This was formerly Star Knight Legacy - Chapter 1, it grew up.

     Sailor Moon is the creation of Naoko Takeuchi.  None of 
those characters are in any way, shape or form owned by me.  
However, the Star Knights and Sailor Terra *are* my 
creations (in their present forms) if you want to use them 
in a fanfic' of your own, give me some credit, okay?
     I set this just after the Senshi return to the present 
after visiting Crystal Tokyo.  (That places it between 
Sailor Moon R and Sailor Moon S.)  By default, I'm using the 
Sailor Moon S attacks and transformations for Sailor Moon
and the other Senshi simply because I can envision them a 
bit better when I write...  [Author checks his Senshi .AVI 
files again, to make sure he didn't delete them by accident 
the last time he straightened out his hard drive... ^_^]

     Now, on with the show!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

     A beautiful starship cruised along.  It'd just dropped 
out of Lightspeed and was rapidly approaching its home port 
on the Moon.  A silver haired man in some sort of gray 
military uniform was at the helm, checking his instruments 
periodically.  A young woman dressed in pants and a long 
sleeve shirt (with the sleeves rolled up) walked in and sat  
in the co-pilot's seat. She smiled and planted a kiss on his 
cheek.
     "All work and no play makes Ryu a dull boy," she 
commented.  "Why are you so worried about the autopilot?  
You designed it yourself."
     Ryu smiled.  "Because, *I* can still pilot this crate 
better than any autopilot.  No matter how advanced the 
programming might be.  I don't intend to end our honeymoon 
with us auguring into the ground."
     "Don't be so morbid, Dear."  His wife frowned and 
shoved a lock of her red hair out of her eyes.  She looked 
thoughtful for a moment, then  she smiled.  "Kiss me, you 
fool."  The newlyweds moved a little closer together.  Ryu 
reached out to activate the autopilot, and was shocked to 
see another ship flying nearby.  It wasn't crystalline like 
his, it  looked like a flying sword...  It had to be the 
others.
     A tiny hologram of a smiling man in an orange version 
of Ryu's uniform appeared on the console.  "Oops.  Bad 
timing..."  He smiled wickedly.  "Hope I wasn't interrupting 
anything important," he commented innocently.
     "Hi, Hiro, how was your vacation?" Ryu asked carefully. 
One had to be careful around the Hiro the Hentai.  Growing 
up in a court full of some of the Silver Millennium's most 
beautiful women had made him into the Silver Millennium's 
most notorious Peeping Tom...  Not *his* family per say...  
But the rest of the Venus Court wasn't bad looking...
     "Just fine...  Pity the Princess of Jupiter's still on 
the Moon.  That would've been the highlight of *my* vacation 
on Jupiter..."  A hand flashed through the holofield in the 
blink of an eye as it connected with Hiro's jaw.  "OW!  
Err...  Eiji says 'Hi.'"  One constant in the Universe, Eiji 
was *very* careful of how anyone talked about *that* 
princess especially Hiro.  "Basically it was business as 
usual.  Keiichi  ended up in Cloud City's antigrav pods, 
reinventing them for the 10th time.  Ken drank three bars
out of business.  Eiji went hang gliding.  Err...  I just 
went sightseeing. [snicker]"
     Ryu laughed.  "The Dark Phantom strikes again!"  He 
sobered.  "One of these days you'll get caught and I won't 
help you.  I recommend you clean up your act."
     Hiro looked hurt.  "I don't have a _dirty_ mind.  I 
happen to have  a refined appreciation of the female form, 
that's all..."
     "'Refined appreciation?'  More like dark obsession..."
     "I'm really offended you think of my that way..."  He 
broke contact.
     Suddenly a feeling of dark dread clutched at Ryu's 
guts.  "No...  Not that, not now..."  A bright flash of 
energy blossomed up from Lunaria, the Moon's capital city, 
the full fury of the Silver Shadow Crystal unleashed...  Ryu 
snatched at the controls, trying frantically to enter 
Lightspeed...  Just as both ships' engines roared to full
power, the wave of energy slammed into them.  The people 
within both were tossed around like dolls.  Ryu looked up, 
dazed, just before he lost consciousness, he saw an eerie, 
gray mist beginning to fill the cabin.  Outside the ship, 
more swirling mist flowed everywhere.



                 Starguild Productions Presents:
                   A New Moon Order Production



              Star Knights: The Return - Chapter 1


                     by: Berk' "REM" Watkins
           (The Author Formerly Known as "Kai Neflite")



     "USAGI, WAKE UP!!!" Luna yowled.
     "WAAH!  I'M SOOO LATE!" the blonde girl sobbed as she 
launched out of bed.  "Luna, why didn't you wake me up 
sooner?"
     The black cat looked up at her princess.  "You know 
why...  I *did* wake you earlier, but you went back to 
sleep."
     "TRY HARDER NEXT TIME!" she whined.  "Rei's gonna 
murder me...  The meeting starts in 10 minutes."  She 
struggled into her shoes as she ran down the hall and dove 
out the door at top speed.

     Rei was sitting outside of the temple, waiting 
patiently for their habitually late leader.  She heard a 
loud crash at the foot of the steps.  Right on schedule, her 
own schedule that is.  Usagi came up the steps at  full 
tilt, tripping over the top one and plowing, face-first, 
into the ground.  By some major miracle her face wasn't 
reduced to a bloody ruin.
     "OWIE!  That hurt..."  Usagi pulled herself up off the 
ground, one eye was obviously well on its way to developing 
a nasty bruise.
     "Come on, Fluff-For-Brains, the meeting's about to 
start."  Rei snagged the leader on the Sailor Senshi and 
drug her into her room.

     Ami was fiddling with a few settings on her 
microcomputer.  Every few moments she'd frown and try a new 
setting.  "Guys, I called this meeting because of some odd 
readings I've been getting recently.  As you know, the Dark 
Moon Family used a lot of time travel.  As far as I can 
tell, time travel is inherently dangerous, and has a 
destructive effect on the fabric of the space-time 
continuum..."
     "In plain Japanese, Ami.  If you want to live in the 
country, you gotta speak the language," Usagi said, dazed.
     Ami blushed.  "Ahem...  Time travel is a Bad Thing(tm). 
It makes the universe thin and like something thin, it can 
tear.  If the universe tears, something Very Very Bad(tm) 
could come through the tear.   Something so bad that it 
could make Queen Metallia look like a girl scout."  Her 
computer began to beep frantically.  "Oh no...  A tear!"  
She began to run several programs in an effort to identify 
what had fallen through the short-lived tear in reality.  
She discovered two things had come through, two objects, 
each the size of an American semi.  One object rocketed off 
towards the outer planets, while the other drifted towards 
the Moon.  She had a tough time tracking the objects, they 
only seemed to show up on gravatic scans.  They were 
invisible to radar, laser telescope, hell, even optics had a 
hard time tracking them...  "Two objects.  One headed for 
the Moon.  The other towards the outer planets...  I can't 
get a solid lock on either of them, so I can't tell you 
which planet the second craft is headed for...  You guys up 
to a Sailor Teleport?"  They nodded.
     "Mercury Star Power!"
     "Mars Star Power!"
     "Jupiter Star Power!"
     "Venus Star Power!"
     Then all four said, "MAKE UP!"
     [Insert stock footage of notorious 'magical girl' 
semi-nude hashin sequences here... H_H]
     "Moon Cosmic Power, MAKE UP!"
     [Insert Sailor Moon's transformation here...]
     The five Sailor Senshi joined hands, concentrated, and 
vanished in a flash of light.  Their target, the Great Seal 
that once laid in the center of Queen Serenity's throne 
room.

     The Senshi appeared standing on the Great Seal of the 
Silver Millennium.   Around them spread the rubble of the 
great battle that destroyed a civilization.  They could see 
a spacecraft in the distance, it looked like it had been 
made out of pure crystal.
     Sailor Mars looked around, a confused expression on her 
face.  "I don't sense anything evil, but... I do sense a 
great deal of power nearby."  She scanned the horizon 
carefully.  She pointed off into the distance.  "That way, 
the power is over there!"  The Senshi headed towards the 
source of Rei's psychic reading.
     When they arrived at the location, they got a shock.  A 
man and woman stacking stones on a grave site.
     "Total destruction...  There wasn't anyone left to even 
bury her..." he wiped a tear from his eye.  "Whoever did 
this," he gestured to the destruction around him, "will 
pay."
     The woman draped an arm over his shoulders and pulled 
him closer.  "Ryu, how long have we been gone?  The only 
things left of her were dust and the jewels she'd been 
wearing...  I have a feeling we were asleep in Limbo for a 
_very_ long time."  She leaned her head on his shoulder.  
"Everything we knew is dust...  Come on, let's go."
     Ryu knelt on the ground next to the grave.  "Good-bye, 
Mother, I can only hope you have found peace.  I don't know 
if I ever will again."  He stood up and they both headed 
back towards the ship.
     A voice squeaked over the dustdunes...  "For love and 
justice, I am the pretty sailor-suited soldier Sailor Moon!  
In the name of the moon, I will punish you, for desecrating 
that grave!"
     Ryu whirled around and looked right into the eyes of a 
blonde haired Senshi in a uniform he didn't recognize.  "The 
Sailor Senshi?  Still alive?  Not bloody likely...  The 
blast should've wiped out all the life that existed on the 
Moon!"
     Sailor Moon and the others staggered back...  
"But-but..."
     "By the way, imposters, THERE NEVER WAS A SAILOR 
MOON!!!"  He hopped back a few meters and crossed his arms 
over his chest, fists clenched.  "Psyche, you ready?"
     "The time for inaction is over," Psyche whispered.  She 
held her right hand up.  "Terra Synchron Power, MAKE UP!"  
[typical hashin sequence here, note striking similarities to 
Sailor Moon's transformation sequence]  When her 
transformation was over, she was dressed in a blue green 
skirted sailor skirt with light purple bows.  The light 
purple choker at her neck was held in place by a golden, 
quartered circle.  Matching circles were at the tops of her 
boots and the brooch on the bow on her chest was another 
quartered circle, with a small, red gemstone set in its 
center.  A few moments before that brooch had been her belt 
buckle.
     Grey metal bracers appeared on Ryu's forearms, with a 
clanking sound [remember the sound the armor made in Ronin 
Warriors?].  "Moon Sentinel Power, TRANSFORM!"  A violent 
dust storm swept up around him, obscuring him from view.  
Moments later, the dust cleared, revealing his new uniform.  
He was now dressed in a two tone gray outfit, with black 
adding to it's stark form.  Gray tunic, darker gray pants, 
suede, black boots that came up to the mid-calf, a suede, 
black leather jerkin, and a gray sash tied over the bottom 
half of his face.  His bracers, each covered with an 
intricate carving of an oriental dragon, remained on his 
forearms.  "Prepare to face the wrath of the Dragon of the 
Moon.  I am Moon Knight!"
     The red-head joined her companion.  "If you think he's 
mean, you ain't seen nothing yet.  Run in terror 'cause I'm 
Sailor Terra.  Of course, you already knew that, so why 
bother continuing this spiel?  ATTACK!!!"
     Moon Knight charged at the Senshi, while Sailor Terra 
jumped into the air.  
     Sailor Jupiter went reeling thanks to a flying kick via 
Sailor Terra... Makoto realized she was in deep trouble.  
This 'Sailor Terra' wasn't just a Senshi, she was a trained 
warrior!
     Terra went into a sideways stance, feet about shoulder 
width apart, and each hand held up at shoulder level, both 
shaped into a 'claw fist.' 
     "Wui Wing Chun?" Jupiter muttered, "Oh hell..."  She 
suddenly squinted and deployed her lightning rod from her 
tiara... "Sparkling..." electricity began to crackle around 
the rod...  "Wide..." energy crackled around her fist...  
"PRESSURE!!!"  She tossed a ball of lighting fast pitch 
softball-style at the blue green-skirted Senshi.
     Terra tucked up and rolled under the thunder ball, 
hopping to her feet and catching Jupiter in the breadbasket 
with a kick.  She added injury to insult when she decided to 
use her special attack...  "Vajura..." she muttered, 
crossing her hands above her head.  "BLAST!" she howled, 
swinging her hands to one side and into a forward pushing 
motion...  A beam of blue-white energy lashed out from her 
hands, tagging Jupiter and sending her for a loop.
     Sailor Venus, who'd been looking for a clear shot, 
decided it was time to put in her $.02 worth...  "Venus..." 
and energy vortex blazed to life around her...  "Love Me..." 
she raised a hand above her head and made it into the 
'Devil's Horns' sign...  "CHAIN!" the vortex coalesced into 
a single chain of tiny hearts, which she promptly used to 
lasso a *very* angry Sailor Terra...

     The gray-clad Knight was giving the other three Senshi 
a hard time.  Sailors Moon, Mercury, and Mars dove in 
various directions as a phalanx of needles sliced through 
the air.  Many of them slammed into rocks and exploded, 
taking their victims with them...
     Mercury stood up from behind a rock and moved both her 
hands over to one side...  "Shabon SPRAY!"  She charged up a 
blast of cold energy and tossed it in the general direction 
of the angry man.  The battlefield was cloaked in a thick 
fog.
     The fog began to glow in a silvery light from within 
almost instantly as some great power began to burn it off.  
"Aura... CRASHER!" Moon Knight shouted crossing his hands 
over his head and bringing them down to slam into the 
ground.  A wave of energy blasted out in every direction for 
several meters, shoving the three Senshi away and to the 
ground.  Then he noticed the capture of Sailor Terra.
     "WAIT!" he shouted.  "Do what you will with me, but 
please don't hurt my wife.  I surrender," he whispered.

     While this charming melee went on, several more rifts 
opened up in the space-time continuum.  The escapee of one 
such chughole in reality was trapped in a crystal, when he 
was caught by Earth's gravatic pull and slammed into the 
north pole he was freed, allowing him to teleport to God 
knows where...
     Another escapee was sealed his mystic armor against the 
vacuum of space, so he blasted off towards the asteroid belt 
without a care in the world.  He had a lot of work to do 
before he could face his old enemies in the House of Satori 
again...
     Several shadowy figures streamed off towards Earth, hit 
its atmosphere and faded from sight.
     Edison Bell tumbled out of another hole and looked 
around with a slightly confused look in his eyes.  "Now 
then," he remarked, totally ignoring the vacuum thanks to 
the forcefield generator on his belt, "Where am I?"  He 
rummaged through his oversized overcoat, seemingly looking 
for something.  "I knew I shouldn't have taken that left 
turn at Alpha Cygni..."  He pulled the map from 'Time 
Bandits' out of his pocket, got his bearings and stepped 
behind a molecule. [Sorry guys, I couldn't help it... ^_-]

     The Senshi moved closer to the now passive Moon Knight. 
Sailor Moon cautiously asked, "What were you two doing 
here?"
     "Burying my mother," the knight replied grimly.
     Sailor Mars muttered something about a proper leader 
not rushing blindly into a situation and causing a lot of 
misunderstanding.  Jupiter shushed her and Venus released 
Sailor Terra from the Love Me Chain.
     "I'm sorry about being so hostile when we first saw 
you..." Sailor Moon said sheepishly.
     "Sailor Terra and I didn't exactly react to you very 
properly either...  You obviously are the Senshi and must 
have quite a story to tell, however this isn't the place to 
talk."  Moon Knight stood up and gestured towards a wall, 
where a door suddenly appeared.  "There's a little place in 
subspace I often go to where I can relax.  I can't guarantee 
you a meal, but I believe there should be water to drink."
     Without further adieu, he opened the door and stepped 
through.  Sailor Terra followed as did the other Senshi.
     The scene on the other side of the door was a true 
shock.  Beautiful, silver grass stretched off into the 
distance as far as the eye could see over gently rolling 
hills.  The sky above was black and starlit, but no Earth 
hung overhead.
     "This is as close as a friendly and powerful sorcerer I 
knew could get to a recreation of my favorite part of the 
Moon Kingdom.  The area was called Tranquility Prefecture, I 
haven't the faintest what it's called today.  Can you clue 
me in, Mercury?"
     "Judging form the general topography of the area I'd 
have to say this corresponds to the Sea of Tranquility in 
the real world," Sailor Mercury said while typing away at 
her computer and taking readings with her visor.
     Moon Knight sat down on a rock next to a stream and 
closed his eyes for a moment in thought.  "Please, tell me 
what happened to the Kingdom, it's very important."

     The other Star Knights arrived on Saturn, with a 
mission.  The blast from Lunaria had been the Silver Shadow 
Crystal, right?  Therefore they were going to get the 
highest amount of firepower they could and come back to 
help.  The firepower in question: The Eye of Janus.
     The problem: Saturn's capital, Silence, was where the 
Eye was being kept.  The cloud city of Silence had turned 
into a ghost town.
     Hiro looked around, caution shadowing his normally 
cheerfully gleaming eyes.  "Alright guys, transform, we 
might need the power."
     "Mercury Sentinel Power!" the blue haired member of the 
group shouted, crossing his bracer-covered arms over his 
chest.
     "Venus Sentinel Power!" Hiro intoned.
     "Mars Sentinel Power!" a raven haired man shouted, his 
bracers clanking against several medallions on chains around 
his neck as he crossed them.
     "Jupiter Sentinel Power!" Eiji snarled, crossing his 
arms.
     "Star Knights, TRANSFORM!" they all chorused as their 
transformation effects detonated around them.
     Mercury Knight appeared in a frosty blast of frozen air 
and ice.
     Venus Knight's uniform coalesced out of a column of 
golden light.
     The Mars Knight stepped out of the firestorm that was 
his transformation.
     Jupiter Knight formed in a raging maelstrom of thunder 
and lightning.
     Mercury Knight activated his Heads Up Display and his 
minicomputer and began scanning the area.  "I'm getting a 
reading.." he muttered, "Oh hell...  DUCK!"
     A stream of purple energy streaked between the Knights, 
scattering them in various directions.  The beam coalesced 
into a familiar figure, now dressed in an unfamiliar 
uniform.  Jadeite stood on the steps of the royal palace, 
looking down at the stunned Knights with sadistic glee.  He 
now wore black pants tucked into black, mid-shin length 
boots.  He also wore a long sleeved button down black shirt. 
Purple energy crackled between his hands as he charged up an 
energy blast to send a them.  "I'm reclaiming my prize!  
Tell the Senshi that the first time they met me I was on a 
leash!  THE WORLD SMASHER HAS RETURNED!!!"  The Star Knights 
went flying when the blast hit, they just didn't have enough 
time to recover from his arrival, even in their transformed 
states.
     Venus Knight staggered to hit feet, a thin ribbon of 
blood making its way out of the corner of his mouth.  "Time 
to put down a rabid dog," he snarled.  "You will NOT get the 
Eye of Janus!"  He stood upright and held one had over his 
head.  "Spiral... BEAM!" he shouted, his hand clenched into 
a claw.  He swung his hand down and gestured at Jadeite.  
Several energy beams shot from his fingertips, spiraling 
together into a rope of golden energy that slammed into the 
escaped sorcerer.
     "That it?" Jadeite mocked.  Venus Knight didn't have 
time to scream before he was fried by Jadeite's purple 
energy blasts.
     Jupiter lurched to his feet and shouted, "THUNDER 
ASSAULT!" sweeping his hands towards Jadeite and launching a 
pair of electric blades at the sorcerer.  Jadeite laughed it 
off and sent Jupiter reeling.
     Jadeite stopped laughing when Mars Knight used not only 
his Burning Hurricane attack but several of his enchanted, 
explosive cards on the evil magic user.  Everything for 
several meters was concealed by thick, sulfurous smoke.
     When the smoke cleared, Jadeite was nowhere to be seen. 
There was a pretty good chance that he'd gone into the
palace though, considering the fact that the main gates now 
hung off their hinges.

     Jadeite walked into the center of the Great Hall of the 
Saturn Palace.  High overhead hung the deep purple glow of a 
crystal not unlike the Silver Shadow Crystal.  The Eye of 
Janus was almost his, after a thousand years of striving.  
He shattered the deadly wards worked into the air around the 
artifact and flew up to it.

 [Gimme the Prize (Kurgen's Theme); Queen; A Kind of Magic]

     Energy arced out of the crystal and flowed into 
Jadeite's body, changing him, altering him, making him more 
powerful than anyone would really want to think about.
     A dark cloak appeared around Jadeite, causing him to be 
concealed in its shadows.  His eyes glowed like twin, purple 
fires from the depths of the cloak's hood.  In his hand he 
held a black staff that seemed to be a twisted mockery of 
Sailor Moon's old Moon Stick.  It was as long as he was tall 
and ended in a sharp, jagged, angular crescent.  Inside that 
crescent was set the Eye of Janus, glowing like an evil 
strobe heralding pain, hurt and everlasting torment.
     The Star Knights came in just in time to get the first 
taste of a new born godling's power.
     Saturn Palace ceased to exist.
     "Star Knights...  RETREAT!" Eiji shouted.
     The Knights crossed their arms before them.
     "POWER SLIDE!" they shouted in unison.  Each vanished 
in a streaming flash of their color.
     Four colored streams of energy shot away from Saturn.  
The orange beam trailed slightly behind the others, 
flickering as its power began to fail.
     At the orbit of Jupiter, the orange beam failed and 
it's occupant slammed into Europa, only the magic of his 
uniform kept him alive in the harsh environment.  The other 
beams continued, each beginning to weaken slightly, but not 
enough to matter yet.
     Jadeite appeared next to the fallen Knight.  "Feel up 
to a few tests?" he said sadistically.  The Eye of Janus 
flared.

     Moon Knight looked around at the Senshi sitting nearby, 
they'd just finished telling him a story that made him both 
hopeful and, in a way sad.  "So, that's what happened?  At 
very least you stopped that demon and its pet witch before 
it could do any more damage...  That still leaves Jadeite 
unaccounted for though..."
     "Why are you so worried about Jadeite?" Sailor Moon 
asked.
     "Perhaps its time we told you our story," Sailor Terra 
replied.  "Do you want to tell them?" she asked of her 
husband.
     Moon Knight nodded and stood up.  He made several 
sweeping gestures with his hands and muttered something 
softly under his breath.  In moments a slightly odd image of 
the solar system appeared overhead.
     "This is how the solar system looked, two thousand 
years ago.  Before the World Smasher made his debut.  
Jadeite Ralmarth, a practitioner of black arts decided to 
display his power, and magically bored a hole to the center 
of the fifth planet, Janus.  Once there he stole that 
planet's spiritual focus, a crystal known as the Eye of 
Janus.  Without its spiritual focus, the planet detonated.  
The magic involved in its destruction spread the fragments 
out swiftly, forming the asteroid belt.
     "Jadeite was imprisoned in Limbo for his crimes...  
However he must have escaped and freed Metallia with the 
help of Beryl.  I suppose Beryl freed him in return for his 
servitude, that would explain why he seemed to have less 
power when you met him..."
     Subspace shook as something began to influence it.  
Jadeite's grinning face appeared overhead, seemingly forged 
out of stars.  "I HAVE THE EYE NOW, PRINCE RYU.  I WILL NOW 
EXACT MY REVENGE ON THE HOUSE SATORI ONCE AND FOR ALL!" he 
boomed.
     "Prince Ryu?  Who *are* you?!?" Sailor Moon asked, her 
ears ringing painfully from Jadeite's display.
     "I am Prince Ryu of the Royal House of Satori, the 
ruling house of the Moon Kingdom.  Princess Serenity was my 
younger sister!" he shouted over the rumbling of the ground. 
A silver crescent moon briefly gleamed on his forehead.
     "Wait..  I used to be Princess Serenity..  That means 
you're my.. big brother..." her face twisted up in 
concentration.  "Why weren't you the heir to the Moon 
Kingdom then?"
     "The throne goes to the eldest daughter for all the 
planetary kingdoms.  We were a matriarchal society," he 
replied.
     A black gloved hand burst out of the ground and grabbed 
Ryu by the ankle, tripping him up.  A dark figure burst out 
of the ground (the hand was his).  "How ya doin' Ryu?  
Feelin' a little down?" the man snarked as he landed and 
pulled out a Ninja's short sword.  He was dressed in a 
manner rather like the Shadow.  Long, flowing cloak over 
fine clothes, a colorful sash tied around the lower half of 
his face, and a fedora (of all things) perched rakishly on 
his head.  "Ryu here used to call me Hiro, but you can call 
me Hades now, I think it suits me better."  Hades proved his 
point by firing a barrage of dark energy from his hand with 
a shout of, "DOOM BEAM!"
     Senshi went everywhere, and Moon Knight took the blast 
full in the chest without even flinching.
     "It seems to me that you are in need of an attitude 
adjustment," Moon Knight remarked idly.  "I think I'm going 
to have to beat some sense into you, Hiro."  Moon Knight 
launched into the air, tossing a storm of his needles at 
Hades as he traveled.
     Hades deflected the needles with his sword and a few 
well placed energy blasts and took to the air himself.  "No 
more idle chatter.  I'm the strong one now AND I'M GONNA 
PROVE IT!"  Hades ran one hand along the dull, back edge of 
his sword and swung the blade in an arc at his former 
leader.  "Dark... SLICE!" he called out, the sword trailing 
black fire as it was intercepted by a sword that appeared 
out of nowhere in Moon Knight's hand.
     "Tsukinoken, The Sword of the Moon.  You cannot win in 
a sword fight against me, Hiro," the gray clad Knight 
pointed out.
     "STOP CALLING ME HIRO!" Hades howled as he landed on 
the ground.  "We will meet again!" he snarled as he slashed 
at the air and vanished in a flash of black light.
     Moon Knight landed from his jump and dismissed his 
sword.  He whirled to look at Jadeite's grinning face, still 
hanging in the heavens.  "YOU WILL *NOT* GET AWAY WITH 
THIS!"  He snarled in pure fury and launched one of his Aura 
Crasher attacks at the projection, shattering it.
     "Who was that?" Venus muttered as she lurched up on one 
knee.
     "That was your past life's brother, Prince Hiro of the 
House Ishtar, Prince of Venus."
     "*THAT* was my brother in a past life?" Venus blurted, 
losing he balance in pure shock.
     "He _has_ been a bit friendlier..." Sailor Terra 
commented sarcastically.
     The ground began to shake again as rocks tore up, out 
of the ground like jagged teeth.
     "Looks like Jadeite's started making a few cosmetic 
adjustments.  I advise we get out of subspace, quick."  Moon 
Knight opened another door out of thin air and rushed 
through, a group of very jarred Senshi hot on his heels.  
Moon Knight closed the door and dismissed in with a gesture. 
"We should be safe for the time being...  Jadeite will vent 
his wrath on my refuge before he tries to attack me 
again..."
     No sooner had he said that then they all went flying.  
Three people on ballistic flight paths crashed into the 
group.
     "Get *off* of me you LUNKHEAD!" Sailor Mars snarked.
     "Listen up, Miss Priss, you can take that attitude and 
SHOVE IT!" Mars Knight blasted as he climbed to his feet, 
the many medallions and gems hanging around his neck and of 
his belt clinking softly.  "It's not like I had a *choice* 
of who I was going to land on!"
     "Why you arrogant..." Sailor Mars muttered, fire 
dancing in her eyes and around her body.
     "I'll show you arrogant!"  Mars Knight muttered under 
his breath and gestured to Sailor Mars, the resulting arcane 
stink bomb sent everyone running.
     "They never did get along very well..." Moon Knight 
wheezed as he cast a minor breeze summoning spell to dismiss 
the stench.  "Low blow, Mars, behave yourself."
     "But Moon Knight, I look at her and hear her shrill 
voice and all I can think of is my sister.  I've *got* to 
hear the story about this..."
     "Do tell," Jupiter Knight and Mercury Knight muttered 
as they extracted themselves form the tangle of Senshi [why 
do I get this feeling every Hentai reading this is drooling 
right now?].
     "SHRILL VOICE!!!!!????!!!"
     "Deeper and deeper we go..." Jupiter Knight whispered.  
He turned to Sailor Venus.  "Milady, you may want to duck.  
I sense... a common thread between this Sailor Mars I see 
before me and one I knew a long time ago...  I see what has 
happened now, I see it quite clearly..." he said in a 
sing-song voice.
     "Shao Lin faze out in progress," Mercury Knight 
muttered.  "He'll get over it in a second..."
     Sailor Mercury began to take readings on the slightly 
entranced Knight, to find his psychic index had gone up to 
inhuman levels!  It was like he was fusing to the very 
fabric of the universe!
     "Err...  Pardon, what was I saying?"

     "You tranced again, Jupiter.  Anything to report?" Moon 
Knight asked, glancing nervously back at the escalating 
fight between the Shinto mystic and the Hermetic mage.
     Sailor Moon was watching the fireworks like it was 
Chinese New Year or something...  "Wow, I love fireworks!" 
she bubbled.
     "Reincarnation," Jupiter Knight stated 
matter-of-factly.
     Sailor Jupiter looked at him strangely.  "How'd you 
come up with that by looking around like you were on a trip 
for a second or two?"
     "I needed answers, so I asked Nature.  It replied," the 
Jovan Knight answered.
     Sailor Jupiter gulped and backed up, "This is too 
strange for TV, guys...  Who *are* you?"
     Mercury Knight was the first to speak up, "Keiichi of 
the House of Hermes, Prince of Mercury."
     "Jupiter Knight, Eiji of the House of Zeus, Prince of 
Jupiter.  Though I wasn't in court often.  The place of a 
priest is not in a royal court playing games of state."
     A small explosion overturned a dustdune.  Keiichi 
grinned, "The firebrand having a friendly contest over there 
with Sailor Mars is Mars Knight, Prince Ken of the House of 
Ares, Prince of Mars.  If Eiji is right, and he usually is, 
Ken's just catching up on an old argument...  In the old 
days, Princess Rei didn't like Ken's choice in magical arts 
very much, so they tended to fight a lot."
     Mars Knight came flying backwards over a dune, the 
energy for another spell weaving between his outstretched 
hands.  He tossed a small puffball of fire at Sailor Mars as 
she came over the dune herself.
     "DUCK!" the Knights shouted, following their own 
instructions...
     Had any astronomer been looking at the Moon at that 
instant, there would've been no way to miss that blast, but 
by some stroke of luck they were all looking elsewhere...
     Mercury Knight wiped some of the soot off his face, 
"They forget *we* aren't immune to magical fire..."
     Moon Knight sighed heavily and gave up any hope of 
salvaging this pseudo-family reunion.  Everything had gone 
to hell in a hand basket...  "I try, Psyche, I honestly 
try..." he winced as one of the Marses launched another 
fiery assault on the other, with no effect other than it 
caused a lot of fire and noise that only succeeded in making 
everybody else miserable...  "That's it..." he growled.  He 
muttered another weak spell under his breath and stood up.
"MARS STAND DOWN!!!" he boomed through the spell's 
voice-boosting effects.
     Needless to say, it worked.  Mars Knight fell slap over 
in shock.  Sailor Mars turned an interesting shade of purple 
and fell over too, apparently the shout had frightened the 
breath right out of her.  Sailor Moon had fainted and was 
muttering something about "ice cream" over and over...
     "*That* was effective..." Sailor Venus commented, her 
ears ringing.
     "You want to take another elective?  What's that gotta 
do with anything?" Sailor Jupiter said absently.  The shout 
had temporarily deafened her.
     Moon Knight sighed again and leaned against the hull of 
his ship.  Sailor Terra joined him and they agreed everyone 
else could sort this whole mess out...

     Jadeite surveyed his handiwork with all the care of a 
master craftsman.  The arcane replica of the Tranquility 
Prefecture now suited his tastes perfectly.  Wind-swept 
plains of gray dust and jagged rocks jutting into the black 
sky like teeth as far as the eye could see, and beyond.  
[Tenchimuyo! fans should recognize this scene from the 
movie...]
     "Hades, I want you to go to Earth," he said, 
matter-of-factly.
     "Yes, Master," the corrupted Knight whispered.
     "Take these four medallions and find four men descended 
from the Outer Planets' noble houses...  Use the medallions 
on them," he held out four medallions each with a symbol for 
one of the Outer Planets on it.  Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and 
Pluto.
     "I understand, Master."  Hades took the medallions and 
vanished in a flash of unlight.
     "I love it when a plan comes together," Jadeite 
muttered as he went to work creating a proper citadel to 
house his grandeur.

     Hades appeared outside a dorm building at Tokyo 
University.  Four exchange students from Europe had just 
left on their way to their afternoon classes.  Fate had 
drawn these men together, Hades would bind their destinies 
for all time.
     He transformed into civilian clothes and walked up 
behind them, the medallions carefully concealed in his 
hands.  "Good afternoon, gentlemen, could you tell me which 
way the Science building is?"
     The sea green haired man spoke first, "Go down three 
blocks and turn right."
     "Thank you very much," Hades said, not meaning it in 
the slightest.  As the men turned to leave he carefully 
slipped the medallions into their backpacks.  "Mind if I 
give you a gift for your assistance?"
     "There's really no need," the sea green haired man 
replied.
     "I insist...  DARK PLANET POWER!"
     The medallions in the men's backpacks activated, 
summoning suits of corrupted armor and bonding them to the 
men's souls.  The kind men ceased to exist, replaced by dark 
warriors, loyal to Jadeite.
     The corrupted Saturn Knight laughed coldly, "We are the 
Dark Knights.  I am WAR!"
     "I am Famine," intoned the corrupted Uranus.
     "You can call me, Pestilence," snarled the evil 
Neptune.
     "Death," said Pluto, in a voice as dead as his new 
name.
     "Time to go to work, guys, the Master wants to see you 
immediately," Hades instructed.
     The Dark Knights followed Hades back into subspace.

     Meanwhile, the Star Knights had persuaded Mars Knight 
*not* to try to blast his reincarnated sister to Kingdom 
Come anymore.  Sailor Mars had decided to give the red clad 
Knight the cold shoulder, the very cold shoulder.
     "Perhaps we should go to Earth, after all, that *is* 
where the people are," Mercury Knight suggested.
     "It's not going to be easy, I'd guess Earth's changed a 
lot since you guys saw it last," Sailor Venus advised.
     "I'm getting hungry," Sailor Moon whined.
     "You're always hungry, Dumpling Head," Sailor Mars 
griped.
     "I AM *NOT*!!!!  WAAAAH!"  Sailor Moon lapsed into a 
sobbing fit, dropping to her knees and doing her best to 
irrigate to dry Lunar soil with her tears.
     "I wonder," Moon Knight muttered.
     "What, Ryu?" Sailor Terra asked in Gaelic.
     "What went wrong in *her* reincarnation?  All the other 
princesses act exactly the same as they did before," Moon 
Knight replied in the same tongue.
     "Nature versus nurture?  You have to admit, your sister 
*did* live a sheltered life.  This might've been how your 
sister would've turned out had she not been raised to rule 
for Day One," Psyche philosophized, still speaking in her 
native language.
     "I suppose..." he admitted.
     While they were talking, the Knights and Senshi had 
gotten the whole mess sorted out.  They *would* return to 
Earth, targeting a Shinto temple they frequented in their 
current home town.  The Star Knights would then follow, 
using Jupiter Knight's link to the fabric of reality as a 
tracer.
     The Senshi joined hands, with Sailor Terra standing in 
the center of the circle, because she couldn't help with the 
teleport (she'd never been to the shrine).  The Knights 
waited patiently off to the side.
     When the Senshi vanished the Knights crossed their arms 
over their chests and vanished in their own Power Slide 
teleport.

     Jadeite regarded Hades' handiwork from his new throne 
of Obsidian.  In fact his entire citadel was made of 
Obsidian, with glowing, green Jadeite set into the black, 
glassy stone here and there for contrast.  "I like them, 
Hades, I like them a great deal.  I want you to go to Earth 
and soften the Senshi and Knights for me...  Here is the 
address I want you to attack," he handed Hades a slip of 
paper with the address for the Hikawa Shrine on it.  "Take 
this gem," he handed Hades an emerald cut piece of Jadeite, 
"place it on the forehead of the statue you see in this 
projection," Jadeite created the image of a samurai statue.  
"The monster it will create will be a mix of Youma and 
Golem, I think it should counter Mars Knight and Sailor 
Mars' powers quite well..."
     "I shall go now, Master," Hades intoned as he faded 
from sight.
     "Soon, my Dark Knights, you shall ride on the wings of 
hell and bring forth my vision...  A dream world of pure 
CHAOS!"  Jadeite's evil laughter boomed throughout the 
citadel, the purple energy of the Eye of Janus flaring 
brightly in the throne room.

     Unseen on the asteroid Icarus, a man in black armor sat 
down on a throne very similar to Jadeite's in a castle very 
similar to Jadeite's and waited.  "Time waits for the 
patient," he whispered to unseen beings dwelling in the 
shadows.  They silently agreed with him, their Dread Lord 
was very wise.

     Usagi was busying herself at polishing off a large bag 
of tangerine flavored candies when Ryu and Psyche returned 
from their shopping trip with Minako and Makoto...  She'd 
had to stay home and do her homework, with Luna watching her 
like a.. err.. cat to make sure she did it...  Now she was 
sitting on the steps leading to the Hikawa Shrine, waiting 
impatiently.
     She barely recognized the couple when they came up to 
her!
     Psyche'd had her normally long, shapeless hair cut and 
styled, she now wore her hair in a long braid reaching down 
to her waist.  Her clothes were still tomboyish, but a bit 
more feminine...
     Ryu had undergone a more drastic change.  Gone was the 
military uniform, and in its place a white, button down 
shirt and gray dress pants...  He'd styled his long hair 
into a pony-tail reaching down to the middle of his back.
     "Wow..." was all she could say.
     "Well," Ryu said pragmatically, "we *look* like people 
from this century now.. and as soon as Keiichi's done we'll 
have histories too.  My name's Ryu Satori, I majored in 
Art Education at the University of Virginia in the United 
States."
     Psyche snickered.  "My name *was* Psyche Drake, but now 
I'm Psyche Satori.  I met Ryu at UVA, where I majored in 
Phys Ed."
     "Satori I understand, but Drake?" Usagi questioned.
     "Drake is another word for Dragon...  Don't tell me 
you've forgotten who me and Endymion's parents were?" Psyche 
said, shocked, "King Arthur Pendragon and the Lady 
Guinevere."
     Usagi fell slap over, the BADOOM! sound effect echoing 
for blocks...

     Keiichi hacked his way through the world's databases 
like Ryu's sword through a Youma.  "Mere children..." he 
muttered as he bowled over the FBI's defenses and created 
several new people in their records...  "Now for everybody 
else.." he said softly.  He pulled out his minicomputer, 
interfaced it with the computer in the cybercafe he was in 
and punched the "Execute" button.

     Ken appeared in the sandy wastes of Egypt in a flash of 
fire.  He shook his head slightly at the drain of using his 
own teleportation spell and headed for a sand dune totally 
similar to the three billion around it.  He shoved a large 
amount of sand out of the way with a powerful digging spell 
and entered a hidden cavern.  "Puck!  It's time to wake up!" 
he shouted into the small lair of his old friend.
     A voice muttered in a Celtic accent, "'Tis about time 
ye came ta see me, ye bloody oaf!"
     "It's nice to see you to, Apple Breath, is my spare set 
of civvies still here?"
     "O' course, do ye think *I'd* be wearin' 'em?"
     "Who knows?  Maybe you got some fashion sense while I 
was gone..."
     The Celtic-voiced being laughed out loud and fell of 
his perch with a loud thud.  "Ouchie..." he muttered.

     Eiji walked out of the second hand store, now dressed 
in loosely fitting pants and shirt.  He put a rather beaten 
fedora on his head and headed to the Hikawa Shrine, the wind 
blowing idly at his formless, shoulder-length hair.

     Hades appeared in a park near the Juban district and 
placed the Jadeite stone on the forehead of a nearby statue. 
The statue opened its green, glowing eyes and laughed 
coldly.  "I am Blitzritter, what is your command?" it said.
     "Raise Hell," Hades whispered as he faded into the 
gathering shadows of dusk...

     Back in subspace, Jadeite set up a chess set made of 
Obsidian and Jadeite.  He set black pieces on the board that 
greatly resembled his Youma, Golems, Hybrids and Knights.  
Then he set up green pieces that bared a striking 
resemblance to the Senshi and Knight's forces...  "Let the 
games begin," he murmured to no one in particular.  He moved 
one of his Pawns forward two spaces, it looked just like 
Blitzritter...

     Keiichi came back to the Shrine with a huge grin on his 
face.  "Good afternoon, Eiji Tanaka, and Ken Fukamachi.  My 
name's Keiichi Masamune."
     "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Masamune," Ken said with 
great mirth.  Ken'd changed into a black turtleneck and red 
pants and sport coat.  His myriad talismans were nowhere to 
be seen...  Ken'd slicked his short, black hair back from 
his face with some sort of jell, making him look almost like 
some sort of thug with odd fashion sense.
     Keiichi'd adopted the T-shirt and jeans look instantly, 
which went well with his hairdo, which happened to look like 
a blue tinged version of the Operative's from Tenchimuyo! 
The Movie...  (a "Bowl Cut" with a long ponytail).  His 
expressive, blue eyes peered out from behind totally 
functionless glasses, just to make him look the part of a 
computer genius.  "Shall we go in?  I've got papers and so 
on for everybody."
     "That would be wise.." Eiji whispered, "I sense a storm 
coming..."

     Not very far away, Blitzritter stood on a rooftop, 
summoning a storm the likes of which hadn't been seen in 
Japan for millennia...  Talk about living up to your name..  
Blitzritter *does* mean "Lightning Knight" in German after 
all..
     "When do *we* get a chance at the Star Knights?" 
Pestilence whined from his vantage point near Blitzritter.
     "You'll have your chances, all of you will," Hades 
muttered darkly from the shadows.  He pulled out his 
Ninja-to and started to check for burrs on its cutting 
edge...  "We'll all face the Star Knights again.. and that 
pathetic Moon Knight will be the very last to fall, he'll 
see all he holds dear wither before his eyes," the former 
Star Knight predicted coldly.

To Be Continued...


     My eternal thanks to Jim Nutley, the *only* person 
to give me any precise C&C on this story.  I'll have to 
remember to put him on my Christmas card list one of 
these days... (I'm not mad, just disappointed in you 
guys.)


Berk' "REM" Watkins...

"When subjected to the distorted surrealism of the 
 upper northwest corner of the 42nd dimension, 
 lemon's turn light purple and any political figure can 
 be expressed in abstract terms as an algebraic 
 equation."

                            - The #1 Reason Why Fish
                              Wear Vests.