usagi, "I cannot do anything about it!"

"It seems silly that we have no cure for...well...I guess you could call it'youma-itis,'" stated Michiru.

"Perhaps we need to stick a fatal blow," said Haruka, "It may actually kill whatever is holding that person, and free them."

"Perhaps that would be a bit more permanent than we would care for!" asserted Minako.

At this Makoto, who had stepped out to the front of the shrine, came back with Luna and Artemis. "Makoto gave us a call before you got here," said Luna, "and we heard what happened."

"This is a grave situation," said Artemis, "It almost looks like the work of the Negaverse, but that was vanquished long ago."

"Could remnants of it still be around?" asked Rei.

"Would you not have detected that?" asked Tom in return.

"My ability only goes so far," responded Rei, "That means that, if they are not near, there is no way of knowing. I would admit that, the more of them there are, the easier it becomes to detect them, because such power reaches further. If they were here in Japan as before, then it would be easier to say."

"Therefore," added Mamoru, "That means that they have to be far away, and coming into Japan to work."

"That cannot be," said Hotaru, "I never knew their kind to be able to jump around like that."

"Besides all that," interjected Ami, "Usagi does have a point about her not having the means to help the way she wants."

Rei looked at her and said, "Usagi got something right? That's cool. Well, anyway, even a broken clock is right twice a day!"

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK," said Usagi, and Rei laughed, knowing that she could still get her goat. She just responded deliberately in a childlike way and said, "Make me!"

It began to turn into a tongue sticking out contest, but Luna said, "Please, we don't have time for this. Furthermore, it is possible that the Negaverse can operate from further away and then here. They can jump like that from their realm to ours if they have enough energy. By the way, where is Pluto?"

"She's in the time streams," said Haruka, "She took the boy who had been transformed, and put him in a stasis until we could fix his state."

"Well, its not like help is going to drop right out of the sky," said Usagi. However, in that instant, something did drop out of the sky-right onto her head-the second time that day something like that happened. This was not her day! Immediately, she was out cold!



About 30 minutes later, laying on a futon with a cold compress on her forehead was Usagi, with everyone around her. The world was a blur as she opened her eyes, and as she began to focus, things went from multiple images to normal and back again for about 15 seconds. The first face she saw was Mamoru, which made her happy. "Mamo-chan!" she said, weakly, but then her eyes caught another sight, and one that she was both happy to see, and not so glad at the same time. "Honestly, you haven't changed a bit," said the girl that now knelt with them. This was followed by, "Come now, Small Lady, you know your hand slipped."

"Well, she could have paid more attention to things and moved," she protested.

"Chibiusa, is that you?" said Usagi. It certainly looked like her, except that she looked older now-about 12 years old. Chibiusa just responded, "Well, who else did you expect it to be? Besides, I'm not so 'Chibi' anymore, so you need to call me by my rightful name-Usagi."

"It was true," thought Usagi. That was the name her future self would give to her daughter. However, Ami interjected, "Well, we have to make a distinction between you two, because having two Usagi's around would be confusing."

"Yeah," said Rei, "and one's enough for anyone!"

Usagi was suddenly feeling better, and up in Rei's face. "Ah, so you are better!" said Rei, "I knew that might get you up."

However, Chibiusa took some offense to that as well, and then it gravitated between mother and daughter as to who the one Usagi should be. Tom, at this point stepped in and said, "Hey, look, there is a way. Doesn't Usagi mean'rabbit' in English?"

Everyone agreed to this, and then Tom said, "Then what we do is call you,(pointing to Usagi,) as your name, and you, we can just call 'Bunny.' It's befitting your age, it's the same thing...and I think it's kind of cute!"

At first, Chibiusa wanted to say something, but then it suddenly appealed to her-Bunny-it did sound neat. Setsuna then said, "That does work, Small Lady, and it is pretty, like you."

Chibiusa-Bunny-smiled at this and said, "Thank you, that is pretty...unlike some other people I know!"

Indeed, that was directed to Usagi, and she just shot back, "Hey, remember where you got those good looks!"

"Of course," said Bunny, "From Mamo-chan!" and she gave him a big hug. This started the bickering all over again, and to put an end to it, Makoto said,"Hold up, this does not explain why you are here at all!"

Setsuna said, "Well, if everyone would just calm down for a moment, I will explain."



Once everyone sat, Setsuna said, "While I was dealing with, well, what I can best call the 'casualty of the situation,' I decided to drop in on Small Lady. I caught her at a time when she is the age you see now. I told her of all that was going on here, and your problem, Usagi, and your future self said she remembered this time. She also said that she remembered that she had received something from herself, and she guessed that it had become that time to aid herself in this. She then sent Small Lady with two gifts for you."

Setsuna then went to looking at some test results as they talked. Bunny came over with a small scepter that looked just like the one she first had two years before, except the crescent moon on this one was made of crystal, and had the image of a small rabbit in it-similar to Ceres' hat pin without the anchor. Bunny then said, "This one is a much more improved model from the old one that Queen Serenity wielded, and the one you used to defeat Queen Beryl."

Setsuna looked up briefly, and said, "Oddly enough, a paradox happened at this point. Your own self has said to keep it until the future time, but the thing is, you give it to yourself now, and yet she still has it. It was forged, given to your future you at some point, you give it away, and then get it right back. The paradox is that there should have been some time where it did not exist, and then was handed to you in the future when it was made, but then shows up here before it was made. Odd, isn't it."

All that set Usagi's head swimming, and she just said, "Well, tell me how it works."

As soon as she took it from Bunny, she transformed right there in front of them, as she was compelled to utter, "CRYSTAL MOON, MAKE UP!"

As she changed, so did all the inner scouts. When they came out of it, things had indeed changed. Instead of white, all the inner scouts were wearing navy blue, but still trimmed in the respective colors that had always marked who they were, and with the white gloves. Instead of large bow ties, they were wearing neckerchiefs, all colored with their individual colors that marked who they were. On everyone, except for Jupiter and Sailor Moon, were two silver bars that marked the rank of lieutenant. However, Jupiter had fringed epaulets on her shoulders, colored gold, that marked her as the rank of admiral. Sailor Moon, on the other hand, took the cake. Her outfit was similar, but her skirt was now pink again, knee length and left flowing instead of pleated. Her top was also navy blue, but she wore a cloak also navy blue, with pink inner lining, and the top was a high collar, full sleeve jacket done in the same style as the U.S. Navy officers wear when they wear their dress whites, but in that blue. She wore white gloves, silver emblems that looked like the top of her scepter, except that it had two anchors crossing in back as opposed to Tom's one. She also had the epaulets, but they were silver in color, showing her rank as princess, and overall command. At everyone's side was a cutlass, marking command status. Everyone was stunned at what they saw, and spent time commenting on the changes.



While this was going on, Setsuna said, "Tom, you missed answering the last question."

"Oops," said Tom, "Sorry about that."

"Oh, your score is still fine," said Setsuna, "but it would have been a bit higher if you had answered it, and done so correctly."

Then Tom remembered what she was speaking about in time paradoxes, and he said to her, "Say, when you go back to get that guy, remind me to go with you so Ican remind myself to answer the last question."

No sooner than he had said it, the answer suddenly filled itself in, and it was indeed correct. "How did you do that?" asked Setsuna.

"It's called 'the time game,'" answered Tom, "I'll tell you about it some time. In the meantime, the ladies are looking for some answers."

She saw what had happened, and she said, "Actually, you should come forward to hear this: what you see will have been partly your idea anyway."

Tom tilted his head, and said, "I /will have/....ugh! '"Curiouser and curiouser," said Alice.'"

"Come, and I shall explain," said Setsuna, "This has to do with what you shall have to do to defeat this new enemy."

"How much do you know?" asked Tom.

"Only so much," said Setsuna, "I prefer not to know all the details, lest Ialter the future, and possibly do harm to Small Lady."

"Then we do succeed?" said Tom.

"That's the paradox of time," said Setsuna, "It could be you all die, and future people like you fill in the holes, and make the changes you see. It would seem so, but from here, all that could change, depending on the choices you make. If you do succeed, it has to be because you did it by your skills, and not because you followed a prearranged pattern. That could alter the future more than random chance. For now, just act like you know nothing save what you are about to hear."

Tom's head was spinning enough just thinking about the whole thing, and said,"Yeah, that would be the best thing!"



When Setsuna came over, they asked her, "What's with all the changes?"

"It has to do with how things are going to be in the future," said Setsuna,"because, one day, there are going to be far more than you. There are going to be sailor scouts large enough to form a space navy, and you shall be the officers for that. This was suggested by Tom, because he will feel that, one day, if there had been a larger force in the former Moon Kingdom, this would not have happened. That will be solved, as well as what shall happen in the Asteroid Marines."

"Then why didn't I change?" asked Tom.

"That's because of your future choice," said Setsuna, "You may have been an officer for your country's Marines. Yet, because you were a gunnery sergeant in the past, and because you knew that there had to be a good non-commissioned officer chain in the corps, you stayed away from the officer ranks, and eventually became the command sergeant major of the corps."

Everyone was reeling from this, and Setsuna said, "Rei, you might as well order pizza for everyone, because this is going to take some explaining. I want to be sure you all understand what is going on."